What is Hadith???
Reported sayings or actions or traditions of The Messenger of Allah , that are not part of the Qur’an is called Hadith.
There are two types of Hadith.
i) Hadith which narrates about those things which was also present at the time of Nabi (saw) or before him ( i.e. generally about “Aamal” means the day to day actions or deeds ) .
ii) Hadith which narrates about those things which would happen after the Nabi (SAW)
( i.e. the hadith about prophesies ) .
Contradictions in Hadith related to Prophesies:
It is not easy to resolve the contradictions in hadith related to prophesy because:
Contradictions in Hadith regarding ‘Aamal’ can be resolved by observing the deeds of previous people, while it is very difficult to say with certainty anything about contradictions in hadith related to prophesies.
While narrating , if a narrator has done a mistake or mixed his view to the original text of Hadith in case of Hadith regarding Aamal, it can be verified by looking into other narrations ( Mistakes in narrating the hadith was possible because hadith were not in a compiled form at the time of Huzoor (SAW) and they were transmitted orally. Moreover, as long time had passed after Nabi (SAW) , before the compilation of hadith started in written form, it was natural that a narrator in some cases might forgot something or his views might have found its way in the original text, thus making it a part of original text ) .
However, whether a Hadith regarding prophesies is true or, in that a narrator, while narrating, has done some mistake could be known only when the things prophesized starts happening or happened. Now, to understand a Hadith related to prophesies, we have to understand certain facts :
Contradiction in the names of person and place in prophesies:
Often the name of the individual that has figured out in prophesies does not match when prophesies are unfolded. However, sometimes meanings of the name match or sometimes qualities, which the name signifies, match.
Example: Once Umar(ra) asked the Father of the church,” Is there anything related to me written in your Book?” Father replied that in his Book, he (Umar) has been prophesized by the name QARAN, which means strong, strict & trustworthy. And, as all of us know, these qualities were found in Umar(RA).
Similarly, Hazrat Muhammad(saw )has been prophesized by the name, ‘PARACLET’. Paraclet is a Hebrew word which means praiseworthy. And Muhammad, which is an Arabic word, so means praiseworthy.
Thus from the above two examples, it is clear that sometimes meanings of the name match or sometimes qualities, which the name signifies, match.
Place: Generally it is difficult to figure out places in the prophecies. This is because of many reasons; out of which some are listed below:
Generally names of places keep on changing with time. E.g. Earlier Patna was called ‘Patliputra’
Similarly, today’s Christian population what we see around the world (in America, Australia etc.) are generally from the same race who called ‘Roomie’ at the time of Huzoor(saw). So, Huzoor(saw) has prophesized these today’s Christian population by the name, ‘Roomie’.
With time new countries are coming into existence: For example, 100 years back, Pakistan, India & Bangladesh all were one.
Now suppose, if someone at that time has prophesized about Pakistan & Bangladesh war, where in India has helped Bangladesh, in two different ways: in one place like, “Indian Military would fight with Bengalis”; and in another place like, “Indian Military would help the Bengalis”.
Then People at that time would not have, even in their dream, thought that the above two prophesies were about the same war: where at one place ‘Indian military’ refers to today’s Pakistan army; and at other place ‘Indian military’ refers to today’s Indian army.
From the above mentioned points , it has become clear that it is better to give attention on the ‘Geographical conditions’ rather than on the names of the places in the prophesies.
Many a times, Prophesies about a City or Nation, which had not came into existence, have been done by name of other city or nation( that existed & was famous at the time of prophesy).
For E.g.- As we know Kuwait didn’t exist at the time of Huzoor(saw). Kuwait has come into existence in 17th century . This is a small country the one side of which is in the land and the other side is in the sea. Its geographical conditions match with those of Constantinople.
Therefore, at some places, prophesies about Kuwait has been done by the name of Constantinople. In prophesies, initially, many a times, the name of a place is kept in secret; but is made known latter at the time of happening of prophesies.
For E.g. initially the place of migration (Hijrat) of Huzoor (saw) was kept in secret to him but later on when the time of migration came, the place name was made clear to him at that time only.
The Prophet(saw) said, “I saw in a dream that I was migrating from Mecca to a land where there were date palm trees. I thought that it might be the land of Al-Yamama or Hajar, but behold, it turned out to be Yathrib (i.e. Madina).[Bukhari].
Important Observations :
From the above discussion it became very clear that if a prophesy is unfolding in every aspects & only contradiction in name of a person is found, then in that situation, it is better to give attention to the meaning of name or to the qualities which it signifies.
Similarly, if geographical conditions are matching, then in that situation name of a place doesn’t have any significance.
Moreover , one more point came to our notice that something in prophesies are kept secret so that each event shall happen at its respective time.
Prophesying something considering the time period :
If we examine the history we would come to know that once something is invented people don’t forget it.
E.g. Since the invention of wheel, man has never forgotten the use of wheel or wheel itself. However, man has always tried to modify the invented things to make it friendlier towards the development. In this way, we tend the obsolete thing by adopting its new upgraded form. But if someone says that people will forget the wheel itself and will carry their belongings on the vehicle without wheel by pulling it through ropes really it will be foolish on his side.
It doesn’t mean that Allah couldn’t do it. Allah has the power to do all things.
But the thing is, Allah the Almighty, the Creator, the Sustainer, in his infinite wisdom has defined some rules and laws which will be valid till qayamah.
For e.g.- If Allah wills, he could bring human beings directly from sky into this world in young age. But till qayamah, He has set some system that a new human being will come into existence after the fusion of male and female sex cells.
Please note that exception is not a rule like miraculous birth of Adam (AS) and Hazrat Isa (AS).
Now I am asking why in hadith, then, it has been described that wars in the end time will be fought with arrows and swords.
It is because Huzoor(saw) wanted to make his companion as well the people of end times comprehend. He has explained the things of future by taking the examples of things available at that time which best suits the requirement.
TAMSEEL (METAPHORS) IN HADITH :
One more difficulty in understanding hadith is that many things in prophesies are told in metaphors. Because of this metaphoric narration, sometimes it become very difficult to recognize things, even after it has happened.
For E.g. Huzoor(saw), at various places, himself has prophesized many things in metaphors.
Aisha(RA) narrated: The prophet (saw) said “ O’ Usman , perhaps Allah will clothe you with a shirt (qamiz) ; and if people want you to take it off, don’t take it off for them ’’. [Tirmizi ]
If Usman (Peace Be upon him) has taken its literal meaning then he would not have changed his attire for his entire life, but this hadith is metaphoric. Qamiz has been used as a metaphor for Khilafat. So, when Usman(Peace Be upon him) got his khilafat and at the time when some people wanted to kill him and revered Sahabas told him to leave khilafat, then at that time, he realized the meaning of prophesy related to him & didn't quit Khilafat.
Some of the wives of the Prophet asked him, “Who amongst us will be the first to follow you (i.e. die after you)?” He said, “Whoever has the longest hand.” So they started measuring their hands with a stick and Sauda’s hand turned out to be the longest. When Zainab bint Jahsh died first of all ( in the caliphate of Umar) we came to know that the long hand was a symbol of practicing charity, so she was the first to follow the Prophet and she used to love to practice charity. (Sauda died later in the caliphate of Muawiya). [Bukhari]
Now, why these things are kept in secret or tamseel?? . Because the events described in the hadith shall happen at their fixed time and the person who has justification , natural mind and has his heart clear from egoism ( i.e. takabbur ) , shall accept the ‘manifested truth’ & the person, who are unjustified , ego hearted ( i.e takabbur ) and having eagerness of wealth and reputation , shall reject the truth because of these diseases.
Conclusion ( Now what to do ? ? ) :
Now when we, on seeing the dismal, horrifying & amoral conditions of this world, its our duty to compare the world situations with the prophecies according to the above mentioned rules.
As we see a number of prophecies of end times are unfolding day to day . The present situations of the world is horrifying ; really it is a test of our iman
Moses (AS) got recognized by ‘downtrodden’, not by Chiefs.
Hazrat Isa (AS) got recognized by ‘ Hawarins ’, not by Chiefs and ulemas of Jews .
Huzoor got recognized first by ‘ unqualified people of Makkah’ , not by the Ulemas of Jews and Christians.
Then you think , will it not be the duty to all of us to recognize the today's fitanas and save ourselves from these . Why not ? ? …………
Will it justification to give this work a certain group ( ike maulwi etc.) who are generally not aware from the today's horrifying situations of the world in full fledged way . Moreover, this group is busy in sect fightings .
No and Never, then what will happen to our test ( i.e. to recognize Dajjal & ……..). Wake up and open your eyes because one by one all events regarding Dajjal, which have been prophesized, are happening.
“Better late than never”
Reported sayings or actions or traditions of The Messenger of Allah , that are not part of the Qur’an is called Hadith.
There are two types of Hadith.
i) Hadith which narrates about those things which was also present at the time of Nabi (saw) or before him ( i.e. generally about “Aamal” means the day to day actions or deeds ) .
ii) Hadith which narrates about those things which would happen after the Nabi (SAW)
( i.e. the hadith about prophesies ) .
Contradictions in Hadith related to Prophesies:
It is not easy to resolve the contradictions in hadith related to prophesy because:
Contradictions in Hadith regarding ‘Aamal’ can be resolved by observing the deeds of previous people, while it is very difficult to say with certainty anything about contradictions in hadith related to prophesies.
While narrating , if a narrator has done a mistake or mixed his view to the original text of Hadith in case of Hadith regarding Aamal, it can be verified by looking into other narrations ( Mistakes in narrating the hadith was possible because hadith were not in a compiled form at the time of Huzoor (SAW) and they were transmitted orally. Moreover, as long time had passed after Nabi (SAW) , before the compilation of hadith started in written form, it was natural that a narrator in some cases might forgot something or his views might have found its way in the original text, thus making it a part of original text ) .
However, whether a Hadith regarding prophesies is true or, in that a narrator, while narrating, has done some mistake could be known only when the things prophesized starts happening or happened. Now, to understand a Hadith related to prophesies, we have to understand certain facts :
Contradiction in the names of person and place in prophesies:
Often the name of the individual that has figured out in prophesies does not match when prophesies are unfolded. However, sometimes meanings of the name match or sometimes qualities, which the name signifies, match.
Example: Once Umar(ra) asked the Father of the church,” Is there anything related to me written in your Book?” Father replied that in his Book, he (Umar) has been prophesized by the name QARAN, which means strong, strict & trustworthy. And, as all of us know, these qualities were found in Umar(RA).
Similarly, Hazrat Muhammad(saw )has been prophesized by the name, ‘PARACLET’. Paraclet is a Hebrew word which means praiseworthy. And Muhammad, which is an Arabic word, so means praiseworthy.
Thus from the above two examples, it is clear that sometimes meanings of the name match or sometimes qualities, which the name signifies, match.
Place: Generally it is difficult to figure out places in the prophecies. This is because of many reasons; out of which some are listed below:
Generally names of places keep on changing with time. E.g. Earlier Patna was called ‘Patliputra’
Similarly, today’s Christian population what we see around the world (in America, Australia etc.) are generally from the same race who called ‘Roomie’ at the time of Huzoor(saw). So, Huzoor(saw) has prophesized these today’s Christian population by the name, ‘Roomie’.
With time new countries are coming into existence: For example, 100 years back, Pakistan, India & Bangladesh all were one.
Now suppose, if someone at that time has prophesized about Pakistan & Bangladesh war, where in India has helped Bangladesh, in two different ways: in one place like, “Indian Military would fight with Bengalis”; and in another place like, “Indian Military would help the Bengalis”.
Then People at that time would not have, even in their dream, thought that the above two prophesies were about the same war: where at one place ‘Indian military’ refers to today’s Pakistan army; and at other place ‘Indian military’ refers to today’s Indian army.
From the above mentioned points , it has become clear that it is better to give attention on the ‘Geographical conditions’ rather than on the names of the places in the prophesies.
Many a times, Prophesies about a City or Nation, which had not came into existence, have been done by name of other city or nation( that existed & was famous at the time of prophesy).
For E.g.- As we know Kuwait didn’t exist at the time of Huzoor(saw). Kuwait has come into existence in 17th century . This is a small country the one side of which is in the land and the other side is in the sea. Its geographical conditions match with those of Constantinople.
Therefore, at some places, prophesies about Kuwait has been done by the name of Constantinople. In prophesies, initially, many a times, the name of a place is kept in secret; but is made known latter at the time of happening of prophesies.
For E.g. initially the place of migration (Hijrat) of Huzoor (saw) was kept in secret to him but later on when the time of migration came, the place name was made clear to him at that time only.
The Prophet(saw) said, “I saw in a dream that I was migrating from Mecca to a land where there were date palm trees. I thought that it might be the land of Al-Yamama or Hajar, but behold, it turned out to be Yathrib (i.e. Madina).[Bukhari].
Important Observations :
From the above discussion it became very clear that if a prophesy is unfolding in every aspects & only contradiction in name of a person is found, then in that situation, it is better to give attention to the meaning of name or to the qualities which it signifies.
Similarly, if geographical conditions are matching, then in that situation name of a place doesn’t have any significance.
Moreover , one more point came to our notice that something in prophesies are kept secret so that each event shall happen at its respective time.
Prophesying something considering the time period :
If we examine the history we would come to know that once something is invented people don’t forget it.
E.g. Since the invention of wheel, man has never forgotten the use of wheel or wheel itself. However, man has always tried to modify the invented things to make it friendlier towards the development. In this way, we tend the obsolete thing by adopting its new upgraded form. But if someone says that people will forget the wheel itself and will carry their belongings on the vehicle without wheel by pulling it through ropes really it will be foolish on his side.
It doesn’t mean that Allah couldn’t do it. Allah has the power to do all things.
But the thing is, Allah the Almighty, the Creator, the Sustainer, in his infinite wisdom has defined some rules and laws which will be valid till qayamah.
For e.g.- If Allah wills, he could bring human beings directly from sky into this world in young age. But till qayamah, He has set some system that a new human being will come into existence after the fusion of male and female sex cells.
Please note that exception is not a rule like miraculous birth of Adam (AS) and Hazrat Isa (AS).
Now I am asking why in hadith, then, it has been described that wars in the end time will be fought with arrows and swords.
It is because Huzoor(saw) wanted to make his companion as well the people of end times comprehend. He has explained the things of future by taking the examples of things available at that time which best suits the requirement.
TAMSEEL (METAPHORS) IN HADITH :
One more difficulty in understanding hadith is that many things in prophesies are told in metaphors. Because of this metaphoric narration, sometimes it become very difficult to recognize things, even after it has happened.
For E.g. Huzoor(saw), at various places, himself has prophesized many things in metaphors.
Aisha(RA) narrated: The prophet (saw) said “ O’ Usman , perhaps Allah will clothe you with a shirt (qamiz) ; and if people want you to take it off, don’t take it off for them ’’. [Tirmizi ]
If Usman (Peace Be upon him) has taken its literal meaning then he would not have changed his attire for his entire life, but this hadith is metaphoric. Qamiz has been used as a metaphor for Khilafat. So, when Usman(Peace Be upon him) got his khilafat and at the time when some people wanted to kill him and revered Sahabas told him to leave khilafat, then at that time, he realized the meaning of prophesy related to him & didn't quit Khilafat.
Some of the wives of the Prophet asked him, “Who amongst us will be the first to follow you (i.e. die after you)?” He said, “Whoever has the longest hand.” So they started measuring their hands with a stick and Sauda’s hand turned out to be the longest. When Zainab bint Jahsh died first of all ( in the caliphate of Umar) we came to know that the long hand was a symbol of practicing charity, so she was the first to follow the Prophet and she used to love to practice charity. (Sauda died later in the caliphate of Muawiya). [Bukhari]
Now, why these things are kept in secret or tamseel?? . Because the events described in the hadith shall happen at their fixed time and the person who has justification , natural mind and has his heart clear from egoism ( i.e. takabbur ) , shall accept the ‘manifested truth’ & the person, who are unjustified , ego hearted ( i.e takabbur ) and having eagerness of wealth and reputation , shall reject the truth because of these diseases.
Conclusion ( Now what to do ? ? ) :
Now when we, on seeing the dismal, horrifying & amoral conditions of this world, its our duty to compare the world situations with the prophecies according to the above mentioned rules.
As we see a number of prophecies of end times are unfolding day to day . The present situations of the world is horrifying ; really it is a test of our iman
Moses (AS) got recognized by ‘downtrodden’, not by Chiefs.
Hazrat Isa (AS) got recognized by ‘ Hawarins ’, not by Chiefs and ulemas of Jews .
Huzoor got recognized first by ‘ unqualified people of Makkah’ , not by the Ulemas of Jews and Christians.
Then you think , will it not be the duty to all of us to recognize the today's fitanas and save ourselves from these . Why not ? ? …………
Will it justification to give this work a certain group ( ike maulwi etc.) who are generally not aware from the today's horrifying situations of the world in full fledged way . Moreover, this group is busy in sect fightings .
No and Never, then what will happen to our test ( i.e. to recognize Dajjal & ……..). Wake up and open your eyes because one by one all events regarding Dajjal, which have been prophesized, are happening.
“Better late than never”