بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
ان الحمد لله ونحمده ونستعينه ونستغفره
وصلى الله أفضل الصلاة على النبي الأمي القدوة والأسوة محمد ﷺ أبي القاسم جد الحسن والحسين المخصوص بقاب القوسين
Below is the article that I’ve expanded upon in this article:
A while ago I wrote this article but I have something to add due to learning some new concepts in ʾUṣūl Al-Fiqh (in the Ḥanafīyy Maḏhab). When it comes to the literal (ḥaqīqīyy) meaning and metaphorical (majāzīyy) meaning, there must be a connection between them. For example if you call someone a lion, you mean a brave man and there is a connection between the two words. This is applied in Fiqh in two scenarios:
1. The first is when there is connection between the cause (ʿillaħ) and ruling (ḥukm), then they can be used interchangeably
2. The second is between the intermediary/path/means/channel (sabab) and ruling (ḥukm). The difference is you can only use the channel to mean the ruling and not vice versa.
The reasoning for the above is due to the fact that the channel is not directly linked to the judgement unlike the cause which is. A few examples to make sense of this is as follows:
1. An example for a cause to mean the judgement and vice verse is when I say: “I own this scarf” it can also mean “I bought this scarf”. If I say “I bought this scarf” it means “I own this scarf.” As you can see it refers to both examples.
A written diagram can be as follows:
Buying (cause) <-> ownerships (ruling)
2. In the case of channel to refer to judgement can be if a man says to his wife “You are free”, then it refers to divorce and the wife is divorced. If a man says to his slave “You are divorced” it means that the slave isn’t freed. Why? The below written diagram should help explain that:
“Words of freedom” (channel) -> “Words of divorce” (cause) -> Divorce (judgement)
As you can see as the words of freedom refer to divorce not directly, it can be used to mean divorce. However you cannot extrapolate the intention of freedom from the words of divorce in regards to slaves.
Now how does this fit into the article I wrote? Observing all of this when Allah عز وجل says “I am time” it is a similar case. Allah is the cause of time. Time is the judgement. As of this they can be used interchangeably in this scenario to mean that Allah is saying “I am the Possessor/Creator of Time”, which I did quote from a few scholars in the article. It is clear to see that this principle in ʾUṣūl is being used in this Ḥadīṯ. Due to this it makes sense that Allah is not saying He is time in of itself but that He created it.
وما علينا إلا البلاغ المبين
Completed on: Yawm Al-Jumuʿaħ 7th Rajab 1445 AH (Friday 19th January 2024)
Written by: Faizan Ali Khan
Faqir Ink 