The Creed of Al Wastiyyah - Lesson 2

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

THE CREED OF ALWASITIYYAH BY SHAYKH’UL ISLAM AHMAD IBN TAYMIYYAH

Taught by Ustadh WasimKempson

Lesson  2

The lesson start off by remembering thatthe testification of the Messenger of Allah (SAW) is in 2 parts

1. Obeying everything he said and following everything he said and did
2. Staying away from what he told us to stay away from.

Also being aware that Muhammad (sallalahualayhi wa sallam) had 5 names:

‘Ihave five names: I am Muhammad, and I am Ahmad, and I am Al-Maahi with whom Goderases disbelief, and I am Al-Hashir following whom human beings are going tobe resurrected and I am Al-Aaqib.’  (Bukhari: 3339)

The author said ‘ I testify that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger…’

SERVANT –hehas no part in Allah’s Lordship (Ruboobeeyah) because that is specific toAllah. His status as a servant is higher than us because he is the ‘Seal of theProphets’

As Abu Hurairah narrated from the Prophet (sallalahualayhi wa sallam) ‘I am the master ofthe children of Adam on the Day of Judgment, the first from whom the grave willsplit, the first interceder, and the first to be granted intercession.‘(Muslim)

Allah mentions in the Qur’an that he (sallalahu alayhi wa sallam) is a servant.

In [Surah Baqarah: 23] - ‘Whohas made the earth your couch, and the heavens your canopy; and sent down rainfrom the heavens; and brought forth therewith Fruits for your sustenance; thenset not up rivals unto Allah when ye know (the truth).’

In[ Surah Isra:1] – ‘Gloryto (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the SacredMosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that Wemight show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (allthings).’

In [Surah Najm: 10] – ‘sodid (Allah) convey the inspiration to His Servant- (conveyed) what He (meant)to convey.’

In [Surah Jinn: 19] - "yetwhen the Devotee (Servant) of Allah stands forth to invoke Him, they just makeround him a dense crowd.’

MESSENGER – Not only reached pinnacle of servant, he was the BEST ofMessenger. He was the ‘Khalil of Allah’; he was given risala to the whole ofmankind which would remain with the mankind till the ‘hour’.

..may ever increasing peace andblessings be upon him. (sallalahualayhi wasallam)

The word ‘Sallah’ has another meaning. It could mean a) Allah (Swt)praises the Prophet amongst the company of Angels (Bukhari ) Or b)Salah ofAllah is a mercy upon him (sallalahu alayhi wa sallam).

Ibn al Qayyim (rahimullah) supports the first opinion that Allahis praising the Prophet (sallalahu alayhi wa sallam). This can be seen inBada’I al Fawa’id and Jalalul Ath’aam. This is a command given us to praise theProphet.

The reason that it is not ‘Rahmah’ because:

 ‘They are those on whom (Descend) blessingsfrom Allah, and Mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance.’ [Baqarah:157]

Thus ‘Sallah’ and Rahmah do not mean the same thing. Therefore ‘SALLALAHUALAYHI WA SALLAM’ in Arabic doesn't include Mercy. Wallahu ‘Alum.

..and his family – In Arabic, who does‘Ala’ include?

1. Just the Prophet’s household and family?
2. Inclusive of the ummah and the followers?

Both of which there is a difference of opinion but the correctview is those who would follow the way of the Prophet (sallalahu alayhi wasallam) would come under ‘Aali Muhammad’.

‘This is (an exposition of) thebelief of the saved groups, those who are aided until the establishment of theHour..

The author says ‘Amma Ba’ad’ to show he will stop one part ofspeech and start another or there is a change of direction in what’s going tobe talked about.

I’tiqaad is an exposition of belief whereby it something that theheart believes and there is firm and established belief in the heart.

Narrated Abu Hurairah: TheProphet (sallalahu alayhi wa sallam) said: The Jews were split up intoseventy-one or seventy-two sects; and the Christians were split up into seventyone or seventy-two sects; and my community will be split up into seventy-threesects.  (Sunan Abu Dawood )

The hadith in Tirmidhi ‘Thosewho will be successful are those who are what I am on today and my companions’  Related by at-Tirmidhi(no. 2641) and al-Haakim (1/128-129)

This narration is classed as da’ef BUT a hadith supporting thisnarration is by Anas ibn Malik in Tabarani which raises it to hasan.

Savedgroup  This treaty is of the saved,victorious group until the establishment of the hour. They are saved from thehellfire (An Naar)

There are two meanings to what they are saved from:

1. By physical strength
2. Ability to proclaim people to Islam by giving correct da’wah.

FromJaabir Ibn ’Abdullaah ( radiyallaahu ’anhu) who said: I heard the Messenger ofAllaah ( sallallaahu ’alayhi wa sallam) saying: ‘‘There shall alwaysremain a group from my Ummah fighting upon the truth, until the Day ofJudgement.’ (Relatedby Muslim (no. 1923).)

Also - "TheHour will only come upon the worst of the people.” Sahih, MK: 4/496. Declaredsahih by al-Hakim and agreed to by adh-Dhahabi.

Q. How do we reconcile these two ahadith?

Scholars say: As we know shortly before the‘Hour’ the wind will be sent which will take the souls of the mu’mineen thusonly left on Earth (worst of the creation) then the hour will come.

Aided –ASWJ – these arethe people of the sunnah, who hold onto the sunnah and the jama’ah (those whoare together upon that.)(The Mujtami’oon)

..Itcomprises faith in Allah, His Angels His Books, His Messengers…

Faith(Imaanubillah) : General  -this is whatsomebody should believe in generally.

Specific - Allah is creator, most knowledgeable, sustainer,free of need, He has names/attributes to Him and Him alone, Rulings belongs toAllah (swt) etc.

HisAngels: General – Know that they are His honoured servants, created fromlight, do as they are commanded, some are given certain responsibilities. Youjust need to know that they are servants of Allah.

Specific – know their names and the specific duties e.g.Israfeel is the one who blows the trumpets (diff of opinion) and Jibra’eel (as)was given the wahi. Etc.

Q. Is it an obligation to knoweverything about Angels?

A. No BUT required to know the general belief in Angels andonce knowledge reaches you about them, then you have to accept it.

HisBooks: Generally – Say yes, person may only know the Qur’an but believethat there are other books. This is sufficient.

Specific  - Qur’anabrogated all other revelations that came before it. E.g. We know Isa alayhissalaam was given the Injeel etc. BUT not obligations to know finer issues butmore you know the stronger your belief.  You recognize that these are speech ofAllah revealed to the Prophets. The previous books were tampered with thus Qur’ancame and this preserved and protected ‘Wehave, without doubt, sent down the Message; and We will assuredly guard it (fromcorruption)’[Hijr:9]

HisMessengers: General – Allah sent down Messengers to Bani Adam, they spoke asrevelation was given to them. 25 Prophets in the Qur’an mentioned and havebelief and ‘Of some messengers We havealready told thee the story; of others We have not;- and to Moses Allah spokedirect’ [Nisa:164]

..theresurrections after death – those whom the Prophet (sallalahu alayhi wa sallam) wassent to use to say ‘And they say:"What is there but our life in this world? We shall die and we live, andnothing but time can destroy us." But of that they have no knowledge: theymerely conjecture’ [Jaathiya:24]

Allah will raise you and you will be accountable for yourdeeds. When a person dies they will have ‘life of the grave’ (minorresurrection). This is part of imaan of the unseen EXCEPT what we’ve been informedoff: [Waaqiah:84-8]). Allah mention what happens [Waaqiah: 90-93]. At the timeof death Malikul Maut will ask people to give up their souls. What will happento the disbeliever is found in Surah An’am "Yieldup your souls: this day shall ye receive your reward,- a penalty of shame, forthat ye used to tell lies against Allah, and scornfully to reject of Hissigns!"[An’am:93].
In [Surah Zukhruf:68] we get told what happens to the believers My devotees! no fear shall be on you thatDay, nor shall ye grieve [Zukhruf:68]

..beliefin the divine Decree – the good thereof and the bad. (Al Qadr)

Ibn Al Qayyim – One article of Imaan that people haveconfusion about. Most of it is matters of the unseen. We can simply break downthe matter in to 4 areas of Qadr (Good and bad)

1. ILM – no doubt what’s been decreed, no path can change it. (Tawheed Ruboobeeyah). Thus Allah has knowledge of everything that will occur(ed). Our knowledge cannot be compared to His.
2. KITABAAllah, because of knowledge, commanded the pen to write everything that will be till coming of the Hour. ‘Abd-Allah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-‘Aas said: I heard the Messenger of Allah (sallalahu alayhi wa sallam) say: “Allah wrote down the decrees of creation fifty thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth.”(Muslim,2653) This is in the ‘Preserved Tablet’. Allah has knowledge of what’s going/not going to happen. So du’a doesn’t change your decree but change the direction of decree BUT Allah knows of it.
3. KHALQ (Creation) Allah created everything in the universe. He is the creator of EVERYTHING
4. WILL – Whatever happens in this universe, it is by the will of Allah. Whether a blessing or calamity, this is the will of Allah. (We never have absolute free will).

Part offaith in Allah is to believe in what He has described Himself within His Bookand what His Messenger, Muhammad (saw), has described Him… à We believe exactly what Allahhas described in the Qur’an and this is how the Prophet(sallalahu alayhi wasallam) described Allah (swt).

‘Asma’ – the names of Allah are telling us WHO Allah is e.g. Allahis Ar Rahman ; this is Allah! Go back to his essence. All names go back toAllah! ‘IsmAllah’. Then we have ‘As Sifaat’. These are the attributes aboutAllah (swt). It is not only a name but we’ll take an attribute e.g. As Sami isname of Allah but also ‘All hearing’. From Allah’s name we extract uniqueattributes. When talking about Allah we talk about principles (important topic). Based on Qur’an andsunnah, therefore when Allah is telling us He is Ar-Rahman, it is Him tellingus so we must describe Him like that too.

These descriptions that we find of Allah are not matters where aperson is left confused. It is very clear to us.

We do it without distorting,denying, questioning how, or likening,..

Distorting (At Tahreef) – (Lit: Harf) –something which is on the edge. Distortion is one of the characteristics of theYahud. There are 2 types of Tahreef

1. A) Tahreefun Lahfi (Distortion of the word itself). This is the changing of the word [Taha:5] where people change istawa to mean istawla.
   B) Where you change the vowelling of the words [Nisa:164]. Jahmiyyah denied that Allah spoke to Musa (as) by changing Qallamallahu to Qallamallaha (dhama to fatha) to say ‘Musa spoke, Allah heard’.
2. Tahreef al Ma’nawi (changing the meaning itself). This is the most frequent type of distortion. This is done by Ash’ariyyah and Mu’tazilah where they accepted some names of Allah but denied the attributes e.g. Alim bin ilm. They call it ta’weel (interpretation) but this in fact is distortion.

ASWJ, part of their faith is howHe is described in the Qur’an and Sunnah.

Denying(At Ta’teel) – (Lit:Atl) – something which is empty. Likewise there is nodenial of his name and negate any meaning of his name. this comes in 3categories

1. Negate the creator (Makhluq al Khaaliqeen) like the Pharoah did.
2. Negate rights of the Creator (Ta’til Huqooqullah)
3. Denial of attributes of Allah (swt).

ASWJ –away from distortion and denial and the question of how.

Questioning how (Takyif) – to ask how e.g. using [Taha:5]again, we weren’t to know HOW He (swt) rose above the throne.

‘He rose(known), How He rose (not known) To Believe it (obligation) Asking about it(Innovation) – Imam Malik.

Likening (Tamthil)

1. Likenes to Allah’s essence
2. Likeness to one of His attributes
3. Likeness to His Actions
4. Likeness to His Rights – worship Him alone.

Obligationto make these things unique to Him only.

..rather they believe about Allah, Gloriousis He, that nothing is like Him and He isthe All Hearing, the All Seeing. (Ash-urah:11). ASWJ is a way from all these and mentionsthe verse from the Qur’an. This verse is considered the foundation for ASWJ.Contains Negation and Affirmation.

Nothing like Him – general rule is that this is notexplained in detail and linguistically it is more eloquent.

Scholarshave said that the benefit of this verse is Allah affirms the 2 attributes e.g.even if we hear and we see, it’s not like Allah (swt). Qayyum is just for Allahbut we can be Raheem, Kareem.

As such they do not negate what He hasdescribed Himself with, the do no distort words from their proper places, and theydo not desecrate His names and Signs. ASWJ do not negate anything. People startgiving names to people of Haqq (name-calling) till they start detesting thetruth. ASWJ do not distort words from proper places. (see footnote 9, pg 39 ofbook)

Ilhaad –Desecrate, close to distortion.

They do not ask after the how and they donot liken His Attributes with the attributes of His creation. This is becauseHe has no namesake; there is none who is comparable to Him, and none who isequal to Him. Donot ask of knowledge that we’ve been known off. Do not liken his attributes toHis creation because He has no namesake. Some innovators try to find somesimilarity and if they find something, they deny it or change the meaning. E.g.He has a hand, we have hands therefore His hand must mean strength.

Imam Ahmad said: ' Allah is onlydescribed with what He described Himself with, or with what His Messenger (sallalahualayhi wa sallam) described him with. One does not go beyond the Qur'an and thehadith.

Ibn Abbas – ‘Do you know of any example or similitude to him

"Lord of the heavens and ofthe earth, and of all that is between them; so worship Him, and be constant andpatient in His worship: knowest thou of any who is worthy of the same Name asHe?" (Maryam:65)

Tamthil

1. Comparing/likening the creation to the Creator and this is where majority of mankind fall in to. E.g. in their worship, they worship the dead = SHIRK.
2. Make Allah like the creation. This is quite rare. E.g. Allah has these attributes and it’s JUST like the creation. Hand of Allah is like our hand (Tashbeeh)

Making something equal to Allah isprohibition.

He, Glorious andmost High, is not to be compared to His creation for He best knows Himself andothers.. Do notmake analogies therefore Qur’an and Sunnah is all the information about Allah.

Qur’an - it is what it is. No better speech. He is better in discourse than Hiscreation. Moreover His Messengers aretruthful and entrusted (Messengers are Saadiqoon and Musadiqoon)

Your Companion is neitherastray nor being misled [Najm:2] There are still those that reject the Messengers but everything theysaid was the HAQQ.

Ibn Abbas (RA)narrated: When the Prophet (sallalahu alayhi wa sallam) was taken to the(heavens for the) mi’raj, he passed by a Prophet and Prophets with whom were agroup of people, a Prophet and Prophets with whom was a raht, a Prophet and Prophetswith whom was nobody..’ [Ahmad:2448]

This doesn’t meanthat the Prophet that had no followers wasn't on the truth. See quotes below

Yet no faith will thegreater part of mankind have, however ardently thou dost desire it. [Yusuf:10]– Even if youtry your best, they won’t believe you. Similar to Wert thou to follow the common run of those on earth, they will leadthee away from the way of Allah. They follow nothing but conjecture: they donothing but lie. [An’am 116]

Glory to thy Lord,the Lord of Honour and Power! (He is free) from what they ascribe (to Him)! And Peace onthe messengers! And Praise to Allah, the Lord and Cherisher of the Worlds.[Saafat:180-182]

This started with glorified, Allah ispurifying the situation. ‘Subhaan’ removes any deficiencies and anything peopleattach to Him. It describes Him in a way that is due to Him.
The fact that Allah chose Messengers to complete this message and chose thisummah, the ummah of the BEST of the messengers.

The path of thosewhom Allah favoured; the path of the Prophets, the sincerely truthful, the martyrs and therighteous. (4types of people are mentioned)

This is the end of lesson two. All good you find in this is from Allah and all mistakes are from myself.