Faaik Gamieldien – Does Allah need an intermediary between him and us
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We seek refuge in Allah from the evil
of our souls and from the badness of
our deeds.
Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him.
Whomsoever He guides, none can guide him.
And we bear witness that there is none
worthy of worship except Allah, and He is
alone and has no partner.
And we bear witness that Muhammad is His
servant and Messenger.
Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him
and his family and companions.
Today we are going to delve into one
of the 27 books written by my teacher,
one of my teachers.
And this book is on Aqidah al-Muslim,
the belief of a Muslim, and it is
written by Sheikh Muhammad al-Ghazali.
Muhammad al-Ghazali is a well-known scholar.
He passed away, I think, in 1996.
He passed away.
He was an Egyptian scholar.
And he wrote all these books on what
we need to know and what we must
know.
On what we must know to enter Jannah.
Not what we must know how to do,
how to do Salat.
Lots of people do that and they don't
enter Jannah.
So we're interested in what is it that
we need to know about Allah that will
please Allah and will be in our favor
on the Day of Judgment.
And we talked today about Tawassul.
Now you may not know, I'm sure you've
heard the word Tawassul.
Tawassul is when we seek an intermediary between
us and Allah.
We seek somebody in between us.
And this is common now among the Sufis.
They bring their sheikh from Yemen or their
sheikh from wherever they bring their sheikhs from.
And they come here and they make dua
for some people and try to heal some
other people.
But tomorrow they also die with an injury.
So we need an intermediary that is constant
and will live forever.
So Islam allows intermediaries.
And I start with this so that we
know what is required of us and we
know what is allowed for us.
Innama huwa al-iman al-haq wa al
-amal al-saleh wa al-amal al-saleh
There are three things that are allowed for
us to use as intermediaries between us and
Allah.
This is our iman.
We can appeal to Allah through our iman.
We can appeal to Allah of truth, which
is the Quran, wa al-amal al-saleh.
And we can ask Allah for the good
deeds that we have done.
We know what good deeds we have done.
But other people don't know.
And that we can use.
I'll give examples.
It is recorded in the sunnah of the
Nabi ﷺ that the Nabi ﷺ made dua.
He said, Allahumma inni as'aluka bi'adnaka
anta Allah.
He made dua.
He said, Allahumma if you are Allah, I
ask you because you are me, you are
Allah.
La ilaha illa Allah.
There is no lord besides you.
The self-sufficient, the one.
He who was not born nor did he
give birth to anyone.
And there is none like unto him.
Subhanallah.
So if you say these words, what are
you doing?
You are expressing your iman in Allah.
You are expressing your knowledge of Allah.
And you are recognizing Allah as the only
true mediator between you and Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So this tawassul with Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is whether the birth of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Then there is speaking to Allah through a
good deed which you have done.
Remember I said to you when you give
rizq, when you give sadaqa, don't let anybody
know that you've given sadaqa.
Don't let anybody see that you've given sadaqa.
So if you are in trouble, if you
have something that is bothering you, then say,
Ya Allah, I gave sadaqa to somebody on
such and such a day.
I'm asking you through the goodness of that
good deed which I have done.
Please, I need this and I need that
and I need that.
With ritual, with his body, with everything.
Because Allah, everything belongs to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
This hadith, the hadith as you know of
the three men who went into the cave
in the mountain and there was a storm
and the rock fell and covered the mouth
of the cave.
And they said, each of us will make
a du'a to something which we did.
Let's make du'a because that is what
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam did.
So the first one said, I was in
love with my cousin.
And I really wanted to have my cousin.
And the day when I had enough money
to give to her, she said to me,
Ittaqillah.
And when she said to me, Ittaqillah, she
said, Fiya Allah.
I immediately left her, he said.
And I did that because I feared Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
He said, Ya Allah, if I did that
with sincerity, remove this rock.
And the rock moved a little bit.
And the next one said, I had parents.
And every day, every night before I feed
my children with the milk of the sheep,
I used to first go to my mother
and my father and I used to do
it to them.
But this time he said, I will delay.
And when I came to my mother and
father's house, I saw they were both sleeping.
Wallahi, I stood there until the morning.
Until they woke up.
And then I gave them the milk.
And then I gave my children.
Subhanallah.
He said, Ya Allah, if I done that,
for your sake, please remove this boulder from
the front of the table.
And the third one came.
And he said, And what was his dua?
Sheikh, what was his dua?
Alright, we'll come back to that.
But you see what you can do?
You don't have to speak to anybody.
Don't ask anybody to make dua for you.
Of course you can ask.
Ah, the farmer.
Yes, this is a very important one.
I must tell this one to you.
So the third one worked for a farmer.
And then he left the farmer's job.
But he left without asking the farmer for
his share, for his wages for that time
that he was there.
And he left.
And after a number of years, he came
back.
And he said to the farmer, when I'm
in dire straits, can you just please give
me my salary back?
The farmer said, you see all this here?
You see all the sheep here?
You see all the goats here?
You see the plantations?
And I went, this is all yours.
He said, I did this from your money.
Subhanallah.
And he said, the man who gave it,
he was in the cave.
He said, Ya Allah, if I did that
to this man out of love for you,
and to be a just man, then the
rock came off.
Subhanallah, they could leave.
و جاء التوصل بمعنى دعاء البنى لأخيه بضغن
الغيب And also the Prophet said, توصل, you
can make, you can use it intermediary of
a person who makes dua for you and
you don't know about it.
Someone comes to you and says, Faik, you
know, I always make dua for you.
But he doesn't say it like that.
He doesn't say nothing.
He was just asking him to make dua
for him.
He said, make dua for me.
And that is what I was.
That all goes directly to Allah.
سبحانه وتعالى So today, the chapter that he
speaks about, Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali.
And I can guarantee you, if I should
tell you, that if all the ulema together
should be put together in Cape Town, they
would not be equal to this one man.
And they would agree with me if they
have the 72 books at least of this
man.
Who is he then?
The alim of today.
So this is the level of this alim.
And he speaks today about the life of
the general public.
People like us.
General public.
Things that we do.
Things that we want to know.
Things that we shouldn't do and we don't
know we shouldn't do.
So he said, a young man wrote a
letter to him.
And this young man laid out for him
in this letter all the proofs that people
use to justify wasila.
That you can use immediately besides those, who
is in the Mithras al-Amsin.
We get to know what he says.
So this young man writes.
جمهور اناس اصاد He writes to Shaykh Muhammad
al-Ghazali and he says, All of you,
humankind are all sinners.
We are all sinners.
And the best of sinners is whom?
He who asks, makes tawba.
So I'm a great sinner.
We're all great sinners.
We're all big sinners.
Only Allah knows how big.
Only Allah knows how small.
And the best sinner is amongst us is
whom?
So there's a best sinner also.
So if you're a big sinner, think about
it.
Allah says, Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
We're going to be the best sinner.
The best sinner is whom?
The best sinner is going to bed at
night, turn his face away from his wife,
and he makes istighfar.
Or he wakes till his wife is asleep,
and he goes into the little room next
door, and he makes tears in his eyes.
And we all have to do that.
There's not a single person on the dunya
that hasn't done something which he has to
make istighfar for.
Alright, so he says, all of us, this
person writes all of us up, sinners.
وَاللَّهُ إِنَّمَا يَتَقَبَّرُ مِنَ الْمُتَّقِينَ He writes in
the letter, he says, and Allah only forgives
those who are muttaqeen, who have taqwa.
This is what he writes.
فَلَوْ ذَهْبَ الْإِنْسَانُ إِلَىٰ رَبِّهِ He says, and
a man who goes to Allah, وَهُوَ مُؤْكِرٌ
بِالسَّيِّئَاتِ and is full with sin.
You know what it is?
Some people, they never make salah, they candle,
they drink, but they're Muslim.
They always say they're Muslim.
We know these people.
He shouldn't talk about them, but this is
just in general.
He says, if such a person should go
to Allah, لَمْ يَجِدْ لَهُ سُخْلَةً Allah will
not accept anything that he asks for.
This is what he writes.
وَلَا مِن سُخْلَهُ فَضْلَةً And no goodness will
befall him.
Allah won't give him any barakah or anything
like that.
Because he's such a great sinner.
وَمِن ثَمَّ فَعَلَ النَّاسِ He says, and for
such people, and he says all of us
are like that, for such people, أَنْ يَبْحَثْ
عَنِ الْإِصَاطَةِ مَقْضُولًا وَكَوَلْ كَوَلِ صَالِحٍ مَثْرًا He
says, it is for all of us to
go to another person, a pious person, and
ask that person to intervene for us by
Allah SWT.
And he says, لَا يَسْرُوهُ الْقَوْمُ بِأَنْدَ هَذَا
شِرْكٌ So this young man writes in a
letter, he says, and nobody can say that
this is shirk.
We must listen carefully.
There are quite a number of things.
Of course, you can, inshallah, hear it.
But lots can go wrong with this.
He says, nobody can say, if we go
to a pious person, to make dua for
us that it's shirk.
Because it is shirk.
لِأَنَّ النِّيَّ وَالْحُكُومُ وَالْحُكُمُ عَلَى الْأَعْمَالِ الْمُتَوَسْلِينَ
And he says, keep it easy.
He gives the reason.
He says, the niyyah, your niyyah, you gave,
go to a person to make dua for
you with a niyyah that I don't want
it from him, I want it from Allah.
I'm just going through him.
He says, his niyyah must be looked at.
And his actions must be judged according to
his intentions.
But you can't stand up in the court
of law and get down in the high
court and say, I didn't want to kill
him, I had a good intention, judge.
My intention was good, but unfortunately he died
when I stabbed him.
But I had a very good intention.
Now this person is saying the same.
Look at the man's intention.
Of course we know this is not, doesn't
make any sense.
So, even if he didn't intend any kind
of shirk.
And you know what shirk is.
Shirk is to regard a person the equal
of Allah.
So you go to the kramat and you
stand and you say, ya wa liya Allah.
That's what people say.
People say, ya wa liya Allah.
I was there, I said this.
I was part of that.
You stand and you say, ya wa liya
Allah.
If you go to, there's a masjid in
Cape Town, they say, they say in the
khutbah, you know all the khutbahs, they say,
ya Rasool Allah, umdul halana.
They make dua, say, make sense of the
minba.
Close your sabbath.
He says, they say in the khutbah, dua,
O Prophet of Allah, look at our condition.
Who knows our condition?
Nothing in this grave.
He only, only while he was alive, he
was alive.
There are people now saying, he's still alive.
They love him so much, they make him
alive also.
And that's when the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
said to the sahaba, do not lift me
above like the people of Isa lifted Isa.
Do not make of me another Isa.
When I'm dead, I'm dead.
Khalas.
Innaka mayyitun.
Allah said to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
innaka mayyitun wa innahum mayyitun in the Quran.
You will be a corpse of Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wasallam and all of mankind will be
corpses.
And of course the young man says, another
proof is al sahaba wa al fuqaha wa
la imma jami'an karu yatawassaluna ila Allahi
bil anbiya wal awliya.
And this young man writes, it's another reason
for going to another person.
He says, al sahaba, the companions of Nabi
sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and the fuqaha, and the
salama wa la imma jami'an all of
them karu yatawassaluna they used to go, they
used to intercede for themselves between them, Allah
subhana wa ta'ala through the prophets and
the awliya.
That's the word awliya, wali.
It's an extremely important word.
It's mentioned in the Quran many times.
I'm not going to talk about it today,
but I will talk about it.
Because it's a word that is thrown around.
Wali, friend of Allah.
Wali, thrown around.
And the next reason they give is wa
qattawassal umar They say, Sayyidina Umar ibn al
-Khattab may tawassul use as intermediary Amr
al-Nadhi, the uncle of the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam.
Who was the uncle of the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam that they used?
Abdullah ibn Abbas.
Abdullah ibn Abbas.
He was drowning in Medina and they're asking,
they say, you're the closest to the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam, make dua.
Number four, you know the story of
Nabi Musa in Hidr.
I'm sure you would have heard it.
And one of the items that was raised
was that they went into this village and
the people of the village didn't want to
give any food and they came across a
wall.
And this Hidr said to Musa, let's build
up this wall.
And Musa said, what?
These people don't want to give you a
drop of water, you want to build up
your wall?
He said, don't ask me the question why
now.
But let's build up the wall.
So these people say that and eventually the
man Hidr told Musa that it's because their
parents were very pious people.
And they gave their inheritance of their sons
unto this wall.
So the people were saying, they say Allah
says that the father was salih man.
Father was the salih man, the pious man.
So he says doesn't this man writes and
he says doesn't this mean that the goodness
of the parents go to the children after
their death?
So people read the Quran.
Very dangerous.
I was reading about people who argue about
the Quran without knowing the Quran.
Who use the word Quran and they know
nothing of the Quran.
Where for far in this country thousands of
them don't know a word of the Quran
but they memorize the Quran.
So they all become imams because they can
read the Quran.
And now eventually they're called sheikhs but they
don't know a word of the Quran.
And there's a lot of them.
You also know them.
Your children, your grandchildren.
They go for 2-3 years to learn
the Quran but they know nothing about the
Quran.
How is that?
How is that a man can memorize a
book and he knows zero of what is
in the book?
Do you think Allah is going to ask
you about that?
Ask the parents about that?
Why are you in such a hurry?
Do you think your children even if they
just learn any Quran, Quran is very easy
to understand.
Arabic is an easy language.
There are people who tell us especially the
ulama telling it's very difficult to go to
the Azharian school.
No, no, no.
You can do it on your own.
For the first two years I studied Arabic
on my own.
I bought books in English, Arabic and Arabic.
And the next one is he says He
says He
says we received a letter.
We asked a sheikh of the Azhar any
sheikh about this matter.
And one of the registered sheikhs of the
Azhar wrote back to them and said Arabic
Arabic He said in his letter to us
that to make tawassul via the dead is
wajib.
So you see these people all over the
sheikhs, imams, mawlana's, all of them.
And the reason he gives is that the
person inside the qabr has more effect.
The dead has more effect than the living.
How?
How can a dead person have more effect
than a living person?
Arabic Arabic And this alim wrote and he
said don't worry.
There's nothing wrong to ask the dead people
provided in your mind you're actually asking Allah.
So what do you do?
Have you been going by a dead person?
And he further writes in an ayat and
he says so the sheikh says to this
young man in his letter that the verses
the people used to condemn us people who
go to the to the qabr meant to
abide the dead person he says those people
who condemn us for saying that all the
ayat that refers to this to the ayat
which they use are all ayat which was
used by the kuffar but they're for the
kuffar.
Allah revealed all those verses to all those
ayat for the kuffar not for the Muslims.
So he says this is Imam Ghazali Sheikh
Ghazali he says this is the statements for
the obscure statements that people use to justify
asking a person another person to ask Allah
on your behalf and we'll come again to
the section of asking the dead person.
These are two separate issues.
And then Ghazali says people have lost the
iman they've lost the Islam by doing this
kind of shirk and many Muslims have gone
back to the time of Jahiliyya.
What was the time of Jahiliyya?
The time of Jahiliyya was when the Arabs
of Makkah said yes we believe in Allah
but we worship these idols because they bring
us closer to Allah.
And they were the exceptional Mushrikun they were
Mushrikun above Mushrikun.
There's no shafa'a for them at all.
And he says and we try he writes
and he says throughout my life I've tried
to convince people to get their fundamental right,
to get their belief right, to get their
iman right iman right, to get their tawhid
right because everything is built on that Allah
will not accept your salah if you make
shirk.
Allah will not accept your salah if you
believe in him he's not the correct belief.
Allah will forgive the person who never made
salah and at the end he makes tawbah
but never made shirk with Allah.
He will do shirk.
But me if I put my head on
the ground and I still make salah and
I still do all these things that I'm
not supposed to do with a tasbih and
all that Astaghfirullah.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not forgive
sins of shirk.
So now I will there was a time
left, we will now discuss and look at
the proofs that this young man wrote in
his letter to Sheikh I think you remember
his name Muhammad al-Ghazali Number one about
the person where so much sins on him
and he is told he cannot go directly
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
He said we'll screw him up, he's failed
and we don't have money and we don't
have bus and we don't have and then
can't have anybody and if you said to
him oh that man is close to Allah
you're not in a position to ask then
he says there is no basis in the
Quran or sharia for this kind of talk
no basis at all, why not?
in the Iblis da'a rabbahu wa ubaasha
wa uji' he says Iblis spoke to Allah
directly and Allah answered him so are you
saying and I saying that we worse than
Iblis have you taken away some days of
Iblis but they didn't mean it so if
you say that you are too far gone
you know you've never but now in your
old age maybe and I come to the
mansion you cry and you say well I
must find somebody you know that can talk
on my behalf no, Iblis what did he
say to Allah?
what did Iblis say to Allah?
Rabbi anbir me ila yawmi ba'd Iblis said
Rabbi he addressed Allah and said my lord
my lord give me time give me time
until the day of Qiyamah we're going to
rise from our grave give me time to
do what?
what do you want to do?
to take us away from Allah and put
us in the in the Ka'bah of
Shirk which will go in your way fa
innaka minal mundareen Allah said Iblis subhanallah so
you must think you do worse and your
friend who is like so bad you must
tell him you know what if you can't
speak to Allah directly then you're worse than
shaytan because shaytan spoke to him and Allah
answered him what did Allah say to him?
fa innaka minal mundareen you will be one
of those who will be given time I
give you time, until that time ila yawmil
waqtil ma'loom until a specific time you
get your time and the mushrikun da'ul
Allah mubasheratan the mushrikun, they call them Shirk
they also call them Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala mubasheratan and Allah answered them as well
da'ul Allah mubasheratan ila yawmil
waqtil ma'loom ila yawmil waqtil ma'loom
they still went around in the world with
their old tricks so Allah listens to you
and Allah answers you and then Allah says
what is your reaction what did you do?
so are the Muslims who commit sin are
they is it haram for them it wasn't
haram for the Iblis haram for them to
speak and ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
no matter what you did, subhanallah Allah ghafoorur
raheem arrahmanir raheem most most what?
of forgiving most merciful wama yakhfiru dhunuba illa
Allah and Allah says I won't forgive you
since I said Allah you can go to
the man with 10 vulses on his head,
with 10 beards hanging around him with coming
from what place in the world with how
much he yellow is on his beard and
how much this is on his wama yakhfiru
dhunuba illa Allah, but who will forgive your
sins only Allah Allah says who will forgive
your sins except Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
so if a person who is a
Muslim yaqaul fikhata and he falls into sin
then he should go to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala biddua illa Allah we should go
back to our food illa Allah iman and
zikr is a particular place you don't have
to sit in the haram of you don't
have to sit in the haram of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam you don't have to
sit in the masjid you can sit anywhere
al ardu kulluha masjid, prophet said the whole
world is a masjid so I'm going to
the masjid now take hudur and sit in
the masjid why you don't sit in the
masjid but everywhere is a masjid so if
you are in trouble and you are so
much trouble then you go and ask Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala without you don't need
a nabi you don't need a wali you
don't need a man you don't need shaitan
you need only yourself and your words of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Allah says
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says and those
who do fahisha fahisha is like they have
terrible things with women maybe drinking all that
kind of stuff he has done like everything
oh he's done harm to himself people who
take drugs they harm themselves they don't harm
anybody else they harm themselves so they take
drugs and they remember Allah they remember Allah
and they make they make dua for their
sins then Allah says and who can forgive
his sins except Allah he's come to the
right place he's come to where he's come
exactly straight to the right place so I
will continue when I have I'll continue this
I'm leaving this world I'm not I'm now
75 years old mashallah I didn't know that
I was going to live so long but
you can imagine I still have maybe five
years left before my memory starts really leaving
me so I concentrate on these issues I
think they are very important issues and I
must say that that I had quite a
response probably the best response I've had on
any lecture is the one I had last
week and I'm glad people are listening to
it but I must say they go for
the man they go for the man I
know I'm 75 I don't mind I'm going
to go for the man or woman these
things don't matter it doesn't matter at all
not a week or a night but what
matters to me is there wasn't a single
argument responded on the issues that I raised
not a single never in my whole life
in Cape Town did I say anything and
I said a lot of things not a
single person came to well some people came
to me but not a single person answered
to say that how can you say that
how can you say this how can you
say this how can you say this person
doesn't do shirk how can you say that
monu does a bidah and I've done bidah
story from I think maybe it was a
long time the great story is probably about
25 years that I've been speaking about first
Malay priest that somebody said to me that
spoke about people going there and making dua
there and we're still studying and this man
is dead already he's still saying that probably
up to his death but this is our
job I don't want to look at I
and say profession my job my job is
inshallah may Allah give me more hidayah and
may Allah give you also more hidayah but
what I give you is in your hands
I'm not going to feel sad if you
say it's nonsense don't worry I'm not going
to be sad about that or that maybe
we should kill him that wouldn't work killing
wouldn't be a problem I'd be quite okay
to go so may Allah also guide us
may Allah also guide our children may Allah
also guide our community because Allah said may
Allah also guide those who are below them
above them and may Allah also guide those
who are faster than each other may Allah
forgive them Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh