Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Riyd alSlihn Prayers Charity and Praise For the Deceased 11052017
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AI: Transcript ©
It's a chapter regarding
giving
sadaqah on behalf of the deceased and praying
for them, making dua for them,
supplicating to Allah to Allah,
for in their favor.
The reason these 2,
are mentioned explicitly
is because by the Ijman consensus of the
like we had mentioned from before,
Sadaqa and making dua for the deceased benefits
them.
The have some difference of opinion.
Can you,
you know, do other things like say prayer
and then
will the reward of that prayer to happen
on behalf of that
of that that deceased person or another person?
Or can you recite Quran and
will the reward for the recitation of the
Quran for another person? There's some difference of
opinion with regard with regards to those things.
Again, the majority of the ulama, they say
that that's also possible. But these two things,
if you want to benefit someone who is
deceased, these two things buy. The consensus of
the ulema,
they they benefit the deceased, deceased, which are
what? Giving sadaqa on the behalf of this
deceased
and making dua for them.
And, in fact, the better thing to do
is to give sadaqa on the behalf of
the deceased deceased because
monetary,
monetary
obligations can only be discharged through money. So
if that person has zakat that's out out,
you know, that's outstanding, that's due by giving
money on their behalf,
that
liability decreases,
whereas it wouldn't for,
for a dua.
Although the dua also benefits them, but the
the monetary and the financial
and physical
acts of worship that are done on behalf
of the deceased benefit them
more than than than the ones that
are non tangible and Allah knows best.
So as a first proof for
the,
the recommendation to give sadaqa in charity on
behalf of the deceased and pray for them.
Brings
the ayah of Surah Al Hashir,
which comes on the heels of Allah describing
the
beautiful characteristics of the
and the Ansar.
Those who came after the 2 of them,
they say, oh, our lord forgive us and
forgive our brothers who came before us in
faith.
Meaning what? This is Allah
showing the believers that one of the signs
of their piety is that they,
that they pray for those who have deceased
and have departed from before them.
And this is also an important reminder for
us because we live in an age where
everybody just sit up and feel comfortable.
We live in an age and we live
in a time that that that people oftentimes,
you know, look at the the previous part
of the ummah with
an eye as if they're maybe at best
scrutinizing
sloppy sloppy work or sloppy people and, at
worst,
feeling some sort of air of superiority like
they have something to contribute to Islam that's
gonna make it better.
You have a lot to contribute to computer
programming and designing airplanes and other things that
will make them better.
But, when it comes to the dean in
why it's not something that,
you're through your own research or intelligence, you
make better rather. It's something that is literally
revealed. It comes from a different realm. The
best you can do is to preserve it,
and to slow the the rate at which
its integrity will decay,
amongst people, there's nothing you can improve on
it with. So this this idea that people
have that somehow our forefathers or those who
came before us in the din are,
you know, were substandard type people.
And this applies to not just, the Rasul
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and his companions
but to any of the people, any of
the links in the chain that bring the
deen to you because the chain is only
as strong as its weakest link.
This idea that people have that they somehow
distrust,
distrust those people and distrust those
transmitters of the deen and distrust those generations
that came before us. Maybe they're even embarrassed
of them the way that they used to
speak, the way that they used to dress,
the way they used to eat and drink,
the culture that they used to carry.
That's that's completely
a a a flood and a
improper,
understanding.
Emotionally,
I think it's really bogus.
But
at the same time, we have to, like,
not be so quick to judge other people
because they have the ideas that they have
due to circumstances oftentimes more than due to
choice. If they had known what the flaw
and their reasoning was
or were introduced to,
the the ways of our forefathers
in a in a in a decent manner,
then maybe they wouldn't have been like that.
Say that Aisha
narrates that a man came to the prophet
salallahu alayhi wasallam
and he said he used a metaphorical expression
which means
that, her her soul is her soul is
left, Her soul is gone.
And,
my opinion,
or the the the the opinion that seems
the idea that seems apparent to me is
that if she were still amongst the talking,
meaning she's still amongst the living,
she would have given, she would have given
sadaqa.
So is it okay if,
I give sadaqa on her behalf? Will she
receive a reward for it? And
said,
yes.
His good deeds, they're all done. They're finished
except for 3.
Meaning the charity that's continuous.
So for example, if a person,
you know, had a well dug,
that's something that people will continue to benefit
after they
after they benefit from after they pass from
this world.
Or if somebody had any any sort of
charity that that
that keeps benefiting people,
is called what is called Salak Hajarya,
which literally means like a running charity,
or a flowing charity. It's a metaphor for
the fact that it's like a gift that
keeps on giving,
or knowledge that is,
benefited from.
So in that sense,
people may have this idea that that comes
to them that, well,
the imagine,
you know, they,
but they did had a very limited time
and scope. You know, maybe there are some
people,
you know, they say that some of the
later,
right,
they
say something like 100 of thousands of people
accepted Islam at his hands.
So someone might say, well, there's no Sahabi
that that many people accepted Islam at their
hands.
So why is it that the Sahabi
should have a higher mafam?
And,
there's a number of
explanations a person can give, but the most
simple you know, this is part of the
it's part of a person's intelligence that when
you explain something or you argued something to
someone,
it's like a
kind of a medium form of intelligence to
be able to,
answer somebody
and answer somebody's question or objection.
It's part of the excellence of a person's
knowledge that they can see a number of
different answers and also then amongst them evaluate
which one is the most direct so that
they can end the argument quickly.
Just like a fight, a good fighter is
not the one who's going to, like, you
know, have, like, a street fighter 3 rounds
match that last half an hour. No one
has a stamina for any of those things.
The the the the good the good fighter
is the one who can just drop his
opponent in one one hit.
My father, I remember I used to like
playing fancy trick shots in tennis.
He
said, you're horrible. He says, if you don't
beat your opponent in the serve, you're just
gonna, like, run and tire yourself out, and
then you're gonna get beaten later on. These
trick shots are worthless. Obviously, I didn't like
hearing that at the time because it was
fun how you know, hitting fancy,
trick shots. But, you know, later on you
realize that they have a point when they
say stuff like that. You know, the old
folks, they're not haters. They've been through that.
They've been around the block before. So they
know why they're, you know, they know how
things roll. So the quick quickest,
which is ironic because I spend a long
time explaining this, but the quickest way of
of negating this
false,
false idea a person would have is that
if in Islam, we all accept that
a person who leads another one to the
to a good thing will receive the reward
of the good thing that that person did,
then the one who goes and gives dawah
to, like, you know, a 100,000 people and
they all accept Islam at their hands,
even if that's the only person that
that that the person who from before gave
Islam to, and that person has the reward
of a 101,000
a 100,001
conversions.
So the Maqam is necessarily higher.
The is necessarily higher. So the
is is a
is like a naveer of of.
It's like it's like it's it's it's in
the same bracket, in the same category. It's
almost the same thing.
One is like a material intangible,
thing that's been given and that keeps on
keeps on, like, propagating.
And the other is something that I mean,
it resides as information in a person's head,
but it's also an act of of piety.
Now this is something that's very clear for
whoever reads the the book of Allah and
the sunnah of the prophet
and the consensus of the aslafur.
May Allah be pleased with them that they
consider knowledge to be superior superior
than wealth, and they considered
teaching knowledge to become superior to
spending wealth. And the easiest way of understanding
that is that
himself was not a super wealthy man. But
and and on the flip side, his was
knowledge.
The wasn't piety. All of his piety was
more than that of other people, but his
his prophethood,
what made him the prophet wasn't
the fact that he prayed a lot. It
was a special knowledge Allah gave him that
he didn't give anyone else from the
Umla. And in his case that nobody else
from the creation was given,
So
imagine, you know, people,
what is it? Like, every every Muslim kid.
Right? Like, what do you wanna be when
you wanna grow up? Right? 9 times out
of 10, what are you gonna answer?
You answer, I wanna be a doctor. Why
do you wanna be a doctor? Because I
wanna help people. We only the only way
we can think of being, you know, helping
people is what? Is through making money or
some sort of material control that we can
help people with. Right? And then, okay, forget
about it. You say no. I'm at Rebat's
Sunday
program. Why are you telling me for, like,
the millionth time the virtues of ilm? If
we didn't know the virtues of ilm, we
wouldn't have we would have been drinking a
milkshake somewhere instead of being here on the
Sunday night. So don't beat a dead horse.
We're already beyond that point. Okay, Cholas. Out
of the out of the people who
already value, they now they value because they're
so,
wonderful and and and pious and sophisticated and
nuanced in their understanding of Din. Right?
Who's the one who's gonna who's gonna receive
more reward? The one who teaches,
the advanced students of knowledge, you know, the
intricacies with regards to the superiority of the
narrators of Sahih Bukhari are the one who's
gonna teach alif bataf out of the kids.
It's the one who teaches
to the kids. Why?
Because one of those kids will also one
day become the super fancy hotshot sheikh who
teaches Bukhari,
and that's that's that's just one of them.
And the other kids, their reward will be
on top of that as well. Because that
what hotshot kid who grows up to become
the big Sheikh Islam,
that kid couldn't have read Sahih Bukhari without
knowing what Alif is and what bias.
This is one of the teachings of the
deen, and it's completely become jettisoned.
People think that Bida is just like celebrating
birthdays and Halloween or whatever.
And, you know, sure. You know, maybe maybe
you have a point. Maybe Halloween is haram,
and maybe you shouldn't celebrate your birthday or
whatever or not. Or that's, like, part of
that's you learn that from your teachers. Right?
But this is something it gets no press
because it's very subtle issue.
Imagine that there are people who this week,
this month, they took the Shahada, and they
don't know how to read the fatiha.
I I met a brother. He's a really
good brother. I don't want him to feel
bad if I I'm not taking his name
or anything, but I wanna feel bad if
you happens to listen to this recording. I
met her brother. He said I took Shahadah
3 years ago, and he doesn't know how
to read the.
But which one of you is, like, you
know, the grand Mufti of the Islamic Republic
that you're, you know, that that that that
he needs to find you in order to
read the. Everyone can teach the. You can
teach someone the fatah, can't you? Right? You're
like the you're literally the only one in
the room smaller than you. And you even
you can teach the fatah to somebody. So
imagine. Right? You're like, oh, I'm not a
I'm not a alem. I'm not this. I'm
not that. Okay. Great. Then don't get up
and give fatah, and don't take, like, a
whatever, a a a workshop
so that you can go and give khutba.
You shouldn't be giving khutba. If you think
you should be giving khutba, you're a horrible
person. You might turn around and say to
me you might turn around and say to
me, well, you give khutba all the time.
You're the most horrible of us all. Even
if you're right, that doesn't negate the point
I'm making,
which is what
you don't you know, that's something that's something
to covet. It is like a, like a,
like a cancer,
inside a person's inside of a person's, like,
heart,
inside of a person's spiritual heart. But things
like this, like, yeah, I'm gonna go teach
some kid like Alif Batata. I'm gonna teach
some kid how to read. Someone just became
Muslim. I'm gonna teach him the Fatiha.
I'm gonna teach him,
I mean, imagine that you taught someone who
allahu had the hadith of the prophet hadith
of the prophet
says that it indicates that that that reading
the,
once
gives a person
as a bonus on top of its
base reward,
gives a person a bonus reward as if
they had read a third of the Quran.
And that person will
read how many times in his life. If
he's like people like me, then he'll read
it a lot because when it's, you know,
when it's there's nobody looking and you're praying
alone, you're praying so fast with the shortest
Surah. You know, it's like one of the
shortest Surah a person knows. So you teach
them
you'll probably get, like, the the for, like,
at least, like, half of the person's
prayers. Right? You get
the for the too because you have to
know
for the first two to get to the
3 and 4. Right?
You get a lot of reward.
And what's even better than that is what?
Is that it's completely
immune immune to Ria. It's immune to showing
off
because you're not gonna nobody's gonna marry their
daughter to you because you, you know, taught
someone No one's gonna marry their daughter to
you because you know how to teach Alif
Ba Ta'ath. No one's gonna elect you master
the president. You're not going to get a
100,000 Facebook followers for it. Even if you
post it, I to someone today. People are
like, whatever. I I could have done that,
which is true. You could have, but you
didn't. But but you'll, you know, you'll get
a like by Allah to Allah,
and you'll get a like from from from
Allah to Allah and from his, Rasool sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, which are which are the
only ones that really a person needs and
which, you know,
the real Muslims if, you know, congratulations if
you ever get a chance to meet one
of them, that's the only ones that they
they worried about or cared about. And that's
the that Islam was built on top of.
So this
it doesn't mean that you have to become
like a big big shot Alem. If you
do, good for you. Make dua for me
as well. But,
thank you so much. Yeah. I show you
a drink because she's coughing. Yeah. I got
the tapi.
Thank you so much.
So,
yeah. That's that's like something that that that
that I don't want you to wanted to
pass by you and that you don't
you don't,
you know, you don't look at it and
you don't think about it, you know?
There's a lot of kids there's a lot
of kids who don't know how to read
the Quran by the way.
I mean, not just kids, there's adults as
well. Uh-uh in many ways, it's easier to
teach adults because they're not like just they're
not as wild.
But the kids are the gift that keeps
on giving. If you can make saber with
their wildness, the, you know, a, you'll make
real change in that that that that child's
character, and b,
you know,
statistically, there's more likelihood that they'll live longer
and you'll get more reward out of it
out of it. But even adults, there's plenty
of adults, they don't know how to read
the Quran.
They don't know short Surahs, things like that.
And,
unfortunately,
you know, maybe some people think they have
something better to do, but there are are
a lot of people who also, if you
give them time, they'll take it from you
and they'll they'll appreciate it.
And and so, you know, that's something that's
something to do. There is one of,
one of one of the
kind of unsung heroes of American Islam because
he never, as far as I can tell,
ever spoke at a conference. In fact, he
used to never give a ban at all.
There was one,
his name was Kari Magboul. He came to
America in the fifties.
No relation.
It's not my father's name is not bull
but that's but this is a different somebody
else.
So he was, he was a half of
the Quran.
13 generations in his family of of fathers,
his father, father before him. 3rd for 13
generations, they're her father of the Quran.
And so he came
to America in the fifties
on, on, on Jamat, the Tabat Tabat Tabli.
Imagine that. Right? But not every Tabli is
the same because from the story, you can
tell he's not, like, the same as, you
know, maybe the uncle you met at MSI
or whatever. Right?
Protect
MSI and keep it
protected. So
the the the the he he came in
the fifties
and then,
he he, in those days, there's no masjid,
there's no community, there's nothing. Like, they would
just walk around and people would see them,
and that's the first thing they ever heard
about Islam
or ever, ever exposure they had to Islam.
And I've met a number of people. I
mean, he passed away a while ago, but
I met a number of old timers who
actually took Shahadah out of his hands.
There's one,
have you been to Rafael, you never went
to Farmerville in Louisiana and saw the
Tahir chicken plant. Yeah. So, anyway, in in
in in in in,
Monroeville, there is,
Hisham Soudin.
I mean,
these are guys who went to, like, the
march on Washington and, like, you know, like,
used to listen to, like, Malcolm X speeches
and things like that.
These are these are some old timers.
There are very few of them. There are
very few of them left. So he he
used to be one of, like, Ariel Mukul's
old associates, And he said that he would,
he would basically just teach people how to
read Quran. There's hundreds of people that learn
how to read Quran from him.
And this is from way back in the
day. And he gave so many
to people and whatever.
And ostensibly, he's he's he's like a he's
a half of the Quran.
And he spent good a good deal of
time in the as well. But,
not not necessary
necessarily in. You understand what I'm saying? That's
not necessarily somebody who is,
you know, gone to, like, a a big
program or has big Ijaz out or big
whatever.
But the idea is that, you know, a
person,
if they know
if they know and they're honest with themselves
about what they have, even a little bit
is a lot.
The problem is people are not honest with
themselves about what they have. So they have
a little bit, but they get out of
their place, and then they try, flying too
close to the sun, and then they the
the wings melt and they crash.
And,
even in that, there's a mercy
because Allah sometimes destroys a person before they
can they would destroy the person's dunya before
they can harm themselves further in the Afira.
This is a rahmah of Allah ta'ala. One
of the ways that rahmah of Allah ta'ala
even manifests itself on the kuffar as well
is that Allah ta'ala will cause a person's
destruction before they can plunge themselves deeper into
the hellfire.
But,
but if you know what your limits are
and you know what's up, then very small
things, there are very simple things you can
do that can literally, like, you know, change
a person's life.
But you gotta kinda stick to it and
not let the the nuffs get the upper
hand.
And that's a struggle all of us go
through, some of us more than others.
And the third the third thing that keeps
going as a person's,
righteous children that pray for them, that make
dua for them,
which is,
and it's a hadith of Muslim,
which is amazing in the sense that it's
something that everybody I mean, everybody has kids,
but having kids can be, like, one of
the most revolutionary things ever. And it doesn't
require it doesn't require a whole lot
of it doesn't require a whole lot of,
like, you know, being special. It's in fact,
all the things that make a person a
normal human being is what will make you
successful as a parent.
And,
what will make that person is like,
essentially, like a like a slave
for you.
That that that the shackle of of of
of of of your,
having raised that child
will remain in that child's neck for the
whole rest of their life to the point
where,
again, everything you do is essentially one of
that person's good deeds. So even if that
person has very little
that they did on their own other than
what their children did,
the children mathematically, there's no way they can
ever surpass or get ahead of their parents
as long as their parents had the of
good,
when raising their children.
And I think a lot of people,
you know, the logic of Kufr is that,
like, having kids is bogus.
That's why,
you know, China propelled itself ahead
economically
and, with the and, like, financial or what
are economically stabilized and, like, demographically stabilized with
the one child policy.
And now they're about to implode.
Their population is about to implode. And so
they're like, okay. You guys can have 2
children and people don't even wanna have one
anymore now.
Why? Because they want to enjoy and live
life and,
eat and drink and not be burdened with
responsibility
and,
which is the logic of Kufr. From the
logic of Kufr, it makes a lot of
sense.
It makes a lot of sense. But, from
the from the logic of Iman, a person
is, you know, thinking that, if I don't
have any kids, then when I die,
there's no one to make dua for me.
There's nobody
even even nowadays, you know. And that's one
of the really sad things that there are
people in their graves and their children don't
make dua for them. But it's kind of
their fault also because they could have, like,
they could have, like, you know, done things
to, like, make their mind more oriented toward
that. But even then,
imagine
is going to be a day. It's a
day that's described that people just like,
a person is, like, thirsty or hungry or
desperate,
you know, like a drug addict who's desperate
will do anything. They'll, like, punch their own
mother and, like, rob her in order to
get high again. The people will be desperate
in in in a in a desperation like
that.
And Allah describes it that you'll see the
people roving around as if they're drunk, but
they're not drunk. It's just that they're scared
of the the the the pain of of
of Allah's punishment.
That they'll be roving around like that to
the point where a mother will ignore her
children
looking for what? Looking for just one good
deal. That can I have one
can I have one subhanallah can I have
one Allahu Akbar not the like
you know like whatever
driving a truck under people
stuff but the actual that a person should
feel inside their heart the greatness of Allah
Ta'ala?
They'll be looking for 1 subhanallah. They'll be
looking for 1
That's all that's all, like, that will be
the most important thing to them in the
world. Forget about becoming a hafa then forget
about building a masjid then forget about,
you know, all these other things. That's what
they'll be looking for on that day.
So, you know, a person might think, yeah,
like, you know, I know some kids that
are pretty bogus,
but, like, at least you'll get a couple
of a lot of words. You know what
I mean? It's not a lot. It may
not seem like a lot right now. At
that time, it's gonna be a really big
deal.
That that
that Mary Mary, a woman who is
that is,
the one who is beloved to you and
will that you will bury you many children
because I will be, will be a matter
of pride for me to see your numbers
on the day of judgment.
And Allah gives to everybody for that. Uh-uh.
But,
but, you know, that's that's the logic of
iman. It's a different logic. It makes sense
from,
you know, it makes sense in the same
way that, like, you know,
a a a iPhone app works on iPhone,
but it doesn't work on the Android. And
the Android app doesn't work on iPhone, but
it works on the Android. That this is
the logic of iman. For a person who
has iman, this logic works. For a person
who's a kafir, it doesn't make any sense
to them, and Allah knows best.
But,
but this is also back to the the
the Bab. The chapter is
regarding the recommendation to give sadaqa
and,
and to make dua on behalf of the
deceased.
So the sadaqa jaria is the first thing
that's mentioned in the the du offer, the
deceased is the second thing that's mentioned. And
the ulema, they mentioned that this is not
the only,
these are not the only three things that
benefit a person after they're dead. Rather,
these are 3 major things.
And so it's important not to read read
the text, like, hyper literalistically,
because a person might say, well, the all
the other deeds other than these 3 are
are cut off. These are 3, like, major
groups of deeds, and the proof for that
is the the narration of Abu Hurair in
in the sun of,
in
which he says,
So he mentions that
that indeed from
the the
the the,
reward that a believer will that that will
catch up with the believer after he's died,
after he's died.
Is what?
A beneficial knowledge that that he spread.
And a a a a a a a
a
righteous child that he left behind.
Well, most
often, or a a a copy of the
Quran.
Right? The Quran, there's not there's not like
there's not like go go hand me that
stack of Qurans. There's only 1 Quran, which
is an eternal and uncreated attribute of of
of of the Lord. It's his divine speech.
But the the the paper copy
is called the must have properly referred to
as the must have.
So a mussaf that a person,
a person left behind in in in, in
in in their inheritance.
And, it's I think it's it's kind of
sad. People don't write the mussaf out anymore.
This is one of the things Chicago is
like Hafez city.
Every every, you know, like, you know, every,
like, every other person is a Hafiz. Sometimes
I'll sit in in, in and I'll be
the only one who hasn't made a hifs
of Quran in that.
But at the same time, I think the
the the standard of the has declined. The
Quran has a rasam,
has a ortho orthography the way it's written.
It's not
I mean, it has to be learned. There
this you'll see that, for example, the word
kitab is not written with an alif oftentimes
or always.
And,
you know, things like,
yeah,
has written differently than you would have written
it. Nowadays, like, a rahman is not written
with the alif, it's written with the alif
khanjari, the dagger alif, what they call the
the
the the,
the dagger alif in Arabic.
Or for our Indian subcontinent friends, the,
the standing
It's really weird. It's that's really weird. The
we
use the Persian words for it. I don't
really understand why, but,
you know, I guess if it works, it
works.
But the
the,
the used to be written. And my my,
I saw that in in Mauritania that when
you do hiffs,
they make you do hifs of the entire
tera'a. So you learn one and
then you learn the rasam, you learn how
to write the Quran, and there's tests like
that for that. They'll say right from here
to there or, you know,
how many different ways is this word spelled
and how is it spelled in one place,
how is it spelled in the other place.
You have to give you have to write
tests for it. And then you then you
have to memorize the other rewire,
then you receive the the sun of the
being a Hafiz.
As far as this standard of Hispah is
concerned, the classical standard,
I don't know I don't know if there
are
in in in in Chicago.
I don't know. I I mean, we may
have some people who can read the I
haven't
met somebody who who has a in the
wrestle in the in the way that the
Quran is written.
Although I'm not saying categorically that I know
that there is none, there may be because
it's something also. It's a it's a knowledge
that I'm not. I knew it exists, and
that's basically the limit of it. I'm not
a expert in it by any stretch of
the imagination. So,
if there is one, I'm unaware. I'm I'm
unaware of it. And none of the HIF
schools that are around here teach it that
to to my knowledge,
as a as a
institutionalized
course.
So,
but it's something that's that that it that
that that it was considered an act of
piety. What's the point of the printer or
the printing press
printing the when the reward for that should
go to the to the people who preserve
that knowledge? And if nobody
writes the most half anymore, then how is
that knowledge gonna be preserved? And this is
actually you know, we were talking about before
that this is a sickness that approved that
people have, that they somehow think that that
our forefathers were backwards people and that we're
somehow smart.
One of the interesting things is that when
the Germans brought the printing press to the
Ottoman Empire,
because the,
Muslims were so much more literate at that
time than Europeans were,
and they were known for their love of
books.
And they were known to spend a lot
of money on books
and, keeping big libraries and having
okaf,
having endowments just for for dedicated for the
copying and
and and,
proliferation of of books.
They thought that this is gonna be a
easy sale.
And so what happened was they showed the
Sultan
that, they they made the the the proof,
and they showed how how the the plates
they slam against with the with the ink
on and they slam against the paper in
order to to print the pages. And the
sultan said, you guys are out of your
mind. Because the the the the printing press
was made to print the bible in
Europe.
Right?
And it was something that coincided with the
Protestant revolution, because before the Protestant revolution,
the Catholic church didn't want people reading the
bible
for good reason.
They didn't want the laypeople, they they they
they forbid them from reading the bible. In
fact, you know, we talk about Sharia. The
Catholic church also has, like, what they call
canon law.
It's
published in, like,
volumes. Right? Dozens of volumes. Canon law to
this day, the lay people are not allowed
to see it.
I know some Muslims who've seen it because
the Catholic church will hire Muslim lawyers to
represent them in court. They'll just hire whichever
lawyer works, not really necessarily because they're Muslims,
but if they're Muslims, no big deal.
If they're good lawyers, they'll hire them. So
those lawyers can see the canon law, but
the lay Catholics can't see what it is.
The Mobiles are the only ones that are
telling you, for god's sake, learn something and
read it.
Islam, there's no point in in in the
history of Islam where they're saying anything except
for, you know, learn learn
learn how to read and write, read the
Quran, memorize the Quran, read the books of
tafsir, hadith, all of these things. This is
something otherwise every other every other religion, they
restricted access to their sacred texts,
and for good reason.
Why? Because ever since Christians been reading the
Bible, Jews been reading the Bible, there's been
a lot of people who don't really believe
in Christianity and Judaism anymore.
Whereas with Muslims, if anything, the the level
of of apostasy, which is much lower,
but will probably catch up one day.
The level of apostasy with our people is
the opposite. It's for those who don't read
anything,
and they just become ignorant of the tradition.
And so,
so they they showed so they thought, okay,
if we're printing the Bible, these people, these
Muslims are pretty fanatical about their religion as
well. So they're gonna wanna print copies of
Quran. And so the sultan saw the the
the plates slamming against the the paper, and
he says, you guys are out of your
mind. This is, like, the most disrespectful
way of of, like, you know, writing the
Quran. Imagine, like, you know, like, you you
it just slams 1
one page after the other. And so he
they were horrified. They're like, we don't want
your thing. The he said that that we
don't want your invention.
And,
anyway, the the scribes that write the copy
the write out the copies of the Quran
and that write out the copies of the
books books of and,
and whatnot.
Those scribes are also students of knowledge,
and, those scribes are also people of and
this is a way to keep them employed
as well so that they can have time
free to read and study,
which is another reason why it's completely bogus
that, like, imams have to do whatever 60
hour,
hour a week jobs because how are you
gonna study or read anything, research anything?
Even myself, if you think I I just
opened the crack, opened the book and, like,
teach the darsh. I have to come before
class and, like, read and then look up
the words that I don't know, etcetera, etcetera.
Otherwise,
you know, I I myself learned the darsh
before before the darsh starts. Maybe if I
taught this book, like,
10 times, then I could crack it open
without without having to do the review.
But,
because because people don't write the masahif anymore,
the the knowledge is gone, and we don't
have people who have that. And the knowledge
of the the the khat and the calligraphy
is also,
much less than it used to be. And
there's baraka in it because the the the
the printing presses,
that mushaf that they write, it's not going
to I mean, the printing press, what what
is it gonna do with the fact that
someone made
a with with that mushaf a 1000 times?
Although nowadays, we just print and throw them
away after a couple of years,
but,
or bury them if we're if we're, that
piously inclined.
But but even if it were to be
read, the printing press is gonna receive the
salaab for it. The printing press is an
an inanimate thing that has no that has
it's not mukallaf. It's not, you know, liable
for,
salab or epab for, for reward or for
punishment.
So it's kind of like it's kinda useless.
It's kinda bogus. Whereas if someone wrote the
Musaf by hand, then that person would have
received the reward for it. And they say
that Mulla Ali Al Qari, he is a
great Hanafi Muhadith,
from Herat in Afghanistan when Herat was overrun
by the
the the Safa with like fanatical
Shiite Safa with state that massacred a great
number of the oleman, the mashaikh of the
tariqa.
He,
took refuge in Makkamukalama.
And, he was a master Alim, and he
never used to take money for teaching. What
he would do is every year he would
write out a a very fancy Mus'haf, and
in the margins of it, he would write
tafsir,
and it was known that it was something
that was a unique piece. So,
you know, people would bid
with one another and pay huge amounts of
money for it. And that money he would
get, that's what he would survive off of
for the year.
And in fact, that's the same thing that,
the sultan Alam Gheer,
the Mughal emperor, Aurang who was a Hafid
of Quran as well. And he did his
own Quran in his adulthood,
not as a kid.
And, our you know, now, you know, you'll
write you'll read in, like, BGP right wing
Hindu websites that he massacred 90,000,000 people or
something ridiculous. It's, like, not even
mathematically possible type of nonsense.
But,
he was actually a just king,
and there there probably had more Hindus in
his army than he had Muslims, to be
honest with you.
And this kind of weird,
narrative about him being some sort of fanatical,
murderer that killed, you know, Hindus and destroyed
their temples.
This is something that the British started,
in divide and conquer, and that we have
uneducated
people who are,
very gullible that that they propagate it,
nowadays.
But, he used to do that as well.
He never took a,
a salary from the state.
Rather, he would he would, write out
a a a a copy of the, Mus'haf
and then it would be sold. And, he
would live off of the the earnings of
that. And that's one of the the the
best things a person can do. Because every
time,
that must have the one who purchase it
purchases it will receive the the one who
writes it will receive the
every time somebody reads it and learns from
it. And when they're written by hand, people
respect them,
respect them more than what they do now,
like how we hand them out, like, people
hand out bibles for free and things like
that. The concept with the most half is
a sacred object. That's why it's haram to
touch it without.
And there's some exceptions to that rule, but
the rule is it's haram to touch it
without.
It was the object of veneration. Malik Rahimullah
Ta'ala actually his fatwa was that to carry
the musaf into the Dar al Kufir.
Why?
Because he was afraid that a kafir would
would, desecrate it,
which that's fine. As a fit to issue,
you know, one might say there's different opinions
about it and things like that. But the
idea was that it shows that it was
an object of veneration. It wasn't something that
people
like, today, they just kinda like there's, like,
a stack of stack of in the corner
and they're, you know, they just don't really
think about it.
Or
or a masjid that a person built.
And,
you know,
building a masjid is more than just the
donations.
There's a whole whole bunch of things a
person can do, you know, with a masjid.
You can work on it.
You can a lot of the construction that's
one of the interesting things. For example, the
best the nicest massages in America, in my
experience, most of them are built by Bosnians
and Albanians.
And why is that?
Because
they see people are all doctors and engineers,
and they couldn't lay a brick on top
of a brick if their life depended on
it. It's not like that back home, but
the ones that are here are basically they're
like that.
So the the Bosnians and Albanians, they actually
know how to work with their hands, And
so they'll build a super nice Masjid for
far cheaper oftentimes also than than than the
wealthy people will do it. You say, okay.
Well, I don't have any money and I
don't know any trades either. There's other simple
things that a person can do to help
with the masjid. I mean, just a simple,
you know, simple things like using your trigonometry
that you learned in 10th grade or 11th
grade in order to,
orient the qibla properly in a in a
in a building.
It's a I mean, it's not it's not
rocket science.
It's probably more math than a lot of
people care to remember, but it's not something
that's that that really is not that complicated.
You know? You'll probably
forget the fact that the calculator on your
phone is, like, set to radians and not
degrees. But, you know, it's if you sit
through it, you can do it. There's so
many things like that that a person can
can do.
You know, donating some something or another that's
used in the mustard or whatever. And even
if, you know, even if it's just a
matter of, like, well, look, I'm broke, and
I don't even know what a radian is.
So, you know, you give a small amount
of money for the masjid. That's your portion
in the masjid as well. And,
you know, you can do you can do
stuff like that, alhamdulillah, mashallah.
And, you know, people are, well, we don't
need any more masjids. You know, we need
this and we need that. I agree. We
need other stuff. Some a lot of communities,
like, for example, okay, we're right here in
this Khalil Center. The Khalil Center is like
this it's the only Khalil Center we have
in Chicago.
So maybe in some ways, there's more of
a dire need to support this place than
there is for the, like, literally 10 masajid
that are within 10 minutes driving distance of
here.
That being said,
there's a there's an understanding in the deen
don't ever don't ever hold as despicable
or detestable
any good deed.
So
fine.
Maybe there's other priorities.
And so some people are building a masjid
and it's out of priority. That doesn't mean
it's a bad thing to do. It just
means that doing something else will garner you
more reward.
But if they're building the Masjid, let them
build it. There should be a Masjid across
the street from every Masjid
because the people on one side of the
street inevitably will be too lazy to walk
across to go and pray Asar. So they'll
pray on their own side.
Nobody dies from that. You know, there are
certain things like everyone shouldn't be holding and
things like that. But, like, when it comes
to when it comes to the if
the brothers from Gambia and the brothers from
Senegal don't get along, which they probably do
because they're very nice people and they get
along with everyone. But I'm just saying as
a, right,
You're like, oh, what is this? Let them
pray separately if they don't get along. What's
the big deal? Let them pray their one
person prays their jamat, the other person prays
their jamat. There's nothing wrong with that.
Is there probably a better way of using
your funds?
Yeah.
But, it's not like someone's robbing a liquor
store that you gotta,
be upset about it. Because it's not it's
not like that. It's something good that's happening.
So Rasool Allah says
or, guest house.
Literally, he says a house for the stranded,
the people who have no place to live.
The Muslims, they they they they basically ran
hotels but not as businesses as Oqaf.
So many of the larger masajid in the
Muslim world, it wasn't just a masjid. It
was an entire complex. Nowadays, what do we
build? We build a gym
and then pray Jum'ah there. Right? In the
old days, they used to build the masjid
and with the masjid there's inevitably a madrasah,
a place that people can learn not just
how to be a Hafiz of Quran, but
everything.
And then there used to be a hospital
with it. There used to be a langar.
There used to be a a a a
a a a a a community kitchen
that people would bring food to and anyone
could eat from
it. And,
that's something actually literally wholesale the Sikh religion
took from
from the Muslims and they replicated it.
That that that that the sick sick religion
to this day,
the gurdwaras, theoretically, at least if the gurdwaras
running properly,
anyone whether they're sick or not, anyone should
be able to walk off the street and
be fed a meal anytime day or night.
And that's where did they what how did
they do that? Was that an original idea?
Of course, it wasn't an original idea. The
Masjid used have it. To this day, if
you go to Lahore, you go to Tata
Darbar, you can go and,
you know,
you know, eat a biryani for free.
You know? So it's like imagine the Khareeb
Noas except for they have Hafsa certification
and they they instead of having to pay,
like, $3 for a biryani, it's free. Or
someone else paid the $3 actually more accurately.
This is this is part of our this
is part of our
part of our tradition, and it's something that
that should be done. At any rate, so
one of the things that was in that
that that that was in the juwara of
the masjid that that was considered to be,
like, part of the masjid ecosystem
was a guest house. So somebody who's for
there from out of town,
somebody who is,
you know,
needs a place to stay, etcetera, there's a
place there for them,
to stay. And now we would say, well,
we don't need to build a guest house
at the Masjid. We have hotels now. Well,
if there's a ban or some olamak come
from out of town, what are you gonna
go put them in the double tree so
they walk by the bar,
or the you know, on the way home,
and god knows, like, somebody committing in the,
the,
room next door or in the same room
24 hours ago. And trust me, people are
like, oh, that's you're just crazy Fahish Hamza
thing to say, which may be true. But
unfortunately
unfortunately,
I've been in the room next door and
whatever people must have calls you for a
program and then you're trying to sleep and
god knows what the what the heck is
happening,
next door. Man, it's not just about having
a place to there's a difference. You know?
It's just like there's a difference. You know,
on the surface,
a wife and a girlfriend may be very
similar, but there's some very important salient differences
between the two of them.
And it's the same thing that, like, you
know, if you build these these places, they
may be very similar to some other institution
that already,
seems to exist, but there's a couple of
real basic things that are different that make
it that that make, like, a really a
world of difference.
And so Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he mentioned this as an institution, and I
don't know if anyone has built anything like
that.
Maybe we have some, like, shelters
for battered women and things like that, which
it's good. We should build stuff like that.
That's those things should be supported.
Or a a a a canal that a
person built to bring fresh water,
from one place to the other that everyone
who drinks from it, that person will benefit
from
other sadaqa that a person set aside while
they're still alive and they were healthy, not
on their deathbed.
As a fiqhir ruling, if a person takes
out,
sadaqa on their deathbed,
it's considered it comes out of its. It's
hookman. The legal ruling is that they gave
it after their death. Like, if you're
dying and you're like, go give all this
to sadaqa,
it can the maximum you can give is
a third of your, of your wealth, and
it's legally considered that you gave it after
your death. It's not it's not something that
gave you gave during your lifetime.
So don't wait till you're, you know, until
you're on the operating table or whatever. Give
it right now. You'll receive a lot more
reward for it right now than you will.
There's a lot more reward. Even if a
person were to say, I could give a
third of my wealth to whatever
charitable cause,
you know, Rabat Rabat
Rabat Institute or whatever. Right? There's way more
reward in giving it during your lifetime.
There's more reward in giving $1 during your
lifetime than there is giving a 100 in
your death.
So you can give both, of course, but
but but, you know, as a Amana, we
disclose that fact that that there's more reward
while while you're alive.
It's a chapter with regards to
how the people what the people say about
the the the deceased.
Now the word in Arabic language generally means,
saying something good about somebody.
Fana' is praise.
But, here, Rasoolullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam means
that
that, if he means fana' in the sense
of both praise and in in
in in the sense of censure or blame.
And so he uses an expression,
or
that they that they praised a person well
or that they didn't praise them well,
that they said something negative about somebody.
The the Rasul and those with him, they
passed by a Janaza,
and they they praised,
the the the the deceased with words of
goodness. And
said, but he says become
obligatory.
And then they passed by another Janaza, and
the people said that said that that the
deceased was they they spoke evil about the
deceased, meaning they said the deceased wasn't a
good person.
And so he said, Wajibat.
Say, now, from
the the retinue of the messenger
said,
so what does this mean? What what do
you mean when you say it's obligatory?
He said, this one you spoke good of
that person,
and so it's it's now obligatory that that
person will go to Jannah. And he said
this one,
you spoke ill of them and it's become
obligatory for that person to go to the
fire. And then
he commented that you are the witnesses of
Allah Ta'ala in the earth.
And it's a hadith both of Bukhari and
Muslim.
So,
you know, before a person
goes too far with this, he's talking to
who? He's talking to his companions
amongst his companions.
And, obviously, a person who dies on Iman,
even if they go to the fire, they
go for a limited time. They don't go
forever.
They're the Barakaba person's Iman will take them
from the fire and will,
intercede for them with Allah
and take them into Jannah at some point.
But the idea is that in general, the
pious and the righteous of this, the Shuhada
of Allah Ta'ala. They are the the the
witnesses of Allah Ta'ala on the earth. Everyone
who says
you should be concerned somewhat about their opinion.
Don't annoy them. Don't anger them.
You know, be why? Because communally,
maybe as individuals, we get into, you know,
we don't get along with each other,
individual to individual.
But in general,
communally, the the people who say
there's some some inside of their hearts that
a person should pay attention to what their
opinion is about a person. And the more
pious and righteous a person is, you know,
so it doesn't mean that, like, you know,
when you're in a a a gathering of
people who are not super,
you know, into deen, you know, that what
they're talking about is necessarily a gauge of
what's right and
wrong, but
it is a sign.
And the degree to which people are in
tune with the the deen,
they're being shahid is is is is is
increased. This is why Allah
in his book said that that that the
the ummah is a shuhada against the over
the people and the prophet
is a shahid over the this ummah. They
bear witness against the people and the prophet
bears witness against them.
And, you know, lest a person, you know,
their democratic
instincts,
take hold of them and they say, well,
majority of Americans, you know, Muslims in America
say that,
you know, this should be this way or
that should be the other way. Remember, majority
of the Muslims are not in America.
Majority of the Muslims are very pious and
righteous
people.
Many of them are farmers. They live outside
of cities. They're extremely humble and simple people.
They're the type of people that, you know,
maybe if some of us saw them in
public, we'd be embarrassed to be associated with
them in front of our,
sophisticated
CAFAR friends and and neighbors.
But those are those are the ones if
you want to really, really look at it.
Even even literalistically, you wanna look at the
hadith literalistically, those are those people. Their sensibilities
are very different than ours are. And we
should also pay heed to the fact that
that that, their sensibilities
are also if you wanna read the hadith
really literally that their sensibilities are the ones
that that are indicated by this, by this,
hadith. They're not the ones that are gonna
say, well, you know, I'm not really in
favor of, like, you know, gay marriage, but,
you know, it's, you know, I don't have
any right to stop them. They're they're the
ones who are gonna be like, that's haram.
That's bad.
Right?
So
that's if you really wanna be literal in
your reading of, of the hadith, there's there's,
you know,
there's something that a person should think about.
So the second hadith in the in the
chapter,
is kinda like a part 2 of this,
the same story. Because who is the one
who asked Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa Salamat does
mean?
I said
so
one I'll be I'll be asked for the
daily daily.
Let me just read this again because I've
been making a mistake.
And I'll be, I've been asked for the
daily
so this is this is a a a,
this is another hadith in which later on
in life said
the then transmits the same
concept that he heard directly from Rasulullah
So the the the the Tabiri,
Abu Aswad Adili,
Rahimuhullah
Ta'ala,
he
He narrates that I arrived in Medina and
I sat with and,
a Janaza passed by,
passed by that that majlis.
And the people mentioned good about the the
the the deceased and said,
and then another passed by, and the people
said good, about the deceased. And so said,
again, said,
and,
a third Janaza passed by
and the the people said,
that that they said that that that person
was an evil person. And said the who
said.
Abu Aswad said, I said,
what does this mean?
And he said,
I I
I
I I spoke as the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam spoke.
Meaning what? Meaning that this is also what
he used to do that when people would
say good about a person or bad about
a person when their janazah was passing, he
said that that that now becomes an obligation
on the person. So, you know, also note
to
selves,
don't be a jerk when someone dies, especially
if there's no need to or no benefit.
Nothing's gonna become better by saying bad about
them. You can just stay quiet. You know?
If someone passed by,
their Janaza passed by and the guy claimed
he was a nubby, you can say this
guy is a horrible guy. He's a liar
and this and that. Right? But, like, if
it was something else, like, you know, the
guy used to smoke weed when no one
else was around or with just, like, you
know, 1 or 2 of his friends, but
nobody really knew about it, and he didn't
really harm anyone or whatever. It doesn't mean
that it's okay, but you don't have to
bring it up. You can say good about
that person. And you're like, well, what's in
it for me? Right? What's in it for
me? What's in it for me?
Why should I care about whether that guy
goes to Jahannam? He's a pothead. Why should
I care? Why? Because whatever benefit you
bring to that person,
you're also gonna receive the reward for it.
So if you don't do it out of
altruism, do it out of self interest.
Just keep your mouth shut. You don't have
to say anything. Again, if it's something crazy
like the guy was really, like, just a
horrible person, then you're you're,
more than welcome to warn people about their
horribleness so that they don't fall victim to
it. But otherwise,
you know, it it just
remember that maybe you're saying something might actually
harm a person in a way, if you
found out how you harm them,
you wouldn't be happy about it. And, even
if that harm doesn't come back to you,
if you stop the harm, it definitely will
will benefit you.
And so he said that I I'd said
how the prophet
said or spoke at such an occasion. And
he said
any Muslim that 4 people will,
bear witness to that person's goodness, Allah Ta'ala
will enter that person into Jannah.
And then we said, how about 3 people?
He says, yes.
Three people as well. And then, Abu Asad
said, how about 2 people?
He said, yeah. Even if a person dies
and 2 people bear witness that this was
a good person, that's enough to take take
that person to Jannah.
And then he said that that we were
we we, like, we didn't have the guts
to ask about 1.
Raul Bukhari. It's a Hadith of Bukhari, but
the the, I guess, the insinuation being that
it's possible even if just one person.
So this is,
it's important to,
remember that
do good by other people. Don't be that
jerk that's, like, mashallah negative to everyone all
the time because you're the only one who
knows what's right and nobody else knows what's
wrong and nobody else is worth, like, you
know, helping or whatever because of how horrible
and detestable they are. Some people are like
that. Don't be that person. Why? Because if
you didn't do good by anyone at all
whatsoever,
then you're, you know, you're you're cheating yourself
out of,
what is a legitimate way of,
of of being entered into, into Jannah and
into Allah's mercy.
So make sure there's at least some people,
like, you know, to go home and, like,
when nobody else is there, think, like, is
there, like, if I died, is there, like,
any 4 people who could honestly say that
my being here makes their life better?
And if there isn't,
then you might wanna, like, I don't
know, start being a nicer person.
Don't be the don't be the person who
is like, yeah, I'm the only one who
understood the deen and all Lamar idiots and
all the Muslims are ignorant and backwards and
whatever. And I have my own unique insights
because of my special snowflakey,
like, nature.
And,
you know, and, like, everyone else is like
a a moron.
And those type of people, they're obviously not
gonna
they're not gonna they're not gonna, benefit from
this at all. Woman
the person who is different and unique has
to be different all the time. They'll be
different in the sense that the whole will
be in Jannah and they'll be alone in
the fire.