Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah - Nasir al-Din al-Albani - (7/124)

Silsilat al-Ahadith al-SahihahNasir al-Din al-Albani

The apparent meaning of this is that he is not the first man. This is further confirmed by the wording in Ibn Jarir’s narration:

“... He said: A man will be brought.”

This explicitly establishes that he is another man, distinct from the first, for the report begins speaking of him anew and separates him from the one mentioned before. Waki‘ further confirms this in the hadith under discussion, for he begins speaking of him without mentioning the first man.

That the narrations of Ibn Numayr and al-Himmani are problematic is plain to anyone who reflects on them, for they indicate that, although this man’s evil deeds have been changed into good deeds, he is nevertheless the last person to emerge from the Fire and the last to enter Paradise. This is not rationally tenable.

The eminent scholar Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, discussed this in his book The Path of the Two Migrations (pp. 247–250). He refuted those who adduced the hadith—Muslim’s hadith—as proof that the replacement mentioned in the verse of Surat al-Furqan, “It is they whose evil deeds Allah will replace with good deeds,” takes place on the Day of Resurrection. He held instead that it occurs in this world, through the repentant person’s turning from his vile deeds to their opposites, which are good deeds. In this he was correct and expressed it well. Yet he did not address the difficulty; rather, in the course of that refutation (p. 248), he said:

“It explicitly states that this person, whose evil deeds were changed into good deeds, was punished for them in the Fire until he became the last of its inhabitants to emerge from it. Thus, he was punished for his evil deeds, and their effect was removed through the punishment; and in place of every evil deed, a good deed was substituted!”

This introduces a further difficulty in his words, for it confirms that the replacement took place after the punishment!

Ibn Jarir, may Allah have mercy on him, further reinforces this difficulty, for after preferring the interpretation of the verse mentioned above from Ibn al-Qayyim, he said:

فظاهره أنه غير الرجل الأول؛ وأكد ذلك بقوله في رواية ابن جرير: ".... قال: يؤتى برجل ". فهذا صريح في أنه رجل آخر غير الأول؛ لأنه استأنف الحديث عنه، وفصله عن الذي قبله، وأكد ذلك وكيع في حديث الترجمة؛ فإنه ابتدأ الحديث عنه دون الرجل الأول. وأما أن رواية ابن نمير والحماني مشكلة؛ فمما لا يخفى على المتأمل؛ فإنها تدل على أن الرجل مع كونه قد بدلت سيئاته حسنات؛ فهو آخر من يخرج من النار، وآخر من يدخل الجنة! وهذا مما لا يستقيم في العقل. وقد تكلم العلامة ابن القيم ﵀ في كتابه "طريق الهجرتين " (ص ٢٤٧- ٢٥٠) ، ورد على من احتج بالحديث (حديث مسلم) أن التبديل المذكور في آية الفرقان: (فأولئك يبدل الله سيئاتهم حسنات) ، إنما هو يوم القيامة، ورجح أن ذلك في الدنيا بتحول التائب من أعماله القبيحة إلى أضدادها وهي حسنات، فأصاب في ذلك وأجاد، ولكنه لم يتعرض لإزالة الإشكال؛ بل إنه قال في صدد الرد المذكور (ص ٢٤٨) : "وهو صريح في أن هذا الذي قد بدلت سيئاته حسنات قد عذب عليها في النار؛ حتى كان آخر أهلها خروجاً منها، فهذا قد عوقب على سيئاته، فزال أثرها بالعقوبة، فبدل مكان كل سيئة بحسنة"! فهذا إشكال جديد في كلامه، فإنه يؤكد أن التبديل كان بعد العقوبة!! وقد أكد الإشكال ابن جرير ﵀؛ فإنه قال بعد أن رجح تفسير الآية بما تقدم عن ابن القيم: