and their ears suddenly ring.1 They likewise believe that a calamity will strike them if they trim their nails at night or on Saturday or Sunday,2 or if they sweep their houses after nightfall. Another of their notions is that if they think well of a stone and place their trust in it, it will confer benefit upon them.3
Such ideas are utterly unfounded—mere superstitions, fantasies, and conjectures for which Allah has sent down no proof. I have traced them to fabricated, counterfeit hadiths; may Allah curse the one who forged them and disgrace the one who stitched them together.
From this it is clear that worldly means are of two kinds: those that are permissible, which Allah has allowed, and those that are forbidden, which He has prohibited. Earlier I cited examples of both categories in matters people care about and assume to be lawful and effective, when in fact they are the very opposite. In what follows I shall mention further examples of worldly means.
(1) The origin of this belief is a fabricated hadith: “If one of you feels a ringing in his ear, let him invoke blessings on me and say: ‘Allah has remembered me with good mention by someone who remembered me.’” Al-Shawkani records it in al-Fawaid al-Majmua, p. 244.
(2) Some would-be jurists adopted this false belief and even versified it, teaching the lines to pupils in certain religious schools. Among the verses are:
Cut your nails on Saturday—greed will show itself;
on the following day the blessing will depart.
A virtuous scholar appears if you trim them on Monday,
but if you do so on Tuesday, beware destruction.
(3) The root of this deviant notion is the hadith: “If any of you were to place good expectations in a stone, Allah would benefit him by it.” Al-Hafiz al-Ajluni cites it in Kashf al-Khafa, 2/152, quoting Ibn Taymiyya who labeled it a lie, Ibn Hajar who said it has no basis, and the author of al-Maqasid who ruled it unsound. He also transmits Ibn al-Qayyim’s statement: “It is speech of the idol-worshippers who place their hopes in stones.” See my earlier work, no. 450.