The Meaning of Death as Sleep and the Difference Between Tafsir and Ta'wil
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The questioner:
The Shaykh's daughter read in the books of tafsir, but I did not know the list of his words. Allah the Exalted said, on the tongue of His Prophet 'Isa (peace be upon him), so when I clarified it to you, I was negating what I had explained regarding its purity to sleep.
The Shaykh:
Sleep is not difficult. Sleep is called death by Allah. So if we interpret it as sleep, we have not diverted the word from its apparent meaning, because sleep is death. The word is shared between the major death and the minor death. If we interpret it as the minor death with evidence indicating that, this becomes tafsir. This becomes tafsir to clarify what is intended by the word, and it is not ta'wil. Ta'wil is that which has no evidence indicating it; diverting it without evidence. Yes.
The evidence has been transmitted in abundance that the Messiah is alive (peace be upon him) in Paradise, and that he will descend in the last of times, and that he will die after that. The evidence has been transmitted in abundance, but in the Qur'an. And the People of the Book will believe in him, except that the Prophet dies before his death. Is there anyone here who dies a second time? These are Moses, one. Yes.
The Shaykh's daughter read in the books of tafsir, but I did not know the list of his words. Allah the Exalted said, on the tongue of His Prophet 'Isa (peace be upon him), so when I clarified it to you, I was negating what I had explained regarding its purity to sleep.
The Shaykh:
Sleep is not difficult. Sleep is called death by Allah. So if we interpret it as sleep, we have not diverted the word from its apparent meaning, because sleep is death. The word is shared between the major death and the minor death. If we interpret it as the minor death with evidence indicating that, this becomes tafsir. This becomes tafsir to clarify what is intended by the word, and it is not ta'wil. Ta'wil is that which has no evidence indicating it; diverting it without evidence. Yes.
The evidence has been transmitted in abundance that the Messiah is alive (peace be upon him) in Paradise, and that he will descend in the last of times, and that he will die after that. The evidence has been transmitted in abundance, but in the Qur'an. And the People of the Book will believe in him, except that the Prophet dies before his death. Is there anyone here who dies a second time? These are Moses, one. Yes.
Source
شرح العقيدة الواسطية [ صالح الفوزان ] [ الشرح القديم ]، بداية من قوله : وقوله : { ولله العزة ولرسوله وللمؤمنين } — islamhouse.com (1:10:50)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.