Some people say upon their death, "I am dying upon the creed of the old women of Nishapur."

The Shaykh : You see, Salim, some of the people of *kalam* (theology) say upon death, "I did this and that, I researched and I reflected, and here I am dying upon my mother's creed," or he says, "I am dying upon the creed of the old women of Nishapur." The old women have a better creed than the people of *kalam*. And the truth, I tell you, is that if he opens for himself the door of *kalam* and the door of appealing to reason regarding the attributes of Allah, he will surely go astray. The sound path is to follow only what came in the Book and the Sunnah, and not to intervene with reason, because intervening with reason in these matters is very, very difficult. And yet, we say, praise be to Allah, the attributes of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) contain no deficiency, neither according to the textual evidence nor the rational evidence.

The questioner : Did Allah obligate us to ask about His attributes?

The Shaykh : How?

The questioner : Did Allah obligate us to describe Allah, to describe His essence, and to think about how Allah is, or how His limbs are?

The Shaykh : I seek refuge in Allah.

The questioner : This is what we are obligated to do, and we believe with complete faith that on the Day of Resurrection we will not be asked about that.

The Shaykh : No, we are not asked about them. We are asked if we delved into them. If we delved into them, then we are in danger, and if we are saved from it, that is safety.
The time is up. Let us return to the lesson. All right.