Bilal Philips – Factors Of Cultural Islam – Part 3
AI: Summary ©
The importance of cultural Islam is highlighted, including its ability to distinguish between Islam and Islamic culture, political events, and cultural history. The main obstacles to achieving Islam include customs and cultural practices. The segment emphasizes the need to correct these obstacles and apply Islam in a pleasing way to achieve their goals. The history and legacy of Islam is discussed, including the implementation of Islam's rule ofteenteenth of the month and the use of the Kaaba for the time. The segment also touches on the importance of finding the right people to join a movement and the need for unity among Muslims.
AI: Summary ©
guidance and protect us from Miss guidance.
In our previous home,
we looked at the third source of
Muslim culture,
or what we called cultural Islam
as distinct from Islamic culture,
Islamic culture being the culture, which grows from the true foundations of Islam.
From the Pillars of Islam and Eman faith, the pillars of sun, righteousness, goodness,
the various teachings of Islam,
which address
a law
in particular,
are theology
and the teachings which address our social interactions
as well as the teachings, which address
our character,
our moral character, which we said, in fact, is the core of Islam.
that Islam is fundamentally a moral message.
The culture which is produced by applying that moral message is what we call Islamic culture.
Whereas the culture which Muslim people may exhibit in different places and at different times,
which may or may not have a link with Islamic culture, we refer to that as cultural Islam.
And we said it was very important for us to understand that distinction.
Because
the main problem facing Muslims today
is the inability to distinguish between cultural Islam and Islamic culture.
This is the main problem. We have other problems, which are political problems, the occupation of Palestine, the attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan. And you know, these are there are many, many political problems which exists therefore, and etc. Around the Muslim world.
Wherever we go in the Muslim world, we seem to have problems.
But
these problems come and go. If we look through the history of the Islamic nation
we see that at different points in times they had these problems.
People occupied certain areas are Palestine This is not the first time Palestine has been occupied. It was occupied by the Crusaders for 100 years. We think that the situation in Palestine is so bad right now. So intolerable right now think about that era in which the Crusaders occupied Palestine, when they didn't even allow the event to be called from masteron.
for 100 years, no event.
No Salah
is the situation today worse?
Or is it in fact better?
We have to say, today is not so bad.
It is not so bad. It's not good. I'm not saying it's good. It's all right. We should be happy with it. But it's not so bad. We have gone through worse periods.
There was a period when
an insane group
which evolved from the Shia, they were known as the parameter
who were based in eastern Arabia and
they attacked Mecca.
They massacred the pilgrims. The Hajaj through their bodies down the well of Zamzam.
Took the black stone from the Kaaba and kept it out in Africa for 23 years.
This is political history.
We've had trials in the past,
it was returned.
So these trials, the oma the Muslim nation has gone through
over the history.
But the issue of Islam itself, this is the most critical issue.
issue of true Islam, knowing what true Islam is, this is the most critical issue, because the ability to correct the wrongs which face the Muslim Ummah today, can only come through Islamic culture,
the correct understanding of Islam from its authentic sources, this is the only way that we can correct it.
As for the political wranglings, and dealings and things which go on in the world today, it will not change the reality
it won't.
The only and most critical area
that is absolutely necessary, is to revive Islam itself.
In its purity,
to bring back Islamic culture to its forefront, its proper place, give it its proper place in our lives. So that wherever we are, whether as a huge minority in India, or as a small minority in Guyana, South America
or as the majority in Pakistan or Egypt,
wherever we are,
we are able
to effectively live our lives in a way pleasing to Allah subhana wa Tada.
And this should be our goal.
That whatever place, position, circumstance we are in, we try to apply Islam
in a way which is pleasing to Allah subhanho wa Taala.
Islam is always kept at the forefront.
It is the criterion by which we determine right and wrong whether I'm in our jobs, when the manager asks us to do something
or a workmate asks us to do something else.
We judge whether to do these things or not, according to what Islam has to say on the matter.
This is our criteria, not whether we want to get a raise
or a promotion, that becomes a determining factor, Shall we do it or shall we not do it? We know it's not right.
But we decide whether to do it or not whether we want that promotion. The boss is telling us if you want that promotion, then
help me out and I'll help you out.
Then you have to stand your ground. This is the moral ground that you have to stand on.
Knowing that what he is asking is displeasing to Allah subhanaw taala
you don't do it, you forego the promotion. Because that promotion will not be blessed by Allah subhanho wa Taala your paycheck will increase.
your paycheck will increase. So it seems that more money is going into your bank account. However, that money is cursed
because you have earned it through a legitimate means. And that is more important.
That issue is more important to you than the
What that money can buy.
Because we're going to leave this world.
And whatever we have bought, we can take with us, somebody else will take it. That's the reality.
So our goal should be understanding Islamic culture
and applying it in our lives.
So we looked at the obstacles. The first major obstacle we said, was inherited customs.
From pre Islamic sources.
Before Islam came to our part of the world, we used to do certain things. Maybe it was a result of pagan practices, or of our region, or certain religious particular religions that existed in our region before. At any rate, when our forefathers accepted Islam, they brought in some of these practices with them. So we are living that legacy.
We have to correct it.
Or it is a result of adopted practices. Muslims were fine for a period of time until some people decided well, these are the people who are another nation next to us are doing certain things. And it looks nice, it's seems to be
good. So we adopt those practices.
The third source, which we spoke about last week, was the source of spiritual innovation,
which came under the general heading of Sufism
this week,
and we should just point out that the main danger of what is known as Sufism is intermediate C,
intermediate C, meaning that people are placed between us and a lot.
As I said before,
if being a Sufi, in your eyes, or in the eyes of those around you means you are a person trying to practice Islam properly, praying five times daily fasting, doing exactly additional prayers, avoiding the trappings of this world living a simple life, and they call you by that.
They give you that title to fee,
then that's fine. That's Islam.
It's the hood. That's the actual term which is used in Arabic. And that's how Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam was, that's how he was. So that's fine. But if by Sufism, one means
striving to become one with a law
and this is the essential teachings in the various
branches of Sufism, whether it's the shadow the Leah, or the tijjani, or the poverty, or any of the major knock chemin, de and GST and all of these various orders of Sophie's Sufism,
they ultimately call to the concept that you a human being, can become one with a law,
that your soul, the soul, which is within you is a part of a law
is a piece of the Divine.
And that your goal in life, the real goal
is to make that part of yourself which is divine, unite with Allah,
the ultimate divinity,
that is Greek philosophy, Hindu religion, and everything else but Islam.
But the real danger of that philosophy, as we said, is that in the course of reaching that point,
people are taught that there are others who have already reached that point.
And if you want your prayers to be accepted by Allah, and help you get up to reach that point, then it's best for you to call on these others.
And they're given various titles.
So, in times of dire need, and this
acity trials and tribulations you find Muslims in some parts of the world calling out on who Allah Allah helped me know. Oh, Abdul Qadir helped me.
Yeah, the Cogito, give me all of the cards or save me.
That is Schick. And that is the evil and the danger
at lies in this way, an alternative way for the shady.
Called by those who follow it, the hockey
the reality
shadia is the gross practices of common Muslims. And there is a reality and inner reality called the happycar.
And one who hasn't understood that topic, has missed the whole
purpose.
That is false.
Prophet Mohammed Al Salam thought the Sharia
Islam came with the Sharia. The haka is the Sharia.
That is the true reality. The fourth source of problems
cultural Islam,
which hinders people from understanding true Islam. The fourth source
is factionalism,
factionalism,
factionalism, which manifested itself
in the form of the four mother hip
the four month hubs
Hanafi,
Maliki,
Shafi
and hubballi.
These form of hubs
whose founders
did not have the intent of forming mud hubs, meaning schools *, which people would follow rigidly that was not their intention at all.
Be sure about this point. If you ask Abu hanifa, what was your madhhab?
Abu hanifa was not going to say I'm a Hanafi.
Mr. Malik would not have said Mr. Maliki. Nor would Mr. Musharraf, I say I'm afraid nor Mr. Mohammed say, I'm humbly none of them would have said this.
So if we are following them,
then why are we saying this?
We have to ask ourselves, we're not really following them. We're following something else.
What their effort was? And if we asked them, What was your madhhab, they would have said, Our madhhab is that of Rasulullah sallallahu. It was that they were following the Prophet smarthub.
That's what they were following
the way of the Prophet, this one now.
That is the one madhhab.
That stands true
in Islamic culture.
Everything else that people have created,
given names to all of it is false.
As a matter, it's all false.
If it is not
another way of saying,
following the way of Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam.
Now,
it may sound somewhat theoretical to many of you, he is denying the former perhaps not denying them.
I'm not denying the great scholars who these schools of Islamic law are attributed to.
And there were many others besides them, who you don't even know about. They were not just four there were many others.
Only they dwindled down to four. But these were scholars striving to follow the way of the Prophet saws.
They made their rulings based on information which came to them in different parts of the Muslim oma to help the Muslims follow the way of Rasulullah sallallahu. It was later generations called that way, by the name of the scholar who led the way. So they call it the Hanafi matter.
And we have inherited that tradition.
So if by Hanafi madhhab, you mean, following scholars trying to follow the way of Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam. According to the efforts made by Abu hanifa, and those who came after them, then there's nothing wrong with that.
But if by Hanafi, madhhab, you mean a particular way, which you must follow blindly, without knowing why or when or where regarding it is just enough to say I'm a hanafy. And that is enough for me. anytime anybody asked me, Why do you do this? You say I'm an infp. Why do you do that? And
if that becomes what Hana fear means to you, then you are lost.
You've lost the way.
Because the only person
that we should follow in that way, is Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, that's why it is in our declaration of faith. I said to Allah, and I'm alone, why should I know Mohammed? Rasulullah I be witnessed that there's no God worthy of worship, but Allah, and that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was the Messenger of Allah.
That declaration that he was the Messenger of Allah means that I will follow him blindly. If somebody asked me, Why are you doing that? You say because I'm a follower of Rasulullah?
Why are you doing this? Because that's what the prophet sallallahu wasallam did that, okay? You don't understand? I don't necessarily understand, but I'm following it because he said, do it.
Even if you don't understand, he said, do it, do it.
That is only for him alone.
For anybody else, we need to understand as best as we can.
We need to understand as best as we can. And we don't follow anyone else blindly. But Muslim history unfortunately,
reached the point
where these scholarly efforts to follow the way of Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam.
degenerated
into four different religions.
While calling itself Islam, it had degenerated into four different religions. So much so
that around the Kaaba
for centuries around the Kaaba, itself,
the most important pillar of Islam Salah
was prayed four times.
Each congregation led by an Imam from one of the four Muslims.
That is something unthinkable maybe to us today we look at it. Yeah. Is that true? Look at all of the old pictures. You go on the internet, Google Kaaba.
And they'll show you images from the Kaaba, which were photographed in the early part of the 20th century.
Late 19th century you look at all of those, and you will see structures around the Kaaba, which are not there now, today.
Each one of those structures canopies had a name one was called macom Hanafi.
We know about maqam Ibrahim now, but they had also macom Hanafi added
macom shafee macom hanbali and macom Maliki and when the time for Salah came
that was made, when the time for the karma came, then the Hanafi Imam
would stand under the Hanafi canopy. They would make the karma and all the hanafis who were making ombre
Were in the masjid, they would line up and pray behind him. When his Salah was finished, then the shaft a mom would get up and all of the shaft rays would pray behind him, and so on and so forth. What do you think of that?
That is degeneration.
Allah tells us in the Quran, waka c mu b hublin life journey
hold on firmly to the rope of Allah together as one group and don't split up. What is that? That is the exact opposite of the message of the Quran.
So it is incumbent on us to find our way back to the way of Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam.
To make his way, our true and ultimate madhhab.
Meaning that when information comes to us, when we see people doing things contrary to what we do, we ask we find out, we get to the sources as much as we can.
And if we find that there is evidence to support practices that we didn't know about, then we go according to the way of Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam. Because that's what Abu hanifa said. He said Ma'am, Abu hanifa said, if the Hadees if the statement of Prophet Mohammed Salim or his practice is authentic, then that is my matter.
And Mr. McAfee said exactly the same thing.
And that made me humble and Mr. Malik both said similar things. So they made it clear that that is what people are supposed to do. They lead the way and we should follow in that spirit.
Mr. Michel Frey studied under Imam Malik. For more than 20 years he was a student.
And it wasn't until Imam Malik died that imaam Shafi set off to teach himself.
They went to Yemen
from there to Baghdad. He studied under the students of Imam Abu hanifa because Abu hanifa died already.
And he taught he wrote a book called alhaja
compiling the rulings based on what he had learned from Mr. Malik, and the students from Abu hanifa.
Then he went on to Egypt
to study under Imam a lay Sydneysider, who most of us have never heard about
who was a contemporary of Imam Malik.
And when he got there, a mama lizard already died, so he studied under the students of the mama life.
And after studying under the students of Mr. Layton absorbing the knowledge which Mr. malaise was teaching,
he then changed his opinions on many of the things that he had concluded based on his studies in Medina and Iraq.
And he wrote a new book called
with new rulings, correcting and changing his previous rulings, and he settled in Egypt.
And his way his methodology, his teaching, became the dominant teaching. So now we know Shafi Imam, Shafi Egypt, Mr. Malays who ever heard of him,
nobody heard about him, but he was in fact, by proxy, the teacher of the mama Shafi.
That was the way
it mama Shafi demonstrated the way to seek knowledge and to understand it, to be willing to change one's rulings even with the statue that he had, he had no problem switching from rulings which he wrote in alhaja, to rulings which he wrote in
no problem.
So why do we have problems today?
I asked her last month Allah to bring us back to the way of our righteous forefathers who sought knowledge for the sake of a law
and who taught that knowledge for the pleasure of Allah
Who are not afraid to change when the truth came to them and who had the courage to stand behind the truth regardless of those who oppose them. Apollo cola was thoroughly welcome or asylums demeanor included.
in the Oval Office Rahim I ask Allah to forgive myself and yourselves and call on you to turn to him to seek His forgiveness because none can forgive sin. Besides him. hamdu Lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala rasulillah
operates due to Alon Miller's Peace and blessings beyond the last messenger of Allah. So brothers and sisters
today,
the impact of the madhhab perhaps is not as great in our lives.
I spoke about the time which is passed.
It ended actually only 1925.
Those four prayers around the Kaaba stopped in 1925 when
King Abdulaziz and his followers
took over Arabia
took over Mecca and Medina
and
destroyed those structures which were around the Kaaba
and
insisted that only one prayer would take place in Makkah,
the Imam regardless of his mother, would be followed by everyone.
1925 so it's not so long ago, maybe before many of us were born, most of us were born, but still not that long ago.
And I should add,
that for hundreds of years,
it was ruled a ruling was made in the Hanafi madhhab that it was not permissible for a hanafy to marry a chef or
not permissible for a hanafy to marry a Shafi.
Can you imagine that?
This is why I said it deteriorated into different religions. Because we cannot marry Hindus.
But we can marry Christians.
Muslim men can marry Christian women.
But we can't marry Hindus,
women or men unless they convert to Islam.
So by saying that the Hanafi could not marry a Shafi
is like saying you can't marry a Hindu.
That's very serious.
And it lasted for hundreds of years.
This ruling lasted for hundreds of years. Till today if you go to the master deeds in Syria and Damascus etc, you will find in the those masters built from the era of the 13th century 14th century onwards, they will have to meet her ABS you see this merab they have to
one 403 one fish affray
the relic still remain.
And we do find in some mustards in different parts of the Muslim world where their communities have both Chavez Hana fees for us are time. You'd have a prayer timetable for HANA fees and a prayer timetable for Chavez. What does that say? Still elements of it are still alive amongst us today.
But the greater the greater harm which faces us today is the factionalism which came from the movements of the 20th century 20th century, there are movements which are roles
with the intent of correcting the ills of colonization of the Muslim Ummah, by the colonial powers, movements arose in resistance to these forces of colonization.
good intent.
But what tended to happen is that in time, these movements after their successes or their failures, whatever
These movements took on a life of their own.
They became jam art.
And they took on names.
And
they began to look at people who are not a part of their Jamaat, as being
misguided.
If you weren't in our Gemma, if you're not a member, you have not made back to our leader,
then you're lost.
Not only are you lost, I start to look at you as the enemy. If you're not with us, then you're against us.
So my dad, instead of being down to a loss of 100, Allah, it becomes Dawa, to my group, my organization, my movement.
And that was misguidance.
Because Islam doesn't deny the need for organization,
organizations are beneficial as a means not an end.
We have made these organizations under a variety of different names, ends, instead of being means and because their ends their goals. That's why we call to them rather than calling to Allah.
So if we hear of a person who is a new Muslim,
the first thing we're going to ask him about is which Gema which group he belongs to.
And if he doesn't belong to our group, then we have to try to pull him into our group.
And that is more important to us than his growth islamically
we're trying to build membership our whole dow is increasing our numbers.
When our dow or our call should be to a last wild Allah.
Allah says odorless Emilia amicable Hekmati will not
call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and wise preaching. And that was the way of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi Salaam and that is why we are commanded in the law of Malacca. Who you saloon Allenby Yeah, Valentina. amanu sallu alayhi wa sallam we
were called to seek a lot of Peace and blessings.
For Prophet Muhammad SAW them because he is the one who showed us the way,
a way which was free from factionalism.
Not that way without differences because it doesn't mean the Sahaba did not use the components of the prophet SAW. Selim did not differ. They different. They had different opinions, they disagreed, but they didn't allow those differences to split their ranks. So that one couldn't pray behind another.
And that is what we have let happen to us today.
So we need to go back to the way which Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam left, which he called us to
the way of the Quran and the Sunnah away which calls to the unity of Muslims
and the unity of Muslims giving given precedence over our differences,
resolving differences, correcting,
seeking to understand what is the better way we do that, but not at the expense of the unity of Muslims.
So I ask Allah, to Allah, to bring us back to the United Way
Back to the way of Rasulullah sallallahu.
To remove from our hearts, our factionalism, our feelings of groupism, which split our ranks. I ask Allah to help us to find the truth with regards to the way of Islam and to be willing to give up whatever we have held on to all these years, simply for the pleasure of Allah Subhana Allah and ask Allah to make our hearts pure, free
From rancor, ill feelings towards our fellow Muslims that he bring our hearts together as only he can
and that we die leaving this world as believers in
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