Sulayman Van Ael – The Divine Names 5
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AI: Transcript ©
A'udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem, Bismillahir Rahmanir
Raheem Wasallallahu Wasallam wa baraka ala Sayyidina Muhammad
wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in Amma
ba'du, we started with our journey through the
names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
last week we spoke about the name Al
-Musawwir, Jalla wa ala.
So if you haven't listened to it entirely,
then I would advise you to do so
because I think that many important things have
been said during the talk about Al-Musawwir.
Today, bi'idhnillahi subhanahu wa ta'ala, we
want to talk about the name of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, Al-'Alim.
We want to talk about the name of
Allah Jalla wa ala, Al-'Alim.
The first thing we need to know when
we talk about the names of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is that we can call
it a principle that all the names of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala are perfect, meaning
they don't go through an evolution.
Like for example, now I know, tomorrow I
know better, and after tomorrow I know more,
then a week later I will forget, then
I will know again.
This is not the case with Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And it is also not like the knowledge
of Allah Jalla wa ala is not in
need of thinking.
It is knowing.
Knowing, thinking, contemplating is not what Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala does.
He knows at all times.
So meaning, when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says, أَحْصَىٰ كُلَّ شَيْءٍ عَدَدًا He encompasses the
number and the quantity of everything.
It means at all times without needing to
count, for example.
So we are not going to say that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is in need
of counting.
So when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
that He encompasses the numbers of everything and
all, then we need to know that this
means that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't
have to count.
Like if I were to ask you, how
many hairs do you have on your head?
You don't know.
But nevertheless, it's your head.
It's your hair.
It's your body.
But you don't know how many.
Even your eyebrows, which are few in number,
not as much as the hair on your
head.
Or your moustache, for example.
You don't know.
You need to count.
And counting it might even be impossible.
When we say that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is al-'alim, meaning that He knows, then
He doesn't have to count.
Meaning that He knows how many hair you
have on your head together with mine and
that from Nisar, divided by two, multiplied by
three.
He knows everything and all possibilities at all
times.
So when we say that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is al-'alim, we mean actually that
it is not a knowledge that has been
acquired.
It is a knowledge that was always there.
And this is why He's perfect.
So when we say the names of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala are perfect, لَا نَقْصَ
فِيهِ i.e. there are no shortcomings in
the names of Allah jalla wa ala, then
this is what we mean.
When we say Allah is the strong one,
we can't say tomorrow He will become stronger
than today because His strength is perfect.
Because that which is perfect is that which
is unlimited.
Allah's strength is an unlimited strength which can't
be described by the human tongue.
So this is one of the important things.
So we say the strength of Allah, we
don't say Allah will be stronger tomorrow than
He is today because He doesn't go through
an evolution.
His strength was always there.
When we say Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is al-Qawiyy al-Mateen, this is affirming
what we are saying.
He is the strong one, but His strength
never decreases.
You see this?
And this is why we say, for example,
there was a challenge.
100 seconds holding on to an iron bar
and you will receive $100.
You had these men with muscle and hustle
that would try to hold on for 100
seconds.
They couldn't.
You had these small little tiny skinny guys
and they would hold on for an hour.
So what I would say is, when we
say that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
perfect, then we mean that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala is perfect in every sense of
the word.
Is that clear?
So one, when we speak about the knowledge
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the first
thing we say, His knowledge was not preceded
by ignorance.
That's one.
So His knowledge was never preceded by ignorance
or by not knowing.
Two, His knowledge is all-encompassing.
That's point number two.
Meaning that there is not a thing that
He does not know and not a possibility
that He doesn't know.
He knows how your life went and how
it would have gone if you would have
made 10,000 other choices, then still He
would subhanahu wa ta'ala know what would
have happened.
And this is why we with our small
human brain, we are not allowed to say,
لَوْ أَنِّي فَعَلْتُ كَذَى وَكَذَى لَكَانَ كَذَى وَكَذَى
If I would have done such and such,
then such and such would have happened.
How do you know?
I even don't know what's going to happen
when I drive home.
I don't know.
So this is the first thing.
His knowledge was never preceded by ignorance.
Two, His knowledge is never accompanied by forgetfulness.
وَمَا كَانَ رَبُّكَ نَسِيًّا Says Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
It is not for your Lord to forget.
He does not forget.
He doesn't.
And three, His knowledge is not connected to
what we call now.
He knows what happened.
He knows what is happening.
And he knows what will happen forever and
ever and ever and ever.
You see this?
So this is what we mean when we
say Allah is Al-Alim.
But now there is a difference.
We have tangible knowledge, knowledge of something we
can touch, knowledge of something we can see,
and knowledge of meanings.
Like, awe, hope, despair.
We can't touch this.
I might be hiding a feeling that you
don't know of.
I might be smiling in front of you.
But yet in my heart, I might feel
very sad.
And you don't know.
And this is when Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala says, يَعْلَمُ السِرَّ وَأَخْفَاهَ He knows that
which is hidden and that which is even
more hidden than that which is hidden.
Meaning, the hidden things that even we don't
know about.
You see?
And this is when Isa a.s. will
come to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
He will say, تَعْلَمُ مَا فِي نَفْسِ You
know what is in me.
You know what I have.
You know what I think.
You know what I feel.
And I don't know مَا فِي نَفْسِ And
I don't know anything that you might be
concealing for me.
So this is very important.
That we know Al-Alim subhanahu wa ta
'ala is, and this is where we are
going to dig deep.
When we say that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala knows that which is even more hidden
than the secret.
He knows why you are not increasing in
spirituality, for example.
Why you are not increasing in prayers.
In good behavior.
Why you are not able to lower your
gaze.
While everything in you is saying, I want
to lower my gaze.
So you see that there are things in
life that you want.
Even things that are good.
Like I don't want to look at haram
anymore.
I don't want to listen to haram anymore.
I don't want to say anything haram anymore.
But it's stronger than you.
And you don't know where it's coming from.
Because everything in your heart is saying, I
don't want this.
And this is why the mu'min feels bad
when he sins.
When a mu'min sins, like Abdullah ibn Mas
'ud r.a said, when a munafiq sins,
it's like a fly on his nose.
And he, you know, waves it away.
It's nothing.
He says, but when a Muslim sins, a
mu'min, it's like he's sitting at the foot
of a mountain, waiting for the mountain to
collapse, to fall, to break down, to crush
upon him.
So, when we keep on sinning, and we
do not know why, because everything in us
hates it, then we have to ask him
by the name al-alim.
Then we are going to ask Allah s
.w.t by the name al-alim.
And you are going to ask him s
.w.t Ya Rabbi, I ask you that
which you know to be the reason behind
my sin, I ask you to remove it.
And this is why Allahumma astaghfiruka, I ask
you to forgive me for that which I
know of and that which I don't know
of.
Because there might be sins within me that
I do not know of because of two
reasons.
Okay?
So I might be committing sins that I
do not know of because of two reasons.
One, lack of knowledge.
Lack of ilm.
If I don't have knowledge about outward behavior,
social behavior, about fiqh of mu'amalat, buying
and selling, or just spirituality of how to
increase in hope and gratitude, I will be
sinning without knowing because I have no scale.
And this is why the lack of knowledge
is the most dangerous thing that came over
this Ummah.
Which is very it's actually very strange to
see the people that talk about knowledge increase
but the people that study decrease.
This is not normal.
Like how can people increase in talking about
religion but decrease in studying religion?
That doesn't make sense.
But this is one of the signs of
the end of times.
When the Messenger ﷺ said until there is
no scholar left فَاتَّخَذَ النَّاسُ رُؤُوسًا جُهَالًا فَاتَّخَذَ
النَّاسُ رُؤُوسًا جُهَالًا يَعْنِي رُؤَسَاتُ وَهَلَاءُ They will
take leaders that are ignorant.
Ignorant about the deen.
Ignorant about the fatwa.
Ignorant about the results of what they say
and talk about.
So he said فَسُئِلُوا فَسُئِلُوا فَأَفْتَوْا بِغَيْرَ إِلْمٌ
And they will give fatwa without knowledge.
فَضَلُوا And they are misguided themselves, وَأَضَلُوا They
will misguide others.
So one of the signs of the end
of times is that knowledge will be disappearing.
The Messenger ﷺ he made clear until jahil
will come down on the earth and knowledge
will be removed from the face of the
earth.
So I said, when we are sinning, this
is due to two reasons.
I might think I'm alright, but subhanAllah, I
can't get higher.
I want to have these tears, I want
to have these fears, I want to have
this hope, this love, this awe.
But it seems that there is a sinning
that I can't get through.
And this is because of sins.
Which sins?
One, the ones I don't know of, or
two, the ones that I do not see
because I'm not pure enough.
The purer you become, and the more you
work on your soul, the more you will
actually see that you fall short.
You see this?
Like, I always give an example of Usain
Bolt, for example.
You know Usain Bolt?
He's the quickest man on earth, ever recorded.
Running very fast.
Like, he was training for a year to
break his own world record.
What are we talking about, about this?
It's even quicker than this.
He's training one year for quicker than this.
Yes or no?
Waking up, building his life, his food, his
sleep, everything around a microsecond.
Where are our microseconds?
And when he looks back and he sees
that he has broken his record, he says,
yes, he's so happy.
And he says, how could I have been?
I was so slow before, and now I'm
so fast.
Even the difference between women running, the 100
meter, and men is less than a second.
But it's so much.
Like, when you look at it, 10.5
and 9.8. All of a sudden it
becomes a world.
But it's nothing.
It's nothing.
So if now, when Usain Bolt looks back
and says, how slow was I?
This is what they said of the Messenger
ﷺ when he said, إِنَّهُ لَيُغَانَ عَلَى قَلْبِي
Like in the Jami' of Imam Suyuti ﷺ.
Yeah, sometimes my heart is covered.
I'm going to explain the hadith.
He said, فَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ عَزَّ وَجَلَ So I
do istighfar.
And in another narration, the Prophet ﷺ said,
استغفِرُ اللَّهَ فَإِنِّي أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ وَأَتُوهُ إِلَيْهِ فِي
الْيَوْمِ مِئَةَ مَرَّةٍ In another one, سَبِعِينَ مَرَّةٍ
يَنِي أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ فَإِنِّي أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهَ وَأَتُوهُ إِلَيْهِ
Because I beg him for forgiveness 70 or
100 times a day.
Now, Imam Munawi ﷺ, in the explanation of
this hadith, in his book, Fayru Al-Qadir,
he says, how do we understand this?
Like, why should the Prophet ﷺ ask Allah
for forgiveness?
It is not because he is sinning.
It is because the state of Prophets is
always ascending.
It is always going up.
It is never going down and there is
no stagnation.
So, when they look back in the state
that they were in, they say, I didn't
give Allah his due.
I didn't give him what he deserved.
While they were giving him what he deserved,
but because the worship of Allah is eternal,
because his being is so beautiful that it
has the right to be worshipped at all
times, then we will see that our getting
to know Allah is eternal, forever.
And this is why he created paradise.
So, because, you know, getting to know him
is limitless.
So, a world that is limitless had to
be created.
You see?
So, now when the Prophet ﷺ looks back,
we say, the mu'minun, they say their faith
goes like this, up, down, up, down.
They say the angels, stagnation.
They say Iblis, only downwards.
And the Prophets, only upwards.
And this is how we should understand the
Prophet ﷺ making istighfar.
Is that clear?
So, now to come back.
The reason why we might not know or
be aware that we are sinning is because,
one, lack of knowledge.
Two, a lack of spiritual insight.
So, the more that we purify ourselves, one,
the more sins we will find within ourselves.
And two, the bigger the sins will appear
in our eyes.
Something that I say now, it's okay, it's
just a little riba.
I said, once I went to a sheikh
in Jordan.
And I had some people that wronged me.
And they really, how can I say, they
spoke very bad gossip and this and that.
So, anyway, I went to the sheikh.
And this sheikh, these same people declared the
sheikh to be kafir.
So, I went to the sheikh and I
said, yes, I'm going to empty my heart.
And I said, sheikh, I'm very sad, what
should I do?
I said, this person, and I named him
by name, was the same one that declared
the sheikh kafir.
I said, he said this, this and this
about me.
The sheikh's face turned pale.
He put literally his hand in front of
my face.
And he said, we, the people that are
in search for Allah, are not allowed to
listen to gossip.
Either you don't mention names or you get
out of my house.
This was the best lesson I ever had.
Myself, I said, but sheikh, I didn't say
this.
Sheikh, they declare you kafir.
And then I had the feeling when he
said this, that qiyama was coming down upon
my head.
Then I said, ya Rabbi, are people still
this pious today?
Yes, there are many pious people.
And you are ahlullah, you are welcomed in
Allah's house.
Wallahi, if he wouldn't have wanted you in
his house, you wouldn't be here.
وَأَنَّ الْمَسَاجِدَ لِلَّهِ The mosques are Allah's.
If he doesn't want you here, you don't
get in.
Subhanallah, subhanallah.
So now to come back.
So these things, Allah is al-'alim.
When we say al-'alim, يَعَلَمُ He knows as
sirrah wa akhfah.
That which is hidden and that which is
more hidden than that which is hidden.
And these are the things we do not
know of.
Is that clear?
So we have to ask Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala by his ilm.
Remember when we said that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala said, وَلِلَّهِ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَةُ فَادْعُوهُ بِهَا
To Allah belong the beautiful names.
And now this is amr, fi'lu amr.
Yani Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is giving
a command.
And in usul al-fiqh we say, الْأَمْرُ
يَدُلُّ عَلَى الْوُجُوبِ Meaning, when a command is
given, then it shows that it is obligatory
to do so unless there is another proof
taking it away from being obligatory to being
what?
Encouraged.
And this is not the case.
We have to ask Allah by all of
his names.
How many names did we use by Allah?
How often did we say, يَا قُدُّوسِ Why
should I say Quddus?
How often did I say, يَا خَافِدِ يَا
رَافِعِ يَا مُعِزِ يَا مُذِلِ يَا مَلْكِ الْمُلْكِ
يَا ذَلْ جَلَالِ وَالْإِكْرَامِ Some names are used
more like, رَزَّقِ رَزَّقِ رَزُقْنِ يَا غَفُورِ يَا
تَوَّابِ But the other names, how often did
we say, يَا وَدُودِ And it is exactly
when you use the correct names that you
plug your heart in the right, how do
you call that?
In the right socket.
Every name has an effect.
We can't say that there is no effect
when you pronounce or ask Allah by a
certain name.
That's not true.
Every name, immediately, when it comes from the
heart, has an effect on you.
So now it is for you to look
for the right name.
Look for example, your husband or your wife
doesn't look at you in the same way
that they used to look at you in
the first three months of marriage.
Like, oh, my husband, oh, my wife.
And all of a sudden, you come in
and nobody looks at you.
They say, can you please take out the
garbage?
It's not even salam, how are you?
No, I see your face, I think about
garbage.
So anyway, just joking.
So now, there is nothing going on.
So you say, where has it gone?
Well, did you ever ask Allah by His
name, Al-Wadud?
وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَكُم مَوَدَّةً وَرَحْمَةً You say, Ya Wadud,
I ask you to place love, once again,
between me and my wife.
Between me and my child, Ya Wadud.
You see this?
And now what are we going to do
with Al-'Alim?
Many things, but one is, Ya Rabb, that
what you know, which is the cause for
me to sin, which I don't know, please
remove this from me.
And with this name, بِإِذْنِ اللهِ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى
this will happen.
So first thing, Al-'Alim, his knowledge is never
preceded with ignorance or not knowing.
Two, his knowledge is never accompanied by forgetfulness.
وَمَا كَانَ رَبُّكَ نَسِيًا We also said, Allah
doesn't need to count to know something.
وَأَحْصَى كُلَّ شَيْءٍ عَدَدَ أَحْصَى He knows it.
Like how many, how many, I don't know,
whatever.
Whatever you can imagine, خَلَص So now Al-'Alim,
Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, also, and this is
very important, every new invention that we see
now, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala made it
very clear in the Qur'an, وَيَخْلُقُ And
He creates, مَا لَتَعْلَمُ What you do not
know yet, but how does He create it?
By inspiring the human brain.
By inspiring the human brain.
Everything you see around you, first was an
idea of someone, a dream, imagination.
Where did this imagination come from?
We call this, إِلْهَامٌ إِلَٰهِ It's a divine
inspiration.
How people all of a sudden thought, like
150 years ago, I don't know how much,
to make a plane, or to make a
car.
They were inspired.
What is it?
It is actually what Allah Subhanahu wa Ta
'ala says, وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيءٍ مِّنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلَّا
بِمَا شَاءُ They can't encompass anything of His
knowledge, apart from that which He allows them.
So when you see something new, it is
through the knowledge of Allah.
It is unveiling a part of the knowledge
of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.
Like now if we look at the body,
we look at the lungs, we look at
the heart, the way that the child has
been created, and so forth, in the womb.
When we look at this, before we didn't
know it, but it was always happening.
And it was in harmony with Allah's knowledge,
and power, and will.
And then He allowed us to witness His
knowledge, to witness His power.
Yes.
So when you, this is why we say,
the Alif Lam in the Arabic language, SubhanAllah,
has more than 10 meanings.
The Al, there is للملكية, there is للاختصاص,
للاستغراق, للاستحقاق, and so forth.
I'm not going to mention all of them.
So when we know that, and what was,
what did I say before this?
This is why we say, الحمد لله, when
we say all praise, in all forms, and
for any reason, whatever it might be, is
Allah's.
So even when I see a new car,
I praise Allah.
Why?
Because He's perfect, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala,
and He just shared with us knowledge which
was necessary, to what?
To create something.
And this is why, Allah Subhanahu wa ta
'ala says, that Allah is خير الخالقين, and
أحسن الخالقين.
He's the best of creators.
Meaning why?
He's the only creator, and the others, they
make through inspired, through being inspired by Him,
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And this is why, the greater your knowledge
becomes, the more humble you are.
And this is why Imam Sha'arani, not
Sha'arawi, Imam Sha'arani, رحمه الله عز
وجل, in his book, تنبيه المخترين, he said,
the only one that is sure, and certain,
of his ignorance, is a alim.
Because every page that he turns, seems to
be telling him, this you didn't know, that
you didn't know, this you had to learn,
this is a new detail, this is a
new alim, this is a new book.
So you will see that, a scholar is
humbled, while people without knowledge, are filled with
pride, when they talk about religion, not in
general.
You see this?
So he said, that, the only one that
is certain, of his ignorance, is the alim.
And the more you learn, the more afraid
you are to speak.
I had a sheikh, Sheikh Ali Han, in
Jordan.
He's very strong in tafsir, very strong in
qiraat, and he's a miracle, in the Arabic
language.
And subhanallah, because he knew, that there was
so much to learn, if you would talk
to him, of course not everybody, a student
of knowledge, would speak with him, and you
would commit an error.
He said, where did you find this?
He said, find what sheikh?
He said, do you have another way, of
a grammatical, you know, approach of the word,
or is the word pronounced, like this as
well?
I said sheikh, I just you know, committed
a mistake.
He said okay.
You know, because he was so humble, he
would be open, to everything.
He would ask, he would be humble.
So subhanallah, so sheikh Ali Han, he was
incredible.
He has an explanation, of al-fiyat, and
of al-ajr, a very good one as
well.
And he's very strong in tafsir, and you
will hear more about him, in a year
or 20.
Because he says, he's not ready.
Subhanallah.
Okay, so to continue is, they say that
scholars, with regards to ilm, go through three
gates.
Scholars, or people in general, go through three
gates.
The majority of people, get stuck in the
first one.
They say the first gate, of knowledge, is
pride.
Because you get in, you learn one hadith,
one ayah, one name of a sheikh, you
say, I will tell everybody.
I know everything.
Because, you know, if you have just one
book, or two books, or just a couple
of books, you read them, you say, that's
it.
Or when you Google, Google is really, who's
behind Google anyway?
Like you Google, once, I asked on my
Facebook, like, when a worm comes out of
the apple, is the worm haram or halal?
All the mashayikh, the online mashayikh, started answering.
Everything was copy and paste.
The danger with copy and paste, is that
when you Google it, it brings you immediately
to one sentence.
You don't know what preceded it, you don't
know what follows it, and you don't know
if the sheikh is actually affirming it.
He's maybe just mentioning, waqatqeem, and it has
been said, this, that, and that.
So you say, qala ibn qudama fil mughni.
Ibn Qudama, the great humbly scholar, said in
his book, al-mughni.
Or Imam al-Nawawi, in al-majmua, the
shafi'i scholar, whatever.
So, and I said, Ya Rabbi, the scholars
would be afraid to talk in the name
of religion.
Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi, rahimahullah azwajal, once he
was asked, he said, aftina feehi bi ra
'yik.
He was asked, give us a fatwa, what
is your opinion, yaani with your opinion.
And he didn't answer.
While he was a very big scholar, and
he had a lot of personal opinions that
would go against the former dharib.
And he said, akhaafu am us'ala yawm
al-qiyama, ya Ibn Hazm.
I am afraid that yawm al-qiyama, I
will be asked, oh Ibn Hazm, why did
you teach people to worship me through your
opinion.
Once somebody came to Imam Malik, and he
said, Ya Imam Malik, I want to ask
you a question about wudu.
And Imam Malik turned pale, wudu.
He said, Ya Imam Malik, innahu la sagheer.
They said, it's a small thing.
He answered, Qul kullum min indi Allahi fa
ma liha ulayhi alqawmi la yakaduna yafqawna al
-hadithan.
He said, everything is from Allah.
And so everything is big.
What is wrong with people that they don't
understand?
You see?
So when Imam Ahmed, rahimahu Allah azawajal, was
asked, like Imam al-Dhahabi, rahimahu Allah tabaraku
wa ta'ala, mentioned, if someone memorizes 100
,000 hadith, you should know that in the
first generations, when they said hadith, they didn't
mean just hadith from the Prophet a.s.
They meant Quran, ahkam al-fiqhiyya, the ahkam
that have to do with jurisprudence.
They meant the hadith of Rasulullah a.s.
They meant knowledge of the ijma', of the
consensus, of analogy, and also of the sayings
of the tabi'een and the sahaba and
the tabi'een.
So they said, if one knows 100,000
things, can he give a verdict?
He said, no.
Qalu, they said 200,000.
Of course not.
They said 300,000.
He said, no.
They said 400,000.
So he said, maybe.
They said 500,000.
He said, who was that?
This without any doubt.
Today, wallahi, the cheapest thing is talking about
knowledge.
And this is one of my, I'm in
panic, to be quite frank, when I see
that if I were to ask you, how
can you arrange this door?
You say, I have no knowledge.
I will call an architect or whatever.
If I ask you about, what's the price
of the tomatoes today?
You say, I don't know.
I didn't go to the souk.
We are shy and humbled when we have
to talk about things that we can see,
but when we talk about religion, maalish.
Do not, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has
made clear, don't say with your tongues, هذا
حلال وهذا حرام لتفتروا على الله الكذب إِنَّ
الَّذِينَ يَفْتَرُونَ عَلَى اللَّهِ الْكَذِبِ لَا يُفْلِحُونَ Do
not say with your tongues, this is halal,
that is haram.
Because eventually you will, without any doubt, lie
about Allah.
And this is why Ibn Al-Qayyim, Rahim
Allah Azawajal, when he wrote his book, and
you can say it in two ways, اعلام
الموقعين or اعلام الموقعين عن رب العالمين Which
means, like those who put a signature under
the name of Allah.
Imam Al-Shafi'i said, مَنْ أَفْتَى فَقَدْ
شَرَّع If someone says something about religion, he
has claimed that it is sharia.
And when you claim that something is sharia,
you claim that this is what Allah wants.
This is why very often you see the
first fuqaha, لَا أُحِبُهُ أَكْرَهُهُ لَا يُعْجِبُنِي They
say, I don't like it.
I'm not fond of it.
Actually, they meant it's haram.
But they were afraid to give a hukam.
Only if it was clear cut, then they
would say haram.
So haram would be a very difficult word.
Haram means if you do it, you can
be punished.
That's haram.
غَضَبُ اللَّهُ If you do this, it's the
ghadabullah.
I remember having read in the book تعظيم
الفتح of Imam Ibn Al-Jawzi رحمه الله
عز و جل with the verification of Sheikh
Hassan the mashoor, Ali Salman.
He said that one of the fuqaha gave
a fatwa.
He gave a fatwa in the mosque.
Someone came to him.
And when this man left him, he said,
oh no, it was a wrong answer.
It was a sheikh.
He said, oh no, it was a wrong
answer.
So the faqih of Baghdad at that time
stopped giving verdicts.
And he put a poster on every wall
saying a man came to me on that
day after Salatul Doha.
He asked for a fatwa.
Please come back.
It took one month and a half.
During one month and a half, he didn't
answer any questions.
He was afraid.
He said, what if this man spread my
knowledge and my knowledge was wrong?
Until yawm al qiyamah.
If you say something, Wallahi, people will pass
it on.
And you will carry it.
You will carry it.
When the people came to Abdullah ibn Umar,
ibn al-Khattab r.a, during hajj, they
kept on asking him questions, questions, questions.
And then he said, alaykum anni, leave me
alone.
He said, but you are this and that,
this person.
He said, the only thing that you want
to do is make me a bridge for
you over * so that you can walk
over my back into Jannah and that I
will end up in *.
So the people were frightened to talk.
Today, to be quite frank, Wallahi, to see
real scholars has become very, very scarce.
To find people that talk about religion, a
lot.
But people with knowledge, they, subhanallah, it became
a fashion today.
We all want to be students of knowledge.
Well, like Sheikh Saeed al-Kamali, Hafidh Abdullah
az-Zarajal said, if you don't memorize Quran,
you're not a student of knowledge.
This is the first thing.
If you can't memorize the basic text, what
are you going to do?
So just say it's not for me.
I'm just going to learn a bit.
That's it.
So like in Morocco, 70 years ago, if
someone would talk on the street about knowledge,
it would not have been approved of by
the government 100 years ago.
They would take him to the Qadian.
They would say, this man is a fattan.
This man is creating chaos.
Subhanallah.
When someone came to Imam Malik, rahimallah, and
Imam Malik didn't answer so many questions.
He said, what should I tell the people
when I go back to Baghdad?
I came all the way to Medina.
He said, ride on a horse or a
donkey and go around Baghdad and tell everybody
that Imam Malik didn't know.
The students of Imam Malik said, we have
learned from Imam Malik saying, I don't know.
Or Allahu alam.
So I say, nisful ilm.
Saying Allahu alam is the half of knowledge.
So now, Allah is al-alim.
وَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يُعْبَدُ بِالْعِلْمِ وَلَا يُعْبَدُ بِالْجَهْلِ And
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is worshipped through
knowledge, not through ignorance.
And intentions don't count when the action is
wrong.
فَمَنْ كَانَ يَرْجُ لِقَاءَ رَبِّهِ فَلْيَعْمَلْ عَمَلًا صَالِحًا
وَلَا يُشْرِكْ بِعِبَارَةِ رَبِّهِ So let the one
that wants to meet Allah in the best
of states, let him perform good actions and
have a pure niyah.
This is a free interpretation.
But this is one of the verses that
the people used to show that we need
al-amal, al-salih, which is al-amal
al-muwafiq lil-'ilm, which is deeds that are
conformed to knowledge.
And secondly, with a sincere intention.
If one of both is absent, there is
no good deed.
Qalas, finished.
Imam al-Ghazali rahim Allah, he even goes
further in his book Ihyan al-Madin fi
kitab al-salah.
He says that the scholars of the akhira,
he means the educators, the spiritual scholars.
He said there's a consensus amongst them that
a prayer without khushur is not accepted in
the akhira.
In this dunya, yes.
In this dunya, it's accepted.
What does it mean?
That the qadi will not give certain rulings
that are only applicable upon people that pray.
So here the only thing is, if someone
prays, qalas.
Things that have to do with marriage and
other things, inheritance, between Muslims.
But he says in the akhira, the Prophet,
peace be upon him, very clearly said, laysa
lil-mar'i min salatihi, someone will only
have from his prayer what he remembers.
Is that clear?
Okay.
So Allah is al-'alim.
So one of the things we are going
to ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
to grant us knowledge.
Okay.
To grant us knowledge.
And knowledge, or Islamic knowledge, has always been
through memorization.
Like Imam Ibn al-Jazari, rahimahullah azawajal, said
in his tayyibat al-nashr, he says, wa
ba'du fa inna al-insana laysa yashrufu illa
bima yahfadhu huwa ya'rifu Someone will not
be honored but by that which he knows
and memorizes.
Memorization.
We are the ummah of memorization.
And now we are the ummah of appization.
App.
All on apps.
And when you take away the phone, you
take away the brain.
Scholars, they have a book in front of
them to read from, and they explain it
from their heads.
If we live in a time where people,
or a lot of people that talk about
religion, aren't capable of talking without something in
front of them, this is wrong.
Either we go for it, we make it,
but we don't fake it.
And this is what is happening today.
So the Messenger ﷺ said, like in the
Sunnah of Abu Dawood and others, that one
day people will come and they will be
subhanAllah.
The Prophet ﷺ said that there will be
youngsters that talk about the general affairs of
religion.
He called them ruwaybiba.
Ruwaybiba.
People without knowledge, deep knowledge, vast knowledge, talking
about big things.
And this is what we have to stay
away from.
Okay, so in brief, you see that I'm
talking about knowledge a lot, right?
Because I think it's necessary for us as
a ummah to study again.
Because knowledge is dying.
Wallahi, knowledge is dying.
When I see a poster on Facebook, Sisters
Tafseer Night, cupcakes included.
Tafseer was the last thing, the last thing
that scholars would do.
Tafseer is the end of the end of
the end of the end of the end.
Not just because it's Allah's word, but because
you are in need of every other knowledge.
Of morphology, of grammar, of art of speech,
of the fundamentals of fiqh and hadith, of
seerah, of everything you can imagine yourself.
And now let us have tafseer night.
Oh yeah, that's good.
SubhanAllah.
You know, I think I have read about
70 tafseer.
And that's not enough.
Every tafseer you read is different.
Every tafseer you find that one little tiny
thing that adds up to the puzzle.
And subhanAllah, and you can't get enough.
Once I had a dream, and I'm not
going to mention the names of the scholars.
And I saw three scholars.
And they were very strong in Quran, like
they're from the past.
They were so strong.
And I asked them, if Allah would bring
you back to the dunya, what do you
regret most?
And each one of them said that I
haven't invested more time in tafseer.
They all wrote tafseer.
They said that I haven't invested more time
in tafseer.
So now with what are you going to
do tafseer?
When you ask people that come to you
say, brother, I want to give you sincere
advice for Allah.
Once, two years ago, I had a khutbah
in, I think it was somewhere in Birmingham.
And they say the holy, what holy state
of Birmingham, or how do we call it?
I don't know.
So anyway, so I went there, and I
gave a khutbah.
And then there was a man that came
to me, mashaAllah, dressed very nicely, according to
the sunnah, everything.
He said, brother.
I said, yes.
I need to give you advice.
I said, no problem.
I said, please do.
He said, you invite towards the sunnah, but
you, but you, you destroy it.
I said, why?
He said, because during your khutbah, you made
dua, and you said, Allahumma salli wa sallim
wa barik ala Muhammad alaihi salam.
He said, I didn't find barik in the
Qur'an and the sunnah when it comes
down to the salah over the messenger.
I said, look, in places where there is
a dua, a specific dua, that has been
said, I will stick to the wording of
the Prophet alaihi salam.
But in a general dua, that has not
been specified, I can do what I want.
He said, this is too much of a
philosophy.
This is too much philosophy.
I said, it's not philosophy.
This is usul fiqh.
I said, we can sit together, and we
go over the usul, and...
He said, no.
He said, second.
He said, when you read, walad dhalim, he
said, your count was five and a half
instead of six.
I said, look, I can be mistaken.
But I said, if one thing I'm sure
of, it's my qiraat.
Alhamdulillah, I finished my ten qiraat, and my
fourteen, and inshallah I have ijazah in it,
so I don't doubt my shaykh who gave
me my ijazah, and I have ijazah from
more than one shaykh.
So anyway, and he said, no, it was
five and a half.
I said, maybe.
Yes, I'm a human.
I'm a human, I make mistakes.
Then he took, like, a big book, said,
look at my ijazah.
I said, why are you showing me this?
So that you would believe me.
I said, barakallahu feekum, brother.
I really love you, for Allah's sake.
And then, subhanAllah, he made a mistake in
the Arabic language.
Then I just went off.
So I had another one coming to me
as well.
He spoke to me, he was giving me
advice, and then he went, he went and
he said to a girl, he said, kayfal
halakoo.
He made, like, five mistakes.
I said, how can you give advice and
not know the language of the Qur'an?
So anyway, we, when we want to study
our religion, we really need to go for
it.
And we need people.
We need women and we need men to
be teachers.
We really need this.
And this is like a cry for help.
Like, the people that are doing it are
over their heads in dawah and teaching.
So, please, if you feel that you want
to be a part of that, then inshaAllah
we can talk later on, inshaAllah.
Okay, bismillah.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is al-'alim,
as I said.
And the beauty of Him being al-'alim is
that He does not punish us according to
His knowledge of what we are going to
do in the future.
So, He does not punish us, punish the
people in harmony with what He knows that
they will do.
Like, if I do tawbah now, as we
said before, I repent now, say, Wallahi ya
Rabbi, never again.
He knows I will do it again.
But nevertheless, He will forgive.
Because He judges us according to what we
are, not according to what He knows what
we will do.
Otherwise, we would all have been destroyed.
And the beauty between two sins is, like,
I promise that I won't sin, and I
will sin again, and He knows this.
But after my repentance, while I'm heading for
the new sin, which I even don't know
of, He takes care of me, and He
shows me love.
And He shows me His presence.
And He bestows His blessings upon me.
While He knows that I'm about to sin
in a year, or a month, or a
week.
This is so beautiful.
So, His knowledge is also the knowledge of
how we were created, and how weak we
are, and how tempted we are.
And if it were not for that knowledge,
we would have been destroyed.
And this is why Allah Subhanahu wa ta
'ala, He's Al-Haleem in His ilm.
So, He's Alimun Haleem.
Alimun Haleem.
And Shaykh Ahmed Zarruq, may Allah have mercy
on him, the Manic scholar, he said in
his explanation of Hizbul Bahr, of Imam Abu
Hassan Al-Shadili, may Allah have mercy on
him, and Zarruq was a very big Manic
scholar, he said, Al-Haleem is the one
who is not pushed by his anger to
punish.
So, meaning, Al-Haleem is the one that
has every right to be angry.
Every right to punish.
Every right to destroy, but he doesn't do
it.
You see?
So, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, being the
Alim, He already knows where we are heading
for.
And this is very often an issue that
people don't understand.
It's like, if Allah knows everything, then why
do we need this life?
Why doesn't He just put us in *
or in Paradise?
*, Paradise.
Well, they say, like Imam Al-Hakami, may
Allah have mercy on him, said in his
Surah Al-Wasul, لِكَيْ لَيَكُونَ لِلنَّاسِ عَلَى اللَّهِ
حُجَّ بَلْ لِلَّهِ أَعْلَى حُجَّ عَزَّ وَجْهَلٌ Meaning,
so that there wouldn't be an argument.
Like, we wouldn't feel wronged.
We would know, this is the result of
what we have lived.
And what we should know is that everyone
amongst us has made a choice.
When Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala took us
out of the back of Adam Alayhi Salaam,
He took all the souls in front of
Him.
All of us were in front of Allah,
without any exception.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions this, that
He took every soul out of Adam that
would exist until the Day of Judgment.
فَأَشْهَدَهُمْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ So He made them testify
against them.
يعني, if they would be lying, it would
be against them.
أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ And He said, Am I not
your Lord?
And everybody said, Balaam.
Everybody.
You said in front of Allah, yes.
And in harmony with the strength of your
yes, you will be stronger in your faith
and you are weaker.
But now, what made me stronger or weaker
in my yes?
Because everybody was shown a way to paradise
and a way to *.
That is where you made your choice.
And now to be quite frank, even if
I would tell people now, you know, until
you're 50, you can live the way you
like.
On a road, every 5 kilometers, you have
a hotel, 5 stars.
Everything's paid for.
A hotel, 5 stars.
You have, you know, everywhere you go, there's
a Halal beach.
And you can drink what you like, eat
what you want.
Every 500 kilometers, you have a Bentley or
a Rolls Royce Phantom or a Bugatti.
Whatever you like, everything is there.
You will never be sick.
There is no violence, no animals, nothing.
During 20 years, this is your path.
But at the end, you will be poor.
You will have nothing.
At the end, you will be poor in
a small house, full with moisture.
You say moisture, you say?
Yeah.
I got to know this in England.
So, moisture.
So, and then you show them the second
way.
Look.
Or you can go 20 years on a
road.
There is nothing 20 years long but dates
and water.
There are wild animals.
And there are minus one star hotels with
fleas and lice.
So, anyway.
So, really terrible situation.
20 years.
The other one, 20 years, good road.
And at the end, you have a palace.
Wallahi, a lot of people will say, I
want it now.
A lot of people say, just standing in
front of the road, looking at these wild
dogs and pumas and anacondas and, you know,
minus one star hotels.
You're going to say like, I'm not doing
this.
Yes, but at the end, you will be
happy.
I am not doing this.
I believe it.
But I can't.
And the other one will say, no, I
want it now.
The other one will say, no, I will
be patient.
Aqal.
They use their mind.
Say, no, I will be patient 20 years
and then I get to that final destination,
a palace.
And this is what Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala showed us.
Wahadaynahu al-majdayn.
Says Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in Surah
al-Balad.
We showed him the both ways, the path.
And that also refers to the path in
the akhira.
And you were standing, and if you die
as a Muslim, you made the choice for
that difficult road.
But in harmony with how much you wanted
the other one, you will be stronger or
weak.
You see this?
Because you were a bit, and you feel
this sometimes.
All of a sudden, it's more to the
dunya.
What am I doing?
And that was your choice.
So subhanAllah, we were all in front of
Allah jalla wa ala.
We made our choices there and then.
Allah.
And then Allah sent the Prophets to remind
us of our promise.
To remind us that we gave a covenant,
that we told Allah that we would be
good and follow the right way.
Anyway, so Allah is Al-Ali.
So when we go to paradise or go
to *, may Allah protect us all.
Then, it's so that we would have an
argument for ourselves.
And this is why the people, when they
enter the hellfire, they won't say like, I
didn't deserve this.
What's happening?
No.
Allah jalla wa ala in Surah 39, Az
-Zumar, He makes very clear that they will
say, the moment they enter hellfire, وَلَكِنْ حَقَّتْ
كَلِمَةُ الْعَذَابِ عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ The punishment is justified
for those who ignored and denied Allah.
They won't feel that they are wrong.
There's one thing that the people in *
won't have.
And that is that they are certain of
the divine justice.
They won't blame God ever, which they did
here.
They know now that He exists.
And this is what makes it difficult for
them because they're not allowed to look at
His beauty.
إِنَّهُمْ عَنْ رَبِّهِمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ لَمَحْجُوبُونَ Allah jalla wa
ala in Surah Al-Mutafi'in, He says,
that day they will be, what?
Veiled from their Lord.
And this is the biggest punishment.
Exactly that being close to Allah is the
biggest reward of the people of paradise, the
biggest punishment of the people in * is
not just the physical pain.
It's being veiled from the one now they
know that exists.
That makes it the غضب الله, the anger
of Allah on the people of * is
their biggest punishment.
And Allah being content with the inhabitants of
paradise is the biggest, what?
Joy.
And this is why Allah, and that's the
last thing I want to say, is that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the
Qur'an, لِلَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا الْحُسْنَةُ وَزِيَادًا For those
who do good, there is paradise and more.
What is more?
Being close to Allah.
Better than all these castles of silver and
gold and diamond.
Are you going to compare creation to creator?
Abadan.
Like if Allah would be angry, which can't
be, if Allah would be angry with the
people of paradise, they wouldn't rejoice.
It's His divine love.
He's saying, سَلَامٌ قَوْلًا مِنْ رَبِّ الرَّحِيمِ That
He will say, سَلَامٌ Allah will say, سَلَامٌ
to the people of paradise.
So it is the divine nearness.
It is the divine love and contentment that
we will rejoice in with our souls before
rejoicing in paradise with our bodies.
That's the biggest thing.
So Al-'Alim subhanahu wa ta'ala, as you
see, it's a very large name.
It's a very beautiful name.
So what are we going to do with
this name?
One, we are going to ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala by His beautiful names to
show us our shortcomings so that we can
see them and can get rid of them.
Two, we are going to ask Allah, when
you don't grasp anything, something that you are
studying, ask Allah.
Allah sometimes says, I don't understand this.
Ibn Sina, he read 40 books before understanding
something.
40 different books.
He said, and then my opening came.
And the Fathullah.
So now ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to grant you knowledge and insight.
But before you do something, and that's for
next time, Al-Istikharah, where you ask Allah
to make a choice on your behalf.
That's Istikharah.
Istikharah means that you ask Allah to choose
on your behalf and that you have no
feeling.
You say, Rabb, it's for you.
Okay?
So we are going to talk about Istikharah
next time in the light of the name
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Al-'Alim.
I ask Allah to make this beneficial.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
grant us deep knowledge.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
grant us love for the Prophet ﷺ and
to make us love him more than we
love ourselves.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
protect our families and the poor people and
the oppressed in the whole wide world.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
give ease to everybody who's suffering and to
cure all the sick.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
bring an end to the war on the
world, in this world.
Ameen.
Wa sallahu alayhi wa sallam.
Mubarak ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa alaihi wa sallam.
Wa alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin.