Hamza Yusuf – When Angels Descend
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of the Quran in Arabic language and stress the importance of reading and practicing it for personal growth. They also discuss the historical context of J servitor's teachings, including his release of a bird and a medallion for a woman. The speakers emphasize the importance of learning and sharing one's views to avoid becoming a liability and better health.
AI: Summary ©
It's a great blessing to, to be
70,000
angels
come.
The prophet told us that
the angels look at the earth like we
look at the heavens.
And just as we see the lights of
the stars, they see the houses where Allah's
name is mentioned.
The prophet
said
to,
always put the in your gatherings. He said,
Well, I had the He said, let me
tell you the best thing that you can
do.
It's better than, it's the highest in the
ranks with your lord. It's better than gold
and silver. It's it's better than, jihad
He said,
A man came to the prophet
and he said
Islam, there's too many rules.
He said,
Just give me something that I can cling
to,
Because he said, there's the rules, there's too
many rules.
And the prophet said to him, he said,
Just be with the dhikr of Allah. And
the best dhikr,
the
Quran.
Is from the Quran. It's the highest,
reality.
So the best thing that you can do
is,
Quran.
Quran.
Especially in these time, these dark times,
it used to be the Muslims, they had
like a,
you know, they had like herd immunity.
You have herd immunity because you have enough
people
that have antibodies to a disease.
So then that 15%
that doesn't,
though though those those people are protected because
the 85%
have that immunity.
The the Ummah used to be like that.
You had most of the people
were doing dhikr.
And so
that that percentage that wasn't was in the
herd immunity.
They just were protected because they were with,
the people.
If you read the,
of the of the great scholars who made
journeys from Morocco, from Mauritania,
if you read their journals, and they're worth
reading because you see wherever they went, the
mosques were filled with people doing
Khattam Al Quran, Khattam Al Bukari.
All these things were just normal
things in the Ummah, and now they're unusual
things.
In fact, they're so unusual people think they're
Bida.
That's how unusual they are. Because people actually
think they're bitter,
but this is the
the tradition of the Muslims.
If they bring things that aren't from the
religion,
reading the Hadith of the prophet is from
the religion.
Reading the prayers on the prophet is from
the religion. These things are from the religion.
They're not innovations.
So,
the best thing is the Quran.
And and if you don't have a word
from the Quran, you're really,
it's not a good situation for if you're
if you're serious about this religion, you have
to have a word of the Quran, even
if it's a few ayahs every
day. But just doing a word from the
Quran.
The Sudanese, they say, lima and the word
gerd.
You know, if you don't have a word,
you're a monkey.
You don't wanna be a monkey.
You want to be a human being,
in sand.
And and and,
the
he
says,
That ignorance is the flaying
of the humanity from the human being.
You have to earn your, your,
you know, your with Allah.
And, and, and the best way to do
it is to read the Quran and practice
the Quran. The prophet
Quran You are Allah.
You
know, Like he was on the highest,
moral
ethos,
sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
And so where did he get that from?
Well, part of it was from the that,
was in his community.
And that's why he said,
I was sent to complete,
you know, because they had things like,
you know, honesty,
wafaa,
loyalty. The Arabs had those things before Islam.
But the Islam came
It it polished everything.
It it it polished their character. And that's
why they were the best people, and they
were chosen to take this message
with the prophet, salallahu alaihi wasalam.
That that for all of humanity.
And they did it. Wherever they went, they
took light. They took
knowledge. Everywhere the Muslims went, they brought knowledge
with them. They brought beauty with them. They
brought ihsan. Whatever they did, they they did
it with ihsan.
Allah has decreed
in everything.
In everything. There's
There's nothing that you can't do
without.
And so,
of Quran, one of the most important things
because I guarantee you that Tajweed is is
the basis of everything.
Like, it all builds up from there. If
you can't recite the Quran properly, and if
you're not interested in reciting the Quran properly,
if you're not dedicated to reciting the Quran
properly, then your religion is completely skewed. You
don't,
because that, that, that's, that's something, that's the
of all
that you should have is to recite the
Quran
the way Allah loves it to be recited.
Right?
Like you're supposed to take
this
Take this book with
Take it with. You have to you have
to take the book. And that's why if
you begin with the in your recitation,
then what will follow from that? And that's
why one of the beauties of the Arabic
many beauties, but one of the beauties is
are these words that have all these amazing
meanings. So, you
know, You know, the the moon follows the
sun.
So
means to follow, but it also means to
recite.
Right?
So reciting it
is a type of following it. When you
recite it with ihsan, it's an indication of
who you are. If you don't recite it
with ihsan, that's another indication of who you
are. If, at least, you should be
attempting,
like,
he says,
There's there's nothing between you and the Quran
except exercising your jaw,
right, to practice this this, this beautiful science
that we've been given of Tajweed. It's a
beautiful science. And no religion has this.
Because Allah said,
we reveal this book, and we have taken
upon ourselves to preserve the book. And one
of the most important ways it was preserved
was with Tajweed.
Look at these men. Where did they come
from? Nafya. Where did he come from? Ibn
Kathir,
ibn Amar,
Abu Amar,
Where did they come from? What gave them
that himna to want to preserve this book?
And then they had these students
that wouldn't leave them until they master what
they had. Imam Nafi Adwarsh
and Qaloon.
He read it with him multiple times.
Nafi loved wars because of his horse.
He was blonde hair blue eyed.
And his his teacher was was they said
that he was,
like Ebony.
He was so dark.
So this blonde hair blue eyed Egyptian taking
it from this,
this mola, you know, this amazing,
black man from,
from Iran.
This our religion,
Imam House,
he stayed with Alsom. He was related to
him by marriage. But he stayed with Assam,
Sharba,
and until they mastered this. And then we
have it given exactly how it's pronounced, everything.
This is one of the few
things in our entire religion. There's almost no
difference of opinion.
And that's why you can go from Indonesia
all the way to
California,
and somebody they're either reciting it correctly or
not. And the masters will tell you.
The masters will tell you.
So this is a great gift, you know,
that we have. So my advice to myself
and all of you have a word from
the Quran. If you're able to, the best
thing is to at least do it once
a month.
The prophet
complained from his people in.
My people have abandoned the Quran.
And then it's not enough just to read
it.
Don't they reflect on this Quran?
In in in the Arabic language, the is
what's
the end of something. So means
to take it as far as you can,
to really contemplate it. And that's why the
other day we had that wonderful,
lady, Nisreen,
doctor Nisreen, who just
dived deep into the Quran on the subject
of,
and
really looked, what's the Quran tell? And she,
read her book and see the extraordinary
cohesion
of this book, even though these ayahs are
all over
the book. But once you actually do the
work and this why Allah did not create
robots.
We're not programmed. We're not AI.
Right, Talmar?
He's doing his thesis on AI. We're not
AI.
We're not programmed.
The prophet
could have been given this book of statute
law. Every single thing was given.
He said he said,
My death is a good thing for you.
Why? Because had he stayed with us, the
rules would have kept coming
more and more
until we couldn't have handled it.
So
Right? Allah was silent about many things.
Not from forgetfulness,
but from
it's So this is one of the great
blessings of our religion. It's not a difficult
religion.
Anybody can learn it from, hopefully, from among
you,
these I'm talking to students now,
not the old people.
From among you, you know, we'll get some
serious scholars of this religion.
Right? Not everybody's meant to be. All of
you, if you go to this school, we
want you all to be educated Muslims.
Like you really know something about your religion.
You can defend it. You can talk to
people about it. You can explain it to
people.
But from among, you have to be people
that are willing to
to take this book,
you know, really.
And and and I many of you, I
I've read with some of you, and,
your reading is much better than mine was
when I was at your age. And you'll
go very far if you're serious, but you
have to do the work.
You can't be distracted by these machines
and waste your time on these things. You
have to do the work. And and some
are going to be more gifted than others.
Don't be,
you know, come come.
Said.
How many women are more beautiful than the
bride at the wedding?
Like
in,
sad,
but it's her day.
So don't be envious for people,
you know, if Allah
elevates some people, they might not be as
knowledgeable as you.
There's some people far more knowledgeable,
far more knowledgeable
than than I am or other people that
are more well known.
But, you know, these are tribulations. Allah gives
some people tribulations, he doesn't give others. And
there's no,
has one of the things he told me
several times. He said, of the whole
it's from Imam Ahmed. He said that many
times.
Like, being well known is a tribulation
that people want.
But and he said being in obscurity is
a blessing that people refuse.
So but even,
he says,
If you're a true,
it's gonna be the same whether he makes
you well known or keeps you in obscurity.
You know, it's it's it's, but for people
to seek it is a disease.
A disease in your heart. And this is
an age everybody wants to, be on YouTube
and vlog and do all the blog and
do all these everybody has to have an
opinion about it. Everybody has to write their
little, you know, and then see how many
likes they get, thumbs up. You know? Oh,
I have to have an opinion here. You
know? They they it's amazing.
But I
go, what are you doing? Like, oh, I
have to have this opinion. I have to
let them know what I think. Even though
there's 4,000,
little
texts on the right? On the on whatever
that 3 minute or 2 minute thing. There's
like 4,000. So you're gonna add 4,000 and
one because it's so important for you to
get that information out there, just to let
everybody know, I'm here. I have my opinion.
You know, this is a sickness.
It's a sickness.
Our our community people
ran away
from being known for for piety. If they
were in a in a city and somebody
found out that they were from the oliya,
they literally left the place. They would go
somewhere else.
It's amazing. But now everybody has to assert
themselves. Everybody has to me, me, me.
You know, this is a really sick,
sick time for people. And that's why everybody's
miserable.
Because the more you assert yourself, the more
miserable you'll get.
The more that you,
just,
you know, bury yourself in the earth of
obscurity.
Because nothing grows without being buried,
including your nafs.
Allah used a,
he used a word that's used in agriculture.
You know?
Yizkuh, to grow. Like
is to degrade or humiliate, but the root
is to cover
over, like Kofar.
You know, you're covering over your true self.
And the true self
is is is it it doesn't care about
what people think.
It doesn't it's not out for likes. It's
not out for thumbs up.
The true self wants to be aligned with
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that's why on
your Maqiyama,
when the self bears witness, the hands bear
witness. So that And people, why are you
doing this to us?
Allah made me say it, who makes everything
speak.
Like, the hands are gonna I didn't wanna
kill that person.
He made me because the hands don't wanna
go to *.
The feet don't wanna go to *. The
stomach doesn't wanna go to *.
None of them wanna go to *.
And that that's why,
you know, every morning, the prophet
said every single part of your body
is trembling and says to the tongue,
Like, fear Allah for us.
You know, fear Allah.
Don't don't backbite.
Don't speak ill of people.
Don't say things. Remember Allah.
Because this is and this is why Luqman
Al Hakim, you know, Luqman Al Hakim
was a Ethiopian slave.
There's a whole Luqman tradition in Arabia before
Islam, but most of the Urimas say it
wasn't. He lived like, long, long time, and
he had these birds, and every time the
bird would die, new one would come.
But Lukman al Hakim
was an Ethiopian
slave. He was black
and not attractive
according to the tradition.
But Allah gave him wisdom, as often unattractive
people are given.
That's what Jahal. You know Jahal?
He like, he said, Allah is
is just.
So very often, the the most handsome people
are not very smart,
and and the the the most
unattractive people are often really smart.
So there's always a balance.
You know, he went to the marketplace
and he, he asked a,
he he was, speaking. And this woman came
and, and grabbed him and took him to
this jeweler.
And she said, just like him.
And then she left. And then Jahal said,
what was that about? He said, she asked
me to to do a medallion. She wanted
to give it to a person she doesn't
like with the face of Shey Pan.
And I said, I don't know what Shey
Pan looks like. And so she brought you
and said just like him.
He he had very good sense of humor.
You know, he wrote
funny some funny books too. But anyway, Luqman
was given wisdom. That's why there's a whole
chapter after him, Luqman.
He was freed by his master because,
first of all, he had been unjustly,
captured and sold into slavery, But he was
saw it as a tribulation from Allah. So
he just,
he he he he didn't have that kind
of anger that gets into people, because he
saw this as a from Allah. Like, we
had that wonderful
Tobias Tubbs,
28 years in prison for a crime he
didn't commit, and with no anger. Just.
So he the the reason that he was
freed is the man asked him to sacrifice.
He said, go kill a sheep and bring
me the best parts.
So Luqman went and he sacrificed it, and
he brought him the tongue and the heart.
And and the man was struck by it.
He said, either this man's not very smart
or he's very smart.
Like, he didn't know.
So then the next day he said,
go sacrifice,
a,
sheep and bring me the worst parts.
So he went
and he came back with the tongue and
the heart.
And then he knew,
and he actually freed him.
But that that and and he asked him
what he said, the tongue and the heart
when they're pure, they're the best parts,
but when they're foul, they're the worst parts.
So may Allah purify our tongues and our
hearts, InshaAllah,
and and make us people of teedah with
the Quran, InshaAllah.
The the adkar here should be what what
you should be doing. This is not a
devotional place
in in a zawiya sense.
That's why I don't encourage these things, not
because I'm not, I'm not against them. They
have their place in our in our religion.
They're they're they're good things, they're not bad
things. If they're done with the proper sunnah
and adab and all these things.
But this is a place of study. We
have lots of people doing
those type of devotions in the Muslim world.
Lots of people. I guarantee you, Syria was
filled with people doing these things in all
the houses. But people studying,
learning this deen,
doing serious work,
that that we don't have as many.
And and so, you know, have you have
a portion
of your prayers important, prayer on time, especially
in Jannah, if you're able to make it.
And,
and then have have, you know, the adkar,
the aharaz, which can be only few minutes
in the morning and the evening. But at
least have a word of Quran
and try to do if you can do
a hizb in the morning, hizb in the
evening, 15 minutes. It's not a lot of
time.
Do we have here?
How long?
How long?
For for, yeah. If you're doing hadar, you
can do it in 20 minutes.
Yeah.
So it's not a lot of time. You
can do easily,
hizban 15 minutes. You could do a juz
easily in 30 minutes.
So just
make that a practice. Commit to it. Anybody
who's has niyah of memorizing Quran and does
some memorization,
if you die, inshallah, Allah will appoint an
angel to finish your hebel in the grave,
and you'll be raised up with with amongst
the huffah, inshallah.
May Allah raise us amongst them, inshallah make
us people of the Quran. The prophet, salallahu
alaihi wasallam, he had beautiful du'a that he
said every Muslim should
learn.
It's a beautiful Dua
to dispel depression, inshallah.
Accept the martyrs that have passed away this
month, and and in these previous months. May
Allah
protect the people of the West Bank.
May Allah
forgive us for our incapacity and our helplessness
in in the light of seeing so many
wrongs. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Even Omar, when he saw wrong
and he couldn't change it, he said,
It's and we we condemn it.
And if we were able, we would change
it. And that's the least of iman, according
to the Hadid in Sahih Muslim.