Ibn Hibban

Sayyiduna Sahl bin Bayda’ (may Allah be pleased with him), who belonged to Banu Abdud-Dar, narrates: Once we were traveling with the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and he made those ahead of him sit down, and those who were behind him caught up with him. When the people gathered together, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Indeed, whoever testifies that there is no deity except Allah, Allah will make the Hellfire forbidden for him and will make Paradise obligatory for him.” (Imam Ibn Hibban, may Allah have mercy on him, says:) In this narration, the address of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is in reference to a specific context of the situation, and it belongs to the category which I have mentioned in the book “Mughool al-Sunan.” That when a narration contains an address with a specific context, then it is not permissible to issue a ruling based on it in all situations, and every address that was issued by the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) with a specific context will have two types: one type is that it will be in the presence of a certain situation, and because of that situation, that thing was mentioned. That situation will not have been mentioned along with the report. The second case is: some questions would have been asked to the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and he would have given answers to them, so those answers were narrated but the questions were not narrated, so now it is not permissible for anyone to issue a ruling based on that narration, which applies to every situation. In this, neither the concise and the detailed, nor the general and the specific, have been taken into consideration.