The Albaani Site

Questioner: There are some sentences or phrases which many people have fallen into saying. [We would like a clarification] about their permissibility or impermissibility. Some of them say, ‘O Faasiq! [one who is rebellious and disobedient to Allaah]. Or, ‘O Fattaal! [like faasiq]’ And, ‘[The answers to my problems are] with Allaah and then you,’ or when someone says, ‘Come and [eat] with us,’ they reply, ‘May Ar-Rahmaan eat with you,’ or ‘May Ar-Rahmaan be with you,’ and such words …

Al-Albani: These [words] are [said] amongst you?

Questioner: Yes.

Al-Albani: How strange! We have words that are similar to these and all of them are not allowed. Here in Syria they say, ‘We trust in Allaah and you.’ There is no doubt that some of those phrases which the question is about are incorrect. Like I just said to you in some places in Syria we have sayings that resemble those, like, ‘We trust in Allaah and you,’ this is shirk. Also, ‘Whatever Allaah wills and you will,’ is shirk. The correct wording is, ‘Whatever Allaah wills and then you will.’

Most of the Arabs today do not differentiate between ‘then’ and ‘and.’

The sentence, ‘‘We trust in Allaah and you,’ is disbelief in His Saying, “… and in Allaah (Alone) let those who trust, put their trust.” [Ibraaheem 14:12]. Namely, [we trust] in Allaah alone. So without a care such a person says, ‘We trust in Allaah and you.’

The saying, ‘We trust in Allaah and you,’ is shirk.  Here amongst us they also say, ‘Allaah’s Hand and your hand …”

Another questioner: Or they say this other wording, for example, [if someone invites you to eat, saying], ‘Come and eat with us, O Shaikh,’ he will reply, ‘May Ar-Rahmaan eat with you,’ ask about this, is there anything wrong with this?

Al-Albani: What is the second wording?

Questioner: He said, ‘May Ar-Rahmaan eat with you … may Ar-Rahmaan eat with you.’

Al-Albani: And there is nothing wrong with this?!

Questioner: This phrase … I’m not saying there is something about it.

Al-Albani: Is there something with it or not?

Questioner: I don’t know.

Al-Albani: He eats, Allaah eats?!

Questioner: We, yes … may Ar-Rahmaan eat with you.

Al-Albani: Our Lord, the Mighty and Majestic, eats? No, this is disbelief. This is likening the Creator to His Creation. This is not allowed. Is there anything else they say?

Questioner: Some of them say, ‘Ar-Rahmaan is with you.’

Al-Albani: Ar-Rahmaan is with you?

Questioner: [If one of them were to invite you, saying], ‘Come with us.’ The other person replies with, ‘Ar-Rahmaan is with you.’

Al-Albani: Let us hear its interpretation …

Questioner: He’s saying, [when someone calls you saying], ‘O Shaikh, come to us … with us.’ He replies, ‘Ar-Rahmaan is with you.’ Namely, he is excusing himself [by saying that]. He doesn’t say, ‘No, I’m not coming.’ He [excuses himself by] saying it in a softer way.

Al-Albani: But what is the meaning of, ‘Ar-Rahmaan is with you?’

Questioner: Namely, [by] Ar-Rahmaan [they mean] blessings, goodness, ‘I can’t sit with you … [but] Ar-Rahmaan is with you.’

Al-Albani: He doesn’t want to give a harsh reply so [instead] he says something which is not fitting to be said [in the eyes of the] Shariah?

Questioner: Because of his notion that it is something good.

Al-Albani: Because of his notion. But we want to correct his notion.

Questioner: No problem. If there is something blameworthy in it he should be stopped.

Al-Albani: It is not allowed to say, ‘Ar-Rahmaan is with you.’ Because … look now, the people of innovations … the people of hadith and those who cling to what the Pious Predecessors were upon, and those who believe in the aayahs and hadiths about Attributes are called mushabbihah [by the people of innovation] … they say that they are mushabbihah, mujassimah [anthropomorphists/people who liken Allaah to His Creation]. Namely, they say about us that we are mujassimah, why? Because we say, ‘[Ar-Rahmaan] The Most Beneficent rose over the Throne,’ [Taa Haa 20:5] i.e., He rose over it in a manner that suits and befits His Perfection. So when explaining this aayah if you say rose over means He sat on the Throne you would have opened the door for them to vilify you and would have given them support in their claim that you are a mujassim.

This saying, ‘Ar-Rahmaan is with you,’ they [already] deny that Ar-Rahmaan rose over the Throne, [even though] it is an aayah which we explain as the Salaf did, i.e., they deny the meaning of rose over because they falsely think that such a statement contains tashbeeh of Allaah the Mighty and Majestic as though He is sitting on a seat, [whereas] He is the One free of all creation. So what would the case be if they hear this saying, ‘With you is Ar-Rahmaan,’ i.e., Ar-Rahmaan is a guest with you. … Ar-Rahmaan is sitting with you, these are extremely vile meanings. [Rather], ‘[Ar-Rahmaan] The Most Beneficent rose over the Throne.’

Maybe it is possible to interpret this [saying] with a good meaning but from the cultivation that the Prophet عليه السلام taught his believing followers is his saying, ‘Do not say anything which requires an excuse before Allaah.’

So [after saying such dubious statements maybe someone will say], ‘I don’t mean that Ar-Rahmaan is with you in Essence, the Most High, but I mean His good, His aid and His blessings and so on,’–so this is an interpretation, but this interpretation does not contain good, [for] in another hadith there occurs, ‘Beware of that which requires an excuse,’ i.e., don’t say things after which you will be required to say, ‘By Allaah, I meant such and such.’

Questioner: Leave that which makes you doubt for that which does not make you doubt.

Al-Albani: Well done, precisely.

Mawsoo’atul-Allaamah, al-Imaam, Mujaddidil-Asr, Muhammad Naasirid-Deen al-Albaani, of Shaikh Shady Noaman, vol. 3, pp. 1186-1189.