Speaking about the issue of denying the favours of Allāh (with respect to the chapter in “Kitāb al-Tawḥīd”) and how this takes place through speech, when people attribute bounties and favours to other than Allāh, to the causes which He created and placed, Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Luḥāydān (رحمه الله) said:

Translation:

Notes

01  From Tawḥīd is to ascribe all bounties and favours to Allāh as He is the Originator (mūjid) of all favours and bounties since He is the Creator, the One who creates and decrees all things, whether small, large, hidden or apparent.

Ascription occurs in terms of one’s belief about the source of these favours and bounties, and in one’s speech, in terms of how these favours and bounties are attributed and explained in the course of speech. Such beliefs and statements can comprise major or minor shirk.

02  Allāḥ is the One who placed all causes (asbāb) and their effects (musabbabāt), thus He is the Causer (musabbib) of all causes and their effects. All things occur in His Creation through the causes which He placed, and thus all causation returns back to Him.

However, when it is said, as occurs in the examples given in Kitāb al-Tawḥīd, “This wealth of mine came to me from my forefathers”, “Had it not been for so and so, such and such would not have happened”, “What Allāh willed and what you willed” and what is similar, then these are errors, omissions or exaggerations in issues of causality.

In these types of statements, there is failure to mention Allāh, the Causer of all causes, or equal status is given to Allāh as the true cause and a cause among the causes that He created, or mention of the cause is given piority over the Creator of the cause and what is similar. Likewise, to make a cause what is not a cause in the scheme of Allāh’s creation, as that is contending with Allāh in His Rubūbiyyah.

03  Rejection of Allāh’s favours and bounties occurs through these types of statements comprising shirk, and they can also be denied through ingratitude by way of sin and disobedience as a result of which they are removed. Ibn al-Qayyim (رحمه الله) cautioned:^[1]

This indicates the necessity of constant gratitude for bounties and favours from Allāh, may Allāh grant us success.

04  The rain and wind are needed for vegetation, being among the sum of causes. However, excess rain and wind, beyond what is required, leads to destruction and harm. This shows that Allāh can make the same things (wind and rain) to have different effects (for lofty objectives), through His will, power and wisdom. Water is required to survive, but excess water leads to toxicity. Food is needed to survive, but excess food leads to illness. So these things are from the means, but excess in the means leads to harm.

05  From the bounties of Allāh is good health and preservation from illness. A believer should not make statements such as “It is because I took precautions and used protective measures", as this entails denial of the favour.

These types of statements enter into minor shirk in speech even if the precautions taken were genuine means, and if they were not, then the situation is worse.

Likewise, as the Shaykh (رحمه الله) indicated, one can also go to excess in taking protective measures, above and beyond what the body needs, leading to harm to oneself.

06  For this reason—in order to avoid these types of scenarios—a believer should first of all verify what are actual protective means (instead of mere superstition). Then, secondly, not exceed the limits in precaution and protective measures, to avoid potentially harming his body by doing what the body does not need in the first place.

Then, thirdly, he should avoid making potentially false statements with respect to the causes, the ways and means and instead say, “My good health and protection from illness are due to the decree of Allāh, a favour and bounty from Him.”, resigning all things to Allāh’s decree, the Creator of all ways and means, causes and effects.

06  The verse, ( وَإِذَا مَرِضْتُ فَهُوَ يَشْفِينِ ) “And when I become ill, He cures me.” (26:80), Allāh is al-Shāfī, the True Healer, and He is the Ṭabīb^[2], which means the Creator and Knower of all causes of illness and their cures.

The True Healer is Allāh because He placed within plants, animals and humans, in all living things, inherent powers of healing and regeneration. We observe this for example, when cuts and wounds heal and the skin is regenerated. The same thing happens internally, in organs, tissues, linings and so on, and which we experience as disease symptoms.

So Allāh is the True Healer and physicians are simply facilitators, and they vary in terms of their knowledge of these realities, in a general theoretical sense, and then also when it comes to each individual patient, they vary in their ability to evaluate and treat that person with what comprises healing and cure for that person specifically.

However, Allāḥ is the Knower of all things, of what He created of health and illness and of what comprises cure for each and every sick plant, animal or human.

08  With respect to theories of medicine, then the people of disbelief are furthest away from healing and cure, because they followed crass materialist pseudsociences.

Shaykh al-Luḥaydān (رحمه الله) lamented (elsewhere in another video), similar to Imām al-Shāfīʿī (رحمه الله) over a thousand years ago, that the Muslims were once leaders in medicine, and that the Western nations took medicine from Islamic nations, but today, the Muslims have wasted this affair.

This is the bitter truth, but too many people are not prepared to swallow the bitter pill of reality and feel offended when obvious and apparent realities are pointed out.

Footnotes