Ash-Shifa

Kitab Ash-shifa bi Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa, ( _ar. كتاب الشفاء بتعريف حقوق المصطفى, "Healing by the recognition of the Rights of the Chosen one"), of Qadi 'Iyad (d. 544H / 1149CE) is perhaps the most frequently used and commented upon handbook in which Muhammad's life, his qualities and his miracles are described in every detail. Generally known by its short title, Ash-Shifa, this work was so highly admired throughout the Muslim world that it soon acquired a sanctity of its own for it is said: "If Ash-Shifa is found in a house, this house will not suffer any harm...when a sick person reads it or it is recited to him, Allah s.w.t., will restore his health."

ee also

*Sira - Biographies of Muhammed
*List of Islamic texts

Wikisource

From His Book Al-Shifa [http://www.islamicbookstore.com/b3759.html]

Excerpts From the Chapter Entiteled: "The Prophets Knowledge Of The Unseen And Future Events"

With some of mulla Ali al-Qari's commentary on this chapter [1]

Qadi `Iyad says:

The hadiths on this subject are like a vast ocean whose depths cannot be plumbed and which does not cease to overflow. This is one aspect of his miracles which is definitely known. We have many hadiths which have reached us by multiple paths of transmission (tawatur) regarding his familiarity with (ittila`) the Unseen.

Hudahyfa said: "The Messenger of Allah gave us an address in which he did not leave out anything that would happen until the Last Hour came. Whoever remembered it remembered it and whoever forgot it forgot it. Many companions of mine have known it. When any of it came to pass, I would recognize it and remember it as a man remembers the face of a man who has gone away and which he recognizes when he sees him again." Then Hudhayfa said: "I do not know whether my companions may have forgotten or pretended to forget [i.e. to prevent fitna; Qari said: to turn to what is more important] , but Allah's Messenger did not leave out the instigator of a single disaster that was going to happen until the end of the world. There were more than three hundred of them. He named them for us, each with his name, the name of this father and his tribe." [2]

Abu Dharr said [from Abu al-Darda'] : "When the Messenger of Allah left us there was not a bird that flies in the sky but that he had given us some knowledge about it." [3]

The compilers of the Sahih [4] and the Imams [5] have related what he taught his Companions and family about regarding his promises to them of victory over his enemies, the conquest of Mecca, Jerusalem, the Yemen, Syria and Iraq, and the establishment of security so that a woman could go from Hira in Iraq to Mecca fearing none but Allah.

He said that Madina would be raided and Khaybar would be conquered by `Ali the next day. He foretold those parts of the world that Allah was going to open up to his community and what they would be given of its flowers and fruits, such as the treasures of Chosroes and Caesar. He told about what would happen among them with regard to sedition, disputes and sectarianism., acting as those before them had done, their splitting into seventy-three sects, only one of which would be saved, that they would spread out in the earth, that people would come would would wear one garment in the morning and another in the evening, and dish after dish would be placed before them. They would embellish their houses as the ka`ba is embellished. Then he said at the end of the hadith: "Today you are better than you will be on that day."

He said that they would strut about on the earth and that the girls of Persia and Byzantium would serve them. Allah would would withdraw their strength from them and the evil ones would overcome the good. They would fight the Turks and the Khazars and Byzantium. Chosroes and Persia would be obliterated so that there would be no Chosroes or Persia afterwards. Caesar would pass away and there would be no Caesar after him. He mentioned that Byzantium would continue generation after generation until the end of time. The noblest and best people would be taken away. When the time grew near, knowledge would be taken away, and sedition and bloodshed would appear. He said: "Alas for the Arabs for an evil that draws near!"

The earth was rolled up for him so that he could see its eastern and western extremities and the dominion of his community was to reach what was rolled up for him. That is why it has extended from the east to the west, from the Indies in the east to the sea of Tangier, beyond which is no civilization. That was not given to any of the nations. Islam did not extend to the north and south in the same way.

He said: "The people of the west (ahl al-gharb) will know the truth until the Hour comes." Ibn al-Madini [6] believed that his refers to the Arabs because they are distinguished by drinking from a certain kind of leather bucket (al-gharb). Another believed that it refers to the people of the Maghrib.

In a hadith from Abu Umama, the Prophet said: "A group of my Community will remain constant to the truth, conquering their enemy until the command of Allah comes to them while they are still in that condition." He was asked, "Messenger of Allah, where are they?" He replied: "In Jerusalem." [7]

He foretold the kingdom of the Umayyads and the rule of Mu`awiya and counselled him and said that the Umayyads would make the kingdom of Allah a dynasty. He said that the descendents of al-`Abbas would emerge with black banners and would rule a far larger area than they now ruled.

He said that the Mahdi would appear and told about what the Ahl al-Bayt, the Prople of his house, would experience and about their slaughter and exile.

He foretold the murder of `Ali and said that the most wretched of people would be his killer [this is `Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam] and that `Ali would be the apportioner of the Fire -- his friends would enter the Garden and his enemies the Fire. Among those who would oppose him would be the Kharijis and the Nasibiyya and a sgroup who claimed to follow him among the Rafidis would reject him.

He said: "`Uthman will be killed while reciting the Qur'an. Perhaps Allah will have him wearing a shirt [i.e. the Caliphate] . They will want to remove it and his blood will fall on his utterance of Allah's words: "Allah is enough for you against them." (2:137).

He said that sedition would not apprear as long as `Umar was alive, al-Zubayr would fight against `Ali, the dogs of al-Haw'ab [8] would bark at one of his wives and many would be killed around her and she would barely escape. They barked at `A'isha when she went to Basra.

He said that `Ammar would be killed by an unjust group and the companions of Mu`awiya killed him [at Siffin] . He said to `Abdullah ibn Zubayr: "Woe to the people from you [i.e. they will be punished for killing him unjustly] and woe to you from the people [i.e. al-Hajjaj will attack you] !"

He said about Quzman [one of the worst hypocrites] : "He will be tested together with the Muslims although he is one of the people of the Fire," and later Quzman committed suicide.

He said that a group which included Abu Hurayra, Samura ibn Jundub and Hudhayfa: "The last of you will die in a fire [in this world, not the next] ." They kept asking about each other, and Samura was the last of them to die when he was old and senile. He tried to warm himself over a fire and burned himself in it.

He said about Hanzala al-Ghasil (Washed-by-the-Angels): "Ask his wife about him. I saw the angels washing him." They asked her and she said: "He left (for jihad) in janaba (state of major ritual defilement after sexual intercourse) and died before he could do ghusl (major ablution)." Abu Sa`id said: "We found his head dripping with water."

He said: "The khalifate is with Quraysh. This business will remain with Quryash as long as they establish the Religion."

He said: "There will be one liar and one destroyer (kadhdhab wa mubir) from Thaqif." It was thought that this referred to al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf and al-Mukhtar ibn `Ubayd. [9]

Notes

[1] The translation from Qadi `Iyad is by `A'isha Bint `Abdurrahman Bewley with slight modifications, from the Madinah Press edition entitled Muhammad Messenger of Allah: ash-Shifa' of Qadi `Iyad, 2nd ed. (Granada: Madinah Press, 1992) p. 186-193.

[2] Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud.

[3] Narrated in Tabarani and Ahmad with a sound (sahih) chain according to Haythami in Majma` al-zawa'id. Also narrated by Abu Ya`la and Ibn Mani`.

[4] Those who strictly bound themselves to the criteria of soundness in narrating hadith, such as Bukhari, Muslim, Ibn Hibban, Ibn Khuzayma, and al-Hakim in their well-known books.

[5] Such as Malik, Ahmad, and the rest of the authors of the Six Books and others, i.e. those who did not strictly bind themselves to the criteria of soundness in narrating hadith.

[6] al-Imam al-hafiz Abu al-hasan `Ali ibn `Abd Allah al-Madini (pr. ma-dEE-ni). He narrated hadith from his father and from Hammad ibn Zayd and a large number of hadith masters. From him narrated Bukhari, Abu Dawud, al-Baghawi, Abu Ya`la. His shaykh `Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi said: "`Ali ibn al-Madini is the most knowledgeable of all human beings in the hadith of Allah's Messenger, especially concerning what Ibn `Uyayna narrates. Do you blame me for loving `Ali ibn al-Madini too much? By Allah, I learn more from him than he does from me." Yahya al-Qattan (al-Madini's shaykh and that of Ahmad ibn Hanbal) said the same about him. Bukhari said: "I did not think little of myself except in front of `Ali (ibn al-Madini)." al-Nasa'i said: "It is as if Allah created him only for this science (hadith)." He died in Samarra. The name of Madini is related to the city of the Prophet. This was said by Ibn al-Athir. As for al-Jawhari, he said that the latter would be "Madani" (pr. ma-da-nEE) and that "Madini" was related to the city built by the caliph al-Mansur.

[7] Ahmad and Tabarani from Abu Umama.

[8] A place between Basra and mecca where `A'isha stayed when she was trying to intercede between `Ali and Mu`awiya.

[9] al-Hajjaj was a tyrant while al-Mukhtar was a Khariji.