[ This is Part Four of the article, Splitting into Groups and Parties, by Shaykh Muhammad Naasir ad-Deen al-Albaanee (d.1420) – may Allaah have Mercy on him.  Here, the shaykh elaborates on another specific example of classic differing. ]

…Let me give you another example, and I will sum up our talk with this one. I am only bringing a lot of examples here because of the importance of this point, for I have seldom found it explained clearly and properly in the books of the scholars. In the Musnad of Al-Imaam Ahmad, the Mustadrak of Al-Haakim, the Sunan of Al-Bayhaqee, and other books of the Sunnah, there is another report on the authority of Jaabir (may Allaah be pleased with him) wherein he said, “We were out with the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) during a battle when we killed a woman from the polytheists…”

I need to make a side note here, and I hope it will be very brief: This hadeeth does not contradict the narration wherein the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) prohibited the killing of women and children. [1] That is because the prohibition has its proper place, and the killing mentioned here in the hadeeth of Jaabir has another place. The prohibition is applied to women that do not take part in the battlefield against the Muslims. This also applies to children, as they are also not part of the fighting armies.

Let us go back to Jaabir’s narration, “…we killed a woman from the polytheists…” meaning from those who were fighting. He went on, “…and her husband was absent. When he returned and was informed of what happened, he vowed not to enter the village until after he had taken revenge on the Companions of the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) for her killing. So he followed the Companions’ footsteps, tracking them down…”

It is well known that the Arabs used to know how to track people proficiently by following after their footsteps. They used to have this skill of tracing footsteps, in fact it is what led them to discover the hiding place of the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) in the cave the day he made hijrah from Makkah to Al-Madeenah. It was his footsteps that led them to know that the Messenger (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) had reached that place since the footsteps had disappeared. But Allaah blinded their vision so they could not see the Messenger (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) nor his companion in the cave.

When his companion (Aboo Bakr As-Siddeeq) saw the feet of the polytheists, he became afraid, not for his own self, but for the sake of his Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam). So he (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) said:

( Do not grieve, for verily Allaah is with us. )

Something must be said here about what has been mentioned in some books of hadeeth, and in books of seerah as well, that the disbelievers of Quraysh, after having tracked their fugitives to the cave, saw that a dove had made its nest at the entrance of the cave, and a spider had spun a web there as well, so they allegedly said, “It is not possible for anyone to be in this cave,” and departed.

This is not authentic. As for the chain of this hadeeth, it is not authentic. Furthermore there is a strong, authentic narration stating that Allaah, the Mighty and Majestic, ordered an angel to spread his wings over the cave’s entrance, and thus they did not see them.

Let us return to our hadeeth of the polytheist that tracked the army waging war on the village. He reached their place of rest for the night, which was in a valley. As was the Prophet’s way in organizing the military, he (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) said to his Companions:

“Who will stand guard tonight?”

So two young men from the Ansaar stood up, one from the tribe of Al-Ows, the other from Al-Khazraj. They said, “We will, O Messenger of Allaah!” He (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) said to them:

“Take your places at the opening of the mountain passage.”

So they went off. The polytheist was watching them from afar, waiting for his chance to fulfill his vow to get revenge for his wife. When they got to their post, the place where they were to watch over the sleeping army, the two decided to split the duty. One of them would stand guard half the night while the other slept, then they would trade places.

So then an idea came to the first one on guard, he decided to combine two forms of worship at one time – the worship of guarding the Muslim army and the worship of prayer in the tranquility of the night. So he began to pray. This is when the polytheist who was hiding behind a rock took his opportunity. He threw a spear at the praying guard, placing it in his leg. So the Companion only removed the spear and tossed it on the ground, and the blood began to stream down his leg. When the polytheist saw that his target had not ceased standing, it made him know that he was still alive of course, so he struck him with another spear, placing it in his leg. Then he struck him with another, a total of three spears hitting his target.

From Jaabir’s precise use of words, he said that he “placed” [2] the spear in his leg, and “placing” is normally done by the hand. He used this word to stress the precision found in the throws, as if he placed the spear directly in him manually (without throwing it).

Even through all of this, the Companion continued his prayer without cutting it off, while the blood poured from him. He completed two rak’ahs. Then he either woke his companion up, or he woke up on his own. When his companion saw the blood, he inquired about it and asked what had caused it.

He said, “I swear by the One in whose Hand is my soul, verily I was in the middle of a soorah, and if I had not been afraid of failing to guard the passageway that the Messenger of Allaah assigned me to, then I would still be reading it.” Meaning that he remembered while praying that he was on duty to watch over the sleeping army, a duty that the Messenger (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) assigned him.

So if he would have continued his prayer, allowing the sweetness of his private discourse in front of Allaah to keep him, the polytheist would have continued to strike him, then he may have been killed during that prayer, thus not fulfilling his duty and possibly allowing the enemy to attack the Muslims. For that reason, he contented himself with only two rak’ahs of prayer. He did not do that fearing his own life – no! He only did that fearing the destruction of the Companions that would have followed his death, as the enemies would have been able to attack them due to his failure.

We have reached the end of this story. The reference point from it is that some of the imaams used it as a proof that wudhoo’ is not broken by bleeding, and rightly so. Since, if wudhoo’ is broken upon bleeding, this man would not have continued praying. Those who oppose them say that this was his personal action only. Those being refuted say, “Yes, but this was a man from the Companions of the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam).” So they reply, “There is nothing in the hadeeth indicating that the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) knew anything about this.”

We answer them with two things, and there is an answer for them in the story of Mu’aath (may Allaah be pleased with him) that has preceded as well. But there is something stronger than that in these two answers:

1 – This man was appointed to a duty by the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam). He suffered these injuries in such a situation, while worshipping, maintaining his good spirit. Is it possible for the commander of army to be ignorant about an event like this, any army commander?! So then what if that commander was the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam)? It is extremely, extremely unlikely that this could have happened without the Messenger of Allaah’s knowledge (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam).

Therefore, the correct position is that the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) was aware of this event. Built on this, if bleeding is something that breaks wudhoo’, then he (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) surely would have made it clear. As is well known in the fundamentals of fiqh, “It was not permissible (for the Messenger) to delay clarification beyond the time of need.”

Translated by: Moosaa Richardson [3]

[ Review Part 3 ] – [ Read Part 5 ]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] An authentic hadeeth collected by Al-Bukhaaree (2/251), Muslim (5/144), Aboo Daawood (#2668), Ibn Maajah (#2841), At-Tirmithee (1/297), and others on the authority of ‘Abdullaah ibn Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him).

[2] In ‘Arabic: wadha’a

[3] Source: Recording no. 602 of the Silsilah al-Hudaa wan-Noor series.