Post by littlestudent on Jun 12, 2017 10:10:23 GMT
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم، الحمد لله الذي أطعمنا وسقانا وجعلنا مسلمين، والصلاة والسلام على سيد المرسلين، الذي كان يأكل الطعام ويمشي في الأسواق مع المؤمنين، وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين، أما بعد
It was brought to my attention by a scholar and student of Shaykh ul-Hadith Maulana Fazlur Rahman Azmi (db) that Maulana informed him that the conventional du’aa that is often recited before eating food, i.e. بسم الله وعلى بركة الله , is not authentically established from the ahadith. By this, I do not mean that it is found in a weak hadith, but rather, the du’aa as written above does not appear in any documented hadith. The actual phrasing of the du’aa from hadith, I was told, is as follows: بسم الله وبركة الله (i.e. with the exclusion of the preposition على ). Thus, the translation would become, "with the name of Allah and [with] the blessing of Allah" (the preposition ب will also affect the word بركة).
My curiosity piqued, I decided to do some light research on the matter and started with Imam Ibn al-Jazari’s (ra) Kitab al-Hisn al-Haseen, in which I had recalled seeing the du’aa. Surely enough, I found the du’aa with the preposition على. The reference listed was from the Mustadrak of Hakim (ra), so I looked up the hadith. I found the hadith in the Mustadrak, Chapter of Food, Hadith 7084, and found that the hadith in fact did not have the word على before بركة. Moreover, it seems that the hadith itself was not accurately transmitted in al-Hisn al-Haseen. Imam Ibn al-Jazari writes that the Prophet ﷺ said:
فقولوا بسم الله وعلى بركة الله
“So say, ‘ with the name of Allah and upon the blessing of Allah.’”
However, the hadith in Mustadrak is written differently:
فكلوا بسم الله وبركة الله
"So eat with the name of Allah and [with] the blessing of Allah.”
As you can see, even the commands are different in these two accounts. I dug deeper and found a similar narration of the same hadith in al-Mu’jam al-Awsat of Imam at-Tabrani (Hadith 2247) in which the diction matches more closely to Imam Ibn al-Jazari’s rendition:
فقولوا بسم الله وبركة الله
“So say, ‘ with the name of Allah and [with] the blessing of Allah.’”
The command used in this narration of the hadith matches with what Ibn al-Jazari narrated in his book. However, Ibn al-Jazari’s rendition still has the word على which seems to have no basis from that hadith.
I wondered if Ibn al-Jazari (ra) was the first to transmit the du’aa with the addition of the preposition على, and found that an earlier book, Silaah ul-Mu’min fid-Du’aa wadh-Dhikr, written by Ibn al-Imam (ra), also had the same hadith written identical to how Ibn al-Jazari transmitted it, and also referencing the Mustadrak. It is very probably that Imam Ibn al-Jazari copied the transcription of the hadith from Silaah ul-Mu’min, and it would explain why they contain the same error. Whether or not this addition of على originated with Ibn al-Imam or sooner, I am not sure. It is possible that earlier works may have had it written this way and I simply did not come across them.
What I did discover however, is that the phrases على بركة الله and على البركة are still found in the hadith, but not in the context of food. I managed to find some narrations from books of ahadith that mention these phrases in other contexts:
1. Sunan of Abu Dawud (ra), hadith 4936.
حَدَّثَنَا بِشْرُ بْنُ خَالِدٍ، أَخْبَرَنَا أَبُو أُسَامَةَ، حَدَّثَنَا هِشَامُ بْنُ عُرْوَةَ، بِإِسْنَادِهِ فِي هَذَا الْحَدِيثِ قَالَتْ وَأَنَا عَلَى الأُرْجُوحَةِ، وَمَعِي، صَوَاحِبَاتِي فَأَدْخَلْنَنِي بَيْتًا فَإِذَا نِسْوَةٌ مِنَ الأَنْصَارِ فَقُلْنَ عَلَى الْخَيْرِ وَالْبَرَكَةِ
Aisha (ra) narrates: I was swinging and I had my friends. They brought me to a house; there were some women of the Ansar (Helpers). They said, ‘With good luck and blessing.’
2. Sunan of Ibn Majah (ra), hadith 3616.
فَإِنِّي سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ يَقُولُ " الْحِجَامَةُ عَلَى الرِّيقِ أَمْثَلُ وَفِيهِ شِفَاءٌ وَبَرَكَةٌ وَتَزِيدُ فِي الْعَقْلِ وَفِي الْحِفْظِ فَاحْتَجِمُوا عَلَى بَرَكَةِ اللَّهِ يَوْمَ الْخَمِيسِ...
[Umar (ra) says in a lengthy hadith]: For I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘Cupping on an empty stomach is better, and in it there is healing and blessing, and it increases one’s intellect and memory. So have yourselves cupped for the blessing of Allah on Thursdays…’
Perhaps the origin of the error of adding على to the supplication before eating food was due confusing the words of these narrations with that of the supplication. Or perhaps the error was made due to the common colloquial use of على before the word بركة . Nevertheless, it seems that simply saying بسم الله would be sufficient in fulfilling the command of the Prophet ﷺ as narrated to us by the companion Umar ibn Abi Salamah (ra), who says that the Prophet ﷺ commanded him to take the name of Allah before eating. As for the du’aa in question, it seems that the Prophet ﷺ told the companions to recite بسم الله وبركة الله . Adding the word على before the word بركة does not appear to change the meaning, as it was a phrase used colloquially by the Arabs in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, but it is also not something that is historically established from the ahadith. As for a jurisprudential or final ruling on this matter, it is not my area as I am neither a muhaddith nor a faqih. I would suggest consulting a scholar.
Any mistake I made above is from me and shaytaan. If there are any inaccuracies in what I have said, please let me know. Allah knows best.
وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وسلم
It was brought to my attention by a scholar and student of Shaykh ul-Hadith Maulana Fazlur Rahman Azmi (db) that Maulana informed him that the conventional du’aa that is often recited before eating food, i.e. بسم الله وعلى بركة الله , is not authentically established from the ahadith. By this, I do not mean that it is found in a weak hadith, but rather, the du’aa as written above does not appear in any documented hadith. The actual phrasing of the du’aa from hadith, I was told, is as follows: بسم الله وبركة الله (i.e. with the exclusion of the preposition على ). Thus, the translation would become, "with the name of Allah and [with] the blessing of Allah" (the preposition ب will also affect the word بركة).
My curiosity piqued, I decided to do some light research on the matter and started with Imam Ibn al-Jazari’s (ra) Kitab al-Hisn al-Haseen, in which I had recalled seeing the du’aa. Surely enough, I found the du’aa with the preposition على. The reference listed was from the Mustadrak of Hakim (ra), so I looked up the hadith. I found the hadith in the Mustadrak, Chapter of Food, Hadith 7084, and found that the hadith in fact did not have the word على before بركة. Moreover, it seems that the hadith itself was not accurately transmitted in al-Hisn al-Haseen. Imam Ibn al-Jazari writes that the Prophet ﷺ said:
فقولوا بسم الله وعلى بركة الله
“So say, ‘ with the name of Allah and upon the blessing of Allah.’”
However, the hadith in Mustadrak is written differently:
فكلوا بسم الله وبركة الله
"So eat with the name of Allah and [with] the blessing of Allah.”
As you can see, even the commands are different in these two accounts. I dug deeper and found a similar narration of the same hadith in al-Mu’jam al-Awsat of Imam at-Tabrani (Hadith 2247) in which the diction matches more closely to Imam Ibn al-Jazari’s rendition:
فقولوا بسم الله وبركة الله
“So say, ‘ with the name of Allah and [with] the blessing of Allah.’”
The command used in this narration of the hadith matches with what Ibn al-Jazari narrated in his book. However, Ibn al-Jazari’s rendition still has the word على which seems to have no basis from that hadith.
I wondered if Ibn al-Jazari (ra) was the first to transmit the du’aa with the addition of the preposition على, and found that an earlier book, Silaah ul-Mu’min fid-Du’aa wadh-Dhikr, written by Ibn al-Imam (ra), also had the same hadith written identical to how Ibn al-Jazari transmitted it, and also referencing the Mustadrak. It is very probably that Imam Ibn al-Jazari copied the transcription of the hadith from Silaah ul-Mu’min, and it would explain why they contain the same error. Whether or not this addition of على originated with Ibn al-Imam or sooner, I am not sure. It is possible that earlier works may have had it written this way and I simply did not come across them.
What I did discover however, is that the phrases على بركة الله and على البركة are still found in the hadith, but not in the context of food. I managed to find some narrations from books of ahadith that mention these phrases in other contexts:
1. Sunan of Abu Dawud (ra), hadith 4936.
حَدَّثَنَا بِشْرُ بْنُ خَالِدٍ، أَخْبَرَنَا أَبُو أُسَامَةَ، حَدَّثَنَا هِشَامُ بْنُ عُرْوَةَ، بِإِسْنَادِهِ فِي هَذَا الْحَدِيثِ قَالَتْ وَأَنَا عَلَى الأُرْجُوحَةِ، وَمَعِي، صَوَاحِبَاتِي فَأَدْخَلْنَنِي بَيْتًا فَإِذَا نِسْوَةٌ مِنَ الأَنْصَارِ فَقُلْنَ عَلَى الْخَيْرِ وَالْبَرَكَةِ
Aisha (ra) narrates: I was swinging and I had my friends. They brought me to a house; there were some women of the Ansar (Helpers). They said, ‘With good luck and blessing.’
2. Sunan of Ibn Majah (ra), hadith 3616.
فَإِنِّي سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ـ صلى الله عليه وسلم ـ يَقُولُ " الْحِجَامَةُ عَلَى الرِّيقِ أَمْثَلُ وَفِيهِ شِفَاءٌ وَبَرَكَةٌ وَتَزِيدُ فِي الْعَقْلِ وَفِي الْحِفْظِ فَاحْتَجِمُوا عَلَى بَرَكَةِ اللَّهِ يَوْمَ الْخَمِيسِ...
[Umar (ra) says in a lengthy hadith]: For I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘Cupping on an empty stomach is better, and in it there is healing and blessing, and it increases one’s intellect and memory. So have yourselves cupped for the blessing of Allah on Thursdays…’
Perhaps the origin of the error of adding على to the supplication before eating food was due confusing the words of these narrations with that of the supplication. Or perhaps the error was made due to the common colloquial use of على before the word بركة . Nevertheless, it seems that simply saying بسم الله would be sufficient in fulfilling the command of the Prophet ﷺ as narrated to us by the companion Umar ibn Abi Salamah (ra), who says that the Prophet ﷺ commanded him to take the name of Allah before eating. As for the du’aa in question, it seems that the Prophet ﷺ told the companions to recite بسم الله وبركة الله . Adding the word على before the word بركة does not appear to change the meaning, as it was a phrase used colloquially by the Arabs in the time of the Prophet ﷺ, but it is also not something that is historically established from the ahadith. As for a jurisprudential or final ruling on this matter, it is not my area as I am neither a muhaddith nor a faqih. I would suggest consulting a scholar.
Any mistake I made above is from me and shaytaan. If there are any inaccuracies in what I have said, please let me know. Allah knows best.
وصلى الله على سيدنا محمد وعلى آله وسلم
