Question:

Salam alaykum Sidi,

What is the Ummah responding to in this Hadith. 

حدثنا القاسم, قال: ثنا الحسين, قال: ثني حجاج, عن ابن جُرَيج, قال: غربي الجبل.حدثنا ابن بشار, قال: ثنا الضحاك بن مخلد, قال: ثنا سفيان, عن الأعمش, عن علي بن مدرك, عن أبي زُرعة بن عمرو, قال: إنكم أمة محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم قد أجبتم قبل أن تسألوا, وقرأ: ( وَمَا كُنْتَ بِجَانِبِ الْغَرْبِيِّ إِذْ قَضَيْنَا إِلَى مُوسَى الأمْرَ ).

Thank you,

Answer:

Waalaykumussalam warahmatullah dear Shaykh,

“There will come a time when people will answer before they are asked” and “they will be bearing witness before they are called to bear witness” are expressions in Prophetic hadiths about the fitnas of the people of end times not knowing when to stop at their limit. E.g. they never say “I do not know” when they do not know but they insist on pretending to know, although saying “I do not know” is itself half of knowledge.

Abu Zur`a b. `Amr b. Jarir al-Bajali, a great Tabi`i, the grandson of the Companion-King Jarir al-Bajali is saying the verse is a proof showing the adab which Allah taught to the Holy Prophet, not to speak before the divine revelation comes. So people’s haste in matters of knowledge now is a sign of a reversal of Prophetic values and of the approach of the Hour.

This gloss also illustrates the order to always wait for divine instruction and divine permission. E.g.  Mawlana’s suhba about the murid insisting on getting his amana before its time has come. Mawlana said, “if the shaykh starts following the murid then everything will be in confusion.” And Allah knows best.

Afwan,

Hajj Gibril Haddad