Living Islam #04

Okay shall hear live now shall it can be in

the smilla rahmanir rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam Allah sale avaliable Arcadian Nabina, Muhammad, wa ala alihi, wa sahbihi, wa baddeck masala.

All praise are 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, his companions and all those who call to his way, and establishes sooner to the Day of Judgment, my beloved brothers and sisters, a Salaam Alaikum, warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Welcome to another session on practical guidelines for preserving our Islam in these critical times. And these sessions were made to reflect the understanding of the Quran and the Sunnah, through the eyes of some of the great luminaries, the great scholars of Islam, and looking at some of the practical issues that we are

facing today on the ground. And we recognize that this is a very unique time that we are in because of the pandemic, because of the changes that humanity is going through. And the Muslim community is going through tremendous changes, as is all of humanity, by the way. And there were some challenges that we brought before, that were general challenges that people throughout the planet are facing. And this was based upon a United Nations study that looked at the youth in the 21st century. And they found out that the youth really were the largest number. And in most countries, they make up a overwhelming majority, we recognize that these challenges facing the youth are actually challenges

facing humanity, because they represent the future. Right now they are over 43% of people under 25 years old. And so you can see that, you know, our population, the majority is actually under 25. There are young people. And so from amongst these challenges, I want to look at three of them today that have direct impact upon our community.

The first is the loss of traditional values. And that is that the countries that we originate from the ones that have an ancient tradition, that goes back hundreds, if not 1000s of years, when the people from these established traditions come into a melting pot, when they come into a large urban area, when they come into a culture that is based on secularism,

the struggle goes on between the traditional values and the new values that have been made by the society based upon their technology based upon their understanding of the world, and not based upon the traditional values that Pete that their people had established over hundreds and 1000s of years. And this is really critical for Muslims because our our traditional values are basically coming from the Quran and the Sunnah. And so this as our base, if this gets lost, then literally our way of life is lost, and we could melt down in the melting pot of the secular society. And so this is a great challenge are facing the Muslims. And we see it come out in the way our youth approaches eating and

dressing and interacting with people. And there are so many areas are that this loss of traditional values, impacts. Another one which comes out of this is juvenile delinquency. And this is when the young teenagers especially rebelled against their parents, when there is sort of a generation gap, as they would call it. And they begin to display negative behaviors and find themselves on the streets, sometimes committing crimes and committing acts that actually harm themselves more than anybody else. So this is a direct

challenge to our community and it's it's impacting on us may be greater than some of the other societies because our families were strong and had not been quaking, like their quaking in the past 30 years.

Another point coming out of this delinquency and the loss of values, is that one of the areas that substitutes, our comfort and substitutes values is illegal substance abuse. And you will see in the American music, movies and the British movies, you'll see that everybody within their society, except for a few, when they are in trouble, especially in America, they drink alcohol. When they visit their friends over in European society, they drink wine, or they drink beer.

And abusing it continue to use these illegal substances. And I say illegal in Islamic sense, because it's something that had been prohibited by Allah subhanaw taala. And so these are three serious issues facing our community on the ground. And we need some practical guidelines as to how to come out of this myriad of problems that is impacting us today. We found out that one of the great scholars cdmos xojo, Grima hula, who over 600 or so years ago, faced this problem in Morocco in North Africa, the problem of his companions and his followers being impacted so much by the society that he actually feared for their Islam.

And so he laid down five important

foundations. And these could be called the foundations of the spiritual path, because he recognized that the real essence of the issue is not just on the outside, but the essence of the problem is on the inside. And so we laid down five foundations, these foundations have stood the test of time.

And we see as in the statements and positions of many of the great scholars that we can relate to it today, in terms of solving our own issues. The first one that he spoke about was mindfulness of Allah, privately and publicly tequila facility Well, hello Ania that you should have the consciousness of Allah, whether you by yourself, or whether you out in the open.

The second point is adherence to the Sunnah, in word and deed.

The third point is indifference to the acceptance or rejection of others, that you're going to do it anyway. Because you want to please Allah, and not the people. The fourth is satisfaction with Allah in hardship, and in ease. These are important foundations for the spiritual life. And the fifth, was turning to Allah in prosperity and adversity. So see the Amazon book rival holla, lay down these foundations for his companions. And what is important about the scholar is that he was given the title that it appears that nobody has ever gotten before. And Allah knows, maybe never, we might not find anybody getting this again. He was called more Jessup. Allah, Allah will only Yeah, he was the

quality control manager of the scholars, and the spiritual ones, the Sophie's, and he would spend time as the highest level of the Maliki phip. He was the fapy.

And he would criticize positively, the scholars. He would come in on that when they're giving their fat was pushing their understanding to make sure that they didn't become dry. They didn't become outdated and irrelevant. Like the scribes and the Pharisees. In the time of Jesus, he saw a slap. So so he, he brought back spirituality

and open the hearts of the world.

But he went to the people who claimed that they were the scholars of the heart, but they were the scholars of sn that they call to serve. And he checked, because he was also considered to be the highest level in terms of spirituality. He checked them to make sure that they were within the boundaries of Sharia that they were not based.

understandings are a dream that they had last night. They would base it upon the understandings coming through Allah and His messenger. And so with this dual responsibility he gets this high position what esub Allah will Odia.

So he was concerned with his people,

especially concerned with those who are implementing Islam because he knew that they were under a tremendous test. And this test has not ended up until today. And so we have reached point number two, and that is adherence to the Sunnah, in word and deed. And we need to understand what the Sunnah actually means. Because Sunnah has different concepts, even within Islamic Studies in Islamic understanding, based upon your expertise, so now might have a different meaning for a person in fact, Sunnah might have a certain meanings, they say, this is farther than this and Sunnah. For other people, Sunnah may mean, you know, something that you're wearing or doing, and so on, that has

many different terms, even within our folk culture. Sometimes we use the word Suna for a lot of different meanings. And this actually happens in America. And I want to show you, within North America, a very strange incident to show you how this word Sunday has actually entered into society and young people could probably relate to what I'm about to say, better than others. When I was on my way, some years back to Philadelphia in the United States, I sent ahead and I asked, What is it like being like a Muslim because I dress and appear like a Muslim within the society. I had been away for a long time. So I asked the brothers, what's the situation now? And they said, Oh, don't

worry about that. Because Philadelphia has such a high percentage of Muslims, that has impacted all levels of society, especially people who live in the street life, the people on the ground.

And they told me of a strange case where one of the Muslims went to a barber shop, to have his hair cut. And he sat down in front of him, there was a gangster, one of the leading gangsters in the city, who had tattoos and a fear some type of person, and he had a beard, because a beard was common, and still is common in the United States. And so the barber said to the gangster, what about your beard Should I cut this and the gangster said, leave it alone? That's my son.

And so, even though he has nothing to do with Islam, but because of folk culture, the word Sunnah wearing a beard, because seeing Muslims wearing a beard, and having respect for them on the streets, he now considers the growing of his beard, to be his son.

We understand, however, from our sources and our great scholars, that the literal meaning of Sunda is the way the trodden path he could mean nature or principle. And in terms of terminologies within Islam, the general terminologies the word Sunnah means what the prophet Muhammad SAW Sallam said his words that's a Sunnah algo Leah. It is what the prophet SAW seldom did a Sunnah alpha Eliya and it is what he approved a Sunnah a taqueria. And here when we say what he approved, it means that he, he responded silently when something was happening, and he didn't reject it. So this is what we consider to be the basis of our understanding of the sadhana. It's literally the basis of our

lifestyle. The the way of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. And

so you can say in general, to give you a general understanding of Sunnah. Okay, because there's so many aspects of it, but we'll look at in a general way,

we have the Sunnah.

And we understand that the Sunnah has been documented in the Hadith, right? So it comes generally, from Hadith itself, because it's the words that the provinces seldom said. It is his actions that were reported by his companions. And it's also those things that he allowed, or that he approved of, in His presence, and he didn't really say anything. And so this comes to us through the Hadith literature.

And so the Sunda that we understood, was the speech of the Prophet. It was the action of the Prophet

and it's also his

Silent approvals you see that in the middle, but there's also the sadhana is characteristics because literally the characteristics of the province are seldom

that's part of the Sunnah as well. And we could say that it's the reality is that that following the Sunnah is actually compulsory. It is something which is compulsory on all Muslims and the premises seldom was reported to Webster, la can be soon it was some little qualifier or Rashidi or do they have in the watches? That you should follow my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the whole of our Rashidi the rightly guided caliphs, bite onto it with your teeth. In other words, hang on to this Sunnah stick to the Sunnah.

And in a few different traditions, the prophet peace be upon him was actually reported to upset men rally by uncertainity, for laser Mindy, that whoever goes away from my Sunday, he doesn't want to be involved in my Sunday. He's not one of us. And that's serious. Not to be part of the oma of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. So the sooner is part of our Islam, Allah told us may utl Rasul of Allah, Allah, whoever obeys the messenger, has obeyed Allah.

And you'll see it reflected many times throughout the book of Allah, that following the Prophet peace be upon this is what gives us the explanation of aspects of Islam, that the Quran did not explain directly, especially in a better.

And so when we pray the court and gives us general guidelines, but the actual manner that we pray, how we stand, how we hold our hands, what we say inside the prayer, this is coming through the Sunnah, this is what is documented from the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him.

And so the Sunda is really the essence. It is like the meat in the body. It's like the the core and is your framework. The core ad is the guide, the divine guide, and the prophet SAW Selim was began, he explained the core ad his life, and I issue a regular one I used to say, if you want to see the core ad, walking and talking, that looked Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi. wasallam is literally a walking core app.

And so that is your son, and is really important. And CDM is our rock, he emphasize to his followers, that it's really important to follow the Sunnah of the prophet SAW Selim now there's a difference between his way as an Arab and maybe he wore long loose clothes,

very light material. And if you walked outside in Canada, now, in the north with those clothes, that type of clothing, you'd probably freeze to death.

So it wasn't meant that we all had to wear Arabian clothes. Well, what is meant is covering our private paths settle out.

And also that our clothing is not see through that it's not skin tight. That it's not following the styles of the People of the Book. But, you know, it stays within the framework of the Prophet peace and blessings be upon the sun now we know also applies to the fitrah and a sense of and that is taking care of your body, even to the point of cutting your nails and, and cutting the hair and your arms and your private parts in different parts of the Sunder it's really important. And we are finding out now in the COVID epidemic,

the pandemic, we are finding that some sooner practices are being adopted by society, we see that generally Muslims keep a distance. And so the word social distancing is literally part of the whole dude. For the heart, the distance that is people give each other and especially male and female, there is a distance we don't shake hands male and female, female and male. And so now nobody's shaking hands.

And so that social distancing, that awareness of the rights of other people, that literally is part of the

the brushing of the teeth, the Miss wack, that the past seldom used to constantly be brushing his teeth before the prayers and when he got up out of his bed. Anytime there was any bad odor in his mouth. He would be brushing his teeth.

Doctors scientists are telling us how important it is to establish this in our lives.

So we need to revisit the Sunnah even if it is basic aspects of the Sunnah revisit these different

qualities and different ways that the Prophet peace of blessings be upon him brought to his nation. Now when we look at the Sunnah in word as so now I'll kaliya

An example of that is that for instance, a hadith reported by Jabba but Abdullah de la one,

that he heard the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him say that cool a bit Shomali for industry, Todd Jacobi missionary, and some cases it is, your eats and drinks here it said, I heard the Messenger of Allah peace, peace be upon him as saying, to not eat with your left hand because Satan eats and drinks with his left.

And on one case, there was a young boy and they were about to eat and the prophets of Salaam said Yahoo lamb, he told him, you know, when you got to eat semula that you should say Bismillah it with your right hand and eat from the food that's in front of you. This of course, they had a large plate,

because we said eat from the food that's in front of you. That's important and you can even see social distancing today. You can see that literally, we are being protected, maybe from some of the viruses and bacterias and things, you know, you know that that can happen, or that can appear in a large plate.

But this is the Sunnah in Word. That's an exam. He literally says it.

And we do it.

The Sunnah in deed. No Emad, even Bashir rhodiola narrates when we stood up for prayers, the messenger also Salah would straighten our rows. When we when we stood straight, he would then say, Allahu Akbar, and start the prayer.

Okay, so

this is literally his actions. he would he would go to the line, and he would literally straighten people. And then he would make the prayers. So that's the sooner unfair earlier. Okay, and

the Sunda attack area. And this is the one that people don't are not normally familiar with. And the example is based in Hama, rhodiola. One, that the message that that messenger Salaam saw a person performing to rockets to work out prayer after the morning obligatory prayer. Alright, so this is after fudger

and the man replied,

I did not perform the two workouts before obligatory prayer. So I have prayed those two now.

The prophet SAW Salah was silent.

Okay, so this is his tacit approval, or his silent permission.

So, normally speaking, the prophet peace be upon him said, you know, last a lot bothers a lot on hausa but it's not on fudger that there's no prayer after Assa and pleasure.

So now this man is making two haircuts after fudger.

Okay, and so, but the man explained it, and he said, I didn't make my son that too, because before fahcsia is a strong son. So namaqua those two rockets, and he didn't make it out for some reason. And so he got right up, and he made two rockets. The promises Allah allowed us so that this is a taqueria. So, he he silently

allowed this to happen. So this is how literally how we extract the Sunnah.

And the general Sunnah in terms of the character of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him is also very important, because character

we know is the essence of the message. And the province of Solomon said a number of traditions. This one is reported and what I remind Malik Hadeeth book, Booth two liter Mima has not Aflac verily I have been sent to complete the best in character. So the essence of the message the essence of this Brianne, this living implementation of Islam

is character,

and so does the character. It's those qualities being expressed by the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him. This is so important.

We need to be able to revisit this we need now, more than more than ever, to have Rasulullah Salah as our example. And we're not just saying theoretically, but literally to have him be our example. And to interpret this into the life that we are living today in the 21st century, in the middle of a pandemic, because this is having an impact on us, just like I did with CD Amazon book. And so he said to his followers, add here to the Sunda in word and indeed, stick to this Sunder

take it serious. And the issue that we looked at the illegal drugs, substance abuse, it is a big issue for some people.

Because not only is alcohol

affecting our community, but also there are other types of narcotics. There are other types of drugs that are affecting us very seriously. I drove past a mall here in the port union area, and then there's a new shop that's opening up right next to the halaal shop, which is the shawarma shop. Right next to it is the cannabis shop.

So on one side, you get your shawarma and your falafels. And right next to it. There's narcotics, there's drugs that are there.

And this was an issue in the Muslim world centuries ago, especially around the 13th century or so when the Mongols were coming in from Asia. And they were attacking the Muslim world and they sacked Baghdad, and they were coming through Syria. And it was very serious issue for the scholars. And so the scholars looked at the Mongol hordes had one of the points that came up in their discussion is that the Mongols were carrying with them. narcotics, they were carrying drugs with them RPMs, the hasheesh different products from the help, had literally they were traveling from country to country and they would decimate the population and maintain a group and they would literally get them

addicted to the drugs. And so you could say that they were the first international drug dealers, so to speak, crossing barriers, carrying these drugs. And the orlimar took it so serious

that shackle Islam, even taymiyah

who was the shack of the of the hanbali school, he made a fatwa very, very serious one he had suffered, his parents were killed in the battle that he was living there in Damascus. And it was really serious what was going on, because the drugs was having an impact on people's lives.

And he made the fatwa that a person who's selling these drugs, it's capital punishment. And that person should not be buried in a graveyard with Muslims. That's serious. That's about the one of the most extreme fatwas that the scholars have given. But looking at the situation with the Mongol hordes, and the mass addiction that was going on and the impact that addiction has upon our families. You can see this.

The issue came not only in Damascus, but in Egypt. And a scholars in Cairo who were probably the leading group of scholars in the Muslim world at the time after the sacking of Baghdad. They came together and the issue came up. This was concerning the intoxicants that were coming through this hordes, and some of the scholars said, Well, these are the type of intoxicants or whatever they are, they are not we can't say it's covered. We cannot say it's intoxicants. Because we know that Hamas that this you know, intoxication has been bad. In the Quran itself, it's very clear what it is. And based upon what was visibly known by many of the scholars, at the time of the process, Salah was

basically wine and beer and different types of liquid type of alcohol intoxication. And so the Hanafi scholars, they classified

the harbor as being that which flows, it's wet and it flows. So this is like a beverage. Okay, so opium or marijuana, hashish. This is not a flowing beverage. And in the case of marijuana, it can affect

Your head, it can make you what we say hi, change your consciousness but you don't necessarily stagger. So you could appear to a person, not as not being drunk and drunk in person will stagger from side to side, they slur their speech, but the marijuana can can hide itself the effects can hide themselves in the life of the individual. And so they debated this issue and a group of the scholars and this is found in my book, which is the explanation of the Hudis IDs. And I will download a group of the scholars brought Hadith from Ohm selama raviolo on her. And again, this is now describing the actions of the prophets on Sallam and what he had said. She said know how to sue

loss on Salaam and Colima. skerin one of

the Messenger of Allah peace of blessings be upon him prohibited all intoxicants, and narcotics. So there was too thick maschere had morphed here.

So maschere is what make you suck CRAN you're drunk. So I'm translating this to say intoxicants, but it could be intoxicating beverages.

But the other area was waft here. And that is something that can make you high, it can change your consciousness. As the alum I would say my you hamanako it sort of covers your intelligence, but it's not sacrum.

So that is also prohibited.

And so that comes through the Sunnah, through the way of the Prophet peace be upon him, Allah can be so nutty, you should follow my Sunnah. And the scholars adopted this. And they made the position that anything which is getting you high or drunk, changing your consciousness, any of these drugs and intoxicants, they're all Hummer. And they are horrible.

And so today, some of the drugs that are coming into our community, and we have some ones that sneak into the community. The young people have these drugs, some, they give it exotic names, like ecstasy and

different, you know, drugs today, and they have names, you know, they're calling, you know, sugar, you know, white sugar using for, you know, cocaine, you know, for, you know, heroin, you know, they're giving different names and, you know, even within our community, especially the East African Community, and this would affect directly. Somalis. Yemenis are some Swahili is people coming from East Africa in Yemen, there is a plant, which originated in Ethiopia, and then spread across into Yemen, and this is called the pot. Or they say sometimes they call chat. And this is our leaf. And it is not like pan, which is an India and Pakistan. pan is the leaf and they put in the different

tobaccos and different things inside of it and they chew it. Okay, so the problem with pan is that it can affect your teeth and near your liver. But it's not an intoxicant unless they put hashish in the pan.

But cart itself, the leaf itself has the intoxication inside of it.

And so literally, they will chew their cart, and they will make a big, round like bubble in their chicken, I want you when you look at a crowd of Yemeni people.

The next time you get a chance, unfortunately, it's usually a very negative circumstances. But you look at them and see if there's anybody with a bubble in their cheek. If you see the bubble that's caught the chewing pot because they keep it in their cheek and then they put liquids there. And they let the liquids touch this ball of of the leaves and then flow down. And this drug, which is classified by the unit United Nations as an addictive drug, it can literally keep you awake 35 hours straight.

And

it affects the liver.

It affects the teeth of the individual, sometimes the teeth turn orange and brown. And it's also been proven to affect the children that are taught to his or her children.

There will actually be born in many cases with brittle bones. So their bones are very weak, they can break very easily. And so because of the negative impact on our community, then the court you know has been made by the majority of scholars is actually horror. And for a long time, even tobacco itself.

It was

considered not to be haram but my crew, which means something very hateful. But many other scholars now consider it haram as well, because the Surgeon General in America has clearly shown that that tobacco is is cancer causing.

And so even though it's not agreed upon, and still Muslims are smoking cigarettes, in many cases, more and more people are waking up to the fact that this is a harm, and anything that is harming our bodies. The Prophet said, lad, dada, dada, don't harm yourself to harm anybody. And so it falls in this category. So this is the spirit of the sundown, that the essence the law of the sooner, this is what CDM zodac was talking about, as one of the solutions to the crisis that we're in,

look at sooner, in a different way. It's not just to work out sooner.

But it is a lifestyle. And we literally have to adhere to this lifestyle, in words, and in deeds. And this is one of the pillars or the foundations of the spiritual way, which affects all other aspects of our life. And which inshallah can give us that type of foundation to protect us on the onslaught that is happening. Because you can say, you know, there is a physical pandemic, the COVID-19. But there's also a spiritual pandemic, that many people are losing their faith. Many people are becoming confused. And they might say, why would God do this to me?

Why would God keep me in the house? Why can't I enjoy myself, not realizing that the prophets suffered more than anybody else. And not realizing that pandemics have happened before. Even at the time of Prophet Muhammad, Salah they were epidemics, they were diseases. This is a reality of living the life in this dunya in this world on the planet Earth, is a struggle that will continue until the Day of Resurrection.

And so this is another one of the great pillars, and some practical discussion surrounding the intoxication, the illegal substance abuse, which is impacting our community.

I want to end here at this point, had to open up the floor for any questions that anybody may have comments or questions in a roundtable discussion.

If you have any questions, you can write them into the chat.

And

we'll try to deal with these questions and answer them if possible. So I want to leave the floor open for any questions that anybody may have. The floor is open.

So sure, there is a question here. Okay.

So the question here is about

I guess,

sorry, it's on a social media. Just let me read it here for you. It says here, what if what if scholars are differing their opinions on whether something is permissible or impermissible? Like you use the example of God, and some, the person here is saying that some Yemeni scholars say that it's not impermissible? And some are saying is permissible? How do you? Which which view would you take? Well, you know, we all need to be in touch with people of fick who we trust, who can weigh the different proofs that scholars have to take depositions. I remember reading

a, an article written by a Yemeni scholar and he called pot, the flower of paradise.

As though this is something which, you know, people take in order to make tahajjud prayer, or they say it's like drinking coffee.

The West, you know, has its Coca Cola and it's coffee and it's other things and we have this, but the reality is and again, there was a major conference held in Medina and they analyzed the actual chemical component of cotton. And they found out it is addictive. And so literally if you see the people who are chewing cloth regularly, you will see a full

of addiction. I witnessed this here in our community by running a social service. I saw the impact that was having on families and recognize it's a harm to the body. There's so many proven ways that this is harmful. And the prophet SAW Selim said that may you rebook LML allow you to stay away from that, which is doubtful for that, which has no doubt. And definitely, there is doubt inside of this. And you look at the impact that it is having on Yemeni society. After ba you see trucks coming in, and you'll see people there. They're addicts I've seen I've been around people chewing it. And it's literally an addiction. And it's waste of money. I've seen families, you know, especially the

husband's taking milk out of their babies mouths, literally spending the money to chew the pot had to stay up and after he comes back after 35 hours, he's a useless man to his family. And so from so many angles, this is something which should be prohibited. I'm not a Mufti myself, but it has been classified, you know, as being haraam and at least we can see the serious harm that's in this and as the Prophet said leave that which is doubtful for that which has no doubt lab dot i will add the raw don't harm your bodies and don't harm anybody else. Will law other

Okay, there are no more questions.

Okay, so we end today praying that Allah subhanaw taala will help us to make the right choices. We protect our own by especially the young people. And may Allah subhanaw taala lift this pandemic of the human race and help people to improve their lives after it goes away and unite us in peace and justice are called poly how that was talked for loudly welcome by aka Diana al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salam alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh