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Earlier Post: Judiciary in an ancient empire. Can you identify its leader?

The best people to convey Allah’s Guidance and commands were the prophets and messengers. The best & last of them was Muhammad (pbuh). We are not going to get any more. The next best (i.e. 2nd best) people in terms of understanding Allah’s Guidance and commands were the students of the final messenger (i.e. Companions, Sahabas). That is not just logical, but the final messenger himself told so. “The best of people is my generation, then those who come after them, then those who come after them”. [Bukhari and Muslim]

Nobody, in Islam, becomes “Best” without excellent knowledge. If anyone thinks that companions (Sahabas) were best in piety, worship & obedience but not in knowledge, then he doesn’t understand the importance of knowledge in Islam. He contradicts a Quranic verse “It is only those who have knowledge among His servants that fear Allah” (Qur’an 35:28). He also seem to ignore the Prophet’s sayings which instruct us to learn certain things from certain companions.

If any Aalim / Shaykh thinks that he has a better, smarter, or more knowledgeable way, here is a warning from Prophet himself: “And this Ummah will divide into seventy-three sects all of which except one will go to Hell and they (i.e. the Saved Sect) are those who are upon what I and My Companions are upon (i.e. those who follow My Way and the Way of my Companions.)” [Reported by at-Tirmidhee]

The best among the sahabas are the khaleefas (Caliphs, Khulafaa). Please see the attached file Follow the Khaleefas – Some hadeeths for hadiths ordering us to follow them. When you obey the Messenger (pbuh), you are actually obeying Allah (because, it is Allah who ordered us to obey His Messenger). When you follow the Khaleefas, you are actually following the Messenger (pbuh) (because it is the Messenger who ordered us to follow his Khaleefas). In other words, the status of the Messenger and his khaleefas come from the orders of Allah & His Messenger respectively.

A few brothers have an understanding that Prophet told us to follow his khaleefas only in political and administrative matters. This is an incorrect understanding. Those who know usool al-Fiqh & the history of fiqh wouldn’t say such a thing. Neither the Prophet, nor anyone from early generations nor the later Imams hinted anything like “follow them in political and administrative, but ignore their Islamic things”. They never distinguished religion from worldly affairs, like politics. Also, there is nothing in the hadeeths restricting the applicability of those commands only to his companions. So, how can you & I who live several generations after the khaleefas follow political and administrative decrees / rulings of Abu Bakr, Umar etc.

For those who say “We know Astronomy better than Sahabas”, the response is: Knowledge of Astronomy (or Medicine or engineering) doesn’t make a Muslim better or more deserving of Paradise. If it were the case, Muslims who would come in the future are better than us, because they’d have more knowledge of Astronomy than us. And, the best Muslims would be those who live closest to the Last Day. Is that the case? I can write more, but this should suffice for those who seek clarification.

Clarification: Islamic Shariah comprises only Qur’an and Sunnah. We are not talking about adding “Sahabas” as a 3rd source of Shariah. We are also not talking about blindly following them (Taqleed). Prophet himself made a few mistakes (e.g.: ignoring the old blind companion while doing Da’wa, being lenient to the Badr prisoners of war, etc) and Allah corrected him. These mistakes don’t reduce the status of our Prophet (pbuh). The best sahabas made some mistakes too. That doesn’t bring them down to our level. Those mistakes don’t make our Aalims equal to them.

Now, how do we follow khaleefas / caliphs when we don’t know about them? Some Muslims say that Khilafat is the solution to all of the community’s problems. How could a good Khilafat be established when people know very little about the best Khalifas? Assuming if people get political power, what kind of government would they establish?

One academic mentioned the below to Dr. ‘Ali Muhammad As-Sallaabee, author of Prophet’s and Khaleefas’ biographies:

“There now exists a chasm between Muslims and the era of the rightly guided Khaleefas. The priority of the Muslims are out of whack, with many of them knowing a great deal about the lives of scholars from recent centuries, and comparatively little about the lives of the rightly guided khaleefas. To be sure, much can be learned from the era of rightly guided Khaleefas, for it was an era that was replete with lessons about just governance, sound economic policies, military heroics, good manners, Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) – and the necessary steps that must be taken in order to establish a stable, just, upright, and God-fearing society. These are the very lessons Muslims desperately need to learn about today”. What is the legacy of the Aalim / Shyakh / Imam we know, adore and follow?

The Khaleefas accomplished phenomenal success in many areas, despite limited resources and time. For example, Abu Bakr ruled the young nation just for 2 years & 2 months – his achievements last even now. He defeated Persia and Roman empires, rooted out apostasy from the Arabian Peninsula with an all-out assault against Apostates, and compiled Quran in one book. The areas they conquered (Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Syria, Iraq etc) are still Muslim countries. The fact that rightly guided khaleefahs achieved accomplishments of astounding magnitude that continued until today is a living proof that Allah blessed their efforts because of their knowledge, piety, steadfastness, and hard work. They wanted to please only Allaah. They had no other agenda.

What is our agenda? Whom do we want to please? And, whose understanding of Qur’an and Hadeeths do we want to follow?

Insha Allah, i will try to post a few events and lessons from the lives of khaleefas, and some extracts from their letters and speeches in http://seyedibrahim.wordpress.com/

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Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,100 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

 

These are the posts that got the most views in 2011. You can see all of the year’s most-viewed posts in your Site Stats.

1 52. Seeing the Prophet Muhammad
2 51. Can Allah be seen? Does God have an image?
3 10. The conditions of La’ilaha illa-Allah
4 05. Proofs for Existence of God from Quran
5 50. Transcendence. Or, is God everywhere?

Most visitors came from The United States. The United Kingdom & India were not far behind.

The top referring sites in 2011 were:

• seyedibrahim.wordpress.com
  

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• kayalpatnam.com
• en.wordpress.com
• facebook.com
• muslimmatters.org

Click here to see the complete report.

1. The first level is to have belief in the knowledge of Allah; which encompasses everything. Not even the like of the weight of an atom in the heavens or on the earth escapes His knowledge. And He knew about all His creation before He created them. He knew their provision, appointed terms, their speech and actions, all their doings, their secrets and open declarations, and who are the People of Paradise and the People of the Hellfire from among them.

2. The second level is to have belief in the recording of that knowledge; and that He wrote all that will exist according to His prior knowledge. Included in this is belief in the Preserved Tablet (al-Lawh al-Mahfooz).

3. The third level is to have belief in Allaah’s executive will and His omnipotence. They necessitate each other with respect to what was and what will be. But they do not necessitate each other with respect to what will not be and what was not. So what Allah wishes exists by His omnipotence, and it could not be any other way, and what Allah does not wish does not exist, due to the absence of Allah’s wish for it and not due to Allah’s inability to make it exist.

4. The fourth level is to have belief that Allah is the Creator of everything and that there is not a single atom in the heavens or in the earth, or that which is between them, that Allah did not create. He is the creator of their movements and their lack of movements. There is no creator besides Him and no Lord except Him.

Source: A’laam as-Sunnah al-Manshoorah by Haafiz ibn Ahmad al-Hakamee

The above list is the same four items mentioned in 150. Destiny (Qadaa and Qadr) ( http://wp.me/pLuqX-5w) under “Shaykh Al-‘Uthaymeen identified four main issues necessary for the belief in Qadr to be correct and complete”. These are so important, I wanted to provide another Scholar Haafiz Ibn Ahmad al-Hakamee’s description too.

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Related articles

• FOUR PILLARS / LEVELS OF QADAR (Pre-Destiny) (mohammedirfan.wordpress.com)

2) It gives its believer the will and determination to do righteous deeds and grants him the knowledge of the fact that nothing can harm him or stop him except that which Allah has willed

3) Teaches its believer not to be arrogant and vain, but rather to be modest and humble because he realizes that his actions are created by Allah and that such and such an event occurred, not because he was rich or was given beauty and good lineage but rather because it was the Will of Allah.

4) Teaches its believer to do as much as is in his capability and then leave the rest up to Allah, and then to be satisfied with the result as he did as much as his ability permitted him to do so.

Source: http://www.sunnahonline.com/library/beliefs/0072.htm

Shaykh Al-‘Uthaymeen listed seven benefits of belief in Destiny:

1. It is from the completion of Eemaan (Faith), and Eemaan is incomplete without it.

2. It is from the completion of Eemaan in Tawheed ar-Ruboobiyyah, because Allaah’s destiny and predetermination are among His actions.

3. It involves humans referring their affairs to their Lord. Because humans know that everything is according to Allaah’s destiny, they will turn to Him in times of difficulty to repel and remove it from them, and they will attribute their times of good to Allaah and know that it is a favour from Him.

4. It allows humans to know their true status [in relationship to God] and to not be proud when they do good.

5. Calamities become easier to deal with when humans know that they are ultimately from Allah, as He said:

“Allah guides the heart of whoever believes in Him.” (Surah at-Taghaabun 64: 11)

6. Attribution of the worldly pleasures to their true source prevents their attribution to their immediate providers. When those who do not believe in Qadr seek the favors of worldly leaders and receive what they seek from them, they attribute it to the favors of the leaders and forget that it is basically from the favors of the Creator.

7. Humans come to know the wisdom of Allah through belief in Qadr. If they reflect on the creation and the incredible changes occurring in it, they become acquainted with Allaah’s wisdom. In contrast with those who do not believe in Qadr. They are unable to obtain this benefit.

Source: Sharh al-‘Aqeedah al-Waasitiyyah

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1. Epicureans: Free will. Hedonism – Seek what’s pleasurable in life by any means
2. Stoics: No free will – predetermined. You are a puppet on the string

Muslims went astray (i.e. got wrong ideas about destiny) after the Greek literatures were translated. Deviants among Muslims

A) The Jabrites (Jabariyyah) who claimed that the creature is forced to do its acts without any choice on its part. They are refuted by two points:

• Allah attributed human acts to them and made them earning for which they are rewarded or punished. If they were forced to do them, the attribution of the acts to them would not be correct and punishment for them would be oppression. He says

“Today every soul will be rewarded for what they earned.” (Quran Surah Ghaafir 40: 17)

• Everyone knows the difference between an act of choice and a forced act in reality and in judgment. So if someone transgressed against another and claimed that he was forced to do it by Allah’s Qadaa and Qadr it would be considered stupidity

Before doing an act, the sinful person does not know what is destined for him and it is within his ability to do or not do it. So how can he take a wrong path and defend his action with the unknown destiny. Is it not more suitable for him to take the correct path and say: This is what was destined for me?

{

My note: Satan has no control over us. We can’t say “Shaytan forced me to do evil deeds”. Neither Allah nor Shaitan forces people.

And Shaitan (Satan) will say when the matter has been decided: “Verily, Allah promised you a promise of truth. And I too promised you, but I betrayed you. I had no authority over you except that I called you, so you responded to me. So blame me not, but blame yourselves… [Surah Ibrahim 14:22]

}

B) The Qadrites (Qadariyyah) who claim that the creature is independent in its actions and that Allah has no will or power or creation in it. Their claim is also refuted by two points:

• Their claim contradicts Allah’s statements:

“Allah is the creator of everything.” (Surah az-Zumar 39:62)

“And Allah created you and what you do.” (Surah as-Saaffaat 37: 96)

• Allah is the owner of the heavens and earth.How is it possible that there be in His dominion things which are not dependent on His will and creation?

(Sharh Lum’atul-I’tiqaad)

Correct Faith: Humans freely choose, and Allaah knows already what humans will choose. His knowledge of their choice didn’t make them to opt for that choice. Relative to Allah, the choices are known. Relative to us, the choices aren’t known until the situation occurs. Arguing / reflecting beyond this takes us to a situation with no answers.

Addendum: One brother requested more info on “Humans freely choose and Allaah knows already what humans will choose”. How is that Allah knows what a person would do (in future), and yet Allah is not forcing that person?.

The answer: Allah is the Creator of everything, including time. He knows everything that happened everywhere, is happening and will happen. We only know a limited past events. We can focus only on a few things that are happening. And, we dont know future. So, we can’t apply human examples to Allah.

But, at human level we can give a few examples where we may guess certain things in future, yet we are not forcing them. A simple one: We know (and say) that the Sun will set in the West. Do we force it to set in the West? No. A teacher may say, based on his assessment, that certain students will fail the exams. The teacher’s comment didn’t force the students to fail. The students’ failure to study caused their failure in exams. (Again, Creator is not like Teacher)

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Qadaa / Qadha (القَضاء) linguistically means hukm (ruling; judgement) and Qadr / Qadar means taqdeer (measurement).

Shaykh Al-‘Uthaymeen said regarding them: “Qadaa and Qadr have different meanings when mentioned together and are synonyms when mentioned separately… Qadr is what Allaah destined from eternity to exist in His creation. On the other hand, Qadaa is what Allaah decides concerning His creatures regarding their creation, annihilation or transformation. Thus, Qadr precedes Qadaa.” (Sharh al-‘Aqeedah al-Waasitiyyah, p. 411)

Faith in qadaa and qadr is one of the six pillars of Imaan / eemaan. “Eemaan is that you truly believe in Allaah and His angels and His books and His messengers and in the Last Day, and that you truly believe in qadr (Predecree) the good of it and the bad of it.” (Part of the hadeeth of ‘Umar ibn al Khattaab which was reported by Muslim, Ahmad, ibn Maajah and at Tirmidhee)

Shaykh Al-‘Uthaymeen identified four main issues necessary for the belief in Qadr to be correct and complete:
1. Belief that Allaah knows everything in general and in detail by His prior knowledge based on His statement:

“Do you not know that Allaah knows what is in the heavens and earth? Indeed that is in a book. Indeed that is easy for Allaah.” (Qur’an Chapter al-Hajj, 22: 80)

2. That Allaah wrote in the Lawh al-Mahfooz the destiny of everything based on Allaah’s statement:

“No calamity strikes in the earth or in yourselves except that it is in a book before I bring it into existence.” (Qur’an Chapter al-Hadeed, 57: 22)

And based on the Prophet’s statement: “Indeed Allaah fixed the destiny of creation 50,000 years before creating the heavens and earth.” (Muslim).

3. Everything in the heavens and earth is by Allaah’s will and wish, between His mercy and wisdom. He guides whom He wishes by His mercy and misguides whom He wishes by His wisdom. Whatever happens is in accordance with His prior knowledge and what He wrote in the Lawh al-Mahfooz based on His statements:

“Indeed I created everything measured.” (Qur’an Chapter al-Qamar, 54: 49)

“Whoever Allaah wishes to guide, He opens his chest to Islaam…” (Qur’an Chapter al-An‘aam, 6: 125)

Whereby He attributes guidance and mis-guidance to His wish.

4. That everything in the heavens and earth are creations of Allaah Most High and there is no other creator besides Him or Lord except Him based on His statement:

“He created everything and destined its measure.”(Qur’an Chapter al-Furqaan, 25: 2)

(Sharh Lum‘atul-I‘tiqaad, pp. 92-3)

About al lawh al mahfoodh / Lawh al-Mahfooz (the Preserved Tablet) by Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al ‘Uthaymeen:

We do not know what its form is, from which substance (it is made), whether it is made from wood or from iron. We do not know its size nor its width. So Allaah is more knowledgeable about that. And it is obligatory for us to truly believe that there is a Tablet in which Allaah wrote the decreed measures of everything. And we are not entitled to delve (into this matter) beyond that.  (Sharh al Arba’een an Nawawiyyah)

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Related articles

• Free Will and Determinism from a Scientific and Religious Perspective (http://muslimmatters.org)

• Changing the Destiny(qadar)?? (mohammedirfan.wordpress.com)
• 152. Benefits of believing in Qadr (islaamiccreed.wordpress.com)

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Imam Ibn Qudaamah wrote:

In the next life, the believers will see their Lord with their own eyes. They will visit Him, and He will speak to them and they will speak to Him. Allaah, Most High, stated

“Some faces will be radiant on that day, gazing at their Lord.” (Qur’an Chapter al-Qiyaamah 75:22-23)

“No. On that day they will be veiled from their Lord.” (Qur’an Chapter al-Mutaffifeen 83: 15)

Since those are veiled due to [Allaah’s] anger, it indicates that the believers will see Him due to His pleasure [with them], otherwise there would be no difference between them.

The Prophet (pbuh) said: “Indeed you will see your Lord the way you see this moon. You will not struggle with crowds to see Him.” (Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol. 1, no. 529 and Sahih Muslim, vol. 1, no. 1322)

‘Adee ibn Abee Haatim quoted the Prophet (pbuh) as saying:“Verily each one of you will see Allaah on the day when you must meet Him, and there will not be between Him and you a veil nor a translator.” (Sahih Al-Bukhari, vol. 9, no. 535)

Ibn ‘Umar also reported that the Prophet (pbuh) once said, “The day of Resurrection is the first day that any eye will look upon Allaah, Most Great and Glorious.” (An authentic narration collected by ad-Daaraqutnee and ad-Daarimee in his book ar-Radd ‘alal-Jahmiyyah, p. 57)

The Wisdom Behind Not Seeing Allaah

If God could be seen in this life, the tests of this life would be pointless. What makes this life a real test is the fact that we are obliged to believe in Allaah without actually seeing Him. If Allaah were visible, everyone would believe in Him and all that the Prophet (pbuh) taught. In fact, men would end up like angels, in total obedience to Allaah. Because Allaah made man to be higher than the angels, whose beliefs in Allaah was without choice, man’s choice of belief over disbelief had to be in a situation where Allaah’s existence could be questioned. Thus, Allaah has kept himself hidden from humankind and will continue to do so until the last day. (The Fundamentals of Tawheed, pp. 136-144)

Can we see Allah in this world? Did the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) see Allaah in Miraj? Please click here for answers

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Caliph ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdul-‘Azeez was reported to have said, “Stop where the people [i.e., the Companions] stopped, for they stopped based on knowledge and restrained themselves due to deep insight. They were better able to uncover it, and if there was virtue in it they were most suitable to gain it. If you say: ‘Something new happened after them,’ [know that] those who disagreed with their guidance and preferred another sunnah beside theirs innovated regarding it. They [i.e., the Companions] described what fulfilled the need and what they spoke about was sufficient. No one expended more effort than them and those following them. Some people fell short of [following] them and went astray, while others passed them and became extremists. They were between that onstraight guidance.”

Source: Narrated by Ibn al-Jawzee in Manaaqib ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdil-‘Azeez, pp. 83-84 and Ibn Rajab in Fadl ‘Ilm as-Salaf, p. 36

The phrase “they stopped based on knowledge“ indicates that their silence about issues was based on knowledge and fear of Allaah, not inability and weakness. Furthermore, the fact that those who came after them elaborated and expounded on certain issues is not evidence that they weremore knowledgeable than their predecessors. To put it bluntly, any body can talk about & philosophize any issue without an iota of knowledge about that subject.

Sh. Saalih Aal ash-Shaykh commented: “He divided the state of the sahaabah into two sections:

The first, that they “stopped based on knowledge”. The Companions are the most knowledgeable people from the nation of Muhammad. They were more suited to knowledge than those besides them and those who came after them had less knowledge. Thus, the Companions were knowledgeable; they had insight, they were virtuous, and they were enlightened. They fully understood the Qur’aan and the Sunnah. Tafseer (interpretation) of the Qur’aan is taken fundamentally from them [whether in the form of narrations from the Prophet or from their own explanations].

‘Umar ibn ‘Abdul-‘Azeez described them as “halting based on knowledge” from the Messenger of Allaah or from their understanding of the Qur’aan and the Sunnah according to the implications of Arabic or from what they taught each other.Therefore, all of their rulings were based on knowledge.

The second, what they avoided and were silent on. They did so based on deep insight. They did not delve into issues which those who followed them delved into due to their inability. No.They did so due to their sagacity and discernment; due to their foresight, understanding and knowledge. For they spoke based on knowledge which they found and what they were silent about was due to their foresight and insight. And this is what is obligatory on us, to cast aside the opinions, reasons, logic and understandings which conflict with that of the Companions of Allaah’s Messenger regarding issues of belief as well as the religion in general. Whatever the Companions believed and followed is the correct measure by which your understanding should be judged and by which affairs, situations and groups and people should be weighed. Because we were commanded to follow.

‘Umar ibn ‘Abdul-‘Azeez gave us this appropriate and convincing advice to follow the Companions because they spoke based on knowledge. It is obligatory to follow the guidance of the Companions, whether in issues of belief, practice, morals or worship and the like. Whatever goes beyond their way is extreme and whatever falls short is deficient and negligence. This statement of ‘Umar ibn ‘Abdul-‘Azeez represents a general methodology (manhaj) followed by theleading scholars in issues of belief, actions and morals, etc.” (SharhLum‘atul-I‘tiqaad, Tape 772)

Related Articles

• Umar b. Abd Al-Aziz on the Way of the Believers (hefty1986.wordpress.com)
• 104. Promotion of the Sunnah and Warnings Against Bid’ah (islaamiccreed.wordpress.com)

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Please read the previous post ‘Questions on each of Allah’s attributes‘ first

Among the verses on the Attributes are the statements of Allaah:

All that is on earth will disappear, but the Face of your Lord, Full of Majesty and Honor, will remain [Surah Ar-Rahman]

The attribute of “Face” is among the essential attributes and it clearly confirmed by this verse whereby it is attributed directly to Allaah in a possessive construction. What is attributed to Allaah is either a thaat [something actually existing] or a meaning or concept (ma‘naa). The thaats can either exist by themselves as in the case of “Allaah’s camel” and “Allaah’s house” or they cannot as in the case of “Allaah’s face” or “Allaah’s hand”, etc.  i.e., faces and hands do not exist by themselves without an owner

“Instead, His two hands are spread out.” (5:64)

This is also a case of attribution of and existence which cannot exist by itself, and as such is one of Allaah’s attributes.

If you start to give new meanings without proofs from Qur’an or Hadeeths, you create greater confusion. The deviants claim that “face” means “reward”. How did you come to this conclusion? If “hand” is translated as “ability”, then does “two hands” mean “two abilities”?

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Q: Is the attribute to be understood literally and why?

A: Yes, because the basic principle for understanding speech is according to its literal meaning. The literal meaning should not be avoided [by considering the attribute metaphorical] except if there exists authentic evidence which prevents us accepting the literal meaning. For example, Allaah states:

“… and I am closer to him than his jugular vein” (Surah Qaaf, 50:16)

This verse implies that Allaah is within human beings since the jugular vein is inside the necks of humans. However, such a meaning would imply that humans may worship other humans and themselves, both of which acts are forbidden. Furthermore, Allaah states elsewhere in the Qur’aan that

“They fear their Lord who is above them” (Surah anNahl, 15: 50)

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) also declared a woman a true believer on the basis of her answering his question, “Where is Allaah?” by saying that He is above the heavens.[A long hadeeth from Sahih Muslim Vol. 1]

Q: Is it possible to describe how it is and why?

A: The answer is no, it is not permissible to describe how Allaah’s attributes are, due to the Almighty’s statement

“Their knowledge cannot encompass Him” (Surah Taahaa, 20: 110)

The human mind cannot comprehend how Allaah’s attributes operate. For example, human beings can hardly understand how they see; how the upside-down image that strikes the retina at the back of the eye is transformed into signals which are read by the brain. To understand how Allaah sees without eye apparatus, etc. is impossible

Q: Does it resemble human characteristics and why?

A: The answer is no, the divine attributes do not resemble the attributes of created beings, as the Almighty said

“Nothing is similar to Him…” (Surah Shooraa, 42: 11)

Allaah deserves absolute perfection, thus it is not possible for Him to resemble the creation because it is imperfect

Source: Introduction to Lum‘atul-I‘tiqaad by Shaykh Al-Uthaymeen

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