Can We Understand What Allah Knows?

Continuing with what we had begun last last week with regards to dealing with the decree of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala it's a subject that we all need to take into perspective and need to spend much time can contemplating because the decree of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala is one of the six pillars of iman the six pillars of faith and also in the narration of abdullah.

[Silence]

O muhammad tell me about iman and he came to him in the form of a man with extremely black hair and very white clothing who was not from the village nor was he a traveler narration that we many of us are familiar with and so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam responded.

[Silence]

Here he said iman is to believe in allah to believe in the books the angels the books of allah to believe in the messengers and prophets of allah to believe in the last day which is the day of resurrection he then repeated the he said and also that you believe in the decree of allah both good and bad of it so this informs us this articulates to us that belief in decree is not only something which is an article of faith and a pillar of faith and iman and belief but it's also something that is crucial for an individual to believe in and to try to understand now there are aspects of decree that we will never understand because we are human beings and we have limitations just there are aspects of the day of resurrection that we will never understand there are aspects of the angels that we will never understand etc what kind of aspects are we speaking about well if i told you there is a place where a person will burn forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and it will never end it will always get worse and worse and worse and worse and every time a person's skin and tendons are burned away they are replenished only to be burned and singed again this is something that we understand the meaning of but we can't really comprehend what that means because we we have no equivalent of it in our physical world to be able to to contrast it with the same goes with paradise if i told you that there is a place where no matter how much a person eats they will never gain any weight and every time they eat it tastes better than the time they ate before and every time they take a fruit off of a tree another fruit that looks exactly it will reappear but will taste different what does that mean i mean we understand the meaning of it but we don't we don't really comprehend what that exactly understand what that means not until we experience it that's the only way and when it comes to the decree of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala some of the taber in excuse me some of the taberean of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam of the companions they had they had said that decree there is an element of it that is the secret of allah it's something that is reserved only for allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to completely understand if we look at something the soul the human soul every one of us has a soul what is the difference between the body before the soul is put into it and after the soul is taken out of it or after the soul is put into it the body is all the same the actual tendons and blood and organs and everything are functioning exactly the same what is this soul that if it is present if there is life and if it is absent there is decay we have no idea we don't know and they ask you about the soul say the soul is from the soul issues and affairs of my lord allah we don't understand really what that is how it works we don't understand what it is about the soul that gives the body life and what it is about its absence that gives about its absence that gives the body decay we don't know and that's something that we all have that's something that i have and you have and everyone who is alive has a soul yet even though we all have a soul we do not understand it we do not know what it is we don't know what it looks like and we don't know how it functions and you know popular culture teaches us all kinds of things about the soul we see this a lot in in movies and so forth you know when a person dies his soul comes out of his body and he starts walking around he starts floating through walls and you know discussing things with other people and moving things around and a person may see a ghost or some kind of jinn in a building and say well you know 50 years ago someone died here and the soul is still dwelling around as if the soul has nothing better to do than to just walk around in this hotel or in this building all all of eternity these things are all stipulation they are all presuppositions that the soul has some kind of abilities that we don't understand the soul is not this when we look to the sun of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam we see that the soul needs someone to put it into the body it needs someone to take it out of the body it needs someone to transport it to allah it needs someone to transport it to the year after where is this idea that souls are roaming around and walking through walls and so forth and so the important part and the important point that we are taking from all of this is that the decree of allah is something that is part of our faith we have to believe in it and we have to try to understand as much of it as we can but in trying to understand the decree of allah we have to also acknowledge our limitations as human beings and that's why allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala begins the first the first description of the people of paradise the first description of the people who will be saved from fire the first people that allah mentions in the quran that will be spared from the hellfire and protected what is their first description he says the ones who believe in the unseen those who believe in the unseen those things which are unseen un unrecognized by the human being senses something things that are super irrational we have things that are rational we have things that are super irrational that are above our understanding that we will never understand if i told you that allah wa ta'ala has no beginning and he has no end and he has always been exactly perfect and has never gained any one thing from his creation what does that mean to us this is something this is super super irrational this is above our level of comprehension as human beings we know what the meanings are but we don't know what the reality is and this is what the scholars refer to the scholars of islam they tell us that this is the difference between meanings and descriptions and the actual the actual being of something that we may understand the meaning but we may not understand what the actual being is what it actually is and the names and attributes of allah are a perfect example of that we understand what al qaeda means we understand what it means when allah says and then he then this articulates time to us he then rose above his throne what does that mean exactly rose above his throne well we understand what that means in our language but we don't understand how he did that subhana how do we understand that right.

[Silence]

And so when we say allah rose above his throne we say he rose above his throne in a way which is in accordance and in a way which is appropriate to his majesty subhanahu wata'ala we understand the meaning of rose above his throne but we do not understand how he rose above his throne this is a question that does not that does not deserve to be asked with regards to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because it's not something that we are able to comprehend it is beyond our comprehension it is something which is supra rational and this is and this is an important important important principle of islam that if you want to be taken by islam to the furthest if you want the quran to take your heart and turn it into the purest of gold you have to have faith what does that faith mean it means take me where you will even if i don't understand what it is and this is one of the reasons why we have failed in our recent years as an ummah is because one of our conditions is that i have to understand everything but we don't practice that in the real world i mean how many of us really knows how a car works a vehicle how it works how many of us really know how it works i mean we have some vague idea maybe some of us who are more mechanically inclined but we don't we don't really know how it works but we believe in it don't we and we use it and when we get into it and we turn the key we have faith that it's going to turn on we drive it around and we rely on it and we drive thousands of miles and travel right and this is what allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us he says they believe in that which is unseen that which is beyond their comprehension that which is beyond their senses they believe in the angels angels a creation of light they are neither male nor are they female what would what what does that mean exactly well we don't have to know what that means in order to benefit from the book of allah subhana wa and so those who are constantly looking for explanation usually are ones who are of weaker and lesser faith than those who merely believe and proceed this is something that's important for us to understand now a question arises what is that question even a scholar even a genius scholar even a scholar who has been given at hikma because you know scholars are human beings and they are on different levels there are people who are considered scholars and then there are people who are considered you know higher level scholars to the point that they are imams of their era and there are people that are scholars of the entire ummah correct now does every single scholar understand every single thing about the quran no not necessarily there are aspects that may be beyond that scholars understanding no matter how intelligent or knowledgeable he may be this doesn't mean that there are parts of the quran we don't understand as an ummah as a whole all of us together all of our scholars together collectively yes we understand the entire quran but it doesn't mean that every single person understands every single thing in the quran there are parts of it that are a mystery to some right and so allah speaks about this in surat ali imran.

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He says subhanahu ta'ala and those who are most firmly grounded in iman and understanding those who are most firmly grounded in knowledge when they are faced with something of the revelation of allah that they do not understand their response to it is what we believe in it all of it is from allah i'm not sure exactly what this verse means i'm not sure exactly what this thing means but i believe in it because i know who it came from that's it allah referred to this kind of attitude as what these are the people who are most grounded in knowledge and as for the individual who has the attitude that he can understand everything has the attitude that the quran is under his thumb and that he can understand it as soon as he reads it and if he can't understand it that no one can this individual will go through a lot of suffering in his life and this is not just for the quran but this is also for the actions of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when we speak about decree when we speak about al-qaeda we are speaking about the actions of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala that's what we are essentially speaking about that you believe in the decree of allah the predestination of allah the destiny that allah has written out the good of it and the bad of it you have to believe in it that it's from allah you have to believe in its existence and you have to you have to accept it and part of the decree of allah is understanding the human being's free will right the fact that i can do something and i have the choice to move this or not move it yet the fact that i did move it is part of allah's decree that is what we're speaking about and that is something that many many many people have gone astray and misunderstood why have they misunderstood it because they were unable to understand the harmonization the harmony they were unable to understand the harmony between the free will of the human being to do what he chooses and the decree of allah and the destiny that allah has written for the human being and this is what we were speaking about last week we're going to continue that topic tonight and we are going to finish it inshaallah tonight and then we will continue next week inshaallah with zad al-mahd of course a small announcement to those who are present and those who are with us on the live stream that you will you will have noticed that we started half an hour later than usual and that time will probably change again because right now we had a shift in the daylight saving time and the days are now becoming longer and longer also our normal schedule will be disrupted by the month of ramadan because obviously in ramadan different things are done so watch out for all of those announcements and keep those things in mind insha'allah we started today at 7 30 i believe we started at 7 31 or something and that may be subject to change even as soon as next week we're not sure so just make sure that you follow us on facebook and you know all these other places that we announce these things in order that you can continue to be updated last week we spoke about in order for an individual to understand the decree of allah and to properly believe in the decree of allah they must they must believe in four things okay so al-qaeda the decree of allah when we look through the quran we look through the sunnah we see that the qatar has four stages to it four levels four things that occur in order for something to become part of allah's decree okay the first is the eternal knowledge of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the eternal knowledge of allah subhanahu.

[Arabic recitation]

And allah subhanahu wa ta'ala khanna.

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With the first level what is the first level the first level is belief in the knowledge of allah the perfect knowledge of the perfect level of the perfect knowledge of allah what does that mean means that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows all that was and all that is to be and all that is and all that would have been had things been subhanahu italy and that this knowledge of his is intrinsic it is something which is inherently a part of allah it is not something that adds with time nor is it something which depletes it's not something that he earns from outside of himself allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has always known and will always know and this is one of the intrinsic attributes of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and this is why this is one of his names the most knowledgeable the one who knows all things the one who knows all this knowledge of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not something which which is increased or depleted ever what did musa describe allah's knowledge as when firaoun asked him foreign when firaoun asked him you claim you're a prophet and you claim that people are supposed to be worshipping allah alone this is what pharaoh is telling musa then what about all the other past generations musa saddam did not judge the past generations he did not say they're all going to hell and he did not say they're all excused rather he said their knowledge lies with my lord which is documented in a book a book meaning elohim the preserved tablet of allah then he described allah's knowledge and said my lord is neither unaware nor does he forget these are the two things that plague the human being's knowledge correct so for example myself if i have a piece of knowledge before that i was ignorant of it correct and after that i am prone to forget that piece of knowledge right so my knowledge is incomplete in three ways it's incomplete in its beginning because it started with ignorance it's incomplete in its end because it's followed by forgetfulness and confusion and it's incomplete in itself because i don't know something absolutely one completely nobody does no human being completely absolutely something right and so this is the the key difference between the knowledge of allah and the knowledge of the human being the knowledge of the human being starts with ignorance is preceded by ignorance is followed by forgetfulness and is plagued with confusion and imperfection whilst the knowledge of allah it has no beginning it was not preceded by ignorance he always knew and it is not followed by ignorance or forgetfulness or or confusion and the knowledge of allah in itself is perfect and absolute that he knows everything there is to possibly know about every single thing and he even has perfect knowledge of those things that don't exist had they existed meaning if i were not born me ali if i were not born what would the ramifications have been what smiles would not have been there what tears would not have been shed what people there would have been an effect correct allah knows that as well and take that to every single thing that exists this is the knowledge of allah that we are my throat is very raspy tonight i apologize for that say i blame it on the chicago weather it's you don't know what to do you know if you you don't know if you should wear shorts or wear a jacket you know you you wake up wearing shorts and you go to sleep wearing a jacket so i don't know when we speak about the knowledge of allah the first stage and level of understanding the decree of allah that is the first level the first level is the knowledge of allah subhanahu what is the second level when it comes to understanding the decree of allah now when we say understanding the decree of allah it's the same thing that when we say tafsir or understanding the quran it's the words of allah we understand it as much as humanly possible as much as it is possible for a human being to understand the words of god that doesn't mean that it's perfect doesn't mean that we are but these are what the scholars of islam have mentioned that are absolute levels and stages of belief in allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's decree and so the second stage level when it comes to the decree of allah subhanahu ta'ala belief in allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's it is what the scholars refer to as el-kitab al-kitab what is al-kitab it is writing what allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has written what do we mean by written we don't mean it in a metaphorical sense we mean it in a literal sense that this glass of water right here was written by allah just as it was known to be the amount that is in it every movement of every molecule inside of it was also written by allah subhanahu wa ta'ala where was it written in the preserved tablet allah mentions throughout the quran we mentioned it in the verse of.

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And with him lies the mother and reference of all the book of decree right it's mentioned throughout the quran this is called the level of writing what does that mean the level of writing it means that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala documented and wrote not he wrote subhana ta'ala everything that would come to pass with regards to this creation here us every thought that you have every hair that grows every movement of a blood cell every time your heart makes a beat every thought that passes through your mind every piece of pain every signal that your nerves will give all of this has been written by allah subhanahu wa ta'ala now the narration for this is a narration collected by imam ahmed rahimahullah.

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M.

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Foreign so in this narration of imam ahmed some individuals came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam from yemen and they said we came to ask you about the beginnings of this universe this creation here and he said at the very beginning there was a law and there was nothing else and he created the pen and he said to the pen right and the pen said what shall i write allah then said to the pen write all that is to be until the day of resurrection now where did the pen get this knowledge from from allah from the first level of decree we just spoke about he said and from that moment on the pen continued to write all that is to be and that was 50 000 years before the first creation of the heavens and the earth fifty thousand years what kind of years were those are they our years fifty thousand of our years.

[Arabic recitation]

It's a difference of opinion amongst the scholars.

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And so 50 000 years we don't know what that really means because it's a difference of opinion amongst the scholars is it years how we count years or years the years of allah we don't know in naomi he said a day with your lord is is equivalent to a thousand of your years that you count and calculate so we don't know but the point is is that this is the level of writing right now this writing has it stopped did it reach a point where it ended no it's continuing till now right in the narration of abimus muslim when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam ascended when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam ascended to the seventh heaven and he met with ibrahim alaihissalam and then he reached a point where jibril said i cannot go past this point you have to go alone now and so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam entered and he said that he was close enough to see he said and i was brought so close to allah that i heard the scratching of the pens on the tablets what is that scratching of the pens on the tablets those are the pens of decree they are they're continuing till today when he went to meet allah those pens were still riding and they will continue to write for eternity because paradise has no end correct and everything that's going to happen in paradise is going to continue to happen and everything that happens in the hell fire is going to continue to happen right therefore there are eight things that the scholars of islam have gathered from all of the quran and sunnah and they said these eight things have a beginning.

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He says there are eight things that have a beginning and they have no end what are these eight things the scholars say the human soul has a beginning it has no end the second thing is the tailbone of the human being remember the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam told us that the tailbone is what the human being will be reconstructed by and rasulullah.

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Home the third thing that has a beginning and has no end set up oops it's falling apart i should have told you about that okay let me hold it here and you set this set it in there there we go thank you very much and so there are eight things which have a beginning and have no end number one we said is the human soul number two odds with venom is the tailbone the absolute last vertebrae on the spine of the human being the tailbone it's also referred to clinically as the coccyx right this is this is what will not have this will the earth does not deplete this the third thing is the pen the pen that writes the decree the fourth thing is the is the tablet that the pen writes on that has no end either likewise is the hellfire is the sixth thing which will continue for eternity the seventh thing is the throne of allah subhanahu taught us how to ask allah he taught us an important difference between us and allah he said if you all ask allah for paradise ask him for the highest level because the highest level its ceiling is allah's throne subhanahu wa some people they ask allah as if they're asking a human being.

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How do we ask allah some people say i don't care how i get to paradise insha allah i crawl into the lowest level of paradise i just want to go yani is for this reason he said if you ask allah ask him for the highest level of paradise is it because you deserve the highest level of paradise do i deserve the highest level of paradise absolutely not it is because allah is the most generous subhanna with and it is most befitting of allah to give the greatest even to those who don't deserve it subhanahu and the final and eighth thing that has a beginning and has no end is the footstool al-kursiy right.

[Silence]

Has encompassed the heavens and the earth now what is alcorti in the arabic language is a footstool that is the eighth thing that has a beginning and has no end allah created it as he created the throne but it will never ever end it all will always be in existence after its creation and so the second level of or the second stage of belief in the decree of allah is belief in the writing of what allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows will come to be so the first level and now now we need to take a moment here before we end i thought we would be able to finish tonight but we will not we'll continue next week insha'allah and that is that aloha literally translates to the preserved tablet the preserved book of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does it change is it something that is subject to change allah wrote 50 000 years before the creation this would occur but later will it be erased and rewritten to something else refer to it as the preserved tablet what's the point of calling it preserved if it's not preserved if it's constantly changing foreign.

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And before we end i'll mention a narration that's going around allah.

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There's a narration that's floating around that it's kind of late inshallah next week we will mention this narration so you will tune in next week we'll mention this narration it's time for that now foreign.