The incident of Imam Ibn Sireen (May Allah shower His Mercy on him)

 

The incident of Imam Ibn Sireen

(May Allah shower His Mercy on him)

 

It is not binding on us that if any person comes and offers us the teachings of the Holy Quran and Hadith, that we should accept it.  Our Pious Predecessors have taught us that if an unreliable person offers to teach us the Holy Quran, even then we shouldn’t listen to him.

 

There is a Hadith in Sunan Daarimi:

 

Translation: Two people came to Ibn Sireen (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) who were the followers of desire (i.e. not from the Ahle Sunnah).

 

They told Hadhrat Ibn Sireen (May Allah shower His Mercy on him):  We will relate a Hadith to you.

 

Imam Ibn Sireen (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) said:  I will not hear it.

 

They said:  Listen to a verse of the Holy Quran at least.

 

The Imam said:  You leave immediately.  I am leaving now.

 

People said:  O Shaykh!  If you had listened to a verse of the Holy Quran, what harm would it have done?

 

The Imam said:  If they had changed the meaning of the verse and that had taken root in my heart, it would have been really dangerous.

 

Just see!  Those people must have gone to their community and portrayed Ibn Sireen (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) as a prejudiced bigot and what not, that he didn’t hear any Hadith nor anything from the Holy Quran.  In fact, using the verse of the Holy Quran which commands the believers to keep quiet and listen to the Holy Quran, they must have proved that Imam Ibn Sireen (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) is not a Muslim at all!  ….God knows what else they might have said and how they might have tried to declare the Imam as a disbeliever.

 

However, Muslims cannot even think that such a great Imam would have refused to listen to the Holy Quran only because he had not read the aforementioned verse of the Holy Quran or because he did not want to act upon this verse, but the reason was that if the Holy Quran is recited with the intention of recitation or with good intention, then listening to it is Compulsory (Wajib).

 

However, those who follow their own desires, they don’t have these intentions.  Their intentions are to implant their falsehoods using the Holy Quran and Hadith.  (Haqeeqatul Fiqh, Vol. 2, Pg. No. 59, 60, 61)