Have you, like me, ever wondered what the meaning of the hadith of the prophet pbuh that says ‘paradise lies beneath the feet of mothers’ mean? Does it mean that for one to enter paradise, one has to go into one’s mother’s feet? Does one have to place them over one’s head? Every day? Once a week, a month, a year? Or is it an idiomatic or allegorical expression?
What does it really mean?
The answers to these questions is what I set out to unravel in this piece. I should state right off the bat that I do not think the hadith is an idiomatic expression. Understanding the hadith requires that one understands Classical Arabic. And the same sentiment is true of understanding the Quran, because it is only when we understand how the words were understood in classical times that we would be able to make sense of it today.
I mean, the sentence was made over 1400 years ago; no doubt, true meaning of words have been lost to what is now called Modern Arabic. To bring it closer to home, Shakespeare’s words are only recently being converted to modern English for ease in reading, and grasping, and Shakespeare lived less than five centuries ago, and here is an hadith that was said over fourteen centuries ago.
You see, even then, the nomadic Arab bedouins were said to possess the proper Arabic understanding, and so, in understanding a lot of words in the Quran, scholars would go and live with the bedouins in the desert for years and years, and would only return when they’ve mastered the tongue. Some parents go a step further, an example is Imam Shafi’s mom, who sent Imam Shafi to live with the bedouins as a boy, to return years later; this is also a practice that is being done till date, albeit minuscule.
Now that we’ve understood that, let’s take a look at the hadith – Al jannatu tahta aqdamil ummaHati; which is popularly translated as ‘paradise lies beneath the feet of mothers’. The hadith is narrated by Mu’awiyah bin Jahima al-Sulami and reported by Imam ibn Hanbal. The hadith contains an exchange between the prophet pbuh and one of his companions by the name of As-Sulami. Wherein Sulami asked to join a military expedition, and for reasons unknown, the prophet pbuh enquired if he has a mother. To which he replied in the affirmative, and then the prophet pbuh said, “stay with her, because paradise lies beneath her feet.”
That’s the most context I could unearth; so we don’t know if he pbuh asked every companion this question, and why he pbuh asked this question this time, because obviously, some of his battle companions definitely still had their parents. Perhaps, he pbuh knows of the mother beforehand, and knows of her special needs et al. Either way, notwithstanding all of the unknowns, we can still make sense of what seems like an idiomatic expression at first glance but which isn’t one if one tries to understand it with Classical Arabic norms and not modern Arabic nuances.
اَلْجَنَّةُ تَحْتَ اَقْدَامِ الاُمَّهَاتِ
transliterates to Al jannatu tahta aqdamil ummaHati. It’s safe to assume that we all know that Al jannat is paradise, so we don’t have to look deeper into what it means classically.
The word which we must start this exercise with is ‘tahta’. You see, tahta occurs a total of 51 times in the Quran, and without even looking at the imagery that the Bedouins used in understanding this word, the Quran’s usage is extensive enough to offer an encompassing definition.
In Q20 V6, it was used to mean things ‘beneath’ the earth. In Q66 V10, it was used to mean being ‘wedded’ or ‘married’. In Q48 V18, it was used to mean being ‘under the shade’. And in Q3 V15, it was used to mean ‘within’. In fact, in Q43 V51, and other places in the Quran, it has been translated as ‘feet’. So when the prophet pbuh said what he pbuh is said to have said, any of the above meanings could have been what he pbuh meant.
And when we look into what ‘aqdam’ means, we will be able to have a clearer picture of what the hadith means. The root alphabets of aqdam are qaf, dal and mim, and in this hadith, it was translated as ‘feet’, but is aqdam feet? As we’ve seen above, tahta is translated as feet, and so is the word arjul in the Quran.
Tahta is sometimes translated as feet because it also means for something to be beneath, even if it is not under. For example, if one stands under a tree, that doesn’t mean one stands beneath its root, one standing in between the tree’s branches and root is enough to be referred to as tahta; perhaps, standing under a tree is best expressed as standing ‘within’ a tree, even though one is not standing within its trunk per se, but you get the point.
Now, let’s look into aqdam. As I have written above, it has its root letters as qaf, dal and mim, and the word and its variations occur a total of 48 times in the Quran. And in its classical sense, it means to move forward, to lead, to advance, to be in front, and from it the idea of bravery, courage and other virtues that requires being seen ahead follows.
But how did it come to mean ‘feet’? It did come to mean that because to walk, we need to put our legs forward, and so it came to be used for ‘feet’, but its actual meaning is beyond that. In Q46 V11, it was used to mean ‘ancient’, and why is that? Because those were the people that lived first; they lived ahead of our existence, in a way, led us. You know how in English, ‘FORE-fathers’ is used to represent those that came before us. And this is qadam, to be ahead, to send something forth and the likes.
Arjul however, one is probably used to seeing it mean ‘man’ as in Q5 V23 et al, and in the likes of Q29 V55, it is used to mean feet. How did it come to mean that? Rajul, in fact, is the word that means ‘feet’, and it only came to be used for ‘man’, because as we say in English, ‘a man has to be able to stand on his two feet’. So it is only someone who is independent of other’s help, someone who is independent, that is called a man; man here can refer to woman too by the way. So, anyone that can stand on their feet is a man. And that is how Modern Arabic has come to derive man from rajul.
What then happens when we revisit the hadith that started all these with these new found understanding of the words? The way I have come to make sense of the hadith, away from thinking that I have to place my mother’s feet on my head, or find a way to enter her feet is that paradise lies within what one’s mother sends forth on one’s behalf, either in prayers, good deeds and the likes.
And so what that must have meant for As-Sulami must have been to make sure to go and get in his mother’s good books before joining the military expedition, that way, she sends ‘afore’, she sends ‘forth’, she sends ‘ahead’ of him prayers on his behalf, and because of these prayers or whatever goods she sends forth on his behalf, if he dies in battle, he is granted paradise.
So, paradise lying beneath one’s mother’s feet is a poetic rendition that is better understood when one looks into its classical meaning.
Now, if you are a mother, and unwilling to share this newly discovered power you have on your children with anyone, you can stop reading here, and not proceed further as we look into the word ummuHati. 😁 Its root alphabets are alif, mim and mim, and 10 forms of it occur 119 times in the Quran, and as you could have guessed, it was used to mean a host of things.
We will try to stick with the ones that matter to the understanding of this hadith. Umm started to be used to mean mother because that’s supposedly what the baby says first in trying to reach its mother for milk and care. And of course, ‘mother’ here can include father or both parents if they both had a hand in caring for and nurturing the child.
And in line with the baby’s utterance bit, Ummi was born; Ummi is translated as illiterate because anyone that doesn’t learn or know how to read or write is like a baby who can only talk and can’t read or write. And so the prophet pbuh was referred to as Ummi because he pbuh couldn’t read or write.
Another word that is derived is Umma, in Q35 V24, in which it is translated as Nation or a people. It started to be used for that because Mothers populate a nation, and a nation dies off if mothers die off. In Q75 V5 it was used to mean in front or future, and in Q2 V124, it was used to mean an Imam, a leader.
So, ummuHati, though in Sulami’s context meant his mother, and that definitely applies to all of the prophet’s pbuh ummah; perhaps, part of the meanings that can be derived from the hadith is also that paradise lies within what the Ummu (mother, parent, parents or caregiver), the Imam (leader), the Ummah (nation), and the Ummi (Innocent) sends forth on one’s behalf; which in turn carries the responsibility of being good to everyone especially the category of people highlighted above.
I hope this helps clarify the meaning of the hadith, and its purport. Alhamdullillah.
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