Assalamu alaikum
I hope everyone is cool
Umm...could someone please explain this.
Abu Hurayrah (radhi allahu anhu) reported that the Messenger of Allah (sallallahu alaihi wa-sallam) said: “Our Lord descends every night to the lowest heaven, when only one third of the night has remained. He says: “Who will invoke Me, so that I may give him? Who will seek My forgiveness, so that I may forgive him.” [Saheeh al-Bukharee and Saheeh Muslim]
Ok I don't get the bolded part. What does it mean by the lowest heaven?? Sky?? Or Paradise?
Sorryy!! I'm confused (like always
).
Thank youuu
Esselamu Aleikum sister,
maybe this will help;
It is at this point that the answer to what was mentioned by Ibn Hazm and others becomes clear regarding the Hadeeth of descending in which the Prophet (Sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said:
((Our Lord descends every night to the lowest heaven when there is but a third of the night left. So He says: ‘Who calls upon Me such that I should answer him? Who asks of Me such that I should give him? Who seeks My forgiveness such that I should forgive him?’ until the appearance of dawn)).*
So they said: it is established that the night time differs in relation to the people. So its first part and its middle part and its last third part will be in the east before its first part and its middle part and its last third part in the west. So they said: so if what is meant by the descending is the well known descending; then it necessitates that He be descending at each portion of the night. Since there does not cease to be night somewhere upon the earth. They said: or He does not cease to be descending and ascending - and it is a gathering between two opposites.
Indeed this was said by them due to their delusion of His descending in the same way that they are delusional by the descending of one of them – and this is the very essence of At-Tamtheel (likening Allaah). They also went on after that to make Him like one of their feeble selves - for whom it is not possible to gather between the actions as would be possible for someone else not feeble in gathering between them. There have come the Ahaadeeth in which there is the mention that He will reckon His creation on The Day of Judgement. Each of them will see that he is alone with Him and will converse with Him, without seeing that He is alone with other than himself – nor that He is speaking to any other than himself.
For indeed the Prophet (Sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) said:
((When the servant says: All praise is for Allaah, Lord of all creation, Allaah says: My servant has praised Me. So when he says: The Most-Merciful – The Bestower of Mercy, He says: My servant has made extolment of Me…))**
So each and everyone from the people are conversing with Him; and Allaah The Most High replies with that to each of them – whilst there is no situation that busies Him from another situation.
It is just as was said to Ibn ‘Abbaas: ‘How will Allaah The Most High reckon the creation in a single hour?’ So he said: ‘Just as He provides them with sustenance in a single hour.’
_________________________
* Reported by Al-Bukhaaree as Hadeeth no. 7494 & 6321 and Muslim as no. 1769 and Aboo Dawood as no. 1315 & 4733 and At-Tirmidhee as no. 3498.
** Reported by Muslim as Hadeeth no. 876 and Ahmad in his Musnad as no. 7836 and Baihaqi in Qiraa’ah khalf Al-Imaam as no.52
Shaykh ul-Islaam Ibn Taymiyyah
or
"...When half o a third of the night passes by, Allah descends to the lowest heaven and says: 'No one asks more about my servants thatn myself. Who is asking me, so I can give to him? Who is calling uon me, so I can answer him? who is seeking my forgiveness, so I can forgive him?'". I got two questions about this hadith.
How sahee ( or correct ) is this hadith.
And second, what meaning is this hadith?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Your question covers two matters:
1 – The extent to which this hadeeth is saheeh.
This hadeeth is a saheeh hadeeth which is proven in the soundest two books after the Book of Allaah. It was narrated by al-Bukhaari in his Saheeh (1145) and by Muslim (1261) from Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him), that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The Lord descends every night to the lowest heaven when one-third of the night remains and says: ‘Who will call upon Me, that I may answer Him? Who will ask of Me, that I may give him? Who will seek My forgiveness, that I may forgive him?’”
This hadeeth was narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) by approximately twenty-eight of the Sahaabah (may Allaah be pleased with them) and the Ahl al-Sunnah are unanimously agreed that it is to be accepted.
2 – What is meant by the descent of Allaah – may He be exalted – to the lowest heaven:
It should be noted that the descent of the Lord – may He be exalted – to the lowest heaven is one of the actions that are attributed to Him and has to do with His will and wisdom. It is descending in a real sense, in a manner that befits His majesty and might. Allaah descends however He wills, whenever He wills. Glory be to Him, there is nothing like unto Him and He is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing. It is not permissible to distort the meaning of the hadeeth by saying that what is meant is that His command or mercy descends, or that one of His angels descends. This is false for several reasons:
(i) This misinterpretation goes against the apparent meaning of the hadeeth. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) attributed descent or the act of descending to Allaah, and the basic principle is that a thing is attributed to the one who does it, so if it is attributed to someone else, that is a distortion that goes against this basic principle. We know that the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) is the most knowledgeable of all people about Allaah, and that he (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) is the most eloquent of mankind and the most truthful in what he says. There are no lies in his speech and it is impossible for him to attribute something to Allaah that is not one of His names or attributes or actions or rulings. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And if he (Muhammad) had forged a false saying concerning Us (Allaah),
45. We surely would have seized him by his right hand (or with power and might),
46. And then We certainly would have cut off his life artery (aorta)”
[al-Haaqqah 69:44-46]
Moreover the only intention of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) was to guide mankind, so if he said, “Our Lord descends” and someone else says something that runs contrary to the apparent meaning of these words, such as saying that His command descends, then we say: Do you have more knowledge about Allaah than the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)? The Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said, “Our Lord descends” but you say His command descends. Or are you more sincere towards the ummah than he was, since he (allegedly) concealed what he was supposed to tell them and told them something different. Undoubtedly the person who tells the people one thing but means something else is not sincere towards them. Or do you think that you are more eloquent than the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him)?! Undoubtedly such a misinterpretation implies that one is accusing the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) of some kind of shortcoming that a Muslim can never accept on the part of the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).
(ii) The descent of His command and mercy is not restricted to this part of the night, rather His command and mercy descend all the time. If it is said that what is meant is a specific command or specific mercy which does not happen all the time, the answer to that is that if we assume that this interpretation is correct, then the hadeeth indicates that where the descent of this thing ends is in the lowest heaven, so what benefit can it be to us if mercy descend to the lowest heaven without reaching us? Why would the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) even tell us about it?
(iii) The hadeeth indicates that the One Who descends says: “Who will call upon Me, that I may answer Him? Who will ask of Me, that I may give him? Who will seek My forgiveness, that I may forgive him?” No one can say that except Allaah, may He be exalted.
See: Majmoo’ Fataawa wa Rasaa’il al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al-‘Uthaymeen, 1/203-210.
Islam Q&A
Ohh and JazakAllah for your replyyyy 