Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah - Nasir al-Din al-Albani - (7/110)

Silsilat al-Ahadith al-SahihahNasir al-Din al-Albani

learned believer; as Allah says: “Only those of His servants who have knowledge truly fear Allah.” They said: Everyone who fears Allah has believed in Him and knows Him, and it is impossible for one who does not believe in Him to fear Him. This is clear to anyone who understands and is granted right guidance.

As for his statement, “If Allah should decree concerning me,” the scholars differed over its meaning. Some held that this man was ignorant of one of Allah’s divine attributes—namely, His power—and did not know that Allah has power over all that He wills. They said: Whoever is ignorant of one of Allah’s attributes, while believing in and knowing His other attributes, is not thereby rendered a disbeliever through his ignorance of some of Allah’s attributes. They said: The disbeliever is only one who stubbornly rejects the truth, not one who is ignorant of it. This was the view of the early scholars and of those later scholars who followed their way.

Others said that by his statement, “If Allah should decree concerning me,” he meant decree in the sense of divine judgment, not power and ability in any sense. They said that this is like Allah’s saying regarding Dhu al-Nun: “When he went off in anger, thinking that We would not constrain him.”

The scholars have two interpretations of this expression:

One is that it derives from ordaining and decreeing.

The other is that it derives from constraining and restricting.

Whatever the scholars have said in interpreting this verse is likewise permissible in interpreting this hadith and his statement, “If Allah should decree concerning me.” According to one of the two meanings, it is as though the man said: If it had already preceded in Allah’s decree and judgment that He would punish every guilty person for his offense, then Allah will surely punish me for my crimes and sins with a punishment that He has inflicted upon no one else in all the worlds.

According to the other meaning, it is as though he said: By Allah, if Allah constrains me and is exacting in calling me to account and recompensing me for my sins, then that will surely be so. Then, out of the extremity of his fear, he instructed that he be burned after his death.

لمؤمن عالم؛ كما قال الله ﷿: (إنما يخشى الله من عباده العلماء) ، قالوا: كل من خاف الله فقد آمن به وعرفه، ومستحيل أن يخافه من لا يؤمن به. وهذا واضح لمن فهم وألهم رشده. وأما قوله: "لئن قدر الله علي "؛ فقد اختلف العلماء في معناه؛ فقال منهم قائلون: هذا رجل جهل بعض صفات الله ﷿، وهي القدرة، فلم يعلم أن الله على كل ما يشاء قدير، قالوا: ومن جهل صفة من صفات الله عزوجل، وآمن بسائر صفاته وعرفها؛ لم يكن بجهله بعض صفات الله كافراً. قالوا: وإنما الكافر من عاند الحق لا من جهله. وهذا قول المتقدمين من العلماء ومن سلك سبيلهم من المتأخرين. وقال آخرون: أراد بقوله: "لئن قدر الله علي " من القدر الذي هو القضاء، وليس من باب القدرة والاستطاعة في شيء. قالوا: وهو مثل قول الله ﷿ في ذي النون: (إذ ذهب مغاضباً فظن أن لن نقدر عليه) . وللعلماء في تأويل هذه اللفظة قولان: أحدهما: أنها من التقدير والقضاء. والآخر: أنها من التقتير والتضييق. وكل ما قاله العلماء في تأويل هذه الآية فهو جائز في تأويل هذا الحديث في قوله: "لئن قدر الله علي "، فأحد الوجهين تقديره: كأن الرجل قال: لئن كان سبق في قدر الله وقضائه أن يعذب كل ذي جرم على جرمه؛ ليعذبني الله على إجرامي وذنوبي عذاباً لا يعذبه أحداً من العالمين غيري. والوجه الآخر: تقديره: والله! لئن ضيق الله علي وبالغ في محاسبتي وجزائي على ذنوبي ليكونن ذلك. ثم أمر بأن يحرق بعد موته من إفراط خوفه.