Part 16: Belief in the Hawd (Lake) of Allah’s Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) ― The Foundations of the Sunnah of Imām Ahmad Ibn Hanbal: Benefits from Shaikh An-Najmī.

In the name of Allāh, Most Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy.

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All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all creation, may Allah extol the mention of our noble Prophet Muhammad in the highest company of Angels, bless him and give him peace and security―and his family, his Companions and all those who follow him correctly until the establishment of the Hour.

Additional notes from Abu Khadeejah Abdul-Wāhid.

Belief in the Hawḍ (Lake) and its Description

We now move on to the next point in Imām Ahmad’s Usool us-Sunnah which is regarding the Lake of the Prophet (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam), the Hawd, where he says:

والايمان بالحوض وأن لرسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم حوضا يوم القيامة ترد عليه أمته, عرضه مثل طوله, مسيرة شهر, آنيته كعدد نجوم السماء على ما صحت به الأخبار من غير وجه.

“And to have faith in the Hawd (the Lake) – and that there is a Lake for the Messenger (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) on the Day of Judgement. His ummah will come to it [to drink] – its width is equal to its length: the distance travelled in a month. Its drinking vessels are as numerous as the stars in the sky.  This is in accordance with the authentic narrations that come from many routes of transmission.”

Explanation:

So we believe in the Hawd on Yawm al-Qiyāmah (the Day of Judgement) as this has been mentioned in the authentic narrations, therefore we have Eemān in it and affirm its truthfulness – we affirm and believe in everything that is authentically reported from the Prophet (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) regarding every affair of the religion.

Narrations concerning the Lake of Allah’s Messenger (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) have been reported by Al-Bukhāri from a group of the Sahābah (radiyallāhu ‘anhum): Abu Hurairah, Asmā bint Abee Bakr and others. In fact over twenty of the Sahābah have narrated the ahādeeth of the Hawd, with various wordings. These narrations prove that the Prophet (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) has a Lake from which the people will drink. The believers will head towards it, and the sinners (Ahlul-Fujoor) and groups from the people of Bid’ah will be turned away from it.

Imām Ibn Mājah reports in his Sunan in a saheeh hadeeth that Allah’s Messenger (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) said:

مَا بَيْنَ نَاحِيَتَىْ حَوْضِي كَمَا بَيْنَ صَنْعَاءَ وَالْمَدِينَةِ أَوْ كَمَا بَيْنَ الْمَدِينَةِ وَعَمَّانَ

“The distance between one side of the Lake to the other side is like the distance between San’ā and Madinah, or like the distance between Madinah and ‘Ammān.” (Ibn Majah no. 4304, Abu Dawood, no. 4745)

Imām at-Tirmidhi reports in his Sunan in a saheeh hadeeth that the Prophet (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) said:

إِنَّ لِكُلِّ نَبِيٍّ حَوْضًا وَإِنَّهُمْ يَتَبَاهَوْنَ أَيُّهُمْ أَكْثَرُ وَارِدَةً وَإِنِّي أَرْجُو أَنْ أَكُونَ أَكْثَرَهُمْ وَارِدَةً

“For every Prophet there will be a Hawd, and they will vie with one another as to which of them will have the greatest number (of followers) coming to it, and I hope that I will have the greatest number coming to my Lake.” (At-Tirmidhi, no. 2443)

Imām Muslim collected in his Saheeh (n0. 2292) from ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn ul-’Aas (radiAllahu ‘anhumā) that the Prophet (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) said: “My Hawd is as wide as a month’s journey and its sides are equal. Its water is whiter than silver, its odour more fragrant than musk, its vessels more numerous than the stars in the sky. Whoever drinks from it will never be thirsty again.” In another narration collected by Imām Muslim: “Its vessels will be of gold and silver, more numerous than the stars in the sky.”

Al-Bukhari (no. 6579) reported from Ibn ʿAmr that the Messenger of Allah (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) said:

حَوْضِي مَسِيرَةُ شَهْرٍ، مَاؤُهُ أَبْيَضُ مِنَ اللَّبَنِ، وَرِيحُهُ أَطْيَبُ مِنَ الْمِسْكِ، وَكِيزَانُهُ كَنُجُومِ السَّمَاءِ، مَنْ شَرِبَ مِنْهَا فَلاَ يَظْمَأُ أَبَدًا ‏

“My Lake takes a month’s journey to cross. Its water is whiter than milk, and its smell is more pleasant than musk, and its drinking cups are as numerous as the stars of the sky – and whoever drinks from it, will never be thirsty again.”

Those Who will be Turned Away from the Hawd on the Day of Judgement

Musims reported (no. 2297) from Abdullah that the Prophet (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) said:

أَنَا فَرَطُكُمْ عَلَى الْحَوْضِ وَلأُنَازِعَنَّ أَقْوَامًا ثُمَّ لأُغْلَبَنَّ عَلَيْهِمْ فَأَقُولُ يَا رَبِّ أَصْحَابِي أَصْحَابِي ‏.‏ فَيُقَالُ إِنَّكَ لاَ تَدْرِي مَا أَحْدَثُوا بَعْدَكَ

“I shall be at the Lake before you all and I will appeal on behalf of some people, but then I will have to concede – and I will say, ‘My Lord! My followers, my followers!’ In a narration, ‘My ummah, my ummah!’ And it will be said to me, ‘You know not what innovations they introduced after you.’

Anas (radiyallāhu ‘anhu) said, ‘Allah’s Messenger (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) fell asleep whilst he was among us, then he awoke smiling, so we said to him, ‘What has caused you to smile?’ So he replied, ‘A Surah that was revealed to me’ – and then he recited:

إِنَّا أَعْطَيْنَاكَ الْكَوْثَرَ
فَصَلِّ لِرَبِّكَ وَٱنْحَرْ ٢
إِنَّ شَانِئَكَ هُوَ ٱلْأَبْتَرُ ٣

‘Indeed We have bestowed upon you (O prophet) al-Kawthar. So pray to your Lord and offer sacrifice [to Him alone]. For he who hates you (O Muhammad) will be cut off (from posterity and every good thing in this world and the Hereafter).’

Then he said to his companions. ‘Do you know what al-Kawthar is?’ So we responded by saying ‘Allah and His Messenger know best.’ So he (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) said, ‘It is a river that my Lord has bestowed upon me, and it has immense goodness. It is my Lake and my ummah will come to it on the Day of Resurrection. Its drinking cups are as numerous as the stars in the sky. A person will be prevented from it on that Day and I will say, My Lord! But he is from my ummah! Allah will respond: “You do not know what they have innovated after you.” (Reported by Imām Muslim).

In a narration of Al-Bukhāri (no. 6585):

فَيَقُولُ إِنَّكَ لاَ عِلْمَ لَكَ بِمَا أَحْدَثُوا بَعْدَكَ، إِنَّهُمُ ارْتَدُّوا عَلَى أَدْبَارِهِمُ الْقَهْقَرَى

It will be said [to me]: ‘You do not know what they innovated after you – they became apostate after you and turned away from Islam as renegades.”  

So the Prophet (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) said:

فَأَقُولُ سُحْقًا سُحْقًا لِمَنْ غَيَّرَ بَعْدِي

“I will say: Make them far away, make them distant – those who changed religion after me.” (Al-Bukhari, no. 6584)

The noble scholar, Sheikh Rabee’ Ibn Hadi Al-Madkhali mentioned in his explanation that there are people who will be prevented from the Hawd of Allah’s Messenger (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) – some of them are apostates (Ahlur-Riddah) and others are Ahlul-Bid’ah. This has also been mentioned by Imām al-Qurtubi in At-Tadhkeer as well as many other scholars.

There occurs in a hadīth of the Prophet (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) that is authenticated by Shaykh al-Albāni (rahimahullāh) in his As-Silsilatus-Sahīhah where the Prophet (sallallāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said that there will be two groups of his Ummah that will be prevented from his Drinking Lake (the Hawd) on Yawm al-Qiyāmah: the Murji’ah (those who believe that actions are not from Īmān) and the Qadariyyah (those who deny the Pre-Decree).

So it is clear that there will be people who are turned away from the Hawd, either because they are apostates or they are Ahlul-Bid’ah such as the Mu’tazilah, the Khawārij, the Rawāfid, the Qadariyyah and other than them, as mentioned by Imām al-Qurtubi. At the end of some of the narrations it is stated that when the Prophet (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) is told why they are turned away, he will say, ‘Away with them.’

Ibn Hajar cited some words from Imām Bukhāri where he said, ‘The intent behind those who are pushed away from the Lake is Ahlur-Riddah (the apostates) such as those who apostatized in the time of Abu Bakr.’ This was very soon after the death of the Prophet (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam). It is narrated from Abu ‘Abdillah from Qabeesa that he said, ‘They are Murtaddoon (the apostates) who left Islam in the time of Abu Bakr as-Siddeeq (radiyallāhu ‘anhu) and he fought against them.’

Ahlul-Bid’ah will also be turned away from the Lake because they innovated into the religion and changed the religion of Allah after the Messenger (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam).

So, Ahlus Sunnah believe that the Hawd is real – it is not a metaphor and it is not symbolic. We believe that it is a physical Lake that the people will drink from using the vessels of gold and silver that Allah provides for them. This is one of the reasons why we do not drink from gold and silver vessels in this life, as the Prophet (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) warned that whoever drinks from them in this life will not be granted them in the hereafter.

If we look carefully into Usool us-Sunnah of Imam Ahmad, we will see that there is always a point of affirmation of the creed of Ahlus-Sunnah a refutation of a sect from Ahlul Bid’ah. This is because, in all of these credal matters, there were groups of Ahlul-Bid’ah in the time of Imām Ahmad who denied various points of ‘Aqeedah. He refuted the Mu’tazilah, the Jahmiyyah, the Qadariyyah, the Jabriyyah and the rest of the major sects of his time. He emphasised affirming and attesting to the truth of the akhbār, i.e., the authentic Prophetic narrations, in opposition to the Mu’tazilah, ‘Aqlāniyoon and Ahlul-Kalām who give precedence to their intellects over the Revelation [believing that the mind is dominant over the Revelation], so the Revelation must be re-interpreted to fit human reason. They also use their intellect to deny the punishment of the grave (the next point in Usool us-Sunnah) as they say that if you were to open up the graves or place cameras and microphones in them, you would not be able to hear or see anything. However, the Prophet (salallāhu ‘alaihi wasallam) clearly explained why humans and jinn cannot hear the dead in their graves! So the doubts, distortions, falsehoods and fallacies of Ahlul-Kalām can be refuted using the Sunnah of the Prophet and sound reason that agrees with that. The authentic texts, the ahādeeth, and isnād (chain of narration) are the weapons of the believer – Ahlul-Bid’ah wage war with their doubts and desires, so our weapons are superior, and all praise is for Allah.

والحمد لله رب العالمين وصلى الله على نبينا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين.

سبحانك اللهم وبحمدك أشهد أن لا إله إلا أنت، أستغفرك وأتوب إليك

Abu Khadeejah Abdul-Wāhid.
Copyright 2024.

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