Reading from the author's text with commentary and collation of manuscripts
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon His servant and messenger, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
As for what follows: Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said in *Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim*: "And whoever among the grammarians claims that it is not permissible to coordinate with a prepositional pronoun unless the preposition is repeated, he only said this because he saw that most speech repeats the preposition. Otherwise, coordination without it has been heard in Arabic speech—both prose and poetry—as Sibawayhi reported: 'There is no one in it other than him and his horse.' There is no necessity here, as is claimed in such cases in poetry. And because it is established in the authentic narrations that 'Umar said:Sahih al-Bukhari 1010 and they were given rain. And in al-Nasa'i, al-Tirmidhi, and others: the hadith of the blind man, which al-Tirmidhi graded as authentic: ".
The Shaykh : I have it, and he prays.
The reader: He pointed to it.
The Shaykh : Manuscript?
The reader: Yes, in T and B: and he prays.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The reader: ". And the answer to this"
The student: To fulfill it, I turn to You through him to my Lord to fulfill it.
The Shaykh : I turn to You through him to Allah.
The student: To fulfill my need.
The Shaykh : To fulfill it, I have it with a kasrah, you have it with a taa.
The reader: With a taa.
The Shaykh : And did he not indicate a manuscript?
The reader: No, he did not point.
The student: The yaa is with a kasrah, our Shaykh.
The Shaykh : How?
The student: The fulfillment of the supplication is from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in meaning.
The Shaykh : I turn to You through him to Allah.
The student: To my Lord in my need.
The Shaykh : To Allah or to my Lord?
The student: To my Lord.
The Shaykh : In my need.
The student: To fulfill it, if we said 'to fulfill it' it is problematic.
The Shaykh : 'To fulfill it' is problematic?! 'To fulfill it' is the problem, the opposite.
The reader: Should I correct my manuscript, O Shaykh?
The Shaykh : In any case, if we say 'to fulfill it' it means Allah, Mighty and Majestic. If we say 'to fulfill it' it means to call upon Allah to fulfill it, there is an interpretation. In any case, return to the original, al-Tirmidhi is referred to, he is referred to by the one who finds it difficult.
The reader: "And the answer to this is to say: First: There is no doubt that Allah has made a right for His believing servants upon Himself, as He the Exalted said[Ar-Rum 30:47], and as He the Exalted said ".
The Shaykh : Meaning Shaykh al-Islam intended to the end of the verse [Al-An'am 6:54] meaning mercy to you if you do that. Yes.
The reader: "And in the two Sahihs:"
The Shaykh : Do you have 'and do not associate' or 'do not associate'?
The student: Do not associate.
The Shaykh : With a waw?
The student: Without a waw.
The Shaykh : Without a waw, I have it without a waw. Yes.
The reader: "As-Sunan al-Kubra lil-Nasa'i 64:671. So this is a right that became obligatory by His perfect words and His true promise.
And the scholars agreed on the obligation of what is obligated by His true promise, and they differed: does He obligate it upon Himself? There are two opinions. And whoever permitted that argued with His saying, the Exalted:, and with His saying in the authentic hadith: Sahih Muslim 2577a, and the discussion of this is detailed in another place.
As for obligating upon Him, the Exalted and Sublime, and prohibition by analogy to His creation, this is the saying of the Qadariyyah, and it is an innovated saying that contradicts the sound transmitted and the clear rational.
And the people of the Sunnah are agreed that He, the Exalted, is the Creator of all things and their King, and that what He willed happened and what He did not will did not happen, and that the servants do not obligate anything upon Him. For this reason, whoever among the people of the Sunnah said about the obligation, said: He wrote it upon Himself and forbade it upon Himself, not that the servant himself has a right upon Allah, as a created being has upon a created being. For Allah is the Bestower of all good upon the servants, He is their Creator, He is the one who sent the messengers to them, and He is the one who facilitated for them faith and righteous deeds. And whoever imagines from the Qadariyyah, the Mu'tazilah, and their like that they have a right upon Him of the kind that a hired worker has upon the one who hired him, is ignorant in that".
The Shaykh : So if we asked a questioner: Is there a right obligatory upon Allah?
The answer: If He obligated it upon Himself, then it is a right, otherwise not. For this reason, Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"The servants have no obligatory right upon Him *** He is the most deserving of the great reward
No, and no deed is lost with Him *** If it is with sincerity and excellence"
It is said: If you meant by your saying 'Is there anything obligatory upon Allah' that we obligate something upon Allah, then no.
And if you meant that Allah obligated it upon Himself, then this is a right, because Allah said: and He forbade oppression upon Himself, and He does what He wills.
And these two verses mentioned by Ibn al-Qayyim qualify the saying of the other:
"The servants have no obligatory right upon Him *** No, and no deed is lost with Him"
For what Shaykh Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) qualified is the correct, for this reason he said after that:
"If they are punished, it is by His justice *** Or if they are blessed, it is by His favor, and favor is for the Bestower". Yes.
The reader: "And if that is the case, there is no means to Him"
The Shaykh : If someone says: Does not the wisdom of Allah obligate what the situation requires, because wisdom is placing things in their proper places?
The answer: Yes, it is so. But whoever says that what we see as obligatory by the requirement of wisdom is the requirement of wisdom, and this is an important issue, and this is what deceived the Qadariyyah and the Mu'tazilah in their saying: It is obligatory upon Him to do the most beneficial and the good, meaning He leaves the good for the most beneficial and leaves the corrupt for the good. They said: Because this is the requirement of wisdom that it be so, because it is not wisdom for the doer to turn from the most beneficial to the good, or from the good to the corrupt.
It is said that this is also an error, because we may perceive that this is the wisdom, but the wisdom is the opposite of that. Consequently, we do not obligate anything upon Allah, even by virtue of His name, the Wise (Mighty and Majestic). Why? Because we do not know the wisdom. We might say, for example: It is wise for Allah to send down rain during a drought so that people, lands, and animals may benefit, but in reality, that is not part of the wisdom. However, if Allah obligates something upon Himself, we must say: Yes, it is obligatory for Allah to do this because He said so and obligated it upon Himself.
This statement is the middle position between two contradictory views:
One view states that nothing is ever obligatory upon Allah (Mighty and Majestic), neither by virtue of wisdom nor anything else; He acts merely by will.
The other view, which is the doctrine of the Mu'tazilah, holds that it is obligatory for Him to do what is most beneficial over what is beneficial, and what is beneficial over what is corrupt. Al-Safarini alluded to this in his creed, saying:
"And it is not obligatory upon Him to do the most beneficial, *** Nor is it obligatory to do the beneficial; woe to the one who does not succeed".
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send prayers and blessings upon His servant and messenger, our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
As for what follows: Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said in *Iqtida' al-Sirat al-Mustaqim*: "And whoever among the grammarians claims that it is not permissible to coordinate with a prepositional pronoun unless the preposition is repeated, he only said this because he saw that most speech repeats the preposition. Otherwise, coordination without it has been heard in Arabic speech—both prose and poetry—as Sibawayhi reported: 'There is no one in it other than him and his horse.' There is no necessity here, as is claimed in such cases in poetry. And because it is established in the authentic narrations that 'Umar said:
O Allah! We used to ask our Prophet to invoke You for rain, and You would bless us with rain, and now we ask his uncle to invoke You for rain. O Allah ! Bless us with rain.
اللهم إنا كنا إذا أجدبنا نتوسل إليك بنبينا فتسقينا، وإنا نتوسل إليك بعم نبينا فاسقناThat he came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and asked him to call upon Allah to restore his sight, so he ordered him to perform ablution, pray two units of prayer, and say:
أنه جاء إلى النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم فسأله أن يدعو الله أن يرد بصره عليه، فأمره أن يتوضأ فيصلي ركعتين ويقولThe Shaykh : I have it, and he prays.
The reader: He pointed to it.
The Shaykh : Manuscript?
The reader: Yes, in T and B: and he prays.
The Shaykh : Yes.
The reader: "
O Allah, I ask You and turn to You through Your Prophet Muhammad, the Prophet of Mercy. O Muhammad, O Prophet of Allah, I turn to You through him to my Lord to fulfill my need. O Allah, make him an intercessor for me. So he called upon Allah, and Allah restored his sight.
اللهم إني أسألك وأتوجه إليك بنبيك محمد نبي الرحمة، يا محمد، يا نبي الله، إني أتوجه بك إلى ربي في حاجتي لتقضيها، اللهم فشفعه في، فدعا الله، فرد الله عليه بصرهThe student: To fulfill it, I turn to You through him to my Lord to fulfill it.
The Shaykh : I turn to You through him to Allah.
The student: To fulfill my need.
The Shaykh : To fulfill it, I have it with a kasrah, you have it with a taa.
The reader: With a taa.
The Shaykh : And did he not indicate a manuscript?
The reader: No, he did not point.
The student: The yaa is with a kasrah, our Shaykh.
The Shaykh : How?
The student: The fulfillment of the supplication is from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in meaning.
The Shaykh : I turn to You through him to Allah.
The student: To my Lord in my need.
The Shaykh : To Allah or to my Lord?
The student: To my Lord.
The Shaykh : In my need.
The student: To fulfill it, if we said 'to fulfill it' it is problematic.
The Shaykh : 'To fulfill it' is problematic?! 'To fulfill it' is the problem, the opposite.
The reader: Should I correct my manuscript, O Shaykh?
The Shaykh : In any case, if we say 'to fulfill it' it means Allah, Mighty and Majestic. If we say 'to fulfill it' it means to call upon Allah to fulfill it, there is an interpretation. In any case, return to the original, al-Tirmidhi is referred to, he is referred to by the one who finds it difficult.
The reader: "And the answer to this is to say: First: There is no doubt that Allah has made a right for His believing servants upon Himself, as He the Exalted said
and incumbent upon Us was support of the believers.
وكان حقًا علينا نصر المؤمنينYour Lord has written mercy upon Himself
كتب ربكم على نفسه الرحمةThe Shaykh : Meaning Shaykh al-Islam intended
Your Lord has written mercy upon Himself
كتب ربكم على نفسه الرحمةthat any of you who does wrong out of ignorance and then repents after that and corrects himself - indeed, He is Forgiving and Merciful."
أنه من عمل منكم سوءً بجهالة ثم تاب من بعده وأصلح فأنه غفور رحيمThe reader: "And in the two Sahihs:
That the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to Mu'adh ibn Jabal while he was riding behind him: "O Mu'adh, do you know what is the right of Allah upon His servants?" I said: "Allah and His Messenger know best." He said: "His right upon them is that they worship Him and associate nothing with Him. Do you know what is the right of the servants
أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال لمعاذ بن جبل وهو رديفه: يا معاذ، أتدري ما حق الله على عباده ؟ قلت : الله ورسوله أعلم. قال : حقه عليهم أن يعبدوه، ولا يشركوا به شيئاً. أتدري ما حق العبادThe Shaykh : Do you have 'and do not associate' or 'do not associate'?
The student: Do not associate.
The Shaykh : With a waw?
The student: Without a waw.
The Shaykh : Without a waw, I have it without a waw. Yes.
The reader: "
upon Allah if they do that?" I said: "Allah and His Messenger know best." He said: "Their right upon Him is that He does not punish them.
أتدري ما حق العباد على الله إذا فعلوا ذلك ؟ قلت : الله ورسوله أعلم. قال : حقهم عليه أن لا يعذبهمAnd the scholars agreed on the obligation of what is obligated by His true promise, and they differed: does He obligate it upon Himself? There are two opinions. And whoever permitted that argued with His saying, the Exalted:
Your Lord has written mercy upon Himself
كتب ربكم على نفسه الرحمةI have forbidden oppression for Myself and have made it forbidden amongst you
إني حرمت الظلم على نفسي وجعلته بينكم محرماAs for obligating upon Him, the Exalted and Sublime, and prohibition by analogy to His creation, this is the saying of the Qadariyyah, and it is an innovated saying that contradicts the sound transmitted and the clear rational.
And the people of the Sunnah are agreed that He, the Exalted, is the Creator of all things and their King, and that what He willed happened and what He did not will did not happen, and that the servants do not obligate anything upon Him. For this reason, whoever among the people of the Sunnah said about the obligation, said: He wrote it upon Himself and forbade it upon Himself, not that the servant himself has a right upon Allah, as a created being has upon a created being. For Allah is the Bestower of all good upon the servants, He is their Creator, He is the one who sent the messengers to them, and He is the one who facilitated for them faith and righteous deeds. And whoever imagines from the Qadariyyah, the Mu'tazilah, and their like that they have a right upon Him of the kind that a hired worker has upon the one who hired him, is ignorant in that".
The Shaykh : So if we asked a questioner: Is there a right obligatory upon Allah?
The answer: If He obligated it upon Himself, then it is a right, otherwise not. For this reason, Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said:
"The servants have no obligatory right upon Him *** He is the most deserving of the great reward
No, and no deed is lost with Him *** If it is with sincerity and excellence"
It is said: If you meant by your saying 'Is there anything obligatory upon Allah' that we obligate something upon Allah, then no.
And if you meant that Allah obligated it upon Himself, then this is a right, because Allah said:
He has written mercy upon Himself.
كتب على نفسه الرحمةAnd these two verses mentioned by Ibn al-Qayyim qualify the saying of the other:
"The servants have no obligatory right upon Him *** No, and no deed is lost with Him"
For what Shaykh Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) qualified is the correct, for this reason he said after that:
"If they are punished, it is by His justice *** Or if they are blessed, it is by His favor, and favor is for the Bestower". Yes.
The reader: "And if that is the case, there is no means to Him"
The Shaykh : If someone says: Does not the wisdom of Allah obligate what the situation requires, because wisdom is placing things in their proper places?
The answer: Yes, it is so. But whoever says that what we see as obligatory by the requirement of wisdom is the requirement of wisdom, and this is an important issue, and this is what deceived the Qadariyyah and the Mu'tazilah in their saying: It is obligatory upon Him to do the most beneficial and the good, meaning He leaves the good for the most beneficial and leaves the corrupt for the good. They said: Because this is the requirement of wisdom that it be so, because it is not wisdom for the doer to turn from the most beneficial to the good, or from the good to the corrupt.
It is said that this is also an error, because we may perceive that this is the wisdom, but the wisdom is the opposite of that. Consequently, we do not obligate anything upon Allah, even by virtue of His name, the Wise (Mighty and Majestic). Why? Because we do not know the wisdom. We might say, for example: It is wise for Allah to send down rain during a drought so that people, lands, and animals may benefit, but in reality, that is not part of the wisdom. However, if Allah obligates something upon Himself, we must say: Yes, it is obligatory for Allah to do this because He said so and obligated it upon Himself.
This statement is the middle position between two contradictory views:
One view states that nothing is ever obligatory upon Allah (Mighty and Majestic), neither by virtue of wisdom nor anything else; He acts merely by will.
The other view, which is the doctrine of the Mu'tazilah, holds that it is obligatory for Him to do what is most beneficial over what is beneficial, and what is beneficial over what is corrupt. Al-Safarini alluded to this in his creed, saying:
"And it is not obligatory upon Him to do the most beneficial, *** Nor is it obligatory to do the beneficial; woe to the one who does not succeed".