Who is Allah – Understanding Allah’s Names and Attributes #19

Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam, ala Ashraf al anbiya wa mousseline, Naveen Allah. But what

are they after the Salah was good to see? A lot of Marlon that'd be my inverno in fact, that'd be my identity. Was it an admin? Yeah, Robin on me.

So we've reached

a pair of names shake up reserve, brother, happy the whole law in his book about understanding of laws, beautiful and excellent names, as Shahid, l, rocky Eva. These two names have similar meanings, or at least kind of have a similar theme. And so they are together in the next chapter of the book. And both of them have to do with witnessing, with testimony with watchfulness, the fact that Allah Spano Tata

is aware, but with a specific, immediate, direct type of awareness, right?

If you think about if you were to make an analogy with how you or I might be aware of something, there's a variety of ways, okay.

For example, you might be aware of the fact that China exists as a nation, right? Maybe you've seen maps, maybe you've seen a documentary or something like that.

Okay. But is that awareness like somebody who was born in China and raised in China and spent most of their lives in China maybe even studies, Chinese history, something like that.

Those two types of awareness are not equal.

One is a much more indirect remotes type of awareness, and the second is a much more immediate and intimate awareness. So when a loss found two other names himself a Shaheed an adoptee, we were talking about that immediate type of witness and awareness. Right? This is something that

has complete awareness. Right? There's nothing that escapes that awareness. And so it wouldn't be sufficient to just describe the laws level of awareness as the aware right now, a shahid, the one who witnesses,

right. This is the difference when we differentiate between these types of awareness when it comes to say, for example, a court of law where we have one person who hears about a crime was committed, the other person directly witnessed it. All right. In the former case, that person's testimony is not considered testimony, really, it's hearsay, whereas the second person's testimony is considered enough to be proof to establish the fact that there was indeed a crime. So Allah is a Shaheed he's the witness, he bears testimony, he testifies as to everything that goes on in the creation. And he is a multipe, the one who is watching over the one who is the overseer, watchful over creation.

So both of these names have to do with witnessing, watching overseeing, but there is a difference between them a slight difference, just like many of the other names have lost pounds on auto that share a similar theme.

They are differentiated by their degree of specificity. Okay, how specific one is or general one is just like before we had that Allah is Amin, the All Knowing, and Elsevier, we all informed and we talked about how an AI meme was all encompassing was very general. It includes everything that is open and apparent and everything that is hidden.

Whereas l hubiera. is a little bit more specifically, it deals with things that require investigation or require being informed about. Right so there's two different levels of knowledge. One of them is incorporated or encompassed in the other. But we have a similar sort of relationship going on here. As Shaheed, the witness, or the one who witnesses all is a very general type of testimony or direct OB

servation Right?

Yes, exactly like seeing what happened. And then being able to see the hidden intentions of the person making the action. Yes. So no, Mashallah. So we have a very good example of that, where we have an internal dimension and an external dimension. Right. So as Shahid

incorporates both of those things, okay? Let's say you mess up, you make a mistake, this happens all the time. Oh, especially happens with our words, right? You might say something, and you might really put your foot in your mouth, as we say, you might intend to say something nice. And the other party for whatever reason, maybe they had a bad day or maybe it means something different to them, there might be a cultural breakdown. They get offended at the thing that you said to them. When you didn't intend anything bad. Well, Allah is a shaheed. Okay, he witnesses,

both the external dimension of what you did, if it affected somebody else negatively or positively. But he also is witness to your intention, the internal dimension of what's going on.

This is we see how now this links up with Allah as being al Hakim.

Right, and Al Hakim, the most adjust, right and the most wise

because anybody who's an outside observer, would be limited into what we were able to see like Armando brought the alarm who said, we judge people in Islamic law according to the apparent things, right? So if someone is just you know,

committing some sort of sin and public and egregious sin, right, and it has all the kinds of conditions like they're not doing it out of necessity, they're not unaware of what they're doing, right, they know better. Then Islamic law is kind of activated on that person, because they're doing it with full knowledge, there's no excuses, etc, etc.

Whereas with a laws, perception or a laws, awareness, it goes much beyond that, which is why there might be certain things that we're punished for in this life that we're forgiven for in the afterlife, that might be actually things that we've gone through that raise our status in the afterlife, anybody who's ever been accused of wrongdoing

wrongfully, or have been gossiped about, right they did something that was innocence. We have examples of this from the, from the Sunnah, like Aisha, well, the Allahu anha, with the if, with the slander against her, right all this little circumstantial evidence and then people who had attended evil started this lie against her a law is a Shaheen. Write a law sees the circumstantial evidence that other people are looking at connecting the dots and coming up with their conspiracy theory.

And he also sees what really went on, what were the true intentions going on, behind everything. So knowing that a loss patata is a shahid makes us hope for his justice and His mercy. Right every single time we've done something with good intentions, and even if we've screwed it up,

and other people have even blamed us for it, we expect and have good hope that our last panel Tata is going to reward us for it, because he has a shahid he witnesses both the external dimension and the internal dimension

how is it that Allah Azza shaheed? Right this also links up with other names that belong to a law such as a simian such as llcu, such as an army. So we have these other things that indicate Allah's

testimony or his witness of everything in the creation, the fact that Allah sees everything. The fact that Allah here is everything. The fact that Allah knows everything results in

the fact that Allah is Aware or witnesses everything. Right. And we've mentioned many times before, but the vast majority of sin

among people who generally believe is due to forgetting these things, right. We're not necessarily afflicted with a crisis of faith in sha Allah, as much as we our are temporarily distracted from the reality of things. Okay.

And when we're, you know, doing things that we shouldn't quite be doing, whether we think we think we're going to get away with something, something that's convenient for us, but hurt somebody else, whether it might be cutting corners at work that might be not giving your all in a relationship, whether it's you know, being cold towards somebody who really could use, you know, a caring, interaction

all of these sorts of things.

Allah's found Tada

when we forget that he is witnessed to everything,

we can kind of let ourselves get away with these things. It comes back to the example that I gave him one of the hook those this year about the person who speeds write a lot of people speed tons of people, you know, violate the speed limit. And if I'm going to have full disclosure, yeah. Okay, once in a while I do as well, I should stop for a while. But you know, sometimes you don't pay attention as carefully as you should. Why? Why it all has to do with the excess, the expectation whether you're going to get caught or not.

Right, if you know that, no offense to the police officer, but if the police officers probably, you know, getting coffee somewhere, this roads not very heavily traveled, or this roads not very heavily policed.

Or that you know, the police usually let you get away with like four or five miles per hour above the speed limit, then you're going to take that four or five miles per hour above this below. Right, many people will at least,

and the places and times in which you allow yourself to exceed the limits as places and times where you don't expect to be held to account.

Right.

So

all of that flows from a knowledge that the witness of the police is imperfect. The sight and the hearing and the knowledge of the police is imperfect. Sometimes they're on duty, sometimes they're off duty, sometimes they're here, sometimes they're there. Allah subhanaw taala is the Shaheed he's the witness, he sees everything. He knows everything. He hears everything.

And so the only thing that can get us to sin due to forgetfulness, once we've believed is temporarily losing sight of this fact.

And as we've said in many lessons, what's the cure? What's the solution to not forgetting?

Before we commit a sin, it's a hiccup. It's remembering a loss specifically remembering His names. Right? Rockman rocky Eve a Shaheed alarming. You remember a loss palates oughta frequently and you won't forget that he's watching. You won't forget that he's witnessing everything you won't forget that he knows. And this is both going to keep you straight so that you don't transgress the limits. Right? And it's also going to give you hope, because you know that he sees you're going to stop and this is one of the you see how everything's related. A log gives people peace. If they really believe how, how does the law give people peace and tranquility. When people realize that Allah is a

Shaheed that he witnesses everything.

If you register the fact that Allah witnesses everything, guess what that means that you're seeking less validation from the creation, okay?

You need people to recognize you and your qualities or your praiseworthy attributes less. You need people to recognize the good things that you do or your talents less because you know that Allah is the One who is witnessing those things, and rewarding them

so all of that comes back to Allah's name, a Shaheed asked for a roughy by the overseer, the watchful however we want to translate it. It's tied in with this concept of Medaka which is something like watchfulness,

right?

I used to say that the Moroccan in the university in Medina was like the

He's like one of the staff that walks the hallways and make sure that the teachers are there and make sure that the students are in their classrooms and not loitering in the hallways, right. And this is a Moroccan, somebody who's an overseer or a watcher. This sort of thing.

Off the bat is less often used in the poor as only used three times. And it means something very, very similar to Ushahidi.

but it's a little bit more specific, just like a hobby is more specific than Arlene

Rottie job

refers specifically to the witness of those things which are hidden.

Okay, so whereas as Shahid was talking about witnessing both that which is apparent, and that which is hidden, and our theme has to do with the things that are primarily hidden away,

such as your true intentions, such as who's really the wrong person,

in a relationship, in a political situation,

right, such as the person who is truly pious, not the person who has the white fold, and the pen and the lapel and all these things. Not saying that that means that they're not pious, but those are the trappings those are, that's the exterior shell.

As for the people who are truly pious about even those, the one who is witnessing what's going on in your heart, and in your mind,

just as if

you're witnessing anything that's done in broad daylight right in front of you.

Similar things are achieved by recognizing that Allah subhanho wa Taala is a rocky Okay, both trusts, and release and liberation and relinquishment, when it comes to our expectations of the dunya. Because we know that the creation does not have this aspect or quality there, the creation, you will not find a recipe but among the creation,

okay, there's no individual, no matter how pious no matter how just that's going to see everything. It's going to witness everything. And therefore, is going to be perfectly just even the prophets of Allah, whatever send them who was educated in some of the things that are from the unseen.

Said, when they were two people arguing outside of his door, and he left to arbitrate between them, he said, Listen,

I may make mistakes in my judgment, some of you might be more

eloquent

than others. And so I might be right or I might be wrong in my judgment. And then he warned people he said, If I ruled in your favor, mistakenly and you take what I rule for you then watch out

because you will pay for it when it comes to the afterlife. The prophets always said I'm would never have to explain such a thing or give such a disclaimer. If he the best of creation. The most pious worshipper of Allah had anything like a laws quality of Rafi.

But no his knowledge was limited.

Because he was humid.

And so last time, it's a hot

or I should say, and so the problem is, like I said, I'm entertain this possibility and warned the Companions about this possibility

being watched,

and we've discussed this also in this class and other classes and on the flip those

being known.

Having your actions

under a microscope,

so to speak,

is a fundamental

foundation, Cornerstone essential elements of all true morality.

Of all true morality.

Without accountability,

flawless accountability, perfect accountability. Without it. There is no morality.

Yes, this is something that we, as people of faith have to put our foot down about in a time where people

think that it sounds appealing

to say things like,

it doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you're a good person.

Right and by good person, what we kind of mean vaguely ambiguously

As somebody who treats other people kindly somebody who doesn't go out of their way to harm other people,

right? We have to ask ourselves this question, is this sufficient? Is this attitude or belief adequate to produce

morality to produce accountability between people. And upon further examination, we have to conclude that no, it certainly is not sufficient.

Because if we go back to our example of the person who speeds transgressors, the speed limit.

The majority of people,

if they are convinced that they likely will not be caught,

they will transgress the limits.

Most people, the only thing holding them back from stomping on someone's rights, taking what doesn't belong to them,

is because they don't believe they're going to get caught. And if this doesn't hold true for times of peace and prosperity, then it certainly holds true in times of want and hardship.

We see that people whose morality is based off of such flimsy ideas,

lose their moral compass, in times of trial.

Whereas if you subject yourself

to a system of morality that is outside of view, to accountability, that is perfect. It's not based in this world. It's not predicated upon the International Criminal Court are the United Nations tracking you down and holding you accountable. It's not predicated upon the US Supreme Court or the height or the parliament in in the UK, ruling against you, or the policeman finding you it's not predicated on anything that's worldly that could potentially fail.

But rather, it's predicated upon a creator who sees and witnesses every single thing that you do and think, and that this reckoning is going to certainly happen after you die and had been resurrected.

That can produce lasting real moral accountability that can make people act right. Even when it's against their self interest, even when they don't think that they're going to get caught even in times of hardship,

and depravity.

The next chapter that we have is somewhat large, we'll see how much we can get through

the safe feet of Allah he puts together for names

of a lost power to Allah and Mohammed,

Al Masri.

Elmo, Pete

and Alessia

will take these one by one, and then we'll see why he decided to lump them together.

In the first place.

The first of these names as Elmo Haman, a lost power to other names himself Elmo Haman in one place in the Koran.

The eye at the end, towards the end of swords that hush up

Elmo Haman, the one roughly we can translate it as the one who perceives that which is hidden.

So you can see how it has a similar connotation to both of Rocky

and a Shaheed

Allah subhanaw taala he also names the Koran.

He doesn't name it, Elmo HeyMy but he says more Haman and Ali.

When he's discussing in Surah tallinna EDA, the relationship between the revelations that previously were sent down before the Koran

and the Koran that is now being sent down what's the relationship between the two?

Allah Spano Tata says that he made the Quran more hey Meenan

upon the the Torah and the NG that whatever Allah has power to Allah gave to Jesus or a surah

or Moses Alehissalaam. The Koran is more Haman

upon it or over it.

Okay?

Which is really interesting, because we see the same elements of Allah's name in this phraseology, okay. The core N

testifies to what is true, and what is false

in the books that remain among people that claim to be the Torah and the Bible.

Okay? So if you were to take the Torah or the Bible by itself,

you would not be able to see, to give our earlier example the interior internal reality, you see the external reality, you see a claim that these things are communicated faithfully and truthfully from the prophets of old.

But you cannot necessarily by yourself penetrate with insight into the reality of that claim. Do these books actually represent what was given to ISA to Jesus on a Sadat or to Moses? So then Allah gives us the Koran and he says that the Quran is more Haman and Adi is that the core n is the witness that knows this true secret reality, or we should say, testifies to this internal inner reality.

That's right.

So what we find

that is in the Bible, and the Torah that is contradicted by the Koran, we know with certainty that it is false. Either it's an honest mistake, or either it's

a deliberate slander, invention.

And similarly, the things that were communicated in the Bible and the Torah, at least what we call the Bible and the Torah today,

then if they are affirmed by the court, and then we know with certainty that the Koran has affirmed

their truthfulness, like the virgin birth, like the sanctity of marry,

like the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, and mercy

like the fact that Jesus is going to come again

all of these things are true and they are true in the Bible. And they have been affirmed by the Quran because the Quran is bohemian and it it is the witness

that testifies to the internal reality of those things.

It exposes to us what was hidden from us

mafia

Allah calls himself a mafia

can be translated as the all encompassing. Okay, a helper a high up is like a wall. Okay, in Arabic. So a wall, what does it do? It surrounds something. Okay.

So, an ape is literally the one that surrounds or the one that envelops or encompasses.

Now, someone could wonder well, what type of surrounding or encompassing are we talking about here?

If you review

all of the instances in which Allah uses this name,

it is a parents that Allah is talking about something specific or more specific than meets the eye at first.

It is apparent that Allah is talking about encompassing things with his awareness and knowledge. Allahu Moshe tone will carefully Allah is all encompassing, or surrounds.

Those who deny faith doesn't mean that a loss of how to oughta is physically all around them.

Know, we have to interpret from the context that these names are used. That means that a law surrounds them with other attributes that he has already communicated to us such as his knowledge, such as his testimony or witness, such as his awareness, his hearing, his sight,

his ability, his power,

and all these sorts of things.

And someone could ask, Well, isn't that isn't that reinterpreting the Koran in a metaphoric way?

Isn't that

reinterpreting the Koran in a blameworthy way? Isn't that we in?

What would you say to such a person?

Someone said, Wait a second. You said that we have to believe in the apparent meanings that a law says about his names? Well, you just got rid of the apparent meaning and

went to something that's more specific than that. Why? What's your justification for doing so?

See if anybody has an answer.

Okay, the human capacity of understanding these names as a limited while last fall into auto has no limits.

Okay, someone sends in if we took the literal meaning.

It would then follow the thinking of a law being everywhere.

And the law is above that. Okay.

Very good. So we had in a previous class, we can take our best guests, but the most comprehensive meeting is with a lost pounds odd. Well, of course, that's true. All right. Anything that's in our knowledge we have to qualify it with with a law knows best, no doubt.

But

one of the things is that okay, there's two things going on here. One of them

is that it has to jive with everything else that Allah's Palin's, Allah told us, correct.

So we can't have the fact that Allah is Allah, Allah, Allah Ali. And what's our URL which we discussed in a class earlier on the Most High? We talked about all of the evidence that shows that the Companions understood this literally

in the sense that

Allah

is above the creation.

Right, the fact that the prophets Allah La Jolla, Salam ascended during La slotland Mirage that Allah describes the Koran and all revelation as coming down right as a last month out describing the angels as ascending to him,

Nottage

and so on and so forth we brought probably 10 or more evidences that show that this is how the Companions understood this

this name the most Hi So now if we're going to say

that Allah's Hans Ana is literally surrounds everything,

does that contradict the laws name the most Hi?

Yes, it would seem to contradict it.

Right, because

that would remove or, or contradict a laws attribute of being exalted, above the creation, to surround within the creation is a different thing entirely. The second thing is by context, okay, so one thing to be aware of?

Yes, of course, yeah. There's no dispute everybody would say that Allah is aware of everything everywhere the dispute comes in.

Does it also mean that he's literally surrounding everything, right.

So the other thing that we have to take into consideration is the context in which they're mentioned in the Quran themselves. There's no place in the Quran where Allah mentions a Mohit, or when Allah mentions this,

in the sense of a verb a how probably he didn't when he says explicitly about data, that it's talking about knowledge, awareness, this sort of thing.

So when it comes to interpretation of those names, and

attributes. It's a strawman to suggests that there is never any interpretation of a laws names or attributes. That's not Oh, that's, that's wrong.

Okay, no, there is interpretation. There are some things that are understood literally in some things that are understood a little bit more specifically.

Or not as literally as what first scene. But the difference is that this act of interpretation has rules, okay? It's not just done whenever you can't think of anything, okay, it has to have linguistic basis, right.

So it has to be linguistically permissible.

It has to take into account the context in which all the names are mentioned.

And it has to reflect the understanding of the companions. And the Companions didn't have any problem with this sort of thing. They heard that he was the highest and they never once questioned or expressed doubt or wait, how can he be high? I thought he was everywhere. Or how can he be up? He can't have a direction. The Companions never expressed any such doubts.

Right?

Nor did they express any sort of doubts or ambiguity when it came to a laws, nature of being an ape, the most encompassing,

they understood from the context that every single ayah that talks about that Allah is all encompassing, it's talking about his awareness and his knowledge of things.

And along those best

that is all we have time for for today. We'll get to MLP 10 The last year, next time in sha Allah, also an L Halfhill. N L Hatfield.

Okay, we have someone sending in a question. Understanding the connection of relinquishment with the name of rocky good, so where is relinquishment within the name of roughy? It's knowing that Allah is going to give true justice at the end of time.

Okay.

Sometimes

in our lives, when we feel that we are judged unfairly

becoming validated

by others can become an obsession.

Okay.

Trying to prove to others your worth,

that you are right,

that you're suitable for something that you're praiseworthy, whatever it is that you have certain skills can become an obsession.

An unhealthy one.

Because there are some people in the creation that will never recognize these things.

Knowing that Allah's power Tata is rocky that he is the watchful he sees and witnesses, not just the external of what you're doing, what your internal intentions, your internal reasons and motivations and skills and

everything

should give you a sense of relief and relinquishment, because you know, at the end of the day that Allah is not going to misinterpret you. Allah is going to give you your just desserts. Allah is going to give you a fair evaluation and appraisal

that your validation will ultimately be with Allah subhanaw taala.

Now the question Why did the safe not group these names a Shaheed a hobby?

US here's me, a shahid Latif, and with Allah Halim al Javier

that's a good question. He doesn't mention in his book why,

but there is a slight difference to witness and knowledge okay. The order that he goes in his book, it goes a Samia L C L L Alim l Hobie.

Okay, Mohit diamonds. Yes. Okay, good.

So the question instead is then why isn't an MFI then classified with an unemotional hobby? Good.

When it comes to animal hate,

the all encompassing nature of something also linguistically implies the protection of that thing.

Okay, so just like a wall, how

is protection for what's inside of it?

It's the same sort of principle.

So the fact that

a law is for example, he pairs it here with ls et which is like the expansive and Mohit we all encompassing. I think the connection between those two is fairly clear and we'll talk about that more next time.

And more Haman

Rafi Bucha he's the one who perceives the internal and the hidden

and more hate the one one encompasses and therefore safeguards everything and then the next names are at half of the unhealthy of the protector the safe keeper right so I think that the shape and along those best he doesn't say explicitly in the book, but from my reading of the order of his chapters,

I see him placing an Mohib adding to the

the concept of being aware adding to it the aspect of protection

that is communicated by those other names or the last

half of a field and allows us

any other questions?

Okay, I hope everybody has a wonderful week, and inshallah we'll see you next time.

Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi