How much questioning crosses the line in faith?

M.

[Silence]

Is.

[Silence]

Him.

[Silence]

Is.

[Silence]

I'd to start out this session tonight this latest installment of by mentioning something very important something that i believe is necessary to mention and that is that a lot of people know ibn al-qayyim but they really don't know ibn al-qayim rahimahullah they know ibn al-qayyim for some of his works the prophet's medicine al-ma'ad for those who are more more versed they know abnor for some of his treaties on the ailments of the heart and the correction of these of said ailments and they know ibn al-qayyim for other books such as madeira jessely and his book nuniya which is about six thousand verse long poem which at the very end he has a very in-depth vivid description of paradise which is very popular amongst people and has been translated into many languages and reviewed and memorized and explained and he has other books that many of us are aware of but there is a chasm in understanding who abn was allah with regards to his position and his time is one link of a chain of a group of scholars that swept the muslim world at that time and revived much of the the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in a time of darkness for the muslims when i say darkness i mean a time of darkness with regards to knowing their religion a time when the people of greek philosophy and roman philosophy and many logicians as they caught refer to themselves and many innovations had been introduced into the belief system of the muslim and so ibn al-qaeda is one of the great scholars that wrote many many many books refuting much of this and reviving the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam this being one of them but often times we find that many people wish to pluck ibn al-qaeda out from amongst the rest of his his colleagues and his peers of scholars during that time is inseparable from evan islam is inseparable the reason for that is that most of ibn tamiya's works are preserved and presented and explained and elaborated on by ibm rahimahullah when we look at ibn kayim's works we see that they revolve around the works of ibn tamiya and the best person that has explained the works and ideas of ibn taymiyyah was his student and he was his most dutiful and devout student so they are inseparable but there was a group of scholars at that time such as allah the great muhaddith ibn kathir's father-in-law likewise is likewise we have shem sadina zahabi who was a great muhaddith and these are groundbreaking scholars when i mean groundbreaking they are from a particular breed of scholars that are referred to in the books of philip and referred to in the books of tafsir as means that they study and research every topic to death until they absolutely reach the core end of it and are able to substantiate the position in unwavering terms these group of scholars are referred to as one of these types of people al-imam tabari the four imams as well they are considered likewise we have a group such as such as sheikh islamiyah ibn khayem even cathedral right and they were from all different schools of thoughts i mean even even cathedral right but they all followed the same path when it came to the issue of akida when it came to the issue of belief and to heed and innovation and that is that not just with regards to the worship of allah alone without any partners but how we understand the names and attributes of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and the names and attributes of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala are understood in the following way there are four principles mentioned by al-imam malik that i will share with you okay so.

[Silence]

Foreign.

[Silence]

And so the principle of ibn al-qayyim of eventemia the principle of the scot these scholars if you read it right the principle is as follows with regards to the names and attributes of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with regards to the actions of allah they follow thee methodology and the understanding of the companions of the prophet salallahu it's not enough to merely believe in the quran and sunnah you have to believe in the quran in sunnah in the way that allah intended that you believe in the quran in sunnah right he said amen said i believe in allah and whatever has come to us from allah in the way that allah intended that i believe in it and i believe in the messenger of allah and i believe all of that which has come to us from the messenger of allah in the way that the messenger of allah intended and so it's not enough for a person to merely believe in the quran in sunnah there are many interpretations to the quran in sunnah correct we see that you can you can literally find anything you want in the quran in sunnah and understand them any way you want but there's only one correct understanding right what is that understanding is.

[Silence]

So how is it that a person understands the quran and sunnah there are many interpretations to the quran in sunnah we understand the quran in sunnah as allah subhanahu wa ta'ala instructed when he said in surat al-baqarah if they believe meaning the non-muslims if they believe in that which you all have believed in the way that you all have believed then they will become guided speaking about who speaking about the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and his companions so in order for us to become guided we have to believe in the way that the messenger and his companions believed right and we stopped where they stopped we stopped where they where they stopped we don't go past that and so this kind of reminds me of a statement of alibi talib.

[Silence]

Yes and so this reminds us of a statement when he said all of the knowledge that we have been given is really just a drop one drop that's it that's all we've been given but the ignorant people they have expanded this drop right they have expanded this drop what does that mean they have expanded this drop when somebody who is not qualified to speak on a matter of the quran in sunnah speaks and interprets the quran and sunnah in his own way now there has to be an element of research and review and refutation in order to right that wrong and so books become more and more voluminous knowledge becomes more and more we have to have more debates more issues come up and so knowledge is not as accessible anymore as it once was there is more information than is actually required so what is the understanding of imam malik a man came to imam malik and he asked him he said rose above the throne how did he rise above the throne he rose above the throne as allah tells us in the quran correct this man doesn't does is not suffice with that he wants to know how he rose above the throne so imam malik he said rising above the throne this statement el istiwe that action is known what it means its definition its diction that diction is understood when we say it's rose above the throne it's clear what is meant by that in linguistically he said but how he rose above the throne is unfathomable something that the human being cannot cannot fathom and belief in that concept that fact is obligatory because it is in the quran in no uncertain terms and asking about it asking about how allah rose above the throne is a type of innovation why is it an innovation because the companions did not ask that question if we look in the quran we see that that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was asked many questions he was even asked about menstruation correct in surah a man having relations with his wife during her menstrual cycle they even asked about that but never in the quran do you find that they ask questions about how allah's names or how allah's attributes are never why because they understood the greatness of allah and that's what we have been given in the quran in sunnah is the limit of what our minds can fathom what we have been given i will repeat that what we have been given of knowledge about allah in the quran in sunnah is the limit in this world of what our minds can fathom about allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and his names and attributes that is all that we need in order to reach allah and reach our full potential no more knowledge is necessary to reach our full potential we have not left out anything that is necessary from the book allah subhanahu wa says so we are sufficed with what allah has told us about himself we don't start asking questions about how allah does what he does okay this is not part of our belief system when we start to ask these questions and when we start to look for their answers and someone who is untrained in the quran and sunnah begins to formulate and postulate hypotheses on the answers to these questions this is where innovation comes from right so when we think about plato aristotle many of these philosophers when you read their books of philosophy you see that they have maybe an ounce of truth and a pound of half truths and misguidance because they were not prophets they were trying to reach and understand the reality of this world and who allah is and why we are through through logic alone and the unbridled mind is a dangerous place it's a very dangerous place right and so even the truths that are found in philosophy they are truths that are reached and arrived at conclusions that are arrived at in the most difficult way possible it's if you said i want you to touch your ear so you you touch your ear this now instead of just touching your ear like this you touch it the long way so even the truths that are found in these works of these philosophers these greeks and romans and in in hindu and and so forth these philosophers the the small amount of truth that was found in their works is reached and arrived at in the most difficult way possible there are aspects of philosophy that are so hard to understand and comprehend that some of the most intelligent people are unable to understand it because it is full of rhetoric and sophistry right and so the point here is that we do not go beyond the quran and sunnah this is the way of the companions of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and this is the revival that took place in the time of ibn al-qaeda and so if we want to separate ibn al-qayyam from ibn taymiyyah you cannot do that and that's something that a lot of people try to do because even tell me allah was more blunt and he was more he was more blunt and more straightforward and more aggressive in his approach to debating these issues and he suffered dearly because of that approach he was put in jail and he died in jail actually he was beat he was whipped he was his books were bought and purchased by people just to burn them in his time because they didn't have printing presses now you know if you take this book and burn it we have a million other copies no you he would write it by hand and then other people would have to write it again by hand so there's only a dozen copies they would try to gather all those copies and burn them just to get rid of them this is what ibn al-qaeda evan taimiya endured and ibrahim as well and even kathie as well many people don't know that right so we don't go beyond the quran and sunnah we don't ask questions that the companions didn't ask so for example there's a narration in sahih muslim in which the prophet salallahu said in allah.

[Silence]

So there's a narration for instance in sahih muslim in which the prophet salallahu wasallam says allah allah descends every last third of the night to the lower heaven of the dunya and he says is there anyone asking me so that i may give him is there anyone who is seeking my forgiveness that i may forgive him is there anyone supplicating to me that i may answer his supplication this narration is authentic and collected by imam muslim now do we ask how does allah descend no we say dissension is understood what it means linguistically and how he descends is unfathomable the fact that you would ask that question articulates that you do not understand the greatness of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the fact that you would question how allah does what he does this articulates that you have not understood the grandeur of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala because one who has understood the greatness and grandeur of allah will not ask these questions because he understands that allah is beyond the realm of understanding how he is what is how how is when we take something that we know and we compare something else to it how are you going to do that with allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he is absolutely incomparable to anything in every single way.

[Arabic recitation]

He has no beginning he has no end he knows everything he is the one he has no one who has brought him into existence subhanahu wa'ta'ala he brings no one else similar to him into existence there is none him in any way right and so what this means is that if we recite allah and we understand this verse properly these verses we will never ask silly questions like this so a person would say well wait a minute the earth is round and the last third of the night is constantly moving and so how is it that allah that means that this is a problem for human beings this is not a problem for allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala right this is a problem this is an issue for the creation this is not an issue for the creator we understand that yes allah descends and he is there to to be asked so what do we understand from this get up in the last third of the night and make dua that's it that's what we understand we don't go beyond that and if you want to rest all of your beliefs on how how how you will be very weak in belief because the mind is not it has limits and there are issues which are super irrational they are beyond the realm of the limitations of the human mind so we have to understand these issues with regards to with regards to the tahiti of allah this is all an explanation and i've taken this as an opportunity to in the past four lectures or so as an opportunity to explain and describe the talheed of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala we've spoken about shirk we've spoken about tawheed we've spoken about the types of tohit we've spoken about the types of shirk we've spoken about major and minor shirk major and minor fulham major and minor fusuok etc we've spoken about all of these things and this now is kind of a crown on all of that the names and attributes of allah and the actions of allah how we are to understand these names and attributes of allah we do not ever go past what is given to us in the quran in sunnah this doesn't mean that we don't ask about the meanings right if you don't understand the meaning of something then that is something to ask about but if you are asking about how if you are asking about the essence of how allah does what he does that is that is a red line you don't cross that line that goes back to amen we believe in it because it is all come to us from allah subhanahu wa so i will share with you a verse from the quran in and i hope that everyone tonight has understood what we have spoken about with regards to how we receive the names and attributes of allah how do we receive the names and attributes of allah with pure belief right if we don't understand the meaning yani is.

[Silence]

So for example with regards to the meaning yes we ask about the meaning if you don't understand the meaning of something by all means please ask about it but do not ask about the interpretation or the the how of these actions of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala do not ask those questions because those questions are unfathomable to you anyways and if i say to you that allah wa'ta'ala created the heavens and the earth he created something from nothing right and this something that he created from nothing is not a part of him how are you going to understand how that occurred that is an impossibility this is what we call super irrational right the mind cannot fathom such a thing and to try to find answers for this thing is is is exactly how a person will go astray with regards to the names and attributes of allah subhanahu wa because allah began his book by saying those who believe in the unseen allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala is the epitome of the unseen we do not understand how allah subhanahu we understand that he is but we do not understand how he is and so if we want to ask about the meaning of something by all means ask you hear the name of allah what is the difference between and they have the same root word and the similar etymology yet what is the difference between them ask this question this is a very good question ask what is the meaning of the name of allah al-muhamen what is the meaning of the name of allah al-jabbar al-mu'min what does this mean ask those questions yes but do not ask how does allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala know everything how does allah rise above the throne how does allah descend to thee lower heaven how does do allah ask these questions these questions are innovative in nature and they will only lead you to misguidance the prophet salallahu.

[Silence]

On.

[Silence]

Foreign.