Crossroads of Faith & Practice – Pt.2
Date:
Channel: Abdul Rahman Chao
File Size: 54.58MB
Episode Notes
Conditions of The Shahada
AI Generated Summary ©
The importance of differentiation and avoiding offense in Islam is emphasized, as it is crucial for people to address their political beliefs and avoid offense in their own lives. The speakers also discuss the concept of "sterile words" and the importance of praying for forgiveness and finding the right way to apply the name of God to certain categories. The segment also discusses the importance of faith in one's ability to achieve success and achieve wealth, as it is crucial for personal decisions and actions.AI Generated Transcript ©
While
large enough
is this is we need Susan to decide if this is large enough or not.
First thing just to do a little bit of
what do you call that? housekeeping?
Normally, what I, what I what I do like to do is make sure that
students are understanding what is being said. So,
if you have any questions, make sure you answer them make sure you
well if you have a question, make sure you ask them, not answer them, make sure you ask the question.
Don't be like the person that sits there in in silent ignorance, hoping that the silence and the ignoring of the question
that you have in your head is going to suddenly solve itself. Okay. Unless I explicitly say to you, we're going to cover that later. Other than that, any write your question down and gather them up? Okay.
Thank you
know, you just you just check them off.
Yeah, if they're not here to write if they're not here, that's something Yeah.
From the same route as Dane,
so
that
so I kind of got confused a little bit.
He doesn't need anything. There's nothing?
Of course, nothing. Nothing. Nothing gives value to Allah.
Oh, no, that was just a linguistic. That was just looking at it from the language perspective of the word to help you understand of the idea of something you go back to. That's all. It was just a linguistic soliloquy, that's it.
Okay.
So as we were saying, housekeeping, if you didn't register, make sure you register, okay. Also,
if you are out of good faith and honesty, if you are actually attending online,
you know, make sure that you
put a comment to Alex so he can see it. So we're not accusing anyone of otherwise, but we're just saying, we don't know who's watching.
Okay, so we had posed two questions last time.
On the whatsapp group, we had posed two questions basically asking what was the first what is the first condition of Laila halala? And why,
Susan?
knowledge, and why should knowledge be the first condition of the testimony of faith? Why knowledge?
Okay, so a more complete answer would be if you do not understand what is
what La ilaha illAllah entails, and what it requires of you, and what your responsibilities are, and how you should behave in a certain way, right.
That's why when you get caught by the police,
and you know, when they say, and the police says
X, Y and Z, you should not have been doing that.
You were speeding in the school zone. Hmm. How much is the school's on violation?
It's very high.
It's like, it's like, I don't know, four or $500. It's usually double. And if it's like double the speed limit, oh, it's even worse.
If you say, I don't know that's not acceptable. Do you know why?
Because they will say you have a driver's license, therefore you take full responsibility.
Simple as that. Oh, I didn't know that when the bus swings his little stop, sign out with flashing lights that I cannot pass the bus.
Because yes, if it was your child getting off the bus, you would be livid if someone cross that stop sign. Okay. All right. So today we're going to finish the other five, it's relatively fast, relatively quick, in the lightoller. We don't have an introduction to go through.
So
the fourth one is love.
there obviously has to be love.
For the idea that Allah subhanho wa Taala is in charge.
So it is it's not just something you just say yes, I love I love Allah. I love Islam, I heart Islam. Right. It's there is it requires something, right? So it has to be in what what I'm going to highlight here on the second. And the third point is, we have to be really careful in differentiating when we say that we disbelieve and we reject and we dislike and we hate disbelief itself.
Right? But that does not mean that we go out and project that hatred onto another person and you know, justify, you know, physical harm or attacks on them just because they differ with us in our faith. Right.
And a lot of times, there's a lot of Muslims who are unwilling to reach that point of saying, I dislike and I reject and I hate anything that is calling to the worship of other than Allah. Like they don't feel comfortable with that. They think that by doing that, that makes them a bigot.
Okay. And
and that's why we have to separate between what we are taught
as members of any society. We have to distinguish between when people throw the word hate around all the time, and it loses its meaning.
Right now we are in a time where anytime you disagree with someone, they just say, oh, you're a hater.
Okay, the hater. They disagree with facts or this is just fake news. Okay? They disagree with your political assessment. treason. Okay, immediately, just like there's like a dictatorship, treason immediately. high crimes and treason.
So when we say we love
the testimony of faith, it requires you to do the opposite for anything that calls to something other than our last round Todd.
And the way how I will package it and presented to you
is like imagine if someone came to you and said
we respect that you are a Muslim, we respect that you hold true that Laila Allah Muhammad Rasul Allah,
but
you should be, you should,
you should.
You should be okay. With polytheism. Like, you should be okay with Hinduism, you know,
you should be confident in yourself that you don't need like, if you weren't confident in yourself, why would you be so anti?
Whatever it is that you're anti, right. And that's the narrative that people are pushing these days. If you were confident, you wouldn't be so insecure. Right? And they use that as a way to kind of make desensitize you, right. I'll give you an example right now. If you went to
some church here in Houston, okay.
And you said to them, You walked in and you said,
you should you should love according to your religion. You should love Islam and Muslims
depending on what denomination they are and given them
That how the word love has been corrupted within the Christian faith in love, love, love, God is love. God loves everything right?
You will provoke a very strong response. They're gonna say, No, I don't love Islam. I don't love that. Right. But the thing is, is is that there, and I was reading this the other day, and there's like, there are some Muslims there.
They're unwilling.
They're unwilling to categorically say
that
another false religion is actually false.
They'll be like, well, there's different truths. You don't know.
See, see how it's creeping in. They're not even willing to acknowledge that.
Islam is truly, at least to them, a religion of truth. And that's why I wrote this post yesterday. Again, Islam is a religion that
is not in competition with other religions, we're not in competition.
Islam is valid, based on its own merit, not because trinitarianism doesn't make any sense. Not because Buddhism doesn't make any sense. Not because Hinduism doesn't make any sense. Not because Judaism is ethnocentric. For example, in some denominations, right? Even if there was no other religion on the face of this earth, except for Islam, if there was no other religion out there, except for it's not that religion, Islam is valid because of that, not because of the existence of its opposite. And so
as a result, the people who make Islam into a competition or Muslims, they make it into a competition. There, they think they're the competitors for Islam. Right. And so sometimes you will have Muslims who
are more than willing to twist some parts of Islam
so that it comes off more acceptable, and
it's more palatable, right. And, in a sense, what they're trying to do is they're trying to make Islam more competitive. You're trying to make Islam more attractive in that sense. And Islam doesn't need to be made attractive.
When you change something out of its core tenets.
All right.
The prophet SAW Selim says in a hadith regarding the point number three, and I'll just give you the summary of it, is that
three people
or three types, they will taste the sweetness of faith. Yes, please. And one of them is that they hate
that they hate to be returned to.
They hate to be they hate to return to the disbelief that they came out of.
Like right now. And I want to put that into terms right now. Right now, if someone came to you and said, We heard you reverted to Islam X number of years ago,
if I gave you $1 million right now, to return to whatever faith you have been.
The response that I would expect from you would be to be offended.
That sort of indignation, that you could somehow buy me off, right? That sort of indignation of that's really disrespectful that you would want me to give up my fate for some, you know, some reason that's
illegitimate, right? You would be angry about it. We like the fact that you even pose that question is offensive. That's what I'm talking about.
That you find it offensive to you to accept. Other than that what the point is.
So, love would mean to put your own desires under what Islam tells you to do.
Okay.
I know a person
who told me one time
that he
He loves bacon,
finger licking, bacon bacon bacon.
You know, and then one of my friends said something really interesting to me the other day. I don't know if it was yours.
They said that it's not surprising why some people here they love bacon, because the food is so bland.
So when you add bacon with that nice smoky taste, well, of course, it's going to make the food taste good. Right? It's these little chunks of stuff, right? But you might say, well, Brother, you know, that's a struggle that they're struggling with.
What I'm trying to say is when you hear Muslims saying something like,
I wish liquor was Hello, because I love it.
Why couldn't it be Hello?
You hear people saying that? I wish.
I wish the lottery was harder.
I wish
for example, you know, doing this was harder. During the time, SLM companion came up to him and said, messenger of a law make fornication Hello for me.
And the companions were very angry, and they were livid. And they said, How could you say such brazen thing to the pastor Selim so disrespectful, etc. And the prophet SAW Selim told him to come close. And then he said,
Would you like it for your mother? He said, No. Would you like it for your daughter? He said, No. Would you like it for your sister? He said, No. Would you like it for? And he said, No. He's like, then every other woman out there is either a mother or a daughter, a sister and onto someone else.
And what did the processor What did he tell us? And then the processor touched him on his chest. And he said, obviously is a miracle. And he said, And from that day onward, fornication became the most detested thing to me. I detested it so much.
We live in a time that when you are firm in your, in your in your belief system, we are mocked.
Okay, look at the look at Mike Pence.
Putting aside what he stands for, Mike Pence has a really good policy that he has. It's really good. You guys know what it is?
He has a personal practice.
He says I never attend a meeting or a lunch meeting alone with another woman.
And people started clowning on him.
Oh, he thinks he's holier than thou. He thinks he thinks he's holier than everyone else. He thinks he's better than everyone else.
So we are living in a time where when you say I do this because I love Allah subhanaw taala people are gonna laugh at you. They're gonna think oh, you know, you're just a hater. You're just a conservative on not job. A free, you know, a loser. Religion is, you know, is what causing all the war.
Like we said, it does not mean that you treat people in a disrespectful way. Allah says in the Koran.
Okay.
You will not find the people who believe in Allah, and the last day having affection for those who oppose Allah and His messenger.
I want you to think about that verse.
Yeah, I mean, a true believer
who claims the faith of Islam.
It's not possible for that person to what have affection for those who oppose a lot as messenger. You cannot have affection. I'm not talking about oh, you know, let's say, you know, motherly instinct, child instinct, you know, I'm talking about right now, even if your relative came out right now and said, Mohammed is this Mohammed is with an insulting word, even if that person was your relative your own flesh.
Blood, you will not have affection for what that person just said.
No matter how close they are to you, you'd be like, that's unacceptable to me. That's really rude. That's really insulting. Right? Even if they were their fathers or their sons or their brothers
and now Why not?
Yes.
Opposing means like actively waging a hateful campaign against Islam.
So, you know, this is public knowledge. You know, who's like someone. Do you guys know anyone who wages an active hateful campaign against Islam?
He's giving him too much credit.
He doesn't even know what he's talking about.
I don't know that mean.
Okay. I would say someone like
I would say someone like Daniel pipes.
I would say someone like Pam Geller.
I would say someone like for example,
Jeanine Pirro.
You know, she's an Arab By the way, right, Jeanine Pirro. She's an Arab she's actually Lebanese
Janine Gina
if you understand that they think you'll get that job.
But is that is that point clear for you? Yeah. So when we So listen, we have to make it clear. A non Muslim does not equal the person who opposes a law
and His Messenger
the person who opposes a lot of messages like who will
waging an Active Campaign Against Mohammed Hassan actively be smearing and finding ways to hurt Muslims? Yeah, I mean, purposefully, because of the fact that they say like,
the profits are seldom
says
here
men upon in law,
okay, who ever gives for the sake of a law and in Asian men have been in law
whoever loves for the sake of a law, well above and beyond and dislikes for the sake of a lot and when we say and even though the word here above other means to? To be a to feel abhorrence, to to dislike to even hate? Jani, what does it mean to hate for the sake of Allah? Then I need to hate the ship itself.
And not wish it
has completed his faith.
But God is stuck melon.
Any questions here?
Unless there's an update on butterfly Hammonds, aka
verily or Indeed, those who purify it, have succeeded.
In other words, those who purify the heart
Allah says no Quran Valentina, who is a Cathy Ferran own and the and those are the people who do this occur, and actually is a little bit of a tangent in Arabic When you say the word zeca almsgiving. The reason why it comes from the same word as purification,
is because it involves two things. When you give Zakat alms, which is the third pillar of Islam, a set rate that you have to give every year. That giving is like purification, it because it purifies the wealth. Sometimes, you know, when you make money,
the money becomes impure. Like for example, let's say you're on an hourly rate, the hourly rate. And let's say you're on the job, and let's say technically, you're not supposed to use social media. Okay?
Let's say technically, you're not supposed to use social media, but your boss is okay with it. And then you're scrolling through Facebook, right?
So by giving that guy it purifies the world. Also Zakah purifies the wealth in the sense that it allows people excuse me, it allows people
to purify their heart, from the emotional growth, and feelings that build up in the heart. When you make money, such as greed, such as selfishness, such as lack of empathy, when you make a lot of money, there's a higher chance you're less empathetic, there's a higher chance, you want to hold on to the money, tangent. So here, in the Quran, Allah is saying, well, an enormous security fair alone. And these are the ones who do, it doesn't mean giving arms, it means they're purifying their hearts. Also, you're gonna see this narration over and over again, as we continue this class. And then this, this verse here is saying,
No, actually, this hadith here is saying the parser said lamb tells us in the narration, in the Learn the meat.
Allah has 99 names
in lava. In other words,
this is an Arabic expression. There is this except for that. So there are 99 names. And so whoever from an Assad agenda, whoever enumerates them, enters paradise. In Arabic, when you say enumerates, it just, it doesn't just simply mean okay, I know the 99 Names of Allah, I'm just going to read them on when you memorize them, I know them. No, it means memorizing, understanding, applying it. That's very difficult.
lajitas after noticing the Eastman media tune in la vida, and in LA, follow her in a different agenda. Whoa, whoa, wait till you have been with him. So in another narration deposit sentences, rarely, unless Coachella has 99 names 100 minus one, no one memorizes it except that they enter agenda,
and then the nation to enumerate them. But the meaning of that is to memorize to enumerate, and to put them into your
you put them into practice. Okay.
Also the names and attributes of a hotel that forms one section of the study of who God is.
So when we talk about who God is, we could divide the understanding of who God is into three parts, God as the Lord and creator of the universe, God as worthy of worship alone, and God as the one with Divine Names and attributes.
Now, someone might say, there are some idiots out there who will say, and I stress the word idiot, because they will say like, where does it say that Islam, that
Islamic theology is divided into three categories, like where does it?
Where does it say that?
And this kind of,
I mean, you're not going to open the Quran, and you're not going to open the heady and you're going to find
in the Quran, the these three categories exclusively by themselves,
but what the scholars have done is they have read through all the
the texts, the sacred text, and they have deduced from the verses
these categories. So it is not explicit, but it is implicitly understood when you read through the broad when you read through the Hadith of the prophets lesson.
So
this is like someone saying, like last, like two weeks ago, you know, if someone says, Where does it say in the Hadith, or in the Quran, that there are seven conditions to lie? And yes, you're not gonna find the Quran, a list of seven conditions of the oneness of Allah account data, but
the scholars they have read and they have compiled this, okay? So
we do not
we do not hold people accountable by this specific ordering.
We don't hold people accountable to that. This ordering actually, some scholars, they classify Islamic theology of who God is into two categories.
Right, they actually combine number three and number one together.
into one category, because it's all talking about God.
And then they make the second category a category by itself. Right? So this we don't worry we don't we're not say as a Muslim you have to believe in these three specific categories in this categorization. But if a Muslim comes and says, Okay, if a Muslim comes in and says, I believe in Allah subhanahu wa taala I worship Allah subhanaw taala I know Allah subhana wa Taala has beautiful names. Okay? Right. So it's not in the
it's like someone saying, you have to say PEMDAS is Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, what if I don't want to say Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, what if I want to say please, excuse my mind, my dear antelope sound?
Right, it doesn't matter that is this your thing. It's,
it's we are coming after is
the meaning of it and not the actual methodology of how it was put into three categories.
Also,
when you know the names of Allah subhanho wa Taala, and the attributes of Allah subhanho wa Taala. You can apply them to
the way how you make supplication and you call out to Allah in your time times of need. Okay.
So, there are actually two types of da, two types of supplication. Okay, so we have to be clear here. When we talk about supplication a lot of times English speakers, they confuse it. They're like prayer.
And they think prayer is like you sitting by on the edge of your bed and you're calling out to God. In Islam, there is spiritual ritual prayer, that you get up and pray five times a day. And then there's also prayer, just you calling out to God talking to God asking God for help. That second category has two types.
The first category is called
supplication by request, do I mess it up?
So supplication by request, means you have a specific request that you have, Oh Allah, I need this. Oh ALLAH forgive me, oh, Allah, provide me with wealth or law provide me with sustenance, oh, Allah guide me to the truth, you have a specific request that you have.
The second type of da is
supplication through worship.
So what does that mean?
When you pray, the act of prayer itself?
What do you hope out of it?
You hope that Allah will reward you through that prayer. So it's sort of like a prayer, right? ritual prayer, but in the form of, well, I hope if I pray, I'm going to get something out from Oh God, nonspecific, I give charity, I hope through that charity, I'm going to get something good out of it. So that action becomes some sort of way to get closer to Allah. So what does this have to do with the names and attributes of a law? Because when you know the names of Allah, and
the attributes of Allah, the characteristics of God, you are able to implement that information directly into the way how you make and that is application. So in the first category, supplication, through what request, right? You can incorporate the name of Allah by saying,
oh, merciful, be merciful to me.
The most the most wise guide me, the one who possesses all knowledge. Show me the truth.
The one who heals, the one who heals heal me.
The one who hears Hear my prayer for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? So you can apply the name of Allah into the dial. In the second hand degree we said it is derived by what? worship. So what does it mean? How do you use the name of a lower the attribute of a law to apply it to that category? It is by for example, when you do something wrong, you seek forgiveness because you know God is forgiving
because you know, God is the forgiver
You pray, because you know that Allah subhanho wa Taala is the one who does not break his promises, for example, you you give charity, because you know, Allah will give you sustenance, because you know that the charity does not decrease your sustenance, for example, clear on that.
So when we say, believe in the names and attributes of a law, we have to break this down a little bit, we have to
kind of tear it apart and talk about this. What does it mean to say that, and then we'll go through each one of them separately on different slides to cover them. Okay.
So when we say we, as Muslims believe in God, His names and attributes, it means that number one, we believe that he has beautiful names. So number two, we also believe that Allah subhanaw taala has beautiful attributes, he has attributes that are very special, and we will talk about all of these in detail, but I'm simply giving you the introduction to what this is. And also, it means that you also believe in the meaning and the associated issues and rulings that come with the names of the attributes of Allah subhanho wa Taala.
So for example,
if I say to you, one of the names of a lot is the Merciful,
the Merciful man.
So then I would say to you,
that I believe in the name of Allah, that his name is the merciful. I believe that he has a characteristic that is what mercy, right. And I also believe that Allah subhanho wa Taala shows this mercy to certain people, in certain circumstances.
The implication.
So now this name is not just some name, it's not just an attribute, it has some effect on it.
So the complete meaning is that you believe that only God has these unique names and attributes. In other words, I'm not going to attribute any names of God to creation. For example, you go to Christmas, in a church, what do they say? I'm sorry, in Easter, what do they say in the church?
They sing, they sing. The African Christ has risen, right? after allegedly Christ is risen. What do they say, King of kings and Lord of lords,
Lord of lords, and He shall reign forever and ever and ever.
is not what they sing in the song Hallelujah, King of kings and Lord of lords, and He shall reign forever and ever. Okay? Don't get me seen.
So, they've now attributed and name reserved for a law to Jesus,
King of kings, Lord of lords, and they attributed an attribute to Jesus saying, and He shall reign forever and ever and ever.
So, as a Muslim, we do not attribute any of the 99 meanings to other than almost kind of hotel and we will talk about what that means. This is just to give you a sniff, okay.
And same thing, when we say majestic Names of Allah subhanho wa Taala, it means we do not give certain attributes that are specific to Allah subhanaw taala, we give it to the creation.
So in other words, if someone comes and says,
I know or the shift claims or this certain Muslim is claiming that he knows when the Day of Judgment is going to strike, we're going to say, You're full of it.
Why? Because that knowledge of when the day of judgment will come is reserved only to Allah only Allah knows that. That is an characteristic. The knowledge of knowing when the Day of Judgment is is an attribute only belonging to Allah. No one else knows that. If someone comes and says, I give life and I give death, I can sentence a person to death and I can release
A person from from jail because he's on death row I've given life and given death. No you haven't.
You didn't actually give him life.
You, you let him live. But that's not called giving life. That's called letting him to continue to live from a beam that gave him the life in the first place. You didn't give him the life
clear on this one.
So let's break it down. When we believe that Allah has names. We want you to be familiarized with this Arabic term. Asthma and asthma in Arabic is the plural for the word Islam.
So in Arabic is awesome. If you're taking Arabic classes you might know now, but it actually also means name.
And the plural is a SMAW.
names
you might be wondering,
isn't the same name as one of the female companions as
the daughter? Yeah, it is.
Okay, so a smile means names.
Okay, and then the freeze has now
is from the word hassen, which is
good.
and beautiful.
Okay, so, then you might be wondering, where does
hostname come from?
Right? If it hasn't, how did you come up? Basically,
in Arabic is every lesson whenever you have a noun that is plural, in Arabic, when you have a noun that is in a plural form a plural
everything that points to it, the adjectives are feminine, and it has to be non human. So if I say,
if I say, dog,
right, dog, masculine, but if I say dogs, okay, the attribute that comes after that is in Arabic, the word is feminine form. It doesn't mean the dogs are female, it means the attributes are used in a feminine form. And it's kind of similar like that to Spanish as well, that you can use, you have words that are feminine, but they're not actually female.
So hassane, when you use when you when you change it to the feminine form, it can come as either hazama or pasta. So Hostnet is literally one of the plural forms, feminine forms of hazard. Does that make sense?
So when I say to you a smile, it means the Beautiful Names of a warm smile.
So what does
what is a name?
Does anyone know what a name is? What's a name?
A title. What else?
Okay, here
for people to, to call you by
categorizing, to categorize and define what is the name, a name is?
is a phrase
to specify something, or to differentiate from other things.
So for example, teacher
when I say the word teacher to you, there are several things that are happening in your head that give you the understanding when a teacher is the teacher is someone that is
not just giving information, but the one that is encouraging learning, the teacher is the one that is that has to have an audience, right? We can't be a teacher to an empty room, right? A teacher,
maybe you should have an apple on his or her desk, a teacher, etc. but is by when I say to specify something we said also to differentiate it from something. So is a teacher like an engineer? No. is a teacher like a mechanic? No. Could a mechanic be a teacher? Yes. But in this case, we're not talking about this. We're saying a teacher has a very specific meaning that is separated from what a mechanic is and a mechanic is very specific.
that separates him from what a florist does. Okay.
So some of the names of Allah our God, Allah, which is the Arabic word for God, or man, the Most Merciful rahane, the most compassionate, the king, the owner, etc. You reach with the fact you have this Milla, aroma, Rama, dreamings, of alaric. There in the name of the God, in the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Three Names of Allah.
So, Allah says no cron, when he left he
left Jehovah and to God belongs the best names. A smart person that will allow him a smart person like I wrote up there. Okay, to God belong the best names, so call them by those names. So you pray to Allah using those things.
The second verse was to instruct the people around the prophets I send them to think that saying, Oh Allah who are thinking that Oh Allah, if you say, Oh Allah, oh god or own merciful, they thought that he was calling him to two different gods.
But no, Allah is saying, call on to God using the word God or if you hold on to his name, the Merciful, whichever name you use, to Him belong all the good, all the beautiful names.
And do not recite loudly in prayer, or to quietly But seek between that in an intermediate way. In other words, this was this is a little bit off topic, but it was,
don't
when you do the Salah
don't read so loud, and this is specific to Mecca and time, don't read so loud where the the pagans would hear it and make fun of it.
nor be so quiet that the person next to you cannot benefit from it.
Okay.
So when we say best names,
it means these names express the highest and most comprehensive, perfect meaning it expresses the highest and the most comprehensive meaning.
The second part of the definition is that we said to believe in the attributes of Allah. So what is an attribute? an attribute is a trait, a feature a quality that describes something.
So if I say to you,
boom, boom, no one's gonna think oh horse.
No one's gonna think boom, boom in horse, they might think maybe a motorcycle, they might think a car, but no one's gonna say a horse. A horse doesn't make room room noises that is a characteristic of a car. Okay?
So Allah subhanho wa Taala has very high characteristics, very majestic characteristics. We will talk about all of this in detail, I'm going to go over really quickly. There are three types of characteristics, a characteristic of essence and being which talks about who Allah is
a characteristic of agency
of the actions that he does. And a characteristic that is abstract, manually, an abstract quality of a law. So let's go through it again. There are three types of characteristics have a lot to be to be just quick, we will talk about this,
the essence and the being of God, who God is. So for example, Allah describes himself as having two hands. This is something that talks about the divine essence of God.
So now no one is going to say, oh, God has two hands. That means it's like my two hands. No, no one thinks like that. No one thinks like that. Okay, I say to you that
the camera has a lens.
Does that mean it's like my lens in my No, no one insane is gonna think like that. When Allah says he has two eyes, for example, does it mean that it's like our eyes? No. It's just a name to give you an approximation. Allah has a hand Allah has.
For example,
in the Quran, Allah says he has a shin for example. But all of these things we'll talk about what that means. As for number two, an example of agency of the characteristic of Allah
is for example, an action that he does. So for example, Allah creates a law descends, Allah rises above the Throne, Allah sustains creation, that is a characteristic pertaining to agency. And the third one is
a characteristic that is abstract.
An abstract characteristic, such as knowledge.
Knowledge is abstract,
Allah's ability to do anything that he wills omnipotence that is abstract, eternal life that is abstract, the will of God is abstract.
So here, Allah says in the Koran,
well, who would lead the person who will who
will who will metal Allah sama YT? Will or disease will hockey? So here, if you look at this verse, it contains both names and attributes, obviously,
what are the tunings mentioned here
as a team, Exalted and high, and was Exalted in Might and Wise, but what are the attributes here?
He is the one who begins the creation.
This is a description of agency of an action that he does.
And he repeats it. In other words,
life comes back.
Right?
Allah gives life over and over again.
We're not saying giving life to the same organism. We're saying of the same species of organisms, it comes back over and over again, right.
What a whole method will LFSR what you love and To Him belongs the highest attributes, in other words, characteristic and habits. In the next verse, Allah subhanahu wa taala says,
Lila de la umina, Neville astrati method, so he only lagging method will Allah, Allah, Caesar Hector, and for those who do not believe in the Hereafter, in other words, a pig in Meccans is an evil attribute and Alice's attribute is the loftiest attribute.
Well, hello, Al Aziz al Hakim, here's the mighty and the wise.
So here, this is just some
verses for you to think about. So when I say to you, Allah has majestic attributes. What does it mean? It means it's higher than what you can think of. It's more complete than when you can think of when we say majestic attributes.
Can humans be wise? Yes. But
Allah is infinitely wiser than humans. Can people have might? Yes, humans can have strength, but is it like a less strength? No, a lot of strength is infinite, beyond capable and omnipotence in every way, right.
Now, when we say meanings and associated rulings, right, we said it is to believe in Allah's names, his attributes, its meanings and associated rulings, it means that we understand each name
or attribute from both a linguistic and theological construct. In other words,
if you want to know what the name of a bar and azeez means, you need to know what it means in Arabic.
Like if you really want to know what it means you need to know what it means in Arabic. You could say, well, I'm going to know the translation of it. newsflash, a translation will never give you the gist of what it means in the original language. It will give you an approximation to the equivalent in the other language, but it can never give you the meaning. I'll give you an example.
If I see something that is really messed up, right, the house is really messed up. It's dilapidated. It's completely messed up. If I say to you, the house is tow up from the flow up.
Okay. Is toe up from the flow up. Okay. It's very difficult to
to translate that into Arabic toe up from the flower.
When I first heard the word toe up from the flow up, I was like, What do you mean the toe like the foot? The toe? No. It means torn up from the floor all the way up. Right? It is a ban from one man's move and it is torn. Me Out
The sub right from the ground all the way to the right, if you said that we like talking about.
So translation only gives you some input. So if you want to understand the name of Allah, you have to understand, you have to try to understand what it means in Arabic language.
So let me give you an example.
You cannot use the English and say, well, in English, this name could mean this, I don't care what it means in English, you need to go back and see what in Arabic does the word mean to get the correct meaning?
Number two is you have to understand it from the theological context. Right? When we say Allah has this name, or is it Allah has that name, there's obviously a context to it. It's not just in a vacuum, or it's some name, that we don't know what it means there is some meaning to it. There's a context to it. So for example, one of the names of a lot is the all herring as semi.
So how do we apply this name of God to the definition that we said, number one, we believe that a semi is one of the names of a law. Number two, we believe that Allah is all hearing that capability of hearing is a divine characteristic, the ability to hear
and number three, believing so what is the that we said that the meanings and its associated rulings? In other words,
God hears the subtle on the apparent.
So when I think you Allah is all hearing, and give you a context? It's not just Yeah, he's here. But we know that Allah's Name is the all herring, we know that Allah has the ability to hear, which is the attribute. And we also know that what is this name entail? What is what is the meaning of the associated issues with it, that God hears what's in the hearts? And what is on the tongues? Right, so it now has some sort of impact dynamics, clear everyone.
The way how we're going to format this class is we're going to first talk about what are some shared principles? When we study names and attributes of Allah? What are some shared principles? And then after that, we're going to go specifically into what are the principles that govern the names of God? And what are the principles that govern the attributes of God. But we're going to talk about general principles, the overarching principles that govern both the understanding of the names of God and the attributes of God.
Everyone with me,
no one lost you, anyone needing therapy?
Because they're so lost.
Number one, obviously, the name and attribute must be derived from some sacred source. And it's not the sacred sources are referred to as the holy book of the Quran or the tradition, the oral the written oral tradition of the Prophet peace be upon.
So there has to be some sort of basis for it, okay.
So whenever Allah confirms, as one of his names, or attribute, for example, we affirm that name.
So for example, in this case, an attribute, Allah affirms in a narration in that it sort of a toccata me My Mercy supersedes my anger.
So he affirms that he has mercy and he affirms that he has anger. But he affirms that his mercy what supersedes his anger.
There are attributes that Allah subhanahu attallah catechu emphatically denies. Thank you very much. Okay.
So for example, Allah says in the Quran, Allah yummly mirrabooka.
Allah does not oppress anyone.
So this is an attribute that Allah denies. For example, Allah says it kursi laka, Hulu, sinner to Allah, no.
fatigue, nor sleep overtakes God. So if someone says God took a sleep and rest on the seventh day, we deny that attribute, God does not take rest. And it is not befitting for God having to take rest, because that means that the effort that he expended actually took something away from him.
Nothing can take away from God.
So a legend is that a trauma or accident or dire circumstance that you're in that he does not move you away from Laila.
So you might. So the questioning in the grave is not a question of the mouth. It's not an answer that is simply uttered on the tongue, it is a question of your heart.
And did you comply. And so if you complied, then your tongue will bear witness to that your whole body will be in compliance. Even in medicine, you know, when in sports.
They say like, forget sports.
Okay, so let's, let's say for example, you know how sometimes you have a password on your computer.
Sometimes the person doesn't fully remember the password, but if they get on the keyboard, they can type to the basketball, you know what muscle memory
it's like when the person is shooting the three pointer, okay?
Or, like the other day, when they were doing an analysis of Patrick mahomes of the, the quarterback of the chiefs, they were saying how he is able to look in one direction and pass in a different pass in a different direction, he totally throws off the defense. He's looking here, but he knows where to throw it.
out like Russell Wilson, who just love the ball in the air, and then just someone just catches it. Right? So
just like scrambles runs around, and they went on the Rams missing a field goal. What a joke.
one hit wonder got famous, no one even remembers them before 2012.
So, let me think about before 2010 who knew the Seahawks? Right? Like why not?
Anyway, I digress. So the Islam is not just something Oh, I heard.
Right. So you have the muscle memory. So how does muscle memory come through practice? So on the Day of Judgment, or in your grave when I was from Canada asked you
because you had been compliant and you have full conviction, it just comes out? Islam is my religion allows my lord Mohammed Salim is my prophet.
Okay.
Next point is honesty. Obviously, you have to be honest about it. And the reason why honesty is listed, in contrast, not to really dishonesty, but more of hypocrisy is that are you honest in your heart about it? Right. So that's why I wrote the word hypocrisy. So the hypocrites of Medina would say Laila hella in their heart and their tongues, but they were dishonest in their hearts.
So this is the formula that I want to give you. And it's kind of sums up the seven conditions of La la la.
Knowing La la la la, is something that happens in the brain, believing La la la la. In other words, you understand it, believing La la la happens in the heart, saying it is on the tongue, and action of Laila. Hala is the proof of knowledge belief in the statement.
So when you act, it is a proof a reinforcement of the intellect of what you know, and what you believe in and what you say.
Okay.
Well, I gotta tell the lady in an incredibly harmful element Omar who lives in Santa Paula elemental Academy, Allah says, and we have, actually the verse before it says, has he been naturally neutral in your
life? Do people think that they will be left alone claiming that they believe in Allah will not test them? For we have certainly tried those before them and Allah will surely make evident those who are truthful, and He will surely make evidence those who are lying.
Someone might say what do you mean a lot, he knows who's a liar and what is truthful? That's not for Allah is not Allah is like trying to figure out who's truthful, who's not truthful. It's to make clear on the Day of Judgment for the person that you were truthful, and here's the proof, and you were not truthful. And here's the proof of what you do.
Testing. So how does the testing of your faith come your money, your lives, your family, your property, your business?
business, your health, your wealth, etc.
Allah says, and this is the seed of this verse for in s
fapa de todo. And if they submit, then they are rightly guided. And scholars of the Quran they explained, rightly guided means that whoever says Laila a lot, honestly from the heart that they have been guided.
So, so you know, when the road that when, when the person comes to summon Spanish, right?
And they're, and they're coming, and they're going to say the Shahada. And think back to your experience when you, you made that declaration.
Obviously, it wasn't a game for you. It was something that you really believed in your heart.
So as a result, you have been guided.
office I sell them was one time talking to my wife, he said, My Love to the people of Yemen, and the people of Yemen. We're Christians and the Prophet sallallahu Sallam said,
eventually you are coming to people of the book. So you know, remind them of who Allah subhanho wa Taala is that he's the one to be worshipped. Okay.
And
and if they do that, then tell them about prayer. And if they do that, then tell them about Zika.
And if they didn't tell them that they won't go to Paradise. So then the prophets I send them said, No, so then my dad says, I fell over Sure. When should I not give them the glad tidings? And you know, they'll go to Paradise? He says, No, because then there'll be lazy.
Right now, when we,
a lot of evangelical Christians, they have this false conviction in their heart.
Quinta paradise already,
they will say I am redeemed, I have found Jesus. He's already forgiven all my sins, I'm good.
And that's not necessarily the way how it goes. So the next point is, according to this author, half of Hacker News. He says that this this is the last point but some scholars they don't.
They don't include this one. And I kind of agree with that opinion. Because remember when we said love, love necessitates that you reject anything other than Allah subhanaw taala, right, you reject so but
this is, I guess, a point for more clarity. So there's difference of opinion, mala scholars is this one, really a part of the conditions of Allah Allah, but we'll just go through it really quickly.
So when when they say disbelief and false gods it means that you reject that there's anything else other than Allah subhanho wa Taala
lycra has a deep butterbean original dry, firming neck for beta vote when you mean the last robot he was caught, this is the most explicit proof there is no compulsion and acceptance of the religion. the right course has been made clear from the wrong so whoever disbelieves and follow but what is anything, idol statue, idea, some sort of non tangible theory that is
other than Allah subhanho wa Taala that calls towards disbelief, okay, it's a general term.
Then, he has grasp the most trust worthy handhold
you but I'm sorry, he narrates that a man came to the profit center and he said, messenger of Allah,
telling me of an act that will get me into paradise. The process of sending them says, worship Allah or obey the law will lead to
worship Allah and do not associate partners with.
In other words, you have to disbelieve the other gods out there.
bumalik Mary says father said, I heard the Messenger of Allah saying, whoever says that you know him a lot and disbelieves in what is worshipped other than Allah, his life and money are basically sacred and forbidden. And his judgment is with a law in other words, his judgment under the law. This is a very important point. In other words
and I will close
Off with his point.
His judgment is with Allah.
I was surprised one time talking to someone.
And they were, they were, they were very emotional about Nelson Mandela passing away.
And the person said,
Nelson Mandela is in paradise.
But let's say that
he's in he's in gender.
Like,
what, what?
What proof do you have, that he's already in paradise? But do you not see what he did in his life? He fought against the colonialists he fought against, you know, this, and this, he fought against racial inequality.
He's a believer.
I said,
How do you know that he's a believer?
And then the argument was twisted on its face. And the person said, well, you don't know that he wasn't a believer. You don't know that? We don't know. For sure. Maybe he became a Muslim on his deathbed.
What is the danger of this kind of thinking?
It means you're opening the door to the other spectrum.
A Muslim that we know in our community passes away, says Allah, Allah worships Allah. And a chiffon walks through the door and says, Stop,
stop this funeral. Because we don't know maybe before he died. He disbelieve in Allah.
It doesn't roll like that.
His judgment is with a lot. In other words, we take them for the word for their word. In other words, when a person says I'm a Muslim eyeshadow, Laila, hello, fellas.
We don't go around and say, well, we don't know if he's really.
If the person says, Hello, regular, orthodox, traditional Muslim cloth.
And in the same way,
the argument is not made by saying maybe Hitler was a believer who knows maybe when the Allied forces were knocking on the door and busting his bunker down. He said La ilaha illAllah Muhammad Rasul Allah,
unless you have definitive proof that proves that he said Laila, or he was in contact with someone who was administering to him,
we will treat him as he's a disbeliever.
And so the terms of believer and disbeliever and this is kind of a hard theology question is, these terms of believer and disbeliever
are
meant to demarcate laws in Islam of how we interact with believers and disbelievers.
So if if there is a man that comes to me today and says, I would like to marry a Hindu,
and then suddenly cannot marry a polytheist, right?
And then the person says, Well,
you cannot say she's polytheist
and she comes in she was no, no, I'm a Hindu.
You cannot say she's polytheist because maybe she's a believer in her heart.
You know, it's, it's, you're basically
the word movement and later movement, non believer is meant to draw these lines, can you marry Can you not marry this person? Right? Do they inherit? Do they not inherit? Right? These laws that are in Sharia about what are the responsibilities of persons a believer Okay, that they have to pray, right? If you're blending this line by constantly saying, well, who are we to judge Narendra Modi, we don't know truly, maybe in his heart, he is a believer. The whole meaning of Islam and non Islamic is blended. So when we say his judgment is otherwise we accept that inshallah he's Muslim.
Now, let's say that on the Day of Judgment
surprisingly
Ronald Reagan is really a believer and he said La ilaha illAllah. Muhammad Rasul Allah. Well, you know what, you're not going to get in trouble for that, because you didn't have knowledge that he said it. So you were basing off of what was public knowledge that well, we don't think he ever said it.
And in the same way, is a believer comes on the dangerous when that you thought was a believer, but on the dangers when he turned out to be a hypocrite the entire time, and a hater of Islam.
It's not, it's not your fault. It's not your business, he or she will be his judgment is worth a lot.
You're not going to be accountable. In you used to say set up to that person.
Well, I didn't know he was a hypocrite inside is hard. Know, his judgment.
And I wanted to end on this is because a lot of times we hear extreme groups throwing out the word disbelieve a Catholic, this or that. And then we have the other extreme of people, some Muslims out there, they're going around, and they're saying, well, you don't really know if he's really a disbeliever. If the person says Jesus, his son of God and Lord and Savior, that's a statement of disbelief.
I don't need to wonder if he is lying or not, as well.
So this class aims to help a person demarcate and understand that these conditions all seven or eight, when you put them together,
it's something that
it should follow you in your practice, that when you are working on something, when you are learning about something, something is new, and you're not sure, is it something fun, or is it something as long as you stay away, you should go through this mental process. That, okay, I might not understand something, but at least you know, I need to go learn about it. Once I learn about it, I accept it. Even though my I might not have full compliance yet, but I'm working on it and I have insincerity towards it. Right? It's it's a cycle that you go through all of these seven points. And this by doing this in your daily life and thinking about these seven points, it will really make an impact
from from your faith perspective, as well as how it transfers out into your actions.
final questions? Anyone?
Comments?
Okay, yes.
All right.
So what I'm going to do is
I'm going to try to convert this and if and put it on like a Google Drive or something and so if anyone is interested, they can access this these slides. Right?
You know, for their own benefit, right. Now, next week, there's no class there is no class next week, okay?
So go do something fun with your life.
Go do something fun with your life inshallah enjoy yourself, okay? sparkling I'm teaching Allah Allah Allah and so for him to be like that.