 Assalamu alaikum. Welcome to the beliefs of Islam with me Hassan Hadi. In today's episode we will talk about Wahlat al Wujud, the mystical and philosophical word games. Now one of the problems which prevents any real dialogue and a criticism of the deviated forms of Tawheed which have crept into Muslims' scholastic circles is a problem of demarcation, definitional boundaries. It's commonly known that in advocating and organizing any dialogue and discussion or conversation about any issue in the world that definition is extremely important. And this concerns if definitions were never fixed or agreed upon then dialogue and discussion would be impossible. Now why is that? The matter is fairly simple. If every time we wish to debate an issue or discuss it in depth, the proposing site could merely redefine the word or term being debated in the first place then we would experience impossibility in reaching any conclusion and rationality would go down the drain. The proponents of Wahlat al Wujud likewise attempt to employ a very frustrating word game and process of sophistry in which they confuse the innocent believer who wishes to question the concept. They will say that the believer has not studied logic or philosophy for years or that he has not travelled with a mystical shape guiding him upon the varying stages of his spiritual journey. A response to this will respond that when the Holy Prophet, Allah's blessings and peace be upon him and upon his pure family, came to bring the doctrine of Tawheed to his nation, he did not require that they take a BA, MA, PhD or even an introductory course to their presets of philosophy. He simply brought them the truth which resonated with their intellects and was simple to understand according to common sense. The proponents of Wahlat al Wujud are hard pressed to define terms and often fluctuate between different terminologies designed to push away criticism. But largely they will opt to define their doctrine and their three broad categories, namely Pantheism, Panintheism and Existential or Ontological Modalism. In the next episode we will engage with the most common used definition namely Panintheism. What does the doctrine entail? The doctrine reduces Allah SWT to being the one who emanates existence as opposed to the one who creates existence out of nothing and it teaches in some extreme cases such as the case of particular heretical individuals such as Bayezid al-Bastami, who claimed that this universe is all but illusory and that nothing exists but God who claims in his poetry the following I am I, there is no God but I, so worship me and glory be to me, how great is my majesty as opposed to saying subhanallah, he says subhani, namely glory be to me. He goes on saying the obedience to me is greater than my obedience to thee I am the throne and the footstool, by my life my gripe is firmer than his I saw the Kaaba walking around me, Moses desired to see God I do not desire to see God, he desires to see me This is also seen in the heretical claims of another of the proponents of Wihdat al-Wujud namely Mansur al-Hallaj, a man who went around the Muslim world saying an al-Haq, namely I am the reality, I am God due to his belief that nothing existed but God himself Hallaj is often praised as a great mistake by some but what did the followers of the Ahlul Bayt, Allah's blessings and peace be upon them all say of him It's been reported in the books of occultation dealing with the history of the Ghaybah when Allah desired to unveil the affair of the Hallaj and manifest his humiliation and to disgrace him he thought that Abu Sahel, Ibn Ismail Ibn Ali and Nabakhti may Allah be pleased with him was a person that could be deceived by his hawks and taken by his fraud so he sent after him because of his sheer ignorance he assumed that Abu Sahel is like the other weaklings in the matter of faith, a wrecking that he could be drawn and tricked through his lunacies and that by commanding Abu Sahel's loyalty he will be able to draw yet more followers on the virtue of Abu Sahel's position in the eyes of the people and his respectability in knowledge and literature al-Ha'laj sent to him the following I am the representative of the patron of the age meaning al-Imam al-Mahdi may Allah hasten his reappearance through such a message he would first draw the ignorant people and then proceed to other claims he stated I have been ordered to correspond with you and avail you with the help you desire so your soul may find strength and you may not have doubts in the creed this demonstrates that not only did al-Ha'laj become condemned by the greatest scholars of Islam and the representatives of the Shi'a community but that you also claim to be direct special representative of the Imam of our time an entirely false claim it also reminds us of the necessity of taking knowledge from a trustworthy source now the question is do we want to take our Aqidah from a man denounced and condemned by the greatest of scholars? it has been narrated in al-Kafi from Imam Abu Ja'far al-Baqar Allah's blessings and peace be upon him who has said the following be aware of thinking about Allah's self if you would like to think about the greatness of Allah think about his great and wonderful creations this was for today until we meet next episode thank you very much indeed and assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh