Hamzah Wald Maqbul – 22 Ramadan 1441 Late Night Majlis Allamah Khalid Mahmd + Critics Of The Ihya Addison 05152020
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
We've reached this Friday night,
the 22nd
night of Ramadan. Allah
accept our prayers and our fasting in these
Mubarak nights.
Yesterday,
by the Hijri calendar
this morning,
by
the,
by the,
system of the day preceding the night.
A great
scholar and sheikh of ours,
Hazal Moana,
passed from this world
into the rahma
of and,
really, it's a loss for which we're
inconsolable.
He,
studied
Deen in, the Indian subcontinent before partition in
Tabeel,
in,
in Gujarat.
Although he was from Punjab, he was a
Punjabi speaking
person
from Punjab who
because in those days, it was before the
partition went to Dabel,
because
Moana Anwar Shah Kashmiri Rahimahullah
Khattimatul Hufav,
the one who had a photographic
Deoband.
He
left his job as the
the principal in Deoband
and went to teach in Dabel because of
an administrative
disagreement,
in
in the Madrasa.
And
he then taught the rest of the years
of his life and, or the subsequent years
in in in Dabir,
where
his kind of branch of the madrasah
would flourish.
So luminaries like Mohammad Zafar Ahmed Osmani,
people like,
Mufti,
Shabir Ahmed Osmani, who was the first,
who was the first,
Hadis. Sorry. The first Mufti,
Adam,
Grand Mufti of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
and the,
the preeminent,
representative of the Ulema
in the political class of Pakistan at its
foundation.
It said about him that he was so
well spoken and,
a person with such good manners and ways
that even Muhammad Ali Jannah, who was, you
know, credited as being the the first leader
of Pakistan,
he was from a family of Magians,
of Zoroastrians who'd converted into Ismailism
and,
you know, so on on theologically not on
super firm footing.
But, he once heard,
Mona Shabir Ahmed speak,
and he was so, you know, impressed by
him
that he he said that, you know, this
is a person we wanna have in charge
of Dean.
And,
later on in his life, even though he's
never known to be a super practicing person,
when people would ask him, are you a
Shia or are you Sunni?
He would he would say that I don't
know, you know, what the difference is. Whoever,
you know, this
Shabir
Ahmed is whatever he is. That's what I
belong to.
And, we pray that Allah
give him salvation if not for any other
reason than for that.
So,
the, know, Mufti Shabir Ahmed Mufti Shafir,
who is the,
the father of Mufti Taqi and also a
previous grand mufti of the republic,
Numerous luminaries,
were teaching in that
madrasa,
and he studied with them and from
them, in in those days. And,
he was a man of photographic memory. He
had
himself,
memorized most of his books,
like the Mauritanians
do. And, you know, Alhamdulillah, he visited us
in Chicago,
several years ago.
And subsequently because he spent half of his
years in half his year in Manchester and
half of his year in Lahore.
In Manchester, I had the opportunity to
visit him several times
and the last time was about a year
and a month ago and I can attest
to the fact that his memory was still
sharp and he could still prattle off
with,
almost alarming speed
the Ibarat verbatim of
important texts,
of of
fiqh and apida, etcetera.
And,
he, his majlis in Manchester was a very
Ruhami majlis. It was a very spiritual majlis.
It was,
essentially
a very, very old world Hanpai set up
in the back,
of the, Jamil Masjid in Manchester,
and,
it was a very simple,
really to be honest with you, rundown building.
And,
he he just
lived in a hoodra. He lived in a
cell, basically. And a student would come to
him
and, help him,
take his dictation because he still
was involved in writing books and in answering,
questions and answering
dilemmas that people had until his very last
day he was involved in Tasnef.
Every time you go to him, he he
would hand you one of his books, and
his books are very long and very tactic
oriented, research oriented.
And,
you know, he he, he was he just
really was second to none in these ill
me matters, both in
the, as well as in seeing the bigger
picture.
He was he was just second to none,
and, it's just a a loss for which
a person could be excused for being inconsolable.
We ask Allah to
give us somebody,
and give us some people who who can
do what he did.
And the only reason that we bother asking
is because Allah is the only one who
could do something like that.
He told us stories, masha Allah. His majlis
was really interesting because you have Darce of
the Quran and tafsir and different different topics
and
the people who would sit in the majlis,
some of them are like cab drivers, some
of them are olema, some of them are
people who've take, you know, been on the
spiritual path for years, and some of them
are, you know, very, like, just like regular
teenagers and local, people who wouldn't know the
difference between who they're sitting in front of
and, you know, just, whatever from the next
masjid,
down the road. And everybody benefited.
Everybody who he he was approachable by everybody.
He would sit and listen to people.
He would talk to people. He was not
aloof,
at all,
which is,
all that much harder especially given the kind
of rarefied level of learning that he embodied.
He was one of Sheikh Amin's,
you know, most influential teachers. If that gives
you any
if that gives you any,
insight into
his intellectual class, Sheikh Amin of Darqasim,
and,
who he loved. You know, he always spoke
very highly of him.
And,
you know, the
the was a interesting Everyone came away with
something. He had a very, beautiful and powerful
way
of conveying understanding of,
of things that, you know, not everyone is
able to understand
and not everyone able is able to convey
the tafim, the the ability to make others
understand.
And, on top of all of that, you
know, on top of his, you know, academic
prowess and intellectual depth, he carried with him
until until the end. You know, like, I
haven't seen him I saw him about a
year and a month ago.
But until I saw him and he was
very old. He's very emaciated.
And, you know, one of the brothers told
me that he would ask the to make
dua for him,
that he can keep making sajdah with his
his head on the ground and that Allah
take him in such a state, which is
exactly what happened. He he slipped and fell
and broke his hip and Allah just took
him very soon, really really soon right after
that.
So he would actually walk to the master
then walk back.
And, he would he would actually pray, like
in the stuff, you know, despite being, like,
in his in his nineties.
But, and, you know, despite being very hard
of hearing, etcetera. But he still conveyed in
his old age, and he still
communicated to the students of knowledge a a
zeal
for defending the faith and for serving, the
dean and for serving the uloom.
And he told a number of stories about
his life and his experiences
and, how,
you know, he would leave from his home
in order to defend the deen and, you
know, the help of Allah would come come
to him, that you just have to get
out there and and mix it up. The
help of Allah comes. And he spent a
great deal of his life, you know, going
to different places like in,
in Africa and in Asia and other places,
you know, like Europe and he's even come
to America before.
He is one of the preeminent debaters,
that defends,
the aqidah of the of the Muslims, the
al Sunun al Jamaa.
He basically,
he basically has,
you know, shut down and
other weird heterodox groups that go to, like,
far flung places in the world,
villages that are unreachable or whatever, and they'll
convert entire,
groups of people to their deviant creed.
And he'll go there and he'll debate with
them and, you know, really, a great number
of people have made Toba at his hands.
And, he told one story, one really interesting
story. I mean, that he told he told
a number of stories. We don't have time
for all of them, but I thought I
would share at least one of them. I
think it's appropriate for the majlis that we're
in,
that, you know, to know that he, you
know, on top of all of his other,
you know, accolades and whatever, he was one
of the first,
traditional scholars to actually go to a university
got a and get a PhD. He had
a PhD from the University of Birmingham. He
was, you know, his English was, was was
good.
And,
you know, in terms of comprehension, reading, speaking,
he could understand questions and give answers.
He,
was actually at some point or another,
the the chief justice of the, Sharia appellate
court in Pakistan,
which is a court that has the purview
to overturn laws that are
against the the the the the kitab and
sunnah,
and so he was on that bench. So
he was a very you know, someone who's
who's of such a high position
and so many,
worldly achievements one would not expect to be
living in this kind of like
simplicity, you know? But, there he was, you
know, you could catch him in his and
his,
and, you know, have lunch with him and
talk to him about whatever he wanted to.
And he would listen patiently and give his
answers,
eloquently.
But,
this one story I wanted to mention that
he mentioned is that he was once
given a challenge
by a,
by a Qadian
that said that,
you guys say that Qadian
that Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadian is a liar
and a cheater and whatever.
But, his ilm was so great that even
your own Asher Fali Tanwi quotes from him.
And he actually brought a book and a
Ibarra of a quote,
from a book of Muhammed Ashaafali Tanwi
and
as well from
from Mirza
and,
show that the published quote from Mirza was
earlier than Milan Asher Falytanri
and the insinuation is that, look, you know,
even your own movies, like, benefit, you know,
academically from
their false
prophet. And, their preachers were publicizing this,
and saying it in every majlis to the
point where it was starting to disturb the
the ulama. Those who know Moana
Shefali Tanwi is, you know, like sheikhul mashayikh.
He's he's,
alam alhuda in in our lands.
And, you know, basically, almost everyone you know
is somehow or another related to somebody who
studied from
him. And,
so,
you know, that's, that that's a big claim
and it's a demoralizing claim for people,
Even though it doesn't necessarily,
you know,
mean that he's a prophet or any of
that stuff but still it was a demoralizing
claim. And so,
Allah Muqhad said that, Mufti,
I believe, Yusuf Ludhiana with Shahid who
was at one time the principal of the
town Madrasah
in Karachi
and who was assassinated.
Allah gave
him a high rank in Jannah as well.
He came to him and came to Alama
Sab because Alama Sab was their go to
guy. He was like the encyclopedic
master and he was the one who, had,
you know, traveled the world in order to
debate with Kallianis wherever they were and was
victorious wherever he went
and so
they went to him and they said, what
is this? You
know? And is it true?
And Alama says no. And he says, Mufti
Saab asked what what what's you know, do
you have proof of it? And Alama says
no. He says that I have no proof
of it, but my iman will not allow
me to accept that this could be true,
that Hazratanri
would read from
this Dajjal and, like, you know, quote him
in a book.
And so,
he accepted the challenge to debate with those
people and he said, I had no idea.
I had no idea what to do or
what to say. I just knew it wasn't
right.
And, imagine how what the feeling of a
person who thoroughly prepared for all their debates
and who was just so learned and so
well read. You know, what that person must
have felt as that date was impending and
it was coming closer and closer and closer.
He said that, I was sitting in a
train,
from like from, from Karachi to Multan or
something like that or Karachi to Lahore and,
like, it was passing Multan.
And he said, just all of the sudden,
he says, someone I'd never seen before and
I've never seen since.
He, mentioned he he pops into the the
train cabin, train compartment
and he says, you know, people say that,
Hazratanvi
quoted from Mirza
but,
you know, that's not really true. Actually, this
particular passage
and he quoted the same passage, he said,
this passage was not, Hazratani quoting from Mirza,
but it was both Mirza and Hazratani quoting
from a 3rd book which was authored,
you know, by a 3rd, Alem, like, over
a 100 years before them, and you'll find
the manuscript in such and such library. He
says the guy just literally said that and
he passed you know, he just popped in
and out of the the cabin and left.
You know?
And, you know, the chances of that are,
like, about, you know, more remote than, you
know, me getting into the NBA. I mean,
like, when does, like, a random person,
you know
there are literally more people who play ball
in the NBA than people who know, like,
what's in what manuscript library and, like, will
randomly whatever.
And so,
Halat, Al Amsab didn't say anything but to
be honest with you, this this is nothing
short of a miracle.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was or
an angel or something like that. Allah knows
best. But he said that that person said
it. I quickly scribbled down the notes and
I promptly went to that manuscript library and
I pulled out the book which was not
in print.
It was only in manuscript. And I, I
took the, pictures of it and it shut
down the the Qadian debater and the debate
and they stopped making this claim,
again.
And his point was what? His His point
is learn the knowledge, become a moldy, you
know, grow your beard, put on your turban,
go to the jalsa,
shot your takbir Allahu Akbars, you know,
open the hamka, open the have your bukhari
jalsa, all of these. Do all of that.
He said, but then when you wanna serve
the deen, you know, make your preparations and
then trust in Allah
and, don't fear because the one who goes
out with, you know, with this
zeal inside of his heart that they are
going to go and serve Islam and defend
the honor of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam and defend the honor of the
Ashab Kiram
and the oliya and the mashaikh,
and the Al Haq.
That person, Allah will help them. That was
his point is that Allah will help them.
And, you know,
a relatively,
unread and dimwitted
person like myself
may may may not have been able to,
have benefited from, you know, Hazrat's,
and books,
especially given my poverty of command over the
the the written Urdu language,
but,
that was the thing that I remember about
him and that when we would sit in
his, it wasn't just that one story. It
was every time we'd sit in his, we'd
have
a renewed, a renewed,
zeal inside of our hearts for,
you know, for the service of the dean.
And he wrote a number of works I
think many people would consider polemical or sectarian.
And I'm sure there are probably many people
who are not big fans of his if
they're on the other side of his pen.
But I will mention this as well if
any of any anyone listens to this and
hears that that that he said this to
me, when I told him about my
my,
work in, teaching to,
you know, to professionals and to people who
are not of the of the professional student
class or olema class,
that he said that he says, I myself
have authored all of these polemical works,
which are research based works and they are
ill me works, and they show my agreement
with this and that or verification or falsification
of different claims, etcetera.
He says, however, my policy is that, that
here in the public, especially as minorities,
we don't we don't we don't publicize these
things. They have an
academic they have an academic forum and venue
in which they're appropriate, a context in which
they're appropriate.
But,
he says he says that if you teach,
then my request to you is to teach
the people who the things that that,
unite them on the haqq and don't go
around pushing, polemical or,
sectarian,
politics,
within the ambit of acceptable difference of opinion
within the al Hasan al Jama'a, and he
said this. He named he named for those
of you who are, Marshall, familiar with social
media plus the UK Islam,
you know, he named he said that that
this whole
thing says there's no point in pushing it
over here.
He says that he says that, you know,
both are Hanafis,
both are,
Maturidis,
both follow the same and Tasavoth. He said
if after a 100 years nobody knows what
the word
means anymore, he says it's no skin off
of my back. I don't care. He goes,
it would probably be better that way. It
was
a a a a a difference of opinion
or set set of differences of opinion that
got out of hand. And, you know, because
it became so gross, there were I felt
the necessity
to, clarify in the face of certain overboard
allegations, but he says it's not something to
sustain. It's not a beef to sustain or
or whatever.
And you see that that most of his
life was spent in defending the of the
prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
or or
bigger issues than than than, you know, than
this thing that seems to occupy,
a lot of the the
the social media Muslim bloggers,
Twitter sphere and, whatnot.
So that's, some memories of him. Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala forgive him
his sins and elevate him in rank. And
for every time that he sat in a
train, in a plane, in an automobile
and, went to a remote village, and went
to a different continent
in order to hold the honor of the
raise his honor on the day of judgment,
even that much more.
And, again, Allah
forgive him his shortcomings.
Allah
ta'ala give this,
Zealand enthusiasm
to serve
and defend the the honor of the deen,
and to go out in the path of
Allah to defend this, this deen.
May he
he
make all of our hearts drink from it,
until the thirst is quenched, on the day
of judgment.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
inshallah, unite us all with the ones that
we love. And, you know, I'm not here
just to, like, hydrography
the, that's probably not a word,
the,
you know, my own.
Allah knows that the is in every land
and amongst every people and every color and
every tongue and every nation of the world
and in every,
corner of the world. If even though the
world doesn't have corners, but you understand what
I'm saying.
Allah in every part of the Ummah, Allah
has raised his with,
with gifts that are, you know,
that come from him. And there are, and
and
that have these gifts in every place. And
so if we mention 1 and we don't
mention the other,
our our hearts and our love is with
all of them and we ask Allah to
join us with them in our life and
join us with them in our death. And
whoever they are, what difference does it make
if Hamza knows their name or doesn't know
their name,
if their name is known and loved by
Allah and by his angels and,
by his, you know, People like us are
mentioned or lacked thereof is inconsequential.
So we we we love them, and,
we ask Allah to,
you know, make it even more extra that
he he left in these in these last
nights. And we
ask Do not deprive us of his, the
the good that comes from what his what
he did, and, don't,
punish us after he's gone.
So with that, we will read a
a
spirit in particular,
with regards to the hiya'ul al Mudin, and
there's a there's a section that we'll we'll
take a look at, entitled critics of the
hiya'. This is from, Azad Molana Alimiya's
academic honesty
and also his own kind of broad worldview.
He himself was not a person who was
given towards sectarianism,
but he looked at the olemas of different,
the olema of different,
I guess, ideological orientations,
and tried to see the best of all
of them. And when you're writing about a
topic, it's always important to write,
that's in soft. And that's being just and
that's being fair that you write, about, you
know, something, what is what is in its
favor and what is against it, even if
you don't agree,
with everything,
on either side. But, you know, just out
of honesty, write what have the people said
against it as well, and then the the
reader and the listener can can, make their
mind up. So he writes the critics of
the and it's essentially,
Iben Taymiyyah's
criticisms of of the ihiya.
And, like I probably mentioned from before, Mohan
Abu Hassan Ali Naddui has a very,
glowing and loving
relationship with, Alameh Ebnutaima.
Although,
I think, you know, if you read his,
his his writing about him,
some of the more, I guess, controversial
statements,
that are attributed to him. Mulana, you know,
he he dismisses them as interpolations
as not not really something that he would
have written, and Allah Allah knows best. I
definitely don't know enough about it just to
say anything. I have a good opinion of
all of our and,
except for there are a couple of things
that, people have told me that are attributed
to him that I don't don't make a
whole lot of sense to me, but but
that doesn't mean anything because,
I'm not a person to have an opinion.
Says critics of the hey'a.
Ibn Taymiyyah's verdict on the hey'a is that
on the whole, it is a well written
book employing an elegant style. At the same
time, Ibn Taymiyyah criticizes it for four reasons.
The first of these is that Ghazali's thought
shows definite traces of Greek philosophy
In delineating the unity of god,
prophethood,
in the and in the final recompense, Ghazali
has maintained Zbindemia
introduced numerous concepts which were held by the
then philosophers.
If, even if, Ghazali opposed the philosophers, he
gave scholasticism
a philosophical foundation.
Ibn Taymiyyah being, emphatically opposed to philosophy found
some of the writings of Ghazali unplausible from
a purely religious point of view for that
reason.
The second ground, for criticism of the ihia
is that Ghazali employs a syllogism which is
not fully in keeping in the spirit of
the Quran sunnah.
The third reason
given by, Iben Taimiyyah is that the book
contains many concepts and teachings,
of those treading the path of Sufism of
Tisauf and their claims in regards to gaining
insight to divine truth. Ibn Taymiyyah disagrees with
Ghazali in regard to the latter's view on,
Tisauf.
The 4th reason that not necessarily that Ibn
Taymiy was against Tassowaf, he definitely wasn't. If
you actually read his books, that becomes very
clear. He was against
heretical Sufis,
but the great names of Tassawaf,
like Bashar Hafi and Imam Junaid and Shahb
al Qadr, Jalani Jelani Hatta.
He spoke about them with great respect,
but he was against not the soul of
in general but against the heretical
Sufis, the Sufis that had left the way
of the sunnah. It says, Ibn Taymiyyah,
disagrees with the Ghazali and the latter's view
on meaning
that, somehow the treading of the path of
mysticism gives a person insight into the divine
truth, that that particular point.
The 4th disagreement of Ibn Taymiyyah
contains many,
hadith that are doubtful and authenticity
despite these shortcomings pointed out by him. So
before going back
going on, this is one thing that probably
even Taymiyyah's,
you know,
not not so far off the mark on
because was
an encyclopedic master of the aloom al Sharia.
If one could point to a a a
a kind of weak point in his
in his,
scholarly rigor,
one might look at, look at his knowledge
of hadith just because
the,
the the the high number of weak
hadith that are quoted in the the hiya.
And,
in this regard, I don't think, you know,
even people who are proponents of the hiya
actually,
you know, they they kind of agree with
this point. They're not, you know no one
except for a very,
dogmatic pro a Ghazali supporter
would ignore it and for that reason, generally,
when you purchase a copy of the Ehiyah
nowadays, it has a talik of Hafez Iraqi
Zainuddin Iraqi on it
which basically will give you the hookahum of
the hadith
that are there in in the,
you know, in terms of their their in
terms of their authenticity or lack thereof.
And, you know, by and large, even if
you look at the the the hadiths that
are so weak as to be forgeries or
to be abandoned,
there there there isn't anything that, like, you
know, key arguments of
the ahiyah hinge on those hadith.
And so, you know, it's questionable. Maybe Ghazali
knew that they were weak but he was
just, quoting them in order to drive home
a point that was already made otherwise.
But, this is something Ibn Taymiyyah was a
a hadith of the first rate. He was
a master of hadith. It would be unfair
to,
unfair to,
you know,
not accept his
his, great knowledge of the, science and field
of hadith.
And he's he's he's by and large, you
know, right about this,
about this point that the contains
many traditions doubtful in authenticity.
Despite these shortcomings pointed out by him, ibn
Taymiyyah writes about the kiya.
Notwithstanding these defects,
the contains the teachings of numerous illuminated mentors
and mystics,
and their experiences,
in regard to the purification of the self
and the intuitive knowledge which are identical with
the canons of the Quran and Sunnah
and can thus be acceptable from a theological
point of
view. It is because of this reason that
the scholars hold different opinions about the and
not all of them are opposed to it,
which is quoted from his fatawa.
The the reference is given here, volume 2,
page 194. I guess I have to like
look in the
in the
bibliography
in order to see
the,
in order to see the
the the edition, right?
But yeah, let's see, Fatawah ibn Taymiyyah.
Yeah, it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't give
the addition here.
Whoever wants to be a Mohatic and and
and and look through
for that,
for that fatwa, InshaAllah, you're more than welcome
to do so, which is which is good.
The students of knowledge should do things like
that.
Ibn Josi,
Ibn al Josi, who was, the the the
kinda closest and most well known of Ibn
Taymiyyah's
students also criticized Ghazali for making use of
unauthentic and weak traditions.
He's of the opinion that this was because
Ghazali was not a hadith. He wasn't a
traditionalist.
And the quote here is from Al Muntazam.
Hafez Zainuddin Iraqi later collected all the traditions
mentioned in that he unclassified these according to
the accepted norms and examined the authenticity
or otherwise of each tradition. Ibn al Josi
has also pointed out certain mistakes made by
Ghazali in regards to historical events mentioned by
him in the ihiya. Ghazali, however, was also,
not a scholar of, of of history
or or or a tradition related thereof,
tradition related
with connection to that.
Ibn al Josi maintains that Ghazali has mentioned
several examples of mystics or methods resorted
to by them for penance or self purification
which cannot be held as permissible under the
sharia much less recommended for being followed by
people. Ibn al Josi, however, acknowledges the effectiveness
of the ihqiya,
and the valuable contribution it has made to
subsequent Islamic thought. He has also summarized the
hiya in a book, entitled, Mi Hajil Asidin,
the Path of the Truth Seekers, in which
he has deleted portions objectionable from his point
of view. This work of Ibn al Josi,
however,
lacks the,
inspiration
and effectiveness so characteristic of the hiya, says
So Insha'Allah, I think that's
a good place to stop. Insha'Allah, tomorrow
we will get to
because Ali's,
critique of the dialecticians of the
and,
inshallah, we will,
continue
our,
our Mubarak gathering inshallah and tell them, please
make dua. Allah
rectify our
shortcomings
and give Hidaya to our people to do
what's right
in every situation.
And, may Allah
bring Islam inshallah from this, sitting that we
sit together for these few minutes
in order to
rectify not only, most importantly ourselves,
but then thereafter that that rectification spread into,
the the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam both
in the affairs
of its dunya
and its this worldly affairs as well as
its affairs of the akhir of the other
world.
And Allah
accept from all of us.