This is a review of the book Description of Hypocrisy and Dispraise of the Hypocrites by Abū Bakr Ja’far al-Firyābī. It includes a brief biography of the author, a description of how the book is organized, and a few select narrations from the book.

This is an important topic that is often neglected by individuals in favor of more vernacular criteria for hypocrisy. Many times people take the authentic narrations they come across and feel that it is sufficient enough of a description to avoid hypocrites and to avoid becoming one. However this book deals with lesser known attributes of hypocrisy as well as what ones perspective towards hypocrisy should be based on the Āthar of the Companions, may Allah be pleased with them, the Tabi’een and others.

Biography of the Author

The author is Abū Bakr Ja’far bin Muhammad bin il-Hasan bin il-Mustafādh al-Firyābī al-Qādhī

Born: 207H

He said the first Hadīth he wrote was in 224H at the age of 17.

He traveled from Fīryāb, a Turk city, to Transoxiana (Central Asia) and Khurāsān, Irāq, al-Hijāz, ash-Shām, Misr, the Arabian Peninsula, and he met the notable scholars of Islam; he was distinguished in knowledge, and granted the judgeship of ad-Dīnawar.

He narrated on authority of: Abū Mus’ab az-Zuhrī, Ishāq bin Rāhwayh, Abū Bakr bin Abī Shaybah, Alī bin al-Madīnī, and Uthman bin Abī Shaybah, among the most well-known.

Of those who narrated from him are: Abū Bakr ash-Shāfi’ī, Abūul-Qāsim at-Tabarānī, Abūut-Tāhir ath-Thuhlī, Abū Bakr al-Ismā’īlī, Abūu Bakr al-Ājurrī, al-Hasan bin Abd ir-Rahman ar-Rāmhurmuzī, and Abūul-Fadhl Ubayd Illahi bin Abd ir-Rahman az-Zuhrī who also transmitted the book being reviewed here with a high chain of narration.

Al-Khatīb said: Ja’far al-Firyābī, the judge of ad-Dīnawar, was trustworthy (Thiqah), a proof (Hūjah), from the vessels of knowledge, among the people of scholarship and understanding, around whom revolved nobility and vigor, and he met the notable scholars of Islam.

Abūul-Fadhl az-Zuhrī said: When I would listen to al-Firyābī, his audience consisted of students of knowledge from whom approximately 10,000 would write down the knowledge and an equal number would not do so (20,000 total). None of them remain except me. Then he would begin to weep.

Al-Hāfith Abd Allah bin Adī said: I saw an audience of al-Firyābī in which there were approximately 15,000 inkwells, and a person would have to spend the night in the audience in order to find a place in the morning.

Al-Qādhī Abūul-Walīd al-Bājī (the famous Shārih of al-Muwata) said: Ja’far al-Firyābī was trustworthy (Thiqah) and precise (Mutqin).

He passed away in the night on the 4^th of al-Muharram, in the year 301H. He was 94 years old.

Imam adh-Dhahabi then points out in the biography of al-Firyābī that he narrated a Hadīth on authority of Hudbat bin Khālid, from Hammām, from Qatādah, from Anas, from Abūu Mūsā, that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah upon him, said: “The likeness of a Believer who recites Qur’ān is like citron”. Al-Bukharī and Muslim both narrate this Hadīth in their collections on authority of Hudbat as well, and so this places al-Firyābī in the same Tabaqah as them through what is called al-Badal in Hadīth terminology. [1]

Verifying Attribution of this Book to the Author

Authentic attribution of this book to its author is affirmed in the course of a number of other works, the most important of which are:

1) Ibn al-Jawzī in his book al-Muntadhim; and

2) Adh-Dhahabī in his book Siyar A’lām an-Nubalā.

Also, some of the Huffāth have reported some of the transmissions from this book in their texts such as: Adh-Dhahabī in his book at-Tathkirah; Abū Nu’aym al-Asbahānī in his book Hilyat al-Awlīyā; and al-Khatīb in his book Tārīkh Baghdād.

A Description of the Book and Its Methodology

This book is comprised of 111 supported narrations raised to the level of the Prophet (Marfū’) and not. It is arranged in only two sections, the first of which is: ‘that which is transmitted in terms of describing the Hypocrites and the one who has 3 qualities then he is a true hypocrite’. Included in this section are those transmitted reports containing the attributes with which those characterized by them are deemed hypocrites. The second section is regarding: ‘those who fear hypocrisy and are afraid of it and do not consider themselves as safe from it’.

The author had gathered the routes of the narrations in a single compilation making it seem as if it was an investigative document and he wanted to list them all in one place.

Some other texts written by the author are:

Rulings of the Two Eids

Fasting

The Founding Principles

Divine Decree

Proofs of Prophethood

Merits of the Qur’ān [2]

Select Narrations from the Book

On authority of Abū Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah upon him, said: “The signs of the hypocrite are 3: When he relates things, he lies; when he promises, he breaks it; and when entrusted with something, he proves deceitful.”

Abd Allah bin Umar said in addition: ‘…And when he argues, he offends, and when he makes a contract, he betrays it’.

Anas bin Mālik, may Allah be pleased with him, added in his transmission that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah upon him, said: “…Even if he fasts, prays, and claims to be Muslim…”

In a transmission of Abd Allah bin Amr, may Allah be pleased with him, he said that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah upon him, said: “…thus whoever has in him one of these traits then he has a trait of hypocrisy in him until he abandons it”.

Umar bin al-Khattāb, may Allah be pleased with him, said in a Khutbah: ‘The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah upon him and his people, warned us of every hypocrite endowed with a learned tongue.

He also said: ‘Indeed what I fear most for you are three: 1) a hypocrite who recites the Qur’ān without making an error in its Wāw or Alif, arguing with the people that he is the most knowledgeable of them whereby he will lead them away from guidance, 2) the errors of the scholar, and 3) leaders who lead (people) astray.’

On authority of Uqbah bin Āmir, may Allah be pleased with him, he said that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah upon him and his people, said: “The majority of the hypocrites of my Ummah are [found among] its reciters (or learned ones)”.

Al-Hasan and Qatādah narrated regarding the verse: {Have you seen the one who takes his desires and a god?}[Al-Jāthiyyah: 23] that it is: the hypocrite who does not desire a thing but that he pursues it (lit. mounts it).

Mālik bin Dīnār said [that he found] in some books [i.e. az-Zabūr, or religious texts before the Qur’ān]: ‘Oh company of sinful people, do not sit with the people of remembrance until you have abstained from sin, for indeed I have made it incumbent on myself to remember whoever remembers me- thus when they remember me, I remember them with my mercy, but when you remember me, I remember you with my curse’.

Bilāl bin Sa’d said: ‘The hypocrite says what is good and acts by what is abominable’.

Jubayr bin Nufayr heard Abūd-Dardā’ in the last part of his prayer, when he finished with the Tashahhud, seeking refuge with Allah from hypocrisy, and he was intense in his seeking refuge from it, so Jubayr said: ‘Oh Abād-Dardā’, what is with you and hypocrisy?’ Abūd-Dardā’ said: ‘O Allah, forgive us, and who is safe from affliction? by Allah indeed a man can be tested in a single hour and renegade from his religion’.

Abū Ayyūb al-Ansārī said: ‘Truly there will come times for a man when there is not in his body a needles worth of space containing hypocrisy, and there will come times upon him when there is not in his heart a needles worth of space of Belief’.

AbūIdrīs al-Khawlānī said: ‘There is not a man upon the surface [of the earth] who does not fear his Belief will depart, except that it does’.

Al-Hasan al-Basrī was saying: ‘Indeed when people think this hypocrisy is fettered by Belief, they should have no other worry aside from hypocrisy [afflicting them]’.

Tarīf said to al-Hasan: ‘Oh Abā Sa’īd, people are alleging that they don’t fear hypocrisy’, so he said: ‘By Allah, that I would know I am free from hypocrisy would be more beloved to me than to have an earth’s weight of gold’.

Al-Mu’allā bin Ziyād heard al-Hasan swearing the following oath in the Masjid: ‘By Allah, who there is no god except Him, there has never passed away or lived a Believer except he was afraid of hypocrisy, and there has never passed away or lived a hypocrite except he believed he was safe from hypocrisy’. He would also say: ‘Whoever does not fear hypocrisy, then he is a hypocrite’.

Al-Hasan said: ‘By Allah a Believer does not pass the morning or evening without being afraid of hypocrisy’.

He also said: ‘The hour will not be established until each nation is ruled by its hypocrites’.

Abū Mulaykah adh-Dhimārī said: ‘Indeed a man visits the Imām, and he does not leave except as a polytheist and hypocrite- for if [the Imām] gives him something, then the man forgets the One who gave to him (i.e. Allah) and praises him (the Imam instead), and if [the Imām] denies him anything, then he leaves while dispraising [the Imām] and pointing out his defects. Thus when a man does this to the Imām, then he is a hypocrite and has taken partners with Allah since it is only Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, who denies or gives’.

References

[1] Adapted from the entry for the author in Siyar A’lām an-Nubalā 14/106; al-Maktabat ash-Shamelah © 2005-2011

[2] Adapted from the introduction to the book in the electronic program al-Maktabat ash-Shamelah © 2005-2011; al-Firyābī, Abū Bakr Ja’far. The Description of Hypocrisy and Dispraise of the Hypocrites. Cairo: Dar us-Sahabah lit-Turath, 1988.