Aqeel Mahmood – S01EP01 Fiqh Introduction
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AI: Transcript ©
As you brothers know and sisters,
we are going to be going through
the fiqh of purification
in these next few months.
And today, what we're going to be doing
is
going through an introduction to,
knowledge
and the importance of knowledge,
and we'll also go through
a very brief
history
of
how
Islamic
knowledge
progressed
through the ages
from the time of the prophet
and onwards.
And we'll also focus on
the topic of fiqh
and the importance of fiqh
and
how one should approach
the subject of fiqh
so that he's able to,
understand
and grasp
the subject when he's, studying
this specific Islamic topic
now and in the future.
And, also, we'll speak about some fiqi issues
that maybe some people have questions regarding,
such as, differing
that you may have
regarding fiqi issues amongst the scholars and amongst
people.
What causes those differences,
and where does it come from, and the
issue of, you know, following this scholar or
that scholar and,
following Madahib, for example. So, inshallah, we'll speak
about those issues. But first of all,
I think it's important for us to,
begin with the importance of knowledge because
knowledge is something which when we discuss and
when we speak about knowledge and when we
talk about the importance of knowledge and the
value of knowledge and the status of the
student of knowledge, etcetera,
The reason why it's spoken about is because
it should
motivate
the person to study more. That's the goal
here.
And
the aim and the intention is that learning,
just as, for example, we send our children
to
school, you know, at one point in time,
we were in school, and our parents would
force us to, you know, go to school
and to learn, etcetera,
knowledge, especially Islamic knowledge, which maybe many of
us weren't doing as much of when we
were younger as opposed to other types of
knowledge in school,
is something which should be with us, and
it's something that we should be partaking in
for the rest of our lives. There's no
end to a person
seeking knowledge and learning more
learning more about his deen.
Knowledge is something which
a person will continuously
learn and benefit from and continue to grow
as a Muslim, and his knowledge,
should be something which continuously increases.
And, obviously, we're speaking about Islamic knowledge here.
And so
knowledge is something which a person is supposed
to
attain even at an old age.
And, of course, you know, there's many examples
of people from the from the past who
they would start learning about Islam, and they
would become scholars at a much later age.
They weren't people, for example, who studied at
a younger age. And the point being here
is that knowledge is something which should be
consistently,
sought.
And consistency
is something which I want to emphasize in
this,
in this first session,
the importance of being consistent.
Don't worry about trying to attend, you know,
all the classes
all the time, you know, nonstop.
If you feel like you're going to burn
out after a couple of months,
Rather, try to look at,
knowledge as something that you have,
little by little for a long period of
time.
And this is why the prophet, sallallahu alaihi
wasallam, he said,
that the most beloved acts to Allah are
those which are consistent
even if they're small.
So always aim
long term when you're studying about Islam.
Don't just jump into something
because it's being advertised or because you heard
about this new thing which is starting
or because of this person or that person
or your friends joining, whatever the case may
be.
Think about knowledge and Islamic knowledge and the
topics and subjects that you're you're studying and
you're learning about
as something which will benefit you long term,
something which you're looking to do,
for yourself,
something that you'll benefit from. It's something maybe
you have a passion for.
We have scholars who specialized in many different
subjects and topics.
All of you are not privy or, all
of you are not unaware
of many scholars who have come to this
masjid, and they've taught,
they've taught us all, and they have different
specialties.
Some of them have specialties in Aqeda. Some
of them have specialties in fiqh and the
Quran, etcetera, etcetera.
And so knowledge is something which is vast.
It's not it's not something which is very
specific to, you know, a specific group of
people.
And if a person feels like he finds
it he's much more,
keen
or he has much more interest in a
specific field of Islamic knowledge,
then
he should
pursue that specific field. If he feels like
he's going to remain consistent
in that field for a long period of
time.
And
these types of classes that we're holding and
these subjects that we're teaching,
these are, you know, more on the
foundational
aspects of one's deen, whether it's akkedah, o
fit, etcetera. But the point is here that
these should be pursued
at, you know, at a minimal level anyway.
But then when a person wants to further
his studies
you know, you see people who study abroad
and they go to different universities.
When they,
proceed and they go past the the regular
level of study, they always specialize in a
specific subject
Because this is what happens when you get
older, you have or when you progress in
your Islamic knowledge and you mature in your
in your knowledge,
you know, you have a tendency to show
more interest in specific subjects. Just like in
school, when you guys were in school, certain
subjects you you disliked
certain subjects you really enjoyed. It may have
been the teacher. It may have been the
content of the subject you were you were
studying and you were learning.
And it's not necessarily the case that some
subjects were bad,
you know, unless it was music or something.
But otherwise, it's not the subject itself that's
bad. It's just your interest in the subject
wasn't there. And other subjects, maybe, you had
a passion for and you were always interested.
So the point I'm trying to make is
that a person should continue his studies. And
if he feels like he's, you know,
lacking or struggling,
then maybe
it might be better for a person to
find something that he'll find passion towards
so that you know, specifically with regards to
Islamic knowledge, so that he can continue learning
and he can continue progressing and benefiting. And
like I said, there's always those foundational subjects
and those foundational things that a person should
always learn, but we want to be thinking
long term when it comes to knowledge. Just
like when a person does his, you know,
regular
studies in school, there's always a long term
goal.
You know, a person goes to primary school
with the aim of going into secondary. You
do secondary because you want to go to
college, and you do college because you want
to go to university and your university so
you can get a job, etcetera. There's always
a long term goal,
and there's progression when it comes to those
subjects that you're learning in primary school and
secondary school. And it should be the case
when it comes to Islamic knowledge. There should
be a long term goal. There should be
a plan. There should be, you know, a
step by step process taken when you're studying
the religion, when you're covering different topics with
regards to Islamic knowledge. And
it's supposed to motivate and encourage us also.
And, you know, we can just speak about
the virtues and the importance of knowledge. We
can speak about the importance of sincerity.
Sincerity was something which,
we were always reminded of by our teachers.
It's something which we should always remind ourselves
of
Because riya,
a person showing off when it comes to
the deen, when it comes to knowledge, this
is something which exists. It's something it's something
which happens.
And a person should always be aware and
always,
renew his intentions
to do things purely for the sake of
Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And it's something which
is done consistently also.
A person should always be, you know, checking
himself,
checking why he's doing the things he's doing,
why is he pursuing specific knowledge, what is
his goal, what is his intention, is he
coming because of peer pressure, is he coming
because he wants to seek knowledge, is he
coming because he has some grandiose ideas of
what he wants to do in the future.
And everyone should have the aim and the
goal to to learn and then to benefit
others, But ultimately, we're doing it for the
pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And, of course, many, hadith that speak about
the importance of knowledge and seeking knowledge. The
messenger of
said, whoever treads a path in knowledge,
Allah will make easy his path towards Jannah.
Allah
will facilitate
and make easy your path into Jannah
simply by you seeking knowledge and having that
intention of pleasing Allah and seeking knowledge for
Allah's sake.
So that's a huge motivation
just by itself
about the importance of seeking knowledge for the
correct reasons,
pursuing
knowledge, being consistent when it comes to,
seeking knowledge.
So
knowledge is something which should be consistent. It
should be something which a person continues to
do. It's something which a person should have
a long term goal for.
Now with regards to
knowledge itself
and the knowledge of Islamic Sciences,
and, of course, you had a an Al
Qaeda session on Monday. Can I can I
can I see who attended that session, the
Al Qaeda session?
So you had the Aqidah session on Monday.
You've got this session. You've got the Sira
session on on on Fridays.
And you have these different subjects
and these different,
topics under the Islamic
umbrella of knowledge.
And if one was to go back
to the time of the messenger of
and him teaching the companions
and after the death of the messenger of
you would,
hear about the companions
speaking about,
Islam.
And
at the time of the companions
you didn't have
these individual
separate sciences
that were taught separately.
It was something which, you know, came at
the time of the,
early Tabi'in, for example, the students of the
companions, and then obviously it progressed after this.
Imam Shafi, for example, he was one of
the first scholars
to write a book on usool al fiqh,
the principles of fiqh, which is a separate
subject. If you go to any university or
you go to any institute,
they'll teach usul al fiqh as a separate
subject. But it was Imam Shafi rahimahullah,
you know, many, many years after the death
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and
after the companions
who wrote the first book on usul al
fiqh. He's considered one the first, if not
the first. The point I'm trying to make
is that in the in the time of
the companions,
knowledge was something which was considered as one.
If we think about tafsir
and tawhid, aqeeda, and fiqh, and usul, and
sira, for example. It's very interesting that you
would hear,
the companions and the tabi'in,
and they would say that we used to
land Maqazi,
which is the seerah. They used to call
it Maqazi.
We used to land Maqazi
just like we used to learn a surah
from the Quran.
We used to learn Maqazi
just like we used to learn a surah
from the Quran.
Meaning it was like as if it was
one thing. Obviously, it's not the Quran,
but in terms of the emphasis they gave
to specific types of knowledge.
And Sira was something which covered everything because
if you think about Sira and you think
about a person who lands a Sira, you're
learning about why the Quran was revealed
because incidents are related to the Sira, ayaas
of the Quran. You won't know why they
were revealed. You may hear certain ayaat, surahs
of the Quran, and you won't truly understand
them unless you know the context of why
they were revealed.
That's Nasirah. A hadith,
which maybe you've had, but you don't know
the context of why and when and where
they were said in the time of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So and then you have fiqh.
Fiqh goes down to, obviously, the Quran, and
then you have the sunnah. And you have
2 other evidences which were mentioned. But the
point is with regards to the sunnah, the
messenger of alaihi wa sallam, certain things would
happen, and he would do certain things when
he came to acts of worship or other
things.
And then that became part of, part and
parcel of what a person should do with
regards to how he should behave when it
comes to purification or salah, etcetera. And that's
also in the seerah.
So the point is, in the early days,
knowledge was considered to be 1.
As time went on and people became more
and more delved more and more into knowledge
and studying
and they wanted to,
have clear
definitions
and teach people in a much easier way.
They would break,
the religion down into
specific fields.
And so you would have, for example,
books written on Sira,
which came, for example,
later on,
after the time of the companions. 1 of
the companions, he said, wrote a book on
the Sira. 1 of the earliest
books on the seerah was in fact written
by the son of Uthman ibn Affair.
His name was Aban,
Aban ibn Affair.
He was on the first to write, like,
a book solely on the seerah of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So you have these fields now emerging,
whether it's,
a a a specific field
of Islam known as tawhid. You have a
separate field now known as fiqh,
sira
or sural fiqh. The science of hadith, of
course, which came, you know, from the time
of the companions onwards, they would narrate, for
example, the life of the prophet
like it was a hadith,
narrating the the the narrators, the ruwat. They
would narrate the the specific names of the
narrators and then mention an incident that took
place in the lifetime of the prophet
So it was like a hadith, but the
point is hadith was also a science, and
it became more and more,
detailed. It became a a vast ocean in
and of itself, not the knowledge of tafsir,
you know, studying the the Quran and the
ayat of the Quran. So you had these
specific sciences being broken down, and,
the depth of these sciences
required teachers to teach them as separate subjects.
And so, of course, this progressed
as time went on. And with regards to
fiqh, brothers and sisters, what is fiqh first
of all?
How do we define fiqh? So, essentially,
fiqh is
the study of practical
actions of the slave, whether it's a badat,
whether it's acts of worship, or whether it's
muamalat,
interactions between others, to really break it down
so that people can understand.
Fiq
is acts of worship or its interactions with
others, and it focuses on the practical aspects
of how we do things,
whether it's Ibadat or whether it's other than
Ibadat.
So for example, it could be about wudu,
purification. It could be about salaik. It could
be about zakai. It could be about hajj,
fasting.
It could be other topics, marriage and divorce.
It could be about buying and selling. It
could be about, whatever the case is
outside of it by that. So the point
is, fiqh
is dealing with these types of topics.
And
as we mentioned,
in the early days of Islam,
if you look at the the companions,
if they ever had any questions with regards
to the salah, with regards to purification,
with regards to fasting,
or even marriage and divorce and other topics
related to, you know,
things outside of worship, they would always go
to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
After the death of the messenger of Valeria
salatu wa sallam,
you would have the companions
who,
due to their level of knowledge,
especially some of the senior companions who were
scholars and they were considered scholars from amongst
the companions,
they would end up having their own schools.
And when we mean schools, we don't mean,
like, you know, big buildings, classrooms, and stuff.
Meaning that they would have students who would
gather
when they would teach in the masjid,
and it became
like a school because they would all learn
from that specific companion.
And so you would have these schools opening
or these schools forming, I should say,
because of these companions who were teaching.
And so
when it comes to fiqh,
you have these companions,
and these companions are now teaching
others about the religion,
whether it's fiqh or else or or something
else.
These companions, of course, they had knowledge which
was much more vast and bigger than this
the topic of fiqh, but we're talking about
fiqh. Yes. That's why I keep mentioning fiqh.
And so these companions,
they would teach.
And when they would teach,
sometimes
they would travel in order to teach others,
and they would move from Medina to elsewhere.
Some of them, they moved,
by the instructions of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, and sometimes they would move
by the instructions of the Khalafah, Ababaq Sadiq,
Omar Ibn Khattab, etcetera. And so you would
have companions living in different parts of the
Muslim world, teaching different groups of people. Ibn
Abbas radiaallahu an was in Madinah. Ibn Mas'ud
radiaallahu an was was in Iraq. He was
in Kufa. And you had other companions,
scholars from the companions, who would go elsewhere,
and they would teach.
And so you had different companions living in
different places,
and they would teach the religion and, of
course, they would be teaching people how to
pray, issues related to Tahara,
salah, zakah, som Hajj, etcetera.
Now
in the time of the prophet alaihi salatu
wa sallam,
if we look and we study,
do we notice
the
companions
differing amongst one another
when it comes to acts of worship?
And if they did,
what would they do in those circumstances?
So you would see
companions
actually differing amongst themselves
when it came to fiqh,
when it came to ebadat, for example,
when it came to acts of worship.
And that's a very important point to make,
that the companions would differ amongst themselves.
And even though they differed,
the messenger of Allah alaihi sallam
on certain occasions
wouldn't
reprimand them because they were differing,
which is a very interesting point,
which means
there was scope
when it came to the extent by which
the companions
could
differ between one another.
Otherwise, what would the prophet have done?
He would have.
He would have stopped them.
He would have rebuked them.
And sometimes he would. Sometimes, in certain occasions,
we know he would. When the Muhajir and
the Ansar
started to argue amongst one another and the
prophet
became very angry
because they were making these divisions.
And the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam didn't like
this, and he rebuked them. He told he
told them off for what they were doing.
And so when he gets to that stage,
of course, it's not something which is permissible.
And there is a very famous narration,
and this will explain what I'm talking about,
of the messenger of alayhi sallahu alaihi wasallam,
and this took place,
during the battle of Khandak, the battle of
the trench. So after the battle of the
trench,
just after the Quraysh basically left because they
couldn't defeat the Muslims because of the trench
that was dug around Medina,
the messenger of
had to deal with Banu Quraydah.
He had to deal with Banu Quraydah.
Why? Because,
if we were to
talk about the the matter of the trench,
the Quraysh essentially were outside of the trench,
on the other side of the trench.
In Medina,
you had the Jewish tribes, and they were
supposed supposed to be on the side of
the Muslims
defending Madina because they're in Madina.
Banu Qurayaba ended up betraying the Muslims and
joining the Quraysh, and they were inside of
Madina. So you had the Muslims dealing with
the Quraysh, and you had the Muslims dealing
with
the Quraysh outside
of Madinah and you had the Muslims dealing
with Banuk Ureadah inside of Madinah. And they
essentially betrayed the Muslims and they broke the
treaty between the Muslims and the and the
and the Jewish tribes. So he sent
a group of companions to Banuk Urailad,
and maybe some of you had just had
it before.
He told the companions
about
how to go to Banuk Urailad.
He said to the companions,
the ones who are making their way to
Banuk Uribe. He said,
None of you should pray Assur until he
gets to Banuk Uribe. Meaning, until he gets
to the tribe of Banuk Uribe.
So the companions leave.
They're making their way to Banu Qurayba.
The time for Assur comes.
And some of the companions, they say, it's
time for Asr. We need to pray Asr
because it's Asr time.
And the other companions who were there, same
group,
they said, we're not praying Asr right now.
We can't pray Asr.
Said why? They said because the prophet
said don't pray Asar until you get to
Banuk Rehbah.
The other group of companions, they said that's
not what he meant.
He didn't mean
don't pray Asar.
What did he mean?
He mean he meant
get there as
quickly as you can.
Don't waste any time.
Didn't literally mean
it was a it was a it was
a you could say it was a metaphor
or something,
an expression.
The expression meant don't miss Assur, but get
there as quickly as you can. But we
can stop and pray Assur. But we're still
going to be as as quickly get there
as quickly as we can. The other group
of companions took the meaning literally.
They said, no.
We need to pray Assur until
we need to pray Assur ad banu Quraydah
when we get there.
So what happened?
Some of the companions prayed Assur and some
of them didn't.
Now
they both disagreed.
But what's amazing,
and this shows us a very important lesson
and it shows us the maturity of the
companions,
is that they still continued on their journey
as a as a single unit,
as a group of Muslims
working together,
Muslim brothers.
They were tolerant
of the other's
opinion of what they should have done.
It didn't cause a division
where they completely separated and broke apart.
Because you may think
that you did something wrong.
You went against
the hadith of the prophet
The argument could be made on both sides
if you think about it because they both
did
a different thing.
And it's very easy for a for a
person to say one group didn't do what
they were supposed to do.
And so these people made it it's wrong
what they did, and you could rebuke them.
And in this day and age, it's very
easy, as we all know, you know, for
a person to rebuke another person or to
for a group to rebuke another group and
then to abandon them and not talk to
them and say things about them being from
another, you know, place or another masjid, etcetera,
etcetera,
and these divisions that people make very easily
nowadays.
So they continue to travel to Banu Quraydah.
What happens happens,
and they come back to the messenger of
Allah alaihi wa sallam again together.
And they tell the messenger of Allah alaihi
wa sallam about what happened.
The time for Asr came. Some of us,
we prayed Asr, and some of us said
we shouldn't be praying Asar because we we
were told by you to pray Asar in
Banukureda.
And the others, they said,
we thought you meant pray Asar,
as soon as you get there. The other
group said, no. We we thought you meant
pray Asar. Still pray asr at the time,
but just go as quickly as you can.
And the messenger of Allah alaihi salatu wa
sallam, the hadith mentions, the hadith in Bukhari,
he didn't rebuke
any of the 2.
He never rebuked any of the 2 groups.
He never said to one group or the
other that you are
wrong and or you are wrong or you
are right and you are wrong.
He didn't say anything.
And there is another hadith of the messenger
of which will help us understand
why he didn't say anything. The messenger
of he said,
whoever performs
Ijtihad Ijtihad is basically coming to a coming
to an Islamic
ruling
based on the evidences.
Whoever
performs Ijtihad comes to an Islamic ruling based
on his his knowledge because he's, you know,
gone into depth when it comes to studying
the Quran and the sunnah, etcetera,
and he's come to a ruling, a scholar,
whoever performs ijtihad
and makes a mistake he was wrong, he
will receive one reward.
So he's
wrong. He made a mistake. He's wrong.
Allah will still reward him.
And the messenger of Allah SWAMI said, whoever
performs it and
is correct, this person will get double the
reward.
You'll get double the reward.
So
who gets rewarded?
Who gets rewarded?
Both get rewarded.
Both of them get rewarded.
So it's
a very interesting hadith.
And now I want us I want us
to think about
our approach when it comes to knowledge today.
You know, and sometimes it's a mindset we
have,
especially with social media, this caller said this,
and this person said this, and that person
said that, and how could he say this,
and this opinion is better. He should follow
this opinion. My opinion is better than his.
You know? And,
you know, as Muslims in the West,
we to non Muslims, we always talk about
tolerance, isn't it?
We're a tolerant people.
Muslims are very tolerant.
You know, we're very welcoming.
And we say that to non Muslims, amongst
ourselves, it seems like sometimes there's no tolerance
at all when it comes to issues that
really matter, when it comes to our deen,
when it comes to knowledge, when it comes
to understanding,
you know, other opinions,
which may be valid opinions.
And there's no tolerance at all. It's like,
no. It's my way or the highway, halas.
You either follow my opinion or you don't
follow any opinion.
These people are right. This sheikh is right.
Everyone else is wrong.
I don't care what they say.
It's
the problem,
especially looking at these hadith and these incidents
in time with the messenger of Allah in
the time of the messenger of Allah sama.
Another hadith which is similar, the messenger of
Allah sama said in the hadith Bukhari Muslim,
if a judge makes a ruling,
striving to apply his ruling or reasoning,
and he's correct, he will have 2 rewards.
And if a judge makes a ruling,
striving, meaning he makes the utmost effort. He's
trying his best. He's being sincere.
He's as he's being sincere with regards to
his striving and coming to a correct ruling
in the decision he's going to make, in
the ruling he's going to give. And he
makes a mistake, he will have one reward.
So a similar hadith.
Now
host novaan and sincerity is integral when we
speak about
scholars and not just scholars, Muslims, but scholars
especially.
And so from from our perspective,
when we hear 2 opinions
and in our eyes,
we look and we perceive or we think
that one opinion seems like it's more lenient
than the other opinion,
a lot of
times, people will say about the opinion which
is more lenient
that that person who has that view is
simply following his
desires.
Because people assume that,
and that's not an example of having Khosnuddin.
You never opened his heart and opened his
chest and saw, you know, what did he
why was he why did he have this
opinion? What was what was his reasoning? You
know, is he being sincere to Allah? That's
between him and Allah.
If he's giving his evidences and his perspective
and his points of view
and he has his evidences,
then we can't question his sincerity.
We can't say he's following his desires. We
can't say, oh, he's taking the easy path.
Because one can come back and say, the
messenger, when
he was given to a path, he would
always follow and always take the easier path
anyway. That's a hadith.
So,
again, there's there's that hadith that one could
one could mention.
So this hadith of Banu Quraydah, it's a
famous hadith, they call it the hadith of
Banu Quraydah,
really shows us
the wisdom behind the messenger of Allah, alayhi
salatu wa salam, understanding that the companions try
to come to their own
conclusions
based on
what they perceived to be the statement of
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, meaning either
one thing or another.
And this was their approach.
This was their understanding.
And this is how they approached the issue.
And, obviously, had it been haram
for the companions to differ, to simply differ,
we're not talking about causing divisions. We already
established
if you have differences which cause divisions,
then that's a problem. That's haram.
When you split up and you make your
own masjid or you split up and you
just go somewhere else, that's haram. It's not
permissible. It's haram.
But when a person differs on, you know,
issues related to the deen when it comes
to fit, etcetera,
and there's tolerance there, there there's still love
there,
and there's still acceptance, and there's still that
Mahaba and that Uhowa, brotherhood,
then it's not something which is haram. Otherwise,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam would have
rebuked 1 of the 2, and he would
have told them you shouldn't have been differing.
So
we need to really understand,
the importance of,
knowing
what is allowed and what isn't allowed.
And, you know, we could speak about the
details of,
things that we differ in and etiquettes of
differing, etcetera, etcetera.
But, you know, I need to, move on
and explain a few other points before we,
inshallah, next week, go into the, the fiqh
of tahara and purification and some aspects related
to, purification. So if we were to look
at
the companions, we established that after the death
of the prophet
the companions traveled to different parts of the
Muslim world, and they would teach people.
And these companions, would they differ
I'll ask again now. Would they differ amongst
themselves when it came to fiqh issues?
Yes. They would.
They would differ amongst themselves
when it came to fiqi issues. Abu Bakr
would
disagree with Omar Ibn Khattab
when he was a khalifa of the Muslims.
They were best friends,
but they would differ with each other.
Abu Bakr
when he gave the stipend,
the monthly wage, the stipend to the companions,
he would give the same to every single
person.
He would give the same amount to every
single person.
So
would get would get, for example, he was
young, but, you know, let's say, would
get the same as Abu Huraira.
Khalil Walid would get the same as,
when
the 10 promised gender.
Will tell him, how can you give somebody
who was in Badr
the same as somebody else who wasn't even
in Badr, didn't participate in Badr? Became Muslim
later on.
Abu Bakr said, I can't I'm not going
to distinguish
I don't know their intentions.
I can't say one is better than the
other because I can't see what's in their
hearts. I don't know their intention, and I
don't know how sincere they are. That's something
that's between them and Allah.
When he passed away, Omar Ibn Khattab
changed the stipend so he would give some
people more than others.
So the people who were in Badr, he
would give them more
because they they were in Badr. They're from
the early Muslims.
The ones who were in Badr,
you know, is they're not like the ones
who didn't participate in Badr. But this was
a difference amongst them
to the extent
where
he would give,
his own son, Abdullah,
money, and he would give Usama tobun Uzayd
a stipend also,
and he would give Osama more than his
own son.
So his son came, Dula came,
and said, you know, what's going on?
You're giving me a lesson. You're giving him
more. Like and they're the same age. They're
a similar age. They're both very young. Osama
bin Laden was 8 was 16 when the
prophet passed away. He was the one who
was going to take the army to the
Roman Empire to fight them just before the
death of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. And
Ibn Umar was the same similar age. Abdullah
ibn Umar who was, by the way, one
of the fuqaha,
one of the scholars of the companions.
And
Umar
said,
because
he was more beloved why am I giving
him more? Because he was more beloved to
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam than you.
And his father was more beloved to the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam than your father.
Meaning Zayd ibn Uharatha. Zayd ibn Uharatha was
the,
the adopted son of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
Zayd ibn Uharatha.
So he said because he was more beloved
to the prophet sallam than you, his father
was more beloved to the prophet sallam than
your father,
meaning himself.
So the point is there was this differencing.
But he didn't cause, like,
you know, Muhammad didn't get up and say,
okay, khalas, I'm going and anyone wants to
join me, we're gonna make another another masjid
under the headquarters. It wasn't it wasn't anything
like this.
This is just one example. There are many,
many examples
of how the companions would differ amongst themselves,
but it was the way they differed,
the etiquettes of differing
that was important.
And there's so many examples even amongst the
scholars
about how they used to differ.
There's a story that's mentioned about Sheikh Albaani
that
one of the students was with him while
he was driving, and he was driving very
fast.
And the student said to him, Sheikh, you
know, Sheikh Minbaaz says he's not allowed to
speed.
Shouldn't be speeding.
Sheikh Habani said this is coming from somebody
who has never tasted speed.
Like, he's he's never driven really fast. He
doesn't know. It's like
so just doing the search, should I tell
Sheikh Mbas this? If I see him, should
I tell him what you said? You said
you're Italian.
So and, you know, people in the past,
sometimes they would make rivalries between these scholars
and these sheiks. He went and told Sheikh
Mbas. Sheikh Mbas laughed.
And he said, this is coming from someone
who hasn't ever paid blood money before.
And so the sheikh told the student, the
student went and told Sheikh Abani was Sheikh
Mbas, and Sheikh Abani started laughing.
So there was this, like, you know, banter
between the between the scholars.
It wasn't a case of, like, okay. That's
it. I need to, you know, refute this
person or, you know, don't go to him
again, don't see him again, etcetera.
There was just there was always this Mahaba,
this Uhura, this love, this disrespect amongst the
scholars.
Even if they differed on specific issues, it
wasn't like they they didn't talk to each
other.
And if that's the case amongst the scholars,
then, you know, where are we when it
comes to having some some tolerance?
Yes. We may not agree
with, you know, some duas, for example, who
may be on YouTube and they're doing lots
of kheh, lots of good.
And there's a few things they do that
we don't agree with.
It might be their behavior. It might be
the way they post their videos. It might
be the things they say some of the
things they say, the way they act,
some of their opinions,
the crowd that's, you know, that's with them
or the crowd that they're with. But ultimately,
you can't question their sincerity. You can't say
that some of their opinions, if they have
a basis in the Quran and Sunnah and
in Islam, you can't question their sincerity and
say they're doing it for money or popularity,
or they're just trying to seek attention.
It's not our position to to say this.
If their opinions are valid opinions, that's something
which
we have to accept. Whether we like it
or not, whether you have a personal issue
with somebody, that's that's that's your problem.
That's nothing to do with the Muslim community
and nothing to do
with Islamic
knowledge
and academia
and seeking knowledge,
you know, and sharing knowledge and tolerance between
between between Muslims.
So what causes differing then? Well, before we
get into what causes differing, we keep going
off track,
the companions
would have their own schools.
Ibn Umar radhiallahu an, Ibn Abbas who was
in Madinah, Ibn Masud who was in Kufa,
other scholars who were in other parts of
the world. They would have their own schools,
their own students,
hundreds and hundreds of students, maybe thousands of
students.
Then you would have
other students, the students of the companions, who
are very well established,
and they would seek knowledge, they would attend,
and they would benefit nonstop every single day
from those companions, for example.
And then they would continue seeking knowledge, and
they would teach others.
Then you will get to a stage
where you would have schools,
of certain scholars that were so
big.
These scholars were so
knowledgeable.
Allah blessed them with so much knowledge
that these schools continue until today.
For example, the 4 major schools of thought,
the 4 main schools which we all know.
Imam Abu Hanifa,
Imam Malik, Imam Shafi'i, and Imam Ahmed ibn
Hanbah.
And
Allah
blessed these people.
They they had knowledge
which Allah blessed, and there were, by the
way, other schools.
There were other schools other than these 4,
but those schools just didn't reach us all
these years later
by the decree of Allah.
And these were righteous people. Sufianna Thawri, for
example, he
would have his own school,
but he didn't reach us. We still have
his his, you know, his his teachings, but
we don't. It's not a school as it
is with these 4 major schools of,
these 4 these 4 madahib, for ex as
they're called. And you have other scholars as
well who had their schools, but they haven't
reached us like these 4 schools have reached
us. How is it that these 4 schools
reached us? Well, first of all, it's the
decree of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah does
whatever he wishes. Secondly, these specific schools would
have dedicated students
who would continue to teach the teachings of
these of these of these madahib and of
these imams.
And so they happen to continue.
And it's just the blessing of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Abdulai bani Mubarak Rahimahullah,
he said,
if it wasn't for the fact that Allah
blessed me to be able to learn from
Imam Abu Hanifa and Sufyan,
then I would have been like the average
person. I would have been like everybody else.
He's a great scholar in and of himself.
He's saying I would have been a regular
person if it wasn't for Imam Abu Hanifa
and Sufani Bin Uyayna. So he kind of
thought. 1 of the 2.
But he's speaking about the the status of
Abu Hanifa Rahimahullah.
Imam Malik. Imam Shafi speaks about Imam Malik.
And he says, if the scholars are mentioned,
then Imam Malik is the star.
The scholars are are being mentioned. If scholars
are being mentioned, then Imam Malik is the
star.
And Malik is the evidence of Allah on
the creation
after the Tabi'in.
Like, these statements are like these are small
statements. It sound like,
you know, he was a good guy.
He was a very interesting person. He he
was he was he had some knowledge.
This is serious
statements of praise for these imams and for
these scholars. Imam Shafi himself.
Imam Ahmed Rahimahullah,
he would always make dua for his teacher,
Imam Shafi'i.
Insula, always make dua for his parents and
for Imam Shafi'i.
And his son, Imam Ahmed's son,
Abdullah,
he asked his father. He said,
how why is it that you supplicate for
Shah Imam Shafi'i all the time? Because I
hear you're making dua for him all the
time. And he said to his son, he
said, oh, my son, Imam al Shafi'i
is like the son of this world,
and he's a protection for the people,
meaning as a result of his
as a result of his knowledge.
As a result of his knowledge, he had
so much knowledge that due to his knowledge,
the Muslims were
protected because of the level of knowledge that
he had. And he was like a son
to the people, meaning he was a guide
because of the immense knowledge which he had.
And this is Imam Ahmed saying this and
Imam Ahmed himself.
Scholar would speak about Imam Mahad, Imam Ahmed.
They would say, Abu Bakr Siddiq,
Allah honored Abu Bakr Siddiq
the day of the ridda when the people
apostized and left Islam.
When that happened,
Allah honored their religion
through Abu Bakr Siddiq, when they tried to
apostize.
It was through Abu Bakr Siddiq that he
gave unity back to the Muslims.
And he
said, and Allah
gave honor to Imam Ahmed on the day
of the tests, yomulmihna,
when Imam Ahmed was being tested with regards
to the Quran, whether it's a a creation
of Allah or not.
He's saying it was Imam Ahmed. Allah honored
Imam Ahmed at that time.
The point I'm trying to make is that
these,
scholars
were of a different level,
and they had so much knowledge that the
that the scholars
after
depended on the scholars, especially when it came
to issues of fiqh, when it came to
matters of the fiqh. So what causes differing
then? Why is it the case
that you see differences of opinion amongst the
scholars? What causes the differing of opinion? Where
does it come from?
Because it would be very nice if everyone
was on the same page.
It'd be very nice if we had eaten
on the same day.
That'd be the best thing ever.
That'd be ideal. It'd be very nice if
if you don't just pray the same, put
their hands in the right place
or the same place, right place. It depends
on their opinion. But it depends
on,
what you're thinking about the salah. It'd be
very nice, for example, if, you know, people
fasted in the same day in Ramadan. It
would be really nice if all these things
happened.
But why is it different?
Some of these differing, they go back to
the time of the of the companions.
It's not a case of, okay, we just
need to choose one thing and that's it.
Get rid of everything else. No. You're limiting
something which was
which is part of Islamic knowledge from the
time of the companions. There's always a wisdom
behind these differing opinions sometimes, depending on the
time and place,
where the Muslims are. Some things, you know,
and some circumstances
might,
necessitate for certain rulings to be adopted. So
what caused it differing? The hadith we mentioned,
the banuq u raydah.
Why was there a differing amongst the companions?
Who can tell me? What caused the differing
in the first place?
Interpretation of
interpretation
of the words
of the prophet
So the companions
understood the words of the prophet
in a different way.
The hadith
that were narrated
from the companions to the tabi'in,
from the tabi'in to their students,
depending on the strength of the hadith,
some opinions were accepted, some opinions weren't accepted.
Some scholars considered some narrators to be,
auth,
reliable. Some scholars didn't consider them to be
reliable.
So some hadith will be rejected by some,
and some hadith wouldn't be rejected by some,
and they'll be accepted.
For example,
different,
principles
of fiqh, which some scholars took and some
scholars didn't take,
or Suru al fiqh.
So in Mamadik, for example,
we know that there are 4 established
ways
of understanding
the religion,
4 evidences that we can take. Anyone know
what they are?
First 2 are easy.
Quran and sunnah.
Ijma?
Yeah.
Ijma,
Quran, sunnah, Ijma, in that order.
Quran, then the sunnah.
Is consensus of the scholars.
Meaning if there's consensus of the scholars and
everyone agrees on a specific topic,
then,
you don't need an an ayah in the
Quran.
Because the messenger of Allah
said, My ummah never ever unites upon misguidance.
Meaning if they've all united upon something and
they've all said this is permissible,
then it's permissible.
Because they've all said it.
It's the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam. Qiyas is when you it's called
analogy.
For example,
there's an intoxicant.
Cannabis is an intoxicant. It wasn't in in
the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, but it intoxicates.
So you take qiyas, you do qiyas of
cannabis with
with alcohol. That's called qiyas,
something from the time of the prophet which
has the same ruling.
So scholars would have other evidences that they
would use. Imam Malik, he would say that
the actions of the people of Medina is
also an evidence
because he was from Medina.
And he would say this is the this
is the the land of the Sahaba.
This is where everyone came. Who do we
have here? It's the,
students and
the students of the students of the Sahaba,
all living in Medina.
So if they have an opinion, we'll accept
that opinion
because they're from Medina. This was his opinion.
This was his perspective.
And then you have interpretation, as the brother
mentioned, on
what the what the prophet
said or what he meant.
The Arabic language
is very detailed.
When Allah says in the Quran,
about
when to perform tayammum, Allah says,
or you touch women.
Some of the scholars, they said this literally
means
if you touch a woman, then your wudu
is invalid.
Because what does the ayah say?
To the word lems literally means
to touch.
Other scholars, they said, it doesn't mean literally
touch. It means
relationships
with a woman,
being intimate with the opposite gender, with one
spouse. That's what it means. That's what's understood
by the majority.
But there is a differing of opinion amongst
the scholars.
So the point is here, brothers and sisters,
you have this differing amongst the scholars and
you have this issue, and it's important to
understand this. Our goal with regards to what
we're going to be covering in fiqh by
the permission of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is that we are going to go through
the topics of fiqh, and it may be
the case I might mention an opinion,
and you might have heard something else.
And it may be the case that I
might say
a specific opinion,
and you may have you may be following
with another opinion.
Maybe you don't know where you got the
opinion from.
K. Maybe you read it somewhere. Maybe you've
heard it somewhere. Maybe you learned from somebody
else.
And
most likely,
Allah knows best, it it may be a
valid opinion
of that scholar.
And
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran,
ask the people of knowledge
if you don't know.
And
if you're in a position where you're unable
to understand the Quran, you're unable to understand
hadith, you're unable to understand
the Islamic,
evidences
by yourself
because of just of lack of knowledge, then
you have to depend on scholars.
And
if you approached a scholar and they gave
you an answer,
then you should trust them enough,
because you went to them in the 1st
place, to accept their
answer to your question.
The problem nowadays is people, like, take an
opinion,
and they're like, yeah. I don't know. It's
not
sounds a bit too hard. I think there
must be an easier way out. Let me
ask somebody else. And you got another Masjid.
You go somewhere else, and he goes the
same answer. You're like, oh, no. Just there
must be another opinion out there somewhere.
Must be some random
Shahid opinion that no one else has. Go
to another Masjid or go to another person,
and he goes maybe he's not even well
known or that knowledgeable. He's just thinking maybe
he'll give me something good, something I could
maybe follow. It's easier. He gives you another
opinion like, yes, finally.
So, you know, Islamically, we shouldn't be going
around looking, you know,
shopping. We don't go around looking for something
which is the easiest thing to follow.
I mean, you went to a scholar first
and foremost asking him. You went to him
because you trust him. That's the whole point.
And, you know, sometimes,
a teacher or a scholar is approached by
somebody who's asking a question,
and the teacher will ask him,
have you asked anybody this question before? He
will say, you have already asked somebody else.
Then there's no need for you to ask
to another another person then. Teacher will say,
you don't need to ask me because if
I give you another opinion, what are you
going to do?
And this is a common thing, isn't it?
You you go to one person and you
ask him a question, he gives you an
answer. You're like, let me get a second
opinion.
But it's gonna make matters worse. You're gonna
be more confused.
You're gonna have 3 or 4 opinions, then
you're gonna be going to a 5th person
and saying, I don't know which opinion to
follow now.
So it's like when you go to a
doctor.
You know, you trust your doctor.
Another person will say, you know, maybe you
should go. I don't my doctor said this.
Well, then you say, well, that's my doctor.
This is why he's giving me any work,
and I'm happy.
It's fine. So it's about
trusting those who you approach. It's about,
asking if a person doesn't have knowledge. As
long as a person is known for his
level of knowledge, he's he's known for his
understanding, he's somebody who is respected in the
community, He's somebody who's qualified,
as as as much as you can,
ascertain and as much as you can, understand
or know, in in that with regards to
that particular person. So, inshallah, we're going to
be,
covering next week,
the
chapters of
water.
So in Islam,
water has been categorized by the scholars. So
it's easier for us to understand which water
we can use for wudu and which water
we can't use for wudu but we can
still use for cooking
and, you know, other things.
And then which water we can't use at
all.
Like, it would be haram.
We can't use some water because of things
which are in the water, for example, or
where the water comes from, etcetera. So the
scholars have spoken about different types of water.
Inshallah, we're speaking about that next week. And
also the states of hadith, which is basically,
in what circumstances
are you in a state of impurity where
you can't pray?
When do you have to do wudu? When
might you have to perform?
In what circumstances? In what situations?
And when am I considered clean so that
I can,
offer my salah and pray to Allah So
inshallah, we're going to be covering that, next
week.
We'll do some questions. Yeah?
So we'll do some questions.
Any questions?
Yes, brother.
Yeah. So we're gonna be going through, a
book by Shekhad Al Mosheki.
Shekhad al Mosheki,
is one of the scholars from Qasim,
Hafidullah,
and he studied with, Sheikh Al Uthamir for
over 15 years.
And, inshallah, we're going to be covering,
his book.
And, of course, the sheikh is, specialized.
His his his specialty is fiqh itself.
And he has a book, called Al Muqtasar
Fili Ibadat, which is in the Arabic language.
Al Muqtasar Fili Ibadat, which means, a summarized
book,
in the in Ibadat, which is an acts
of worship.
So InshaAllah, we'll be we'll be,
loosely
basing these talks on, on that book, InshaAllah.
So any other questions?
Yes, brother.
Yeah.
Yeah. So
that was when he became Khalifa, and some
of the people
apostized.
Okay. I don't see any questions on
here.
There's one question here. How should we go
about accepting differences of opinion and keeping brotherhood
while staying away from bidah? So again,
it's about,
having that level of tolerance that we that
we've mentioned,
being tolerant of one another,
being lenient with one another, having a rifq,
going easy on our brothers and sisters. You
know, when we're at work, for example, and
there's a difference amongst
coworkers,
you know, most of us are quite lenient
and laid back. We're like, yeah, you know,
we let it slide. It's okay. We work
together.
We need to be able to work together.
They might not even be Muslim. They might
not even be Muslim.
So there needs to be a level of
leniency,
some,
level of
being easygoing with, Muslim brothers and sisters. And
with regards to Bidah, you know, if a
person likewise, as we mentioned, knowledge. It's the
importance of having knowledge. And if a person
does fall into bidah, then a person first
of all, if he's aware that that person
is falling into bidah,
depending on who the person is, you approach
him a certain way.
It's not a case of just, you know,
approaching anyone who performs bida in exactly the
same way.
If it's a family member,
okay, who you're very close to,
okay, and he's a good sincere person from
what you know and, again, sincerity is one
of those issues which
we don't know how sincere a person is
or insincere a person is, you'll approach him
a certain way.
If a person is known to commit loads
of acts of of bidah and he's always
saying stuff,
against Ahlus Sunnah, for example. He's always attacking
people.
And then the approach you have against that
with that person is gonna be different.
Then you have everything else in between.
So, again, it depends on who you're speaking
about, what kind of bidah he may be
involved in, his level of understanding and knowledge.
There's lots of factors that, you know, you
have to take into consideration.
So, again, it depends. And, again, you know,
you ask the you ask those who have
knowledge,
and get their advice when it comes to
these kinds of issues, But there should there
should always be a level of tolerance when
it comes to,
the brothers and the sisters.
No more questions? Any more questions here, brother?
Last question.
How do we?
Yeah. So the
the brother's asking about how we reconcile or
how what do we do if we have
an issue where one scholar says this is
haram and another scholar says this is halal.
What do we do in that in that
situation?
As we mentioned, Allah says in the Quran,
ask the people of knowledge. If you don't,
no.
So
a person
should have
some association
or some link
with
his local imam in his local masjid
who is considered to be a righteous person,
somebody who has studied the religion,
somebody who has a level of knowledge where
he's able to answer these questions, somebody who
has experience
when it comes to answering people's questions and
dealing with matters of fiqh and other issues,
somebody who you know, the people know him.
The people are aware of his level of
knowledge. He has respect and love,
from, the Muslim community.
And when you come across an individual like
this, then you know yourself,
whether or not you would feel comfortable asking
this person a question.
And
when you ask people questions
related to Islam, you're asking them because you
have
a level of trust,
with regards to that person and him giving
you the answer which you would take because
you approached him in the first place.
And so that's what I would advise you
to do,
and this
is based on the ayah in the Quran
about asking the people of knowledge.
And with regards to
hearing
the opinions of other scholars,
you know,
we need to also understand, as we've established,
that there will be differing of opinions.
There will be differing of opinions.
But if you have somebody
from your local masjid who is considered to
be a righteous person upon the deen, upon
the Quran and the sunnah, and he's somebody
who is known amongst the people and respected,
and he's somebody who is known to have
knowledge, and the people recognize him as as
a scholar, as an imam, that people, you
know, approach when they have problems and when
they ask questions and he answers them correctly
based on their level of understanding and the
barakam blessing which he may have also been
given, then you ask that person that person
the questions you have.
And whatever you see on social media, you
know, a 2 minute clip about a scholar
giving a different opinion, you know, that's something
which
may have been asked,
to him by somebody in a different circumstance,
maybe in a different country, in different in
a different situation.
And,
you know, sometimes it's based on a case
by case basis where,
certain
rulings
may be halal at times, but then there
may be haram. So
stick to an imam, stick to a scholar,
somebody you trust, somebody you know is known
for his knowledge, and,
you won't be accountable for the mistakes he
makes. Because even if he does make a
mistake,
if he's sincere and that's not something we
can see, he'll be rewarded anyway.
And if you follow that person
and he was wrong, he'll be rewarded, and
you won't be sinful for following him in
the first place.
So it's all good.
There's no problem.
So he'll be rewarded, inshallah, and then you
following him, you won't be accountable. You won't
be sinful.
And the problem with social media, you know,
you see a clip and it's like, oh
my god. Like, I've been doing the wrong
thing for the whole for my whole life.
Like, what am I doing? And then you
realize you you you realize there may be
a difference of opinion on this issue.
But social media really mess messes things up
because you then you start using Google.
Then you open a whole can of worms.
It's like 10 different opinions.
Then I'll okay. Maybe I shouldn't have done
that in the first place.
And Allah knows best.