>"I am Ibrahim.." – a story of Brotherhood & Sacrifice.

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“I am Ibrahim..” A Story of Brotherhood & Sacrifice.

Hajjaj ibn Yusuf had given orders for the arrest of Ibrahim an-Nakha’i.

The person deputed to locate him ended up at Ibrahim at-Taymi‘s and told him that he had orders to arrest Ibrahim.

He said, “I am Ibrahim”, (though he knew that the man wanted Ibrahim an-Nakha’i). The man arrested him and took him to Hajjaj who imprisoned him in a place that neither recieved sunlight nor was protected from severe cold. Another person was enchained in the same fetters with him.

Ibrahim at-Taymi’s condition deteriorated. When his mother visited him, she could not recognise him till he spoke to her. He remained in this cell till his death therein.

Hajjaj’s dream;

Hajjaj saw a dream that very night in which someone announced that a person had died that day who would go to Paradise. In the morning, Hajjaj made enquiries and was told that Ibrahim Taymi had died in prison. Hajjaj commented, “This was one of the dreams in which the devils attack (men)”.

Burial;

After that, Hajjaj ordered that Ibrahim must be buried. He had died in 92 AH.

[Source: ONE HUNDRED ASCETICS and their Chief MUHAMMAD. – Muhammad Siddiq al-Manshawi. P186. (Darul Ishaat – Karachi – Pakistan. ISBN: 969-428-154-7)]

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>Poem: "She was asleep. I kissed her. She awoke…"

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قال القاضي عبد الوهاب المالكي

Qādhi ‘Abd’l-Wahhāb al-Māliki said:

ونائمةٍ قبَّلتها فتنبَّهَتْ … وقالَتْ تعالَوْا فاطلُبُوا اللِّصَّ بالحدِّ

She was asleep. I kissed her. She awoke.
She shouted, “Help! Establish the law against this thief!”

فقلتُ لها إنِّي فَدَيتكِ غاصبٌ … وما حكمُوا في غاصبٍ بسوَى الرَّدِّ

So I said to her, “But I sacrificed myself for you! I took it by force I admit!
But they didn’t rule on the Usurper other than it is to be given back!

خُذيها وكُفِّي عنْ أَثيمٍ ظلامة … وإن أَنتِ لم ترضَيْ فأَلف على عدِّ

Take it and stop punishing this oppressive soul!
If that doesn’t satisfy you, then take a thousand instead!

فقالتْ قصاصٌ يشهدُ العقلُ أَنَّه … على كبدِ الجاني أَلذُّ من الشَّهْدِ

She said, “This kind of punishment, everyone bears witness no doubt
That it is sweeter for the Criminal than honey itself!

فباتَتْ يَميني وهي هميانُ خصرها … وباتَتْ يَساري وهي واسطَةُ العقدِ

So my right hand spent the night and it was her belt.
And my left hand spent the night and it was her necklace.

فقالتْ أَلم أخْبَرْ بأَنَّكَ زاهدٌ … فقلتُ بلَى ما زلتُ أَزهدُ في الزُّهْدِ

She said, “Was I not told that you were a pious man?!”
So I said, “Indeed! I am still a pious man when it comes to piety!”

Easy tiger.

This wonderful little poem needs a little bit of explanation so here goes:

ونائمةٍ قبَّلتها فتنبَّهَتْ … وقالَتْ تعالَوْا فاطلُبُوا اللِّصَّ بالحدِّ

She was asleep. I kissed her. She awoke.
She shouted, “Help! Establish the law against this thief!”

He goes up to a sleeping girl (who could be anyone – of course someone lawful – that doesn’t really matter here) and kisses her. It wakes her up and in anger she calls for someone to grab this criminal and give him the hadd (a prescribed punishment). She’s clearly angry and decides to call him a thief for what he’s done, probably because she can’t think at that moment which kind of crime he’s really perpetrated.

فقلتُ لها إنِّي فَدَيتكِ غاصبٌ … وما حكمُوا في غاصبٍ بسوَى الرَّدِّ

So I said to her, “But I sacrificed myself for you! I took it by force I admit!
But they didn’t rule on the Usurper other than it is to be given back.

He then responds and says, “Look, be fair. I did all this for you! I haven’t stolen anything so I can’t be a thief and therefore you can’t ask for a hadd against me can you?”

He wants to convince her that if he has done a crime, then it’s ghasb. Ghasb is “to usurp” and even that isn’t a very accurate translation. Ghasb is to forcefully and oppressively take something without “stealing” (sariqah) it as such, robbing it (tashlīh), pick-pocketing it (nashl) or harming the other party physically (qat‘ al-tarīq etc). All of these four categories have different punishments and likewise ghasb is a fifth category of many possible further categories. Now I know you’re thinking, “but they’re all the same thing aren’t they?!” but in the Sharī‘ah, the scholars differed much over these separate categories and the punishments associated to each type. For example, a pick-pocket takes something which isn’t guarded as such, whereas a thief who gets his hand cut must have stolen something which is properly guarded or closed off to the public according to the majority of the scholars such as breaking and entering into your home at night. The other categories have some force and violence attached to the crime.

As for ghasb: sometimes it can be fraudulent i.e. you ‘blag’ your boundary post and take someone else’s land or more practically another example is if I’m in the street and I shout you down and just snatch something off you whilst you’re holding it, but I don’t run off or anything, then you’ve got a better idea now of what ghasb is and how it’s different to the other categories of “stealing”.

The main thing to understand is that the mass majority of scholars have agreed that the Usurper has no punishment other than that he must return the item he usurped and then make tawbah. Others said he must ask for pardon from the aggrieved party as well, but other than that, the State does not get involved.

So, what our cheeky but clever Faqih romantic has decided to do is to ‘play’ this woman he’s just kissed. And he tells her, “Look, what I’ve done is only ghasb! Okay, I took a kiss from you by force – but I don’t know why you’re asking for the sword! All the scholars have agreed that the only punishment for the Usurper is that he gives back that what he’s taken!”

خُذيها وكُفِّي عنْ أَثيمٍ ظلامة … وإن أَنتِ لم ترضَيْ فأَلف على عدِّ

Take it and stop punishing this oppressive soul!
If that doesn’t satisfy you, then take a thousand instead!

He’s clearly got so far using his wits and now his real cheekiness comes out. Appealing to her sense of humour and excitement, he’s actually asking her to kiss him just once to take back what he has taken from her in usurpation. And like every artful dodger, he’s now turned the tables and assumed the role of the aggrieved party, the underdog, the miskeen, the oppressed one!

He then goes further and says, “If you’re not happy with what the scholars demand (i.e. like for like is given back in ghasb), then I tell you what, take extra from me as my punishment, no problem! In fact, kiss me a thousand times as my punishment!”

فقالتْ قصاصٌ يشهدُ العقلُ أَنَّه … على كبدِ الجاني أَلذُّ من الشَّهْدِ

She said, “This kind of punishment, everyone bears witness no doubt
That it is sweeter for the Criminal than honey itself!

She’s clearly warming to this cheeky scholar now, and is only stating the obvious here that, “There is no way I’m going to give you exactly what you wanted all along! You call that a punishment?!”

But it’s far too late now, and she’s fallen for his charm; if you’re sixteen or under, please close this page now. Thanks.

فباتَتْ يَميني وهي هميانُ خصرها … وباتَتْ يَساري وهي واسطَةُ العقدِ

So my right hand spent the night and it was her belt.
And my left hand spent the night and it was her necklace.

Is my central heating on too high or what?

Here is Arab poetry at its most daring: our romantic has completed his seduction of his prey and has now spent the night with her. Not just that, but what is being described (poorly in English of course and much more sensitively in the Arabic) is how he’s lying next to her and holding her very close, around her waist and very gently across her neck and what on Earth am I doing still talking about this line…

فقالتْ أَلم أخْبَرْ بأَنَّكَ زاهدٌ … فقلتُ بلَى ما زلتُ أَزهدُ في الزُّهْدِ

She said, “Was I not told that you were a pious man!”
So I said, “Indeed! I am still a pious man when it comes to piety!”

Perhaps the cleverest line of the poem, which could mean something else but I’ve translated it this way: as we said before, the woman has completely fallen for this chap and is now teasing him, “I thought I was told that you were an ascetic/pious man (Zāhid).” Normally, zuhd or ascetism as practiced by the masters of Tasawwuf is to completely renounce the dunya, almost like a form of monasticism but without that kind of extremism. But clearly she is claiming that enjoying oneself with women in such a way would be against the way of zuhd as such.

So our star of the show dead-pans a response playing on the fact that zuhd doesn’t have any agreed upon Shar‘i definition, decides to give the word his own definition i.e. piety and thus being good, praying, fasting and all those things that one would expect day to day from an ‘Alim – but don’t try and put the fun that I’m having with women in that category!

So there we are.

This poem was written by the inimitable Qādhi ‘Abd’l-Wahhāb al-Māliki al-Baghdādi (rahimullāh); he was one of the famous Imams of Iraq and from the leaders of Ahl’l-Sunnah. He was the student of the scholar Imām al-Bāqillāni and the Shaykh of the Māliki madhab. Al-Khatīb al-Baghdādi took from him and considered him to be the most knowledgeable of the Mālikis of his time.

He is most famous for his commentary to Ibn Abi Zayd’s masterpiece al-Risālah. Amongst many other books, he also has a commentary to the Mudawwana. Many quoted from Qādhi ‘Abd’l-Wahhāb especially Ibn Hajr, Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, who uses him extensively as a reference in his Ijtimā‘ al-Juyūsh’l-Islāmiyyah.

He was not only a master of fiqh but a great poet, with over 165 books attributed to him. His intellect, eloquence and clear skill in the Arabic language and poetry was much admired in his time and until this day.

Ibn Khallikān reported in his Wafāyat’l-A‘yān the circumstances of the death of Qādhi ‘Abd’l-Wahhāb. He had suffered for many years in Baghdad, experiencing very difficult circumstances. Then he moved to Egypt where he was warmly welcomed and lavishly supported by the wealthy and good people. All new to him, he wrote of his happiness in various poems. Not too long after, he had an opportunity to eat some quality food that he had desired for a long time but he became deathly ill from it straight away. It was reported that as he was in his last moments, he said,

“Lā ilāha illallāh! Now that we are finally starting to live, we have died!”

Miskeen.

May Allah have mercy upon this great Imam’s soul and grant him the highest part of Paradise! He was born 362h in Baghdad and he left us in Cairo, 422h (see al-Bidāyah w’l-Nihāyah and Siyar al-A‘lām for more detailed information).

And the point of all this?

Well, just imagine that someone like Shaykh Shu‘ayb al-Arna‘ūt said something like the above poem, or Shaykh Muhammad Hasan al-Dadu, or Shaykh Muhammad al-‘Awwāmah, or Shaykh Taqi al-Usmani, or Shaykh Muhammad Mukhtār al-Shinqītī, or Shaykh Ibn Bāz. Or anyone for that matter.

My goodness. There’d be uproar. From the ignorant that is.

Firstly, have no doubt that these great and noble scholars of today wouldn’t reach half the standard of someone like Qādhi ‘Abd’l-Wahhāb al-Māliki, neither in ‘ilm or ‘amal.

So therefore secondly, let it just be a little reminder to everyone showing the vastness of our heritage and a reminder to the extremists to just take it easy a little bit, and a reminder to the modernists and “progressives” that we have no need for you to bring into our pure Islam all the new dreams you have in your inferiority-complex induced sleep in the houses of your Masters of disbelief and heresy.

 Alhamdulillāh ‘alā ni‘mat’l-Islām, wa kafā bihā ni‘mah.

And Allah knows best. 

Translated by Abu Eesa Niamatullah:

http://alternativeentertainment.wordpress.com/2008/10/18/she-was-asleep-i-kissed-her-she-awoke/