Zia Sheikh – AQIDAH Belief of a Muslim 582017
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Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulullah Shall
we continue our class on Aqidah And today
we are going to be discussing the word
Al-Aqidah itself, what does it actually mean
And some people ask this question, that what
is the difference between Iman and Aqidah Well
Iman means belief, Aqidah also means belief to
a certain degree, so what's the difference between
the two So basically you can say that
Iman is, you can say the original points
of belief For example you have to believe
in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, you have
to believe in his books You have to
believe in the prophets, you have to believe
in the angels But when you go into
depth about those things, what is the belief
in Allah supposed to entail What is the
belief in the angels supposed to entail When
we say the belief in Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, what does Allah mean, where is
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala The description of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the Qur
'an, as the face of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala The shin of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, the hand of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala All of these things, what does
it actually mean, and what are we supposed
to believe in them When we say about
the prophets, what are we supposed to believe
about the prophets Are they masoom, are they
protected from sin or not, are they capable
of committing sins Are they humans or are
they another creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala These are the aspects of belief that
we go into detail and that comes under
Aqidah So Iman in the prophets, yes we
believe in the prophets, but then when we
go into details That is our Aqidah about
the prophets, the angels, we believe in the
angels But the details about those angels, what
are they, what are they created from, do
they live forever Do they have their own
willpower or not, so all of these things
we derive from the Qur'an and the
Sunnah And we understand those things about the
angels, so that is basically the Aqidah about
the angels So in any case inshallah we
are going to discuss the definition of Aqidah
from a linguistic perspective And then from a
sharia perspective, and I mentioned before to you
also That there will always be, whenever you
open up an Islamic book, there are two
definitions that are always given One is the
linguistic definition and one is the sharia definition
For example the word wudhu, in Arabic it
basically means to wash up, to wash your
hands, face etc This is wudhu, but when
we define it from a sharia perspective It
has a different definition, that you basically wash
your body parts in such a way That
has been commanded by Allah SWT and has
been exemplified to us by the Prophet ﷺ
So to wash it in that way, that
is the sharia definition So in any case
there is a linguistic definition and a sharia
definition So what is the linguistic definition first
Al-Aqidah according to the linguistic definition That
is what the human being, human being's heart
becomes tied up with The word Aqd, Aqd
in Arabic means contract, right?
Aqd, and Aqdah, Aqdah means knot So when
you make a contract, it's as if you
have made a knot with somebody and you
tied up that contract So the belief is
something that is tied up like a knot
inside a human being A belief, what his
heart believes in According to a dictionary called
al-Misbah al-Munir The word i'taqadtu katha
means i'taqadtu alayhi alqalbu wa al-dhameer When
you say i'taqadtu, meaning I have Aqidah It
means that my heart and my conscience has
basically become knotted and tied with this certain
thing So then the word Aqidah began to
be used in something which is called maa
yadeenu al-insanu alayhi, maa yadeenu al-insanu
bihi That something that the human being basically
takes as religion So that can therefore mean
that Aqidah doesn't necessarily mean the correct Aqidah
So for example, the Christians, they believe in
Trinity The Trinitarian form of God, the Father,
the Son, the Holy Ghost And the whole
Trinity combined according to them is God himself
So this is an Aqidah, but unfortunately this
is Aqidah Fasida This is a belief which
is corrupt, which is incorrect But yes, yet
it's a belief So Aqidah can be corrupt
and the Aqidah can be correct So the
same person, if you tell him and inform
him and guide him And then he becomes
a person who is convinced of the Tawheed
of Allah SWT Then that Aqidah gets transformed
into a correct Aqidah A correct conviction and
belief So Aqidah then according to the Sharia,
what is it?
It is al-ilmu allathee yubhathu fee maa
yajibu alal-insani an ya'tiq taqidahu wayu'mina bihi
That is that knowledge in which the discussion
takes place upon that which is obligatory upon
the human being to believe in and have
Iman in So that is ilmul Aqidah That
knowledge in which the discussion takes place about
those things in which the human being is
supposed to have the correct Aqidah and have
Iman on it And on top of that,
to get that Aqidah wayuqeemu alayhi al-burhaana
as-saqeeha allathee yufidhu al-yaqeen The person
puts together the proofs, the correct proofs from
the Qur'an, from the Sunnah, from his
surroundings until he comes up with the correct
conviction with the correct yaqeen So this is
basically the definition of Aqidah So a belief,
a conviction that is within one's heart and
this is basically the conviction that is the
conviction that makes a person a believer After
this we are going to discuss the issue
of ilmul Tawheed The word Tawheed, we probably
learnt it from childhood We've learnt this word
from childhood, what is Tawheed?
According to the linguistic definition Ja'alu shay
'i wahidan To make something into one thing
To make something into one thing, that is
what Tawheed is So for example you have
three piles of stones here So you turn
those, you put those stones together and make
one pile of stones that is now Tawheed
You have made three piles of stones into
one pile of stones So you have basically,
according to the linguistic definition You have made
something into one And according to shari'ah,
what is the shari'ah definition of Tawheed?
Ifradul ma'budi bil'ibadah ma'ni itiqadi
wahdatih To make the ma'bud Ma'bud
meaning the one that you worship To make
him and him only worthy of worship With
the belief that he is only one So
to worship only one with the belief that
he is only one And this is different
to what the Hindus believe They say, the
Hindus say that there is only one Bhagwan
There is only one Bhagwan But all of
these statues that they worship Then what are
they?
So they will say that it is a
reflection of that one Bhagwan So then they
worship all these other statues And that's actually
what the mushrikeen of Makkah used to say
They used to say that we believe in
one Allah But he has a helper for
the rain A helper for fertility A helper
for the crops And we worship these statues
to get close to that one So this
is not in accordance with the Tawheed Or
the Shari'ah definition of Tawheed With the
Shari'ah definition of Tawheed You worship only
one ma'bud You worship only the one
The one Allah And you believe also that
he is the only one worthy of worship
No partners, no sons, no children, no helpers,
nothing Ma'i itiqadi wahdatih With the belief
that he is the only one worthy of
worship Wattastiq biha dhatan wa sifatan wa fa
'alan That and then to believe in that
In all of the different perspectives Of the
belief that a person should believe in Allah
SWT So inshallah we will discuss that later
on Another definition of Tawheed is Ilmun
yuqtadaru bihi ala ihbatil aqaidid diniya That is
that knowledge through which a person is capable
Of confirming the religious aqaid So one definition
is when it is related to Allah SWT
And to worship only one Allah But it
also can be used to define In a
general perspective The correct functioning of a religion
And the correct belief in the religion And
there is another name for ilmul tawheed And
that is you will find in the books
It is also known as ilmul kalam So
inshallah why it is called kalam There is
a long discussion over that I won't go
into that because it gets very dry And
it will go over people's heads Ok so
a question might come up That where did
this aqeedah And this ilmul tawheed Where did
it come from And when did it start
Because you will never find Any reference to
it In the time of the Prophet SAW
So the answer to that question is That
all of the sciences that you see today
The science of hadith The science of fiqh
The science of jurisprudence All of these things
you may not have found them At the
time of the Prophet SAW In a format
which is as organized As you find it
today But as the need arose These sciences
also came into existence So for example At
the time of the Prophet SAW There was
no need for the science of hadith The
science of hadith came 150 years or so
later After the Prophet SAW Why did the
science of hadith come into existence Because people
started fabricating a hadith And making things up
And making a hadith up Well this is
a hadith Like unfortunately What we tend to
do nowadays And this is a side note
But something to be very wary of And
be careful of Is that we get something
In our whatsapp group Which sounds very beautiful
And it's mentioned Or referenced as a hadith
And because it sounds so good We tend
to forward it Without thinking about it And
one thing that happened In the last few
days Some hadith in which The Prophet SAW
He was talking about A person who brings
a guest Into his house And when the
guest leaves All of the scorpions and snakes
That were within the house They leave with
that guest And that has been mentioned as
a hadith But then if you delve into
it And find out That's actually a fabrication
But people have been forwarding it Round and
round in circles And it's probably come to
me Through 3 or 4 different circles But
that is the reality Of the situation That
people are forwarding things And trying to send
things forward With good intention But still When
it comes to a hadith We need to
be very careful So going back to the
point The science of hadith came to existence
Because people started fabricating a hadith So then
there needed to be This science to make
sure That all the hadith that were being
formulated Or copied Or narrated They were coming
actually from the Prophet So the science of
hadith was born And within the science of
hadith There are many different components One is
the component of The wording of the hadith
itself That is the wording Something that the
Prophet would say And then There's a different
component Of the narrators of the hadith And
the chain of narrations That each and every
Person that narrated The hadith is scrutinized To
see whether that person Is a valid narrator
of hadith or not So if a person
for example He lied once in his lifetime
That means his hadith Is not accepted That
hadith automatically becomes weak If a person was
a mudallis For example, mudallis means A person
who Didn't narrate the whole chain Of narrators
From himself to the Prophet He missed a
person between him And a rawi That is
early in the chain So that was a
person known as mudallis And people used to
do that Why?
To make their Hadith sound more authentic Now
for example If you heard from A second
person that I said something But then when
you Tell people about it You say I
heard it directly from the Imam's mouth This
is the dalis You heard it from a
second person But you want to show yourself
To be very authentic And as if you
heard it yourself You say that I heard
it directly From the Imam's mouth So this
is the dalis Any person who used to
do that in a hadith His hadith was
also rejected And there are many many other
things That could become the means of Rejection
of hadith So basically the science of hadith
Came into existence because of the need The
same thing with fiqh The same thing with
usulul fiqh The same thing with tafsir When
it comes to tafsir of the Qur'an
When the Prophet ﷺ Recited a verse And
people wanted an explanation of it Who better
to ask Than the Prophet ﷺ himself To
whom the Qur'an was revealed So in
his lifetime There is no need for usulul
tafsir In the time of the sahaba There
is no need for usulul tafsir Why?
Because the sahaba heard Directly from the Prophet
ﷺ And they taught the tabi'een But
then a couple of generations later The usulul
tafsir Had to come into existence To make
sure that the tafsir That was handed down
from person to person And taught from generation
to generation It was authentic So the same
thing Actually applies with ilmul aqeedah Okay So
during the time of the Prophet ﷺ Nothing
used to happen like that That the people
used to have Any objection to anything that
they heard And one of the things That
you will come across That is deeply discussed
In aqeedah Is the issue of The definition
or the description of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala And as I mentioned before earlier You
have in some verses of the Qur'an
The hand of Allah, the shin of Allah
The face of Allah What does it actually
mean?
And I'm going to give you a few
examples of that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says The hand of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala Is over their hands The hands of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Are over their
hands Meaning when people made a contract Or
made bay'ah with the Prophet ﷺ Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala says That Allah's hands
was on top of their hands When they
took the hands of the Prophet ﷺ To
make bay'ah And to pledge allegiance The
hands of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala was
above their hands So what does that mean?
Was it actually the hands of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala Or what does it actually
mean?
So the sahaba They understood what it meant
So there was no deep discussion about this
issue At the time of the Prophet ﷺ
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says Everything will
be destroyed except his face Except the face
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So what
does that mean?
What does the face of Allah mean?
And what does it mean That everything will
be destroyed except his face?
So again That definition The sahaba understood And
there was never any deep discussion about this
issue During the time of the Prophet ﷺ
About Nuh ﷺ Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says That we gave wahi to Nuh ﷺ
We ordered him To build a boat In
front of our eyes Or under our watch
So what does the eyes of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala Actually mean here?
Okay So this is In a hadith is
mentioned And you probably heard this hadith before
In the last third of the night In
the last third of the night Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala descends To the sky of
the dunya What does that descending actually mean?
So Was he not there before?
You know Or is he above a sky
somewhere And he comes from that place to
this place Does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
Even have a place?
This concept of tajzeem Okay Morphism So this
is what it's called So that is something
Which is also discussed So when it came
to these things So the hadith goes on
to say That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says Who's going to make dua to me
That I should respond to him Who's going
to ask me So I should give him
Who's going to make istighfar to me So
I should forgive him So when Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala Is descending to the first
sky What does it actually mean?
The sahaba understood this And there was no
detailed discussion About this also Another hadith In
which the prophet Says In Jahannam People are
going to be thrown into Jahannam May Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us This is
in surat Qaf Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says about Jahannam That people are going to
be put into Jahannam And he's going to
ask Is there more?
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is going to put his
foot Inside Jahannam So much so that it
becomes Crunched up Because of this foot of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So what does
the foot of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
Mean?
And Jahannam is going to say Stop stop
By your honour and by your Generosity Stop
So what does the foot of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala Mean in this context?
So again We find that there's no discussion
Amongst the sahaba With the prophet about these
things Because in those days They automatically Understood
these things So then this concept Of discussion
of these things Came about later on Later
on when people Started discussing these things and
going Into detail about them Not understanding the
linguistic You know Understanding or the linguistic background
About these things Then these discussions started And
when these discussions started Then people started having
Wrong views and some people Had the right
views So to make sure that people had
the right views That discussion took place Books
were written and so on And this is
how the concept Of the ilm al-aqeedah
came into existence So inshallah we're going to
continue With these things later on It tends
to become a little bit dry at times
But inshallah the more we Learn the more
fascinating More of a fascinating insight We'll have
about this issue inshallah I pray that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us Tawfiq to
understand and practice What has been said and
heard