Explanation of the author's statement: And from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said

The Shaykh : And from Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her): that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Yatlamas" means to seek, and from this is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): meaning seek it. And "the pleasure of Allah" means the causes of His pleasure, the causes by which He is pleased. Yes, and the "ba" indicates exchange, meaning that he sought what pleases Allah even if the people are displeased with it, in exchange for this pleasure. The answer to the condition is this is the answer to the condition, the answer to "Allah is pleased with him." It is clear that Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) is pleased with the servant if the servant seeks the pleasure of his Lord with a sincere intention. Allah is pleased with him because Allah the Exalted is more generous than His servant. But how does He make the people pleased with him? It means that Allah casts into their hearts pleasure with him, because the hearts are between two fingers of the fingers of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), and He turns them as He wills. So if you please Allah, Allah will make the people pleased with you and suffice you from their burden, and the one who used to blame you among the people will become one who praises you, because you sought the pleasure of Allah and it did not matter to you that the people be displeased with you in what pleases Allah. The apparent meaning of this hadith is generality, so even if the people were your parents, if you seek the pleasure of Allah through their displeasure, then that is what is obligatory upon you, and it will please Allah with you regarding your parents. And of this type is if your mother says to you, "Do not visit your maternal uncles," because there is enmity between her and them, between her and her sisters, and she says to her son, "Do not visit your maternal uncles." Does he obey her?
The student: No.

The Shaykh : She gets angry at him. Answer firmly. And if she says, "Do not visit your maternal uncles," and if you visit them, she will cut you off. She says, "If you visit them, I will cut you off."
The student: Does he visit them or not?

The Shaykh : Does he visit them or not?
The student: He visits them.

The Shaykh : He visits them, because visiting them is maintaining family ties, and maintaining family ties is among what pleases Allah, even if she is displeased with you. So now you have sought the pleasure of Allah through the displeasure of the people, and it is only a short time until her displeasure turns into pleasure.
The student: Now it has become maintaining family ties, and here the family tie is cut.

The Shaykh : Yes, but cutting the family tie without right—she is the one who cut it, I did not cut it. I visited my maternal uncles and came to kiss her head and feet and say, "O my mother, be pleased with me," and she says, "No." Yes, did I cut her off? She is the one who cut me off. In reality, I did not go to withhold the favor from her and give it to others. Yes, suppose I have one hundred riyals, either I maintain my mother or I maintain my maternal uncles, which is more deserving? My mother. This is disobedience. She says, "Do not visit them." No, this is certainly not something to be obeyed in. And Allah the Mighty and Majestic says: "Jahidaka" means exerting effort and energy to make you associate partners with Allah, so do not obey them.
The student: Can he visit them without them knowing?

The Shaykh : Yes, let us leave aside that he uses wisdom. There is no harm in using wisdom; wisdom must be used. He visits them in secret, and there is no blame on him. But the point is if she learns of this, or if he knows... she learns that he visited them. The important thing is that we say, the generality of his statement in the hadith: does it include such a situation or not? Because the hadith is general. As for Allah being pleased with him, you have known the reason for that, because Allah the Mighty and Majestic is more generous than His servant, so whoever does a deed for Him, He rewards him. And as for Allah making the people pleased with him, it is because the hearts are in the hand of Allah the Mighty and Majestic, and He is the One who turns them as He wills.
"Yatlamas" means to seek. "The pleasure of the people through the displeasure of Allah" means he sought what pleases the people even if it displeases Allah. The result is that he is treated with the opposite of his intention and is deprived of what he wants. For this reason, he says: This is the punishment, and may Allah protect us, of the one who seeks the pleasure of the people through the displeasure of Allah. For example, if someone orders you to commit a sin from among the sins, and you fear that if you do not carry it out, he will be angry with you, and you commit the sin to please him, it means that you sought the pleasure of the people through the displeasure of Allah. The punishment is that Allah is displeased with you and makes the people displeased with you. These people are displeased with you, and this is an observed matter. How many people have been dealt with harshly by those who obey them in disobedience to Allah, and may Allah protect us. Whoever this is who orders disobedience to Allah, do not obey him, for Allah the Exalted will be displeased with you and will make the people displeased with you. The relevance of this hadith to the heading is apparent in the first sentence or the second?
The student: The second one.

The Shaykh : In the second. Fear: he seeks the pleasure of the people out of fear of them, so that they are pleased with him out of fear of their anger at him and their displeasure with him. So Allah is displeased with him and makes the people displeased with him.
And in this hadith is evidence for the obligation of a person seeking what pleases Allah, even if creation is displeased, because the One who benefits you and harms you is Allah the Mighty and Majestic.
And in it is also evidence that it is not permissible for a person to seek what displeases Allah in order to please the people, whoever this man may be. Yes.
The student: The sky does not send down gold upon him.

The Shaykh : Yes, but the provision of Allah is limited to this person. You say, "The sky does not send down gold upon him," meaning it implies that he should let the people be, or...
The student: Allah is sufficient.

The Shaykh : We say that the provision is not dependent on this man whom you feared... You have it... You have it. You only seek the pleasure of Allah and no one matters to you. And in this hadith is evidence for what the people of the Sunnah and the community held regarding affirming pleasure and displeasure for Allah. And you have known that the people of figurative interpretation, or more correctly, the people of denial of the divine attributes, deny that. They say that Allah cannot be displeased or angry, because anger means the boiling of the blood of the heart for the sake of revenge, and this is not befitting of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). But they erred in that they understood from the text a defective meaning that it does not indicate. They understood from the text that the anger of Allah or the displeasure of Allah is like the anger of the created being, so they denied it. And this is certainly an error on their part, because this interpretation of anger is the anger of whom?
The student: The created beings.

The Shaykh : The anger of the created beings. And we say to them also, we now respond to them with two things: by denial and by refutation. By denial, we deny that the meaning of anger attributed to Allah the Mighty and Majestic is like the anger of the created being, that it is the boiling of the blood of the heart. And by refutation, we say, you have affirmed for Allah a will. Who are we speaking with?
The student: The Asha'irah.

The Shaykh : With the Asha'irah. You have affirmed for Allah a will, and the will is the inclination of the soul to bring about a benefit or repel a harm, and the Lord the Mighty and Majestic is not befitting with that. So if they say, "This is the will of the created being," we say, "And the anger you mentioned is the anger of the created being." And then know or be aware that every person who invalidates the apparent meanings of the texts with rational inferences, these inferences are invalid. And the first aspect of their invalidity is that they negate the indication of the texts.
And secondly: that they attribute to Allah without knowledge, because the one who sends the apparent text to another meaning, we say to him, who informed you that Allah intended this meaning rather than the apparent text? And in it is also an injury to the texts, where they believed that they indicate likening Allah to creation, because they did not interpret it except for this to be its meaning. So what was understood from the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger is nothing but disbelief and misguidance, or did you not realize this? They did not understand from it anything but disbelief and misguidance, which is likening the Creator to the created. So because of this false understanding, they interpret to these meanings. And in it is also an insult to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and his Rightly Guided Caliphs, because we say, do the meanings to which you directed the texts, does the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) know them or not? If they say they do not know them, then they have accused them of deficiency. And if they say they know them but did not explain them to the people, then they have accused them of negligence and betrayal. And therefore, do not be shocked by a text that indicates an attribute for Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). Do not be shocked to affirm it for Allah. But you must avoid two things, which are: comparing Allah to creation and asking how an attribute is. Do not be shocked. Yes, if Allah affirmed for Himself a foot, and I cannot affirm this thing. If Allah the Exalted says: do not say, "By Allah, it is difficult for me to affirm the running for Allah. How does Allah run?" And running is fast walking. Do not be shocked by that, because who transmitted this speech from Allah? The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). And the Messenger is the most truthful of creation, the most knowledgeable of creation about Allah, the most knowledgeable of creation about what he says, the most sincere of creation to creation, and the most eloquent of creation also. Is this accepted or not?
The student: Accepted.

The Shaykh : He is the most truthful of creation; it is impossible for him to say about Allah something that Allah did not say. He is also the most knowledgeable of creation about what he says. Do you know what "hurrah" means? He is the most knowledgeable of creation about Allah. Is there any dispute about this? No, there is not.
The student: No.

The Shaykh : And he is the most sincere of creation toward creation. These are four, and he is the most truthful of creation; these are five matters, all of which are established by what the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) reported from his Lord. So if any person says, "How can this be? How do we affirm this thing?"—skin shudders at it and feelings stand on end. We say that only the skin of a person with a disease in his heart shudders at it. As for those who believe, their skin shudders at it, then it softens at the remembrance of Allah and becomes tranquil. It is true that at first glance, a person may find something difficult about it, but when he returns to himself, it softens, he submits, and he acknowledges the truth. And we, praise be to Allah, have not been burdened with more than what has been conveyed to us. If a judge is judging between two litigants and he judges based on what he hears, even if it is a qirsh or a fils of money, how can we not judge for Allah based on what we hear, when we know that this speech comes from knowledge, jurisprudence, and clarification? And Allah the Exalted is more knowledgeable about Himself than anyone else, and He is more truthful in speech than anyone else, and better in speech than anyone else, Glorified and Exalted is He. And He wants to make things clear to His servants. He does not want to blind them to the matter. He says that He walks, but He does not walk. He says He is angry, but He is not angry. This is contrary to clarification.
So the conclusion is that it is obligatory for the believer to believe in what came from Allah according to what Allah intended. But did affirmation come from Allah, and did negation come from Him? Or not? And if you remove this defective meaning from what appears to you in the texts, affirm it in a manner befitting Allah. Yes.

The questioner : ... No ... .

The Shaykh : No, because we say according to its apparent meaning. In acts of worship, there is what requires walking and what does not. So if you walk, walking may be part of the worship itself or it may be a means to it. The one who walks to the mosque walks to the mosque as a means. The one who performs sa'y and tawaf around the House walks as an act of worship. This is an act of worship that we attribute to what Allah Mighty and Majestic said: "Whoever comes to Me walking." As for the one who prostrates, he did not come walking, but he fell prostrating before his Lord. Yes, he came from his house, for example, or from the place of his ablution, and he came walking. That is correct.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, the issue is not about repentance. The issue did not come regarding repentance.

The questioner : ... He came to Allah.

The Shaykh : Yes, but the hadith is not about repentance, so that we would say that this coming is metaphorical. The hadith is general. Yes.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : We do not say he came walking.

The questioner : It does not apply.

The Shaykh : It does not fall under this hadith, but we say this man turned to Allah, and whoever turns to Allah, Allah turns to him.

The questioner : This man ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, Allah accepts his repentance, but we do not say that he came to his Lord walking. We do not say he came to his Lord walking. No, it is absolutely not permissible. Look, pay attention: the hadiths of attributes, we must be completely literal in them. The hadiths of rulings are those that are subject to analogical reasoning; we may interpret them according to what analogical reasoning requires. For example, the meaning of the obligatory in all texts is to implement them according to their apparent meaning. But the issue of hadiths and other reports from the scholarly texts—scholarly texts allow no room for independent legal reasoning whatsoever, and no entry for the intellect. There is only belief, praise be to Allah, that He has not burdened us with anything beyond that. Because the danger that comes to you from figurative interpretation is greater than the danger that comes to you from belief. In fact, you are safe with belief, but with figurative interpretation, Allah says to you, "What makes you think that I want such and such?" You do not know.