In the name of Allah May Allah shower His prayers and peace upon our Master Muhammad, upon his family and companions.
The Shaykh, Imām, learned, erudite scholar, researcher, Abū ‘Abdillāh Muhammad al-Sanūsī al-Hasanī, Allah have mercy on him - Amīn, said:
All praise is for Allah. Judgments (Al-Hukm): Affirming a thing for a thing or negating it. It is divided into three categories: Legislative (shar’ī) Empirical (‘ādī) Rational (‘aqlī).
The legislative is Allah’s message (khiṭāb) associated to the acts of those legally obliged (mukallaf) by way of demand (amr), allowance (ibāhah) or declaration for them both (wad’ī). Four things are included in the demand: Obligation (farḍ/wājib) Recommendation (mustahab) Prohibition (harām) Disapproved (makrūh) Obligations: A dogmatic demand of the act; like faith in Allah, His messengers and the five Islamic principles.
Recommendations: It is a non-dogmatic demand of the act such as the fajr prayer [two voluntary units of prayer before the subh - obligatory two units]. Prohibitions: A dogmatic demand of abstaining from an action such as drinking alcohol, fornication and its like. Disapproved: A non-dogmatic demand of abstaining from an action such as reciting Quran in bowing and prostration. Permitted: The Sacred-Law permitting both action and non-action without preferring one over the other such as marriage and transactions as examples. Declaration It is an expression of the Law Giver’s linkage - as a sign - to a judgment from the five judgments.
They are means (sabab), condition (sharṭ) and prevention (mān’i). Means: That which necessitates inherently by way of its existence, existence [of something else] and its non-existence, non-existence; such as, afternoon necessitating dhuhr prayers. Condition: That which necessitates inherently by way of its non-existence, non-existence, whilst not necessitating by way of its existence, existence, nor non-existence; such as, a complete lunar year necessitating the payment of alms. Preventer: That which necessitates inherently by way of its existence non-existence whilst it does not necessitate by its non-existence existence nor non-existence; such as, menstruation for obliging prayer.
Empirical Judgments It is establishing an empirical connection between a thing and a thing in affirmation or negating by way of repetition; whilst [affirming that] alteration is sound and that effectual agency of one for the other is non-existence absolutely. It has four kinds: The connection of an existent to an existent such as the connection of satiation wth food. The connection of a non-existent to a non-existent such as the absence of satiation with the absence of food. The connection of a non-existent with an existent such as the connection of the absence of hunger with the existence of food. The connection of a non-existent with an existent such as the connection of not being hungry with the existence of food. The Rational Judgment
As for rational judgment, it is affirming a thing or negating it without considering repetition [empirical data] nor revelation. It has three kinds: Necessity Inconceivability Conceivability.
Necessity: It is that whose non-existence is not conceivable in the mind either self-evidently such as matter occupying space as an example or either upon reflection such pre eternality being necessary for our Master Glorious and Majestic. Inconceivability: It is that whose existence is not conceivable in the mind either self-evidently like matter being free from motion and motionless or either upon reflection such as an equal for our Master Glorious and Majestic.Conceivable: That whose existence and non-existence are sound in the mind either self-evidently such as motion for us or upon reflection such as punishing the obedient and rewarding the disobedient.
There are three schools of thought regarding Agency The school of the Jabarites, the school of the Qadarites and the school of Ahl al-Sunnah. The school of the Jabarites posit that agency exists entirely by eternal omnipotence without any rapprochement to any temporal potency. The school of the Qadarites posit that volitional agency exists by way of temporal potency only directly or through causation. The school of Ahl al-Sunnah posit that agency exists entirely by eternal omnipotence with rapprochement to volitional agency which is non-effectual, not directly nor through causation. Achieving It is an expression of the link between volitional potency and what is actualised in its locus without effect.
The forms of shirk divine-associations are six: Association by independence: It is affirming to independent gods such as the associating of the Zoroastrians. Association by participation: It is compounding a god with other gods such as the associating of the Christians. Association by seeking proximation: It is worshipping other than Allah the Exalted so as to gain proximity and station with Allah such as the early period of jāhīliyyah. Association by imitation: It is worshipping other than Allah the Exalted by imitating another; such as the associating of the latter period of jāhīliyyah. Association by causation: Attributing effectual agency to conventional means; such as, the associating of the philosophers, the naturalists and those who followed them in that. Association by motive: It is acting for other than Allah the Exalted. The judgment for the first four [kinds of association] is unbelief by consensus. The judgment for the sixth is misguidance without unbelief by consensus. The fifth association has detail regarding it. Therefore, the one who says regarding conventional causes that they effect by their nature then it has been reported by way of consensus regarding his unbelief. And, the one who says that these effect due to a power which Allah deposited into them then it is open transgression, an innovator. And there are two positions regarding his unbelief.
The principles of unbelief and innovation are seven: 1. Essential Necessity: It is attributing all of existence to Allah the Exalted by way of causation or naturally without volition. 2. Rationally good-morality (Al-Tahsīn Al-‘Aqalī): It is the acts of Allah the Exalted and His laws to be rationally hinging on motives; and they are: producing what is in the best interest and removing harm. 3. Blameworthy imitation (Al-Taqlīd Al-Radī’): It is following another our of ardour and fanaticism without seeking the truth. 4. Empirical relationship (Al-Rabṭ Al-‘Ādī): It is establishing the necessary correlation between a thing and a thing in affirmation or negation by way of repetition. 5. Compounded ignorance (Al-Jaḥl Al-Murakkab): It is that one is ignorant of the truth and ignorant regarding his ignorance of it. 6. Holding firmly to the beliefs of faith by the mere apparent [meanings] from the Quran and Sunnah without any detail regarding the apparent meanings that are inconceivable and what are not inconceivable. 7. Ignorance of the rational principles - which are: knowledge of the necessity of necessary things, the conceivability regarding conceivable things, the inconceivability regarding inconceivable things - and the Arabic Language - which is knowledge of the language, declension and rhetoric.
Existences in relation to locus and specifier are four: A type which is independent of locus and specifier; it is the Essence of our Master Magnificent and Glorious. A type which is dependent upon locus and specifier; these are accidents. A type which is dependent upon specifier but not locus; it is matter. A type which exists in a locus whilst not dependent on a specifier; they are the Attributes of our Master Magnificent and Glorious. The conceivable opposites are six: Existence Non-Existence Quantity Quality Occasion Location Direction Beginning-less Omnipotence: It is an expression of a quality by which every conceivable is made to exist or made to not exist in accordance with volition.
Volition: An Attribute by which specification of the conceivable with some of that which is possible for it comes about. Knowledge: An Attribute by which all [conceivably] known things are known as they actually are. Life: An Attribute which is sound for anyone to whom perception (idrāk) attributed. Beginning-less Hearing: An Attribute by which every existent is known in a way that differentiates it with other than it necessarily. Seeing: Is like it [Beginning-less Hearing].
Perception: In the soundest position is like them both [Hearing and Seeing]. Beginning-less Speech: It is meaning which self-subsists with the Divine Essence which is manifest in various expressions dissimilar to the genus of letters and sounds, transcends someones, wholeness, preceding, proceeding, silence, repetition, intonation, inflection and all of the types of changes. [Speech is] related to all of that to which knowledge is related in terms of relationships. Speech is divided into predicative and attribution.
As for predicative, it is that which inherently suggests truthfulness and falsity whilst attributive does not suggest inherently truthfulness nor falsity. Truthfulness is an expression about information conforming to objective reality (nafs al-amr) whether it opposes what is believed or not. Falsity is the absence of information conforming to objective reality whether it conforms to what is believed or not. Trust is protecting all of the outward limbs and the inward from falling into what is prohibited categorically or non-categorically; while deception is not protecting either of them [inward and outward] from that.
And through Allah is all facilitation.
Author: Abū‘AbdullāhMuhammad b. Yūsuf al-Sanūsī al-Mālikī
Translated by Shams Tameez
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