11 Collections of Forty Ḥadīths Al-Arbaʿīn The Virtues of Shām and its People ا الربعون فی فضائل الشام و اهلها Mufti Shabbir Ahmed Turath Publishing
Contents Publisher s Preface 11 Author s Foreword 15 1. The Virtues of Shām 19 2. The Virtues of Damascus 41 3. The Virtues of some of the Companions who passed away in Shām 49 9
TURKEY Kayseri Konya Port Said Nicosia CYPRUS İ el (Mersin) Beirut LEBANON PALESTINE Yafo Jerusalem Adana Gaziantep Aleppo Latakia Hims Damascus Golan Heights West Bank Amman SYRIA IRAQ Suez The Dead Sea JORDAN 'Aqabah SAUDI ARABIA Tabuk EGYPT This map indicates approximately the area referred to by the Prophet as Ash-Shām
1. The Virtues of Shām Divine protection through the angels of mercy Ḥadīth 1 عن زيد بن ثابت ا النصاري رضي الله عنه قال سمعت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يقول: يا طوبى للشام يا طوبى للشام يا طوبى للشام قالوا: يا رسول الله وبم ذلك قال: تلك مالئكة الله باسطو اجنحتها على الشام ) اخرجه الترمذی والحاکم 19 و احمد وابن حبان والطبرانی( Zayd ibn Thābit al-anṣārī (May Allah be pleased with him) said, I heard the Messenger say: Glad tidings for Shām, glad tidings for Shām, glad tidings for Shām! They said: O Messenger of Allah,
Al-Arbaʿīn what is the reason for this? He replied: The angels of Allah have spread their wings upon Shām. Comments: The spreading of wings upon Shām means that the region and its people are blessed and protected from disbelief 2 as well as calamity and harm 3. Blessed land Ḥadīth 2 عن عبد الله بن عمر رضي الله عنهما ان رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم قال: اللهم بارك لنا في شامنا وبارك لنا في يمننا قالوا: وفي نجدنا قال اللهم بارك لنا في شامنا وبارك لنا في يمننا قالوا وفي نجدنا قال: هناك الزالزل والفتن وبها- او قال- منها يخرج قرن الشيطان )رواه الترمذی( ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar (May Allah be pleased with them) reports that the Prophet said, O Allah! Bestow blessings on our Shām, and bestow blessings on our Yemen. The people said: And also on our Najd. He said: O Allah! Bestow blessings on our Shām, and bestow blessings on our Yemen. 2 Alī al-qarī, Mirqaatul Mafateeh (6273) 3 Al-Munawī, Faydhul Qadeer (4: 361) 20
The Virtues of Shām The people said: And also on our Najd. He said, Earthquakes and afflictions will occur there, or he said, From there the horn of Satan will come out. Comments: Najd is not the name of a place but rather refers to the highland region beyond Ḥijāz towards Iraq. 4 Al-Khaṭṭābī said, The Najd is in the direction of the east, and for the one who is in Madinah then his Najd would be the desert of Iraq and its regions for this is to the east of the people of Madinah. The basic meaning of Najd is that which is raised or elevated from the earth in contrast to al-gawr for that is what is lower than it. Tihāmah (the coastal plain along the south-western and southern shores of the Arabian Peninsula) is entirely al-gawr and Makkah is in Tihāmah. 5 In the time of the Prophet, the people of the region were disbelievers and later trials and tribulations arose from here. These resulted in the splitting of the Muslim ranks and the emergence of innovations. Ḥadīth 3 عن ابي ذر رضی الله عنه قال اتاني رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم و انا في مسجد المدينة فضربني برجله وقال اال اراك نائما فيه فقلت يا رسول الله غلبتني عيني قال كيف تصنع إذا 4 Ibn al-athīr, al-nihāyah (5/18). 5 Fath al-barī (13/58). 21