Abdul Wahab Saleem – Scams and Frauds In The Muslim Community
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the history and use of fraud in the Islam world, including Jesus's overcharging of woman and Felisa Mina's overcharging. They also touch on measuring emotions and the concept of a Teleki market where traders sell products before getting to the market. The importance of being honest and respecting others' privacy is emphasized, as it is a place where one person can buy and sell products, not a place for reflection.AI: Transcript ©
stood out from the relaxed salatu salam ala Rasulillah Hamdu lillahi Hamdan UAF in your ama who you care for your Alma Zita or SallAllahu ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala early he will be here to marine Allahumma Lim Nama and frona on fire now Bhima and limp tena was in our element yesterday morning rubbish really soldering, or silly Emery melissani of boho Kohli or visit near element or visit near element or visit near Alma. Hola, hola. Hola. Hola. Illa manager alta? Huzzah. Hello, I want to tell you I don't hesitant either sheet. So hello. The reality is like if we look around us and we really see the
the Muslim community and we have to call a spade a spade we have to be able to look at our laundry and clean it up as well and think about it. How often is it that you yourself say to yourself that if I have a contractor come in, he's going to be anything but Muslim.
You know that? How many gatherings have we been in? Where we heard that comment? In this very Masjid? We're looking for a person to do something for our basement and the masjid over there. And we said the same thing. Yes, sir. hamdullah we have a Muslim contractor inshallah genuine but the point of the matter is that that's a thought that comes even at the masjid that we're thinking, Should we hire a Muslim contractor? We would like to, but are we going to find an HONEST fear contractor who will do the work? Charge the right price for for it as well. I know someone who's sitting within this Masjid right now, who told me they went to a Muslim contractor. And they charged
them a very high rate. And then they went to someone else. And they charged them a very, very good rate. Okay, another brother as well. Also, from the shoot out of our messages as well said the same thing. I tried everybody. And they did all of the work. And it was not up to standards. So you have to get it redone. So we have to pay the price two times. Why does this have to happen? Why aren't we able to do things? Right? Okay. Why? Because, well, you know, when you're
when you're coming from backgrounds that an allow me to be very, very brave in what I'm about to say, when we're coming from countries which are full of fraud.
It's very hard to get out of that mindset of fraud, where you make the extra $100 by doing something not up to standard, where you make the extra $1,000 by overcharging a person who doesn't really know the prices in the market. Right. And fraud is really all around us. You have mail fraud. You have driver's license flaw fraud, you have health care fraud. A few years ago in the United States, a man Muslim bearded practicing Muslim really was arrested by the FBI for health care, flood fraud. And this fraud was worth I don't know what 50 million US dollars at that time. Something crazy like that. Okay. It was all over the newspapers. It was, you know, I think almost two decades Oh, you
heard about it. There you go. You heard about it. And you know what? It just keeps repeating itself. More fraud, more dishonesty more scamming. And this has to stop. This has to stop. You know, the prophets are sending me told us in a beautiful Hadith.
This is the basis of this whole conversation sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said that men Rashanna, Felisa Mina. Whoever cheats us is not going to be considered from us. This is how serious of a matter this is. The prophets has sent me said In another Hadith, he said I'll make cruel Hadiya to will Fianna to finna. He said plotting deceptive behavior and cheating all of these things lead to the fire. And Abu Bakr Radi Allahu Allah, Allah. And he, Abu Bakr was a very smart individual. And he was a very rich businessman as well. And he had someone working for him. And he heard from this person who would come and bring him money on a regular basis for all the work he's doing for him.
And one day aboubaker started eating some food. And the man said, Do you know what this is? And this is an authentic hadith in Bukhari.
He said, Do you know what this is?
He said, No, what is this? He said that I was doing some work for someone when it was the pre Islamic period
in Jaya Helia and I wasn't good at the job that I was doing.
And he said I cheated the person
and so he gave me money for that job, even though the job was not a very good job anyways, to begin with
Okay, here's what I gave. He gave me this money. So aboubaker took that food out of his stomach, he ended up you know, self inducing vomit, he poked his finger down his throat so he could vomit all of the food out because he doesn't want a morsel of meal to go into his body. That is based on cheating. When you eat food that you've earned the money of from cheating, It's haram for you to eat that food. And that's why the very first verse that was revealed to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam when he went to Medina, these were the first verses revealed to the prophets and syndrome, Allah subhanaw taala revealed where you do little motor 15 Woe to those people who do a form of
cheating, which is basically that and Allah explains what that is Animoto 15, a Lavina erectile or other naseous telephone, those people when they're measuring
their share from other people, they want to get the complete share. But whenever they're measuring for other people, what do they do? They give them a little bit less. This was the very, very first set of verses revealed to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam, just imagine that because throughout the Meccan period, what's happening is during the Meccan period period, the prophets Allah Allahu alayhi, wa Salam is being given guidances related to,
though heat Aqeedah. But as soon as he goes to Medina, the first ruling that is given to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is about cheating. And that's because the people of Medina were known to be cheaters at that time. They were known to be there that way. Why? Because some of them will do this practice. And there was one specific man by the name of Abu Johanna, his name was Mr. Is Kunia cornea was Abu Johanna, this man, what he would do is he would have one skill for anything that he wanted to buy for himself, and another skill for whatever he wanted to sell. Right? You see, generally speaking, weighing measurements, and also, volume was not standardized until very
recently. Okay, even the kg wasn't very standardized up until very, very recently. And then they recently decided to standardize it all over again, as well. So because of that, you would have so many different skills all across the world, sometimes literally, feet 3000 different ways to measure the same
metric or the same term. So if you were to have mood, there will be literally hundreds of different debt. If you were to have a slot, there would literally be hundreds or 1000s of different types of slots. So the kilogram as we know it today is different, what the, you know, whether it'd be the pounds, they're different, because they actually have something that they go back to. So for the most part, you're going to find a very similar skill in the past. That wasn't the case. So he had a method of volume measurement that he would use whenever he wanted to buy for himself and he knew was a little bit more.
And whenever he wanted to sell, he would use the one that was slightly lesser, and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was given these verses, and then the people of Medina stopped and Abbas said, and they till this day now remain the most honest of people in the measurements that they do, whenever they're trying to give and buy from someone. This is a very, very serious sin, so much so that it was for this very purpose for this treacherous behavior that Allah subhanaw taala sent a prophet to a nation, he said, was sent by Allah, Allah azza wa jal to his nation, right? All of the prophets were sent with one message, which is the message of hate, but in addition to the message of
Tawheed each prophet would be sent with another message as well because people would have deviations along with their deviations and Tohei they would have another deviation as well. So one of the the main deviation of the people of your age was that they would trade and they would barter in the wrong way. They would always be treacherous, and they would cheat and that's why she ate when Allah says we're Isla Medina haha I'm sure Eva to Medina, Allah had sent their brother sure eight Allah Colmenar Buddha Allah He said, Oh my people worship Allah. Mala Camila and you don't have any other gods except Allah azza wa jal, the very next message when Athan will soon make yalla with Amazon and
don't share shortchange the measurements whether that be volume or weight as well. So this is a very second message. This is how serious it is the first message that is given to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam when he goes to Medina don't cheat. The other people. There's destruction for those people who cheat.
The second message that she gives after the message of though he does what?
That don't cheat. Cheating is a serious matter.
And the Prophet SAW Selim had actually instated laws as well, even during his time against scammers. You know, sometimes people they pray, generally speaking, scamming frauding, swindling, all of these things are, are basically preying on people's vulnerabilities, right? So, the prophet had instated a law and that was the law of Lucky lava, right? Basically the the law of govern where a person ends up buying something for much higher than the actual market rate of it right. Now, of course, the market prices are also different, right? Sometimes some places may be selling a little bit higher, but if it's substantially higher, some people said about a third of the price, right? If it's very,
very high, such that you're not even in the market anymore. You're basically preying on people people's, you know, vulnerability and their the lack of knowledge they have about the product that you're selling. So at this case, someone said, I was like that person, right? He came to the Prophet to sell them. He said, I always get mixed up in my trades. In my transactions, the Prophet told him to stop. He said, No, I want to continue on. So he said, Okay, go continue on. But whenever you sell, and whenever you buy, the Prophet said either via Hula, hula, but in other traditional the other in other Trichinella piano, right?
All of them come amount of the same meaning, whenever you buy and sell, then say that lucky lava, that I'm not going to be subject to your cheating to me. So if you've cheated me in the sale, then we have to go back and rethink this out all over again. So the Prophet protected the rights of a person who would be cheated and sale. And also the Prophet taught us not to manipulate markets. A lot of the scams that take place is what people that become really rich and really fast. A lot of times it's because of their them preying on people's, you know, vulnerability and the lack of knowledge they have about market prices of different things, right. That's how people end up
becoming overnight millionaires, if they're going around scamming people in other ways they manipulate the market stock markets happen all the time. If you look at any stock, you'll see suddenly the stock peeking and then going back down what's happening there, right.
manipulations the prophets of salaam didn't allow this. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said, or he said that the prophets Allah Allahu alayhi wa salam, he forbade us from an teta la casilla hottub, Louisville as well. He forbade us from from racing to try to get the merchandise before it gets to the marketplace. Because when you raise to try to get the merchandise before he gets to the marketplace, you end up monopolizing the market, you have access to the product nobody else has in the past. Keep in mind, the way the markets are, there are traders coming into a city, they're going to come from a specific location, everybody knows where that is. So they will go to
that place. And they will say, we will buy this off of you go home, someone's already been traveling for 3040 50 hours, and they see a buyer for themselves. They're gonna say, okay, buy it, you know, we're getting profit, but they don't know the market rate for these things. So the Prophet said that this is the concept of a Teleki or a telecoil jelibean, you end up going out side of town to try to get that product before it arrives. Even in the market. Right? Now, this is not an import export, it's a little bit different. You have traders coming into town with their product, you basically tell them, You know what the market is not what you're thinking these days, add a few lines to it as
well. And then you say, well, I'll buy all of this off of you for this price, before you get to the market and see what people would actually be willing to pay for this product. Right? That's a form of manipulation of the market, and the prophets of Allah who it was salam. He forbade this, the Prophet wanted people to be honest, in their transactions. And we know this from the Hadith, in which the prophets of salami said that Al Bejan will hear the two people who are buying and selling, they are given a choice, Madam Yetta, Raka, so long as they don't end up. They don't end up departing, right? If you're sitting in one gathering, and I buy tea from you, or you sell to me, we
have an option to return during that time. This is called Fiat on Mejlis. The prophets of Salaam, he continued, he said for inside the PA if the two people involved in the transaction are honest.
What they Yenna and they clarify everything. They're honest. They're not ambiguous. They're not scamming. They're not hiding important information. They're not fine printing things. They're telling everybody the absolute truth about the sale, the profits and selling them he said in that case, Boudicca Lahoma Phoebe Murphy, Hema, at that moment, Allah azza wa jal puts Baraka in their sails. But if they're not honest, they hide and they're dishonest. We're here but baraka to be back
Hema, in that case, Allah azza wa jal takes away all of the blessings, all of the baraka from their seal as well. So this is the prophets Allah Allahu Allah said limbs way of addressing how a person should be when they're transacting a person of integrity, a person of honesty. And there's another very beautiful Hadith, in which the prophets have said, Let me said that men who will ruin caring that a believer is naive and noble. Now, that doesn't mean he's naive, he gets cheated. It means that he's willing to overlook sometimes, okay? Not naive in a sense that he gets played and cheated. The Prophet was an expert businessman, so was Abaco. So as Irma will help Bob So was with man, all
of them were businessmen.
The Prophet traded for the richest woman in Arabia,
or middle kebab. When he got to Medina, he got into business before that he was poor, I'm going to help up. Early life was all poverty when he got to the opportunity when he got to Medina, now he's with the greater Sahaba. He's with the aristocracy, basically, you can say it like that. He got opportunity capitalize on it, he got into business and became very wealthy. So these are all people who know business. They're not people who don't understand how to handle business. So the naivety that the prophet is talking about over here is not naivety you get cheated, but you're willing to overlook sometimes you don't like you can see this guy is doing you wrong, but it's not enough wrong
for you to argue about. Right? So the Prophet said me no Haroon Kareem Minh is kind of naive in this way, he lets things go get him because he's noval. Welfare Judo Hibbeler in as for the ignoble person, as for the other person, the evil person, he is deceitful and treacherous every opportunity he can get to maximize the profits, he's going to take it through any means necessary because for him, the goal is not to please Allah, the goal is to increase the profits. And sometimes that's a very, very, you know, tough road to go down. Because when you start going down that road, you don't stop. And then people become serial scammers. And then you have people who have millions of dollars
and they get into dubious activity to make those millions into billions, right? So it's a very, very rough road to go down and you don't ever want to go down that road, but you want to go down another road. And this road is the road of a digital Sudoku, the honest traitor, the honest merchant, the prophets of Allah who it was said let me set in a hadith. And this is a debated Hadith in terms of its chain accepted by Timothy and others. The prophets have said let me said a dodgy little Sudoku, el Amin OMA and the beginning of newbiggin also Divina was shahada, that the honest trader, the honest merchant, the trustworthy merchant, he will be with the prophets of God, He will be with the
honest people among the Nation of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and other nations as well, meaning the subject in the most honest people like Abu Bakr, radi, Allahu Allahu wa, shahada, and also, the shahada,
the martyrs, those who have that status, this is the status of an honest merchant, because really, an honest merchant is a very rare commodity in the world. And you want to be that person, and you know, you have to be honest to yourself, and you have to come to a recognition that it's not really about maximizing your profits. It's about standing before Allah azza wa jal, and doing your best within this life. And that's enough, because people that make it very big, oftentimes, they don't end up using most of the money that they made, right, you only need a certain amount of money in life to live this life. Whether you want to live that comfortably, you want to live that, you know,
whatever other way you want, that's up to you, but there's going to be a point in money that after which, you know, you don't really need any more of it. So you don't have to go down the path of treachery in order for you to make that extra buck. Right. You don't have to do that. With honesty, you can make enough money in life that you could potentially become as rich as those people who had dubious activities to get that wealth. That's number one. Number two, you can get enough money to live whatever way you want. Okay? You can do that with honesty. But this way you will have a comfortable life in this dunya and you'll also have Jana afterwards. Because the prophets of salaam
said such people they will be with this a deity and they will be with the prophets of God, the most honest of people and they will also be with the martyr martyrs as well as for the other person. The prophets, Edmund Rashanna, Falaise him and now whoever cheats us He will not be from us.
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