Hamza Yusuf – Gateway to God’s Book #7
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hamdulillah salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakatu smilla rahmanir rahim o salat wa salam
ala rasulillah.
The woman wala alarm
started in Colorado in Poseidon in along started in Hekmatyar controller and add in our automatic yeah then tell it what to cram was it llamada sin,
Quran hamdulillah. So, continuing on with the 12 subjects that Yvan GCL, Kelby said was necessary for somebody who was going to be teaching or doing tough CF, which would mean essentially telling you what the Quran means and and the idea that you would be speaking on behalf of God should, I think cause anybody pause so people that hastily want to tell you what the Koran means, or it's a bad sign for those people because the early community didn't really speak about the Quran, they were so terrified of saying something that might be incorrect, or even saying the Omar of the landed did not like to speak about what the Quran meant. So the number of Sahaba that actually did interpret
the Quran is actually quite small. And the prophets Eliza them, interestingly enough,
did not
really speak often about specific ayah. So if you look in, in the books of Hadith, there's, there's usually a section called Babel, or Babel Quran, and you'll see that the prophet SAW ism actually did not speak much on the Quran. And the reason for that is had he spoken, nobody could say anything after that. And so because the Quran is going to be relevant for every time and place, it was very important that people be able to
find new meanings in the Quran, using the methodology, so you have to have a methodology. And that methodology is embodied in these subjects. If you use that methodology the Quran, can can produce constantly new meanings, and that's why people come up with new meanings all the time. I mean, there's people still today that are writing interesting things about the Quran, but it's very important to have the subject so we went through also the deen, which is the idea of RP, the understanding the the foundational beliefs of Muslims are solid, which is another really important subject, which is essentially what in Western tradition, it's similar to constitutional law. It's
the law that teaches you how to derive laws out of the principles, the legal principles that you're bound to. And then loja which is very important, we went into that yesterday. lava is basically what what we call in the West diction, or word choice, why did the Quran use one word as opposed to another word? And then now, which encompasses
traditionally grammar when you spoke about grammar, it wasn't just
grammar as we understand it date, but it included also things like prosody, it included literature, it included. In fact, there's, there's basically another set of Sciences related to grammar itself.
And then I'll ban which is, which is rhetoric and ban.
Traditionally, it was called ban and then it became later known as bellava. And Bulava is what we call in the West rhetoric. And that initially was two sciences. And then it became three. So you had banned man, you know, buddy was the third one that was added. And then and then some of the scholars took his tiara as a separate subject, which is the science of metaphor because it's so important. And then you have Tafseer. And now when we get to tafsir,
it's the there's a saying, cafe through aka fourth or mumbly, you know, stop where they stopped and then proceed. So you have to know what people in the past said. And so there are very foundational or important tough seers, that if you don't know them, you're going to get into trouble with the Quran you have to know for instance,
obviously the most important one is poverty and everybody is either out of poverty, everybody is dependent upon a mama poverty. He was an Imam. He was a master head. He had his own madhhab but he was probably the most learned
That period in the time of the great formation of the med hubs in the second and third century, you have that period.
He, he collected all of these different opinions, especially from the early exit seats. So you have the Sahaba. But then you had a very interesting second generation. So, for instance, you had the students of urban mister or even Mr. Abdullah bin Massoud was a very important early Sahabi.
From the outskirts of Mecca, Eben Massoud went to Iraq, Iraq, and he
has basically a school really and from that came
him from his students can people like Abu hanifa Delano, so
it's been a mystery, taught these great students and then they had these students like Abu hanifa, who was a student of a student, but one of them was Mohammed bin cabin. And karate was a very interesting character. He was from benicar Eva, so he was one of the Jewish survivors.
When the Jews were expelled from from Medina, and during the benio coryza, when there were some of them were executed for treason. He was one of the people that was that grew up in the ethos of the Muslims and he became probably one of the most learned people of the Quran in that period. In fact, the prophets I sent him
or hate him or relates a hadith that the prophet Isaiah and predicted that that that there would be a man that would come from the cat he named the two colons
who would be Allah munez Viki tabula he would be the most learned in the book of Allah. So it's very interesting that a Jewish convert to Islam becomes one of the main sources of early tafsir. Another really important and main source which is also fascinating is
some people in
you had APA even have
a newbie who was a student of bass, he was an African
and they describe him as how to Cologne like he was really dark, and of pus. So he was he was African, his features were African, and he became the most learned exegete in Mecca everybody
considered him as long as he was in Mecca that there was nobody could give fatwa, if he was in Mecca, he made had 70 times so he lived to be very bright page and self said that there was nobody more learned about Hajj than this man. So these are some of the people that you find in that early period
that they're very interesting Mujahid was very important even though he was a student again and I bet and majah had had an immense amount of knowledge. So it crema who was a Moeller and he was accused, but generally is considered a step and he's he's, he's, he was accused of having harsh leanings. But he was he grew up in the in the,
in the house of Abraham bass. And so it's bass apparently used to shackle him when he was young, just so he would not go out. So he would study like you. So he trained him early on, and he also became very important. So majah had equity
upon APA, APA,
these are really important people in that early period. And then there were other ones like Missouri, Missouri, even as that was very important. So you'll see these people when you get into tafsir. You will see these people mentioned prime, they're usually the first people mentioned, so a buddy will say a partner Mujahidin, and it's very important when when he says that or if and I bet himself because it but I best
was
an inheritor of prophetic inheritor and what I thought that ambia he prophesized and made a dua for him. So then, after puberty, you begin to get commentaries, but what you'll find is very fascinating about Quranic commentaries. What you will find is that they, they tend to quote the previous ones, there's there's a real hesitancy in a lot of them or facility to come up with anything from themselves. They really rely
On knuckle. And that has to do with the fact that they were just very terrified about speaking about the book of law, I mean, we can learn from that. And, and the same is true for, for Hades. So you'll find in the Hades traditions, they all quote, The previous sources, they tend not to,
to want to come with something from themselves, then you get somebody like famotidine or raazi, who introduces a completely different way of looking at the Quran. It's the first serious philosophical Tafseer of the Quran. And a lot of
people actually condemned it because it was so different from what anybody had seen prior to it. And then you also got some of the the Sufi tough seers, which they're also had mixed reviews. Even Jews a mentions a sulam is tafsir, which was called El haka. And which means the realities, and even even Jews, he says, some people call it elbow arpel, you know, the vanities, the empty, you know, like meaningless. And he said, like, and lo and softner, Kona v haka fo v Bo apple. But if we were fair, we would say it has in it realities, but it also has things that are unacceptable. So tafsir is very important to know.
The traditionally in the Sydney Metro says the two most important were emammal. Bilbao is tafsir and emammal. By the way, they were studied and remembered by Bilbao, he took a great rhetorical tafsir at cashapp, which was written by the sixth century scholar as a machete. And he, because the machete was marked as the light, and so because of that
moment about Bilbao, he wanted to really write something that did not have any it said in it any of the rationalism. So that's what he did. So Tafseer is extremely important, then you get into the car ads. And I want I want to look at the camera tomorrow. But there were basically
the camera are very important, and they're very interesting. And they're, they're actually a miracle of the Prophet size. And because
we're the only community that has an agreed upon book, so that all the previous communities have differences about their books.
And, and, and what I mean not, not
differences of opinion about what the book says, I'm actually talking about the text itself. So for instance, Christians have different the Catholics have a different Bible than the Protestants have, as an example, because they reject some of the books. Muslims are the only people that actually have a completely agreed upon text. And I'm talking not just about the the actual physical book, but also the way it's written. So there's no difference about the the way it's written also the way it's recited, nobody else has this outside of Islam.
I mentioned earlier, the Greek New Testament, which why we wouldn't even know Christ spoke Greek,
that the few lines in his original languages are in the Greek or in Aramaic. So he, he definitely spoke Aramaic.
But
even in the the coin, a Greek of first century
Palestine, they differ on how things are pronounced and things like we don't have any difference. There's 17 points of articulation. The all of the huddle are known the letters, the C fat, the hack, the Mr. Hawk, the rate of the letter, any anything that comes on it, so that's really important. So the camera ads involve
the different ways the Quran can be recited. But the rasa mirth man is the same. And one of the miracles of the the the earth monic script, which was what, say, not Earth man created a committee and then that committee, wrote out the Quran. And every time every time they accepted something, it had to have two witnesses that saw it written in the presence of the Prophet size. And so it wasn't just that they're saying, Oh, this is
so it had to have two witnesses. And, and so it was a very rigorous methodology that they use. In fact, one has to marvel at
methodology when we when we talk about academic rigor today, when we look how did in seventh century Arabia, how did they come up with these protocols for preserving the Quran? international zelner, thicker Witten Allahu Allah Hafiz. No, that's the traditional Muslim explanation that God says, We revealed this book and we will preserve it. So one of the ways it was preserved is through its recitation and through the karate, now, there are seven karate that are mutawatir and then they also have robots. So there, they'll have variations of the seven. So they taught more than one way to recite their their recension. So, you have the car and then you have the railway.
These, the most the two most important are NAFTA and, and, and Mr. malson mm NAFTA was in Medina. He was also an app. He was originally an African, he very, very dark how to Cologne, they said, but he was born grew up in us for Han. And
he
he recited the Quran for 60 years in Medina, he was the Imam and he taught Malik the Quran, many of the great things he took the Quran directly from the Sahaba. So he was very important Imam in karate, and then he had two major
robots. I mean, he had a lot of robot but the the the rewire the, to the wire. In other words, he had a lot of people that learned it from him and actually had sent it from him. But the two that transmitted our email alone, and email wash, and then the Member Services nickname it was actually given by Neff and because he he was very light skinned. 111 is very interesting that he was very dark, African. And and while she was blond hair and blue eyed. He was a little plump. And he wore very short robe. And so he thought he looked like a certain bird type of bird. So water shine is the bird. So he called him water shine. He said, Where's water shine? And so Mr. Marsh relates that and
then alone. calluna is another miracle because balloon which is still recited in Libya, Yemen balloon was death.
And he read lips. So it's it's quite amazing. And that's, that's a historical fact. So he he's one of the miracles of the Quran.
And then the second so that's Mr. Neff, and his recitation is all over North Africa. So like in Mauritania, they do both they learn carlone and wash. In Morocco, they do wash Algeria as wash Tunis as waters. And then Libya is mixed, but mostly a pylon. And then, and then you have the other most important of the seven is Mmm, awesome. And awesome, also had to a robot, but the most important one is going to be house. So have fun, awesome, is what most of you learned, and that's what most Muslims know. And the difference is,
like I said, the script is the same. So for instance, if you look at a Clara, India comparison, been a bit of a, you know, there's a mutawatir, Clara meaning factual, from the prophesies, and it says, tests are better. If you look at the original script, the dots weren't there, they were put on later. Both of those can be the way that it's written, it just if you change the places of the dots to 32, or debate, you know, are both there. So those both para are from the properties and, and one of the reasons for the art is that they, they explain one, they make it easier for the tribes because different tribes have different dialects. So for instance, the dialect of the province is M,
which is the Cara of NAFTA.
The dialect of the province is and they they didn't have Hamza, so they didn't say mcmunn that was Benny Tamim did that they said movement, and that's why you know, in the water shoe, say other flat moving on, not me on. So those are the type differences that are dialectical. And, but they're all agreed upon. And then in the eighth century, earlier, they considered the three that were had, and these and these
these were then added to the seven. So to get 10 an email messages. It was the one that kind of ended that debate.
about them being window after. So the popcorn after the eighth century considered all tend to be mutawatir. But in the first period, there was a fee that they're not different in that they don't change the meanings.
And then you had four more that are that are so you get 14 all together, if you add them to watch, you'll get up to over 40 different rewired. But again, you have to understand this is a miracle because one, it's agreed upon, how do you get people to agree on something like that if it wasn't through these chains of transmission to it shows you the preservation of the Quran. So it's one of the miracles of the preservation of Quran that the Quran is a preserved book. And this idea that the hag rights tried to argue that somehow the the Quran was
there were different versions of the Quran. Muslims always acknowledged that they never ever shied away from that. So obey and Cobb had a recitation, which had differences, but they were interpretation. So even Massoud had his interpretation. Even like in the Quran, it says kedem and fouche. Even Massoud read that Castleford man foolish in his camera, that was a Tafseer wasn't a
so it was shed. Right? Or some tribes like, for instance, had the the sheen for a female, but Laura Boucher, she said he, like that's a chef para. So those things were out there. But what's agreed upon are these variants that that still people master bass, but I'm going to do a little bit of that tomorrow, again, so the the cam or the legal rulings, which we went over some of that earlier. And then the abrogation, knowing NASA kanmon souf is very important. This is probably the most difficult area in Quranic studies, I would argue.
There's a lot of debate about it. There's definitely exaggeration from the AMA, I think
you'll find
literally some of the scholars will argue that there you know, a few 100 is abrogated and things like this. mm CLT took it down in his famous booklet Can he argues that there were 21 eyes that were abrogated. Shah Wali allowed Candela, we, the great Mr. Head from India, probably one of the last truly
vast scholars that was arguably in which they had actually argued there were only five
in that were abrogated. So
there's a lot of debate about abrogation, this idea that the is a safe, which is in sort of Muhammad's line is in the 47th surah. In the Quran, the the idea that the AI to save the sign of the sword abrogated all those meccan sorters is completely insane. And, and, and that, unfortunately, is things that people like these extremists have views like ISIS and things like that. They've used that arguing that, and unfortunately, some of the Obama did make those arguments, which is tragic, but so it is in the books, but it's not normative and it shouldn't be seen as normative. So abrogation is very important to know.
People say why, how can you have abrogation in Islam? Well, first of all, the Jews, and the Christians debate about this because the New Testament abrogates a lot of the Old Testament. So that's part of the point of abrogation is it showing that things do change. The privatized system had circumstances and then later the circumstances change in Mecca. He wasn't allowed to fight in Medina because he had state authority. He was allowed to fight within a lilla denio Arthur una Bian homopolymer. Right, because they were oppressed, they were permitted to fight. And so
in that verse, in Surah, Al Hajj, Allah subhana wa tada gives the community isn't to defend themselves prior to that they weren't because the circumstances would have led to a kind of terrorist type of thing. in Mecca. If they were given permission to fight, how would they fight they'd fight like subversives.
So when the situations of Mecca are in existence, all those apply to Mecca. So when Muslims don't have state authority, they don't use vigilante violence, violence has to be sanctioned by us.
Unless it's in self defense, obviously. But if you just remove any of that, then it becomes tribalism. And it becomes cycles of violence that never end. So that's very important that abrogation and the concept of abrogation is actually very important. And even in the verse in the Quran in surah baqarah, there's two verses one is in Hana. And the other is in Bukhara, that, that that mentioned, abrogation, the verse in Bukhara, you know,
men and sacrament midnight, and we own and see how, you know, we don't abrogate an IRA, or cause it to be removed. There's a there's two para Nancy her and Nancy. Aha. So it's same or similar with Manny. So Nancy means delay it. So it might not be applicable in these circumstances, but in other circumstances, it becomes applicable. And this is what's called topic and monopoly in also, in also all the monopolies the the, the the cause. And so in also you have the monopoly, the cause of something, the monopoly is determining whether the situation that you're looking at has the same applicability of the monopoly in the original situation, in which In other words, like, for
instance, when when when Omar removed the head punishment during the the famine, because theft, it's Quran is very clear. Right? aside, of course, the Quran is very clear about somebody who steals.
But in the circumstances that that Omar saw when he was Caleb, this is a time of necessity, people are starving, they're going to be doing things that they would never do in normal circumstances. So his pocket and monopoly, he said that the the legal rationale does not apply here. Because the theft is is when things are normal, and people have what they need. So if somebody's stealing out of necessity, it doesn't apply. So that's to pick on monopoly. And that, in essence, is a type of abrogation. So what abrogation teaches us is that circumstances change, and therefore, rulings change. And this is why Islam is not it's much more causal allistic than it is a kind of statute
law. You cannot apply.
Islam it like statute law. And it was only when the Europeans trading became so
important that the Ottomans attempted to create a type of statute law for this shit. Yeah, but the shittier is much more like, I mean, I would, I would liken it to naturopathic medicine as opposed to allopathic and allopathic medicine, every asthma is the same in naturopathic medicine, they're gonna look at each asthmatic case differently.
Like, what causes it, what's the temperament? So if you're in Chinese medicine, you might give completely different herbs for one case of asthma than you would for another. And I'm just using that as an analogy, right, whereas the kind of cookie cutter model is not is not possible. And then you have had these studies was very important to prophesize in
the US, especially that how does that relate to
legal injunctions and things like this, so, of which there are surprisingly, not that many, even in the Quran, they're not that many that relate to, and then you have costs, which went into a bit. And then finally the solo. So he includes to solo as one of the really important
signs
to know, sciences to know and he actually wrote a beautiful book on a Quranic tasawwuf.
So before we have some questions, because it's
going to be the 27th night
they asked me to talk a little bit here and I thought what I do is just give you an example of how to move around, look at sort of other so in even a jiba, who I love this Tafseer largely because it's it's one of the later steps here. So he has the
the ability to look back on all the previous tough series and benefit from them. But he was a really extraordinary scholar from from Morocco. It's called battered and muddied.
And so he says Sora tada Bismillah R Rahman Rahim is Melania who is
Appearing above so that again, you see, they'll go back to the earliest always, initially wakita macchia. And some say a peeler when you see a pillar is always for weak. It's a weaker opinion. So the first opinion will be the strong one. And then they'll say what pillar so it means it's a weaker opinion. It said that it's a Mexican. Well, here comes two is and it's five is when I submit to her, it the actual occasion for its revelation under lemma.
O'Meara misuzu, they were Taka robe.
So when, when there was a command for the session,
in the previous right was Jude walk data, which is not essential, according to the Matic is some have it as a such that but it's not for us. But in the previous in Arabic, Allah the hallak, it ends with
to go into such that and get near to Allah. And so here then in Zanna, houfy, latest are covered. In other words, if you want to get near to Allah, this is the best way to get near to Allah on this night. So it immediately follows the actor, you know, get close to Allah in Lanza. Now, I'm going to give you the the the chapter the the night that you can really get close to a law and then mention the time that that yellow movie that taco robe, so he mentioned the time when that drawing near to Allah is is is the closest of the year so of all the nights of the year. This one is the night for search the antiquorum utilize data to get near to Allah. So he says your corner How can gel lower
gel gel in and gel now he later to know Wahhabi Shannon and Hazel esna in Zed who either he is Ned he either Noonan Obama so this is called the Royal we so he's saying that when Allah says in not not you know an NSL to in its giving it the snad back to a lots of panel data and then one commander in ITV and and the perfection of His providence jabya community he dewiness mihaylova head lil he then variety the hood he and he then he uses the pronoun to show you how clear it is of what he's talking about God no ha they don't feed me as if it's present in everybody's mind in the enzyme now what else the Koran so not even in the Koran and Allah who because it's so known in everybody's mind and
also your Anima crew and more behavior co D Tara. Tara So here they are Kara what under the Angela who feel a little odd
for Tata zero Sora to be my alma mater walk the lady answered a few he'd be appalled he were mad at that akama in worse they say a drachma with
a comma or a Dada comma if you use half sisters to him, when Adorama laylatul kaduri. So what will convey to you what will give you data what would you do knowledge of what is is is is the night of power. Lima Fie Minna de la vida to a Delilah to doula Allah to Luca de HA, HA Arizona and that irati direto Hulk showing you that it's impossible for creation to understand what this night is one that I accumulated, I what will convey to you you won't know you won't understand what this night is. But to give you an approximation laina total padri hieromonk l Fisher. This is a night that is better than 1000 months. So if you look at 1000 months, somebody did broke it down. So for every one
second of your your bad, it says it's a day
23 hours
like just one second so just say Subhan Allah you just got like as if you did that for a whole day. So it's a good time to donate to inshallah. inshallah you get more reward for for and then one minute is better than 58 days
of worship, one minute, one hour 9.8 years of worship.
And then it wouldn't and it actually we don't even know because it really says hydro minute official is better than so we're just taking it as if it was 1000 months is actually better than 1000 a month and then one night is like 83 years. For if you did it like that.
months. So that's
LA's economic Academy is the generous Lord. This came from, you know, the problem was talking about the previous peoples and how long they live. And in one had he mentioned about somebody from the Jews who would for 70 years he, he was in husba. feasibility that 70 years. And that's how we haven't done anything. Right? because they'd only been Muslim, some of them less than a year or two or three, right? Think about it. And they were thinking, Oh, we haven't done anything. And so Allah revealed this. This is what I'm giving to this own man, how siec had it. It's from the specificities of this oma, that I'm going to give you a night that's worth it's as if you had a whole lifetime of
worship from the previous peoples, this amazing gift from Allah. And so then he says,
you know that that
one more rbnz he in sadhu kulu, dunya, because it came down to the heaven at once, and then it came piecemeal, over the 23 years. Rule. Yeah.
Own zita Joomla 10 wahida, the latest countryman Hello had Mako data. So that's one opinion when as an admin, right, that would be more up and June as they come down over the 20 year period MFT that in that empty that Windows UI will who would have had to sue me yesterday that study with Dr. Murphy how we brought him up pata. Tikka Sena,
Cody tartufi. How you Franco Kula Ahmed and Hakeem. So in Surah. Doohan, Allah mentions that every wise affair is determined on that. So for either of you, man, Chuck D, that one opinion that you cut zero, so it means like that he it's the night of decrees. So everything's coming down. Another opinion is that it shut off, like Luca, Don, Navin, he has great, you know, position or play. So, in other words, it's the night of immense shut off. Or, and so, I mean, Muslims in English traditionally say the night of power, because from podra, like, but it's really shut off, you know. And then, here, he says, This is very important. We're here related to saburo Kareem and Rama bond,
Allen misure. So the dominant opinion is the 27th. Why? Because obey Him and cab Canada yesterday for his sworn oath that it was the 27th obey Him in Canada is one of the four people that Prophet said take the Quran from he was very close to the prophets lie Sam. And and he learned the Quran directly from the Prophet lies. And so if he asked the problems lies, and he said it was the 27th night, he's sworn, oh, you can't swear an oath.
I mean, if you're not certain about something, because you'll get in trouble with a lot. So that's where the dominant opinion comes in at best said, Whoever gets up every night throughout the year, he's gonna get later
looked at it like no, it's because some people say it's the 15th of Shabbat. And you'll see that in the Tafseer. so weak opinion, but there are people that say it's actually the 15th of Shabbat.
So, this is to hide so that people, you know, Allah Subhana people, people, you know, it's interesting, I saw recently this debate between an atheist and William Lane Craig. And one of the things they said is, you know, why does God hide? I don't, where is he hiding? I mean, it's pretty manifests Well, after world war hero verboten? I mean, if you can't see him, open your eyes, you know, if you can't see everything indicating all the ancients understood that the scene world was understood because of the scene world, that they all understood that that, that the fact that the scene world was here meant there was something unseen, in the same way, as were your thoughts.
You can't explain thoughts with some chemical explosions in your brain.
What were your thoughts? And where did language when I started this talk? Half an hour ago, I didn't know what was going to come out of me like, where did it all go? I don't know. In humans, where did where does it come from? Where did little children put syntax together in original ways? Where does it come from the it's coming out of some unseen realm. And so a lie is is showing himself everywhere. Not in some
You know, don't mistake people now take everything literally. Somebody said they took an interview that I gave where I said, you know, yeah, to see God in the other. I mean, I'm not saying literally, it's seeing the creation before you so you see the creator in the creation. It's not it doesn't mean that person's God or your, I mean, it's just really strange how people twist things and just don't understand things. But you know, there's just some people the haters are gonna hate and this is to deal with, you know, people if they like you, they'll make excuses. And if they don't like you, even if you can walk on water, they'll say I got his soles wet.
It's just amazing.
You're supposed to 70 Yeah. 70 I had somebody comes to me once. I'm at 68 with you.
Thanks for giving me 68 Yeah.
So So.
Anyway, so then he says here, you know, that that would toxicity with the Korean military career. Oh, Lima ruya. And who and who? the Krajina Minh Beni Hassan el libres de Silla VCB de la. Alfa Sharon. So that's in
fact, as you've been working on what the odds are in amerihome for too late at padri here hieromonk amedee Daddy callawassie so that in a moment to be mentioned that in his tips here, so then Tennessee roll Malaika to a roofie her raw image debris in * criminal melodica lateral lateral.
So it's either jabril or this vast creation of angels that are seen on that day or it's the Rama
when Murat be tennis student, these are all you know, possibilities. So the dominant pins is gibreel Atlas and Lupita it has some adonia being the rugby him tennis so that you're tied up with the tennis so by the permission of their Lord, they're coming down I mean clearly amitin tennis, I mean, could you imagine? I mean as equally among Baba, who Allah to Analytica sanity, it is so going to the next year ruya and Allah Allah, Allah equateur be calling my akuna fanatic and arm Cooley lockira yeah Bruce dareka Minar in mela AB Layton Norsemen shut down. So that again weak opinion. So he goes on set on when he had a mahila sentiment Alan momineen Jana ha nafsa ceramica turisti ma,
you sell the Mona at an S because the angels are giving so much greeting to the people. So there's all this piece coming in through your cell phone, and equally common waka either Macari and so they're giving peace to anybody who's standing or sitting in dicker or reciting the Quran. One more sunlen or maybe less Salam ala yakata Rolo to Anna Elizabeth ceramica. Well Hira We're here at halfway up the cinema tomb or Bella and so that night it's all Salaam and in other times it's tribulation also with a party even a bass here ishara either under her later cyberware is hidden so even at best said the word here is an indication that it's on the 27th night because if you count
the letters, the sorry not the letters if you count the words when you get to here the here is the 27th word in the surah so even at best sedessa ishara that it means it's the 27th night Even though the prophets I sent him said seek it out at me so who yeah sure all
right, look look forward in those last 10 nights and in the odd nights of those last 10 nights so that's all true now here's what's this this is a Shara so you know understand z Shara, but he's so each are 100 Kuru Minar ariffin Alka Koolhaas in the home. Layla told Padre for the people that are real knowers of God every day is
what American Indian artifacts and everywhere they are is out of fats. What are young kuno huduma ads and every day is Juma. Linda moxham into Lima za man one McCann because these times are times the reason you get up is to give them to magnify them, woman your album shy or laughter in the home in Tacoma kulu so from the piety in your heart, you want to magnify the things of Allah subhana wa Adana. So he's saying these are people who do this all the time. They Magnum
Every hour they magnify every place they're in, they magnify every.
And then what opportunity under RFP cool so have you had a man and that's why
Allah das said nano will hamdulillah our Katana kulu ha Elena tala little country. So that's probably our best and mercy. It might be a little harder on me but I think it's best and mercy
and hamdulillah our Cardinal kulu, her Leyland, Qatari. Leanna Eva, Eva to home, Kula albia pain a secret secret in where t bar will show hidden was tip saw, we'll figure out to say it and after a minute at Submariner center, to a deep reflection for for just a moment, deep reflection is better than 70 years of worship, the weak tradition. But the point he's making is that there are people that really are with a law all the time. But this is a time for those of us for those lesser mortals like ourselves to really benefit from this this time. So it's an important night, and the last 10 nights are all good. But the 27th has that special mop arm, and traditionally the Muslims have seen
it has been that night. So May Allah subhanho wa Taala give us the blessing of this night and increase us and give us the ability to
get close to a lot of damage. We're almost there. Are there any questions? A few questions?
Yes, there are several questions. Thank you so much. May Allah reward you?
Let's see one of the
one of the most repeated questions is considering the various geographical locations and that it is night in one place while it is day in another. How do we understand when Laila to color truly false? That's a great question. Because I've thought about that.
So
first of all, it's very important to remember
that everybody has a Deen with Allah subhanho wa Taala. Like your deen is between you and Allah subhanho wa Taala. And in a minute amount of money, yet actions are by intentions. And Allah subhanho wa Taala is not limited by time or space.
He's the creator of time and space. So he's not within time and space, time and space is contained in his knowledge. So whatever it is, like we know now that it's one day in one place, and it's another day in another place. So we have two places on the earth, where they're literally in two separate days
with a law that that's, like meaningless in the idea that there are two separate with everything is one with Allah, his knowledge is absolute. And so whatever Laila, other is, he's telling us what it is, and he knows it. And he's telling that it's that it's on. The our Prophet told us that it's on one of these last 10 nights, especially the odd nights, and Sahaba like, oh, babe, and cam said, it's on the 27th, which is historically where Muslims have considered it, that's mature, in other words, the dominant opinion of our tradition. And so, in sha Allah, Allah will give you by your Nia
my own experience, personally, is
I'm in in fasting now for 40 going on 43 years.
I've, I think a lot of Muslims have had the experience of feeling the peace of later other. And I remember once when I when I had a lot of him out when I was very young.
I used I went out on the 27th morning, because the Hadees I read said that the sun rises without any rays. And I really felt that it was the 27th tonight. And so I went out that morning I was in in a line and I went out in the sun just came up read without any rays at all. It was just amazing. That I was I just felt like that was for me like it and I and I really believe that about God that God gives each one of us what we need. Like you will you know you can be you can be like you know you can lose a loved one and then it starts raining and you feel like you know God's the skies
you know sending down rain for you
and and and and that and allows
generous like that. So, you know, Allah is real. You know, the prophet Allahu
Allah is real. And so people that don't know that, and I feel sorry for them. Because if you're open to
God, if you're open to guidance, he, God will show you
how God will show you. And I've seen enough in my life to know that that's absolutely true. Where you you stop doubting because you've seen too many things. And people say, Well, I haven't seen those things because you're not open to them. If you open yourself up to them a lot is generous. And allow will show you a lot will give you just what you need when you need it, even a word that you might need to hear.
But if you're closed if your hearts closed
when hearts close, that's how all empires fall.
Your heart has to be open.
Next one.
I think the next dominant question is, what are the most rewarding things to do during Laila to college?
The prophets Isom gave us the Aloma inika iPhone so you forgive your pardon you overlook Kadeem on and you're generous is one of the attributes of a lot you're cutting
for. So overlook us. I mean, we're creatures, we're fallen creatures. We our shortcomings are many, and we have a generous Lord. Mahabharat Kabira. Because,
you know, Allah says in the Quran, like, what has America you know, what has diluted you concerning your generous Lord? Some of them are versatile and said jalaja wabo houfy? Su, Allah He, he put his answer in the question, your cut from your generosity, because Allah, people sin, and he doesn't destroy them. And people say, Why do the oppressors do all these things? What? Like, why do they do all these things? And nothing happens to them? Why does somebody who does all this evil, he lives and has all this energy, I mean, apparently, some people don't sleep except for a few hours a night, you know, and they can do all their facade and corruption, and they have all that energy, and then
they never get sick. And then a good person, a really gentle soul, who's serving humanity who's doing all these things. And then Allah gives him like, they get cancer, or they get some disease. And then people what's going on here? Either, how below permanent home, if Allah loves people, he gives them trials, the fact you're not getting any trials is really bad.
It's a bad sign. And the fact that you see so many people that are evil, that don't seem to have these trials, is a clear sign of the truth of this thing. And then the other thing is, what allows showing us is if he allows respect for these people, then who are we? Like, who are we? Isn't that teaching us that we should be have more him? I mean, look how generous the Prophet sighs them was. Because if we got angry, if if, you know people say why doesn't he stop the, you know, the the person when he's about to do his evil god could have stopped the Twin Towers from Why didn't he stop those pilots? Why was there a policeman that stopped them? If a law stopped everything and didn't
let us have exercise our free will then what's the meaning of free will? And the second thing is the fact that he a lot doesn't react to us, because he's not he doesn't have emotion he doesn't react is is teaching us to holla go be a floppy learn to be more like God to be less reactive, to be more forbearing. To be more cautious, to be more calm, to be more understanding. I mean, we want God to forgive us and give us excuses, but we don't want him to forgive anybody else.
That's not fair.
Right?
Yeah, everybody. You know, I always tell people on Yokoyama. No, I mean, sorry, you're out of fat. Nobody from this oma is saying, Oh, God, be just with me.
There, nobody's saying that. And if they are, they're crazy.
But they want justice for everybody else.
And you don't believe until you want for other people what you want for yourself according to the Hadees everybody wants justice for everybody else but not for themselves. I want mercy. But not for that, not for me doesn't deserve it
is the human condition.
I mean, there's the element test. It's very ridiculous as a species, except for the profits, and that would be solid.
And last one or one more.
Yeah.
This was a pretty heavy one. That was asked a couple of times. It sounds like it's from a convert, who is asking how to not feel overwhelmed with the the verses concerning, you know, *,
when you have family members, you know, who don't believe, like you believe like in Islam, and how not to feel overwhelmed by that as a Muslim? I mean, first of all, I would just say this one, we don't know where people are going. And it's very important never to make an assumption that people we don't know you can't it's it's held on to say anybody's going to *.
I mean, we, you know, we can think that probably, that person probably is like, I would think, given what they're doing, like some really evil people, but unless the Quran actually specifies a person, we can't say Kufa is a very complicated thing I actually wrote an article called who are the disbelievers that's online. Cofer is I think, Muslims have a very simplistic view of it. I think it's much more complicated than people realize. Kufa First of all, is, it's clearly a denial and a rejection of the truth. Once you see that it's true. And so a lot of people are just ness. They're just people. And the pooran has NASS, yeah, you had NAS? You had you had minimoon. Right. Yeah, you
had caffi rune. There's different people that Allah speaks to but the first people he speaks to the very first command in the product. Yeah. yohannes, portable, durable, come under the Huracan. Allah Dyneema political land contract upon. That's the very first verse in Surah, Baqarah. That gives a command. Yeah, you have NASS, once the hood j has been established on them, then they become calf here, if they reject it, for most people of Mohammed Ali, who I think is right on this issue. I mean, I'm nobody to say of Mohammed is right. But a lot of onomah do not hold this opinion. But what about Mr. Mohammed razali is of the opinion that the vast majority of people are not calf your own.
Because they haven't they have the hokum of Kufa. But he says, if they get the message in a distorted way, and they reject it, they're rejecting a distortion, they're not rejecting the message if they get or if they never got the message in the first place. So a lot of people don't they just don't know. And I think Muslims, we need to be more humble.
And get out of the this kind of idea of you know, that Paradise is a is a,
you know, it's a hotel that we've booked
and, and everybody who shows up on Yokoyama, you know, sorry, it's already the Muslims have booked this,
you know, so, I mean, I think we have to be very careful about that. And that's not to belittle, you know, Cofer is real, and there are calf your own. And, and I'm not denying that in any way, shape, or form. And but I'm saying, just be careful about judging people, because we just don't know, we don't know what they've been through, we don't know, what they've walked in, you see people, you know, that, that,
that are behaving certain ways, and you don't know, you just don't know. I mean, I was I was at a family gathering once. And, and I was going to get a chair and this man rushed up to me and started screaming at me, that's my chair, don't touch and I walked away. And I was like, you know, and then somebody explained to me that, you know, he's mentally, you know, he's, he's mentally ill. Right? Well, that, that elicits compassion. But the default setting is always to judge you know, and and, and that's why it's just really important to just have compassion with people to try to understand where people are coming from. And that's not to say that there aren't, you know, that we do have
rules and that people break the rules and you know, things like that because we do have moral agency.
But, but sometimes it really is mental illness and things like that, but those who have moral agency that do evil with those people.
They will have retribution
Will will give everybody their do that deserves it. And those that were merciful in this world Allah will show mercy to them in the next world of raw humans the first Hadith I learned all the Muslims during the very first Hadith they teach you, it's called animal cell cell bill, Avaya, the first headache that you learn is a Raheem on your hammer home. Alright man, aha moment that your hammer comb or your hammer comb, Memphis summer,
that those who show mercy, the Merciful will show mercy to them, those who show mercy men for similar to those who show mercy, a Raheem moon yamamura man, air hammer mentor. So Have mercy men there is called Sailor Moon, show mercy to people in the world. The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as a gentle rain from heaven, upon the place beneath it is twice blessed it blesseth him that gives and him that takes. I mean, it's Mercy is, is that's why our Prophet is well not our son NACA Illa Rahmatullah alameen. We only set you as a mercy to all the worlds that's our Providence. So I'm not denying there's wrongs and people that we believe in justice. And and that's
absolutely true, and we shouldn't forego justice. And you end up in this kind of wishy washy world where there's no, no, I'm not saying that at all. It's very important. Governments have to be just governments are not there to be merciful. You don't want to judge who when you when somebody stole all your money, and you take them to court. And the judge says, you know, we should have mercy on him. You know, that's not the role of the judge. role, the judge is to restore, right, to give restitution to the wrong. So the government's have to be just, but people to the best of our ability, should should be merciful, and forgive and overlook as best we can. Because if you forgive
people, then Allah will it's much easier to be forgiven. And that's the famous Hadith of the man, he had no good deeds, sin the Sahaba he had no good deeds, except when he sent his debt collector out to collect debts. He said, Look, if he's having a hard time, don't just leave them alone. And and Allah said, I'm more merciful than that one. So he forgave him because he forgave other people's debts. That was only good deed he had.
Or the or the or the,
you know, the woman who fed the
the prostitute in the in the Hadith, its movements, she's literally a prostitute. And she sees the dog panting and she takes from her shoe from the well and gives the dog water and Allah forgave her for that act of kindness to a dog.
So what about to human beings?
So that that's the point. So I'm not I people don't get me wrong about that. I don't I don't want people to think that I'm in any way condoning or saying that we should all just let people run all over us. And forgive No, if people do something criminal or if people aggress upon you. Right? volume is low, with Volvo lomatium a piano.
But the highest people are people that do forgive and overlook, and it's a high McCombe, but it's certainly not, you know, it's not something that you have to do you have every right to get your your justice about things in the world. And if that's how you feel, then you certainly deserve that. But also an important thing is to remember volume, its volume, io says volume all the way down, you know, Muslims, that they look at Joe or j, you know, a lava gel or his boom of the government's right. And one of the things in our Acadian bahaya he says when
we're in dry, Elena, we don't we don't implicate against our leaders, even if they're oppressive to us. That's an RFP there. Right. So So Joe does from the coma, but volume is everybody so when the Quran is mentioning volume, doesn't just mean the government's means everybody. Yeah, everybody has bone. And you have to be careful because, you know, there's volume in the house, there's loan towards your wife, or towards your husband or towards your children. There's boom toward your neighbors. There's I mean, volume is everywhere.
And then you know, they have a woman, whatever habima
is, you know, like from normal piano like there's not there. There's going to be no fear of like, volume and have them hotma is like
It's, it's, it's, it's partial volume, it's not full volume, like there's no volume. And then there's no even partial, like even so it's not stinting on your right. So volume could be partial or full, like, you lose some of your light. Whereas with a lot, nothing, everybody is going to be either forgiven or given exactly what they
what they allow will not oppress anybody. And it is impossible to oppress anyway, if you understand
that we're all nomadic. We're just to service Alhamdulillah. So botanical hamburger shadow, and
I would just like to say, we're in the last few days of Ramadan. And there's a lot of need out there.
There's there's a, there's an organization called Kashmir aware.org. I think that is important for the Kashmiri people. I don't know the organization, but somebody I really trust told me it's a very,
because he knows them and works with them. So the Kashmiris are going through a lot of hardship right now, among many other I mean, there's so many organizations, but also remember that it's very important not to
attend neglect our institutions in the United States, because our community is only as strong as our institutions that that are, are representing our community. This is one of them. zaytuna College as an academic institution, there are others.
There's a the Chicago
called the American Islamic college there. That's the the the only other college that we have. And then I think there's a ban Claremont, also
the Jihad Turks, the President, they're there, they're only a few, we've only got a few colleges.
And we need to establish these colleges. And we need more to be honest with you. But I think it's important to establish the ones that we have the few because we only got a handful there. I think there's only a handful. I mean, there are some metadata says that are more traditional colleges like awesome, I think in in
Where did you go? column in Houston, which is Dallas? Yeah. So a very good institution. I mean, there's good, yeah, there's good institutions. So we have to support the ones we have to get them solid and strong. And, and, and hopefully, I mean, we were fortunate the first to be accredited, which is important, because it enables our students to go on to other colleges
easily, and humbly that we've gotten students into top medical schools, we've gotten students into places like Georgetown, University of Chicago,
Claremont Colleges,
and several others. So Urbana Champaign, we had one of our vote we're very proud of her
from from the rahat family is one of really great families that have supported say tonight since early on. So
you know, that
that's, that's a really quite an accomplishment. She's working now in the DOJ. So
it's, it's really important that we support these so I hope you find yourself to support zaytuna we've been very fortunate to have your support. I know there are many other worthy institutions but and and I would encourage supporting them also.
I'm of the School of abundance, not the School of scarcity. The left has that you know, similar to what Allah has the store houses of the heavens and the earth but I do hope that you will find it in yourself to support what we're doing here. We want to renovate the campus we want to have, we're going to inshallah, we just got a recent really very generous some help to start an online courses. So we're going to be doing that inshallah to have some really good online courses for the classes that are taught here
in Sharla in the land so and then the curriculum series Finally we have the photos hands book literally is all done. So it's going to go to the printer at the end of the month. That's going to be a landmark work in Aki, the in the English language critical edition in the Arabic beautiful commentary, really solid arguments for why we believe in
God, we're a rational faith. We don't we don't believe because it's absurd, we believe because it's actually more reasonable than to not believe.
In God, you know, people can find other things that they find fault in, I mean, Islam, to me of all the world religions, and I think this is somebody like beautiful scholar in
France. I mean, somebody I have immense admiration for is Dr. Bruno gordonii, who came to the RSA this year.
truly one of the brilliant intellects alive on the earth, and he found a home in Islam because he just felt that it was he was a man of faith. And he felt that it was the one religion that as a world class cosmologists, because he's one of the leading experts on galaxy formation. He's an astrophysicist. And he said that he just felt that the Quran was a book that didn't, he actually said, I felt it was written by by the cosmologists.
So he said it was it wasn't a book that offended his sensibilities as a scientist, which
is quite a testimony from somebody of that caliber. So I think you should all be happy that we're Muslims. Be happy unhappy
we'll be out of here soon enough. Not here I'm talking about this dunya into a much more
vast realm. It's going to be very interesting journey.
I want to mention also Idris by an we lost a dear brother to the COVID Yeah, really? Somebody who used to come to my classes. He was just really beautiful man. Maybe you could put a picture up of him just yeah, make dua for him and showing me a lot give him Jonathan fair dose for those ellada you know, and May Allah subhana wa tada make him Shaheed because the death of Mr. Peroni Shahid May Allah make a machine anyway I beautiful man I really
and also among the allows father may do it for him
for she's
beautiful another really beautiful man.
Yeah, in my mind, sorry. You know, just one of those solid Allah
is one of those people that just
lover of knowledge and
then then anybody else who's sick all the sick people May Allah give them ease and repose and solace and Allah make it easy on our Palestinian brothers and sisters and Syrian refugees all those people in camps now, may Allah subhana wa tada make it easy for them. May Allah give them the solace of the book of Allah. Despite all of their hardships and tribulations, may Allah make it easy for the people of Yemen, and all the people things that they've been suffering all those children
Libya in all these places, Kashmir, Allah protect the minorities in India, all of them the Muslims, the Christians, the Jains, the Jews, the all the minorities there and now let's
move this Saigon in the Bay of Bengal away from harm so that these people don't,
don't have that suffering May Allah subhanho wa Taala make it easy for them. And may Allah subhana wa tada shall
remove this blight that's upon us on this on our species right now. And, and make us all wake up to the reality of our sinfulness and the need for forgiveness and the need for Toba
cannot be corrupted as much