THERE IS NO HARM BETWEEN THE PROPHET’S AGE VARIATION 60 & 63
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All praise and adoration belong to Allah subhaanahu wa ta’aala, we seek His blessing upon the noble soul of our prophet Muhammad bn Abdullah salla llahu alayhi wa salam, thereafter ;
The Messenger of Allah – sallallahu alayhi wasallam – said, “This knowledge will be conveyed in successive generations by its trustworthy ones; they will rid it of the distortions of the extremists, the false attributions of the liars and the misinterpretations of the ignorant…” -Reported by Al-Bayhaqi with sound isnaad.
There is an indication in this narration that the ignorant and extremists will not cease to exist, likewise the trustworthy ones. The former will be attributing lies and misinterpretations against the texts of the Qur’an and Hadeeth, while the later will rid it of their distortions and self attributions. We ask Allah subhaanahu wa ta’aala to count us among the trustworthy ones.
Moreover, it has emerged recently in this country of ours the similitude of the people the prophet صل الله عليه وسلم was referring to in this hadeeth even when this emergence is not new in the history of Islam.
People of these kind emerged in the past and the trustworthy ones gave necessary refutations to their distortions, false attributions and misinterpretations. These efforts resulted in several books written on the subject by some eminent scholars of sunnah, the likes of Shaykhul-Islam Ibn Taymiyah in his “Darhu” and Ibn qutaybah in his “Jamu’u” to mention but a few.
Ibn hazm said in his book Al-Ihkaam: ‘The fact that some texts seem contradictory on face value to the lay man view is established…’ end qoute.
However, when the said matters were presented to the scholars in that discipline they resolve the contradictions either by:
1: Al-Jam’u (Reconciliation /Combination when the both narrations are authentic and this is where they employ the Qaa’idah (Principle):
الجمع مقدم علي الترجيح
“Combining the texts is preferred to giving preponderance (to one over the other).”
2: An, Naskh (Abrogation): Considering the later text as abrogating the former when Al-Jam’u is not possible. In this case they apply the qaaidah:
العمل بالمتأخر منهما عند التعذر (النسخ)
3: At-Tarjeeh (Weighing): Giving preponderance to one text and discountenancing the other when the two earlier mentioned option fail. Here they apply the qaaidah
وإن لم يعلم المتقدم منهما والمتأخر ، فيرجَّح بينهما بوجوه الترجيح الكثيرة
We should add here, that the bases of giving preponderance to one text over the other are more numerous (more than 50), as have been compiled by Al-Haafiz Abu Bakr Al-Haazimiy in the introduction of his book An-Naasikhu wal Mansuukh.
With this little introduction My dear reader, may Allah be pleased with you, you will agree with me that Islam is a knowledge based religion and Allah has ensured its safety through trustworthy scholars and students of knowledge.
Now come along with me we re-solve the seeming contradiction in between the following Ahadeeth;
1: Abdullah bin A’mru reported that the prophet صل الله عليه وسلم said Ee’sa (Jesus Christ) will descend at the last hour and his duration on earth will be seven years…’ -Reported by Muslim.
2: Abu Hurayrah reported that the prophetصل الله عليه وسلم said: “Ee’sa (Jesus Christ) will descend at the last hour and his duration on earth will be forty years…” Hadeeth Saheeh Reported by Haakim and Ad-Dhahabiyy agreed with him.
This equation is very simple even when we expect those that opposed Jesus second coming to bring this forth as one of their concrete evidences to affirm their stance but I guess they never came across it.
Alhamdulillaah, we give thank to Allah for our well being in Aqeedah, Fiqh, Sunnah and following the path of the pious and rightly guided predecessors.
Wallahi most of these matters is not really new to us – Students of Knowledge – when they were raised by the people of desires in other to dent the compilation of our Prophetic legacy like Saheeh Al-Bukhaari or any of the compilers the like Al-Imaam Al-Bukhaari or narrators the like of Abu Hurayrah.
Why? Because Allah has favoured us by allowing come across those matters and their respective rejoinders/refutations more than a decade ago before their own discovery in Ramadan 1437 H. Allah’s aid is sought.
My dear reader without wasting much of your MB, let us quickly solve the equation mentioned above using the combination formula 1 which says :
الجمع مقدم علي الترجيح
“Combining the texts is preferred to giving preponderance (to one over the other).”
Our scholars may Allah be pleased with them, while solving this equation said: the narrations of 7 and 40 are harmonic, since Ee’sa (Jesus Christ) has spent 33 years before his ascension the heaven. If we remove that from 40, it gives us the answer of 7 years mentioned in the narration of Abdullah bn Amru. Also, adding 33 years which he had spent before ascension to the 7 years he will spend as found in the narration gives 40 found in narration of Abu Hurayrah. Allahu Akbar!!!
ANY HARM BETWEEN THE PROPHET’S AGE VARIATION 60 & 63 ?
Now lets turn to the age of the Prophet at his death: 60 or 63 years.
Many people have raised this specific matter with different intentions, none of them exceed the following three (3) categories;
1: To Fault the Book Saheeh Al-Bukhaari and its author Imaam Al-Bukhaari. These include Sabitu Oyegoke and every other arsenal of Mudeer Markaaz (Agege) May Allah guide him aright.
2: To make an enquiry and scholastic clarification on the variances in between the reported ages i.e. Adékúnle Al-Miftau Adeîte May Allah preserve him upon good.
3: To Defend Qur’an in their own view when Hadeeth seems contradictory to them i.e some commentators on Adékúnle time line.
We wish to inform Sabitu Oyegoke regarding his write-up as copied by Adekunle Al-Miftau Adeîte on his time-line ( https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10209073082120899&id=1133706774 ), that this issue is not new and has been resolved by the scholars of Islam more than a thousand years ago.
He brought two narrations about the age of the Prophet in Saheeh Al-Bukhaari that appear to contradict one another;
1: The narration of Anas that the Prophet
صل الله عليه وسلم
died at the age of 60 …’ – Saheeh Al-Bukhaari, #5900)
2: The narration of Aisha that the Prophet
صل الله عليه وسلم
died at the age of 63.’
– Saheeh Al-Bukhaari, #4466)
The two cited hadeeth are reported by Bukhaari and Muslim. Even when Oyegoke’s reference was just Google and paste … see Adekunle Al Miftahu Adeîte time line ( https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10209073082120899&id=1133706774 )
To tell Sabitu Oyegoke and their entire arsenal that this 60, 63 variation is not harmful at all, we will bring you another narration now reported by Muslim in his Saheeh that says the Prophet’s age was 65 when he died and that is the narration of Ibn Abbas in Saheeh Muslim Hadeeth #2353!!!
I believe had you come across this narration, you would have put it forward, but we thank Allah that we have brought it to your notice, so that we can clear your distortions at once and at the same time render your defense of Mudeer null !!!
My readers – May Allah have mercy upon you all – Don’t let us border ourselves to use any of the 3 formulae mentioned above to solve the variation differences in the Prophet’s age when he died – 60, 63, 65 – making 3 ages, because none of the 3 formulae is applicable here. If you would recall, I mentioned above that the bases of granting preponderance to some texts over others are more than 50 as these was compiled by Al-Haafiz Abu Bakr Al-Haazimiy in the introduction of his book “An-Naasikhu wal Mansuukh.’
One of such bases is going to be applied here and that is “Al -Kasru”(الكَسْر) and that means, considering the round up figure.
This “Al-Kasru” is just one out of the 3 solutions scholars have provided to solve this seeming discrepancy in the Prophet’s reported age at death. However, I will keep the remaining two for future reference Inshallah.
How come? Then we say there is no contradiction among the figures in as much 60 and 65 could be round up figures of 63. Certainly he could not have died on three different occasions. His age at death was 63 and the other narrator simply gave round figure. When rounded to the nearest ‘five’ his age would be given as 65 and when rounded to the nearest ten, it would be 60. This is something we do in mathematics all the time depending on the accuracy desired. None would query a Mathematician for approximating a real number. When rounded to the nearest hundred, 286 becomes 300. When rounded to the nearest tenth, 1.63 becomes 1.6. This is also commom in reports, often do we hear on news relays that 50 died in motor accident while upon reading the entire report, the number is given as actually a little less e.g. 48 or 49, or a little more e.g. 51 or 52.
So what is the HARM?
WRITTEN BY
ABU AYMAN AL-ASALIYY
RAMADAN 28 1437 H
AL QATAMIYAH NASR CITY,
CAIRO, EGYPTTHERE IS NO HARM BETWEEN THE PROPHET’S AGE VARIATION 60 & 63
English 