Tawḥīd is to single out Allāh in His Rubūbiyyah, His Names and Attributes and His ʿUlūhiyyah, which is His sole right to worship and in which the servant directs all forms of worship, inward and outward, to Allāh alone.
As for Rubūbiyyah, then it is to single out Allāh in His actions such as creating and providing. Included within that is the issue of the asbāb (the created ways and means), since Allāh is the musabbib, the One who placed the causes (asbāb) and effects (musabbabāt) and tied them together.
One of the ways in which a person contends with Allāh with respect to His Tawḥīd, with respect to His Rubūbiyyah is to make something a cause that Allāh did not make a cause within the system of causes and effects which He placed in His creation.
As this enters into the affairs of Tawḥīd, the scholars of the Muslims discussed this issue in connection to it.
Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn (رحمه الله) said:[1]
Know that medicinal treatment is a cause of cure and the placer of the causes (musabbib) is Allāh the Exalted. There is no cause except what Allāh the Exalted has made a cause. And the causes which Allāh the Exalted has made to be causes [of their effects] are of two types:
The first type: Legislative causes, such as [reciting] the Noble Qurʾān and supplication as the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said regarding Sūrah al-Fātiḥah: “And what will inform you that it is ruqyah?” and the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) used to treat the sick with supplication and Allāh the Exalted would cure, through his supplication, those for whom He desired to cure.
The second type: Perceptible causes such as the well-known medical substances known through the legislation such as honey, or through experimentation such as [is the case with] many medicines. But it is necessary that the [healing] effect of this type is through direct, physical causes and not through a presumptious, imaginary route. So when its effect is established directly and perceptibly, it is sound and legitimate to take it as a treatment by which cure is obtained by the permission of Allāh the Exalted.
As for when it is mere presumptions and imaginations which the sick person believes [to be true] and by which he obtains relief in his soul built upon that presumption and imagination, whereby his illness becomes lighter upon him, and perhaps the soul’s happiness might overwhelm the ailment so it ceases [altogether], then it is not permissible to rely upon it, and nor to affirm it as a treatment. This is so that a person does not run along with presumptions and imaginations.
For this reason, it is prohibited to wear a metal ring or cord and their likes in order to remove an illness or repel it, because that is not a legislated, nor is it a perceptible material cause. And whatever has not been established as a cause, legislatively, or materially, it is not permissible for it to be made a cause.
For making it a cause is a type of contention with Allāh the Exalted with respect to His dominion [of creation], and associating partners with Him in that he has made himself to share with Allāh the Exalted in tying effects to their causes.
The Shaykh (رحمه الله) also said:[2]
When a man sees an omen in something he saw or heard, then he is not considered a mushrik with the shirk that expels him from the religion.
But he has committed shirk from the angle that he depended [in his activity] on this [alleged] cause which Allāh did not make a cause. And this weakens reliance upon Allāh and weakens the resolve. For that reason, it is considered shirk from this angle, and this principle:
“Every person who depended [in his activity] upon a cause which the legislation did not make a cause, then he is a mushrik [with the minor shirk].”
And this type of associating partners with Allāh is either in legislation, if this cause was a legislative one, or in the decree [related to creation], if it was a creational cause.
And regarding the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿAmr as related by al-Bukhārī and Muslim: “Whoever was diverted from his need by the omen, he has committed [minor] shirk”, the Shaykh said, in his explanation of Kitāb al-Tawḥīd:[3]
Our mention of the beneficial principle has already preceded with respect to this topic, which is:
Everyone who believed about something that it is a cause but it has not been established as a cause, neither kawnan [in the creational systems of cause and effect] or sharʿan [legislatively, by revelation], then it is minor shirk.
This is because it is not for us to affirm that this is a cause except when Allāh has made this to be a cause whether in creation or through legislation.
So that which is legislative is the Qurʾān and supplication [by way of example] and that which is creational is medicinal treatment whose benefit is [proven, established] through experience.
The Shaykh (رحمه الله) also said:[4]
Everyone who affirmed a cause for Allāh which He did not make a cause, neither a legislative one nor a creational one, then he has associated partners with Allāh.
The Shaykh (رحمه الله) also said:[5]
And wearing a bracelet and its likes… if he believed it is a means but [believes that it] does not produce the effect on its own, then he is a mushrik [only] with the minor shirk because he believed something to be a means that is not a means. Thus, he shared with Allāh the Exalted in the judgement that this thing is a means, but Allāh the Exalted did not make it a means.
And the path to knowing whether something is a means is either through the route of the legislation (sharʿ)… or through the route of creational decree (qadar), when we try this thing and we find it beneficial for this pain or this illness. However, its effect must be apparent and direct, such as if one was cauterised with fire and he was cured through that. So this is an apparent, clear cause. We say this so that a person does not say: “I tried this and I benefited from it”, but it was not direct (in its causation), such as the bracelet. For a person could wear it believing it is beneficial and would benefit because the soul being affected by [its belief in] a thing [to be a cause] can have a clear effect.
A person may recite over a sick person but he may not be satisfied with him. Then another comes and he believes that his recitation is beneficial for him, so he recites the very same verse over him and he then perceives lessening of his pain. It is likewise with those who wear bracelets and who tie cords [around necks or arms]. They feel lessening [of the pain] based on their belief in the benefit of these things.
In the above statement, the Shaykh (رحمه الله) explained that the mere positive feeling, optimism and reassurance that arises in the soul on account of taking what one presumes to be a means, though it is not, can still have a clear and apparent positive effect.
In this situation, it is really the body’s internal, in-built self-healing mechanisms and powers that were the true and real cause, being stimulated by a belief, even if the presumed means in which belief was held had nothing to do with it in reality.
And the angle from which this is minor shirk is that the person held a belief in and an attachment to something which Allāh did not make a cause, and thus it is a kind of attachment to other than Allāh built upon a presumption about Allāh, that He made something a cause that is not a cause in reality.
The Shaykh (رحمه الله) also said:[6]
Emotions have a great effect on weakening a person. So sometimes the healthy person might think he is ill and thus becomes ill. And sometimes a person ignores illness while he is ill and he becomes healthy. Thus, the soul being emotionally affected by something has a far-reaching effect.
For this reason, you will see some people being afflicted by psychological illnesses, the origin of their affliction being their weakness at the beginning of the affair until a person presumes he is ill with such and such, and the delusion grows until that which he presumed [to be the case] becomes a reality.
Thus, the one who wore a bracelet to treat weakness [in health], it will not increase him except in weakness because he believes that as long as it remains on him he will be safe and that when he removes it, the weakness will return.
See in this regard: Nocebo effect and and unwarranted fear inducing the very illness that one fears.
Notes
I originally translated these statements of Shaykh Ibn ʿUthaymīn (رحمه الله) in late 2020 in the context of the exaggeration of the people of disbelief in the matter of contagion, in particular, the universal masking and social distancing policies (among healthy people) which are superstitions and promote unwarranted and exaggerated fear, effectively turning disease-free healthy people into omens.
In contrast to isolating the sick, the healthy not mixing with the sick, restricting travel to and from the place of the outbreak, and means to support health and vitality, these two affairs are not based on science and are not from the means at all. See entry for facemasks, and admission of the then head of the CDC, that social distancing of six-feet was completely made up, without any science.
These disputed measures are based on the speculative pseudosciencs of the disbelievers, chief among them being Darwinian Virology.
These measures go beyond the known and established measures which are: isolating the sick, the healthy keeping away from the sick, closing of borders to those coming from a place of an outbreak and preventing travel to the place of an outbreak. The rulers are praised and thanked for implementing these types of measures, as they can be derived from the texts, and there is no dispute concerning them.
As for implementing what goes beyond these affairs, then that is their ijtihād, and they make decisions and policies on the basis of what they believe with respect to contagion, and medical theories and those whom they trust as specialists, and these affairs are differed upon.
So while no one is obligated to believe in and accept these disputed measures (and the speculative theories they are built upon), as they are controversial (rather, they are baseless and without evidence), nevertheless, one should comply from the angle of maintaining order in society, from the angle of obedience to the ruler, since these affairs are in the hands of the authorities, and we make duʿā for them that Allāḥ grants them tawfīq, and we disagree with and oppose anyone who reviles them.
This is what we have explained and called to since February 2020, and this is neither the madhhab of the Khārijites nor the way of ʿAmr bin ʿUbayd al-Muʿtazilī.
I present below some of the explanatory notes I wrote and published at the time.
01 As it relates to the decree—Allāh’s creational systems of cause and effect—affirmation of a cause that is not a cause is to make a claim about Allāh’s Rubūbiyyah, His decree, what He has created and what He has tied together of causes and effects.
So when someone makes a cause that is not a cause, then this person has associated partners with Allāh in this sense, in that he has claimed this knowledge, he has made this claim, and if Allāh did not make it like that, then this person has made it like that, so in essence and in effect, such a person is contending with Allāh with regard to His own creation, as explained by the Shaykh.
Meaning, that since Allāh did not place that cause and effect, tying them together in the manner claimed, then for a person to claim and believe that, it means someone or something must have put that cause there in that person’s belief. It wasn’t Allāh, hence it must be other than Him, in the context of that person’s belief, while this person may wrongly believe it is Allāh.
On top of that, after making this claim, his heart becomes attached to this cause, by placing reliance upon it, which weakens genuine reliance upon Allāh (عز وجل).
02 Genuine reliance is through established, proven causes, whether legislative, from authentic texts, or creational, which are proven through sound investigation and experience.
When he adopts these proven established causes, his heart is attached to Allāh, as the Creator of these causes, not upon the causes themselves. So he a) takes genuine means, while b) his heart is not attached to these means in themselves.
This is genuine reliance.
This is opposed to making something a means that is not a means, so this is one mistake. Then, if his heart’s attachment to this unproven means is greater than his heart’s attachment to Allāh, then this is something additional on top of that. Anyone who made something a means that is not a means, then it cannot truly or fully be the case that his heart is attached to Allāh and resigned to Him because resigning affairs to Allāh is only with respect to affairs that Allāh has actually legislated or decreed to be causes, those which are tied to their effects.
03 So for example if someone claimed that trees relieve backache, then this is to make something a cause that Allāh did not make a cause, neither in legislation, nor in His decree.
Next, if he adopted this means, and sought to be under a tree to relieve his backache, or he hugged a tree and then in his heart, he resigned this affair to Allāh, then his resignation of the affair to Allāh has no basis because Allāh has not made trees to be a means of removing backache in His creation.[7]
Thus this resignation, in what appears to be reliance of the heart upon Allāh, is not truly reliance in the reality of the affair, because the means are baseless.
Further, it could be the case that his mere belief in the tree as a cause generates effects in his soul that lead to feelings of relief, making his pain dissipate, and thus his erroneous belief would be cemented because of this experience.[8]
This person has either made something to be a cause which is not a cause, or in other cases, he exaggerates in a cause above and beyond its capabilities and properties. His behavioural conduct is then affected by these errors in belief.
However, if he took a proven, established means of removing or relieving backache, such as medications and exercises, and then resigned the affair to Allāh, then his heart is relying upon Allāh to grant him success through those means with respect to which Allāh has actually tied the effect in the scheme of His creation, and which has been objectively verified and established.
So this is genuine reliance and genuine attachment of the heart to Allāh.
04 This is the nature of the minor shirk that is being discussed here, it is something that erodes and weakens true reliance upon Allāh (عز وجل), and it all starts by making something to be a cause in Allāh’s creation that is not a cause, or exaggerating in causes.
In fact this is the starting point, the entry point of deviation, and things can grow and develop from this point, over long periods of time, leading to greater deviation in creed and behaviour.
This shows the great importance of having a correct understanding of the decree of Allāh as it relates to His creational systems of cause and effect.
It also shows the great danger when the disbelievers, particularly the atheists, materialists and naturalists, dominate certain sciences and are able to infuse their misguidance into their claims about the workings of Allāh’s creation. This can bring harm into matters of creed and behaviour.
Footnotes
1. Majmūʿ Fatāwā wa Rasāʾil (Dār al-Waṭan: Riyāḍ, 1413H) 1/110-111.2. Al-Qawl al-Mufīd (Dār al-ʿĀṣimah: Riyāḍ, 1415H) 2/93.
3. Al-Qawl al-Mufīd (Dār al-ʿĀṣimah: Riyāḍ, 1415H) 2/96.
4. Al-Qawl al-Mufīd (Dār al-ʿĀṣimah: Riyāḍ, 1415H) 1/159.
5. Al-Qawl al-Mufīd (Dār al-ʿĀṣimah: Riyāḍ, 1415H) 1/162-163.
6. Al-Qawl al-Mufīd (Dār al-ʿĀṣimah: Riyāḍ, 1415H) 1/167.
7. Even if “research” was presented by owners of forests to show that hugging trees prevents and/or relieves backache—while they benefit financially by charging for access to their trees—this would not count as proof that this is a cause, until and unless full and genuine scientific scrutiny was made. This shows the tremendous scope for exploitation in this field.
8. This phenomenon which is known, experienced and verified is evidence of innate healing powers and mechanisms between the body and the soul, the heart and the mind, and that these affairs (beliefs, feelings, thoughts, emotions) have a physical impact upon the body, even if those beliefs are erroneous and false in the reality of the affair.
