Shia Islamic Belief System 14/46

'Audhu bi Llahi min al-Shaytan al-Rajim, Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim. Al-Hamdulillahi Rabb al-Alamin, wa as-salatu, wa as-salam 'ala Sayyidina wa nabiyyina Abi 'l-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad wa 'Aalih, at-tahirin. Allahuma salli 'ala Muhammad wa ali Muhammad.

As-salamu 'alaikum everybody, my dear brothers and sisters and welcome to another session Mizan Live on the topic of Shi'i Islam and the Doctrines of Shi'i Islam. As you all join and say as-salam, my as-salams back to you guys. Wa 'alaikum as-salam everybody and it's good to see you online. Alright.

So last week we went through article number 42, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, 42, which got really specific regarding some of As-Sifat As-Salbiya or one of the As-Sifat As-Salbiya. One of those attributes of God that are qualities that are negated qualities of God, meaning that God will not have them. So one of them was the Visibility of God, God have being, having the capacity to be seen by the physical eye. I don't know why Ayatullah Subhani necessarily wanted to talk about this one out of all the negated attributes of God that we have. And so the reason for that, not very clear to me. But at the end of the day, that's what he did. He broke it down and showed how a quality, a negated quality of God will always go back to one of those deficiencies that one finds in someone. And since Allah is devoid of all of those then He can't have these negated qualities. So he really, he really exhibited that for us when it came to, through this example of the Visibility of God and God being Visible.

So he explained that when you want, if something is going to be visible and can be seen by the physical eye, what that will entail of problems, theological, philosophical problems, so there were three things that he mentioned. I'm not going to go back and I'm not going to go over that again. But then after that, he said this does not mean that we can't see God with our hearts. He explained that as well. And then someone might say, but look, you have, we have verse, a verse in the Qur'an and maybe others also like this one that talk about how God is Visible on the Day of Judgment.

So he went through all of that, the famous verse that: "Wujuhun yawma idhin nadhirah" (75:22), "ila Rabbiha nadhirah" (75:23). That on that day, on the Day of Judgment, that faces will be happy and will be bright and glowing as if and they will be looking to their Lord. He explains the tafsir of this verse, he goes in detail, brings proof and context, clues that, that know what is meant here is not that they're going to see Him with their physical eye on the Day of Judgment, but rather there's other, there's another thing is meant here, which means that there will be a waiting, a looking forward to the Blessings of their Lord that will come to them. All of the explanation of that and the reasons for that are covered, were covered last week.

So he wrapped it up, wrapped up this whole chapter of As-Sifat As-Salbiyah, negated qualities of God. He wrapped it all up with one example. He went in depth and it broke it down, and that was the visibility of God, God having that capacity to be seen with the physical eye. Alright. So now we move on to today's, today's article, article 43. Article 43 says that, talks about As-Sifat Al-Khabariyyah. Sifat Khabariyyah. Now in this book, Doctrine, Doctrines of Shi'i Islam, which is the translation of what I'm using. In this, unfortunately, I don't know, I disagree with, I don't like, you know, when it comes to translation, every person will have their own opinion, really.

But I just can't wrap my head around this one. Informative Khabari attributes. Khabar, of course, we all, we all know means news, means information, right? So when he, when Ayatullah Subhani has titled the chapter Sifat Khabari, qualities that are informative. The problem is that qualities aren't informative, qualities aren't teaching us anything, qualities don't inform us of things. People inform us of things, writings inform us of things.

What is meant here? Khabari qualities, qualities that are Khabari means qualities that have, we have been informed of. That's what it seems, that's what seems to be the better translation. So instead of informative attributes, I think it would be better if it were just, you know, informed attributes, although that doesn't sound too nice either. But what is meant is attributes that we've been informed of through what? Through the Qur'an or through our Ahadith. Ok, so let me explain this now. There are some qualities of God that, ok, wa 'alaikum salam Imam Muhammad Baqir. One of our dear brothers tuned in, his name is, his Facebook profile is Imam Muhammad Baqir, so, wa 'alaikum salam Imam Muhammad Baqir.

These qualities of God, let me talk about this, what is meant by them. What is going on here? Some qualities of God we would have never been able to come to and understand unless, understand that they existed, except if God Himself tells us or uses that wording ok? It's very important because some qualities of God we can arrive at with using our own intellect, using our own reason, for example, just like those previous ones we talked about, like God and His Visibility. Can God be Visible or not? No, He cannot be Visible, He cannot be seen. Why? Just because the Qur'an said so? No. Even if the Qur'an didn't tell us philosophically and theologically, we could arrive at this conclusion that God cannot be seen, because if He's going to be seen, that means He has to be physical because our eyes are physical. And since He has to be physical, it means that He's going to have parts, He's made of material, material equal parts, parts equals dependence on those parts, and God is Independent of all things. So even God is not going to even be dependent on His own parts, right?

So some attributes of God we can arrive at using reasoning, using intellectual endeavour. But there are some that if God hadn't said it like that, we would have never thought of it. So he gives 5 examples here. As I said last week at the end of our session, you know, just when I was introducing this session, last week, I said this. I said, I don't know why he has even opened up a chapter with this, with this title, because when you look at the conventional theology books of the Shia School, usually you don't find this title Sifat Khabariyyah - Informed Attributes. You know, you don't have this title, you don't have such a chapter. As far as I remember, at least in the conventional ones that we've studied back in, in the seminaries.

So I don't know why he brought it here. Personally, if you ask me, this kind of using the, I mean, based on the examples he gives, he gives 5 examples, or excuse me 4 examples yeah? And the 4 examples that he gives for attributes that are informed attributes, these examples fall under the category of As-Sifat As-Salbiyah at the end of the day, in my opinion, they fall under those negated attributes, things that God cannot have. And since the Qur'an has used this wording, we have to figure out what is meant by them.

So, he gives, for examples. Number one, Yadu-Llah, the hand of God. "Inna al-ladheena yubayi'unaka innama yubaayi'una Allaha yadu Ullahi fawqa aydeehim" (48:10). Truly those who swear allegiance unto thee, oh Prophets, swear allegiance only unto God, the Hand of God is above their hands. Surah Al-Fath, verse 10. Ok so, here, the Qur'an mentions God has a Hand, so this is a Sifah Khabariyyah, a attribute, an attribute of God that if the Qur'an hadn't said it, we wouldn't have known that, 'O God has a hand.' Of course this has to be explained. So bear with me.

Alright, what else do we have? What other examples? It says, Wahj Ullah, the Face of Allah. 'O so Allah has a face?' Apparently He does, according to this verse, Surat Al-Baqarah verse 115. I keep saying this, I'm going to have to explain each of these. But for now, I'm just saying it like this, that 'O, God as a face? Yeah, the Qur'an says, "Wa lil-Llahi al-mashriq wa al-maghrib; fa aynamaa tuwalloo fathamma wajhu Allah; inna Allaha Wasi'un 'Aleem" (2:115). Wherever you turn to the east, to the west, oh excuse me. 'And belongs to Allah, to Allah belongs the East and the West, so whichever way you turn, you will find Allah's Face there. Verily, Allah is Wasi'un 'Aleem.'

Number three. 'Ayn Ullah', the Eye of Allah. Allah has an eye? Who says? Well, we have a verse in the Qur'an, it says" Wasna'il fulka bi-a'yuninaa wa wahyinaa" (11:37). Surah Hud verse 37. When Allah is speaking to Prophet Nuh and Prophet Nuh has to build that ark, Allah tells him to create, to, to build the ship under Our Eyes and by Our Inspiration. "Bi a'yuninaa," under our eyes. Ok so, Allah is one of these people, and these people have eyes, apparently, "bi a'yuninaa," by our eyes. That's a question we have to answer.

Number four example, 'Isteewa 'alal 'arsh,' to sit on the Throne, to settle on the Throne. It says "Ar-Rahmanu 'ala 'l-'Arsh istawaa" (20:5) Surah TaHa, verse 5. God settled or sat on the Throne. 'The Beneficent One who is established on the Throne,' this translation says. So Ayatullah Subhani explains, he says, the reason why, the reason for calling these attributes Khabari is that it is only traditional transmitted knowledge that can provide us with information regarding these attributes. In other words, if we didn't have the Qur'an, if we didn't have Hadith or whatever, if it was just us in our minds, we could never come to this conclusion that God might have a Hand or an Eye or a Face and so on. But the Qur'an has used this wording. So these are Sifat Khabariyyah, these are attributes that have been informed, we have been informed of.

But then he explains, this is why I said that I think personally, these attributes fall under the category of As-Sifat As-Salbiya, negated attributes. We don't have to open up a whole new chapter for them, you know. We could have just put them in the previous chapter, which was As-Sifat As-Salbiya, negated attributes. Alright, so what does he say here Ayatullah Subhani? He says, it is important to remind ourselves that the intellect or human wisdom cannot interpret these attributes according to their conventional meanings.

For this would lead to conceiving of God as embodied, Tajseem, having a body and therefore, similar to us Tashbeeh, we're comparing Him to us, to ourselves, intellectual and transmitted knowledge alike, like both 'ulum 'Aqli and 'ulum nakhlee, he means. They have both warned us against these misconceptions to think that God has a body or to compare them with ourselves. Thus, we must keep firmly in mind all of the Qur'anic verses on this subject if we are to obtain a true explanation of these attributes. We must also remember that the Arabic language, like many others, is rich in metaphors and symbolic allusions and the Holy Qur'an, which employs the language of the Arabs, makes ample use of this mode of discourse. This having been understood, we can proceed with an explanation of these attributes.

So see, he explains very clearly that, look, when we look at these verses, it's not going to stop us from looking at other verses. Other verses are also explaining to us what is going on in these verses. When we put these puzzle pieces together there, they come together to give us the bigger picture. If I'm going to judge, make a judgment, pass a judgment on Allah and His Attributes just based on the verse that says "Yad Ullah fawqa aydeehim" (48:10), Allah's hand is over their hands, and I conclude, draw the conclusion that He has in hand, then that's a problem because there are other verses that negate such a thing from Him. So we have to put all of these verses together. So then he starts each of these four examples that he gave he starts giving the explanation for each, of each one of them and the real interpretation and understanding one should have for each of these verses, ok?

So here we have a question about whether 'Could this kind of attribute possibly referring to someone or something other than God, for example, could the Hand of God be someone who acts physically on the behalf of God, like an Angel, for example, and thus Hand of God could be a title or a name for another being? Or a Face of God might be a way of saying a Sign of God in the physical world? Very good. You can say that, you're going to have to have proof, textual proof for this, if you're going to be postulating this, yeah? No one, no one, no one can tell you that, no, this is wrong, this is impossible. No. It's possible that the verses when they use the word 'yad Ullah', they might be referring to something else that might have a hand right? Or someone else who is seen as the Hand of God. But at the end of the day, the point is, the point is that what we have here, what we're sure we don't have is that God has a Hand.

That's what we're sure we don't have, and that's what he's trying to prove. Now, you can interpret it in any way you would like. You just have to have proof for your interpretation, for your tafsir of these verses. So, for example, if you're going to say, could the Hand of God be someone who acts physically on the behalf of God? Very well. But you have to prove it, that this is what is meant in this verse, actually. It's a possibility, to make it an actual reality and truth, you have to have proof for that. You get what I'm saying.

So but all that matters right now to Ayatullah Subhani is to disprove that God would actually have a Hand. That's all he's after right now. Alright, so it says and of course, he'll have his reasons, he'll bring his proof for what his tafsir of the verses are, as you'll see. So the first one, for example "Yad Ullahi fawqa aydeehim" (48:10), that Allah's hand is over their hand. Ok, what do you understand from this Ayatullah Subhani?

He says, when Allah says my Hand is over their hand, it means it's metaphorically saying that God's hand, God's Power, overpowers everyone else, yes? Not that God is a material being and thus has a hand. What's your reason for it? You see, he has to bring reason, the reason for his claim right away. Just and I've said this before, just because you're Ayatullah doesn't mean you can't, you don't bring reasoning, especially in these discussions. In these discussions that are theological discussions, everyone has to bring their reasoning. When it comes to Fiqhi discourse, yeah, if it's an advanced Fiqhi class, they will also provide their reasoning there.

The only time reasoning is not provided is when a person who is not a mujtahid, refers to a mujtahid, and asks them what the ruling on something is. The mujtahid will give them their opinion without all of the extra reasoning behind that ruling because it will only confuse people more, usually. It's a, it takes some expertise to understand that reasoning. But when it comes to these theological discussions or tafsiri discussions, we discuss, we discuss what the reasoning is for certain claims and certain understandings and interpretations of verses of the Qur'an.

It's kind of sad, just today someone was telling me about some of the craziest tafsirs I've ever heard in my life regarding certain verses. So, for example, someone today was telling me that there's this guy out there, not in, not in this part of the world, but back home somewhere, who I think is saying that Ayat-ul Tatheer, the verse of Tatheer, that "Innama yureedu Allahu liyudhiba 'ankumu ar-rijs, Ahlal Bayti wa yutahhirakum tatheeraa" (33:33). That Allah wants to do tatheer of you people. What is meant by tatheer is technology and progress, progression in technology and stuff. I was like, what in the world are you talking about? Where did that come from? So yeah. And this world in day and age of people just, you know, saying whenever they feel reads with their mindset and their perspective and outlook of life and this dunya and this universe, they'll say it. In this, in this day and age we have to, you know, ask sometimes, hey, that sounds pretty nice, but what's your reasoning for it?

Anyway, Ayatullah Subhani here he says, look at the, look at the continuation of the verse. The continuation of the verse shows what is meant here is what I, what I think it to be, not actual physical hand ok? Before I actually get into his explanation, let me give you an example that will make it easier to understand how sometimes the continuation of a verse, the continuation of a statement in sentence, clarifies what is meant in the beginning of that sentence.

So, for example, if I say to you, yeah today I saw, I met a lion. So right there like ok, he met a lion, he saw a lion. But then I'm like and this lion started speaking to me about all of the wars that and battles that he has participated in and all of the bad guys that he's, he's killed and stuff like that. So from the continuation of my sentence, you find, what you're able to figure out is that when I said lion, I didn't mean lion in its literal sense. I meant lion figuratively. What I meant by lion was a very courageous person, for example. So lots of times we have this something, we have some figurative speech that is followed by clues that narrow down the scope of what we're trying to say to something specific right?

So now here he says look at the continuation of the verse. The verse said that the people, when they are pledging their allegiance to the Prophet, they are pledging allegiance to Allah, Allah's Hand is over their hand. That was what the verse was till here, but then the verse continues "Faman nakatha fa innama yankuthu 'ala nafsihi" (48:10). So whoever breaks his oath, breaks it only to his own soul's detriment. You got it? They break it to their own detriment. So when you break your pledge, when you break your allegiance and bay'a to the Prophet, you're actually only harming yourself. Faman nakatha fa innama yankuthu 'ala nafsihi" (48:10), while whoever keeps his covenant with God, on whom will He bestow an immense reward. But those who keep their allegiance to the Prophet, they, they swore their allegiance to the Prophet. They gave their bay'a to the Prophet, and then they stayed firm and steadfast on this promise that they made, Allah is going to reward them greatly. So the continuation of the verse is saying these two, you either break your promise or you keep it. If you break it, you're in trouble, if you keep it, you'll be rewarded. He says this is the continuation of the verse, yes? So I read off of what he says here to explain how he used the continuation of the verse to figure out what is meant by "Yad Ullahi fawqa aydeehim" (48:10), Allah's hand is over their hands.

He says, the content of this discourse, namely threatening those who break their promise and giving glad tidings to those who keep their promise. He says that the content of this discourse clearly reveals that the meaning of the Hand of God is His power and Authority. Why? Because if they are pledging allegiance, Allah is so strong that He can reward them later if He likes and He can punish them if if they break their promise, something like that.

Also, in addition to all that, he says, the word hand appears in many dictionaries as a metaphor for power, and he gives an example in Farsi for that as well. So that was his reasoning. He says, look at the continuation of the verse. The continuation of the verse is talking about things that will require great power, either to reward people or to punish people. So what is meant by Hand here means the Power of God. That's one interpretation.

Brothers and sisters, there's another tafsir for this verse as well, that when people give their bay'a to the Holy Prophet or, you know, just usually when people are giving their allegiance to someone it's, it's done through shaking of the hands or putting hands on each other, right? So in Allah, in the Qur'an, He says 'My hand is over their hands,' it's as if like, you know, they're putting their hands on each other on the hand of the Prophet to pledge their allegiance and then Allah's Hand is over their hand, meaning I am also with you all, I will be your support as well. So at the end of the day, whatever it's going to be, we know for a fact that God can't be material. God can't be material means you can't have a hand, if the Qur'an says He has a Hand, it probably means something else.

Alright. Next example that he gave for Sifat Khabariyyah. Those informed attributes of God that the Qur'an has informed us of. Ok, so we have a question though. First Brother says those who take these verses literally are they outside of Islam? The answer is no, Brother. They're not outside of Islam, these are, this is scholarship. This is scholarship, and interpreting verses of the Qur'an is something that as fallible beings have to try our best to get to the depths of.

But not everyone is infallible, and so not everyone is going to be right all the time, so some people will make mistakes. Some people make mistakes in their tafsir and interpretation of these verses. Some people will be mistaken by just taking them literally altogether yeah? So it's just a mistake that they're making. This does not take them out of the fold of Islam. Yeah, unless a person interprets a verse of the Qur'an in a way that it goes against one of those Usul ud-Deen.

So he says like, for example, if someone says yeah, when Allah says "Qul Huwa Allahu Ahad" (112:1), Allah is One. What is meant by One here, is one of many, for example, is one of a kind, while there are other gods that are also one of a kind, there are different gods. Like if they do a interpretation of of a verse like that, then they're outside of Islam, but not because they took a verse literally or not or had a different interpretation of it or not. They just have a belief now that just doesn't read with the three with Usul ud-Deen, which are Tawhid, Nubuwwa and Ma'ad. And of course the Shi'a madhhab has its Usul ul-Madhhab, which will add 'Adl and Imamah as well. So no, no one, no one leaves the fold of Islam by having a literal understanding of these verses.

Alright, next, next example that he has here, that's a good question, by the way. The next example we have here is that he gives for Sifat Khabariyyah, informed attributes is 'Wajh Ullah.' What was the verse? The verse said: "Wa lil-Llahi al-mashriq wa al-maghrib" (2:115). To Allah belongs the East and the West. "Fa aynamaa tuwalloo fathamma wajhu Allah" (2:115). Whichever way you turn Allah's Face is there. "Inna Allaha Wasi'un 'Aleem" (2:115).

Ok, what about this verse? This verse is speaking to us about, it's speaking to us about one of the Characteristics or Attributes of God, that we would have never guessed ourselves, that God has a Face. Alright, what does that mean? Does that mean that He really has a physical face? Face means eyes, nose, mouth, what does it mean? So here once again, once again, we are sure to have a face, that means you have to have a physical body. So to have a physical body goes against the whole notion of God being God to begin with. So we have to reinterpret this verse. What does it mean then? He says, what is meant by the Face of God means the Essence of God, God Himself, right? The face of something, usually it represents the entirety of that thing, right? If you take the face off of something, that thing's identity is gone. Think about it. If none of us had faces right, we wouldn't be that easily identifiable anymore. Right now, what represents a person is their face. So face here he says, means that that thing itself, Allah Itself, Himself, Allah's Essence. Ok.

Let me read off of what he says here. He says the meaning of the Face of God, excuse me, here, he says in the second verse quoted above, the meaning of the Face of God is His Essence. Why? It is not to be compared with the human face or any other creature's face. When the Qur'an speaks of the 'Fanah,' annihilation, and non-existence of human beings, right, and not just human beings, well yeah, human beings, yeah?

"Kullu man 'alaihaa fan" (55:26). When the Qur'an says everyone on the earth is, will be annihilated, will be destroyed, will cease to exist. "Kullu man 'alaihaa fan" (55:26). Following this with an affirmative, affirmation of this substance, subsistence baqa' and permanence of the Being of God, there being no possibility of annihilation in regard to Him. So man, I don't know the brothers and sisters, this English that has been used here is a little too hard to understand, sometimes. I feel like it complicates things. Let me explain.

So he says, look, we have a verse, we want, what do we want to do? What do we want to do? We want to understand what is meant by Wajh Ullah in that verse that says whichever way you turn, Wajh Ullah is going to be there. Ok, before you tell us how you get to your conclusion Ayatullah Subhani, what is the conclusion that you're going to get to?

He says my conclusion is that Face of God means God Himself. Ok, explain. He says this is how it goes. He says, look we have a verse in the Qur'an, it says "Kullu man 'alaihaa fan" (55:26). Everyone on the face of the earth will perish and cease to exist. "Wa yabqaa wajhu Rabbika dhu 'l-jalali wa al-ikraam" (55:27). But the Face of your Lord, yes? Will, will remain and will will continue to exist and will persist.

Question. What does it mean that God's Face will only remain? Brothers and sisters, this is important. God's Face, if God actually had a Face and the verses saying these, these verses now, are saying that God's Face will exist, but everything else will die out. That kind of means that even God, son of God is going to die out. Only His Face is going to remain, yeah? So it's as if the verse is saying that God is going to die Himself, but His face is going to remain. What does that even mean? That goes against everything and that hold, that we hold for Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, for God.

So it doesn't make sense to take 'Wajh' here to mean face. "Wa yabqaa wajhu rabbika" (55:27). Everyone knows, what remains while everything else ceases to exist and perishes, what really will remain is God Himself. But the verse uses the wording Face of God. So from here we can easily tell he says, Face of God equals God Himself. Alright, take that wording and it's translation slash interpretation, plug it into the verse that we were talking about before, right?

"Fa aynama tuwalloo fathamma wajh Ullah" (2:115). Wherever you turn the Face of God is there, he says. We discussed Face of God in those other verses, we came to the conclusion Face of God equals God Himself and the Essence of God. Plug that into this verse that says wherever you turn, you find the Face of Allah. What do you get as a result? Wherever you turn, God Himself is there, God is there. Very simple. And it's trying to tell us that, God, you know, there is no place that you can find that God won't be there and then look what he says. I like this part. He says look at the end, what the verse ends with "Inna Allaha Wasi'un 'Aleem" (2:115). That Allah is wassi' and 'aleem, both. Wasi' means something that is wasi', means that it's vast, it encompasses. Wasi' here, means Allah is All-encompassing, 'Aleem, All-knowing. So whether it has to do with concepts and theory or it has to do with existence itself outside, all of this is Encompassed by God. Either His Knowledge or His Existence, 'Wasi'un Aleem.'

So he says, look, especially at the end of the verse, when it gives you these two attributes, these two attributes of God show and are hinting and our evidence that was met by Wajh Ullah was God Himself, because it is God Himself who is Wassi', it is God Himself who is 'Aleem. Yes, alright, so that's for Wajh Ullah.

Ok, let's move on. 'Ayn Ullah. So as you can see, as I said before, these are all As-Sifat As-Salbiya, these are all negated attributes of God. I don't think Ayatullah Subhani needed to open up a new chapter for this personally, very humbly it seems. Maybe I should look at some of our conventional theology books and see if that's what they've done or not? Do they have a separate chapter for something like this? I highly doubt it.

'Aynu-Llah. So 'Aynu-Llah, and the fourth is the third one. The fourth one is 'Arsh Ullah, the Throne of God and God sitting on it. Let's read through this real quickly. It says in the third of the verses quoted above that, you know, when they told Prophet Nuh to build, when Allah tells Prophet Nuh to build his Ark with the Eyes of God. Bi 'ayunina, through the Eyes of God or with the Eyes of God or by the Eyes of God. What does that mean? He says in the third of the verses quoted above, Prophet Nuh is commanded to construct the Ark. The building of such a vessel far from the sea, led to Nuh being mocked by his ignorant folk. In such circumstances, it is as if God said to him, build the Ark, you are under Our Supervision. Bi-a'yuninaa, true 'ayun is the plural of 'Ayn. 'Ayn means eye. But when Allah, says Bi-a'yuninaa, with Our Eyes, what is meant here? Under Our Watch, under Our Supervision He says. We have inspired you to do this. So the verse, that's how it should be translated, he says, under Our Supervision. What is used to supervise, usually? The first of the senses and but first of the body parts that is used when you are supervising somebody is the eyes, you watch them. So that's why Allah says through Our Eyes or under Our Eyes or under Our Supervision is meant here. Ok, the meaning here is that Nuh was acting under Divine Guidance. Hence, he would be protected by God, so it either means Supervision or it means Protection of God even. Like God says look, those people who are mocking you, don't worry about them, I'll protect you. Just do what you got to do. The meaning here is that Nuh was acting under Divine Guidance, hence he would be protected by God and would not be disturbed by the mockery to which he was being subjected.

So I think that's a very simple, very straightforward, easy answer that is given, and I think, I think we would all agree to that one. Alright, because God can have eyes, we know that. Once again, physical, physicality does not fly when it comes to God's Existence. What's the last one? 'Arsh Ullah, the Throne of Allah. So it says "Ar-Rahmanu 'ala 'l-'Arsh istawaa" (20:5). The Rahman, the Beneficent is sitting on the throne or establish Himself on the throne. Ok wait a minute, wait a minute. To sit on something means you have to have a body to sit on it. So Throne, what does it mean here? Let's read.

He says in the fourth verse, what it says, "Ar-Rahmanu 'ala 'l-'Arsh istawaa" (20:5). The word 'Arsh, in Arabic, means Throne. And istawa, when used in conjunction with 'ala, because it says 'alal 'arsh istawa, right? When used in conjunction with 'ala means being established and having ascendancy over. Those in power, so here Ayatullah Subhani wants to give his answer. He wants to say, look, sitting on the Throne here has to do with Authority. He says those in power normally dispose of the affairs of state when they are firmly established, in the seat of state authority. Hence, we can interpret this verse as a metaphor for the Divine Authority of God, which holds sway over the disposition of all things. Apart from the evidence given by the intellect and traditionally received sources which alike affirm that God is not spatially restricted, one can uphold the validity of our metaphorical interpretive, interpretation of God being established on the Throne.

So you see, he says look, we have Hadith, we have other verses of Qur'an, we have our philosophy and our mind and our intellect. Everything is telling us God cannot have a body. So if there is talk of any Throne, you have to reinterpret it. You have no choice. And God is speaking metaphorically, just like everyone else who speaks metaphorically. For example, if someone does something for the tenth time when I've told them not to do it, I can either tell them I told you ten times not to do it, but I will be meta, I'll get meta, I will speak metaphorically. I will exaggerate in my speech just to get across my message very boldly. And I'll say I told you a million times not to do it. We speak like that, Allah speaks like that too, because we speak like this. And this is how we can get messages across, this is how we get concepts across. When I say I've told you a million times, that means I'm fed up to here and I'm not going to say it anymore. But when I say I told you ten times, what I can mean sometimes will be that, look, I've told you ten times doesn't mean I'm not going to tell you for the eleventh time. When I say a million times, that means, look, it's too much, it should stop. You see these are things that come with metaphors, that come with figurative speech, yeah, with exaggeration sometimes. Not bad exaggeration, reasonable exaggeration, of course, where it is due. This is how we speak to each other, communicate to each other.

The Qur'an is no exception right? So here when it says Allah is sitting on the Throne, we know He can't sit on a Throne. So we have no choice but to reinterpret the verse and take it away from its literal meaning, right? Because of this reasoning that we have to believe such, right? If there was nothing against God having a Throne, we would take it literally. But we have everything that disproves the fact that God can have a Throne, so we have no choice but to reinterpret. He says my reason to say that it means to, to, to sit in the Seat of Authority is that look, this is the wording we use sometimes. Whenever in our lives someone wants to exert their authority, they'll sit in the seat of authority first. So, for example, you won't go to a court and then the judge will sit on the ground somewhere. No, he will take his seat before he gives his verdict. And many other similar scenarios like that. Because of all of this, he is convinced that if we're going to reinterpret the verse, we'll reinterpret it in this way and we'll say, this is what is meant, because it's the closest we can get to that type of wording.

Alright. He says in addition to everything that we just said, there's two more textual proofs that I want to bring you. Number one, he says this sentence, right, "'Ala 'l-'Arsh istawaa" (20:5), is not, it doesn't happen only once in the Qur'an, you have it several times in the Qur'an, right? He says whenever you have this line in the Qur'an, it is preceded by verses that are speaking about the creation of the heavens and the earth and all of that, right? So when this, when you have this and you have spoken about God Creating and then it says, then He sat on the Throne, that means now He's sat down. I mean, he says this is a good clue that now He's sitting down to Govern that which He has Created, right? So that's one context clue that he brings.

Another clue that he also gives us, in addition to all that was said before, is that in a lot of these verses that speak, that we have this line in it, that God sat on the Throne, what there followed, this line is followed by verses that speak about God and Him Governing things, actually, right? So that shows, that what was meant by the Throne was Him actually now being in the position to Govern, being in the position to run the show, yeah, and to Manage things and the Affairs of this universe really. So if we ever have a verse in the Qur'an that is not followed by this, yeah, by this, by the verses that speak about Managing the Affairs of the universe, if we only have God sat on the Throne, we all know what is meant by sitting on the throne because there are other verses that have this line and in addition to them, to it, to that line, in addition to that line, right? Since we we were able to figure out with clues in those verses, then we know what this verse is also talking about that might not have anything after it regarding God Governing. I hope it's clear.

So that's why he says, the significance of the phrase Established on the, on the Throne becomes clearer when we see that this rizq comes between the theme of Creation and on the one hand and that of Governance on the other. The Qur'an wishes to remind us that the creation is very important, by the way. The Qur'an wishes to remind us that the Creation of the universe, despite its awesome dimensions, that's what it says here, does not require us to exclude God from being in Absolute Control of its Affairs after it's been created. This is very important, by the way. In philosophy and theology, this is super important to understand when Creation happens in its philosophical sense, not in its conventional sense, like a carpenter creates a table. Philosophically that's not called creating, alright? When Creation happens, takes place in its philosophical/theological sense, Management, Governance of that Creation is not separate from it. The same One Who Created has to also Govern it, has to also Manage it and run its affairs.

So that's what Ayatullah Subhani here is saying. He says look, there's a lot of significance in this because it's reminding us that look, Creation and Governance are not separate from each other. That is beautiful. Thank you Ayatullah Subhani. And that's why he brings this verse to put the cherry on the top, so to speak, that "Inna Rabbakumu Allah, al-ladhee khalaqa as-samawati wa al-ardha fee sittati ayyam, thumma istawaa 'ala l-'Arsh, yudabbir ul-'amr (10:3). Verily your Lord is God Who Created the heaven and the earth in six days, then He Established and of course this 6 days, by the way, I've said this a million times, some of you must've have heard this from me before, when it says 6 days, yes, 'sittat ayyam', the literal translation of it will be 6 days. But Ulamah have explained it doesn't mean 6, 24 hour days necessarily. It can mean 6 cycles, 6 stages that had to be traversed before the Creation was complete. So whatever that means, 'Verily your Lord is God who Created the heavens and the earth in six days, then He Established Himself upon the Throne' and see what it, what follows right after, 'Directing all things.' He Established Himself upon the Throne. What was He doing? Directing all things. So Establishment on the Throne equals Directing, Governing, Running all things. There is no intercessor, intercessor with Him except after His permission.

Alright, Alhamdulillah we've, we were able to, it's funny. It's 7:43 right now and we just finished article number 43. So Article 43 took 43 minutes to finish, Alhamdulillah. I think that's a sign that we should end it here, InshaAllah. So we have coming up three things that and I'm not going to, I'm just introducing this, we're done with today's lesson. There are three things that Ayatullah Subhani now brings after he's done with this ok?

Brothers and sisters, number one, he talks about the Justice of God. He has isolated this quality of God for a reason, one. Two, he talks about qadha and qadar, which is Divine Decree and Measurement, which we also need to talk about. And there are some misunderstandings there as well. And then he talks about Ikhtiyaar and the free will of mankind. These three he talks about. So we're done with God. Right now, as a matter of fact, we kind of ended the discussion of Tawhid and God.

There are three things that, three things that if we don't solve, it will cause problems for our understanding of God. One is Divine Decree, one is Justice of God and one is our free will. We need to talk about that ok? So those three are what we have coming up. It's going to take a while to go through those, but once those three are done, we're done with Tawhid altogether and we're going to move into Nubuwah and Prophethood, InshaAllah wa Ta'ala. Thanks for tuning in. Keep us in your du'as.

Wa as-salamu alaykum, wa Rahmat Ullahi, wa barakatu.