Ali Ataie – Virtues of Sacred Month of Muharram & Day of Ashura
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
First of all, I'd like to say
happy new year to all of you.
Make this year a year of
light and blessings,
as well as a year of recovery and
success.
May Allah
give you patience and relief
if you are
afflicted.
I mean
so I'd like to begin by quoting a
hadith.
This is
in the Sunan of Ibnu Majah,
the Imam Ibnu Majah,
which is one of the sound 6 books
of Hadith,
in in
a Sunni tradition.
The hadith says,
So the hadith begins by saying that on
the authority of Ibn Abbas, may Allah
be
pleased with Ibn Abbas and Al Abbas
that the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he entered
Medina and he found the Jews were fasting.
So he said, what is this?
And this was on the 10th of Uhura,
okay, as other traditions
indicate.
Now the Arabs before Islam,
including the prophet probably
used to fast on this day as well.
That was because this day was associated
with the sacred history
of the Ishmaelites,
the Bani Ismail,
okay, the Arabs.
But now in Medina,
the prophet he noticed
that the Israelites
were also fasting on the 10th of Muharram.
So the hadith continues,
So they said to him, meaning
the yahood said to him, this is the
day upon which Allah
saved Musa Alaihi Salam
and drowned the pharaoh.
So Musa, alaihis salaam, he fasted on this
day out of gratitude, out of Shukr.
So in Judaism, this day is called Yom
Kippur, the day of atonement.
Okay. It's it's on the 10th of Tishrei,
the month. It's called in Hebrew, it's called
the Asarab I Tishrei.
Okay. In Hebrew, it's called Asura.
Sorry. In Aramaic, it's called Asura, the language
of the Isaa and Isaa.
That's in Arabic. It's called the Asura.
Okay.
The hadith concludes,
And that's the end of the hadith
that the prophet
he said, we have more right to Musa
alaihi salaam
than you do.
And then he fasted on this day or
continued to fast on this day,
and then ordered the Sahaba also
to fast. So in the Hanafi school, it
is a an emphasized
sun sunnah muakada
to fast on Yom Yashurah
as well as
either a day before or after, okay, 9th
or 11th. This is to distinguish ourselves ourselves.
It's actually.
It's, like, slightly disliked the just fast Yom
Yashua.
So I believe this coming Wednesday
is it Wednesday or Thursday? Will be the
10th of Kaharah. I should have looked at
the calendar. I think it's Wednesday.
So so this day of Ashura carries
tremendous sanctity,
shurama, for both Muslims and Ahid Kitab.
Now
the statement of the prophet, sallallahu alaihi salam,
got more rights Musa than you do. It's
very interesting.
So Musa alaihi salam was an Israelite
prophet.
And what I mean by that is
he's he's a he was a descendant of
Yahub Alaihi Salam.
Yahub was surnamed Isranil.
Okay. And Yaqub alayhis salam, he had 12
sons
who are the progenitors of 12 tribes of
Israel.
Okay. 1 of the sons of Yahuwah was
named Levi.
Okay. These are the priests. They're called the
kohanim.
Okay. So Musa Alaihi Salam is from
that line, but he was Muslim in faith.
Musa Alaihi Salam submitted his entire
being to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Okay. So he he he certainly was not
a Jew.
Okay? So the word Jew as a as
a,
as a member of a religion called Judaism
did not exist at that time.
Okay. This is called an anachronism.
That would be like saying George Washington was
a Mormon.
Right? You understand why that's a problem?
George Washington was,
he lived in the 18th century,
but Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism lived
in the 19th century.
Okay. So the word Jew at the time
of Musa alaihi salaam, Yehuda, meant
a descendant of Judah, one of the other
sons of Yahu. So it was a tribal
distinction. It was not the name of a
religion.
So Musa alaihi salam is not even a
Jew according to this
definition,
as a tribal distinction. Okay. So Bani Israel
was a Muslim Ummah
at that time. And, of course, according to
our tradition,
Musa alaihi salam spoke of the coming of
the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alaihi salam,
in Surat Al Aqaf verse number 10.
Allah
says,
don't you see that this is from Allah
and he rejected while a witness for the
children of Israel?
And Imam Al Qurtubi says, Musa Alaihi Salam
or witness to one like him and has
believed
while you are arrogant
and Allah does not guide
to unjust
people.
Okay.
And of course, when
he heard about the initial wahi upon the
prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam, he
said,
The great law of God or spirit of
God
has come to you just as it came
to Musa alaihis salam.
Okay.
So the the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam,
he fasted on the day of Ashura to
commemorate
the Exodus. This amazing
event
in which Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala manifested his
Jamal and Jalal, right? Beauty and majesty
by saving the Israelites
and destroying
the pharaoh and his hosts. This was one
of the great days of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. Right? So in the Quran, Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala,
he orders Musa alaihi salam alayhis
salam. Remind them of the great days of
Allah
And Allah
says to the
Quran remind them for indeed reminders,
benefit believers. So reminders of reminders of blessings
and gender theological
virtues in the heart of the believers, like
gratitude
and patience
and love and hope, etcetera.
Now Ashura and really the month of Uhura
in general should be a time,
when all Muslims remember the virtues
of the family of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam
Okay. Love of the family of the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is a great,
unifier of all Muslims.
Okay. It was on it was on Yomi
Ashura at 61 Hijri
when the beloved grandson of the prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi salam, Imam Hussain
Alaihi
Salam is also Hussain ibn Fathima
Alaihi Salam.
It was on that day that he was
murdered in Karbala
in Iraq.
Okay. It was said that Imam al Hussein
just prior to the battle
asked one of his companions, what is the
name of the of this desert?
And he was told Karbala.
And Imam al Husseini said,
Right? Indeed, it is torment and trial. Very
interesting. In Arabic means a torment, a disaster.
Balan means a trial.
And the hadith in Al Adab al Mufrad,
a book of hadith called Al Adab al
Mufrad. This is Imam Bukhari's other book, lesser
known book.
We're told that when Imam al Hussain was
a small boy playing in the streets,
it says.
The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam saw him and
extended his arms out, embraced him,
and Hussain said something and they made the
Prophet smile.
Right?
And then the Prophet said, the
famous
hadiths, Hussein or
Hussein.
Then he
said,
So he said that, oh, Allah. So he
said, Hussein is for me and I am
for him.
Allah loves,
Allah loves the one who loves Hassan and
Hussain.
Okay. And parents will really understand this. Nothing
makes a father happier than seeing the happiness
and joy of his children. So, like, Hussein
was like the they say the apple of
the prophet's eye. Right? Just looking at Hussein,
put a smile on the prophet's face and
filled his heart with love. This is reason
enough to say that all Muslims should love
Imam al Hussein, alaihi salam.
And we say alaihi salam for. This is
no problem. This is this is something that's
found in the books of a.
All of the great Sahaba love Imam Hussain.
Okay. Even those who disagreed with him.
Okay.
When Imam al Hussein was in Mecca, right,
so he fled to Medina.
He made Hajj in Mecca,
and invitations
were pouring in from Kufa
in Iraq.
Okay? Abdullah ibn Abbas,
who was in Mecca with great concern and
respect for his cousin,
Imam al Hussein, advised
Imam al Hussein not advance
toward Kufa.
So even Abbas didn't think it was a
good idea.
Okay.
And he did that out of love for
Imam Al Hussein. Because even Abbas knew it
was very, very dangerous.
He didn't want
Imam Al Hussein to be killed.
It seems that Imam al Hussain knew that
he was going to be killed
and his men were going to be massacred
Okay. So so rather than having his
blood shed in Mecca and the sacred sacred
precincts in the Haram,
he willingly started out into the desert.
Okay. Imam al Hussein did not want blood
to spill in the Haram
because that would have set,
a precedent
for the future political authorities.
And eventually, it did happen. Right? When Yazid
defeated
ibn Zubair in Mecca,
and the Kaaba was actually damaged
during that that
battle. That was in 683 of a common
era, about 3 years after Imam Hussain
left Mecca.
Now there's a difference a difference of opinion
as to actually who actually delivered the death
blow
to Imam al Hussein alaihis salam.
The earlier sources say, it was a man
named Sinan Abdul Anast Al Nahai.
Okay. And later sources say it was a
man named Shimer ibn Abdul Joshan.
Nonetheless, it's mentioned in Sunni sources
that the severed head,
of Imam al Hussein
Okay. And Ubaidullah ibn Nusiyad, he's the one
who killed Muslim bin Aqdil
in Kufa. He intimidated the Kufans,
and he's the one who sent the army
to Karbala. And,
according to our sources, Ibn al Ziyad, he
would he would have a stick or something,
and he would strike
the lips of Imam al Hussain,
taunting him, right, the severed head of Imam
al Hussain.
And Anas ibn Malik who was the who
was a great Sahabi, who was the servant
of the father
for over 10 years. He was present at
one of these moments and he said to
He said, woe unto you indeed, I saw
the messenger of Allah. Swear to Allah. I
saw the messenger of Allah kissing that mouth
that you're striking
with this stick.
So, you know, this was
a a massively
tragic event
in our history.
And so the Makdal of Imam al Hussein,
right, is what's called the Makdal, you know,
that his martyrdom, his passion, his suffering
had a deep redemptive
purpose.
Okay. There was redemption in his suffering.
What did it do? It shook
the sort of global consciousness
of the Muslim Ummah from its sleep. So
it caused like this world, this I should
say, Ummah
wide sort of sense
of Ohasaba and Tawba.
You know, if this is happening to the
grandson of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, to
the family of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
if Muslim authorities are are massacring people that
are beloved to the messenger of Allah, then
we all need to check ourselves,
right, and change our ways.
Okay. That's usually what happens. Whether we see
someone
that we know is better than us struggling.
We should turn inwards and think, you know,
what would happen to me? And this should
engender a sense of Tawba,
repentance,
and Tawadur, humility.
So Muslim Ummah was shaken. We must protect
and honor the family of the prophet sallam
alaihi sallam. So Imam Al Hussain's actions provoked
an incredibly powerful
revival across the Muslim world.
Okay? So all Muslims should love Imam Al
Hussain. So Muslim doesn't love Imam Al Hussain,
that that Muslim has
serious issues
in his Aqeedah,
in his foundational beliefs.
Because how can a Muslim not love someone
who was so incredibly beloved to the prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi sallam.
Right? There's numerous hadith. There's a there's a
hadith with the rabbi of Imam Ahmad
where he says,
that the prophet he took the hands of
Hassan and Hussain and he said,
So he said whoever loves me and these
2, and Hassanim Hassanim Hussain, and their father,
Sayid Ali, and their mother, Sayid al Fatima,
will be with me on the day of
judgment.
Okay?
And it's the same question when it comes
to someone like
Abu Bakr as Siddiq
or our mother Aisha.
How can a Muslim not love someone
who was so incredibly beloved to the prophet
Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam?
Right? Again, numerous Hadith Amr ibn Al Aasik
in Fatima Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam You Rasulullah Ayunasa
Haboo ilayhi Who do you love the most?
His
wife. And then he said
from the men,
her father,
from the men, Irma. And then he said,
Then he named a few other men. Right?
In other words, I wasn't one of them.
Right?
So
Aisha and, of course, many, like, Shi'ite scholars
will say
that, you know, these Hadith are fabricated and
things like that, but facts don't lie.
Okay? It is a fact that the prophet
is buried
in the apartment of Aisha,
into Abi Bakr as Siddiq.
And Abi Bakr as Siddiq and Omar ibn
al Khartal
are buried next to him.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam died while his
head was resting on the chest of our
mother Aisha,
according to the sound Hadith.
And Sayidina Ali prepared the body for burial.
Okay.
Imam al Haddad who was a great scholar
of the 18th century, Eladi.
So he's considered the Mujaddid of his time.
He was in Karim, Yemen.
He mentioned that Imam Ali ibn Hussain. So
Zain ul Abidi, this is the son of
Imam, Imam al Hussain.
He said
that Allah
has concealed 3 things in 3 things.
He said the first thing is that Allah
concealed his wrath
like his anger,
in acts of disobedience
to him.
Okay. So the point is the point that
he was making, Zain ul Abideen
The point that he was making is don't
downplay
any act of disobedience to
Allah because you don't know if the wrath
of Allah
is behind it.
Right? Like somebody might say, I'll just tell
a little white lie,
but we don't know.
Allah knows that little white lie could spiral,
cause a lot of fitna for multiple people.
Right?
And then he said Allah
has concealed his
his pleasure and acts of
obedience to him. His Riba
or ribwan.
Right? So don't downplay any
small act of goodness.
There's a true story of a man. He
he actually
he took the bus to the Golden Gate
Bridge and jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge.
It's a true story, and he survived.
And, you know, he did an interview after,
and he said he said, when I was
sitting on the bus, if just one person
would have looked at me with, like, a
good expression
or said, hey, how are you doing? I
would not have jumped, he said.
You know,
just a minimal act of kindness.
You know, a smile is, the prophet
said a smile is charity. Again, we don't
know. Allah knows a smile could save someone's
life.
And then he said, the third thing is
that Allah he said that Allah
sealed
his right? His sainthood or his friendship, his
saints
amongst the creation.
The creation.
Amongst the creation. Right? So some of the
greatest Muslim scholars in the world
or converts to Islam,
they were atheists, agnostic,
they were Christians.
Right? Saidna Umar was resolved upon the most
evil intention, the history of humanity.
Right? He wanted to kill the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam. Imam Rafortibi said that Sayyidina Umar
was beloved to Allah when he was prospered
to idols in Mecca.
The reason is because Allah
knew the end of his life.
He knew the end. Whereas, Umar now he
is buried next to the messenger of Allah.
He's in the garden from the gardens of
paradise.
So the point here is we should have
good opinions of people in general.
Right?
Muslim and non Muslim. Now imagine when it
comes to Sahaba and Adid Beit,
how much more careful
should we be? Right? As one of my
teachers said, giving people the benefit of the
doubt
is at the very heart of spirituality.
Okay?
I mean, we shouldn't be naive. Sometimes there's
no doubt. But specifically, when they're dealing with
people who are who are in the orbit
of the prophet, we must tread very, very
lightly.
Okay. Also, we should never question another Muslim's
love. Right? So, like, if a Muslim,
does not want to attend a gathering
where the Moled of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam is being celebrated, that's fine. He doesn't
have to. That's not logic. To attend a
molded gathering
is just jaziz. It's permissible. Right? That does
not mean that this Muslim does not love
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And to suggest that is to make takfir
of that Muslim. Right? Very dangerous because
he's required to love the prophet, sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
So that Muslim might manifest his love for
the prophet in other ways, ways that testify
to his love. Perhaps he fasts every Monday
Thursday.
Perhaps he's,
constantly memorizing hadith. Maybe he reads a page
of Sira
every night.
In the same way,
if Sunnis are not gathering in the Masajid
on the eve of of Ashura
to commemorate the martyrdom, the Muqtul of Imam
al Hussain. That does not mean that Sunnis
do not love
Imam al Hussain, alayhis salaam, with all their
hearts. They simply express their love in other
ways.
So we have to be smart enough
to reject
propaganda
and divisive rhetoric when we hear it. I'll
give you an example.
I once heard a Shiite
a why there's a preacher.
Right? And and preachers have incredible influence upon
the masses
because they appear to be scholars.
Right? And they're really charismatic. The laypeople just
assume that they're scholars because they look the
part. Right? He has a he has a
beard. He quoted the Quran in Arabic. He
must be a scholar. There's a big difference
between a and an aalim, a proper scholar.
Right?
First, it's really like age. Right? So it
takes a really long time
to become a scholar. Right? So anyone under
40, you know, just kinda take what they
say with a with a grain of salt.
You know, don't just accept things
uncritically.
Anyway, he said that Sunnis fast on Yom
Yashua
because they want to forget about the death
of Imam al Hussein.
Right? So this is totally ridiculous.
So asking Anomina Ashura predates his martyrdom.
It is a sunnah of the grandfather,
Abu Muhammad Hussain,
on Yomi Ashura. Muslims long before the martyrdom
of Imam al Hussein were fasting
on Yomi Ashura. Even as I said, in
the pre Islamic days, even before the prophet,
it was associated with events in the lives
of Ishmael and Ibrahim and Nuh alayhi mus
salam alayhi
salam.
So all you might hear a preacher say,
the Sunnis opposed Hussein
while the Shia defended him
at Karbala.
Right? The Sunnis opposed him, the Shia. So
this is historically inaccurate
and again anachronistic.
Again, it's it's like saying something like the
Navy SEALs
fought in the civil war. It doesn't make
any sense.
The words Sunni and Shih'i did not
have theological
distinctiveness
at that time.
And not only that, such a statement is
very effective.
Right?
It's, it's in other words, it's intended to
antagonize
and create hatred.
Right? It's a very irresponsible
thing to say.
So the term Sunni and Sunni and Shia
or Shi'i as we know them develop much
later.
Okay? Or they'll claim that Abu Bakr and
Omar hated Ali and vice versa.
Right?
3 of the sons of Sid and Ali,
alaihis salaam,
that were
killed at Karbala,
siding next to Al Hussein,
their brother,
were called Abu Bakr, Omar, and Uthman.
Okay? So if if Sayna Sayna Ali hated
Abu Bakr as Siddiq, and he hated Omar
ibn Al Khattab, and he hated Uthman ibn
Affan,
If these were his, you know, mortal enemies,
why did he name 3 of his sons
after his mortal enemies?
So this is much more nuanced than we
think.
Right?
But people who love conflict
and and people who love fitna, they hate
nuance.
Okay? Because they want the world to be
black and white. It It makes things easier.
You don't have to think as much.
Right?
Now many Sunni preachers,
who have, they also employ equally divisive language
sometimes. And I heard of Khatib one time.
He said, Yomi Ashura is important to us
because
of its connection to the prophet
and it doesn't matter if some random historical
events
happen to occur later on the tenth of
Baha'u'llah.
Right?
So this is not how we speak about
the Athid Beit. This is bad Adab.
Right? And and breaching Adab with Ahid Beit
is a very dangerous thing. My teachers in
Yemen, they said, reaching
Adeb of Ahidbayt puts one in danger of
Su Al Khathma,
of a bad ending.
Right?
Okay?
So
there's a hadith in Bukhari and
Umar.
So
this is from ibn Umar, the son of
Umar, that Abu Bakr as Siddiq said, be
extremely
vigilant.
Be exceedingly
attentive
about the prophet with respect to his family.
So that is from Abu Bakr.
I remember once a a Shiite gentleman asked
me during a q and a session.
Right?
Because I
I not only do inter
what is it?
Interfaith dialogue,
but intraphaith
dialogue. Right? Also important.
So he asked me he said he said,
this is how exactly how he put it.
Why do you go after the caliphs
and not the 12 Imams of Athim Bayt?
This was his question to me. Why do
you go after the caliphs
and not the 12 Imams of Aqhbate?
Very interesting phrasing of the question.
Right? So I said, what which caliphs are
you talking about?
And he said, Caliphs, I said, who are
they? He said, Abu Bakr. Okay. Who else?
He said, Omar. Okay. Keep going. Where's my?
Keep us going.
Ali. Oh, okay.
You know?
And And you also said there are 5
rightly guided healers by the way.
Hassan ibn UHali was killed for 6 months.
So you see how this the very question
was faulty.
Right? The very question sets up this false
dichotomy.
So it's a very nuanced issue. Like, what
if I said, do you respect
the Ahlade Bayt, or do you respect Aisha,
the life of the prophet?
You know, what a strange question.
What a faulty question.
Why is it faulty? Because in the Quran,
the wives of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
are called Ahlul Bayt
in the Quran.
Okay.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala begins the section in
Surat Al Agha
by saying That
means O wives of the Prophet
you're not like other women, and it continues.
And then in the next verse, we get
the famous phrase,
That Allah
only wants to remove from you every type
of impurity, oh people of the house and
mender you pure and spotless.
Then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says after this
Alright? And recite what has been,
or
recite what has been,
or remember what has been recited in your
homes from the from the verses of Allah
and wisdom. This
this verb,
Right? If you don't know Arabic grammar, then
I can see how people can make mistakes.
This this verb is a
it's second person feminine plural. This is only
speaking to women.
Okay. So addressing only the wives again. So
the point is the phrase ahlulbayt in the
Quran
occurs in the middle of a passage
in which Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is exclusively
addressing
the wives of the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam, but it's not limited to women
because we go back, what does it say?
That means that there are now men included,
women and men.
Okay. But
that phrase is right in the middle of
a passage.
It's at the focus of a passage that
is addressing the women of the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, the wives of the Prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam.
Okay?
Alright. And not only this, the wives of
the Prophet are called the mothers of the
believers.
Right? The Prophet is closer to the believers
than them than their own self,
and his wives are their mothers.
Right? And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
Don't hurt me
regarding Aisha.
Sound hadith.
Okay. There's also hadith, a thakalain. Very famous
hadith,
the 2 weighty things.
The prophet
I'm going to leave 2 weighty things.
The book of Allah
The book of God, the extended rope coming
from the heavens to the earth,
and my close family members.
Now there's another Hadith that says, Alright?
So again,
a a preacher or someone who doesn't know
what they're talking about,
some amateur
might say, well, who you're gonna follow?
The Ahlulbayt or the Sunnis?
Right?
There's no contradiction here.
Why? Because the sunnah of the prophet
is preserved by the Aahl Bayt,
most of whom are Sunni.
Right? So this is a fact of the
vast it's just a fact.
The vast majority
of the descendants of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Salam are ahusseinhu wajila'a.
They identify as
Sunni. So I studied a little bit in
Yemen,
Al Haramow. I wanted to study with Ahlul
Bayt.
Right. So the Ibra'alawi
Sadat in Yemen are Sunni, they're Shafi'i, Ash'ari.
They adore Imam Al Ghazali.
They they trace their lineage back to,
a man named Ali al Uredi who was
one of the sons of Imam Jaqar as
Sadiq, right, who was the great great great
grandson of the prophet
Both Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik ibn
Anas,
2 great Imams under Sunwar Jaba, they studied
under Jafar as Sadiq. Now some of the
Shia might say
that why don't Malekis and Hanafis become Jafari
then
in their fiqh?
Right? The reason is not because Sunnis have
something against
Imam Jafar as Sadiq. That's ridiculous.
It's because the school of fiqh that would
later be attributed
to Imam Jafar as Sadiq by the Shia
was not preserved
correctly according to the Sunni principles
of preservation.
Okay. So it's it's a method problem.
It's not a personal problem.
Nothing personal.
Right? Sunnis love all of the Imams, the
family, the prophets of the Mahdi.
So the Sunni Shihi and I'm running out
of time. I realized that
I'm actually out of time, but I'll I'll
just finish this point here. Inshallah. The Sunni
Shihri divide has been around for 100 and
100
of years. Right? So the greatest scholars of
the swan in the classical period, they couldn't
figure it out. Modern scholars will probably not
figure it out. Our preachers certainly will not
figure it out.
The propagandists are not gonna figure it out.
We simply have to accept that there's an
insoluble difference of opinion
and come together on broad universal principles.
So like polemical debate, which is called Jidan.
Right?
Among the Awam, among laity is haram
according
to Imam Malik. It's Haram for people that
are not ulama to debate.
Okay?
And there's a reason why that is. There's
an expression that says a little bit of
knowledge can be dangerous.
Alright. So what happens is lay people,
they learn a few things, a few points,
Right? Here and there are a few arguments,
maybe from watching some YouTube videos or something.
They think that they can now
substantively, like, academically
argue for a certain theological position.
Right? But by doing so, they actually cause
more confusion,
more animosity,
and ultimately more division.
Right?
So if they keep doing that, we have
to question, why are you doing this? Is
it for Nas or is it for
Right?
One of my teachers said, don't be a
cause of fitna.
The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he said, the
one who is silent is safe.
Right? A man came to Imam Ahmad,
Ahmad ibn Muhammad And
the man said to him, who was right,
Aisha or Ali? Pick a sign.
Right?
And this is was this was his response.
Imam Ahmad, he said, Allah saved our swords
from blood and picking sides.
Why don't we now save our tongues from
picking sides?
In other words, I was not forced to
back then to pick a side. Thank God.
He wasn't even alive back then. Then. So
why are you forcing me now to pick
a side?
Right?
There was also a conflict between Ali and
Lawyer.
Right?
And, you know, Sunnis by consensus
agree that say, Nadi
was one of the most virtuous
and holiest,
greatest of the Sahaba. He's also.
Same kind of hadith about
that he loves Allah and his Messenger and
is beloved to Allah and his Messenger.
Right? So the actions and decisions of Sayidina
Ali were better and wiser. Sayidina Ali wanted
to end the cycle of violence.
Right? So my consensus, Muawiya was wrong. He's
not from the rightly guided caliphs.
But that does not mean we should curse
and insult.
Right? If
was such a terrible man
or a tyrant.
Okay. Certainly, his son was a tyrant,
but that's his son. And in our religion,
the son doesn't inherit the sins of his
father. That's a Christian belief. We don't believe
that at all.
Right?
So if he was such a tyrant, why
did Sayidina Hasan
make peace with Muawiya?
He made a truce with a tyrant.
Imam Hasan abdicated the khilafa over to a
tyrant.
This doesn't make sense.
Right? The prophet
said,
Imam Hassan,
Indeed, the son of mine is a master.
So,
this this son of mine, his grandson, Imam
Hassan, he's talking about the hadith,
but he calls him my son. The son
of mine is
a master.
Perhaps Allah
will make peace
through him,
will bring 2 groups together
through him, not just any groups.
Amin and Muslimin are the 2 great groups
of Muslim Muslim
believers.
Go give them peace. You see? So so
Jidale is with Afiqi Ta'im.
Okay? The ulama
among
each other
engaged in something called monavara,
disputation.
This is when two sides already agree upon
some sort of underlying
premise or universal,
and then they try to mutually,
arrive at the truth about some particular issue.
For example, they agree that the prophet of
the body was a true prophet, but what
were the particular ways in which he received
the wacky to have a dispute.
Okay?
Now Jidal
is when your goal is to convince your
opponent that he is wrong, and you are
right about a fundamental issue.
Like when we convince Jews and Christians
that Muhammad is Rasoolullah.
So Jidahl debate is what.
And there's certain etiquettes that are associated with
it. Right?
Like, call people to the way of your
Lord with academic sophistication, with good comfort, good
etiquette, good adam.
Right? And and we're not supposed to waste
our time on.
There are a lot of people on the
Internet. Right? A lot of Christian apologists, a
lot of Muslim apostates,
you know, that that wanna debate like Muslim
Ulema.
And they're saying, I'm not gonna give you
a platform. You are a must ask. These
are people mock and insult the religion.
So we're not supposed to engage with them.
We don't give them a platform.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is
saying to the prophet,
I am sufficient for the mockers. Let me
take care of the mockers. You don't have
to deal with them.
Okay. So if Allah,
commands us to speak to Ahid al Khitab
with such etiquette,
then
how do you think we should speak to
each other, Muslim
to Muslim?
So there there's an Afar, which is like
a, you know, an ancient report. It's not
a Hadith, but it's from the Salaf. It's
from the early,
Muslims
that says breaking the heart of a fellow
Muslim
is worse than destroying the Kaaba brick by
brick.
Okay. So this is meant to convey
the gravity of such a thing.
Right? There was a hadith Al Tabarani,
the prophet said,
But the most beloved action to Allah after
the
Farahib
is,
to put joy in the hearts of other
Muslims.
Okay.
And, of course, we have this beautiful Ayah
in the Quran, Surah Al Imran, verse 103.
That's 3103
of the Quran.
So hold tightly
all of you to the rope of God
and do not be divided. What is the
robe of God? Habbullah,
the book of God, the Quran.
Okay.
Means
do not join a firqa. A
firqa is an exclusivist
sect.
There's a difference between a madhab and a
firqa.
You're encouraged to join a Madhab. A Madhab
is just a school of thought.
Right?
The difference is a Madhab recognizes that there's
truth in other madame. They're not exclusivist.
Right? Whereas a fiddleqah believes that they have
the exclusive truth and everyone else is a
katha.
You can't join a fiddlekhom, like the was
a fiddlekhom.
We have the truth. And if you don't
believe exactly as I do, you're a kafir.
We don't care who you are. We don't
care if your name is Ali ibn Abi
father, they said. You don't believe what we
believe, you're a kafir.
Right?
So Roop of Allah is the Quran. So
the Sunnis and the Shiites, they recite and
memorize the same Quran. It's the same Quran.
Okay? Despite our long standing differences,
we stand united behind a single text.
There are some rogue
Shiites who said that who say things like
there's Tahrif in the Quran and things like
that. That's very much a fringe element
amongst the amongst the Shia.
Right? That's it's cool for them to even
believe even entertain that contradicts the Quran
clearly.
Okay. And and, you know, the Christians can't
say that. They they can't they can't say
that they're united on the book. Roman Catholics
and Protestants, they have a different version of
the Bible.
The Catholic version of the Bible is 7
books longer
than the Protestant version. I remember that
I used to do, you know, when I
was an undergraduate, we had this Dawah table
and the Christians would come and debate.
No. I was younger back then, so more
energy. But this Christian guy came and he
was and he was saying, why there's so
many versions of the Quran? I said, well,
what version of the Quran? So there's translations
of the Quran.
And then I figured out he's talking about
the of the
Quran. So I said, no. These are not
these are multiple readings of the same verses.
They're not readings of different verses.
It's the same verses.
So I don't understand. I said, you know,
the prophet said, you would recite these verses
in different ways. They convey different
meanings that enrich the meanings of the Quran.
So
I I said to him, I said, because
he was holding a Bible. I usually bring
all my Bibles and I said to him,
can you can you read 1st Maccabees for
me in your Bible? He said, yeah. And
he he's, you know, Christian, you're a he's
a Protestant Christian. So he pulled out this
King James version of the Bible and he's
flipping through it. And he said, what's the
name of the book? And I said, 1st
Maccabees. And he's flipping through it. Is it
Malachi?
No. No. 1st Maccabees. So he's looking through
it.
I don't see it in here. I said,
look on the table of contents. He's looking
to it's not there. So, oh,
but I have it here in my Roman
Catholic version.
A different version.
Right? Completely different, 7 extra books.
Okay. So we have where Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala United us upon a single text,
a primary text.
And then Allah says
So he says, remember the blessing of Allah
upon you. When you were enemies and Allah
brought your hearts together and you became brethren
by means of his blessing,
and you are on the brink of falling
into the fire when he saved you from
it.
Like so,
Allah makes clear for you the signs in
order for you to be guided. So according
to the exegetes,
the Niama
mentioned in this ayah that brought people together.
The first instance, the Aus and Khazraj was
the prophet,
himself.
Okay. So we can come together on this
principle of a love of ahlulbay.
The Quran says
This is chapter 42
verse 23.
Say, no reward do I ask of you
for this except the love of the
like family.
Okay? So
and many others. They say they say that
Al Khurbat here is added to the Surinilah,
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
That we are commanded in the Quran by
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to love the family
of the Prophet
My first Imam Shef Hari, he said,
Oh, people of the house of the prophetic
house,
your love is obligatory
in the book of God.
Whoever does not send benedictions upon you in
the prayer, there's no prayer for them.
The the,
the
is a rukun of the prayer.
If you forget to do that, your prayer
is buffet.
If you do your prayer over again, your
prayers not valid.
But here's the question. How can you command
someone to love someone else?
Right? So if I said to you, I
command you to
love my cousin.
How could you?
You couldn't. You don't know my cousin.
So Allah
in this verse is essentially, it's implicit. He's
essentially commanding us to know,
to learn
about the family of the Prophet
and by knowing his family,
his virtues and piety and struggle that we
will naturally genuinely come,
to love his family.
I'll stop at this point.
There any questions here we can take maybe
a couple of there's time?
I was going online.
Okay.
So this question is, I'm a new Muslim.
My question is why don't we commemorate the
martyrdom of of Hussein alaihis salaam? As Sunnis,
shouldn't we be concerned
within 50 years of the prophets of his
death,
his grandson was murdered. It seems like we
should commemorate
his martyrdom too. Yes. We should. I I
agree. We should commemorate his martyrdom.
We should remember him.
We should
constantly
be praising the Ahlul Bayt. And, of course,
Imam al Hussein
is, as the questioner said, a grandson of
the prophet
not only that, he's a he's a companion
of the prophet
So there are people who I mean, I've
I've quoted
I've quoted Hadith in our books
during a Khutba,
praising.
And people would come up to me and
say, are you a are you a shihi?
And they don't know I'm from Iran because
of the that would be a if they
knew I was an Iranian, they would assume
here. They don't know anything about me. Right?
So are you so why do you think
I'm a shi? You could you said this
about Imam Hassan. I said, this hadith is
a. This hadith is a. This hadith is
a. This what are you talking about? Oh,
I've never heard this hadith.
You know, that's that's a shame.
You know? So I think people for the
sake of not
being labeled a certain thing are not being
true to their tradition.
You know? And that's that's unfortunate.
You know?
But that we should we should definitely you
know, when you say commemorate his martyrdom,
you
know, there there are certain practices that our
Shia brethren do to commemorate the the martyrdom
that are not acceptable according
to the Sunni urima.
Okay. So there's different ways. As as I
said in my lecture, there's different ways in
which we commemorate Athid Beit.
There's different ways in which different Sunnis,
commemorate the molid of the Prophet
Everyone believes in the molid of the Prophet.
Molid means he was born.
Right? Everyone believed you have to believe that.
And everyone has to show joy. They have
to have joy in their hearts that the
prophet was born. You have to.
But it doesn't mean you have to go
to a gathering
and listen to poetry about the positive. You
can if you want. You don't have to.
Right?
So we commemorate the Imalak Hussein in different
ways.
It's
the the dean is is fast.
Yes, sir. So I can
so just a quick question about,
some of the,
associations with the the the day of Ashura
that,
preceded the prophet. I've I've heard stories about,
the ark of,
say the noir,
finding its final resting place and other other
sort of traditions. Just curious
if there's validity to those and and if
you could share some of those if if
there are.
Yeah. I mean,
our or they might mention certain things.
It's kind of a mystery. There isn't anything
strong,
anything reliable,
anything really
authentic
in our in our tradition. But some of
the irlama mentioned things. There was definitely something
there.
Okay?
Because there there are according to some of
the ulama, the prophet
was also fasting Yom Yashuaah
before he entered Medina.
So that means that there's there's definitely validity
in this fast. It was something that was
connected to
according to the tradition to Ismail alaihi salaam
in some way and other prophets as well.
Some of the urnama sort of, conjecture what
that could have been, whether the the ark
of Noah
docked
Jevad judi, Am Yom Yashua, or they mentioned
things like
the the Torah descended upon,
Musa, alayhis salam, or some of them say
during Ramadan or the injiuk and their Isa,
alayhis salam, or he was descended into heaven.
We don't know exactly what it was.
Okay. But there's some significance because it was
a practice of the prophet, sallallahu alaihi said.
Everything he does is guided even before his.
Okay? He's he he has Isma his whole
life. This is our aqidah,
And this is why there's Irhas. There's pre
prophetic miracles
attributed to him. When he was a boy,
he went to Vostra, and there was a
cloud following him.
Okay? And there was trees that were shading
him.
This means that he is the prophet of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala even during then, but
he's not sent as a prophet yet. So
he has ishmmah,
and he has a clean reputation.
This is an argument for his Nabuwa.
Right? No one could say anything to him
when the when he became a prophet, when
he began to preach the Quran,
none of the mushariqing could say, oh, weren't
you the guy who did x, y, and
z? But you were a teenager? Nobody can
say anything like that.
Right?
That's why in the Quran, the Quran makes
this argument.
It says, you know,
it says a whole lifetime I have been
among you.
Right? A whole lifetime I've lived among you.
In other words, look at my reputation. Do
I make things up? Am I do I
lie? Do I want power?
You know?
Am I a violent person?
None of that.
That's what they called. That's their own title.
It's what the mushrikeen
gave to the prophet.
Right?
So a lot of these these had these
a lot of these traditions are weak. There's
nothing really solid, but there is something there.
We just don't know exactly what it is.
Alright.
No questions from the ladies?
Thank you for coming.