Hamza Yusuf – Knowledge, Sectarianism And Governments
AI: Summary ©
The " pest apocalypse" of knowledge is a crisis that everyone faces, and political issues and economic conditions are related to it. The " pest apocalypse" is a term used by many people, but it is not a term used by humans. The " pest apocalypse" of knowledge is a crisis that affects people's understanding of the world, and people need to be aware of their weight and history to achieve their dreams. The importance of learning to be humble and confident in one's home is emphasized, and the negative impact of religion on society is discussed. The segment ends with a brief advertisement for a video about a person named Brittany.
AI: Summary ©
Thank you for tuning in taking my family with me Muslim that is my L and bringing to you a special interview today as mentioned with a very profound scholar Sheikh Hamza Yusuf Hansen And for your information Hamza Yusuf is the president, co founder and senior faculty member of zaytuna College. He is an advisor to Stanford University's program in Islamic Studies and the Center for Islamic Studies at Berkeley's graduate theological union. And she Hamza Yusuf was ranked as the western world's most influential Islamic scholar by the 500 most influential Muslim Assalamu alaikum. Salaam Alaikum. tala, how are you? I'm well, thank you.
Okay, so this is, this is not your first time to Malaysia. No.
Thank you very much for being with us.
Today, and it's been in Malaysia for nearly a week now, more than that, almost almost two weeks. So how do you find it easier this time around?
Alhamdulillah No, as good as it's a, Malaysia to me is, there's two there's two places I've been in the Muslim world well, actually, probably three,
that I've been in the Muslim world where I really feel
that there's a an identity that has not been so corrupted by the modern
times because a lot of people they lose their identity in the globalized world. And then the post colonial problem is severe as well in for Muslim countries. But I really feel that there is a Malay identity.
I know you have Malaysians, but with the Malay people that are mostly Muslim, I really feel there's a Malay identity that that lets me know that I'm with Muslims that have a distinct
cultural and religious identity, which is really nice. And then turkey also, despite the trauma of the, the period after the fall of the kid, if they were Muslims were really suppressed for a long, long time. But despite that, it shows you how strong the Turkish religious identity was, is that if you go into the villages and the towns and the smaller cities, you really see a truly
Turkic Muslim Muslim identity. And then I think another beautiful country is Oman, in the Arabian Peninsula. They called the Switzerland of the Arab world. And by that they just simply mean it's it's a highly functioning society, which is really nice to see. So yeah, I shall I thank you very much. On a more serious note, Now perhaps we can talk about knowledge, where you have been speaking on the issue of crisis of knowledge and several occasions. Yeah. If you may explain what you mean by the Christ. Okay. Well, before we do that, I would like to just have a few comments about the Hadith that we just heard. That was related. That Hadith is a famous Hadith, it's in a moment terminally
ill
and and it's related by somebody who knew the Prophet intimately lived with him. But it's called the Hillier traditionally. And it's a description of the Prophet, which is very important, because one of the things that every believer will be tested by is in the grave, it will be set to them first, who is your Lord and rabuka? And then what is your religion? And then what do you say about this man, and it says how the regime in which they're abused for presence, so people actually see the Prophet lies in their grave. And they should know the description so they recognize him. So that's traditionally why the halo was very important for people. And the other thing about the Hillier is
what what's stunning about the privatised physical description is that he was balanced in everything. He was neither short nor tall, you know, he was a moderate stature, his skin was neither pasty white, nor was it dark, it was a middle color. He his his physical appearance was moderate, His hair was neither straight nor curly, it was wavy, that everything was balanced. So the prophesied Sam is a perfectly balanced human being not just spiritually and intellectually, but also physically. And so it's very important for Muslims, to remember that our religion is a religion of balance of it, that the Prophet was not attended, in everything you would call all those
descriptions that that were given up him of that it's my turtle, it's in in between, you know, he could have been very tall. But he wasn't, although he always appeared taller than whoever he was with. But that was one of his miracles. So in terms of the crisis of knowledge, I mean, one of one of I believe that, that the crisis in the Muslim world is always a crisis of knowledge that every crisis that the world faces is ultimately a crisis of knowledge. If you look for instance, at the economic crisis, the real economic crisis isn't
Not about collapsing markets, it's not about derivatives, it's not about triple A loans being,
you know, passed off or or single eight loans being passed off as triple A loans. You know, those are all symptoms of a much deeper crisis and the crisis is ultimately about what is economics? And then what what drives human beings to greed? Why are they greedy? And why will they, because of their greed, do things that are harmful to other people? What is it in the psychological makeup of certain people that greed will be so destructive, that they will actually destroy themselves as well as others? Those are all problems of knowledge. They're not that so. And then political problems? Why do politicians fail so often? Because they don't, they don't either. They don't utilize the
knowledge they have, for instance, many of our problems now we actually know what causes them. We have social scientists that study these things. But social science isn't us. For instance, we know what produces extremism, we know the social circumstances that produce extremism. And we know the types the psychological profiles of people that become extremists, but that knowledge is not used instead, false knowledge is presented platitudes. For instance, the Palestinians, Mark Twain visited Palestine over 100 years ago, he didn't describe them as being violent. They're quite the opposite. He didn't experience them as violent. We know that Florence Nightingale lived for almost two years
in Egypt. And she also lived in Turkey. And she actually has wonderful things to say, um, she was troubled by certain things that she saw in the political class. But by and large, she was very struck by a lot of the positive things about Islam. And so how is it that somebody
over 100 years ago, could write very positive things about Islam, and yet today, it's very difficult for people to say anything positive about Islam, right, this is a corruption of knowledge, because Islam has been presented as something other than it is. And there's agendas behind that. So for me, all of the problems that we are confronted with the ills of the world are ultimately related to how we understand the world. And so understanding is central changing our understanding, rectifying our knowledge is really important.
You mentioned you know, there's a quote about innocence, ignorant and combinded you ITM. Okay. Well, I, you know, I was struck I was with Satan or pivotal thoughts the other day, and he used innocent ignorance and arrogant ignorance. And I hadn't heard those terms before. Generally, the way I learned it was compounded ignorance and simple ignorance. But I actually liked the idea of it using innocent ignorance and arrogant ignorance. Because essentially, that's, that's getting by saying compound ignorance and simple ignorance, you're not getting to the real problem. Because innocent ignorance is when people have a purity that enables them to say, I don't know, because being able to
say I don't know, is comes from like a child, a child will just say, I don't know. Whereas, you know, we have there's an essay written by an American philosopher, which, unfortunately, he entitled it with a word that, I don't say, privately, so I certainly won't say it on the radio. But anyway, the initials are Bs, and, and what what he argued in that is that there was so much BS in the world, you know?
And, and, and he, he wants to, he asked the question in the essay Why, why why is there so much
you know, people just pretend to know things and they just say things and it's just rubbish. That's what the British call it rubbish. It used to be called Balderdash. Just empty, can follow the, you know, the Iraqi say, hace Fabi, you know, empty words. Why is there so much of that? He argues in there, because people feel they have to have an opinion about everything. And and that's a disease, just to be able to say, I don't know, in fact, our scholars used to teach I don't know, as part of knowledge, and they would say that it was half of knowledge that if you know, I don't know, you all already know half of knowledge. And and they warned about * saying later who formally said I could
be here and don't say things that you don't have knowledge of the Quran warns us. Let us
let us before Taku Taku let's go to tell us before as it elsina, Tuco macadam had helado Maharani tough to Allah kill him. Don't describe with your tongues by saying lies about a last Dean. This is halaal and this is how long so we're warned about these things and yet arrogant ignorance is what compels people out of arrogance even though they're ignorant
their arrogance assumes that I can't be ignorant because I'm me. You know, I'm so important. my opinions are so important. So we flooded the world with empty opinions. We have all these people talking nonsense. And people that know the subject they're talking about can see that they're just full of, you know, air. They're hot air, you know, but this is a problem. And so simple ignorance, it's really important. Traditionally, people who didn't know they would just say go acetone, so he knows Sahaba or the law on him. They didn't like to answer questions they used to defer it to other people because they felt the heaviness of having to say what what the religion says about something
as a weighty thing. Now we have every Tom dick and I'm Bella just feels compelled to give their opinion on the internet, we have what they called trolls, you know, these empty people with vacuous lives that have no meaning other than define meaning by defaming or slandering or attacking the words of other people. That's what we have. We have an empty people that won't even write their real names. They won't even say where they're from. They're just they're just empty people. And so we have, we have empty suits walking around, the lights are on nobody's home. And this is a crisis of the modern people, we've become empty people. One of the things humans are called Elaine, the two
weighty ones, humans and Jen, they're called fucka. Lane. That's what the Quran calls them. When do you want we're waiting creatures. We're not frivolous, empty creatures, we're supposed to have gravitas? Wait, there was a film recent called gravity, which was just about these idiots out in space floating around. And this is modern man, we've been freed from the atmosphere of the Earth. We're just are we're spiritually without gravity. There's nothing that's holding us down spiritually anymore. So we're just floating in space,
is something related to what you said earlier that even with the advent of technology, social network, sit down your room all by yourself, you're making it live by you making? Exactly It's amazing. Yeah, that's just
that's what we have to say.
Okay, share what you have achieved thus far has envied many Muslims all over the world, in terms of the mastery of
disciplines, Western philosophy, Arabic language and others, how can one emulate you in the pursuit of knowledge to achieve that level of excellence? Well, I mean, I, I'm a student of knowledge, I don't consider myself really a scholar, I'm probably by Western standards, but by by the standards of my own teachers. I mean, my teachers were, you know, they started when they were very young, I became Muslim when I was 18. So the key years are from about seven till about 24. If you really want to master the Islamic tradition, it's very hard once you get into, you know, the post, teen period, study becomes more difficult. The memorization is not as easy and our tradition demands a lot of
rote memorization. But you have to love knowledge. Not everybody is meant to be a scholar, God did not intend for all of us to be scholars, we should all love scholars, we shall honor scholars.
Amartya Sen, as he said, that you should be asked, and it's based on a hadith but he said, You should be a scholar, he said about the statement of the Prophet, be a scholar, or be a student of a scholar, or be a helper of a scholar, or at least love them if you can't afford to help them, at least love them. And, and, and don't become other than those and be perish. And so Omar Abdullah, as he said about that, he said, God, the prophet sighs him didn't leave. He gave everybody a place. So like, you remember, his father was very simple man. He was a he's a world Carter, like some say that facade is actually a facade. He was shed dead because his father was a cousin, he carded wall. But
he was not a scholar, but he loves scholars. And he, he, he served them. And he begged God to that his children would be scholars, he had two sons, Ahmed and Mohammed. Mohammed, obviously loved the prophesies, I mean, aim them both after the prophet and, and they became both of them became great scholars, you know, and and the parents of a half of poron are given a crown of light on the Day of Judgment. So even if you're not a scholar, you should hope at least one of your children becomes a scholar, you know, Muslims, like Irish Catholics, because I come from, you know, orthodox Catholic background, my father was Catholic, but the Irish Catholics used to always give one at least one son
to the priesthood and one daughter as a nun. They had big families, but it was something they just, that's what you did if you were Irish.
You know, because they they love that religion. And Muslims should really want you know,
at least one of their choices.
Ready to, to, you know, they should all want them to all learn the deen and practice the deen. But they just want one of them to because it's such a noble thing this is the, the wildlife of the prophets is to call people to the truth. That's the wild leaf that's there. The prophets that innama Beretta more animal people don't want to be teachers anymore. You know, they don't, and I'm not talking about becoming a lot of people want to be famous, which is a sickness. You know, a lot of people look at, like, you know, people that have, you know, kind of celebrity status in our tradition now, because of because of media and isn't that's just a tribulation. The Prophet said,
It's enough of a fitna that people point fingers when you walk by, like, that's not a good thing.
So that is a disease for to want to do that. But to want to be somebody who teaches elementary school and forms the, you know, the the minds of young people, that's very noble pursuit. And we don't have enough really talented people that want to do those jobs, because they're jobs that don't have a lot of social status anymore. And there's, it's questionable whether they ever did, except in very rare periods.
The parents can start making a list. So I mean, I would just say in summation that you have to love knowledge, and art, like I tell students that zaytuna that the first year students, I say, if you don't love to read, if you don't love if, if dictionaries aren't one of your favorite pastimes, like I read dictionaries for fun, you know, so if, if dictionaries aren't one of your favorite pet, you're in the wrong place. Yeah, you're in the wrong place. And and you know, if you want to come and do Vicar or recite, you know, in shadow or something like that, that's not the path of study. You can go do that other places people do that they you know, even Sufism now to solo was a serious
pursuit study. You know, the Sufi is were traditionally great scholars. Now the Sophie's have that it's rare to find Sophie's that have real knowledge, they don't know phip. They don't know al Qaeda. They don't you know, but but they, you know, they're nice people. They have good character, but they're not they're not of the early Sophie's. It's very rare to find that, unfortunately.
Okay, speaking of the tuna, now, being an American and a Muslim scholar, United States of America, how do you see your role along with zaytuna? college would convey the true teachings of Islam, especially in America? And yes, well, I mean, you know,
I would say that, that you're making claims is a very dangerous thing in our tradition, there's people that claim to be the this the saved sec, you know, and Philippa to Nadia, if you ever hear anybody say that, that we're on the truth,
then you should, red flag should go up. In fact, in the Quran, when Allah says, We the PETA, the homeless, to see to figure out how to eliminate animals at home, and in the home, home and mercy do what I can lay around. So the colon of him, so Allah says, you know, if it said to them don't sow corruption in the earth, they say, we're not corrupting. We're only setting things straight. And then God says about these people after describing what they say, he says, indeed, Aren't they the corrupters. But they're unaware. You know, it's like, they don't even know In other words, that it's that arrogant ignorance, you know, and
what a moment to be says in his Tafseer, is the first sign that they're not rectifying is that they claim to be rectifying.
That's the first sign the fact that they're saying we're setting things right is the first sign that they're, they're not they're doing the opposite, because the people that really do the work, they don't make the claims. And so it's very dangerous to make claims. And, and, and what what I would hope I think every Muslim should be certain about Islam, but they should, they should always have a sense of fallibilism about their understanding of Islam, we hope that our understanding is the correct understanding, you know, and we should believe that, but this idea somehow that my understanding is the only understanding is the only correct understanding. That is the height of
arrogance. And and so, I believe in what I'm doing, and I believe that I believe in the format tabs, you know, I really, that's what makes sense to me, not because I was I was taught that and I was taught that, but because, you know, could I became Muslim as an adult. And I already had a formed intellect. And so when I came into Islam, I got very interested for instance, in the beginning, you know, I became Muslim with Sudanese, but because of the Iranian Revolution, I got very interested in in the Shia, because I for me, I was just a Muslim, you know, and I didn't have any tribe. You know, I wasn't born in Iran.
Or born, you know, I was born in America. So, so I got interested in, in, in the Shia tradition, you know, because very exciting at that time, it's 1979 80. And so I started studying about the Shia tradition. But what struck me about Shia tradition that really bothered me was I couldn't understand how to prioritize him, could have companions for all his life, like Abu Bakar. And, and, and that he was a bad guy, he just the Prophet just didn't know it. That just didn't make sense to me. I just couldn't. So it didn't convince me. Like, when I read it, it just didn't convince me. You know, I know the fitness I've studied that period, and there was a lot of terrible things that were done to
the elevates and but the argument that was made, just didn't make sense to me. Whereas when I studied about the methods, the argument made perfect sense to me. One, it made me feel like that was part of the beauty of Islam, that there were different ways of interpreting and and that they that each school acknowledged the other schools validity in in differing with them, because they were based on sound methodological principles. So that made sense to me. And, and so and then also in Arpita, it made sense to me that you would need a sophisticated dialectical theology, that made sense to me, because new problems would arise, and you would have to have some way of addressing
those problems. So this idea that somehow the the theology that that developed in Islam is, is prohibited and that this is a bit out or something like that. That didn't make sense to me. So the I was very convinced by these arguments, and then also the tasawwuf, which is the spiritual psychology of Islam understanding the self that made sense to me with criticism. I mean, the greatest critic of the Sophie's was the mamanuca Sadie, you know, if you read what he has to say, he was very critical, and he wrote a book about the delusions of the Sophie's, so the idea that anybody who claims to be a Sufi is simply rightly guided is that foolishness, but to serve as a science is part of Islam. And,
and should be taught as such. And so for me, that's the foundation of a sound tradition. And, and this is the Malaya Islam. You know, you were you were Shafi. Yes. Right. And you were Ashanti and and and, and and then you had different Sufi traditions in your culture. And, and that's the Islam that you embraced. That's the song that made sense to your ancestors. So to change that now to say, Oh, they were wrong. So you've been wrong all these hundreds of years, and now we're going to bring you the true Islam. Well, that means you what you accepted wasn't Islam, it was something else. So maybe you have to reassess the whole religion. You know, this is this kind of argument just doesn't
make sense. Having said that, in Malaysia today, if you see the wave of returning to true teachings of Islam, particularly among the youth is overwhelming hamdulillah especially among students, professionals, and urban groups, I must say some people resort the internet, YouTube's Google's Wikipedia, and recorded lectures by scholars within and outside the country to learn about Islam. But what is your advice share in order to stay on track on our Deen and not to be influenced by the teachings or ideology that might contravene to the teachings of the Allison Allah Gemma or the mainstream Islam here in Malaysia? Well, the first thing to remember is a lot of groups claim to be
at a tsunami.
You know, they claim to be but and and we should be wary, like I said of claims, but we can we should be able to say that we know for certain who was on the sooner we'll jump right in the past, and we should try to be as close to them and as soon of the past for over 1000 years followed one of the format hubs. I mean, as hard which was a great bastion of suddenly thought, for the last 400 years, they've almost 400 years they've taught Ibrahim and Lacan is Joe Hara. And in there he says, well, medical was that era in Kedah, Abul Qasim who that oma for YG, Boone, taquito haben Minho, cada hakon como Villa the new hameau, which means that Malik and he was a Maliki but he's a Malik
and the other three imams as well as our Casa meaning emammal Junaid the way of the the, the soul of imagenet which email it even even even taymiyah who's used sometimes as a sledgehammer against Sufism, he he agreed that Imam Junaid was a right the guy that he mom, so that way they said that it's an obligation to follow one of these Imams and and that was understood that that Muslims had to follow an Imam. I mean, I'll give you an example. One example very simple example to show the complexity of this. It whenever you have a hadith and it's prohibited for common people
To read Hadees without a teacher, but whenever you have a hadith the annum the scholar has to understand what was the How was the Prophet speaking because sometimes he was speaking as a Mufti and sometimes he was speaking as an AVI. And sometimes he was speaking as a judge, a ruler assault on because he was all those things. Sometimes he's speaking as somebody giving advice. So for instance, in the Hadith, which is in the Sahih collection, Hynde, the wife of Abu sufian comes to the Prophet salon, and she says, I was looking doesn't give me enough money to live. And so what should I do? And so he said, haldimand Madhavan model, take from his money, what's socially
acceptable for your status in Mecca, take what you need, which meant take it without his permission. Now, Abu hanifa Delano said the Prophet was acting as as a Mufti. And so that means that a woman can take money from her husband
without him knowing if he's not giving her enough, but he said no, he was acting as a copy. And so it's only the hobby that can give the woman permission to do that. It's a different Do you see Do you understand the difference? Yes. So so the, the same Hadid arrives at two different conclusions. In other words, with the comedy every case is is is individual and the party has to look into the case, but with the Mufti.
Also, it's individualized, but he's giving a general hokum just a ruling. And there are many examples of that in our tradition. So people that go directly to the Quran and the Hadith will go astray. They will go astray and they will lead others astray. And the prophet SAW license said in the Hadith and on Buhari, that one of the signs of the end of time is that knowledge is taken from people. And he said and then people will take ignorant people as their as their knowledge heads. These are the the arrogant ignorant ones. And he said they will ask them questions and they will give them fatwa. And they will go astray by doing it and lead others astray by giving them that and
this is a big problem. So now we have this dash what they call the Dola. Islamia for the Iraq War Sham you know, we have these people in, in Syria and Iraq, the chopping off heads and doing all these horrible things in the name of Islam, where are they getting their source? They're reading the Quran, they'll quote you verses darboe recap the Quran says strike their heads off, they'll they'll quote you verses but those are the meanings of those verses and that's why the Prophet said that these are people less likely to jealous at Quran ohana. Hannah Jerome, the Quran won't go past their throats. In other words, they'll recite it but the meanings won't get to their hearts. That's how he
described them. And in the rewire of noraim been hammered in in the chapter of sciton. He said when you see the black flags coming, you know, the black flags, and he said, then you see these people, they will have names where they like Abu Koon a smart home cleaner, they will have names like Abu Flan, and he said they will be that miserable home or poorer, that their their names will go back to towns and like countries like Libya, masuri Araki and Baghdadi That's what he said. And then he said, and their hair will be long, right? And he said, when you see them, then he said, these will be people without wafaa they're not loyal people. They're treacherous people. And he condemned them.
So this is one of the signs, you know, that that these people were worried about. But people don't know these things. They're ignorant. You know, and so people think, Oh, this is the dolla Islami it's not $1 Islamia. It's a it's, it's, it's not it's falda you know, it's anarchy. And you look at them, they're like little kids. I mean, they had one of them that was really spinning a tank around. I don't know if you saw that footage from CNN, he was literally spinning a tank like a, like adolescence do with a car, you know, when they get a call, and they like to spin it in circles. With the tank I looked at I said, these are just little punks. You know, they're they're like kids, but
but unfortunately, they're not kids. They're they're adults, and they're responsible for their actions. And, and, and Muslims are fooled by this. I don't know which Muslims, but there are because there are people going from other countries. And I hope they are spared that man came to the prophet and he said jasola in you for jihad. I want to go on jihad. And he said, is Are your parents alive? And and he said yes. And he said for FEMA jahad. Do your Jihad with by taking care of your parents. And also in Sharia, you have to ask your parents permission to go and fight. They have a right to say no, you need to stay I need you. They have that right. You know, Islam is not this simplistic
religion. It's simple. Anybody can understand the basics of Islam.
But it's a complex tradition. And you can't just think that that these simplistic answers or solutions are going to address the real complex troubles of our time.
I would like to also share with you some of some of the questions from our listeners, right? Yeah. Maria marzuki. She says she asked please share some family tips that you adopt and apply to ensure your children and family at large are learning the deen on a strong foundation and correct methodology. Knowing the surroundings are full of fitna and signs of balancing as you
go all out seeking protection from Johanna. So what's her name? Maria Maria. Maria see what an excellent question, you know, really is a good question. You know why? Because it's a practical question. Muslims now that they're concerned about things that that should be,
you know, no practical concern of theirs. The prophets. I said, I'm said, in Hosni Islam and Mark utako, who melayani the view from the beautiful Islam of Amanda reminds his own business. And so that's a really good question. You know, about what do we do in our homes? The first thing I would say,
you know, that after prayer, the biggest chapter in books, is his his, his family law.
Yeah, why is this very important? It's very important, because after your personal relationship with God, the next most important relationship is the relationship of the family. And then the next biggest chapter is commercial law, and Hana fees. I heard from shefali alarmingly Appleby, that the Hanafi students, they study a famous book of hanafy. And they divided into three sections. So they have the first section is a bad debt. So you learn the five pillars. The second section is anti ha, so you learn the marriage laws. And then the last section is commercial law. And so they they say that the first section, the teacher, and the students understand it, the second section, the the
teacher understands it, but the students don't understand it. And the third section, the teachers don't understand it, and the students don't understand.
Because we were so divorced from, from commercial from real, practical, commercial solutions. And that's why Malaysia is at the cutting edge of trying to, to, to revamp the the Islamic finance tradition, I really don't, you have to recognize how important that is. Malaysia is literally at the cutting edge. I mean, there's some of the Gulf states are concerned about it. But Malaysia is really trying to do a lot to get into Islamic Finance, and provide. I was with one of the senators here, who was the editor of a textbook on Islamic Finance, very comprehensive, you know, so it's really good. So in terms of the in the house, the first thing to note is that your house is Donald Islam,
and the parents are the are the President and the pm in the house. And the children are your subjects. You know, they're the citizens of the house. And so you have to run the house like a little country. And and so you really have to see it as a country, and that you have to defend the house from invasion. And one of the biggest invasions is the television, because the armies of the police come in with the television, it really they come in, if you turn on that television, it's like having an open sewer in your front room. It's just like, it's just letting all that filth come into those pure, innocent children's minds. And so that's my primary advice is that recognize that
the television used, you should not have broadcast television. If you do have a screen,
then you should monitor what they watch. And it should be very limited because obviously, you know, if you completely prohibited which the Orthodox Jews do, by the way, in America, the Orthodox Jews have no televisions in their homes. So and same with the Amish people have no talent and so Christians and Jews, there are Christians, Jews that do it. Okay, so it's not like you can't do it. There are people from other traditions that do it. But
what what sometimes happens, especially when you're living in a society where all the other children do it, is it becomes the the thing they're prohibited from and the Arabs say, a Level A Shama hermit, you know, the most delightful things are the things prohibited, so kids will want to go and then they'll start being hypocritical go behind your back. So it's important to have, you know, maybe some things that if you have Islam, some Muslim friendly,
things that they can see that are that are really monitored, you know, like once a week or something. That's, that's what, in the early period, I didn't let my kids see anything but then I saw that they would go to other
people's houses and do things. So as you know, as time went on, I realized that I had to do something about so I tend to, you know, let them see something, you know, once a week maximum, and I don't let them play on any of these Game Boys and things have total control. But yeah, you know, and I explained to them, why you have to let them once they get to the level where they can understand it, you have to explain to them why, you know, make sense to them. And once they get older, there's nothing you can do about it, they're gonna do what, what they want, the best thing you do is instill those principles and virtues in them at a young age inculcate as much as you can. And then the other
thing I would say, that's extremely important is empathy is teaching your children empathy. Malay, Mashallah, humility is a very natural thing for your people, which is a great blessing because the Malay children, you know, that they, I can see, they're just raised to be humble, which, which is a good thing. But also, you have to make sure that they're very confident. So you don't want them to be obsequious. You know, where they're where they don't
have a sense of self, you know, you want them to have a, you know, where they're not going to, they're going to keep going to Kate into pressure, you know, there's a, there was a man in South Africa, I think it was 105, or something. And he was asked about, you know, what it was like, were there any perks at being so old? And he said, Absolutely. And they said, what he said, No more peer pressure.
because nobody's alive at his age, right. So the point is, peer pressure is very strong. And when kids are young, is very important. They want to fit in, you know, one of the things that I realized in homeschooling my children is that they were very individualistic, so they didn't need to fit in. But if you send them to a school, they get a herd mentality. And we're, we're tribal people by nature. Humans are tribal, or oscillators are everybody's background. We all came from Orang Asli, you know, and so, because of that, they want to be like others. They want to dress like them, eat like them, talk like them. And so you need to really instill in them a sense of self where they
don't The Prophet said what they know. And you know, that accustom yourself not to being Yes Men, either as an as a symptom if people do good, you do good way that as a nurse, and people do bad you do bad, right? But he said, but do good when when they do good and don't do bad when they do bad. So that's something you have to train kids to do that. Anyway, I hope those are useful to things. Another concern is this man. On Facebook, he asked Yeshua, Hamza, Muslims in Malaysia is increasingly divided religiously, politically and socially.
Please advise how to unite. Well, this is these are the fitten and part of the fit and of our customers some summer candy, who was a great student of a woman Soren Matthew Lee, who died in in the fourth century, late fourth century. He was from some other countries called El Hakim, which means the wise one or anyway, he said that all of fitten come from three sources. And remember that he quotes him. So obviously, he, Mr. Rosati, concurs with him about this assessment. He said, tension will fit in one set it all fit and come from three people. I wrote about
part of his denial about Metallica, newscasters, news, hounds, and consumers of news. And he said, Well, I also had a minister data. I had two terminal mallamma and none of the three are free from blame. So if that's true, if all fitna comes from from newscasters, people spreading news, people seeking news and people consuming news, that means that that we're in the age of fitna, because the internet is either people spreading news, people looking for news, or people
consuming news. And so by the nature of the time we're in, it's an age of fitna unfortunately the Prophet warned us about this about the time of fitna and one of the things he said can help them analyse vatika you know, cling to your home because you can protect your home. So it's very important for people to recognize we have to rectify ourselves and our homes, our children, we have to protect our children. But it's very important for people to understand that you have a sound Islam here. Traditionally, it needs revamping. Islam always needs renovation, teach deed you have to renovate, but the basis of Islam in Malaysia is very sound. It is a sound Islam. It's it's an end to
try to bring in foreign versions.
Islam that aren't your own, you're going to divide your people. And that you should be very wary of anybody that's teaching you a version of Islam that's different from what your ancestors taught you. That's the best advice that I could give you, anybody that teaches you a different version of Islam than what your ancestors practice, you should be very wary of it. And, and, and that doesn't mean that everything that they did your ancestors did was, you know, the best case thing or something, they they were human, they might have had their faults and things like that. That's true. But we have a principle in monarchy, that if people are practicing something, and the deal is weak, and you
have a stronger deal, you should not try to impose that stronger deal because once it has become practice, to try to change the practice will create fitna and so they actually saw that leaving people on what they were doing was better than trying to change it, even if it was better. If in changing it you would create dissension amongst the people, that the thing about religion, the essence of our religion, is to bind our hearts to God, and then to bind our hearts to each other. That's the purpose of religion. And so if religion severs your tie with God, because of the harshness of people, that you know, now, there's people turning away from religion because of the
way it's being practiced. So if it severs your heart from God, it's not true religion, and if it severs your hearts from others, even non Muslims, yes, if it's doing that it's not true religion. Our Prophet didn't teach us to hate people. He said don't buy either. Come on. The diseases of the civilizations has come to you. It has to do with Baba Baba. Envy and hatred. That's the disease of competitiveness, and, and and the disease of civilizations that are in decay. And he said it dead but in a coma, it comes slowly. And so now that you can see these things starting to emerge in your society, Malaysia was never perfect. No society is, but it has a lot of blessing. People have been
criticizing me for speaking so highly of Malaysia. They're like, Brother, you don't know you haven't been here. It's not like you think it is. I'm not stupid. I know that you have problems every country does. But my my focus is to remind you, be grateful for what you have for the blessings you have. Be thankful don't complain all the time because once you start complaining, a lot of take those blessings away from you. Be grateful for what you have and he will increase your blessings in Allah Allah euroma the common Hatha Yoga, you will not be unfrozen that it can be an Aloha, let me call Malaya net mutton an AMA Allah Coleman had the Euro mobium Hussam, Allah does not change
blessings that he gave to people until they change what's in themselves in regards to those blessings. In other words, they don't honor those blessings. So Malaysia you have you have the blessing of family, guard your families, protect your families preserve you, you have the blessing of treating old people with respect, guard that you have the blessing of children that obey your parents, to a large extent guard that protect that you have the blessing of a government. I don't care how bad your government is, and I'm sure it's got problems every government does. But if you go outside, you have infrastructure. It's the government that's providing your water in your homes.
It's the government that's that's facilitating your the the roads that you drive on. It's the government that that that that's policing your streets so that people aren't robbed and accosted, that government is a great blessing, just in and of itself, no matter how bad is I live, my country is becoming increasingly like a tyrannical police state, it's still better than than anarchy. It's still better than tyranny. There's a lot of problems in America. But those of us who live inside the country, we have to appreciate that there's social order, once order breaks down, it's Syria. Ask the Ask the 5 million Syrian refugees what they think about the situation now? And if they could do
it all over again, would they do it? Was it worth it? Was the great revolution worth it? Seriously, ask them as the Libyans, what would they rather have be under the bathroom right now? Or would they rather have the situation like it is, as the Iraqis if they'd like to have saddam back? If it would bring order back to their society? The vast majority of them will tell you they would. So people have to be realistic, things break down, things fall apart. We have a global order right now that has incredible problems. There's a lot and I am the first to criticize it. But let me tell you, you know, in a in a world where the global order breaks down, you have neighbors with great power, that
don't have any qualms about coming and invading you because they've done it in the past. You know, and if they want your natural resources that have come, Malaysia is not a strong military country. So when you have a society where it's, it's the strong, eat the weak, that's not a society that that people that that are weaker want to live
Then we want social order. And that's why if you don't respect the weak in your society, you know, the Orang Asli, the, the the minorities, or if you don't respect them, then God won't respect you. And he'll send people here to, you know, this is what he does. This is the sooner I've gotten in his creation, we get what we deserve. And so that's my advice. You know, you have Chinese people that live here, they're Malaysian, you know, that they're part of Malaysia. They're, they're not Muslim, but they're Malaysian people. And, and, and they've been successful. Sometimes people have resentment about that, but they work hard. They're hard workers, they're committed to education, you
know, you have to see the good in them, you know, and, and, and, and, and you shouldn't get become envious of them. Because, you know, they have success in the world, they have success, because they work hard. And minorities have an advantage, an advantage of a minority is that they tend to work together a lot, a lot, because because they feel that they you know, that they're in a country where the majority of people are not like them. And so they work out that's why the Jews can be so successful in in America, but instead of envying them, you should see the the virtues of being unified, of working together, those are the things that you should learn from them, you know, and
and and then if, if, if, if they have earned what they have earned, without hook or crook, then
that's that's their prerogative in a state that that is, is fair.
Check. Today's your last day in Poland for Am I right? This is it. Yes. And you're leaving first thing in the morning.
To recap all your public lectures reminders, what is your final advice, simulation share. My final advice to myself and to all of you that was saying, and ladymum COVID, como el Carmen and taco law, we have advised you and the people before you, to be pious to have tequila and tequila is is to obey the injunctions of God and to avoid the prohibitions of God. He hasn't prohibited very many things, and all the things that he prohibited or harmful for people, for ourselves and for others. And, and what he's enjoying the Prophet said, to do what you're able to, because there's a lot, but at least do the follow up, and try to build on that. And then I would say, also just to have gratitude in
your hearts, you know, then she caught him does he then come, if you're grateful, I'll increase you in blessings to be grateful for. But if you have kofod, if you have in gratitude, a lot tells us His punishment is immense. You know, so, and then I would just say, as somebody I know, I've only been here for two weeks. But I've been here three times now. My experiences in Malaysia have have been positive. Really, they've been very positive. I think the Malay people are beautiful people really, I'm not I'm not just saying this. I don't say this about everybody. I mean, generally, I find that people, I'm old enough, and I've been in so many places that generally people are actually decent.
Human beings are, it's a decent species, we have a lot of flaws. But humans are actually the most people are good people, they're not bad people. And if they're treated with dignity, they tend to respond by treating you with respect. But if you step on them, if you crush them, if they get angry, you drop bombs on people, they get angry, you know, this, this is a fact of life. But the Malay people have a lot of really beautiful qualities that I haven't seen in other people. And I think of all of them, the thing that really strikes me the most is to adapt, and I hope I really hope
we're living in a time where
just good manners are disappearing.
You know, the internet it's
the rudeness on the internet, the way the way people talk to each other.
So I really hope that
that you hold to that, you know,
because the
The Prophet said, at Devon Europe data center, db, my Lord gave me a dab and what a beautiful Adam he gave me and he said in my bride to live with me Mama karma flap I was only sent to complete noble character. So I really hope that and I know that the worst thing in Malaya is to have be added, you know, so it's
and
so that's it and then also Terima kasih. You know, I
welcome
She have to apologize to you and our listeners. We cannot take calls from listeners a standard and premium as we've come to the end of the show. But Chava Hamza, we want to thank you
and we hope to see you back in Malaysia in future inshallah And may Allah reward you Brittany for all the knowledge shared and Allah bless you mean and similarly pays me to affirmations always says hello, hello, thank you once again salaam aleikum.
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