The Tawhid of Grave Worshipers!

We cannot know Allah, Subhana wa Ta'ala. This is a very common objection, that look, Allah, Subhana wa Ta'ala, is beyond our understanding. We should not talk about Allah. We should just talk about Muhammad and Aali Muhammad, 'alayhum as-salam, because they are within our reach. Salawat 'ala Muhammad [Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa Aali Muhammad].

My question is: can anyone here stand up and claim that they can understand Muhammad and Aali Muhammad? Is there a man yet born who can say that I have Ma'rifa of Nur Muhammadiyya, is there? You will not find a Muslim, unless he is a madman, who will tell you that I know who Husayn is, I will tell you who is Husayn. Is there anyone who can say I have Ma'rifa of Husayn? So that means now let us not talk about the Imams as well because we do not have their Ma'rifa, right? Let us just talk about ourselves.

So here is the problem. The Qur'an is there, but I can not talk about it because we are not supposed to understand this, only the Imams can understand that, right? They were not here to teach us about the Qur'an, the Qur'an is only for them.

Now, when I listen to what the Imams are saying, I look at Nahj ul-Balagha, I see Amir ul-Mu'minin, alayhi as-salam, is talking about Tawhid, every other sermon, he is praising Allah, describing things in very deep philosophical terms. I look at Kitab ul-Irshad of Shaikh Mufid, I find Imam Al-Sadiq, alayhi as-salam, is having philosophical debates with atheists. I look at Shaikh Saduq's Uyun Akhbar Ar-Ridha, two volumes, the Imam is having debates with people of all kinds of faiths. Deep, deep philosophical debates on proof of God, existence of God and so on and so forth.

I look at Hadith Mufadhdhal of the sixth Imam, again, there is profound ideas being taught there. I look at the Hadith of the sixth Imam, he says Allah revealed Surat ul-Ikhlas - Surah Qul, Huwa Allahu ahad (112:1), and the last verses of Surat ul-Hadid because He knew there will come a future generation in time who will be able to understand the meaning of these verses. What do I do with all this hadith?

So I have the Qur'an, but I am not supposed to comment on it. I have the Hadith, but we are not supposed to talk about it. We are only supposed to talk about the Imams themselves. The question is, is this fair to the Imams? Are we being fair to them? And that is why I have said this time and time again that when people ask me to define the Prophet and the Ahl ul-Bayt, who are they? My standard definition to everyone is first and foremost, they are teachers of Tawhid. They are teachers of Tawhid. The main reason why any messenger of God came was to guide people back to God, to show them how to journey towards God. And we said that journey is not physical. And the Imams, as the heirs to the Prophets, their mission is the same: they are teachers of Tawhid.

Now, is it not ironic that our Imams have the most profound and the deepest understanding of Tawhid, but our enemies call us grave worshippers?

And the most repulsive understanding of Tawhid, is the Tawhid of the Wahhabi? Because the Wahhabi's God sits on a throne, on Thursday nights He physically comes down, and then He goes up, on the Day of Judgment He puts His left foot in the fire of Hell, until the fire of Hell says: Enough! Enough! When the fire of Hell says: "hal min mazid? Hal min mazid?" are there anymore? "Yawma naqulu li 'l-Jahannam halim talahti. Then God puts His left foot in the fire of Hell, and Hell says: enough, enough, o Lord, because His left foot is Masha'Allah.

The most repulsive Tawhid is that of the Wahhabi, but he is called Muwahhid. And the highest understanding of Tawhid is mine and I am called a grave worshipper. Where did we drop the ball? Where?

I will tell you where we dropped the ball. We dropped the ball because we took the Imams but not their teachings. We took the Imams but we did not take their teachings. Even when we take the praise from our Imams, who is the Imam we praise the most? Amir ul-Mu'minin, Ali ibn Abi Talib, salawat Allahi wa as-salamu alayh [Allahumma salli 'ala Muhammad wa Aali Muhammad]. We say, Ali is the "madhar Ilahi," he manifests divine attributes. There are people who speak of him in glowing terms, of how Ali demonstrates things, why people were misguided and they thought Ali was God.

When Ibrahim, 'alayhi as-salam, challenges Nimrud and tells him that my God brings the dead back to life, the king kills a man and spares another one and says, I can do the same thing. Then how does Ibrahim defeat him? He says, My Lord brings the sun from the East and sets it in the West. You bring it from the other side if you are God. Ali did that. So he manifests things that give people reason to say he is God.

But who is Ali? Now what we do is we praise him and praise him and praise him to say, look at how God manifested His power, His knowledge, His ability in Ali. Amazing, definitely. But then we stopped there. We forget that the reason why Ali came was to point us to Allah. We said, do not talk about Allah, that is too deep. And in doing that, we are unfair to Ali, because if he came now, he would be disappointed.

And I have given this example before, that if you take an infant in your hand and you see a full moon before you, and you point to the full moon, the infant will look at your finger, he will not look at the moon because he does not have the maturity to look that far. And the more you wag your finger and say, look at that beauty, he is going to look at your finger.

Everything besides God is an Ayah. So Ali is saying, look at Allah. And he does a miracle. Look at Allah. He lifts the gate, he is showing you the power of Allah. We are looking at Ali, we are not looking at Allah. He is trying to show us something [Narahe Takbir! Allahu Akbar].

And I will give you proof for this. When you ask Amir ul-Mu'minin himself to describe himself in the most glowing terms after the demise of the Prophet, blessings and peace be on him, what does he say? He says "ma li-Llahi ayatun, akbar minni." Allah does not have a sign or an Ayah greater than I. I am the greatest sign of Allah. He describes himself [Narahe Haydari! Ya Ali!]. Undoubtedly, he is "naba' ul-'Adheem." He is the great news of Allah, Subhana wa Ta'ala, after the Prophet.

But when you praise Ali and you bring him to that level, after that as well, let mankind see the God that Ali introduces in Nahj ul-Balagha, so that they understand who are the rightful owners of Tawhid. That Tawhid should come from the teaching of the Ahl ul-Bayt and not from those who are their enemies.