The Heading

Have you not seen Al-Lât and Al-ʿUzza… [Sûrat Al-Najm, 53:19]

The Human Chain of Narration for Hadith 4859

Bukhâri narrates:

Muslim ibn Ibrâhîm told us that

Abû Al-Ash-hab told us that

Abû’l–Jawzâ’ told us that

On the authority of Ibn ʿAbbâs that

He himself had said

About the Word of Allah: “Al-Lât and Al-ʿUzza”:

The Text of the Hadith

Al-Lât was a man who used to make dough for the pilgrims.

Additional Narration

Ibn Abî Ḥâtim narrated this ḥadîth with an addition, stating that Ibn ʿAbbâs said: “Al-Lât [the baker man] used to ground grain with a rock [and make soup], and none would drink from it save that they became hardy. Thus, the people took to worshiping him.”

Explanation of Hadith 4859

In the ḥadîth of Ibn ʿAbbâs, all of the narrators—except Ibn ʿAbbâs—are from Ba ṣra, Iraq.

‘Lât’ in the Arabic language means “he who makes the dough.” There is a difference of opinion about the name of this man. Al-Fâkihi narrates by way of Mujâhid that Ibn ʿAbbâs had said:

Al-Lât was a man in the days of ignorance before Islam who lived on a rocky plane in >â’if. He had sheep. So he used to take butter from the milk of the sheep and raisins and cheese from the people of >a’if and make [with these ingredients] ḥys [thin porridge], with which he would feed all the wayfarers. Then, when he died, they [the people] began to venerate him [in worship]. His name, it has been said, was ʿÂmir ibn Al-Ẓurib, and he was the leader of the Arabs at his time. The poets said of him in the past: “And among us is a leader who judges / And his judgment is never nullified.”

Others have said that his name was ʿAmr ibn Lu ḥay , but this cannot be because Al-Fâkihi narrated on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbâs that when Al-Lât died, ʿAmr ibn Lu ḥay said: “He has not died. Rather, he is living under the bedrock.”

So, they built a house on his grave and worshiped there. And it is known that ʿAmr ibn Lu ḥay is the one that introduced idolatry to the Arabs. It is also known that Al-Mughîrah ibn Shuʿbah is the one who destroyed the idol Al-Lât at the command of the Prophet ﷺ when the Thaqîf, the people of >â’if, accepted Islam, and Khâlid ibn Al-Walîd destroyed the idol Al-ʿUzza at the command of the Prophet ﷺ in the year of the Conquest of Makkah (8 ḥ /630 ce).

The Human Chain of Narration for Hadith 4860

ʿAbdullah ibn Muhammad narrated to us that

Hishâm ibn Yûsuf informed us that

Maʿmar informed us that

On the authority of Al-Zuhri

On the authority of Ḥumayd ibn ʿAbd Al-Ra ḥmân

On the authority of Abû Hurairah

That he himself had said:

The Text of the Hadith

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: ‘Whoever swears an oath and says in his oath [out of habit]: ‘By Al-Lât and Al-ʿUzza! Then let him say Lâ IIâha illa-Allâh. And whoever says to his companion: ‘Come, let us gamble!’ then let him [instead] give charity.”

Explanation of Hadith 4860

Occasion of Utterance

Al-Nasâ’î and Ibn Mâjah narrate an authentic ḥadîth which seems to have occasioned this ḥadîth, that is, that Mu ṣʿab, the son of Saʿd ibn Abî Waqqâṣ, narrated on the authority of his father, Saʿd ibn Abî Waqqâṣ, that his father had said:

I was recently out of my state of ignorance [had newly accepted Islam], so I swore by Al-Lât and Al-ʿUzza. My companions said to me: ‘What a terrible thing you have said!’ So I mentioned it to the Prophet ﷺ, and he said: ‘Say Lâ Ilâha illa-Allâh, there is no God but Allah. Lâ sharîka lahu. He has no partner.’”

Al-Kha ṭ ṭâbi says: “An oath is sworn on the basis of something or someone that is magnified and worshiped. Thus a person who swears by other than Allah resembles the unbelievers in this. Therefore he is commanded to return back to his faith by saying the shahâda, the testification of faith.”

Imam Ibn Al-ʿArabi says: “Whoever swears by anything other than Allah intentionally is a disbeliever. One who does it out of ignorance or by slip of tongue should say, by way of repentance: Lâ Ilâha illa-Allâh, there is no God but Allah, whereby Allah will forgive him, turn his heart away from its slip-up, bring his tongue back to the truth, and remove from him the evil of the thoughtless words he has uttered.”

As for the word of the Prophet ﷺ: “He who says to his companion: ‘Come, let us gamble!’ let him [instead] give charity.”

Al-Kha ṭ ṭâbî says that the person should give in charity the money with which he was planning to gamble. It is also said that it is not necessary that he give in charity the money with which he was planning to gamble, but that he give some money to charity as expiation for [the intention] that he has expressed.

Al-Nawawi says that this second opinion of Al-Kha ṭ ṭâbi is the correct one. “And the evidence for this,” he says, “is in the narration of this ḥadîth found in Muslim, which says: ‘And let him who says to his companion: ‘Come, let us gamble!’ give something in charity.’” Some Ḥanafi scholars claim that the expiation for saying, “Come let us gamble!” is the same as the expiation for not fulfilling an oath, which is fasting three days or feeding the poor; however, there is no evidence for this.

ʿIyâḍ says: In this ḥadîth lies proof for the opinion of the majority [of scholars], which is that firmly resolving oneself to disobey Allah is a sin that counts against this person even if they fall short of committing the sin.

Ibn Ḥajar says:

I do not know from whence ʿIyâḍ came by this opinion, for the ḥadîth states that if a person explicitly calls his companion to gamble, then he should expiate for this, for gambling is forbidden by consensus. Thus, calling someone to gamble is also a sin. Hence, inviting someone to gamble is more than just a resolution [to sin] in one’s heart. It is itself a [sinful] act of the tongue.

Originally posted 2015-06-26 09:00:18.