Crossroads of Faith & Practice – Pt. 3
Date:
Channel: Abdul Rahman Chao
File Size: 58.12MB
Episode Notes
Understanding Divine Names and Attributes
AI Generated Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of understanding and experiencing God's principles in Christmas, as it is a Christian holiday. They stress the need for individuals to commit to faith and comply with laws to avoid mistakes and emphasize the use of words like "immediate meaning" and "has" in Arabic language to describe the limited "has." They also emphasize the importance of learning the language to better understand the meaning of them. Lastly, they discuss the importance of being prepared for the worst-case scenario and clarify that they have no debt maturities until 2022.AI Generated Transcript ©
Hello while he was here.
Okay, so as a disclaimer,
the evening light,
this is going to be kind of a heavy class today, it's not the regular walk in the park, you know,
it's going to be definitely difficult, a little bit in the beginning that we're going to be covering the introduction today, but we're gonna get into some heavy concepts that requires some logic. Okay. So for this week, and the next two weeks after this, we are going to be going a little bit deeper to explore an aspect of Islamic theology. And specifically we are going to be covering the principles of the names and attributes of Allah.
So when we say
the name and attributes of God,
we are saying that
what are the rules that govern
the idea or the study of the names and attributes of God?
Okay.
So you might have heard in some classes, that here and there or throughout your life, you might have heard of some classes where it's a study of the names of Allah, this is not the study of the names of the law. This is a study of the rules and the principles that govern the names and attributes of a wasp.
Okay.
So why are we studying this subject? Obviously, we are studying this subject, because you want to know who Allah subhanaw taala is, you want to know who God is. And if you want to know who God is, there is knowledge based on that.
Imagine Shastri and Islamic scholar at one time, was quoted as saying, whoever wants to attain the worldly life and he has to gain then he has to gain knowledge. In other words, if you want to be able to make money, you have to know something, you need to have a skill, you have to have knowledge about something in order to do it. Okay, when you go to a job,
job posting, nowadays, it's been system a, you know, a system where you have to give your resume etc, you have to show your degree, your experience, right? You show that you have knowledge, not only you show your knowledge, but you show that you have experience, right experience is key.
So he's saying, if you want to gain
worldly life, you have to have knowledge. And if you want to gain that hereafter, then you also have to gain knowledge. But if whoever wants to gain both this world and the next slide, then they have to seek knowledge. And this is an example of that. Why are we studying about this? Because right now, if you go to a Christian, a Jew, a Buddhist, well, actually, Buddhists don't really believe in God. Okay? But if you go to Hindus, or whatever it is, and you ask them, tell me about who God is, right? What are they going to do? They're going to say, Well, God is like this, God does this. God is like that, right? That's all attributes of God.
But there are parameters around it. So we're going to be studying about that.
Email, even though, Rahim, Allah, he said, knowledge of the names of Allah is the basis of all the other kinds of knowledge out there.
In other words, as you progress through studying these principles, you're not going to really realize it until it starts clicking until you start drawing connections, and then it's going to affect you deeper down the line.
So the more you know about God, the better you are able to worship Allah subhanho wa Taala also, we want to purify our heart.
Right? A lot of people they have weird thoughts about who God is, right? They think of God in very selfish way they think of God as you know, how does God direct him directly impact
it's says here in this verse sort of than Baccarat
When is the last part Willa de la mano a shadow Belinda, but those who believe are
Stronger love for all of us.
So there are people out there like some of the pagans, they would love a law, but they would also love other idols with it.
But it's not saying that Muslims have greater love for Allah and lesser love for the idols, it's saying in general, the cumulative amount that Muslims have, is always stronger for Allah. It's not, we don't show any love to the hotel owners or whatever.
Okay.
Here's another quote, even taymiyah, a famous scholar.
And I want you to read this. the hearts of the believer do not experience complete happiness or satisfaction, except loving and coming close to Allah with what he loves. And the love for Allah is not possible except by turning away from from all that is love. Besides,
in Arabic, there's a lot of double negative going on in Arabic sentences. So you just have to kind of figure out what it says. Okay. And this is the reality of
doing business, engaging in treaties, bilateral agreements between Muslim non Muslims is not wrong.
It's not wrong. There are some extreme people out there that will say that, oh, by you working with non Muslims, that means you are loving that. It's extreme groups love to do equal sign, this equals this and this equals this and therefore it is this. If you work with all Muslims, that means you're okay with him. If you're okay with him. That means you're okay with your *. And if you're okay with this shift, that means you are disbeliever
doesn't work like that. Okay. It does not work like that.
That's why I always
caution reverts from getting too emotional. When they say like, you know, I love Christmas.
You know, they'll say like, you know, I love cruises. I know what they mean.
They're not saying, I love the fact that Jesus was born and they declared him to be the Son of God. I know, that's not what they mean.
But when you make these kinds of statements, it puts into the hearts of those who take their faith for granted. The idea that
Christmas is nice, for example.
There was a system Ella guide her. She tried to do an IID Christmas tree.
It's like how how yummy chef Claus Whoo, Santa Claus shift clouds, maybe come on in a hat and pass out ad like what's next?
I want you to think about it. I mean, they thought they completely missed the Christian aspect of Christmas. And they took the commercialization of Christmas, they took the conviviality and the family and the bonding that was in Christmas, and they ended up getting carried away emotionally.
Yes.
But what's the situation?
Honestly, you know, that's a very good question. The question is, you know, what do you how do you deal with those kind of situations where people make these kind of scenarios come through and say these sort of things.
When a person reaches that stage, where they're already making an E tree, okay? They're kind of, it's not like they woke up one day, and then they decided, I'm going to make an read tree in the shape of a crescent. It's not like they just woke up and did that. They've been on a journey, obsessing over how to appropriate Christian symbols, which were appropriated from paganism, like the whole tree thing is coming from what the burning of the Yule Log, right. And the burning of the Yule Log was what?
Something that was done in Europe
upon
Norse mythology, there you go.
Yeah, I mean, there's definitely parallels, you know, but the issue is, is that when a person reaches that stage, right, honestly,
I'm telling you, there's, there's, there's other things that, like you're seeing the symptom. There's other bigger things that are going on.
Right? Like in other words,
I don't want to go too much into it, because we know that the time, but just the idea that people don't reach that stage unless they have been thinking in a certain trajectory for a long time. So it's hard to bring it up.
A person who is dead set and thinks, for example, that Halloween is Halloween, it's very hard to convince them otherwise.
Because they think that Halloween is a
a fun event. They think Halloween is a cultural expression of kids getting candies from their neighbors.
They want to enter their excuses. Halloween has lost its pagan roots. It's not the worship of the devil anymore. It's simply the collection of candy.
And I'm going to say the same thing.
What is the highest
holiday in the Christian world?
Easter, slop Christmas, if you think it's Christmas,
Easter is the highest holiday in Christianity.
You know why? Because Jesus rose from the dead.
That's much more significant than he was born.
What was I trying to say? Okay, so if Easter is the highest holiday of the Christian calendar,
the holiest in the Christian world.
This is like the Muslim that says, you know, Easter is not hard on for Muslims to celebrate, because it's really about bunny hopping and rolling eggs on the lawn.
It's a cultural thing.
I had a Muslim at a reverb gathering, making a very bold claim, saying we as Muslims should celebrate Christmas because it was the day when Prophet Isa was born.
And I looked at the person and I said,
You clearly have not studied Christianity, because the whole idea of is Jesus born in December. That's a huge point of contention in Christianity. And the fact that you're going to come around and say that we should celebrate we should reappropriate Christmas because we believe the Prophet Isa was born on that day.
What?
Very strange
as a tangent, okay.
Also we find some Muslims when they get emotional.
They will say something like,
you know, I just love how the Mormons are like this. I love how the Jehovah's Witnesses are like that. Look at Muslims. They are just terrible.
Maybe some Muslims are terrible, but don't combine those two sentences together. Okay.
Moving along MTL, which is compliance, so compliance requires that you stay away from whatever Allah subhanho wa Taala has prohibited and doing what he has commanded. And
compliance is something that manifests in the action.
So the difference between an India compliance and the second condition which is what
what is the second condition?
The difference between acceptance and compliance is that acceptance is something that takes place in the heart
and compliance takes place with your actions.
When you go
You do an inspection when the inspector goes to the restaurant, when they go to a plant, they go to a factory, and they are checking if they are in what?
compliance. They don't go and check if they're in acceptance. They're checking if they are in compliance. In other words, what are the practices at this location? Are they compliant with for example, OSHA? Are they compliant with city code? The restaurants? Are they in compliance with the temperature of the food? They're not sitting there and asking the owner? Do you accept Harris County's jurisdiction over your restaurant in a health code, they don't care, they're looking to see if you have roaches running around, they're looking to see if you have pink slime coming out of the ice machine, they're looking to see if you have food that is not at the right temperature for the
buffeting bar. Right.
So compliance, this is a really interesting topic, because sometimes sometimes, some people,
they
they can't get to this point, they haven't complied.
So they don't so they so they know they're not complying.
So in order to feel less guilty about it, they will try to change the legal ruling of something.
Because they're hard to not accept the legal ruling of it.
I'll give you an example.
A person and this is just a real example.
A sister comes and says, I don't wear the hijab. Okay, you don't wear the hijab. That's your decision, you choose not to wear the hijab, okay?
There's a difference between someone that says I don't wear the hijab, okay. Versus saying,
you know, nowhere in the Quran does the word hijab appear. Therefore, it is simply an archaic error error in the practice because the women were being sexually assaulted in Medina.
Or, I don't accept this ruling in Islam, not even compliance. I don't accept it, because that is your interpretation.
And a lot of people are doing that now. That's your interpretation, brother. And it's like, okay, bring me your interpretation with proof. If not, then Shut up your mouth.
Right.
Bring your proof, or else don't speak without knowledge.
Okay, I had a person tried to I was reading this book. I'm not gonna say who this is professor who was. Yeah, and he trying to say that homosexuality is halal in Islam. Because the prophet SAW Selim says, No one is a true believer until you love for your brother, what you love for yourself.
twisting the interpretation,
twisting interpretation. And in fact, one of them was as sick as to say, Allah says in the Quran in Jana, you have to follow Him will Daniel mohalla do in the paradise there are young men circling around the people of paradise. Those are the busboys. Those are the waiters in paradise. He was trying to see Well, what are those boys doing? Saying, first and foremost? Why are you focusing on the fact that they're boys unless you're a pedophile? Okay, why are you focusing on the feather? They were boys. And in fact, the word will dam in Arabic does not only mean boys.
In Arabic, it actually it's a
comprises of both genders. But what I'm giving an extreme example of showing when a person does not believe except in their heart, the ruling of Islam that is agreed upon by all the scholars of Islam, and what they do is they don't, there's no compliance. So they come and they try to twist it
either by and they're not going to come out and say, I don't accept it. They're not strong enough to say, so they will say difference of opinion, they'll say difference of interpretation. And that is the word that is thrown around every time now in our communities. Something that is clearly wrong difference of opinion, brother, that's your difference between you keep your conservative view to yourself, you know, you have your religion I have my religion, right? Allah says no Councilman scharffen You mean woman from Manchester yet for whoever wishes to believe?
Welcome to displacement and misbelief how Islam works
if you truly had sincerity in your heart.
If you truly had sincerity, which is a third condition of Laila, there is a difference between someone that goes and has a doubt about something and goes and learns about it, versus creating a scenario in his head to because he himself doesn't want to comply to it. Very different. So if you're saying I'm working on it,
make sure you truly are working on it towards that goal, like for example,
fetcher, etc. Someone Like I said, last time, let's say someone is making a home income, for example, there's a difference between someone that says, there's nothing wrong with selling porn magazines. Hello. It's just paper and ink.
versus someone saying, you know, I know this is wrong. I'm working on it. I'm trying to get out of this business make dryer for me.
See, the attitude? The mindset is different.
Yes.
What is the other spectrum? Between, like, completely?
being quiet and quickly trying to change things? Okay. So they'll say, I know.
And I don't
know what to change.
Don't take it the wrong way. Is there a problem?
It's an i mean that sincerely, it's really the problem, their problem to work on. You cannot convince someone
there's a problem. You can wake someone who is asleep, you cannot wake someone who's pretending to be asleep.
If they're pretending to be asleep, nothing.
And I'm not trying to say these people are asleep, I'm trying to say to you,
we shouldn't, we shouldn't
care too much about what they claim. Because at the end of the day, they will be accountable in the eyes of among, they claim that they're working on it, okay.
But the point that I'm trying to get to, is the fact that when you make the claim that you're working on something,
be actually honest in that, that you're, you know, I'm actually working on it. I'm not perfect I'm working on.
Another thing that I get in right here is that sometimes people tie compliance
of one thing with compliance with everything,
they make it into an
excuse me, an either or kind of a scenario.
I'll give you an example.
Brother, there's no point for me to
stop drinking, and gambling
until I, until I decide to really commit to the faith.
Have you heard of that before?
I'm not gonna wear the hijab until I'm really, really sure that I'm gonna wear it. Otherwise, I'm a hypocrite.
Even if the sister puts it on for one day, and then and then she goes through something and she changed, you choose to take it off. That doesn't negate the fact that she wore it that one day, it doesn't negate it.
This is like someone saying it's like that. It's like that perfectionist curse. I have to be a good Muslim, then I will do that. But if I'm not that, then there's no point for me to do this.
I am not going to comply, until I fool myself into thinking that I'm going to comply in every other sense, because a Muslim doesn't have to comply. And the truth of the matter is, and none of us here are in always full compliance of everything. And if you have to be perfect in order to comply on this subject matter, then you kind of lost the idea of working on it. There's no such thing as I'm in compliance in every single aspect of my life. No, we make mistakes.
You're not perfect. You guys see what I'm trying to say?
wanting you slim wedge who Ilan Omar, he will who are Marcin on faculty stem soccer been working with the La hayagriva.
And whoever submits his face to allow Well, he is a Dewar of good. So the turn of phrase that I want you to focus on is submitting his face. In other words, compliance for the stem second in order to follow a law.
So did a quick survey. Are there any people in the audience who recall examples of compliance from the Sierra or the hydro processor?
Yes.
Very good. When alcohol was made forbidden in Medina, the person who was pouring it
stopped for the person who had the cup at their mouth.
Put it down. It wasn't like,
Okay, I'm compliant. Okay, last one. You know, just saying, Allah doesn't like those who are wasteful.
You know,
the one who was about to drink, puts it down. The one who had it in his mouth, spat it out, the one who was pouring it immediately sees the poor and the one who had it in the storage poured it out.
That is compliance.
Yes.
I wouldn't came over here.
They were exactly they when the IV jab came down the female competitive process.
They tried to be compliant.
Nowadays, we are coming to a point where we know a little bit about Islam. And we're saying
is, you know, I know there are good intention people, well intentioned people because they're trying to figure out some things. But there is that person you'll meet, where instead of being in compliance, they're always trying to find out is that fog or is it circular? It's that mentality. Is it fun? Or is it circular? Oh, it's macro. Continue.
So you should macro macro disliked in Islam is literally the thing that you should be working out of.
You should be working out of it.
Okay, not? Oh, it's McCool. Okay, you know, let me just continue indulging in it. 100 years ago, when scholars did not know that smoking was very harmful to the body, they just thought it was just a puff of smoke. They didn't know the health harms that came to it. So some of them said it is makrooh it is disliked either one. And so what ended up happening was people started taking that license. Oh,
no, it's not true. And then later on when they found out that it is actually very harmful and Allah forbid what is harmful to your body.
You know that they obviously the federal change because they realize how dangerous it was
what enabled in Arabi como ously mucho la Whoa, man
and return to your learner independence and submit to Him. In other words, compliance before the punishment comes on to you.
Look at the man who killed 100 you know the Hadith of the person who killed 100 he has no reason to continue to be righteous. He killed 99 people. He murdered 99 people.
And when he found when he wanted to do Toba
when he wanted to repent to Allah subhanaw taala he went to the devout worshipper of a law
and the and the
profane. pneus of this person of this person who murdered 100 people was such a brazen
A French reach this person who worship Allah so much, and he said, there's no forgiveness for you.
And then he got upset and killed.
Then he went to the scholar,
the one who has knowledge and the similar that scholar said, yes, there's hope unless Mercy is there, which is an important point. The scholar is always better and more knowledgeable than the one who sits there in a corner and rushes along.
Because that person
was so repulsed by the thought of mass murder, it was so disturbing that he just said, there's no hope for you.
And that's what doomed him obviously, not justifying it.
Right. So faster compliance equals infinite benefits, right? You we always want to answer our right now immediately.
And Allah subhanaw taala doesn't, doesn't interact with the creation in that way.
In fact, this idea that
we want our storyteller to give us what we want, at the time that we think is good
is precisely why Allah subhanho wa Taala does not do it. In other words, almost kind of who to Allah knows, in his infinite wisdom, when a person should get something and when they shouldn't get something?
He knows why.
Three more eliakim conviction.
So polyethene is a higher level of, of knowledge, it's more than just knowledge.
So if I say to you,
what is three times three?
Three times three, nine, right. Do you have the knowledge? Yes, you know that three times three is not how, because if you took three times during you made an audition 33369, you have the knowledge, you accept that three times three is nine.
Do you have conviction? Now three times three is no.
Or maybe three times three is? Maybe one day, not nine.
So the opposite of being actually is,
is they say, doubt.
That's what the scholars say is to have doubt. But it also includes and that's why I wrote these three, hesitation,
suspicion,
and even disbelief. disbelief is the most profane, opposite of conviction.
And so
conviction
is
knowing that Islam is indeed the truth, knowing that Allah Allah is indeed the truth, knowing that this is the statement that will decide your fate when you get buried into the ground or the angels come to ask you.
So the hypocrites of Medina did not have full conviction. And the Quran characterizes it as a form of disease in their heart.
When you have doubt about something, it's like a disease. It's sort of like a disease, especially if it's something that is a universal truth.
Okay. It's like the person who still thinks
that
the earth is flat.
And when you confront them, you're like, Listen,
the Earth is not flat.
satellite imagery is proof that Earth is not flat.
And many, many other sciences to prove that the earth is not flat. And then what do they say? Well, we don't know for sure.
You don't know 100% for sure. that statistic is of the heart. It's like there's something you will have that in class. Sometimes when you when a teacher is teaching, you will have that student
that will sit there and posit a conspiracy theory
against what the teacher is saying, but how do we know?
But how do we really know that? This is right? This, we should have an inquisitive nature? How do we know that is true? But there are certain given truths.
That
it's undeniable.
I have heard people say, What if I die, and, and, and I'm resurrected, and Jesus is in front of me.
The fact that you have that was was shaped on inside of you telling you that when you die, Jesus is going to be sitting there on the right hand side of God, okay? And then there's going to be the saints and the holy people on the other side and he will be given the task of judgment. That means there is not full conviction that Allah subhanaw taala is the Lord of the universe.
As I said last week,
there are some people out there some religions, they will say, we worship every religion out there, just in case we mess up hate, you know,
we included everything.
And the and the, and the the Achilles heel of
the weakness in this kind of belief system is your, your natural faithful to any one of them.
Okay, you're not actually faithful to one, you don't really have conviction, because you're sitting there and saying, Well, I'm not okay, let's imagine if I were, you know, the person who was a Hindu, okay? He's like, Okay, I'm gonna worship Shiva, but also I'm gonna worship Allah on the side. But you know, I'm not really sure if she was going to come on the day of judgment and judge me, okay, so you're not really sure if Sheila is the truth. You're thinking maybe he's not the truth, but I'm going to worship everything around to to basically cover my bases.
Okay.
Allah says in the Quran in the movie known Alinea Amina Willa, he was truly
taboo to be a Mali Memphis in
this article. And the point here is the believers are the ones who have believed in Allah and His messenger and then doubt not, they do not have any doubt.
Okay.
Well, let's come to Allah describes the hypocrites. He says more than the Vina being that Alec, la la la la, la, la, la, la, la la voluntad de de la casa de la. They did Hippocrates. You know, what they used to do? They used to go between the believers, and then they used to go between the pagans.
They're like flies,
you know, just flying in between.
And
the point is, is the idea that the hit, you can say, Well, I don't know, how is that conviction and the lack of conviction because technically the hypocrites of Medina disbelieved Mr. matassa. But it's the it's the going back and forth part.
Like you're not even really if you were really convinced that
worshipping hobo Rosa is the truth, that version of your forefathers stick to it. It's like, Well, no, let's go hang out with the Muslims and you know, maybe there's some truth to it.
But the Allahu anhu says, the prophet SAW Selim says, men, Bala La Ilaha in la, la.
What? Annie Rasulullah
whoever says there's no God worthy of worship except Allah and then I'm the messenger of the law.
Okay, the he would does not meet was held to Allah without any doubt, except that he will enter Paradise.
Right? Ladies shed team, there's no doubt in it his conviction, then therefore he will enter the paradise.
Also, remember what I said here, conviction will enable someone to answer the two angels in the grave. I'm going to skip ahead to this last part. And that is, you know, the Hadith of the person when they get buried. When the person gets buried, the aid to angels will come to him and they will question and then the angel will say, Who is your Lord who is who is your man Robert Medina, what is your religion and who is the Prophet that was sent to you? Now obviously, the disbeliever is going to
You know, answer the wrong question. I mean, I'm sure I'm sure it incorrectly. But the point that I want to get to is in one of the narrations. The prophet SAW Selim says that as for the person who has doubt, what ml Mona said I will more tab. As for the person who's a hypocrite, or the one who has doubt in their heart, whether Laila Allah is real or not.
Fair kulula, a dairy, Samira to NASA poo Luna shade.
I don't know. But I heard people say something. And I said it.
So conviction is
to the point that no matter what terrifying trauma is, he is oppressive. Allah denies that he sleeps, Allah denies that he gets tired. So
whatever is found in the crawl, we affirm it,
whatever is denied, by Allah in the fraud or in the sooner we deny it. So he says that we follow the same way. So what does this mean in today's life? You know, and I'm going to go on a little bit of tangent, a little bit of haterade. But you know, bear with me for a second. A lot of times, you know, you have young Muslims today. And I'm not I'm not saying that this is wrong. I'm just saying that because they haven't studied theology, they are likely to say things about God in spoken word, or on a post, or whatever it is. And they describe God in ways that are not appropriate. So for example, they will say, and look at the archetype of the world, God.
God is not the architect of the world.
God is the creator of the world.
They'd be like, what's the big deal?
It's not what is the big deal? Don't call God and he didn't call himself.
You know how in class, if the teacher gives you a nickname, that's not your name, You don't like it?
If your name is Alejandro, your name is Alejandro.
Okay, but if I go to 100, I say, Bob.
I didn't call myself Bob.
So in the same way, we don't call us by names or attributes that he doesn't call himself by.
And you will hear this a lot.
For example, people will say,
God is love.
God is love equals.
No, God is loving.
But God doesn't love everything. I actually had this debate. I told him, I read this debate with this missionary. He said, God loves Satan.
said what are you talking about? God loves saying, the car loves everything.
I said, Okay, so when a person disbelieve in God does that God does God love him.
Like, no.
You just said God loves everything.
In Love is a feeling. I don't say the word feeling. Love is some sort of abstract thing that comes with something that you're pleased with. Right?
Unless you're sadistic, right.
So the idea that it's, it's this feeling or whatever you want to call it, it means that it comes and goes.
So if you said God is love, that means God could
come and go, could be present, not present.
So when Christians say God is love, we don't agree with that statement. God is love. We say, God is merciful to everything, even the devil. God is merciful to the devil.
Even to Hitler, God was merciful.
He could have obliterated him from the existence of Earth. When he started murdering people. God is merciful. God shows mercy to both those who worship Him. And to those who don't worship. God sustains those who think him and he sustains those who refuse to acknowledge,
such as atheists.
So God is merciful. That is a more appropriate
name than God.
All right.
So when we say this, this idea here we're saying basically whatever people try to come up with, it will never be as good.
It will never be as good as perfect as sufficiently represented or remotely equal to what Allah has described himself already.
So what does that mean? Stick to the name for us because you're never gonna come up with a name that is better than the name that he called himself, you will never be able to come up with some attribute better and more complete the meaning than the attributes that he described himself as
clear.
So here in the Quran, as we can go through this quickly, we'll have one answer now who
do who what.
And this cron is a book that we have revealed which is blessing, so follow it.
And fearless mentality that you may receive is mercy. What is the point that I'm trying to get to is follow it? In other words, follow what Allah has called himself, don't go out of it and say, God is the engineer God is I swear to God, someone actually said God is this God is an engineer.
God is more than an engineer for crying out loud. That word is a term for humans, who knows how things work in Connect. That is more than engineering. God is beyond what is an engineer. Okay? So follow it. Allah says no problem at
all. Whatever the Prophet has come forth with integrity, whenever he is forbidding you stay away from In other words, Allah told you to stay away from calling him oppressive, so don't call God oppressive.
Okay.
The second general principle when it comes to the names and attributes of Allah, is that we take them in the apparent context.
I didn't say literal, I said apparent.
Okay, as opposed to metaphorical.
What is the point of human connected communication? Everything's metaphorical.
If mom says to, you
know, video games before homework.
And then the mom comes home and sees a kid playing video games. He says, No, I found human video games like
metaphorical video games, like it's the video of a game that I'm playing in my head. This is not a real video game. She, the kid's gonna get the jungler.
Okay, it's apparent immediately.
I said to you, don't touch me.
No one's going to be like, well, human, don't touch your heart, emotionally. But I'm still going to touch her face.
Language is to be taken at the apparent level, unless there's something that causes it for some context or reason for you to think maybe it's not literal. So I'm going to go through a logical process to kind of get you to this point.
In other words,
when Allah revealed the Quran in Arabic,
the language that he's communicating to people,
it has
a meaning to it. It's not just empty words, there's just letters and phrases, they're just thrown at your face, there is meaning to it. And Allah knows God knows best of how to express himself in the Koran.
So in other words, when Allah says, we encounter and Allahu,
Allah from time to time, we have revealed the brawn in clear Arabic so that you might understand.
In other words, the names of a law which is found in the Quran, for example, some of the names of Allah, they should have some meaning for you to understand. It's not just an empty name, a shell of a name that has no meaning to it.
Okay.
The next verse, Allah says in another surah what anzahl la Kill vichara lead to be in an ignacy man nosey La la la la la home.
perfecto and we have sent down to you Oh Mohammed, this remembrance What is this remembrance the Koran for you to make a parent?
In other words, the Quran is to be made apparent, it's not some hidden meaning that only some secret people know of, you know, some scholar has a secret meaning that Allah inspired to him No.
Okay, so that they may think, how are you going to be required to think about something that has no meaning.
So in other words, the names of Allah has meaning they have meaning, the attributes have a lot, they have meaning,
clear.
So, in other words, this means that the names and unlock names and attributes of a lot do have a specific meaning that is clear and apparent. The argument that the names of a lot are too mysterious, and therefore its meanings, and true meanings are unknown. Thus, we cannot attribute to God any apparent meaning as this would mean that we are comparing him to the creation is a false argument.
So while it is true, that no human can fully comprehend the total meaning of the name of God, or an attribute,
the Arabic language is created. And it is meant for communication like any other language, it is simply making it known within a linguistic language perspective.
Even though the language is limited,
a language is limiting and God is limitless.
So if it was wrong to call God or to use human words to describe the limited, I'm sorry to describe the Unlimited, then God would not have used language to communicate that to us.
Okay, so it's sort of a logical thing. So the language that you use to call God by a name, or an attribute is not meant to limit and say it is this meaning within the language, it is simply an approximation, and it's not meant to limit the divine in me, it's simply a word for you to understand. Okay, is that clear, a little bit of philosophy there.
So for example,
for example, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam affirmed these names and attributes,
either explicitly or from a tacitly so for example, Allah says in the Quran, Allah, Allah, Allah,
Allah rose above the Throne.
That is an apparent meaning. But how Allah rose above the throne is in is of little consequence, it doesn't really matter how Allah rose above the Throne.
But some people that will say, No, no, if you see a rose above the Throne, that means Allah has a physical body for him to rise. And that means there is gravity. Who is the one that's compared to the creation? You are?
We just saying, Allah says he rose above a throne, I'm going to affirm that it's in the Quran. That's it. I'm not going to go into the details of it. There's no need.
If Allah wanted to go into the details of how he rose above the Throne, he would have expressed that just but he didn't.
But some people they're like, so bent on the, actually, there's a famous story of a man who came to him ametek, or the seminarians, his teacher of mathematics, and he says,
rose above the Throne. What the hell does that mean? How, what does that mean? So he got upset that he says, rising above, to rise above something is, at least the word is maloom. It's understood in Arabic.
And how it happens is unknown. But it is required for you to believe in it and for you to ask him how it happens. how Allah rises above the throne is a form of heresy.
Allah says in a sinner, for example, then he laughs
does that mean it means? No, that's how the human child laughs maybe you don't love or maybe you go, I don't know. Maybe another person goes like like this. Maybe someones snorts, right?
So Allah says, He loves Allah says in some narration that he smiles, how does he smile? How does love does that mean that he has a Does it mean that there is noise? No, that's because you're trying to compare it to the creation. Allah says in the Quran, in the in the Hadees, for example, that Allah has fingers
isn't like my finger? Absolutely not.
So if someone comes and says fingers don't mean fingers, fingers mean power, I would say, go back to the Arabic language. Is there anything in the Arabic language that would indicate that the word finger and iswa or Assad there means power?
No.
So we affirm the apparent meaning. Because if Allah didn't want us to use these words, he would not have revealed them to us say that he has fingers.
Sometimes the prophet SAW Selim affirmed something. So there was a female slave who was passing by. And then the professor said,
the master was with her. And then the processor looked at them. They there was a conversation and basically, the question was, where is Allah?
The question was, where's the law? And in fact, a lot of Muslims today, they will make a mistake, and they will tell us everywhere. And that is completely false. alarms not everywhere.
For you to say that Allah is everywhere.
And he has a lot in the trashcan is Allah inside? Trump?
is on the inside the toilet? They're like, no, you're taking into litro you think he's everywhere? I never said that.
They're like, well, Allah knows everywhere. Allah hears everywhere.
Okay. Does that mean Allah is actually everywhere? No.
I can. People right now in this camera can hear what I'm saying? Are they physically here?
So what about Allah? This is where human to human over Facebook? What about almost always beyond that? If I say to you, Allah is
actually the response was that she said, Allah is in the heavens. She didn't say Allah is actually in the heavens, but she's saying above the heavens, and the Prophet sallallahu affirmed it.
He affirmed it. In fact, what's really funny is one of the responses that Islamic scholars have given is that some Christians have better theology of where God is than some Muslims. Because you know why, they will say, oh, our Father, what?
Who art in Heaven.
No one Christian don't say, Our Father who are everywhere, who are to everywhere. And even Christians, they have this concept of God is in a
higher location, if you want to say, and we don't even want to use the word location,
above in the heavens above the rest of the creation, right.
Some people don't say you see, a lot is above the heavens, that means you're saying a lot as a location. And location means he has a physical body.
I'm hearing you're comparing to the creation.
Because when you say that, you're basically comparing to something that you know of, okay?
Two more points.
When we say names and attributes of a law, a parent meaning
it means that
its meaning is understood, but the exact details are not known. I've already talked about that.
So, the difference between this point and the next point, and this, this point in the previous point from this one,
apparent meaning to this one is that an apparent meaning is understood.
And it's details are unknown. We don't need to know the details of it.
So every language is clear and understood. So that goes on and its literary approach are meant to enable a basic and simple understanding. It is not meant nor its apparent meaning and attempt to fully encapsulate and express God's attributes, and neither is taking its apparent meaning resulting in limiting God or likening God to the creation.
This is like someone saying, Don't call me.
Don't call me a real estate investor.
Even though someone is a real estate investor, don't call me a real estate investor because when you call me real estate investor
You're comparing me to Trump.
You are comparing yourself to Trump.
They both share the same name right real estate investor. But does it mean it doesn't mean that you're Trump? Now?
Think about it.
You say that Allah is above the Throne. Oh, that means you're saying a lot of body. You're thinking like that we know it's a sickness.
You thinking like that? No one's thinking like that. What do you think he rose above them? End of story?
keytab one and Zed. Now Elaine can move out Leah, who is
this verse? Why is it relevant?
In other words,
Allah subhanho wa Taala.
And I'll just move over to this verse so that we have context, almost kind of hautala
insane, this verse here, so that you may be reminded of it. Okay, I've actually pasted it again here, excuse me, okay. These are very similar verses Why? Because
you cannot ponder over something that has zero meaning to it.
So, here shefa was founded in Tamia, a famous theologian and scholar, he makes an argument Listen carefully, he says, one is required to ponder over the Quran. And one cannot ponder without understanding. Therefore, the meaning of the Quran should be apparent and easy to grasp. And so
the Quran would not require us to think about it and think over its deep meaning if its meaning was hidden. So what does that mean? If one was to say that these names or attributes are unknown, and meaning just an empty phrase, then how are you going to ponder over it?
Right? It's a logical argument.
So if you said,
Allah is the merciful, I don't know what the merciful means. I don't know what that word means. It's just a bunch of letters scrambled together, then you're saying that the Quran has a verse or over word that has no meaning to it that is hidden. It's not possible. Okay.
So when I say Allah speaks,
the Quran is the speech of Allah. Allah speaks.
Does it mean it's like us speaking? No.
Allah speaks in the way that we fit his majesty. We affirm that he speaks, it happens. But how it happens is not important.
Can the computer speak right now? Yes, through a speaker, but is the speaker like my voice? Absolutely not.
The computer speaker is not like my voice box here. It's completely different. But it speaks. So even though he shares the word, he doesn't mean it shares his it shares its characteristic. Okay.
Next point last point.
The key to determining if something if something has a non apparent meaning requires proof
does it allow for
x does it allow for the metaphor?
If I say to you, for example,
meet me
at 3:15pm.
Let's meet at 3:15pm.
at Starbucks off of XYZ Street.
In the English language.
If I said to you meet me at a location at a certain time at this address, does it mean in spirit?
Your interview with Hewlett Packard is at 11am at this building. You don't show up. I was there in spirit.
No.
So in Arabic
For example, this is sort of a tangent. Some people like for example, Allah says he has a hand.
In the Quran, Allah says he has hands
however, the hands
Doesn't matter, Pat? Are they like my hands? human hands? No.
That's it.
But some people will try to say
it's metaphorical.
And doesn't mean hand It means power.
Okay, I will give that to you, because in Arabic, there is Arabic usage of using the word hands as power.
For example, if you said have a regular who yet we have an oven, this person had a hand in the matter.
This person had a hand in the matter.
It means was his hand actually in the matter itself? No, it means he was what? involved.
Okay, we can say fine. In the verse that Allah says that he says hand, we could say fine, you want to interpret it as metaphorical fine.
But then, what about when Allah says in the Koran?
All Satan? Why is it that you do not prostrate to what I have created with my two hands?
Does it mean two powers? Now? If you said hand is power, are you saying what I have created with two powers? In Arabic? When you say to something it's literal to?
It doesn't mean
something I don't know about. And here's an Yeah, so in an apparent sense, we'll say Allah has two hands, end of story, no need to discuss with those hands on.
But to also prove to you that some of the names of Allah do have a met, a mean that you cannot comprehend. That is beyond your understanding, is when Allah says in a hadith that both of Allah's hands are right.
What does that mean? Well, it's not in it's not possible to understand both of Allah hands are right hands.
So he proves to you that an aim or attribute of Allah could be apparent, but there's, it's not meant for you to understand exactly what it is. It's just to give you an understanding.
So if something is metaphorical, it better have some proof in the context or in the Arabic language. Okay.
Any questions on that?
everything clear? You got any one last?
Yes?
Like what?
No, of course they call them God in their language.
Good question. What about names of a law that were revealed?
In the Bible or in the Old Testament?
Correct. Okay.
The first rule of thumb is,
as Muslims, we are not entirely sure of how authentic those two those two books are. That's a fact. Okay, Bible scholars will tell you. Oh, the power line epistles written by Paul, while you have dudebro. Paul line, you have proton Paul line. And you have the irony, these epistles were maybe written by Paul and maybe written by an associate of Paul, or maybe they were not even written by any of those two.
Right now, if you go to the Bible, they will not tell you that all of this is the literal Word of God. They will tell you it is God inspired.
See how they get around that God inspired?
So the rule of thumb is when it comes to theology, we cannot take our theology from the Bible and the Torah, because why the texts are not guaranteed.
That's number one. Number two, number two.
The names of a law that were revealed,
if any revealed to Moses is in a very specific place.
context that we don't have any way of finding out what the context of those names are.
Plus the fact that we just mentioned, we don't know if the name is true.
So it's not saying that those things are invalid. It's saying that in theology, we take what we know for a fact. And that is the Quran or the Hadith.
Right? So for example, in the Bible, you might find
Jesus referring to God as
Father,
right there. Oh, Father, why have you forsaken me? Right?
Father?
Do we know for a fact that Jesus called he called Allah Father, we don't know that.
We don't know that number to
Father is in the English language.
We have to find out what was the phrase that was used as father in Aramaic, for example. And did Aramaic allow for that, and didn't mean really like father or it was it a term used to describe another kind of relationship? As you are my caretaker for example. Right. So the thing is, we as Muslims would not describe Allah as father. Why? Because the process seldom nor did Carla ever describe herself in the Quran or the Sunnah as an, I am the father, he never did that. So we stay away from that category. Not clear.
Any other questions?
Yes.
Yes.
In other words, if you want to know the meaning of it, sure, you can have a translation, but you have to go back to the Arabic word and know what it actually means in Arabic to grasp the meaning of it. So if you say like,
Merciful, the Merciful, Allah's Name is the merciful.
You would not want to tell you go to the thesaurus and look up synonyms for merciful. I would say, go find out what mercy means in Arabic to give you a better understanding of what mercy means.
Correct.
I know that's a facetious answer, but that's the only answer I can give you.
It's really I know, people will be like,
learn Arabic.
I don't. I am. I'm the last person to declare this, okay. Learned jujitsu. Right.
I don't know what jujitsu is. I only know how to eat.
I only know how to eat. How will I ever be able to know what jujitsu is?
Gold or jujitsu.
Now
let's say I know more than more than just eat. I know, Taekwondo.
I can say, Well, if you learn Taekwondo, there are maybe some
ideas that you can approximate you in Jiu Jitsu.
Better than the person who only knows how to eat. For sure.
The person who knows Krav Maga will have a better understanding of Jiu Jitsu
than, for example, the person who does Taekwondo, because in Taekwondo, there's not much grabbing going on. It's kicking
Krav Maga is
the person who knows Aikido will know about
jujitsu more than the person who uses who practices kendo, which is the Sword Art Sword Art in Japanese culture.
Because there's no grabbing going on in kendo.
There is grabbing an Aikido and hace down there
in Aikido there is grabbing.
So the same way, if you want to understand the Quran and really be able to be like, aha, it's a lifelong journey that takes time. And I'm telling you listen, as someone like me who didn't understand Arabic coming into this world, it took some time for me to learn Arabic. And of course, it's not, it's not a piece of cake. It's not like, Oh, I'm just gonna learn how to ride a bike, it takes dedication, it takes time, it's something that it should be a lifelong goal. It should be a lifelong goal for yourself and never despair in knowing that the more you know about Arabic, no matter how little it is, it will inform your understanding about Islam. Okay.
Any other questions? Yes.
Oftentimes, when we hear the song,
saying
that there's more than
anything?
How is it that some of the name
to be
omitted from
so there is there, there are many collections of names of nightmare names of a law.
In other words,
the way how you derive a name, and we will talk about this, some people are different in the way how they get the name. So as a result, there will be some names out there that are not actual authentic names.
I'm not talking about the engineer, I'm not talking about these extreme examples. The architect. Okay.
I'm talking about sometimes you will have names of Allah, for example, a common name is
that people say is Elmo, Jude,
the present,
Allah is present, Allah is there, in other words, so you will have some people, their names are Abdullah, Mo, Jude, the servant of the modules. And the reason why these names are there is because they find that they can derive a name from an attribute when it's the other way around, the attribute is derived from the name.
So in other words,
the names of and this is not any
kind of a deeper topic here. And that is, sometimes you will, sometimes you will
find out that, for example, that is more of a characteristic and not an official name overload.
And that is like a deeper study of which ones are actually authentic names. Right? So, for example, in this book here, the sheriff actually does list out
the names of Allah that are found explicitly in the Koran
explicitly in the blog, okay.
And
there's only 81.
And then
he has other names that are explicitly only found in the center of the process, Allah, and it adds up to 99.
Okay, so if you want, I can make a copy of this list and send it to you. Okay.
But the question is, you know, it's an Arabic. So if you know everything, you can take a look at these names. Right? And it's true, it's true, I know what you're saying. You will, for example, find some names out there that people use. And it's not an actual name of a law. But actually, I'm going to look, here is the name that you said, I didn't know if it's in here.
Hannah knows nothing of a wall.
And when we say you have to be careful when we say that is not a name of a law, that doesn't mean Allah doesn't have the attribute of bestowing grace onto people. Because the nine means the one who gives grace and blessings and reward to people. That doesn't mean that Allah doesn't do that. It just means is this an official name that Allah call divine?
So let me just take here, for example, I don't think that is an official name of a law.
Nope.
Manannan not names of a lot official means of a law.
So to answer your question, why are there people that
would call a law? Or?
Clearly, that's why we're studying this.
So we know which is really a name of a law. But that would actually go into a more deeper study on what are the names of a law? That's a separate class,
like a study of the night and names of a law? Do you see what I'm saying? But your question is related, because it's, there are people out there, for example, they,
they just go and they derive names. There's actually another book that I have not here with me, he actually this author actually wrote down a list of the names that for example, the
attribute is found somewhere in the Quran, or the Hadees. But one of the golden rules that you're going to learn is, you do not derive the name from the attribute of God, you derive the attributes from the name of God.
So for example, one of the attributes of God is that and it is a very specific case is Allah, for example, a lot of plots.
But other plots, you cannot just say a plot. It's a lot of plots in a context of he plots against the plotters.
Those people who seen and tried to deceive Allah, Allah plots against them. It's an action. But can we now say, Allah, his name is the plotter? No.
For example, Allah gets angry.
Allah doesn't get angry, it's in the hobby. But
unless in the Quran says while huddling about wha hoo, I lay here, and Allah is angry with them. But is it mean that Allah official name is the grumpy? The Angry one?
The name is where you derive the attribute from you do not derive the name from the attribute.
See, I'm saying good.
He will, you'll find it in the first like, it will be it will, like you will, you will find it in the Quran, for example, you know, he describes himself, the guy that you'll find it.
And that will only be possible when you read the whole on you read it, and then you'll start picking up on these names.
Any other questions? All right, so next week, inshallah, we're going to do is we are going to cover the principles specific to the names of a law specific to the names, and I guarantee you it's going to be
we want to take your brain and I'm going to do this with it. Okay, so you're going to have to work with me because there's a lot of things that you're going to have to think with and I think you will get it at the end. And then the week after we will cover the attribute pertaining to the
attributes of a law or the rules that pertain to the attributes of a law, very similar to the previous one. But also it's kind of difficult, and then that's it. We'll close off of that. Like this class. Like I said, it's not meant to talk about the deep issues, just to give you an idea of intermediate level of understanding of this topic. Okay, so hi Nicola homovanillic channel I
want to be the executive