AbdelRahman Murphy – Thirty & Up Treasury Of Imam Al-Ghazli #13
AI: Summary ©
The importance of the five pillars of Islam is discussed, including praying and fasting, experiencing the same as others, traveling for various reasons, finding one's way in a similar way, and finding one's own place. The return of Islam to small-towns, the natural return of Islam to smaller cities, and the natural return of Islam to a woman who committed a lot of murders and killed herself are also discussed. The importance of finding one's own place and being mindful of one's journey is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum.
As-salamu alaykum.
Bismillah.
Bismillah walhamdulillahi was-salatu was-salamu ala rasoolillahi
wa ala alihi wa as'habihi ajma'in.
Welcome home, everybody.
It's good to see you, alhamdulillah.
Welcome back to 30 and up, where we're
reading through Imam al-Ghazali's text called Qunuz
al-Ghazali, which is the treasury of al
-Ghazali.
Dr. Mustafa Abu Suay, an amazing author from
Jerusalem, actually.
May Allah protect him and the Palestinians.
He put together this beautiful compilation of the
40 passages from the text of al-Ghazali,
or the texts, I should say, of al
-Ghazali, that he felt were the ones that
were most transformative.
We've said this a couple times so far
in the series.
We're on week number 12 here, but we've
said this a couple times, but it's worth
speaking about today.
What makes a Muslim unique, what makes a
Muslim different, is not that we live different
lives, but that even though we live the
same lives as other people, we see them
differently.
Okay, so the Muslim eats and drinks and
sleeps and wakes up and works and earns
and spends and struggles and all of these
things, if you look at what they do,
it is the same as pretty much everybody
else.
But what makes the Muslim person unique in
this regard is that as they experience these
things, their entire framework is different.
When they spend and when they earn and
when they eat and when they drink, they
view this as being something that's from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
When they get sick, when they get healthy,
they understand that one is from Allah, the
other is from Allah.
They attribute everything back to their relationship with
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And the indication about whether or not a
person can ultimately live a life in the
way that they're supposed to live, the most
fulfilled and spiritually strong life that a person
can live, is answered by one question, which
is how strongly can somebody connect every single
day back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That's the question.
So when you take the mundane and you
make it special, when you take the ordinary
and you make it extraordinary, those are the
indications that make us different, right?
And the goal then for a Muslim is
to be able to see Allah in everything
that they do and to be able to
experience Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in everything
that they do.
Whether or not it's something small, something large,
something critical, something not important, that they're able
to see Allah in every single thing.
The reason I'm giving you this preface is
because the Ihya, this book that Imam Ghazali
wrote, the intention that he had behind writing
this book was to try to restore a
spiritual lens back into everything that people did.
So he started, of course, with the five
pillars.
He wanted to remind people and to connect
people back to Allah and to say that
these are more than just mere actions that
people do, but they are actually pillars.
They are actually supposed to be things that
ground you and that hold your faith together.
So prayer is not meant to be something
that is annoying or a burden.
No.
Prayer is meant to be an opportunity, a
connection, something that you feel, as the Prophet
ﷺ said, As-salatu bi mi'raj al
mu'min, that the prayer is the mi'raj.
You know, the mi'raj is where the
Prophet ﷺ, he journeyed to the heavens.
So every time we stand to pray, it's
Allah giving us the chance to journey to
Him, just like the Prophet ﷺ had that
journey to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
When you pay zakat, it's understanding that by
doing this, by giving charity, it's a means
of purification of my wealth and of my
heart.
When you fast, it's a means of gaining
taqwa.
When you make your intention to make hajj,
to go to make the pilgrimage to Mecca
and to visit the city of the Prophet
ﷺ, Medina, it is the ultimate gesture, the
ultimate lifelong indication that you are indicating all
of your energies towards Allah just like you
do on that journey for hajj.
All of these are meant to be spiritual
actions.
So Imam Ghazali starts with the five pillars
and then he moves on to other things.
And he talks about, for example, getting dressed
and living your life and how we as
Muslims, we ascribe all of these back to
Allah.
The Prophet ﷺ, he had this experience, by
the way.
There was a time in which one of
the companions was mocked and was made fun
of.
And by the way, I think this is
a really, really important story to tell to
everybody, but especially to like teenagers.
There was a companion that was mocked for
what we know now as like Muslim hygiene,
right, cleaning oneself after using the bathroom.
Basically, they were mocked for using a lotah,
basically.
They were made fun of.
And they were made fun of on the
basis of why would your religion, like why
would your Prophet ﷺ, why would he teach
you about how to clean yourself after using
the bathroom?
And effectively, the argument that was being made
was like, what does it have to do
with religion?
What does God want from you washing yourself
after using the bathroom?
And so they used this in a tone
to mock this companion.
And the companion, instead of seeing it as
something being shy about or something to be,
you know, to turn inward, the companion like
doubled down and said, yeah, my Prophet not
only taught us how to clean ourselves or
how to worship Allah, but he taught us
how to clean ourselves too.
And almost putting the onus back on that
person, that what kind of lifestyle, what kind
of worldview and belief system would it be
that didn't teach you how to take care
of your body that Allah gave you?
And this is something that I feel like
now, you know, for 1400 years, we've been
trying as Muslims, especially those of us who
live in non-Muslim majority lands, how we
can sneak a water bottle into a bathroom.
You know, what's the way that we can
be the most discreet in cleaning ourselves?
You know, the lotas, even the way they
make them, it's like, oh, you think this
is just a tiny little four ounce water
bottle?
Let me show you and it expands to
48 ounces, the big gulp, right?
The big gulp lota.
And we've figured out these like really discreet
ways.
You know, when Muslims go and they travel
to like, and we're going to talk about
traveling a little bit today.
When they go and they travel to like
Muslim majority lands, I think the number one,
you know, the five star review goes to
the fact that every toilet, public or private,
has some kind of, you know, cleaning mechanism.
So, subhanAllah, this has been something that we
have kind of had to maneuver.
Isna Bazaars are filled with these innovative, you
know, products.
But this is something, subhanAllah, that now in
this day and age, you see even the
monoculture, right?
The masses are marketing.
I was in the store the other day
and I was getting, you know, wipes to
keep in my car and stuff and I
saw this brand, Dude Wipes.
And I was like, what?
I got made fun of in high school
for this.
I got made fun of in high school.
Hey, Abdul, why are you taking that bottle
to the bathroom stall?
And I had to explain to clean myself.
And they're like, oh, that's gross.
And I'm like, no, actually, you're gross.
Actually, we want to actually discuss what is
gross, right?
I think the absence of a water bottle
would make a compelling argument, you sicko, right?
So, the point being is this was something
that we had to, and then now, subhanAllah,
what are they saying?
Oh, it causes disease.
It causes this.
Yeah, of course, we've known that.
Musa the other day goes, Baba, what was
the black plague?
I said, oh, let me tell you.
And I was like, black plague was basically
people not cleaning themselves and throwing all of
their filth and their dirt into the main
street.
And people got sicknesses from bacteria and infections
and things like that.
He said, wow, why would people do that?
I said, beats me.
The point being is that these are things
that look like they're just mundane everyday actions,
but there's a spiritual component.
We know that cleanliness is half of faith.
We know that this is why, subhanAllah, have
you guys seen the new infographs about wearing
shoes indoors?
I'm not talking about these kinds.
I'm talking about in your house.
You know, wearing shoes inside and how much
bacteria and filth it brings into the home.
They've done studies now, and now it's becoming
popular.
Oh, don't wear shoes inside.
Muslims are like, yeah, we know.
We've been saying this for a long time,
you know.
So, the point I'm trying to make is
that all of these mundane worldly things, they
do have spiritual connections.
So, Imam Ghazali, he writes in his book
on some of these things.
He writes about eating.
He writes about drinking.
He writes about all these mundane things.
The topic we're going to talk about today
is actually very interesting.
He talks about travel.
He talks about travel and what the Muslim
mind and heart should be experiencing and feeling
as they are thinking about travel.
And he writes, you know, very, as he
does, with different layers.
So, let's read.
He says, the benefits that motivate traveling are
either to run away from something or to
seek out something.
He's giving like a big picture here.
He says the reason why people get up
and move is because they're either trying to
get away from something or they're trying to
go and seek something.
When he says travel, by the way, I
know a lot of us, when we talk
about getting away from something, and you're thinking
about like, you know, getting away from your
family, getting away from...
He's not talking about that.
He's talking about refugees.
He's talking about people that are actually trying
to save themselves from the persecution that they're
experiencing.
And then he says, for the travel is
either bothered about something where they are staying,
without which they would not have to ever
leave, or they have an objective or a
purpose in moving to go and seek something.
How many of you are from Dallas?
Raise your hand.
Minority.
How many of you moved here?
Okay, so he's talking about you.
He's talking about you.
You came here.
Why?
You came here for an opportunity.
You came here to work, to study, to
get married.
Who knows?
But you came here for something.
There was something missing where you were that
led you to come here.
That's what he's saying.
So there's always a reason.
And he's trying to establish now the human
reason, the flat foundation, that every single person,
no matter what their religion or their background,
they can agree.
Yeah, this sounds accurate.
People get up and move either for the
sake of trying to leave somewhere or to
go somewhere.
Okay.
He says the running away takes place because
the world has adverse effects on the heart
and the soul of a person or their
body such as plagues or epidemics when they
appear in a certain area or out of
fear because of dispute or a hike in
prices.
How many of you came here from California?
Okay.
So thank you very much for driving up
the house prices.
The reasons for traveling are either general, as
I've mentioned, or he says, are particular such
as being targeted with personal harm so that
one has to leave.
The reason for traveling may also be for
matters detrimental to one's religion such as being
tried with prominence, money, and a host of
other material causes that prevent one from dedicating
one's time to the sake of Allah ﷻ,
thus preferring the life of an unknown person
or stranger to avoid wealth and status.
We'll talk about that.
And it may be that one is coerced
to a blameworthy practice in religion or invited
to take some kind of public office which
is unlawful, thus they leave.
This was a common issue for scholars.
In the time of Ghazali, the leaders that
were corrupt would try to manipulate and bribe
and then even just force and blackmail the
scholars of their time to co-sign so
that the leadership would be not questioned by
the masses.
If a scholar would say, yes, follow this
guy, then the leader would get the endorsement
of the scholar and it's the same thing
in America.
I mean this is why Prestonwood right here,
this massive church, they have presidential candidates coming
and speaking there because they know that if
we get this pastor to endorse me, this
presidential candidate, Trump has spoken there, by the
way, multiple times.
They know that if they get that endorsement
that that congregation will follow.
So this is a trick as old as
time.
They've been trying to do this even in
Muslim-majority lands.
So here he covers the overall picture of
travel.
Now Dr. Mustafa Busuai, he gives his analysis
and I want to read this because this
is very particular.
He says, Al-Ghazali, in the above passage,
captures the essence of travel.
He says, one can travel to avoid danger
or discomfort or to look for better conditions
for one's final destination or to simply seek
other good.
This is an important conversation.
Now many people, when they decide to move
and go somewhere, those of you who raised
your hands, I'm sure that there's like a
list of things that many of you could
agree on, whether it's trying to provide for
yourself and your family, a fortunate or an
optimistic outlook on economy or being able to
get a better job.
Many people move for those reasons, right?
Al-Ghazali, what he says is that although
that is normal and natural and human, what
the Muslim adds to that in a layer
is the question of, do I travel or
do I get up and go and leave
and relocate for all those other reasons or
do I add something else to it, which
is what position, what place will allow me
to better practice my relationship with Allah?
And this is something that is a conversation
that needs to be talked about.
And I'll tell you, like, there's some stories
that are really heartbreaking, but I can share
them just so that we learn from them.
You know, I go to Umrah, we take
groups, alhamdulillah, and in December, that's typically when
my group goes.
And on these Umrah groups, it's not just
Dallas people, it's people from everywhere.
Like they join us from all over, even,
you know, from across the world.
And it's not uncommon that you will meet
people joining these trips, these Umrah trips, and
they will be from, like, really small-town
America.
Raise your hand if you're from small-town
America.
Anybody?
Where?
Oh, Peoria.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, small-town.
Peoria, that's pretty small.
Although, honestly, relative, there's probably some that are
smaller.
Anybody else?
Yeah?
Kalamazoo.
Okay, mashallah.
I know some people from Kalamazoo, actually.
The key word there being some.
I know, like, two people from Kalamazoo.
I know three now because I know you,
mashallah.
Okay?
Anyone else?
Small-town?
Yeah.
Who?
Canton.
That's not small-town, habibi.
Oh, Canton, Texas.
I thought you said Canton, Michigan.
Canton, Texas.
Yeah, I don't even know that existed.
It is pretty small.
Canton, Michigan is, like, part of the Muslim
Ummah.
Like, that's, like, okay, Canton, Texas.
Where is that?
30 minutes from Tyler.
Okay, and Tyler's already pretty far.
I mean, you know Tyler, right?
So Tyler's already pretty far.
Okay.
Where else?
Small-towns.
Yes.
Pittsburgh?
Okay, small-ish.
You have Salem's.
Salem's is really nice, right?
Yeah, okay, that's good.
Salem's is the only restaurant in the country
that can do Arab and Desi food perfectly,
both.
So you can get your shawarma and your
butter chicken, right, side-by-side.
Butter chicken shawarma?
What?
Did we just invent something?
Okay, anyone else?
Small-towns?
Yes.
Springfield, Ohio?
Okay, we're getting there, mashallah.
Okay, now, I'm not going to pick on
anyone's in particular.
There are people that join us for these
trips from said areas, okay?
And they come, and we spend, alhamdulillah, 10
days together.
The Holy City is Mecca, Medina.
It's wonderful.
It's a beautiful experience.
On the last day, the last two days,
they typically want to have a conversation.
And the conversation typically centers around, okay, we've
had this amazing experience.
We have lectures every day.
We're going to pray in the masjid every
day.
We're worried about, now, the fallout.
Okay, we're worried about the fallout.
We have teenage kids, we have college kids,
or we have toddlers.
We're worried about the fallout.
So the conversation naturally has to go to
a certain point, which is, okay, what's the
fallout?
Well, we don't have this type of community
access where we live.
And if we continue to live in this
place, then we know that we're not going
to have the Saturday schools for our kids.
We're not going to have the masjid giving
nice khutbahs.
We're not going to have these things.
So then the natural question is, is there
any chance for you to consider relocating?
And then that's where we hit a nerve.
In the conversation, it's usually a matter of,
well, we could, but my position in the
hospital or my position at my company or
my this or my that or we just
built our new home or this is this,
and we can't leave.
We can't leave.
And this is sort of what Imam Ghazali
is alluding to.
He's saying that people decide to get up
and move for all types of reasons.
They decide to cut ties and sell their
home and buy a new place and figure
out where their grocery store is and where
they're going to get their medicine from, and
they figure out all these things for new
reasons.
But one of the reasons that we oftentimes,
Alhamdulillah, one of the reasons that we oftentimes
don't consider is, will we be willing to
get up and go somewhere for the sake
of Allah?
I'm not talking about leaving the United States,
although for some that's what they chose to
do.
What I'm talking about, do we consider, Ms.
Sajid, do we consider Islamic centers and communities
when we are relocating?
Do we consider when we're buying a house
somewhere or when we're renting an apartment, do
we even pull up Google Maps and say,
how far is this from the place that
my heart feels most connected to?
Or is that the last thing we think
about?
And typically these conversations, and I'm not calling
anybody out, but I'm saying these conversations because
they're real life.
When they happen, what we end up finding
out is as much as we'd like to
have access to our Islamic growth, when we
measure it against our financial aspirations, it shrinks
in comparison.
But then, Subhanallah, we end up talking to
different types of people, different families, and even
in those conversations sometimes they're a little bit,
not public, but there's a couple families around.
And I remember one time in particular, there
was a family of a cardiologist and there
was a family of a neurologist, and both
of them made this choice.
But the difference was one of them was
a little bit further on in life.
The one who was further on in life,
kids went to college, got older, got married,
moved on, etc.
The one who was talking to me was
the neurologist and he was like, I don't
want to leave.
I'm this in my hospital.
I'm making this much money.
If I move to a place like Dallas
or Chicago or Houston or wherever that has
more misogyny, more access, I'm going to take
a significant pay cut.
And I didn't push because honestly at the
end of the day it's not my decision.
But it was the cardiologist that looked over
and told him, I'm telling you right now,
if you don't get up and go somewhere
where your family can grow and thrive, you
are going to regret it and you won't
be able to sleep for the rest of
your life.
And then he told the story about his
own children and the struggle that they had
and are having with faith.
And he opened up about that and he
said, you know what?
I was the only cardiologist in my city.
I was the only cardiologist that could do
my procedures for 150 miles.
He goes, every single case that had to
go through me, I made so much money.
He goes, I literally have more money than
I know what to do with.
And anytime someone says that, I always look
at them and I'm like, I can have
some ideas.
You know, like we can meet after this
emotional conversation.
Rootsdfw.org.
But he said that.
He goes, I have more money than I
even know what to do with.
And subhanAllah, he was like tearing up and
he goes, but the status and the state
of heart of my family, my kids, they
didn't even want to come on Umrah with
us.
I offered to pay for it.
I begged them.
I took care of everything and they said,
no, we're not interested.
And he said, I made the mistake of
thinking that my position in the hospital and
the money that I earned was going to
be all that my family needed.
But I didn't realize that the actual need
that my family had was for me to
lead and put them in an environment where
they could benefit from beyond me.
And he at this point, I was just
sitting watching.
He was talking directly doctor to doctor.
It's not only doctors.
I'm not trying to pick on health care
professionals.
It's everybody.
We all have to make these choices.
The choices we have to make are, are
we going to get up and put ourselves
in an area that will allow our faith
to grow?
And this is what Imam Ghazali is challenging
us for right now.
So he says, he captures the essence of
moving, of travel, of getting up and going.
Are you avoiding the dangers and discomfort of
the world?
Are you looking for better conditions?
Are you trying to find your final destination?
Are you trying to seek some other good?
What is this position that you find yourself
in?
And then he says, Subhanallah, that there's another
kind of travel.
And that travel is not the travel of
choice.
It's the travel of force.
And he says, the image that we find
that is the most iconic is the image
of refugees.
Those people that are made to move, coming
from all types of different backgrounds, trying to
cross their dangerous paths into lands of safety.
And he says, specifically with Muslims, especially in
this age group, you can remember from the
90s, from the 2000s, we have witnessed constant
flowing of refugees from Muslim lands.
Whether it be, of course, Palestine or Syria,
whether it be Sudan, Somalia, whether it be
Afghanistan, whether it be the Kurdish, whether it
be the Iraqis, whether it be the Lebanese,
the Syrians, any, you name it, Bosnians, the
people that have been told at gunpoint that
this is no longer your home, go and
figure it out somewhere else.
And they were not choosing to leave, but
they were forced to leave.
And Imam Ghazali says, this is also a
reality for some.
And he says, Subhanallah, that they ran away
from war and from poverty.
This is what Dr. Mostafa is saying.
And he says, their plight does not simply
end by reaching a new destination.
If they survive the waves of the sea,
then they are hit with the tide of
racism and xenophobia that are awaiting them.
This is the reality, Subhanallah.
This is the reality for them.
And this is, again, something that when you
read this, our guilt is not beneficial if
we don't change how we view the world
as a result of it.
It's one thing to look at images and
feel guilty, but that guilt doesn't do anything
unless you actually make a fundamental change in
who you are.
He says, but this refugee experience, and this
is why I love scholars, listen to this.
He goes, it's not new to the Muslims.
He says, the Prophet Isa had to send
two waves of the earliest Muslim converts to
Abyssinia to seek refuge because of the persecution
of Mecca.
So when you look at the experiences of
Muslims across the world and their persecution, and
you think to yourself, is this a result
of their being Muslim?
The answer actually is yes, it is.
The truth from Allah has always been under
persecution, has always been under attack.
Nobody converted to Islam in Mecca to seek
ease.
In fact, one of the statements the scholars
made was that there was no such thing
as a hypocrite in Mecca.
There couldn't be because by the virtue of
your conversion, you chose a more difficult life.
And so it's not surprising to see the
strength of faith in a refugee.
It's not surprising because they have chosen already.
They've made that choice.
Instead of acquiescing and bending to the whim
of the oppressor, they said, no, I'm going
to be principled and stand where I am.
You know, the other last Friday, I was
telling you last night at heart work, I
met Adam, the young boy from Gaza who
had his leg was injured in the bombing.
It had to have been amputated as a
result of it.
And we sat with them.
And subhanAllah, right now, there's literally an Azad
for them, for their, his, her sister and
their, some of their children that were killed
in a bombing in the hospital that we
saw two nights ago that was on fire.
Her family was in there.
I was sitting with her and the woman's
Musalla on Friday after Jum'ah.
We were listening to her story.
And she said, no matter what you saw,
it was 10% of how difficult it
really was.
She said the experiences that we've had with
her nine-year-old boy, her nine-year
-old son, whose life now, I mean, you
can't even use words.
It would be insulting to try to figure
out a way to explain how different his
life will be now forever.
But one thing that I noticed, and this
isn't like a after-school special.
This is like deep faith, deep faith.
Not faith that's affected by paper cuts.
Deep Iman.
One thing that I noticed as I watched
her was her constant uttering of the word
of Allah.
Whether it was a verse or a hadith
or just simply some dhikr.
Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah.
She had the beautiful Palestinian way of saying
Alhamdulillah.
And she would say it and she would
tell.
And her son, who's trying to cope with
this new real, this new world.
Like, I used to have two legs a
few months ago.
Now I only have one.
And he's watching these young kids at Jummah
running around.
And who knows the storm of emotions he's
experiencing inside of himself.
And she's trying to remind him, Subhanallah, as
he's sitting there, clearly upset.
She's trying to say, Adam, sit up, be
happy, look at where you are.
You have juice, you have this, you have
this.
He's so Palestinian.
You know what he did?
He had juice, but he chose his mom's
black coffee.
We made her a black coffee and then
he's like, I want the coffee.
He started drinking it.
I have a picture of him drinking it,
Subhanallah, so Palestinian.
But the point being is that when you
have this deep faith, it's almost like this
interesting cycle.
Your faith is what is connected to the
reason why you are in this state.
In the sense that this is the reason
why the oppressors chose you to oppress.
But then your faith also gives you the
ability to transcend and to be able to
conquer these waves of oppression, Subhanallah.
May Allah give us something similar.
He says the Meccan idol worshippers were the
first known Islamophobes.
They were the first known Islamophobes.
They tried to unsuccessfully poison the air between
the Muslim refugees and the hosts in Ethiopia.
They tried to come in and say these
Muslims are not good.
And they tried to come in and basically
say that they're going to ruin your city,
your country, your place just like us.
Look at what's happening today, Subhanallah.
What is AIPAC telling the American government officials?
What is the Israeli lobby trying to do
in America?
Not only are they trying to ruin the
lives of Muslims in Palestine, they're not stopping
there.
They want government officials, elected officials to feel
a certain type of way about every Muslim,
about every single Muslim.
Traveling, al-Ghazali adds, is sought for either
worldly gains or religious purposes.
He moves on to the next topic.
But before we conclude, I want to finish
that last one which is really important, Subhanallah.
It is important to note that when we
think about the idea of people moving, even
the hijrah of the Prophet, peace be upon
him, we oftentimes tell the story of Mecca
to Medina, from rags to riches, right, from
persecution to prosperity.
But you know what's interesting?
In the first weeks of moving from Mecca
to Medina, whatever the Muslims didn't have in
effects of persecution, they had in sadness.
They experienced deep levels of pain because they
missed their home.
They missed where they came from.
They missed where they felt like they belonged.
Even the Prophet, peace be upon him, for
years to follow, would longingly look.
Allah says, قَدْ نَرَى تَقَلُّبَ وَجْهِكَ فِي السَّمَاءِ
Allah says, we see you looking, gazing longingly
at the sky.
You know when you get lost, because you're
so upset about something, and you just kind
of zone out?
Allah literally says, قَدْ نَرَى تَقَلُّبَ وَجْهِكَ فِي
السَّمَاءِ We see that you're turning your face
toward the heavens.
Like something's bothering you.
Allah is telling him, like, I notice this.
And then that's the ayah where Allah changes
the Qibla from Mashul Aqsa to Mashul Haram.
Why?
Because the Prophet missed Mecca.
That was his home.
That was his home.
And to never return.
To never go back and live permanently.
His destiny, where he belonged, was going to
be Medina now.
But it doesn't change the fact that his
heart missed home.
And so, the story of persecution cannot focus
just on a happy ending.
It cannot focus on the prosperity of the
destination.
You can't remove the pain of suffering from
the entire experience.
That's short-sighted.
You know, to sit there and tell Umm
Zaid and her son Adam, Oh, be happy.
You're in Dallas now.
That's foolish.
If anyone heard, if you heard me say
that, you'd be like, you're an idiot.
Why would you discount and remove and erase
such an immense part of their heart?
So, whether it's reading the Sirah, or whether
it's meeting somebody, and their story includes having
to get up and move.
What we understand as Muslims is that that
experience requires gentleness.
It requires mercy.
It requires grace and compassion.
It's not all about opportunity for everybody, subhanAllah.
You know, we are so hyper-capitalistic that
we just think, Oh, opportunity, money, safety, be
happy.
So subhanAllah, how many people, despite having all
of the above, still miss for some reason
something called home?
They still miss it.
And so the Muslim has that level of
empathy.
Then he says, traveling, al-Ghazali adds, is
sought for either worldly gains or for religious
purposes.
He said the latter can be divided into
seeking knowledge or action.
Knowledge covers personal practical ethics that can be
acquired through traveling.
But also the knowledge of geography which reflects
the marvels of the earth.
As for action, it can be divided into
acts of worship, such as a formal pilgrimage
to Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem, or it can
be other acts that a person does.
SubhanAllah, how many of us in here have
ever been on vacation before?
Okay, we either have like a disengaged audience
or just very boring people.
You've been on vacation before?
Even if it's Bucky's?
Okay, even if you've been to somewhere random,
okay, even Denton?
When we go on vacation, it is very,
it's customary that when we look to go
somewhere for vacation, we look for, and I
know that people are going to be like,
man, you're trying way too hard.
But this is something that my brother taught
me and something that really has stuck with
me.
Allah Ta'ala in the Quran, He actually
commands us to travel.
Go and travel the earth.
Because there's an educational experience when you travel
and you learn and you see and you
witness, and it can't be found in textbooks.
You know, there's things that you see and
experience that are just so, subhanAllah, you know,
you get a semester's worth of knowledge in
one week of traveling.
And even more.
But there's one thing again, everybody travels, everybody
goes out of town, everyone books their trip
to Tulum, right?
But very few people are able to integrate
a remembrance of Allah into those trips.
My brother, you know, Sharif, he's not like
a, he's not a scholar per se, right,
but he's a very devoted Muslim.
And I remember one thing about him is
that whenever we travel as family, he would
always, when we landed or when we got
to our hotel, he would always look for
the closest masjid.
And this is one thing that I picked
up from him, is that it doesn't matter
where we were, he would try to make
one salah in the masjid that we were
at, in the city that we were visiting.
And the reason being is because he wanted
that journey to have some connection, some semblance
to like an Islamic experience, no matter how
recreational it was in its nature.
And I want us to think about, if
this is my brother, right, he's older than
me, but it's my brother, it's not like
it's my dad or my mom, it's my
brother.
If that was the effect that my brother,
who's like nine years older than me, had
on me, what will be the effect if
we make this something that we teach, for
example, like our children, our friends?
What if instead of only picking the Airbnb
based on its proximity to hipster coffee shops,
we pick Airbnbs based on proximity to masjid?
What if instead of like detailing our entire
itinerary about what we can do in this
given city, we also think about what we
do on Friday at Jummah, or just trying
to go to the masjid at all?
I know I pick on Tulum a lot,
right, and I have to be honest with
you, I have to come clean.
I did go once, and it was even
worse than I make it out to be.
Wallahi, it was actually, subhanallah, I'm sorry if
you're from there, right?
If you're from there, Allah brought you here
for a reason.
So, it was a rough travel.
It was a tourist place, no one's really
from there, right?
So, but I went there, and I remember
like one of the things that we did
was we had to drive to the closest,
I wanted to drive to the closest masjid
to like check it out.
And it was far, it was like 45
minutes away, and I went and met the
imam.
The imam was a Palestinian brother who moved
there, and I'm like, what made you choose
here?
And he's like, I love seafood.
Like that was pretty much, and subhanallah, like
that bond, that connection.
And then he told me so much about
the history of the Muslims there, and how
they've been there, and how they're growing, and
how they have halal meat delivered like every
Friday, and it's only a small amount, and
just, and I sat there, and I listened,
and I felt like, for a moment, I
was listening to like the first Muslims that
came and established community here in the United
States.
It gave me like that appreciation.
Like I felt like I was talking to
somebody from the mid, late 1900s, that was
like building the first institutionalized Muslim community in
America, and I felt like, for a moment,
I was taken back in time.
And now imagine like coming back to roots,
and coming back to here, and seeing like
what we have, but then remembering the conversation,
and now imagine in my heart the feeling
of gratitude that I have.
That I went to a place where their
front door was literally not on hinges.
It was a piece of wooden plywood that
you just moved, and then walked in, and
then moved back.
You know, I went to Spain this summer
with the group, a lot of us, some
people joined us from this group, for our
tour of Muslim history in Spain, Andalus, and
we went to go find one of the
masajid in one of the smaller cities, Seville,
and we went and sat in there, and
it was just on the bottom of an
apartment complex, and you go inside, and it
was a long hallway.
You know, some people, subhanAllah, they complain about
like, I saw somebody complaining about masajid.
They said like, why is it that masajid
in America can't have big, nice, Qibla-oriented
construction like the Middle East?
And I was like, brother, are you serious?
We're trying to just sign a lease.
And the person, the landlord was like, what
are you signing the lease for?
We're like, networking five times a day.
We can't tell them what we're doing, like,
you know what I mean?
Like, it's tough.
You tell them that we're going to have
Jummah on Friday, that's peak corporate America time.
Like, we're going to bring 400 cars into
this place and sell samosas outside?
No.
We're having a networking meeting.
We're networking with the divine, right, for 30
minutes.
It's just so funny to complain about something
that is like, by default, it's like such
a blessing and a privilege that we even
have this.
So we go to Sevilla, and the musalla
is a long hallway.
Each saf was like three people.
And subhanAllah, we're sitting there, and it's hot.
The AC is like not working.
And we're all spoiled Americans.
We're like, oh, oh.
And then our tour guide, who was a
Muslim, he said, I want you guys to
hear a story.
And this elderly man, maybe like in his
70s, walked up, and he went to the
front of the member, and he sat, and
he told us the story of his conversion.
And then he talked about how he went
to England, and he ended up bumping into
a really, subhanAllah, notable Muslim author there, Guy
Eden, if you've ever heard of him.
And he ended up getting dawah for him
and becoming Muslim.
And then going to the Middle East and
studying Islam traditionally, Morocco, and Egypt, and then
eventually coming back.
And he became what is known to be
like one of the great scholars of Spain
now.
And he translated the Quran from Arabic to
Spanish.
He was the first one in Spain.
And he's telling us a story.
And all of us are sitting there coming
from like Valley Ranch Islamic Center, from Qalam,
from epic.
You know, like they're an epic city.
Can you imagine like the dissonance between what
we experience here and what new communities are
experiencing in these places?
This is only found when you travel.
Only appreciated when you travel.
You might come to a place like this
and complain, Ah, it's too cold.
It is really cold right now, by the
way.
You might complain, it's too cold, it's this,
it's that.
Just go visit the masjid in Tulum.
That's not going to be funny.
Go visit the masjid in Sevilla.
Go visit these places where Islam is literally
in its first iteration.
And go and see.
This is what he's talking about.
Learning is done in so many different forms.
This is why Allah told us to travel.
The next time you plan a trip, and
that trip is recreational, and it's fun, it's
a girl's trip, guy's trip, that's fine.
But do not forget to add some component
of tadabbur, tafakkur, some dhikr.
Rememberance of Allah.
You know, it could be something as simple.
I love when people are so driven to
Allah that they do something that's so inconvenient,
but it's so beautiful.
You go on a trip, you book four
hotel rooms, each room has a couple people
in it.
And then someone says, hey, which room are
we going to pray Fajr in?
And we crowd into one room and pray
together.
Or we pray momentarily in the hallway, quickly,
because we don't want to block it.
Or we go meet downstairs in the lobby
and pray.
It's inconvenient.
You make wudu, pray in your room, go
back to sleep.
But the person who's thinking about, look, I'm
not going to let my journey on this
beautiful God's green earth, as they call it.
I'm not going to let this journey distract
me from Allah.
I'm going to make this travel part of
my worship to Allah.
What is to say then that every mile
that you fly, every rotation of the tire,
every dollar that you spend, is not going
to be counted amongst your hasanat?
Wouldn't it be an intelligent thing to do?
An efficient thing to do?
Proactive?
To take whatever you were already going to
do anyways, and make it something noble and
virtuous?
This is what Imam Ghazali is saying.
He said, and this is what Dr. Mustafa
Abu Suayy finishes with.
He says, today people flock to Mecca and
Medina without any hesitation, but not to Jerusalem
because it is still under occupation.
There is a strong argument to encourage Muslims
to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque because it is
spiritually meritorious to do so.
I actually, when we visited, it's so ironic
that I'm reading his book because this is
where I met him.
I met him in the Aqsa Masjid.
Subhanallah.
And I would say, obviously we know that
the situation now is unspeakable in terms of
its horror and its tragedy.
But I would say that when Allah Ta
'ala gives victory to the Palestinians, Ya Rabb,
make dua, that when Allah Ta'ala gives
victory back to the Palestinians and gives Al
-Aqsa Mosque fully to the Muslims, I want
everybody in this room to make a sincere
niyyah, a sincere intention that Maldives can wait.
You know, Dubai can definitely wait.
Jeez.
All these places can wait.
Wallahi they can wait.
France, everywhere, they can wait.
Make your intention to go and visit places
where Allah has showered His Divine Rahmah.
Go and attach yourself and your kids and
your family and your friends.
You know, right now the cool thing is
friends are booking trips to go to Japan.
It's like a new thing.
Let's go to Japan.
We're going to go ride in golf carts
or Mario Karts.
This is a new thing.
Look, you guys think I don't follow you
on Instagram.
I do.
I see everything.
Wallahi, I see everything.
Okay?
I'm telling you, you know what's on the
way to Japan?
Mecca, Medina.
You can stop and you can make an
Ahmada trip and you can hop back on
that plane and you can go.
You can add some component, right?
And you can make it an intention.
May Allah Ta'ala give us this intention.
He then quotes a poem of Imam Shafi
'i.
Imam Shafi'i beautifully has this poem where
he says, Travel, because you will always find
something more than what you left behind.
And work hard, because the pleasure of this
life is in working hard.
He says, I have seen that water when
left alone, it stagnates.
But when water is flowing, it refreshes and
tastes sweet.
And this is what Imam Shafi'i is
saying, is the nature of when a person
travels.
If you stay where you are, your entire
world view will stagnate.
You won't learn.
You won't connect.
You won't feel grateful.
You won't be in a wondrous state about
the creation of Allah.
But when you get up and go somewhere,
and your framework is deen-centric, is faith
-centered, you will not only be enjoying yourself,
but you will be rejuvenating your heart.
He says, traveling may also take place to
avoid tribulations and to avoid unwanted personal roles
that defy Allah's plan for humanity.
Al-Ghazali traveled for knowledge, but once he
became a famous scholar in the Muslim world,
he left Baghdad in order to purify his
heart from the egotistic residues resulting in fame,
money, and power.
And this is another thing that he mentions
here, which is that when people travel, they
can do it also to purify their own
intention.
They can do it to start fresh and
start new.
You know the hadith of the man who
killed 99 people, and then he went and
sought advice on whether or not Allah would
forgive him, and the first person was an
abid, a worshipper, and said, no, Allah will
never forgive you, and he killed that person
too.
So now he's killed 100 people.
It's not funny.
We chuckle.
It's like crazy how odd that would be,
like that response, like kill 100 people.
SubhanAllah.
Then he goes to the alim, the scholar,
and the alim says, he says, can Allah
ever forgive me?
I've killed now 100 people.
And the alim says, yes, but then the
alim says, listen, you might have to move.
And the scholar is like, this one line
from the hadith is so profound because the
scholars say why, like moving is not a
condition for repentance.
Allah did not say in order for me
to forgive you, you have to get up
and go.
But the scholar here was implementing a very
important psychological, healthy, spiritual tool, which was you
need to change your scenery because if you
stay in a given environment and you try
to make changes, there might be too many
things in that environment that are pushing you
and that are reminding you and that are
holding you back.
Imagine for this person who committed this many
murders, how many moments and places in this
city would remind them of the deeds that
they committed?
How many things would give them that memory?
So the scholar says, if you really want
to get better, you got to leave.
Now we talk a lot about the reasons
why we move, why we stay, why we...
SubhanAllah, if this is you, there might be
some people in this room that this is
you.
You came to Dallas not because of the
nature, I'll tell you that.
Not because of the hills.
Sun sets, Alhamdulillah.
But you didn't come here for the hikes
and the trees.
The most trees in Dallas are on this
campus property, SubhanAllah.
Everything else, no trees, we took all of
them.
In this room and roots alone, we have
more trees than all of Dallas combined.
Okay, so you didn't come here for that.
You didn't come here for good weather in
the summer.
You didn't come here for any of that.
But some of you in this room came
here because, number one, Allah allowed you to.
You came here for the community and you
came here because you wanted to get away
from a place that reminded you of the
mistakes that you made.
And that's a noble reason to move.
Imam Ghazali says that's one of the most
noble reasons that a person can get up
and leave.
It wasn't the hijrah from Mecca to Medina,
but it was your own personal one.
May Allah Ta'ala give us Tawfiq.
May Allah Ta'ala enable us to be
able to always move for His sake and
to always live for His sake.
And that we always find the mundane, but
we always turn it into a spiritual moment.
That we turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.
That not a single dollar goes into our
account or leaves our account except the way
that we think of Him.
And that not a single trip is booked,
nor a hotel is reserved, nor a car
is taken, except that we think about Allah's
blessing upon us.
May Allah Ta'ala make us those people
that never let our own privilege make us
forget the strife and the difficulty of the
world.
May Allah Ta'ala allow us to be
those that are constantly reflecting on how lucky
we are and that we don't let our
privilege delude us.
We don't let our privilege blind us and
deafen our hearts away from the struggles of
our brothers and sisters.
May Allah Ta'ala give the comfort that
we have to every single Muslim on this
earth.
And every single person that is suffering, may
Allah Ta'ala give them the comfort that
we have.
May Allah Ta'ala not hold us accountable
for the negligence that we have in our
comfort.
May Allah Ta'ala make our du'as
and our donations a means of relief for
those brothers and sisters who are struggling.
Ameen.
Ameen.
...
We don't have any time, unfortunately, for Q
&A tonight because Isha prayer is in about
four minutes.
So we'll just go ahead and wrap up
with that.
...
For those of you who sat on the
black chairs, if you don't mind helping us
stack them up on the dollies in the
hallway.
For those who sat on the backjacks up
here, if you can line them up nicely
for us in front.
And then if you sat on any of
the furniture, if you could just turn it
back to the way that it normally is,
we'd really appreciate it.
I'll see you guys in the masalah for
Isha.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.