Ali Hammuda – Why Our Ways #01 Our Ways
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
I read an article
speaking about a study that was carried out
by a man by the name of Richard
Blankham,
and he is a professor
in anthropology
at Purdue University.
They carried out a phenomenal study I wanted
to share with you that is very much
connected with the series that I'm introducing for
you at this moment.
They carried out an investigation on 30
premodern societies.
They discovered
that
even, and I quote,
good governments,
Societies that had good governments.
They were not immune
from a catastrophic
demise and decline.
They found when they investigated these 33 modern
societies
that those societies where their governments were good
and just and fair,
societies that had governments that prevented power inequality
and wealth inequality,
that distributed
resources and wealth
fairly between people.
They found that those societies tended to collapse
even quicker than societies that were led by
despots,
tyrants.
Why is this, and how can it be
the case?
They found that there was a common feature
between all of those societies
that were quick to fall and crumble
even if they were good governments and fair,
and that commonality was
that they had leaders
who failed
in protecting their societies
because what those leaders had done was that
they had torn apart
the social fabric
and the morality of that society.
This was their conclusion.
Our Muslim poet, Ahmed Shawpi, he said
He said nations
are by their manners.
The future of nations
is connected to their manners and their morality.
Those nations endure as far as those morality,
their morality endures.
He said
but when their morality declines, so will their
civilization.
Today, computer
processors are
faster than ever before.
Computer chips, they are
smaller than ever before.
The mobile phones that I see in your
hands, they are more dynamic than ever before.
Yet all of this technological
advancement has not led to an improvement in
the human condition,
and most certainly, the advancement in technology has
not led to an advancement
in morality
and mannerisms. The opposite is true.
I was thinking to myself, what is the
best possible way of introducing this series of
talks? That's gonna be a while, to be
honest with you. We will be here for
a few weeks,
a few months
to discuss the title of our ways,
our mannerisms,
our way with Allah
with rest of creation and with ourselves.
What is the best way I could introduce
this topic, this series to my brothers and
sisters? Then Allah
guided me to
a phenomenal article.
I encourage you to read it
By a man titled by a man called
Paul Kingsnorth, and the title of the article
is
the west has lost
its virtue.
We have abandoned the taboos that held us
together.
Again, the title of the article,
the West has lost its virtue.
We have abandoned the taboos
that held us together.
King's North in the article, he argues
that
the west is declining.
He says the west is crumbling.
And he quotes people like Oswald
Spengler in his book, the decline of the
west, who says that not only is it
declining,
he predicted that it will be in the
21st century that we will see the full
manifestations of this crumbling.
And he says, I e Kingsnorth, in the
article that
there's only one thing that really brings the
west together.
There's only been one thing that has held
it all together, a commonality,
and that thing is the Christian church.
He says that the Christian
Church
is what permeated
every aspect of Western society from its eastern
and western parts.
He said the west is Christendom.
Christianity,
he said, influenced
the working week.
It affected the taxes
that we pay. It affects the
how we see family,
sexual
morality,
or the lack thereof,
how we see right and how we see
wrong,
how we view our neighbor,
how we see spirituality,
how we look into politics, war, and peace.
He said Christianity
affected the way of the human mind here
in the modern man in the west. And
since time in antiquity as well, it's been
about Christianity.
He said, however,
Christendom today is no more.
He said, and I quote that if you
are living in the west today, you are
living in the ruins of the west.
And he said, don't be deceived by the
fact that you can still see the ruins,
I e, just because there are big beautiful
cathedrals, huge churches,
just because you know of the symphonies and
the songs of the people of the past
and the concerts
of antiquity. He said, don't be deceived. This
is still the ruins.
He said, Christendom is no more.
Then he says in the article that what
happens when you have an old culture
that was built upon a sacred order, built
upon a religion,
and that old culture begins to die,
what happens is that there is upheaval.
There there is a disturbance across every aspect
of society.
Across politics,
money,
sexuality,
economics,
family,
society,
There is a huge tension, a disturbance, an
upheaval that happens when an old culture begins
to die that was built upon a religion
or a sacred order.
He says during that time, an empty space
is left, a vacuum, and everything is up
for grabs.
Anybody can claim what they want.
He says welcome to the 21st century.
And he quotes in his book,
a philosopher, and you will see where I'm
going with all of this in a moment.
Bear with me.
He quotes a philosopher by the name of
Alasdair
McIntyre
who has a book called After Virtue.
And he says that
if
human life is made meaningless,
If you as a human being, you now
have no meaning connected to God, you are
just an earthly being,
then there is no accountability.
And what is the meaning of virtue?
What is the meaning of morality?
None of these things
mean anything anymore when you remove God from
the equation.
And he said that when you forget
the reason why certain things were forbidden in
your culture,
you forget the taboos.
You forget right and wrong, and morality comes
crashing down. And he gives an example
of the Polynesian communities
and how they had forgotten the reason why
they had taboos and morality,
and so it all disappeared.
English seaman,
Alisdair MacIntyre, he said, made their way to
Polynesia.
Polynesia is, of course,
a sub region of Oceania
that is made up of around
a 1000,
islands,
New Zealand, and Tonga, and Samoa, the south
and central,
Pacific Ocean.
This is called
poly Polynesia is there.
So he said the English seamen, they made
their way to Polynesia,
and they were amazed because they saw that
there was such a contradiction in their behavior.
On one hand, they were really lax when
it comes to sexual misconduct. Promiscuity was everywhere,
fornication.
And on the other end,
they had this taboo, this forbidden custom that
men and women cannot eat together.
So on one end, there was promiscuity
and adultery, and on the other end, strange
men and women,
they were not allowed to eat together.
So when this these English seamen, they asked
them, how is it that this isn't the
case? You're not allowed to
eat together. They they couldn't give them a
solid answer.
They said it's it's just taboo.
Taboo, Yani, it's it's forbidden.
It's our morality.
Why?
Don't don't really know.
They push them for answers. They inquired a
little bit more, and they found that they
had actually completely forgotten why
men and women were not allowed to
eat together. They just do it.
King's North, he says, because a vacuum, because
a space was left open in Polynesia,
and nature hates empty spaces, it has to
fill it with something.
The English were able to arrive at Polynesia
and install
Protestant Christianity. No issues.
Because there was no resistance. There was no
culture. There was no morality. There was no
sacred order to bring it all together, so
they were able to take anything.
Why do I mention this?
Because the author, King's North, he goes on
to say that when a culture or a
society
reaches a point where it begins to forget
why certain things were right and wrong, it
forgets morality because their religion is now gone.
It becomes like a domino effect. One push,
one shove, and everything comes crashing down one
after the other. And he said, this is
where we are today in the west.
He said, our taboos that used to hold
us together,
our morality,
our virtue has disappeared. It has crumbled. There's
an empty space now waiting to be taken
by someone.
And he said, don't you dare think or
assume that this is another religion or a
culture from outside that came into the west
and changed us and converted us. He said,
no. This is our doing.
This is our behavior.
We chose this way.
He said since the 19 sixties,
all of our forbidden things and our customs
and our morality has been has been tumbling
down one after the other.
And we did this, nobody else.
And then he goes on to say that
we've been trying to rebuild now this idea
of morality. We're trying to resurrect it.
Since the enlightenment, the 1800, we've been trying
to rebuild this idea of morality. But for
the first time in Western history, they're trying
to build, he says, a morality that is
disconnected from God.
A morality that is based upon
man.
So he said if morality is gonna be
judged by
what you think is right,
not god almighty, who are you accountable? He
said nobody.
Who is the final arbiter now if you
are the one who says everything and decides
everything?
And he goes on to say towards the
end of the article
that at the heart of every culture, there
is a throne.
At the heart of every civilization
is a throne,
and whoever sits on that throne
becomes
the force which you take your instruction from.
He said in the west, that used to
be god almighty.
And today, in modernity, we have removed god,
and we have placed the human being there
instead.
We have removed religion,
cut it out from our lives,
and instead, we have installed man.
We have installed them. He says, democracy,
liberalism,
freedoms,
your rights.
He said, now the modern day religion is
market worship and capitalism.
This is what governs our thoughts.
And look at Brexit.
What were the conversations that people were having
about whether we should remain or whether we
should leave? It was nothing to do with
religion or God or morality
or ethics or family. No.
It was all about dunya. It's about worldly
matters. It's about race. It's about money.
Those who wanted to leave the EU, what
were they saying? The leavers.
We want our independence.
We wanna protect our borders. It's us. It's
our race.
Those who wanted to remain in the EU,
what was their argument?
Economy,
mobile phone roaming charges.
This is the talk. No
one's talking about family.
That's no longer part of the western discussion.
No one's talking about God,
religion,
worship.
It's about market worship.
And he says, therefore, the modern man these
are his words. The modern man has become
a broken worshipper
before the idol of progress he calls him.
Cut out, no center, no direction,
no vision, no future, and there is a
vacuum
and the west is waiting, he says, for
someone to fill it.
And then he quotes McIntyre who said listen
to these words. This is the conclusion.
He said that the west today
is waiting
for a new
and a very different saint Benedict.
Saint Benedict, a Italian Catholic monk, who was
considered to be a religious reformer with the
Catholics. He said today the west is waiting
for a new
and a very different Saint Benedict.
In the conclusion of the article,
north
king's north, he says
that the west is not short on ideas,
is not short on weaponry,
is not short on insults,
and it's not short on machines.
The west is very short on saints.
That's the end of the article.
So you see today, it's a perfect opportunity
for the many cultures, for the many civilizations
and religions out there to showcase themselves as
an alternative that the west so badly wants
and needs
to fill the space that has been created.
And what better way is there for us
as Muslims
who claim to be the chosen people of
Allah
and the finest of all nations? What better
way is there to showcase our religion to
the world
than presenting our adab,
our mannerisms,
whether they are with Allah
or with the people or any aspect of
life.
So with this short introduction,
let us begin.
I'm going to give you a very
quick
technical entry into the topic of because we're
gonna be using this word
singular
and plural a lot for the next couple
of months. Bear with me a few minutes
and then we will move on.
When we say that we have come here
on a Thursday evening to study the topic
of adab mannerisms,
what do we mean?
The word
adab that we've translated into mannerisms
comes from the root letters
alif and dal and ba. Adaba.
When these letters, they come together, it is
in reference to an invitation that is made.
When you call someone or you invite them,
this is called Adba.
And the caller, he is Adib.
That's why Ibn Nfar is the linguist. He
said,
is the idea of inviting people to something.
Invitation.
And he says, this is why a table
that is filled with food is called in
Arabic what?
What is it called?
Yeah. Maduba.
Why is it called a Maduba?
The same three letters because you invite people
to come and eat
from the food, the idea of inviting.
And he said the one who makes the
invitation, he's called
a. Same three letters.
Why? Because he is the he is the
inviter.
So this is adab
from a linguistic perspective.
What does adab mean from a technical perspective?
Meaning, what is the topic that we are
coming to study today? Why is mannerisms connected
to the idea of inviting? Inviting to what?
Let me explain.
The technical definition of the topic we have
come to study, here is one. Take note
of it. Ibn Hajjar, he says,
is praiseworthy
behavior
with respect to speech and actions.
That is the summary of why we are
here.
Is in reference
to praiseworthy
behavior,
whether in respect to speech or
actions.
One final definition.
Al Jorjani, he said, defining the topic of
adab. He said,
He said,
is the idea
of knowing what is wrong
and avoiding every mistake.
The idea of knowing
what is wrong
and the avoidance of these wrongs.
If you put these two definitions together, very
simply put, the topic of adab
is simply about
the art of doing things right.
That's why we are here.
To understand
what is right
and to do it
and to understand what is wrong
and to avoid it.
The idea of Adap
is to behave in a praiseworthy way and
to not act as an idiot. That's the
idea of Adam.
That's it.
So these are the technical definitions of the
topic of Adam. This is what we are
here to study, and that's why I prefer
to use the word mannerisms as opposed to
say etiquette.
When you say Adeb, we're not here to
discuss etiquettes. When you say etiquette, what do
you think of? You think of
courtesy,
to be civil,
to be polite,
to put your fork here and your knife
here and your spoon here and you tuck
your handkerchief somewhere here. And when you say
etiquette, these are the things that you think
about, grace and charm.
But, no, we're talking about adam,
the art of knowing
and doing what is right in every aspect
of life, not just eating habits,
as we shall find out.
Let me ask you, by the way, before
we proceed, what is the difference between
2 similar words I'm sure you've heard?
Adeb and another word that is used when
speaking about mannerisms and character, which is
akhlaq.
What's the difference?
Any thoughts?
What's the difference between adab and akhlaq? I
don't want to give you the translations, because
then I'll give it away.
Adab
and
Akhlaq. Take a guess.
Is Adab more about actions,
not about words?
Okay. Good. So Mikael said adab is more
about actions, Akhlaq may be more about words.
Okay. That's one attempt. Anything else?
Some of you have attended this talk, by
the way, before in the whole series. So,
you should be aware, at least some of
you. One
more.
Akhlaq is part of Adam.
Akhlaq is part of Adam.
Excellent.
But what's the difference between them?
One more.
Is who you are.
Is what you do. Oh,
is who you are,
and
is what you do. So how would you
translate?
Bearing in mind what you just said?
The way you like me. Yeah. Who said
that? Character.
Character.
Yeah.
So bearing in mind what Abu Zakaria just
said,
adab becomes mannerisms.
Becomes character.
Which we have translated as character, is who
you are as a person.
It's your it's your
disposition.
It's your personality.
It's those things that you just do on
a reflex basis. It's just spinal to you.
So somebody who's just
always full of rage and angry, That's that's
he says that's my.
That's who I am, and I'm angry man.
Right? Do you suffer with this? Yes. Alright?
Okay. That's why you interacted.
I feel you, brother.
Right. That's my.
Someone who is overly jealous. I hope no
one chuckles
here. Someone who is overly jealous. He's it's
my it's my. Someone who's passive.
Someone who's calm like our cameraman.
That's just his. He didn't learn that. That's
just how he was born. His parents, they
say, he's like that.
Someone who is patient, someone who is impatient.
That's your.
That's in you. Either you are born with
it
or it's
something that you practice so much that it
became your character with training.
So you can't give up and say it's
my. I'm doomed. No. You you you can
do something about it.
That's character. As for adab, which is why
we have gathered for the next couple of
months,
they say it is
They say adab is things that you say
and you do intentionally
with purpose.
You go out of your way to do
these things to beautify yourself with them.
Do you see the difference?
Characters who you are
or it has what you have become.
Whereas adab is what you do, though it
may not be part of you, but you
go out of your way to learn these
mannerisms
and you do them to make yourself behave
in a praiseworthy way as Allah Almighty wants
you to behave. Do you see the difference?
Is there a link between the 2?
Could it be that if you carry out
your adab
frequently enough, it eventually becomes a character?
Yeah. Yeah. So it can be acquired. That
transference from transference from something that you do,
though it's very disturbing in the beginning, but
then you get used to it, then it
becomes your character. You can't live in any
other way. And that's our goal.
And also,
and you you mentioned this, our brother. There
can be good and bad.
You can have good character. There can be
you can have bad character.
But when you talk about adab,
we are specifically talking about what is
what is good. What is good.
Why have we chosen the topic of adab,
of all of the topics that we have
that we could have spoken about? Why this
topic?
I'm going to give you three reasons. I'm
not going to elaborate on the first two
because we've already spoken about the minute reduction.
Focus on number 3.
The first reason why we have chosen this
particular study of Al Adab, number 1, because
individuals
and families,
communities, and nations, they collapse without them.
And individuals
and families and communities and nations, they arise
and they prosper with them.
Nations are by their morals.
And how many nations are we aware of
that collapsed and fell on their face because
of the decline in akhlaq and morality and
adab mannerisms?
That's number 1. We alluded to this in
the introduction.
The second reason why we have chosen the
topic of al adab is because the world
now is looking for an alternative.
How many people do you know who have
embraced
the religion of Islam?
Why?
Because of patience
and sabr,
Quran,
and salah,
and phenomenal adab in the face of tragedy.
So if this is the effect
of a few 2,300,000
people
that they can have on the entire globe,
a small strip of land
can change the global order,
and their appetite for a faith has gone
through the roof. Imagine then the effects of
an that is living by the religion of
Islam and practicing the adab, the mannerisms of
Islam.
The world is looking for an alternative.
And since October last year, they have discovered
that the ideas of freedom and democracy
or equality
and
justice, that these are concepts that belong to
others
who have a particular skin color,
not us.
So the world is looking for an alternative,
an alternative justice and
and goodness for all, and they are looking
in our direction.
That's reason number 2 why we are
choosing the topic of Al Adab to showcase
our religion to ourselves, 1st and foremostly.
And the third reason why we have chosen
the topic of Al Adab, focus on this
one.
Because of the high status that it occupies
in the eyes of Allah
There is no religion
or culture that has paid more attention to
the topic of adab and mannerisms in the
religion of Islam. It's one of the miraculous
aspects of our religion, the study of adab.
Whether you talk about
the mannerisms
of eating
and drinking,
down to even yawning
and belching,
burping,
marital relations,
marriage, divorce,
the religion has given us parameters, adab, mannerisms.
Of economy, of trade,
of giving out alone, of receiving alone,
how you sit in the presence of a
teacher, your Muslim teacher,
how you turn over the pages
when the sheikh is there,
what you do with your feet if you're
sat cross legged, and how you cover them
in the presence of the sheikh.
Phenomenal adab in every aspect of life down
to politics.
Adab towards the animals, adab towards the environment,
adab towards human resources,
towards your parents,
of course, towards Allah almighty first and foremostly,
adapt towards the prophets and messengers, adapt towards
the angels that are around you, adapt towards
the jinn,
How to use the bathroom, how to do
how to speak, how to be silent, how
to
manage a dispute between 2,
how to behave on the online space, how
to behave with the opposite gender, how to
behave with the same gender.
The adab of
debate,
the adab
of traveling for knowledge, the adab of traveling
for tourism,
the religion has something to say about it.
And our prophet
he said,
I was only sent by Allah Almighty to
perfect the honorable manners.
How he limits his entire mission as a
prophet to the idea of perfecting.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he sent.
Oh, you who believe,
protect yourselves and your families from the fire.
How do I protect myself and my family
from the fire?
He said
by teaching your children about their religion and
giving them a damper.
Our prophet Sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he says, telling
you and I why we are here today
studying this. He
said,
He said, those Muslims who I love the
most
and will be nearest to me on the
day of judgment are those who are best
in current.
Yeah, Allah. Who are those men and women
who have occupied a place in the heart
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam? And
who are those men and women who will
be nearest to his side on the day
of judgment? He said they are those who
are best in character.
And he said,
listen to this.
He said a believer,
by way of his good character,
reaches the same level as the Muslim who
was constantly praying and fasting.
So don't discount it when you see a
a brother or a sister of fine character,
of good manners. Don't say, yeah, there he
said he's a friendly fella.
Hold on a minute.
He's not just a friendly fella and a
kind sister. They are
engaging in a phenomenal act of worship that
is the same level as he or she
who is constantly praying, bowing, prostrating, and fasting.
They are on the same level just by
way of how they carry themselves
because they have studied the adab, and they
are acting upon them as well.
And he said,
There isn't anything
that can weigh heavier
on your scale of good deeds on the
day of judgment
than having good
good character.
40 years,
Our prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam spent of his
life waiting for revelation to come upon him,
though he wasn't expecting it.
But for 4 decades, Allah
was preparing him and giving him adam. That's
what the first 40 years of his life
were. Allah was training him and purifying him
and emptying that vessel and filling it with
character so that when knowledge comes to him,
he becomes the perfect human being whom he
was
Though, subhanAllah, we may spend 40 years of
our life studying the religion, and maybe we
will sprinkle some adab here and there. And
then we wonder why there are catastrophes in
the dawah scene today.
40 years Allah is preparing him no knowledge,
purely just giving him adab
And he would say in some narrations though
there are doubt in the change of transmission,
he said,
Allah gave me and he perfected
my. And more beautiful than this were the
words of Allah when he said,
you are upon mighty,
mighty conduct, oh prophet. You behave with sublime
morality.
How can a study like this be overlooked?
When you see the books of hadith and
how our scholars paid attention to this topic
in those books that are stacked behind you,
brothers and sisters, whether you take
or Sahih Muslim
or the Sunan of Ibn Umairya or the
Jamia of Atirmidhi or the Sunan of Abu
Dawood or the Muata ibn Malik, almost all
of them have a chapter called the chapter
of adab.
The chapter of the book of manners,
the book of behavior.
That's how they saw
it, fundamental
to their journey to Allah and the home
of the hereafter. Not just a bolt on
course, an extra course that they do here
and there. It was part and parcel of
their journey to Allah to understand the mannerisms
and to act upon them.
It wasn't an extra or an optional thing
in their life.
And I share with you some narrations.
How our scholars of the past viewed the
topic of adab. Listen to these narrations. Take
note of them if you can.
Ibrahim
one of the, he said,
He said the people of the past, when
they wanted to learn,
they would approach a sheikh and they would
first observe
his conduct
and observe his
and observe his behavior, then they would take
knowledge from him.
Muhammad ibn Nasirim,
one of the Taba'in, he said
The people of the past, they used to
study manners.
They used to study conduct the same way
you study knowledge.
Abdullah ibn Mubarak, he said,
He said, I have spent 30 years of
my life studying Adaf mannerisms,
and I've spent 20 years of my life
learning the religion of Islam.
Who does that nowadays?
Al Hassan al Basri, he
said, He said, the people of the past,
they used to go out 2 years at
a time to perfect their adab.
2 years
then come back, and then another 2 years
just to refine their manners.
He
also says,
He said, in the past, a man would
not dare to start studying the religion of
Islam.
Only after he had acquired adab
and worshiped Allah for 20 consecutive years.
Ibn Nawwahab, one of the companions of Imam
Malik
He said,
He said, what we learned
from the Adab, from the manners of Imam
Malik was far greater than what we learned
from his knowledge.
That is because the mother of imam Malik
made him into the man he was.
She used to put a imam on his
head.
He said,
my mother as a child used to put
the imam, the turban around my head because
this is the clothing of the scholars, especially
in Madinah. A sign that you are scholars
that you put a turban on your head.
That's how they dress.
He said, from a young age, my mother
would put a turban around my head, and
she would say to me,
go to
and learn from his manners before you take
from his knowledge.
Learn from his manners. That's a mother who
knows how to raise a giant.
Go learn from his manners before you take
from his knowledge.
And as for Imam Ahmed.
Islam Ibrahim Hussain he said, I heard my
father say,
He said, we used to gather in
the, the study circles of Imam Ahmed.
There are about 5,000 of us or more,
he said.
You're who to gather in.
He said,
He said it was less than 500 who
are actually writing.
It's always a problem.
Not just our days.
Even Imam Ahmed struggle.
5,000 people, less than 10% were actually writing.
What were the other doing?
He said,
and as for the rest, they were just
learning from his conduct and his behavior, his
manners.
And the scholars, they used to say,
Whoever's lineage has pulled him down, his adab,
his manners will push him up.
If you have an average lineage, there's nothing
special about you.
Most
much like most of us perhaps.
Don't worry. He says your adab will push
you back up. How many people do you
know in your life?
Nothing special in terms of looks or appearances
or lineage or money or cars. There's nothing
special about them. Just normal people like you
and I.
But what has made them
so special in your eyes, in the eyes
of others? Sir, Adab, they're manners. They say
this person is a person of Adab.
If your lineage has pulled you down, your
Adab will push you up.
And parents would say to their children, Yeah,
Buney, listen to this advice as a father
and as a mother,
Oh, my son, for you to master just
one chapter in adab, in manners,
that is far more beloved to me than
for you to master 70 chapters in knowledge.
And another parent would say to his son,
He said, my son,
make your knowledge like salt
and make your like
flour.
You don't have to be a baker to
understand this. Right?
You don't have to be a baker to
know that the main component of a loaf
of bread is flour,
and you add salt as necessary.
Right?
He's saying, make your personality like this.
Your adab that needs to be the flour,
the main component of who you are, your
adab.
99.9%
is you. That's your.
He said your knowledge make it like salt.
Add it as necessary.
What happens if you flip this round?
What happens if a loaf of bread is
mostly salt and flour was added as necessary?
Throw it in the bin.
It's inedible. It's unpalatable,
and that is the personality of so many
Muslims. I'm sorry. It should be thrown and
will be thrown in the dust cans, in
the dust bins of history
because they had become unpalatable in their behavior.
Because most of their essence and their being
is just knowledge they have taken in, but
where is their their
unbearable creatures they become?
And Abu Zakari al Anbari, he said,
knowledge
without adab
is like fire without wood.
What is the use of a fire if
there is no wood firewood to feed it?
Knowledge without
it's like fire without wood.
And Abdullahi ibn Barak, he said,
When you do something with adab,
it is a sign that Allah has accepted
it from you.
Those who ask for signs that Allah has
accepted your salah, accepted your fasting, accepted your
dua, accepted your kindness to your father, accepted
your charity, accepted your smile to another Muslim.
What is the sign that Allah has accepted
from me? Ibn Mubarak, he said, a sign
that Allah has accepted it from you is
that you behave with adab whilst you're
doing. And finally,
Abdullah ibn Mubarak, he said,
I
started a journey for knowledge
and I gained some of it.
But then I tried a path to search
for Adeb, and I found that the people
of Adeb have perished.
So if I was now to put the
ball back into your court and I was
to ask you,
what is the study of of Quran, of,
for example, memorization
without Adam? What is the point of it?
What is the point of producing a a
jurat? Somebody who studies fiqh, and I know
some of you have come back from fiqh
classes, may Allah bless you, if there's gonna
be no adab connected to it.
What is the point of learning the idea
over the art of debating the non Muslim
and to present Islam if there was no
adab with it? What what is the point?
What is the point of learning how to
speak Arabic
and learning the mutoon, the text?
If there is with it no adap, what
is the point?
If I was to ask you another question,
how many classes of tafsir have you attended?
I'm sure you will remember time and place.
How many books of hadith have you read?
Some of you will have read some from
cover to cover. Books of aqidah.
Have you studied Tajweed?
Have you memorized any part of the Quran?
Almost all of you will be able to
give me time and place. Now I ask
you, how many of you have read a
book on adab from Kaaba to Kaaba?
How many of you have attended a series
or made an effort to improve your adab
in an intentional way?
The answer to that question alone
explains
so many of the disasters that we may
see today.
For example,
how can it be that there is a
so called practicing brother who may have an
online presence or maybe giving talks in the
Masjid or does some sort of khair in
the community, yet he is missing from the
congregational prayers.
And sometimes a Masjid is just downstairs,
a few steps away from his hotel room.
How do you understand that except that there
is a lack of adab in his upbringing?
How do you explain it when there is
somebody who
has maybe 1,000 following him or her online?
Pushing the cause of Islam.
Great.
Yet mom and dad at home are complaining
about you,
saying that you are a vile human being.
Raising your voice, maybe even raising a boozing
hand towards them. How do you explain this
contradiction in behavior other than to say, lack
of edeb in the behavior
and the upbringing?
How do you explain the situation of a
young man who just started practicing their religion
yesterday,
last week, last month. And now, alhamdulillah, perhaps
he or she has started memorizing some of
the Islamic texts, and now he considers she
considers herself the vanguard knowing
what is right and what is wrong. I
am upon the way of the companions. That's
my right. I'm not too sure about you
anymore.
How did that happen?
Other than to say
your upbringing, your Islamic upbringing was not a
normal and natural one. It was lacking adam
and so on and so on and so
on.
This study that we have started, my brothers
and my sisters, and we've come to the
end of the session,
is not optional.
It is part of your vessel
to Allah Almighty and the home of the
hereafter.
Last thing I will ask you or tell
you is that there are several levels
to adapt
and we will be covering Insha'Allah
most of them in this series. There are
4 levels.
Adept
towards Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Adept towards the prophet Muhammad
Muhammad. Adab towards the creation
and adab towards yourself.
Adab towards
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This will be our
next week's discussion.
Adab towards the prophet Muhammad
that
will be the topic of the week after.
And then adab towards the creation,
including, for example, your adab, your manners towards
the angels. That has a whole discussion.
When you are eating garlic or you're eating
onions, and you're coming to the Masjid, you
are harming the angels before you're harming your
fellow brother or sister.
If you have smoked,
if you've ruined your breath in any way,
shape, or form, if you come to the
Masjid with unclean socks, you are harming the
angels.
Before you're harming the Muslim, a person who
disobeys Allah Almighty when the lights are off,
when the curtains are drawn,
not only has he disobeyed Allah, but he
has shown bad adab towards Allah and then
towards the angels who are there witnessing this.
How? They're seeing me do this.
There has to be some manners towards
the honorable scribes, how can they see me
in this state?
Add up towards the creation,
and of course your add up towards
your parents, will not be like they add
up towards your teacher, and you add up
towards your teacher, would not like they add
up towards your friends, and you add up
towards your friends, would not like me, you
add up towards your children, add up towards
creation, and then finally the adept that you
are deserving of for yourself, adapt towards yourself.
Yourself has a right upon you to purify
it,
to teach it how to repent,
bring it to the Masjid,
to force it to become to come to
classes like this and others.
To come to the Masjid,
to prostrate at night,
to fast when it can, to give in
charity.
Your soul has a right upon you to
hold it accountable when it does wrong, to
make it feel guilty for its mistakes.
That's part of your right upon yourself, and
that is part of our adab towards ourselves.
We will stop here.
Next week will be the official first lesson,
Insha'Allah,
of our topic that we've titled our ways,
and it will be the most important of
all of the sessions, our ways with Allah