Why Muslim Unity Requires Understanding Decree

What we have mentioned from the words of ibn al-qaeda to allah regarding the decree of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and as a matter of fact he has an entire book dedicated to the issue of decree it's called shifa and this book it's a very dense book it's a very well written book but complex nonetheless given the subject matter and that is regarding the decree of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala regarding the stages and levels of the decree the qadhar of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala of allah subhanahu wa and this issue of al-qaeda is as we've mentioned before very complicated issue it's not an issue that is to be taken lightly and it's not an issue that is to be taken for granted that a person just assume that he understands what decree is and assume that he or she knows what the decree of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala entails it is one of the pillars of faith and oftentimes these things which are common knowledge to muslims or are supposed to be common knowledge to muslims well that knowledge is not so common a lot of times there are a lot of inconsistencies with regards to the muslim belief and this has a lot to do with the collapse of the muslim empire many years ago and it has a lot to do with the laxness in with regards to who is permitted to speak and who is permitted to teach the religion of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala it's also connected very deeply to the disconnect between the different and various muslim countries the muslim empire is one nation allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala had decreed it to be this way that this nation of yours shall be one nation and i am your lord so worship me and the issue that occurred is that when the muslim empire no longer had a central no longer had a center to it and we were given these countries that everybody is from not that we don't have our identities before but these countries and these borders that were given to us by foreign nations and people that are not muslim these things created in our minds differences between one another that do not exist differences that should not exist between muslims and so the jordanian views the palestinian as different than himself the palestinian views himself different than the syrian who views himself different than the lebanese who views himself different than the egyptian who views himself different than the libyan etc etc these boundaries were not given to us by allah and his messengers these are things that were given to us by foreign nations by people that did not have our best interest at heart and so as time went on and it went and it became this is my land and this is your land this is my passport and this is your passport and this is my nationality and this is your nationality this is my country and this is your country the muslim mind began to scatter and it began to change and so in the last 200 years we've seen a lot of this happen a lot and it runs much deeper than we can think and we can imagine and one of the main things that this has done is that each country has its own scholars now and each country has its own beliefs and each country has its own thoughts and ideas and these thoughts and ideas and countries are not usually run by the scholars true scholars they are usually run by the government of that particular country and the government of that particular country is not always a government that is of the people and for the people it's usually quite the opposite and so it's important for us to understand these differences to understand why it is that we have differed so much as muslims as muslims we are all one we have our our our identities as human beings but as muslims we are all the same there is no one higher than anyone else we don't have a pope we don't have a a religious hierarchy where they decree things and it goes downward it doesn't work that as muslims every muslim is as good as his worship is to allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala as muslims there is total equality in that sense there is a difference between a leader and a follower there's a difference between a scholar and a layman there's a difference between someone older and younger there's a difference between a criminal and a law abiding person we're not speaking about blind absolute equality we're speaking about equality in the spiritual sense spiritual equality spiritually we are all the same there's no difference between us and as muslims there's no difference between us and this is what something hajj is supposed to capture this is something salah is supposed to capture it captures that we all pray to the same direction we all pray the same prayer we all go to the same place to make hajj etc now what does this have to do with the decree of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala well what it has a lot to do with it is that when we come to these classes for instance or those of us who listen online the avid more astute listeners online they will learn a lot of new things they'll learn things and they'll say well i've never heard of that i've and that's that's kind of the point isn't it i mean if every time you came here you heard something you already knew then you're not really learning anything the position of a teacher is to teach is to remind what you have forgotten to explain what you already have what you have misunderstood and to teach you new information that you did not know prior and so when it comes to the five pillars of islam right the shahada of muhammad rasool allah the establishment of prayer the giving zakah fasting ramadan when it comes to these things we all agree that these are the five pillars of islam when it comes to the the pillars of iman al-imanu billah and his angels and his books revelations and his prophets and messengers and the day of resurrection and the decree we all agree that there are six pillars of amen but the problem is is that when we start to discuss the details of these things we start to differ with one another on things that are not open to discussion they're not open to debate there are issues that the scholars of islam have differed on historically even the companions may have differed on minutia of prayer or minutia of fasting or minutia of zakah but they have never differed on what la.

[Arabic recitation]

And they've never differed on what implicates they've never differed on the implications of muhammad rasulullah they've never differed on the implications of the names and attributes of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala they've never differentiate different they've never had differences with regards to who the angels are or with regards to what the revelations of allah subhanahu ta'ala are or the nature of those revelations or what those revelations revolve around and one of these things is the issue of the issue of decree the issue of al-qaeda this is something that has been highly debated and it's been highly debated because as even allah said the origin of every innovation is someone who is not qualified speaking about something they are unqualified to speak about that is where every innovation comes from us this is the origin of all ignorance and all innovation and so yes it happened in the time of the companions that a group of people began to emerge and come up with very very fantastic ideas when i say fantastic i mean it in the negative sense with regards to the decree of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and things got so bad that some groups even believe that allah did not even know that we exist this is this is true islam is.

[Silence]

You know people had gone so far with this slippery slope and when we speak about slippery slope slippery slope is a term that is used in debate which means if this is the case then this must be the case and if this is the case then this must be the case and you continue down that slippery slope until you end up in a place that is absolutely incorrect absolutely wrong why because the premise is wrong in the first place and so what does that ancient difference have to do with the separation of the muslim ummah today what do those two things have to do with each other the things that they have to do with each other is that when there was a centralized muslim empire and there was a khalifa and there was regulations if a person wishes to be a scholar there is an apprenticeship in order to become a scholar you have to go through certain training you have to be known as a scholar you have to be qualified as a scholar right when that centralized leadership was gone everybody now had free reign to do whatever they wanted to do and to say whatever they wanted to say and so essentially what ended up happening is all of the old garbage the things that the scholars of islam put into the garbage dump and said these ideas are obviously not of ours these are islam and islam now that there are no there is no regulation there is no centralized islamic empire there is no regulations of who can say what there are no ramifications there are no consequences anybody can show up now especially in our time i mean think about it anybody can put on a nice suit and jacket and put on a pen and a glasses and a fancy big hat and sit down and speak very nice and everybody here will become the next islam of our instagram era this is the time that we live in unfortunately right it's very very easy for imposters now to make their way into the minds and hearts of the people and so what ended up happening is those things which were in the garbage dump before they started to pull out that garbage and put it back into people's hearts and so now we differ.

[Silence]

It's a free-for-all anybody can say anything now and so when we talk about the issue of decree we are speaking about decree as understood by the prophet muhammad we are not speaking about decree as a as understood by such and such scholar or such and such individual this is not what we are speaking about when we speak about the issue of decree the book of ibm allah when we are speaking about these things and in that book he is speaking about decree al-qaeda al-qaeda he's speaking about it in the way that the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam and his companions understood it and that's important for us to understand that we have to understand the religion of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not just according to the quran and sunnah but we have to understand the quran and sunnah in the way that the companions understood it because to merely i mean the way that the quran is is is spoken by allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala the way that the sunnah is if you are clever enough you can find whatever you want in the quran you can make it say whatever you want it to say based on what you choose right issue is not to just understand the quran it's not just to read it and use it as evidence it's not just to understand the sunnah it's to understand the quran and sunnah in the proper way what is the proper way the proper way is the way that the companions understood it because they were the ones who were under the thumb of the prophet salallahu he was the one watching them he was the one who raised them he was the one who reared them and cultivated them he taught them himself and allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made their belief the measuring and the yardstick of proper belief he says.

[Silence]

He said in surat al-baqarah if they the non-muslims believe in what you all have believed when this verse was revealed allah was speaking to the companions he was saying what you all have believed meaning you the companions you the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam was the first chapter of the quran to be revealed in medina correct and so we're speaking about the muhajireen and the ansar he said so if they believe those who are not muslim in what you all have believed then indeed they have become guided what's the opposite meaning of that if we were to flip that into a negating statement if they do not believe in what you all have believed then they have become disc misguided right so when we say belief in allah we're speaking about belief in allah in the way that allah intended when we're speaking about belief in the messenger of allah we're speaking about belief in the messenger of allah in the way that he has intended to.

[Silence]

This statement this statement should be at the core at the heart of every muslim this is this is how we are to look at the quran in sunnah he said i have believed in allah and what has come to me and what has come to us from allah in the way that allah intended and i have believed in the messenger of allah and all that has come to us from the messenger of allah in the way that the messenger of allah intended and if we had the time and if this weren't our topic we could bring dozens of verses of the quran that could show you how people have understood the quran understood the sunnah but understood it in a way that allah did not intend right i'll give one very very quick example of this one example of this is that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions a certain ruling for example let's say the cutting of the hand of the thief right in the arabic language is all the way from here to the shoulder so where are we supposed to make this cut at we don't know unless we look at the sun now we don't know unless we look at how the companions did it allah there was a group that came after who disregarded the sunnah disregarded what the companions used to do and say and understand and they used to cut off a person's hand all the way from his from his armpit all the way from the shoulder they would cut off his hand cut off his entire arm why because of a discrepancy in the arabic language foreign.

[Silence]

And the topic is very lengthy mentions to us almost as a preface at the beginning of his book zad al-ma'ad which we are reading he says that the scholars of islam are the stars the scholars of islam are the stars in the sky he said if the kaaba is right in front of you you don't need to look to the stars to see where the kaaba is because it's right there you can see it it's clear correct for example when allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says and your lord is one right we don't need a scholar to come and tell us yes allah is one the kaaba is there we see it we don't need the stars to tell us that he said but if you are cannot see the kaaba if you cannot see where it is and have no idea which direction it is you look to the stars and they will guide you to the direction of the qibla he said allah.

[Silence]

He said the scholars are the stars when the kaaba is right in front of you you look right at it and you pray but if you cannot see the kaaba and you don't know which direction it is at that point we need the scholars we need the stars to guide us to where it is for those things and so the issue of as we've mentioned last week the issue of qatar and qatar are four stages in order for us to understand what al-qaeda is you know in order for us to understand the decree of allah it is four levels four stages these four levels four things when they are put together in the heart of the believer this person has properly believed in the decree of allah so when jibreel.

[Silence]

And that you believe in decree the good of it and the bad of it what we have to understand here is these four levels when we put them together in the order that we are going to put them together this is what he intended when he made that statement sallallahu alaihi last week we spoke about the first level of decree the first level is the second thing that we spoke about last week was subhanahu.

[Silence]

So the first thing is knowledge that allah always knew the second is that he documented and wrote that knowledge in what is called the preserved tablet and it's also referred to as right this is all a reference to the same thing the preserved tablet we spoke about those two things in great detail last week and the week before we're going to finish up the last two tonight inshallah ta'ala the third level subhanahu he the third thing we're going to understand tonight is the will of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the will of allah so he knows all that is to be he wrote all of this down in the preserved tablet and thirdly he willed for what is in that tablet to come to fruition he willed what is in that tablet to come to be to happen to occur and that that does not happen without allah subhanahu wa ta'ala having decreed it correct nothing happens without allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala allowing it to happen nothing can occur without allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala not only allowing it but willing it to occur he is the only he is the only creator and he is the only one whose will is absolute meaning when allah decrees that something will occur it will occur no matter what and this is the meaning of the statement of the prophet salallahu.

[Silence]

This is what we call freak accidents right that no amount of preparation and fortitude can stop what allah has willed happen and what allah wills occur it doesn't mean that we don't try to stop something before it happens that's not what we're talking about let me give you an example right a good example is a person wears a bulletproof vest okay they wear this vest and this vest the idea of the vest is that if a bullet hits it it will stop the bullet from penetrating the body armor is something that the prophets and messengers brought to humanity who was the first person to create armor for battle man allah that's a real question for those who are present isn't it right so a person wears this armor to protect him but the person gets shot in the exact perfect place where that armor was weak and the bullet goes through what do we say there is no amount of preparation and fortitude that can stop the will of allah subhanahu when allah wills for something to happen it will happen regardless of what we do about it i'll give another example when we have stairs stairs are scary things the person could fall down the stairs they could get very hurt right so what do we do we put all kinds of sandpaper tape on it and things that when you step on it it'll grab your foot so that you don't fall and you can hold your footing right does that mean that nobody ever is going to ever fall on stairs no you're going to fall people will fall no matter what you do even if all of the ummah got together and held this person and walked him down the stairs they're going to fall because allah decreed it surprised right this is sometimes what we refer to in english as freak accidents the things lined up just perfectly for this thing to happen why because allah willed for it to happen and that is one of the things that sets us different sets us aside from the muslims and the non-muslims the people of belief in allah and the people who do not believe in allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as he has intended in his qadah there is a difference why because how do we know the will of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this is the question for me to pick up this cup right now how did we know that allah willed for this to happen right how did we know that allah willed that we know that allah will that because i did it and it happened but before it happened did we know that it was allah's will or not we didn't know that allah.

[Silence]

This is the issue that a lot of people misunderstand that we'd to get to the crux of that we'd to understand tonight and that is that when we speak about the will of allah the will of allah will come to pass there is no way that it can be stopped there is nothing that can stop the will of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala if a person is meant to die he will die if a person is meant to live he will live if a person is meant to feel pain he will feel pain this is the decree of allah but here's the catch and here's where people get confused and that is that we do not know what the will of allah is until after it happens before that we don't know that it's the will of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala right and i gave an example of that just now for me to move this microphone right here we all agree that that was the will of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala but before i did it did we know that it was the it was the will of allah we didn't know we only knew it was the will of allah after it happened right and so we have an attitude towards bad things that occur and good things for that matter we have a different attitude before they happen as opposed to after they happen this is a lesson that so many of us need to learn and it's not a lesson that we need to learn just you know lip service just you know i understand it i'm i can speak fancy and no we need to really believe it in the depths of our hearts we have to believe this lesson that before something happens we don't know if it's the decree of allah so we try our best to make it what we want it to be but after it happens that is final it is the decree of allah we never go back and say if i had been there if i had done if i had only said if i had only been that is not something which is up to us this is something that is up to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we understand that concept if we understand that concept we will understand a few narrations that i will mention to you now is.

[Silence]

In the narration of collected by lima muslim he said the strong believer is more beloved and closer and better to allah than the weak one yet there is good in both there is good in all of them he says seek aid in allah and do not ever give up in doing the things that you know that you should be doing and doing the right thing don't ever give up and seek aid in allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala in that he says and if in that process you are afflicted with something that does not go the way that you planned or something that is bad do not say to yourself if only i had done such and such the outcome would have been different because if only in this context opens the door and we will end with this narration tonight inshaallah he says to ibn abbas young boy i am going to teach you some very wise words he says he says young boy be aware of allah and allah will be aware of you ta'amura get to know allah in your times of ease and in your times of hardship he will be there for you and you will find him there he says and know that whatever has missed you was never meant to hit you and whatever had hit you or afflicted you was never meant to miss you it could have never been any other way keep this in mind in your life he says.

[Silence]

And know that if all of the creation were to collaborate to benefit you with something they could never benefit you with anything that allah has not already written for you so it has come to you from allah and know that if all of the creation were to collaborate in order to harm you with something they could never do so with and they could never harm you with anything that allah has not already written to be upon you he said and no that the ease of the crisis comes with the crisis and that victory comes with patience and that with hardship comes ease this is enough for tonight and next week inshaallah we will continue and finish hopefully we will try to finish what we have spoken about with regards to the decree of allah taken from zed and also taken from allah thank you for your listening barack hello people.