If it is said to you, “Who is your Lord? – Shaykh Fawzan | Dawud Burbank [Audio|En]

Sharh-ul-Usool-ith-Thalaathah : Lesson 16
Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzan | Dawud Burbank [Audio|English]

Previous Class: These Three Fundamental Principles have Tremendous Importance

Imaam Muhammad ibn ‘Abdil-Wahhaab (rahimahullaah) said:

فإذا قيلَ لكَ: مَنْ رَبُّكَ؟ فقلْ ربي اللهُ الذي ربّاني ورَبَّى جميعَ العالمينَ بنعمِهِ

So if it is said to you, “Who is your Lord?”, then say, “My Lord is Allaah who nurtured me and all of the creation with His favours.” ²

[2]: Shaykh Fawzan’s Explanation:

The Shaikh rahimahullaah having explained the three fundamental principles in general terms, wanted to explain them in detail one by one, with their evidences from the Book and the Sunnah, and from Allaah’s signs within the creation, and from the intellectual evidences. And it is likewise obligatory to base creed and belief upon proofs from the Book and the Sunnah, and upon examination of the signs which Allaah has placed within the creation so that it should be firmly grounded and firmly established in the heart and so that all doubts are removed.

As for creed and beliefs based upon shubuhaat (incorrect suspicions) and upon doubts and upon sayings of the people and upon blind-following, then these will be beliefs which are short-lived and will not remain firmly established, and they will be open to being disproven and they will be open to being totally refuted.

So creed and belief and the rest of the rulings of the legislation are not established except with proofs of the Book and the Sunnah and with accepted intellectual proofs. And therefore the Shaikh rahimahullaah he quoted many proofs for these three fundamental principles, so no principle from them occurs except that he has support it with evidences and proofs about which there is certainty which repel doubts and false desires and which firmly implant the creed and belief in the heart.

His saying rahimahullaah, “So if it is said to you”: meaning if you are asked about your Lord, and this is a question which will occur, you will be indeed asked about it in this world and in the hereafter, so it is essential that you have knowledge of your Lord the Mighty and Majestic, and that you respond with the correct response based upon certainty and clear proof. So then say, “My Lord is Allaah”, this is the answer, “the One Who nurtured me and nurtured the whole of the creation with His favours.” This is using an intellectual proof.

So Ar-Rabb, the Lord the Majestic and Most High, He is the One who nurtures all of His servants with His favours and nourishes them with the provision which He gives. He creates them after they were previously nothing mentioned, they were in the wombs of their mothers, in one form of creation after another within three depths of darkness. And He causes provision to reach them, even in the wombs of their mothers, and therefore the body of the fetus develops in the womb of the mother and grows larger, because the provision from Allaah the Perfect and Most High reaches it and nourishment reaches it.

Then the soul is breathed into it so it moves and it comes to life, by the permission of Allaah. This is tarbiyyah (nurturing) in the womb. Then when it comes out, then Allaah the Perfect nurtures it with His favours giving it health and well-being and He causes the milk of its mother to flow for it, so it is nourished until it can eat food and can do without milk. Then little by little its intellect grows and its hearing and seeing develops, it develops little by little until it reaches puberty then it develops further until it reaches its full strength, until it reaches forty years old and it is at the limit of its strength.

So who is it that nourishes it from the day when He created it in the womb of its mother until it dies, who is it who nourishes it, then who is it who causes this food and this drink to be digested and absorbed in its body so that it reaches every cell and every muscle and every place in its body, who is it who makes food and drink appetizing for it, who is it who causes that to pass through and who removes what is harmful from it, who is it who does this and nurtures this human being, is it not Allaah the Perfect and Most High? This is the Lord the Perfect and Most High, the one who nurtures, He is the one who nurtured me and nurtured all of the created beings by His favours.

Everything upon the face of the earth from the realms of humans and animals and the realm of the land and the sea, from the greatest created thing to the smallest created thing upon the land and the sea, all of them are nourished by His favours and His provision. He the Most High said:

أَمَّنْ هَٰذَا الَّذِي يَرْزُقُكُمْ إِنْ أَمْسَكَ رِزْقَهُ

Or who is it that could give you provision if your Lord were to withold the provision which He gives to you? [67:21]

And He said:

وَمَا مِن دَابَّةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ إِلَّا عَلَى اللَّهِ رِزْقُهَا وَيَعْلَمُ مُسْتَقَرَّهَا وَمُسْتَوْدَعَهَا

And there is no creature upon the earth except that its provision is dependent upon Allaah and He knows its dwelling place and its resting place. [11:6]

And He said:

وَكَأَيِّن مِّن دَابَّةٍ لَّا تَحْمِلُ رِزْقَهَا اللَّهُ يَرْزُقُهَا وَإِيَّاكُمْ ۚ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ

And how many a creature there is which does not carry its own provision. Allaah provides for it and for you. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. [29:60]

This is the Lord, the One free of all imperfections:

ذَٰلِكُمُ اللَّهُ رَبُّكُمْ فَاعْبُدُوهُ

That is Allaah your Lord so worship Him alone. [10:3]

As for other than Allaah the Majestic and Most High, then it does not possess and have ability over anything from that, neither the idols nor anything else, no-one else possesses and has ability over granting provision, rather it is one who is provided for, it is a created being like yourself.

Imaam Muhammad ibn ‘Abdil-Wahhaab (rahimahullaah) said:

And He is the One Whom I worship and there is no other whom I worship besides Him, and the proof is His saying, He the Most High:

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

All praise is for Allaah the Lord of the whole of creation [1:2] ³

[3]: Shaykh Fawzan’s Explanation:

His saying, “And He is the One Whom I worship”: the Lord, the One who is like this He is the One who deserves worship from me and from other than me. Then the Shaikh also draws attention to the fact that it is not sufficient to affirm Ruboobiyyah (Allaah’s Lordship), it is not sufficient that you say, “My Lord is Allaah who nurtured me with His favours.”

This is not sufficient, you must acknowledge His right to all worship, and you must make all worship purely and sincerely for Him. And this is the difference between the person of tawheed and the person of shirk. So the person of tawheed affirms the Lordship of Allaah the Mighty and Majestic and he affirms His sole right to worship, He alone with no partner, whereas the person of shirk, he affirms the Lordship of Allaah, however he is one who associates others along with Him in his worship of Him. He associates along with Him those who do not create and do not provide provision and do not possess anything. This is the difference between the person of tawheed and the person of shirk. The person of tawheed says, “My Lord is Allaah and He is the One Whom I worship, and I have no other one whom I worship besides Him.”, whereas the person of shirk, he says, “My Lord is Allaah.” However worship with him is not solely for Allaah, so he worships along with Allaah, trees and rocks and beloved servants of Allaah and righteous people and graves. So he becomes a person of shirk, and the affirmation of Lordship does not benefit him, and it does not enter him into Islaam.

So his saying, “And He is the One Whom I worship”: meaning the Deity Whom I worship.

And his saying, “And I have no other whom I worship besides Him”: neither from the Angels nor from the Messengers nor from the righteous people nor from trees nor rocks nor anything else, I have nothing which I worship besides Him, He the Perfect and Most High. This is affirmation of tawheed with the proof, and this is an intellectual proof, and then he mentioned the textual proof the Qur’aan.

And the proof is His saying, He the Most High:

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

All Praise is for Allaah, the Lord and Nurturer of the whole of the creation. [1:2]

This aayah is the start of the Qur’aan in the Mus-haf (written copy of the Qur’aan), there is nothing before it except for, “In the Name of Allaah, the Extremely Merciful, the Bestower of Mercy.” And it is the conclusion of the speech of the people of Paradise, He the Most High said:

وَآخِرُ دَعْوَاهُمْ أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

And the conclusion of their call will be that all Praise is for Allaah, the Lord of the whole of creation [10:10]

And Allaah the Majestic and Most High began this creation with this phrase.

He the Most High said:

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ وَجَعَلَ الظُّلُمَاتِ وَالنُّورَ

All praise is for Allaah He Who created the heavens and the earth and made the darkness and the light. [6:1]

And He will conclude the creation with it. He the Most High said:

وَقُضِيَ بَيْنَهُم بِالْحَقِّ وَقِيلَ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

And judgement will be passed upon them all with justice, and judgement will be concluded by its being said that all praise is for Allaah the Lord of creation [39:75]

So He began the creation with it and He concluded with it, so it is a tremendous saying.

So His saying He the Most High, “Al-Hamd”: it is praise of the One Who is being praised along with love of Him and veneration of Him. And the, “Al-”, in, “Al-Hamd”, is to make it totally comprehensive, meaning all praise is for Allaah, it belongs to Him and He is deserving of it, so He is the One Who deserves total and unrestricted praise. As for other than him, then he can be praised in accordance with the level of the fine and good things which he does. As for total and unrestricted and complete praise then it is for Allaah the Mighty and Majestic, because favours, all of them are from Him.

And even the created being if he does something good to you, then it is from Allaah the Mighty and Majestic, He is the One Who caused this created being to do something useful for you, and He is the One Who enabled him to do good for you, so indeed praise returns to Allaah the Perfect and Most High.

And his saying, “Lillaah”: the jaar and the majroor are connected to something left unmentioned which is the predicate for the subject. So the phrase means: praise exists or is confirmed for Allaah the Mighty and Majestic.

And, “Allaah”: means, the One possessing Divinity and the right to be worshipped over the whole of His creation. And this Name, no-one else besides Him, He the Perfect can be called it, no-one can be called Allaah. Even the Pharoah, he did not say, “I am Allaah”, rather he said, “I am your Lord”. So this Name is particular to Allaah, no-one can ever be called it, and no-one has the audacity to say, “I am Allaah.”

“Rabbi”: this is a qualifying noun for Allaah’s Name, and it is in the genitive case and it is a governing noun.

“Al-‘Aalameen”: is a governed noun in the genitive case, and the sign that it is in the genitive case is the, “yaa”. Because it it joined to the sound masculine plural.

So it is clear that praise, all of it, and extolling, all of it, is for Allaah the Lord of the whole of creation.

And the world of the Angels and the world of inanimate objects and of birds and the world of beasts of prey and the world of animals and the world of insects and of ants and the many worlds or realms of creation that there are upon the land and in the sea, they are not known except to Allaah, and no-one can enumerate them except Allaah. All of them, Allaah is their Lord.

“Rabb-ul-‘Aalameen”, (the Lord of all of the creation): this cannot be applied except to Allaah the Perfect the Mighty and Majestic. It is not possible for anyone to be called, “Rabb-ul-‘Aalameen”.

So if it said, “Ar-Rabb”, (The Lord): then this cannot be used except for Allaah the Majestic and Most High, it cannot be used except for Him. As for a created being, then the term can be used restrictedly so that it is said, Rabb-ad-Daar “the master of the house”, or, “the owner of the animal”, meaning its owner and its master.

—

Sharh-ul-Usool-ith-Thalaathah. Explanation of the Three Fundamental Principles of Imaam Muhammad ibn ‘Abdil-Wahhaab by Shaykh Saalih ibn Fowzaan al-Fowzaan hafizahullaah. Translated by Daawood Burbank, rahimahullaah

Posted with kind permission from Dawud Burbank rahimahullaah

—

Listen to the Full Audio Series:
Sharh Usool-ith-Thalaathah – Shaykh Fawzan | Dawud Burbank

Book Study Resources – Three Fundamental Principles

Related Links: