Abdullah Hakim Quick – New Muslim Corner – Essentials of Islamic Beliefs for New or Revived Muslims
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The importance of authenticating one's faith in Islam is highlighted, along with finding space for it and avoiding false accusations. The speakers stress the importance of practicing the language and changing one's name in order to achieve a better understanding of Islam, as well as the negative impact of reacting to media and sharing one's views online. The class is closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, but participants will still attend. The speakers emphasize the need for individuals to maintain their intentions and avoid harming their reputation, as well as the negative impact of reacting to media and the importance of shrockiling and protecting one's identity.
AI: Summary ©
him Alhamdulillah wa salatu salam wa salam about Somalia Kampala were better cattle Alhamdulillah this is a new Muslim corner. And the intention is to provide an area
a time or place where people who have recently embraced Islam, or even if there's somebody interested in Islam that would like to come and Muslims who are reviving their Islam. So somebody could be born in a Muslim family but didn't really understand it. And, you know, has the same zeal as somebody who's embraced Islam. This is the place and
We've been looking at the fundamentals, the basis of Islam itself, as opposed to starting from the top, the political theory, the, you know, social theory, the Islamic banking, Islamic economics, we're looking at the basis of the faith itself, because that really is the most important aspect of Islam. And in this light, we started by looking at the text of a great North African scholar city up there man,
Aphrodite, and in this text, he started off talking about what is required of a new Muslim.
And, again, I want to,
you know, to to emphasize, you know, the importance of what he said, because this is a great scholar of Islamic jurisprudence, but looking breaking it down in such a way. That's, it's really relevant to us today in the world that we're living in, and especially for those who embrace Islam. And then after the crowds are gone, they find themselves alone.
So correct, and authenticate your faith. This is how we began. And again, by saying, correct your faith,
authenticate your faith, that means everybody has a faith. So it's not like you don't have beliefs, you do have beliefs. And the problem that happened historically, you know, for the Muslim world, is that when Islam was spreading, and entered into different lands, people embraced it by the 1000s. And they came with their own beliefs. They came with their own systems, their own understanding. And unless they were able to really sit with scholars to really get lessons that went right to the core of their beliefs, they came into Islam. And they did the outside aspects of Islam. But then on the inside,
they remain the same.
And I can remember, living in the African townships in South Africa, in Cape Town, a place called collegia.
And Hamdulillah, we had many people embracing Islam and making tremendous changes. And there was one sister who was very active in the community. She was practicing Islam, you know, dressed Islamically, you know, knew the different, you know, fundamentals. And then unfortunately, her husband passed away.
And my wife and I went to her house
to give her our condolences, Islamically ties, yeah.
And we, we found her she was dressed in green.
And that was not the way she normally dressed. She was totally dressed in green. And there were certain sounds and vibes. So we said, like, what is this? Like? Are you doing something different? You said, No, this is death now. So in our tradition, this is what we're supposed to do. We dress in a certain way. And then we, we carry out sacrifices and because in that particular area, they believed in ancestor worship.
So they believe that
the ancestors are very important when they die, they make transition.
And so you don't pray to the Creator directly. Your connection is more with your ancestors. So you go to your ancestors who are already over the other side, and then they can relay your message to the Creator.
So that can be mediator, right?
And so we were shocked. And we said, okay, Islam has certain understandings as what is your real understanding of Islam, she was honest. She said that, you know, many people here, we look at Islam as a social club.
You come on Fridays, you wear certain clothes, you know, you say certain things.
But our real core beliefs are the same. So when it comes to birth, death, life,
we maintain our beliefs. And so really, what was required in that environment, as it was in different parts of the world, is that somebody who understood who came from the people
taught religion of Islam,
through their concepts, now, the words challenged their core beliefs. And this is what the scholar is saying, correct your faith. So you don't put it aside
and then go to it whenever you feel like it, no, you correct it and authenticate it.
So this is a very important thing to do right in the beginning. And we went through
many of the aspects of the piece that was written by CD up to our metal, daddy. He said, Seek knowledge of personal obligations, like your purification, your prayer, your fasting. You know, this is the next stage. He said to stay within the limits commanded by Allah. Right now, the fourth point, he said was make a sincere repentance. And this is Toba, immediately make Toba.
And this is something not only for somebody embracing Islam, but if somebody was a Muslim, and they practiced cultural Islam, for say, 20 years, they just did what their father did, and what their mother did. And then suddenly, the lights went on. And now they really wanted to practice Islam. Some people even say, take your shahada over again. So so they're now revived. But one of the things they need to do is to make repentance for those that which went before and that is to recognize, you know, the sins, to turn to a lot of repentance to have regret. Right, we also recognize that includes firmly intending not to return to the sin.
And then compensation, you may have done something to somebody. So you need to compensate.
People This is a part that many people forget,
for the injustice is that they did. And then to avoid unlawful deeds, understand yourself, and the deeds of the eyes, and the hands and the tongue. understand all of these aspects.
That's the complete process of Tober. Okay, then, he went on, and he said, God, the tongue against obscene speech, like cursing the oath of divorce, rebuking, humiliating, insulting or intimidating others, without legal rights, he said, to keep your gaze away from haram prohibited things. So this is something to start doing right away. If there's something that you understand is prohibited, keep your gaze away from it.
Okay? God, all parts of the body against reprehensible actions, love and despise for Allah's sake, call to righteousness and forbid evil. And then he said, is forbidden. And he's given some details. You want to know what I can do to start changing my personality. And that's the way it is when you do any type of new activity, or you change your lifestyle. So you come into an office, and they say, okay, the rules of this office is, this is how you act with the boss. This is how you act with each other. These are the limits of your speech. So you go through a process in order to get yourself familiar with how to function in this office. So he gave some of these things. He says forbidden to
lie, back bite, spread scandal,
behave arrogantly to be conceded, to show off especially in religion, or worship, to be envious or filled with hatred,
try to take hatred out of your heart.
Then he said Do not remind people of past kindness, nor defame them, nor ridicule them, no spread innuendos. He said Do not stare at the opposite * or essentially delight in their words, this is getting deeper now. For those who have gone to the basic basics is getting deeper.
Do not take the wealth of others by force, do not earn wealth through acts of intercession or borrowing.
Do not delay Salaat after the prescribed times. So this is a homework assignment that he has given that can take you to the first stages. And obviously the most important one is the first to correct and authenticate your faith. So we looked at different aspects of the correction and authentication of the faith. And we recognize that the most important aspect of the faith, the most important aspect of being Muslim is not the clothes you wear. It's not the slogans you have or the food that you eat.
Right it is Tawheed
and that is the belief in one God, monotheism uni unity. What whether you are Hebrew and Arabic, the Messiah is Tawheed to unify things. In other words,
concept of God.
And to do that we recognized, just to say God is One is not enough. Because there's a lot of people who say God is one.
But their concept of God may be the Son of God. Because there's only one sun.
So when they say this, you know, we believe in the sun.
Okay, so that's one
concern. So that's, you know, their concept. So, we looked at one way of breaking down to heat.
Right, getting into it. And again, these are parts that, you know, in your understanding of Islam, you may return to, in this way or in another way, in order to make sure that your Tawheed is right.
And so we said there's three parts. One is that Allah is One, right unity in his rule. As Rob as Lord, there is no rival with Allah.
Nobody can rival Allah. So that route will be the rub.
Okay, to that Allah has one and his names and descriptions. none like him.
So that's the unity. The toe heat of a smile was the fat as far as the names and SIFAT are the descriptions of Allah.
Okay, and three, Allah is one in his divinity, and worship, there is no partner with him. That's Tawheed and ulu here.
So only one divine being and only one being worthy of worship, okay. So, these are the three parts now we looked at it, and Rubia was clear. As far as the fact we found out that the names and descriptions of Allah, it actually can take us into philosophy. So this is a lot of details in this. But basically, we recognize the fact that
we believe that Allah is unique
in His names, when we say Allah is Al Hakim,
that is the most wise
Okay, the Most Merciful.
Okay, so the names and descriptions Allah describes himself actually gives us descriptions in the Quran, and in the words of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. So we accept these descriptions. We don't try to change them. We don't subtract, we don't add. But we recognize that Allah said in chapter 42 Verse 11, laser commit li che, well, who was Samuel Persia, there is nothing similar to him.
And he is the All Hearing all seeing us, Samir
all you know, hearing how Bussiere
all seeing
Okay, so we cannot say how Allah sees. And we cannot say how Allah he is.
Okay, so this is where we were at, in terms of previous discussions, correcting and authenticate the faith. And again, this is a normal subcontract, not election. Although it might sound like that. Sometimes, but not election. Okay, so if you have any questions, you could put it up on the chat.
Or
in our class, if anybody has questions. The only thing we're saying is that we don't want political questions. We don't want to know what is happening in the Muslim world and why is there no Khalifa? And then you know, what the elections in Turkey or something like now, we're dealing with correcting and authenticating faith. We're dealing with the basis of our faith. So I want to open up the floor as any questions that anybody has, up until now. Something from last week, which was a holdover or any questions concerning anything so far.
You can check it in the chat.
Room, okay.
The next part is dealing with, again, we're going to the bases again. And this is food for thought. It's something to keep in mind. Because you know, sometimes Muslims say things in Arabic. And they don't realize what they say in Arabic is a very flexible language. And it's a very deep language. And sometimes grammatically, there's certain terms when you even when you're learning Arabic. There's certain terms
Rumors that you might see and you try to translate it
directly literally into English and it doesn't fully make sense. Like for instance, you'll hear Muslims say, Allahu Akbar
and Allahu Akbar,
we say Allah is the Greatest but in Arabic you have Kabir, which means great, Akbar.
Which means greater.
And el Kabir or Al Akbar,
the greatest,
but Arabic, many times, it gives you an abbreviation like you understand the meaning.
So if you look at that, that phrase, Allahu Akbar, it actually means Allahu Akbar, main cliche. Allah is greater than anything else.
Okay, but you don't have to say that.
This is how this phrase came. Okay, so when we look at the Kalima, and that is the beginning of the road for a Muslim. When the person says, I shadowed La ilaha illallah, where I shall do under Muhammadan do a solo or Rasul Allah, that's the beginning of the road. And we hope that it's the end of the road, that the last thing you say, in this life should be these words.
Okay, so this very important words, though, it's the beginning. And it's the bottom line. So what does it actually mean in Arabic. And the more you understand Arabic, is, the more you can understand, understand the strength of the statements.
Because the greatest thing that Arabs had, at the time of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him over 1400 years ago, the greatest part of their culture was language. They did not have beautiful palaces. They did not have beautiful rugs. Beautiful cuisine, porcelain, like many other societies had, but their language was so flowery. And so expressive, sometimes you have one word, and you can say it like sleep.
You can actually just they have like 16 words or so for sleep.
Now, we might say, in English, and this is colloquial English. You say He dozed off, he's dozing, right?
Or we would say in America, he's not He nodded out.
Okay, those what is the dose? What is nodding?
Right, so these are different levels of sleep. So there's a form of sleep, where you're not totally in like REM sleep.
You're just an edge now, in and out. So there's a way to express this in Arabic, there's all these different ways. So when we say La Ilaha, de la la,
la
means not.
So LA is what you could say. It's a negation. It's a negation. So when you say, La Ilaha,
when you make that statement, then you are making a negation. So you say there's no God.
That's a powerful statement. There's no God, that ILA
and that, in itself is a powerful statement.
I remember.
He was in Germany, some years ago, the Muslims opened up an Islamic center.
And they wanted to get the information, they want people to come to them. And this is before heavy social media like we have today.
So they wanted to get it out to the public. So but the Germans at that time, there was a lot of atheism. There's a lot of atheism today.
So they believe there's no God. So now they said, Okay, we're going to do something. So they went on television, it was like, evening news. There is no social media, people not looking at their cell phones. Everybody's looking at television, right?
So they went on the television, they bought some space. And in this advertising time, they said, there is no God.
That's it.
And the German, Germans clap their hands. They like what is who's bold like this to put this on thing? These Muslims. You're like this, what is this? The next night law? There's no God.
And then the third night and now they had a big audience, waiting to see what would happen the next night and they said La Ilaha illa Allah.
For more info
information.
There is no God except Allah. For more information, contact the Islamic Center at such and such, do you see what they did?
So that's what we're doing in a sense with this. We are cleaning
the table, the slate is clean, there is no God. So you can't say there's a little one is a big one is a family one is a cultural one. There is no God, then you say it Allah.
And then Allah now makes the transition linguistically. So it's clear, and then you say, Allah.
So when Allah comes into that,
you see, it is clean. The whole slate is clean. So it's a negation. And then confirmation. This is like Link linguistically, it's a negation and a confirmation. And so that means Allah alone should be worshipped and creator, nothing else. Okay.
But you also have
there's also
the opposite could come
we saying La ilaha illallah or something different, what is the second part of the Kalima?
So the second part is when Muhammad and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
So when you say that you're starting with confirmation?
Okay, so the second part doesn't start with negation starts with a confirmation.
Because you've confirmed with Allah, then you confirm
with rissalah prophethood.
You see, and by making a confirmation, in this case, you are implicitly saying, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, nobody else is.
Nobody else's.
You see, so linguistically,
this statement, and the early revelation of the Quran, to the Arabs was so powerful linguistically
that people would actually embrace Islam just like listening to statements. That's something very difficult in this times. But they respected the language so much, there was so much in it, it was so deep their language was so deep.
And their understanding of the language even the common person, the person could be a desert Bedouin.
But they had a mind like, you know, British would say like Shakespeare,
but the person is a desert Bedouin
and when you look at the Quran itself, and it starts off in the, the, the second chapter circle Bacara, where it's saying I live, meme Valley, Cal, keytab loughrea, Buffy. That's how the Quran begins. It says a lift meme. These letters, and Arabs did not use a lift lamb and meme like this before. It's like somebody said, Come on saying ABC.
So everybody's gonna turn around like, Okay, what's wrong with him? I live la meme.
Then it says, this is the book in which there is no doubt
and it goes on. But the word Delica
is used for distant. In other words, if I say this is a pen,
and I looked across there, and I said that is a chair. So in Arabic, you would say how the, and Delica.
So when you say valleca, its distance.
It gives you a feeling of distance. So when you say, this is the book in which there is no doubt, and you say Delica, it gives you the image of a book far away.
That's actually coming towards you.
So this is a this is a, what they call mortgages or jazz locally. It is it is a miracle linguistically. It's miraculous.
And you wouldn't understand that unless you can actually speak Arabic.
And I mean proper Arabic, not even st Arabic, but you might find in some Arab countries, but it's what it's called first half.
If you understood this, this is the language. So this is our Kalama
This is the analysis, the negation confirmation and then confirmation which indicates Okay, so this is the Kalima, which is a powerful statement that we pray inshallah will be on our lips throughout throughout our life. So I want to open
What up the floor for any questions? Was that clear for everybody?
You know, any observation or questions that anybody has, you know, concerning the analysis of the Kadima?
Okay
requirement for someone?
Yes.
Can a person say the shahada completely alone?
And would it count? What's the requirement? Yes, I mean, basically, the shahada, or bearing witness that shahada is, you know, to the Oneness of Allah and the Prophet hood. It's between the person and Allah.
But the witness is there to make sure that they've done it correctly.
Because you may say something that you heard on television, or you heard somebody across the street saying, and you're not saying the right thing. You see how sensitive these words are.
So the witnesses the person who witnesses what you said,
right, and they make sure that you're saying it correctly.
But it's not required, technically speaking, that person who said the Kalama, who believed in the Creator, was Muslim. It is our belief that that person who's living in the Amazon basin in Brazil, who is alone in the jungle,
doesn't know Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, anybody.
And they say, oh, Allah, Oh, God, Great Spirit, I believe only in you, I worship you. And that person dies. That person is Muslim,
does not have that they don't speak Arabic. This is a different concept than what Christian missionaries had when they went out. Okay, next question.
How Arabic is required to learn for new Muslims, as it is a necessity to learn how to pray and report? Yes, so Arabic, you know, is Arabic a necessity necessity for new Muslims? Technically speaking,
it's not because Allah knows all languages.
However, the last revelation came through Arabic.
And so by saying it in this form, it's part of your latching on to Revelation. You're not latching on to Arab culture.
Because there are people who spoke Arabic with the enemies of Islam. But you're latching on to the revelation. And so you try the best that you possibly can. And you learn the phrases, even though you're making mistakes, because it takes time. And then you learn the basic phrases with the meanings.
Okay, and you gradually come into it. It's not required for a person to know it all right away, even if you just started your prayers.
And you just start and you say, Allahu Akbar, and the person starts praying. And they don't know they can't read the opening chapter.
So you're allowed to say things like Alhamdulillah Subhan, Allah,
La Ilaha, Illa Allah, just any statements that you know, in Arabic any basic things, you can say it and go to the next
part of the prayer? So it's not a requirement, but it is necessary to complete as soon as possible.
Okay,
question.
In English, yeah, so I mean, it technically speaking, it is okay. In the beginning.
However, it is better to really, you know, getting into the rhythm of the prayer, you know, that's what unites us attach attaches onto the revelation, then, instead of saying the opening chapter, you can just say Allahu Akbar, you know, Subhan Allah, just learn those Alhamdulillah La Ilaha illa Allah, you can say those those phrases in Arabic. So it is better to say those phrases in Arabic,
you know, as soon as you possibly can, because many of the prayers are silent anyway, right? So when you're silent is what's in your head. But learn those, you know, the Arabic as soon as you can, you know, it might sound you know, strange in the beginning when you're reading it, right, but try it, the more you repeat it is the more it will make sense. And this is good because then when you're with somebody who's reading the Quran, in a group, you can appreciate what they're reading because you already tried to remember it. So So you know, we try as soon as possible, you know, to get into that Arabic otherwise you can say those phrases until that point.
Okay, so yeah, go ahead.
Okay, sounds like when you say it or hear it, it sounds like in law. A law is like mind. But do you have to pronounce it? Hola. Hola. Like when you're when you're saying when I say it sounds like VIVA LA. Like you're not pronouncing the LA Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Again this this is a linguistic thing because the LF what's in front I mean that a part of Python Allah, you know when it meets the other word it becomes soft like so the flow is so Ill Allah, so you flow right into it, it's not a hard
lf there's different forms of the LF sound soft ones and hard ones. So in this one this time it does flow. But if a person said La Ilaha illa Allah, that would be okay.
Right, but the better Arabic would be to flow right into
La Ilaha. So you can't say la la,
you gotta say Illa
see in this case is different. So now, the other general questions that anybody has. Now going on to the next part, we understood the Kalama. Right? Remember, Tawheed is the basis of our faith, anything that we can be described as the most important quality of a Muslim is the belief in one God.
That is the most important thing. Although culturally, it's not necessarily the most important thing. You know, many times the people will say, Muslims will say, when you accept Islam, change your name.
So they say immediately you got to change your name.
Maybe they don't like to hear the name John or Jane or whatever. They don't like to hear that. They say change your name. And some of them get upset when you don't change your name.
It's like you're not really a Muslim.
Okay. And it is good to have a name in Arabic says the nice, but it's not required.
And what is the proof of that, and that is the companions of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.
For the most part 99% of the companions when they embrace this lamp, because all of the prophets companions were no Muslims. Because there was no Islam there before it. None of them changed their name except for a few. I will back I was Abu Bakr
Omar was Omar,
Khalid, Zainab, they kept their names.
So it's not a requirement.
You see, now there was a person whose name was Abdullah shrimps, the slave of the sun, that was his name. And when the Prophet peace be upon him heard that name, he said, Okay,
I think it's better for you to change your name.
Change it from up the ships to update our man, the slave of the Most Compassionate
because up the ships means you're a slave of the sun. You're worshipper of the sun,
and knew that that would not be good. Every time somebody calls you. They say as sun worship, sun worship, no.
So and in most cases, 99% of people accepting Islam wouldn't have to change if they don't want to.
However, it is recommended to do that. And what we the middle of road
for those who are embracing Islam, that doesn't have to be right away. And that is that you change your given names.
But your family name remains the same.
So the person's given name, the name may be James, Earl Jones.
Right. So James and Earl
are given it the Jones is the family.
So you keep the Jones and you'd say, you know Khalid, Mohammed Khalid Jones,
or Abdul Rahman Jones,
but you kept the family name,
because we're not supposed to be changing our families.
And now this, we have a particular myself and many Afro Americans, Afro Caribbean, those who suffered with the Atlantic slave trade.
The slavery was so bad that they actually took away the names of our families. So you'll find people name. James LeBron James is a famous basketball player, or Williams. There was no James or Williams in Africa.
That's a European name right?
And what would happen is the slave master would then if his name was Williams, then everybody on the plantation was Williams. So this is how these names start coming in.
Okay, in South Africa, and this is something I was shocked when I went to South Africa, because you had Muslims who were slaves
who came from Indonesia, and you had Africans who were slaves from Africa. And what the apartheid people were doing
is that they weren't changing people's names, or what they would do is they would change
the sound of the name. So if the person's name was
Mohammed, Ibrahim.
When they wrote it into the register,
they would say, Mohammed Abrams,
because they know they know Abrams, or Abraham, they don't know Abraham. And they change your name. And because you're forced by the system to accept this name, or they'll throw you in jail. So now you go to South Africa, and you will find Muslims. You know, his name is Abdul Rahman.
Abrams,
or Ishmael, like the names, you know, like, it doesn't sound right. But they were forced to do that. In our case, they wiped it away, totally. So, in the 60s, we went to a revolution. And part of the revolution was to throw off everything to do with slavery.
So we called our family names, slave names.
And to be a true revolutionary, get rid of everything.
Like Muhammad Ali.
His name was Cassius Clay.
Caches is like Roman Roman Senator sunlight, caches, and clay is a European name. So he said, No, my mind, my name is Muhammad Ali.
Some people say Muhammad Ali clay, they still want to get, but he was Muhammad Ali.
So he changed it completely.
And this is, this is what we did so But now, what we realized is, even though that name was not originally,
the family's name, generations have gone by with that name.
So therefore, there could be somebody named Jones, who is actually your cousin.
And if you change your name completely, you might meet somebody, and you might want to marry your cousin or you might, you don't even know your family.
So the balance position turned out to be
changed your name, like there's this one famous Muslim in California. His name was
he changed his name to to have the use of Hanson.
Hanson was different his family name. He was known as Hamza Yusuf. Before, but then
the balanced way. Handsome.
You see salted this, you know, names can be tricky.
You know, there's a lot in different names.
98%
of the companions didn't change their names. Yeah.
So those names today are considered was the matrix and we call it examples. A lot of smiling. Right? So back then, they weren't considered Muslim names. But now it's very common for us to have those names. And they're considered Muslim names. Yeah. So what is a Muslim? Yeah, so So this is a very good question. You know, what is a Muslim name? Because in those days, you know, this was not a non Muslim name, which became a Muslim name. Okay, so technically speaking, it wasn't the name that made the person the Muslim in the early times, because Abuja has his armor.
You know, he has, you know, a name there is the OMA to detail what they were people who are enemies of Islam,
total enemies of Islam.
Okay, and their name
was it was an Arabic name, which somebody might use today and say that's a Muslim name.
Now, technically speaking,
it's it's an Arabic name.
It's not technically speaking, just by the fact that it's Arabic makes it Muslim? No.
Because Arabs in those times and up until today, can be non Muslims and enemies of Islam.
And it's shocking because if you took if we could get a picture of people in those times, and you saw Abuja Hall, and you saw
terrible enemies of Islam, him
And, and you say, oh, Jimmy are these people coming along? He would have a nice beard. It didn't have long clothes. And you'd look and say mashallah looks like a real serious Muslim brother.
Right? Because beards long. That's this the culture of the people.
He had long clothes, that's the culture of the people.
Or the woman is covering up maybe covering our faith. That's the culture of the people. It's not necessarily what made them Islamic. What made them Islamic is the Kalama Tauheed that's what distinguished the Muslims
now, time has gone, Islam has been established, you know, lines have been drawn between East and West between Muslims and non Muslims, and cultural things come in. So you say like, that's a Muslim name. That's not a Muslim name. You know, whatever, in a sense, especially if it's a name like
Abdul Wahid. If you think the name like Abdul, Abdul Hakim, you know what his name is like that. Then you know, that's a Muslim. That is like a Muslim name because you're saying slave of Allah.
Abdullah.
Right, but not just Arabic. Because I remember seeing the name. There's some Arabic names came. And somebody said, okay, this person is name is Abdul Mercia was in so is this person, Muslim or Christian? But somebody said, No, it's Abdul Mercia. Like that's Arabic.
That's No. Abdul Mercia. El Mercia is the Messiah.
So his name is the slave worshipper of the Messiah.
He's Arabic, Christian. That's how you can tell Arabic Christians, you can tell them by the names.
But it's an Arabic, they do not use our names, like we do. In Arabic, they have their own sets of names that give them more of a Christian understanding, or even shows their belief. So it's technically speaking, not correct to say, to a new Muslim, take a Muslim name now.
No,
but you could say that, you know, it's recommended for you
to take a name with the beautiful descriptions of Allah, or somebody who remind you of the prophets, or the great, you know, women of Islam, wives of the Prophet, you know, take one of those names, because when people say your name, a beautiful meaning comes with your name.
But some of the names are used in Arabic, if you can go to South America now. And you find a lot of women named Fatima.
Fatima is Spanish name.
Even Omar Omar is in Spanish people use it. It came through a lot of ways. But now Christians, you know, might use it there.
Okay, so there's a lot in the name. And the more knowledge we have
is the higher you know, our level of understanding is the point I'm trying to make for the new Muslims. You don't have to change your name immediately.
You don't have to. However, I would recommend
that as soon as you can, you can even take a nickname, in a sense, a name that you like, and you want to eventually change.
Right? Take that name. So when you meet other Muslims, they don't go through a change. When they hear your name, right.
It's out of ignorance that they're doing that.
Right, but you don't actually have to do it.
Okay.
So language is very important. It's very important. Any other questions online? Again, this is no Muslim corner. And to meet any any questions online, this is no Muslim corner. And as a chance, it's a roundtable discussion, you know, for us in dealing with these issues.
Okay, quick, this question may not be relevant, but currently a polemic in Malaysia. A lot is being used by Christians in church, the Malay community, especially politicians were totally against it. Can you enlighten us on that and massage? Thank you. Yeah. Okay. This is a this is a deep question. But it's relevant to our discussion. And that is that there's there's a big controversy going on in Malaysia, that the Christians are using the word allah to mean God in their churches.
And so the Muslims are upset by them, and is a discussion. Technically speaking, the Muslims should be joyous, that they're using the word allah to mean God. Because that means they're close.
So to Islam,
because as I pointed out, in the beginning, I believe, if you look at the Christian Bible,
in Arabic, and there are versions of the Bible
that you can get in hotels in the Arab world, like you got Bibles, the Gideon Bible, in many of the hotels, they do it. Go to Jordan and some hotels, it is an Arabic Bible, it's Arabic.
And when they say in the beginning, like the first page about Genesis, and Allah, God created the, you know, in the beginning, you know, talks about God created the heavens in the earth, the word they use is Allah.
And no Arabic speaking Muslim
has any problem with that. They actually say that's good for us. Because you're saying the word Allah, you're recognizing the Creator.
Okay, so technically speaking,
the wisest position, you know, would be to allow that, as long as they don't take that name in vain.
In other words, maybe within their culture, they're using that for the wrong purposes, because I don't know Malay culture enough. But, you know, I don't I don't see the logic in that argument, I would say that the wisest position would be, you know, to use it as a form of Dawa, of calling to Islam.
even discuss it with them, what does Allah mean?
Why are using the word Allah explain to them what it means? It's in your Bible. So you can start doing Dawa to somebody? You explain, you know what it actually means?
Okay.
So now as we move on now,
and we go to the next phase, because Tawheed is one thing.
That's the basis, but the opposite is shirk.
Its shirk.
And
is the opposite of Tawheed
and shirk, from Ashoka use Riku is to associate partners with Allah.
That is shirk.
I don't know how it came into the English language. In American English. I think it's Canadian as well. We used to say he shirked his duty. You ever heard that before?
No, maybe that's an Americanism.
You've heard it. Yeah, he shirked his duty, which means that he didn't perform the duty properly right.
And I don't know where in English that could come from. Maybe if you went back a couple centuries, you know it came out of this, a shirt biller and that is to associate partners with Allah. Okay. And that is polytheism
we using the Latin monotheism is one polytheism.
Many gods Okay, so that's the opposite.
And
it is considered to be
the gravest sin
Shirke by the text of the Quran itself is saying that Allah forgives all sins, He will forgive all sins, except for shirk.
Okay, but then in another verse. It is saying in the last year if it isn't over Jamia, Allah forgives all sins. So one is saying everything can be forgiven except
shirk.
The other verse says, ALLAH forgives all sins.
So the scholars came with Jama to understand both and they said, what it actually means is in this life, Allah forgives all sins. So there's nothing you can do in this world. That cannot be forgiven by Allah subhanaw taala but after death
Sure, Sherk is the only thing that is not forgiven.
Everything else can be forgiven.
Okay, so this is a major overwhelming understanding of the scholars
as to what it actually means, okay. And as we said, Here, ALLAH is revealed, he will forgive so these are your verses in the Quran, verse four. Chapter 448 is one and the second one is chapter 39, verse 53. So these were the two.
Okay, so shirk is serious. It is the only unforgivable sin after death.
It is the most it is the worst thing you can
And possibly do. And that's hard for some people, you know, to come to grips with this person is a mass murderer.
Or this person has, you know, dropped a bomb, on a city, whatever they've done terrible crimes, shirk is actually worse.
And really, I mean, it's not a good thing to do to make a comparison like this. But one of the things that would hurt a mother and a father, especially the mother, the most, the child can, you know, do wrong and everything. But if your child denies you,
if your child denies your motherhood, like that kid that will hurt you. Maybe more than anything else, they might have done a lot of things wrong, but they deny your motherhood
and then leave you
that that's a terrible thing. Imagine Allah subhanaw taala has created us and given us everything in this universe. And then you're going to deny the Creator. When the signs are right there in front of us.
That is power. Everybody knows their power is greater than us.
Everybody knows this.
So how can you deny it? So shirk is really serious thing. So therefore,
the companions of the Prophet peace be upon him. And the scholars and enlightened Muslims over the ages, put extra time in perfecting their toe heat
to make sure that they were worshipping the one God, we had the three categories. There may be other ways of doing this, but this is three good categories.
Okay, so they had had a way a system to make sure they wouldn't, they will not break in their toe heat.
You know, and some people will say, Well, you have to be sensitive.
You got to be sensitive to this.
And
I'll give you an example of natural sensitivity.
There was a friend of mine, from California, Chicago,
and we were over in Arabia. And when he accepted Islam,
he took the name, Ali Akbar.
Now, if you're from India or Pakistan, you might have heard this name before. Ali Akbar, actually is wrong. Because the saying Ali is the greatest right? And that would be the extreme Shiites. Who in some extreme form, worship Ali, the cousin of the Prophet.
So they took the name Ali Akbar,
which actually in Arabic is wrong. So this brother is looking for some names.
And he said, Oh, yeah, that sounds nice. So I'm going to name myself Ali Akbar.
We were changing our names. There was nobody to guide us.
So So he went to Riyadh. And there's some bedouins who live in the middle of Riyadh in Niger, and they're really strong and they are to heat right. That's one of the main teachings that they have. And so we were in the masjid and my friend came in and they introduced him to this Bedouin.
And I said, this is my friend, how this IDP Ali Akbar MidAmerica. This is my friend Ali Akbar, from America. And when the Bedouin heard, he said that
Allahu Akbar.
I said, Okay, brother. This is my friend, Ali Akbar, from America. And he said, Now, Allahu Akbar
is Allah is the Greatest.
And we will get an upset, right? Especially the brother from Chicago, right? Chicago guys are tough, right?
But there is a wait a minute, I see what he's doing. So I said, Why did you say that? He said, Because No, you cannot say Ali is Akbar.
Allah is the Greatest, tell you for him to change his name to Ali Abdul Ghani, or something like this. And so when he heard this, we said, mashallah, this brother has given us, you know, what's equivalent of a lecture, you know, of a preacher, you know, at a mosque, just by his response,
his towheaded response to your name, and his sensitivity to shirk, to see it. So, the brother chambers named Ali Abdulhadi.
So Shirke is very serious thing. And it's something that we should be well aware of.
Now, to look at shirk, again polytheism, look at the setup. So you have the major form of Sherk and that is that you have the creator
and I'm saying God with a capital G.
And then you have a pot
Now,
right and then you go to the human being. So when the human being is praying to God, they don't go through, they don't go straight to God.
They go to the partner.
And this is why the the the the worship of the ancestors, putting the ancestors in between yourself and the Great Spirit. Because the African people believe in God, they do believe there's a God, just like the Arabs believed that there was a lot
but they wanted to go through idols Latin Rosa and Sua and different idols to get to Allah. You see, so, in this case,
no partners,
there should not be a partner, an intermediary, because then that would be polities.
Okay.
And there is another form of shirk.
And this gets very deep, but it's important to understand right away
and that is what is called a shackle Azhar.
So, you have the major form of shirk, and you have the minor form of sir.
Okay, and
what is the minor form of shirk.
And that is, is called our Ria.
And that is performing acts of worship, to be seen by people
are real.
And this came from the Prophet SAW Salem, you know, told his companions, I fear the most on you.
In one Hadith, in translation, what I fear the most on you, is the minor form of shark.
Everybody's afraid of shark now, right? But the prophet said, I fear the minor form of shark on you. And they said, what is that? And he said, You're Kumar Rajan that the person will get up and he will make his prayer beautiful, to be seen by other people. You just use that as an example. Good example.
What is the concept? The concept is the person is praying.
And
they're making the prayer, you should be making it for Allah. But many times the person makes the prayer.
Because, well, they change it around, because the people watching them,
like the difference between you praying at home, or praying at Juma in the mosque, with other people watching you.
It's a natural tendency, everybody has a form of reality. We all do things because we're being seen by people. When you every day, when you look in the mirror, and you say, What am I going to do today, I'm going to go to the office, I'm going to play sports.
Right? You will dress according to where you're gonna go.
And sometimes, because you're going to be seen by people, you go to the job, you have to look a certain way. That's okay. That's not worship.
It's what's required in the job.
But when it's your worship, which is changed because of people's eyes,
react comes from the word Ra, which means to see.
So RIA is performing these acts of worship, to be seen by people. And I may have used the example earlier, but I'll say it again, for those
who were not there. I saw a living case of this in when I was in a masjid in Cape Town. This is in South Africa. And it was after Juma and this brother got up to make two or cuts of prayer, two units of prayer.
Had a group of people came next to him
on the sideline.
And as he was making his prayer, somebody said mashallah,
like, look how beautiful this brother makes his prayer. Now, put yourself in that position, right? You're hearing people compliment your prayer.
So yes, you're praying to Allah, right? But suddenly, the compliments are coming.
Right? And you say, something inside you, your your yourself, your lower self, will say, make it more beautiful.
Because they're complimenting you, right? That's a human weakness. And so he makes his prayer, and he's crying and he stand down long time on the ground.
And the people are really overwhelmed by his prayer.
And then he gets up. And he finishes the prayer of salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah. And he turns to the crowd and he says, and I'm fasting to
you understand what he just did. He's really showing off right?
He's unfastened, to write, because he really wants to capture the crowd.
You see, that's real.
That's real.
You know what some people might do? There's a thing called water.
And that is a high level of what we call Taqwa you have taqwa, which is the consciousness of Allah, fear and hope. But you have another stage called water. And what are is, you will give up something permissible for fear of falling into something prohibited.
That's a high level of Taqwa. In other words, in this case, this person is making the units of prayer. If they felt
that they weren't going to fall into Ria, they could say so take a break the prayer and walk away. Because you don't have to make that prayer. And you can stop your prayer for whatever the reason is.
One example of what I one of the companions of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. His name was Abu Bakr Siddiq, or the Lama he was a high level of water.
And on one occasion, he had eaten some food. And then somebody said, Is this food?
puram is it prohibited food? I think this food is not good.
And the other company or many companies have well, you know, it's already gone down, right? Like it's not your fault. Because you already ate our Baca, and B being graphically made themselves vomit.
And he brought it up.
He didn't have to do that.
Right. But his level of Taqwa that's an it's kind of an extreme example, but his level of Taqwa is, he's going to give up something permissible.
Because he doesn't want to fall into something prohibited. That's a high level of consciousness of God.
Okay, and that, that will get you out of react.
And something like this is really important. And I know this Muay Thai people will do public speaking or anybody who does anything, you know, whatever, whatever, you know, you're constantly in a struggle against react.
Because, you know, somebody who gives money to the masses, it's
okay, do you give that money? You see, some people will give the money and they say, anonymous. They don't want their name mentioned. Because they have a fundraising DNA say, mashallah brother Ali, you know, gave $1,000 for the masjid Takbeer. And everybody says, you know, for Ali, right? Another person said anonymous, because they don't want to not given to get the tech beer from the crowd.
Now, the scholars will, you know, it is allowed if ally gave that money to encourage people to give.
So sometimes you'll give them money, because you want to encourage other people to give, that's okay.
But some people will give and they want their name on a plaque in front of the mosque.
So anybody comes in knows they were the ones that bought the mosque,
or they put it that that can be react.
Right? If you did it for a law, it doesn't matter. Whether your names written on the building or not, because you did it for Allah.
This is the minor form of shock.
And it's a really serious thing. It's so serious that the Prophet said rial will creep into my ummah, my nation, like a black end, creeping into a dark room on the darkest night.
Good description, undetectable. It's undetectable.
It's how can you see a an ad? In a dark room? No.
So people will start doing things because they want to show off to other people.
I'm a Muslim, right? So don't do it for Allah alone.
And react can cause a lot of problems, you know, a
lot of problems question.
For me, the act of piracy, or the intention, or
whatever, yeah.
This is real is acts of worship.
It's not just doing things. You know, for other people. It's an act of worship. I don't know whether people consider Facebook an act of worship.
Yeah, some some. I think this
is an act of worship for human rights.
Right. So I mean, if I was doing this class only because I want to show off to everybody. On Friday nights. That would be real.
I'm not doing this class because I want to have a new Muslim corner and
Help other people not to show up, but Facebook, and Instagram and these likes, right? This is another culture in itself.
And it's not necessarily, I wouldn't want to say it's an act of worship,
although some people even committing suicide because they're not getting likes.
Right. And it's wrong, I'm not saying yield, to want more likes, is something wrong with the person unless, of course, if they have a business based on their likes, like sometimes if you monetize, if you're getting money, you know, from your site, that's how you live, that you have to get a certain amount of, you know, likes and entries and you know, subscriptions in order to get you know, the money, that's your business. So you strive to do that question
that they do monetize the environment, right?
They make all their content for all
their life and their journey. Right, some encouragement stuff as well. But it's also like to pray. You considered the Prophet peace be upon him said your deeds are based on your intentions.
And everybody will get what they intend.
So that person who is doing that, you know, online, if their intention is to get fame, you know, and to get glory, whatever the net, that would be real.
Because it's their Islam now, right? It's the fact that they're in submission to Allah. But if their intention is, otherwise, they want to spread Islam, they want to counteract Satanism, which is so powerful on the internet. That's good. That's a form of struggle for us now. We actually are people who are fighting Jihad online. They're fighting against evil. Online, they're counteracting the evil online, that's okay.
Its intentions, right?
Its intentions. And it's dangerous to because sometimes, you might start off one way, and the fame gets to you.
And you go down. And you'll see that, like I say, especially with entertainers, and speakers, that that's probably the clip reel, you see people will change, when the crowd is big,
you know, and fame starts coming to the people
on a daily basis, or every period, you have to reset your intention. Because, as I talked about constantly trying to get you to not want those, like for these big shakes was to do a lot online, right? Shamans gonna constantly want to get them to just want the legs in terms of popularity, whereas their initial intention is probably because they want to spread the message and they want to help. Yeah, so you have to constantly watch it, that's why Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him was simple all of his life, even at the end of his life, he had only a few changes of clothes, very simple gold was coming into Medina, he would give it all away and then go to sleep.
So, he maintained some simplicity
right, because you know, he did not want to not say that he would, but as an example, you know, they owe that we have to maintain simplicity, because we are, can strike everybody. So this is not just the the example of the scholars, and the teachers is one of the you know, clear example, but it can, it can happen to even come, everybody
react can strike you.
So you do have to, you know what your intention is? Of course, if you're praying by yourself, that doesn't matter. Because no, because Raja is the see, right?
So somebody's got to see you, or it could be Soma, which is to hear, like they heard about you.
Right, so I mean, react can come, you know, like that question online.
So,
to what extent you most was partaking for religious practices out of respect for family, such as Catholic mass or Christmas dinners? On Sundays? Yeah. Okay. So the question is, you know, that to what extent can a new Muslim be involved in previous religious practices, like they accepted Islam and his Christmas gathering or there's a mess, you know, whatever. As far as family is concerned, the new Muslim should maintain their family. And, but what we watch out for is shirk,
its polytheism.
So, if these in these gatherings if there is polytheism there, and we're going to go into the details, Inshallah, in the coming sessions of what shirk actually can be, you have this polytheism minute, then we avoid that. Now, I can talk about, you know, cases exactly, because coming from a Christian family
Being around people. And the example of a brother and sister, you know, the, you know, the grandmother died, all the family is coming out to the church. And so they attended, they attended. They made their presence. But during the religious ceremony, they were on the side, or they left when the prayers come.
But they attend, they attended, and they extended their condolences to the family. They paid their respect, but they did not involve in the worship.
They did not involve in the worship.
And we even had a case I remember years ago in the Jamia mosque, when I was the Imam there, and this brother passed away a young brother, he was upcoming football player in North North York, like he had a really good player.
And some unfortunate thing happened to him and he died. And so the his whole high school wanted to come out. And this was one of those collegiates.
And so that meant that the mosque was going to be crowded with people.
And 90% of the people would be non Muslims. What are you going to do? Some hardline people will say don't let them in.
You know, you know, and then the preacher wanted to say something, the principal wanted to say something. So he said, No, this is a form of Dawa, let them in the mosque. But I went to the preacher, and the principal, and I said, We respect your religion, but when you make your prayers, you know, please make the prayer to the Father.
Because we don't believe in intercessors like Jesus, right? They might say, in Jesus's name.
But they could say, oh, God, our Father,
you're still in Tawheed. Right.
And it's still Christian.
So so and he was glad to hear no problem with that. And he was glad that, you know, we would come together, we had a beautiful gathering, everybody shared their emotions. And that was a form of Dawa, for many of those people there, they had never been in a mosque, it would never have any reason to come to a mosque. But they came
and we shared, you see, so the key point is, you make your presence felt, but don't be involved in the shirk. Or the ceremonies. Question. So in terms of like, you go to a gathering for example, I've been to a gathering Christians. And it's not like a religious gathering. It's just getting together but then they say grace over the right. And then I'm, I don't know what to do because you know,
sayings someone else's name over the food makes it, haram right for you. So I like I been in situations like that, where I never thought about it, and I eat the food. And now when I'm in those situations, I don't know what to do. Yeah, I mean, you know, in the case is, you know, our sisters, you know, at a, you know, in an occasion where non Muslims, you're all together, and they say grace over the food. What is the position? Okay, our basic position. And what makes the food Halal is how was * sacrificed?
So the food is Hala. Okay, so they made their prayer. So number one, you don't involve yourself in the prayer.
Right? So you wouldn't be saying amen to that.
Right? So you don't involved and then before you eat, you say, Bismillah
No, no, no, this is exactly. Because Prophet Muhammad Salah Salem, he was it is he was described, he went to a Jewish man's house.
And the Jewish man, People of the Book, gave him food.
He said, Bismillah and he ate
because we're allowed to eat the food of the people of the book. So he said Bismillah so by us saying Bismillah you negated the grace
and the food is halal. That's the key thing if the food was not allowed, if it was a nice ham, you know, a nice piece of pork, then you can say Bismillah all you want
you can't make the pig halal. That's what makes it difficult because like user like Sure, sure.
That's right.
Either because you know, in this case, it's okay. Is that you just don't say amen to their grace. And then before you eat you say Bismillah if you want to even say it out loud right? Before you so they can hear you saying Bismillah
so you know your zeal, but it's in that case will be okay. Question.
Muslim involved in interest based loan prior to reverting, but now it is very hard to get out of that loan. Can you do your show a lot we regret this What can I
Yeah, yeah, so this is a person accepts Islam and their their interest base load
coming into Islam is in stages and a person is not required
to drop everything to completely change their life immediately. And in this society here, you know, many of us started in 90% of the people or more, you know, who have wealth are caught up in mortgages and all kinds of different things. That's the society we live in. So, therefore, is recommended that that person, you know, show, you know, regret, but and they try to come out of that as soon as possible.
But, but, but for that person to like, destroy their life. It's not required for them to immediately change, but they need to, but they need to make intention and movement to come out of it as soon as possible. And how you do it, you gotta go to a financial expert, you know about that?
Don't ask me because I'm a poor man. You know, so I can't tell you, you know what to do with your 1000s. Okay, question.
So this was one of the person who asked the question, okay, what is your opinion on young Muslim trend and Muslim variations were wearing kind of amulets, small statues, cultural amulets, and those people justify it as cultural attire.
Celebrities and ripple effect was pretty similar to Yeah. Okay. In terms of shirk, the forms of shirt, we will be going into the forms as we go into the major form of shirk. But, you know, since you're here and we're there, you know, you may not be next class.
It's all based on intentions.
If the person wishes jewelry, just for beautification,
then there's nothing wrong with that.
But what the danger is, if it's a Muslim, it's like some Muslims were like a pendant or something that says hola on it.
Okay, so the only problem is, you can't wear this in the toilet.
So you have to take it off, every time you go in the bathroom, you can't take the name of Allah into the toilet, I'm talking about an Arabic to especially,
you can't
but if the person is wearing the amulet
as a means of protection against evil as though it is a type of power force that is protecting them, then that is a form of shirk, whether you call it cultural or not, and therefore, it is wrong. And we will be going into the details of that, how that developed what it actually means, but just for your sake, now, no, but the intention is there, it could be a cultural bracelet that they wear or something like that. Nothing wrong, just beautification. It's your culture. But if they think that this is some kind of god protecting them
or some kind of power force, then it can fall into shirk.
Question here on
transport related to round.
How do we is it okay to acknowledge pluralism, the coexistence of many different beliefs and the acknowledgement that those are the beliefs people may have other ways of knowing the world and, and understanding it and accepting it as true or okay, but still
pluralism?
Yeah, I mean, it is Islam does recognize other ways, other forms of belief, and especially the people are the book. You know, in Medina, there were, you know, Jews and there are other, you know, Christians were like, you know, they're allowed in the Muslim state, and even some forms of Hinduism were allowed when Muslims ruled India,
you know, so therefore, you know, it is, we recognize that there are other ways of life, we definitely recognize it. Do we believe that everybody's Correct? No.
And this is the struggle you go into, I face this
in going into what is called interfaith.
So you have interfaith gatherings, right? And you can have an interfaith gathering where you are showing respect to other people. You're trying to understand their concepts. You do it with the intention of Dawa, right. You do what the intention
but the problem is, when the interfaith reaches the point where I was at one gathering, and they said, Okay, now, we want everybody in this group to unite.
And there was Buddhist, Hindu,
native, traditional religion, Christian, Jewish, Muslim.
Everybody's there.
So we want to unite
What can we unite on? So somebody said, Well, maybe there's a great spirit is a God, can we do that?
And then the Buddhist said, that's nice, but I don't believe in God.
You know, so I said myself, how can I be united?
I can respect him.
I can help him. I can live as a citizen with him. But I'm not united in a sense Prophet Ibrahim. Peacekeeper, he broke the idols. He broke his father's idol.
You know, so we don't believe it is correct. But we show respect in dealing with you know, the people.
Yeah, so the question, the last question, in my mind was pretty much that same question. What is your opinion on pluralism and belief being Muslim, but embracing or celebrating multiple cultural festivals that involve rituals? Other than, right, okay, so this is the same thing that I just said, This is Florida. We're in a pluralistic world, you know, today
as long as we stay in this area of religion, right, but this pluralism thing can get crazy. Right. But, you know, that's the challenge that we're in. We're in a society, where we don't agree with everything that everybody does, but we can live in peace. There's nothing wrong Islamically with that.
Okay.
Any other general questions?
Anybody has?
So this really is the beginning of our discussion, I will open the floor for any general questions now that somebody may have, as long as I'm not too not political, and you're not too deep. I'll leave the floor open for any general questions that anybody may have. Yes, I'm
not alone and comfortable.
Yeah, if the food is not allowed?
Yeah, well, you know, getting into food, especially non pork food.
There are different positions that scholars take, in terms of especially being in Canada, or, you know, the West, when you're dealing with the food. Because if you consider this to be the people in this country, as people are the book, because the Quran does allow us to eat the food of the people at the book. So if you consider it to be the food of the people the book, you know, then you can,
you know,
say Bismillah, and then you can eat it. However,
what happened was this one great scholar in Arabia, and, you know, they wrote to the sheikh, and they said, Okay, we're living in America, like, what are we going to do with this food, McDonald's and your Kentucky Fried Chicken? Like, what can we do? So the shack it and they told him, Well, it's Christian country, you know, whatever. So he did not. And he was a blind man, too.
And he said, It's okay. If it's a Christian country, then just say, Bismillah. And you can eat. So they took this as
permission to start eating everywhere.
And I think I think this is my opinion, and many scholars opinion, that's a mistake.
It's a mistake, because we even found out that in some of these
outlets, McDonald's, we're not we even wrote to McDonald's. And they said, we don't use pork at all. But in our oil. We have some there's some lard in it. Because by having lard in the oil, it stays longer.
Like vegetable oil evaporates.
So the lad holds the oil longer. So they put a percentage in to hold the oil. They don't necessarily tell you that. But we asked them specifically.
And some people who work in slaughterhouses and these, you know, McDonald's in these places, and they see what that food is and what these people are doing. They're not going to necessarily eat it. So the strongest position well, I'll give you an example. I was living in Jamaica
for a couple years.
And we lived on a street in Kingston, Jamaica. And this is back when early days 80s No Halal shops, nothing in Jamaica.
Okay, so but down the street was a Christian preacher. And he had chickens in his backyard.
And he used to sacrifices the chickens by slitting, cutting the throttle body and the blood run.
So this balance called a say, as long as they're not like strangling the animal and drowning it. You know, whatever. If they cut the throat, you know, then it's Chris.
When you can eat it, it doesn't matter even if the person is a Christian with Trinity or anything like that, as long as they are people of the book, because the people are the book and the time of the Prophet peace be upon him, also had Trinity. Trinity was already there. Remember the Council of Nicaea? Right? Yeah, it's 325 ad. That's what a lot of people don't realize. Trinity was already there.
You see, so when you said people have a book and his time, it meant also those people, because there's something of the book still in them.
There's something there. So so it was allowed. So therefore, that was the case, when we you know, when we knew, you know, that that was there, it was, you know, acceptable, once we were able to sacrifice our own meat, and we didn't have to do that.
But, you know, just seeing anything and saying Bismillah, AR relinquishment hearing, you have to watch out what you're eating. And being sure about what you eat, I believe, helps your Islamic personality, because it makes you more aware of things. You're not so loose minded.
And sometimes Muslims are eating and drinking everything, and it does get loose with their culture, we cannot be loose in the society. Because there are so many pitfalls,
dangers within the society, that we need to be vigilant all the time.
The other general questions anybody has those of us who are learning to practice the tenants of the slab, we will have encountered those who are too harsh or too soft to the practice, what's the best way to discern true Islamic belief?
Okay, the true Islamic belief, you know, number one, to understand Tawheed you know, the oneness, understand shirk, polytheism, you know, then you'll understand the true Islamic belief in terms of practice, how people apply Islam,
that will vary according to the person and, you know, that's why it's important. And we will be if we continue the class on, which I intend to come in to continue this class, even when the regular classes stop. So inshallah in June, July, we're going to continue.
But, you know, Sierra, the life of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon, the more you study his life is, the more you understand what true Islam is. So one of the best ways to understand true Islam is to know the example of the Prophet.
But human beings are like this, there are some who are too strict. They don't have wisdom, you know, the more knowledge you have, and the more you understand that the Prophet peace be upon him, was a balanced person.
Okay, but true, Islam really comes down to toe heat and shirk, right.
That that's the basis of being a Muslim.
Just based on that question,
what's something that might confuse people was like before my hubs, and understanding that there's differences in opinion, and so, you know, some people get very strict about their might have to do this way. And so for any, for any Muslims, it might be helpful to have these give an overview of why you are different. Yes, you know, that this can get deep in terms of the nuances amongst Muslims. And I don't want to confuse the new Muslims at this point in time. However,
the reality is that Islam is broad based. And there's cultures that are affected. You know, there are even what we call Islamic movements. People have to practice Islam in a certain way. This can impact how they practice Islam. But the more we understand what is permitted or prohibited, and what is permissible. That's why I you know, I recommend the book, halal and haram in Islam, of Yusuf al Qaradawi. Because he's a balanced scholar,
you need to get balanced scholars who are not taking you to one extreme, you know, or another.
But there's going to be nuances, we grow into that. And that will come in sha Allah, you know, because Islam is over 2 billion people now.
So human beings, you know, have different experiences. And so therefore, you will find different versions of Islamic practice, but the more we understand what Islam is,
then you are done. You know what Islam is not.
That's what you have to
you have to know the difference.
Now
any other general questions
or questions?
then it was up there on the shelf dear hello and
yeah, I put it on a shelf
somewhere on that shelf
I just got that book. And I was looking at it for music and I couldn't
I missed it or wherever but
Music What is a little or disliked about it? Yeah, I mean that is that's another Pandora's box that that's a big question. You know, that is the like I say use of because always it is. He does touch on recreation, right.
Basically, what I will say, which some people might consider to be controversy or whatever, I don't care.
You know, there is music, the statement music is haram, it's prohibited
by that statement alone is wrong.
That statement is wrong.
Because music means what some one one person said, organized sound, whatever that means, right? organized sound is music. So is organized sound prohibited? No. Mr. Malla Ghazali. One of the great scholars he said is the bird prohibited listen to the song of the burden.
No. So in other words, you will see in the life of the prophet peace be upon him. When he came to Medina the answers the people of Medina, they brought out their singers, dancers, singers, and they sang a song Tala al bedroo Elena famous song they sang it this music right
okay, so music organized sound itself is not prohibited. The problem comes is what kind of organized what is in the sound itself
okay, obviously if there is nakedness there is shirk,
you know, things like this and Islamic things that would make it wrong.
Okay, there's a big discussion about the instruments or no instruments, again that there's no straight you know, opinion on this by the way that that that's you know, so I'm not even going in that area. The point is, is that music is permissible with limits
okay
the other different time any final questions that we have
Okay, so we're going to close the class to give people a chance to you prepared for margaritas I have something else that I have to go to actually and inshallah we will be continuing the classes on.
You know, we also have another class on Tuesday nights venue, your online which is an interesting class as well. We're dealing with Muslims, you know, coming to the Americas, before Columbus, some historical things might be interesting. It's at seven o'clock online or here
on Tuesday nights and inshallah we will continue and it's the intention at this point
to try to continue the class into the summer generally in IIT everything shuts down
so our main classes will close down but because of we're dealing with new Muslims which will continue you know, I will try to continue this as much as possible unless something does come up. If something comes up then we had to skip a week you know, you know for that but we'll continue the classes straight through
you know, inshallah as long as we possibly can. So I will close with that have a safe journey, Journey Home, and may Allah subhanaw taala you know, accept us and forgive us for the stakes mistakes we have made. Subhana Allah who will be humbucker shadow Allah, Allah, Allah and a stockbroker on a tuba like Akka dot $100 Bill Alameen wa salam Wa alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh