Gifts of Knowledge

Continuing from the previous post:

And Allaah bore witness that in his explanation of it, and in delivering the Message entrusted to him, the Prophet ﷺ does not speak from his own whims and desires, “It is only a revelation sent down to him.” [53:4] And since this is his status and station, Allaah made obedience to him obligatory and forbade disobeying him, saying, “Obey Allah and obey the Messenger.” [47:33]

And concerning those who do not accept him as judge ﷺ, or who are uneasy and reluctant about his judgment, or who hesitate to accept it, and who do not submit with complete submission, fully convinced and willingly, Allaah says concerning them, “But no! By your Lord, they will never be ˹true˺ believers until they accept you ˹O Prophet˺ as the judge in their disputes, and find no resistance within themselves against your decision and submit wholeheartedly.” [4:65]

This is how this most noble aayah exposes those who claim to believe in the Messenger ﷺ but do not act upon his Sunnah or are not content with his ruling. The aayah, as you can see, negates their faith and strips them bare before the people, so that no-one is deceived into thinking that belief in the Messenger ﷺ is achieved through a mere claim of faith and lip service.

Another aayah also conveys this same meaning, threatening those claimants who oppose his command with a trial and a painful punishment, “So let those who disobey his orders beware, for an affliction [fitnah] may befall them, or a painful torment may overtake them.” [24:63] Some scholars interpreted the affliction or ‘fitnah’ mentioned here to mean to become deviant and to apostatise as a consequence of a person’s rejection of the Prophet’s ﷺ statement if he repeatedly does so, and Allaah knows best.

And through these different methods [of explaining the issue], the Quran calls people to believe in the Sunnah and to act upon it, and it establishes that the Sunnah and the Quran together are truly the foundation of this religion.
And if believing in the Messenger is one of the fundamentals of eemaan, then believing in his Sunnah is an inseparable part of belief in him ﷺ because he is the one the Sunnah emanates from. For as Imaam Ibn al-Qayyim said, eemaan is a reality made up of knowing what the Messenger ﷺ brought based upon knowledge, affirming belief in it as a matter of aqidah, acknowledging it with the tongue, submitting to it with love and humility, acting upon it outwardly and inwardly, and implementing and calling others to it as much as one can.

Its perfection lies in loving for the sake of Allaah and hating for the sake of Allaah, giving for the sake of Allaah and withholding for the sake of Allaah, and that He alone is the object of his worship. The path to Him is through the unadulterated following of the Messenger of Allaah ﷺ, both inwardly and outwardly, and turning the heart’s eye away from looking toward anything other than Allaah.

And all success is through Allaah.

Next post here.