Refuting The Salafi Claim About 15th Night of Sha’aban (Shabe Bara’at) Dear readers! The following is an answer I wrote to a friend who emailed me a question saying “How can we refute these claims?” He sent a very long article which was said to be written by Sheikh Abdul Aziz ibn al Baaz. I doubt it’s relation to the marhoom Sheikh. Because Sheikh’s eyesight had deteriorated at age of 16 and by the age of 20, he was completely blind. This article has so many details that it does not corroborate with Sheikh’s other writings. Wallahu A’lam. If you want to read the whole article, you can read it at the end of this reply, provided you have the patience to do so. Answer Walaikumussalam w w Jazakallah for your query. I will try to keep my reply as brief as possible. There is great mix up within the article. First, It’s written from an extremist Salafi or should I say Wahabi point of view. They regard everything they don’t like as bid’ah. They only know a few Hadith like “Every innovation is bid’ah”. They don’t know or they don’t want to know the Hadith of Daarami in Mishkat which states و من ابتدع بدعة لا يرضاها الله ورسوله…… “and whosoever invents any innovation which Allah and his Rasul don’t like…..” This clearly indicates that there are some innovations which Allah and his Rasul like. Therefore, كل محدثة بدعة “every innovation is bid’ah” has been interpreted by Imam Nawawi and others as غالب البدع ضلالة. I.e. most innovations are misguidance. Imam Izzuddin ibn Abdissalam has divided bid’ah into 5 categories. Wajib bid’ah Mustahabb bid’ah Mubaah bid’ah Makrooh bid’ah and Haram bid’ah. It would be very lengthy to explain each type and give it’s example in this brief reply. However, through this categorisation we can understand the compiling of the Quran in a mus’haf, Initiation of taraweeh, extra Azan before Jumuah salah, Shafiyyah shaking hands after fajr and asr, hugging and shaking hands on Eid day, ijtimai dua after fardh salah etc. All those ahadeeth which mention grave warnings for bid’ah are regarding such innovations which corrupt the Deen. E.g. the Shia’s bid’ah of adding in azaan اشهدان عليا ولي الله. They did this to increase Ali’s love in people’s mind but at the same time to criticise and curse Abu Bakr and Umar. So this bid’ah is blameworthy. When a bid’ah causes fasaad fid Deen, then that is a bad innovation. This attitude of classing everything as bid’ah is in itself a bida’h. Salaf’s attitude was to be calm and keep things in perspective, looking at all angles of a shar’ee mas’alah. When we read this article which you have posted to me, we notice that there are many flaws in it. 1) ‘Religion being completed’ does not mean there will be no new needs and no new mas’alas. It simply means foundations have been laid down and all the rules and regulations have been established and masaail can be derived from Quran and Sunnah according to the needs of times. This is for the ulema of the Ummah to explain what is in confirmation with the roots and what is not. This is no tahleel and tahreem issue. This is simply research in the most detailed manner possible. Now we will analyse a few of their paragraphs: 2) Look at this sentence ‘Among the bid’ahs that have been invented by some people is celebrating the middle of Sha’baan (Laylat al-Nusf min Sha’baan), and singling out that day for fasting’ Two things are mentioned here. ‘Celebrating’. Celebration is of birthdays, weddings etc. Nobody celebrates on this night. People just exhort themselves into worship, by listening to some naseehah in which people are advised to get ready for Ramadhan and then by reciting some Quran, performing a little bit of Tahajjud, fasting on the following day. This can hardly be classed as celebration. especially when naseehah, tilaawah, fasting and tahajjud are all recommended aspects of shariah. Singling out the next day for fasting is based on the Hadith of sayyiduna Ali radiyallahu anhu, narrated by Ibn Majah, Bayhaqi and others. So how can it be a reason for criticism? Especially when their criticism is based on qiyaas and analogy, And among rules of qiyas is that the analogy should not be in confrontation with a nass, (text of Quran and Hadith). Over here qiyaas is done upon the Hadith of ‘Not singling out Friday for a special worship’. And this qiyas is in confrontation with the many ahaadeeth in virtue of The 15th night of Sha’abaan. 3) Ponder over this text: ‘Some da’eef (weak) ahadith have been narrated concerning its virtues, but we cannot regard them as reliable. The reports which have been narrated concerning the virtues of prayer on this occasion are all mawdoo’ (fabricated)” Can you see how cunningly the writer contradicts himself by mixing dhaeef and mawdhoo’ both in one paragraph? There are two Hadith here. One is dhaeef, which concerns Qiyamullayl (performing Tahajjud at night) and Siyamunnahaar (fasting the following day). This Hadith is dhaeef but NOT mawdhoo’. Second is praying special salah with a specific number of surahs, which we also categorise as being mawdhoo’. The writer gives the impression that they are both mawdhoo’ 4) When mentioning ‘following Allah and his messenger’, Do they think that the pious muttaqi ulema, who invite people to worship Allah on this night, hate Allah and his Rasul and therefore go against their instructions? 5) Read the following: ‘There is no saheeh basis for celebrating the middle of Sha’ban, so we cannot follow the da’eef ahaadeeth either. This important principle was mentioned by Imam Abu’l-‘Abbaas Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him)’ The principle mentioned is not correct. Dhaeef Hadith has been used for fadhaail by most of the Salafe Saliheen. Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, Abdurrahman ibn Mahdi, Imam Nawawi, ibn Salah, Hafidh ibn Hajar are just some of them. Ibn Taymiya also holds this opinion. And Ibn al Qayyim’s books are filled with dhaeef ahadeeth. Only a handful say that dhaeef should not be used for fadhaail. The ahadeeth regarding virtue of this night have been narrated from 10 sahaba. See mufti Taqi Saheb’s Islaahi Khutubaat p264 vol 3. In fact sheikh Fadhlurrahman A’zami has narrated in his article on this subject that Ibn Taymiya accepted that this night does hold virtues. In fact Al-Albani has classed the Hadith of maghfirat in laylatunnisfi min Sha’abaan as SAHEEH. He has narrated it on the authority of 8 sahabah. Their names are as follows. Abu Bakr siddique Muaaz ibn jabal Abu Tha’labah al Khushani Abdullah ibn Amr Abu Musa al Ash’ari Abu hurayrah Awf ibn Malik Aisha Siddiqah radhiallahu anhum ajmaeen. After giving references in full 3 pages, he wrote: وجملة القول ان الحديث بمجموع هذه الطرق صحيح بلا ريب والصحة تثبت بأقل منها عددا ما دامت سالمة من الضعف الشديد كما هوالشان في هذا الحديث، فما نقله الشيخ القاسمي في إصلاح المساجد ص١٠٧ عن اهل التعديل والتجريح انه ليس في فضل ليلة النصف من شعبان حديث يصح، فليس مما ينبغي الاعتماد عليه. و ان كان احد منهم اطلق مثل هذا القول فإنما اوتي من قبل التسرع و عدم وسع الجهد لتتبع الطرق علي هذا النحو الذي بين يديك (سلسلة الأحاديث الصحيحه ص١٣٨/٣) (Silsilatul ahaadeethis saheehah p138, vol 3). 6) Reflect upon the following: Al-Hafiz Ibn Rajab (RA) said in his book Lataa’if al-Ma’aarif concerning this matter – after previously discussing it – “Laylat al-Nusf min Sha’baan (the middle of Sha’ban) was venerated by the Tabi’een among the people of al-Sham, such as Khalid ibn Mi’dan, Makhool, Luqman ibn ‘Amir and others, who used to strive in worship on this night. The people took the idea of the virtue of this night and of venerating it from them. It was said that they heard of Isra’eli reports (reports from Jewish sources) concerning that”. Hafiz ibn Rajab’s attitude is totally opposite of what the writer is trying to portray. Ibn rajab has shown great respect to the Tabioon who used to respect this night. And who are they? Tabioon!! They are from Khayrul Quroon. Can something that was practised in that period be criticised in this manner?? Makhool Shami was a great muhaddith. Khalid ibn Ma’dan was a great wali of Allah, same with Luqman ibn Amir. And in order to put these legends down, the writer fabricates a lie that they took this idea from Jewish sources. Why blame everything on the Jews? Why would the Jews revere the 15th night of sha’abaan? We narrate here the text of ibn Rajab for the benefit of the ulema: كان التابعون من أهل الشام كخالد بن معدان ومكحول و لقمان بن عامر و غيرهم يعظمونها و يجتهدون فيها في العبادة و عنهم أخذ الناس فضلها و تعظيمها و قد قيل أنه بلغهم في ذلك آثار إسرائيلية فلما اشتهر ذلك عنهم في البلدان اختلف الناس في ذلك فمنهم من قبله منهم وافقهم على تعظيمها منهم طائفة من عباد أهل البصرة و غيرهم و أنكر ذلك أكثر علماء الحجاز منهم عطاء و ابن أبي مليكة و نقله عبد الرحمن بن زيد بن أسلم عن فقهاء أهل المدينة و هو قول أصحاب مالك و غيرهم و قالوا : ذلك كله بدعة و اختلف علماء أهل الشام في صفة إحيائها على قولين : أحدهما : أنه يستحب إحياؤها جماعة في المساجد كان خالد بن معدان و لقمان بن عامر و غيرهما يلبسون فيها أحسن ثيابهم و يتبخرون و يكتحلون و يقومون في المسجد ليلتهم تلك و وافقهم إسحاق بن راهوية على ذلك و قال في قيامها في المساجد جماعة : ليس ببدعة نقله عنه حرب الكرماني في مسائله و الثاني : أنه يكره الإجتماع فيها في المساجد للصلاة و القصص و الدعاء و لا يكره أن يصلي الرجل فيها لخاصة نفسه و هذا قول الأوزاعي إمام أهل الشام و فقيههم و عالمهم و هذا هو الأقرب إن شاء الله تعالى و قد روي عن عمر بن عبد العزيز أنه كتب إلى عامله إلى البصرة عليك بأربع ليال من السنة فإن الله يفرغ فيهن الرحمة إفراغا أول ليلة من رجب و ليلة النصف من شعبان و ليلة الفطر و ليلة الأضحى و في صحته عنه نظر و قال الشافعي رضي الله عنه : بلغنا أن الدعاء يستجاب في خمس ليال : ليلة الجمعة و العيدين و أول رجب و نصف شعبان قال : و أستحب كل ما حكيت في هذه الليالي و لا يعرف للإمام أحمد كلام في ليلة نصف شعبان و يتخرج في استحباب قيامها عنه روايتان من الروايتين عنه في قيام ليلتي العيد فإنه في رواية لم يستحب قيامها جماعة لأنه لم ينقل عن النبي صلى الله عليه و سلم و أصحابه و استحبها في رواية لفعل عبد الرحمن بن يزيد بن الأسود و هو من التابعين فكذلك قيام ليلة النصف لم يثبت فيها شيء عن النبي صلى الله عليه و سلم و لا عن أصحابه و ثبت فيها عن طائفة من التابعين من أعيان فقهاء أهل الشام A dear friend of mine who is a mawlana sent me the above text. He adds: “I think the person who wrote this should be fair when citing Hafiz ibn Rajab rahimahullah. I looked back into the source and I found much more kalaam, I think he cut just a tiny bit and made it out as if this was the opinion of ibn Rajab rahimahullah. that is incorrect, Hafiz ibn Rajab is quite simply relating the opinion. If I say, “fulan maulana said its jaiz to make masah on socks” this does not make it my opinion, I’m just relating it. similarly in this article, the person manipulates Hafiz ibn Rajab’s writing and twists it to be his opinion. The above is the asl ibarat, (original text) I think he stopped reading when he saw the text ذلك كله بدعة . he must have got really happy when he saw bid’ah and thought, ‘BAS! i’ve found the answer!’ Another thing he didn’t mention was Ishaq ibn Rahways rahimahullah opinion which also comes in support of the ulema of Shaam. Perhaps one can say after reading both sides that it is good to worship so long as one doesn’t do guloo (exaggeration) like some groups who have biryani, halwa, full blast naats, shabeena, salatuttasbeeh with jama’ah etc. wallahu a’lam.. 7) The writer then says that “The ulema of Makkah ie Ata’ ibn Abi Rabah and ibn Abi Mulaykah would not pay much attention to this night”. If they did not pay attention, then it does not mean that it’s haram to do so. They don’t have the right to make halal and haram. It was simply their research and we respect them for that. Ibn Abi Mulaykah’s threat of hitting Ziyad with a stick was because ziyad would compare this night with laylatul qadar which was wrong of him to do so. No night can be equal to Laylatul Qadar. 8) Then the writer talks about Salatur Raghaib and says that it’s mawdhoo’. We also say that Salatur Raghaaib has no basis. We never instruct anyone to pray it. However, we do instruct them to pray Salatut-Tasbeeh which is mentioned in the Hadith of Tirmizi and ibn Majah, which has been classed by Al-Albani as Hasan. The rest of the article is about the month of Rajab and about Isra wal Mi’raj so we don’t want to comment on it at this moment. 9) At the end, the publishers of this article say that this article is to bring communities together. I would say This type of article does not ‘Bring communities together’ It only ‘Divides communities and causes confusion and chaos’. 10) Finally, I would like to ask you a question? Why have we been created? Allah will tell us in Surah az-zaariyaat و ما خلقت الجن والإنس الا ليعبدون I.e. “so that we may worship Allah”. Therefore, we should try and promote worship of Allah and not discourage people from worshipping. These types of articles do the complete opposite of the goal behind our creation. May Allah give hidayat to the whole Ummah. May He show us the truth as truth, and false as false. May He give us the tawfeeq to promote virtue and prevent vice. Ameen
Posted on: Sat, 22 Jun 2013 00:12:38 +0000
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