Allahu Akbar! Who am I not to be grateful for His blessings? It's our duty to mention and enumerate His blessings, is it not?
Praise be to God, to have people around us to remind us and encourage us to do good. Was reminded of the date - simply today's date - nothing significant about the 5th of March except that there's only one posting on this space for March, which means I must march on.
Praise be to God, to be awakened in the middle of the night, to have been given the strength to move our limbs and tongue to say a prayer.
That a precious book is within our reach - the 'Mukhtar Al-Hadith' being translation of 59 hadith of the Prophet salallah alaihi wasalam by Fa'iz b. Amir, a student of one esteemed learned from whom we draw comfort to our dented spirit - Habib Umar b. Hafiz.
Alhamdulillah that the Generous Allah Al-Kareem has opened the heart of a servant of His to present the 'Select of Prophetic Traditions' to this faqir as a gift.
On this serene night, we derive healing from reading hadith no. 55 listed in the said book.
"The messenger of God salallah alaihi wasalam said:
La hawla wala quwwata illah billah
(no power nor strength save by God)
is a remedy from incurring 99 ailments,
the least of which is worry."
- Ibn Abi Dunya
***
We are exposed to so many ailments in our daily lives, we aren't even sure of the number and we take for granted of the kinds of ailments that might hit us on a given day. But here we are told there are 99 ailments curable just by saying lahawla wala quwwata illah billah, the least of which is worry and worry is actually a big ailment to many people, including me, sometimes. When we are overcome with worry, big or small, we become nervous and restless. Everything we try to do does not seem right. We touch "this" only to be flooded with thoughts and concerns about "that", it can be nerve wrecking.
But here we learned a simple remedy. Simple and yet we often forget and overlook as we nervously search to the right and search to the left for things which we thought could cure us.
La hawla wala quwwata illah billah.
***
In the book of Habib Umar bin Hafiz named 'Mukhtar Al-Hadith' as translated by Fa'iz b. Amir, people like me who lack exposure to the traditions, can benefit tremendously by the blessings of Allah. In addition to the 59 hadith, at the end of the light yet weighty book, I read for the first time biographies of the select traditionists. Alhamdulillah, I read for the first time concise background of names like Bayhaqi, Bukhari, Daylami, Daraqutni, Abu Daud, Ibn Abi Dunya, Hakim, Ahmad b. Hanbal, Ibn Maja, Ibn Mardaway, Muslim, Nasa'i, Tabarani, Tirmidhi and Abu Ya'ala.
If not for this excellent publication in English, I would not have known that the narrator of the hadith no 55 which we quoted above, Ibn Abi Dunya was a freed slave of the Ummayad dynasty in Baghdad who was a teacher of the Caliph's children. MashaAllah how noble a profession. And that Ibn Abi Dunya could make people laugh and cry listening to him talk about hadith. And surely his role in narrating the words of the Prophet salallah alaihi wasalam is beyond noble a profession.
May we benefit from saying lahawla wala quwwata illah billah as a remedy.
May we benefit from our adoration for people like Ibn Abi Dunya and Habib Umar b. Hafiz - people who love Allah and are loved by Allah for their love and service for His beloved Messenger salallah alaihi wasalam.
May Allah increase us in knowledge.
May Allah reward each and everyone who has done good to us.
Ameen.
 |
| Mukhtar Al Hadith (Select Prophetic Traditions) by Habib Umar b. Hafiz Translated by Fa'iz b. Amir Published by: The Ribat Institute |
May Allah be so kind to want to wake us up for Fajr.
No comments:
Post a Comment