al-Harbi (Ibrahim)

Summary

Ibrahim ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim al-Harbi, author of Gharib al-hadith and Dala'il al-nubuwwa, and one of the transmitters of Ahmad's school from him ¹. He died in 285 AH ¹.

Command, prohibition and capacity

The duty of complying with prohibitions by avoidance, and with commands according to one's capacity; in Abu Hurayra's hadith 'what I forbid you, avoid, and what I command you, do of it what you can' — its occasion, per Ibn Rajab, being the questioner who asked when hajj was imposed 'every year?' until he said it three times and was told 'had I said yes it would have been obligatory and you could not have managed'; Ibn Rajab derives from it the prohibition of asking about what is not needed, of asking out of obstinacy, frivolity or mockery, of asking about what God has hidden from His servants, and of questions on the lawful and unlawful that might draw stricter rulings, noting that licence to ask was for bedouins and delegations, not the residents of Medina.

At a glance

Summary

People and things also explored

Sources

People

Command, prohibition and capacity