Sunday, December 23, 2018

Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-6

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The last thing that we talked about last week or two weeks ago, was the issue of the excuse of ignorance when it comes to matters of Shirk, or what they call in Arabi, “al-‘Udhr bil-Jahl”, so we talked a little about that. When the author said, that the person can say something and not know it’s Shirk or not know the severity of what he’s saying, and that he would leave Islam, based upon that statement and he wouldn’t be given the excuse of ignorance. So, that was the last thing we talked about.

We mentioned the hadith from Ibn ‘Abbas in Sahih al-Bukhari, in which he mentioned this when he was talking about the people of Prophet Nuh, and when they worshipped the idols that they set up when Allah mentioned about in the Qur’an, Wadd and Suwa’, and Yaghuth and Ya’uq and Nasr, when Allah mentioned these people, Ibn ‘Abbas explained that they were from the people of Prophet Nuh, they were righteous people from amongst them, and when they passed away, the Shaytan came to them and told them they should set up idols or set up statues to remind them of the worship that these people would perform to try to keep them as an example, and the Ibn ‘Abbas said in the end, “And then when the knowledge was forgotten, they worshipped them.”

So, he mentioned or he clearly states here, when the knowledge was gone, that’s when they performed this action of Shirk. So, obviously when Allah sent Prophet Nuh to these people, obviously He was sending him to a people who had disbelieved, and who had left Islam, and weren’t upon the religion of Prophet Adam anymore. So, the fact that he says that when the knowledge was gone, that’s when they performed the Shirk. This indicates that this idea that no matter what anyone does, there’s always this excuse that, “I didn’t know”, or “they didn’t know”, or “what if they didn’t know”, it’s not absolute how people try to make it, so we talked a bit about that.

The second thing we talked about last time was the issue of judging upon the outward, or judging upon what we see from people, and we’re not required to look into the hearts of people because we can’t do that, because Allah said,
“Allah does not place responsibility upon a soul except in what it can bear” [2:286]

So, obviously we know that when Allah gives us rulings or Islamic rulings to follow, obviously it’s possible to follow them. So, if we know it’s possible for us to follow them, and we know that it’s not possible for us to know what’s in the hearts, then we know that’s not what Allah has charged us with, or made us responsible with doing, and we talked about the hadith of ‘Usama ibn Zayd in which he killed a person, and before he killed him, the person said “La ilaha ila Allah”, and then he came to the Prophet (saws) and told him about this story and what had happened, and he said “did you kill him after he said La ilaha ila Allah?”, so ‘Usama said “he only said so out of fear of being killed.”. So he said, “did you open up his heart to know whether its setted or not?”, so whether is heart declared this truthfully, and we talked about how according to Ahlus Sunnah wa’l Jama’ah, the correct way of looking at this hadith is that we judge upon the outside, and we don’t have to know what’s on the inside, in order to judge and in order to deal with someone who’s a Muslim or non-Muslim.

We don’t have to look into their hearts, we don’t need to know what’s in their hearts, as opposed to what the groups such as the Murji’ah and other groups of bid’ah, what they say is that, you have to know what’s in the heart before you can deal with anyone in a certain way. We know that, that’s impossible, we know here that the Prophet (saws), he admonished, or he criticised ‘Usama for not going upon what was apparent to him. So ‘Usama made an assumption for what was in his heart, when what he saw was the opposite of that, so the Prophet (saws) rejected this from him, and it isn’t the opposite. So, this is where we left off last time.

So, the next thing that we’ll talk about is that the author he says:
“And know that, Allah from his Wisdom, did not send a Prophet with Tawhid, except that He placed enemies for him as He stated, “And so We have appointed for every Prophet enemies, Shayatin among the mankind and Jinn, inspiring one another with adorned speech as a delusion (or way of delusion).” [6:112]

Then, the author says:
“And it’s possible that, the enemies of Tawhid may have many sciences or much knowledge, and books and arguments that they may use as He stated, “Then when their Messengers came to them with clear proofs, they exulted (in pride) with that which they had of the knowledge.” [40:83]

So, this is what the author says here, so there’s a number of points we can take from this section that the author says. The first is that, the Shayatin can be as Allah said, mankind and jinns, so the idea that the shayatin are only from the Jinn, we know that this is a mistake. The Shaytan can be from mankind and from the Jinn. So, if they’re a disbeliever, and they call to disbelief, and they try to get people to leave Islam, and to stay away from Islam, and they try to spread fasad, or mischief or corruption in the Earth, then this can also be labelled as a Shaytan. Whether it’s from the humans or the Jinn, and this is clear in this verse. Allah refers to the shayatin to mankind and to the Jinn. In Surah Nas, Allah said,
“from the Jinn, and from the people.” [114:6], when referring to the Shayatin.

So, we know that, this is something that is possible, and we don’t restrict the Shayatin being from the Jinn. This is the first point to mention from this, the second is that he said that, “Allah did not send a Prophet, except that He placed, or made for them enemies, or from the Shayatin of mankind and the Jinn.”

 So, this is the other point here is that, like we talked about many times before, the difference between a Prophet and a Messenger, we know that there’s a difference, but the idea that a Prophet is someone who receives revelation but isn’t commanded, or doesn’t have to go tell the people about, that this is a mistaken concept, and that the difference between a Prophet and a Messenger, isn’t that one is sent and one isn’t sent, and we talked about this before. So, both a Prophet and a Messenger is sent and commanded to go out and teach what they came with, but the difference is some come with new Shara’a, or new legislation, and others judge with the legislation that came before them with the messengers. So, this is the stronger opinion on what the difference is between a Messenger and a Prophet is.

The next point in what the author mentions is when he says, that it’s from Allah’s wisdom that He doesn’t place, or He doesn’t send a Prophet, except that He makes or places enemies for them. So, this is a point about the Qadr, and we talked a bit about this when we had the Sharh or explanation of “al-Usul ath-Thalatha”, when we talked a bit about the Qadr, or the pre-destination. So, here Allah, we can say that there’s two types of, when Allah makes or places these things, and in Arabi, it’s the “Ja’al”, when He makes. So, we can say there’s two types, the first is “Al-Ja’al al-Qadri”, and the second is “Al-Ja’al al-Shar’i”. When Allah places or makes things, there’s two types. One is related to the legislation or to the Shari’ah, and the second is related to the Qadr, or Allah’s creating of the universe and how things are laid out. and how Allah pre-destined things to take place.

 So, the first thing we’ll talk about is the Shar’i, or “al-Ja’al al-Shar’i”, and this is something that Allah loves, or He accepts it or He is pleased with it. An example of this is when Allah said,

“Allah has made the Ka’aba, the sacred House, an asylum of security and Hajj or Umrah for mankind, and also the sacred month [meaning Allah has made the sacred month] and the animals of offerings and the gardens that are garlanded, that you may know that Allah has knowledge of all that is in the Heavens and all that is in the Earth, and Allah is All-Knower is each and everything.” [5:97]

And Allah also said, when He is speaking about the da’wah and trials of Prophet Ibrahim, that he said,
“And He made it a word lasting amongst his offspring that they may turn back.” [43:28]

So, this is a type of Ja’al, or a type of taqdir, or type of Qadr or type of decision-making that Allah makes with regards to the Shari’ah. So, these are things that Allah chooses, and people may follow follow it, and they may not follow it. So, just like Allah legislates and He is pleased with, or wishes, decides that people should enter Islam, that they should pray, they should fast, and they should stay away from Shirk and so on.

These are things that Allah has commanded, but people may follow it, and they may not follow it, as opposed to the other type of command, or the other type of ja’al, or the other type of ‘irada or will that Allah has, that is the Qadri or that relates to the universe, and the creating of the universe. This is another evidence for this, or an evidence for this is when Allah said,
“O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know one another. Indeed, the most honourable of you with Allah is the most God-fearing of you.” [49:13]

So, here Allah mentioned that He made something a certain way, but it’s not a command. It’s not something Allah expects for us to do, this is something of the way He created us, and it’s the way He pre-destined things to be. So, this is similar to when Allah has his ‘Irada, or His Will, that there’s two types. So, this is something that people have no escape from, people can’t decide to be this way or not be this way. This is how Allah created things. So, similar to when we say that if Allah wishes for someone to die, this isn’t a choice someone has, it’s something that’s predestined upon them, and they don’t escape it, and they don’t have a choice whether they want to follow it or not, even though this is a decision from Allah. Likewise, if Allah decides to legislate something to be obligatory or haram, people, in this situation they have a choice to follow this thing or not.

The point of knowing this is that, there is many groups of Muslims that went astray when it comes to this issue, and it’s because some will say that Allah has forced people to do everything that they do, so people have no choice. So, if the person performs zina, they’ll say that “Allah willed this to happen, so if Allah willed for this to happen, or wished for this to happen, then obviously I’m doing what Allah wants me to do.” And the opposite is that people will go the other extreme and say that Allah has no involvement whatsoever in what we do and what we say.

So, they’ll go to the other extreme and say that, “Allah doesn’t even know what happened, until after it takes place.” And there’s a number of steps to how they get to this idea, but the basis of this dispute, or the basis of this misguidance is that people don’t differentiate between when Allah wills something or wishes something, or expects something, or legislates something, or commands something. There can be two types, one is related to the Shari’ah, that we have a choice to follow or not, and the second is related to the creation and related to the how the universe itself works, so this is just a point that I wanted to touch upon and we went into it in a little bit more detail before and another evidence for this as well is when Allah said,
Or that Allah said, which means,
“And it is He Who makes the covering for you and the sleep a repose, and makes the day as a thing to go out and spread amongst the earth.” [25:47]

So, here we see that there’s another evidence, that Allah, there’s certain things that He has pre-ordained, or pre-destined that we have no choice with. So, we have no choice about the heavens and the Earth, and how they work and that type of thing, and yet this is also from Allah’s Decisions.

And then, the author said, “And he’ll have enemies.”

We’ll go back to what the author said, he’s speaking about when Allah would send a Messenger, and He would place enemies for him. What an enemy is, is someone that whatever pleases you, makes him upset and whatever makes you upset, pleases him. This is the basis of enmity, that they have a complete opposite of what you want, and their goals are different from your goals, and not only are they different, but they oppose your goals. So, this is what defines the basis of what an enemy is. So, if you’re trying to do something, their whole goal is to stop it, or if you’re trying to stop something, their whole goal is to make it happen.

So, by understanding this, we understand when Allah said, “We place enemies from all the messengers.” If we look through the Sirah of the messengers, then we see that Allah mentioned either all of them or most of them at least, there’s stories with their enemies. To explain this, Allah said:
Or that Allah’s describing the enemies of the Muslimin, He says:
“If a good befalls you, it grieves them, but if an evil overtakes you, they rejoice at that, but if you remain patient, and become pious, not the least harm will their …. Do to you. Indeed, Allah surrounds all that they will do.” [3:120] 

So, this is the explanation of what an enemy actually is, that when you’re happy, they’re sad and when you’re sad, they’re happy so they have the complete opposite goals that you have. Then the author he said, or he mentioned the verse, he mentioned that the enemies of the Prophet and the enemies of Tawhid, they may have many arguments, and they may have many books that they have in order to try to counter Tawhid and call to Shirk and say “this is what Allah wants”, or “this is what Allah is pleased with and He wants us to make du’a to other than Him and He wants us to place intermediaries between us and Him, and He wants us to go to graves and He wants us to rule other than His Laws and to pick our own laws”, and so on. So, they may have arguments that they may bring to try to argue this, and to try to say that this is actually what Islam wants, and they’ll come and try to take the falsehood and place it in the clothing of Islam.

So, if we look at this, then we see that the author mentioned a number of things. He said that they’ll have many sciences, and books and many arguments, and all of these things are really the same, so these are all inter-linked in some way so we don’t need to go into what each of these means. If we look to current days, we see that there’s many ways that these go about. So, there’s many conferences or many gatherings, or many times where they’ll gather and they’ll have conferences, whether it’s international, or conferences that are national, and they’ll have ways of countering the da’wah of Islam, or countering what the Muslimin are doing in certain places, and they’ll use these things, and they’ll call them or they’ll state, this is what is civilisation, and this is what will push humanity forward, and bring progress to humanity, and if you follow Islam, and if you follow these things, then look what happened before in this place, and this is something that will keep people back in the dark ages and so on.

They’ll make these arguments, and they’ll go on televisions, and radio and newspapers and so on and many people will believe them because of these arguments, that they make. This is why Allah warned us about this, he didn’t warn us for something that isn’t real. When Allah warns us about something, obviously not only is it a reality but it’s something that can actually have an effect and needs to be countered in a way because why would Allah warn us about something that isn’t real. So, the fact that Allah says that, when the Messengers came to their people, these people, they became happy or they became very impressed with, what they had from knowledge, and how they were able to try to counter it.

So, this is something to keep in mind, when you see people trying to counter Islam, and they try to make arguments and say that, anything that keeps you back, or anything that Islam calls to that will take you back to the old days, or it’s ancient and so on. That this is complete falsehood, and it’s something that is expected from the enemies of Islam, and it’s expected from the kuffar because they don’t want Islam to progress and they don’t want Islam to prevail, otherwise they would become Muslimin. So, if we look at all of these things, and we look at the warnings that Allah has given us, and the guidance he has given us, we should take it as a real advice from Allah, that it’s not just empty words like people might give advice to each other, this is coming from Allah. So, this is the second point that the author mentioned, or that we’re talking about today.

The next thing that the author said, he says:
“And if you know that [all the things we mentioned before], and you know that the path to Allah must have upon it, or must have on the sides of it, those who sit at it, and they have clear speech, or they have knowledge, and they have arguments. Then it is obligatory upon you to learn from that religion of Allah, that which will give you a weapon to fight against those Shayatin.”
Meaning that, so he’s saying that if we know all of these things that Allah warned us about, and we know that the Shayatin, or the enemies of Islam will have arguments or they’ll have “Shubuhat”, or misconceptions, that they’ll take from the Qur’an, or they’ll take from the Sunnah and try to distort Islam from the inside. Then, it’s obligatory upon us to learn enough of our religion so we can counter these things.

So, this is the whole point of this book, is to look at the arguments that people use to try to spread their da’wah, or spread the things that they call to, and to know how to reply to these things, because if someone comes to you and they’re Muslim, at least on the outward as far as you know, and they start claiming that something’s from Islam, or this is how you practice Islam, and they bring Ayat from the Qur’an, and they bring ahadith from the Sunnah.

They might be calling to something completely other than Islam, they might be calling to worshipping other than Allah, they might be calling to going to graves, or going to what they call ‘Awliya and saints and so on. Someone who doesn’t know any better may say “this makes sense, he’s proving it to me from the Qur’an and the Sunnah, it must be right.” So, if we know that this is the case, it’s only natural, or it’s only logical that we would learn as much as we can to counter these things so when someone comes to you, you know what they’re coming to you with, and you’re able to teach people and otherwise call people back to Islam, or back to the Sunnah. So, this is what the author is saying, and then he says, evidence for this that the Shayatin will always be calling people away from Islam, he says:
“Their Imam and their leader [Iblis] said to your Lord, “Then I will come to them from before them, and from behind them, from their right and from their left and You will not find most of them as thankful ones.” [7:17]
He mentions here, that Allah tells us clearly that the Imam of the Shayatin, who is Iblis [may Allah curse him], from the beginning said to Allah that this is his goal, this is what he wants to do, he is going to call people away from the path of Islam. So, if we know this, then it only makes sense to know that the Shayatin who follow him, whether they’re from the Jinn or mankind, their goal is going to be the same as well. So, we know that this is going to take place, Allah told us that Iblis said this to Him, himself. So, would we then just say, “Okay, we believe it but we’re not going to do anything about it, or we don’t really care about it”, or we just expect that we’re going to be safe from it, or are we going to arm ourselves with the knowledge that’s necessary to counter these things, so this is what the author is saying.

Then He says:
“But if you turn to Allah and accept His arguments and His clarifications, then do not be afraid and do not grieve. Allah said, “Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the cause of the Taghut. So fight you against the friends of the Shayatan. Ever feeble indeed is the plot of the Shaytan.” [4:76]
So here, the point of which the author is mentioning this verse for is to say that Allah has already told us, this is what the Muslims will be doing and this is what the kuffar will be doing and in the end, He said, “Indeed, the plot of the Shaytan is weak.”

So, we know for sure that it is weak, it’s not strong in and of itself, so we know that it is possible to beat, it is possible to argue against, and it is possible to overcome with argument and evidence from the Qur’an and the Sunnah. So, just knowing that in and of itself, then we know that nothing special needs to happen in order to beat these arguments. If we take what Allah has given us, it’s sufficient, we don’t need to have anything else. If we just look to what Allah has given us, and how He has taught us to preserve His religion, this is sufficient for us to be able to beat the plan of the Shaytan.

So, if it’s related to arguments that they bring from the Qur’an and the Sunnah, we know that the Qur’an and the Sunnah will clarify these better than their understanding of it, and if they come to us with logical arguments, or they try to bring arguments that are outside of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, we know that whatever Allah gives us, that’s the most logical thing. So, if someone brings you something opposite than it, than then Qur’an and the Sunnah will have something that’s more logical and will beat that logic. So, we know that this is the case as well.

Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid #6 [Transcribed] - By Shaykh Haytham Sayfaddeen

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