The Meaning of "Saddidu wa Qaribu"

The Meaning of "Saddidu wa Qaribu"
His (peace and blessings be upon him) saying in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah and 'Aisha, "Be firm, steadfast, and balanced," [1] Saddidu means to act with firmness and fortiude. It means to take a balanced path in worship, not being deficient by leaving off what one has been commanded with, or by taking on more than one can bear. Nadr Ibn Shumayl said, 'al-sadad means to take the path of balance in the religion.'Similarly Qaribu means the same thing: taking to a path between deficiency and excessiveness. As such they are two words carrying the same or similar meanings. This is the meaning of his (peace and blessing be upon upon him) words in he other narration, "Stick to a middle path".His (peace and blessing be upon him) saying, "....upon which have glad tidings," means that whoever obeys Allah upon firmness and balance, for him are glad tidings because he will reach the goal and outstrip the one who expends a great deal of effort in performing deeds. The path of balance and firmness is better than all other paths; being balanced in following the Sunnah is better than striving hard in other than it, "The best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)." [2] Whoever tranverses his path will find it closer with Allah than any other path. Virtue is not attained by doing a great deal of outward deeds, rather it is attained by deeds being sincere for Allah and being correct in that that are done in accordance with the Sunnah, and through gnosis of the heart and its actions.Whoever has more knowledge of Allah, His religion, and His ordinances, and has more fear, hope and love for Him is better than the one who has not attained his level, even if the latter do more outward deeds. This understanding is derived from the hadith of 'Aisha, "Be firm, steadfast, and balanced upon which have glad tidings for indeed actions alone will not cause one to enter Paradise. The most beloved deeds to Allah are those that are done continuously and persistently, even if they are few."Therefore he ordered us to take the middle path in deeds and to add to this, knowledge of the most beloved deeds to Allah, and he informed us that deeds alone will not cause one entry to Paradise.It is for this reason that some of the Salaf said, 'Abu Bakr did not outstrip you by virtue of much fasting or prayer, but rather because of something that had taken root in his heart.' [3] Some of them said, 'What was in the heart of Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) was the love of Allah and sincerity to His servants."Some of the Gnostics said, 'None who reached the heights did so through a great deal of fasting and prayer, rather through generosity of the soul, soundness of the heart, and sincerity to the nation.' [4] some added, 'and censure of their own souls.' One of them said, 'The difference in their ranking lay in their objectives and intent, not in a great deal of fasting and prayer.'It is for this reason that the authentic hadith mentions, "It is well possible that one who prays by night gets nothing from it save weariness and a person fasting gets nothing from it save hunger and thirst." Recorded by Tabarani and Ahmad. [5]

[1] Saddidi wa Qaribu

[2] Muslim #867/2005

[3] Hakim al-Tirmidhi, al-Nawadir as a saying of Bakr ibn 'Abdullah al-Muzani.

[4] Abu Na'aym, vol 8, p.103, from Fudayl ibn 'Iyad

[5] Ahmad #8856 on the authority of Abu Hurayrah and Tabarani #13413 on the authority of ibn Umar. It was declared sahih by ibn Khuzaymah #1997 and Hakim #1571 with Dhahabi agreeing. Haythami, vol 3, p.202, said its narrators were trustworthy and precise.