Islamic Belief [in Allah] In the Light of the Qur’an and the Sunnah بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم Session Seven

 What applies to any applies to all  Speaking about Allah’s attributes is like speaking about His essence  Same names not equal to same reality  Allah cannot be described by negation alone  Whose words are known to be true?  Most denial originates from tashbeeh  Verses about attributes are not ambiguous (mutashaabih)  Taking the apparent meaning does not equal tashbeeh  Meaning of ta’weel

 Followed the nine previous principles  Say about Allah what He said about Himself – both affirmation and negation  Understood Allah unlike anything we know  Allah ordered us to reject those who turn away or deviate with regard to His Names  Allah condemned anything attributed to Him outside of the speech of the messengers

 The Companions and those who followed them  The four imams of the madhahib  Abul-Hassan Al-Ash’ari  Adhered completely to the above  He stood up to the fitnah of the Mu’tazilah and the destruction which philosophy had wrought  But he utilized kalaam to refute those deviations  Those after him strayed from the correct position

 One and unique in His essence (dhaat)  One and unique in all of His attributes of perfection  Theory must be reflected in action  The irrationality of acknowledging the Lord (Rabb) but failing to take Him as Deity (Ilaah)

 A statement or declaration of action, not just a statement of fact  Know its meaning  Be certain in declaring it  Accept it verbally and in the heart  Submit to what it implies (Islam)  Sincerity  Purity and freedom from shirk  Allegiance

 All acts dedicated to and pleasing to Allah  Essentials: fear, hope and love – dangers of imbalance in any of those  Pillars of worship  Purity of intention to Allah  Sincere resolve to obey allah  Correctness and freedom from innovation  No worship can be accepted w/o all of these

 Giving or attributing to other than Allah what is exclusively for Allah  Shirk Akbar (Major)  Removes one from Islam  Lord OR Deity instead of OR along with  Not necessarily regarded as “equal”  Most serious of sins  Nullifies all other acts  Shirk Asghar (Minor)  Mixed intention  Mistakes

 This is an extremely important issue  Devolution, not evolution  Incorrect understanding based on stubborn atheism and weak historical record  Qur’an only source of this knowledge  Allah’s promise to Adam  Messengers to every nation

 First community had tauhid, complete understanding of Allah  Deviation followed after many generations  Deviation begins from excess in veneration of the righteous  Nooh was the first messenger sent to call people BACK to tauhid  The weak followed him, the leaders were arrogant  Great patience in da’wah  Every time of need, Allah send messengers  The prophets are one brotherhood  The prophets will disown those who devolved their message