Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Communicating Properly on WhatsApp
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Hamdulillah he won't be known. I mean, Salatu was Salam o
Allah and I mean,
he was Safi Adjumani a mother, we're going to be covering
inshallah to two sets of other. We'll be looking first Inshallah,
at the adverb of correspondence.
In terms of correspondence, many things have moved, moved on from
what it used to be, for hundreds of years, since the time of
writing.
There are discussions that writing
was
not something that people always did. People corresponded in
different ways.
And it was only after a certain prophet who's, they say, is the
first person to write. So writing is also something that took place
today, we also write that the medium of writing the speed by
which correspondence reaches somebody else is quite amazing.
And day by day, it's getting faster and faster.
Since the last few weeks, since WhatsApp has started allowing
calls, I've received calls from people that I've never received
calls from. The thing is that my 100, I keep my Wi Fi and
connection of people complain a lot, like put my phone keeps
beeping?
Well, it's not going to beep unless you want it to beep. It's
all in your hands, you can literally control everything on
the phone today. My phone keeps beeping, they keep complaining,
well stop it beeping, then
just put your Wi Fi off, put your data off. I don't have any battery
left halfway through the day, they're looking for a plug.
They're in your car, they want to plug it What's your problem, you
got a new phone, half the day is gone, and your battery's gone.
Phones are getting only better in terms of battery life, they're
supposed to be getting better, but we're taxing them out of the
beyond their status. So believe me on WhatsApp, most of it is a big
waste of time. There is you know, there's the useful, but a lot of
it is a lot of waste of time, you don't need to be in all of those
groups. And it's just one of those things where I I'm on groups, I'm
not on any social group, all my groups are all to do it all.
But even then,
there is the useful and there is not not as much useful. It's all
useful, but you have to have a lot of time for it. So literally, if I
look at my whatsapp, right now, I will be 1000 messages behind on
many of these groups. So before what I would think is one day when
I have time, I will go through all of them because there are some
useful things among 10 things I said there may be one thing
useful. But finally I gave up. So I have there was once I had 13,000
messages in our group. And then I said okay, now I give up
officially I give up. So I clicked it. And I read the last few
messages and then it built up again. And it builds up every two,
two days, 1000 messages and I just can't keep up anymore.
So it's not it's just really these things.
A big waste of time. In many cases, you will spend hours hours
doing that. What Hakimullah with Monash uni thumri says in this
chapter on the adverb of correspondence, he says do not
read the letters of others. Now remember, he's coming, he's
talking about a time when there's no Twitter, there's no WhatsApp,
there's no email. It's literally hard case writing. Somebody came
to me the other day. And he's had a problem with a family member.
And he wants to apologize. And he apologized in a WhatsApp message.
And the response was also like a WhatsApp message. They didn't
accept the apology. I said, is your apology only worth a WhatsApp
message? You know, it was a big problem. Not a simple problem, you
know, police were called and, and now you want to apologize by
whatsapp. You must be joking.
Instead, write a letter, do some tahajjud give some sadaqa. Like if
you really want to make them feel they have to feel you mean it. If
they're not going to entertain you physically, then the minimum is
that you go out of your way to write an email if you don't a nice
long email, or a handwritten letter of apology.
Manasa retana is obviously writing at the time of letters. However, a
lot of this we can apply. People say you should people, the orlimar
should tell us that adverb of WhatsApp and at that time was
messenger, MSN Messenger this it's the same thing.
It's the same thing except that it's just a bit more frequent. So
one has to be more controlled, or writing a letter, get a paper, get
the right words, make sure you've spelt it correctly have the tip x
there. You know, it was an effort. It was an effort. So
people say
less.
But now it's so easy to say things. Do not read the letters of
others. If a letter is not intended for you do not read it.
So there's privacy issues here. And people, sensible people know
that. But from a Sharia perspective as well, it's an
Amana,
you are not allowed to read somebody else's letter, just like
it's not right to eavesdrop on someone, it's the same thing to
read their correspondence. So if somebody's gave you their phone to
use or whatever, and then they went out somewhere, for whatever
reason, you can start looking at their browsing history, for
example, or their WhatsApp messages. And you know, some
phones they have, they pop up the message, the next message or
whatever, and you should avoid, it should be avoided. It's all about
personal discipline, this case, whether somebody finds out or not,
is not the point. It's all about a personal discipline, it's all
about personal accountability. And the more we are more personally
accountable to ourselves for these things, when nobody else is
looking, that is how much closer we'll be to Allah subhanho wa
taala. Because we only do it for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala
because Allah is watching.
Do not read any correspondence, which is in front of a person,
perhaps the correspondence was meant to have been kept hidden
from you, for example, somebody's message pops up, you know, on
their screen,
even if the paper is in front of a person,
even if the paper in front of a person happens to be printed
matter. So it's a magazine, or it's something else for that
matter. Of course, if it's kept there, as one of those waiting
room magazines, you know, like those things, sometimes people
keep those in the house, if they don't want to speak too much. And
they keep magazines. So when guests come, they'll actually be
able to
look at the magazines or these big books, the table books that you
have and things like that.
With its that disk, of course, if it's intended for anybody to look
at them, there's nothing wrong with that, you know, like, if
they've got something under stack of women, then you're I can I can
I look at this and you put it out there wasn't there for the public
necessarily. It was underneath something. Yes, it was just there
in front, different issue.
What have you when Ahmed says he says it is quite possible that the
person concerned does not wish it to be known that he has in his
possession, that type of literature, that he reads Harry
Potter books, for example,
or DNR * or whatever else people are reading this,
it may just be that, that they don't want you to know. Because
then you may
associate things with them. It may not be theirs. In fact, you may
just they may be somebody else's book that
some people when sitting by an acquaintance or friend have the
habit of picking up letters, printed paper, etc, which may be
in front of the desk is not permissible to do so. I remember
we were sitting in Africa, and the food was brought in so one of us
took the took a picture of it, because it was unusual, you know,
desert life kind of food. So then the host, he said, let me see, let
me see the picture. So he took the phone, and then he literally
started flicking through.
Somebody shows you one picture, you can't take the liberty to go
backwards or forwards. It's a man.
Then on the topic of writing, right, very clearly, the topic
should should be should not be expressed ambiguously. Right very
clearly, whether you're writing by hand or email or text, but in
fact, especially text messages, there is room for so much
confusion in text messaging, thus WhatsApp etc. Because people are
very liberal in the way they they don't express themselves properly.
It's not supposed to be a self containing letter. It's a short
short message. Some people are used to just firing off 10
Different WhatsApp messages that are then connected together. Some
people like to write self containing once one has to be
careful that what you're writing is going to be understood.
Especially with WhatsApp what what happens. And I mentioned WhatsApp
a lot because it is an extremely popular and a very common
facility that's used. So that's probably why the discussion here
but it would apply to anything of similar nature. Sometimes what
happens with these things is that you've sent off two messages, two
statements. Third and fourth statement, you couldn't because
your whatsapp went off, sorry, your your connection went off. Now
on the other hand, the person has just suddenly reached half the
message and it may cause a catastrophe, you know, and
likewise, there's room for a lot of misunderstanding in, in short,
short messages anyway. There's been breakups of marriages and all
sorts of things just because of, you know, especially when there's
a underlying issue going on, then people will generally take things
more than negatively. So one has to be just extremely careful.
So, do not write ambiguously be
Be very clear, be very clear. And if you know and people should
know,
some people have the ability to be comprehensive in their writing.
Some people should realize that they're not very comprehensive in
the way that they do. Right, ambiguously. It's a person's
recognition.
Some people write ambiguously, they should know that they've been
they've probably been told, you know, once you've been told to one
time, two times three times, oh, I misunderstood your text. Sorry, I
thought it was something else, then understand that you've got a
problem here? Because if you don't know
that that's worse, because one is that I don't know. And I don't
know that. I don't know. How long are we going to carry on like that
for?
Because that, if we've made that mistake, two, three times that
people have misunderstood us, they must be problem with us and not,
unless it's the same person misunderstanding, then maybe it's
the other person.
But one should always be self critical as much as possible
first.
And so so many times, what happens is that because the WhatsApp thing
is just so fast, when you write a message, you, you don't look at
it, and a lot of us are using predict was called predictable
text. And it makes some serious mistakes. Sometimes it will
change, you know, it will, it will do some crazy things sometimes.
And if you're in a hurry, driving, and you're writing text me that's
extremely, extremely dangerous. But even in general, we don't
always look and we just in the heat of the moment you to respond
quickly, you just do it. And that little, just crazy.
I get questions on WhatsApp from around the world, literally from
other countries. And I know, you know, once you're on a few groups,
then everybody gets your number. And then I just don't entertain
them. I don't have the time for questions. People will write you
anonymous questions from around the world. from Canada, from
Norway, from you know, wherever, anonymous, anonymous, who are you
introduce yourself? What is this like an exam question?
In fact, what they're asking for, there is no name. Nothing is bad.
Adam
says completely bad Adam. Sometimes I'll say who are you? I
want to stay anonymous.
Okay, then please email me. This is my personal phone. You know, I
you could be getting me in trouble here. We have to be careful these
days, you could be getting in trouble. Please answer my
question. I said, Look, I'm giving you a facility, email me,
anonymous email, make up a name, I don't care. Right. But when it's
on my personal phone, right, which is not for fatwah service, then I
need to know who you are.
So sometimes they don't even want to reveal themselves and they want
to contact you it's one has to be careful. That's that's what I'm
trying to say. And he's bad at that anyway, in each letter,
that's why he says your write your address fully. Now when you know
you don't do that by email, generally, but you have to write
your name. He's assuming that the name will already be written.
That's why he say write the address fully. It is not the duty
of the addressee to remember one's address, which may have not been
furnished in earlier letter. He's saying that because generally they
need to write a response. So you may have had some correspondence
before with an acronym with a Mufti or anybody else for that
matter. And you've provided your address first time around. Now you
you've written another letter after several months, and you
don't write your address, they're gonna have to go through all of
the letters. And if they like some people, they just get rid of
everything, however, and there's no way to know. Because especially
in those days, it was much more complicated. Nowadays, you could
just fire off another human, but most people will not, they will
send you an email, if they don't get a response. They'll just think
that you don't want to respond. And they will just think things.
Sometimes people say I did send you an email, can you please
respond to something? So there's just confusion like that. So give
them the details. Now, in this case, with email, and with phone
numbers, and everything, all of that is automatic anyway, so it
does minimize that kind of confusion nowadays, if in a letter
references made to a matter, which was mentioned in an earlier
letter, then include a copy of the earlier letter. This will save the
adresi the inconvenience of searching for the earlier letter.
Now, the example of this is you receive a question.
It's not clear. Sometimes what happens in the fatwa
situation is that people will write you a question.
Unfortunately, they don't know how to ask the question, and that's
fine, understandable.
So it has many possibilities. Now the only way to answer that is to
write a commentary. If this is the case, if you mean this, then this
is the answer. If you mean this, then this the answer, and if you
mean this, then this is the answer. We don't have time for
that. That's writing a book. A sharp, a commentary, a gloss.
Right, Harsha.
We don't have the time. So we'll quickly stand back and say, Okay,
can you tell us exactly what you mean by this, that and the other?
Another response you'll get will be a fresh email with no trail of
the past correspondence. Very difficult. We're not answering
questions each day. Right? It's difficult. You might look at it
after a week. And now you've forgotten your I mean, personally
speaking, I probably receive about 100 emails a week minimum on
questions, minimum. So you can't remember the full details of
everything.
So keep the correspondence.
I mean, I'm probably turning this too much into a question answer
footwear issue. But it's, this is just general correspondence with
people as well. Unless you've got reason to hide what's been
discussed before? Yes, for example, if you've given a bank
account details or something like that, then you're not, then in
that case, what you should do is you should remove it from any
further because it's just going back and forth, back and forth.
And that's an insecure. So you've sent your bank details over for
somebody to maybe pay you or whatever. And then after that,
there's been a continuum of, you know, did you receive the money?
Well, then remove that, that is the that is the most secure thing
to do anyway.
Do not write so many questions in a single letter, which pose an
inconvenience to the addressee after receiving a reply. Right,
the right the further questions.
Okay, now, this is very specific, because a lot of people used to
correspond with the author with Hakimullah mutt. So you know,
sometimes you do receive a literally a questionnaire 20
questions. And it feels like an examination question. You're back
in the examination chamber. That's how he feels. You know, there's
not there's not many, there's no pleasant greetings or anything
like that. It's just 20 questions. No, Jazak Allah, maybe even in
that case? That's an examination question. They don't thank you for
answering the questions today. If the adresi is one, I used to get
really frustrated with that. But we're told to be you know, we're
told not to get frustrated with that because at the end of the
day, we have to deal with people.
Somebody is ignorant, it's the you don't make yourself ignorant, you
know, you you just have to answer people's questions.
If the addressee is one who has many occupations do not encumber
him with the request to convey your Salaams to others.
So you write, you know, you write your question or whatever, and
then I say, Please give you a mesa lamps to so and so as well. You
probably won't remember. Right. And
it's just additional a this is the you know, this is coming from
somebody who's very particular about his time, and is every
moment of his time is accepted. So you one has to think that way as
well. Do not impose such a task on any of your seniors.
It's not respectful to give them a task to do, unless of course, a
genuine salaam to your family, something like that. If the it is
disrespectful to write to a person, a request pertaining to
something, involvement in which is not appropriate for the adresi
when a reply is warranted in closer
I think the self reply, the way that the reply paid, self
addressed envelope is probably obsolete.
Nowadays, you know what, it's quite strange. I have in the last
few years, I have actually received two questions by letter
literally with a stamped addressed envelope. And you know, the worst
thing is, I haven't been able to respond to those two.
I confess it's just, you know, you just about do the emails, but now
to hand write something and go and posted Allahu Akbar.
Do not write legibly, no, in such faint pencil, which makes reading
difficult.
Do not cram the words know the lines, one on top of the other.
Now, on the internet, I mean, obviously an email, if you
sometimes people write with a really funky fonts, and the worst
part which I haven't seen much of recently, or maybe people just
don't write to me like that anymore. They're not you know,
the,
the text is writing the shorthand to say you they write to you, and
all that, because I would never entertain those. Anytime I would
receive any question with those kind of shorthand, I would reduce
on the back and say, Please write it again. I don't understand what
you're saying.
Because that was extremely disrespectful. It is not
permissible to utilize the stationery of one's employers for
one's private letters. And this of course, goes with lots of things.
Unless of course, they find out they doing booming business and
they don't mind then it's all fine.
I remember somebody who's got a bakery business and he was asking
somebody to make him
signs to put up in his business, please, the employees must not eat
the pistachios and almonds and cashews. They're very expensive.
And they were just mashallah
India McLeod.
It's not that bad, but you know, so they
This happens many people, they use the employers, stationery,
printing, a lot of these things happen, unfortunately. Right? Some
people justify because they may work for the civil service, it's
communal property they say or whatever
these things are, one has to be careful about what they're doing.
Of course, something you know, when one has to be answerable to
the people that is, it's owned by.
If you've got permission, then it's okay. If you've got
permission, generally with companies, if they're booming
business like Google, they have different types of canteens and
cuisines and all sorts of things. Your business goes down inside,
they'll start putting the restrictions on, this is the way
things work nowadays, some people instead of sending a prepaid self
addressed envelope includes stamps to cover postage, this is
incorrect.
Again, this is just added, but I'm just reading this, although most
of us may never do this. But this is just to give you an
understanding of the thought process. He says, don't just send
a stamp because then the person's the Mufti or whoever the scholar,
whoever it is, will have to or anybody will have to find that
envelope and address it. It just takes time when it's a busy,
period, then don't do that. And you might think, well, when you
write a letter to the home affairs department, or the DL, DVLA, or
whatever, you don't have to do all of this, well, of course not. You
Cha you get charged for that. Your taxes go there, they have
secretaries to do all of these things on am I don't have that.
What am I don't charge for fatwas, this is a free service they're
doing. So don't expect the same kind of setup and facility for
that Miss, clearly, I just want to make that very clear. And it's
actually because we're living in a time when the state does not
sponsor the scholars to do this. Whereas in the under the earth
money Khilafah this was the case they had the
who they call the the Sheikh Al Islam, the sheikh, who Islam of
the earth money empire in Istanbul, they had a proper
system, and they still have somewhat the same kind of system,
where it was state sponsored, they were state run, it's a state what,
you know, part of the Oklahoma etc. And they have people working,
they had the clerks working, and all of this, it was a paid job. So
professionally done, everything, all of that was that came in, was
then handed over to somebody and done properly and everything. I
mean, even today in big madrasahs, where they have a double Iftar
they have staff, but again, it's all based on donations there. So
they just can't be as organized as you know, another office with
proper flows and systems and, and everything in place.
So we're living in a different dimension, we're living in a
different kind of dimension. And then we complain when we don't get
the same kind of response.
As we do in a professional organization, there's a big
difference between these two kinds of organization just because lack
of funds Money Talks these days. That's what it is.
Another thing is do not be wasteful. When with writing paper.
I've noticed this especially you know, when I'm when I've there's a
course or something, and people have to send letters, sorry,
questions. They'll take the whole a4 sheet, write a small question
on there and send it forward. And you have to then remind people
that look, just tear that strip off and keep the rest. Just write
the question at the bottom, take the strip because it's just a
question that's coming in, we're not going to write on their
response. So we don't need any extra space.
The worst part is when I was principal at the mother, so you'd
get sometimes a request for leave or whatever, written shabbily
on half an envelope.
You know, like the back of an envelope that says clean and
literally like a TED talk on envelope, they will write on them
say no, you're not gonna have I won't give you leave. This is so
disrespectful. So yes, at the same time that we're not wasting paper.
We also have to have some kind of person and Jamal in what we're
doing Air sign in what we're doing. You can't just write get a
torn kind of paper and take that
these things have changed now.
But paper was so valuable and at premium, and people weren't well
off that I remember. One of the oldest students in Madras are
telling us when I first joined darlin berry that hasn't mana used
to Matata sub done with baraka to him and his brother. They were not
well off and they were studying. And the paper that they had the
books that they had, they would literally write so small that they
could fit three lines into one line space,
just so that they could get more in.
Now for us, it's a whole different game, you know, it's just a
different thing. The quality of the paper was also not
Have archivable quality so after a few years, it gets a yellow and
you know, it gets brown. And it's just the way things are nowadays,
books are on acid free paper. So they are, they can last for 10
years. That's why we publish all of our books on that kind of
paper, make sure it's of archival quality that it will live for 100
years without becoming brown on the sides. And also, when I first
went, I remember I'd gone to American doctor friend who gave me
these, these notes, you know, those sticky notes, you get the,
to the post it notes, but these were larger ones from the medical,
you know, the doctor has given them free for other pharmaceutical
companies and on quality paper. So I take them to India, and I gave
him some of the teachers and they're like, Wow, this is so nice
paper this is because there was that yellow paper, that thin paper
that just about, you know, kind of survives. And I said this is the
stuff they give out for free in the West. You know, so it's a and
this is still the case in many places. It's still the case in
many places like it's still like that. We just take all of this for
granted.
I mean in Mauritania went to one of the students room and it's on
our documentary as well but what they use for counting is what I
saw is the lid a plastic lid of a bucket or something and there was
sand on it I said What is that for? Is that for tamari? Would you
name is that mean it's all sand anyway? Why have you got this bit
of sand in this lid?
So then he went like this and made these indentations and then he
said when we're memorizing learning our lesson, then we clear
them one by one so it says counter so to use the most basic things
like that people still do that in the world for us. You know we'd we
probably order a timer or order something like that to do with you
know, because we everything's available now Amazon dot you
know.com Dakota, UK, whatever. It's all available.
So we will particular things for everybody. So he's saying here if
the paper is of good quality, then use both sides to write on don't
wasted Do not waste that was assumed that there must have been
not so good quality paper where you could only write on one side
because the other side would be unrightable afterwards.
And Allah subhanaw taala says in the Quran, do not waste very
wasteful, wasteful ones are the brothers of the Chateau shaytaan a
Seraph, which is Musa Fein and Allah subhanaw taala. This is
Mobis theory and actually the brothers of shaytaan. It's worse
than Israel. There's two concepts in our in in Arabic. One is a
Seraph and one is the belief
that the the brothers of shaitan is rough is to go beyond the limit
in something that is of use, but just to do an extra where you
could have done it with something less you an extra and did more,
but it's halal and so on. The theory is when you spend you waste
Money in what is not appropriate, what is not of benefits, what is
maybe even haram or wrong, then you are the process of shaytaan in
doing that. So in Arabic is very particular in in the nuances of
particular actions. Okay, if do not use extravagant titles or
flattery when writing, be moderate, you know, don't don't
just
use those kinds of things to get a better favor or whatever. Have
respect, though, for people.
What I've noticed is that the way South Africans, right, they have
everybody's a Mataram. So there's like deer, mataram, you know,
mataram, Sheikh, whatever, they've got some specific other.
Even the way they speak is a bit different. They won't say you,
they'll refer to you and the third person does more than I want to
come. There's mostly someone to come like which move this up. You
know, when you're not used to it, you have to get used to that kind
of right, that kind of speaking is should that be done? It's a
message. It's just the nature of some people some message?
Is it sooner to do that? Not necessarily. It's similar to be
respectful. This is what's considered respect there.
hamdulillah Do you understand? They can't say somebody who
doesn't do that is disrespectful. We're not saying that sunnah in
particular. But it's a sunnah to be respectful. This has to be
understood because a lot of people confuse matters here. Then they
start labeling things better and better and part of Sharia and not
part of Sharia. It's the confusion is there.
Some some people just have a message of doing something.
There's a massage aspect. For example.
There are certain communities were speaking about Kurama what is the
message
they love though
stories.
And they will speak about the special miracles of pious people
and so on. And that's that is the common discussion. And he loved
that discussion.
There are some communities where they hate that discussion.
If you really ask them, but do you believe in the Kurama? To Alia,
they don't say, Yes, we do. But they are their massage is such
that they want to dismiss it as much of it as possible. Whereas if
you take that same story to that first community, they will be more
than willing to accept it, then you've got communities in between
them is arduous to accept, but not to obsess over it. Do you
understand, it's not the only discussion they have, there's more
to life than just that.
Kurama they completely agree with, they do have stories of Kurama
but that's not all they're speaking about. Whereas some,
that's all they're speaking about. And it can be heavy for the person
who's not from that community.
So it's just about understanding the message.
Because somebody asked me the other day that you know, we also
speak about Kurama
but why is it that when there's a Kurama have kind of an
unbelievable Kurama sometimes you know, the kind of more extreme
Kurama says such of another group were willing to dismiss it.
A lot of the time this happens as well the beginning on to a bit of
a different subject, but sometimes what happens is that people
because they have a high regard for their mache, their alma their
elders, if something's coming from them, then they're more willing to
accept it, even if it's kind of a bit abnormal, like a bit beyond
the thing, but when it comes from another groups,
mache, then oh, that must be x. You know, that must be an
exaggeration, or that must be this data, the other
it's a massage issue, you know, as humans, we must understand this
the way humans are. So if we're, if we wizened up on this, then
it's easier to understand. But again, it's a massage issue, a
kind of approach and a temperament issue that some people just speak
about karma more than others. Like, we're not going to deny it,
but it's not something we speak about all the time because that's
not the objective of life as the Sufis will tell you that these are
side issues anyway.
But for some communities, this is what they keep the keep say Imana
really, this is what keeps the Eman of they just know these
stories and speak about them and tell everybody else Hamdulillah
that same we're not going to deny it but we don't have to speak like
that either. But we don't want to be completely dry as well.
So I think it's really nice to be in between I think that's where we
are we're kind of in between
he was saying do not use extravagant titles. Do not be too
brief in writing address elders with appropriate titles of respect
a lot of people I mean I haven't gotten used to this but they'll
just say dear brother please help me out. Okay, I'll help you out no
problem you know there are people who are like that their brother
which is fine hamdulillah but I you know, some of them I will not
be used to that and they will take offense to that you know, I'm used
to it now I'm used to it I've been called the brother so many times
and 100 I'm your brother you know it's fine. But they will be or the
more you call them dear brother you know by sub Editora kilo you
know, when I come on my be monitored respectful. They may not
say anything, but the people around them would be a bit
offended. Some people denigrate Allah ma. I was sitting at one
table. And somebody mentioned that, okay, he's an island. He's
he's just a concerned brother. Like, for some reason, I don't
know what level of ale he requires for an aroma and of course, you
know, nobody in this time and age you very do we'll find the other
Malik has an adversity, but that's how we all are.
There was an argument in the masjid
they're arguing
that the Imam Saab watches TV. Now you can imagine this is a very old
argument because now everybody is on YouTube, even if they don't
have a TV in the house, even people who hate pictures and who
don't take pictures or whatever they are going to watch. YouTube
is very few people who don't want to watch a YouTube video very hard
to combine there probably are people like this
is solid permissible behind the Imam because he watches TV.
That was the question. And all these old guys they will arguing
about it. So a friend of mine as a Maulana he was there.
He said, Do you watch TV? Do you watch Do you don't like? Yes, yes,
yes. Okay, that's fine. Your numbers is fine. Your salad is
fine behind him. Because you watch TV as what your salad is one, stop
arguing.
The letter should be written in the language of the addressee.
If you want an answer, I'm assuming.
And if you think well, there's Google Translate. Well, why don't
you use Google Translate to send
to them in English, or whatever else.
So Hala, we get questions from places like India and Pakistan.
And my first response is please contact a local Mufti there.
Sometimes they write English in the right order in English, and
they send it like that. It's quite difficult to read that, you know,
and like, just as the local scholars, but because the local
scholars are probably not online, then they just find the Western
scholars online. That's why they contact you sometimes
in the internet has made it's a very interesting thing that goes
on in the world. Now it's RGB, you can literally cater your data can
reach the world now, where, you know, that's why we record these
classes, so that other people can in sha Allah benefits, and Allah
except
when there is a need to discuss more than one subject in a single
letter, do not write confusingly,
obviously speaking from experience, but don't basically
merge one question into the two separate topics. And number number
them if you can. But I have learned that if you expect too
much from your this is obviously trying to teach people so it's
good. But as an alum who's responding to this, you know, if
you get frustrated with these things, then
your life can become quite miserable. So you have to overlook
a lot of these things and just try to get by help people, because
answering questions is 100% return.
If I give a buy on, if I write a book, they say the statistic is
five to 10% return rate on that, that people will take it and
implement it. But as multicell months, I've said he goes when
you're somebody asks you a question, they've come with a
particular problem and a need, and you respond to them, that's 100%
rate of return. So that's why one has to do that very lucrative
business, by the way, very lucrative. As long as we can avoid
the mistakes very lucrative, inshallah this is obviously
encouragement for the Allama.
So Imams, you get this, the perks of this through being an Imam,
because that's when people will know you if you're just a regular
argument that nobody's going to come and ask you a question. You
have to then establish yourself as somebody who can do that. You have
the title, Mufti does help. But if you're an Imam, people are gonna
come and ask you the Imam questions. So the perk of this job
is that you get this lucrative business going on the side, this
investment in your hereafter.
An important letter, here, this is an important letter, or a letter
for which a reply is required should be sent by post not with a
person who happens to be just passing by. Again, this just
depends, but nowadays, people hardly send letters anyway. In
general, do not just think before you write, do not just write
whatever you feel.
Always consider the feeling of the adresi. This is the secret of any
good writing, believe me, this is the secret of any good writing. In
fact, even in the publishing industry, this is what they say
says don't write what you want. Write what the reader wants, if
you want your book to be popular.
What What I mean by that is that you don't write against your
morality, you know, against your ethos, we're just saying that when
you're when I write an email, I try to be really I try to put
myself in that person's mind, how are they going to perceive my
email?
I always do that. Right. I mean, mostly that's, that's what I try
to do. Sometimes you do get really busy and you're shooting off an
email, you can't do that. But that's the secret if you think and
put yourself in their mind, not how you want them to think how you
think they will think then you will save yourself from a lot of
grief in your correspondence on WhatsApp or whatever it is. I
mean, Mashallah.
Hakimullah match was truly the physician of the OMA, he says,
fold the letter neatly and inserted correctly in the
envelope. Do not insert it carelessly in such a way that the
adhesive on the envelope sticks to the letter as well. This creates a
difficulty for the addressee. Sometimes a portion of the letter
then is ripped while opening it. So just saying be careful in all
of these things, because this is Islamic exon, as they say, exon in
these matters.
And
do not unnecessarily write lengthy letters. Have it concise, to the
point, but with sufficient information, don't just go on and
on and on. This is a big problem. What generally what I found is
that people will call you up and say, mateesah need to meet you
said, Okay, fine. I need half hour of your time. And I know you don't
need half an hour of my time. Nobody needs half an hour of your
time unless they want to tell you a story. But there's no need for
the story because the question is at the end, right? So I'll say
look, I don't think you need half an hour but I can give you five
minutes after the hour.
Right, you have to start that way, then it does get to 1015 minutes.
But if you give them half an hour, you know, you can't give everybody
half an hour. When you're new on the game, you know, when you're
just new, you can give everybody the whole day, believe me, because
you got nothing else to do. You just want to talk to people and
you know, help them. But when you've got so much, and so many
people, then you have to start, it's not being arrogant or
anything like that, believe me, it's just a lot forbid from that
happening. It's just the fact that you don't have the time. And
you know, there's 10 other people who want to see you as well. So
generally, the story is a long story. But you don't need to know
that story. You don't need to know your 10 years history, you just
need to know the general and get to the point. For example, once
there was a divorce issue, and now divorce responses are generally
given on the final words that are said
not on 10 year story. But they will start with the 10 year story
thinking it's pertinent and it's not. So I listen. And then I'll
say, Okay, let's get to the question first, then we'll come
back to it. Right? Some people find it very difficult. They're
very linear. So they want to tell you the story. You have to keep
telling them give me the question first, then of course, sometimes
you do need to know why. So you do have to go back. But in divorce
case, you generally just need to know the last five minutes. That's
it. The exact words that I said, because it really matters what was
said. And the circumstances under which it was said immediate
circumstances not 10 year ago circumstances.
The letters of he says the letters of females should be endorsed with
the signature of a Muharram, male husband, father, etc. This closes
the door to mischief.
This is quite a while and nowadays, what generally people do
is that they will if a woman is sending an email, and she's
married, or whatever she will see see her husband in IFCC, my
husband on this, that's a nice way of doing it these days, just so
that they know what's going on. There's absolutely nothing wrong
with a woman asking a man for a question. It's done.
Traditionally, the person often used to be
approached by women. And if you look at even in places like bulk
Afghanistan, because my PhD is unshakable later Serpenti rather
than if you see his book, says Jared imra, a woman came and she
was in the class, she started asking this question, very, they
came with their partner and everything else and started asking
the question, now it is very easy for email. But there are women who
have who today in such a situation that they've been told that you
cannot correspond. And they have a question, it's about their
husband, or it's about something foreign in their life, something
big issue, but they just don't know how to ask because they feel
shy.
There's no shyness in the faith when it comes to these kinds of
issues. Right? Because you have to ask these questions. So there's a
safe way of asking these questions, of course, to avoid the
mischief. But no form of shyness should prevent you from knowing
your deen.
That's important.
Some, some scholars were very strict Mufti Rashid Lujan, we he
writes that once somebody sent a donation
to the masjid to his Institute,
and
what did he say he, they sent it. And then they also said that when
you receive it, please confirm receipt as we do nowadays.
He he was just so runny. It just so in independent of all of these
things in total reliance and Allah subhanaw. And I don't think I
mean, this is very peculiar to his situation, right? I'm not
encouraging this, because you won't get away with it. Right?
only certain people can do this. So he wrote back, he said, Look,
if he said, he said, If they they've donated, it's to their
benefit. Now look at the statement says they've donated it's to their
benefits. And they want to burden us with telling them that we've
received it.
You not everybody can do that. I mean, it's considered today,
today, it's considered like just a decent steward. No, and you need
to know just confirmation receipt, because where the money goes and
things like that, but he is on it, he was on a totally different
level.
He was on a totally different level.
Once it says that a letter, in one letter, somebody posed a number of
questions. In the same letter, he also informed that he was sending
a money order of a certain amount of money.
For the mother for whatever the money was, in expectation of the
arrival of the money that when I get the money, then I will respond
the answers as well. So I can I have to just give one response.
Otherwise they'll respond to the answers, then I'll have to respond
with accepting, you know, the receipt of the money. But the
money didn't come for many days. And
after that,
he was very particular. So he just wrote the letter and he says,
either you shouldn't not have informed in your letter of your
intention to send the money order
or
In the same letter, you should not have written the queries for which
replies were required. Now, there's a few things if you
analyze this, you can understand that he has, he has cared for this
person. That's why he's saying this. Otherwise, he could have
just disregarded it not responded to. But he feels it's, I get so
many emails, I can't respond to all of them.
Right? Now he's getting a letter, you received the letter in which
you have to respond to some photos that have been asked, but also
acknowledge the money, but the money hasn't come. So now you're
in a limbo. So finally, he writes, and he says, Look, you should not
have combined these two things in one letter, because your money
hasn't come means you haven't sent you've delayed, obviously. But he
could have just ignored the whole thing.
But he's so particular that he wants to respond to it. And he
wants to teach the right way of doing these things. So that's how
he does it. May Allah subhanaw taala give us the trophy? May
Allah subhanho wa Taala give us the ability to correspond
properly, it's such a big part of our life nowadays, more so than
before. It was almost as if writing letters was something that
very few people did. Now everybody's writing to each other,
you know, through these, these things, people are writing to the
world nowadays, you could never do that before, unless you are in the
media. But now every person can get himself on Twitter or
Facebook, tell the whole world what what he's thinking, what he
wants, what he wants them to do. And subhanAllah there's a
responsibility that goes with that.
And that is what is important. So may Allah subhanaw taala give us a
trophy to use these things, for their best potential. They're a
form of that when we have to use them, you know, but to avoid the
harms that come from them. That's the difficult part. And that is
where most most of the efforts of the OMA is going is on the wasting
of time on these things, less the benefit in flaming flames of of
sectarianism of violence, the Muslim world is on Subhan Allah
help us Allah help us the world is on fire. I mean, there's just a
border from Saudi Arabia to Yemen. And it could be anything So may
Allah subhanaw taala help and protect the Muslim ummah and bring
bring back some sense of humanity and insomnia and stability and a
focus on Allah subhanahu Uttara This is very important. Welcome to
Darwin Al hamdu, Lillahi Rabbil Alameen. Allah, Monticello and
Cassandra valkia Their journey with the Quran Allah.
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