Tom Facchine – Who is Allah – Understanding Allah’s Names and Attributes #20
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of the title of the book in shaping its meaning for its afterlife, as it is the final destination for Islam's negative consequences. They also touch on the negative consequences of conspiracy theories and the need for people to trust in divine justice. The importance of witnessing and sharing experiences in order to gain knowledge and knowledge is emphasized, along with the need for people to witness and share their experiences in order to gain knowledge and knowledge.
AI: Summary ©
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala
Nabina with watching tally of the Salah was for the Sneem Allah ma eliminated we may have found out that nothing was unfortunately my LinkedIn was either no element yet on that. I mean
we started last week,
a chapter with four names. We're going to back up just a little bit and restart the chapter because there's some
additional considerations.
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The video okay
sound this
sound is okay.
Okay, it might have just had a little skip. I think that happened. I mean, I am streaming us at the same time and I think
I had a little hiccup in the beginning but I think now it seems to be better.
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All these technological considerations
I'm miskeen when it comes to technology, so I'm not sure if it's on my end of year end. I'm sitting right next to the
right next to the Wi Fi box. So in sha Allah
it makes that
that it improves.
So she'd have the rose up. Happy the Hello. He starts a chapter with four names
together
animal Haman
and Mohit
and mopeds and Alessia all of these names have
he agreed with the group's on one chapter because there's a similar theme that connects them but they're distinct. They're also related to because the shaman is following a certain order, right like there's it's no accident that these names come after the previous chapter, which was a Shaheed Rafi. We talked about Allah Spano Tata being the one who witnesses, the one who testifies the one who observes and notices and keeps track of everything. Right? So all of these names in this chapter are going to have a touch of that. But there's going to be other sorts of things that are going to shift the meaning or, or re emphasize
the meaning on certain other lines.
So the first one we're going to deal with is animal Haman. And animal Haman only comes once and the entire core and the it's the verse with all the names in it and the back of sort of the hashtag
who Allahu Allah de la ilaha illa who
manacle could l medical who could do Salam will not me no mo hain, and Mohamed.
So that's the only time that it comes up for an as a proper name of Allah. But there's another time and we had mentioned this last week that it comes in the Koran to describe the Quran. In surah matita. Allah says that, after he talks about revealing the Torah, and after he talks about revealing the Injeel, the Gospel to Isa,
are they he's Salam. Then he says he turns his attention to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam. And he says, and we have revealed this to you, and he describes the Koran as more Haman and Isley.
He says that the core n is more Haman mean,
over or in relation to those other books of Revelation, the Torah, and the
Bible gospel, whatever we want to call it.
And so this is significant because it gives us a sense of the meaning. And in the context of science and math, the sorts of metadata is one of the most important sources. As far as tafsir goes, of the Koran, also of legal points. The context of what I was talking about is how the People of the Book, the people who have been given revelation before our community, the followers of Muhammad Ali, so as I said,
they did not live up to their end of the bargain. They did not fulfill their covenant, they did not responsibly protect and safeguard the revelation that was given to them.
Therefore, it was lost or changed and necessitated that a law revealed
On a new book that would be preserved, and send the final messenger of Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam.
So within this context and Allah specifically in Surah, to the Mati that he talks more about this process of the Jews and the Christians having altered and manipulated and misinterpreted and lost
the scriptures that they were given. He talks more about this and solos and matita than he does in any other chapter.
And then after this discussion about how this these changes happened, or the fact that they did happen,
and how those communities share some blame
because of that process.
Then he says, and we reveal this this court and will Haman and Ollie.
So Elmo, Haman, why is the poor animal Haman over the Torah and the Gospel.
Because it bears witness, right? It's related to the previous meaning a Shahidullah theme, it bears witness to those parts of it, which are true.
It confirms
and validates what is left over what residual parts of it are true. And it incriminates those parts, which are false, which are accretions which are additions,
and informs us as to which parts are missing.
Right, so Allah says this about the core as Mohammed,
it bears witness to this thing. So then this is also a name of Allah, animal havy.
The one who bears witness but specifically the one who perceives something
that is hidden.
Right, we see how it's kind of it's related to Shahid, but even more closely to Rajiv.
Whereas Rajiv was
put the emphasis on Allah's watchfulness.
And Mohammed shifts the emphasis a little bit towards the things that are being observed themselves, and the hidden nature of those things.
So just as the Quran, I mean, without the Quran, we would have no ability to look at to pick up a Bible today or what they call the Bible and say, Well, this is true, and this is false. And this is true, and this is false, and so on and so forth.
And the same with a Torah, we would have no objective standard, no criteria, no scale by which to judge what is true or what is false. It would all be guesswork, your interpretation would be just as good as mine.
And we wouldn't have anything concrete to go off of
the core and changed all of that. Because it is more Heyman, it is able to ascertain. And to get at that hidden reality, that thing that would have been that would have remained hidden to us.
And is able to bring it out and to put it
to display it to us in a way that we are able then to benefit from.
So Allah does that, not just with the Torah and the NGO, but with everything.
Everything that would otherwise remain hidden.
Allah not only observe it observes it
and keeps track of it, but he's going to bring it out especially on the Day of Judgment.
A law being a law, Haman
directs our attention to Allah's justice.
Because there are many, many things that occur in our worldly life that are very hard to accept.
Anybody who
is part of the Muslim community knows, especially the Muslim community.
Many, many Muslim nations
in this era of ours are
going through extremely hard circumstances, political catastrophes, humanitarian catastrophes, genocide, torture, disease, famine,
all these horrible things.
Some of those things are
Easily attributable to individuals who are tyrants and oppressors.
Right? There are some some people who are clearly to blame, or clearly shoulder some of the blame for these things.
And there are other people who are just as much to blame, but it's much, much harder to point a finger at them.
Maybe their identity or their role, or their complicity is hidden behind layers and layers of bureaucracy or institutions.
Or they have some sort of other proxies that they're
that they're operating through a pastime of Muslims these days is to and engage in all this sort of conspiracy. conspiracy theory stuff, right, which I'm not a big fan of but but the the premise of why anybody indulges in conspiracy theories, or what people would call in conspiracy theories, is because that we know that there are some people who are acting behind the scenes that we can't really have any knowledge of.
Well, a loss of how to audit is Elmo Heyman.
He is not only witness to all of that, and everything that goes on, but he's also going to bring it out. He will, because bringing it out as part of justice, not just in this life, sometimes it happens in this life.
But especially in the next.
When we talk about things like this, we see how belief in the afterlife.
And belief in eternal divine justice is essential to keeping
sanity, first of all, equanimity, hope,
and all of these things, because human justice will always fail.
Justice in this dunya
is bound to fail. And even if it's a if it's a goal of the city,
to approximate justice, as well as we can,
with the excellence that we are able,
we know that human justice will always fall short.
So much more. So for people who only believe that there's this life to live, and then after we die, it's just black nothingness, non existence.
Such people with that type of belief, they are liable to try to take matters into their own hands, attempting to establish a perfect justice here on Earth. And often, often, this leads to excess.
If we don't believe that a law witnesses everything, and that Allah is going to put everything in its proper place in the afterlife,
it will either cause us to despair.
To live a life that is not really a life, without hope, dominated by fear.
Cynicism will take over,
because it is tremendously unfair, and we don't understand why things are this way.
Or if we get the opportunity to attempt justice.
And we don't believe that Allah is going to set everything right, we will end up going past the limits, we will end up transgressing the bounds, we will end up in excess.
Because
we will be more concerned about the result than we will about the proper means and process to get there.
We saw this happen just earlier this month.
Right? People who stormed the Capitol Building in Washington DC, taking matters into their own hands. They were so obsessed with whatever policies that they wanted, whatever vision for the country or the nation that they had, that they were willing to scrap the whole process
of elections, democratic institutions, all this other stuff, in order to cut to the front of the line to impose what they wanted.
Without realizing that the second that you do that you then make it impossible to criticize anybody else for do
In the same thing
we also see this in, on the other side of the spectrum with
many of the social justice movements, right?
They come from a place of trying to remedy and trying to solve and respond to oppression.
But because many of these movements, at least in our time, are not predicated upon a trust in divine justice,
they often go to extremes and fall into excess.
When it comes to this life, we have people that are digging up tweets and Facebook posts from people 1015 years ago, and totally canceling them.
With the assumption there is that somebody can't change.
You have something that somebody said when they were young and immature, and they didn't understand, maybe they were 1918, and all this kind of border of adulthood. And if it's brought up, it can ruin them, it can get them fired from their job, it can get them disqualified from public office, not officially but in practice.
Right, this is a little bit excessive.
Just like we see efforts to remedy
for example, centuries of oppression that women have endured, especially in Western European culture.
And Western European history, has now swung back so far to the other side, it has fallen into an excess and an extreme to the point where the entire institution of marriage and the entire institution of family and child rearing is under attack.
Having a child is considered an obstacle to feminine liberation.
When talking about, you know, contemporary out there society, not hamdulillah not necessarily what people are saying, in the Muslim community, but we feel it, we feel these sorts of pressures.
This is because if you look into the history of women in Western Europe, they didn't exist, they didn't have any rights. They weren't they didn't, they weren't able to have property, they weren't able to inherit, they weren't able to be even considered a legal person.
And so the swing back has swung back
the other direction.
And even too far,
if we think that
the only air arena for justice is this world,
we will end up falling into similar excess.
Even extremist groups that claim to be Muslims fall into this, this problem.
They think that
we have to establish these outcomes, certain outcomes at whatever cost. No matter what rules we have to break, no matter the means, right the ends justify the means. This is a lack of reliance upon a lost pounds either. It's a lack of trust, in his eternal and ultimate justice.
It's a lack of patience with a loss plan and destiny.
Not to say that we're just going to sit back and let oppression happen. No, we have things that we can try to do to advocate to defend ourselves, etc.
But at a certain point, at a certain point, we have to realize that some of these things are the will of Allah, and that Allah is no Haman. He's going to bring it all out, because he has already borne witness to it all.
And on the Day of Judgment, none shall be wrong. How many times does Allah say this in the Quran? Well, I use alone.
No one will be wronged everybody who's suffered
is going to be taken care of. And given their due. The Prophet sallallaahu Salam said, even a ram who had lost the horn, because he got into a
head butting contest with another RAM. He will petition for his horn back and he's going to get it. Everything is going to be set right?
Allah is going to reveal the true reality of who was doing what and why they were doing it.
Allah says over and over in the Quran, that when it comes to the end, then you're going to realize that Allah is going to show you
what everybody was doing and why they were doing it. And who's really to blame and who's really at fault for
But
these are all very big things, right? politics, history, social movements, things like that. But we taste, we taste elements of this even in our personal lives.
Isn't it true that within our relationships, right?
Your spouse, your parents, your friends, your children,
we often find ourselves vying for recognition and validation.
A lot of what we do goes unnoticed.
Haven't you ever seen a situation where
either you've experienced this yourself or somebody else, or the other partner has done it, the other person in the relationship
where you are feeling a certain way, whether you're upset, or whether you're angry or something, and you kind of make a gesture to have that feeling recognized and validated from the other person. And then they don't, either because they don't understand that it wasn't put in kind of the language that they're used to speaking, or communicating with, or because of some other reason.
And then you find yourself ramping up the the drama factor, in order to get your point across in order to achieve what you wanted to, in order to try to get the validation from the other party, all of a sudden, you're screaming, maybe you're upset, you're sad, you're crying, more so than you actually felt at first.
Because you're looking for the validation.
You want that person to recognize now, don't get me wrong, there's a degree in every relationship where we need to have expectations for what our other the other person in the relationship is going to recognize, right? It's not to say that, you know, your spouse or your parents or your children should just be able to be completely oblivious to how you feel.
And that's okay. No, they need to learn how to respond appropriately, and sympathize, and empathize with your emotions and give you the sort of nurturing that is going to be good for you and the relationship. But but but what's going to stop us from crossing the limits and going too far, is knowing that even if we're doing everything,
and nothing is getting noticed, and nothing is getting recognized, and you're not getting validated or praised for what you're doing a laws Atomo Haman.
And the law not only sees it, observes it, and records it.
But he's also going to show
everybody else in the afterlife, and he's going to give you what you deserve. That should at least cut the edge off, or cut the sting off a little bit.
Because it can be very, very frustrating. This happens with couples all the time, all the time. One person in the couple feels like they're doing all the work feels like they're making all the changes.
And the other person isn't reciprocating.
So the first person, they're making changes, they're working on themselves, but they're partially doing it.
They're partially doing it.
Because they're trading it. Right. They're not necessarily doing it for a loss balance, either. They're trying to barter with that change to get a change in the other party. Can you change the other person or can a law change them
allows the only one that can really change them.
And they have to choose it themselves.
So that can build up a lot of resentment. We're changing, we're changing. We're working on ourselves, we're fighting our bad habits. And we are hoping for recognition and validation from somebody else and then it's just not going to come very upsetting.
But hola todos mo Haman.
Allah sees you, a lot observes you he notices your change and your effort, and he's going to bring it out at the end of the day, one way or another.
The second one in this chapter is enviable, a lost power to auditors and Mahipal.
And my faith is a very interesting name. It means literally to encompass, or to include, right? Uh huh. Is a wall
because it
surrounds
a room a space
right?
So what does it mean? When it when a law tells us
that
a law is on my feet?
Let's go to the for animal see. So Allah says what can Allahu be cliche in Mojito,
Allah encompasses everything literally be equally che in WIPO
in Allah Habima Yama, Luna, Mohit,
Allah encompasses that which they do.
Well Lahoma Haibo mid calf theory and Allah encompasses the disbelievers, the rejecters of faith
also says the NSR Talaq Lita animal and Allah Allah coalition Kadir what and Allah has got a help of equally che in our Ilma.
And to know that Allah has certainly encompassed everything with his knowledge and
well, how I'll be mad at him what I saw Aquila che in other than sort of the jinn.
Allah encompasses that which they do, or that which they have. And he has counted and accounted for everything.
If we look at all of these examples in the Koran,
all of the times in which the verb a Hapa, or a new hip is used, we can come up with at least three things that Allah is talking about here. Because and we mentioned this before, we could at first glance, if we think that of well hailed as surrounding or encompassing.
We can wonder if there's a physical element to that.
Right? If you're surrounded by you know, like, the police busted and they say, we've got you surrounded, right, it means that they are physically around you. Right? To be surrounded or to be encompassed by something, it means that
things are around you, physically. Okay? Is this true for lost pounds on or not? If you look at the contexts, of the verses that we just cited, all of the times which this name comes up in the Koran, we find that either what they're talking about is Allah's knowledge. Right? Very, very explicitly said in the end, there's sort of a block. I'll call it a half. I'll be cliche in Elma.
And it's implied in some of the others in the law have been Marryat men when mo hate Allah encompasses what they do.
Does Allah physically surround the things that they do? How can you physically surround the actions of somebody else?
Rather, refers to a loss found to Allah being aware and being knowledgeable of those things that they do?
It also involves a loss ability and activity.
Well, Allahu wa Haytham, Bill caffine. Allah encompasses those who reject Faith, meaning that their denial of faith is not somehow outside of his
of his ability.
It's not a defiance, in the sense of
Allah didn't have the ability to make them believe. No.
Allah encompasses even those who deny the faith, with his ability with his activity. His Rockman has either been whatever it is, it still encompasses those people they haven't broken free
from the area of Allah's activity.
Similarly, the third thing that the sheikh points out is that these names refer to Allah as encompassing things with his will and power, just like this verse. Allah income encompasses the people who reject Faith, meaning that this is still part of his will.
Right?
He still has power over them. They're denying faith. Rejecting truth
doesn't decrease from his power at all.
He gave them that choice. That's still part of a law as well.
And so we
See here why this is important that Allah is on Mohib for our conception of what reality is because there's nothing that exists outside of Allah's will and power and ability and knowledge.
Right. Evil for example,
does not happen outside of Allah's knowledge, Allah's ability, Allah's will. We've talked before about the Christian conception of evil, as this kind of Manichaean dual God system where, almost as if God, Allah is the God of the good and the devil is almost like a god of the evil in the sense that they're struggling and sometimes one wins and sometimes the other wins. That's not how I must have used the universe.
The devil is simply part of creation, Allah is powerful over all of it. It's all part of his will. An example or an event of evil is not a defiance of his will. Allah has willed it to happen, for whatever reason, reason or wisdom he has, which sometimes we can see, and sometimes we can't.
Right, so we have here in Elmo hate establishing the hierarchy. Everything is under a laws, control, will knowledge. Nothing breaks free from that, even if it rejects what Allah wishes for everybody. What Allah loves for everybody, Allah loves for everyone to become a believer.
But he gave you the choice, he's not going to force you. You're choosing it isn't
a violation of his will. It's just
not what Allah loves. However, he has willed it, because he's willed that people have a choice.
The third name an update, an update comes from coats, coats and Arabic means your staple food, right staple provisions that the absolute necessities.
And so ultimately, it's actually the seller, companions and their students have many different
definitions, if you will, when they were asked to comment upon this name, and will Pete
partly because the Companions their way was not to think abstractly, like we do to isolate the rules and the theory they gave examples, right. And so they gave different examples that kind of touched on the contours or the borders of what this name means.
So for example, Mujahid, he says that this is similar to a Shaheed that Allah is the witness that he notices everything.
Even on Bess, and this is reported by even Kathy who says that it's like, half of the one who saved keeps and safeguards everything.
If we put together everything that the companions and the their students said about this thing, what we get is the one who knows what every one needs, and provides it.
There's the aspect of witness that allows power to Ana is aware of what you need, not just physically, but also spiritually, also mentally, also emotionally. And he is going to provide you with what you need.
This is where it comes from foods, which is your base staple provision. Allah is aware of this need that you have and he loves you.
And so he's going to give you what you need, and preserve you. This is obvious and apparent when it comes to the physical things that we consume. Less so apparent with our emotional and mental needs. A lot of times, we kind of assume that we're in this wilderness, that it's just us, we have to create our own
happiness or create our own emotional or mental sustenance. Allah is going to give you what you need, Allah is not going to abandon you because Allah loves you and He is merciful towards you. Even if he gives you hardship, yes, yes, that actually is part of it too.
Because the hardship that he gives you is supposed to mold you and shape you in a certain way. And that thing that you're going to get out of the hardship is what He wants you to have. Do you think Allah wants you to have hardship just to suffer?
No, of course not. But
he needs you to gain some experience. He wants you to get the lesson. He wants you to come out of it better than you what you were seasoned. Ready for something else that is going to come down there.
wrote
so Allah gives you what you need not just physically but emotionally and spiritually and mentally.
And it all comes back to the fact that Allah notices he sees and he witnesses that what you need. He's the only one that truly knows what you need.
Ever everything else that we say is just guesswork at best. Maybe your guesswork is better than your mother's guesswork. Maybe your mother's is better than yours.
But at the end of the day, Allah subhanaw taala knows what we need.
And finally Allah is Allah last year, last year translates to the vast the expansive. Right? We say we make two out for the person who has died.
What's the Cobra who we say, Allah expand was sick, his grave her grave for them?
Right we say so of course he was here cool to see you who somehow was he was Oh.
Allah's footstool
expands his vaster then the heavens and the earth. So there's several things that are tucked into this name.
A lot is in Alaska. He's expansive and vast in his attributes, meaning the degree to which he has these attributes mercy and love and justice, knowledge, sight, hearing all these things,
their perfect attributes.
He has them vastly more than we do.
And they also have vast consequences.
The fact that Allah sees everything has tremendous consequences, upon not just our lives on this earth, but also the afterlife.
It also means that allows otherwise, he's too expansive and vast for us to fathom, first of all, and secondly, to praise adequately.
Allah's vast of His glory and His Majesty and His might, in his power and authority.
Allah is vast and his provision can anybody and Allah tells us that we can't really identify and keep track of all of Allah's permission for us. Not possible. It's too vast for us to even imagine.
Such the same with his bounty, his goodwill, his generosity.
Allah is vast in his knowledge and awareness, we talked about all of the people making dua to Allah right now.
Allah not only hears them, he understands them in their language, he keeps it all straight, he doesn't mix up or get confused. It doesn't even detract from his attention and knowledge, to listen to them all at the same time.
That's how vast his knowledge and awareness is.
He's also vast at his reward, and in his punishment, Jana and not.
As for us, everything that we have is so pitiful, and small and quaint. Right, we might have mercy but how quaint it is compared to Allah's vast mercy, expensive mercy. Our knowledge is quaint next to a laws, vast expansive
knowledge in sight and hearing and everything.
So what's the common link? Between these four names? Why do they all belong in the same chapter?
All of these names
have to do with a specific type of observing and witnessing.
That's why they come after a shahid Rajeev the witness and the overseer.
But whereas a Shaheed an Iraqi job, draw our attention to maybe a laws witnessing
individual things.
Many of these, these four names of Mo Haman and Mohit and Matteo Alessia draw our attention to Allah's simultaneous witness over everything.
Both the things that are obvious and the things that are hidden, they also draw our attention to Allah's response to this witnessing, whereas a Shahidullah Thebe
is just about purely the act of witnessing and oversee
But ultimately it's for example,
is witness and thus provision according to His perfect witness
on last year, the expansiveness of his witness and the expansiveness of his response to that witness
and knowledge
similarly, and
very similar to Alessia completely encompassing
everything
and his response and his activity also encompasses
we have gone over time. So, that's the general idea behind these four names. Does anybody have any questions before I let you go
I mean,
someone shared in a private message and I don't think that they'll mind me sharing it. I say it's like when you need some emotional support from a loss final data.
And this overwhelming feeling encompasses you.
You feel like it surrounds you you experience
a laws, care and support surrounding you Yes, Mashallah. That's exactly what we're talking about.
Anything else? thoughts, reflections questions.
Okay, everyone, have a good night. Insha Allah, and we'll see you next time. Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah.