AbdelRahman Murphy – Thirty & Up – Treasury Of Imam Al-Ghazali #15
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of en Anything, a message of resistance and en Anything, as it is the only way to achieve spirituality. They stress the negative impacts of lying on one's health and reputation, fearless desire to avoid bad behavior, and the importance of praying for one's heart and staying away from the "rocky room." They also discuss the importance of protecting one's safety and community, avoiding mistakes, and finding one's own strength and dedication. The conversation ends with a discussion of the importance of forgiveness and the upcoming events and staff help for people who want to join them.
AI: Summary ©
Welcome home everybody, it's good to see you,
alhamdulillah.
Just a quick announcement, before we get started,
earlier we have our, mashallah, our group from
the Palestinian Muslim youth, mashallah, that are selling
out front, hopefully they're sold out, inshallah.
If not, then we need to make sure
that they sell out, inshallah, and also they're
advertising some great activities and events around the
DFW area, November 10th, there's going to be
an all-day family event, inshallah, that's commemorating
and celebrating resistance and solidarity with our brothers
and sisters in Palestine, inshallah, and Gaza, so
that's on November 10th, inshallah, from 2 to
10, so make sure that you come by
there, it'll be in Richardson, they have the
flyers there on the table, but please grab
one on the way out, inshallah.
Jazakumullah khairan.
Okay, let's get started.
Let me do one thing first, open up
the Q&A, can't wait to get all
the marriage questions.
We're going to try to ask everybody to
stay on topic as much as possible.
So if you go to slido.com and
you type in 30 and up, you should
be able to ask questions, inshallah.
There we go, it's open.
Okay, bismillah.
We are on section number 15.
This week, subhanallah, this topic, this passage, is
a really complex passage.
There's not really one theme to it.
He wrote, enjoining good and forbidding evil, and
that's kind of a very, what's the word,
that's like a classical English way of translating
a very common and very well-known Quranic
phrase, al-amru bil ma'ruf wa al
-nahi al-munkar, so to enjoin good and
to forbid evil.
Another way is to encourage people to do
what is right, and to try to discourage
people or to take away the motivation or
the inspiration to do evil things.
Hassan, if you can hear me, Hassan, Hassan
in the coffee shop, or Nasra, Hassan, Nasra,
either one of you, Dikami, Ruud, can you
guys just turn off the Sonos, inshallah, thank
you, just appreciate it.
So to get started, I'm not going to
read, the Arabic is quite long actually, so
we're just going to read the English tonight,
inshallah.
He says, and he mentions, that enjoining the
good and forbidding the evil, okay, being a
person that reminds towards virtue and tries to
pull and help people away from vice, he
says it's actually one of the pillars of
this religion, the greatest pillars of this religion.
And in other contexts, right, we know obviously
of the five pillars, we know about salah,
we know about prayer, we know about the
shahada, we know that the pillars usually we
use in that context, but here what he's
talking about is not the pillars that establish
the religion, not talking about the five, he's
talking about the pillars that maintain a person's
religion as an entity, as a community.
And what he's trying to put forth here
is the importance and the critical urgency that
every Muslim should have when it comes to
the value of being part of a community
that cares for the spiritual health of each
other.
The only reason that anybody in this room
would try to encourage someone else to do
right or try to discourage them from doing
wrong is because you care for the afterlife
and the akhira of this individual, otherwise that
is completely removed.
So he mentions, he says, enjoining good and
forbidding evil is the greatest pillar of this
religion.
This is a quote from al-Ghazali, and
he says, it is the mission, it is
the purpose with which Allah has sent down
all of his prophets.
This is, again, a difficult thing for us
to swallow, it's like a bitter pill, because
we were raised and we are currently growing
and breathing the air, right, of a secular
civilization.
We believe that ultimately the general goal of
every human being in the West is self
-satisfaction, self-preservation, and we believe that as
long as I'm taking care of what I
want, and I'm not hurting anybody, and I'm
achieving my goals, my aspirations, my professional, personal,
whatever goals, then that's fine.
There's no room in the secular post-modern
mindset, there's no room for thinking about moral,
spiritual virtue, like what should be done.
And this is something that is, again, critical
to being a Muslim, is that we do
think about these things.
We understand that if we live in a
society where things are rampant, like bad things
are rampant, that that actually affects us.
And we're starting to see that a little
bit now.
We're starting to see how when things become
legalized, when things are not as taboo as
they once were, when things become a little
bit more open and free, then people start
to say, well, it doesn't really matter so
much about privacy versus public, because everything that's
private eventually spills out into the public sector.
And now I have to answer questions on
behalf of, for example, my kids who are
wondering, why are people doing that?
You know, I was walking in a Muslim
country, I was walking in a Muslim-majority
country, and there was a person, you know,
smoking a cigarette, which if you go to
some Muslim-majority countries, it's just like a
giant cigarette, basically, right?
It's very common to see.
So my son, who again, we've explained and
told him that smoking, because it harms your
body, is not permissible, and again, we don't
tell him to become like the haram police,
we're like, here, put on this hat, go
up to every person you see smoking and
tell them it's wrong, we don't do that,
but we tell him for his own knowledge
that it's not something that Allah Ta'ala
wants you to do, it's not something that
Allah loves.
He sees this person, he goes, why are
they doing that?
And he starts to have like this internal
siren.
Now again, as a seven-year-old, that's
understandable, it's fine, right?
He's allowed to have these sort of outside
thoughts, inside thoughts that become outside, right?
As long as they're not too embarrassing, that's
fine.
But the question remains that what should Muslim
adults in any given community or civilization do
when they see something that they know is
wrong?
What does Islam tell us about this?
How do we approach this conversation?
Before we talk about the how, Imam Ghazali
wants to build the what and the why.
And he says that we all need to
agree that this part of our religion, reminding
each other what is good and what is
not good, is actually a very, very important
part of our religion, if not the most
important part.
And he says, if we didn't have this
as part of our faith tradition, that we
can remind each other, we can advise one
another, we can give each other nasiha, advice,
if we didn't have that, he said that,
all of the reasons that prophets were sent
would be reversed, the world would become dysfunctional.
He says that things would start to fall
apart and eventually religion would have disappeared.
And you would start to see the corruption
that initially started as individual corruption, like just
private corruption, it would eventually begin to spread,
okay?
So if somebody lies, for example, let's say
somebody doesn't tell the truth, they lie.
And initially, first they lie to their family
and their friends, and then they get away
with it.
Now what happens when you do something wrong
and you get away with it?
You increase the range, right?
So first you lie to your family members,
then you might lie to your friends, and
then you keep getting away with it, so
then you lie to your co-workers and
colleagues, and then eventually your people who are
supervisors, management, you try to lie then, because
why?
Because you've been getting away with it for
so long.
So the act of lying, although deeply personal
and private, one could argue like, oh, if
I lie to my spouse or my kids,
it's not hurting anybody.
But the answer really is it's not hurting
anybody yet.
And up and until the point where a
person becomes convinced that there's really no problem
with it, that's when they stumble into actually
destroying and damaging somebody.
It goes from lying about, hey, where were
you last night?
To then eventually lying about things on your
taxes, to lying about, you know, how much
you worked or how much you didn't work,
or what you spent or where you spent
it, to lying about eventually a person even
lying about their faithfulness in a relationship.
There's all types of ways that this can
become destructive.
And so the reason why Islam forbids lying
is not because lying necessarily hurts Allah.
That's not true.
Nothing hurts Allah.
Allah is not affected by our deeds.
It's not because lying instantly when a person
lies, the entire world will fall apart.
No, that's not true either.
A person can tell a lie right now
and you'll drive home and forget you ever
told it.
It's because of the aggregate effect of this
behavior when left unchecked, multiplied times thousands and
hundreds of thousands of people.
We live in a society that no longer
understands truth from falsehood.
Can no longer recognize it to the point
where it's actually even rewarded or it's praised
or people brag about, oh, I'm such a
good liar, right?
I'm so good at lying.
We've all had that thought.
We thought when we see someone taking a
lie detector test on TV, we're like, I
wonder if I could pass, right?
I can keep my heart rate in check,
you know, I can do.
The reality is this is not something that
we should even aspire to have the skill
for because it's a sign that things have
gone very wrong.
So he says that it starts with a
personal inability to be corrected, a personal inability
to do the right thing, and then it
grows, eventually contradicts the reason why religion was
even sent in the first place, misguidance is
spread, ignorance becomes common, corruption becomes normal, damage
becomes irreversible, the land eventually becomes destroyed, and
the people that lived on that land eventually
perish.
All because of what?
Because of the inability to correct what was
wrong.
And he says the saddest part of it
all is that despite the fact that there
is this destruction that occurs and these people
have ruined their own lives and the lives
of those around them, he says the worst
destruction of all is that they will have
to experience the destruction that they harvested on
the Day of Judgment.
May Allah protect us.
It's like this coming home to roost, right,
this whole idea of realizing all of the
things that I had done will come back
to haunt me.
And there's a lot of stories in the
seerah, subhanallah, where the Prophet, peace be upon
him, he actually demonstrates and tells people that
what you do will eventually come back to
you, sometimes even in this life.
There was once a young boy slash young
man, basically like a teenager, who the father
came to Umar during his khilafah and complained,
my son is not very good to me,
my son is disrespectful, he's this, he's that.
So he said I want you to talk
to my son, and so Umar, you know,
he came to his, the dad came to
his son, said come with me, and Umar
said bring him to me, so Umar receives
the father and the son, and then Umar
asks the son, he says are you really
disrespectful to your parents, to your dad?
And he goes honestly, yeah I am.
And then the dad says look, see, so
Umar goes hold on, he goes why, like
why, you know it's wrong, he goes I
know it's wrong, he said why are you
doing this then, he goes because my dad,
my whole life, number one, he said he
married a woman who was horrible to me,
my mother, he said my, careful don't look,
don't look at your wife right now, do
not, alright, this is the wrong time to
look anywhere, okay, do not look at the
sister side brothers, nobody, alright, I know it's
not intentional, just don't do it, just stay
with me, okay, he said he married a
horrible woman, right, my mother, and then he
said that he never taught me religion, he
never spent time with me, he never did
this, this, this, and as a result of
that, this is how I became, okay, now
you might say well you can't blame your
life on other people, and that's true, everybody
has to answer for their own, but Umar
Subhanallah looked at the father in that moment
and he said you're dealing with your own
mess, you're dealing with your own mess man,
like you're the one who did this, you're
coming up way too late, way too late,
the reality is that if you really wanted
to fix this problem, then you should have
checked yourself and been the recipient of advice
and change way earlier on than this, and
now you're dealing with the result of your
own inaction, your own destruction, and so he
says that they will experience destruction on the
day of judgment, that which we feared did
indeed take place, he says to Allah we
belong and to him we shall return, the
reason for this is that the knowledge and
the application of this specific pillar, reminding people
good and bad, reminding everybody, has withered away,
it has been erased from society, you can't
even as much as motion to suggest that
somebody should do something differently, and he says
that that's completely gone, the hearts therefore have
become overcome, when a heart is like repellent
to receiving advice, he says it becomes overcome
with what, with hypocrisy, instead of being a
person that is humble and that magnetically wants
to receive advice, instead the heart starts to
turn into the heart of a hypocrite, which
is what, constantly defending one's mistakes, constantly rationalizing
one's mistakes, now somebody comes to you and
says hey, do you mind not doing that,
and you're like well, I mean, what are
you doing, do you even know me, you
look at you judging me, the person's like
I just asked you to put on headphones,
you know, like, it wasn't that serious, or
I just asked you to lower your voice,
or I just said can you not use
that language, and now all of a sudden
it becomes who can defend themselves better, instead
of being like you know what, you're right,
and conceding and taking that, he says it
disappears completely, and then people become hypocrites to
other people and they no longer think that
Allah Ta'ala is watching them, the people
have indulged in their whims and their lusts,
like animals, you know Allah in the Qur
'an when he describes human beings that have
gone astray, he actually says, it's actually a
really beautiful line, it's, Allah Ta'ala is
being sarcastic, and I mean that literally he's
being sarcastic, he says, he says these people
that follow their desires, they're just like cows,
what do cows do?
Cows do nothing but eat, use the bathroom,
sleep, that's it, their life is pretty, I
mean, no offense if you're a cow, but
it's pretty meaningless, right, it's pretty, I mean,
it is what it is, cows are very
simple creatures, they exist simply, they live simply,
they die simply, that's what it is, no
one would praise somebody, you know there's certain
animals you praise, you're like a lion, you're
like this, you're like that, no one's like,
you're like a cow, you're really amazing, like
no one is impressed by the bovine, right,
category, so Allah says, these people are like
cattle, and then Allah says, and this is
powerful, because realize, Allah never makes like a
mistake, there's no moment where Allah's like, no
actually, we do that in human speech, we
make mistakes all the time, Allah says, no,
actually, rather, they're even worse than cows, and
the scholars when they commentate on this, they
say, why would Allah call a human being
that is astray worse than an animal, and
he says, because the cow is actually doing
what it was created for and the human
is not, so the cow actually, if you
were grading on a scale that was weighted,
the cow is an A+, the cow
on the day of judgment, what did you
do, I ate, I slept, I used the
bathroom, eventually I died, great job cow, thumbs
up, but if you look at the human
being in this society, I ate, I slept,
I woke up, I went to sleep, and
then I died, and that is a description
of many people's lives, no time for devotion,
no time for worship of Allah, no time
for anything, we graze, it's just like working,
we just graze, cows work, we work, we
go to work, cows do their thing in
the field, we eat, they eat, we use
the bathroom, they use the bathroom, they sleep,
we sleep, we wake up, they wake up,
we provide, they provide, they give milk, right,
what makes you different than a cow, not
you, what makes us different than cows is
that we are able to transcend beyond this
animalistic life, that's what he's saying, he says
these people have indulged themselves and if you
were to break down their stats on the
stat sheet, you wouldn't be able to tell
who was the animal and who was the
human, that's what they are, right, in fact,
some animals are even more incredible than human
beings in the way that they nurture their
families, in the way that they communicate, in
the way that they have community with each
other, right, so he says they become worse
than animals, it is rare, he says, then
to find on the surface of this earth,
a true believer who is fearless for the
sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, this
fearlessness, he's going to describe it in two
ways and we'll talk a little bit about
this inshallah, he says number one, the fearlessness
of being a person that is not afraid
to try to live their life according to
what they know is right and to try
to stay away from what they know is
wrong, to be a person that does what
they know is right and to be a
person that tries their best to push off
what is wrong, this is a kind of
courage, courage that is oftentimes not recognized or
rewarded, when a person does the right thing,
it's time to pray, I'm in public, I
don't think twice, I know that going to
this event is going to put me in
a morally compromising situation, I don't think twice,
that's courage, courage is the ability to talk
to somebody that otherwise you think of as
a friend or a close person in your
life and saying you know what, this activity
is not for me, I have to make
a decision for my Iman, for my heart,
because if I continue to make this bad
decision over and over again, eventually my heart
will not recognize Iman anymore, I've destroyed it
and so when I hear Quran, it goes
from being beautiful to being, what's that, when
I pray prayer instead of it from being
a thing that I enjoy when I pray
my Salah, it goes to being a burden,
I got to get this done, I got
to get this over with, so he says
a specific type of courage to do what
is right and to follow the Sunnah of
the Prophet, carrying all of its burdens, he
admits it's not easy, it's hard, he actually
says rolling up your sleeve to do the
work and then also the second kind of
courage which is to revive it amongst your
community and amongst your friends, then he alone,
Imam Ghazali finishes, among created beings has truly
revived the Sunnah that time had tried to
kill and only he or she exclusively has
obtained this specific devotion before all others while
all devotional acts fall short of this devotion,
this is Subhanallah, like I said it's really
hard to describe in one line what the
topic of this is but if we were
to think back about what we just heard,
Imam Ghazali is giving us the perspective of
what it means to be a practicing true
proud Muslim, what does it mean to be
a person that recognizes when something is off
and something is good and to respond accordingly,
now I want to read some Hadith that
can give us some substance to understand in
a more concrete way what this refers to
and what this means, the Prophet peace be
upon him he said in a narration that's
actually very well known, it's both in Bukhari
and Muslim, he says Abu Huraira he narrates
that the Prophet peace be upon him he
said whatever I have forbidden for you from
you to do, stay far away from it
so if there's something that you come to
know about that Allah or his Messenger said
don't do it, he said just stay away
from it number two he says whatever
I've commanded you to do, do as much
as you can of it so for those
of you who are listening astutely there's a
little bit of a difference, when it comes
to haram things what did he say?
don't do it at all, don't do it
at all, okay, and then he says but
whatever I've commanded you to do do, take
from it, accomplish whatever you can, so we
learn principle number one when it comes to
virtue and vice it is a lot easier
to avoid vice than it is to do
virtue, it's a lot easier sometimes it's just
a matter of not putting yourself in the
scenario or the situation you know I always
tell people I have an issue backbiting, I'm
like just close your mouth it's really that
simple, I have a problem talking about people,
just be quiet it's not that hard, if
you don't speak then you won't backbite unless
you're really good with your eyes, you know
like he's here, you know like that that's
about as, listen if that's as bad as
you can get that's good, okay but if
you really struggle holding your tongue against people
or I have an anger issue, I yell
at my family, I do this, just shut
your mouth like no offense but like yeah
actually a lot of offense, just be quiet,
right if you have trouble yelling at somebody
or doing, just be quiet it's really simple,
right, it's really simple oh you know what
whenever I go there I make bad choices,
okay don't go there hide your keys, you
know give it to somebody else I don't
know what to say, you know this is
what the Prophet is telling us if there's
something impermissible, don't put yourself in a situation
where you're going to be able to do
it, just don't do it however and this
is the mercy of Islam, listen to this,
he says whatever I've told you to do,
I know that it's very difficult sometimes to
do everything so do whatever it is that
you can, do whatever it is that you
can if you were to talk about what
should a Muslim do, in this room we
could probably all come up with a new
item for a list however many people in
this room, we could have one item for
each person a Muslim should do this, a
Muslim should do this, a Muslim should do
this so the Prophet peace be upon him,
he's saying don't become overwhelmed focus on what
you can do and do whatever it is
that you can however when it comes to
things that will destroy you you have to
take that very seriously and stay far far
away this is what Imam Ghazali is talking
about the person that understands virtue and vice
stay away from the vice completely and do
whatever you can for the virtue side the
next thing the Prophet peace be upon him
and this is an interesting switch he says
he said there was nothing that destroyed a
people that came before you except their excessive
questioning when they were reminded what to do
right and wrong excessive questioning that's what destroyed
the people before you so somebody came in
and they're like hey you know we should
really pray like well I mean do we
really have to?
hey we should really do this have you
thought about it, what's the purpose?
is it accomplishing anything?
we should give Sadaqah yeah my Sadaqah is
not going to end world hunger right all
of these questions that are abundant from the
nafs right and really they're all just smoke
screens every question we ask we know between
sincere and between a smoke screen we know
when we're really curious really?
really?
I have to pray with her?
really?
versus what's the proof for that?
we know the person that's a little bit
more challenging the tone is a little bit
more incredulous it's just a smoke screen all
I'm telling you is I don't want to
do it I don't want to do it
but he said subhanallah this culture of whenever
somebody came and was trying to push us
along in the right direction whenever a prophet
came and was just trying to nudge us
along the straight path and instead of just
saying hadr you know yes yes for those
of you who are parents or for those
of you who remember your parents raising you
you know that sometimes they would tell you
to do something and you'd be like why?
why?
Musa get your shoes on why?
when?
where are we going?
just put your shoes on man alright just
put your shoes on sometimes there's no time
for questions but what are we doing after
that?
where are we eating?
what are we eating?
do they have gluten free?
you can eat gluten Habibi why are you
asking that right?
all the questions in the world they become
like you know Mahdi Hasan interrogating you and
subhanallah there is a time and a place
where questions are no longer productive they are
what?
problematic and sometimes the most virtuous trait in
a moment is just submitting just submit just
do what you got to do and so
the prophet peace be upon him here is
saying there were people that came before you
and they were destroyed because whenever they were
reminded of the good and told not to
do the bad they started asking questions there's
a story in Surah Al-Baqarah Musa peace
be upon him comes to Bani Israel he
says slaughter the cow you know what they
say?
what kind of cow?
how old?
what color?
they start asking questions and every time they
ask a question Musa peace be upon him
goes and he comes back with a new
condition you know what they are doing?
they are making it actually harder on themselves
at the end of the passage Allah Ta
'ala says that if they didn't ask they
would have been able to slaughter any cow
they wanted but they kept asking and it
got harder and harder so there is some
virtue in just being a person that says
you know what?
Hadith Hadith I got you I have no
idea why I have no idea what exactly
this is leading to but you know what
Ya Rasulullah?
if you tell me to do this I'm
in it I'm in it Sa'ad bin
Abi Waqas radiAllahu anhu one of the traits
that made him really special when he passed
away by the way when he passed away
his janazah so I want you to imagine
like this room but only with like 30
people in it okay so it's a big
room but 30 people very sparsely occupied right?
you could probably move around pretty easily there
is 30 people in this room right?
so his janazah only had maybe let's say
30 to 50 people in Medina in like
a desert area the Prophet peace be upon
him comes to his janazah and he is
going to lead his janazah and as he
is walking from the back all the way
to the front he is like stepping over
and tiptoeing but it looks like weird because
there is so much space does that make
sense?
so he is like walking and he is
tiptoeing tiptoeing so the companions they say Ya
Rasulullah why are you walking like that?
why did you walk like that?
like you didn't have to you know and
he goes do you guys not see what
I see?
and they said what?
and he said there are thousands of angels
here for the janazah of Sa'd Sa'd ibn
Mu'adh sorry Sa'd ibn Mu'adh why
did Sa'd ibn Mu'adh get this?
the hadith says the throne of Allah shook
out of recognition of the death of Sa'd
ibn Mu'adh Allah's throne shook the entire
universe recognized his passing why?
the scholars point to one story one they
say this is the reason why when the
Prophet peace be upon him moved when I
say moved migrated from Mecca to Medina this
story shakes me every time Mecca to Medina
he goes there is one agreement that the
Prophet peace be upon him made with the
Ansar they accepted him you are our leader
we accept you there is one agreement that
he made about their responsibility which is if
there is any pre-existing conflict before the
hijrah if there is any war that is
launched from pre-existing conflict you oh Ansar
Medinan people have no responsibility to defend us
it's pre-existing if we got beef from
a tribe before you knew us you don't
have to step up and defend us okay
they said okay they agreed here is the
problem there were not a lot of Meccans
there were not a lot from Muhajirun very
small group so one day they are out
in a caravan and there is some from
the Ansar and some from Muhajirin and they
are walking and this is when they get
the news of what the Quraysh are coming
and they are on their way and the
only way that we can stop them is
if we intercept them at the valley of
Badr this is the precursor of Badr the
Prophet peace be upon him he looks back
at his caravan and he sees two kinds
of people he sees destitute impoverished Meccans who
were sick who were recovering from illness because
Yathrib had some illness in it they had
no money they had given everything they had
to leave all their belongings in Mecca that's
the Meccans then he looks over and sees
the Medinans the Ansar and they are farmers
and they have a stick and a piece
of wood he does not have a very
impressive army so the Prophet peace be upon
him he looks at his people and he
says are you guys ready to defend our
city Abu Bakr responds Ya Rasulullah we will
defend you the Prophet peace be upon him
he nods and he asks the same question
again are you ready to defend our city
Omar responds Ya Rasulullah we will defend you
okay what do those two share in common
they are both from Mecca he asks again
will you defend our city he is waiting
for someone from the Ansar they don't have
to but he is waiting Saad bin Muaz
is the one who says he has never
read the Hadith he says I knew exactly
what he was asking for I knew it
two from Mecca had agreed he kept asking
he was waiting for one of us Saad
bin Muaz was one of the governors of
Medina before the Prophet moved there he was
a leader he says Ya Rasulullah he steps
up he doesn't say that we will defend
we will join you you know what he
says he steps up and says Ya Rasulullah
I speak on behalf of the tribes of
Medina and I want to offer this to
you the Prophet peace be upon him listens
to him he says Ya Rasulullah you came
to us you came to us when we
were a warring people we were fighting each
other for no reason and you united our
tribes you kept us together Ya Rasulullah you
came here and you brought us honor when
we were people that were living in the
desert basically just spiraling into nothingness you came
and gave us Hidayah when we were lost
he says Ya Rasulullah if you asked us
to follow you we would follow you even
into the desert and if you came across
a cliff and there was an ocean and
we saw your body walk into the ocean
and your body go under the water we
would step right behind you without thinking twice
we're with you Ahmad he said I've never
seen the Prophet smile like he did on
that day I've never seen it right what
made Sa'd bin Mu'adh what made his
death so powerful was his willingness to do
what was needed in a moment when he
didn't have to remember what was the agreement
people from Medina do you have to fight
no but Sa'd bin Mu'adh said this
propensity to do what is right is what
makes Muslims different it's not about what you
can do it's about what you should do
it's not about what is normal it's about
what is expected there was an MSA Subhanallah
that that invited me to speak and right
before the event it was in Chicago right
before the event I get a call from
the MSA they're like hey the event's cancelled
this is like the night before so I'm
like okay like that's kind of weird but
you know any day with my family is
fine so I'm like okay you know I
had to act sad I was like oh
no what will I ever do you know
I was already making plans to hang out
with my kids so later I get a
call from the chaplain and he's like apologizing
profusely hey I'm so sorry I said why
he said do you not know why your
event got cancelled at this point I'm like
was it me and he calls me he
goes did you request as part of your
accommodations because they pay for your flight your
hotel whatever he goes did you put a
Dyson vacuum as a request and I started
laughing I thought he was joking I go
no and he goes okay let me call
you back calls me back a few minutes
later he goes yeah I know why the
event was cancelled now I said why he
said the MSA in their moment of genius
when they would invite speakers the student government
gives them funding and usually they can write
things in that they need catering accommodations hotels
and they have a masala on campus the
MSA and they needed a new vacuum so
they took poor old me and whatever I
submitted as my reimbursement they added a $800
vacuum cleaner and it was flagged because they
audited the student government had an audit system
they flagged it they're like this is strange
we've never had a speaker in the history
of the university ever asked for a vacuum
cleaner like they asked for other things but
like they never asked for a vacuum cleaner
so they audited then they go they ask
me and they're like you know so then
the chaplain calls me he apologizes I'm holding
back tears tears from laughter not my normal
tears my tears from laughter and then he
goes I go you know it's so interesting
and he goes yeah I'm actually more not
the event cancellation that's disappointing but whatever he
goes I'm more disappointed in why this happened
I said why did it happen he goes
well they needed a vacuum that's true for
the masala I'm not sure how much edger
you'd get vacuuming with a stolen vacuum basically
but nonetheless he said I asked them why
would you do this what made you think
that this was like a good idea and
they said everybody else in the university every
other student group does stuff like this every
other group right they write in things that
they don't actually you know need they write
in things just to up the budget it's
normal right if you do it you can
increase the budget they'll give you more money
it's normal they kept saying everyone else does
it and that's when the chaplain I was
speaking to he said we are not everybody
else you know Omar Mokhtar Shaheed Omar Mokhtar
what did he say when he was being
tortured by the Italians what did he say
he said our enemies our captors those who
caught those who are tortured they're not our
teachers we don't do what is done to
us we think beyond that we are a
people that operates at a higher moral level
we don't do this like one for one
thing so the prophet peace be upon him
he says when it comes to your spiritual
health there is a value in being like
Sa'd bin Mu'adh not trying to always
do the math behind why or where or
what just understand the beauty and the value
of submitting to Allah understand it doesn't mean
that you have to be perfect we all
have mistakes but submission can be in percentages
in grades right I submit to Allah that
this I have to do but I'm struggling
with it that's still submission by the way
that's still submission and then he says وَإِخْتِلَافُهُمْ
عَلَىٰ أَنبِيَئِهِمْ and as a result of their
persistent questioning and their inability to be people
that upheld virtue and that shunned vice he
says they ended up straying away from their
prophets and that's what destroyed them so this
passage tonight will conclude with this was a
reminder from Imam Al-Ghazali on the importance
of A.
recognizing what is right recognizing what's wrong that's
its own spiritual homework being a person that
knows what's right knows what's wrong but knowledge
as he said is not enough then you
have to become a person that actually walks
on the path that is right walks away
from the path that is wrong and it's
very challenging you know last week we did
the talk on music it wasn't really on
music it was like deeper than that but
a lot of people were like it was
on music and I got a lot of
messages from people they're like man you ruined
my life and I said look you know
30 and up like it's bad for your
health like don't listen to it okay but
in all honesty in all honesty and the
one example I gave by the way last
week that wasn't music was sports and the
Chicago Bears lost in the most humiliating horrible
way ever and I'm sitting there in front
of the TV wallahi and everyone around me
is like oh all these Cowboys fans you
know misery loves company they're all sad anyways
so they're like oh oh and I'm sitting
there and I'm like and I feel my
heart being irritated and wallahi I was texting
a friend and I said this is exactly
what Ghazali was talking about maybe watching football
is haram for me like maybe because if
I care this much like if it's like
my son's like Baba I'm like not now
you know like if I care this much
if it's ruining my like then it's not
okay it's not okay for me right and
the reason why I'm saying this is because
these conversations are not always meant to be
easy conversations they're not meant to be easy
I was reading this and I said man
this is a very heavy topic it's effectively
putting every person in the driver's seat of
their own spiritual state and saying look you
have to be able to recognize good and
you have to be able to drive down
the straight path that's your job and we
all know as we're thinking right now about
our own insufficiencies our own vulnerability we all
know no one has to remind everybody else
but the irony of that is that if
we don't help each other we will never
improve if we don't have this concept of
helping each other get better we will never
make progress and what kind of community likes
to see each other stagnate what kind of
friend likes to see the other person not
get better or improve that's not friendship that's
coexistence that's meaningless friendship is when you can
encourage somebody out of your love to get
better and to stay away from the things
that are ultimately worse we ask Allah Ta
'ala to give us Tawfiq we ask Allah
Ta'ala to make us those that love
for his sake alone and that improve and
that get closer to him Ameen Ya Rabbil
Alameen okay let's do some Q&A and
then we'll wrap up InshaAllah in a couple
of minutes does the concept of karma exist
in Islam it actually comes from the Arabic
word Karuma no I'm joking it doesn't karma
so in a way I wouldn't say it's
like scientific or mathematical where it's like you
know you could predict or you could know
when somebody was going to experience something there
is this understanding you know what you've done
to others will be done to you there
is a Hadith by the way there are
notions of this the only thing that I
would say that's very different from karma is
that karma gives power to the universe but
we give power to Allah so we don't
give power to the universe we understand that
Allah is the creator of the universe so
there is there is a Hadith I'll give
you an example of this there is a
Hadith in which the Prophet was narrated to
have said that anybody who mocks somebody else
for a sin for a sin like you
make fun of somebody for a sin that
they do and they do not repent nor
do they apologize that person will not die
except that they will commit the same sin
so this is like what we would call
in American like you know folklore like karma
like so if I mock somebody for doing
or let's say I make fun of someone's
kids oh look at her kids they don't
do look at his kids they don't do
this at some level it may not be
your children it could be like grandchildren nephew,
niece you will experience that or you you
will experience that in your own circle in
your own capacity that's the nature of this
type of behavior is that it is reflexive
it comes back okay now again this is
not karma meaning that it's not being left
up to some non-sentient energy this is
from Allah this is justice this is Allah's
giving somebody a taste of what they have
oppressed on other people right what they have
done to other people okay and so I
wouldn't say karma exists in Islam but I
would say that Allah Ta'ala's justice definitely
exists in this dunya and that we should
be very careful not to be people that
wrong others right for the fear of and
for the sake of protecting ourselves from ever
experiencing the wrongs that we have you know
done to other people wallahu a'ala I
did tawbah to Allah after breaking a haram
relationship for three months and I'm crying every
day and praying to have her as my
wife oh wow that was a shocker definitely
thought that was okay is this hawa so
look there's a greater question here tawbah while
it forgives while it it gives a person
forgiveness from Allah it does not necessarily remove
the effect of the sin like a person
thinks like oh I did tawbah everything should
be fine no the reality is that you
know if I rob a bank and then
I'm caught and I'm like well I asked
Allah to forgive me that's fine but you
still have to deal with the consequences of
that mistake you know try it the next
time you get pulled over by a cop
like you know officer I made dua may
Allah forgive me for speeding alright please and
he's like yeah God will forgive you but
you still have to pay the ticket right
there's a consequence and so when I do
something that's wrong sin also bears fruit right
good deeds bear fruit but sin also bears
fruit if not he says this he says
part of the part of the the destructiveness
of sinning is that you have to live
with the effects of it so if I
if I lie about somebody and I'm caught
lying and then I make tauba I still
have to repair that person's trust I can't
just go to the person and say Allah
forgave me you should forgive me no Allah
is more forgiving than human beings Allah of
course will forgive you you have to now
put in the work of trying to repair
that relationship it's not that simple so in
this particular case right if it's a relationship
before marriage and it's not permissible you know
and it's leading to this this you know
this Allah knows best you know don't take
what I'm going to say too seriously just
munch on it a little bit this pain
is maybe part of the tauba it's part
of it right so may Allah ta'ala
make it easy okay but there is a
light at the end of the tunnel okay
how do how can I listen how can
I stop listening to my friends or let's
say you know family when they vent about
people like backbite I want to be helpful
but I also don't want to listen to
backbiting this is good this is good so
I'm going to actually quote my brother on
this my brother is really really good at
this and the scholars used to say this
as well but I've seen my brother do
this in person so whenever there's a comment
or somebody saying something about somebody else that
is backbiting it's not like any of the
you know legitimate conversations that can be had
but it's actual backbiting my brother would very
awkwardly come in and compliment the person that
was just backbitten so someone's like man I
can't stand that person they're so annoying my
brother's like yeah I think they're actually very
nice and then he would say like I'm
going to test the situation like how do
they respond so he's like if they change
their tune then they got it they learned
the lesson but if they double down they're
like oh you think he's nice I think
he's just the weirdest person ever then my
brother would double down again he thinks I
think he's really nice I think he's nicer
than you actually right double down even further
so he's kind of meeting that person and
then eventually my brother would say I've seen
him do this he would say you know
like yeah I don't think they would like
this to be said about them you know
and it's not to the point where there
has to be any sort of aggression or
anything it's just very you know factual yeah
I don't think Ahmed would like it if
we said these things so let's just you
know let's talk about something else you guys
see how the bears lost that day right
let's talk about something else just change the
topic so I think when it comes to
being a part of conversations that you're not
comfortable with the scholars recommend that you can
remedy the conversation by trying to be constructive
where there is destruction that's step one if
that doesn't work then you can try to
be a little bit more clear about the
discomfort if that's not going to work then
you can just remove yourself from the conversation
right you can say I'm gonna go take
this call I'll be right back let me
go call my mom's calling I'll be right
back you know just whatever just remove yourself
from it hopefully when you reappear then things
are better inshallah how do I stop
my mind from drifting during prayer having a
hard time focusing during my prayer when I
pray I find myself distracted this is a
very good question I'll give you a couple
tips number one prayer has to be something
that you make its own event prayer cannot
be something that you squeeze in between things
it has to be something that you give
its right its time that doesn't mean it
has to be 30 minutes it could be
5 minutes but it has to be something
that you actually consider okay things that we
don't consider we don't give them any sort
of quality we don't give them any sort
of value things that we really really care
about we put them in our calendar we
make sure that we make it a very
you know it's a focused time of our
day okay so prayer has to be that
so number one how do you make something
an event number one is that you prepare
yourself for it so the question about wudu
the question about prayer times you make sure
for example that you are wearing something that's
appropriate for prayer right there's none of this
like guys like pulling their shorts down to
pray you know sisters putting on the hood
of their hoodie and like tying the strings
tight none of that like trying to really
make sure that you are even if you
don't wear the hijab full time in your
car having something that you can go and
grab like an abaya and a hijab that
you can put on brothers if you're wearing
something to the gym or whatever go and
grab like you have a thobe in your
car or you have sweatpants and a hoodie
or something that you can put on to
pray okay so being prepared for prayer having
a prayer rug is a big big help
right because then in your car you're able
to pull that out and pray with it
another thing that I do is I perfume
my prayer rug I make it smell nice
so that when I'm praying it kind of
is a nice encouragement when I'm in sujood
it's really nice it smells as I'm praying
for jannah
I feel like I'm You would say think
of something you need some like need you
have commited and dedicate this to fulfilling that
this dhuhr is because I got into an
argument with my friend yesterday I'm praying this
Duhur, oh Allah give me forgiveness as a
result of this right and and that way
the prayer has its own like sub dedication
its own like sub focus to give you
some focus there inshallah wallahu a'lam okay
we'll do one more question and some of
these are too long like not too long
they're too long to answer it's just gonna
go too long what
is the average matter in the United States
I got married like 16 years ago and
I was broke so I don't know this
is a good question in the spirit of
the unsolved would you be open to us
having an unsolved program connected to 13 up
or locals actively connect with transplants yeah so
I think that that's a wonderful idea I
think that it's very very important one of
the reasons why I'm so particular about community
and about making this a physical space and
having the coffee shop like one of the
intentions behind all of this was so that
people could come and could socialize before and
after events and connect with one another like
look I don't know I really don't know
like if anyone in this room knows each
other but we all have one thing in
common and that is that on Tuesday night
we're pretty free right because you're here so
the reality is that if you come to
community spaces and you enjoy these types of
things you've already established that you have something
in common with the people around you okay
so you already have a conversation starter man
aren't his jokes lame yeah they're so bad
right dad jokes hit hard you know and
then from there I give you permission to
say that about me it's fine and then
from there you can carry on to like
a natural organic relationship and so I agree
that yeah we can have an unsolved program
that's for sure that's good but I also
want to encourage everybody to realize that community
is the unsolved program like being here and
meeting people and I don't think I've ever
come across in this gathering or in these
gatherings ever a person that went up to
somebody that's I'm like oh my name is
a bit of fun I'm new here and
I don't think I've seen anything but excitement
from people they were super excited to meet
one another and to see each other if
if you feel like that is a tall
order and too much to do we do
have quarterly events called meet-and-greets where
we invite people that are new and I
use this because everyone has a different definition
of what new means no something like I
just moved here last week so I've been
here for three years you're new to the
community and you want to come in and
interact and meet the other people so you
can always come to those events we have
socials and things like that but yes absolutely
the benefit of community is meeting each other
and inshallah building your village and building the
people around you that can help you get
closer to Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
BarakAllahu feekum everybody we'll conclude there.
Jazakumullahu khairan.
May Allah ta'ala bless everybody here.
Inshallah we'll see you this week we have
a lot of events please check our calendar
and take care.
Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
If I could ask for some help with
the backjacks inshallah for those of us that
sat on the backjacks to line them up
if you sat on some furniture if you
could help turn them around towards the area
and then I think we're gonna have some
staff help us stack the chairs on the
dollies would really appreciate it.
Jazakumullahu khairan.
Isha prayer is in two minutes the isha
prayer is in two minutes inshallah so you
want to make your way over to the
masalah to pray then that's a great idea
I'll see you there.
Jazakumullahu khairan.
Wassalamualaikum.