The Imam being elevated is bid’ha In the name of Allah the Beneficent the Merciful. All praise and adoration is due to Allah, we praise Him, seek His assistance and His forgiveness. We then seek refuge with Allah from the evils of our souls and from the mischief of our deeds, thus, whomsoever Allah guides no one can mislead him and whomsoever He misleads no one can guide him. I then testify that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah alone; I also testify that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger; “O you who believe, fear Allah as he should be feared, and die not except as Muslims.” “O mankind fear your Lord who has created you from a single soul and created from it its spouse and created from the two, men and women, and fear Allah through from whom you demand your mutual rights and be heedful of the family ties, verily Allah ever watches over you.” “O you who believe fear Allah and say righteous words, He would rectify your affairs and forgive you your sins and whoever obeys Allah and his Messenger has profited greatly.” In short: “Indeed, the truthful Book is the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (salla llahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and the worst of issues is that which is innovated (in the religion), and every single innovation is bidha (in the religion), and every single bidha is a going astray and all going astray is in fire.” To proceed; It is prohibited for the imam to be at a high place than the followers. Abu Mas’huud Al-Ansaary said: “The prophet salla llahu alayhi wa sallam prohibited that the imam should stand on something higher than the people behind him.” This is related by Ad-Daaraqutni Hamaam bn Al-Haarith related that Hudhaifah led the people in prayer in Madaain (Iraq), and he was standing on a high place, thereupon Abu Mas’huud caught hold of his shirt and pulled him down, and when the prayer was over he said to him: “Do you not know that they were forbidden to do so?” he (Hudhaifah) said; “Yes; I remembered that when you pulled me.” [Reported by Abu Daawuud (597) chapter: Kitaabus Salaat, classed as sahih by Sheikh Al-Albany} Lessons from these hadiths The above hadiths are so clear enough and understandable but as Allah wills majority fall into this mistake and aimed having reward by doing so. In fact when some are being corrected they turn away and feel disturbed. Some make excuses by referring to some of their so-called sheikhs who are also victims. They say: “if it is bid’ha so so sheikh will not be a victim”. While you see some people making claims that a particular sahaabiy did so, Subhaanallahi! “But the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad salla llahu alayhi wa sallam and the worst of issues are innovations” Furthermore, the later hadith implies that ijmaa’ suquuty (silence consensus of sahaabah) can never be used as evidence. In some cases whereby a sahaabiy performed an act at the presence of other sahaabah, such act cannot be used as evidence because there is a great probability that the sahaabah present there did not know the ruling on such act, so they kept quite without making any correction. Base on that, looking at the text of the later hadith we will realize that there are people praying behind Hudhaifah and they did not alert him not to pray on an elevated platform not until Hamaam came in and pulled him back. Lastly, the later hadith is also a shut up for those who ascribe Ahlus-Sunnah to Shia. When ahlus-sunnah tells them that the statement and action of a sahaabiy is not evidence and that sahaabah do make ijtihaad during the life of the prophet and after his death which will later be an erroneous ijtihaad1 which must not be used as evidence. These deviants ascribe us to Shia (may Allah guide them and the Shias to His straight path) claiming that we are looking out for the mistakes of sahaabah and our statement implies that the sahaabah changed the shareehah. Subhaanallahi! May Allah protect us from such! It is not of our doctrine to look out for the mistakes of the sahaabah (may Allah be pleased with them) but, in as much as the deviant sects abandon authentic hadiths ascribed to the prophet salla llahu alayhi wa sallam and go for the ijtihaad of a sahaabiy we shall always make them realize that these sahaabah (may Allah be pleased with them) are not ma’suumeen (free from mistakes) and this is clearly deducted from the above hadith of Hudhaifah. Another shaahid (evidence) that implies that the action of a sahaabiy cannot be used as evidence if it does not comply with the prophet’s action is the incident that happened between the Khawaarij and Ali (may allâh be pleased with him). When the Khawaarij came out with their fitnah Ali (radiya llahu anhu) set them at fire. Ibn ‘Abbas said: “If I were in Ali’s position, I would not have burnt them for the messenger of Allah forbade this, saying: “Do not torment with the torment of Allah” and I would have killed them, for the messenger of Allah said: “Whoever changes his religion, kill him.” narrated by Bukhaari (6922) on the authority of Ikrimah. May Allah endow us with the understanding of his religion and safeguard us from his punishment. And may his blessings be upon the noble prophet salla llahu alayhi wa sallam. ---------------------- Footnote 1- The ijtihaad of a sahaabiy can be either praiseworthy or erroneous. If it complies with the Sunnah of the prophet it is praiseworthy but if it does not comply with the Sunnah of the prophet then it is erroneous and cannot be used as evidence. Written by: Muhammad Abu Ubaidah Al-Aluury
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 21:13:08 +0000
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