Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Riyd alSlihn The Prohibition of Making Images of Animate Life Ribt 07212024
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AI: Transcript ©
It's a chapter regarding the prohibition
of
making pictures
of animate life
on covers
or spreads,
or
in
rooms
or out of stone.
Not exactly sure which one.
Or,
Hajar or or Hajar,
but in rooms or on
cloth
or on
a silver coin or on a gold coin.
Oh, mikhadda. Mikhadda
is the
it's here,
which is
the pillow that you put under your cheek.
The
the cheek. Is
the thing you put under your cheek. But
we saw that they wore a pillow or
something other than that, and the prohibition of
taking a surah and putting a picture and
putting it on the wall
or on the ceiling
or on covers
or on a turban
or on a piece of cloth or something
like that, and the commandment to efface,
pictures.
So as a quick note, the
Hanafis
take this,
commandment
as being
for all animate life.
Depictions all depictions of animate life.
And in the books of fiqh, there are
kind of different permutations of
what is exactly
meant by this.
So some of them say say if you,
for example, face the eyes,
that's sufficient.
Or if it's a part of an animal
that is not sufficient for the animal to
survive, then it you know, that's not what's
meant. So if you just have a head
or something or a part,
of an animal or a silhouette or whatever.
So these are all the tafasilaffirkhi
discussions
that can be found in their books,
and this is not really the proper time
or place for them. The Maliki opinion is
the most lenient of them,
which is that all of the
references
to the prohibited picture making,
by Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
that refer to the most shadid, the most
intense and severe,
punishments are for
something that's three-dimensional.
So it would be like a statue rather
than just a painting.
However, I want you to,
again, pay attention to a couple of things.
One is this is not a darsafik.
So whatever
this picture making is that is being referred
to, I want you to appreciate the fact
that it's haram and it's really bad.
The second thing I want you also to
appreciate that whatever these differences of opinion are,
whatever opinion a person holds to,
in FIP, and then there's this whole whole
thing about not making a cut on other
people
with things that are difference of opinion.
Somebody takes a more lenient opinion than you.
If it's a legitimate
legitimate opinion. Right? Legitimate opinions are the ones
that come from the great scholars of the
old days.
A legitimate opinion is not something that comes
from some, you know, swack
job guy who sits on a board in
America who, like, rediscovered the Sharia after, like,
1400 years. We're not talking about that. We're
talking about actual legitimate differences of opinion. So
in those cases, you there's a limit to
how
harsh you can censure somebody,
for taking an opinion you don't agree with.
Really, you don't censure them at all. You
just dissent with them and let everybody do
their own thing. You're feel free to explain
your opinion on why you think it's correct
without without, you know, getting up on others
and making enemies out of them
and,
you know, trying to act as if they
are sinners,
because, you know, according to
the agreed upon methodology of the
Ahl Asuna, they they they really aren't,
and there's a lot of discussion with regards
to that. But is there even a a
correct opinion in such matters?
If so,
will it even be disclosed on the day
of judgment?
Allah Allah knows best. These are all discussions
that the Usulis have that, again, are not
properly the the thing being discussed
here. The point is is what there's something
called. And the general idea of it is
the portrayal the
the man made portrayal of
of of animate life
called Tasweer,
which is really bad. It's not only haram.
It's really bad. It's from the major sins.
And the second the second thing I want
people to remember is that no matter which
opinion for example, I follow the Maliki school.
It's very obvious the prophet
in some way or another and to some
degree or another
disapproved of it even when it was
two dimensional, when it wasn't
when it wasn't something that's that's a statue
or whatever,
whether that disapproval is at the same level
as,
as the the the three-dimensional,
portrayals or depictions are different. But the point
is is that, you know, we want to
see as people who are practitioners of the
spiritual path, is this going to harm us
or not? What way is it gonna harm
us? What are the effects of these things?
And what should our attitude and disposition toward
these things be,
in terms of the practical effects
that it will have on our health, our
spiritual health.
So a person knows, okay,
smoking, does it particularly cause this type of
cancer? Yes or no? You have to send
it to the lab test. But in general,
you know it's bad for you. And so
that's what what's going to be demonstrated through
this book. I have to say
that this issue of picture making is one
of the couple of basket a few issues
cultural issues that are from the Indian subcontinent
take a very hard line on. And I
don't understand, really, to be honest with you,
why they do so given that there's a
little bit of flexibility in it,
and that there's a little bit of differences
of opinion that has more lenient opinions than,
the ones that they keep from a purely
point of view. But I understand from a
point of view, and I also understand from
a kind of the culture war between,
between, the Muslims and Muslim civilization and between
the civilization of others.
And right now, we're going to kind of
let the discussion go into the background.
I think it's very clear already that picture
making is something that's haram, whatever your your
whatever your definitions of it are, and it's
something very frowned upon in Islam.
But we're going to now get to the
point where everything isn't fit.
And oftentimes, people who say that are people
who don't have much respect for fit in
the first place.
But really, from the people who really have
a lot of respect for FIP, still, Shirk
is not everything.
There are other things that are important.
Are is everything equally important? Every consideration? No.
But still everything is is in its place.
So something that's even 1% of the discussion
is still 1% of the discussion. It doesn't
mean that you make it into 0, whereas
the
is the starting point. It's kind of the
hard borders of whatever discussion you're going to
have,
and whatever the mfukaha agree upon, we don't
cross outside of it except for in very,
very extraordinary circumstances.
And then it delineates
that the correct answer will be somewhere within
this boundary,
but it doesn't mean everything within the boundary
is the correct answer. It obviously doesn't mean
that.
So we, we begin.
Abdullah bin Umar, may Allah be pleased with
both of them, said that the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
these these pictures, whoever manufactures them,
they will be tormented on the day of
judgment,
and it will be said to them, bring
to life the thing that you created.
Now
there are 2 different verbs being used. He
says that those people who manufacture these
these images,
these pictures,
they will be tormented on the day of
judgment, and it will be said to them,
bring to life the thing you've created.
So sana and and and khalp are 2
different things. Sana san'a means to
create to manufacture something. Take parts that exist
and put them together in a particular way.
This is something that
people do.
Kalt is something only Allah Ta'ala does.
So when it said to them, bring to
life the thing that you created,
this is itself a type of istehzaq.
It's a mockery that happens
to the people who were image makers in
this life
that you act like you created something.
So bring life to this thing that you
created.
And, again, it's a mockery of the creation.
Allah ta'ala quote, unquote created something and people
quote, unquote create something. The creation of Allah
ta'ala is real creation.
The creation of people is not creation in
the sense that they don't make something from
nothing. First of all, the materials that they
have are already there.
The second thing is
a spitting image of a person or of
an animal or of some picture of some
scene.
Don't you see the difference between the living
flesh and and and just a stone that's
just a snapshot?
Don't you see one thing is living and
has so much
has so much beauty inside of it, and
the other thing is just
it's like a mockery. There's no different there's
no comparison between them. There's just this one
thing that reminds a person of the other,
but they're they're not the same. But we'll
say, oh, look. This
is so and so. This is a statue
of Martin Luther King. But it's not Martin
Luther King. The actual Martin Luther King was
Martin Luther King. This is a piece of
stone that reminds people of perhaps of that
person when they see it,
but, and maybe even not even that. But
it's a mockery of the the the the
act of creation. This is the first thing.
So that person will be mocked back on
the day of judgment to bring to life
the thing that you created.
So I say that Aisha
narrates that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam
came back from a journey.
She said, I had covered up
with a with covers in front of
with with covers, sorry, that had, pictures on
them.
So, obviously, it's like a cloth cover.
So this is not referring to a three-dimensional
statue. I'm just saying this as,
despite being a Maliki, I'm saying that the
the Hadith and Nabaab, this may not be,
you know, this may may not be, like,
the same
level of severity that's being referred to in
the previous hadith, but there is something with
the images the prophet
obviously didn't like it.
So he said that,
and it doesn't necessarily it's not like a
dalil against Imam Malik. To make that big
say this is exactly referring to that, all
of those other things. That's not how FICC
works. That's not how fatwa works. It's a
lot more complicated than that, and this is
not the class for it. And if someone
doesn't believe me, you can stay and have
chai afterward, and then I'll, like,
rain down on you why this is not
a proof for that, necessarily speaking. One could
take it. One could interpret it as one
of many possibilities.
But, so he came back from a a
trip, and I had covered over Sahua. He
mentions in the in the not what he
mentions in the definitions of the word Sahua.
He says either it's a a bench that's
in front of or a bench to sit
on that's in front of the house
or it is a,
a a a dock.
It's a arch archway in the wall that
you enter through and go through, like a
doorway, basically.
And so,
one way or the other, either was hung
in the in in this, like, in this
entry or it was hung over like a
bench that's sort of placed to sit in
front of the house.
But at any rate, the point is it
doesn't really matter which one of the 2
it is. The the relevant issue is that
there was a cover
that was used that had,
pictures on it of animate life.
So when the messenger of Allah
had seen it, his face filled with color,
meaning the color of anger, it changed colors.
And, he said, oh, Ayesha, the
people who are most severe in torment with
Allah Ta'ala on the day of judgment are
the ones who
the ones who try to
make the likeness of the creation of Allah
ta'ala.
She said, we cut that cover up and,
just made pillows out of it.
So it was a piece, like a piece
with the design on it. She just cut
it up and just make pillow covers out
of it,
the idea being that it was, like, flipped
inside out or something like that.
And,
again, the companions
whom in general in the house of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
they were not wealthy people. So this is
probably something she spent some money that she
saved up on or, was gifted, but it
was a nice thing. They couldn't afford to
waste it. So what did she do? She
just cut it into pieces and flipped it
and made pill covers
out of it.
This happens in masajid as well. There are
a number of masajid in the Indian subcontinent
and outside also
that are made out of broken pieces of
idols and, out of old temples and things
like that is permissible.
Be pleased with both of them. He said,
I heard the messenger of
Allah
say, every image maker will be in the
hellfire,
and for every image that he made,
Allah will give it a a a a
soul,
and those souls will all gather together and
they will torment, that person in the hellfire.
Saidna Abdullah bin Abbas
then adds, he says, if you have to
make something, make the image of, like, a
tree or of, like, inanimate life or of,
those things that don't have a spirit in
them, Aslan, like a mountain or
scenery or something like that.
So this also brings up another question.
What's the big deal about this? Why is
this such a big deal? But first, we
mentioned one reason, which is like a mockery
of the creation of Allah
Another issue is what is that these images
are
synonymous
with what would shift
and with superstition.
Why? Because
they resemble something close enough that a person
thinks of that
thing, the real
the real iteration of it, the actual creation
of Allah ta'ala.
And so this comes back to the hadith
of the prophet
with regards to how idol worship started.
So he mentioned that the the people who
came before us amongst them were people of
great piety
and of the vicar of Allah Ta'ala and
of great spirituality and closeness with Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
So when the people needed advice, they would
go and visit them. When the people were
feeling down, they would go and visit them.
When the people wanted to have a spiritual
boost, sit comfortably
They would they would they would visit them.
And so when such people died,
they were missed.
And so,
what people would do is they would take
images of them and then put those images
in the places that they used to sit.
So people would go and visit those images
in order to receive comfort from that memory
of the righteous,
which in and of itself is, I mean,
without without reference to particular rulings of the
Sharia just as a just a, matter, just
as a
it's just very it's very specific issue. There
isn't anything wrong with it. This is one
of the reasons we also tell the stories
of the masha'if that came from before us
because their memory is a a tonic which
affirms their makes firm the resolve of a
believer to,
stay steadfast and keep struggling on the path
of righteousness.
And it's experienced by the people that whenever
their mention of the righteous is made, that
the rahmah of Allah
comes to that that that time or place.
But the problem is that they did this
initially for this reason, and then generations would
pass, and then the people wouldn't
basically forgot who these people were, what they
were all about, what they would say, what
they would do.
They even forgot about Allah. They just know
that there's a statue of, like, you know,
like, Jawad, you know, sitting in his, like,
you know,
meditative,
desert Mauritania,
bangla pose,
looking spiritual. So they'll just rub the statue,
and they'll get good luck, and they go
home.
They forgot about
his remembrance of Allah or Allah ta'ala at
all, and that's it. It's it's done. And
so this is how the first round of
idolatry started.
And to this day,
if you ask if you ask
sophisticated
idolaters
they're saying, what? We because it's ridiculous to
think that Wood or Stone is going to
somehow or another help you. It cannot hear
you. It cannot do anything for you. Even
idolaters have to kind of admit this come
to this point admitting this. What they say,
well, it's
a tool that allows us to focus our
concentration.
So someone will say, well, this god,
you know, in quotation marks,
represents some aspect of the actual divine reality,
or this allows my spirit to connect with
blah or this or that, but they they
they say that what it's some object of
focus.
It's all haram, and it's all and it's
all shirk.
Your object of focus if you're trying to
focus on some aspect of the divine, there's
the entire Allah to Allah. Just worship him.
You don't need to,
you know, have some,
like,
a temple with, you know, some weird monkey
or, like, the lingam of,
8 hour boost based alien that you rob
for good luck. You don't need any of
that stuff. The actual Allah is there,
you know, and he's with you wherever you
are, and he's the companion of the one
who remembers him. And his name,
you know, you can take, and whenever you
need to pray, you make and you pray.
You don't need any of that stuff. None
of that is necessary. Even the Kaaba itself
is one of the things that Hindus will
say, oh, well, you know, you guys we
walk 7 times around the fire,
or around the whatever the statue of this
and that, and you guys walked 7 times
around the Kaaba. It's the same thing. And
we say, what? We don't need the Kaaba.
If the Kaaba is broken, the salat is
still intact.
If a person were to accidentally not face
the Pibla, the salat is still intact.
Allata categorically negates the the divinity of the
direction.
They literally actually changed the. Right? This is
one of the one of the Usuli,
definitions of
of, nask of of aggregation.
That nask happens in Akram. It doesn't happen
in Akbar,
of which the Akhaed are the greatest.
Right?
Abrogation happens in ruins.
So today, the commandment is to do this,
and tomorrow, the commandment could be to do
that. But it doesn't mean that 2 plus
2 equals 4 yesterday, and tomorrow equals 5.
That doesn't happen.
That's not a thing.
I think it's very interesting actually that the
people of Batil will use NASDAQ as some
sort of proof for the stupid things that
they do,
and it's a misapplication.
It's a misapplication of Naskh,
the concept of abrogation. Abrogation happens when the
commandment changes. It doesn't
change change a reality that was true yesterday,
anymore. That's just the half of that's just
incoherence.
So
there
is
a very
close relationship between what image making
and the imputing
of qualities or attributes or powers that don't
really exist in something,
to that thing,
and idolatry.
And so this is another reason the Rasulullah
alaihi wasallam greatly disliked it, disliked it, and
it's from the sha'ir of Islam that, that
that this ummah the ummah before, there were
some of them that some of this was
some of this was permitted or perhaps it
was completely permitted.
But this ummah, until the end of time,
the Rasul sallallahu alaihi wa sallam sent the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam as the last
Nabi that there will be no more of
any of these things.
That all of these things will be,
banned and and disliked, and the people of
of Iman
will,
will completely separate themselves from from these things.
I said, May Allah be pleased with both
of them. Also said that I heard the
messenger of Allah, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, say,
whoever
makes a an image
in this world, he will be
obliged
on the day of judgment to,
blow a spirit into it, and he's not
going to be able to.
Meaning, what it will be told to him,
like mockingly told him to do so, and
he's not going to be able to to
do so.
And,
again, this is what that the creation the
the the hulk belongs to Allah
making a mockery of the hulk is
is problematic.
Most intense
people in torment
with with Allah
on the day of judgment
are the people who are image makers.
1
that Allah
most high said,
who is
a greater transgressor
than the one who goes about
trying to create
like I create.
Let them create an ant
or let them create
a grain of wheat or let them create
a grain of barley.
And, again, the aspect of the mockery of
God's creation
is mentioned,
here.
I find it very interesting that the mention
of wheat
and,
the mention of barley is made here particularly
because of something that I've already spoken about
a lot. So we're not gonna talk about
it again, but
the complete
blasphemy of
companies like Monsanto
altering the genome of crops
and then copywriting those genomes and saying that
this is our intellectual property and actually using
the
machinery of the state in order to prosecute
people
who don't even want their garbage,
product.
Because why why do I say garbage? Because
made the plants the way they were supposed
to be from before. They make this kind
of Franken wheat and Franken corn and whatever,
and so the seeds blow into their fields,
and then,
Congress makes them,
liable for what should really be Monsanto's mess.
They should Monsanto should have to pay them,
have to pay them
indemnity and,
have to pay them compensation for what? For
their seed rooting the field of natural crops.
And this is one of the reasons whenever
whenever in, like, these, like, international trade
organization,
type meetings like g 7g, whatever, how I
don't know how much the g has gone
to now. But whatever there was, g 5,
g 7, g I don't know what it
is. Right? They always like, in Europe, whenever
they hold these things in Europe, they have
to hold them in extremely secluded places. Like,
Germans and French people,
they will they'll they'll get rowdy. They'll throw,
like, metal garbage cans through Starbucks window because
they're like, keep your garbage GMO,
genetically modified stuff out of our country,
for this reason. Because they've seen what
kind of a nonsense it creates, not only
in the body, but also what those companies
then do to the to the legit farmers
who are actually growing decent crops. So I
find it interesting
that the mention of shayered and of
of of,
the haba of which
is a
and he shaddah toward wheat,
is is is mentioned of.
That it's a it's a mockery that they
also it would
not make me sad on the day of
judgment if the
Monsanto guys were told to
go ahead and make a make a make
a grain of wheat from from scratch, it
would not make me upset.
He's he nearest that the messenger,
said that the house that has
a dog or a picture in it, the
angels won't enter.
So these are the the the angels that
have a choice. They're the angels of mercy.
There are some angels that are there to
do a job. Dog is not gonna stop
them. But in general, the type of angels
that you wanna have,
they're not going to enter,
and there's more detail about it in the
subsequent chapter in a house that has a
dog and that has a picture. Now
there are different tiers of how people approach
their Islam.
Some people are like, oh, look. The Malekis,
you know, say you can eat a dog,
so, like, you can keep it as a
pet or whatever.
This is a complete failure of understanding what
Fetha is.
And at most, when, you know, this idea
that somehow it means that you can keep
a dog just because a dog is not
here, it's not And I just
and then Maliki's school, even the pig is
not here as long as it's alive.
Do you wanna keep a pig? Maybe you
do. I don't know. Someone read Charlotte's Web
and had kind of an emotional moment, and
so they're just like, yeah.
We're gonna we're gonna keep a pig. No.
Don't keep a pig.
As a Salik, as a person who is
traveling the spiritual path,
this hadith
that has many iterations that will go through
right now.
The Muqtada of this hadith.
It should be enough for a person to
know if the point of your
dhikr is
to gain some sort of
benefit.
Right? When you're when we say you're a
salic, you're traveling on a path. You're trying
to get somewhere.
So there are benefits other than just talab.
Talab is an important thing. Ultimately, it's what
matters on the day of judgment,
But your life of this world is a
very long and perilous and tumultuous life, and
the obedience of Allah ta'ala has a lot
of benefits other than just getting reward.
Your duas give you some sort of confer
some sort of protection
to you in the physical realm, in the
unseen realm,
internally, externally.
Haram has some sort of
bad effect on you.
It it it gives you some sort of
vulnerability or some sort of weakness
internally, externally
in the physical realm, in the spiritual realm.
These two things that that are mentioned right
now are mentioned what not mentioned necessarily that
your prayers are not gonna be answered, but
what's mentioned is that the
the the the angelic presence, which is one
of the types method, which is spiritual and
also physical as well, it will be lifted
away from you.
Why should this matter?
Because you need that method method in order
to get more reward on the day of
judgment, in order to do the things that
take you to the next level higher and
higher. So if you're actually traveling that path
and you have a destination, you're not just
concerned with what's happening right now. You're concerned
with what's happening in front of you. There's
something everyone has to do about these things.
Again, I'm reticent to mention them because then
it turns into kind of like a hocus
pocus type of.
There's a dua that gets you out of
all sorts of trouble.
There's a dua for this. There's a dua
for that.
There are oarad that will have all sorts
of effects.
The point of all of them is still
to call on Allah ta'ala and to show
your slave hood to Allah ta'ala. The fact
that these effects occur and they're beneficial to
you and to me is a secondary consideration
at most.
Even then, as a secondary consideration, it should
be what? That you're asking Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. So for example, right, I'll give an
example. The
mentioned that the recitation of Surat Al Waqqai,
regular recitation of Surat Al Waqqai will give
a person wealth or, you know, protect them
from poverty.
What why should you recite Surat Al Waqqai?
You should recite it as an act of
worship to Allah ta'ala.
Well, what about the person who only does
it for the money?
There's, again, 2 different ways you can be
doing it for the money.
You can be doing it for the money,
meaning what? This is what Allata has said,
and I want this thing and I need
this thing, and he's the only one I
can get it through.
So you can be like, well, you know
what? Catherine would be like, out of the
scrawns, I'll hocus pocus anyway. I don't care
about a lot to Allah. It's I'll make
more money, you know, selling fentanyl on the
street. And so you just go you could
you have that option. You, you know, you'll
probably make something doing that. Right?
From a worldly from a materialistic point of
view, you'll probably make something.
I don't recommend it
for many reasons, including the spiritual, but other
reasons as well.
But you'll probably make some but, you know,
the person has enough imam that, okay, the
prophet said it. So Allah sent him, so
we believe it. And, you know, at any
rate, it's the Quran, and I have a
need, and I'm asking it from Allah, so
it's still not completely only for the money.
What if there's a third case of someone
who really doesn't couldn't couldn't care? Really, you
could tell him to write recite,
you know, page 38 from Romeo and Juliet
backwards, and he'll get the money out of
it,
And he he would do it.
Yeah. That's not an act of worship anymore.
Right? So the point is that understanding what
these benefits are, it's still not it's still
not a negation of
of your worship of Allah
In fact, in some sense or another, having
some sort of aqal and having some sort
of common sense knows that your path to
will be difficult. You need all the help
that you can get.
So instead of, like, being hardcore, right, like,
there are some people super hardcore. Like, I
don't even care about Jannah, and I don't
even care about the hellfire. I just love
Allah
ta'ala. See, that's nice, and there were some
people who were actually like that.
You're probably not like that.
When you hit any sort of difficulty,
any illusions of being like that will evaporate.
If you're actually like that, okay. Fine. But,
like, statistically, I'm probably right.
This is why people in America like, I
don't know. I was just talking to someone
earlier in the day
about someone hit some little hitch, and they're
like, oh, well, god doesn't exist, and the
church is this, and this is that, and
the other thing is the other thing, and
the bible this, and blah blah blah. What
kind of iman is that? We say it's
because it doesn't make sense. If you claim
that it made sense to you at some
and it doesn't make sense anymore, don't complain
to me how hypocritical people at the church
are. Tell me what is it that now
all of a sudden logically doesn't make sense
to you anymore that made sense from before
that you misunderstood.
And on the flip side, if it's just
the fact that the people in church are
mean to you or whatever,
that's
what is it? It's just a sign of
the frailty of a person's conviction.
And, so coming back to,
coming back to what I was saying about,
you know, the the jannah, and I don't
worship Allah for jannah. I just, like, worship
Allah because I love it. This is a
very big claim. Don't be dumb and say
it. Okay?
Because if it gets tested, that test goes
to very difficult places.
This is where keeping it real goes wrong.
We hear the names of people
in the past, and we think, oh, we
can be like them. And, yes, you can
be like them,
maybe,
but their path is
something that was laid for those people for
generations and through. Not just one person sacrificed,
a whole bunch of people's efforts concentrated in
order to make one person like that.
It's not just them.
Who
that that, you know, like, made the conquest
that, you know, Sayidna Ali who made du'a
for who is Sayidna Ali
who made du'a for this man and for
his progeny? And, you know, how did all
of this come together? It's not just Abu
Hanifa. I was like, yo. I'm gonna start
thinking about fiqh. You know? Like,
yeah. Like, I think you you should say,
I mean, quiet because, you know, that makes
sense. That that's the tip of the iceberg.
The majority of the iceberg is under the
surface of the water.
My own Sheikh, Allah, ta'ala, have mercy on
him, like a kind of a dialed back
a dialed back
example.
He himself says that people think about me
and think about my
journey
as what they see in front of me,
in front of them.
He said, most of my life, you know,
he said, I would when traveling from city
to city, you know, I would have to
buy bus tickets from one place to the
other just so I would know that the,
you know, that we would be able to
stop in order to to pray. So I
wouldn't buy the bus ticket to my destination.
I had to, like, get into a Google
Maps it.
Meaning what? No
no car, no motorcycle.
He said that when I had money for
tea, oftentimes, I I had the money for
tea. I would drink it without sugar.
He said that he said that oftentimes, I
wouldn't have, you know, something to eat. I
wouldn't have something to drink.
Again, I mentioned this in the in the
messages from before.
I feel like no one cares about this
stuff anymore, so we may as well mention
it. He actually fought in the army of
Ismail Khan,
one of the more pious and upright commanders
from the Mujahideen factions. He fought the Russians,
the Soviets for, like, several years, like, 4
years, I think, and the army of Ismail
Khan. These people literally like to like,
just like stragglers, they showed up.
That's who they were. He says, now in
my old age, my calligraphy has become famous.
The diwan of my poetry has become famous,
and so people come to visit me now.
And so they see, like, they see who
I am, an old man laying in bed.
He goes, this is not my saluk.
This is not how I live my life.
When I was actually doing the things that
we're talking about right now, it was nobody
even knew me. Nobody's very few people saw
me even in those days.
So the next sheikh I had who was
his friend when he was a young
man, he said that he said that the
days that he goes he goes the days
that he had he goes, now we see
people bringing tray and tray of sweets into
the Hanukkah, and they're being distributed.
He said he's so diabetic. He can't even
look at it.
The day he could actually have the sugar
properly, he goes, those days, he had nothing
to eat or drink.
Because now we he just sees the trays
coming in and leaving, and he's like, what's
going on? I remember myself. I remember one
time, I went to visit
him, in the days of
the 1st days of, of Dhul Hijjah, and
he said, would you like, like, some tea
or something to drink? I said, as if
I'm keeping a fast today. He said he
said, when I was young, I used to
keep those fast. I didn't used to
miss them, but now I've become, like,
weak.
This will be maybe within a year of
his passing, this happened.
So
now I've become weak.
So imagine, like, he's in the old days,
like, Mujahid. Right? He was a strong guy
physically. Right? But this is this is where
he was.
The point is is what? Don't think that
you're gonna be like them just because you
read about them. This is a problem
that converts have.
And I included converts,
in this particular issue, born again Muslims in
America
that don't haven't actually lived in the Muslim
civilization and seen,
a Muslim civilization.
Why? Because all of this is very enchanting
and magical sounding because we haven't seen it
happen in real life.
So a person's like, I'm gonna read a
book of Ibn Arabi, and I'm gonna turn
into Ibn Arabi.
I a baha'i, first of all, I don't
know if you actually wanna do that even
in in real life.
With all love and respect for the masha'i.
You know?
But even if you do, I still don't
think you may actually still not wanna do
that
because it's difficult. It's you know, the iceberg
goes, like, really so, anyway, don't please don't
do those things. Mohan of Sayna Ahmed Madani
said that the he said that people would
ask him for permission to migrate to Pakistan
when India and Pakistan were being split.
He said, if you wanna go, go, but
make the intention that I'm going there for
the betterment of my duniya. Don't make the
intention of making hijra.
People are like, what? You're Moan Asad. You're
supposed to tell me about like, you're the
one who told me about intention. Why why
are you telling me this?
Why? Because the nia of Hijra is a
very big nia, and Allah will test it.
If you failed the test, the first time
you fail, all all of your reward will
be faced, but the hardships will still be
there. The 2nd time you fail, it will
be a sin. The 3rd time you fail,
it will be another sin. Instead of putting
yourself in a pit of sins,
just make intention you're going for the sake
of your dunya. You won't even be tested
in the first place.
And so he mentioned there are a number
of very wealthy people in Pakistan, and when
asked, like, you know, like, how did you,
like, everybody else, like, starve to death? How
did you which for the purposes of what
we're talking about includes Bangladesh now as well.
Right? Because that was back in the day.
So how how did you, like, make it
big where everybody else, like, starved and, like,
whatever?
They're like, yeah. Hasn't Madani said don't make
the intention of Indra, and so, like, we
just set up businesses and they took off.
It was just like a new market emerging
market for them. You know?
The point is is what? Again, if you
have the capacity to make that nia and,
like,
the strength to live up to it, that's
the best in the world. Like, what could
be better than that?
But, don't the point of it is, like,
don't like, keeping it real go wrong. If
you go too fast, you're just gonna, like,
you know, you're just gonna injure yourself. It's
like someone who's like, oh, look. You know?
They see they see Imam Mustafa, like, whatever,
squatting £1200.
They're like, well, I can do that. So
Jawad picks up the bar. Even if you
get the bar off of the rack, you're
gonna end up doing it, collapse your spine
in half. Right?
It's it's
it's
do something else. You know? You probably will
be a better striker in soccer or whatever.
I don't know. Maybe he has I'm I'm
just saying theory. Right?
Don't don't don't don't don't do that. Don't
bite off more than you can chew. This
is,
coming back to the
this discussion,
that this is way,
a gross case of someone biting off more
than they can chew when they say that
I'm a creator, and I created this, and
I created that. I remember,
Ridley
Scott,
you know, they interviewed him. He's a movie
director,
and he's like, this is what I do.
I create worlds.
And I'm like, stop being a fruitcake, man.
Like, you'd you'd
it's CGI. It's don't but, you know, people
say these stupid things. They're not thinking about
Allah.
They don't have the adab of how to
talk to Allah, the of Allah. They do
stupid things like this.
And, anyway, coming back to this issue of
a person,
the
inside the house is the reason of the
house being stripped of madad? You need that
madad,
because it's really difficult to get through things
on your own.
If your love of is really that intense,
inshallah, it will show through.
But for the rest of us, there's a
you know, if you if you roll the
dice, there's a much higher probability that you
feel like it's there, but it's not really
there.
And, if you even have a doubt that
you have to, like, look inside and ask
yourself, it's a sign it's not there.
Abdul Abin Omar, may Allah be pleased with
both of them, said that the
angel Jibril alaihislam
Promise the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam
that he would meet him,
but he,
he was delayed from
from their appointment.
And this was very harsh for the hard
for the prophet to take.
And so he left. He he went out
of the house after waiting for so long,
and he didn't come. It caused him it
was difficult for him. So when he went
out of the house, Sayedna Jibril alayhi sama
met him outside of the house,
and this was,
this was something that he complained. The prophet
complained
to him about.
That, like, I we had an appointment. You
didn't come.
And, like, now I come out in ICU.
So he complained to him what what like,
about what happened.
Not complained as in, like, he's, like, chastising
him, but he's saying, like, this was not,
like, this wasn't a good experience. This this
is a difficult thing for me. Like, he
was complaining that it was it was difficult
for him.
And so,
saying that Jibril, alaihis son, told him, says,
we, meaning the angels, we do not enter
into a house in which there's a dog
or in which there is a an image.
The angel Jibril upon whom be peace promised
the prophet
a meeting,
that he would come to him in a
at a particular time,
and that time came.
And Sayyidina Jibril alaihi wasalam didn't come.
She said
that the prophet
had a
a a staff in his hands, so he
cast the staff aside,
while saying
Allah doesn't break his promises nor do his
messengers, mainly the angels,
in this particular case.
Then he
looked and he saw that there's a puppy
under his,
under his
place of reclining.
And so he asked, when did this,
dog enter?
Said, Aisha she said,
So I I I didn't know of it.
I'm not aware.
As a linguistical side note,
this is, like, very,
authentic use of the Arabic language. Otherwise, Adri
is usually only used in,
in the
present tense
in general speech.
But,
it's an interesting it's an interesting
verb.
I was not I was not aware of
it.
So
he commanded that it be
cast outside of the house.
And, Jibril alaihis salam,
then came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
you promised me and I waited for you,
but you didn't come.
And he said,
it was because of the presence of that
dog that was in your house.
We don't enter a house in which there
is a
dog or in which there are images.
So again,
if this is saying in Jibril alayhis salam,
then think of the other angels as well.
He said that
said to me,
shall I not send you with the orders
that I was sent by,
the roast messenger of with?
That you should not pass by any image
except for you efface it,
and that you should pass by any
high built grave except for you should level
it.
People then ask me because we visit all
these different places in the world. They ask
me, well,
you know, we're we're visiting this place. Should
we, you know, like but there's, like, this
big thing built on it. I'm like, look.
We're not visiting. All I can say is
we're not visiting the place.
We visited the father Eriam
even if it was in the middle of
a field, we would have visited. We didn't
visit the building.
We visited all of the different.
Sometimes they build
things on the graves of out of ignorance.
Sometimes they build things on the graves of
the out of for political purposes, the king
is showing, look how pious
I am. I built this thing. You know?
Don't rebel against me.
That's again the the story about Imam Nawi
which is what?
Which is that he told them don't build
anything over my grave. What is the what
did the what did they do after he
passed away?
What did they do? Guess.
They built something. They built something on his
grave.
And so this is one of the miracles
of Imam Nawi,
that a tree started to grow from inside
of his grave, and it grew so big
that the branches spread out and actually broke
the like, they broke through the walls. And
then one night, in a storm, lightning struck
the tree and set it on fire, and
it burned the entire
Ihapa and just the charred
the charred,
remnant of that tree stump, like the kind
of half burned tree stump was there as
a sign of the
the the the wilayah of Imam Nawi
And this is also another as a side
note, this is also a proof of
the stupidity
of
some of the more accurate forms of Wahhabism
that sadly
are like autoimmune disease on the Ooma
right
now that,
that,
you know, some knuckleheaded
group,
of them, they uprooted the tree and burned
it. They said, people, this is shit for
you idiot. This is a miracle in Hakkavu,
telling people don't don't build these graves up.
And now a 100 years, 300 years from
now, now, people will hear the story and
say it's a tall tale. There are still
living people who saw the charred stump of
the tree,
you know, but they'll just believe that, you
know, Munafiq din and the Kfar will say,
oh, well, this is just something that they
made up. They must make everything up because
we're liars, so they must be liars like
us as well.
I I I was listening to NPR. Allah
forgive me. It's all I mean, I knew
it was garbage from before, but, like, after
Gaza, it's, like, so, like, naked how much
garbage it is.
And, someone was talking about something or another
about how, like, pasteurized milk is gonna kill
everybody and, like, be the end of unpasteurized
milk is gonna be the end end of
human civilization or whatever. And it was fine.
Okay. You wanna paste it. Go ahead. Knock
yourself out. Right?
But, one, you know, one of the professors
they were
interviewing for the story was like, yeah. Well,
you know, people read all this, you know,
fake science, on the Internet, and you have
to make sure your sources are good. And,
you
know, journalistic
ethics,
you know, from respected outlets
like the New York Times, you know, show
that they will put, like, their ethical standards
up as a separate, you know, as a
separate thing that you can go read, you
know, on their website and just make sure
they have that. I'm like, you guys baby
killer,
apologist weirdos. Like, New York Times, are you
joking?
They're all they're all liars. They're 100
the the fun thing is when you hear
the truth from a liar, it's like
a like a paradox.
Like,
one of our math teachers in,
in in high school,
who had a sense of humor,
one of the doors in the in in
his classroom, it said the statement on the
other side of this door is true. And
on the other side
of the door, it said the statement on
the other side of this door is false.
It's like one of those type of figure.
Like, what do I what do I do
now? Just stop giving your ear to Disha
Aatdin.
Stop giving your eyes to Disha Aatdin. Like,
honestly, I just think, like, it's probably better
to
watch so many faesh than listen to some
of these people. Because at least, you know,
it's haram and, like, you see what's happening
in front of you. And and I'm not
saying it's okay. It's, like, 100%,
like, horrible for you. But I sometimes I
think that this stuff is actually,
like,
that, but in the world of meanings.
In in some sense, it actually has a
more powerful effect on people.
The next bab has just a couple of
narrations of its
it's related to
this Bab as well. The next 2 are
Bab, actually.
The chapter regarding the
prohibition
of
keeping a dog except for for hunting or
for
herding or to guard,
guard crops. We have dogs run through the
rows of crops to chase out critters and
stuff like that.
The point is that you just you don't
keep a dog as a pet, because it's
mentioned. Right? The the hadith was that the
angels don't enter the house except that have
images and dogs. So,
this chapter is
related to that. And
So the upshot of all 3 of hadith
all 3 of these hadith is that whoever
has a dog for a purpose other than
other than actually doing some beneficial work.
Whoever keeps a dog is a pet, basically.
He's explicit. The point of the this is
the the person who keeps a dog is
a pet as a companion.
So people say it's kinda weird, like, I'm
a dog mom and all of a sudden
nonsense. This is a sickness of the heart.
It's okay to have a pet dog as
long as it does something. If it's a
guard dog or if it does something for
you, it's okay to have good relations in
some sense or another. Right, Malik himself, he
said every living thing is fire, including a
pig. So we don't have, like, enmity of
certain species or another. At some point or
another, they're all the creation of Allah ta'ala.
And in that sense, the opposite of the
mockery of the creator.
But,
at the same time, it's unnatural for a
person to have that type of relationship with,
with an animal to sign some part of
your humanity's dead.
And so don't keep a dog. If you
do the upshot of all these hadiths is
that a mountain or 2 mountain
mountains worth of will be deducted from your
account for the sin, on the day of
judgment for every day that you keep a
a dog in such a way.
And if you really need to keep a
dog, just have it do something. You know?
Don't let it eat from the same place
that you eat. Don't whatever. It doesn't actually
wanna be your friend either.
If you think about think about, like, the
history of domestication,
they don't even wanna be your friend. They
just wanna eat something. They They have certain
traits that get along with you, but they're
a dog. They're trying to do their dog
thing. Stop trying to move in on their
party.
Go make friends. So why I don't have
friends? No one likes me. Well,
maybe you should try harder. Some you know,
I find a nice person who'll explain to
you what kind of stupid things that you
do to repel other human beings and try
it out. If it still doesn't work, then,
you know,
some people are not the most personable in
the in the world. The good news is
Allah is always your friend as long as
you wanna be his friend. So
but the dog is a poor substitute for
either people or even poorer for
The chapter regarding the,
the
detestability
of tying a bell
in the neck of a camel or
an animal other than it and the detestability
of
a dog or a bell,
a ringing bell coming with you on a
on a trip.
He relates that the messenger of Allah
said that the angels won't
won't travel in a caravan or with a
group of traveling companions in which there's a
dog or there's a bell.
That the, that a bell is from the
instruments of the devil.
This is in particular, it's relevant because the
bell is what's,
you know, used to call people to church,
the sign of the,
you know, it's a one of the envelopes
from Shahid of the dean of the Nasara.
And it's not really from saying that Islam
at all.
And so part of the detestability of the
bell being rung like that, we shouldn't have
bells neither in our school nor should you
have a bell in your phone, fake bell
noise,
even though it's not really a bell. But
imitating something that's bad is itself bad.
The the is something that was
it's it's bad. It's a,
one of the of the shaitan, one of
the instruments of the shaitan.
Whereas,
describe the voice, the beautiful voice that say
the
would recite the revelation in as
like,
from the Mazamir of Allah ta'ala,
like an instrument from from God's instruments. So
this is not but being an instrument of
the devil is not a good thing.
So we don't really we don't really do
that.
So people should it's you know, people should
have find some other way of
getting attention.
Allah,
keep us all to. Allah, keep us in
the angelic presence and in the presence of
good company,
amongst people and jinn and amongst
angels and whatever creation there is of Allah.
Make us from those who, are with him,
in the load of
that I'm the companion of the one who
remembers me.