children of Allah" Basing it on the weak Hadeeth (All creations are
sustained by Allah). Please provide details of the ruling.
Praise be to Allaah.
The hadeeth mentioned was narrated by al-Bazzaar and Abu Ya'la from
Anas, and says, "All of mankind are the dependents of Allaah, and the
most beloved of them to Allaah are those who are most helpful to their
dependents." This is a very weak (da'eef jiddan) hadeeth as al-Albaani
said inDa'eef al-Jaami', hadeeth no. 2946.
Any Muslim who says, "We believe that we are all the children of
Allaah" should be asked to explain what he means before any judgement
is made concerning him.
1 – If what he means by being children is the metaphorical meaning,
which is that people are dependent upon Allaah, and he is using this
word for a purpose allowed in sharee'ah, such as refuting the
Christians who say that the Messiah is the son of God, then there is
nothing wrong with that if he uses it only with Christians in order to
show that their belief is false, but he should not use it with others
lest that generate confusion and misunderstanding. That is because one
of the means of showing the Christians' beliefs concerning 'Eesa
(peace be upon him) to be false is to use the same expressions as are
mentioned in their holy Book (the Bible) to prove that others were
described as "sons of God" as well as 'Eesa, which clearly indicates
that what is meant by being a son of God in the texts of the Gospels
is not "sonship" in the literal sense, which St. Paul claimed for
Jesus in order to lead them astray from belief in Divine Oneness
(Tawheed). St. Paul based his argument on the confusion that may arise
from the use of the words "father" and "son". Some of the Bible texts
that may used to refute their argument are as follows:
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus said of those who believed in him:
"They are like the angels. They are God's children since they are
children of the resurrection."
[Luke 20:36]
And in the Book of Isaiah:
"Bring back My sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth"
[Isaiah 43:6]
And this is what was said describing God as the Father, as it is
narrated in the Gospel of Matthew that the Messiah said to his
students:
"If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."
[Matthew 6:1]
In the Gospel of Luke:
"When you pray say, 'Our Father, Who art in heaven…'"
[Luke 11:2]
In the Gospel of John:
"I am returning to my Father and your Father, my God and your God."
[John 20:17]
The Christians do not say that the angels, the Children of Israel and
the Disciples were sons of God in a literal sense, or that God was
their father in a literal sense, rather they interpret that in a
metaphorical sense, i.e., that He is a father to them in the sense of
blessing them, being kind to them, protecting them and taking care of
them, and they are His children in the sense that they worship Him,
need Him and are dependent upon Him.
This demonstrates the falseness of their understanding of 'Eesa being
the son of God, basing their argument on some texts that say that he
is the son of God.
2 – If he means that all people are children of Allaah just as 'Eesa
is the son of Allaah, in the sense of the Christian belief, then this
is kufr (disbelief) that is worse than the kufr of the Christians.
3 – If he means that we are all children of Allaah or dependent upon
Him, with no difference between Muslims and kaafirs, and he means that
the Jews, Christians and idol-worshippers are not kaafirs, then this
is riddah or apostasy from Islam, because whoever doubts that the Jews
and Christians are kaafirs or approves of their religions is a kaafir,
according to scholarly consensus.
4 – If he means thereby to justify using the word "brother" for Jews
and Christians, because we are all the children of Allaah, this is
false, because there is no brotherhood between the believers and the
disbelievers. The hadeeth (which some may interpret as meaning that
all men are brothers) has been proven to be not saheeh. Even if it was
saheeh, it could not be interpreted in this fashion.
We must beware of using confusing words which may cause a person to
fall into something haraam or make people think badly of him,
especially words which have to do with the Oneness of Allaah (Tawheed)
and His Uniqueness in His names and attributes. For the rights of
Allaah take precedence and must be taken care of, and we must avoid
anything that may violate them, especially when those words are used
by the Jews and Allaah quotes them in the Qur'aan in the context of
condemnation.
"And (both) the Jews and the Christians say: 'We are the children of
Allaah and His loved ones.' Say: 'Why then does He punish you for your
sins?' Nay, you are but human beings of those He has created…"
[al-Maa'idah 5:18 – interpretation of the meaning]
And Allaah knows best.
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