I would like to know what the language of the people of Paradise is. Is it Arabic?. Praise be to Allaah.There is no mention in the Qur’aan or in the saheeh Sunnah – as far as we know – of which language is spoken by the people of Paradise. What is narrated concerning that is a hadeeth which is not soundly narrated from our Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and some other reports (athaar). It was narrated by al-Tabaraani in al-Awsat, al-Haakim, al-Bayhaqi in Shu’ab al-Eemaan and others that Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Love the Arabs for three reasons, because I am an Arab, the Qur’aan is Arabic and the speech of the people of Paradise is Arabic.”Ibn al-Jawzi ruled that this hadeeth is fabricated. Al-Dhahabi said: I think that the hadeeth is fabricated (mawdoo’). Al-Albaani said in al-Silsilah al-Da’eefah (no. 160): (it is) fabricated. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) said: Similarly, Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn ‘Abd-Allaah al-Haafiz al-Koofi, who is known as Mateen, told us: al-‘Ala’ ibn ‘Amr al-Hanafi told us: Yahya ibn Zayd al-Ash’ari told us: Ibn Jurayj told us, from Ibn 'Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him) that he said: the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Love the Arabs for three reasons: because I am an Arab, the Qur’aan is Arabic, and the language of the people of Paradise is Arabic.” Al-Haafiz al-Salafi said: this is a hasan hadeeth. I do not know whether he meant that its isnaad is hasan according to the way of the scholars of hadeeth, or that its text is hasan in general terms. Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi mentioned this hadeeth among the mawdoo’ (fabricated) texts and said: al-Tha’labi said: it has no basis. Ibn Hibbaan said: Yahya ibn Zayd narrated unsound ahaadeeth from sound narrators, so it is invalid to quote his reports as evidence. And Allaah knows best. End quote from Iqtida’ al-Siraat al-Mustaqeem (1/158). Al-Tabaraani narrated in al-Awsat that Abu Hurayrah (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “I am an Arab, and the Qur’aan is Arabic, and the language of the people of Paradise is Arabic.” Al-Albaani said in al-Silsilah al-Da’eefah (no. 161): it is fabricated. The point is that there is no saheeh evidence to show which language is spoken by the people of Paradise. Hence we should refrain from speaking about this issue and not indulge in it, and we should refer knowledge of the matter to Allaah (may He be exalted), and focus instead on issues that will lead to good deeds in this world. Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allaah have mercy on him) was asked: in what (language) will Allaah address the people on the Day of Resurrection? Will Allaah address them in the tongue of the Arabs? Is it true that the language of the people of Hell will be Farsi and that the language of the people of Paradise will be Arabic? He replied: Praise be to Allaah, the Lord of the Worlds. It is not known what language the people will speak on that Day, or in what language they will hear the words of the Lord, may He be exalted, because Allaah has not told us anything about that, nor has His Messenger (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). It is not true that Farsi will be the language of the people of Hell, or that Arabic will be the language of the people of Paradise. We do not know of any discussion of that among the Sahaabah (may Allaah be pleased with them), rather all of them refrained from speaking of that because speaking about such a thing is discussion of something unnecessary… but there was a dispute concerning that among later scholars. Some people said that they will be addressed in Arabic and others said that the people of Hell will respond in Farsi, which will be their language in Hell. Others said that they will be addressed in Syriac because that was the language of Adam and from it stemmed all other languages. Others said that the people of Paradise will speak Arabic. There is no basis for any of these ideas, whether on the grounds of common sense or in any report or text, rather they are mere claims that are devoid of any evidence. And Allaah knows best and is most Wise. End quote. Majmoo’ al-Fataawa (4/299) And Allaah knows best.Islam Q&A
From the sayings of Aboo ad-Dardaa' - may Allaah be pleased with him - :
Once when Aboo ad-Dardaa' passed by a man who had committed a sin and the people became aware of it and were insulting him because of it - and Aboo ad-Dardaa' was so keen and insightful in helping people recovering from their religious ills and reviving sickened hearts - so he said:
Had you found him at the bottom of a well, wouldn't you be helping him up and out of it?
They said, "Of course!"
So he replied:
Then praise Allaah who has excused you (from his trial), and do not insult your brother!
He said, "Praise Allaah who has excused you (from his trial) and do not insult your brother!" Look at this parable - that the believers would surely help someone in sin and they would not abandon him like how people would naturally help someone stuck in a well. Would believers insult someone who is in physical need and say to them, "Why have you gone into this well? or such-and-such situation?" No, they would only struggle and try their best to help such a person!
Thus, insulting someone is negativity, and it is not permissible in the Sharee'ah (Islaamic legislation). Instead, we ask Allaah to guide our brothers and we praise Allaah for excusing us (from what they are being tried with), and then we work to save them from the evil of their sins and disobedience. They have only sinned due to their giving in to the plots of Iblees, Allaah's enemy and our enemy.
So this admonition - dear believer - is a great one! When you see someone who has committed a sin, you must work to help him!
Dear brothers, if we were to think about our times, we would find that many people speak about others' sins. They say, "This guy did such-and-such, that one travels and does such-and-such, this family has gone through such-and-such..." You find them extremely critical and insulting, perhaps even mocking people, and Allaah's Refuge is sought. When you ask them what they have done to help your brother stop these sins, they say: Nothing.
As a result, he has actually become one of Shaytaan's devices (to keep people sinning) as well, since the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said: "Whoever says that the people are destroyed, he is the one who destroyed them.
Meaning: He has become a reason for their destruction. And the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) forbade use from speaking about everything we hear. He (sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) said:
"Whoever speaks about everything he hears is one of the two liars (or one of the liars)."
So we must work hard to fix mistakes, advise sinners and conceal their (hidden) sins, and spread good reports. When we see someone who has done good, we say, "He has done such-and-such good thing," since, by behaving this way, we spread good behavior, and the people will follow each other's good leads. However, if we were to spread evil, then people would be lenient in their approach to those things and in doing them, saying, "Yea, So-and-So has done this sin, and this guy has done such-and-such, and that guy has done such-and-such!" People would then be led to assume that there is so much more evil than good, and thus weaken their stance against bad things and begin doing them.
May Allaah be pleased with Aboo Ad-Dardaa' and reward him well for his dealings with his companions and the Ummah after him!
Source: A recording entitled: Admonitions of Aboo ad-Dardaa' (a khutbah by Shaykh Saalih Aal ash-Shaykh)
In ‘Siyar A’lam an-Nubala” (13/547), adh-Dhahabi narrated that Abu Muhammad ‘Abdullah bin Muhammad – the father of the famous Spanish scholar Ibn al-’Arabi – said:
“Ibn Hazm related to me the reason he began studying Fiqh.
He was once at a funeral prayer. So, he entered the mosque, and sat down without praying. A man then said to him: “Get up and pray Tahiyyat al-Masjid,” and he was 26 at the time.
Ibn Hazm himself said: “So, I got up and prayed. When we returned from the janazah, I entered the mosque, and prayed before sitting down. It was then said to me: “Sit down, sit down. This is not a time to pray,” as it was after the time of ‘Asr. So, I walked away while I was very sad. I went to my teacher that had nurtured me, and said: “Direct me to the house of the scholar Abu ‘Abdillah bin Dahhun.” So, I went to him, told him of what had happened, and he directed me to ‘al-Muwatta” of Malik. So, I began studying it at his hands, and continued studying it with him and others for a period of three years. After this, I began debating with the people.”
After mentioning this story, adh-Dhahabi then goes on to list almost 80 books that Ibn Hazm had written during his lifetime, the largest being ‘al-Isal ila Fahm Kitab al-Khisal,’ which is a longer version of the more well-known ‘al-Muhalla,’ and is over 15,000 pages long!
Considering that Ibn Hazm began studying Islam at 26, and died at the age of 71, this meant that he wrote an average of two books per year – and this is just in terms of the books whose titles we know of, as he had written over 300 other books that were burned up by the ruler of the time, al-Mu’tadid.
It is quite interesting that such a tremendously influencial scholar, with so many awesome and brilliant works, was driven to study the Din because of this single incident.
