ارکانِ اسلام پر جنت کی بشارت

Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) said: We were forbidden to ask the Messenger of Allah ﷺ questions (without a pressing need), so it used to delight us when a sensible bedouin would come to him and ask something while we listened. During those days a bedouin came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, “O Muhammad ﷺ, your messenger came to us and told us that you claim Allah has sent you as His Messenger.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “He spoke the truth; he was right.” He asked, “Who created the sky?” He ﷺ said, “Allah.” Then he asked, “And who created the earth?” He said, “Allah.” “And who set up these mountains and placed in them what is in them?” He said, “Allah.” Then the bedouin said, “By the One who created the sky, made the earth, and set up the mountains upon it — has Allah indeed sent you?” He ﷺ said, “Yes, Allah has surely sent me.” He said, “Your messenger also told us that five prayers a day and night are obligatory upon us?” He said, “He spoke the truth.” The bedouin said, “By the One who sent you, did Allah command you with these prayers?” He said, “Yes, it is Allah’s command.” Then he said, “And your messenger said that zakat has been prescribed on our wealth?” He said, “He spoke the truth.” The bedouin said, “By the One who sent you, did Allah command this?” He said, “Yes, it is Allah’s command.” Then he said, “And your messenger said that fasting the month of Ramadan every year is obligatory upon us?” He said, “He spoke the truth.” The bedouin said, “By the One who sent you, did Allah command this?” He said, “Yes, it is Allah’s command.” Then he said, “And your messenger said that whoever among us is able to reach the House must perform the Hajj to it?” He said, “He spoke the truth.” (The narrator says) having finished this questioning, the bedouin departed, saying as he went, “By the One who sent you with the truth, I will neither add to these nor subtract from them.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “If he is truthful, he will surely enter Paradise.”

The prohibition of questioning mentioned at the start of the hadith was because excessive questioning of the Prophet ﷺ could, through his answers, increase the obligations upon the community; so the Companions themselves regarded unnecessary questions as forbidden. This is why they used to wish that a bedouin would come and ask the Prophet ﷺ so that they too might hear, for the bedouins were allowed a wide latitude with him and would put their questions boldly and freely. In one narration of this same hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari, the questioner, as he left, also stated that he was Dimam ibn Tha‘laba of the tribe of Sa‘d ibn Bakr, newly a Muslim, come as the representative of his people. When at the end he said he would neither add to nor subtract from these teachings, he meant that he would act upon them fully and add nothing; and it may also mean that he would convey the Prophet’s ﷺ message to his people without adding anything of his own.