SPEAKING ABOUT ALLAH
WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE

Jamaluddin      

When quoting the Book of Allah, the Holy Quraan, you read a verse from the Holy Quraan and you explain that verse without having the proper knowledge, without following the proper methodology, you might be, and only Allah knows, actually following your own desires, you might be following an inspiration from the Satan, you might be following conjecture, which Allah speaks about in many places in the Holy Quraan, or it might actually be some kind of inspiration from Allah, but most likely it is not the last case.

And why is it not the last case? Because as we will talk about it later, you did not follow the proper methodology of talking about the Holy Quraan and if you did not follow a proper methodology of talking about the Holy Quraan, then you have committed a sin already. 

Just by talking about the Holy Quraan, without proper knowledge, by giving interpretation of the Holy Quraan, without proper knowledge, without proper background, without being qualified to do so, then you’ve already committed a sin.

And since you are commiting a sin, it is very unlikely in most cases that Allah will bless you through that sin to give you the right interpretation of the Holy Quraan.

When you say that Allah means this or Allah means that in a specific verse, you are actually speaking or saying something on behalf of Allah, you are actually speaking about Allah, and if you are speaking without knowledge, then this is one of the greatest sins that you could commit.

In fact, Allaamah Ibn-ul-Qayyim said that it is the greatest sin. He said that speaking about Allah without knowledge is the greatest sin that you could commit. 

He bases it on this verse: “Say: The things that my Lord has indeed forbidden are al-Fawaahishah (great evil sins, every kind of unlawful sexual intercourse, etc.), whether committed openly or secretly, sins (of all kinds), unrighteous oppression, joining partners (in worship) with Allah for which He has given no authority and saying things about Allah of which you have no knowledge." (7:33)

In discussing this verse, he says, first of all there are some sins which are forbidden due to their own evil nature, and (others) which are forbidden because they lead to some evil or have some evil in them.

And he said with respect to this verse, all of these four, they are Haraam in their own essence, because of the evil in them. Continuing his discussion, he said that Allah first mentions ‘al-Fawaahishah’, and he says this is the least of the sins that He mentions; after that He mentions the sins of transpasses against the truth; this is a greater sin that the first one that Allah mentioned.

And then He mentioned making shirk, and finally He mentioned saying things about Allah of which you have no knowledge. He is saying that Allah is going from the lesser to the greater.

And the reason he says is that this last sin of saying about Allah without knowledge, which is actually what you do when you make "Tafseer" without the proper background, without the proper methodology, he says it involves and it includes many things even more than what commiting shirk involves. He says it involves and it includes:

1.   Ascribing something falsely to Allah.
2.   Changing or altering the religion of Allah.
3.   Denying what He has confirmed.
4.   Confirming what He has denied.
5.   Affirming something declaring false.
6.   Declaring something false as true.
7.   Supporting something that Allah dislikes or opposes.
8.   Liking something that Allah dislikes.

In other words, when you are speaking without knowledge, in the religion, in things which are related to the religion, then in fact you are changing the religion of Allah. 

And in fact, if you continue, you find that speaking without knowledge is actually the real source of all "Kufr" and "Shirk". He said, for example, the polytheists claim what they are worshipping instead of Allah was something to take them closer to Allah, so the cause of their "Shirk" was saying something about Allah without knowledge, something they did not know about Allah.

Similarly, today, the greatest "Kufr" that we have nowadays, among the Muslims, but especially among the non-Muslims, is secularism and the basis for that is saying that Allah doesn’t really care about what we do in worldly affairs, or hasn’t really given us guidance for worldly affairs, or the religion that He sent is not meant for daily affairs; all of this is speaking about Allah without knowledge.

So, it is one of the greatest sins, and Allaamah Ibn-ul-Qayyim even included that it is, in fact the greatest sin. And he also mentioned that every "Bid’ah" (innovation in religious matters) is also based on some statement that has no support from the Holy Quraan and Sunnah.

In other words every "Bid’ah" also is based on some statement which is actually made without knowledge. To think about this point even further, about just going to the Holy Quraan, and saying, I am a believer, I am pious, I can go to the Holy Quraan, and read the Holy Quraan, and get its own meaning, if there were any people in the history of mankind who could have said that - maybe we could accept this from them - would be the Companions of the Holy Prophet (SallAllaho alaihe wasallam), for many reasons:

1.   They witnessed the revelation of the Holy Quraan itself.
2.   They witnessed the events it was referring to, they were living right among the
      events that it was referring to.
3.   The Holy Quraan was revealed in their language, the language of their time 
      and society.
4.   Allah chose them to be the Companions of His Prophet,
5.   And He described them as the best generation.

So, if anyone could actually make that claim that he has such a pure heart and such a close relationship to Allah or such a good understanding of Islam, that he can quote the Holy Quraan and interpret the Book of Allah simply by what his heart tells him or what they used to call personal opinion, it could be the Companions.

But if we refer to the life of Companions we see that what they understood and learned from the Holy Prophet (SallAllaho alaihe wasallam) is absolutely the opposite. What they learned is that it is totally forbidden to speak about the Holy Quraan without proper knowledge.

And they made such statements. For example, Hadhrat Abu Bakr once said, "What earth would give me place to live and what sky would shade me, if I should speak about the Holy Quraan with my opinion or by something I do not know."

Hadhrat Umar bin Khattab said, "Beware of using your opinion in religious matters."

About Hadhrat Ibn-e-Abbas, the Holy Prophet (SallAllaho alaihe wasallam) prayed Allah to enhance his understanding of the Holy Quraan, to get the understanding of the religion, and to be given by Allah the "Taa'weel" - or the understanding of the Holy Quraan. He, too, said, "All that there is to follow and obey is the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger. Whoever makes any statement after these two according to his opinion, then I do not know if you’ll find among his good deeds or among his sins."

This is the style of Hadhrat Ib-e-Abbas that he made in many statements, although he was known greatly as Mufassir of Quraan for his best understanding of the Book. Meaning that even if what you did was something good, looks like something good, you will find it among your sins.

And Imam Tirmizi wrote in his Sunan that it has been related from some of the people of knowledge, the Companions of the Holy Prophet (SallAllaho alaihe wasallam) and others, that they were very strict when it came to speaking about the Holy Quraan without knowledge.

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