Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-2

Insha’Allah we’ll continue tonight with an explanation of the book “Kashf ash-Shubuhat.”

Last time we just began with the first paragraph and we didn’t finish talking about it. The last thing we talked about was the issue of the Prophets and the Messengers and we discussed a little bit about is there a difference or not and if there is a difference, what is the difference. That’s where we left off, and we also said that there’s a misconception about the Prophets, whether Allah sent them with a message or if he just revealed revelation to them. We said that the evidence from the Qur’an and the Sunnah indicates that they were sent as well, so this idea that people have that a Messenger was someone who was sent and a Prophet was someone who wasn’t sent or wasn’t commanded to go out and call to this message, this is a mistake and the evidence on the Qur’an is when Allah said,

“Indeed, We have revealed to you, (O Muhammad), as We revealed to Noah and the prophets after him… And (We sent) messengers about whom We have related (their stories) to you before and messengers about whom We have not related to you.” [4:163-164]

So, Allah mentioned that they were both sent and when Allah said,

“People were one nation, then Allah sent the Prophets as bringers of glad-tidings and warners.” [2:213]

So, we see from this verse, as well as the hadith that I mentioned last time about the Prophet (saws) when he mentioned the five things that he was given that no other Prophet was given, that, “The Prophets used to be sent to just his people as for me, I was sent to all of people.” So, we see from this that the Prophets were sent and were commanded to go out and convey the message.

The next point that I want to mention about what the author says when he talked about the Prophets other than the Prophet Muhammad (saws), he said (عليه السلام), he would say about them (عليه السلام). So this is what many of the scholars do, they say, if they’re talking about the Prophet Muhammad (saws), they’ll say (صلى الله عليه وسلم), and if they’re talking about another Prophet, Adam or Nuh or Ibrahim or Isa, or any of the other Prophets, they’ll just say (عليه السلام) or (على آله الصلاة والسلام), so this is what some scholars say that when you’re talking about another Prophet, you just say this and when you’re talking about the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم), you say the full phrase. This is based upon a number of Ayat in the Qur’an. For example, when Allah said,

“And peace upon the Messengers” [37:181]

And Allah also said about a number of Prophets, depending on the verse, one includes,

“And left for him (favourable mention) among later generations: “Peace upon Nuh among the worlds”. [37:78-79]

So they say that, these verses indicate that when it comes to a Prophet, other than the Prophet Muhammad (saws), that you say (عليه السلام).
However, a number of scholars have questioned this and argued against this understanding and they’ve said that the “Salaam”, that’s understood from this verse, “وَسَلَامٌ عَلَى الْمُرْسَلِينَ”, and the other Ayat I mentioned, that they say that, it doesn’t just mean saying “Salaam”. The reason for this is that, amongst ourselves we say “السلام عليكم”, and we send salam upon each other on a daily basis, and this is the Salaam of the Muslimin in general. So for us to say that, the Salaam that we send upon the Prophets, other than the Prophet Muhammad (sawsم), is the same as what we send upon everyone else from the Muslimin, is a concept that’s incorrect.

Imam Ibn al-Qayyim argued against this or he argued for this opinion in a great length in a number of his books, “Ighathat al-Lahfan” and “Tariq al-Hijratain”, and a number of other books. So he argued that, and I won’t go into too much detail because that’s not the topic of this book, but he proved or he made a strong argument to say that, any Prophet we mention, whether it’s Adam, we say “على آله الصلاة والسلام” or if we say Nuh, we say “على آله الصلاة والسلام” and so on. So this concept that we don’t have to say it for other Prophets or some people have even said to me personally, that you shouldn’t say it for other Prophets or if you say Yusuf, you don’t say (على آله الصلاة والسلام), you only say (عليه السلام), and you’re not allowed and you shouldn’t actually say this for the other Prophets. So that’s where I’ll end with, with that topic, I won’t go into anymore detail on that.

Another point, is that the author mentioned about the sending of Nuh (as) amongst his people when they went to extremes when it came to the Salihin, or when they had ghulu with regards to the Salihin. So what this means is that, ghulu is going beyond the legislated amount of something. So for example, we know that if a Prophet has specific rights to go beyond that, so we say a Prophet is perfect with regards to the da’wah, this is something that’s legislated, it’s proven in the Qur’an and the Sunnah. If we then say “No, it’s because their Prophets, they’re able to help us, more than other people.” If you make du’a to them or something, they can help you, we’re going beyond what is actually legislated, with regards to those Prophets. 

Likewise, this is what the people of Nuh did, and in the hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari from Ibn Abbas when he described the story of Nuh (as), he described that Nuh or between Adam (as) and Nuh, there were ten generations. All of them were upon Tawhid, and in the hadith it says, “When people didn’t have knowledge anymore, they began to worship these Salihin.” And in Ibn Abbas’s statement, it mentions the same thing as what’s mentioned in the Qur’an which the author mentions, about the people of Nuh, that they had a number of Salihin from the earlier generations they began to worship.

“And said, ‘Never leave your gods, and never leave Wadd, or Suwa’ or Yaghuth and Ya’uq and Nasr.” [71:23]

So these people, who were the Salihin, they began to worship them and then Allah sent Nuh to bring them back to Tawhid. So, in this verse and in this story, there’s a refutation against this idea that people say, regardless of what the people do, they can always be excused by their ignorance. So even if people are ignorant of an issue, and it’s been made clear to them, or if it’s an issue that is very easy and the Qur’an is very clear on it, or if it’s an issue that is in front of them and they can seek the knowledge on this issue, but they choose not to or they choose to close their eyes on an issue, that this idea that they didn’t know, isn’t an excuse anymore. Because here we see that the people of Nuh were upon Tawhid, and then when the knowledge was forgotten amongst their people, they began to do these things, but they obviously weren’t upon Islam anymore.

So this idea that regardless of how much people turn away from learning their religion, that they’ll always have an excuse and that people can be as negligent as they want in the religion and as long as they don’t know it’s an excuse, then we know from this verse and from the story of Nuh (as) that this is a mistaken concept, and we’ll get into much more detail in this further in the book but this is just a comment to mention on the story. So that’s the end of where we stopped last time.

The author continues, and he says about Nuh or about the Prophet (saws), he says:
“And the last of the Messengers was Muhammad (saws) and he smashed the statues of these righteous people. Allah sent him to a people who were given to devotion and worship, would make the pilgrimage, give charity and remember Allah often. However, they made some of the creatures into intermediaries between themselves and Allah, and they would say “we seek nearness (taqarrub) to Allah from them” and “we seek their intercession from them with Allah”. Such (creatures) included the Angels, Isa, Maryam and others from among the righteous people.”

He says, he sent him amongst a people who used to worship Allah (perform Hajj, give Sadaqah, mention Allah) very often, but they would make some of the creation to be intermediaries between them and Allah. They would say, “we want from them to become closer to Allah” and “we want their intercession with Allah”. Then he gives examples, so the Angels, Isa bin Maryam and other people from the Salihin, from the righteous people.

Then he says:

“So Allah sent him Muhammad (saws) to renew the religion for them which was the religion of their father Ibrahim. And he would inform them that this type of worship and these beliefs are specifically from the rights of Allah and they’re not befitting to give anyone other than Allah, whether it’s a Prophet, who was sent or it was an Angel who was brought near to Allah, let Alone other than them.”

So, he’s saying that, if the Prophet (saws) was sent to people who, amongst them were people who used to worship angels and worship Prophets, but because of this worship, all of the things they did for Allah didn’t benefit them. So then, what would we say about someone, they’re not worshipping a Prophet, they’re not worshipping an Angel, they’re worshipping someone who’s lower than them, from amongst the good Muslims, or maybe not even the good Muslims, from amongst the fussaq or the Muslimin who are very sinful, or maybe they aren’t even Muslimin. So, if the fact that they were doing this to Prophets and Angels was enough to remove them from their religion, then what would we say about someone who’s doing this to someone who’s lower in status.

Then he continues and says:
“So they were Mushrikin, who bore witness that Allah was the Creator or al-Khaliq Alone, and He has no partners in this, and He was the one who would give them their sustenance and no one would do it except for Him, and that He was the one who would give life and death, and no one would do it except for Him, and that He would control the universe and no one would do this aside from Him and that all of the heavens and the Earth and everything that is in them are His slaves and they are beneath His Will and if you want the evidence for this, that those ones who the Messenger of Allah (saws) fought against bore witness to this, then read Allah’s statement:
“Say: Who provides for you, from the sky and the earth? Or who owns the hearing and the sight? Who brings the living out of the dead and Who brings the dead out of the living? And Who disposes the affairs? They will say Allah. Say: Then will you not then be afraid.” [10:31]

Then he says, and His statement:
“Say: “Whose is the earth and whosoever is therein? If you know!” They will say: “It is Allâh'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: “Allâh.” Say: “Will you not then fear Allâh (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 Allâh saves anyone none can punish or harm him, and if Allâh punishes or harms anyone none can save him), if you know.” They will say: “(All that belongs) to Allâh.” Say: “How then are you deceived and turn away from the truth?” [23:84-89]
And other such verses.”

So here the author begins to discuss the issue of just worshipping Allah in a manner, whether it’s with the Salaat, Zakaat, or Hajj, or Fasting, or mentioning Allah, or having some fear in your heart, or believing that He exists, or believing that He’s the Creator, in and of itself, these things aren’t sufficient for a person to be a Muslim. Even if they claim to be Muslim, just having these things, if they have Shirk along with this, that claim is insufficient and in reality it’s a false claim, so it’s saying that ”we’re Muslim or that this will benefit us on the Day of Judgement.” If they have these actions, it’s actually an incorrect statement and belief and the evidence for this is these verses. So these people knew that Allah created them, and all of these other concepts, they completely accepted them but what was the reason it wouldn’t benefit them? It was that they performed Shirk with Allah as we will go onto mention right away.

So, we can summarize this statement of the author by saying that these people amongst Quraysh who the Prophet (saws) was sent to, they accepted the Tawhid of Rububiyyah, so what we talked about last week, which is the Tawhid of Lordship – that Allah created everything and controls everything, and provides sustenance for everything. So, the kuffar of the Arab at the time accepted these concepts, they didn’t reject them, and like we talked about last week, sometimes it’s called “Tawhid ar-Rububiyyah”, other times it’s called “Tawhid al-Ma’arifa wa’l Ifbat”, so depending on what book you’re reading, it might be phrased differently, so just keep that in mind.

We also see from what the author mentioned that they had specific actions of worship. So, they didn’t just believe these things, they worshipped Allah as well, and he mentioned a number of them. So he mentioned the Hajj, and we know that they did perform hajj at the time, we know that Allah says:
“Then depart from the place from where (all) the people depart…” [2:199] 

So, Allah was discussing the Hajj and we know that He was referring them in how to perform Hajj to do what they used to do. So, this was a correct action amongst the Hajj, was to leave from area to area. So, Allah was referring them back to what they used to do in that issue. So, we know that they would perform Hajj and we know that ‘Ali (ra) was sent to call out in the haram that no one should perform the tawaf while they were uncovered because this is something they used to do. So, we know that, if they weren’t performing it, then what was Ali referring to when we went and called the people to this. And we know that in the hadith from Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas (ra), that he said, “That the Mushrikun used to say “Labayk Allahumma Labayk” or “We are at your command and One who has no partner.” So the Prophet (saws) when he would hear them say this, he would say ‘Enough, Enough’.” So, meaning “Stop, what you just said, don’t say anything further.” Then they would say “Except for a partner that You have who You control and that which he has.” Meaning that, they would then go on and say something further which was actually a statement of Shirk, so the Prophet (saws) was essentially saying, what you’re saying in the beginning is correct, don’t go any further because you’re going to wreck what you’re saying. You’re doing something that’s a worship of Allah, don’t add any Shirk to this. So, they would say this while performing Tawaf and this hadith was narrated by Imam Muslim. 

So, obviously they were performing Hajj and they would perform Tawaf, and they would mention Allah and they would fast as well. We know that they had types of fasts, some say it was Ashura and some say it was just a general fast. Also, the author mentioned that from Abdullah ibn ‘Umar, that ‘Umar bin Khattab said to the Prophet (saws), “In Jahiliyah, I made an oath that I would perform I’tikaf in Masjid al-Haram for one night”, so the Prophet (saws) said “Fulfil your oath.” So, we know that they used to have oaths or vows that they used to make to Allah and they also had I’tikaf. So, these are all acts of worship, that they used to perform for Allah. Also the hadith of A’ishah (ra) in which she described the Muskrikin, that they used to  perform fasting during the time of Ashura.

So, all of these things, the point of this, and there’s other actions of worship that they used to do. What we see from this is that they had some acceptance of Allah, and they had acts of worship that they would actually perform for Allah, but despite this, it was their Shirk which removed them from the religion that they were upon. So, this is actually what took them out of the religion of Ibrahim, which they were originally upon.

So insha’Allah we’ll stop there for now. Just to recap, we have that the Mushrikin believed in Allah’s existence, they believed in many of His Actions, that He Created and that He would give Rizq to people and to all creation and so on. They performed specific actions for Allah as acts of worship, and there’s even acts of worship that continued in Islam obviously without the Shirk in specific guidelines, but they did have many acts of worship that we still perform. They had a version of that, but despite this, it didn’t help them. And we know that the Prophet (saws), if they were upon Islam, he wouldn’t be calling them to anything, and if they were upon Islam, they wouldn’t have fought him and if they were upon Islam, he wouldn’t have fought them.

So, this idea that, you’ll hear very often about the Jews and the Christians, and about the Rafidah, and about the Druze and even about atheists somehow, sometimes you’ll hear people say, “But they believe in a Creator”. I don’t know how that works when they refer to the atheists, but you’ll even hear people say this, or communists, or people who are among democracy or whatever other religion it is that they following, they’ll say “Oh but they believe that Allah created everything.” Or “He’s a good person.” So they think that this is sufficient for the person to become Muslim. Really, how is that possible when these people who the Prophet (saws) was sent to, called to Islam, and he actually fought them to bring Islam to them. They were much closer to Islam than a lot of what goes on nowadays, but somehow they weren’t Muslims, but these people nowadays are considered Muslims.

Obviously, anyone who has a small amount of intellect would look at that and say, even if I don’t understand all the details, I know that this is wrong, it can’t make sense, it can’t be that Allah sent the Prophet (saws) to call these people to Islam, but there’s people who are further from Islam now, who are Muslims. How does that work? Someone with knowledge would be able to look at that and explain it and someone without knowledge should be able to look at that and say I don’t understand all the details but I know it’s a false claim because it doesn’t comply with the Qur’an, and it doesn’t comply with the Sunnah. 

Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid #2 [Transcribed] - By Shaykh Haytham Sayfaddeen

TO BE CONTINUED INSHA'ALLAH...

TO READ MORE, CLICK:

• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-1
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-3
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-4
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-5
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-6
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-7
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-8
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-9
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-10
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-11
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-12
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-13
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-14 
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-15
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-16
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-17
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-18
• Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-19 (LAST)