Suhaib Webb – Uqud alJum’an of Sheikh alIslam, Selim alBishri (Lesson Four)
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Subhanak
Assalamu alaikum, Warahmatullahi
wabarakatuh. Welcome back to our reading of Uqur
Juman
of, Sheikh al Islam
Salim,
Arbishri,
Rahim And
he says,
What he's talking about now is from those
obligations that we have to
know
generally and believe in generally about Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala is qiyamuhu
bi nafsi.
That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is completely independent
and that means
without an exception.
You and I,
we
exist because of an innumerable number of things,
and sometimes I ask my students write down,
like, the word for this in Arabic is,
I live be. The word be in Arabic.
Like, I live be cause. That's what I
like to use in English. I live be
because. What is the cause that causes you
to be? So the be cause.
So when I teach young people, I ask
them, what are your be causes? What are
your be causes?
Right. So family, parents,
emotional support, financial support, oxygen.
Right. You get into kind of universal ideas
and even the particulars that sustain us.
So I live be.
I exist be.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala He exists
because of Himself.
The name for this in the Quran is
al Samadi al Samad
Allahu samad, samadhiyah.
So we say, alakiam
binafs.
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala
Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala is 'Hay Qayyum.'
The Ever Living and the One that causes
all things to be established and to happen
and who is self established.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the 6th
chapter of the Quran,
He provides food but he's not fed.
And this is the crux, another crux of
Islamic,
the Islamic understanding of God.
That Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
does not need
because when something needs, then that's a sign
of weakness.
And weakness
is intrinsic to the created world, the material
world, so therefore it cannot be God.
So he says,
the meaning
He does not need
anything
that allows him to be established.
Because as we mentioned earlier his existence
is an obligation
and his existence
does not accept non existence or weakness
or anything of that nature.
And he does not need something to be.
Because,
when we need something that means that we
required something to be created for us, so
that would also imply that we're not the
creator.
You see something here? So the
the effect that all of us need from
one another. That's why the word in every
qaum, people in the Quran is from
to stand.
Because we as a species have to work
together to allow our existence to stand. SubhanAllah.
It's very powerful.
It's something to think about for those of
you involved in organizing or activism.
Then he says, and
the proof for this,
That as we talked about before Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala is the one that brought everything
into existence, of course, except himself, he existed
and always existed, he was not brought into
existence.
Farayah kunsifah.
So therefore we do not describe Allah Subhanu
wa Ta'ala like a part of something
or
as having a hand or as
having some kind of quality that can be
divided into parts.
Nor does he need anything else. The idea
of the word here, maybe understanding it to
mean like an attribute. What it means is
here that divide it into parts to the
point that
one part needs another part to exist.
Hazalayim
kinyan
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the Quran,
this is really a very powerful verse of
the Quran.
Short of Fateh verse 15.
After 'Azubillahi minashaytan Rajeem he says,
oh humanity,
You are impoverished to Allah, and Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
is the autonomous,
the one who is worthy of praise.
He said the 6th
thing that we believe about God, and this
is what makes us different than I hear
this mistake sometimes by activists and inter interfaith
workers.
And, you know, I understand
you're trying to build coalition and you're trying
to
create some kind of relationship, but they're also
honest relationships also have to be honest in
where they don't align.
And so when I hear Muslims say we
all believe in the same God, it's not
necessarily true.
Our conception of God as taught to us
by our scripture and by our prophet
is very different than any other religion.
And here's an example,
waminhaalwahdaniyah,
oneness.
So you hear people say, Christians will say
God is 1.
Right?
God is 1.
Biimaanaanahulatakathuraa
fizatiha ta'ala
So the first, and here's the differences, we
don't believe that Allah's
essence,
His transcendent
reality
that only He knows
can be divided into parts.
Right? It can be divided into parts. There's
not there's there's not more than one.
So when people say, like, God is a
trinity, that
runs counter to the idea of oneness within
Islam.
We have to be very, very careful
that as a community, and this happens a
lot in translation,
and I've made this mistake quite a bit
myself,
that because of our own,
if you will, cultural toolbox,
which is oftentimes
aligned
with the terms of our epic and our
era and our language and the people that
we're around and the the dominant religion of
where we may reside.
Or even secular and atheist ideas that are
pumping
nomenclature
in different ways and even heathenry,
right, through popular culture.
The less informed I am of
religious nomenclature,
then I'm apt to supplement
that religious nomenclature with one of those 4
nomenclatures.
So here's an example. People say, God is
1, and we say, yeah, we all believe
God is 1.
You Need to be careful there.
You know, we believe God is really 1.
And the first is that we do not
believe that
Allah is divided into parts.
We don't believe that Allah's attributes
are divided. Say he's 1 in his essence
and his attributes.
And there is no partner with God in
his actions. So three areas when we say
we mean Allah's oneness
in his
transcendent
being, Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Number 2, in his attributes
like forgiveness,
punishment, justice.
And number 3, in his actions.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so we differ,
in particular with Christianity,
on a number of these issues with Hinduism.
Right? On a number of these issues, we
should be able to talk about this in
a way that's honest so we can create
real relationships. Real relationships are only based on
making each other feel good. Because it's usually
the Muslim that capitulates
in the settings I've seen, but real relationships
are based on this is what I believe,
this is what you believe, we differ.
That's your Deen, this is my Deen. Then
he says,
As I said earlier, so the essence,
the transcendent reality of God is not divided
or constructed of many parts.
Nor is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala described like
can he be measured
or can he be rendered into an image.
And there's nothing similar to him
in his reality. So when he says
That
means the following. Number 1, that we say
God is like 1 of 3.
Like Christianity,
la'a. God is 1.
The second is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is not like cannot be measured or contained
or rendered into an image.
And
then finally nothing is similar to him.
Allahu Akbar.
Wasifatuhu
laysat mutakathiraaminawinwahit.
This is very important and we also believe
about
the attributes of Allah
forgiveness,
love,
punishing,
the merciful,
the punisher,
the loving,
that
there's not more than 1.
So there's not like multiple
powers that are operating
in concert with one another.
So I say like Allah has 2 powers.
Or 2 wheels.
And so on and so forth.
And nobody has any attribute which is like
God. So you and I may know, but
our knowledge is not like God's knowledge. Our
knowledge is deficient. Our knowledge is
restricted to the realm of creation
in the material world. You and I don't
even know what's going on across the street.
Right? So, and in fact, if you look
at technology, one of the the goals of
technology
humanity,
our basic knowledge.
And and and no one can do anything
without Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's permission.
And no one shares
within the actions of God. So we don't
believe that for example prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi
wa sallam is going to forgive us or,
Satan Isa, Jesus is going to forgive us
or anything of that nature.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala fa inna hoo layaafir
rozluva ilaha and the prophet said
that no one can forgive except Allah, God
Almighty.
One time,
this Christian
brother that used to work on my job,
he got into argument with me.
And I said to him, if Jesus was
god, who did he pray to?
Did he have 2 hearings?
Right? One that was, like, a material form
of hearing, and the other was a transient
form of form of hearing, and they worked
in concert to one another, like who did
he pray to? And he was like, man
I don't have an answer for that bro.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala fa'aarulima
yurid.
Nothing can act without Allah's permission and there
are no actions that can override
Allah nor does anything share in his actions.
As the Quran says,
in surthood verse number 100 and
7, fa'alullima
yurit. Allah does whatever He wants to do.
Sifa mobalaga.
If you understand Arabic it means like the
super doer.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in *
Safat,
verse 96,
'Ollahu khalaqum
wa ma'atamalu Allah created you in everything you
do.
So there's no way to share in his
actions. No one can
repel his actions.
And all of our actions, good and evil,
happiness and sadness, rich and poor,
are from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Wal daleelu alayhi, the Shaykh he says in
the proof of this, an nahu nahu lauthaaddadalila'authaaddadatisifatu.
Aukanaliraylihi
fe'l. So now he brings in all through
these ideas of oneness
in essence,
oneness
in attributes,
oneness in actions.
Lhasuraatamaynu
wa tadefor,
meaning there will be chaos.
That you would have something prohibiting and something
pushing back at the same time, there will
be complete chaos.
Then there will be no outcomes.
There will be no impact because it will
be chaos.
Then he quotes the verse
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in surat Anbiya,
verse number 22.
If there was more than one God then
there would be,
if there was other gods along with Allah
then there would be corruption.
But glorified be Allah the Lord of the
ash from whatever they
ascribe to him Subhanahu wa ta'ala. As we
say,
As I said earlier is that if we
saw Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala was divided into
different parts, then those parts would rely on
one another, there would be a need.
So it would not be aqa'im binafs.
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So ask Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
wanyu Nawwurqulu manabil iman. As you can see
this is kind of a different approach, a
little bit different.
Look at Tawhid from a perspective that really
equips us,
of course, to be able to kinda translate
what I'm saying now in into ways that
can work with the people around us and
to open their eyes.