Loud Dhikr in the Mosque and the Hadith of Ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him)
Imam Abu Muhammad Abdullah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Fadl ibn Bahram al-Darimi (may Allah have mercy on him) (died 255 AH) said:
’’أخبرنا الحكم بن المبارك : أنبأنا عمرو بن يحيى قال : سمعت أبي يحدّث عن أبيه قال: كُنَّا نَجْلِسُ عَلَى بَابِ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ مَسْعُودٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ قَبْلَ صَلَاةِ الْغَدَاةِ ، فَإِذَا خَرَجَ ، مَشَيْنَا مَعَهُ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ ، فَجَاءَ نَا أَبو مُوسَىٰ الأشْعَرِيُّ – رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ – فَقَالَ : أَخَرَجَ إِلَيْكُمُ أَبُو عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ؟ قُلْنَا : لَا ، بَعْدُ فَجَلَسَ مَعَنَا حَتَّى خَرَجَ ، فَلَمَّا خَرَجَ ، قُمْنَا إِلَيْهِ جَمِيعًا، فَقَالَ لَهُ أَبُو مُوسَىٰ: يَا أَبَا عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ ، إِنِّي رَأَيْتُ فِي الْمَسْجِدِ آنِفًا أَمْرًا أَنْكَرْتُهُ وَلَمْ أَرَ – وَالْحَمْدُ لله إِلَّا خَيْرًا قَالَ : فَمَا هُوَ؟ فَقَالَ: إِنْ عِشْتَ فَسَتَراهُ.
قَالَ : رَأَيْتُ فِي الْمَسْجِدِ قَوْمًا حِلَقًا جُلُوسًا يَنْتَظِرُونَ الصَّلَاةَ فِي كُلِّ حَلَقَةٍ رَجُلٌ ، وَفِي أَيْدِيهِمْ حَصًا ، فَيَقُولُ : كَبِّرُوا مِئَةً ، فَيُكَبِّرُونَ مِئَةً ، فَيَقُولُ : هَتِلُوا مِنَةٌ ، فَيُهللونَ مِنَةٌ ، وَيَقُولُ : سَبِّحُوا مِنَةٌ ، فَيُسَبِّحُونَ مِنَةٌ ، قَالَ : فَمَاذَا قُلْتَ لَهُمْ ؟ قَالَ : مَاقُلْتُ لَهُمْ شَيْئًا انتِظَارَ رَأْيِكَ أَوِ انْتِظَارَ أَمْرِكَ . قَالَ : أَفَلَا أَمَرْتَهُمْ أَنْ يَعُدُّوا سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ، وَضَمِنْتَ لَهُمْ أَنْ لَا يَضِيعَ مِنْ حَسَنَاتِهِمْ، ثُمَّ مَضَى وَمَضَيْنَا مَعَهُ حَتَّى أَتَى حَلَقَهُ مِنْ تِلْكَ الْحِلَقِ ، فَوَقَفَ عَلَيْهِمْ، فَقَالَ : مَا هَذَا الَّذِي أَرَاكُمْ تَصْنَعُونَ؟ قَالُوا : يَا أَبَا عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ حَصًا نَعُدُّ بِهِ التَّكْبِيرَ وَالتَّهْلِيلَ وَالتَّسْبِيحَ . قالَ : فَعُدُّوا سَيِّئَاتِكُمُ ، فَأَنَا ضَامِنْ أَنْ لَا يَضِيعَ مِنْ حَسَنَ شَيْءٌ وَيُعَكُمْ يَا أُمَةَ مُحَمَّدٍ مَا أَسْرَعَ هَلَكَتكُم هؤُلَاءِ صَحَابَةُ نَبِيِّكُمْ ، مُتَوَافِرُونَ : وَهَذِهِ ثِيَابُهُ لَمْ تَبَلَ ، وَآنِيَتُهُ لَمْ تُكْسَرُ، وَالَّذِي نَفْسِي بِيَدِهِ ، إِنَّكُمْ لَعَلَى مِلَّةٍ هِيَ أَهْدَى مِنْ مِلَّةِ مُحَمَّدٍ الله أَوْ مُفْتِحُو بَابِ ضَلَالَةٍ ، قَالُوا : وَاللَّهِ يَ أَبَا عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ ، مَا أَرَدْنَا إِلَّا الْخَيْرَ . قَالَ : وَكَمْ مِنْ مُرِيدٍ لِلْخَيْرِ لَنْ يُصِيبَهُ ، إنَّ رَسُولَ الله الله حَدَّتَنَا أَنَّ قَوْمًا يَقْرَرُونَ الْقُرْآنَ لَا يُجَاوِزُ تَرَاقِيَهُم ، وَايْمُ اللهِ مَا أَدْرِي لَعَلَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ مِنْكُمْ ، ثُمَّ تَوَلَّى عَنْهُمْ فَقَالَ عَمْرُو بْنُ سَلَمَةَ : رَأَيْنَا عَامَّةَ أُولئِكَ الْحِلَقِ يُطَاعِنُونَا يَوْمَ النَّهْرَوَانِ مَعَ الْخَوَارِجِ.‘‘
Al-Hakam ibn al-Mubarak narrated to us (he said): Amr ibn Yahya narrated to us, he said: I heard my father (Yahya ibn Amr ibn Salama al-Hamdani) narrating a hadith from his father (Amr ibn Salama al-Hamdani), who said: We used to sit at the door of (Sayyidina) Abdullah ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) before the dawn prayer, and when he came out, we would walk with him on foot to the mosque.
Then (one day) (Sayyidina) Abu Musa al-Ash’ari (may Allah be pleased with him) came to us and said: Has Abu Abd al-Rahman (Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, may Allah be pleased with him) come out to you? We said: Not yet. Then he sat with us until he (Sayyidina Ibn Mas’ud) came out. Then when he came, all of us stood up (to walk to the mosque) and went to him, and (Sayyidina) Abu Musa (may Allah be pleased with him) said to him: O Abu Abd al-Rahman! A little while ago I saw something in the mosque that I disliked, and all praise is for Allah, my intention is only good. He (Sayyidina Ibn Mas’ud) said: What is it?
(Abu Musa) said: If you live, you will soon see it. (ان شاء اللہ) I saw some people in the mosque sitting in circles waiting for the prayer, and in each circle there is a man (their leader). The people have pebbles in their hands. Then that man (the leader) says: Say اللہ اکبر a hundred times, and they say اللہ اکبر a hundred times. Then he says: Recite لا الہ الا اللہ a hundred times, and they recite لا الہ الا اللہ a hundred times. Then he says: Say سبحان اللہ a hundred times, and they say سبحان اللہ a hundred times. He (Sayyidina Ibn Mas’ud) asked:
What did you say to them? He (Sayyidina Abu Musa) replied: I did not say anything to them, waiting for your opinion or your command. He said: Why did you not order them to count their sins, and why did you not guarantee them that their good deeds would not be lost? Then he set off, and we set off with him until he reached one of those circles, and standing there he asked them: What is this that you are doing? They replied: O Abu Abd al-Rahman! We are reciting اللہ اکبر ، لا الہ الا اللہ ، سبحان اللہ on pebbles. He (Sayyidina Ibn Mas’ud) said: Then count your sins, and I guarantee that nothing of your good deeds will be lost.
O Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ! Woe to you, how quickly you are heading to destruction and ruin. Look! These Companions of your Prophet ﷺ are present in great numbers, his ﷺ clothes have not yet worn out, and the vessels he used have not yet broken. By the One in whose hand is my soul! Are you upon a creed that is better guided than the creed of Muhammad ﷺ, or are you openers of the door of misguidance?!
They said: O Abu Abd al-Rahman! By Allah! Our intention was only good. He (Sayyidina Ibn Mas’ud) said: How many there are who intend good and yet miss it. Indeed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told us a hadith that some people will recite the Quran and it will not go beyond their throats, and by Allah! I do not know, perhaps most of them are among you. Then he turned away from them and left. Amr ibn Salama said: I saw the common people of those circles fighting against us on the day of the Battle of Nahrawan, together with the Khawarij.
A brief account of the narrators of this report and their authentication follows:
❀ Abu Salih al-Hakam ibn al-Mubarak al-Bahili al-Balkhi al-Khashti al-Khawashti (may Allah have mercy on him). To the best of my knowledge, his authentication is as follows:
➊ Hafiz Ibn Hibban mentioned him in Kitab al-Thiqat.
➋ Imam al-Tirmidhi said about a report narrated by him that is solitary and weak in its chain:
هذا حديث حسن غریب
It is established that he was, according to Imam al-Tirmidhi, a sadiq (truthful) and hasan al-hadith (his hadiths are good) narrator.
➌ Yaqut ibn Abdullah al-Hamawi al-Rumi al-Baghdadi, the littérateur, said:
وكان ثقة
➍ Hafiz al-Dhahabi said:
ثقة
➎ Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani said:
” صدوق ربماوهم“
Such a narrator is hasan al-hadith, provided that the majority of the hadith scholars have authenticated him.
➏ Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Manda al-Asbahani (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
” أحد الثقات“
He is one of the trustworthy narrators.
❀ Abu Sa’d Abd al-Karim ibn Muhammad ibn Mansur al-Sam’ani (died 562 AH) narrated the statement of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal about al-Hakam ibn al-Mubarak:
هو عندنا ثقة
This statement is not established with a sahih (authentic) chain.
Against this authentication and approval by the majority, there is the following statement of Hafiz Ibn Adi:
هذا الحديث رواه نعيم بن حماد عن عيسى والحديث له وأنكروه عليه ، وسرقه منه جماعة منهم : عبدالوهاب (بن) الضحاك وسويد بن سعيد وأبو صالح الخراساني الخاستى والحكم بن المبارك.
In this passage Imam Ibn Adi has leveled the serious accusation of ’’سرقة الحديث‘‘ (stealing hadiths) against al-Hakam ibn al-Mubarak, and he himself said in another place:
وهذا إنما يعرف بنعيم بن حماد ورواه عن عسى بن يونس فتكلم الناس فيه مجراه ثم رواه رجل من أهل خراسان يقال له الحكم بن المبارك يكنى أبا صالح الخواشتي يقال انه لابأس به ، ثم سرقه قوم ضعفاء ممن يعرفون بسرقة الحديث منهم : عبدالوهاب بن الضحاك والنضر بن طاهر وثالثهم سويد الأنباري .
In this passage Hafiz Ibn Adi cleared Hakam ibn al-Mubarak of the accusation of ’’سرقة الحديث‘‘ and declared him ’’لا بأس به“. So the two statements, one of criticism and one of approval, contradict each other and both fall away. Even if they did not contradict each other, the criticism would be rejected for going against the approval of the majority. It is also possible that Imam Ibn Adi’s first statement is abrogated and the second statement abrogates it (because it came later). واللہ اعلم
Summary of the Investigation
Since the majority declared him reliable, Hakam ibn al-Mubarak is a saduq (truthful), hasan al-hadith narrator.
In brief and in detail, the following narrators have corroborated Hakam ibn al-Mubarak:
First: Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn Sulayman al-Hadrami
Second: Imam Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba
❀ Amr ibn Yahya (may Allah have mercy on him)
In some editions of Sunan al-Darimi it is “Umar ibn Yahya”, which is a mistake, as is established from Musannaf Ibn Abi Shayba and others.
The statements of criticism and approval about Amr ibn Yahya ibn Amr ibn Salama al-Hamdani are as follows:
➊ Imam Yahya ibn Ma’in said:
صالح
Against this, Ibn Adi narrated through the chain of Ahmad ibn Abi Yahya (al-Anmati al-Baghdadi) that Yahya ibn Ma’in said:
” ليس بشي “
About Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Abi Yahya al-Anmati, Hafiz Ibn Adi said:
”ولأبي بكر بن أبي یحیٰی هذا غير حديث منكر عن الثقات ، لم أخرجه هاهنا وقد روى عن يحيي بن معين وأحمد بن حنبل تاريخا في الرجال .“
Ibrahim ibn Urma al-Asbahani (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
”أبوبكر بن أبي يحيي كذاب“
Ibn al-Jawzi mentioned him in Kitab al-Du’afa wa al-Matrukin (92/1 no. 272), and al-Dhahabi said:
”بغدادي متهم“
It is established that this criticism attributed to Imam Ibn Ma’in is rejected because it is not established.
Note
Ahmad ibn Abi Yahya’s student Ibn Abi Isma al-Ukbari is majhul al-hal (of unknown condition), so this chain is darkness.
It is narrated from Layth ibn Abda that Yahya ibn Ma’in said:
عمرو بن يحيى بن سلمة ، سمعت منه لم يكن يرضى
The approval of Layth ibn Abda al-Misri al-Basri al-Marwazi, the teacher of al-Tahawi, is not known, so this criticism is not established either.
Ibn Adi said:
وعمر و هذا ليس له كثير رواية ولم يحضرني له شي فأذكره
This statement is neither criticism nor approval, so it is outside the categories of declaring reliable or weak.
It is said that Ibn Kharash (a Rafidi) said:
ليس بمرضي
This criticism falls away for two reasons:
First:
It has no chain of narration; it is not established from Ibn Kharash through a sahih chain.
Second:
Ibn Kharash was a Rafidi.
➋ Hafiz Ibn Hibban included the aforementioned Amr ibn Yahya in Kitab al-Thiqat.
❀ Hafiz Ibn al-Jawzi, on the basis of criticism attributed to Imam Yahya ibn Ma’in and others that is not established, mentioned Amr ibn Yahya in Kitab al-Du’afa wa al-Matrukin
, and since the original basis is null, this criticism is also null. Hafiz al-Dhahabi likewise mentioned Amr ibn Yahya in Diwan al-Du’afa wa al-Matrukin (212/2 no. 3229) and elsewhere because of the criticism attributed to Ibn Ma’in that is not established, and since the original basis has collapsed, this criticism has collapsed too.
Summary of the Investigation
❀ The criticism of Hafiz al-Dhahabi and Hafiz Ibn al-Jawzi is outweighed (marjuh), and because of the approval of Ibn Hibban and Ibn Ma’in, Amr ibn Yahya is a saduq, hasan al-hadith narrator.
➌ About Yahya ibn Amr ibn Salama al-Hamdani, Imam al-Ijli said:
”كو في ثقة“
Shu’ba narrated from him.
And Shu’ba (in his view, generally) narrated only from reliable narrators.
In the book al-Ma’rifa wa al-Tarikh by Imam Ya’qub ibn Sufyan al-Farisi, it is written about Yahya ibn Amr ibn Salama:
لا بأس به
Summary of the Investigation
Yahya ibn Amr ibn Salama was thiqa (reliable) and saduq (truthful).
➍ Amr ibn Salama ibn Kharb al-Hamdani al-Kufi al-Kindi:
ثقة
This investigation establishes that the chain narrated by Imam al-Darimi is hasan li-dhatihi (good in itself), and Ibn Abidin al-Shami, a jurist of the Hanafis, declared the aforementioned narration of Sayyiduna Ibn Mas’ud (may Allah be pleased with him) sahih (authentic) in the following words:
لماصح عن ابن مسعود أنه أخرج جاعة من المسجد يهللون
Sarfaraz Khan Safdar Deobandi wrote:
قلت بسند صحیح
Now here are some supporting narrations for this report:
➊ أسد عن عبد الله بن رجاء عن عبيدالله بن عمرو عن يسار أبى الحكم أن عبدالله بن مسعود حدث
This chain is munqati’ (broken chain), and the approval of Yasar Abu al-Hakam is not known, so this narration is da’if (weak).
➋ نا محمد بن سعيد قال : نا أسد بن موسى عن يحيٰى بن عيسى عـن الأعمش عن بعض أصحابه.
Al-A’mash is a mudallis (one who practises tadlis), and “some of his companions” are majhul (unknown), so this chain is also da’if (weak).
➌ نا أسد عن محمد بن يوسف عن الأوزاعي عن عبدالله بن أبي لبابة۔
This chain is da’if (weak) because of a break in the chain.
➍ محمد بن وضاح قال : نا موسى بن معاوية عن عبدالرحمن بن مهدى عن سفيان عن سلمة بن كهيل عن أبى الزعراء قال .
Imam Sufyan al-Thawri’s narration from Salama ibn Kuhayl is strong, so this chain is hasan li-dhatihi (good in itself).
Benefit:
About Abu al-Qasim Asbagh ibn Malik ibn Musa al-Qurtubi (may Allah have mercy on him), a narrator of the book al-Bida’ wa al-Nahy ‘anha, Hafiz Abu al-Walid Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Azdi: Ibn al-Faradi said:
وكان ابن وضاح يجله ويعظمه … و كان إماما في قراءة نافع ، وكان عابدا زاهدًا يجتمع إليه أهل الزهد والفضل ويسمعون منه ، توفيؒ بیشتر سنة أربع وثلاث مائة ذكره أحمد وقال الرازي : توفي يوم الاثنين لثلاث خلون من رجب سنة تسع وتسعين ومائتين .
Ibn Idhari said (under the deaths of 299 AH):
’’وفيها توفي أصبغ بن مالك الزاهد الفقيه.“
Hafiz al-Dhahabi said:
اصبغ بن مالك أبو القاسم المالكي الزاهد نزيل قرطبة ، أصله من قبرة وصحب ابن وضاح أربعين سنة وكان ابن وضاح يجله و يعظمه وسمع من ابن وضاح و ابن القزاز وكان إماماً في قراءة نافع.
Ibn al-Jazari (d. 833 AH) wrote:
الزاهد توفي سنة أربع وثلا ثمائة
In the doubtful book attributed to Muhammad ibn al-Harith ibn Asad al-Khushani al-Qayrawani, Akhbar al-Fuqaha wa al-Muhaddithin, it is written:
وكان عابدا زاهدًا ورعًا خيرًا … وكان ابن وضاح له مكرما معظما.
Summary
Asbagh ibn Malik al-Qurtubi is a saduq, hasan al-hadith narrator, and no criticism of him by any muhaddith or reliable scholar is established.
With this supporting narration, the narration in Sunan al-Darimi is sahih li-ghayrihi (authentic due to supporting evidence). Shaykh al-Albani (may Allah have mercy on him) also mentioned this hadith in his Al-Silsila al-Sahiha.
The madhhab of the followers of Bareilly is built on weak and fabricated narrations, and even by their own principles this narration, with five chains of narration, is hasan li-ghayrihi (good due to external support) or sahih li-ghayrihi (authentic due to external support), that is, it is a binding proof.
وما علينا إلا البلاغ
