Abdullah Hakim Quick – The Revivalists’ Lessons for Today
AI: Summary ©
The success of Islam is highlighted, along with struggles with deification into a " drugless" form. The personality and actions of Islam are discussed, including deception, deception of deity, and shaming. The negative impact of social media and the importance of learning and being mindful of one's behavior are also emphasized. The potential for negative consequences of social media use is also discussed.
AI: Summary ©
He was happy he would
somebody come along to Lottie about a cat
hamdulillah we thank Allah subhanaw taala for another opportunity to reflect upon an extremely important concept and that is touch deed. Yeah, the renewal revival, restoration of Islam. And this, as we understood is one of the most important issues facing Muslims today. Because we are not short of the sources of Islam. We have the Quran in tact. We have sayings of Prophet Muhammad, sal Salaam, we have great writers, we have institutions still.
So we're not short of sources. We're not short also of
resources. We do have wealth
and strategic position. Young people, there's many aspects of potential that we have. But what is needed now is to put life into the body of Islam. And this is literally the concept of Yeah, yeah. From like, hujjat his life
is to put life
and that is what we call touch deed also, and to make something new, to bring back the original principles of Islam in a modern, relevant form.
And in this light, after looking at the 40 hadith of Islamic revival, we are looking at practical examples of revivalists people who by the will of Allah subhanaw taala became that type of source for the renewal of Islam, and probably one of the clearest revivals in Islamic history.
We are looking at Imam Al ghazali Rahim Allah. And we understood that he began his career, his career
in the city of Toulouse in Horace Mann
and
he was educated islamically at a young age, and was put into the new zamia
madressa Institute system,
where he met Mr. Mulvaney, who was one of the great olema of the time in the Muslim world, and
he became emammal Giovanni's best student.
And finally, after the passing of emammal Duany, he was recognized by the leaders and especially in the Zomba Loke. Who was the wazirx
underneath the acid
It.
And he was then given the high position to be a teacher and then the rector or the president, the principal of the new zamia institution in Baghdad, which was the top institution in the Muslim world at the time. And we say that because of the amount of resources that were there, scholars were coming from different parts of the world, they were not all from Baghdad itself.
Also, the government was spending wealth on the institution. And so it was attracting knowledge and attracting Obama. And he became the pinnacle of knowledge in the highest Institute in the Muslim world.
And even though he had reached such a high level, he recognized after years of study that something was missing. And he recognized that there were certain bodies of scholars, people who are approaching knowledge that he needed to understand. And so he went deep into the, the teachings of different groupings within the Muslim world.
He looked at the automa, he looked at the people who were dealing with Islamic Studies.
He looked at philosophers, you could call scientists. At the time, we're dealing with Greek philosophy and science, he went deep into also the botania, the terrorists, and these are the people who live in secret societies. And they believe that there is a secret body of knowledge, which is passed down secretly from generation to generation. And they would be
a type of body
who would come would bring back the renewal of Islam in the world, he went deep into their teachings, he also went deep into the written teachings of the people love to solo.
And he exhausted the writings of all of these groups. And when he reached that level, he recognized that in the area of to solo off, there was something else it was not only the written knowledge, but it was the experiential knowledge, that there was something else that you cannot get in the books. And so
he urine for that, and by the will of Allah subhanaw, taala. After reaching this very high level,
he went into a type of depression. And he had what maybe we'd call today, a nervous breakdown,
where literally, his body turned on him. And he was in front of 1000s of students, and he couldn't talk. This is the greatest scholar in the Muslim world, could not even say one word.
So they took him away. And he realized that he had to do something. He prepared his family for his journey. And he went to make the pilgrimage to Mecca.
But not only did he go to Mecca and Medina, but he stayed in the area of a sham, which is now Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon, all in that area. for approximately 10 years, he stayed there. And he went into a hollow, a type of seclusion,
where he lived a very simple life. And he was into meditation and contemplation, the remembrance of Allah moving around amongst people, and experiencing some of the things that he would never experience,
you know, in a high position that he was with the government and with the Islamic institutions. But he reached the point during after this seclusion, that he recognized that something was missing.
And I want to quote, a translation of his words, at that point in time, and he said, in translation, I realized that I could easily remove the adults because what he had found out is that the Muslim world
had gone into a place where he where he basically said that the faith of many was shaken, the conviction was lost. And religious practices were reduced to a lifeless form. They see those those concepts. So religious practices is just going up and down.
lifeless form, no conviction,
no serious no sincerity, no dedication, no commitment was there. And for some because of philosophy, and
you know, the western concepts and Eastern concepts flowing around their their faith was actually shaken. So they were not sure about their feelings. So it's
I realized that I could easily remove their doubts. I saw myself in fact fully capable of exposing the hollowness and implausibility of their philosophical convictions because of my deep knowledge of the speculative sciences. So he knew that because he had gone so deep into the philosophies, he can answer the questions. And then he said, I therefore felt an ardent desire to take up this work, since it appeared to be the crying need of the time. I said to myself, how does it benefit you to sit in seclusion, it is an epidemic that is spreading like wildfire. And the learned have themselves fallen victim to the same disease, the servants of Allah have reached the brink of destruction. So
this is how he came to this conclusion. And he left his his seclusion, and he went back to to
in Horace and Persia.
And he developed his own private institution, where he was teaching, you know, the his understanding. But then he was called by the leader of the Empire, the seljuks, at the time, to go back to the zamia. initiative poor. And so he returned there. And then he continued teaching, but it was during this time, because he knew what he had to do, he felt he had to do this, to bring life back into the oma that he wrote a number of his greatest works. And this really is where, you know, you see that he becomes this rejected, because remember, you know, the qualifications of the majestic,
and that the magette did needs to take from the past. Right? Al khadim. Enough here. Right. So he takes from the the beneficial aspects of the past. And he combines it with LG, LG, LG did a solid, right, which is the useful, beneficial modern knowledge, he's able to combine the two. So this is where the revival begins. And before that he's experiencing and now he's his output
is not just to criticize and correct groups, but it is to revive the dean.
And his greatest work.
He was a Luma Dean. And that is the revivification, or the restoration of the Islamic sciences. So he's putting life back into the Islamic sciences. And really, it's a voluminous work. And really, many writers say that it's the purpose was basically to nurture a perfect slave of Allah, and a genuine human personality. So this is not really made for political reasons, for economic reasons. He really wants to bring about the revival of the dean in people and in the oma from the ground up.
Right, knowing that when that is revived, then everything else will come with it. So many people look at change, and revival, they want to go from the top down. So they want to take over the leadership. So you want to change the leader, or you want to have a new economic system, you're sort of starting with the upper class, the powerful, then you come down, but really the Islamic concept is, you know, it is really dealing first with the individual. Because our change as we learned that our last one said that surely Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change that which is in themselves, no change.
And this is what he understood. And so it's amazing when scholars Look at his work, that he becomes like an expert, psychologist, sociologist, theologian, philosopher, religious preacher, and spiritual guide, all wrapped up together in one. Unbelievable. And the idea of Luma Dean, you know, is a brilliant work.
And it is not easy even to read, because the level of his mind
and
I have a copy of it here.
Just so you can see is like four volumes, but this is what it looks like. You know, and
I don't know how many of you read Arabic, but if you look at this, right, you see how how thick that is right? And, you know, his writing is
very deep that every sentence that he writes, you got to reflect on it.
So it's it's an ocean of knowledge within this text. And of course, he's written other works as well. We've mentioned a few of them. But because of time, we want to look at some aspect of the area. Because this really is the essence of his Islamic revival. And he knew himself that the level that he was on was so high
that he probably could not reach the average person. Even the scholars, average scholars are having some difficulty, you know, you have to know your stuff to fully be able to benefit. So what he did was, he made abridged versions, shorter versions of it.
Okay, there's a number of works that he did.
There's kimia sada, the alchemy of happiness, and dietzel hedaya, which is the beginning of guidance, and Jawaharlal called and right the jewels of the Quran.
And within the Jews of the court, there's an appendix, he does a section in that arbaeen for Diem.
So this is the 40 principles of the religion.
And
the 40 principles of the religion
really is an abbreviated version of the Illuminati.
It follows the basic setup.
And you know, it, it puts it into an abbreviated form
that is easily understood and hamdulillah. It's been translated into English. So this is the arbaeen 15. And I'm going to leave this here with you, you can get this online.
And this is an excellent text to get to understand his writings, good, you know, good translation.
And very important. Also, there has been hudgell Casa de
and check Eben Kodama Al makdessi,
who is a great
Syrian scholar,
he recognized and and this is, the criticism
that Imam Al ghazali got from some of the scholars is that he puts so much into it
from so many angles, that some of the traditions, some of the Hadees that he brought in, were actually weaker deeds. And, you know, there is a opposition in scholarship that, you know, if you have a good concept and it's a weak Hadith, you know, supported by other, you know, Hudson, you know, then you know, it's okay because the concept is there. But this is not precise enough for us really, to, you know, us to put our dependence upon completely. So therefore, Eben padana did his manhandle Casa de
and
this is the matassa of the min hudgell Casa de
so this is
the the the the the program, you know of the secrets, and basically what he did was he abbreviated, yeah, aluma Dean, and he took out the week edits.
Okay, and there's different discussions about this, because many people will say, is that this is good, but you can't get overly occupied on the fact that they will we can defend it, because people who want to criticize this, and we got to look at both sides, they will say, Oh, this book is no good because it has weaker deeds.
Right? But they're missing out on the real gems of wisdom in the text
and an urban Kodama, you know, who was a great scholar of Hadith, and fifth, he understood this. So he actually
did the, you know, he abbreviated it, had he, he checked the Hadith and he took out some of the weaker deeds, so you can actually, you know, get
the same understanding, and some of the weaker traditions are not in there. Okay, so, this text also, and I'll leave these here you can look at at the end, this has been translated to English. So, you can also get this okay. And there are other books.
There is a return to purity and creed,
a shorter version of of his one of his works, dealing with illiberal. calam right aqidah and this was translated by Sheikh Abdullah ibn Muhammad Ali, you know, who's one of the American scholars, he has translated this and this is available also online. We will see you know, good translation of his understanding
aqidah Okay, so
these are some of the texts that are there. And of course, there's a lot of work and really to understand he Mama loves Ali's work, you would need to have, you know,
52 weeks a whole year, every day study in this. I mean, this is literally how deep
his book is, and his analysis of things. But basically, to give you an idea, we want to give you an overview
of his area, so you can see how it flows, right? And then I want to look at a section of it.
So you actually go deeper into one of the sections of the of the text itself. And
so this you find in a lot of buying
cars, this is considered by some to be one of the closest
abridgement to the actual original. Okay, so this gives you the basic setup, and he breaks it into four parts. So the first part is the sum of knowledge and its principles. Okay, and this is broken down, I'll just read you so you see what the sections are. The sections are the divine assets of that. So it's talking about Allah subhanaw taala, the actual divine essence what we know of the Divine Essence of Allah attack this, that is transcendence of Allah subhanaw taala al qudra.
Right, the life and power.
Right, Radha, like the will the will of Allah, right? What is irata because we have a certain type of will, and Allah has a will. And that he deals with hearing and seeing a summer well, bustle.
And he deals with Al qalam. So he deals with speech and aqeedah and beliefs, that he deals with divine actions, the divine actions of Allah subhanaw taala a file that he deals with Yeoman afia the last day. So he's given you a straight up concept of last day, and Nobunaga. So he deals with Prophethood. So you can see this is a number of areas
that that he's that he's covering, and his idea is to bring back life, you know, into new Islamic Studies and our understanding of Allah subhanaw taala. The second part is called the outer actions. Okay, and that includes prayer salaat, and Zack and charities, Zakat and sadaqah.
Then fasting Hodge reciting the Quran, and then the crow law, in every state of remembrance of Allah in every state, and then seeking the lawful, seeking the halau. And taking from the doubtful wealth that other people possess the whole concept of halal and haram and the doubtful and things like that, and then upholding the rights of Muslims and good companionship with them.
Okay, so you can see he's what he's building this personality, this, you know, base of Islamic understanding. Number nine is commanding the good and forbidding evil. Right, so he goes into the concept of hon maruf when nahi and that's a very important concept, right? A lot of things come out of this.
And 10 following the Sunnah. He's a defender of the Sunnah. And so he shows the importance, he motivates to follow the Sunnah. And he shows, you know, how dangerous is to abandon the Sunday especially in acts of worship, without having an excuse. Okay, so this is how he looks at some of the outer actions. And these are really deep. So each one of them is like a volume. You see, like these volumes here is a whole volume with tiny little writing is going into details of different aspects. Part Three, remember about the internal change, right? Part Three is purifying the heart from blameworthy characteristics. Okay, how you purify your heart, and he deals with different
characteristics. He deals with gluttony, right being greedy and gluttony, especially with food and too much talk, loquacious, okay, and how you to control your tongue. Like all the problems of the mouth and backbiting and insults and all that he deals with. Then he deals with anger caught up, then he deals with hassert. Right, the whole concept of jealousy and what's in that he deals with
with stinginess.
And hobble mile loving wealth.
Okay, so you see what what he's doing. Then he deals with
the love of status and being frivolous and the love of status Hubbard Jr. and this is a deep thing too, because like people want to be president or they want to be Amir
right. And even in some of our might look at think about our communities today, of you know, you go to some machines and the person is like, you know, President for life,
right or embalm for life, like it's a banana republic. And it's just a little much, it's a much
I was in Cape Town one time, and there were too much at one was really active. And there was another one in the section of Cape Town, right downtown, which is, which is near the Malay quarter. Right? And so this was one of the masjids that when the apartheid government moved the Muslims out, the Muslims wouldn't let them bother their masters. They couldn't, there was going to be a revolt. So they kept the masjid and moved all the people out from the area imaginisce
and so you have an area of non Muslims in the middle of it this Masjid
because they couldn't, Muslims would not allow them to touch them after.
Okay, so there's a few of these downtown area. And I went to one of them one time and the mom of venerable elderly brother and I sat with him and you know, a few few people came for salaat and I said, you know, Mashallah, how are things and he says, I've been a mama this Masjid for 40 years,
you know, and hamdulillah I said, Yeah, Mashallah, you know, it's only like five people for Salah. And the other Masjid is where all the people are right? So then I said to myself, well, something's wrong here, right?
I don't know what I'm not blaming his intention. But if you're your mom for 40 years, and you're thinking 40 years back,
you know, you're not dealing with
the present and some people do it for the wrong Vantage. Because they just want to be mom, they want to be president. They want to be Amir. So this is a very important topic. All these are crucial for our personality today, right? We want to understand what's happening the Muslims, this is where you can understand. You will see the problems people have and their solutions because he doesn't leave it hanging. He talks about the problem, and then he brings the solutions as well. Okay. And
he deals with pride kibosh. He deals with self admiration, like the conceit, right? He deals with raw, right doing showing off doing acts of worship to be seen
by other people, and the matrix of the character and places of delusion. This is where they're dealing with the concept of horror or
delusion and you know, the character and whatnot part or the section number four. Okay, so after dealing with how to purify the heart from the blameworthy characteristics, what are the Praiseworthy characteristics? Okay, praiseworthy character traits. So he deals with Toba repentance. This is crucial, because repentance is really what you could call self analysis and reconstruction.
This is how we are able to reconstruct ourselves is the concept of dope. He deals with our health fear.
He deals with zoid what is the real
as you know, aesthetic, somebody who gives up the world and he brings concepts like that the Zakat is not necessarily the person who doesn't who throws away all their clothes and doesn't have anything, but it's the person who has things and doesn't need need them.
So the person has things in this world, but they don't need those things. You see, that's the real side. Because some people will go into this forced state where they throw away all their clothes, you know, put on wool, this was the extreme and that the soul of put on wool throw away all their clothes and put themselves into forced poverty, that's a Buddhist. So the Buddhist monks
already said that's not the real Zeit.
Okay, so he brings a balanced form of
absorbed
Okay, and Sabah. So he deals with all aspects of patience, and he deals with shocker, gratitude, all the different ways to be grateful to Allah subhanaw taala then he deals with airfloss sincerity and sit, truthfulness. Okay, these are crucial concepts for the filmmaking making a personality, then he deals with tamaqua dependence or reliance on Allah. Maha ba love, who is your love, really for
Then he deals with contentment with Divine Decree or read law,
how to be contented with what is happening to you and what is around you. And 10 remembering death. See, so he doesn't leave anything out to remember death. And remember the transition that we're all on our way towards. So this is the basic setup in arbaeen 15, which is an abbreviated version of the Illuminati. And
so these are some of the books that he wrote, and some of the achievements that you made. I want to open up the floor for any questions anybody may have about the bottom, the books or anything like this so far, close up.
Right.
Right. So there's a lot of treaties, some of them are just short.
You know, writings that he did.
And Montez, Minna de la la, to be saved from
perish myth of being lost. That is his biography. Where he goes in his life, that's a famous one to a monk determinada Lada how he was saved, how he had reached such a height. And then, you know, he got he something was wrong with him, his depression, and then his nervous breakdown, and then how he went into seclusion. And he found there's something deeper than just superficial that you got to know both levels, when you're dealing with knowledge. Okay, so yes, you'll find a lot of texts. Sometimes what they do even is that they'll take from illuminating a section of it.
So they'll take a section and make like a text out of it. Because there's so much in the area, that you can literally break it down into all types of things, all different areas. And, and really, you know, by doing this, you know, he, he changed the understanding of Islamic knowledge. He changed
because from the area of the near zamia people from all over the Muslim world, Asia, Africa, Europe, all over the Muslim world, wherever Muslims were, they saw this as really the height. So they would take their,
their knowledge from this nism Yeah. And again, I remember it just came to my mind how described above the idea, you know, that when you're doing touch read, I remember being in Jamaica and other places, and you teach in tongues reading a little book we had was called a bad idea. It was the Baghdad, you know, set of rules for Tajweed.
Okay, so all over the world, people use this. And so he literally changed people's understanding of Islam. That is the essence of a budget. So this is what we're talking about now. So it's not Salahuddin on a horse and you're defeating the Crusaders. And not necessarily it's not that we're talking about somebody who changes the course
of it, understanding and revives the dean
revives the dean.
So we want to open the floor is open again for any questions. Yeah.
Right.
So the years for for that,
basically,
in the Christian era,
because some of the some of the information that I had here was in the Islamic era.
Right.
Okay, so I can find that for you.
If there's another question anybody has while I'm looking for this, can also deal with another question.
Yeah, there was open for any other comments or question. We are we are so far.
Yeah, so then it said he finally returned to teaching the end of his life for 99.
After the digital, right, for 99, after the hegira. So his his his, he was basically he died and 505 which is 1111. So it's 1111 in the common error, okay. So it was 499 really, so just those last, you know, six
And so, you know, but a lot of the concepts for the area, and the monitors, you know, that 10 years of seclusion, he's putting his thoughts together to basically the end part of it. This is where he started putting his thoughts. And then when he went back then now he had a chance, you know, to and really, you know, it was a blessing, you know, that the government, there was stability in the government, because the seljuks were fairly stable.
And they were spending on institutions. So he didn't have to, you know, spend a lot of time just earning wealth, people who supported him to do this work, because they knew how input he was paid to teach. Okay, and that makes a big difference for a person when they, you know, they're paid to teach, and they're able to overcome the problems they have, you know, with their family. So,
going on to it now,
I want to look at what was mentioned in the end of
one of the sections in the how to buy in, but in, in the mock test, I'm in hazard class, the dean, it's specifically there, and this is a section on horror.
Okay. And
this, I found to be
one of the most important areas that I found, you know, in all of these writings was this particular one. And I say this after years of being in the field, and seeing Muslims in different situations, not fully understanding why people could say one thing and do another thing.
They could appear like one way, but actually be doing something else. I couldn't understand it. Because normally that that the tricks of shaytani come right at you with * and money and like the love hope, Bill jar, you know, wealth and power, this is something different, this is sophisticated Attack of the devil,
probably the most sophisticated attack,
you know, in in our existence. And, and this is good.
And
the Euro, or the basic concept of it,
taken from the major books, of defining words, there's a number of meanings because it's used in different ways. Okay? It can be used as deception. And that is the main thing that we're calling deception. So you're deceived. So you think you're What is this, but you're actually that.
And that's worse off than if you know, you're doing wrong. If you think you're doing right, and you're doing wrong. That's a terrible condition to be in, right.
And that's the photo. Okay, but it also means conceit.
Self seduction,
and illusion. These two are important ones, illusions,
delusion, you know, you're deluded. You think you're so great, and you think you deserve this. So these usually say is a deluded person.
Right. And the concept of illusion is important too, because many scholars
say that, I mean, we are living in an illusion, we're in an illusion of democracy, right? They say was a democracy, right. And there are aspects of democracy within the culture here in, say, America, Canada, Western countries, but really behind that it's not actually a girly, what they call a Greek democracy. When everybody sits there, and they equally decide, you know, what's happening, no money, people control our society.
The bank has control, the business people control.
And there are certain minority groups that will never, under the present conditions get up to a position of power. If you're a native person of the First Nations here. You will never forget it.
Rise up to be in a position of power.
Some here and there little, but it just not set up like that. It was a real democracy, then you should.
It should be based on the majority of the people.
Yeah.
The person raised some really good issues,
current issues past issues.
Like the Green Party or the Conservative Party.
Yeah.
Because the reality is, and we just recently the Muslim community here,
with droplets of mercy, just the other night had a big fundraiser, and that is to raise
money to build wells.
In the native reserves,
because their water is polluted. And sometimes you're carrying cans of water, Canada,
you're carrying cans of water. And it's polluted water.
No fresh water, Canada. I'm not talking about Zimbabwe, right?
I'm not talking about any, you know, places that have been really oppressed and depressed. I'm talking about Canada. So it's like parallel worlds.
Because we know, the reality is when the first time Dominion of Canada was happening, you know, back in 1871, was back in the 19th century, you know, it was only just a few areas, upper or lower Canada, there's just a few states. And it was the Hudson Bay, which sold the rest of Canadian territory to the, to the upper and lower Canada.
So they bought it on a, you know, a discount from the Bay, like we would do to buy our shirts. They bought
most of this territory, but this territory has been the sovereign land of people for over 10 to 20,000 years. So how can you now sell that property that people have been living on for some time, 20,000 years, you got to sell it, discount price, and the other ones take it over. So they took it over. And they literally colonized the area. So they had to drive the native population back. Right, make treaties with them, which is a compromise. And then they broke the treaty and make another treaty.
until they're in small areas, and even the last treaties that they have, are not even being fulfilled, we're on treaty land.
ruxley on land, which, as you say, should be there should be representatives of the first nation, you know, who are actually, you know, our councillors and MPs and whatever. And in this area, because this is, technically speaking, they have a say, with this land. And they're supposed to, they will, they will share it with other people they're supposed to, but they have to be recognized or not recognized. So that is what you could call Hold on. It's an illusion.
See, so it's an illusion.
And even though, Trudeau has done a lot,
and he's not as clearly racist, and bad as some of the other ones that are there, but still people criticize him and say, like, what has he actually done for the First Nations? Not much? What is he actually done for the environment?
Not that much.
What has he actually done for African people? That the former slaves?
Not much?
Right. So it's a it's an illusion.
And so this concept of Moore's law is extremely important concept.
This man is living. He died. 1111. Right. Look how far back he is. But what he's saying can be directly applied to our situation today. That is why his writing is so important. You'll see later on that many other revivalists who came after his time, actually benefited from his direction. And they would put it you know, into practice in different parts of the world. But he before him, there's others who could be considered revivalist. But he really from his time on, he is probably the most influential revivalist ask.
So hudl also means stagnation.
It can be used like that, think of the Muslim world. And then it's used for the word shaytaan openly.
Okay, and one interesting section of a verse.
One of the highlights of dunya Illa matar guru, and that is that the life of this world is nothing but material deception.
Right.
This is sort of Allium Ron, verse 185, is the act.
Right, the famous verse called lunasin that you've gotten mote, every soul must taste death, right? And you will get what you're going to deserve on the Day of Judgment. And whoever has has done what they were supposed to have done, you know, they will be protected from the fire.
But the life of this world is nothing but material deception, this important verse, okay, and that's where you see the word would all come in, comes in other places. This one is really an interesting one. And so there are different forms. You could say that hora takes one of the forms.
is you could say
it's it's a general type of Portal.
And it's it's a delusion and illusion that has, for instance, and this is Muslim and non Muslim, by the way. So it's not just Muslims.
Some years back, I remember,
I think it was in the 90s, that a person, that young woman won the lottery not a Muslim, she won the lottery. And it was about $20 million, or something like that.
And the whole society stopped. And you know, when you hear that somebody has won something like that, right? You think like, wow, that's an amazing thing. Okay, like that person's in, you know, paradise. And so they brought the girl and her father on television.
And then the father said, may God help us?
He's intelligent person. He said, may God help us. He was not happy. Right? after that. They tried to call up, they want to marry her. You know, they want to come to the house, everything to give, they had to hide underground.
They had to change their identity.
So the money that was supposed to liberate them, put them in prison. Well, mother, hayata, dunya ilimitado. You see, it is a deception. You think that that money was so much, but it's actually deception? The father caught it? And he said, may God help us? Okay. Again, it happened one time I was traveling in the UK. And then this person one, you know, 25 million British pounds. Everything standstill lottery.
He's in paradise. And this person went crazy. Start ordering, caviar caviar from Russia, a wine from France. You know, sausages from Germany. You know, everything he's ordering in. And he's eating and eating and eating and he gained so much weight. He dropped it.
So the money that was supposed to give him life took his life. You see it? Malhotra dunya ilimitado.
And Muslims get caught up in this type of World War as well. This is the general I remember one time this is a true story.
A Muslim brother I'm not saying where he came from or anything like that. It can't be said brother Abdullah
helped me I need a fatwa.
I say okay, what is what's what's the problem? And he said, I want to pay something Can I just won the lottery.
And he said, I will pay two and a half percent. I will give sadaqa you know, give me a way out.
And I said, I cannot help you, brother. It's haraam. What you've done. It's wrong.
And he was trying to find a factor. And he probably found some so called the moment, give him some dollars in his pocket or whatever, buy him a new car. Give me a fatwa.
Right. So it hits us as well.
And and sometimes the things that we believe are actually helping us is not happiness braxley under a test, and that's usually with things that appear to be good, right material things. Remember matar
is like a material deception. This is the life of the dunya.
But what I really liked about
his discussion
is he said, there are forms of Hurrah that strike Muslims.
That's the one.
And this is the one that has, I have benefited from for years. Right. And it helped me in my own depression, and seeing what was happening around the Muslim world. I couldn't handle it.
Too much contradiction. Till I understood that there is a very sophisticated plan against us. And unless we're aware of it unless we have teachings, like the teachings of the Buddha, we can be deceived by this. How we approached this is interesting. He said,
taqwa
the concept of God consciousness.
Keeping your duty to Allah. And you hear the Imams after say taqwa and the hippo, it's part of a football. Okay? But he broke it down.
And he said, Because taqwa basically call this a is made up of a whole for Russia.
So it's made up of fear and hope
that you fear
The punishment of Allah but you hope at the mercy and this creates a type of consciousness around you. Okay? And he said, you know, I'll call for Raja Sabha bassani Allah llama, mala Mia Bartholomew, for whoever he said that fear and hope are stimulants. they stimulate you to action.
And anything which does not stimulate you to action is horrible.
Right? It's a delusion is a deception.
Okay. And
the scholars said, think about it.
Whatever, if you fear something, you run back.
Right? Fear is not a fear makes you do something usually run, right? If you want something, you move toward it.
Because you're hoping in the thing. These are stimulants.
Okay, and so taqwa is supposed to be, you know, a stimulating quality, that that brings life to the individual. If something is holding you back, and stagnating, you remember one of the concepts of of our Guru stagnation, right? If it's stagnating you and causing this illusion in your life, then this is
okay. And
so he looked at
how this guru,
you know, can face Muslims? And he said, You know that there are some Muslims
who
they feel they do good deeds. For instance, they get up in the morning, and they make subtle fauja. And they make a stick of our 100 times. So Allah forgive me.
And sometimes they mean, maybe you might do that in Ramadan.
Okay, that's more blesses. You might do it in Ramadan in Mecca. Two times 100,000. Right. Get your calculator out. Right. So you got a lot of Sadat, right.
So the deception is he does is take 400 times. And then for the rest of the day, he's backbiting people insulting them, attacking the mom ripping people off stealing in his store. But he thinks that because he did 100 is too far in the morning. He's safe. Because he's got he's looking at a scale, right? I didn't do enough bad. He's deceived.
This is what we're talking about. That's deception, right?
That person is deceived.
it you know, if you think that, you know, if you start weighing your bad deeds, you know, you got to use one against another.
Okay, the person says, Okay, I'm going to do this thing wrong. Right, I'm going to take this interest, I'm going to steal, and then like the person with the lottery, and then I'm going to give, I'll give something
that will make up for it. And they plan it like that. So they plan to do the good after they do the bet. That's World War.
And these type of actions, we have a lot of dishonor in our culture.
We have a lot of sideways around things. And this has taken people off the path. And so this is what Imam Al ghazali Rahim Allah,
he was looking at, you know, in trying to, you know, understand, you know, what it is that deals with Muslim question.
Self seduction is really where you,
you, you, you start
talking about yourself. I am this, I'm the most beautiful thing, like, you know, in European literature, they say, you know, the evil queen is saying Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the most beautiful, all right. So she keeps looking in the mirror, and thinking she's the most beautiful,
you know, until another girl comes along who's more beautiful. But she was seducing herself into thinking she's the most beautiful by standing there in front of the mirror. So it's something like this self seduction.
Okay, so now
another way is that people say,
you know,
I've got a party, I'm young, I'm supposed to do whatever I want to do, just do it. You know, Muslims have their own form of just do it. And then when I get old enough, I pass 5060 then I'll make Hajj.
And if you do hajima Bruh, right. It's going to wipe away all your sins. So that person says I can do wrong now because later on, I'm going to be pious. I'm going to go to the mall.
We'd call and make give us our DACA. Everything will be okay. That's a deception.
Because the shade told you, you know, you can you're deceived, you can die at any point in life.
Right? That's where the deception is. This is what voters. And this, I believe, is one of the biggest challenges facing Muslims today. It's this cold war.
It's thinking you're something of fooling yourself into believing you're this. That's the reason why if you look at the Muslim world, all of our potential, we're supposed to be governing the planet.
Right, but otherwise, we're the targets.
Right? This is probably the cheapest blood in the world is Muslim blood. Nobody cares when people are dying in Afghanistan, or Yemen, or other places. They don't care.
Look what's happening in East Turkestan to Uighur Muslims.
They don't care.
Right. So this is a type of law. There's another vote or and this is a special one that Imam ghazali is talking about. He said that there are some people who are tricked by their families.
So they say that my father was a great scholar. I don't have to study. My father was a scholar.
Or they say my mother used to give sadaqa and everything. Why do I have to give charity, my mother used to do it. I come from a family of scholars. That's a deception. Because each person is going to be judged by their own actions, and not by the actions of their family. So you say you come from all of this, and you're not living up to it? No.
And you know, like I mentioned in one of the classes, you know, and no Muslim brother, who came from Guyana, but he was Portuguese, Chinese, you find many Portuguese in Guyana. He was a Portuguese guy. And he's, and he met a young girl from our cities from India, from Hyderabad. And they were working, you know, in in Burger King.
And they fell in love. She had enough sense. At that time, I had a new Muslim class, it was known around the city is in the 90s. So she brought him to my class.
And he was a it was a nice guy. He liked the girl and he was interested. He saw listened to Islam. So he sat there for a period of time. And then after a while, hamdulillah he took Shahada and he became practice. So he goes to the house, then he finds out that the girl's family is what is called Sharif.
That nobles, they're supposed to be family of the Prophet Muhammad. Sharif, right?
That doesn't mean anything to him.
So he goes to the house, make a long story short, he meets the family. And, you know, they sit down and they say, Would you like something to drink? And he said, okay, maybe some juice or something like that. They said, No whiskey, or wine.
And he's like whiskey or wine. And now he knows Islam to an extent that he knows what's halaal. And
so he said, No, I'll take the juice. Then it was time for us. I was going out. So he said, we have to make us connect, can we pray? They said, Can you go pray like, we're not clean or whatever the excuse me. So he stands up and he makes us a lot. And they are just doing what they want to do. And then afterwards, you know, when they start talking about marriage, they said to him, are you Muslim?
they asked him if he was a Muslim.
This brother was in shock.
He just finished making salaat in front of them
did not drink the alcohol, you know everything and then they asked him as though their holy blood, you know, purifies the booze.
That's Varroa. They are deceived.
They're totally asleep. They think that because right that somebody's way in the past, and I found out that happened in India and other places. Sometimes Sharif comes in the village. So everybody in the distinct calls themselves Sharif
was saying it, but they weren't actually say it
right. So, this is this whole concept, really interesting thing. And you can get more of it. If you get one of the texts. Yeah, he has been translated into English. We get one of these abridged texts, especially for this. If you if you get them in the manhandle Casa de that has a good this section. So I want to go over a few of these sections and they're very deep, but I want to give you a taste of this this revival that he has brought. Very important. The subject very important here. Number one, he wanted to look at four other sections.
for Muslims, for groups that are being deceived. The first is the scholars. Now this is a hard hitting person. He's not holding back on anybody.
So he's starting with the scholars. And he said, there are many scholars who are totally deceived. They judge with Sharia, they teach the Islamic law and all that, but they don't apply it to themselves.
And the Quran is saying, insert to sheps verse nine, it says, cut after her menza, right, look at the harbor, Mendoza, that, you know, the one who purifies himself succeeds.
So you got to purify yourself, you got to do something, right. But these scholars,
they, they they do the shadia
for everybody, not themselves. There's some of them, who even know that they're supposed to practice themselves.
They understand that. So they teach the Sharia, and they do the outward.
And they do, they teach everything and they do the outward on themselves, the praying, but they don't do the input.
They don't deal with the heart, right. So even though that person supposed to be a scholar, they still have
jealousy, envy, pride, right? They have all of these things. And you know, very interesting. And I'm saying how things go, I didn't make this up. One of the edits that Imam ghazali uses, and I didn't get it out of his book, nor have an alibi, he just from being in the field, that one of the Hadees that he uses as his proof is Hadith number four,
right in the 40 Hadith, and that is in the La La jandola at Sami comb, Wallah. Illa solely comelec and young guru Illa Kullu become our medical Verily, Allah does not look at your bodies nor your appearances, but he looks at your hearts and your deeds. Okay, so you can have the appearance of a scholar,
you have a big hat,
you know, nice robes, everything but inside, he's rotten.
That's CUDA.
This is how they've been deceived.
And
he shows that
the Prophet Muhammad SAW Solomon, his companions. You know, they didn't just talk about character and about balanced life and whatnot, they lift and they apply to themselves even more than others. That's why you see, you know, many of the great companions and leaders, they live very simple lives. And he uses the example of Omar Abdullah top. Many of you know this example, that when the Christians or when the Muslims took over Jerusalem, and they called for Omar to come, then Omar came from Medina, when they went to Medina, he's sleeping in Iraq. That's Khalifa.
And then and then he comes with his servant. One time the servant rides one time he walks and they switch when they reach Jerusalem is the servants time to ride and Omar to pull the servant
servant said ride Omar, you're the Khalifa. He said, No. You deserve it. So he pulls that the animal in like he's the servant of this man. You see, that's the solution. You got to be for real, right? You got to do what you actually say. And
another interesting point, this is kind of deep and time is gonna be limitless. But another interesting one, he said that
scholars sometimes they specialize in areas. Right? And they forget like for instance, they specialize in touch weed. And they have Mahajan hoof. So they can, they can produce beautiful sounds, but it doesn't touch their hearts.
That's what the process of them said. And people will will you know, like, you see great scholars, like you see great parties, like the the Egyptian parties are so great. And
they will read and people go Oh, la la la. You know, so it's like a rock star or something. nobody's listening to the words that he's actually saying. That's deception. Okay, so this is the area of the scholars. The next area is of the worships.
And he's saying that sometimes people get too meticulous in their prayers they just make in their prayers, you know, and they're not concentrating on what they're doing.
What's the meaning of the terminologies that you're using?
What is the significance of record and salute? Right, so they missed that. And sometimes he said, There's even the case of a person. He's so much involved in tech be itself a firearm, you know, which do I put it? How do I do? He's thinking about all the books and all the positions and he misses the first record.
Because he's overly meticulous, on just how he's going to do the things he has seen a deception. So to say total he or the biller can actually get to you, you know, with something like that, okay. And there's the case of people who fast, they fast in Ramadan. But their backbiting with their mouth, you know, all the areas that doing wrong with their hands, their bodies, not fasting is just the stomach, right?
They are being deceived. They think they had a good fast, but they would swearing and insulting people all day.
They're being deceived.
And it's a crucial thing to get it. He said also this people go to Hajj, and they use her money to get the Hutch.
They don't do the duties of Hajj properly. They're being deceived. It's not just like marching like parents.
You got to do it properly. Right. So this is how he approaches all the areas for the worshipers. The next area is the area of the people of the soul of the Sophie's, he said there are people who pretend to be true Sophie's, they wear the uniforms of the Sophie's, they have the appearance, but they don't have the inside part. Right. They're jealous.
They're proud. They call I had an experience myself. And I'm not going to mention anybody. Right. And I have great respect. And I am you know, heavily influenced by people, people of this earth. But you know, there was a gathering of big scholars.
And this is way back when the Jami mosque days. And it was a school and place was packed. And that stage. It had I mean, it was a fashion statement, the clothes that they had on and all this stuff. And they're all there. And the people were like, oh, and then you know, I'm in the I'm in the crowd. And people knew me as a giant mosquito. And it's after asset, right? And then time's going.
And then suddenly, what is about 40 minutes left before they started looking at me, right? I said, Don't look at me. I'm desperate. That's your leaders, right?
And then there's only like a half an hour left. I said salaat. And so I left and a lot of people saw me and we went into the corridors.
Right? And we made salad.
Right? Then we came back and the poor people who was mesmerised
us is going out, they start calling out for macgibbon this scream and cry fallen over each other and everything like that. I said this, this is a deception here.
And I'm not saying maybe the ones on stage one was safiya. Maybe they didn't have to make it. But they should have at least given people it should have been inside of the program. Because it's fun, man. It's father, it's compulsory of us. Right? That's, that's what Imam Al ghazali said, this is the hero of the Moto saga.
That is their thing. And he said, some of them, they reject the Sharia. And this is him. Now. This is Emmanuel ghazali, saying this, who was revered by people of the soul if he said that some people claim to be close to Allah, but it's only a name.
Right? And they claim to be close to Allah and they hate imaams. They hate other scholars, somebody who's a scholar of hadith of fit, they hate them.
And they claim to be close to Allah. He said, there they are being deceived. See, this is a major critique that he's making. He said other ones reject Sharia. They make haram and halaal the same.
Right? They don't even deal with Sharia at all. And he said, and there's one deep category from the people of the soldiers who are being deceived. He said that some of them believe they don't even have to do the Pillars of Islam. For instance, they'll say, and this is him talking now. They will say I don't have to love Allah. I don't have to make Salah. My heart beats Allah.
So why are you going to stop and makes a lot right? Like you are making five salaat a day. My heart is beating Allah. How many times does your heart beat per day? So why why do I have to stop and make five? I'm always making salad. That is a delusion because the greatest of the moms closest to a loss about Allah. Prophet Muhammad SAW Selim.
always kept his prayers. And if he always kept his prayers, are you higher than him?
You see the delusion, right.
And this is how he approached very interesting * would help us to understand what is going on around us that he talked about, he talked about the deception of the wealthy. And he said, you'll find a lot of people being deceived with wealth. Because once you get money, it changes your personality.
And it's easy to get conceived. And so even when they want to do good, some of them build the mosque, and they say, you must put my name on it.
And if you don't put the name on it, they won't give you the money.
Because they're doing it because they want their name on it. Not because they want to have a mustard. Right? They, they, they, they they, they really did keen on actions in Islam, that don't involve giving money.
So they're really good with their press.
They're really good fasting.
They're really good making Hutch. But as the Captain sadhaka, you can't find them, see what they did. They're deceived.
And they should actually be stronger in the captain setup, because Allah has tested them with the wealth. So that is the role of the will to solve. And finally, just to give you a taste, he said, the remedy for Hurrah is you need to have a mind with which people realize the reality of things. You got to have a mind we can see reality, you're not going to be like, looking straight at things to knowing oneself.
You got to analyze yourself, right? Know your Lord.
Right, understand worldly life. So if you go off on a hill in seclusion, and you don't know the dunya, you can be deceived.
So you should understand worldly life, and you should understand about the hereafter. Which means you need to read the texts concerning the Hereafter, what has been revealed to us, if you know these, these things, this can help you against poodle and three,
you knowing the way to Allah?
And how to deal with obstacles on the path.
So we need to understand our religion, right? You need to understand what the deen is about all the levels of the deen and understand obstacles. Right How to deal with obstacles. So everything is not, you know, fine all the time. What happens if something goes wrong? You know how to deal that's what fix teaches us. Fix teaches you if you have a problem that he had, right? So something comes in that's bothering you, you you got to make a decision, right?
You have to know how to make decisions yourself on your feet. You can't call scholars every time should I eat this? Or should I drink this? You have to know how to deal with the obstacles, you know, which are in front of us. So he brought these as three of the key points as well as
the many remedies and solutions that he brings all the way through, when he deals with all the areas of the people. But really, you know, the key thing is he you know, he's saying, you know, before real, before real with Allah subhanaw taala Be humble and real with yourself and with other people. Right? And don't seclude yourself from the world, don't be controlled by the world. Right, but understand what the world is. Right? That's a balanced approach. And this is where he has revived the Sunda he has brought us back to the balance of Prophet Mohammed, peace and blessings be upon him. So I want to open up the floor for any questions that anybody has concerning. Mr. Moses on
these teachings.
floor is open for any final questions.
Yeah, it can.
There are actually other words, you know, that's more kibosh cable to a couple that that is really, you know, more of that and we'll be going into those a little bit more with the next revivalist. But kibra would be in an era and you know, arrogance is our job. Her job is
really the one for conceit. conceit, but sometimes they say pride arrogance, pride is kibow. And when you're arrogant with the things you do is to kaboosh so this keba and a couple Kippur is the proud I'm proud of being such and such. But the cover is when you kick sand on people and insult them. That's the that's the arrogance has actions. But the pride is more of an internal thing that you have what you think that you better question.
I just wonder what?
Yeah. Is there any, like boundaries within the deception or deception? Or
the boundaries really is shadia Oh, that as long as you understand what the what the boundaries are made by the court and and the Sunnah, you know, then, you know, you have limits. So as long as the person is within the limits, and not contradicting the Quran and the Sunnah, you know, then there are people who have good advice, wisdom and whatnot in spiritual offense, they may be advanced in that, then, you know, we need to take their knowledge. But the limit is Sharia.
If a person comes to tell you doing doing something that uses doesn't is not Islamic man. And then you say, what's your proof for this? He said, Well, I had a dream last night. So now you got a problem, right? You got a problem?
Because in my culture,
yeah, there are some people who are doing that. They don't need to say anymore, and then they train or they can see.
Right? And then they
they become delusion in my, in my mind. I mean, like, and then
a lot of people following that person, I was like, Okay, and then what kind of so that people think that not the illusion like this guy? Yeah.
within the boundaries, right.
So see, this is what Imam ghazali was doing here. You know, because he brought critiques, and even wrote to them,
again, against all levels of society, which included the people have to so of the ones who are going off and out. Right, he was struggling to bring them back into the limits of Sharia. So they wouldn't be outside anymore. So that that is part of the work of, but the ones who are into knowledge, which today would be sort of the old Mr. Or the selfies or whatever. He's bringing them also back in, because their hearts are dry and cold. Right. And they don't have the qualities of love. Right? They might have booked knowledge, but they don't have the love. Right. So he's bringing them back into right.
And that's what that's, that's what the magette did has to do. He's got to bring in people from all sides. Right, and be able to, you know, bring them up. This this is where, you know, he is a brilliant,
brilliant scholar.
Yeah, I mean, you know, again, the word selfie and Sufi, they're big words. So they're there. I mean, there's so some of the groups that claims put selfie on themselves and maybe follow Saudi Arabia or something like that. They're only a tiny amount of the people who actually might say that they have Salafi Akita. They're only a tiny amount, you know, so
the same way like Sufi all of the Sufis cannot be, you know, put into the category of somebody who's doing crazy things.
Right? Because there are some who follow too. So of Yes, and, and there are scholars
but they just focus on the heart, and SN and the next magette did we're going to see how he used it to actually develop a society you can use this thing now. That's the next one we're going to study is interesting to make that comparison because this is
responsible for spreading this man. And
the New Age Sophie's
so much different because I've seen people working on my car.
Yeah.
That's right. Because, you know, during the colonial period, you know, when colonialism was being lifted off the Muslim world, Muslims are struggling for their liberty, right? Especially looking 50s 60s and even before that 20th century, the struggles most of the struggles in the Muslim world were led by Sophie's so you don't normally connect a Sufi with jihad, right?
But Abdulkadir of Algeria
Imam Shamil of Dagestan.
You know, you go you'll see most of the major anti colonial Omar Mokhtar
Libya, Lion of the desert, right? Most of them, you know, were connected, you know, with the solar off. But it was not something that was putting them to sleep. Right?
They were revolutionaries.
Okay, so that's the balanced approach, you know, to, to solve that he was talking.
That's the balance was more like a reality without a label. Right.
Right. So So, so it begins, right. So now, the main the label is there, but many people don't want to be labeled. So they won't tell you that that. But if you get close enough, you realize that they are. Because really, they say that some many cases the greatest, the one who's closest to a law is not the one who's on the member, and all the clothes and all the people you know, kissing his hand, it's the person cleaning the mosque.
That person to medicate had asked us the closest one, or the one call on the line.
Right? Because this is not a show off thing.
It's not real. This is what this is deception. If you think that these these people are the ones you're being deceived.
And this is a major thing in the Muslim world. It is a major obstacle we're facing.
Right?
Yeah, I mean, I mean,
yeah, it starts going too far.
I mean, you need it's nothing wrong with taking advice, you know, from the scholarship, but when it becomes like, they say, you're like me, and you're a dead body, consider yourself a deadbeat. So you know, when you clean the mayor that doesn't do anything, so he can do anything he wants with you.
So if that person is corrupted,
then this case is now coming up all over the place, with some of these people are pretenders with us that and they have any they have done corrupt things. And you know, in the community because the community, they're not judging them by Sharia.
And nobody can be outside of, of the Sharia. Because the prophets of Allah Himself, what did not, you know, was not, you know, outside of, you know, practice in Islam.
So, it's really important, you know, to have this balance, you know, that that Mr. mazzani was talking.
So, basically, it waits to
evolve and adapt
by people who have the lower
self consciousness, or they are also motivated by
the
they want to be famous
for that, right. I mean, but but but you know, it is, but but but yeah, it's, it's deceiving you into thinking you're doing something, right? For a lot. You're doing something.
But, you know, because the word stagnation is not always what is what can be sometimes a delusion, or deluded person can be very active person.
They think they're a leader, they're doing all these different things, you know, but they're actually going the wrong way.
So, so it can be, you know, like that. But, you know, in a general sense, this is a general,
you know, condition
or whatever. Right.
Yeah. So, I mean, if the person is now talking about things, especially in worship, if it's something to do with prayer.
Yeah, so I mean, in that case, it's subtle, right? are they helping, it could be a form of react.
But react isn't everything. Some people show off but it's not react? Because it's supposed to be in the bad
then with a real react comes in.
Right? But pride, arrogance, things like that. These are all different categories.
The general questions anybody has. So the next style this will be the end for you know, your mom, Sally. I'll leave these books up here. You can see that you can take a picture of the title
You know, whatever and get them. The next widget they were looking at and Sharla, shakers, Amanda and folio and this is going to be something new for most of you because you may not be aware of West African Islamic history. This is a great leader
who revived Islam amongst his people. And his teachings are still very much alive in the world. We'll look at him in Sharla next week Have a safe journey home was philarmonic