APPROACHING THE IMMEDIATE KNOWLEDGE (^ILMUL-HAL)

THE IMMEDIATE KNOWLEDGE (^ILMUL-HAL)

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INTRODUCTION 4
SESSION ONE: BASIC CREED 6 SECOND SESSION 28

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INTRODUCTION
Part of the obligatory knowledge is what is called the immediate knowledge (^ilmulhal). It is more specific than the all of the necessary religious knowledge contained in the Summary that we will be taking after completing this brief document, God willing. This is the knowledge one needs for the immediate obedience to Allah, as in the case of a person who just embraced Islam within the hour, for instance. Such a person must immediately learn certain matters of belief, and learn about matters of purification and prayer, so to pray before the exiting of the prayer time. They must also learn about some of the sins

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because it is obligatory to refrain from them immediately.

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SESSION ONE: BASIC CREED

The most important knowledge is that of the Creed. One must immediately know about Allah and His Messenger.

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THE ATTRIBUTES OF ALLAH

It is obligatory to know 13 attributes among the countless attributes of Allah. They are 1) Existence: Allah is a self attributed with attributes. His self is His reality and not a body. The selves of the creations are their bodies. Allahs existence is uncreated and hence is not physical. He exists without place, space, directions or time. The existence of the world is proof for the existence of its creator, for every doing must have a doer. 2) Eternity: Allah exists without a beginning, because had He been created, He would need a creator, and hence godhood would be invalid for Him. But since the creations 7 | Page

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occurrence is confirmed by senses and natural disposition (badihah), the Creators existence, and more specifically, His beginningless existence, is confirmed. 3) Everlastingness: Allah exists without a beginning, and hence must exist without end, for whatever comes to an end must have a beginning. Whatever has a beginning or end is bound by time, and whatever is bound by time is an occurrence; a creation. 4) Independence: Allah is free of need, for whoever is in need is not god. 5) Oneness: One God is sufficient for the management of the creation, thus another creator is not needed, and whoever is needless and useless is not God. 8 | Page

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6) Dissimilarity: Allah does not resemble the creation. He does not resemble the dense, tangible entities like the rocks, trees, people, etc., nor does He resemble the subtle, intangible entities like light, darkness, etc. He does not have the characteristics of created things, like motion, stillness, contact or separation. 7) Life: Allah must be alive, as proven by the existence of the creation, for the one who creates must have power, will and knowledge, and whoever has power, will and knowledge must be alive. However, Allah is alive without a body or soul, and Allah does not die, so His life is absolutely different.

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8) Power: Allah makes things come into existence and go out of existence. He is exclusively the one who can make entities exist. He can make something from nothing; without tools or effort, and make those things vanish. 9) Will: Allah specifies His creations with His will; He gives them some traits that they could have instead of other traits that they could have. Also, Allah is not forced. He creates by His choice, which is His will. 10) Knowledge: Allah knows what exists and what does not exist; He knows what was, is, and shall be, and what shall not be, and every detail of how it would be had it been. He knows His own reality and the reality of His attributes. No one knows that but Him. 10 | P a g e

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11) Hearing: Allah hears everything that exists, but without ears, because He is not an entity. Deafness is deficiency, and deficiency is impossible to be an attribute of the Creator. 12) Sight: Allah sees everything that exists, but without eyes because He is not an entity. Blindness is deficiency, and deficiency is impossible to be an attribute of the Creator. 13) Speech: Allah speaks without letters, sounds or language, because He is not an entity. He orders, forbids, promises, threatens, informs and questions by this attribute.

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Important pointers about some of the attributes 1) All of His attributes have no beginning or end. 2) In reference to His dissimilarity to the creation, one must be warned about the Likeners (the Mushabbihah), and informed briefly about the ambiguous (mutashabih) verses, out of fear of him meeting a Wahhabiyy or reading a mistranslation. It must also be clarified that Allah exists without a place or direction. 3) In reference to His hearing and sight, it must be clarified that they are not eyes or ears. Allah does not have a body or any bodily attributes.

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4) In reference to His will and power, it must be clarified that Allah is the creator of everything, including the evil and the deeds of the slaves. 5) In reference to His speech, several points need to be clarified: a. Among them is that His speech is not letters, sounds or languages. b. Our reason for quoting Arabic verses after saying, Allah said, should be clarified. c. Lastly, it must also be clarified that He orders, forbids, promises and threatens (questions and informs).

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THE PROPHETS OF ALLAH

Throughout history, Allah sent prophets; men who receive revelation from Him. They are the greatest creation of Allah. The first of them was Adam. The last and greatest was Muhammad. They all have certain necessary qualities so that they could successfully fulfill their mission. Among those qualities is that they are beautiful, courageous, intelligent, truthful and trustworthy. They are impeccable; protected from ever committing blasphemy, major and small abject sins, they never worshipped anyone other than Allah. They perform miracles, which are extraordinary, supernatural matters created by Allah and performed by he who claims to be a prophet. They prove his truthfulness, comply with his claim, and they 14 | P a g e

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cannot be outdone. Some of the Prophets were Messengers; they came with a new law. We follow the laws revealed to Prophet Muhammad, and believe in what was revealed to all of the Prophets.

PURIFICATION
The accountable Muslim must pray all prayers on time, and thus must immediately learn not only the prayer, but also some of its conditions, namely four matters of purification: Ghusl The first is the full shower (ghusl). It is defined as making the water run over the entire body with an intention (of worship). There are five 15 | P a g e

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reasons for being obligated to perform this shower before praying. The first two are for men and women: sexual intercourse and ejaculation. The last three are only for women: childbirth and the termination of both menstrual and postpartum bleeding. It is performed by making an intention when the water touches the body, and then washing the entire body with mere water. NOTE: It is not an obligation that the ghusl be in the form of what is commonly known as a shower. It is only a condition that the entire body be washed with flowing water, and not wiped with something wet.

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Wudu The second is the ablution (wudu). It is defined as the washing of certain organs with an intention (of worship). There are four things that break the wudu: 1) Anything that exits the private parts, except for ejaculated fluid of men and women1 2) Touching the skin of a marriageable woman who reached an age at which she is normally desired,

Sometimes the ejaculation may invalidate the wudu. Specifying that has details: If that happens without physical contact, such as by mere thought or glance, or seeing a wet dream while firmly seated on the buttocks, the wudu is preserved. If it takes place by contact, it is broken.

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3) Touching the penis, anus or vagina of a human with the inner part of the bare hand, 4) Losing consciousness, except if one slept with his buttocks firmly planted. One performs wudu by doing six things: 1) Making the proper intention when the water touches the face, 2) Washing the face, 3) Washing the hands, forearms and elbows, 4) Wiping the hair, 5) Washing the feet and the ankles, 6) And keeping the order. Cleaning after Urination and Defecation (Istinja) The third matter is istinja, which is the obligatory cleaning after anything wet comes 18 | P a g e

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from the private parts, except ejaculated fluid, for all wet material that exits those organs is filthy, except for ejaculated fluid; it is pure. It can be performed in two ways: 1) The first is by water. It is recommended to pour the water with the right hand, and to wipe with the left hand until there is no trace of filth left. 2) The second is by wiping three times with something pure, dry, uprooting, and unrespectable. Each wipe must be with a different side of whatever is used for wiping. Removing Filth The fourth matter of purification needed for the validity of Prayer is the removal of other types of unexcused filth from the body, clothing and 19 | P a g e

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place of prayer. One must use water to remove filth. If it is undetectable, it is enough to pour water over it once. If it is detectable, it is enough to remove the bulk and then pour water over it until its traces are removed. If the water were plenty, one could then place the filth in the water without contaminating the water, unless it changes.

BASIC PRAYER
If the new Muslim were accountable, he needs to pray the due prayer before its time goes out. It is common that the prayer time would soon go out after explaining the immediate matters of belief and purification as swiftly and concisely as possible. Furthermore, one may want to consider that the new Muslim is sometimes 20 | P a g e

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weak, not yet having the strength to be patient with performing certain acts of worship or avoiding some sins. Our most important goal is to help this Muslim perform a valid prayer after having learned the belief and some of the conditions of prayer. For the immediate obedience to Allah, we first teach him the obligatory matters, and delay the optional matters that take time away from explaining the obligatory conditions and integrals. So, while praying the obligatory prayer, one must: 1) Cover the unlawful nakedness, face the Qiblah, stand if able and, 2) Say Allahu Akbar in Arabic if able, while simultaneously intending to perform the obligatory prayer,

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3) Recite the Fatihah properly, which can only be done in Arabic, or recite a replacement (properly). 4) Bow with tranquility2 (being still long enough to say Subhanallah), 5) Stand upright with tranquility, 6) Prostrate twice, each with tranquility 7) Sit with tranquility between the two prostrations, 8) From there, a person would do one of two things: A. Stand up after that to complete the rest of his prayer, which would be by repeating everything already mentioned, except saying Allahu Akbar with an intention,
2

This is called in Arabic tumaninah

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B. Or if one has completed all the cycles of his prayer, he must sit to end the prayer, 9) Recite the Tashahhud while sitting to end the prayer, 10) 11) 12) After that, make Salah on the Then say, As Salamu ^alaykum to One must observe the order of the Important cases 1) Whoever does not know the Fatihah by heart- which is obligatory-, must learn it before the prayer time exits. If he cannot, he may read it from a page while praying, or he may repeat after someone who 23 | P a g e Prophet while sitting to end the prayer, end the prayer. Prayers integrals.

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prompts him while he is praying. It is not permissible to abandon these issues; i.e., saying the Fatihah, unless he has an excuse. If one is unable, either because the time will exit before being able to learn, or because his intellect is slow, he may replace it with seven other properly recited verses of the Quran, whether they were in order or not. One absolutely must not translate the Fatihah for the prayer in any case, nor would he replace it with other than Quran when able to recite the Quran. If unable, he may replace it with words of remembrance, like saying Allahu Akbar 20 times. Twenty times is sufficient because the condition of whatever one uses to replace the Fatihah 24 | P a g e

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is that it would not have fewer letters than the Fatihah itself. This replacement is valid only for a time that one needs to be able to learn how to recite. After that time passes, the replacement is no longer valid, because the person fell short of his obligation. If one is unable to do any of the aforementioned, then he stands for the duration of the Fatihah without saying anything. 2) Whoever is able to say the Tashahhud and the Salah on the Prophet in Arabic is not permitted to translate them. If he is unable, he may translate them, as Shaykh Taqiyyud-Din Al-Husniyy said in his explanation of Abu Shuja^:

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It is not permitted for whoever knows the Tashahhud and the Salah on the Prophet in Arabic to resort to their translations, like the formula Allahu Akbar that initiates the prayer. If unable, he translates them. 3) It is important to help the New Muslim recite the letters properly. If he is an English speaker, pay special attention to his pronunciation of the ([ ha]), the (
^[ayn]),

the ( [sin]), the ([dad]), the (

[ghayn]), and especially the ([ sad]). There is another recitation of the Fatihah in which the ( [sad]) is replaced by the (

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[sin]).

That recitation may be easier for

him.

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SECOND SESSION
After learning the correct belief and praying on time, one can inform the new Muslim about other immediate information, such as the Islamic belief about the Afterlife, and the reality of blasphemy.

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JUDGMENT
All Muslims believe that this life is a trial and time for working towards the Afterlife. There is no doubt that the accountable person has his deeds of this present life recorded by two angels, that he will die, and except for those whom Allah spared, will be questioned in his grave by the angels of questioning. If his body were among those that decayed, he will be recreated on Judgment Day and judged for the deeds of his life. If it is not of that type, his soul and body will be rejoined without his body being reconstructed, and he will be judged. If there were no Afterlife in which the people would be judged for their deeds, then this life would be meaningless, and all who did crimes and fulfilled 29 | P a g e

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their desires would have been the winners, while those who refrained from allowing their pleasures to control them would be the losers. The Quran confirms that the believer will be rewarded/punished for the good and bad deedsalthough Allah may forgive him despite his deserving torture-, and that the blasphemer would not have any good deeds on that day. He will only be punished for his bad deeds. The good deeds he did in this life will not be in his favor on that Day, for Allah will endow upon him in this life for his good deeds. Whoever doubts about or denies the Day of Judgment is refuted by his own existence and created being, for the one who created him in the first place would definitely have the power to create him again. Ones book of deeds will be presented to him, 30 | P a g e

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and he shall remember all of what he had forgotten of his deeds. His deeds will be weighed in a scale, and he will enter Paradise or Hell. The one who dies as a Muslim is guaranteed to enter Paradise, and he will never leave it, even if he enters Hell first, and the blasphemer will never exit Hell. Paradise, Hell, and the Afterlife are all real and physical, not just spiritual nor allegorical. Paradise is everlasting, as well as Hell, and there is no death or sleep in the Afterlife.

BASICS OF BLASPHEMY (KUFR)

The new Muslim needs to know that blasphemy could take place by beliefs, sayings, or doings, and it does not require intent. Some examples of blasphemous beliefs are 31 | P a g e

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Likening Allah to the creation, Denying His attributes, Ascribing to the Prophets what does not befit them, Doubting about Judgment Day, Paradise, Hell, or other basic creedal matters after knowing that they are confirmed in the Religion, Believing that a Religion other than Islam is valid, Knowing that Muslims deem something unlawful while believing that it is lawful, and vice versa, Knowing that Muslims deem something obligatory while believing that it is not obligatory, and vice versa, 32 | P a g e

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Doubting about whether Islam is valid or not. and other matters that one will learn when acquiring the Personal Obligatory Knowledge with detail. Some examples of blasphemous sayings are Uttering any of the aforementioned issues, Literally calling a Muslim a blasphemer without any confusion or fallacy, Anything that belittles the religious matters, like to say, Paradise is for the babies, or the prescribed prayer is a waste of time. Some examples of blasphemous doings are Prostrating to a creation other than a human with or without the intention of 33 | P a g e

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worship. As for prostrating to a human with the intent of honor and not as worship, it is not blasphemy, but still a sin, Knowingly throwing respectable religious material in the trash, Standing, sitting or spitting on religiously, respectable material while realizing what one is doing.

THE OBLIGATIONS OF THE HEART AND SOME OF THE SINS OF THE VARIOUS ORGANS
It is obligatory on the Muslim to believe in Allah and in what He revealed, and to believe in the Messenger of Allah and what he conveyed. He 34 | P a g e

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must also do his good deeds sincerely, regret disobeying His Lord, and fear Him to the extent that it stops him from sinning. He must refrain from objecting to Allah with his heart or tongue, use his endowments in obedience only, practice the obligatory patience, hate the devil, and hate the sins. He must not practice the forbidden envy, not think highly of himself because of his good deeds, not be arrogant, nor be happy with sins. He must avoid the forbidden food and drink, the forbidden look, the forbidden touch, gossip, lying and stealing. He must not abandon the obligations, interrupt them after initiating them and before completing them, nor is he permitted to do them incorrectly. He must bid the good and forbid the evil whenever able, and

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all other sins that will be learned from the summary of obligatory knowledge. Repentance from the sin is by ceasing the sinful act, intending to never return to something like it, and regretting that one disobeyed Allah. Repenting from the sin is an immediate obligation. LAST ISSUES It is beneficial to review the issues of likening Allah to the creation, and in a wise way, to warn from reading translations, as the new Muslim may be eager to read translations of the Quran and hadith. The new Muslim must be informed of the correct way of acquiring the knowledge. He must also be taught the Fatihah immediately. One needs to be clever when 36 | P a g e

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teaching the new Muslim the obligations and sins, because if his heart is still weak in Islam, it is possible that telling him about certain matters would repel him from the Religion. For example, one should not rush to tell the new Muslim that wind and string instruments are forbidden, nor stop him from eating some forbidden meat if that will break him and make him deaf towards hearing more important and vital things. This is why Imam ^Aliyy said:

Address the people with what is familiar to them. Do you like for Allah and His Messenger to be contradicted? One can then inform the new Muslim of the obligatory knowledge and order him to be diligent in acquiring it, 37 | P a g e

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AND ALLAH KNOWS BEST

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