The Authenticity of the Hadeeth, ‘If you do love me, then prepare and arm yourself against poverty...’

30-8-2023 | IslamWeb

Question:

Assalamu alaykum ...'If you do love me, then prepare and arm yourself against poverty. For indeed poverty comes faster upon whoever loves me than the flood to its destination.' (At-Tirmithi 2350) (As-silsila as-sahiha 6/790) How to understand this hadith? Does the love to the prophet (Sallallahu 'alayhi wassalam) necessitates poverty?
Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

The mentioned hadith was narrated by Al-Hakim, may Allaah have mercy upn him, in Al-Mustadrak and At-Tirmidhi may Allaah have mercy upon him in his Sunan. The scholars differed about the authenticity of the hadith's chain of transmission because, in the chain of transmission, there is a narrator whose name is Rawh bin Aslam Al-Bahili and there is a difference of opinion about him; Al-Bukhari said about him: “They talk about him negatively,” and he also said about him: “I do not write down the hadith of Rawh bin Aslam,” and An-Nasa'i, may Allaah hav mercy upon him, said: he is weak. Al-Daraqutni mentioned him in the book (The Weak and the Abandoned). Al-Albani mentioned the hadith in Al-Silsilah Al-Da'eefah under Hadith No. 1681, and he said about it “munkar.” And he said in Sunan At-Tirmidhi: “Weak”, and the same was said by al-Huwaini in his book "The Supererogatory acts in Weak and False Hadiths): “Weak”.

Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen may Allaah have mercy upon him said: This hadith is not authentic from the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) because there is no connection between wealth and the love of the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ). There are rich people who love the Messenger sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) and there are poor people who hate the Messenger sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) [End Of Quote].

If we assume that the hadith is authentic and established, then it cannot be based on its general meaning because there is a rich person among the ten Companions who were promised Paradise.

Al-Sana'ani may Allaah have mercy upon him said in al-Tanweer, Sharh al-Jaami al-Sagheer: And know that it does not mean that everyone who loved him sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) was poor, as it has been proven that the faith of a servant is not complete until he is more beloved to him than his own self and his money, which means the man who claimed to love the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) and swore to that - as if he made his test of poverty a sign of his acceptance and being with the one he loved. [End Of Quote].

Allah knows best.

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