Keeping the Nisbah
Ḥaḍrat Mufti Mūsā Badāt (raḥimahullāh)
- Iṣlāḥī Majlis, the final majlis
- 3 August 2025
- Madressa Mahmoodia, Batley Carr
- In Urdu
In this majlis
Ḥaḍrat Mufti Ṣāḥib picks up from the previous majlis, where he described the kinds of nisbah (connection with Allah). He says this connection, once gained in the company of the pious, has to be kept, and that it is kept by acting on one’s maʿmūlāt. He then reads, with his own comments, from the introduction (muqaddimah) of a commentary on Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī which he says he loves, because of its advice to students.
- The Ṣaḥābah acted on whatever they heard from the Prophet ﷺ at once. The story of ʿUmar ibn Abī Salamah: “Say Bismillāh, eat with your right hand, eat from what is in front of you”, and he ate that way for the rest of his life.
- Ḥadīth is read to be acted on. The Qurʾān is a proof for you or against you.
- Mufti Muḥammad Rafīʿ ʿUthmānī’s saying that in our madāris the dīn is “taught but not trained”, with the examples of cooking, tailoring and doctors, who must train under an expert before they may practise.
- His own stories: Mufti Maḥmūd Ḥasan Gangohī correcting a missed khilāl in wuḍūʾ; Shāh ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Rāipūrī grieving over a missed khilāl at the end of his life; Muḥammad ʿAlī Jauhar, mistaken for a non-Muslim in Saharanpur jail because he had no beard, who then kept one at the hand of Mawlānā Ḥusain Aḥmad Madanī.
- Ḥadīth is not a theoretical science; orientalists research it more than we do, yet success is in īmān and action.
- Being born to Muslim parents is a great favour, because society so often stops people accepting the truth. The death of Abū Ṭālib (Bukhārī): “I choose the Fire over shame.”
- The Prophet ﷺ had both daʿwah and grief for people; we have kept the daʿwah but lost the grief.
- Guidance is in Allah’s hand alone (al-Qaṣaṣ 28:56), and Ḥaḍrat Bilāl’s joy at that.
- In summary: the nisbah stays through action, action comes through himmah, and himmah comes from the company of the pious. He closes with how his teacher Mufti Ismāʿīl Ṣāḥib sits in iʿtikāf for the whole of Ramaḍān every year, as he learned from Shaykh Zakariyyā. The recording ends there, mid-thought.
Malfūẓāt
Passages from this majlis in English. Press the time to hear him say it.
- 4:51
On Taṣawwuf
I say it again and again: this taṣawwuf is nothing separate from the Qurʾān and Ḥadīth.
His own words
- 8:58
On Changing Our Ways
We are told not once, but a hundred times, yet we are not ready to change our ways. We hear the sayings of the Prophet ﷺ, yet some wrong habit of ours, we never change it our whole life. Then from where will guidance come?
Read out from the book he was teaching
- 9:27
The Right of the Prophet's Words
The right of the words of the Prophet ﷺ is this: whatever you hear on any day, from that very moment, bring it into practice. Such was the value, in the hearts of the Ṣaḥābah, of the blessed words of the Prophet ﷺ.
Read out from the book he was teaching
- 12:09
Why Ḥadīth Is Read
In short: when we read ḥadīth, it demands that we act upon it, and strive to bring change into our lives. Ḥadīth is read for this very reason: that through it, we reform ourselves.
His own words
- 13:45
Reading and Learning
The knowledge of ḥadīth is not only to be read; it is to be learned. He then gives an example, explaining: the knowledge of ḥadīth, and of the Qurʾān, is not merely for reading, but for learning. The two are different. The best and firmest way to remember aḥādīth is to begin acting upon them. If, along with memorising, you also begin to act, you will need little effort to remember. For whatever you hear, if you put it into practice, it will stay with you by itself.
His own words, then read from the book
- 24:19
On the Sunnah of the Beard
We, in good health, make wuḍūʾ and forget the khilāl. Shāh ʿAbd al-Raḥīm Rāipūrī (raḥimahullāh): in his final days, his attendant was helping him with wuḍūʾ, and the khilāl of his beard was missed. He let out a sigh and said: “A sunnah that never left me my whole life has left me before death.” This is how he would take water for khilāl, as in the narration of khilāl in Abū Dāwūd. See, these were people of action. I always say: those who do not keep a beard are deprived of two sunnahs. First, the sunnah of the beard itself, and on top of that, its khilāl as well.
His own words
- 29:37
Knowledge for Living
This is not a theoretical science. The knowledge of ḥadīth is not a theoretical science like logic or philosophy. Rather, it exists so that we act upon it, and shape our lives according to it.
Read out from the book he was teaching
- 30:36
True Success
If mere reading and academic research were a sign of success, then people of other faiths, even today Jews and Christians, carry out a great deal of research. But this too is not success. Why? Because success lies in īmān and action, success lies in īmān and action, not merely in academic information.
Read out from the book he was teaching
- 31:33
The Gift of Īmān
We owe Allah thanks and gratitude that He had us born in the home of Muslim parents, and, without our lifting a finger, freely granted us the wealth of īmān.
Read out from the book he was teaching
- 34:31
Where Courage Comes From
In acting on the dīn, he is telling us: we keep reading aḥādīth, we keep reading the dīn, but when it comes to acting, our society and our people will stand in the way. Courage is needed. So where will this courage to act on the dīn come from? From the company of the pious. That is where this courage comes from.
His own words
- 38:48
The Grief of the Prophet ﷺ
In the Prophet ﷺ there were both: daʿwah, and grief. Today daʿwah remains among us, and teaching too. But this grief, this concern that a Muslim be saved from the fire of Jahannam, that a Muslim's child be saved from the fire of Jahannam: this concern has left us. Yet this is the very soul of it all.
His own words
- 43:20
Guidance Is in Allah's Hand
“Indeed, you do not guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He wills.” (al-Qaṣaṣ 28:56) Guidance is not in the hand of even a prophet. Allah says: O Prophet, you do not give guidance to whom you wish; Allah gives guidance to whom He wills. That is, Allah has kept guidance in His own hand. In worldly things, people give to one another, but the sharing out of guidance is in Allah's hand alone. Once, Ḥaḍrat Bilāl began to dance with joy. He was asked why. He said: “If guidance were in people's hands to share out, it would never have reached us, black, and a slave on top of that. Here, Allah kept it in His own hand.”
His own words
- 44:39
The Purpose of Reading Ḥadīth
So what is the purpose of reading? What is the purpose of reading ḥadīth? To act upon it, and to carry the pain of the Ummah.
His own words
- 46:09
Keeping the Nisbah
This nisbah that has been gained, this connection with Allah, remains through two things. First, through action: one's maʿmūlāt and deeds, such as reciting Sūrah Yāsīn after Fajr, the tasbīḥāt after each of the five prayers, Sūrah Tabārak before sleeping, Sūrah al-Kahf on Friday, and the five daily prayers. Through these deeds, this nisbah remains. And how does action become easy? Action comes through himmah (resolve). And how will this himmah come? Through the company of the pious. Stay in their company, and this himmah will come.
His own words
Transcript
Made by machine and not yet checked by hand. Names, Arabic quotations and some words may be wrong.