Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Aqidah Tahawiyyah Part 8 Tawhid Center MI 08212016
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The throne and the footstool
are
They are reality.
Is the name of a
the name of a
a structure and edifice in the heavens.
It's called the arsh. It's called the throne,
but it's not it's not a chair.
Rather, it is a
vast
body made out of light,
which
bounds the entire universe from all sides.
So the cosmology of Islam is what? That
there are 7 heavens and 7 earth, but
it doesn't mean that there's 7,
like, realms down in the ground. If you
keep digging, there's, like, gnomes and elves living
in the inside the earth or whatever.
Rather, heaven and earth are directions.
Heaven is this direction, and earth is this
direction. Either way you go, you'll go through
7 realms because they're all
spherical.
They're just directions. It's the same thing.
One is away from what gravity is pulling
you, and one is toward what gravity is
pulling you. But you'll cross 7 boundaries either
way.
And the size of the
or the lowest of the heavens,
the duniya and its its heaven with it
that's that we live in
is
when compared to the second heaven,
like, it comes in the hadith, like, the
size of a a ring thrown into a
vast desert.
Meaning it's it's like it's negligible.
And the size of the second one compared
to the third is like a ring thrown
into a vast desert.
All the way like that to 7.
And the size of the 7th heaven, which
encompasses all of the lower 6th, when compared
to the Arsh, is like a ring thrown
into a vast desert.
So this Arsh bound
bounds this
7 heavens on all sides,
and it is a sign for the angels
that
move through all of these realms and who
see all these things.
That
this Allah that we cannot comprehend and is
not bound by time and space.
This Allah that there's nothing like unto him.
Even the greatest of the angels,
that traverse all of these boundaries and that
have great authority and power invested in them
by
Allah
Even those angels are not able
to understand or comprehend Allah
So when they see the arsh, it's a
sign for them in the heavens that this
is a created thing, and it's so much
greater than everything else.
When they see it, then they know that
the one who created it
is beyond comprehension.
This is the point of this is the
point of the arsh. It's not a chair
in the sky,
and it's not definitely not a chair in
the sky that Allah sits on.
Rather, it's the name of this edifice. Now
the Arsh and Kursi, are they one thing?
Do they refer to the same thing? Are
there 2 different edifices that comes in a
narration that the Kursi itself is bigger than
the 7th heaven?
It's like the size of a ring thrown
into a dead into the desert, and the
arsh is bigger than the Kursi,
by the same amount.
Or are they the same things? It's a
difference of opinion amongst the.
But the the the the the the, both
of them are mentioned in the
book of Allah.
We generally think of, like, a chair
as a,
although that's not technically speaking true. Like, a
chair like this that has a back on
it that you can lean on, this is
closer to closer to what the meaning of
an arsh is.
The meaning of is something like the say
translated as a footstool, but it's, closer to
there's a piece of furniture they call an
ottoman.
You know what that is? It's like a
big big it's not just like a stool
or anything. It's a big square, and
you oftentimes put it in front of a
sofa or whatever. Right? So that's what that's
what that that's what that means in normal
language. But in the technical vocabulary vocabulary of
the of, what is it? It is
this
vast body made of light
that that that reminds the angels of Allah
and that,
that is so overwhelming in its sheer size.
It's the physically the largest of Allah Ta'ala's
creation.
Allah Ta'ala is the greatest of Allah's creation
and physical dimension, and in reality, the greatest
of Allah Ta'ala's creation is the Nabi
is much smaller than the arsh, but in
in Qadr with Allah, it's greater than it's
greater than than everything else he created put
together.
Nabi
is the greatest of Allah's creation in in
in in other than reality.
And in physical science, the greatest of Allah's
creation is what? It's the the
arsh.
Are you greater
are you greater and,
diff more difficult to create? Or the entire
heavens, the entire cosmos, the entire universe that
has all these planets and all this other
stuff in it. But a lot of time
made all of those things to make make
a human being. It's not it's not very
difficult compared to that.
And Allah is free of need from the
throne, and what is below
it? What is below it is the rest
of creation.
What is below it is the rest of
creation.
You have to understand the angels
the angels are
some of them are very great in their
in their physical
dimensions.
Sayyidina Jibril
has principally 2 jobs to Wadif
has trust entrusted him with. He's Jibril Al
Amin.
1 is to carry the the sacred wahi
from the to
the creation.
Right? So because of because of this honor
of carrying the the word of Allah ta'ala,
he occupies amongst the angels,
like the Nabi
occupies amongst people
in the sense that he is he is
like the sayid of all the angels. And
the second thing he's tasked with is
with
with the destruction of people when Allah
sends his adab and his punishment on them.
And the jibrael,
the literally, it's a Syriac compound word meaning
the brute force of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The brute might of Allah ta'ala.
And,
Nabi
when he received Iqra and he left from
the,
he saw Jibril alayhis salam on his true
form, and he filled the horizons in all
sides.
This is, like
like, huge. Like, we're talking about, like, something
that's that that that,
you know, is maybe bigger than the entire
planet.
You know, when he destroyed when he destroyed
the the plume of Lut alaihis salam, literally
pulled the city up out of the ground
into the air, flipped it over, and smashed
it back into the earth.
So that's
that's big. But still, Va'arj is something that
reminds even
even even,
an angel of that proportion,
the one who created
the one who created, this Arsh,
is beyond comprehension and is a power over
all other powers.
Allah,
he encompasses
all,
all of his creation, and he transcends it.
And he overwhelms,
he is over he overwhelms them from ever
being able to encompass him.
And we say that Allah to Allah,
took Sayidna Ibrahim alayhis salam as a friend,
and that he
make taslimi vouchsafe what the true reality of
that is to Allah
ta'ala. Obviously, what does what you know, why
is he saying this? It's because the said
Nabi Ibrahim alayhis salam and Nabi Musa alayhis
salam, they're called the the the Khalilullah and
the Khalimullah,
respectively.
Now how will somebody have a conversation with
the one who is incomprehensible?
How will someone be the friend of the
one who's incomprehensible?
Because Allah ta'ala said it, it's true.
The question of how,
because it because
to ask that question will be to seek
to comprehend something about the divinity of Allah
we say it's from the mutashabehat and we
leave it. We say it's true, and we
just say that the the modality of it
is with Allah
So I'm gonna say, well, you're saying that
we're less than, like, a virus in front
of Allah. Have you ever
tell me show me how how can you
befriend a virus?
So let's listen. Allah Ta'ala is the only
reason we say it is because he said
it. If it wasn't that he said it,
then,
you know, we wouldn't have said it ourselves.
I mean, Sayidna Musa alayhis salam is very
interesting. Right? He's the kalim of Allah. He's
the one who spoke to Allah ta'ala,
who loved to speak to Allah ta'ala.
Right? Has anyone here, like, you know,
if you imagine
in the military,
if someone asked,
what is that in your hand?
Is it
sir, a bottle of water, sir. That's it.
Done. If you, like,
yammer on much more than that, you're gonna
be doing push ups and being ridiculed in
front of everybody, and
it's not gonna be good.
So who
has more
authority over his creation than
and is,
you know, someone that people should fear more
than just, like, your superior officer in the
earth.
Musa. So what's that in your right hand,
o o Musa? It's
a He says, this is my this is
my stick,
and sometimes I use it to herd my
sheep. And there's other stuff I do with
it too, yeah, my lord. And his when
he speaks to Allah or about Allah
he speaks
a lot. And it's he gives very verbose
answers,
and he runs on. Firaun has to cut
him off, and he just like.
Firaun is saying stuff to him, and and
and everything Firaun says, Musa keeps talking about
Allah ta'ala. That's it. Right? It's it's really
interesting that you hear it in the Salat
of Tara. It's as if that's majzub is
like the word we use in in in
our tradition. Right? Means
someone who's attracted to something. Right? Is like
the word for gravity. Right?
Is somebody who, like, so,
like, absorbed and and and and and, you
know, like, the divine presence that, like, they're
not, like, oblivious to what's going on on
around them, or they seem to behave in
a way that other people might find it,
like
like like crazy. You know?
And, actually, interestingly enough, in many many,
you know, in many cultures, it just ends
up becoming, like, just a vernacular word for
crazy person. But that's not originally what it's
supposed to be. Somebody who's, like, so absorbed
in Allah that they're
they're kinda heedless of what's going on around
them. So sayinam Musa, alayhis salam, that's he's
given this this lakkab by Allah Ta'ala. This
is a special maqam Allah Ta'ala gave him
that,
you know, he he enjoys speaking to Allah
Ta'ala, and Allah Ta'ala will entertain that. It's
not considered a sign of respect. Rather, it's
something that endears him to Allah
And this is the Shafaqah and the the
sweetness of Allah with his creation that he,
you know, that he he entertains, that he
he humors that
from from the ones who love him.
And we believe in all of the angels.
Believe in the angels is part of iman.
If somebody doesn't believe in the angels, they
don't believe in
in in in deen. And we believe in
all of the prophets that Allah
sent down.
And we record all of them the status
of prophethood
and all of the books that were,
revealed, sent down by Allah upon the messengers,
and we bear witness that all of them
are on the clear truth.
So this is a technical term he's going
to,
introduce,
that we call
the people of our Qibla or the Ahlul
Qibla.
We call whoever the Ahlul Qibla are. We
call them Muslims and believers,
Muslims and mumins,
as long as they
admit to the truth of what the
Nabi came with.
And this is a general statement.
So maybe somebody is ignorant that a certain
thing is a sunnah or a certain thing
is a commandment of deen.
They're ignorant of it or they say, that's
not part of the deen, but they just
don't know or they have a wrong conception
of it. But if you ask them, do
you believe in everything the prophet
sent down? And they say, yes. So why
don't you believe in this thing? So he
didn't send it down. I don't believe he
sent it down.
Then they're wrong,
but they're not a kafir.
The exception to that is there are certain
things that are what we call
Those things that are necessarily known regarding deen.
So exempted from that is like the the
the the 5 prayers.
Exempted from that is the drinking of wine.
Exempted from that is, you know, eating pork.
There are certain that are what what we
call
And they're generally defined as those things that
even the children of the Muslims know.
And even then, there's an exception for that
for someone who is very new to Islam
or somebody who's, like, so far removed that
from from the Muslims that there's no way
they could have known.
So other than those things, which if even
if a person says, well, no. I believe
that everything the prophet
said is true, but, like, the 5 prayers
are not part part of the his message.
We don't accept that from them. Things that
are very explicitly
known, we don't accept that for the rejection.
But certain things, for example,
the prophet
commanded that,
you know,
I don't know, something with regards to some
more abstruse,
you know, legal ruling regarding trade or something
or
something like that. These types of things, if
a person doesn't know about it, we won't
make takfir on them. Rather, we'll tell them
that this is what the prophet said. This
is the hadith that that in which it
comes. This is why I don't trust the
narrators.
Okay. Well, the narrators are upright and they're
trustworthy,
so we say you're wrong
on this issue. You're dead wrong.
But we won't make tech fear of the
person. We'll give them the benefit of the
doubt.
And so when we say,
we mean
this is a technical term that means anyone
who meets the bare minimum definition of what
it means to be a Muslim.
We're not talking about those people who have
and
and
all
of this stuff.
We're talking about whatever dude, whoever
beats any bare minimum requirement of being Muslim.
Do you believe in the Quran? Yes. Do
you believe in the sunnah of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam? Yes. Do you believe,
you know, that it's far to pray 5
times a day? Yes. Do you believe pork
is haram? Like, simple basic things like that.
And then whatever their practice is or whatever
other things may be up, down, however they
that may be,
be it as as it may. This, like,
kind of largest circle in which people be
meet the bare minimum requirement of
deen. We call this group the alulqiblad.
This is based on a hadith of the
messenger of Allah
That whoever
faces our whoever prays our prayer, that when
it's time to read salat, they just they
they'll pray salat with you,
or they'll pray the same salat that you
pray at any rate.
Right? And that person,
faces our and that person
will eat from our slaughtered meat.
So that person is a Muslim. Just leave
them alone until they do something. I mean,
that doesn't mean that okay. Someone will say,
oh, kadianis do all 3 of those. Right?
How come they're Muslims?
Implicit within it is that all of the
things that that a person accepts
as. These three things are not
an exhaustive list, but these three things are
a demonstration of those things that
are. Right? So you can't just say, well,
I you know, someone prays our prayer, and
he faces our qiblah, and he eats our
slaughtered meat, but he doesn't believe that Nabi
salawahu alaihi wa sallam is a prophet at
all. Right? That doesn't make any sense now.
And that shows that these these three things
are not an exhaustive list, but they're examples
of those things are that are what?
Necessarily known things regarding the deen.
Whoever beats these minimum things, they're they're Muslim.
Don't say they're a kafir. Don't push them
away from Islam Even if their opinions are
annoying, then don't let them give the jumakhotba.
Don't put them forward to lead the prayer
when it's time to lead the prayer. Right?
But they're still Muslims, and that that deserves
some right and that has a right of
some respect from from the rest of the
Muslims and some some some even love from
the rest of the Muslims.
So we say that we call the people
of Arqibla,
Muslims and Mu'mins,
as long as they
keep admitting that everything that the messenger of
Allah
came with is true.
And, that they,
that
he's true in everything
that he said and that he
informed us about,
and that they they say it's true, and
they don't deny they don't deny it.
Meaning, not necessarily that they
every, like, granular detail they know about, but
in general, they say, well, if he said
it, it's true.
That much we'll accept from from them.
And we don't
speculate regarding Allah
The only way of knowing knowledge about Allah
is what?
It's all it's revelation. We don't speculate we
don't have speculative theology regarding Allah
and we don't argue with one another about
the deen of Allah. What does this mean?
Mira and Jidal are 2 words that are
there's some great there's some some nuance difference
between them. But, generally speaking,
for the purposes of this point, they're the
same thing. And there are 2 types of
argument,
and they they're characterized
by,
they're characterized
by a
a hardened mindset
that a person already knows what they're gonna
what what they believe,
and
they have already discounted
the possibility of anything else being true.
And
they're just arguing in order to humiliate another
person or in order to make themself,
look good or look smart.
To argue with someone, the word for for,
like, a debate.
To argue with someone,
or to debate with someone classically is considered
a valid source of gaining knowledge.
Right? So there's a word in Arabic,
Munavara means a debate where 2 people, they
they they they get all of their thoughts
in order and they present their thoughts to
one another and then they go back and
forth and investigate and quiz each other and
keep asking each other about about about their
opinions on things with the intention that they
both want to gain from each other's knowledge
and go toward the haqq.
This is permissible
for the and for the students of knowledge.
Right? So people say, well, is it alright
alright to question things in order to learn?
This is permissible for the Taliban, for the
students of knowledge,
in order to,
in order to enhance their knowledge.
This is
a good thing in general if it's done
in the right context and in the right
way.
What's not permissible,
I walk into the door,
and I already know I disagree with somebody.
And I'm just arguing with them to show
how smart I am or to show how
stupid that person is or to humiliate them
or for PR purposes or whatever.
Right? And sometimes a can turn into
that you came with one intention, you already
figured out this person in front of you
is a complete lunatic,
or you've written them off,
and then you continue
with a new intention.
That's haram, the the the the the
in order to, you know, show off or
to make a fool of somebody or to
trash them or show how good you are
or whatever, how smart you are, that's haram.
And one might ask, why is this in
a not in a in a book of
aqidah and not in a fiqh book? It's
a fiqhukum. It's not right? The reason it's
an aqidah book is the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam there's a couple of reasons. One
is that he warned the ummah regarding this
so much
that it's part of the aqidah. It's something
that comes through so many ahadith, that it's
something it's part of our belief that this
is one of the
that
beyond the point of make making your point,
you we're not we don't consider permissible to
argue with people.
Once you've made your point,
if there's any clarification or if you feel
like you need to explain something again or
whatever, you you can do that. But once
you're done, right, then you you say that's,
you know, you you're you're once you're done,
you're done. And this is why our olema,
you know, classically, for example, the fokaha,
they have differences of opinion beyond a certain
point. They would just say, okay. Well, you
have your opinion. We have our opinion.
If the difference of opinion is within a
certain circle, then that's even acceptable.
And then if your differences of opinion of
with with with somebody who who is considered
a a person of misguidance,
Once that's established, they would just let it
go. They would tell people, I don't believe
this person is on guidance. I don't know
how to say that. I don't believe
on guidance or these people. I could believe
they're misguided or
they're wrong about this issue. But to just
sit there and just keep
hacking someone down, it's bad for you spiritually,
and it's something that that that, engenders really
bad habits in a in a person. And
it's something that the prophet
said
that this is this type of jidaw to,
like, just sit there and go at each
other in this type of way and argue
and to become accustomed to arguing with us
in this type of way. This is the
first sign of of guidance having been taken
away from people.
So that's why it's being mentioned in the
book because it has to do with the
lifting of guidance, and it's something that's so
so thoroughly mentioned by the prophet
that it's not only it's not only, incumbent
on you to follow the prohibition
not to argue, but it's also
a belief that you have to hold that
this type of argument is wrong. Yes?
Can you have about secular topics like yeah.
Or even in science, you know, people have
debates about whether
this is this way or that's that way.
Those things are permissible,
but the caveat that that even then
as a as as
once you're convinced that you're right or you're
wrong or that you close the possibility
of benefiting from someone, you should then that's
that's enough. Right? But even then, the violation
of of this is not so bad.
It's it's it's it's a lesser it's a
lesser,
infraction of the deen. The problem is that
when you make when you make jidaal and
mira'a regarding matters of deen,
Allah Ta'ala will harden your heart regarding matters
of deen. If Allah Ta'ala hardens your heart
regarding matters of politics,
it's not good, but you it's not gonna
jeopardize your salvation on the day of judgment,
Insha'Allah.
Unless you try to mix your with politics.
Don't do that.
You may feel very strongly about your candidate.
Okay? That's fine,
I guess.
In this election, it means probably you should
see a psychiatrist, but
you may feel very strongly about your candidate.
That's okay. Maybe somebody wants to vote for
the candidate you hate. It's not an Akhidah
issue, and it's not an issue of dean.
You may support your candidate for dean related
reasons,
but that doesn't mean that you're automatically right.
Somebody may vote for
Hillary Clinton.
Someone may vote for Donald Trump.
Someone may vote for Jill Stein. What's the
libertarian guy? Gary something. Right? Gary Johnson.
Right? Someone may say, well, if Bernie was
running, he'd be amazing.
Someone may say, stuff for law. I'm only
gonna, you know brother Dawood Walid runs care
in Detroit. If he was running for something,
I'd vote for him, for sure. Right? And,
you know, someone might say stop for love
voting is, like, participating in a messed up
system, and I refuse to. Good. All of
the above, good for you.
Right? You may have your really reasons you're
doing what you're doing that's even related to
Dean, but that doesn't mean it is Dean.
So all these arguments,
you know, they they they there should be
a had there should be a limit in
which every argument resides. Remember we talked about
frames of reference and blah you know? It's
important to be able to, like, conceptualize scale.
That's one thing does.
These things are, like, of a a kind
of a importance that pervade the entire deed.
Right? Certain things that the scale of those
arguments is less. Right?
So, you know, the amount of conviction with
some with which someone
says that the the Arsh exists is not
the same amount of conviction that they should
say. You say, I mean, out loud in
the, you know, prayer. It's not
because
the the the circle of that discussion is
much smaller, the latter discussion. Then the circle
of this discussion about whether you wanna vote
for whatever,
you know, Jill Stein or Gary Johnson or
Donald Trump or,
Hillary Clinton or Donald Willy's or whatever, it's
a smaller
it's a smaller
circle of importance,
and your argument cannot leave the the bounds
of that smaller circle.
Other you know? And that's what that's what
we talked about yesterday. Right? We talked about
what that
to let your arguments
exceed these bounds is a sign of nifaq.
It's a sign of nifaq that you have
you have a argument that just occupies the
small sphere of your life, and you just
make it spill into everything. And then,
you know, that person's brother-in-law voted for the
other candidate. I don't wanna go to their
house anymore. I don't say salaam to them
anymore. There are there are people like this.
They're miserable people. They make other people miserable
as well.
It's not it's not a good thing.
And so he repeats,
summarizes, recapitulates
a a number of points regarding the Quran
that were alluded to from before,
that we don't argue we don't argue about
the Quran.
And when we say argue, it's the jidaal.
Right? We don't have arguments, like, we don't
have, like, these extended weird arguments regarding the
Quran where we go nuts on people,
beyond beyond what we need to in order
to learn something. We disagree with people we
disagree with, and then after that, we're done.
By the way, the Martezilah, as misguided and
crazy as they were,
in general,
most of the the overwhelming majority of the
Aleman never made a fear of them.
They said all these kind of weird issues
that they nitpick.
They're wrong about them,
and that's it.
Even though the Muertazilah, many of them made
Takfirah of the,
which is evidenced by why they they killed
so many of our and whatnot.
But all of them are not the same
in their beliefs regarding these things.
But,
the majority of our never made takfir of
the
the the the. Right? Saying the Quran is
created, it's wrong, but it's not.
Right? It's not the same as saying, like,
pork is halal.
Okay. That's pretty easy. That's a no brainer.
Right? This is something that, okay,
a person maybe just misunderstood this issue. Give
people the benefit of the doubt.
Someone might say, well, Sheikh,
if they say the Quran is created,
that means they're rejecting,
the word of Allah when he says it's
the word of Allah. Say, no. They're not
rejecting it. There's interpreting it metaphorically.
But even that, that's a problem.
Those things are all problems, but they're more
subtle and deeper problems than rejecting deen. And
so when we say that we don't make
takfir of somebody, it doesn't mean with Allah
ta'ala that person isn't a kafir.
It means legally on the hookm of the
vahir because we're commanded to give the benefit
of the doubt to people with regards to
Islam and to Kufr.
Right? It means in this world, we don't
get we don't treat them as if they're,
as if they're a kafir.
Send them yawmukhiyama. Send them to Allah ta'ala.
It's not our job to judge other people.
It's his job.
It's not our job to judge people. It's
his job. Even the judge in the court
in this dunya,
he judges a certain case. Nobody has the
right to judge a person.
Nobody has the right to judge a person
other than Allah
That's it.
And if you if you if you feel
you're judging somebody,
then you have to check yourself because you
yourself are are going to dangerous territory by
trying to irrigate something that's solely the prerogative
of Allah.
So we don't argue about the Quran, and
we bear witness that it is the speech
of the lord of the worlds that was,
brought down by the,
trusted spirit, Yani Sayyidina Jibril alaihis salam,
who taught it to the,
Salin,
the the the master of the messenger, Sayyidna
Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And it is the speech of Allah most
high.
Nothing
equals it,
from the speech of the creation.
Nothing is,
is even similar to it from the speech
of the creation. It's not it's not a
speech like the speech of the creation. Remember
we talked about that, that Sayedna Musa when
Allah spoke to him, he heard the word
of Allah to Allah with his the rest
of his body just like he heard it
with his ears. It was not
speech in the conventional sense, rather something that
pervaded his entire being.
And he says it very explicitly that we
don't we don't, give the opinion that the
Quran is created.
And we will not,
descent
from the
from the from the the the the
the so it's translated here as the majority
of the Muslims,
but the idea of of Ijma' is consent
consensus.
But it's not consensus of all and sundry.
It's not the consensus of the masses.
Rather, it's the consensus of the people of
knowledge in a certain topic.
So if all of the agree
on a certain thing, we don't we consider
that to be part of deen.
If all of the all of the, you
know, Muhaddithin agree on a certain thing, we
consider that thing to be a part of
deen. Whoever the the the people in this
ummah are of that certain certain issue, like,
if all, you know, if all of them
get together and they agree on something, that
becomes a matter of din then by
is not a democratic
it's not a democratic,
concept.
If there are if there's dissent some of
the say that if one person or one
person diss descends from something,
then that doesn't break because there has to
be somebody who can see, look, everybody else
has agreed on it.
So this is, like, 1 or 2 people,
don't harm Ajamah,
but, don't harm Ajamah having been been,
accorded.
But if if the olamah of a certain
thing, they all agree on something, then halas,
it's an it's a a proof that that
that matter is correct.
Allah
says in his book,
There are many proofs of Ijma in
the Hadith. And then we saw it says
My will not ever gather together on a
misguidance.
But people will say, oh, this narrator, that
narrator. Not because they have a problem with
the narrators, but because they don't want they
don't like the concept of Ishmael.
Okay. Well, there are places in the Quran
also where it's alluded to. Indeed,
we're the ones who sent down this this
this remembrance, and we're the ones who will
who will protect it.
Okay. Someone might say here is the Quran.
We say the Quran is not gonna be
changed. We don't say that this
the entire deen. So the sayidna Imam Shafi'i
he said he read the Quran some
number of times.
Just read it from beginning to end, beginning
to end, beginning to end, just looking for
an unambiguous proof from the Quran
that Ijma'a is actually a part of deen.
And then, he got to this ayah
that whoever whoever descends with the descends with
the prophet
and
whoever descends with the makes descent with the
prophet
After the path of guidance has been made
clear to him, meaning that this is the
messenger of Allah
salallahu alayhi salallam.
And by doing so, he follows a path
other than the path of the believers. Meaning,
what if the believers are all going down
a path? This is a sign that it's
true.
Meaning and follows a path other than the
path of the believers.
Will put that person under the authority of
whatever authority they they they they they, accept
other than the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasalam. So go ahead. That's your
thing. You go do that. And we'll roast
him in and what a horrible what a
horrible end. What a horrible fate to to
meet.
And so
if, if all the Muslims agree on something,
we don't disagree with it. Okay?
What is and he'll talk about this later
on.
But, like, you know, that's why we say
Sayna
Abu Bakr Khalifa of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
There's no ayat revealed about that in the
Quran.
Right? There is no,
there is no,
hadith
or explicit,
unambiguous commandment of the prophet
in which he appoints Sayna Abu Bakr or
anybody else for that matter as his
successor.
But because all of the believers came together
and they gave the to say, it's
a sign that it's up.
This is not a small issue, what I
just said. It's a big issue,
and we'll talk about it later. He'll include
it in the book of Aqidah in as
well.
All of the the got together and agreed
on it. Nobody has the right to disagree
afterward. Anyone who disagrees afterward,
he followed a path other than the path
of the with
regards to this issue.
And we don't consider anyone from the to
be a kafir
because of a sin. Remember we said the
Martezilah, that's what they said. They said whoever
can can commit a sin, that person doesn't
have iman in their heart. They're a kafir.
We can kill them, take their stuff, enslave
their family, children, etcetera. Right?
Which obviously not what we're into as the.
We're not into
that. So,
we don't consider a person a kafir from
the,
from this large wide group of people who
are
meet some minimum standard of of of of
being defined as a Muslim.
We don't we don't consider any of them
to be a kafir because of their sin,
as long as they don't consider that sin
to be permissible.
So someone is from the Ahlul Qibla and
the person, you know,
eats
pork.
Ask him, do you consider that to be
halal?
No.
But I like eating it,
but it's gross. I know.
That person, we don't consider them a kafir
even though that's very unseemly what they're doing,
and it's definitely a sin.
But we don't consider them to be a
kafir, as long as they don't say it's
permissible.
The reason that we'll that we'll open the
door of tech fear when they say it's
permissible because this is no longer about a
sin now. Now it's about a belief.
It's not about a false action. It becomes
about a false belief.
So we don't but we also don't say
that your sins won't harm you.
Right? There's a there's this is a bidah
that that has entered into
some
heterodox groups of the Muslims, and it's also
the bida to which the Christians have fallen
prey.
We don't say as long as you have
iman that your sins don't harm you. Why?
Like, we talked about that yesterday. This that
black spot, it grows more and more. It
will one day encompass the heart and put
a person in a compromised position
where they they will then it will be
easy for them to say a word or
to do something that will destroy their iman
altogether.
So we fear the bad effects of our
sins,
primarily because they may one day end up
becoming the reason we lose our iman.
Secondarily, because
yes.
No. That's Kufr. What if somebody says we're
worshiping I Allah Ta'ala through a source like
an idol?
That's that's kufr.
And the thing is idol worship itself,
right,
there's the idol worship of the
uneducated masses that actually think that the wood
and stone will help them.
But even amongst idolaters,
they're kind of intelligentsia.
They say, oh, no. The I the icon
or the idol is not the thing that
we worship. Rather, it helps us focus on
some greater reality or whatever.
That's
because Allah forbade it,
and to consider it permissible is. Allah forbade
it on the tongue of his messenger
and,
and and because of
that because of that, if you consider it
to be of benefit afterward, it's an akhidah
problem.
Because this is one thing the idolaters say.
They say what? They say in the Shivamandir,
we walk around the statue of Shiva 7
times. You walk around the Kaaba 7 times.
Where's the difference?
Right? Where's the difference? You you guys face
the Kaaba when you pray, and we face
our idols when we pray.
And you we say, well, we don't worship
the Kaaba. I say, well, we don't worship
the idol either. The idol is just an
icon that helps us focus on Allah
At the end of it, what we say
is that Allah sent his messengers. The messenger
is the one who said it's not permissible
to pray in front of a statue or
to use an icon to focus on Allah
to
Allah,
but he commanded that we face the qibla
when we pray.
So the aqidah is there in both of
them that the thing that you're bowing in
front of is not god.
But one is a commandment of the mursiline
and one is forbidden by the mursiline.
And there's a good reason for it. Right?
Is there any group in the is there
any heterodox group in the world that believes
that the Kaaba is a god?
From no.
But there are idol worshipers the world over
where their priests will say that, no. We
don't worship the idol. We just use it
as an icon to focus on on god
and, like, the the the regular people there.
Akida is that the stone is god.
Yes. Clarifying question.
Yes.
If somebody yeah. If somebody so
that's what we say is that that, the
question is
we don't consider a person to be outside
of the pale outside of the fold of
Islam for a sin as long as they
don't consider that sin to be permissible.
Is that only for things that are
Yes.
So we don't say that just because a
person considers a sin to be permissible
that that person is a trafficker. Rather, we
say that the door can be opened for
their techfir then.
There are many sins that that that if
a person can consider them to be permissible,
we won't we won't consider that person to
be a. This is also this is a
flip side, you know,
Has anyone heard that that there's there's 2
types of. There's
and
and then there's haram.
The difference in the
between
and between haram is haram are those sins
that you'll get you'll you'll get sin for
doing and you'll get reward for abstaining from.
And if you consider them permissible,
you're not a Muslim anymore.
Versus
is those things that if you do them,
it's a sin.
And if you abstain from them,
you receive reward. But if you consider it
permissible, we'll say you're misguided, but we won't
say you're a.
So an example of,
something like that is, like,
constantly skipping your
prayers as a habit, not praying your prayers
according to the Hanafis. It's not according to
the other schools.
Or for example,
stunning an animal before slaughtering it.
The idea is you should just slaughter it
very quickly with a sharp
knife, switch bleed painlessly.
Alright? Stunning is a sin. Why? Because first
you
stun the animal, then you kill it. If
you're just gonna kill it anyway, just kill
it one
time instead of killing it twice.
Yes. You had your hand up. Right? Yeah.
Is it a clarifying question?
Yes. I just fear that we might not
get through the material. That's why I'm gonna
I'm I'm I'm, like, kind of in, like,
repressive compression sup you know, repressive question suppression
mode. Yeah.
Go on.
Through reflecting on Allah's creation,
yeah. Through making such that in front of
Allah's creation, no.
After reflecting, that's great. You can take lessons
and take them up from all sorts of
stuff. But, yeah, I have a statue, and
I'm making sajdah in front of it, and
it's helping me focus.
Even if it is still
the fact that you think that that a
person would think that that's permissible is
kufr.
That for the the the best of people,
the people of Ihsan, from the Muslims,
we have good hope or from the believers.
We have good hope that Allah
will will forgive them
and will enter them into Jannah through his
rahma. Right? Remember we said whoever enters Jannah
ultimately enters Jannah through Rahmah, even the best
of the the people of Deen.
But we're not we're not we don't
we don't, we don't think it's we don't
say it's a done deal.
Except for for those people who who like
and for those people that the told us
that it's a done deal for them.
Alright. There there's more than 10.
10 are mentioned specifically. They'll come and they'll
be mentioned in this the later on in
this book, but there's more than that. Gave
them gave of Jannah to more people than
just
that. Except for those people who the
gave
the the good glad tidings of Jannah to,
everybody else, no matter how good they are,
we have a good hope that Allah will
forgive them and enter them into Jannah
But there's nobody where, like, no. This is
a 100% done deal regarding regarding them. And
we don't bear witness that they're that they're,
going to Jannah.
Why? Because we don't know this is the.
We only
the knowledge of the is only what Allah
tells us.
So it's haram to assume something about the
that you weren't told because the matters of
the are not learned through. They're not learned
through analogy or through rational means as we
spoke about before.
So we don't bear witness that they're in
Jannah.
And as far as the believers, whoever dies
from amongst them of people who were sinners,
We ask Allah for forgiveness,
and we fear that they're going to meet
a bad end.
But we don't say, like, these people are
going to * for
sure.
Well, Amnu al Iyasu,
Yan Gulani and Milati Milati to the Islamic
was.
So the feeling of security, like, I got
it made. I'm going to Jannah for sure.
Right?
And on the flip
side, he asked, like, oh my god. I'm
going to Jahanam for sure. There's no way
I can do anything for myself.
Both of these things have been taken away
from from the middle of
Islam. They don't exist for us. Those two
states, they don't exist for us.
And the path of the of of the
truth is between the 2 of them.
Right? So the path of Eman is the
path that the Christians have chalked for themselves.
Right? Jesus loves me. I'm saved. I'm going
to I'm going to heaven. In fact, they
use this as a selling point
for their for their missionary work.
They say they say that, wouldn't you like
to be guaranteed a place in paradise?
Guaranteed. If you accept Jesus Christ, you're guaranteed.
What guaranteed? Come on, man. Even okay. I
mean,
if one were to say that that were
true. Right? Does no Christian ever apostate?
A lot of them do. A whole lot
of them do.
You said that that person who accepted faith
in Jesus Christ,
as long as they have faith in Jesus
Christ, they're they're saved.
And you said that they they're guaranteed paradise.
What's the guarantee that they'll keep that faith
until they die? So argument doesn't even make
sense.
Obviously, we say that the faith in Jesus
Christ and the way that they're they're advocating
it is going to guarantee a person to
end them if nothing else. Right? But the
thing is that the argument doesn't keep it
doesn't keep. Why? Because people apostate from that
also. They lose it as well. So you
have to fear a little bit even in
that system. They, you know, they have to
fear apostasy. They have to fear that the
faith will be taken away from them.
If not,
then,
you know, what what's happening around us will
happen with regards to their deen, that their
churches are being emptied.
Alright. And if you think it's bad in
America right. We all went to high school,
college and stuff. Are people super practicing Christians
here? Not very much. If you think it's
bad in America, go to, like,
go to, Europe. Right? In France, there's, like,
one Catholic priest for every, like, 42 churches.
Literally, the priest is going to several churches
in a day, performing marriages, funeral, and then
get in the car, go to the next
church. They're actually having to import priests from
Africa.
Why? Because nobody wants to go under the
priesthood,
and the only people the priests are ministering
to are, like, old folks.
And
as they die, the numbers dwindle. And so
there are so many there this is a
very common scene in in neighborhoods in Europe
that you have a huge gothic cathedral
with locks on the doors because it's in
the middle of a Muslim neighborhood.
These things scared them. That's why they do,
like, all this silly stuff like you can't
work a job anymore.
Listen, bro. It's not gonna it's not gonna
bring it back. You know? The glory days
are over. It's not gonna bring it back.
You know? That's the way that's the way
time works. You know? Things change.
I'm sorry.
I'm I'm sorry for your loss that you're
mourning right now, but, like, doing stuff like
this is not gonna bring back the the
the good old days. It's not gonna make
it it's not gonna make it great again.
You know?
So at any rate but the thing is
that this this, amen,
to be like, I have it made, it
doesn't one thing is it's not true. The
other thing, it doesn't even make sense.
Even if it were true, it doesn't make
if it doesn't make sense. There's just so
many levels that it doesn't make sense.
Just like that,
Allah says. Right?
That's why it's good to have with you,
Say, yeah, Muhammad, to my slaves
that committed excess against themselves.
Meaning, people committed excess, they sinned, and they
they harm themselves through their
sin. Don't ever give up. Hope in the
mercy of
Allah Indeed, Allah forgives all sins.
Indeed, he was always the one who who
who forgave and was the one who's merciful.
So this idea that, like, oh, how could
Allah Ta'ala forgive my sins? Stuff for Allah.
You sinned and now you're gonna, like, insult
Allah to Allah. How can he forgive your
sins?
This that that's, like, very pompous. That in
and of itself is more worth worthy of
punishment than sin was in the first place.
That you
or me as a virus or bacteria
floating on a little rock in space.
Right? Think that, like, anything we could do
is gonna really, like, harm Allah Ta'ala. Right?
All of the sins put together, you know.
It's a hadith of the prophet
that that even yeah. Oh, son of Adam,
even if your sins were to go as
far as the eye can see. Right?
Dude, the eye can see like other galaxies.
If you look up in the night sky,
not everything is a star. Some of those
things are like other galaxies.
Okay? That's like light years.
And there may be some crazy, crazy person
who does something crazy and, like,
his facade or her facade will spread throughout
the cosmos like that.
Allah says what? Even if your sins were
to fill as far as the eye can
see, I would forgive them.
And it's not even a big deal for
me. I don't even care.
So this in and of itself is a,
like, you know, there's a kid that someone's
like, shit. You know, a kid that class
is great and stuff, but I'm not, like,
really a super practicing Muslim. This is, like,
a little bit like slacker akhida,
here. Okay?
It's not good. Don't, like, drink. Don't commit
zina. Don't do bad things. Don't do it.
It's not good. Even if you found yourself
one day like, oh my god. I'm a
total wreck. I did, like, all like, everything
I know that's haram. I just did it
until I was tired. If I had more
energy, I would have done it even more.
Right?
And, like, I'm, like, wasted and strung out.
Maybe Allah won't forget no.
Come on. Don't be a joker. Your sin
is nothing compared to Allah Ta'ala's raima. Don't
be a joker. Don't be don't don't be
stupid.
Okay? Go wash yourself up, you know, go
get get a coffee from somewhere.
Okay? Next time there's a prayer in the
masjid, go read 2 rakazah and make tawba
to Allah Ta'ala
and whatever things you broke or whatever money
you owe people, just
make a make a payment plan and get
on with your life. Allah
Allah Allah forgives you. Doesn't it doesn't bother
him at all. It doesn't bother him at
all. And to think that your sins are
so big, this is like a type of
takabur. This is a type of arrogance. This
is worthy of not being forgiven. So a
person should make tova from that. Stop that.
Stop doing that.
And, and and and not have this, you
know, this hopelessness. And this this hopeless is
a cheap trick of shaitan, and there's so
many
so many so many people. They're like, oh,
I've been prayed for, like, 10 years, and
I this and that. How can I go
to the Masjid and show my face in
front of Allah
like I'm on? No. Go. Show your face
in front of Allah. Go to the masjid.
Go do it. Go read 2 rakahs. It's
fine.
You know, you need to you have some
catching up to do. You're not gonna catch
up by, like,
by by by by not doing anything for
even longer amount of time.
You're gonna catch up by by doing something.
Right? So don't don't ever have that inside
of well, a sinner,
a person who has the idea that Allah,
how can he forgive my sins? If if
I did such a thing, how could he
forgive that? While while in a state of
obedience, his iman is of inferior quality than
somebody who's actually engaged in the sin, but,
like, you know, understands that this is my
shortcoming. If I asked Allah for forgiveness, he
would forgive me. K? This is not a
license to do dumb stuff, so don't don't
do it. If you're doing it right now,
stop.
It's not good. The reason it's not good
and the reason it's it's something that that
that you should be very afraid of is
because it might put you in a your
iman in a compromised position one day.
And And that's something nobody wants. Nobody wants
to jeopardize their eternal life because of, you
know, these kind of stupid things, of the
dunya.
But at the same time,
you know, this idea of, like, you know,
I fell off the horse. I don't know
if I can get on again. This is
not part of it's not a this is
not part of our our belief as Muslims.
Muslims. The the path of happiness between these
two
extremes.