Part 28

which means, “Verily, those who hope not for their meeting with Us, but are pleased and satisfied with the life of the present world, and those who are heedless of Our Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.), Those, their abode will be the Fire, because of what they used to earn."

Allah describes the opponents of this trend and their final end in another verse by Saying

which means, "Verily, those who believe [in the Oneness of Allah along with the six articles of Faith, i.e. to believe in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers, Day of Resurrection, and Al-Qadar (Divine Preordainments) - Islamic Monotheism], and do deeds of righteousness, their Lord will guide them through their Faith; under them will flow rivers in the Gardens of delight (Paradise)." (YGnus, 10:9)

The belief of such people in the meeting with Allah brings about an unsatisfied feeling toward this worldly life, and an ardent desire to remember Allah. Verily, this is the impact of

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the belief in the meeting with Him, while the previously mentioned is the impact of disbelief and heedlessness concerning the meeting with Him.

A Great and Precious Gem: The Best Acquirement for the Soul

Knowledge and faith are the best acquirements for the hearts and souls of man, by which the servant (of Allah) can be elevated in this worldly life and in the Hereafter. That is why Allah, the Exalted, mentioned them both in the Qur'anic verse in which He says,

which means, "And those who have been bestowed with knowledge and faith will say: "Indeed you have stayed according to the Decree of Allah, until the Day of Resurrection."

In another verse He, the Almighty says,

- Pa a re a tee ge oe 4 Dine eee 58 Salad Ih gh eel pee Ipeale Oelll abl Do. b which means, “Allah will exalt in degree those of you who

believe, and those who have been granted knowledge." (AlMujadalah, 58:11)

Such people are the most righteous and they deserve the highest degree. However, most people misinterpret the essence of knowledge and faith by which happiness and superiority are attained. Indeed, each sect claims that the knowledge and faith to which they belong are those that lead to happiness. On the contrary, most sects lack true faith that leads to salvation, as well as elevated knowledge, to the extent that they block the means to knowledge and faith that were revealed to the Messenger (peace be upon him) to which he called the nation,

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namely that knowledge which he and his Companions adhered to, and based their lifestyles on.

Each sect believes that it has the correct knowledge by which it rejoices. Allah says,

a a es > 43 Boyere 1 the shun. CE op pe ie Bn et atl Nyala >

which means, "But they (men) have broken their religion among them into sects, each group rejoicing in its belief." (Al-Mu'min&n,

Indeed, every sect offers arguments, opinions and falsehood rather than pure knowledge, an idea which was asserted by Hammad bin Zaid“? when he said, "I asked Ayydb‘? whether knowledge today is prevailing or if it was prevailing in previous periods,” to which he said, ‘Today argumentation prevails, while in the past, knowledge prevailed.”

Thus, this well-versed scholar distinguished between knowledge and argumentation, for there were so many books and yet so much argumentation, and discussion and disputes, and the knowledge that had been revealed by Allah to the Messenger (peace be upon him) was neglected. Allah says,

“* He is called Hammad bin Zaid bin Dirham Al-Juhdamy. He was the most eminent Sheikh in traq. He was well-versed in Hadith. He died in 179 A.H. Refer to: Tahdhib At-Tahdhib, vol. 3, p. 9, Al-Jarh wat-Ta’dil, vol.3, p. 617, Tarikh Al-Bukhary Ai-Kabir, vol. 3, p. 25, Sair Alam An-Nubala’, vol. 7, p. 456. “8 He is called Ayydb bin Abu Tamimah Kisan As-Sikhtiyany Al-Basry Al- ‘Anbary, Al-‘Andhy, Al-Ghanwiy, Abu Bakr, the most eminent amongst religious scholars during his era. He was trustworthy. He died in 131 A.H. Refer to: Tahdhib At-Tahdhib, vol. 1, p. 397, Al-Jarh wat-Ta’'dil, vol.2, p. 257, Tarikh Al-Bukhary Al-Kabir, vol. 1, p. 409, Sair A'lam An-Nubala’, vol. 6, p. 15.

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which means, "Then whoever disputes with you concerning him ['lisa (Jesus)] after (all this) knowledge that has come to you." (Al-'Imran, 3:61)

Allah, the Almighty says also, eb abel! ge Sie all a paiigal E57 oie F

which means, "And if you (OQ Muhammad) were to follow their (Jews and Christians) desires after what you have received of Knowledge (i.e. the Qur'an)..." (Al-Baqarah, 2:120)

In another verse, He, the Almighty describes the Qur'an saying,

which means, “He has sent it down with His Knowledge." (An-

Which means that the Qur'an is the knowledge of Allah.

After a long period of time passed, most people adopted suspicious ideas, and false thoughts and concepts as if they were the core of knowledge, about which they wrote several books, leaving no stone unturned in such initiatives, to the extent that they wasted a lot of time in accumulating papers and darkening the hearts of man. They went beyond all limits by claiming that no knowledge is found in the Glorious Qur'an and the Sunnah, assuming the their proofs are literal, while the truth is that they were lacking in knowledge and conviction.

Satan seized the opportunity to make them obsessed with these misconceptions, so he succeeded to drive the hearts away from knowledge and faith, the same as_ the serpent, which throws its skin away.

The eminent Imam Shamsud-din Ibn Al-Qaiyim said, "One of my companions was one of the followers of those so-called

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scholars, and he was studying one their books without memorizing the Glorious Qur'an, so he told him, ‘It is better for you to memorize the Qur'an first.' The other one responded, ‘There is no knowledge in the Glorious Qur'an."

Ibn Al-Qaiyim added, “One of those who adopted this trend told me, ‘We just listened to the Hadith in order to attain its blessings regardless of the knowledge implied therein, for others sufficed us in this task. We rely on their understanding and judgments."

He added, "Our Sheikh told me once in describing those people that they resorted to the chiefs of those sects and attained nothing but contemptible desires. To prove this fact, namely that their misconceptions are not considered the knowledge of Allah, is the contradictions and differences included therein. Allah says,

which means, "Had it been from other than Allah, they would surely have found therein many contradictions." (An-Nisa’, 4:82)

This verse proves that within the knowledge of Allah, there is no contradiction, on the other hand, whatever is contradictory is surely not from Allah, for how can misconceptions, suspicions, and opinions be considered the religion revealed by Allah and sent to His Messenger? Glorified be Allah! Indeed this is a false charge.

On the other hand, the knowledge of the venerable Companions of which they used to study was something other than the misconceptions of those liars. Al-Hakim narrated in the biography of Abu ‘Abdullah Al-Bukhary that the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) used to gather for

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the sake of learning the Glorious Qur'an and the Sunnah regardless of personal views or analogy.

Chapter: Faith and Those Who Disagree with It The majority of people abandon faith, as Allah says,

ek eee anor 7 fae, Zoey ee > 55 pI Feel U5 >

which means, "And most of mankind will not believe even if you desire it eagerly." (Ydsuf, 12:103)

The faith of the majority of believers is incomplete but sure faith, which means to believe in what the Messenger (peace be upon him) was_ sent with, and to believe by knowing, learning, declaring, and loving, means _ to know its opposite and hate it. This is the faith of the pious of this nation and of the special ones of the Messenger and it is the faith of the great companion Abu Bakr and those like him. Most people merely declare the existence of the Creator and that He alone created the Heavens and the earth and what is between them. It is to be noted that even the idol worshippers from the Quraish and others like them believed in this.

To most people faith is simply reciting the two declarations of faith either accompanied by deeds or not, and whether the heart believes in them or not.

To others faith is just a heart that believes that Allah, the Exalted is the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, even if a person did not say it with his tongue or perform any deeds. And even if he insults Allah and His Messenger and commits the gravest of sins, he is a believer as long as he believes in the oneness of Allah and the Prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him).

To others faith is denying the attributes of Allah, the Exalted like the fact that He established Himself on the throne, His words,

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books, hearing, sight, will, powers, wishes, love, hate, and other attributes that He described Himself with or His Messenger described Him with. To them, faith is to deny all these facts and they support their opinions by quoting those who deny and lie about these matters. Those who argue with each other and accuse each other of lying and those about whom 'Umar bin AlKhattab and Imam Ahmad said, "They disagree in The Book, disagree with it, and agree on deserting it.”

To others, faith is worshiping Allah according to their inclinations and desires without any restrictions from what the Messenger (peace be upon him) ordered us to do.

Faith to others is the state in which they found their fathers and ancestors, regardless of this state, and their faith is based upon two things:

One: This is the saying of our fathers and ancestors. Two: Whatever they said is the truth.

Faith to others is simply maintaining high moral standards, good treatment, being cheerful, thinking good of others, and deserting people who commit sins.

To others faith is deserting this worldly life and its pleasures, emptying the heart of it and renouncing worldly pleasures. If they find a man like that they make him the best of the people of faith even if he is far away from faith in both knowledge and deeds. But worse than that, are those, who consider faith to be mere knowledge even if it is not accompanied by good deeds.