Shaykh Salih al-Ja’fari (may Allah be pleased with him), though he was the Imam of the Noble Azhar Mosque, did not always lead the Friday Prayers. Very often the great Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali (may Allah have mercy on him) would lead the Prayers and give the Friday Khutba, and then Shaykh Salih would start his famous Friday Lesson after the Prayers, as he usually did. Shaykh al-Ghazali had a rationalistic approach to the religion, and on one Friday, he dedicated his khutba to this one topic: that scholars should no longer mention the chains of transmission of the hadith that they are quoting in their lessons or books. He argued that most people today did not know most of the names in the chains of transmission, let alone have the mental ability to analyze the chain. Therefore, he argued, a scholar should simply say the hadith, and in which hadith collection it could be found, and whether he believed it to be authentic or not.
After the prayers, Shaykh Salih al-Ja’fari stood up on his chair to begin his Friday Lesson as usual. He would start every lesson with certain verses of the Qur’an and the following, “[I teach you] Through a connected chain to the scholars of the noble Azhar and others, in Qur’anic recitations, Hadith, and Qur’anic exegesis, may Allah most high be pleased with them and benefit us and you by them and by their knowledge. Amen.”
This time, however, Shaykh Salih began reciting one of his chains of transmission, scholar by scholar, all the way until Imam al-Bukhari, and from him, all the way until the Follower who narrated it, and then the Companion, and then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.
Among those attending the lesson was Shaykh Muhammad Ismail al-Nimr, a Shaykh from the Bayyumi Tariqa, who founded a branch and organization within that Tariqa called The Lovers of the Muhammadan Purity (Ahbab al-Safaa’ al-Muhammadi).This Shaykh was a man of spiritual unveiling, and this is what he said:
When the Shaykh began reciting his chain of transmission, every time he mentioned a scholar, the soul of this scholar would appear next to him! Scholar by scholar, came to join him, and each one shone with more light than the one mentioned before him, as the Shaykh was getting closer and closer to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ! Finally the Shaykh reached the level of the Followers of the Followers, and then the Followers, and then the Companion,and each of them appeared with an even more powerful light than the one before. Finally he mentioned the Messenger of Allah ﷺ , and suddenly the Messenger of Allah appeared with such a great force of light that I thought I was going to melt!
