Download The Conditions of La ilaha illa-llah..........Part I

Light of Guidance
Fundamentals of Faith 101
In this class we will discuss the fact that there is a Rabb… the entire two weekends will
be about laa illaha illallah.
The crux of our creed and theology
The next class would be about Allah’s names and attributes
Aqeedah three – deals with the other pillars of iman.
Our basic creed comprises of six fundamental principles – angels, prophets, books, signs
of day of judgement, predestination and divine decree
Fourth aqeedah
Miscellaneous topics… what is the role of the sahabahs – what is the concept of sunnah
and bid3a, what are the concepts of walaa and baraa’
Fifth class – when and how did all of the movements begin in different periods of Islam
Heresiology (tarikh al-firaq)
Sixth class – comparative religions
Blessings of Seeking Knowledge
WE have this motivation because we have that goal in mind. What is the goal of Islamic
knowledge? The goal is for the blessings of Islamic Knowledge.
It will put things into perspective and give us that drive that we need in order to get
reacquainted with our religion.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala has praised knowledge, and praised the people of knowledge.
Surat al mujaadalah, verse 10
O you who believe! When you are told to make room in the assemblies, (spread out and)
make room. Allah will give you (ample) room (from His Mercy). And when you are told
to rise up [for prayers, Jihad (holy fighting in Allah's Cause), or for any other good deed],
rise up. Allah will exalt in degree those of you who believe, and those who have been
granted knowledge. And Allah is Well-Acquainted with what you do.
What did the angels say to Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala? “we worship you non-stop, why
would you create a being that spreads blood… why are you creating a creation that will
die? And on top of that, they’re not fully worshiping You all the time.
Response of Allah – I know that which you do not know.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala wanted to prove that Adam alayhis_salaam was better than
them.
Wa 3alama adamal asmaa’a kulaaha
Afterwards He asked if they knew the names – and when they didn’t, they realized that
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala had perfered Adam over them because Allah subhanaHu wa
Ta'ala blessed him with knowledge that the angels didn’t have. Because he had
knowledge, Adam is better than them.
How did Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala show that the Prophet
4:113
maa lam takun ta3lam…wa kaana fadlullahi 3alyka 3atheema
how is the best human beings status known? We gave you the book – we taught you that
which nobody knew. And because this knowledge was give to you, you are the best of
mankind.
Knowledge is so great that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala testifies on behalf of the people of
knowledge… 18 wa ulool 3ilmi qaaiman bil qist
Allah bears witness that La ilaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but
He), and the angels, and those having knowledge (also give this witness); (He is
always) maintaining His creation in Justice. La ilah illa Huwa (none has the right to
be worshipped but He), the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala >> angels >> people of knowledge
That they are mentioned in the company and context
The fact that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala praises them in the Qur’an by name.
What are they testifying to – laa illaha illallah… another praise
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala describes the people of knowledge as standing firm in truth
and justice.
Parable:
Imagine that you are called as a witness in the court of law, and that you have to testify
and prove your credientials. Before your turn comes, a person who everyone has full faith
in and no one doubts – he stands up and says – “you have no need to testify, I’ll do it on
your behalf”
In this verse, it is not a person speaking on their behalf, it is Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala
speaking on their behalf. Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala speaks on their behalf – He is their
representative – and what a great and beautiful blessing it is when He testifies on their
behalf.
It is they who truly understand the Qur’an, except for the people of knowledge.
Surat al ankaboot, 23
And these similitudes We put forward for mankind, but none will understand them except
those who have knowledge (of Allah and His Signs, etc.).
Tilkal amthaalu nadribuha linnasi
It is the people of knowledge who truly fear of Allah – know one can have that fear and
love and hope in Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala like the person of knowledge can.
That’s why Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala says in surat al faatir, verse 28 – innamma
yakhshallaha min 3ibaadihil 3ullamaa
The only people who truly fear Allah amongst his servants are the ulamaa
It’s not the quantity that changes – it is the quality… it is the people of knowledge who
are not swayed by their desires… it is those people who are not taken in by this world.
Story of Qaroon
fakharaja 3ala qawmihi fi zeenatih –
they saw this façade of beauty – and they swooned. Who was saved from falling pray to
these emotions? The only category of people who saw through this shallowness –
waylakum thawabullahi khayr… when Qarun dies, what will it bring to him? Even in this
life, do you think this wealth is making him happy?
And as they were talking and discussing – the Earth opened up in front of him, and
swallows him and all that he owned. People said – were it not for the mercy of Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala we too were have been worthy of punishment.
Scholars say that they were saved because the people of knowledge advised them. That
mercy manifested when the people of knowledge advised them.
The people of knowledge are those who inherit the prophets. The Prophet (saw) said,
innal 3ulamaa’a warathatul anbiyaa’
The people of knowledge are the inheritors of the prophets..
Knowledge is a sign that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala loves a person. When Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala loves a person, how is that love manifested? What is the sign and
indication that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala
Man yuridillahu bihi khayran, yufaqihu fideen – whoever Allah desires well for, He gives
him a knowledge of the religion.
This is a sign that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala loves you. So if you love knowledge and
have a thirst for knowledge – thank thank Allah – this is a sign that He loves you.
And if you don’t care at all for the Qur’an, and don’t care about the teachings of the
Prophet – then make du3a to Allah.
This implies that if you don’t love knowledge, than Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala does not
love you.
Knowledge is one of the things that remains after a persons death. When a person dies, all
of his good deeds come to an end. No longer can he recite the prayers or give charity.
When we die, our good deeds come to an end. Except for a few footnotes that still are
had.
Idha maata ibnu adam, qata 3amaluhu illa thalath
When our flesh is decaying in our grave, and being transformed into dust, then Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala will continue to send good deeds to the chosen few.
1) sadaqatoon jareeya (perpetual charity) – more than giving money to a beggar
as long as that instrument of good is existing – and benefiting from it… because you were
the one who caused it, you will get and reap the fruits of that charity.
2) Waladun saalih yad3u laah ( a good child that prays for his parents)
You’ve spent years and years instructing them how to eat/drink, and worship Allah – “oh
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala have mercy on my mother and father”
When you have raised your children to be good muslism, they will remember you and
will raise your deeds
3ilmun yuntafahu bihi
if you taught a person to pray – you will get the deeds for his prayer…
suppose the one who prays teaches another one to pray – You get more.
A book that you’ve published – as long as people have been benefiting and people are
reading it…. You will get the reward.
People all over the world read their books till this day – they are long gone, but their
books are alive.
Imagine now, like imam al bukhaari – every time a hadith is quoted, can you imagine the
reward accruing in bukharis account? One life time multiplying into millions and millions
of lifetimes.
Every single good deed that we do – a portion of that will be rewarded to the Prophet
(saw)… and that is why there is no comparison to the Prophet of Allah and all the other
human beings.
There is one hadith – “they are the inheritors of the prophets” – it’s a long hadith reported
in the sunan of at-tirmidhi…
It is narrated that a man came from madina, all the way from Damascus to visit abu
dardaa’ – and this journey would take one month one way and another month the way
back.
He comes to Damascus and asks where abu darda’ is… and eventually he is pointed out
to who he is. When he comes to him, he says “oh Abu darda’ I have come from madina
to visit you to ask you something”
Abu darda’ is shocked… “do you not have any other reason that you’ve come to
Damascus…” anything else to do? He said no
So abu darda’ said “in that case, let me tell you something I heard formthe pRophet
(saw0
He said “never does a person undertake a journey, in order to seek knowledge except that
his journey to jannah becomes easy. So when you strive and exert yourself to get
knowledge, the path to jannah will be easier for you.
2nd point – and the angels lower their wings upon the student of knowledge out of
happiness for what he is doing.
The angels roam around this earth – their job is to see who is doing good and to
accompany that good. Their presence brings about blessings… they leave when evil
comes.. they don’t like it…
So when the angels find a person who comes to a halaqah, gaining knowledge… they
lower their wings – ie they stop flying every where…
Just like the bird puts its wings over its chicklet to protect it from the wind/heat, etc…
similarly they protect the student of knowledge from harm.
-And as for the scholars, wa innal 3alima – every single being on the face of this earth, so
much so, that even the ant in its anthole and fish in the ocean – they send their blessings
upon the one who teaches mankind good. Every single object of creation prays to Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala to bless the people of knowledge.
One of the reasons they do this is because they teach compassion and mercy – and
therefore even the animals love the people of knowledge – teach humankind how to be
merciful towards them.
The hadith goes on “the hadith of knowledge” – the Prophet sallallahu 3ala
Wainna fadlal 3aalimi 3alal 3aabidi – and the superiority of the scholar over the
worshipper –
Who is a worshipper? A person who dedicates his life – someone who is far superior to
the average Muslim – praying tahajjud every night – that type of Muslim… the
superiority of the scholar over the worshipper – is like the superiority of the full moon
over the rest of the stars.
When there’s no moon, we look up to the sky – we see millions … literally you cannot
count the number of stars… how much light does it give you? – very little.
One moon comes, and how many stars do you see? All the stars are eclipsed, no longer
can you see them.
The full moon is so bright that in the middle of the night will cast a shadow in the ground.
And millions of stars will leave you in utter darkness.
One 3aalim eclipses a nation of worshippers – one 3alim is far superior to millions and
millions of worshippers? Its so beautiful to worship Allah – stars..
The worshipper, when he prays and reads Qur’an, who has he benefited in the process?
One person – nobody except himself..
When a person of knowledge comes a long, he benefits the entire earth… everyone
benefits… in our life times even, we have had ulaama, who have changed the face of this
earth, without any politics or power, just by their knowledge.
They have started a renaissance because of their knowledge. Many cases of one 3alim
coming to a country and changing it completely – a revolution of spirituality and
increasing their knowledge of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala and Islam.
And this shows us the blessings of knowledge as opposed to worship.
Last phrase of the hadith – “and the people of knowledge are the wa innal 3ulamaa hum
waraqatul aambiyaa”
For prophets didn’t leave behind gold and silver – (when the Prophet died he only had 7
silver coins … that’s all he had) … when the prophets die, they don’t leave behind gold
and silver, they leave behind knowledge… and whoever takes it, has indeed taken a
fortune.
If you want to inherit from the Prophet (saw) … everyone can take from him. That
fortune is accessible to everyone of us today. And when you do so – directly you will be
linked to this fortune that the Prophet (saw) came with. And you will be with the
inheritors of the Prophet.
Some people quote this and apply it to secular knowledge. And no doubt, its very
necessary to study all of this. Some people try to apply these ayat to secular knowledge
and that is incorrect. Its good to learn, but its not the blessed knowledge that the Qur’an
and Sunnah refers to. And there are many evidences to this.
The people of knowledge are those who understand what is theology and iman. The only
people who truly fear Allah are the people who have knowledge.
Secular knowledge in and of itself will not bring you closer to Allah – how man of these
professions who are atheists… appreciation of Allah through secular knowledge comes
through that initial understanding.
The seat of all other sciences – everything else is secondary.
Generally – on a society level, the one who has secular knowledge, is preferred.
Knowledge generically will make you more preferred.
An 3alim is someone who differentiates between what he knows and what he doesn’t
know. Imam malik was asked a series of questions – and out of 40 of them, 28 of them,
more than half he said he doesn’t know.
A 3alim clearly knows what he knows, and knows what he doesn’t know.
Ettiqutes of students of knowledge.
They used to learn manners just as they used to learn knowledge
Good manners is almost 2/3rds of knowledge.
Almaghrib teaches a higher class on etiquettes – called the rules of engagement
An adab can be categorized in many ways
Manner of the students with himself, his teacher, and his fellow students.
First and foremost – the etiquette you have with yourself is sincerity. It should be for the
sake of Allah, and only for the sake of Allah.
As we know from the hadith in bukhari – all actions are by their intentions.
Sunan of al nisaa2i – whoever learns Islamic knowledge in order to be arrogant amongst
the people of knowledge, or to debate with the ignorant, or to beautify gatherings with.
If you seek knowledge to show that you are more knowledgeable, etc
Where ever you are you quote all of this – if you quote something that’s true but your
intention is not to please Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala, your intention is so that people will
be impressed by what you do… whoever does these three things, let him beware of the
fire of hell.
Doing an act of worship for other than Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
This deen of learning knowledge has to be for the sake of Allah. When someone is asking
you about studying your secular studies, people ask you why you’re doing it, you say “to
gain money” – no problem whatsoever.
“but I want to benefit people with this knowledge, and fear Allah and come closer to
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala” >> that’s fine… you want to come closer to Allah, and you
want others to come closer to Allah.
Whats wrong is trying to get fame from that knowledge. First and most important
etiquette that everyone should have in themselves.
Secondly – you purify your heart from jealousy and hatred of others. What happens as
every student of Islamic knowledge knows – when you start studying Islamic knowledge,
it is only natural that some of them will excel over others. When these people excel over
you – what is your reaction to that? Do you start double guessing their intentions.
Oh, he was just showing off – he just wanted to impress other people. “yeah I knew that”
I could have done that – and you start feeling jealousy, and start double guessing other
peoples intentions and their sincerity. And this is a problem … because when you start
guessing other people’s sincerity, it is a sign that you yourself are not sincere.
You wanted to be famous, therefore you feel jealous that that person knows what you
don’t know. If you really had a love of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala and Iman, you would
have said alhamdulillah a good point has been said… and you should also say, I don’t
have to worry about my intentions. The very fact that you’re thinking of his motives is a
fact that you yourself aren’t sincere.
Another thing we have to be careful of is that of sin. Sins are an impediment to
knowledge. Imam ash shaafi3i, complained to his teacher wakeei3 and he said, I can’t
seem to memorize all of this information
Wakee3 ibn jarra7 – gave him the problem/source, and disease that causes this problem.
Imam ashaafi3i made a small poem out of this incident.
Shakawtu illa wakee3 soo2a hifthi, fa arshadanee ila tarkil ma3asi
wa qala inna ilmAllahi noor, wa noorAllahi laa yu3ta li 3aasi
how can this blessing enter your heart when you’re committing all of these sins? This
does not mean that when you get knowledge you will become sinless – everyone is
human. You will commit sins as long as you live. What will knowledge do? It will bring
about a realization of the gravity of the sins. The knowledge will have a profound impact
on your life.
If theres no difference between the time before and after you study Islam, it’s a big
problem. You should raise your actions and quality of life. If theres no change, theres a
problem. And it means that the knowledge has not penetrated where it needs to penetrate.
With knowledge comes a type of thankfulness and a type of seriousness with it. Imagine
you come to the doctor and starts cracking jokes about your symptoms – would you go to
such a doctor? No.. there’s a time and place to be joking, and a time to be serious. This is
a holy science – you understand the blessing that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala has given
you.
You need to have good studying habits and good companions to study with. Knowledge
is not gained through osmosis. You’re going to have to actually open the book.
Understand, memorize. Just like any other science. There is no magic trick about it. Even
though Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala will help you if you’re a pious person.
You still have to sit down and read… you have to go over those notes and read them.
Islamic knowledge deserves even more.
Of the etiquettes of studying is that you study in the early hours. This is a time of
blessings – the prophet (saw) said – my nation has been blessed in its early morning
hours. Meaning that when you do something in the early morning you will accomplish a
lot more than if you do it later on.
That’s why we all go to work in the day and don’t go to work at night… that’s why if we
stay after fajr –what we get accomplished in three four hours, we know this in our lives
… we experience it. Whatever you do, you get more out of it.
So if you want to study Islamic sciences, you can do so in the early hours. Be realistic –
take out a book in the morning, so that you gain bit by bit. When you hang around people
who only talk about football, you’re going to find out about scores.
Similarly if you hang around people who love Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala and His
messenger, you will learn about it..
“a person is upon the religion of his friends. So be careful whom you choose as your
friends”
of the most important aspect of your teachers – is to choose the right teacher. You need to
find the right teacher. The problem comes in Islamic studies is that there are many who
claim to have knowledge – but they all have different theologys.. and its not an issue of
an equation… its an issue of jannah and naar… these are not trivial questions. You have
to go to the right person.
Ibn siren – this knowledge that you’re studying is the knowledge of your religion – so be
careful who you take your religion from … don’t just take it from anyone. Take it from
someone you can trust and depend on.
Two/three pointers
Make du3a to allah to guide you to the right teacher.
Secondly – use your common sense
Thirdly – methodology , look at it… is he making you stronger in Iman? Don’t just be a
blind follower… take it back to the quran and sunnah.
Another point is that there should be a respect associated when you get this knowledge.
When you’re studying with a person who is one who specialized in that field, you sit
there and take good notes. This is more so applicable when you’re studying the quran and
sunnah.
One of the scholars of hadith would only narrate when he saw his students taking notes
and being interested. If you don’t’ have enough enthusiasm to learn about the deen, then I
can teach you anoterh time, and he would leave.
Not out of arrogance, but out of respect for the knowledge.
Imam ashafi3i would sit at the feet of imam malik… he would take notes form imam
malik. He told his students later on… “I would be careful when I turn the paper -= I
would turn it gently, so as not to disturb him when he was teaching”
And therefore when he respected his teachers so much, Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala
blessed him with students who respected him. And therefore we should be appreciative
and make du3a for that scholar.
If I ever heard one point of hadith or knowledge, I would do as much as I could for him.
Because that blessing he gave me of knowledge was worth more than anything else. I
would help him in any way possible until he died.
To sit properly in front of your teacher and to control your boredom. They would also
control their yawns. Likewise, to ensure that when you see your teacher commit some
fault, you realize that every teacher is but human. And you have to differentiate between
two mistakes.. a personal human flaw.
If a teacher has an incorrect belief – this is not a trivial mistake. You shouldn’t be
learning from him. End of story. On the other hand, if you find a teacher who becomes
irritated at a question, and he said ‘don’t come to me now, come to me later’ and you see
him commit a mistake… realize that he is not divine… you would spend the rest of your
life –
The greatest ulama, when you come closer to them, and you realize who they are… they
were also mortal… they have their flaws, but the good in them is much much more than
these trivial faults. Because of your arrogance, you would leave that teacher for that thing
– but the scholar is still there.
Manners with his fellow students
To love them with a special love and to avoid feeling jealousy… this is a disease amongst
many people – especially when it comes to seeking knowledge. Its an indication of your
own insincerity. To accuse others of this, you’re actually accusing yourself. Leave
judgements to Allah. Don’t care about why they’re doing it, care about yourself. “why
am I so worried about why he is doing this”
Do not wish that which Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala has given you over others – realize
that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala has chosen some people for some blessings, and others
for other blessings. Every one of us has a blessing that someone else does not have.
Accept the decree of Allah – but this doesn’t mean that we don’t want to be better people.
Laa hasada illa fitnatayn – there should be no jealosy except in two matters.
A person whom Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala has given the quran to (in another nation,
knowledge to) – a person whom Allah has given money to, and he spends that money for
the sake of Allah.
This type of jealousy is a praise worthy jealousy. Its like – I want to be like him, and I
still want him around.
Imam ash-shafi3i – I would always be thankful when knowledge was spread without my
name associated with it. Now he hears his students are spreading it… they just say the
verdict or the opinion. It’s the sincerity – he’s not worried about it anymore… what he
wants is for Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala to reward him. If you were sincere for the sake
of Allah, you wouldn’t be worried about why, you’d be worried about spreading the
knowledge.
Similarly the one who wants to show off does the same thing. Outwardly the real person
of knowledge and the fraud might be the same – in the private life, world of a difference.
What is the difference? It is the intentions. But in his heart, he is attached to Allah and
happy to see the knowledge spread. He wants that knowledge to be ascribed to him – and
he wants his or her name spread in the community. So when you have this symptom or
disease, make sure you cut it at its root.
To help them in his studies – share notes.
Of the things you should do is to make du3a for your brothers and sisters in Islam and
that they’re able to benefit from this knowledge. When you make du3a for other people to
gain knowledge – you want other people to excel and become famous, it means you’re
not worried about fame, you want the religion of Allah to be revived. Bless my sisters to
understand this material and spread it. BIGGEST sign that you’re sincere. Also realize
that when you make du3a for someone else, it is also as if you’re making du3a for
yourself. Anytime a Muslim is making du3a in his absence, and angel comes and he says
Ameen, and may you be given the same.
It is narrated that some of the scholars wanted something – they would sincerely ask
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala for the other person to get it. “oh Allah, bless our fellow
students of knowledge to memorize everything and to benefit people with it”
When you specify the people that you know – the more specific you are, the more that
du3a will come and apply to you.
This is such a small branch of adab – in reality there is much more. When you have a
superficial knowledge, it reads arrogance. It makes you feel holier than other people. It
makes you feel better than others. Real knowledge makes you more humble. Why?
Because you realize you are no body.. you realize you don’t know anything.
One of the scholars said – when you start studying knowledge you think you know it all –
when you gain a little bit, you realize how little you know… and when you get to the
perfection of knowledge, you realize that you never knew anything. When you get a dose
of this, you’re humbled. And when you get into the field and you see no end to it, that’s
when you realize you don’t know anything.
The more knowledge you have, the more you realize you don’t have. And that is a
general rule of thumb. The greatest ulama on the face of this earth are those who realize
they are ignorant more than anyone. And the most arrogant and useless are those who
think they know it all.
This class is a very advanced course – it is an introductory level class. We can go into
every issue including the ones we have just covered for days and days. In reality, every
issue that we’re going to discuss is a field in and of itself. In reality this is just the tip of
the iceberg. Each one of these issues can be the topic for many many discussions. Let no
one have this feeling that they know everything in this course. Even though it will seem
advanced, it will still be very introductory.
At the end of this class we will appreciate more of what he is saying. Make sure you
approach it with sincerity to Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala and humility.
Generally speaking, a person who has a corrupted belief system, you don’t study your
religion from him. It is possible that a person has some incorrect beliefs, but is still a
good Muslim, you can learn, Arabic, tadjweed, etc… go to someone whom you trust and
ask, but it is a case by case basis.
In the past, it was considered very disrespectful to eat and drink in front of a teacher –
and this is the general ettiqutte in eastern lands. This is a matter of culture and etiquette.
What is rude or not is very cultural.
The believer is not stung from the same hole twice – if someone double crossed you, you
take extra precautions with him.
Incentive to study one branch of knowledge – belief/theology. What do we believe about
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala? One of the best ways to motivate us to study this science is
to study the blessings of it – and imaan in general. The topic of all of the six lectures of
aqeedah – imaan.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala mentions a parable – He says:
See you not how Allah sets forth a parable? - A goodly word as a goodly tree, whose root
is firmly fixed, and its branches (reach) to the sky (i.e. very high). [14:24]
Giving its fruit at all times, by the Leave of its Lord and Allah sets forth parables for
mankind in order that they may remember. [14:25]
Kalimatan tayyibatan – scholars including ibn 3abbas say that this is referring to “laa
illaha illaAllah”
Laaillaha illahl is a beautiful tree – and the branches are towering in the sky – the roots
go very deep. This tree gives you its fruits at all times by the permission of its Lord. Its
tree is ever fruitful. Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala wants to give you parables so that you
can think and ponder over these parables.
The first point of this parable – Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala compares the kalimah to a
tree. What’s the symbolism/message being given?
Communal benefit
It grows
The tree has many branches
The tree gives off oxygen
The tree is the fundamental building block of life – the tree gives us the fruit that we live
off of, the oxygen… the tree gives us wood with which we build our houses – the tree
gives us everything we need to live. And to this day it is a symbol of life. Just like this
tree gives you physical life – laa illaha illallah gives you your spiritual life.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala didn’t say it wasn’t any tree – He said it was a beautiful tree.
There are some trees that look spooky or gnarly. Some trees you look at them and are
inspired with awe – the trees that when you look at them, you feel the magnity of Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala’s creation.
Who’s roots are firmly established
The belief in Alalh is the root and basis of all other beliefs. If you want to belive in any
other thing, you have to start with Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala. When a tree has deep
roots, it implies that it is firm and solid.
When hurricanes go through a city – houses are turned upside down… - but the trees are
not uprooted – because it has such deep roots. When you have Imaan, you’re not going to
waver, oscillate, or doubt, you will be firm in your Imaan.
When the tree of imaan is planted in your heart, it cannot be uplifted after that. That’s
what we find – one way traffic. Everyone embraces Islam – but have you ever wondered
why? You find Christians and budhists, etc – every division enters Islam. But you never
find a practicing Muslim or a scholar through his research and study say that Hinduism is
the way of God. You find learned people of other scriptures who accept Islam. But you
never find in the history of Islam who studied Islam and studied the other religions go
against it.
Heraclius – the emperor of the Byzantine empire – Rome. The Prophet sallallahu
3alayhis_salaam sends a letter to the emperors of the world and he invites them to Islam.
So he gets this letter (hadith in bukhari – in the first book) – asked him a series of
questions. Heraclius has a conversations with abu sufyan. Do you know this man, is he of
a noble lineage, the lowly or the rich and high? The poor or the arrogant and mighty.
Most noble of lineages. We consider him to be trustworthy and truthful – people who
follow him are the lower class and not the upper. “tell me, the people who embrace his
religion, has it occurred that they left his religion after embracing?” abu sufyan said no.
and he’s talking of a time where people were tortured – shreaded to pieces with horses,
etc.
Heraclius said – respectable lineages. You never knew him to lie – if he didn’t lie about
gold and silver, how could he possibly lie about God and the hereafter. This is how the
prophets are accepted – the lower class that follows the religion of God general. I asked
you about whether or not people leave after. wa hakathal imaan…. When it enters the
depths of the hearts, you can never extract it again.
A true faith will attract followers and not expel them. Heraclius said at the end of it – I
was expecting him to come, but I didn’t think he was going to come from you arabs. The
arabs were so backward – the people didn’t care about them, that the two powers didn’t
care to conquer it. And if what you have told me is true, than a day will come where he
will rule the land under my feet – that land was called Istanbul.
Wa far3uha fisamaa – who’s branches tower to the sky. The shelter/shade of the branches
is limitless. The imagery represents high status.
You can’t hide such a tree – everyone can see it. When you have imaan – it will be
manifested outwardly.
When a person has imaan, you can’t hide that imaan. You will see it in the way they treat
it. It will be shown in your actions and manifested outwardly. Imaan towering to the skies
means you can’t hide it.
It gives its fruit at all times – You eat it – it sustains you and nourishes you spiritually
where ever you are. A person who has imaan can benefit other people. People will benefit
from that imaan. People will be able to
When a person is a believer, all of a sudden he becomes a tree that everyone is benefiting
from. It gives fruits in the dunya and akhira – at all times. There is no tree in creation that
is ever-fruitful. That any time of day you can pluck fruits from. Any time you need to
replenish, or get up – you have that tree of imaan to pluck this fruit off of, to benefit
others and yourself as well.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala says it gives its fruits – it doesn’t give you just apples or
oranges – it gives you multiple fruits – no tree can do that. There are special trees for
every fruit. The tree of imaan will give you a variety of fruits. The tree of imaan will give
you every single fruit that you need in this life and the next.
Some Fruits of This Tree:
The first of these fruits is paradise – and paradise is promised to people of Imaan. 18:107
"Verily! Those who believe (in the Oneness of Allah Islamic Monotheism) and do
righteous deeds, shall have the Gardens of Al-Firdaus (the Paradise) for their
entertainment.
Another blessing of Jannah is that it will protect you from the fire of Hell. And depending
on the level of imaan you have, you will be protected from the fire of hell either
permanently or even initially entering it. We know this because there will be a category
of people who have some imaan – they will enter it, but they will leave it. This is decided
by the level of imaan that they have.
If we were to have a chart of Imaan –
The iman that we feel in hajj is not like the time we feel other places. There will be some
initial landmarks that we need to be aware of.
Underneath it you’re not a Muslim – and if you’re above it – we call it the bear minimum
of imaan.
Those who avoid great sins (see the Quran, Verses: 6:152,153) and Al-Fawahish (illegal
sexual intercourse, etc.) except the small faults, verily, your Lord is of vast forgiveness.
He knows you well when He created you from the earth (Adam), and when you were
fetuses in your mothers' wombs. So ascribe not purity to yourselves. He knows best him
who fears Allah and keep his duty to Him [i.e. those who are Al-Muttaqun (pious - see
V.2:2)].
[53:32] – proof for the diagram.
The fate of the faasiq is that it is possible that he will be punished in the hell if he doesn’t
return and ask forgiveness. When you reach the minimum required level
What is the minimum required level? The five pillars of Islam – and to avoid the major
sins.
If you’re at a faasiq level – then you’re under the threat of punishment. If you reach the
minimum required level of imaan, then you will not be punished in the fire of hell. If you
fulfill the five pillars of Islam and avoid the major sins, then you will be saved from the
life of hell. There are other forms of punishments – He will not punish you for other sins
for that bare minimum.
It will save you from permanently being in the hell fire. The bare minimum will save you
from being ETERNALLY in Hell. What defines that line (of the bare minimum) under
which you’re not a Muslim anymore? (will discuss in further classes)
Belief in six pillars of faith, and that you also do the prayers occasionally. Some of the
groups of the past denied these two levels. Imaan and kufr. Some other groups took the
minimum required level and smooshed it to the bare minimum - khawaarij did that.
Another group raised this higher – murjee2a – they said it doesn’t matter if I eat haram or
drink haram, as long as I have faith in my heart, I’m a good Muslim/mu2min. And this
concept of irjaa2 (which is still present in the ummah). Very convenient creed. Real
theology of thought when you have it in your heart it has to be manifested in the limbs.
There’s a person who’s a bad Muslim, but he’s still a Muslim.
Imaan also acts as a key to have all other deeds accepted
17:19
And whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it, with the necessary effort due for it
(i.e. do righteous deeds of Allah's Obedience) while he is a believer (in the Oneness of
Allah Islamic Monotheism), then such are the ones whose striving shall be appreciated,
thanked and rewarded (by Allah).
If you do these deeds for your own ego – why should Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala reward
you? You didn’t do it out of real genuine faith – you did it for other reasons. You got the
reward you wanted, which is your ego. So you have to have imaan in order for your
deeds to be accepted by Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
Imaan is a means of forgiving sins. As Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala said in surat furqan,
70
Except those who repent and believe (in Islamic Monotheism), and do righteous deeds,
for those, Allah will change their sins into good deeds, and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most
Merciful.
Another blessing is the protection of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala: 2:257
Allah will fight on your behalf against those who try to warn you.
Hajj – verse 38
Truly, Allah defends those who believe. Verily! Allah likes not any treacherous ingrate to
Allah [those who disobey Allah but obey Shaitan (Satan)].
Imaan brings about more imaan - Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala will guide you because of
your imaan.
Surah younus, verse 9
Verily, those who believe [in the Oneness of Allah along with the six articles of Faith, i.e.
to believe in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers, Day of Resurrection, and
Al-Qadar (Divine Preordainments) - Islamic Monotheism], and do deeds of
righteousness, their Lord will guide them through their Faith; under them will flow rivers
in the Gardens of delight (Paradise).
The more imaan you have – the easier it is to go higher. The blessings is that the more
you have, the easier it is to acquire it.
Imaan acts as a protection and a comfort for the believers.
3:173
Those (i.e. believers) unto whom the people (hypocrites) said, "Verily, the people
(pagans) have gathered against you (a great army), therefore, fear them." But it (only)
increased them in Faith, and they said: "Allah (Alone) is Sufficient for us, and He is the
Best Disposer of affairs (for us)."
They thought of their imaan, and it gave them the protection and comfort that they
wanted. They found comfort and solice in that imaan. Imaan always brings about good. A
mu’min is never a loser. Any situation that happens to a believer is a winning situation.
The Prophet sallallahu 3alayhi wasallam –
Amazing are the affaris of the believer –because everything that occurs to him is good. If
good happens to him, he thanks Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.. and Allah gives him more.
And if bad happens more, he is patient, and you get rewarded for that patience.
Never does anything happen to you except that it is for your good. And this is only for
the believer. As for the one who doesn’t have faith, even if he calls himself a Muslim,
Allah blesses him with faith, he starts moaning and groaning and complaining… and so
he misses out.
Imaan acts as an escape from the problems – a mu’min is never trapped
Talaaq: 2
Then when they are about to fulfil their term appointed, either take them back in a good
manner or part with them in a good manner. And take for witness two just persons from
among you (Muslims). And establish the witness for Allah. That will be an admonition
given to him who believes in Allah and the Last Day. And whosoever fears Allah and
keeps his duty to Him, He will make a way for him to get out (from every difficulty).
Surat al mujadalah verse 11
O you who believe! When you are told to make room in the assemblies, (spread out and)
make room. Allah will give you (ample) room (from His Mercy). And when you are told
to rise up [for prayers, Jihad (holy fighting in Allah's Cause), or for any other good deed],
rise up. Allah will exalt in degree those of you who believe, and those who have been
granted knowledge. And Allah is Well-Acquainted with what you do.
The Prophet (saw) said – when a fornicator fornicates he has no imaan, and when a
drunkard drinks, he has no imaan, and when a stealer steals, he has no imaan. You can’t
have this level and do these sins. While this guy is doing these things, he cannot have
imaan in heart.
And it hovers over him like a cloud until he finishes that deed. When you have imaan in
your heart it acts as a barrier to protect you from falling into that.
Imaan gives you a good life in this world.
Nahl – verse 97
Whoever works righteousness, whether male or female, while he (or she) is a true
believer (of Islamic Monotheism) verily, to him We will give a good life (in this world
with respect, contentment and lawful provision), and We shall pay them certainly a
reward in proportion to the best of what they used to do (i.e. Paradise in the Hereafter).
This is something that a majority of Muslims are oblivious too. How many of us are
aware that we will enjoy a good life if we have imaan? The real happiness is not the
happiness of wealth. Its not that you become famous when you’re pious. Its that you
become happy when you’re pious.
The person without imaan is never satisfied. Happiness comes to the believer in the form
of internal content. You’re happy with it. The mu’min takes advantage of the good and
changes the whole perspective of life. The believer enjoys this life and only they can
enjoy it fully. Real satisfaction is exclusive to the believer – and that’s a blessing that
many Muslims don’t realize.
If you want the akhira, you will be happy in this world as well. And this is of the
Yunous, 64
For them are glad tidings, in the life of the present world(i.e. righteous dream seen by the
person himself or shown to others), and in the Hereafter. No change can there be in the
Words of Allah, this is indeed the supreme success.
Fussilat, 30
Verily, those who say: "Our Lord is Allah (Alone)," and then they Istaqamu , on them the
angels will descend (at the time of their death) (saying): "Fear not, nor grieve! But
receive the glad tidings of Paradise which you have been promised!
As for those who do not have imaan – the angels will begin their torture before the soul
leaves the body.
Of the signs of imaan is khilafa – surat noor, 55
Allah has promised those among you who believe, and do righteous good deeds, that He
will certainly grant them succession to (the present rulers) in the earth, as He granted it to
those before them, and that He will grant them the authority to practise their religion, that
which He has chosen for them (i.e. Islam). And He will surely give them in exchange a
safe security after their fear (provided) they (believers) worship Me and do not associate
anything (in worship) with Me. But whoever disbelieved after this, they are the Fasiqun
(rebellious, disobedient to Allah)
The proper way to achieve power in this world, is to achieve belief in Allah. Have imaan
in Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala. Of the blessings of Imaan is that brotherhood will be
written for the believers.
Hujarat, 10
The believers are nothing else than brothers (in Islamic religion). So make reconciliation
between your brothers, and fear Allah, that you may receive mercy.
When you have imaan, you enter the ummah of Islam.
Of the blessings of Imaan is that love is written for you on this earth. In a haidht narrated
in sahih bukhari – when Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala loves a person, he says to jibreel –
oh Jibreel I love so and so, so love him. So jibreel love shim. So jibreel goes to the other
angels in congregation and announces that – so the angels love him. So when the angels
love him, people begin to love him. And so many are the people – you find people have a
love for them for no reason. Because Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala loves this person.
The believer is one who benefits from advice.
In surat adh-dhaariyaat – verse
55
And remind (by preaching the Quran, O Muhammad SAW) for verily, the reminding
profits the believers.
You go to a person and generally start advising him – you find the believer melts and
starts crying in front of you. He takes this sin and really magnifies it and benefits from
your advice.
When you have imaan, its easier to advise – when you don’t you become arrogant. Imaan
will act as a light on the day of judgement. On the day of judgment - Allah subhanaHu
wa Ta'ala will extinguish all lights – utter darkness the likes of which we will not
imagine. And the believers will be told to find their way to jannah – and they have yet to
cross the siraat – and the Prophet (saw) described it as being sharper than a sword and
thinner than a hair. And in order to get to jannah every single human being has to cross it.
The bridge is difficult enough as it is – know in utter darkness – what’s going to happen?
Hadeed: 12
On the Day you shall see the believing men and the believing women their light running
forward before them and by their right hands. Glad tidings for you this Day! Gardens
under which rivers flow (Paradise), to dwell therein forever! Truly, this is the great
success!
His own body will start exuberating – and the strength of that light will be dependent on
your Imaan… how strong your faith was in this world, the easier you’ll find your way to
jannah. The stronger this light, the faster you will cross.
Some believers, their light is as far as the eye can see – one person lighting the entire
horizon. They will cross over at the speed of light – like lightening. And then there will
be those who pass over at the speed of a galloping horse. The speed that you cross over
the siraat is in proportion to your imaan. They hypocrites – they see the believers see
diminishing… wait up let us be guided by your light
They will say “get away from here and find your own light”
The greatest blessing of imaan is the blessing of looking at Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
Younus – 26
Allahumma inna nas2aluka lathatan natharee illa wajikal kareem
And I want to be amongst those who see that sweetness… but the frequency and the
quantity and quality will be because of your imaan
But to be deprived of it is the greatest punishment
Muttafiffen:
15
Nay! Surely, they (evil-doers) will be veiled from seeing their Lord that Day.
That punishment to them is worse than going to Hell
The full and wholesome fruits, you will only find it from the tree of imaan
Refrence to the fact that the believer has limits – that doesn’t mean that within these
limits he’ll be living a miserable life
What can my enemies do to me? My jannah is in my heart – ibn taymiyyah: find full
quote.
Break.
Mahmood al khalil alhosary – his favorite reciter.
What exactly is aqeedah? Comes from the word 3a qaa da – which means knot. It refers
to theology because it ties you down, its firm. It doesn’t change. It gives you an anchor in
life. Everything else can change around you but it helps you remain firm at times of
distress and fitan and turmoil. The scholars of Islam have given that term to theology.
Scholars have given different names to this science. In the first 100 -200 years, scholars
have given other names to it as well. And these names illustrate the status of it in their
eyes.
Other names – Al-sharee’ah (linguistically: the path to a water) – so sharee3ah is the path
that will bring about salvation
Abu haneefah wrote a book on theology and called it al fiqh al akbar – the bigger fiqh. So
abu haneefah thought that it was the more important fiqh – what was the lesser important
one? The laws and rulings.
What you believe is more important than how you implement it.
Usool as-sunnah and sharh as sunnah – the book of sunnah – this is the way of the
prophet (saw) – the explanation of it.
Other scholars wrote abu qaasim ataymiee … called it al-mahaJjah – the straight path –
that will get you to paradise. Some use tawheed.
Aqeedah is the most dominant one.
This class is about tawheed. What exactly is tawheed?
All that has preceded is general introduction – what is tawheed? It comes from the root
‫ – وحد‬the concept of believing something to be one. The verbal noun.
In Islamic sciences it means – believing that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala is one and
unique in His lordship, in His names and attributes and in His right to be worshipped.
These are called – the three categories of tawheed – the tri-partite of tawheed.
If someone asks you where does it come from? We say that the Qur’an refers to them. It
gives us three concepts – which are found throughout the quran. And so we can deduce
the three categories of tawheed from the quran.
For example – the first verses of the quran give us these three categories. How so?
Alhamdulillahi rabbil 3alameen – Allah is praising himself because He is a Rabb
Ar-rahman ir Raheem – names and attributes
Iyaaka na3buodu wa iyyaka nasta3een – only I alone have these attributes and I alone am
worthy of worship.
Qul a3oothu bi rabbin naas –etc
Other verses in the quran – of them is surat maryam – verse 65 –
Lord of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, so worship Him (Alone)
and be constant and patient in His worship. Do you know of any who is similar to Him?
(of course none is similar or coequal or comparable to Him, and He has none as partner
with Him). [There is nothing like unto Him and He is the All-Hearer, the All-Seer].
These concepts in Arabic are called –
1) Tawheed al Rooboobeeyah
2) Tawheed al asmaai was-sifaat
3) Tawheed al-uloohiyyah
We will only discuss the first and third in this class.
What makes the concept of tawheed so important? Many things
We have been created for tawheed. Dhaariyat:56
And I (Allah) created not the jinns and humans except they should worship Me (Alone).
The question why am I here, every human being asks themselves this question. This verse
in the quran is the most explicit verse about it. It is because of this that Allah subhanaHu
wa Ta'ala has sent the prophets and revealed the books.
Why did Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala send so many prophets? 124,000 prophets were
sent. And how many messengers were sent? 310 and something. – 319ish.
Why did Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala send all of them? Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala tells
us in the Qur’an – Nahl, 36
And verily, We have sent among every Ummah (community, nation) a Messenger
(proclaiming): "Worship Allah (Alone), and avoid (or keep away from) Taghut (all false
deities, etc. i.e. do not worship Taghut besides Allah)." Then of them were some whom
Allah guided and of them were some upon whom the straying was justified. So travel
through the land and see what was the end of those who denied (the truth).
And We did not send any Messenger before you (O Muhammad SAW) but We inspired
him (saying): La ilaha illa Ana [none has the right to be worshipped but I (Allah)], so
worship Me (Alone and none else)." (al anbiya: 25)
In surat nahl: 3
He has created the heavens and the earth with truth. High be He Exalted above all they
associate as partners with Him
Tawheed differentiates between a Muslim and a kaafir. What is the difference that
separates? It is their allegiance to Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
Taghaabun: 2
He it is Who created you, then some of you are disbelievers and some of you are
believers. And Allah is All-Seer of what you do.
A persons faith and faithlessness – that’s the difference between people. Apart from these
two, the sharee3a does not differentiate, and prohibits us from doing so. Based upon
biological rulings (different things to do for men/women) or their level of faith.
Following tawheed is a cause of peace in this life and the hereafter. Tawheed is the first
call that we have been commanded to do. When we stand up and talk about our religion
to other people to those who don’t believe in it, it is a requirement that we start our talk
regarding tawheed. The Prophet 9saw) sent one of his companions named Mu3ath ibn
Jabbal to Yemen. He said to Mu3ath, you are about to go to Yemen – so make sure the
first thing that you call them to is tawheed. He commanded him to begin with tawheed.
Therefore when we stand up to give da’wah, it is an obligation to begin with tawheed. It
is a mistake to neglect this aspect and talk about other aspects. The primary message of
Islam is tawheed.
That is why it is the first commandment in the quran as well. In surat al baqarah – when
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala says DO THIS, is surat baqarah, verse 21. Oh mankind,
worship your Lord.
21:
O mankind! Worship your Lord (Allah), Who created you and those who were before
you so that you may become Al-Muttaqun (the pious - see V.2:2).
tawheed is the cause for entrance into paradise. The Prophet (saw) said, whoever says laa
illaha illaAllah sincerely will enter paradise. And a person who does not believe in laa
illaha illaAllah can never ever enter paradise.
Tawheed is a cause of forgiving all sins and prevents a person from the fire of hell.
The right of Allah over us – Oh mu3ath do you know the right that Allah has over us?
Mu3ath said, Allah and his messenger know best. “Allah’s right over us is that we
worship Him alone without worshipping any other entity. And then he said “what is our
right over Allah?” “our right over Allah is that He will not punish anyone who does this.”
In a hadith reported in the musnad of imam ahmad – a man lived a simple life,a nd he
told his sons when I die, cremeate my body, and take my ashes and spread them all over
the earth. Because when Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala resurrects me, he’s going to punish
me like he’s going to punish no one else. Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala commanded the
wind to come back to one place and gathered it – and He said koon fa yakoon, and asked
the man, why’d you do this? He said, because I was scared of you. So Allah subhanaHu
wa Ta'ala forgave him for nothing else except him tawheed.
Another story – his bad deeds will number 99 scrolls – each one of them from the east
and the west full of sins. And Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala will ask him, did you do this
deed, and Allah will ask him, did my angels record faithfully and He will ask do you
have an excuse. So the man will think he is destroyed. And Allah will ask do you have
any good to show? And He would say, no I don’t. and Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala will
bring out one good deed. Today no injustice will be shown – you will get your right. And
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala will place this card on his scale… and it will say – laa illaha
illaAllah… and it will outweight those 99 scrolls… so tawheed eliminates a presons evil
and sins…
Likewise the way to study tawheed is to study the dangers of it. Islam has only one
unforgiveable sin – and that is the sin of shirk.
4:48
Verily, Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with him in worship, but He
forgives except that (anything else) to whom He pleases, and whoever sets up partners
with Allah in worship, he has indeed invented a tremendous sin.
The one unforgiveable sin in Islam is to reject tawheed. If a person goes against his shirk,
and repents, then its forgiven. What the verse is referring to is if the person dies in the
state of shirk. Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala will never forgive that if you die upon it.
The entire Qur’an without exception is a call to tawheed – every single verse can be said
to be directly related. That is because the quran can be divided into a number of
categories of verses – either the verse is speaking of Allah’s names and attributes – or it
could be about the commandment to worship Allah alone.
Surat al kaafiroon – laa a3boodu ma ta3budoon.
Another category could be legal laws – these come under the perfection of tawheed –
how do you implement the tawheed?
Stories for the people who reject tawheed – the reward given to the people because of
their tawheed – the blessings of the people of tawheed.
This goes back to the point of why did Allah reveal the Qur’an – to spread laa illaha
illaAllah – the ultimate guidance.
TAWHEED AL-RUBOOBIYYAH
The first dictionary written by man were the dictionary written by the early Muslims. The
concept of a dictionary of first on the Qur’an and then the Sunnah – when scholars started
writing. The concept was not alive until Muslims wanted to understand the Qur’an and
sunnah… so the first dictionaries were written around 1,300 years ago? The issue arose
for the Muslims – how do you arrange the words in a dictionary? One of the first
dictionary – ibn durayd? Arranged the words of the dictionary according to the place
where the sound came from in your mouth.
If it came from a lower place in your mouth, it would be at the front. Another scholar
came along and other ways were done – until one of the greatest scholars – ibn mandoor
– around 740 – he compiled all the previous dictionaries of history (ibn durayds was one
of them… four or five famous ones before him that he use) – he incorporated them
together, and then laid it out in a way that was of benefit. Because of this, his dictionary
is considered to be the standard reference for Arabic (14 volumes) – he called it lisaanul
3arab.
The way he arranged it: dha ha ba – in order to look it up, you’d have to go to the last
letter, then the first, then the middle. That’s how the original edition was printed.
Classical dictionaries – lexicon – when you compare the dictionaries to the arabs, there’s
no comparison. These are like pages of discussion – what does a poet say in the past,
what are the connotations of this word, etc Rabb has five pages in it.
‫الرب ي‬
Allah is one and unique, He is the only one who has the right to be obeyed, and He is the
only one who nourishes and takes care of everything – the point being there are three
meanings. Someone asks you what is tawheed ar ruboobeeyah – to understand those three
concepts
1. The true anc complete owner
2. the One who is obeyed
3. the one who nourishes, takes care of everything
Tawheed of Allah in HIS actions – to believe that only Alah creats, sustains and owns the
entire creation. He alone is the Master, Controller and Nourisher.
Creation is implied by the true and complete owner. When you go and buy anything –
you are purchasing something from another person who used to own it. And this will go
back until you finally go back to the one who made the components. That person was the
original owner. We’re saying that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala is the ultimate and only
owner of everything.
Ownership necessitates creation – He created everything, that’s why He owns it. No body
fully controls what they own. Where did it come from? It came from another being and
source.
We say that all of the creation is under the ruboobeeyah of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
The entire world and all that is in it is under it and nothing escapes it. There are a number
of manifestations of this, of which the creation cannot sustain itself. Rather it needs a
creator to sustain it. The fact that no object can escape his destiny shows that there is a
master who decide. Things happen besides anyones control – this is an indication that
there is a rabb there. And the fact that every human being turns to Allah subhanaHu wa
Ta'ala at times of distress also proves that there is a sustainer out there – that sustains
them and takes care of them.
There is a general ruboobeeyah and a specific ruboobeeyah. The general one means that
Allah is the Rabb of all of creation – mountains, animals, etc. it means they were created
by Allah and sustained them – He is their owner and master and does as He pleases with
them.
There is a specific ruboobeeyah as well – given to those who believe in Allah subhanaHu
wa Ta'ala as a Rabb – where Allah nourishes them in a special way, and sustains them in
a special way – not just physically but also spiritually.
And that is why the most common name in the Qur’an of Allah is Rabb – we say rabbana
atina fidunya hasana – rabbana ghfrilana… because we are invoking the name of the one
who created us and the one who sustains and nourishes us. “oh allah just like you sustain
and nourish us, also forgive our sins, also grant us paradise, etc”
One of the best stories about this is the story of the magicians and fir3awn and moosa.
This story is found in at least 7 surahs in the quran. In surat ash-shu3ara – verses 17-51
Musa says I am the messenger of the Rabb. Fir3awn begins to mock musa – wa maa
rabbul 3alameen? Fir3awn rejects verbally that there was no rabb. In his heart he believed
that there was a rabb out there and that musa was sent by Him. So musa begins to give
him a concept of ruboobeeyah – “my rabb is the rabb of the heavens and the earth and all
that is between them” in other words, my rabb controls everything – do you control
everything?
Fir3awn could not respond with a logical attack – so he made an ad homonym… when
you can’t attack the message, they attack the messenger.
Qala liman hawlahu, alaa tastamee3oon?
Musa says: qala rabbukum wa rabbu abaa2akumul awaleen
How do people who don’t worship fir3awn live? Outside of Egypt, how do they live?
and then fir3awn attacks the messenger again.
^totally fix up this story.
If you’re the rabb, before you were born, who was your fathers rabb? My rabb is not
limited by time and space.
Babylon and Egypt reached a pinnacle of black magic – he calls the head and the leaders
of black magic. So we had at that time the greatest minds of black magic – the master
magicians of the world coming together, the most powerful of them that mankind has
ever seen.
And then musa comes and he actually transforms by the permission of Allah – a wooden
staff into a snake. The magicians when they see this, they know this is not black magic…
when they see this, what happens? They become Muslim… Aamana bi rabbi moosa wa
haaroon. The leaders of the trade – this is beyond what any man can do …
We affirm that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala and only Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala is our
nourihser and sustainer, creater and sustainer.
Term of rabb denotes: Ownership, mastership, and nourishment.
There are over 12 ahadeeth that quote ahadeeth (imam ahmad) and of them is the hadith
in bukhari – an yuwahidaAllahu ta3ala… (mu3ath ibn jabbal)
The categorization is found with the sahaba – of the earliest scholars who said this – ibn
batta al uqubi? Kitaab al ibaana?
What are the proofs for the existence of God in Islam. The earliest philosophers have
been asking, how do we know there is a Lord?
How does the Qur’an deal with this crucial issue of there is a God?
How many verses are directed towards those who deny the existence of God. The
majority of the Qur’an addresses those who don’t have faith… how many verses directed
towards atheists? The number of verses can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala addresses idol worships thousands of times, and other worshippers
dozens of time… and for those who completely deny his existence, hardly any attention
is paid.
Qur'anic wisdom – someone who denies something which is so clear really does not
deserve that much of our attention. The majority of the quran is addressed to those who
believe in God or some form of God. The five minute rule – when we are approached
with them – we give them five minutes of our time and then move on.
Use the quranic methodology, basically use your common sense. Spend a little bit of time
with them, give them these quranic evidences, and then move on. What are some of these
quranic evidences that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala uses?
Of the evidences is the evidence of creation itself. In other words, every action must have
a cause to it. And every single existence has to come into its existence through other
means. This is something that we know in our daily lives – if we find something in the
middle of the street – or an arrangement that isn’t commonly find… it doesn’t matter if
you don’t see someone around, you know someone is around and say that some person
put those rocks in a circle in the middle of a desert. No human beings will say that it will
get there by itself. Therefore the entire creation and its existence, everything that we see
around us came from nothing?
And we live our lives according to this principle. The people who deny the existence of
god, they don’t deny it in their daily existence. When it comes to God and the rejection of
God, they will say what they want to say.
Mulk, 3-4
Who has created the seven heavens one above another, you can see no fault in the
creations of the Most Beneficent. Then look again: "Can you see any rifts?"
Then look again and yet again, your sight will return to you in a state of humiliation and
worn out
Every single aspect of our existence, from the air around us, the distance from the sun to
the earth, our existence would change. Life as we know it wouldn’t exist… one percent
of the orbit – life couldn’t exist as we know it. The alteration of the night and day – how
could we live if this wasn’t the case? The harmony between the creation – the quantity of
other species… all of this came out of nothing? Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala challenges
them… surat toor, 35
Were they created by nothing, or were they themselves the creators?
Did you come out of nothing or did you create yourselves? When they say no, there is no
need to ask the other question.
In surat luqman – verse 11
This is the creation of Allah. So show Me that which those (whom you worship), besides
Him have created. Nay, the Zalimun (polytheists, wrongdoers and those who do not
believe in the Oneness of Allah) are in plain error.
The system around us – the creation around us is the greatest manifestation of the
existence of a creator.
Surat al hajj – verse 73
O mankind! A similitude has been coined, so listen to it (carefully): Verily! Those on
whom you call besides Allah, cannot create (even) a fly, even though they combine
together for the purpose. And if the fly snatched away a thing from them, they would
have no power to release it from the fly. So weak are (both) the seeker and the sought.
When Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala asks them – did you create yourselves? Modern
secular man believes there was nothing, big bang, and we’re here. No body lives their life
like that. Even the smallest issue that happened, they realize something caused it to be.
And specifically within this proof there is another one – the signs of creation. There are
even more awe inspiring ayat – the creation of life is something more special than the
creation of a rock or stone. Of the ayaat that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala mentions, we
can use them as proof. What other ayat does Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala use? Day and
night, heavens, life.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala says:
The creation of the heavens and the earth is indeed greater than the creation of mankind,
yet most of mankind know not. [ghaafir: 57]
There are systems out there that are billions of light years away. What we’re seeing is
images that existed millions of years ago – systems that are light years away… these
things don’t even exist… we’re just seeing them as they were. We see the systems as they
were. Put yourself in perspective – compare it to someone.
Wa anahu rabu-shi3ra – after the sun
There is another manifestation of Allah’s ruboobeeyah. The concept of the Fitrah. Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala mentions the fitrah in surat al room – verse 30
So set you (O Muhammad SAW) your face towards the religion of pure Islamic
Monotheism Hanifa (worship none but Allah Alone) Allah's Fitrah (i.e. Allah's Islamic
Monotheism), with which He has created mankind. No change let there be in Khalqillah
(i.e. the Religion of Allah Islamic Monotheism), that is the straight religion, but most of
men know not. [Tafsir AtTabari, Vol 21, Page 41]
kula mawloodin yuwladu 3anil fitra – fa2abawahu yuhawidani oh yunasiranihi? No child
is born except on al fitrah, and then his parents make him jew, Christian, etc - And then
the society corrupts it.
And that is why people are attracted to Islam – their fitrah recognizes the purity and
beautify of it. Islam beckons to their purity. Therefore the people who have a pure fitrah,
eventually they come to the fitrah, they’re just looking. Their fitrah wants to just get out
and scream. Its like a glove fitting their hands.
Sometimes the fitrah is corrupted beyond repair – by society and parents. Sometimes it is
able to be repaired.
And the best example of the fitrah is how the Prophet sallalahu 3alayhi wasallam was
before the Qur’an came. All around him was idolatry, did he participate? No his fitrah
was disgusted at these acts. Even when some converts were non-Muslims, they disdained
from the sins of others… they felt it was animalistic and not proper. Where did this come
from? It came from the fitrah. It tells you that it is noble to be honorable and honest, and
good to your parents. The fitrah tells you its terrible to lie and steal, etc… every single
culture and society say that murder is wrong, that treating your parents is good. Why do
all affirm the same general concepts.. where does it come from? It comes from the fitrah,
because Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala gave it to us.
If the fitrah tells you that being good to your parents is good, then how about to Allah?
Our secret weapon in da’wah is the fitrah. Do not underestimate the power of the fitrah.
How do we get to that fitrah? We pull out our magnet of laa illaha illaAllah and wave it
at him.
We complicate our da’wah. Islam – laa illaha illaAllah. How much more simple do you
want? We don’t appreciate the simplicity and beauty of it… we don’t appreciate the
simplicity of our message, and when we stand up to give da’wah we feel that we have to
go on to all of these tangents. If He created you and He is so perfect, why would you
worship anything else? Eventually those who have the pure fitrah, it will manifest itself.
People who convert to Islam, they always have a different story of converting. It was a
different aspect of Islam that appealed to them. In contrast to Hinduism – they are
intrigued by the philospophical doctrine of nirvana – they are interested in it and
embraced it. But Muslims – it was the catalyst of what they did to push them into Islam.
It wasn’t the primary thing – the primary thing was that the fitrah recognizes the religion
of Allah and they are joined together.
What is this thing called the fitrah that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala created in us? And
this leads us to another concept called Al-meethaaq. ‫ – الميثاق‬which means the covenant.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala talks about this in the Qur’an – a3raaf,
Am I not your rabb –
And (remember) when your Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their
loins, their seed (or from Adam's loin his offspring) and made them testify as to
themselves (saying): "Am I not your Lord?" They said: "Yes! We testify," lest you
should say on the Day of Resurrection: "Verily, we have been unaware of this."
Spread them forth in front of him – and He spoke to them (in the above verse) and every
single person testified “bala” you are our Lord… this is the covenant that we said. Yet the
remnants of this covenant are there in our subconscious. The meethaq is the specific
incident – it occurred after Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala created Adam. The meethaq was
erased in our memories but it remained within us – it is an innate conciousness that Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala calls the fitrah – our natural disposition – which is to believe in
Allah and to be good people.
This is another proof that there is a creator. And therefore someone who denys this is
going against his or her fitrah. Logically speaking it makes more sense to believe in a
plurality of God than not believing in God at all.
Another manifestation of the existence of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala is the innate feeling
of helplessness. And in reality this is linked directly to the fitrah, when push comes to
shove, when we see death in front of us for our selves or our loved ones, we turn to God,
whether we believe in Him or not. Beyond our control – subconsciously we bend to a
Creator.
Over a dozen verses mentioned – surah younis, verse 12
And when harm touches man, he invokes Us, lying down on his side, or sitting or
standing. But when We have removed his harm from him, he passes on his way as if he
had never invoked Us for a harm that touched him! Thus it seems fair to the Musrifun
that which they used to do.
That is why at times of stress even atheists become religious and spiritual. There are not
atheists on the battlefield – Winston Churchill
Very famous doctor, eye surgeon – born with a very rare disease, where the blood does
not transfer the oxygen to the body … as soon as the baby is born the doctor would know
what it is…
When the bloods not carrying the oxygen – nothing you can do. “as soon as I saw my
baby girl came out – I knew right away what the problem was – I knew that there is five
to ten minutes to go… immediately I walked out of the room – and he goes to the chapel
and said for the first time in years he knelt down and prayed – OH God I know I’ve been
a bad person, if you cure my daughter, I promise you that I will search the religions of the
earth, and I will worship you according to the one that makes sense to me… “ as soon as I
walked back into the room – the doctors are just shocked, everything is totally normal.
The doctors are trying to explain to me… what happened. He spent the next few years
studying all of the religions – first and foremost – protestant Christianity, then he moved
to Catholicism.. and he crossed out all of Christianity. Then he moved to Judaism. Until
he had eliminated … he said I might as well – he opened up the Qur’an
And it said ‘all praise be to Allah, Lord of all the worlds…” and he said – this is the
religion of truth. “abdullah brown?”
“The first and final commandment” – book that he wrote.
One day this man went out swimming in a river and was about to drown and screamed
out “oh God save me” … and he sat down and thought to say “I don’t even believe in
God, why did I call out to him” … he kept asking himself questions – the fitrah came
out… it shocked him, where did it come from? All of this is the manifestation of the
fitrah.
The character of the prophets, these people who come to this earth as human beings live
such beautiful lives – calling to such perfect teachings… are they crazy and madman? If
they were than how come their religion makes sense?
Modern oreintalists have gotten over the old wives tale.. the life style he lives proves that
he’s not power hungry – he’s really and truly sincerely believing he’s the messenger of
God – the success of that message… if you understood the super power of roman Persia,
and the backwardsness of the arabs and within two decades they - and within 70 years
they ruled gibralter, and were knocking on the doors of china – from spain – in the space
of a few decades… when ginghas khan came – its like a fire spread and then died out.
When the Muslims came and conqured the people they succeeded and it sustained
(saving Spain, etc).
How many nations are happy that they were conquered? It really and truly is mind
boggling.
Mohammad ibn Qasim – conquered India at the age of 17.
All of this is the manifestation that there is a rabb – no other creed can do this.
If the sun is shining outside and someone walked in here and said “the sun is not shining
outside” – How long would you spend trying to convince him that the sun is outside?
Philosophical evidences of the existence of God.
Philosophy itself as a science – mankind by their intelligent and reason they will be able
to arrive and answer all of the important questions of life.
This basic foundation of philosophy is wrong in itself. You will never be able to be
guided completely without guidance of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala. If we didn’t have
prophets we would not be guided. And we find it an amazing phenomenon – since the
beginning of time – thousands of philosophers have appeared, and yet no two of them
agree about anything. Aristotle, plato, Socrates – these three philosophers disagree
amongst themselves.
Every single philosopher comes up with their own philosophy – what would happen if
they came down with the same philosophy? He wouldn’t be a famous philosophy. This is
an indication that philosophy in and of it self will never be able to lead you to the
ultimate the truth.
Philosophers tend to over-complicate that which is extremely simple. And they start
thinking in tangents and questioning matters that the average human being doesn’t need
to think about. De kart became famous because he proved he existed – I think, therefore I
am. The five year old kids is smarter – he doesn’t even question the fact that he exists.
So philosophy as a science, it makes your mind think sometimes in good ways, but many
times in ways that it doesn’t need to start thinking about. Our minds and intellects are
senses that have limits. We can’t see in the dark - we can’t pick up cars, hear things that
are said far away. The problem comes when it comes to our mind – how do we know the
limits of our minds – there is no physical demarcation.. when it comes to our other
powers, all of these we have senses to tell us. When it comes ot the mind, there are no
senses.
Therefore, generally speaking, philosophy is a science that is frowned upon in the
sharee3ah. Because it makes you start thinking in a way that our minds will not be able to
properly think about. In a sense that when you read the book about the philosophers –
you can read pages and pages, and you have no idea what these guys are talking about.
Every word makes sense, but you put the words together and it makes no sense at all.
Its basically the story of the kid and the emperor with no clothes. The point being, when
people are hyped up into believing something, you need a five year old kid to come and
get through that. The whole beauty of language is to communicate properly. When
philosophers can’t communicate with the language.
Don’t feel intimidated by this – this science has no value in Islam. Because all of the
important questions that it raises – you will find the answer of that in our religion.
Secondly it will get you thinking about things that are beyond our control.
All of the classical scholars of Islam say that there is no benefit to study – and rather that
its harms are many.
To give a tidbit – we talked about how the quran and sunnah prove about how it proves
the existence of a God. Now we’ll talk about how other people in the past have proven it.
What is the ontological proof?
God must exist by definition – how so? Lets define God – the definition of God is
something that which nothing greater can be conceived. What is greater, something that
is real or something that is only conceived in the mind?
That which is in existence – because it has the added quality of existence. And then they
say – imagine that God does not exist. You’ve imagined an imaginary God, can there be
something greater than this imaginary God? An existing God.
Another way they prove the existence of God is the cosmological proof. It was
developed by the Muslims as well – some of the philosophical groups of Muslims.
“kalam proof”
This proof has a number of forms. Talking about one of them
The argument from Motion.
They divide existence into what they call “accident” and “bodies” (jawhar and a3raab) –
they say everything around us is either an accident or a body. What is an accident?
Something that needs a body to exist. What is a body? It exists by itself. An example of
an accident is color – can color exists by itself? It needs a body to exist – motion,
movement, temperature.
2) They then say that every “body” has to have many accidents simultaneously in it. The
example given – motion and stationary – either still or moving.
3) all accidents are not eternal but created. Motion has to be created – the proof of
impossibility of infinite regression of causes.
And this person/ball, and it has something before it as well – but they’re saying it cannot
go back to infinity? Can you finish an infinity – you cannot. The very fact that we are at
t3 shows that we cant have an infinity before it. Its not possible for an infinite series of
causes to exist. If that’s not the cause, there must be “a” an initial cause – that started all
of these series of causes, and itself has no cause. And it is this cause that is called “the
unmoved mover”
According to Aristotle, Gods function is to start the motion of the first domino but He
himself does not move.
All bodies that are composed of accidents and these accidents are created, must also be
created in themselves. Bodies are created.<< that is the conclusion.
This proof is the primary proof that is used by many of the philosophers.
The problems with this proof are many – firstly is that it is too complicated. The
conclusion that is reached is very obvious, and mainly it has repercussions that it goes
against tawheed al asmaa2i was sifaat.
A third proof - teleological proof.
One of the first people who popularized it was a Scottish philosopher – named paley. He
writes in his book – “imagine you’re walking along the beach, and you see the waves
around you – and then all of a sudden you come across a watch” the watch of the 15th
century is not like the watches of todays. You come across this complicated watch. Its
obvious that these springs – this is now a sign that there was a watch made for you.
Pure Islamic Proof – has been critiqued by many. His teleological proof is the most
disrespected proof in philosophy. Its not given much attention at all. The example that
paley gave is dead wrong. Why is the example wrong? He considered everything else to
be trivial – nature is a greater manifestation than anything manmade. The complexity of
the creation around us proves that there is a creator.
CLASS PROJECT – RESPONDING TO ATHEISTS
It is important that we respond to these matters.
The concept of mercy – and justice.
Concept of if allowing evil –
The fact that He allows it is from His mercy and power.
God allows good and evil.
The fact that He allows evil reassess that fact that He’s all-Powerful and the fact that He’s
all-merciful.
How can the concept of mercy exist if we don’t know the opposite of what is good.
The existence of evil does not negate the fact that God exists, rather it allows for a basis
for this mercy to come forth – whether in this life or when we are judged.
Trials in and of themselves bring about goodness
The deen will apply to atheists as well – your religion should codify your life. Many
Muslims don’t understand that concept unfortunately. Atheism is a deen – because it
dictates their way of life. Atheism has been around for quite a while – the first refrence
we have is of ancient greek philosophers. But never in the history of man has there been
an entire nation of man based upon atheism. In the history of man – we’ve had many
Muslim countries, Christian countries, Jewish countries – but you’ve never had a
civilization of atheists. They try to force atheism down people’s throats – for 70 years
they tried to live in a godless society – they couldn’t do it. Atheism has always been a
minority cult or deen.
However, we notice a strange phenomenon – its on the rise. 100 years ago – in the low
two digits or low single digits. 20ish percent. In one country they said up to 50 – 60%
Maybe there is a God, maybe there isn’t – Allahu A3lam. LOL!!
Question is – why is atheism on the rise in our times? What’s the reason that people are
becoming Godless?
Being cut off from nature
Th false image given of religions
The continuity of the prophet hood and the fact that its come to an end?
The reality is that Christianity has proved to be a failure – not really a Christian except by
culture.
Atheism is only on the rise in “developed” areas – because of materialism, etc
The sense of self-sustenance. We’re not relying directly on nature. When we walk into
the market we’ll find the exact same fruits seasonally. There’s no connection with the
creation of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala. The average person no matter how rich they were
– if there was a drought, they were affected. You can’t harvest apples when there are no
apples to harvest. And that breeds in our hearts a type of self-sufficiency.
Living in this culture and society, even we become affected – even we become callous in
our hearts. Modern man has the luxury of being atheist. You don’t have to pray to a God
that it rains – you just have to pick it up in the supermarket.
Hedonism – indulging in every pleasure you want to – religion restricts that. Modern man
has now begun to live a very materialistic pleasure filled life. They want to be whatever
they want to be.
Technology and Science – they feel so powerful.
Class Project: Refuting Atheists
Group A:
Argument
“All religions claim hat God is an all-powerful entity. Fine. Let me ask you :Is it possible
that God can create something so heavy that He can’t lift it? Either way you answer, you
have shown that He is not all-powerful”
the question is nonsensical because another way of phrasing this question – is God so
capable that He can make Himself incapable. The whole purpose of being powerful is
that you can do everything. That’s illogical – its more illogical. A being who is all
powerful must be powerful full stop and to make him not powerful, it would remove him
from being all-powerful.
Group B
Argument
“All religions claim that God can do anything. Is it possible for God to create a circle
with four sides? Or an object that exists and doesn’t exist at the same time?”
Can God create something which is by definition not what it is? You have defined a
square to be four sides – you’d call it a triangle… can God do something that goes
against my definition? You wouldn’t call it a circle anymore – you’d call it a square.
It’s a circular argument. You spend less than five minutes – utterly ludicrious.
Group C
Argument
“Modern science has proven that life as it exists today is a result of direct evolution from
previous forms of life. Therefore, it is clear that there is no Creator who needed to create.
Science explains everything…”
Science itself is ever changing. When you get to the graduate level of any science, you
realize that what you taught was a lot of theories. That’s the point of graduate studies –
you need to discover things.
Science explains nothing. Science explains the mechanics – but why is it so perfect, how
did all of this correlation come about? It might explain the mechanism, but it can’t
explain why. How did it get there?
Science might explain how, but it can never tell you why?
It can only explain partially how things occur. Reality is this is used by pseudo-scientists.
Group D
Argument
“it is historically clear that religions have been tools used by the powers-that-are to
control the masses. Religion is the single most-important cause of social upheaval, wars
and death. Is it possible that a true religion would allow this?”
the greatest upheaval – its not religion – the greatest cause for evil has been greed of this
world. 40 – 60 million people .. what religion was wrong? It was just about greed and
power (world war 2) its nothing compared to the crusades, or what is happening now.
The greatest loss of the people has not been due to that.
Whoever says this is an ex-christian. He doesn’t understand there have been other
civilizations and cultures that haven’t experienced what he has. As for us, our religion
controlled the khaleefah. His claim to legitimacy was Islam. The khaleefah himself was
limited to Islam.
Not every social upheaval is bad. They are assuming that every single war or upheaval is
unjust or not right. Sometimes it is necessary to fight for what you believe in. in order to
protect that which needs to be protected.
Group E
Argument
“it is not possible for an All-Merciful God to allow such suffering as we see in the world
today. People dying of hunger and starvation, natural disasters destroying hundreds and
millions of lives, unnecessary diseases, plagues and wars, and the list goes on. The
existence of evil clearly proves that an All-Powerful, All-Merciful God cannot exist.”
The fact that He allows it is from His mercy and power.
God allows good and evil.
The fact that He allows evil reassess that fact that He’s all-Powerful and the fact that He’s
all-merciful.
How can the concept of mercy exist if we don’t know the opposite of what is good.
The existence of evil does not negate the fact that God exists, rather it allows for a basis
for this mercy to come forth – whether in this life or when we are judged.
Trials in and of themselves bring about goodness
You are deciding what is evil. You can only show your good at times of evil and distress.
How can you show your mercy when there are not catastrophes. The existances of evil (in
Islam) genearates good as well.
And the good comes out when evil is manifested. Another way of saying this – we
believe as Muslims, there is no such thing as pure evil. Whatever Allah has created, there
is some good in it. That creation may have some harm and evil, but there is good in it.
If there is good in the existence of shaytan, surely there is good in everything else.
Life is a test that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala will see the reaction
We are projecting good and evil only in this world
How do you know that poor family who died in the tsunami, that Allah will bless them in
Jannah that which they could never attain. So we can say we are limiting our minds and
judgements to this world – where any suffering that has been afflicted on us will be
rewarded if we are patient.
Evil (sins and disobedience of Allah, etc.) has appeared on land and sea because of what
the hands of men have earned (by oppression and evil deeds, etc.), that Allah may make
them taste a part of that which they have done, in order that they may return (by repenting
to Allah, and begging His Pardon)
Surat al room 30:41
They’re viewing this world as an end all and be all – because they don’t believe in an
akhira, they think that this world has to be perfect.
So is it exclusive – the standing up. What if you stand up for everyone? And out of joy
you’re standing… ?
Sunday – First Weekend
Is tawheed about affirming Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala as a Rabb and that’s it? The
answer to that is a resounding no. this does not make them a Muslim just because of this.
Islam is much more than just believing in Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala as a Rabb. Almost
all of the religions in this world believe in one god.
Even such religions as Hinduism – if you were to ask them is there one main God that’s
the supereme God? And they say yes – they call it other things, Shiva, Krishna, etc… the
majority say that yes there is one supereme God.
Even the ancient greeks and romans – they had one that was the God of the gods. In
Rome he was called Jupiter, in Greek he was called Zeus. So if you were to ask them is
there one supreme rabb they would say yes.
Therefore we have to acknowledge that it is not enough just to believe this. Some acts
that are prohibited – there are some Muslim groups that try to justify it. Some Muslim
groups try to justify that ruboobeeya alone is needed. Otherwise they’re going to be
contradicting their own idealogy. And the fact is that ruboobeeya alone is not sufficient
enough to be a believer.
The quraish – we will prove that they didn’t just believe in the one God, they actually
believed in the same God we believe in – Allah. And they believed that Allah is the
Rabb. And yet, were they Muslims? Obviously not. They rejected Islam – they opposed
the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam.
The proofs are so many that we can categorize them into six different evidences – explicit
verses in the Qur’an that explicity say – Allah is our Rabb. Of these verses – surat al
3ankaboot, verses 61 – 63
f you were to ask them: "Who has created the heavens and the earth and subjected the
sun and the moon?" They will surely reply: "Allah." How then are they deviating (as
polytheists and disbelievers)?
Allah enlarges the provision for whom He wills of His slaves, and straitens it for whom
(He wills). Verily, Allah is the AllKnower of everything.
If you were to ask them: "Who sends down water (rain) from the sky, and gives life
therewith to the earth after its death?" They will surely reply: "Allah." Say: "All the
praises and thanks be to Allah!" Nay! Most of them have no sense.
Surat zukhruf – verse 87
Surat al mu2minoon – verses 84 – 89
Say: "Whose is the earth and whosoever is therein? If you know!"
They will say: "It is Allah's!" Say: "Will you not then remember?"
Say: "Who is (the) Lord of the seven heavens, and (the) Lord of the Great Throne?"
They will say: "Allah." Say: "Will you not then fear Allah (believe in His Oneness, obey
Him, believe in the Resurrection and Recompense for each and every good or bad deed)."
Say "In Whose Hand is the sovereignty of everything (i.e. treasures of each and
everything)? And He protects (all), while against Whom there is no protector, (i.e. if
Allah saves anyone none can punish or harm him, and if Allah punishes or harms anyone
none can save him), if you know." [Tafsir Al-Qurtubi, Vol. 12, Page 145]
They will say: "(All that belongs) to Allah." Say: "How then are you deceived and turn
away from the truth?"
These verses explicity show that they believed in the same God – then why aren’t they
Muslim?
If you understand this point, then the rest of the class will make more sense to you.
They will direct acts of worship to these imams, or they would prostrate – and if you
were to ask them, how can you do this? What are you doing? They would say, we believe
that God is our Rabb – we believe in that. You will have to prove to them that Abu Jahl
said the same thing – the quraish said the same thing – but they weren’t Muslim! What
are you doing?
So you have to be able to quote to them and prove to them these points.
The jahileeya arabs
12:106
And most of them believe not in Allah except that they attribute partners unto Him [i.e.
they are Mushrikun -polytheists - see Verse 6: 121].
“most of them believed in God” – which means some of them would not believe. Unlike
Judaism and Christianity – pagan groups are splinter groups – far more diverse, because
they don’t have a Prophet, a book, or a creed. You can find hindu’s that are monotheistic,
pluralistic, and etc. So within the framework of the jahileeyah religion, there were those
that denied God, some denied the afterlife.
The Quraish believed in the same God so Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala said – most of you
believe in God, but you put shirk in that belief.
Third proof – question arrises oh Abu Talib, oh Abu Jahl – oh leaders of idolatry – if you
believe Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala created you, why are you bowing down to al-laat and
al 3ooza? Why are you acknowlding that Allah is the one who responds, Allah gives life
and death why do you bow to these idols?
The two excuses are written in the Qur’an – Memorize these ayat. This is the jist of what
separates the people of shirk from the people of tawheed.
Surat younous – verse number 18
And they worship besides Allah things that hurt them not, nor profit them, and they say:
"These are our intercessors with Allah." Say: "Do you inform Allah of that which He
knows not in the heavens and on the earth?" Glorified and Exalted be He above all that
which they associate as partners with Him!
In other words, the mentality of the jahiliyah – we are too sinful and too evil for Allah to
listen to us – but these people are beloved to Allah – so if we go through them to reach
Allah, Allah will answer our prayers.
So the ultimate object of worship according to the jahiliyah arabs was Allah.
Surat az-zumur – verse 3
Surely, the religion (i.e. the worship and the obedience) is for Allah only. And those who
take Auliya' (protectors and helpers) besides Him (say): "We worship them only that
they may bring us near to Allah." Verily, Allah will judge between them concerning
that wherein they differ. Truly, Allah guides not him who is a liar, and a disbeliever.
We know that we’re sinful and these people are beloved to Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala,
so we’re using them as middlemen to reach Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
The fourth evidence that proves the mushrikoon believed in Allah is the fact that they
turned to Allah in times of distress. And of the evidences of this is surat al 3ankaboot,
verse 65 and surat luqman verse 32
And when they embark on a ship, they invoke Allah, making their Faith pure for Him
only, but when He brings them safely to land, behold, they give a share of their worship
to others.
There is a very interesting story illustrated in the seerah of the Prophet (saw) and it is the
story of the son of Abu Jahl – no body in Quraish opposed Islam as much as he did. No
one was as much an enemy or as great a threat to Islam as he was. The fir3awn of this
ummah.
Ikrimah ibn abi jahl – he fled, and he thought he was going to be killed for his treason.
Everyone is forgiven – except for six people, the Prophet (saw) said, I don’t care where
you find them, kill them. Four men and two men. Out of these six, three were eventually
forgiven.
Ikrimah runs away, and he was on the ship. They’re all mushrikoon. The captain of the
ship comes out, and he says, oh people, now is the time to turn to Allah and make du3a
for him – because your idols are not going to help you. Ikrimah said – if we worship
Allah now, and we’re about to die and I know only Allah will help me, why should I
worship al laat and al uzza in times of ease? So he made a du3a “oh Allah if you save me,
I will go to makkah, and I will march to the prophet (saw) and I will accept Islam, and I
will find him forgiving and merciful to me.
He disguised himself – because he would be killed on command. He made his way to the
Prophet saw… I am ikrimah ibn abi jahl wa ash hadu an laa illaha illahllah wa ash hadu
anna muhammada rasoolullah.
Likewise another evidence, is that they rejected the pure worship of Allah and not the
existence or lordship of Allah. Did the mushrikoon worship Allah? Yes. The problem
was that they worshipped other besides Allah at other times.
Of the evidences in this category – surat al saafat verse 35, and also surat saad verses 3-4
Truly, when it was said to them: La ilaha ill-Allah "(none has the right to be worshipped
but Allah)," they puffed themselves up with pride (i.e. denied it).
Surat saad
"Has he made the aliha (gods) (all) into One Ilah (God - Allah). Verily, this is a curious
thing!"
What was the reason they rejected Islam? Worshipping only one.
Tamlikuhu wa laa malak – except a partner whom you control – you control this partner
and you control what he controls. You own them. (their argument)
Very important principle – ruboobeeyah necessitates ulooheeyah. What does it mean
necessitates? It means it’s the logical consequence of it. The logical consequence of
affirming Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala as the Rabb and not worship him? And direct acts
of worship to other than Him?
This is the crux of our religion and it should be our emphasis when we call to Islam. The
average human being does not affirm there are two or three gods. Its in their fitrah to
believe that there is only one God.
How can you believe in God as your rabb and then worship al-laat and al 3ooza.
As we said the majority of the Qur’an is talking about this concept. And this leads us to
our kalimah. Laa illaha illaAllah.
The blessings of it are too numerous to mention. This kalimah is the essence of tawheed.
It is the reason why we were created and why the prophets were sent and the messengers.
It is why Allah divides mankind into Muslim and non-Muslim. It is because of laa illaha
illahAllah that paradise and hell were apportioned. It is through this kalimah that a person
enters into Islam. It is the first phrase that every Muslim child hears when he is born, and
it is the goal of every Muslim that it be the final phrase that he says when he dies.
The prophet (saw) said – whoever says laa illah illahAllah as his final words will enter
jannah.
It is a phrase that is the heaviest word in the scales.
“oh Allah, I want you to give me a remembrance to remember you by.” So Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala said to musa, oh musa, say laa illaha illahAllah. So musa is saying
indirectly
if the entire creation were placed on one side of the scale, and laa illaha illahAllah would
be heavier than all creation. The response – there is nothing better than laa illaha
illahAllah.
It is a phrase that forgives all sins. the prophet Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam
said, the best sentence I have ever said – me and all the prophets before me is ash hadu an
laa illaha illahAllah, wahdahu laa shareeka lah, lahul mulku wa lahul hamdu yuhyi wa
yumeet
To him belongs all the kingdom, he gives life and he gives death, and he is capable of
doing all things.
And laa illaha illahAllah is the highest level of iman. The prophet Muhammad sallallahu
'alayhi wa sallam said the highest level is to say la illaha illahAllah.
But what arrises is the question, what does it mean?
The problem comes when we don’t know Arabic grammar.
Laa – has something called ism and khabar
Noun and a description.
There is no person in the class
The noun is mentioned – ilaah, but the description is not mentioned, even while it is
needed. Why? Because it is understood.
Where you delete that which has no need to be mentioned – the khabar (description) is
not mentioned because its understood.
“haqq” – worthy of. The actual translation of the kalimah
The proper translation of the kalimah – MEMORIZE – There is no deity that is worthy of
worship other than Allah.
The first statement is a negation – and the second statement is an affirmation. We divided
it into two simple halves. Laa illaha – and illahAllah
In Arabic, the combination of these two things – negation and affirmation – and you get
two very important concepts.
1) exclusivity
2) height of praise
the description will only apply to the noun when you
there is no one in this class who is intelligent
Eid Is intelligent
there is no one in this class who is intelligent except for Eid.
Exclusivity and the height of praise. Meaning no other being is worthy of being an illah –
we’ve affirmed it only to Allah – exclusive – only Allah should be worshiped. And then
we’ve done the height of praise – that this is due only to Him and Him alone.
So the proper way to translate is that there is no diety worthy of worship other than Allah.
Our kalimah consists of uloohiya … what if it was a kalimah of ruboobeeyah. Laa rabba
illallah.. what if the Prohpet Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam would have came to
them and said that? What would the quraish have said – “well we believe that” They
wouldn’t have had to convert.
If our kalimah had been, laa rabba illahAllah, the Christians are already Muslim, the
hinduis are already Muslim. The advantage with Quraish is the God of their forefathers.
This is why we claim that there is no other monotheistic religion other than Islam. Our
concept of monotheism involves our worship Islam.
Their definition of monotheism is other than ours. They define it as one superme God.
How come you don’t acknowledge the hindus and the ancient greeks as being
monotheistic?
The arabs never tried to represent God as an Idol.
Book Recommendation - Shi3a sunni perspective on Islam – by dr. Abdullah salaamah
The conditions of the Kalimah. What does it mean to verbalize the kalimah and be a
Muslim? We all know the hadith – whoever says laa illaha illallah he will enter Jannah.
If you have a stranger in the street – and he repeats after you the kalimah – will he enter
Jannah? Obviously not.
Isn’t laa illaha illahAllah the key to jannah? Yes but each key has special ridges and
grooves. Not every key will open the right lock. If you come with the key that has the
right ridges, the door will be opened for you, otherwise it will not.
The scholars of Islaam have derived seven from the Qur’an and the Sunnah – some of
these conditions overlap and they’re not distinct, but each one adds a definition to the
other that the other doesn’t. These seven conditions are necessary for the kalimah to be
valid.
Its not just an on and off switch – you can go higher in these level… it’s a whole shade of
gray in between. You either don’t have it, or you have a little bit, or a little bit more, or
more – etc.
The first condition is knowledge – the meaning of laa illaha illahAllah. If you’re ignorant
of the meaning and you just say it, then its not going to benefit you.
In surat muhamamd verse 19
So know (O Muhammad SAW) that La ilaha ill-Allah (none has the right to be
worshipped but Allah), and ask forgiveness for your sin, and also for (the sin of)
believing men and believing women. And Allah knows well your moving about, and your
place of rest (in your homes).
Second – many people fully understand it, but they don’t have the certainty (versus their
doubt). That knowledge is not enough without the certainty of it. Understanding it is not
enough.
Third condition is to accept this kalimah of laa illaha illahAllah. There are many nonMuslism who know that Islam is true and know that laa illaha illahAllah is true. Abu
Talib knew it, but he did not accept it.
The fourth condition of the kalimah is that you submit to it – in Arabic inqiyaad.
Accepting means that you believe its true in its your heart. Submitting means that you’re
going to act upon that belief. You have to submit body and soul – versus your leaving it
and not applying it at all.
The fifth condition is that you must be truthful to the kalimah, saying it and being truthful
to it. The Prophet (saw) said – whoever says laa illaha illahAllah sidqan min qalbi –
truthfully to it, will enter Jannah. (truthful to it vs lying)
The sixth condition is having Ikhlaas – sincerity. Once upon a time when the Muslim
ummah was powerful, they would accept Islam because it was more convenience – but
they didn’t do it with ikhlaas, but for their own selfish reasons.
The Prophet (saw) said in a Hadith in Sahih Muslim– whoever says laa illaha illahAllah
khaalisan min qalbi, will enter Jannah
Seventh and final condition – if you realize this kalimah to be true, then you have to say
it loving it, and have a special love for those who say it – and have a hatred of the
concept of worshipping other than Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala and those who try to
oppose it. (The concept of walaa and baraa’)
That doesn’t mean that if you meet someone who is doing shirk that you treat them in a
bad manner. The idea of someone worshipping other than Allah should be repugnant to
you. So we have to love laa illaha illahAllah and disassociate those who go against it.
Surat al mujaadalah, verse 22
You (O Muhammad SAW) will not find any people who believe in Allah and the Last
Day, making friendship with those who oppose Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad
SAW ), even though they were their fathers, or their sons, or their brothers, or their
kindred (people). For such He has written Faith in their hearts, and strengthened them
with Ruh (proofs, light and true guidance) from Himself. And We will admit them to
Gardens (Paradise) under which rivers flow, to dwell therein (forever). Allah is pleased
with them, and they with Him. They are the Party of Allah. Verily, it is the Party of Allah
that will be the successful.
If you truly love laa illaha illahAllah – you would automatically hate when someone
rejects it.
Very good article (short) – the seven conditions of laa illaha illahAllah, by Jamal ud deen
zarabozo
The Prerequisites of the Declaration of Faith
by Jamaal al-Din Zarabozo
The Conditions of La ilaha illa-llah..........Part I
Every Muslim knows that the key to Paradise is the statement, "There is none worthy of
worship except Allah." Yet too many Muslims simply rely upon this statement and
believe that as long as they have made this statement, nothing will harm them. They think
will be granted Paradise because of this mere verbal statement of the Shahadah.
There is no question that the mere saying of, " I bear witness that there is none worthy of
worship except Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and messenger,"
is not sufficient for salvation. In fact, the hypocrites used to make this statement quite
often yet Allah describes them as liars and says that they shall abide in the lowest abyss
of the Hell-fire.
As many scholars state, though, this statement or testimony is the key to Paradise. The
famous Follower Wahb ibn Munabbih was once asked, "Isn't the statement of la ilaha
illa-llah the key to Paradise?" He answered, "Yes, but every key has ridges. If you come
with the key that has the right ridges, the door will open for you. Yet if you do not have
the right ridges the door will not open for you." That is, it is saying [while meeting]
certain conditions. These conditions are what will differentiate the person who will
benefit from his making of that statement from the one who will not benefit from that
statement, no matter how many times a day he may have made that statements.
Before discussing the conditions of the Shahadah, there is one more point that I feel
compelled to make. That is, some people have a tendency to take one hadith or one verse
and then based on that one text, they will make some conclusion that, for example,
whoever simply says, "There is no God except Allah," will enter Paradise. But, actually,
we should all realize that all of the Quran and Hadith complement each other and explain
one another. To find the correct position on any one question, one must bring together all
of the related verses and hadith and see what the true Islamic position is of that question.
The same is true for the conditions of the shahadah.
If we study the verses of the Quran and the Hadith of the Prophet (peace be upon him),
we will find that the conditions of the shahadah are seven, eight or nine in number
depending on how we look at them. It is important that all of us make sure that we are
meeting these conditions in our own lives and in our own testimony of faith. We must do
our best to satisfy these conditions before it is too late and our testimony will be no avail
whatsoever. It is not simply for the sake of teaching these conditions. Indeed, there is no
benefit to that. But it is, instead, for all of us to look to ourselves and to make sure that
we are actually meeting these conditions so that, by Allah's mercy, the doors to Paradise
will be open for us by our key of la ilaha illa-llah.
The Conditions of La ilaha illa-llah..........Part II
The first of these conditions is knowledge. That is , one must have the basic and general
knowledge of what is meant by the shahadah. One must understand what the shahadah is
affirming and what the shahadah is denying. Allah says in the Quran, "So know that there
is no God save Allah, and ask forgiveness for your sin" (Qur'an, Muhammad 19).
Similarly, the Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "Whoever dies knowing that there is no
one worthy of worship except Allah shall enter Paradise." (Recorded by Muslim.)
In fact, the shahadah itself is a testimony. When one testifies to something, one must
know what it is that he is testifying concerning. Obviously, a testimony about something
that one does not have any knowledge about is absolutely unacceptable. Allah says in the
Quran, "Save him who bears witness unto the truth knowingly" (Qur'an, al-Zukhruf 86).
Now this condition probably sounds obvious. If someone said to you, "There is no God
except Allah," and then said that what he meant by Allah was Jesus, you would
immediately tell him that this shahadah is nonsense. Yet can you imagine that there is a
Muslim country in the world that until recently used to have a yearly week-long
celebration to "the Gods of the Sea"! All along they call themselves Muslims and they
make shahadah numerous times a day. This clearly shows that they have no idea what the
meaning of their shahadah is. Do you think that this kind of shahadah will open the doors
to Paradise for them?
Today, there are many Muslims who wonder why we should not accept secularism. They
think that there is nothing wrong with secularism! Many of these Muslims pray five times
a day and utter the shahadah repeatedly. Yet they see nothing wrong with accepting a
Lawgiver other than Allah? What kind of shahadah are these people making?
All of us do our best to learn at least the basics of Islamic beliefs. The basics of what
shahadah means. In this way, Allah willing, we will be making the correct shahadah. We
will be witnessing to the truth as we are supposed to be witnesses to it.
The second condition of the shahadah is certainty (or al-yaqeen). This is the opposite of
doubt and uncertainty. In Islam, in fact, any kind of doubt is equivalent to Kufr or
disbelief. We must, in our hearts, be absolutely certain of the truth of the shahadah. Our
hearts must not be wavering in any way when we testify to the truth of, "There is none
worthy of worship except Allah."
Allah describes the believers in the Quran as those who have belief in Allah and then
their hearts waver not. Allah says, "The (true) believers are those only who believe in
Allah and His messenger and afterward doubt not, but strive with their wealth and their
lives for the cause of Allah. Such are the sincere" (Qur'an, al-Hujurat 15). Similarly, the
Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "No one meets Allah with the testimony
that there is none worthy of worship but Allah and I am the Messenger of Allah, and he
has no doubt about hat statement, except that he will enter Paradise." (Recorded by
Muslim.)
Indeed, Allah describes the hypocrites as those people whose hearts are wavering. For
example, Allah says, "They alone seek leave of thee (not to participate in jihad) who
believe not in Allah and the Last Day and whose hearts feel doubt, so in their doubt they
waver" (Qur'an, al-Tauba 45).
Many scholars have stated that the diseases of the heart, or the doubt and suspicions that
one allows into one's heart, are more dangerous for a person's faith than lusts and desires.
This is because lusts and desires may be satisfied at some time yet the person still knows
them to be wrong and he may control himself and repent and give up that evil deed. On
the other hand, the doubts and suspicions may linger in the heart, with no cure, until the
person finally leaves Islam entirely or continues to practice Islam while, in fact, in his
heart he does not have the true faith.
The greatest cure for these doubts is seeking knowledge. It is through sound knowledge
of the Quran and the sunnah that most of these doubts will be removed. By study and
understanding, one will attain certainty. And as one studies and learns more, his certainty
will be made firmer and firmer.
I will give you just one example on this point. This is related to all of the doubts,
suspicions and misconceptions that are circulating about the authenticity of the hadith
literature. For example, some Muslims even claim that hadith were not recorded until at
least 200 years after the death of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Indeed, there are
Muslims who seem to have a great deal of doubt about hadith and are very quick to reject
hadith on that basis. But, in fact, if one actually takes the time to study the history and
preservation of hadith, one will immediately recognize that all those claims and charges
against the hadith are not based on anything scientific whatsoever. They are nothing but
false claims that come from Satan and which Muslims with poor understanding and
knowledge have allowed to creep into their hearts.
Let me make one last point about this condition of certainty. As I alluded to earlier,
doubts and misconceptions are very dangerous for a person's faith. Doubt and wavering
are tantamount to apostasy in Islam, as I mentioned earlier. Hence, every Muslim should
do best to safeguard himself from such doubts and remain away from the sources of
doubts- especially if they are not well grounded in the Islamic sciences and do not have
the the knowledge to refute such doubts and misconceptions. Hence if a person has an
associate or friend, even if he be a Muslim friend, who is always making him doubt Allah
or the religion, then he should remain away from that person in order to safeguard his
own religion. Many Muslims nowadays study courses on Islam taught by Orientalists and
because of their weak backgrounds in Islamic studies, they are influenced by the
nonsense that some of these Orientalists are teaching in the name of "science".
Similarly, many brothers and sisters nowadays are spending hours at a time with the
computer news groups and bulletin boards. A lot of nonsense and falsehood are posted on
those news groups and bulletin boards. Again, the one who is not very knowledgeable of
his religion may easily be influenced and affected by the misconceptions and false
arguments that he reads in those bulletin boards. He should remain away from those
things and get a deeper knowledge of Islam through the authentic sources of the religion.
Again, the greatest counterforce that can defeat doubts and misconceptions, after the
bounty and guidance of Allah, is sound knowledge and understanding of the religion.
When a person has that, he will not be affected by the weak arguments put out by the
enemies of Islam and he will be, Allah willing, from among those described in the Quran,
" It is only those who have knowledge among His slaves that fear Allah" (Qur'an, Fatir
28)
The Conditions of La ilaha illa-llah..........Part III
The third condition of the shahadah is acceptance (or al-qabool). If a person has the
knowledge of and certainty in the shahadah, this must be followed by acceptance, with
the tongue and heart, of whatever that shahadah implies. Whoever refuses to accept the
shahadah and its implications, even if he knows that it is true and certain about its truth,
is a disbeliever. This refusal to accept is sometimes due to pride, envy or other reasons. In
any case, the shahadah is not a true shahadah without its unconditional acceptance.
The scholars all talk about this condition as a general condition in the way that I have just
stated. However, there is also a more detailed aspect that we must all be aware of. The
believer accepts whatever the implications of the shahadah are. This also means that he
believes in whatever is stated in the Quran or stated by the Prophet (peace be upon him),
without any right to choose what he wants to believe and what he wants to reject. Allah
says in the Quran, "Do you believe in part of the book and reject part of it? And what is
the reward of those who do so save ignominy in the life of the world, and on the Day of
Resurrection they will be consigned to the most grievous doom" (Qur'an, al-Baqara 85).
This is one aspect that the Muslims must be aware of. Although it is not the same as the
complete refusal to accept the truth, by rejecting part of the truth that has come from
Allah, one also negates his testimony of faith.
Unfortunately, many Muslims are doing this nowadays in various ways. Although not all
of these forms may necessarily be considered apostasy, they are still very dangerous. For
example, if they do not like what is stated in a verse in the Quran, they simply reinterpret
the verse according to their liking. If they do not like what is stated in a hadith, they
simply state that the hadith must not be authentic although they are not scholars in that
area. This kind of behavior is the antithesis of the behavior of the true Muslims.
Whatever comes from Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him), the true Muslim
believes in as the truth. This goes hand in hand with their testimony of faith.
The fourth condition of shahadah is submission and compliance (or al-inqiyad). This
implies the actual physical enactment with our deeds of our shahadah. In fact, this is one
of the main meanings of the word Islam itself, "the submission to the will and commands
of Allah. " This is what Allah commands in the Quran, "Turn unto Him repentant, and
surrender unto Him" (Qur'an, al-Zumar 54).
Allah has praised those who submit to His command by their actions. Allah says, "Who is
better in religion than he who surrenders his purpose to Allah while doing good" (Qur'an,
al-Nisa 125).
Actually, Allah has clearly made it a condition of faith that one submits to the command
of Allah and His messenger. Allah says, "But nay, by your Lord, they will not truly
believe until they make you [the Messenger of Allah] judge of what is in dispute between
them and find within themselves no dislike of which you decide, and submit with full
submission" (Qur'an, al-Nisa 65)
Unfortunately, there are many claim that there is no relationship between faith and deeds.
You can even hear one Muslim saying about another, "That is the best Muslim I have
ever met." Yet the other person performs scarcely any of the deeds of Islam whatsoever.
This incorrect understanding of faith has spread throughout the Muslim world.
Indeed, our shahadah or testimony of faith must be implemented in our hearts, tongues
and actions. In our hearts, we must have love for Allah, fear Allah and hope in Him. With
our tongues we must testify to the shahadah. And with our actions, we must implement
what the testimony of faith requires from us. Anyone who claims to be a Muslim and yet
does no deeds, either does not understand Islam whatsoever or is bearing testimony
against himself that his testimony of faith is not a true and correct testimony of faith.
This does not mean that the true believer never commits a sin. Indeed, true believers do
commit sins. But as long as they recognize that what they did is not correct and it is
inconsistent with their obligation of submitting to Allah, then they [have not destroyed]
their testimony or shahadah. But, do not forget, they are still sinners.
And what is the minimum of submission that is required from a person beyond which
there can be no claim to faith? For those scholars who say that the abandonment of
prayers is infidelity, it is the five daily prayers. Whoever does not perform, at least, the
five daily prayers has gone beyond the limit that is acceptable for lack of deeds. Allah
knows best.
The fifth condition is truthfulness, as opposed to hypocrisy and dishonesty. This means
that when we say the shahadah, we are saying it honestly. We actually mean it. We are
not lying when it comes to our testimony of faith.
The Prophet (peace be upon his) said, "No one bears testimony to there being no one
worth of worship save Allah, sincerely from his heart, except that Allah makes the Hellfire forbidden for him." (Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim.)
We are all familiar with those who say the testimony of faith yet they are not saying it
honestly. They do not believe in it but they are simply saying it in order to protect
themselves or to get some gain from doing so. These are the hypocrites. Allah has
described them in the opening of the Quran with the following words, "And of mankind
are some who say, 'We believe in Allah and the Last Day,' when they believe not. They
think to beguile Allah and those who believe, and they beguile none save themselves, but
they perceive not. In their hearts is a disease, and Allah increases their disease. A painful
doom is theirs because they lie" (Qur'an, al-baqara 8-10).
Obviously, the shahadah of those who become Muslims simply to benefit from being
Muslim and not because they believe in Islam will be rejected by Allah in the Hereafter.
They will face a painful punishment due to their lying.
The sixth condition is sincerity (or ikhlas). That is, when we make the shahadah, we must
do so solely for the sake of Allah. We must not do it for any other reason. And we must
not do it for anyone else's sake. In this manner, the meaning of sincerity is opposite of
Shirk or ascribing partners with Allah. We become and remain Muslims solely for Allah's
sake. Allah says in the Quran, "Worship Allah, making religion pure for him" (Qur'an, alZumar 2). And Allah also says, "And they are ordained nothing else than to serve Allah,
keeping religion pure for Him, as men by nature upright and to establish worship and to
pay the poor-due. That is true religion" (Qur'an, al-Bayyinah 5). And the Prophet (peace
be upon him) added, "Allah has forbidden for the Hell-fire anyone who says, 'There is no
one worthy of worship except Allah,' and say so desiring the face [and pleasure] of
Allah." (Recorded by Muslim).
This is something that we should think about. But especially those of us who grew up in
Muslim families and were born Muslim. We should make it very clear to ourselves that
we are Muslims only for the sake of Allah. We are not Muslims for the sake of our
parents, friends, family or community. It must be clear in our minds that we are Muslims
for the sake of Allah first, last and only.
One of the signs that we are Muslims for the sake of Allah is that we do whatever Allah
asks of us, regardless of what anybody else desires or wants from us. That is, in the same
way that we are Muslims solely for the sake of Allah, all of our actions are done for the
sake of Allah.
However, sometimes one begins to wonder whether this condition is met by some people.
Some people from the Muslim world practice Islam to the extent that it is pleasing to
their families. If there is anything in Islam that their families do not like- although their
families are Muslim and therefore they actually should like all of Islam- then they do not
practice that aspect of Islam. One common example of that nature is mixing between men
and women. Sometimes a brother, here in the U.S., will not mix with women and his wife
will remain separate from the men. Yet, when they return to their homes, because this is
not pleasing to their families who want to mix between men and women, they easily,
simply and happily compromise their religion for the sake of their parents. These people
must sincerely ask themselves why they are Muslims. Are they Muslims for the sake of
their parents and therefore whatever their parents like they will do and whatever their
parents do not like they won't do? Or are they Muslims for the sake of Allah and
therefore whatever Allah dislike they will not do and whatever Allah is pleased with they
do?
The Conditions of La ilaha illa-llah..........Part IV
The seventh condition is love. That is, the believer loves this shahadah, he loves in
accordance with the shahadah, he loves the implications and requirements of the
shahadah and he loves those who act and strive for the sake of this shahadah. This is a
necessary condition of the shahadah. If a person makes the shahadah but does not love
the shahadah and what it stands for, then, in fact, his faith is not complete. It is not the
faith of a true believer. And if he loves something more than this shahadah or if he loves
something more than Allah, then he has negated his shahadah. The true believer, the one
meeting the conditions of the shahadah puts no one whatsoever as an equal to Allah in his
love.
Allah says in the Quran, "Yet of mankind are some who take unto themselves (objects of
worship which they set as) rivals to Allah, loving them with a love like (that which is due
to) Allah only. However, those who believe are stauncher in their love of Allah" (Qur'an,
al-Baqara 165). And elsewhere Allah says' "Say: If your fathers, or your sons, or your
brethren, or your wives, or your tribe, or the wealth you have acquired, or merchandise
for which you fear that there will be no sale, or dwellings you desire are dearer to you
than Allah and His messenger and striving in His way: then wait till Allah brings His
command to pass. Allah guides not wrongdoing folk" (Qur'an, al-Tauba 24). The Prophet
(peace be upon him) said, "Whoever has three characteristics has tasted the sweetness of
faith. [The first of these] is that he loves Allah and His Messenger more than he loves
anyone else..." (Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim.).
This is one of the most important aspects of Islam yet, for some reason, it is missing from
the lives of many Muslims. They act in Islam as if Islam were a chore instead of doing
things out of the love of Allah. When Allah orders us to do something, like bear witness
to the faith, we should realize that that thing is pleasing to Allah and, therefore, out of our
love for Allah, we should be very pleased to do the acts that are pleasing to Allah. But, as
I said, this feeling is missing from many, many Muslims today.
The eighth condition of the shahadah is that the person who makes the shahadah must
deny every other object of worship. Although that is clear in the words of the testimony
of faith, it does not seem clear to everyone who makes that testimony. Therefore, I am
mentioning it explicitly here.
In Surah al-Baqara, Allah clearly reminds us of this important aspect of the shahadah, the
shahadah is not merely an affirmation but it is both and affirmation and a negation. Allah
states, "And he who rejects false deities and believes in Allah has grasped a firm
handhold which will never break" (Qur'an, al-Baqara 256). Perhaps the Prophet (peace be
upon him) made this point even clearer when he said, "Whoever says there is no one
worthy of worship except Allah and denies whatever is worshipped besides Allah, then
his wealth and blood are protected and his accounting will be with Allah." (Recorded by
Muslim.)
Although this condition should be obvious to everyone who says the words of shahadah,
you can still find Muslims who say the shahadah and then make acts of worship for
beings or things other than Allah. You will find them going to the graveyards and
worshipping those in the graves. They will perform acts of worship, not for the sake of
Allah, but for the sake of the dead "saints" in the grave. What kind of shahadah have
these people made? Do you really think that their shahadah will mean anything on the
Day of Judgment as long as they believe that acts of worship may be done for other than
Allah?
The ninth condition of the shahadah is that the Muslim adheres to the shahadah until he
dies. This is must if the shahadah is to mean anything for you in the Hereafter. You can
not rest on your laurels of what you may have done in the past. No, indeed, the shahadah
must be your banner until your death. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, " A man
spends a long time doing the deeds of the people of Paradise and then he ends his deeds
with the deeds of the people of the Hell-fire. And a man spends a long time doing the
deeds of the people of the Hell-fire and then he ends his deeds with the deeds of the
people of Paradise." (Recorded by Muslim) In another hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon
him) said, "By the One whom there is no other God, one of you does the actions of
Paradise until there is just a handspan between him and Paradise and then the book
[preordainment] overtakes him and he does the actions of the people of Hell and he enters
into it" (Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim.)
And Allah says in the Quran, "O believers, observe your duty to Allah with right
observance, and die not save as Muslims [surrendering yourselves to Allah]" (Qur'an, aliImran 102).
Dear brothers and sisters, these are the conditions of the shahadah. These are the aspects
of the shahadah that each and every one of us should look to in ourselves and ask
ourselves, "Is my shahadah meeting those requirements? Am I saying it sincerely,
honestly and out of love for Allah? Am I saying it based on what it really means? Am I
denying all other false objects of worship?..."
These questions we should ask ourselves now before we meet Allah. Allah willing, we
shall ask ourselves these questions now and we shall find that we have all the right
answers for them. Or, if we find we have some deficiency, we shall work to remove that
deficiency. Such that, by Allah's mercy, in the Hereafter, our shahadah will be the key to
Paradise for us and the gates of Paradise will swing wide open for us and we will be able
to live forever in the bounties of Paradise, with Allah being pleased with us.
Again, it is not simply a matter of knowing these conditions. Indeed,one can meet many
Muslims who have these conditions memorized, yet when one looks to their deeds and
behavior, one can see that these conditions have no effect on them. This means, in fact,
no matter how well he knows and can rattle off these conditions, he, in fact, is not
fulfilling them. In the Hereafter, his knowledge of these conditions will be of no avail to
him. Indeed, his knowledge will be a proof against him as he clearly knows what the
conditions are that he must satisfy yet he has shown that he is not willing to satisfy them
in his life.
Defining Worship
Ibn Katheer says – ibaadah is a state which combines the perfection of love, submission,
and fear.
Usually and typically, these three emotions do not exist combined to one individual.
Usually if you’re submitting to an authority, you don’t love them. And if you love them,
you’re usually not afraid of them.
This is the theoretical concept of ibadah – but what are the acts that define ibadah.
Ibn taymiyaah – ibadah is a comprehensive term, encompassing all apparent and hidden
acts and statements that are beloved to Allah.
Anything that Allah loves and is pleased with constitutes ibaadah. Allah loves that we
worship Him and pray to Him – and believe that He is One, He loves du3a and dhikr, and
reciting the Qur’an. If we do it for other than Allah, it becomes an act of shirk.
In order for any act of worship to be accepted, two conditions must be met. The first of
these must be sincerity and the second of these is conformity.
TWO CONDITIONS OF IBADAH – sincerity and conformity.
The Prophet (saw) said – all actions are by intentions and every person will only get what
they intended for. Whoever did hijrah for the sake of Allah will get the reward from
Allah, etc
The second condition is that of conformity – meaning ot the sunnah of the Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam. You don’t have the right to invent an act of
worship. Did the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam worship Allah in this
manner? If he didn’t you don’t have the right to invent an act of worship.
Evidence of this in saheeh bukhari
Whoever invents anything into this religion, it will not be accepted from him.
The types of actions that we do – Actions can be divided into two categories that all of
mankind does.
Natural and religious.
Natural actions are actions people do because they are human beings –they are not
dependent upon religion. They’re not religious specific. Examples of natural actions are –
eating, working, procreating. You do this because you’re a human being.
Religious – acts of worship, and prayer – sacrifice, etc.
If sincerity is not met, it becomes shirk – and if conformity is not met, it becomes an act
of bid3ah.
Others will stand in a circle and they’ll do a communal dhikr, or saying praises of dhikr,
and the Prophet (saw) never did this – we ask where did you get this from? And they
said, no no, this is something that our scholars did. They’re doing it for the sake of Allah,
but there’s no conformity.
A natural action – there is no concept of shirk or bid3ah in a natural action. It doesn’t
come into play. If you’re hungry and you eat and you’re not conscious of Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala – does that constitute shirk? No. if you go to work for the sake of
money – you’re not conscious of Allah, is that an act of shirk? No.
There’s no concept of bid3ah as well – because it doesn’t come to play except in religious
acts. So does this mean that computers are bid3ah, cars, computers, etc? he’s not
distinguishing the difference between the actions. None of these in and of themselves is
an act of worship.
Some of the natural actions the Prophet told us were actions of worship – told us how to
do them, and it becomes a religious act because he told us how. Otherwise, what he has
remained silent about, there is no sunnah and bid3ah.
The beauty of Islam is that a natural action can be converted into a religious one. Any
natural action can be converted into a religious one – just with one condition –
sincerity/intention. And if you do so, all you need is sincerity – you don’t need
conformity – because its not by default a religious act.
The prophet (saw) said – do you not know that helping your Muslim brother is a type of
charity. Giving water, etc – all of these things, if we’re conscious of Allah – we will be
rewarded for it. When you’re conscious of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala then even this
natural deed will become reward just because of that conciousness. The real mu2min, his
entire life can become an act of worship.
Beautiful hadith – abu dardaa’ and salman al faarisi – spend the night at his house, and
this is before the ayah of hijaab was revealed. “why do you dress yourself up like this?” –
his wife said… abu darda has no need for women … until you break your fast I’m not
going to eat – salman al farisi said…
Farisi wanted to sleep, he said no lie down – after a few hours he tried to lie down – only
a few hours left, he said now let us stand up and pray. The next morning abu dardaa’
lodges a complaint to the Prophet (saw)… why did you do what you did? Ya rasoolullah..
So the prophet (saw) said, salman has told you the truth, your body has a right over you,
your wife has a right over you, your guest has a right over you
By allah I expect to be rewarded with my sleeping, the same way I expect to be rewarded
for my tahajjud – salman al farisi – he reached that level that everything has become an
act of worship… he’d go to sleep with a different mentality. When he did that, every
single act became an act of worship for him.
***This is what separates a mu’min from a mu7sin*** the mu7sin, he worships Allah
constantly – so when you get to that level that you’re worshipping Allah constantly,
that’s when every action becomes a religious action.
We worship Allah because we love Him, and we want to Please Him, and we are scared
of His anger and scared of His punishment. This translates as the three motivational
pillars of ibaadah.
There are many evidences for each one of these emotions. Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala
says in the Qur’an “whoever takes an object to the love of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala
has taken a partner along with him” 2:165
And of mankind are some who take (for worship) others besides Allah as rivals (to
Allah). They love them as they love Allah. But those who believe, love Allah more (than
anything else). If only, those who do wrong could see, when they will see the torment,
that all power belongs to Allah and that Allah is Severe in punishment.
Tawbah – 24
Say: If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives, your kindred, the wealth that
you have gained, the commerce in which you fear a decline, and the dwellings in which
you delight … are dearer to you than Allah and His Messenger, and striving hard and
fighting in His Cause, then wait until Allah brings about His Decision (torment). And
Allah guides not the people who are Al-Fasiqun (the rebellious, disobedient to Allah).
Love is of many types and categories – of the types of love is divine love. Love of the
Divine. In other words you love the being who is your Creator. Only Allah subhanaHu
wa Ta'ala can come in this category. We can only love Allah with this kind of Love.
Second type of category is Love for the Divine – which means we love a being or love
something because Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala loves it. And because it brings us closer
to Allah. So an example (greatest example) would be love of the Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam. And loving the angels, etc
Third category is natural love. The love we have for human beings – under this comes
many things, children, parents, spouses. We love health, food, energy… you can take
anything that is natural and convert it to religious.
So the mu2min or mu7sin, any single love he has, he converts it to love for the divine.
Everything he does he does it for the sake of Allah.
Love for his parents – that he’s respectful to his parents and never causes any displeasure
to them. Suppose a natural love conflicts with a commandment of Allah subhanaHu wa
Ta'ala – in this case, if you do something because you love it, and Allah told you not to
do it, it becomes a sin/disobedience.
Its natural to love money – the mu2min – earns with halal and spends it only for halal.
Disobedience will not constitute shirk – because it does not interfere with divine love. If
that were to be shirk, then everything you do would be shirk. There’s only one instance
where this would be shirk and that would be if a natural love interferes with the first
category.
Heraclius – an example – he said this is the Prophet of Allah. If what you’re telling me is
true, then he will control the land under my feet. He refused to convert because he loved
the power and prestige more than that love for Allah. If a love allows you to disobey
Allah, but does not allow you to reject Allah, that is not shirk it’s a sin.
Two types of shirk - The first type of shirk – if you love a being other than Allah with a
Divine love. The way that Christians love Jesus – the way that Buddhists love budha.
Many priests, academics, etc are “Closet Muslims” – they know that Islam is true, but
they’re not going to declare it. Why? They love their status and position, and if they were
to accept Islam, it would jeopardize their status in the field. >> that is a type of shirk,
because you have loved something which interferes with your love for Allah.
Fear
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala mentions in the Qur’an in surat aali 3imran, verse 175
It is only Shaitan (Satan) that suggests to you the fear of his Auliya' [supporters and
friends (polytheists, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah and in His Messenger,
Muhammad SAW)], so fear them not, but fear Me, if you are (true) believers.
Surat al ahzaab, verse 39
Those who convey the Message of Allah and fear Him, and fear none save Allah. And
Sufficient is Allah as a Reckoner
Fear has two categories to it – first is a supernatural fear, and the second is called a
natural fear.
It is the fear that Muslims have of Allah – this must be exclusive to Allah. Only Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala can cause you harm if He wishes to do so. The other type of fear is
a natural fear – if we see an animal in front of us, a snake, scorpion, etc – it’s a natural
fear. There’s a natural fear of losing your job, of not having any income. In and of
themselves, they are not haram or shirk. As long as it doesn’t border on the supernatural.
Generally speaking you have a natural thing that you’re scared of. but sometimes it is a
sign of cowardice, and being a coward is not a sin.
Being scared of the dark is not shirk. To conquer natural fears is a sign of perfection of
imaan. To have natural fears – theres nothing wrong with it. Something is in front of you,
you’re scared of it. But to remove these fears and put your trust in Allah is a sign of a
perfection of Imaan.
Sahabah – walking in the desert, saw a lion in front of him. Looked the lion straight in the
eye, my lord and your Lord are Allah, and you cannot touch me unless Allah wills it.
When the mu2min is facing the enemy, the real powerful mu2min will not feel any fear.
An example of a supernatural fear – one of the sahabiyaat converted to Islam. Her tribe
went to her, are you not scared of al-laat, that he will be able to cause you harm? She
said, there is no such thing as al-laat causing me harm. She understood that there is no
such thing as al-laat and al-uzza. The fear that her tribesmen had of al-laat, that is
committing shirk.
The third emotion is that of Hope. Hope is something that we need to give to Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala. He says in the Qur’an in surat aali imran, verse 135
And those who, when they have committed Fahishah (illegal sexual intercourse etc.) or
wronged themselves with evil, remember Allah and ask forgiveness for their sins; - and
none can forgive sins but Allah - And do not persist in what (wrong) they have done,
while they know.
surat al baqarah: 218
Verily, those who have believed, and those who have emigrated (for Allah's Religion)
and have striven hard in the Way of Allah, all these hope for Allah's Mercy. And Allah is
Oft-Forgiving, Most-Merciful.
surat al hijr: verse 56
surat al nisaa verse 104
Hope is also of types – hope for forgiveness and hope for acceptance.
1) Hope for forgivness
2) Hope for acceptance
To ask someone for forgivness for a specific sin, you need to ask for forgivness.
Two sins that you have done when you have transgressed the rights of a human being. If
you lie, cheat, steal – that’s two sins … if you do something between you and Allah,
that’s one sin. If you’ve done a sin to a human being, for that specific sin you can ask that
person along with Allah.
Acceptance of what? Of good deeds – to do good deeds and hope that anyone other than
Allah will accept it is shirk. (religious deeds… not natural ones). You give money either
for the sake of other than Allah, or to show off – this goes against hope of acceptance and
it is a type of shirk. Both of these are due directly to Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala. To give
them to other than Allah is a manifestation of shirk.
These are the three emotions that a believer needs to have. Love and fear and hope. And
there are many verses in the quran that combine between these emotions where Allah
describes the believers.
17:57
in surat al faatihah – we can see these three emotions – all praise be to Allah, Lord of all
the worlds – Love
ar-rahman ir raheem – hope
maalik yawmideen – fear
based on love, fear and hope, what do we do?
Iyaaka na3budu wa iyaaka nasta3een.
Throughout the years of Islam, we have had groups that have emphasized one emotion to
the exclusion of another. One group emphasized fear more than the other two emotions –
the khawarij. They become so incessed with a God who will punish that led them to the
extreme.
Another group took the concept of Allah’s mercy and ignored the other two – the group
called the murji2a. Ignored Allah’s punishment.
A third group only emphasized love and forgot the rest, generally the soofies and mystics.
The extreme soofies. Of the famous sufi saints – rabi3a al 3adaweeya. “oh Allah, if I
worship you because of Hope, than deprive you of the idol that I have worshipped you
because of.” from her mind its as if she’s worshipping the idol that she calls jannah
If I’m worshipping you to save myself the fire of hell, throw me into this very idol that I
have from you.
So if I worship you because I want to be one with you, then do with me as you please.
She’s saying I don’t worship you for fear or hope of you. All the early generations
worshipped Allah because they love Allah and they have hope and fear.
The true Muslim worships Allah based on fear and hope.
Love, fear, and hope. The primary emotion is Love. The primary motivational factor is
love. What comes next? It depends. What does it depend on? It depends on your own
situation and what you’re doing. So if a person is involved in sins, what should he
increase? Fear. If a person wants to wake up for tahajjud, what does he need? Hope.
A beautiful example – a bird – the body/heart – is the love. But in order to propel it, it
needs fear and hope. Sometimes you need to increase that fear – how do you increase it?
Think of Allah’s punishment. How do you increase hope? Think of Allah’s mercy, etc
If shirk is so bad, then why are we studying it? For the sake of what it is and knowing
what to avoid. By studying the dangers of shirk it will motivate us to stay away from it.
It is almost impossible to find a doctor who specializes in lung cancer who smokes. Why?
Because that doctor understands the importance of that health.
Dentists always take care of their teeth better than other people – because they understand
the importance of taking care of your teeth. Similiarly when we understand the dangers of
going into shirk so that we may know
Learn evil, not for the sake of evil, but to avoid it. – quote he would does not know evil
from good will fall into it.
So you learn evil and shirk in order to avoid this evil sin.
What exactly is shirk? It has been defined explicitly in the Qur’an and Sunnah. Do not
take with Allah partners, while he created you.
2:22
Who has made the earth a resting place for you, and the sky as a canopy, and sent down
water (rain) from the sky and brought forth therewith fruits as a provision for you. Then
do not set up rivals unto Allah (in worship) while you know (that He Alone has the right
to be worshipped).
shirk means giving the rights of Allah to other than Allah.
Whatever is due to Allah, if you have given to other than Allah, you have committed
shirk.
Shirk is the only unforgivable sin.
4:48 and 4:116
Verily, Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with him in worship, but He
forgives except that (anything else) to whom He pleases, and whoever sets up partners
with Allah in worship, he has indeed invented a tremendous sin
Shirk prohibits a person from entering paradise, and obligates a permanent abode in Hell,
5:72
Surely, they have disbelieved who say: "Allah is the Messiah ['Iesa (Jesus)], son of
Maryam (Mary)." But the Messiah ['Iesa (Jesus)] said: "O Children of Israel! Worship
Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Verily, whosoever sets up partners in worship with
Allah, then Allah has forbidden Paradise for him, and the Fire will be his abode. And for
the Zalimun (polytheists and wrongdoers) there are no helpers.
Shirk is so evil that it destroys all of a persons good deeds. Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala
says in surat az-zumar, 65
And indeed it has been revealed to you (O Muhammad SAW), as it was to those (Allah's
Messengers) before you: "If you join others in worship with Allah, (then) surely (all)
your deeds will be in vain, and you will certainly be among the losers."
Ibn al qayyim mentions this is one of the profound verses warning against this…
How so? Start from the beginning – the best of people have been told something – every
prophet is told, which shows you how important it is.
Then Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala says if YOU commit shirk, all of your deeds will go to
waste. What does that show? The main point is that if the best of creation and the most
noble of mankind, with all of the deeds – if he were to have committed shirk, what would
happen? All of those deeds will go to waste. So if this applies to the one who has the
most good deeds, what about those with lesser good deeds?
Its not possible for the Prophets of Allah commit major sins – if the Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam was not going to commit shirk, then why was he being
addressed in this singular?
The message is to us and not the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam…
meaning, if he were to theoretically commit shirk, his deeds would go to waste. What
about ours?
Shirk is so evil that if a person dies upon shirk, his Muslim friends and relatives cannot
seek forgiveness for him. Proof of this is in the proof of Abu Talib – the uncle of the
Prophet Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam.
He was not a Muslim, even though he believed it to be true. Abu Talib was the father
figure throughout his life until he was in his 50’s. And Abu Talib did what no other
human being did – so when Abu Talib was on his deathbed, the Prophet Muhammad
sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said “oh uncle, say laa illaha illahAllah and I will try to plea
your case to Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala” and he was about to say it…when Abu Jahl
came in and said “are you about to leave the religion of your forefathers before you?”
they invoked that emotion that was more powerful than the love of Allah.
At this Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala revealed a series of verses. Of them, was surat at
tawbah, verse 113:
It is not (proper) for the Prophet and those who believe to ask Allah's Forgiveness for the
Mushrikun (polytheists, idolaters, pagans, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah) even
though they be of kin, after it has become clear to them that they are the dwellers of the
Fire (because they died in a state of disbelief).
So the verse is quite explicit – and the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam
stopped seeking forgiveness for Abu Talib.
I asked Allah’s permission to seek forgiveness for her, and He didn’t grant it to me, I
asked Allah’s permission to visit her grave, and He granted me that permission.
No body is pronouncing a verdict that they are going to Hell. Allah is the only one who
knows this – but we as Muslims are not to seek forgiveness for them.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala has described those who commit shirk as being najjas –
which means a type of impurity or filth. So if Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala has described
them as being this way, who else can purify them save Allah?
9:28
O you who believe (in Allah's Oneness and in His Messenger (Muhammad SAW)!
Verily, the Mushrikun (polytheists, pagans, idolaters, disbelievers in the Oneness of
Allah, and in the Message of Muhammad SAW) are Najasun (impure). So let them
not come near Al-Masjid-al-Haram (at Makkah) after this year, and if you fear poverty,
Allah will enrich you if He will, out of His Bounty. Surely, Allah is All-Knowing, AllWise.
SHIRK – DEFINITIONS, DANGERS, AND TYPES
Modern man believes that shirk existed before tawheed. No one is going to say the
opposite – early man is upon shirk. And tawheed is an evolution to primitive man.
We believe the complete opposite. What are these reasons?
1. The fitrah – unnatural to believe in different gods – and meethaq
2. First shirk to occur was during the time of Prophet Nooh alayhis_salaam
The first human being was Adam, how could there have been shirk if the first man
was also a Prophet?
What is the first story of shirk?
The story is as follows – Allah mentions the names of five idols of the people of Nuh
– wad, suwaa3, yaghooth, ya3ooth, nasr.
"And they have said: 'You shall not leave your gods, nor shall you leave Wadd, nor
Suwa', nor Yaghuth, nor Ya'uq, nor Nasr (names of the idols);
descendents of Adam – who were very holy and noble people. They were the most
worshipping of their people. They died in the short span between the other. They felt
the loss of these five people – and so shaytan came to them in the form of a man and
said ‘you have lost these five people who were your role models – would you not like
it that I carve out images and place them in your qiblah so that when you look at
these, it will inspire you to worship Allah the way they used to worship”
“we feel uncomfortable that you put it in our qiblah, is it ok if we place it in the
back?”
so the first idols were literally carved out by shaytan himself.
Ibn 3abbas said generations went and people forgot about who these images were,
just the names remained. This was ten generations between adam and nuh. And ten
generations between nuh and ..?
Ten generations later shaytan comes to them in the form of an old man – (before he had
come as a young man).. and asked the rhetorically – “what are these images in the back?”
we don’t know… they used to turn to these icons and images for their needs, and they
would pray to them for what they wanted. So when this occurred, that was when
deviation started – that was the generation that the Prophet Nuh alayhis_salaam was sent
– and preached to them for 950 years… he didn’t live for that long (he lived longer).
Until finally, he became so angry that he said “oh Allah, destroy every one of them and
make sure that not a single one of these household remains alive.” So Allah subhanaHu
wa Ta'ala responded to his du3a with a flood the likes of which we’ve never seen.
THE CATEGORIES OF SHIRK
Shirk is of the same categories as tawheed – shirk is the opposite of tawheed. So if we
have tawheed in ruboobeeyah, then we have to have shirk in ruboobeeyah. There are two
ways we can add this – a total and a partial way of adding this.
The total way would be to believe there is other gods that believe there are gods that are
all powerful, total, etc – Zoroastrian – a total affirmation of another rabb – its almost
unheard of, because it goes against the fitrah so much.
A partial affirmation of a rabb is very common – the majority of religions do it. A partial
rabb means you believe someone has the powers of a rabb but not all the powers of the
rabb. For example, to believe that a being can create or give light, or respond to your
needs, “I know they’re not rabbs, but Allah has given them this power” that they have
some powers that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala has given them.
Negation is the opposite – where you negate the ruboobeeyah of Allah. What is the total
negation of the ruboobeeyah of Allah? That would be the definition of Atheism.
If the definition of shirk is giving the right of Allah to other than Allah. How is atheism
shirk?
If you read in books of science – nature has decreed, nature has … what is nature? Nature
is a concept you have named, you and your forefathers before you.
Partial negation of a rabb occurs especially amongst the philosophers. They negate
Allah’s nature of creation. Like for example, Aristotle, he didn’t believe that there is a
creation. If you asked him do you believe in God, he would say yes. What does He do?
He doesn’t create, etc – so He’s stripped that which He is worthy of.
Shirk in Uloohiyah can be divided into two categories – major and minor. And then
further practical and theoretical.
In your heart you consider it permissible – legitamite, morally for others to worship
others to worship other than Allah. In your own life you have not done anything wrong in
your worship – but you consider it permissible in a moral sense. In an Islamic state if you
were the khalifah, and a Christian comes to you and wants to worship the way they want
to worship – then we are to allow them.
Legally, we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about morally. You say “yes this is
totally acceptable, and that Allah might forgive them for this”. Because you have allowed
this in a moral sense, you have negated your own kalimah.
If you believe in laa illaha illahAllah then what you’re saying is that there is a diety
worthy of worship other than Allah.
To believe that Christians, jews, etc – that we are all working our way to jannah – in
reality this is a type of shirk because you have allowed them to worship other than Allah
and said that yes it is permissible to worship other than Allah – and in fact that is major
shirk.
This being can see where I am, or this being is all-powerful – anything that is a name or
an attribute of Allah, you have deified that human being, and that is shirk.
To ascribe characteristics that aren’t belonging to Allah is anthropomorphism.
From the beginning of class, what we’ve been doing is defining very basic concepts. Just
a simple overview of our basic theology.
Actions of the heart – a few actions that constitute ibadah. Manifestations of ibadah –
we’re only talking about a few actions as examples to illustrate the rest of the actions.
A concept of tawakkul which means to put your trust in Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
Wakkala means to assign someone. Tawakkala means I’ve assigned someone to do
something – so it means to cut off hope from any object, and to put your hope or trust
completely in Allah.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala tells us in surat al maa2idah verse 23:
Two men of those who feared (Allah and) on whom Allah had bestowed His Grace [they
were ‫ي‬e‫ شع‬e ‫ كالب‬Yusha' (Joshua) and Kalab (Caleb)] said: "Assault them through the
gate, for when you are in, victory will be yours, and put your trust in Allah if you are
believers indeed.
Surah yunus verse 84
Realize that nothing will happen to you unless Allah has willed it. It means that your
heart will put its attachment to Allah. Instead of putting your attachment to things around
you, your attachment will be with Allah. Some people have the wrong tawakkul, they
think that it means that you won’t do anything. If you’re sick don’t take medicine – that
goes against tawakkal… this is an incorrect perception of tawakul… because tawakul is
an action of the heart and not the limbs – it is a psychological state of the mind and not
the body. The real mu2min believes that Allah has created goals for us, and ways to get
to those goals… but while we’re doing these things, your heart is attached to Allah. So
the farmer knows that unless he burries the seeds with the right amount of water and no
other dangers to the crops come, after he does what he can, there’s only so much you can
do – you have the tawakkal in Allah.
The prophet Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam strove to do what he could. It’s a
perfection of tawakkal to take precautions.
Tadaawaw yaa 3ibaadullah – when you fall sick take medicine.
Because Allah has not revealed any disease except that Allah has set a cure for it. So
tawakkal means that your heart is attached to Allah, not that your body is?
When you take your medication – the mu2min will think, oh Allah you have created this
medicine with qualities to cure me, so let it cure me.
A bedoin came to the Prophet said – should I tie my camel or should I put my tawakul in
Allah. So the bedoin had the common understanding that many Muslims have.
Tie your camel and put your tawakul in Allah.
Tirmidhi – if you were to put your tawakkul in Allah, the way that He deserves, He
would provide for you the way that He provides for the birds – they leave their houses
early in the morning on an empty stomach, and they come back on a full stomach at
night.
How does this hadith show what we are talking about? That they leave early in the
morning – they don’t just sit back. Birds start chirping right at fajr time, and they spend
the entire day searching for food – and eventually they find it. This shows that tawakkul
is an action of the heart.
Get your sustenance, but realize in your heart that Allah will provide for you. So Islam is
a very realistic and pragmatic religion.
True tawakkul necessitates actions. Tawakkul is one action of worship. To put your
tawakul in other than Allah becomes an act of shirk.
If you believe that the doctor has the power to cure you, this is major think. Minor shirk
is when you partially give him that power – your yearning and dependency goes to him
and you’ve forgotten that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala has given him that knowledge and
ability.
Another manifestation of worship is patience. Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala says 3:200
O you who believe! Endure and be more patient (than your enemy), and guard your
territory by stationing army units permanently at the places from where the enemy can
attack you, and fear Allah, so that you may be successful.
Ar-ra3d – 22
And those who remain patient, seeking their Lord's Countenance, perform As-Salat
(Iqamat-as-Salat), and spend out of that which We have bestowed on them, secretly and
openly, and defend evil with good, for such there is a good end;
Nahl:128
Al-muddathir, verse 7
Three categories of patience –
1. Patience in response to a situation that Allah has decreed. Some situation or crisis
that you face. We are required to be patient – we cannot be impatient. What does
it mean to be patient in this situation?
Firstly – that we accept the decree in our hearts – and secondly, we don’t say or do
anything that shows the displeasure is directed against Allah. Patience does not mean
happiness – it means acceptance. “Oh Allah, this is your decision and you know best,
and we accept it”
The best example – the Prophet’s son Ibraheem – when his son died, he cried – the
sahabah were shocked – ya rasoolullah – do you cry? The prophet (saw) said “crying
is a sign of mercy” – indeed oh ibraheem, we are sad at your loss – inna lillahi wainna
ilayhi rajee3oun – oh ibraheem we are very sad at your loss, we will only say that
which our Lord is pleased with.
He was sad and cried, but he accepted the decree of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
Patience here means restraing yourself from acting in a way that is inappropriate.
-wailing, screaming, tearing your clothing, crying out “how will we live now, who
will take care of us” – to say these types of statements would be going against
patience.
“why is this happening – I don’t deserve this” – this is going beyond the bounds of
what is allowed. Being happy is not possible many times – but you have to control
your sadness and accept the decree of Allah and know that He knows what is best.
A higher level of patience – second level
2. Patience in restraining one’s self from committing sins
ar-ra3d, verse 24
"Salamun 'Alaikum (peace be upon you) for that you persevered in patience!
Excellent indeed is the final home!"
3. And the highest level of patience is patience in constantly worshipping Allah. (get
the fajr alarm clock)
Meaing that you have to always pray 5 times a day – always concentrate, with khushoo3,
where you always do your good deeds properly, enthusiastically, zealously. Therefore
this is the highest form of patience.
Patience is an action of the heart and the limbs – unlike tawakkul – which is not shown
outwardly. Patience is shown outwardly.
That’s why the Prophet (saw) said, wailing over the dead is a type of kufr, beating your
head is kufr – meaning it goes against the essence of Imaan.
The highest form of worship – is du3a. Du3a is THE greatest act of worship. There is no
act of worship more beloved to Allah than du3a.
Ad-du3aa2u huwal 3ibaddah
In another hadith
Ad-du3aa2u mukh-khul 3ibaddah
And that is why the number of verses in the Qur’an that tell us to make du3a to Allah
subhanaHu wa Ta'ala alone number in the hundreds. And the number of verses in the
Qur’an that prohibits us from making du3a to other than Allah also number in the
hundreds.
10:106
"And invoke not besides Allah, any that will neither profit you, nor hurt you, but if (in
case) you did so, you shall certainly be one of the Zalimun (polytheists and wrongdoers)."
why is du3a considered so highly? Because it is the most common act of worship.
Du3a is the one universal worship that transcends all religions – all religions have a
concept of calling out. Even shaytan made du3a.
Another reason du3a is the essence of worship – because imagine the state of the one
making du3a – imagine how you’re going to make du3a – sincerely, humbly, love and
fear and hope perfected.
What are you scared of when you make du3a? rejection, what are you hoping for?
Acceptance – and you’re making du3a because you want it to be accepted and love that
being.
There is no act that better illustrates the worshiper and the object of worship than du3a.
therefore it is the most noble and greatest act of worship. Because du3a is the most
common act of worship in mankind, automatically it becomes the most common act of
shirk. – the majority of verses in the Qur’an prohibiting shirk don’t use the word shirk,
they use the word du3a.
Surat al jinn, verse 20
Surat al faatir, verse 14
Surat al mu2minoon, verse 117
Surat yoonus, verse 106
Surat al hajj, verse 73
When you make du3a to a saint, the implication is that this being loves about me and
cares about me more than Allah. The implication is that they can see you and hear you
wherever you are.
The opinion of the majority of the ulamah is that the dead cannot hear you in their graves.
You’re also saying that they have the power to respond to you. Therefore making to du3a
to other than Allah means shirk in all three categories.
Du3a is the essence of worship - To give it to Allah is the essence of tawheed, and to
deny it and to give it to other than Allah is the essence of shirk
Other acts that are ibadah (these are types of du3a, but more specific types)
Isti3aadha – it means seeking refuge (spiritually).
Nahl: 98
So when you want to recite the Quran, seek refuge with Allah from Shaitan (Satan), the
outcast (the cursed one)
The fact that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala has told us to seek refuge in Allah means that it
is an act of worship – which means we can’t direct it to other than Allah.
Surat al jinn – verse number 6
And verily, there were men among mankind who took shelter with the masculine among
the jinns, but they (jinns) increased them (mankind) in sin and disbelief.
When the jahiliyah arabs went out camping – they would announce the leader of the
caravan would announce – “oh leader of the jinn, I seek refuge in you ‘a3oothu bika’ so
don’t harm us” – so Allah mentions in that above verse.
Isti3aanah – (seeking help) Seeking help is of two types – natural and supernatural.
Natural is seeking natural help from a being who is there and Allah has given the ability
to help you. This has nothing to do with tawheed and shirk because the former and latter
deal with supernatural help.
Some groups come to you – those who justify doing shirk and they say “do you think that
your friend is more powerful or the Prophet sallallahu 3alayhi wasallam?” well you ask
your friends to give you a ride, etc and that’s not shirk – and I think that if I don’t ask the
Prophet (saw) to grant me Jannah that it’s shirk – so they start making du3a to other than
Allah.
You confuse it between what is natural and what is supernatural. What is natural
transcends religion. Supernatural means because you’re of this faith, you think such and
such is allowed.
An-nadhr – a nadhr is a religious promise that is allowed to make with Allah subhanaHu
wa Ta'ala. Not recommended in and of itself, but if done, must be in Allah’s name.
“allow me to pass this exam with this grade, I will pay so and so with this amount of
money”… it’s the only act of worship that’s not praiseworthy in and of themselves. The
only act that is not encouraged is an-nadhr. But if you do it, you must do it for the sake of
Allah.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala praises those who fulfill their nadhr’s in the Qur’an.
Baqarah: 270
Surat al insaan – verse 7
You’re assuming that this being can benefit you or harm you. The main reason is that
there is an attitude of bargaining – oh Allah if you give me this, I’ll give you that.
A nadhr does not change what has been decreed (sahih bukhari) but rather, it extracts
something from a miserly person.
Du3a changes decree – it changes it because Allah knows it would change it. Decree is of
five types – only changes one type – will talk about in future aqeedah class.
Sacrifice – of two types. We’re supposed to sacrifice during certain times.
1) to thank Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala
2) purely for the sake of God
you cannot sacrifice an animal without mentioning the name of Allah. To sacrifice and
animal in other than Allah is an act of shirk.
Surat al an3aam – 162
Say (O Muhammad SAW): "Verily, my Salat (prayer), my sacrifice, my living, and my
dying are for Allah, the Lord of the 'Alamin (mankind, jinns and all that exists).
It’s not the quantity of food, it’s the fact that the man didn’t care. The problem is that he
did it and he couldn’t care less – didn’t get the full story.
An animal is a life –if you want to take this life, you need to mention Allah’s name. you
have no right to take that animals life unless you mention Allah’s name because he is the
one that gives you that right.
Some ulama say its allowed – some say its not allowed.
1) the issue of saying bismillah. He believes if bismillah is not said over the meat,
the meat becomes haram. The first you mention bismillah, the second is other
than Allah, the third is no one.
2) Do not eat the meat over which Allah’s name has not been mentioned – wa
innahu la fisq
3) Does not Allah say that their food is permissible for us? Indeed it is – in so far as
it does not conflict with our own sharee3ah. When they don’t follow their own
sharee3ah, then their food does not become permissible. The meat of ahlil kitaab
refers to kosher meat. To equate kosher meat with the meat of ahlil kitaab is ?
4) How is it killed? The majority of animals are stunned, or electrocuted, etc – and in
the process of stunning – a lot of animals die before the blade reaches their throat
– this is dead meat – it doesn’t matter if the animal is dead, bismillah Allahu
akbar… the whole point is the animal needs to be alive for this. This is a major
factor – and a large percentage – 20 – 30% of animals…at least a third are dead
before the knife reaches the throat
5) Allah has allowed food of ahlil kitaab – in the country we’re living in, a
signficiant number of working class, might not be Christian – another uncertainty.
6) Issue of mad cow disease. The animals living in these conditions are fed animals.
Tawaf
Another aspect of worship that is due to Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala is tawaaf
Allah has allowed it around one object and only one object
22:29
Then let them complete the prescribed duties (Manasik of Hajj) for them, and perform
their vows, and circumambulate the Ancient House (the Ka'bah at Makkah)
The majority of shirk that occurs around the Muslim world occurs around the graves of
saints – all of which is a manifestation of shirk.
The last act of worship – prostration - sadjdah – rukoo3 and sujood. It is due to Allah and
only to Allah.
Fussilat, verse 37
And from among His Signs are the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. Prostrate
not to the sun nor to the moon, but prostrate to Allah Who created them, if you (really)
worship Him
It is not allowed for another human being to prostrate to another. – Prophet (saw)
Two types of prostration – the bowing down of respect, and the bowing down of worship.
The prostration of respect was something that was allowed in previous genearations. It
was a fiqh issue, not a theological issue. The prostration of worship was something only
to Allah. Fiqh changes from prophet to prophet – until the prophet Muhammad sallallahu
'alayhi wa sallam came and perfected the entire creation.
And when Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala told the angels to prostrate to adam, it was a
prostration of respect.
When they prostrated to Yusuf, it was a prostration of respect.
Saw the Christians and jews prostrate to the priests and rabbis. He fell down flat to the
Prophet (saw) – sadjda of respect – Mu3ath
He is doing qiyaas in worship
If I were to command anyone to prostrate, I would tell the wife to prostrate to the
husband…w hat type of prostration? Respect.
Therefore to lower the head in front of another being, if you do so for worship, that
becomes shirk. If you do so for respect – it is not shirk it is haram.
If the intention was to respect only, then it is haram in our sharee3ah
Saturday – Second Weekend
Saturday – 2nd weekend Light of Guidance
Discussed Tabarruk yesterday.
If you believe that good luck will come to you or it will protect you from something,
generally speaking, this is major shirk – there’s no concept of Allah making it like this.
No Muslim says “Allah has blessed a rabbits foot” … the belief in and of itself is that the
foot is causing the barakah in and of itself.
The jahileeya arabs would wear talismans to protect themselves and their children or
animals from evils.
Tiwala - was used by a woman who would go to an expert in good luck charms, and she
would wear it in order to attract her husband to her.
The Prophet (saw) said, All tailismans and all tiwala are shirk.” << quite explicit.
Wearing a talisman/good luck charm, the Prophet clearly said that this was shirk.
When a man came to the Prophet (saw) wearing a good luck charm, he came to accept
Islam – and the Prophet (saw) refused to accept his Islam. So he inquired – he tore it off
and through it away. And he therefore accepted Islam.
What does it imply? It implies that this item has the power to do something? What gave it
that power? What is luck? – chance/fortune. There’s no such thing as luck. We don’t say
“good luck” – unfortunately many of us weren’t grounded in Islam properly, and we
don’t understand the implications of this.
Beautiful story of Ibn Masood – shows that sometimes a talisman actually works. And
that is the story of when he came home one day, and he saw his wife wearing something
around her neck – something written. He said “what is this” – she said “tiwala” –
talismans. He tore it and threw it away. My wife has no need of doing shirk. Where did
you get this from? I was suffering from an ailment – and after I wore it, it stopped. She’s
trying to give an excuse – that it works. That was the shaytan, who would come and poke
your eye to irritate you. When you wore the talisman, you made the shaytan happy and so
he stopped irritating you. What you should have done is turn to Allah – laa shifaa2un illa
shifaa2uk.
(reported in Ibn Majah) – sometimes the talisman work – but not because there’s
something in the talisman – it works because you are making the shaytan happy. What
more does he want besides you to fall into shirk. When someone wears a talisman, they
think that it does something.
Qur’anic talismans – verses. They cannot be shirk to wear – so to turn to the Qur’an, it’s
an attribute of Allah. It can never be shirk. You’re not associating partners with Allah.
However, the question is not whether it’s shirk or not, but whether it’s the etiquette to do
so. Some of the sahabah allowed the wearing of quranic talismans… by unanimous
consensus.. you’re allowed to seek shifaa through the quran by reading it, reciting it,
blowing into your hands, “spitting on yourself” – noise of spit without spit. But he never
wrote the quran and put it on his body. Some of the companions allowed.
Of those who did not allow it was ibn masood – they used to dislike all types of
talismans, quranic and non. They used to dislike them
1) there’s no evidence that the Prophet (saw) himself did it
2) if you’re walking around that everyone knows is a talisman – how do they know
ifts a quranic one or a non-quranic one. – why do you want to give them that
doubt.
3) Its just not respectful to wear the quran around your neck and then go to the
restroom, have relations with your wife, etc
It’s not an innovation, its not shirk. The correct opinion is that it is better to avoid quranic
talismans. Its not an innovation b/c some companions allowed it. The opinion of many
scholars, its just better to avoid it.
Many of the people who wear these things, they thing its quranic, but its not quranic.
There was a brother who came from Pakistan, (taveez) wearing it – when he finally
agreed – he had never taken it off in his life… he had taken it off. They opened it up – it
was written in a language not known by men – so the next day a brother brings it… and
he said, this is what I’ve been wearing too…(he thought it was ayatul kursi)
Anytime you see squares with symbols in them – its black magic. They are calling upon
the jinn and the black magicians.
The majority of taveez that we find – the majority of it is not quranic, it is black magic,
OR it is nonsensical. Numerology – one type of black magic. The common people have
taken it as a symbol for bismillah. Where does 786 come from? Every letter is signed a
numberic value… geem is giving 3 – daal is given 4, etc – he adds your letters together,
etc… numerology is a branch of black magic – origins.
Omens? The ruling will not be any different because the concept is the same. Some
examples of talismans.
Talisman -Blue eye – hand symbol (which represents ahlul bayt for them), black dot on
the forehead. The most common talisman in the world is the cross – because they believe
it will bring good luck.
Omen – broken glass, walking under a ladder, crossing fingers – you have to be very
careful – they’ll say in shaa Allah while crossing their fingers. You’re imitating the sign
of the cruxification. Chain emails – the internet omen, if you do not forward this to ten
other brothers/sisters, then some bad luck will happen to you.
Bill gates email – you forwarded it b/c of money. If you forward it because something
bad happens to you – that’s an omen.
The Arabic word for omen – ‫ – طيره‬if they saw a specific bird, they’d think it was good
luck, if they saw another bird, it would be good luck. Bird flying right/left – good
luck/bad luck… someone can be on different sides.
AtTiyaratu shirk – repeated it twice – the Prophet (saw) – both of these hadith are in
bukhari. Its not something trivial.
What is shirk is to act upon it. To merely feel it, and not act upon it, that’s a sign of
weakness of Imaan. Suppose in your heart you feel something, but you struggle against it
– that’s fine. Because culturally you’ve been brainwashed, so Islam overlooks that as
long as you don’t act upon it.
Good omens – in the same hadith that he said atTiyaratu shirk – he said “but I like
optimism” – when he was asked, what is al fa2l, optimism? A good word that someone
hears or a good dream that someone sees.
The concept is that if you believe that you have seen something which is a sign from
Allah for some GOOD that will happen to you (not for something bad). In this case, it is
good to believe in it. Why? Because putting your trust in Allah that He will give you
something good, then its good – anything that increases that trust, is good as well.
Anything that helps you to believe that is good. Similarly if you see a dream and you
interpret it in a positive interpretation, that’s fine. If you think its from other than Allah,
then that’s major shirk.
You should not read in negative things from Allah. You should have the best hope in
Allah. This is not omens. He didn’t consider it seeking omens.
The first type of shirk is shirk in rooboobeeyah – because you’ve ascribed power to other
than Allah. The second is shirk in ulooheeyah – because you have placed your tawakul in
this thing. Tawakul is an act of worship and you’ve placed your trust in Allah.
As for quranic talismans – neiter is it shirk or bid3a.
“every black dog is a shaytan” – a serpent with two dots over his eyes is also a type of
shaytan.
“can you take a glass of water and read quran over it, and then blow on it, and then drink
it.” No problem with it – companions and scholars of the past have done this…
superstitious beginnings of these things
 abra kadabra – old ancient Jewish thing – their black magic, you’re calling out to
certain shayateen. They have very pagan and bad origins.
He’s not talking about fake “magic”
1. misdirection
2. optical illusion
3. technology
you go to a theater and you watch on tv – the magician shows or what not
*is it permissible to watch this kind of magic?
To separate black magic from white magic – real magic is only one type, its called shirk.
Why are we talking about it in this class. To talk about magic, you need to talk about the
jinn.
What are the jinn – what is the substance of the creation? They come from a smokeless
fire. So the jinn have no substance or form that we know of. We are not familiar with it in
the physical world.
If they are made from that type of energy – smokeless fire, they’re not stopped by the
material of the walls. Just like energy travels through – the jinn are not physical. They
can travel very fast b/c they’re not of substance.
Qala 3ifreetun minal jinni – Jerusalem to yemen. You would be able to get from
Jerusalem to yemen in less than an hour/hour and a half. I will go, bring back that one
throne, before you can stand up from your chair. It shows us that the jinn have powers
that we don’t have. Physically a jinn is stronger than man. Its not as if the jinns are
superpowerful. For example, physically, 4-5 men can hold that man who’s possessed
with jinn down.
Similarly they can go through walls – they can go through these walls carrying physical
things. WOW. Allahu Akbar. Transform this physical material into some type of energy
that can go through walls, and have it appear again in front of you. It’s a PHYSICAL
power of the jinn, not all powerful.
Mental characteristics – what are they? Mentally speaking, the jinn are inferior to men.
He ordered the jinns to prostrate to adam. Iblis said, how can he be better than me? He
looked at the fact that he’s more powerful, etc – and he didn’t look at knowledge,
intelligence. Having more knowledge is more pleasing to Allah.
There are jinns of all religions – generally speaking they learn our languages. We have
the superior intellect, culture, and civilization.
They have an inferiority complex – and the children of iblis, still have that complex.
They feel inferior and they want to be superior. Intellectually they’re lesser than us. Black
magic is nothing that is extreme or strange. A business relationship between the black
magician and the jinn.
The black magician wants from the jinn, the powers of the jinn. Tell me whats happening
in Timbuktu – tell me where this treasure is buried? They record that information
amongst themselves and they pass it down. Jinns live (folklore) thousands of years, and
they have thousands of children. Their quantity is not like us, much more. They live long
periods of time.
That is recorded amongst themselves. Many centuries later – I will tell you of a secret
treasure buried there.
The jinn will do something – they themselves are types of lights. Or they can carry them
in the air. Levitate up in the air. Its nothing strange or supernatural for the jinn. The jinn
are able to do these simple tricks for the black magician. What does the black magician
give back to the jinn? To be treated like a lord, to feel superior, bow down to them. It’s
clear that the black magicians are the slaves – he’s whipping himself, in order to please
the jinn. And in return the jinn will give him tricks and treats. In reality the black
magician is a slave. The jinn has a double intention – inferiority complex and then to
throw you into the fire of Hell.
No Muslim jinns get involved in black magic. – the non-Muslim jinns. They want to
misguide you. There’s a double intention. I’m going to Hell, I might as well take you to
Hell with me. Once you understand this, black magic becomes very clear to them.
That is why all the black magician can do is what the jinn can PHYSICALLY do. They
can’t tell you what’s happening tomorrow, because jinns can’t do that. They can do
physical things. Visions, bringing things from far away. For jinns it is natural, for humans
it is supernatural.
Because the black magician has to sell his soul to a devil, the punishment is death in an
Islamic state.
There are many types of black magic
1. to summon jinn to attack, harm, or even kill people. Or enter into other people.
What do the black magicians want? Because he wants money. People will come
to him – so that they can harm others. The black magician will get money from
you. And then he’ll worship the jinn, and the jinn will do these things in return.
And thus destruct the persons lifestyle. Many cases where you find a very evil
cunning type of person, its very clear that there are two people here, one is the
jinn and one is the human.
2. most common types –hinder of intercourse – surah 2? verse 107
3. blow on knots with incantations – this type of magic is more common amongst
women than men…
4. those whom others go to with the pretext of lifting magic spells, but who use
magic instead (fight magic with magic)
5. those whom the jinn whisper to while pretending to see future, any type of fortune
tellers – all of these things are a branch of black magic. Any type of fortune
telling.
Surat baqarah verse 102 – those who practice black magic are non-Muslims
Reading about magic, actual black magic –it is haram for the Muslim who fears Allah to
even read these books. To TEACH it is kufr, not even to practice and believe. The
Prophet (saw) said, whoever ties a knot and blows on it, has committed black magic.
Regardless of whether or not it was effective. “And whoever has done sihr has committed
shirk” Prophet Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam (An nasaa2i)
There are many other ahadeeth about this as well.
Predicting the future is a type of black magic. Astrology, and other types of predicting the
future. We all know the difference between astronomy and astrology. Astronomy is halal
– it’s a physical science. What is haram is astrology – when you think that your destiny is
dependent on the movement of the stars. Whatever is happening in the skies will
determine what will happen to me.
The Prophet (saw) very explicity warned against astrology – whoever learned about
astrology, has learned a branch of black magic, the more he increases in it, the more he’ll
increase in that. –the more he’ll learn astrology, the more he’ll increase in magic.
“whoever goes to a fortune teller and believes what the guy says, if you believe in him,
you have rejected my message.”
If you really think he can predict the future, he wouldn’t have to charge you $5 – he can’t
believe people are so foolish, when his circumstances are clearly showing that he doesn’t.
what if you go to him for the heck of it? – whoever goes to this person, will have his
prayer rejected for 40 days.
You don’t play games with tawheed. You don’t flirt with shirk.
The Prophet (saw) said, sometimes they are able to predict the future – the shayateen go
up to the heavens, and they overhear the angels speaking – and the angels are being told –
assigning their list/roster – the jinns over hear it, and they come back down, and he
doesn’t even tell the black magician just that – he’ll add to it 99 lies as well. Only one of
them will come true.
Sometimes they’ll make specific predictions – its not that they knew the knowledge of
the unseen, rather they heard it from the angels.
Anyone who gets involved in black magic has gotten involved in shirk.
What do you think that the kids will think about black magic, when they watch these
movies and cartoons, there’s more than one – what’s going to happen to their aqeedah or
tawheed? They will start believing it… OR they will trivilaze the dangers.
Would you want your kids to be reading pornographic stories – why? It messes your
brain up? Don’t you realize that them reading shirk and kufr is worse than that? Because
its going to mess their brain up.
Ibadah – Allah tells us, do tawaf around the kabah 7 times… whatever you say Allah, we
will do it. That’s what you call ibadah, no questions asked.
Wake up at 2:30 am, and put these in a bowl, etc – where did this 13 year old? She got
them from modernal fictional works. Where else? She’s not reading black magic books –
it just trivializes these things… its not trivial to read these things.
Reading harry potter is shirk and kufr, its probably not –whats going to happen? Its going
to make your mind filthy, and its gong to desensitize you to the reailty of black magic.
You’re playing with something that is worse than fire.
The majority of times when they think a person is effected by black magic, its from your
imagination. Its just a mood swing… to spend extremely long times in the restroom –
where do the jinn live – they live in the filthy places… its an indication of this.
When a person sees another person having these mood swings, they’ll think that its black
magic. It could be that they’re going through a rough ime in his life. First thing you do is
that you take him to a physical doctor – instead of assuming its black magic, it could be a
tumor. If they can clearly point it out, then its not black magic.
If the doctor can’t figure it out, take him to a shrink – a Muslim brother/sister who’s
schooled in phsychology. If still the disease is totally unverifiable…. If you see some guy
flying in the air, don’t go through there.
They have the cassette recordings – “exorcism of emily rose” – she was a 15 year old
girl. She never studied latin or ancient greek, and she’s speaking in a different language.
Its verifiable that these things do happen.
Extremely abnormal things, or extremely supernatural powers – in Chicago, the sister
was taking the class – when the brother used to get angry, he would start punching the
wall… brick wall… and his hand would still be in tact. To him that’s a clear sign that
that’s super human, but natural for a human. Anything else that’s weird – if they’re eating
too much, or split personality, but once you verify – what do you do?
In Islam we don’t have this concept of going to a shaykh –but the reality is its very
dangerous if you don’t have knowledge. If you don’t know how to extinguish a fire, you
might make the fire worse, you need to go to someone who knows how to deal with black
magic. Anytime you go to a person and the person uses black magic, he’llt ell you “bring
me a sheeps bone” - you should give a gift, but if he charges you, that’s not a good sign,
and it’s a sign the guy might be evil. Or he asks you irrelevant questions – what day were
you born, whats your mothers maiden name. “bring me a shirt over the guy who is
possessed” – this is fighting black magic with black magic.
Only when a person turns to Allah and tells you to do proper things – putting the quran in
the water, fiqhi differences – etc – if he does all of these, that’s fine. So we fight black
magic by turning to Alalh, by reading the Qur'an and doing du3a and thikir.
What is the problem of magic and astrology for the fun of it?
Youre heart becomes attached to that
One believes that they know ilmul ghaib
What if you don’t go to him, but you tell him to come to your house.
If he writes you a letter, it’s the same thing. If he puts it in a cookie, it’s the same thing.
Does that mean eating fortune cookies is haram? Eating a fortune cookie is halal, but
reading it is haram.
The only person who had control of jinns was sulaiman alayhis salaam. How would the
man control the jinn? With whips and chains? He can’t.
If the jinns go up to the stars, shooting stars would happen. After the birth – the ease with
which they could do that was shut when the Prophet was born.
Prevent a jinn/black magic from harming you – is your IMAN – its like a fortress… the
more IMaan you have the more you’re protected. Of the best acts you can do is dhikr and
reading the quran. When you enter the restroom, when you exit, when you eat your food,
etc… after the prayer, before you go to sleep, etc…
The biggest factor that will prevent you – “dhikr is a well guarded fortress from the
shaytan” so when you do that thikr regularly, it builds a fortress for the jinn, so that’s the
best thing you can do.
Is predicting the weather? Its physical and not supernatural? It’s a physical science, it
doesn’t involve the supernatural.
The primary cause of shirk in the world is overexalting the status of holy people.
Somebody is good, you make him more than that – chiristans, they take a good guy, and
they respect thim, and they do that more than they should, and go beyond bounds… and
put him above where he is. Let us look at the quran and how it describes these holy
people.
The most insignificant thing you can think of – all of them who you make du3a to – they
don’t even own a qitmeer (whitish membrane of the date) – if you make du3a to them,
they can’t hear you, and if they can hear you, they can’t give you what they want. On the
day of judgement, they will reject your shirk. They’ll say “I didn’t tell you to do that” –
the fact that they’ll say they didn’t tell you to do that, its good.
So Allah is talking about the righteous people – such as 3isaa ibni Maryam – in surat al
maaida – I never commanded them to worship me instead of you.
Those whom they worship besides Allah, they themselves want to come closer to Allah,
and they themselves are scared of Him and want to be closer to Him.
Why is Allah describing them in these words – they themselves want to come closer to
me – if they themselves are scared of Allah’s punishment, do you think they can give you
what you want?
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala is saying – they are not worthy of worship, why are you
worshipping them.
Al a3raaf – 187-188
They ask you about the Hour (Day of Resurrection): "When will be its appointed time?"
Say: "The knowledge thereof is with my Lord (Alone). None can reveal its time but He.
Heavy is its burden through the heavens and the earth. It shall not come upon you except
all of a sudden." They ask you as if you have a good knowledge of it. Say: "The
knowledge thereof is with Allah (Alone) but most of mankind know not."
When Abu Talib died, the Prophet (saw) said, I will continue to ask forgiveness for you,
until I am prohibited from doing so.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala then revealed in the quran many many verses – surat al qasas
verse 56
Verily! You (O Muhammad SAW) guide not whom you like, but Allah guides whom He
wills. And He knows best those who are the guided.
In surat tawbah, verse 24 (maybe 23)
The first public speech – I cannot help you at all in the sight of Allah – I cannot protect
you. Save yourselves from the fire of Hell
All of these incidents and more show us that exalting the status of the Prophet
Muhammad is not allowed, how about that of other people.
The origins of people – story of nuh and the 5 idols – they were originally five holy men.
Taking a holy person and putting him above his place. 90% of the people do this.
Quote the Christians as an example for the Muslims – every single person – when they
say this “Oh Jesus Christ save me” – its repugnant – its shirk. So you drive the point
home through the Christians. Abdul Qadir al jilani – its become so common, ya 3ali
madad, etc… they become used to it in cultures, and they become desensitized to shirk.
And also realize that Islam came prohibiting any veneration of graves. Any types of acts
that are venerating graves – its is prohibited to build a grave in the masjid. It is prohibited
to visit the masjid as a traveling. It is forbidden to build and to write on graves… to build
on graves – build a platform.
This is the grave of the wife of shah dahan – mumtaz, something. He told ali, if you
encounter a grave that is raised, level it to the grave. The only thing that is
**about the Prophets masjid – venerating the grave
** writing on tombstones.
We send salams on the prophet (saw) go visit his grave. Worship, NO.
Visiting graves is sunnah, but only the graves of your locality. It should not be done that
you travel to visit the grave of a person.
The concept of intercession – in Arabic shafaa3a.
You ask an intermediary to plead your request in front of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
The quran tells us that for any shafaa3a to be accepted – the first condition
Allah must allow the intermediary to intercede. An angel for example
Second condition – Allah must be please with the person on behalf of which intercession
is sought.
If either of these conditions or both are not met, there IS NO shafaa3a. of the evidences
for the first condition – ayatul kursi 2:255
Who is there that can intercede, except with His permission.
Surat al anbiya, verse 27
Where Allah says:
He knows what is before them, and what is behind them, and they cannot intercede
except for him with whom He is pleased. And they stand in awe for fear of Him.
{ITS VERSE 28]
An najm:26
And there are many angels in the heavens, whose intercession will avail nothing except
after Allah has given leave for whom He wills and pleases. [53:26]
Allah will automatically give you permission for shafaa3a for 70 people. Oh Allah I ask
that you forgive so and so. Is Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala obliged to listen to this man?
Of course not.
The hafith of the Qur’an – interecede on 10 people
The infant – interecede on behalf of his parents
Its an honor for them and showing mercy. Many categories of intercession, of the types
of intercession – which is general for all of the creation. Meaning the angels and good
men and good jins, all of the pious, they are allowed if Allah gives them this, to raise
their ranks in Jannah.
And yet it is rare that the husband and the wife has done the exact same good deed.
subhanAllah, you get moved up to the higher level. You will be with those whom you
love. A father and his child – they both enter jannah because of their good deeds. One
type of shafaa3a, to raise the ranks of the lower level to the higher level.
The other type of shafaa3a will occur on the day of Judgement – and that is that the
people will be saved from the fire of hell.
In Jannah, Allah will allow certain people to intercede on behalf of others. Allah will
allow him to look at his friend in Jahanam. It is possible that the person of jannah will ask
for intercession – oh Allah, forgive him now.
The Prophet (saw)’s shafaa3a
1. intercession to start the reckoning on the Day of Judgement. The people on the
day of judgement, asking for it to begin – the Prophet (saw) will say, “this is my
responsibility. [in sahih bukhari]… he will fall into sadja … Allah will then tell
him after a long time – speak and you shall be heard, ask and you will be given,
intercede and your interecession will be accepted? Permission is required even by
the Prophet (saw). Then he will intercede on behalf of mankind. That intercession
–“Al maqamal mahmood” “resurrect him upon the maqam al mahmood”
what is the meaning of it? The praiseworthy station – because every creature will praise
the Prophet (saw) for what he has done… he is the representative of mankind.
2. intercession on behalf of his entire Ummah to enter Paradise. “every single
Prophet has been granted one desire of theirs guaranteed.” Every single prophet
used up that desire in that world ‘ musa – after preaching to phir3awn, Musa
became so angry – Oh Allah, increase them in their arrogance and money, and to
see them punished. Ashaddal 3athab. The single person to be punished the worst,
is the two fir3awns… Allah will punish them like no one else. Why? b/c of the
du3a of Musa (alayhis_salaam)
Sulayman - Grant me a kingdom the likes of which no other kingdom. The magical
carpet… the wind would take him where ever he wanted to go.
Eventually every Muslim will be saved from the fire of hell…he had the basic kernel of
Imaan… because the Prophet (saw) saved that du3a… “the grand shafa3a”
3. intercession – open the gates of paradise…he will knock on the gates of Jannah –
“to you I have been commanded to open – then after the Prophet – the first will be
abu bakr…
the best wayto receive the shafa3ah… the Prophet (saw) was asked by Abu Hurayrah, Oh
Messenger of Allah, what is the best way to receive your shafaa3a? He said “the best way
to receive my intercession is to say “laa illaha illahllah sincerely from your heart” … to
perfect tawheed…
those people who turn to the Prophet (saw) because of intercession – they contradict what
he himself said. If you want my intercession, be perfect in tawheed. Those who commit
shirk, oh
A Common Christian Prayer
“O Father who art in Heaven, I ask You by the rights of Jesus Christ that You grant me
salvation.”
Tawassul
Definitions –
Linguistically – that which brings you closer to another object
In Islamic Sciences –
General (each and every good deed that brings you closer to Allah)
Specific (ways to increase the chance of du’aa being accepted)
The word tawassul and its derivative only occurs once in the quran.
O you who believe! Do your duty to Allah and fear Him. Seek the means of approach to
Him, and strive hard in His Cause as much as you can. So that you may be successful
[5:35]
This is a verse that tells us to do tawassul in a general sense. How do we do tawassul in
our du3as so that they’re more likely to be responded to.
Types sanctioned by the Qur’an and Sunnah
1. With Allah’s Names and Attributes - if we want to ask for money – ya Razzaq,
ya Ghani
2. Make tawassul with our own situation, past or present. Past meaning you make it
using one of your own situations that you’re in. What did zakariya make du3a for
in the Qur’an? He used tawasul in many ways. He mentioned tawassul in surat
mariam. “my bones have become weak, my hair is streaking white, and you have
answered my du3a before” >> mentioning his state.
3. by ones good deeds. Oh Allah, on such and such day, I found this servant of yours
needing help, secretly. If you know that I did this for your sake, then grant me
xyz.
Story of sahih bukhari – story of three men trapped in a cave.
We’re making tawassul using our imaan – good deeds – rabbana innana amanna
4. you ask a living person to make du3a for you. This is acceptable and permissible.
There does not appear to be any more evidence of any other type of tawassul. Tawassul
by any other means is incorrect. It could be innovation or shirk (when you do it to a false
idol or to another God)
If you were to do tawassul in any other way, it would be a type of innovation.
The tawassul through the Prophet (saw) – the controversy is this one – “by the status of
the Prophet (saw), by his body or honor” ie you make the Christian du3a in a more
Islamic way.
This is the most debatable one. It’s the most controversial one – there are many sunni
3ulama who say that it is permissible. And there are many other sunni 3ulama – how can
it be shirk, you’re asking Allah. We’re just asking is it sanctioned by the sunnah or not?
Evidences used by those who justify this:
It’s a stepping stone to things that are more dangerous – so it should be avoided. They say
there are verses to prove it
In surat al maaida- have taqwa in Allah,
O you who believe! Do your duty to Allah and fear Him. Seek the means of approach to
Him, and strive hard in His Cause as much as you can. So that you may be successful.
The hadeeth of the blind man. This hadith is mentioned in tirmidhi and ahmed, and it
basically goes that a blind man came to him – oh Messenger of Allah, make du3a to
Allah that he cures me of my blindness. The Prophet (saw) said, I can make du3a, but if
you want, be patient and that is better for you. “ no make du3a for me”
Du3a wudu, pray to Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala
“oh Allah I ask you by your prophet, the prophet of mercy. Oh Muhammad, I turn to you
to go my Lord, so grant me my request… O Allah! Accept his intercession for me, and
my intercession for him.” –Ahmad “binabbiyyik
the response to this – no this is not tawassul that you’re trying to prove. Through the du3a
of a righteous person. Why did the blind man come to the Prophet (saw) – for his du3a.
what did the Prophet (saw) respond. “I’ll make du3a” – the phrase is missing by what?
The context informs us, by the du3a of the Prophet. And what proves this beyond any
doubt. Oh Allah, accept his intercession (du3a) and my intercession for him. Ameen.
This phrase clearly shows his du3a – so what he’s referring to clearly shows that the first
phrase – is the du3a of the Prophet (saw).
Many other people were blind at the Prophet (saw) – if they were to make this du3a,
would they become cured of their blindness. Many are the people who have tried, if the
blind man were to make it today – the difference is he prayed for this first one, and not all
the others.
Its not to do with the rank and status of the Prophet (saw)
4. the incident of Umar (ra) with ‘Abbas (ra) – salaatul istisqaa’ . Umar gave the
khutbah and instead he said – “Oh Allah, we used to do tawassul through your
prophet, and now we will do it through the uncle of your prophet.” Stand up and
make du3a.
look Umar said, “we used to make tawassul through your prophet. >> this is an evidence
against you and not for you.
This type of tawassul was unknown to them. If they did, they wouldn’t have resorted to
the du3a of ‘Abbas.
Only these two are authentic (last in bukhari and Muslim)
5. interesting point – people will ask the Prophet’s to help them, so why can’t we ask
now? The reason being, we and they would both be in a new type of life. As if
we’re both alive, similarly on the day of judgement, we will have a different type
of life.
6. many famous scholars of the past and present allow it – the opinions of the ulama
are not an evidence in and of itself. Ibn hajar, shawkani, ibn hajar, etc. many
didn’t like it, ibn taymiya, etc
this should not be a major point of difference. If a person wants to do it, they have their
ulamaa – careful that you don’t go beyond this. The sahaba never did it. And one more
point – the other types of tawassul make sense logically. Now the status of the Prophet
(saw), what does that have to do with you and your du3a. (no other issue that’s as
controversial than this one)
One of the topics that is very interesting to discuss is How the Prophet (saw) protected
tawheed
Not only does it say don’t commit zinah, it says don’t near zinnah. The roads that lead to
zinnah become prohibited. Similarly, when shirk is prohibited, the roads that typically
lead to shirk are also prohibited.
In and of itself it’s not shirk, but it’s a stepping stones of shirk.
The mixing up of graves and places of worship. Therefore – building mosques over
graves, and building dead inside of masaajid.
Where the mosque is visited because of the grave – not correct. No place should be
venerated because of a grave. No grave should be made because of a masjid.
In sahih bukhari – ummu salamah described to the PRohet (saw) was describing some of
the churches in Abyssinia, “those people who built those churches, they are the worst of
mankind, because every time a pious man died, they build a church over his grave.”
Prophet Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam… but they’re doing it to venerate that
dead person.
Likewise, he forbade burying people inside of masaajid as well. In fact where we come
across a masjid where there is a grave. We remove which ever of the two was the later
one. He was wrong to build the masjid there. So it should be moved to another location.
But if someone built a masjid and then someone was buried there – because of that
person, it doesn’t have to be inside, we say that’s a mistake.
This does not mean that a masjid and a graveyard can be connected. What he means is
that you intend to venerate one with the other. In order to bring “barakah” to the masjid,
burying pious people there.
The masjid will not become any more holy no matter how many people are burreid there
(righteous)
The Prophet (saw) forbade worship Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala where shirk occurs or has
occurred. If a place is considered holy by another religion, we as Muslims should not
make it a point to pray there. This does not mean we can’t pray in a church or a
synagogue.
The site of jesus Christ’s birth – the holy sepulcher. If we as Muslims go there to worship
Allah – that’s a problem, b/c we’re lending credibility to that place. Hadith – a man came
to the Prophet (saw) – “I have takean a vow with Allah that I will sacrifice a place called
al bawwana” “what is this place al bawwana – is this a place where there were idol
worship? Or is this a place where they would do holy land, etc” the man said no, so the
Prophet (saw) said ok.
If that had been holy land, then it wouldn’t be allowed. Even TIMES when shirk occurs,
we should make it a point not to.
Three times during the day – when the sun is rising, when its setting and at its zenith.
These are the times when the people who worship the fire, he didn’t want us to see those
times.
You’re venerating a day that has nothing to do with our religion, you’re taking it as a
holy day when its not.
If you make it a point to celebrate on that specific day – not right.
Nawrooz – they celebrate this pagan festival of nawrooz – birth of the sun god, they think
of it as a day of holiness.
The Prophet (saw) forbade exaggeration in general. You cannot have shirk without
exaggeration.
“destroyed are those who exaggerate or go to extremes” (abu dawood)
“do not excessively exaggerate in praising me, like the Christians did to Jesus. Why?
Because if you do it, you’re going to end up like them. Rather say that I’m the servant of
Allah and His Messenger.
He is telling us in his own lifetime. The poem of al busayri – in reality if you read this
poem, there are few lines that are very blatantly too much. “qasida burdah” – the cloak.
Where does it come from? The name? look at the origins of the poem, al busayri – he saw
the Prophet (saw) in a dream, and he recited this poem in a dream to him, and the Prophet
(saw) loved it so much that he took off his cloak, and throw it upon someone.
“your (the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) generosity has created this
world and the hereafter and your knowledge encompasses the knowledge of the pen and
the tablet (lawh al ma7footh)” the line is blatant shirk. There are more lines than this as
well - that has too much exaggeration.
Two slave girls came singing in front of the Prophet (saw) – one of them said “and you
know what’s going to happen tomorrow” – get rid of this line, and you can sing the rest.
In his life time, he told this girl “don’t say this line”
Use your intellect to what Allah has given you. Why do you think these poems are
becoming so popular? Because of a lack of knowledge. They have lost track – Allah has
sent the messenger so that Allah may be worshipped, not so the messenger may be
worshipped.
Anas ibn Malik – we would never stand up in front of the Prophet (saw) because he
would dislike it
Another thing that the Prophet (saw) forbade is imagery. Idols and imagery – is a basis of
over exultation. Look at how the catholic church images of jesus Christ everywhere.
Especially if you study images of Jesus Christ – virgin birth, Jesus and Mary, or the
death. This is literally veneration to that level.
The most severly punished on the day of judgment will be to the image makers – hand
drawn pictures/animals, etc.
Another thing the Prophet (saw) forbade, to take a journey to other than those 3 places.
Imitate doing something that is unique to them …to take a custom and cultural practice
and follow it, is haram. Specific to them.
The Prophet (saw) also commanded us to level all raised graves. He didn’t want to see
any graves above the ground. b/c the majority of shirk revolves around that.
Visitng graves >> to be reminded of death.
Verbal phrases that lead to shirk. I swear by the ka3bah >> is not allowed – not allowed
to swear by any created object.
Its not allowed to swear by any created object. The only being worthy of that much
veneration is Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
Have a class project quickly, and then questions.
fatimawas here
final topic about shirk – the concept of minor shirk – we’ve referred to it but we haven’t
really talked about it. It occurs only in oolooheeyah
shirk akbar and minor shirk (shirk asghar)
minor shirk is a type of shirk that contains an element of major shirk, but it doesn’t reach
a level of major shirk. The wording is very precise and it comes from the Prophet (saw)
himself. What is the difference between major and minor shirk?
Major shirk expels a person from Islam. Also, major shirk necessitates a persons eternal
punishment in the fire of Hell. If a person dies in the state of major shirk, such a person
will not be able to enter jannah. Not the case with minor shirk. If you commit an act of
major shirk, all your good deeds become null and void. If you committed an act of minor
shirk when you pray,
What are some examples of minor shirk?
It can occur in the heart, the tongue, and in the limbs. The most common type of minor
shirk is riyaa
Minor shirk in acts of worship:
1. Riyaa: worshipping Allah, based upon the sunnah, but to impress people. (you
feel proud, and people praise you – and you feel in your heart that you’ve
presented your credentials) – or you stand up to pray, and people are looking at
you – make sure you have the proper emotions in it. This is an act of showing off.
If you were to pray to another God… but here you’re not praying to another god,
you’re praying to Allah. You’re doing things you would not have done otherwise.
2. reciting the quran – someone comes in and all of a sudden your voice changes.
Impress in a religious manner. If you want to impress someone in a non religious
manner, that’s not shirk. If it’s a brother, not shirk, if it’s a sister, its haram.
The thing that I fear the most from my ummah is minor shirk. “beautifying your
prayer” when you commit minor shirk… we said that that deed is accepted by Allah.
3. performing a good deed purely for a wordly reason. And the only reason you’re
doing this is for your salary – there’s no spirituality in you. If you were to stop
getting the money, you couldn’t care less. There’s no sense of doing something
for the sake of Allah. Between one and two there is a huge difference. Pay
attention – when it comes to riyaa – you have to 100% sincerity. You can’t have
99% is for Allah and 1% is showing off.
When it comes to worldly benefits, you can have 40 – 60, etc – you can, but as long as
you also have some religious motivation. It doesn’t have to be pure. The problem comes
when you totally remove that benefit… they’re combining between hajj and travel –
they’re making a profit of taking you for hajj.
It’s a double business, I get some reward and iget some money. Unfortunately it seems
like they couldn’t care less about the intention – they want the business. If you combine
both intentions that’s not a problem.
Another type of minor shirk is to rely upon the cause instead of the creator of the cause.
For example you have a headache and you take tylonol, and your tawakkul is in the
tylonol – you know that this is a drug that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala has created that
this chemical has the property to reduce the pain. This would become major shirk if you
gave this thing the power to do what you claim it does.
Another type of minor shirk – to make something a cause that Allah has not made a
cause. To assume something has caused an event or has the power to cause an event in
your life, knowing that Allah has created that cause.
Aspects of minor shirk in statements of the tongue – swearing by other than Allah while
believing that Allah is Rabb. To swear by the ka’bah, your honor, etc
How about swearing by the quran – its fine. It is allowed to give an oath – because the
Qur’an is the speech of Allah. The Prophet (saw) said whoever swears by other than
Allah has committed shirk.
Another problem is to equate Allah with other than Allah using “and” – “because of
Allah and my boss I would not have gotten this job” >> wrong you can say “because of
Allah and THEN my boss”
3abd al rasool – the slave of the rasool.. malik al moolk – the king of kings – no one is
the King of kings save Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala
minor shirk in actions of the limbs
1.amulets and charms – believing that Allah has made that thing blessed
2. certain types of riyaa – giving money so that you want people to see that
purposely create the mark… if you rub it extra hard… but its going to be a fake mark
if one of these graduates wear these clothing, this is a type of minor shirk – all of that
goes back to his heart, its just manifested in different ways.
The danger with riyaa is that it’s undetectable except to you – you can’t tell the
difference. Its all in the heart. It doesn’t matter how much knowledge you have – riyaa
will still be there – you have to battle it. In fact the knowledgeable person faces more
riyaa – you feel good, etc.
Feeling happy for being praised, is not riyaa – its permissible. Feeling proud is where it
becomes impermissible.
Sunday – second weekend
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala calls farmers – kaafir, because he covers the seeds up.
Definition of
In Islam kufr is defined by the opposite
The fitrah tells him there’s only one God – and yet the kaafir goes against his fitrah and
covers it up.
Kufr is of two types. Major & Minor
Shirk, Kufr, and Nifaq – are both major and minor. The exact same differences apply to
major and minor kufr and major and minor nifaq as they do to major and minor shirk.
Major kufr is of five types
1. Kufr of denial - at taktheeb
And who does more wrong than he who invents a lie against Allah or denies the truth
(Muhammad SAW and his doctrine of Islamic Monotheism and this Quran), when it
comes to him? Is there not a dwelling in Hell for disbelievers (in the Oneness of Allah
and in His Messenger Muhammad SAW)? [29:68]
To deny any fundamental belief of Islam.
Shi3a’s - don’t believe Abu Bakr should have been khalifah – not a fundamental issue,
its not kufr.
Who defines what is fundamental? The scholars tell us
2. Kufr of Arrogance - al istikbaar
you know that its true, but for whatever reason you deny it.
Heracles – denied wanted power
Iblis – knew the truth and saw it with his own eyes.
3. Kufr of Doubt - ash-shak
You’re saying “I don’t know” – if your religion is the true religion or not. I don’t know if
the Qur’an is the book of God. To merely not have a verdict, is also kufr.
The evidences are so overwhelmingly clear – that if you doubt it, you are basically
denying it. If he doubts a fundamental point in our religion – it’s the same as if he denied
it or was too arrogant to submit
18:35-38
35: Muhsin Khan: And he went into his garden while in a state (of pride and disbelief)
unjust to himself. He said: "I think not that this will ever perish.
36: Muhsin Khan: "And I think not the Hour will ever come, and if indeed I am brought
back to my Lord, (on the Day of Resurrection), I surely shall find better than this when I
return to Him."
37: Muhsin Khan: His companion said to him, during the talk with him: "Do you
disbelieve in Him Who created you out of dust (i.e. your father Adam), then out of
Nutfah (mixed semen drops of male and female discharge), then fashioned you into a
man?
38: Muhsin Khan: "But as for my part (I believe) that He is Allah, my Lord and none
shall I associate as partner with my Lord.
He didn’t deny – he doubted – “have you committed kufr with the one who created you”
To believe in Allah, in His perfect nature, the prophets, the resurrection, Jannah and
Naar.
To deny something that is secondary, etc – in and of itself might not be kufr.
4. Kufr of turning away ali3raDh
you simply live your life like an animal, that is turning away
sadjda – verse 22:
22: Muhsin Khan: And who does more wrong than he who is reminded of the Ayat
(proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) of his Lord, then he turns
aside therefrom? Verily, We shall exact retribution from the Mujrimun (criminals,
disbelievers, polytheists, sinners, etc.).
they are responsible for thinking about Islam.
kufr of hypocrisy – nifaq
to pretend to be a Muslim while inside of you you’re not a Muslim.
Minor Kufr:
Actions that should not be done by Muslims. And when Muslims do them, it is as if they
do not have any Imaan. But that doesn’t mean they are Muslim.
Minor kufr are acts that you would not expect a Muslim to do that – but it doesn’t take
you out of the fold of Islam. We get it from the quran itself – the difference.
A hadith – “to fight a believer is kufr” – a fight that you do to kill another person.
Explicit verdict in saheeh bukhari
Hujoorat, verse 9
And if two parties or groups among the believers fall to fighting, then make peace
between them both, but if one of them rebels against the other, then fight you (all) against
the one that which rebels till it complies with the Command of Allah; then if it complies,
then make reconciliation between them justly, and be equitable. Verily! Allah loves those
who are equitable.
At face value it might appear to be kufr. Clearly the Prophet (saw) is referring to a kufr
that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala is not referring to. If he does it, it’s a characteristic of a
kafir.
When we say minor shirk, minor kufr, and minor nifaaq – it shouldn’t be taken as a light
thing. They are the major sins in Islam. It is only minor relative to that which is major.
Minor kufr – to fight a believer with the intention to kill him. Also the Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam gave some more examples
-denying lineage. You claim that someone is an illegitimate child, or even worse to deny
your own lineage.
-wailing over the dead – “how am I going to live, who’s going to take care of me – what
can I do without you”
raise their voices out loud and would scream out – who will take care of me now, etc.
Nifaq
Fifth category of major kufr
Naafiqaa – root of nifaaq
Gerboa – yarboo3 –
There is one animal who has this home they live in, but it has a secret tunnel that it never
uses. It is only used once. In this instance, he uses is. Naafiqa (the secret tunnel he has)
A munafiq is called a munafiq – if a person leaves Islam openly, he becomes a kaafir. But
this desert animal – the munafiq acts like this yarboo3 – so the munafiq enters it
publically – and if he wanted to, he could leave it publically … nobody knows he’s
existed. He pretends that he’s still a Muslim, but in reality he’s not a Muslim.
Nifaq can be divided into two categories.
To pretend to be a Muslim when you’re not a Muslim. Usually this only happens during
times of power in Islam. In makkah there were no munafiqs or hypocrites.
What Allah says in the quran about the leader of the hypocrites – if you were to ask
forgiveness for him 70 times I would not forgive him.
Nifaaq never exists in times of weakness. It only comes about in times of power. Major
nifaq, Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala talks about it in many verses of the Qur’an. Of them
are the first few verses of surat al baqarah.
The first four verses are about the believers. Then Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala mentions
the disbelievers. And then Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala mentions 13 verses about the
hypocrites.
Surat an nisaa:145
Verily, the hyprocrites will be in the lowest depths (grade) of the Fire; no helper will you
find for them.
Hell has levels just like jannah has levels. They are in the lowest of Hell.
Major hypocrisy can also take some forms/symptoms. One of the symptoms of major
hypocrisy – is to hate the message of the Prophet (saw) or to hate the prophet (saw). In
reality this is a sign of major nifaq.
A sign of major nifaq is to be happy when Muslims are defeated, to rejoice when your
fellow Muslims are destroyed. It’s a sign that you don’t have any eman.
You could think that you’re a Muslim – but if you hate the religion of Islam – or you are
happy at the defeat of Muslims, this is a sign that you don’t have any imaan in your heart.
Minor nifaaq are actions which typically the hypocrites do. Evil deceitful cunning people
do.
Of htem is to break your trust. Or if you lie to him – this is a major sin. A blatant lie.
To break a promise – you know that you’re not going to do it. You know that when you
make that promise. And you know that you purposely break that promise.
Using foul language/vulgar language.
There are four signs of a hypocrite
To swear and use vulgar languge, when he speaks he lies, etc
…to show of your good deeds – riyaa. It is a sign of being a hypocrite. You’re wanting
the pleasure of people above the pleasure of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
To not care about helping this Ummah and not care about striving in Allah’s path
Being two faced – religious friends and having ‘real’ friends.
This does not mean that if you are amongst better people than you – you should be
influenced by the positive. That doesn’t mean you purposely show an evil side to them if
you are evil. What is impermissible is when you have a dual lifestyle. There’s no doubt
when a person is not a practicing Muslim.
Every act of major shirk is major kufr, and every act of major nifaq is major kufr. But not
every major kufr is major shirk or nifaq.
Can you commit nifaq without committing shirk? Yes.
Every act of shirk is outside the fold of Islam. To deny the day of judgement, is that
shirk? Is that nifaaq? No.
You can be a kafir without commiting shirk or nifaq. Shirk is a subcategory of kufr as is
nifaaq.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala will not forgive the sin of shirk. And he will forgive anything
lesser than that. Shirk = kufr = nifaq. Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala does not say he will say
“ghayra thalik”
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala says “wa yaghfiru maa doona dhalik” – which means that
which is equivalent to it will not be forgiven.
That feeling of disgust is an essence of faith.
To believe in something might be kufr, to do something might be kufr, and to say
something might be kufr.
When you do them, they become aspects of major kufr – to make fun of anything that is
Islamic. Unfortunately we live in a time where the western civilization has no concept of
something being sacred. They can make fun of their god, etc – and anyone who opposes
that is labeled a backward chrsitians.
Unfortunately this has rubbed off on us as well. They don’t consider it a big deal to crack
jokes at the expense of Islam. Or even worse, of Allah and His Messenger.
It’s distressing how Muslims can make fun of their own religion – they have no haya – no
sense of shame, they think its cool that they have the luxury of making fun of their
religion.
Cracking jokes – shouldn’t be your goal. “I warn you against too much laughing, because
too much laughing kills the heart” to make fun of the religion takes it to a different level.
To make fun of anything Islamic, or to make fun of how you pray, and wudu, all of this is
a manifestation of kufr.
A man asks his son – to do something – its one thing to say you’ll do it and then you turn
your back and don’t do it. But its another thing to make fun of it and ridicule it.
Making fun of the religion is a characteristic of other faiths, especially of the yahood.
3:181
Indeed, Allah has heard the statement of those (Jews) who say: "Truly, Allah is poor and
we are rich!" We shall record what they have said and their killing of the Prophets
unjustly, and We shall say: "Taste you the torment of the burning (Fire)." [3:181]
in another surah, 5:64
The Jews say: "Allah's Hand is tied up (i.e. He does not give and spend of His Bounty)."
Be their hands tied up and be they accursed for what they uttered. Nay, both His
Hands are widely outstretched. He spends (of His Bounty) as He wills. Verily, the
Revelation that has come to you from Allah increases in most of them their obstinate
rebellion and disbelief. We have put enmity and hatred amongst them till the Day of
Resurrection. Every time they kindled the fire of war, Allah extinguished it; and they
(ever) strive to make mischief on earth. And Allah does not like the Mufsidun (mischiefmakers).
In shakespeare – in the merchant of Venice – also had that stereotype.
A very interesting incident that occurred in the battle of Tabook – a group of hypocrites
was riding towards it… the Prophet was riding at the front, and towards the back, were
the munafiqoon.
You start saying things you shouldn’t say, etc … as long as you remain within the fold of
Islam. The munafiqoon, their real inner side of Islam came out. They started saying
things to make themselves laugh.
And then they started making fun of Allah and his messenger. More fatter in their
stomach, cowardly in the battle, eager for booty, etc – their own truth was showcased
Wa la inn sa’altum
Do you laugh and joke at Allah and His Messenger – laa ta3tathiru - qad kafartum ba3da
eemanakum. 9:120-125
Even if you have faith, this action of yours has made you kafir.by making fun of Allah
and his messenger, you have commited kufr
When this hypocrite died? He saw the Muslims running…
Another aspect that is kufr – to hate or to knowingly reject anything that the Prophet
(saw) came with.
Surat al ahzab, verse 36
It is not for a believer, man or woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decreed a
matter that they should have any option in their decision. And whoever disobeys Allah
and His Messenger, he has indeed strayed in a plain error.
Surat al baqarah verse 85:
َ َ ‫ض فَ َما َجزَ اء َمن يَ ْفعَ ُُ ََ ِل‬
ٍ ‫ب َوتَ ْكفُ ُرونَ بِبَ ْع‬
ِ ‫ََ أَفَتُؤْ ِمنُونَ بِبَ ْع‬
ِ ‫ض ْال ِكتَا‬
‫ب َو َما‬
ِ ‫ي ِفي ْال َح َيا ِة الدُّ ْن َيا َو َي ْو َم ْال ِق َيا َم ِة يُ َردُّونَ ِإلَى أَش َِد ْال َعَذَا‬
ٌ ‫ِمن ُك ْم إِالَّ ِخ ْز‬
َ‫ع َّما تَ ْع َملُون‬
َ ٍُ ِ‫اّللُ بِغَاف‬
Then do you believe in a part of the Scripture and reject the rest? Then what is the
recompense of those who do so among you, except disgrace in the life of this world, and
on the Day of Resurrection they shall be consigned to the most grievous torment. And
Allah is not unaware of what you do.
It’s one thing to say that we’re not going to do those things they do for the time being.
That is where the issue of kufr comes. Where Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala says
something and you say no.
But to say I don’t care, I’ll reject it, its not a part of Islam for me, that is where it leads to
kufr. So its not possible to reject something from the religion of Islam knowingly. We’re
saying he knows the quran and says this, and knows the sunnah and says this, and still, he
doesn’t care.
Another aspect of kufr – to believe that any other person besides the Prophet (saw) has all
the right to be obeyed even if it means going against Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
Adii ibn 7aatim – he reverted – he came to the Prohpet (saw) wearing a cross. He said
“throw this idol off of your neck” – so he accepted Islam and converted – threw it off his
neck.
Then he began reciting surat at tawbah – verse 31
They (Jews and Christians) took their rabbis and their monks to be their lords besides
Allah (by obeying them in things which they made lawful or unlawful according to their
own desires without being ordered by Allah), and (they also took as their Lord) Messiah,
son of Maryam (Mary), while they (Jews and Christians) were commanded [in the Taurat
(Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)) to worship none but One Ilah (God - Allah) La ilaha illa
Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He). Praise and glory be to Him, (far
above is He) from having the partners they associate (with Him)."
Yaa rasoolullah – “we did not use to worship them” – so Adii is thinking, we never
prostrated to them, we never sacrificed for them.
Did they not make halal what Allah made haram – and did they not make haram what
Allah made halal and you followed them? And adii said yes? “that is how you worship
them” by following them above the law of Allah.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala said he took them as Rabb instead of ilaah.
One of the definitions of rabb is the one who has to be obeyed. So by taking the preiests
and rabi’s – whatever you say we’ll do – and that’s why they take them as rabbs.
It was a matter of law giving. What is an example in our times of this issue?
The jews and Christians know that their books say one thing, this is a type of kufr –
because It is a rejection of Allah’s rooboobeeyah
To legislate by other than the law of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala. This is a very deep
topic – a very controversial topic, the reason – we have a new trend in Islam – that is the
trend to secularize Islam. Just like the jews and christens secularized their religion. So the
trend now amongst the progressives – so they’re saying basically that yes we’re Muslims,
we believe in Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala and His messenger, but the laws of Islam, we
can leave them aside. We’ll be Muslims by theory and practice, but we’ll leave the rules
aside. Apart from that in my daily life, I’ll be a western. I don’t care about the laws of
Islam – to do this is exactly what the jews and Christians do. They don’t have a concept
of sharee3ah – they don’t have any laws… everything is halal to them at the end of the
day. They don’t have a sharee3ah or a legal code. They don’t have a system of laws of
which they’re going to live. The average jew – only the orthodox jews and the Muslims –
we have this.
Marriage, divorce, inheritance – everything is subject to the sharee3ah. In reality such a
person is rejecting Islam. And this has never happened before in the history of the
ummah. There was always some semblance of an Islamic state.
For the first time, we have over 60 Muslim countries – and not a single one of them has
in their constitution that its their constitution is the Qur’an and Sunnah. Only one comes
close. Every single law that they have is their invention.
The economic laws are not based on the laws of Islam. This has never occurred in the
history of the ummah.
For a Muslim to say I don’t care what the sharee3ah says – we have to realize that Islam
is a way of life and not just a religion. If you reject the way of life, you’re rejecting the
religion.
We have to realize that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala is both the Rabb and the Ilaah. And
one of the meanings of Rabb is the one who legistlates.
Surat ash shoora verse 10 –
And in whatsoever you differ, the decision thereof is with Allah (He is the ruling Judge).
(And say O Muhammad SAW to these polytheists:) Such is Allah, my Lord in Whom I
put my trust, and to Him I turn in all of my affairs and in repentance.
An3aam, verse 57
Say (O Muhammad SAW): "I am on clear proof from my Lord (Islamic Monotheism),
but you deny (the truth that has come to me from Allah). I have not gotten what you are
asking for impatiently (the torment). The decision is only for Allah, He declares the truth,
and He is the Best of judges."
Alqiyaamah 75:36
Does man think that he will be left Suda [neglected without being punished or rewarded
for the obligatory duties enjoined by his Lord (Allah) on him]?
67:14
Should not He Who has created know? And He is the Most Kind and Courteous (to His
slaves) All-Aware (of everything).
Mankind is too selfish to judge himself – and that’s why politicians are so corrupt. The
job of a khalifah is not to invent the laws, but to execute them.
A jew came to salman al farisi and made fun of Islam – has your Prophet taught you how
to do everything? He taught you even how to defecate in the bathroom?
Salman al farisi was not embarrassed – yes he taught us. (you’re the one’s who don’t
even cleanse properly) he taught us not to use our hands – and to wipe ourselves at least
three times, etc
For non-Muslims, they are tickled that our religion tells us to eat with our right hand and
wipe with our left hand.
They don’t understand – to us it’s a sign of pride. The whole point of a religion – it
teaches you how to live your life. Every single act that we do, we know what to do.
We know what we have to do because Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala told us about it.
Many Muslims with this big inferiority complex that they have are saying that these are
backwards laws – we’ll be Muslims in theology and worship – but we don’t have to
follow the sharee3ah. Every single country on the face of this earth has a contradiction.
Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala characterizes all laws into two categories – hukmul
jaahileeyah, and the laws of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala
To conclude on one point – major kufr would be to claim that we don’t have to live by
the laws of Islam. However, to be swayed by a particular incident – this would be
considered minor kufr.
In an Islamic state – if a husband and wife divorce, the wife is entitled to her mahr, and sa
stipend.
Suppose the sister wants to get more than what Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala has allowed
her to get. To fight in a secular system in Islam – I want my full “legal” right that’s what
I prefer over the law of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
It is major kufr if she says – this law is backward and uncivilized and inhumane. I don’t
want it, etc. that’s MAJOR kufr. It would be minor kufr, that she’s in it for the money,
but the law of Islam is better and that she shouldn’t be doing it – its reduced to the level
of minor kufr.
To be a lawyer means to willingly and knowingly fight against the laws of sharee3ah.
Many aspects of the laws between countries or the patent laws – immigration laws, etc.
but many types of laws that involve contractual and civil disputes –for a Muslim to …
If you disbelieve in Islam, you can still be granted paradise. We have in our times this
interfaith movement. In and of itself – it has some good and it has some bad in it. Of the
elements of good - we are obliged to discuss with them, and the circumstances that we’re
living in – its very important that Muslims form alliances with other religious groups of
the christens and jews – fighting against common evils. However when we do this, we
also have to make sure that they understand our position on the prophet Isa and the
Prophet Muhammad sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam – we have to show them that we believe
that our religion is the only right religion in the sight of Allah. We can’t be wishy washy
– we have to be adamant in that jannah is exclusive for Muslims.
Ali imran – verse 19
Allah
bears witness that La ilaha illa Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He), and
the angels, and those having knowledge (also give this witness); (He is always)
maintaining His creation in Justice. La ilah illa Huwa (none has the right to be
worshipped but He), the All-Mighty, the All-Wise.
3:85
And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in
the Hereafter he will be one of the losers.
5:3
‫ال ْسالَ َم دِينا‬
ِ ‫علَ ْي ُك ْم نِ ْع َمتِي َو َر‬
َ ُ‫ْال َي ْو َم أَ ْك َم ْلتُ لَ ُك ْم دِينَ ُك ْم َوأَتْ َم ْمت‬
ِ ‫ضيتُ لَ ُك ُم‬
This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and
have chosen for you Islam as your religion
To say that there are many acceptable religions in Islam – we’re all within the realm of
God’s mercy – it contradicts the first and the second kalmia.
When you say Christians can get the path to God – then you’re crossing off the laa illaha
illahllah.
It contradicts the second kalmia – you’ve rejected Muhammadul rasoolullah. They’ve
rejected it. That is kufr of denial. So to claim that it’s a permissible thing in its totality.
You can go and invite them to Islam. You can combine with them to fight AIDS – but by
interfaith you mean that all of these are acceptable – we’re all children of Abraham, this
is where the problem comes in.
There is only one path to Allah, and that path is the religion of Islam. This goes without
saying – moral judgement.
When it comes to interactions, whether they go to jannah or jahannam, that is up to Allah.
We’re not talking about this world. Many Muslims mix the two up. They think that if we
believe that they’re going to Hell, we can just kill them.
Its not telling us to hate jews and Christians. If you willingly reject that path, then your
faith will be the fire of hell.
Mumta7ina – 7-9
7: Muhsin Khan: Perhaps Allah will make friendship between you and those whom you
hold as enemies. And Allah has power (over all things), and Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most
Merciful.
8: Muhsin Khan: Allah does not forbid you to deal justly and kindly with those who
fought not against you on account of religion and did not drive you out of your homes.
Verily, Allah loves those who deal with equity.
9: Muhsin Khan: It is only as regards those who fought against you on account of
religion, and have driven you out of your homes, and helped to drive you out, that Allah
forbids you to befriend them. And whosoever will befriend them, then such are the
Zalimun (wrong-doers those who disobey Allah).
This is a new phenomenon that has arrived – where you say that if you believe in other
than Islam you will be forgiven.
2:62
62:
Muhsin Khan: Verily! Those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians, and
Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and do righteous good deeds shall
have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.
they say its very explicit – that Allah has said in the Qur’an you can remain in your faith
and Allah will forgive you.
First thing in the 20th century, hasn’t occurred in the past. What do we say to this verse?
Don’t just take one verse out of conquest and then draw the data from it.
What does the quran say on this topic in other verses? All verses have to be taken into
context …
5:72-73
72: Muhsin Khan: Surely, they have disbelieved who say: "Allah is the Messiah ['Iesa
(Jesus)], son of Maryam (Mary)." But the Messiah ['Iesa (Jesus)] said: "O Children of
Israel! Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord." Verily, whosoever sets up partners in
worship with Allah, then Allah has forbidden Paradise for him, and the Fire will be his
abode. And for the Zalimun (polytheists and wrongdoers) there are no helpers.
73: Muhsin Khan: Surely, disbelievers are those who said: "Allah is the third of the
three (in a Trinity)." But there is no ilah (god) (none who has the right to be worshipped)
but One Ilah (God -Allah). And if they cease not from what they say, verily, a painful
torment will befall the disbelievers among them.
Surat ash-shu3ara, verse 105
105: Muhsin Khan: The people of Nuh (Noah) belied the Messengers.
The response is – to reject one messenger, is the same as rejecting all of them. “laa
nufariqu bayna a7adin minh” we don’t differentiate between them
4:150
150. Those who deny Allah and His apostles, and (Those who) wish to separate Allah from His apostles,
saying: "We believe In some but reject others": and (Those who) wish to take a course midway,-
to pick and choose, Allah is saying they are the worst kaafirs
we go back to the books of tafseer and see what the scholars of tafseer said. There are
two major interpreations of this verse – both of which are valid and don’t contradict each
other.
You understand the verse to be referring to specific times. In other words those who
believed in our times, and those jews who believed in musa, the Christians who believed
in isaa will go to jannah.
The other interpretation is that Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala is emphasizing those who
convert to Islam amongst them.
We look at other evidences as well such as the hadith of the Prophet (saw) where he said
“I swear by Him in who’s hand is my soul – no jew or christen hears about me and then
dies without believing in my message except that he shall be from the people of
jahannam. (sahih of imam muslm)
We believe that there is only one religion acceptable in Islam – whoever rejects Islam
knowingly has no chance of salvation.
The sabiens are still in existence today – iraq – 40,000 people. In our time they are called
almandaaeeyoon. They believe in john the Baptist, and they also think that they have a
book from seth the son of adam. They have it in their language, and they follow that
book.
It predated the jews and the Christians – they have some form of monotheism, but
eventually it was corrupted into worship of the stars. Originally they were ont star
worhishippers –they were worshippers of Allah. They claim that they were the oldest
monotheistic religion.
They are not the zoriastrians – in Arabic majoos.
Incorrect Perceptions of Tawheed
Extreme sufis
Oneness of being – Extreme Sufis – there is no existence except for Allah subhanaHu wa
Ta'ala
Mu’tazilah – there is no concept that we have to worship Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala
alone.
Asha3irah and the maturidiyaah
What is missing – worship – the concept of worship is simply not there. That is why to
this day, these two groups, shirk crept into them very easily.
It didn’t matter if you worshipped Allah alone or not. That’s why soofies infiltrated them
– the moderate Sufis, all of them are those two.
Worshipping Allah alone (our concept of tawheed) – there definition, doesn’t even
include worship.
Everything was together, yet the later scholars came and classified sciences – why? In
order to simplify teaching it to the people. That’s why we have also categorized tawheed.
This categorization has also been clearly defined in the Qur’an.
And there’s a very explicit statement by one of the famous scholars of the past –
To refute the theology – three categories of tawheed – that’s like having three sections of
Christianity.
The trinity of the Christians is dividing God into three. Only Allah is the Rabb. Only
Allah has the perfect names and attributes. So there’s absolutely nothing similar between
the two except for the number three.
Are you going to say they have imaan in roobubeeya –
The main point of difference that they’ll bring is that this categorization of tawheed into
three. This same group turns to other than Allah. So they want to reject our understanding
of laa illaha illahAllah. They want to say that tawheed is just ruboobeeyah – the existence
of Allah subhanaHu wa Ta'ala.
One of the ways they try to attack us – by saying its an innovation.
Another point that they bring – munkar and nakeer –
Three questions
1. who is your rabb
2. what is your religion
3. what did you say about the prophet (saw)
one of the questions is who is your Rabb – this shows us that he only wants us to believe
that He is the Rabb.. and whoever believes this is a Muslim. And the response to this is
that you have to take all the texts together.
We have clearly proved – that the mushrikoon believed in Allah as a Rabb – and yet they
did not accept Islam, nor were they considered Muslims.
Many words in the Arabic language are relatied to one another – such that when the
words occur in the same context they take a slightly different meaning, and when they
occur in different contexts they take the same meaning.
Tawbah and istighfar – when it says in the same context that you must tawbah and then
do istighfar they are different things.
Similarly Rabb and Ilaah have different meanings.
Conclusion to the class
From the beginning of the class – we’ve been hearing about various terms, and in
particular we’ve been hearing about kufr, shirk, nifaq and bid3a.
We have to be very careful – the terms shirk and kufr are very severe. Don’t use them
until you know how to use them properly. You’re not ready to use these terms. We need
to know go over, revise, study. Before you start going around and using these terms. If
you see someone who is doing an act that is blatant shirk.
You’re not qualified to determine what is kufr and what isn’t kufr.
You’re job is to advise them – try to correct them. Never ever call another Muslim a kafir
or a mushrik. Leave it to those who are qualified. You are not qualified to call any other
Muslim a non-Muslim. Unless the guy himself says he’s not Muslim. Or he follows a
group in Islam that’s outside of the fold of Islam. Such as the drews or the 3alaweeis.
These extreme groups – etc
As for the groups that are within the general fold of Islam – even shi3as, even though
they’re not correct, its not correct to call them a kaafir or mushrik.
Because it is possible that a person does an act of kufr or an act of shirk, but does not
necessarily become a kaafir or a mushrik.
Suppose you see someone prostrating in front of a grave – you immediately cry out “you
mushrik” – you assume he’s prostrating to the grave. In reality he’s just doing a sadjda
there.”
Some of my friends make fun of Islam but they don’t know its kufr, or perhaps this
person has strong evidence showing that its permissible. You don’t know a persons
intentions. Therefore be very careful about pronouncing that.
He also could have been forced by someone else to do that.
Therefore your responsibility is only to convey. The term kaafir or mushrik should not be
in your vocabulary – never ever use that term when it comes to another Muslim.
You may use the term kufr or shirk. Calling other than Allah is shirk.
He was so afraid that Allah would punishment – he told his children to cremate his body,
he thought if he did this – he wouldn’t be able to be resurrected. He thought he could
outsmart Allah – he thought he was more powerful than Allah. So Allah subhanaHu wa
Ta'ala called him together… because he had so little knowledge - Allah subhanaHu wa
Ta'ala overlooked it and forgave him, because of that real fear that he had.
A person might do an act of kufr or shirk – but he doesn’t necessarily become a kafir or
mushrik.