Surah Al-Hadid

57

His saying, the Almighty: "Not equal among you are those who spent before the conquest [of Makkah] and fought..." until the end of the verse.

18816 - Hisham ibn Sa'd informed us, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from 'Ata' ibn Yasar, from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri that he said: We went out with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in the year of Hudaybiyah. When we were at 'Usfan, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "A people will soon come whose deeds you will deem insignificant compared to their deeds." We said: Who are they, O Messenger of Allah? Are they Quraysh? He said: "No, rather they are the people of Yemen; they are the most tender-hearted and the softest of hearts." We said: Are they better than us, O Messenger of Allah? He said: "If one of them had a mountain of gold and spent it, he would not reach a mudd of one of you, nor half of it. Behold, this is the distinction between us and the people: 'Not equal among you are those who spent before the conquest and fought. Those are greater in degree than they who spent after and fought. But to all Allah has promised the best [reward]. And Allah, with what you do, is Acquainted.'" (1)

His saying, the Almighty: "Their light will proceed before them."

18817 - From Ibn Mas'ud regarding His saying: "Their light will proceed before them," he said: They are given their light according to their deeds. They pass over the Sirat; among them are those whose light is like a mountain, and among them are those whose light is like a date palm, and the lowest of them in light is he whose light is upon his thumb, which is extinguished at times and ignited at others. (2)

18820 - Abu 'Ubayd Allah, the nephew of Ibn Wahb, narrated to us: My paternal uncle informed us, from Yazid ibn Abi Habib, from Sa'd ibn Mas'ud, that he heard 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Jubayr narrating that he heard Abu al-Darda' and Abu Dharr informing from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who said: "And I am the first to be granted permission on the Day of Resurrection to prostrate, and the first to be granted permission to raise his head. So I look before me, behind me, to my right, and to my left, and I recognize my nation from among the nations." A man said to him: O Prophet of Allah, how do you recognize your nation from among the nations, between Nuh [Noah] and your nation? He said: "I recognize them. They are marked (muhajjallun) by the traces of ablution, and no one from any other nation will have that except them. I recognize them as they are given their records in their right hands, I recognize them by their marks on their faces, and I recognize them by their light proceeding before them and their offspring." (1)

18821 - My father narrated to us, 'Abdah ibn Sulayman narrated to us, Ibn al-Mubarak narrated to us, Safwan ibn 'Amr narrated to us, Sulaym ibn 'Amir narrated to us, saying: We went out for a funeral at the gate of Damascus, and with us was Abu Umamah al-Bahili. When he finished praying over the funeral and they began burying him, Abu Umamah said: O people, you have spent your morning and evening in an abode where you distribute good and evil deeds, and you are about to depart from it to another abode—and he pointed to the grave—the house of loneliness, the house of darkness, the house of worms, and the house of narrowness, except for what Allah expands. Then you move from it to the stations of the Day of Resurrection, for you shall be in some of those stations until the people are overwhelmed by a decree from Allah; then faces will turn white and faces will turn black. Then you move from it to another abode where a severe darkness covers the people. Then the light is distributed; the believer is given a light, while the disbeliever and the hypocrite are left behind and given nothing. This is the parable that Allah struck in His Book, where He said: "Or [they are] like darknesses within an unfathomable sea..." until His saying: "...and for him there is no light." So the disbeliever and the hypocrite are not illuminated by the light of the believer, just as the blind are not illuminated by the light of the sighted. The hypocrites will say... to those who have believed: "Wait for us that we may take some of your light." It will be said: "Go back behind you and seek light." This is the deception of Allah with which He deceives the hypocrites, as He said: "They [think to] deceive Allah, while He is deceiving them." So they return to the place where the light was distributed, but they find nothing. They turn back toward them, and a wall is set up between them with a door; its interior contains mercy, and its exterior is before it is punishment... [to the end of the verse]. Sulaym ibn 'Amir says: The hypocrite continues to be deluded until the light is distributed and Allah distinguishes between the believer and the hypocrite. (2)

18822 - My father narrated to us, Yahya ibn 'Uthman narrated to us, Ibn Haywah narrated to us, Arta'ah ibn al-Mundhir narrated to us, Yusuf ibn al-Hajjaj narrated to us from Abu Umamah, who said: A darkness will be sent on the Day of Resurrection such that neither a believer nor a disbeliever will see his own palm, until Allah sends light to the believers according to their deeds. The hypocrites will follow them and say: "Wait for us that we may take some of your light." (3)