Muslim

Hadith Commentary:
Vocabulary of the Hadith:
yubahi lakum:
He is praising and commending you,
He is expressing pride and boasting to the angels about your good deeds.

Benefits and Issues:
From this hadith, it is understood that for someone to be granted Islam and guidance is dependent upon the tawfiq (divine enablement) and favor of Allah, and this is His grace and bounty. Remembering this bounty and expressing praise and gratitude to Allah is also included in the remembrance (dhikr) of Allah. When some of Allah’s servants gather somewhere with sincerity to remember Him, to speak about Him, and to praise and glorify Him, Allah loves this immensely. Allah mentions the praise and commendation of such people before His close angels and expresses His pleasure with them. May Allah, by His tawfiq and favor, include us among His sincere servants and grant us His forgiveness, mercy, tranquility (sakinah), and pleasure.

(1) The purpose of the chapter established by Imam al-Nasa’i rahimahullah is to explain the manner of administering an oath, i.e., with which words the oath should be taken.

(2) The mosque is an extremely suitable and appropriate place for expressing the praise, glory, and greatness of Allah. Buying and selling are not permissible there, nor is ordinary idle talk correct; rather, what is legislated there is the remembrance of Allah, His glorification, and His praise. A person should sit there and, recalling Allah’s favors and bounties, express gratitude to Him.

(3) The characteristic of a believer is that he remains grateful to Allah: firstly, because Allah has granted him the guidance of Islam, and secondly, because He has made him a follower of Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). What could be greater in honor and pride for the people of faith than that they are included in the meaning of: “You are the best nation” (), and “We have made you a justly balanced nation” ()?

(4) Gatherings of teaching, learning, admonition, and remembrance are certainly highly commendable. Allah takes pride in such people. On the contrary, innovated (bid‘ah) and polytheistic (shirk) gatherings will be a cause of Allah’s displeasure.

(5) Your intention is that, considering the importance of your action, I have made you take an oath—not on the basis of doubt or suspicion.

(6) From the hadith, it is understood that an oath should be taken in the name of Allah, and that alone is sufficient. Some people hold the view that the wording of the oath should include emphasis (taghliz), i.e., that Allah’s attributes should also be mentioned along with His name, so that the greatness of the oath is established and the one swearing is deterred from lying. Clearly, there is no harm in this; rather, it also serves as a form of admonition.

Explanation:
1:
That is:
It is not the case that I am not satisfied with your trustworthiness, and that is why I made you take an oath.
Rather, the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) himself narrated this hadith by taking an oath from the Companions in the same manner.
In following this example,
I also made you take an oath.
This is also a method of narrating hadiths: the way in which the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) narrated a hadith,
all the narrators from the Companions to the last link in the chain narrate it in the same manner.
This increases certainty in the authenticity of the hadith (and the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) himself did not take an oath from them due to any doubt or suspicion,
rather, he adopted this style to emphasize the importance of what was being stated).