Shia Islamic Belief System 8/46

OK, sorry about that. I'm going to wait a little bit just to make sure people come back online. So, we were talking about, I'm going to talk a little slower so people can log on. We were speaking about, yeah, the 28th, the 20, excuse me, Article number 28. Ok, so not article number 28. Ayutallah Subhani, what he does is, he looks at this whole story of Tawhid of God, he looks at it from two angles, the Tawhid and God's Essence itself, ok?

He looks at it from two angles. Number one, he looks at the Oneness of God in His Essence itself. And he explains, he says, that there is one God only, only one God, not just like we have one, I don't know, one book and one laptop and one computer, no, no, because those can be replicated, yeah? But it's impossible to replicate God. It's not even possible because this is a One that cannot have a two because this One has filled up all of existence, when there's no room for anything else, right? You're not going to have another one. It's impossible to have another one. God's Oneness in His Essence, He says is like that. It fills up everything. And so He's going to only be One. He adds to that. He said God's Oneness, another, if you look at it from another angle of God is 'Baseet,' God is Simple, God is One thing only, it's not a combination of things, is not made up of parts. God is One, meaning, He doesn't have any parts and is just totally simple ok.

He explains that, and we went through it last week and we had some Hadiths, which brings us to today now, to tonight. Tonight, we're talking about, we're moving to article number 29, ok? Article number 29 speaks about the second category of God's Oneness, which is God's Oneness in his Sifaat, in His Qualities, ok?

He says, now personally let me say this before I actually talk about what Ayatullah Subhani says. He says that, I think personally, actually, I think this, all of this, we don't even have to discuss this too much. I mean right now, as I go through it, you guys will see it's not a very complicated thing. It's a very simple subject we're going to talk about right now. But since there has been lots of discussion in the past in Classical Theology and history of Theology, Islamic Theology. I think that's why he brings it here. Just to clarify what the Shi'i stance is regarding this issue.

Wa as-salamu 'alaikum Brother Shuja. Ok, so he says, he says, what's he talking about here? What does he mean when he says we have Tawhid when it comes to the Qualities of God? When it comes to the Attributes of God? Is that, he says, look, when we look at God, we see, we find that He is 'Alim. He is All-knowing, Qadir, All-powerful, High, Alive. But of course, His Life is not like our life, which we can lose. His life is Eternal. He's All-hearing, All-knowing, ok, All-seeing.

Now, question. These attributes of God, ok, these attributes of God are they exact same thing or are they different things? When I say, for example, God is All-knowing, does it have the same definition that All-Hearing has? No, no, these do not have the same definition, they may have two different definitions. No, seeing is one thing, knowing is another thing. Power versus Hearing. These two are not the same thing. Hearing has its own definition, Power has its own definition. So, in, in theory and in concept, each of these Attributes that God has is Other than the rest, ok? So that's in concept, that's in our mind.

But then he says, some people have thought that since in our minds these are each separate from each other, then they're probably also, God is made up of these different attributes and these make up. These are components of God's existence. These are what make God's existence up, right? He says this is where the problem is. Just because they are other than each other conceptually, ok, doesn't mean that their existence too, they have different existences, ok. This is something that's very clear, though, right? This is something that is very clear ok.

For example, when I look at, when you look at me, I have different characteristics right? A person who looks at me, he sees, can derive different characteristics from me. But at the end of the day, am I one person or am I several people? Or can you point, can you point to a part of me and say, oh, there's his knowledge or there's his power or there's his hearing, there's his seeing? You can point to my ears and say those are his ears, but you can't say that's his hearing right. So the characteristic that I have, they all, they all are derived from me and I have one existence though and I'm not made up of these different parts, quote, unquote. Same thing with God. With God we have that He is All-knowledge and especially, especially since, since we said, God is Simple, is not made of, is not a compound being, or if He's just one big piece, let's call it, for lack of better terms, because that is the worst way to describe God.

If God is just one big entity and is not made of different components, then when we say He is not, He is knowledgeable, that means He is not, He is All-Knowledge. When we say He is Power then this is All-Power, and all of these different attributes can be deduced from Him and derived from Him. It doesn't mean that now He has different parts or He has different existences. No, no, not at all. Because He can do whatever He likes, we call him Qaadir, All-Powerful. Because He has knowledge of all things we can call Him the Al-'Aleem, the All-Knowing, right? But these don't mean that He is different, and then when it comes to, He has different existences or is made up of different existences, no, ok?

And that's why some philosophers have said, Ayatullah Subhani, he quotes them here. He says 'Bal huwa 'ilmun kulluhu.' As a matter of fact, He is 'Ilm completely. 'Kudra kulluhu', He is Kudra entirely, 'Hayaatun kulluhu', He is Life entirely, and so on and so forth, yeah. So then he brings a Hadith, we go down a little bit, he brings a Hadith by Imam As-Sadiq. He says 'Lam yanzal lil-Lah jallah wa 'azz rabbuna wal 'ilmu dhattuhu wa la ma'lum.'

This is super important here, look at that. I'll explain. 'Wa sum wadhatuhu wa la masmu' ardhatu wa la mubsir or mubsar wa al-kudhratu dhatuhu wa la maqdur.' He says, Imam As-Sadiq 'alayhi as-salam, has said that Allah Azza wa jal, has always been our Lord while His Essence is Knowledge, even when there was nothing to know. Wow. Even when there was nothing to know, God was All-Knowing, yeah. He is 'Assam' kullu dhaatuhu,' His Essence is Hearing, is All-Hearing, even when there is nothing to hear. So it's trying to say that these are part of His Essence. These are all part of His Essence and are derived from His Essence. 'Al-kudra dhaatuhu wala maqdur,' He's all kudra, He's All-Power, even if there's nothing that He needs to overpower. All right, that's one Hadith.

Another Hadith in Nahjul Balagha that Ayatullah Subhani cites here. He says, and this is a famous line in khutba number one of Nahjul Balagha, sermon number one of Nahjul Balgha, 'Wa kamlu il-ikhlaasi lahu nafsu sifaatee'a. Li shahadati kulli sifatin annaha ghayr ul-mawsuf wa shahadatu kullee mausufin annaha ghayru as-sifa.'

He says if you really want to understand His Tawhid, if you want to have ikhlas, pureness, when it comes to the Tawhid of God, then you have to negate all attributes from Him. Why, Imam Ali, why? Not that God doesn't have attributes. You have to be super careful when it comes to attributes of Him. Why? Because when you attribute things to Him, when you say He's All-Hearing, when you say He has, He has hearing, He has knowledge. These imply, these descriptions, these attributes, these characteristics, they imply that they are other than the one who possesses them. Think about it. If I am holding a pen right? If I'm holding a pen, I am one thing, the pen is another thing. If I am a possessor of the pen, that means the pen is something else right? That's what it implies.

Imam Ali says you have to be so careful when you're attributing things to God. He has these attributes of course. But if you really want to understand Him, you have to be careful because even when you attribute things to Him, it implies that His Sight thing and His Essence is another thing, and this is a mistake that some people made when attributes were attributed to God. When characteristics were attributed to God. They thought that ok, this must be a part of Him, and since He is Eternal and He has always been there, then these are also have always been there. These are also entities that have always been there.

So now all of a sudden you're One God turns into like eight gods because there's eight main like characteristics of God or seven or whatever. All right. So that's regarding the Tawhid as-Sifaati, Tawhid fis-Sifaat, Characteristics of God and the Tawhid of them. That He has all these characteristics, but at the same time He is still One, ok?

Now moving on. The 30th article here, which is that his, it has to do with the third category or third form of Tawhid and that is Tawhid in His Creatorship. Let's call it Khaaliqiyyah, yeah. When it comes to creation, He is the only One who Creates ok. This is something we need to talk about a little bit and then we'll get to the main one which is the next one, although this one's going to take some time too. Alright, so let's talk about it. Tawhid in Creation ok. What it means is very clear that God, when He Creates He's the Only One who Creates, He's the only One that can be responsible for Creation.

Number one reason for this, He brings two examples from the Qur'an. "Quli Allahu khaliqu kulli shai'in wa Huwa al-waahidu 'l-qahhar" (13:16)' 'Say that Allah is the Creator of all things' ok. Surah Ra'ad verse 16. Ok that's very clear, ok, Allah is the One who Created Everything. Alright, next verse. "Dhaalikumu AlIahu rabbukum." (40:62) He is God, He is Allah, Your Lord. "Khaliqu kulli shai'in la ilaha illa huw."(40:62) The One who Created Everything, there is no Lord but Him, ok? So that's a revelation, that's Wahi, that's Qur'an, that tells us that in any case. So when it comes to Khaliqiyyah, when it comes to Creation, He's the only One who is in charge ok, He's is the only One who is actually doing it.

But then if we have a question here and that is that ok, wait a minute, wait a minute. Creating ok, for example, a person makes a table, makes a chair, these kinds of things or a rain is created, I don't know, earthquakes are created, whatever, whatever, of natural phenomena out there. Ok, God is not the, God is the Creator of all of these right? We said, yeah. But then the question will arise that ok, wait a minute, but we know that there is causality also, there's cause and effect as well. Does this law of Tawhid in Khaliqiyyah, Tawhid in Creation go against this principle or not? Brother Bilal, you're asking a question but I think you can tell it's not too relevant right now. That's something that can be discussed though, InshaAllah. But if we, if it's okay with you let's, let's move on right now. We'll talk about it later.

So that's the question, does this Tawhid in Creation go against Tawhid, this whole concept of causality and how there's cause and effect in this world? Ayatullah Subhani, he says no, that is not the case at all. Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala Himself has created this universe in this way. So when He creates it, He's the one who's creating it. But the way it is now, the way it is, it runs with the system of cause and effect, that's just how it is. We have to understand, brothers and sisters, by the way, philosophically, you can't call making a table or a chair, you can't call it creation. Creation means to bring from non-existence to existence ok? That's what creation philosophically means. And that's where the word 'fatir' starts, takes meaning. In the Qur'an 'Fatir' is referred, is referred to Allah, Allah is referred to as 'Fatir' ok?

Fatir means to bring from, from somewhere from non-existence to existence. Allah is "Fatira as-samawat' wa al-ardh" (39:46). He is the One who Created but Created from non-existence the heavens and the earth. So that's something to keep in mind. He says the Qur'an itself tells us that there's this, that this, this cause and effect is honoured and acknowledged by Allah, the Qur'an acknowledges it. Surah Rum verse 48: "Allahu al-ladhee yursilu ar-riyaaha fatutheeru sahaaban fa yabsutuhu fi 's-sama'i kaifa yasha'u" (30:48) that Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala is the One who sends the winds and these winds stir up clouds and and, and so on.

So Allah is behind all of it. So even if there's a cause and effect one, and two, you want to look at it as creation, so rain coming down effect, cause I don't know skies. Allah says look, I'm the Cause of these causes. I'm behind it all. Now, once again, there's a lot of subtle explanations here and, and some very, very detailed discussions that go into all of this that are being skipped by Ayatullah Subhani right now. As we've said again and again, this book is not for getting into details. It's just to cover the basics of our faith.

Now someone might ask, a question might come up here brothers and sisters, a question might come up ok. God is behind everything right? He, himself is saying right in the Qur'an. Does that mean that even our bad actions, we can attribute them to God? Right, that's a good question. Can we attribute our bad deeds and actions to God?

Answer is that no, because when it comes to man and mankind, not just mankind, the jinn as well. Anyone who has taqleef and is duty bound in this world and in the universe. We don't know what else, what other creatures are out there. We don't know. We can't necessarily say there is no life out there and we are the only forms of life in the whole entire universe. We can't say that. Even scientists have said we're not sure.

But anyway when it comes to mankind, when it comes to the jinn, we have, we are part of that cause right? When it comes to other natural phenomenon in the world, in the universe, you don't find any other free will involved except God's Will. So there you can like straight up attribute it to God ok? But when it comes to our actions or the actions of the jinn, who also have a free will that I explained before is based on intellect. It's not like animals, it's based on intellect and me having that disposition to make the right decision.

When we have something like that and that's part of the cause, then we cannot attribute bad actions to Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. That's that's pretty clear actually right? Because Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala has created us, given us the power to do things and then in the end He has left the decision to us. So He's Willing it indirectly but we're the ones who are directly involved in willing it now.

So when a bad action that comes out of one of us, what happens is that a person who sees this can say this person committed that act. But yes, in the grander scheme of things, Allah Subhana wa Ta'la is the One who created everything like this. So we have to understand with mankind and whoever else that has free will, since there's another will involved other than God's Will, things cannot be attributed always directly to God, then. This is according to what he's saying here.

And he explains, the last paragraph of article number 30, he goes on and on and on. I don't know if it was necessary for him to explain this much. He kind of, you know explains further. He says look man, Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, excuse me, mankind, I got confused. It's hard because I'm looking at like screens left and right and I'm trying to figure stuff out while I'm speaking. Sometimes it gets hard.

He says mankind makes the decisions, Allah gives existence to that thing that thing they've made a decision on. A person wants to do a certain thing, he makes the decision, Allah gives permission for that thing to take place, yeah. I think there's a verse in the Qur'an, there is a verse in the Qur'an that says Allah created you, "Wa ma ta'maloon" (37:96) and what you do of actions and deeds. So He's the one who's giving existence. To what? To that which I decided on. This is super important. If we don't figure this out, we get in trouble and we'll start thinking that ok, that even bad actions, we can attribute them to God, ok. So that's that. That's article number 30.

Article number 31, which is important because it has to do a lot with the shirk that the Qur'an speaks about when it came to different Prophets and their people. So it's important. Article number 31 speaks about Tawhid, the fourth category of Tawhid or Tawhid when it comes to Rububiyyah. That Rabb means Lord, so Rububiyyah would probably would be translated or the equivalent for that would be Lordship and being Lord.

What is meant by this? Let me talk about this a little bit first. When we say Lord, it doesn't just mean God. In Arabic or in Farsi, probably Urdu too, Rabb is the one who takes care of something, who runs something, who manages something ok? So, Rabb has a different definition than for example Ilah would have. Ilah means an Entity that you're worshipping. Someone that is deserving and worthy of worship, ok? That's what Ilaah means. Rabb means the one who manages, the ones, the one who runs everything and so on. Alright, so when it comes to Rubbubiyyah of the universe, running the universe ok, Allah is the only One running it, Allah is the only One running it. So we have to talk about this because this is like super important.

And there are different aspects to this discussion that he's going to get into. Ok so Brother Shuja asks 'When Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala does something, does He use other means or is it direct from Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala?' I just tried to explain that a few minutes ago, that yeah, if it's in this universe, it'll happen through cause and effect. Yeah, but in the end, He's the one at the top of that chain of causes, ok. Once again, it's a little, there's a lot of details here that he has skipped, Ayatullah Subhani has skipped and that's why I'm not going to get into them either and then it'll just prolong the discussion as well.

For now what he wanted to get to us was that look, independently, the One who Creates is Him, some type, if, if you look at the philosophical meaning of Creation, He brings into existence from nothingness. But when it comes to other things coming about, rain for example happening, for example earthquakes happen, they will have their causes but at the top of all those causes will be God. The only exception is mankind and the jinn because we, our will also has a say in things and that's how He created us in this world. So when it comes to bad actions, for example, you don't, you won't attribute them directly to Allah, ok? I'm going to leave it at that because there is more to talk about. There is more to talk about, and that's a good question you asked. But as I said, he wants to keep it concise, maybe he'll get into it later. Let's see but for now, this is where we're at.

Alright, so going back to Article 31, he is talking about the fourth category of Tawhid which is Tawhid ar-Rububi. Tawhid in Rububiyyah- Lordship. God, when it comes to running the universe, not just creating it, running it, Allah is also running the show. He's the One in charge, He is the main One, He's at the top, He's at the top and He is the One with the Independence of running everything. Alright, so let's talk about a few things here.

Number one, Ayutallah Subhani, he makes a nice point here. He says look don't ask, don't ask for a separate reason for Tawhid and Lordship. Don't ask for a separate reason for when it comes to Tawhid in Lordship versus Tawhid in Creation. In other words, the same reason we had for Tawhid in Creation will also prove that He has Tawhid and He's the only One when it comes to running the show as well, running the universe and managing everything.

Why? Look, he says, it's not like a factory where a person or a company will build a factory and then go and the factory will run on its own. Or like the watchmaker who makes the watch and then the watch just works on its own and even if the watchmaker dies, no. Once again, he doesn't mention this. But I'm going to say that philosophically, when you look at creation, creation itself, ok, creation in and of itself, which means to bring into existence, will come with the running of that existence as well, the management of the affairs of that existence as well. You cannot separate the two. If someone creates from nothingness something, right, creates something from nothingness, not only will they be the creator of that thing, they will also be the lord and the rabb of that thing as well, you can't separate these two. I'm surprised he doesn't say this, that philosophically this is the case. He doesn't really open that up too much and elaborate on it. He just leaves it at that. He just gives the example of how this universe is not like that factory that will run on its own, even if its creator is not there, ok.

He just says it in one line. Yeah, I'm seeing it right here. He says but when it comes to creation of the universe, the creator will be the one who runs it as well, ok. Then he moves on to the next discussion regarding Tawhid Rubbubi. He says and he doesn't elaborate anymore, he just, he moves on. He says ok, when it comes to the history of the Prophets and this is the part he spends a lot of time on.

He says when we look at the history of the Prophets, when we look at the Qur'an and all of these, the Hadiths and stuff like that. He says, that what we find is that the mushrikeen of the times of those Prophets, the mushrikeen, their shirk and their polytheism, wasn't that they believed in more than one God, maybe, like, I don't know, some even maybe Hindus today might believe, I don't know. I don't want to misrepresent Hindus, I might be wrong on that. Let's let's just take that out, let's erase that.

He says, the shirk that the people back then would commit, it wasn't like they say 'Ok we have five Gods, five Allah's,' so to speak. No, it wasn't like that. He says their shirk was this category, had to do with this category of Tawhid. He says that was their problem. Their problem was that they didn't believe in Tawhid Rubbubi, that was their problem.

OK, let's talk about this a little bit. Give us some examples. He says, like, for example, look at Surah Yusuf. Surah Yusuf or he gives a nice example before that. He says look at the story of Prophet Ibrahim which is the ancestor of Prophet Yusuf. Look at the story of Prophet Ibrahim. The people of his time, when you look at the Qur'an and he gives the verses Surah al-'Anam, 76 to 78.

When we look at them, they would worship the sun, the moon, why? Because they would worship them as the ones who are running the earth, running the world yeah? The affairs of this world are intertwined with those lords, which are the sun and the moon and stuff in which Prophet Ibrahim, he refuted that. He said 'How can I worship them when they set?' The sun sets, the moon sets, yeah? So for example "Fa lamma afala qala la uhibbu al-afileen" (6:76).

I can't, I can't worship, I don't love the 'aafileen,' those things that set and cease to exist for a while. How can the moon run the show when it's not there, when it's not there for a while? A Lord has to always be there. So he used these arguments against the people of his time. Surah Yusuf he cites. He says when Prophet Yusuf was in the prison, we all know, it's interesting, look at how these Prophets will deal with their people.

Prophet Yusuf, when he was in the prison, after the whole story of Zulaykha, he's in prison. He has two prison mates or two cell mates and these cell mates, they see some dreams, they come to Prophet Yusuf. Apparently they could tell that he can interpret dreams because he's a righteous individual. So they asked him for the interpretation of their dreams. What did Prophet Yusuf say? Prophet Yusuf, when he wants to give them their interpretation of their dreams, you know, nothing comes for free right? So instead of just handing them the interpretation, what he does is first, he calls them to Tawhid. But look at how he calls to them, calls them to Tawhid. He says to them, before I, you know, give you your interpretations "'A-arbabum mutafarriquna khayr ami Illahu ul-Wahidu ul-Qahhar" (12:39). Which one is better? You tell me? Numerous arbaab and the rabbs, lords. Rabb here is other than Allah. So rabb, those entities that run things, which one is better? He asks them.

'Arbabum mutaffariqun.' Mutaffariq means like numerous, scattered rabbs. This itself shows that ok, these, there's a problem with these lords, they're scattered, they're not even in one place. That's how weak they are, they're scattered around. 'Arbabun mutaffariqun.' You two cellmates, who are asking me for interpretation of your dreams. First, let me shake you a little bit, wake you up. Look at the things that you're worshipping.

These lords that are scattered and spread out. Which one's better? These or Allahu ul-Wahidu ul-Qahhar. Or Allah, the One and Only and the All-Powerful, Qahhar, the Over-Powering. Yeah, which one? Well, the way he worded the sentence gives you the answer too. Who wants a bunch of weak, scattered, spread out lords versus the Number One Almighty, All-Powering, All Over-Powering Lord. So anyway that he says, that's an example of Prophet Yusuf's time.

Then he brings a couple of verses from the Holy Prophet Muhammad, salla Allahu alayhi wa alihi's time. "Wa attakhadhu min duni Illahi alihata li yakunu lahum 'izzaa" (19:81). That they took aside from Allah, in other words in addition to Allah, they took some other gods as well. Why? So that these gods can give them honour, like these are our lords. You know, they can point to them, this is my, this is our god, that's my god. You know things like that. When you, when you can point to a god right, it's better than just saying 'Oh, I have a god that no one can see.' Think about it. So like the Meccans, back then, they might have like, when people would come to Mecca, they could point to their idols, look at this god of ours which is like the biggest and most mightiest idol of them all, you know. So that they could gain this izza they took some idols as their lords.

So it doesn't, this person isn't saying that they took them as The Allah or next to The Allah? No, they had Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, but then there was a problem. The problem was that they had other lords next to Him, excuse me, other lords and gods, just for the purpose of bringing them some honour. "Wa attakhadhu min duni Illahi alihata la'allahum yunsaroon." (36:74). "La yastati'una nasrahum wa hum lahum jundum muhdharun" (36:75). So it says they took other than and aside from Allah again. You see that wording comes again. They took some alihaa, some gods so that they could be helped and aided by these gods, aided by them.

Not that they believed that these gods are the Almighty God that created and all that kind of stuff. No, no, no, no, no. For that they believed in Allah Himself, but they needed some help and some aid, they felt that they needed some aid. So to get that aid, they have different gods that they're going to try to get aid from. You see once again when it comes to their affairs, they need help, they need aid. That's why they have other gods other than Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala.

This is a problem in Allah's books, ok? Ayatullah Subhani concludes from these two verses, there's other verses too, that verses like these show us that the mushrikeen of our Prophet's time believed that these idols or these gods, can be the source of good and bad and this is why they would worship them. You know it's kind of like, you know, let's get their attention or let's like, let's like prove to them that we like them and stuff like that you know, so that their good reaches us instead of their bad.

So they felt like, not that Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala doesn't exist or Allah Suhana wa Ta'ala is not the Sole Creator of the universe. No, it wasn't about that. Allah is that, Ayatullah Subhani says this. But when it came to good and bad, harm in this world, the affairs of this universe and this earth in this world, that's when they would rely on their idols. That was a problem. So they had a problem with not Tawhid when it came to Creation, Tawhid in Khaliqiyyah or Tawhid Dhati or Tawhid Sifati. They didn't have a problem there, their problem was Tawhid Rububiyyah.

I think that even today, like this idea that Shi'a's are also tainted with this and falsely accused with being mushrik is the fact that they have shirk. In some people's eyes we have shirk in Rububi in Tawhid Rububi, or the next one that we'll get to later InshaAllah. The fifth category that we'll talk about, probably next week ok.

So, we have a question that I think I didn't see, I'm seeing it now. Brother Bilal, Imam Ali in Nahjul Balagha. It's the way he describes the origin of the universe is very similar to the Big Bang. My question, you mentioned actually of God as Creating out of nothing, He wills and it becomes, but how? What He Wills just forms like an electron non-existing, now exists? I guess. I guess so. Is how creation works itself is something that has to be dissected.

Does God, is God like, for example, if there's a giraffe right now, God just creates a giraffe or no? A giraffe is born through another giraffe who came from somewhere else, who came somewhere else, from another giraffe, all the way up. And yeah, you're saying it seems like Imam Ali in Nahjul Balagha might even trace it back to the Big Bang. Our theologians will say even if there's a Big Bang, let's say there's a needle point of something that exists that comes out of nowhere that explodes and everything comes out of it. Where did that one needle point of existence come from? That's where they'll ask the question and whatever was within that needle point you know. So that won't, that won't disprove God's Tawhid when it comes to Khaliqiyyah once again in creation ok. I hope that answers your question, at least in a nutshell, all right.

Coming back to what we were talking about here, this Tawhid Rubbubi was the problem of the people of the Prophets times from Prophet Ibrahim all the way down to our Holy Prophet. To prove this even more, look, he says, Ayatullah Subhani brings a nice verse, I like this verse. The verses in Surah al-Baqarah verse 165 "Wa min an-nasi man yattakhidhu min duniI llahi andadan yuhibbunahum ka hubbi Illahi." (2:165). That there are some people who will bring aside from Allah, in addition to Allah, andadan. Andad is the plural of nidd ok. Nidd means mithal, means shibh, means something that is similar to something else. So andad means something similar, things that are similar.

It says they would take other than Allah, andaadan, things that they would compare to Allah and would strike, they would strike some similitude between Allah and those things. Idols, or whatever it was, sometimes even maybe angels, I don't know. "Yuhibbunahum ka hubbi Illah" (2:165) and they would love these idols and other gods the same way they love Allah. So they love Allah and as a matter of fact, look at this. The reason why they would love them, they would love them, is because they would see similarity between them and Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. So that's also, it's a cool verse that he cites here, yeah?

But someone might say, well, in what sense were they seeing similarity? Other verses showed us, that the fact that they could have, they could be the origin of good or evil ok, that they could be the origin, but not that they are like God in Creation or like God in their Essence. No, alright. Or another verse he brings here. He just brings lots of verses and as a matter of fact, I like this, this is how I think we need to study Theology is to also go through Qur'an as well. As I said before, we're not trying to learn things so that we can prove it to other atheists. We want to learn things just to strengthen our own faith and to become more aware of what's in our Holy Book of the Qur'an, yeah.

So these verses that are coming, someone might say well an atheist won't accept these verses if I use them. Who cares? That's not the point of these sessions. The point is for us to gain some backbone regarding our Holy Book in our faith, our religion. And so another verse that he cites "Ta Allahi! In kunna lafi dhalalim mubeen" (26:97). Apparently, it's on the Day of Judgment, Surah Ash-Shuara verse 97 and 98. 'Ta Allahi' by Allah, 'We were in a clear misguidance and deviance.' Though the people who are probably going to the hellfire will say.

Why "Idh nusawweekum bi Rabbi al 'Alameen" (26:98). When they're speaking to their other gods, their idols on the Day of Judgment, they say the problem was that we would, you know, see you similar to who? Rabbil 'Alameen. The word Rabb is used again. The one who is the Lord of the 'Alameen, of the one who takes care of the 'Alameen, yeah, runs the show as if you all also were running the show.

Now right here before I forget, this is also a verse that can be cited for God being in charge of things. The one that says "Kulla yawmin huwa fi shaan" (55:29). He doesn't, Ayutallah Subhani doesn't bring this verse. I think it would have been good for him to bring it here. That every day Allah is busy with something. Now this is, I would say a very metaphorical verse. And the translation is even more metaphorical. He's busy with, nothing can make God busy. 'La yashghaluhu sam'un 'an sam'. The Qur'an says no, no ear can distract Him from other ears, ok? I hope that's a verse. Sometimes you're not sure if it's a verse or not. Anyway, I think that's a verse. It's somewhere in the Qur'an. I can look it up real quick as I speak or if someone else can look it up for me that'll be nice.

So this verse says nothing, every day He is busy with something, with an affair. "Kulla yawmin huwa fi shaan"(55:29). Everyday He is busy with something. This shows that ok, that He's is running the show too, it's not that He just Created it and then ok, He Created it, now let's put it, let's go to the side and you know, let's go and rest or something. No, that's not how it works.

Ok, moving on to the next verse that he brings here. He says "Qul man yarzuqukum min as-sama'i wa al-ardh" (10:31). So now these are specific instances of God and Him, you know, being The Cause of the of different things happening. Just one second, if you can give me a moment for this app to open up. While it's opening up on I'll just.

It says "Qul man yarzuqukum min as-sama'i wa al-ardh, amman yamliku as-sama'a wa al-absara, wa man yukhriju al-haiya min al-maiyiti, wa yukhriju 'l-maiyita min al-haiyi" (10:31). So there's a list of things that he mentions here. Ok my app opened up, one second. Sorry that's not a verse of the Qur'an. That's what I was, I felt like it's a little suspect. I think it's a dua. I'm pretty sure it's one of our du'as. 'La malla yashghaluhu sam'un 'an sam.' That's what it is. It's not a verse of the Qur'an. So I just want to make sure that. Something was bothering me about it. I was like, are you sure it's a verse? No. But anyway, we have that in our duas, 'La malla yashghaluhu sam'un 'an sam.'

Anyway, let's come back to Surah Yunus verse 31, the verse that I just recited. "Qul man yarzuqukum min as-sama'i wa al-ardh" (10:31). Say, Who is the One Who sustains you, sends you sustenance from the heaven, from the sky and the earth? "Amman yamliku as-sama'a wa al-absara" (10:31). Who's the One Who possesses All-Hearing and Sight and Eyes? "wa man yukhriju al-haiya min al-maiyiti" (10:31). Who takes up the living from the dead and the dead from the living? "Wa man yudabbir ul-amr" (10:31). Who is the One who does taddbir? Like this word literally means to manage things. Who is the one who manages The Affair? Meaning All Affairs. And this part's super important "Fasayaquluna Allah" (10:31). This is super important. They will say, the mushrikeen of that time will say, Allah, they themselves knew it was Allah, yet they would do, they would bring in the idols and worship them. Why?

Because, sometimes they believe that these things also have a power and authority. Sometimes as the verse said "Li yakunu lahum 'izzaa" (19:81). Just so they would bring them some honour. And look at how the verse ends, it says "Fa qul". If this is their answer, that Allah is the One. "Afala tattaqun." (10:31). Then say to them, then why aren't you going to be God wary? Be careful. Why are you including and involving in other things other than Allah when it comes to the Lordship of the heavens and the earth? Why? It's for your own good to secure your own interests then apparently. So this is really crazy. It shows that the people at that time even, they knew what they were doing is wrong. The polytheists of Mecca, you know how much money they would make due to these idols that they had? I mean, this would go against their interests if there was no idols.

Heck, I don't even know. Maybe they wouldn't even they wouldn't even worship these idols too much. I don't know, I don't know. Although in the movies it shows that they were worshpiping them, but it seems that they wanted this to be the case because it was in their interests. That's why the verse says "Afalaa tattaqun" (10:31). Aren't you afraid of Allah? Beware of Allah. Be wary of Allah. Have Taqwa of Allah. If you know the answer to this question of Who is the One who sustains from the heavens and the earth or from the sky and the earth, and Who is the One who possesses this that, this that. If you know the answer to that is God, Allah, then why, why are you bringing anyone else into the equation?

And I think this is the last verse here that he brings to show that, yeah Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala is the One who possesses Tawhid when it comes to Lordship. "Qul liman il-ardh" (23:84). Say, who does the Earth belong to? "Wa man feehaa" (23:84) and whoever is in it. "In kuntum ta'lamoon" (23:84), If you know. "Saya quluna lil-Lah" (23:85). They'll say it all belongs to Allah. "Qul afalaa tadhakkarun."(23:85). Aren't you going to wake up? Aren't you going to remember what you're doing is wrong? Will this not shake you? Will this not wake you up then? You know yourselves that it belongs to Allah. When it belongs to Allah that means He's the One who's running it.

"Qul man Rabb us-samawati as-sab'i wa Rabb ul-'arsh il-'adheem" (23:86). Say, Who is the Lord of the Seven Heavens and the Grand Throne? Whatever that means now. We don't want to get into that right now. Who is the Lord? "Sayaquluna lil-Lah" (23:87). They'll say that it's Allah's. Once again "Qul afalaa tattaqun" (23:87). Again the same ending. And aren't you not going to be pious? Are you not going to be God wary? That what you're doing is wrong? Bringing other than Allah into the picture? And so on.

Now, I was waiting for him to bring this verse of the Qur'an and he does. He says these are the clearest verses that say, they were doing this not because they didn't believe in Allah, right? And that is the verse that says "Maa na'buduhum illa liyuqarribunaa ila Allahi zulfaa" (39:3). We only worship these because these are what get us closer to Allah. These are the medium between us and Allah. Ok, that shows that they believe because as kids growing up, brothers and sisters, we were always told that yeah, they didn't believe in Allah, they believed in idols. No, no, no. The Qur'an, again and again and again is saying that they believed in Him. I mean if they didn't believe in Him, then they were in very deep trouble. They believed in Him right, but they had tainted this belief in God with belief in other things as well.

Allah says, no, no, no, no, no. Who told you that this is what's going to get you close to Me? Did I give you a Sultan? Did I give you a proof for this or not? I didn't. So you're making it up yourselves that these are getting us close to Allah.

That's why the Qur'an continues, it says Surah Az-Zumar, verse three "Innal laaha laa yahdi man huwa kaadhibun kaffaar" (39:3). Allah is not going to guide the one who is a liar and is a kaffaar, not just a kafir, kaffaar. Kaffaar means like at the end of kufr because they know exactly what they're doing, yet they are still continuing to do that which they know is 100 percent wrong, ok?

He give's one more example, where in this verse, he gives another example of verses that are talking about different things that God is in charge of and in the end how God says 'Yudabbir ul-amri" (13:2). Again Allah Governs and manages The Affair, meaning All Affairs ok? Surah Ar-Ra'd verse two. Allah is the one who lifted the heavens without any pillars to hold them that you can see. This itself is a cool verse of the Qur'an. He lifted it with pillars that you can't see. He lifted them without pillars that you can see, which might, some might say that it implies that there are pillars that are not visible, that are holding the heavens. Some call it you know, all of this that the orbiting in the gravitational pull and, and how everything is cancelling itself, each other out and all these different forces that are keeping everything in orbit.

So some people this, they use this verse for that, it's an interesting verse. "Thumma astawaa 'ala al-'arsh" (13:2). He's the one who lifted the heavens without, without pillars that you can see and then sat on the Throne, whatever that means. Of course it's metaphorical. God won't have a Throne somewhere in the sky. "Wa sakhkhara sah-shamsa wa al-qamar" (13:2). He what's the word for this sakhkhara? He tamed, let's call it. Tamed the sun and the moon. In other words, they do things in a specific manner. It's not that they just randomly move around. Once again, they have their own orbit and He is the One controlling them so to speak. "Kullun yajri liajalin musamma" (13:2). Each of them is flowing and moving in its, in its, the way it's supposed to. "Yudabbir ul-amr" (13:2). Allah Governs The Affairs ok.

So let's get another verse. You see once again, he just brings these verses listing them one after another ok. Finally we have to end with a question though and then we'll answer two right now. The important question is, wait a minute, a couple of these verses says "Yudabbir ul-amr (13:2), Mudabbir ul-amr" (79:5), yeah? That He governs, He's the one who runs, He's the one who's managing things right?

Question. In Surah An-Naziat verse five and other verses too maybe, but this one's the most clearest one. It says "Fal mudabbirati amra" (79:5). This same exact thing that is attributed to God in some of these verses that we covered right now in this session, that exact same thing is attributed to someone or things other than Allah. How does that work? "Fal mudabbirati amra" (79:5). Means by, Allah is swearing by the Angels that are mudabbir of amr, the ones who govern and manage the affairs. Wait a minute. The other verses said Allah is the One who Manages everything.

If you notice, in the beginning of when we got into this article, I might have said this once or twice, that Allah, when we say Tawhid Rububi, Tawhid when it comes to Lordship and running things and being in charge of things and managing the affairs, that means that He is the Only Independent Entity and Being that is running things. But He can delegate to others as well. He can delegate to others. They will also be 'muddabir ul-amr' now. But there's a big difference between the mudabbir ul-amr of an Angel and with 'mudabbir tadbir ul-amr' of Allah. Allah's is Independent, theirs is totally dependent on the permission of Allah, ok?

It's interesting that when it says in those verses that I just covered that, the short one, that said "Maa na'buduhum illa liyuqarribuna ila Allahi zulfaa" (39:3). We only worship them because they get us closer to Allah. Allah doesn't say that's not possible yeah? Allah says you're lying. Who said, who said that these are the things that get you close to Me? Who said that these idols, if you're going to them because you see them as some origin of good and evil, who told you that I have put them in charge? This is a block of wood, this is a piece of stone that you just chipped away from, chipped away at, and you've turned into an idol that looks like a person. Who says that I gave them this authority to do 'tadbir ul-amr?' It doesn't mean that Allah was angry at the polytheists and idol worshippers, because they believe that anyone other than God can run the show as well.

No, no, no. It said who said, He says these are just pieces of wood. I did not give them permission, I have not done anything with them, they're not in charge of anything. That's different than saying ok, Allah has given some authority to the Angels so that they run things in this universe, one. Two, when Allah puts them in charge of things, since they are dependent totally on Allah they still won't deserve worship. Only the Independent Lord, The Independent Mudabbir deserves to be worshipped, not that, not anyone else.

So we have two major problems when it came to the mushrikeen of the Prophet's time. They weren't believing in more than one Allah, that wasn't their problem, they had two other problems. Number one, they would attribute lordship, in other words they thought that they, that their, that these idols are the origin of some good and evil, one. And the second problem was they would worship them too. That's number two. That was a problem as well. When it comes to the Angels, the Muslims, they believe the Angels, they have some authority, but not independently, like how the, how the disbelievers believed in the idols, that these idols can do whatever they want without Allah being involved.

These, Allah has delegated these, these idols they do whatever they want. No no no they're, excuse me I forgot what I was talking about. Yeah excuse me. The Muslims didn't believe the same way the mushrikeen believed. They didn't believe that these Angels, they can do whatever they want. No, no, no. You have a specific task Allah has given you when it comes to the affairs of the universe, number one. And number two, the Muslims never, ever, the thought would never crossed their minds, to think of even worshipping these Angels because at the end of the day, they're not independent when they're carrying out certain tasks.

Now someone might ask, why does Allah need Angels to begin with, ok? Isn't He All-powerful? That's another story. That's another story Allamah Tabataba'i in Tafsir Al-Mizan has explained that very nicely and in depth under this verse of "Fal mudabbirati amra" (79:5) in Surah An-Naziat. That's a whole different discussion I'm not going to get into. So I'm going to end it here.

Alhamdulillah we made it through all three of the articles that I wanted to make it through. Once again if you have any questions. Tonight you guys were quiet. InshaAllah you were just so blown away that you just were listening and you didn't have questions. No, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. It was a very normal session actually. So if you have any questions, InshaAllah, send them in. Share the page or the videos with whoever you think what might benefit from them. And InshaAllah next week we will continue our session.

And once again we had some technical difficulties in the beginning. I'm going to try to fix those. But, yeah, if if we ever do run into the technical difficulties again, Alhamdulillah, tonight was better than last week. We just log off and we log back on again and take it from there, InshaAllah. Thank you very much for tuning in. As'alukum ud-du'a, keep us in your du'as.

Wa al-Hamdulillah Rabb al-'Alameen. Wa as-salaamu 'alaykum, wa rahmat Ullah.