Benefits in Knowing Allah (Mighty and Majestic)

The Shaykh : And in the hadith is evidence refuting the one who says: The first obligatory duty upon a person is knowledge before belief, meaning that we first call people to know and learn, and then afterwards they believe.
And more corrupt than that is the statement of the one who says: The first obligatory duty upon a person is doubt, that he should first doubt and then look at the signs to remove this doubt. This statement is among the most false statements; rather, it is the falsest statement I have heard. For the one who throws himself into the mud to get used to how to get out of the mud, does he feel safe that he will sink into the mud or not? He does not feel safe. We say to this speaker: First doubt, then he doubts, and then he is unable to reach certainty, so he remains in doubt. We ask Allah for safety from these statements. The reason for these statements is the deviation of the fitrah (innate natural disposition) and nature in these people, so they think that people are like them. But in reality, people are created upon the fitrah; they do not need to be told, "Look at who created the heavens and the earth," because this is a matter known by fitrah. Rather, we say, "Worship the One who created the heavens and the earth, and worship Him alone." Yes, if a person needs to look, then we inform him, such as a person who grew up in a communist country where they do not know a Lord or a God, and they are like livestock. For these people, we may need to make them know Allah first, and then call them to tawhid (the oneness of Allah) second. But do the People of the Book need to be made to know Allah or not? They do not need it, because they have knowledge of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Rather, they know the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) as they know their own sons. So the first thing we call people to is the tawhid of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), before knowledge, because this is a fitrah matter, unless a person is immersed in a people who have corrupted his fitrah, in which case we make him know Allah first and then call to the tawhid of Allah. As for the statement that the obligatory duty is doubt first, then knowledge second, then belief third, this is among the falsest statements; rather, it is the falsest statement I have heard. Good.
And in the hadith: His saying: Some people have used this as evidence that the first thing is knowledge, based on his saying: But we mentioned earlier that the hadith was narrated with multiple wordings, and the most complete of these wordings is his second wording: This is the wording with which the hadith was fully arranged. And on this basis, we say that this wording which the author mentioned here is transmitted by meaning, and that his saying So he informed them that He made obligatory upon them, and so on. This does not need explanation and is well known and has been mentioned before. And in his saying in the hadith: "Zakah in their wealth," this wording indicates that zakah is obligatory in wealth, and it is so. Therefore, on the stronger opinion, it is not a condition for its obligation that the owner of the wealth be a mukallaf (one of legal age and sound mind), i.e., an adult and sane person. So it is obligatory in the wealth of a child and in the wealth of a lunatic.
And his saying: The intended meaning of "rich" is: one who possesses a nisab (minimum threshold for zakah) subject to zakah. As for one who owns real estate, even if it is much, he is not considered rich regarding the obligation of zakah upon him, because on the stronger opinion, zakah is not obligatory in real estate.
And in the hadith also: This is evidence that charity is distributed among its recipients by individuals, not as a group. His saying, Exalted is He: is to clarify the type of recipients, and it is not intended that we must include all these categories with the zakah. The scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) differed on this issue despite the existence of this text. Some said, "We must divide the zakah into eight portions, with a portion for each of the eight categories." Others said, "In addition to that, what came in the plural form in addition to these categories requires that we give to three of them." And on this basis, the obligation would be to give to three poor people, three needy people, three workers on it, three debtors, three whose hearts are to be reconciled, and three in the cause of Allah and the wayfarer: this is a clarification that it is valid with one person. But the stronger opinion is: that the intended meaning in clarifying the recipients is not the obligation of spending on all of them, as evidenced by this hadith regarding "their poor."
And the hadith has benefits that have been discussed previously, and what is specific to this chapter is his saying: .

The questioner : ...

The Shaykh : Yes, it is correct, because if someone said that the address is not directed to anyone except the mukallaf (one of legal age and sound mind) in the first place, if someone said that, it would be a strong point. But when he said "in their wealth" and said in the verse: it indicates that zakah is inherent in the wealth.