Living Islam #11

Okay shall shall model your life

Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salam talana Sierra more saline Valley he was so busy with adequate Southern appraisal due to Allah, Lord of the worlds and peace and blessings be upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, his family, his companions and all those who call to his way, forever, my beloved brothers and sisters, to our students to our friends, as salaam aleikum, wa rahmatullah

Alhamdulillah, we've reached the final session, within this short review of the practical guides to survival in the 21st century. This is a major topic. And it's something that needs to be discussed over and over again.

And it is important for us to begin every long journey begins with one step. And so this is an opening this is a step for many students who have not been used to integrating with solid feck the foundations of jurisprudence into their lives. For many people who saw Islamic principles as being very different from their daily situation. This is an opening for them,

to see that there is light at the end of the darkness, that what we are learning about Islam in the books can actually be practiced today. Even though it's the 21st century, even though we are in a cyberspace age, digital technology, even though we're in the midst of a pandemic, the principles of Islam live on.

And Muslims have gone through changes. Throughout the ages, Muslims have gone through major pandemics, diseases, viruses, was calamities, and still the message is alive. And still people are embracing Islam. And people are returning to Islam, even though they may have been born in Muslim families, but they understand at a certain point in their life, that Islam is not just eating halau food.

It's not just being named Ahmed or Xena.

But Islam is a way of life that we literally practice. We literally go about our daily activities, whether they be educational, social, political,

there's something that Islam has for all of these different challenges that we are facing in our lives.

And so, in line with what we were looking at, this generation is faced with a lot of contradictions. And really these last few months have brought on the conflict contradictions in terms of the pandemic itself the COVID-19 in terms of vaccine vaccines,

in terms of wearing masks or not wearing masks, in terms of whether we should be locked down or whether we should be out there are so many opinions and many times we are faced with issues that are not so clear.

And so, the younger generation needs to be equipped

to handle these strange type of phenomena that are coming at them in the name of culture

and the name of civilization.

And so, a few concluding principles to help us along the way.

These principles inshallah in the future can be studied in more details, because they open up a subject that is so important to our understanding of Islamic lifestyle.

One of these vital principles is that the solid fact tells us that doubtful things are to be avoided.

The Prophet peace and blessings be upon him told us in authentic ideas that value rebook Ilana luxury book, leave that which is doubtful for that which has no doubt.

And so if something is down

For the safest position for Muslim in these times is to avoid

because this will keep us clear there are so many doubtful things and we want to be on the straight path and the shade Tom, Will he ever be laughed

at his forces have mastered the ability of confusion of making what is false appear to be true. And what is true, appear to be false. And so a young person may be outside, they may be down by the seaside. And somebody says it's a hot day, have a drink and the Muslim side of stock for the law. I'm a Muslim, I don't drink. This says blue. It's Labatt blue.

And that is a famous Canadian drink like Budweiser here in America.

But the non Muslim said, No, I'm thinking about you.

I'm thinking about you. Because if you look closely at it, it says Labatt blue, non alcoholic malt beverage.

And so technically speaking,

it doesn't fall in terms of chemistry in the category of her arm.

But there is Shobha. there is doubt inside of it. Because of malt liquor. malt is a taste. And most people who begin to drink beer, the first time they drink the beer, they usually spit it out. Because it does not taste good. It is not a natural drink, mango juice, apple juice, the natural fruits that Allah subhanaw taala. For the average person who doesn't have an allergy, it's easy, the baby will take it.

But something like malt liquor is an acquired taste.

It's acquired through the force of socialization. Because you want to fit in

had it becomes a culture.

And so there's doubt inside of that there's doubt with drinking out of a bottle like that, because somebody could come walking along and they could see you drinking it. How do they know it says non alcoholic? And so when all these doubts come up,

the prophet SAW Selim said leave the doubtful ticks. So this is an important principle that we can carry with us the young people can carry with them, to help them when they're in that strange situation where it's unclear. And there's so many unclear things in the world today.

Another important part about our Islamic outlook.

And this separates us from the People of the Book from Benny Israel el from the Christians, for those who received the message before us, who in many cases had one standard for themselves, and another standard for other people

and our school. Our foundations tell us that Haram is prohibited to everyone alike. Al haram haram Allah Al Jamia,

what is prohibited is prohibited for everybody. It's not just something that is prohibited for us because we are chosen people and other people can take it. No, because we believe remember our principals that have that her arm has something wrong in it is there is harm in it. And it's interesting, how hum had her arm are very similar. So why would you want to harm somebody else. And so here you have a special gift. After 21 years of working for Bell Canada, working for the subway system, working in a factory working in an office 21 years party, your non Muslim friends with the best of intentions, they're innocent, that's their culture. They give you a package cheers to 21

years. But inside the cheers and the front is chocolate. But in back of it is all types of liquor, vodka and gin and whiskey and rum and cigars and all types of things which Muslims would consider to be not permissible.

And so the good Muslim, or the practicing Muslim would say this is something prohibited from me. And if they said no, we put it in the backseat of your car and you're driving home, don't give it to your neighbor, right? Because there's harm inside of it. And so that chocolate which is all

Okay, anything else which is not

prohibited, you can take it. But those things that are harmful to the human being. And karma, as we learned is a terrible thing. Intoxication is the mother of all evils, destroy it. So this is a principle that we keep showing that we have respect for all life, if we think something is wrong for us, then surely, it's wrong for other people.

Our principles also tell us

that, if we get into a difficult situation, this is necessity, it's called Dora.

And our school tells us a doodle rat, to be a helmet, rat, that those things which are of a necessity, make permissible, what is not normally permissible. So in other words, necessity dictates exceptions. So if you're really in a difficult situation, you're in the middle of the desert, and here we are in the picture, you're crawling along in the desert, you're dying of thirst, and you're getting these mirages in front of you. And a mirage is something where you'll see water in front of you, you'll see ice, or you'll see something that you need. And when you come close to it, it's gone.

This time, it's not gone. And when you crawled up the hill in the middle of the desert, and you look very closely at it, then you will see that it is beer, it is a can of beer,

and you are thirsty, almost to the point of dying. This is Dora.

So in this case, it is permissible to drink.

You don't drink to get drunk, or to get high, but it is permissible to sustain your life, even if it is with alcohol. Because remember, necessity dictates exceptions. This is a very important rule. Because there will be necessities in our lives, times where you don't have any choice, but to do something, and so you do enough of it, to sustain yourself to continue. And so

these are important principles. And I want to end our sessions with seven focus points. Now these key areas are areas which are essential nature.

And looking at our situation today. And it's changing by the moment, we can see that there are certain key areas that we as Muslims were being tested in these areas. And so we want to look at some of these areas based upon what we've been studying for the past few months. We want to look at this very seriously. Number one,

the key focus behind everything that you have to focus on every day of your life is the consciousness of Allah. And that is your relationship with the Creator of the heavens and the earth we used to say, here in North America, always let your conscience be your guide. Always let that taqwa. That's how we see it now. That that fear and hope that quality that protection that connection with Allah subhanaw taala gives us piety and helps us to make the right decision. We need to increase it to increase it by being as pious in secret as we are in the open. Just gauge your press. How you pray in front of a group, how you pray at home.

Also, that if you can reach the level where what you do in secret is even better than what you do in the public. Now the taqwa is increasing. Give it a way, give secretly so that nobody sees it. Do good actions, then you're doing it for a loss of one.

Stay around people who remind you of Allah because they will build your taqwa. They will build your love for the Sunnah, your love for the silat

increase that consciousness of Allah.

The second point, which is of crucial

necessity for all believers, is to be sincere to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and people they give Salawat

They put Mohammed around their neck on a chain.

They have a beautiful poster in their house. But when the Prophet Sal seldom told them to do something, they go against the Prophet so seldom told them clearly. When you're eating semilla, say Bismillah eat with your right hand.

And so the person thinks he says he's Muslim, but eats with his left.

The person says that they're Muslim, or sincere to the province and seldom, and they do whatever they want to do.

But how can we practically be sincere? Because sincerity is a very deep term. See, the Amazon Echo grammar Allah gave us some focus points. He said, number one, if you want to be sincere, to the Prophet peace be upon him, follow the Sunnah follow his way, how can you say you are sincere to him, and you're not following his way. And I'm not saying his way as an Arab, because there were things that he did, in terms of the type of dress that he wore, or the type of foods that he ate his because he was living in the Arabian Peninsula. But there are other things that he did, which are principles of Islam, things that he ordered his companions to do, things that he through his example

showed very clearly, this is this is what we are supposed to be doing. And so the Sunnah, the methodology, and the way of the Prophet so seldom, that is the completion of our submission to Allah subhanaw taala.

The second point that he said, which is interesting, he said, we should honor the family of the Prophet peace be upon.

And that means that whenever we meet somebody or know somebody who is directly related to the province on Sunday, and then we should show that person respect, of course, that person has to respect Allah. And unfortunately, in the Muslim world, there has developed this tradition of people claiming that they are part of the Prophet's family. And so in some parts of the world, they will call themselves say it.

In other parts, they call themselves Sharif.

And you'll see it on the person's name. And you say, oh, that person's to say it. And I check this thing out one time, there was a brother who actually came from India, but this could happen anywhere. But this person came from India and I said, Okay, say it, are you actually a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed Salah. Because I know that I know the sentence I lived in Medina. And one share calm and Haida

took me to his house. This is a well known say it. And he sat me down and he opened up a book, very textbook, and he showed me a family tree, where he could actually trace his relations, all the way back to the Prophet peace be upon him. They had lived in and around Medina, right from the beginning.

And so there are say it's around the world. They know each other. And they have a system even of tracing their lineage, the same way people are looking up their lineages today, that there's a way to trace it. But this brother said to me know, what happened with us is that a said, came to the village. And when he came to the village, everybody then called himself say it.

But there were only a few people who are actually part of his family, when he intermarried for the people in the village that becomes his clan, but not somebody who lived within the area. And so we honor the family of the Prophet peace be upon them, as long as they are implementing Islam. There are people who call themselves say it, but they are attacking Muslims, they are ruling by injustice, they are doing the Haram, then we do not have to follow them, or to show them any special honor. And the third point is that we should have compassion for the onma for the nation of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. And so when we hear about the Uighur Muslims, in China, the

Rohingya Muslims in Burma, Palestinian Muslims, we hear about Muslims suffering in any parts of the world. We're supposed to have compassion. And that is the real way to be sincere to the prophets on Salah because he has compassion on all of us. Number three.

And again, these are practical focus points. This has come to the surface and has become more and more important, especially within the past year with the killing of George Floyd. And this is all coming to a major crisis in the United States, but it's gone over the border of America. It's here in Canada. It's in the Western world. It's all over America, that people of African descent are coming

out and saying, you know, I want my rights, Aboriginal people in Australia

are coming forward, wanting their rights.

There are people throughout the world who are suffering from the demon of racism,

ethnic divisions. And so it is one of the crucial focus points for us to survive. As families and as a nation, you have to deal with the demon of racism. If we hate somebody because of their color, or their ethnicity, whether or not they don't speak our language, these divisions that we are involved in, we have to struggle, we have to confront it, see that it's wrong, and then work towards ruling out of our life.

This is crucial for Muslims. And I believe that as time goes by, as we move toward the Day of Judgment, this is going to become more and more serious, you can see what's happening now. And Muslims have to be in the lead, as they were in the time of Prophet Muhammad, so seldom in breaking down tribalism, breaking down ethnic divides amongst the people.

Number four,

and that is, we need to focus on sound education.

And this sound education, authentic education, which would lead us to empowerment, it is sound and authentic in the sense that if we are studying Islam, we don't take our Islam from culture, we should take it from the basis of the religion to call it and the Sunda take it from the great scholars. If we are studying the world, worldly education, then we should also try to have a sound education, to go to authentic, reliable sources for our information, and this education should lead us to empowerment.

That is a crucial principle that we have been studying. And it is part of our survival. We're talking about a survival guide now.

So the skills that we're learning, you don't just learn it to learn it. But we learn it in order to survive.

Languages, technologies, cooking, planting, whatever it is, get a sound proper approach can empower yourself with knowledge.

Number five,

from our seven key points of survival, and that is total youth involvement with an emphasis on alternative Islamic recreation, and entertainment. This is a focus point.

And as we learned earlier, the youth are the people of the future.

Actually the present now, I mean, obviously, the young people will live in the future when this generation goes. But even now in the world that we're living in

young people, according to the United Nations International study,

make up the majority of human beings on the face of the planet Earth.

The majority of people are under 25 years old.

And so within our programs within our masjids Islamic centers, movements, there should be total youth involvement, not just the youth program. You don't give them a basketball and send them into gym and then talk about Islam. No, the youth should be involved in everything. But there should be alternative Islamic recreation. So there should be a way where young men and women can play sports without showing their private parts

without swearing,

an alternative way to entertain yourself because the younger generation, it's unbelievable. For years, I have not been listening to the the pop music. But recently, when a name came up, I just listened to one of the songs that this person was singing, and I could not believe my ears.

This is a popular singer who is an open, say tannic cult worshiper.

This person is pushing the worst forms of life because he does it with a nice suit of clothes on and with lights flashing and with rhythm in the background. People love him

And our own young people are getting caught up in this. So there has to be an alternative way to find entertainment for young people.

We have to to push this to support this, whichever way we possibly can.

And we have to realize that the prophets of Salaam say, yes, zero out to a zero. He said make things easy, don't make it difficult. It is reported that on the day of eat, in the mosque of the prophets on Salah, remember, his house was attached to the masjid. The Prophet peace be upon him looked out of the door of his house, it was a etias place. And he looked out there and he heard a commotion in the masjid. And he looked and he saw the Ethiopian Muslims, they were dancing with spears. So obviously to dance, you got to have some music, or sound, some rhythm. And so they were dancing and enjoying themselves, because within their culture, it's a very rhythmic type of culture. Our back

our Sadiq, rhodiola one coming from the background of the Meccans which made to a certain extent in Arabia, very dry

type of cold background. He said stop them or messenger of Allah stop them.

What is this? The promise of solid said leave them alone. It's aid.

Now obviously, it's not something that's Haram. It's not something that would have been wrong. Because the Prophet peace be upon him was Michelle via

he is a person who gives love his words, what he allows, becomes the Sunnah.

It's sometimes separates the harem from the halaal, clearly.

And so he allowed it to happen. He allowed them to entertain themselves in a way that Arabs Bedouins didn't necessarily do.

Yes, a little while at two, zero, Bushido Wallah, to not feel the Prophet said make things easy, don't make it difficult.

call people to Islam, be positive, don't be negative, don't drive people away.

And so this is very important for our younger generation. I can't stress this enough. Because if you have children, if you have teenagers, young adults, sit with them sometimes even listen to some of the things that they're listening to, or trying to resist. And you might be shocked.

Number six, special attention needs to be paid to the women of Islam and the girls of Islam.

This is important not only because the Prophet Sal seldom came to liberate all human beings, from all forms of bondage, and all forms of oppression. And that the oppression of women, even though it has spread around the world, it has hit Muslim as well.

The court ad did not tell them to do that. The Sunnah did not tell them to do that. But it came in. And Allah knows why. It could be during the colonial period in the 19th 20th century, how men lost their strength. And they took it out on the women, whatever it is, women in Islam are struggling, struggling for their liberation. And so special attention needs to be given for an Islamic way out, if not,

feminism comes in.

secularism comes in.

And you can see today it is an example of the case in Turkey. And I'll use this example, specifically because it's happening right now.

That Turkey, although they hosted a special conference for women,

had an agreement was made to protect women, the rights of women, they suddenly pulled up.

And all these reports are going fabricated reports. Not nothing on the ground. That's talking about femicide and how abuse something like two thirds of the women in Turkey are being abused. But then they say, Where did it come from? And they quote, some obscure study.

And you see that that the trend in Turkey is a family tradition and not the negative family. It is a family tradition, very protective.

And so how then, if the society is trying to get itself together, trying to protect women, how is it now that they would

come out of this agreement? Why because there are people what

Trying to break down families

who are trying to bring in the extremes of feminism, as we discussed before, and they do it in the name of woman's rights. Now,

no doubt, there are women who are being abused in Turkey, in Europe, in the United States in Canada, it is said even that during the COVID-19, lockdown, that the amount of abuse started to rise exponentially. And they said right from the beginning, when China went on lockdown, they even said there was more divorce than they ever saw happening in China.

And so abuse in the family violence, it's happening throughout the globe. Why would they focus on turkeys? Why?

Because Turkey is a country that has a large group, maybe the majority that are trying to return to their Islam.

So special attention needs to be paid

to women and to girls.

Again, to find liberation, not through secularism, not through feminism, but within our Islamic lifestyle. And that is a struggle, because there are some people who are propagating the wrong thing in the name of Islam.

And they have to be weeded out as well. And it takes justice and balance in our leadership, to be able to weed out these negative elements, and to bring in the balanced Islamic way of dealing with women and girls. And number seven,

which is a key focus point. You can use it in your personal life. You can use it in your family, in your society, your community, and in the Muslim world. Operational unity, that is that we need to unite our finger by itself or two is weak, it can be smashed up. But when it comes together like this, then it does things when it's together. Unity, right.

So operational unity, and that means that we accept differences. We accept the fact that there are some people even practicing Islam, slightly different than us. And the prophets of Salaam even did certain acts within the Sunnah,

that were different.

That Alhamdulillah there is a broad implementation of Islam. And that is because this is the last message it's not only for Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula.

But it is for Africa, for Asia, for Europe, for the Americas. It is not only for desert climate, it's for cold climate, it's for the jungle.

It's for the ocean.

It's for all types of human environments. And so there's gonna be differences. And just like Allah subhanaw taala made differences in the plants. The flowers have different colors, animals, the birds that you see singing, coming back now in the spring, there's different colors, different sounds, right, but they're birds.

And so Muslims are slightly different, but they're Muslims. So we need to not look at that which separates us. But focus on that which unites us. Similarly, within our family, there may be certain qualities that our husband or wife has, we need to forgive, we need to be able to work with that person with they have negative qualities until they can see their mistakes, operational unity, accepting differences and going forward as believers on the straight path.

And so these are seven key points, seven key focus areas coming out of our study. And this is an opening for us. These are practical guides, these are practical areas that we can think about in terms of what should we actually do because people say, Okay, I'm a Muslim. Now, what am I supposed to do?

What areas should I focus on here? because Islam is a way of life and because there are so many different areas that Islam deals with.

What are we going to do today?

Because there are certain issues hitting us today did not hit us in the same way before. Some of us may never have had a problem with racism.

We may not have recognized what was going on, but now we are here.

In North America, and now, the whole phenomenon of white supremacy has spread throughout the world, people understand it, they can see it rearing its ugly head.

So we deal with it.

We may not have realized that our young people are in crisis, before you just say okay, Olli goes read the Quran

bozhena just, you know, make your liquid Allah Be a good girl, wear your hijab.

Don't worry, when you grow up, you're going to marry your cousin, or there's somebody in this village who you will marry, times have changed.

And so there needs to be youth involvement, we may never have realized how important it is to include the youth. And the programs that we are running.

We may not have recognized how serious it is, to

be sincere to the Prophet peace and blessings be upon him.

To have a sound education. In many cases, we took our education, we took our Islam for granted. All you do what my father used to do, or what we did in the village, it's not like that anymore.

We are in the barrel of decision. And there are people in an organized fashion, who want to put out the light of Allah.

But as Allah said, they can try with their tongues with their mouths to put out the light of Allah, but they will never put out the light of the law of Allah. Even if the disbelievers or the polytheists would hate it. They'll never put out the light of Allah is like a fool.

blowing out the sun, gather all the fools together and say it's too hot out, let's blow out the sun. You can make as much wind does you want, you will never put out the light of the sun.

And so these are some of the key practical guides.

And I pray that Allah subhanaw taala will accept us. And I want to in conclusion with these points, as we normally do, open up the floor for any questions that anybody may have concerning some of these points that we've made tonight, in our session tonight.

Jeff, there's a question here from our sister Lila regards to the point that Haram is prohibited to everyone alike can one then discard food containing non alcoholic ingredients like gelatin alcohols are

discarded meaning

it because if it's haram for everybody, I guess the question is, for instance, like, you know, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna assume that that's what she means. But

if if something is haram for Muslims and non Muslims alike, back in the days, remember when when someone used to get like, alcohol as a gift for Christmas? what they do, and they don't drink it, they they'll give it to their next door neighbor, do you? What do you do now? Do you throw it out? That's what that's how that's what she's asking. Right? So this is exactly what I showed in the slide. Maybe you weren't there at that point. But that, you know, you get this gift, you know, after 21 years. And it's a nice box filled with chocolate and alcohol and cigars 21 years of service, and you know that you cannot be dealing with the alcohol and the things that are haraam can but they put

it they put it in the trunk of your car and you didn't realize it. Do you give it to your neighbor? No.

Because if we are living by the principle that that alcohol,

the hammer, it is the mother of all evils, then it's actually going to cause a problem to the neighbor, you might give it to the neighbor and he may end up getting drunk and beating his wife.

So why would we give a poison poison to them?

There may be a gelatin products, which if we are certain that it's pork, that is coming from pig there is harm inside of this. And so therefore we need to discard it. We need to get rid of it destroy it. Okay, so the question sorry, the she just corrected me here. So she's actually referring to food, not beverages. So So food is the cause now because remember that the basis within her arm? Is there some harm, there's something impure, and something you know, harmful inside of that which Allah has made her out. So we use the example of the pork right? That you know, this is a ramen and you realize that the poor that that the person you bought some beef jerky.

And you know, you thought this was the halaal section. And you had your beef jerky here and you and you reached home.

And then you realize that it's pork jerky,

you know, so you can't give that to your neighbor. That's actually a harmful thing. Because, you know, eating of the swine is harmful to human beings, not just Muslims, it's harmful to human beings. So we were destroyed.

Now,

the other general questions

that we have no, I don't see any.

So now, what we'd like to do, and you're more you can explain, we'd like to give a little quiz for those who have been loyal to the class or those who are listening on we have enough. And then we can even we will, we intend to give a little certificate of participation. And but that means that you need to have listened and taken in the information. And I think that those who,

you know, have taken my class really, when I give questions, if you were awake in the class, you should know what the answers if you're sleeping, I can't guarantee it. But if you're awake, and you want you should be able to answer these questions. And it's, this is an open book question tests By the way, so you can look at your notes and answer it. So more could you explain how it will be done? Yeah, so it is actually just in the learning management system. The same way though same link that you log into come into this class here it is the last

note in the whole classes off it is labeled as I'm just gonna go ahead and read it for you real quick, is labeled as final quiz, open notes, please answer these questions. So you can just find it in most themselves on the show. Do you want it to be emailed to you?

If you if you email it, if it's all emailed to one source, it source and then it's and then it's sent over to me that's probably so we can probably if they can just get emailed out to Islam at I I believe it's [email protected]

right? Already sorry. [email protected] [email protected] Okay, so we need to mention to them we'll send that out to

you I'll leave a note inshallah in the same in the same room.

So May Allah subhanaw taala accept the time we've put in the law forgive us for any mistakes that we have made.

If you have gained something that's from the Creator of the heavens in the earth Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim. Alas, enderlin, Santa Luffy cos Illa Latina amanu Pamela salejaw what was so bill Hakata wasabia sub Salah Allah to Allah say that Mohammed, where Allah He was happy he were baddeck wa sallam Subhana Arabic Arabic is that DMARC phone was Salam Allah wa Sallim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salaam wa Alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh