Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 20150225 Fiqh Class.mp4
AI: Summary ©
The holy Bible is a combination of words and attributes, not just a book. It is a combination of words and attributes, and the benefits of reading it include the ability to understand and correct mistakes. The holy spirit is a combination of physical and mental aspects of Islam, and people should read it every day to benefit from it. The book is a masterpiece and a way to achieve success in life. It is linked to the physical and mental aspects of Islam, and people should find the right time to read it. The importance of understanding everything that was and was not in the book of Allah is linked to the experience of the prophets, and the book is a masterpiece. The speaker discusses the importance of understanding the relationship between Allah's actions and the reality of the world, and the importance of learning to be a person of the fire and not caring about the actions of Allah.
AI: Summary ©
So last week, we talked about the wahi
of Allah to Allah to say the Musa
Alaihi
Salam about how it was the speech, the
divine and uncreated speech of Allah to Allah.
What does that mean?
How did he experience it?
And that the speech of Allah is not
speech in the sense that we experience speech
between
each other, sound waves traveling through the air.
Rather, it is a direct
effect from the lord,
on the creation,
whoever he wishes to target with that effect.
It's a direct effect,
on the creation, and it's not heard from
the ears. But it's felt. It permeates the
entire body, the entire existence of a person,
and,
and how that is
different than the creative speech of people.
So we continue
and we say that the,
the Quran
is the speech of Allah to Allah.
Again, that the speech of Allah to Allah
is a sifa. It is a,
an attribute of Allah
the effect of which is what?
The effect of which is that the person
who is affected by that attribute
knows something from the command of the Lord.
Whatever Allah wants to communicate to you,
if you have the that that
that
attribute of Allah to Allah, which is known
as
or the divine speech.
If that comes down on you, then you
will know what the what what Allah
wishes from you or he it will impart
you with some sort of understanding of him.
And so we say that the Quran is
the Kalam of Allah
and it's not created
because if it was created, it would one
day perish
nor is it a attribute of a created
thing. For if it was the attribute of
a created
thing, it would end at some point.
And this is a very important point because
many people don't speak Arabic,
and so they kind of get demotivated about
reading Quran
or understanding the Quran.
And if the Quran is a
it is a
an attribute from the attributes of Allah to
Allah, then
is there anyone who's going to be able
to completely encompass it?
No.
Just like the mercy of Allah to Allah
or any of the other sifat of Allah
to Allah, they completely overpower the creation.
Someone may receive more mercy than another.
Someone may receive like that more understanding of
the book of Allah to Allah or the
speech of Allah to Allah than another.
But everyone is equal in the sense that
what they've taken from it is not even
a drop from the ocean. And this is
a meaning that it's not something that that
just,
you know, it's fancy philosophy that we're making
up. This is a meaning that's conveyed in
the Quran itself.
Say if there was an an ocean of
ink
with which we could,
record
the words of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, meaning
the the the the speech of Allah ta'ala,
the revelation of Allah ta'ala, all of its
meanings and its subtlety, whatnot. We would finish
that ocean
and, we wouldn't finish with the meanings.
And even if we brought another ocean like
it, we would still not finish with writing
those meanings down. It comes in another,
in another place in the Quran that Allah
says
that if there were 77
oceans and every tree in the world was
was to be used as a pen, even
then you wouldn't be able to exhaust all
of those meanings.
So, you know,
a a decent tafsir you'll find in 10
volumes, 4 volumes,
certain long tafsirs are written in 30 volumes,
etcetera, etcetera. Each of them has some new
or different angle to it.
You will find that that this is from
the miracle of the Quran that that even
all of that once it's put together, there's
still more to say. There's still more to
write. There's still more to understand.
Every generation will understand something about the Quran
that the previous generation didn't understand about it.
Every single person will read it and understand
something from it or bane gain something from
it, which will be unique from what another
person gains from it, different from what another
person gains from it, even though there are
many benefits to reading the Quran that are
similar that all people will share. But the
idea is that since it is a an
attribute of Allah from amongst his attributes,
it's,
what it gives is inexhaustible.
And if you feel frustrated that, well, I
don't even understand Arabic or I don't, you
know, whatever,
so what am I gonna get out of
it? The fact of the matter is even
if a person was deaf and the Quran
was read over them,
they would still benefit from it. Why? Because
there's something that's happening more than just your
brain and your ears.
And this is something that you you we
can go go over it in great detail.
It's mentioned the hadith of the prophet
about
about certain ayat of the Quran having certain
effects on certain people, certain places, certain times.
Sicknesses are cured through the Quran.
There's a hadith of Saab been a bewakas
that he that him and the detachment of
Sahaba
whom passed by,
tribe of people who refused to give them
any,
any hospitality.
And,
after that, they,
they saw that these people somehow are
special people. So they asked, is there somebody
of you who has who knows how the
art of praying reading healing words or or
or faith healing,
because our chief is very ill and we've
tried everything and it's not working. So said
said,
he says, yes. I know some words, but
because you guys refused us,
hospitality, I'm gonna have to charge you for
it. And so, he he read the on
him and and he the chief, and he
was cured of his illness.
And they took they took the, they took
a number of sheep as payment for
for what they did. And the prophet,
you know, he approved of that. He didn't
he didn't,
he didn't upgrade or chastise him for that.
And he even asked him, how did you
know that the fatah was
has this property?
So this is something that that the the
the The the benefits of the Quran even
if you were to read them over a
person who is deaf, who doesn't even understand
Arabic. What did we say? That when the
came down on said the Musa alaihis salam,
he heard it with his
with his hands and with his feet and
with his head and with his,
his entire body,
just like you and I hear speech with
our ears.
Every cell of his being was permeated by
the meaning of the divine speech,
And that comes back to what the definition
of the Quran is as well. The Quran
is not the book that you have
sitting around. The technical word for the book
is what they call.
Right? Is
like a word meaning scroll.
Is like those scrolls that are bound up
together in a book. Right? So when you
say you don't say you're not supposed to
say, hand me the Quran over there because
you cannot hand a an attribute of of
Allah to Allah to another person.
The technical way, obviously, if you, you know,
say this to people, like, you know,
whatever brother or sister in the Masjid, say,
brother, you need to straighten your out. Okay.
Well, you know, not everybody every everybody's kind
of at a different level. I'm sure that's
not what they meant by it. You know?
But,
but the the the technical way the technically
correct way of speaking is you say hand
me the.
Right? The Quran itself is not ink on
paper nor is it noises that you make
in your throat,
nor is it noises that you hear from
m p 3 player. Rather, it is the
effect of what happens when you write that
paper down in a place
or when you recite that those words properly.
What happens is it invokes a certain effect,
and that effect that's invoked is the speech
of Allah.
That's what's uncreated. That's what the what's the
sifa of Allah. That's what the,
the,
attribute of Allah is. Right? Just like when
a person does a good deed, they invoke
the mercy of Allah. The good deed itself
is not the mercy of Allah.
It's that effect that comes with it, that
if a person if a person does a
good deed,
they invoke the mercy of Allah through that
good deed, that's what that's what, the of
Allah is. Just like that, the of Allah
is not the physical voice that you read.
Because if you say that's not created, it
doesn't make any sense.
It's not the physical writing of the Quran.
You say that's not created, it doesn't it
doesn't make sense. Obviously, it is. The ink
is created. The paper is created. The pen
is created. All of those things are created
things. Rather, it's the effect that comes from
there. That's why we
say that a person who's reciting Quran, for
example,
that that person is it's at least mustahab.
It's at least recommended for them to be
on in a state of.
They say that it is haram for a
person to be in a state of Janaba
and recite the Quran. There's some difference of
opinion regarding a woman who's in her menses.
Other than that, a a a man or
a woman who are in Janaba from after
having relations or whatnot, it's haram for them
to recite the Quran. Why? Because you are,
you are invoking that thing that that
that it should be invoked when a person
is in a clean state, you're invoking it
in a wrong state. That's why when a
person even the written copy of the Quran,
where we say that the of the Quran,
the letters of the Quran, the way that
it's written,
those are are
also they invoke the divine presence. That's why,
a person when they or the divine,
speech. That's why when a person,
touches the,
the the touches the in which the Quran
is written. The person has to be on
on. It's haram to touch it without. There
are certain exceptions, but there are exceptions. It's
important to understand the rule first before,
delving through the exceptions. This is one thing
about for for some reason about the American
mind is fascinated with the exceptions so much
that the that it it somehow loses touch
with the actual rule itself. The rule is
what? The rule is this haram to touch
the mushaf without wudu. Why? Because there's the
effect of the divine speech over there, and
it's bad to
come to it except for in a state
of purity.
And so,
that's why all of these things make sense,
and that's why all of these are in
place.
And that's why a person benefits from hearing
the Quran or from reading the Quran or
reciting the Quran. Person benefits from all of
these things even if they don't know Arabic,
and a person should be, avid to learn
how to read the Quran. A person should
be avid to learn the letters of the
you know, how to read the letters, connect
them,
all of these things. A person should be
avid to hear the recitation of the Quran
in Ramadan.
Even if they're not, even if they're not
able to understand it in the sense that
there are meanings locked inside of the Quran,
that even the greatest of the scholars and
the greatest of
will will never know. There are meanings that
that surpass any human being,
and so we just take from it what
we can. And it's a it's a blessing
from Allah to Allah. It's a
blessing that he gave this thing to us
that is very powerful and that we can
benefit from us. It's powerful beyond our own
understanding. Allah to Allah said in his book,
Right?
Verily, there has come to you a righteous
exhortation from your Lord,
and a a cure for that which is
in the hearts.
And that's not just rhetoric. That's true. There's
a to it. The cure is physical.
The cure is mental. The cure is spiritual.
You'll see this cure of the Quran again
and again, that it's been used for centuries
to treat ill people. It's been it's shown
to treat even mentally ill people.
It calms mentally ill people down. I've seen
this before time and time again. There are
people who are who suffer from severe forms
of mental disability
to the point where they cannot even speak
properly without studying. But when they recite the
Quran, there are many people who when they
recite the Quran, you wouldn't know if you
heard the
a a recording of their recitation. You wouldn't
know that they had anything wrong with them
at all whatsoever or any deficiency whatsoever.
There are spiritual, illnesses that are cured from
the Quran. And this is a a a,
this is a a
a miracle of the Quran. People should understand
where that's coming from, what that comes from.
So it's,
it's it's not a,
creation
nor is it an attribute of a created
thing. Rather, it's the eternal speech of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Even though your physical recitation or your physical
writing of it isn't, but your physical recitation
of it and your physical writing of it
is something that invokes the the the speech
of Allah to Allah, and a person will
benefit from it. A person surely benefits from
it. And this is something that I wanted
to mention also. For some reason, there is,
like, there's nowadays a a lack of, a
lack of
importance or priority given to learning how to
read the Quran.
One of the early
her father of the Quran that came to
America
relatively early.
Or sixties sometime, there was a
who came to,
America. He was very active in the work
of Tabligh as well. They say that he
was for 17 generations
on both sides of his family. They're all
the father of Quran. He came to America.
100 of people accepted Islam at his
And,
and dozens of people actually memorized the Quran
at his hands, and hundreds of people learned
how to read the Quran at his hands.
And so I met one of the brothers.
He's a older brother,
from New York City, African American brother who
learned how to read Quran from him. And
he lamented why is it that that in
those days when we became Muslim, it was
a priority for us to learn how to
read to learn how to read the Quran
well with Tajweed and all of these things,
that we would spend a significant part of
the day every day reading Quran.
Quran. And nowadays,
nowadays somebody will, forget about someone who's new
to the religion. There are people who are
born into Islam. They don't they don't spend,
they don't spend any time reading the Quran
every day.
And a person should, you know, at bare
minimum, they should read something. You can't read
an entire *. You should read half a
*. If you can't read half a *,
read, you know, a quarter. If you can't
read a quarter, read a page. If you
can't read a page, read something.
Read something every day.
It's it's something a matter of benefit.
But, unfortunately, it's something that people don't give
priority to, I guess, because it's not entertaining
or it's not, something that's, you know, engaging
kind of like a it's not like a
televangelistic
circus type affair with someone huffing and puffing
and yelling and screaming. So people say, oh,
well, this is not this is very dry.
There are many things about Islam people find
very dry and boring. They So this is
very dry and ritualistic Islam. We, we want
something that's more engaging.
Well, the fact of the matter is is
that,
you know, the quote, unquote dry things, that's
what the backbone of the deen is made
up of. Those are the fundamentals of the
deen. If a person puts in the time
and the effort with the book of Allah
to Allah, they will
see It's a hadith of the prophet that
the the the Quran is not something that
will become old the more you read it.
Rather, the more you read it, the more
you'll enjoy it, the more its beauties will
become manifest to you. There's a difference between
something that's just normal and something that's a
work of art.
There are 2 paintings. Both of them may
look really nice to,
a person at first glance,
But, you know, certain things, the more you
become familiar with it, it's like your car.
You've been driving a car. The first time
you see a car at the lot when
it's new and washed, all of them look
nice. But when you drive, you'll realize this
door sticks.
It doesn't lock with the other locks. This
window doesn't go up properly.
This panel will pop out. You have to
use it in a certain way. Otherwise, it
will there the the deficiencies of things you
learn with more more and more time that
the more and more time that goes on,
the more defeat you'll be become acquainted with
the deficiencies of things.
The exception is what? Something that's really a
masterpiece.
The thing that's really a masterpiece, you'll go
and after after years of of seeing it,
knowing it, you'll say this thing is perfect.
You'll appreciate its perfections
in a way that you couldn't have in
the first glance. That that that kind of,
enchantment that somebody has with something that's new,
that that in that enchantment, you could have
never appreciated how perfect it was. And, well,
the book of Allah is like that generation
of after generation of people have come to
appreciate that about it.
And so if you think reading it again
and again is something dry and boring, I
say, have some sabra, have some patience.
It's not going to take a whole lot
for a person to realize and understand what
the perfections of the book of Allah are.
And the person will never be acquainted with
how
truly unlike anything else it is unless a
person puts in that that time and patience.
But if a person wants to have everything,
you know, in a kind of on a
drive through time cycle,
then,
not just the Quran, they're not going to
be able to appreciate a lot of things
in the deen. A lot of things in
the deen. Give
us. I'm I'm I'm I'm not, like, talking
down to anybody. I myself am a product
of this generation. We're used to I mean,
it's getting worse with time. We're used to
watching stuff on TV and then after that,
you know, now you don't even watch TV
anymore. Now you have, like, small clips on
YouTube and you get bored and then you
go to the next thing. Instead of reading
blog posts, people are reading
140 character tweets. Soon, people will not even
have the attention span to be able to
read that anymore.
It's kind of a sign of the times.
Sitting down every day for 10 minutes, 20
minutes, 30 minutes to read the Quran, it's
going to exercise a part of the brain
that is rotting in everybody else. It will
give you an advantage, and there's so much
more than just your benefit in your deen.
It's gonna give you an advantage that your
mind will be able to focus on something
where the entire their their minds are are
are getting shot by by by just not
being able to focus on anything too long.
It has many benefits. It will cure a
person from many many ills, and it will
strengthen many parts of the mind that otherwise
are not worked out properly,
by people who ignore it.
Well,
And faith is to believe in Qadr, in
the divine predestination,
what what you enjoy from it and what
you find difficult from it, what you find
sweet from it, and what you find bitter
from it.
Is an interesting
it's an interesting
construct or interesting concept.
And the idea is this, is that you
have, like, the, kind of, 2 different forces
pulling at your understanding of the way the
universe works around you.
So instead of over complicating
it, we'll we'll make it simple. Right?
The simply simple explanation is what? You have
free will to do what you want to
do
to some degree. There's no one who will
deny that, you know. If
you're if you're,
everyday,
you know,
studying
biology,
you're not gonna end up playing basketball in
the NBA. You're gonna become a doctor. You're
gonna become a biologist or a scientist.
Why? You make certain choices, certain things happen.
Right? It's not that you make one set
of choices and another set of, outcomes happen.
On the flip side,
we have this other understanding that Allah knows
everything
that was and that is and that will
ever be, and that nothing can happen in
this universe except for through Allah powering it.
This is an understanding also that the Quran
bequeaths us. We don't say that things happen
despite Allah wanting it to happen. This is
a conception of the Christians and a conception
of the Jews
because they have they have,
you know, because of the influence of Neo
Platonic thought or of paganism or just Jahiliya
in some cases.
They have turned Allah into,
you know, like a hue just a human
being with more powers.
And that's not that's not, that's not what
we think of Allah ta'ala. We say that
everything
started from him. Everything returns to him. His
knowledge is complete. It encompasses and pervades everything
with every small detail,
and he is not contained by time and
space, rather his knowledge is perfect. It was
always perfect, and and it shall always be
perfect.
And,
as far as his motives are concerned,
the the the rule we mentioned before is
mentioned in the book of Allah Ta'ala.
He is not to be asked about why
he does what he does, but he has
the right to ask his creation why do
they do what they do.
But the idea that you can understand why
Allah Ta'ala would do what He did, does
is more preposterous than
a table
asking why the carpenter does what he does.
The table is a table. Its abilities are
so much more limited than the abilities of
the carpenter,
and the analogy of, us with Allah Ta'ala
is even weaker than the analogy of the
analogy
of the table with the carpenter.
So Allah Ta'ala knows everything that's gonna happen,
and nothing happens in this world except for
through His allowing it to happen.
Now someone might say,
well, why does Allah T'a allow sin to
happen? Are you saying that he allows murders
to happen and he allows, you know, disease
to happen and he he allows,
kufr to happen? And the fact of the
matter is, yes, he allows all of these
things to happen. Happen. It's because of our
adab with Allah Ta'ala that when we mention
Allah Ta'ala, we when we mention things that
we like, we we we we attribute them
to Allah to Allah.
And when there are things that we don't
like, we attribute them to ourselves.
This is what adab, because Allah is Allah,
and you're you know, you and I are
the slave, and the slave has adab in
front of the master.
But the reality is, even the good things
that you receive are are sometimes
not always, but sometimes linked to good things
that you did. And,
definitely bad things that happened to you are
always linked to you know, there's idea of
fafal, of grace, that Allah gives everybody
some things that they don't deserve in terms
of good. This is his system that he
set up. But he'll never give somebody something
bad that they don't they don't deserve.
And so you may say, well, how come
the prophets bad things happen to them or
diff you know, bad difficult things happen to
them?
Well, the idea is that sometimes the difficulty
you go through, it increases you in rank
or it it it does something for you,
puts you in a better position. And so
in that sense, it's not a bad thing,
although you it may feel bad to you
at the time. Later on, you'll realize that
was actually a good thing.
But the fact the fact of the matter
is nothing bad that happens to a person
that's just really that that that's really, something
negative,
except for that we bring it on ourselves.
So from one point of view, you are
in control of what happens with you.
That's a reality. Nobody denies it. On the
flip side, right, Allah ta'ala, nothing happens in
the universe except for by him, having known
it was gonna happen and having allowed it
to happen and given all of the different
parts of the of that that that happening,
you know, the different actors in that stage,
the power to be able to make it
happen.
And so the
or the, the summary of this discussion is
what? Is that a person should understand both
of the things
are true at the same time
and the how that's true at the same
time?
The messenger of Allah told
us you'll not you'll not be able to
understand it, so just leave it alone.
So this is something that somebody may say,
well, that's kind of a cop out of
an explanation.
You know, and and
it's one of those things that, the Messenger
said, listen, you don't
understand the way the universe works because part
of understanding Qadr, right, because Qadr is a
divine predestination. To understand Qadr fully and completely,
you have to understand why Allah is doing
what he does.
And that's something we said from the beginning
that that's a question that's not
answerable. You're not allowed to ask it, and
it's not answerable even if you were.
And that many people in the past were
entire Akwam of people were destroyed for asking
that question because then they'll waddle into,
trying to answer a question that they're not,
that they're not equipped to answer.
And there's there's no benefit from it. But,
you know, like I mentioned, they they they,
you know, the saidan Hasan radiallahu ta'ala Anhu,
it's reported the grandson of the messenger of
Allah
has reported that he was
asked about the the the question of divine
predestination because this was a matter of a
lot of
of of inquiry and discussion, not only amongst
Muslim philosophers,
but amongst,
philosophers of every every religion. You'll find this
discussion not only in theology. You'll even find
it in books of, like,
secular philosophy. You'll even find it in books
of science, like in books of psychology. Is
a person hardwired
determine hardwired what they call determinism
that can you look at what chemicals are
there in a in a brain and what
genes are in a brain and know exactly
what this person will do until the day
he dies or she dies. There are some
people who say you can and then there
are some people who say, no, no, no,
it's all too random. There's, you know, it
could go either way. And these are 2
different camps. This is something that it it
pervades a a number of fields of intellectual
inquiry. So, Sayedna, Al Hasan when
asked about this, he said, what I saw
from the companions of the Messenger of Allah
was that when they would do things, they
would act as if they're in complete control.
It was complete free will. But in their
hearts, they would always keep the knowledge that
nothing happens except for by Allah helping it
to happen. This is a very practical and
simple answer. There's
and simple answer. There's a lot of beauty
and hikmah in it. That our is what?
Everything happens through the will of Allah ta'ala.
I might want to go to the masjid
but if I, you know, if I if
Allah doesn't want it, it's not gonna happen.
But at the same time, when I go
about my business, I I should act as
if me wanting to go to the masjid,
me sitting in the car turning it on,
etcetera, etcetera, will take me to the masjid.
That's functionally how you how you function.
But inside your heart, you know every step
along the way, Allah is the one who's
saying, yes, you can do this. Yes, you
can do this. Yes, you can do this.
If he ever shuts that off and and
says, no. You can't. It's not gonna happen.
Yes.
Question?
Could you just repeat the?
The Khulasta is to know that a person's
free will and choices that they make in
life do have an impact on
on on on on where they ultimately
end up.
And the at the same time, everything that
happens, Allah knew it was gonna happen before
it happened, and Allah
allows it to happen. And when it happens,
it only happens through his power and through
his force.
And those two things are exist at the
same time. It's not exactly intuitive how they
can exist at the same time, but they
do exist at the same time. Both of
those things that are rationally rationally make sense,
and both of them are,
are things that we know to be true.
But how they can coexist at the same
time is becomes much more complicated. Well, what
was those 2 things again? I was writing
it. One thing is that you your decisions
you make in life have some effect on
what outcomes you have.
And the other is that
Allah has understood what would happen from before,
knows what would happen from before, allows what
happens to happen, and ultimately, it every step
along the way, while it's happening, it's only
through his his giving it, the ability to
happen that it happens.
It should see the Ahmed Mark, you had
your hand up.
I was just gonna,
you know the story of,
Hassan Ashi and everybody?
Yeah.
In regards to the question about the 3
individuals, the boy, the old person, and, the
old sinner and the old righteous person, I
think
it really, like, silences, you know, like, people
maybe can't understand how the 2
can, coexist at the same time.
Elaborate.
Yep. Yep. So
the, Jubei, you know, he he he says
to no. He he
asked Jubei
about the state of 3 people. 1 is
the the,
adult who who he was a sinner,
and the, other one was a boy who
died before he reached the age of puberty,
and the other one was an adult,
a righteous man. So Abu Hasid, he asked
him what is the fate of these 3.
And so
and so he
says, the old person, the old sinner, he's
going to *. That's for the old righteous
person. He's going to Jannah.
The small boy, he's going to Jannah also,
but he won't be
at the rank of the righteous
the righteous man.
And so,
this this this this is Zubay's answer. So
Mohasan actually, he says, well, well, how how
is how is this possible? So Gube says,
well, the reason why
the the old adult who was a righteous
man got a higher place in Genesis because
he he acquired more actions.
He he had righteous deeds, but the boy
didn't.
And so,
if
it's so then he asked to explain more.
So he says so so for example,
with the with the sinner, if he had
a if if if,
no. The boy could could ask he he
he could say to Allah that you were
unjust to me because you allowed me to
die when I was young. Right? So answer
your question. Why does Allah allow, like, bad
things to happen to people? So the boy
he could complain to Allah.
If everything is, you know, according just strictly
to our actions.
Right? He could complain to a lot that
you took me before
I reached the age of adulthood. I could
have achieved the same level in paradise as
the older person who was righteous.
But I did but but you took me.
So therefore, you are unjust to me. So,
so so then he responds, well, the old
well, the center by the same token could
say, well, how Allah, how come you didn't
take me before I reach the age of
adulthood and I ruin
myself? So ultimately, you know, it it comes
to, you know, the people both that they
have they have acquired actions, but ultimately,
it's a lost culture. And they they're working
at the same time. And only Allah knows
the reason why he allows this one,
you know,
proceedings bad deeds?
So, yeah, I I see, the I think
the the the upshot what so Abu Hassan
al Ash Ashari is a descendant of the
Sahabi Sadna Abu Musa al Ashari.
He lives maybe 200 years after the prophet
passes away.
And,
his his father dies, so he's an orphan.
His mother marries a,
a a a, very renowned of the Muertazila.
We talked about the in the previous classes,
rationalist philosophers, the heterodox group of people. They
don't adhere to the views of,
but they were still counted as Muslims.
So
his stepfather, his name was,
Abu Ali Al Jabay.
And so Jabay is,
is a sheikh of the.
And so what happens, Abu Hasan al Ashari
is his stepson,
and he reads from him and he studies
from him and is is kind of his
most promising pupil.
And, he you know, so Abu Hasan al
Ashari sees in a dream one day
that the the prophet tells him that the
are
not on the haqq, and so you should,
you should, refute them.
And so after having seen this vision, he
does this then. He kind of bust his
stepfather's chops a little bit. So one of
the principles of the Mordechaiya's
creed is that they believe that Allah has
to be just in every single case,
which
is kind of it's kind of silly from
the point of view that in the sense
that we say what?
That you Allah, our definition of justice is
whatever you whatever you judge.
Meaning, we don't have an external standard of
justice. Rather, what use what your judgments that
you give, that's what we consider to be
justice. That's our definition of what justice is.
There's no external definition of justice. So
the said, no. Justice is something akin to,
like, fairness or some sort of procedural fairness.
And so,
Abdul Hasan al Ashari, he asked, like,
said about 3 people,
you know, where's the justice in the man
who has a long life of obedience? So,
well, he was obedient and Allah gave him
Jannah for it. He says, where's the the
justice of the man who,
for the person who dies in their childhood?
And Abu Hasan says, well, maybe Allah took
him away before he could grow up and
become a kafir, before he could grow up
to be a sinner.
And then,
Abu Hasan al Shali says, well, where's the
justice where's the justice and the fairness to
the person who
has a long life full of,
full of sins. No. It's not even justice.
It's it's not even justice. They're debating. They're
debating that that Martin doesn't had another precept
that everything a lot does is for your
benefit.
He doesn't work against anybody, but he works
for your benefit. They had the idea that
he works for your benefit and and individuals,
they're the ones who screw things up for
themselves.
Rather, Allah doesn't send anyone down a a
path of harm.
And so he says, okay, well, what what
about the the the boy who dies in
his childhood? There's a significant harm that he
didn't get a chance to grow up. And
so Abu Al Jabay says that that, well,
maybe he would have grown up and become
a kafir.
He says, well, where's the where's the benefit
for how how is Allah giving benefit to
the person who is a kafir and he
has a long life? And at that point,
Abu Al Juba is stumped. He doesn't I
mean, because that's a just a bad outcome.
And this comes back to the idea that
Allah to Allah Allah to his divine predestination
that he meets out for a person,
he he has the right to meet it
out any way he he wishes
and any way he sees fit. And there
are certain people Allah created
that are going to be people of the
fire by his creation that when, you know,
before they were born, it's written in the
commandment of Allah that that person will be
a person who lives and dies by by
disbelief, and that person will be a person
who is,
The person who is,
to be,
eternally in the fire.
And so a person who
you know, a person may say, well, how
is that fair? And it does tie in.
It ties ties in directly with with the
idea of Qadr. How is that fair that
Allah predestined someone to be in the fire?
And then the other question comes up, well,
if Allah already wrote me to be a
person of the fire,
then what's the point of me doing anything?
Or if Allah already wrote that I'm gonna
be a person of Jannah, what's the point
of me, you know, spending all this time
and tiring myself out doing good deeds?
And
the the answer the answer is, first of
all, the question why why Allah does what
he does? The tried to answer it, but
there's no answer that they can give that
there's no answer that they can give that,
will
satisfactorily,
explain to people why Allah does what He
does because there's always gonna be things that
that happen in creation that will be somewhat
mysterious to a person.
They have to take it on iman that
Allah that
they have to take it on iman that
Allah does what he does, and they have
to accept what Allah does as being,
as being correct because Allah is the one
who did it. And so that's part of
being Allah is that that, you know, he
has the right of not being questioned,
and we're the slaves, which means that we
have the quality of that we have the
that he has the right to question us.
The deeper issue behind the issue,
which I feel is one of the reasons
people
need to learn not just
but they also need to have some spiritual
training,
is that there's a question there's a question
that comes up that's more important than why
Allah does what he does.
Because, again, the carpenter may do many things
that the table doesn't understand.
And it's it's not the carpenter's fault. It's
the table's problem for just being inept and
not able to understand. But the more important
question is, for, each of us as individuals,
is what is our place in all of
this? And the fact is that created 2
different types of people. He
And the fact is that
created 2 different types of people. He created
one type of person when confronted with the
Qadr of Allah the understanding that Allah divinely
predestines everything. Their
reaction,
divinely predestines everything.
Their reaction will be, well, if you already
chose,
then,
you know, I guess nothing nothing else to
do here. You know? This is like, no.
There's nothing for me to do. I'm basically
set one way or the other, so may
as well not care about it.
That's the sign of people who are going
to the fire.
There's a different type of people that when
they hear that Allah
is the one who
said all of these things,
that he is the one in in whose
hand
eventually the decision,
from the beginning and from the end, the
decision of who is saved,
who is,
a person who lives a good life in
this world, and who is a person who
lives a good life in the hereafter,
and who is a person who receives Allah
Ta'ala's
blessings and and and mercy in in this
world and the hereafter,
that person, a different thought process happens in
their head. What? The mind the mind and
heart fixate on Allah Ta'ala because they then
realize that it's only Allah who can help
you. It's only Allah who can harm you.
It's only Allah that that's worth, you know,
being worried about. That person will have this
worry, will have this concern, will ask Allah,
you
know, you're the one who can you're the
one who all of this matter comes into
his hands. You Allah, you know, I ask
you please please whatever, you know, I can
however I can ask you, however I can
humble myself in front of you, please
out of your grace and mercy, you know,
save me from that end.
Because if you look at your own abilities,
you'll say, like, yeah. Okay. Well, I guess,
Scott free, I do whatever I do and
end up where I end up. Right? That's
this one mindset. That's the mindset of Kufr.
On the flip side, a person, when they
see Allah Ta'ala's or are beholden to Allah
Ta'ala's, you know,
overwhelming,
power over his creation,
they understand that it's only through him that
they're gonna get anything.
And they they this is a spiritual state.
It's a state of the heart. It's not
I mean, it's something that all both of
these things are true at the same time.
Right? They're true at the same time. You
understand that, you know, if it's predestination
really, then you cannot do anything to escape
your faith. And you also understand that Allah
is is
is the part, both things are true. Right?
And at the same time, you understand Allah
is the only one who could save you.
In terms of
both are true, and we learned them. Right?
That's why I said it's important to, learn,
some spirituality
as well and and keep the company of
spiritual people
that the state of the people who go
into the go go to Jannah and who
are saved on the day of judgment, the
state that overwhelms them emotionally, the thing that
they're more beholden to, the part that they
find relevant to their life is the understanding
that, you Allah, you're the only one who
can help me. If you wrote that I'm
going to the fire, there's nothing for me.
You, Allah, please don't write me from the
people who are in the fire.
That's the sign of a person who's going
to Jannah. That's the sign of being a
person who Allah wrote from,
primordial pre pre eternal primordial
pre eternity
that that person will go to Jannah is
the one who has those types of feelings
in their heart. And so if you're, you
know, if you have the give give some,
you know, one of us
the being attracted to that, then we should
embrace it. It's a good sign. And, you
know, this is another thing is that we
oftentimes obsess about fearing Allah, and people say,
well, I don't you know, you should not
be so negative all the time.
Having hope in Allah's mercy and having fear
of Allah. They're like 2 sandals. 1 goes
a little bit forward and then the other
goes a little forward. They have to go
come together. There are certain times that a
person should fear Allah, and that's okay.
Having hope in Allah's mercy is also a
good deed. Having fear of Allah is also
a good deed.
Allah
says in his book,
about the people that the people of Jannah
will be sitting,
and facing each other. And they'll ask, how
did you get here? And someone will say
that we used to be
that, that we used to be people. We
used to fear Allah. Even when we sit
in our in the comfort and the security
of our own houses, we'd always have fear
of Allah.
And so from the barakah and the blessings
of that
that that state,
he he gave us his generosity, and he
protected us from the
the the heat of the, of of the
hellfire.
So,
I think,
I think that
that that's, you know, that's what we wanna
get out of this. That's
because the the whole discussion about and predestination,
it can get really messy.
And, I think functionally, that's what we wanna
get out of it. And we'll see
the kind of pieces of the puzzle that
we laid out today. They will come together
and make certain other things also later on
that are generally or classically considered to be
complicated from that makes sense with a little
bit more ease
inshallah. Question. I have one question. How can
free will exist when Allah pre created every
pre wrote everything before he's created this world?
So
when you say how can anything exist,
right, there are a number like, you know,
you have you taken physics yet? You haven't
taken physics yet. Everything is relative.
Right? Everyone sees things from
a, from a point of view or frame
of reference. And from different frames of reference,
it seems that different things are going on.
Right?
So if I throw,
a ball in a straight line,
you know, at 40 miles an hour, it
looks like the ball is moving. Right?
Well, if you're observing from a stationary observer,
it'll look like the ball is moving. If
you yourself are moving in the same direction
at 40 miles an hour, it will look
like the ball is stationary and the rest
of the world is moving. Right?
So, yes, from Allatah Al's point of view.
There is free will. No. There isn't. He's
the one doing everything.
From our point of view, yeah, it seems
like there's free will because we make decisions
and stuff happens.
Both can be true at the same time.
Do we say that the the ball is
moving
and the whole world the sorry. The ball
is stationary and the whole world is moving?
Yes. If you're also going in the same
direction at the same speed, that's what it
will look like to you.
From the point of view of from the
point of view of Allah and his his
creation,
from the ultimate point of view of Allah
Ta'ala, yes. Nobody has he created everything from
nothing, knew what they were gonna do before
they do it, and he's the one giving
them the power to do what they do.
From our point of view, we don't see
things from the from from from from the
divine point of view. We only all we
see things from is from our own point
of view. We understand Allah exists, but this
was one of the first lessons we talked
about when we, you know, when we started
this class. You can look look up the
recordings Insha'Allah. One of the first lessons we
talked about is that Allah Ta'ala,
his sifaat, meaning how he interacts with us,
we know something about that. If you disobey
him,
you know, you will incur his anger. If
you obey him, you incur his mercy. If
you, you know, if you read the Quran,
you have some of his speech. If you
make tawba, he'll forgive you. This is how
we interact with Allah
ta'ala. But as far as who Allah is
himself,
right, that's not a question that you can
answer.
It's not a question you could even understand
anyway in the first place. Right? So, yeah,
we can we can extrapolate from his point
of view, like nothing we do has any
effect whatsoever. But from our own point of
view,
you know, it's everything to us.
And so we should understand. That's again the
that the belief is what? We understand. We
say, You Allah,
you're you're the Lord. Everything happens through you.
We vouchsafe to you that that that we
admit that that that you're the one who
even if we wanted to be pious, it's
only because you let us do it that
that it happens. We admit that. But at
the same time, from our own point of
view, yeah, it's it's not, even a dog
is smart enough that if you throw a
dog a a rock at the dog, it
will chase after you. It's not gonna chase
after the rock because, you know, it knows
what's going on from that point of view.
There are a lot of things in and
a lot of things on in Islam.
They have to do with that that that
understanding which molten that you're you're you're discussing
things in. Otherwise, if somebody were to say
that, you know, if someone were to say,
well, why is it snowing outside?
Right? Someone will say, well, it's really cold
and there's press precipitation condensation, it's making the
snow come down. And another person will say,
that's shirk. Allah is making it come down.
No. So there's some people who have misunderstandings
like this. Right? It's not shirk. If you
believe the snow is only coming down because
of condensation and because of the coolness,
that is actually kufr.
Ultimately, from if you go back frame of
reference wise all the way to the origin
of things into the end of things, ultimately,
nothing happens except for because Allah makes it
happen.
Within the frame of reference, though, yes, it
does seem like this thing is happening. Now
this brings up another another question or another
issue. Right? There's a whole idea of causes
and effects in the world. There's a dis
discussion,
between even the of Islam as to whether,
cause and effect actually has anything any reality
or not.
And the best way I can explain this
is, like, do you know how, like, like,
cartoons work? Like, you have a a a
number of pictures.
Each one of them are just a little
bit different. You flip through them, and it
can you can make it look like someone's
throwing something. And, like, if you flip through
them, it looks like it's throwing.
Is anything being thrown?
No.
It looks like it. It's like an illusion.
Right?
So we say that we, you know, we
we we say that ultimately the entire even
the entire
universe that exists, it's like these frames
made, and we're experiencing
them through time.
To him, all of them are at the
you know, all of them all of the
he's not encapsulated or caged by time and
space.
It looks like because you're throwing it, it's
making the, you know, whatever the rock fly
through the air. But if you stop at
any one frame, everything is, you know, it's
not like one frame is making the other
one happen. It just looks like it. It's
an optical illusion, you know.
And I I I I guess I I
I don't wanna use that word too lightly
because the dunya is real. We don't believe
it's an illusion.
It's real. It was created for a certain
purpose. Can I say one thing?
It's free will, our illusion of our own
mind?
Yeah. I wouldn't say it's an illusion.
It has a reality to our own mind
just like it's
just just like the the, you know,
the cold and the precipitation is what causes
the snow. That's not fake. That that that's
actually happening out there. Ultimately, though, what's behind
the scenes making everything happen is Allah Ta'ala.
So I guess the the the the summary
of the lesson is just it's okay to
understand that both things are happening at the
same time. But the greater of the two
affairs is what?
What that Allah is doing it.
The fact that Allah made some system by
which he allows certain things to happen in
a certain way and he's even the one
powering those systems that seem to be doing
this, that, or the other thing, that's okay
that's okay to understand that those things exist.
We don't say that they're fake or they're
being made up or whatever. Right?
But the more important underpinning reality, underlying reality
that everything is connected with is what? That
Allah is the one doing it. Nothing happens
except for through his knowledge, with his knowledge,
by his knowledge, through his might.
Nothing happens without his permission,
from before and during and after.
Nothing happens that he doesn't he doesn't like
to happen, etcetera, etcetera. And then the rest
of it, like the little details of how
he executes those things or how his creation
perceives those things happening,
those things are those things are are it's
okay to, like, that to acknowledge that that
he has those systems by which those things
work.
Are there any other questions?
Yeah.
For any life that was created. He knew
what he was gonna create, and he knew
their final destination Mhmm. Being in general.
But,
and, with regards to where they're going to
go,
if they feel it's unjust,
they're living the proof of why they're going
to where it's going. Right. Necessarily
that, that they're going there because this,
that is definitely because it's a lost covenant.
Yeah.
But it is not unjust because they're living
the proof of what is wrong because they
have the Again, the the wheel to put
themselves there. The Sunni the Sunni the Sunni,
conception always of
justice is that it is what Allah does.
Allah doesn't owe anyone anything to anyone,
and everyone owes everything to Allah. He created
us from nothing.
We are his property.
If he trashed us completely,
that's his right because he owns us in
a complete way.
So the the issue of the issue is
Allah just or unjust is silly question, but
by definition, everything Allah does is just. In
fact, the fact that a person would think
that it's unjust as a proof against them
that they deserve the they deserve a bad
bad fate. Allahu Adam Allahu protect us from
all of us from getting what we deserve.
This is
a further lesson, but, you know, everyone enters
Jannah on the day of judgment by Allah's
grace.
Nobody will enter because they deserve it.
Even
the So we ask Allah to offer to
protect us from ever getting what we deserve
and that we ask him for his grace.
But at the same time, the the idea
that Allah somehow adjust,
it's it's like a value judgment that the
table is passing on the carpenter. It's just
it's really just silliness.