. J "" (cont.)

They will not be held responsible for those acts as a grace from Him and out of honor and esteem for His beloved Muhammad (peace be upon him).2 Another example is Al-Baitaar who wrote, The word é ("for my sake") means, "due to me, to give respect to my affair and raise my status." For that reason, Muslims should increase their supplications for the Prophet (peace be upon him) and ask for him to be given the place of intercession and bounties and the highest rank. . . We find that the sin of mistake, forgetfulness and compulsion have been raised from the Nation of Muhammad because of him as, for the previous peoples, it was not raised from them.3 Finally, in one of the few English commentaries on al-Nawawi's collection, Abbasi wrote, based on this word that does not seem to belong in this hadith, "This clearly shows the Prophet as the means of intercession between Allah and Man."4 1 This is the approach of scholars of hadith even if the change in wording does not have any significant implication for the meaning of the hadith. For example, the hadith with the words, "Seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim," is considered hasan while the hadith with the words "Seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim, male and female," is considered weak. See al-Albani's footnotes to al-Tabreezi, vol. l , p. 76, fn. 2. 2 Al-Sindi, Sharh al-Arbaeen, p. I 1 6. 3 Al-Baitaar, pp. 244-245. 4 Abbasi, p. 209. The obvious problem with what he wrote is that it is very vague and can be interpreted in ways that contradict the shareeah. Hadith #39: "Allah has pardoned . . . " This discussion is not meant to imply that the Prophet (peace be upon him) could not have been deserving of such an honor. But one aspect that distinguishes Islam from the deviated ways of Judaism and Christianity is that it gives the Prophet (peace be upon him) the exact status he deserves, without over exaggerating his place like the Christians have done with respect to Jesus (peace be upon him) or bringing him down to the level of a common, sinning man like the Jews have done to previous prophets (peace be upon them all). This lack of deviation can only be guaranteed by sticking to what is verified in the Quran and the authentic hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him).1 Third, this example points out the importance of studying the supporting evidence used by the scholar of hadith. In general, when a scholar of hadith refers to another hadith as supporting evidence, it will have virtually the same meaning as the hadith under discussion but with a different chain of narrators. Sometimes, though, the scholar might mistakenly refer to a hadith as supporting evidence while, in reality, it is not supporting evidence for the hadith under discussion. Again, this particular hadith offers an example of this potential problem. For this particular hadith, ibn Muhammad2 and others referred to the following hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim as supporting evidence: (... ... 0 ,,.. ... J #} ( ࣌ ji ͧ tJ c 8உ)ஊ U ::...:.৓j c ͨ\ ;:; J, jjt.;J aJ\ 0P "Verily, Allah has pardoned, for my sake, for my Nation what is whispered to them in their souls as long as they do not act or speak about [those thoughts]." Besides the first couple of words of the hadith being the same, there is virtually no resemblance between this hadith and the hadith quoted by al-Nawawi. There 1 This is not simply a theoretical point. There is no question that both forms of deviation have appeared among Muslims. Many Sufis, for example, have raised the Prophet (peace be upon him) to a status much greater than can be supported by the Quran and sunnah. Some of them even pray to his grave and claim that he is able to rescue them when they are in difficulty. Modernist Muslims have taken the opposite approach. In many cases, they treat the Prophet (peace be upon him) like he was a normal human being living in a certain environment and under certain cultural conditions--- as if he did not receive any revelation whatsoever. Hence, they are quick to reject many of the Prophet's statements if their intellect does not accept such statements. Again, the only way to be safe from any such deviations is to afford the Prophet (peace be upon him) the status that he is given in the Quran and authentic hadith without adding anything to it or reducing anything from it. 2 Ibn Muhammad, p. 220. With respect to the hadith quoted above from Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, ibn Muhammad presented it in its entirety. Hence, the reader can determine that it is not relevant as supporting evidence for the hadith in question. However, on p. 2 1 5, ibn Muhammad states that ibn Adi recorded the same hadith as al-Nawawi and he only gives the chain for it.