Bilal Philips – The Best In Islam #29

			Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. I'd like to welcome you to another in our series, the best
in Islam.
		

			In this series, we continue to look at what Allah and His Messenger have
		

			identified as being the best, from an Islamic perspective, within the Islamic practices, human
society best in all aspects of life. And in this episode, we'll be looking at
		

			what is best with regards to
		

			marriage for women. When it comes to men, what is the best man for a woman to marry?
		

			We have a
		

			verse from the Quran, in which Allah subhanaw taala specified
		

			that
		

			Allah tongue careful, Masha Kena Hector, you may know Paula Abdul min on Hi Ron Mushrik in walau,
jabber calm, do not marry the idol worshipers until they believe. Indeed, I believing slave is
better than a free idol worshiper.
		

			Instead, spite of how pleasing it may seem to you,
		

			this verse
		

			is considered the definitive verse with regards to Muslim women being not allowed to marry
		

			other than Muslim men.
		

			For a Muslim woman to marry, a non Muslim man is impermissible. According to Islamic law, we know
that Islamic law permits a Muslim man to marry a non Muslim woman if she is a Christian, or a Jew.
		

			But not if she is a Buddhist, or a either worship or a Hindu etc. He is not allowed. The exception
is made for Christians and Jews. Because of the closeness of their nations to Revelation, their
books still contain clear references to authentic revelation from God. The other books are far away
so far. One may even question whether they had divine origin at all. So that exception is made for
men,
		

			but not for women. Why is that? People would ask today in the past, nobody asked question. But in
these times where male female equality has become, you know, a major issue from Western civilization
they've made this issue of men being equal to women, such an issue, that everything comes into
question where equality or what is seen to be equality does not take place. So this is one of the
cases that Islam comes under attack as a result of it. However, the idea behind it mean what is
behind it. Why would Islam not allow a Muslim woman to marry a Christian or a Jew,
		

			but allows a Muslim man to marry a Christian or a Jew? is a question that
		

			could be asked, and is
		

			the reason being, that if a Muslim man marries a Christian, or Jewish woman, he in the practice of
his religion will not require her to do anything, which is against the teachings. When a Muslim man
marries
		

			a Christian woman, for example.
		

			Whatever he asks her to do, to maintain a Muslim household will not be against the teachings of
Christianity. For example, if he asked her when she goes outside the house to cover
		

			herself.
		

			Christianity does not prescribe that women should wear miniskirts expose themselves. It doesn't
prescribe that, in fact, the early images of Christian women were covered up looking like Muslim
women.
		

			If, again, Muslim husband, he tells his wife, I don't want alcohol in my house.
		

			Again, a Christian woman is not obliged to drink alcohol. So it's not against her religion.
		

			What you would ask of her.
		

			And if you said, I don't want to eat pork, I don't want any pork in the house, don't bring it in the
house, don't cook it in the house. Again, a Christian woman is not obliged to eat pork. Jesus didn't
eat pork himself.
		

			So of this, the basic and most obvious things that he might ask of her, these things don't go
against her religion. Now, if we go to the other side, a Christian man,
		

			he tells his wife, because he's coming from a society where people, you know, are proud of their
women being exposed. So he tells his wife, listen, I don't want to because she's Muslim, I don't
want to cover yourself all up. Because then people can't see you and appreciate you. And I don't get
a chance to feel proud. So I want you to take off your covering,
		

			wear a miniskirt. Now, all of this is against her religion.
		

			Similarly, he says,
		

			Bring me the pork, I want my bacon with my eggs every morning. So she's now obliged to cook and
serve.
		

			And I want some alcohol. In my culture, you know, we drink alcohol regularly.
		

			Again, she is obliged to serve him alcohol, something which is forbidden in her religion. And as we
said, it being the nature that women seek to please their husband, she's likely to break the rules
of Islam in order to please her husband.
		

			So on that level, you can see why Islam permits it in the case of the male, but not in the case of
the female, to protect her religion. Also the children,
		

			if we consider the children, if it's a Muslim man, his wife is Christian. They have children, then
he insists that the children are raised as Muslims, she would likely go along with that. He'll put
them in Muslim schools, whatever, and their Islam is protected. On the other hand,
		

			if the husband is Christian, and he says, Well, I want my children to be raised as Christian, then
she is now in a compromised position, obliged to go along with her husband. And the children may be
raised as Christians.
		

			And so their Islam is lost.
		

			So it is on the basis of protecting the woman and her religion, the children and their religion. Why
Islam does not allow a Muslim woman to marry other than a Muslim man. It is not to oppress her. It
is to protect her to protect the generation to come moving on
		

			to Muslims and what is the best amongst Muslims? The Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon
him
		

			was reported by Abu IU BL and Saudi saying Leia Hello Lee Muslim in and yet Hera ha who focus on
		

			Delta Yanni for your suit do ha other wear suit Doha other?
		

			Well, hey Rahim. Allah the object will be Salam. It is not permissible for a Muslim to avoid his
Muslim brother for more than three days. So that when they meet,
		

			each turns away from the other, the better one of them is the person who greets the other first. So
Islam has put limits to how long
		

			ill feelings can affect how we relate with our fellow human beings, particular with our fellow
Muslims, that if disagreement takes place, bad feelings are there. Okay? You're allowed three
		

			days where
		

			you avoid each other. But that's it after the three days, then it has to be put aside. That's
according to Islamic law. Now, what that means in terms of greeting is different. Because though,
you might be in that three day phase of bad feelings, avoiding each other, if you meet, for whatever
reason,
		

			you end up meeting and one conveys the greeting saying salam alaikum, it is obligatory on the other
to respond, because it is a right of a Muslim, that when he or she greets others, that they be
greeted back a response is given in kind. So, that aspect, there is no compromise on it, for a
person not to return the greetings is to sin.
		

			Alright, may not be a major sin, but nonetheless, it is a sin. But beyond giving salaams you know,
other talk of How's the family and these kind of things, okay, at that point, people can avoid each
other. But the limit is that of three days, and the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon
him, identified the best of these two, who are in this situation,
		

			to be the one who is the first to greet the other in the sight of God.
		

			The one who receives the greatest reward is the one who ends that boycott. We'll see you shortly
after the break.
		

			Welcome back from the break, moving on,
		

			to Muslims and what is the best amongst Muslims, the prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon
him was reported by Abu Aiyoo BL and Saudi saying lie ahead only Muslim in and yet Hara Ha hoo,
focus on
		

			Delta Yanni for your suit, do have other wear suit do have other
		

			okay to whom Allah the object will be Salam, it is not permissible for a Muslim to avoid his Muslim
brother for more than three days. So that when they meet,
		

			each turns away from the other, the better one of them is the person who greets the other first. So
Islam has put limits to how long
		

			ill feelings can affect how we relate with our fellow human beings, particularly with our fellow
Muslims, that if disagreement takes place, bad feelings are there, okay? You're allowed three days
where
		

			you avoid each other. But that's it after the three days, then it has to be put aside. That's
according to Islamic law. Now, what that means in terms of greeting is different. Because though,
you might be in that three day phase of bad feelings, avoiding each other, if you meet for whatever
reason,
		

			you end up meeting and one conveys the greeting saying Salaam Alaikum, it is obligatory on the other
to respond, because it is a right of a Muslim that when he or she greets others, that they be
greeted back a response is given in kind. So that aspect, there is no compromise on it. For a person
not to return the greetings is to sin.
		

			It may not be a major sin, but nonetheless, it is a sin. We'll be looking now at
		

			another Hadith or statement of the Prophet may peace and blessings be upon him regarding dealing
with the difficulties that arise from interacting with people,
		

			whether it's better to avoid people to avoid their negativities and the pain or the suffering that
may come from dealing with them, or is it better to deal with them and suffer the pain? The Prophet
sallahu wa sallam
		

			was quoted as saying, I'll Muslim, either Canada Mohan itand and NAS wire Spiro Allah Allah home.
Hey rune, Meenal, Muslim lady la Johanna to NAS, Wallace Bureau, Allah,
		

			the Muslim who mixes with people and patiently bears their harm is better than the Muslim who does
not mix with people, nor bear their harm. So what is this telling us? It's telling us that there is
no room for monasticism
		

			in Islam, where people go off into monasteries, away from society, because society contains all
kinds of corruption, pain and suffering and harm and things like this. So just don't deal with them.
Go away and worship God off by yourself. No, Islam does not recommend that. It's not to say that it
is forbidden. If you did that you went off with your family, etc. It's not forbidden. But it is not
recommended. It's not the better way. Those people who went into monasteries, they believe that it
is better to be in that state than to be mixing with people. But the prophet may God's peace and
blessings be upon him said no, the believer who mixes with people, and bears their harm is better
		

			than the one who doesn't.
		

			So this encourages us to deal with the issues that we face in society, not try to run away from
them. Because if we are to do that, then society cannot function. society depends on people
interacting with each other, providing services, paying for those services, exchanging goods, etc,
all of that involves interaction. So, Islam does not encourage any principles which would undermine
the basic functioning of society, through human interactions, and exchanges. And also, what it is
telling us is that, for us to grow spiritually,
		

			it does require that we deal with the challenges of life as a general principle.
		

			In
		

			common parlance, people say, no pain, no gain. It's something like that.
		

			But it doesn't mean that you inflict pain on yourself to gain. Now, it's not saying that and, of
course, people are lifting weights, they do inflict pain on themselves, for their muscles to get
larger, etc. So some of that exists in that field. But in the spiritual realm, it is not acceptable,
that one inflicts pain on himself or herself, but to live a normal natural life, which will contain
trials, difficulties, etc. Without running away hiding in that normal life, we will grow spiritually
in dealing with the various struggles that each and every one of us is bound to face. And this is
one of the reasons why the reward for Hajj is so great, because you can't do hands without being
		

			with the people suffering their harm.
		

			Being patient with it, not allowing it to drive us crazy. So we ended up saying things doing things
that we shouldn't. That's why patience is in so great, greatly required for us to achieve that hajj,
which is accepted by God. We will now go on to another topic from the topics of what is best. In
this case, we're moving on to names. We're finished the letter M and we're moving on now to add
		

			Wahab, Alisha me. He stated that the Prophet sallallahu wasallam said to somehow be as smart in
Zambia. Well, I have been a smart Ilahi Abdullah Abdul Rahman for us Dakota had Ethan for her ma'am.
For UK Baja Harbin. We're Maura. Name yourselves according to the names of the prophets. The names
which Allah loves most are Abdullah and Abdul Rahman.
		

			The truest names are Hadith, and her mom, and the worst names are herb, and Maura. The Prophet
sallallahu sallam, in other occasions, told us to name our children, well give them good names, give
them names, which they would be proud of,
		

			when they grow old, or they get older names which have good meanings, names after great figures. So
here, he says, name yourselves after the names of the prophets. So choosing names like ASA and Musa
Yaqoob.
		

			These are recommended names. Yeah, etc. The names of the prophets of God because of who they are.
		

			As that child is growing up, you explain to them that Prophet Yahia
		

			had this life did this, Allah bless him, he was tried etc. It's something for him as a child to look
up to. Also, names which involve
		

			worship of Allah. Abdullah
		

			worshiper slave worshipper of Allah, Abdul Rahman, slave worshipper of the Most Merciful, and all of
the other names that begin with Abdullah Abdullah basit, Abdul Ahad, etc.
		

			All of these are good names. And also, the Prophet sallallahu Sallam went on to give the names, the
truest being Hadith, Hadith meaning a cultivator.
		

			One who cultivates bringing good and her mom, meaning energetic, one who is motivated, and the
worst, or harm, meaning war,
		

			and Murrah meaning bitter. So names which have bad meanings, or harsh meanings, the prophet may
God's peace and blessings be upon him, recommended us to avoid those names. In fact, when people
came to him with such names, he changed them. He told them to change the name, give them another
name in its place. Otherwise,
		

			we can have names which are from our own languages, they don't necessarily have to be Arabic names.
Because some people sort of think that well, okay, it was not the Arabic name, then you know, you're
not really a Muslim. But in fact, we have many great Muslims of the past who had names which are not
Arabic names. So they don't have to be Arabic names, but the meaning itself should be good.
		

			With that, dear viewers, I'd like to thank you for being with this episode of the best in Islam, and
we hope to see you in our coming episodes soon.
		

			Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi wabarakatuh