Laughter

Laughter is from the attributes of Allah the Most High, and it is a perfect, complete, attribute and we believe in it in a way that is befitting to Allah the Glorious. And indeed there has come many ahadeeth about the laughter of Al-Rahmaan, the laughter of the Most Merciful and from it are those ahadeeth which are in the sahihain, Sahih Al-Bukhari and Muslim.

And the attributes of Allah we affirm it without making تشبيه meaning we don’t make similarities between Allah’s attributes and the creation, and without تكيف meaning we don’t try and describe how Allah’s attributes are, and without تمثيل this is without saying that Allah’s attributes are like some of the creation’s attributes, and without تأويل which is without misinterpreting Allah’s attributes.

Imam Al-Aajury (رحمه الله) from the Imams of the Salaf, he said a beautiful statement regarding Allah’s names and attributes: “Know, may Allah aid us and you to being upright in our statements and our actions. The people of the truth describe Allah the Mighty and Majestic with what Allah has described Himself with, and with what His Messenger (ﷺ) described Him with, and what his noble companions (رضي الله عنهم) described Him with. This is the way of the scholars, those scholars who have followed and have not innovated, and we don’t say about Allah or His attributes: How? Rather we submit to what has come and we have Iman, we have faith in what has come that Allah the Might and Majestic laughs and that is what has been narrated from the Prophet (ﷺ) and on his noble companions. And we do not reject that, no one rejects that expect those whom the people of truth do not praise, and we will mention from that meaning from the proofs for that some of

what we remember, and Allah is the one who grants success and correctness, and there is not strength or power except by Allah the, Most High, the Tremendous.”

From Abi Ruzian Al-Uqaily (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:

قال رسول الله ﷺ: " ضحك ربُّنا من قنوط عبادهِ وقُربِ غيره ".

“Our Lord laughs from the قنوط of his slave (the قنوط is the standing and the supplicating during the prayer such as the Witr prayer for example)”. So, I (meaning Abu Ruzain) said: “Oh Messenger of Allah! Does the Lord laugh?”. So, the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه ة سلم) said: “Yes”. So, I (meaning Abu Ruzain) said: “I will never lose good hope in a Lord who laughs.”

From Ibn Masoud (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) that he said: “Will you ask me from what I have laughed about?”. So, his companions with him said: “And what has made you laugh?”. He answered: “This is what the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:

"ألا تسألوني ممَّ ضَحِكْتُ؟

“Will you ask me about what has made me laugh?”. So the companions that were with the Prophet (ﷺ) said: “And what has made you laugh O Messenger of Allah?”. So, the Prophet (ﷺ) replied answering them:

"مِن ضَحِكِ ربّ العالمين".

“From the laughter of the Lord of all that exists”.

Abu Dardaa (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) narrated that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “There are three people whom Allah loves them, Allah laughs at them, and Allah knows good from them”.

Allah the Most High, He said in the Quran

{ وَأَنَّهُ هُوَ أَضْحَكَ وَأَبْكَىٰ }

So, Imam At-Tabari (رحمه الله) ,from the greatest scholars of Tafseer, he said (explaining this verse) : “That Allah makes whomever he wills from the people of the earth to laugh, and whomever he wants from the people of the earth he makes them cry”.

And Ibn Kathir (رحمه الله) ,who is also from the great scholars of Tafseer, he said: “That Allah created in his slaves laughter and he created for them crying, and the cause or reasons for laughter and crying are different”.

Abdullah Ibn Masoud (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) said: “The Prophet (ﷺ) laughed so hard that his molar teeth were seen”.

And the scholar Ibn Manthoor (رحمه الله) explained: “The molars or النواجذ these are the back teeth, so it is the four teeth that are farthest in the back.”

And Ibn Hajr (رحمه الله) explained that the Prophet (ﷺ) laughed so hard that his molar teeth were seen, and these molars were not apparent, you can only see them if someone laughs a lot or laughs in a strong way.

Abdullah (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) said: “Indeed, I saw the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) laugh so hard that his molar teeth were apparent”.

Abu Thar (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) said: “Indeed, I saw the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) laugh until we could see his molar teeth”.

Abu Hurairah (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) said that a man came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said: “I am destroyed. I have had intercourse with my wife in Ramadan”. So, the Prophet (ﷺ) informed him of the expiation for this, he said:

«أَعْتِقْ رَقَبَةٌ»

“Free a slave”. So, the man said: “I don’t have one”. So, the Prophet (ﷺ) said:

«فَصُمْ شَهْرَيْنِ مُتَتَابِعَيْنِ»

“So then fast two months back-to-back”. So the man said: “I am not able to”. So, the Prophet (ﷺ) said:

«فَأَطْعِمْ سِيِّينَ مِسْكِينًا»

“So, feed sixty poor people”. The man said: “I can’t find.” So, a bag of dates was brought, a full bag of dates, and the Prophet (ﷺ) asked the people that were there

«أَيْنَ السَّائِلُ تَصَدَّقَ بِهَا»

“Where is the questioner?” (The man that came to ask about this, where is the man that asked about this. The Prophet (ﷺ) wanted to give the full bag of dates to him so that he could give it in charity, so that he could fulfill that requirement for giving Sadaqat.) So, the man said to the Prophet (ﷺ) : “ There is no one between all of these buildings in Madinah that is more poor than me and my house”. So, the Prophet (ﷺ) laughed until his molar teeth were showing and he said:

«فَأَنْتُمْ إِذًا»

“So then it’s for yourselves”.

Zaid Ibn Arqam (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) said about Ali (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) when he was in Yemen, he had a complicated issue that he had to resolve. And that it was mentioned and described what happened to the Prophet (ﷺ) so he laughed until his molar teeth were seen.

From Aaisha (رضي الله عنها) that she said that the Prophet (ﷺ) had laughed until his molar teeth were seen and then he said:

“ أشهد أن الله على كل شيءٍ قدير، و أني عبد الله و رسوله ”

“I bear witness that Allah is powerful over everything and indeed I am the slave of Allah and His messenger”.

From Abu Saeed Al-Khudri (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) that he said: the Prophet (ﷺ) said:

"تكون الأرض يوم القيامة خُبزَةً واحدةً، يَتَكَفَّؤُها الجبارُ بيده كما يَكْفَأُ أحدكم خُبزته في السفر، نُزُلا لأهل الجنة"

“The earth on the day of resurrection will be like a bread, and Al-Jabbaar (i.e Allah, Al-Jabbar is one of the names of Allah) will hold the earth just like one of you holds a bread while you are traveling, and this will be the place of the people of Jannah”. So, a man from the Yahoud came and he said to the Prophet

(ﷺ): “May Al-Rahmaan bless you O Abu Al-Qaasim (Abu Al-Qaasim was the kunyah or the nickname of the Prophet (ﷺ)) “. So, the man continued by saying: “Shall I inform you about the place of the people of Jannah on youm ul-qiyamah?” So, the Prophet (ﷺ) said: “بلى”- indeed inform me. So, the Yahoudy, he said: “that the earth will be like a single bread”, just as the Prophet (ﷺ) himself had said. So, the Prophet (ﷺ) then looked to us and he laughed up until his molar teeth were visible.

From Abu Hurairah (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) that he said: “the Prophet (ﷺ) went out and passed by a group of his companions who were laughing and speaking”, and the Prophet (ﷺ) said to them:

"والذي نفسي بيده، لو تعلمون ما أعلَمُ، لَضحِكْتُمْ قليلا ولبكيتم كثيرا"

“By the one whose hand my soul is in, if you knew what I know then you would laugh little and you would cry a lot”. So, the Prophet (ﷺ) then left and the companions

(رضي الله عنهم) began crying. So, Allah the Mighty and Majestic sent revelation to the Prophet (ﷺ), “O Muhammed why have you made my slaves sad?”. So, the Prophet

(ﷺ) returned to those companions and he said to them:

"أبشروا، وسَدّدوا وقاربوا".

“Be happy about the news to come, and be firm to the best of your ability, and reinforce your deeds”.

[This is a summary of the meaning of the words of the Prophet (ﷺ): (أبشروا، و سددوا، و قاربوا)

So, the Prophet ﷺ) after Allah informed him that he had made his companions sad, the Prophet ﷺ) went back to them to lift their spirits and to encourage them.]

Jaabir Ibn Samarah (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) said:” I sat with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) more than one hundred times, and his companions would recite poetry, and they would mention different things from the affairs of their jaahiliyah, (the times before they were Muslim). And the Prophet

(ﷺ) would remain quiet and sometimes he would smile with them (ﷺ)

Abu Hurairah (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) said that some of the companions said: “O Messenger of Allah indeed you joke with us.” So, the Prophet (ﷺ) said: “Yes, but I only speak with what is true”. [So, yes I do joke with you but I only do it with what is truthful.]

It is authentic from Bilal Ibn Saad ,who is one of the Tabieen, that he said: “I saw that the companions of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) would race each other between their different tasks and they would laugh with each other”.

It is authentic from Bakr Ibn Abdullah who is a Tabiey (رحمه الله) that he said: “the companions of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) used to throw melons at each other but in serious times they were the men”.

And Sheikh (hafithahullah) commented after the reading of the article:

“The believer is someone who drinks in these realities of Iman and he is somebody who follows what the companions of the Prophet (ﷺ) were upon, and he lives a praiseworthy life, and a noble life, and he is truthful in his intentions, pure in his intentions, well mannered, his heart is at ease, and he submits to being a slave of Allah. He is responsible for those whom he is responsible for, and he recognizes that he is in need of his Lord. If he receives that which makes him happy, he is thankful, and if he is afflicted with that which harms him, he is patient.

So he is always between being thankful and patient to his Lord. You find him that he is happy in his face and he is smiling, and he is energetic, and he is not lazy and he doesn’t over-complicate things, and he doesn’t try and appear like someone who he is not. Indeed the afflictions or the difficulties of this worldly life could make his heart sad, and his eyes might cry, and along with that you find that he laughs at those things which are appropriate to laugh at, and you might find that he laughed so hard that his molar teeth show. But he doesn’t laugh too much as the Prophet (ﷺ) said:

"لا تكثروا الضحك فإن كثرة الضحك تميت القلب".

“Don’t laugh too much, because too much laughter makes the heart die” .

So the Muslim plays, and he is joyous, and he is happy but he doesn’t do or say except what is the truth. As the Prophet

(ﷺ) said:

"إني لأمزح، ولا أقول إلا حقا".

“Indeed I joke but I only say what is the truth”.

So, the Muslim is the slave of Allah, he is a person who strives and his Iman, his faith is like the mountains. He is someone who follows, and he is not someone who innovates in his religion. He is firm upon the أثر the narrations of those who came before. He acts based on the means, meaning he utilizes the means to try and achieve things, and he tries to be the best at his work, and he is from the people of the upper hand as the Prophet (ﷺ) said:

“ اليد العليا خيرٌ من اليد السفلى ”

that the upper hand is better than the lower hand. He is someone who is sufficed by what he has, and by what he finds, and he is someone who is a source of loyalty and fulfilling the trusts of brotherhood, and he doesn’t break those bonds. He is kind and gentle in regards to his relationships, and he is happy with whatever Allah gives him; his life is productive, and his actions are productive. He doesn’t look to those who are above him, he wants for them good, and he is merciful to whoever is lower than him. He aids them with goodness and virtue. His heart is pure and clean; it does not have transgression in it nor hatred nor jealousy nor false hopes.

It is authentic from Ali Ibn Abi Talib(رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) that he said: “Indeed what I most fear for you are two things: following your desires, and having false hopes. As for following the desires then this prevents from following the truth, and as for having false hopes it makes someone forget the hereafter, until Ali (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ) said: “So be from the children of the hereafter and don’t be from the children of this worldly life. Today is for actions and there is no accountability, [meaning there is no judgment from Allah now], but tomorrow (meaning the future) is the time of judgment and there won’t be an opportunity for action then”.

07/07/2022