Re: khatam sharif
- Assalam o Alaikum,
In my personal opinion (I am not a scholar by any means), there is nothing wrong with Khatam Shareef. I don’t know about history of khatams, but firstly let us see what is meant by Khatam and what happens in it? It is an event in which people gather at one place, Tilawat-e-Quran-e-Pak is done, Naatia kalam is recited, a religious scholar or some person who has religious knowledge starts reading the Holy Quran (Surah Fatiha, 4 Suras starting with Qul and some other verses), Salat-o-Salam bahazoor Sarwar-e-Kainaat Hazrat Muhammad sallallaho alaihe wa aalihi wasallam is read (as per Allah’s order to Muslims in verse 56 of Surah 33… صلو علیہ و سلمو تسلیما ), Everyone prays to Allah with the waseela of Nabi-e-Pak sallallaho alaihe wa aalihi wasallam and other pious people and it is prayed to Almighty to accept the essaal-e-sawab for the deceased. In the end, fruits and other food is served to all the persons. Now can someone point out which one of the aboved mentioned points is not correct ?
*As Salaam Aleh kom my dear brother, Jazaakh Allah for your thoughts on the matter, please allow me to comment on some of your points and I pray that Allah subhanhu wataala guide us all and unite us
Individualy, the acts of ibaadat are fine, i.e getting together to listen to the quran being recited, and to then contemplate and discuss the quran and to act upon it, serving food to your fellow brothers is also good and recommended especially as a way of thanking Allah Aza Wajal for his blessing upon you, a religious person teaching about religion, Alhamdulilla, this is excellent, but when you start to mix and match things, you have to ask yourself the question, what gives anyone the right to do so when the prophet sal allahu aleh hi wassallam, the sahabi’s radhiallahu ahnum did not do so in that manner . Secondly where do we draw the line. Just because you think all of your above examples are fine and nothing wrong with doing them together, what is there to then stop anyone else going further and mixing up other acts of ibaadat because there is nothing wrong with them, for example (and it is an extreme example to illustrate the point), what would you say to someone who is reading namaz, and then suddenly in the middle of his namaz starts to read out the adhaan, and then pulls out a tasbeeh and starts to read that followed by singing naats and reciting darood sharif . All of these things are all good things are they not? But put them together and you will get shot for doing so. And Why? Because that is not the way it was prescribed for us to do such things, it was not instructed for us to do things like this, the prophet sal allahu aleh hi wasallam did not do khatams like that, neither did the sahabis radhi allahu ahnum, and who is more knowledgeable than them and more eager to earn reward?, No one is. They were the best muslims ever. If they had done it, today you would have all scholars of Islam pulling out hadiths to prove it is ok instead of saying “ whats wrong with doing that”, and grasping at straws and attempting to make associations by twisting the words of hadeeths to prove their point. May Allah guide us all.
*
Coming to the point if it is biddat? Now we have to remember that not all biddat are bad. There is biddat-e-saiia which is bad and then there is biddat-e-hasna which is good. e.g. 20 rakat taraveeh was not there in Holy Prophet’s time, it was taken as a 20 rakat prayer in form of jamaat in the time of khilafat of Hazrat Umar Razi Allah Anho so this 20 rakat taraveeh is biddat-e-hasna, a good practice. Likewise this Khatam Shareef can be called as Biddat-e-hasna.
*Good bidah, bad bidah? I don’t know if you are aware my brother but there are different meanings to the word bidah, the shari meaning, “any invented way in religion that is aimed at worshipping or drawing closer to Allah. This means anything that is not referred to specifically in sharee’ah and for which there is no evidence in the quraan or sunnah and which was not known at the time of the prophet sal allahu aleh hi wasallam and his companions, radhi allahu ahnum, and then there is the linguistic meaning which is referring to matters of the duinya.
When speaking about bidah in the shari sense there is no such thing as good bidah it is all bad. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) stated repeatedly that: “Every newly-invented thing is a bid’ah (innovation), every bid’ah is a going astray, and every going astray will be in the Fire.” And he would start his khutbahs with “The best of speech is the Book of Allaah and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad. The worst of things are those which are newly-invented (Bidah), and every innovation is a going astray”
Hazarat Umar Radi allahu ahnu, never did any bidah in his religion and we should consider it an insult to him that we sit here today justifying our own lack of understanding and trying to justify our own innovations by slandering him. And just for arguments sake, lets pretend for one second that Hazarat Umar Radi allahu ahnu did innovate, then its still acceptable because the Prophet Sal allahu aleh hi wasallam told us to follow his sunnah and the sunnah of the 4 rightly guided Khalifas, which still doesn’t give anyone else the right to introduce a new bidah and call it a “good Bidah”
Reading 20 rakahs for taraweeh doesn’t even come anywhere close to even being called a “bidah” because the prophet sal allahu aleh hi wasallam ordered us to read the night prayers 2 by 2 and set no limit to this and said whoever fears that fajr is approaching then to read 1 rakah and that would be a witr for all of it. He, sal allahu aleh hi wasallam only read 11 rakahs and made them very lengthy, so much so that it used to take him most of the night. Indeed, one night in which the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) led his companions in praying Taraaweeh, he did not end his prayer until just before dawn, and the Sahaabah feared that they would miss suhoor. The Sahaabah (may Allaah be pleased with them) loved to pray behind the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) and they did not feel that it was too long. The scholars thought that if the imam made the prayer so long, this would be too difficult for the members of the congregation and that might put them off. So they thought that the imam should make the recitation shorter and increase the number of rakahs instead.
Please read below inshallah it explains the issue of the taraweeh :
*
*The view that Taraaweeh prayer is a bid’ah is not valid. Rather we should ask whether it was one of the Sunnahs of ‘Umar ibn al-Khattaab, because it was not done at the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) but it was done in ‘Umar’s time, or was it one of the Sunnahs of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)? *
*Some people claim that it was one of the Sunnahs of ‘Umar, and they base that on the fact that ‘Umar “commanded Ubayy ibn Ka’b and Tameem al-Daari to lead the people in praying eleven rak’ahs.” He went out the same night and saw the people praying, and he said, “What a good innovation this is.” This indicates that it had not previously been prescribed… *
*But this opinion is da’eef (weak), and those who say this are ignoring the reports proven in al-Saheehayn and elsewhere, that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) “led his companions in praying for three nights, and on the third or fourth night he did not lead them, and he said: ‘I am afraid that it may be made obligatory upon you.’” This was narrated by al-Bukhaari (872). According to a version narrated by Muslim, “But I was afraid that prayer at night may be made obligatory upon you, and you would not be able to do it.” (1271).
So it is proven that Taraaweeh is part of the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) referred to the reason why he did not persist in it, which was the fear that it might become obligatory; he did not say that it is not prescribed. This fear no longer applied following the death of the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), because when he (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) died, the revelation ceased and there was no longer any concern that it might become obligatory. Once the fear that it might become obligatory was no longer present, because the revelation had ceased, then the reason for not doing it was also removed, and so it was restored to its position of being Sunnah. *
It was narrated in al-Saheehayn from ‘Aa’ishah (may Allaah be pleased with her) that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) would forgo doing something that he liked to do lest the people do it and it become obligatory upon them. (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 1060; Muslim, Salaat al-Musaafireen, 1174). *
Al-Nawawi said: This shows how kind he (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was and how compassionate towards his ummah. *
So there is no basis for saying that Taraaweeh prayer is not part of the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), rather it is part of the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), but he forsook it for fear that it may be made obligatory upon his ummah. When he died, this concern no longer applied. Abu Bakr (may Allaah be pleased with him) was distracted by the wars against the apostates and his reign was short, lasting only two years. When the reign of ‘Umar came and the Muslims became secure and victorious, he commanded the people to gather together for Taraaweeh prayers in Ramadaan, as they used to gather with the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). All that ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him) did was to go back to that Sunnah and revive it. And Allaah is the Source of strength.
Regarding the point that we should not do something which Nabi-e-Pak sallallaho alaihe wa aalihi wasallam or Sahaba-e-Karaam Razi Allah Anhuma didn’t do. Well to answer this, there are many things which we do today which were not done in that time, e.g today we pray in mosques which are well equipped with carpets, lights, speakers etc. and we all know that mosques were not like that in Sahaba’s time, the dress we wear while offering prayers is not the one worn by Sahaba-e-Karaam. Imam Bukhari Rehmat Ullah Alaih did most wonderful
work by compiling the various hadees Shareef in one book after 200 Hijri. Can we dare to say that why Imam Bukhari Rehmat Ullah Alaih did something which was not done by Sahaba-e-Rasool ?
Correct my brother, we cant say Imam Bukhari Rahim Ullah did something which was not done by the prophet sal allahu alehi wasallam or the sahabi’s, because they understood correctly bidah in duniya is not forbidden i.e buying a carpet, the design of a mosque, the design of clothes, the mode of transport we use, watches, clocks, the different types of drinks we have, electricity light bulbs etc etc etc, these are all matters of duniya and are not acts of ibaadat. These can be good bidah i.e being the first to put a carpet into a mosque, as this is to make the mosque look nicer and make it easy for the people to sit on and pray, a carpet is not an act of worship, buying a carpet for the sake of Allah will inshallah give you ajar. Using a car as a mode of transport was also not done at the time of the prophet sal allahu aleh hi wasallam, but who in their right mind would consider using a car as a bidah in the deen when it is plain to see that the camel or car are just a means of transport for getting around in duniya.
Or you can have a bad bidah like developing a** new** method for brewing alchahol, this is bad bidah because you are developing a new method to do something which is haraam in islam (remember I am just making up an example to illustrate a point). Inshallah you can see the difference between deen and duniya and how there are 2 meanings behind the word Bidah and that there is no such thing as “good Bidah” when it comes to your religion, especially when our beloved prophet sal allahu aleh hi wasallam has told us “every innovation” is going astray, so there is no need for us to play games and do things that were not prescribed for us.
Please see below:
*The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to say, when beginning a khutbah (sermon): “… The best of speech is the Book of Allaah and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad. The worst of things are those which are newly-invented, and every innovation is a going astray…” (reported by Muslim, no. 867)
If every bid’ah is a going astray, how can some people then say that there is such a thing in Islam as “bid’ah hasanah”? By Allaah, this is an obvious contradiction of the statement and warning of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) stated that whoever innovates something new in the deen (religion) will have his deed rejected, and Allaah will not accept it, as is stated in the hadeeth narrated by 'Aa’ishah (may Allaah be pleased with her), who said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘Whoever innovates something in this matter of ours that is not a part of it will have it rejected.’” (Reported by al-Bukhaari, Fath al-Baari, no. 2697). How can anybody then say that bid’ah is acceptable and it is permitted to follow it?
When a person innovates something and adds to the deen something that does not belong to it, he is implying a number of bad things, each worse than the last, for example: That the religion is lacking, that Allaah did not complete and perfect it, and that there is room for improvement. This clearly contradicts the statement in the Qur’aan (interpretation of the meaning): “… This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion…” [al-Maa’idah 5:3], That the religion remained imperfect from the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) until the time when this innovator came along and completed it with his own ideas.
That the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was “guilty” of either of two things: either he was ignorant of this “good innovation,” or he knew about it but concealed it, thus letting his ummah down by not conveying it.
That the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), his Companions and the righteous salaf (early generations) missed out on the reward of this “good innovation” - until this innovator came along and earned it for himself, despite the fact that he should say to himself, “If it was truly good, they would have been the first to do it.”
Opening the door to bid’ah leads to changing the deen (religion) and opens the way for personal whims and opinions, because every innovator implies that what he is introducing is something good, so whose opinion are we supposed to follow, and which of them should we take as a leader?
Following bid’ah leads to the cancelling out of sunnah practices and the ways of the salaf. Real life bears witness that whenever a bid’ah is followed, a sunnah practice dies out; the reverse is also true.*
And Allah knows Best
Our deen is complete and its not rigid. The things which are forbidden are mentioned in Quran and Hadees. Things which are not mentioned and are not in conflict with Shariat are allowed. So if someone conducts Khatam Shareef, he is going a good task (mustahab) and he will get reward for it i.e. Sawaab for Quran recitation, Naat khawani, offering dua, feeding other people. However if someone doesn’t conduct Khatam, he will not be held gunahgaar for it.
Yes brother, the deen is not rigid, that is why we can differences in opinion on certain matters within the framework of Islam, but there are boundaries, we cant just do something and then call it a difference of opinion and just ignore the daleel infront of us. Doing things that are in of themselves not in conflict with shariah, but doing them at a time, or a place, or in a manner, or even the number of times you do it, if these are in contradiction to the quran and sunnah then yes there is a big problem.
Please forgive me brother if I have said anything wrong to you, my intention is purley to share some knowledge that I have come across that I felt may be of benefit to you
May Allah subhanhu wataala guide us all.