Ali Ataie – Fortifying Faith in Age of Faithlessness
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
It's a very good
topic,
the question of nurturing faith
in an ever increasing faithless world.
I would just say that,
I think
a major
obstacle for young people
is the university system.
Colleges and universities
in the West,
the dominant epistemology
tends to be one of
untruth,
that there is no truth.
Right?
This goes by different types of names, critical
theory.
Probably the best term for it is postmodernism.
This idea that there's no real truth,
there's no objective morality.
Right?
So when young Muslims are exposed to these
ideas,
it's very difficult for them
to be able to articulate,
responses,
that have some
substance to them
because a lot of the rhetoric that they're
hearing
sounds really good.
Right? I would say that it's
it's,
sort of,
has this air of pseudo profundity to it.
It's formed way over substance.
When you really break down what's being said,
it's full of contradictions.
Even this idea that there's no truth,
right, that's contradictory in and of itself
because that's
a statement of truth.
The only absolute truth is that there's no
absolute truth.
Right?
However, Muslims Muslim students go to confessionals in
general. It's not just Muslims, it's Christians,
it's Orthodox Jews.
When they enter into these institutions,
they feel themselves
sort of inadequate
because
their faith traditions
make absolute truth claims
that there's truth, there's haq, and there's baqil.
Right?
And
this whole idea of haq and ba'tl is
something that is ridiculed
in the academy.
Abrahamic morality
is ridiculed, is attacked
in the academy.
To say, for example, there are things that
are moral and there are things that are
not moral.
Right?
So
oftentimes,
confessional students, be they be they Muslim, Christian,
or Jewish,
the only viable solutions that they have,
according to them, is either to what I
call sell out or check out.
Right? To sell out meaning,
well, I need to start thinking a little
bit differently about this,
because I don't wanna offend anyone. I have
to sort of mitigate the hurt feelings of
people
because I don't wanna be offensive,
and
sort of reinvent,
what I think the Quran is saying,
right?
So the,
the literary method of postmodernism
is known as deconstructionism.
So this idea that there is no normative
reading of anything,
the idea of a metanarrative.
Right? The sort of overarching
interpretation
of a text does not exist
according to deconstructionism,
which is what
students in high school are taught.
You can make up the text whatever you
want of it.
Right?
So this idea that,
you know, one one of
the pioneers I was telling this to Sheikh
Faraz, one of the pioneers of this movement,
he said, you know, as long there's no
such thing as right and wrong,
as long as it's interesting,
then it's fine.
All you have to be is interesting.
Right? So you have this,
this phenomenon of radical hermeneutics happening in the
academy. You have people reading a text that
are drawing conclusions from the text that are
absolutely irreconcilable
with the traditional faith,
of the urlema
or the articulations of the traditional scholars,
right? But tradition seems to be part of
the problem.
Traditional value systems are seen as oppressive. They're
seen as,
tyrannical. They're seen as patriarchal.
You know, this word they really like. Patriarchy.
The patriarch is you know who the patriarch
is. Right?
So Ibrahim alaihis salam, his name means father
of many nations.
Abraham, Ab Alifba,
father of many, Ab, father of many nations.
He is the patriarch, the ruling father. So
there's this
idea that before the Abrahamic faith traditions,
the world was sort of this utopia
where everyone just sort of got along.
It was peaches and cream.
It was Disney World,
and then you know here comes these Abrahamic
faith traditions
that oppress certain people and they're still here
and this is really the this is really
the problem,
according to them.
So this is the type
of epistemology
that young confessional students are up against in
the academy.
Right?
So it's incumbent upon us,
to be extremely fortified in our faith,
to at least know how to
articulate
responses
in order to get people to think,
you know. And it's difficult because,
you know, I think it's the nature of
the nature of our dean
to be
I don't know how else to put it.
It's going to be offensive towards certain people
Because when you make absolute truth claims about
theology and morality, some people are going to
be offended. So we have to do our
best to mitigate that, but at the end
of the day, there are certain parameters
that we cannot,
breach
because we want to be in
the spirit of Allah and his messenger.
Right? We wanna be we want that to
be our foundation.
That's our bedrock.
That's that's,
that is really the
the basis of everything.
Right?
So, we need to do a lot of
spiritual work. We need to do a lot
of intellectual work.
From a standpoint of spirituality,
it's important for us
because
these institutions, they breed in gratitude.
Right?
They
promote self victimization
that you're a victim. If someone's doing better
than you, if another group is better than
you, it must be because
they're oppressing you.
You've been victimized.
So this slowly but surely sort of rings
us out of shukr,
and we just need to take a few
minutes
and just think about our lives,
and think about our lives,
with respect to or compared to what's happening
in the world,
And that fact by itself should fill us
with Shukr, with gratitude.
Shukr is a type of kufur
according to the Quran.
Fathkuroni
adkurkum
washkuruuli
walatekfurun.
Right? Have regard for me so that I
might have regard for you.
Be grateful to me
and do not disbelieve.
So these two
words really are
put in juxtaposition.
So in in,
there's a term in that Westerners use,
in for Arabic rhetoric. There's a concept called
parataxis,
where
you find this in Semitic rhetoric,
where two terms are juxtaposed
because they're antonyms, they're opposites.
So the opposite of shukr is kufur,
right?
So it's important for us to just take
a moment,
you know, every day a few minutes and
just think about the blessings of Allah
upon us,
Right? Just just the mere fact that we're
Muslims
right after the defeat
or after the
tragic events at Ghazul Uhud Allah
revealed in the Quran, walatahinu
walatahazanu
wa antumul a'laawna inkunum mumineen.
You know, don't lose heart, don't be sad,
right, don't fret. In any case, you are
in a dominant position. In kuntumu meaning, as
long as you have faith ultimately comes down
to having faith because this the nature of
the world
is
that of high and low.
There's ebb and flow.
Right? That's the nature of the dunya.
That's why we have hope. Hope is very
important.
We have hope in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
we have hope in the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, we have hope in the Yomul
Qiyama, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says
You have the Messenger of God a beautiful
pattern of conduct,
For whoever has hope, Raja,
hope in Allah
and in the final day and makes dhikr
of Allah in abundance.
Right?
So, having hope in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is something that we need to cultivate.
And that Allah
He is the Lord of the worlds,
and He can change our situation
a 180 degrees,
and we recognize that. There are certain things
that we have to go through in the
dunya because that is the nature of the
dunya. The word dunya means a low place.
That's what it literally means. So don't make
this dunya into paradise.
A dunya sijdul mumin. We have to do
the best we can, obviously, to create, you
know, a just society and whatnot, but the
problem
is the
the ideology that is coming out of a
lot of these institutions does not recognize an
afterlife. So then students,
they sort of put all of their eggs
in the basket of the dunya and then
the dunya disappoints them and then they leave
their religion.
So they check out completely.
Right? They don't want to deal with it.
Right?
And it's really a misunderstanding
what is the dunya, what is its nature,
what do we here for?
And then
contemplation,
you know, this idea of thinking about the
Ni'am of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
This will engender Shukr in our hearts,
Right?
So I would say, although activism is very
important,
I would prioritize knowledge over activism.
Right?
Because activism,
again, very important,
but,
you're going to be disappointed
because that's the nature of the world, and
if you don't have the spiritual discipline to
deal with these disappointments,
right? And then it becomes dangerous to your
iman,
right? The prophet
if you look at his life,
you know,
you have
hardship upon hardship,
right?
You know, who who men ashaddubalan,
who has the most severe of tribulations?
He asked the Sahaba.
Right? And they were probably thinking, well, you
know, maybe the kuffar,
you know,
He said,
the prophets, and those closest to them.
Alright. If you look at the life of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
as, Sheikh Khuraz reminded me,
the prophet did not complain to anyone, ever.
He did not complain.
Even on the day of,
the most difficult day of Ta'if, when he
was stoned out of the city of Ta'if
by the Bani Fatif,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
you know with
with you know blood
covering his legs and people mocking him and
trying to kill him
Allahummaashqoo
ilayka daafaqooati
He carried his complaint to Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala, Oh Allah, I complain to you
of the weakness of my strength.
Right?
So, he's attributing his weakness, he's attributing his
shortcomings to himself, and this is called tawadur,
this is humility.
This is someone who has good
Ubudiyyah with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So there's
a difference between Ubudiyyah and Ubudiyyah.
You can have a lot of Ubudiyyah.
Right? A lot of acts of worship, but
Ubudiyyah, good Ubudiyyah indicates
a good attitude with Allah
Right? A good attitude.
So, breaching adab, breaching
good character
with Allah
is something that's very dangerous and we seek
refuge from.
But a lot of times we're taught by
certain institutions
that this is sort of
what needs to be done or that's the
logical conclusion of
the ideology or philosophy that young people are
taught.
So, we need to fortify our our spirituality.
So, taking time out every day
and just thinking about the blessings of Allah
this will engender shukr in the heart,
right?
And the prophet
he is the paragon of virtue,
and when he would pray,
there's a hadith Abu Hurairah,
it's mentioned in the Shamayil of
Imam Atirmidi
that that Ikana sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
That the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he would
pray until his feet would swell red
and then it was said to him why
do you do this when Allah
has forgiven your past and future transgressions?
And of course, the transgression of a prophet
is very different,
A zamba of a prophet is very different
than than what we do.
And his response,
Shall I not be a grateful servant?
Right?
And shakur, according to the ulama is different
than the shakir.
The the shakir is the one who is
thankful, the shakur is the one who continues
to thank even in a state of deprivation.
Because the shakur knows
that if he's being deprived of something by
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in essence,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala may be
staving off some sort of harm from him,
and so in reality
Allah is still giving to him something.
But this takes spiritual discipline to come to
these sort of realizations,
you know.
So,
trust Allah
Tawakkul is very important.
And, you know, it might one of my
teachers told me, and maybe this is a
bit cynical,
but
it works for me,
so,
you know,
and that is that,
you know, don't really expect anything from anyone
in the dunya and you won't be disappointed.
And obviously that's not true, you know, people
that, you know, your parents inshaAllah ta'ala, the
masheikh, they won't let you down,
right? But know that this is the nature
of the dunya.
The nature of the dunya is
to break you,
Right? And the shaitan is active in the
dunya and shaitan is real.
And oftentimes
I mentioned shaitan on the minlaar, I see
Muslims rolling their eyes at me. Oh, whatever,
shaitan? What color is this pitchfork?
What is this guy talking about?
No, the shaitan is real.
This is what he wants to do. He
says to the human being,
Disbelieve.
Right?
So, we have to be wary of that.
I mean, people worship Satan today is very
common.
You have different types of Satanism.
You have something called the Church of Satan.
You have Crolean
Satanism or Thelema,
has a massive following. They have a tabla,
they call it a tabla.
A house where their founder
performs some sort of demonic ritual, they make
pilgrimage to it,
right?
So,
shaitan is real. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
in the Quran that the prophet
is
He says that one time in the Quran
about the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions the name of
our deen Al Islam 8 times in the
Quran.
You can look this up in a concordance.
How many times in the Quran does Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala refer to the shaytan as
at least 15 times
in the Quran.
At least 15 times.
And the shaitan,
he wants us to disbelieve.
Alright?
So,
there seems to be a
relationship between
an increase in ridda,
or
apostasy,
seems to be commensurate,
with a demonic presence.
So, in some of these institutions of higher
learning, you have Muslims entering these places
and I've read articles that up to half
of confessionals leave the religion
when they enter into these institutions of higher
learning.
And, of course, the response
from academics is, well, that's because this is
the first time they actually know how to
think.
So they're leaving their, you know, their
archaic, antiquated,
you know, divisive,
irrelevant
religious creeds, and they're coming into this new
enlightenment.
Right?
But if you actually talk to some of
these Muslims and, you know, I did 10
years in a graduate school, I'm a professor
now,
A lot of it has to come down
a lot of it comes down to them
not knowing how to articulate things, feeling inferior,
inadequate, and then choosing to leave because
they just don't want to deal with it.
And then if you stop praying after a
while, you stop fasting, you stop making dhikr,
you know.
Sometimes, you know, as they say, the damage
has been done.
It's very difficult for them to come back.
You know. So, it's important for us
on the intellectual side
to be able to form
strong arguments,
at least for traditionalism,
you know,
because appealing to the Quran, they would say
well that's just a logical fallacy. You're
appealing to unqualified authority. I don't believe in
the Quran.
And people will find it offensive,
but that's that's the nature of the beast,
Right?
I mean, you can't make everyone happy and
you shouldn't try. What we should concern ourselves
with is making Allah
happy, as it were. It's pleasing Allah
At the end of the day, that's the
only opinion that's going to matter.
In a 100 years, no one, unless you're
Justin Bieber,
no one on earth will be thinking of
you. I try to think of a Canadian
celebrity.
That's the first one that popped into my
head.
There's another one.
Ben Johnson. You guys remember him? Anyway.
No one is going to be thinking about
you.
No one's going to be looking at your
picture.
So, we really have to think about, you
know, who do we want to please, humanity
or Allah
Now, Allah
says in the Quran that that it is
hoped that Allah
will put between
you and those who antagonize you, Mawaddah,
Which is a type of love
or mutual respect
because Allah is omnipotent. That can happen, obviously.
Right? And that's what we hope for.
Asa Allahu and Asa in Arabic is fir'l
taraji, the verb of hope.
It's good to have hope, as I said.
So we have to keep moving, we have
to keep striving. Ultimately, the dunya, the time
in the dunya is very short. It goes
by quickly.
I remember Y2K scare like it was yesterday,
you know.
And as you get older, things really go
faster.
You know, I'm, you know, 24 now and
it's
it's
like, you know, everything just it just moves
quickly, you know.
So,
But that's, you know, so we put things
in perspective.
We try to please Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
because ultimately that's the one
that's the one we should be concerned. He's
the one that we should be concerned about,
you know.
And,
you know,
keep,
keep striving
to speak with people with adab,
but tell people the truth,
be principled,
right?
And because the truth is powerful, the sunnah
is tried and tested.
It is powerful and people that have, you
know, issues,
there are a lot of
that people have.
So, there's a lot of barriers to things,
but
as we chip away at things, and we
chip away at our own hearts as well,
obviously,
sooner or later, inshaAllah ta'ala, we have hope
that these things will
be embraced and people will
become Muslim and love Allah and His Messenger.
And this could happen
in a supernatural
type of way,
it can. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
you know, once he placed his blessed hand
on the chest of Fudala,
and
this is a man who was going to
kill him, and he just put his hand
on his chest.
And Fudala said that, you know, before he
lifted his hand from my chest, there was
nobody on earth that was more beloved to
me than he was.
Or this happens just through virtuous conduct.
Right?
So, like we all know the the iconic
story of the Bedouin who came and relieved
himself in the Masjid,
this iconic story. Right? The prophet
showed him
gentleness.
It is part of the mercy of Allah
that you have gentleness. He was mild mannered.
And,
you know, he told the Bedouin
that
this is a masjid, this is for dhikr,
this is for for qira'a,
this is for salawat,
and he showed him so much gentleness and
ihsan. As they were leaving the Masjid the
Bedouin turned around addressing everybody and he said,
Allahummairhamni
wa Muhammadan
wa la tarhammaanaahadan.
And the prophet laughed,
he said, oh Allah
bless me, have mercy on me and on
Muhammad and nobody else
because the Sahaba wanted to.
Right? They were going to address the situation
to put it mildly
when he was in the Masjid doing what
he was doing. Laqad Hajar Tawasi and the
Prophet
he said you are,
constricting something that is vast, the mercy of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So, how do we fortify ourselves spiritually?
Is that we
acquaint ourselves in a very intimate way with
the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam.
Right? So I mentioned this in the Khutba
today. We know this, we read the Sira,
and if you've already read it, read it
again, read a different translation, read it in
a different language with good intentions of ma'rifah
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that
will translate to Mahaba.
Read the Hasa'is literature about the prophet sallallahu
alaihi sallam.
What makes him so special? What makes him
so unique?
Read the Shamayel of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. Just read about how Sahaba used to
talk about him, sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And how they understood his
reality
to a degree that we can only hope
and dream for.
Right?
And these things will fortify our faith,
and make du'a to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
and then learn argumentation,
but with adab.
Learn the classical arguments for the existence of
God,
you know, do research,
You know, defend our morality.
I don't know what I can say in
Canada. Y'all don't have a First Amendment.
So I don't know what I can say.
So, I'm not gonna say it. But there
are certain secular arguments you can make against
certain lifestyles
that are very, very compelling.
Without even touching scripture,
you can make a very compelling case that
certain things are immoral and certain things are
detrimental to the flourishing of society.
Alright? So,
and the last thing I'll say is prioritize
compassion over justice.
People scream justice, justice.
Of course, we want just societies.
That's true. The Prophet always
prioritized
compassion over justice.
Thus what Uhud, again, an iconic
story, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, blood was
streaming down his face,
and the sahaba saw him with his hands
raised,
catching his blood so it would not strike
the earth.
Because he said if one drop of blood
strikes the earth then these Quraysh
are finished.
Right?
O God forgive my people or guide my
people for they don't know.
Preferring justice, preferring mercy over justice.
The Prophet
was long suffering.
He didn't give up on people
like Abu Sufyan ibn Uhar, Amr
ibn al-'Aas.
These are people who were trying to kill
him for years years years. The prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam didn't give up. I told
the story at the Khutba today. I was
in a Masjid one time, youth halakha many
years ago, and a Christian brother was there,
and a Christian brother was asking a lot
of difficult questions.
But he was being respectful.
And then
and then,
an uncle walked in.
God bless the uncle,
and he listened for 2 minutes,
and he said, you know these kafar,
Why bother?
You know, Allah has sealed their hearts,
and blinded their eyes, and
deafened their ears, and things like that. Woah,
after 2 minutes? That's that's your response?
You know? The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam dealt
with people who are trying to kill him
for over 20 years,
and he didn't give up, and they became
Muslim.
So,
you know, have have hope in Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Have hope in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Trust Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Really just,
be
annihilated
in
gratitude to Allah.
Right? A lot of people now, you know,
they have
they have a lot of stress, people have
depression, there's mental illness, a lot of it
comes down to
this idea that
you have to you have to make a
change in the world, you have to be
famous,
You have to put your name out there.
There's a lot of pressure, especially on young
people.
You know, it's, there's a I'll end with
this. There's a hadith that's attributed to Isa
alaihi salam
where he said to the he
said he said 9 out of 10 parts
of worship is silence,
is sukut.
I dedicate this to the Facebook user users.
I I used to be a Facebook user,
not anymore, but,
obviously, there's good and bad in things.
But there are people who are addicted to
social media, and it's like, you know, their
attitude is tied to the end of a
string
that's connected to social media.
So I didn't get I didn't get, you
know, a lot of likes today.
I'm not in a good mood. Oh, this
person said that. I feel so depressed. I
mean, this, to be honest, is pathetic.
Look how many followers I have.
Going back to Bieber, he calls them believers.
Sorry. I don't know if I'm talking about
Bieber up here.
But,
you know, what was I saying?
I got sidetracked by Bieber.
But Facebook, yes.
So,
prioritize compassion. That was my point.
Alright?
And,
find joy in Allah and his messenger.
So,