Suhaib Webb – Uqud alJum’an of Sheikh alIslam, Selim alBishri (lesson Two) God In Islam
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Assalamu
alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi
wabarakatuh welcome back to now our reading of
the book Uqurul Juman
by Sheikha Islam Salim al Bishri
Al Madiki Al Azhari Rahimohu
Tala.
Sheikh Salim al Bishri dies
13/35
after Hijri, and this book is really important
for those of you taking courses with Mia
Swiss because it's going to start to scale
some of the terminology and ideas and methods
that are going to build on greater things
that are around the corner. Alhamdulillah Insha'Allah as
far as your studies of theology go.
Another reason why this text is important is
going to introduce you to Usul ad Din.
Usul ad Din is the kind of normative
mainstream
title used for the study of 3 important
things. Number 1, ilahiet,
right, which deals with God, godhood if you
will. Right? Number 2, Anubuwet,
prophethood.
And number 3, Assemayat,
Assemayat
are those things that you have to hear,
meaning it has to come through revelation
either from the Quran
or from the Sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam. So now as we move through
Al Aqidah Tawhidia of Sheikh Ahmed al Dardir,
as we read the masses creed of Sheikh
Imam Ahmed al Marzukri,
Now we're moving on to this text and
slowly starting to build on vocabulary and ideas.
And my goal again is I believe in
a drip process of learning. I don't I
don't believe that learning is an event.
Learning is a process and it takes time.
It has to kind of age if you
will in a graceful way. So Alhamdulillah, I
think you're really gonna like it. The third
important reason that we wanna study this text
is that it's going to
offer you a different approach,
to what you've seen when studying Tawhid
an approach that was adopted by the mainstream
Sunni community up until around 75 years ago
until it was flooded with a different approach.
And I think what you'll like about this
approach, especially if you live around non Muslims,
it's going to engage in a set of
arguments that make people think,
And it almost kind of like prepares them
for the Quran. Because you and I, I
grew up around non Muslims. I accepted Islam
and had non Muslim family members. And I
know when I would quote Islam sacred texts,
they were like, I don't believe in it.
So then I would have to find other
tools in the toolbox, if you will.
This is the way of the prophets.
We find, for example, in Surat and A'am,
when Sayna Ibrahim, he saw the stars, he
saw the moon, he saw saw saw the
sun, and he used those as a means,
as an instrument to make his people think.
And Saydna Imam al Razi Fakhruddin al Razi
in his tasir Kabir has an incredible
discussion on this issue
which is fantastic
in talking about these different methods.
So, a sheikh Salim,
Bishri
is going to use this approach in this
text. So you can kind of take his
arguments and perhaps
reformat them or regurgitate them in ways that
are best for the people around you.
So
he says the research or the study of
godhood in Islam, and for those of you
who watch this and aren't Muslim,
this will really make clear to you,
how Islam is very different in its conception
and understanding
and beliefs in God.
He says
We ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to make
his knowledge,
knowledge of the Sheikh beneficial to us,
in this life and the next.
Whenever you read a classical text and a
scholar is saying it means pay attention.
Means you must know.
You must know. Right?
Means something super important. In fact, there should
be a a colon here in English if
you're gonna translate it. And that way it's
like, woah, something serious is going down.
That indeed
Allah the transcendent the blessed
that Allah his existence
is an obligation.
Obligation from the point of Sharia,
we are commanded to believe in Allah.
Oh, you believe, believe
in Allah,
but also
right, from the perspective of the of of
logic.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's existence is also
a necessity.
Right? It's impossible to believe that there's no
creator.
Meaning that Allah
his existence
is self sustaining.
He doesn't need anything to exist.
He doesn't
require any conditions
nor does he,
you know rely on anything
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And so this is the
argument
that all matter that we know requires something
to exist, whether it's oxygen, whether it's gravity,
right, whether it's it's, you know traveling through
space, whatever exists
it relies on something to exist.
And in fact we as human beings we
rely on numerous things Our blood pressure, for
example, the oxygen that we breathe,
our organs functioning correctly.
And some of that is by choice
and some of that is beyond our own
control to remind us that we are not
in complete control of everything. SubhanAllah.
That's why Allah
says
look into yourself,
don't you perceive something?
So here's this argument
made by the scholars of Kalam.
Because
everything that exists
is not self
existent,
not relying on itself. It relies on something
else, and the argument of Islam is that
that reliance
to exist
and
that existence
comes from Allah,
comes from the creator,
and that creator cannot be like the material
world.
It's a very very important thing.
Allah says in the Quran
in Sururad
verse number 16
Allah
Allah has created all things.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the 25th
chapter of the Quran
verse number 2
he has created everything and decreed for it
a measure
He says in the proof for this and
he's going to now after quote the Quran
he's going to move on now to like
a logical argument for this.
That all things that exist,
all things that exist,
their existence is probable.
What does it mean by moenkin? It means
that they have a beginning and they have
an end. It's not something which is consistent.
It's not something that's always there. You can
accept the fact that one day I won't
exist. I can accept the fact that one
day you won't exist.
So that means
subhanAllah,
that
we are created
and we are going to perish
and this is the case of all matter
so therefore there's something beyond all matter that
has created matter. This is his argument.
So he says that
the evidence for this is that all things
in existence
are
probable in their existence.
Meaning,
as I said earlier,
Right? We're going to pass on.
In the Quran, everything will perish.
And also there was a time we didn't
exist, so our existence is limited.
You can also also understand
that
everything in the material world, its existence
is limited.
So therefore something
created us.
Something caused us to come into place, into
being.
It's not possible I created myself, I know
that.
Did they create themselves?
Were they created from nothing or did they
create themselves?
Sheikh says, that's very clear.
We have no business in any of this.
In fact, we don't even really know when
we don't know when we're gonna die.
SubhanAllah
And also,
we are not,
self reliant because we are actually made of
different parts as as I alluded to earlier.
We need different things to function and to
live
internally, meaning in our own
bodies,
hearts, and minds,
and also
around us. For example, like love, nourishment.
People taught us how to walk, how to
talk,
to change our clothes,
who cleaned us.
So
we are impoverished,
while Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
self subservant,
self
created. He doesn't need anything, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Then he says
Meaning that we
do not have
like true true authority
and true utility
and true ownership of actions.
As as I said earlier,
that the one that causes all things to
happen and all things to change and all
things to occur
is not us.
It's not the material world.
So therefore, the one
who did all this does not have the
attributes or qualities
of anything
that we know of. The qualities of that
will be divine, subhanAllah.
The qualities of that will be transcendent,
subhanAllah.
The qualities of that are beyond anything
that we can imagine or see in the
material world,
and now you can understand why Islam
is so
strict against idolatry
and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the
Quran
There's nothing like Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
So this kind of argument, the syllogism, and
I don't want to talk about syllogism now,
that's a kind of an ancient style of
argumentation,
but the fact
through this argument is that creation
cannot create itself. So, therefore, whatever created it
is beyond creation because we know we exist.
That's a proof. That's a Dalil.
And the proof of our existence
also
contains
the fact that we did not create that
existence.
So therefore
something brought us into being
from the perspective and the belief of Islam
that is Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and coming
out of this is that nothing
in the material world
is like God and God is like nothing
in the material world
and this is going to take us into
our major
argument with Christianity
and with any forms of idolatry.
Then the sheikh he says,
and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is described
meaning that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is described
in his book and through the words of
the prophet and the prophets
with attributes which are beyond time,
which are transcendent
and are
incredibly beautiful and sublime.
And then he begins to break down what
are called
the foundational qualities that we as Muslims believe
about God, these 20 important attributes
or qualities.
The first he says
the first is he exist and we kind
of already talked about that a second ago
He introduces a term called hadith and hadith
means something which is temporary that's why when
you speak it's called hadith it has a
beginning and an end.
Hadith also means something in the material world
that has a beginning and end like I'm
hadith you're hadith. An accident is called haditha
because it doesn't last forever,
it's something that just kind of comes and
goes.
We believe that everything except Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is hadith.
Sayedna Imam Ahmad Arudardir
he says
in Al Kharida
Adam.
That Huduth is the fact that we existed
after we didn't exist. Allah says in the
Quran
Right the Quran says there was a time
when you didn't exist.
So something brought you into existence,
into existence.
So he says the Sheikh
Exactly. That everything else is temporary
and its existence
is
right has a limit to it
so therefore we have to have something that
brought us into existence
The second quality is that Allah has no
beginning
meaning he has no starting point
because a starting point is a measurement and
a measurement is a physical quality and a
physical quality is the quality of the material
world and Allahu Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is beyond that.
SubhanAllah.
Allah.
As I just said the Shaykh he says
in the evidence for this
is that
if
Allah had a beginning he would be hadith
he would be temporary
and if he was temporary he couldn't be
the object
of true worship whose existence is obligatory
because he has a beginning and an end,
and if that's the case
then he's like creation again you see this
doesn't make any sense so he says
Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala has no ending
meaning that
his existence just that it has no beginning,
it has no ending. That's what we mean
by wajibulwujud.
And a hadith
alwujud.
I exist but my existence is Mumkin Al
Wujood maybe maybe not.
Allah is
Quran Quran says he has no beginning and
no ending
subhanahu
wa ta'ala and again a fundamental
difference between us and Christianity
is to say that God died,
that God was born,
that God walked on earth, that God breathed,
that he had a son.
These type of qualities are the qualities of
the material world which is temporary.
But in Islam
God is beyond
all of that.
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Because when you start to apply
the qualities of the material world
to what is perceived as God,
whatever those qualities are will be used to
invoke supremacy and superiority
amongst the material world.
So
the Tawhid of Islam
if accepted and understood correctly
should create this vertical understanding of humanity
and our common
subhanAllah relation
is not through our DNA,
not through our color, not through our nation,
not through our tribe.
Our common ancestry is that we are
that Allah created us
and that as the Quran says
that the
differences
in our languages
and in our hues and tones are all
a sign of Allah's rahmah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So subtle idolatry
appears an explicit idolatry in many different forms,
but always
is rooted in the fact that someone is
trying to apply
a material
understanding
to
Allah
to
God.
Meaning that he has no ending.
Allahu Akbar.
The shayhi says and the evidence for this
is that if it was possible that Allah
would experience a'udhubillah,
death or non existence,
Then he would be subjugated to someone else's
rule
because someone decreed that he would die,
or someone decreed that he wouldn't exist
so therefore he's not the sole controller of
the universe.
For us this is impossible.
And the same thing applies if he was
subjected to gravity. If he walked
and was subjected to needing food or shelter
from the sun or rain or a place,
it's impossible for us to believe.
As one lady told me one time, she
was an evangelical Christian and she read a
book I translated years ago by Sheikh Ahmed
Dardier in theology on Godhood and Islam and
she said we Christians we worship Jesus
but you guys you guys worship God. And
then she said did I just say that?
I said yes you did.
The 4th
Allah is
in opposition to all temporary things to all
creation
and all creation is in opposition to him.
What are you Safoo?
And I want especially Christians
and people who may worship, you know, idols
to listen to this very carefully.
The sheikh, he says that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala is an opposition to all created things
which means
that nothing is like him in any way
shape or form
So therefore Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala doesn't have
a body
nor as he described
like as having the attributes of a of
a body
here particularly a human body.
Is not described as being in a direction
or in a
place,
or restricted to a time or era,
he has no physical form,
and no physical measurement,
and no physical shape,
he's not described as being big, or small
or tall or short
or with like a distance and like a
horizontal space
as being like deep or inside something.
The nesheikh he says
in summarizing and kind of encapsulating all this,
he mentions a very beautiful axiom in theology.
Also this axiom I heard from Sheikh Habesh,
meaning
anything you can imagine
even in your mind
lies in opposition of that.
And this really is what encapsulates and brings
together
this idea that he's in opposition to creation,
creation is opposition to him, they're not like
one another in any way shape or form.
Whether it's partially
or completely,
whether it's tashbih or tamthil,
no.
There's a reason that the verse uses the
indefinite article.
In no way she performed.
Nothing
absolutely is like him and he is not
like creation.
Subhanahu wa ta'ala, so a sheikh he says
to that
It's
It's a really nice axiom you should memorize
that the knowledge of to toheed
is is to affirm the existence of something
but which is not like any other existence.
Nor do we dismiss
any
of the attributes
by which Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has described himself.