Muhammad James Sutton

وبالله التوفيق لا حول ولا قوة إلا بالله

Alhamdulillah, I have just completed the compilation and translation of the 100 Hadiths for memorization. I have kept all the Hadiths in this book very short and they are all from either Sahih Al-Bukhari or Sahih Muslim or both. Insha'Allah, I will now work on editing the book and insha'Allah, we can get it ready to be published. Now that I have completed this book, I will focus my attention on the book on Marriage to get it ready to be published before Ramadan insha'Allah.

True love for Allah and His Messenger ﷺ is expressed on the inside and the outside, and it is expressed in public and in private. Only a liar will say that he loves Allah and His Messenger ﷺ on the inside while he openly opposes the commands of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ on the outside.

Thawban (May Allah be pleased with him) reported: The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “I know people from my Nation who will come on the Day of Judgment with good deeds similar to the mountains of Tihamah, and Allah will make all of his actions like scattered dust particles that you see in the rays of the sun.” Thawban said, “O Messenger of Allah, describe them to us; make it very clear who they are, so we do not become from them without knowing.” The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “As far as they go, they are your brothers, from the same race as you. They worship at night just like you do, but they are a people, if they are alone with the prohibitions of Allah, they transgress and fall into sin.”

عَنْ ثَوْبَانَ رضي الله عنه عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم أَنَّهُ قَالَ: لأَعْلَمَنَّ أَقْوَامًا مِنْ أُمَّتِي يَأْتُونَ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ بِحَسَنَاتٍ أَمْثَالِ جِبَالِ تِهَامَةَ بِيضًا فَيَجْعَلُهَا اللَّهُ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ هَبَاءً مَنْثُورً‏.‏ قَالَ ثَوْبَانُ:‏ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صِفْهُمْ لَنَا جَلِّهِمْ لَنَا أَنْ لاَ نَكُونَ مِنْهُمْ وَنَحْنُ لاَ نَعْلَمُ.‏ قَالَ:‏ أَمَا إِنَّهُمْ إِخْوَانُكُمْ وَمِنْ جِلْدَتِكُمْ وَيَأْخُذُونَ مِنَ اللَّيْلِ كَمَا تَأْخُذُونَ وَلَكِنَّهُمْ أَقْوَامٌ إِذَا خَلَوْا بِمَحَارِمِ اللَّهِ انْتَهَكُوهَا.

This does not mean to be obedient in public while people are looking at you, but what really counts is when the only one who can see you is Allah. This will cause a lot of people to lose the reward for their good deeds. This came in the following Hadith from Sunan Ibn Majah:

If your love was truthful, you would have obeyed Him for verily every one who loves is to the one he loves obedient.

لَو كانَ حُبُّكَ صادِقاً لَأَطَعتَهُ *** إِنَّ المُحِبَّ لِمَن يُحِبُّ مُطيعُ

You disobey Allah, and you try to present openly your love for Him. This is a newly constructed deduction of an impossible nature.

تَعصي الإِلَهَ وَأَنتَ تُظهِرُ حُبَّهُ *** هَذا مَحالٌ في القِياسِ بَديعُ

Love is expressed through obedience. If your love for Allah and His Messenger do not cause you to act in accordance to their commands and stay away from what they prohibited, your love is not truthful. This was summed up beautifully by Imam Ash-Shaafi' in a short poem of his:

If you truly love Allah, then follow me (the Messenger of Allah ﷺ), and Allah will love you and forgive you your sins for Allah is the Most Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

قُلْ إِن كُنتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِي يُحْبِبْكُمُ اللَّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ ۗ وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

Our love for Allah is expressed through our absolute obedience to Him; by carrying out His commands and staying away from what He prohibited. Our love for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is expressed through our learning of his Sunnah and implementing his Sunnah in our daily lives. Our love for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is also expressed through our obeying his commands and staying away from what he prohibited us from. Allah said in the Quran regarding love for Allah and His Messenger ﷺ:

There is love that is simply expressed with the tongue, and then there is love that has penetrated the vast recesses of the heart and overpowered the heart. The difference between the two is in the person's actions, especially the actions a person does when nobody is looking.

A person says, "I love Allah and His Messenger ﷺ, but is it true, and how can we assess if what we are saying is true?

However, if I am taking notes from lessons, legal pads are my thing. When I was in Jacksonville, I was buying stacks of legal pads on the regular. The legal pads are good for getting things down quickly, but you will have to organize your notes in a proper notebook.

It is a good idea for a Student of Knowledge to keep these around at all times.

This is my primary notebook for anything I am memorizing, and I have bought dozens of them in the past few years. I keep the main Hadiths in a very good quality notebook, but I will write out Hadiths in these notebooks about ten at a time that I am memorizing.

I could not imagine how many of these I would have bought if we had them while I was in Yemen. I have written at least a thousand Hadiths in these notebooks since I have been back in America.