Following Madhab – Mahmood Habib Masjid and Islamic Centre

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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. The third one is, if Rafayat-e-Dain is proven in multiple Sahih Hadith, why does the Hanafi Madhab not practice it? And in such cases, should a person follow the Hadith or continue following their Madhab? Also, what is the correct concept of strictly following one school of thought in Islam?

Very good question. First and foremost, please understand that the Mahaddiseen have criteria based on which they follow Hadith.

So, let me answer your second question first, which is, can we directly follow the Hadith? Answer is no. Because you do not have enough knowledge to just pick one Hadith and follow it. Because there may be other Hadith, there may be Ayat of the Quran, there may be the Azbab and Nuzul of the Quran. There may be the Azbab of the Hadith and so on and so forth, which either support it or negate it and so forth. So, you do not follow a Hadith by yourself. You do not invent your own religion. You follow one of the four Imams of Fiqh, Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Shafi, Imam Malik or Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal. Rahmatullahi alaihim ajma’in. That is the first thing.

As far as Rafayat-e-Dain is concerned. Rafayat-e-Dain refers to lifting your hands up to your ears after Takbir-e-Tahrima. So, Takbir-e-Tahrima, you lift, everybody does that. You say Allah Hu Akbar. But after the Takbir, then lifting the hands again. So, people who do Rafayat-e-Dain, which is the Shafa’i do it. The Hanbalis also sometimes do it and so forth. They lift their hands before going into Ruku. Then they lift their hands again after they come up from Ruku, which is before going into Sujood. And then they lift their hands when they get up for the third Rakat.

There are two Hadiths. One is the Hadith narrated by Abdullah ibn Mas’ud. Radhi Allah anhu. Who said, That Rasulullah s.a.w. lifted his hands only once. Which is when he was making the Takbir-e-Tahrima. And he did not lift his hands after that for anything. This is the Hadith that Imam Abu Hanifa rahmatullahi took. And his Fatwa is based on that. It is a correct Fatwa. There is nothing wrong with that. Alhamdulillah, this is very good. Ibn Mas’ud, Radhi Allah anhu, is the Sahabi about whom Rasulullah s.a.w. said, Whatever Ibn Mas’ud gives you from me, take it. That is the level of Ibn Mas’ud, Radhi Allah anhu. He also said, That the recitation of Ibn Mas’ud, he said, It is as if the Quran was revealed at the time it was revealed. So, it’s so beautiful recitation.

Imam Ash-Shafi, rahmatullahi alaihi, on the other hand, took the Dalil and the Hadith and the narration of Abdullah ibn Abu Hanifa. Abdullah ibn Abbas, Radhi Allah anhu, the cousin of Rasulullah s.a.w., who used to live with him. And Abdullah ibn Abbas, Radhi Allah anhu, he said that Rasulullah s.a.w. lifted his hands in Takbir-e-Tahima and then he also lifted his hands before he went into Ruku and when he got up from Ruku and when he came up for the third rakah. So, Ash-Shafi, rahmatullahi alaihi, took that Hadith.

Now, you might say, why are there two Hadiths? The reason why there are two Hadiths is because Ibn Masud, Radhi Allah anhu, stayed with Rasulullah s.a.w. in the initial days and then Nabi s.a.w. sent him off to Yemen and he sent him off for different things. He was an older person and so he did not observe the Prophet s.a.w. and his Salah throughout his life until his end. Whereas Ibn Abbas, Radhi Allah anhu, because he was the cousin of Rasulullah s.a.w., he literally stayed in his house. And he stayed with Rasulullah s.a.w. from the time he was about 10, 20 years old. 12 years old until Nabi s.a.w. passed away, which by the time he would have been about 20 to 23 years old. And he said that I observed him doing this. So, what do we learn from this? We learn that Rasulullah s.a.w. initially used to pray in this way and later on he changed the way he prayed and he started also lifting his hands, Rafayadain, in the other places in the Salah. So, Alhamdulillah, his Hadith is also perfectly valid. He is Sikha. He is a highly, you know, very, very, very reliable narrator. There is absolutely no fault with Ibn Abbas, Radhi Allah anhu ma, whatsoever.

Ibn Abbas, Radhi Allah anhu ma, one of the most beautiful Hadiths of his. He said that I saw Rasulullah s.a.w. getting up for Tahajjud. Now, imagine this boy. He must have been maybe 10, 12 years old. He is saying, I saw him get up. He is not saying he got up and woke me up. He is saying, I saw him get up. Which means that what was he doing at the time? So, the sense of Adab and the sense of Ihtiram and the sense of Azama of being in the company of the Rasul s.a.w. was so strong, even in the small boy, that when he was in the same room he was sleeping, he didn’t say, oh, after all, this is my cousin. No. No. This is the Rasul of Allah s.a.w. So, he said that I saw him getting up and I ran to get water for his wudu. I brought the water. I poured the water. He made wudu. And then he put his blessed right hand on my chest and he said, Ya Allah, give him the fiqh of the Quran. Give him the understanding of Quran. This is the dua of Rasul of Allah s.a.w. for Ibn Abbas directly. He put his blessed hand on his chest like this and he said, Oh Allah, give him. The fiqh. Fiqh means understanding of the Quran. So, Ibn Abbas r.a. is a great scholar of the Quran. He is the first mufassir of the Quran. He has such an understanding of the Quran that Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab r.a. used to always invite Ibn Abbas r.a. to be in his council.

Sometimes, after one time, some of the senior sahaba who were there, they objected. They said to Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab, Why do you call this boy into our council? We have sons who are older than him. Right? We are all senior people. We have sons older than him. Why do you call him into our council? Sayyidina Umar did not reply, Radha Allah. Next council meeting, he called Sayyidina Ibn Abbas also, as usual. And then he said to everybody, he said, What do you understand by the surah? An-Nasr. Iza ja’a nasrullahi wal-fatih. What do you understand by the surah? So, each person said, the surah means this, surah means this, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said this, that when the help of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala comes, then you see the people coming, entering into Islam and so on and so on, as we know the meaning of the surah. When it came to Ibn Abbas r.a., he said, this surah was the prediction of the death of Rasulullah s.a.w. This surah was the prediction. This was Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala telling his Rasul, r.a. that your time in this world is coming to a close.

Sayyidina Umar said, that is why I invite him into our meetings. Because he knows more Quran and he understands it more than any of you. So now, Ash-Shafi’i r.a. took his dalil. So, alhamdulillah, both the dalil are sound dalil. You can follow whichever one you want. There’s no problem with Rafay there.

Now, third part of the question was, how do we follow our mazhab? Should we follow? Should we follow the mazhab strictly? Or can we follow our mazhab? And can we also follow some other mazhab?

Very simple question. Following strictly does not mean asabiyat. It does not mean that you are now a dushman of everyone who has some other mazhab. Right? I will not pray behind this man because he is Shafi’i. That’s not the meaning of it. Following strictly means that, alhamdulillah, as I said right in the beginning, you don’t invent your own deen. So, when, alhamdulillah, you are following mazhab, follow the mazhab. But if there is a time and a place where there is something in the other mazhab which makes it easier for you to follow and which makes it, you know, helps you to follow. For example, one of the most common things, you are travelling. Now, in the Hanafi mazhab, jama’at bainat salatain is not permitted. You cannot combine salats in the Hanafi mazhab. At the moment, most, the fatwa is, pray, for example, Zohar and Asar. Pray Zohar at its last time and pray Asar at its first time. Which is effectively, you are praying at the time of the salat. You are not combining. Whereas, jama’at bainat salatain means that you pray, you can combine Zohar and Asar in the time of Zohar or in the time of Asar. And similarly for the other one.

So, now you are travelling. And you know for a fact that you have to leave at the time of Zohar. You know for a fact, you know for a fact, that for Salatul Asar, you are not going to get a place to stop. Even if you stop, there is no place to pray and so on and so on. Now, what do you do? Miss your Salat? No. You take the fatwa of Imam Shafi’i Rahmatullah Ali and you say, Alhamdulillah, this is also the sunnah of Rasulullah S.A.W. I am getting a chance now to follow another sunnah of Rasulullah S.A.W. with the niyyah of following the sunnah of the Rasul Alayhi Salatu Wasalam. You can follow the Shafi’i fatwa on this to say, that you can join between the two Salat, no problem, absolutely. Then when you are in your place and so forth and you want to, you are following the madhab, you follow your own madhab, no problem. Whether you are Hanafi or Maliki or whatever it is, absolutely no hassle. Right?

To give you another beautiful example of how people of knowledge do this. All this asabiyat and this enmity is in the johala, among the jahilin. They have no knowledge and all they can do is fight. People who have knowledge, they don’t fight. They understand.

It’s a beautiful story and this was told to me by one of the shuyukh of Masjid-e-Nabawi-e-Sharif, Sheikh Hassan Burek, Rahat-ul-Ali. He said to me that there were students of Imam Ahmad who was the Imam of Masjid-e-Nabawi-e-Sharif. So obviously, that’s Hanafi Masjid. So their ustad, their teacher from Madinah Munawara, he said to them, when you go to that Masjid, if they put you forward to lead the Salah because this is our manners when somebody comes and especially scholars and so on come, you ask them to lead Salah. Right? They ask, so he said, if they tell you to lead Salah, he said, do not make Rafa’i there out of respect for Imam Abu Hanifa Rahmat-ul-Ali and his Madhab, do not make it’s okay. So now when they went there and they said to them, please lead Salah. So now the Imam, the Imam is leading Salah. The Imam normally follows the Hanifi Madhab, he follows the Hanbali Madhab or he follows the Shafi Madhab. He would have done Rafa’i there. He is not doing Rafa’i there out of respect for Imam Abu Hanifa and the students there. When they were leading Salah, they did Rafa’i there out of respect for their guests. So Sheikh Hassan said, what a beautiful time it must have been. Those who normally do Rafa’i there did not do Rafa’i there. Those who do not do Rafa’i there, did not do Rafa’i there. They did not do Rafa’i there. They did Rafa’i there out of respect for each other because we are brothers in Islam. This is our Deen. Our Deen is not Asabiyat. Our Deen is not looking down on people and so on and so forth.

I will end with a true story which happened with me. I follow the Shafi Madhab. So I make Rafa’i there. I was in one country and I won’t name the country and so on because this goes all over the world and the same people will hear it and I don’t want them to feel bad. I was in one country and I was with the Jami’atul Ulama of that country. So all Alims and I was teaching a leadership course for them. So they were all Hanafi Arabs. All Deobandi Hanafi Arabs. So this question of Rafa’i came up. So I asked my question. I said see supposing as we are sitting here if Imam Shafi walks in through the door right? We are sitting here waiting for Salah. If Imam Shafi walks in here who will you ask to lead Salah? Obviously because that is his fatwa. He will make Rafa’i there. So everybody silent. Then I said let me let us go one step further. Imam Shafi took the Dalil from who? Ibn Abbas Radhe Lanu. Right? So if if Abdullah bin Abbas Radhe Lanu walks in through the door now this is the Sahabi of Rasulullah. Who will you ask to lead Salah? Ibn Abbas Radhe Lanu? He will make Rafa’i there because that is his Dalil. And then I said let me complete the story. Where did Ibn Abbas get it from? Radhe Lanu? Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam I said if Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam walks through the door will you pray behind him or you won’t pray behind him? And he will make Rafa’i there because that was his way towards the end of his life? What will you do?

And to give them their due when it was time for Salah they told me you lead Salah. We will pray behind you. I said no that was not my idea. I did not give you all these Dalils because I want to lead Salah. I am very happy to pray behind you. Absolutely no problem. They said no. Aap padaiye. We will pray behind you.

Now this is how people of knowledge behave. So the purpose Alhamdulillah we have a beautiful Deen. We have the beauty of this Deen is that for everything there is a Dalil. We do not follow just talk and stories and you know my Sheikh said this and your Sheikh said this. In Islam there is Dalil and the Dalil is the Kitab of Allah and the Sunnah of his Habib Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So when we have the Dalil Alhamdulillah we follow the Dalil we should know the Dalil and as far as following Madhab is concerned yes we must follow any of the four Madhab Alhamdulillah no problem and if as a matter of necessity as a matter of some convenience if we need to follow something from another Madhab absolutely no hassle with that no problem with that definitely we can follow that do it with the Niyah that this is an opportunity for you to follow another Sunnah of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam which you normally don’t do so with that with that intention asking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala Allah give me the Barakah of this Sunnah also normally I don’t do that but now there is an opportunity so Alhamdulillah I want to follow the Sunnah do that with that intention InshaAllah Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala make it easy for all of us and we also have for example in case somebody says why are we doing it for ease because we have the Hadith of Sayyidah Aisha Siddiqua Radheelana who said that if there were two ways one difficult one easy Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam always chose the easy way as long as it was not against the it was not Haram right so Alhamdulillah if somebody tells you why are you picking the easy way because this is what Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did there is no benefit in Islam in deliberately putting yourself to a difficulty or to suffering there is no virtue in that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala wants ease for us Allah does not want difficulty Allah mentioned this in the Quran the Ayat of the Quran to say this right so as long as there is no we are not saying cut corners or something no do the right thing but at the same time there is no difficulty you know extra benefit in choosing a difficult thing and putting yourself into all kinds of complications because you think you are getting some extra Saab no there is no extra Saab the Saab is for the action do it in the best possible way then you can concentrate and you can do it well Inshallah right so Inshallah next question and so on we will do it this evening after Sir in the session the summer questions are there we will do that this is enough for now we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to help us to understand our Deen and to follow it correctly as it was followed by Rasulullah we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to fill our lives with the khair and barakah of this Deen and with the Nur of this religion we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala to be pleased with us and never to be displeased and may Allah bless the noble Prophet and his family and his companions with your mercy O Most Merciful and Most Merciful and praise be to Allah Lord of the worlds