Bilal Philips – Duties Of A Muslim
AI: Summary ©
The speakers emphasize the importance of worshiping God, following the Prophet Muhammad's teachings, avoiding evil behavior, rules of Islam, big differences in society, and following the legal process of divorce. They stress individual responsibility and unity in Islam, avoiding touching animals, and using wealth to cover bases and avoid damaging health. The reform movement in religion is focused on rewriting the Bible and bringing back the original teachings of Jesus, but it is unclear what it means for divorce. The annual birthdays in the holy month are discussed, with one mentioning that the day is not always the same, and cultural significance of Easter is addressed.
AI: Summary ©
For the first time in
a long time, we have people from both sides whether they believe it or not.
I remember when we were the CO hosts recommended to some people that it was said that in the Gold Coast as Muslims, we could come together but can in Brisbane we could not. And I'm glad that at least we have some participation in Brisbane from both sides.
It is normal to begin any talk any session where Muslims are together to start with the reciting of the Quran, which Allah for that reason I call upon
Ashraf to come and recite a short
d mu
d
you
holy
cow
yeah
Can john hurry back
when
in this
in this seminar
the last part of it is those that a lot of guys have right, none can misguide those that Allah misguide, none can guide.
It is instructive that the speaker, the scholar that we have for tonight, brother
was born into a Christian family and grew up as a Christian
and hamdulillah he became a Muslim later on.
This is an example of Allah Allah, guiding
us to keep us all in this direction that he has
to come and share some of his knowledge with us. He will be talking about the duties of Muslims generally
to society and fellow human beings.
hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam.
O Allah Allah He wa sahbihi when Stan Levison Mattila Medina.
All praise is due to a law and realize Peace and blessings when his last prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,
and all those who follow the path of righteousness until the last day.
As my brother
indicated, the topic of this evening's
talk will be about the duties of a Muslim.
What I have to say
it's probably not new to any one of us.
As we're all Muslims here.
However,
allies instructed us, that we should remind each other
from time to time
of our duties to Allah, his messenger to the religion of Islam, to our fellow brothers and sisters in Islam.
And this talk will be basically such a reminder, inshallah
as a Muslim,
our first duty is, of course, to Allah.
The very first commandment in the Quran Yeah, even Buddha Bakula de Kanako Valentina, mo publikum, Allah, Allah,
all mankind,
worship your Lord, who has created you,
and those before you,
in order that you may
achieve it.
This is the first commandment of the Quran, first commandment to men in the Quran.
Our first duty to Allah therefore, is to worship Him.
And this is natural because the very purpose of our creation
as Allah has said
welaka das Neff equally mutton Rasulullah Nero Buddha law, which tenable
verily, I have sent we have sent to every nation,
a messenger, commanding the people, to worship a law
and to avoid the worship of false gods.
Our purpose of creation
is to worship Allah.
That is,
first and foremost, that should be first and foremost in our minds.
That this is what this life is about. This is what our existence is about. It is about worshiping the Creator.
In a statement,
we're in
a companion of the province, Isola
who was riding on an animal
donkey actually,
when the Prophet Muhammad SAW Salam
he related to us.
That was he was riding with the Prophet Moses Allah. The Prophet alayhi salatu salam asked him.
Omar
Do you know allows rights over his servants
and the rights of the servants over a law
The wives replied, Allah and His Messenger know, best,
he said, allows right over his servants is that they worship him without sharing their worship with anyone or anything.
As they worship a law alone,
and the rights of the servants over a law is that you not punished them,
as long as they do not commit.
This is
clear for us
that
our duty, our primary duty is to worship Allah.
And if we do so, as he has commanded,
then he has also promised to forgive us our sins.
It's very important that
if we are to worship a law,
that we are clear as to what constitutes worship in Islam,
it is also very important that we are clear on who Allah is
and what he is not.
Because
if we are not clear as to what constitutes worship in Islam,
we will be guilty
of innovation of deviation,
as happened to the peoples before us,
the Christians who sincerely believe that they are worshipping God,
a lot.
Due to the deviation and innovation which took place in the religion, they have ended up worshiping other than God.
They have devised ways and methods of worship, which were actually prohibited by God.
Similarly, those people who are not clear as to who God is,
who imagine, somehow,
that God and men
can be one.
Or that the soul of the human being is divine
is a part of God.
Or that God is in everything throughout his creation.
Those people who hold these kinds of beliefs
end up worshipping
human beings believing that they're worshipping God,
or worshiping animals, believing that somehow God is present in these animals, or idols, believing that God is in the idle.
So it is very important, since this has happened to people before us, and the Prophet Muhammad SAW Salaam warned us that we do not fall into the pitfalls of those who came before us. He warned us very carefully,
often
that we should be careful,
so as not to innovate in the religion in any way, shape, or form. This is why he said, Man, I'm Rena Melissa Minh, who for
whoever brings something new into this religion.
It is not acceptable by our life is rejected.
If we maintain
this insistence on purity of faith, then we can assure the purity of our worship and that we do not deviate as those people who came before us did.
And worship in Islam
fundamentally means
doing what is pleasing to God
and avoiding what is not pleasing to God. This is fundamentally what worshiping
whatever God has ordained for us to do.
It is what is pleasing to Him.
And whatever he has forbidden us from doing it is what
displeasing to him.
And Prophet Mohammed saliva Salaam had said in no uncertain terms Mata Dr. Shay and your caribou, Camila la he 11 Amar to combi, I have not left anything
which will bring you closer to Allah, except that I have commanded you to do.
Therefore,
it is not acceptable in Islam, that any individual or any people, no matter how saintly they may be, or how influential they may be,
they do not have the authority to bring for us ways of worshipping Allah. Ways acts deeds which they claim are pleasing to Allah, which have not been brought by the Messenger of Allah.
If we do that,
we will be displeasing Allah,
we will not be able to attain the love of Allah.
As Allah said in the Quran, in quantum to have been a law for Tabby Rooney, your become a law.
Allah commanded the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam, to tell the people, if it is that you love a law, if what you're doing or what you're seeking is to try to gain the love of a law.
Then Follow me Follow Prophet Mohammed Cyrus alum, and the law will love you.
So the love of Allah is conditional.
It's conditional to following the way of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam.
So that leads us to our duty to the messenger
may God's peace and blessings be upon him.
Our duty to him is obedience.
We are as Muslims obliged to obey whatever he has commanded us, and to avoid whatever he has forbidden. The law said in the plan, my takamura soul for Hulu, Amanda Hackman who Fanta, who, whatever the messenger has given you, take it, whatever he is prohibited, you leave it,
this is our relationship to the Messenger of Allah. Why not because he was not a human being.
Because he was a law said to him, to tell us in the Quran, call in an Abba Sharon, with lucam verily say, verily, I am a man like you all.
The Prophet Muhammad wa sallam was a man like us, except
that he received Revelation. Revelation is what makes him different from us. What makes all of the prophets of Allah, different from the rest of mankind, puts them in one brotherhood, all together, the Brotherhood of the prophets. They received revelation from God, otherwise they were human beings.
And our relationship to them should be as commanded by Allah, obedience to them.
We have to be careful that we do not fall into the trap, the satanic trap, which was set by the agents of the devils,
to catch those who sought to follow the prophets of old,
which ended up with a number of the followers of the prophets of old, worshipping the prophets themselves.
Christians today worship Jesus, they pray to Jesus.
But that is not what the message of Jesus was. His message was to pray to God and he prayed to God, however,
using certain individuals
The Satanic concept
of giving the attributes of God to men
and encouraging people to worship the
creation of God,
human beings,
this devious plan was put into motion. And those generations that followed, Prophet Jesus alayhis salam ended up, worshipping Jesus, believing that God became a man,
instead of worshipping the God of Jesus.
And the prophet SAW, Selim had said,
you will follow the path of the people before you,
inch by inch, foot by foot, so much so that if they enter into the hole of a lizard, the lizard makes in the ground, you will follow them in you will follow, going into the hole after the lizard.
And the companions asked him, Are you referring to the Christians and the Jews or messenger of Allah? And he replied, who else?
This is a part of the warning
that Muslims
in ignorance
will begin to do what the Christians did.
They will begin to look at Prophet Mohammed Salam in the ways that the Christians looked at Prophet Jesus.
They will elevate him from a status of being a man
to his staff to a status of being supernatural, of being part God, pipe man.
Oh god.
So it is very important for us as Muslims
to
understand
that
our relationship to the Messenger of Allah is one of obedience, not one of worship.
We obey Him, because there's a law has said in the Koran, Mayor Tara Sol, Otto Amar, whoever obeys the messenger has obeyed a law. So we OBEY Him because of the revelation which came to him
the revelation which came from God.
So this is our duty.
He pointed out to us, that we have as human beings duties amongst ourselves.
He stated, who Luke O'Brien
could look homeschooling at.
Each and every one of you is a shepherd is like a shepherd.
And each is responsible for his or her flock.
That is, a law has given each and every human being certain responsibilities.
The man is responsible
for his family, looking after the family,
providing for them,
providing guidance for them.
The woman,
in the absence of the man is responsible for the household,
looking after the children, educating them, providing guidance for them.
This system of responsibility
makes up the foundation of
human social responsibility. It makes up the foundation of the Islamic Society, each one responsible for someone else. This is why, from an Islamic point of view, we don't need a welfare system.
Because families take care of their own.
It's only in exceptional cases where the Islamic State would enter into the society to take care of certain individuals. We don't need old homes for you know old people old people's homes.
Much of what we find in Western society as families break apart they fall apart the responsibilities of parents to children, parents to children.
Much of these responsibilities are lost as the families fall apart. So other institutions have to be developed in the society to look after the needy in the society. But from the Islamic point of view,
the parents are responsible for raising the children.
When the children grow up, and their parents can no longer look after themselves, then it's the duty of those children to look after their parents. It's not to put them in an old people's home and forget about them. No,
it is their duty to look after them to keep them within their home circumstances and give them the best of care that they can, as their parents gave them when they were young.
Another duty,
which has to be looked at, along with the responsibility of Muslims amongst Muslims, is that
they have a responsibility to advise each other. Whenever there is anything wrong in the society or in the family, in the community.
The problem has, as Alan had said, a dino naseeha.
The religion is good advice.
A lot describes the believers, the true believers will not be destroyed, will not go astray in this life is those who advise each other, to be patient in this life and to be truthful.
So as Muslims, we have the injunction of the Prophet Muhammad wa Salaam, men, Rahman Quran, failure, Yoruba, de, whoever amongst you sees an evil should change it with his hands. That is, if he isn't, he or she is in a position of authority, they have a duty to stop that evil.
But if they're unable, then they oppose it by speaking out against it.
And if even speaking out against it becomes impossible, then at least they hate it in their hearts.
But it is their duty to try to stop wrong, whenever it appears in the society, whether it is amongst Muslims,
or it is amongst non Muslims in the society as a whole.
If we see the society
here in Australia, going astray,
introducing * education to little children in primary school,
promoting homosexuality, giving rights to the homosexuals supporting them, we as Muslims, it is our duty to speak out against it, we're not in a position of authority to stop it.
If we set up our own schools, as we should, then we're an authority over our schools. So then we can say we will have no * education, as it takes place in the government schools here, we will control it and handle it according to the teachings of Islam. And similarly, we will not allow any practicing homosexual to be teaching in our schools.
So we're we're in a position of authority would stop it. But in the country as a whole, we're not in a position of authority. So the most that we can do is to speak out against it, but it is our duty to stand up and be counted
to express our disapproval that perhaps some people may reflect this may be a way of informing them of the strength of the moral code of Islam, that it is not something which varies from time to time, to play from place to place, what was wrong and the time of the prophets. May God's peace and blessings be on all of them is still wrong today.
It is not something modifiable if all the people decide, because homosexuals become predominant in the society many that we have to know look for their rights know.
If what they're doing has been condemned by God, then we have to stand amongst those who condemn it.
And this principle of commanding the good and prohibiting the evil. This is one which also distinguishes the Muslim community as a whole. Allah says in the Quran Quantum hydromet in the next time
Marina Del Mar, if you attend hona, and wound care, or took me know Nabila,
that you are the best
of the nations of this earth,
or taken out
from amongst the various nations
if you command the good, or because you command the good, and you prohibit the evil, and you believe in a lot, this is what makes the Muslim society, the Muslim community,
the most superior, the best of societies on this earth
because, or if they command the good, and they prohibit the evil, but if they do not do so, if the Muslim community decides that it just wants to be like everybody else, we're here in Australia. You know, when you're in Rome, you do as the Romans do. So we're going to just become Australians, whatever is convenient, and, and popular, we'll just do it. We don't want to cause any problems for ourselves or our children. So we just dissolve, become one with the society, then we no longer have this description which Allah has described us with being the best of mankind, no, we become just like the rest. In fact, we become worse than them,
we become worse Why? Because we had the knowledge,
we have the knowledge of what is right. And we have chosen not to follow that knowledge.
This is the worst of mankind.
The ignorant are bad, but those who know the truth and do not apply it do not follow it. They are the worst of mankind.
The other duty that we have, as Muslims in this society,
or in any society, whether we are a minority, or we are the majority is the duty of our
of commanding and calling people
to the truth, the ultimate truth, which is Islam.
This is a duty which is not something which we do in our spare time if we feel like it. If today I feel like given some Dawa I tell somebody about Islam I do it but tomorrow I don't feel like it. I don't do it. No.
This is a compulsory duty
of each and every Muslim
at every opportunity that they have.
If we have an opportunity to inform people of this society what Islam is and we do not, then we are cursed by Allah.
Allah said in the Quran
says in verse 159, of swell dakara
in melodien, extra moolah Anza. Nominal bayonet you will Buddha
embody my bhajana hula Nassif in Kitab. hula aka Allah Allahu LA.
Verily those who hide what has been revealed by us have the clear truths and guidance
after we have made it clear to the people
in the Scriptures, such are cursed by Allah.
This is a last thing
if we hide that knowledge, because if you sit beside somebody on your job,
or if you go to the park, with other non Muslims, and you sit with them and you just chat about this dunya about what a nice car you have, what a nice house you have. How pretty are your children and you don't say anything about Allah. You don't tell them anything about Islam.
Then you have hidden the truth from them.
And you are cursed by Allah.
And you will be asked on the Day of Judgment.
You will be asked why you did not convey the Word of God to the people around you.
And there is no excuse unless you're in a coma.
If you're a comatose well, You are excused. But as long as you have a brain which is functioning
you are able to speak
move
Then this requirement is on you.
What I'm saying is that some of you might say, Well, you know, what, I don't know very much about Islam. But the problems are salami said, ballyhoo and he will
convey whatever you have learned from me, even if it is only one verse of the Quran
whatever you
others may say, Well, I can't express myself too well. I'm new to this country, my language is, you know, I don't speak English to well kind of broken or whatever. Then we have pamphlets. There are pamphlets, which explain about Islam in a very simple fashion. So when you are amongst people,
if they show any kind of interest, are they willing to listen to in any way? You pass them a pamphlet?
Something which explains something about Islam, encourage them, have you read the Quran
lend them acquire in English, it is allowable for you. I know some people mistakenly think that the translation of the Quran you cannot give this to a non Muslims.
However, this is not the case. Translation it's perfectly okay to give to non Muslims because the translation is not correct. Even if there are verses of Quran in it, it is not in and of itself considered Quran. According to the scholars, whenever the words of men
are greater in any given text than the words of Allah, then that text is no longer considered to be quiet.
And in the translation, most of what is in there is the explanation of the meanings in another language. This is the words of men. So it is perfectly okay to encourage your neighbor, your friends to read the Quran.
And I'm saying that to say that
people may be guided
by the simplest of things, you might consider this pamphlet useless of no benefit.
But I would like to relate to you an incident which happened last year
in Riyadh, I'm living in Riyadh.
And one individual, an American
working with the American Air Force in Riyadh. He called me up and wanted to talk to me about Islam.
So I asked him, you know, I invited him over my house and we sat down, we talked and I asked him well, how he came to know about Islam in the first place. Because the place where the American military stays very isolated from the society in general, where they live, however, they do come into the city to purchase, they have sort of time off to come and purchase whatever they wish. He explained to me that on one occasion, he came into town to buy some gold, some gold jewelry for his fiance, when he was planning to marry when he got back to America.
And the person the jeweler was selling the goal to him who didn't know very much English, he only knew enough English in terms of being able to count this is 10 that is five, you know, what is necessary to get the money and
convey the price. He didn't know English to explain Islam to this man. But what he did have with him was a stack of pamphlets, little single page, which is folded up into little brochure style pamphlet on Islam. So after selling him the piece of gold, he gave him the pamphlet along with
the man. He had not come into the city seeking to find out about Islam, he came to buy gold.
However, on his way back, out of curiosity, open it up, start to read it.
And as he read it, he found his what he relayed to me that the more he read, the more what was saying what was being written, there seemed to make sense to him.
It was talking about God in a way that he himself had thought in the past. You know, he himself was not though if you asked him, Are you a Christian? I'm sorry, I'm a Christian. However, there are certain things about Christianity which he really couldn't accept the idea of Jesus being God, the Trinity, these type of things, he had rejected these things, but he kept on going to church because he really didn't know anything else.
So when he started to read this pamphlet explaining about what Islam is, what God is and so on. So, you start to see that this what is being said here coincides with what I thought is what I had felt this what I had come to the conclusion that
Come to myself. And this led him then to try to find other people to get other information. He got some more pamphlets, some more books, etc, read more into somebody told him listen you should contact, you know brother Bill out he can maybe sit with you is from the west also he can explain to you more about Islam. So he calls me up we sat, he came up to my house two three times. And by the third time he declared Islam
starting with that little pamphlet,
which most people would consider to be nothing who would read it? No, you never know. So our duty is not to judge whether what we are conveying to the people will guide them or not that is in the hands of Allah.
We cannot guide
Allah is the one who guides our duty is only to convey the message. And as I said, it is a duty on each and every one of us.
The other duty
of Muslims
is that of struggling and striving to maintain unity amongst themselves.
Allah says in the Quran, water Simone de la hija de la
hold on all of you firmly to the rope of Allah and do not be divided amongst yourself.
This is
critical for Muslims, that they do not allow petty differences,
different different ideas or practices, which are minor,
which do not affect the basic
principles of faith in Islam. practices of Islam do not allow the minor things to split us up.
If we have differences amongst ourselves, then we have a way in which we resolve them.
As Allah said in the Quran,
my cannoli movement in la mina de la hora Zulu amre akula Humala era, in
that the believers if we are to be believers,
when Allah and His Messenger have decided, a thing that is we take our affairs as a stated another verse of the Quran, radula, lawyer Sunni, when we have differences, we take it back to Allah and the messenger taking it back to Koran, and to the sooner we take our differences, whatever differences we have, we take it back to Quran and Sunnah.
If Allah and His Messenger have decided with regards to it, I've made a clear ruling as to what is right and what is wrong in this particular issue, then, it is not befitting
that a believer, then have any choice in the matter. A believer must then accept the judgment of God and the Messenger of God, the allowance, peace and blessings be upon you.
So in that way, if we follow this principle, which Allah has ordained for us,
then we are able to maintain unity in our community.
And if we establish and maintain this unity, then we will begin to have an effect on the community around us right now.
Our biggest problem
as Muslims here
is that our children are running out of Islam.
That's the biggest problem. This is what I've heard since I've been here.
people complaining about the next generation leaving Islam.
People came here, generations ago from Afghanistan.
Now, they are non existent. They disappeared their children and their children's children ran away from Islam. Until today, you can hardly find any of them.
This is a process which is not a new process. It has happened in other countries in England, and America and other Western countries in Europe, where Muslims have emigrated.
They have left the lands
which had Muslims in a majority
or large Muslim country.
And then went to the lands of the disbelievers something which in Islam is really abhorrent anyway, to leave the land of the believers and go to settle yourself in the land of the disbelievers is to ask for a loss curse.
If your reason for going there is for the dunya, then you are asking for a loss curse.
If you're going to this land, because you're a refugee, you have no other choice. That is one situation, or you're going because you want to try to spread the word of God in this land.
Allah blesses you. But if you have come here, merely because you want to improve the quality of your life,
because back home, you had a small house and you didn't have a car. But here, you can get a big house and get two cars. If that's the reason why you're here, then you are in danger.
Because such a journey is a cursed journey.
And the children leaving Islam is a part of that curse.
So
it is the duty of Muslims
to come together to maintain a community a unity, which would then create an environment, an Islamic environment, Muslim town, instead of Chinatown, Muslim town, where Muslims are concentrated, where they can develop alternative institutions, schools, stores, and all of the things that make up a community. We do that ourselves in an Islamic environment, demonstrating to the community at large, the universality of Islam. This would be dour, on one of the highest levels, not just in words, but in practice, where Muslims come together, not because they're Pakistanis,
or because they're Afghan is or Bosnians
or Fijians, or Arabs or whatever, they are coming together because they are Muslims.
They are united because of the faith.
This is an opportunity.
Though we are in a cursed situation, because I know most of us are here, because of the dunya. Because of trying to gather as much of the material things of this life as we could around us, which we cannot take with us.
Though it is a current situation we have a means of remedying it, of gaining the blessing of Allah by changing our intentions
for being here, from being one of collecting
the dunya, to one of establishing Islam,
of carrying the message of Islam, to the people of this country, who are unaware of Islam.
And the best means of doing that is by living Islam.
Not just as an individual. Of course, this is where we have to start, but also as a community,
a community where the non Muslims can come amongst Muslims and see them living in harmony living together from all of the various backgrounds. This is a unique opportunity,
an opportunity, which is similar to the time of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam, where his companions came from a variety of backgrounds.
But they were united, whether they were from Ethiopia, or from Rome, or from Persia, or from different parts of Arabia.
Some were originally Christian, some were Jews, but they came together
on the basis of their faith on the basis of Islam, and from that nucleus,
that group of early Muslims, Islam spread to all the corners of the earth.
So we have a chance to spread Islam in this country
to make the people of this country aware of it.
If we can overcome our petty differences by not by ignoring them because of course, the differences that
Are there we have to tackle them. We cannot pretend they're no different.
But we have the means to tackle them.
We have a means of determining how to resolve them.
We have Islam.
The last area
in terms of our duties
towards Muslims involve the basic Islamic duties of returning Salaam. So the problem was as Alan said, if somebody greets us as Muslims, it is our duty to return those alarms. If somebody says Salaam Alaikum, it is not acceptable for us to respond. Hi, how are you
know, we respond while a coup Salah
It is our duty to do so.
It is our duty to visit the sick, sick Muslims duty, we hear that Muslims are sick to go and visit
those who die to follow their
variable the process of variables to pray for them. If we are invited
to the homes of each other, then we should go unless we're invited to something sinful. If people are inviting
to
a gathering in which alcohol is consumed, or in which * is
watched, then of course, we should never accept such invitations. But general social invitations or Muslims if we're invited, we should accept that as long as we're able.
And the prophet SAW Selim also informed us that when somebody sneezes and they say Alhamdulillah we should also respond. yarmulke Ma. These are certain basic principles which should profit most I sell them at enjoy and advance amongst Muslims to help to build that feeling of brotherhood.
That feeling of concern that the Muslims are supposed to have,
we also have a final duty
and that is to the environment in which we live.
We have a duty to the animals of that environment.
That is as Muslims we do not engage in
hunting for sport.
As the West likes to go on safaris to India and to Africa. So that this individual can shoot an elephant or a tiger and then put his foot on it stand there with his rifle. pictures taken of him he takes it back home, the head of the animal is stuck on his wall. For us in Islam This is prohibited
problems a solemn and prohibited us from making animals our targets. So we do not kill any animals for sport. When we take a life of an animal, we take it for food
when we need food, or we take the animal's life to protect ourselves because it is dangerous. These are the reasons for which we take the lives of animals.
Furthermore, we also have a duty with regards to our wealth
and how we utilize it
that we are not allowed in Islam
to be
what is now known as fashionable.
fashionable means that you keep up with the fashion
style styles come
on the market. We must wear those styles.
So we're constantly buying clothes shoes.
The clothes that we had from last year still they're put in a cupboard eventually put in a box maybe eventually thrown away.
Because we want to keep up with the styles and your style is in we got to wear that style. Know as Muslims This is prohibited for us.
We dress we purchase we use our monies moderately.
We do not waste our monies on the prohibited
like
Cigarettes
prohibited,
not allowed for us to purchase and consume cigarettes. Because it is prohibited in Islam.
if somebody were to ask you,
you the chain smoker who smell, who smokes away, maybe $2,000 worth of cigarettes every year.
if somebody were to ask you, or to hold in front of you $2,000 and set it on fire, you would say, Are you mad?
Or can you do this? You're destroying money.
But that person at the same time, smokes away, you know, $2,000 worth of cigarettes in a year.
Not only are they squandering the wealth, but they are destroying themselves. And the performance element said La da da, da da.
You may neither harm yourselves nor harm others, it is forbidden for us as Muslims to harm ourselves.
You know that smoking causes cancer,
for you to smoke,
knowing that is a sin,
it is suicide. So as Muslims, we have to use our wealth in the channels which God has made, allowable for us because that wealth is not ours to do with as we please. The wealth is a blessing and a test which Allah has given us. If we use it in the ways which are halau, then we are rewarded. It is a part of our blessings on the Day of Judgment, our good deeds, but if we use it in haram if we squander our wealth, as Allah says in the Quran, in Elmo ballerina, can Juana Shelton, those who squander their wealth, are brethren of the devils.
If we do so, then we are in sin.
So we have a duty,
we have a duty to use whatever Allah has given us, of our wealth,
our health, our strength, in the ways which are permissible.
So recapping, the presentation of our duties as a Muslim, those duties begin with our duty to Allah to worship Him, without giving him any partners, without putting any intermediaries between ourselves. And as we worship him directly, as he said, would only
call on me, and I will answer you.
We have to be very careful
not to allow people to make explanations and rationales for worshiping other than a law
or putting any intermediaries between ourselves and a law. You will have people who will come to you and say, Listen, you, you want to worship God,
you are dirty with sin, covered with many sins. How can you possibly stand up before God? The pure
know
you want to approach God? You must go through someone who is also pure. Someone who is sinless.
Sade, so and so,
or profit, so and so. This is the logic of the devil.
It sounds attractive, especially when somebody tells you Well, look, if you want to meet the
President was the person in the country here called Prime Minister, you want to meet the Prime Minister. You can't just go to wherever the capital is, and knock on his door and say, Well, listen, Mr. Prime Minister, I'd like to have a little chat with you. No, he's not going to sit down and talk with you in this fashion. No, you have to see the person who is responsible in your area,
the political representative from them, that person puts your case in the local council or in the parliament or whatever system that you have here. And after this case has been raised, then it is presented to the Prime Minister for some decision. So you have to go through these channels. intermediaries if you want to get your affairs done. They say the same way. You want to get God to answer your prayers, then you must go through the proper channels.
Now this is the logic of Satan.
Because what it does, is it makes a law like man
Saying allies like the Prime Minister, you can't come to him directly. But a law said, lay second myth Lee, there is nothing like him.
And he has told us to call on him directly, and He will answer our prayers. So, it is our duty
to reject any kind of reasoning and logic or whatever, which will cause us to call on other than a law, to worship other than a law, in the name of worshipping a law.
That is our duty to worship a law alone
without any partners.
Our second duty is to the Messenger of Allah.
That when we seek to worship a law, we do so in accordance with the way which was brought by the Messenger of Allah.
Allah said in the Quran, Allah Yamamoto come dinoco. Today I have completed for you the religion, it was complete in the time of Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu sallam,
no one can add anything else to the religion,
if they do so, it is not acceptable by Allah. So it is our duty to the Prophet, to follow him to follow the way that he prescribed for us to worship a law in the ways in which the Prophet Mohammed says Allah commanded us or recommended us to worship Him.
We then have a duty to the rest of mankind,
responsibilities, which have to do with our families, children, etc. which require of us leadership, to provide proper leadership to those under our supervision.
The man it is his duty to lead his family.
If his wife walks out the door,
half naked, with her hair exposed, Allah will ask him,
why did you allow?
The woman was under your charge? We were responsible for to go out in that fashion which has been prohibited by God, which is hated by God, which is sinful. Why did you allow it.
So it is the duty of that man to insist that the women under his authority, his wife, his sisters, his children, girls, whatever,
obey the commandments of God with respect is respect to their dress, their modesty, and that the young men under their command, also
follow the commandments of Islam, no girlfriends,
no mix parties.
They have to also live in accordance with the teachings of Islam, it is their duty, first and foremost, Allah will ask the Father.
But then after that, he will ask the wives, why they did what they did, why they allowed, what they allowed.
And all of us will be asked,
we have a duty in the society, amongst ourselves and society at large to command the good and to prohibited evil.
We have a duty to call people to Islam,
to inform them of what Islam is in word and indeed, and we have a duty to maintain unity in the Muslim community, in order to establish Islam as a living faith in this land, a faith which will, by its very nature, change the society within which it exists.
We have a duty to advise each other
whenever we see anything wrong, but we have a duty to resolve our problems by using the Quran and Sunnah.
And furthermore, we have a duty to the society, how we deal with the environment. Of course, this is a big issue, Greenpeace etc. for Muslims, these things go without saying,
we will be held to account if we destroy this environment. We have a responsibility to use whatever resources God has given us in this world, for our benefit, and not in a way which is harmful to the
environment as a whole are harmful to other human beings. With that, I will stop at this point and allow you an opportunity to
raise some comments, or raise some questions. So please now we'll go into the question and answer session section. I those of you who would like to raise questions directly, you may raise your hand, stand up and express yourself. Or if you prefer to write your question and somebody can bring it up, perhaps some pieces of paper may be made available if anybody would like a piece of paper, they can stick their hands up. And those people responsible here who have available paper can pass it on to you.
The difference between
reform
and innovation
is
Muslims,
based on the commandments of Allah in the Quran, and Sunnah
will always have amongst them some people who would call them back to the pure practice of the religion.
They will call them back to the Quran and to the Sunnah,
as understood by the early generations of Muslims, there will always be amongst them,
wherever, who will call them back to pure Islam.
This is the blessing of Allah,
that Islam will never die out.
Not like Christianity.
Like Judaism,
the original teachings are lost.
Those who seek to call people back to pure Christianity, or the pure teachings of Jesus, they are unable to arrive at what the pure teachings are. The reform movement, Martin Luther,
who spearheaded the reform movement in Christianity, he could not take the people back to the original teachings of Jesus, though he shared the trappings of Catholicism,
all of the various practices which were innovated and brought in by Catholicism,
they were able to shed.
However, certain concepts of God becoming man of Trinity, etc. They were not able to go beyond. And as such, they could never the followers were not able to find the original teachings of Jesus, which was, in fact Islam. It is only in Islam, that
a person can become a true follower of Jesus.
So,
reformation
the revivalist movement is a reformative movement, trying to revive bringing back alive the religion. It is done
by calling the people back to the sources, as the prophet SAW Selim said, direct to fecal amoraim I've left amongst you two things
in Temasek, tomiyama length of the Lw Avada if you hold on firmly to them, you will never go astray
kitaab the law was in the book of a law and my son now.
That is the basis of the revivalist movement in Islam, the reformative
though the West may identify this movement as being fundamentalist, which means somehow extremist,
deviant
from Islamic perspective, every Muslim has to be a fundamentalist. He or she has to seek to practice their religion according to the fundamentals of the religion, the Quran and the Sunnah. We are all as true Muslims, fundamentalists. We are not extremists in the sense that we do not employ methods which are prohibited in Islam. We're not terrorists, putting bombs
Airplanes with innocent people, you know putting bombs at airline counters or in, you know, in buildings etc innocent lives are lost. This is not from Islam at all.
This has nothing to do with Islam. When we are involved in Jihad and fighting, Islam has specific rules for fighting. We're not allowed to kill people who are non combatants, those who are not taking up weapons against us.
And because many of the people who are involved in certain movements around the world
have
taken these methods which are unacceptable islamically then we find
Muslim becoming synonymous with terrorist
extremists.
On the other hand,
the opposite of the Sunnah,
of
reformation
of revival
is bidda.
Innovation.
This is cursed, as a prophet Moses Allen said,
Sharon Murray, was
the most evil of affairs
are the innovations at these innovations in religious affairs. Were kulu modesetting visa, and every innovation in religion is a cursed innovation she called the da
wakulla. Attend Allah Allah. And every innovation is a source of innovation and religion is a source of misguidance Welcome to the Allah Allah in finance, and all misguidance leads to *.
That's the warning of the Prophet.
So,
those who would seek to revive Islam in the hearts of the people may only do so, by the methods which have been prescribed by the prophet Muhammad wa sallam.
We are not allowed to invent new forms of worship,
under any name,
this becomes this becomes cursed, this leads to shirk,
which leads to help.
So, fundamentally,
reformation is returning to the original sources of Islam.
Innovation, or beta is inventing new practices,
either giving them Islamic names
by introducing things from the non Islamic societies
or by taking something which was fundamentally Islamic, but
putting it or using it in other than its correct place.
For example, if I were to say,
knowing that
prayer in Islam, formal prayer in Islam, something obligatory on us
five times a day,
if I were to come to you,
as a holy man,
and to tell you a lesson in our times, the 20th century, people are so engrossed in materialism.
So far away from the practices of Islam.
That five times compulsory prayer is not enough. We need a six
in the middle of the night, we need to get up, compulsory for each and every one of us to pray in the middle of the night.
Now, extra prayer.
Turning back to a law as a principle in general is something good. Islam encourages that for a person anyone to come and say that we will now introduce a sixth
compulsory prayer that becomes innovation in the religion.
Though the prayer may take the same format as the whore or fudger or Margaret having two units
three units or four units.
And we're saying all the things in it that we normally say I try to have another surah, Lavoie Akbar, all the things that constitute that practice
of Islam. But when it has been designated as something compulsory, that makes it no bid, or innovation in the religion, which becomes a source of misguidance, as the prophet SAW, someone said, leading to help.
revivalism is to say, listen, the Prophet Muhammad wa sallam instructed us that we are obliged to pray five times a day. Let's get back to that prayer. Let's get back to the meaning of prayer. Let's pray with the spirit, that the prayer was intended, not just going through the motions, we may as well be doing aerobics if all we're doing is just flexing and bending and coming out of it with nothing. We don't even know what we were what we said in the prayer, we came out somebody asked you what story did you say after five years, I don't remember what kind of summarize this. Or you do it so fast. You know, you're just, it's just rattling through your mind. You have no concentration, no
reflection, such a prayer is useless.
It has no value.
Because Islam is not just a set of rituals.
All of the practices in Islam are designed to help to improve our consciousness of God, our awareness of God in order to improve the quality of our lives to make us more righteous people. So if we're praying, that prayer has no effect on us.
We're making five times daily prayer, but we are lying and cheating and stealing and all these different things cursing, etc, then that prayer is useless. Allah says in the in the in the salon,
in the salon tena, and in fact, Shaolin monk at that salon prevents evil speech and evil deeds. That's the essence of the prayer that is supposed to improve our quality our character. If it's not, then the prayer is something wrong there. So the revival is movement will call us back to praying according to the Spirit of prayer, according to the Spirit of Islam, but the innovative movement, the satanic movement, will be trying to make other forms of worship,
whilst claiming to do the same thing throughout claiming to bring people back to Islam, but it is inventing a new Islam.
Let us try to be fair in terms of our distribution of questions, we'll try to give one question from the males, and then give the females an opportunity to ask a question. So having heard one question from the males, with the female sisters like to raise a question,
please.
Yeah, before it though,
yes. If we can find one will stick their hand up, then we'll read from the paper.
Please don't be shy, no problems. And Solomon said that there is no shyness when it comes to the affairs of the religion should not be shy to ask. If you have an opportunity to question to get more understanding of Islam, then it is your duty to use that opportunity.
Okay, if we don't have a
courageous soul amongst you, then we'll take what was written and sent up a question from one of the sisters. If a man divorces his wife out of anger, or being under the influence of intoxicants, and later repents, is the divorce valid.
A number of scholars hold that such a divorce is not considered valid. A person divorces makes a statement of divorce, but the intent is not one of divorce but just out of anger,
then that divorce is not considered valid on the basis that the intention needs to be there for the divorce to be actually a divorce. And the problem is that Solomon said the deeds are judged by their intentions. So in Islam, when you come you do you do a deed or you say something, which is from the things of Islam, then your intention, you will be judged in that act in accordance to your intention. So if a person were to do so, under a state of anger, the
divorce would not be
be considered
valid. Also a person in a state of intoxication, as in the case of prayer, prayer is not acceptable in that state of intoxication where a person does not have their mind, though,
while he was doing so in the state of intoxication has further problems. Still, such a divorce would not be considered to be valid.
What the question goes on to say,
How many times should he utter divorce?
Well, according to the majority of the schools of Islamic law, it is for him to do so, once.
he pronounces divorce once although we do have in the Hanafi school that the principle of that single divorce involves the person repeating it at the beginning of each month of the three month waiting period, or the general practice of most of the schools of thought is that he pronounces it once
pronouncing it at a period of time, when the woman is not under menses, and during a period in which he did not have any sexual relations with her, these are conditions for which, which have to be there for that pronouncement to become considered. And if he pronounces a number of times, according to the practice of problems, our solemn such pronouncement is still only considered once, as we had cases in the time of the companions, where some individuals, you know, had said, for example, to their wives, you know, I divorced you the number of the number of stars there are in the sky, you know, when this was reported to performance and salami said to tell him, this is just one divorce,
you know, so once is sufficient to start the process of divorce in motion. Of course, when people are divorced, or when the pronouncement of divorce is made. According to Islam, they should still continue to live together to live under one roof. You know, it has become popular in many Muslim countries today, amongst Muslim communities. And when people get divorced, the man goes his way the woman goes her way, she goes home to our parents or he stays in the house or he leaves the house of leaves are in the house, but actually, from his correct Islamic tradition, they are supposed to remain together.
That's why the waiting period is there, to give them a period of time in which to
possibly take that divorce back to work out what the problem was, and resolve it and cancel the divorce. So they should remain living together.
Question
if he wants the wife back, under what conditions should she go back, if a valid divorce has been pronounced,
if he states that he wishes to cancel that to take her back, or if he approaches her sexually,
with the intention of
her coming back to the divorce is no longer valid, then that is sufficient for her to go back to her husband without
any new or any other formalities to take place. However, if the period of the three months in the case of women who do not have menses, or in the case of women who have menses, three periods, menstrual cycles have completed themselves, and the man after that wishes to take his wife back. In that case, he now has to re marry her. They have to become remarried a dowry as new dowry has to be given.
Marriage has to take place with witnesses everything as before.
I hope this covers the points which were raised by sister in the
written question, if she had some other
idea in mind if I didn't answer the question according to what she intended, she may
give a follow up by clarifying what she meant.
back over to the brothers
from Salama
The statement I made earlier with regards to innovation This is not my statement authenticated statement of Prophet Muhammad Allah
He did not make any exceptions he stated that all innovations in religion are evil
and a source of misguidance
which leads ultimately to help
if we are to speak of deja Hashanah
and this has usually been attributed to Calif Omar
by the Allahu Allah
with a hacer la meaning a good innovation
the statement which was made by Omar Calif Omar when he brought the people together in the masjid in Medina, behind one Imam for the night prayers of Ramadan.
When he said that this was a good day that
he was using the term Buddha linguistically
because the term bid
in a linguistic sense, means something new
which
may be equivalent to
we could say, an invention
an invention, which is not specifically related to religion, it is just something new in general.
Now,
when Omar made the statement,
what we have to do is to look at the circumstances under which he made that statement
when he gathered those companions together behind one Imam
was he in fact doing something which was not done by Prophet Muhammad? sallallahu alayhi wasallam
which did not have
a precedent in the Sunnah.
No, because it is well recorded inside he Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, apart from Hamza salam, during the nights of Ramadan, had gone into the masjid. First night, people were praying separately, and he started to pray and a few people came behind him. second night,
large group came behind him
where he now is leading the salon in Gema. third night he stayed at home
so that the people would understand that it was not compulsory.
They may pray the taraweeh in their homes are in the master.
But he did lead the people in taraweeh in JAMA in congregation, so he had already done it.
He had already set the precedence. So Omar was only following the guidance of the Sunnah and he brought them together behind one Imam following the guidance of the Sunnah and refer to
This as a good innovation or good invention, from, as I said, a linguistic point of view. Because this was not an innovation in religion.
He was only doing what had been done
by the province in the sense that he led the people in Jamaica.
Now, the problem is that he did not designate one and say, following the Jamaat, but he led them in the gym on his own personal example is the foundation of Omar's decision.
So this is not considered innovation in the religion.
Similarly, when we look at the collection of the Koran into one text, which took place during the rule of Caliph, Abu Bakar.
If we look at the circumstances under which it took place, what we what happened was that after the time of the Prophet Muhammad SAW Salaam a number of people had started to deviate, and leave Islam. And there were some
false prophets, prophecies that arose in Arabia, and began a war against Muslims.
In the course of the battles with these forces, many Muslims were dying.
Many who had memorized large portions of the Quran, because when they memorize the Quran, it had become a part of their faith. It had motivated them to action to sacrifice to jihad. They had not just memorized it, and could rattle it off not knowing what it meant. It's just a ritual that they went through know, when they memorize the Quran.
They lived in accordance with it. As the companion said, we used to memorize or learn the Quran five verses at the time. But we didn't finish one five and go on to the next five until we understood everything that I wanted us to know in those verses, and we tried to apply it.
This was their way of absorbing the Quran.
So many of them were dying in the bathroom.
Omar approached Calif aboubaker. And suggested to him that they better bring all of the different sources of the Quran together and write it down in one text for fear that some of the people who are involved in the battles who are dying with memorize for iron might die and die with them and we lose some of the Quran. So in order to preserve the Quran, he said, let us choose somebody they didn't the Sabbath was chosen to handle the job of writing down recording the Quran.
Now, when Omar suggested this to Abu Bakr,
Abu Bakr, his reaction was, no.
How can we do something which the Prophet Mohammed Salam didn't do? That was his reaction.
He was himself afraid of making any innovation in the religion.
So at first he refused. But Omar stayed with him. Reason discussed, explained, showed him until he understood until he accepted the idea that in fact, the collection of the Quran into one book is only doing what the problem was asylum began,
that he had already instructed people he was dictating the material it was being written down. And Allah subhanaw taala refers to the Quran as the book that Allah Kalki tabula rasa Buffy. Allah has referred to it as one book.
So for us to record it in one text, this is in keeping with what Allah has said and what the problem of asylum began.
So it is not innovation.
Now, when we go back
to the issue of celebrating the birthday of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi salam.
What we find is that, historically,
the celebration of birthdays was a pagan practice.
If you go back to the Encyclopedia Britannica,
and read under the heading of Christmas,
the Christians
dollars record there. That's for the first 300 years after the time of Jesus, it was prohibited for anybody to celebrate any birthday, whether birthday of people, or birthday of Jesus prohibited for 300 years, because the church rule that the celebration of birthdays was of pagan origin.
And the teachings of Jesus and Moses and the prophets before all prohibited the believers from taking on the practices of the pagans.
In fact,
you had
it because after that time, you know, when Constantine converted to Christianity, and innovation started to enter very rapidly into the teachings, we find the change in approach by the
early fifth century, last late fourth century, the practice of celebrating Jesus's birthday began. However, in Europe,
with the reform movement, in the 15th century, amongst the reformers to broke away from Catholicism, they began again a move of moves to prohibit the, the celebration of Christmas, because of its pagan origin.
And you had the Puritans who went to America,
who led the development of American society, they prohibited in the United States for some, two to nearly 300 years, the celebration of Christmas, on the basis that it was pagan in origin, celebration of birthdays were pagan origin.
So if the Christians themselves have identified the celebration of birthdays as being pagan in origin, and as such made it Haram,
for themselves,
at least for hundreds of years in the history in their own history. for Muslims, the celebration of birthdays, is doubly haram 200% Haram.
And when you come to the celebration of the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.
What we find, in fact, is that there is no basis in the Sunnah at all.
Not the Sunnah of Prophet Mohammed salam, but in the Sunnah of any of the prophets.
It is not from Jewish tradition to celebrate birthdays. This was always known to be pagan, Roman, Greek, Persian, Hindu, these are the people who celebrated birthdays, not those who are following the traditions of the prophets.
So Prophet Muhammad
did not celebrate his birthday. Nor did he command his companions to celebrate his birthday.
Nor did the students of his companions celebrate his birthday, nor did their students celebrate his birthday. And the Prophet Mohammed Al salam, he said, that the best of generations is my generation, then the generation following them, then the generation following them, these were the best of generations. So if the best of generations did not celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed Salim, then we have no authority to say that we may now celebrate his birthday. Because the fact is, that Allah, in his wisdom,
chose to hide the date of birth of Prophet Jesus, and a Salah.
And he also chose to hide the date of birth of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
The date that people commonly think is the date of his birth 12th of
this date, Muslim historians, scholars will inform you it is not certain that he was born on this date. It might have been the 19th it might have been the 23rd. It might even have been a tiny subset it might have been in Russia.
They are not certain what the he was born. However, they are certain that that was the day on which he died.
So what
happened is that 400 years after the passing away of the Prophet Mohammed,
a group in Egypt,
a dynasty they're called the fatimid dynasty,
a group of esmaeili Shiites. They began
the process of celebrating the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad wa salam on the day of his death, claiming it was the day of his birth and spreading this practice throughout the Muslim world, until they managed to get the masses of Muslims to celebrate the death of the Prophet Muhammad wa sallam will lay out the pillar, we should seek refuge in Allah from being involved in celebrating the death of the Prophet Muhammad wa sallam said something which is cursed,
not pleasing to Allah, not acceptable By Allah,
which the Prophet Muhammad wa sallam did not instruct us to do.
So
having said that,
we are at the 930 points, which is the time for refreshments. So, I'm sorry, we had another question from the sisters here. But I think we'll have to stop at this point. And perhaps these questions could be answered after we've eaten or people would like to just have some informal
questions asked while sitting and eating. I'll be glad to continue to ask answer questions. So I wanted to live again.
Slowly, actually brother believing a gentleman
and his wife will be locked out.
inshallah, we
have given us
a small
end of the session, by the way.
After that,
Please repeat after me.