Tom Facchine – Who is Allah – Understanding Allah’s Names and Attributes #28
AI: Summary ©
The fruit of Islam is the fruit of one or two, and the importance of duality and words like duality and duality in the context of modern times is emphasized. The speakers stress the need for people to straddle their needs and interests, and stress the importance of peace and happiness in modern times. The use of words like peace and happiness to describe experiences and events is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala Ashraf, an MBA and almost sitting living in awkward watching Mohammed Ali here let's get this Nene Allahumma eliminated Bin Laden founder one fat and at the Mount I limped in I was eating that and many adult but I mean I said I'm only one after like he would go to everybody welcome to Saturday night who is a lot as we get
the book by a chef Dr
David
I'm sorry Isaac
pardon me for that otherwise that everyone out there Merson
I feel a whole lot
we have reached the chapter on allows named a seller
a seller
and we have talked about this a long time ago because one of the things you picked up in Saudia Yes, Anna Warren in the Arab world in general, yes. This expression of approval and joy.
So at the end of class, we should be able to understand why this expression exists and why it's a lovely expression inshallah Tada
As Salam only occurs one time, and the entire Koran.
And I'm guessing that, you know, where, where does it where does it occur?
Who knows where the name of Sudan occurs?
At
That's right. Yeah, at the end of solitaire, the hotshot
who Allahu Allah de la isla in the whole medical produces salaam, salaam. The only time it's mentioned in the Quran, as a proper name of Allah.
As Salam has two fundamental meanings, both linguistically meaning the root word, and also went in respect to Allah's Name.
One of those roots
is or revolves around.
Freedom from imperfection, right soundness, we could say, in the Arabic tongue, we say qalam, Celine. Celine from the same root set down. When we say that, you know that person's words, are they ring true?
Right, like he has he knows he, like I agree with what he's saying. Like he's well said
Calam, saline,
and similar. Similarly, other things in Islamic law.
If something is free from defect,
you can call it setting it is whole, and wholesome and full and complete.
And it doesn't have any or YouTube it doesn't have any
deficiency or defects. If you're buying something, and you get back and you open the box and it's broken, right, then you would have you it would be within your rights to take it back and get your refund or if it's something small to get it fixed, or the discount of the difference in the price, etc. These sorts of things. Right? That's the opposite of being selling.
Something that is has the quality of Salon something that is complete and whole and perfect.
It also has the second main meaning of peace.
And we have this in our greeting
the greeting of the angels, which we have a cinematical wishing peace upon our fellow believers. And so these are the two principal meanings upon which the last name revoke so we'll treat them one by one inshallah Tada.
The first meeting, as we said, freedom from blemish or defect or deficiency.
This es Salaam is a very comprehensive name of a loss. It touches every aspect of Allah's existence.
Whether it's his essence a lot is a sedan in his essence, a lot as set in his attributes, and Allah is a sedan
In his activity and the things that he does,
his being his attributes, and his actions are free from any sort of defect or blemish or shortcoming.
So if we go one by one through these categories, Allah's essence and by Essence we mean that he subhanho wa Taala
Allah's essence begins with oneness.
And oneness is a sign of perfection.
How? How does that how does that work? Who can explain that? How is oneness a sign of perfection?
Why wouldn't duality also perhaps be a sign of perfection?
Okay, uniqueness.
That's one angle. That's correct.
What else?
can't duplicate? Yes.
Similar, you're right.
So if there are more than one of something,
then one of them becomes expendable.
One of them becomes non essential.
The other one can stand in its place.
And someone will always be there to try to argue hypotheticals to say, well, what if there's two of them, they're identical. And both of them are essential. That's just playing with words.
If there's two of them, by definition, one of them is not essential, if they're the same.
The other possibility is that if there are two than they are complementary, in which case it poses, which problem? What's the problem in that scenario?
Yes, then one has to be higher than the other basically,
it's a double bind, right? There's a contradiction.
If we say that there are two
and that they are both the same and both perfect, then
either one of them is replaceable by the other. And therefore expendable.
If we say that
there are two
and they are complementary, meaning that each of them complete each other.
Then that means that either one of them when taken by itself is deficient, inadequate, and not perfect.
Right. So this is oneness. And by extension, as the CHE family pointed out uniqueness
is
a fundamental aspect of a laws being a salon.
If there were any sort of multitude or multiplicity or duality,
to Allah azza wa jal, it would violate and contradict
his perfection, and his quality of being a salon.
And Allah says this in the Quran, which is also referenced by the sheikh family, Allah poses this hypothetical
once or twice in the Quran, if there were two gods,
then
one of them would try to basically there would be conflict.
The argument that allow puts forth,
there would need to be
some sort of dissonance between the two,
which is inevitable and always happens and is also a consequence of duality. Some people again, hardcore skeptics, they play with language, and they say, Well, what if there were two gods and they were both perfect, and they both had perfect harmony, or they were both complemented each other, but they both worked in perfect harmony all the time. They never disagree.
That is just playing with language.
It's playing with language, because if two entities have the same will,
then they are not two entities at all.
What distinguishes an entity from another more than anything else, is its will, what it wants to do.
So if there's a meaningful distinction
If
between this God and that God then they have to have different wills and if they have different wills then they are going to conflict at some point.
Yes.
So Allah is a Salah
again in his essence meaning he is one and he is unique because the only perfection the only Sadam occurs in that which is one and unique
it also
is illustrated or results
and the fact that Allah is self sufficient and Avani
we had this just a couple of lessons ago.
And Lonnie Allah is literally wealthy rich he doesn't require anything he is in need nothing
how does that reflect a laws sedan that Allah doesn't need anything?
What do you think? How does that what's the relationship between a lobbying a salon and a lobbying a lot of money?
What about being an levani
leads to a lobbying a salon such that if Allah wasn't alone, he wouldn't be a salon?
Correct what we could ask? Yes, excellent, both of you. So we could ask how do a wants and needs arrive? Arise, excuse me in the first place? Right? needs and wants arise out of imperfection.
Right?
We require food because we have no ability to sustain ourselves
that need for sustenance and nourishment creates struggle.
Now we have to exert efforts
in order to obtain that nourishment. Sometimes we win, and sometimes we lose.
We get jobs, we get fired from jobs, we get laid off.
We have
stimulus checks, that's a victory we have pandemic's
Right, this sort of win some lose some struggle is a telltale sign of need, and dependency dependency.
Having needs and having wants means that you are dependent.
And so Allah azza wa jal
being a Vani.
Not having any needs whatsoever any wants to speak of
results in him being a Salam because he has no dependency upon anything else.
It also means that he has no ulterior motives.
Right.
Allah's giving
and generosity is different than our giving and generosity.
Many of them that they use examples,
such as, how would you react?
If you got a phone call from your local politician, or the governor of the state you live in or the province you live in? Or the president or prime minister himself?
Or if you knew that he was coming
to your house to your messaging?
You would probably pick up the phone.
Right? You would probably or sent you an email, he would probably respond as promptly as possible.
You would probably wear your best clothes,
these sorts of things. What if it was the poorest person in your community?
And they've asked you and asked you and asked you time and time again for money or for help professor for that.
When that phone ring comes, that phone call comes, you're probably going to hit silent.
You're probably going to let it go to voicemail.
Right You know, he's going to go to the machine you might go to a different message
to avoid running into him.
Right.
What does that say about human beings? It says that we have ulterior motives. We do
If we can invite people over to our house and be generous, but under what circumstances.
And this is the struggle of the believer to purify their intention,
because for many of us,
perhaps most of us,
we invite people
whom we believe we stand to gain something from.
And so our generosity is really not generosity at all, but rather a transaction, a trade, it's a downpayment,
on some sort of connection, if it's networking, or some sort of
favor down the road,
even just prestige if this is a person who's a important person in that community, right.
So even the good things that we do, as human beings, our needs, and our wants, make it hard for us to be sincere.
They are obstacles in the way of our sincerity. And the task one of the many tasks of the believers to struggle against
that conflict of interest.
Oh, yeah, no, you're right. Say Finally, 100%. You can try and try and try. But there's still going to be an element, hey, let's bring it let's make it really practical. How can we how can we get over this? How do you know? How do you know when you've gotten over it? Or I mean, not to say that this is something that we can ultimately get over, it's always going to be a struggle. But can we imagine a situation or a scenario that proves that for at least a moment? We've conquered this sort of thing,
this transactional nature of ours?
Can we imagine a thought experiment where there's a particular scenario that proves that we've triumphed in this way that we're doing it sincerely, sincerely.
And not for any sort of ulterior motive?
Okay, one thing good. If no one else is watching, that can be true.
That can be true.
I
Yes.
The recipients harms us but we still do it. Right.
To Levels Level One, we do something and we don't stand to gain anything in the world from somebody who's a passerby ignore severe right the traveler you're never gonna see this person again. Person who broke down on the road
their radiator broke or they're overheating or they got a flat tire. You're busy, you've got this and that or whatever, you stop the car and you help them change the tire. For example, substitute your own zoo.
You're never going to see this person again.
You don't have anything like sensical or rational to expect from this person.
It would be a shock if you were to gain anything from doing this thing. In the dunya. And yet you still do it. This is a proof. This is a proof of sincerity.
A level above and higher than that
is what you do when people are in grateful to you
are ungrateful to you see. My my English is off tonight parents
are ungrateful to you.
And they
spit in your face. Literally or figuratively.
And you're doing something nice for them. And they're complaining about it.
This is all you got.
Come on I know you got more than this quit holding out on me. This isn't enough. This is not going to do anything you gave someone saw more?
Why is it because I'm this is it because I'm that
you think you're so high and mighty.
You start getting some backtalk you start getting some lip
How do you react?
Say oh, I am on the
on the executive committee of my machine and I do this and I do that and now the I statements come
that's approved.
against you.
That shows you that you haven't really been doing it for the right reasons
that maybe you were doing it for what we call today optics.
Whereas if you're able to take it
and you can put on a smile and say, I'm sorry, you feel that way, forgive me, this is whatever this is, or whatever your way of dealing with it is, and you keep giving and keep doing it.
Then you can be pretty sure. In sha Allah, that is a sincere action.
How do we know? How do we know these things? They're not a secret. This is from the Hadith of the Prophet, civilize sunnah. Recall the Hadith of the Prophet salallahu Salam when he talks about
the three men who entered the cave.
And then a boulder fell down and blocked the entrance. And so they made do hot.
By means by to lesson of
an action that they believe was sincere sincerity for Allah.
And look at the types of actions that they did. Right the person who was on the brink of committing Zina with someone that they loved, and had even given the money to do it.
Felt like
right,
this sort of thing.
So it's not it's not a problem.
to ascribe sincerity to yourself from time to time, even if the law said Well, that was that cool and full circle, who are some of amount of taka?
Don't praise yourselves don't attribute purity to yourselves. But an even though sincerity is several lots. Allah's secret as part of the reason why there are what we learn from that hadith, there are certain instances where you can feel or tell or at least expect that your action is more pure and more sincere than other times.
And they are they fall into if you look at the Hadith and the things that they are
using us to listen
on behalf to argue on behalf of themselves and free them from the cave. They fall into these two categories.
Things that they don't stand to gain anything from or even better.
And higher and loftier and more difficult things that are actually
against your interests in this world.
They call that an assault.
In Arabic, just like a law says, Yeah, you're Latina Amande to law, he told her 10. So ha.
A sincere repentance and salah, they used to give an example of who is gonna sue
who was sincere.
And they would give the example
of somebody who's a merchant or a shopkeeper, and someone comes to buy something from them at their shop.
And that shopkeeper knows that just a couple stalls down.
So and So sells the same thing for cheaper.
The person who is sincere and so he tells his customer look, go buy it from this guy. He sells it for cheaper.
It's against his interests
in this world.
And so it is sincere, it on best, has a famous story where he did this where he sent one of his servants to go buy him a horse.
And his servants went to you know, agree upon the price. And the servant really really haggled with this guy and argued him down and down and down. And finally he got to a really, really good price. And so the servant was very happy and came back to Lebanon bus on the Allahu Anhu and told him what had happened. And so m&s said you really, you really got that price for it. And he's like, yeah, I really did. And so he's like, Okay, let me come and I'll take care of the rest of the deal. So I'm the best he comes to the merchant. And he asked him, he said, you really you agreed to sell this price? Or excuse me, to sell this horse for this price? He said, Yes, I did. And he said this, this
horse is worth far more than that.
He's like, I won't. I don't agree to that price. I want to give you more.
And the merchant is like, okay.
And he's like, What do you have?
Read to X amount of data or whatever, X amount of currency. And he said, Yes, I would agree to that.
Anybody else would have stopped there. The best of us, the best of us would have stopped there. I mean, no bass was not done. He said no, your horses worth more than that. Will you agree to why price even higher? He said, Yes, I would agree. He said no, your horses worth more than that. Would you agree to this price and he kept going until the men got very uncomfortable. Until ebonite. Bass ended up paying the man twice as much for his horse than he had agreed to.
Initially, is that the kind of attitude we have today in our Muslim community, or are we looking to cut corners and looking for a quick discount?
You know that you go to your Muslim brother, the Muslim Brother, your Muslim sister who has a business and you expect to get it for cheaper? Look it up the Lebanon, Bess.
That's nuts. So that is sincerity, that is piety. And that's something that we desperately need today.
So Allah azza wa jal is a salon.
He's a salon, and his essence be that he
and his oneness and his uniqueness and his self sufficiency and free from need.
And also in his will,
his will, is completely free from defects or deficiency,
couldn't find a con, there is no obstacle, there is no evil, or the devil or Iblees is not some sort of opposing force, this other sort of dark god
that hinders the will of Allah, or sometimes one when sometimes the other No, Allah is I'll call here, alpha, how
Allah is always victorious, nothing can delay,
let alone resist or overcome or overpower Allah as well. Everything that happens is purely Allah's will.
Allah is a Saddam in his will.
And in another way, due to his Well speaking of his will, because
he's never tired. It doesn't take any effort or any energy.
As Allah says, and I add to the codici
creating everything that happens in the earth and it doesn't tire him whatsoever. It's the same as if he had never done it at all.
That's because Allah's Will, is perfect.
Not even doing the act is an obstacle or resistant force. So that's the that's a he and Allah's essence. Allah is also a Salam in his attributes his justice is perfect and free from deficiency.
Don't think because the oppressors get off today that there's anything wrong with the laws justice, everything happens in a laws time, the way Allah wills
and Allah does everything well, Allah has a timeline for everything. It's already planned out.
Allah's Mercy he's a Salaam and His mercy, free from deficiency
or imperfection. Allah's Mercy incorporates those who are wronged
which requires justice and retribution sometimes.
If Allah forgave absolutely everybody, this would be imperfect, imperfect mercy. Allah's mercy for the oppressed and wronged would be imperfect. If Allah azza wa jal forgave the oppressors, all of them
Allah azza wa jal is a Salam in his generosity. We talked about this just a bit ago because there's no obstacle externally to him giving anything he owns all of it, he needs none of it.
Nor is there any stinginess or reluctance or internal obstacle to Allah's generosity or giving all of this flows from his cleanup, from his self sufficiency, His richness and his his,
his possession of everything.
A lot as a salon and his nobility and in His wisdom.
Everything that Allah created has a purpose.
Everything that Allah created has a purpose as the opposite of the
the materialistic scientistic model that we have today which I'm
imagine things happening random by chance coincidentally.
And thus harsh, the rule of the day is survival of the fittest. Everything is locked in an existential struggle to survive and compete competition
is the organizing force of our even the shapes of our bodies and the DNA in our cells. This is not only laughable
but it's just plain wrong.
Allah azza wa jal is wise. His wisdom is a salaam he's perfect in his wisdom and everything must have purpose behind it.
That goes doubly true of his shitty
of the law that he has given to mankind.
It is pure benefits. Masala it's pure Nephi it's pure wisdom. It's poor. It's pure mercy. It's pure justice. It's pure ease.
People misunderstand the saying of the prophesies Salam Edina uses
the dean is ease and they use that in this kind of way. It's like Don't be so uptight. Right.
But no, the prophesy someone was saying this dean of ours is ease.
So if you want anything easier than this, then you're playing around.
Therefore, we see that the attitude of some reformists
who want to very swiftly move away from the city
and throw it out and replace it with more modern, contemporary laws.
It all stems from their misunderstanding of Allah azza wa jal. It all stems from they're not registering. Allah is hikma
and Allah's Perfect wisdom that he is a salon in his Hekmat.
They've sold a lot short and thought that Allah's law hasn't anticipated these times that we live in, thought that Allah's city I had an expiration date on it somewhere.
Allah has Allah's Saddam
in his actions in his speech that there is no deviance or crookedness in it.
Everything Allah says is purposeful and everything Allah doesn't say is personal, is purposeful. This is a foundation of the Sharia. And the jurists, when Allah is silent on the matter, it is purposeful.
So we must not be like Benny Israel eel is always asking and asking after these insignificant details that Allah azza wa jal didn't tell us for a reason.
Allah has actions even if they seem to contradict what
we might think.
Allah is a Salam and all of them has is still up. Allah, Allah, obviously he has been established upon his throne. He is a Salam in that he's perfect. Don't think that that means that Allah is contained within the creation, or that he's sitting in some sort of limited, confined sense upon his throne,
or that his throne is larger, or somehow encompasses him. No, Allah, Allah is a Salam.
And he is still Allah Aashi.
Both of those things a lot told us is true. So there is no contradiction, the same with his Newzoo
his dissents to the lowest heaven in order to forgive our sins and the last third of every night.
Don't think that his new Zulu necessitates this and necessitates that that he is off of his audition he this and that any others inside of his creation? Know Allah is a salon.
He told us that he has a salon and he told us about his no zone.
All of that has to do with Allah's ceramah His perfection is free from neath Allah is also a Salaam in the sense that he is the peace and the source of all peace. And peace is a word that is cheap. In our contemporary idiom, say give peace of chance. Peace, dude, you know all these things. The left is all supposedly about peace, nonviolence, it has a very thin meaning.
They call what goes on and of Azusa or Philistine peace because there's no official armies fighting
silliness.
It's not
Peace.
People also the other mistake that they make they imagine that peace is something that they can purchase. Like everything else these days like a product.
You go to the guru, you go do yoga, meditation and mindfulness and breathing exercises and Tai Chi and you'll be able to get peace. You just have to go out and basically buy it.
Allah tells us that this is wrong because a laws, salam, Allah's peace, the peace that we wish upon other believers as salaam alaikum is not any peace. It's not a negative peace in the sense that it's freedom from conflicts,
or freedom from war, or freedom from stress, or freedom from hardship. That's not possible.
Those are the wrong expectations. What it has to do is it it is submission.
It is the tranquillity of submission. s nama Muslim.
The Salam that we wish for other people, is a specific type of peace that's only for a believer because when a believer is truly submitted in hearts and in his body, or her body, or her heart, then
that submission leads to peace and tranquility, no matter what's going on outside. Hardship will come Allah promised us promise the US hardship. There's no thing that you can buy that's going to take away hardship
in this world.
Yet Allah promises us peace if we submit to Him.
Very good. Yes. Question. Is there a connection between this name as salam and Khaldoon saline that we should strive for? Yes. And it's the same exact meaning called goon serene means? Salim in the sense that it is sound and wholesome. Right? It's not like the promises. I said, when we send there's a black spot and when we make Toba, then we purify the heart. Right? It's sadeem In this sense, is its whole
there's a wholeness and a soundness
to it,
but also, in the fact that it is submissively peaceful, or peaceful in its submission.
What's the difference between this peace, this real peace, this lasting peace and this cheap sort of product that people are trying to sell,
with self help books and etc, etc. These days? The difference is that the peace of Islam of submission is harmony,
being one with the purpose of our creation, with the purpose of the entire universe, are you better to Rachmat?
worshipping Allah azza wa jal, and being his full of fat, being his stewards and his successors, his guardians of this creation, embodying the things that he wants us to embody
maintaining and promoting what Allah loves.
This is harmony. True internal peace comes from this harmony.
And this is something that Allah azza wa jal wishes for us to spread upon this earth.
When we give the salam, the Prophet salallahu alayhi salam one of the first things he could be heard saying in Medina was a little rock man. What if she was set down wildly wrong time TEDCO lagenda Tabby Salah
be Salah be doing that if any fam Italia
one of the first things he was instructing the companions of Medina if she was set up, spread a Salah and that incorporates all of the meanings of of salaam that we've said
spread peace in the thin even in the thin sense that we mean today. spread peace meaning the submission of a lost power to odor
and the tranquility and the harmony that comes from being at one with the purpose that Allah will before his creation any questions
yes, now we know it. Yes, that means
it's similar to Qalam Salim or polygon saline. Somebody says something that rings true that has truth in
It
say yes sir
because we remember that all soundness comes from Allah azza wa jal who is the most sound and perfect
okay, very good everybody. Thank you very much. I will see you soon inshallah. Tada. I said Imani come off