Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: (Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing of everything)
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Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: (Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing of everything)]
Allah the Exalted said: (Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing of everything) O Allah, grant us faith in this, and protect us from stumbling through it.
You, my brother, if you believe that Allah is All-Knowing of everything, even what is in your heart, you must fear Allah.
Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: [An-Nisa: 108] So beware, beware, beware! That Allah knows from you what is displeasing to Allah the Mighty and Majestic, and know that you have a Watcher. There is no person who does not have a strict Watcher, a monitoring Watcher who is present [Qaf: 18] recording everything you utter. O Allah, we ask You for pardon and well-being in this world and the Hereafter, and we ask You not to let our hearts deviate after You have guided us, and that You bestow upon us mercy from You, for You are the Bestower.
It is strange that some sects have deviated severely in the matter of Allah’s presence! Some of them said: That Allah is with us, residing in places! And as you know, this is very dangerous. If a person dies in this state, we do not know if he died a disbeliever or a Muslim, even if he was praying; because he diminished Allah the Mighty and Majestic?And the wonder is that if you say to these people: They call upon Allah, where do they raise their hands? To the sky,They say: O Allah, they do not turn them to the right or to the left or downward, but only to the sky. So by their fitrah they acknowledge that Allah is in the sky, but by their desires they do not acknowledge this.Their argument is that they say: If He were above, He would be limited and He would be a body, and such are the inspirations of Satan.So we say: No.
He is not limited. He is above, and nothing limits Him. He is above everything, everything is beneath Him, and nothing limits Him.They say: It necessitates that He be a body.
We say: If it is necessitated by affirming what Allah affirmed that He be a body, then let it be. And if it is necessitated that He be a body, and this is what is entailed by the speech of Allah and His Messenger, then let it be.But we purify our tongues from saying: Whether He is a body or not a body, we have no right to speak of this. We believe in what Allah informed us about Himself, or what His Messenger informed us about Him, and we do not measure a body or a non-body as an attribute! We have no right; because Allah the Exalted, by His Essence, differs from every essence. So He is not of the same kind as the created things in any way.Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: [Ash-Shura: 11] .
So my advice to whoever hears me: To affirm for Allah what He affirmed for Himself,And he does not say: How and why? Because Allah is greater than what the minds can encompass. And to deny what Allah denied about Himself, and to remain silent about what Allah and His Messenger remained silent about. This is the reality of faith. As for the one who judges Allah by his mind, he is a misguidance follower of his desire, and his faith does not benefit him.
And the opposite of this is another misguided sect that says: Do not say: "Allah is above and not below, or on the right and not on the left, or connected to the creation and not separated from the creation. Where does He go? There is nothing! If we describe Allah with these negative attributes, meaning: that Allah was not a thing. This is why Mahmud ibn Subuktakin (may Allah have mercy on him), who was one of the great emirs of the Abbasid state, asked one of the scholars of kalam, Abu Bakr ibn Furuk, about Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and he said: He is not above or below, nor on the right or left, nor connected or separated.
So Mahmud said to him: Distinguish for me between non-existence and what you say? Is it true or not true? True. If it is like this, it means He is non-existent. Distinguish for me between the God you claim and non-existence? The one who disbelieved was baffled—he was unable to speak.So look at two false deviations: The first: the deviation of incarnation.
And the second: The negative deviation.
As for the Salaf and the imams, they said: We believe that Allah is above everything, and far is He from being in the lowest place, but He is with the creation, encompassing them, All-Knowing, All-Hearing, All-Seeing, etc.
O Allah, guide us among those You have guided, and here the exegesis ends.
Allah the Exalted said: (Indeed, Allah is All-Knowing of everything) O Allah, grant us faith in this, and protect us from stumbling through it.
You, my brother, if you believe that Allah is All-Knowing of everything, even what is in your heart, you must fear Allah.
Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said:
They conceal [their evil intentions and deeds] from the people, but they cannot conceal [them] from Allah, and He is with them [in His knowledge] when they spend the night in such as He does not accept of speech. And ever is Allah, of what they do, encompassing.
يَسْتَخْفُونَ مِنَ النَّاسِ وَلا يَسْتَخْفُونَ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَهُوَ مَعَهُمْ إِذْ يُبَيِّتُونَ مَا لا يَرْضَى مِنَ الْقَوْلِ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ بِمَا يَعْمَلُونَ مُحِيطاًMan does not utter any word except that with him is an observer prepared [to record].
مَا يَلْفِظُ مِنْ قَوْلٍ إِلَّا لَدَيْهِ رَقِيبٌ عَتِيدٌIt is strange that some sects have deviated severely in the matter of Allah’s presence! Some of them said: That Allah is with us, residing in places! And as you know, this is very dangerous. If a person dies in this state, we do not know if he died a disbeliever or a Muslim, even if he was praying; because he diminished Allah the Mighty and Majestic?And the wonder is that if you say to these people: They call upon Allah, where do they raise their hands? To the sky,They say: O Allah, they do not turn them to the right or to the left or downward, but only to the sky. So by their fitrah they acknowledge that Allah is in the sky, but by their desires they do not acknowledge this.Their argument is that they say: If He were above, He would be limited and He would be a body, and such are the inspirations of Satan.So we say: No.
He is not limited. He is above, and nothing limits Him. He is above everything, everything is beneath Him, and nothing limits Him.They say: It necessitates that He be a body.
We say: If it is necessitated by affirming what Allah affirmed that He be a body, then let it be. And if it is necessitated that He be a body, and this is what is entailed by the speech of Allah and His Messenger, then let it be.But we purify our tongues from saying: Whether He is a body or not a body, we have no right to speak of this. We believe in what Allah informed us about Himself, or what His Messenger informed us about Him, and we do not measure a body or a non-body as an attribute! We have no right; because Allah the Exalted, by His Essence, differs from every essence. So He is not of the same kind as the created things in any way.Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said:
There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing.
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُSo my advice to whoever hears me: To affirm for Allah what He affirmed for Himself,And he does not say: How and why? Because Allah is greater than what the minds can encompass. And to deny what Allah denied about Himself, and to remain silent about what Allah and His Messenger remained silent about. This is the reality of faith. As for the one who judges Allah by his mind, he is a misguidance follower of his desire, and his faith does not benefit him.
And the opposite of this is another misguided sect that says: Do not say: "Allah is above and not below, or on the right and not on the left, or connected to the creation and not separated from the creation. Where does He go? There is nothing! If we describe Allah with these negative attributes, meaning: that Allah was not a thing. This is why Mahmud ibn Subuktakin (may Allah have mercy on him), who was one of the great emirs of the Abbasid state, asked one of the scholars of kalam, Abu Bakr ibn Furuk, about Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and he said: He is not above or below, nor on the right or left, nor connected or separated.
So Mahmud said to him: Distinguish for me between non-existence and what you say? Is it true or not true? True. If it is like this, it means He is non-existent. Distinguish for me between the God you claim and non-existence? The one who disbelieved was baffled—he was unable to speak.So look at two false deviations: The first: the deviation of incarnation.
And the second: The negative deviation.
As for the Salaf and the imams, they said: We believe that Allah is above everything, and far is He from being in the lowest place, but He is with the creation, encompassing them, All-Knowing, All-Hearing, All-Seeing, etc.
O Allah, guide us among those You have guided, and here the exegesis ends.