2nd Class on Fiqh of Seerah held at the Islamic Institute Of Toronto
Abdullah Hakim Quick – Fiqh Of Seerah 02
AI: Summary ©
The transcript describes the historical and cultural significance of the Arabianese-led region, including its cultural and political changes and interactions with animals. It also touches on the significance of "immediate" in Islam, with a discussion of its use of animals as carriers and "brink" elements. The transcript concludes with a discussion of the importance of "immediate" in the Bible.
AI: Summary ©
Patience, you conveyed the noble message rod a slide
please be upon my bill
Sila rukmani Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu Allah, Allah say that mousseline Allah He was happy with adequate Salah. All praise the due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be constantly showered upon our beloved Prophet Mohammed, his family and his companions forever. I begin with the greeting words of the righteous as salaam alaikum, wa rahmatullahi, wa barakaatuh
Alhamdulillah, Allah subhanaw taala has blessed us to be Muslims, and to have a desire to seek knowledge about our past, and inshallah to implement that in our lives today, going to the future. And this is what we call fickle Syrah. This is not just studying the life of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, but is getting an understanding of the life and the circumstances surrounding it. And what we can extract from the different phases within a new bow of the Prophet hood. And then finally, once we extract information, how does that impact us today in the world that we are living in, and this is really important for not only students of knowledge, but I believe
all of the Muslims, the whole community, actually, and especially leaders. And that is because with the geopolitical situation in the world,
shifting to the Middle East, and televisions, internet, university courses, discussing
Arabs, Persians, Shia, Sunni, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, discussing different aspects of the Muslim world. Sometimes without knowledge, it is important, especially for Muslims, to be grounded in the history of the region, and to understand something of what happened before and to link it to what is going on today. And one of the best ways to do that, after going directly into the book of Allah, and the sayings of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is to look at the life of the messenger. Because when I used to describe to him, she said, He is the court and walking and talking. So if you want to see the living implementation of the book of Allah, then look at his
life. So this is what we want to see.
But this story
is given to us in a divine way. And as we understood in our use of force 111, Allah azza wa jal has told us laqad kanopy casa, see him able to turn the old LDAP that in their stories in the parables, there are lessons for those who have the ability to reflect on LDAP. And so this is what we hope to be Al Bab, those who reflect upon the circumstances, and upon what came through the life of the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him. And so
we want to first get perspective, what was the world like,
before the coming of the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him. And this is really important today. Because here in 2016, we see that great tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran. And it may not be as great as what appears in the media. But it's like two big powers that are struggling Arab, Persian.
And one would say like, why are they struggling like this? What is the purpose of this?
But there's a background. And the more you understand about the background, the more we understand about what happened in earlier times, then we can begin to actually see what is happening today. And so in looking at the world, before the Prophet Muhammad SAW seldom, I want to focus on
four areas. The first being
the Romans, and the great world powers at the time,
included the Roman Empire
and the Persian Empire, the society dynasty
in that region, there was also the great aksumite kingdom of Ethiopia, Abyssinia,
and of course, the Arabian Peninsula, and especially the Yemen. So we want to look at these areas in terms of a general background, because this is the center, the epicenter of where the revelation came, and then spread out to the other peripheries within the world. Now, normally, when people say Roman, and Rome, you would think about Rome in Italy. And that is the great Roman Empire of Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, that is probably one of the most widespread and powerful nations in the history of the world, especially European history. But what we're talking about here is what is called Byzantine Roman,
and Byzantine Rome. Really,
it's a continuation of the Roman Empire. When we look at what happens to the Romans. They enslaved the people around them, different nations, and especially in Europe itself in the northern part of Europe. They enslave the Germanic people, they enslaved Gothic people, they enslaved
Slavic people.
They didn't want to enslave people in England, really surprising. Cicero wrote,
you know that, you know, he received letters from his generals. And they said that these people behind Hadrian's Wall, that's the UK right up there in the north, they are so barbaric. We can't civilized don't take them as slaves. Don't even waste your time. See how things have turned around, right? But that's how they looked at the people in the far north there. And you have the Vikings, of course, and Scandinavia.
But what happened was because the Germanic people in the Slavic people were right on their borders, and they're very,
you know, resilient nations. They eventually turned against the Romans. And they sacked Rome.
And the word slave that we use in English actually came from slavery. So slavery was not just a color thing. The Slavic people who were lighter skin than the Romans, they were the slaves. So we still use the word, slave slave up until today, they were the slaves of the Romans. And they destroyed Rome, they sacked the capital, they were being used as slaves and gladiators. And it's a very * history as to went on. And when Rome fell itself with its decadence, the power of Rome shifted. It shifted to the east, to another great city, that was called Byzantium. That was the name of the city Byzantium, okay, and it was eventually changed to Constantinople. Constantinople means
the city of Constantine. And if you look at your maps, you will see
the Byzantine Empire we have in blue. And you can see the, the the Roman, you see where Italy is here, on this side, is not showing up there.
You'll see Italy, here,
Rome, and Constantinople on this side.
Okay, so literally, the power shifted from Rome over to Byzantium into that area, and Byzantium was probably the most protected city in this whole region, huge walls, impregnable fortress. And so what they did was they wanted to protect their religion, to protect their leadership, their concept their gods. And so they use this stronghold, the stronghold of Byzantium, to be a place where they would stay. And basically, as we know, the religion of the Romans was a belief in many different gods, Gods for different purposes, the sun, the moon, you know, for love for war for the ocean, and whatnot. But what was happening in the Roman Empire.
And we want to focus slightly on this is amongst the Jewish people,
easily Islam Jesus, the son of Mary,
may Allah be pleased with him, peace be upon him. He came to teach the Jews of Nazareth. So the Jews of Nazareth, especially he focused in this area, and so they were called nazarenes. We call them an Asara.
Masada. So that's the early term because all of them were actually Jewish. And this is an important
concept to have in your mind. The original Christians were all Jewish. They believed in one God, they had no concept of the Trinity.
They did not eat the flesh of swine. They follow the law of Moses, and
the nazarenes
spread out
to different parts of the ancient world. They will focus in the area of Nazareth and Jerusalem, but they eventually spread out into different parts of the Mediterranean. Now, what happened in the early times, to give a basic summary for a long discussion is that after easily Islam was raised. Okay, after he was raised, we believe he was not killed or crucified. But it was made to appear that he was after he was raised an individual by the name of Saul, who was also Jewish, and who was a good friend of many of the disciples of Jesus. So Saul, he was on the Damascus Road and is Damascus now. And now you see why Syrian Christian refugees are so important to Christians today. You say,
Why are the Christians coming out like this? Because Paul Saul, who changed his name to Paul,
he claimed to find Jesus on the Damascus Road.
And he said it was like, he saw Jesus in the sky, and he got a type of Revelation. And he changed his life. He changed his name from Saul to Paul. And he went with Barnabas, one of the disciples and his friend, back to the disciples, they rejected Saul at first, because he was against them, he tortured them. He opposed the disciples, He opposed Jesus. Now, he has this, this new understanding. And what he did was, he brought in what we call him today, in Arabic bidda. Its innovations, he brought new concepts in, he was signed to say that the message is not exclusive to Jewish people.
But it originally was, they were all Jewish, and they were not set the teeth, the Gentiles, easily Islam was reforming the Jews. And the last message was, was reforming the children of Israel.
And he was also expanding now to different with different concepts. And some of his concepts lead to the divinity of Christ, the fact that Christ could be
connected to God or part of God. It also led to the fact that we have an original sin that every child is born with a with a sin. And there needs to be a divine sacrifice, to get rid of that sin. So his bed, his innovations, his way of looking at things, opened the door for these major changes that came in their teachings. And Paul and Barnabas went to Greece. And eventually Barnabas left him
there in Greece, and he continued his mission. And it was in that area of Greece and Rome, that his followers began to be called Christians, that this is different, though, before they were Jewish, but they were this the Jews of Nazareth. Now, Christian was being used, in other words, followers of Christ, that they were actually distinguishing between themselves and the other Jews. That was something different. And that's the reason why a Christian today can look at a Jew and say, I'm a Christian, and you're a Jew. But it's actually originally supposed to be the same.
And so
this new innovation spread
to Greece, around Greece, Rome, it was spreading around the Mediterranean region. So the Christians at the time had many different concepts in their mind. You had nazarenes, who believed in one God, who kept to the law of Moses. Then you have followers of Paul, the Christians. And then you have other groupings. There's an interesting grouping called the leader was called Mithra, or mithras, Mithra ism. It's an interesting word to try to research because in Mithra, this cult which was enrollment Persia, they believe that their leader
died for the sins of people
that his holy day was was Sunday
that his followers put ash and mark on their head.
They took a type of Eucharist or type of baptism and a type of ceremony that they would
Take eating his body and his blood, and whatnot. If you really look at the change in the teachings of Islam, you will see Mithra ism, you know, being reborn within that. So the mystery cult was there. Also the concept of Trinity. Trinity was the ancient Greeks, Plato had a concept of Trinity. The Egyptians had Horace, Isis and Osiris that was a three part Godhead,
the in in India, they also had a type of Trinity as well. So the Trinity concept was in the ancient world. And at that time, with so much going on, one of the main leaders of the Sun worshipers because sun worship was the greatest of all of these cults. His name was Constantine.
And Constantine
went about uniting the whole of Christendom. He was really more of a politician than anything else. And he used as his symbol, the cross. Now, the symbol that you see on the board on the screen, is called the and that is the Egyptian form of the cross. But the cross even according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, this is old text, but this is what people use before they Google things, and whatnot. But even in this ancient book, now, it said, the use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre Christian times, was almost universal, and often connected with nature worship. So before the time of Jesus, the cross was like a symbol for eternal life. It was a universal symbol, had nothing
to do with Jesus. So Constantine now needed a symbol that was a universal symbol,
and one that could symbolize this new cult. And so he brought in the cross, his followers would wear a red cross, on their clothing. And he brought in new concepts. And he called a, you know, a major conference, in his capital, Constantinople. Now, Constantinople, again, was originally called Byzantium. That's where the word Byzantine Romans comes from Carson City, Constantine change it to the city of constantly, constantly, Nepal. And this here on the screen is the is Sofia. And this church was the largest house of worship in the whole of the Western world.
And it still is one of the major houses of worship on earth in terms of its expense. It's, you know, a width and its height. And it was amazing work in the city of Constantinople. And so Constantine then
tried to gather the people together.
One of the main individuals who was opposing Constantine was a man by the name of areas and areas was
a bishop of Christianity in the fourth century. And he was a Libyan he was actually from Libya. But he based himself in Alexandria, Egypt. And, of course, Egypt denial region was a very important place for Christianity. Because if you look at the Sinai Peninsula,
right, this is where Moses, you know, got his revelation, and they say, Jesus in His his secret years, from when he was young until around his 30s, he actually they believe he was in the Sinai Peninsula. It's a very important place. And so it was in this region there, that areas, his teachings spread rapidly. There were other teachers liked him. But they were basically focusing on the belief in one God. So areas was a Christian, but he refused the Trinity.
He said that Jesus was a man, not God, not the Son of God.
And that is the essence of their leader, their faith, is to believe in God coming down on earth and sacrificing and said, he rejected all of that. And he said, we should go back to the law of Moses, and areas, his followers were in Egypt, they were in the area of Palestine, they were in North Africa. There were other teachers like donatas, and other people in different parts of North Africa and Europe. And so Constantine's job now, he saw was to unite the people together. And so he called a major Council in 325 ad. And that Council was called the Council of Nicea. And this is a crucial date to understand the Byzantine Romans and Christendom in this part of the world. And it was in
this conference that he brought together the representative
Of all the different versions of Christianity.
And they had to decide, are we going to have one God, three, many different gods are what book are we going to use? They have a lot of different Gospels and books, which book are we going to use. So in this conference, they decided that they would accept the Trinity as the main belief of Christendom.
And they put together from the Gospels, to what is called the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and john. It wasn't the original writing of Matthew, Mark, Luke and john were disciples, somebody by the name, who came later. But they tried their best.
And they put together a compendium,
and Encyclopedia of religious texts, which included the Torah
of Moses, the Psalms of David, historical writings, inspirations, the Gospels, and they call the Bible
Bible like biblio tech, it's a library. In Latin, that means a library. So this was literally a library of religious texts, they put it together in 325. So before 335, the Christians had no Bible,
the Injeel the Gospels, were gone. They did not have the original Gospels.
And it wasn't until this time, this key point that they decided to put it all together into united areas refused.
And so in 336, he was poisoned to death.
And hundreds and 1000s of his followers were put to the sword.
And in Christian, they said, if you were a follower of areas, if you did not denounce the teachings of areas, if you do not say that God is three, then you are
more Ted, you're an apostate. You're cottage. You're like really bad names that we have, like people outside of the faith, they use this word in English heretic.
If you speak to a Christian scholar about areas, the first thing will come out of heretic.
Okay, meaning somebody who's totally went outside of the religion. But if you ask him, why is he a heretic?
Then he'll have to admit, he did not accept the Trinity. That was his sin, which actually, to us, was a righteous act. So areas and his followers, in a sense, were like Muslims, before the time of the Prophet Muhammad SAW Salah.
And they suffered, they suffered greatly during that time. And that was the basis of Rome. And so Rome control the Mediterranean basin.
Right, their belief was what we call today, Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Amongst the Christians, there's Eastern Orthodox, and you'll see some of their churches.
For instance, if you go on Markham, just by the 401, you see that building it looks almost like a Masjid or something. Right? That's Eastern Orthodox. Okay, and you'll see the day Christmas is not December 25 is like January 6.
They're different than the other church, but they were the ones that maintained
the Roman Empire. And what they thought was the teachings of Isa Elisa. Constantine, some people say he died as a file, sun worshiper. Others say he accepted Christianity. Allah knows best. But one of the biggest moves that he made was to institute that cross
was to put together that Bible
was to solidify the Trinity to make Sunday as the holy day see it son day, because it right in the word. So instead of being yom a Sabbath, the Sabbath, the Jews day is Saturday. They're supposed to be fasting and you know, reading the text on Saturday.
He changed it from Saturday to Sunday. That's the reason why, up until today, you have Christians who are trying to go back to the original teachings, that group called seven Day Adventists. The Seventh Day Adventists do not have Sunday as the holy day they have Saturday.
And so that was the basis of one of the great empires of the world. It was a military power. And it was the representative of Christianity. on the eastern side was the sassanid dynasty. And this dynasty,
which ruled from around 224 to 651 ad,
society Yun.
And they were inheritance of the great Persian culture, which stretches back 1000s of years, they believe was basically zero
Austrian belief, it was the belief in the sun as the main, you know, God and the manifestation of the sun comes through fire. So they would keep the sacred fire, constantly going, that even affected the Greeks. And you see in the Olympics, they have the flame, right.
So this is originally from them. And they were very powerful dynasty. their culture was an amazing culture, their thrones and their palaces, they even had what they call the peacock throne,
where you have peacocks walking around, like we have an Ottawa pigeons and things like that, you know, peacock is like a beautiful bird, right.
And so they have peacocks walking around beautiful carpets and porcelain and Persian culture is one that stretches back so many centuries, and you'll see it up until today in Iran itself, if you go to Iran or around Iranian people, highly cultured people, in terms of their, you know, the use of color and aesthetics. And this was really a great achievement of the Persian Empire. So the sassanid dynasty, if you look at your map, you'll see, you know, it basically was that pink
side there. And it was a huge dynasty. And that dynasty went right up into southern Russia, down into what is now today, Afghanistan, Iran,
and then over to Iraq. And you can see it goes up all the way into, you know, pots of Dagestan and then to the Mediterranean. And interesting you see Yemen, as part of the Persian Empire. And that's interesting today, because now that the Iranians are accused of supporting the Houthis, right
Houthis of Yemen, why would Persians be interested in Yemen? This is something we're going to see. So they have an ancient connection. And if you understand that connection in the past, then you'll understand that even today, what is present day, Gulf region,
and Amen. And if you know, the Gulf Arabs, many of the Gulf Arabs are also Persian speaking people. I lived in Bahrain for a year, and a bahrainis. Typically, they'll speak Arabic And I went to a lunch with them, once they start speaking this language, I didn't know what they were to say, I can speak Arabic, they switched into Farsi,
naturally.
So that whole culture and the same with Abu Dhabi and to Bay in many of these areas, you'll see that they are heavily affected by the Persian culture. That's an ancient connection with the sassanid dynasty. It's an ancient connection,
the Persian culture.
This is one of the like the symbols of power and huge fortresses. They took over the Tigris and Euphrates region, which of course is Iraq, and one of the most wealthy areas there in that part of the world. And they represent the power to the east case of the Romans now, to the north, and the west of Arabia, eastern side, Persian Empire. Okay, these are the two great world powers. At the same time, there was a great African power as well.
And again, if we look at the Red Sea, in its relationship to Arabia, it's not really a major barrier.
And so next to Arabia, was a great empire call. Excellent.
And the aksumite Empire.
Basically, you'll see it there, in what is now Eritrea, parts of Ethiopia, even parts of the Sudan on the coastal region there.
This is all parts of maybe down even to where Djibouti is. It's getting there Hargeisa, two seas ala. It's getting there Hargeisa.
Right. So this was the aksumite Empire. You didn't have divisions like you have today. And this was the most powerful empire at the time. And, again, people don't understand Africa properly. They think the people are just backward people. But the reality was the ancient Egyptians, who were basically Africans, and probably the most powerful civilization
in the whole world at the time, building huge pyramids
having a complicated civilization, math, physics, science. The abyssinians
Ethiopians also had a very high culture as well. And it was a Nile Valley Civilization.
And the obelisk, which is that main that one piece of granite that is used as a sundial
And you know as also a symbol of power and authority. They had the largest obelisks in the world, not an Egypt. It was in Ethiopia.
Today, you'll see that everybody wants an obelisk. In Toronto, we have an obelisk. What is it? What is it, the CN Tower. And you'll see most of the cities in the world, they want an Eiffel Tower, a CN Tower. Some of them even stole it from Ethiopia and put it in their country.
And it's a symbol literally a symbol of power and authority. And so this is a very important culture. Because it was similar to Arabian culture, the Red Sea is not a major barrier. If you are on the coast of Djibouti, and these areas, on a clear day, you can see Yemen, you can literally see it.
So there's not a major difference in terms of land space, and in the people. So the aksumite Kingdom, they were a naval power, a military power, they were trading power, they go back to 400 BC. That's another way of saying BC, right? 400 BC,
right all the way up to the 10th century AD.
That's a long time. This is a really dominant culture. And they believe and you'll see in this slide here, you'll see that they actually believe and this is a picture of a place in their in their center, which is called Exxon up until today. It's in the highlands of Tigray highlands of Ethiopia.
They believe the Ark of the Covenant is inside of this building. And that is that power source that Sulaiman la Salaam, so the man and Bill piece that he had a chest, we kept the special teachings and whatnot, and they say this had power in this in this in the Ark of the Covenant, and Ethiopians believed that it's here. And they won't let anybody inside of this place. Ethiopians also had
powerful armies, they introduced a new form of warfare into the ancient world. And that is the use of elephants. And elephants completely changed warfare, in the same way that the tanks and world armored cars and tanks and World War One than World War Two, and then later on helicopter gunships. And now drones. Right, these are technologies. So when the elephant if you have a camel or horse, and you're about you know, to fight your enemy, and suddenly there's 100 elephants in front of you, your animal is afraid, your animal doesn't want to go forward, you're not used to seeing a creature like this, you shoot him with your arrow or your spear and it bounces off his skin. Okay, so this is
a total new technologies like a tank. So the Ethiopian army was irresistible force. They were an irresistible force at that point in time. And this is really important to understand what was around the Prophet Mohammed Salah
when certain moves a lot gave him direction to make certain moves. If you understand the powers around him, and what was going on, then we can see more about the revelation that we are constantly reading. Now the fourth place we wanted to look at was the Arabian Peninsula. And this gets into Word Arab itself. What is Arabic?
Right? Robbie is an Arab who lives in the desert Nevada. But according to many scholars and different ways of dividing it up, I want to divide it into three parts. The first is called a lot of a lot of bad, bad EDA.
And these are what you could say the perishing or the perished Arabs. And these are the nations like add and demoed
and disarm and unlock
Medina and solid these ancient empires of the Arabian Peninsula.
But their languages and their cultures basically perished. The only trace that I ever saw of this, in my short travels, I found in the country of Oman, I went to Moscow and traveled around and Oh man, and I found that to Oman is they have people in remand call. The Jabalia is the Jubilee people. And they are speaking a form of Semitic language.
And you don't know what they're saying. If you speak Arabic, you know it's Semitic, but you can't fully follow them. it's it's a it's an ancient Semitic language, just like Amharic, which is spoken in Ethiopia, that's a Semitic language as well. Okay, so these Jabalia people probably have the only existing
Arabian tongue from the ancient times. That is there. These are the great empires that are there. And
I've given you in your in your text. In your opinion, one of your appendix sins, you'll see an article written about
The scientists, the University of California, who using technology focused down on the desert in the empty quarter of men.
And they look down, they were able to see through the sand and they found an ancient city. These are Americans now, and I'm given I'm going to give you this article, and they're literally saying they believe it is Iran,
the city of Iran, of the sanction ads and the mood. lm Tara kafer followed a book a bad Iran. That's a mad outlet lm yo kolak mithril Hasselblad, you'll see that in certain, you know, in certain fashion, you'll see, do you not see what happened to the people of add an era that's on Emad, it had huge columns, and nothing was ever built like this in the land. That's what the Quran is saying. So literally, the scientists found error in what is called the empty quarter of men. And they actually dug down and saw the huge palaces there, under the sand. And this solidified our understanding of a lot of albidum. So this is the first kind of Arabs that you need to understand. And the Arabian
Peninsula. This is a, again, a look at the the Arabian Peninsula. Omen, of course, is there on the right and Bahrain and this is your Arabian peninsula. Now the next type is called an audible audible.
Audible Audible, we could say is pure, original Arabs,
pure original Arabs, like the catani people who traveled came from Yemen and they went north.
And the base that most historians believe that the Arabic language in its present form, because many believe there was an ancient form of Arabic, that may have predated all languages.
But in the present form, that we are speaking today, the center of this would be what is now known as Yemen.
And from their tribes, there are two very famous tribe, one, the hymn er, and the Catalan tribes, very famous people in his from there, that Arabic speaking people then traveled around the peninsula and up into Iraq. And this was a high civilization, you can see in the buildings of Yemen, skyscrapers. Now, these skyscrapers were there, at the time, when most people were living in shacks. And in Yemen. They literally had, look at the size of those buildings, you literally have, like 10 storey buildings.
And these are ancient structures that are there.
And if you Google it go into Yemen, the actual buildings of Yemen, you'll see some amazing buildings and huddled them out, and the different sections of Yemen.
So this is a powerful ancient culture that we'll talk about a little bit more as we go further on. The third type of Arab that we want to talk about is a lot of Al Mustafa. This is the third. And this is what you could call Arab eyes, Arabs. Now what do I mean by that? I mean, somebody who speaks Arabic, they've taken on Arab culture, but they were not originally from Yemen. So their bloodline does not go into the bloodline of the Yemen, where the original speakers of Arabic came from. And of course, Arabic has now spread. And if you go to Lebanon, the Lebanese are Phoenician people. They were in Carthage and other places. And if you go to Morocco, and Algeria, they have
Berber people amazi they have their own language and their own culture.
And if you speak to somebody from him, you know, I've seen a Lebanese, you know, speaking, you know, try to speak to a Moroccan, you know, they can't understand each other.
Because literally, their own languages, their dialects have influenced Arabic itself.
And so this is they would be called a lot about mastaba.
So the Lebanese would be Phoenician people who came into Arabic language and Arab culture.
Okay, and this is important because, again, there's nothing to be ashamed of, because some people say well out of is something special and but if you look at
the audible mastaba they're not the pure ones, right?
But who are the most famous audible mastaba? If you look at the family of Ishmael, Allah Islam,
right, it's my email. Remember his mother was an African woman from Egypt.
May Allah be pleased with her. The Father's Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam was an Iraqi.
So that's tigers, you
Freddie's blood. That's Nile Valley blood, African blood. And it's my email Mary's from the Judah home tribe. And they are audible audible. They're the original Arabs. So the children that come out of this union between the different civilizations, they become the kodesh. They become kadesh Quraysh was considered to be the nobility of the Arabs, but they're not original Arabs, then we'll start
to see. So Arab itself is not a racial thing.
There is no set racial definition. For an error. It could be light skin, dark skin, brown, yellow. However, in their traditions, they do like many of the Arabs, especially in the peninsula, they like what they call Schumann aloof, they like to have a big nose like
that wouldn't go so well in China, right.
But they like to have shown moonroof.
They like a High Bridge nose, right a high for the certain features that they do, like, but that's not all of them. It's not a racial group. Okay, it's more of a linguistic cultural group. But if you want our audible Audible, if you want to get into a tribal racial thing, then you'll have to go to the people who are rooted in Yemen. And now in Arabia itself.
Okay. So these are the three forms of
what the Arabs actually are. And they are spread out to different parts of the world. And even the Prophet sallallahu even said, an Arab is one who speaks Arabic.
That's what an Arab really is, from his point of view. He didn't want to make it into a just a tribe,
or particular thing, now people got their passports. And they want to say I am the true Arabs, or you're not really an Arab, you're half Arab, you know, whatever.
It's really a broad based group there, I want to open up the floor for any questions anybody may have. Concerning this, these are the three types of Arabs, the Arabian Peninsula. So you have the ancient
edible barreda, the original, and then you have those who are Arab iced.
Now, as we continue looking at the Arabian Peninsula,
we recognize even the concept of the atom itself, it has something to do with wastelands and desert, barren type of land, you know, this is generally
how it is set up in terms of, you know, somebody who lives within these areas. And the Arabian Peninsula itself was unique in that it did not really have universal laws.
It was really based upon, it was a tribal society that had its laws based upon power, and organization. So there was no set of laws that the people could refer to, in terms of,
you know, where they would get their legislation from, or how they would relate to each other.
And that was generally the Arabian Peninsula. So when people of Rome, on one side, Persian on the other side, Ethiopia looked at the desert, you generally go around the desert, you generally go by the sea or by the coast, but not many people would go to the interior and go through Arabia, because it was known as a barren place
that did not really have any set rules or laws. Yemen was different. And this is important because again today, terminologies change and times change. And people would look at Saudi Arabia as being very, very rich and the Gulf rich and Yemen being very poor. You think Yemen is a very poor, but it's the opposite. Yemen was the powerful society, Yemen had skyscrapers. Yemen had international trade, and the trade that went along the coastlines, especially the trade that happened as a result of a natural SAP that would flow out of trees, this frankincense, okay, and this lubang frankincense and myrrh It was a special thing, like Canadians have maple syrup. So this SAP literally drips out
of the trees in in Oman, and you have a form of it that you can burn and the smoke clears your room. It's a nice smell and it clears the air and people and other cultures actually believe up until today that this
clears the air. I was in a store just recently.
One of the main stores here in Toronto and there was a section, and it must be there were Hindus, and they were selling frankincense and myrrh. And they said, you know, it's good for, and they start naming a number of Hindu rituals. And if you want to wash your house or get away evil spirits and negative vibrations, you burn Frankincense. So up until today, within Hindu culture, they have this concept. So the Greeks, the Romans, the Hindus, the Buddhists, many people, there's something about the smell of the Frankincense. And so what that did was, it gave them a product
that would, you know, constantly bring in revenue, because you burn it and it goes away. It's easy to store, you can carry it 1000s of miles, it's like a stone. And then there's a gummy form of lubang also, and you chew it
and it cleans your mouth. So that's the first Wrigley's chewing gum, juicy fruit. That's your first chewing gum was from there. Also, because of the Ethiopians had found, they found their sheep jumping around at middle and the goats in the middle of the night wide awake. They're eating this Berry.
And so they took the bury themselves and they, they boiled it, and it kept them awake. And
the connection between Ethiopia and Yemen was there that spread across. Okay, and that is coffee.
So that's literally where coffee comes from. So your Tim Hortons, you're actually drinking and an Arabian drink. How many Canadians know? America, when you go to New York, it says Dunkin Donuts rules. Right? How many know that the drinking this is a Muslim Arab drink. Originally, the Turks then took it and made it internationally. So
the Arabian Peninsula then
it there was a high culture in the south.
But the rest of it wasn't really so well known to the rest of the world. At that time, they considered it to be a barren wasteland. And in Yemen itself, one of the last great kings his name was doing to us. And the faith of Christianity and Judaism had spread down there and he was actually of the Jewish faith.
And
he was against, he left his idol worship and came into disbelief. But at the same time, if you study what the Quran says about magic, it said that the first quarter and first magic entered into the world. And you'll see it in certain bacara. It was in a place called Babel.
And one of the first groups that dabbled with it with the children of Israel
to the point where they accused that the Prophet so they met Ali Salaam of being a magician. But the Koran again in that chapter clears him, he was not involved in magic. But what to angels? How do tomorrow's who actually came down and taught as a test? So what many of the Jewish groups call this form of magic today? They say Kabbalah, it's the Kabbalah. So you can be a practicing
person practicing Judaism, but you can get into magic the same way. You can be a practice practicing Muslim, and then start to get into forms of
forms of magic that we have within our own communities and our own understanding. And so this king, in Yemen, in the area of Yemen, it will be more toward the western side.
He had a sorcerer. And so he would believe in God, but at the same time, you know, he took some strength from his sorcerer, and the sorcerer was getting old. So he needed to train somebody else to work in his palace. And so we found a young boy, Abdullah ibn Tamia. And he, it's a long story, but he basically sent the boy to get some training in magic and sound. And as the boy went along the road, he met a monk, Femi Yoon, is the name that many historians come there's a hadith in Sahih Muslim that actually talks about this. So he met the monk, Femi Yun on the road, and he was impressed by the belief of this monk. He was very strong Christian. There remember the Christians,
you had those that were in the Trinity? And then you had the area's followers of areas? Right? And you'll find these Christians in different parts of the world. The prophets of Salaam later on we'll find met a monk on the road. behera right, who was a Christian? So these Christians sometimes nestorians and the other believers in one God, so this family Yun, he was one of the believers in the creative, very pious.
I personally taught the boy to believe in one God. So the boy was actually not so impressed by the saucer. But he had to make the king think that he was going to the saucer. So he was living this two lives and going along and there's different rewires when rewire a Muslim,
it speaks about a huge creature that was on the road. And the boy wanted to test who was stronger the sorcerer or the Christian, the believer in one God, and so the people could not pass the road and he took a stone, he said, in the name of, you know, God, the name of the God of the of the monk, and kill the creature. And the people, you know, recognize this, the information got back to the king, he was upset.
Do you have another god, you're not worshipping My God, and you're not going to the sorcerer?
The sorcerer or the the the monk had told the boy, whatever you do, don't tell them who I am.
Okay, but
and again, it's a long story.
The boy was, was tortured, and whatnot. And finally they found out who the monk was. And the monk was also, you know, brought to the king and he was tortured. And
they wanted to do that it actually says in some of the rewires that they took the king is a little gory, by the way. They, they, they, they took the monk, and they literally put a saw on his head and said, renounce your religion, he refused. And they saw them in half. But he would not give up his faith. Also one of the courtiers who was also quite accepted Christianity, the belief in one God,
he refused to leave his belief. And they saw them in half, they came to the boy, and the things that take them to the mountain and throw them off, test them first. So he took them to the top of the mountain.
And he refused, you know, to believe in their gods to renounce his faith, but a mountain shook, and all the people fell off the mountain, and the boy came walking down again, to the king. So he said, Take him and put them to the chicken to the ocean,
put them on a boat, test him, throw them in the ocean, he doesn't renounce his faith, the boy refused to renounce his faith, the waves came through everybody off the boat, the boy was alive, he came back to the king. So finally, the boy told the king that if you want to take my life, there's one way you can do it.
Get all your people out on the field, tie me to you know a tree, take my bow, shoot this arrow, which has the you know the name of God on it, say in the name of of the God of the boy. And then let everybody see this. And then you can take my life. So the king was really glad he brought everybody out there said this statement, the name of the God of the boy. So this is clearly saying a law like the Creator, he shot it, the boy died and everybody accepted Christianity,
the opposite of what the king wanted. So the king was really upset because of this. And
he, he dug a ditch.
And he literally
took the people to the ditch some of them he killed with the sword, others he tortured to death. And others, he literally built a huge fire in the ditch. And he threw them in the ditch. And this Hadith, which is in Sahih Muslim comes as the suburban does all the reason for the revealing of cirtl. Budaj. And this is chapter 85. And you'll see right in the beginning was somehow either to broach oyamel, merrowed, or shahidullah, mature kotula, as hobbled.
So it says that, you know, with the sky and zodiacs and the promise day,
the people of the trench were killed. And it goes on to speak about how they sat by the trench. And
their lives were taken only because they believed that a lot. So you can go back and read, sir to bluej this is your background for the chapter. And it is said on the Hadith, that they were so strong in their faith that a woman came with a young baby and she stepped back because she had a baby, there's a fire and the baby said go forward.
Right believe and you know, it's alright. And then she and then they they went they went into the into the fire. And so this was a terrible slaughter. Some accounts say it was about 20,000 Christians were killed by this dude knew us. And because of this, the word got out to the Romans. Now remember, the Byzantine Romans remember your setup in the world, the Byzantine Romans.
They saw themselves as the custodians of Christianity.
So the Emperor
called Justinian. He's a famous Byzantine Roman Emperor. He sent word up denials, because they knew that the teachings of Christianity had gone up the Nile from Egypt, into the Sudan, and all the way up into alaba. So they sent their emissary, and they said, We are giving you the responsibility to take revenge. 20,000 of our people have died. So we want you to send one of your irresistible armies. It was known to the Romans, how powerful the army of the ex Semites was. And so they aksumite sent their general his name was out yet
and isn't. And his order was to kill one third of the men lay waste to one third of the country, and seize one third of the women and children.
And he carried it out and done to us, rode his horse into the ocean. And he was never seen again.
And out yet himself, there was a conspiracy within his ranks. And his assistant abraha
took over the power of the of the Ethiopian army through deception. abraha was a hungry person hungry for power. And he established in Yemen, a place called El police. And the police was a type of Cathedral. It was like a it was something to rival the Kaaba. Because remember the Cobra that was built by Ibrahim alayhis salam, originally for the belief in one God, and we'll talk about what happened to it. But that was known as a religious center. And so abre hadn't built the police to rival
the caliber itself. And
it is said that some of the Arabs, they defiled.
They defile this destruction and put filth inside of the structure. And with that Abrahamic the intention to attack to attack the Kaaba, okay. And he literally set out
from the southern part from Yemen, heading north. And it's interesting because the Saudis actually in their Museum, they actually found some of the writings of abraha on the side of a mountain. It's in, it's in the Ethiopian language geese, which is their Semitic writing. In the east. It's the writing of abraha, who was going south north, heading toward Mecca, in order to get revenge. And
it's interesting because
as he moves along, the word is going to Mecca.
And the Arabs at that time, they were good merchants and traders, they had no major army, they had no way to defend themselves. And when they finally reached
at the outskirts of Mecca, Abdulmutallab, part of the Hashemite Banu Hashim, who will be speaking about our grandfather, the province so seldom, you know, he came out to do negotiations. And abraha basically said, submit,
submit with you because he had an irresistible force yet elephants. This is like you're surrounded by tanks. So he said submit to us. And upto motala basically said, his famous word, he said, I am the Lord of candles. But this house has a load and that load will protect. Okay, these are his famous words, and the Arabs went up into the mountains.
And by the power of Allah subhanaw taala. Some reports say that when the elephants now getting close to Mecca, when they face them toward the Kaaba, they sat down,
they wouldn't go any further. If they face them south, they'll start walking. If they face them in any direction by going toward the Kaaba,
they will walk. And then
birds came. And again, this is the suburban the zoo of the 100 and fifth chapter, circle feel. Right, and this is where a tire on abiel taught me him be. Hey, Jonathan Mensa Gil. So these birds carrying baked clay
at high altitudes. And again, if you have a small object, and you take it to a high altitude and drop it down, it gains weight. And by the time it hits, it can be it's like a bomb. So they literally bomb the army of abraha. And that is said a virus and a pestilence also spread out spread amongst his ranks, and they headed south and his army was totally decimated
and
When the remnants of the Ethiopian army reached Yemen, they didn't have much power at all. And it is reported that one of the homies, his name was safe Lu, he has an lm Yachty.
He was one of the Yemeni people leaders. He went to Persia.
And he negotiated with the kisser, who is the who was the emperor of the Persian Empire.
I remember how that map was set up, and it said the Persian had Yemen, right. He negotiated with the kisara. And the kisser then sent his army. And he totally defeated what was left of the of the Amazonian army.
And the Persians took over Yemen, and they ruled it for approximately 72 years. They ruled Yemen.
So in their thinking, as part of the Persian sassanid dynasty, and this is the final dynasty, before Islam came, they see Yemen as part of their dynasty.
And that, and that is part of the reason why many of the Arabs on the Arabian Peninsula very defensive now, in terms of Iranian intervention, in the war, you have, there's all kinds of factors in this. But this is something that the average people don't know,
had actually gone on. And it's interesting, because this history is the background for the court and itself. So when we are reading spiritual Budaj, when we are reading sorts of field, it's not just a nice chapter with nice rhythm to it.
If we understand the meaning of it, you are actually getting a deep historical narrative about what happened in the Arabian Peninsula. And this is important information that literally sets the stage for what is happening in the world today. And so
the attack on the Kaaba,
the the the, you know, events that are going on, it sets a major stage for what is about to happen, this is a traumatic event, a major trauma going on in the whole region. And it's important to understand that the people in the region itself,
their culture, although it was not known to the world, there is something to the culture that we need to know.
But this year, when it happened, this is called armelle field. So this is the year of the elephants, it would be 570. AD, and that is the year when the prophets of Salaam was born. So he was born in a humble field, it was a major event. It's like they say, September 11, right, or, you know, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. That's what it is for, you know, North Americans, you know, whatever it is different big events that happen in the world. So this is like a major event that everybody remembers, in the whole region, it was
the year of the elephants. And that is very important to understand. But to understand the people who lived in that region, we need to step back for a moment and just look at their culture. You know, it is not a lot of information
that's available for us because they basically had an oral culture. So it comes through oral traditions, poetry,
a few things written down. But but it's not, you know, a lot of information that we can really get a lot of details, but we do recognize the fact that it was Ibrahim alayhis salam and his family who built the Kaaba in Mecca. That region was a desolate region. It had a well the well of Zamzam.
Some of the travels knew about the well and they would stop it when Ebola Ebola Islam settled around and the Kaaba was built, it became literally a center of movement. So as you're going from South north, you would naturally pass by there to refresh yourself and to meet other people. So it became like a very important center. And that was known as Becca which eventually turned into Mac.
But the problem that developed is that although it was originally set for the belief in one God,
it turned the Arabs eventually went back into idol worship. And this is a weakness that people have when they start to forget about the creator of the universe of the creation and they start to give power to the creation itself. Okay. And this is very important because we are still plagued by this type of of activities where people put a lot of emphasis
On stones and on physical things, the Baraka, like the blessings that are in the stones. And what they would do at that time is that they would make a type of pilgrimage to the Kaaba from all around the Arabian Peninsula. And they would take back a stone, bring it to the village, they believe that they were actually bringing a type of Baraka or blessing. And they would literally set it in a place, and eventually an idol would be set up. And this was the basis of idol worship around the Arabian Peninsula. And you find that
based upon that, there was an idol. They set up an idol, you know, from Syria itself, by the well in the middle of the Kaaba. And this was a soft and Nagila, so they were switching idols back and forth. Allah Rosa was in a place called nakhla. This is outside of Mecca. Of that, right, one of their famous Gods was in tarrif, tarrifs high in the mountain in the south, right manette was worshipped by the house and the hustle lodge in yathrib, which was Medina. So they had manette. Yahoo's was injured rush, yo was in Hamden and NASA, this is in Yemen, and him er country. So they had the so called Gods called yoke and and and
yahoos. So they would seek blessings from the idols touching it. And then they would go back to the Kaaba to renew their blessing. So that was the type of jaha Lee they use the word jaha. Leah, meaning ignorance is the type of giant leap pilgrimage that they would literally make. And that's the reason why you'll find in some of the traditions, there are people who are making a type of O'Meara and a type of pilgrimage, they didn't have the same pilgrimage season like us. But they would go, they would literally go, they didn't have the rules like us, they would go around the Kaaba, sometimes roll clothes on. So they had a completely different concept of what they were
doing, they're going for their idols,
until it reached the point where in the cover itself, there was about 360 idols.
So he literally had idols for every day
of the lunar calendar.
But one of the important aspects that we need to recognize,
cannot look at all the negative points of Arabian society. And that is that they actually had good qualities as well. They had self devotion.
They would, you know, they worshipped seriously through their frustrations, and some of them really believed in their idols. It's not a strong belief, but it's something that people
fall into in many parts of the world and many idol worship is if you ask them, Do you worship? Do they say no, it's an intercessor to God.
So the concept of Allah was there amongst the Arabs. And this is an important point to know because there was an orientalist named Robert Morley, who, in the 80s, and 90s, was putting out booklets against Islam. And he said that Muslims worship a moon God.
And they say it's a lot. If you think of the Arabic a lot is written, and alat becomes a law.
So it was a moon God, that's where a lot comes from. But what the the rebuttal to Robert Morley is, at the time when a lot was worshipped. Allah was also worshipped, because Allah was already known from the cover itself. So it was not an evolution from one end to another. What they would do is they would do what we call shark. And that is, you go through one source to the major source. So it's setting up pot is not atheism. They believe in the Creator, but they believe that you should go through earthly sources in order to get to the Creator. And so they would perform pilgrimages.
They would make sacrifices.
They had special animals, special food and drink.
They believe very much unfortunately.
They're very superstitious. So if you're going on a journey, and you see a certain bird fly across, then you would it's a good journey. But if you hear an owl making its hoot, then you turn back. So there's certain birds that would give them good luck and bad luck. And we Muslims have inherited some of this and carry it even in our cultures up until today. In some Muslim countries, I don't want to say which one it is to get
bother people. But in one country, if if a rooster in the morning phases your house, and then crows, Rooster, then somebody is going to die in the house.
So there's beliefs like this in birds, okay, and different animals. And that's in most of the cultures of the world. And the Arabs were very much into that. And they were also very much into
gambling, and intoxication.
So all of these factors and costs when you're drinking, adultery comes with that murder, all types of things, you know, come from the drinking of alcohol. But what they did have, which was to their favor, is that, and this is one of the greatest qualities it has caught them, it is hospitality.
And they were famous for hospitality. And you can really, you can understand that too. Because if you're living in a desert area,
and somebody comes along, that person really needs help. And so the greatest thing you can do is to give that person water, right to show them hospitality. And they survived by that, because otherwise, you're not going to survive. I remember I was in Norway, and the north of north of Oslo, when it becomes really, really cold in Norway, there's a rule, if you are driving on the road, and the temperature is above like minus 30, or whatever it is, they have a certain point, if you see somebody on the side of the road, you have to stop.
You cannot allow that person.
If you do, and they and they catch you, they can take you to jail, because that person is going to die shortly when the temperature reaches a certain level. And so that's their lifestyle, they don't care who you are, they'll stop and they'll let you in,
drive you to the hospital. So the Arabs living in having this empty quarter in this huge desert, that they had to cross constantly, in order to get to the coastlines column was a very important part in within their poetry, which they love so much. That was one of the qualities, one of the greatest qualities that a person could have. And that is to be
very kind, you know, very generous. And they also believe in in keeping a promise.
If you are a trustworthy person,
they would respect you.
And that's why they would call the Prophet Muhammad SAW before as prophet. I mean, because they knew that he was he would keep his promises. And it's a very important quality amongst them. And, you know, they had a strong sense of honor. And the owner was normally based upon their tribe, but they're very much into their honor and their dignity of their family, they would literally die for the dignity of their families. And so these are with very strong qualities that they had, and because of the desert life, that they had to struggle with, they had a they had patience, you know, in that really hot climate and traveling, so they had a lot of forbearance and patience, and that
was considered to be a great quality. Also, obviously, the difficulties courage shujaa. Courage is considered to be, you know, one of the qualities that you find in their poetry also, when they speak about people who are very strong and courageous, and their life was,
it was a simple life. But in a sense, it had purity to it. Because there wasn't a lot of contraptions around and a lot of things, it was very much the sky and the earth and like that. So there was a type of purity about them, although they had been corrupted in other ways. And this may be why Allah subhanaw taala chose them. Again, we don't know why. But that may be why Allah chose because they could you could get the message to them fast. If somebody has a complicated culture,
and they have all layers within their family and society, and their understanding of the world, it takes a while to get to them.
But for this culture was simple enough that you could you could touch a person's heart, you could say something to them read something to them in their language, and they would literally be influenced by this. Okay. And
this gave them a very strong advantage linguistically, in their poetry, and also in some of the concepts that they had in dealing with people, they know how to read people. And again, these are all factors in the success of the revelation. Because we need to understand how this revelation was so successful. How within a 23 year period, the whole of the Arabian Peninsula now basically comes under Islam. This is impossible tasks before no armies
No culture has ever done anything like this in the Arabian Peninsula. So these are all the factors in the jahi period. This is sort of your stage which is set
for the coming of the revelation. And inshallah next week, we want to begin to look at the Prophet Muhammad SAW Salam himself, his lineage where he came from, and then to understand how he fits into this society,
which had extreme, so many extremes.
But yet, we're surrounded by superpowers, like we are surrounded today. So I want to open up the floor for any general questions that anybody has concerning anything.
Unfortunately, when they have, it's destroying families, I mean,
I have personally seen back home and that, you know, I mean, the family is broken, but there was putting money into into into the shrine, or they would go to the shrine on a special occasion. It's almost become like a special.
Yeah, well, you know, the question is concerning adultery and different practices and how it's affecting people today, you can say, to a certain extent that every culture has Jamelia.
Everybody has negative qualities within their culture. And people are really closer, you know, more similar than what we actually think. And there's a weakness in human beings, you know, to worship creative things, as opposed to the Creator. And also to follow the physical desires. Because we have physical desires, our need to survive, is considered to be one of the greatest drives that a human being has. So when we're fulfilling this need to survive, right, and, and then fear that comes in. This is where you'll find in many parts of the world, that people revert to idol worship. Very quickly, you see the time of Musa alayhis, salam, he was up on the mountain, you know, visiting his
Lord, you know, they had, you know, already gotten, you know, word of the revelation. By time he came down, they had a built an idol.
He couldn't even come off the mountain. And he's a prophet. And they were already worshipping an idol. So that's the weakness in human beings. Okay, and
this is why, when a culture is very straightforward, and very clear and has courage to it, there's certain qualities about the Arabian Peninsula really need to stay, we're going to be looking at these qualities, and how Allah subhanaw taala chose this personality, you know, and this area of the world, if you think about the Arab hos, for instance, the Arabian steed is one of the best horses in the world. Even people who gamble on horses and races, they look, they see how much Arabian blood is in that horse.
Because the Arabian horse, compared to other horses, it's courageous. And it's powerful. It has patience. And it moves fast. It's like, when you see the European horse, the big giant, you know, horses there, and then the Arab is like a, you know, a Lamborghini running around a Ford pickup truck.
You know, it's like, they could travel long distances, and the horse doesn't need a lot of water and, and then the camel Of course, which is great creation of Allah subhanaw taala. So Allah chose these people, and chose this environment,
in order that the message would move out rapidly to all of humanity, because remember, the code n is not only for the Arabs. So therefore, there's got to be a way for it to get out of the Arabian Peninsula, cross the cultural barriers of the world. And so this is what we understand with our physical theater.
We now have more understanding how Islam spread around the world.
Right, it gives us a better understanding of the historical reality. Now floor is open for any other general questions anybody may have?
Yes, they were to a certain extent, because if we look at Arabia, again, it tends to be on the coastal areas. The center, especially by the empty quarter,
is not so many people. I mean, this pot that's called niched, really there was a huge Valley why the Hanif is a huge Valley, and there's a lot of
Agriculture actually in the area called niched,
but
it depends upon where they were. So the people who are living close to Iraq, they were influenced by Persian culture and the culture of the Mesopotamia, the people who are living in Yemen,
they were influenced by Ethiopia, abijah,
you know, the Red Sea, and that part of the world, the people who are living in Syria, and there's different tribes that can bend over sand, and assignments, they were living in the north by Syria and Jordan. So they were influenced very much by the Roman Christian tech culture.
So it did have an impact on even Egyptian culture had an impact to a certain extent, but because of the vastness of the land, and because of the lack of universal laws,
they didn't really solidify anything, as you'd see in other parts of the world. And that maybe was to their advantage, and being able to accept the message of Islam. Because some people today, up until today, who have accepted Islam, they still maintain some of their practices from their own religion. And that's the problem we get into when we analyze our cultures. And we look for shirk, polytheism, you see much of the polytheism is ancient practices. People used to worship trees, they used to worship sites, they used to worship the sun god, right. So somehow they put it into Islam. So they give it an Arabic name. Right, that's the jahi culture, right, and so on. But in the Arabian
Peninsula,
it wasn't advantages that they didn't have a complicated culture. Because then they were able to
make a transition of fast transition.
And then when they travel to different parts of the world, they absorb other cultures.
So literally, we're going to see as Islam spreads, it absorbs Roman culture, Persian culture, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Chinese, it absorbs.
So the Arabs had that ability. Their language, Arabic uses more parts of the mouth, than maybe any other language on Earth.
So if you can speak Arabic, you can learn to speak other languages fast. Because your your throats already open.
If you speak English in America or Canada, you are, you're crippled.
You have problem with languages because you're not used using the front of your mouth.
Right? But Arabs are using everything.
So they go and they intermarried. They learn other languages, become part of the culture fast.
This is all the will of Allah subhanaw taala.
Now, the other general questions anybody has? Yes.
It's like a big business.
Finding.
That's right. I mean, you find?
Yeah.
Very strange things you find, you know, I mean, when I was living in South Africa, the Muslims were cape Malays. And they had this practice called cutting the rumpus cutting the rupees happens in the spring season. And then they would cut these citrus fruits and whatnot. And they would make nice some type of bouquets and the men would wear wear it, you know, and then they cut these rubies, and you know, whatever. When we studied the rubies, it's a Buddhist tradition.
It's some Buddhism that they brought with them, incorporated into Islam, and then made it an Islamic practice, not knowing where it came from.
So so there's a lot of things that we have, that's the study of tawheed and shirk, where you have to go into your culture, and filter out the bad aspects of it, maintain your culture, but just take out the parts that lead you into idol worship and shark. So Alhamdulillah
we open Sharla, to be able to continue. And next week, we want to look at the lineage of the Prophet so seldom, and begin to see his early life and how he fits into this scenario that we have set up and think about this scenario. When you look at the news, and you see, you know, Saudi Arabia fighting Yemen and Iran, fighting Saudis and this one that one. Now, when you start to now, understand this, you can see some of the rivalries that are there from the past 10 you can also see some of the major mistakes and insanities are that Muslims you know, in some extreme parts are actually into this
gives more clarity. And we hope in Sharla to continue with our fitness center. So I'll leave you with these thoughts.
One more question you have.
That's right. And this is what Muslims need. We need to study this. We need to know our background, to know where we're going. Right? It's very important. You're not to leave this. People look at Sierra as just a nice fairy tale that you tell your children at night or whatever on a special occasion. You read the things you know. Now this is like information that's going to help us figure out what's happening today. So I leave you with these thoughts of a safe journey home are Salaam Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.