Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Aqidah Tahawiyyah Part 10 Tawhid Center MI 08212016
AI: Summary ©
The speakers stress the importance of moral responsibility and finding a way out of one's life, as well as the need for strong pride in Islam and avoiding negative consequences for behavior. They also emphasize the importance of weight in deeds and the consequence of one's actions, including finding a way out of one's life and protecting one's system. The speakers stress the importance of finding a way out of one's life and finding a way to be strong against evil behavior.
AI: Summary ©
I received a question. It's not an aqidah
question, but it is an important question.
If many years of prayer are missed, what
should one do? Make them up.
What if there are a lot?
Make them up. How do I make them
up one at a time? What if I
don't know how many? Estimate.
You can make them up here. You can
make them up on the floor in jahannam.
Your choice.
Make tawba to Allah. He'll forgive you for
skipping them, but the prayers still remain as
a debt.
Right? If they still remain as a debt,
you still have to fulfill them. The skin
sin of having skipped them, if you make
tawba, Allah will forgive you for that sin,
But they still remain as a debt over
your head. So just make them up.
What if a person is, like, making what
I have I have 50 years of prayers
to make up, and I just started making
them up and then I died
while making them up.
It's
you have something to show face in front
of me. You Allah, I tried, you know,
doing this thing, and I died in the
middle. Right? That's different than someone who never
even tried in the first place.
So so just just do your best.
Just, you know,
pray the you should pray. The old school
opinion is that you should pray.
I'll I'll get to you, You should pray
as many as you can. Just all you
do day night, pray until you make them
up.
Then the, like,
middle part of the you should pray 5
prayers with every prayer. And then after that,
you know, you're probably gonna get dizzy or
whatever. So, like, pray make up 5 zohrs
with every zohar, 5, etcetera.
So after that, you know, just whatever. Go
about your day.
Do at least 1. You know? Like, just
do something. If you're doing nothing, then that's
nothing. If you're doing something, it's something,
but just make them up. Yes?
How does the concept of being morally responsible,
makalaf,
fall into the previous point and to the
definition of who is a kafir?
That's a very deep question. It's very philosophical
question and is generally dealt within the more
advanced books of Kalam.
But,
to
because it is very directly
involved with or very directly related to what
we're talking about,
Taklief
is
a a Taklief or moral responsibility
is a prerequisite to being to being eligible
to be punished for something or rewarded for
something.
Okay?
Taqli for moral responsibility.
And so there are 3, generally speaking, the
the
will say that there are 3 prerequisites to.
One is
meaning that you have to reach the age
of majority. You have to be an adult.
Adult in Islam is not 18 or 21.
It's the age of puberty.
And even then, the the mashaikh, they acknowledge
that there's an age that a child less
than that already reaches the mental capacity of
being an adult, but that's the age at
which, generally speaking, unless somebody has some sort
of
disorder or illness,
everybody gets to that that age. And the
gap between the 2 of them is like
a time for you to practice being
being Muslim. That's why we say that from
the age of 7 or 7 to 10,
that's when we should start having from the
age of 7, we should start telling our
children to do all the things that an
adult does
in terms of Islam.
And then for at the age of 10,
we should start to punish them if they
don't.
So age of 7 is positive
practice of the deen. Age of 10 is
when we start giving negative
consequences for not practicing.
And the hope is somewhere along the way,
they're they become mentally mature enough to be
able to do that. Malik considered it, an
exception to this rule fasting because he considers
small children that is is too hard on
them and it actually harms them physically.
But, that's the only exception that I I
I know of or have read this of
this.
Once a child reaches the age of puberty,
they're considered an adult in Islam. So that's
one of the prerequisites
of
of,
of,
of being moral morally,
morally responsible for your deeds. The second is.
A person has to be possessed of a
sound intellect, meaning they cannot be mentally ill.
Some people have varying levels of of of,
of of rational
ability.
So there's a a a a a type
of person they call Safi. There's a condition
called Safaha.
Safaha is like a person who's a fool,
foolish foolishness.
So if a person is foolish, they're not,
like,
mentally ill, so they still have to pray
and, like, abstain from sins. But the court,
for example,
will,
appoint a guardian over them for their spending
of their money. Like, somebody's, like, only get
$700 in a month, and they go and
buy, like, a iPhone
instead of paying rent and buying groceries.
That person is a Safi.
So
the idea is that the the the mental
faculty, the less developed it is, the less
responsible a person,
a person is. But there's a bare minimum
threshold after which
the become incumbent on everyone.
But Allah will take into account how much
he rewards or how much he punishes a
person based on what the faculty the person
is given.
But to be sane, legally sane, is a,
is a prerequisite to be morally responsible for
your deeds.
And the third the third point is the
that
the the dua of Islam and the knowledge
of of the sharia,
at least in its generality,
needs to have reached you.
So if a person never heard of any
of the ambi'a alayhi mus salatu as salam,
we won't consider that person necessarily to be
a kafir,
meaning someone who's rejected iman.
The ulama have a difference of opinion regarding
what that person is then obliged to obliged
to do or whether they're obliged to anything
and what happens with that person. And it's
a very long discussion.
The the the
the school, they say that every human being
is
every human being is obliged
from their own rational faculty to figure out
that there's one god,
that he's unlike his creation,
and that he,
created the heavens and the earth.
These things you're supposed to rationally be able
to figure out. Everyone knows that there's nothing
that there's nothing in the world that's something
that comes from
nothing. Right? There needs to be origination
for all of this, and that origination needs
to be greater than what the world is.
Then some of the say, no. You're not
obliged to know that. Some of them say
that person is not gonna be judged at
all. Some people say, well, they'll be judged
on certain points. Then a question comes, what
if someone heard about the dean, but
they heard about the dean in a, in
a kind of messed up form that's not
completely true?
And, etcetera, etcetera.
And so there's a lot of details that
that that goes into. And
suffice to say, we're not it's not our
place to judge other people. The primary
the primary focus of these types of or
of of of, you know, this learning
is for our own self rectification, for the
rectification of our own societies, not necessarily to
judge people who are in ambiguous positions. So,
you know, what if someone is in Kansas
and the only thing they know about Islam
is what they heard from Glenn Beck in
Rush Limbaugh.
Is that person going to Jannah? Is that
person going to Jahannam? Well, before we go
to that question first, we should say that
we're not in that position,
And we should do everything we can to
ensure that we and our families and those
around us and those people who are in
that position not be in that position anymore.
Right? But then say, okay. You're not able
to do that. What happens to them?
There's some discussion regarding that, but it's not
our job to it's not our job to
judge.
You know, we hope we hope for the
best for everybody.
So there's a lot more to be said
on this topic,
unfortunately, because I wanna get through the I
wanna get through the
the material.
Maybe it's a there's a there's a,
a course,
prerequisites
to learning,
which actually I think is good to be
taught after this, although that's somewhat
counterintuitive.
But it's because it's more theoretical, of course.
This has more practical stuff that you need
to, you know, you need to know. It's
like learning how to pray and then afterward
learning what the
philosophy of the salat is afterward. But maybe
we can do that. Dar al Qasim offers
that course. Doctor Omar Farooq Abdullah,
he
used to present the course for Darul Qasim,
but, I I assisted him in writing the
writing the course.
And, you know, maybe you guys can call
him to present it. Maybe the can send
someone else. Maybe I can come present it.
But there's a whole set of
set of issues regarding this. What I would
caution a person is what?
I would caution a person not to overextend
the idea that people in America haven't received
the dawah.
There is and the reason for that is
the following. There is,
the example of the of of Banu Nadir,
Banu Queda, and Banu Queda, the major tribes
of Jews,
in Medina Munawara. Okay?
Many of them became Muslim. Many of them
didn't become Muslim. Most of them didn't become
Muslim.
And they didn't use the the the they
didn't use to mix a whole lot. You
know, they they kept their own separate their
own separate neighborhoods that they lived in, and
they kept their own separate,
you know,
you know, they lived separately
essentially in their own in their own neighborhoods,
in their own parts of Medina. They would
interact with each other sometimes for business and
trade and things like that. But in general,
they they kept separate. The prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam used to complain that the rabbis
of these tribes would lie
about about him or about the deen to
their followers. And he said
So if even 10 of them 10 of
the rabbis would,
would,
accept iman,
then all of the Jews would have accepted
iman with them.
All of them would have accepted iman together.
Meaning what? There was misinformation.
In the Quran, the text of the Quran
is explicit that those people will be punished
for their kufr.
Even though they received some distortion, but the
distortion wasn't sufficient enough to waive the obligation
to believe,
in in the prophet
And,
you know,
this is something this is basically this what
I'm saying right now is something I heard
from the Sheikh Samir Nas. He's
a a a a a an a start
from the Mahdul Fath al Islami in Damascus.
He teaches the Hidayah. He's a very super
learned person. He comes and visits us from
Syria from time to time,
and I found his argument very convincing.
He said that a person nowadays has more
access to authentic information about Islam than maybe
even the Jews in Banuk Uroedah did. Why?
Because sitting inside of your home, you can
go to any Muslim website. You can go
to you can really get a lot of
very authentic material and read up about all
sorts of different stuff. You have access to
a lot of material.
Now does that mean that I'm saying, well,
that everybody here who, you know, is gonna
go to * and is a CAFAR and
whatever,
even the people who have are in ambiguous
situations. I don't know Alana's best.
But what I would what I would suggest
is for us as a community, practically speaking,
is that we should do the best to
get the word out regarding the deen,
and we should we should we should behave
as wish as if what? As if that
everybody is morally liable,
for the deen, and we should give dawah
to people with that that understanding of urgency.
And if you're the ones who don't believe
amongst them, AllahuTa'a excuses them because they didn't
get a perfect picture or a good picture
of Islam, alhamdulillah.
But if it turns out the reality is
the other way, then by us working as
hard as we can, we help more people
and we also relieve ourselves of our our
responsibility
to other people better.
Because we have a responsibility
responsibility as well. People ask on the day
of judgment. They'll say I went to work
with this person.
This person was my relative. This person was
whatever, and they never told me about Dean.
And, you know,
some people are such that you don't tell
them about Dean because you know this person
is gonna flip out and whatever. And if
that's the case, you may have some sort
of a defense to to that accusation on
the day of judgement.
But some people, we just don't bring it
up because it's not it's like awkward. Or
some people have the fear of if I
bring it up, then the person will become.
But the idea is that, you're commanded to
to to to make tablir, to make,
to deliver the message,
as much as you can
and,
as much as you're you're able to. And,
you know, you you you don't have an
option of who you give the message to
and who you don't because you fear the
outcome.
And on the flip side, on the positive
side, we should have more,
confidence in Islam. You know, the haptah is
really an interesting thing. It's a wonderful thing.
The haqq has its own charm. It has
its own attraction.
It has its own magnetism. If you say
the haqq to somebody, they may be like,
oh, stupid. I'm not this is dumb. I
don't believe that. Right? But it sits in
their mind. It won't go anywhere. It won't
go away. It won't go anywhere.
10 years, 20 years, 30 years, you may
die. That person lives, like, for 50 years
after you. They'll keep thinking about it. They
will keep and you know what? Sometimes it
it will, like, literally, like a worm, it
will eat away at the foundation of the
building of falsehood inside of their mind, and
it will all come caving in crashing down
one day.
And whether they accept it or not, they'll
acknowledge it inside whether they accept it in
their in their actions or not one day.
We should believe in that. The haqqah has
its own charm. It has its own attraction.
This is why. Why is it that in
America black people have the the the right
to vote and they don't have to ride
on separate buses and they don't have to
drink from different drinking water fountains? Why? Because
the Haqq has a charm and has an
attraction and has a power.
Good chains of batteries. Has a power inside
of it that doesn't let people, rich white
people who have privilege and who have
no reason in the world to,
give up power, it makes them not sleep
at night until they do that. And it's
not just it's not just a black or
white thing. That's an example. That's an example,
of what the power of the hakta is.
Is that it has this thing that it
will cause a person even to act against
their own self interest in this world.
It won't leave them it won't leave them
the rest until it until it's haqqis its
own rights are fulfilled. So we should believe
in that. We should spread the haqq and
just let people deal with it. Your job
and my job is to spread the haqq.
Allah's job is to,
you know, make the taqeen whatever happens in
taqeen happen. We shouldn't fear we shouldn't fear
the decree of Allah ta'ala,
with regards to, you know, doing what's right.
Either what what what we're what we're assigned
to do, we should do it, and then
the rest of it is Allah's job. We
leave it to him.
And we consider the salat as valid
behind every righteous person or every unrighteous person
from the people of the qiblah. Anyone who's
barely minimally defined as a Muslim,
we consider the slot to be valid behind
them,
and we will pray their janaza.
But this has some details and some qualifications.
Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik considered praying
behind a a a a a Fassak or
a,
a person who sins openly
or who,
is a person of deviation in their deen
to be haram.
And Imam al Shafi'i and Imam Ahmed considered
it to be permissible.
It's haram according to the former 2 because
you're by praying behind them, you're giving them
elevating their status.
And it's haram unless you're coerced to pray
behind them. But at any rate, whether or
not you're coerced to and whether you get
sin for it or not, it's valid.
Everyone agrees that the salat is valid. It's
not that you have to you don't have
to repeat your prayer, but and that's what
this means. Is that that, it's it's valid
behind everyone. And the same thing for the
janaza
for the janaza of a a person who
is a open sinner or a person of
deviation
in their deen,
it's actually haram to have for those people
a big open janaza which the whole community
comes to.
Rather, you have some people
read the Janaza, small group of people read
the Janaza separately
and they're buried as Muslims.
Right?
So for example, like, one of the one
of the examples is a person who commits
suicide.
And I've seen the Janais of people who
have committed suicide before, and I prayed them
before myself as well.
The ulama say that they shouldn't be done
publicly,
and they should be done
on the side with a small group of
people, not the Ahlul Fazl, not the
the the the respectable people, the poem, the
great ulama of the of the poem, or
the or, you know, in the great masajid
publicly in a high profile venue.
Why? Is it to spite the person? You
committed suicide. We're gonna spite you. It's not
because of that at all. And whoever dies
with the iman is still a believer. Even
if their sins, what did we say are
like the as far as the eye can
see, Allah can forgive and will forgive such
people, and he doesn't and he won't he
won't, it doesn't bother him at all.
But the reason the hikmah for that is
what? Is out of mercy to other people.
Because the next person who is contemplating killing
themselves, when they see, oh, look, all the
are there and all the are there and
the full
is packed and then afterward you have the
janaza and everyone prayed for the of that
person. And my life is so painful. I'm
looking for a way out,
you know. Allah will forgive me because look
what, you know, what happens.
That will
open the door for that person to take
their own life as well. So out of
mercy to them, we want to deter. We
want to not make it look like a
glamorous route. So it says a deterrent. It's
not to spite the it's not to spite
the dead.
But we say that at any rate, whether
or not, you know, these all these other
things aside,
it's still valid to pray behind anyone who's
minimally a Muslim and it's still valid to
pray to Janazah, whoever's minimally a Muslim. And
every Muslim who dies receives a Janazah.
I don't care if they're the most filthy
and despicable person that that you see no
redeeming quality in whatsoever. As long as they're
not a kafir, someone has to read their
janaza. There's nobody who doesn't receive a you
know, who doesn't receive a janaza?
Is a shahid
This is a difference of opinion.
The Hanafis don't keep this opinion. Malik, etcetera.
They say that the person with doesn't
receive a janazah because the janazah is dua
for the mayyat, you remain dua for the
deceased, and they don't need your dua. They
don't need your intercession.
Alright. They don't need your intercession.
So even even you know, so we don't,
you know, like, when we say that a
sinner, we don't read their janaza. It's not
to spite them.
It's just so that that that person, their
status isn't raised in society that people see
the outpouring of people's prayers for them and
then think, oh, I can do that to
Allah will forgive me because look at that.
You know, it's inspiring.
That that it's just for that reason. So
who but at any rate, whoever dies as
a Muslim, they do receive a janazah
and and it's, it's valid to, you know,
for their Janaza to be read. Yes?
If someone says, I don't think we need
to pray, that person's not a Muslim.
If you if so
if a person if a person can we
pray behind somebody who has issues like someone
who says I don't think we need to
pray,
that that person is not a Muslim. So
you ask the ulama about what the status
of the person's iman is. If they bare
minimum meet the qualifications of iman, then the
prayer behind them is valid, and it's a
difference of opinion whether it's haram or not.
But the prayer is valid.
Malek and Abu Hanifa say that there's a
sin in praying behind people who are,
deviant people or people who are open
sinners. Open. There's a difference between someone who
sins openly and somebody who tries to hide
and has some shame about it.
Otherwise, there's nobody's perfect.
Some of us are better at covering up
our tracks than others. Stuff that Allah forgive
us.
And whoever amongst the Muslims that dies,
we don't we don't say this person is
definitely in Jannah. This person is definitely in
the fire. We don't bear witness that this
person is a kafir.
We don't bear witness that this person is
a mushrik. We don't bear witness that this
person is a munafiq as long as those
things haven't
manifest haven't apparently manifested themselves.
So the person said, I worship a god
other than god. Okay. He's a mushrik then.
Right? But we don't say these things about
any Muslim who died,
as long as it's not very clear and
manifest from that person.
This is a problem.
K. We have, like, a large group of
people who are are really,
like, they're they're really have, like, mental issues.
And those mental issues manifest themselves
and them having to call everybody
everybody
for all sorts of stuff.
Okay?
Shirk is what? I worship a god other
than Allah. That's what shirk is.
This person went and he,
made dua at a grave.
He's a mushrik.
Okay. Maybe he just made he was at
a grave and he made dua. No. No.
No. He's a mushrik.
But was he worshiping the grave?
Yes. He was. Ask him, were you worshiping
the grave? No.
And it becomes ridiculous. I mean, it becomes
ridiculous. There's a story, by the way. There's
a story about,
one of the one of the masha'ikh. Right?
About sayd Ahmadir Fai.
Okay? It's a very incredible story. People find
it hard to believe. Okay? There's an incredible
story about sayd Ahmadir Fai that some some
that he went to visit the grave in
Madinah Munawwara
and that when he he he went to
say salaam,
the hand of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam came out from the from the from
the shabaka, from the from the wired mesh,
and he kissed it. Okay?
Someone's like, that's shirk. Okay?
It's not shit. How is it shit? If
you don't wanna believe the story, don't believe
the story. It's not is it is that
story
No. Someone told it, okay, and they believe
it. Maybe they just believe a wrong story.
How is it shook? Everything, every had done.
It shook. Done. It shook. Everything shook.
What did he say? As long as as
long as it's not apparent, that person said,
no. I, yeah, I worship Shiva and I
worship Zeus and I worship,
you know, the Holy Ghost and all this
other stuff. Until a person actually, like, apparently
says that clearly and unambiguously,
why everybody have to make everything in a
shirk for?
You follow Madhav Das shirk.
You, blindly follow someone else's legal opinion in
shirk.
Why shirk? Maybe I just think the guy
knows, like, more about firk than me. That's
all.
Why everything has to be shirk?
So this this is part of our akhida
until somebody actually says I worship somebody. I
worship Abu Hanifa, and I make sada to
him every day. And, like, I make dua
to him to give me, like, a a
sun or
if someone's doing that, okay, halal, that's shirk.
That's haram. Don't do that. Right?
But, like, until then, why you gotta say
people people are doing shirk? This is people,
you know, they obviously there are by the
way, there are people who say it's, you
know, this is.
No. I read it. There's a lot of
people who claim they've read it. They haven't
read it. Like, very stark haven't read it.
If they did, they must have been, like,
I don't know, roller skating or doing something
that distracted them while they're doing it. Because
they just obviously didn't get any of this.
Yes. Question.
Uh-huh.
So the question, would mainstream Shia be considered
people of?
I'll be a little bit more technical. So
there are different groups amongst the Shia. Right?
There's the
there are 3 broad
broad divisions amongst them. Okay. There are the
tafliliyah
who are the people who believe that Saidna
Ali radiAllahu anhu
has a higher maqam than Abu Bakr and
Omar amongst the Sahaba.
And so they're typified by the majority of
the Zaidi Shia's in in in Yemen. Okay?
The taflilia
are not necessarily considered
deviant people.
In fact, this opinion that Seyda Ali was,
had a higher maqam than Seyda Abu Bakr
as long as you don't say he was
the first khalifa and Nabi Bakr was a
khalifa, that's considered to be a it's a
very very minority opinion amongst Ahlus Sunnah wal
Jama'ah.
It's a extremely minority opinion but we say,
okay fine. That's just an opinion within a
circle of difference of opinion.
The second group is what they call the
rafida.
The rafida are those people who say, Ali
should Ali was the Khalifa
after the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam And
because all the other Sahaba didn't acknowledge that,
they're all.
They're not real. They're they're they're they outwardly
are Muslims inside. They're all kafirs. They
all backstab the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And, this, the belief of the rafilah is
the belief of the
The
school which is basically
basically
most
of most of,
most of the Iran
and Iraq
and, Lebanon,
Hezbollah, etcetera. These groups, they all they're all
they're all considered.
And this is a severe deviation.
And when it comes to the,
anyone who actually believes this, what I just
said,
according to most of the they're
not within the pale of Islam. And if
not, this school has a lot of a
lot of, other things that they believe that
actually cast a person out of the pale
of Islam except
except that,
the the
the generality of the the the people, the
rank and file people,
a lot of these things they don't know
about them.
And we consider for the people of the
sunnah, their knowledge helps them. We consider the
the the people of deviation, their their ignorance
helps them. So if you're like a villager
somewhere in Iran and you haven't read like
the books of
and he asked them, are you Muslim? He
says, yes. And what does that mean to
you? We believe in the
the the Quran. We believe in the the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. We love the
ahlulbayt of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
All of this is stuff that also is
part of our as well.
So that person just because they say they're
shia doesn't make them a kafir.
But if you say for example
okay? And this is these are things these
are narrations that are that come in the
the books of the.
If you say for example, we believe that
Imam Mahdi will come and the Imam Mahdi
will resurrect Abu Bakr and Omar and crucify
them for for for being, for being, a
highway robbers that stole the the miroth of
the
prophet
and, the the Mahdi will resurrect,
Sadai and stone her to death for having
committed zina.
Right? This is all kufr.
There is there there are narrations in in
in, like, the, and these are very mainstream
Ifna al Shali shia books
that the the the 10 Jews of the
Quran were were,
destroyed by the Sahaba.
That,
in the entire Quran is corrupted except for
2 Suras,
except for,
Suratul Fatiha and
And there are not all of them believe
this by the way, but the narrations are
there in their books. There are some by
the way that it's not Shashiya, they only
read in every rakat. They only read
Those people, obviously, these beliefs, there's like a
ambit of these beliefs that completely cast a
person out of the pale of Islam.
But a couple of things. One is that
those narrations are in their books and not
all of their ulama even believe them.
Okay? So, for that reason, I don't say
every is not a Muslim.
I question why do you guys consider these
books to be of value that have these
narrations in them? Why do you still study
these books as if they're authoritative
narrations from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam?
But,
at any rate, if one of their olema
doesn't believe this,
then
I cannot say that that person is a
kafir.
And,
their
Awam, generally speaking, forget about not believing these
things. They don't even know these things
that they're in their books.
And so,
I wouldn't make tech fear of them. This
is an Akhida class and someone asked that's
why I brought it up. Otherwise, in I
generally in public, I don't make it a
point to bash on Shias and say they're
catheters or whatever blah blah blah. Right?
I'll at the most mention a point of
and talk about it without reference to any
without reference to any group. But from the,
the people who have these beliefs and they
affirm these beliefs that I mentioned, those people
are not Muslims.
But from amongst the Itnashari Shias in the
world, I would say about these things being
in the books, they don't affirm them. So
in that sense, I wouldn't say that that
you can make Takfir of them wholesale. You
can make Takfir
So in that sense, I wouldn't say that
that you can make takfir of them wholesale,
yes or no.
Rather, it's all up to the individual and
because of that, unless you give someone a
test, you should treat them as if they're
a Muslim until you hear something like this.
But you should know that this is part
of their their tradition. It's a deviance. And
it's the fact that these things are even
transmitted in their books,
you know, the it it's very highly problematic.
They're completely spurious. They make no sense whatsoever,
logically or,
in terms of, in terms of logic or
in terms of of of of the way
they're transmitted the narrators are transmitted through.
So it's highly problematic.
So I would not ask, somebody who is
a member of that group to lead the
prayer. I would not I would not allow
them to give chutba ever.
But does it mean that I think they're
or that they should be, whatever, treated any
any, you know,
you know, harshly or badly.
No. In fact, I know many people who
are identify themselves as Shia or even Itna
shiri Shia that actually pray in in in
our masajid,
pray behind our imams. Their whole lifetime, they're
with us. So much so to the point
where the only thing that makes them Shia
is they pray with their hands down, which
is not a big deal. I pray with
my hands down.
That's not that's not a issue. Right? The
reason there's sunnah and shia have have
some antagonism between them has nothing to do
with where you put your hands, where you
pray. Has to do with these other things
that I mentioned.
So,
I would, you know, you know, I would
not really make a big deal of it.
And if someone comes in and and and
sits with the with the ulama and the
salihin and sits in the masajid of the
Ahl Sunnah
and doesn't, you know, jibe anybody and is
okay with that,
The thing that you're gonna be asked about
is your your your deeds and your beliefs.
You're not gonna be asked about how you
identify yourself. So someone says I'm Sunni and
they have all these screwed up beliefs, it's
not gonna help them. If someone says they're
Shia and they're they're they're,
you know, the their
their their their
has been made because of their good company
in this world, then that's not a problem.
The third the third group of is what
they call the,
which was the extremists.
So those are people who say, like, Ali
is a prophet
or people who say Ali is god,
or people who say that the, the the
Nabi
really wasn't a Nabi,
but Ali was really the the prophet that
and prophet was, like, just a front
man or, you know, these type of aqa'id
that are open shadkufr.
And so the people who belong to these
groups are like the Aghaani Ismailis,
or,
the Mercedes the Alawi Mercedes of of Syria
and, of of of Eastern Turkey,
or the,
Daudib Boris.
Right? They believe in a, like, a living,
infallible imam, and everything he does and says
is a Wahi based
pronouncement on on deen.
So,
there's a separation between them and a lot
of people receive benefit of the doubt. There's
another question on the sister's side.
No?
So
we don't say regarding them that they're kafar
or they're mushrikeen
or that they're
as long as that they haven't made that
apparent or they haven't been clear about that.
And what the secret is inside of their
heart,
we leave that to Allah. We leave that
to Allah to judge.
And we don't
we don't consider
it permissible to raise a sword against thee,
somebody of the Ummah of Sayidam Muhammad
except for from those few exceptional things that
allow that, which has which is what?
For example, somebody doesn't pay zakat, the government
has the right to take zakat by force.
If somebody murdered somebody
or is a. Right?
Is somebody who,
takes, wealth
by force that doesn't belong to them.
Right? According to the Jambhoor, there is a,
had a punishment against them that involves
death. It's a capital punishment,
or,
you know, other punishments like, for example,
the person who commits zina who is my
son, who is married or has been in
a valid marriage that was consummated,
that person commits zina.
These are these are
sins for which there is a capital punishment
within the context of a sovereign state that
can only be implemented by that state. But
with with regards to with regards to anything
other than these few
exceptions,
we consider it part of the that it's
not permissible to raise the sword against us.
Raising the sword meaning it's a metaphor for
violence against
anyone from the Ummah Sayedna Muhammad And
this is unfortunately
also
this is also
a a a great, grave misunderstanding that's spread
throughout the Muslim world because you see so
much violence,
so much violence between people.
And some of it, a person may be
justified that I'm committing violence against this person
because they're doing something wrong.
But what wrong the wrong thing they're doing
doesn't justify the violence.
There are very few reasons that that justify
in in in our Sharia,
violence against other people.
That's why we didn't have classically, we the,
we didn't carry out,
inquisitions
and purges of people of heterodox belief.
Rather, within the Muslim within the Muslim world,
especially within the the world of Ahl al
Sunwar Jamaa, there are large contingents of people
with heterodox beliefs. There's never, an inquisition carried
out against the Muertesilah.
There was never an inquisition carried out out
against the the rafilah.
There was never an inquisition carried out against
the the
Hawarij.
They were fought in battle, but as when
they lay down arms and submit to the
rule of law, there's not an inquisition
carried out against them.
There's not an inquisition carried out against non
Muslims,
Jews,
etcetera,
Christians,
Hindus, etcetera. There was there this the only
the only religion which was,
annihilated,
so to speak, in that sense was the
pagan religion of the Arabs. And it was
given no quarter and no sanction, and it
was, the Arabian Peninsula was cleansed by that
so that nobody should worship Latin Uzza and
the the idols of the the the Musharikin
of Jahiliya. Other than that, there's no one
who
who who received that treatment other than them.
And that's that's a deal that's done. It's
become passed in history now.
And that wasn't something that, you know, our
historical records show that there was any sort
of,
like, ethnic cleansing or something that have had
to happen. The people actually gave up that
religion in mass.
They actually gave it up in mass, and
there's it doesn't flare up from time to
time later on. It's done. It's finished.
We don't consider it permissible
to rebel against,
our temporal
or our imams or against our temporal leaders.
The imams are who?
The people who are like the people who
are given the charge of state,
even if they're tyrants.
This is
not a book of political science. This is
a book of what?
We don't consider it permissible to rebel against
our our our our our leaders
and the people who are in charge of
our temper temporal affairs even if they're tyrants,
and we don't rebel against them.
And we don't make and we don't pull
our hand back. We don't withhold from
from what?
From their obedience
in good.
So if you have, like, the most horrible
Saddam or whatever
repressive type of government,
okay, as long as the leader is still
Muslim What does it mean that we endorse
them? No. He's saying them himself that such
a person is a tyrant and a sinner.
What does it mean that we don't withhold
our hands from their obedience? Only in good
things. So if he says here, join the
secret police and kill your neighbors, spy on
your neighbor, don't do it.
What if he says,
don't, you know, there's a law saying, don't
litter on the streets.
The fact that you don't collaborate with them
on haram things doesn't mean that you're allowed
to not collaborate with them on on matters
that are, for the greater good.
The reason for this is not because of
any particular
love or indifference toward the issue of injustice.
The reason for this is extremely practical. Malik
said that, more evil happens in one day
of chaos than happens in 40 years of
tyranny.
In tyranny,
some people get affected,
there's some decrease in the quality of life.
In one day of absolute chaos, what happens,
like, entire civilizations get turned upside down.
And, anyone who wants to see the tafsir
of this, go ponder over the the political
mess that Muslim world has been in for
the last
10, 15 years.
Everywhere
everywhere there there has been fighting. I know,
for example and nobody likes dictators. I don't
like any of these I don't we all
hate these people, the dictators that that are
sitting in the Muslim world.
But it's very difficult. Right? I I met,
I met, the sheikh,
Mujir Al Khatib.
Mo'as Al Khatib was the first president of
the Free Syrian Republic group
before it's his brother.
He's in Alem. He's in Istanbul. I don't
know where he is right now. I assume
he's still in the same Makan. He's in
the Yavuz Salim Masjid in in in Istanbul.
The Turkish government,
they gave him a position in there to
teach teach the books of to the Syrian
refugees in Arabic.
Right? This is a family heavily involved in
the rebellion against, the rebellion in Syria.
Okay?
We hate the we hate the the repressive
Assad regime.
They're really horrible people, and they did really
horrible things
at the same time. So I'm not I'm
not supporting that regime nor am I supporting
the people who support that regime nor am
I saying that they're even particularly good people.
But the ulama from the generation before,
right, Sheikh Saeed Ramadan, Buti, and Ahmed Kufaro
and all these people, they had an agreement
with the the the regime
that you people
at least apparently maintain a certain standard of
Islam, you know,
in front of people.
And we will tell the people not to,
rebel against you. And that was their deal.
Right? And you've been to Sham before.
It's not a perfect place, but, you know,
the masajid still were open. People are still
reading
people were still learning and teaching
the centuries old and the
centuries old
and from the Ottoman era and from before
from the Ayubi era, the Darul Hadith,
these types of places. They're still there. I
mean, people are still teaching and learning in
these these old places. The graves of our,
of of of of our masha'ikh were still
undisturbed.
The the grave of Sayidina Khaz bin Walid,
there's been, like, bombed into the ground now.
It was the masjid that has been bombed
into the ground now. All these places, they're
still there. They're undisturbed. The people are benefiting
from these places. But, now look what's happened.
Even that family that's so,
involved with the with the with the the
their, revolution and rebellion against the government.
Even I saw in his own eyes when
I met him 2, 3 years ago. He
says maybe maybe it was a mistake.
Maybe it was a mistake.
Right? The, the the in Halab, the madrasa
Khosrofiya,
it was built by Khosro Begg,
not Khosro Begg, Khosro Pasha,
who was a who was a high ranking
Ottoman official,
I think, 60400
or 600 years ago 400 years ago.
He he had a large sum of money
in Halab,
and he,
and he wished to,
he wished to build the madrasa.
And so
he looked search for an island who never
who never missed a prayer in Jama'a ever
since the time he's.
And it took him a long time to
find such a person. He found someone and
said, here's the money. Build a madrasah. You're
the the overseer of it.
From that same madrasah,
so many, Sheikh Abdul Fattah, Abu Hoda, Abdul
Basirajuddin,
Abdul Razaq Hallebi, all of these great,
they they all came from the same madras.
It's a barakah of doing things right, you
know.
So that madras, how are you gonna build
it again?
It's bombed to the ground. It's completely destroyed.
How are you gonna build it again? That's
a piece of civilization. That's a from an
era
that that that we're this ummah is not
gonna receive again. Maybe we'll make something, it'll
be good, but it's not gonna be the
same. Which
government politics parliament,
you know, which
seat in in government is worth worth that?
The sunad of the prophet
hadith has cut off from a place. What's
which place is worth what which which part
of the dunya is worth that? Where are
you gonna get that from again?
No government, no dynasty lasts forever.
But that where are you gonna get that
from again?
And this is something people, they're so, like,
focused on dunya. They don't, like, even understand
that these things are anything important.
Where are those chamkas, those zawayah that were
built? Where are you gonna those where are
you gonna get those from again?
And so this is the thing is there's
a Hikma in it. There's a Hikma in
it. And you see a lot of people
after the Arabians
Arab Spring happened, they become like super,
you know, they go over the top and
they say, oh, our
were wrong. And they, for years, been telling
us not to rebel against the government and,
you know, they were aiding the oppressors and
they were whatever. And we need a new
regarding this issue and okay, Khalas, tell me
which country which country in the Muslim world
is are they better off after the Arab
spring than they were from before?
It's a subjective question. Maybe someone may think
one of them is better off. But really,
in general, the trend doesn't seem really good.
In Syria, the catastrophe of Syria is now
like the biggest human catastrophe
in the, like, history of the world.
The entire country is a beautiful country filled
with beautiful people, beautiful customs.
Din, filled with Din. It's completely scattered to
the scattered to the the four directions. More
refugees even than Somalia.
Right? The entire civilization has been scattered. So
who knows which the sons of, like, the
the the the the the the Uleman,
they're gonna now and daughters are gonna grow
up in Germany and in Hungary and Austria
and all these places. Which one of them
will stay on the deen? Which one of
them will be absorbed into the whatever. This
the mafasid that happened are, like, really big.
And, that's why this is the hikmah of
why this is the way it is. It's
not out of the love of any tyrant
or the love of any dictator.
Right? Change doesn't happen from the top down.
It happens from the bottom up. And
every movement that's been effective in bringing change
and effective in bringing
a a a government that actually embodies the
ideals of of the deen, it's always been
from the bottom up. It's never been from
the top down. Never.
It's never been from the top down. It's
always been from the bottom up. And the
greater part of the message of the prophet
is not a political or military or economic
message. The greater part of the message of
the prophet is a
spiritual
message of the prophet is a spiritual message.
And if you're going to take a gamble
and roll the dice on a political issue
and jeopardize people's spiritual,
well-being,
that's not that's not worth it. It shows
a a sense of misplaced priorities, and that's
what this is about.
That's what that's what this is about. You
may disagree with me. I have certain political
opinions I've just expressed that are not akhida.
So you may disagree with me, you know.
Sheykh, there's some benefits from the Arab Spring.
Maybe there were.
And maybe, maybe you'll say them and I'll
disagree with you and then maybe I'm wrong.
Right? Politics, everyone is entitled to their own
opinion.
But this is this is part of our
part of our akhida, and it's based on
the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. Right?
Right? That you,
and the narration
The reason the prophet
said that that you are is you have
to hear and obey your rulers, your people
who are in in charge over you,
even if that person is a black slave.
Right? And in a narration, a black slave
whose head is shriveled up like a raisin.
Why did he say that? Because Jahiliya wasn't
Jahiliya for free. I mean, they were really
they were really racist people. And in their
racist Jahili system, the lowest rung of society
was a black slave. So even if it's
a black slave and not even a particularly
strong or good one, it's like the worst
of the slaves you can think of, the
most useless of slaves you can think of.
If that's what the the at least in
their Jahili
point of view, if that's who is the
Muslims come together and agree this person is
the ruler, then you have to listen to
him even though it's difficult for you. Why?
Because there's there's some khair in it
for you. Now
this doesn't mean we all kiss up to
the government and, oh, I love you, Husnu
Mubarak. I love you, Hafiz Asad. I love
you,
whoever, you know, Saddam, I let
no. Right? It's not like that. You have
a you have a a a Masnoon way
of resisting the government.
What is the Masnun way of resisting? That
you don't cooperate them you cooperate with them
when they do something good. You don't cooperate
with them when they ask you to do
something wrong.
Way of resisting the government,
that
you don't rebel against them with your sword,
but you speak out when they say something
wrong and you give them nasiha.
And this is part of the dysfunctionality in
the Muslim world. When there's a tyrant,
you see everybody is like this. And when,
like, the day they realize that the gun
is lifted from their head, everyone turns into
a lion
until the gun comes back and then that
person becomes also again a slave again. Why
you don't you don't have you don't have
to be so crazy
on the day that that that, you know,
on the day that there's no authority over
your head. If you're,
if you're also,
willing to make a stand, you know, on
the day that you're in danger, speak the
hap. Nobody's curtailing your your right to do
that.
Speak the hap. The ulema used to do
the imam
The
the the, king of his time,
he,
Imam Nawi gave a fatwa that he didn't
like in Syria. Right? He he gave a
fatwa that he that the king didn't like.
So the king was the king said what?
He says, who is this Who is this?
Who is this stupid who's giving this? I
told everyone not to give, and he knows
that you you that I'd want them to
give. Who is he? Take all of his
seize all of his properties. Sir, he doesn't
have any property.
Go burn his house down. He lives in
the Masjid. He sleeps in the Masjid. He
has no property. We told you he has
no property.
Revoke all of his salaries from the okaf.
He doesn't take a salary. He teaches for
the sake of Allah.
Where is he? Bring him arrest him and
bring him in front of me. If he
doesn't rescind his fatwa, I'll kill him.
And Noah walked into the court of the
king and he told them off to his
face,
and he walked right out.
The courtiers are like,
how come you let him do that?
And the king said, this guy has some
taqwa. This guy has some this guy has
fear of a lata. I'm not gonna mess
with him.
As you people are all like, dunya wee
people, you're only kissing up because you want
money and stipends and all of this stuff.
I don't fear I don't fear violence against
you in front of Allah. But this guy,
I'm not gonna mess with him. He said,
if you had the taqwa like him, you
could do that also.
He that's it. Right? And that that happens
sometimes. Even tyrants, you know, sometimes they they
realize that record. This is the example of
our asaf. There are books, Vallemnus books have
been written about this. Right? The people of
the Haqq, you have to stand and stick
your neck out and say the Haqq and
don't fear,
don't fear when it comes to Allah. Don't
fear,
you know, the the the censure and the
blame of the one who's gonna censure you
or blame you. Right? So there's a middle
path in all of this. Right? There is
a way of resisting the, tyranny and resisting,
the tyrannical authority. Right? So hadith of the
prophet
The best of Jihad is to say a
word of truth in the face of unjust
authority. There's a way of resisting.
Way of resisting.
Just because the authority is tyrannical, doesn't mean
you need to pick up a collection of
coffee and start bombing stuff.
You understand what I'm saying? There's more to
that's that's that's something even crazy like,
be deemed people with no deem can do
and they do all the time. That's their
preferred method of getting stuff done.
This is the prophetic method of getting stuff
done.
Yes, question.
You already thought more qualified mimetic by, like,
40 years. 40 40 years of, under the
yoke of tyranny is is preferable to one
day of chaos.
The sister section question.
So this is this is this is this
is really important. This is part of our
that I urge you to consider that this
is part
of it's in the for a reason. This
is part
of our. And we should also ponder over
this, that in our own micro
systems that we function in. Right? So I
don't know if anyone here is, like, part
of a sovereign government. I don't think anyone
is. Right? But in like, no one here
is a senator or a vice president or
something like that. But, you know, there are
people here who are invested boards or who
are in, like, committees or in groups and
things like
that. When you're part of a group, there's
a a right that's due to whoever is
selected as Amir in that group. Okay. I'll
get to you, inshallah. There's a right that's
due to whoever is selected as Amir in
that group. And you may disagree with them
vehemently.
And they may even say stuff that's just
stark wrong
and don't don't,
collaborate with them in those things.
But there's a way of there's a way
of making isla, have rectifying that. In that
way, it's not getting up in the middle
of meeting and throwing a tantrum.
Right? The masjid, even even if
the imam may be crazy. I mean, the
imams, both of them here are wonderful people.
I'm not saying okay. So don't read anything
that's not there. Even the president may be
crazy. Maybe the board may be crazy. Maybe
the trustees may be crazy. Maybe this person,
the janitor, may be crazy. You may have
a rigorous objection to any of the above.
Work within the system too.
Change that.
It's preferable
to,
to wait and work within the system than
to trash the entire system because Tawhid Center
wasn't built overnight.
IGD wasn't built overnight.
You know what I mean? Unity Center, all
these masajes, big masajes we have, they weren't
built overnight. I, myself, am very frustrated with
many of our masajes.
If you know me personally, maybe I've vented
some of those frustrations with you. But the
it's not worth it to completely trash the
entire thing. You're not gonna get it back
again easily.
Rather, work with and protect what's there and
preserve what's there and know
The thing that's not a 100% perfect, it
doesn't mean you have the right to trash
it a 100% either.
You know, take the good, preserve the good,
the preservation of the good is an imperative
just like, the rectification of what's wrong.
So you have to think about these things
holistically. Don't don't don't be a person who
completely, like, trashes everything all the time.
That's not that's not the the the the
method of the sunnah. And but that doesn't
mean that you should accept what's wrong. If
something's wrong, it's wrong. You speak out against
it and work toward toward rectifying it. You
know? And the haqq if the haqq is
on your side, then it's just a matter
of time. Even if you're only one person,
just keep saying the haqq. But one day,
it will it will enter into everybody's heart.
It's not something any that people can resist.
Haqq is one of the sifaat of
Allah No one can resist
it. That's one of the first items of
this of this, this text that nothing overwhelms
him So, there's a methodology to it. Yes,
sister. You had a question?
Yes. When in terms of sovereign authority, as
long as the leader is a Muslim,
and he and he upholds the basic
the base the most basic,
principles of the sharia, meaning he allows the
prayers to be said in congregation
and the adhan to be called and certain
basic very basic things like that. If the
leader in a Muslim country leaves Islam, then
the social contract between him and the people
is null and
void. And, there's a different tateeb for that.
You can you know, I don't wanna talk
about it too much because I wanna finish
the book. And,
I mean, there's there's a lot there. I
don't wanna say something very simply and then
someone say, oh, she said this is not
and then do something crazy.
There's a lot there's a lot there. Let's
yeah. But yeah. You're right. That's that's as
long as the,
that's as long as the the the leader
stays a Muslim and and and the prayer
is still being established, in the people. And
this is one named Husnu Mubarak, for example,
who is not a paragon of virtue by
any stretch of the, stretch of, imagination.
But he was good about this. He had
he had advisers for ulama. He had his
own masjid. It was very nice masjid in
in Cairo. It still is a nice masjid
in Cairo. And he used to pray Jum'ah
there every Friday. And there was a camera
and it would be broadcast on Egyptian television.
And,
you know, many people interpret that as him
being, like, look.
Says in the hadith, as long as he's
praying,
you can't, you know, you're not you're not
you can't, you know, go the Kalajnakaf
route. So I'm reading the Maz here. Okay?
So just chill.
Like, let we're let's not go there because,
look. See? I'm praying,
which, you
know, it doesn't mean he's a good leader,
but he was praying and the people who
value
that, you know, are the ones who live
in a in a situation where the the
leader shuts down the masajid and bans people
from praying. And there are people in living
memory and there are people still alive right
now in places where the masajid are closed,
where you'll go to jail for a reading
or salat and,
you know, their leaders are public they have
names
that are Muslim names, but they, publicly disavow
Din and they punish
Din, and that's a real tragedy.
You know, what the leaders affair is between
them and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, their injustice
is tragic. But as long as the people
have the deen, they still have the greater
part of of of of their their,
their wealth.
Once that's taken away,
that's when the real tragedy starts. Sometimes it
can be taken away through tyranny, and sometimes
it can be taken away through freedom. And
sometimes it can be taken away in a
way that's physically painful, and sometimes it can
be taken away in a way that's physically
enjoyable.
But the primary,
the primary,
function of the state
is to allow people to live a life
in which they can,
achieve the prime objective, which is to make
good with Allah before you leave this world.
And and that's why the ulama are saying
this is maybe very unpalatable to some people,
but if you view it through that lens,
then it makes some sense.
Sorry. No.
Yeah.
Alright. And so we don't stop ever making
dua for them. I mean, as long as
they're Muslims, we don't stop making du'a for
them. Part part of making du'a for them
is what? If they're doing something wrong, say,
Allah straighten them out.
Why? Because in Allah straightening them out is
a benefit for all the Muslims.
If you made du'a against them, you Allah
mess this guy up real bad. What's the
worst way Allah can mess a person up?
By driving them further in the hellfire.
That's gonna be through more tyranny and more
anti
deen slash dunya activities. Right? So you don't
want that. You want them to wake up
and make toba and walk the path of
righteousness. It's happened before.
It's happened before. It's not
difficult. The worst you can do is you
said this guy is just is save him
from sinning,
and you take him away.
But but we don't make dua against them,
as long as they're they're on Islam.
Right? So so we consider that we consider
their obedience to be the obedience of Allah,
which is a big thing. Right? We consider
their obedience to be the obedience of Allah,
mighty and majestic as he, and it is
a farida.
It is a an obligation of deen as
long as they don't command to sin or
to disobedience.
And if they command to disobedience,
you're not supposed to obey them. You're not
allowed to obey them.
This is a hadith of the prophet
that there is no obedience to the creation
and the disobedience,
of Allah ta'ala. You're not allowed to obey
the creation and the disobedience of Allah, subhanahu
wa ta'ala. And we pray for them for
their rectification
and for their success
and,
for their welfare.
And and and, you know,
how you could say, well, what if they're
crazy and they're doing all this horrible stuff?
That's what we what rectification and success
means. That the horrible stuff they do, they
stop doing it, and success is in in
becoming better. And welfare is in living a
a life that's morally upright as well as
physically comfortable.
Should we,
yeah, take a break?
What time is again?
So why don't we just make this like
a long session,
and then we'll break for an hour for
for lunch.
I really wanna get through the book.
I mean, it would be sad if we
couldn't.
We still we still can do it.
We we follow the sunnah,
and the the jama'a, the consensus of the
scholars,
and the majority of the scholars as well
in as much as,
you know, the suad al adham, the hadith
of the prophet says that whoever they if
the the people break into groups, then whoever
the greatest group is,
that's that's the one where the barakah is
going to be.
And we abstain from shudud. What is shudud?
Shudud is is,
uniqueness, but in a bad way. Like, one
thing is, like, oh, this is unique and
wonderful. One thing is, like, somebody, like, whatever,
dyes their hair a weird color and you're
like, oh,
that's unique.
Like,
people bring, like, weird stuff in the din.
We, you know, we have, like, this super
over fascination and obsession with
different stuff. So someone brings a new idea
and everyone's like, oh my god. This is
the next thing.
I'm not against, like, new things
in the sense that, like like, you know,
going on the airplane is easier than going
by horse drawn carriage.
But when it comes to deen, there's not
going to be anything new because the wahi
wahiwaal came down and the prophet
And even though there may be new ideas
in like education, administration, etcetera,
that can be useful,
we shouldn't have this obsession with new equaling
good.
Rather, new ideas, we should instead of being
closed minded and whatever to them, we should
evaluate them and think about them with some
patience and with some
some, deliberation.
And then if they're good, we accept them.
If they're not, we don't. It shouldn't just
be like, oh, this is new. It's gonna
be good. And the attitude of it's it's
new. This new is gonna be good. This
is even, like, loaded into our vocabulary. Right?
This is revolutionary.
Right?
Revolutions are not good if you have a
good government and there's a revolution, that's that's
a bad thing. This is really progressive.
Progressing is not good if there's a cliff
in front of you.
Oh, that's backwards looking. If there's a cliff
in front of you, backwards looking is the
way to go.
Right?
So I'm not saying new stuff is bad.
I'm just saying it's not like all it's
cracked up to be because we're, like, wired
culturally to, like, think everything new is, like,
awesome. It's amazing. This new this new thing
is cutting edge, new newest trend. Right?
Just cutting you is having no bad edge,
wrong edge. Just flip it around. Not good.
Right?
So, you know, shuhud,
people who have, like, weirdo ideas about the
deen.
You know?
And it happens. Sometimes someone will be like,
you know, like, whatever.
Oh, Hamza
led the prayer and he only made one
salaam. That's weird.
Said we're not supposed to follow weird things.
That's not weird. Go read the books of
fiqh. It's like an entire med hub and,
like,
the, you know, like, reported from, like, great
number of Sahaba. Just because you didn't know
about it doesn't mean it's it's not weird.
It's actually firmly established in the tradition.
The weird I'm talking about is that, oh,
that's weird. And then, hey, did any of
the imams ever say that? No. Did anyone
do that in Islamic history? Well, there was
one guy, like, 20 years ago who talked
about it, and that's basically the beginning of
it.
Okay.
That's the type of weird we wanna stay
away from.
So Nabi, the hadith of the prophet that
there will be people who come to you
and they'll say things to you, ideas to
you about the deen that neither you heard
nor of your forefathers before you heard. So
I warn them and I warn you, don't
let them,
put you down put put you down a
path of misguidance and don't let them put
you in a position where you're gonna be
punished by Allah.
It's a warning. Okay? So new things in
deen, not good. New things in general,
think about it. We'll
see. Might be good, might not be. Don't
automatically be like, oh, this is the newest
thing this year. Like, everyone's doing it.
That's, you know, that's not that's not the
approach we take. You know? And some people
are crazy the other way. They're like, no.
This is my our my sheikh, he always
used to give,
he he always used to go to the
mastodon horse, and I'm going to the mastodon
horse.
That's not I mean, that going to the
Mastodon horse is not a part of the
you know what I mean? And,
so
that's not really a good solid line of
reasoning. Okay?
But, you know, the means of conveyance to
the masjid is different than than your akhida
and your fiqh.
Yes, sir.
No.
No. And the
No. No. In the Usul in the in
the Usul,
it's Ibadat and it's aqayd.
So those things that those things, the decisions
that are based on and those there's certain
decisions that are based on and certain ones
that aren't.
It has to do with
and And there's a there's a someone said,
well, everything is a. In Nufuli sense, everything
is not a. This has to do with
the Nufuli
discussion. It's very well defined, and that definition
is gonna, like, take us down a half
an hour tangent right now. But it is
it's extremely well defined. It's not a there's
it's not a ambiguous,
issue.
So,
we continue.
Okay. So so that's the shudud.
And then what is khilaf?
Khilaf is discord.
This doesn't mean this doesn't mean,
that that we don't accept differences of opinion.
Certain differences of opinion, the difference of opinion
that's healthy is the one that's that's,
based in
the book of Allah
and the sunnah of the prophet
based on different possible interpretations,
that are so
that are so,
well argued that even the one who disagrees
with it says, I might be right and
the other person might be wrong.
And the other person's wrong, but they might
be right. And this is like the dis
disagreements between the 4 madhabs. That's what they
say. They say,
That I believe I'm right, but it's possible
I'm wrong. And I believe you're wrong, but
it's possible you're right. This level of difference
of opinion is tolerated. It's not what's being
talked about here. What's being talked about here
is, I'm right, you're wrong.
This level of disagreement is only tolerable in
the in matters of Aqidah.
So if somebody says, well, we believe in,
you know, we believe in Allah and his
messengers and his angels and his prophets and
the the Qadr, the predestination,
and the day of judgment, and the physical
resurrection, and the holy powers of pink lemonade,
as the article of faith will say, you're
wrong.
This is not right.
Right? Whereas someone says, well, I believe in
all those things, and I also, you know,
think that we should say, I mean, out
loud during the Jahri prayer. Say, okay. Or
that's
I can live with that even though I
don't I don't do that or I don't
think that's the right opinion.
Right? So those types of irreconcilable
differences,
whoever has those with with us, we don't
we don't, we don't we we warn people
against that.
And,
sectarianism that people should start to, should should
start to instead of,
you know, identifying with,
the din, identify with other groups. This happens.
Right? The to them, the med habs are,
interpretive methodology in order to understand the fiqh.
Some I'm Hanafi.
I hate everybody else. I'm Shafi'i.
You know, everyone else is wrong. I'm not
gonna marry my my daughter to a Maliki
dog.
Right? And come on, man. That's not you
don't even know any if you say stuff
like that because you kind of missed the
point. Right? This happens with, like, groups.
Right? The dawah of
this
tariqa of Sufis or the salafiya
or this thing or that thing.
Whereas, you're supposed to call people toward Islam.
You're not supposed to call people to your
sec secular ideology.
So the fact that a person would identify
with something other than the deen would stronger
than they identify with the deen. The deen
is a source of guidance. The group is
not a source of your guidance.
Your group benefits from the guidance of Islam.
And in certain in certain instances, having these
groups is is
not a primary primary objective,
but a means to gaining some other benefit
that you're commanded to gain through Islam.
If you turn it into your primary identity
or your primary, you know, in and of
itself, service of it and of itself becomes
a primary objective of your deen, that's a
problem.
We love the people of justice, and we
love the people who are trustworthy, and we
hate the people of tyranny, and we hate
the,
the the the people of treachery.
Just because we're not gonna pick up a
klejna coffin, like, start shooting stuff, doesn't mean
that doesn't mean that we,
like
tyrants.
And just because we participate with
just because we participate with the,
participate with the,
the acts of obedience commanded to us by
tyrant,
doesn't mean that we love them and that
that we we're indifferent towards people of justice.
We love the people of justice.
This is embodied by the sahabha
Sayedan Hasan he
he went on 3 on 3, not just
1, on 3
campaigns of jihad under the command of Sayidina
Muawiyah,
who despite the fact that he fought with
his father against Sayidina Muawiyah for the caliphate,
and he
considered that his father was the rightful claimant
to the caliphate. And Sayidina Muawiyah was a
contender to him who literally took the field
of battle against him. Why? Because once all
the Muslims agreed that Muawiyah is the the
Khalifa, he he accepted it himself. And when
he went out in the path of Allah
ta'ala, which is an act of obedience and
siege
Constantinople
despite
the fact that the Sahaba universally hated him.
Siege
Constantinople despite the fact that the Sahaba universally
hated him.
Alright. Yazid was the the one underneath whose
reign,
the grandson of the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi wa
sallam, Hussein Al Hassan, was was murdered.
And so he was universally hated by the
companions of the messenger of Allah
he instituted a punishment of 20 lashes for
anyone who says
after the name of Yazid.
But if Yazid did something good, he was
the the temporal leader of the Muslims, they
would participate with him.
And no one is going to accuse the
Sahaba no one in their right mind, at
least, is gonna accuse the Sahaba of being
weak on imam or of not having sacrificed
something for the deen or being people who
are afraid to speak tahak.
And whatever
as individuals
or as an ummah,
whatever is unclear or obscure,
the the the what's correct about it, we
say al Anos best.
And this is in a lot of things.
It includes the
like we talked about from before, but it
even includes, like, certain simple
Ummah was not able to reach a consensus
about. Like, should you say amen out loud
after the or not? Should you raise your
hand one time and then bring me in
the prayer or several times during the prayer?
These things that the I was never able
to come to a a decisive conclusion.
So each opinion, each one makes their opinion,
and we all say Allah, Allah knows best
To say,
this is right. That's wrong. Done. That's a
bida. That's that's not right.
That's not right. If it was like that,
our imams from before us would have done
that, but they didn't. They tolerated it. Maybe
it's right. Maybe it's wrong. Allah not Allah
knows best. This this opinion makes more sense
to me. That's okay to say. This opinion
makes more sense to me. This opinion makes
more sense to me. But to say that
everyone who does this thing is just dead
wrong.
Debaters get into this
mode of thinking oftentimes. That's that's not right.
It's not that's not okay.
When when we're all This
is another interesting thing. Why is this in
the book of aqidah? We consider that the
wiping over the the the leather,
foot gear,
is valid. You don't have to take the
hoofs off. You can wipe over them, and
it's a valid way of making wudu both
in traveling and while you're while you're in
residence,
as is been narrated by the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
This was an issue of some
controversy in the sense that the commandment to
wash your feet
comes in the book of Allah.
Right? And wash your feet.
It's very explicit in the book of Allah.
So
why is it that people then would wipe
over their leather foot gear?
Because it's narrated through tawat or it's narrated
that the prophet
did
it through so many chains
that it's impossible it could have been fabricated.
That's why it's considered part of aqidah. Whether
you wanna do it or not, you can
do what you want to, but we believe
that it's valid to do so.
This is why a great majority of the
ulama, by the way, don't consider wiping over
socks to be valid.
Because according to the usul of the 33
of the 4 madhhabs,
the Shafi'i, the Hanafi, and the Maliki,
because the commandment to,
to wash your feet is an explicit commandment
of the book of Allah Ta'ala.
And the hadith narrated regarding wiping over socks,
it comes in just a a couple of
hadith. Some of the say none of them
are.
Because of that, they don't they they don't
accept that as they don't accept that as
valid.
And the the reason for it is what?
Is that the rule is what? You wash
your feet. The exception is wiping over hoofs.
Someone will say, well, what's the difference between
a hoof and a sock? We say that
this is an usuli issue that you make.
You make analogy on the rule. You cannot
make analogy on the exception.
Exceptions are one off. You cannot make analogy
on exceptions. You make an analogy on on
Quias. Deeper bath into this issue is a
issue, but the part of it is that
the amount of narrations at least regarding the
hoof being something you wipe over, reaches the
head of Tawatr, so someone denies that they're
denying they're denying
a part of the deen because it's so
thoroughly
and completely narrated,
from the prophet
through so many trustworthy chains of narration.
Both of them are obligations
that will communally be
obligations over the Ummah of Sayidna Muhammad
that that that will con constantly and continuously
be an obligation on the Ummah
of
Sayid
Muhammad.
Under the authority of whoever, the temporal leaders
are of the, the the, the Muslims,
whether that person be a righteous person or
whether that be a
unrighteous person until the,
day of judgment.
And neither of them are going to be
invalidated or nullified by anything.
So Hajj
should we go to Hajj? The government over
there is like x y z, and there's
poor people in other places. Shouldn't we just
send the money there? And what's the point
of Hajj? Everyone just go shopping and this
and that. I agree all those things are
issues. Okay? I'm not saying that that stuff's,
like, not an issue. But what is our
Hajj will happen every year. It's a on
on on the and it's valid every year.
There's no such thing as boycotting Hajj. If
you don't wanna go this year, great. But
it's just it's there's no such thing as
boycotting Hajj that we call for a boycott
of Hajj. If Hajj doesn't happen in 1
year, which it won't not happen,
but if it didn't, theoretically, it would be
sin on the entire Umma.
There's been no year in which Hajj wasn't
carried out from the time of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi
wa
sallam. Right. Hajj is a obligation
And even if the the the the government
or the
rulers over there seem to be, like, really
not great people,
Whether whether they're they're righteous or unrighteous as
long as they're Muslims, the the the Hajj
behind their imam is valid.
This happened in the past where you have
several different groups and the Muslim world is
fractured into different political entities. The the oleman,
the imam say, whoever is there at the
Hejaz,
that's the one you you you you follow.
And,
so much so that Imam Abu Hanifa,
he saw that during his lifetime, people would
go to Arafat and have different like, they
would try to make their own group on
one side of Arafat and he was so
disgusted with it.
Right? That he said that whoever whoever,
doesn't pray behind the the sovereign imam that
rules over that place and who's a
legitimate imam of Hajj,
if you don't pray behind that imam, you
cannot join the Zohr
and Asr
together. As as if you're, like, you're not
participating with him, kinda removes you one step
from the sunnah practice of Hajj.
And this is despite the fact that Imam
Abu Hanifa actually supported several rebellions against the
government.
I mean, he he
that's there's a whole bunch of them who
said, well, didn't you just read this? There's
a lot, like, there's a long story. I
don't have time to go into all of
that. Inshallah, you read
again in Islamic history and we'll go into
all of that. Right? But he was not
a friend of the government. He died in
solitary confinement
during the reign of Abujafil Mansur. And many
of the was poisoned by Abujafil Mansur because
he was not a friend of the government.
He definitely refused to take the judgeship and
that really chapped the the Mansoor off a
lot.
But still, what did he say? In Hajj,
we're all together.
It's better to all be together under somebody
who's a suboptimal leader.
But in one jama'ah, there's more barakah in
that and there's more chance that the will
have a better future if we can do
that than if we
break up into all these 1,000,000 groups. Each
of them think I'm right, everyone else else
is wrong
or I'm superior to everybody else.
And is like that as well.
So, oh my god. Oh, he said the
j word. It's all over.
You know, there's cars on their way here.
You know, I hope you guys like the
weather in Cuba. No. I mean, we're not
talking this is a general discussion. Okay? First
of all, look
what he
says. This is this is a imperative upon
the sovereign government of the Muslims.
That there will always be some sort of
physical struggle in the path of Allah
That it's not going to be invalidated. It
comes to the hadith of the prophet
That obligation is not going to be invalidated
by the justice of a just ruler. There
will be never be a time in the
earth that there's so much justice that there's
not not a place that
that the that the believers will be required
to,
required to rectify the situation and save people
from from from injustice and from from Kufr.
The world will never get that good,
and it will never get so bad that
a tyrant will be able to crush the
Muslims so much that they're unable to struggle
against them.
Again, this imperative is what underneath the sovereign
rule of the the Muslim government.
It doesn't up this this imperative is a
from which we're excused because we're not we're
we're in a non Muslim country anyway.
What we say is we don't as an
article of belief, we're not excused from not
believing. As an article of belief, right, someone's
like, well, I believe Jihad is just, my
struggle to be a good parent and,
you know, to,
just be a good person
overall. K. That's that's not what we're talking
about here. K? It's a point of that
that it's a communal obligation on this umma
wherever there is there wherever tyranny happens, wherever
people's rights are being abused, wherever the Muslims
are being abused, wherever any of these things
happen, whoever the sovereign government is, they have
to get get their act together and field
some,
some contingent to be able to,
to be able to, struggle for for the
protection of people who require protection
and for the din where it requires being
protected, etcetera.
It's a belief that we have. As far
as specific countries and conditions and whatever, I
have no comment about them. Don't even come
ask me afterward.
Just learn this lesson afterward. You can study
for the rest of your life and form
very educated and informed opinions inshallah about these
things.
But this is an aqidah.
This is an aqidah. And whoever those people
are who are doing jihads, they
have a very high rank with Allah
So be careful not to speak ill of
them and always keep them in your duas
even if you don't know who they are.
And tell there will always be some people
who are engaged in the service of deen,
and they have an extremely high just if
you don't believe me, read the Quran.
Left, right, and center, the Allah is encouraging
people to do this and to and and
and and saying what the reward of it
is,
in different places.
And so, you know, those people don't ever
say bad about them and don't talk don't,
you know, forward posts about boycotting Hajj because
Saudi Arabia is so horrible. Okay? If you
don't like the Saudi state, good for you.
I won't say that that's completely without merit.
But Hajj is Hajj. It has nothing to
do with you know, it transcends all of
those issues. As long as they're Muslims, we
go there. If you wanna make Takfir the
Saudi state, then you run afoul of a
whole other ambit of issues. But as long
as they're Muslims, the Hajj is gonna happen.
Whoever goes their Hajj
will be accepted. And we pray for its
acceptance, and we send people,
and we believe in the benefit and the
the khairabit. And we consider still to be
fard on those who are able to go.
We believe that there are the noble angelic
scribes
that Allah
sent to accompany us wherever we go, and
they record our deeds.
And, again, Allah Ta'ala doesn't need them.
What's a possible hikmah for them being there
is that we cannot imagine Allah to Allah.
In fact, Saram and Shirkuh might even try
even try, and we won't be successful even
if we did that. But,
but we can't imagine, like, angels, like, writing
stuff down and stuff. So it's good. It's
a good aid for us to remember. Okay.
Like, maybe we shouldn't do
bad stuff in public and private.
And Allah knows best.
And we believe in the angel of death,
that there's an angel called the angel of
death, and Allah to Allah has,
has,
you know, given him the duty to,
take the souls
of of
of living things when it's the time of
their death. So the angel of death will
come to a person.
Angel of death will come to a person
in a form that is commensurate how the
person lived their life.
Some people when they're dying say, oh, grandma,
it's not grandma. It's not it's what? It's
the malak remote.
It comes in a presence. Oh, I see
the and the I see the I see
the It's
not
who's coming. It's because you love the oliya.
So told the angel of death come in
the form that will please this person, that
they'll be like, okay. I'll go with you.
You know? Like, this is good. This is
a good thing.
And then some people, they'll be like freaking
out like, ah,
well,
the angel of death is then commanded to
take that person's soul in in in a
way that's commensurate with the evil of what
their life was. It comes in the hadith
of the prophet that the death of a
believer is has the trauma of, like, pulling
a hair out of dough. It's a very
smooth process.
And the death of a a cafe is
like pulling a silk rag over thorns.
If you put the silk rag down on
thorns, will you be able to remove it
without the rag being ripped?
No.
Allah protect us from such an end.
And this is, so we're gonna talk about
these kind of, things regarding death. One thing
I wanna say. Right?
Who is one of our mashaikh, the sheikh
of our mashaikh
and a very prolific author and a very
prolific scholar of the deen.
During his lifetime, there was
a plague
that,
killed a great number of people in his
district in Northern India.
And all the preachers, they went to the
masajid and started preaching to people, oh, you
guys, your sins. Allah is punishing you. You're
horrible. Make toba to Allah. Jahannam is like
this. Jahannam is like that. Blah blah blah.
And so
the sheikh got kind of annoyed, and he
penned a book because of his annoyance.
He said that don't don't walk around telling
the Muslims that they're horrible people.
The fact that they have means Allah loves
them and the love is over
over any other consideration regarding their sins.
And,
and and when a Muslim dies,
it's a good thing.
The experience is a good experience,
and nobody dies
except for when their when their soul is
from removed from their body with iman and
in a good state.
They feel what's in front of them is
better than what they left behind.
And so he wrote a book about this.
And I forget what the name of the
book is called.
It's translated into English though. I think it's
called like like like longing for Allah or
something like that.
I'll I'll remember the name of the book
or I'll look it up in the break
and tell you afterward. It's a beautiful book.
It's translated. It's translated somewhere in South Africa
or whatever, and it has real weird
English, but it's enough that you'll get the
point if you read it. It's a book
worth reading, especially somebody who
needs consolation at the time of the death
of a loved one or who is, you
know, overlooking death themselves,
has all of their narrations about the various
types of honor and and and,
happiness that a person with iman who dies
on iman, they receive.
And, you know, people will be able to
visit their relatives,
you know, and people will be able to
there's so many things that they there's so
many benefits that they'll receive that are commensurate
with the rank of how they live their
life.
And, you know, there's a hadith of the
prophet salaam
The one who loves to meet Allah Ta'ala,
Allah Ta'ala will meet meet that person in
death and in the day of judgment as
a person would be met who loves you.
And the one who who, hates to meet
Allah
meet that person as in the way of
a person who hates to meet you.
And, said Aisha
asked,
everybody hates to die. Nobody likes dying.
So that's not what I'm talking about.
I'm not talking about the dislike of or
the discomfort or pain of death or the
idea of your soul leaving your body. It's
uncomfortable for almost everyone. Right? But she's talking
he's talking about what's after that. Like, the
idea of meeting Allah to Allah. Does that
do you like that idea? Does it make
you happy that I get to meet my
my my rabbi?
Right? That he's gonna you know, he's merciful
and I try I'm trying my best and
he'll forgive me and it will be a
good meeting. I
trust that that's gonna be a good thing.
Right? There's a haditha that puts you to
the prophet
that I am as my slave thinks of
me.
So if you think that, you know, Allah
is gonna punish me and he's, like, just
out to get me, that's your that's your
bad. And if you think, no. Allah Ta'az,
I'm gonna do my best to obey him
and he you know you know, you I
I love him and I love to meet
him. Then that's how Allah Ta'ala, you'll find
him insha'Allah.
Obviously, not to delude yourself to go and
do everything that he commanded you not to
do and be, yeah. No. No. He loves
me. Not not like that. Right? But, like,
you're doing your best and you have a
good opinion of Allah ta'ala.
That's that's a good thing and a beautiful
thing. That's part of our that I think
is missing from people.
And sometimes preachers, in order to get more
hits on YouTube or god knows what, they
try to freak people out, and it's not
really
if you have and
you've been praying your prayers and stuff like
that, there's there's more than there is other
stuff. Just keep doing your best. Don't, you
know, don't don't give up. If you mess
up, make toba, just keep doing your best.
It will be good all
of
us,
inshallah.
And we also believe in the punishment of
the grave, that there is such a thing
that certain people will be punished in the
grave.
Whether it's the people of Kufr or the
people of Islam that that that did very
severe
transgressions.
But the punishment of the people of Islam
is not going to be like the punishment
of the people of Kufr.
So we believe that that's a reality. It's
mentioned in the Quran. It's this person who
says that, no. No. Everyone's dead in their
grave. No one's punished there.
That's Kufr because it's mentioned in the book
of Allah Ta'ala that by day and by
night, the the
the Firaun and his people are are are
punished in the they're going to be,
the leaders of the people going into the
hellfire.
And then we believe in Munkar and Nakir.
Munkar and Nakeer are 2 angels
that come to a person when they're put
in their grave. Now someone might say, well,
not all the dead have graves.
For the purpose of, the word grave has
a technical meaning, and that technical meaning is
wherever the body comes to rest,
Even if it's in, like, several pieces scattered
over several miles. Why? Because the barzakh, which
is the the kind of universe a person
enters into
after they die. It occupies the same physical
locus as this universe does that we're in
right now, but it has the the natural
laws of the.
Right?
And so that barzakh in it, just like,
you know, like a cell phone, you can
have a conference call, 3 people, 4 people
in different places, but they're kinda all at
the same place. Like that, you'll experience that
even if the body is scattered in different
places,
by whatever for whatever reason, wherever it comes
to rest, that's for the purposes of your
grave.
Wherever that is, you will feel this experience.
You'll experience this happening in the Barzakh,
as if you're 1 in one one place
that the,
these 2 angels come to the person when
their body comes to his place of rest,
and they will,
ask,
ask that person
3 questions.
Who is your lord? What is your deen?
And what do you say about this person?
And the person will be shown the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in a way that
they'll they'll recognize who that is or know
who that is,
if they're if they if there are people
who knew who he was.
So a correct
correct answer to those questions,
what will happen is that person will experience,
an expanse
and they'll experience an openness and they'll be
given bliss and the angels will show them
that person a place in the fire.
And they'll say that this is the place
Allah created for you in the hellfire,
but because you did good, Allah exchanged it
for a place in Jannah.
And the person who doesn't answer those questions
correctly,
and they won't be able to lie at
that time,
that person
then the angels will show them,
a place in the hellfire or in Jannah
and say this is the place Allah created
for you in Jannah. But because you, you
blew it, you messed it up, you screwed
it up,
he'll replace it with a place in the
hellfire.
And this is the meaning of
Those people are the inheritors, the ones who
inherit because
it's as if a person died from Jannah
and then goes to the fire, and the
people who are left in Jannah, they divvy
up their share and they enjoy it for
themselves.
So at that point, the person who answers
the question wrong after being shown their place
in the the place that they would have
had in Jannah,
and being told that it's been exchanged for
a place in the fire, comes in the
Sahih Hadith of the
prophet that the grave will cut they'll experience
the place of rest collapse on them
to the point where they'll experience their ribs
going into each other.
And then angels with bars of iron will
beat them,
in the barzakh, the screams of which,
if human beings could hear,
they would be so afraid that they would
stop bearing their dead. They would just leave
the dead to rot on the surface of
the earth.
Allah protect us from such an
end.
This is one reason, by the way, that
we have separate graveyards.
We don't bury our we don't bury our
dead in the same graveyards as Mushuikin and
Kufar.
Because,
you know, the the adav
of their,
we don't want it to reach our dead.
We don't want it to reach our dead.
Someone says, can somebody be bothered in their
grave? They can. And if someone makes a
Muslim that they're bothered in their grave, then
all those things will be sorted out.
On the day of judgment, someone will pay
for that. We don't wanna do that.
We don't wanna go there. That's why also,
like, for example, we don't we don't do
autopsies if they're not a 100% necessary, like
the government's forcing you to or whatever. We
don't do those. And there's some places the
autopsies can do with the MRI machine or
whatever or with other instruments that don't harm
the body, but we don't do those because,
because of the the the may there is
some connection between the body,
and the spirit even though they're not connected
like they were during life.
But still, the the spirit is attracted to
that locust,
kinda hangs around over there.
And it's attracted even though it could go
somewhere else or whatever, but there's an attraction.
There's some connection between the place where the
body is and where the where where where
the spirit, where the spirit will then hang
out at least in the barzakh.
And so we believe in, in we believe
in all of these things as they've been
narrated by the messenger of Allah and by
the companions of the messenger of Allah. May
Allah be pleased with them all.
And we believe that the grave of a
person is either a garden from the gardens
of Jannah or it is a pitch from
the pits of the hellfire.
And we believe in the physical resurrection like
we talked about before, and we believe that
people will be recompensed for their actions
on the day of judgment.
Now remember, we said that a person will
not go to
go to Jannah except for by Allah's grace
and his rahma, his mercy.
Right?
So what does it mean that we believe
that people will be recompensed for their actions?
People will go to the fire because of
Allah's justice. People will go to Jannah because
of Allah's grace and his mercy.
But the ranks in Jannah and Jahannam,
the gradation of those ranks will be only
according to your deeds.
So the fact that you got in
is by Allah's mercy into the Jannah or
the fact that somebody else
went to the fire is because of Allah's
justice. But once
both parties are in wherever they are, their
ranks and their gradation will be based on
what? What their deeds were. So somebody who,
you know, all their deeds are equal, but
they read
had, like, you know, x number of times
and the other person read x plus 1,
they'll have a rank higher. The latter will
have a rank higher than the former.
That the day of judgment will be a
day witnessed by all of Allah's creation.
All of the will be there. All the
people, human beings will be there. All of
the jinns will be there. All the angels
will be there. All of the animals will
be there. All of Allah's creation will bear
witness, and they'll be arrayed in ranks,
and they'll be present. It will be like
a, you know, a general body meeting. Everyone's
gonna be there.
And they'll be arranged in ranks, and they'll
bear witness to what happens on that day.
And people will be taken to account,
and Allah will take people to account.
And, by his sometimes
certain things he won't ask about
or by his sometimes certain things he will
ask about. A person, if they do it,
they sin. Right?
If they do a sin, Allah ta'ala,
if they do a good deed, writes 10
times its amount all the way to 700
and even more. That's a whole discussion.
And then if they make the intention to
do a sin and they try to do
it, but they can't pull it off, they're
they have they have nothing. If they wanna
do a sin and they decide not to,
they get a good deed in its place.
If they do a sin, Allah tells the
angels don't write it down. Maybe this person
will make tovah.
So the angels change shifts at the time
of sunrise and sunset.
So the they're commanded to wait till the
end of the shift to write the sin
down. If a person makes tawba from before,
what's the point of writing it down? So
you hook them from Allah.
The sin is written down if a person
makes tawba during their lifetime sincere tawba, Allah
ta'ala accepts it and that sin will be
replaced with a good deed.
It's not it's it's replaced with a good
deed. Why?
So people don't see something crossed out or
erased so they know that this person was
a sinner at one point. Allah ta'ala's mercy
is so complete that it doesn't allow for
any of those things. His forgiveness is so
complete he doesn't allow for any of those
things.
Then on the day of judgment, the person
when they're asked being asked about things from
Allah to Allah, he may just skip over
certain things
from his mercy.
Even if you didn't make tawba, he may
skip over certain things. Or certain things he
may ask, did you do this? And the
person will say, yes, my lord. And he
just chooses to forgive them at that time.
Comes the hadith Sahih Muslim that if he
asked, did you do this sin? And the
person says yes and he asked why.
That that that sin will be punished.
It will not be forgiven because there's no
answer to that question.
Allah forgive us in this world and spare
us from being questioned on that day.
If you ask why, that's it. That's that's
you you will pay for that sin in
full if you are asked why. May Allah
protect all of us from from from from
from
such an such an outcome.
There's no reason. We should accept it over
here. There's no reason. There's no justification for
it. It's just wrong, and we ask Allah
to forgive us in this world so we
don't have to be subjected to that on
that day.
Everyone
will everyone will have a complete audit of
their life
that will be presented to them. Right? It's
literally it's.
Right? It's a, you know, one of the
possible meanings of that is like a numbered
book. You know, they have, like, numbered, like,
court documents and things like that. It's complete
audit
that they'll be presented with
person who's given the audit by the angels
in a nice way in their right hand.
It's a sign that their judgment will go
well.
The one that it's
they're smacked in it for in the back.
They're thrown in a in a way of
disrespect.
It's a sign that the the, the,
the the accounting is not gonna be it's
not gonna go well.
It comes in a hadith of the prophet,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, that after iman, what's
the first thing a person's going to be
asked about?
There's salat. And if that accounting goes well,
inshallah, the rest of it will go well.
And if it doesn't, then the rest of
it, you're gonna have a hard time a
person was gonna have a hard time with
it. May Allah protect us from such an
end.
And that people will be,
people will be,
rewarded and that people will be punished
that there is a there is a scale
that the deeds will be weighed in. Literally,
it's gonna be there. There's a scale. The
deeds will be weighed. And the reason that
one of the for weight being,
the the quality on that day and not
number or volume is because weight is intrinsic.
So something may be very small, but it
may be very weighty.
Something may be huge, but it's just fluff
in the scale.
So part of our is that we emphasize
in terms of deeds,
quality, not quantity.
Right? That one
completely outweighed all of the other stuff. Right?
We emphasize quality, not quantity. How sad would
it be if a person has all these
wonderful good deeds, but they're all fluff. They
don't tilt the scale pans
in a person's favor.
And and,
we believe we believe in the mizan. So
that's something that's real. When you're when you're
getting judged, you're you're, you know, that that's
actual something that's gonna be set up and
you'll see your deeds put the representations the
physical representations of your deeds be put in
that and they'll be weighed.
And the siroth,
so the place of judgment from the place
of judgment to Jannah, there's a a bridge.
Underneath it is the the different levels of
the hellfire.
And so a person will have to cross
from one side to the other. And so
the people of belief will cross. Right? The
people of disbelief will be raised blind. They'll
fall off the sides of it.
The people of belief will be will be
will cross that bridge
in a way that's commensurate with their deeds.
So some people will cross like lightning, literally
at the speed of light, hadith, they'll cross
like lightning. Some people fly over like the
wind.
Some people will go across running. Some people
go across walking. Some people will be very
bitter. They'll struggle to get across. Right? That's
why you don't do the bare minimum in
this dunya.
You don't wanna experience the the difficulty of
that day. Those difficulties like an hour of
those difficulties is worse than entire lifetime of
difficulty on this side.
Right. The people will be struggling to get
across because they just did the bare minimum.
They did a lot of weird stuff on
the side as well. There are certain people
that comes in the hadith of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. If you messed up
another person's life, this happens sometimes you did
something, you did a mistake, you did a
sin that messed up another person's life and
spent their life spiraling out of control and
they go to Jahannam because of that.
And you're like, oh, well, it's not kufra.
I made tova from a and you just
keep keep going along.
Those people will grab you and pull you
down at that time.
On their way down, they'll grab onto you
and they'll pull you down at that time.
So make it up to people. You do
your best to make it up to people
in this world. Whoever you hurt, don't hurt
people. It's a sin to hurt the feelings
of another believer. Don't hurt other feelings, but
whoever you you've done anything, there's a chance
that it's your fault.
Don't don't don't, you know, don't hurt other
people. And if you've done that, make it
up to them in this world. This is
your chance. You don't want them to grab
hold on You want both of you to
go to jannah. You don't want somebody to
grab you down, drag you down into the
fire. And there are certain sins also that
come in the hadith of the prophet that
there'll be like pole, long pole arms with
hooks on on the ends of them.
Somewhat like I imagine like a pizza hook
is that they people will be trying to
cross and they'll pull people down or some
people they'll gash them and rip rip, flesh
out of them or or harm them. So
they'll still get across, but it's gonna be
bitter.
Why go there?
Why go there? You know, ask Allah always
ask him for his forgiveness and think what
sins do I have to do? The facade
of which is left behind that I need
to rectify.
Why go there? Right? Lightning is sounds like
a really good,
good way of crossing
give us, from his and from his,
that we don't we don't,
deal with all those problems on that day.
And then before we let people go for
the salat, the last thing that happens before
before, entering Jannah is all those people who
made it. You know? Sometimes there are people
who annoy you and upset you and just
rub you the wrong way and do things
that are hurtful, but they're not quite sins
or whatever.
And so the believers will take retribution from
one another on that side.
You were the leader. I had to follow
you because you're the leader, but you took
advantage of it and I resented you for
it. This is my time to get even
with you. Right?
And so people will will I imagine people
will, for centuries, fight with each other in
that place.
But at the end of it, what's gonna
happen?
The people who could forgive each other, they've
been in Jannah for a 100 years and
you're like a goof, like, you know, in
a fist fight pulling someone's hair and some
smacking them in the nose, whatever. You You
know? And people will be like, this is
stupid. It's not even worth it. Just go
in.
Let go of all of these things. It's
not worth it. Enmity, it destroys your life.
It destroys your emotional bandwidth, your mental bandwidth.
Just don't just don't worry about it. Just
let it go. Let it go. Go enter
into,
the sacred presence of
What enmity, what beef you have with someone
is worth it. Other people are not important.
Allah is important.
Your love for Allah should be greater than
your your hatred for other people. It shouldn't
even be a competition. Allah give that love
to us and protect us from, you know,
carrying enmities in our heart that weigh us
down and prevent us from from attaining that
level.
We'll come back. We'll
we'll we'll try we'll try to finish the
book. We'll finish.
By the way, there was a question that
was asked earlier about like different sectarian groups.
Okay.
Just to recap. I don't want you to
go to places and say, oh, there's this
guy in Tawhid center. He says all of
x group is
kafirs. Don't don't say that, please. Okay? Every
individual Takfir is a matter. I talk about
things in general on a very, like,
abstract level. I you know?
As far as an individual is concerned, whether
they believe this, whether they believe that, whether
whatever thing is, you know, true, that's an
individual that's between an individual, and I'm not
a judge that I want to go and
figure these things out. Someone comes and meet
me in the masjid as a Muslim,
and they don't say anything, like, you know,
that's that's against antithetical to belief, I have
no stake in saying someone's a or someone
is a deviant or whatever. I love that
everybody should be on the path of guidance
and I hope other people love that for
me as well that we make dua for
one another inshallah.
So it's in the context of the the
class. Maybe I should have exercised some more
discretion in answering the question that way but
but the idea is that okay, if we
were to say theoretically if someone were to
believe this, that, and the other thing it
would be kufr, it doesn't mean that it's
carte blanche that, oh, you're a part of
this group. You're a kafir. I suspect you
of being kafir or whatever like that. The
path of the al Hasan al Jama'a always
to give people the benefit of the doubt
and tell it unless they're they say something
or they do something that that clearly and
unambiguously
shows that that's not that that that there
there's no way that they could be a
Muslim.
And so,
I just wanted to clarify that.