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Monday, February 10, 2014

He is in Even More Need of an Iqaal that Ties a Camel …

Muwatta’ Imaam Maalik Hadeeth 470: “Truly, the example of the companion of the Quraan is like the person who owns a camel; if he fastens it then it will remain with him but if he unfastens it then it will escape him.” [A similar wording also narrated by al-Bukhaari (5033) and Muslim (791)]

‘Truly’: refers to a restriction (Hasr), meaning it is related to memorization, recitation, abandonment etc. (the person relationship with the Quraan).

‘Truly, the example of the companion of the Quraan is like the person who owns a camel’: …. is this only for the person of Quraan? ... On the contrary, it refers to memorization and forgetting it and recitation and abandoning it…

'Truly, the example of the companion of the Quraan is like the person who owns a camel’: Meaning, the camel is tied by a rope which fastens it (i.e. an Iqaal, the black ring worn on the head by Arab men) on its neck. Here the continual recitation of the Quraan has been compared to a camel which one fears will escape him. One ties the camel in order to keep it, like the one who rehearses the Quraan. He engages with the Quraan in order to protect it (in his memory and/or his actions). So as long as he engages with it then the Quraan will remain present. Just like the Iqaal, as long as it is present then the camel will be present.

…if he fastens it…’: as in he continues to reinforce it…

‘…then it will remain with him…’: meaning it will not escape him.

‘…but if he unfastens it…’: by untying the Iqaal…

‘…then it will escape him.’: Just like the Quraan. This resemblance has a precise intent behind it. This narration has also been narrated in the Two Saheehs, therefore it is a must that the student of knowledge preserves the Book of Allaah - The Glorified and the Most High - and that he gives importance to this point.
One should not sleep on the Quraan, one should not be neglectful of the Quraan. This is because he is in even more need of it than an Iqaal that ties a camel. This issue is an issue of the religion so it is (even more) obligatory for one to preserve it (than trying to preserve a camel, an issue of the Dunya).

There has come a stern warning concerning the one who has memorised something from the Quraan and then forgets it. It is feared that it is said to him:

(Allah) will say: "Like this, Our Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) came unto you, but you disregarded them (i.e. you left them, did not think deeply in them, and you turned away from them), and so this Day, you will be neglected (in the Hell-fire, away from Allah's Mercy)."” [Taa-haa 20:126]

For this reason, it is narrated in the two Saheehs that we have been prohibited from saying, ‘I forgot such and such Aayah, I forgot such and such Aayah rather one should say, ‘I have been caused to forget…’ (i.e. one doesn’t attribute himself forgetting the Quraan) so that one doesn’t come under (or doesn’t resemble) the Aayah:

(Allah) will say: "Like this, Our Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) came unto you, but you disregarded them (i.e. you left them, did not think deeply in them, and you turned away from them), and so this Day, you will be neglected (in the Hell-fire, away from Allah's Mercy)."” [Taa-haa 20:126]

The point is that one must be attentive to the Quraan, one will attain a great amount of good if they are, a goodness that one can’t get from the Dunya. The one who turns away from it is a surely prevented (Hirmaan) and in great loss. So it is upon the one who has memorised from the Quraan that he should be plentiful in paying attention to it, to revise what he has memorised so that he doesn’t forget. End quote.


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