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The Companions who Walked upon Water _ Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih Al-Uthaymeen

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Video Courtesy: Easa Ibn Roy

The following is a summary translation of a Friday Sermon delivered by Shaykh Muhammad Salih bin Uthaymeen may Allah have mercy upon him.

آيات النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ أقسام الأمور الخارقة

Signs of the Prophet ﷺ – Categories of miraculous events

In the second portion of the sermon the Shaykh said…

All praises belong to Allah, all praises belong to Allah, I praise Him, I thank Him, I repent to Him and I seek His forgiveness. And I bear witness that nothing has the right to be worshipped except for Allah alone without partners. And I bear witness that Muhammad is his slave and His Messenger. Allah sent him with the guidance and the true religion. Thus he conveyed the message, fulfilled the trust, and advised the Ummah. And he left it upon clarity; its night is like its day. Allah protected His religion and His legislation such that the distorters are unable to distort it. So when they deviated Allah exposed their secrets. So may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him and upon his Family and his Companions and those that follow them in goodness until the Day of Judgment. As to what follows…

O people, verily the abnormal or miraculous affairs that occur outside they realm of what the people are used to as it relates to the affairs of the universe, can be categorized into three categories.

The first category is the miracles given to the Prophets. And it is known that these types of signs will not be given to anyone after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, because anyone who claims to be a prophet after Muhammad ﷺ, then he is a liar, and a disbeliever and whoever believes that this person is a prophet then he also is a disbeliever; and this is based on the statement of Allah the Exalted, “And Muhammad is not the father of any of you men but rather he is the Messenger of Allah and the seal of the prophets and Allah is the Knower of all things”. (Chapter 33 verse 40)

These signs, meaning the signs of the Prophets have been cut off from the people, thus it is not possible for anyone to come with these signs after Muhammad ﷺ.

As for the Second category then it is the Karaamaat (honor) of the friends of Allah; meaning the Karaamaat that Allah the Blessed and Exalted brings about for some of His friends as an honor for them and to assist them in what they are upon. And in reality this is from the miracles of the Prophet that this Wali is following.

And the Karaamaat are many. They were present in those who came before us and they are present in this Ummah. And they will continue to be present until the Day of Judgment.

And from the signs which were given to those who came before us is that which was given to Mary bint Imraan, may Allah be pleased with her. When she became pregnant and the labor pains came to her she went to the truck of the date palm tree. When the labor pains came she went the trunk of the date palm tree to give birth, as Allah has mentioned. She went to the trunk of the date palm tree and she began to shake the trunk of the tree by the command of Allah and a crop of fresh dates fell upon her. As for the trunk of the date palm tree, then it is known that it is not possible for one person especially a woman during childbirth to shake it, but she shook it. As for the fresh dates, then if they fall from the top of the tree the dates will be bad when they hit the ground. But these dates fell, but it was as though they were gently picked from the tree. And Allah placed a river with her. So she would eat from the dates and she drank from the river. And she went to her people carrying her baby that she delivered. This is from the signs of Allah.

Likewise there is the story of the people of the cave. And from the signs of Allah is the story of the man who passed by a town and it had tumbled over its roofs. He said: “Oh! How will Allah ever bring it to life after its death?

As for this nation, then miraculous signs have occurred, that which is known and has been documented in the books of the people of knowledge; especially the book entitled “The Criterion between the friends of the Most Merciful and the friends of the devil” written by the Shaykh of Islam Ibn Taymiyah, may Allah have mercy upon him and reward him on behalf of the Ummah of Muhammad, with good.

From this is the narration when the Muslims battled the Persians behind the leadership of Sad bin Abi Waqas. When they reached the Tigris River they found the river running with foam and Persians had crossed the river headed to their homeland, and the Persians had destroyed the bridge and sunk all the ships so there did not remain any way for the Muslims to cross the river.

So the army came to Sad Abi Waqas, and he was their leader. They said to him: ‘We do not have the ability (to pursue them).Now they are protected by the sea, and they have destroyed the bridges and sunken the ships.’ ‘We do not have the ability to pursue them.’

So Sad Abi Waqas, may Allah be pleased with him, summoned for Salman Al Farsi. And Salman Al Farsi was from Persia thus he knew the strategies of the Persians.

So he said to Salman, O Salman inform us of something that we can use as a plan against theses enemies of ours. Salman replied by saying: I do not have anything by which I can plot against them except for one thing and that is for the army to be upright upon the religion of Allah.

If they are upright upon the command of Allah and following His messenger, ﷺ, then give them the glad tidings that Allah will make it easy for us to cross this river. Because the One who has made it easy for the people who live here to cross this river (with ships and a bridge) has the ability to make it easy for us to cross it also.

So Salman went and he started to circle around the army; and he found them bowing and prostrating in prayer during the night and preparing for the war during the day. So after three nights he went to Sad and informed him that the army was upon good and well.

Therefore Sad summoned the army and said to them, “I am going to stand upon this river and make three takbeers. So when I have made three takbeers mention the Name of Allah and cross the river because verily Allah will make this easy for us.”

So when they stood upon the river and Sad made three takbeers and then they said in the Name of Allah and they began to cross the river with their horses and the men walking on top of the water while it was flowing. They were held up by the One who holds up the sky and prevents it from falling down upon the earth by His permission.

And the historians have said that if the stallions became tired, Allah would make for them an Island on the river so they could rest on it until their strength returned to them and then they would continue to cross the river.

So when they crossed the river the Persians were stunned and frighten, and they said verily you are not fighting men rather you are fighting the jinn because no man is able to cross the river without a tangible means.

Therefore Allah made a way for the Muslims to conquer the capital of Persia and they seized the crown of Khosrau. And it was a tremendous crown, the likeness of a large tent; it had in it gold and pearls and jewels; that which Allah knows best about it.

And one camel was not able to carry it, so they used two camels and fasten it between the two of them all the way until they reached the city of Medina giving it to the rightly guided leader Umar bin Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him. They placed the crown in front of him and they did not lose even one pearl from the crown.

And they were able to deliver the crown intact despite the long journey they travelled, enduring wind and rain, and enduring the heat of the sun when it was not raining.

When they placed the crown in front of Umar he was impressed and he said, “Verily the people who were able to perform this task are trustworthy”. They replied by saying, “O leader of the faithful, you were trustworthy therefore we were trustworthy. And if you would have consumed then we would have consumed.

Thus ponder my brother, ponder this great honor which is from the miracles of the Prophet ﷺ, because those that crossed the river, only crossed the river to elevate the religion of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. And this is a testimony from Allah for the truthfulness of this noble Prophet ﷺ.

O Allah make us from those who ponder upon Your signs, those that increase us in faith, certainty and love for You, O Lord of all that exist. Verily You have power over all things.

O Allah send the prayers and peace upon Your slave and Your Messenger Muhammad, and upon his Family and his Companions.

http://www.ibnothaimeen.com/all/khotab/article_218.shtml

Translated by Rasheed ibn Estes Barbee
http://mtws.posterous.com/the-companions-who-walked-on-water-explained