New Muslim Corner – The Issue Of Sufism

Anybody in

La Jolla Rahmani Raheem hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa sallahu wa salam ala says I will leave Arkadin the BNF Muhammadan. While alihi wa sahbihi wa barik al salam, I'll praise the do to Allah, Lord of the worlds and peace and blessings be constantly showered upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, the master the first and the last, and his companions as follows all those who call to his way and establish his sunnah to the Day of Judgment. My beloved brothers and sisters, Islam while they come Rahmatullah Alhamdulillah, we are continuing our open session for new Muslims. That is our new Muslim corner. And also, it's an opportunity for those who have revived their Deen no matter what is

the age, to review some of the concepts in Islam, and to be able to ask questions in an open forum. Of course, these questions I'm trying to give

a look at different issues in the light of the fact that people are embracing Islam. So those who may have lived in Islam for a period of time, and they have an understanding from their part of the world, or they may have a difference of opinion with another group. This may not be the right place, this is foundational. So this is to give the essence of Islam in a neutral type of balanced way, going back to the sources, to use the original concepts coming from Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him and his companions, and those in the first generations. And so with this concept in mind that we try to understand what has happened to Muslims over the centuries, how we are using terminologies,

and concepts, and then how can we confront this today, and the world we're living in today. And so we were looking at the famous Hadith, of

Gibreel, the angel Jibreel Alayhi Salam. And that is the Hadith where the angel came to the Prophet peace be upon him, and asked him about Islam, and amen, and SN.

So we asked him about three dimensions, within our religion, within our way of life. And this is very foundational, this is extremely important to try to understand what is actually going on. Because especially for the new Muslims and the young Muslims, you're going to hear terminologies. You're going to hear names being thrown at you. And if you don't understand Arabic, or if you don't have a historical perspective, about how Islam developed over the years, some of these terminologies can become a little confusing. And so

Eman

Islam, Amen. Yes.

Okay, so these were the three dimensions, or the three levels. And when it came to Islam, the Prophet SAW Selim then

informed Gibreel

that the five pillars of Islam

This is the basis of

it and that is to say that we have the Shahada. We believe in one God, we accept Prophet Muhammad. So Saddam is the last messenger. We establish our prayers, we established the giving of zakat charity, we fast in the month of Ramadan. And we tried to make pilgrimage once in a lifetime. Okay, so that's the foundations, everything stands on that. And the second level, when he was asked about a man of faith, that he said to believe in Allah and His angels and his books and his messengers,

to believe in the last day, and to believe in the will of Allah, the divine destiny, the good and the evil thereof. Third question was about SN,

which generally could be translated as righteousness, or doing of good. There's a lot of ways you can look at this term.

But the Prophet SAW Selim gave Gibreel and then showed us a practical answer. And he said it is to worship Allah, as though you are seeing him. And while you see him, not truly he sees you. So in other words, you worship Allah as though you could see him. If you could see Allah,

then that would make our prayers and our lifestyle really serious.

Or if we knew that Allah was looking at us, and you could feel it, that would also be serious.

So that

consciousness, that feeling

is yes.

And there's another term that we use in English, sometimes it could be stretched to mean that we say conscience, like your conscience.

Okay, so that's something inside of you. And we used to say, in America, always let your conscience be your guide.

So that's something inside of you, is the spiritual part of you.

Okay, so that spiritual side of Islam, in a sense, that is the set. So, we looked at it to try to understand these, we use the term dimensions. So these are different dimensions of Islamic faith or of the deen. Okay, so the first dimension is a more practical dimension. So that is the practical practice five pillars, you prep you practically believe in Allah, you believe in the messenger.

Okay, you got to make your press, you have enough wealth, you pay the poor do to those who need it.

Okay, Ramadan comes and it's coming soon, you fast, you try to go to pilgrimage, that's like action oriented. Okay, the second dimension is more of our faith. It's more of you know, what we believe in it. So it's like, ideas, its beliefs.

Okay, and these are the articles of faith.

And the other dimension is the spiritual one. And that is, you know, gaining or trying to be as perfect as we can gaining perfection. Or you can say excellence, Allah is the only one who is perfect, but to try to be excellent

in what we're doing

in our press, so to be excellent and your friends to be excellent in your fasting

as to being a must have the best you possibly can be. That's one of the definitions of Sn

Sn also means not just something good, doing good. So you're doing good.

Righteousness.

So you're doing righteousness with yourself and also

with other beings in the universe. Okay. So, to go right to the point because this is to try to clear up any misunderstandings. Because after the time of Prophet Muhammad SAW Salam, these terminologies changed a little bit or at least people added dimensions to the terminologies in the original Islam.

It was SN.

Just like when we practice where we make our prayers, there were no schools of thought. And as no Muslims, you got to hear about Hanafy they'll say, Are you a Hanafi? Meaning you follow Imam Abu Hanifa

right. That's a great Imam. You know, who developed who took you know, from the Sunnah from the way of the Prophet and he made a system to practice a D

or Imam Malik? Are you Maliki?

Okay, that came later also.

So there's a great Imam lived in Medina and he systematized Islam

and its spread.

Or Imam Shafi was another great scholar lived in the area of Egypt and he systematized the teachings. He was one of Imam Malik students, actually his best student. And he improved on Imam Malik's school of thought so too, so to speak. So people will say, you know, I'm following Imam Shafi in his system of making my press or implementing my Islam.

And the fourth is Imam Ahmed ibn humble. So they would say your humbly

Okay, so this came later, but in the time of the Prophet salah, there was no Hanafi, Maliki Shafi homilies, you're just making salad.

And you're trying to do it as close to the prophet as possible, to submit to Allah, you see. So these names came along later. Some people might think that being Hanafi, Maliki goes right back to the prophets time. It doesn't.

It actually starts after his time.

We believe that all of these Imams took from the sources, they're authentic.

But in reality, they were not the first generation.

The closest to the first generation was Imam Abu Hanifa.

Rahim Allah who lived in Iraq.

And it is said that he met one of the companions, Allah seven Malik are the long one of the he was probably one of the longest living, you know, companions. And he asked, he went to the Prophet and asked him make a prayer for me in my life that I can have goodness in my life. So the Prophet made a dua for him and his crops in Iraq with bear fruit two or three times per year.

He had a large family, he lived to be around 130 years old.

So because he had a such a long life, keeping his mind to

so Abu Hanifa met him

so that he saw him better compared to but none of the other Imams actually met. Companions.

Okay, but they all took from each other.

And they did not consider themselves different.

Although you may seem to you may see today, some people follow their school of thought, although it's like a tribal thing.

It's like a racial thing. If you're Pakistani or Indian. You know, you're Hunter feet. Unless you're Indian, who comes from Kerala that's on the coast. And they're Sharpies.

If you're not African?

American, Algerian West African?

Central African, you're Maliki

Okay. Imam Malik never went to North Africa. He never went to West Africa. His teachings Did you see

if you're in Egypt?

Or if you look at Egypt, along the Red Sea.

And then so all the countries they're following the Red Sea, especially like Yemen, Sudan, Somalia,

right, and then on the trade routes, so that goes to Malaysia and Indonesia. Right, so these areas, Swahili coast, like Mozambique and King, their sharpies because the teaching spread with the merchants and with the teachers follow these words, in the area of Iraq and Arabia

and the Gulf, then you will find a lot of people are humbleness. Although Imam Ahmed, you know was in he was in Iraq.

Okay, so

the original concepts are there, and then it is codified.

So I'm using the word codified is put into a form so that people could easily digest it.

If if a teacher comes into an area, you know, Islam spreads to a total new area. And suddenly there's 100,000 People who embraced Islam.

How you going to teach the people, you can't just go into a book and randomly teach you got to have a system. So this this codified way of making solid

So the people could now have a system to pray a system to pay zakat. So this is how these schools of thought developed.

And they did not develop racially or tribally or to be against each other now, only to explain Islam. So it is like the codification

of the especially number one, the Islam part, the codification of that

right now when it comes to

get sand.

When it comes to that level,

there are people from the time of the Prophet SAW Selim, who tended to be more spiritual than others, if I can use that term.

Everybody has a personality, like Omar will have Tom Rhodiola when he was very powerful, the Statesman Khalid bin Walid, you know, great Sahabi when he was a warrior, right, Abdullah bin Massoud, master of the Quran, and you have different you know, companions, Abu zar, Al Rifai, various spiritual person,

highly engaged in the prayers and the spirituality, but they were all companions. And there was no difference between

the one who was fighting or the one who was spiritual, they actually benefited from each other. And it is said that

when that the Companions

would line up for press,

okay, then they would look to see who is the best in prayer.

Who is the best reader. So if Abdullah bin Massoud was there, then they would say even must lead us. This is a small Yemeni man hamdulillah Yemenis May Allah protect them and strengthen them? They're one of the most courageous parts of this nation.

Yemeni man Abdullah bin must route

master of the Quran.

Okay, small, short body. Right but amazing mind. So let Him lead, Khalid Ibn Walid six foot tall warrior, he could not even muscled out the way and lead the prayer. Did he do that? No. He stood behind Abdullah even muscle

they complement each other.

But the enemies of Allah came on the scene.

Everybody would say where is Khalid? Where is he?

That he goes in the front? You see? So what did they do that even must read form his own school of thought Ibn Massoud movement

or did Khalid form his own organization know

they had certain strengths, differences and they complement each other in these differences, you see, so so that is the beauty about going back to the original, you know, area and sources. So somewhere around the time of Imam Malik. So this is like, you know, 60 years it was after the time of Prophet Muhammad so seldom,

you know, there were companions, and the next generation, Tabby, who were, who felt that things are getting a little bureaucratic.

In other words, Islam is taking shape. And they develop into a nation, a nation state is developing, especially in a time of Omar. So you organizes things. But sometimes when you have bureaucracy, when you have systems like that, and you start codifying you get a little bit too dry,

because it's by the book.

So they wanted to emphasize the spiritual part.

Hassan Al bacillary

Rahimullah a great scholar, known as a very spiritual person, knowledgeable person, you know, people like that started to become sources of spirituality. So in other words, if you want to know how to pray,

what are the rules of salaat? You might go to a certain person, but if you wanted to know how do I improve my consciousness of sloth,

like how do I learn to love the difference in the two? So if you want to know how to love salad,

right, the spirituality of making salad, then you would go to somebody like a hustle or bustle.

There are some people who combine both and he was knowledgeable in his FIP also, but you would go to some

But I like that. So this terminology. And it's hard to say where it actually took the name. But you could say in in a time of Imam Malik, it started to show itself. So this is like, you know, go like 60 years, you know, and you know, after the death of the Prophet Salam, it's shown itself, and the word to solve is used to solve. And that is being used as a sort of a meaning of SSN by some people. Okay. In the beginning again, you know, as one of the great scholars said, you know, to solo off in the beginning, was a reality, with no name.

So there's no name to it. But it's a reality. Okay, you live, you know, a tough life, you abstain from the world, right? You try to be as spiritual as possible. Right? That was to Salaf. And again, just quickly, there's a lot of discussion about where does this word come from. And the most authentic is that it comes from Souf, which means wool.

So when you because the people who tended to want to live a aesthetic life would tend to just wear you know, a cloak, rough type of clothing, whatever generally made of wool, especially in the northern countries, or in the desert, because in desert, surprisingly enough, it gets cold at night, right?

So if you want to get up for Tahajjud prayer at night in the desert, it's not

40 degrees centigrade,

it can be cold.

Okay, so this wool SO to SO woof with sod coming from that, one another explanation is that it comes from Safar

which means to purity. So somebody who wants to purify themself, okay, they want to clean their heart and purify their heart by doing 10 Skia which is also a form of purification tests. kiya

Okay, so this terminology comes. Also there's a group called under sofa. And these are the people who lived in the mosque, in the masjid of the Prophet. And they used to dedicate their life to making prayers to education Talim, feeding the poor. If new Muslims came, they would take care of the new Muslims in the masjid. The Masjid was an all purpose center. It was not just open for prayers and then closed. It was 24 hours open.

And the people were taken care of the mosque was the art of the sofa.

And one of the great people of the sofa is Abu Huraira himself,

who was a great

scholar, and companion. And he loved creation. And they called him Hodeidah because

it means little kitten, the father of the kittens,

because anywhere he went 25 kittens will come running after him, because he was always feeding them.

So like he loved animals, right? He was just that, that kind of a person, right? So these are some of the definitions where it comes from. And

you know, as a slum spreads, as I said last week, Islam is spreading rapidly.

And it crosses barriers way into China, way up north into Dagestan, Chechnya, Russia, way down south, into the Swahili coast, all the way to Morocco.

Within 100 years, there's no mass communications. And people are accepting Islam and bringing in their own religions and their own ways of life. And they're mostly Okay, so, differences started to come. So this is where, you know, scholars had to codify and when Islam, especially when it went to, of course, when it hit the Christian lens, so even in the area of Jerusalem,

and the, you know, the Roman Byzantine Romans, they're Christians, right. And the Christian lands, they had monks,

monks and nuns monasteries. So you'd run across people who dedicate their life in spirituality.

Amongst the Jewish people, they also had what they call Kabbalah,

which is a type of spirituality. Right these spiritualities can also turn into magic to

but it is sort of the spirituality that deduce Jewish people look at this Kabbalah

Okay, so you had so you find people who are doing that

If you go to the Hindu lands, and you find gurus

were dedicating themselves.

And they want to like defeat their body and rise out of their bodies. So they do exercises, they fast, long periods of time. They even subject their bodies to punishments until they can even like, take pain away from parts of their bodies. Okay gurus, and then Buddhists, Buddhist monks. So all of this is coming into Islam. And then what happens in some of these areas, and I'm trying to simplify this is that these lifestyles come in and they translated into Arabic.

So it gets translated to Arabic. And sometimes you cannot separate the translated Buddhist lifestyle from the original Islam.

You can understand see that concept? And sometimes they get mixed up.

Okay, so therefore, you will have groups of people who will develop

not just dealing with FIQ, the level of Islam or Eman Aqeedah is your belief. That's Eman as a word called Aqeedah.

So you see people talking about what your Aqeedah

you know, that's the level of Eman right? So that develops, but the level of Sn,

so, people started to bring their own spirituality.

And what develops is, you could say two streams,

two streams, there is the sober, cautious approach to SN

and that is the scholarly approach where the where the scholars are leading and the definition any thing to do with SN or Sufism to solve, it has to stay in the boundaries of Islam.

But then, another form comes in more than likely influenced by Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, right, that type of spirituality.

And that is what I'm calling sort of like an intoxicated form.

And because it's based upon the concept of what a tool would yield, right? And the concept of of water to would you would, meaning that the unity of Being

so in other words, in many of these religions,

in all religions, really, you know, people see

they try to understand death.

Because when you die your soul is going on.

So where does it go? And Hindus say, You got to come back

and go into another body, different people have different concepts. So that's like the spiritual part of life. Everybody has to deal with this.

So how do you deal with the creative force? What the tool will dude was the concept

that

you elevate yourself so high, that you can actually go into the Godhead,

your spirit becomes part of the divine consciousness.

And the only thing left is to die your body drops off but you're already you already got a door open to the Divine Consciousness, okay?

And that's what I told you and you'll see what I do oh dude in like I say Hinduism and Buddhism, especially the group the Jain and Jainism, where they believe every living thing is got power life in it. So God is in it.

So they say God is everywhere.

Everything is God is inside of it. Okay, that was rejected by

the sober, cautious, to solve and through thick or understanding, because we know that Allah subhanaw taala is above seven heavens, not an earth with human beings. But Allah sees all things.

He is all things

right but is not down here.

In this earth, this is creation.

So Allah was above the creation. Okay, so that was rejected. And Imam Junaid he died around 910 Just to give you some chronology around 910 ad is when he passed away. And there's also Imam Al Ghazali. who's a famous scholar as well. He's in the sober, cautious form. Right he's he was born around

In 1111 Right after Junaid so there were scholars who are following this sober way of

Yes sir.

And for many of these people, they didn't even use the term like we use Sufism today or pain even use these terms when you go back in their writings there were no groups around

and some of the scholars you would think because there's another terminology that may come out of discussion like it's called Salafi which is somebody who's new rigidly into Quran and Sunnah. You know, once a PDB straight, and one of the famous leaders of that group was Imam Ibn Taymiyyah. Very famous. Okay, and one of the famous leaders in the soba cautious to solve was Abdul Qadir jeelani Sheikh Abdul Qadir jeelani. And you would think that the two of them according to how, what you might hear in discussions were enemies? No, they were actually colleagues of each other. And even they used to write each other regularly, they both live in Baghdad area.

So they respected each other. They disagreed on certain concepts. They did disagree. But they respected each other Abdulkadir Jelani had a school

not just a school of the soul off he was a teacher.

So it was it was different than those times and what we might get today.

And that's what I want to separate you know, for the new Muslims, you know, in these concepts, so you have these streams, right have to solve it's all not the same.

So if a person says they are following to so worth, it does not necessarily mean that they are following the intoxicated for

the best Tommy farm is Abu Musab al mystery. So he was one of the ones for water to dude, you know, trying to get straight into the Creator instead of taking time and making your prayers and all they just been right up. Like that's our concept, right? So they just got a beam up to Allah.

Okay, whether you do it with

whirling, called Summer like Whirling Dervishes in Turkey,

or you do it through abstinence, punishing yourself to gain a type of spirituality, there's different ways of coming coming to it, but it was rejected by the people who are more balanced in their approach and I want to

to show you

to give you Imam Malik's concept here.

So, Imam Malik is one of the great scholars of fit right jurisprudence. So, he said in one of his statements, he said, Whoever occupies himself with fic that means like studying your religious sciences, like you study, Salah Kedah, if you occupy occupy yourself only with the books, right.

So he said mental fog kaha, whoever occupies himself with fic and does not pass through a process of training into Salaf

will become a sinner. So he said mental fog kaha wallum Yetta Sawa for tough, tougher soccer.

So what he's saying is, if you get really into the books, and you have no spirituality, you can become a sinner.

Because you don't have the spirit of press. You don't have the spirit of Islam. So you can actually have all this book knowledge, but you didn't develop your character.

So you can actually become a facet.

As a first step as a, as a believer, but a weak believer sinner, you're committing sense. So if you don't, if you study the books, you gotta have spirituality. That's what he said.

But then he said, Well, mentor Sawa. Well, let me out of UCLA, for cut Tarzan dukkah. So he said, Whoever goes into this sort of thing, because it was new in his time. So if you go into the spirituality, but you don't learn religious sciences, then you can become a heretic as indique.

So if you go into the spiritual sciences, I mean, you go into the spirituality and you don't have fifth knowledge, the knowledge of the Sharia, you can actually become a cop.

Lafayette is in deep means and not a disbeliever.

And you will see that some people who practices extreme form actually say statements that put them outside of Islam.

Like one of them when they said whereas Allah, then he said Allah is in my pocket.

Now, if you take that for face value, right, Allah is in his pocket.

But he believes that Allah is everywhere, if you have that water that will dude. So that means that Allah is all over the place.

So he used that as an example.

And that according to the to the to the league, legal scholars, put him outside of Islam.

That's what Imam Malik said. But then he said, Well, man, Jamal been a homage to haka, if you combine the two,

then you will have attained the truth. This is Mr. Malik. He said, so if you have the Religious Sciences, the fic and you have spirituality, if you can combine them,

then you have Haqiqa, you will have the truth. That's the saying of Imam Malik

and m this is before

the Sufi groups actually started to develop. Okay, now

to go back to the group's itself. And I'm going to deal with this pile and open up the floor for any discussions.

The basis of the groups that remember Islam is spreading and these groups who want to have spirituality start to form now, in some parts, they were monasteries with Christian monks.

They were monastery type areas with with gurus, like Maharashtra and India was famous for this. They were Buddhist monks. And they tend to have

monasteries, or places where they would teach their followers.

Okay. And so people started to congregate, to learn about yourself. And what developed is what is called Silsila.

So a Silsila is a chain

Okay. acyl salah is a chain of secret knowledge coming from the Prophet peace be upon him, to his companions, especially to them Abu Bakr and Ali, these two famous companions, it was secret knowledge.

And then it was passed along

clandestinely, like secretly in a chain, one to another, to another to another. And some of these scholars or chefs, they said, I have the Silsila.

So I have the secret spiritual knowledge, you have a problem with your press.

If you don't have spirituality, I can, I can help you.

Now, if you want to know how to make Salat, go to the masjid and ask the Imam there, the sheikh who knows Fick.

Right? But if you want high spirituality, if you want to know how to feel the presence of Allah, then I have a chain of knowledge

that can lead you to this call Silsila.

Okay, so the Silsila to a chef.

Right? And he would have a monastery, the term in Arabic in North Africa, they say is zawa

in Persian Hunka.

And there are different terminologies that they use for this, but what it is, it's like a

fortress or monastery, you know, where the father was of a group, a family called tariqa.

With a tariqa, where they where they organize, and atellica is based upon the Silsila.

Right and usually named after

one of the

scholars in the chain.

Right, like Abdulkadir J. Lani. His study is called cardio.

Cardio.

Okay, so there's different characters that develop. So this is how

the Salaf develops in these, you know, tariqas and in these areas, and this is an oversimplification because the Muslim world is huge.

And it's developing in different ways in different places. But different scholars of Sn start to develop

and

as scholars go in both areas like Imam Al Ghazali I give you an example, Imam Al Ghazali, who was born around, you know, 1111. He started off in Fick. In other words, he was religious sciences. And he was such an amazing teacher, that he was chosen the Seljuk Empire, which was the great empire at that time, they developed a set of schools called Nizar meow,

bizarre meow schools, this was probably the greatest Islamic institution at the time. That is the 11th century 12th century, it was in Baghdad, the Nizar Mia score. So because Ali who was from Persia, he was such a great scholar, they made him the head of the new Samia school. So he was the one of the probably the greatest one of the greatest scholars in the whole Muslim world at the time,

and his book on a solid flip. And that is the foundations of jurisprudence. Up until today is one of the main books that you study, if you want to study Fick, you have to study because Ali's book.

Okay, so, but he reached the point in his life,

he had answers for every question.

He had so much knowledge that you could come to him from any angle, he's got an answer for you. But he felt inside of his life, something was missing.

He felt something was missing. There was some spirituality was missing. And he said, I need to, there's a voice in me.

I need to, you know, to improve my spiritual self. So he left his family, he left the school and he went to Jerusalem. And he stayed with a group of the people of to solve an area of Jerusalem and whatnot for a period of time. You know, and then finally, when there was a lot of confusion happening in Iraq, he went back to his to the schools. And he ended his life studying Hadith, teaching Hadith. So he's gone in both right?

You will hear discussions that people may have today when they say Ghazali they think that he's like out to lunch person, you know, just totally intoxicated No.

This is one of the greatest scholars in Islamic history. Okay, but a point in his life

he was searching for the spirituality

that's why he's a good scholar to refer to because he could easily like crosses both lines. So it gives you more of a balanced approach

to the concept of Sn right the balanced approach.

So, these are some of the foundations of what is now called Sufism today. And but the original word was the Salaf which originally was SN right the spirituality part of Islam. So I want to open up the floor for any questions or discussion that anybody you know may have

the the the discussion is basic. Okay, but I want to open up the floor for any any questions that you may have. concerning these concepts.

Yeah.

There's a certain amount of seconds

that or meeting a stranger.

Yeah, and they're gonna end up in the hellfire. Yeah.

Do we know what those things are? Yeah, there is a tradition about that. The Christians broke into you know, so many groups that Jews 72 You know, whatever, we will break into 73. But he said, even our we will break into a lot of groups. Right? But he said the one that is the right one is mana Allah, he was happy, the one that follows my way, and my companions, that will be the one.

Now the question is, which one of the groups today is the one who's following him and his companions? Right? A lot of groups will say I'm the one and somebody else will say, Well, I am the one. So you're going to hear a lot of things. But the basis of it is the fact that if somebody is bringing you sand or whatever it is, they need to do it within the limits of the Quran and the Sunnah within Islamic jurisprudence, as long as they are within the limits of traceable Islam.

Then we can follow it. If somebody brings you something

that's untraceable. You see the secret sales seller?

He comes in he says to you

Have you asked him a question? He said, Well, I had a dream last night.

And then he tells you what he saw in his dream. Okay?

The devil can come in your dream.

Nobody is clear of this. So who is the Devil that spoke to him in his dream the shaytaan? Or was it an angel? What was it? If you're going to add some my question in life, I need to have some proof, some connection

with the Quran and the Sunnah, some something that holds me down, not just your dream, right?

You see, so So this is, as long as it stays within the realm of Islamic practice, then we're okay.

But if it goes outside, the cautious scholars would say, don't follow it.

Don't find that

flows open for questions.

Seek secret knowledge,

whether it actually follows or whether it's actually the way it

is. So the question is, if it's secret knowledge, how do you actually know that it's the way of the Prophet

you don't.

Because you have to trust the chef, you trust the scholar.

And you put your trust in Him.

And some of the groups into salt Wolf, I'm not saying all of them, they will say when you accept the chef and you take allegiance to him, it's like, when you have an operation and the doctor,

you submit to the doctor, right? And he puts you under, he gives you anesthetics and he's cutting your body up, right? So do you wake up and say, Hey, Doc, could you cut this side? No, you go to sleep, and hope the operation is alright. So he's saying except me.

Right? I'm like a doctor. But the problem with that is,

if he's telling you to do something outside of your Islamic practices,

then this is it's dangerous. And under cautious scholars would tell you don't follow it.

Or they would, they would caution you about it, that you have to be able to

talking about the fact that their secret knowledge that there would be secrets passed, you know, he did gives some secrets to his competitors, like, who they really allow, and he knew the name of the hypocrites. So he told his companion, who the hypocrites were, he wouldn't tell anybody else. And even Omar came to him and said, Okay, tell me who they ever said no.

And then Omar said, Well, tell me, am I one of them?

Right? And he said, No, you're okay. Right?

But they would watch if somebody died and who they didn't come to his janazah

then they would say, Okay, wait a minute. Like we so they for right? But he never told. And you remember the Hadith that we learned earlier? Where

the companion learned, you know, what, what is what is it that Allah wants from us?

Right, what is it it was like secret knowledge. And he, he gave up this hadith on his deathbed.

On his deathbed, he revealed it, but not to not to keep it a secret. Like that's like, that's what I'm struggling with. Like it was definitely revealed. not a secret anymore. But this is this concept is that it's supposed to remain secretive.

They are saying that it was it was special. When they say secret. It's like special.

So it's secret. It's not for everybody to know.

But that's a shaky thing. Because how can you trust

somebody? I mean, just because he has a nice beard, or he says nice olive oil and shining? Like, do you trust Him because of that.

There's got to be something that grounds us.

And as a new Muslim, there's different there's going to be a lot of versions of Islam that's going to come to you. You got to ground yourself in Islam. So that whatever comes, you can be able to even they say fact checking.

You got to fact check some of the things that people say that's, that's very important. And that's the reason why people study Islamic Studies. Because when you study Islamic studies, you now are able to fact check. You can go back to the Hadith, sayings of the Prophet, you can go to explanations of the Quran, you can you know, that's your fact checking. That's where you're scholars. That's what scholars are for.

Right? That's what it is, and the more knowledge that you can get. You can do the fact checking online any questions?

ones that are quite large,

the Sufi movement, what are their statuses now? Okay, this class, we are not going into naming groups.

Because once you start naming this individual or these groups, it starts to go into an area that really doesn't concern new Muslims at this point in time. But the Naqshbandi group is one of the 30. Plus, you'll hear a lot of names of study because it was more like Central Asia and parts of Turkey and it developed in that area. The Manabi tune is not actually the name of the teddy bear. That's the name of a movement to Manabi tune where a religious political movement in North Africa who actually took over North Africa, and they spread Islam and and Lucia and Spain, West Africa, that's the Morabito movement. Okay, so that's not a trigger.

Okay, so that's, yes. So, so these are getting all these movements, you need to judge them based upon their practice of Islam.

Not just by their name, because somebody might have a name attached to them. But they're practicing Islam. They're within the limits of Islam. There's nothing I'm trying to give you a balanced approach.

Because you know, this is a time of unity.

You know, most of them we have to, we have to, you know, find what is similar

in ourselves and not just what's different. Some people will find 95% is the same with another person 5% different, all he thinks about is the 5% difference.

But 95% is the same they prey on the same The Fast and the same here but maybe there's some

intellectual or some point in Arpita slightly different

and they don't want to be around that person. That's a mistake.

Because sometimes we have to agree to disagree

as long as it's not in the foundations of the faith if it's the foundations of the faith now we have a problem

but if it's what is called voodoo Ah, there's a soul and follow up with sola your foundations for all is minor things.

How do you pray Do you will get your finger or you don't or you know, whatever, you hold your hand and this is Furusawa. These are minor things, and it should not separate people.

Okay, because there's different ways of practicing this question from online.

A lot of people are there how can you figure out who our true Tonica

Yeah, so how you can judge people is based upon the Quran and the Sunnah.

It's based upon their practice of Islam.

And so the more you know about Islam,

that's the way that you can tell it you need to question this is this is the question. Okay. The question was, you know, but these groups How do you know how can you tell them? How can you distinguish them? How do you judge them? It's based on you know, their practice of Islam. It's not just because he has nice job on nice beard.

You know, one of my friends he once said, you know, don't judge somebody by their beard and by their job, right, they rope

because the Pope has nice tubes.

You ever see the pope stopes like really nice tops. Okay, but he's the Pope and Fidel Castro, who used to be the head of Cuba. He had a really nice beard, right? Like all of his life, he had a really nice basic communist.

So it's not just because you have a really nice beard, or really nice rooms, it's your practices. That's the way you can tell.

That's the bottom line.

No floor is open for any other general questions anybody has.

Well, one last question here

was awesome.

He's claiming

Okay, Muhammad Qasim from Lahore. And he says his Imam Mahdi. Okay, so we had touched on this somewhat and we said that you know, anybody who's making these type of apocalyptic claims and what not

go the other way?

Because it is our this is extremism.

Because the Maddy will not know this is the guided one who will come you know after a great world war and lead the Muslim world is the Prophet peace upon him said your slay her hula hoop he Leila. Allah will get him together in one night. So he doesn't know who he is. So if somebody comes and says he is this malady leader, then that person is either a

A fool, or he's insane,

or his boss.

So it's better to go the other way.

We reject all of these, these claims, if there is a person, if there's a great world war and things are going on and a leader does appear between in Mecca and really starts leading the Muslim world, then you will know that that's the mind.

We will know.

But we don't just accept the claims of people. This has happened throughout Islamic history. You know, hundreds of people have claimed that they were the mind.

The other general questions anybody has the Prophet?

How did how did they deal with sects of Islam that had foundational problems?

Yeah, so during that time, they didn't have these different groupings.

What they had was personality differences. Okay. They had emphasis, like I said, to call it, nobody was a warrior. I believe Massoud was, you know, heavy into Koran. But what they did was they united with each other, they accept the differences. And they build on the strengths of each other. And they put and they helped each other in their weakness. So in other words, they didn't see the difference in their practice of Islam, or the emphasis of Islam as something that divides them. No. But I did have some personality problems. And they did have some differences.

But to solve that, they would have mutual consultation. They would go to the people have knowledge, and they would have mutual consultation.

Okay, but they didn't have groupings like you have today. No.

Because at that time, the Sunnah itself, we say the Quran, you know, it was just written down. And the Sunnah was just being developed.

So there was no 100 female, Lucky Shafi, none of this Sufi Salafi, none of this, none of it was there. So nobody can claim that they are actually the original group because none of these names were being used. None of

it was just Muslim on Muslim men name the believer, more said, meaning the one who's righteous, that's all.

That's all the people were.

Okay, close open for any other general questions. Anybody has?

Okay, good. I feel like you might go into this later, but what are some examples of training to solve? Yes, so what I want to do, because this is the first definitional classes, next class, inshallah

I want to give you some actual practical training in to solve sober, cautious spirituality. How do we actually approach this, and there was a great scholar in West Africa. And check was man dan Fodio, an amazing scholar, Ballard scholar.

And his teachings are amazing. So I want to bring these to you, a person who had both sides, so like Imam Ghazali, right? You had both.

And so next from next week, Inshallah, we're going to go into actual practical ways of dealing with the Salaf in a practical way.

But first, you need to understand these streams, right?

Because, like I say, a person came into the mosque many years ago. And he was a

European Canadian.

And came in the mosque looked like he was sort of lost. So I went over to him and I said, Okay, so I will let me say when it comes to that, so I said, Are you muslim? And he said, No, I'm a Sufi

said, Okay. I said, Are you a Muslim? And he said, No.

And I was surprised because how can you be a Sufi without being a Muslim?

Because the sofa supposed to be only Assad? Right. So you gotta go to Islam and Eman first,

before you reach SN.

But there were groups that developed in the same way that Harry Krishna groups and you know, whatever developed and they focus only on the Carolla chat chanting.

So the same way the Harry Krishna, Krishna, Rama, Rama, these groups developed in the 60s and 70s You know, whatever. So, so young people, there was some based upon Islamic chanting and lifestyle without teaching Islam.

So you didn't have to pray You didn't have to fast nothing. You just come and you do the chants. You know, whatever and you would be a suit

Free according to this,

right? That's a mistake. So I explained to him, you know, he was open, and he listened to explain to him what Islam is and what Sufism is supposed to really mean. Because he wanted to know.

So, you know, you might Don't be fooled by a person who says he's something, you have to look at their practice

to really know where they stand.

Now, the other questions online

to outline what

is as the criteria for some sushi chef? Yeah, so Steve said no real such

anymore. He said this. Is this. Is this a hyperbole to be careful?

Yeah.

This particular class, you know, is teaching the basics, this is a new Muslim corner. And so we are going to base we're not going into the advanced, you know, area of teachings. But, you know, see the Amazon hook, you know, who lived in Morocco, you know, around 15th century or whatever.

You know, he was the one who said, In the beginning to Soloff was a reality, with no name.

But today, it's a name with no reality.

So there's people running around saying they're doing to solve, there's no, they're not for real.

That's 600 years ago, or more.

But that doesn't mean that there can never be anybody else who's doing proper SF. He was specially, you know, given this title to criticize everybody.

And that's what he did. He criticized all levels of scholarship in the society. And so, this is what he was saying, he was talking about what he found around him, you know, at that time, you know, and, but that does not mean that somebody could not practice, you know, cautious, you know, so but to solve, but what he found, he said, No, this is not, this is not right.

This is not right.

And that's what you have to watch out. You have to watch out for this. Because somebody will get you into doing you know, whirling and doing things and you all kinds of strange things.

You know, and you never saw this in Islamic practices.

But they say like, this is a tariqa

So, that's what you have to watch up question.

So, to cleanse your heart and to know about the soul, we have to go to any school or self study, practice and

yeah, basically within the teachings of the Quran and the Sunnah, there is what is called Test Skia. Test here is purification. Purification is an all the pillars of Islam. When you have your Tawheed you are purifying your beliefs. Prayer is a form of purity because you clean up, you clean your mind. Fasting is purity.

The cat the words, the cat, comes from the same root as Teskey it means to purify your wealth.

And when you go to Hajj pilgrimage, and if you do it correctly, you will come back as a newborn baby pure. So all of the things we do in Islam is actually purification, all of it. And so, you can go to scholars for different forms of textarea

there and it doesn't have to be a specific school for that.

But it is based upon you know, the Quran and the Sunnah and those learned people who are in your area who can guide you but it's no specific

you know group and if you do go to a group, you have to watch out to make sure that they are within the limits of Islam

QUESTION

So tonight, we're going to have a limited amount of questions. Tonight. We started at 630 Because there's a desert storm coming in.

And so we want everybody to be able to you know, leave those who want to stay later on for the Select can but those who want to leave early there's there's a major storm coming in. And you know, so we'll be able to, you know,

come and avert avert the storm.

Okay, there are some who are strong you know, Canucks as they say they don't care about a storm or whatever. It's just snow. So if you want to stay that's fine.

However, we want to give people the chance to comfortably you know, beat the stone. Any other general questions are there

so inshallah now

Next week we will be going on to some practical application of this. So you can actually get some teachings and see a ballot scholar who you can relate to in terms of your purification of yourself. So I leave you with these thoughts. They ask a lot have mercy on me and you mark it down Juana. hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh