In another chapter, Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Urwah al-Hanbali is reported to have said:
“If the heart be pure, clean and sanctified, it will be able to discern between right and falsehood, truth and lie, and guidance and misguidance, especially when being bestowed with illumination and adroitness from the Prophetic light. Only then it shall have the power to penetrate and find out the concealed facts and hidden aspects, with discerning between the veracious and the falsified. And even if correct isnad was combined to a text of composed words ascribed to the Messenger, or feeble isnad to a sahih text, it would be able to distinguish, recognize and taste this, discerning between the lean and strong, correct and false among them, as the Messenger’s words can never be hidden from a sane man who experienced them. For this reason the Prophet (S) said: “Be cautious of the physiognomy of the believer as he sees with the light of Allah.”236 This hadith was reported by al-Tirmidhi from Abu Sa’id. Some of the ancestors commented on the holy Qur’anic verse: “Verily in this are signs for those who scan heedfully, taking the word ‘mutawassimin” to mean those who practise physiognomy (firasah).
Mu’adh ibn Jabal said: “Verily for truth there is a beacon like the road light-stand.”
Further, the sincere pure heart can sense and recognize any deviation and perversion in deeds and conduct. Whenever hearing any hadith, it can immediately recognize its real source, though no one of the memorizers and critics had any say about it. Anyone whose acts be sincerely devoted for Allah, in conformity with the Sunnah, would be able to discern between things: their falsity and truth.
Every truthful smart person is inspired by Allah, the Glorified and Exalted, the ability to discern between truth and falsity as the hadith affirms: “Truth (sidq) is peacefulness and calmness and falsity is suspicion”. He (S) said to Wasibah: “Consult your heart”. The Prophet left his Ummah with clear signs, its night be like its day. And the Messenger’s utterance has a veneration and fluency that no other person can ever possess.
Ibn Taymiyyah says: When the pious heart recommences and seeks its own opinion, this will verily be a legal preponderance. Whenever it appears and that heart comes to think that this matter or that speech being better pleasing to Allah and His Messenger, this would be a preponderance with a legal proof. Mistaken are those who denied the inspiration not being absolutely a means for attaining to realities. As when man does his best and strives on the way of God’s obedience and piety, his preference for what he preponderated would be stronger than numerous feeble evidences. So inspiration of this would be an evidence on its behalf, which is more forceful than many of the weak and fancied analogies, phenomena and istishabat that are used as means of argumentation by those concerned with schools of thought, controversy and usul al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence).
Umar said: “Truth (haqq) is apparent, and can’t be concealed from any intelligent one”. Hudhayfah ibn al-Yeman is reported to have said: “Inside the believer’s heart there is a lamp that is blooming”. And as stronger as faith becoming inside the heart, all things would be disclosed before it and it would be able to recognize and discern the real from the false ones. The opposite is true, that is whenever faith becoming faint, ability to discover realities would become weaker, in the same way as the effect of the strong and weak lamp inside a dark house.
In Sahih al-Bukhari it is reported that the Prophet said: “Among the nations that preceded you there were inspired (muhaddath) people, and if one of them is to be found among my Ummah, Umar shall be verily that one.” The muhaddath is that who is inspired and addressed in secrecy. Abu Sulayman al-Darani used to call Ahmad ibn ‘Asim al-Antaki with the epithet “Heart Spy” (Jasus al-Qulb) due to the sharpness of his physiognomy.
Thus we concluded the briefed quotation from these two chapters.237
Among the criteria through which we can recognize sahih (veracious) hadith, first its being not discarded by good taste and adroitness like hadith of flies, and also its non-being contradictory to the sublime objectives of Islam that are aimed at bringing felicity to man in this world and hereafter.
Notes:
236. Aws ibn Hajar said: The brilliant who suspects you, is like that who has seen and heard.
237. See pp.147-155.
