Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid, PART-10

Insha’Allah we’ll continue where we left off two or three weeks ago since the last lesson from this series. The last thing that we were talking about was the misconception some people try to use when it comes to matters of Shirk and they try to use the argument that there’s a difference or that when we go to somebody and ask them to ask Allah..so particularly if we go to a graveyard and ask someone who’s in that grave to ask Allah to ask something for us, that this is a matter of shirk that it’s actually allowed to do. Some will go a little bit further and say that it’s not allowed, it’s something that’s an innovation, but it wouldn’t remove someone from Islam.

So, we talked about this last week, and how this is a misconception, and how it actually is in contradiction to the consensus, and we mentioned a number of people who mentioned consensus on this matter, from the Imams of the Najdi da’wah and those before them. Likewise, we talked about the evidences for this from the Qur’an, and the logical arguments against this idea. So, we’re almost done the first misconception.

The next part we’ll talk about for this, is some questions to ask people who say these types of things. Someone might look at this topic and say why are we talking about these matters, nobody does this and this is something that was done a long time ago. The reality of the matter is, is that it isn’t just something that was done a long time ago, it still goes on today. It still goes on in this country, it still goes on this city, it goes on, on some of the masajid in this city here, it goes on the U of A, it goes on a number of people call to this filth.

So, the idea that it doesn’t need to be talked about is completely wrong because it is being spread, and Allahul musta’an, it’ being spread more and more and people aren’t really aware of it, so this is the reason we talk about it still, so don’t think that it’s a matter that’s pointless to talk about. So, first we’ll talk about some questions we’ll ask to these people in order to show them what they’re calling to is something that’s false.

The first thing that we would ask them is, if you say that asking someone for something that they ask Allah for you. So you don’t ask them for something, you don’t say “O so and so from the grave…”, if he’s a Sayyid or Wali or whatever they happen to call that person, that this would be shirk but if you say to them, “…O walidi or O Sayyidi, ask Allah for us.” If you say that this is not shirk, then we’ll say, what you would say about someone who goes to a grave and slaughters for the person in that grave with the intention that they would then ask Allah for them.

So, we’re no longer asking the person to ask, we’re doing something for them, so that they will ask Allah on our behalf. This is a matter that it’s very very rare that anyone has ever said that this wouldn’t be shirk. So, even those who say that it’s permissible to go to a grave and ask that person to ask Allah on your behalf, even them, the vast majority of them would say that this remains a matter of shirk.

So, then we would say to them, then what is the difference between this type of worship, so that the person or the dead person asks Allah on your behalf, and making du’a to them so that they ask Allah on your behalf? Both of them are acts of worship, both of them are being done for the person in the grave, and both of them are being done with the intention that they will then intercede on your behalf with Allah. So, really in the end, there’s no difference between the two.

The second question that we would ask is, when the Prophet (saws) was sent to the kuffar of Quraysh, what was the thing that they were doing? We know by the clear text of the Qur’an, that they didn’t believe that anyone other than Allah creates or provides or anything like this. We know for a fact that what their opinion or their beliefs were that, when they would worship something other than Allah, that that point was, they would intercede on behalf of the person making du’a.

So, if this was the case with the kuffar of Quraysh, then what is the difference between what you’re doing and what used to do. There’s no difference really, so if that was disbelief and the Prophet (saws) was sent to remove them from it, then what you’re doing is disbelief, and Islam is the thing that would be removing you from it, and the Qur’an and the Sunnah would be the matter that would remove you from this state that you’re in. So, again this is the second thing that we say.

So, then if they say, “the difference is that the kuffar of Quraysh used to worship statues, and they used to make du’a to statues and idols, but we’re doing this to people in graves, so there’s a difference.” Then we say that, yes they used to do this but going to someone’s grave and asking them for something, makes that grave an idol itself, and this is evident when the Prophet (saws), it’s narrated in a hadith, and it’s narrated by Imam Ahmad and others that he said, “Do not make my grave or do not make it so my grave becomes an idol that is worshipped.”

So, we know that things can become idols, they don’t necessarily have to be built with the intent of an idol, if someone treats it as a idol, it becomes an idol with regards to that person. So, this is the case with regards to the people in the grave as well. Yes, the grave originally was set up so this person would be in the ground, but the fact that people go to it, and start performing acts of worship around the grave, it now becomes an idol with regards to those people. So, this argument that we’re doing different to what they were doing, by your action itself, it becomes what the Quraysh used to do, to the statues and idols they use to worship.

The next question is that we say that, what is some of the shirk of the Christians or the Nasara. We know that even up until today, especially the Catholics, they’ll go and they’ll go to statues of Maryam (ra), or to Prophet ‘Isa and others, or to their saints, and they’ll ask for intercession on behalf of themselves to Allah, and this is well-known especially amongst the Catholics, that they have a saint for travel, and a saint for people who are sailors, and a saint for tradesmen and a saint for this etc., and that person who’s travelling, he asks that saint to intercede on behalf of him with Allah.

So, what is the difference between that shirk and what you’re doing. We know that is shirk, and we know that, that would remove someone from Islam, and they would be deserving of Jahannam, and that they wouldn’t leave it, so likewise with these actions that you’re performing as well.

So, these are some of the questions we would ask to these people who say these things, they’ll say things like “What we’re doing is different with what they’re doing”, and there’s many other questions that can be asked to them to prove that really in the end, when you sit down and talk to them, and look at their arguments, they don’t hold up at all, and they can kind of fall apart in the first little bit of discussion that you have with them.

So, insha’Allah with that we’ll end the first misconception that they use and we’ll go onto the second misconception that the author mentioned in the book.

So, the author, he said:
“Then if someone says all of those Ayat that you’re mentioning, they came down with regards to people who worship idols and how can you make the Muslimin that we’re going to their graves and asking them, how can you make them at the same level of the statues and the idols that Quraysh used to worship, or how can you make the Anbiya, how can take the Anbiya that we’re making du’a to and making shafa’a from, how can you say that they’re at the same level as the statues or the idols that Quraysh used to worship.” 

So the author continues and says:
“The answer to this is everything that we have mentioned before. So the answer to this is that the Kuffar of Quraysh used to bear witness that Allah is the complete controller of Rububiyyah, He is the One Who is the Lord, He is the One Who Creates, and all of these things are his rights and from his traits, and that when they would worship them, and when they would do actions and make statements for these statues and these idols, they were only doing, so that these would be an intercession with them, with Allah.”

“Likewise, we say to them from the kuffar of Quraysh and those in the same time, and those before them, some of them yes, they would worship idols, but also some of them would worship Salihin. And he says the evidence for that is Allah said about them: “Those whom they call upon desire a means of access to their Lord, as to which of them would be nearest.” [17:57]” 

So, he’s saying that Allah said, the people or the ones who are being worshipped, or du’a is being made to, instead of Allah, they themselves also seek from Allah, and they will compete with each other to be closer to Allah. So, meaning that these people you are making du’a to, they’re just like you in the sense that they also seek things from Allah and want to be close to Him. So, this shows that they didn’t only worship idols, they also worshipped people as well. And then he says:

“And they make du’a to ‘Isa Ibn Maryam and his mother, and Allah said: “The Messiah (the son of Maryam) was no more than a Messenger. Many were they Messengers who passed before him, and his mother was a Siddiqah, and they both used to eat food. Look how we make the Ayat clear to the, yet look how they are deluded away. Say: “How do you worship besides Allah, something which has no power, either to harm you or benefit you, but it is Allah Who is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower.” [5:75-76] And mention to them the statement of Allah: “And the Day when He will gather them altogether and He will say to the Angels, “Was it you that these people used to worship?”, so they will say, “Glory be to you, you are our Wali instead of them, nay! They used to worship the Jinn and most of them were believers in them.” [34:40-41]

And then he mentions Allah’s statement:
“And when Allah will say to Isa, the son of Maryam, “did you go onto the people and say “worship myself and my mother as two gods beside Allah?”, he will say, “Glory be to You, it was not for me to say what I had no right, if I had said such a thing then You know it, You know what is in my inner self and I do not know what is in Yourself, truly only You are the All-Knower of all that is the Unseen.” [5:116]

Then the author ends with saying:

“Then say to him, “you know Allah has declared that these people are disbelievers and that they were only seeking things from the Salihin.”

So they weren’t seeking anything from the idols or statues that they built themselves, they were seeking things from human beings that were righteous and even Anbiya. 

Then he says that:
“So, the Prophet (saws) fought them for this.” 

So, he ends with this. So, this section, what it’s essentially talking about is the idea that if we look at something that the kuffar do, and Allah rebukes them and makes Inkar on them for it. Then if we see someone who claims Islam, that they’re argument is that “we can’t then say these verses came down for kuffar, and you’re applying it to Muslimin or you’re mistaken.” 

So, this is the argument of what they say at this point, and the link that there is between this Shubuha’ or this misconception and the first one is that in the first one, the author mentioned all of the evidences to say to them to disprove their argument.

So, the next thing that they is that, ‘yes, these are correct, but it doesn’t apply to us because we claim to be Muslimin and we say that we’re Muslims, as for the people that these came down for, they were the kuffar of Quraysh, so how can you say that we’re equal? You can’t apply evidence that came down to them and apply it to us.”

So, this is essentially, the argument, and this argument was first bought up by someone named Sulayman ibn ‘Abdul-Wahhab, and he was the brother of Muhammad ibn ‘Abdul-Wahhab. So, he wrote a book essentially trying to refute his brother, Muhammad ibn ‘Abdul-Wahhab, so it shows that, even in his time, everyone wasn’t on the same side, and there were people fighting against his da’wah, and people fighting against Tawhid, to the point where even his own brother was writing books and Rasa’il or essays in order to refute his own brother.

So, this is one of the first people who bought this up, and this was his book called “Al-Sawa’ik al-ilahiya”, and sometimes it’s called Faslu-Kitab. So, this book that his brother wrote. So, in this book he said “how can you apply the Ayat that Allah revealed for the Mushrikin, how can you apply them to the people who say La ilaha ila Allah”. And also this Shubuha’ or this misconception was then carried on afterwards by someone named Alawi Haddad, and he wrote two books or two Risalahs about this issue as well.

Then also someone named Alawi Ad-Mahuri, when he tried to scare people away from this argument, he said “just as the khawarij took Ayat that Allah revealed for the kuffar or just as they then started applying to the Muslimin, just as people do now when they say ‘you can’t worship other than Allah, you can’t make du’a to other than Allah, you can’t slaughter for other than Allah’, the khawarij used to take Ayat that came down for the kuffar and say that this applies to the Muslimin, you’re doing the same thing. So when you say that Allah judged that someone who made du’a to a wali, that he would be deserving of Jahannam forever, when you say this is also the case for someone who claims Islam, you’re doing what the Khawarij also did.” 

This is something that comes up often, when people no longer have a way to argue with the Qur’an and Sunnah against an idea, they say you’re applying things that don’t apply to these people so instead of being able to sit down and argue it in a manner that goes through each point, they say we don’t have to listen at all because this doesn’t apply to us because we’re Muslims, or this doesn’t apply to those people because they’re Muslimin.

People even tried to bring this up or not necessarily in the sense that it was being done as a means to defend people, but even in the time of the Tabi’in, they would have some misconceptions about certain Ayat that came down, and they would say this came down for the kuffar. We see that the Sahabah, their response to this would be that it came down for them but if someone does the same thing that’s done by the person who the Ayah came down for, the ruling is the same, and this is narrated by Imam al-Hakim and Abdur-Razzaq in ‘Al-Musannaf’ and others that some people came to Hudayfah al-Yaman and they asked him about the verse,
“And whoever doesn’t rule by what Allah has revealed then those are the disbelievers.” [5:44] 

They said this applies to Bani Isra’el, so Hudayfah said: “What good brothers they are for you, everything that’s good applies to you, and everything that’s bad applies to them.” 

Then he said: “No, by Allah! You will follow them in their path, even down to the width of a shoelace.”

So, meaning you’re going to do the same thing, it applies to you, so he’s saying that why is it that bad things that came down for them doesn’t apply to you, but good things that came down, it only applies to them. And this is an authentic narration from Hudayfah. So, it shows that even the Sahabah understood that, if something came down for the kuffar, yes it came down for them, but anyone who does that action, then they deserve the same ruling. It shows that if something comes down to rebuke people who make du’a to other than Allah, if it came down to Quraysh, we wouldn’t then say ‘it’s fine for us to do, because Allah was only making Inkar of Quraysh so it doesn’t apply to us anymore.’

So, this shows that one of the evidences that the Sahabah understood that things that came down to kuffar could be applied to Muslimin, if they do the same action. So, it doesn’t mean that we treat Muslimin like kuffar just for the sake of it, no, if someone does something that the kuffar did also, then they get the same ruling as the kuffar did in that action. So, that’s what’s meant by it, and also Allah said to the Prophet (saws) and it would apply to us after,

“And direct your face entirely towards the religion as a Hanif (and a Hanif is someone who stays completely away from Shirk), and never be from the Mushrikin.” [10:105]

So, Allah is telling us to not be from them. So, if it was something to ever enter into Shirk again, or that nothing that came down to them, applied to us and nothing that they ever do we could ever do, Allah wouldn’t be telling us to not be from them, because obviously it’s a possibility that we could be from them, unless Allah protects us from falling into that. And Allah also said,

“They wish that you will reject faith or disbelieve as they have disbelieved, and then you would be equal.” [4:89]

So, Allah is saying that, if someone was to disbelieve, they would be exactly the same as the ones who were disbelievers before. So, this idea that there’s some difference that if someone claims Islam, starts doing Kufr and leaves Islam, somehow, they’re still at a higher level than someone who’s always a non-believer or non-Muslim. So, this shows that there’s evidence also from the Qur’an to show that, this isn’t something that’s correct. Also, Allah said,

“Whoever takes them as allies, then he is from them.” [5:51]

So, we know that this is something again that Allah is saying that even the people who aren’t from them, if they take them as allies, they’ll be from them, or that they’ll be the same as them. So, it shows this idea that something came down for the kuffar, and we can’t do the exact thing or that we’re safe or that there’s no rebuke or there’s no Inkar on us, this is something completely rejected.

And the Prophet (saw) said,
“Whoever imitates a people then he is from them.”

And the hadith is narrated by At-Tirmidhi and others, and the strongest opinion about the hadith is that it’s a Hasan hadith, there’s some weaknesses in most of the chains, but it’s come from Hudayfah, and it’s come from Abdullah ibn ‘Umar and Abu Hurayrah and A’ishah as well and others so altogether it’s definitely an acceptable hadith.

Also the Prophet (saws) said in a hadith from Abu Sa’id al-Kudri, “You will follow the path or the actions of those before you, handspan by handspan, and armspan by armspan, to the point if they entered into the hole of a lizard, you would follow them,” So they said, “Are you talking about the Jews and the Christians?”, so he said, “Who else?” And this hadith is narrated by al-Bukhari.

So, we know here that if it was possible for people who claim Islam to do what the kuffar do, and it was fine, then all we would have to do to respond is to say “no, these Ayat came for the kuffar”, if that was the case then why is the Prophet (saws) telling us that you’re going to do this and he’s making Inkar on us for that. So, if it’s fine for us, then why tell us about it, all we would have to do is say that “As soon as I claim Islam, everything is fine for me to do, because these Ayat don’t apply to me because I’m Muslim.”

This is a completely rejected way of thinking and it doesn’t even comply with the whole point of why the Qur’an was sent with the Prophet (saws) and why the Prophet (saws) warned us, and taught us good, if nothing applied to us anymore that came down to everyone else, then everything would be pointless, because all we have to do is say we’re Muslim and we have a blank slate. 

So, this is the beginning of the evidences to show that things that come down to the Kuffar can apply to Muslimin and do apply to Muslimin, if something’s obligatory and the kuffar reject it, we can’t say this only came down to the kuffar, it’s fine for us to reject it, and likewise the opposite. Insha’Allah we’ll stop there for today, next week we’ll finish this second misconception and go onto the third and possibly the fourth. Wallahul A’lam! 

Kashf ash-Shubuhat fit-Tawhid #10 [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-2
• 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-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)