Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī (d. 795H) on Sins, Causes of Calamities, Contagion, Legislated Means and Omens

Posted by Abu Iyaad
Originally published December 2020
Filed under Tawḥīd

Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī (d. 795H) (رحمه الله) said:^[1]

And the second type: The causes of evil, they are not ascribed except to sins, because all calamities are caused by sins, as Allāh the Exalted said: “And whatever evil afflicts you, then it is from your own self”^[2] and the Exalted said: “And whatever befalls you of calamity, it is because of what your hands have earned”^[3] So nothing is ascribed [as a means] to the causes [of evil and harm] except sins, such as contagion and other than it.

And that which is legislated is the avoidance of what is apparent [of these harms] and to take caution to the extent that is related in the Sharīʿah, such as taking caution from the leper, the sick person, and from going to a place of the plague. As for when the [harm] is hidden [obscure], then it is not legislated to take caution and to [seek to] avoid it, because that is from the prohibited omen, and drawing omens is from the actions of the people of shirk and kufr.

Allāh the Exalted has related this in His Book about the people of Firʿaun, the people of Ṣāliḥ, and the inhabitants of the city to which messengers were sent. And it is established from the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) that he said: “There is no omen.”

The guidance of the Messenger (صلى الله عليه وسلم) came with sufficiency in this subject matter and within it is the permissibility for the weak, those who fear that they may be put to trial in their thoughts and beliefs, to keep away from the leper and for the owner of sick camels to keep them away from the owner of healthy camels and not advancing to the land of plague, lest he be put to trial with belief in contagion, harbouring of omens and inappropriate speech regarding al-Qadar.

For those who affirm contagion, keeping away from the leper and keeping sick camels away from healthy camels is from the ways and means in their view, and this is in relation to actual sickness and actually sick people. Among those who hold this view are those, such as Ibn Rajab (رحمه الله), who have defined the Sharīʿah limits beyond which one enters into whispers, superstition, omens, following the ways of the disbelievers therein.

As for what is with the disbelievers of their exaggeration in this matter upon their materialist sciences and belief in imaginary Darwinian viruses, founded on the pseudoscience and fraud of virology, then that promotes superstition and omens and turns perfectly healthy people into contagion and omens, leading to futile behaviours, having no basis in actual science and unknown to sound medicine for thousands of years.

Update (February 2023): After three years of lockdowns, universal mask wearing and social distancing, it has become clear that these measures were nothing but medical heresies and highly destructive to health, welfare and livelihood. These measures were deliberately encouraged by the institutions bought, owned and captured by the money power—[the WHO, FDA, CDC and others]—so as to maintain unwarranted fear and a sense of emergency, and ultimately to enable profits from vaccine sales to nations, all the while advancing the agendas of the Malthusian Eugenicists and Collectivists—from the most urgent of which is population reduction.

Arabic Text:

Footnotes

1. Laṭāʾif al-Maʿārif (Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1420H) p. 142.
2. al-Nisā (4:79)
3. Sūrah al-Shūrā (42:30).

Footnotes

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