Why Tawhid and Shirk Are Like Day and Night

Continuing where we left off last week with the chapter that if has put in place for the reasons causes of a person's heart being opened to the quran and sunnah first thing that he listed was a tawhid and this is the longest and most extensive part of what we're going to be speaking about inshallah.

[Silence]

Foreign.

[Silence]

So the first thing that he mentions here is that we mentioned the types of shirk last week we want to mention the types of tohit right i want you to think of tohid and shirk as night and day okay i want you to think of the mushrik and the muslim or muahid as the blind and the seeing i want you to think of them as the deaf and the one who can hear.

[Silence]

The parable of the two groups the people of paradise and the people of hell fundamentally is that of the blind and deaf and the one who can see and hear i want you to think of taheed and i want you to think of shirk as night and day now i want you to think of tohit and shirk as night and day they could be no no more opposite yet one can creep into the other correct one can creep into the other but wherever the day time comes even a sliver of it it will remove the darkness correct and wherever the nighttime comes in even a sliver of it will remove the light and the daytime from that area in that place now imagine your heart your actions your deeds your life your relationship with allah as the entire sky as both horizons you want to keep both of those horizons with the sun directly in the center of the sky that is complete to heed now that is the furthest you can be from the darkness correct and the more the sun is less prevalent the more prevalent ashik will be in a person's life we have to look at the quran as a book that is very concise allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent down the quran to be concise enough for us to be able to memorize it and implement it but this book had a lot of qualities and a lot of conditions number one the quran had to contain all of the relevant information from the previous books of allah that's number one number two it had to be the most concise meaning it had to say the most with as little words okay number three this book the quran it had to be able to be something that will be used by humanity as a guide to allah for the rest of time until the day of resurrection for thousands of years possibly okay and it has to go around all of the world to all of the cultures in all situations and circumstances and it has to transcend all languages and customs and it has to find the commonality of the human heart in every one of us that's a lot of conditions to be put on one book correct let's review that for a second the quran has to be number one concise what does that mean concise it has to say the most with the least words correct number two it has to be comprehensive meaning that everything relevant from the previous nations from the time of adam all the way till now of the teachings of god to mankind has to be contained in this book number three this book has to last for thousands of years number four it has to be for all of the people in all places in all times which means that the quran has to transcend rise above language culture circumstance okay the quran has to go into any place any culture any mind any human being no matter where you're from you're from philistine you're from bosnia you're from falsely and you're from jordan you're from egypt you're from right you're from america it has to come into your mind no matter what time or place you're from and it has to find the commonality in you which is your bare bones humanity and change you the same way it changed the prophet do you understand the gravity of this book that is what the quran has to do okay in order for that to happen the quran has to be general enough to where it can apply to anyone but specific enough to where it can guide everyone do you understand you guys with me here on this so the quran has to be general enough to where it can apply to any place anytime any person but it has to be specific enough at the same time that it will guide every single person to allah subhanahu wa this is the quran and so in the quran because of these qualities that the quran has in order to understand it you have to understand why it speaks the way it speaks okay usually the quran speaks of two types of people what are those types of people huh the men will cather the believer and the disbeliever right that's usually what it is the worst of disbelievers and the best of believers that's what the quran usually speaks about right when allah uses the word al-mu'min he's speaking about the person that has reached the best and highest level of iman and when he speaks about the kafir he's speaking about the lowest level of kuffar correct foreign and he uses these parables the darkness and the light seeing and blindness hearing and deafness this is how the quran works now why doesn't allah be more specific what about someone who is a believer but commits a lot of sins right what about someone who believes in allah but is a person that is also someone who's falling very short so they've mixed good and bad deeds what about a person who's the opposite he's a disbeliever but he's not as bad a disbeliever as those who fight against allah and his messenger now those things are mentioned in the quran but they're not dwelled upon right there's mention of them but they're not dwelled upon usually what's dwelled upon is the two polar opposites why is that why is the quran so black and white well the reason for this is like painting you know painting when you want to make colors there are things called primary colors do you know what those are right there are primary colors a painter has primary colors so he has for example red and he has yellow or he whatever the primary colors are okay and so from those colors he can make any other color he wants mashy so if i take for example green and red and i mix them together what am i going to get huh green and red is it brown i thought it was purple i don't know greg i'm not a painter whatever brown it's going to be brown if i take black and white what am i going to have gray if i take so i have these opposite colors they're different colors they're they're fundamentally different right but when i mix them okay i'm going to have different colors come out of them and i can make any shade and any color that i want from those primary colors do you understand this is what the quran does it gives you primary colors okay it gives you the polar opposites and based on how strong this one is or how strong this one is you can find every single human being's description in the quran exactly exactly so if you look for yourself in the quran you will find your description exactly in the quran every single one of us is described in the quran if we look for those descriptions and take the right mixture your exact description is in the quran so i want you to think of the first element of the quran which is still hidden shirk i want you to think of them as day and night black and white okay now there are people who are people of tawheed but they have elements of shirk and there are people of shirk that have elements of tawheed do you understand everybody has imagined this with me good now we can speak about tawheed and shirk tahid is two types just we said shirk is what two types likewise tahid is two types the first type of taheed is.

[Silence]

So we have two types of tawheed and two types of shirk okay two types of tohit tell hate of belief and tawheed of actions worship okay we have two types of shirk we have major shirk and we have minor shirk let's start with the tohit because in order for us to completely understand to heed we have to understand it's opposite as well this is why we study shirk okay so the toheid of belief or the torheed of knowledge or the to hate in the arabic language literally translates to making something one okay and what is it it is making allah one in our beliefs what does that mean making him one in our beliefs meaning making him one in everything that is specific to him not having anyone else or anything else have any of his attributes or names or actions okay that is an issue of belief correct who is the only creator who is the only one who maintains that creation allah subhanahu ta'ala who is the only sovereign king of that creation and owner of all that is created and exists this is belief of and some scholars refer to it as this is the first type of tohit the second type of tahid is all of them are used by the scholars okay what is it is that of allah in your actions what does that mean in your actions the worship of allah alone without any partners everything that is worship is for allah and allah alone without any partners this is called all of them are correct these are two types of tohit now listen really closely to this principle i'm gonna give you now okay you with me.

[Silence]

What does that mean the principle is as follows the first type of tawheed to heed of belief it necessitates taheed of actions and the tahiti of actions to hid entails tawheed of belief let me repeat it memorize it learn it this is an important principle of understanding the quran the heed of belief necessitates to heed of action no heed of action to entails to heed of belief okay now we're gonna now that we've memorized the principle we're gonna explain it okay what does that mean what it means is that if you believe let's start with the first half the first story type of tohit tohito to heed of belief necessitates the talheed of actions meaning if you have to heed of belief to hate of actions is gonna have to be there too okay what does that mean that means if you believe that allah is the only creator or the allah is the only sustainer or that allah is the only one that can give and the only one that can truly take and the only one that can truly harm and the only one that can truly help then that necessitates by logic the next logical step is that you would what worship only allah correct of allah's actions necessitates to heed of worship of allah alone without any partners if you believe in this then you must believe in this and that is the argument of the prophets all of the prophets and the messengers that's what they came and said right they all came and said who has created the heavens and the earth allah who is the one who sustains you allah who is the one who protects protects you and no one can protect you from him allah then why don't you worship allah that is the argument of all of the prophets throughout the entirety of the quran right now let's go to the other half to what does that mean meaning it includes it right so when you worship something you're only worshipping it because you believe that it can either harm or help the only reason that we worship is we worship because we are trying to flee from harm and attain help whatever that is and so when you worship allah it goes to stand that that warship includes that you believe allah is the only one that can help you correct or not this is very important because any time the mushrikeen those who worship other than allah worship in any way other than a law it comes with a belief system it comes with a belief that other than allah has some of the attributes of allah you understand that huh and for example if someone goes to a grave and prays to whatever willie okay or whatever person is in the grave or whatever saint in catholicism or whatever idol an idolatry or whatever god in hinduism or whatever it is when they go and pray to that person or thing they are praying because they believe that that person or thing has some of the attributes of allah you understand do you understand how they're entwined right the mushrikeen that the prophets and messengers came to believe the first but didn't believe the second okay so they would believe that yes allah is the only creator however other than allah will intercede on our behalf and some of the attributes of allah belong to these idols that we worship this was their belief that these idols had the ability these people or these idols or the they had the ability to influence allah even against his own will and this is why allah said mandela is claiming that is going to force his intercession upon allah who is this it's a rhetorical question nobody forces his intercession upon allah.

[Silence]

The point here that we're making is that of belief and ship they are intertwined one logically leads to the other and one logically includes the other you cannot separate them okay you cannot separate them so the first type of tohit this involves what allah's names correct allah's attributes and allah's actions three things so heat of belief we believe in allah's what names attributes and actions correct names allah tells us about his names and attributes the second are his attributes what are his attributes i want you to imagine with me a bullseye can you imagine a bullseye you have a circle in the middle and then you have a bigger circle out here okay the bullseye the one in the middle that is the names of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala okay that includes his attributes so any name of allah we take an attribute and an action from it you understand we have a bullseye so if it's in the middle it's also in the bigger circle as well but the second circle i want you to imagine as being the attributes of allah meaning that not every attribute we take a name from it you get what i'm saying let's take an example the name of allah okay that's the name of allah right where is that on our bullseye which circle in the center the smallest one the one that includes all of them why because he is so we have a name from that name we derive an attribute which is so he is the merciful we derive an attribute which is mercy and then we derive another which is actions which is a bigger circle and that is what the act of giving mercy correct right but now let's take an attribute of allah an attribute of allah like we're speaking isn't speaking an attribute of allah he speaks correct he speaks to the prophet muslim he spoke to the angels he speaks to jibril he speaks to whoever he chooses etc right is that a name of allah so that's in which one of our circles the second one right that is the that is the attribute of allah we do not do the opposite we don't take a name from the attribute the attribute only articulates that that's his attribute and then we take from the attribute and action right so we say his attribute is speaking and he his action is speech okay but we don't take a name from that and call him the speaker the all-speaking subhanahu.

[Silence]

Is.

[Silence]

So when we talk about the names and attributes of allah we're talking about imagine that bullseye with me again the center of the bullseye is the all-inclusive it includes all three rings right it includes the name the attribute and the action anything at the center of that bullseye is a name we take from that name attributes and actions but anything that is in the second and not in the bullseye we take only actions from right and anything that is in the actions we do not take an attribute from so for example let's say that.

[Silence]

Is.

[Silence]

If we understand this issue of taheed we will understand its opposite of shirk so what are the types of tahid two types of tohit correct the first type is toheed all of them are correct which means belief in the names attributes and actions of allah subhanahu wa correct where what is the source of the names and attributes and actions of quran and allah correct but there are some logical things that we can learn about allah by observation of his actions correct am i correct or not tell me if i'm incorrect so for example if i am observing rain comes down and greenery comes up and life flourishes can i not logically conclude that allah is merciful what's the answer to this yes i can logically conclude that is that not right.

[Silence]

There are logical things that i can use my brain and my mind to know about allah for example knowledge right could all of this been created without knowledge no could all of this have been created without ability no therefore logically these things are affirmed for allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala but there are other things which we learn only by the way of the quran and sunnah right for example a is.

[Silence]

Is this something that my mind can logically take me to no i need the quran and sunnah to inform me of this right so it's kind of the laws of allah right logically i can say lying is wrong stealing is wrong murder is wrong inflicting unnecessary pain is wrong right making someone happy is right telling the truth is right giving someone who is less fortunate than myself is right this is even without a religion i can know this automatically correct but then there's other things that there's no way i can know without the quran and sunnah correct like how to pray how to express my gratitude to allah how to repent logically felt to repent or not what's the answer when adam alayhis salaam ate from the tree and then.

[Silence]

You have to understand that the mind is a creation of allah and the mind leads you to allah some of the scholars of islam said a very profound statement they said the function of the mind is to lead you to allah and there it stops what does that mean that means that the function of the mind is to lead you to allah and his book and his messenger and at that point you follow exactly what is in the quran in sunnah whether your mind understands it or not whether your mind accepts it or not that is the place where the mind ends and the journey of revelation begins now so in closing we learned today about the two types of tohit we learned that there is tahit of allah's actions oneness of allah's actions and oneness of the actions of the servants correct oneness in allah's actions meaning his names attributes and actions and oneness in the human beings actions meaning that we make allah one in our acts of worship we learned as well today that everyone who worships has a belief system behind that worship so if you worship allah alone without any partners that means that you have believed in allah's names and attributes completely if you worship other another along with allah this means that you have given some of the attributes of allah to other than allah that is why you have worshipped other than allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala we understand this is what is tawheed so last week we learned about a shikh major and minor this week we learned about toheid to next week in sha allah we will discuss how they interact right and we're going to discuss people who have elements of taheed but are kuffar and people who have elements of kufur but are muslim right that's what we're going to speak about next week inshaallah now that we've spoken about the two complete polar opposites of.