Bilal Assad – Guarding Trusts – Amanah
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AI: Transcript ©
My brothers and sisters, tonight, insha'Allah,
from the book Riyadh Salihim by Imam An
Naww, we cover the topic
guarding
our trusts.
Guarding
our trusts. What does trust mean
in Islam?
Trust, my dear brothers and sisters, means anything
that belongs to someone else that you are
entrusted with to look after.
And a trust also means a responsibility.
A trust is also something that you have
to give back. It's not going to stay
with you, not meant to stay with you
all the time.
And a trust is of course always the
right of others.
The first trust
actually trust is in 2 car 2 parts.
The trust
that is between you and Allah.
They are all your religious obligations
that Allah placed upon us, that's the trust
between us and Allah.
The second type of trust which is even
tougher
when I say tougher, you'll understand why I'm
saying that,
is the trust between
you
and people,
and other creations.
Why is the trust between you and other
creations tougher?
It's not more important than Allah's rights,
god's rights,
but
Allah may forgive,
may pardon,
and Allah is merciful.
Nobody can be more merciful than Allah.
As for human beings,
it's another story.
Especially on the Day of Judgment,
human beings, even animals,
will not give up a single right of
theirs
because they are also destined to what you
and I are destined to.
One single hasana,
one single deed,
may be the difference between them entering paradise
or hellfire on that day.
So not even the child will give up
the right that he his father owes him.
A father or mother will not give up
the right that their child owes them.
A husband,
a wife, no matter how much they love
each other in this world, on the Day
of Judgment,
they cannot afford to give up 1.
So the forgiveness and pardon on the Day
of Judgment between creations
is almost impossible.
Except
whom Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
wills
to soften their hearts on the Day of
Judgment and compensate them
to forgive their brothers and sisters.
That's a far fetched thing which we don't
wanna go to.
Even in this world, people find it difficult
to forgive. So be careful, brothers and sisters,
of the trusts and the rights of people.
I begin with the verse of the Quran
in Surat Al Ahzab
verse
72.
The meaning of its
the translation of its meaning is as follows.
Allah says,
We
as in Allah Himself,
We
offered
the trust to the heavens
and to the earth
and to the mountains,
but they refused
to carry it.
And they were
humbled
and afraid
of doing so.
But then
we found that man
can carry it.
Surely,
he is
wrongdoing
and he is ignorant.
This is this is one of the verses
that it took me a long time in
my life to understand
the meaning of.
And if you look at all the tafsirs,
those of you who research research common commentators
and mufasirum
interpreters,
traditional ones,
you'll find over 40 different takes on this
verse.
Some said that
Allah
brought
the heavens, the skies and the mountains
and the earth to life. And they spoke
to him in the way that he is
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, his will
permits.
And he says, would you
like to carry
the responsibility
of
my religion, the way of life which I'm
going to bestow,
the commands of
commands and prohibitions,
a way of life. Can you carry them?
And if you do them well, I will
reward you. And if you do them bad,
I'll punish you.
And they said, oh no, our Lord. We
cannot carry that. Leave us to be lifeless
beings
as we
are. We'll just do as you command us
to do.
Whatever you credit us for, we'll do that.
We don't want any responsibility. We don't want
rewards. We don't want punishments.
Just do our job and then you perish
us. We don't want this amana, this trust.
Another interpretation,
common one says that it was metaphorical.
Metaphorical meaning Allah is giving us an example
that this trust which you are holding now,
even the heavens,
the earth, the mountains, and all of their
strength
cannot bear it.
But you can.
So metaphorical.
That's another meaning. The closest afseer that I
came to was this,
that
whether Allah brought thee, whether Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala literally told the mountains, earth, and the
heavens to carry the trust, or whether it's
metaphorical, it doesn't really matter. Either way, Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala wills and does what He
wills.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala did not
offer
the humans
to carry this trust. He only offered
the heavens, the earth, and the mountains.
And then Allah says the heavens, the earth
and the mountains were humbled
and they were reduced
to incompatibility.
They're not able
to conform
or capable
or strong enough
or able enough
to carry this strong
and this beautiful
valuable trust.
In other words, I'll give you an example.
Like a computer
that has a certain
capability
of memories of memory.
And if you put a USB or some
drive hard drive into it sorry, a a
mem USB or something to carry more memory
than what the hard drive can take.
Let's say it's 2 terabytes and you try
to load onto it 4 terabytes.
Can the computer carry it all? It can't.
So we say it's not compatible enough. We
need a computer that can take on 4
terabytes.
And that's usually more expensive and valuable, and
more sought after for people who've got very
important and large loads of
heavy work to do that requires a heavier,
stronger, more compatible computer. Isn't that right?
Sometimes you have students if you're a teacher
and you say
there is this medical degree
and it is open to only those who
are capable
of doing it. So we're gonna make you
go through this exam.
And then you find that only 5 out
of a 100 or a 1000 students
qualify.
They find that their capacity and their ability
and their zeal
to carry out this course,
they deserve
it. And if they become doctors and medical
doctors, then they deserve the privilege and the
value. But it also comes with a big
responsibility.
So the meaning of Allah offering the mountains,
the heavens and the earth the trust
meant and then Allah says they were humbled,
they couldn't carry it.
Then Allah says but man, the human
carried it
It doesn't say that Allah offered the human
and says humans,
I offer you to carry this and that
we accept
it The traditional
commentators in mufasirun
said that perhaps Allah
He offered it to Adam our father and
said, Can you carry these laws which I'm
going to bestow upon you and this responsibility?
And if you do well, I will reward
you. And if you do bad, I will
punish you. And Adam alaihis salam took it
and so we took it and inherited it.
This is one interpretation
but again,
it's a little bit,
incompatible with the context of this verse because
Allah does not say then we offered it
to the human. Maybe.
The closest tafsir I heard and read is
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala did not offer
it to the human but rather when Allah
says that man carried it is a form
of praise.
Allah is praising the human
and what the human is capable of doing.
Doesn't Allah say in the Quran, la yukallifullahu
nafsanillawasaha
Allah does not oblige any human or any
person with any obligation more than what they
can bear.
So how would Allah give us something that
even the heavens, mountains, and earth can't bear?
In fact, it meant that the human being
is so valuable,
so capable in three ways.
He or she
has the will power
to make decisions.
You got the intelligence
to make decisions called irada,
able to do and make decisions right or
wrong, willpower.
Number 2,
railm,
knowledge. You are able to learn
and comprehend
more than the mountains and the heavens and
the earth. And number 3, you are able
to carry out responsibilities
and duties
to the best or you can neglect them
and be among the worst.
So this is actually a praise to the
human that you, a human being, are so
capable and so important, so amazing
that this
obligation that I am placing, this trust can
only be with those who can
hold it and look after it, and their
reward is amazing, and their value is amazing.
And that is why Allah, he told the
angels to bow down to our father Adam
and Iblis got jealous. This is why I'll
take what you're giving him.
So Allah says then bow to him, as
I told you, he says no, I'm not
gonna do that. I refuse.
So Allah says, well, you can't carry it,
can you? You failed.
So the privilege
is that we are able to carry the
trust.
And so Allah created us as khalifas which
means vicegerents. We we're on earth and we
carry this trust, we are entrusted with it
and we can deliver it so perfect and
so beautifully. And Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala then
says to us go ahead, build this world,
develop your children, nurture them, raise yourselves, look
after yourselves, carry this trust that I'm giving
you which is the morals, the commands, the
prohibitions,
the teaching people the right,
commanding people stay away from wrong, upholding justice,
upholding fairness, looking after people, donating in charity,
looking after the orphans, and so on and
so on and so on. This is an
amazing trust which Allah
gave us and He only gives it to
those who are privileged.
Then Allah says, Surely humans,
they are ever so unjust and ever so
ignorant. What does that mean? It doesn't mean
that Allah is saying, Take the trust.
Oh, he took it. That's very ignorant and
foolish of him. No, Allah doesn't talk that
way.
Allah says, Man, now man,
while they are capable and have the complete
capacity and the intelligence and the moral compass
that they are born with to do the
right thing,
yet man is ever so oppressive to himself.
He's got gold in his hand, he's got
diamonds in his hand,
and he still uses them
unjustly.
He's got power in his hands and in
his mind, and he uses them unjustly.
He's got all this knowledge and all this
guidance and power that God Allah has given
them and this privilege and he abuses that
privilege.
Jahullah ignorant. What does it mean to be
ignorant? In two ways. It means he does
sometimes he doesn't wanna take a responsibility
and rather remains ignorant
and foolish
or
truly doesn't know but takes on the responsibility
while they are ignorant. So for example, if
I if if someone gives you a responsibility
that's important, and let's say for example you
own a business,
and somebody
wants to invest in your business,
and you are a successful entrepreneur,
you're a developer,
And then they come to you to invest
with you, say, $200,000.
And this person would have worked hard for
it.
And you say, yes, yes, yes. All you're
seeing
is the 200,000
saying wow, here it comes.
Maybe the example of a big developer is
is probably bad because maybe let's let's let's
pump it up a bit. Maybe somebody gave
you $10,000,000
and you are a big developer.
You say $10,000,000. How does a person become
unjust and ignorant in this trust? Number 1,
they use
it unjustly.
They don't give back the returns to the
person.
Instead, they go and use it in places
that that person did not want to invest
in.
For example, if they have an agreement that
this investment goes to this particular product, then
they go and use it to travel the
world
and just
shop around and look at the stores and
talk to other managers and things, and use
that money for trips and holidays and and
things like that in the name of business,
but they know that they are lying and
they're wasting your money.
Or ignorant, meaning they don't know about the
product and they say, give me the money
and they just take it anyway, and whatever
happens, happens.
This is what it means, you are unjust
and ignorant. Any trust and responsibility given, the
person abuses it or deals with it ignorantly
while
showing the other person as if they do
know what they're doing but really they don't.
So Allah is telling us don't take on
a responsibility
ignorantly.
And if you do, learn everything about it
to take on the trust. And number 2,
don't abuse it and deal with it unjustly.
My brothers and sisters, having said this,
trust therefore, as we said, is the trust
between what Allah had given you of obligations.
And it is a takleef, responsibilities
of your
Islam, your deen.
And this is not just to the Muslims,
this is even to all the people, non
Muslims.
But the non Muslim, if they've heard about
the deen correctly and they refuse it, it
means they refuse the trust that God gave
them
of his way of life, the deen, the
religion,
right and wrong, commands and prohibitions, the 5
daily prayers, the fasting of Ramadan, the Hajj,
the word La ilaha
illallah,
the zakat,
all of that.
And then is the trust that people entrust
you with, the rights between you and people,
contracts,
agreements,
promises,
your word,
money. Money is probably the worst thing that
we fall into all the time in in
in betraying our trust. Marriage,
husband's right, wife's right, our children are a
trust,
your prayer is a trust,
your body is a trust.
Basically for a Muslim,
everything in life
that they have control over is a trust.
Our ears are a trust, our
eyes are a trust, our mouth is a
trust, our hands are a trust.
Secrets between people is a trust.
Telling the truth is a trust. Being honest
is a trust.
Studying, you're a student, you have a trust.
You're an employer,
trust? Employee, you have a trust.
We have a trust towards our parents, towards
our neighbors, towards our relatives.
All of these, my dear brothers and sisters,
are in amana. It's a heavy one.
There is a story
that
Imam al Tabari
and also
other historians have narrated from different angles
of narration about a man by the name
of
his name was Uthman ibnutalha.
This man Uthman ibnutalha radhiallahu anhu
was a companion of the prophet, peace be
upon him.
However,
first he was a disbeliever, a polytheist from
among the people who lived in Makkah.
When the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
first entered Makkah and regained
Makkah and the power over Makkah which is
really their home.
He wanted
to pray inside the Kaaba
when he first entered it.
But inside the Kaaba,
there were several
idols, statues still in there. And he did
not want to pray while the statues and
idols were there. He wanted to take them
out and break them.
But someone had the key. In Mecca, it
was known to the Arabs since the beginning
that each tribe
was privileged
with a duty
as part of being custodian over the whole
sacred house, the place. Some of them did
the
feeding and giving water to the Hajj people,
the pilgrimage. And others,
they looked after
their belongings and their
livestock or their camels. And then there are
others,
a family who had the key
to the Kaaba and they were responsible to
keep it clean.
Those were
the people of
Banu Talha,
From the family of Banu Shayba. Two names.
And this man, Uthman ibnu Talha was the
eldest.
So the key was always with the eldest.
And he had the key and he was
still a polytheist.
So the prophet
asked
the narration says he asked
for,
Al Abbas, his uncle
to get him the key.
So he went to Talha,
to to Uthman ibn ut Talha to give
him the key, and Uthman ibn ut Talha
refused.
And he climbed up onto the roof of
the Kaaba
and said,
I'm not giving it. Let everyone see me.
I've got the key.
It's something big to take someone's key from
the Kaaba. They're the custodians all their lives.
So the prophet
asked Ali radiallahu anhu to go and get
it.
He went up onto the roof to Talha,
to, Uthman ibn Talha,
And he said, give me the key to
the Messenger
He said, I will not. He hid it
behind his back
and or probably in the front, and twisted
his arm and took it off him forcefully.
Now this narration up to here
is a bit weak,
but from different angles, different narrators, we say
it's
it becomes,
authentic or
reliable at least.
Then he took the key and brought it
to the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam. From here
on, it's correct.
100%.
Rasul salallahu alaihi wasalam took the key,
and then
Jibril, alaihis salam revealed to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam a verse in the Quran.
What was this verse for the first time
in Surat An Nisa verse 58?
Allah says,
indeed Allah commands you to give back the
trust to its rightful owners.
And when you judge
between people, judge with equity and justice,
Indeed, Allah
constantly reminds you
strongly
to do this.
And indeed, Allah is all hearing
ever so watching.
Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, when he got
this verse, he came out and called for
Usman.
And
he said to Ali alaihi wa sallam, oh,
sorry. Go and give him back the key.
Ariadullah went and gave him the key back
and he said, you came forcefully before
and harshly with your words,
and now you come kind,
lenient,
and generous?
What's going on? It's only been a few
minutes.
He said because Allah has revealed to the
messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam the verse that we
must return the trusts
to its rightful owners.
These are the Muslims who had entered Makkah
and they are the powerful. Nobody could beat
them, they could do anything they want.
But this is the Amana, the trust which
Allah gave us and that is Allah's laws
on earth.
Allah's justice
is a trust with us,
Especially when you're in power and you have
power over a weak person, even if they
are disbelievers,
even if they are the enemy,
if they are not in battle with you,
you cannot oppress them.
So he gave him that key and he
said why would you do that? They said
the verse has come down. He said
this is unbelievable.
Ashadu ana Muhammadan Rasoolullah
I bear witness Muhammad is truly a messenger
of Allah.
He came back as a Muslim
and he himself gave the key to the
prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. From here on,
it's inside Bukhari.
Rasulullah
salam took the key from Uthman,
and he said to him,
Take it, O family lineage of Talha.
This key will stay with you forever.
Nobody will take it away from you except
someone who reject this rejects this face. In
in another verse, faith. Allah he says, la
yan ziaha minkum illa ghwalim. Only an oppressor
will take this off you. Until today, my
dear brothers and sisters,
this key is with the family of Banushaib
Banutalha.
Till today, the same lineage of that family,
just a few
weeks ago, their elder who carried the key
passed away and he passed it on to
his brother, I think.
And they're still carrying even the king of
Saudi
cannot enter the Kaaba unless you call
the elder or a member of that family
to come and open
the Kaaba with his own hand. The key
is still with them. You can Google it.
La
ilaha illallah
Rasul Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said
fulfill the trust
for whoever has entrusted you with something
and do not betray it
and do not even betray a person who
betrays you.
What does that mean? Sometimes
a person betrays you. You trusted them with
something and they
cheated, they betrayed you.
So some people, the shaitan will come to
them and say,
you betray them the same way they betrayed
you.
The answer is no.
The prophet said,
do not betray people's trust. And if someone
betrays you with your trust, don't do the
same. Don't betray them with trust. You are
higher than that.
We don't do that.
Take your right, but don't do the same.
For example,
if a husband cheated on his wife, the
wife does not cheat on her husband
as a as a revenge.
That's not allowed in Islam. Someone stole from
you,
we don't steal from them. But if they
don't give us our right back, in Islam,
you're allowed to go and take what's yours
if it belonged to you, even by force.
And you will not be considered theft if
you take it without their permission.
But to go and and take more than
what is your right is haram.
If anybody betrays a trust, we do not
go and do the same.
We don't do it in opposite.
This is haram. Let them be and you
take your right in another way
and Allah
will not leave someone out. Ta daliyah.
Now put it here.
Alarosu ayna habibi.
Which brings me, my dear brothers and sisters,
to another
important matter.
We all now know about trust to Allah
and trusts
to humans or to others or to creatures.
The trust to Allah. What is the trust
to Allah?
My brothers and sisters, we said there are
obligations
which we have to do.
The 5 daily prayers for example, and so
on. And there are major sins which we
are ordered to stay away from, and then
we repent from them.
The first thing every single Muslim must do
is to learn and apply the obligations of
the religion before anything else.
Number 2, you make it your priority before
anything else.
Once you make your obligations a priority
and you learn about them as your priority,
for example, you learn what zakat is, you
learn what the 5 daily prayers, how they're
done, your fasting, how it's done in Hajj,
and all other obligations, hijab and how it
should be worn, your your,
obligations about your dress and how you should
conduct yourself.
Then, if you want to learn something worldly,
then go ahead. But what you learn worldly
after that becomes your duty to first of
all learn what is the Islamic
guidelines about what you're about to do,
what's halal and haram in the business that
you're gonna do or in the expertise you
wanna go to or the knowledge that you
wanna seek,
and then apply it fully.
Someone asked me today,
I feel bad
that if
I take too much time in learning my
worldly pursuit, I'm learning an
area of business,
when is the karav? What's the limit of
me spending too much time on that when
Allah told me I must learn my religion?
The answer to that is
there is something that it's obligatory again upon
every Muslim,
the 5 daily prayers and so on. Every
one of us must learn that, obligation. Number
2, I said to him, you make your
priority.
So you're learning about your business, you're going
and doing it, you don't abandon your prayers.
They come first. You you have to facilitate.
You're fasting, you facilitate for that. Your halal
food, you facilitate for that. Then you can
spend as much time as you want
in your area of expertise that you choose.
He said, but what shouldn't we be learning
our entire din? Say, no. No. No. This
is called farukkifayyah,
obligation that is that can be done by
someone else,
not everyone.
So some people in Islam, we need the
ulema, the scholars of sharia, of deen, to
teach other people deen. If I want to
be the imam and the preacher and the
teacher, I have to learn my deen well
beyond
the common person because I've taken on responsibility
of teaching. So you come to me to
ask me a question, I need to go
and learn and research and,
also seek knowledge from
my,
scholars and so on. But you don't have
to do that.
You go and learn something else. Some of
you may learn to be doctors, others engineers,
others in business, others in AI, others in
in IT,
others in trade, others in whatever it is
that you do
also serves the Muslim community and serves you.
But learn well about
it. And if for example, if I'm learning
about business, what is halal and what is
haram business? How do I deal with the
money? How do I deal with the people?
What does Allah told me first?
Don't just jump into it and learn only
the legal side.
You gotta learn the Islamic side.
So this is how it works, insha'Allah.
My brothers and sisters,
the Amana, the trust,
can come in the form of people's rights
which is one of the worst because
or the most rewarding.
The wife and husband,
when they get married for example,
they may have conditions and agreements between each
other at the time of marriage.
For example, the wife
says, I want to continue my studies,
or I'm working in a certain area.
And if the husband agrees to that before
marriage and says I wanna continue
in this area in my marriage, during my
marriage, let's say, in the 1st 5 years
or 10 years, or maybe I wanna keep
doing it, and the husband agrees to it,
and then later on after getting married,
1 year down the track says this is
not working out for me,
either you leave it or
divorce,
this is betraying the trust,
might it should go back and say no,
I don't agree to it, be clear from
the beginning.
You might be shocked at this answer but
this is a trust so long as it's
something halalayani, not harang.
A husband may have his conditions at the
time of marriage and you talk about it,
the wife fulfils it. There are trusts between
them and rights,
We have to fulfill them.
Someone says, I will I want a place
to live on my own.
The wife may say, I don't wanna live
with your mother, for example.
The husband says, Look, let's live for the
1st 2 years, and then after 2 years
when we have our first baby we'll go
and get our own home.
2 years passes, they have a baby, and
the next 7 to 10 years
he doesn't move out.
And he's able and capable.
The woman is stuck.
She can't get out, she can't leave the
marriage. This is betraying the trust.
You're a business person and you have employees.
And you promise to pay a certain amount
to these employees, but then you delay the
payment deliberately,
cut off their payments unfairly,
overwork them
beyond what you agreed on.
All of this is betraying the trust.
You're an employee,
and you agreed to a contract.
And then after you start being an employee,
it says start at 8 AM, you come
at 10 AM, for example. Or you're always
late for no good reason.
This is betraying the trust.
And that money that a person takes
going against their contract,
if the employee does not, the employer does
not forgive them and let them go, on
the day of judgement Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
is going to judge you for that wealth.
Some scholars use the hadith saying that the
unlawful wealth,
a person will be ironed with it on
the day of judgement.
Sounds harsh but this is how important trust
is, my brothers and sisters. And it will
lift your status, by the way, with Allah
and in his dunya.
You go into
a partnership deal
and you say we're going partners in this
business.
Next minute, after a few years, the brother
comes back or the sister and says we
were partners and you and they find out
that the entire business is in their name.
And they say legally it's in my name.
You got nothing with me. Just take this.
Betraying the trust. And most of the betrayal
of trust, by the way, brothers and sisters,
happens when it comes to money businesses between
people.
Most of it.
Allah says in the Quran,
Many of the people who enter into business
deals and money transactions
and partnerships,
many of them,
they oppress the other, they abuse the other,
they transgress the boundaries and the contract. Illa
marahimra, only a few don't do that.
Sometimes families, you see 2 brothers, they enter
in partnership, they love each other, 5 years
down they track their biggest enemies.
Business deals and contracts.
We can talk on and on about that.
A person is contracted to do a job
at a house, for example, or a garden,
or a business, or a company,
or a building, or
some kind of other service, whatever it is,
the service, teaching,
writing,
setting up a website,
looking after a horse ranch, looking after sheep,
whatever it is the person is doing, even
babysitting,
anything.
And then a person
does a cheap job.
They put cheap material, for example, when the
agreement was something else in order to save
money to make more profit.
They guarantee 10 years, after 2 years there's
problems.
Cutting corners.
Wallahi, this is a big betrayal of the
trust.
And that money,
there is the threat from Allah
that their
sides will be ironed with their own day
of judgement. It's haram money.
A person comes and invests with you,
and you go and use that money in
ways
personally
and waste half of it and then come
back and lie?
Allah, this is the prophet. Allah knows. Maybe
the other person can be tricked, but Allah
knows.
Do you think Allah is gonna let that
one go? We may get we may we
may we may trick each other in this
world, but on a day of judgment, we're
stuck.
A person
may have children
and the children are in our manna. They
are a trust, one of the biggest trusts.
We abandon them, we neglect them, their knowledge,
their education, their deen, their clothing,
their, nurturing.
Again,
if we're deliberate in neglecting them I know
that sometimes parents, they have trouble
with their children, especially if they're teenagers. They
get stubborn, they don't wanna listen, they argue.
You're trying your
best. If you can't get at all, you're
trying your best. That's not something for parents
to be blamed about, in the best way
that they can.
But the children become stubborn, rebellious, it's not
your fault, but at least you're trying, you're
doing something.
Children,
your parents are a trust.
Your children didn't belong to you, they belong
to Allah and they were given to you.
Your parents don't belong to you, they were
given to you by Allah.
They're a trust for a little time being.
You rebel against them, you abuse them, you
yell at them, you shout at them.
You're betraying your trust with your parents, and
you're betraying your trust with your lineage.
Of course,
we're we're talking about majority cases.
Abuse
is
a break of the trust.
A parent calls their children
constantly derogative names,
foul names.
This is betrayal of Allah's trust.
A child calls their parents foul names. They
backbite them. They talk about them. This is
a betrayal of the trust. Secrets between people
is a trust.
If a friend or a person, anybody, doesn't
have to be a friend, anybody tells you
a secret
about themselves
or something that is theirs
and then
I go and tell others about that secret,
it's a betrayal of the trust.
If I'm sitting with a group of people
and they talk about something that they say
keep it between us,
It's not the right of anyone else, just
keep it between something that involves the the
group. And then you go and tell someone
else what was spoken about. That's a betrayal
of the trust.
All of these are mentioned in the Quran
and hadith, so I don't have to go
through them all.
My brothers and sisters,
people get divorced.
They come in lovey dovey.
The mahar, they say, you Allah, it doesn't
matter. Give give anything. We're good. I hear
it all the time. Parents come in, they
say, look, brother, money is nothing.
Samanas is good and then they live together
and she's good.
She says money is nothing, doesn't matter, whatever.
Divorce happens.
What happens then?
They wanna take the money,
the jewelry,
the house,
their life,
the children,
their clothes, their underwear,
everything.
Babe, you don't need the underwear. I don't
care. I want them to suffer.
Heck.
They deserve it.
Revenge.
Some of them teach their children against their
other parent.
And some of them do it passively. Now
I didn't teach my children against their father
or their mother.
But when they're on the phone,
loudly the entire house shakes like an earthquake.
She's like this, he's like that. The entire
children are listening. You're manipulating them. That's a
betrayal of the trust. You are teaching them.
They wanna go to wherever means the Ikhin.
Go to the masheikh. No.
I I got from the mashaikh the sheikh
this much
but I heard that in the legal system
I'm able to leverage.
I can do things where I can get
more. It's not your right. I don't care.
He deserves it.
He cheated on me. He deserves it.
So I'm gonna make him pay.
She treated me like this or like that.
I'm gonna make her pay.
I spent on the wedding when I first
got married. I shouldn't have spent all that.
Then they go back into the past.
What's that got to do with now?
Allah says in the Quran,
Do not let your hatred or enmity of
a people
swerve you away from justice.
No. Be just and fair.
So, my brothers, sometimes a person betrays the
trust of the knowledge which Allah gave them.
The knowledge of the deen is even worse
when they give and talk about deen without
knowledge.
Many people are very courageous
and brave to give fatwas left, right, and
center when they don't know even the Arabic
language. Give fatwa, yalla.
Or sometimes they give you half a fatwa.
They look at what suits me better. I
heard the sheikh say 1, 2, 3, 4,
5. I only tell them 4 and 5.
I don't tell them 1, 2, 3.
Sometimes
you may
see a clip of some sheikh that speaks
about
a number of cases,
And then I look at one little point
that he or she made, and I say,
that suits me.
And then I'll go and
repost it to make a point for myself.
But if I if I had shown the
other points, it wouldn't be too much in
my favor. It'll be balanced.
We do that all the time. This is
betraying the trust which Allah gave us, his
deen, his knowledge.
Sometimes a person may speak a hadith or
an ayah in the Quran, not sure about
whether it's authentic or not, doesn't know what
they are saying,
doesn't care, and then just says it anyway.
And if you come to correct them, they
say, no. My father said it. I heard
my,
you know, that's what I think.
They interpret things there and say, they're stubborn.
This is betrayal of Allah's trust, the deen
of Allah. And, you know, one of the
there are hadith that are called mutawatir.
Mutawatir
are the strongest types of hadith that you
can come across. Mutawatir means a large
group of companions altogether.
3 or more,
or 10 or 50, they all heard it
at once, and they all passed it on
to others, and so it became
a massive population
who heard this hadith called mutawatir. There's only
a few of them.
And among them
is this one, mankadabaalayamutaammidanfaliataabaawatmalqadahuminannar.
Whoever deliberately
deliberately
makes a false statement on my tongue, on
the tongue of the prophet,
then let him reserve his place in hellfire.
Deliberately.
If a person makes a mistake, that's not
deliberate.
We've all said,
a hadith here and there that ended up
being weak or fabricated and we never knew.
So long as it wasn't deliberate, but we
correct it.
But to be deliberate like that or to
constantly not care, just say whatever comes to
your mouth about the deen just because you
heard
is a betrayal of the trust of the
deen.
To teach knowledge that you're not someone comes
and asks you for advice.
And you
maybe I might have something against you.
So I take this opportunity to give you
bad advice
deliberately because I want to take you off
track.
Let's say I have a plan
to a project of some sort. And you
come to me, and you don't know that
I have this plan,
and then I find that you have the
same plan.
So you come to me for advice because
you trust me and I think, Man, I
better not advise him because then I won't
be able to do it. You know what?
I'll advise him something else so that he
can fail because I want my business to
be the one.
I want my name
and I'll go and do bad advertisement or
I'll advise them to do something that makes
them lose.
1 brother was once
at a house auction
and he saw a large number of people
also bidding.
The only people who came to this brother,
he told me, the only people who came
to this brother
to turn him off buying it
are another group of Muslims.
They came up and said
That house across the road, their bad neighbours
I heard, don't buy it.
Next minute
they're bidding on it as well.
They're bad shape on it.
They're bidding and they're outbidding.
But we thought the neighbors were bad. And
you know what? In the end, some Asian
dude bought it.
Like 4 times more than its price.
That person walks away betraying the trust.
They have to answer to Allah unless they
seek their forgiveness.
Didn't get the house,
humiliated themselves,
and betrayed the trust.
So that's another form of betraying the trust.
The trust can also be
in the form of actions.
And I might come and appear religious to
you, but inside of me, I don't even
believe in anything. Or I don't even believe
in what I'm doing. I'm just showing it
off. That's betraying the trust of the deen.
Which brings me to this hadith of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, 3
types of people on the day of judgment,
I will be their opponent.
Hadith is in Bukhari. I will be an
opponent, Ras al Salam said. To 3 types
of people and if I am their opponent,
I will beat them in the argument. I
will be right, I'll be wrong surely if
I am their opponent. Ras al Salam does
not wanna be the opponent of anybody. At
least 3, he says, I will be their
opponent on the day of judgement. Number 1.
A person
A person who swears an oath
by Allah
swears an oath by Allah on a lie
in order to deceive the people. For example,
they swear an oath on a product to
sell them. They swear an oath on a
lie about the car that they sold. They
swear an oath on a, address that they
sold. They swear an oath about even a
cup that they sold. Wallahi, a pen that
they sold. If they lie and they swear
by Allah's name while they know they're lying
just to sell it or to take advantage
or to leverage or to take advantage of
people,
their time,
their efforts, their money, their whatever,
and uses Allah's name as well,
you're an opponent of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam and jajma, an opponent of Allah.
Even lying without swearing an oath is a
major sin.
The second person doesn't really apply to us,
it happened in the past, when they used
to have
slaves.
And Rasool alaih sallam said, and a person
who grabs a free person and acts like
they're their slaves, so they're prisoners and then
sells them in the market,
that's similar
to stealing something that doesn't belong to you
and then you sell it.
That is you'll be the opponent of Allah
and the Messenger. And lastly,
and a person who hires
someone to do a job,
and that person finishes the job but does
not give them
what they promised, doesn't pay them.
Rasool salawal will be their opponent.
And how many people do that these days?
My brothers and sisters, Rasool salawal praises a
businessman for example or a tradesperson or anybody
who does honest business with people, he says,
attajr sadukul ameen ma'annabiyeena
was subdiqeena was shuhada.
The honest, trustworthy merchant
will be on the Day of Judgment
in the ranks,
standing with the ranks of the prophets,
the siddiqeen,
the most honest of all was shuhada and
the martyrs.
Narrated by Tirmiti.
He also said sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the
martyrs
all their sins are forgiven
the martyrs
except for the trusts
which they betrayed
people's rights
they stole something they betrayed they owe someone
something they didn't give it back they borrowed
money
Gyani. It's
say someone
lent you money
to return it after,
you know, 1 year.
1 year arrives
and you've got the money
but then you think,
there's an opportunity
to buy that house over there.
But that money I owe, if I give
it back
I won't catch this investment.
So then I tell you,
brother, give me some time, you know, I
haven't got the money, I'm not able
I'm lying to you.
And then you give me time, I've betrayed
the trust or I just ignore you.
And then my my child will come up,
for example, and say
dad, it's,
it's that it's it's brother Muhammad. He he's
on the phone.
And I say tell them I'm not here.
Remember Baba Talifun?
That nasheed? Baba Talifun,
Dad, if someone's on the phone, tell them
I'm not here.
Dad says he's not here.
Or I see him in a market, I
avoid him. He He goes to that mosque,
I'll go to another mosque.
Why? Because I owe him money. That's betrayal
of the trust.
Farasul salallahu alaihi wa sallam, he said, The
martyrs, everything is forgiven for them except for
the owing of the rights of people on
the day of judgement.
And then he said
that on the Day of Judgement you will
be told to that person who owed a
trust, Give back the trust. And the person
will say, My Lord, how can I give
back the trust when the world is over
and everything is destroyed and I don't have
anything today? It's the day of judgement.
And it will be said to him or
her,
Oh yes, your trust has been recreated.
Because where is it? I'll give it back
right now. And it'll be said to him
or her, It's at the bottom of the
fire.
Go down and get it, and return it
to its rightful owner. The person will go
down to the bottom of the fire, carry
it on their back, as they're rising it
falls back and they have to go back
down and get it up and down until
their punishment is over.
May Allah save us from that depending on
how big this trust is. Rasool salaam told
us that I forgot the the meaning but
something even so small and insignificant
to us,
you know, I can tell you even if
it was a pen,
unless you seek forgiveness from that person.
Final thoughts that I wanna give you
is this
Rasool SAW HAWSAW, he told us,
Hypocrites,
hypocrites at the time of the Prophet, peace
be upon him,
were a new
movement
of people
who wanted to conspire against the Muslim
community
by helping the enemy to destroy them in
secret.
So they were spies and what they did
was they came up with an idea of
appearing,
talking, and acting like as if they are
Muslim.
But they are actually disbelievers. They're real disbelievers.
They're not Muslim. But they acted in order
to bring news like spies to the disbelievers
to conspire. They were called Munafiqoon.
And they were the worst among all the
people of the world. Till today, Allah says
these munafiqun will be in the lowest part
of hellfire, even worse than the murderers and
the rapists and the,
Iblis and shaitan himself because they are the
cause of all these atrocities,
the Munafiqun.
They cause the murdering and the *, the
stealing and the theft and the killing and
everything.
So Rasool didn't know who they were
until Allah would tell him.
It's very hard to point them out, nobody
knew.
The worst enemy is the one who comes
and acts like he's your family, your brother,
lives inside your own house and they're conspiring
and you don't know that they are actually
spies.
That's the worst. Your enemy who's open, you
know that they're your enemy. You know what
to tell to deal with them. But I'm
an afit, they're hypocrite. So those are the
true hypocrites. Now
the
companions say, You Rasoolah, how will we know
them?
And so he used to say they have
some signs that appear on the outside.
And among the signs he says, 3. And
another hadith says, 4. The first one he
said,
when he speaks,
he's always lying,
always makes up stuff.
So he's a liar, constantly lying.
Tells you fake stories, tells you fake news,
lying.
Because a hypocrite
is number 1, a coward
and afraid.
Afraid to be known and a coward to
show that he's a disbeliever. So he lies
in his speech so that you don't catch
him out.
So if it serves him to constantly lie
in this, we're always making up stories, their
name, their lineage, everything about them. Any story
they'll lie.
Number 2, he said there's sign
whenever He promises you something,
He doesn't fulfill the promise.
Always have a habit,
doesn't makes an appointment with you, I'll see
you at 5.
Mafila, 5, no 5, no 6, nothing. And
you take your time off, you go and
meet at that place at 5.
The person's completely forgot you. Call in the
next day at 5 at Fajr, says I'm
sorry, brother, Anin lies to you again.
Always
breaks their promise.
Waydahtuminahan
If you entrust them with anything
money,
car,
children,
service,
job,
secret,
anything,
they always betray the trust. They have a
habit of betraying the trust.
Brother, you borrowed my car and we had
an agreement.
Yeah, but I paid you, you hired it
to me. Yeah, but we agreed that you
return it back with petrol. We agreed that
you clean it like I gave it to
you. We agreed you don't thrash it. We
agreed, we agreed.
I said, shut up man, it's from the
Shaipan, get out of here.
Shohei that he betrayed the trust, what's that?
Brother, I I I
you rented the house off me.
We had an agreement of
come back, the walls are broken, and they've
run off.
No. These are all part of betraying the
trust. The munafi, the hypocrites used to always
do that.
Any trust you give them, they never and
sometimes they even deny it. And a 4th
one is if they make a contract with
you, they always break
the contract.
They always,
you know, they don't fulfill and then they
make up stories and they'll fight you and
take you to court on false lies and
accusations and everything.
So these are some of the signs of
the true hypocrites at the time of the
Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. The Prophet Sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam said, if anyone has one
of these traits and they're continuous in that
person,
then they will always have a trait of
a hypocrite. They're not hypocrites,
but they have a trait of a hypocrite.
Example, if somebody
stole once, we don't call them a thief,
but we say they stole. But if they
constantly steal, they're a thief. A person lied
once, we don't call them a liar. But
if they're constantly lying, obsessive,
compulsive liar, he's a liar
and so on. So a hypocrite, you can
have a trait of hypocrisy
or you're a hypocrite altogether.
In another hadith, he says, whoever has all
these traits
as a normal trait, then they are hypocrites.
Bahuwahal al sunnifak.
He's a complete hypocrite. Still a Muslim,
but a hypocrite, meaning we'll be gathered with
the hypocrites.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala save us from
the hadithis and saying Muslim and others.
How can you tell
if you're a hypocrite
or a sinner or not?
One brother today said to me, how can
I tell? If I go to pray
at the mosque I find myself improving my
prayers.
And I go back home and I start
questioning myself. Did you do the right thing?
Were you a hypocrite?
Or were you showing off?
Or I do another act at times if
good people are around me, I do it
better.
The answer to that is
if your heart feels comfortable with it,
then it's hypocrisy.
It's a sin.
But if your heart does not feel comfortable,
then Insha'Allah you are not a hypocrite. Example.
If I come and pray in front of
you,
and I improve my prayer in the mosque,
and I feel uncomfortable with this feeling that
I made my prayer better because usually I
don't do it that good, and I question
myself, did you do it for the people
or did you really do it for Allah?
I'm uncomfortable with that.
That means insha'Allah it's a good sign.
But if I don't care and I feel
comfortable, yeah people looking at me, I'm happy
about that. I'll give you an example.
Let's say you want to marry
this particular person,
particular sister,
and you heard that their father goes to
the mosque
and at Preston Mosque, he looks around, if
he sees a person there, he likes a
person who comes to the mosque and more
likely
he will encourage his daughter. So this person
says, yeah, I'll go to Preston Mosque.
Normally it doesn't go there but starts going
there to impress the father.
What do you think?
That's a sign of hypocrisy. You're not doing
it for the sake of Allah.
Now if after that you say, You know
what? I've been to the mosque. Wow. I
never imagined what I've been missing out on.
And then you change your intention, you say,
I like going to the mosque now. Not
because of the father, not because of the
girl, not because of the boy, nothing.
Then Insha'Allah,
it would have been a reason for your
guidance Insha'Allah.
And so on. So many different examples.
So Rasool alaihi wasalam said what is sin?
A sin
is what
scratches at your conscience
and you would hate people to know about
it. So some people,
they don't care,
but inside this conscious mind, they know they're
doing the wrong thing, but they continue to
do it.
That is what a sin is.
I everyone knows themself.
Everyone knows themself.
Now you might say but I'm not comfortable
with that. No. No. You are. See, if
a person knows in their conscious it's wrong
and they keep hiding it and saying, I
don't care. I don't care. I'm enjoying this,
then you're comfortable with it.
But your conscious won't lie to
you. And that is a trust. Finally, brothers
and sisters, I bring you this hadith of
the prophet
where he said towards the end of time
I'll just summarize it. Towards the end of
time, as time goes on from the time
the prophet
died until he said towards the end of
time,
you will find that generations and people among
the believers, Yani, among the Ummah, and in
general in the world.
They sleep and wake up, sleep and wake
up, you know, as if saying generation after
generation.
Their hearts are clean and sincere and then
they become
murky.
And then the next generations that come, the
hearts become
harder or darker.
And then finally, Rasulullah Salaam had a piece
of rock
on his,
leg and he rolled it down. And he
says, and then the hearts just leave you
and they become worthless. Meaning,
he said,
the amana, the trust is completely lost
and people become fake
everywhere you go.
This is a hadith of Surah al Salam
in Sahib Bukhari and Muslim.
He then took a pebble
and rolled it over his foot and said
the people would enter into transactions with one
another
and hardly a person would be left
who would return things entrusted to him. And
they would look like and they would look
like honest an honest person
till it will be said,
in such and such tribe, there is a
trustworthy man.
Meaning, people won't be used to trustworthy people
anymore. And when I hear about one trustworthy
person who did a job right, who is
honest with,
customers, who is honest with you, who is
honest in partnership, who is honest in deals,
they can be counted.
There's not many of them left, he said,
salallahu alaihi wa sallam. To the point that
when you do find them, people will talk
and say, Wallah, there's a person who's trustworthy
there. It's like a catch.
Wallah, there are good men around for marriage.
There are good sisters around from where are
they? Where are they? It's a catch.
Becomes a catch.
Employees, hard to find trustworthy ones. They all
they all betray you. It's hard to find
a trustworthy person, also, as salam, said. And
then he said, and they would also say
about a person how prudent he is, how
handsome he is, and how intelligent he is
whereas in his heart there would be no
grain of faith.
Meaning that people will become
masters
at being fake
and fraudulent
and appear
other than what they really are.
What do I mean by that? It means
people truly
just are using other people, making themselves something
that they are not in order to earn
profit, business, fame, fortune. It happens all over
social media now.
All over social media.
What do we do about it? Monitor myself.
At the end of the day, Allah will
ask me, He won't ask me about the
other people.
I show what I give in donations, I
show what I do in salat, I show
how lovely my voice is, I show how
much I know, I show my,
you know, how honest I am. I show,
I show, I show, but really, in my
heart, there's not a grain of faith, I'm
lying to you.
If you dare come and do business with
me, you're doomed.
But just for show.
I sell you a product and I make
it look like it's amazing. When you come
to buy it, it's nothing, it's average.
That's a lie.
The prophet, peace be upon him, said the
hypocrite, when he speaks, he lies.
I'll give you an example of lying. What
is lying in Islam? What is lying?
Lying is when you say something to someone
and in your heart, you don't believe it.
You don't believe it. Example.
You ask me,
where is Saad?
And I say to you
he's overseas.
But I'm not sure that he's overseas.
I doubt that he is. I think he
may be here. But I tell you he's
overseas.
Even if it's true, end up being true.
Later on, you go and ask about sad
and you find that he really is overseas.
But did I lie or did I tell
the truth?
I lied.
It doesn't matter about the reality.
I knew or I had doubted he was
overseas, but I lied.
It's a lie. That is the real definition
of lying.
Now apply it to everything else
and all the justifications people use, their dirty,
shifty justifications.
It takes experience
for people to work with people to understand
who's shifty and who's not.
Sometimes they do passive lying like this.
Let's say
I knew
that you were in hospital
or you were in prison
or you were in an accident or you
were in trouble. I knew the whole details.
And then when I see you,
I act like I don't know.
And I say, Wow, it's been months, I
haven't seen you. Where have you been, subhanAllah?
I've missed you. Wallah, where have you been?
And then they'll say to you, Wallah, I
was in hospital. SubhanAllah, where are you, Wallah,
the Muslim? May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, tell
me about and you know the whole details.
Allah was in prison,
subhanAllah, and I would've probably talked about you
big time and now I'm kinda acting like
I don't know.
That is classified as a lie. Do you
know did you know that it's passive? It's
silent lie.
And usually people why why is it so
bad? Because that's the way to take advantage
of people if you are leveraging off it
or you want to take advantage, it's a
it's a cunning way of taking advantage of
people if there is something out of it.
So a Muslim is sadok,
is honest.
Now, of course, situations where we need to
lie, where our life is at stake or
there is big danger
or there is to avoid harm of some
sort and I won't harm anyone else by
doing so. The scholars, they said, in very
rare cases a person can lie to if
there is danger.
But other than that
or lying to avoid harm from people
or causing harm to others.
That's okay. Or you can also lie lightly
to reconcile between people. But that
is a very tricky one.
You know, I can come up to you
and say
let's say I know that you're upset or
you're having a fight with someone, I say,
well, love, brother, they said good things about
you.
Honestly they said good things about you. And
maybe they didn't. And I go to the
other person and say, You know what? I
was talking the other day with this person,
he said good things about you. I'm allowed
to lie if it's going to work to
reconcile them. But don't go overboard with it.
Be very careful. You don't know how to
use it, don't use it.
If I'm a counselor
and you tell me things I go and
tell friends, I say, you know, so and
so, they're having fights, him and his wife.
I've betrayed the trust.
And if somebody asks me,
I am not allowed to say anything.
Can I lie? No. I just say this
is none of your business.
My brothers and sisters, as you can see,
trust is a big, big, big thing. And
in our religion,
it is part of all our life.
And Muslims should be honest as much as
they can
in all their life.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
save us from being untrustworthy
people. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala help us
to
train ourselves to be honest people. And one
of the best ways, brothers and sisters, to
always remember
is that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will ask
you about it. And you cannot run away
from it. And that being honest and trustworthy
and coming clean is better for you and
me and a happier life
and a more
straightforward life,
less stress for you insha'Allah
and people
actually will love you more and trust you
more.
And on the contrary,
your life actually becomes better
for lying only leads to a bigger hole.
I ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to forgive
our sins and to bless our children. May
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala bless us and forgive
our shortcomings. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala help
us in mending our hearts and help us
in our reconciliation
between
those whom we are supposed to reconcile with.
May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
save and protect our brothers and sisters in
Palestine,
in and everywhere around the world the way
they are suffering, Bangladesh and other places. May
Allah
preserve them and lift the oppression and unite
this Ummah. Aminu Sallallahu Alaihi wa
RahbilaAAalameen.