The benefits of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “Call them by their fathers; that is more just in the sight of Allah. But if you do not know their fathers, then they are your brothers in religion and your allies.”

And among the benefits of the noble verse that follows is the obligation to call a man by his father meaning, attribute them to their fathers in both word and reality. As for in word, you say, “O so-and-so, son of so-and-so,” attributing him to his father. And as for in reality, it is that you believe that true sonship belongs to whom? To the real father from whose loins the person was born, not to the father who claimed to be his father.
It is derived from the noble verse that a man should not be called by anyone other than his father, and this is of two types:
The first is that he is called by someone other than his father in both word and reality. This is not permissible; rather, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) made that to be from disbelief if a man claims to be the son of someone other than his father while he knows his father, for that is disbelief .
The second is that he is claimed to be the son of someone other than his father in word, but the rulings of sonship are not established at all for the one to whom he is claimed. We say that this is contrary to what Allah has commanded, but the scholars say that if a person becomes known by that name without regard to its rulings and implications, then it is permissible. They cited as an example al-Muqaddad ibn al-Aswad, for al-Aswad was not the father of al-Muqaddad ibn al-Aswad, but al-Aswad had adopted him, and he became known by this kunyah and remained so until Allah abrogated adoption, yet he remained known by it. They said that this does not harm because the rulings of adoption have been removed from him, and only the word remains. And even so, the best, without doubt, is that he be called by his father. But the problem is that when something becomes well-known and you describe it by what it is known for, confusion arises. Now, if we say, “Abd al-Rahman ibn Sakhr, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said such and such,” many people may not know who he is. But if I say, “Abu Hurayrah,” we all know him.
And in the noble verse is evidence that deeds differ in degree in the sight of Allah, due to His saying: meaning, it is more just. The explanation of this is that regarding this adopted man, if we attribute him to someone other than his father, is that injustice with regard to his father or not? It is injustice. How do you attribute him to a person from whose loins he did not come, and prohibit from his claim the one who came from his loins? This is undoubtedly injustice. Therefore, we said in the previous lesson that the name of superlative here does not imply that there is anything of justice in the other party, because there is no justice in attributing a person to someone other than his father. And we said that the benefit of the statement here is to clarify that this matter has reached the limit of justice, because this was brought with the name of superlative Did we take the sentence that follows?
The student: ...
The Shaykh : If he has a father, he is called by the brotherhood of religion and the alliance in religion, due to His saying: As for their being our brothers in religion, that is apparent. And as for their being our allies, if he is a freed slave of a person, he is his ally by virtue of the manumission. And if he is not a freed slave, he is his ally in religion, because the believers, as Allah the Exalted said: [Surat al-Tawbah: 71], so they are your brothers and your allies. So you call them, “O my brother.” Is it correct if I say, “O my brother’s son”? It is correct. And for this reason, we have not reached the reality. The author says: your paternal uncles, so he made the alliance here an alliance of kinship, not an alliance of religion. But there is something in the soul about this. The alliance is either an alliance of religion or an alliance of manumission. As for the alliance of manumission, it is clear that the freed slave is the ally of the one who freed him. And as for the alliance of religion, it is also apparent that every believer is the ally of his believing brother. As for the alliance of kinship, such as his saying, “your paternal uncles,” if the Arabic language allows such an expression, we accept it, because the Qur'an is Arabic, and there is no objection to one meaning having several expressions, or one expression having several meanings, provided there is no contradiction between them. Now, the time has ended.