The Ruling on Common Phrases Among the General Public
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
This is a saying common among the general public, such as when they say, “Allah played so-and-so with so-and-so,” and so on. What is the ruling on this?
The Shaykh:
It is not something that should be done. Allah has not been heard to use the meaning of “play.” One should say, “The decree of Allah,” “The ruling of Allah,” “The command of Allah,” or “The qadar (divine decree) of Allah.” There is no harm in that.
This is a saying common among the general public, such as when they say, “Allah played so-and-so with so-and-so,” and so on. What is the ruling on this?
The Shaykh:
It is not something that should be done. Allah has not been heard to use the meaning of “play.” One should say, “The decree of Allah,” “The ruling of Allah,” “The command of Allah,” or “The qadar (divine decree) of Allah.” There is no harm in that.
Source
شرح كتاب التوحيد الذي هو حق الله على العبيد، باب من حقق التوحيد دخل الجنة بغير حساب — islamhouse.com (18:53)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.