Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Who Is Muhammad ( Q&A) at Sheffield University
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Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa
salatu salam ala Luber Ruthie methanol Amin are the early he
will be he or Baraka was to limit the Sleeman Cathedral on Elomi
Dean Amma Barrett
call Allahu terracota Allah for the Quran and material for carnal
Hamid we're in Florida Hello okay now when are called will see the
Falcon been a few hulking with the hollow key when you know what the
new the new fear element one Academy My dear respected friends
and leases I'm honored to be here in your midst today to speak about
who personally I consider to be
one of the greatest inspirations for me to to be living today. I
know I say this as a Muslim, so many people will think that this
is a very subjective way of speaking. But to be honest, I
would say that after coming of age after realizing that you can
actually make your own decisions in life. And you don't have to
necessarily take everything that your father tells you all
authority tells you and you can actually start making certain
decisions where you start looking for sources of information,
epistemological foundations of things, your sources, and then you
suddenly start making real decisions for your life. Many
people are born in different faiths. The Prophet Muhammad peace
be upon him, he said, every offspring is born on the fitrah.
On the primordial nature, everybody's born alike in that
sense. Then, depending on the environment they've been given,
they turn out to be different things, whether that be Muslim,
Christian, Jewish, capitalist, socialist,
secularist militant secularists as our French or in France, so on and
so forth. So you definitely take on some color from your
surroundings. However, when you do grow up, and you start thinking
through things, making reasoned judgments, critical critically
looking at things independently assessing things. And then you
suddenly start saying, No, this is what I want. This sounds right.
This is good. For me, this is where I see the benefits. So
although I don't think there's any pure objectivity, and that's, I
think it's impossible, we're all subjective to certain degree.
However,
the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, the more I read about him,
the more I learn about him, the more he continues to inspire me.
And where I find the greatest benefit, in really the most subtle
acts that he does not the not the big ones, the big ones that most
people know about them, they're there to make a big impression.
They've been noted by people, historians, the big events that
many people will know about. They're the ones that have caught
everybody's attention. They're the ones that really make an
impression on most people. But for me, I'm looking deeper into that.
I did a series of lectures took over about two years 77 lectures
in all, two, I did a series of lectures on this book, that
includes all the traditions about the Prophet Muhammad, peace, be
upon him, his characteristics, and so on, and so forth. And it took
me over two years to cover that.
And that's where you see him in every aspect, in the different
aspects, because you get people in vulnerable situations, they don't
necessarily act, they say, Well, I can tell from myself that in front
of people, I may be very formal, very well behaved. But then
if I am in certain situations where somebody cuts me off in
traffic, or I'm a bit hungry with low blood sugar, or something
else, then I'm not going to have that same character.
This is I think, this is the nature of the human being, we can
be very formal, and that's why what we actually taught in Islam,
for example, there's a book that I that we were studying, which is
about etiquettes of eating, don't slurp your food and don't do this
and don't do that. And then the author said something very nice.
He said,
Eat privately. When you're in private when you're among just
your own family eat in the same way, in a most beautiful way there
so you won't have you won't have to put an act anywhere else. When
eating with anybody else. You can be natural all the time with good
behavior. And that's what really what I find in our Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him.
And I just want to say another thing right from the outset. If
there's anybody to blame today for any misunderstanding of the
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him today. It's us Muslims, and I'm
putting myself up for that. We are to blame for that. The Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him, departed this world about 1400
years ago, leaving a huge legacy,
huge legacy of his life, God had ordained that everything about him
in his life was to be written down. There is no other prophet,
or any other individual of that nature, who 1400 years ago lived,
everything was recorded as to what he said what he did, he had many
wives, and they reported what happened in the home. And, and
you've got all of that recorded. You've got all of that analyzed
and judged and scrutinized to see which of that is authentically
reported standing the test of historical authenticity. So you've
got all of that information. But unfortunately, us as Muslims, we
don't necessarily act like our prophets would like us to we don't
embody his characteristic, we don't embody his behavior. So he's
gone, leaving the tasks to us to show the world who he was. But
unfortunately, we don't do that. And then when people make comics,
and when lawmakers make laws that don't really respect, our love for
our profits, then we are offended. But we don't do enough. How can we
claim as Muslims to be true followers of the Prophet Muhammad,
and then get really angry when we don't even know we don't even read
his Syrah? So we don't even really know how to act in different
settings, because he really gave us all of that. So this is just a
little rant against our own selves, right? Because I think
that's very important to do. So now, this is where I'll start off
from the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. He didn't come for no
reason. He came, as Muslims believe, because God sent him as
one of the final prophets before him came Abraham, Moses, Joseph,
Jacob, Jesus, peace be upon them all. And in this line of Prophets,
a final prophet which was Muhammad peace be upon him, he came down he
he meaning he was chosen from among the people to be the final
prophet, final envoy of of Allah of God, to humankind. He comes
into a place which is called today, Saudi Arabia. In those
days, it was the Arabian Peninsula, western border of the
Arabian Peninsula. That's where That's where he was among the
Qureshi, the tribe of Croatia and Rachel Maga.
Now, Allah subhanaw taala says one thing about him in the Quran, he
says, we're in. He says about him Rama or Salonika. Illa Ramadan did
it mean, we did not send you except as a mercy for all the
worlds for all creation, for all things in existence. That's what
we sent you as a mercy. Now, that is not disconnected from who God
is. Allow me to explain. What I mean by that is Allah subhanho wa
taala. God is, he says that I created the creation. This is
tradition, I created the creation. And what I,
I then commanded them to do certain things because he said, I
created creation, I gave them certain laws to follow so that
they could live in this world and make sure there's no mischief in
this world. Make sure there's no tyranny in this world, make sure
they act in a particular way. However, people obviously they
fall prey to their weaknesses, you know, weaknesses of human beings
of greed and avarice and
hatred, and so on and so forth. So then, a, God says that I realized
that
I could, I could now get angry on them, I could show them my wrath
and punish them for it. But I also have mercy. So God is also
merciful. I'll come back to that in a bit. So then he said that he
had Gods God had written above his throne, a very important
statement. In the Rama de Saba kata orderBy. My Mercy has
overcome my anger. My Mercy dominates my anger. Now, what you
have to understand here, there's this real big problem today that
people are having a theological problem. How is it that evil
exists in this world, when God is supposed to be a merciful God?
Have you done any Have any of you dealt with that issue? Right? So
if God is supposed to be a merciful God, then how is it that
evil exists in this world? Now one thing is that
This is a dilemma only for those people who think that God is
nothing but merciful, meaning the only characteristic he has is of
mercy. But that is not the case, God is not limited by that only
God just like any of us. And historically, looking at the
accounts of this world, there's always been problems in this
world, there's always been calamity here. Now, if our concept
of God is that he's only merciful, then that God will no longer be
able to endure, when you have all of these examples and currently
miseries in the world, then they can't be a God, because if God is
only merciful, they can't be any evil in this world. However, as
most Muslims will know, that is not the only name of God that we
have. We know that God has more than 99 names. There's one
tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, he says, For God, there are 99
names, but that's just the package is given us a 99 names, there are
actually numerous other names mentioned in the Quran, that are
not part of those 99. So there's huge amounts of names. That's why
the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him when he prayed to God, he
said, I asked you by every name of yours that you have, which you
have either revealed in your book, which you've inspired to a
particular individual, or that which you've kept to yourself,
because God is such a supreme, comprehensive entity that is, so
multifunctional in a sense, you can do so many different things,
that he has names that represent all of these things. So at the
same time, that God is merciful, compassionate, Mercy giving, and
so on, and so forth. He is also the one who
can avenge people who has might, who has power, and who has all of
these other attributes of majesty to do as He wills in this world,
and to avenge the people who have been aggressed against. So very
comprehensive picture of God is now emerging. Once you've
understood that picture of God, it works perfectly with the realities
of the world as we see them. It's not a false idea. That's why
the both the current
head of the Anglican Church and the previous one.
And I have a lot of respect for the previous one, because he was a
scholar, theologian is a scholar, he gave up, he gave up. But the
one thing that both of them have said some time in their life, is
that my faith has shook. When the tsunami happened, he said, my
faith shook the previous one.
And the reason for that is trying to reconcile between a God that
only merciful and evil in the world. Now, for Muslims, it's
quite simple. God has many, many names, many characteristics.
Once a Christian said to a Muslim,
you guys are violent.
Your God is violence, said why do you say that? He said, Because you
don't believe you got to be only merciful.
He says, No, our God is merciful. He said, Okay, he may be merciful,
but he's not loving. We want a loving God. He says, No, our God
is also loving. There's a name for him in Arabic, one of the 90 names
Allah dude, and what it means the loving one says, No, that's your
translation of it says, Okay, fine. Let's look in the
dictionary. The dictionary says, Allah dude means cathedral hub,
which means abundant in his love. Oh, we don't trust your
dictionary. We don't trust the author. He says, Okay, fine. Let's
look at let's take the Illuminati. There's a there's a particular
Arabic dictionary called Al masjid, which is written. It's an
Arabic Arabic dictionary written by a Christian priest. So it's not
even a Muslim author, but it's a very good dictionary.
In fact, one of the some of these great dictionaries they're written
by non Muslims Arabic dictionary. So this is called Al Munjal. It
was written by a Christian priest, then one of the best, Arabic to
English lexicons, is written by Edward Layne, and I don't believe
he was a Muslim.
Or maybe he was at the end of his life, I'm not sure. So you've got
this kind of really interesting thing, because there are
Christians who speak Arabic as well. So look in his dictionary,
again, always do the name of Gods means cathedral hope, which means
extremely loving one. So we have many names, in fact, as Muslims,
which is the name which are the names of God that we take most
frequently as Muslims every day many times a day.
A Rahman Rahim. It says whenever you do anything, say Bismillah R
Rahman Rahim in the Name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful. And
you start your prayer you have to read Surah Fatiha the first two
Alhamdulillah your Amina al Amin Rahmani Raheem, most merciful,
Most Merciful giving mostly that's what you read because God has made
it
principle that he will deal more with his mercy than he will deal
with his wrath unless somebody is really asking for it. Right, he
will really try, he will try his best to give mercy as much as
possible, unless the person is really going the other way. So
that is the idea of God. That is how God wants to treat the people
here in this world, His creation, his bonds, people, and this is
exactly then what he gave as the agency to the Prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him, or sunnah, Illa Ramadan Delilah mean that we gave
you, we may do nothing but a source of mercy for all of
creation, or for all of the worlds. Now, I don't want to go
into the etymology of that, and
to speak about that in more detail in that aspect. But this is where
we begin from. So now, that's a claim. Let's start looking at the
life of the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. And because I'm late,
I'm only going to come with a few examples. And I'll open it up to
questions because I think that's important. And I'm sure many of
you have questions, probably about events and things that took place
which may not seem to fit into this view that we give, as just a
few a few things. One is I'll take the example of a young boy who was
about 10 years old, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him
migrated from from Mecca to Medina when Awara when he got the this
boy called Ana subdue Malik his mother came with him to the
Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, he's 10 years old. And she
said to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon you, would you like
some help? My son is here at your service, he'll stay with you and
he'll help you out in whatever you want to do. The prophets Allah
some accepted him, and he then stayed with the Prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him for 10 whole years, for 10 whole years. And
this is what he says, in a hadith that's related by Imam Tirmidhi.
He says that hudon to rasool Allah He sallallahu alayhi wa sallam I
should have seen him, I was in the service of the Messenger of Allah,
peace be upon him for 10 whole years. And for Mark Connolly often
to never once did he even make a sound of disapproval to me. If
this is an Arab Arabic onomatopoeia, as you call them,
the just the sound of disapproval. Like why did you do that? What do
you say? What do we say?
Yeah, I don't even want to I don't even want to go beyond that.
Right? Anyway, so he didn't he never once in 10 years said that
to him. Then he says, Well, Mr. Connolly, we're not gonna leash
leash che in Sinatra, who limits on actor who were early che
interra? To who limits Toronto? Neither did he ever tell me about
anything that I had done? probably wrong. Why did you do that? Or if
I'd missed something, why did you not do that? Never once? Did he
say that to me? Now, as a scholar, if you're looking at this and
saying, Okay, well, maybe he was such a good servant, that he never
made a mistake.
Firstly, that's kind of impossible. Human beings are prone
to mistakes, right? Especially 1013 1213, or they want to play,
right?
So he never made a mistake. If he never made a mistake, Prophet
Muhammad, Israel had no reason to tell him off. So that's really the
virtue of the boy and not the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon.
However, there's another narration which didn't read Josias related,
which is more detailed than this, where the same young boy young man
is saying, he says the same things. And then he says at the
end, he says, But inevitably, I don't mean early beta. I mean,
early, if any one of his family members, his wives, or anybody
else was in the house was to tell me off. He would say, why you tell
him enough, why you telling him off? Whatever has been decreed.
That's what's happened. That's how he used to pass it off.
Now, does that mean you're not allowed to tell anybody else? No,
you are for discipline purposes. But you see, the one thing with
the problem one piece when he knew exactly where to do it, he didn't
make mistakes like this, because he had equilibrium of character.
What? What's got to say is that
let's think about ourselves first. Where do we fail? Where does our
character fail? Generally, our character fails when it comes to
anger issues, or to less of anger. What I mean by that is, you become
cowardly. You're not even willing to stand up. You're just sit there
being abused and you can't do anything. That's cowardliness.
That's not honorable response. Another one is too much desire, or
too less of desire to do anything. No him no aspiration, no dream,
just laid back attitude. Now, if we have an equilibrium in this,
then you'd have the perfect character. We lose our character
when we fly off the handle. We lose our
character, we're not considered to be decent individuals and
respectable people, when we don't have an equilibrium in this
regard, the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam was so perfect
in this regard. He knew how to act in the right situation, doesn't
mean that he was never angry. There was cases where he was
angry. And he actually mentioned that he got so red in the face
that as though the seeds of a pomegranate had been burst on his
cheek, right, that's how, that's how red had become. So it's not
the case that he never became angry. They were cases in which he
became angry and so on. But when it came to things of this nature,
this is the way he acted. He never He said, This is what Allah
wanted. Now, there's another very interesting story that's related
by Baba La Nina Hepburn, Hakeem and B, hockey and others I
mentioned these sources for for those who are interested, he says
that there was a Jewish rabbi,
this particular Jewish rabbi, now they had, they came before
the Jewish tradition is older than Islam. So they had the Torah, they
had the they had the Old Testament before. And there were certain
signs in there certain prophecies about the coming of a new prophet
in there. So they had been waiting for this prophet. In fact, the
three Jewish tribes that had decided to come and settle in
Madina Munawwara is because they saw that as the place of the
coming of the new prophet, because it was that oasis that had been
foretold in their books. However, when the Prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him did arise, but he arose not from among them, and He arose
from the Arabs of the area, they decided that, though we believe
you to be the prophet, but we can't take we can't, we can't
accept that.
Each religion
has their own ways of thinking, and the way they deal with things.
So whatever the cases, this particular individual, he knew the
science that this new prophet was going to show was going to
display.
So he says that I had looked for all of the signs, and I had seen
all of the signs manifest on him except two.
So which I hadn't been able to see it. And I had to verify that he
was the prophet that had been foretold in our books, the Old
Testament. Now,
he then he says that those two things that I had to still test
him on, was that it was written that
his clemency his forbearance, his ability to be patient overcomes
his ignorance, meaning he doesn't act ignorantly he's able to act
decently with chivalry in matters that other people may start acting
ignorantly in. That's one thing. And the more you act with
ignorance in front of him, the more silly you are with him,
basically, the more forbearing he becomes, that's totally opposed to
me, by somebody becoming more president, I will really make sure
that I'm not going to take that from them. Right. But that's not I
will profess the universal profess that that's not the prophetic way
of doing things. And may God helped me to change myself.
So he says, I was trying to find a way I was trying to plan a way
that I could go and
engage him in this regard. So
once he needed, I went, and I purchased from him, dates, and
advanced purchase. So that's what they used to do in those days, the
dates are still on the trees. They're not ripe yet. But I'm
going to come and purchase them from the farmer saying, when your
crop is ready in six months, or four months, or two months or
whatever, I paid you right now, they're mine when they when
they're ready. So now, I paid him the money. I paid him I paid him.
I paid him the money or whatever, whatever it was that he paid him.
And then he said, I waited for a while and then about two or three
days before he was supposed to be producing for me the crops before
you're supposed to hand them to me. I went early on. I went on
this, he says I went and grabbed his commies his tunic and his
shawl. I went and grabbed it in my hands. And I said to him, I looked
at him with a very stern face, right? He really wanted to make
this a bridge drama. He said I looked him in the very stern face.
And I said to him
can you not repay your loan or Muhammad?
By Allah by God, you children of Abdulmutallab. Now that's a big
swear to really curse somebody with their tribe. That's even a
big problem. That's a bigger problem than cursing somebody
individually. You curse my tribe. You know, it's like that kind of
thing. Oh,
A children of Abdulmutallab, you people always delay in your
repayment. Now, imagine if that's happening to somebody we said,
We'll give it to you on Tuesday. They come to us on Sunday, and
they want what are you going to say, man, you know, you're
supposed to go. I've got two days after donkey, you know, this would
be our response. That What was his response?
Immediately, you've got a companion of the Prophet Muhammad
famous one whose name is Omar, he says, Oh enemy of God.
You're saying that to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Now
these people love the message, they're willing to die for him. So
you are saying this about the messenger of God? And he says, if
it wasn't for i for what I fear to be facing I finish you off right
now. So he had this really with my with my, with my soul that finish
you off right now. Now they carried their swords in those
days. Now, if you're thinking that that was a very violent community,
that's what they used to do in England as well until you know,
recently, you know, this is around the world and people used to just
caught on with a knife. Thing, Univ Al Hamdulillah. Now it's torn
out of the hands of people, but that's the way they used to settle
their affairs in those days, for some reason throughout the world
in many places. Anyway, so the Prophet Muhammad if you looked at
him, sallAllahu Sallam he is they're just so calm, just
watching this whole scenario. It says he had so much Sakina sukoon
and took the which means we're so composed, so tranquil, just
watching this, it seems like you're looking at Amara, Radi
Allahu I'm saying why do you have to do that for? Why do you have to
say that? So then he said to Omar, the Allah who
I know who couldn't which Allah lady Hurva. Oh, Omar, both of us
were in need of something other than what you're doing. That is
not the way your reaction should be. We are in need of something
different. He says, You should have told me that I should be
better in my repayment. That's what you should be counseling me
on. Savonarola. And you should be telling him that he should take it
easy. That's the way you should deal with this.
He says then almost go and go and give him 20 extra measures 20
extra liters, or whatever it was, you know, 20 extra kilos, or
whatever it may be, from what I had originally promised him, Go
and give it to him. We're gonna get what he is do and give him 20
Extra on that. So as they started going, immediately his first
ancestor, Omar, this Jewish rabbi, he says there O'Meara the Allah
one, every one of the signs of prophecy that I had been looking
for. Finally, I have I have seen them all. And that was that there
were these two things that I still needed to check, which was that
the more silly you are with him, the more Clement and reasonable He
is with you. And this is not the only case I chose this particular
story. But there are a number of cases of this nature where these
Bedouins would come, they were very harsh in their approach, they
would just come one came and he literally took all of the sheet
and the profit behind this view of it was it was on his camel on his
means of conveyance, he pull the sheet. And then he said, Give me
from what God has given you. Is that the way to ask, I'll give you
brother, you know, you don't have to do that to me, but the Prophet
Mohammed PCRE just understood where people were coming from the
great thing about him because of this equilibrium in his character.
And this being a source of Mercy that's being acted out. He knew
how to act. There was another occasion when his army was going
through a place and they found an anthill. And for some reason, they
decided to burn it up. Now, God knows why they did that. But it
looks like armies do these things. You know, when you've got a lot of
power, and you've got your weapons at your disposal, then you go into
Abu Ghraib and do these weird things as they did. It's just it
seems like this is what this is a syndrome that happens to people.
And that's why the Prophet Muhammad recently, he said
something very interesting. And I found that very, very interesting.
He says that don't take a sword, or a knife, and and brandish in
front of someone. Right? He says why? He says because maybe shaytan
will pull your arm or push your arm. And you know, to be honest,
you know, sometimes if you've got a knife or something like us
messing around with somebody, you have this weird sense of satanic
power or something, right? Or whatever it is. And it's not nice
to do that. It's not nice to do that, you know, just even as a
joke, because it's dangerous. So this is what he said, This is
exactly what the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him said.
So, his army, they were going through and there was an anthill,
and they burnt and he got really angry says, Why did you do that
for?
He says, Why did you do that for? So there were things of this
nature that he not only worried about people, but he worried about
animals.
You know, nowadays if you're driving, and if there's no traffic
and you see your friend coming from the other side, oh yeah, the
first time you haven't seen him for a month or something that you
open, put down the window and you start talking, then your car is
running as a waste of petrol, isn't it right?
Now,
camels don't take petrol. Right. But the Prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him said that if you're riding your camel, and then you
stop to talk to somebody, then get off the camel and let it rest.
Don't overburden it more than it's necessary. So he even thought
about animals. Now I know, I know, I know that the world your your
your thinking. But this is not what we hear of Muslims around the
world today. This is not what we see some of them brandishing heads
that they've chopped off, you know, that didn't sound like the
Prophet Muhammad peace be able to you're telling a different story.
Now, what you have to realize is that if you look in history,
beyond 15 years, you won't see these gruesome killings that we
see today.
Right? If you look beyond 15 to 20 years ago, if you just come out of
this vacuum that we're in right now, and you will see that this is
not how Muslims were around the world. There are very particular
reasons, and I don't agree with all of them. But there are
particular reasons and contexts of what is happening today. That's
not our topic today. Right? But I just want you to be more objective
in your appraisal of the situation. 1.8 billion Muslims
profess to follow this great man because they find something.
Otherwise, they'd be turning away from their religion. Yes, there
are people who turn away from the religion. But there are more that
enter constantly, despite everything, because there is a
mercy that they see. And what you will see is a representation among
different Muslims in different forms, human failings is something
that is across all religions and communities and cultures, you will
find violence in every culture, you will find greed in every
culture, you will find selfishness in every culture, that's a human
failing. At the end of the day, we're human beings. And our
religion for us is only as good as we make it. Lets everybody, it's
to their own. It's to their own in that regard. The religion is
there. It's great. And that's why I come back to what I said right
in the beginning, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him left us
a great legacy, a great character that he wanted us to embody by
learning it from him, and fishing, the Muslims aren't doing so. And
then they sit back. And they want the ministers in Parliament to
make laws to defend the Muslims. The ministers in Parliament don't
see any value within the Muslims because we haven't showed them
that value. We haven't shown them that value, what it means to be
what why is it people are baffled today? Why is it that they love
this man so much, that they're willing to go some of them are
willing to go and kill you kill for for him? Why is it what is it?
Now? That's the complicated aspects. We're not showing the
positive aspects. A few of us are getting angry. Few people are
getting angry and they're, they're showing another side of it. We've
got a lot to show. There's so many things, there's so many things.
The Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. He mentioned. He says, The
best of you
is the one who is best to his wife. Because there is a tendency
among husbands wherever they are, to do domestic violence, that's
human failing again, wherever it is, some only Muslims do it. Many
people do it. But the Prophet Muhammad he said
the best of you is the one who is the best to his wife and I am the
best to my wife. And that's why his wife Aisha Radi Allahu Allah
has said that the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him
Medora ba Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
Bab he shaped and ought to never once did he strike anything with
his hands, except once in a fight in a war in a war and that was
only one man. And again, he didn't like clobber him. He just said to
he had said to this particular individual obey it, no * of
that I'm gonna kill you. Because the guy was very arrogant. He
says, I'm gonna kill you. And then when he came to the battle, he
came in front of the Prophet Muhammad Prophet Montes to him and
asked for a spear or something and just touched him with it. The guy
was wounded, and he went back in he knew that this is his end. He
says, Mom is killing me Mama is killing me. Mom's killed me. And
then he died from that. It wasn't like he attacked him in the so
then his wife says, are actually the one who says that never once
did he kill. Never once did he hit anybody except if it was war. And
again, that was only once that we learn from from the historical
sources. And then she says, Well, Adorama Haldimand wala Imran never
once did he strike any of his servants.
or his wife, or any of his wives, and he had 11 wives, right? He had
11 wives over the course of his life or more maybe, right? We know
of 11 at least never once did he strike any of them. And he would
make, he would get really angry when he heard of other people
doing that. So anyway, that this gives us this gives us an idea.
And finally, finally, we just shows his totally selfless
attitude is totally self said attitude can be understood from
this, which
the Muslims will will understand on the Day of Judgment.
When everyone else will be saying, Enough, see enough See, meaning
I'm worried about myself, I'm worried about myself. They'll have
a selfish attitude on that day, and I don't blame them for it. The
only individual on that entire plane, who will be saying Almighty
Almighty is the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam, that shows the
highest manifestation of what they call in Arabic is ethought. His
preference to others is concerned for others, that is the concern he
had for this ummah. And unfortunately, we pray, we pray to
Allah subhanho wa taala, that Allah make us true embodiment of
his character, true, Mohammed, these two representatives of his
character, then you'll see that people will have more respect,
there's no you can't force the characteristics of somebody else
down somebody else's throat by telling them you must believe in
this, you must display to them, you must show it to them, and
humans, psychologically,
are prone to what it says is that the nature of human beings are
such that they're prone to stealing behavior from others
without even realizing, you sit with somebody who behaves in a
particular way. For a few days, you will take some of that
behavior very quickly. This is the way we are. We are products of our
surroundings. We are social creatures. That's exactly how we
are. And what we need to do is we need to embody the true
characteristic, the prophetic equilibrium so that we can infuse
some fresh air into the world. We all know we have a great heritage,
we just need to be able to
help others with that. May Allah subhanho wa Taala give us the
Tofik Welcome to Darwin on hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen. I'll take
your questions.
Yes.
Research
what exactly makes the Hadith which are the traditions what
actually actually makes them authentic? Now that's a massive
science, which incorporates a number of things. So not to bore
everybody. I'll just give a very quick overview. Firstly, you've
got numerous statements that claim to be statements of the Prophet
Mohammed or about him about some action of his
How do we know that they are really about him?
So with every statement, there is a chain with every statement,
there's a chain. So for example, Imam Timothy or Imam Buhari, the
Hadith collector who collected the book of statements, he would say,
I heard this from my teacher, or maybe who heard it from Sofia
Wang, who heard it from so and so who heard it from Abdullah Hebner
Omo, who said that I saw Rasulullah sallallahu. I'm saying
this. So now, what you will look at is you will look at this chain,
the scholars have done this, they've looked at this chain, and
they've said, they scrutinize every single individual, they've
written huge books and biographical
data on each of these individuals. There was a big scholar whose name
was Zane has been under a rock king. He says about his teacher
whose name was shrimps would be in a hurry. He says that my teacher
knew the history of these narrator's to such a degree that
if he was made to stand up on a small hill on the Day of Judgment,
he'll be able to pick every one of these Hadith narrators out 1000s
of them, hundreds of 1000s of them because they were hundreds of
1000s. He'll be able to tell you his birth date, his death date,
who related from him, who he related from who his teachers
were, if he made a mistake, if he forgot anything. This is the lens.
So for example, there's some huge books. One is called a CRO ilm, in
novella in about 30 volumes. There's another one called the
skeletal profile. There's another one called the rebuild canal. This
is huge collections. Imam Buhari himself has a book called Atari
Huckabee, the big history. There's 30, Baghdad in 50 volumes, where
the author Parthiban Baghdadi, he literally mentions the histories
of anybody who until his time entered into Buddha, or lived in
Baghdad taught in butter, right so this is the kind of historical
work is there in multiple volumes.
And a lot of these scholars actually knew all of this by heart
at the time, which sounds mythical to us today. But a lot of the
stuff was memorized in those days. So they will you will do a lot of
cross referencing and you'll be able to figure it out.
Yes.
You mentioned how Prophet
had many wives in this day and age is hard to accept.
That was an idea, especially a prophet. Can you explain that a
bit more? Yeah, you see what we have to understand with any of
these things, whenever you study any culture, what we're generally
going to do, and this is what anthropologists eventually figured
out, if you take even a basic introduction to anthropology, and
understand the initial, the, the first ones were people who are
sitting in their armchairs in England, right, or in some other
parts of Europe, waiting for these ships, to come back from these
areas with information, they would sit back, and they would judge
everything, according to what was happening in England, right?
Later, they discovered that that's not very objective, you have to
come out of your subjectivity, your surroundings, your ideas,
your your inclinations, what you believe and so on, and plant
yourself into that culture and try to become one of them and try to
understand it like that. Now, one of the biggest things is that it's
not only the Muslim culture, and you know, there's I don't want to
take too much time on this, because there's so much on on this
already online. Right? This is not an obscure issue. But it's not
only the Prophet Muhammad peace, we already had more than wives.
There's a number of Prophets, it's a tradition. In fact, it's a
tradition. It was a major, it's still a tradition, some I went to
Africa right now. So in in Mauritania, and Senegal, for
example, you've got the Moorish Arab Berber tribes, they don't
have more than one wives, their wives, the women would not allow
it. So they just they just don't have it. And you just got further
south, and you got the wall off and Fulanis, which are the major
African tribes, and they're completely fine with it. Right?
Until today, I met an individual, it's got two wives, right. I know
individuals who have two wives, and it's quite normal for them to
do that. So here in England is very difficult. Now, as part of
Islam, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, he did it for
different reasons. Number one, he did it. For the so many times he
was able to
quash rebellion, form alliances with tribes, there was one
occasion where in those days, and I'm probably opening another can
of worms here. But they all became a tribe, and they will all make
prisoners, and then they will make prisoners now.
God, or the Allah Rania, who was one of the prisoners, who is one
of the women taking us prisoners. She came to the Prophet Muhammad
peace thrown him, she was a very bold individual. And she came in
she said, that, you know, she, she spoke to him and the Prophet
Muhammad peace be upon him, agreed to marry him.
As soon as he married.
All the others who taken those prisoners, they said, we can't
have tribes, people have a prophets of the Prophet's wife, as
prisoners, and then all of them go, they feed all of them. So on
numerous occasions, it was for that reason, it was it was for
reasons like this. So there were different reasons for different
and it was the it was involved that time there was no no problem.
So even his main critics in those days had absolutely no problem
with that, because they were doing it as well. It's quite a normal
thing to do. We find that very difficult today, because it
doesn't happen as much, well actually does happen. To be
honest, it hasn't stopped that
aspect of having for a man having more than one woman and in some
cases, one woman having more than one man, it hasn't stopped today.
It's just not legal. And it's just not official. And it's without
responsibility. That's the only difference. So today, you've got
to go how many wives have complained of mistresses? Right?
How many people are there who've never had a mistress who've never
heard anything back there wife. How many men are like that? And I
don't want to judge people but this is quite a normal phenomenon
today. It's just that in Islam, you want to do it you can maximum
up to four theater, theoretically speaking, but with responsibility.
So you're responsible it's not like one nightstand go carry on
find another one. So it's hopefully that gives some idea of
that. Yes.
Okay. What I'll do is you've already asked the question right.
So I have to be fair,
many people accuse the Prophet sallallahu Sallam being a
* or or the below what is the best response to give to these
people? Yeah, that's another one which is that the Prophet Muhammad
peace be upon him married a nine year old girl. All right, you
should have the Allah. All the others are much older but
She was nine years old. Now again, she was a mature girl, today, nine
year old girls, nine year old guys. They're just not old enough
for anything. Right? They just, I mean, I've seen kids who come from
other countries, they, we, we seem to be so pampered here that we
don't grow up until we're 18. Because legally, the age of being
grown up is 18. We psychologically affected by that. So we act like
children, until then, if you look at certain other countries where
responsibility is given much earlier, you will see that people
actually start maturing psychologically as well. They can
take control of things. So in those days, once you were, when
you call in Islam ballad, mature, you've had your menses is
permitted for you to marry. And again, if you look throughout
history, it wasn't unique to Arabia, that was the culture of
Arabia to do that. That's why even the biggest critics of the Prophet
Muhammad, those who hated him wanted include and so on, never
once brought that up as an issue, because it was not an issue. It
was a non issue at the time. Today, it's an issue here. Right?
Today, it's an issue here. But
there's a number of good works written on this, which actually
shows that even in Europe, it's not everywhere that because in
this country, if you want to be married, you're allowed to be
married after the age of 16, with concept of your parents, and 18,
without consent of your parents, but in certain other European
countries is actually lower than that. We also know of young of
teenagers, having children bearing children, etc. At the age of 1213.
And even younger than that.
Anyway, the straightforward answer to this, in my understanding is
that it was a quite normal for that to happen in those days. And
that's why he did it. Today. We can't we're seeing it through a
different prison. That's why prison, that's why we're having
difficulty in understanding that. But anyway, that's the issue that
you mentioned that the Prophet used to go read that anger, can
you mention a few instances reasons for his anger? Yeah, what
it mentions clearly is that it actually sums it up, he says that
he would never get angry if you did anything against him
personally. But if any of the laws of God were contravene and
violated, then you would get really, really angry.
One occasion
after Haber, it was sorry, after, after her name, there was a lot of
booty that had been received a lot of riches, lot of booty that had
been received. And the Prophet Muhammad gave peace be upon him
huge amounts to some of the leaders of Makkah, who had come
into it just recently come into Islam. Some other people found
that to be found it to be unfair. So he said, how can he do that? So
the Prophet won't be suddenly got very angry at that he says that,
how can you say that about a prophet? This is clearly there's a
reason for giving them, right, because they've just come into the
faith, this helps them to strengthen them, right? And so on
and so forth. So that was one of their in this, there's a few other
but it was always when there was a violation, never against himself.
That is very clear from the traditions.
You said there are disasters like the tsunami losing a child, etc.
Is there a compensation from God for some putting somebody through
that? Absolutely. Go? I like that question. See, God is very
comprehensive. So if you've got a tsunami somewhere, or you've got
any other turmoil anywhere else in the world,
God is so comprehensive that it can perform a number of functions.
I was standing
in front of
I was standing in front of Victoria Falls in Zambia. It's one
of the best falls that I've seen, right? I've seen the Niagara
Falls, but the Victoria Falls are wild. And they are amazing. They
were standing in front of them. And I had a friend with me and he
said, Look at the beauty. And I said yes, but look at the majesty.
So both you see that huge wall of water just thundering down and
that spray that's coming out of it. And you say That's beautiful,
but it's also majestic. Generally, majesty and beauty are opposing
ends of the spectrum. But here, they're coming together. Likewise,
we've got it, there's a tsunami, and there's people there who need
who are sick of this world they've been oppressed and so on. Well,
they are considered martyrs, the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him. He said that anybody who dies in any kind of unnatural
circumstances, they are martyrs, so they are compensated for that.
There may be people in there who are aggressions and who are
aggressive, who have who are violent people who are criminals
and whatever. And maybe this is who's to say this may be a
punishment for them. So
God knows best what He does things for, were told that there's a
beautiful Hadith that sums it up from the Prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him. He said, the believers state is so astonishing. It's so
great. If a calamity befalls, and they are patient, then that is
good for them. And if they have prosperity, and they are thankful,
grateful than that is good for them. So we have our work cut out
for us. If we have good times, which we do many times, we have to
thank God. And if we have bad times, sometimes which is going to
happen, this is not paradise. It's never been promised to me. There's
going to be difficulties he has, God says in the Quran, but you
have to be patient. And that's good for you as well, as
difficulty as that patient is some people have really mastered this.
There's one man who lost his son, one of the great scholars of the
past, he lost his son, and he did not well and start tearing his
clothes and everything as other people probably did in those
times. Somebody came to him and said, Tim, how can we don't see
you react like that? He said, I'm acting like you would do after
three days anyway.
After three days of waiting, and then eventually finding out that
you're helpless, and you can't really do anything, and then you
kind of consign your matter to God. He says, I'm just doing that
from now. So it's that kind of an attitude that a person should have
yes, you're allowed to cry, but not well and not lose yourself.
The world has to carry on.
In Islam, in Islam, how is God's just nature reconciled with the
human condition of sin? How is this paid since it cannot be
pardoned? No sins can be pardoned.
What Allah subhanaw taala sees in the Quran in Allah lie of Pharaoh
a new Shakopee will Pharaoh Medina, he can remain Yeshua,
Allah does not God does not forgive that somebody attribute
partners to him, but he forgives everything else beyond that. So if
somebody is fornicated, all their life stolen, you know, cheating,
etc, etc. Then there are ways of forgiveness. So forgiveness is
definitely always open. In fact, Allah subhanaw taala makes it so
clear. You have
imagined this scenario. I don't know if you've ever experienced
this. You've been when we're young. We've been we messed around
at home a lot. And then what happens is that when the father
came back home, the mother said it all the time mother says mine,
Mara, Mara, Mara butcher Mara Pacino, my son, my son, my son, my
daughter, my daughter, and then today she goes, your daughter was
like this and your son was like this. She doesn't even want to
attribute the child to herself anymore because she's so angry.
But look at God and the way he does things. He says in the Quran,
ya eva de Alladhina Estrada unfussy him la Rahmatullah. Oh my
servants, who have aggressed their transgressed against themselves,
do not become despondent of the Mercy of Allah, because I forgive
all sins. So he's calling out to the transgressors as well. So
that's in this world. Now, let's just say that somebody dies
without having sought forgiveness for their sins, what happens in
the hereafter. So our belief in that as opposed to some other
theological groups that we had, this is the mainstream orthodox
position is that everything other than disbelief or a shake, can be
forgiven by God if he wants to. So if he is light, a particular good
deed, like the famous story of the prostitute who fed a gave the dog
to drink, you know, there was a dog that was panting for water
next to a well, there was a way to get the water out for the dog, she
took off her boot, fill in, put it down into the well drew the water,
gave it to the dog to drink. I was such a wonderful act, so beloved
to God, that He forgave him for everything. Now, you can't go and
do that once and say, I'm going to mess around in my life. And you
know, that's going to happen. No, it depends on the individual. And
what kind of sincerity you did thing was God has his own way of
looking things, or you have to remember is that God does have
more mercy than, than wrath. So we hope for that from him, but we try
to do our best. So yes, all sins can be forgiven, can be forgiven.
And University as university should, what is the one thing you
would like us to take from this beautiful character of a salsa was
relevant to us? I think the only way we can do that is to read more
and more and more and more about him. Because the way we are you
read any book, you're not going to take everything 100% What they say
is that any lecture that you listen to, let's say I give a
lecture or I write a book, what do you think is the statistics for
that the take up the adoption of that lecture? How many people will
benefit from that truly, what's the percentage?
It's about five to 10%, right? It's about five to 10%.
Allah when Allah subhanaw taala what he does in the Quran is that
he never mentioned stories.
consistently one after the other, he mentioned the bit of
information here, then you mentioned the bit here mentioned
some here. And he says, Well, I've got sarafa that we have done this
in the Quran in this manner, so that Landerholm yet at that
karoun, so that they can gain an A see how you see human goal, humans
go through different emotions, different vulnerabilities,
different feelings, different downtimes High Times when reading
things, it may not affect us the first time. But it may affect a
second time, or the third time, we have to keep reading the life of
the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, we have to keep interacting
with the Hadith. And you will notice that you read this, it
didn't make sense to you today. Tomorrow it will because you've
had an experience where that takes him. And what most things are, we
don't have time today, because we're spending hours and hours
behind careers to make money from. Right, we don't have time for
other things as much as we'd like to. So we have to spend some time
reading about the beauty of his character and his life. And you
will see that bit by bit there will be some effects of it. That's
what we hope for.
But today, we need to show that character. This is the way of it
the his kindness, his generosity, his clemency, his beauty, his
help, and his fairness.
If Muslims are
conning the system, that's a very bad thing. In some European
countries, this is exactly why many people have turned against
the Muslims in those countries, because they came as immigrants
found a welfare system and started milking it. Right? We need to stop
doing those kinds of things. If people are doing that, we need to
be just in our approach when they go to work, we need to have
empathy. You know, I've got a friend who was so good at his
work, though he used to take Friday's off, he used to take it
you know, the other time used to make up his time and so on, that
they made all sorts of allowances for him. People are willing to do
that, if they see your good character is a friend of mine. We
just told me that he went to work for a housing association. And in
the contract stage, initial stage, after they kind of hired him to a
certain degree that agreed to take him on. He said, I've got one more
issue I need to pray a few times a day, I need a clean place for
that. So immediately, they said that they saw he was going to be
an asset, because they'd had hunted him. So they said, Okay,
fine, we'll get back to you on that. We'll talk to our human
resources, etc, we'll get back to you. They came back to him after a
few days. And they said, we've we've researched this area. And
we've realized that you need a nice clean area for this with
privacy. So next door, there's that
hope hotel, whatever it was, we've rented or will rent a room for the
entire duration of yours, of your stay with us. And you can be free
to use that whole hotel room. And it's all no you don't need to do
that. I just need a small area and there was a storeroom that they
cleaned up photocopied in there. And so people are willing to do
things for us if we're willing to be assets. If we're in there just
to make our money and sloth around in our work and it's not going to
happen.
Nowadays the world often relates Islam to violence. Can you tell
them on how actually Islam Muslims react to enemy in wars during the
Prophet Muhammad's life sallallahu alayhi wa sallam? That's obviously
a long discussion. But
I think some of the rulings is that the Prophet Muhammad peace
already he says, only attack the Warriors don't attack women at
home the children don't burn down trees unnecessarily. Don't go
after the hermit's in their hermit Shoot, we're not taking part in
war. So basically he knew that the psyche of soldiers is to go and
aggression as we've seen, right? He was very careful about that. He
was very particular about that in that can unfortunate we don't have
time to open it up, open it up much more, but inshallah some of
the time. Well, I can read that one and it hamdulillahi rabbil
Alameen here for this opportunity.