Zia Sheikh – AQIDAH Belief of a Muslim 5152017

Today inshallah we are going to be discussing

the difference between ilm-ul-ghaib and ilm

-ul-shahadah.

Ilm-ul-ghaib and ilm-ul-shahadah, basically

there are two types of knowledge that a

person can have.

And they are loosely distributed into these two

types of knowledge that I have just mentioned,

ilm-ul-ghaib and ilm-ul-shahadah.

So what is, first of all, ilm-ul

-shahadah?

So, ilm-ul-shahadah is that thing, ma

yudraku bil-hawas, that thing that is attained

by the senses.

So, for example, a person sees something with

his eyes, he touches something with his hands,

and he hears something with his ears, he

tastes something with his tongue, and so on.

These are basically the five senses that we

refer to, al-hawas ul-khamsah.

When a person uses these things, then it

is known as ilm-ul-shahadah.

Those things that are attained by using the

senses that a person has.

So, as we know, our senses are very

limited.

And we only can use these senses in

a limited capacity.

So, for example, I cannot find out what's

going on behind this wall.

I cannot hear what's going on behind this

wall.

And when the food is on the table,

I cannot taste it until I actually put

it into my mouth.

So, our senses are limited to a certain

capacity.

So, any person who has any kind of

deficiency in any one of those senses, then

obviously he will have a deficiency in that

particular thing.

For example, a person who, may Allah subhanahu

wa ta'ala protect us, is blind.

You can only go so far as to

describe to him, for example, a beautiful garden.

How are you going to describe to him

a beautiful garden?

Until maybe, unless he saw it in the

past, and he has a vivid memory of

what a beautiful garden looks like.

But if you are to try to explain

to this person, that in front of you

there is beautiful green grass, and a stream

which is flowing through this garden, and on

the side of this stream there are beautiful

flowers, and there are palm trees that are

growing out from the sides, you know, this

is something that that person is imagining, but

it's not like a person actually seeing.

So, any deficiency in any of these senses

would result in a person's comprehension or knowledge

of a certain subject to be limited also.

So, the other things are, there are certain

things that are in existence, that we know

they exist.

We know they exist.

We are 100% sure that they exist.

But yet, we cannot comprehend them with the

five senses.

For example, we know that we all have

a ruh in our body, a soul in

our body.

And that soul, it keeps us alive.

It makes us be able to move and

do certain things.

Without that soul, basically, it's not a human

anymore.

You refer to that human without a soul

now as a body.

As soon as a person dies, people immediately

start referring to that person who is known

as Abdullah or Abdurahman or Ziyah as the

body.

When is the body coming?

When are we going to have janaza on

the body?

When is the body going to be buried?

It's not named with a name anymore.

So, the ruh, once it's taken out, then

this is what happens.

But we know there is a ruh, but

we cannot see that ruh, we cannot feel

that ruh, we cannot taste that ruh, but

we know that it exists.

There are some things also, for example, in

existence, that scientifically we know, gravity.

What is gravity?

Something, a force that keeps us on the

ground.

It doesn't allow us to basically float in

the air, like we would do in space.

So, we have gravity, we know gravity exists,

but is there any type of measuring device

or any way that we can see or

feel or hear gravity in any way, shape

or form?

We cannot.

So, again, there are certain types of knowledge

that we rely upon without seeing them and

without having the ability to use our five

senses to see them.

Electricity.

Electricity may be, if you touch the wrong

wires or you touch a live wire, you

may be able to feel it, but you

cannot actually see electricity as it's flowing through

wires.

Only when you touch a naked wire will

you be able to feel that it's there.

But electricity is powering everything that we see

around us.

But we don't see that electricity and we

don't feel it unless there are certain situations

for us to do that.

So, also the fact that oxygen is around

us, hydrogen is around us, nitrogen is around

us.

We cannot see or feel these things even

though they are part of our existence.

So, these things are not known as these

things that do exist.

We know they exist, but our senses cannot

pick them up.

Similar to that, there are certain things in

existence, other things that we were told by

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the Prophet

that they exist.

And those are known as ilm al-ghayb.

Those things are known as ilm al-ghayb.

So, there are, for example, Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala says in the Qur'an, وَاللَّهُ

الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّهُ عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةُ وَالرَّحْمَٰنُ

الرَّحِيمُ Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is describing

both.

That he is the knower, he knows everything,

which is unseen, hidden, and he knows the

things which are apparent.

عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةُ Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

also says, وَاللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَحْمِلُ كُلُّ أُنثَى

وَمَا تَغِيظُ الْأَرْحَامُ وَمَا تَزْدَادُ Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala knows every female, and كلُّ أُنثى

is mentioned here, to not just include human

beings, but also include animals.

Every single animal that is a female, that

is carrying a baby, Allah subhanahu wa ta

'ala is aware of it.

And whatever is in the arham, from more

or less, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is

fully aware of it.

وَكُلُّ شَيْءٍ عِنْدَهُ بِمِقْدَارٍ أَعَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ

الْكَبِيرُ الْمُتَعَالِ Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes

also in this verse, that he is the

knower of the غَيْب, meaning the unseen, and

شَهَادَ, the things which are seen, and he

is الكَبِير, he is the Great, المُتَعَالِ, the

Most High.

سَوَاءٌ مِّنْكُمْ مَنْ أَسَرَّ الْقَوْلِ وَمَنْ جَهْرَ بِهِ

وَمَنْ هُوَ مُسْتَخْفٍ بِاللَّيْلِ وَسَارِفٌ بِالنَّهَارِ Then Allah

subhanahu wa ta'ala says, it doesn't matter,

if you secretly say something, or openly say

something, when Allah is described as عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ

وَالشَّهَادَةِ whether you secretly say something, or you

openly say something, He knows it.

سَوَاءٌ مِّنْكُمْ مَنْ أَسَرَّ الْقَوْلِ وَمَنْ جَهْرَ بِهِ

وَمَنْ هُوَ مُسْتَخْفٍ بِاللَّيْلِ وَسَارِفٌ بِالنَّهَارِ And Allah

subhanahu wa ta'ala is fully aware of

that person who conceals himself at night, and

the one who is clear and open in

the day time.

Allah is fully aware of both situations.

In another verse Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

says اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا

فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ ثُمَّ اسْتَوَى عَلَى الْأَرْشِ مَا

لَكُمْ مِنْ دُونِهِ مِنْ وَلِيهِ وَلَا شَفِيعُ أَفَلَا

تَتَذَكَّرُونَ يُدَبِّرُ الْأَمْرَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ الْأَرْضِ ثُمَّ يَعْرَجُ

إِلَيْهِ فِي يَوْمٍ كَانَ مِقْتَارُهُ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ مِّمَّا

تَعُدُّونَ And describing after that he says ذَلِكَ

عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ That is

عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَادَةِ The Almighty, The Merciful Again

going into detail about عَالِمُ الْغَيْبِ What does

it mean?

The scholars say طَرِيقُ الْوَصُولِ إِلَى مَعْرِفَتِهِ مَعْرِفَةٌ

حَقِيقِيَّةٌ هو المعرفة الحقيقية هو الوحي الإلهي الذي

جاء به الرسل عليهم الصلاة والسلام The only

way to find out about the true reality

of عِلْمُ الْغَيْبِ is to rely upon what

the Anbiya' alayhimusallatu wasallam brought from the wahi

of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So it's

not something that you and I can discuss

unless we take it from authentic sources that

were sent to us by Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala himself When we or when humanity

tried to figure out the existence of Allah

subhanahu wa ta'ala using their own senses,

then obviously they became misguided Many societies, for

example, they saw the power of the sun

and they just started worshipping the sun And

many people saw the power of the water,

they started worshipping the water So the existence

of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has to

be given to us and the information about

that has to be given to us by

Anbiya' alayhimusallatu wasallam And that is something that

we cannot as humans find out by ourselves.

Sometimes when a person he has this guidance

or a certain level of guidance, then he

can use his own what's called Ta'ammul

and Hikmah to come to a conclusion that

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is one and

there is no one worthy of worship except

for him And that kind of mindset was

described in the story of Ibrahim alayhisallatu wasallam

When Ibrahim alayhisallatu wasallam was trying to guide

his people he first of all, he looked

at the creation around him and he first

of all looked at the stars and when

he saw the stars again to try to

guide the people he said you know, this

is my lord, these stars are my lord

and then when they disappeared, he said falamma

afarat qala laa hubbul aafileen When those stars

disappeared, he said I don't like the things

that disappear How could Allah disappear out of,

it could be we see it at one

minute and now it's disappeared and then falamma

ra'al qamara bazighan qala hadha rabbi and

when he saw the full moon he said

this is my lord falamma afarat qala laa

illam yahdini rabbi laa koonanna minal qawmin dhaaleen

When the full moon disappeared, he said that

if my lord doesn't guide me then I'm

going to be misguided So, then he saw

the sun falamma ra'al shamsa bazighatan qala

hadha rabbi hadha akbar falamma afarat qala falamma

afarat qala yaa qawmi inni bari'un min

maa tushrikoon inni wajahat wajhiya lilladhi tatara samawati

wal arda halifa wa maa ana minal mushrikeen

So, he looked at the sun and the

sun ultimately disappeared too and then he said

to his people that I am free from

the shirk that you are committing and I

have turned myself to the creator of the

heavens and the earth So, this was a

kind of stepping stone for people to understand

where they were going wrong in worshipping the

sun and the moon and the stars Allah

SWT through Ibrahim gave them that power to

think and contemplate and the same power to

contemplate the idol worshippers should use it that

why should I worship an idol that cannot

harm me the similar story of Ibrahim where

his people go out on the day of

the festival and he is left alone with

the idols and he smashes all the idols

except for the biggest one and he hangs

the axe on top of the biggest idol

when his people come back they said who

did this who destroyed our statues they started

thinking and they found out that Ibrahim is

the one who always criticizes the idols he

must have done it so then they approached

him and Ibrahim said the biggest statue destroyed

the rest of the statues this is in

the Quran this story is mentioned in a

couple of places in the Quran so, basically

making them think making them try to contemplate

that how foolish are they that they are

worshipping those idols that cannot defend themselves and

on top of that when they are told

that this big idol destroyed the other idols

they said no, that's not possible that's not

possible if it's not possible that this statue

can destroy the other statues then how is

it possible that it's going to help you

it's not possible so this is the kind

of thinking ta'ammul and some kind of

contemplation can help in a person finding out

and getting to the truth about the existence

of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala there are

two types of knowledge again another type of

distribution and one is called al-ilm al

-dhururi and one is called al-ilm al

-nadhuri al-ilm al-dhururi and al-ilm

al-nadhuri al-ilm al-nadhuri means that

type of knowledge that is 100% genuine

and you cannot dispute it if a person

says to you 2 plus 2 you automatically

say 4 you cannot dispute it, this is

al-ilm al-dhururi then there is a

knowledge which is known as al-ilm al

-nadhuri al-ilm al-nadhuri is basically open

to question and open to contemplation, open to

discussion and amongst those things is the fact

the existence of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

this is based on al-ilm al-nadhuri

that people would dispute the existence of Allah

subhanahu wa ta'ala using their mindset and

using their logic so this is inshallah something

that we will discuss next week what is

the difference between al-ilm al-dhururi and

al-ilm al-nadhuri we will discuss that

in detail in the following lessons, I pray

that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us

tawfiq to understand and practice what is being

said and heard