The benefits of the hadith: (… O Abu al-Mundhir, do you know which verse of the Book of Allah with you is the greatest? He said: I said: Allah and His Messenger know best. He said:)

The Shaykh : And in the hadith of Abu ibn Ka'b, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said to him , where he (may Allah be pleased with him) said that the greatest verse is the Verse of the Throne. The reason for this is that this verse contains attributes of Allah, all the attributes, because His saying, the Exalted, includes all the attributes. For this reason, some of the scholars of knowledge held, and it is reported in hadiths, that "the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting" is the Greatest Name, by which, if Allah is called, He responds, and if asked, He gives. So, looking at the noble verse, , and it is a necessary consequence, with no escape from it, for everyone who affirms the oneness of lordship. Indeed, whoever affirms the oneness of lordship must affirm the oneness of worship. For this reason, Allah, the Exalted, argues with these polytheists who associate partners with Allah in worship by their affirmation of lordship. And His saying, , "the Ever-Living" is one of the names of Allah, adorned with the definite article, which necessitates that He is the possessor of complete life, not preceded by non-existence and not followed by extinction, encompassing all the perfection of attributes. "The Ever-Living" is an attribute that is necessarily attached to Allah, Mighty and Majestic. And "the Self-Subsisting" means the One who sustains His servants, as He, the Exalted, said, . And He, the Exalted, is Self-Subsisting in Himself, so He is Self-Subsisting in Himself and subsisting over others. "The Self-Subsisting" is on the pattern of *fi'ul*, so it is a descriptive attribute established for Allah, Mighty and Majestic. With these two names, which encompass the great attributes, the magnitude of the Verse of the Throne becomes clear. Then He said, "no," , (Glorified and Exalted is He). And that is because sleep is an attribute of deficiency that only befalls one who is deficient in life, because he needs in sleep to remove the previous fatigue and renew the subsequent strength, so it is a proof of deficiency. For this reason, the people of Paradise do not sleep, and Allah, the Exalted, named sleep a death, and this is a proof of the deficiency of sleep, so He is exalted above it. If someone were to say, "Is it not an established rule that Allah, the Exalted, is not described with negation?" We say, yes, Allah is not described with pure negation, but every negation by which Allah described Himself means the perfection of its opposite. So, He does not sleep, and no drowsiness or sleep overtakes Him, because of the perfection of His life and the perfection of His self-subsistence. Because of the perfection of His life, He does not need sleep, because He is perfect in life, and because of His self-subsistence, because if He slept—may He be exalted and may He be far from that—what about the One who manages the affairs of the creatures? So He, (Exalted and Majestic is He), does not sleep, and no drowsiness overtakes Him either, which is the precursor to sleep. , this contains the generality of His dominion and His exclusivity with this generality. As for the generality, it is because "dominion" is a singular noun with a possessive, so it is for the generality. And as for the exclusivity, it is achieved by the fronting of the predicate, and "what", this, as is well known, is a relative pronoun that signifies generality. So in it is the generality of dominion and the exclusivity of Allah with it. The generality is from "what," the relative pronoun, and the second is from the fronting of the predicate. "What is in the heavens and what is in the earth," , this contains the sentence of the perfection of His authority. For the perfection of His authority, no one speaks, nor with what is good in the sight of Allah, except by the permission of Allah. And therefore, whenever a person is respected in a gathering, you find the people of the gathering silent, not speaking except where he speaks, as the poet said: "He lowers his eyes in modesty, and eyes are lowered in awe of him *** So he is not spoken to except when he smiles". So the gathering, whenever it contains one of authority, you find upon it awe and no speaking. So the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, is the King of kings and the greatest of kings in authority, so no one intercedes with Him except by His permission, (Exalted and Majestic is He), if He permits. And it is known that He does not permit except with two conditions: the first condition is His satisfaction with the intercessor, and the second is His satisfaction with the one for whom intercession is sought, as Allah, the Exalted, said, , and He, the Exalted, said, . For this reason, we find that the prophets (peace and blessings be upon them), when intercession is requested of them on the Day of Resurrection, they are shy to intercede because of the greatness of the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, in their hearts. So they fear that these things by which they excused themselves from intercession will prevent them from the acceptance of their intercession. , for the perfection?
The student: ...

The Shaykh : A mistake, for the perfection of His authority, no one speaks, nor with what is good for others, except by the permission of Allah, and there is no permission except with two conditions, which are the satisfaction of Allah with the intercessor and His satisfaction with the one for whom intercession is sought. , this contains the vastness of knowledge, because everything is either before us or behind us. So what has passed is?
The student: What has passed.

The Shaykh : What has passed is behind us, and what is to come is before us, and in this is the generality of the knowledge of Allah, the Exalted, of everything. , this sentence also, when the generality of the knowledge of Allah was mentioned, He, (Exalted and Majestic is He), clarified the deficiency of the knowledge of other than Allah, so He said, . And the word "of" in "of His knowledge" was said to mean "of their knowledge of it," and they do not encompass anything of their knowledge of it. And it was said that the meaning is "of what He knows, except what He wills." So on the first, the meaning is that we do not encompass anything of the names of Allah and His attributes except what He wills. And on the second, we do not encompass anything of the known things of Allah except what He wills. And the verse is compatible with both meanings, and both are correct, and one does not contradict the other, so it is taken to include both. , this is an explanation of His greatness, (Exalted and Majestic is He), and His majesty, and that His Footstool encompassed the heavens and the earth. And the intended meaning of the Footstool here is the place of the feet, as came from Ibn 'Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both), "the place of the feet of the Lord, Mighty and Majestic", and it is not the Throne, and it is not knowledge, as was said, because this is weak. As for the saying that His knowledge encompassed the heavens and the earth, it is said that this is sufficient for him, His saying, . And as for it being the Throne, it is because the evidence indicated that the Throne is other than the Footstool, so the Footstool is another creation that encompassed the heavens and the earth all of them, in their vastness and greatness. The Footstool encompasses them and is vast for them, as you say, "the vessel encompassed what was in it of food," meaning that the vessel is larger and more spacious than what is in it of food. So the Footstool encompassed the heavens and the earth. The Throne is much greater than the Footstool, as came in the hadith, . The ring of the armor is thrown into a desert; what is its proportion to the desert?
The student: Nothing.

The Shaykh : Nothing, and the excess of the Throne over the Footstool is like the excess of the desert over this ring. Allah is the Greatest! Great creations that we do not comprehend, and the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, is above that, and it is not possible to encompass Him, (Glorified and Exalted is He). , "does not weary Him" means it burdens Him, makes it heavy for Him, and tires Him. "Their preservation" means the preservation of the heavens and the earth, and that is for the perfection of His knowledge, His power, His authority, and other than that which preservation necessitates and entails. , "the Most High" by His essence and His attributes, so He is High by His essence above everything, (Exalted and Majestic is He), and He is High by His attributes, as He, the Exalted, said, . And He is likewise High by His names, as He, the Exalted, said, . And "the Magnificent" means the possessor of magnificence that no magnificence equals, and it undoubtedly contains wider than what we said, more and greater, for whoever reflects and contemplates. For this reason, this noble verse is the greatest verse in the Book of Allah. The greatest verse in the Book of Allah is the Verse of the Throne; there is no verse like it. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) affirmed Abu ibn Ka'b on that and said, . "Abu al-Mundhir" is in the place of the *kaf* (case marker). Forgive? Hmm?
The student: A vocative is in the accusative case.

The Shaykh : A vocative is in the accusative case, from which the *ya* of calling was deleted, and the original is "O Abu al-Mundhir." And in this is an indication that the kunya (patronymic) is an honor, because the context indicates that the Messenger honored this man. So the kunya of a person is an honor for him. And the poet says:
"I address him by his kunya when I call him to honor him *** And I do not address him by his title, for the title is a defect", but his saying "the title is a defect" is not correct, because the title does not imply praise or blame. Yes.