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                           Bismillah irRahman irRaheem
            In the Name of Allaah, The Most Gracious, The Most Kind
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 Hijri date: Friday 21 Jumaada al-THaany 1420 A.H.

Ack: Speaking About Allah (swt) Without Knowledge
 Jamaal al-Din Zarabozo Transcribed from tape "Usool at-Tafseer" (1/12)


 Al-Qurtubee in his tafseer, he talks about such people who say when they
 read the Quraan in my mind this comes to my mind, or my heart tells me this,
 and he concludes who reads the Quraan and says, "ask your heart" or "my heart
 tells me," and so forth, they are speaking about Allaah without knowledge
 ('ilm), which, as we will talk about, one of the greatest sins that we could
 commit, and that they are actually from zanaadiqa, those who have nothing to
 do with Islaam, and he said they should be killed as apostates (murtadeen).
 (...)
 When you go to the Quraan and you read a verse from the Quraan and you
 explain that verse without having the propher knowledge, without following
 the proper methodology, you might be and only Allaah swt knows, actually
 following your own hawaa, following your own desires, you might be following
 an inspiration from the Shaytaan, you might be following dhann (conjecture),
 which Allaah swt speaks about in many places in the Qur'aan, or it might
 actually be some kind of inspirataion from Allaah swt, but most likely it is
 not the last case. And why is it not the last case? Because as we will talk
 about it later, you did not follow the proper methodology of talking about
 the Qur'aan and if you did not follow a proper methodology of talking about
 the Quran, then you have committed a sin already. Just by talking about the
 Quraan, without proper knowledge, by giving interpretation of the Quraan,
 without proper knowledge, without proper background, without being qualified
 to do so, then you've already committed a sin. And since you are commiting a
 sin, it is very unlikely in most cases that Allaah swt will bless you
 through
 that sin to give you the right interpretation of the Quran.

 When you say that Allaah swt means this or Allaah swt means that in a
 specific verse, you are actually speaking or saying something on behalf of
 Allaah swt, you are actually speaking about Allaah swt, and if you are
 speaking without knowledge, without 'ilm, this is one of the greatest sins
 that you could commit.

 In fact, Ibn ul Qayyim said that it is the greatest sin. Ibn ul Qayyim said
 that speaking about Allaah swt without `ilm is the greatest sin that you
 could commit. He bases it on this verse:

 "Qul innamaa 7arrama Rabbi-l-fawaa7isha maa DHahara minhaa wa maa baTan,
 wal-ithma wal-baghya bi ghayri-l-7aqq, wa an tushrikoo bi-Llaahi maa lam
 yunazzil bihi sulTaanaa, wa an taqoolo 3ala-l-Laahi maa laa ta3lamoon."

 "Say: The things that my Lord has indeed forbidden are al-Fawaahishah (great
 evil sins, every kind of unlawful sexual intercourse, etc.), whether
 committed openly or secretly, sins (of all kinds), unrighteous oppession,
 joining partners (in worship) with Allaah for which He has given no
 authority and saying things about Allaah of which you have no knowledge."
 [The Noble Qur'aan, 7:33]

 In discussing this verse, he says, first of all there are some sins which
 are haraam li-dhaatihi, forbidden due to their own evil nature, and (others
 which are) haraam li ghairihi, which are forbidden because they lead to some
evil
 or have some evil in them.

 And he said with respect to this verse, all of these four, they are haraam
 in dhaatihi, they are haraam in their own essence, because of the evil in
them.
 Continuing his discussion, he said that Allaah swt first mentions
 al-fawaahishah, and he says this is the least of the sins that He mentions,
 after that He mentions the sins of transpasses against the truth; this is a
 greater sin that the first one that Allaah mentioned.

 And then He mentioned making shirk, and finally He mentioned saying things
 about Allaah swt of which you have no knowledge. He is saying that Allaah
 swt is going from from the lesser to the greater. And the reason he says is
that
 this last sin of saying about Allaah swt without 'ilm, which is actually
 what you do when you make tafseer without the proper background, without the
 proper methodology, he says it involves and it includes many things even
 more than what commiting shirk involves. He says it involves and it includes:


 ascribing something falsely to Allaah swt
 changing or altering the religion of Allaah swt
 denying what He has confirmed or
 confirming what He has denied,
 affirming something declaring false or
 declaring something false as true, and it also includes
 supporting something that Allaah swt dislikes or opposes,
 supporting something that Allaah swt dislikes or opposes, and
 liking something that Allaah swt dislikes.

 In other words, when you are speaking without 'ilm, in the religion, in
 things which are related to the religion, then in fact you are changing the
 religion of Allaah swt. And in fact, if you continue what he wrote - this is
 right from "Madaarij us Saalikeen", 1:372-3 - you find that in fact speaking
 without `ilm is actually the real source of all kufr and shirk.

 He said, for example, the polytheists claim what they are worshipping
 instead of Allaah swt was something to take them closer to Allaah swt, so the
 cause of their shirk was saying something about Allaah swt without `ilm,
 something they did not know about Allaah swt.

 Similarly today, the greatest kufr that we have nowadays, among Muslims, but
 especially among non-Muslims, is secularism and the basis for that is saying
 that Allaah swt doesn't really care about what we do in worldly affairs, or
 hasn't really given us guidance for worldly affairs, or the Deen that He
 sent is not meant for daily affairs; all of this is speaking about Allaah
 without knowledge.

 So in fact, it is one of the greatest sins, and Ibn ul Qayyim even included
 that it is in fact the greatest sin. And he also mentioned that every
 bid'ah, every innovation, also is based on some statement that has no
support from
 the Qur'aan and Sunnah, in other words every bid`ah also is based on some
 statement which is actually made without `ilm.

 To think about this point even further, about just going to the Qur'aan, and
 saying, I am a believer I am pious, I can go to the Qur'aan, and read the
 Qur'aan, and get its own meaning, if there was any people in the history of
 mankind who could have said that - maybe we could accept this from them -
 would be the Companions of the Prophet saws, for many reasons:


 They witnessed the revelation of the Quraan itself,
 they witnessed the events it was referring to, they were living the
 events that it was referring to, the Quran was revealed in their language,
 the language of their time, Allaah swt chose them to be the Companions of
 the Prophet saws, and he described them as the best generation.

 So if anyone could actually make that claim that he has such a pure heart
 and such a close relationship to Allaah swt or such a good understanding of
 Islaam, that he can go to the Quraan and interpret the Quraan simply by what
 his heart tells him or what they used to call ra'ee (personal opinion)  it
 would be the Sahaaba, but if we go to the Sahaaba we see that what they
 understood and what they learned from the Prophet saws in fact is the
 complete opposite. What they learned is that it is absolutely forbidden to
 speak about the Quraan without proper knowledge.

 And they made such statements. For example, Aboo Bakr one time said, "What
 earth would give me place to live and what sky would shade me if I should
 speak about the Qur'aan with my opinion or by something I do not know." And
 `Umar ibn al Khattaab, he also said, "Beware of using your opinion in
 religious matters." And Ibn `Abbaas, the one who the Prophet saws made du`aa
 for him to understand the Qur'aan, to get the understanding of the Deen, and
 to be given by Allaah swt the ta`weel or the understanding of the Qur'aan,
 he also said, "All that there is to follow and obey is the Book of Allaah and
 the Sunnah of His Messenger. Whoever makes any statement after these two
 according to his opinion, then I do not know if you'll find among his good
 deeds or among his sins."

 This is the style of Ibn `Abbaas, that he made in many statements. Meaning
 that even if what you did was something good, looks like something good, you
 will find it among your sins. And at-Tirmidhee, in his Sunan, he said it has
 been related from some of the people of `ilm, people of knowledge, the
 Sahaaba of the Prophet saws and others, that they that they were very strict
 when it came to speaking about the Qur'aan without `ilm.

  >>

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