Abdullah Hakim Quick – New Muslim Corner – True Interfaith
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Smilla Rahmanir Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu
salam ala se Salle will lead what after in Vienna Muhammadan. By the
alley he was happy about it.
I'll praise the due to Allah Lord of the worlds and peace and
blessings be upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, the master the
first and the last, his family, his companions and all those who
call to his way and establish his sunnah to the Day of Judgment.
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah
Alhamdulillah. This is our new Muslim corner. Again.
We it's a little bit stiff and formal because we're online
streaming. But the intention is to break down some of the basic
fundamentals of Islamic lifestyle and to open up the floor for
questions for those who are new interfaith or those who are
reviving their faith. And we recognize the fact that the basis
of Islam what really enters you into Islam is the Kelly Ma is the
phrase, La ilaha illAllah. Muhammad Rasool Allah. So when you
say there's no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger, with
sincerity and understanding, you have understood the faith and you
have entered into Islam.
And the first part of the Kelly Mala ilaha illallah is something
which is natural and easy for most people to understand. Because
there is a Creator there is one God, there is a master of the
universe, but the second part of the Kalima Muhammad Rasul Allah is
unknown for many people because they have no information.
So, this these sessions are to really show the life of Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him in a general sense. So that it will
make clear how important Muhammad ibn Abdullah is as a messenger of
God. And of course, this is 1400 years plus is considered to be
1446 after the Hijrah after the migration, 23 years. Okay, so
that's 69. So it's all it's going on 1500 years. But the the the
message is a very relevant message. And in the world we're
living in today, it's important for us to have factual
information, because there are so many misunderstandings that are
being put out there concerning Islam.
And one of the misunderstandings is the issue of Islam in Africa
itself. And what has been projected by the European
Orientalist is that Islam entered into Africa as our slave traders,
that they were a light skinned race, enslaving a dark skinned
race. And they entered into the African continent.
And that, of course, is something which has been shaped by the
Atlantic slave trade,
where
race has played a great role. The Atlantic slave trade was based
upon Europe, enslaving people out of the African continent.
And so
this tends to color the way people look at terminologies. When the
word slave was being used in ancient times. It was something
not connected to race.
Because slavery was all over the world,
in all of the countries of the world, just about, especially in
times of war, they were prisoners of war. There was a conquering
master society. And there was also the people who had opposed them.
They would be the prisoners of war, and they became the workers
in the society. Even in Europe, European society is quiet as its
kept.
Slavery was there. The term they use in medieval Europe, they say
serf, S E RF, the serfs. And the serfs were the people who lived
around castles. And they worked for their Lord, for the Lord of
the castle. And they were literally slaves in the sense that
they couldn't go anywhere
and the
wealth that they produced was owned by the Lord. So they were,
you could say economic slaves.
Okay, so slavery takes different forms.
Today, you'll have people who traffic individuals, like they'll
traffic women, say, from Russia or Eastern Europe, you know, in
prostitution, and those who are caught in this, the women have no
control over their life. That's a form of slavery. Okay, so it's
* of one group over another. This is what brings about
slavery itself.
The real story. And going back to the facts of what actually
happened in those days, is that Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah came
in Arabia,
at a time where slavery was,
it was something that could hit anybody.
Arab could be slave, African could be slave, Persian, Chinese,
whoever was captured. And they had to work for the other individuals
was a slave.
Africa itself, and we're going to look at
the map, and I'll just go a little forward. And you can see on the
map, there, you see Mecca.
It's now saying Saudi Arabia wasn't Saudi Arabia at the time,
it was the Arabian Peninsula, and Judah.
Okay, and there's the Red Sea.
So the Red Sea separates. On one side, according to this European
map, that was not our original map. They say Africa is on one
side, and Asia is on the other side.
But the separation between the two continents is not an ocean.
It's only the Red Sea that's there. And if you go down to the
bottom of the Red Sea, and you'll see the country called Djibouti,
and you go down to Yemen in that area there
on a clear day, in Djibouti, and these areas, you can actually you
can see the other side
is it's the same way, like if you're in Spain, on a clear day,
and certain places after Malaga, and they're going to Gibraltar,
you can see Africa, you can look from Spain to Morocco.
So the separation between the two is not a major separation. And in
terms of the people themselves, their languages. Their societies,
were similar, very similar. Okay, there was interaction that went
on. And the people on the side on the African side, and we're using
the term Africa,
although it's different nations, were not known by the people on
the Arabian side as weak people.
This is another misunderstanding.
They were actually known as powerful people. And we found out
that Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him was born in 570 ad, and
what was known as the year of the elephants, because from the side
of Ethiopia, a great army had had taken over Yemen.
And they attacked Mecca. And they had elephants in their army. And
they were considered to be
one of the great powers in the world at the time.
So it wasn't a fifth year after the prophethood began.
So the revelation has come to Muhammad, he is a person from the
tribe of Quraysh, living in Mecca. And a revelation come Angel
Jibreel comes to him.
He teaches the message of one God. And because of this, there was a
reaction.
There was a reaction in the society.
And there was persecution, and the Quraysh, who believed in many
gods, who wanted to keep the power of Mecca to consolidate it, they
began to torture, insult and even kill the companions of the Prophet
peace be upon. So therefore, it was in the fifth year that the
Prophet told His followers, you can you can leave, you can
migrate.
And this was not running away. It was a strategic migration.
Strategic major, I agree. It's called hijra, and Arabic. So it's
a strategic migration.
You could take right
Have you heard somewhere else? So he pointed to them across the Red
Sea? Remember how close it was right? So he pointed to them to go
across the Red Sea. And he said that there is a king
and these lands and the Prophets saying is if you go to Abyssinia,
it would be better for you. For it there is a king who will not
tolerate oppression.
It is a land of truth. Go until such time as Allah shall relieve
you from distress.
Okay, so he said, here are the sit
this territory there is a land of truth.
So he sent them there. And you can see the obelisk that is sticking
up there. This are the Ethiopians had at the time the largest
obelisks in the world. It was not an Egypt, the Egyptians had
pyramids. But in terms of the obelisk, the largest in the world
was there in Exxon, but was called Abyssinia or Exxon.
Now today, everybody wants to have an obelisk to show their power.
Can you think of Annapolis? What's the obelisk in Toronto?
CN Tower.
The Olympics are about to happen in which country?
France, what is the image of France?
The Eiffel Tower, right? It's this point sticking up power. You see.
So these were the people. In other words he sent his father was not
to a place where people are weak and beat up and didn't have
anything, but he sent them to a powerful nation
who could actually give them sanctuary and protection from the
Quraysh.
And he felt also that because of their ruler whose name was US
Hummer
and his title was under Joshi, we say in English to Negus. Okay, but
in his language, which is typically they say Nikesh
Okay, and so us Hama was a Christian.
So he said Muslims,
as refugees, to Christians. Now, this is an opposite theme than
what you might hear today. Because generally, when they talk about
Muslims and Christians, you think of crusades, you think of a war.
You think they're totally opposite societies, but that's not
necessarily the case. Okay, so he sent them there to us Hummer.
And you can see going across, of course, these are present day
nations, but they are living, they are leaving Jeddah somewhere along
the coast there. And then going across, into Eritrea. And you have
there on the coast, they land somewhere there on the coastline,
the East African coastline.
And then they went up into the highlands, because that area
there, Eritrea and then going up into Ethiopia. This was the center
of the aksumite Empire. And this is a picture that I took myself
actually, they're in traveling in this land.
And it's beautiful country, they're amazing mountains and
valleys. And so 12 men and four women,
are included are Ceman Ibn a fan,
who married the daughter of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon
her name was Ruqayyah.
Okay, so this was a high level delegation. This is not just
beaten refugees who are running away, no, this is high level. So
in other words, you're sending your daughter,
you're sending your son in law, one of the important companions,
to lead this group to go across to meet the Christians and to seek
refuge with the Christians.
And when they were there, it'll have a shot, as we'll call it,
because that's the name.
They heard that something changed in Mecca, they heard that the
Quraysh had
embraced Islam. And this as we mentioned last week, today's class
is a continuation and completion of last week. But we found out
that the Quran that was being revealed section by section to
chapter called Surah, to najem
that this was an inspirational chap chapter. And in it it says
that everybody should bow to Allah. So the Quran was so
captivated by the Arabic they bout, and they prostrated to Allah
in Mecca.
So people thought that they had been accepted. Is that not the
truth?
They were actually just captured by the language. And they did it.
They did what they had to do. And so the people in Ethiopia, many of
them came back because they wanted to come home. But it was a mistake
to Kadesh were worse than before.
And so another group of immigrants went across
into a harbor shot at three men this time. 19 women
were escaping the persecution.
Okay, and so they sought refuge also under the Emperor
Osama
and this is another shot there. It's a little hazy because you
know, it was loose some time ago. Cameras were not like today, but
this is in the tigray Highlands.
And you can see, perched on the top monasteries, there are
Christians there, there are different amazing sites up until
today. The operation now
from Mecca.
They wanted to diplomatically bring these Muslims back.
So they sent a group led by honorable Abdullah even Abby
Robina. So they sent these two people carrying gifts to the king
and bringing information and telling him that these people are
going against our traditions, the disrespecting their families.
They're rebels, the dangerous people.
And he tried to bribe them. But the emperor who had sense
he summoned the Muslims to come. And Jaffa ibn Abi Taalib wrote the
long one who is the brother of ally, the famous companion ally.
He read from the Quran, a chapter called Surah Maryam. So that's the
chapter of Mary. And in this chapter, it's a beautiful
description about what happened to Mary and the mother of Isa of
Jesus. And it was so emotional. And the the the Ethiopians also
knew there's a language there a Semitic language called Amharic.
Okay, so they had the there was a thicker understand. And there was
translators.
And so
it was so
descriptive. They didn't even have this in their own scriptures.
And it was so emotional, that they began to cry.
And they said, no, these people are the same of us. The Emperor
drew a line he said, There's nothing between us by little space
were the same. So you You're safe here. So he gave safety to the
Muslims.
Right, and that is an interfaith scene. So this is true interfaith
it's not an intellectual discussion. It is Muslims taking
refuge in the People of the Book, where we call the people of the
book, because of the similarities between the people. And in the
sixth year after the Hijrah, the Prophet SAW Salem, he sent a
letter to the dashi.
And the Joshi was so affected by this letter and what he saw that
he secretly embraced Islam. So the Emperor himself was a Christian
king.
He didn't publicly embrace it, because that would be too heavy
for his society. He secretly embraced Islam. And according to
some of the records we have, he sent his son out of MMA and 60
riders
that they should go across.
And this is later on to later on, he sent you know, his son because
it's in the medina period. But he actually was sent II sent people
over
to announce, you know, his his Islam. And this is the letter and
this is an interesting letter. So this is true interfaith now that
you're seeing. So this letter you can see on the your left there,
that's the Arabic, it's old Arabic. And there's a copy of this
in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. There's a copy of this,
okay, so this is like a picture, you know of this original letter.
And
the Prophet peace be upon him dictated
okay. He wasn't lettered himself, but he dictated to his followers
in the letter said in the name of a lot of Beneficent, the Merciful
for Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah to the Joshi, Osama emperor
of Allah
Basha
right Peace be upon he who follows the guidance.
Okay. And then he said, as to what follows. Verily for You, I praise
Allah, the One whom there is no deity except Him, the soul King,
the holy, the source of peace, the protector and The Guardian. So
this is the way I must have approaches,
Christians,
you approach with oneness of God,
because it's the oneness of God and descriptions of Allah, that
can unite us.
So He gives some of the names and descriptions of Allah. That's how
he begins. And this is a icebreaker, so to speak. So this
person knows that these are not idol worshipers. Okay, this is not
somebody worshipping the sun.
This is somebody who's worshiping God.
Then the letter continues. And he actually goes into
the faith of the Christians.
So this must have been shocking to them.
Because the Prophet said, I bear witness to Jesus, the son of
Mariam is the spirit belonging to Allah, and His Word,
which he cast into the chase that excellent Virgin Mary. She thus
became pregnant by means of His Spirit, and his inspiration with
Jesus, in the same manner, that He created Adam with his hat. Now,
this is heavy language here.
Who else believes that Jesus was born from a virgin?
Christians, other than the Christians who? Nobody?
Nobody? How would this person know about the virginity of Mary or the
fact that Allah cast His Word and Spirit into her? How would he know
this? This is a shock to the Emperor.
But he had to make it clear.
And this is the way we dialogue with Christians, we show our
similarities, but at the same time, we have to make ourselves
clear that we're not actually the same as you.
Okay, we have a different understanding. Now, how is the
show is different.
He said, that Jesus was born with a mother, and no father, right?
So in this, it says, He created Adam with his hand. So you have
Jesus who has no father, and a mother. And Adam, has no father
and no mother.
You see, so reason this out if you think that Jesus is God, because
some Christians will say Jesus is God, because that's the father,
right?
That's his father. But if you believe that, because Mariam had
no husband, then what is Adam?
Adam has to be God to are the Son of God. He had no father and no
mother. See, this is reasoning. Now, this is the reasoning that we
use. When we're discussing, it's important for many of us who have
Christian relatives, or friends. If we get in discussions, this is
the way you approach. It's one of the ways to approach to reason
with them,
to come out of the wrong understanding of the Trinity. Then
the letter continues. And the Prophet says, Verily, I invite you
to Allah, the One who has no partner,
and to friendship and allegiance, in obedience to him. So he's
inviting the Joshi is I'm inviting, I want you to be Muslim.
I'm inviting you to this. And and this is an important sentence. He
said, Verily, I invite you and your armed forces to Allah the
Most High. Now, this is something that
most people don't understand the gravity of this of this statement
here.
Because remember,
in 570,
the Ethiopian central over an army with elephants, they had one of
the most powerful armies in the world. So the Prophet is also
saying, I'm inviting you and your armed forces to Islam. That's a
strategic that today would be considered like a political move
as a heavy political move, because if the Ethiopian Abyssinian army
embraced Islam,
and they came back to Mecca, with the elephants, as Muslims, the
story would totally change. That's the end because the Arabs had no
way to stand in front of this army.
So this very strategic letter
that was sent to the Joshi and this is what you could call
Have a true form of interfaith itself. And he ends the letter by
saying that I have delivered the message and given you counsel,
therefore accept my counsel, peace be upon him who follows the
guidance. Okay, so this is a very important letter. And it's a total
different understanding than what you get when you read some
scandalous books that are talking about Islam in a negative way.
This is the opposite. This is actually interaction between
Muslim and Christian.
Okay, so I want to open up the floor of anybody has any questions
up until now about anything concerning what is going on? Okay,
so this heavy interaction is going on between the king of Ethiopia,
and Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.
Okay, now,
they are there in Ethiopia.
And remember, this is the group they're living there. They take up
residence,
they become part of the society in a sense, the the Emperor gives
them an area where that they can live in. And there was some
rumbling going on. Because amongst the Christians, there was a
struggle between those who believe in the Trinity.
Remember the Council of Nicaea? Okay, where this concept of
Trinity now is consolidated. It didn't necessarily begin at that
point. But it is consolidated during these times where the
descriptions that were actually there were confirmed. Right, the
gospels were confirmed. And it was a series of counsels. Okay, so
there was rumbling going on. Christians who believe in one God
Christians who believe in three
fighting each other.
And it was a revolution.
And Najafi, how himself was in trouble, because they were trying
to overthrow him.
Is that somebody downstairs?
Yeah, yeah, just just check and see and tell them that the sound
is coming up.
So
this was very serious situation that was going on.
And
it is said in some of the books, it even talks about what happened.
It talks about what happened to the Muslims. And they were unsure
about the situation. And there was fighting going on and Abdullayev
and must route or the other one was one of the great companions.
He is described. He crawled, he crawled up into like a hilly area.
And he looked down to see he went as a scout. And he looked to see
what happened to the Muslims. And he found out that Najafi was
victorious,
so they were able to live there
in peace until the time after the 13 years in Mecca, and then the
then there was the call to Medina to Yathrib. That is the major
migration out of Mecca into yesterday. So at that time, every
bit every Muslim everywhere was called to Medina.
Okay, so this was very crucial.
Now,
many people, including Muslims that I remember many years ago
when I was reading Islamic history, and then they showed the
African continent and they basically said that Islam only
went on North Africa. That's all
as though it didn't touch the rest of the African continent. This is
a major mistake.
And also amongst the Companions, that in terms of African people,
who are Muslims, they generally mentioned Bilal.
And of course, below was the most important of the African Muslims
at the time. He was so beloved by the prophets of Salaam, he was he
called the Adhan the call to prayer.
But there were other people as well. And these are some of the
names coming out of some of the history books
to show you other companions, who actually black Muslim African
Muslims, because the say Ethiopia today is just, it's not the whole
area. It would include the spots of the Sudan. It would include
Djibouti, you include Somalia, like all of those areas, they're
in East Africa. People could be coming into Islam from there.
Okay. So there's bill I live in rubber
man
Hajj al Habashi Abu Bakr Al Al Habashi Shah Quran Al Habashi to
Malcolm mahkamah al Habashi to Muhammad Habashi. And that means
by saying Al Habashi means he's an Abyssinian right?
Okay. Do Dudgeon to mana hip and Habashi Khalid Ibn Hawaii Khalid
Ibn robber, so his beloved brother
okay call it a bank robber. Aslam SAR Yasa customer Habashi he allow
washy our sim now you're lucky it is ya Ibrahim Ibrahim Ibn Saba
abre Hibben Fatone,
I Eman and Joshua al Habashi. These are names that are there.
All these people are Ethiopians
are African Sahaba.
But because we don't focus on the nationalities of people, because
Islam is for all races. We don't mention people's nationality, but
this has to come out because this misunderstanding in terms of
the relationship of Muslims to the African continent
who was some of the female Abyssinian Sahaba. Yet these are
female companions on Amon, that we learned was the dryness of the
prophet like his mother, right he took over after the prophets
mother died.
Amen or Baraka, she became his mother, like his mother.
Okay, so era
Baraka, the servants of home Habiba. Now here's the sister got
FIRA bent robot, the sister of Bilal
knob ha ha Bashir
and this work for those who are into following sources. It comes
from a book Man Hello at Sean V. Tariq al hub Shan said Ibn sada
callaloo, who is an Ethiopian scholar who takes from the major
history books. Okay, so this is the text where he brought together
these names bringing the proofs
for the name and I actually find this book and Mecca is an Arabic
other black Sahaba yet female companions on Zuffa sofa on Majan.
Buddy era Okay, these are names that come up in in Sierra and the
prophets life these names come prominent Black Sabbath. Okay,
these are famous people whose names come up in the text talking
about the Prophet's life. July beep, saddle Aswad Salem Mola, RB
huzefa. Now Salem, it was so important, because the Prophet
peace be upon him said if you want to take the court and take it from
for people,
and one of them he mentioned is Salah. So he was one of the four
top readers of the Quran
and he was African
who sama Ibn Zayd. Now remember his mother was his mother was from
Amon. So she was Ethiopian. The father was Zaid was an Arab
and was sama
was clearly an African man.
And people, you know, just tribalism that's there because
they're human beings. So somebody said, you know, is,
is Osama and Zaid is a summer really the son of date?
Because he would look different than Zaid because he has a
combination. So you had some special group of people they say
we can find out. We know how to check people.
Okay, how do you think they would check to see whether Zaid and
Osama are the same?
How would you check to people like that?
Okay, there's a mother, there's a woman and a girl. How would you
figure out whether she's the daughter of that person? Or the
son? Okay, and any ideas? What would you check? What would you
look at?
Okay, some might look at skin color, some might look at hair
texture, you know what they did? As they were sleeping. They didn't
have a lot of covers, so their feet was sticking out.
So they went and they looked at their feet.
Because you can tell by the feet of a person, the Father and the
Son. They checked the feet
and they said that's his son.
They had this special understanding there.
So if you ever want to check somebody check their feet.
What is important about Osama
the Prophet peace be upon him said Anna or Hibou sama you
Hola Fatima. He said I love more than anybody else. But Fatima is
daughter, I love Osama.
Okay, he loved Osama.
That's how close he was as a youth to the Prophet peace be upon him
and he becomes a great companion, and we'll hear more about him as
we go.
Another person, again, it's an African person, but
our texts don't bring it out because we don't bring out race
but it's important to know now, Marja, the first person to die in
the battle of better we'll see later on this is a great battle
was an African Muslim.
His name was Marja.
There is movies, there is Muhammad had been Muslim, who was a great
horseman rider.
Okay. And he was the leader of the troops. And he was a tall, dark
skinned African Muslim from he was living in Medina.
Okay, Muhammad had been Muslim, Oba urban Summit,
who later becomes one of the representatives of the Muslims, as
they traveled around the world
was also African Muslim. So these are some of the prominent names,
there are others who can even go deeper than this. But this changes
the story. And when they finally left, Ethiopia, and this is a
picture that I took, see the road there,
were on the road, and I'm taking to the other mountain, and that's
the road.
And when he turns that corner, you better pray that he makes a nice
left on his turn, right? Because if he doesn't, you're going to go
down the side of the mountain.
Okay, so it's very mountainous area there when you're up in the
highlands. So it is reported that 32 Abyssinians 32 Ethiopians, when
they left to go to Medina, they traveled with Jaffa 32.
And the community was not a large community, then only a few 100
people. So this is a significant amount of the companions.
That's a complete different understanding than what we have
today.
And it shows you how people are there with time and you know, I'm
not blaming people, because, you know, we are affected by where we
live. And if you live in Malaysia, you would think that Muslims, you
know, Malays are the main people that you see.
Okay, if you live in
Afghanistan, for instance, you would see people from Afghanistan,
there was a documentary, I was watching this, this is an East
African, Muslim from London. He was visiting Afghanistan, you
know, this traveled things, we they visit the country, right. So
he's an African and he had an his here in a, you know, an afro, what
we call an afro, and he had a dope. Okay, this is a common
hairstyle in East Africa.
Okay. And he's in, he's in Afghanistan, and the Afghans look
at them, because ignorance, right?
And they're looking at him and they come and they say, and
they're asking, basically, the children innocently, are you a
Muslim?
Think about this. And he's looking back at them. Now, this, these are
the early Muslims. These are the first before Islam, left Arabia.
These are the only Muslims in the world at the time.
And a good percentage of them come from Ethiopia from East Africa.
But the person in Afghanistan is looking at him and say, Are you a
Muslim? He's got a soul bond and he's on his way to the masjid.
Okay, so this is the knowledge that Muslims need to have about
history and about ourselves. 15 of the companions, died there in
Ethiopia.
And so there's a place called the gash that you can visit and their
graves are actually there today.
And the grave of Natasha himself, it's in the ticket, a province.
High up in the mountains going to an exon is the town of Nikesh.
Okay, and this is like the, one of the science that is there.
In the historical town of Nikesh
and the jazz she eventually passed away, and the Prophet peace be
upon him was given angel came to him and informed him and he lined
his companions up and they made janazah prayer, the funeral prayer
they made for the Joshy even though he wasn't there, right? So
that's, you can if if there's a person
and who dies in an area where there's no Muslims there? We can
make janazah for that person that's called salatu Janaza little
vibe, we can make it for that person.
Things People were not supposed to know, up until then, you know, he
kept it to himself.
He did not really from what we had to say he didn't announce it
even though he was Muslim,
okay, well, this is
the Companions remember the companions had left Ethiopia and
went to Medina.
So they knew, but the fact that he died, you know, it comes to us
that it was it was part of the angel came and told the prophet
that he had died. Later on, they found out that he died.
Right, but they knew that he was Muslim because he had informed
them, you know, and before they left,
okay.
So the point is that the Muslims came into Africa as refugees, not
as slave traders, or as Congress. Okay, and this is a different
understanding of the basis of Islam itself. Because the Prophet
peace be upon him said Fado NASS colony, Thumbelina, yo Luna, home
to Medina, you know, the best people are in my generation.
And then the one that follows them, and then the one that
follows them.
Okay, this is the best generation.
And this helps us to appreciate other Muslims. And this is
important, because Islam went to different parts of the world, it
was in the amongst the Turks. It was amongst the Yemenis, smug,
Persians, different people, and people tend to focus on themself
just like you're taking a selfie. So people will project Islam based
on themselves. Remember, they even had some amuseum and Topkapi and,
you know, they claim to have the hat of the Prophet.
I don't know how a coffee could last 1400 years, right? But they
said they have his hat, but the hat was a big hat, like the Turks,
a very big heads.
So we'd be like a Turkish hat. Because you'd have to be a Turk to
wear that hat.
Okay, so you can see that they're projecting themselves, right?
People will tend to project if you see people who will draw pictures.
Some people actually we don't draw pictures of prophets or
companions. But when they do, they make the picture look like
themselves.
You'll see it in Persia and Turkey and different places. But the
reality is, we don't base our religion on color and race. But
it's important to understand who the original Muslims were. It
changes your understanding.
And it breaks down tribalism and racism that happens amongst
people. So I want to open up the floor for any questions that
anybody may have. Concerning this. Very important. This is called the
first Hijra. This is the first migration the first time they were
able to escape with their faith and to leave Arabia. Okay, so the
floor is open for any questions anybody has concerning
this particular time.
Online, do we have any questions that are there?
Ethiopian Orthodox Church is a different Christianity from the
Catholic or positive Christianity that we have here. What's the
difference? Yeah, of course. Now, we ran across this Ethiopian
Orthodox church. You know, many of us here in the West, ran across
this through a group called Rastafarians Rastafari
and Rasta fry is came out of Jamaica is revolute revolutionary
movement that came
with the revolutionary struggles in Jamaica. And the Rastas then,
you know,
would go by the seashore and live a try to live a natural life.
Right? They grew their hair locks, supposedly following the Psalms.
Okay, and they focused on the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, because
they felt that at the time in the early 20th century, the only
country in Africa that was not conquered by the Europeans was
Ethiopia.
And the independence movement of Africa was being led by Ethiopians
and Algerians. But Ethiopians were the leader and the king at the
time was a
Al Selassie
okay so Selassie
traveled to America and different places he was internationally
known. He claimed to be a descendant of Menelik, who was
from the family of Solomon and and Sheba and Bill peace. Right. But
the Rastas went a step further.
And they said that he is Jesus. It reincarnated.
That is God.
Now one of the issues did challenge was they were smoking
ganja, right.
And when they smoke, it's not like here, a little tiny little smoke.
They smoke the chalice, they burned the chalice
which is a cloud of smoke.
Right, and somehow their understanding.
Even Ethiopians were shocked because Ethiopian don't consider
him to be God, right? Or Jesus. They said this is Jesus came back.
But there were sections of the Rasta movement.
One section of the movement, joined Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
And this is the Orthodox Church like Greek Orthodox. Remember we
said Rome in Italy, and Rome in Byzantium, Constantinople, is what
is called Greek Orthodox Church. You'll see their churches here in
Toronto. You'll see the Orthodox churches, they have arrived, it
was almost like a masjid or something.
Do you have Russian Orthodox Greek Orthodox, their Christmas is not
December 25. It's like January, you know, six, right? That's the
Orthodox. It's different. It's it came from Byzantium. So the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church, they follow the Greek Byzantium church.
But their teachings are basically the same.
When you go into the church, you'll find they believe in a
trinity. They believe in Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Right, but they have their own understanding of things. When I
was in Ethiopia itself, I visited axon because you see, these
pictures here that I'm showing you here
are in gold near here, like in this here, this is in Exxon inside
of an area where they have the Ark of the Covenant they believe. And
you see the colors of the gold, the red and the green. And they
had a little church inside this area called the Church of St.
Mary, big church and a little section. It was the first time
that I ever saw Jesus you know, usually pictures of Jesus and Mary
they usually white right, like Europeans. But this is the first
time I ever saw Jesus was black is mother was Ethiopian, because
Ethiopians believe in themselves, they will all Ethiopians. None of
it's right.
Okay, but that's the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Unfortunately, it
still follows the Council of Nicaea Trinity.
So even though they're not exactly the same culturally,
but but they could the Christians who are there in Ethiopia, who are
very powerful.
They follow
that church question.
Don't follow that do believe in one God. Yeah. Do you know that
there were people call Unitarians. But the church was so powerful.
They persecuted everybody.
The Crusades, and they hunted down anybody who call themselves
Christian and did not accept the Trinity. The only group of
Christians who broke away were the Germans and the Martin Luther. And
they call themselves Protestants. You know, Protestant and Catholic.
The Catholic is the main church, but the Protestant protested, but
they still believe in the Trinity.
They just don't accept Rome. They don't accept the Pope. But they
didn't change the pida.
So in terms of the beliefs, all of them. Now there's new groups that
came a group called Jehovah's Witnesses.
But they still believe in a trinity.
You have another group called Seventh Day Adventist, Seventh Day
Adventist, they even they wanted to go back to the original
religion. And they said instead of Sunday, which is the Day of the
Sun. They say we're going to worship on Saturday Sabbath.
They wanted to go back to the original religion. And when I was
living in Jamaica, at that time, we had no Halal things. And one of
the only places you could get, you know, halal patties and food was
from the Seventh Day Adventist because they're really clean
people. And they don't use meats.
But they still believe in the Trinity.
That was the problem and see.
So that belief is still there.
Now there are
Some people who claim they broke away from the Trinity and they
believe in one God. But it's also all confused. One day we were
there in Jamaica,
and
we were having a big dinner, and we needed to borrow some ovens.
And so this Christian group had ovens. So we borrowed their ovens.
And then afterwards when we were taking it back,
I can't think of the Presbyterians, one of the groups,
we would take on the ovens back.
And the Muslim Brothers were in an argument with the Christians.
You know, like Ahmed Deedat, in South Africa, they were they were
debating with the Christians.
And the Muslims were saying to the Christians, you believe in three
gods, we believe in one God.
And
the preacher, the minister came along, and he said, No, no, no,
no, no. We believe in one God. And the Muslims were stumped. They
didn't know what to do.
I came along.
And I said to the to the Minister, you believe in one God, he said,
Yeah, we do. I said, Who is he, he said, is Jesus.
You see, so even though he said he believed in one God, some of the
churches believed that God changed His form,
and became Jesus, and went on the cross, and suffered for the sins
of people, which is a crazy idea.
But that's what they believed in.
So even though they're more natural, they're in Ethiopian
churches and whatever. Unfortunately, it's the same
belief.
It didn't change.
questions online. Any other questions? Anybody else?
Yep.
So in our, we're taught that, like we're not, it's not good to draw
pictures of people, especially.
Like Persians have done it, or other cultures have done it. There
are some people who have a lot of drawings in their pre Islamic
culture before they were Muslim.
And so, in some areas, they didn't have a solid understanding of
Islam. So they tried to make pictures, but what they would
usually do, if you see it, when they had the Prophet, they would
put a veil over his face.
We don't we're not supposed to draw pictures of people anyway,
because you're trying to put life because the Prophet peace upon him
said, if somebody is drawing, and sculpturing,
right, then on the Day of Judgment, Allah was going to ask
that person to put life in that picture. Because they're trying to
make life like real life, if they can't, they will be thrown in the
fire.
So therefore, Muslim artists do not draw pictures of people.
And animals, it's basically you know, senior calligraphy and, you
know, natural scenes and, you know, whatnot. But some people
with weak understanding, did did draw pictures, but generally, they
would be if they wouldn't try to draw the profit, they would not,
they will usually put like a veil over his face.
Somewhere about taking a picture of somebody.
So this is a good point now about camera pictures. Okay, because the
picture is the camera picture the same. And the scholars have said,
it is not the same.
Because the camera, the picture is reality, put on a mirror and put
into the camera. Now we have digital, right. But before it used
to go right onto the yield of frame, and then you actually had a
picture of reality. So you didn't draw that.
And I remember I was traveling with one group and it was on
Maulana there, you know, Islamic guy and he was, you know, really
into his deen and he said pictures are haram don't take pictures,
everything.
But you know, he used to love to comb his beard and his hair in the
mirror. So every day used to look in the mirror, we were traveling
together, right? So I said, okay, brother, do you know that this
camera is a mirror image? That's what this picture is. It's the
exact thing. So if you say the cameras around, stop looking in
the mirror.
You see, stop looking in the mirror.
Okay, because that's all it really is. Of course, if we do use a
camera or anything, you're not supposed to have nakedness and you
know other things like that. That's obvious, but just the
picture itself is not haram. It's okay to have pictures of people in
your house. So, so now as far as the family is concerned, the
processor limb said that angels will not enter the house. If there
are hanging pictures of people in house. Angels will not enter
Okay,
So therefore, if you have pictures around, maybe there's a newspaper
or you know, whatever, like that, you know that that's something
that's there but hanging pictures on walls.
And it is said that I Isha, I believe it was, she had somebody
drew a picture of, you know, the winged horse of Solomon.
But and so she had this and the Prophet came in and saw this is a
cloth. So he took it, and he tore it into pieces, and they used it
for pillows cover.
Okay, so we avoid hanging pictures of people, angels will not enter
the house. If there's dogs inside of your house, they're not coming
in either.
Okay, so this is an important thing, you know, for us to, you
know, to understand that that's really the reason why we don't
hang
animals as well.
Now, sometimes somebody asked me the other day, if it's safe, for
instance,
an icon that's on a shirt or something like that. It's just
like a head or some small thing. The Scholars say if the if the
picture is not completed.
Or if the picture is very rough. It's not an exact thing, then it
would be.
It would be okay.
And there was a friend of mine, who was in Michigan. And he
embraced Islam. He was the number one of the number one artist in
Michigan at the time.
And he wasn't a Muslim. And he said, and he became a good Muslim.
And he told me that he was so good. He said, when he was drawing
pictures, he said, he felt like he was creating life.
Like, that's how good he was, right? And so when the Hadith
came, he said, Now I know exactly what this data is. I know what it
means. Because I used to do.
Okay, so we avoid that type of thing. So hanging is bad, but
like, for example,
yeah, a photo album or something like that. There's nothing wrong
with that.
But it's just you're hanging the picture. You know, they like that
we're not supposed to do this.
The other general questions anybody has?
Yeah, obviously, in the product talks a lot about the people of
the book. So distinguishing between pagans versus Christians
and Jews, in terms of like our understanding of how we interact
with them, and how they interact with them versus pagans, like
lessons we should be drawing for our life. Yes. So you can see here
that we have a positive attitude toward the People of the Book.
And we see that they have with no Jesus received the Gospels, Moses
received the Torah. David Dowd received the Psalms. So we have a
positive attitude to them, the Koran says that you will find the
closest people to the Muslims are Christians, you know, and because
they have people who are humble people,
so we are close to them. And that should be the attitude, but we
don't follow their polytheism they're shirk.
So you have to distinguish between the two. The mistake is when
people come into Islam, and and then everybody says, Don't go to
your family, have nothing to do with them. That's a mistake.
That's a mistake. Your mother is still your mother. That's still
your friend. You just don't follow them. When they're doing
polytheism. You know, and drink and alcohols and things. You don't
follow them. But it's still your family.
Question. So the reason I asked outside of farming is just because
sometimes you find agnostic people who do not believe in God, to have
better values, and treat people better and be more respectful of
Islam, especially in the context of what's going on. Right? They
might not have some of the same beliefs
versus some Christians and evangelicals, obviously, and some
Zionist Jews who have a completely different way on a different side.
So it just seems like yeah, how do you know when you're talking about
like, how, like, I mean, we have to judge people, not just by their
name, but their actions.
So you know, the Quran says there's no reward for good except
good. So if somebody's doing good, and they're a good person, then we
respect that person.
And if somebody claims to be a Christian or a Jew or even a so
called Muslim and do an evil, then we don't, we don't follow them.
So so the so the basic, you know, testimony to a person's belief is
their actions, what they actually do in this life
and that's very important for us.
So, we will continue on Inshallah, you know, with our understanding,
we will now go into the last years of the
offered in Mecca, some very interesting stories and things
that happened to him, which again shows us the importance of
Muhammad Rasul Allah, how important he was, and how he
influenced the world at his time. And he's still influencing people
today. So we leave you with these thoughts. And we ask a lot to have
mercy on you and me. Well, I kind of thought why not? There's a
question here. Okay, question.
Two is considered a picture.
tattoos, okay. It depends on what the tattoo is. But you know, the
Prophet said, you're not supposed to do tattoos.
That's something prohibited in Islam.
So it doesn't matter what it is, we're not supposed to be making
permanent indelible marks on our bodies like that.
I have a statue that is a candle holder. But I could take it off,
is that acceptable?
So it's a statue with the head off.
Still, it's a statue, right? I mean, it's, you know, it's sort of
like, defeating the purpose. But the point is that some people will
say, you know, if the picture is not complete, you may have things
on a book or whatever, it's not complete, it's not exactly what it
is. But statues, we don't want anything to do with statues.
Because that's where the false beliefs of polytheism come in. So
you have to avoid, you know, these these kinds of things.
If your family is Christian is okay to go visit them for
Christmas? Yes,
we should respect our families, I came from a Christian family
myself, and you respect your families. But you have to make it
clear, as soon as possible that you're a Muslim. So therefore, we
don't eat pork. We don't drink alcohol.
That has to be clear. And for some, for some people in their
cultures, they make a special putting or a special cake. You
know, on Christmas, there's wine inside or rum inside of it. You
know, and, you know, but the more they understand if they are, you
know, honest and sincere with us, then they will respect factor
religion normally what what, what what we would do, when we visit
the families, on these occasions, we visit we greet, whatever. But
after a while, if they if alcohol starts coming, then we excuse
ourselves when we leave.
Because once they start drinking alcohol, all * breaks loose.
That's when the devil comes. So we avoid but we should show respects
to our family. And it's a chance for Dawa to
is a chance to spread Islam. I mean, can Santa Claus Is he the
one that gave the gift center that Christmas tree?
Can Santa Claus come to your chimney? Most of us don't have
chimney anyway. But how can he fit in the chimney? He's a big guy.
How's he going to fit through? And then millions of chimneys around
the world? No, man.
This is false belief. The poor father he works so hard to get
these these presents for his children. Right. And the children
are thanking Santa Claus.
That's not right. It was their father who paid the money the
mother paid the money.
So we gently try to help them out of the false beliefs and into the
the true beliefs of Islam. Okay, so I want to leave you with this.
We will end our class was salam aleikum wa rahmatullah.