Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Hasan al Basri

AI: Summary ©
The speakers stress the importance of both the heart and mind to be productive and prevent sin, as it is crucial for success in the face of sin. They also emphasize the need for both the heart and mind to be strong and productive, as it is crucial for success in the face of sin. The speakers stress the importance of learning from people who have experienced sin and the need for more people to come into the country. They stress the importance of achieving goals through one's values and the heart for their success in learning.
AI: Summary ©
As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
This recording has been produced by White Thread
Press, fulfilling the educational and spiritual needs of
contemporary Muslims.
Bismillāhir-Rahmānir-Rahīm.
Al-ḥamdu liLlāhi Rabbil-ʿālamīn, wa-s-salātu
wa-s-salāmu ʿalá Sayyidinā Muḥammad wa-alá
ālihi wa-sahbihi ajma'īn.
Ammā baʿd, faqad qāla Allāhu tabārak wa ta
'ālā fil-Qur'ānil-Majīd wa-l-Furqānil
-Ḥamīd.
Wa antumul aʿlawna in kuntum mu'minīn.
Respected brothers and sisters, it's important for Muslims
to look back into our history, the history
of Islam over the generations, from the time
of the Prophet ﷺ, continuing on through the
time of the Sahaba and the successors, those
who saw the Sahaba, the Tabi'īn and
then the Tabi'ūn.
And thereafter, through the later generations until we
see what we have today.
Now, many people feel differently about our current
situation.
Muslims from different areas would look at our
current situation in different lights.
We would have different perspectives.
However, man can never become disengaged from his
history.
No nation, in fact no nation, no people,
can become disengaged and separated from their history
and look at themselves in terms of what
is around them only.
We learn many lessons from history.
In fact, it's well understood, but not always
realized, not always taken to heart, that history
replays itself.
The cycle begins, it completes, and then another
cycle begins again.
So, if we look back in history, there's
a lot of lessons to be learned.
In fact, much of the challenges that we
face today, Muslims have faced such challenges or
worse challenges.
The challenges of the Tartars, for example, challenges
from people who had become apostate after the
Prophet ﷺ passed away, so on and so
forth.
The intensity might be different.
But otherwise, there's a great likelihood and there's
a lot of lessons to be learned.
The student of history, the one who studies
history, he'll have a great understanding and perspective.
He'll be able to act more prudently.
And that is what's important.
We today are extremely busy in what's our
next appointment or our next project, that we
don't have much time to relate back to
history and Muslim history at that.
I mean, the furthest a person goes if
they study Islamic history is they begin to
study the seer of the Prophet ﷺ, which
is great, which is extremely needed to learn
from the Prophet ﷺ's life and his biography.
But for a lot of people, they find
it very difficult to apply the life of
the Prophet ﷺ and his times to our
times.
Because they think that the Prophet ﷺ who
was Mu'ayyid bil Wahi, he was one
who was supported by the revelations and Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala was taking care of
him and the mu'ajizat, which means his
miracles.
Jibril a.s. was visiting the Muslims.
It was definitely a different era.
I mean, there's no doubt about it.
The Prophet ﷺ said, خَيْرُكُمْ قَرْنِي ثُمَّ الَّذِينَ
يَلُونَهُمْ That the best of the ummah is
my generation followed by those who will come
after them, followed by those who will come
after them, which means the first three generations.
There's no doubt about that.
So for a lot of people, they think
that it is impossible for us to have
a good Muslim society, good people, good believers,
because we don't have revelations coming down in
our midst.
Subhanallah, there was one of the sahaba, when
the Prophet ﷺ passed away, the companion began
to weep.
He said, now the revelations have stopped coming.
When there was a question, when an issue
arose, when the Muslims were confronted with situation,
the Prophet ﷺ would have a revelation if
he wasn't directly inspired.
Jibreel ﷺ would come, different forms of wahi
and revelation that Allah ﷻ would send to
him.
However, many, many challenges, many problems crept up
into the Muslim ummah after the time of
the Prophet ﷺ as well.
And learning about those as well really, really
helps us.
Hence, Sheikh Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, who passed
away a few years ago, mashaAllah, well respected,
celebrated scholar, both in the Indian subcontinent and
the Arab world.
He wrote in Urdu, what he called, Tarih
Dawat o Azeemat, which is basically Saviors of
Islamic Spirits.
This book has been translated into numerous languages.
In English, it's called Saviors of Islamic Spirit.
Now, what he's done in this is, he's
looked from after the time of the Prophet
ﷺ, what was the situation in the ummah,
and who did Allah ﷻ use to bring
the ummah out of that challenge that they
were facing.
The Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith, that
every century, there's going to be a mujaddid,
someone who will revive the faith for them.
According to the majority of scholars, it does
not have to be restricted to just one
personality.
There may be one who's more dominant than
others, but according to the kind of more
general opinion, it could be people from every
field or science of Islam, someone in hadith,
someone in tafsir, someone in dawah, etc, etc.
So now, what Sheikh Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi
has done is that he's not spoken about
the mujaddideen or the revivers.
He's spoken about situations, different parts of the
Muslim world, such situations which could have been
considered the time of degeneration for Muslims.
The time when the Muslims were supposed to
be at a brink, and how Allah ﷻ
allowed Islam to survive and brought it back
and elevated the kalima la ilaha illallah.
And that gives us a lot of hope
because at no time did Islam fall over
that brink.
It got very close.
For example, with the Tartars, it was about
to be wiped out.
They killed literally hundreds of thousands.
But Allah ﷻ loves this faith, and the
dua of the Prophet ﷺ has been accepted
that this ummah, this nation is not going
to be rooted out as some previous nations
were, where the complete nation or the complete
people of that prophet were killed and were
punished and they perished.
This is not going to happen.
Other than the fact that the Prophet ﷺ
is a prophet for all of mankind until
not just mankind, but jinn and all the
other creatures, until the day of judgment.
So this faith has to endure.
And the prophecies that the Prophet ﷺ has
mentioned in regards to the deen spreading throughout
the world, that's not our topic of today.
So I'm going to speak about one aspect
of our Muslim history, in fact about one
personality.
But before we speak about the personality of
Hassan Basri rahimahullah, who's considered and celebrated by
mashallah, one and all, considered to be one
of the greatest of the pious people that
lived in the past, one of the greatest
muhaddithin, in a sense, mufassirin.
Mashallah, master of all sciences and someone who
had that profound heart and that intelligent mind
that was needed to give hope and blow
the spirits of iman into the hearts of
people.
Basically what happened is after the death of
Umar ibn Abdulaziz, who in just around two
and half years managed to change the focus
of the Muslim world, who became a khalif,
not by default, but because the children of
Sulaiman ibn Abdul Malik could not become the
sultan.
They were too young.
So one of the scholars was sitting at
his side just before his deathbed.
He suggested to him that his cousin, Umar
ibn Abdulaziz should become the khalif.
And he accepted, alhamdulillah, but two and half
years.
After he passed away though, the other khalifs
that came after him, Yazid the second, they
went back to the old ways of the
umayyad, which was a way of draining out
the baytul mal.
But subhanallah, they were very wealthy at that
time, conquests were taking place.
They would actively take part in spreading Islam
all over the world.
The baytul mal would be filled, but that
would be used by the khalif and their
families, the families of Marwan, the families of
the umayyads basically.
And the ulama considered that the time of
jahiliyyah was coming back.
There was a complete reversal of state policy.
Umar ibn Abdulaziz had made it such that
people on the street began to speak about
how many qada prayers you had made up
and how much I had made up.
On the streets, the talk became how much
Quran have you memorized as opposed to which
team won or what's the latest on this
so-and-so case.
It was about how much Quran one had
memorized, how many qada prayers, make up prayers
one had made up.
But unfortunately after he passed away, Yazid the
second took it back and it seemed as
if he was going back to that same
type of jahiliyyah that had prevailed before during
the umayyads.
The demands of his kinsmen would be filled
from the baytul mal and the pursuit of
pleasure instead of religion became the activity of
the day and the problem with this kind
of a thing, especially when it comes from
the top is that you have the upward
movement, you have the downward movement.
The upward movement works, but it takes much
longer.
The downward movement is much faster more effective
when you've got the ruling party and the
elite which were the umayyads and their friends
and their kinsmen, they were in pursuit of
luxury and opulence and indolence just completely obsessed
with worldly pursuits because of the wealth that
they had.
When that was the situation of the elite
naturally that kind of an idea that kind
of a trait passes on to the common
people until it completely takes over the community
at large and that was the danger here.
So no people's rights were taken, inheritance was
not given properly and they basically abused their
positions as being the rulers.
So again Islam went to that precarious edge,
the abyss of destruction of degeneration, but as
always Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala always send someone
that will revive the faith.
The prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam on one occasion,
he had just completed the prayer and he
noticed that immediately after he completed the prayer
many of the sahaba hurried away because one
of the zakat collectors had just come back
with a lot of goods and merchandise collected
goods from other areas and they were poor.
So they went to take part of this
and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam smiled at
that.
He knew their poverty, he knew their state,
they were in a poverty stricken state.
So he smiled but then immediately became serious
and he said it's مَلْفَقْرُ أَخْشَىٰ عَلَيْكُمْ It's
not poverty that I fear on you.
Poverty, that's not what I fear.
A lot of time in poverty people go
back towards Allah.
Although there's another hadith which mentions that sometimes
poverty also leads to kufr or unbelief because
of complaints, but for the most part when
person is afflicted by poverty, they come back
to Allah.
وَلَكِنْ أَخْشَىٰ أَنْ تُبْسَطَ عَلَيْكُمُ الدُّنْيَا كَمَا بُسِطَتْ
عَلَىٰ مَنْ كَانَ قَبْلَكُمْ I fear he said
that the dunya will open up itself, the
treasures of the world will open up itself
to you just as it did for the
people of the past and then you will
begin to vie with each other, compete with
each other to acquire it just as the
people before you did.
فَتُهْلِكُكُمْ كَمَا أَهْلَكَتْهُمْ And then it will destroy
you just like it destroyed the people of
the past.
So he warned them immediately there.
There's another hadith which mentions that there will
be different types of trials for the believers,
for the Muslim ummah and one of them
is going to be the fitnatus sarraa, which
means the fitna of prosperity, believe it or
not.
And in another narration, it actually mentions that
the wealth will come from under your feet.
Today, how easy it is to spend money
for any one of us.
Without having money today, you can spend, you
can have what you like.
Fitna of prosperity where deals were done in
thousand, today they're done in billions.
A million is not a big deal anymore.
You become a millionaire overnight if you have
the right things to work with today.
The world has definitely opened up to us.
So he warned them and it seemed that
that time this was the case.
Mashallah, many conquests had been made.
People had come into Islam.
The wealth were brought to the feet of
the Umayyads and the Darul Khilafa and they
were just indulging in that.
However, as always there are the people of
Allah, the Rijalullah that will keep the Ummah
strong and steadfast and as long as they
remain, as long as we have these people,
then the Ummah will have some hope.
So through their sermons, through their teachings, through
their durs and through their advising others and
counseling them, they kept the Islamic world from
being swept away and they kept the knowledge
of light and truth alive.
Who are these people?
These were some of the greatest Tabi'een,
Saeed ibn al-Musayyib, who is considered the
leader of the Tabi'een, Muhammad ibn Sirin,
the great interpreter of dreams, great Muhaddith as
well, Allama al-Shaabi, another great Muhaddith and
at the forefront of them all was Hassan
Basri who was unparalleled.
They saved the Muslim world from acquiescing into
an utterly agnostic and characterless spiritually enfeebled society.
Hassan Basri was born in 21 AH, which
means just 10 to 11 years after the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam left this world.
His father's name was Yassar and he was
an emancipated slave of Zaid ibn Thabit, the
great companion Zaid ibn Thabit.
But the thing was that his mother used
to be a slave girl and work for
one of the wives of the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasalam, Umm Salama radiyallahu anha.
So basically he was brought up in the
house or room of Umm Salama radiyallahu anha
and when his mom was busy working and
he began to cry or weep, Umm Salama
radiyallahu anha would take him and nurse him,
pretend to nurse him.
So he got the barakah of the household
of the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasalam.
But in terms of his character, in terms
of his knowledge, he was peerless in that
regard, very distinguished, very amicable character, very considerate
disposition in the way he acted with people.
And when he spoke he was enchanting, people
would cry.
In fact, it mentions that many of the
Sahaba were not parallel to him in the
way he spoke.
When he spoke, you would see as reporters
have mentioned, eyes brimming with tears and this
can only come if the words come from
the heart, if the heart and the tongue
come together.
Along with this, he was just not very
pious and righteous in terms of knowledge.
He excelled many.
In fact, if you study tafsir, you'll notice
Qal al-Hassan, Qal al-Hassan, Qal al
-Hassan, Hassan says this, this is Hassan al
-Basri's opinion.
He studied fiqh, he has opinions in fiqh,
all subjects, all sciences.
He was a teacher of them all.
He excelled all the scholars of his time
and he was well aware of the ills
of the society.
Now look at this person.
He was born in 21 AH, which is
still a glorious time, just after the time
of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the
time of the Sahaba.
He had seen the Muslim world go from
what it was to what it had now
become, the Umayyad and their corruption, meaning the
Caliphs of the Umayyad, how they had become.
So he was able to contrast between the
two.
He was a veteran in that sense.
He'd seen it all.
He was able to show the difference between
the two times.
He was able to express that in his
lectures and he knew the ways to get
around it.
He knew where the ills had crept in
from.
He knew the remedies and the cures for
such ills to be lifted from the Muslim
Ummah.
His congregation would always cry in his lectures.
In fact Abu Amr Ibn Al Ala says
that Hasan Basri was more eloquent than Hajjaj
Ibn Yusuf.
Now just to give you an understanding, Hajjaj
Ibn Yusuf was a governor under Abdul Malik
Ibn Marwan.
So he was considered to be one of
the foremost governors and he was one of
the most tyrannical and merciless of them.
The amount of people he killed are just
about uncountable.
500,000 people were killed, some of the
best of the people of that time.
Sahaba he killed, he killed for the most
minute of excuses.
When he died there were 50,000 people
rotting in his prisons.
This person was completely merciless.
However, he was very eloquent.
He could have the same group of people
cry and sympathize with him just out of
his speech.
So on one occasion he spoke and he
basically made them feel guilty of the way
they felt about him, extremely eloquent.
His khutbah, however, Hasan Basri was more eloquent
according to many scholars than Hajjaj Ibn Yusuf,
way more eloquent.
In fact his khutbah have gone down into
classical Arabic literature and normally studying Arabic literature
of that period would entail that you study
that as well.
Inshallah at the end we will go through
just one of his more famous khutbahs.
You'll see that despite his brevity, despite being
so brief, complete abstinence from superfluous language, just
very pithy to the point succinct language that
envelops meanings that basically comprises of volumes of
meaning and wisdom.
So he was extremely eloquent.
So that along with this live heart, along
with this spiritual connection with Allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala, along with the experience that he had
of seeing the different generations, you can imagine
the effect that he had on the people.
Rabi Ibn Anas, maybe one of his students.
He says that I spent 10 years with
Hasan Basri and in every talk that he
gave or every lecture that he delivered there
was something new that I learned.
Now understand the magnitude of this, understand the
significance of what is being said by him.
Nowadays, it's the time of specialization where you
become specialist not in medicine anymore, but either
as a cardiologist or a pathologist or a
civil engineer or a military engineer or another
aspect of engineering.
If you spend even two years with somebody
in any field, you would probably, unless you
had unflinching faith in that person, you would
probably think I've heard everything.
How much are you going to speak about?
How much difference are you going to make
one khutbah from another after you've given 10
or 20 or 30 or 40 khutbahs?
But Hasan Basri with his knowledge that Allah
subhanahu wa'ta'ala had given him, his student
says that for 10 years I stayed with
him and I learned something new in every
single talk that he gave.
So you can imagine the scope of his
knowledge by just this one statement and Imam
Ghazali, Abu Hamid Ghazali writes that there's a
consensus among the Muslim scholars that the teachings
of Hasan Basri and his conduct, his teaching
and his conduct were the teaching and conduct
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
He would bring back memories of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
He would practically manifest what you would read
in hadith about the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
This is how people felt and Ghazali reckons
that everybody agrees on what Hasan Basri, the
way he taught and his conduct and people
just were irresistibly attracted to him.
And of course, this is something from Allah
subhanahu wa'ta'ala.
There's a hadith in which the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam said that when Allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala loves a person, he calls Jibreel and
he tells Jibreel, Oh Jibreel, I love this
person, so you love him too.
Jibreel takes this message and he spreads it
to the inhabitants of the heavens, the other
angels.
They begin to love him.
Now the angels, they come down onto the
earth to fulfill their responsibilities on the earth
to bring provisions and the rain and the
crops, etc, etc.
They have this new spread on the earth
until the love of that person enters into
the heart of everybody.
So people begin to love that person.
So wherever the person is, they realize him
and you will see this in certain countries
where if a particular pious person, a scholar
is traveling to another city, the news just
spreads.
There's no need for posters, promotions.
There's no need for advertisement.
There's no need for any emailing.
Just the word will spread and people will
come and I've seen this happen in India
where if a scholar, a great scholar is
just traveling from Delhi to Bombay at every
train station, you'll have a massive group of
people from each city.
They know what time this train is coming.
It's going to stop here for five minutes
or 10 minutes and all he does, he
comes to the door.
He gives a few minutes of advice.
He may shake hands with everybody or if
the time does not allow, then people will
just come to see this pious person and
I've personally seen this when I was studying
in India.
I heard that at Surat station, which is
in Gujarat, this certain scholar is coming at
12 o'clock at night because he was
going through the overnight train and mashallah, there
was a group of people there that had
just come out of their homes.
There was no poster campaign, nothing of that
nature.
This is the love that Allah subhanahu wa'ta
'ala places into the hearts of people for
the awliya Allah, that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
befriends, takes care and brings close the pious
people, those who are righteous and those who
fulfill the commands of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
and Hassan Basri was definitely at the highest
peak of this.
His sermons were on the transitory nature of
the world, the temporary nature of the world
because his whole argument with the people was
about the indulgence in the world.
Now Ghazali writes as well that when people
have too much hope in Allah, when it
becomes exaggerated, where the only thing they see
about Allah is that he's Rahman and Rahim
and they forget that he's also Qahhar and
the one who will punish, then Imam Ghazali
mentions that it's not then a good idea
to bring too many verses of hope and
ahadith that talk about hope because you're really
just helping the people to go further the
wrong way.
In that case, you need to try to
bring it the other way to try to
make the people balance themselves in their state
of being between hope and fear.
This is the state that is required from
a believer that we also have the hope
in Allah that we don't go to a
situation where we despair, but neither should we
have so much hope that we do the
wrong deeds purposely and we just entertain hopes
in Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala that we have
no fear for him.
So likewise, he spoke about the temporary nature
of the world, the transitory nature of the
world and how to develop the faith in
such a situation and righteousness and how to
have reverence for Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and
how to eliminate the indulgence that people had
for the world or in the world and
this was the perfect topic of the day
because of people's stress on materialism and the
sensual desires that were being followed at that
time and he used to paint a picture
of the Umayyads and he used to contrast
that with the picture of the Sahaba and
try to instill into the heart of the
people the love of the pious times of
the great times.
His voice would be very forceful when he
spoke.
He spoke in a very forceful voice and
the fire in his heart was reflected in
his voice over the sorrow of the degeneration
of the Muslim Ummah and you're talking about
just within the first hundred years after the
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam passed away, just within
the first hundred years.
Now imagine that someone who's lived between the
two and how effective he's going to be.
One of the statements he makes is really
something worth pondering over.
He says that my sermons, my talks, they
don't lack anything.
What he means is that in terms of
their delivery, in terms of their contents, in
terms of what they contain, they're perfect.
So he used to say that it is
the people who have lost the warmth of
the heart to be a recipient of this
message.
You have to remember any talk that is
given, any knowledge that is being transferred, there
is an interaction that takes place between the
teacher and the student, between the speaker and
the listener.
If both of their hearts are open, Allah
subhanahu wa'ta'ala will let it flow because
really the speaker or the teacher is merely
an intermediary or an agent from Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala that is a pipeline.
The knowledge comes from way behind and that's
why it's important to have a chain that
goes back to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam through the scholars.
If the heart is open for the speaker
and the hearts are open for the people
who sit and listen in the durus or
in the lectures and they make an intention
that oh Allah give me the tawfiq to
understand what the speaker says and allow me
to benefit from it.
Then Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala will have it
done.
We're basically in the midst of this all
we are, we're just tools from Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala to pass this message along.
So Hasan Basri.
I mean, this is a bold statement.
This is a very insightful statement to say
that my sermons don't lack anything.
Now, he's not saying this out of pride.
He's actually lamenting over the state of the
ummah that I can give as great a
sermon as I want.
But if the people did not listen, this
was of course in the time of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, who better than
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, who greater
than the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, but people like Abu Jahl and Umayyah
and others who would sometimes become slightly affected
and influenced, but then the kufr would take
over and the shaitan would seal their hearts
and everything had to be filtered.
Hence, they would not get the guidance.
lahum qulubu la yafqahuna biha, walhum a'yunu
la yubsiruna biha hearts that don't comprehend and
understand, eyes that do not see the truth.
And this is the case.
So now along with all of this, he
was very outspoken against any ill in the
society.
In fact, against the ruling party themselves, which
is considered you don't speak against them for
your own safety.
That's what normally people understand.
That's the focus.
That's the perspective people have.
He was outspoken against any ill or malady
that crept into the ummah, any corruption that
was instigated, even against Yazid.
In fact, on one occasion, he was mentioning
something about an incident that had taken place
and he said, you must not take part
in that.
So somebody said, what about if Yazid, the
khalif of the time tells us to do?
He said, even if Yazid tells you to
do that.
So he didn't fear anybody.
His fear was with Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala.
What was the problem?
Why was it that this kind of an
atmosphere, this kind of a situation was allowed
to prevail?
Why was it that it was not curbed
from the people?
Now understand this, that during the time of
Abu Bakr as-Siddiq in the short time
of his khilafah, he was not able to
expand the Muslim lands because he had to
take care of a lot of problems that
had crept up at home where people had
started claiming to be prophets after the prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
Many began to say we will take this
of Islam, but we will not pay zakat.
He had to deal with this and quell
the uprisings.
However, when the time of Umar came and
in his longer period Islam spread far and
wide, come to the time of Uthman radhiallahu
anhu, Islam had gone all the way up
to Azerbaijan, Armenia in the Transox area above
Persia, just above the whole of Persia had
come in.
Likewise on this side, Amr ibn al-Asa
radhiallahu anhu had gone into Egypt, had taken
parts of Egypt and Syria, Damascus, Jerusalem and
the areas around there had also been taken
in time of Umar radhiallahu anhu.
So now Islam had spread far and wide.
Now understand the Muslim caliphate at that time
or the Muslim rule to be the superpower
of the world.
They had taken down the Persians, the Romans
were shivering on one side and so much
of their land had been taken away.
Imagine the Muslim ummah as the superpower of
the world.
What happens when there's a superpower?
Everybody wants to become associated, wants to become
affiliated or wants to integrate and assimilate.
Why?
They may in their hearts of hearts not
agree with what happens but just to gain
the favors, to stay out of possible attack,
to stay away from possible enmity, just to
curry the favors they would embrace Islam and
this is what happening.
So many people became Muslim of the localities
that had been overcome by Islam.
So many of those people became Muslim by
name.
So now you had whole masses of people
in different areas.
Now remember Hassan Basri was in Basra.
Basra is in Iraq.
Basra and Kufa were two cities that were
established by the Muslims because when the sahaba,
the thousands of sahaba that moved to Iraq,
they did not like the weather.
So Umar radhiallahu anhu sent two sahaba.
I believe one was Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman
and the other one may have been Salman
al-Farsi and he sent one north and
he sent one south and they both met
up in a place that was at the
bank of one of the great rivers there
and they established Kufa.
Kufa and Basra, Basra was later established.
They were both established by Muslims.
However, people had come in from other areas
because they were the centers of knowledge and
they were the centers of much of what
was happening at that time.
So there was a lot of material gain
as well from becoming Muslim or from coming
under the Muslim rule.
So much of the elite of other people
became Muslim, but they did not leave their
ways of ignorance.
They did not leave their corrupt ways and
they continued in that same way.
Hence, that was the situation where Hassan Basri
lived.
Now, although many would think that hypocrisy or
nifaaq or something that is restricted to the
time of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam.
This was a passing phase that when the
revelations were coming down, there were people who
did not want to convert and become Muslim.
They outwardly professed to be Muslims and believers,
but inside they had no Islam and they
had no faith.
So many scholars say that there is no
such thing as nifaaq or aqeedah, which means
nifaaq of belief.
There's no such thing anymore.
That was something that was only seen in
the time of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam.
However, nifaaq is actually very close to insincerity
and insincerity is a human failing.
It's a problem that everybody has to deal
with, ostentation, not doing something for the sake
of Allah, but doing it for another motive,
an ulterior gain.
So many entered into Islam for this reason,
purely for the sake of gaining something and
they were not brave enough.
In fact, a lot of people were not
brave enough to forsake Islam openly.
They hated Islam, but they were not able
to forsake Islam openly.
So that's why they remain under that.
Hassan Basri, another bold statement he makes, he
believed that hypocrisy was still in the Muslim
Ummah during his time and especially among the
ruling elite.
Once somebody asked him that do hypocrites still
exist?
Are there still munafiqeen?
And this is what he said.
He said if the hypocrites desert the streets
of Basra, you will find it hard to
live in the city.
If the hypocrites were to leave, the city
would shut down.
I mean, that's a statement that only someone
at that level can make and get away
with it.
He believed that most people just paid lip
service to Islam.
They didn't really strive to even learn the
religion and to get closer to Allah, to
fill their hearts with Iman.
They did not even strive to do that.
So this was the main theme of Hassan
Basri's lectures and his sermons, the call for
reformation of the hearts, the call to enliven
the heart and he would highlight the hypocritical
traits of people that infested the Ummah and
that many wanted to keep hidden, just like
in the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam, the hypocrites would have a private meeting,
they would make a plan, they would have
an idea and Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala would
reveal a verse about that and the verse
the next day would be spread among the
Ummah and how would they feel.
Hassan Basri would gauge these ideas, hypocritical traits
within the society and that would be the
focus of his sermon.
Let us for a moment look at our
situation in America.
For the most part, especially for the youth,
I'm not speaking about the first generation who
came from Muslim countries who had an upbringing
that was surrounded by Islam to a certain
degree, weak Islam or corrupt versions or culture,
but there was still Islam and it's very
difficult for these people to completely wash their
hands away.
For the most part, they understand the right
from the wrong, even if they don't follow
it.
The generation that is being born in this
country, which is the second generation born and
bred American or British for that matter, although
I believe it's more in America because what
happens then is they grow up and hardly
are they given an Islamic education.
I asked twice in two full rooms in
Durus that I had with young MSA students,
how many of you have had more than
a Sunday school education, Sunday school Islamic education
while you were growing up and in one
gathering only one person said they had, in
another gathering of about 150 to 200 people,
seven or eight people said that they had.
Now imagine that this is the Islam that
is being taught to the children.
This is the proportion most students learn.
In fact, most born Muslims who are born
in America, they learn about their faith only
when they get to university through the MSA
and those are the lucky ones, those who
associate themselves with the Muslim group on campus.
They are those who listen to inspirational scholars
and who get drawn into being proud about
their faith.
Otherwise, where we see in the last few
months, we've seen many different problems and fitna
in the ummah of people trying to do
things that are unprecedented literally.
One of the reasons for these things is
because many people who are born in a
Muslim family, even if they have not been
imparted with any Islamic education, will feel an
association with Islam.
They will want to be Muslim.
What is it to be a Muslim?
That's the question.
What is it to be a Muslim?
They don't have access to scholars.
They may have not necessarily associated themselves with
the right people on campus.
Maybe an MSA or a good MSA did
not exist.
So now they set off on their own
path of discovering their faith.
And if you notice when you read their
memoirs, when you read their biographies, the one
thing that you will find is that I
went to discover my religion.
I was in pursuit of the truth of
my religion.
And when there is no scholarly input and
education in that regard, then the shaitan takes
over and gives you great ideas of what
Islam is supposed to be and that Islam
has been lost and this is what Islam
was.
So they set out as prophets to reform
the religion and they come up with things
which are unprecedented.
This I believe is a great problem.
So when we say that we have many
youth who are Muslim, what kind of Islam
are we talking about?
Is it the same as what Hassan Basri
considered in Basra?
This is not a judgment for me to
make.
The reason I say this is for every
listener to think and to see where we
are and to see where our friends are
or people that we know and try to
help to have this faith come into the
hearts in the right way.
So many people are very sincere.
They are extremely sincere.
They want to do something for their faith,
but they lack the guidance.
Qadi Iyad mentions where Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
says in the Quran, That Allah is going
to test you to see who is the
best of action.
He says, That the action needs to fulfill
two conditions.
One is that it needs to be khalis
for the sake of Allah, sincerity.
The other one is that it needs to
be sawad.
sawad means it needs to be correct.
It needs to go according some principles.
People have many different ideas, but they basically
contravene some fundamental aspects of religion.
So that's sincerity in that regard is wasted.
This is why it's extremely important for all
of us to look at ourselves and others
and try to help in a sincere way
to bring about a turn for the better.
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala send a person like
Hassan Basri, but we can all strive to
take part of the reward that will be
given to those who help others in reviving
their faith.
Now, it was of course very difficult for
these sermons, these calls of Reformation, these advices
and these admonishments to hit empty ears.
It was very difficult.
It could not be ignored by society.
These calls were such that were from the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam that spoke to the
nature of man that came to change the
way people thought and did things, the way
people were supposed to live on this world.
This was to give them that kind of
guidance.
Many people at the hands of Hassan Basri
made solemn repentance, sincere repentance from their bad
ways.
They gave up their previous ways and he
would prescribe to each one individual measures to
eradicate the vices in their lives and how
to imbue the true content of Iman into
their hearts and he spent a full 60
years doing this.
His preaching was for 60 years.
He was given a long life.
He uplifted the people morally and according to
the biographers, it's difficult to understand exactly how
many people were reformed.
But of course that runs into uncountable numbers.
Awam Ibn Hawshab says that if you looked
at Hassan Basri, he did what the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasalam did which was night and
day striving for himself with Allah in the
depths of the night and in the daytime
teaching someone.
His situation was such that at any time
he would be teaching somebody hadith, he would
be answering a fiqh question.
He would be counseling somebody on a personal
situation.
He would be giving somebody advice on how
to build their Iman and their faith.
He would be telling somebody how to eradicate
a vice or a problem in their life.
Constantly throughout the day doing something or the
other and this has been the way of
the great ulama of the past.
This has been the way of the ulama
of the past.
It says regarding Sheikh Zakariya Al-Ansari, the
great Shafi'i scholar, his student Sheikh Abdul
Wahab Al-Sha'rani, he mentions that when
I would be studying with Sheikh Zakariya Al
-Ansari, when I would be studying with my
Sheikh and I came across a word or
something that I needed to go and check
in the dictionary or look at, now normally
the teacher would just wait.
He said immediately my teacher would begin to
make dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala, not
even to waste that time.
He immediately began to say Allah, Allah and
take that time in doing the dhikr of
Allah and then restart the dars once I
was ready to begin with, not a moment
was wasted, not a moment was wasted.
And this was the situation with all of
them, Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani, all the great
scholars and Hassan Basri was actually a role
model in that regard.
And as with everybody else, people have to
leave this world.
They have a time beyond which they cannot
go.
Hassan Basri had earned the affection of everybody
in Basra.
Everybody in Basra loved him due to his
sincerity.
Even he said something bitter to them, they
loved him.
So he passed away in 110 AH at
the age of 89.
The entire population of Basra came out.
Now understand something, have you ever thought that
if you die where you live, how many
people would come to your janazah?
Has that ever occurred to you?
Or are we too young for that?
You know, really think about it, when we
have conflicts with people, especially in our own
locality, with our own relatives, with our own
masjid colleagues, people who worship with us.
These are the people who will carry our
janazah on the day that we die.
These are the people who will pray on
us.
There's a hadith of the prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam, which says that if a hundred people
pray for a person at his death, then
there is great reward for that person.
There is forgiveness for that person.
So where a hundred people come out for
us, especially as days go by, people become
more busy.
Now Hasan Basri, with his status that he
had acquired among the people, the entire population
of Basra came out to attend his funeral.
Basra was a big city.
It took place on Friday.
This was the first time in the history
of Basra that the main masjid, the jami'
masjid of Basra remained empty for us to
pray.
Everybody was at the graveyard.
His students continued his preaching after his death
and he was buried.
His students continued their preaching and after 22
years, the Umayyad caliphate came to an end
and the children of Abbas and the Abbasids,
they took the caliphate.
Relatively better for the most part.
The Abbasids were relatively better for the most
part, although there were some among them who
you could compare with many of the Umayyads.
And again, some Umayyads were very good and
pious as well.
Hasan Basri, the whole of Basra goes out.
Likewise, Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, when he passed
away later on in Baghdad, 800,000 men
and 50,000 women came out for his
funeral.
Imagine the lines, miles of people, 800,000
people in those days.
They walked to the graveyard from all parts
of the city and 50,000 women.
I'm going to go through one of the
famous sermons of Hasan Basri, and this is
part of Al-Adab Al-Arabi, which is
Arabic literature.
You normally study this.
Sheikh Abul Hasan Ayn Nadwi has also put
this as a select passage in his book
Al-Mukhtarat Al-Adab Al-Arabi.
And the way it begins, Hasan Basri begins
to say, So anyway, I'm
going to read the translation for you.
He says, Now
each person here used to look at himself
and see how this applies and we make
dua to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala that Allah
reform us in what we lack.
They talk but do not act, knowledge is
there but without endurance, faith they have but
no conviction.
People come here simply to go away.
They acknowledge the truth then deny it.
And make things lawful and unlawful at their
sweet will.
Is your religion a sensual delight?
Is your religion just something on your tongue?
If you are asked, do you have faith
in the day of judgment?
You say yes, but no, it is not.
So I swear by the Lord of the
day of requital that your answer is wrong.
It's only beseeming for the faithful that he
should be sound of faith and a man
of conviction.
His knowledge entails forbearance as moderation is an
adornment of the learned.
He is wise but soft-hearted, well-dressed
and restrained in order to conceal his indigence,
never prodigal even if a man of substance
comes in front of him, charitable and compassionate
to the destitute, large-hearted and generous in
giving to the kinsfolk their due, strenuous and
unflinching in providing justice to others, never crosses
the prescribed limits in favoring his near and
dear ones, nor does he find fault or
cut out the errors of those whom he
dislikes.
A Muslim is indifferent to the revilings and
tauntings, folics and sports and backbitings.
He never runs after that which is not
his right, nor does he deny what he
owes to others.
He never debases himself in seeking an apology,
nor takes delight in the misfortune or misdeed
of others, humble and submissive, devoted and enchanted
as a faithful is in his prayers.
He is a messenger of cheer.
His endurance is owing to the awe of
God.
His silence is for meditation.
When he's silent, he's meditating and reflection.
He pays attention for edification and instruction.
When he listens, he listens to learn.
He seeks company of the learner for acquiring
knowledge.
He keeps silent to avoid transgression.
And if he speaks, he speaks to spread
virtue.
Imagine if we could do that, to just
avoid speaking except to spread virtue that the
only thing that comes from our tongue is
good and we are conscious about it.
A Muslim is pleased when he acts virtuously
and treats forgiveness from the Lord when he
goes astray, complains when he is aggrieved only
to make up for the loss sustained.
He is patient and prudent when an illiterate
joins issue with him, proves enduring when ill
-treated.
He is never unjust and never seeks support
or protection from anyone save Allah Almighty, dignified
in the company of their friends, praising God
when they are left alone, content with the
lawful gains, grateful when easy of means, resigned
when in distress, remembering God Almighty among the
indolent and craving the grace of God when
among the pious.
Such, he says at the end, such were
the companions of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam,
their associates and friends, no matter what station
they occupied in life, they were held in
high esteem by their compatriots and when they
died, their spirit took flight to the blessed
companionship of the high one as the most
celebrated souls.
Oh Muslims, these were your righteous ancestors.
But when you deviated from the right path,
God Almighty too withheld his blessings from you.
No, Allah changes not the condition of a
folk until they first change that which is
in their hearts and if Allah wills misfortune
for a folk, there is none that can
repel it nor do they have a defender
besides Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala.
So in this short sermon, he brings together
all of the great characteristics of the Sahaba
and what the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam encouraged
us to have.
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala give us the ability
to imbue ourselves with this character and for
us to propagate this faith.
Remember, we need two things.
One thing is not sufficient.
The ulema mentioned that you need a heart
and a mind to be successful and as
one scholar explained it and for those who
understand Urdu would appreciate it.
He said it's necessary for a person to
have a darakta huwa dil and parakta huwa
dimaag which basically means a very active mind
that he's able to gain the knowledge and
understand things and comprehend.
But at the same time he needs to
have a heart, a soft moving heart that
calls out to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala.
If you have too much knowledge, but no
heart, it will lead to ostentation.
knowledge in itself brings you to feel high
and mighty of yourself when you come out
of your classes and you've just understood the
issue that the teacher was talking about.
Don't you feel that subhanAllah, I know I
have understood this and these other people don't.
shaitaan just naturally brings that thought in you.
knowledge in its nature brings, it brings ostentation,
pride and arrogance.
If you don't have the heart that is
filled with spirituality, then that knowledge will get
out of hand just as it did with
shaitaan, la'anahullah.
likewise, if you have a very inspired heart,
but no knowledge, then there is a path
of bid'ah.
There's a path of innovation.
There is a path where shaitaan will make
you do things in utmost sincerity on your
behalf, but it will be incorrect and it
may lead to further corruption in the ummah.
So both of these things are necessary.
You learn the knowledge from the people who
have acquired it from the prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam and his successors and you will find
the knowledge of the heart also as Allah
subhanahu wa'ta'ala says in the Quran, Be
with the truthful people, be with the truthful
ones, those who have really rectified themselves, those
who have purified their hearts, who are constantly
engaged with Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala, who as
the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said, when you
see them, they remind you of Allah and
that's what's important.
They remind you of Allah.
They put that fear in you.
They make you remember your wrongdoings.
They make you feel ashamed and guilty and
that is what leads to tawbah and repentance.
And once the baggage of sin is taken
off our heads, off our hearts, off ourselves,
off our record books and they are forgiven,
then our heart opens up and we want
to do good.
Now, remember sin is something that beckons to
another sin.
Once a sin, you do another sin.
It's a downhill roll to *.
The paradise is an uphill climb.
ala inna sil'atallahi ghaliya, ala inna sil
'atallahi al-jannah that verily the merchandise of
Allah is expensive.
It doesn't come cheap.
Verily, the merchandise of Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
is paradise.
So Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala create means for
us to have more ulama come in this
country.
Nobody wants to come from other countries.
I speak to scholars.
I know in South Africa and in England
who have studied Mashallah sharia for years and
they think that America is worse than we
actually feel it and they say they wonder
how I live here.
They wonder how I live here away from
family and everybody but to leave their families,
to leave the great Islamic atmosphere that they
have in their masjids where for one regular
prayer maghrib in our local mosque in London,
in England, you will have about 70 people
just for maghrib prayer on a Tuesday or
a Wednesday where there'll be three masjids that
will be packed out within a five-minute
walking distance.
They're not in competition.
It's just that there's so many people living
close together that they can't just fit in
that one masjid and it's convenient just to
go two minutes to the masjid next door
to your house.
Five minutes.
This is not an exaggeration here for many
of us.
It's a 15-minute drive.
It's a five-minute drive.
It's a 10-minute drive and there's all
the formalities.
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala make Islam a thriving.
There are many positive things.
There's no need to be pessimistic.
There are more masjids mashaAllah today, more apparent
Muslims manifesting themselves in all fields in America
today than they were 10 years ago.
So we have a great room for optimism,
but the vehicle of Islam is continuing.
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala is going to have
his nur completed even though those who dislike
it, dislike it.
Islam is continuing.
Islam is growing.
Now, it's whether we take part or we
step aside.
It's up to us.
It's our decision.
So Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala rise from among
us scholars and people of Allah.
Sheikh Abu Hassan ibn Nadwi said that there
are not many people of Allah, rijalullah, people
who are mashaAllah associated with Allah, the spiritual
people in this country to stabilize the effects
that we get from other places.
So Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala create from among
us that same yearning so that we can
also have success in that regard from our
children, from the next generation so that the
spirit of Islam can grow much stronger and
be easier to follow and Allah remove the
obstacles from our path.
Jazakumullahu khayran for listening.
For more lectures and publications, please visit our
website at www.whitethreadpress.com or email us
at info at whitethreadpress.com.
And as always your du'as are greatly
appreciated.
Wa alaikumussalam warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.
so that you can actually take organized lectures
on demand whenever you have free time, especially
for example, the Islamic essentials course that we
have on there, the Islamic essentials certificate which
you take 20 short modules and at the
end of that inshallah, you will have gotten
the basics of most of the most important
topics in Islam and you'll feel a lot
more confident.
You don't have to leave lectures behind, you
can continue to listen to lectures, but you
need to have this more sustained study as
well.
Jazakumullahu khayran.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu.