Ammar Alshukry – The Virtue of Knowledge
AI: Summary ©
The importance of understanding the deens and learning the deens is emphasized, along with the need for individuals to protest and protest against actions that are not working. The speakers also discuss the meaning of "hasads," which is the belief that every good for is a positive thing, and stress the importance of asserting one's opinion on Islam and not criticizing people for their actions. The speakers emphasize the need to be mindful of one's actions and share information about past hadiths, as well as pursuing one's values and not giving information to anyone. They also stress the importance of knowing and taking actions to benefit others, as well as actively volunteering for one's spiritual experience.AI: Transcript ©
Today's,
session is,
session called the virtues of knowledge.
And in reality,
thank you very much.
I'm just putting you behind the table here.
Here. I'm actually collecting them. So
the,
session is simply,
you know,
Allah, when he made the angels bow to
Adam
and
the angels bow,
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
showed the differentiation
between what the angels
and Adam, the difference between the angels and
Adam is that Adam was preferred over them
with knowledge.
Allah
taught Adam the names of all things.
He asked the angels
to inform
him of the names of these things.
And so today, Insha'Allah, we're just going to
do a quick reflection on the virtues of
knowledge,
and I'm going to be using
the great work of the great
imam, sheikh,
an imam, rather, Anawi,
his collection,
he has a chapter that's called the book
of knowledge the book of knowledge. And so
if you wanna follow along,
it is the
241st chapter of Rial al Salihin. It's the
241st
book
in,
that great work,
and
we'll simply go over the hadith
and whatever,
additions we wanna add we
will,
but this
is an evening
through its intended that we go over the
hadith of prophet
or some of the hadith of the prophet
discussing this important and crucial topic. Now Imam
An Nawawi in his
in his collection, what he would normally do
at the beginning of every chapter is that
he will preface it with verses of the
Quran
before entering into the hadith. And so what
are some of the verses of the Quran
that he has on the chapter of knowledge?
The first is in Surah Taha where Allah
says,
And the scholars mentioned that there is nothing
in the Quran that Allah
commands us to ask for more of
except for knowledge.
And that by itself shows the greatness of
knowledge. There is nothing that you ask Allah
for more of in the Quran. You don't
ask for more wealth. You don't ask for
more life. You don't ask for more
deeds even. You don't ask for more charity.
You don't ask for more children. You don't
ask for anything
other than knowledge. Allah
commands us that.
And
Allah
he says,
in a in a powerful verse, he says,
talking about when people go on military expeditions
in jihad in the path of Allah with
Rasool
Allah
says, let not the believers all go together.
If he
says,
let there remain a group of people to
stay behind
for the purpose of
studying the religion,
so that they can warn their brothers when
they return,
I e, when the prophet
is sending out a military expedition,
the prophet
or the believers in general are being told,
not all of you should go, not all
of you should go. That there should be
some people who stay behind for the purpose
of studying the deen.
There always needs
to be a group of people who are
learning the deen so that they can
warn their brothers when they come back.
And this is very relevant to our times
because
I've had
conversations with people
who in
due to what has been going on over
the past 7 months with Gaza,
people feeling like
these halakat,
these classes, these seminars,
they don't seem like they're worthwhile right now.
Right now, what is urgently needed
is organizing.
What is urgently needing is protesting. What is
urgently needed is
and all of that is well and good,
but it shouldn't be what everybody is doing.
There should still be people who are investing
their time in studying the deen. Why? Because
there's always going to be need. There's always
going to be a need for people who
are educated in the deen that they warn
their brothers and sisters who are going out
and and being activists, their brothers and sisters
who are going out and protesting, their brothers
and sisters who are going and engaging, those
brothers and sisters who are going out and
doing whatever it is that they're doing,
when they come back, when they are in
need of questions to be answered,
there needs to be people who are educated.
And these events, you never know how long
they're going to last, and so we cannot
have the ummah pause learning for 6 months
to a year to more than that to
less than that. We are in need of
people studying the deen every single day.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he also says,
And Surat Zumr Allah says, are they equal?
Those who know and those who don't know?
And the reality is, are they equal? No.
They're not equal in anything. The person who
knows physics and the one who doesn't know
physics is not the same. The person who
knows math and the one who doesn't is
not the same. The person who who knows
biology and the ones who don't, the person
who knows medicine and the person who doesn't,
they're not the same in any field.
And so it's not a question as much
as it is an emphasis
that the ones who know and those who
don't, and specifically Allah is talking about knowledge
of the deen, that those who know and
those who do not know are not equal
at all.
There is a a clear distinction
between those who know and those who don't
know. And so if that's the case, why
would I ever be okay with not knowing?
Why would I want to be part of
the second camp if I can be part
of the first? And does that mean that
everyone in the ummah has to become a
scholar of Islam? Absolutely not. That is impossible.
But if a person is not going to
be a scholar,
that doesn't mean that a person start off
with 0.
You know, one of the challenges that we
have in our communities
is that
and Allah knows best, I'm sure. I don't
like to generalize. But in the Muslim world,
you can expect or in many places in
the Muslim world, you can expect that people
have some sort of basic understanding of the
deep. Basic understanding. Let let a person knows
how to make huluk, for example. Let a
person knows how to pray.
But in the United States, a lot of
times when you're interacting with people who are
coming to the messiahs for the first time,
even if they are from Muslim families, they
might literally be starting off with 0. I
can't tell you how many times that I've
referred people who are newly practicing and they
say, what should I study? I say to
them, honestly, if you're newly practicing, you should
probably start in a new Muslim class.
Because you probably have as much knowledge as
a new Muslim. Someone who's passionately studying for
2 weeks or 3 weeks or a month,
you might have that amount. And in fact,
you might have to unlearn
things before you actually learn.
And so the point here is that a
person, even if they don't become a scholar
or are walking the path of scholarship, that
they should know the basics of their deen.
They should know how to pray. They should
know how to make wudu. They should know
how to give zakah if they are somebody
who's earning wealth. They should know what Allah
requires for them of faith, belief in Allah,
belief in the angels, belief in destiny, tawhid,
what is shirk, how to avoid shirk. These
things that are obligatory
individually
on people, everyone should know the basics of
their religion.
And then he says,
or the imam quotes, and he says that
Allah
says, And this is a beautiful verse in
Surat Fatir,
that the only ones who fear Allah
from his creation are the
The only ones.
Is a phrase that indicates
exclusivity.
Whenever you hear it means this and only
this. So when Allah
says, for example,
that the believers
are
they are brothers. It means that the only
relationship that exists between the believers is that
they are brothers.
They are brothers.
They have that relationship.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says,
Verily all actions are only by intentions. They're
only by intentions.
Indicates it is this and only this.
And so when Allah
says,
the only ones who fear Allah from his
creation
are
the
ulama.
Ulama here doesn't mean scholar,
but it means that everybody who fears Allah,
the only ones who fear Allah are the
people of knowledge.
And that if a person is a person
of knowledge,
but
that knowledge does not cause them to fear
Allah, then they are not a true person
of knowledge.
It's not real.
If a person has the Quran memorized and
books of fiqh and books of hadith and
all of that and they can regurgitate them
and they've got it memorized, but all of
that does not cause them to fear Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, then they are not from
the ulama.
They're not from the ulama.
And if a person does not have a
lot of knowledge,
but
what they have causes them to fear
Allah then they're included in that category.
Real knowledge is supposed to cause
seeking closeness to Allah and fearing Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. If a person goes and is
crossing the street and sees a car barreling
down at them at 60 miles an hour,
what they know of the qualities of that
car and the qualities of their own body
should make them get out of the way.
And so true knowledge
causes action. It causes a person to flee
from what they know will harm them. And
so if a person truly knows who Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala is,
true knowledge, then that will cause them to
fear Allah.
And
kashya, in particular, is different than hov. Hof
is fear, but hashiya is a null a
a fear that is paired with knowledge.
It is a paired with knowledge. So it's
more specific
than the word.
Every
is a type of but not every is
a In any case, then Imam Annoi, after
mentioning these verses, he begins to mention a
number of a hadith. And so
we'll go over a number of these ahadith.
The first, which is reported
by
and it's the hadith that's in Bukhari and
Muslim.
May Whoever Allah wants good for, he gives
him knowledge of the religion.
And khair here
indicates every goodness.
Whoever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala desires
every goodness for,
he gives them knowledge
of the deen.
Now there's what's called
means your understanding the opposite inference
The opposite inference.
If
Allah
gives knowledge of the deen to whoever he
wants every good for,
then
whoever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not give
knowledge of the deen to, what does that
mean? What's the opposite inference of that?
If whoever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants every
good for, he gives them knowledge of the
religion. Then whomever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does
not give knowledge of the religion to, what
does that
mean? That's the problem.
It means that he did not want
good for them.
Am I, speaking
Are you guys understanding me?
I'll say it again.
Whoever
Allah wants good for, he gives them knowledge
of the religion.
That means that whomever Allah
does not
give knowledge of the religion to, it is
understood, it's inferred, the opposite is true, that
he did not want good for them.
And so a person then, if they want
to be included
in those that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanted
good for, They know what the path is.
It's a conditional statement. So let me fulfill
that condition,
and that is that I seek knowledge
that I seek knowledge, that I be included
in that group that Allah
wanted good for.
Also, the prophet
he says,
in the hadith of ibn Mas'ud,
also agreed upon.
Says
There is no envy
except in 2 things.
We know hasad is a major sin.
Hasad,
the prophet salaahu which is envy. It's a
major sin. And the prophet
said, there's only 2 scenarios where hasad is
acceptable.
And that is, number 1, a person whom
Allah
has
given wealth to.
So this person exhausted
in the truth,
and the second is a man whom Allah
gave wisdom to.
And so Allah
gave him wisdom, meaning knowledge, and so he
judges according to that knowledge and he teaches
that knowledge. These are the 2 scenarios
where hasad is allowed. Now here, what is
hasad?
Hasad defined
is
this word that's translated as envy is defined
very precisely
in Islam by the scholars and that is
It is that a person wants for blessings
to be removed.
And so here, even though the prophet
is using the word envy,
what he's actually describing is another word that's
called riptah. The prophet
is this he's using the word hasad because
that's the that's the that's the general phrasing
that can be used.
It's what people would describe. It's what people
would use. Sometimes you might use a word
just because it's generally commonly used, but you're
not necessarily indicating
the technical definition of that word. That's why
a lot of times when you're having a
conversation with somebody, and you'll say what you
generally mean, and then people will get really,
really technical. And you'll say, no. That's not
what I meant. Like, just understand what I'm
saying. Understand the usage, the common usage of
the word. And so the prophet
is using the word hasad, but we know
that the literal meaning of is that I
wish
for this blessing to be removed. And you're
not wishing for that person who has wealth
for the blessing of their wealth to be
removed. You're not wishing for that person who
has knowledge for the for that that blessing
of knowledge to be removed. Rather, you are
you have riptah, and riptah is that I
wish to have what that person has.
I wish to have what that person has.
And so the prophet
describes, number 1, a person who has wealth.
But a person who simply has wealth is
not to be envied. And in fact, a
person who has wealth and spends it on
themselves is not to be envied. The prophet
does not use that person as an example
of someone to be envied. The prophet
does not describe a person who spends on
his family and has a nice house and
has beautiful cars. That's not the person with
waltz I envied. The prophet
specifically says, a person who has wealth who
does what?
Who spends it in the truth. A person
who exhausts it in the truth, a person
who gives in charity,
that person who has wealth and spends it
in a way that is pleasing to Allah
in charitable endeavors, that is the person to
be envied.
So a person who does not have money
for the sake of money and a person
who doesn't use money to to live a
luxurious lifestyle. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
is not saying that is the person to
be envied, rather it is the person who
has money and spends it in charity.
And so the person to be envied is
that person who raises their hand in a
fundraiser
when it's at $50,000
or a $100,000.
That's the person to be envied.
Not the person who uses a $100,000 to
buy a $100,000 car. That's not what the
prophet
is describing.
And then the second person is a person
whom Allah
has given al Hikma to, meaning knowledge,
wisdom, meaning knowledge,
and that person
judges according to that knowledge, and that person
teaches according to that knowledge. And so this
person is,
again, not keeping the knowledge to themselves, but
they're benefiting the community around them. They're benefiting
it by judging between people with that knowledge
and that they are spending that time teaching
that knowledge. And so this shows you also
the virtue of knowledge that the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam said, you should envy that person.
You should envy that person
who spends wealth
in charity, and you should envy that person
who
benefits people with their knowledge, however they benefit
people with their knowledge.
And the Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam in
another hadith reported by Abu Musa,
which is a hadith that's also reported by
Bukhari Muslim.
Rasulullah gives a really profound example
of the message that he came with. And
he said the example of what Allah
sent me of guidance and knowledge is like
rain that has come down on a land.
He says, and so part of it
was was
an area that was receptive to the rain.
And when it received the rain,
it caused for lush vegetation to grow.
And then he says, and then there was
another location
that
kept the water,
and so people benefited from it.
And then
and so they drank from that water,
and they also gave
their livestock
and they were able to plant with that
water.
They were able to grow agriculture.
And then he said, and then a third
category
is land that is
He
says, and then there was a third that
was flatland.
It didn't keep the water
and nor did anything grow from it.
And then he says,
And so he says, this is the example
of a person
whom Allah
gave understanding of the deen to. That first
category,
that category that received the water, which is
the revelation,
the deen, the knowledge of the deen, and
they,
the vegetation grew from that, meaning they understood
the revelation,
and they benefited others, they learned it, and
they taught it.
That's the first category. That's that lush vegetation
that received the water, and it transformed.
It transformed itself, and it transformed others.
The second category,
it did not benefit.
It wasn't This is a category of a
person who's not a faqih,
and many of the narrators of a hadith
were like that. They didn't have fiqh, but
what they did was they received the the
revelation,
and they transmitted it to the next generation.
They transmitted it to their students. They transmitted
it to the but
they received it and they transmitted it like
they heard it. And so the prophet
is describing
the second category, this water that was collected.
Lush vegetation did not grow from it, but
it was benefited from those who would come
after.
And so simply being a part in the
chain
of narration, simply being a part in the
transmission of the deen from 1 generation to
the next is also praiseworthy. And the 3rd,
of course, neither benefited from it nor benefited
others. This is the 3rd category, and this
is the one that didn't benefit at all
and didn't benefit others. And the prophet Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, in another hadith by Saharib min
Sa'at Radiallahu he says,
that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said to Adib
Nabi Taalib.
He said,
He says, for one person to be guided
through you is better for you than the
than red camels. And red camels were considered
to be the best type of wealth.
And the prophet he
says in hadith that's reported about
us that Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
Now these 2 hadith.
Number 1, the prophet
is telling Ali, and he's telling him this
before he's sending him out to the campaign
of Khaybah.
This is a people who had betrayed the
prophet
and the prophet
is sending Ali to lead the battalion
to Khaybar, and yet he still tells him,
even as you are going to enemy combatants,
for one person to be guided
through you
is better for you than
red camels.
Even though you're going to enemy, even though
you're going to an enemy.
That you still be a person of dua.
And I just wanna give a quick tangent
here and I think this is really important,
is that when
a person
is
engaging,
people that they disagree with,
people that,
I mean Ali's
case
is as extreme as it gets, enemy combatants.
The character of the Muslim is still to
be a person of dua, and in fact,
the prophet
is saying that if the only thing that
you come out of this is that one
person is guided
through you, then that is better for you
than the world and everything in it. And
this is really important because as we're seeing,
protests
happen all throughout the country,
I think it's important that we remember that
even as you are protesting,
that we protest as Muslims.
And so I don't absorb
the attitudes
of
non Muslim groups. I don't absorb the slogans
of non Muslim groups. I don't absorb the
phrases of non Muslim groups. I'm still in
my essence. Even as I'm protesting, I am
trying as best as I can to be
an exemplary
For if one person is guided through me,
then that is better for me than red
camels.
And so that I be prophetic in the
way that I carry myself even as I'm
gauging with people that I disagree with completely,
100%.
Allah
says, do not let
your hatred of a people
make you
unjust. Be just. It is closer to taqwa.
And so sometimes, you're hearing,
slogans against the police and what have you
that
are
unbecoming of a Muslim character. They're not they're
not. Yani Muslims didn't sit there and think,
you know what?
What
would the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam look like, and I come up
with these types of chants?
Most likely, I would expect that these are
chants that are coming from non Muslim communities,
and the Muslim always has to put the
filter of Islam on everything that they do.
And so recognizing that and recognizing that, again,
If I am to inspire one person to
accept Islam because of my character, even as
I'm going through difficulty, even when I'm going
through challenge.
You know,
It's not Khubay, that's Khabab ibn al Arat.
But Khubayb, radiAllahu al-'anhu, I'm forgetting his last
name. Khubayb,
he was,
captured in
he was captured by the Meccans after the
battle of Badr,
And the Meccans wanted blood. They wanted blood.
Like, it was such a humiliating defeat,
they could not wait to get some sort
of revenge, somehow, however they could.
And so they happened to capture Khubaib
and they brought him to
Medina,
they brought him to Mecca,
and he was held in the house
of
the daughter of 1 of the chiefs of
Mecca who was killed in the Battle of
Badr.
And
his sons
wanted to,
execute Khubib. They wanted to execute him.
And so as he was a prisoner,
and this is in Bukhari, his daughter,
the the the woman, she says,
I never saw a prisoner who was better
than Khubaib. I never saw a prisoner who
was better than him.
He would be sitting as he was chained
in her house,
and he would have
fruits on his lap. He would have grapes
on his lap when there were no fruits
in Mecca.
There would be grapes on his lap when
there were no, grapes in Mecca. There were
no grapes in Mecca at the time.
And
that's Allah
providing for him, and it reminds you of
Maryam
when she would be provided for
when she would receive the fruits of the
summer and the winter and the winter and
the summer. But Khubib had a similar experience,
and she said there were no fruits in
Mecca at the time and he would have
grapes on his on his lap. And then
she says, and then on one occasion,
he had asked for a razor to groom
himself, and so I'd given him the razor,
and she was unaware of the fact that
one of her children had walked up to
him and sat on his lap.
So she
sees her prisoner
with a razor in his hand and her
child on her lap.
Exactly.
So she became terrified,
and he said to her, when he saw
that she was scared, he said, do you
think that I would harm him? No harm
will come to him, insha'Allah.
And then Khubaib,
he would end up being
exterm he would end up being executed by
the people of Mecca. They would crucify him,
and, you know, they brought out a crowd
and they took him out of the Haram,
And they were trying to get any sort
of moral victory, so they said to him,
are you are you happy? Would you won't
wouldn't you wish that you were back home
and Mohammed sallallahu alaihi wasallam was in your
place? And he said, no, I would not
wish that I be
that Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasallam be pricked by
a thorn while I am at home with
my family, much less being crucified.
And then he
asked permission
to pray 2 rakas,
and so they gave him permission to pray
2 rakas, and so he prayed 2 beautiful
rakas in front of everybody,
and
he then said, if it weren't for the
fact that I that I was afraid
that you would have thought that I was
scared of death, I would have loved nothing
more than to prolong these 2 rakas. And
then he made du'a against the people of
Mecca. He said
He said, oh, Allah, kill them all and
destroy them all and don't leave any of
them behind. I mean, this was the man
who was about to be executed.
And so
some of them, in fact, a number of
them accepted Islam
after Khubaib
because of the image
of this amazing individual, this amazing companion of
the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, his steadfastness,
his poise, and as you can see from
the narration, even of the woman who's holding
him captive, that she never saw a prisoner
that was better. And so the importance here
of having a character
that is powered by your Islam, no matter
who it is that you're engaging against.
Okay.
So,
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says narrate for
me even if it's a verse. Narrowate for
me even if it's a single verse. What
does that mean?
If all you know is
tell people that.
If all you know is
tell people that. The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam says, narrate for me. It's a command,
even if it's a single verse. People, they
might think to themselves, well, I'm not a
I'm not a scholar.
You don't need to be a scholar.
The prophet said one verse. He didn't say
6,000 some verses, he said one verse.
What's the only requirement for you to be
able to to narrate a verse from the
prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam?
For you to narrate one verse
from the Quran, what do you think the
requirement is?
Yeah, you know it. That's it. You just
need to know it.
The only problem
is when people
narrate what they don't know.
That's it.
As long as you're narrating what you know
then that's what you should be doing.
We don't need, we don't have enough, we
don't have enough people giving dua in the
United States.
We don't have enough.
We have way too little people doing it,
actually.
Every single one of us should be fulfilling
what the prophet
said. Narrow it for me even if it's
a single verse. Abu Bakr who didn't know
a lot about Islam when he accepted Islam,
but the next day, he came back with
Uthman Mi'afan and Tullhadn I wadillah and Zubayr
bin Awwam. I mean, Uthman
what what do you know?
On day 1,
I know that
one god makes sense, and I know that
Muhammad is
truthful and he's to be believed, and he's
never ever told us a lie before. So
I can go and I can give dua.
And I'm very glad, that
a new Muslim
da'wah class has been launched here in this
masjid with Sheikh Kamal. And I'm sure you
can find that. I saw it on the
click WhatsApp groups.
That,
a lot of the brothers and sisters in
this community, this masjid, the new Muslims
over the past couple of months and and
maybe year or even more than that,
are so intent on giving dua now that
Sheikh Kamal is
doing a program with them on teaching them
how to give dua.
And that's what we need, and we also
need the people who have been Muslim for
more than a few months and have been
Muslim for many years to also be engaged
in giving dua.
Rasulullah
says, nary from me even if it's a
single verse. Every single one of us is
to give what we can in our capacity.
And I'll just mention one more thing with
regards to this, is that when you look
at the hadith of the prophet
you'll find that the vast majority of the
that he gave
was not in these types of official settings.
You know, sometimes when we think of dawah,
we think of, I need a table, I
need a I need a I need a
mimbar, I need all of this type of
stuff. But in reality, the vast majority of
da'wah should be happening in interpersonal relationships.
It's on a car ride. It's on a
conversation with somebody.
It is,
while having dinner with somebody. It is while
walking with somebody. It is while playing with
with your family. It's that is when dawah
is to be done. We shouldn't restrict
dawah to being
in these types of very, very
formal settings
in the masjid with the lights on, with
the cameras. That's when I give dua, and
beyond that, I'm simply talking about
sports and the dunya and life and all
of these types of things. The prophet, salallahu
alayhi wasallam, would give dua, and he would
teach while he was walking. The prophet, salallahu
alayhi wasallam would teach while he was conversing
with people. The prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, would
teach while he was being at a guest
at somebody's house or while he was being
a host at somebody's house all of the
time.
And then he says,
and you can narrate from the children of
Israel. There's no harm in that. What does
narrate from the children of Israel mean? It
means using Judeo Christian sources. So quoting the
bible, quoting the
the the Torah, it's okay for you to
narrate these things, but there is a qualification,
and that qualification
is in another hadith, the prophet
says that,
when you hear the Judeo Christian narrations,
do not believe them and don't belie them.
So
if something comes
in the bible,
do I believe it? Do I reject it?
Or do I Or or do I simply
leave it alone
without accepting it or rejecting it?
Which one do I do? Leave it alone.
K. I leave it alone?
Are there times when I reject it?
When do I reject it?
Okay. So so there's there's a concept here.
So number 1, it's either something that is
confirmed
by the Quran and Sunnah, so I accept
it.
It is either rejected by the Quran and
Sunnah, so I reject it.
And it is neither conformed
nor
rejected by the Quran and Sunnah, and so
I neither confirm nor reject.
It's one of these 3. So what's an
example of something that is confirmed by the
Quran and Sunnah that you'll find in
the Old Testament or the New Testament?
Judeo Christian sources. What's something that's confirmed?
That there's one God. What else?
K.
I don't know. I I'm honestly, off the
top of my head, I don't know the
10
Commandments, so I don't know. But, yeah, generally,
I think, no god before god, thou shall
not kill.
But for example, if there was a man
whose name was Jesus, and that he was
the son of a woman named Mary, and
that he was born of of,
a a miraculous birth,
That's confirmed in the Quran, and then this
is in the prophet. So I say, yes.
I believe that Mary was, that Jesus was
born, from a a a virgin woman named
Maria.
It's confirmed.
Now what's something that is rejected by the
Quran or rejected by the Sunnah?
That he's the son of god. Right? That
he's divine. So I reject that because the
Quran and Sunnah reject it.
What about something that the Quran and Sunnah
were silent about?
Then I'm also silent about. I don't have
those details.
And you'll find a lot of details in
the bible, a lot of details. And I
you know,
things about the flood of Noah, things about
Eunice being in the in the in the
whale, things about Dawud and Suleyman, details details
about all of these prophets. You'll find lots
of details about all of these prophets.
I neither accept them
nor
deny them. I don't know. I don't know
how many wives Suleyman had. I don't know.
I mean, the bible says what it says.
I don't know to confirm or deny that.
Or,
but it's very important that we don't confirm
nor deny it because
a lot of people unknowingly confirm, And when
you confirm, you take on the liabilities of
the bible.
And so, for example, I had one person
who came up to me one time, and
they said, you know, how
I have a a question, like, how do
we prove that there was a flood that
covered the entire earth?
He said, I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm trying
to prove to a a friend of
mine that there was a flood during the
time of Nu'a, and they're saying there's no
archaeological evidence that there was a flood that
covered the entire
earth. I said, well, the Quran doesn't say
there was a flood that covered the entire
earth.
Said, what do you mean? I thought that
I was like, no.
The Quran doesn't say that.
The Quran says the people of Nuh were
flooded. That's it.
But we don't have the liabilities of the
bible.
And so
these types of details,
you need to be very careful that you
don't absorb unknowingly,
and then you put yourself in a position
where
you're defending
things that aren't our position in the first
place. You were never required to.
And so
he says,
so the the first hadith part is the
command, but but the last part of the
hadith is a threat. The first part of
the hadith is narrate from me, even if
it's a single verse. But make sure that
you don't lie.
Because the prophet says
lying about me is not like lying about
anybody else. So whoever lies about me intentionally,
then let them prepare their seat in the
hellfire.
Prepare their seat in the hellfire.
Lying about the prophet is heavy.
Don't lie about the prophet.
Be careful
when you narrate from Rasulullah
Make sure that you know what you're talking
about. And if you don't know what you're
talking about, then be quiet.
How many times do people forward a hadith
that are fabricated about Rasulullah Subha Ba'alaihi Salam?
They just sent it on WhatsApp. It sounded
good. They didn't even read it. They just
forward it.
I have this hadith that I always use
as an example,
and it's just a very fantastical hadith. Very
fantastical. And it's it's not authentic from Rasool
Allah Salaam. But you know what?
The more nonsense something sounds like, the more
people get excited about sharing it.
It goes viral, people will
people get excited.
So
the ulama mentioned a number of things
that can indicate to you that a hadith
is
it's got red flags.
The first red flag is if it is
not sourced.
Not sourced.
So when I'm reading on Facebook or someone's
sending me something on WhatsApp and says, Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, and then they quote
it. And then it doesn't have any sort
of reference. There's no Bukhari, there's no Muslim,
there's no Trmidi, there's no nasa'i, there's no
nothing. Why would I forward that?
You have to be responsible with what you
share.
The prophet said,
lying about me is not like lying about
anybody else. This is deen. You say,
And so he
says, whoever lies about me intentionally, then let
them prepare their heat their seeds in the
hellfire. So if it's not reference, number 1.
Number 2, the scholars mention if it is
incredibly fantastical incredibly fantastical,
a person says that whoever says
okay, I'll give you another one. So the
there's,
or this one. A person says, whoever says
Allah
will create a bird
that has
a 1,000 heads. Every head has a 1,000
tongues. Each tongue will praise Allah
in a 1,000 languages.
And you're like,
retweet, oh my god, that's amazing.
Right? It's very fantastical.
There was a man who made a a
claim like this,
and he said, I heard from Ahmed ibn
Hanbal and Yahib Nima'in,
and then he quotes a hadith like that.
Though his problem is that Imam Ahmed and
Yahya ibn Mein were in the gathering,
and they heard this man say that.
And so Imam Ahmed said to Yahya, he
said to him,
did you say this hadith to him? He
said, no. He said, did you? He said,
no.
So then they walked up to him
after his session, and they said to him,
you know, you said
that you heard this from Ahmed ibn Hanbal
and Yaheb ibn Mein, and I'm Ahmed ibn
Mein, and this is Yaheb ibn Mein.
And we never told you this.
And the man said you know, they they
backed him into a corner, and he said,
I always heard
that Ahmed ibn Hanbal and Yahya al Nuireen
were the greatest fools, and now I know
that this is true. Do y'all think that
you're the only Ahmad ibn Muhammad and Yahya
ibn Muayin?
I've narrated from 20 Ahmad ibn Muhambads and
20 Yahya ibn Muayins.
You're not gonna back me into a corner.
But in any case, being careful with what
is what you narrate or you attribute to
Rasulullah
that whoever treads a path to knowledge, Allah
will make for them facilitate for them a
path to paradise.
Whoever treads a path to knowledge. And treading
the path to knowledge could be literally, it
could be that while I am hopping
on the highway
to drive to study the deen somewhere,
or while I'm getting into my car and
I'm going that that's Allah
for this trip that I'm taking, that he's
facilitating for me a path to paradise.
And again,
being cognizant of these things. A lot of
times what causes us fatigue
is that we don't visualize
the rewards,
and yet you see that with the
they would engage
visualization,
and they would think about the reward that
Allah has
promised.
Who's the okay. Bismillah.
So they would visualize
the reward that Allah
has promised. So Aisha when she's giving with
gold coins, she's anointing the gold coins with
perfume. She would perfume the coins,
and she would say that it would fall
in the hands of Allah before it falls
in the hands of the person who's receiving
it. So she's not giving charity like everybody
else is giving charity, but she's visualizing
who's receiving that charity, and that is Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Abu Hurayrah radiAllahu anhu would
make wudu, and when he would make wudu,
he would extend his wudu
up until his the middle of his arm.
And when he would wash his feet, he
would extend it to the middle of his
shins, and that's not to be copied. Nobody
else did it. It was something that Abu
Hurair did alone, and the rest of the
companions didn't agree, and we never picked it
up from Abu Hurair
But the point is is that and it
was actually something that he would hide. Someone
actually caught him doing it. But Abu Hurair
heard said, I heard the prophet, sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, said that my ummah will be
called
that they will be that they will they
will be
Abu Hulaireh said that
that the places where your wudu is done
will be like light on the day of
judgement.
And so whoever of you is able to
extend their light, then let them do that.
My point here is that
even while he's making something as routine as
wudu, where we don't even think about it,
he's still connecting the action that he's doing
to the reward that he's expecting from Allah
on the day of judgment. That visualization is
very, very powerful, and it continues to help
motivate motivate a person while doing the mundane
and doing the routine. And so when a
person is constantly seeking knowledge, that they remember
that through this, you know, I'm hopping on
the highway, but I'm really hopping on a
highway agenda right now.
By seeking knowledge, and that's the literal form,
but also metaphorically,
that whoever seeks a path to knowledge, even
if they're sitting on a desk, they're not
they're not they're not treading a path anywhere.
They're not leaving their house, but they're opening
up a book or they're attending a class
somewhere. Even while they're sitting, they're still treading
a path to paradise, treading a path to
knowledge.
And I also want to think want you
to think about volunteering.
When one person treads one path to knowledge,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala facilitates for them a
path to paradise. What do you think of
the person who's facilitating
a 100 people
traversing a path to knowledge? What do you
think about the person who's facilitating for 200
people, for 300 people, for a 1000 people
to traverse a path to knowledge? What do
you think Allah
will facilitate for this person of paths to
paradise?
Also,
he says
we'll mention 2 hadith here.
That when a person dies, their actions are
cut off except for 3 things, a continuous
charity or knowledge that benefits or a righteous
child who prays for them. And also, the
prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, said that
And this hadith is reported by Tirmidi.
So Rasulullah
he says that when a person dies, all
of their actions are cut off except for
3 things. Number 1, knowledge that benefits. Number
2, a continuous charity, and number 3, a
righteous child who prays for them. And in
reality, all three of these things are included
in knowledge.
They're all included in knowledge, that when a
person learns and teaches,
you facilitate knowledge that benefits,
you inspire.
I mean, nobody gives charity except for somebody
who knows.
They know the reward of charity, so they're
inspired to give charity. And so when I
am teaching the deen, I am facilitating
charity,
and undoubtedly, you're facilitating righteous children who will
pray for you. And when the scholars mention
this idea of a righteous child who prays
for you, they they say that that child
can either be of your lineage, or it
can be a child that you have influenced.
So that teacher may not have any children,
but they left behind
100 of children who make dua for them
and pray for them and make dua for
them in their salah and make dua for
them in their sujood.
A righteous child who prays for them, or
people who may not even know you, but
they make dua for everybody who is involved
in teaching
them the deen or facilitating
the projects
through which they were taught the deen. And
so knowledge is one of the greatest things
that gather all of these qualities that extend
beyond the person's life.
And then
he says
that this dunya is cursed,
and everything inside of the dunya is cursed,
except for the remembrance of Allah
and that which it entails
or a person of knowledge or somebody who's
learning.
And so if a person is not a
person of knowledge
or in the remembrance of Allah, or seeking
knowledge, then they fall under that category. Told
the shirk.
So there's a a a few hadith that
I'll conclude with, and this one is incredible
to me. The hadith that's reported by Atidmidi
also, the hadith of Abi Umama.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says,
Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said that the virtue
of a scholar over a worshiper.
So you take a scholar and you take
a worshiper. You take a scholar who teaches
the deed,
and you take a worshiper, and I want
you to imagine, like, the best worshiper,
whoever that best worshiper is in a community.
And then, Rasulullah
salallahu alaihi wasallam said, their difference between them
is like the difference between me
and the least of you.
I want you to imagine if the prophet,
salallahu alaihi wasalam, had said, it's like the
difference between me and the best of you.
What would the difference have been
between the prophet, salallahu alaihi sallam, and the
best of the ummah?
Between the prophet, salallahu alaihi sallam, and the
best of the ummah Abu Waq is the
difference of
a 124,000
prophets and and more.
And yet the prophet did
not say it's the difference between me and
the best of you. He said me and
the least of you. Whoever
is last place in this great of
not the companions,
but whoever comes
last, Which generation Allah knows best? Which person
Allah knows best?
The difference between the prophet and that person
is like the difference between the scholar and
the abbot.
And so,
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi sallam says, continuing that
the angels
and the people of the heavens and the
earth and even the ants
in its
hill
and even the fish,
they pray for the one who teaches people
goodness.
And why does the environment itself, the angels
and
the animals, they make dua for the person
who teaches
people goodness?
Allah knows best, but that person
who
teaches
the deen,
that person is teaching a deen that is
described by
as We only sent you as a mercy
to the worlds, and so anybody who
learns this deen is learning that which is
a mercy to the worlds, and anybody who
teaches this deen is propagating that which is
a mercy to the worlds, and these animals
benefit from that mercy.
And so it makes sense that they would
make du'a for the one who is teaching
that which will benefit them wherever they are.
And,
I will end with these 3 hadith.
Says, then I heard the prophet say,
may Allah brighten the face of someone who
heard something from us,
and then narrated it
like they heard it.
The prophet
is praising and making dua for a person
who hears a hadith of the prophet
and then narrates it just like they heard
it. And he says, perhaps the one who
is receiving
it understands it better than the one who's
transmitting it.
So a person who hears the hadith of
the prophet and then they turn around and
they share it with somebody else.
It may be that your student, the one
who you are sharing it with,
is going to understand it better than you.
But still, the prophet
is making dua for you just for you
being a part of the preservation of the
deen and being a part of the transmission
of 1 generation to the next of knowledge.
And so if I want, in 2024,
for the prophet
to make du'a for me, then all I
have to do is include myself in this
du'a that the prophet
made.
That I be part of the link
of narrating the hadith of the prophet
like I heard it to the next generation.
But then there's also the threat,
and the threat is there's 2 a hadith
that are threats. Number 1,
says in the hadith that's all reported by
Abu Hurayra. He says
That whoever
is asked about
something that they know and they are quiet,
that they will have their faces bridled or
covered with a bridle of fire.
So this is the threat of a person
who warreds knowledge when they are asked. A
person is coming to ask you something,
they're seeking benefit, they're seeking knowledge, and then
you reject.
And I'm And this is somebody who you
expect to be a sincere asker. There's somebody
who sincerely
needs some information. They're coming and they're asking
you, is this haram? Is this haram? Is
this this? And you don't answer them because
you're shy or we're at a program where
it's not appropriate for us to talk about
this, or what have you. That and and
and you don't give them that information when
they need it, because of that, that person
will be under threat of being bridled
with fire on the day of judgement. And
then the second issue is the issue of
intention.
And this is a very, very, very serious
issue.
Says in the hadith that's reported by Abu
That whoever seeks knowledge that is normally sought
for the sake of Allah. And by the
way, everything that we've talked about about knowledge
here is speaking about knowledge of the deen.
We're not talking about secular sciences.
Everything that the prophet
has praised of knowledge is speaking about knowledge
of the deen. So here,
the prophet says whoever
learns knowledge
that through which the face of Allah is
sought, meaning religious knowledge,
They are only learning it to achieve something
of the dunya. They will not smell the
fragrance of paradise on the day of judgement.
They will not smell the fragrance of paradise.
A person learns knowledge that is normally for
the sake of Allah. They learn the Quran.
They learn hadith. They learn fiqh. They learn
tafsir. They learn all of these sciences that
we know. They are learning it because not
because they want what is with Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, but they are learning it because
of what they want of the of the
dunya.
They want fame, they want
respect, they want positions,
they want whatever it is.
If that person does it for that purpose,
for that intention, they will not smell the
fragrance of paradise on the day of judgement.
So it's very important that when a person
is learning,
that they're always asking themselves the question, why
am I doing this?
Am I doing this because I wanna come
closer to Allah
If so, then there are signs that what
you are seeking is actually beneficial. And one
of the most important signs is that you
act upon it, that you learn, and then
what you learn becomes reflected in your actions.
And then finally, the final hadith,
he
says,
That Allah
will not remove knowledge from this earth
by seizing knowledge or lifting it up, but
Allah
will seize knowledge by taking the lives of
the scholars.
Until when there is no scholar left,
the people will take leaders who are ignorant,
and so they will be asked, and they
will give without
knowledge. And so they will be misguided, and
they will misguide others. And so the prophet
is telling us of the methodology of how
knowledge will be lifted, and the prophet
said that it will not be lifted
by people waking up one day and all
of a sudden the books are all erased
and and, you know, people having memorized things
being gone. That's not that's not how it's
going to be lifted, but it is lifted
by the death of scholars.
When a scholar dies,
they say that that is an injury that
is done to Islam. The death of a
scholar is an injury to Islam
that is never going to heal with the
interchanging of of day and night. With the
passage of time, it has never healed. Every
time a scholar dies.
But also understood from this verse, from this
hadith rather,
is that a scholar truly dies
when their knowledge is squandered by the next
generation.
Imam Malik died,
but as long as there are people like,
like, Imam al Shafi'i,
like the students who took from Malik,
then Malik's knowledge lives on.
And we are not harmed by the death
of Malik,
but we are harmed by the death of
the scholars
when there is no one who carries that
knowledge onto the next generation.
And so it's very important that when we
are living in times when we do have
access to scholars, when we're living in a
city like Houston, alhamdulillah,
where there are the presence of scholars,
that we make sure that we continue to
be the people
who
become the vehicles and the vessels of that
knowledge being transmitted to the next generation
and that we don't wait until they pass,
and then we look around and not find
those through which we're able to benefit others
or to benefit ourselves. And
Allah knows best. We end with this chapter
here, jazakamulullah
khair Muhammad, and we'll break for the salah
now.
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