Carrying the absolute upon the qualified in the verses of coming
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Question:
Honorable Shaykh, if the Asha'irah say to us: You told us that in the verses of istiwaa' (rising above the Throne), if they meant mastery, they would have appeared in one place so that the general could be carried upon the specific. And from this is the statement of Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) regarding the verses of istiwaa', and likewise the silver without the lam. If it meant the lam in the Qur'an, it would have appeared with it in one place so that the rest could be carried upon it, which is a possibility. So what do you say about the verses of coming? They have appeared in Surat al-Nahl, where Allah the Exalted said:[An-Nahl 16:33]
Answer:
We say to them: We do not manipulate the speech of Allah. The verses in which Allah qualified, we qualify, and the verses in which Allah made absolute, we make absolute. This is what happens in 'aqidah (creed). Carrying the absolute upon the qualified is a matter of 'aqidah, which is based on revelation; we do not intervene in it. So whatever He has attributed to Himself absolutely, we affirm it. As for the saying of Allah the Exalted:[An-Nahl 16:33] This does not contain a mention of the coming of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), but rather a mention of the coming of the angels or the coming of the command of Allah. Both are true. The command of Allah may come; the command of Allah came at the beginning of the surah: [An-Nahl 16:1] So Allah comes, and His command comes, and the angels come. All of this is true in its reality. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, if the Asha'irah say to us: You told us that in the verses of istiwaa' (rising above the Throne), if they meant mastery, they would have appeared in one place so that the general could be carried upon the specific. And from this is the statement of Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) regarding the verses of istiwaa', and likewise the silver without the lam. If it meant the lam in the Qur'an, it would have appeared with it in one place so that the rest could be carried upon it, which is a possibility. So what do you say about the verses of coming? They have appeared in Surat al-Nahl, where Allah the Exalted said:
or there comes the command of your Lord
أَوْ يَأْتِيَ أَمْرُ رَبِّكَAnswer:
We say to them: We do not manipulate the speech of Allah. The verses in which Allah qualified, we qualify, and the verses in which Allah made absolute, we make absolute. This is what happens in 'aqidah (creed). Carrying the absolute upon the qualified is a matter of 'aqidah, which is based on revelation; we do not intervene in it. So whatever He has attributed to Himself absolutely, we affirm it. As for the saying of Allah the Exalted:
Do the disbelievers await [anything] except that the angels should come to them or there comes the command of your Lord?
هَلْ يَنظُرُونَ إِلَّا أَن تَأْتِيَهُمُ الْمَلَائِكَةُ أَوْ يَأْتِيَ أَمْرُ رَبِّكَThe command of Allah is coming, so be not impatient for it. Exalted is He and high above what they associate with Him.
أَتَىٰ أَمْرُ اللَّهِ فَلَا تَسْتَعْجِلُوهُ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 10 من 36/شرح العقيدة الواسطية (مع الأسئلة)/وصف به نفسه في كتابه/صالح الفوزان/العقيدة/كبار العلماء — youtube.com (47:09)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.