[Q]: “I heard and read that if a Muslim dies on a Thursday night, or during the day on a Friday, he will have a good station [in Jannah]. What is your view on that? May Allāh reward you.”
[A]: The Ḥadīth which reported the merit of dying on a Friday is inauthentic, since an individual is rewarded based on his voluntary actions [i.e. actions he did out of his free will]. The death of an individual on a Friday is not by choice [i.e. is not of his free will]. If death came to him on a Thursday, he is incapable of delaying it until Friday. [Similarly,] he is incapable of expediting it to Frida…
That which is required from the servant is that he sticks to the obedience [of Allāh], even if it becomes burdensome. [Fulfilling] acts of obedience is not easy. The one who prays five times a day and stands for the night prayers needs to have patience. The one who spends his wealth [in the cause of Allāh], makes jiḥād for the sake of Allāh, orders the good and forbids the evil, and calls to Allāh requires patience upon the obedience of Allāh.
The one who does not have patience will not be continuously dutiful to Allāh; he will be active for the first and second days and then he will becom…
Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (d.463) said in his book, Al-Jāmiʿ li-Akhlāq al-Rāwī wa Ādāb al-Sāmiʿ (1/78):
“Students of ḥadīth must be the most complete of the people in manners, the strongest of the creation in humbleness, the greatest of them in purity and implementation of the Dīn, and the least of them in recklessness and anger, due to the constant listening they do of reports containing details of the finest characteristics of the Messenger of Allāh (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and his manners, and the historical reports of the select Salaf from his household and companions, as well as the ways of t…
From the lecture entitled al-Thabāt ʿala-al-Sunnah (Steadfastness Upon the Sunnah):
“O brothers, lying is more repulsive than innovation! Lying is more repulsive to the people of the Sunnah than the one who innovates (because) the innovator can be narrated from. The Qadariyyah were narrated from, the Murjīʾah were narrated from, and other than them from the various groups of innovation as long as their innovation does not exit them from the fold of Islām and as long as they were not known for lying.
If someone was considered by the People of Sunnah to be a liar, they would regard him to b…
[Q]: O eminent shaykh, a man praying Ṣalāt al-Ẓuhr drops his handkerchief while he is standing so he bends down and grabs the handkerchief, is his prayer invalidated by this movement?
[A]: Yes, his prayer is invalidated by this movement; because when he makes rukūʿ he bends down until he reaches the point of the rukūʿ, but he has (now) increased the rukūʿ (i.e. gone past the rukūʿ point to grab his handkerchief or added another rukūʿ). However, if he has done so out of ignorance then there is nothing upon him due to the generality of His, Exalted be He, statement:
رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذۡنَا…
Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 721 AH) said:
Regardless of whether the Christians choose to testify that Muḥammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) had spoken the truth or that he (صلى الله عليه وسلم) lied, it necessitates the falsification of their own religion in both instances.
If he was a truthful prophet, then he has delivered from Allāh, as related in several places in this book [i.e. the Qurʾān], that the Christians have disbelieved. Hence, he has called them to believe in him and has ordered the Muslims to struggle against them [in calling them to the straight path and fighting them when it…
Imām Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH) said:
It is obligatory upon our faculties of hearing to: remain silent and listen to that which Allāh and His Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) has made obligatory upon us. This is inclusive of listening to the meaning of Islām and īmān and both of their stipulations, listening to the recitation of the Qurʾān during the ṣalāh where the recitation is done loudly, listening attentively to the khuṭbah on Friday, according to that which is correct of the two opinions in this matter.
It is ḥarām to allow oneself to listen to disbelief and innovation except if, throu…
