Seâdet-i Ebediyye Endless Bliss Sixth Fascicle
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by Hüseyn Hilmi
Işık
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Fatih-ISTANBUL
CONTENTS
1 - Halâl, harâm, and the doubtful
2 - What is harâm to eat, and things that are harâm to use
3 - Wine, and alcoholic beverages
4 - Is tobacco-smoking sinful?
5 - Isrâf (wastefulness), fâiz (interest), and tobacco-smoking
6 - Manners (âdâb) that must be observed when eating and drinking
7 - (Siblings through) the Milk-Tie
8 - Nafaqa, and rights of neighbours
13 - Punishments of diyat-kaffârat
14 - Ikrâh (intimidation, duress), and Hijr (forbidding)
16 - Third Volume, Fifty-Ninth Letter
17 - Third Volume, Seventh Letter
18 - Third Volume, Third Letter
19 - Second Volume, Ninety-Fourth Letter
20 - Third Volume, Forty-Fifth Letter
21 - Second Volume, Seventy-Sixth Letter
22 - Third Volume, Eleventh Letter
24 - Third Volume, Hundred and Twenty-Third Letter
25 - A Letter from An Expert of Tasawwuf
26 - Third Volume, Fifty-Second Letter
27 - Third Volume, Sixty-Third Letter
28 - Third Volume, Sixty-Eighth Letter
29 - Third Volume, Ninetieth Letter
30 - Third Volume, Ninety-Second Letter
31 - Second Volume, Ninety-Eighth Letter
32 - Second Volume, Forty-Second Letter
33 - Second Volume, Thirty-Fifth Letter
34 - Third Volume, Seventy-Seventh Letter
35 - Second Volume, Forty-Fourth Letter
36 - Second Volume, Twenty-Fourth Letter
37 - Third Volume, Sixty-Seventh Letter
38 - Second Volume, Fiftieth Letter
39 - Third Volume, Hundred and Twenty-First Letter
40 - Fourth Volume, Two Hundred and Thirtieth Letter
41 - Second Volume, Forty-Fifth Letter
Bismi'llâhi'r-Rahmâni'r-Rahîm
There are very many books teaching Islam. The book Maktûbât, written by Imâm Rabbânî and consisting of three volumes, is the most valuable. Next after that book is another book with the same title, Maktûbât, and consisting of three volumes, yet written by Muhammad Ma’thûm (Imâm Rabbânî’s third son and one of his most notable disciples). Hadrat Muhammad Ma’thûm states as follows in the sixteenth letter of the third volume of his Maktûbât: “Imân means to believe both of the facts stated in the (special expression of belief called) Kalima-i-tawhîd, which reads: Lâ ilâha il-l-Allah, Muhammadun Rasûlullah.” In other words, being a Muslim requires also belief in the fact that Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ is the Prophet. Allâhu ta’âlâ sent him the Qur’ân al-kerîm through the angel named Jebrâ’îl (Gabriel). This book, the Qur’ân al-kerîm, is the Word of Allah. It is not a compilation of Hadrat Muhammad’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ personal views or of statements made by philosophers or historians. Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ made a tafsîr of the Qur’ân al-kerîm. In other words, he expounded it. His expoundings are called hadîth-i-sherîfs. Islam consists of the Qur’ân al-kerîm and hadîth-i-sherîfs. The millions of Islamic books worldover are the expoundings of the Qur’ân al-kerîm and hadîth-i-sherîfs. A statement not coming from the Qur’ân al-kerîm cannot be Islamic. The meaning of Îmân and Islam is to believe the Qur’ân al-kerîm and hadîth-i-sherîfs. A person who denies the facts stated in the Qur’ân al-kerîm has not had belief in the Word of Allah. Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ conveyed to his Sahâba the facts which Allâhu ta’âlâ had stated to him. And the Sahâba, in their turn, conveyed those facts to their disciples, who in their turn wrote them in their books. People who wrote those books are called scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat. Belief in those books of Ahl as-Sunnat, therefore, means belief in the Word of Allah, and a person who holds that belief is a Muslim. Al-hamd-u-lillah, we are learning our faith, (Islam,) from books written by the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat, and not from fallacious books fabricated by reformers and freemasons.
Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “When fitna and fesâd become rife among my Ummat (Muslims), a person who adheres to my Sunnat will attain thawâb (blessings, rewards in the Hereafter) equal to the total sum of the thawâb that will be given to a hundred people who have attained martyrdom.” Adherence to the Sunnat is possible only by learning the books of the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat. The scholars affiliated in any one of the four Madhhabs of Muslims are scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat. Imâm a’zam Abû Hanîfa Nu’mân bin Thâbit was the leader of the scholars of Ahl as-Sunnat. The anti-Islamic campaigns which the British had been carrying on for centuries for the purpose of Christianizing at least one Muslim ended in outright failure. In their search for new methods to achieve their goal, they established the masonic lodges. Masons deny Hadrat Muhammad’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ words as well as all heavenly religions, and such basic religious facts as Rising after death, and existence of Paradise and Hell.
Se’âdet-i Ebediyye
Endless Bliss
SIXTH FASCICLE
Hüseyn Hilmi Işık
NOTE
This book is a translation of Se’âdet-i Ebediyye, which was originally written in Turkish.
The Turkish original of the book Se’âdet-i Ebediyye consists of three parts, all of which add up to well over twelve hundred pages.
We have translated the entire book into English and published our translations in six individual fascicles.
Se’âdet-i Ebediyye is a book prepared according to the Hanafî Madhhab. There is not a single bit of knowledge or a word which contradicts the creed of Ahl-i Sunnat wa’l Jamâ’at in this book.
This is the sixth fascicle. We invoke Allâhu ta’âlâ for help, so the book may reach our dear readers.
A Warning: Missionaries are striving to advertise Christianity; Jews are working to spread out the concocted words of Jewish rabbis; Hakîkat Kitâbevi (Bookstore), in Istanbul, is struggling to publicize Islam; and freemasons are trying to annihilate religions. A person with wisdom, knowledge and conscience will understand and side with the right one of these choices and will help to spread it for salvation of all humanity. There is no better way and more valuable thing to serve humanity than doing so.
1 - HALÂL, HARÂM, and the DOUBTFUL
This chapter is the translation of an excerpt borrowed from the fourth chapter of the second part of Kimyâ-i-se’âdet:
Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “It is farz for, (i.e. incumbent upon,) every Muslim to earn (a living) by way of halâl.” Earning by way of halâl, in its turn, requires learning what is halâl. Halâls and harâms are known clearly. What is difficult to know is the doubtful area between the two. A person who fails to avoid the doubtful will fall into harâms. This subject, therefore, should cover an extensive area of knowledge to impart. We have provided detailed information in our book entitled Ihyâ-ul-’ulûm. In this chapter we will briefly dwell on some salient points of sweeping generality, arranging them in four articles. [Three of those four articles are given in this chapter.]
1- Merits of earning by way of halâl, and thawâb for doing so:
The fifty-second [52] âyat-i-kerîma of Mu’minûn Sûra purports: “O My Prophets‘salawâtullâhi ’alaihim ajma’în’. Eat what is pure and halâl and worship Me in due manner!” For this reason, Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “It is farz for every Muslim to earn by way of halâl.” At another occasion the Most Blessed Prophetstated: “If a person eats (only) whatsoever is halâl without mixing any harâm with it for forty days running, Allâhu ta’âlâ will fill his heart with nûr (spiritual lights). He will make Hikmat flow like rivers into his heart. He will remove worldly love from his heart.” [It is not sinful to work in order to earn what is worldly. What is sinful is to love what is worldly and to attach one’s heart to the world.] Sa’d bin Abî Waqqâs ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’, (a Sahâbî, the seventh earliest Muslim, and one of those most fortunate ten Muslims who are called the ’Ashara-i-mubash-shara because they were given the glad tidings that they would enter Paradise after death,) one day entreated: “Yâ Rasûlallah (O Messenger of Allah)! Please invoke a blessing on me so that Allâhu ta’âlâ will accept all my prayers!” The following hadîth-i-sherîf contains the reply of the Best of Mankind:“Consume food only if it is halâl, so that your prayers will be accepted!” Another hadîth-i-sherîf reads: “There are many people who eat food that is harâm and wear clothes that are harâm. And it is those very people who raise their hands and say prayers. How could prayers of that sort ever be acceptable?” At another occasion our Blessed Prophet stated: “Consumers of food that is harâm shall find no acceptance for their acts of worship, farz and sunnat ones alike.” [That is, they shall not attain any thawâb.] At some other time he stated: “Supposing a person is wearing clothes that he bought for ten liras one lira of which had been earned by way of harâm. None of the prayers of namâz that he performs with those clothes on will be accepted.” He stated at another occasion: “A body fed on harâms deserves to burn in fire!” Again, he stated: “Those who do not consider whether their property has come to them by way of halâl or harâm shall not attain pity on the part of Allâhu ta’âlâ, regardless of the direction whence they have been hurled into Hell.” Again, he stated: “Worship consists of ten divisions, nine of which cover earning by way of halâl.” He stated at another occasion: “A person who comes back to his home, tired, because he has worked and earned by way of halâl, will go to bed sinless. (And the next morning) he will get up as a person beloved to Allâhu ta’âlâ.” Again, he stated:“Allâhu ta’âlâ declares: I shall be shamed out of calling to account people who avoid (food, clothes, etc. that are) harâm.” He stated: “One dirham of fâiz (received or given) is more sinful than committing thirty acts of fornication.” And again, he stated: “Alms given out of property that has been acquired by way of harâm will not be accepted. As long asproperty of that sort is kept, it will serve him as a travel allowance until he arrives in his destination, Hell.”
One day Abû Bakr ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ drank the milk brought to him by his servant. Afterwards, however, when he found out that the milk had not been obtained by way of halâl, he inserted his finger to induce vomiting. So great was the trouble he had expelling the milk out of himself that people around him thought he was dying. Then he entreated, “Yâ Rabbî (O my Allah)! I have done my best! I trust myself to Your Care against the motes that may have remained in my stomach and in my veins!” The same was done when (he found out that) he had drunk the milk obtained from the camels of zakât belonging to the Beyt-ul-mâl and given to him by mistake. ’Abdullah bin ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anhumâ’ stated: “Perform namâz until you become hunchbacked and fast until you become as thin as a hair; it will not be accepted unless you avoid harâms.” Sufyân-i-Sawrî ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ stated: “A person who gives alms or has a mosque built or performs another act of charity out of money that is harâm is like one who washes his dirty clothes with urine, which in turn would mean to make the clothes even dirtier.” Yahyâ bin Mu’âz ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ stated: “Obeying Allâhu ta’âlâ is like a treasure. The key to this treasure is to say prayers, and the notches of the key are the food that is halâl.” Sahl bin ’Abdullah Tusterî ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ stated: “Four things are essential for attaining true îmân: To perform all acts of worship that are farz with adab; to eat food that is halâl; to avoid all harâms, those that are seen and the ones that cannot be seen alike; to observe these three essentials with patience till death.” Our superiors stated: “If a person eats doubtful food for forty days running, his heart will become dark and stained.” ’Abdullah ibni Mubârak ‘rahmatullâhi ’alaih’ stated: “I would prefer returning a doubtful qurush to its owner to giving a thousand liras as alms.” Sahl bin ’Abdullah Tusterî stated: “If a person eats food that is harâm his seven limbs will willy-nilly be sinning. Limbs of people who eat food that is halâl will be worshipping. Charitable acts will be easy for them.” There is many another hadîth-i-sherîf, in addition to a number of statements made by our superiors, about the importance of earning by way of halâl. It is for this reason that people of wara’ very strictly avoided harâms. One of them was Veheb bin Verd ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’, (d. 153 [770 A.D.],) who would not eat something before finding out whence it had come. One day his mother gave him a cup of milk. He asked his mother where and from whom she had bought it and about the source of the money she had paid for it. After finding out about all these things, he asked where the sheep had grazed. It had grazed at a field where other Muslims had rights. He would not drink it. His mother said, “My son? May Allah have mercy on you. Drink it!” He did not drink the milk, and he said, “I would not like to attain His Mercy by sinning against Him.” Bishr-i-Hâfî ‘quddisa sirruh’ was asked about his source of living. “The same source as all others consume from. Yet there is a whole lot of difference between a person who consumes and then rejoices and one who consumes and then weeps,” was his reply.
2- Levels of wara’ concerning halâls and harâms: There are levels of halâls and harâms. There are some things that are halâl, while others are both halâl and beautiful. And there are still other halâls that are even more beautiful. Harâms, on the other hand, range from very bad versions to lesser bad ones. By the same token, illness varies vastly in levels of vehemence. There are five levels of people’s avoiding harâms and doubtful situations:
First level is the wara’ of all Muslims and consists in avoiding things which Islam categorizes as harâms. This is the lowest level. People bereft of this little wara’ have no ’adâlat at all. These people are called ’âsî and fâsiq [bad, evil] people.[1] This lowest level has some sub-levels. For instance, it is harâm to purchase someone’s property with their consent but by way of a sale termed fâsid bey’, (and which is explained in detail in the thirty-first chapter of the fifth fascicle of Endless Bliss). On the other hand, it is another act of harâm, and an even a worse one, to extort it by using force. And it would be a more vehement act of harâm to extort an orphan’s or poor person’s property. An even worse act of harâm would be to buy something with an interest (fâiz). The more vehement an act of harâm, the more torment will it incur, and the less will be the likelihood of forgiveness. Likewise, honey exacerbates diabetes. Sugar, however, is more harmful. The more sugar a diabetic takes, the more harm will he cause to himself. People who read books of fiqh will know all of halâls and harâms. However, it is not wâjib for everybody to read all the teachings of Fiqh. For instance, it is not necessary for people with no shares from the kind of property called ghanîmat or the money termed jizya to read about the branches of (Islamic knowledge of Fiqh pertaining to) ghanîmat and jizya. Yet it would be wâjib for them to learn those branches if they needed them. It is necessary for artisans and tradesmen to learn the teachings of bey’ and shirâ (buying and selling). On the other hand, it is wâjib for workers to know the sub-branches pertaining to wages and rentals. Every branch of art has its own branch of knowledge. So it is wâjib for every artisan to learn the knowledge of his branch.
Second level is the wara’ of the sâlih [good] people, and subsumes avoiding the doubtful as well as the harâms. There are three groups of the doubtful: It is wâjib to avoid some of them, (the first group,) and others, (the second group,) are mustahab to avoid. And there are still others, (the third group,) to avoid which is sheer doubt and distrust, which in turn is something useless. An example of this is to avoid eating game hunted on the far-fetched speculation that the game may have been someone’s personal property; [or not to go to the butcher’s to buy meat on the distrust that the meat being sold there may be from animals killed in a manner counter to Islamic principles such as by a disbeliever without a heavenly book or by a murtadd or (by a Muslim but) without saying the Basmala[2];] or to evacuate the house that one borrowed as an ’âriyat[3] only because one surmises that its owner may have been dead and so it may now be owned by the inheritors. Unless there is a justifiable ground for such speculative surmises, they are only useless and groundless doubts and suppositions.
Third level is the wara’ of (those people who are called) muttaqîs (because they fear Allâhu ta’âlâ very much); it is to avoid things that are feared to be harâm or doubtful although they are halâl and not harâm or doubtful. Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “A Muslim cannot be a muttaqî unless he avoids something dangerless for fear of something that is dangerous!” ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ stated: “For fear of falling into harâms we refrained from nine-tenths of halâls.” It was for that reason that a person who was owed a hundred dirhams of silver would accept only ninety-nine dirhams of it (from the debtor). He would not accept more than that less he should (by mistake) be paid back more than the amount due to him. ’Alî bin Ma’bed ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’, (d. 218 [833 A.D.], one of the disciples of Imâm Muhammad ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’,) relates: I was a tenant in a house. One day I wrote a letter to someone. It occurred to me that I should dry the ink by using the dust on the wall. But I hesitated, thinking that Ishould not do so since the wall was not my property. At last I decided that so little an amount would not harm anyone. I took some dust from the wall and dried the ink. That night I dreamed of someone who was saying to me, “Those who say that the dust from the wall will not harm anyone will see it on the morrow, when the Judgment Day comes.” People who have attained this level shun from the least likelihood, for they fear that that likelihood may turn out to be very grave. They are wise enough, after all, to beware from something that may cost them a downfall from the level of muttaqîs in the Hereafter. For that matter, one day, when the Messenger of Allah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ saw (his blessed grandson) Hasan bin ’Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anhumâ’ put a date from the property of zakât into his mouth, he stated, “Dirty! It’s dirty! Throw it away!” They brought Khalîfa ’Umar bin ’Abd-ul-’Azîz some musk from the property of ghanîmat. He clogged his nose and said, “What we enjoy of it is its sweet smell, which in turn is the Muslims’ right.” One night one of our superiors was waiting upon an invalid. When the invalid was dead he put the oil lamp out. “The oil of this lamp belongs from this moment on to his inheritors by rights,” he stated. ’Umar the Khalîfa ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ had in his home some musk that he had reserved from the property of ghanîmat. One day, when he came home he smelled an odour of musk on the headgear that his spouse was wearing, and queried. When the blessed spouse explained, “As I was putting the musk in its place it made my hand smell. So I rubbed my hand on my headgear,” ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu ‘anh’ took the headgear and washed it until the smell was completely gone, and gave it back. It was only a smell, after all. But ’Umar ‘radiy-Allâhu ’anh’ did so lest it should set a precedent. Another underlying motive was to attain the thawâb peculiar to the muttaqîs by refraining from something halâl lest he should be vulnerable to a harâm. When Ahmad bin Hanbal ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ was asked if a person who had found a piece of paper with a hadîth-i-sherîf could copy it without asking its owner, his answer was: “No.”
If a person indulges too heavily in worldly occupations, which are halâl in essence, he will lapse into doubtful practices. He who consumes too much of halâls is likely to fail to attain to the level of muttaqîs. For, a stomach stuffed with halâls will stir the carnality inherent in the body, which in turn may urge one to do things not permissible. One such possible danger is titillated propensity to looking at women and girls. Also augmentative of worldly avarice is to cast a covetous eye on people of wealth and position. A person who does so will try to be like them, eventually falling victim to the insatiable greed of hoarding goods of harâm. As a matter of fact, Rasûlullah “sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated:“Setting one’s heart to the world is the prime mover of all sins.” Indeed, fondness for things that are mubâh will turn the heart towards the world and whet one’s appetite for an inordinate amount of worldlies, which in turn is impossible without recourse to wrongdoing. The more intently a person thinks about hoarding worldlies the more forgetful will he be of Allâhu ta’âlâ. And a heart forgetful of Allâhu ta’âlâ is the originator of all vices. One day Sufyân Sawrî and someone he knew were standing outside the door of (the former’s) house, when a man excessively well dressed walked past. Sufyân remonstrated his friend, who was looking at the man: “He would not be wasteful like that were it not your looks. You contribute to his sin of wasting.” [By the same token, people who listen to hâfizes’ singing-like recitals of the Qur’ân al-kerîmand mawlîds are their accomplices in sinning. People who cause others to commit sins will be tormented (in the Hereafter) no less vehemently than the sinners themselves.]
Fourth level is the wara’ of (extremely pious people who are called) Siddîqs, (and) who avoid also halâls that are not feared to entail harâms. What they beware in those halâls is that one of the geneses of those halâls may have contained harâms. Bishr-i-Hâfî ‘qaddas-Allâhu ta’âlâ’, for one, would not drink water from fountains built by Sultâns or their men. Some of those blessed people, on their way for hajj, would not eat grapes from vineyards irrigated with the systems built at the behest of Sultâns. Another one of them, one night, would not fasten the broken thong of one of his sandals by utilizing the light provided by the Sultân passing by. One night a woman was spinning thread, when the Sultân passed by. Lest she should spin her thread with the Sultân’s light she stopped spinning and waited until the Sultân was gone. Zunnûn-i-Misrî was imprisoned ‘qaddas-Allâhu ta’âlâ esrârah-ul’azîz’. He suffered hunger for days on end. A women sent him food, which she had prepared with the money she had earned selling thread. He would not eat it. The woman felt hurt when she heard about his refusal. She wanted to know why he would not eat something which he knew she had prepared by spending halâl money. “Yes, the food was halâl,” he explained. “Yet it was brought to me in a dish that belonged to someone cruel.” Indeed, the food was taken to him in the jailer’s dish.
Siddîqs have the highest level of wara’. However, what people below that level assume to have is downright distrust. Such people will not eat anything from the hands of fâsiq people. That should not be the case. People that must be bewared from in this respect are not fâsiq people; they are cruel people. A cruel person is one who battens upon others’ rights. What he eats is harâm. But why should a fornicator’s earnings be harâm while fornication is not a means whereby he earns his living. It is wara’ to avoid harâms. Yet it is not wara’ to have misgivings as to the cleanness of the clothes you have laundered or as to the cleanness of the water you have been using. Siddîqs did not harbour such misgivings. They would make ablution with any water they found. Misgiving had about the clothes one wears or about the water one uses bears towards ostentation, which in turn is something that the human nafs[4] relishes. The wara’ that siddîqs have is purity of heart. It is this that people cannot see, and it is for this reason that the nafs loathes it.
Fifth level is the wara’ possessed by (those chosen slaves of Allâhu ta’âlâ who are called) muqarrabs and muwahhids. They refrain from doing anything, from eating or drinking anything, from any sort of resting, and from saying anything that will not be for the Grace of Allâhu ta’âlâ. One day Yahyâ bin Mu’âz ‘qaddas-Allâhu ta’âlâ esrârah-ul’azîz’ took some medicine. His spouse said to walk up and down in the room. He said, “I don’t see why I should do so. I reckon that for thirty years I have not even moved unless it would be for the Grace of Allâhu ta’âlâ’.” These people do not move unless they intend do do something pious. Their eating and drinking are intended for mustering the mental and physical energy for worship. Every statement they make is intended for the sake of Allah. They deem it harâm for themselves to make other intentions.
We are writing about these levels so that we should read and hear and thereby make an assessment of ourselves. How far away we are from the first level. When it comes to words, we talk incessantly. We ask and talk about angels, about heavens, about how Doomsday will take place, about the Attributes of Allâhu ta’âlâ. When it comes to halâls, harâms, and the commandments of Allâhu ta’âlâ, our talking comes to a halt. Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: “The worst people are those who lead an idle life in luxurious houses, eating various delicious kinds of food, wearing colourful clothes, and spending their time saying things that are unnecessary but which give pleasure to listeners.”
3- Halâls and harâms: Many people look on all sorts of worldly property as harâm. According to some people, on the other hand, most of the things in the world are harâm. There are three groups of people in this respect: Some people take the matter to extremes and say that the only kinds of food they eat are those which are beyond a shadow of a doubt, such as fruit, fish, and game. Others say that they sit idly and eat whatever they like and indiscriminately. There is a third group who say that everything should be eaten; only, however, as much as necessary. These three groups are all wrong. The truth is this: “Halâls are in the open. Harâms, too, are in the open. Between these two are the doubtful. Such will be the case till the end of the world.” As a matter of fact, Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated so.
Those who say that worldly property is mostly harâm are wrong. Yes, there are many harâms. Yet they do not constitute a major part of worldly property. There is difference between saying, “There are many of them” and saying, “Most of them are... .” As a matter of fact, there are many invalid people, many tradesmen, and many soldiers. Yet these people are not most of the human beings. There are many oppressors. Yet greater is the number of the people being oppressed. We have explained this subject in detail in our book entitled Ihyâ-ul-’ulûm.
It should be known that people have not been commanded to “eat things that are definitely harâm and which Allâhu ta’âlâ knows to be halâl!” That would have been something that no one would be able to do. Perhaps what they have been told to do is this: “Eat what you know to be halâl!” Thereby they have been commanded to eat things that are not obviously harâm, which in turn is quite possible for anyone to do. As a matter of fact, Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ made an ablution by using the water in a heathen’s pitcher. The Sahâba ‘alaihim-ur-ridwân’ would accept and drink water offered by unbelievers. This they would do in the face of the fact that it is harâm to eat dirty, impure things and that unbelievers, in turn, are mostly uncleanly people with their hands and pots and pans smeared with wine and who eat (meat that is termed) lesh, [i.e. the flesh of an animal which, edible in essence as it may be, has been killed without saying the Basmala, (i.e. the Name of Allâhu ta’âlâ,) or in a manner other than jugulation.] The reason for this policy of theirs was an awareness of the principle that “something offered (to a Muslim to eat) should be accepted and eaten unless the food (or drink) offered is apparently unclean. In the cities that they had conquered from disbelievers, they would eat the cheese that they bought from disbelievers with a Heavenly Book. So they did, not because there did not exist people who sold hard drinks, or exchanged fâiz, or set their hearts to the world, among the non-Muslim populations of those cities. With respect to this subject, there are six groups of people:
First group are strangers, who are not known to be sâlih or fâsiq people. Supposing you are new in a village. Buying and selling with any one of its inhabitants will be permissible. Property held by any of the villagers must be admitted to be their own property. It must be considered to be halâl and fit for purchase unless there is a symptom to show that it is harâm. It will be wara’ not to transact buying and selling with them and to look for someone you know to be sâlih. Yet it is not wâjib to do so.
Second group are people who you know are sâlih. It is permissible to eat food that is their property. It is not wara’ not to eat the food that they offer. In fact, it may be a misgiving. Moreover, it will be sinful to decline their offer if they should feel hurt. Sû’i zan towards sâlih people, i.e. to entertain an evil opinion of them, is a sin.
Third group are cruel, oppressive people. It is not permissible to buy or receive something from highwaymen, from thieves, from people like Sultân’s men, or from people who have earned their property entirely or mostly by way of harâm. The only people whose property is permissible to buy are those who are known to have earned it by way of halâl or whose property bears the symptoms of being halâl.
As is explained in the final section of the book entitled Hadîqa, wara’, i.e. attention with respect to halâls and harâms, is more important than attention with respect to ablution and najâsat[5]. However, the time we live in has made it very difficult to observe halâls and harâms, so much so that one has trouble following the easiest fatwâ of Abul-lays-i-Semerqandî. According to that fatwâ, if it is believed that most of the property of a person is halâl, it will be permissible to accept a present given by that person or to transact buying, selling and renting with him. Transactions of this sort are not permissible with a person most of whose property is not believed to be halâl. For, property known to be harâm will not slip out of its being harâm by travelling from one owner to another. There is a qawl (scholarly report) stating that property that is harâm, when it is inherited, will be halâl for the inheritor. Yet that qawl is dâ’îf (weak). It is stated as follows in the fatwâ of Qâdî Khân: “In this time of ours it has become impossible to avoid doubtful property. Now it is wâjib for Muslims to avoid things that they know for certain are harâm.” And now, (in our time, that is,) this job has become even more difficult. For, it was stated in a hadîth-i-sherîf: “Each and every following year will be worse than the one previous to it.” Therefore, wara’ and taqwâ to be practised today is to protect one’s heart and tongue and all one’s limbs against harâms and not to torment human beings and animals and to pay the laborer’s wage immediately, and not to utilize anyone’s labour, be it one’s disciple’s, without their heartful consent.
Property possessed by others should be looked on as their own property. If it is clearly known that a certain person has obtained his property by one of the (Islamically) illegal ways such as extortion, cruelty, bribery, theft, oppression, and perfidy, [or by selling hard drinks,] that property will not be his property. It will not be halâl to accept that property from him, to use it, or to eat it (if it is something to eat), or to drink it (if it is something to drink). His other property will be accepted as his own. It will not be harâm to accept them in case he offers them. If he has mixed the property he obtained by way of harâm with his (legal) property, or different units of harâm property with each other, the mixture is termed mulk-i-habîth. When he offers something from this mixture, it will be permissible for the second person to accept the property or money that he does not know to be harâm. For, according to Imâm A’zam Abû Hanîfa, if a person has mixed money that he obtained by way of harâm [or which was entrusted to him for safekeeping] with his own money or the first two with each other and cannot separate the halâl ingredients from the harâm ones (or two different harâm ingredients making up the mixture from each other), all the mixture will be his own mulk-i-khabîth, and it will be necessary for him to repay the harâm ingredients to their rightful owners from his other halâl property. It is permissible for him to use this mulk-i-habîth after the repayment. However, it is never permissible to use property that has become one’s mulk-i-habîth (tainted property) by way of an agreement that is termed fâsid[6]. It is stated as follows in the final part of the chapter dealing with namâz of the book entitled Bezzâziyya: “If a person acting as the deputy of rich people to pay their zakâts to poor people mixes the zakâts he has collected with one another, the entire mixture will become his own property, and he will have given alms from his own property. The zakâts of the rich people will not have been paid. So he will have to pay the rich people the same amounts as he collected from them. If the poor people had given permission to this person beforehand, he would have collected the zakâts on their behalf as their deputy, the zakâts would have been paid, since the mixture would have been the poor’s property.” It is stated in the book entitled Jâmi’ul-fatâwâ: “It is not halâl to engage in trade before having learned Islam’s teachings on bey’ and shirâ (buying and selling). Every tradesman should find a scholar learned in the Islamic branch of Fiqh, consult with him in doing his business, and thereby safeguard himself against fâiz (interest) and against buying and selling transactions that are fâsid.”
Imâm Kerkhî states as follows in his fatwâ: “Mebî’ (property for sale) purchased without the themen that is harâm having been shown, will be halâl for the purchaser. (Please see the twenty-ninth chapter of the fifth fascicle of Endless Bliss for detailed information on terms such as mebî’ and themen.) If, during the agreement, the themen that is known to be harâm is present, and is shown (to the seller), and if it is this (harâm) themen that is given to the seller, the purchaser will possess the mebî’ in (a state termed) khabîth.” It is stated as follows towards the end of the chapter dealing with ruinations incurred by one’s speech of the book entitled Hadîqa: “If it is known that a certain unit of property has been acquired by way of harâm, such as by extortion, by theft, or by perfidy, it will not be halâl to accept and take it as a gift or as alms or in the name of mebî’ or themen and price, or to hire and use it. Only, it will be halâl for an inheritor of such property to accept it when he does not know its owner or owners. If it is not known well that the property in question is harâm because it has been acquired by (one of) the aforesaid ways, it will be permissible to accept and take it, regardless of the (licit) manner one is offered it.”
Fourth group are owners of property most of which is halâl but which has been tainted with some harâm elements. Supposing a villager served the Sultân also and received something from him, or a tradesman transacted business with the Sultân’s men; property owned by such people is halâl. Permissible as it is to transact buying and selling with such people, it will be a valuable state of wara’ to avoid doing so. ’Abdullah bin Mubârak ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’, (118-181 [797 A.D.],) received a letter from his deputy in Basra, saying, “We have been doing buying and selling business with people who have been transacting business with the Sultân’s men.” His answering letter read as follows: “Do not buy anything from them if they are not transacting business also with people other than the Sultân’s men. If they are transacting with others as well, then transact with them!”
Fifth group are people who are not known to be cruel and whose property is not known well, but who bear symptoms of being cruel (zâlim) people, such as wearing apparels peculiar to zâlim people. Transaction with them must be avoided, unless it is known that the commodities in their possession is halâl.
Sixth group are people not clad in apparels peculiar to zâlim people but identifiable by the signs of fisq that they bear. Among such signs of fisq are wearing clothes of silk and/or gold rings and/or watches, which are harâm (for men), consumption of alcohol, and talking with nâ-mahram women[7]. If a person who commits sins of that sort believes that they are sinful acts and admits that he is guilty, it will not be harâm to transact with that person. For, his sinning will not make his property harâm. We may conjecture that a person who does not avoid sinning will normally not mind having property that is harâm; yet a person’s property cannot be judged to be harâm upon that conjecture. In fact, no one is sinless. There is many a sinner who dreads human rights.
[A person who does not see any difference between halâls and harâms and who does not attach importance to avoiding harâms has become a murtadd, [i.e. an enemy of Allah.] Buying and selling must not be done with him. Property in his possession is not his property. His nikâh is not sahîh (valid). He cannot inherit property from Muslims. He is not a Muslim even if he utters the Kalima-i-shehâdat, performs namâz, and says that he is a Muslim. His statements to this effect and his acts of worship must not be believed. He has to repent of the thing that has caused him to go out of Islam, and he has to make tawba. The author ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ of the book entitled Durr-ul-mukhtâr states: Supposing a married couple became murtadds (apostates, renegades from Islam), went to the Dâr-ul-harb, [i.e. a country of disbelievers such as America,] settled there and had children and grandchildren, and supposing we have captured all of them; they and their children will be killed if they refuse to become Muslims. Their grandchildren will be made slaves. For, they, (i.e. the first generation exemplified above,) and their children are murtadds. The grandchildren, on the other hand, are not subject to their grandparents’ religion. They are disbelievers sired by disbelievers.]
In essence, such are the principles to be observed in buying and selling. A person who has inadvertently fallen into harâms despite all his painstaking efforts in observing these principles, will not be sinful. By the same token, namâz performed with najâsat on one (or on one’s clothes) will not be acceptable. It will be acceptable, however, if one is unaware of the najâjat that exists on one. Moreover, it has been stated (by authorities in matters of Fiqh) that najâsat that one detects on oneself after having performed a certain prayer of namâz will not necessitate reperformance (qadâ) of that namâz. Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ took off his sandal as he was performing namâz, and stated: “Jebrâîl ‘alaihis-salâm’ has informed me that the patten has dirt on it.”Yet he did not make qadâ of the part that he had already performed. (That is, he did not perform that part again.)
In situations that we have concluded with remarks such as, “It is valuable wara’ to beware of that kind of property although it is not necessary,” it is permissible to ask the person in possession of the property about the source of the property. However, questions to that effect will be harâm if that person should be hurt. For, whereas wara’ is a mere precaution, it is harâm to hurt a Muslim. Then, the inquiry should be done euphemistically enough. Food offered, for instance, should be declined on tactfully expressed pretexts. In ineluctable situations the food offered should be eaten lest the host should be hurt. Nor should a third person be asked. For, in that case the offence that the second person will take upon hearing about it will be even worse. That sort of an inquiry will involve vices such as tejessus (prying, curiosity), ghiybat (backbiting, gossipping), and sû’i zan (bad opinion about others, pessimistic prejudice), all three of which are harâm; and they will not be halâl for the sake of precaution. Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ would accept whatsoever he was offered during his visits. He would not ask about its source. He would accept gifts as well, and would not ask about their source. He would ask, however, about the origin and nature of the things offered when the situation involved dubiety. For instance, when he honoured the blessed city of Medîna and its Muslim inhabitants offered him things, he asked if they offered them as gifts or as alms. For, it was a doubtful matter for him then. No one would take offence at his asking.
Supposing plundered and stolen goods and animals are being sold at a place; a person who knows that most of the commodities being sold are harâm should not buy anything at that place. If his need is an urgent one, he should ask about the origin of the thing he needs to buy, and buy it only after finding out that it has been obtained in a halâl way. If it is known that most of the goods are not harâm, it will be an act of wara’ to ask, although it is permissible to make a purchase without asking about the origin of the article to be purchased.
It is harâm to sell human excrement or anything that parts from a human body. All such things must be buried. It is not permissible, either, to use the human excrement by itself. It is sahîh to sell or use its mixture with soil or something else. Animal manure can be sold and used by itself as well. The imâms of the other three Madhabs ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaihim ajma’în’ stated that it would not be permissible to sell animal manure, either.
It is permissible to sell a building or a building plot or a piece of arable land in the blessed city of Mekka. Likewise, a building that a person has made in an area of land belonging to a waqf is his own property. It is permissible for him to sell it. It is harâm to rent out the buildings in Mekka to hâdjis during the period of hajj. They must be offered to them free of charge. It is stated as follows in the hundred and forty-sixth (146) page of the fifth volume of the book entitled Bedâyi’: “It is makrûh to rent out the houses in Mekka to hâdjis during the period of hajj.”
It is permissible to sell grapes and grape juice to a Muslim who makes wine. It is harâm for Muslims to sell wine, and the money they earn thereby is harâm, too. In fact, if a Muslim sells wine so that he can pay his debt, it will be harâm for the creditor to accept that money. It is halâl (for a Muslim) to collect the debt that a dhimmî owes him from the money earned by selling wine. Yet it is makrûh tanzîhî. [Please see the thirty-first chapter of the fifth fascicle of Endless Bliss!]
It is stated as follows in the chapter dealing with zakât for animals, by Ibn ’Âbidîn, and also in Birgivî Vasiyyetnâmesi Şerhi (in Turkish), by Qâdî-Zâda Ahmad Efendi: “Supposing a person gives alms from property that is in his possession and which is definitely known to be harâm and expects thawâb for that act of his, and the poor person given the alms says, ‘May Allâhu ta’âlâ bless you (for this charity of yours),’ even though he knows that the property has been earned by way of harâm, and thereupon the almsgiver or a third person says, ‘Âmîn;’ in that case both or all three of them will become unbelievers. At this point Ibn ’Âbidîn adds: “It is also an act of kufr (unbelief) to perform an act of charity, e.g. to have a mosque built, out of certain property that is known to be harâm and to expect thawâb for that act.”
Ibni ’Âbidîn ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ ’alaih’ states as follows in the conclusive part of the chapter dealing with places (and persons) that are to be paid zakât: If a person has property in excess of the amount sufficient for his living and for the living of people who are wâjib for him to support, it is mustahab for that person to give alms. As long as any one of those people who are wâjib for him to support remains in need, it will be sinful for him to give alms. It is not jâiz (permissible) for a person too impatient to survive a financial crisis to give away property or money that he himself needs in the name of alms. It is makrûh tahrîmî. It is a commendable act for an almsgiver to make niyyat for sending the thawâb for his (or her) charity to the blessed soul of Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ and to the souls of all Muslim men and women. For, not only will there be no decrease in the amount of thawâb that he (or she) will earn, but also each of the souls involved will attain the same full amount of thawâb.
It is stated as follows in the final section of Hadîqa: “Let us suppose a person is to receive a gift or alms from the Sultân and knows that the property he is to be given as alms was extorted by way of cruelty from someone, it will be permissible for him to accept it only if the Sultân has mixed that property with his own (halâl) property or with other property which also he extorted by way of cruelty from another person and the different amounts of property making up the mixture are inseparable. If the property given is that (harâm) property itself, it will not be permissible for him to accept it. For, when the Sultân mixes it with other property the entire mixture will be his (the Sultân’s) property. The (rightful) owner of that (harâm) property (in the mixture) will no longer have any right of ownership on the property. The person who extorted the property, (the Sultân in this case,) will have to compensate for it by paying its equivalent, or the value that it had on the date of extortion, in case its equivalent is not available, to its owner. It will not be permissible for him to use it without compensating for it. It will not be his property if he does not mix it with other property. If the Sultân buys victuals with the property he extorted by way of cruelty and feeds the poor with the victuals, it will be halâl to eat them. If a person does not know that the victuals have been extorted by way of extortion, it will be permissible for him to eat the victuals extorted, and his not knowing about the extortion will be an ’udhr. Our Prophet ‘sall-Allâhu ’alaihi wa sallam’ stated: ‘(Accept and) take something you are given without your having asked for it! It is rizq that Allâhu ta’âlâ has sent to you.’ It is permissible to accept presents from government officials. Another example of such owner transference is that of stolen or extorted food which, harâm as it is on account of the manner of its aquisition, will become the property of the person who has stolen it or extorted it by using force, when a change is made in its characteristics. When food that is aquired in such a harâm manner is cooked, on the condition that it should be compensated for, it will be permissible (for the person who stole or extorted it) to eat it, as well as for its succeeding owners supposing it is sold or given as a present. Harâm as it is to sell it, or to give it as a present or as alms, without compensating for it by paying its value, the sale made (without compensation) will be nâfiz, [i.e. sahîh.] It is like using something that one has bought by way of a sale termed fâsid. When such property is sold, its price will be halâl.” On the other hand, things that have been declared to be harâm by way of open proof-texts, such as unclean flesh, i.e. (flesh of an animal that has been killed in a way counter to Islamic principles and which is called) lesh, pork, and wine, will never become halâl. It will not be halâl to eat such things even if their owner sells them, gives them as a present, and says that he has made them halâl, (i.e. that he has given them willingly free of charge.) A person who says that such things are halâl or who utters the Basmala knowingly as he eats them will become an unbeliever. So is the case with all sorts of things that are definitely harâm. For instance, there are women with whom nikâh is harâm. A person who says that it is halâl to marry them will become an unbeliever.
Ibni ’Âbidîn states as follows in the fifth volume: “According to the majority of Islamic scholars, if a Muslim dies and leaves behind him money earned from wine, (i.e. by selling wine,) it will not be halâl for the inheritors to accept that money. The same rule applies to property extorted as well as to money exacted by oppressive means, accepted as a bribe, earned by playing musical instruments or by singing, or won by gambling. It is necessary for the inheritors to give money of this sort back to their original owners or, if the owners are not known, to dispense it to poor people. It is harâm to use it. In case the inheritors know that the earnings of the deceased were (mostly) harâm and yet cannot tell what part of the property left behind was earned by way of harâm, the entire legacy will be halâl; even in that case, however, it is recommended that they dispense it to poor people. Supposing they made purchases by giving away the property whose direct disposal would have been harâm for them, their purchases would be halâl for them to consume or to utilize otherwise. There are also scholarly reports stating that property that is harâm but whose owners are not known will be halâl for inheritors. If performances delivered by singers and by people who play musical instruments are free of charge instead of being bargained over, money given to them as a gift will not be khabîth; it will be halâl. Money and property collected by a beggar are habîth. If a person obtains some property by way of harâm and gives it to a second person and this second person gives it to a third person, it is harâm for those who are aware of that harâm money to take it. A sale that is fâsid is an exception. It is permissible for a woman to eat the food that her husband bought with harâm money and to use his property mixed with harâm elements. The sin belongs to her husband.
“It is halâl to stage all sorts of races, riddles, and puzzles. It is harâm to gamble on them. A unilateral stipulation of property is also permissible in running races, in horseraces, in marksmanship with shotguns, in archery, and in races staged over prowess in means of war. That is, the race will be permissible if, for instance, only one of the parties says, “Ishall give you a prize if you win. But you will not have to give me anything if I win,” or if a third person promises a prize to the winner of a race among several competitors. The races, however, should be organized for preparation for warfare. Any kind of race intended for pleasure, for ostentation or for boasting is makrûh. And it will be harâm if they last so long as to hinder performance of namâz. It is (a commendable act that is termed) mendûb to learn about means of war. Please see the initial pages of the thirty-third chapter of the second fascicle of Endless Bliss, and also of the thirty-first chapter of second part of the Turkish book Se’âdet-i ebediyye! It will be a gamble’ if both parties bet property (or money). Gambling is harâm. Another permissible type of race is one wherein a third person partakes on the understanding that the third party will be given property (or money) by both the other two if he should beat both the other two and nothing will be taken from him if both of them beat him, or wherein, of the two parties, the beaten party will give property (or money) to the one who beats him. It is makrûh to shoot (a gun) in the direction of Qibla, (against the Kâ’ba, that is.)
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