Nadim Bashir – Elite Followers #22 Abu Bakr (RA) pt 5
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the confusion surrounding the Hadith and the importance of not being associated with it. They share a statement made by the Prophet sallam and the importance of not giving more concessions to passengers. The conversation also touches on past misunderstandings and the importance of respecting others in leadership. The speaker emphasizes the need for trust and respecting others in Islam.
AI: Summary ©
As in these areas. The issue I'm referring to is the issue of Khilafah. About oboe Viola line.
First of all is that when you look at the level of workload, you're logged in and there are many a hadith of Ursula so Allahu alayhi wa sallam that refer to the Khilafah crow Viola tonight, because till today, there is you know, as Sunni Muslims, we believe that the Khilafah rightfully went to Albuquerque Viola tonight, however, there are some other people who believe that the Khilafah should have gone to Ali or the Alon and not to obika or the Yolo tonight, and I want to talk about the issue today. First of all, I want to share with you some a Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu it was sending them in reference to the Khilafah worker of Yolanda and Jabra EBITA Motomura Yolanda and
says, that once a woman came to the Prophet sallallahu, Ani was sending them and he ordered her to come back some other time. And she asked the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that what if I come back later on, but you're not here, meaning that you have passed away? Then who should I come and who should I talk to? The Prophet SAW Allah while he was sending replied in them to Jeanne
de abba, abba Cara. If you if you come to me and you don't find me, then you go to obika of YOLO, Tainan and this is a Hadith that is mentioned in Makati is mentioned and Sahih Muslim, and Imam, even 100 as Fulani Muhammad Allah Allah He has written a shutter. A shutter is an explanation on the book of Sahil Bukhari and this is only found in the Arabic language however, there are some other alumni and scholars. There is a scholar right now in Canada, who is actually writing a full explanation on Sahil Behati he was someone who studied in the same university or the same school Why study that? But nonetheless, the best explanation that can be found on Sahiwal Bahati is a book
called football buddies written by a guy by the name of Urbana hajus Kalani, the lawyer and he says that this hadith clearly refutes the claims of some people who believe that the kidnapper should have been should have gone to are legally allowed to the ion or even Abbas will be allowed to line now the question is that what exactly is even a hydra referring to when he says that the Khilafah that this actually refutes their claims? There's a hadith in Makati insoluble hottie in Kitab al magazine in the chapter of expeditions were one time this was at the very end of the life of us wa sallahu. It was sitting down. And this hadith first of all, it tells us that this was a discussion
that took place between aliotti Allah Denine and in our bus, okay, a bus. And
and now not only this was this a discussion, but many people believe that this was that the topic of Khilafah had consumed the mind of God along the line, whereas we don't believe that we believe that this conversation that took place between Donegal Yolanda and Abbas was only a conversation. That's all it was. It was just a conversation. Because as human beings you always are curious. Now the problem is Allah who I was on was about to pass away. And our bus comes and says I need to log on first says that I went inside the room to visit us wa sallahu alayhi wa sallam is it was towards the end of his life. I came out and people were asking me that how was the state of Rasulullah
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he says that it seems like there is some optimism.
Abbas comes and he says that I disagree. He says that the face is the face of Rasulullah sallallahu. It was seldom, or the face of a sick person, was it there was a face I saw on Roswell so long it was sentiment this is just basically I'm giving you a brief idea of what he's saying. He says that I have known this face for a long time. And whenever I have seen this face on anyone's face who is sick, that person does not last for more than three days. So meaning that the Prophet salallahu is not going to last for more than three days from here on out. So even if you're not on and says And Allah says to that why don't we go and ask the Prophet sallahu alayhi wa sallam that after you pass
away, who should become the honey farm? Okay, so this is actually once again a hadith and Buhari we found this hadith in Bukhari, it's a sahih Hadith. And at that time, it will be Allah turned on, he refused. He says that if we go to the prophets of Salaam, and we ask him about the subject of Elijah and who should become the Khalifa. And if the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says no, then that means that there will be never a situation where I could possibly possibly, or I could be elected ever as a Khalifa in the future. So none of that so we there's something that we learned from this from this. Number one is that did it cross the mind of illegal Viola
Under he could possibly possibly become the Khalifa. Absolutely. Was there anything wrong with this? Absolutely not. Because as a person, you know, many times, you know, the Sahaba Viola on home, they would think that at times that I am I feel like not out of arrogance and not because they want the position, but they feel like that they may they may be deserving of that position or they may be able to execute that responsibility or that that position. So, a little view a lot on he had a feeling now, did it consume him? Was this the thought on his mind all the time? It was not. Some people believe that yes, this was the only thought on the mind of God Allah Quran, but it was not.
So this is one Hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
I want to share with you something else that took place and this is
there are two different opinions that we find. First of all, is that we all know according to history, the oboe Viola on became the Khalifa. But at the same time, we there are two different Hadith I want to share with you and both of them are sorry, both of them wants to hate. One opinion says one opinion says that it will be allotted on tinyjohn did not give bail. Do not give allegiance to Oba curl YOLO turned on for six months okay this is one opinion that come that we find the second opinion that we find also from from an authentic source that our legal Viola de la I did give me he did give br to oboe Viola and on on the de la sua so along with this and I'm passed away. However
later on since there were some issues that had escalated and there were a lot of rumors that were spreading in Medina. overcrowd the Ultron he asked anybody alotta on one more time to give a shout out to him in front of everyone and publicly he gave it now the now we believe and I will share with you the Hadith Roswaal so Allahu alayhi wa sallam, the Hadith where the prophets are aware and the Hadith Where is mentioned that Oliver the Allah gave bei autoboca The Allah to honor we believe that he gave that willingly he gave that willingly and this is something that is across the board and we all believe that there was no force upon anybody Allah to the arm to give by tobacco Viola tonight,
however there are some other groups who believe that a worker of your water and he threatened he threatened and he forced I love you Allah Tala I'm to give br to him. Whereas that was not the situation. The TOS authentic hadith I'm going to share with you there is no mention of force in them once again, there is no mention of force in them. One of those hadith is a Hadith that is narrated
so one of the hadith is narrated.
By biblical fear is mentioned and will be dire when you hire by McAfee Rahmatullah era and this is the opinion where it says that there were two times that the br Two place this is a Hadith that is not found in Bihari is not found in Muslim is found in another authentic source of a hadith is called a mustard rock. And if you have you've heard me probably say this before, there is a book called Al mustard rock, Allah sahih hain. This is a book that was a book of a hadith is a collection of Hadith, where a person by the name of Al Hakim, he made this collection and he passed away way after Imam Muslim Rahmatullah Ali. But what he did was that he came across many other Hadith that
would fit the criteria of Behati and Muslim, but they're not found in Bukhari and Muslim. So he collected all these a hadith and he put it into a collection called Al mustard rock, okay, it's called Al Musa Cara Sahaj in this book, and there's one thing I was I want to share with you, I want to say one thing, you know, we have to understand and there's a lot of people who believe this and they're, you know, there are people who spread these things, that the only the only thing that you look at when it comes to hadith is Bukhari and Muslim. There's only Bukhari and Muslim that is absolutely wrong. Because there's so many other books about Hadith and you just don't you cannot
only look at Buhari and Muslim. And there are people who literally believe that you only look at Bukhari and Muslim and that's absolutely wrong. Did you know that Imam Muslim, Imam Muslims teacher, Imam Muslims teacher or it was called the his name was even a Fatima Did you know that even a Jose Maria had his own collection of Hadith, which is called Saheba Hoceima. It is actually all authentic hadith. So what happens is that you have a group of people today who believe that you take every single Hadith and it's literal perspective, and there's only Bukhari and Muslim. And and what they don't understand and it's purely ignorance, because there's so much more than Behati and Muslim.
There is still MIDI, there is a Buddha who there
Imagine there is the Hawi there is Muscat there is there is a mustard rock there is a Hebrew Hoceima there is a dichotomy there is a data Coatney there are so many books of Hadith. So a lot of times what happens is that we hear a hadith and we say oh I've not heard this hadith brother. I've never heard this hadith before. Just because that person who said that they have never heard that hadith. Their view of the hadith is only restricted to Bukhari and Muslim that's all they know. So when you have this limited vision, and you don't have an expanded vision, like a more Hadith in had died is why you have a very narrow idea of what Islam is all about. So the reason I mentioned this is
because this hadith I'm about to share with you comes from Al Musa rock. Now, in this hadith, it says that on the day, Ross was Allah was on passed away. The de obok Rhodiola Quran went along with Amara Viola Denine and he they and he was selected as a Khalifa by HMR by unanimous consensus, he was he was agreed that it was agreed by the unsought animal hygiene that obika will become the Khalifa obika went inside the masjid to to address the public for the very first time. At that time he's sitting over there and he looks and he does not find a yogi along the line
so he says that I want you to go and call on your Lord and on the throne comes and then he says to the to the allotted time that oh family member of resource so long it was salam in this most critical time. Is there something wrong Are you or is there something wrong? And he says no there's actually nothing wrong and he says that and then he says will you do? I mean do you do you agree Are you okay with this decision? And he says that I give you my br Okay are you gonna do if on the set I give you my bi and I give you my allegiance that you are the Khalifa okay.
Now, this is now one thing I want to mention over here
in this in this what happens is that
there is later on is said that again there was a bait that took place. But in this this is a Hadith as fundamental struck, and this hadith was found not in the collection of Imam Muslim. This was actually found in the collection of Sahib Nico Zima. Now remember, even a Muslim and Jose even Zima they were contemporaries. They used to work with each other and they used to share a hadith with one another. When Imam Muslim found out about this hadith he went to even Zima and he says that does this hadith exist within your collection of Hadith? And he says absolutely. So in my Muslim what he did was that he took he saw this hadith, he took the Hadith, he read it he read the isnaad and he
says that this is a sahih Hadith. This is a Sunni Hadith. And even Hosea, he agreed that Imam Muslim said that this is equivalent to a camel like mean that this hadith is so great that it is equivalent to a camel. Even Jose Ma said that this is more valuable than a camel. This is equivalent to a treasure. Okay, this is equivalent to a treasure because there were a lot of people who believed that there was no Bayadere to play for six months but this hadith says that the BR took place on the very first day of the hilife Abu Bakr Viola athalon You understand? Okay, now there's another Hadith and Muslim Now there's a hadith a Muslim and this is a long Hadith so do bear with me I'm going to
go through this hadith. I'm not going to go through the Arabic because this will take more time. But quickly I will just want to go through this hadith, the messenger Allah so Allah wa sallam said we the prophets do not leave any errors. We have we leave behind to be given and charity so mean that whatever we have, we don't leave inheritance we give it for charity, the household or the message of Allah Allah while he was saying will live on the income from these prophets, but by Allah I will not change the charity. The messenger of allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam from the condition in which it was in his own time. I will do the same with it as he must have allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
himself will do so what happened was that in so here's what's what's happening, the promises are made the statement and oboe Viola going on he just following that statement. Now when Oba proton went to go follow that statement in that you know the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa salam them Fathima or the Allah anon Ha, it was, according to her opinion, her opinion that there was something that should have been given to her and obika and said that based on this hadith, I cannot give you that, but I'll give you something from my own. Now first of all, the a lot Anna Anna, she disagreed with Alberto Viola de la Now remember, this is a Hadith narrated by I showed you
a lot and I now okay, and once you follow follow with me because I don't want to read
Anything Hadith narrated by Aisha the hola Anna Anna and she's mentioning all this. Now she says I shall do that and she says, So overgrowth on refused to hand over anything from it to Fatima who got angry with overgrowth Yolanda and for this reason
she forsook him and did not talk to him until
until the end of her life, okay, so here I saw that I was saying that, that because of this disagreement, and because Fatima did not like, what oh blogathon had decided in this situation. She did not talk to her about the allotted time. And she passed away in this state. Now, this is what she says. Now, this is what I showed her and she's saying, however, there are some other reports that we find that right before the death of Fatima are the alotta on her overgrowth on found out that she is sick. So he came and he asked, Are you allowed to on that if it is okay with Fatima, I want to come and talk to her. I want to come and talk to her. Now just because this Hadid mentioned
this. Now, this is once again, the knowledge of I showed you a lot and I know this is what she's saying. But there are some other reports that find that we find that Oberer or your daughter came to Fatima and they were able to reconcile their matters, okay, they were able to reconcile the matters and fall tomorrow. The Athan left from this world without anything in our heart for obok Rhodiola Quran Okay, so so far, this is where it is.
She lived for six months after the death of us who also loved while he was on when she died, her husband it was built on buried her a night. And he did not even unform Oh Buckroe Rhodiola turned on about her death and offered her funeral offered the funeral prayer over her himself. So once again, this is I showed you a lot and I was saying this during the lifetime of Fatima Rhodiola and I have Oliver the old all received regard from the people mean that until Fatima was alive, this family was also some would receive we receive good by people after she had died. He felt in strange moment mean that our little John felt that there were some people who were acting with him in a very strange way
in the faces of the people towards him. So what did he do? Now? He said that so he sought to make peace with Oba Rhodiola and offer his allegiance to him. Now this Hadid once again this is a instantly Muslim. So this is our authentic hadith, but there is no mention of being forced here. So what did he do? He had not owed allegiance to him as a philosopher for these months. Now Fatima Fatima died within six months after the death of grace was a long while he was sitting in this in the hadith of Sahih Muslim he says that Allah goes into and did not give his br to Oba code for this long. Okay, so that's why there are two different Hadith and both of them are correct one says he
did take a bit earlier on and then one time later on. This one says he had not taken the bait at all till this moment. So what did he do? He sent a person to overthrow the Allah and I'm requesting him to visit him and companion by anyone mean that I want Obama to come and talk to me or I want to talk to Obamacare. He's calling and asking for a worker to present himself in front of himself. I owe you a lot and I but without being accompanied by anyone almost set to overcrowd you a lot and on that by Allah you will not visit alone or Guardiola said that what is you know, what do I have to lose? It's it's not a big deal. Let me just go and visit because once again overcrowded Donna was not the man
who want to he didn't want this matter to be prolonged because already some people are talking about this and Medina. So he wants to go and finalize this once and for all. So he says that by Allah I will visit them and he did pay a visit all along. He got over there. They both and once again, both had mutual respect for one another. It was not that it was against Obama, viola and some people believe it was not that he had hatred in his heart for Albuquerque along the line. They were human beings at the end, they all had their own opinions we hear and we read in the Ceylon Roswaal Salah while he was saying that there are so many times that obika rhodiola, Tehran in Amara delta and they
will disagree and they will disagree openly in front of us wa sallahu alayhi wa sallam.
There's a story that I want to share with you today. If we get to it, we'll get to it. But it was about also that overcrowded Yamata and during his time, whenever he would distribute money within the people, he gave everyone an equal amount men equal amount women equal amounts Slaves and free people equal amount. And in order to do that, and came to a backhoe and says that I disagree with how you're distributing this wealth. You should give more to the people who came into Islam earlier. You should give more to them more hygiene.
You should give more to them more hygiene and you should
give more to those people who who accepted it some earlier in Oberon he disagreed with him. And later on when John became the Khalifa, he changed that ruling. Now once again, both of them had their own opinion based on the teachings of the Quran, the Sunnah of Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam it because more of it, he had the manner just like within our orlimar today, you know, they both have two different opinions. Both of them are from the Quran and the Sunnah of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So once again, these have Rhodiola on Him, they never took anything to heart, they will talk about the matters. And one thing here that we learned from Oulu, Allah Don, he has an
opinion, he has an opinion, he has something in his heart. Now he could have sat there and be passive about it, and harbored these feelings in his heart. But what we learned from this is the importance of communicating your feelings to one another.
Look out look at any of you, Allah and I and he's communicating how he's feeling in his heart to elbow, viola and iron, and obika. Don is not being offended. And John does not feel intimidated that he has to express his feelings. Now imagine if there is two people. One is the position of leadership and the other one is not in the position of leadership. The one who's not in the position of leadership feels intimidated, that if I express what I feel, then something could possibly happen to me. And the position the person who's in position of leadership, he might feel disrespected that How dare can this person say something which in his heart, which I may not like? Neither was
Obamacare like that. Neither was it around like that. This is why these people were so amazing people now
are you gonna get on says, they all recite the Shah hood. They their senator blessings upon us wa sallahu alayhi wa sallam so that this can be this can be a very civil discussion. He then says, On the other hand, says, we recognize he's talking to Oba crozon We recognize your moral excellence, and what Allah has bestowed upon you. We do not envy the favor. In other words, the Khilafah which Allah has conferred upon, you see, it was unlike which the people gave you because if I were to say that the people gave it to you, that means that he disagrees with this completely. Okay? He disagrees with this completely. But he says that Allah gave this to you, which Allah conferred upon
you, this isn't a hadith. This isn't a hadith, but you have done it alone without consulting us with consulting but no Hashem. And we thought that we had a right to be consulted on account of our relationship with Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa salam.
Now, are you going to continues, and he says that he continued to talk to such an appointee to such a point, that obok Rhodiola and ions, his eyes were filled with tears, then obergurgl and spoke and said, By Allah, in whose hand is my life, the kinship of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is dear to me, than the kinship kinship of my own people mean that if I were to treat anyone better than my own tribal members or my own tribal people, I would treat the family of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam better, I would treat the family of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam better as regards the dispute that has arising between you and me about these Baba these
matters. I have not deviated from the right course and I have not given up doing about them what the message of Allah Allahu is on us to do. So are you going to law in Central America this afternoon? mean that this fix day this afternoon? Is the swearing allegiance upon you so mean that overcoat on he after aliotta on has spoken a worker and he said he said what he had to say. And now are you able to mow the lawn? He's not being forced he's saying now the now comes the time that I need to give you my br Okay, I need to give you my br He then says So when obika had finished the heart prayer he ascended the pulpit and recited that the childhood. He described the status of our yo yo lotta on
his delay in swearing allegiance and the excuse which light which which light had offered to him for the delay. Meaning that obika dawn came in from the public and said that look. There's a lot there's a lot of talk in the community. And I agree with you a lot and Anna have come together. We have resolved our matter. And humbler we love each other, and Iota is here to give his beyond. After this he asked for God's forgiveness then Iota and he recited childhood exalted the merits of overcrowding, a lotta on and said that his actions was not prompted by any jealousy of Oba Kurata on See look, this is very important. I know the honest saying that my review
So it was not because I was jealous of overcrowd Athan, as some of you believe that this was the case on his part or his refusal to accept the high position which Allah had conferred upon him adding, but we were of the opinion that we should have had a share in the responsibilities or in the government. But the matter should have been decided without taking us into confidence and this displeased us. So that's all Are you in your town is saying that this I wish that this matter would have been deliberated upon, it would have been discussed more upon, rather than, you know, hastening in this kind of situation, now, once again, did the alotta on take base upon Oberg Rhodiola on
forcefully, absolutely not. This was his own choice, he did. So now many of us as Sunni Muslims, we believe that there was no delay in the br but there are authentic hadith of Roswaal, Salah Hassan who's with state, the fact that yes, there was a delay, once again, there's one Hadith and was struck, that says that there were two times the BR took place. And this is a Hadith, because it's found in in Musa rock, it was found in the collection of immunocal, Zima. And Muslim he also, he also authenticated that hadith. And then the other one is found in Sahih Muslim in itself, that where the BR did not take place, because of your your time he had a certain feeling in his heart.
But then these people were and they were able to resolve this matter. Now, whenever there's two Hadith that seemingly contradict one another, there is a terminology that is found in the books, in the books of Hadith, or a book a terminology found amongst him or her the theme is called to be one Hadith, meaning that you have to find a common ground between the both of both of the Hadith. Now, is there a common ground between both these Hadith? And the answer is no. We respect both of these Hadees because they are both authentic, at the same time. Now could I have done have this feeling in his heart, there's nothing wrong with that. This is why they were called human beings. That's why we
see their life. And we understand that they had feelings, they had opinions, but they did not let these feelings get between them and each other were brewed into hatred, and it turned into hatred. This is why the Sahaba were so magnificent people, because if despite the fact that they had human feelings, there were humans there were not like supernatural humans are supernatural beings, or super humans. They were human beings just like you and I. They had a heart. They had feelings. They had their own way of looking at things. As I said, Oba proton and proton will disagree in so many matters. But did that did that stop them from respecting one another? No, they respected one
another, they loved one another. And not only that, but even during the time we were working with Yola to the end, he would delegate so many responsibilities. He gave on legal deola On so many responsibilities, he gave onward, so many responsibilities. And one thing about delegation, one thing that Muslims are really bad at is delegation. We as Muslims were really bad in delegating others. And you know what I'll tell you one thing about over the allotted time, this is why a worker Rhodiola line he is so his life is is amazing when you want to say the qualities and the characteristics of leadership. Because when you go in colleges and universities and you study
leadership,
and then you say leadership from an Islamic perspective, there is not only leadership from the life of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, but you learn a great deal of leadership from the life of orbiculata. Line, Omar Osman, and you will be a lot and you learn a lot of leadership from their life. And one of the things that we find in the life of Obama yellow tonight, that he was a man who had delegate responsibilities to others. When you delegate responsibilities to others, you know what that means? You trust that person. If the if there's a person I don't trust, I'm never gonna give him a responsibility. That means I'm never going to delegate to him. But as Muslims, we have this
problem. Whenever we are in the position of leadership, we don't want to trust anyone. It's either because we don't want to trust them, or because we don't want them to get the credit when something happens. That's what happens. So we learn not to delegate, we learn not to delegate. And I'll tell you, as long as we are in this habit of not delegating, I'm telling you is the progress of Islam, or the progression of Islam will stop. I'm going to finish on this talking about delegation or delegating to others.
You know, there's one car company that we see always on the roads, Ford, we all know Ford, right? Yes or No?
If you study the history of Ford, the history of Ford, the founder of Ford, what's his name?
Henry Ford, right? Yes, no. Henry Ford during his time, was his name was the name Henry Ford.
Henry Ford during his time he was known
To be a person who never delegated, he never delegated.
And his company was on the verge of bankruptcy.
His grandson then took over that company. And he turned it into a multi billion dollar industry, I mean business. What did he do, which was very different than his father, he delegated responsibilities. His grandfather never gave responsibilities to anyone else, because he never trusted people, as soon as he came in power, and he became the one responsible for Ford and Ford Motor Company. The one thing the first thing he began to do right away from day one, he began to give out and he began to dish out. And he began to give responsibilities and delegated responsibilities to others, when he began to put his trust and others in my saying that people will
people are perfect. I'm not saying people are perfect, people will will make mistakes. But this is how you teach people. This is how you teach people when you and so he delegated responsibilities. And that's why his company was which was on the verge of bankruptcy, went, it only shot up, then after that, it only, it only got better, and matters got better and better for that company. One thing that we learn in our community, when we delegate responsibilities to others, this might be a new brother who moved to our community, or someone who has never done this responsibility. And we give them a responsibility and say, You know what, you have to do this, or how many times we give
responsibilities to the youth. And they don't do a good job, they may not do a good job. But does that mean that we just now cut them off and we don't delegate to them anymore? Absolutely not. You have to put your trust in them. You have to put your trust in one another delegate if they mess up, you teach them, you guide them, if they mess up again, you guide them if they mess up again for a third time, you continuously guide them, but to cut them off and not delegate to them anymore. This is not in the sunnah or in the Sunnah of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
There were people in in the time that Prophet salaam he knew this person is good for this. There was a person who came I want to become the leader. He said this to the Robert Solow make me responsible there, Olson said no, you're not fit for that. You're not fit for that responsibility. He never gave him the responsibility. But he also knew everyone's strengths and weaknesses. And based on that he would delegate never to the boss and say, I'm going to do everything had the problem. Some done everything himself. I don't think it's some would have reached today where we are. But there are some had a nature of delegating. And he delegated and it's something that we learned from overflow
the a lot going on. There's a lot more that I wanted to cover today, but I'll go ahead and stop right here. And show next week we'll be talking about some of the fitness that occurred during the time of Accra a lot and I pray to Allah subhanaw taala He gives us the ability to understand he gives the ability to fall, the life, the life of a worker, the law to run and the other the philosophy and the Sahaba do later on is often Allah Subhanallah we humbly Subhana Allah home hunting nationally we're in the midst of Fluka wants want to exactly my hiatus on when it comes to labor contract