What is meant by “making” in His saying, the Exalted: “And We have placed over their hearts coverings, lest they understand it, and in their ears heaviness”

Eid Abbasi : In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate
He, the Exalted, said: , some of which carries the scent of compulsion; what is your opinion?

The Shaykh : This “making” is a cosmic making. To understand this, it is necessary to explain the divine will. The divine will is divided into two types: legislative will and cosmic will. Legislative will is everything that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has legislated for His servants and encouraged them to perform, from acts of obedience and worship, varying in their rulings from obligatory to recommended. Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, wills these acts of obedience and worship and loves them. As for cosmic will, it may sometimes be of what Allah has legislated and loves for His servants, and it may sometimes be of what He has not legislated but has decreed. This will is called cosmic will, derived from His saying, Blessed and Exalted is He: “a command” .

The questioner : .

The Shaykh : Yes?

The questioner : .

The Shaykh : .
, so “thing” is an indefinite noun that encompasses everything, whether it is obedience or worship. That only comes about by His saying, Blessed and Exalted is He: ; that is, by His will and His decree and destiny. Once we understand this cosmic will, which encompasses everything, whether it is obedience or disobedience, we must then return to the topic of divine decree and destiny. Because His saying, Mighty and Majestic: , means that this one to whom He said: , He made it a decreed, inevitable reality. At that point, we have discussed divine decree and destiny repeatedly, and we have said that everything with Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is by decree. This also includes good and evil. However, what concerns us, the two heavy burdens, humans and jinn, who are obligated and commanded by Allah, Mighty and Majestic, must be looked at in terms of what we do. Either it is done purely by our will and choice, or it is done against our will. This second category does not involve obedience or disobedience, and its outcome is not Paradise or Hellfire. Rather, the first category is what the legislative rulings revolve around, and upon that the reckoning of a person for Paradise or Hellfire is based. That is, what a person does by his will and strives for through his earning and choice is what the person is held accountable for. If it is good, it is good; if it is evil, it is evil. This is the reality. The fact that a human is a chooser in a large portion of his actions is a reality that cannot be debated, neither by scripture nor by reason. As for scripture, the texts of the Book and the Sunnah are mass-transmitted in commanding the human to do what he is ordered to do and to leave what he is forbidden from doing. These are too numerous to mention. As for reason, it is clear to every person who is free from desire and purpose that when he speaks, when he walks, when he eats, when he drinks, when he does anything that falls within his choice, he is a chooser in that and not compelled at all.
Here I am, speaking to you now. No one is compelling me, of course. But it is decreed. So the meaning of my speech, in that it is decreed, is that it is decreed along with my choice of what I am saying and speaking. I am continuing the conversation now and not falling silent, but I am able to fall silent to clarify to whoever is in doubt about what I am saying that I am a chooser in this speech. Here I am falling silent now, even for a few moments, because I am a chooser.
So the choice of the human, in terms of reality, is a matter that does not accept discussion or debate. Otherwise, the one who debates such a thing is merely sophistry and doubting the self-evident. And if a person reaches this stage, conversation with him is cut off. So the actions of the human are of two types: voluntary and compelled. As for the compelled, we have no discussion of them, neither from the legislative side nor from the realistic side. The Shari'ah concerns voluntary matters. If we focus this reality in our minds, we can understand the previous verse: “in” , such is the verse.

Eid Abbasi: Yes.

Another questioner : .

The Shaykh: , this making is cosmic. You must remember the previous verse: ; it is cosmic, but it is not against the will of the one upon whose heart Allah placed coverings. It is not against his will.
Here is an example from the material side: When a human is created, he is created with his flesh fresh and tender. Then, as he grows and grows and grows, his flesh hardens and his bones become strong. But people are not all the same in this regard. There is a very large difference between a person who is bent over a type of study and knowledge. So what strengthens in him? His intellect strengthens, his brain strengthens in the aspect he is occupied with and focuses all his efforts on. But from the physical side, his body does not strengthen, his muscles do not grow. And the opposite is exactly the opposite: a person focused on the material side, so he engages in physical exercises every day, as they say today. So his muscles become strong, his body becomes strong, and he becomes of a form as we sometimes see in reality and sometimes in pictures. So these champions, for example, their bodies become all muscles. Was he created this way, or did he acquire this strong build with many muscles? This is something he reached through his earning and his choice. That is the example of the person who remains in his misguidance, his stubbornness, his disbelief, and his denial, until he reaches the rust, to these coverings that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, places over their hearts, not by compulsion from Allah and necessity from Allah for them, but because of their earning and their choice.
So this is the making, the cosmic making that these disbelieving people acquire, until they reach this point where the ignorant imagine that it was imposed upon them. The truth is that it was not imposed upon them, but rather it is by what your hands have earned, .