The Meaning of the Poet's Words: "And the enemy came to their weapons, so *** they were wounded by them in the absence of the knights"
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The Shaykh : Then Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned that the enemy came to their weapons and fought them with them in the absence of the swordsmen. How is that? He said, the people of *takhyyil* (who hold that the Hereafter has no reality) were answered by the people of *ta'til* (denial of the divine attributes). They said, "How can it not have a reality when the messengers have brought it? The messengers have brought it, and there is nothing preventing it. So the evidence establishing it is present and the obstacle is absent. When the evidence establishing it is present and the obstacle is absent, one must affirm what the evidence necessitates." So the people of *takhyyil* said to them, "Fine, do you agree with this principle?" They said, "Yes, and we will use it as an argument against you." They said, "Then we will use it as an argument against you, for the Qur'an and the Sunnah have come with affirming the attributes, and this is establishing evidence, and there is no opposing obstacle. So it is obligatory for you to affirm the attributes. You are either to affirm the attributes and make the door one, or you are to deny the Resurrection. We did not deny the Resurrection and say that it is merely imagination or metaphor or the like, except where we found you denying the attributes, even though the texts regarding the attributes in the Qur'an and the Sunnah are far more numerous than the texts regarding the Resurrection, far more numerous. So how did you justify for yourselves denying the attributes and interpreting their texts, or rather distorting their texts, and preventing us from interpreting the verses? Did you finish?"
The student: The Resurrection.
The Shaykh : The Resurrection. Now, how did the enemies, who are disbelievers by consensus, take the weapons of the Mu'tazilah here? And they wounded them with them. This is the meaning of the author's (may Allah have mercy on him) words:
"And the enemy came to their weapons, so *** they were wounded by them in the absence of the knights"
Who are the knights in this matter?
The student: The people of the Sunnah.
The Shaykh : The people of the Sunnah, who affirm this and that, and say, "We do not contradict ourselves. We say that all of it is truth. The attributes of our Lord are truth, and the Hereafter is truth."
The student: The Resurrection.
The Shaykh : The Resurrection. Now, how did the enemies, who are disbelievers by consensus, take the weapons of the Mu'tazilah here? And they wounded them with them. This is the meaning of the author's (may Allah have mercy on him) words:
"And the enemy came to their weapons, so *** they were wounded by them in the absence of the knights"
Who are the knights in this matter?
The student: The people of the Sunnah.
The Shaykh : The people of the Sunnah, who affirm this and that, and say, "We do not contradict ourselves. We say that all of it is truth. The attributes of our Lord are truth, and the Hereafter is truth."