Shia Islamic Belief System 12/46

'Audhu bi Llah min al-Shaytan al-Rajim, Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim. Al-Hamdulillah Rabb al-Alamin wa as-salatu wa as-salam 'ala Sayyidina wa nabiyyina Abu 'l-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad wa 'Aalihi, at-tayyibin, at-tahirin.

As-salamu 'alaykum, dear brothers and sisters, and welcome to another session of Mizan Live. Last week we had a problem and there was a technical difficulty. Now, in the beginning, I thought it was on our part and I tried my best to come online for the session last week, but it just did not go through. Turns out it was not our fault, there was a worldwide issue that Facebook and Instagram and other social media platforms were having. So that is why we did not have a session last week unfortunately. But of course, for me, it is fortunate, right, because that is one week off. But no, I was ready to go and it just did not go through, unfortunately.

So we are picking up this week inshaAllah Ta'ala and inshaAllah, there will be no problems. And we are able to cover some more articles from the Book of Doctrines of Shi'a Islam. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to type them up in the comments section of this video and I will take them, although usually we do not have too many questions when it comes to these discussions.

One more thing, and we just put behind us, I think, what time is it now? Yes, it is seven. About two hours ago, the spring began of the new year, of the new solar year, and, for those who celebrate the new year, Nawruz, congratulations to them on that. Plus the fact that today also and on these days, we are celebrating the meelad and wilada and birth of Imam Ali 'alayhi as-salam, as well. So it is a nice coincidence that these two happy occasions have fallen on the same date. So my congratulations to everyone out there and, of course, happy Father's Day to anyone out there who is a father.

So continuing with our discussions on the attributes of God and the qualities of God. So I just want to go over what we covered last time. Last time we went through article 37. Article 37 was a long article, and you had four of God's traits and attributes and qualities that were covered in article 37. Number one was His knowledge, number two was His power, number three was life, and number four, His iradah and His will. So each of this was discussed. Not too much in detail, but the main points, Ayatullah Subhani covered, he gave verses for each of them, and these were all of course attributes and qualities of His dhat, of the essence of God.

So I want to move on, I do not want to go over too much. Let me just take a look real quick here. Anything very important that was covered last time that we need to just go over? Not really. So let us start inshaAllah this week, this week's session with article 38. What is article 38 talking about?

Article 38 moves from the qualities of God, the qualities of essence and moves to the qualities of action that I have explained again and again before what these qualities are. The qualities of God, of course, we said from one perspective are divided into two: the qualities of action, qualities of essence. Qualities of essence were those qualities that the essence of God was enough for us to be able to deduce those qualities from Him. Just understanding what God is all about, even if there is nothing else existing out there, God himself is enough for us to understand that there is knowledge. God alone is enough for us to understand that there is power and so on. That is one category.

And the other category opposite, so this is qualities of action. Qualities of action were which qualities? Those qualities that God's essence is necessary for them. But He has to actually do something for Him to be attributes, those qualities to be attributed to Him. So, for example, until God creates, you cannot call Him the Creator, al-Khaliq. So, khalq, it is a quality that you can attribute to Him once He actually creates. You can not just attribute it to His essence before He has created. So these were the qualities of action that God had.

So now having said that and reviewing that, once again, so now let us get in to article 38. Article 38 and onwards discuss these qualities from Allah's action versus His qualities and essence. The first one that he covers here is takallum. Takallum means to speak and speech. So yes, the Qur'an describes Allah with this attribute that Allah speaks to people. So we need to, since it is in the Qur'an, we are not going to doubt the fact that Allah speaks, but at the same time we want to know what this speech is all about. What is it like?

For that, he brings the first verse just to prove that God has speech. He says: "wa ma kana li basharin an yukallimahu AIlah" (42:51). That Allah will not speak to anyone except through these means. So this verse, Surah Shura verse 51, talks about God speaking to others. So this right here shows us that He does speak. He speaks, but how does He speak? The same verse continues and explains. It says: "illa wahyan aw min wara'i hijab aw yursila Rasula" (42:51). That Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, if you want to know how He speaks to others - so speech is an attribute of God, it has to do with His attributes of action, not attributes of His essence. If you want to know how this attribute of God works, this quality of action of God works, then what you need to do is see this verse Shura 51, what it says.

Three ways that Allah speaks to others. Number one, "illa wahyan", through wahi, through, let us call it inspiration or sometimes revelation. At the end of the day, the recipient of this form of speech is the heart of an individual, not the ears of the individual. So, "illa wahyan", Ayatullah Subhani right there, he says, "wahyan" revelation or inspiration equals, through the heart. It is interesting that in the translation, I do not see them put this word in here, but in the actual text, the Farsi text, it does have this word. So number one "wahyan" out of inspiration, and then Ayatullah Subhani adds this, it is not in the translation, through inspiring the heart. So the recipient here of God's speech, quote unquote, of course, is the heart of an individual. So that is one.

So, for example, when Prophet Musa's mother put him in that basket or whatever it was she put him in and put him in the river, the Qur'an describes that as about Allah revealing to her and inspiring her to to do this. The word wahi is used. So wahi is for prophets and and others as well, not just prophets. So that is one way. Allah inspires them in their heart, I guess, let us word it like that.

"Aw min wara'i hijab", or from behind a veil. So here it is not, it does not have to do with the heart anymore, Ayatullah Subhani explains. What does it have to do with? It has to do with the person's ears, actually. So Allah is speaking to an individual from behind a veil. In other words, you can not see God, because as we all know, it is impossible to see Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, . It is impossible to see God.

So here the wording that is used in the Qur'an is from behind a curtain. Not that God is hiding somewhere, and now you can only hear His voice. No. It is not about hearing God's voice while He is hiding. No, this is figurative speech here. "Min wara'i hijab" means that you do not see Him, but you can hear His voice.

So, for example, when the burning bush incident, an episode took place for Prophet Musa 'alayhi as-salam, and he, Allah speaks to him through that burning bush if that is what it was, then this is the example for "min wara'i hijab".

Now, someone might ask, does that mean God has a voice? No. Once again, no. A voice or a sound is made that, you know, you can hear sentences does not mean that that is God's voice necessarily. Let me read what he says exactly, Ayatullah Subhani here. He says, "or from behind a veil, in other words, that man or person can hear God's speech but cannot see Him." And then in parentheses, he says "God's speech to Moses took this form".

So he does not explain any further here, that is all he says. Now the translation says "God's speech", and that is a good translation for the wording that is used that I am seeing here in the Farsi "sudane Khuda". But that does not necessarily mean, I do not want this misunderstanding to take place that God actually has, you know, vocal chords and you can hear His voice because He can make a voice with His vocal chords. No, a sound is made and a voice is heard and words are understood and that is "min wara'i hijab", that is what behind the veil means.

"Aw yursila Rasulah", or He sends a messenger. Now, this one you can say is the most famous one, of course, is the one that we know the most, revelation. Revelation versus "wahi" in the beginning of the verse where it goes to the heart, here God does not directly contact you through your heart, but He sends, like, for example, Angel Jibra'eel. Angel Jibra'eel comes down and he speaks to you and delivers the message, "aw yursila Rasulah".

So these are the three ways that God speaks, quote unquote again, I have to keep putting these quotation marks, God speaks to others. In other words, he says an angel is sent by God to man to convey the inspiration. That is what the translation here says.

In this verse, he goes on to say, the speech of God has been explained as having been brought into being by God. Either directly, without an intermediary or indirectly through the intermediary of an angel. According to the first mode or that first form, which was divine inspiration, which was "wahi", which was to the heart, God sometimes casts His words directly into the heart of the Prophet, and sometimes He causes His words to enter the heart after having first been heard by the ear.

In all three modes of speech, these three forms "wahyan", "min wara'i hijab", "yursila rasoolan" however, the words of God are brought into being. So God's speech did not exist before, this is the point that Ayatollah Subhani wants to make, that these are qualities of action. That means they did not exist. God did something, and once He does something now you can attribute these qualities to Him. He says, in all three modes of speech, however the words of God are are brought into being. The speech of God is, therefore, to be considered as one of the attributes of divine activity, one of those attributes of action, not an attribute of essence.

This is based on if we take the kalam Ullah and the speech of God to mean, you know, words and speech and communication and so on. But now here Ayatullah Subhani points to another tafsir of the meaning of takkalum or kalam. He points out something else here, Ayatullah Subhani. He says there is another tafsir and another interpretation for kalam Ullah as well, and the speech of God as well. What is that tafsir?

He says that tafsir is that the kalima and word of God equals the action of God itself, or let me say it even better, equals the creation of God. So, for example, a tree is kalimat Ullah, a river is kalimat Ullah. Anything that has been created by Allah is His kalima.

And he says that the Qur'an refers to the creation of God and creatures of God as His kalimat as well. Look at this verse, he says Surah Kahf verse 109: "Qul law kana al-bahru midadan li kalimati Rabbee la nafida al-bahru qabla an tanfada kalimatu rRabbee walaw ji'na bi mithlihi madada" (18:109). Which means, say to the people that if the sea were to be ink for the words of my Lord, verily the sea would be used up before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even if we were to bring the like of the sea to its halt. Meaning two seas, you know, if all of the seas were to be ink, they would not be enough for the words of God.

Well, what does that mean? What is words here mean? Does it mean that God has a lot of words to say, a lot of things to say, but we do not have enough ink to write them down? Allamah Tabataba'i in this verse, he explains. He explains, he gives tafsir of this verse. He says, it is clear that Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, does not speak "bi shaqq il-fam" by opening and closing His mouth as if. No, that is not how Allah speaks, that is not a kalima of Allah. The kalam of Allah and the words of Allah, that is not what it means. "Inna ma qawlahu fi'lihu", verily indeed, the word of God is His action and what He does, "wa ma yufeedahu min wujud", and the existence that He grants things.

Then why do we call it kalima? Why are these mawjudat and these creatures and creation of God that He brings into existence, why are they referred to as kalima? He says, "wa tusamma kalima", we call it kalima because it is a sign. It is a sign that points to Him. When people speak, that speech represents them, right brothers and sisters? That speech represents the person, it is a sign of that person. It is an athar of that person.

He says this is why Prophet 'Isa 'alayhi as-salam, was also called the kalimat Ullah. So now in the Christian faith, you will have Jesus is the word of God. Being the word of God in that tradition might be different than being the word of God in the Islamic tradition. In the Islamic tradition, of course, based on Allamah Tabtabata'i's tafsir in the Islamic tradition, Christ is kalimat Ullah the same way a tree is kalimat Ullah, is a sign of God, the same way a river is kalimat Ullah. Now, Prophet 'Isa was a bigger miracle, of course, because he spoke when he was born and there were other miracles that he had and did. But all in all, because he is a creature of God, he is a kalimat Ullah.

Some people use, I have noticed, some people from the Christian faith, sometimes they want to point out that the Qur'an takes inspiration from the Bible, they will point out a verse like that, that look, your Qur'an also refers to Jesus as the word of God. So it takes inspiration from our Holy Book. And the answer to that is, look, our interpretation of kalimat Ullah, that Prophet 'Isa was, is different than your understanding and the way you explain it.

Salam alaikum to the brothers that are joining, brothers and sisters. That is why Allamah Tabataba'i concludes. He says, and it is because of all of this, that we can conclude that anything you find out there that exists, anything, of objects, in reality, it is a kalimat Ullah. Why? Because it points to Him and is a sign of Him.

So if we take kalam Allah to mean the creatures and the creation of God, not the words that He utters, so to speak, then we have a different meaning of kalima here. So kalam Ullah can be one of two things. Number one, it can be the communication that God has with people. It can be the communication He has with people either through their heart or from behind a veil or through a messenger that He sends. That is one, one meaning of kalima or kalam Allah.

Another meaning of kalam Allah can mean that no, the creatures of God are kalimat Ullah. So now having said all of that, he brings a hadith that, Ayatullah Subhani brings a hadith that echoes this understanding of kalima, that Allah's words are His action, what He does. So in other words, he is trying to support with this hadith 'Allamah Tabatabata'i's tafsir of that verse.

He says that Imam Ali 'alayhi as-salam has said that Allah's speech and Allah's words, Allah's kalam are His will and His action when He wants something to happen and He wills it and it comes into existence, that is His kalam. "La besawtin yuqra' wala bi nida'in yusma'", it is not a noise or a sound or a call that is made by Allah and words that are uttered. No. Kalam Allah "inna ma kalamuhu", this hadith says, verily His kalam, His words, Allah's words, "fi'lun minhu", they are an action that come from Him, that He creates, He is the origin of and gives existence to.

So this is the first quality of action of God, an attribute of action or divine activity, kalam Ullah, they discuss it here. Now as I said, he is going to go through two more, so that is a total of three. But these are not all of the sifatu al-fa'al of God or the attributes and qualities of action and divine activity of God. There is more, but he discusses these three, this was the first one. So article 38 had to do with the speech of God.

Article 39, now, is a continuation of 38, it has to do with what we covered in 38. So article 38 said that we have the speech of God and the speech of God can have two interpretations. I want you to remember that, now, as we are going into article 39. Article 39 talks about something by the name of "mihnatu al-Qur'an". This is something that happened in history, Islamic history. What is it all about?

Well, he explains a little bit, then goes and he gives a little paragraph about the history of it. Let me read the paragraph that is to do with the history of it first and then I will explain it a little bit more.

He says, at the beginning of the third century, this is the third century after Hijra or the ninth century A.D., the question of whether the Qur'an - so Article 30 was talking about the speech of God, right? So now he wants to talk about the Qur'an specifically, which is also the word of God. So we want to talk about that a little bit.

So it says the question of whether the Qur'an was created or uncreated was being hotly debated by the Muslims, so you have this subject of, hey, is the Qur'an something that God created? Or is it something that has always been there, just like God has always been there? This was a subject of discussion.

Now for you and I sitting here listening to this were like, OK, that is not too important, but people lost their lives because of this. This is crazy. In this subject, this topic of hot debate of "mihlnatu al-Qur'an" is something that extended over the period of three khaleefas, Abbasid khaleefas beginning with Ma'moon and it went all the way to the Muttawakil, and Muttawakil is the one who stopped it. And he put a put a stop to it.

But Ma'moon, he hung out with the theologians of his time a little bit, the Mu'tazilites, and they were of the opinion that the Qur'an is created, is haadeth, created, and so Ma'moon was also convinced by them, and he forced this upon everybody. Everyone had to accept this. People lost their lives, people were tortured over it. It is interesting, even Ahmed bin Hambal of the Sunni school, they say he underwent a lot of pressure because of this by the khalifa, because he was not giving in to that.

But for us, when we listen to this it does not seem like a very important subject, and personally, I do not think it is. And our Imams did not get involved, like Imam Hadi 'alayhi as-salam, he did not get too involved in this whole debate, and when people would ask him, he would say, it is not too important, just forget about it, do not get involved, which is interesting.

Anyway, it says the question of whether the Qur'an was created or not was being hotly debated by the Muslims and was a source of acute acrimony and divisiveness. Those who advocated the eternity of the Qur'an did not support their position with sound reasoning, with the result that some Muslims viewed the Qur'an as temporally originated, that mean something that has been created later, it was not always there. While others regarded it as eternal.

If the purpose of the Qur'an and its words is that - OK, so now here, Ayatollah Subhani tries to solve the problem, he wants to give his own opinion. So you got an idea, that was a very, very brief history of it. But the reality of the matter is that there was a whole inquisition that happened over the period, over a period of I do not know how many years. Not too long, but it was there for 10, 15, 20 years, something like that, if I am not mistaken, this "mihnatu al-Qur'an", this inquisition, people were actually inquired about it and there was suppression that happened in that time.

Anyway, oh look at that, he has a hadith here actually, that Imam Kadhim 'alayhi as-salam was asked, is the Qu'ran created or not? What was his answer? He said, All I am going to tell you is the Qur'an is Kalam Allah, is the word of God. So he did not get involved in this whole theological debate of whether it is created or not. So that is a hadith we have here. Imam Hadi's time as well, we had this issue.

So now, if we look at this and we want to break it down, and figure out if the Qur'an is haadith, created or eternal, qadeem, how do we solve this problem? Very simple, as a matter of fact.

Ayatullah Subhani says, OK, let us see, what does it mean? What do we mean by Qur'an first of all? Qur'an, he says, if when you say Qur'an, you mean the book of the Qur'an and the words within the Qur'an that are recited by us today, number one? Or if you mean the words that Jibra'eel brought down to the Holy Prophet, number two? Or three, what you mean by Qur'an is the concepts that you find within the Qur'an, the ideas and messages that are in the Qur'an that, you know, have to do with the stories of the Prophets and things like that and the battles of the Holy Prophet and things like that.

If any of these three is meant by the Qur'an, by the term Qur'an, then yes, this is something that has been created. It was not there all the time. For example, the one that has to do with the concepts of the battles of the Holy Prophet and the stories of other prophets and so on. These are things that, these concepts have to do with those actual historical incidents. And it is very obvious these historical incidents are not eternal things. They happened in the timeline of history. So when these things happen on the timeline of history, that means they were not always there. And if they are not always there, the concepts that reflect those historical events also were not there from the beginning. Thus, this is something that is was haadeth, that was created later, if that is what you mean by Qur'an.

So he says any of these three definitions of Qur'an will equal, very easy, very simply, will equal the Qur'an being something that has been created. But, he says, if you mean what you mean by Qur'an, is God's knowledge of the Qur'an and of what is to come in the Qur'an, things like that, and you take it back to and trace it back to God's knowledge? Well, yes, knowledge is one of the attributes of God's essence. And as we have said before, attributes of essence are eternal because they are part of the essence of God which is eternal. You can not separate the attributes of the essence from the essence itself. The attributes of essence are the essence of God. So that is a very easy subject, it seems. But people were losing their lives over this and this inquisition that was happening in those times in the ninth century.

OK, article number 40. Article number 40 is the truth of God. So what have we covered so far? We covered kalam Allah, number one, discussed that a little bit. Then one of those things that can be seen as God's word and God's speech is the Qur'an. So we talked about that and the inquisition and "mihnatu al-Qur'an". Now, we reached the second one that he wants to discuss, which is as-sidq, God's truthfulness.

God's truthfulness is also one of those qualities, of action, of divine activity. It is not something that God has had from the get go, from the beginning, eternally. Not because there was a time that God was not truthful, no. Being truthful necessitates that there is another party, there is someone else that you are in touch with, you are communicating to that you have to be truthful towards. So you have to have somebody else out there. Somebody else out there equals something that is created, not something that was eternal. So if that is the case, truthfulness is also not going to be eternal. It does not have to do, it is not one of the qualities of essence, it is rather a quality of activity or action.

God, if He is going to speak to others and you can tell that this sidq, or truthfulness comes after the discussion of kalam Ullah. Kalam Ullah is God's speech, since He is speaking to others, it is not going to always be there, so it is one of the divine qualities of activity and action. And if He is going to have speech, there is someone who He is going to speak to, which brings about the truthfulness now.

So once again, this is very obvious and clear that this is, that sidq and truthfulness is a quality, not an essence, but a quality of action, because it depends on there being someone that you actually communicate to. And if there has to be someone else, that someone else is not eternal for sure. So this attribute or quality will be a quality of activity, a quality of action.

Now, he talks about this a little bit, Ayatullah Subhani, let me read off the book. He says, now, truthfulness, I called it, the translation of the book says veracity. One of the attributes of divine activity or sifatu al-fa'alis veracity, sidq. That is to say whatever He says is true. Why? What is your reason for this? Why does God have to be truthful? You know, this is the question that we have answer, the blemish of falsehood does not tarnish his speech, the reason for this is clear. Why? Lying is the way of the, one, ignorant, two, those in need, three, the afflicted and the frightened, and God is utterly beyond all such conditions. In other words, lying is an abomination and God cannot be tainted by any evil. In other words, lying is something that is bad, inherently evil. And how are you going to give an attribute something that is inherently evil to God?

Let me explain this a little bit. This is very important because this is not the only time that we are going to use this argument. God is truthful and does not lie. Actually, one time I was thinking to myself, like, who would ever, like, even doubt that God tells the truth?

But then I have actually gotten this question from from people, from youth that, hey, what is the guarantee that God does not lie to us? The answer that Ayatullah Subhani here gave was, look, when you lie and not tell the truth, there is a reason for you not telling the truth, and I do not want to use lying opposite to truthfulness and sidq. Sometimes a person is not lying, they are just mistaken. So they are not sadiq, they are not on the truthful side, but it is not because they are lying. For example, they are just ignorant, they are just ignorant.

So a person lies, or does not tell the truth of something, does not tell the reality because of one of three things, according to Ayatullah Subhani. Number one, they are ignorant of the truth. So, for example, the person says, yeah, it is five o'clock right now, while it is almost, it is 7:30 right now. Turns out his watch, you know, the battery is dead on his watch. He has a watch that is analog and the, what is it called, the watch has stopped functioning, so those arms on the watch or what are they called, they have stopped at five o'clock and this person looks at his watch and tells you, it is five o'clock while it is 7:30.

This person did not tell the truth. They were not lying, they are mistaken. But then, at the end of the day, you can not say that what he said was truthful, he was sadiq. No, you can not say that. You can not say that what he said was truthful. Why? It was a result of his ignorance. True, it is not his fault that he was ignorant, but at the end of the day, he was ignorant. He, there was a knowledge out there that he lacked. And that is knowledge of the fact that it is 7:30 right now, not five o'clock.

But this is impossible for God, because before this we discussed that God has 'ilm and His 'ilm encompasses everything. So, if you are going to say God is going to not tell the truth sometimes or is going to be mistaken, that entails that He is either ignorant, that was proven, disproven before. Or it is because, no, He is, what was the word used here? He is in need.

Why do some people lie sometimes? So a person, I do not know, Bitcoin is going up, for example, and they want to invest in Bitcoin. Although that hype has died up. But anyway, just example, using an example here. This person needs money to invest in Bitcoin. So what does he do? Although he has money to live his normal life, but he wants to make more money. So what does he do? He goes and asks relatives, hey, I need some help, I need money. Why do you need money? Oh, yeah, I am in need, I am struggling, and they lend him some money. He takes that money for what? To invest in Bitcoin. He needed money to invest, so he lied, did not tell the truth, so he could get a loan from others and money from others, borrow money.

So sometimes a person will not be truthful, will not tell the truth. Why? Because they need, they are in need. But with Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, is that the case? That is not the case. Allah, we have covered the second attribute of His essence was what? Qudra, power. A person who has power and like what He has, will never be in need. So there is no need to lie, no need to not tell the truth. So His knowledge says He is not ignorant, so He is not going to make a mistake the way others sometimes make a mistake, and say something that is not true, or He is All-powerful and His power does not allow Him to lie because He does not need to lie, because He is not in need of anything to lie for it. That is number two.

Number three, sometimes people are not in need, but they are afflicted and frightened. What is that all about? Brothers and sisters, when a person, they hold a gun to his head or her head and they are like, hey, are you the one who stole my money? Now, if this person even had stolen that person's money, they are going to say no. Why? Because there is a gun at their head, they are frightened, they want to save their life. No, I did not steal your money, while the truth of the matter is that they did.

But with Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala, once again, is this the case? Is it even possible for Allah to not tell the truth as a result of being frightened? Na 'Adhu bi Llah, n'Adhu bi Llah. No, that is impossible. Why? Once again, He is the All-powerful. How could He be in need or be frightened by others? They hold a gun to your head, are you Shi'a? No, I am not Shi'a, although you are. Well, you have to, no choice but to not to tell the truth, because your life is in danger. But this is not applicable to Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala .

So this sidq and telling the truth and always being right, it is the case for Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala. It is the case for Allah. Why? Because the route of lying or the route of being mistaken is one of those things that goes against Him and His qualities of essence. So it is impossible for Him to not tell the truth, one.

Two, Ayatullah Subhani uses another argument as well. He said, not telling, lying is evil, inherently. Everyone understands, let alone God. We understand that not telling the truth is something that is inherently bad. So, how can we, after knowing the perfection that God has, attribute to Him something like this, something that is inherently bad, inherently evil? So that is another argument he uses as well. He says God is higher than that to be attributed with anything that is inherently bad. All right, that is article number 40.

Moving on to article number 41. Article number 41 talks about a third quality of activity or divine action, and that is hikmah, wisdom, the wisdom of God. First we have to understand what wisdom means, what is the definition of wisdom, what is meant by it? And then we are going to have a few verses where he talks about the wisdom of God.

What is hikmah or wisdom? He says the meaning of God being wise is first, so there is two parts of this definition. Number one, His actions are brought to ultimate fruition in a perfect, complete and definitive consummation. These are hard words that are used in this translation. Let me rephrase that, let me reword that. That God, whatever He does, is going to be the best that thing can be done. Everything that He does is going to be in its most perfect form, number one, and it is going to, you know, deliver that which is the purpose of that action, so that is one, part of the definition.

Part two of the definition, the second part of the definition of God's wisdom is that God does not do things and is higher than that, to do things that are in vain, there is no point in them, they are purposeless. So God's wisdom dictates, when God is going to do something, number one, it is going to be the best way it can be done, and number two, it is not going to be something that has no purpose. Everything God does has purpose and is done in the best fashion. That is God's wisdom.

Because, sometimes, brothers and sisters, we have the power to do certain things. But we still do not do the wisest, do not make the wisest choices. With God, it is different because He has the ultimate knowledge, has the ultimate knowledge and enjoys the ultimate power, He has everything it takes to make the wisest choices, to do the wisest things which are the best, in the best form and have a purpose and have a fruit to them.

All right. Give us some verses, Ayatullah Subhani, that talk about just like the previous articles that we had where you gave us some verses, give us some verses regarding this concept. These two parts of the definition of wisdom. Show us in the Qur'an verses that prove this point.

Number one, he says, if you want a verse that talks about how everything He does is the right way to do it and is the perfect form to do it, Surah Naml, verse 88, "sun'a Allahi al-ladhee atqana kulla shay'" (27:88). It is talking about the creation of God and God, how He creates. It says the creation of God who does everything in a mutqan manner. Mutqan means like the the best way it can be done. So the translation of Surah Naml, verse 88, is "the fashioning of God, who perfected all things." That is some classical English right there. All right: "sun'a Allahi al-ladhee atqana kulla shay'" (27:88).

So this verse shows that everything He does is perfect, everything He does is in the best form. But who says that everything He does is purposeful? Maybe, because you can always do something that is purposeless but do it in a perfect way. So, for example, I am just going to give an example. It is not a good example, but like, you build a sandcastle. The purpose in a sandcastle is for it to get washed up by the sea, and at the end of the day, the waves are going to come and they are going to destroy the sandcastle. So there is no purpose really in that.

Or for example, and I know some of you are going to tell me, no, there is a purpose, you know, just the fact that you take pleasure in building it, just because it is a form of art, art is purposeful. I know. I am just giving this an example. I do not want to hurt the feelings of any sandcastle builders out there, OK?

Or I do not know. Let us just say, for example, I do not know, I really do not know what example to use because I do not know who who is going to be listening to this later. But like, let us just say somebody like they can do, they are a master yoyo, they are a yoyo master, and they do yoyo perfectly. But what is the point in doing it? OK, it is a form of art, it entertains people, but in the end, is anything really happening? Is anything really being accomplished here? Not really. So, but then you will have the greatest yoyo masters out there, the greatest magicians out there that are doing like things that they do in the best form.

So something can be purposeless, and not serve a proper purpose, but at the same time be done in a perfect manner or a very good manner. So you give us, Ayatullah Subhani, you give us a verse that tells us that God does things in a perfect manner, but who says things that He does are all purposeful?

He says, listen to this verse, Surah Sad verse twenty-eight. Surah Sad verse verse twenty-eight says: "ma khalaqna as-sama'a wa al-ardh wa ma baynahuma batila" (38:27). That look, We did not create the sky and the Earth and whatever is in between them, meaning everything, batilan, in vain. In other words, everything that We created has a purpose. What is the purpose?

Another verse says, Ayatullah Subhani has not brought here of course, but there is another verse in the Qur'an that says, "khalaqa lakum ma fi 'l-ardhi jamee'a" (2:29). Everything you find on the face of the Earth, it is there for the purpose, to serve you, is for you, I created it for you. Some people like they say, oh, what is the point of, I do not know, bugs and cockroaches. Even cockroaches, they say, have a purpose. I do not want to Google it now, but I do not know, I have heard that, they say if you have a world without cockroaches in it for 72 hours, people will die on that Earth. Because why? These cockroaches are taking in all the bad bacteria, whatever germs out there that are out there, they absorb a lot of the bad stuff. I do not know how true that is, I have heard it before, just giving it as an example.

Everything I create is for the purpose of you. So I want to do a little bit of, you know, I want to link a few verses together. Ayatullah Subhani, the verse he brought to show that there is a purpose in the world, he brought this verse: "ma khalaqna as-sama'a wa al-ardh wa ma baynahuma batila"(38:27) . We did not create the sky and the Earth and everything in between it in vain. We did not do it like that. There is a purpose to everything, to everything We created.

Well, what is the purpose of everything? The verse that I just said; "khalaqa lakum ma fi 'l-ardhi jamee'a" (2:29). He created it for us, mankind and the jinn, of course, "khalaqa lakum ma fi 'l-ardhi jamee'a" (2:29).

Well, OK, so You created everything for a purpose, that purpose is us. What is the purpose of us now? "Wa khalaqtu 'l-jinna wa al-ins illa li ya'bidun" (51:56). I created all of you to become obedient servants and 'abds of Me, I created you to be my 'abds, my servants. So in other words, all of this creation is done for the purpose of us reaching the point of serving Him and being obedient servants of Him. Once that is accomplished, then we have secured everything and He is going to give us everything, inshaAllah, inshaAllah, inshaAllah.

And the door to tawba is always open if we sometimes disobey Him. But we have to understand that this is the purpose of everything. So, purpose, Allah, when He does things, creates things, there is purpose behind them, one. Two when He does things, He does them in the best manner, and it is the best way for that thing to reach the fruit that was the point of its creation. This equals God is wise.

In other words, if you have somebody out there who has a purpose, has an end goal in mind, wants to achieve a goal. And but what they do is not in line with the goal that they are after, this person is not wise, right? It is not wise. A person who, for example, is thirsty in the desert, but does something that, I do not know, will bring about food for him or her, is not wise, right? Because you were thirsty, not hungry. Think about it.

I will give you a good example for this. Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack in the story of Jack and the Beanstalk was not wise. Why? Because mommy sent him, we all know the story, right? His mom sent him with the cow to sell the cow for food or for some money that they can use to take care of themselves. He came back with like three magical beans. And so his mom was upset. Why was his mom upset? Because that is not the wise thing to do. You need something, you have a goal, you have a need, but to fulfill that need, you do something that has nothing to do with fulfilling that need, that is not wise. So a wise person, a person who does something that is not wise.

Or a person who has the goal in mind and does the right thing to achieve that goal, but does not do the best thing to achieve that goal. So, for example, I want to live comfortably in a home and I build a home for myself. But when I am building it, I build it all crooked and stuff. And before you know it, a little shake by an earthquake, brings down the whole house on my head when I am sleeping in the middle of the night. This was not a wise thing to do. So both, not doing things in a good fashion or not doing them in a way that they are in line with your goals, both of these are things that are unwise. So a wise person is one who does not fall into these mistakes.

When we say Allah is wise, that is what is meant. That is one reasoning he brings for the fact that God has wisdom, this quality of action. Another thing, that he, another argument that he uses. He says, that look, God is ultimate perfection, right? We have already discussed this, he said. If God is ultimate perfection, then for sure His action will also be and will also enjoy ultimate perfection. Very simple. And I think this is a very nice argument, actually. If God is ultimate perfection, then His action will also enjoy ultimate perfection. That means from every aspect, when you look at what He is doing, it makes sense. That equals wisdom. So that is another argument that he uses as well. Two arguments he used for this. Number one, he used verses of the Qur'an, number two, he used rational argumentation as well. Very, I mean, this is very concise, of course, and we are not going into too much detail. But he used these two arguments to prove that God is All-wise.

All right. Al-Hamdulillah, this was the chapter on sifat ad-dhat and sifat al-fa'al, we covered these two, the attributes of essence and the attributes of action. So we are done with that now. Attributes of essence and attributes of action, these were subcategories of the sifat al-thubuteeya. Or the affirmative qualities of God, qualities that God actually has. They are of these two types.

Next chapter inshaAllah, next week, what we are going to get to is as-sifat al-salbiya, now, the negated qualities of God, those qualities that He does not have. He gets into those, talks about those a little bitand, then we move into a new category of God's attributes, inshaAllah wa Ta'ala. Thank you so much for tuning in. Keep us in your du'as until next week.

Wa as-salamu alaykum, wa Rahmat Ullah.