New Muslim Corner – Foundations Of Faith

Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu lillahi rabbil aalameen What will Sabi rules hold them on a sail over the will Arkadin in the Vienna Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa.

I'll praise the due to Allah, Lord of the worlds and peace and blessings be constantly showered upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, the master of the first and last, and upon his family as companions, and all those who call to his way and establish his sunnah to the Day of Judgment.

As to what follows hamdulillah It's another beautiful day of Juma and an opportunity for us to gather together in the new Muslim corner.

And the intention of the class is to provide some solid information for those who have recently embraced Islam. And for those who are reviving their faith following this, there will be a question and answer session.

And then there would be a chance for the people who actually attend live, to socialize and to meet together. And so this is what we're calling a corner at this point in time. And we hope Inshallah, that we can expand the class itself in terms of the general knowledge that is being given to the students, and also the socialization part to be available to those who are embracing Islam and may not be getting the family, the the communal feeling, because Islam is a Jamar. It is a group. It is not really based on individualism. So it's important for somebody who embraces Islam,

to have a way to come into the community. And that historically has been something that was natural because people would generally be moving into a Muslim area. And when they moved into the Muslim area, they would be surrounded by Muslims, or at least the majority would be Muslims, and then they naturally integrate into society. We, however, are living in a non Muslim world. And we're a minority here. And so

Therefore, what is surrounding us on the outside is in many cases, an Islamic. And when we come together, we can practice as much Islam as we possibly can.

So that makes it difficult for those who are embracing.

Route is a time when people start to let it hang out, as they say, it's the beginning of the weekend.

And then Saturday comes and then Sunday in Toronto on the news they're talking about this weekend is going to be a massive party. Because this is the weekend of caribou carnival.

And so what we'll be marching in the streets and around in society is probably the opposite of what we recognize, should be the relationships between male and female. So therefore, that social part is important to be able to come together, you know, and not be thinking about material things, when we are dealing with each other. And so, we are following along in the spirit of the Great North African scholar,

CD up to a man and daddy who said that when a person accepts Islam, that they should first

they should still authenticate their faith, correct, and authenticate their faith.

And that was a very important statement, because it meant that

the person whoever they are, whether they originally were Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, African, traditional religion,

Chinese ancestor worship, whatever it is, they have a religion,

they have a way of life, they have a concept of the Creator, they have a concept of death and birth. And so they bring it into Islam.

See, the abdomen is saying, correct it, to make sure that what it is, is in line with Revelation, because we want to be in line with the message given to all of the prophets. And we want to be aligned with what pleases the Creator. And he said, authenticate. And that's important because when a person is embracing Islam, they are coming into a community of Muslims, that is now over 3 billion strong,

and

to billions strong. And the with the breadth and width of our community is is amazing. But with that difference in cultures that we have, we're also bringing in our thoughts, we're bringing in the way we related to each other in our home countries. So therefore authenticate would mean that the new Muslim, or the person who wants to revive their faith needs to now look at the practices that they are doing, the practices, their family is involved in the practice, is that their community involvement, is this authentic Islam? Or is it not? If it's not authentic Islam, then we have to avoid this and try to get as close as possible to what Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him and the

first generations practice that way. We're safe. There are certain aspects of course, which are a little bit gray.

We're not exactly sure. But one of the famous sayings of the Prophet peace be upon him. It's a very short saying because he had this ability to say a lot with a few words. He said, dogma you rebook Illa LA, you rework. He said, Leave what is doubtful for that which has no doubt. So whenever you're in a situation, where it seems doubtful, that it's safer and better, to leave the doubtful things, and to hang on to what is sure. And the world today is filled with doubt. There are people who are professionals, they specialize in creating doubt.

They specialize in creating a type of alternative universe and pumping it into our heads.

And Muslims are involved as well. We are caught up in what they would call the matrix. We are caught up in the false construct and we bring our own little matrix along with us from our societies. So what we are doing is stripping off the culture

and giving the basic Islam based upon what came to us in the message. And we found out that the crucial quality of a Muslim is Tawheed. That is the oneness of God. That is the most important quality that a Muslim can be described with more important than the food than the name,

the clothing, the color of the skin.

All of these are superficial things. But the real essence of the individual is right in the Shahada. And that is La Ilaha illa Allah, that there is nothing worthy of worship except Allah.

And then to implement this, Muhammad Rasul Allah, that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and by doing by having this, but going on the straight path, and so we understood that Tawheed that concept of the Creator and looking at the Creator as being the Lord and sustainer of the universe, and also unique in His names and descriptions. As the Quran says, laser committee, he che, there is nothing similar to Allah, or who is Sunil Basia. But Allah is the one who hears all things, and he sees all things. So in this, Allah is saying, nothing similar to me. But I hear and I see. So does that mean that he has a big ear? Or he has an eye? No, because there's nothing similar to Allah.

But we accept the fact that this ability to hear in this world itself, that Allah azza wa jal has this ability in infinite ways.

How he doesn't, we don't know the K figure. We don't know how he does it. So Allah sees, but he doesn't have an eye,

or something that we can look at or visualize materially, he he is, but he doesn't have ears, doesn't have hearing devices, that we could visualize laser commit Lishi there's nothing similar to Allah.

We also recognize that Allah is one in divinity. Allah is the only Divine Being he was there in the beginning of the universe, when there was nothing, and he said, can fire couldn't be at its, and then everything came.

So he is the divine being.

And he is also unique in the fact that because of the Divinity, he is the only one who deserves our A badda submission

is only one that deserves to be worshipped. And that is unique. And is that part of Tawheed that caused a confrontation with the prophets, when they brought it to their people.

At first, people would say, okay, yes, there's a great spirit. And yes, he has

divine qualities. But we worship the tree. We worship the river, we worship the sun, we worship other other things other than Allah. Then the Prophet said, No, only Allah deserves worship, and then there was a reaction.

And so that tau he does a badass, so to speak. That unity in worship

is a crucial part of our Tawheed.

It is a crucial part of our monotheism. And we want to look at that in details, to see the different aspects of our reverence, our worship,

our rituals, to make sure that we're in line with the last message. And so we found out that the opposite of Tawheed is shirk. And that is polytheism.

To associate partners with Allah and the Arabs. Nowadays, the modern Arabs use the same route they say for a company. That's a group of people in the company, because you have the president, vice president, treasurer, members of the board, sciatica. So it's a sciatica because it's like a partnership between people. We say no, there is no shortcut here. There is no partnership here. And making a partnership is the worst possible sin that a person can commit to

person commits to sin well the other biller

in this life if he or she asked for forgiveness, that Allah said he forgives all sins, but after death, shirk is the only unforgivable sin.

And so it is critical for us to try to maintain that oneness and also maintain instead of far and that is asking Allah to forgive us for the mistakes that we have made.

And so, shirk is that unforgivable sin after death, but before death, anything is possible, anything is forgivable. And that is the beauty that we found out when we became Muslim.

Sherk itself is divided into many sections, there is a shark on us, which is the minor form of shirk. And that is Adria. So that is like showing off in religious actions.

To try to please other people, other things, and Allah. See, so it's a type of shirk. So you please and people trying to please Allah. So you want to have the name Haji. For land for land, you build the masjid or you spent all this money. So you want your name, to be placed on a flag, or to be placed over the door is like showing off right? So when you're showing off with your worship, and that giving,

that charity is a form of worship with the right intention.

That's a form of shirk. And that's a dangerous one too. And the Prophet SAW Selim said that he feared this minor form of shirk more than anything else. And he said it would creep into this nation, like a dark ad, a black ad creeps into a dark room in the darkest night.

undetectable, it would creep in,

people starting to do things to show off because they want a name, because they want to have position instead of doing what they do for the Creator.

That is the minor form of shirk, the major forms of shirk we have been looking at, and that took us in a number of areas. But I want to stress because there's an international form of worship. sun worship used to be a powerful form of worship, people literally bowing down to the sun, and giving the sun different names. But that, to a certain extent, has phased out directly. And there are other forms that are very popular in the world, one of them is ancestor worship. And ancestor worship is to give reverence to human beings, to individuals, pious individuals, or somebody who you designate as an important person, that you give special reverence to that person. And so when the person dies,

an ancestor worship, what they do with with their ancestors is to try to make a connection between the living and the dead.

So the connection is made in order to gain the benefit. Because in this form of worship, the Dead has gone over into the next world, they're closer to Allah. So if you connect with them, they can connect with Allah. So that's a form of shirk, also, right. That's a form of shirk. You always have to remember, if we're not praying directly to Allah,

if we don't have reverence directly to the creator, you have to watch out.

And that ancestor worship takes many forms. There is the International forms like we found in China, where ancestor worship is a major thing, people worshiping those and trying to connect with the dead in southern Africa, it is major as well, ancestor worship. And we found out that the ritual before any program or any worship libations and that is pouring liquid, usually alcohol, pouring this for the dead, the dead spirits libations. You see, and you'll see this in many ways. It's crept into a lot of cultures they even have in European culture, American culture. They will take the alcohol, right and then they'll touch classes and they'll drink it for the Dead

Sea. You drink for the dead, the other libations pour it on the ground.

For the dead, okay, so this is a for originally was people who were trying to benefit those on the other side in order to gain benefit themselves.

Okay, so the connection with those who have gone over,

this became rampant in the Muslim world, when the centers of knowledge,

were distant from the peripheries, where Islam had spread,

Islam spread high into the mountains of Central Asia, and Russia, Far East, all the way into China.

Deep South, into, into Africa,

West, going west, is all over the world. So this peripheries, where people are Muslim, in name. But a lot of their practices are similar to what they used to do, but they take they use Arabic names for it. So they integrate it into their practice. And after a couple generations, the people don't know. So they think that's Islamic. That is what you are supposed to do.

And so that reverence took a number of forms. And we can look at the different folk traditions within our cultures. And we can find versions of this,

whatever it is, not only just praying to the dead, so if there was a so called Saint who is buried in a certain place, they go to the grave, and they pray to the grave that the saint can give them benefit or protect them from evil

debts they can the baraka of the chef, there's thinking blessings,

from being around that person. And that could even mean touching. It could mean so many different things. And I recall

a story. He was actually on a film that we found in one of the libraries here in Toronto. And it was dealing with

a family

in it was under Sudan, I'll say the country. So it was a family in the Sudan.

And their son became very sick

with malaria.

And there was a local zawa there was a local building, or temple, or a tomb, force a saint. And people used to go there to get Baraka. So the family when he's burning up his temperature, they said, Take him, take him to the to the to the tomb. Let him go there if you want to cure it.

But then other people said, No,

but those who worshipped the dead, overcame the other ones. So they went to the tomb. And people were going around the tomb, they were literally circumambulating the tomb just like you go around the Kaaba. They were going around the tomb.

And

this was strange, to see people making toe off, literally. And there was the Shaq was there, there wasn't not the point that was dead. There was the local one who took care of the two, very intelligent person, by the way. So the family came in with the sick person. And they started to make tawaf. They started to go around, and they're dragging this person, malaria is terrible disease. Okay, I traveled to Nigeria, to do field work. And I got malaria. So I know what it feels like. It's something really, you feel like a mountain is literally on your back. And so they went around

this tomb, and they came to the shackle was there.

And they said, you know, our son, father, brothers. So they said that

our son

is sick with malaria.

He's in serious situation.

And so the shack looked at him and he was very sick.

And they had gone around the tomb and they rubbed it, to try to get blessings and then the sheikh, you know, he's smart, because he's hands is covered with cloth. So we wouldn't let anybody kiss his hand they kiss the cloth, you know, and that he said, Fatiha, you know, and he made a DUA, and then he wrote something on the paper and he gave them to paper.

And so they said, Oh, hamdulillah our son is cured. But let's read the paper. So they read the paper. And the paper said,

go to the

nearest this hospital here on this side of town and see this person. So they said, Okay, this is a secret information. So they went to the hospital. And when the doctor got the paper, he said, Alhamdulillah, these checks are really progressive. Because, you know, the shack is saying, This man has got malaria, like give him a needle, right, give him quinine they were using at the time. So even he knew that it was ridiculous for them to go to the grave of the so called Saint to get the blessing. It was ridiculous to do that.

And, you know, there's physical cure,

you know, for malaria. And he was intelligent enough to send them to the hospital.

And that is but but what it was was it that's what they call Baraka.

So seeking Baraka, and you will see this, and this is a shock for many new Muslims, and people reviving their Islam, you're reading about the Sahaba, and whatnot. And then you go to a certain part of the world. And the people are like rubbing the buildings. And they're doing strange things around the Masjid. Or usually it's a grave attached to a masjid.

Okay, and this, I found was rampant in the Muslim world.

And this is a form of shirk. So if this is an unforgivable sin, if this is something, which is taking people off the path,

that it's serious.

And so

this is as CDM, Dr. Mann said, that when you come into the faith, you need to correct and authenticate your faith. authenticate yourself. Don't think that everything your parents have told you is Islamic. Most of it probably is, if you come from a Muslim family, but there are some things that's not. And you can think about some traditions. Some of them are, you know, not that they're harmless things. They're not major things. But you don't necessarily have to do it. I remember being in the masjid before this and the Jami mosque.

Times have changed. And but but people used to do the Crohn's were on the shelves by the window. So the crowns are like there. So whenever somebody would get it, get a Koran and walk by it. Whenever, you know, he would, you know, when he came in and took off his shoes.

Right, he would walk with his shoes on the ground, below the Koran,

because he felt he could not put his shoes above the curb.

Now, that is not necessary. It's not harmful either.

But it shows you so many cultural things that people do. And we have to be aware of it because some of these cultural traditions can be harmful to our faith. And the new Muslim needs to be aware of this sort of seeking blessings or intercession. That means you're seeking for that person who has died before, to intercede with Allah. To seek that is a form of shirk.

Even if it means that you're seeking it from the Prophet Muhammad, Salah salah, that we have a way of doing that we pray that Allah, Allah will give him the word sila, and for the law, we say this every time the alarm goes off, Allah give him the great intercession, give him that ability to represent us.

But for everyday affairs, people take it too far.

And when I was living in Medina,

they used to come to the grave. This is an Prophet's mosque, and there's a cage there and they would come inside and they would throw paper inside there and cut off their hair and put it in their fingernails or, you know, whatever it is, put money inside, whatever. And that at the end of the day because we were studying their students, then the Bedouin guy who's there working, he's got to sweep up all this stuff. So he sweeps it up, and are looking at some of the papers. In some cases, they were throwing the paper into the cage.

And asking the Prophet SAW Selim, saying or messenger of Allah, you know, I owe, you know, $10,000 or 100,000 rupees, you know, you know, help me pay this. So, you're literally asking him for things in the paper, right?

So that's ignorance. It's ignorance and you can actually do a form of shirk, with the Prophet peace be upon

and that was so important to the messenger Allah He salatu salam, that when he was on his deathbed, and it's reported that he was very

sick with a high fever. And he was on his deathbed and he throw the covers off.

And you say don't do to me what the Christians and Jews have done. Do not do this

than that Allah Allah Who do you want Asara? Atacado Cobra and big hand massage. So he would, he said, for the things that he said his last words, the curse of Allah is on the Christians and the Jews who took the graves of their prophets to be houses of worship. Because he's saying

it's a curse of Allah is upon them. Because the graves of these prophets have now become houses of worship, to shirk, even though their prophets, you see, it's wrong.

And so this is really important to know. And to keep it in mind in case you run into it. And I boohoo that already, Allah one reports at the promised Salam said, when a person when man dies or a person dies is good deeds come to an end.

There's three things it's left.

Charity sadhaka, turn giardia. The only thing left for you in this world is continuing your charity that's continuing, like you will give you will give money toward an orphanage or you build a masjid with your money and it keeps getting benefit. And the second is ilunion. Tough RB and that is knowledge that is beneficial to the people.

And the third is righteous offspring who pray for him. Well done solid. Yeah, the ruler,

a righteous offspring. That's what's left. Okay, all the other things in this world is not going to benefit you. Okay, also, What's critical is every, every time we read the Quran, because somebody's Okay, what's your proof? Why can I pray to these people? They're great people. Why not?

And you hear people calling out especially in the case of famous scholars like Sheikh Abdul Qadir, J lady, who was a scholar of Islam in Baghdad, but you'll see people calling out to him saying Ya Abdulkadir.

You know, and asking Him

to forgive them.

And I ran across this.

In travels. This was in what is called, you know, the Molad is the birthday of the Prophet SAW Salem. We happen to be in China at the time I was in Hong Kong. And so there was an Arab brother from Jordan, who was there, the people were reading from these books, in Arabic. And so they were reading, and they came across a sentence. And both of us jumped in shock when they said this thing in Arabic, because what they were doing is that they were praising the Prophet, peace be upon him. Then they said Yara, Sula, Allah, or messenger of Allah. And they called him to Webb. The One Who accepts repentance of Afar, the one who forgives, they were calling him the names of Allah.

And they didn't know because 90% of them I believe, didn't speak Arabic. But just reading it, maybe not realizing that this shirt consigned them. Okay, so even with the Prophet SAW Salem, they can be forms of politics. So it's something dangerous, that we need to be aware of. Okay, and especially visiting the graves. Now, before I open up the floor for questions.

And just to review, you know, for those who may have been in the class before, it's so important, and that is, can you visit grapes?

Can you go to the grave of famous people? Like when you go to Turkey, yeah. Istanbul, for instance, most visits to Turkey begins with a journey to Abu Bakr Ansari

Read the last one. He's one of the great companions of the Prophet SAW Selim, who died on near the walls of Constantinople. He died in this area.

Okay. And so

they built a masjid there. And there's an area where they believe he was buried, and they built sort of tomb.

And so people will go to the tomb.

And there was a scholar who came from Saudi Arabia, and he was visiting there. Saudis generally tend to be pretty strict when it comes to these type of things. So they said to him,

What are you doing here?

Like, why are you visiting his grave? Okay, if you're supposed to be against shirk, and he said, What I'm doing is the outer shadow here, I'm doing a legal visit to his grave. Okay, so you can visit the graves of people al popia. When you go to Medina, you'll see the graves of

the sahaba. And you go to many parts of the Muslim world and you see graves of that is what do you do, you visit the graves to remember the Hereafter.

And even if it's your own family, you visit it to remember the Hereafter.

And you make a prayer for the deceased, not to them, see the difference in the two. So you're praying for the person, and you're not praying to them.

And you don't walk on top of graves. So we don't walk on top of graves.

Okay, and when you make your prayer, you face Puebla, you face Mecca, so if the grave is there, you don't face the grave and make dua because then you're sort of like making toward the person, you make it to the Qibla

that would be as the other shot here.

So it is more like a historical thing. And to remember the hereafter and to make dua for those who have passed away. Okay, I want to open up the floor for any questions anybody has on this because this is very important area. Before we go on, I want to stress this area, because it's something you've got to run across as we go on. So the floor is open for any questions anybody may have

about this area floor is open. It's not a lecture, right? Based on like, it's not a lecture, but you know the floor is open if you have any questions, any thoughts

significant

to the Medina and pray to her out there like what is that based on? Yeah. So,

there is the way the profit and profits Moss was set up originally

the masjid was there

and in it, there was the member

okay, and that is where the Prophet used to stand to give the sermon at his house I used to his house

was attached to the mosque.

So the province of Salem used to leave her house

and then go straight into the master lead salon. It's like a door to the masjid. And he said what is in between

the member and you know, this house, the edge of the mosque is a garden from the gardens of Paradise rolled up in Riyadh agenda.

And so, that area now, because the original Masjid was very small compared to what is there no,

they have marked off this area and the carpets are white.

So they marked off that area that is what is called Rhoda for the road that is means the garden right.

And so you know it is

it is something recommended to make some two workouts there to make to are there. It's in a spiritual sense as a garden from the gardens of Paradise. You know, so people will go to the road, they do not follow the road. If you see people rubbing the road, you see rubbing the walls,

rubbing the carpet, putting the dust in their pocket.

That's where the shirt can come in.

But to go to the road is something which is part of the actions we do when we go to Medina.

Floors open any questions online?

A Woman

Yes, so this is a question and this is another reason why I'm repeating this, to emphasize it. And that is that.

It in the Meccan period in the life of the prophet saw Selim it was divided into two major parts the Meccan period 13 years and then the medina period 10 years, right. In the second period. The basic practice of Islam was Tauheed, oneness of God, next life, many of the things that we do now like fasting and giving the cat and all that it did not begin until they reached Medina.

Okay, and there were some traditions that were there in Mecca, that were really ignorant traditions. And one of them was that the women when somebody died, the women would do whaling.

So the whaling is like make

Can noise tearing off their clothes, you know, really carrying on.

And so therefore the province of salem said to them when they were in Mecca, he said to the women don't come to the graves.

Like don't come.

But when they went to Medina

and this was brought out by a great scholar, Sheikh Nasser al Abadi, he Rahim Allah, he brought this out in one of his texts. And this is a Hadith of the prophets of Salaam, where he said inwards.

Continue to hate to come and Ziad little Kubo first Zulu, ha, he said, I used to prohibit you

from coming to the graves for Zulu, ha, now you can visit it. And that verb is command plural for everybody.

So what it meant that it is now permissible to visit the graves, and that would include women as well. So women would be allowed to visit you know, the graves, as long as they do not

carry on with these traditions. Now, within some cultures where Islam has adapted, because there is a thing called huruf with Islam has adapted to the culture. Okay, in some cultures, it's part of the culture for the women to cry and lose it. So therefore what they have instituted as they have favored the second period and so they say, Okay, we will bring the body to the house, to an area that women can make to our and say goodbye, then the men will carry the body to the grave and bury

because if you're making noise and doing ignorant things, you could have the person who has died. It's harmful.

Okay, but technically speaking,

if a woman carries herself with respect

and does not lose it,

it is permissible. Okay. And it's really just a sort of school of thought cultural thing that says that you cannot you know, visit the graves okay. And that is the the rebuttal you know, to that question, where to go just for a couple of minutes because we started late.

Any other questions general questions?

Floors open

any other questions? Yeah, other than anybody else.

So, so, this really is important for us. You know, you know, to to review like this is our key foundation is our to heat and to avoid shirk. Okay, and now, after this Inshallah, we will be going on to a very famous hadith of Gibreel

Alayhis Salam is the angel. It's a famous Hadith. And we look at the at the foundations of the faith, which is, you know, Islam or Eman, ASN. So we'll be going on to these areas, to understand them and to understand what not to do.

Okay, so with this, we will be closing the class, we're streaming online. So we'll be closing the class online. And we'll still you know, have an interaction. You know, here for those of you who can come if anybody's in the Toronto area, you're welcome to the slab because of Toronto. 1630 Nielsen, this is you know, in the East End, you're welcome here at seven o'clock and shallow and Fridays. The class is continuing. So I leave you with these thoughts are accurate that one, Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salam Wa alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh