Continuation of the explanation of the saying of Allah the Exalted: "And worship Allah and associate nothing with Him, and to parents do good, and to relatives, orphans, the needy, the near neighbor, the neighbor farther away, the companion at your side, the traveler, and those whom your right hands possess. Indeed, Allah does not like those who are self-deluding and boastful."

The Shaykh : Until the Day of Judgment.
As for what follows: We have completed our discussion of the verse in Surat al-Nisa, which is the saying of Allah the Exalted and we stopped at the saying of Allah the Exalted So what is it that our right hands possess, that our right hands possess?
The student: ... .

The Shaykh : It includes slaves from among the children of Adam, and the enslaved among the animals. Then He said [who is] arrogant in his demeanor and boastful in his speech, because arrogance in demeanor and boasting in speech indicate pride, and pride is among the major sins. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked when he warned against pride and cautioned against it: "What about a man who loves his garment to be beautiful and his sandal to be beautiful?" He said (peace and blessings be upon him) So he rejected the truth by being arrogant and belittled people by despising and looking down on them. This is pride. And Allah (Mighty and Majestic) does not love every arrogant, boastful person. Likewise, if arrogance and boasting indicate pride, it is even more so that He does not love the arrogant. Know that it is obligatory for the believer, when the truth becomes clear to him, to submit to it, yield to it, and follow it, no matter who reveals it to him. Often, the truth is revealed to you by one who is lower than you in knowledge and virtue, because the knowledge of the truth is not confined to a group of people or a type of people. A student may reveal the truth to his teacher and his shaykh, so he must follow the truth. And if he follows the truth, it does not mean... he must accept it even if it comes from a disbeliever. Listen to the saying of Allah the Exalted So they argued with two things:
The first thing: that they found their fathers upon it.
The second thing: that Allah commanded them to do it. Allah accepted one of the two things from them and rejected the second, saying So He rejected their saying and did not reject the second, which is their saying because it is the truth, and the truth must be accepted even if it comes from a disbeliever or a polytheist, and falsehood must be rejected even if it comes from a sincere believer.
Among the pride that is warned against, and which is a cause of destruction, is what some of those who are commanded to enjoin good and forbid evil do. Some of those commanded to enjoin good are too proud to obey one who commands them, especially if he believes he is older than him, more knowledgeable than him, and more pious than him. You find that when he is commanded, he says, "We know what you do not know," and he is too proud and arrogant, may Allah protect us from that. This is forbidden pride, indeed it is among the major sins because it involves rejecting the truth and belittling people. Some people, when forbidden from an evil, become arrogant and say, "I know that better than you," and then they reject the evil they were forbidden from because of the pride in their hearts, may Allah protect us from that. And some people are commanded to enjoin good and forbid evil, but they do not obey the good nor refrain from the evil out of arrogance and pride, may Allah protect us from that. So whoever rejects the truth or belittles people is arrogant, and Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) does not like his action. In the verse is evidence for affirming the attribute of love for Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and the way is that when He negated it for every arrogant, boastful person, that indicates that it is affirmed for others. This is the position of the people of the Sunnah and the community: affirming that Allah loves and that He is loved. This is also indicated by the saying of Allah the Exalted Some of the people of innovation denied the attribute of love for Allah and said that Allah does not love and is not loved. Some denied that Allah loves and affirmed that He is loved. So the opinions are three: The first opinion?
The student: ... .

The Shaykh : You have spoken well. And whose opinion is this? That Allah loves and is loved? Yes.
The student: ... .

The Shaykh : Yes. And the second?
The student: ... .

The Shaykh : That Allah?
The student: ... .

The Shaykh : No.
The student: ... .

The Shaykh : loves and is not loved. Good. The third?
The student: ... .

The Shaykh : That Allah does not love and is not loved. The correct opinion, of which there is no doubt, is that Allah loves and is loved, as indicated by the verse we mentioned earlier, and as indicated by the saying of Allah the Exalted So He challenged those who claim to love Allah with something clear and distinct, which is following the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So whoever is truthful in his claim of love, let him follow the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). For this reason, we know the degree of a person's love for Allah by the degree of his following of the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). So whoever is more following of the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), he is more... loved by Allah, because Allah mentioned a just and clear measure. And whoever claims that he loves Allah and His Messenger, but he does not follow the Sunnah, rather he innovates innovations that Allah is not pleased with, he has lied in his claim, because Allah mentioned a measure. And with this, we say to those who innovate dhikr for which Allah has not sent down authority, or who innovate what they innovate of exalting the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) from what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade, which is exaggeration, we say to these people: if you claim that you love Allah or love the Messenger of Allah, you have lied in your claim, because no claim is valid without proof. The Prophet (may Allah send prayers and blessings upon him) said Upon whom? So if someone claims that he loves Allah, we say: bring the proof. What is the proof that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) established to prove love for Allah? It is following the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): following in action what he commanded and leaving what he forbade. There is no doubt that innovations in dhikr, or in sending blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), or in timing them with a specific time or place, if they contradict the Shari'ah, are not loved by Allah or by His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), rather they are hated by both. Among the pride is that some people, when you command them with good or forbid them from evil, say, "So-and-so shaykh or so-and-so shaykh says such and such." This is not a proof. The shaykhs, no matter how much knowledge they have, are subject to error. A great scholar may err in what he says, and his error may be one of the clearest things. And one who is far below him in knowledge may be correct. So the fact that this scholar said this saying does not mean that it is the definitive truth. It is true that the common people have no choice but to follow their scholars, due to the saying of Allah the Exalted But the student of knowledge must follow the truth wherever it is, and not argue with the saying of one who is not infallible. No one is infallible except the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), because the saying of every person is subject to error.