Men Of Understanding

Bismillah Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam ala rasulillah wa aalihi wa sahbihi mehreen salaam Alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

hamdulillah. It's a real pleasure to be here with other brothers and sisters, and for the opportunity to get to address martial law. So many of our brothers and sisters who have gotten here together for this very beneficial event in sha Allah.

My topic for today was men of understanding. Before I get started with the topic, and primarily these types of sessions, the primary objective is to be very motivational and inspirational. But occasionally, it's no harm if we actually learn something tangible, something a little bit more intricate, academic, if you will, about our Deen at the same time, it's only a benefit.

One of the principles of Quranic interpretation, one of the principles of understanding the book of Allah understanding the Quran, and even of understanding the words the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam is that whenever the masculine gender is used? So this is particularly for the sisters. All right, but everybody needs to understand this in general, if you're ever reading the Koran, and you are reading a translation of the Quran, and the translation of the verse says something about men, like Luna Alba, the Quran talks about men of understanding men of intelligence. The one of the very first primary principles of the Quran is that that doesn't only

specifically refer to men,

but it is general the masculine gender is universal. And it's it's general, it applies both to men and to women, to males and females equally. And so when the Quran talks about men of understanding, it's actually talking about people of understanding individuals of understanding.

People have faith and people who understand their faith.

Now to talk a little bit about this ayah. And this reference in the Quran in the book of Allah to men of understanding or people of understanding, as we just discussed, what does that mean? What does that reference

from where we stand today from where we sit today, when we talk about people of understanding that has an intellectual or academic connotation to us, we think that that's simply solely talking about knowledge, information, and how much knowledge and information a person has. So if a person has accumulated if a person has amassed a lot of knowledge, a lot of information, then that is obviously a person of understanding. But that's incorrect. And that's wrong. Because when we look to the Quran,

we find something very interesting what the Quran says about knowledge.

One of the main drivers of the Quran, Quranic supplication, one of the main drivers in the Quran that is taught to us, Allah commands us and he tells us he instructs us to say, through the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So Allah gave this command to the Prophet. And through the prophet, we learned that we should be saying the same thing. And that's supplication that is rugby's in here, and I want everyone to repeat that with me to make sure I have everybody's attention. All right, Robbie.

All right, everybody. When I say everybody, I mean everybody rugby. Sydney.

Alright, you'll find this written on every sama University and every Islamic school over all over the entire world. Does anybody kind of roughly somewhat sorta kinda know the translation of it?

Go ahead.

Okay, typically the translation that folks know for this blog, this verse is Aya, oh my lord, increase my knowledge. We're gonna adjust that we're gonna fix that just a little bit. That's not actually what the verse says.

But throughout the verse, it says, or be, oh, my Lord, my master, the one who created me, the one who feeds me, the one who maintains me, the one who sustains me, the one who protects me and the one who guides me, the one who has made me everything that I am today that is wrong.

We say oh my lord, oh, my rump Zinni. It means increase me that increase my knowledge increase me.

What does that mean increase me like what does that exactly mean? Because that sounds awkward in English. So when you translate that over from Arabic, if we were to translate it in a way that we can understand

the Translate

Have Sydney would actually be, increase me, meaning make me a better person

in Arabic, the way that would translate over to English so that it makes sense is my Lord, make me a better person.

Make me a better person through knowledge.

So yes, we're asking the love for knowledge. But we're not just asking the love for just knowledge. What are we asking a lot for? We're asking ALLAH, through this knowledge make me a better person, make me a better human being, make me a better son, a better daughter, make me a better eventually husband and wife, make me a better father and mother, make me a better human being a better community member, a better member of human society. Make me a better person through this knowledge. When we go to the Prophet of Allah. Muhammad Rasul Allah, may peace and blessings be upon him. When we go to him and see what he taught us about knowledge about understanding, we find something very

profound. The Prophet of Allah Salallahu Salam told us, there are two types of knowledge. Knowledge just solely rests on the tongue

is what we call an English lip service.

Where you say something, but you don't really actually even truly believe in it. Sometimes you just say it.

Or maybe you do believe in it, or you do accept it to some extent, but you don't live it you just preach it, you say it, but you don't live it.

And then the second type of knowledge is knowledge which is in the heart,

knowledge, which rests in the heart, and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him tells us that the knowledge that is in the heart,

that manifests itself within the body, then when this person walks in talks, you can see their knowledge.

You see, you see the difference. For us today knowledge is something that is read, knowledge is something maybe at the most that is heard.

The prophets definition of knowledge is knowledge is to be seen.

Knowledge is to be observed. Knowledge is to be lived, how you live your life.

That's why the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to make a do I used to pray to God to allow us to say, a loving man in me, I look at

all I asked you for knowledge, which is beneficial.

And on the other hand, on the flip side, he's to say a lot, mainly to becoming a min lion fan.

Oh, Allah, I asked you I take refuge in You, I asked for your protection from knowledge, which does not benefit knowledge, which won't show in my actions, knowledge, which will make me a better person, I don't need it.

What's the point of it, because at that point in time, it's just information.

It's just something I know, it's not something I live.

And so true understanding to grasp the true meaning of understanding

is to not just know something, but to become a better person through it. And that's what we asked a lot. That's what a lot taught us to ask him for. He didn't teach us just say, oh, Allah give me more knowledge, just so that I can smack somebody down in a conversation, just so that I can win the debate on Facebook. Just give me more knowledge. Just allow me to know more Arabic than the other guy so I can make him look stupid in an argument. No, no, no, no, there's no point to that.

We ask for knowledge that will allow make me a better person through this knowledge. Make me a better human being through this knowledge. That's the point.

And when we talk about people of faith, people of understanding the Quran describes to us what is the implementation of our faith? You know, the topic, the theme of the conference is Muslim identity. Right. Did I get that? Right? Okay. All right. It sounds a little bit too close to linsanity for my taste, okay. All right. Nobody likes insanity anymore. All right. So I'm from Dallas. That's right. We want the championship. So Muslim manatee, get back on track, Muslim entity. Right? Talking about this concept. This is exactly this fits into that. The point of knowledge is to not just make us better Muslims. But being a better Muslim means being better at being a better

human being. It's such a huge contradiction today that we think we can be good practicing Muslims, but terrible human beings. We've justified that some way somehow when it's completely unjustifiable. It's absolutely wrong.

What doesn't let you just about faith in the Parana

one of the most comprehensive verses of the Koran of the book of Allah is pseudonym

Number two is number 177.

A lot says they sell better and to allude to

piety is not to just simply turn your face to the east or to the west.

Rituals don't it doesn't mean piety. It doesn't mean being a better human being. It doesn't mean piety doesn't mean better being a better Muslim. Okay, sorry. It's just a kid. All right. That's what kids do. Right?

They're like carrying him away.

He's a kid, not a wild animal guys.

It's okay. Does that Get off me? All right. I like it.

Mashallah,

he's trying to come back now. All right. That's good. See entertainment. This is real entertainment right here. All right, got the full package for you guys. So

the Quran says that true piety is not to just simply turn your face towards the east or towards the west. Doing rituals doesn't make you a better person.

What is then piety what is being a good Muslim, what is being a good human being? This is actually talking about what it means to be a good Muslim I've listened very carefully, will be Roman am Annabella. piety is to believe in a law, when he only asked him to believe in the last day to believe that there's a day coming when we will stand before God and we will be held accountable for how we lived our lives.

When he woke he will not be in and to believe in the angels to believe in the divine scripture, the books and to believe in the prophets of God.

Now he talks about what about an action? That's what's in the heart? That's what we believe in the heart. But what about the actions of a person listen to this very carefully, you would typically guess this next thing is going to talk about his

Salah prayer worship.

It says what I said mala beads,

being good to your family members.

When you're Tama taking care of the orphans. When when Masaki taking care of the needy, the homeless, the poor, the hungry, willingness to be

hosting the traveler taking care of somebody who's maybe on their way and they they're facing some difficulty on their journey. What does it mean? When somebody begs you and asked you for some food, to take care of them. We'll fill it up to help a person earn their freedom to help a person out of slavery. Human Trafficking today is one of the most egregious crimes that has been committed on the planet and it's growing every single day. It's a Muslim cause. We should be active in efforts to solve homelessness, to solve poverty, to help the poor, the needy, the homeless, people that are struggling people that are being persecuted through human trafficking. It is a Muslim cause to help

these people. That's what the Quran says. As long as some crazy speaker got up here and misrepresented his song. That's what the book of Allah says.

Thomas Allah azza wa jal saga and yes, pre established your prayer. give charity Yes, that's a responsibility. We'll move forward. But right away, right. What does it go back to? When

I do that our true believer keeps his promise. Once he gives his word to somebody, he keeps his word.

A true believer is a man or a woman of their word.

There, they're honest, they're truthful, they're trustworthy, you can trust them. You can rely upon them you can depend upon them. What savvy enough is that you are better off they have patience through difficulty through adversity through poverty.

Allah says that he can Latina Saku those are the people that were truthful to God.

And those are the people who actually are conscious and aware of the law in all aspects of their lives. That is what the Quran says, What is our faith what it means to be a Muslim, or being a Muslim means to be a better human being.

And so before I conclude, the couple of points that I wanted to reiterate here and kind of tied together, number one is knowledge.

Knowledge is something that is a necessary part of our Deen. We have to know our religion we have to learn about our Deen knowledge is very important. But understand along with knowledge also comes to test.

That test of knowledge is to not turn knowledge just another way to practice a person's arrogance.

To let the evil of our souls manifest themselves and for us to be able to prove our superiority over others. What is the point of knowledge what is the point of knowing your deen? It's not how much you know it's what is the effect of

What you know, on you, quantity doesn't matter in their in in knowledge. It's all about the quality of what you know.

It doesn't matter how much you know, it's what, what effect that has on you, what do you do with what you know, it's not about quantity, it's all about quality. And today because we live in such a materialistic self obsessed society, we're always trying to prove our superiority over another human being. And we do that through money. We do that through clothes, we do that through fashion. We even do that through our physical appearances. We do that through our cars, in our homes, in our houses, through our popularity, we try to find whatever way possible we can to try to prove ourselves to be superior or better to another human being. Well understand that just because you sit down and you

start taking knowledge doesn't mean that automatically now you're immune to that.

But it's even it becomes an even bigger test.

But you have to make sure how do we measure knowledge? How do we gauge knowledge today, if we just simply gauge it by what we know? And we try to measure knowledge? How much do I know how much does he know I know more than him and she knows more than her and I know more than them. That's pointless, that actually proves and establishes a person's ignorance when a person acts that way, when a person thinks that way. But the point of knowledge is, didn't make me a better human being or not, will not be sitting here in my wallet making me a better person through this knowledge.

The Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had was the most logical human being that ever walked the face of this earth.

But you know, what the second the opinion of many of the scholars, you know what the second revelation of the Quran was, we're in NEC Allah Allah who canal de nuestra column surah. Number 68.

were less matter what Allah said that most definitely you are upon a very high, huge, amazing level of character, o'clock conduct. That's what makes you special, that the knowledge of the Quran that is coming to you will come to you. And it will be a powerful force for you to be able to reach people and teach people and for you to be able to change our lives. But at the end of the day, the thing that will be more effective than your words will be your character will be your conduct.

And then that directly brings us to the theme of the conference Muslim entity, that being Muslim means being a better human being, we have to reconcile that we have to understand that that is a terrible contradiction we have to do away with,

you know, it's a real opportunity, it's actually a bit of a struggle. You know, sometimes talking to younger audiences can be a little bit more of a struggle. All right, as evidence or evidence by, you know, the people that are still talking in the crowd, that's just it just the struggle of talking to young people. And don't worry, I'm not I'm not I'm not picking on nobody, I'm not talking about nobody, I was the same way. All right, I was the exact same way. Except when I was a kid, when I was young. And I will be at a lecture I would be at the machine or something like that. We didn't have cell phones. So what we would do is we basically mess around and fool around, we usually like be

messing with somebody or making fun of somebody. So we were actually really loud and noisy and obnoxious. But so that's just part of being younger, I don't worry about it. But talking to younger audiences can be a little bit more challenging.

But I relish the opportunity to be able to come and talk to young brothers and sisters.

And I'll tell you why.

Because

you have so much potential. You don't even you you don't even begin to realize how much potential you have. You're nowhere close to even realizing your potential you are capable of so much. Allah has given you the ability to do so much. I know it sounds like a terrible, terrible cliche. But you really can't change your world.

You really can make the world a better place.

There was there were a group of more than a few 1015 2030. And then at the hydroton without there were 100,000 Muslims. There are over a billion Muslims in the world today. When the prospect of a loss of money some leftist? Well, there was about it was a little over 100,000 Muslims. That's it.

It's really more Muslims than that in Brooklyn.

There was a little over 100,000 Muslims, when the profits A lot of us have left this world. But those 100,000 Muslims, they changed the whole world.

Because they had the word of Allah the Quran, they had the life of the messenger peace and blessings be upon him. They had that faith that had taken root within their hearts and was manifesting itself throughout their bodies. In their actions and their words and the way they walk the way they talk the way they did business, the way they the way they interacted with their families, the way they treated their neighbors

You know, Abdullah bin mushrooms are the Allahu

Allahu Allah who used to actually go out. And he would put food. He would put food in birds nests.

He would put food in bird's nest,

I knew was eating a piece of bread. And if you would see, like even a rat or a mouse or something like that he would drop like food and bread crumbs for them. And if he will be like, what are you doing? It's a past. He said, it's a creation of a law. I don't want it to complain against me in front of Allah subhanaw taala they just the way they live their lives, forget about human beings, they were so beneficial. They were so helpful. They were so caring, and considerate. Even if animals

they changed the world.

Young people you're capable of that you have the other potential and more.

The Prophet of Allah salatu salam said anathema, Ivan, come on.

People are like gold and silver mines. The Prophet peace and blessings be upon him said people are like gold and silver mines. Can you imagine discovering a gold miner, a silver mine, you'd be made. Think about how much money you could have. Think about how much power and influence you would have, if you own the gold mine.

The profits a lot even said each and every single person is like a golden a silver mine. All they got to do is they got to dig.

They can just dig it up.

They just got to dig a little deep into themselves. And they get to bring that potential out.

And they have so much to offer to the world. Make the world such a better place, help humanity in so many ways.

You're the Prophet of Allah, the Sahaba, the companions of the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him. They were such amazing, remarkable people, they understood their potential. They understood what they were capable of. And they took what the Quran was teaching them and what the prophet was teaching them. And they put it into their lives, and they live their lives in such a way. They would go to places. They would walk amongst the people, they would talk to people, they would do business with people. They didn't have to preach like we preach today.

They would just do business with people, they would just walk and talk with people, they would just walk amongst the people, they would just live in a neighborhood. And people be like, wow, you're a great guy. You're an amazing person. Who are you? Why are you so different? And they used to say two words. Who knew mithuna

This is a be like us.

This is a be like us.

You're impressed. You like the way I do business. You like the honesty you like their trustworthiness, you like the respect and the dignity and the honor and the nobility

be like us.

And that's what you're all capable of.

So when every single person here, whether you're paying attention or not. All right, I want every single person here to realize your potential. To understand what you're capable of, to understand that a lion is messenger have empowered you to become a better person and to improve the human condition to improve this the state of humanity through this Deen that Allah has gifted to you. Does everyone understand?

That is the lamest response of all time. All right, Does everyone understand what you're capable of?

Is everyone going to make an effort to be a better person?

Is everyone going to try to go out there and be the best role model for humanity possible.

Everyone's gonna try to go out there and show the beauty of our way of life Islam to all of humanity.

make the world a better place you're capable of that. That was the message of the prophets a lot. He said, when he addresses 100,000 people at the end of his life, he taught them that every single person that is here listening to this message today, it is your responsibility to take this message to the rest of humanity who is not here today. Live this message, realize this message delivered this message to all of humanity. That's our purpose. That's our function in life. And if we're able to do that, we have a life of peace and tranquility ahead of us. And we have the blessing in the love and the pleasure of Allah subhanho wa Taala waiting for us both in this life and in the

Hereafter which is optimal located on Santa Monica de la