[1/2] AL-BUTI: Commentary on the Hikam (#3)
Transcribed and adapted from a live lecture by GF Haddad
--
Eighth Lesson:
Foreordained Destiny and the Inefficacy of Material
Causes-and-Effects (Al-Qadar wa Lafa`iliyya al-Asbab) (Ibn `Ata' Allah, Hikam
No. 3)
"The most
truthful word any poet ever said is Labid's: Lo! Everything other than Allah is
vain." Hadith of the Prophet - Allah bless and greet him.1
--
We had begun to speak about Ibn `Ata' Allah's Third hikma. In it
he said - may Allah Almighty have mercy on him:
#3. The foremost energies cannot pierce the walls of
foreordained destinies.
This
hikma is in reality a completion for the hikma that comes before it. Ibn `Ata'
Allah - rahimahullah - had asked us to conform with the reality in which Allah
has placed us. The measuring-scale for this reality is the most noble Law. If
you see that Allah Almighty has placed you within the screens of ambient causes
which are all forbidden: then Allah is testing you with dispossession (al-tajrid).
What is required of you is to move away from these causes which Allah Almighty
has not authorized, and rely on Allah for the obtainment of your wants. But if
you see yourself placed within the screens of ambient causes to which the Law
has unlocked wide and licit paths - and the way in which you use them is licit
- then know, at that time, that Allah has placed you in the world of causes
(`alam al-asbab). What is required of you is to interact with these causes, and
not to substitute them with complete trust (tawakkul) in Allah Almighty.
Complete trust is required anyway; however, you are obligated, in such a
condition, to interact with those causes that are licit and, at the same time,
trust in Allah. That is the gist of the previous hikma:
#2. Your asking for dispossession when Allah has placed you in
the midst of causes is a surreptitious lust, and your asking [to handle] causes
when Allah has placed you in dispossession is a decline from a higher level.
When
Ibn `Ata' Allah says this - we discussed it at length previously - one might
infer that causes possess great efficacy (fa`iliyya) and that, when someone
finds himself face-to-face with unproblematic, licit causes, he must interact
with these causes in all his goals and all the essentials of life. One might
therefore think that causes possess efficacy and influence, and that,
therefore, one must interact with these causes and not say: "I shall
substitute them with complete trust in Allah Almighty." Because of this
possibility - which might arise in the mind of whoever listens to the second
hikma - Ibn `Ata' Allah followed up with this third hikma and said: "The
foremost energies cannot pierce the walls of foreordained destinies."
This
question is related to doctrine (al-`aqida). It is the basis from which we
should set forth, whether we have been tested through dispossession, or we have
been tested and asked to interact with causes. In both cases, there is a
doctrinal reality which we must all acquire in our very beings. What is that
doctrinal reality? It is that causes, whatever they are, are subservient to
Allah's foreordained destiny (qadar), and it is not Allah's foreordained
destiny that is subservient to causes. This we must know.
Causes
that are represented by human endeavors to work, seek sustenance and so forth -
such causes are troops among Allah's other troops which all serve Allah's
qadar. These causes with which you interact, lead you to whatever Allah
Almighty has foreordained for you. Whenever we have recourse to physicians and
their medications, which are among the causes used to remedy illness,
endeavoring to achieve a cure therefrom, we must know that the use of
medication, the recourse to physicians - all this is subservient to Allah's
foreordainment (qada'). This means that physicians, their remedies, their
prescriptions, and all their means lead you, in the end, to whatever Allah has
foreordained for you or against you. All the means with which you interact,
those you use and seek after in order to obtain education or degrees, marry,
start a family in the way you envisage, and whatever goals other than those -
the Creator has filled the earth with causes! - you must know that these
causes, whether you are now tasked with deprivation of them or with interacting
with them - you must know that causes are troops which revolve around a single
axis: execution of Allah Almighty's foreordainment.
That
is the meaning of Ibn `Ata' Allah's words: "The foremost energies cannot
pierce the walls of foreordained destinies." Have the highest energy you
like. Exert the greatest skills in marshalling causes to your advantage. As
skillful as you may get in gathering together causes according to your wishes,
that energy of yours, which has marshalled all causes for your sake, can never
overcome Allah's foreordained destinies. Yes, it is as if these foreordained
destinies were a kind of fortified wall - like the fortified wall around the
city which everyone knows - while the causes with which we interact are like
arrows we shoot at that high wall. Can the arrows of causes, whatever they may
be, ever pierce the bastions of foreordained destinies and go beyond them?
Never in any way whatsoever.
Each
and everyone of us must know this doctrine. But first, what is the evidence for
it? We do not want to open the file of doctrinal issues in the familiar style
of the books of the science of Oneness (al-tawhid), theological discourse
(al-kalam), and the like. Allah's Book suffices for us, and the clear words
which we use and repeat every day suffice for us. The Elect One - Allah bless
and greet him - has taught us a sacred phrase which he ordered us to repeat
always. What is that phrase? It is la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah -
"There is no change nor power except by Allah." What does this phrase
mean? Reflect upon it. It means exactly what Ibn `Ata' Allah is saying: There
is no change for a human being, for causes, for means, for the universe and all
that is in it - there is no change for all of that, nor power, except if that
power comes from Allah Almighty. Is it not so?
Among
the names of Allah Almighty is al-Qayyum - "The Sustainer of All."
What is the meaning of this name? "Allah! There is no God other than He,
the Living, the Sustainer of All" (2:255, 3:2). That is: the Sustainer of
the universes, Who controls them as He wishes and organizes them as He likes.
Nothing at all moves except by His Sustainment (qayyumiyya). That is the
meaning of the word qayyum. Is there any efficacy left for causes after this?
Our
Almighty Lord says: "And of His signs is this: The heavens and the earth
stand fast by His command" (30:35). It means that what you can behold of
the movement of the celestial spheres - those we see and those we do not, - the
ordering of the earth, all that is between the heaven and the earth, and all
that lies within this universe, seen and unseen - it is one of His signs that
"The heavens and the earth stand fast by His command." It means that
if you see in them causes and effects (asbab wa musabbabat), who is the one who
threaded together these causes and effects, joining the former with the latter?
It is Allah Exalted and Glorified!
To
elaborate: the nature of combustion in fire - so to speak, for there is no such
thing as "nature"2 but we have to make what we say intelligible
through approximations - that nature does not exist inside fire. It is but a
divine Force (quwwa rabbaniyya) that has marshalled fire for its purpose. So it
is Allah Who is the author of combustion (al-muhriq), not the fire. Our Exalted
Lord says: "Lo! Allah grasps the heavens and the earth, lest they cease,
and if they were to cease there is not one that could grasp them after
Him" (35:41). It means that the existence of these spheres suspended in
their orbits, these arrangements by which He has made these orbits stand
together with the earth, these cosmic laws and patterns which we see all around
us, from the farthest celestial bodies to the earth and thereunder - all that
is by Allah Almighty's arrangement. "Lo! Allah grasps the heavens and the
earth, lest they cease, and if they were to cease there is not one that could
grasp them after Him." If you believe - and believe firmly - that this is
Allah's speech, is there any efficay left for causes?
Our
Exalted Lord says in His explicit disclosure: "And a token unto them is
that We bear their offspring in the laden ship" (36:41). Have you
reflected upon these words? The ship, externally, is a cause. Therefore it is
the ship, apparently, which carries the people who board it, is it not? In our understanding,
the phrasing should have been: "And a token unto them is that the laden
ship bears them." However, the divine disclosure came in a different form.
"And a token unto them is that We bear their offspring in the laden ship."
Who, then, is the carrier for those who sought refuge in the ship? Is it the
ship or is it Allah? So then, the ship possesses no efficacy.
What
does Allah say? "A token unto them is the dead earth. We revive it, and We
bring forth from it grain so that they eat thereof; And We have placed therein
gardens of the date palm and grapes, and We have caused springs of water to
gush forth therein. That they may eat of the fruit thereof, and their hands
made it not. Will they not, then, give thanks? Glory be to Him Who created all
the sexual pairs, of that which the earth grows, and of themselves, and of that
which they know not!" (36:33-36) In all this discourse you will notice
that Allah attributes all these things to Himself while we find the causes
present: we find the earth, we find agriculture, but Allah attributes all this
to Himself.
Allah
says in Sura Nuh, as He speaks of the means by which He has saved our master
Nuh ( and those who were with him: "And We carried him upon a thing of
planks and nails, That ran (upon the waters) in Our sight, as a reward for him
who was rejected." (54:13) Consider well these words. Notice that what we
aim to do by citing this evidence is to make firm our awareness and our
certitude that the causes which we see have no efficacy in themselves. That is
what we are aiming for. Allah is here recounting in a succinct and quick manner
our master Nuh's situation. When he was besieged and harmed by his people, what
did he do? "So he cried unto his Lord, saying: I am vanquished, so give
help." (54:10). Two words: "I am vanquished," and "so give
help." "Then opened We the gates of heaven with pouring water And
caused the earth to gush forth springs, so that the waters met for a
predestined purpose. And We carried him upon a thing of planks and nails, That
ran (upon the waters) in Our sight, as a reward for him who was rejected."
(54:11-13) "We carried him" - He did not say: "It is the ship
that carried him." Further, He did not even use the word "ship"
in His wording. What did He say? "And We carried him upon a thing of
planks and nails." [That is] "We carried him upon some planks and
nails which were assembled" - so as to minimize the status of that ship
and make it clear for you that the ship itself is less than [deserving of]
being the one that rescued and the one that saved. Thus He first said:
"And We carried him." He did not attribute the carrying to our master
Nuh nor to the ship. Then He said "upon a thing of planks and nails"
to let you see that some planks which were put together are not strong enough
to save those people from a perpetual deluge unknown to humanity heretofore nor
hereafter.
So
then we have before us positive evidence that the creator of causes is Allah
and that causes, all of them, melt under the authority of Allah's Lordship.
That is a truth which you are free to express in whatever theological fashion
you wish. But that is what Allah Almighty's Disclosure states. Nay, the vast
majority of the Muslims hold that Allah has not deposited into these causes the
least efficacy, unlike what some have said - such as the Mu`tazila - at one
point. No, not at all! Allah did not deposit into fire the secret of
combustion, thereafter leaving fire in charge of its mission, which consists in
combustion. A simile would be a human being's disposal of artificial
intelligence, which is then left by him to do its job. No! The reality is
certainly not so. Yet to some people, even among Muslims, this is imagined to
be true. The latter say: "Fire burns by virtue of the force which Allah
has deposited in it. Water quenches thirst by virtue of the force which Allah
has deposited in it. Medicine heals by virtue of the force which Allah has
deposited in it. Poison kills by virtue of the force which Allah has deposited
in it." Are these statements correct? Never.
We
do not charge [them] with disbelief. However, even scientifically, these
statements are incorrect. The reason is that, if one believes that Allah has
deposited healing within medicine and then left it so that medicine heals in
permanence, it would mean that Allah now has a partner, which is this secret
that He deposited within the medicine. As much as the Creator disassociates
Himself from that medicine, the latter [allegedly] still performs its work,
without the continuance (istimrariyya) of Allah Almighty's efficacy. That is
the meaning of that "deposited force." We seek refuge in Allah from
such belief! What have we done with "The Sustainer of All"?
Similarly, if you say: "Fire burns by virtue of the efficacy which Allah
Almighty has deposited in it." The outcome of this statement is that Allah
Almighty has deposited that secret - combustion - inside fire, then left fire
so that the latter burns in perpetuity. So then that secret has become a
partner with Allah! If Allah has left fire alone after depositing in it that
secret, then [they claim] there is no problem with that: it shall always burn.
That position is false, incorrect, and scientifically incorrect in any way one
looks at it. Combustion only takes effect by the act of Allah at the time of
contact between fire and the matter it burns.
Allah creates satiation at the time you ingest food. Who is it
that created satiation? Allah. If He wished, He could make you eat, and eat,
and eat, and not be sated. Allah created quenchedness for you at the time you
drink beverage. There are not, in these things, forces-in-residence which Allah
has left alone so that they do their work. No - it is a mistake to think so.
The Pious Predecessors (al-Salaf al-Salih), the People of the Way of the Prophet
and the Congregation of the Companions (ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a) hold
otherwise.3 Just look at Allah's words: "And a token unto them is that We
bear their offspring in the laden ship" (36:41). If some self-sufficient
physiological force had been deposited into the ship so that ships perform
their tasks always, regardless to what extent Allah disconnects Himself from
them - then His saying would no longer be correct that "And a token unto
them is that We bear their offspring in the laden ship." But He continues:
"And if We will, We drown them, and there is no help for them, neither can
they be saved" (36:43).
Dear brethren: we must deal with this reality. Many are those
that stray in this matter. One of us may say: "If this is the case, then
why do we have to interact with these causes? Why does the sick person seek
recourse in the physician? Why does he take medicine? Why do we take
precautions against fire and its burning pain? Let us plunge into fire just as
we plunge into water and swim in it. Why do we go out to the market and
struggle, why work in trade and farming and so forth, if, as you said, there
are no causes, and the one and only Causator is Allah, around Whose might all
causes revolve?" What is the answer to this?
Allah Almighty has made this lower-wordly existence stand on
certain customs (sunan). He has tied together these things and those. Whatever
comes first, appears to us to be a cause; whatever comes last, appears to us to
be an effect. Allah has made the universe stand on that system. That is:
Allah's way is that He satiates you when you take food. His way is that He
quenches your thirst when you take drink. His way is that He provides you with
sustenance when you knock at the door of sustenance. His way is that He cures
you when you rush to the doctor and ask him for the remedy that will benefit
you. That is the way of Allah. He ties things together, but without there being
actual efficacy for what we call a cause. It is proper conduct (adab) on our
part with Allah to respect His system in the universe.
It is proper conduct on our part with Allah to respect His
universal customs. Thus has Allah Almighty willed it. If you have recognized
what must be believed in the chapter of doctrine and then say: "For myself
I shall not drink when I feel thirst, because Allah is the One that shall
create quenchedness," know that at that time you are committing misconduct
with Allah Almighty. My Exalted Lord has willed to create quenchedness in your
being at the time you take drink. If you say: "I shall not take
drink," then this is rebellion against Allah Almighty's system.