Explanation of the Book of Tawhid-40

The Shaykh : He said: "And in the authentic hadith, Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) who said

Allah the Exalted said

قال الله تعالى

" A hadith like this is called a hadith qudsi, and it is called a divine hadith, and it is called a rabani hadith. These are names known among the people of hadith. They refer to everything the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) narrates from his Lord, saying: "Allah the Exalted said," or "Allah the Exalted says," or the Companion, for example, says: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, in what he narrates from his Lord." This means the Companion may express it by saying: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, in what he narrates from his Lord," or he may say: "The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Allah the Exalted said." What is the meaning? The meaning is one. The important thing is that in a hadith qudsi, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is like the Companion in a Prophetic hadith, in the sense that he attributes it to the end of the chain. And who is the end of the chain in hadith qudsi?
The student: ...

The Shaykh : No, the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, is the end of the chain. But they are not like the Qur'an. Hadith qudsi are not like the Qur'an. For this reason, they are not recited in the prayers, and worship is not performed by reciting them. It is permissible to touch them without ritual purity, it is permissible for one in a state of major ritual impurity to recite them, it is permissible for a menstruating woman to recite them, and it is valid to sell them. As for the mushaf, there is scholarly disagreement, as you know, regarding the sale of the mushaf. And it is permissible to travel with them to the land of the enemy. And as for the mushaf, there is scholarly disagreement. The important thing is that the rulings of the mushaf do not apply to hadith qudsi.
The student: And they are narrated by meaning.

The Shaykh : Yes?
The student: And they are narrated by meaning?

The Shaykh : And they are narrated by meaning, yes, unlike the Qur'an, yes?
The student: And the hadith qudsi are not created?

The Shaykh : Yes?
The student: And not created?

The Shaykh : It appears that the scholars differed on the issue: Are they attributed to Allah in both wording and meaning? If so, they are not created. As for the one who says they are attributed to Allah in meaning only, and that the expression is the expression of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) because it is not a miracle, then according to this, their words are created, but their meaning is the speech of Allah, which is not created.
The student: But it appears that the wording is also the wording of Allah, Glorified and Exalted, when he narrates from his Lord.

The Shaykh : No, this is the apparent view, but things contradict this apparent view. Among them: If we made hadith qudsi the speech of Allah in wording, they would have a higher chain of transmission than the Qur'an, because the Qur'an is through Jibril, whereas these would be directly from the Messenger to Allah. And because their wording is not a miracle according to the scholars. If they were from the speech of Allah, they would be a miracle, because the speech of Allah is not like the speech of humans. And because, if they were from the speech of Allah, this variation would not have occurred in them, a variation in wording sometimes by addition or subtraction. And the speech of Allah, the Exalted, is preserved. For this reason, it is not possible to reach the Qur'an by addition or subtraction So it appears to me that the second opinion is more correct: that they are the speech of Allah in meaning and the speech of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in wording. And his attributing it to Allah by saying "Allah said," is like how Allah attributes to Pharaoh and to Moses and to others, saying "Pharaoh said," "Moses said," even though the wording is the wording of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Yes, that is right.
Allah the Exalted said. Let us explain this hadith with its words. "Tajala" (the Exalted)—what is the meaning of "Tajala"? "Tajala" is from "uluw" (height), but it came in this form to indicate His, Exalted and Majestic is He, elevation above every deficiency and every lowness. So He is elevated in His essence and elevated in His attributes. And it is more eloquent than the word "ala" (He is high), because it indicates ... For this reason, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, brings it in contrast to those who associate partners with Him, saying meaning: He elevates and purifies Himself from what they associate with Him, with a great elevation.
And His saying: , "harms Me" means "inflicts harm upon Me." But this harm, as I said a moment ago, is not like the harm of the created. What is the evidence? His saying, the Exalted: And so, all the attributes of Allah are not like the attributes of the created. For this reason, observe that Allah placed the negation before the affirmation in His saying: in order to return the affirmation to a heart free from the suspicion of likeness, so that the affirmation returns to a heart free from the suspicion of likeness. That is: "There is nothing like Him"—settle this in your heart. Then He comes as the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, and returns to a heart free from what? Free from the suspicion of likeness. And the affirmation is then in the manner befitting Him, the Exalted. And that no one can be like Allah in His attributes, just as no one is like Him in His essence. And everything by which Allah described Himself contains no possibility of likening Him to creation, ever. Because if you allowed the possibility of likening Him to creation in what Allah described Himself with, you would allow the possibility of disbelief in the speech of Allah and the speech of His Messenger. Because likening Him to creation is disbelief. So if you allowed the possibility of likening Him to creation in what He described Himself with in the Qur'an, or what His Messenger described Him with in the Sunnah, if you allowed the possibility of likening Him to creation, it would mean that you allowed in the speech of Allah and the speech of His Messenger what? The possibility of disbelief. And this is something no sane person would say, let alone a believer.
So the harm is established. Did you understand? The harm is established, and it is obligatory for us to affirm it, because we are not more knowledgeable about Allah than Allah, correct? Yes. So if Allah described Himself with this, do we say: "Far be it from you that anyone harms you"? No, we say: "Far be it from you that anyone harms you." But as for the fact that He harms, and He has affirmed it for Himself, we say: We believe and we affirm and we acknowledge it. But with this, His harm is not like the harm of the created. I may be harmed by something and have, for example, an emotional reaction and inability to bear it, and I may be damaged. But the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, this is not possible in His case.
And His saying: meaning: the son of Adam?
The student: ...

The Shaykh : Yes, the scholars say: If "ibn" (son) or "bani" (sons) is used in a non-specific context, it includes both males and females. For this reason, if a person endows something to the sons of Tamim, and the sons of Tamim endow it to them, and the men come and take the endowment, and they say to the women: "Come, you have no share," why? They say: "Sons," and you are daughters. Is this valid or not? It is not valid because they are not specific. And so, "ibn Adam" does not mean males only, but males and females. And so the rule is: "Ibn" and "bani," if used in a non-specific context, include both males and females.
And Adam is the father of mankind, as is known. Allah, the Exalted, created him from clay, fashioned him, breathed into him of His spirit, and made the angels prostrate to him, and taught him the names of all things. Know that it is regrettable that there is in the books in the hands of students a misguided, wrong, disbelieving, misleading idea, which is that humans did not originate from clay, but originated from apes, and the matter developed with them until they became in this description, and it is possible that over the years they will develop until they become angels, and the angels will become angels of angels. And this statement is undoubtedly disbelief, because it is a denial of the Qur'an. And the enemies of the Muslims introduced it to the Muslims in order to say that these are conflicting ideas. You Muslims have an idea, and we naturalists have an idea, and your idea is not more worthy than our idea. For this reason, I always warn against the word "Islamic thought." An Islamic thinker is fine, but "Islamic thought" means we have turned Islam into ideas open to acceptance and rejection. And this is a great danger. And the expression entered upon us from our enemies without us realizing. And our enemies slip things onto us, and we accept them as established due to the prevalence of ignorance, the lack of insight, and the personal weakness in the souls of the Muslims, and seeing these people as revered, honored, and infallible from error. For this reason, such matters entered upon us. I say that this statement is a clear denial of the Qur'an, is it not? A clear and obvious denial. So it is obligatory for us to deny this with utmost denial, and not to approve it in any of the school books, and to punish whoever approves it or places it in the hands of the youth. Because the least of its danger is what? The least of its danger is that it causes this young man, whose faith has not been firmly established in his heart and whose foot has not been firmly planted in knowledge, to what? To doubt, saying: "By Allah, it is possible this is so. This is a thinker, it is possible this thing is true." But we say, as was said about Abu al-Ala al-Ma'arri, he says:
"When we mention Adam and his deeds *** And his marriage of his daughters to his sons in the tent
We know that creation is from the offspring of a fornicator *** And that all people are from the element of fornication"
I seek refuge in Allah. Some scholars answered with a response, saying: You have now admitted that you are the product of unlawful sexual intercourse, and your admission against yourself is accepted, whereas it is not accepted against another person, and so on.
"The admission of the young man is binding upon him, and as for others, it is as our Shari'ah has stated" They refuted him.
The point is, we say to this man: You are a monkey, and do not exceed the status of being a monkey in the form of a human. As for this thought of yours, it is invalid, because Allah has refuted you in it. He said: You yourself do not know how Allah creates you. You do not know how you are created. How can you say that your origin is a monkey and then you became a human? Tell me: What is the origin of the dog, the cow, and the camel? But truly, it pains me that this exists among the youth, and that some people have adopted it as a possible matter, whereas in reality it is a matter that admits of nothing but invalidity, lying, and plotting against the Muslims by casting doubt on what Allah has informed them about the creation of Adam and his descendants. Yes.
The phrase here is an explanation, meaning an explanatory or causal clause. That is, it is either a cause for the harm or an explanation of the harm, namely by his cursing time, meaning he abuses it, disparages it, blames it, and perhaps even curses it, may Allah protect us. What is time? Time is duration. Time is duration. Allah the Exalted said: So time is duration, and the person curses duration. And cursing it, in reality, if he believes that time is the agent, it has been mentioned that this is shirk (associating partners with Allah). And if he believes that time is the locus of events and he curses it because bad events occur in it, then it is forbidden and a sin. And the cursing, in reality, returns to Allah.
Meaning: time and duration. He said: How do I mean "I am time"? Meaning, I am duration? No, "I am time" means I am the one who manages time and turns it over. And this is indicated by His saying: The night and the day are time, meaning I am time, i.e., I turn time over. As Allah the Exalted said:
"A day is against us and a day is for us *** A day we are slaves and a day we are masters"
This is how this world is. If you reflect on it, you will find it to be so. It turns over with the person: one day the person is pleased, and one day he is displeased. One day he is healthy and active, and one day he has some illness. One day he is energetic and happy, and one day the opposite. This is how the world is. And this is from the wisdom of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) so that the sensible person does not rely upon it. If it were all pure and smooth, many people would rely upon it. But it is in this state so that people take heed and do not take it as a permanent abode. Yes.
So, What is the meaning of "I am time"? I am the one who turns time over and manages it. And the meaning admits of nothing else, because if you said that Allah Himself is time, you would have made the Creator a creation, and you would have made the one who turns over the one who is turned over, because time is that which is turned over. And this is impossible. So if someone says: Do you not always say and repeat that metaphorical usage (majaz) is prohibited in the Arabic language, especially in the speech of Allah and the speech of the Messenger? And this is either that you say Allah is time, or that you say it is metaphorical. What is the answer? The answer is that we say: The word is literal in the meaning indicated by the context and circumstances, even if in another place it would be metaphorical. And at that time, we say that there is no doubt that there is an omitted word in the speech, which is "the one who turns time over," because he explained it by his saying: , and because reason cannot make time, which is a creation, the Creator, and because reason cannot make the agent the acted-upon, the one who turns over the one who is turned over. And by this, we know the error of the one who said that time is one of the names of Allah, like Ibn Hazm (may Allah have mercy on him), who said that time is one of the names of Allah. And this is negligence regarding the implication of this hadith, and negligence regarding the principle in the names. What is the principle in the names of Allah? That they be good, reaching the utmost in goodness. So they must include a description and a meaning that is the best of descriptions and meanings in the indication of this word. For example, you do not find a static name in the names of Allah. In the names of creation, you find a static name, like Ja'far, or Haddard, this is a static name, Asad is a static name. But in the names of Allah, do you find a static name? No, never. Because a static name has no meaning to be good or not good. But the names of Allah are all good. So it follows that they must indicate meanings. And time is a name of duration that has no meaning except that it is a name for time. And on this basis, it is negated that it is one of the names of Allah for two reasons. The first reason: The context of the hadith rejects it to the utmost. The second reason: The names of Allah are good, and time is a static name that does not carry a meaning except that it is a name for times, so it does not carry the meaning that is described as the best. And at that time, it is not one of the names of Allah the Exalted. Rather, it is duration, but the one who turns over this duration is Allah. For this reason, He said: .
The turning over of the night and the day: is the intended meaning their essence, or what happens in them, or both? Both. So the night and the day are turned over from long to short to equal, is that not so? And the events in them, there is no harm, they turn over in the hour, in the day, in the week, in the month, in the year. Then came the change of time itself. You grant the kingdom and you honor these events in time, then time itself came and He said: So Allah (Mighty and Majestic) turns over the night and the day in their essence and in the events that occur in them. And His turning over of the events that occur in them is a manifest matter that does not need witnesses. So if someone says: Does this turning over have a wisdom, or is it merely the manifestation of power and ability?
The answer is: There must be a wisdom in it, but this wisdom may appear to us or it may not appear, because our minds are too short to encompass the wisdom of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). But some of it is known to us, and some of it is unknown to us. Then we say that the mere manifestation of the power of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and the completeness of His ability is part of the wisdom, is that not so? For the greatest power of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), which no power resembles, and the completeness of His ability, there is no doubt that its manifestation to the human is among the greatest of wisdoms, so that the one who possesses power (Glorified and Exalted is He) is feared, and the one who possesses ability is feared, and he turns to Him (Glorified and Exalted is He) in supplication by seeking refuge in Him from what he fears. If a person did not believe in the completeness of the ability and power of Allah, his seeking refuge in Him would not be valid, would it? For one does not seek refuge in one whom he does not believe has the greatest power. By this, we know that the turning over of the night and the day has great wisdoms, but some of them appear to us, and some do not appear. And in a narration, okay.