Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Riyd alSlihn Style With Substance and Lowering the Gaze Ribt 02112024.wav
AI: Summary ©
The gathering of spiritual therapy and recitation is an annual gathering for people to find out who has died. The importance of learning to be a non-immigrant and finding one's own private space for privacy is emphasized. The speaker emphasizes the importance of learning to handle one's choice and avoiding negative language. The importance of learning to handle one's choice and not giving up on one's own decisions is also emphasized. The speaker reminds listeners to be mindful of their actions and to avoid criticized or offended by others.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillah, we are here together,
together
for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
The prophet
said
that
Allah
promises to to love those who love one
another for Allah's sake
and
and those who sit with one another for
Allah's sake.
And those who get to know one another,
who come from different backgrounds but sit together
as 1,
as one body, as we are believers and,
for Allah's sake. So that's the intention.
Also we come to the gatherings of knowledge.
The prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
said that,
that I am the distributor.
I am the one who's going to distribute.
The the knowledge comes through the prophet
through the angel Jibreel
and that's where we're going to get the
knowledge from the prophet
but who gives the knowledge is Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
So,
having that connection with the prophet
for the sake of Allah
seeking knowledge, the prophet
he came, he saw 2 gatherings
of the good remembrance of Allah
in the gathering of
seeking knowledge. And the prophet
said that both are great, but I am,
I am the one who who sent who
was sent as a teacher in the and
he sat with the people seeking knowledge so
this is a gathering of both You have
a gathering of dikr, the remembrance of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Sometimes you remember Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala by yourself and sometimes you remember
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in a gathering.
And all of that is good. There's all
khair in that. And seeking knowledge is also
part of it. So you can make multiple
intentions,
Make intentions of meeting your brother, meeting your
sister.
Multiple intentions you can make for one action.
Right?
Buy 1, get 1, 3, buy 1, get
3, 3, or buy 1 and get multiples
free. So this is the this is our
tradition that we can make multiple intentions and
that's why scholars have written also books on
just intentions
Right.
So
I came here to Masha'Allah to seek knowledge
to see if I can meet, our brothers,
to, for the sake of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
This is a gathering that it's like, it's
like
oxygen.
It's like
your food, your
bread and butter,
your,
your,
your vitamins
and the things that you take to keep
yourself healthy and to keep yourself
alive.
Right? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the
Quran
Right?
Isa, alayhis salam, used to bring people physically
back to life.
Right?
And Masha'Allah, we just came out of Abu
Rajab where the prophet
went on Mi'raj and met Isa Alaihi Salam,
right. And he's going to come back,
and he's the one who described how Dajjal
is
and who he
is and what I'm going to come when
I come back to this world, what I'm
going to do.
Masha'Allah, you know,
the great book of,
that book is amazing, has all the Hadith.
So talking about, the coming of the Jadis
right around the corner.
So coming to seek knowledge and to,
to be with righteous people and to
gain
the remembrance of Allah
that's the best thing. So the prophet
is saying that
he is going to bring you to life
he's bringing you to a spiritual life a
lot of people are walking dead. Right?
I don't see that. That's a movie or
something. Walking dead.
But actually people are walking dead. They are
alive physically, but they are spiritually dead.
And Allah
gave us like, you know, in difficult times
we have these amazing spiritual uplifting, right? When
people die, people don't believe in God, though,
or perhaps maybe have some kind of concept
of some supreme power, or
perhaps maybe have some kind of concept of
some supreme power.
They don't have much to do
to to feel that comfort and that solace
and that,
uplifting spiritually.
Someone died. Okay. They need someone to come
and make them laugh, actually. In a funeral,
that's the thing. That we're,
like the, whoever the priest or someone is
going to say something or people will say
something about the disease, they have to make
fun. They have to make, some humor there
where we have these beautiful things to do
when someone dies that you recite Quran, you
do salatul janazah, you make dahi, you do
is, is,
is, all these great deals.
It brings you to life.
Right?
And it's a it's a it's a it's
a it's a spiritual therapy.
Sometimes people don't know what to do. If
someone passed away, what should I do?
You know, we have prayer. You have reciting
of the Quran. You have reciting of dhikr.
You have sadaqah. You have reminder
that we it's a reminder when we see
someone dying and we see someone,
who's dead and are you going to making
salat with janaza for that person. These are
the gatherings of, of, of,
of, of, of, of Ihia
bringing it back to life.
There are a lot of people out there
tonight,
watching the Super Bowl. Right?
I'm not a big fan. People who like
to see it, I'm not against that. But
for me,
I feel like it's a
waste of time,
because I don't have any attachment to that
to that game or things that that go
on. But,
Allah has blessed you and chosen you to
be in this gathering,
to listen to the ahadith of the prophet
to listen to the verses of the Quran,
to remember
Allah
That's sa'ada.
That's felicity
in this world and the next.
And by the way, when you leave this
gathering,
don't start thinking about other people. These are
losers and mashallah, we came back from Sheikh
Hamza's class and where mashallah we can wear
the No.
We have to humble ourselves that Allah has
chosen us, alhamdulillah for that.
Alhamdulillah for that and think good about people,
maybe perhaps they already
uh-uh are maybe praying at home, right, or
they're doing their gift today, they prayed their
5 salas today, always having good opinion but
always
try to make sure that you are getting
closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and Alhamdulillah.
Today's the 2nd night of Sha'aban, Masha'Allah
and ramadan is just around the corner
getting ready for that spiritual uplifting that that
right the specialty of ramadan that has a
barakah in just being in ramadan
where you start Ramadan
and suddenly you you don't need to sleep
enough, so much. You don't need to eat
a lot. You don't need to do a
lot and, you're uplifted.
So these gatherings are also very important,
very important.
Hopefully, that you guys can always take the
the opportunity that we have.
How many of you are, like, for part
of the any
or
or
or any other
most
days. May
Allah bless you all. May Allah
in this place.
And all
the
and
all the people who are serving the deen
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. May Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala bless them, bless their homes with
Barakah and their time, with Barakah and their
knowledge. Well, I could have a special request,
Insha'Allah. You just read in Nasheed Insha'Allah. Yes.
Come forward then.
What is it?
Come forward. I'll I'll help. Come forward. Just
just sit together and then the mic at
least will pick it up.
On top of
being like a mountain of knowledge and, piety
and all that other good stuff, he has
a really nice voice,
which doesn't usually go together with all of
these things, but here we are.
You maybe you can just sing
and
I'll
just
Don't look at me. He's your son, man.
What's up?
Okay?
What's your name? Hamdullah.
Hamdullah. Hamdullah. Hamdullah. Hamdullah. Yeah.
Right.
Any
specific one that needs to Whatever you guys
think you'll do as well, John.
So I'm looking for this
specific
chapter.
This is,
the the 7th chapter of the, Qasila.
It's
about,
the
Islam
A couple of things before we read,
a little bit inshallah from the
so that the of the darsh doesn't get
interrupted.
This is one of things you notice. We
don't have, like, Nasheed here most weeks. It's
just because we don't have a,
and we don't have anyone who's gonna sing.
So I'm gonna sit here and sing on
my own.
And it's really interesting. The word
and the word both of them really mean
sing in English, but they're 2 very different
words.
Is like hit single pop star. Like, someone's
gonna get up, like, James Brown and and,
like, you know,
it's funny. Actually, it reminds me of your
father. You know, he talks about the end
of the end of time that there's gonna
be music in the masajid, and he's like,
it doesn't mean James Brown is gonna come
into the masjid, you know, but it's all
these cell phones going off. And so I
was like, James Brown, this man has been
out of America for a very, very long
time.
So is that James Brown
singing where you, you know, wax your vocal
skills. Whereas in Shad is
it needs to sing and it needs to
recite poetry. Why?
Because verse, poetry, and song are inseparable from
one another.
And is not something that's a good thing
amongst religious people, but is definitely a good
thing.
Was something that
used to not do it
because he wasn't a poet and he was
kept
clear and free of that from his own,
from his own noble habits
so that nobody would accuse him of being
a literary figure, that the Quran is just
fancy speech that's filled with exaggerations.
But he acknowledged that there is Hikma and
wisdom and share and the companions of the
law one who not only did he not
discourage them from
poetry, rather
he would encourage
many of them.
He had a poet laureate
who would lampoon the shirk of the and
he would
save poetry in the defense of the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And that was his gift that he had,
and he used it for, the service of
Islam. Rather, you could find the
Many of the companions, including the women you
can find there, written
in, in written
in,
including the
of the,
from that time until this time. This
who
composed it. This is not actual. The actual
was the,
Gaban Zuheed,
the poet in Jahiliya
who wrote bad things about the prophet he
accepted Islam and then he wrote
an ode in the praise of Rasulullah
and
the gifted him as is the
the custom
amongst Islamic cultures, not just of the Arab,
but from the shark to the.
They're saying usually what will happen even in
Madrasa when everyone is broke. Right? Madrasa in
America, you're broke. Right? Madrasa in Pakistan Pakistan
is broke, and Madrasa in Pakistan is, like,
really broke. Even then, they'll still get out
10 rupees out of their pocket and give
the guy who sings well.
The Americans are confused. You guys are not
going to do it. At any rate,
So god he got up and he
gave him his, his mantle, his cloak
as a as a gift. So imagine that.
Right? Amongst the Sufis, the original,
Ijaza, the original sign that you received Ijaza
from the sheikh
was literally the that he got up and
gave his cloak. So next time someone says
that this is like, like the Rasulullah son
did it.
And so he gave him his cloak. That
was the original.
The
when he composed this,
poem,
he was had spent his life making money
basically as a poet laureate. You write poetry
and praise of, like, rich people, and then
rich people would pay him a lot.
And
he was somewhat of a kind of a
minor celebrity. And then later on in his
life, he became ill and he became
paralyzed.
And
he regretted that he wasted his time.
You know? It wasn't I mean, it wasn't
that he was doing anything haram or whatever,
but he felt like he could have done
something better with his skills. He's a smart
person rather than praising kings or whatever. So
this was his,
in
the praise
of
and he saw in a dream that was
pleased with it, and he put his cloak
on him in the dream. And then when
he woke up, he was cured from his
paralysis.
This is not just one thing that happened.
Someone can say, these are tall tales. This
is maybe something, like, made up story. I
believe Jamat just came to town and said
it, and now everybody repeats it or whatever.
Right? But these experiences are the experiences of
our civilization.
Forget about writing a about the prophet
anything anything a person does that shows love
of Rasulullah.
You don't know which of your deeds,
are going to be the reason for your
salvation, and it's probably gonna be one of
these types of things that you do with
something simple. You don't think it's a big
deal, but it's done with
pure
feeling, pure emotion, pure sincerity, and Allah accepts
it.
And so
something happened. I was in Sacramento.
I just came from the airport straight here,
And I was still on time, by the
way.
I'm talking to you, Rami.
But
there was an Egyptian party who got up
and recited some Quran, and they asked him
to recite some as well. And he read
actually from the same as
well as other things.
And
you know, I know what it's like to
not know Arabic,
to be a non Arab that doesn't speak
Arabic. So as a kid,
growing up,
you know, being really smart
and knowing that, like, you know, it's Quran
and Sunnah and all this other stuff is
made up, cultural stuff from other people and
stupid and pointless.
So I would when I'd hear in Nasheed,
which was very rare.
And people don't read Nasheed's in the Masjid
anymore. If you go to his Masjid, they'll
read in Nasheed over there. Most Nasheed's, they
even in Chicago, nobody reads nasheed in the
Masjid. Maybe if you're at,
like, every now and again, begrudgingly, you know,
like but nobody reads nasheed. Even though Rasool
would have his companions read.
But for whatever reason, many massages in America,
if you,
read, Nasheed, which was a very normal thing,
and it still is a very normal thing
in the entire Muslim world, but America, for
some reason, it's not.
People act like someone opened a beer in
the masjid or whatever.
You know? Even the companions or the the
sahaba or the the one who did it.
So it must not be so bad. Right?
That's the whole idea of being a Sunni.
So
half of the people are, like, you know,
like, getting into the, you know, jumping in,
you know, black belt. Suddenly, they're chopping it
up with the in getting into it. And
the other half of the people are like,
what's going on? I don't understand what this
is. This is like, you know, like, it's
maybe it's like kind of a waste of
my time. I'm not here for sing song.
In fact, many converts oftentimes will say, I
don't I don't like Nasheed. Why? Because it
reminds me we used to sing in church.
I go by
okay. I understand. This is a good that
you separated
Islam and Christianity in your mind, a heart
separation,
which some of
our interfaith immigrant brothers and sisters have hard
time doing sadly.
So you're
well on your way.
However,
just because Christians do it doesn't mean it's
wrong.
I'll tell people, for example, Allah, if you
want, you can forgive a person for all
of their sins.
Just they were, they believed and that's it.
They'll go to
if you want, you can forgive a person
for all of his sins even if they
don't repent.
Well, that sounds like Christianity. I'm like, so?
If the Christians say something that happens to
be right, are we just gonna not do
it because they, you know, because they did
it? Rather, the companions of the Allah want
whom they used to do this, and every
generation of and righteous people used to do
it. And don't think of it as some
sort of like frou frou, like you're okay,
I'm okay.
You know, there's Sufi as in like, you
know, purify your heart, tell you worship Allah
as if you see him. And if you
don't, then know he sees you. And then
there's Sufi, like, let's, like, stand in a
circle and, like, play the guitar and
smoke weed, and you're okay. I'm okay. And
it's all peace and love. And, you know,
God can't judge me. He knows what's in
my heart. And,
you know, it's all equal past to the
same this you know, it's the former. It's
not the latter.
Why? Because these were the that were read
by by who? Like, if I'm saying right
now,
you guys are gonna be like, what is
this? Like, little kids, like, ham the use
of Islam,
little children's, like, thing going on right now.
Like, I came here to learn ill. Do
you know the people who who sang?
It's those mothers who buried their sons in
the ground and who sacrificed their lives for
the love of Allah Ta'ala and his Rasool
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And because of whose sacrifices
You know? It wasn't just sing songy,
like that type of thing.
So remember that. If you don't know Arabic,
go ahead and learn it.
This is one of the things I was
talking about on the way over. Our civilization
is different than the civilization of
the Farinja of the non Muslim,
Franks
of post Roman decay.
In our civilization,
having good handwriting is a very manly trait.
In our civilization,
weeping is a manly trade, it's not a
it's not a feminine trade.
In our civilization,
being a person of, of style,
speaking well,
and being a literary person in America. This
is the preserve of, like, classic homosexuals
or nowadays just open ones.
Right? You look at the the last the
poets of the last century. Many of them
are just very,
people who should make wholesale more often.
But our civilization wasn't like that. You know?
Who are the who are the shura? Definitely
there are many deviant and those types of
people in our civilization as well, but there
are many men of God,
people of Deen. And in fact, really the
Masha'i dominated not just Arabic, but any language
of any culture
that would later on become Muslims. The Mas'ai
came in and they wrote poetry, they wrote
and literature
that was better than what was there from
before and is the most
respected even amongst non Muslims today. So you
see the the the sick, you know, these
guys with the turban and stuff like that.
Sasrikal
Bale, you know, singing dancing in the streets
or
whatever. You see them. Right?
Their holy book, their sacred book is essentially
an anthology of spiritual poetry. The best parts
of it, the part that they love the
most was written by our is literally
a and they were not you're okay at
I'm okay people. But their love for Allah
to Allah and His Rasool Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
their love for Allah's creation and the purity
of their state was such that it affects
people.
And, people can't help but be affected by
it no matter how much of a hater
they may be.
And
the problem is we have to generate that
state, but we also have to be people
of style as well
so that, that state can take,
life,
in our,
you know, in our in our in our
daily lives in a way that's
inspiring to us and beloved to Allah ta'ala.
So write nicely,
speak nicely,
recite the Quran nicely.
You don't have to sing at like you
don't have to James Brown, but you don't
do what you do well.
It was a difficult,
lesson for me to learn,
And I'm still coping with it, but I
embrace its beauty. I see what its beauty
is.
And, you know, all of us should also
do that as well. Inshallah, whatever language it
is. And like, learn some inshallah. You know,
someone's like, well, I'd rather memorize the Quran
than okay. Then go memorize the Quran. Now
that you're done and you know you're not
gonna do it. If you see some lines
of poetry that are good, it's okay if
you memorize them. Not every companion that memorized
a couple of lines of poetry
was,
was also half of the Quran.
And, it's not just like you do one
or the other. You can do all of
it out at the same time. In fact,
the more poetry you know, the more you'll
actually appreciate what the Quran is. Because the
Arabic language is more
it's more a language of Nazam than it
is of Nazay. English is just Nazam. There's
no Nazam. The last poet of English as
far as I can tell is Shakespeare. It's
a long time ago. People don't even understand
it.
And that's not even English actually. He had
to make up so many words in order
to get things to fit together.
Whereas what Arabic is is the poetry.
If you look in the lisan al Arab
and things like that when he gives the
the proofs for, you know, a word meaning
a particular word, other than the text of
the kitab and the sunnah of the prophet
all the Jahili sources are all what? They're
all poetry.
So in that sense, Arabic is poetry first,
then afterward,
it's, it's not there afterward in a kind
of a secondary sense in terms of just
lexicographical,
evidentiary,
priority.
Learn learn some. Learn something. Be a person
of style. And when you say something, it
should be deep and profound and true, and
it should also sound cool as well. Right?
Is the style without the substance,
And,
substance without style is something that, you know,
no knifes
inclined toward. In fact, what style is, what
beauty is, it's like a metaphor. It's like
the shadow of truth. It's something that that
comes with truth. Why is it people are
attracted to someone beautiful?
Because there's symmetry,
there's balance, there's order. There are all of
those
qualities that you look for in the world
of meaning in something in order for it
to be fulfilling.
And when a person has beauty physically, but
they don't match it with beauty inwardly, it's
type of nifaq.
It's not right.
But that doesn't mean that from now on,
we love everything ugly.
Rather, the sunnah and the deen and the
ideal is what is to merge both of
them.
And if some of you are not going
to win a contest anytime soon,
you know, look in the mirror, come to
terms with facts, Allah test everybody in a
different way.
Then through the beauty of your words and
through the beauty of your deeds, you will
become more attractive than many people who would
be contest winners. So Allah give us all
Tawfiq and the person Allah gives both, then
that's and,
we're we, we we were happy and we're
Ironically,
then we continue the.
See, Marshall, they were
back in the day, they were, open minded
accepting. You know, they
everybody, they included them inclusive.
Who said
or narrates from the prophet
that said, I warned you I warned you
with regards to sitting
in, in the public pathways where people come
and go.
They said, oh, messenger of Allah, we have
nowhere else to sit.
And, the messenger of Allah, salallahu alaihi wasallam
said,
if you refuse to do anything except for,
to sit in your place of gathering,
then give the pathway its right.
They said, what is the right of the
pathway, oh, messenger of Allah? He said to
lower your gaze and to withhold yourself from
harming or bothering others
and to repeat or to
respond to people's salaam and to command to
that which is right and forbid that which
is evil.
And
some background about this,
some background about this hadith,
is that the Ansar
used to have places where they would gather
because it was their line. It was their
Medina.
So people of every tribe had a place
where they would sit,
where they would gather. And,
just like we have this place, masha'Allah, we
have this place if we want to have
dars, we have it in a place. We
don't just go have it in the street.
But the,
Muhadjirun,
whom until they got settled, they hadn't really
nowhere place to meet. And because of their
poverty amongst other cultural differences between the Muadjar
and Ansar,
they would, they would basically that's the only
place with where they could gather is, like,
public spaces.
And
so that's the context of this hadith.
This is a a warning as well for
people who just go to the mall for
fun
or go to
the. It's not haram to go to the
mall. It might be, I guess, if you're,
like, going to rob or do something like
haram there. But if you're going there for
some
need or necessity of yours or to go
look for something or to find out about
something or,
you know, you're gonna set up your Dawah
table or whatever.
That's one thing. But just to go to
hang out is not a good thing.
Right? What is the first thing the prophet
said? The first sentence of the hadith is
that I warn you with regards to sitting
in these, public pathways that people walk by.
And within his advice for those people who
had no alternative except for to be there,
it was
Mahfoum. It's understood what the reason is. Why?
Because he's the first thing he said lawyer
gave. Why? Because you're gonna see a lot
of haram. It will stir things inside of
your heart that you want to leave dormant.
Or it will dissipate and waste energies inside
of your heart that you want to save
for a use instead of wasting them, on
no use at all.
People who interact with people of the opposite
gender, whether it's men, with women or women
with men.
When they waste the energy that's supposed to
be there between the affection, the energy, the
spark that's supposed to be there between them
and their spouses,
then their marriage has failed.
They wonder why is it we can't get
along. There was some method the Allah gave
you because of which you would have gotten
along despite your differences, but you wasted it
on
public spaces and public places and people who
really don't mean anything to you and you
don't mean anything to them.
And now it's gone, and now you guys
are gonna have a really hard time getting
along with one another. And
the good news is what? You can get
it back by
not interacting with people of the, opposite gender
or people that you're going to waste that
energy with and saving that interaction for your,
spouse and for your,
for your family.
And so he the first thing he said
is lower your gaze, the subtext being that
it's gonna be really difficult to lower your
gaze when you're in the pathways.
Now the title of the chapter has to
do with looking at a unrelated woman or
a,
an attractive beardless,
young male.
But
lowering your gaze is more than just that.
That's, like, an important thing if that's a
fitna for you. But it's more than just
those two things.
It includes also looking at duniya
Because the person who sits with people who
talk about real estate all the time, then
they're gonna start thinking about real estate. The
person who sits with people talk about cars
all the time, they're gonna think about what?
You know, I didn't know what a Tesla
was. Honest to God, like,
years passed by, people are driving these things
around. I had no idea what it was.
I didn't really care.
And so one day, a doctor it was
very ironic, Moshe. A doctor at the Masjid,
we were I had to go to a
a janaza
a janaza, which is where you should get
the ibra for right mountain. Like, you know,
you should turn away from the dunya.
He's like,
you have ride to the graveyard. I said
I said I was just gonna go on
my own. Why don't you ride with me?
So I'm being from Seattle. I'm like, great.
We're gonna cut back on carbon emission. You
know, we're we're gonna do something good for
the environment. You know? And,
you should carpool.
Did you guys carpool?
You should. They're literally killing, like,
Muslims for the gas. Right? So, you know,
be like, okay. Like, Ali and Fatima, like,
only one of you have to die today.
Like, not both of you. Right? You know,
do a solid favor to your
brothers and sisters, across the sea.
So I was like, okay. I'll carpool with
you.
And so
he takes me to his car, and I'm,
like, looking for the door door handle, and
there's no door handle. And he does some
something with the remote. The thing, like, just
like like a ninja. It just, like, pops
out.
And I was like, what the * is
this? And
I sit in the car
and,
we take off. And he's like, let me
show you something.
And he puts the pedal on the thing
and the thing goes to, like, 90 miles
an hour
without making a noise.
So fast.
And I'm like, what kind of car is
this? He's like, it's a Tesla. I don't
make do offer me, Bolanar. This is dangerous.
You know, maybe sometime I go too fast
or, like, get an accident. I don't even
know. You make the offer. I mean, I'm
like, shut up, man. I mean, I'm like,
this stupid offer. You mean,
of course, big blah, inshallah. Lucky. They're good
people, But it was just it was just
a bizarre interaction, especially on the way to
a point if someone talks about all of
these things right now. If you didn't know
what it was, you'd be like, I wanna
see this car. Right? Because we wasted time
that should have been for the Darks now
talking about a car. So if you didn't
know, now you know. If you know, you
wanna see it again. You'll be like, it'll
remind you and whatever.
Lower your gaze from those things as well.
Stay away from people who talk about that
stuff as well. People like, oh, they're my
family members. Right?
You don't have to, like, sit every relative
of yours on on your lap and comb
their hair. You understand what I'm saying?
You can just say
how are you doing? How is your mother?
This, that, and the other thing. 10, 15
minutes and then get up and leave or
do something else.
You don't have to I mean, you don't
have to even your parents. If there's some
element of toxicity, you don't have to say
to that person, you're toxic. I hate you.
I'm leaving now because you're all in the
dunya.
No.
Just do what you render your obligations to
one another. Get up and leave. Because you
only have one heart. And, if you spoil
it because of these things, that was your
choice. Don't blame it on other people.
So the first thing is what? Lower your
lower your gaze. From that most attractive part
of the dunya and other relatively attractive parts
of the dunya.
And then afterward,
what was the next advice?
Is to not harm one another or not
harm people. The idea being when you're sitting
in the street, you know, you're gonna take
up space or you might do something. You
know, people have bizarre habits.
People smoke, people spit, people
curse, they they're obnoxious, they're allowed,
you know, all sorts of things. Don't don't
don't do any of that. And, the the
third subtext being that people rather salaam, that
people ignore one another or they honor some
people and they dishonor others or they ignore
others.
One of the nice things to do is
to say salaam to people who you know
and people who you don't know, which is
a commandment to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
in particular, the prescription for spreading love amongst
people. And being people who live amongst the
kuffar,
it's a special joy that I have going
to the Muslim world and saying salaam. Not
everybody shares that joy when you say salaam
to them. And they're like, who are you
again?
But go ahead and do it anyway. It
has a good effect. And then,
the subtext being that the people in the
streets aren't making they're not commanding to that
which is right all the time. And they're
not forbidding wrong things that are happening all
the time either, but a person should do
that,
and it's harder to do outside of your
space. And so there are a couple of
hadith that are of the same vein, Insha'Allah,
we'll read through all of them. And
My best,
Sayin
Abu Hamza Anasib Numatic
who,
who was a rich man from the Ansar,
beloved person to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
and he he married. He converted to get
married. So don't ever talk smack about somebody
who
is out. They just converted to get married.
Some of those people are better than better
than us. So,
you know and that's what I tell them.
He was just so and so just converted
to get married. I'm like, what? You became
Muslim because,
of your love of, like, righteousness and because,
you studied every religion in complete detail. Islam
seemed to make more sense to you. No.
Allah taught brought a person in just like
you brought us in. Don't ever judge a
person.
So we were sitting in the,
the the the courtyard
speaking and messenger
of Allah came and stood over us and
he said, why is it that you're in
in
the why are you sitting in the pathways?
Why is your place of gathering in in
the pathways?
He said, stay away from
sitting and gathering and pathways.
And we said,
we didn't, sit here for any bad reason.
We were just sitting and, reminding one another
and, speaking to one another. And so the
Rasulullah
alaihi wasalam said, if you're if you can't
avoid it,
then give give the pathways their right, which
is to lower your gaze and to respond
to salaam and to speak speak good words.
Once in the and
and
narrated that. I asked the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, what what should we
do if a person is, like,
see some see someone that they shouldn't be
looking at?
It just happens, like, all of a sudden.
It's something that they cannot control. So he
said, look away.
This is very deceptively
the
the the vision is assaulted.
It's like an attack that happens in the
spiritual realm. It's not like it is this
attack that happens in the spiritual realm. It
is a part of Shaitan's warfare that frankly
seems to be winning or at least have
the upper hand, so you have to fight
a little harder in order to survive.
And so
hasn't ever met him, but
one one time.
Yeah. So, you know, he he he he
says this in Bayonne again and again. He
gets he has a majlis in which people
ask questions,
and the questions are wild
sometimes.
But one of the questions he gets,
again and again, what do we do? How
do I how do I save myself from
looking at things that I'm not supposed to
look at? He says there's only one solution
to this problem.
Is that when you see something you're not
supposed to be looking at, gather your courage
and your heart and just look away.
Just tell yourself, look. This is my choice.
I have to do it. It's gonna suck.
It's gonna be bitter. It's gonna feel bad.
It's gonna feel whatever. Just gather your your
courage and look away. Well, I failed the
last, like,
a 1000 times I tried that. Well, next
time you have another choice.
So gather some courage in your heart. Gather
some Himma in your heart,
and look away.
And, if you fall off the horse, you
know, then do better next time. That's the
only thing you can do. And this is
what the Rasool Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said.
Just look look at something else.
I'm Yawani. I'm Yawani. I'm Yawani. I'm Yawani.
I'm Yawani. I'm Yawani. I'm Yawani. I'm Yawani.
I'm Yawani. I'm Yawani. I'm Yawani. I'm Yawani.
I'm Yawani. This is my
all that I said, Sheikh, for my aid
and assistance.
Give him long life and happiness in both
worlds.
Narrated
say
that she said that, I was with the,
the mother of the believers. Said I was
with the messenger of Allah and he was
with, the mother of the believers. And,
well known companion who's one of them, the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, who's blind.
He, he came, and this was after the
commandment for hijab.
So he entered in the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam. He told them, you know, screen yourselves
from him. And so he said, oh, messenger
of Allah, isn't he blind? He doesn't see
us and he doesn't even know we're here.
And,
he doesn't recognize who, you know, who we
are even.
And so the messenger of Allah, sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam,
said the Nabi, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, prophet,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, said, what? Are you
too blind?
Don't you see him? Meaning what, hijab is,
both way obligation.
It's a good reminder for us. It's a
good reminder for our,
for the ladies as well. Equality.
Equality,
which is what oftentimes, right, there's, like, little
gender wars that happen.
To somebody somebody usually, because this is the
way biology works, even though we protest that
men and women are exactly the same, but
they're not, You know, they're equal and under
the law and, like, Allah to Allah and,
you know, everyone is a spirit and all.
So there's some types of equality. Everyone's a
human being. Everyone has rights. You know, everyone
has dignity and worth or whatever. Right? Everyone
their level of the law is based on
this. So there's a lot of stuff that's
equal, but not everything's equal.
So usually what ends up happening,
a woman will not,
cover properly and then a man will say
something to her and then she'll be like,
well, you know, lawyer case.
And,
it becomes this kind of, like, weird,
religious people, judgmental Mexican standoff
in which there's no Mexicans involved. Unless there's,
I guess, Mexicans involved.
But,
and that's that.
Yes.
And because
that's usually the direction in which the dynamic
occurs,
if a woman looks at a man that
she's not supposed to, I'm told that women
find, men attractive too.
But usually because of the nature of that
dynamic,
like, they're not gonna get called out, they're
not gonna get caught.
And in that sense in that sense, it's
actually some incense sense is more perilous for
a man because a man is
maybe strong, maybe bench press 300 pounds and
deadlift, you know, £500 and all this other
stuff.
But,
a man is completely pathetic and weak in
front of a beautiful woman
because that's usually the dynamic.
What ends up happening is that,
men get shackled with all the the the
kind of the the the blame for these
types of things.
Whereas for a woman because of again those
basic biological
and those basic physiological and those basic psychological
realities,
the door to commit haram for a woman
is much more open than it is for
a man.
The attraction is not as strong
average by average. So in some, you know,
you have a distribution of people.
The averaged in the distribution for women is
a little bit downfield. The are a little
bit cooler for for women than they are
for men in many circumstances, maybe not even
all circumstances.
But the opportunity for women is far more
perilous, whereas there's a 100 men within, like,
a, like, 75 foot radius that would
do anything and everything that's haram if they
only had the opportunity.
Whereas the opportunity is open for the the
the the women much easier.
So also they should not fool themselves with
regards to this.
They should protect themselves,
from this thing, and not not fall prey
to it just like men also should
lower their gaze and not
and not,
look at everything that makes them feel a
certain way. And if you're a man and
on top of that, you have no crisis
of opportunity.
May the Lord help you. This is why
Sayna Yusuf Alaihi, sama was a Nabi. It's,
you know, these are real things if you
take it as a joke or if you
dismiss it,
do so at your own own peril.
A) Man should not look at the nakedness
of another man. Nor
should a woman look at the nakedness of
another woman. Nor should a man
be under the covers
without any barrier between his body and the
body of another man,
and nor should a woman be under the
covers
without any barrier between her body and the
body of another woman.
And, this
is
an indication also that just because it's the
same gender,
it doesn't mean that you're absent of peril.
Obviously, because of our alphabet community now,
that that's kind of taken on a more
new and immediate reality.
But amongst people who are not afflicted by
those attractions, still there's something wrong, with with
showing your nakedness to another person. It's a
longer discussion which we will dispense with at
this point, but suffice to say that everybody
should keep their dignity. Wearing clothes is an
angelic
sunnah.
You know, people say this, they say, oh,
so, you know, very famous people, well known
people, I in general, have a good opinion
of.
But in this one thing I have very
rigorous disagreement with. They say, oh, the prophet
salallahu alaihi wasalam was alive today, He would
wear the dress of his and the sunnah
to wear the dress of your and so
he I would be like,
he would have worn a suit and tie,
and I just felt like,
you know, cracking him in the head really
hard.
But I know he didn't mean, what it
sounded like to me, so I didn't. But,
I I disagree with that.
Right? The angels,
the angels were close.
What do the angels also, like, wear suit
and tie when go to New York? Or,
like
they're not from New York. Right?
Or all the do all the angels dress
like Arabs?
And they're racist.
It's Arab supremacy.
So there's I feel like there's something a
little bit missing from that discourse.
But
pulling back from that
particular
angle in that discourse,
the angels wear clothes.
There are some human beings that, you know,
literally make a living and make themselves famous
by walking around without clothes on. Mhmm.
Such people, there's shavi, the people that they
should associate with or the organisms they should
to them is the zoo because there are
also naked bodies in the zoo that, people
pay money to see as well.
More often between Bahimia and between Balakya, but
you should honor and try to identify
with, with honor and with dignity, your angelic,
your angelic component.
And so don't walk around looking like, don't
walk around looking like a primate.
And walk around looking like a primate, rather
embrace your angelic nature as well. The primate
nature will have times to express itself,
mostly in the privacy of your own home
or, you know, between you and your
spouse or whatever.
Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala, there will be a couple of
chapters that are related to this as we'll
mention some other things later about it.