How, then, could that Book, that Messenger, and the best of Allah’s creation after the prophets have failed to perfect this subject—both in creed and in expression? It is likewise inconceivable that the Prophet ﷺ taught his community everything, even the etiquettes of al-khirāʾa (relieving oneself) (1). He said, “I have left you upon a brightness whose night is as clear as its day; no one deviates from it after me except one who is ruined” (2). He also said, in a rigorously authentic report, “Allah has never sent a prophet except that it was incumbent upon him (3) to direct his nation to the best that he knew for them and to warn them against the worst that he knew for them” (4). Abu Dharr said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away, and there was not a single bird flapping its wings in the sky without his having taught us (5) some knowledge concerning it” (6).
(1) As narrated in the hadith of Salman al-Farisi recorded by Muslim, no. 262.
(2) Related by Ahmad (no. 71742), Abu Dawud (no. 4607), al-Tirmidhi (no. 2676), Ibn Majah (no. 42), Ibn Hibban (no. 45), and al-Hakim (1/95–96) on the authority of al-Irbad b. Sariyah. Al-Tirmidhi judged it hasan sahih, and it was declared sahih by Ibn Hibban, al-Hakim, al-Bazzar, and others.
(3) Omitted in manuscripts B and Q.
(4) Reported by Muslim (no. 1844) as part of a longer narration from Abdullah b. Amr.
(5) This is the wording found in all extant copies, in Kh, and in the cited source works; a later reader in F altered it to “dhakar lana,” and the same reading appears in the Fatwas edition, 5/8.
(6) Transmitted with similar wording by Ahmad (nos. 21361, 21439) and by al-Tabarani in al-Kabir (2/155) from the hadith of Abu Dharr. Al-Haythami remarks in Majma al-Zawaid (8/263): “The transmitters in al-Tabarani’s isnad are those of the sahih collections, while Ahmad’s chain contains an unnamed narrator.”