Islam at the Crossroads: Revival or reform |
Winter 2019| Class #1 | Sh. Abdullah Hakim Quick
Abdullah Hakim Quick – Islam at the Crossroads – Class 1
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of Islam in addressing the loss of Potala and the potential for change within the Muslim world. They explore the definition of reform and the "monster hedge" meaning "monster," and discuss the "monster program of change" as a way to bring about a revival of oneself. They stress the importance of understanding the benefits of the people and bringing about a revival of one's behavior. They also mention the need for a focus on "monestry of Islam" to bring about a revival of oneself.
AI: Summary ©
Salam Salam ala sailed over Li will Arkadin. Nabina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi abetik wa salatu salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
We thank Allah subhanaw taala for another opportunity to ponder, you know, on the position of Muslims in the world, and also to reflect on how we can improve ourselves, as believers, families and as an oma.
And this topic of Islam at the crossroads, really, I believe is one of the cutting edge topics. It's very important subject. And it touches not only the oma as a whole, but also communities, families, and above all, individuals. And that is so important to us, because of the present situation that we are in today. And before we go into the meat of the course itself,
we want to have an orientation. And this is really
to give us the context. And we have to again, reflect upon our context as Muslims in the world, to try to analyze it,
to understand it, and then to seek solid solutions from where we are.
And
today in the world,
to a great extent in many parts of the world, Muslims are literally calling out to a loss of Potala in a type of desperation.
And this is something which has happened in Islamic history at different points. And it is part of Sonata law. It is part of what Allah subhanaw taala has decreed for the world, in the same way that
with the healing of a wound,
person is inflicted with the wound but the healing process is a painful one. And that pain reminds the person of the wound itself. And so the pain that we are going through as a nation, turn turning to Allah subhanaw taala. I believe based upon what has happened in the past, that as the pain intensifies, and as we respond properly to the pain,
then there are openings. There are openings that happen and it is not something new. And Allah subhanaw taala has revealed and has will this
in his glorious book, Allah tells us insert to Tulloch first three will May Allah hajjaj Allahu Maharaja. We are the Zukerman High School test.
Women yet to work on our law for her high school in Allahabad, legal. Emily ajala, law liquidly, shea butter.
These are very important verses here. Especially when people start to feel they are surrounded. They start to feel that there's no way out. A lot tells us and whoever keeps his duty to Allah wherever has taqwa.
Wherever the consciousness of Allah then allow with make a Maharaja a way out. There will be a way out from the circumstance and allow will provide for that person from a place that he didn't even know.
And whoever depends on Allah, Romania, tawakkol Allah Allah, whoever depends on Allah, that Allah will be sufficient for him.
Surely Allah will reach his purpose and he has made a limit for all things. So this section of this verse right in the beginning of surah, tullock actually
is a complete answer in itself. And and shows us and this is really the most important part of the whole course that we are about to go through inshallah. And that is taqwa law, and tawakkol Allah, that is the consciousness of Allah.
Right, that recognition within ourself of the Presence of Allah subhanaw taala coming, drawing close to the Creator, and that interprets into tawakkol dependence. So it's not just believing that there is a God somewhere
because there are even agnostics, people who believe that there's a god but God has no real impact in the world.
Second part is what
gives the full definition. And that is not only are we aware of Allah, but we depend on the Creator. And so that dependence, the more that dependence is there, then Allah is sufficient for the believer, no matter what the circumstances. And the Quran itself gives us many examples of this. The stories of the NBR gives us many examples of people being pushed to the limit, the complete limit at that point, they depend on a lot.
And that really is where we are going right now as an oma. And this is something that the Prophet Muhammad SAW seldom predicted, because he did not speak from himself.
His knowledge came from above seven heavens, and many times he would,
he would say things information that came to him, not realizing that one day
people would be able to even understand what he said, even better than the people that were around him.
Okay, which might sound strange, because he is the source. But as we go to the Day of Judgment, there are certain signs that even become more and more clear.
And from these signs the province of Southern said, he told us letter Kuma Sahaja Tata alphington, reactor Al Khattab watercop Takara, Bella Swan, well, so the prophet SAW seldom said on the authority of Abu huraira.
He said, an authentic idea, the last hour would not come about until trials and temptations appear fitted, which is the plural of fitna lying would be on the increase.
And the marketplaces would come close.
Okay, so these are three points that he made, as we're going towards the Day of Judgment. And I believe that we are able to understand this in a way that other people in previous generations would not be able to understand. Because the fitna coming through handheld devices, coming through this new technology is something like no other generation has ever experienced before.
The Temptations that come to the individuals, and even now to children,
who are to a great extent, were sheltered from many of the temptations that the adults were pushed into, that the children themselves having access to the internet,
are actually under a tremendous temptation. And so this Horan fits in, the raw it will come it'll appear, it'll be all over the place. And now we see people all over the world, and it never ceases to amaze me when I travel, especially in large cities, not so much in rural areas. But in large cities, when you come to a stop, and you look at the people, many of them, if not all of them are like this, they're looking at their device, everywhere.
This is all over the world and not just so called industrialized countries, because people use cell phones better and more in Africa and in India, than they do here actually, their level of cell phone use is even stronger than us.
And so, this is the first part the second lying
the increase of life. And politician politicians who have always used trickery in their politics
have now reached another stage and salt of the border.
We are experiencing you know on a national level in that country,
people are in a state of confusion, because there is so many lies that are coming from the highest level and government people are confused about which direction to actually go.
And so it is increased and again, this is where we understand that more because with mass communications, it is increased
the ability of the law of the lie has actually increased.
The third one is very interesting as well. And here it is saying that the marketplace would come close to codable as work. So as work is the plural of soup. Right the marketplace, and many of them will had the theme may have looked at this Hadeeth and thought that yes.
marketplaces tended to be in the time of the process.
As a seller outside the city, like on the outskirts of the city, right, and then if they start to move in, and people open up shops
buy their house, and certain things instead of everybody going outside, or to a specific area, it now starts to move. But we, again have reached another level, Amazon,
Amazon jungle, right that our minds are all caught up in, Amazon has taken this to another stage.
And the Chinese are moving goods around with their own names other than Amazon, they are moving things around to the point where you can be in your bed
and you go on the international marketplace,
do your business and go back to sleep.
You haven't even left your bed. So South Dakota Salalah, alayhi salatu, salam, the marketplace would come close.
Now it's right inside of our bedrooms, you don't even have to go outside to be in the marketplace. And so the Prophet peace be upon him was given a type of knowledge that
we need to respect and to reflect upon, especially in the present circumstances that we find ourself in.
And I want to,
I want to reflect with you
on an issue, which really has
troubled me and in a sense stimulated me from being a student of history, cuz people tend, when they look at history, this is how historians trick a lot of people.
They take you way back in history,
they take you to a point where it's irrelevant to you now, but the history of the last 50 years or 100 years,
very few people know about
how many people actually know about the Korean conflict, the Korean War, and how serious the Korean War was. Okay, and even now, when you go back a little bit, you'll see that the average
person, especially young people, they have no clue as to what happened. But take them back to the Greeks and the Romans. And they can tell you something. Now, it might not be the actual truth. It's sort of a fantasy type of Greek and Roman society.
But they have an idea.
And this idea, goes back to 1945.
In 1945,
the Allied forces,
British American, European whatever, fighting the Axis powers of Italy, Germany and Japan, they reached a point of frustration.
At around 1945, the Americans especially wanted to end the war.
Now, they were getting signals from the Japanese government,
that the Japanese were just about ready to surrender.
But they wanted to make a conclusion to this war, that would not only stop the conflict, but it would also give them a predominant position in the world. In other words, you want to make a statement. If you want to be the superpower in the world, you have to do something, or you have to have something that people will recognize you as the superpower. The British used to say that the sun never set on the British Empire. It never said any part of the world, there was something that they aren't. Okay, so the Americans dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. This is a nuclear weapon.
And this is a picture of Hiroshima
after the initial destruction, and you can see how destroyed
this major city was over 100,000 people say 130,000 they say
they died instantly.
Instantly, they were dead.
And
the Japanese society at that point, they were on their knees.
And they they then but to make it worse, they went to another city Nagasaki, and they dropped another one. So they were making a statement to the world that we are here.
It is no longer the British or the French. We are the ones it's not the Russians. We have the Russian scientist. We have the German scientists.
Right, we're on top. So they made this statement. But what is important to me as a student of history, and this is important for us to reflect upon when we think about ourselves, is that by 1969.
Now count those years, that's only 24 years. Think of your own life, right? 24 years come back.
In 24 years, the Japanese had bounced back to become a world economic power
in 24 years.
After a horrendous Holocaust experience, they came back.
What is it, that the Japanese people have
something about their character, they're very humble people something about the leadership. They say that even in the recent nuclear fallout in Fukushima, that when they were cleaning up certain areas,
and the people had to go to the stores that you have to measure the nuclear waste, whether it's so much in the food, and people are lined up, and then when they realize there's a long people in the line, the ones in the front, put food back.
For the other ones, think about this, think what would happen in America or Canada, right? Especially America, if they if they said it's a blackout, now, you're not going to have any food, they would be fighting each other for food. And they would go into a store and buy, you know, 100 cans of tuna fish, not to they buy 100 Okay, but the Japanese, there's something in their culture. And there is a culture of cooperation with each other.
utility
and self sacrifice.
Okay, and they respect the leadership.
24 years,
the Germans, this is Berlin, in 1945. They bombed Berlin, into the Stone Age.
And this huge Metropolis was wasted. Think about pictures of Syria, right? This was wasted. In 1945.
They killed the leadership destroyed the army
took over the country.
But again, by 1969, that's Berlin
24 years, look at this. In 24 years, they had bounced back to be a world economic power.
What did the Germans have?
What is it about them,
to show you what human beings are capable of doing.
And this is important for us to be able to reflect upon when we look at some of the destruction happening in a oma. And sometimes we think people we can never come back from this. But no, that's not the kind of thinking that the Japanese had, or the Germans had during this Holocaust.
So we look at the Muslim world, and the potential of the Muslim world. And this is something to reflect upon. And I reflect upon this constantly, you can do it many different ways. But if you really look at our nation from a lot of different angles, and you know, we can, you know, I'll go just briefly into this, because we know there's a number of students who may be coming next week, and we'll do a slight review, for you know, the rest as we go on further. But some of the richest people on earth actually live in our countries. Okay, and we have a lot of actual wealth. There's a lot of material wealth, within our nation. Also, we have a history of power, and respect.
We have some of the great empires of the world.
And we had the respect of the planet for many centuries. You could even say that we were the basis of the Renaissance period,
that the Europeans after the so called dark ages, from around, say, 500 to 1500.
When they start coming back, they say the rebirth, right the Renaissance. We were the ones because it's during that period was the golden age of Islam. So we were the ones that actually provided the impetus for the Renaissance. Okay. Also, we can still say that Islam is the fastest growing religion on Earth. With all the calamities that are striking us. People are still embracing Islam.
It's amazing how this can actually come about. I was part of a group. Last week, we went to Nassau in the Bahamas with hostgator.com. Excellent group, and of 850 Muslims. And we were in a resort, we took over the whole hotel, established prayer, Islamic activities, allow food and whatever. And, you know, it's it's, it's shocking to people, but I, I've seen this before, that, you know, because of good relationships that many of the Muslims had with the staff. And we especially encouraged the Muslims beyond your best, you know, and they were on their best. And by the third day, also, one of the staff, he had a toe bone and he had taken Shahada, and he had embraced Islam.
And there were other members of the staff. They accepted Islam. I mean, what way of life is like this?
Think about this, where a person's literally going to embrace Islam. And right near the end, we went on a historical tour, we ended up the local Masjid. And the brother came with us. And it turned out he lives down the street from the masjid. Right. And he, you know, we handed him to the masjid. They took care of him, you know,
immediately and there are others waiting to embrace Islam. And we did not debate anybody.
We did not
pass out flyers.
We just acted like Muslims.
Okay, and the impact that Islam can have on other individuals, it's still the fastest growing to the point where we're over 26% of the world's population. They're always under estimating us in terms of the International census, right. But we are, you know, still a huge sector within
the world and everything that we do, we end up you know, way up to even tourism, something like tourism, because we have people doing really good and some people doing really terrible, right, but Muslims want to they want to get out they want to move around. So halau tourism is now one of the biggest sectors in the whole tourism tourism industry. In the world right now, the Muslims wanting to travel and have halau things and to learn something, you know about their faith.
Last week, I met London lady in like, in Kennedy station.
Like, she was never on the same bus like we were going from Centennial College. And I just like she just asked me a few things about the job, and everything. So I said, like, the real meaning of women's how Islam is protected for a woman how it protects a woman just waiting where the job and stuff. So I said, Look, it's like a diamond, you cannot sell a diamond on the street. And it's like a Muslim woman is someone that no man can afford, just like that to her. So explain some of the things and she said like, like she's an atheist. She was from a Catholic.
He's an atheist. She said, I do not find any peace, or I have been looking like absolute Susan asked him all the Muslims. She was knowing about Islam, that finally she talked to me. She said, I think the real peace is in Islam, is there a way to become a Muslim?
I never know what the guidelines of being Muslim. Yeah, so I like to come in it and consult.
I'm really good to do that, like, inshallah. So this is an experience, this is a phenomenon that is going on. So it's not about numbers.
Not about potential, right. It's not about natural resources, we have natural resources. Our countries are in strategic positions. And if you look at the positions that our countries are on, its strategic, international trade routes, Red Sea, you know, Indian Ocean, East Africa, you'll see all over the world, the Silk Route,
you'll see the key strategic positions that are countries are
also
we have huge standing armies.
So there's no reason, no logical reason why we should be getting defeated like this.
Okay, so this is this is amazing potential. Right. And another shocking point is, we have a lot of youth.
And I experienced this not only in the Muslim world, but actually in Europe itself. And I remember being in Scandinavia, and in Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
The Muslim youth conferences that they have, it's something you
It's shocking to the Scandinavians. And especially since the Muslims are now speaking their language. And they raised their okay. And, you know, our numbers in terms of youth look at the University of Toronto. And you will see that, you know, in terms of MSA, the MSA, the size, the amount of people want to make Juma is like no other organization on campus. No other student organization
of a religion or a group or anything. So
we're a nation of the future.
Okay, so that's potential. And again, this is our context. Now you got to keep we have to keep in our mind, at the same time.
We have intellectuals, we have educational resources.
Right? All of this is there, everything is in place. Okay, but
what is happening?
Along with the wealth,
there is poverty.
Some of the poorest countries in the world
are Muslim countries.
So poverty is there, although there is some of the richest people is great potential. But some of the poorest countries are actually Muslim majorities. That's like a contradiction, right? It's a contradiction. So you got wealth, and you got poverty. Okay. Also, we have large numbers, we have armies, we have strategic position, but we are feeling defeat.
We are feeling defeat.
Okay, on the ground. And this is leads leading to frustration.
So that frustration is there on different levels, whether it be on personal level, family level, community level, national level, oma, you know, level, there's a type of frustration because you have the potential, but yet you're not performing. If you don't have the potential you don't perform, then you realize you're just not up to it. But when you have the potential, and don't produce, that can create frustration.
Okay. And
another issue, which you'll see on all kinds of levels, is this argumentation and debate
where people start to debate and you know, with the internet now, that's maybe part of the fitna of the internet, that, you know, we have, you know, the share, Google and Wikipedia and all this and now we have mathies on every corner.
You know, and the process of setting identica de la de la Coleman cut by the Hodor Illa o to General, that people would not go astray after guidance,
after guidance, until they were given the ability to argue
gender, that means to argue and fight and contradict each other. Okay, so this, these things are honest, this is the issue. That's the context. Okay, amazing potential, you know, but not getting results, you know, something happening here, and actually going in the opposite direction.
So, in this type of situation,
people are crying for change.
That is a common fact that we are making to
you know, change our own life. You know, our family situation, our community, we make and do our, you know, for nations, you know, someone Islamic
politics, they want Islamic State, someone Islamic economy,
they will help bank. So whole life is on banking,
somewhat halau social life, some brothers and sisters have dedicated their life to halau tourism.
They're crying for to Allah to help them you know, change the social conditions in some parts of the world. Strangely enough, some Muslims are praying to Allah, just to have halau food.
And that sounds strange to us because we have so many options of eating halau but right in our own city, and we were reflecting at one point, the days of the Jami mosque, you know, back in 1970 and brother Abdul Qadir from Pakistan, Rainbow hula opened up a meat store on the corner of boasted right that was one of the first Holla Holla shops in the city.
And everybody from all over go to the coffee shop.
To get the meat from the east end and from North everything. You will go down there because he would go out into the country. sacrifice the animals, prepare them
And he had
nowhere else you could get it. You got to eat kosher, or you got to eat fish or you get another fatwah of the People of the Book.
Right, but but people who believe in eating the halau, straight up strictly halau.
So some people in some parts of the world still at this
what is common is the cry for change. And this is the oft repeated verse in Serato, read verse 11, in the law, you know, might be common, what are you how you may be unforeseen? Surely Allah will not change the condition of a people today change that which is in themselves. So the real change
is within us. And this is the context of our understanding of revival of change. Because the question really is,
how can we bring about change?
I use the West.
Okay. Because the East in a sense, the Muslim world, you know, May Allah help them? You know, that's beyond us.
We want change in the Muslim world as well. But at least we can think about change here.
Because we have a certain we have sort of a, you know, a microcosm of what's happening in the Muslim world. Right, because we have a lot of people a lot of masjids, you know, whatever. But yeah, we get hit with all these propaganda articles, this Fifth Estate coming out, and attacking Muslims and on television, the radio, everybody taking hits at us now, right? So it's a microcosm.
Okay, so a change is gonna come about where our
potential, the potential right here in the GTA,
right over 20% or more, GTA is Muslims. Our economic potential is unbelievable.
Right? Once if it came together, right. So all of this is what we're talking about this major change, to try to bring about Okay, so the question is, that we want to begin to look at
is in terms of bringing about change, and within our
nation, there are people who are struggling for different types of change, okay. And this really, we want to look at in terms of going into this particular topic of change. So, reform or revival, now, some of these words are sort of interchangeable,
in some cases, but you know, basically, basically, in the Webster dictionary, when they are talking about reform, they are talking about to put or change into an improved form, or condition, right, you reform it, okay to amend or improve by change, by change of form,
or removal of faults or abuses. So in order to amend it,
you change the form of it.
Okay, so you literally change it's for
the other different, what other part of definition is a number of them to put an end to an A, say an evil, right, but that's evil as in the eyes of the beholder. To put an end to an evil by enforcing or introducing a better method, of course of action.
So there was there was a course of action that people were involved in.
Okay, and the reform is going to say, No, we don't want your method.
Okay, it's going to be a better method of doing it.
Right, a new cause of action. So this is a reform.
Okay, and also to induce or cause, to abandon evil ways. If they say he's a reformed person he went to, they even say, they'll put us in reform school, as they used to call it, reform school. reform school is like, the prison for youth.
Okay, because they want to reform them. So that's part of the concept of reform. But
in the definitions of reform, when it comes to a way of life, right, a civilization
the right there, you see, when you literally change course,
or you change the form of it. So you will have in like, for instance, Jewish people,
that used to be basically one way, if you practice in Judaism, you're not practicing it. Now, because of movements against them. You have Orthodox Jews, and you have reformed Jews.
And some of them they even use the name
So the Orthodox Jew would be the person who follows closer to the Torah. The men have locks. The women covered they're here in one way. They eat strictly kosher food. You know, on Saturday, it's the Sabbath. You know, no business, no nothing. They follow you, they try to follow the Torah, and the reformed you identifies with Judaism. But some reformed Jews eat pork,
they'll have a ham sandwich,
or bacon and eggs, right? Now, imagine that right? You're supposed to be Jewish, and you have a ham sandwich.
Right. And some of the reforms even don't believe in God. Right. And they say that even some of the founders of the State of Israel, Ben Gurion, and some of the early people
yeah, they they doubted that the creator
you know, and that was a reform that came in. And it's really a Shea tonic type of thing. And it is only amongst their orthodox, that you have people you have different types, but there are some who are battling to try to bring back the original message. Okay, so they have literally given it a name.
Okay, so now, what about Muslims?
Are you going to have orthodox Muslim, every form Muslim?
Okay.
Or many in betweens, this is the issue. Now, there are people who are struggling for the reform.
They're struggling for it. And they want to introduce new ways of functioning. They even have women's mastered in the United States.
Right, they'd use the word I mean, all these words are being messed up, you know, now, so called progressive Muslim like this, and things like this are happening. So this is one form of change. Okay.
Another form of change would be revival or renewal.
Some even say, they call it the color revitalization. That's kind of a big word, to revitalize,
to renew, to revive. Okay, this is touch.
At the prophet SAW Salam told us
in authentic hadith, that in the La Jolla bath, we have the oma Allah rasika leave me at center
when you just did lavon, Lucha Dena
that the problem that a lot of the dollar will barely allow will raise up for this oma at the head of every century, someone who will rejuvenate for them their religion. And in another tradition, Allah writes equally kotlin regedit there's different traditions like this. But in this one tradition that we used here in Muscat on wasabia it is it has been authenticated.
You know it says Allah russi Cooley, me, et cetera.
So use the word Mere 100.
Okay, and when it's used, the scholars understood that but 100 is used it's not necessarily specifically exactly 100
but it is generally a century and some looking at cotton to set it could be a generation.
So it could be at the head of the generation.
There would be somebody who would rejuvenate the religion ujet did. So from ujet did comms touch deed,
touch deed. Okay, so these are the terminologies we know the word those who study in Arabic God, right? How the Kitab when jegede there's a new book.
Right God Jad de ujet. De do to make no
that's not a form of the verb.
So the master touch deed
okay. So this these are the traditions authenticated.
And
so touch deed, literally
it is renewal, or you could say restored to how it was prior to the change.
Okay, you restore it to how it was before the change.
Okay, and
another way to say it is yeah, so some of the scholars use AR
which is another way to say it
is
Like reviving, restoring the status quo without necessarily any attempt to improve or reform. So that's literally these are literal definitions of the terms. Okay.
So this is taggi deed. But now in terms of the religious definition, I will be going over this again next week inshallah, you know when more of the students come in terms of I want to give you some scholarly definitions, okay? So we want to look at a scholar from different time periods. If you look at the scholars in the first 200 years after the hijra, right so you get the early scholar, and then you get somebody after 1000 years, and then we will get a contemporary scholar. Okay, so you'll see some different definitions and eventually have
a zaharie Rahim Allah who died 124 after the higit out that's about 724 of the Common Era meaning ad right see. So he said that revival, what is touch deed?
So he said touch deed is revival. So he's using the word Yeah. It revival of that which has disappeared
or died
due to neglect of the Quran and the Sunnah and their requirements.
Okay.
So, you know, not following Quran and Sunnah you neglected it, you didn't deal with it. And then it died out. So you're reviving it again. This is how you looked at it. Right. That's from the early you know, scholars Azadi was very, very famous amongst the great scholars of Islam.
Now, you get a middle person after why this jalala Gina, so UT Rahim Allah, who died 911 years after the 1505. He said,
touch deed in religion means renewal of its guidance,
explanation of its truth, as well as eradication of evil, innovation better.
Right, and eradication of extremism.
Right, meaning Hulu, or laxity in religion.
So, to make the renewal, right, you're bringing back the guidance of Islam. Right, you're explaining the truth. And you're getting getting rid of things. You're getting rid of the big data that has come in the innovations. So you get rid of the innovations. Right? And then you also get rid of extremism. Now look how this applies to us.
Because you got to be balanced, right?
Or laxity and religion. And that's the problem of some of the reformists. They're lazy Muslims.
So some are extremist Muslims, and some are lazy Muslims. So he said you got to eradicate them.
Okay, and you got to get rid of the bid
that is there and explain the truth, bring the guidance of Islam. And another point is because these are long definitions that they have, but from their definitions, he also said he's, he's a very prolific scholar. And he also said tax deed also means observance of people's benefits. This is must law. You have to observe the benefit of the people, societal traditions, and the norms of civilization, and Sharia.
So this is like, this is a machete. Many people consider him to be one of them rejects
the renewal of the faith in his time.
But you see what he's saying?
He's saying that, in making this in bringing in restoring the dean, you have to take into consideration what's going to benefit the people.
Okay, so if we aren't in this time, you know, you're not you're not going to say I'm going to restore the dean, everybody. Get your camel and get your your horse. Come out of your Toyota.
Okay, we're in the middle of the winter. You want to be Sunda get on the camel.
Right? That's insanity.
Right? So you have to think of the benefits of the people. What is going on? You have to recognize what's happening in the society as well.
Okay, this is this is this is part of it. Right now.
extremism
would be,
like the, you know, the concept of the heritage, the people who went outside of the religion completely. They refuse to accept leadership. And they go to extremes. We have extremists now in the Muslim world who because they lost their sanity and blowing things up, right? All over the place, right? In the name of Islam, right? That's extremist, because you're not supposed to be killing innocent people.
Right. But that that would be a form of extremism. Right. So that has to be dealt with, okay, in order to, and, you know, he's, this is a deep definition here. And this is a type of arm, because what comes out of the touch deed, one of the tools of the touch deed is what they call, it's HD, it's HD had
an HD had is making the religious decisions based upon the society, your sources and the society and the environment. Right. So and he had, which is our major religious decision has to take into account
the norms of the civilization now, it takes into account but its basis is sherea, it does not go outside the parameters of Sharia. But it takes into account
what is happening with the people at the time period.
And that is a reality that we have to face. Because the light lifestyle that we're living now, is very much different than lifestyle of people who live 1400 years ago. Okay, so in many cases, you got to have the spirit of the law, and you have the principles of the law, can you apply it in the new circumstance.
So this is the tax deed. And we're gonna look at this again in Sharla. Next week, when maybe, hopefully, others will be there.
Okay. Now, a contemporary scholar, Dr. Yusuf Al qaradawi,
who has written on this contemporary point of view, and, you know, has a good way with words and a good understanding
from amongst his writings, and there's a lot of writings, he has some very nice, simple statements that make a lot of sense. So he said, combining the beneficial old with the appropriate new Alka Diem or nafa? Well, God the solid.
So you combine the beneficial old,
right, with the appropriate new.
See what he said.
So you're taking your principles,
you know, from what was there, and you apply it to what is appropriate today, not for things is not appropriate. Because your principles are there, you can't leave your principles.
Okay. So that, that that that's a nice short thing. And then he said, being open to the outside world, without melting into it as a nice one.
So you're open to the outside world, but you don't melt into it. I used to liken this to when we used to make soup, right. So we're making a soup, and you throw everything inside of the soup. You know, and if you cook it for a while, you can still have soup, where you taste the carrot, and you have a piece of meat, and you have all your different elements of the soup. But if you let it cook too long, it becomes broth,
where everything is melted down. And that literally can happen to us as well in the society. And we can see in Canada, and America generations who came 100 years ago.
And many of them melted down into the society. They completely melted. And if you go back in their generations, they say, Oh, yeah, my great great grandfather was a Muslim.
You can you can find people like this. But they're totally melted down into the size. So he said no, be open to the outside world. Deal with it. But don't melt into it.
Keep your identity right. We're here in Canada now. Functional Muslims. But it doesn't mean that you have to be a good Canadian. Go to the Montreal yields or the Maple Leafs and drink beer.
Because that you got to drink beer when you're watching hockey.
No, you don't have you can have shy and watch the hockey game. If that's what you drink.
You can have a soft drink, right? You can have nice mango.
And you can watch the hockey game.
You don't have to drink a beer. You see. So you were involved in a society you wanted the Maple Leafs to win and you cheered for them. But you drank your mango punch.
Okay, Danny said also very
Interesting to rejuvenate the religion by the religion itself.
So you rejuvenate the deen by the deen. So you use your principles from the religion, and you rejuvenate it and you know what the biggest one of the biggest problems is the average people have not studied the religion.
So they think that the religion is only a few narrow things that they were taught by their family, or they saw in the village, not realize that the religion is broad.
Right, so the more you study the religion, the more you study, different Aloma and scholars and how they applied it, then you can see the broad base religion, and you can even now understand better how we can be Muslim in this particular time period.
So, these are countries or some scholars, these are three scholars, and they are giving definitions of tax deed.
Okay, and this is what we are looking for tax deed or AR.
And we will be looking at this
in different ways, the base of the course,
will be coming from a text that I put together.
And this is the 40, a hadith on Islamic revival.
And this came about, and I'll be honest with you how it came about, it was originally a selfish thing.
Because I was giving a lot of talks, and I was, you know, keeping my I was recording them. We didn't have laptops, and you know, flash drives, and you know, so we had cards, and we had notebooks and stuff. So I'm recording them, right. And suddenly I have a lot of all these piles of things, right. And now, they're asking speakers to travel. And I don't have a photographic memory, like a celebrity, or any of the great scholars, and I can't walk into a place carry in my books. So I decided what I would do is go through all of the papers.
So I went through all of the talks that I did, or most of them
to try to see what I was actually saying,
because you know what I found out, and, you know, with respects to our community, but this is the reality, I might have given a talk
10 years ago, because if you've been around for a while, you're given the talk. So I gave a talk 10 years ago, and then bring it out. And then, you know, updated a little bit. And the people, let's say mash our law, like this is revelation. But it's something that I said 10 years ago, right? Because many of the problems are repeated themselves.
Okay. And in different parts of the world. What I found out is that the problems Muslims are facing is similar,
all over the place. So I went through these
talks.
And I found about 40 plus edits.
And these Hadith were repeating themselves over and over and over again.
So I put them together, again, is selfish in a sense. But I know that if I have these 40 plus 50 heads,
and I'm, and I have these with me, and I memorize or I know them, that wherever I go, one of them is going to be is going to come.
And sure enough, how go around the world traveled, listen to other corpus, I love to listen to all the moms, and in 80% of the times, they're going to quote one of these 40 heads.
It's going to come
Okay, and I sat with some scholars,
graduates of an Azhar University in Cape Town.
And I sat with the scholars and we looked at this. And I realized that these ideas, there is a there's a method to it is a methodology. There's actually something happened in here, right?
And we studied it and looked at it. And we realized that it is revival.
Every single part of the Muslim world right now is in need of a revival of touch deed. It's not the same form.
But it is a it is a renewal and a revival, that the people have become stagnated in one way or another, and under attack, and need to have that original spirit and lifestyle of Islam to be brought up in a relevant way today. And so we put it together using the system of Imam nawawi Rahim Allah the famous 40 Hadith
So we put it together and made it into a 40 Hadith. Okay, so this is a meta, the meta is the basic Arabic texts. So there is a meta in here of the 40 Hadith. And I did a little bit of an explanation
of it, and what I have found, and Allah knows best over the years, especially in the West, that, you know, the areas that that have come up in this, it's not the traditional areas. Okay. And I'll give you just an idea of some of the areas
that we want to be looking at, you know, as part of the touch deed.
You know, what is most of the importance of the heart, destruction and salvation, real strength, decency and vulgarity.
The two faced one, balance and religion, the strong believer, the legacy of truth and tolerance, ease and allows religion, true brotherhood on dealing with elders and children.
modesty and begging,
the danger of oppression, the curse of favoritism, the importance of trust, a manner.
Right, the right to self defense,
the right of the road, the power of peer pressure. Now we're going to get someone talking about peer pressure, you know what I mean? Right? The pressure that's on teenagers to wear certain clothes and act certain ways. What's our Islamic position? Dangerous the material world, or enhancing the environment, the prohibitions of all intoxications? So there's one whole section on intoxication that means marijuana.
What's opposition?
Okay, the answer we have a hadith on this, a central Hadith treatment of women,
seven major sins, repelling superstitions, right, sweetness or fate, the danger of extremism,
right the call is to help a divine look at the future. So what this is, is a package is not the only package, but it is it is a form, right that we can follow in order to look at relevant issues facing our community in this and what this methodology does. It actually helps you to how do you bring about a revival in yourself?
How can you bring about a revival in your family? How can you understand what is this concept of revival? This is a methodology it's a men hedge. So it's a men hedge for this change. inshallah, that we will go about that at the end of the course inshallah. I picked out three people who are considered to be by many some of the great magette deeds of this, Deen. Okay, and in different parts of the Muslim world. And one is Mr. mala has Ali or Hema, hola who's from Baghdad. So that would be from Iraq, you know, area.
Another is shower Lee or shower, Leola Galloway, who comes from the indo Pakistani subcontinent, and the other is a shock of man then folio of Sokoto in West Africa. And he is a great scholar magette did and I actually did my PhD thesis in the University of Toronto on Jacaranda folio. So,
these three
have practical applications of Islam in their types right and they give you a men hedge or program of change. So, we want to look at their life and also look at some of the key points of change that they actually brought out.
And see how this can apply,
you know to ourselves and for those of you because many of us have
read from emammal vasarely many have read, some have had the understanding of showery a lot, as but very few Noshaq check was meant and for you, and I can say to you, you you, you will get you will be surprised at the level of this scholar, and what he actually did with his teachings. That's the difference, we're going to end with him because he not only
revived the faith in the community amongst the scholars, and amongst the people. But when he was attacked by the evil kings, he made hegira he did a migration
and they had a battle of better where they were, and they defeated the evil kings. And then he sent his scholars from different parts of what they call house or land. You know, it's by the Sahara Desert northern Nigeria. It's a huge area and they opened up 250,000
square kilometers. This is 100 years before the coming of the British, and they governed with Sharia 250,000 square kilometers Islamic law all over the place. And he actually started a woman's movement.
This is the he is amazing scholar. He started a woman's movement which is going up until now in northern Nigeria.
Okay, so we will look at his writings along with the other great scholars in Sharla as a practical means of understanding tragedy. So I want to open up the floor for any questions that anybody has are concerning yield to revival and what we're going
all situation.
No, it doesn't mean I mean, you might think that provision might mean you you you have this top bar and suddenly, there's food. It's gonna pop up no
risk. You know, the Maharaja, some people's Maharaja is to leave this world.
Because if we believe in the Hereafter, death is a transition. And if a person dies as a Shaheed
right, they're actually transitioning into a higher form of life. So we don't know how this mockridge is going to be right or when it will come.
People think I'm going to make dua and I'm going to wait okay Allah, hurry up please.
It doesn't happen like that
does not happen like this, right? So, the Maharaja,
it comes at the appointed time and when a person is in dependence on Allah, then
Allah sufficient they they can deal with
the kada the will of Allah as it comes and allow sufficient for them. So the Maharaja is many different things it could be to get you get to get out of a situation is not one particular form. Now any other general questions anybody has floor is open.
So inshallah I will also bring next week
copies of the text meten
you know, I have some made up and you know, for a reduced price, so everybody will get it. You know, we'll have copies so you can have this method yourself, you know, and be able to, and go along and we'll be dealing with the different areas and then ending up with the scholars inshallah. Okay, so inshallah We'll see you next week Have a safe journey home was Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah.