Al-din al-qayyim (the upright religion)

Summary

Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy holds that God described this religion as "al-qayyim", because it has the highest value, a value no other value equals, and because it sets human life straight. ¹ ²

The meaning of al-qayyim

The Sheikh explains that al-qayyim is that which has the greatest or highest value, a value that no other value equals. ¹ He gives the name this reason: the religion comes from God, so it sets human life straight, and it is the highest method a person can reach. ²

One measure

The Sheikh holds that people measure things by different standards, and so their methods differ. If the unit of measure were one, the nation would have a single reference, the Book and the Sunna, to which disagreements are returned. ³

Uprightness and God's limits

The Sheikh holds that whoever stays within God's limits lives in security and ease, and that whoever crosses them is worn down. ⁴ He says that the owner of the method is the Creator, who knows what suits a person and what harms him, so no one else can set a human life straight. ⁵

Successive laws

The Sheikh holds that God gave religion as successive laws, each prophet bringing one part of them, until they were completed with the seal of the prophets. He illustrates this with the image of a house built well except for the place of one brick, which he applies to the prophets. ⁶ ⁷

The questions of the Companions and of today

Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy's view (opinion): the Companions asked few questions because they were busy acting, while people today ask many questions and act little. ⁸

Sources

Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Al Dinu Al Qayem, episode 1, at 00:11:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)

Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Al Dinu Al Qayem, episode 1, at 00:13:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)

Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Al Dinu Al Qayem, episode 1, at 00:11:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)

Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Al Dinu Al Qayem, episode 1, at 00:14:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)

Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Al Dinu Al Qayem, episode 1, at 00:14:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)

Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Al Dinu Al Qayem, episode 1, at 00:09:30 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)

Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Al Dinu Al Qayem, episode 1, at 00:10:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)

Assabile archive of Omar Abdelkafy's lectures (audio and video) , Al Dinu Al Qayem, episode 1, at 00:13:00 · Listen at the archive (opens the audio at this time)

Bid'a (religious innovation)

Introducing into religion what the Lawgiver's command did not bring; Ibn Rajab makes Aisha's hadith 'whoever introduces into this matter of ours what is not of it has it rejected' the scale of deeds in their outward form, as the hadith of intentions is their scale inwardly: every act not upon the command of God and His Messenger is thrown back at its doer, and whoever introduces into religion what God and His Messenger did not permit is no part of the religion; he pairs it with al-Irbad ibn Sariya's hadith 'beware of newly introduced matters, for every innovation is an error', deferring the detailed discussion of innovations to his commentary on it (hadith 28); in that commentary he reads 'beware of novelties, for every innovation is error' as a warning to the community against following invented matters, emphasised by the universal 'every innovation is error', and defines the intended innovation as what is introduced with no foundation in the Law to indicate it — whatever does have a legal basis is no innovation in the legal sense though it may be one linguistically; he couples it with Jabir's sermon report in Sahih Muslim 'the worst of matters are their novelties and every innovation is error', with his account of the Rightly Guided as those who know the truth and follow it — unlike the ghawi who knows and does not follow and the dall who does not know at all — and with his reading of 'you will see much disagreement' as foretelling the community's divergence in roots and branches (Jami' al-Ulum wal-Hikam pp. 581–601).