The Meaning of Allah’s Saying: “And Allah led him astray while He had knowledge”
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Regarding His saying, the Exalted:[Al-Jathiyah 45:23]
Answer:
It is the one who has knowledge but does not follow it or act upon it, such as the Jews.[Al-Furqan 25:43] Look, read the verse: “He took his desire as his god.” This means he did not take the knowledge; he only took his desire. So whatever agreed with his desire, he took it, and whatever contradicted his desire, he left it. If this is the case, Allah has led him astray while he has knowledge, not while he is ignorant. He has knowledge. This is more severe than the ignorant person, because he knows, and the one who knows is not like the one who does not know.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Regarding His saying, the Exalted:
and Allah has sent him astray due to knowledge
وَأَضَلَّهُ اللَّهُ عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍAnswer:
It is the one who has knowledge but does not follow it or act upon it, such as the Jews.
Have you seen the one who takes as his god
أَرَأَيْتَ مَنِ اتَّخَذَ إِلَٰهَهُ
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، الباب الثالث في انقسام أدوية أمراض القلب إلى قسمين : طبيعية وشرعية — islamhouse.com (46:07)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.