Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – High Aspiration and Motivation in Seeking Knowledge
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Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim hamdulillah hamdulillah Hamden
cathedral unplayable Mubarak and fie. Mobile Allah Canady como una
Barra Munna where Yaga gender Jalla who am Manawatu wa salatu
salam ala so you didn't have even Mustafa SallAllahu Taala Allah He
was the wasafi are seldom at the Sleeman, Cathy Ron Illa Yomi Dean,
Amma Barrett
just a few things before I begin.
Firstly, I'm very honored to be here today and the reason is that
I remember when I was much younger, before I before I, I
think if I remember correctly, mana biller inshallah will correct
me it was before I started download bearing which must have
been somewhere in the 80s. I remember sitting in Captain
masjid, there was a program or something and monoblocks I've got
up. And he said, we're in interested in opening this
seminary, this madrasahs down south because all the seminaries
were up north in Yorkshire and Lancashire.
And I don't know if the North is more blessed than the South or
whatever the case is. But that's where things begin, it seems.
And he asked everybody they said, you know who would be willing to
help in such a project to start an institution and organization down
south? I don't think you guys even know about this. Right? So I
remember that I remember my father putting up his hands. Now I can't
remember whether that was before 1985 Because I went to another OSI
in 1985. So I don't know if it was before that I'd come back. I think
it must have been was it before 1985 Okay, so it was so
hamdulillah we're seeing a lot of the fruits of that this was before
Madras Hazara before, you know, the Jeremy Islamia before nothing
Institute and all the rest of it. So in sha Allah, this tradition
will continue and may Allah subhanho wa Taala grant great
baraka to this new initiative. When I heard about it, it was
definitely something that lots of people want to do. But
unfortunately, they can't do for whatever reason, and hamdulillah
Allah subhanho wa Taala has given this great idea to the sons of
mana vilasa and inshallah this will attain success.
The second thing I want to mention is a mama gave the talk before and
he has a it's a school. Right? Elizabeth case Maria, Maria or
Fatima Fatima. So I was about an hour surprised by that as well.
There was an there's an I think there's another institution by the
same going with the same name up in Scotland. So I had some
correspondence with the person who is running that institute and
mashallah is very interesting, if anybody has heard of Abdullah
Quilliam was one of the Rahimullah one of the first
British English Muslims few 100 years ago, in fact, from
Liverpool, and he was actually from the Ottomans, he was actually
considered or given the title of shakeri some of the British Isles
or something like this. So this
Fatima Rahim Allah Elizabeth Cates is actually you can say the female
Quilliam. She is one of the first of the female Muslims, English
British. I think there needs to be more known about this because this
will help to bring built hopefully, more bridges. Okay, let
me begin my talk today by reciting from the first verses of Quran
Quran karate bismi rhombic. Allah the hudec Allah subhanho wa Taala
says, This, as you know, is the first revelation. The Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had this amazing experience in this
cave, where he sees this angel telling him to read and
he says, saying I don't read. And then finally after three attempts,
the angel Jibreel it his salon tells him what to read. And it
says if Cara bismi Rebecca Laurie, hello, this is the absolute first
revelation. This is the first revelation from Allah subhanho wa
taala. To me to this ummah.
And the first revelation as you know, it has nothing to do with
the three most important aspects of Islam. The three most important
aspects of Islam is the hate the Oneness of Allah, declaring Allah
to be one monotheism, number two Resava, the messenger ship,
Officer prophecy, number three, the asker of the Hereafter belief
in the afterlife. These are some of the most fundamental beliefs
that a Muslim holds, you would expect that the first revelation
to come to this ummah to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam would have been about one of these issues. However, it's not
about any of these issues. The reason is that there has to be
there has to be
somewhere where
This knowledge can be gained. And that's why the first command is
Decker bismi. Rob because the HELOC read in the name of your
load that creates a new creation, which is the first thing and then
read in the name of that load which creates you reading. Now you
understand from this reading holds such a great and such an important
aspect. Reading allows one to sift and go beyond what is available
around them from just people. When you have people around you
normally what you see is that we are products of our society, what
people believe in, in general around us, this is what we
generally take on. It's through reading and these other sources
that we're able to get beyond that, and to reach out further and
to assimilate newer ideas and to correct in inconsistencies within
our own traditions. That's one of the great powers of reading. So
this is how it all begins not not with the head or a salad or the
hereafter, which are the most crucial beliefs, but read in the
Name of your Lord. Now reading cannot happen if there is no
writing. That's why Allah subhanaw taala then speaks about I love a
bit of cudham. The pen, pen is extremely powerful. This is
writing. So reading has to take place with writing. That's why one
of the interpretations of this hadith is when gibril Salam is
saying, read and the prophets Allah some said, I'm not a reader.
It's not something I've studied, because he was only the unlettered
prophet. He wasn't one of those who had gone to go into a school,
for example, and studied how to read and write. So he says, I'm
not a reader. I don't read. And then again, he said, he's asked
the same thing. And he gives the same answer. The third time he
says Ma, Anna, because
some of the Muhaddith have taken this to mean, what should I read
MA and Bukhari which is most similar for those who understand
what should I read? So then Jibreel Ali Salam says, the best
Muroc Becca lady Haluk. So in the first two cases, it's a negation I
am not a reader, I don't read and in the first 1/3 One, it's what
should I read? What is it that I should be reading?
Ignorance is the greatest calamity. When a person is away
from reading or writing than ignorance is the greatest
calamity. According to our alumni that have been one of the greatest
of our amount of the past a smart region with a great insights over
centuries and centuries of scholarship, and everything that
took place from time a Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam to his time and
author of numerous books, CRO LM in novella, that character
profile, we're talking about books that run into 2030 volumes CRR LM
in novella, and his character profiles and his other he says
that one of the greatest problems that is OMA will always face
generation after generation will be of ignorance, ignorance. That's
why you have this hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi salam
related by Bukhari and Muslim. And so the Allahu Anhu reports a sort
of loss and loss and sediment a shroud is, it is from the signs of
the final day, the final hour, a year, a year feral in knowledge,
sacred knowledge we're talking about here, I want to clarify
whenever we read, whenever we read the URL, and we will I will
generally refer to it as sacred knowledge as to sift it today. It
has huge amounts of knowledge and data and monuments, but we're
talking about sacred knowledge, that knowledge that tells us about
Allah, that tells us about the purpose of this world and where we
are and what we're supposed to be. What's our responsibilities? He
says, a unifier Alerion rasool Allah Allah some said, that one of
the signs of the Day of Judgment will be that knowledge will be
lifted
with will Jehan and ignorance will become firmly established Sabbath.
Sebata refers to becoming settled in a place taking up its place,
not in a temporary form generally, but becoming firm and rooted
somewhere, why yet go to jail. And this lifting of knowledge will be
replaced with a settlement of nods of ignorance, and then carries on
then, there's other Hadith which tells us that this lifting of
knowledge will not be as Abdullah him not to answer the Allah one
who says, he says, I heard us all allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
saying that Allah subhanho wa Taala will not just extract
knowledge from the hearts of people. He won't just suddenly
* it away. Suddenly take it away and remove it and a face it.
It doesn't happen through my words they say in Arabic, while lacking
you have to be to learn makeup the aroma, very important to
understand this. He takes away knowledge from a people from a
community by taking away the scholars
So, when we say taking away the scholars, of course, this means
of,
you know, them being put in prison or whatever the case is. But then
the real way here is that when they die, there'll be nobody to
replace them.
There'll be nobody to replace them. And then the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam says, once that either alarm up or lemon
once, these are the MA of any good stature,
any good standards have all gone, then
people will then take on rules and Jehovah Jehovah ignorant heads,
just leaders who claim to have some knowledge who can speak well,
or whatever the case is. They will be taken and adopted as their
scholars. In England, I don't see this
as such a big problem, this particular idea yet, but in other
countries that I've been in America, for example, this is a
massive problem. Where in England would you see that there is a
masjid that doesn't have a regular Imam. It's just that they grab
anybody from the side. Any doctor or engineer that works locally,
who can speak well or whatever the case is, maybe knows a bit of
Arabic, and they give the Juma hotbars. Everybody's a Mufti in
those areas. I'm just being very frank 50% of the masjid in America
are like this. And the reason is, because of this reason, that when
there is no orlimar left, and I would say that there weren't many
Halima to begin with in the country.
And I'm only mentioning this to you, because that's a lesson for
us. It's something we have to be very careful about. So the
prophets of Allah Islam said, such people they will be taken, and
then afterwards for after will be late element, they will begin to
issue fatwas be without any knowledge. It's just whatever
emotionally they feed is correct. Oh, that's that's just the, you
know, that's just such a difficult situation. Yeah, of course, it
should be fine. The dean can't be so difficult. Most of these people
only know a Dino, you soon. They know. Yes, 01, or two or zero,
create ease, do not create difficulty. And then that is just
applied indiscriminately in every situation. This is basically the
manifestation of this for Don Lu Waterloo, they will themselves be
deviated and cause others to deviate. So when knowledge is
extracted like this, it has to be replaced. It's the replacing, it's
the replacements. If they don't come around, then people will be
left in ignorance. When you have ignorance, then you have people
that will resort to violent means many of these people today who are
doing strange things in the name of Islam, if you study their
lives, and I've been keeping a watch on this, many of them
haven't even gone through a proper mucked up, you know, our little
madrasa system that we have, that they're rolling around in the
different mosques, they've hardly gone through that a lot of them
have just recently become practicing. I mean, look at France
and Paris. These guys, one of them ran a pub, a bar. And he still had
it at the time that he did whatever he did. So you're almost
seems like some of these individuals are seeing things that
happen around the world.
Meaning the persecution, Muslims are faring and so on, which seems
to be the the root cause of a lot of this. And now they want to do
something. They have no proper guidance, because they haven't
been through a good Islamic system under good Muslim scholars. So
then suddenly, they tried to overcompensate by going and doing
the most violent things out there. I mean, I don't know what else to
say about this. We were actually talking to our MP yesterday. And
this was the discussion, because very clearly one of the things she
mentioned, she said that radicalization. And this extremism
is not something that you catch from the air, it's not like flu,
there has to be a serious reason for it. And if we're blinded to
that reason, we're going to have a problem as a Muslim community. The
problem with us is we can say as much as we want about foreign
policy and the rest of it, that's just not going to be entertained,
it seems. But we've got a massive job on our hands, which is to take
these individuals and hopefully try to educate them and try to
prevent others from that. But at hamdulillah what's very important
is that scholars need to be produced. Scholars in this country
need to be produced so that this doesn't happen because once you've
got ignorance, anybody will do what they want. When you have
scholarship, at least they will have a following. At least they
will have a following the most scholars there are the more
beneficial and that's why if you look around England, the places
where the communities have had individuals who have sent their
children, whether to the seminaries around the UK or
outside the country.
And then come back those communities are doing very well.
They have mashallah the, the schools and madrasahs. And they
have, you know, relief, work taking place organizations.
They've got numerous things that have been catered for feeding the
homeless and so on and so forth.
communities that haven't done this, and they're just focused on
the British dream or whatever you want to call it exclusively, and
not focused on their children having good Islamic education and
become an having some of our children go and study in these
mattresses. It just those those kinds of communities are
suffering. Those kinds of communities are suffering. So now
Allama the hubby says
to start off with Allah says in the Quran Iwama ot terminal
ennemi, Illa Kalina. To start with, we've been given very less
knowledge to start with
knowledge of
the workings of the worlds. He says,
What about auto mineral me Illa Carnelian. What a man yo from
Bucky Amidala Illumio kalila T inland Killeen? To start with, we
didn't have too much knowledge. And he says today what's happening
is what knowledge and sciences remain, are very less among that,
that they had in the time of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam. Now if we're to, and then he says Fiona sin, Pauline,
among a very small group of people, and he's talking about one
of the glorious times of one of the glorious periods of the past.
Now, what happens today, then, imagine if he was to assess the
situation today. Studies for those who are interested,
have to be taken up with great motivation. That's what we need.
That's what we're lacking today. Alhamdulillah, all praises to
Allah, for those who are focusing on madrasahs, who are taking their
children and sending them to the seminaries. That's great. And we
have numerous individuals who are doing this at Hamdulillah.
Compared to many other countries in the West. This is very advanced
in this regard. However, just a few pointers about the method of
study, the one thing that needs to be had right from the beginning is
high aspiration, motivation to the highest levels. That's when we're
going to produce gems. Otherwise, it's going to be run of the mill.
And while that's Hamdulillah, it's still good in the absence of the
greats. While that's still great, but what we really need to make a
change, to take people out of this darkness to help people in this
time of great needs. And to work on the future generations, we're
going to need people with great motivation, zeal and aspiration.
And the way to get that is to have role models. A way to get role
models is again to read is to read the books of the past. I mean, if
you if I give you one book to read the saviors of Islamic spirits,
that is that what what ultimate of shithole Hassan Ali nadwi where he
discusses some of it just in his first volume alone of this book,
there's four or five volume work just in the first
volume, he discusses the some of the greatest of our revivals, and
greatest of the scholars of the first six to seven centuries. An
absolutely fascinating read that is extremely timely for this time
and age that we are currently living in. It gives you the right
you know to to look at the likes of Razali and ignore Josie two of
my most favorite scholars ones are humbly the other ones a Sharpie,
and one both have come from Baghdad's the great city of the
time.
The aspiration there I'll be speaking more about their
aspiration a bit later. Let me just speak about aspiration. You
have ignore Abbas or the Allah one. Great zahavi Abdullah him in
our bus he was only 13 When the Prophet sallallahu Sallam passed
away 13 Now you could see that he already had a zeal because before
he's 13 years old, while the promise of awesome is alive, may
move out of the Allahu anha was his aunt. He requested that he be
allowed to spend one night with the Prophet sallallahu Sallam when
he was with Maimunah the Allah Allah just so he could observe the
prophets worships and Allahu alayhi wa sallam at nighttime.
That's the That's the focus with which he is moving. That is his
aspiration from that time. Now 13 years old, probably Salah Lawson
passes away.
He's got a friend from the unsolved.
He has a friend and he says, Look, there's lots of Sahaba and
companions around today. Why don't we go and start studying with
them. And this unsightly he says to him, why aren't you been lucky?
Yep. darbus A thought
A veteran nurse you have turkey Runa a lake. He says, what a
surprising point you make or what is surprising idea. You know what
an astonishing idea what a strange idea he says you think people are
going to need us. People are going to come to us can resort to us a
resort to ask for something that we have to go and study this while
fineness Iman has harbored Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam, and it's so many companions. It's like saying,
mashallah, we've got so many other man, this is the mindset of people
today, Baba Maulana tiga. They're picking at each other's brains,
because they got nothing else to do. So they're picking on each
other's brains. We don't need another atom. What's the big deal?
We don't need to make everybody in Ireland, which is true. You don't
need to make everybody in Ireland because Allah says hello, Nana
Farah mean, couldn't get into if at a minimum, yeah, there should
be a group from among the community that goes and studies
and comes back so that they can remind people and be, be be those
teachers. So this was this concept of his friend probably have a very
similar age. Why do we need to do this when there's so many people
available already? The great people of the past? Anyway, even
our bus of the allowances but talk to that guy left him alone, and I
went on my own. So what I would do is I would go and wait outside the
house of one of these companions. Whenever I heard that he had
related a certain tradition, Hadith from Rasulullah sallallahu
Sallam to study it with him or hear it from him. I would go on
camera outside his home. When he would come outside. He'd see me
there. He says, oh, nephew, what are you doing? You know now of the
Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, what are you doing? If you he
says, I've got a need to study with you. He says, If you told us
we were to come to you, because they had great respect for the
household of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He
says, no, no, no, I need to come to you to study. And then he says
at the end, he says.
He says that. Eventually what happened is this other young man,
this who who was my friend, or whoever he was later on, he saw me
with numerous people later on in age, he saw numerous people
surrounding me and I'm teaching them and then he would say how
they'll Fatah, Colonel Apple, mainly, this young man was a lot
more intelligent than I was. That's the intelligence this is
zeal. It's this motivation that you need from a young age. Parents
are responsible to try to give that to their children.
Parents are responsible to give that to their children. If you're
not an outing yourself, well, you can read to them from books, you
can take them to scholars to get that motivation. Now I know that
not every child is going to become the next value or Gilani. But even
if we have one Vasarely or Gilani or epner Josie in this time,
that's more than enough. That would be wonderful. That would be
absolutely wonderful. You have to hope and aim for the highest
absolute highest status that you can get. For instance, one of our
teachers told us was a very successful scholar in the country,
monosodium Terrazza. I remember once listening to him as I was
beginning the RM course. Or maybe it was at the end of my hips
course. He said, When you study, you need to study with an
intention that you're going to teach Sahil Behati tomorrow. What
a you know, for a student who's just starting to study, who's just
starting to learn Arabic. And he is going to think tomorrow I'm
going to teach the he'll Buhari what a, you know, what an
ambition. But Subhanallah if you have that ambition, and there is
no harm in having that ambition, you're not going to lose anything
by having that ambition. In fact, you're not only going to gain, and
yes, we're told to, you know, be humble and so on and so forth. But
there is absolutely no arrogance in wanting to serve the hadith of
Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam with the correct intention. If you have
the idea that I want to teach the he'll Buhari tomorrow, the whole
method and ethos of your study will change. No longer will you be
studying Oh, because I may just end up teaching in a mock them. I
may just end up teaching my own children, your focus is going to
be a lot higher. I need to know this. I need to know this because
this is going to be I want even a lot more. It's the way you want
whatever you want, you're going to change your life in accordance to
that your practice your effort, everything will change that is
what motivation motivation for a human being is one of the greatest
things as we children as the educators will tell you, if you
can motivate somebody, they will study more than they will study
more than you can do with a you know without that motivation.
Motivation is this thing that God has given the human being that if
you have you can you can reach the stars, you know, you can basically
do whatever you want with it. So it will you will you raise your
bar by having these higher motivations. I once went to
Montana, Missoula Hansa, one of the hood of Monash every time
Don't worry, this was a few months before he passed away. And he, he
gave us some advice I was studying in the second year of the art in
Boston. He said, study your books as though you are going to teach
them tomorrow. Study your books as though you're going to teach them
tomorrow. I thought what a wonderful piece of advice because
at the end of the day, if I'm just studying just to pass my exams,
then it's like, okay, this will come in exam, everybody thinks
that this won't come in exam. This is no this is it. This is how a
lot of people are studying today, they just want to pass an exam.
It's really sad I look at my children they're doing once done
is GCSE is the other ones doing her GCSEs. And the whole focus is
just to succeed to give this school a high grades. They don't
know anything at the end of it. There's no solid knowledge,
unfortunately, being taught and disseminated in that it's all
about getting the highest rank getting the a stars, and yes, my
son did get nine a stars and three A's. But, you know, I look at the
effort that he puts in there. And I remember then showery Allah, the
Great War had this of Delhi of India of a few 100 years ago, and
how at the age of 16, he started teaching some of the most
complicated books of the Arnhem course, some of the most
complicated books at the age of 16 is sitting there teaching, which
14 roles would struggle to do today. And the reason is that his
upbringing under his father, and the tutelage was the way we are
being taught our GCSEs. And a levels today, the entire focus,
sleeping at 12 o'clock at night, if they're lucky, waking up again
in the morning and going doing their work, all that time spent
behind all of these subjects. I'm not saying they're not important,
but I'm saying that this is the challenge that we will have today
of how we can create great scholars that understand their
secular subjects, but at the same time, also understand the moral
subjects, the Islamic subjects and everything else, so that they're
not just a scientist in a laboratory, when he comes home
doesn't even know, you know what to do. We want to create
individuals, human beings, we want to create teachers for the next
generation, not just great professors. You know, that's the
wholesome kind of teaching that we want to where we're aiming to get
a student. For those who are students who intend to be students
at any level of any sort. A student is always a student, you
can't switch off being a student, that's a good student, anybody who
can switch off being a student, that means they're not a serious
student, you're 24 hours you're a student, this is what we were told
also, when beginning the PhD in our methodology lessons, the first
point was, you are constantly you are constantly observing, you are
learning you are comparing, you are analyzing, then you are trying
to synthesize you are trying to
do as much of this as possible constantly on the go. And you
know, it's not a boring way of life is not something that is
difficult. You can enjoy your life as well, at the same time when
this becomes your enjoyment.
A few very specific pointers for those who are studying, because
when these avenues are not even within our radar, then it becomes
very difficult, then we're limited in our study. I'll give you an
example.
I must have quoted something in one of my works from a latest
source from a source of the from Imam suity, who is from he died
and he died in 911. Not our 911 and talking about 911 Hijiri.
Right. So he died 911 Hijri, which is about 400 544 450 years ago. So
he says that he is going to book author driven robberies I quoted
it was a arbitrary point on the side and I just quoted and the
professor one of my teachers tells me why are you quoting from a
ninth century scholar? Why not quote from people like Armando
humbler, Rama Hermas he or somebody like that, who will hold
more weight? Because it shows that the earliest of the scholars held
this opinion. It wasn't a later development, but it is something
closer to the narrow sort of lesson lorrison similarly, I was
with a friend. Well, not a friend, he became a friend later, but an
individual whose name is
how they are hidden. So I said Maulana, what's your name? He says
hidden? I said
Mashallah. So then he started to relate to me what either meant,
it's the name of that, you know, it's the name of the individual we
have who may be a prophet or not about this difference of opinion
about it his Salaam. So he says, here's what you can do and have
him and the
He gave this whole description about it because it comes from
greenery and freshness.
And then he gives me a reference to his little, you know, to his
little quote, and his references, Harsha of July lane, which means a
margin, a footnote on the July lane. And I said to him, I said to
Maulana, I said, look, it's wonderful, but why quotes a
footnote? secondary source? Why not quote and go to the earliest
dictionaries like a tabula in Kitab Sahara, and quote from them,
and that would hold a lot more weight. But you see, the reason
why he's not looking at it from that perspective is because that
avenue that idea that earlier, the more authentic is something that
is a goal. Did you understand what I mean? What I mean is that if you
don't know that, that's something that should be sought after, to go
to the earliest sources, because many secondary sources,
unfortunately, they have mistakes. Upon my end, during my research,
if I was to have quoted certain things from secondary research, I
would have been incorrect, because upon checking the original source
from when this particular researcher or editor took his
information, upon checking the original sources, it was
different. It's a mistake, human error, not purposeful, no
conspiracy here, just a simple mistake, it happens. That's why
Primary sources are always very important. Now, I know I'm going
into very specific points. To many of you, this may be a boring point
of view. But just so that this is opened up to people, especially
students.
The next thing is, if I take Ibnu Sina, for example, the great avid
center, originally from bulk, but to travel the world in search for
reading, like in Bahara, he went into the great royal Samanid,
Library of Baja. And he said, I discovered books there that I had
read before, that I'd heard about before, and books that I'd never
heard about. And he also says that by the age of 18, I had studied
anything that was to be of substance to me thereafter for the
rest of my life. So after 18, he only studied peripheral issues,
everything of substance in order to gain by the age of 18. Now,
again, another point about him, many have charged him with being a
nice smiley, one of the seven years of the of the Shiite group,
right? They've charged that he wasn't smart enough or he had
leanings towards that. However, upon investigation, there was a
recent research done about that. And this is just by way of
example, that this is where our scholarship needs to get to to
this level.
What they discovered was that there was a scholar by the name of
bait hockey, not not the Muhaddith. But another one who
drew this conclusion based on certain things, certain passages
that he had read, that he was smiling. Now, that became that
proliferated. So after that, everybody then quotes that he is
he's smiling, he's smiling, he's smiling, and the source is
basically
now when you look at bay hockey source by hockey becomes a
secondary source. It's his analysis, his conclusion. But if
you look at his sources, you realize that this was where a
mistake was made. His father was smiling, but not him.
So this is the kind of level we need to get to in scholarship to
make it work. To look at this, once I was with Sheikh Yunus, many
of you will know what she has done with baraka to him in Simon pool.
And I went to the evening to his measures. And he was extremely
perturbed. Now you know that he's a man who is over seven 670 are
songs so he's never been married. He's been teaching Bukhari and
Muslim for over 40 years. And he just lives in that room. I've seen
his library, he lives in a library, and he's, he knows every
single one of those books because he was saying, Go and look at this
book, go and look at this and I said, what's going on? So somebody
told me that he is looking for a quote from Imam nawawi. And why
it's so important is because he didn't read it from no read
directly, but he read it from Hypno Hydra last Kalani
Rahmatullah Halley, if no hudgell is quoting, no, he's saying
something. But Sheikh Yunus cannot believe that no, he would say
something like that. So he's not taking his words for it. He wants
to check where now we have said it. Now. If you didn't meet
notary, so he probably didn't hear him. It wasn't a verbal
communication. He must have been through one of his books. So which
book is that mentioned? So he's checking check in that place,
check in that book of his check in that book, check in double. It
takes long Believe me it
Next long. And there's not many people to do this kind of work.
But this is the kind of work that needs to be done by some of us.
Because otherwise critical thinking, cutting edge research,
and really just preserving the dean for what it really is, is
going to be diluted. This is what's important.
Students go home from others, or they have, they go into the
seminary, as the mother says, and then after they leave four times a
year, or five times a year, or six times a year, they go home, you
know what students are doing, they go and they catch up on Liverpool
highlights all the matches that they've missed. They're catching
up on that. So for three days, they just watching marathon
sessions or football highlights, I've seen this, I've seen
individuals do this. And if it's not that, then it may be a soap
opera, or I don't know what else it is, or whatever the case is,
when you go home from a seminary, the whole idea that from a dark
room, the whole idea is that you're given exposure to the
world. You're given exposure to your society in your community.
The idea is that you look at what's going on, what are the
challenges, what are the needs? What are the new ideas, and you
take those back. So you're studying now no longer in a
vacuum, but you're studying based on what you're seeing outside. So
your study becomes more realistic, your study becomes more realistic,
it becomes more practical. If you don't do that, and you study in a
vacuum, like they say no to do a lucky recap for kin. When you have
absolutely no idea beyond the books that you have, then you are
in big trouble. You're just off the conveyor belt, then you
haven't created any uniqueness for yourself. What have you got to
show others? What have you got? How will you help others? Of
course, though, he comes from Allah. But you have to ask for it.
You have to pursue it. So the whole idea here is that when you
go outside and for those martial law now, in those days, I used to
come home four times a year.
I used to come home four times a year. That was it. Martial law
students now they come home much more often. And I remember in one
of those holidays, there was this new idea of the other Khilafah,
his butadiene, Omar Bakri, Mohammed, right in the 80s, the
80s, early 90s, saying, Well, what is this going? What's this
phenomenon here? What does he have to say? So there was a local
brotherhood become involved with them as well. So when I came home,
one holiday said, Look, let it take me to this guy want to see
who he is? What do you what's he all about? So when it met him,
right, kind of got an idea of what they want, and everything had, you
know, maybe a minor debate or whatever the case is, went back to
the other side, to try to, you know, now I knew what the
challenge was outside. So then I'm trying to not study and when I
come across verses of the Quran, or Hadith, or any other writing
that relates to that, confirms it or goes against it, or you know,
picks points out of it, or whatever the case is, then able to
benefit from that. But if you don't know what's going on, and
you're learning in a vacuum, then it's an issue. Another example,
for example, if you're studying one book on Arabic grammar, for
example, you're studying anyone now, or whatever it is, don't just
stick to that book, go and look and see what are other books in
that subject of that same level, and look through those books and
these glanced through them. For example, many of our students,
they'll study their self and their novel, and somebody who studied in
another tradition, like, for example, in the Middle Eastern
tradition, they'll say, Have you studied Jumia?
You know, what does that mean? What is it Romea it's one of the
most famous books in the world on grammar, right? We haven't studied
it. But that doesn't mean that you must never have heard about it. So
be able to scope out every book that's in your subject, even if
you're not going to study it. Yes, if you can even look through it
for if you don't understand the lesson in the book you're being
given, then you can look in that, that provides a lot more baraka
and benefits. So always be open minded, always be open minded, go
beyond go beyond to look at these things.
At the end of the day, when you study, what we then need are
people who are going to be relevant to the community, who
will be able to provide good responses, good answers, and above
all, proper guidance for that. It requires wisdom. The way I've
understood wisdom, hopefully is correct, is you have some amount
of knowledge, how do you deliver that knowledge to somebody else?
You can have a small amount of knowledge. How would you deliver
that effectively to somebody else so that they can benefit from
that, which means to provide it in a way through a filter that people
will be able to relate to? You're not just going out there
condemning people. That's not the point. That's counterproductive to
call people sinners and you're going to hellfire that is not
productive whatsoever.
We have to bring people closer to belief to Allah to morality, to
ethics. You have to bring people closer to them. How do you do that
in the best way. You cannot do it by condemnation.
Look at the Sunnah of Rasulullah Salah somehow he didn't what is
his methodology. Now while that may be all theoretical in the
books, look for role models within your community or outside of your
community around the country or internationally of scholars who
you think have studied well, but are also applying their knowledge
outside very well. Take those as your role models, and see what you
can do go and benefit from them. See how they are practicing that
knowledge because we need relevance today. Relevance is
extremely important. There's a hadith that's related by Imam Abu
Dawood from Abdullah Abbas of the Allahu Anhu. He says that, during
that time, there was a person who became wounded, say he was wounded
somehow. And after that he needed to take a photo of Watson, he was
in a seminary defiled state. So some local,
so called knowledgeable individual told him you must still bathe with
water.
And because of that, he died because of the cold. That effected
him. When the prophets of Allah some heard about him, he said,
gotta Lou Catella, whom Allah, they kill them. May God kill them.
Right, which was
an Aamir Khan, Shiva will be a soil isn't the cure for ignorance
to question isn't questioning the cure for ignorance? When you don't
know something you ask? That is why the type of scholars we want
to become, we want our children to become are the following. They're
the ones mentioned in the Quran. Allah says, in sort of an
uncovered bull who have been who come by in turn, feeds sudo
realtyna, who to learn, but who I am by unit by unit and fee sudo
realtyna, who tell me why am I had to be Tina in the body moon.
These are the clear signs that are in the hearts of those who have
been granted the sacred knowledge in the true sense. These are the
word they are they have the true knowledge in their hearts. And
those who it's only the oppressors that we deny our signs. Then Allah
says in surah Nan first aloo Allah Vickery In Kuntum, Allah Tala one
as the people of remembrance, if you don't know, who are these
people of remembrance, these are not ignorant individuals, ignorant
leaders want to be scholars. These are serious individuals. We pray
to Allah that Allah make us of the serious individuals who can guide
that is why the famous dua of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam is
what's your analysis? Tina imamo
Oh, Allah make us Imams of the muda team, make us leaders of the
pious, righteous ones. If you're going to make us an Imam, make us
Imams of the righteous ones, that in itself, we're asking for a
very, very valuable package. Allah knows best what the best situation
is for us. So we're asking that from Allah subhanaw taala. So
anybody with aspiration needs to make this dua, I will finally
leave you with just two quotes.
One is just to show you the zeal of knowledge and how it gets to
people must have heard about it no gelida Tabari, a contemporary of
imamo diner on 240 something if I remember correctly, so he's in
that early period,
early period of a mumble hottie and Imam Muslim and so on and so
forth. He is
He died at the age of 86. MashAllah long life 86. They
enumerated the books that he had written. In fact, on one occasion,
he, he spoke to a number of individuals. Now, this is like,
for example, if I want to publish a book as a publisher, I'll speak
to a number of Indian What do you think of this idea, a book on the
subject. So he came in, he spoke to a few people, and he says, What
do you think of eight have seen?
That is written in, you know, that covers this topic. And naturally,
they said, How long is it going to be? He said, 30,000 pages folios
30,000? He says, who's going to read they said, Who's going to
read 30,000 pages? So he says okay, fine. Finally he wrote, he
decided to write in 3000 pages,
which if we say 500 pages to a volume, then how many volumes do
we get from the from 3000 pages? six volumes. Then he said I want
to run
ate a history from our family salam to our time. How long would
it be 30,000 pages folios said, people don't have that kind of
life to read these books have this. He says souhan Allah, He
says, aspirations have gone down what a calamity this is. So then
he wrote it in, again, 3000 volumes. Now,
his students, they did a bit of calculation. And they discovered
that if they took all the days of his life, and split that up, or
split the pages that he had written of all of the books beyond
these two books that he had written, it averages out to 14
pages a day,
14 pages a day. And if you do the math, it's 358,000 pages that he
wrote during his lifetime.
That's it that is in a time and there is no publishing, there is
no free flowing ink pen. This is a time when you have to borrow, when
you have to make a read pen yourself and have ink. And then if
you made a mistake, cross it out. And you know, not just delete and
replace and find that change and all the rest of it have today. In
fact, an hour or less before he is about today. He's lying there in
that state people around him, somebody reads us do other. He
made him very excited. He says, Give me a pen. I want to write
this guy down. I want to write this prayer down. They said in
this state, you're asking for a pen and ink. He says yes, you
should study knowledge until your last breath that was less than an
hour or just there on less than an hour before he died. That is the
Xeni never wasted the minutes. He never wasted a minute. So now what
he leaves behind is as if no Josie says the scholars book is His
eternal child. The scholars book is His eternal child. That is what
sends him down into the pages of history that we can learn about
him we can learn his books and say at the end of his name, it
Najarian top very Rahim Allah, may Allah have mercy on him are saying
today in London, where would he have thought? Where he was from
perasaan Maharana. Top Iran far away far away in lands where not
much scholarship retaining remains? Where would he have
thought in the great city of London today? Somebody would be
saying Rahim Allah and others would inshallah be saying Amin to
his name, if that's something we can do, before we die and leave
something that somebody can remember us by. That is the
ultimate achievement. That is the ultimate achievement. That is an
investment. That is an investment. And for that, we have to ask Allah
Subhana Allah, Oh Allah accept me somehow, for the service of your
deen. So I can also produce and help and assist. I can also have
the wisdom to help and assist people is not just giving a fiery
rhetorical lecture or speech, and just telling people what they are,
what they're not. It's about trying to convince and persuade at
a time. That is a very critical time for us. That's why the final
point I make is from YBNL, Josie, who I find to be extremely
motivating, extremely emotive, you should read his history you should
those who understand Arabic should get his book on seydel hotter,
captured thoughts, a precursor to Twitter or Facebook posts, but
valuable, not those Oh, I just saw some shoes, or this is what I'm
having for dinner, or lunch or whatever the case is, you know,
60,000 tweets and about 5050 followers you've got and you're
you've got 50,000 or 60,000 tweets. Subhanallah right and how
much you how can you can talk so much I'm surprised but this is it.
No Josie, he says at the end of it summing up his summing up all of
his aspiration, all of his high him all that he ever wanted. This
is what he says at the end is a long passage. I'm just going to
read the last part of it to you. In his own words, he says,
who can appreciate the restlessness of my ambition?
Allahu Akbar, the restlessness of my ambition. He wanted everything.
He just wanted everything. And on the one hand, I relish night
vigils I want to do my dad journey
and taking precaution and God fairness I want to inculcate taco.
But on the other hand, I have an inclination towards the towards
the cultivation of knowledge, teaching and writing. So I want to
be academic as well, not just just devotee and worshiper. And aside
from that, and the acquisition of the appropriate foods for the
body, so I also want good nourishment. I also want good
foods. None of this past is possible without occupying the
Heart interaction with people and educating them is also necessary.
But on the other hand, when the sweetness of supplication in
seclusion, an intimate discourse with the divine, becomes
diminished. So he's constantly in between these two conflicts.
This creates much grief and sorrow, spiritual decline is
unbearable to me. But making ends meet for my dependents stands in
the way of my spiritual progress. I have endured these strains all
through my life. And the loftiest ideal is to seek the pleasure of
Allah. I guard myself against every defilement and take care
that not a single moment of my life is spent in any vain efforts.
Glory be to Allah. If I succeed in my endeavors, I won't mind this is
I think, the golden part of it. He says, I won't mind if I fail,
however, for the messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has
said that the intention of the Faithful is better than his
action,
have the highest intention, have the greatest intentions? And then
ask Allah to help you. And then if you can't, you still had the
intention. And the believers intention is the most powerful and
valuable commodity that they have. May Allah subhanho wa Taala break
the bar, the boundaries that the limits that confine us in
the way we live today and allow us to break free of that and to have
a high ambition so that inshallah we can help and assist others
humanity in general is there hungry for all of us? May Allah
subhanaw taala accept all of us, may Allah give.
May Allah give realisation to this great effort and all the other
efforts that are out there remove the obstacles and make this a very
easy inshallah very easy path. May Allah bless all of us that are
here. And may Allah bless us, our children and our ambitions and may
Allah give us the highest ambition and acceptance and success.
Welcome to Darwin and handlebar