Bilal Philips – The Best In Islam #32

			Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. Bella's Peace and blessings beyond each and every one of
you. I'd like to welcome you, their viewers, to our series, the best in Islam,
		

			where we're looking at what Allah and His Messenger have defined for us, as what is in fact best,
best in our lives, best in our community's best in our wives, our husbands, our children, best in
our behavior, best in our property, best in all aspects of our lives. And in this segment, we'll be
looking at
		

			benefit. What is the best with regards to benefit?
		

			Prophet Muhammad may God's peace and blessings be upon him
		

			was reported by Jabber, even Abdullah
		

			to have said, head on NASCI and Pharaoh homeliness, the best people are those most beneficial to
other people. The best people are those most beneficial to other people. This lays down a principle
in Islam, of the importance
		

			with regards to benefit that whatever we do, whatever we develop, whatever we work on our jobs, our
play, our families, everything should have at the back of it, benefit. Whatever we do, we should be
doing it because there is a benefit in it, doing things just for the sake of doing it, without
having any real benefit behind it is not the Islamic way, Islamic way is about the benefit that
comes. So when we have an educational system, it should produce
		

			a product that is beneficial to the society, not a product that is going to be harmful to the
society, destructive corruptive. No, we need graduates who will benefit the society. So from one
perspective, such graduates need to be morally upright.
		

			And this is a problem that the world faces today, because of the fact that Western education was
secularized.
		

			Religion was taken out of education and with it religious values. So education became just teaching
the facts. The end result is that
		

			the moral principles which should guide people upon graduation are missing. And students will
practice malpractices in order to achieve success in their education, without any worry or moral
questions asked.
		

			So it is taken for granted
		

			that students will cheat. This is something I found all across the world. I went from one end of the
Muslim world to the other.
		

			Meeting students in
		

			final years of their studies about to graduate, also students in first years of university first and
second years, and asking them, you know how many of them would be able to swear by Allah, that they
had not cheated on any test or examination. And there were few and far between hundreds would be in
the audience and only a handful would raise their hands. Cheating had become a norm. Of course in
the West, it's well known.
		

			It's well known there too, but efforts to prevent it are greater recognizing this norm. They have
tried to cut it out and do
		

			with it very severely, very harshly. But it doesn't stop it. Because once the goal is a material
goal, purely, there is no moral principle behind it. It's just about getting caught or not. So if
you've got a sure way to cheat your way through, you will do it. If you shaky not sure, okay, you
will avoid it because you don't want to get caught. But
		

			reality is that in Muslim schools, for example, this should not be the case. It should be that when
we ask that question to our graduating students, they all should put up their hands. But because of
the fact that the education they're receiving is the same as education in the western systems, and
there are not as many stringent rules to prevent the possibility of cheating. And cheating becomes
rampant. It's done left and right. People don't even question it anymore. But what are we producing?
What is the product of such educational systems where cheating is natural? Especially considering
that the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, it said, when the Russian athletes, I
		

			mean, whoever cheats us is not us. They're not true Muslims, their Islam is corrupted. And when we
look across the Muslim world today, and we see people complaining everywhere, about the government's
being corrupt, everything, all the dealings are corrupt, the police are corrupt, the Army is corrupt
bribery, you know, kickbacks, all this stuff is going on, from one end to the other. How do we
change this, the only way that we can change it is by producing graduates who are morally sound.
Such graduates can then benefit the society.
		

			Because if they are immoral, when they replace those who were there before them, it will be the
same, they will just now have a turn as the others before them had a turn to fleece, the government
to take the wealth for their personal gain, etc. Those coming after will do the same, it will just
be a cycle repeating itself time and time again. So if we are to consider the importance of benefit,
then we have to be conscious of the need to bring morality back into the classroom. In every class
that we're teaching, there should be moral messages that are given to the students to build their
moral character. So that they will in fact be beneficial products of our educational system
		

			beneficial to the society to the community. So this idea of benefit
		

			is critical. From the Islamic perspective. The jobs that they're going to take, when they graduate,
they should be jobs which benefit the society, research, which is of no benefit should be
discouraged in the society. For example, you might find research, which is focused on finding a cure
for death. We know there's no cure for death. So should we be spending millions and millions of
dollars trying to find a cure for death? No, this is not beneficial. Or we may spend billions of
dollars to put a rocket ship on Mars in order to discover or determine the composition of dirt on
Mars. Should we be doing that when there are millions and millions of people who are homeless on the
		

			earth? No, there's no real benefit in that. The benefit should be in utilizing the wealth that we
have for the benefit of our citizens, and so on and so forth. Always we judge things, whether to do
it or not to do it, according to the benefit that there is in it. This is a critical point. And this
is what the Prophet SAW Salem is saying, the best of people are those who are most beneficial to
people. And that's why when he talked about learning the Quran, for example, he said Heroku Manta
allemaal Quran, Allah, the best of you are those who learn the Quran and teach it to others. He
didn't just stop at learning the Quran because of course, if you learn the Quran, it's beneficial to
		

			you, but it's not necessarily beneficial to others. So that's why he added the additional principle
and you
		

			teach it to others. You know, that's what makes the learning of the Quran beneficial,
		

			makes the learning of the Quran, what is most pleasing to Allah, where we learn it. And we pass that
knowledge on to others, of course, internalizing it and trying to practice it ourselves before doing
that, but the idea of teaching others becomes a critical principle. In order to generalize, benefit
in the society as a whole, we always look at things with regards to the benefit. So for example,
when your children, say for example, your children like sports, and they see the big soccer players
getting billions of dollars, you know, the athletes, runners, jumpers, high jumpers, whatever,
they're getting millions of dollars, basketball players, you know, volleyball players, all these
		

			people getting a lot of money, and your children want to be one of those they want to be a star
athlete, then we have to advise them. Is that really beneficial, besides the fact that if you put
all your energy into athletics, all it takes is one injury and you're finished. And of all the
people who strive in athletics only a fraction a small fraction succeed.
		

			So we should encourage our children to seek worthy goals, goals, which will benefit the society will
leave behind them a legacy, which will continue to benefit society, even when they're gone. So as
the prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, it said the best of people are those most
beneficial to people. With that their viewers, we're going to take a small break, and I'll see you
right after the break.
		

			Welcome back from the break, after looking at
		

			the benefit, what makes people the best,
		

			the fact that they are most beneficial to people. We're now going on to another topic, and that is
perfume. We've reached the letter P. In our various texts, which speak about the best which have
been
		

			arranged alphabetically. So under perfume, we have the statement of the Prophet may God's peace and
blessings be upon him
		

			quoted by Ambleside and Audrey,
		

			ought to booty Bukom al misc. The best of your perfumes is musk, this statement
		

			indicates that
		

			in terms of all of the various forms of perfume the best is musk. However, this statement was made
in the context of burying the dead. And it is known that what this is referring to in terms of the
best forms of perfume to use to put on the dead.
		

			On the shroud which is over the dead, the best one is mosque. So it doesn't necessarily mean the
best perfume period is mosque but for burial purposes the best is musk. perfume of course, is among
the things that the Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him loved. As he said, another
narration of all the things of this world which have been made appealing and pleasing to Him, the
Prophet, it was perfume and women. And that's natural for men,
		

			that Allah has made women most pleasing of the things of this world.
		

			And he had said in other narrations, that the best of the things of this world are
		

			a righteous woman relative to men again, but going back to perfume. The prophet had further said,
		

			as Narrated by Abu Huraira in the hierarchy be Rajul. Mother Harare, who will have fear alone will
have a three bit Nisa, Mother Hara Lono will have theory who the best perfume for males is that
which has the strongest scent
		

			and the
		

			faintest color. While the best perfume for women is that which has the strongest color, and the
faintest scent, this is in keeping with the general prohibition, which the Prophet, God's peace and
blessings be upon him made for women wearing perfume in public, when leaving the home, that they
should not perfume themselves to such a degree, that when they leave anybody within 10 meters of
them, they get the blast of the perfume.
		

			Because such a person is drawing attention to herself, and we're talking about male attention, not
female attention. And of course, the consequence of it again is harmful to her. So this is why the
Prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him. It said that a woman who goes out deliberately,
having perfumed herself to such a degree, that the scent is going to be hitting everybody left and
right, drawing the attention of the men, that she is like an adulterous going out of her home.
		

			This is something that she should not do. And here the Prophet Muhammad wa sallam has said that the
best scent for the woman is the one in which the color that comes from it is stronger, and the smell
is weaker. So this was general recommendation, not to oppress women, to prevent them from performing
themselves. If they're going to gatherings or women's gatherings, no problem, fine for them to wear
strongest of perfumes, no problem. Amongst the women, where the harm of male attention, unwanted
male attention has been prevented.
		

			But in the general society, then in order to protect her because she is the one who suffers in the
end. I mean, how many cases do we hear of men, you know, being attacked, and raped by women, I don't
think we can hear any. So that's not a fear on their part. And their gatherings tend to be more in
the society. So they're encouraged to have stronger perfume, you know, to keep the atmosphere, the
areas that they're in, nice smelling, etc. So this is the recommendation and the Prophet Muhammad wa
sallam himself, used to love to wear perfume himself, and he encouraged others to do so. Moving on.
		

			We're coming still under the letter P. We've come to poetry and what is the best and the worst of
poetry? We have a narration from our era in which he quoted the Messenger of Allah is saying the
onion Telia. jofa had become prey Han. Uriah who highroller who men and em Telia. Sharon, la an EM
tele a job for a hottie come, I haven't Uriah highroller. Who, when an EM tele Sharon, it would be
better for you to have your insides filled with pus, which corrodes it, then to fill it with poetry.
Sounds very harsh. For those of us who like poetry, it's very tough. So what did this all mean? Why
is the Prophet Muhammad Salah coming down so heavily on poetry, that it will be better not to have
		

			that in our brains in our heads? Keep poetry out of our heads?
		

			He is referring really here now to the corrupt poetry.
		

			Well, how do we know the statement doesn't make any distinction? Well, this is an important point
that we have to keep in mind when we look at Hadith statements of the Prophet may God's peace and
blessings be upon him just like verses from the Quran. If you take a verse out of its context, it
can change its meaning. You can find a portion of a verse For example, where Allah says in the Quran
		

			Latok Abu salah, don't come near prayer, formal prayer, don't come near prayer. Stay away from
prayer.
		

			But all of Islam says pray. So we have to know the context. It goes on to say one to Sakara if
you're in a state of intoxication if for whatever reason you became intoxicated,
		

			you had to have an operation. So they gave you anesthesia that anesthesia puts you in a
		

			State of which is similar to intoxication. So the time for prayer comes you they've just come out of
the operation, you know, you're still under the anesthesia, don't pray, then wait until you know
what you're saying. Your head is clear, then pray. Context, important. Same thing with many of the
verses that those who dislike Islam are opposed to Islam will quote verses where it says, with
regards to disbelievers, killed them wherever you find them. But again, these verses are talking
about the battlefield, where one is in a battle, and you come across the enemy, you have to kill the
enemy. That's what you're there, for. That's what the battle is about, you know, is Kill or be
		

			killed, but not anywhere you find people in society, you're going to start massacring people left
and right now. So the context is important. So similarly, when the Prophet Muhammad SAW Salam said
this, we have to look at what else did he say, we also find that he had taken a poet, Hassan
amplifier, but he had made him his personal point. So that when different tribes from Arabia would
come to visit him, and it was their practice, to recite poetry, to show how,
		

			you know, prestigious, they were, et cetera. So when they came, and they would make the recitation
you would call Hassan would recite Islamic poetry, to respond to them. So we're, if it meant that we
were not supposed to deal with poetry at all, then the Prophet Muhammad Salah would not have done
that. So from his own actions, it clarifies that what he's referring to is the corrupt poetry,
poetry, which is used to praise idolatry. Or it's used to praise, * and fornication,
		

			alcohol and corruption, that kind of poetry, of course, is harmful. So to be better, to have pus
filling your insides and to have that type of poetry within you. So that's what it is, in reference
to. And in our times, of course, poetry is put to music, or we call it song and dance today, that
poetry, if it is filled with corruption, and much of it today is, then it is something that Muslims
should avoid. If it is, praising God, speaking about good things, etc, then it isn't evil. It is
something which is acceptable. Of course, there are some other conditions with regards to music in
general, that the use of musical instruments in a winded stringed instruments is not permissible,
		

			but where we're using drum and the voice, this is permissible. So the content as long as the content
is halal, then such forms of music, of poetry are acceptable Islamically and perfectly rewardable
Not just acceptable, but rewardable If what is being said in the poetry is in praise of Allah, and
in praise of Islam, and enlightening people to the truth with that their viewers would like to thank
you for being with us, and another of the segments from our program, the best in Islam. And we hope
that you'll continue to be with us in further episodes of the series. And now I bid you farewell.
Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi wabarakatuh