And both of them, meaning: both of the two meanings, are necessary for the other. For if the created thing is created by Allah, it is necessary that the action by which the created thing came into being is also created by Allah.
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The Shaykh : And both of them, meaning: both of the two meanings, are necessary for the other. For if the created thing is created by Allah, it is necessary that the action by which the created thing came into being is also created by Allah. So, it is obligatory to believe in these four pillars. Did the Muslim community, which faces the qiblah, agree on them? No, they differed in them, with some being extreme and others neglectful, some being deficient and others excessive.
The Jabriyyah were extreme in this, affirming all these four levels but with the claim of compulsion, meaning: that the human being is compelled in his action, having no choice or will whatsoever. So much so that they—meaning their extremists—made the action of the slave the very action of Allah. There is no doubt that this is an abhorrent statement and a lie, and that this easily leads to the claim of the unity of existence. It is an easy, short step, not a difficult ascent, to the claim of the unity of existence. If they say: the action of the human is the action of Allah, then all that remains is to say: and the human is Allah. These people say the human is compelled in his work and has no choice in it. There is no difference between a person who is thrown from a roof against his will and another who descends from the roof step by step; there is no difference between them, for all act without choice. It was said to them: this necessitates that Allah be unjust, in that He compels the slave to do evil deeds and punishes him for them. They said: Allah is not unjust if He does this, because everything is His property, and if He punishes the obedient one, He has acted in His property, and one who acts in his property is not unjust. Is that clear? This is their speech, but it is not correct. For we say: every rational person knows that if someone were to say: do such-and-such and I will give you ten dirhams for it, and he did it, but he was not given the ten dirhams, would this be injustice to him? Yes, every rational person says this is injustice. Even if it were his slave, he would be unjust to him because he promised him and then broke his promise. The second group went to the extreme by affirming the will of the slave, saying: the human is independent in his work, in will and action, and Allah has no least connection to it. These are the Qadariyyah, the Magians of the community. It has passed us in the first hadith that their extremists said: the command is new, meaning initiated, and Allah the Exalted has no knowledge of what the slaves do until it happens, then Allah knows it. As for the people of the Sunnah and the community, they believed in these four levels that we mentioned, and they believed that the slave has choice and will, and that the human knows the difference between the action he is compelled to do and the action he does by his own choice. So much so that Allah dropped the punishment and dropped the ruling of the action from one who was compelled to do it. The greatest of sins is disbelief, and if a human is compelled to it, no ruling is established for him and no punishment is established for him. And among the benefits of the hadith: that excellence in worship is the highest level of faith, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) described it as: you worship Allah as if you see Him. This is the worship of longing and seeking, because the one who worships Allah as if he sees Him is longing for the One he imagines he sees, and seeking Him. It is higher than the level of fleeing. Therefore he said: and if you do not see Him, then He sees you, so fear Him. So the first is the level of seeking, and the second is the level of fleeing. Thus, excellence in worship has two degrees: the first, which is the highest, is that you worship Allah as if you see Him. The second degree, which is lower than it, is: if you do not see Him, meaning if you do not worship Him in this description, then He sees you, so fear Him. And among the benefits of this hadith: that the Hour, no one knows when it will come except Allah. So no close angel and no sent prophet knows it. The closest of the angels, as far as we know, is Jibril (peace be upon him), as Allah the Exalted said:[At-Takwir 81:19-20] He described him as being with Allah, because he is the one in charge of the Throne (Exalted and Majestic is He). And the Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) is the best of Allah's messengers. So this close angel and this sent prophet do not know about the Hour. Therefore he said: the one asked about it is not more knowledgeable than the one asking. Thus, whoever claims to know the Hour is a liar, and whoever believes him is a disbeliever. The first is a liar and a disbeliever, the one who claims knowledge of the Hour, and the one who believes him is a disbeliever, a believer in disbelief, and I seek refuge in Allah. So no one knows when the Hour will stand except Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). And what was published in the newspaper, the newspaper al-Rawd al-Yusuf, in its issue published one or two issues ago, is disbelief, where they said about some of the foolish Westerners that the Hour will stand at the completion of two thousand, meaning seven years remaining or something like that. All of this is a lie and disbelief, and the one who believes in it is a disbeliever. And among the benefits of this hadith: that the Hour has portents and signs. Therefore he said: inform me about its signs, meaning: its signs indicating its nearness. And the scholars (may Allah have mercy on them) have written books and treatises on the portents of the Hour. But weak hadiths have come regarding the portents of the Hour in terms of their chain, although they are strong in terms of reality, because reality confirms them and testifies to them. Therefore, one must be cautious. But the correct portents, in their correctness, include: the prevalence of slaughter, meaning: killing. I have not known that killing increased in the last days like its increase in these days. Now, the fighting is in the republics that were Soviet republics at first, and also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and also in Somalia, and in many places. So a person is amazed, Glory be to Allah the Great, at the prevalence of killing, while the killer does not know for what he killed, and the killed does not know for what he was killed. Something boils in the hearts, then each one proceeds to kill.
Among the benefits of this hadith is that one of its signs is that a slave woman gives birth to her master. How can a slave woman give birth to her master? This wording was difficult for some scholars; what is its meaning? It was said: The meaning is that the slave woman is under the ownership of one of the kings, so he has intercourse with her, and she gives birth to a female slave. This slave girl is the daughter of the king, so she is a mistress to her mother; thus, the slave woman gave birth to her mistress. It was also said: The intended meaning is the category, not that a specific slave woman gives birth to a daughter of the king who becomes her mistress. Rather, the intended meaning is the category, meaning that the children of slave women become masters and kings. This is an allusion to the abundance and sufficiency of wealth, as evidenced by his statement: "And you will see the barefoot, naked, destitute shepherds competing in the construction of buildings." These are four descriptions, all of which indicate poverty. Then, after that, they compete in the construction of buildings. These are two types of the signs of the Hour. The barefoot are those who have no sandals; the naked are those who have no clothes; the destitute are poor; the shepherds of sheep have no civilization, they are not urban dwellers, but Bedouins. And yet, they come to the cities and compete in the construction of buildings. These descriptions have occurred, meaning that there were people in the desert in the past where you would find a boy tending the sheep, naked with no clothes at all, barefoot, and his father was poor, and he was also poor. Then things changed until these Bedouins became urbanized and began to compete in the construction of buildings. Now, does competing in the construction of buildings mean competing in height toward the sky, or does it include both height and beauty and decoration? It includes both, this and that. Among the benefits of this hadith is the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) eagerness to teach the Ummah, as he said to 'Umar: "Do you know who the questioner was?" Otherwise, the Companions were unaware of this and said, "This is a Bedouin who came, asked, and left." But after a while, he asked, "Do you know who the questioner was?" I said, "Allah and His Messenger know best." He said, "It was Jibril who came to you to teach you your religion." Among its benefits is the permissibility of combining Allah and His Messenger in matters related to the Shari'ah, as in his statement: "Allah and His Messenger know best." He did not say, "Then His Messenger." This is because the ruling of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is the ruling of Allah, and the knowledge of the Messenger regarding the Shari'ah is the knowledge of Allah. Therefore, they are mentioned together with the conjunction "and." Among the benefits of this hadith is that the questioner was a teacher. From where is this taken? From his statement: "Jibril came to you to teach you your religion." Because Jibril teaches, and he is truthful, but he did so in order to teach the people. A branch of this benefit is that it is recommended for a student of knowledge, if there is an issue that people need to know about, to ask about it so that people may benefit from it, even if he already knows it. By doing so, he becomes a teacher. Among the benefits of the hadith is that the cause has the ruling of the direct act. From where is this taken? From his statement: "To teach you." Although he did not teach directly, he was the cause. So the cause has the ruling of the direct act. As for liability (guarantee), you have learned that there is a detailed discussion on that.
The Jabriyyah were extreme in this, affirming all these four levels but with the claim of compulsion, meaning: that the human being is compelled in his action, having no choice or will whatsoever. So much so that they—meaning their extremists—made the action of the slave the very action of Allah. There is no doubt that this is an abhorrent statement and a lie, and that this easily leads to the claim of the unity of existence. It is an easy, short step, not a difficult ascent, to the claim of the unity of existence. If they say: the action of the human is the action of Allah, then all that remains is to say: and the human is Allah. These people say the human is compelled in his work and has no choice in it. There is no difference between a person who is thrown from a roof against his will and another who descends from the roof step by step; there is no difference between them, for all act without choice. It was said to them: this necessitates that Allah be unjust, in that He compels the slave to do evil deeds and punishes him for them. They said: Allah is not unjust if He does this, because everything is His property, and if He punishes the obedient one, He has acted in His property, and one who acts in his property is not unjust. Is that clear? This is their speech, but it is not correct. For we say: every rational person knows that if someone were to say: do such-and-such and I will give you ten dirhams for it, and he did it, but he was not given the ten dirhams, would this be injustice to him? Yes, every rational person says this is injustice. Even if it were his slave, he would be unjust to him because he promised him and then broke his promise. The second group went to the extreme by affirming the will of the slave, saying: the human is independent in his work, in will and action, and Allah has no least connection to it. These are the Qadariyyah, the Magians of the community. It has passed us in the first hadith that their extremists said: the command is new, meaning initiated, and Allah the Exalted has no knowledge of what the slaves do until it happens, then Allah knows it. As for the people of the Sunnah and the community, they believed in these four levels that we mentioned, and they believed that the slave has choice and will, and that the human knows the difference between the action he is compelled to do and the action he does by his own choice. So much so that Allah dropped the punishment and dropped the ruling of the action from one who was compelled to do it. The greatest of sins is disbelief, and if a human is compelled to it, no ruling is established for him and no punishment is established for him. And among the benefits of the hadith: that excellence in worship is the highest level of faith, because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) described it as: you worship Allah as if you see Him. This is the worship of longing and seeking, because the one who worships Allah as if he sees Him is longing for the One he imagines he sees, and seeking Him. It is higher than the level of fleeing. Therefore he said: and if you do not see Him, then He sees you, so fear Him. So the first is the level of seeking, and the second is the level of fleeing. Thus, excellence in worship has two degrees: the first, which is the highest, is that you worship Allah as if you see Him. The second degree, which is lower than it, is: if you do not see Him, meaning if you do not worship Him in this description, then He sees you, so fear Him. And among the benefits of this hadith: that the Hour, no one knows when it will come except Allah. So no close angel and no sent prophet knows it. The closest of the angels, as far as we know, is Jibril (peace be upon him), as Allah the Exalted said:
(19) [That] indeed, the Qur'an is a word [conveyed by] a noble messenger (20) [Who is] possessed of power and with the Owner of the Throne
إنه لقول رسول كريم ذي قوة عند ذي العرشAmong the benefits of this hadith is that one of its signs is that a slave woman gives birth to her master. How can a slave woman give birth to her master? This wording was difficult for some scholars; what is its meaning? It was said: The meaning is that the slave woman is under the ownership of one of the kings, so he has intercourse with her, and she gives birth to a female slave. This slave girl is the daughter of the king, so she is a mistress to her mother; thus, the slave woman gave birth to her mistress. It was also said: The intended meaning is the category, not that a specific slave woman gives birth to a daughter of the king who becomes her mistress. Rather, the intended meaning is the category, meaning that the children of slave women become masters and kings. This is an allusion to the abundance and sufficiency of wealth, as evidenced by his statement: "And you will see the barefoot, naked, destitute shepherds competing in the construction of buildings." These are four descriptions, all of which indicate poverty. Then, after that, they compete in the construction of buildings. These are two types of the signs of the Hour. The barefoot are those who have no sandals; the naked are those who have no clothes; the destitute are poor; the shepherds of sheep have no civilization, they are not urban dwellers, but Bedouins. And yet, they come to the cities and compete in the construction of buildings. These descriptions have occurred, meaning that there were people in the desert in the past where you would find a boy tending the sheep, naked with no clothes at all, barefoot, and his father was poor, and he was also poor. Then things changed until these Bedouins became urbanized and began to compete in the construction of buildings. Now, does competing in the construction of buildings mean competing in height toward the sky, or does it include both height and beauty and decoration? It includes both, this and that. Among the benefits of this hadith is the Prophet's (peace and blessings be upon him) eagerness to teach the Ummah, as he said to 'Umar: "Do you know who the questioner was?" Otherwise, the Companions were unaware of this and said, "This is a Bedouin who came, asked, and left." But after a while, he asked, "Do you know who the questioner was?" I said, "Allah and His Messenger know best." He said, "It was Jibril who came to you to teach you your religion." Among its benefits is the permissibility of combining Allah and His Messenger in matters related to the Shari'ah, as in his statement: "Allah and His Messenger know best." He did not say, "Then His Messenger." This is because the ruling of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is the ruling of Allah, and the knowledge of the Messenger regarding the Shari'ah is the knowledge of Allah. Therefore, they are mentioned together with the conjunction "and." Among the benefits of this hadith is that the questioner was a teacher. From where is this taken? From his statement: "Jibril came to you to teach you your religion." Because Jibril teaches, and he is truthful, but he did so in order to teach the people. A branch of this benefit is that it is recommended for a student of knowledge, if there is an issue that people need to know about, to ask about it so that people may benefit from it, even if he already knows it. By doing so, he becomes a teacher. Among the benefits of the hadith is that the cause has the ruling of the direct act. From where is this taken? From his statement: "To teach you." Although he did not teach directly, he was the cause. So the cause has the ruling of the direct act. As for liability (guarantee), you have learned that there is a detailed discussion on that.