Bilal Philips – Islamic Culture Vs. Western Culture Part 1
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AI: Transcript ©
I want to tell Pharaoh on how to be lagging in February officina, amin say as Dr. Molina
de la la la la la la,
la la, la la, la la la la la la la sharika.
Mohammed Abu are solo
operations you due to Allah, and as such we should praise Him,
we should seek His help
and seek His forgiveness.
We should also seek refuge in Allah from the evil which is within ourselves, and the evil which results from my deeds.
For whomsoever Allah has guided, none can miss guide. And also ever Allah has allowed to go astray, none can guide
an ideal witness. It is no god worthy of worship, but Allah was alone with our partner, and that Mohammed from Lamar it was setting them is the last messenger of Allah.
This evening's presentation is Islamic culture versus Western culture. This topic is of course of specific significance to us, in the West, as a minority community here in Bahamas in the West. And it is of significance to Muslims internationally, to understand what constitutes Western culture. And what if there is an Islamic culture should Muslims adopt as an alternative to what is being presented to the media as the world culture.
Now, in order to understand
the issues of Islamic culture in Western culture, is first necessary to understand what is culture
and from an anthropological point of view, it is viewed as the man made part of human of the human environment.
A culture is the way of life of a specific group.
Now, the word culture comes from the Latin word, cultura, which is a derivative of the verb killary, meaning tending or cultivation, it was really used initially to refer to the tending of animals. Animal Husbandry, this is what the original use of the word was. But by the 16th century in 1510, the Oxford Dictionary of English language had modified that meaning and began to define it as training of the mind or manners.
Now,
no, all students of
human society, agree upon the indispensable importance of the concept of culture. No single definition
has yet one universal acceptance in the various schools of anthropology.
But, basically, the idea of culture arises from the observation that human beings do,
and of what human beings do, and what they refrain from doing, that it is in part, a consequence of being brought up in one group as opposed to another and has been observed that
people have both a social heredity as well as a biological heredity.
Now, what can we then say, using this general understanding of what is culture that is
the body of knowledge and practices, which are taught within the family, within the system of education of the society, both formally and informally,
wherein people learn to behave in particular ways, that become conventional
and fixed by tradition.
In terms of Western culture, we can say basically, the origin of Western culture is pagan.
It is of pagan origin.
It is referred to as Greco Roman,
or the Greco Roman civilization, meaning its origins are in Greece, and Rome.
And anybody reading any books of history, with Greek and Roman history, quickly realizes that these were pagan societies.
The non idolatry
and the other component of Western culture can be found in Northern Europe may be called Scandinavia, they also made a major contribution to the Germanic peoples and others, you know, contributed to what we now know as Western culture.
This is very evident to us in certain basic things like even the days of the week, how we name the days of the week, factor day is from Saturn V. factor in the God of agriculture, of the Roman
Rite, very basic, you know, Monday or Sunday, the day for the worship of the Sun God, Monday, the day for the worship of the moon God.
Third day is from the Scandinavian God for was originally far as the the god of thunder. And when they was from rodents, they other Scandinavian gods. So we will see that even the very names of the days of the weaknesses right out of pagan culture, and this is what we have inherited in the web.
And even
Christ's teachings, Jesus Christ, who
originally promoted a non pagan system of religion, which we understand to the Islam fundamental, that is the worship of God, the Creator, and not the worship of his creation, by the time that the Greeks and the Romans got ahold of it, and again became veganized. And people with returned back to worship of human beings, you know, statues, etc, etc. All we have to do is look around at the symbols of Christmas, what is Christmas represent? You know, the 25th of December comes straight out of Roman practice, the celebration known as Saturnalia, again, to the giving thanks to the God of agriculture, Saturn, in which took place at the same time, you know, the winter equinox, right. And
similarly, the tree, because actually, in the Saturnalia pattern celebration was they would give gifts, as part of the thing that would give dolls and things like this to the children. So as part of their celebration, and the tree, which is now the standard symbol of Christmas, we know that came from the Scandinavian, who believed the Evergreen for them was a symbol of God. When I look at all the trees, when winter came, all the trees, they turned brown leaves fall off, and they appeared to die, but the evergreen tree remained green. And this concept of eternal life, you know, is there it is in the tree, so the tree became a symbol of their gods. And as they were christianized, they
brought the sin along with them, and they became a standard symbol for Christianity. Now,
in spite of, of that origin, with the Roman Church, gaining control over most of Western Roman, both Eastern Roman and Western enrollment,
another set of values were brought in, you know, some of them we could say, are Mosaic, because they did have the Old Testament along with them. So some aspects of Jewish culture. So it became Judeo Christian culture, you know, is being infused and of course, the origin of that is from divine revelation, in spite of certain distortion. So, there was another component which came in, however, by the 15th 16th century, due to the struggle between the church and scientists, the free thinkers, etc. You had a split, they actually began with, with the Protestant movement of Martin Luther, you know, he began that initial split from the the control of the church in the thought patterns for the
whole, you know, of that region, and they broke, rejected many of the practices, but from that came the,
the scientists who now started to question a number of other areas. And the there was the fact that the rise in atheistic thought
in fact, out of that period, you know, centuries later came the next
the next
expression, which is really we could call it a return to the pagan roots. Were in a scientific basis is provided for it by the Darwinian theory.
Back to the pagan roots again, pagan roots being that
In ancient Greece, it was believed that the world was eternal. There are a number of Greek, ancient Greek philosophers who held this ancient idea that the world is eternal.
Right? You don't need to go to the issue of God you know, everything is always there are no gods to create. So, basically, Darwinism is providing again that foundation to go back to the concept of the world being eternal matter being eternal, human beings are a natural product of the
development of nature, the survival of the fittest, and you know, accidental creation, by nature, Mother Nature, you know, become the big word which is always used Mother Nature.
When you think about it, that go back to take in Romans and the Greek Mother Nature is a symbol of one of the gods you know, the symbol
Mother Nature, you hear them talking about, you know, why, if plants you know, you look at, say the fly catcher, you have a plan to to catch flies, Qatif on it, right, Venus flytrap and they'll talk about how Mother Nature evolved.
Or how the, how the plants develop this ability now it's evolved.
Suddenly, when you listen to the actual statements and expressions of how this came about, you really can see, you know, the, the root paganism that lives in it.
Out of that came the culture, the 20th century culture now of secularism, the complete overthrow of the church, secularism being a system of beliefs, which reject all forms of religious faith and worship, the view that public education and other matters of civil policy should be conducted without the introduction of the religious element
to secularism,
and the basis of that, of this approach, they called humanism, in a way from religion now we go to humanism, humanism being a system of, or mode of thought, or action in which humans and secular interests predominate. I mean, how do we determine what we should do in a society It is based on what is beneficial, what you can see to be beneficial, this is what is good, what you don't consider the beneficial This is what is not good, you know, so you decide on the way things should be according to human interest, there's no outside individual or power or source which will define for you what is right and what is wrong. And the other major symbol of Western culture is democracy.
Democracy, again, from Greek origin, origin, the meaning the rule of the people, right, evolved in Greece, especially in Athens. And they're
the people used to gather and vote and decide, you know, how society would function.
Very nice to have major structures of Parliament and all that kind of thing, because that was my big, so they would have assembly, and everybody had a right to vote, ideas were put forward and it is made decisions. However,
slaves and women were excluded, they had no vote. And the slaves and women made up something close to 70% of the population. So this so called democracy, you know, was a decision made by a minority of the inhabitants
as to the way the society would function.
And you know, they say
that in college encyclopedia, Western democracy reaches beyond the confines of government, and affects all phases of human relations. I tell you that
it's a way of life. Democracy as a way of life is based on several basic principles, actually three basic principles. The first principle is rational empiricism,
empiricism, fundamentally,
consisting of a confidence in human reason and experience,
human reason, we have the ability, the intelligence, and the experience, to determine what is in fact, best for us. It holds that reason is applicable not only to the understanding and mastery of nature,
but also to the understanding and conduct of social
man can find the solutions from his own brain, he can do it.
The second basic principle is called discussion and consent, since no one in the democratic view possesses absolute truth, so they said they deny all absolute
paths and scores are going up. Truth is relative. You know, one man's need is an
another man's poison. These are all, you know, the reminders of three don't get this idea that there is some absolute truth No. So, since no one has absolute truth, all sides to an argument must be given free expression. No truth is so certain that it may not be challenged
fundamental principles of democracy. Furthermore, the third principle is that of equality and from the rationalist humanist viewpoint, all human beings share over and above differences of class, race, *, nationality and religion, one common traits, the ability to reason
for the issues of reason, the human mind and disabilities this has given elevated to a status now, of
God
becomes the God of the of this century human beings have given the decisions of the human intellect, reign and right over all else.
Practically speaking, what this
what this
comes down to is that all of the various
cultural practices in the society will be affected by these contracts, Darwinism will be affecting it, secularism, humanism, democracy, all of these principles will be affecting the various
cultural norms of the society. So, as Muslims, we have to realize that
we cannot just absorb, you know, the society, the back side and accepted, we have to look to see is there in fact, an Islamic culture that we should be following. Now, what we find
in the mass of the Muslim world today is cultural Islam.
That is, traditionalism,
we're looking for Islamic culture. What we find in general is cultural Islam. This traditionalism is based on the principle of blind following of cultural norms
is the foundation
for blind following of cultural norms, what has been inherited, and you find in the Quran, that when Prophet Muhammad needed peace and blessings be upon him invited people back to the worship of one God, to give up their false gods etc. Their response was, we must hold on to those cultural norms Allah says in the Quran, why is that de la la, la la la la, la la la la la la la seule. If you say to them, come to work a law has revealed unto His Messenger called banana Raja de la habana. It is sufficient for us. What we found are for parents doing a lot goes on to question them, our Locanda about whom lie Allah Muna say and what to do, even though they're for parents didn't know anything,
and we're not rightly guided.
But this is the standard response of the ultra Muslim today when the truth because Islam is based on the Quran and the Sunnah, when the Quran and the Sunnah is presented to them, they were their responses. If it was good enough, what we were doing was good enough for our parents and our parents is good enough for us.
Right? So what comes out of that is the madhhab fanaticism madhhab ism, where people now attribute their cultural practices to a school of Islamic law, the Mazda, Mazda takes on a cultural role. No, the madhhab are the School of Islamic law represented the the attempts of early scholars to apply the Quran and Sunnah to the Sharia. in daily life.
It
took on a rigidity, a fixed set of practices that now became a cultural norm.
So you may find people doing things and the first thing they will say that according to my mother, law, if you actually go into the School of Law, you may find it's not there at all.
It may not be there at all, but that's what the people do. And that was their school of Islamic law. So they tend to attribute everything back to the school. Also, what you find, you know, which is as a result of this, is that, you know, extensive innovation in religious practices is the norm in those societies, that people are involved in all kinds of, of practices which contradict basic Islamic principles, whether it's building tombs over graves or you know, performing religious rites around grave or
You know, from from the from the beginning to the lowest walks of life to the upper most walks of life all the areas you find inundated, you know mixed up with these various innovations. And what also is closely linked with this is the so called Islamic mysticism, or Sufism, which provides a spiritual culture and other other cultures spiritual support for these
cultural Islam.
Wherein people are offered short cuts to God
as the
pope
in the mitten in the medieval days,
used to offer medieval and the Middle Ages, they used to offer people tickets to paradise actual certificates, which said that the possessor of this certificate has the right to go to Paradise. And if you paid your money, your name was put on the certificate and it was signed by the Pope. This is known as the indulgences, open encyclopedia read about the indulgences, not as a practice for a number of years, hundreds of years in the Christian Catholic Church, just as they had that, in the past, you have people in the cultural, Islamic
environment, promoting similar
features trips to paradise. You have, for example, the most popular individual today and that promoting this amongst especially in the West, is an individual by the name of Shannon nasm. And hopped on he just had a big conference out in California, a lot of people were invited there, Los Angeles, major World Conference.
And this individual when you read his writings,
he tells his followers that
whoever has accepted him
as their share, they become his Marines. One was given up his wheels to the ship, meaning whatever the ship tells him to do, that whoever accepts him as a chef, he says, when the time to die calm, that the angel of death will not take this, he will be there to take the soul and pass it on to the next life.
And when the angels one Kevin McHale come to question them in the grave,
who is your Lord?
and Rob book? What was your religion? Medina?
Who was your prophet Matthew?
He will be there to answer the questions for you.
And on the Day of Judgment, when you stand before God, and God questions you, he will also be there beside you to answer your question.
This is a shortcut to paradise being offered.
Which of course, false
12 individual is
deluding people and
stealing their souls
stealing results.
Now, the question that we end up with is
having a brief overview of cultural Islam?
What constitutes the basis of Western culture?
The question arises, is there an Islamic culture?
Is there such a thing as what may be called an Islamic culture? Now, in the beginning we said that the definition or a definition of culture was
the way of life of a specific group,
the way of life of a specific group.
And we know in Islam, we are obliged to follow the way of the prophet may God's peace and this will be a finding the sadhana, right, which means the way of life, his way of life. And a lot of said regarding his channel of rasulillah is what Annapurna there is in the Messenger of Allah, the best of examples. So the way of life which he brought, which he thought, as the Prophet before him, all of the prophets, a way of life, a way of life based on divine revelation.
That way of life is the foundation of the Islamic culture.
Within that culture, of course, we know that the foundational principles is revelation.
The Islamic foundation is distinct and different from the democratic view. The foundation is revelation.
Meaning that it is not left up to the individuals to determine rationally you know, what it should be the norms for society as well as government,
those norms are
set by God
because God created society, God knows human strengths and weaknesses and can
set for us laws, which are not class based or you know, with any kind of interest, you know, whether people call it you know, * based * is, you know, where males may tend to want to put logs favoring the males or the females things like this a law beyond all that, because he created male and female and the laws that he has established for mankind in general, and in fact, we believe that there are absolute truths,
there are absolute truths, those which have been defined by Allah and His messenger.
So,
when we come to the obvious
expression of culture,
we then have to analyze them in terms of
To what degree the Western philosophy plays a role, to what degree does
Muslim culture or cultural Muslim practices play a role? and to what degree is there in fact, Islamic culture here,
I mean, what is the Islamic cultural aspects of this particular practice, for example, we'll take one of the most obvious things in society is dress,
dress the way we dress
Okay, in terms of dress,
we believe
that this is something
a part of human nature is something began by Adam.
Right, it is part of heredity, you know, human culture, there's aspects which are learned this is hereditary, the learning part is more of the details in terms of how it should be in style, etc, etc, this is where the individual cultures come into play, but that this is fundamentally a part and parcel of human nature. Now, from the western point of view, Western culture, which has adopted the Darwinian approach that human beings are, in fact, you know, devolved from or evolved from apes or a common ancestor with the apes then the question of dress becomes one of you know of attitude now, this is they're looking at what is it? What is the purpose of this dress, when we look at a dog
walking around, we don't find the dog trying to cover himself to hide in so
that's a this idea of human beings wants to hide their private You know, this is something which has been put on them by the society is a kind of a phobia, some kind of you know,
psychological error has taken part in their
development. So, they promote back to nature.
Let us be natural.
So we have the nudist beaches we have the new discounts in our in Germany fits like this, they have huge, you know, huge areas, they're like, parks, where everybody in there start naked. I mean, from the guy in the day collecting your tickets all the way people selling ice cream cones, everybody, man, woman, children, everybody start making
this is this is a, this is a culture. This is a this is a this is a view. And it finds its expression in a number of different ways.
I know in Canada, in Toronto, where I grew up,
students from junior high that went to junior high in high school, all male students had to swim naked.
The only way you could get out of that is if you had a doctor's excuse me, you had some kind of diseases It was embarrassing for you had to cover it up. Otherwise you had to go searching start naked.
And so this is set by that same philosophy that you know this idea of being shy, you know, unnatural, you got to go back to nature don't see the animals acting in this way. So this is we are basically animals we shouldn't have these feelings. So you then have your communal showers. You know after you play for
Smaller play whatever cricket you go in, instead of having individual showers, you have a computer just have a big room with you know, shower faucets and everybody standing there naked the washing
prior to the hoses, but it is a philosophy, this is a culture becomes the culture, the secularist culture. So, when we look at the purposes of dress, right, we can say that, from an Islamic point of view, the first purpose of dress is to cover the private parts.
First purpose is to cover the privacy.
The second purpose is protecting oneself from the elements
from the elements, whether from the sun or from when the cold of the winter, whatever you know,
the third purpose is beauty.
And all you beautify it. And the law tells us that we should take our most beautiful garments when it goes to the masters and
beautification. That's part of addressing beautification. Now, this is the order Islam looked at it first, first and foremost, cover the private second, protection from the elements. Third, beauty. Now, in the western concept, secularists concept, Darwinian product. First is beauty.
That's number one, beauty is most important. This is why you will find
a woman wearing a hyper miniskirt, you know, in the dead of winter in New York City, you know, 1015 degrees below zero, she's wearing a hyper miniskirt. Obviously, her dress is not to protect them from the ultimate, you know, private parts of the expose, the number one is beauty, they reverse the whole, you know, their whole look.
Because basically, we're animals, you know, and what, how do animals function, Animal, you know, the female, she likes to better tail feathers, you know, to attract the male. So this is the most important function. Second is to protect from elements. And so they do have something maybe
what do you call them, stockings like underneath, whatever, you know. And then third is covering the pipe. And sorry, I mean, it's a minor. And it's only
and we can see we can see this hole in the third aspect of covering the private This is slowly disappearing.
Centuries ago, yes, it was their writing. But as time has evolved, time has passed. And the whole issue of covering the privates is
what is most important now is showing the private
cover, but uncovered
is the whole thrust of dress from the western cultural viewpoint.
Now, from a
cultural Islamic viewpoint,
we have different types of dress. In Malaysia, they like to wear the salon.
In Pakistan and India, they were the shallower commies, you know, in many of the Arab and Afro Arab cultures, they were the soap longarm.
and a variety of other names for other types of garments that are one and different styles etc. And these, ultimately are cultural expression.
Now,
Islam doesn't deny the cultural expression, as long as they don't conflict with the principles of Islamic dress and what constitutes Islamic culture and dress represents the principles of dress
that for the male,
the dress should cover at least between the navel and the knee.
And it should be
above the ankle,
it should not be certain colors like bright orange, which is associated with orange red associated with Buddhist, the Buddhist monks.
Also, it shouldn't be so
ornamentation shouldn't be gold. These are principles of Islamic dress which represents the dress which comes out of that we can say represents a product of Islamic culture.
So where
there are cultures existing in those societies before the coming of Islam, whatever where the cultural norm has to be modified to match the Islamic principles. Similarly in the female dress, and the woman is required to cover everything except for face and hands. And in the same way, that when we say covered, it should be covered and not covered yet uncovered. Meaning that a woman wearing you know aerobics
would not be considered covered or physically signal bodies covered with material, but it's not covered, covered yet uncovered in the same way from males wearing no pants, which accentuate the private part form them, show them this is not acceptable, not considered covering.
So, here we can identify within the dress
codes,
what could be defined as Islamic culture with regard to dress.
Another common
issue in culture is that of mixing.
You know, mixed education is where it started from mixed education is going to educate boys and girls together, and the past Western culture, they did separate between boys and girls.
But with the permissiveness and the secularists approach to education, these practices these church schools is used to separate whether the church school separation come from, it came from Judaic practices in Judaism, separation of the men and the women, this was based on revelation.
Moving away from the church, these values, no longer important, the church, everybody came together in the church, also in school, everybody came together.
So the next thing began in the educational menu. And from there, it went to the society as a whole, that, you know, the mixing of men and women in workplaces, and in all the different walks of life became the norm.
Of course, what resulted from that is, especially in modern time, is the harassment of women. So you'll find women writing all these books about harassment of women on the job, you know, in the in America and England, which are supposed to be the most progressive of these societies. The women are harassed. Every year, we read up incidents in the, in the army in the Navy, the tail hook into dents, and all this kind of women being harassed, there are doctors or lawyers, or professors or all these fields, but yet, once they're mixed with another being
so out of this culture of mixing is harm coming to the female. In fact, way back in 1991, in America, the reported number of rapes had crossed the 100,000. Mark.
And they estimate that this is
only one seven, to one 10th of the actual numbers.
And this is what the estimates No, because most women will not report it, you know, for the embarrassment and everything else. They don't they, you know, the estimate is something was seven to 10 times that number.
And this is in the most permissive of the society, yet, this is happening. Why because of that intermingling one to also reject codes, where the female has been, you know,
on closed in the society, she is used to promote the products that are being sold. And with that mixing that continuous contact on the low circumstance with that frame of mind, then the end result is the harassment serious harassment of women, because we know that those 100,000 cases of *,
they're not too many among them. Are women * men? Right.
Some cases, I suppose. I mean, when he talks about his regret, automatically, people focus on men * women, because that's the general
way it happens. Right? So the harm which comes out of the mixing is so obvious. In education, we find even for places like New York, where
the some of the black educators in New York are trying to set up all girls schools, all boys schools, going back to this a big struggle in the, in the Department of Education there that this is, you know, it is what they call it, sexism and this type of thing. No, we we, you know, should be integrating these schools, why you're going backwards. But the educators have found
that boys and girls studying together, don't help each other, in arms
is harmful, that it is more effective. Kids learn better when they're with their own *, you know, and groupings for education.
So, they themselves, you know, are going back to the
methodology, which was taught by divine revelation, Islamic view is that of separation. Separation begins in the area of worship
and our place of worship. We're not making
Together, the women are separate from the men
to all walks of life, within the whole,
the tradition, Islamic tradition, which evolved from that is that normally where there are people outside of the home, then the women eat together, and the many together, you know, the idea of, you know, all the men sitting around the table with all the women, this is not I mean, though people might look at it as being Arab culture to separate No, it is in keeping with the Islamic culture.
Because the harm of, of mixing
in prayer, the harm of mixing in work circumstances is also there in the mixing even in the areas of meals. And this is why for example, in greeting,
common form of greeting in Western society shaking the head
women shake hands with men men take as women from Islamic perspective.
Women will shake hands with women, men shake hands with men.
It's not permissible,
it's forbidden for the protection of what may result in a robot people shaking hands men and women should not be thinking anything, but
those who know know that a handshake can mean a lot more than a handshake. So, to protect from circumstances, where other you know, meanings and understandings can begin from us the society is protected by prohibiting this type of interaction
when we come also in terms of celebrations, the other major cultural manifestation in the society regular manifestation
the western cultural celebrations we mentioned are fundamentally taken
their Christmas their Easter their you know, the National Day The whatever days etc all of these various celebrations tend to be
of a
pagan type origin. So,
as most of them we are not permitted to
take part in these various celebrations because of the fact that they are fundamentally vegan
This is the reason why we're not allowed to take part because you know, some people may argue for example that
if a Christian you know, will attend you know, Muslim celebration, they will take part in the eat and you know, wish people happy eat and this type of thing, why can't we wish them also Merry Christmas? You know, they don't believe in our eat. We don't believe in a Christmas.
But the point is that
for them, because the celebration really has no solid religious, you know, basis it is now Santa Claus, this is Christmas is no longer about the birth of Jesus.
But the key is Santa Claus, the key figure of Santa Claus is guy flying through the air and you know, a fairy tale
a lie which children are taught, you know,
the, the essence of it is from
the paganistic belief
that God was born on the 25th of December.
So, for Muslims, we cannot accept that God was born. Period.
You know, so,
as we would say to a Christian look okay.
A Satan worshiper
aka satan worshippers. Luke, did you have two seconds?
Would you reply awesome. And it says is this useful?
Who I,
you can enjoy baby is celebrated etc. You cannot relate to that this is something totally contrary to our belief. You know, you don't celebrate Satan's works and you know, in the society. Similarly, for us to deal with Christmas lights for Christmas, we'll deal with happy faces today because we are celebrating joining in the celebration in the birth of God. The idea that God was born was totally opposed to our system.
So it's not acceptable for us to take part in those celebrations, as well as any other celebrations, which are related to their
effort. We've been taught by
to collide, not true, there is no such thing there is only one race, and that is the human race. That is the reality. The differences in color and form and, you know, height and all these things, these differences are incidental. As we don't, you know, look, when we look at cats, we have big cats look at Red cat, Black Cat, yellow cats, you know, all these different colors, the cats, we don't call any one of them. something other than a cat is all cats.
The human being the same thing. And in fact, God has left
a message to mankind within the biological makeup of men, that if you reflect as the law says, and if you reflect even in yourself, you'll notice about God that
we cannot deny,
transcend the so called divisions of race. Because if you
are in need of a blood transfusion,
and you are type A, your brothers all the other Afro Bahamian brothers all type.
And there's one European visiting from America or your American or European from Europe, wherever he is, and he or she is typing, only her blood can save you.
Only her blood can save your life. So her blood can save your life, he obviously is closest to us, and we are
the signs God has left him alone. And we only discovered it in this time. So, but these are the times when the issues of race were being promoted as divisions among mankind, to justify the the exploitation the of the other societies, when you have spread out and to justify the * of these other cultures, they justified it by these people belonging to other races, which are according to Darwinian evolutionary tree lower on the ladder, closer to the monkeys, you know, they put themselves on the top. So down the road, you know, you find that cluster monkeys right. So, this is the this is what was promoted as a justification for colonization and the rate of non European
cultures. So in order to further support resistance issues of races, and then decided to argue issues about, you know, certain races being inferior, and you know, a big struggle that, that in recent times, because this has been rejected, officially,
there are still some scholars, quote unquote, scholars in the West who pop up from time to time I tried to make the same argument, you know, that blacks are inferior and these type of things, you know, so the, the issues then
regarding
race,
for us islamically, it has no place. And extensions, extension of Africa, races, nation is tribes, these are all expressions of tribalism, and they have no place in Islam. This is why we cannot take part in national Muslims, we're not allowed to take part in these expressions of tribalism, in this society, even if we're in Muslim societies, and they want to do it is still not acceptable.
We know that Prophet Muhammad may got this left the party when he came to Medina, he found the people having a number of yearly annual celebrations.
And he told them,
that they should stop all the celebrations, that we only have two celebrations,
which are religious celebrations that are either celebrating the breaking of the fast
of Ramadan, and he loved her celebrating the or commemorating prophet Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, on which that day we also sacrifice animals and distribution needs for needy, etc.
We can find in another in another
expression of culture in the area of marriage,
a number of
Western
cultural practices like the white dress
and the rice,
the flowers on the cars and the tin cans and you know, these, these are Western practices, which, why do you track down the origins of them, generally speaking, they'll be
linked back to some aspects of paganism driving away the evil spirits and these kinds of things.
Even the wearing of the wedding ring on the finger, wearing a wedding ring on the finger from Catholic
Tradition early Catholic tradition, when the priest would put ring by the thumb thing in the name of the Father, the name of the Son, the name of the Holy Ghost, amen. So that wearing of this ring signifying marriage and his finger finger was a confirmation of the pagan Trinitarian concept of God.
So for Muslims, we cannot accept any of these, we can't say well okay to wear the ring, you know, let people know I'm married, but no, this is linked to
a particular pagan culture.
So, from the Islamic perspective, in terms of marriage,
there are no special wedding dresses
where Muslims tend to be in contact with other societies they take it, we may find with them, you know, though they're wearing the job, you know, the woman covering themselves they want to wear a white dress on that day, but see, where is it coming from? Similarly, this is here because this is the custom here for example, you find Muslims in India and Pakistan, they wear a red dress, why because the Hindus marry in the red dress.
So, they have taken that much into their own practices, marriage practices.
Also, the issue of the dowry, when you actually look up the definition of dowry, it is explained that dowry is the money given by the parents of the bride to the group.
This is what our is this is the, this is the Western tradition, that is what it is and this is also Hindu practice into practice right, and Muslims, you know, who are in contact with these societies you find Muslims in places like Sri Lanka, in Pakistan, in India, you know, those cultures close, they have also adopted this. So, you will find there traditionally for Muslim daughters to get married, the fathers have to give huge dowry to the man. But, Islamic culture teaches that the dowry is given unique the dowry is given from the man to the woman
given as a symbol of the man's preparedness to maintain and look after that woman properly.
So,
within the context of marriage itself, the thing you know, we can find in all the various aspects
norms, which have become what we would call Islamic cultural norms.
And the western or pagan cultures have their own set of traditions which Muslims are not allowed to partake off.
In terms of
the,
the culture of food,
the way in which people eat food,
the types of food they eat,
the times at which they eat the food.
All of these represent again, cultural expression.
for Muslims, there is an Islamic culture regarding foods,
the way in which food is eaten, there are specific instructions given by the prophet and they got this message to find him, which identify how Muslims are supposed to eat.
He said that the believer eats as if he has one stomach, and the disbeliever eats as if he has seven.
That's what a believer, he eats a third he drinks a third and he leaves the third for breathing.
And the worst thing that a human being can fill his stomach.
So, Islamic cultural norm is that the believers eat moderately
not eating till their food
which
is part and parcel of the Western culture eats you know, kill your food till you're satisfied. Eat.
And unfortunately,
for many Muslims, when Ramadan comes
these principles are
thrown out the window. We fight all day long.
And we're supposed to break the fast for three days and then have a moderate meal. The test now Are we really fast?
But instead what happens is people are setting up three four courses of meals eating delicious food
is still you know, you sort of give a hip hiccup You know, that's it.
Have you tried to put a big boy down is all coming up, you know.
And then of course, when you send for the night prayers, you know, like the snake when he gets full the book constricts, he goes to sleep, he said, if you were fighting to stay awake, and obviously, you know, it was all because of the fact that we have broken the fundamental, you know, Islamic cultural norms, in eating
the eating with the right hand, you know, and not eating with the left, this is to help put
in on the western culture, you go to the burger stand, you know, you got a burger in your rights, you got a coke in your left, you know, you can just stop it in from both sides, right.
Whereas Islamic system, you only deal with the right, that left you can't be no, you finished eating, you want to drink, you stop eating when you take a drink, you know, so you have to break up, slow you down.
These are all among the benefits
of the kind, of course, we look at all the elements that people suffering, that's certainly the major ailments, sicknesses, etc, from the stomach, things connected with the stomach, you know, with eating habits, mean all these problems of cholesterol and all this stuff, it relates always back to eating habits.
Because even if a person lived their life, which was not very active, because it's a part of the problem is that people not so active, you know, so they, you know, this way, you have treadmills and all these other things to put active activity back in our lives, right. But the fact of the matter is, is that if we ate moderately, even if we're inactive, the food wouldn't hurt. But because we don't eat moderately, and we're inactive, then.
So, the Islamic culture, with regards to foods we can see, you know, our norms are clearly defined. And it is for us, to identify them, and to implement them.
So in summary,
we can say that
culture,
being the way of life of a particular group,
includes both Western culture
with its pagan origin, which he should be aware of, what its goals are, what its norms are, etc.
as well as
Muslim people's culture,
which tends to be that of traditionalism, no blind following of traditions which have been inherited, not wanting to change this tradition. And what in fact, we should be seeking Islamic culture,
which has its norm step by revelation,
the Quran, and the Sunnah.
This is a foundation for Islamic culture. And it is essential for us
in all of the various
walks of life,
that we function within,
in this society, here or in Muslim countries, we do have to keep in mind these distinctions.
Because oftentimes, people when they newly come into Islam, they're unable to distinguish between
the traditional culture
of Muslim people, and what in fact, is Islamic culture.
And, in doing so, they end up in certain tangents become very rigid, holding on to certain things which are, in fact, not a part of Islam at all.
So the solution fundamentally, really, is that of education. It is essential for us to be educated in Islamic teachings, not only as the rituals of worship, what are involved in them, the goals, the worship, etc.
But also
what constitutes Islamic culture and etiquette.
the morality of Muslim society,
sha Allah, I will
pause here, there's much inshallah, that we can discuss. So I'll leave the remainder to
open the question.
Christmas celebration
Looking to get gifts
from family members
to get him
to one over.
Okay, if you find yourself in a situation where you're visited your parents home, and they have the tree up, and I'm Muslim, and they have gifts under the tree and your name, should you then take these gifts? No,
you don't have
to tell them, if you want to give me a gift, you give me any day, but this day,
I appreciate your intention. But for us, for me, to accept the gifts on that day is taking part in Christmas celebration.
The gift which is wrapped in Christmas
symbols, you know,
to accept the gift is a part of because as I mentioned, this is a part of the early celebration and Saturnalia. They gave these gifts in
as part of their rituals of worship of the gods Saturn.
When
I say
okay,
I just had say the norm of dress here are jeans for males, for example, wearing sandals.
Yeah, whatever pants really talking about pants. So islamically speaking, you know, can we
wear these pants? Well, there were cultures that Islam went to where the people did have a tradition of wearing pants, you know, in Turkey, in India, they are there where they will pass. And despite of their culture already, what happened is that these pants were modified.
Right to, to two things happen. Either they were modified, where, for example, in Turkey, you know, the crux of the pants goes down to almost your ankle, you know, the Libyan pants, same thing, the cross is all the way down to your ankle, right. And so it means everything's so loose, you know, there's no you're properly covered. Or in for example, in in Pakistan, you know, the, the the past itself was also very wide, the class came up higher, but you know, it was still so loose in bending and these type of things. It's not wasn't showing your private or in India itself, where they were facets are more like offense types of segments, they were a top which came down to the knee. So that
the critical area of covering which is between the navel and the knee was covering. So when the man been, you know when he sits, etc, his private parts are not being exposed. So you can either modify it in terms of his form, and what you have to consider really, you know, a person may feel shy about,
about doing either of these two suggestions, but the fact of the matter is that there's a there's a fashion trend which is coming out towards big baggy pants, you know, and these same people are wearing tight pants now, you know, you know, give them a couple more years they're gonna be wearing big baggy pants.
And that will be the norm wearing tight pants will be unfashionable, you know, and everybody will go along with it. But the point is that for the most of them, you know, he has his own personality, he has a standard that he follows he is not Fashion College conscious, he is not a slave to fashion, as they call them, you know, from across Africa is that imagine that, whenever people are this way is going that way, when people are going that way is going that way. You know he has no mind of his own. This is part of that independent thinking. So for the Muslim, wearing clothes, actually becomes an act of worship.
the wearing of clothes becomes an act of worship, when he or she wears clothes in conformity.
With the instructions of God,
not to worship, and also when they're putting on their clothes, that they remember God, they Bismillah You know, when they're putting on, they put on the right side before the last time, all of this is a part of that method in the way of the Prophet. So the act of wearing clothes is something which is done consciously. And it becomes a means of reminding the person of God
that
people have more money to buy clothes.
So that was one reason
for that as
well.
Okay. Okay, so the issue of wearing the pants below the ankle, were our brothers suggesting that, you know, in the past, this was looked at as being
when fat low ankle classes being a means of extravagance, you know, that the rich lot is what it was the rich the past, okay? You read it someplace, it's
an expression of extravagance, I'm rich, I can and we can see it to a certain degree, you know, the king, you know, when he's wearing his robes, you got somebody carrying the robes dragging on the ground, because it wasn't specifically pants, it was just garments, garments, dragging on the ground. Right.
So yeah, it was truly it was an expression of extravagance. But you know, what?
If you look back to the 60s, right,
okay, look back to the 60s.
Everybody wore their pants above the ankle.
You know, it was that was the, that was the norm to wear your pants above the ankle do wear white socks and black shoes, you know, it was the norm, then someplace around the middle, the hippie movement started, you know, the hippie was a rebellion against society, we're not gonna be, we're gonna let our here hang. And that's what lots of fine isn't really an extension of the hippie movement, you know, most people who came back up to us, right, but that was the rebellion against the society, part of it was we're gonna let our clothes hang down, drag on the ground, you know, this was, this was part of their expression of rebellion. And it was, you know, expression of
anything goes wasted. And as a pilot, there was a culture, that hanging on the ground was an expression of cultural expression of, you know, free love, free *, free everything, you know, people should be free to do do your own thing. Right? It's your ego, it's your thing, do what you want to do, you know, it was
the slogan of those days, right, you know, so, what happens then is that the commercial segment of the culture, you know, it was very, you know, very shrewd, he was able to take these expressions, and turn it into style. So, the style of the 70s was wearing bell bottoms hanging down to the south, I was still in the tail end of it, you know, just as they took the, the Black Power movement, you know, the the apple with apropos, you know, the afro with red, red, black and green up rows, and, you know, you know, red, black and green underwears. And
it says, totally co opted the same way they commercialize this, they did say they were the hippie movement, and this is where this is where we ended up. So what we're wearing now is the tail end of that same culture. And be sure that if next year, the culture changes, you know, the the fashion changes, bring fashions or fall fashions is now Phantom of the ankle. And you got to see everybody got your back. So if you have the question of whether
you're wearing it below the ankle,
because that is in fashion, no nonsense. In fact, you know, if you are shy to wear it above the ankle, and you asked the person, why am I shy? He's shy, because it is not the fashion because he doesn't want to be out of fashion. You know, people were passive as the ankles. They call him in a flood pass.
Right? Or you call it worse.
Everybody got a nickel, but it's really cool. So it is really cute. But the point is that in other words,
You see this tool now,
the way of the far right is more pleasing to you, if you prefer to take that on that the suddenness of the process.
And the problem is I sell themselves from that era Hiba. As soon as he follows me, whoever prefers a sooner, a way, a style other than mine is nothing to follow away.
And that's the bottom line
comes back to you
last year, and it was kind of hard for me.
Because
I said too often, but sometimes
you got people call me by my name.
And the person who called it
but I knew any of them got to the point
for that land be locked.
But I think the bottom line right is that
one has to, in this type of circumstances, this kind of environment, you know, when one finds oneself in situation like that, I mean, this is these are indications that it's very important that the individual get married, you know, this is this discussion needs being expressed, and we have to look back to the origins. So, I mean, means that you need to be looking seriously about getting married, you know, because Solomon instructed, you know, the males were out in the society, you know, if it was you, as in the society, you see somebody you know, catches your attention, whatever, then you go back home to your wife, because she has what she has
the bottom bottom line, so, when you don't have anybody to go home to you have a problem.
exaggerated an increase. So, I mean, these are the science telling you that you know, you need to do that.
More, I mean, if you are trying, you're using the different prayers that the Prophet advise, you know, you're fasting and these are the things that
were fine for you.
I want to go back to the dress tool, because you know, a lot of those
operating
systems hospital where
they have to do that
is not proper.
Today, this
is going to work with COVID power
series,
series.
In terms of the culture again,
we have a general recommendation of the Prophet Muhammad without defining in which he said that mentorship is common for women who want to imitate the way the culture of our people, is all of them.
So, it found that, you know, scholars have always taught that it is necessary for Muslim males and females in the society
to distinguish themselves from the disbelievers. And if you know, when Allah speaks of the female dress, that you know she should wear out agama No, you mean la hindlimb in general.
hiddenness allows us to say why they are of no value then that they be known. And that behind.
So some people think, well, they're wearing it too, so that they won't be no no, that they be known in the society and not Harvard
of the dress, the female dress, Islamic dress is to distinguish themselves from the other. So they be known in the society, they know Muslim women are not involved in these other kind of practices, you know, they should be left alone, you know, the same way that the society may respond to the nuns, the nuns wearing the full habits, etc, you know, they know that the person dedicated to God, and you know, Muslim women, you know, are often similar
nature, similarly, the men should distinguish themselves in the dress.
And that distinction should be in some aspects of the dress, it doesn't have to be, as above said, it isn't necessary for Muslims to take on the cultural dress of another society,
you know, whether it be from some part of Africa or Asia, or, you know, the Arabian Peninsula or wherever, is is not a requirement.
But that whatever they are wearing, it should be modified to
control comply with the Islamic principle of dress. Part of that is, in terms of dress for the Muslim woman, they usually included in dresses, the growing of the beard, growing up the beard, trimming the mustache is part of the, the dress of the belief of the believing now, as part of the requirements, and,
you know, wearing some other symbol, which will help to distinguish that person, whether it be something on their hands, you know, our particular type of shirts, or whatever, you know, should also be there to further distinguish themselves.
But if a person decides that they're going to wear, for example, a tie. Now,
the tie is a part of the Western culture, but I don't somebody say, well, the tie is a symbol of the cross. Well, we have, we have to bring before we can make a statement like that one really has to be evidence for it. I mean, evidence documented evidence for it, you know,
and, as far as I've seen, there isn't any, I mean, this thing has evolved from something which they use to tie up, the upper part of the shirt closes up apart and evolved into loops and eventually formed, it wasn't part of religious symbols. So if a person chooses to wear that, and we cannot say Brother, you know, you're not
against Islamic culture, you're not in the sun or whatever, you know, we can't run that. But if he's wearing you know, if you wear the jacket, then the jacket should come and cover this area is wearing a jacket and pants, you know, or t shirt, you know, should be
either out loose coming down covering this area. So, there should be sufficient modification in that dress, that he complies with Islamic principle. And we say Additionally, it would be preferable, if he also added some other items of distinction, which may be something that is hid, you know, or something of that nature.
Can you comment on Muslim ban Aaron
and also the women is fashionable, that even though they are fully Qinhuangdao, that the area to be exposed
Well, in the case of Muslim men wearing earrings, right,
or bracelets, or you know, necklaces, right, this
as a as a norm is considered a part of female dress as a norm. Now, there are some cultures
in certain parts of Africa, where the wearing of these things are done by both males and females. So in those areas, if you are there, and you work, it's not a problem. But we're in a society that is a norm for women to wear this particular type of, of ornamentation, whatever for men to take it on then becomes an imitation, or of a female style. And the Prophet Sallam said that
the last curse was on the males who imitated the dress of the females and the females, women
To the dress of the male, we know that those people who are in control of the fashion industry are for the main part homosexual,
the leading fashion figures are homosexual, this is real. And they have
from the times past and in the 60s onwards, they have been in the process of modifying dress can they reach what they call the unisex, your male or female, they both can wear it, no difference between the two, you know, so, they have been trying to blur the lines between what is male and what is female, you know, so that men are now spending no hours in the hairdresser getting their hair done was just normal. Women who did this, you know, they're wearing you know, flowery clothes looking very feminist, you know, and women, now they're wearing suits, women wear suits, and you know, robes and middle ties, and the whole thing is, is finally being promoted. And this is this is
where this is the goal. The goal is that crossover, you know,
right now we can laugh us, you know, Dennis Rodman, a basketball player, the orange here, you know, that interview reality, we can bring a woman's dress, right, and we can laugh about it, but the way things are headed, I mean, don't be surprised if that becomes you know, the fashion
in terms of the so the earrings, which is normally associated with women, for men to be wearing them again, this is not acceptable islamically facilitating women and for women,
the hair,
the covering of the here includes the errors and problems as Alan said, the ears are from the head,
the ears are from the head.
So this is why make wudu ablution the head, his wife, and the air follows without having to renew the water for because it's all part of one process. So the air should be covered. And along with that the ornamentation of the year.
I said
know, you say something about the great
cultures and all that,
you know that
our philosophy of their own
group they're going to Alexander
on how destroyed they're taking the photo, whatever
our vanity research on those books that are taking photos, philosophy,
difference last season, played into the system
and made something out of it.
So what's your question? Well, I would like to decrease the corporate ladder elexander
men in their
philosophy?
Well,
it really is irrelevant, whether the Greek absorbed philosophies from other societies that predated theirs or not, you know, from from Egypt, etc. Because in the end, that culture was a pagan culture, the cultures of Egypt, you know, the Egyptian culture was fundamentally a pagan culture. You know, same thing with no Indian our desire to try to find our roots and that, you know, people run into, you know, Africa and, you know, trying to take on certain African a shanty, and much of that culture was taken culture, you know, what was Islamic?
What were Islamic influence these areas we can recognize and, and feel proud about as Muslims. But what was not, what was some pagan culture? There's no pride in that, you know, no pride in paganism. As a Muslim society. We shouldn't have, you know, museums of antiquities where we save the idols of the people of the past. idols are to be destroyed.
Muslims participating in Kwanzaa, Kwanzaa is the
The East African harvest celebration right is how long
it will be considered home and this is a part of that cultural expression, that pagan cultural expression.
The bracelet
in some parts of Africa
will follow
the time has
now become a part of the African culture
to have any basis
to based upon
the wearing of a bracelet, remember, we talked about the principle of distinguishing or determining which things are permissible and which are not. We go back to that basic division of all things into either ibadah things which are fundamentally acts of worship, and voila, things are fundamentally social customs, you know, cultural, socio economic interactions, right. The rule for the social customs, etc. Is that the moral morass is that they're all halau, except those that were specifically forbidden.
I am the rules for the FBI, that is the opposite doctrine worship, but they're all forbidden, except those that were specifically permitted.
So when we look at the issue of when
one has to look what the bracelets specifically prohibited, know, what was specifically prohibited was male, imitating the customary practices of a female. So if in this society, it is the customary practice of females were waiting,
then for me, to wear them also image imitation of their practice, in another society, because for example, like a skirt,
right, from Antwerp, put on a skirt here
and walk in the streets. I mean, he would be obviously, you know, some kind of cross dressing, transsexuals have individual rights, you know, you'd be classified as such, imitating the dress of the female, but if he went to Scotland
is always good.
Right. So that is not considered that particular dress is not considered a female dress male. And it doesn't go against the principles of Islamic covering for male because it does cover between the navel and the knee.
So, it is to certain degree to a certain degree, the, what may be determined as, as an Islamic because of imitation of either the disbelieving religious practices or the
imitation of the dress of women, this may vary from area to area,
this may vary a certain amount. So this involves a certain amount of fit here, the person has to look into the culture, look at the practices before identifying that it's very clear, clear for the people of that area, those people who are imitating women's dress.
In cultures now, where they have brought about that change in such a gradual fashion, that you don't even realize it's happening
in our culture, this is what has happened in those cultures, you know, the person making those changes very often is very clear. But in this culture, where that process of, you know, feminizing male dress, and masculinizing you know, male or female dress has been a very gradual process to the point where people are no longer in a questioning, is this permissible? What so what is going on here? You know, homosexuals have reached that point where they have that kind of effect on society, nobody dares to question even their own practices.
What is the position of Islamic law against women having nose rings,
the nose rings were one in the time of problems that Allah and it wasn't forbidden, specifically.
So some scholars who hold that this is a part of their argumentation, which should be covered, would say that woman should cover a face wearing a niqab of others who own
Then it is a part of argumentation which will show naturally without her desire to expose her ornamentation would say permissible for to wear the nose ring without covering her face.
Age before beauty