Adnan Rajeh – Seeking Knowledge- Becoming Imams
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AI: Transcript ©
I am going to continue with the series
of seeking knowledge this week and and next
week before I move on to something new.
And
the reason that I I want to focus
on this even though prob I've done this
this is probably the second or even third
time I can't remember that I've covered short
series within Khubbas talking about knowledge.
It's not because I run out of ideas
or topics that I think are worthy of
sharing with you, but rather be because I
truly believe to to to to my in
my core, in the heart of my heart
that this is the way out for us.
This is the only way out for us.
That's as a Muslim woman, as Muslim communities,
as Muslim individuals, the way for us out
of the darkness that we are residing in
into a
into enlightenment of any sorts. To find the
light. To find the light. It has it's
going to come through knowledge. It's going to
come through knowledge because that's what happened the
first time around. You have to learn from
history. And sometimes learning from history is not
just learning what mistakes not to make, but
also learning what you should be doing. And
I can't think of a better example of
the status of the Arab when the prophet
came to them. They had
absolutely nothing working for them. Everything was against
them. They were when there are few
populations on earth that never historically
build built a great empire.
They didn't have the resources for it. They
didn't live beside rivers. They have a lot
of large bodies of of fresh water. They
didn't have they just didn't have these things,
so they never ended up having a large
empire as many of the
nations before them. If you
exclude
that did they didn't last very long anyways.
Just didn't. And when the father, alaihis salatu
salatu salatu salam, came to them,
at that time, they they lacked any form
of political organization.
They didn't have any form of unity. They
didn't really have any resources. They didn't have
large armies. They didn't
they didn't have almost anything that would indicate
to anyone at that time looking at the
world
to think that the next change, the next
huge change or shift within historical events is
gonna come from this desert. No one had
any reason to believe that.
But he was able to actually do it
in record time by the way. In record
time, but that's for a topic for another
Khutba. The amount of time it took him
to transform people is is absolutely
unheard
of. Well, how did he do it?
How did he do it? It was done
through it was done through knowledge.
Today we are
in one of the darker spots of or
darker points of Islamic history.
The graph has has dipped quite low.
And no matter how you look at it,
no matter how optimistic you want to be
or I want to try and be, it's
just we're stuck with this reality that this
is a very these are very dark moments
for us. We've had worse. I've shared with
you. There there have been worse for sure.
But this is a dark moment nonetheless,
where a full nation of 2,000,000,000 people lack
the ability
to stop bloodshed amongst their innocence, amongst the
women and children of one of their one
of their majority countries.
That Muslims don't have enough pull within the
world that they live in. Think about this.
That Muslims, 2,000,000,000 of us, we don't have
enough pull in any of the countries that
we live in across the globe
to stop this ongoing genocidal attempt
that's happening in the holy land now counting
over over 4045,000
people have been killed.
That to me is an indication that this
is a very dark point. In case in
case some of us, at some point before
this, were thinking that we are yeah. Things
are getting better or we're no. Not not
really. Not really. We have to be honest
about it. This is not the the the
we have no indications right now. Now it
can change for sure. And the goal is
for that to change for sure. For us
to actually be in a position where something
like this would never happen again. It can
happen. It can change, but that change is
going to come through a gate. Which gate
is it? It's going to come through the
gate of knowledge of seeking knowledge by this,
especially by the younger generation. We're gonna go
and they're going to learn. They're going to
learn everything that they can learn.
The prophet
tells us,
And the difference between a scholar, a scientist,
someone of knowledge, and a worshipper, a common
person, is like the difference or the significance
of a full moon over all the stars
in the sky to you when you're looking
at the sky. Huge difference. In another hadith
in another hadith also
he said, you say
The significance or difference between a scholar and
a common worshiper is a difference between Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi sallam and the least of Muslims.
And the least of Muslims is the one
who's wording
The ayah that I just recited for you.
Say, is what Allah subhanahu wa sallam is
telling the prophet
and ask after him. Say,
we ask this question, is it equal? Are
they equal?
Those who have knowledge.
And those who don't.
Exclusively the ones who will know the answer
to these questions are the ones who have
intellect.
I Meaning the people who have knowledge know,
they know the difference, they know the difference.
Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan, which is a
book for those of you who are interested
in sociology, is very important.
One of the most important works, yeah, aside
from Muqaddimit ibn Khaldun. And within it in
1600, he he stated for the first time
the the phrase knowledge is power.
For the first time that statement was made
in this in this in this script,
And it's been, you know, kinda carried along
for for 10 centuries afterwards.
And as Muslims, we've always known that. We've
always known that knowledge is your path to
power.
Your weakness and my weakness right now at
this moment is just the fact that I
don't know what's coming next. That's the that's
that's that's it.
My weakness right now is just that I
don't know what tomorrow carries for me. I'm
ignorant of
to me. It's like I don't know what's
what's what's in what's in store for me
tomorrow or the day after. I don't know.
If I knew, life would be very different
for me.
If you knew it was coming your way,
you could avoid
The prophet
will say, if I knew if I knew
if I knew all that which was unknown
to a human being, which he doesn't
and he's the most knowledgeable of everyone,
then I would make sure no harm ever
came to me. I would only do good
things because I knew I knew what's going
to happen next. I could plan a hood.
We you can't.
It's our ignorance that makes us weak as
human beings. And the more ignorant we are,
the weaker we are, and the more knowledge
we have, the stronger we are. And this
is what the word imam actually means in
Islam. Which is why I called the, yeah,
I need the, the academy, imam development. The
word imam means this. When when when Allah
spoke to Ibrahim, he said,
that's the wording he used with Ibrahim alaihis
salam. The most followed human being, even though
lots lots of people follow him incorrectly. But
he is the most followed human being. Most
face on earth will identify with Ibrahim. They
may disagree on the description of
disagree on the story of Musa, disagree on
the status of Muhammad
but we all agree he's he's he's agreed
upon by by at least half of the
people living on this planet.
During his life, he had very few followers.
Ibrahim had very few people who listened to
him during his life. He didn't build a
country. He didn't have Sahaba as the prophet
did. It happened after he passed away. Well,
then why did Allah call him? I'm I'm
going to make you for people in imam.
Because what it means, it means to lead
by example.
It means to be the person who opens
the doors, who paves the way, the one
who's going to be the role model, the
one who's not waiting for other people to
come and do some of the scut work
for him. He's not waiting for others to
go and sacrifice themselves or put themselves ahead.
He was going to do it, not looking
back whether you follow him or not gonna
make a difference to him, and
he became the
one of the most significant,
historical
figures of all time
The concept of being an imam of
of of take it but how do you
do that? You can't you can't do that
without knowledge.
The word imam in our in our tradition
was left for people who had so this
is what this is what I did, for
this Khutba. I made I challenged I made
a challenge for myself. I'm gonna show you
what the challenge was. I told myself right
before the Khutba, 10, 15 minutes before the
Khutba, I was gonna go into my office,
and then my computer is still open. I
was gonna go to the book This is
written by And
for 5 minutes, just for 5 minutes so
that so that I this is a challenge.
I could I could do this easily throughout
the week. But I was gonna do right
before Jummah. Go sit. I'm gonna scroll through
and switch through and
just choose scholars.
Just choose scholars out of those book and
come and read to you what he said
about them.
Right? This took me 5 minutes inside. This
is 5 minutes just before the hookah. This
is I didn't prepare this. I obviously can't
remember I can't memorize this by heart, so
I'm gonna read it to you.
This is what he said about him.
Another scholar, he's a known, Hanafi scholar. He
wrote within he wrote in which is Arabic
language. He wrote in he wrote meaning within
geometry and and and and physics. And he
has a book called
Plants in Botany.
He was given the Ijazah by Abu Muhammad
Abu Amr ibn Abdul Baru, one of the
most famous Maliki scholar of all time. And
he wrote a book talking about the different,
signs of prophecies. And he wrote the book,
in geography,
pointing out the names of all of the
countries that existed within his region. He has
a book called the Navat again. In botany.
It was Josie, the very very famous scholar
of Islamic law, very famous. He has written
this man, wrote over 555
books.
These are the ones that we have.
There's as much that we he wrote that
we don't have. He wrote a book called
the different yeah. The benefits of, of of
medicine. He wrote
he wrote a book about animals and plants.
That you know when you get bored.
He he he explained the that later on,
Qadu Iyad would would explain his book. He
was the first one to explain Sahih Muslim,
and then they built on it afterwards to
what Imam Minawi did later on. And he
is someone who wrote in medicine, and he
wrote in geometry, and he wrote in math.
He had books that he he he made
in math.
One more.
Put altogether the Khutb of the Prophet alaihis
salatu wa sallam. He wrote a book in
medicine, and he wrote a book. The first
book that we have about chess. It's called
telekesh we don't have it. It got lost.
But he wrote a book where he explained
how chess works and he talked about all
the good games.
I'll end with that.
I have 5 more, just so you know.
Yeah. It just took me 5 minutes.
5, I sat in front of my computer,
put
I just swiped through. Just ranting. He went
through, chose someone. Wrote down what he what
what what he talked about. Swiffed through, wrote
down what he talked about.
This is our history.
This is what Islam
produced to the world. This is your legacy.
This is your identity. This is where you
come from. You come
from
a nation of
ima, of imams,
of ulama, of people who studied everything they
could get their hands on. And they added
to human knowledge. They added to human knowledge
to a degree that without their additions and
without their translations, without their works,
we wouldn't have what we I know you
were told growing up that all of this
was made to in the way what yes.
It was made the last piece of it
was made in the west. The last piece
of it. It it does not all that
matters.
No? If you're if if we're ignorant enough
to think there's only the, yeah, the guy
who scored the goal that matters, then you
don't understand the sport.
Everyone contributes. The goal is important, the defender,
the midfielder. If you think it's just the
person who scored the goal that you're a
child, like my son like, my children, they're
just like the, the forward the one who
pushed the goals. They they don't they don't
appreciate the genius of the people before.
Muslims maybe not have done it now, but
for the longest time, for a 1000 years,
for a millennium,
we
we brought religion and faith together,
in full harmony and in synchrony. And we
added to human knowledge. And our imams were
people who were educated in every aspect of
of of existence.
And that is what we have to go
back to again. We have to go back
to this. We are in the 100 of
1000 I'm saying, in the 100 of 1000
you, shabaab
the shabaab, this ummah have to go back
to this. You must learn and and diversify
the fields of knowledge, please.
Diversify the fields of knowledge as they are
diverse today.
We've had we have enough doctors. Just to
just so you know. We were saturated. Just
we we filled the the the core the
quota is full. We don't need more doctors
or engineers for that matter. We're we're good.
We have enough. Maybe we move move on
to other stuff. Maybe maybe political sciences. Maybe
maybe literature. Maybe we we get into into
media and into human sciences. We need people.
We need to diversify the fields of knowledge
that our children study. I know if you're
a Middle Eastern mother and father, I know
that the only thing that you want is
either the or dead. None. None. That's the
only 2 choices that you want your children.
But really, that comes from mentality of living
in the Middle East where it was hard
to make a living. It was hard to
survive. So you needed something safe. We don't
need safe anymore. We can't afford safe anymore.
We need people in every field and every
discipline of this world. They have to go
learn. And at this as they do that,
they learn their deen.
They learn their deen. They know the Quran.
All these scholars are to follow the book
of Allah subhanahu. All of them, I didn't
have to read that because that is that
goes without being said.
Put that in the description. Kinda haf ilan.
That's ridiculous.
How is he an imam and not a
haf that's that doesn't mean that doesn't exist.
An imam not a no. No. Sorry. But
the you wouldn't qualify for your name to
be in this book if you were not
if you if you didn't have these basics.
It can be done together.
It has been done together.
It is still being done together, and you
have to do these things together.
And I don't accept anything less,
and it's not having a high standard. If
you think it's a high standard that for
you to be someone who
is is very proficient within a discipline of
knowledge in this world and proficient in your
deen. If you feel about the high standard,
I'm suck. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry
that you were led to believe that's a
high standard. It's not a high standard. That's
that's the norm. What are you talking about?
You're a Muslim, of course you're going to
be studying all of this stuff. Of course
you're going to be a 'alim. Of course
you're going to know more. Of course. How
How else do you understand Islam? Please, if
you understand Islam differently, come explain it to
me. Because I don't I don't know any
other way for Islam to exist in the
world aside from this.
This is my understanding of the word imam.
It has nothing to do with gender.
Imam means man. No. No. It has nothing
to do with it. By the way, I
could have shared with you names of of
women as well. I didn't because, I I
couldn't I couldn't get the I couldn't download
the book in 5 minutes. But it it's
it's very similar.
The understanding of Ima is to lead by
example,
is to be a role model, is to
be exemplar,
is to be someone who takes upon themselves
a responsibility of getting the job done, and
then they walk.
They only look back if someone's asking for
help. Otherwise, they don't care. Whether you're following
or you're not. Whether you're it doesn't matter.
That's what imamah means. That's what Allah
tells you.
Oh oh oh our lord, grant us from
our wives and our families something that will
be the cool of our eyes. Something here.
Show us give us beautiful families. Families that
are strong. Families that are Muslim. Families that
are productive. That will that will be with
us in Jannah. You're up, I mean.
And make us imams for the for the
pious. What? Everyone's going to be an imam?
It's gonna be very crowded up here if
everyone's gonna be an imam. But that's not
what he's talking about.
He's talk not talking about the imam of
a of salatul jumuah or or any salam.
He's talking about you being a leader by
example.
You not waiting for someone else to do
something for you. You and going and doing
it yourself
because you know that this is the right
thing to do. He was an imam
because Ibrahim was an imam before him. And
all those who figured it out, who figured
out Islam, what Islam was, became imams in
their own sense.
In their own sense. I just shared with
you the names of the people,
in that book that I I came by
that were and also scientists.
There's a lot that are were one not
the other. And it's all at the end
knowledge
that people need to go and seek. The
Quran uses this term a
lot. I showed you this this with you
a few weeks ago. When it talks about
Yeah.
Elman and Hikma. Talk about Musa.
The
same repeat repetition of the same words. What
are they?
They are the recipe of what an imam
means.
Is
the ability, the confidence, and the wisdom to
make
proper and sound decisions.
That needs mentorship. That's why I talk about
mentorship.
If you have no experience, if no one's
in front of you making decisions, and you're
making decisions
based on those decisions they're making, if you're
not being given space to go and make
a choice, and then someone's watching you to
bring you back and say, maybe next time
do it that way, without that mentorship, you're
not gonna you're gonna lack hokum.
You're gonna lack. You can't you can't make
decisions. You can't make choices. If we don't
have a generation of people that are being
prepared to make choices, then what exactly are
we hoping for?
We we no one lives forever. Whoever's making
choices today, I hope they're making good choices.
But if we're not preparing the next generation
to do the same, we have a problem.
So we need mentorship. And the second piece,
knowledge. It's easy. This one's easy.
Knowledge, they have to have the information.
The knowledge that allow them to make proper
judgments. What is good? What is bad? What
is needed? What's prioritized?
What is not? We have And that requires
education.
It requires people who are willing to learn,
to be lifelong learners. This is what our
deen is about.
By the way, Yani, the book
that we that I read for for you
from, if you were to make another one
today, it would be much
thinner.
You know? Even though there's way more Muslims,
but it would be much thinner.
All the names I shared with you were
just from the 5th Islamic
century.
I just opened the 5th Islamic century and
just went through them quickly. Those are the
names.
If you were to take this century, what
century is the 15th Islamic century?
If you had a Haqq ul, like, you
know, the Habibi and he wanted to write
it, it would be much thinner.
It would.
Sad that it would, but it would.
We do have centuries like that.
The 11th century is pretty thin, in comparison
to the 8th 7th, and later on the
12th 13th.
We have to thicken that chapter a bit
in our book. We have to get more
people on those pages. We have to get
we have to get you to actually see
the value of knowledge, not to make a
living
Of course, you need to make a living.
Of course, you need to make a living
and a good one too. But knowledge because
knowledge
is
is so valuable. It's the legacy
of the prophets.
It's the legacy of Muhammad alaihis sala. You
love Muhammad alaihis salaam. This is the month
of Rabia, where we get to remember the
day he was born, the day he passed
away, and his life where we get to
celebrate his legacy, alayhi sallam. What is his
legacy?
We want to celebrate his alafani, celebrate, but
what is his legacy
aside from knowledge? Yeah.
How are we celebrating his legacy when we're
not learning his deen? It makes no sense
to me. I'm embarrassed, actually. As much as
I love celebrating his
celebrating this month, I feel embarrassed to do
it. If we're gonna celebrate him, and not
learn what he left us and not actually
take time to study with the knowledge that
he left behind, then it seems like a
sellout to me. It seems out that we're
we're not doing this right. You wanna celebrate
him, there's some start by making sure you
dedicate your life to knowledge,
to taking the knowledge that he left us,
alaihis salatu, and to build his ummah, and
to celebrate. And that's the celebration. He'll be
happier with that, I'll tell you so as
much. I'll tell you, he'll be happier with
that, alaihis salatu, and I swear. He'll meet
you, and you'll you'll be happy.
You you took that legacy and you and
you walked with it.
The registration for the Imam Development Academy closes
on Sunday. So those of you who would,
still want to yeah. I mean,
maybe someone can move it. There you go.
If you would like to, register, so have
until Sunday to do so.
After that, we're gonna we're gonna, close registration.
The goal of everything that we run-in this
masjid is is to educate, is to mentor.
That's the goal. That is what this place
is open for. That's what I believe all
Masajid should be open for. I don't think
Masajid should have many other
focuses aside from those 2. I really don't.
I think everything else is premature. I think
everything else, we have to wait a bit.
You need a workforce.
People think I'll cut keep keep on coming
and saying Islamic school, Islamic schools. We need
staff to teach in Islamic schools. That's what
we need.
We need staff to teach in Islamic schools.
You want Islamic school? It's not hard to
find space. We can rent space. No problem.
Who's gonna teach? Who's gonna teach these kids?
Who knows what the who has enough,
knowledge and and and and skill set to
do this stuff? That's what we lack. We
lack workforce.
We we lack people to do the job.
We think it's all there. We're no. It's
just not. It's not. So we have to
go back and learn. And we have to
make sure that becomes our priority. And we
put our wealth there. We put our time
to educate our youth. And make sure that
those who left school go back to school
again. And those who don't know Islam come
and learn Islam appropriately.
And you do that for a decade, and
you see a change.
You see a
shift in 23 years of Prophet alaihi sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam transformed
a peninsula
in a way that I we still don't
fully understand.
We still we still don't fully understand how
these people were able to change the way
they changed
aside from aside from El. I'll end with
that inshallah that was a benefit to you.