Explanation of the Book of the Hearts-07a

The reciter: Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Karimah narrated to us, Khalid ibn Makhlad narrated to us, Sulayman ibn Bilal narrated to us, Shurayk ibn Abdullah ibn Abi Numayr narrated to us

The Shaykh : Notice, O Shaker, that perhaps you see that he knows this man who asked him, that he is turning away from the Hereafter, and he wants to give him advice. This may be appropriate for his speech. But with this, he should be met with kindness. And if he admonishes him, he should say, "Yes, may Allah make us and you among the successful in this world and the Hereafter," and the like of that. As for shocking him with this, it is not correct, and no. And perhaps the situation requires that one congratulated me, and I knew from him a turning away from righteous deeds. It may be appropriate that I say, after I answer his congratulation, "My brother, we ask Allah to make this success for us and for you in this world and the Hereafter." As for denying what is not correct, yes.
The reciter: From Ata from Abu Hurayrah, who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said:

The Shaykh : Allahu Akbar. This hadith is a great hadith. Al-Nawawi (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned it in *Al-Arba'in al-Nawawiyyah*. He says: Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says in the hadith that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) narrated from his Lord: "Whoever opposes My wali (close friend of Allah), I have declared war upon him." The wali (close friend of Allah) of Allah is the believing, pious person. This is how Allah (Mighty and Majestic) interpreted it in His saying: They are pure in their outward and inward aspects. They are pure in their inward aspects by what? By faith, because the place of faith is the heart. And they are pure in their outward aspects by taqwa (mindfulness of Allah). These are the awliya (close friends of Allah). The Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "Whoever is a believing, pious person, he is a wali (close friend of Allah)" This is the wali (close friend of Allah). And opposing him, its opposite is being a friend to him, meaning to be at war with him, to be at war with him, to hate him, to dislike him. This is the one who opposes the wali (close friend of Allah), let alone if he fights the wali (close friend of Allah). He has declared war on Allah, meaning he has informed Him that he is at war with Him. And whoever Allah is at war with, he is surely abandoned, and it is necessary. Then Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: A person draws near to Allah through acts of worship, some of which are obligatory and some are voluntary. And all the practical pillars of Islam contain both obligatory and voluntary acts. So prayer
The reciter: Obligatory and voluntary

The Shaykh : And zakah.
The reciter: Obligatory and voluntary

The Shaykh : And fasting
The reciter: Obligatory and voluntary

The Shaykh : and for the pilgrimage
The reciter: Obligatory and voluntary

The Shaykh : And most acts of worship are like this. Kindness is obligatory and voluntary, and maintaining family ties is obligatory and voluntary. But the obligatory acts are more beloved to Allah than the voluntary ones. So if a person prays four rak'ahs as a voluntary prayer, and the Zuhr prayer, the Zuhr prayer is more beloved to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) than these four voluntary rak'ahs. And what indicates this from the rational side is that Allah made these obligatory acts obligatory and bound the servants to them. So if His love for them were not stronger than His love for the voluntary acts, why would He not have made them obligatory for them? Good. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says: which are above the obligatory acts . So drawing near with voluntary acts is a cause for the love of Allah. And the causes for the love of Allah are many and varied, among them following the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) . So if a person increases in voluntary acts, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) loves him. I become his hearing. There is no doubt that the intended meaning is that Allah (the Exalted) guides this man in his hearing, so that he is successful and does not hear except good. I become his sight. He is guided in his looking and seeing, so that he does not see except good. And if he sees evil and idle talk, he turns away from it. And from that, for example, is the one who looks at books that have no benefit. This person has not been guided in his sight, because he saw something that has no good for him. And likewise, the one who hears words that do not benefit him in his religion has not been guided in his hearing. His hand with which he strikes, meaning that Allah makes him successful so that he does not do anything with his hand except what has good for him, because Allah (the Exalted) was the hand with which he strikes, so He guided him. And his foot with which he walks, likewise we say about it, he is guided so that he does not walk except to what has good and righteousness. And it is never possible for a deluded person of intellect to imagine that Allah is the very hearing and sight, and the hand and foot. Far be it from Him from that. And that is because He said, "I was his hearing," his hearing, and hearing is an attribute of the one who hears, and it is not possible that Allah (the Exalted) is an attribute in another. Sight is likewise, it is not possible that sight is in another. And then, the hearing of a person and his sight, and his hand, and his foot are created things, not eternal. And you now, the one who is twenty years old, twenty-five years ago was nothing mentioned, he did not exist, and nothing is known about him. So how can the Creator (Mighty and Majestic) be an attribute or a part of this man? This is not possible. And therefore, when the people of ta'til (denial of the divine attributes) argued against the people of the Sunnah that they attributed anthropomorphism in this hadith, they said, "We did not attribute anthropomorphism, because the apparent meaning that you thought is not apparent at all, so that we would say we went out from the apparent meaning. It is not apparent so that we would say we went out from it. And then, we, the people of the Sunnah, do not deny ta'wil (figurative interpretation) absolutely. Rather, we say that ta'wil (figurative interpretation) with evidence is the evidence, because if the texts indicate ta'wil (figurative interpretation), the implication of this text is what the other texts indicated, because the texts do not contradict each other. Clear. So if ta'wil (figurative interpretation) is with evidence, there is no problem. We say if you read, or if you want to read, it is outside the literal meaning of the word, but we have evidence. And at that time, we have not gone out from what Allah (the Exalted) intended with this verse, because we have evidence from the action of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), that if he wanted to read, he sought refuge, then he said. In the conditional clause of this man who draws near to Allah with voluntary acts, he says: If he asks Me, I will surely give to him. If someone says this is in its absolute sense, there is a consideration, because its apparent meaning is that if he asked Allah (the Exalted) for something that involves transgression, He would give it to him. And the answer to that is to say: Such a person cannot ask for something that involves transgression, because if he asked for something that involves transgression, yes, he would not have become one of the awliya (close friends of Allah), nor would he have become worthy of the love of Allah. So it is necessary that the asking here is asking for what is permissible to ask. And if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely protect him. Seeking refuge in Me means seeking safety from Me from something disliked, so I will protect him. So Allah combined for him the attainment of the desired in His saying, "If he asks Me, I will surely give to him," and the removal of the disliked in His saying, "If he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely protect him." Then He said: About His soul, meaning about taking His soul, by the evidence of His saying, "He dislikes death, and I dislike causing him distress." Meaning that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the Doer of what He wills, and this is without doubt. But He (Mighty and Majestic), out of His love for the believer, and I ask Allah to make me and you among them, hesitates whether to take his soul or not take it. Why? Because the believer dislikes death, and Allah (the Exalted) dislikes causing him distress. And does death distress him or not?
The reciter: It distresses him

The Shaykh : It certainly distresses him; it distresses him. The believer is distressed by death because he loves to remain in this world to increase in righteous deeds. The non-believer hates death because he wants to remain in this world to enjoy it. In any case, He says, “He hates death, and I hate to cause him distress.” So, from the man’s hatred of death, Allah hates to take his soul, because that distresses Him. But in another wording, , it is inevitable that if he does not die today, he will die tomorrow; this is a necessity. If that is the case, then Allah the Exalted does what His wisdom requires, and He takes his soul, because that is what wisdom requires. Some people have been confused by the description of Allah the Exalted with hesitation, but there is no difficulty in this, praise be to Allah. The source of hesitation is one of two things: either something related to the doer due to his ignorance of the consequences of matters, or something related to another for the benefit of that other. If it is something related to the doer because the consequences of matters are hidden from him, then this
The reader: is a deficiency

The Shaykh : is a deficiency, and it is impossible for Allah; this cause cannot be the source of hesitation in the case of Allah. The second source is what relates to the unseen; otherwise, Allah the Exalted knows what wisdom requires, so this occurs from Allah. The source of this, in reality, is mercy toward the other; the source is mercy toward the other. For this reason, He said, “He hates death, and I hate to cause him distress.” So this hesitation is an attribute of perfection, not an attribute of deficiency.
The reader: An attribute of perfection

The Shaykh : An attribute of perfection, as long as its source is mercy toward the other and compassion for him, then this is an attribute of perfection.
The reader: We have “his distress”

The Shaykh : Yes
The reader: We have “his distress” with the mīm,

The Shaykh : Yes, exactly, “his distress,” and it is so.