Virtues of the Night of Mid Sha’ban

For ascertaining the virtue of the night of 15th Sha’ban, there is no need to traverse beyond the confines of what the Fuqaha have transmitted from the Four Madh-habs. The rulings which the early Fuqaha of each Madh-hab transmitted, orally at the beginning, and later through the means of writings, represent the practice (Amal) of the Salaf-us-Saliheen (Khairul Quroon) – a practice that encapsulated the whole of Islam in its most pure and pristine form, centuries before the era in which later Muhadditheen such as Imam Bukhari had even begun their compilation of the Ahadith.

The Four Imams and other Imams of the Khairul Quroon – the Most Superior of Generations as attested to explicitly by Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) – were in fact far superior Fuqaha, Muhadditheen, Zuhhaad (ascetics) than any of the later Muhadditheen such as Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim. Allah (azza wa jal) had sent such Imams of the Khairul Quroon to perform the sacred task of recording, preserving and codifying every aspect of the pure Deen which was already being practised in its most pure and pristine form throughout the whole Islamic Empire during their blessed era. Nothing of this pure Deen was ever lost.

Testifying to the superiority of the first three generations, Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) states:
The superiority mentioned in the Hadeeth above is Mutlaq – it is absolute. It pertains to knowledge, piety, sincerity, and all other praiseworthy qualities. Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim and the other Muhadditheen whose compilations are famous today belonged to the 4th and 5th generation of Muslims.

For the edification of any person whose ears may have been dinned by the Salafi propaganda of only “Bukhari and Muslim” to such an extent that he or she too might have acquired the irrational Salafi belief that no greater Muhadditheen than these two had appeared amongst the Most Superior of Generations, it suffices only to quote the rank of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal in the eyes of Imam Ali ibn al-Madeeni, the teacher of Bukhari in front of whom Imam Bukhari would feel insignificant. Imam Bukhari stated regarding Imam Ali ibn al-Madeeni:
Now, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s superiority to the later Muhadditheen can be understood from the following testimony of Imam Ali bin al-Madeeni:
Another great Muhaddith of that era, Imam Abu Zu’rah gives the following testimony regarding this absolute Master of Hadeeth and Fiqh:
The above statement has been corroborated by the testimony of many other contemporaries of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Committing to memory such a huge number of Ahadeeth was not something completely out of the ordinary during that blessed era, and even during the subsequent eras when the likes of Imam Bukhari, Imam Muslim and others appeared. Imam Bukhari himself stated that he possessed the extraordinary number of 600,000 Ahadeeth – though perhaps such an amount may seem paltry in comparison to what Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal possessed.

And, as explicitly indicated by Rasulullah’s (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) statement, the Aimmah-e-Mujtahideen – the Leaders in the field of Knowledge – of the earlier generations such as the Sahabah (radhiyallahu anhum) and the Tabi’een were even more superior to those who appeared during the era of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

Thus, when someone of the stature of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal or his greatest teacher, Imam Shafi’i, authenticates the Ahadeeth pertaining to the virtue of the night of 15th Sha’baan through their actual Aqeedah (belief) and Amal (practice), as shall be demonstrated below, then there is no need for any further Daleel.

Just as people should be prepared to blindly accept (Taqleed) any Hadeeth that Imam Bukhari deems to be authentic, despite not knowing anything whatsoever of the chain of narration (sanad) or the Jarh (criticism) of any narrators in the chain or any other factors, so too to a far greater extent should people be ready to blindly accept any Ahadeeth that Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal or Imam Shafi’i deem to be authentic – even more so if such Ahadeeth had been accepted as authentic and implemented by virtually the whole Ummah for the past 1400 years.

When Masters of Hadeeth and Fiqh such as Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal or Imam Shafi’i deem the Night of the 15th Sha’baan to be a night of virtue, along with the Aqeedah (belief) that Allah descends to the lowest heaven right from the beginning of this auspicious night – a belief that can only be based on Saheeh Hadeeth – then it is an exercise of great stupidity and futility to attempt an infantile re-analysis of Asaaneed (chains of narration) such as the type al-Albani, the greatest Salafi Hadeeth “expert” of this age, was in the habit of carrying out, and who incidentally was constrained to admit the following indisputable fact, which the Ummah had known all along for the past 1400 years, regarding the night of the 15th of Sha’baan after having painstakingly carried out one such laborious exercise in great stupidity and futility (i.e. a detailed and lengthy re-analysis of the Asaaneed):
Hence, much of the analysis of Ahadeeth being carried out today by self-appointed ‘Mujtahids’ who are barely able to hold more than a smattering of Ahadith in their amnesiac braincells, are exercises in even greater stupidity and futility. Every Tom, *astaghfirullah*, Harry appears to have conferred him or herself, along with his or her fledgling students, the right to make a personal hobby out of analysing the authenticity of Ahadeeth – a hobby with which deviants of all breeds are currently using to select at will which parts of the Deen of the Salaf-us-Saliheen to adopt, and which parts of the Deen to expunge.

The wildly fluctuating conclusions arrived by such self-appointed ‘Mujtahids’ after a thorough analysis of the Ahadeeth pertaining to the 15th of Sha’ban, vividly demonstrate the extremely subjective nature of this satanically misused hobby – one which has encouraged and prized open the door further, to a level never seen before, for each and every other fledgling “student of knowledge” to try their hand at this precarious exercise, and which is directly responsible for the disturbingly rapid increase in the number of Muslims today who have even begun to question or reject the authenticity of Ahadeeth found in previously unassailable collections such as Bukhari and Muslim.

Thus, this article will avoid contributing to the glut of analyses, arriving at wildly differing conclusions, already being propagated widely, and instead suffice with the authentication of the likes of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Imam Shafi’i, along with a number of quotes from the Fuqaha which provide crystal-clear objectivity and clarity on this issue, and which accurately represent the ruling of all Four Madh-habs pertaining to the auspicious occasion of the night of 15th Sha’ban,


Qadi Abu Ya’la narrates with an authentic chain, Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal’s (rahmatullah alayh) explicit statement affirming the fact that the night of Sha’baan is singled out specifically by al-athar (i.e. hadith narration) as one in which Allah descends to the lowest heaven:
It is obvious that the narration (al-athar) referred to above pertains to the numerous Ahadeeth that state that Allah descends to the lowest heaven on the night of the 15th of Sha’ban. Since such an Aqeedah (belief) that Allah descends to the lowest heaven on a particular night can only be based on Qur’an or on undeniably Saheeh Ahadith, this is clear proof that Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal believed that the narrations pertaining to the 15th of Sha’ban are authentic.

Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal also narrates in his own Musnad a narration regarding another virtue of the night of 15th Sha’ban:
Ibn Taymiyyah confirms that Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal believed in the virtue of this night:
Another explicit statement from one of the great Imams of the Salaf-us-Saaliheen confirming the virtue of this night is found in Kitaab ul-Umm of Imam Shafi’i (rahmatullah alayh), in which he mentions the night of 15th Sha’baan alongside other auspicious nights of the year:
Imam Shafi’i continues:
The books of all Four Madh-habs are replete with statements confirming the virtue of this night. To give a glimpse of the acceptance of the virtue of this night by the Ummah – minus a few anomalous opinions – a few such quotes are cited here.

Continued in link below:

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