Post by hafeezanwar on Nov 19, 2007 21:54:50 GMT
IMAM Ahmed Bin Hanbal
His status in the worship and in the fear of Allah is very great. He was wise and very intelligent and his prayers were always accepted by Allah. Some of his enemies filed accusations against him, which were found false and baseless later.
Once his son was explaining the tradition that Allah kneads Adam’s leaven by His hands and while explaining this he spread out his hands. So Hanbal prohibited him to do so and asked him that while explaining about the hands of Allah, not to spread out his own hands. Hanbal met many leading pious personalities of his time like Zun-noon, Bishr Hafi, Sari Saqti, Ma’ruf Karkhi. Bishr Hafi told, “He was better than me because I tried for right food for myself but he struggled for his entire family.” Sari Saqti told, “At the time of his death, he was free from all the false accusations of Mu’tazala.”
It was reported that when Mu’tazala of Baghdad became very powerful he then created a big problem for him and asked him to accept that Qur’an is a creature. For not accepting this he was given severe punishments by the caliph’s court.
When he was taken to the caliph’s court he saw a policeman standing at the gate who told him, “Oh! leader! Do not say Qur’an is a creature, be brave like me. When I did robbery and was caught by them, they flogged me with cane for 1000 times and I was forced to accept the crime. But I was firm and not accepted my crime and was left free from there. I was successful even for my falsehood due to my patience. But you are on the right path so you must be successful in this matter due to patience. Hanbal told him, “He will be remembered for his advice.”
When he was being whipped 1000 times by the court’s men, all of a sudden his waist belt opened and was about to fall but at the same time two hands appeared there, tied his belt and disappeared suddenly. When the court’s men saw this miracle they freed him immediately. After few days, he died. In spite of hard punishments and hardships he never accepted that Qur’an is a creature. When he was freed from the royal court some persons asked him, “What is your opinion about those enemies who gave you such severe punishments?” He replied, “They think that I am not on the right path. So all the hardships were given to me for the sake of Allah. On the Day of Judgement I will not ask any revenge for those enemies.” It was reported that one young man approached him and told him that his mother’s hand and legs were paralysed. He requested him to do his prayers for his mother’s recovery and health. When he heard the details, he started prayers for her after ablution. When the boy reached back his home, he saw his mother was all right and she herself opened the door for her Son.
Once he was doing ablution and saw another person was also sitting there for ablution. He was on the height and to pay respect he came down from there. On that person’s death someone asked him how he was? He replied, “Allah has blessed him because in his life he paid respect to Imam Hanbal.”
He used to say that once he lost the way in the jungle and he asked one Bedouin to show the way. Then he started weeping loudly. Hanbal thought that he was hungry and wanted to give some food to him but he was very angry with him. He told, “Oh! Imam Hanbal! You have no faith in Allah. So you are giving me food like Allah. But actually you are away from the way.” Thereupon Imam Hanbal thought that Allah always keep hidden the pious persons everywhere. The Bedouin realised his thought and told him that the pious persons are those who are blessed by Allah and whatever they say is immediate done. If they order the whole world to become gold then the world will have to change into the gold. After this when he looked there he saw that the entire desert was converted into the gold and there was divine call in which it was heard that, “He is our dear friend but if he wants to ruin the entire world then I can do the same. So you should be grateful for meeting such a great friend of mine. But after this you will not see him again.”
During his stay in Baghdad, he never ate bread there and he told, “This land was given for trust of Muslim soldiers”. He used to bring flour from Mosil and ate the bread made of that flour.
His son Saleh was qazi (judge) of Isfahan for a period of one year. He used to observe fasting during the day and was busy in worship during the nights. He never slept more than two hours during the nights. He constructed a room before his house and he used to live in that room for any needy person who should visit the door of the house and should not return back from there without approaching him. He was very pious judge.
Once Imam Hanbal’s servant prepared some breads by taking some yeast from his son’s kitchen and presented the breads to Imam Hanbal. He asked him why it is so soft, then the servant explained him the details that the yeast was from his son’s kitchen. Imam Hanbal asked the servant that why he took yeast from the kitchen of qazi of Isfahan. So that bread was not good for him to eat. Give these breads to any beggar and tell them that the breads were made from yeast of qazi’s kitchen and flour of Hanbal is included in it. If they need then they could take it. But even after 40 days no beggar collected those breads. There was bad odour in them and for this reason the servant threw the breads in the river Tigris. Imam Hanbal’s fear of Allah was so great that he did not eat even the fish of Tigris from that day. Imam Hanbal used to say, “Do not sit with a person even if he possesses a silver collyrium.”
Once Imam Hanbal went to Makkah to see Sufyan Thauri to hear traditions (sayings of Noble Prophet (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam)) from him. He used to visit him daily to hear the traditions. But one day, he was absent in his meeting. Sufyan Thauri sent his servant to his house to know the reason of his being absent. When the servant reached his house, he saw that he was naked as he had given his dress to the washerman. The servant told him to take some money from him and purchase a new dress, but he did not accept his offer. He told him to sell his handwritten book and to bring ten yards of jute so that he can prepare one dress for himself. The servant asked whether he can accept silk but Imam Hanbal did not accept this and asked him to bring the jute only.
It was reported that one of his disciples came to his house as guest. So he brought a pot of water before him. But it was kept in the same condition till morning. In the morning, he asked him why it was kept in the same condition. The man replied him and asked that what he was supposed to do with the water pot. He told him that it was kept before him for ablution and praying during the night. So why has he not used it?
One labourer used to work for him. At the time of Maghrib prayer (prayer after sun set) when he was leaving his house, he asked his disciple to give him some more money than what he was getting as his daily wages. The disciple gave more money to the labourer but he refused to take it and accepted only his daily wages amount. So Imam Hanbal told his disciple to follow him and give him again on his way so that he may accept it. He was not greedy for more money but he may accept more amount outside.
It was reported that one of his old disciples took some soil from the high way and used that on the house wall. That high way belonged to Muslims, so for this mistake he dismissed him from his circle of disciples.
Once he kept mortgage his basin with the shopkeeper. At the time of release the shopkeeper kept before him two basins and asked him to take any one whichever he liked as he forgot which was his basin. Upon hearing this, Imam Hanbal kept silent and left the place without collecting his basin even though he cleared the dues of the shopkeeper. This was due to his fear of Allah that he did not collect the basin from the shopkeeper as he (shopkeeper) had forgotten that which basin was his.
Imam Hanbal was anxious to see Abdullah Bin Mubarak and one day he visited his house. Upon his arrival there his son Saleh informed him about his arrival but Imam Hanbal became silent and did not come out of his house to see him. When his son asked him the reason that why he did not meet him as since long he had desire to see him. He replied him, “Because I thought that after meeting him it will be difficult for me to get apart from him due to his politeness, so I decided to meet him at a place from where I may not be separated from him.”
He tried to explain the Islamic laws for the matters related to mystic knowledge. He used to send the persons to see Bishr Hafi. He always said “I asked Allah for His fear so Allah gave me too much fear and for this reason there was fear for the loss of wisdom.” He told, “Allah told me that I can come near Him due to the reading of Qur’an.” People asked him, “What is sincerity?” and he replied, “To keep away from the difficulties of action is called sincerity.” And “The trust is to keep firm confidence in Allah”. When people asked him, “What is pleasure?” He replied, “To hand over all the affairs to Allah is called pleasure.”
When the persons asked him that what is the meaning of love, then he told them to ask this to Bishr Hafi. During his life he did not reply this question.
He was asked “What is asceticism?” Imam Hanbal explained, “For the general person’s asceticism is to keep away from haram (illegal) things and for the pious person’s asceticism is to desire for more and more halal (legal) things. To keep themselves away from all the things, which keeps away a man from Allah. This is asceticism of mystic persons.”
When he was asked about the ignorant mystic persons who were sitting in the mosques in trust of Allah, he explained them, “They are mistaken because the knowledge caused them to sit in the mosques.” When the persons told him further that were they sitting in the mosques for the sake of getting livelihood for them, he replied, “There is no group in the world which is not seeking for the livelihood.”
At the time of his death, his son asked him, “How are you?” He replied, “There is no time to reply so pray for me to end my life with faith in Allah because the Satan is telling me that anybody who leaves the world with faith is most sorrowful thing for him. So I am not confident till my last moment of life that I will leave this world with faith in Allah. Oh Allah! bless me,” and by saying this he left this world.
When his funeral procession started then many birds came over there, fell on it and died. By seeing this 2000 persons of fire worshippers and many other accepted Islamic religion. This happened due to his prayers in favour of nonbelievers. One pious person told that Imam Hanbal prayed for two things during his life, which are as follows:
“Oh! Allah! Give faith to the nonbelievers.”
“Oh! Allah! Do not take back faith from the believers.”
The effect of his second prayer was seen during his lifetime as Allah did not take back faith from believers and effect of first prayer was seen upon his death.
Muhammad Bin Khuzema explained that has seen him in his dream when he was crippling, so he asked him that where he was going. He replied that he was going to Darus-Salam. Then he asked him further that how Allah blessed him? He told him, “In his lifetime he has faced many hardships and punishments for not saying Qur’an as creature. Due to this reason Allah blessed him and Allah gave him great rewards. Allah asked me to recite the prayer which Sufyan Thauri taught me and I recited that prayer there”. The meaning of the prayer is as follows:
“Oh! Allah! Every thing is in your control and you are having command of all the things with you, so allow me these things and do not ask what I need.” Then Allah told me, “Oh! Ahmed! This is heaven now enter into it.” Thus he entered into the heaven.
20th EPISODE from Tazkeratul Aoulia by Sheikh Farid-ud-Din Attar (Book of Muslim Saints and Mystics)
Translated from Urdu to English by
Muhammed A. Hafeez, B.COM.
Email: hafeezanwar@yahoo.com
Hyderabad-36, (India).
=======================================
Reference Books
1. Tazkeratul Aoulia by Sheikh Farid-ud-Din Attar (Book of Muslim Saints and Mystics), Urdu translation published by Majedi Book Depot, Kanpur in the year 1383 A.H., India.
1. 2. Tazkeratul Aoulia by Sheikh Farid-ud-Din Attar (Book of Muslim Saints and Mystics), Urdu translation published by Anwar Book Depot, Delhi, India.
=========
His status in the worship and in the fear of Allah is very great. He was wise and very intelligent and his prayers were always accepted by Allah. Some of his enemies filed accusations against him, which were found false and baseless later.
Once his son was explaining the tradition that Allah kneads Adam’s leaven by His hands and while explaining this he spread out his hands. So Hanbal prohibited him to do so and asked him that while explaining about the hands of Allah, not to spread out his own hands. Hanbal met many leading pious personalities of his time like Zun-noon, Bishr Hafi, Sari Saqti, Ma’ruf Karkhi. Bishr Hafi told, “He was better than me because I tried for right food for myself but he struggled for his entire family.” Sari Saqti told, “At the time of his death, he was free from all the false accusations of Mu’tazala.”
It was reported that when Mu’tazala of Baghdad became very powerful he then created a big problem for him and asked him to accept that Qur’an is a creature. For not accepting this he was given severe punishments by the caliph’s court.
When he was taken to the caliph’s court he saw a policeman standing at the gate who told him, “Oh! leader! Do not say Qur’an is a creature, be brave like me. When I did robbery and was caught by them, they flogged me with cane for 1000 times and I was forced to accept the crime. But I was firm and not accepted my crime and was left free from there. I was successful even for my falsehood due to my patience. But you are on the right path so you must be successful in this matter due to patience. Hanbal told him, “He will be remembered for his advice.”
When he was being whipped 1000 times by the court’s men, all of a sudden his waist belt opened and was about to fall but at the same time two hands appeared there, tied his belt and disappeared suddenly. When the court’s men saw this miracle they freed him immediately. After few days, he died. In spite of hard punishments and hardships he never accepted that Qur’an is a creature. When he was freed from the royal court some persons asked him, “What is your opinion about those enemies who gave you such severe punishments?” He replied, “They think that I am not on the right path. So all the hardships were given to me for the sake of Allah. On the Day of Judgement I will not ask any revenge for those enemies.” It was reported that one young man approached him and told him that his mother’s hand and legs were paralysed. He requested him to do his prayers for his mother’s recovery and health. When he heard the details, he started prayers for her after ablution. When the boy reached back his home, he saw his mother was all right and she herself opened the door for her Son.
Once he was doing ablution and saw another person was also sitting there for ablution. He was on the height and to pay respect he came down from there. On that person’s death someone asked him how he was? He replied, “Allah has blessed him because in his life he paid respect to Imam Hanbal.”
He used to say that once he lost the way in the jungle and he asked one Bedouin to show the way. Then he started weeping loudly. Hanbal thought that he was hungry and wanted to give some food to him but he was very angry with him. He told, “Oh! Imam Hanbal! You have no faith in Allah. So you are giving me food like Allah. But actually you are away from the way.” Thereupon Imam Hanbal thought that Allah always keep hidden the pious persons everywhere. The Bedouin realised his thought and told him that the pious persons are those who are blessed by Allah and whatever they say is immediate done. If they order the whole world to become gold then the world will have to change into the gold. After this when he looked there he saw that the entire desert was converted into the gold and there was divine call in which it was heard that, “He is our dear friend but if he wants to ruin the entire world then I can do the same. So you should be grateful for meeting such a great friend of mine. But after this you will not see him again.”
During his stay in Baghdad, he never ate bread there and he told, “This land was given for trust of Muslim soldiers”. He used to bring flour from Mosil and ate the bread made of that flour.
His son Saleh was qazi (judge) of Isfahan for a period of one year. He used to observe fasting during the day and was busy in worship during the nights. He never slept more than two hours during the nights. He constructed a room before his house and he used to live in that room for any needy person who should visit the door of the house and should not return back from there without approaching him. He was very pious judge.
Once Imam Hanbal’s servant prepared some breads by taking some yeast from his son’s kitchen and presented the breads to Imam Hanbal. He asked him why it is so soft, then the servant explained him the details that the yeast was from his son’s kitchen. Imam Hanbal asked the servant that why he took yeast from the kitchen of qazi of Isfahan. So that bread was not good for him to eat. Give these breads to any beggar and tell them that the breads were made from yeast of qazi’s kitchen and flour of Hanbal is included in it. If they need then they could take it. But even after 40 days no beggar collected those breads. There was bad odour in them and for this reason the servant threw the breads in the river Tigris. Imam Hanbal’s fear of Allah was so great that he did not eat even the fish of Tigris from that day. Imam Hanbal used to say, “Do not sit with a person even if he possesses a silver collyrium.”
Once Imam Hanbal went to Makkah to see Sufyan Thauri to hear traditions (sayings of Noble Prophet (Salla Allahu ta'ala 'alayhi wa Sallam)) from him. He used to visit him daily to hear the traditions. But one day, he was absent in his meeting. Sufyan Thauri sent his servant to his house to know the reason of his being absent. When the servant reached his house, he saw that he was naked as he had given his dress to the washerman. The servant told him to take some money from him and purchase a new dress, but he did not accept his offer. He told him to sell his handwritten book and to bring ten yards of jute so that he can prepare one dress for himself. The servant asked whether he can accept silk but Imam Hanbal did not accept this and asked him to bring the jute only.
It was reported that one of his disciples came to his house as guest. So he brought a pot of water before him. But it was kept in the same condition till morning. In the morning, he asked him why it was kept in the same condition. The man replied him and asked that what he was supposed to do with the water pot. He told him that it was kept before him for ablution and praying during the night. So why has he not used it?
One labourer used to work for him. At the time of Maghrib prayer (prayer after sun set) when he was leaving his house, he asked his disciple to give him some more money than what he was getting as his daily wages. The disciple gave more money to the labourer but he refused to take it and accepted only his daily wages amount. So Imam Hanbal told his disciple to follow him and give him again on his way so that he may accept it. He was not greedy for more money but he may accept more amount outside.
It was reported that one of his old disciples took some soil from the high way and used that on the house wall. That high way belonged to Muslims, so for this mistake he dismissed him from his circle of disciples.
Once he kept mortgage his basin with the shopkeeper. At the time of release the shopkeeper kept before him two basins and asked him to take any one whichever he liked as he forgot which was his basin. Upon hearing this, Imam Hanbal kept silent and left the place without collecting his basin even though he cleared the dues of the shopkeeper. This was due to his fear of Allah that he did not collect the basin from the shopkeeper as he (shopkeeper) had forgotten that which basin was his.
Imam Hanbal was anxious to see Abdullah Bin Mubarak and one day he visited his house. Upon his arrival there his son Saleh informed him about his arrival but Imam Hanbal became silent and did not come out of his house to see him. When his son asked him the reason that why he did not meet him as since long he had desire to see him. He replied him, “Because I thought that after meeting him it will be difficult for me to get apart from him due to his politeness, so I decided to meet him at a place from where I may not be separated from him.”
He tried to explain the Islamic laws for the matters related to mystic knowledge. He used to send the persons to see Bishr Hafi. He always said “I asked Allah for His fear so Allah gave me too much fear and for this reason there was fear for the loss of wisdom.” He told, “Allah told me that I can come near Him due to the reading of Qur’an.” People asked him, “What is sincerity?” and he replied, “To keep away from the difficulties of action is called sincerity.” And “The trust is to keep firm confidence in Allah”. When people asked him, “What is pleasure?” He replied, “To hand over all the affairs to Allah is called pleasure.”
When the persons asked him that what is the meaning of love, then he told them to ask this to Bishr Hafi. During his life he did not reply this question.
He was asked “What is asceticism?” Imam Hanbal explained, “For the general person’s asceticism is to keep away from haram (illegal) things and for the pious person’s asceticism is to desire for more and more halal (legal) things. To keep themselves away from all the things, which keeps away a man from Allah. This is asceticism of mystic persons.”
When he was asked about the ignorant mystic persons who were sitting in the mosques in trust of Allah, he explained them, “They are mistaken because the knowledge caused them to sit in the mosques.” When the persons told him further that were they sitting in the mosques for the sake of getting livelihood for them, he replied, “There is no group in the world which is not seeking for the livelihood.”
At the time of his death, his son asked him, “How are you?” He replied, “There is no time to reply so pray for me to end my life with faith in Allah because the Satan is telling me that anybody who leaves the world with faith is most sorrowful thing for him. So I am not confident till my last moment of life that I will leave this world with faith in Allah. Oh Allah! bless me,” and by saying this he left this world.
When his funeral procession started then many birds came over there, fell on it and died. By seeing this 2000 persons of fire worshippers and many other accepted Islamic religion. This happened due to his prayers in favour of nonbelievers. One pious person told that Imam Hanbal prayed for two things during his life, which are as follows:
“Oh! Allah! Give faith to the nonbelievers.”
“Oh! Allah! Do not take back faith from the believers.”
The effect of his second prayer was seen during his lifetime as Allah did not take back faith from believers and effect of first prayer was seen upon his death.
Muhammad Bin Khuzema explained that has seen him in his dream when he was crippling, so he asked him that where he was going. He replied that he was going to Darus-Salam. Then he asked him further that how Allah blessed him? He told him, “In his lifetime he has faced many hardships and punishments for not saying Qur’an as creature. Due to this reason Allah blessed him and Allah gave him great rewards. Allah asked me to recite the prayer which Sufyan Thauri taught me and I recited that prayer there”. The meaning of the prayer is as follows:
“Oh! Allah! Every thing is in your control and you are having command of all the things with you, so allow me these things and do not ask what I need.” Then Allah told me, “Oh! Ahmed! This is heaven now enter into it.” Thus he entered into the heaven.
20th EPISODE from Tazkeratul Aoulia by Sheikh Farid-ud-Din Attar (Book of Muslim Saints and Mystics)
Translated from Urdu to English by
Muhammed A. Hafeez, B.COM.
Email: hafeezanwar@yahoo.com
Hyderabad-36, (India).
=======================================
Reference Books
1. Tazkeratul Aoulia by Sheikh Farid-ud-Din Attar (Book of Muslim Saints and Mystics), Urdu translation published by Majedi Book Depot, Kanpur in the year 1383 A.H., India.
1. 2. Tazkeratul Aoulia by Sheikh Farid-ud-Din Attar (Book of Muslim Saints and Mystics), Urdu translation published by Anwar Book Depot, Delhi, India.
=========