When judging whether ignorance is an excuse for
exemption from kuffr, one must consider the issue of
guidance/misguidance from Allah and His qadar (pre-destiny). Allah says:
وَالَّذِي قَدَّرَ فَهَدَىٰ
"And Who destined and (then) guided." [87:3]
وَكَانَ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ قَدَرًا مَّقْدُورًا
"And ever is the command of Allah a destiny decreed." [33:38]
Those
who judge ignorance as an excuse, do not take into consideration the
guidance/misguidance of Allah and His qadar for a given person. They
wrongly assume that everyone has the right to die upon guidance, while
Allah may will that such a person dies upon misguidance for reasons we
cannot comprehend.
قُلْ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُضِلُّ مَن يَشَاءُ وَيَهْدِي إِلَيْهِ مَنْ أَنَابَ
"Say, (O Muhammad), “Indeed, Allah leaves astray whom He wills and guides to Himself whoever turns back (to Him)." [13:27]
وَمَن يُرِدْ أَن يُضِلَّهُ يَجْعَلْ صَدْرَهُ ضَيِّقًا حَرَجًا كَأَنَّمَا يَصَّعَّدُ فِي السَّمَاءِ
"and whoever He wants to misguide – He makes his breast tight and constricted as though he were climbing into the sky." [6:125]
Sheikh ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Naasir al-Sa’di mentioned the following benefit in his book of thematic tafsir:
فائدة: ورد في القرآن آيات كثيرة فيها مضاعفة الحسنة بعشر أمثالها، وورد أيضا آيات أُخر فيها مضاعفة أكثر من ذلك، فما وجه ذلك ؟ ـ
A point of benefit: In the Qur’an, there are many Ayaat which mention
the multiplication of good deeds by ten, and there are also other Ayaat
which mention the multiplication by more than that, so what is the
explanation of that?
فيقال: أما مضاعفة الحسنة بعشر أمثالها فلا بد
منها في كل عمل صالح كما قال تعالى: { مَن جَاءَ بِالْحَسَنَةِ فَلَهُ
عَشْرُ أَمْثَالِهَا } [ الأنعام: 160 ]. ـ
One can respond: As
for the multiplication of good deeds by ten, then this must happen for
every righteous good deed, just as Allah said:
مَن جَاءَ بِالْحَسَنَةِ فَلَهُ عَشْرُ أَمْثَالِهَا
Whoever comes with a good deed will have ten times the like thereof [6:160]
وأما مضاعفة العمل أكثر من ذلك فله أسباب، إما متعلقة بنفس العامل، أو بالعمل ومزيته أو نتائجه وثمراته أو بزمانه أو مكانه. ـ
But as for the multiplication of deeds by more than that, then there
are certain causes for that – either something related to the doer
himself, or related to the deed being done and its merit, or the outcome
of the deeds and its fruits, or to its time or place.
فمن أعظم
أسباب مضاعفة العمل إذا حقق العبد في عمله الإخلاص للمعبود، والمتابعة
للرسول، فمضاعفة الأعمال تبع لما يقوم بقلب العامل من قوة الإخلاص وقوة
الإيمان.ـ
An estimated 85,000 children under the age of five
have starved to death over the last three years as a result of Yemen’s
civil war, a report from Save the Children has found, as the charity
urged an immediate ceasefire to prevent more loss of life.
The
figure is a conservative estimate based on UN data on severe acute
malnutrition, which the international body says has afflicted more than
1.3 million children since the conflict between Houthi rebels and the
Saudi-led coalition that seeks to restore Yemen’s exiled government
began in 2015.
About 14 million people – half of Yemen’s
population – are currently at risk of famine, largely because of Saudi
border blockades designed to weaken the Houthis, which have also
strangled civilian access to food, fuel, aid and commercial goods.
Fears
for Yemen’s civilian population have increased in recent weeks because
of an escalation in fighting around the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah,
through which about 80% of the country’s imports flow.
Even a
small amount of damage to the port’s facilities, and a delay in aid
deliveries, is likely to lead the UN to declare a widespread famine.
“I
am scared of the war and worried we won’t have food. It is
distressing,” said Suad, a mother to 13-month-old Nusair, whom Save the
Children is treating for severe acute malnutrition. “I can’t go to
sleep, it is torturing, and I am worried about my children. I couldn’t
live if any harm came to them.”
The life of this world is fleeting and is often
focused on materialism – it is so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind
of it all – but how does that affect our faith?
We all love this
life to some extent or another – our homes, our cars, and most of all
our family – but what we do not know is just how much of a corruption it
can be to our souls when we place so much importance on material things
in this life and loving the life of this world. Read on, what you will
find may change your entire outlook on how you live your life and what
is really important…
Imaam Ibn Al-Qayyim said:
Loving this life is the father of sins which corrupts the Muslim’s faith in different ways:
1.
Loving this life entails glorifying it, whereas Allah has despised it.
One of the greatest sins is glorifying what Allah Almighty has despised.
2.
Allah has cursed it, detested it, and poured scorn on it, with the
exception of the good things in it such as remembering Allah, seeking
knowledge, and spreading it. Whoever loves what Allah has cursed and
hated will expose himself/ herself to Allah’s wrath and detestation.
Last
week, we read the ninth and final Shubuha’ that the Imam, that the
author of this book mentioned and what this Shubuha’ was or essentially
the summary of what the Shubuha’ was, or this misconception, was that,
anyone who says La ilaha ila Allah, he can never...essentially he can
never leave Islam, he can never be considered non-Muslim, as long as he
says La ilaha ila Allah. Despite what he says, despite what he does,
even despite what he believes in his heart, as long as someone says on
their tongue, La ilaha ila Allah, that this is something that would
prevent them from ever leaving Islam, or prevent them from ever being
thought of as disbelievers or anything like this.
So, this was
what the author mentioned, and we finished reading it, so now just going
to add a bit of extra comments to it where some things are needed. So,
firstly, this Shubuha’ or this misconception, the author himself called
it, or he said that it’s the greatest misconception, or from all the
Shubuhat, it’s the greatest of them.
The reason for this is it’s
the most widespread misconception, it was in the time of the Salaf, or
the later Salaf it began, and it continued up until the time of the
author, and it even continues to our time today, and it’s the biggest
misconception when it comes to Islam and kufr. It’s the biggest
misconception when it comes to what’s called Musallam Iman, or the
reality of Iman. It’s the biggest misconception on this topic, because
people think or they read certain ahadith, such as when the Prophet
(saws) said,
“Whoever’s last words in the dunya is La ilaha ila Allah, that he’ll enter Jannah.”
“Whoever says La ilaha ila Allah sincerely from his heart, that he’ll enter Jannah,” and so on.
