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in
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alhamdulillah all praise due to Allah
and may Allah's peace and blessings be
on the last messenger of Allah I'd like
to welcome you again dear viewers to our
program in the names of
Allah and in this episode we will
continue to look at some of the rules
which
govern how to understand the names of
Allah in the previous episodes we looked
at the sources of the names what are the
authentic sources what are the
inauthentic sources we also looked at
the misuse of the names how people in
the past as well as in the present use
Allah's names in the in the incorrect
way in an incorrect way you know now
we're going to continue looking at the
rules governing the names of Allah and
how to understand them the first rule
that we looked at in our previous
session was basically understanding the
names of Allah
as mentioned in the Quran and the Sunnah
within the context of the
language the Quran is in Arabic in pure
Arabic the Sunnah
likewise and we understand the names
that are mentioned there according to
how they come in Arabic as they would be
understood in the Arabic language
following the same principles found in
basically all of the languages that when
people make
statements the norm is to accept those
statements according to their face
value we don't go from the norm the
obvious and clear meanings to
metaphorical
allegorical symbolic meanings are unless
there is either textual evidence or
contextual evidence the term in which it
is said the circumstance in which it is
said uh indicates that this couldn't be
what was meant if I say to
somebody uh you know I take my hat off
to you and I'm not wearing a
hat then the
person understands that what is meant by
taking off the hat is something
metaphorical
means I respect you I hold your opinions
highly Etc you know so that is the
general principle that we follow the
second principle that we began to look
at rule number
two was basically that all all of
Allah's names are beautiful names
perfect names which involve uh you know
no
deficiency they
represent uh the best and most
beautiful names or understandings that
we could have about God so any name
which uh doesn't fit in that category
then we don't accept it as a basic
principle and that's why we took the
example of ad in the previous
uh session and we said this was not
applicable to Allah
because time has a
beginning which means time it has a
beginning so it isn't one of Allah's
names though it is mentioned in the
Sunnah and could be understood to be one
of Allah's
names
however uh we said it was rejected there
are other texts from the Sunnah which
indicate otherwise for example there's a
Hadith in M Ahmed in which the prophet
Sall had said do not curse time for
indeed Allah said I am time that's the
same but it goes on to say the days and
nights belong to me I renew them and let
them grow old and I bring rulers after
rulers this is clear from the context in
which that statement is meant that said
that this didn't mean that Allah is
actually time but that he is in control
of
time now the second half of rule
two is that the attributes of Allah
should be treated likewise that their
attributes of perfection and praise
without any elements of deficiency in
any
respect now if we find an
attribute which does have what what
appears to be a side of
deficiency uh if it's pure
deficiency then it's definitely not
acceptable and applicable to Allah tala
at all for example death or
ignorance or
inability deafness blindness any of
these kinds of attributes or
characteristics which are purely
deficient they are in no way applicable
to Allah
tala now there are other
attributes where if one looks at it from
one perspective it might
represent uh an
imperfection but if one looks at it from
another perspective it is perfection so
where you have an attribute of that type
then what is required is that the
perfected aspect of it is what we
attributed attribute to Allah the
imperfections that are in it that is to
his creatures for example we have the
verse in the Quran in Surah anfal verse
30 where Allah
says they plot and Allah plots and Allah
is the best of
plotters we also
have
indeed they scheme and I scheme like
plotting and we also have inah verse
142 surely the Hypocrites try to deceive
Allah but it is he who deceives them so
this concept of plotting scheming and
deception these are with regards to
human beings these are considered to be
negative
characteristics right so to attribute
them as we understand them with regards
to human beings to Allah it's not it's
not appropriate however if we look at it
from the perspective of
reciprocation that one who is unable to
reciprocate becomes weak so if they plot
and Allah is not able to out plot them
so that would imply weakness with
regards to Allah if they try to deceive
Allah and Allah is not able to out
deceive them then that would imply again
weakness with regards to Allah so in
this context where it is a an issue of
of affirming Allah's
ability to outplant them to deceive them
as they try to deceive him of course he
his is with perfect
justification theirs is without
justification their plotting or their
scheming or their uh deception it is
with evil intent Allah doesn't hold evil
intent
so it it this type of attribute
represents a Perfection on the part of
Allah in that he is able to do what
they're doing and Beyond so that type of
attribute we can accept uh and give it
to Allah but we don't extract from that
attribute a name so then we're going to
call Allah Al Mak the
plotter right or Al the schemer
or the deceiver no these names are not
applicable to allaha he has not referred
to himself in this way and it's not
acceptable for us to do the same
especially considering that there is
that negative element there with
it the other aspect of um the second
rule is that the names Allah's names
refer to his
Essence and they have attributes
connected to them that every name is
taken in its fullness we don't
uh deny the attribute that comes with
the
name we don't make names from
attributes that's not permissible but
whenever there is a name we also have to
recognize the attribute because that is
what the name implies the implication of
the name has to be uh recognized
also the third basic rule that we need
to
consider
is where Allah has what we could call
affirmative and negative attributes
affirmative attributes where Allah you
know attributes to
himself uh attributes like life and
knowledge and ability these are
affirmative attributes and we have to
affirm them and at the same time that we
affirm them we have to negate their
opposite because if Allah refers to self
as having life then we cannot associate
him with
death similarly if he Associates with
himself knowledge we don't associate
with him
ignorance and if he Associates with
himself ability we don't associate with
him inability so those uh opposites of
those
affirmative uh attributes we have to
deny so
if a person says that this
man Jesus for example was
God
and he
died as is believed we say this could
not possibly be God because God's
attribute of life is eternal life not
dying so where we have a being who dies
then that being cannot possibly be God
similarly knowledge and ignorance where
we may find uh a text which implies that
God is
unaware of
something for example in uh the Bible in
the Old Testament in Genesis where after
Adam and Eve ate from the tree they hid
in the garden and God is heard walking
in the garden and he's calling out you
know Adam where are
you he he doesn't know where Adam is
that's ignorance he's not aware then we
say that attribute is not attributable
to Allah this this text has to be false
it couldn't possibly be from God you
know and
knowledge uh or sorry ability the last
Point say ability that God is unable to
do something you know which is within
his being God
uh any text or any argument which would
present that we would say has to be
false so uh in just closing that point
we're going to take a break now the
point is that whatever Allah has
attributed to himself of the affirmative
attributes positive attributes then we
have to affirm them and at the same time
reject their opposites we'll see you
after the break inshallah
are thead
seems
remember seek strength from
the my name is shuni and this is brought
to you from HUD TV um in today's edition
we'll be discussing about the day and
night Allah equated with Darkness the
firmament with darkness and equated the
Earth with light why are there pillars
that cannot be seen or is it an unseen
pillar everything is running but the
relationships are fixed so that it would
appear to people as if nothing is
running you see we are destroying the
our environment with our own hands and
that's why the Quran
says Road seems long remember just
remember seek strength from
alhamdulillah all praise is due to Allah
and may Allah's peace and blessings
beond the last messenger of Allah
welcome back dear viewers to our
program in the names of
Allah before the break we were looking
at two aspects of Allah's
attributes what we call the affirmative
attributes and the negative attributes
we said as a general rule the
affirmative attributes where Allah has
affirmed something to himself like life
we have to affirm it in its fullness and
its Perfection at the same time we have
to negate or
reject uh its
opposite we we we don't attribute that
opposite to Allah and this is a very
important point because as we said there
are many people in this world
who have
accepted
gods that
die they have accepted people
animals beings as God who die and Common
Sense alone should tell them that this
is not reasonable or acceptable to
attribute to God God is one who is
eternally living
he doesn't
die so where death is attributed we have
to say this couldn't be God without a
doubt on the other hand where God has
denied certain attributes to himself he
has negated them he says this is not him
he is not this for example we can find
in Surah alah where Allah
says and your lord does not oppress
anyone so Allah denies from himself
oppression he does not oppress so
therefore we have to at the same time uh
negate that from Allah we affirm the
fact that he does not oppress anyone and
at the same time we also have to affirm
its opposite that is that Allah is just
absolutely just perfectly just we have
to affirm it's opposite so we don't just
deny the fact that Allah does not
oppress anyone we also have to affirm
the fact that he is absolutely just this
very important because when it comes to
working with the names of
Allah bringing them alive in our lives
this becomes a very important and
critical point if we just take this
attribute alone by itself the issue of
Oppression
what is it if we ask ourselves which
drives certain people a number of people
into disbelief in
God but the idea that God is oppressed
them that what has happened to them in
life some tragedy some you know Calamity
or whatever they say what did I do to
deserve this why did this happen to me
you know I'm a good person why should
this happen to me and because of the
fact that they can't
accept that
this uh is from a just God because
that's how they perceive it they can't
see any good in it all they can see is
evil so they say there couldn't be a god
there if there was a god this wouldn't
have happened to me so this is proof the
fact that this happened to me this which
I consider to be oppression
unfair then there can't possibly be a
God so that leads them into a state of
disbelief whereas if one understands
that Allah does not oppress anyone it
means that what we
perceive as something
unfair is in fact fair just we can't see
how it
is it's in fact there is good in it but
we're not able to perceive where that
good actually is but if we are clear if
we're clear on this attribute of Allah
that he does not oppress anyone that he
is absolutely just then that prevents
this evil thought from coming over us
and drawing us into a state of disbelief
where we reject God's existence
very very important Point as I said this
is a very
common uh factor in the disbelief of
many people who today deny God they
didn't reason it out they didn't sit
down and logically say well look at this
look at that look at the other I
conclude there isn't a God no it's
usually an
emotional it's an emotional experience
something has happened which they can't
explain they don't have an answer for
and it seems to be bad oppressive unfair
for them and the only way that they can
deal with it by saying there is no God
because they can't find an explanation
there couldn't possibly be God so
therefore I need to blame other people
you know it's this one's fault or it's
that one's fault or whatever there can't
possibly be a god there
so that was the second aspect
of the affirmative and negative
attributes of
Allah so that completes basically our
foundation for understanding the names
of Allah having understood
that we already built we're now building
on we're already building now on another
Foundation which is that all of the
these names uh have some relevance in
our lives and we need to Now find that
relevance whether it is simply to praise
Allah alone because we cannot reflect
that attribute or whether it is to not
only praise him but also to reflect that
attribute in our
lives this is the uh Foundation that we
are now going to build our understanding
of the names of Allah
on so having understood that then we can
begin to look at the greatest name of
Allah Allah has 99
names
and among those 99 Names one of the
names is the greatest and of course
that's greatest relative to human beings
relative to Allah it is all the
same what we know is that Prophet
Muhammad s wasallam on one occasion
heard one of his companions make a
Dua this
Dua
oh Allah indeed I beseech you bearing
witness that you are Allah there is no
God worthy of worship besides you the
one the self-subsisting who neither
gives birth nor is born and nothing is
similar to him Prophet Muhammad s
wasallam when he heard that he said by
the one in whose hand lies my soul he
has asked Allah by his greatest Name by
which he responds if he is prayed to and
he gives if he is asked with so from
that Hadith and there are other
narrations of
it it was concluded that there is one
name out of all of Allah's 99 names or
more which in fact is the greatest of
Allah's names and we did say before
we should just remind viewers that
though we spoke about 99 names we
already gave evidence that the N the
names of Allah are not limited to
99 so uh though in this program we are
going to just cover 99 we should know
that this is really uh not a limitation
that there are others besides these
which we'll be covering anyway what
we're talking about right now is the
greatest name of
Allah what is that greatest name well
Scholars differed there were different
opinions and there are other narrations
which mention different verses in the
Quran where the name can be found etc
etc now the opinion which a number of
the leading Scholars agreed upon was
that the greatest name of Allah was in
fact the name Allah
itself and the evidence which is used
for that because of course um as I said
there were other different op there are
different opinions for different reasons
Scholars chose other names uh for
example he chose the name Al because he
felt that this was the most basic uh
name of Allah which represent the most
basic attribute because to be living
is you know the basis for all of the
attributes without a living God then all
of the attributes have no meaning so
that was his uh line of argument from
from reason and logic anyway the point
is that a number of other Scholars
including his own
student held that the greatest name of
Allah was in fact
Allah what was the evidence the first is
that that name can be found in all of
the Hadith narrations which
describe the greatest name of Allah in
which it's included referring to verses
here and there the term Allah is shared
by all the second evidence is
that it is the name most mentioned in
the Quran
itself over
2,62 times the name Allah is mentioned
in the
Quran the nearest name to
it
Alim and is is only
114 times the next closest to it isman
57 times so we can see very clearly from
this that the name Allah is the one most
frequently used by Allah subhana
himself and these are among the
evidences there are further evidences
for the choice of Allah as the greatest
name of Allah and we will be looking at
them in our coming episode I'd like to
thank you all for being with us in this
segment of our program in the names of
Allah and we hope to see you again in
our coming
programs when you are we the road seems
long remember just remember seek
strength from the strong