Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Is Islam still Relevant
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Smilla Rahmanir Rahim
Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Murthy
Ramadan in iron Amin were either early he also be he or the Orca
are seldom at the Sleeman Kathira en la Dean Amma back.
Allah subhanho wa Taala says we're in tune alone in quantum meaning.
Allah subhanaw taala also says, you're Latina, I'm an Australian,
you know, me, Saudi, or Salah in Allah Hamas RBV are people who
believe.
seek assistance.
from ALLAH, seek assistance in Allah.
By prayer or through prayer, and through patience,
through patience gives us a very interesting understanding here
that we need patience to bear calamities. We need patience to
withstand difficulties. But that's not the only patient. That's not
the only meaning of patience in the Sharia. The common
understanding of patience is when you have a calamity or a
difficulty or masiva. Some problem then you have to with with with
standards, you have to be patient and endure it. That's generally
the understanding of patients that people have. However, the other
meaning of patients which we probably exercise much more often
are the two other types of patients because there are three
types of patients one is patients when you have difficulty, the
second type of patients is to do good deeds to fulfill the
commandments of Allah subhanaw taala you need patients to do
that. For example, one of the commands of Allah subhanaw taala
is to pray. You need to have patience against everything else
that our enough's would more like to do. And then instead of that we
pray so we exercise patience of avoiding those other things. And
we pray, we fast, we avoid fasting is all patience. And Allah
subhanaw taala loves the patient ones are Bashir is sobbing,
give glad tidings to the ones who are patient.
And fasting is one of the biggest worships of patience. Because from
dawn to sunset, you stay away from three things. That's all about
patience. Patient means to endure, to let the situation that's there
overcome itself, but us where we are trying to endure it. And the
third type of patients which we do a lot of the time again as Muslims
is that we avoid sins. avoiding sins is a patient's so in Arabic
that's called sobre Anil Marcia, which means patients from
disobedience. Allah subhanaw taala tells us You can't do this, that
and other your friends want to do so your colleagues want to do so.
It's a easy deal, you will make more money if you take that job,
you will make more money if you start selling that thing. It's
easy money by saying no, I'm going to be patient, I'm going to wait
for something better. That's why generally if there's a person who
has some trouble
in finding
satisfaction in the salon, and constantly the nurses encouraging
him towards the haram for example, a person has a spouse married but
our eyes still looking at other things. Trying to be intent
entertained by others may be leading to flirtation and so on.
And we're not satisfied with what we have.
We're not satisfied with what we have. So there's a very wonderful
dua Allahu mfine be halal. And haram ik whatever the nene before
the liquor man see work. Now this DA is very interesting because it
wasn't reported about this issue. This DA is generally generally
mentioned for repayment of debt.
That if a person has debt, then read this dua. And when I used to
when I used to read this dua when I used to look at this dua I used
to think that it's such a general door What it means is Allahu mfine
Be hallelujah and haram IC O Allah suffice me make it sufficient for
me, satisfy me with your Halal away from your haram. I will be
satisfied with the halal that I don't need to go to the Haram
I will be satisfied with the business I have so I don't have to
do the Haram business. There's a lot of opportunity. Get rich quick
schemes. Sometimes it's easier to make money in Haram ways than it
is to make money in Halal ways. At least that's what they promised
you to do. In the beginning, though there's no blessing in that
money. Though you may have a lot but
There's no blessing in that money doesn't last too long.
Allah give me sufficiency in the spouse I have. So I don't have to
look at other spouses and to do our works. Because look, this
world is full of new things. This world is full of different things.
This world is full of variety. And even if I have the best of
something, I have the best jacket. I have the best car. I mean, what
do you mean by best anyway? That doesn't even make sense. What do
you mean by that? I've got the best car.
You see the resile children, they say, oh, that's the best car.
Right? They don't even own it. They've just seen a, they've just
seen a Corvette say that's the best car like What do you mean?
It's the best car? What do you mean that that's the best car? How
is it the best car? Just somebody told you? It's the best car? Oh,
Manchester United is the best team? Why is that the best team?
Right? What makes it the best team? When you've got a cut? When
you've got when you've got a team? Just think about this. I've been
thinking about this for when you've got a team.
For example, let's just say you supported Liverpool. Right? Or
whatever. 20 Since the last 30 years. At that time, why did you
start supporting that team? Ask yourself, you live nowhere close
to it. The players that maybe you initially supported it for are all
long gone? is a totally different team. Sometimes, if you're
supporting Liverpool, and you're from Liverpool, I can't even
understand that. I can even understand that.
You're not even from there. Most of the players are probably not
from there.
Why are you supporting that team? Why is that so special? Now? Why
don't you change? Why is it not possible to change? Think about
it. If you're supporting the same team for 30 years, despite whether
they were winners or losers. They had their ups and their downs. Why
do you support that team for when they've gone through so much? And
just think about it for a while? What makes you support them? What
is it? So if I used to support Liverpool 30 years ago, why would
I want to still support it today?
What is it that makes me supported?
What made me initially supported?
So what do you mean by something is the best?
This is this needs to be a lot of psychology that needs to be
researched into why we do certain things. And when you start
thinking about it correctly, that what is intrinsically in that
thing, substance substance that makes me wanted or desire it. And
we try to figure that out. That's when we'll understand what the
reality of this life is. And whether what we're doing, we
should be doing or not.
So when I hear the children, you know, they have card games with
different cars and okay, that's the best. That's the best. I'm
like, it's not even the best for you. I hear these kids, they're
talking about Manchester City or whatever. So you've never even
been there in your life. Why would you say it's the best team? Why is
Barcelona and the best time when you've never even been there? If
those players a boss even saw you don't even recognize you when you
say hello to you? Probably not.
Why, why?
What's overtaken us?
The only thing we should be supporting anything that we can
see clear benefit coming from. So this data is really wonderful. Oh
Allah suffice me with the good away from the evil and make me
independent of anything besides you.
I don't want to be a follower, especially for those things which
are bad, which are not useful, which are not beneficial. I want
to be independent in my thinking. This will really help us to
understand culture, and not follow culture, culture is very powerful.
So steadfastness in a time when we have so many things that is
competing for our, our minds, our brains, our money, our everything.
Before they just wanted something from you. Now, they want you to be
fully everything.
They want you to think in a particular way they want you dress
in a particular way. They want you to speak in a particular way. It's
a very powerful, very powerful culture that that we are dealing
with today. Today. It's very powerful. It's around us, you
can't avoid it.
So let us talk about a few different things today. Just to
get us to think about these things.
The question that arises generally that they keep putting out there,
which causes a lot of confusion to people. Is that is Islam still
relevant today? How many of you have had that question being
asked? is Islam still relevant?
Nobody looks like only one person here and 2345 Are they all slowly
waking up? Shala
How many of you have heard this, this idea that
Islam still relevant today. So this is a, this is an important
question that we need to answer. The reason why it's important to
answer is because people bring it up all the time. The media, this
is the constant bombardment of the media today is that Islam is no
longer relevant. They may not even say it in those words, but what's
happening to a lot of people, especially people who generally
don't come to the masjid, and even some people who come to the masjid
is that if you're not already so engaged with your faith, and then
you keep hearing that this has been done in the name of Islam,
and that has been done in the name of Islam, and this crime has been
committed, and those people have been murdered. And that incident
terrorist incident has taken place in name of Islam, then slowly
slow, your association with this thing that you may have been
brought up with, and born with suddenly starts to weaken. For
example, everybody's proud of their family, at least they
generally start off being proud with their family. Let's just say
that in every one of our families, there's somebody who's done
something strange or other, something wrong, maybe, right, we
all have some black sheep in the family. Now, if somebody tells you
that you know, your family or your people there that he stopped, that
person starts criticizing them. Initially, you're going to defend
yourself.
You're going to defend yourself. And you're going to say, No, it's
the best. My my, my my family isn't like that. My family is very
good, because it's yours. But slowly, slowly, they start to
highlight problems within your family. They start focusing on
them, they start magnifying them. Slowly, slowly, you will also
start understanding, you will convince yourself that yes, I've
got problems as well.
That's what they've done with Islam. That's what's happening
with Islam in the media. This is not just we're making this up.
Studies show that that the link between Islam and violence, Islam
and backwardness, Islam and backward culture, Islam and
murder, Islam and terrorism, the links that are been mentioned in
the in, in news in news media, it's much more than the link
between any two other words, any any other religion, many words.
That's why it gets people to think that Muslims are the greatest
terrorists.
Now, if you look at it, if you just look at America, for the last
two years, how many shootings have taken place? I mean, you get one
every few months, how many of them were Muslims?
There are so many, but when it's not a Muslim one, you'll hear
about it for maybe two days, maybe a third day. And then after that,
it'll be finished. They may then talk about it after a week or two
weeks, and they'll just kind of round it off. And then it's all
done and dusted. But when it's a Muslim incident, then the amount
of analysis that entire newspaper entire website is fulfilled with
this analysis, various different experts are brought in, and it's
just such a hoo ha, as though it's the most unusual thing that has to
happen. That is the most unusual thing that has happened. And we
must talk about it because the first time it's ever happened,
it's bad whenever it happens. But that kind of focus, it really
brings it to the forefront. So now when you're listening to this, and
you and if we have not experienced Islam, ourself, then why should we
want to stay Muslim? Why should the person care anymore? That's
why the majority of people who leave the faith or who no longer
want to be part of the faith, rather, they're not atheists, I
believe more of them have a problem called apathy and
indifference. They don't care anymore. There's very few people
that actually become an atheist and outright deny God. Others,
it's just much easier to just not care and just to forget, and just
to disregard that. I don't care whether there's a God an own, they
could be a god. Maybe there is a God, but doesn't it's not relevant
to me. I have never experienced a god. I just, I just got a
question. It was just last week, that in the prayer,
I don't feel anything. So why should I pray?
Right? I'm not feeling anything. So why should I pray? Now I can
understand that. If you don't feel anything, then it's a good
question. Why should you pray. But the point is that we should be
feeling something. Right, we should try to feel something this
measurements to take to feel something.
If a person hasn't experienced their faith, and they've just
taken it because it's their father's religion, their mother's
religion, their family religion, or because they've been
intellectually convinced, intellectually convinced with
intellectual arguments. That is not as strong as when you've
actually experienced yourself. In the dark nights. You've been able
to sit down and do some damage, stand up and do some Tahajjud
prayer and make some dua to Allah, in those times of loneliness when
you've been sad or when you've been brokenhearted and you've sat
down and you've been comforted by the Quran and it's done something
for you.
then believe me that will not be shaken by anybody. Because now
that faith has become mine is it's done something for me is no longer
just something I claim to profess is not just something that I
profess because I was brought in brought into the faith because
people around me do so. Now I feel something this Dean gives me
something. It gives me a cohesive idea. It gives me an understanding
of this world, it gives me an understanding of the hereafter. It
gives me an understanding of what the purpose of my life is, I feel
goodness, I feel light in my heart. I feel like there's a
reason why I must do something. If I have to suffer, I know there's a
benefit in my suffering because I'm going to be rewarded for it.
That's why there's suffering in the world. For people who have no
God in the in the picture, and they aren't he has to die from
cancer. Why did she die for not just normal cancer, but she
suffered for five years, she suffered for 10 years. She
suffered badly, bedridden, constantly going to the hospital,
she suffered, what she going to get out of this suffering and
there's no hereafter, it was a miserable life. Some people suffer
entire life. That's why Islam gives an idea for suffering.
Suffering is important in this world. Because without suffering,
how would you understand happiness? How would you
understand joy? If everything was just normal, there was no such
concept of suffering, it's just standard, that it'd be no
happiness. If there was no suffering, how would we? How would
we? How would we learn patience?
How can we become better people? How would we learn from these
things? That's why in Islam, we have suffering, God is merciful.
And God, being merciful is completely appropriate with
suffering. Because the fact that God is merciful doesn't mean it's
nothing else. That's a Christian idea that God is only merciful and
nothing else. A lot of people ask this question, if God is merciful,
why does He allow suffering in the world?
That's because our God is merciful. But he also has more
than 100 other names, and many more that we don't even know we
know just about 100, something Names of Allah 99 are mentioned in
that one Hadith. And then there's several others in the Quran that
are mentioned that are not part of the 99. And there's others. So the
fact that he's a merciful one that's there, he's compassionate,
he's loving. But there's also that his mighty he is
the punishing one. He is the one from whom harm comes I adore. He
is the one who takes revenge, he is the one who vanquishes he is
the one who overcomes that's there as well. Those names have to be
manifest the equal to the merciful name, though. Allah subhanaw
taala. When He created the world has a hadith which says that when
Allah created the world, he looked at the people. And he said, You
know what, if I am to start dealing with you, with 100%
Justice, or you do a one bit wrong, I'm going to punish you.
And if you do one good, one good deed, I'm going to reward you,
because you're so weak, if I'm going to deal with you with
justice, you're not going to survive. So he had written above
the arch, in the rahmati, Sabha cut Adobe, My Mercy has overcome
my anger. But my anger is still there, it's not gone. Generally
speaking, I will deal with you with mercy. But when I want, I can
show my wrath as well, as we've seen in the world. So it's this
really limited understanding, to believe that God is only merciful,
because once you start getting into that idea, then you can't
understand why they're suffering, why they tsunamis, why people die
in catastrophes.
But when you understand that Allah manifests His different names in
various different ways, and suddenly that becomes easy, then
we know that within Islam, there's a benefit in suffering.
Because it tells you what joy is, it makes you a better person, it
allows you to be patient. The other thing which is very
important.
Because the another question that this question surrounds this issue
in many different ways, another question that comes is why does
Allah even give the ability to people to harm others?
Why does Allah give the ability to somebody to harm others? Why
should people have the ability to harm others? Well, the reason why
people should have the ability to harm others,
is because it's based on free will. This world is supposed to be
based on freewill, everything we do here, you've got a choice.
Right? You've been told what's good and what's bad, then Allah is
gonna test us this place is a place of test. So we have a
choice.
We have a choice. Now in that choice. If somebody makes the
wrong choice, pushes somebody over, crashes into someone hurt
somebody murders somebody kills somebody. The effect of that has
to come about
the effect of that has to come out there's going to be unhappiness,
but this person will be punished for it. If he doesn't make amends.
If not in this world, he will definitely be punished in the
hereafter if Allah wills, her Cocona Eva, especially if you do
something to somebody else, that's one of the most dangerous things
that you can do, because Allah will not forgive until the person
forgives. To get forgiveness from that is much more difficult than
get forgiveness for missing a prayer.
Missing prayers bad is nearly two, it's nearly, you know, it nearly
gets you to cover nearly, it's not covered, but it's neat he gets you
to cover. But doing something harmful to somebody else is
sometimes even more dangerous, because of the logistics involved
in trying to get amends, and forgiveness for that. So the fact
that we have free will in this world, right, and Allah has said,
Whoever wants he can believe whoever wants he can disbelieve,
that's why you need that whatever you do, then something happens to
it within within reason within a certain limit. That's why
suffering is allowed in this world. And this last thing is
quite clear, suffering exists. And people have been believing in God
and they've reconciled these ideas for centuries. If it doesn't click
to you, then just make dua that Allah make it click for you.
Because at the end of the day, both of these things are easy to
understand when you understand the benefits of these things.
And you understand the benefits of these things. So if we go back to
this idea about whether Islam is relevant or not, can you see how
the media and everything we see around us the incidents that take
place and so on? Can you see how it's causing people to think lien
is irrelevant?
It's causing Dean to think it's causing people to think that Islam
is irrelevant. So now let's look at a few factors here. There are
three things which when a human being has, they feel very
satisfied, do you know what they are, there are three things that
if you have them, which are the most fundamental things in our
life, you will be satisfied, you will think that you will be become
very confident, and you will feel that you've got everything in this
world. And the prophets also mentioned this in one Hadith, he
says that, whoever wakes up with three qualities with three with
three things. Number one, with sufficient health hamdulillah in
the countries that we live in,
you've got a free health care system, many of us enjoy mashallah
medicines, access to health care. And many of us mashallah have
sufficient nutrition within our foods to stay healthy for the most
part. That's number one, health.
Number two, is
we have security.
We can walk outside, we can come to the masjid, we can go shopping,
our children can be sent to the local shops to buy something with
a relative amount of safety and security. I've lived in other
countries where that's not possible. There are more beautiful
countries than here. They enjoy much better weather than here.
They have much more natural scenery, maybe they have much more
natural fruits and products. But the security is not there. A
friend of mine in that country cannot send his young daughter or
son to the local shops to buy something because they could be
murdered, they could be killed. They could be mugged at least
we can do that here. So we have security. So you've got health,
and you've got security. And number three, you've got enough
food as each day goes by. I've got enough food for tomorrow. I've got
enough food for today and I've got enough food for tomorrow. Most of
us Alhamdulillah have that. When you have these three things the
prophets of the Lord said that it is as though you have been given
the entire world because what more do you need than that? You've got
safety. You've got health within your body and you've got enough to
feed yourself and your family. What more do you need to spend
your day beyond that?
Now the same three things if you have them, they also intoxicate
you if you don't use them in the right way. They make you feel
confident self reliant self subsisting. They think that we
don't need anything else. We forget that they come from Allah
subhana wa Tada. So that's why if you look at prophets
of the past, many times the first believers were the poor people,
not the wealthy. It was the poor people that joined in first into
the religions. So for example, if you look at the time the Prophet
said Elijah himself, this was the case that they although he had
some wealthy people, but otherwise a lot of the downtrodden once they
came if you look at more new holiday hair salon Allah mentions
in the Quran about new holiday salaam that the wealthy the upper
class the highest
level of people they said to most new holiday Salaam and Middle
America with tabernacle or the rune
should we believe in you can we believe in you? How can we believe
in you when it is the downtrodden lowly people who followed you as
though it's a club? In this club? You
Club is for the downtrodden ones. It's not for us we need an elite
club.
Right?
In fact, in some countries around the world, the same dichotomy
exist. Right? The same dichotomy exists. For example, in one
country,
one Muslim, I'm talking about a Muslim country, right?
There students, their wealthy elite students will get positions
in the universities here, in the top universities, Your Imperial
College, UCL, Oxford, Cambridge, etc. When they come here,
they are so surprised to find the local British born
Asians and Arabs practicing Islam.
They find it so strange.
They say where we come from.
Our class of people do not follow religion, religion is for the
lowly class, they're the ones who go to the masjid.
They're shocked and surprised that the students here who are born in
the UK, right, and this is probably the same case in America
to a certain degree, they, the girls are wearing hijab, right?
Which is completely taboo for those kinds of people. Right?
Sometimes, the guys are, you know,
making salad, they're looking for the place, they're looking for the
prayer room at university. And they're shocked that you are our
idea, like we've done everything our parents have spent huge
amounts of money to get us here to where you are, you are like our
ID, we can't even you know, we can't even reach it because we're
not born in the West.
And they're shocked and surprised, because in their country, religion
is downtrodden.
Right? Religion is for the lowly low class.
Now hamdulillah in the England, in England, I don't think we have
that problem Alhamdulillah we don't have that kind of class
system as much. And we have mashallah, you know, adherence of
our faith from all the various different levels of society. But
there is no doubt that there is one thing that afflicts all of us,
which is consumerism,
capitalism,
right, just one just because we have so much security and ability
to buy things and have things. I mean, for example, I have asked
this question several times, and the answers been always the same.
Now, if I ask this question here, how many people here do not have
Amazon Prime?
Wow, this is the first time that you've got nearly 40%.
Otherwise, generally, is only 15. To 20%, that don't have it,
everybody else has it. I'm not saying it's haram to have it. If
you want next day delivery, same day delivery Be my guest. Right.
But what that does, is you just have to be careful of consumerism.
Now, whether you're Muslim, or Christian, or Jew or any other
religion, consumerism has taken all of us because we can buy
things so easily.
Today, we live like the rich people of the past, we need like
the Royals of the past, we have access to products, there is no
product that is banned from us that there is prohibited from us.
You're a normal person, you can get access.
But 100 years ago, it was only the wealthy that access to certain
things.
Otherwise, we have access to whatever you want today.
If you've got the money, you will buy it. Even if you don't have the
money, you can get it on credit.
And then you just pay for it for the rest of your life.
The access to things consumerism is something that consumes all of
us, there's nothing wrong with buying things by the way. But
there is a problem with hoarding things and spending beyond and to
show off and to do it to compete.
If you want to buy a new pair of shoes be my guess, but at least
get rid of some of the older ones don't have 20 pairs of shoes or 30
pairs of shoes in the house. Right? If you want a new dress,
you want a new job, but that's fine, but get rid of some of the
old ones. It's completely fine to buy a new one, as long as you're
not doing it to show off.
And you're not doing it because everybody else is doing it. Don't
be a follower like that. Think for yourself.
That's the most important thing is to think for ourself.
So now, what's happening is that consumerism is just buying things
they don't satisfy. How many of you have the latest iPhone?
I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, per se. I'm just asking, be
honest. Does anybody have the latest iPhone?
You got the latest mode, which one you got?
What's it called? I just want to make sure you got it. The Xs one,
okay.
Basically if you need
The next iPhone, that's fine, go and get it. But don't get it
because you need to make sure you're upgraded all the time. Or
you need to have the right to show I literally got a question from
one person from another country. He said, Should I get the Samsung
something? Or should I get the iPhone? I said, Why is that a
question for me? He said, Because
if I don't have that, then people will say, I've got a backward
phone. So basically, you will only getting it because people are
gonna say which one have you got? Which one have you got. And if you
don't have the right phone, then it's gonna, it's not gonna look
good.
You can have the next phone, it's not a problem. But make sure you
need it. That's the thing, make sure you don't get it just because
it's an upgrade, or just because you need to be upgraded all the
time. And what I was trying to say what I was trying to show me this
doesn't didn't go right. But generally, when a person's got the
latest iPhone, most people have said that they were not as excited
by it as they were with the first one they got. Right. And the
reason one of the reasons for that is that how much more innovative
can anybody be? Right to give you something that's going to excite
you? Right? How much how can they be so because there's not much,
that's why they call it excess. That's why they can't call it just
one letter add on because they can't really upgrade it, but they
just want to do the additional 1000 pounds or whatever it is that
it costs. So
the Dunya doesn't give you satisfaction in the heart. Now
what's happened is that there's a one of the famous atheists of the
past of the recent times one of the five major atheists, his name
is Christopher Hitchens. He's got a brother whose name is Peter
Hitchens was a Christian.
Right, so he's one brother is a atheist, like one of the main
atheists of recent times, his brother's a Christian, he gave a
talk recently. And he's talking to the Christians. He's saying that
what you what we've what people have done, what the modern world
has done is that they push religion out of all, nearly all
areas of life. So you're not allowed to take your religion into
work, leave it at the door. Right? That's why Muslims have so much
trouble that they want to go into the topia and sometimes, right, so
they have trouble with that. Right? So maybe you don't go into
the utopian, but they want to go and pray. They want to pray room.
Women want to wear hijab, they don't want to be you know, they
need to be covered in a particular way. But that means you're putting
your religion inside, why? You know, think about it, why? Why do
people have so much trouble and difficulty in allowing religion in
these places is because religion is supposed to have gone out, you
know, when you had post modernism and modernism, religion was
considered downtrodden. Religion was supposed to be out of the
public sphere. I've, we've had a discussion with a
with an ex, major, you know, role player in the BBC, he was either
one of the agendas or one of the presenters or something. And he
said, basically, they he was Christian. So he was saying that
they've actually taken out religion to get a religious
program even on the BBC. Right? It's so difficult. They have to do
it in such a way that it's going to appeal because literally,
religion has been taken out from the public sphere completely. So
what he's saying about Christianity is that you have
taken religion out, Christianity has been driven out. And people
have been given intoxication have been intoxicated by consumerism,
by merchandise, right.
But slowly, slowly, that is not doing anything for them. It's not
giving their heart anything you don't feel you feel satisfied for
about two or three days when you get your Amazon order. And you
open the box.
I don't know what they put inside as a special dust that they put
inside. Right. So when you open it, you feel really excited. Do
you feel excited when you get an Amazon box? Have you felt that
excitement I'm talking about? Is it just me that feels it? Right?
Do you know what I'm talking about when you have ordered something
and you open the box and you feel good about it? Right? Have you
found out what it is that they put inside? Right? They put something
special inside it makes you really excited? But then it only lasts
for a day or two and then you have to do it again. So you have to
have a order come in every second day or every every day maybe
because you need that fix it's like an addiction. That's what we
call consumerism.
Because you can have it you want to get it somebody on what are the
Allahu Anhu saw somebody with a package is that what is this he
says how the last month ish the hater who first arrived to this is
some meat that I desired so I purchased it got I designed it so
I've got the money I see something let me just buy it got a desire.
Just buy it. I think what's wrong with that? So on what are the
alarm said to him?
couldn't do much the hate is straight. Everything that you
desire you just buy
That's consumers. Just because you desire something you buy it.
You might be thinking, why are you even talking about this list when
you when we live for buying things and using things, that becomes a
problem?
That's the problem. So what Peter Hitchens is saying, he's basically
saying that slowly, soon, people are going to be tired of
consumerism. Right? And they're going to be looking for some
spirituality. And he's he's worried about Christianity, saying
that Christianity will not be able to provide a solution. Because the
Christianity that is left even in many churches, what's happening
with Christianity, they haven't sold their churches, right. And
I'm only mentioning this as a warning for Muslims. We're not
saying this to denigrate the Christianity. Right? I'd rather be
living among Christians, then know that then no faith, to be honest.
I mean, if you had that choice, you'd rather be living among
people of some faith, or at least believe in a God. Right, at least
the ultimate being who those who don't deny God, then people who
don't agree with God at all. That's a godless society. So
he says, Whatever Christianity is remaining, a lot of the churches,
they're doing a lot of relief work now, because that they seem that
that's the only way they're getting people to come in.
Right? Because nobody's interested in praying anymore, in coming to
mass and in coming to worship. But they because humans have always
had a compassionate side, right, of helping others have empathy. So
they they big, a lot of churches have just become relief
organizations. And I hope that we as Muslims don't go in that same
direction. So then he says something very interesting. He's
saying that all the difficult parts of Christianity, that was a
burden that was difficulty, the substance, that's all been done
away with, for example, it's very clear in the old test in in the in
the testament, that swine is
is unlawful, but that is not considered prohibited for them to
eat. So I asked an expert, a friend of mine, who was an expert
in Christianity, he is he is from that tradition. And he said, Yes,
although it's in there, but in the third century, the Christian
Council, whatever it was, had agreed to remove the dietary
restrictions, we don't have any dietary restrictions, you can eat
what you want as long as healthy or not unhealthy.
Right. So
anything that was difficult, I was seen as a burden against post
modernism, against individualism against, basically, you know,
acting out your women desire, you take it out. So you have a you
have a faith, but that has no substance, just a feel good
religion. And he's saying that when people are gonna get tired of
these things, and they're gonna want to turn towards some kind of
spirituality, Christianity will not be there, it will be Islam,
because Islam has all of these things.
That's what's interesting, Islam has all of these things. But then
he gives, He gives another warning, he says, but in Islam,
you've got the same challenge. There are people who are trying to
do away with things in Islam. I've talked to several people like
this, who are saying that the way to
the way to rehabilitate Islam, the way to regain our position of
showing some is a good reason that we're gonna have to take away all
of these things is Does God really care if you pray five times a day
or not?
Does that really matter or not? It's the humanitarian work that's
going to make people believe that that's become a humanitarian
society, that is not a religion. Religion is supposed to deal with
every aspect of your life. But we have that, don't we? You see, the
media generally gives coverage to two extremes, it gives coverage to
either those who want to go out and kill everybody. You're, you
know, you know what I'm talking about. It gives time to them, so
that they can say, yes, we need to.
It's correct to do this, and that those are my brothers in faith,
and there was correct what they did. And it's because of the
justified, then the opposite, or those people who don't want any
faith. So somebody who doesn't want to wear hijab, she's
complaining that we don't really need, you know, workplaces don't
discriminate against Muslim woman.
They won't discriminate against you because you don't wear a hijab
anyway. So you just look like everybody else. For example,
somebody who doesn't want to pray at work, I don't see I'm a Muslim.
I don't discriminate. I don't find discrimination at work. That's
what they'll say less because you're not insisting on praying.
Right and your your workplace is not saying you can't pray, because
you don't even ask to pray. The vast majority in between who are
trying so that's why you have those on the two ends. In the
workplace. You have those who
is under
other way of looking at it, you either have those who are totally
assimilated, who don't even want to tell anybody that they're
Muslim who want to just like act like normal completely like the
mainstream doesn't leave religion by the door.
In fact, they even changed their name from Mohammed to mo Aslam to
Sam, because they just don't want to because Islam is at the moment,
unfortunately criticized. So they don't want to be part of that
discourse at all. They just want to be there. That's it, then
you've got the others who want to go to work, even with the topis on
and you know, with the full works, and they want time off for Jamal
Hamdulillah. Right. But some places don't agree with that. And
the problem with a lot of these people is that they go and abuse
this. So if they've got time for prayer, they'll take extra time.
And then they'll say you're discriminating against me,
somebody complaints, they'll go off on Friday, instead of taking
the one hour lunch break, they'll take one and a half hours.
And that's a problem. You can't go and work somewhere and take
additional time and then use the religion card, you're then going
to cause your religion to be to be criticized. So you've got the
overzealous people on one side, and you've got the others who
change the names on the other side. This is the dichotomy that
we're having. But Islam is as relevant today as it's ever been
and what the I just mentioned two other points after this point to
to explain that.
If Peter Hitchens is saying that Christianity can no longer provide
the spiritual benefit, because it's become more of a feel good
kind of religion, Islam still has it, then we better be very careful
about what we try to remove from Islam. Because it's going to
become the same way. There are people who say this part of Islam
is not right, it needs a reform, it needs change, it is a
transformation needs an enlightenment, we've had all of
these things, we've decided that this is what we want, this is what
we're going to keep otherwise, it's going to become another field
good religion, you're gonna have several field called Field good
religions, and that's not good enough. Right. So that's number
one. Number two, the me to movement. Right, you know, the me
to movement, which is the women being harassed in workplaces, and
at their jobs, it started off with the media industry, the film
industry, the movie industry, but I don't think there's any industry
which is free of this problem. Because when you are going to have
this kind of very close interaction, right? Clearly,
there's going to be an issue because that's a natural reaction,
unfortunately, as much as you try. That's why statistics, they show
several things, one statistic shows and you can check this up,
you can do a survey on this 80% of all of those women who have been
to a concert or a club or a dance have been harassed, 80%, not 10,
not 10%, not one out of 10, not five out of 10, but eight out of
10, which is just about all of them. Right just about all of
them.
In Sweden, two years ago, I think it was I read about a concept that
they had there where they said no men allowed only for women, we
will not allow men here until they can learn to behave themselves.
They will never learn to behave themselves. That's the problem.
Men, you put men into a mix like that with the music playing with
the lights with the drink flowing, and the way people are dressed
there. It's just you're asking for you're asking for it. This is a
natural, they've done these studies, this is not just
something I don't think anybody should be blind of this, like
they've done these studies which show this that they put electrodes
on and they shown men, women, and depending on what type of women
etc, there's been different reactions, because that's how God
has made us. There's a natural reaction for the procreation of
the human race that men and women are men and women are attracted to
one another. For example, if I see the most beautiful car, or the
most beautiful book, most beautiful design, like that poster
design, I'm gonna admire it.
I'm gonna admire, I'm gonna like wow is going to give me the wow
factor. But the sexual aspect of it won't be there.
That only comes about for the majority of people when it's
man and woman.
Right, where there's something to admire there, then there's a
sexual element there. For example, one of the psychologists, numbers
and psychologists, I remember in one of the interviews, he said,
He's saying we're after this Me too, me too movement problem. He's
saying Why Why should Why do women wear lipstick at work? That
shouldn't be you know, that shouldn't be allowed. So the
person was interviewing you saying, why should that even be a
problem? Because the ideology is such that women should be allowed
to wear what they want, and still be in a mixed environment and men
should still keep their hands up and they should mentioned be men
should be to themselves clearly you know, mentioned
Be careful, right? No doubt about that. Harassment is completely
wrong haram. But what he's saying is that
so the person is saying what's wrong with them wearing lipstick?
He said, well, because evolutionary science will tell you
that women's lips become redder as they become aroused.
it big, they become redder. And you are putting that on to show
arousal. That is what the man subliminally is going to interpret
it us. That's how they're going to interpret it.
So you're already causing an issue. Now, there is a bit of
hypocrisy here, because and some people have actually pointed this
out. The hypocrisy is that they say, We don't want to be harassed.
Now, it depends on who does the harassing, in inverted commas.
Nobody should hurt anybody. It depends on who basically, does the
advancements. If it's somebody they that they find attractive,
then they won't complain about that. But if it's a person,
they're not attracted to them, they're going to complain about
it. What's happening now, is that not just the media industry, but
the political, the political system, we've had MPs and lords
and others, we've had this problem. Right. You know, with
Secretaries and other other problems. We've had an all the way
to the American President, just think of Bill Clinton, right.
You've have this everywhere in every. That's why Wall Street is
very frightened, because so far they've contained it, it must be
happening, but they've contained it, there's not been a big kind of
an issue so far. So that's why recently some of you may have read
this, that the the Bloomberg, the Bloomberg media outlet to
generally deals with financial issues, right? I mean, it's by the
ex mayor of New York, Bloomberg. So they have written this amazing
article. Now listen to what they say this is the guidance that
Finance Finance executives, Wall Street executives are giving to
the people. It's a very male dominated society with women who
are trying to climb up the ladder inside. These are the suggestions
right now remember, it's not me supposed to be irrelevant.
According to the accusation. They're saying that from now on,
if you go on a business trip, make sure that you don't book your
seats together. If you're going with a female colleague, make sure
that your seats are not booked together. They're on different
rows. When you when you have a hotel, forget about having rooms
on, not next to each other, make sure they're on different floors.
Like, you know, one is you can get a room that is next door to each
other. But there's a door like this, that you can access one
another, not even on the same floor, have it on another room,
have it on another floor. Number three, don't have meals don't
basically take women less than 35 years of age to dinner. Right? In
fact, the Vice President America, the current vice president, vice
president of America doesn't even have meals with anybody, any woman
but his wife. And there was major criticism on him. I remember one
talk show dealing with that, like, what's the problem with that?
Right? That's number three. Number four, when you have a meeting with
women, then make sure that there's a door open, or it's a big window,
don't be alone with women.
Now,
do you recognize some of this advice? This is the advice that
we've been given I can I could probably show you recordings of
this, that this is the advice I have been given personally for the
last 25 years, to people who are in the workplace who are in a
mixed environment, okay? If you are they will make sure you don't,
you're not alone with a woman, you're not alone with this, and so
on. So we've been saying this is what Islam says. They're finding
this as a solution, but nobody's willing to say it, but that's what
Islam says as well. And make it a big deal. That these are Islamic
ideas that they've been saying for hundreds of years that you
shouldn't be doing these things. In fact, from the Washington Post,
the journalist in their I believe it was a she she said that when
she spoke to I think it was her physical therapist or somebody.
Physical therapist said that I am now frightened, I'm afraid of
hugging my patients when he should be shouldn't have been hugging
them from the first place. If they meaning if they're if they're
women, you shouldn't be doing that in the first place. Because now,
you could be you could immediately a claim is going to come upon you.
But now there's a downside that they're worried about. Because in
Wall Street's in the finance, in the financial sector, there is not
enough women at the top of the of the game. And for them to reach up
the ladder. They need male
mentors, and very few males and are willing to take the risks
because you'd get a case against you. So they're saying that this
is going to effect women negatively. Where you can't have
it this way. You can't have it this way. It's a really tough
game. You put it all together and you let it be free. There's going
to be harassment as the world is shown. And if you don't that women
can't rise. What's going on there?
Islam has been telling the same things that you you you need
barriers, you need certain limits. That's number two. And number
three, is something very simple. Our David Cameron, previous Prime
Minister, right, he's he made an announcement that he wants London
to be the hub of Islamic finance,
the hub of Islamic finance.
Why? Because after 2008, and the financial crash, the most stable
system that can endure itself is the Islamic finance system.
Right? One wants London to be there because you need money.
London, one of the reasons why it's so such a great city is
because the finance department is very important that your your
Canary Wharf, and so on. That's why New York, London, very
important sectors, for a country to be seen in this modern world.
It's all about economics. So what about how much money is going?
Coming through it? Right? And he wants Islamic finance to be here.
But nobody takes all of these points. They look, Islam has a lot
of answers. That's not set in a mainstream way.
Do you understand it? This whole discussion has been about that.
The charge is that Islam is irrelevant. Islam is backwards.
But the last 10 years has shown us how both from Peter Hitchens about
the Christianity about materialism and somebody wanting spirituality
is only Islam that's left, that gives you a kind of viable
religion to work with. Number two, the Islamic finance department
number three, in the whole interaction of genders, right?
That's
nobody's out there. And that's the difficulty that most people who
are listening to the abuse against Islam.
They don't hear the positives, and they're not willing to think
either.
They're not willing to think either they just listened to it.
And then it creates his apathy. If it doesn't create outward,
outright denial of God, it creates definitely an apathy. That's why
majority of people want to have nothing to do with the faith. We
don't care.
or D. Suffering apathy, which means indifference. Look, I've got
my money, I've got my house, I can buy what I want. Why do I need a
god?
Why do I need to pray? Why do I need to worry about these things?
Why is that relevant? It's irrelevant. Because there's a
world to come this is only a testing ground. There is a
hereafter we're all gonna die. Nobody lives forever. We're all
going to die. And when we die, where do we go? Is the question
that arises. And there's a Islam gives you that idea, a plausible
idea that if you take and you work for, you have to have certain
restrictions in the world clearly, you have to have certain
restrictions in the world, but it allows you to prosper and once you
most people they're worried about that if they become properly
Muslim. Right, properly practicing. It's gonna do away
with their fun is going to do away with their joy. They won't enjoy
their life. That's just because they haven't tasted it.
I mean, those of you who feel you're practicing, are you guys
boring?
Or you guys have have no happiness in this world.
It's ridiculous. I enjoy my life. I think I'm practicing. I tried to
be practicing. I've had this said to me, if you don't do this, you
won't be live in this country.
When I pointed something other brother, this is unlawful, you're
selling something which is unlawful. So brother, he says if
you want to do business in this country, you're gonna have to do
this. There are so many others doing Halal business shaytans
deception shaytaan creates a deception your mind that this is
what it is, is just like that person who feels that when they
found the right wife or husband to marry, and they can't get married
to them, right? Because if parents won't agree or whatever, when you
get emotionally attached to something, you think that they are
your answer to everything, that they will be nothing else that
will replace that for you. This is the same kind of emotional
attachment we're talking about.
Allah promises in the Quran in many places, he promises
contentment or satisfaction with the vicar of Allah. Allah be
Vickery law, he taught my inner club, you need some dhikr of Allah
in your heart to have satisfaction. Otherwise, there is
no satisfaction you just constantly running after a world
and everybody knows at the end of the day, that's just
a mouse running around. And he doesn't know where the end is on a
wheel. Right? It's just basically
a race for with no end. So we ask Allah subhanaw taala
photographique We ask Allah subhanaw taala to
give us your pin. Allah says that you must seek assistance in prayer
and impatience. When you feel that I can't do what others are doing.
Why should
I'd be doing this when others don't have to do it. This is where
the patience it requires faith. It requires faith in the unseen, but
inshallah the reward of that would be great. This is the crux I think
of stability in this world of steadfastness in this world, in
among all of this crazy stuff. Use it to your benefit, but don't do
it because it's the thing to do. Don't do it because everybody else
is doing it.
I mean, I used to live in a place where, mashallah the husbands were
very wealthy, not live there. I visited, husbands are very wealthy
doctors, engineers and so on. The wives were stay at home women, but
they a trend began that
it's a place where you can have a lot of cars, a lot of space,
right? Not like England. So one of the guys bought his wife, a
Mercedes SUV.
Because it's safe, they're going to the wife is going to take
children's school safe, etcetera, etcetera. SUVs are supposed to be
safe, right? So the next person, her friend, she got her husband to
buy one. Now all the women in the area are asking their husbands to
bind the same thing.
This is not a women issue. I'm telling you that this is just an
example of that. Don't do things because others are doing it. Do it
because you want to do it. You need it. Right. And then make sure
you don't hold and you thank Allah. Allah wants to be thanked
and if you think he'll only give you more. So you thank Allah
subhanaw taala for what He has given us. We don't do a Seraph and
we don't overdo it.
And we are satisfied with Allah subhanho wa taala. And in sha
Allah, Allah says, You will remain elevated as long as you are true
believers will enter Mala Ilona in Kentucky, meaning that is the
verse that I began with. You will remain elevated as long as you are
truly believers. And we ask Allah subhanho wa Taala for that. And
that has been the case in the past, we have had so many ups and
downs in the past.
Unfortunately, at this point, it's in a bit of a low phase, people
are looking for the MACD. But believe me, we've had the lows
before we've gone down before, but it's come back up. That's why I'm
going to suggest two books to you. Right, which I have found to be
extremely beneficial. Right one is this book, which is called Save
yourself some experience, right, written by Chef about Hassan Ali
nadwi, one of our greatest thinkers of these last, you know,
last century, right amazing individual. This first volume of
this book, if you can't read the whole four volumes, but the first
volume, it deals with the first sixth or seventh centuries of
Islam, showing you the ups and downs. It shows you how the
challenges came to such a degree sometimes I mean, he talks about
the tortoise. Many of our historians have written that the
title is one of the worst calamities that befell not just
the Muslim world but the world itself.
The way they went through and just ravaged and destroyed and
plundered and pillaged and literally annihilated huge amounts
of population in Baghdad alone, they killed a million people.
You think the recent shock and all campaigns are bad in Baghdad is
bad. I mean, not doubt because the Sunnis are really suffering
especially though, right? But they killed a million a million people
in Baghdad alone. And the ruler, the basset Khalifa was rolled up
in a in a in a railgun and beaten to death. Right? You have had
Salah Medina ubese time when Jerusalem just before him, the end
entire century over 9092 or something years. There was no
Islam in muscle muscular Luxa there was no Advan there was a
cross on top of the timber on top of the computer Sahara.
Place was used as a palace and stables. There was no other no
prayer, no people were killed.
We have it bad right now. But that was worse. When you read this
book, I read it when I was about 20. I wish I'd read it when I was
14 or 15. Because it would have
given me perspective. It gives you a lot of thoughts. That look it's
not the end of times we've had problems before. And it gives us
solutions and it gives us hope of how Allah subhanaw taala is
brought numerous individuals to bring back the OMA up. May Allah
accept us for some contribution to his Deen. That's the first book,
The other book which is very relevant for today about Islam in
the modern age. Right and it's an amazing book. I read the whole
book myself, Mufti Taqi Usmani read the whole book and gave
suggestions and the author took them and you know, update his book
accordingly is this book called A Thinking Person's Guide to Islam
is my principal. As you know, he is a prince, don't, you know, jump
to judgments about that. He has two PhDs. He's a scholar in his
own right. He's got two PhDs, one from us hub, and one from print.
Islam. And this is one of the most amazing books that I have read
because it gives you an understanding of what Islam is
today. Dawa is very important. We are constantly being asked about
Islam because Islam is in the media. All right. And sometimes we
just don't have the right answers. Because we haven't understood our
own Islam for ourself. The philosophy of Islam, we haven't
understood it. Most tell me just think about it. How much Islam
have you studied? Each one of us?
Generally, this is what most people will study, the amount of
Islam that is taught to us by our parents growing up, brother Bucha,
don't do this, you know, kid, don't do this, oh, boy, don't do
this or whatever, right? Do this do this. We don't do it. Because
of this. The you know, whatever, we assimilate through this
informal teaching in the house, number one, number two, if you've
been to a Muslim, and Islamic school, Islamic after school,
whatever the tweet teacher has taught you there, right. And
number three, if you've been lucky enough to take courses, then
you're mashallah, you're very, that's wonderful. But most of us
haven't taken courses. These are the two places we've learned so
Islam from only we haven't understood it in a contemporary
situation, unless you've taken relevant courses for that you've
thought about it, you've read the right thing, but we everyday
really read the media, we're bombarded with this stuff on our
WhatsApp and so on. So we're not getting the proper information.
That's why in sha Allah, I believe that these two books are very
relevant for these current times. One is to give you satisfaction,
the other one is to give his understanding and we ask Allah
subhanaw taala to accept from this office and to bless them as well.
And to give us keep us guided keep us guided and Allah hamara Bonilla
to the globe and the retina habla milodon Kurama. In the cattle
Wahab is one of the wonderful to us. And as numerous doors like
that Allah how many are all the becoming a chef give him hockey
badly or clean? Oh Allah. I asked you to
ask you refuge from doubts with regards the truth after you gave
me conviction, because that's very dangerous. So I will end it here.