The Reality and Danger of Extremism

Ali Albarghouthi

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Channel: Ali Albarghouthi

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It was

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a my by

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the title inshallah of tonight's talk, which is not going to be long inshallah so that you can benefit most from it. So we're going to keep it short and allow you in Sharla some time if you have questions and answers, not answers questions, and I'll try to provide answers right? Or if you have the answers, just go ahead don't ask the questions. So

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the danger of extremism or the danger and reality of extremism.

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And before I launch into it, inshallah, I just want to I want us to keep very briefly just few points in mind.

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First of all, when we're talking about extremism, this is a human phenomenon that is not by any means about religion, or restricted to religion, that in any human belief, any, or any human effort, a person can go to an extreme.

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The so this, you know, when you exercise when you die it, you can go to extremes. In politics, you can go to extremes. In economics, you can go to extremes, so anything in life, including religion, so it's not, extremism is not simply about religion, it's about a human choice that someone must guard

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and protect himself from. So that's a point to keep in mind. And we can, you know, talk and talk more about this. But if that is inshallah Fermin in your minds in my mind, because we don't really ever want to only link extremism, to only religion.

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The second thing is that as we talk about their religious causes of extremism, or Hulu in Arabic, also keep in mind that though there are religious reasons, there are also social, economic and political reasons that exasperate that allow extremism to flourish. So we cannot discount that or ignore it. So our talk will always be imbalanced if we only focus on the religious elements, and they were important to understand, but also to know that in certain societies and in countries, the spread of injustice, oppression, all of these things help and feed the rise and spread of extremism.

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Now

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Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam

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told us about the emergence of a group

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before his death. So a lot he was in them, which happened during the time of Allah subhanaw taala. And this group is called an average.

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The study of that group, in reality in history, and also what the prophet sallallahu wasallam foretold are the features of that group, help us explain the features of extremism, and Hello, within Islam, and by the way, extremism in Islam, I mean, it though it exists.

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It's not the norm. But the exception, mean even historically, and in the present. And if I were to ask you, those who have joined groups like ISIS, where they have the majority of the oma or the minority of them,

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a very, very small and tiny minority. So it's always the exception. And even historically, when you talk and discuss the house marriage, they're always the exception, a very tiny fraction of the home of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and the overwhelming majority of the Ummah, never subscribed to such ideology and belief never chose what they chose. So it's always the exception. So contrary to the belief that some people have, especially non Muslims who do not understand Islam, when they look at Islam, what do they see? Just extremism. But it's only a very, very tiny, small fraction. And also the way that we define extremism is not the way that some Muslims or some non

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Muslims define it. Where they look at some Islamic practices, they label it as extreme. Is this the way that we define extremism? No. If you hold on to the book of Allah, the authentic son of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam both as they were understood and practiced by the prophet, and by the Sahaba, and those who are righteously following them from one generation after the other, that is not extremism, extremism is to ignore them and violate them. That's that's extremism. So when you look at the How are

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they we're not following the Koran. They're not following the sin of Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam they're contradicting them. And of course, an essential part of their extreme choices was violence. You know, senseless aggression committed primarily against Muslims and this is also an ISIS

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Doesn't duplicate because extremism doesn't change its skin. It repeats the same patterns and the same mistakes in every generation. So one insha Allah to share with you some of the features of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam talked about when describing the early howl outage which will continue to repeat themselves in every generation. And the Prophet said that they're going to continue to rise whenever either outage or a group like them adopts and embraces the extreme. So he said, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in a hadith describing them. So for her LS Nan, so for her an old hotel as Nancy for her

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hotel, as Nan means what that they are young.

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So for how long it means that they like wisdom, for other other words, they are foolish.

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This tells you that a component or a very important component of those who will be inclined towards extremism

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is the young.

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And why is that? Because they are most vulnerable to that message?

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Do you know why?

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I'll tell you a couple of reasons. One, the young need the young, they typically tend to be idealistic.

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Then they want to spread or create a utopia on the face of this earth. So when they encounter and they see injustice and oppression, they want to change it as fast as possible. And sometimes even using means that are drastic, because they tend to at a young age, to lack patience, and to like the wisdom of learning, and the wisdom of experience. So they want to change things, and they want to change it drastically.

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So lack of wisdom is a very common, and a serious flaw among the average, or those who go to the extreme. That is why anyone who is young, they need to temper their enthusiasm, and their emotions with the wisdom of the elders, who have lived long enough to understand

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society, understand how things need time to change, they don't change overnight, or all of a sudden, they also need to temper their enthusiasm or emotions, with the wisdom of the scholars. Why? Because the scholars have studied the Koran and studied the sooner also have studied history. And they understand how nations rise and nation falls, and also how to introduce change, lasting change.

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So that's an important feature. And this is why it's important that if you are a young person, and you look at what's happening in the Muslim world, and it pains you to see so many people getting killed and slaughtered. And you look at what some non Muslims are doing specialty governments countries are doing to Muslims, it pains you to see them slaughtering Muslims or allowing the slaughter of Muslims and somebody may come and tell you, don't you see this injustice? You say? Yes. And your blood starts to boil? When you see one picture after the other one video after the other? Don't you want to do something about it? You see, yes, I really want to do something about it. It

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tells you look at this scholar and that scholar, their silence. They're not saying anything, look at this nation and that nation, they're not doing anything about it. The only one who is doing something about it is this particular group who won or claim that they're taking matters into their own hands, and they want to rescue Islam and Muslim. So that kind of propaganda advertisement false advertisement, actually may convince some people that he has nobody else is doing anything. And here is an outlet here is a group that can help remedy the situation and hurt the non believers, or those, what they call them seemingly Muslim rulers, the way that they're hurting other Muslims. So

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I'm going to join them so that I be able to do something, they go and they join and they end up killing other Muslims. And eventually what has happened to ISIS is exactly the same fate of the average before it had led to nothing except the killing and the agony of other Muslims in addition to them killing themselves and those who are around them. So it leads nowhere it goes nowhere because they have not been guided by knowledge. So another feature. Another feature of the coverage of the past and in the present is

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Are they knowledgeable or ignorant?

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What do you think?

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You can tell me? ignorant. That's really a common feature of them. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said so.

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Your crown Al Quran, Allah Yahushua Terracotta Army says they read the Koran does not go past their throats, meaning he or one of the meaning of it is that their reading of the Quran is superficial.

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is very superficial, they read it. And one of the things that fitna about them is that they what they look religious, the look that they adhere to the Quran and the idea to the son of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. That's very tempting. So when the Sahaba went to talk to them, they saw people who are so immersed in the worship of Allah.

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So he says they read the Quran doesn't go past their throat, says in another Hadith, Yoko Ono Quran a sub una hola como la him, they say they read the Quran, they think it is for them, meaning it supports what they are doing, but it's against them.

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And it says in a third Hadith, Jaco Luna Bukola hazelbury barrier, meaning they're quoting

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Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam. They have the recording Hadith, they're quoting the Quran, but it's all against them, because their knowledge is very superficial. They don't learn from scholars.

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They don't learn from the knowledgeable people, they learn from each other. They learn from books, they take things that agree with them and with their ideology and reject everyone who disagrees with them. So so panela a,

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an example of it is with ignore at best, or the Allahu anhu. And you know that he is a very knowledgeable Sahabi he was sent, or he volunteered to go, and even navitat upset if you want to go go. So he went to go and argue with the whole outage. One of the things he told them in the house bridge camp, he says, I see you here in the 1000s but I don't see among you any of them. companions of Muhammad Sallallahu, alayhi wasallam all of them are somewhere else. So it means that they physically lack knowledge, they're not interested in it.

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And that is their mistake. They read the Koran and they think well it's it's supporting the killing of Muslim is supporting the killing of non Muslims. It read some Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. they misunderstand them, take them out of context or ignore on purpose other than a hadith and their explanations, and they say it is supporting our our way our our position. So they subvert Islam, and they believe that they're on the right path, but they are absolutely misguided because they did not learn it. So it's not enough for you to have a sort of passion for Islam. It's not enough for you to say I want to give my life up for the sake of Allah azza wa jal, all of what I

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have. That is not enough, without knowledge that tells you how were you supposed to serve Islam? How are you supposed to understand the book of Allah? How are you supposed to process and understand the Sunnah and the example of Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam. So, that is a common mistake of theirs in the past and in the present.

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Another one that comes out of it

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is that they rush into sec fear, pronouncing people to be non believers. And because of that, it leads to other common and serious mistake of theirs, which is the killing of Muslims. So first come stick here

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from the early Hawaii bridge, till today, meaning that if they disagree with someone, they pronounce them to be a cafe

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without just cause this is not something that the prophets a lot he said Matt said causes the person to become a gaffer, but if they simply disagree with them, or disagree with their interpretation of the Quran,

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that person becomes a Kaffir so they made a leap not to be thought they brought the Allahu anhu A Kaffir.

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They made imagine that they declared somebody like Allium not to be thought about all the Allahu anhu A Kaffir.

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Someone like us, man, I found all the Allahu anhu A Kaffir because in their mind, they abused their power. In the den for an evening Vitaly brought the Allahu anhu they said, How could you accept

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that you would send a judge from your side and a judge from their side and they are going to decide who is the halifa and who's right and who's wrong. What Allah says.

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It'll help more elderly law, judgment only belongs to Allah. Allah will not be tolerated said this is a statement that is true, but to what your intent behind it is false.

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So they declared him because of that to be an unbeliever. And they went on for anyone who disagrees with them. Anyone who does not obey their leader, the early hounded becomes

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a disbeliever. Anyone who does not join their camp becomes a disbeliever. ISIS reproduce this, even though in lineage, they don't trace themselves back to the average, but they did the same. So for ISIS and people like that, it's a wholesale tech field, wholesale tech field. So the leader of such and such country, because he does not judge according to Sharia, they don't look at what the scholars have said. And whether that person has an excuse or not, whether the whole Jedi evidence was presented to that person, and he rejected it, etc, etc. They don't consider all of this. But since he does not judge according to Sharia, that ruler is a Kaffir. Right? And then all the

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ministers are kuffaar.

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And all their helpers are too far, and the entire army is a Kaffir. And then the old police force are too far. And anyone who doubts that they are Kfar is also what?

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What is a cafe. So everybody becomes a cafe. And when they is established their own territories, if somebody would defect, you're just What does not want to live under their leadership. That's the only crime if we only want to call it a crime of his. And he says, I'm not going to obey such a leader. I'm just leaving, that's his only crime, he becomes what a cafe.

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A wholesale took fear. And when a person is Kaffir, like that, not only simply a gaffer, he becomes a more tent, more Ted, and a pasty. What do they do to him?

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To kill him.

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That's why it becomes easy and legitimate in their eyes to execute and massacre Muslims, Muslims. And that is a testimony to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam says, you have to Luna Allah and Islam while you're the owner, and then they kill Muslims. But the polytheists are safe from their harm. The Wait Wait, who they want to kill and execute? Where is their harm concentrated Islam and Muslims,

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Islam and Muslims, the average that's what they did before you look at what ISIS has done. Most of the people that they are killing and they're after, or what Muslims, and they will talk about another world Korea, Ebola Dubai, or something like that, or similar terminology. There is the near enemy and the four enemies who have to fight the near enemy before we fight the far enemy. The near enemy is what the Muslims that we have a run. So if you're not with us, you're a canvas, you're against us. If you're not going to stand with us, you're standing against us. So they slaughter Muslims like that. And they justify it. And Subhana Allah, they do it in a ruthless way. That gives

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Islam the worst of names.

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And they are they creative in finding ways to kill people. And they consider somehow this to be Islamic. And here is another feature of theirs past and present is that they miss the fact that Islam is a religion of mercy, not a religion of ruthlessness

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and anger and punishment. It's a religion of mercy. That is, in Islam, you actually are going to execute someone who deserves to be executed.

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You did execute that person, in the most compassionate and Merciful of ways. Just kill them.

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And let Allah as though just deal with them. Do you torture them before you kill them?

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these objectives, you know, to you know, creative ways of pain. You don't do that. You just need to execute and let them die. That's it in the best, most Merciful ovaries.

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Or as when you look at ISIS and how they execute people. How do they do it?

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They're creative. One person, they drown

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another person, they burn a life. Even though that Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam said from ignite a burst who said Leah you it will be Noreen Dora banner no one should punish people with fire except Who? Allah azza wa jal, but they promptly burn people alive

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and they videotape that they recorded and as

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They are executing Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, as if this is victory.

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So again, they are demonstrating their fundamental lack of understanding of Islam.

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As if shedding blood is desired on its own,

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as if killing people is an objective

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and in Islam is ever killing people and objective ever, that you want to just fight people because you want to kill them because you want to shed their blood because you want to make their children orphans even if they're not Muslim. Is this ever an objective?

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In fact, the result of lysyl alojado syndrome spent most of his time in Mecca, doing what? Giving Dawa

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and most people whether you realize it or not, Subhanallah Yes, Jihad was waged, but Jihad was waged out of necessity,

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out of necessity, and most people accepted Islam. in Medina, when when to what do you know when to when did most people accept Islam in Medina, at one juncture, after what happened

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after the Treaty of what, how they BIA when there was cessation of hostilities, we're not going to fight you are not going to fight us there was a truce between us. And then people were allowed to listen to Islam Islam was allowed to enter their cities. And then most people accepted Islam at that time. So there is Jihad but before the Jihad of the sword, there is the Jihad of the pen, the Jihad of the tongue, the Jihad of Dawa and as you know, as if no Tamia Rahim, Allah says, that you had of that sword only was legislated after the Jihad of the tongue and the Jihad of Dawa, where the Jihad of the tongue and the Jihad of Tao is primary that never ends. And the Jihad of the sword is

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secondary. That is, if Allah as though Gil enables you to give power to people and they accept Islam, do you need the sword?

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No, when do you need the sword?

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When people oppose Islam, when people attack Muslims, when they stop that dour, then that sword is necessary, and only then,

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so they've reversed it and made the sort that primary and dour. irrelevant.

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And that is a very serious flaw and misunderstanding of the compassion

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and mercy of Allah azza wa jal where he received a lice I'll allow it USA Liam said, in the locket about in the hockey tab and Rwanda, who, in naramata, sobre todo de la as if it has written in the book that is with Allah azzawajal up there, and did my mercy supersedes my anger comes before my anger. So Allah is the Most Merciful. So Muslims in their behavior in their dour in their lives should also demonstrate that mercy and practice it, and not the opposite, and not the opposite.

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Also, and maybe that will be the last point.

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Really related to the fact that they do not take knowledge from scholars from its reliable sources. One of their features in the past, and that it continues to the present is that they denigrate the scholars of Islam.

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They attack them, they criticize them, they put them down, because once you put those who are carrying the message of Allah xojo, those who have knowledge once you put them down, what happens who's left on the scene, the ignorant they, and they give fatwa, and they proclaim on behalf of Islam on behalf of Muslims. So one important thing to keep in mind is that when you want to seek knowledge, I'm not going to seek it from so on. So who is my age, so and so who's as ignorant as I am? So who went and read from this particular book and is coming to teach me we have scholars who have lineages who have learned from their scholars and their scholars have learned from from their

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scholars and some of them have a senate all the way to Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam they've studied the books of Islam and they understand them in and out. They understand that benefits and harms in Islam, they understand alkaloid the rules, the principles, they are versed in knowledge. So if I'm learning Islam, I'm learning it from them. And I should never be part of a wave that denigrates and puts down the scholars of Islam. If I disagree with them, than I put them down and or declare them to be

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nonbelievers? Yes, scholars of Islam or a scholar here and a scholar there, they can make mistakes, right? They can make mistakes. But one mistake or two or three minor ones are not enough for you to dismiss the scholar and everything that he has to offer. It's important to keep that in mind. Because everybody has mistakes, including yourself. And there's so and so who proclaims himself to be the next great scholar of Islam, though he possesses no knowledge, that person is full of mistakes. So you cannot put down the scholars of Islam, because if they are not there, no one is there to teach you anything.

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And it's also important

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to keep in mind that the scholars of Islam, some of them, if they're unable to speak or comment on things, they may at times, not do it, because there is benefit in it. Not talk about something, not because they are cowards.

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But because there is sometimes benefit in it. As at the time of the fitna. When people were talking and spreading falsehood about Earth, Manuel De La Hoya, I know he favors his relatives or he mishandles money and all of these things were allies.

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Some of the people who came to one of the Sahaba.

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And they told him, why don't you talk speak to us man about this? Why don't you advise him? Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? As if they're assuming that he has not done nothing? He told them, the meaning of which he says, Do you suppose that if you don't see me talking to him that I'm not talking to him.

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But I do want to start something that could lead to a fitna, meaning I don't want to make this public, or address him in public in a way that can lead to a greater fitna that will not be able to contain later on. Meaning that if I see an everyone is flawed, everyone makes mistakes. If I see or I think that both men or the allow a no may have made a mistake, you think that if you don't hear me talking about it with him, that I'm really not talking about it. I go to him, and between me and him in private, I give him advice. But if I were to stand out in public and discuss it, that opens the doors of fitna

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and if we want to close the door of fitna, after it's open, we'll find that it's difficult. So some scholars in some Muslim countries who sometimes are under duress, sometimes they can't or don't have the opportunity to speak or they know that if I speak, it brings no benefit. So does not mean that they allow sin, it does not mean that they approve of sin. But it may mean just like when che Hoban or samian Rahim Allah was asked something like that.

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He says, we give advice, but we don't give advice in front of you. We go to them, and we talk to them. Because if I stand on a pulpit, if I stand in public and I give such advice, that advice is not going to be accepted, and will lead without doubt, to grave harm. So when they try to start or want to criticize the scholars of Islam know that a lot of times, these scholars who have studied Islam have given their lives for Allah azza wa jal, they know that it may not be wise to speak, they know that it's not wise to give advice to the ruler to the leader in ways that will antagonize them and turn them against Islam. And that the best advice to give to the leaders is between you and

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them.

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So Subhana Allah, there is a lot of wisdom to be gained, and a lot of patience that we need to earn. And even though if we were looking at what is happening to Muslims, it makes your blood boil and you feel that you want to do something about it.

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All of us, you know and that should be no secret all of us have that feeling all of us feel that we need to do something to stop those atrocities and that pain, but our emotions, no matter what these emotions are, always need to be governed by Allah's revelation. It's not enough that I feel that I need to do something that that's a license for me to go ahead and do it. But if Allah tells me, don't act, I shouldn't act if Allah tells me channel your emotions in a different way in a different directions. Then you should channel them that way. If Allah says half

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Patients, then you should have patience, until Allah azzawajal allows the situation to change. So these are some of the features of the outage. And if you Subhanallah study what's happening today and compare it to what's happening in the past, you'll be amazed at how it is being replicated almost exactly. And so the omo Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the more knowledge that you're going to have the more that you study the less that you will fall victim to all of this. And if you have questions, a group here a person there is trying to convince you trying you know to peddle these ideas, if you have questions about it, seek the knowledgeable in your community seek the

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knowledgeable among the Mohammed sallallahu wasallam and compare what they are teaching to what that person is teaching and be vanilla be in the law if you ask Allah for guidance and you seek knowledge from its right source, you will not be misguided be in the last. So this is just half an hour, which is what I wanted to spend inshallah with you and I will leave in sha Allah few more minutes for your questions. If you have any inshallah.

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Please do go ahead.