Ruling on the view that we should seek to acquire the characteristics of Allaah

One of the khateebs saidin his Friday khutbah that we have to strive
to acquire the attributes and characteristics of Allaah. Is there a
correct way of interpreting this sentence, and is there anyone who has
said this before?.
Praise be to Allaah.
This sentence is not appropriate, but there isa correct way of
interpreting it, which is that we are encouraged to strive to acquire
the characteristics implied by the attributes and names of Allaah.
That means looking at the attributes which it is befitting for a
created being to acquire the characteristics implied by them, unlike
the attributes which belong only to Allaah, such as His being the
Creator, the Provider, the One God, etc. These are characteristics
which a created being cannot acquire, and it is not permissible for
him to lay claim to them or similar names. Rather what is referred to
is theattributes which Allaah likes for His slaves to acquire the
characteristics implied thereby, such as knowledge, strength, mercy,
forbearance, generosity and forgiveness, etc. So Allaah is All-Knowing
and loves those who are knowledgeable; He is Strong and He loves the
strong believer more than He loves the weak believer; He is Generous
and loves those who are generous; He is Merciful and He loves those
who show mercy; He is Forgiving and loves forgiveness, etc. But when
applied to Allaah, these attributes are more perfect and greater than
when applied to any created being, because there is nothing like unto
Allaah in His attributes and actions, just as there is nothing like
unto Allaah in His Essence. Rather it is sufficient for a person to
have a share in the sense of these attributes,in a manner that suits
him and within the limits set by sharee'ah. Ifhis generosity oversteps
the mark, then he becomes a spendthrift; ifhis mercy oversteps the
mark, then he will not carry out the punishments dictated bysharee'ah;
if his forgiveness transgresses the limits set by sharee'ah, then it
is inappropriate. This was stated by the great scholar Ibn al-Qayyim
in his books 'Uddat al-Saabireen and al-Waabil al-Sayyib, and in other
books such as al-Madaarij and Zaad al-Ma'aad. There follows what he
said in al-'Uddah and al-Waabil:
In al-'Uddah (p. 310) he said: "Because Allaah is indeed the
Appreciative (al-Shukoor), the most beloved of His creation to Him are
those who have the characteristic of gratitude (al-shukr), just as the
most hated of His creation to Him are those who are lacking inthis
characteristic or who have the opposite characteristic. This applies
to His Beautiful names: the most belovedof His creation to Him are
those who have the characteristics implied by His names, and the most
hated of His creation to Him are those who have the opposite
characteristics. Hence He hates those who are ungrateful, those who do
wrong, those who are ignorant, hard-hearted, miserly, cowardly and
ignoble. He is Beautiful and loves beauty; He is All-Knowing and loves
those who have knowledge; He is Merciful and loves those who show
mercy; He does good and loves those who do good; He is the Concealer
and loves those who conceal;He is Powerful and condemns those who
acthelpless, and the strong believer is more belovedto Him than the
weak believer; He is forgiving and loves forgiveness; He is One and He
loves that which is odd-numbered; everything that He loves is
connected to His names and attributes; and everything that He hates is
the opposite of that."
He said in al-Waabil (p. 543 of Majmoo'at al-Hadeeth): "Generosity is
one of the attributes of the Lord, for He gives and does not take, He
feeds and is not fed, He is the most generous of those who are
generous.The most beloved of His creation to Him are those who seek to
acquire the characteristics implied by His attributes. For He is
Generous and loves those among His slaves who are generous; He is
All-Knowing and loves those who have knowledge; He is All-Powerful and
loves those who are courageous; He is Beautiful and loves beauty."
I hope that what we have mentioned will be sufficient and will serve
the intended purpose. I ask Allaah to help us all to understand His
religion and to fulfil our duty towards Him, for Heis All-Hearing,
Ever Near.
Majmoo' Fataawa wa Maqaalaat Mutanawwi'ah, 6/251.

What are the situations in which a promise may be broken?

We know that breaking promises is one of the attributes of the
hypocrites, but if a Muslim is unable to keephis promise for some
reason that is beyond hiscontrol, is he regarded as doing something
haraam and as having one of the attributes of the hypocrites, or is he
excused?.
Praise be to Allaah.
Undoubtedly keeping promises and keeping one's word are attributes of
the believers, and breaking promises is one of the attributes of the
hypocrites, as was narrated from 'Abd-Allaah ibn 'Amr (may Allaah be
pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be
upon him) said: "There are four (characteristics),whoever has them is
a hypocrite, and whoever has one of the four has acharacteristic of
hypocrisy unless he givesit up: when he speaks, he lies; when he makes
apromise he breaks it; what he makes a pledge he betrays it; and when
he disputes he resorts to foul language." Narratedby al-Bukhaari,
2327; Muslim, 58.
The believer who makes promises to people and breaks his promise may
have an excuse or he may not. If he has an excuse then there is no sin
on him, but if he does not have an excuse then he is a sinner.
There is no text – as far as we know – that makes any exception
regarding the prohibition of breaking promises, but it may be that
promises are broken in situations where the believer is excused. For
example:
A – Forgetting
Allaah has forgiven us for forgetfulness whereby obligatory actions
are omitted or haraam actions are committed. Allaah says
(interpretation of the meaning):
"Our Lord! Punish us not if we forget or fall into error"
[al-Baqarah 2:286]
And Allaah has said: "Yes." – Narrated by Muslim, 125, from the
hadeeth of Abu Hurayrah. According to another version, He said:"I will
do that." Narratedby Muslim, 126, from the hadeeth of Ibn 'Abbaas.
Whoever makes a promise to someone then forgets the promiseor forgets
to do it at the time stated, there is no sin on him.
B – Being forced to break one's promise.
Being forced is one of the impediments that make it permissible for
aMuslim to break his promise, such as one who is detained or is
prevented from fulfillinghis promise, or who is threatened with a
painful punishment.
It was narrated from Ibn 'Abbaas that the Prophet(peace and blessings
of Allaah be upon him) said: "Allaah has forgiven my ummah for their
mistakes, what they forget and what they are forced to do."
Narrated by Ibn Maajah, 2045, and this hadeeth has many corroborating
reports; classed as saheeh by Shaykh al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Jaami',
1836.
C – A promise to do something haraam or not to do something obligatory.
Whoever promises someone that he will do something haraam for him, or
that he will not do something that is obligatory, it is not
permissible for him to fulfil that promise.
This may be supported by the hadeeth of 'Aa'ishah – which is also
known as the hadeeth ofBareerah – which is narrated in al-Saheehayn.
'Aa'ishah (may Allaah be pleased with her) had promised Bareerah's
former masters [?} that the wala' of Bareerah [the right to inherit
from her when she died – which is the right of the one who sets a
slave free – Translator] would belong to them even though 'Aa'ishah
(may Allaah be pleased with her) was the one who was going to set
Bareerah free. But she did not keep this promise because they had gone
against the sharee'ah and they knew that the right of wala' belonged
to the one who set the slave free, so how could 'Aa'ishah set her free
and then the wala' of Bareerah belong to them?
Al-Shaafa'i said:
When news of that reached them, the one who had stipulated a condition
that was contrary to the ruling of Allaah and His Messengerwas a
sinner, and there are hudood punishments and discipline for the
sinner. One of the ways in which the sinners are disciplined is that
their conditions are rendered null and void so as to deter them and
others from doing likewise. This is one of the best forms of
discipline.
Ikhtilaaf al-Hadeeth, p. 165.
D – If something unforeseen happens to the one who made the promise,
such as sickness, the death of a relative or breakdown of his means of
transportation, etc.
There are many excuses, which all come under the heading of the verse
(interpretation of the meaning):
"Allaah burdens not a person beyond his scope"
[al-Baqarah 2:286]
And Allaah knows best.

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And Allah Knows the Best!

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Published by :->
M NajimudeeN Bsc- INDIA

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Personal diary of Parsley - Offender#21765 (Circa 1968)

I'm no sage, but I'm wiseenough to suspect that herbs possess
aphrodisiac properties.
We were only 15, Rosemary and I, when we were overtaken by an urge to
conduct experiments of a biological nature during our school trip to
Scarborough. The urge was urgent (well, obviously) insistent (really,
I insist) and rendered us both temporarily demented.
The theme of the day's outing was geography. At least, it had been
untilwe two bold adventurers discovered the secluded, rather idyllic
herb garden, wherein the birds and bees were displaying a pronounced
fondness for titbits and pollen.
♥ ♥
'What were you thinkingof,' asked the judge.
'Dunno,' said I. I mean, what's thinking got to do with instincts?
'So why did you do it?' the judge persevered.
Rosemary nudged me affectionately in the ribs,only breaking a couple,
and whispered, 'I bet he never when he was a lad!'
'Never what?' I asked. 'Ouch!' I added (they grind together most
painfully when they're fractured).
The judge did sound a mite envious and had a faraway look in his one
remaining eye.
'It seemed like a good idea at the thyme,' I explained.
The judge didn't get it.
But we did (18 months).
(I have the nagging feeling that this should be a song ... ).
( 1 Nowadays re-brandedas The University of Wherewithal)
( 2 The offence? - being young)

The Lay-by of Sissyfoot

Tiz a weird thing, the business of names. The oddest inhabited planet
in this regard thus far discovered on my astral travels is Revertia; a
relatively new rock and far too young to have evolved omnivorous,
psychotic bipeds by the normal processes. It so happened that a
flagship from Planet Ertia in the oldest regionof the galaxy had to
crash land there many moons ago and the survivors had no means of
escape, or even of sending messages.
Why didn't I notify 'the authorities' of their existence, you may ask.
'Have you left them stranded?' you could well add. Well, onethly, 'the
authorities' never take any notice of astral travellers, or of anyone
else with the slightest sign of imagination, and, twothly, after one
gets to know Revertians,it feels a really good idea to leave them
where they are.
They had all sorts of high-tech gear when they arrived, including
spreadsheet software for hyper-financial dealing in n-orthogonal
quasi-dimensions, mega-computers to run the software, and bugger all
data to feed into it, except this: Amongst all the gear that survived
their landing they had no piezo-electric lighters, no
carcinogenic-tube lighters, no high voltage supplies for making sparks
and only one ultra old-fashioned match. To the uninitiated, this a
lump of wood with sulphurous gunk on the end that bursts into flame
when subjected tofriction. Primitive? Yes indeedy, but it works.
One survivor responded to their predicament by panicking and lighting
the match straight away!There's always one maniac of this type in a
large enough group as you may have noticed.
'Quick, keep it alight!' wailed the onlookers. 'We have no other
source of heating or cooking!' and thus the scramble for survival in
their new world began.
The striker of the match, Mr. Rich Marketingexecutive, became the
first full-time employee of the newly colonised planet. Mr. Rich
Marketingexecutive the wood gatherer. He was rapidly followed into
employment by Miss Sue Footpedicurist the herb gardener; Mr. Alton
Riskassessor the shepherd of ox'n; Ms. Paunchy Magistrate the midwife;
Lady Charlotte Stockmarketwhizzkidesse the cook; Mrs. Sharon
Mediaanalyst the butcher of ox'n and Bill Overdue the hovelbuilder...
All was fine and dandy, give or take backache and blisters, until one
bright spark had the idea 'I could own severalhovels and let them. I'd
be able to go on holiday several times a year and wear my pyjamas all
day.If I had any!'
'Imagine the slavery,' complained the others. 'Spending our whole
lives working for One.'
So much for history.
*
On the road connecting the two Revertian settlements there is a large
ox'n-cartpark; their only one. It's the only large, flat,
easily-cleared piece of ground that lies on the road, hasstunning
views, and is surrounded by bushes and grassy hollows suitable for
courtship rituals and biological experiments of a reproductive nature.
Theview over the valley is ofneedle points of neo-conifers and the
fluffy pillows of pseudo-oak trees wherein the parrots, apes and
hummingbirds all hum. The parrots are parroting the hummingbirds and
the apes likewise. It is the sort of spot that bipeds throughout the
known universe, whether they be omnivorous, carnivorous or
vegetablevorous; psychotic, vegotic or mineralotic, cannot resist
visiting with recorded music to further enhance the mood.
One Brightspark spends his days circling the ox'ncartpark
anti-clockwise with a broom. He is tethered to a large post in the
middle of the clearing and he sweeps up the leaves and other evidence
of nature's processes. He wears overalls, a large sun hat and bedroom
slippers in the shape of fluffy bunnies. Having completed his circuit,
One finds it is time to start again. The other Revertians bring One
Brightspark roast ox'n and boiled p'taytoes to keep him fuelled.
This picturesque spot is known as The Lay-by of Sissyfoot .
Bye for now,
Honda P

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And Allah Knows the Best!

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Published by :->
M NajimudeeN Bsc- INDIA

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