Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #006 Evil Divine Justice & Power Transactions
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The messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be
upon him, encouraged us to strive for uprightness
by seeking assistance in the early mornings, late
afternoons at and something of the depths of
the night. From this tradition, the scholars made
it a habit to briefly read text of
religious guidance in the late afternoon and often
term such readings the daily.
The term refers to the late afternoon, but
also to a time of rest from worldly
toils and reinvigoration of one's spirit.
In this day, Sheikh Razrabbani will be covering
2 texts. Imam Zarrnouji's primer on the etiquette
of seeking knowledge,
and Imam Youssef Anabahani's beautiful collection of 40
sets of 40 prophetic hadith.
Hadith.
In our
daily,
we're looking at 40
hadith,
40 sacred hadiths
from
this collection
by
Sheikh Youssef and Nabahani.
And we've reached hadith number 7.
So
this collection of 40 hadith Qudsi focuses on
the praise of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Right?
The praiseworthy
qualities of our lord. So that's he began
by hadith that highlight
for us
the the greatness and mercy of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. The generosity
of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
Hadith numbers Today Today, we're going to look
at hadith number 7 and hadith number 8.
Hadith 7 is quite brief.
Hadith 8 is one of the most famous
hadith Qudsi.
And it's a special Hadith Boudsiy for a
number of reasons.
Amongst them that
this Hadith,
the Hadith of Abu Zar,
is a damaskan hadith.
How does the damaskan
hadith?
Imam
the now we included hadith the hadith number
8 here, which is related by Abu Zar
Al Khisari Radhiallahu.
Imam Nawi included in in in his collection
of
40 hadiths.
And
it it it is a hadith contiguously
transmitted
by Damascus.
So
Abu Dhar al Keferi
went to Damascus.
He conveyed the hadith.
And from his time
to the time of Amnawi, and from Amnawi's
time to our time, it has been contiguously
transmitted
by
Damascus,
right,
which is very
fascinating.
And then this is just part of one
of the
many aspects of how
the
the isnad, the chain of transmission underlies our
deen.
Right? And there are secondary aspects. People like
mentioning things like this to make claims themselves
that, well, I took this from somebody, so
on. So that's all secondary. Right? But this
it tells us and it reminds us also
the, you know, this reality of this standard
reminds us of the amazing reality of
the gift of Allah,
of us having these chains of transmission that
we
are able to connect with.
But let's begin with hadith number 7.
And this is a Hadith of Majesty.
Its a Hadith
that should
inspire
in us
a sense of awe
of the divine.
And there's a number of points related to
it which we will touch upon. The hadith
is related about Abu Umam
that the messenger of Allah
said that Allah most high says,
An Allah, I am Allah, I am God.
There is no God
but me.
I have created evil and I have destined
it.
So
woe be upon the one
whom I have created,
for whom I have created
evil
and whom I have created
for evil
and at whose hands I manifest
evil.
Right. So I am Allah. There's no God
but me.
There's
there's none
absolutely free of need of any other whom
all are absolutely dependent for in every way,
including their very existence.
But
me, he's Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
I have created evil. Why?
Because everything that exists has been created by
Allah. So it follows rationally that if everything
is created by by God,
then evil is created by god too.
Now
it is Allah has created evil.
Right? But what is evil?
Evil
is the result of human choices.
Good and bad do not
do not relate to Allah
as judgments.
Nothing Allah does is good in the sense
of that was the right thing for Allah
to do.
There's no good with respect to God.
And there's no bad with respect to God.
In that this was not the right thing
for Allah to do. If by good and
bad we mean the right thing to do
and the wrong thing to do,
The imams of theology tell us Allah
can do
anything that is possible
or not to do it.
K.
He'd he can do,
he
does, what whatsoever he wills.
And he judges as he wills.
Right?
So we don't hide from this issue. Right?
This is a a hole that many people
get stuck in, but we don't see that.
No. He has
this hadith Qudsi is so powerful.
I have created evil and I have destined
it, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says.
Allah destined it
Allah destined it from eternity in accordance with
what he knows we will choose.
Right. So the fact that it is evil
relates
to the choices
made
by those morally responsible.
That is what makes it evil
is the choices of those morally responsible.
Right?
Allah has created it. Allah has destined it.
And we don't we have no confusion about
that.
And we have absolute affirmation that that the
one morally responsible
who made the choice for evil is responsible
for that evil.
But they are servant of God.
Right? They are a servant of God.
Now there's an implication of mercy
related to what we took before
that even in that situation Allah's mercy precedes
his wrath.
Because part of the implication of Allah having
destined the evil is that you are not
bound.
You are burdened
by your moral choices, but you are not
bound by them.
Meaning,
that you are responsible for those for the
evil
choices that you make, for the sinful choices,
for the harmful choices that you do. You
are burdened by them, but you're not bound
by them. Why?
Because
he loves to forgive.
He loves to forgive.
Right? And if the person who did wrong
chooses
not
to seek Allah's forgiveness, that was their choice.
They choose not to return that that is
their choice.
But it also has an implication for the
one who is in the circle of mercy,
right, in the circle of mercy who are
doing good
that do not feel safe
do not feel safe
from the absolute power of Allah.
Right? Because Allah has created this world
in
with light and with darkness.
Everything in this universe
is susceptible to change.
It's actually either actively changing or susceptible to
change.
So are you.
And you don't know
how the story ends.
So
one does not feel safe.
Right? That if one finds oneself in a
good state, one is grateful
but that should not diminish one's awe of
who Allah is because just as He has
created that good for you, He has also
created evil.
So do not feel safe. So while I'm
making the right choice, I'm fine, everything will
be okay, you don't know.
Right? And Allah
warns against not feeling safe from the Makr,
right, from the
divine
plan,
right, from the divine
machination.
Right? It's a hard term to right?
That you don't know.
You don't know what what thoughts will emerge
in your mind next. So woe be to
the one whom I have created for evil
or have created
for whom I have created evil
or
that's
or second
possibility or whom I have created for evil
which is even worse.
And I have made evil
the the wrong
to manifest at their hands.
So don't do not feel safe. Right? One
always feel the sense of awe of Allah,
which is why
the greatest companions
felt an amazing awe of Allah.
Right? Say, Nur mur would say, if I
had one foot in paradise, I would not
feel safe until I had the second foot
in paradise.
And this is someone promised paradise repeatedly.
Saydai Isha,
whom
we know what rank and state to saydai
Isha had. The one exonerated by her lord
ecstasy
that she said,
I will thank no one but Allah.
K?
Yet
she used to say,
I wish I was just
forgotten
and completely obscure.
Why?
Out of the deep sense of awe out
of the deep sense of awe of Allah.
In his
hand, in his grasp and control
is the whole affair and dominion of the
heavens and the earth. So this is what
this hadith is telling us. It's not telling
us simply that, well, it is Allah who
creates evil.
He creates it.
He is he creates it.
But the
evil
is ascribed
not to Allah,
but
to the choices of those
who make those choices.
So this is a little of what can
be mentioned about this hadith. The next hadith
is a long hadith, and we'll look at
it,
in by translating it, section by section. We
won't read the whole thing and then translate.
We'll read section by section.
And
Allah most high says,
Oh my servants,
I have prohibited
wrong
upon myself.
So and I have made it prohibited amongst
you so do not wrong one another.
I have made wrong
prohibited for myself
here.
What is understood from that
is
that number 1,
wrong is
inconceivable for Allah, injustice
is inconceivable
for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Because
injustice
is not to give others what is rightfully
theirs and
no one has rights upon Allah.
No one has had the right to exist.
Right? Just at the simple level
of creating them, they're absolutely indebted to Allah.
And he pulls the plug,
he has the full right to. Let alone
anything that happens upon existence. So it's rationally
inconceivable
for God to wrong anybody
because they have no rights over him to
begin with. But he has chosen to deal
on the basis
of
mercy
and and has laid down
guidance
on how to attain the good,
and those who seek it are granted exactly
what they're promised.
Right?
And he will not go against that promise,
not because he cannot,
but he has chosen
he has laid out
the consequences of our choices
and made promises, and he will fulfill those
promises.
And much more could be said about this.
Right?
But injustice itself is rationally inconceivable for God.
So so if that is how God is,
if no if the one whom none has
any claims over
has held himself,
had decided to deal on the basis of
justice,
of giving everyone
exactly what they're promised and being generous,
that's how our Lord is, then do not
wrong one another
because you owe each other rights and responsibilities.
So do not wrong one another.
Oh my servants,
all of you are misguided
except those whom I guide.
So
so seek my guidance.
I will guide you.
Right? And this is highlighting
that divine mercy.
Just ask.
Full stop.
Oh, my servants, all of you are hungry
except those whom I feed.
So seek
your food from me, and I will feed
you.
This goes under
the broad principle.
If you ask, ask Allah and
take the means that Allah has facilitated
on earth.
You are responsible for that.
Was my earth not vast for you
so that you may seek your provision therein.
Right.
So Allah,
the means are there, you have to seek
them.
But the first means is Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
O my servants, all of you
are unclothed
except those whom I clothe.
So seek your clothing from me and I
will clothe you.
And in this of course, another reminder, it's
not just if you are hungry
and if you are thirsty and if you
are clothed,
you were not born
with clothes in this life.
How did your parents put that diaper on
you?
Not because you deserved it and not because
they
did it. It's from Allah.
How did that milk get to you when
you're born
and how does food come to you?
Food doesn't come to you by the means.
All of it is from Allah.
The means are
the points
of manifestation
of divine acts of grace.
O my Servants,
truly you
by night and by day.
And I
forgive
sins,
all of them.
So seek my forgiveness
and I will forgive you.
Right?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us
They do not esteem Allah as he deserves
to be esteemed.
You by night and by day,
and I forgive sins. That's the it's the
divine nature. Right? It is the it Allah
it's Allah's qualities. If you
puts it very powerfully that whoever believes that
Allah cannot get them out
of the miserable state that they're in
has
They they are imagining
the divine power to somehow be weak.
So it continues.
Right. My servants,
you cannot
ever reach
hurting me.
You you can ever you can never reach
harming
me such that you could inflict any harm
upon me nor can you ever reach any
benefit of me by which you can benefit
me.
Right?
It is all for your good.
Oh my servants, if the first of you
and the last of you,
the humans of you, and the jinn amongst
you were upon the most pious heart
of any person amongst you, that would not
increase in my dominion in any way whatsoever.
Oh my servants, if the first of you
and the last of you, the humans of
you and the jinn of you, were upon
the most vile and corrupt heart of any
person amongst you that would not diminish
anything
of my dominion
in any way.
Oh my servants,
if the first of you and the last
of you,
the humans of you and the jinn of
you,
stood
on one elevated
place
and all of you asked me and I
gave every single person what they asked for
that would not diminish
in what I have
in any way whatsoever
except
as
the needle
diminishes the ocean
when it is inserted into it.
Meaning not at all whatsoever.
Right?
And the Lamar said even that is just
as a metaphor
because in reality
it absolutely does not affect Allah's dominion in
any way whatsoever
at all. I mean, it just is the
ocean affected by that?
Not really except the except the one drop.
But that's just lit takrib. It's just a
metaphor
to illustrate the point but it's not literal
of
course.
Then he says
It is but your actions
that I encompass
for you.
Then I
repay you for them in full.
What do you possess? You possess your actions.
They were gifted to you by Allah but
He will reward you for them in accordance
with what you sought through them as this
hadith makes clear.
So whoever finds good let them praise Allah.
Why?
Where is it from?
It is from Allah.
Who will who gave it to you? Allah.
Who will reward you for it? Allah. So
it is from Allah
and goes back to Allah.
So
whoever finds good,
let them praise Allah.
And whoever finds other than that, let them
blame none
but their own self. Why?
Because you made the choice. You have your
choices.
The good that you did, the good that
you found, Allah sent it.
You have the choice.
But even your choice, who facilitates its consequence?
Allah.
Who rewards for it? Allah.
So the adab of slave hood is behold
it from Allah,
praise Allah for it.
Ask Allah
for its acceptance. Ask Allah for its reward.
And whoever finds other than that,
let them blame
none but themselves.
But what is the good?
The good is that which is a means
to God.
That is the good.
Right? The believer does not the good is
not what is pleasing to 1. The good
is that which is a means
to Allah, a means to the pleasure of
Allah.
An evil
and the bad is not disliked things, the
bad is that which
distances one from Allah, that which leads one
away from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So how
many
a pleasing thing is bad for you? Because
it distances you from Allah and how many
an apparent
disaster
is pure good.
And that's the standard of the believer.
And this hadith is related by Imam
Muslim
and others.
Muhammad
This is one of the longest
hadith that
we'll
see in in the collection, if not the
longest.
And and we'll
and it gives us
a lot
to reflect on. On the the
existence
is
an an expression of mercy. Existence is an
expression of mercy. But that mercy, how do
you attain that mercy?
That is the that is what the messenger
is the embodiment of. Existence
is an expression of mercy.
But there's
a potential of attaining
mercy,
all
the potential of how do you attain the
greatest possible mercy of God,
the embodiment of that is Rasoolullah
He is
embodied mercy. Why? Not just
because yeah. It's bunch of good,
but because
ab how do you attain unto
absolute divine mercy
that is
embodied in Rasoolullah
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
So that's what we are going to look
at,
today normally we also read
from Talimul Mutalim
of
Imam
Zernuji.
So we
we're going to just read
very briefly in that on one
one point. We looked last time that
the what is what is
what is essential knowledge.
That it is what you need to know
in the circumstances you're in to be number
1 in a state of obedience to Allah.
So you can fulfill obligations,
avoid prohibitions.
And number 2,
such that you are able to
seek the pleasure of Allah, such that you
are able to
uphold the prophetic
example, such so that you're able to attain
divine mercy
in
divine closeness,
divine love in the moment you're in. And
that applies not just to the acts of
worship, but he highlighted
likewise
in our
life transactions.
Right? In our in
our sales transactions, in our contracts, in our
financial transactions.
So we're just gonna read about that and
that's a key point.
So he says, Muhammad ibn al Hassan Rahimahullah
Allah Allah to sunnifuqitabanfizuhud.
Imam Abu Hanifa's
great student Muhammad ibn Hasan al Shaybani
was asked
why don't you author a book on spiritual
renunciation
on zuhud,
right,
on renouncing worldliness.
He said,
He said I've written a book and in
some narrations I have written books on transactions.
The author explains
said that the person of worldly renunciation
is the one who is able
to actively avoid and shield themselves from
questionable things and dislike things
in
their
financial dealings.
It was easy to say, I only care
about God and pray a lot, fast a
lot. That's good. But that's not testing because
the self,
after all, naturally inclines towards that. Because you
find direct benefit.
It's obvious interest is in it. The real
test is when
you inclined towards worldliness,
towards worldly gain, towards wealth, towards
some outward success. This will help our project
move forward. But at least forget the prohibited,
but it is dubious.
It is disliked.
Renunciation
is to leave the questionable
for what's unquestionably
pleasing to Allah. To leave the dislike
for what
is beloved to Allah.
It
says likewise
in all types of
transactions
and all lines of work there is divine
guidance whether at the level of permissibility
and impermissibility
or at the level of what is praiseworthy
and blameworthy
in every line of human work.
And anyone
who engages
in anything of it, in any line of
human activity, it is obligatory upon them to
gain the knowledge
by which they can shield themselves from the
haram in it.
And likewise it is incumbent upon them, obligatory
upon them to gain knowledge of the states
of the heart. And we look at that
next. So one of the areas that someone
who is sincere about seeking Allah must pay
attention to and that's from what is obligatory
upon you is do an assessment of your
day, your week,
your month, your year, what are the things
that you do in life.
What are the things you engage in life?
And ask yourself, do I know what I
need to do
to avoid the haram in this?
And there is all kind of simple things.
People all the time they say okay I
will buy that from you and they'll take
it and say, we'll agree later.
It is haram.
People will take money for someone. Say, can
you give this money to so and so?
And they take
take the envelope that's got the money and
they don't count it. That's haram
Because it could be you you said it's
$1,000
you go and give the donation money
to
the the Masjid administration, you find 800 in
there.
Someone's going to be upset.
Either you're upset that you cheated me or
the person you gave it to say where's
the 200 or the recipient is going to
be upset. And it's haram for you to
accept taking that unless you count it.
And all these things are there not for
Allah to make life difficult for us. Us.
Although
one of the wisdoms in limits
is do you care to submit?
Is to be a servant of God wherever
you may be.
But it is to preserve
our good
and that's an area
that requires a lot of attention. We'll close
by this Imam Malik mentions in his mawtah
from Sayyidina Umar ibn Khattab
that Sayyidina Umar used to ban anyone
from trading in the
market place of madinah until they had gained
knowledge
of the halal and haram related to transactions
and he made the proclamation
no one may enter our market place,
until they have gained
deep knowledge of our deen meaning in matters
of transaction.
Otherwise they will fall into riba into
the grave prohibition
of usury.
Whether they want to or not and from
that of course you that it is
equally prohibited to enter into anything
until you have gained knowledge of divine
guidance regarding it because otherwise you're going to
fall in the prohibited and it could be
gravely prohibited
whether you want to or not.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala realize the good
for us and
make us see that all these matters are
opportunities
for seeking Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for living
the Sunnah. We don't just live the Sunnah
in putting a shawl on our right hand
and a miswak
to brush our teeth. These are these are
sunnahs,
and they're praiseworthy,
but there are matters related to the sunnah
that are far more incumbent.
The prophet did not come
merely to teach us how to brush our
teeth.
Right? He came to preserve
the fundamental
good. And there's derivative details of good, many
of which are comfortable.
The most
the most serious good is that which prevents
us from destroying our lives, from destroying our
souls.
And there's worldly aspects to that which are
the limits related to financial transactions,
and there's matters
the most important sunnah are what he'll talk
about next which are the sunnahs related to
the states of the heart,
and he'll tell us what knowledge is obligatory
for those.
Thank you for listening to the Roha, daily
guidance for seekers
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