Abdullah Hakim Quick – New Muslim Corner – Pilgrimage And Eid
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The speakers emphasize the importance of faith and conservative practices in Islam, while also highlighting the history and cultural significance of the Middle East and fasting during busy months. They discuss the benefits of praying and small small spiritual things, including repositioning products, and provide information on a chemical peel treatment for acne. The agent explains that it is a one-time payment and that customers can either pay it off in full or set up an appointment. The customer is interested in the treatment for the next two weeks and asks about the cost, which the agent explains is one-time payment and that customers can either pay it off in full or set up an appointment.
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Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim hamdulillah was hot on Simon so loud, but 100 Allah, this is another opportunity for us to be sharing and opening up the new Muslim corner. And the intention of this class is not really to have a formal lecture. But it is to have a place where we can understand more about Islam. And we can also ask some of the questions that may be a little difficult for us, you know, in understanding the faith, so the idea is to be relaxed.
And to feel that whatever question you ask is fine.
And we were looking at
the writings of a great North African scholar, city, Abdul Rahman Aphrodite. And in one of the texts that he had, he began by saying, what is required of a new Muslim.
And so these words have become very instrumental for us in understanding from a scholarly point of view, you know, how somebody who has embraced Islam, or even somebody who is returning to Islam, in a sense, can actually focus on issues that are the most important.
Muslims tend to look at Islam in a cultural way. So really, you know, the culture, many times supersedes the actual religion itself. And I can recall when I first embraced Islam as many, many years ago, and I was eating with the Muslims and wherever I thought that halal food was food with pepper in it, because every time I ate, it was hot. So I associated the pepper
with permissibility. Then later on, I met some people from Bosnia.
And they don't like a lot of peppers in the same way, other nations and so I realize it's not
the taste of the food, it's how you sacrifice the food. It's what is the actual meat itself. So the pepper in a sense, is the culture.
And the permissibility, you know, is the meat itself and what has gone on with the meat. So you can apply that to just about everything, there is a culture. And there is also what is actually permissible in Islam. So what we've been doing is to try to
bring out some of those key points to make it easy for those who are coming into Islam. And those who want to solidify their teachings and what we understood was from the scholar, that the first thing you need to do, that we need to do, is to correct and authenticate faith. So that means that wherever you were before you embraced Islam, it is a faith. So it's not like you have nothing and then you become a Muslim. You are coming with a concept of God. You are coming with concept of holy. You're coming with family ideas, ideas of marriage, ideas of divorce, ideas of death, ideas of the hereafter. All these concepts make up your religion, which is Dean, and Dean and Arabic is sort of
like your way of life.
So a person who can
comes into Islam in a tropical region
has a way of life which is affected by the tropics. So the rain and sticky weather and whatever. So some of the things that they do in their lifestyle in terms of getting up in the morning, the you know, the ideal life rhythm
is based upon the environment if another person was born in a high Himalayan mountains, so their culture is going to be different. And that affects your way of life. Culturally. Okay, so this is really where
the fine details in what is culture and what is Islam. So this is going to be a reoccurring theme.
What is culture and what is Islam. And so we need to know what Islam is, before you can understand, understand what it's not.
And that's important for new Muslims to understand that. Because sometimes we get overwhelmed by the culture of the people who helped us to enter Islam. And there's nothing necessarily evil about that people naturally going to give you what they feel is correct. Okay, so he began by saying, correct, and authenticate your faith.
And we have been studying something on the correction and authentication of faith, we will look in and we will continue to look on that this is a very important part
of our understanding. The second point was to seek the knowledge of personal obligations for right, like purification, prayer, and fasting. So the new Muslim immediately needs to know as much as possible, and needs to seek knowledge of these obligations, in order to which is the third part to stay within the limits, commanded by Allah. So it's a lifestyle. And there are certain limits like every lifestyle has. And the fourth point was to make a sincere repentance immediately. So wherever you were before, to repent to Allah, to recognize whatever sins happen,
turn to Allah, in repentance, regret the actions, right and tend not to return, compensate injustice, and then studying yourself to avoid unlawful deeds.
Now, today, because of the time of the year,
we want to stop the flow that we had with correct and authenticate your faith.
And we want to look something from point number two.
And what happens sometimes because of the time of year,
we are affected, you know, by this when Ramadan comes, which is the fasting month, and so everything, a lot of what we do revolves around fasting.
So then it would be natural for new Muslims, they have to understand what the fastest, because you're immediately you're right inside of it. So
the foundations of Islam, there's five pillars that Islam rests upon.
Okay, so Islam is the way of life Muslim, is the practitioner of Islam. The first is the Shahada. And that's the testimony of faith. So that's your monotheism. That's what we're studying now. It's your belief in the Creator, and your understanding and following of the prophets to is to perform press. So these are the pillars of our faith. Three is to pay zakat. Charity is not the right word necessarily. But it's something due to the poor and the needy, you have to give something from your wealth to the poor and the needy, at least once per year.
For was fasting in Ramadan, and we came to Ramadan
a little while ago, and the fifth is to perform Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, once in a lifetime.
And the Prophet peace be upon him. He said if you are able to.
If you have the ability, then you should be performing Hajj. Now, obviously,
in terms of
what you have to do shahada immediately, you got to think about the Creator. Prayers are going to come in
Zakat and Ramadan. It's really like once a year that people think Ramadan is only once a year in the month and people tend to the pay there's a cat in Ramadan.
On or otherwise I one particular point and the pilgrimage only comes once a year. But since we are right now in the pilgrimage season
and things that we will be doing, and we are actually doing already, we're in the month of April hedger
and they will revolve around
the Hajj. And that is something that needs some background.
The best way to understand the pilgrimage is to look at the life of the prophet Ibrahim alayhi salam, or in English was Abraham
to look at his life he was the friend of Khalil Allah. He was he was called his nickname was he was the friend of Allah.
And Ibrahim peace be upon him. He was born in what is now known as Iraq, in Iraq in a place called Aurora, which is down in the southern part.
And he was very intelligent, questioning young men.
And he reflected, he did a lot of reflection from an early age. This was something special about him. But his father was an idol maker. And at the time, idols, idol worship, you know, was being practiced by people in many parts of the world. And his father used to make the idols and so they would construct the idols from clay and even from dates or from whatever they had.
And these idols were intermediaries
between the person and the creator, and we learned last week that that would be to shirk, and that is polytheism.
Okay, and we're going to be going into the definition of shirk. And to go into the details, you know, about that, Inshallah, you know, in the coming classes,
although there were messengers that had come before them, some of them even near in their area, they had forgotten this time, moved on. So idol worship was the main belief. And Ibrahim
reflected upon this, he reflected upon the sun, could that be God? Does it make sense because the sun went down,
he reflected on the moon and the stars didn't make sense. Then he reflected on the idols. And this is sort of a actual picture of actual idols. What's some of them look like? In the area, especially the tall one in the middle, that has the long, you know, curly kind of beard. That is when you'd find in Mesopotamia. And in the area of Iraq.
And Ibrahim, he wanted to worship the Creator.
But then, he was surrounded by idol worship. And so to make a long story short, what he did was, when the people were away, he went to the idols, and he chopped off all their heads.
And he gave the stick, you know, the axe, whatever he had put it in the hands of the biggest idol.
So when they returned,
they said, what happened? And he said, Ask your idols.
Because if the idol is your God, right,
then you surely you're God's going to be able to inform you about what happened. And that was upsetting to them. It was an attack on their religion, they went right to the top, and they made a huge fire.
And like, you take a park like a huge square and in, they put Ibrahim inside of it.
Okay, and by the power of Allah subhanaw taala.
The fire became cool, and a place of peace for Ibrahim.
So they waited to see what the result would be the ashes. And when the fire died down, they found Ibrahim was there. So that was a shock.
And they didn't know how to handle that. So basically, as many people will do, and especially at that time, some sources say the king was Nimrod, and Nimrod was a famous ancient king in that area.
So basically, what he did was what Nimrod did, and what the the the people in Earth
did. Ibrahim, they banished him, put him in exile.
And he had married a woman named Sarah.
And so Ibrahim and Sarah, they travelled long distances they were
went from Iraq, sort of going toward the north than over towards Syria, and then down toward Palestine, you know, and into Egypt. So it's long journeys
that they took. And if you look at
what is now called the Middle East, now,
you will see where you have Kuwait, and Basara. So it's somewhere in that southern part of Iraq, there in the area of Basra and then going all the way around.
Baghdad wasn't there at the time, Syria, and then down into Egypt.
And Egypt, at that time, was a great empire. It is the Empire of the Nile, if you can see my arrow, that is the Nile Valley.
So these two places were what is considered to be some of the basic foundations for high civilization in the world.
It was the people who lived on the Nile Valley. Okay, so that's that region, the Nile flows from South North. If you look at the map, you think it's north south, right? Because we tend to think Eurocentric, like north is up and South is down, not. In this case, South is up, because the mountains are in the south.
So the Nile gatherers in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya from the lake systems, and the heavy rains, and then it pours down, it goes down North.
And the civilization also came from the south. And it went north.
Okay, and it became, you know, an amazing civilization.
On the other side, the side of Iraq, this is the base of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. And these were two of the most powerful rivers in the world as well. Because river rivers, he'll give water and they give agriculture, this became an early place for civilization as well. So these are two great civilizations. And at the time, there was a group of
people from Mesopotamia called the Hittites, America, and they had conquered Egypt at this time. So you're talking about somewhere around 1560
BCE.
So that's what we're talking about. Okay. And the America had conquered Egypt. They were the ruling class. And when when Ibrahim came there with his wife, Sarah,
they had something in common, because linguistically, they're speaking a Syriac type of language. And so they had something in common. And they became friendly with Ibrahim.
And they gave him a servant.
So this is of course, just to show you this chart again. Because again, I want to make this clear to people.
It's really hidden in plain sight. This knowledge is not that difficult, but you don't normally see it like this. So here's Abraham, his wife, Sarah.
Sarah could not have children at that point in time.
And so they his servant, they gave him a servant. Now remember, the America controlled the Egyptian Egyptians were African people. They were controlled by the the the Hittites.
And so some say she was a princess.
Allah knows best. But she became a she was given as a right hand possession or as a servant
to Ibrahim.
Ibrahim freed her and he married her.
Now you might say, Okay, you Muslims. What's your proof? Some people might best be a Christian might say, what is your proof to say that Abraham, married hag and especially
the Jewish people as well because they don't accept her.
They believe Sarah was the real wife. And not Hajah or Hager as they would say.
But the reality is Sarah was from Iraq as well remember.
And Hajah is an Egyptian from the Nile Valley.
And according to what is left of the Bible, this is the Old Testament Bible right? Not the Quran.
It says and Sarah, Abraham's wife, took her got her maiden, the Egyptian after Abraham had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abraham to be his wife.
that's in the Bible.
So we believe that from our sources, but you could say to a Christian, it's in your book. Maybe you haven't read the Old Testament, many Christians don't read the Old Testament. It's right in your book.
So at that time, he had two wives.
And let's stay in Genesis again.
And here it says Genesis 1616. And Abraham was fourscore and six years, when Hajah bear Ishmael, to Abraham, Ismail Alayhi Salam. So the first son of Ibrahim alayhi salam was Ishmael, Ishmael, the first son. And in ancient times, this was a really important thing. Today, people have lost some traditions. But in ancient times, the first son had responsibility. He is like the Khalifa, the successor of the Father.
So many things go through the first son, so the first son
in this relationship, and it's a valid relationship. By the way, if somebody tries to argue that she was a concubine, slave and not really, you know, his wife, the Bible is saying, it's his wife.
Okay, and I'm stressing this point, because you might hear arguments like this.
And this clears up a lot of things. When you go straight to the sources. Now,
Abraham,
it was we'll say Ibrahim and Ismail and Hajah
they traveled because they were living in the area of Canaan. So that's where present day Palestine, you know, you know is there they were living in that area. And
Sara stayed there in that area, he set up a base for her, and then with the commandment of God, he went south.
And according to the Bible, now I'm still in the Bible. At four six it's talking about the journey and it says we passing through the Valley of Baca
make it a well, the rain also filled with the pool. So the Bible says the word Baca
the Koran itself also says Becca, in the oh, well, Bates and Woody Allen, Nas, levy B Bachata Mubaraka we're who don't allow them in Quran says a to Becca, the Bible said, Becca.
It's interesting because the description about Becca is rain water pools in this place later on linguistically, because the bar in the meme very close and with time Becca becomes pronounced as Mecca.
So the basis of the word Mecca, originally came from Becca and the Quran itself doesn't say Mecca.
It says back.
This is a shock for some people, especially Christian people, because they say where's Where's where's your Muhammad? You know, where's your teachings in the Bible?
is right there.
Okay, the word Becca. Now, back on the other side, Sarah, when Abraham was 100 years old, and Sarah, right around that same age. So it's not too late in life. If some of you are getting up in age, like myself. It's not too late 100 years old, when his son Isaac was born.
That's the side that most people know about. Bessie in the Western world, because Sarah, Isaac.
Okay. Following that is Jacob Yaqoob.
And Jacob had 12 sons. So these 12 sons are known as the children of Israel. Because Israel, Israel eel was the nickname of Jacob.
He wrestled with God and you know what it was? This is his nickname of Yaqoob.
So, this is an interesting point, too, because if you if you were to say to someone in a nice debate, not an argument with a with a Jewish person, if you said to them was Abraham Jewish?
And they might say yes. Like his grave is on a place called Hebron, which is an Philistine in Palestine. So Abraham was Jewish. You say, Okay, was Sarah Jewish? To say yes.
Was Isaac Jewish? They'll say yes. But the reality is the 12 tribes where the concept of Jewish Yehuda comes in, it's under Jacob.
So before that,
time, it was not a tribal name.
And the Quran says
Makana Ibrahim yah hoo, Dee and wilderness Rania, and he was not able, Ibrahim was not Jewish, and he was not Christian. Well, that can can have Hanifa and Muslim
woman Academy, Mr. Kane, he was a pure person. And he was muslim meaning he submitted to God. So Ibrahim was only a believer in one God. There's no set name for his religion. It's monotheism. That's all it was.
That's right, it that's it. That's hidden in plain sight.
But the average person doesn't get a chart like this. To be able to get this information and to reflect
from the 12 tribes came Moses Musala is Sudan. We know the story of Moses with the water opening up.
And from the same 12 tribes was Mary or Mariam. And she was a virgin woman, and she conceived Jesus without a father. So these are the prophets that people in the West know about,
along with many other prophets from the children of Israel, so this is known in the West, okay, but what they don't know, is the other side.
And this is a genie illogical chart, which is confirmed by the Bible.
It's confirmed by the Bible, not just a sauce. Remember, because the Bible said that, you know, Ibrahim married Hajah. And you know, she took her as a wife, she had a son, that's there.
The great so there's Ismail,
Hajah, Ismail Ibrahim, they went down into the valley of back
is a desolate valley only by the commandment of God. And they went into this valley. And
the is a story we'll be going through. But the water started to run out. Ibrahim had been commanded to go back to to Sarah. So he had to leave them
that they really believe in the Creator now, because you have to have a lot of faith to stay in a foreign land in a valley like that. But he said I'm commanded by God, and they submitted. So they were by themselves what is running out, and Hajah
ran in between two mountains, Safa and Marwa she's looking for water, smile, start digging in the ground, look around, an angel came and dug and water came out.
And that water is known as zamzam.
And it's still flowing up until today.
So
the Arab tribes who were migrating from Yemen in the south, north, and they would pass sort of by that area. And naturally when you're in the desert, water is the most important substance.
And they could tell where water was. Because birds if you see birds circling in an area, because the birds every everything in the deserts looking for water.
And you know, it's a science of what you have these people that are the hoisin people who live in Southern Africa.
And it's a really terrible desert Namibian desert, it's one of the worst in the world.
And water becomes a very serious issue. So what they would do is that they would take a piece of meat and they would put salt, heavy amount of salt in the meat. And then they would lay it down over on the side and they hide.
And so the animal and animals would come
Okay, or fox comes or you know, Kayo Whatever comes, eats the meat and then gets really thirsty.
So the animal naturally goes for water.
So the Khoisan just follow the animal, they just follow the animal, the animal leads them to the water
because the animal knows. So what is very serious thing.
So the tribes, these are the tribes from the southern part of Arabia, called audible arriba. This is the original Arabic language came from southern Arabia
and this Georgia home tribe, they settled in Mecca,
made it as a base and ismail married from the tribe.
Okay, so his children then children of Israel
and the sister from the Durham I don't have her name right in front of me.
They have blood from Tigris Euphrates, Iraq. They have the blood from Africa, Nile Valley, and they also have the blood of the original Arabs allowable arriba
Three major civilizations, because Yemen was a great civilization too.
So that's their blood. And these people became known as Quraysh. They became known as the noble tribe in Arabia. And that's interesting because it's not just a straight out tribalism thing. And even when you say the word Arab, what is an Arab mean? An Arab is somebody who's speaking Arabic. It's not necessarily a racial group.
And you can see that Quraysh themselves, if you did their DNA,
then you would have DNA from Iraq, DNA from Egypt, DNA from southern Arabia.
Okay, so it's like a mixture, that have a language and have a culture there is a culture that surrounds you know, the desert region, point I'm trying to make is,
and this where it comes together, the great great great great grandson of Israel
is Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.
So if you look at this chart, that means that Moses, Jesus and Mohammed are cousins.
Think about this. Think about religions fighting each other, right? Judaism, Christianity, Islam, they're cousins.
They're from the same grandfather. And that is Ibrahim Al Islam. And if you look at their teachings, it's fundamentally the same before changes came about. And that's how we look at that's how Islam looks at it. It's inclusive of all of the religions instead of separating. So now, why is this important? And these are some shots of Bedouins not from 1000 years ago, but these are desert desert, Bedouins, who lived we lived in Arabian 20th century.
And again, you know, you know, as I as I mentioned in the history of Mecca,
right, ZamZam came and the Arab tribes came from the south. Okay. Now, Ibrahim, going back and forth. So he came back. And he had a dream. And in his dream,
he dropped that he was sacrificing his son.
Now, this is also a dream and a story that is that is believed by the Christians and the Jews.
But the difference is, they say that the son was Isaac.
Is Hawk, right? That's what they say.
But if you look at it, Jr, logically, the first son is not as hawk.
The first son is is my yield.
And if you tried to say it was not a legal marriage, the Old Testament is telling you, he took her as a wife.
You see. So logically, clearly, you can see Ismail was living for a number of years before Isaak was born.
So that's his first son. So the dream came, and he was dreaming, he went to his smile.
All this is in the Quran. And he said, I had a dream, I'm going to sacrifice you What do you think? And the son then said to his father, do what you have been commanded. So this is a courageous person who becomes a prophet is Mali is my Elisa, courageous person said do it if you have to.
And that's a really difficult thing that he had to do, to command you know, to actually sacrifice your son that that's serious.
And he was about to actually carry it out.
Then Allah sent,
you know, he was told you know, not to do it, and then a sheep was sent and he took the sacrifice the sheep.
So he so you sacrificed, you know the animal.
and Ismail, you know, lived. And after that,
Ibrahim was tested, he was tested seriously.
He was outside, you know, in a mountainous area, and the shaytaan the devil came to him and tempted him.
I will give you the world.
You will never be I'll give you everything. And so his response was to stone the devil seven times. So he stoned him.
Okay, now, we're going to this because you're going to see how important all of these aspects are the stories but this is actually the story
this
is sort of a conception of what old Mecca used to might look like. Back in those times.
Allah knows best and well of zamzam. Now today, if you go to Mecca, the Zamzar Well, it's not even like this now, it's just facets.
But I was there Hamdulillah I was in I was in Mecca, in 1973.
Okay, and, you know, when I was in Mecca and went there, you're still going down in a well.
So they bring it up water from our well.
Then later on, they got facets and everything. And you know, you get some of them nice, cooled, you know, nice packages of them.
But this is even older than when I was there, that that's what it was like, but the miraculous thing is, the water keeps flowing.
It keeps flowing, it's like underneath Mecca is like a lake. A huge lake is underneath a water reserve. Okay, and it comes up there in zooms and zoom has got certain qualities to this water. Because you will think why is it not polluted? Why? You know, but as the water has called, they've actually done scientific studies on the zamzam.
And it's like high in minerals. It's like a high mineral water. And if you if you've drunk Zamzar, a number of times, you can actually sort of taste a water you can taste zamzam as sort of a calcium type of mineral taste that deserves I'm what it has. Okay, so
these practices,
the life and the life of Ibrahim and his son, and hajjarian, and in between this, these are the practices of the pilgrimage to Mecca.
So when the the judge when the Pilgrims going to Mecca,
they are actually carrying out different aspects of the life of Prophet Ibrahim alayhi, Salam properties smile, and a Salam. And Hajah may Allah be pleased.
So that's literally what it is. Okay. And this is a picture of now, of what the valleys looked like, before they were just desolate valleys. All that white, there are tents. It's huge tent cities
to go with. And one good thing the Saudis have done with the wealth is, you know, they have really organized the pilgrimage, the water, the water is there, there's medical attention there when I made pilgrimage, you know, way back in 1977.
They didn't have these things, you just sort of put your stuff on your back and you go there. And like I said, we slept on the side of a mountain, just made a tent
and slept there. And then you sleep on the sidewalk, you know, wherever. But now they've organized it. And so the so this is the hutch
and the Kaaba itself, that black cubical shape. structure was covered by black.
Ibrahim was commanded by Allah to build the house.
And they set it up, he and his family. So this picture is sort of showing you what's inside the Kaaba. Like, most people don't know what's inside.
Okay, so that's sort of what it looks like. Very simple structure is there just columns, you know, that are there. But think about it. This is the direction that millions of people pray towards daily, constantly, people are praying toward the Kaaba, and constantly except for the time of solid prayer, they're going around it.
Okay, so this is a lot of energy.
That is focused on the Kaaba. Okay. And
in going around the Kaaba,
in this corner, if you can follow my arrow there is what is called the Black Stone.
That's there in the corner, the Blackstone
just we are taught that an angel brought a stone from paradise. And Ibrahim, put it there in the corner.
Okay, and it's actually called El Cajon password, but originally was not black. It was more creamish type of color whitish color. And over the years, you know, people were putting incense and oils and different things on it. It turned into a dark color. We get real close to it. It's like a brownish, maroon type of color. looks black, like from a distance. Okay, but it's called the Blackstone. Okay? So tawaf
isn't
Another form of worship. And tawaf means to go around
the Kaaba or around any object sample, some people make tau off, you know, around idols, and some parts of the world.
But in this case, it's told off around the idle, and it goes from right, it goes around like this, you never go the other way around.
And it's interesting because the scientists studied the planets. And they studied the moons that are going around planets and planets around the sun. And every single heavenly object goes right to left like this, none of them go the other way.
So this is the natural flow to go around that way. Okay, so So in the area of the car bar itself,
the original car by had, you know, a room for his meal, and then where it was buried.
And then there's a Yemeni corner for the people of Yemen, southern Arabia. So this is sort of like what the Cabal a diagram of what the Kaaba might look and you go around seven times, beginning with the black stone.
Okay, so these are the actual rituals that pilgrims will be carrying out. Now, before I go into that, I want to open up the floor for any questions that anybody may have concerning the discussion about how this all began. And Ibrahim is life and whatnot. Floors open
any questions? Anybody else? Yeah, why didn't seven circuits
it's all based upon Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, we believe was inspired by Allah. So then he established the seventh circuit's
Okay. Seven is a oft repeated number. But there's no
spiritual or magical reason. Like some people might think in the number seven.
Okay, but it's based upon what Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him did. So Abraham was the original one who lived these actions. And then Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him,
put it into an actual pilgrimage.
Okay, giving the numbers and giving how the things that you have to do. All of it is from the Prophet himself. That's what we get from questions.
What is the Kaaba, some Muslims? Like it's not it's not an idol. So like, Why? Why do you pray to them? Why do we like what is the purpose isn't just so that we're all doing the same thing? Yeah, I mean, logically speaking, like, in this case, the logic is that the Prophet himself, you know, prayed, and it's used as a direction.
So we're not actually praying to the Kaaba. We're praying to Allah.
But the Kaaba gives, is the center, it's Mecca, and it gives direction. So wherever you are, you know, you can, you'll have that direction, you know, to pray. And it's based upon
what the prophet actually did, originally, when, in the first part of the life of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, he was praying toward Jerusalem.
So that's where they originally pray towards. And while they were in Medina, and the second part of his life, then the verse was revealed that you should turn and face Mecca. So really, it's part of the revelation that when you pray, you should face the Kaaba. And one of the famous companions of the prophet named Omar Abdullah top ready Allah when,
you know, he came to the Blackstone, because the Prophet used to kiss the stone. So if you can't kiss it, and you just rub it, if you can't do that, then you point towards as you go by.
He, you know, Omar said,
You You're only a stone whom I was a strong believer, right? But he said, He's talking to the Blackstone. And he said, You're only a stone and the only reason why I'm kissing you. Is because I saw the Messenger of Allah peace be upon him do this.
So this is clear for us. It is not an idol to us. Some people who are defending idol worship, they might use that as an as an argument. It will come sometimes. But as that like I say, we're not praying to the Kaaba, we're praying in direction of the Comp.
Yeah, the other general questions. Anybody has floor is open.
So now, just to give you an idea of the pilgrimage itself, because this is something which is advanced, so if you're a new Muslim, you're not required, necessarily to be thinking about the details of pilgrimage. First, you got to get your belief in one
got straight.
You got to get your following the profit straight. You gotta get your prayers together. You got to get your halal and haram together. Right, Hodge will come down somewhere but since we're in the season itself, and since this is impacting Muslims all around us, then it's good to get a basic feel of this. And then as you go along Inshallah, you can go into more details and maybe one day inshallah you can make it there. Okay, so
this is the looking at the stone itself. And it's really hard in Mecca.
And they have to, really, they have to regulate the stone.
And just think millions of people, there are some people who travel 1000s of miles to get here.
And you got a big crowd, and human beings naturally, you know, we're emotional, right? And this person traveled 100,000 miles, and you're, you're the only thing between him and the black stone is your head.
He's going to move your head
he's going to move your head. So when you get in there, it's like a rugby game you know, rugby or football game. It's like a football game. Actually, when you when you get there. It's not because people want to hurt you.
It's the enthusiasm of going so far and wanting to kiss it so that we are taught from the way of Prophet Muhammad peace upon him. He said, he said to Omar
because Omar was really tall and strong. He said, Oh my your person, you you hurt people.
So if you can't kiss it, don't go in there and knock people out away.
Then just touch it, rub it and if you can't do that, then just point your hand or your stick towards it. That's enough.
So you'll see people as they're going around by the by the Blackstone because you're going in toe off right? Like this. So as you pass it, if they can't get close enough then Linus
Okay, that's enough. You don't have to kiss it.
And the crowds now they say the crowds in Ramadan. This year is like the pilgrimage before there's millions of people who are there
and always fact packed it's always you know, things that are happening.
Okay, so that's that's what it looks like our close up
so let's look at the Hajj itself.
The lesser pilgrimage is called Umrah. I don't want to get too complicated in this. But basically what the people do is they go into a special state of purity haram it's called
and then they go into Mecca.
And they make tawaf you can follow my error, right? They go stay circumambulate around the Kaaba seven times.
Right. And then following that,
if you can, they will, they will.
They will pray to rakaats two units of press behind what is called macabre Rahim and that is where one of the places Ibrahim used to build the Kaaba and they still have some footprints that are there they say it's the footprints Allah knows best, you know that are there and, but you pray to units of prayer, and then you try to drink from zamzam.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of times that is around you know, the 10 following that you run in between the two hills what's left of the hills? Remember Hajah she ran in between the mountains looking for water right? So you go in between Safa and Marwa seven times seven times and you should end on Mattawa
does anybody know why?
Why should you end on marijuana
Right.
Right, but But what why? Why should Why should you end on marijuana?
The reason is because you're doing seven times. So if you ended there then you either did six or you did eight
so you go suffering model, and then once you finish that, then you
you make a prayer and then you break the Haram in that state. That's your number. So that is what is called lesser pilgrimage.
And you can do this anytime of the year. You come to
Mecca you do lesser pilgrimage, but now in the month of dual hit
we are and we are in this month of do Hijjah that's the 12th month on the lunar calendar
okay. And from the eighth of the hijra, the pilgrimage begins. So, this is the actual pilgrimage itself. And this is a concentrated little Hodge guide
just to give you a general idea, you know, so, you have a feel of what the pilgrimage actually is
a certain part of the year, yes,
you can go whenever you want, but you do the lesser pilgrimage. Okay, but the pilgrimage that that the greater pilgrimage, you need to do that once in a life lifetime.
So some people might make the lesser pilgrimage 20 times
you know, but once in a lifetime, everybody tries to do the pilgrimage. Alright, so on the eighth day of the hijab,
day number eight.
Okay, the Pilgrims now, they are around Mecca. And if you if you can follow that I think you can sort of see the arrows right, you can see it. So you'll travel from Mecca, and you go to a place called Mina.
So that's a valley where you saw those tents. So you go there and you stay the night you read Quran and, you know, whatever, and you stay there in that valley. Okay. And then the next day you get up and you traveled to Arafah that's another valley. And it's on this valley on a mountain there. Jebel Rama This is where Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him made his final sermon was on that mountaintop.
So So you go there to Arafat
and you stay the day. And it is said that this is the this is the best place to be in terms of your prayers being answered by Allah
on Arafat, so it's very important. So people spend the whole afternoon just praying, praying for everybody, their family for the world. Everybody's making sense. It's a beautiful thing. And then there's a sermon that is given, you know, in the main mosque there
and, you know, he listened to the sermon you know, and spent the day there in Arafat. Okay, following that, when the when the sun sets, and it's got to be after sunset, then you leave Arafat and you go around, follow the arrow, you go around to a place called Moose deliever.
So you land and moose deliver. And that's like a val, like a flat area. And you go in was Delhi fall, and you basically sleep.
And then you get up the next day. And then you go back to Mina
with a TED Sidious. And that day, when you're back there in Mina, that is the 10th day of the hijab,
day number 10
Okay, and on that day,
there's a number of actions that the Pilgrims do
one is that they go to the three places where the devil tempted Ibrahim Memory Stone did right. So, you gather seven stones for each one time and then you go to the jumbo, they call it and then you you pelt the stones, you know at the place
and then you go back to your tent
and then also
there is sacrificing. So you sacrifice animals
on that day
and also
the men
it is it is not required 100% But you should they will shave their hair, women will clip something of their hair.
And once you finish that, then you will go back to Mecca. And you will perform tawaf around the Kaaba.
Okay, and this is really, this is a big one, because everybody's coming back, right? Maybe 2 million people. So you come back there and you perform. And then when you finish that, then you go back to Minar and you rest.
Okay, and there's a lot of little, I don't want to go into the details of this unless you ask me a question. There's a lot of little details in this. But these are the actions of the heart and then you stay in Mina
for the next two or three days.
And you stay there and then you go to the each day and stone the shaytaan the devils in the 3d
Asus either two days or three days.
And once you finish that, you then go back one more time to the Kaaba and you do a toe off to Wafaa WIDA you do that is your farewell to off and your pilgrimage has ended.
So these are the actions that millions of people are going to be doing. And we have even have a delegation from the masjid here is going to go the quality of the Fatah. If you are Juma today you read beautiful Koran, the Libyan brother,
Sheikh Abdul Hamid, you might know him as well, you know, there is a group going from here to make the petition all over the city, there are people who are going, you know, to the Hajj to make you know, pilgrims because this is a really important year because COVID Right COVID was in the last couple of years. So COVID really, they still made Hutch. But they had to wear masks, they had to not
touch each other. And there was all kinds of restrictions. So the restrictions have lifted to a certain extent, you know, when people are going back? And so this is the pilgrimage, you know they had to Mecca.
And that is what we tried to do once a letter question. Are there any reasons why a Muslim wouldn't be qualified to go to Mecca? or certain time? Like if you're in desperate or something like that? Yeah. So So the Prophet said, Did you make it you know, hudgell bait in this tutorial is the villa, he said, you go to the house to Mecca, if you are able to do it. So that is called
your ability they take profit called Azad, what Rahila. So that means that you have the means to go.
And you wouldn't be in starvation, you're leaving family and starvation, you have the means. And Rahila means you have transportation.
So in those days, you'd have to have a camel or a horse, some people walk, people from West Africa walk all the way across the desert.
To go today, you got to have a Saudi Saudi airline ticket.
You know, it changes the Rahila is different as the time goes by. The person should be mature.
They should be seen.
And
yeah, that's basically it and Muslim
and have the ability and go and it's encouraged that you try to go earlier in life as soon as you can possibly make the pilgrimage
to it. Some people say Okay, I'll wait till I'm 60 years old, 70 year, don't do that, let me tell you, because you have arthritis, and you have blood pressure and you know, diabetes, and don't do that to yourself. That's why some people are going around in wheelchairs, don't wait, do it when you're younger, then you can really enjoy it.
You know, and you have the ability and you do it. You don't have to wait until you're elderly you know to do
floors open for any general questions concerning the hatch.
Now, what is important for us,
the 10th day, remember the 10th day right when they did all those activities, that's eidl Utter.
So that's what we call the Eid, which will be next Wednesday, inshallah.
That's the eighth. And so here, we sacrifice, we have the Eid press.
And then we sacrifice animals either here, or you can send it to some of the relief agencies. And they will sacrifice an animal in your name.
Which is a really good thing by the way. Because otherwise a lot of the meat gets wasted.
So that's the day it that's what eidl adhaar means. So when you say the Festival of the sacrifice or the celebration of the sacrifice now you know the story, right? It's all based on the story of Ibrahim Elisa.
For those of us who are not going to watch this here, what are the things that are obligatory for us like is doing
the providing is that the sacrifice is that obligatory? It's not obligatory, when you say obligatory, it means that if you don't do it, you make it a sin.
So so it's not it wouldn't be sent if you don't do it. However, it's a strong strong, highly encouraged you know, act that you should we should be doing. But it's not like missing your prayers or you know, it's not like a sin you know, like that, but you should actually be doing it. Also it is highly recommended on the day before when the pilgrims are in Arafat. That's the ninth day right.
On that day fast. So Muslims all around the world will fast so this
Tuesday in sha Allah, then you will try to do a fast. You get up in the morning, just like Ramadan. Get up before dawn prayer, take your soul, take the meal, just like Ramadan. So you take the meal, and then you follow all of the rules and regulations of the fasting, you know, during the day until the end of the day.
And this is a great blessing. It will expiate Sins of the years that have come you know, before and after this great blessings for fasting and Arafat day. Okay, so Tuesday, we should be coming to the masjid in here the it It's nine o'clock. They will be the prayers come before that time though, because it's a really big crowd. And then Wednesday, or not Tuesday, we fast and Wednesday eat.
So you come here on Wednesday.
Okay, floor is open for any questions. The other questions are online for the online group.
Okay, floors open for any, you know, any other questions? Yeah, go ahead. I noticed that.
There wasn't a step where you had to say,
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. It's supposed to be there. I mean, let me see. Yeah, I mean, the Sci Fi really, they're not going to the details of all the things. But this is, you know, that's why you have your Uber guide, right. So in the Uber guide, there's the site.
There it is. There's toe off mahkamah Ibrahim zamzam and then running in between.
Okay, so the guy that just, you know, in general, they just give you a general thing, they didn't go into all the details. But you will do the site as well, when you come in.
This is just a question of basic curiosity, the black stone when people go and kiss it, right, like all the time, yeah.
Between people or?
Yeah, I mean, they, they, they do clean it.
We don't have strict regulations, you know, because we do believe that, I believe is saliva, you know, is actually pure
COVID changed a lot of things for people, obviously, during the time of COVID day, you know, we spray in and clean and you know, whatever, you know, like that, for a certain time, they didn't even I think they didn't even let people kiss it at a certain point. They even you had to, like just point towards it. Because these are all health things.
But no, they, they there's somebody there constantly, you know, cleaning it, you know, whatever. And fortunately, from what I understand, there's been no outbreaks, or anything based upon the Blackstone, so you don't have to worry.
You don't have to worry.
And it's so hot there, it probably kills half the germs. You tell you, it is so hot.
You're doing to walk. The one thing that always strikes me is that like the men and women are just all together. Right? Right separation, right? Is there any, like ruling on why that is? Or is it just because there's no way to separate?
You know, it is because you know that the strict separation that you see some much that's, you know, do inside that's not the way it wasn't the time of the Prophet. In the Prophet's Mosque, the men were in one section, and the women were another section, and there was no barrier in between, like the it
so so that whole it was more or lower the gaze, cover yourself up, you know, as opposed to strictly being in areas. That's how it originally was. And then into office it's going to be although there are you will see women in an area inside the copper itself. You do have a main woman's area to prayer, but it's not going to be any, you know, strict strict, strict group because there's too many people
it's just impossible. You know to do that anyway.
And fortunately people are there for you know, good purposes real quick, but they do have security that's there. In case things happen because you you you you may have pickpockets, as pickpockets can be anybody can be human beings, right.
But generally, that is not a problem.
It's not been a problem.
Yeah, what are the benefits of umara like spiritually Yeah,
the benefits of ombre you know is that it's not like hydrogen you make hudge if you do it properly, all your previous sins are forgiven.
And Umbra you also get you know great blessings you know as well. It's not like the Hodgenville but but you will you will get a cleaning of your sins you know as well. But Hodge my brother is the
One you get the complete expiation, you know, the sense. So so you will get, you know, great blessings and you know, sins lifted and whatnot on the, you know as well.
Yeah. So some people will decide to like multiple files.
disliked, because you're supposed to do it once and now there's so many people that it's so expensive and so is it just like two people to do one a month? Yeah, I mean there is. There's no actual limit on the amount of times. However,
one of the great scholars Imam Shafi, remember, he said that, you know,
there's Oh, louia there is
priorities. And he said, even if he said, if you have five pillars of Islam, so one of the pillars is to give the cat you give him your wealth, and another one is Hutch. But if there are people all around you starving to death
that takes priority over you go into Mecca.
Because people are starving to death. That's all the we're
so also people who are making multiple, you know, pilgrimages it's not really
recommended, you know, when there's so many other people you know, who was suffering and starving, you know, like that, but but there is no official limit but I think the Saudis are now instituting something you know, we have somebody's made it too many times they will they want people who haven't made it. I think I think they're starting to
to institute something like that.
Because I know they have the lottery now. So I thought the way that they were doing it is they're just going to choose people who've never gone yeah, the number of people who've gone to are going to get Yeah, yeah, I mean it's just
it's hard to really control because you're dealing with millions of people so it's something hard to control but it's not recommended for someone to just because then you lose even the spirituality in it it becomes to normal like
you know, so your your Hajj and everything. And then you look at Oh, you are the Blue Jays winning and you know, whatever.
You're on pilgrimage man. Doesn't matter about the Blue Jays.
But if you've gone there a number of times,
maybe becomes too normal link
becomes only about you. Right.
Question online? Yeah, we have a question online.
Salaam in addition to * pilgrimage, are there other pilgrimages or sacred sites that numerous schools should?
Yeah, Prophet Muhammad Salam said, you know, do not go on a religious journey except to three places.
And one is, you know, martial OXA.
That is Jerusalem.
And the other is to Medina, the Prophet's mosque in Medina, and third is to Mecca. So these three places, you know, other places that we should go for spiritual reasons, in terms of historical reasons, or other this may be other reasons, but we don't use the word pilgrimage. That's a mistake. And there are some people, and we're going to be studying this when we correct and authenticate our faith. But there are some people who aggrandized they put their saints so high,
that to go to the grave of a saint, they call it a pilgrimage.
And is one st, you know, in India is
about the GST. And it's places
it's called Edgemere. So when Edgemere there,
they go there. And they literally make tawaf around his grave.
You know, and this is not, this is weakening of faith,
to remake and tawaf around the grave of a person.
This is not what their faith is supposed to be. Okay.
And there was a story of in the Sudan, because these these saints and whatnot, this this thing spread all over the Muslim world. And there was a story of a family in the Sudan, you know, whose son got really sick with malaria, and malaria, you know, very hot fevers and sweating and he was dying. So they said go to the chef, and the other family members said no, go to the hospital.
And they said, No, go to the Wali go to the st. Inside there is a grave of a saint, and as a shock that go there, don't go to the hospital.
So then they took him to the ship first, not the hospital.
And the chef, you know, was an intelligent guy.
And the people came, and they went around the grave and they touched
that these things are not right. And they came to him. And he had his hand covered with cloth. And they kissed his hand.
And then he said, What's your problem? And they said, Our son is dying.
And so he said Fatiha. And he read, he made a DUA, a prayer. And then he wrote something on a paper. And he said, Take this down to the hospital.
So they went to the hospital with the sun. And the doctor said, mashallah, the shakes are really intelligent, right? So the shack wrote the note, please treat my son here. He's got malaria, right.
So they didn't have to do all this stuff. But ritual people get so caught up in superstition,
soup, and these type of tales and whatnot. And it's something we will be studying Inshallah, in the coming weeks, too. So just so you have a way to protect yourself from this.
Because it's rampant.
And it's dangerous.
Floors open for any other general questions or anything else online?
Yeah, go ahead.
Nothing. Okay. So so we'll say general questions. Now floor is open.
I was wondering
how you respond to people who criticize the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him for having multiple wives, right, saying that he's kind of like a womanizer, or he was a womanizer. Right. And marry these young women and all that. And I'm just wondering, like, what your typical responses? Yeah, you know, basically, we have to show people that chronologically in those times. Having multiple wives was not abnormal thing. It was normal. So so there were many people who if they could afford it, you know, whatever, in many societies, you know, they had multiple marriages. Okay. And his marriage is one thing, which way you can answer if you really get into a hot debate, because a womanizer is
generally you know, an elderly person who wants you know, young girls, right. When he got married, he was 25. And his wife was 40.
Think about that. 25 years old, and his wife was 40 a sister came to me one time crying and said, Brother Abdullah,
you know, my son wants to, you know, get married. I said, good.
But a woman's 40 years old.
So I say okay, how old was the Prophet when he got married? 25 Khadija was 14, that's not a womanizing mine right there. That's a very mature young man.
And he stayed married only to Khadija until she died.
So before she asked you, he never had more than one wife. And it wasn't till the latter part of his life, you know, that, that he had multiple marriages and most of the marriages, you know, you can see strategic reasons. He marries a divorced woman.
You know, things which many society would frown upon someone who's divorced, he marries somebody who was formerly Jewish.
He marries somebody who has dark skin.
You know, so he breaks down.
Barriers, strategic barriers. And this is a man who's in his late 50s, and 60s. So that's, that's not a womanizer. Right. So so this is the way we would generally answer, you know, that question, but you know, for them to understand, in those times, it was, it was common, it was not uncommon. And if you look at the Bible, again, Abraham had two wives, Solomon and David, many wives. So it's biblical to right. It's Biblical to have plural marriages. The issue of monogamy only came about in Europe, you know, a few 100 years ago or so. But before that, everywhere in the world, multiple marriages was was there.
It was not a strange thing to do.
Otherwise, questions? Yeah.
Prayer, what happens if you miss it?
And what can you do? Can you make like, yeah, if you miss a prayer, then as soon as you you know, are able to do well Kadar and then you make up the prep, so you should make up the prep.
So So So you, some people might get jammed up with their work or in a traffic jam, you know, they can't. So then when they when they get home, then they make up all the press. So you should make up the press.
You know that that you did and then ask a lot of forgive you.
So it's not too late, like in the day.
Say this five prayers. So the end of the day by five
Yeah,
you know, it's still technically speaking, you know, okay, because you have to make up the prayers, you should, but just don't make a habit out of it.
Like some people make a habit out of it, and what you need to do, because we're supposed to have rights, although our rights are being taken away from us, but we have rights here. And we fought for years with boards of education with the government here in Canada, for Muslims to have right to pray on the job.
So you do have a right. And even you can even time your prayers, and during your lunch break, and, you know, whatever, you know, you can, you can figure out ways that you can make the press, okay.
So it's a matter of applying yourself to it.
And you'll be surprised to know that if you some of the some of the employers, if you ask them nicely, and you're a good word, they'll let you do it best if you say, look, there's a room over there, nobody's gonna be there, I'll go inside the room, you know, during the lunch break, or whatever it is, I just want quiet. Yeah, it's not hurting anybody.
You know, some of the people had problems on assembly lines.
But then even assembly lines, you get a lunch break, you get a coffee break, whatever. So you so you go during your lunch break or your coffee break,
the more you apply is, the more you get out of Islam.
So So you try to apply this. And the more you apply what I found, you know,
things become easier for you, but seem to be difficult, will become easy. Because you just get a different pattern of life.
So you get yourself a prayer chart that has the times of the press. So if you have the whole prayer, and you have awesome because that's one of the problematic ones. Right then you don't have to make it right at the beginning all the all the time in between is when you can make the prayer
all the time between us tomorrow you can make the prayer
so you might have four hour time period to make a prayer that only takes about five minutes.
So it's just a matter of importance
and just structure yourself and you can do it you can do it
any other general questions or anybody else floors open online Yeah. Why did the product so I was praying in the direction of Jerusalem
everything that he did was based upon the angel Jibreel he was commanded by a lot to do that. So that that's the reason but Jerusalem was you know, you can see Jerusalem was with the the Marshal Service
but
the Kibler itself doing that is based upon revelation
based on Revelation
the other general questions anybody has
So alhamdulillah we're going to be ending the class. Tonight. Our sister has graciously brought some pizza pizza for theatres, if anybody wants a slice of pizza
and next week inshallah we will be continuing on with the class correction and authentication of faith. So inshallah next week at seven o'clock you know, we'll see you, you know, here Have a safe journey home was salam aleikum wa rahmatullah.