Hatem al-Haj – ADB017 Al-Adab Al-Mufrad – The nearest and then next nearest neighbour
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The speaker discusses the physical and psychological impacts of physical proximity and its impact on behavior and behavior. They emphasize the importance of community and compassionate behavior in addressing issues such as neighbor physical proximity and the need for community and compassionate behavior. The segment also touches on the shia's claims about acceptance of personal history and the importance of respecting people's views and avoiding negative comments. The discussion also touches on Omar's importance in shaping up to a complex relationship with the prophet and establishing a personal connection with him.
AI: Summary ©
Proceed.
So let's go over Hadith 106 from Al
-Adab Al-Mufrad.
Imam Al-Bukhari said in his book Al
-Adab Al-Mufrad, under the chapter of Babu
Yabda'u Biljar.
We left one hadith, but this hadith that
we left, which is 106, is the same
meaning of the two hadiths before.
It has the same meaning.
So just for the sake of completion and
so that we would have, you know, before
we, you know, do the ijazah and stuff,
we would have covered each and every hadith
in the book.
Let's read this hadith.
He said, Aisha
reported that the Prophet said, Jibril, may Allah
bless him and grant him peace, continued to
urge me to treat neighbors kindly until I
thought he would make them heirs or give
them part of the inheritance.
The next chapter is Babu Yuhdi, or Babun
Yuhdi, given to the neighbor whose door is
nearest.
This is Abu Imran Al-Jawni.
Hadith of 107, Aisha said, He
replied to the one whose door is nearer
to you.
To the one whose door is nearer to
you.
Next door neighbor has more rights than the
farther away neighbor.
And it goes down like this, as we
said before, concentric circles.
Applies to kinship, applies to neighbors, applies to
everything.
You are kindest to the people who are
immediately next to you.
Why should you skip them?
Doesn't make sense.
And then the next hadith, and then we
will go over, you know, some comments here.
But the next hadith under the same chapter
has pretty much the same meaning.
Hadith 108, Aisha said, I asked the Messenger
of Allah, I have two neighbors, to which
of them should I give a gift?
He replied to the one whose door is
nearer to you.
And of course, if you have two gifts,
you give them both, or three, four, five,
etc.
But if you only have limited resources and
you want to ration or you want to
be sort of cognizant of moral geography and
then you will have to give precedence to
the people who are nearer to you.
And this is the next door neighbor.
What if the neighbor in front of you
and the neighbor next to you are at
the same distance?
So you live in an apartment building and
there are three meters between you and the
neighbor who's next to you, three meters between
you and the neighbor who's across the door
from you.
Which one do you give?
The neighbor who's across the hallway.
Why?
Because they see you more often, come in
and out.
You bump into each other more often.
They see you bringing food, you know, more
often than the one who's not across from
you.
And part of the reason why you're being
kind to the next door neighbor is that
when you bring in fruits, for instance, for
your kids and you share some with the
next door neighbor, they're seeing that you're bringing
in, like, your Amazon whatever packages keep on
coming in.
And then they would certainly—I mean, they shouldn't
expect anything, but they themselves shouldn't expect anything,
but it's natural.
They may feel that you're well off to
share some of your generosity.
So the next door neighbor, higher ethical responsibility,
physical proximity results in so many things.
One of them is impact.
Physical proximity has an impact, has a psychological
impact, has a religious impact, has different types
of impact, but it also comes with higher
ethical responsibility, higher ethical responsibility towards those who
are next to you.
Didn't we say, the companion next to you
is simply someone who sat, you know, on
the bus next to you for 15 minutes?
Because of that physical proximity, he or she
is entitled to rights based on the Qur
'an.
The Qur'an make it a point that
this person who accompanied you, even for a
short period of time, was next to you,
even for the short period of time, has
more rights on you.
And it is also important to understand that
if you're not kind to the next door
neighbor, it reflects certain things that are suboptimal,
inferior.
And kindness to your next door neighbor, more
kindness to your next door neighbor, lets this
harmony in the society, this generosity, this kindness
in the society, goes out in ripples, goes
out in concentric circles, ensuring that no one
is left behind.
Because if you care about your neighbors in
these concentric circles, and your kindness to your
next door neighbor, and then it goes out
in these concentric circles, then no one would
be left behind.
Keep in mind that we're talking about just
neighbors, but if you have a Muslim neighbor,
he has two rights, not one, neighborliness and
Islam.
If you have a related Muslim neighbor, they
have three rights.
The right of kinship, the right of Islam,
the right of neighborliness.
We're just talking here about neighbors who have
one right.
How do we prioritize among them?
The closer one to you is prioritized.
Because as we said, Islam wants us to
be, to discipline ourselves morally.
This is a moral discipline.
So it is not a matter of whimsical
choices, because you like how that neighbor looks,
or you are expecting reciprocation from that neighbor,
or whatever it is.
And certainly if some neighbor is nicer to
you, then you want to outdo them in
niceness.
But you are trying to structure your generosity
thoughtfully, and not on the basis of ulterior
motives, but you are structuring your generosity to
your neighbors based on, with this moral discipline,
based on their proximity to you.
So this is extremely selfless of you, because
it's not about what you like.
Now I'm trying to be dutiful to my
neighbors, and I'm trying to structure my dutifulness
and my generosity, and share my generosity and
kindness with my neighbors thoughtfully, and with discipline.
So when Aisha asks the Prophet ﷺ, she
wants that discipline.
She wants it to not be left up
to her choice, or her preference.
She wants a discipline, divinely guided discipline.
So he provided her with that discipline, and
when you observe that discipline, you're showing your
selflessness, and you're showing your commitment to Allah
ﷻ.
I'm trying to do this because I'm trying
to be kind to my neighbors.
Of course we said that a neighbor who
is Muslim, a neighbor who is relative, they
have more rights, you know.
And of course we said that we as
Muslims should not be outdone in kindness.
We should not be outdone in kindness.
Therefore, a neighbor who's kind to you, you
try to outdo them in kindness.
Okay, and this also, this physical proximity, and
this idea of the next-door neighbor points
out another important principle, which is what?
You know, big things start at home, you
know, locally.
So if you want to, if you want
a just society, if you want a just
and kind, compassionate society, that has to start
locally.
So sometimes people ignore grassroot politics in favor
of national politics because there is more limelight
there, or they ignore kindness to the next
neighbor in favor of kindness to the farther
away neighbor, kindness to their friends, kindness to,
you know, people of authority and so on.
And people want, you know, to fix the
world without fixing their own sort of immediate
vicinity, fixing their family, you know, mending or
reconciling with their neighbors or mending, you know,
rifts with their neighbors.
So big things start locally, and they start
with sort of the immediate interaction.
Your immediate interaction.
That's why the Prophet ﷺ said, خيركم خيركم
لآهلي, the best of you are the best
of you to their spouses, because why should
you not be?
If your spouse is closest to you, then
why should you not be best to them,
or why should you try to, why should
you skip them in your kindness or your
compassion?
So goodness starts, you know, locally.
It starts in the very small and immediate
actions that you extend to those who are
nearest to you.
And before you can fix the world, you
want to fix the country.
Before you fix the country, you want to
fix the city.
Before you fix the city, you want to
fix your neighborhood, starting with your next-door
neighbor.
And going out in concentric circles.
Then Imam Bukhari said, باب الأدنى فالأدنى من
الجيران, chapter, the nearest and then the nearest
neighbor.
He said, حدثنا الحسين ابن حريث فقال حدثنا
الفضل ابن موسى عن الوليد ابن دينار عن
الحسن أنه سؤيل عن الجار فقال أربعين داراً
أمامه وأربعين خلفه وأربعين عن يمينه وأربعين عن
يساره حديث number 109 الحسن was asked about,
that's الحسن البصري was asked about the term
neighbor and said a neighbor includes 40 houses
in front, 40 behind, 40 to the right,
and 40 to the left.
And this is traceable to الحسن.
This is not the prophet speaking, this is
الحسن speaking.
But الحسن is one of the greatest تابعين
and certainly the wisdom that he shares is
worth considering.
He wanted to say that neighborliness is not
limited to your next neighbor or next two
neighbors, neighborliness is much larger than this.
It's a much greater concept than this.
So you may think that people on your
block and surrounding blocks, people in your immediate
neighborhood, they deserve more of you.
So if you have 120 smiles for the
day, share most of them with your neighborhood.
In the morning, when you go out to
work, and so on.
And it's just any act of kindness, any
act of generosity and compassion and kindness, they're
more deserving.
So 40 houses in each direction, the four
directions, 40 houses in each direction.
So what is 40 houses from here?
Probably gets them a touch-in.
Anyway, the concept is larger.
But the concept of patriotism, could it be
extracted from the concept of neighborliness?
Yes, patriotism can be extracted from the concept.
And it's a sanctioned concept.
Patriotism that does not make you transgress.
Patriotism that does not make you support your
countrymen or your compatriots in aggression or injustice.
Patriotism that will make you think that the
best way to support them is to prevent
them from injustice.
That is Islamic patriotism, that's halal patriotism.
But it is...
كذبت قوم لوتن المرسلين اتقال لهم اخوهم لوت
كذبت قوم لوتن المرسلين اتقال لهم اخوهم لوت
Where is this أخوة coming from?
How is لوت أخوهم?
He's an immigrant.
He's not even from that...
He was not from Solomon Gomorrah.
He was an immigrant from Iraq.
He came to Sham from Iraq with Ibrahim
alayhi salam.
So that immigrant was considered of them.
Of قوم لوت, the people of لوت.
أخوهم لوت, their brother لوت.
And why was he considered their أخ؟
Why they were considered his قوم, his people?
Because he has taken their land as his
own.
He immigrated to their land.
He lived with them.
So they have these rights over him.
And he's considered أخ لهم.
أخة in which sense?
أخة in the tribal sense.
In the tribal sense.
Because affiliation to a tribe was not only
by نسب but also by الولاء الحلف.
حلف is treaty and الولاء is loyalty after
emancipation and different types of loyalty.
But post emancipation loyalty.
And حلف is a treaty.
So someone who comes into a land, he
becomes one of those people by choosing.
And it is a concept that is derived
from the concept of neighborliness.
Because if the one next door to you
has more rights over you and the one
seven doors away from you, and this person
has more rights than the one 40 doors
away from you, and this person has more
rights than the one who lives in the
next city, then it goes in ripples, concentric
circles like this.
So you could say that patriotism is part
of this.
But the patriotism for us Muslims, certainly for
us Muslims, our allegiance to Allah and His
Messenger and the believers will always come first.
But it is not mutually exclusive with other
forms of loyalty and allegiances.
Not mutually exclusive.
Unless there is a conflict that is irreconcilable,
then our allegiance to God will always come
first if there is a conflict that's irreconcilable.
Okay, so next, Imam al-Bukhari said, Hadith
number 110, Abu Huraira said, Hadith
number 110, Abu Huraira said, Do not begin
with your more distant neighbors before the closer
one, rather begin with your nearest neighbor before
the most distant one.
And it's straightforward because you want to ask
yourself, why am I starting with the farther
away one?
This hadith is not, this is an author
from Abu Huraira to begin with and it's
daif and stuff, but it makes sense.
The meaning is a sound meaning.
You want to ask yourself, do I have
ulterior motives?
Am I expecting a worldly benefit from the
neighbor farther away?
That's why I'm being kinder to them.
Or why is it, why am I skipping
that first door neighbor?
So you should not start, if you have
limited resources and you want to share your
gifts, even your smiles, why would you not
smile to your next door neighbor and smile
to the neighbor farther away?
So you want to address your ulterior motives
and make sure that it is selfless as
much as possible.
Then Imam Bukhari said, Babu man aghlaq al
-baba ala al-jar Chapter one, who shuts
his door against his neighbor or in his
neighbor's face.
Hadathana Malik ibn Ismail qala hadathana Abdus Salam
an laith an naafi an ibn Umar qala
laqad ata alayna zamanun aw qala heinun wa
ma ahadun haq wa ma ahadun haq bi
dinarihi wa dirhamihi min akhihi al-muslim thumma
al-an al-dinari wa al-dirham ahabbu
ila ahadina min akhihi al-muslim sami'atu
al-nabiya sallallahu alayhi wa sallam yaqul kam
min jarin muta'alliqin bi jarihi yawm al
-qiyamah yaqulu ya rab hadha aghlaq ababahu duni
fa man'a ma'rufah Hadith number 111
Ibn Umar said, there was a time when
no one had more right to a Muslim's
wealth than his fellow Muslim.
But now, people love their dinars and dirhams
more than their Muslim brothers.
I heard the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
say, many neighbors will cling to their neighbors
on the day of resurrection, saying, O Lord,
this person shut his door on me and
withheld his or her kindness.
Kindness.
So, what is Ibn Umar saying?
Ibn Umar is one of the companions, mind
you.
So, this idea of the good old times
is not a new idea.
This is an idea that has been always
there with humanity.
So, Ibn Umar is lamenting, you know, or
remembering, reminiscing about the good old times.
But certainly for Ibn Umar, he has every
right to do so.
So, the idea that the idea that we
have that good old times are always better
than current ones is a false idea.
It's not a good idea.
Of course, for Ibn Umar, it was a
true idea.
Because you can't compare a time where the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was with them
to a time when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam was not.
So, certainly for Ibn Umar and for the
Sahaba, they have every right to reminisce about
the good old times.
They have every right to reminisce about the
good old times.
But it's not always true for, you know,
like times change and Allah alternates, you know,
good and bad.
So, the idea that it's always getting worse
and we always have to reminisce about the
good old times.
Like, for instance, for us in Egypt, do
you want to go under British occupation?
Some people say yes, you know, these are,
you know, our current rulers are agents of
the British and the Americans and so on
and so forth.
So, we are better off being under the
direct rulership than being under agents.
That's nonsense.
These are people who are just not, basically,
not on top of it.
So, this idea that we have to always
reminisce, we have to lament our current conditions.
It's part of dissatisfaction, lack of Rida.
Allah brought you here, now.
So, do your best here, now.
Here and now.
The now and here.
Do your best now and here.
Allah brought you here.
So, part of Rida is to accept that
you belong here and to appreciate also the
favours of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
The idea that you're able to come here,
you're able to drive safely.
The idea of safe neighbourhoods, that you're able
to use.
The idea that you're able to call, basically,
what is it?
Face call?
Or, you know, FaceTime?
FaceTime.
Okay, thank you.
The idea that you're able to FaceTime your
mother in Pakistan or Morocco.
Why is it not a great thing?
Why is it not something to cherish and
to celebrate?
That you have that capacity.
Of course, for Ibn Omar, it was valid
and it was warranted, but it is not
always the case.
Reminiscing about the good old times is, oftentimes,
an indication of dissatisfaction, lack of Rida, lack
of Pana'a, lack of acceptance, lack of
pleasure with your Lord.
I am accepting that you brought me, you
know, in this time and this place and
my test is, basically, to reach my potential
and virtue, purge my heart of vices, commit
to my obligations towards you and your creation.
I will do this, regardless of the time
and place.
I will do this in every time, and
I am content with whatever you have destined
for me.
But Ibn Omar was talking about a time
when they were with the Prophet ﷺ, or
shortly thereafter, maybe during Abu Bakr's time.
Ibn Omar lived long after, you know, the
time of the Khulafa al-Rashideen.
So, maybe also in the, you know, right
after, but certainly mostly during the time of
the Prophet ﷺ.
Because Anas said that we have sort of
discovered a difference.
The day the Prophet ﷺ departed was different.
So that's a very sort of sharp change
of conditions that is warranted and justifiable, explainable.
So he says that there were times where,
you know, no one had more right to
a Muslim's wealth than his fellow Muslim.
Do you take this literally?
Do you take this literally?
Like they didn't have any private ownership during
the time of the Prophet.
Like there were no rich and poor people
during the time of the Prophet.
No, there were rich and poor people, and
everybody kept their money.
It's not like, you know, they divided the
money equally among themselves.
They were rich and poor people during the
time of the Prophet ﷺ.
But here is the problem with people who
have rigidity and cannot understand rhetorical devices and
cannot understand the different language games.
A person who has like wisdom, let's not
talk about intelligence, but a person who has
wisdom who reads this hadith will not basically
extract from those hadith that they had that
they were communists during the time of the
Prophet ﷺ and they shared their money among
themselves.
Like there was no private ownership and there
was no everybody was like sharing with everybody.
That was not true.
We know this quite for certain from the
seerah of the Prophet ﷺ and the companions.
But they were generous.
You know, the gist of this hadith is
they did not allow their neighbors to go
hungry while they were basically well fed.
They would look after their neighbors.
They would look after the needs of their
neighbors and they would share their wealth to
an extent and no one would be left
behind.
So that's what you understand from this hadith.
You have to have a moderate understanding and
you have to have a flexible approach to
language and how language is used.
How language is used.
So no one had more right to a
Muslim's wealth than his Muslim brother does not
mean that you and I have equal rights
to my 401k.
No.
But it means that we should be looking
after each other and we should not have
anyone go hungry among us or left behind
or in distress and things of that nature.
But now people love their dinars and dirhams
more than their Muslim brothers.
I heard the Prophet ﷺ say many neighbors
will cling to their neighbors on the day
of resurrection saying Oh Lord, this person shut
his door on me and withheld his kindness.
Next, Imam Bukhari said A person should not
eat his fill while his neighbor is hungry.
Ibn Abbas said Hadith
112 Ibn Abbas said the Prophet ﷺ said
he is not a believer who eats his
fill while his neighbor goes hungry.
He is not a believer who eats his
fill while his neighbor goes hungry.
And it's not only the human labor, by
the way.
It's reported from Malik ibn Dinar that his
neighbor had a dog and the dog was
hazir, like he was like an emaciated dog.
So they were not probably feeding him well
or something.
So Malik ibn Dinar would go out every
day to give food to the dog, his
neighbor.
That dog is his neighbor.
They had great virtues.
So part of the jiwar is that they
used to prevent people from hunting near their
tents or near their residences because these animals
are their neighbors.
So you would not be allowed to hunt
the animal that came near me or that
came into my space.
This was common from Qulaib, for instance.
If you know that story, Qulaib.
But Qulaib used to do this and he
used to basically extend the keep some extended
the space.
Certainly they may not have done this for
a good reason.
They may not have done this for the
pleasure of Allah.
They may have done this for egotistic reasons.
But it's a virtue.
It's a virtue anyway, you know, that you
honor your neighbors.
Humans are not.
You just honor your neighbors.
So Malik ibn Dinar used to feed his
neighbor's dog every single day to honor that
neighborliness.
And this idea of you should not basically
your neighbor should not go hungry while you
eat your fill is not limited to your
next door neighbor.
In fact, in the year of the ashes,
why was it called the year of the
ashes?
Because even the soil looked like it's burnt.
The soil looked like it's ashes on the
ground.
Or the reeh brought in ashes, again from
the soil on the ground.
So it was a year of famine and
a year of extreme distress.
And it was reported that Omar reported from
some of the wives of Omar who said
that Omar did not approach any of his
wives during the Ramadan because he was the
Khalifa.
So he said that he didn't approach any
of his wives and he became much darker.
You know, after Ramadan his complexion became much
darker.
And they attributed this to the fact that
he was like an Arab man, used to
semn and leban and stuff.
He used to drink milk and eat ghee,
I guess.
And during Amr Ramadan he would only eat
oil, you know, like a lower grade oil,
until he became darker by the end of
the year.
Like he lost weight and he became darker.
And he was not approaching his wives.
Now because he feels the distress.
Yes.
He feels, you know, he feels responsible for
an entire Ummah and he feels the distress
of all the people and he vowed to
himself that he would not basically resume his
normal life until the hardship is removed from
the community, from the community the entirety of
the community.
So he spent that year going by sort
of the, you know, treating himself so harshly
and in every respect waiting for the distress
to be removed.
And that is basically Musharraka Wajdaniyya.
It is basically to share with people in
their distress and in their grief and so
on.
And that is something, you know, if you're
a Khalifa, you may be able to justify
for yourself to eat well and to stay
strong because everybody is dependent on you.
Everybody is in need of you and everybody
is dependent on you.
You should take care of yourself and as
a Khalifa you should have enough basically your
allowance from bayt al-mal should be sufficient
to buy you food to take care of
yourself.
But that would not have would not have
been Omar radiyallahu anhu and honestly speaking, you
know, whenever I So Omar is called in
Shia books Al-Taghut and this is quite
prevalent among the Shia even if you say
that not all the Shia are Rafida but
certainly they're tolerated, they're well tolerated and then
the discourse between the Shia would be is
he kafir or fasiq?
That's the discussion about Omar, you know is
he kafir or fasiq?
And that is why people who think that
we can bring the Shia and the Sunnah
closer to each other are they have like
a very severe intellectual impediment it's just like
a very severe intellectual impediment or you know
lack of awareness lack of awareness these are,
you know so how do you reconcile things
of that nature when you have although they
deny it nowadays but when you have a
Shia scholar from the 5th century transmitting the
consensus on the alteration of the Quran among
the Shia scholars no matter how they try
to cleverly come out of it but this
is true this has been reiterated in their
trust accusing Aisha of zina has been tolerated
this is a discussion the discussion is not
that Aisha is beyond this but those of
them who deny that Aisha committed zina they
say that Allah would not do this to
his prophet not that Aisha herself is beyond
this or above this they agree that she
is not but Allah would not do this
to his prophet Allah would not hurt his
prophet so that is basically these are the
moderate kind sort of reasonable people that is
their sort of perception that is their conception
of this accusation that Aisha herself is not
above this is not beyond this but Allah
would not do it to his prophet now
tell me how to reconcile these things if
the Quran is the foundation the rock of
your world view and you have a tradition
that has tolerated for centuries the thought of
the alteration of the Quran and they have
basically claims about a separate different that they
only have and no one else has what
is the sort of reconciliation and then which
reconciliation when it comes to the sunnah and
all of our resources and not only the
conveyors of the sunnah from the time of
the sahaba you know if you look at
the shia's accusations about Imam Malik, Imam Shafaei
Imam Ahmad, Imam Abu Hanifa these are so
vulgar that are beyond you know like I
wouldn't share them here because they are just
too vulgar so if you're for the smart
people and I am saying that some people
may be smart inviting to basically that between
mazahib and certainly some people had good intentions
like Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi I'm quite sure
that he had good intentions but he himself
said eventually that I did not have enough
awareness and that is certainly virtuous of him
and courageous of him and it shows that
he is a man of good intentions and
he is a man of integrity well I
thought that and certainly keep in mind that
when we talk about this when we talk
about that there is no room for taqreeb
or reconciling between these mazahib we're not talking
about blowing up shia mosques of course not
we are advocating for peaceful coexistence peaceful coexistence
with the shia under several governments or whatever
form of righteous governments that we will be
able to agree on in those countries that
are mixed between shia and sunna peaceful coexistence
we are talking about peaceful coexistence with the
jews and christians and sometimes this discussion arises
who is more dangerous the shia or the
jews and christians regardless of regardless of the
shia being muslim or not muslim we don't
believe that there we don't believe that we
can make a blank statement about them as
kuffar we do not believe that we can
make a blank statement that the shia are
kuffar which eventually will bring us to like
the difficult discussion so who's more dangerous well
if you go to youtube and watch like
a song like a shia song that had
23 million hits 23 million hits it's talking
about slaughtering the children of umm al jamal
the song i mean this is art this
is not fanatical basically writings by some extremists
so these are their songs this is folklore
this is the culture you know this is
the stuff for the ordinary people it's talking
about eliminating the children of umm al jamal
umm al jamal is aisha radiallahu anha the
mother of the camel you know because of
she fell off the camel in you know
mawqat al jamal so eliminating the children of
umm al jamal uh that that's us so
if you have people who are determined to
eliminate the children of umm al jamal i
think that someone may be justified to say
they're more dangerous but now in with with
regard and this is branching off but with
regard to the current issues that are happening
what is the difference between the shia and
israel the shia belong to that land they
belong there so where sunnis have never had
any plans to eliminate the shia or to
displace the shia they belong there so we
will have to figure out how we can
peacefully coexist they belong there shia did not
basically they did not parachute down from from
anywhere else they belong to those lands whether
they are shia in pakistan they belong there
whether they are shia in iraq they belong
there they've been always there but they decided
to be shia or at some point they
became shia so we will have to figure
out how to peacefully coexist with them israel
does not belong there it's a created state
it's a manufactured state that doesn't belong there
so that is one big difference that is
one huge difference and nowadays you could when
you talk about danger when you talk about
strategic danger long term danger and someone may
be justified to say that you know if
i have 2 million people 200 million people
intent on eliminating me that sounds more dangerous
than 14 million people who you know are
keen on subduing me not eliminating me subduing
me dominating over me taking my land misappropriating
a piece of my land and dominating over
the rest so these are so maybe justified
but then there is there is another factor
which is called urgency urgency is there more
urgency in addressing the shia threat or the
zionist threat this year the zionist threat this
year so urgency has to be factored in
urgency must be factored in so different layers
we're not calling all the shia kuffar of
course that is that is the position of
the majority of muslim scholars and we have
never intended on eliminating the shia we want
peaceful coexistence with the shia because we recognize
that they are native to those lands these
are all differences that does not mean that
i should be oblivious to the to the
danger that they pose there is certainly a
great danger so what
brought us into this discussion Omar radiallahu anhu
and Omar Ramada so why is Omar particularly
hated why is he particularly hated why is
so much focus on Omar because he is
the hardest to bring down because Abu Bakr
radiallahu anhu despite the fact that he is
greater than Omar of course but he limited
you know like two years after the prophet
salallahu alayhi wasalam but Omar is basically the
founder of the muslim state as it is
you know the state part of it you
know the one who made the ministries and
the one who like opened the lands and
so although it started during time of Abu
Bakr but he is the one who accomplished
the most in terms of establishing a muslim
state the community the community that's why Michael
Hart puts him as the 53rd most influential
person in history for establishing the community and
he is the hardest to bring down because
of his iconic character because of his genius
because of his accomplishments because of his you
know sort of matchless piety and exemplary character
you know his behavior during Omar Ramada his
justice when justice is remembered Omar is remembered
these things make him so hard so if
they can bring this one down they brought
sunnism down if they can bring Omar down
you know Osman was a great man radiyallahu
anhu and whatever accusations people basically have for
Osman the idea that Osman used his relatives
the idea that Osman used his relatives Sheikh
Abul Ala Maududi had some critique for Osman
but one of the scholars of hadith from
the subcontinent wrote a response to Sheikh Abul
Ala Maududi's critique of Osman and in his
response he had shown that every accusation directed
at Osman the same could be said about
Ali radiyallahu anhu when we do this are
we trying to bring down Osman and Ali
no we're trying to exonerate Osman by saying
your accusations are not accusations and that is
the idea of that is in his book
he used the concept of ilzam ilzam means
what to flip your argument against you to
say that if you're saying that Osman appointed
his relatives in positions of authority here are
relatives of Ali radiyallahu anhu who were appointed
in positions of authority if you say that
this disqualifies Osman then it must disqualify Ali
so as a Sunni what are you saying
it doesn't disqualify anyone of them it does
not disqualify them and that's what you're doing
it's not that you're trying to bring down
Osman and Ali now does this mean it
doesn't disqualify them that do you call this
nepotism or something does this mean that it
is sanctioned in Islam no it doesn't mean
that does this mean that in our times
it would be suitable for the governor to
hire his relatives no it doesn't mean that
things change with time the fatwa changes with
time but they are operating within the same
context and it may also be said that
Banu Umayyah the clan of of Osman radiyallahu
anhu were politically more competent they were politically
more from the time of the Jahadiyya they
were among the elites they are politically very
competent and they have proven to be politically
competent and many of the of Osman had
great accomplishments so it may be said that
he is familiar with them he knows their
competency and that's why he hired them do
we prefer Omar's model yes and we naturally
particularly we belong to the 15th century age
so we naturally would prefer Omar's model because
of our circumstances and our context and because
we are fed up with our governors our
rulers and their nepotism and their favoritism and
all of that stuff so we will naturally
favor Omar's model but we cannot basically disqualify
Osman because he had a different way of
doing things because the same way Othman had
so but Omar is special Omar is different
Omar is the icon that basically Sunnism would
be brought down by disfiguring him he is
the one that sticks out he is the
one who had 13 years of reign of
great accomplishments at multiple levels that's why the
prophet said I have not seen a genius
who can do his works so we have
to we have to and maybe this is
related to the legal maxims that we had
this morning so I wouldn't basically produce a
movie about Omar or a series about Omar
I wouldn't do this because I wouldn't basically
depict Omar most of the scholars would disagree
with the depiction of the prophets and the
major sahaba such as Abu Bakr and Omar
and that has been used was used to
be the close to the agreement of the
scholars, it was never a consensus but this
was the prevalent opinion among the scholars, we
do not depict the prophets and hopefully no
one will we do not depict because the
picture of the actor will stick to your
mind the picture of the actor will stick
to your mind everybody and we don't worship
the prophet but to us he is certainly
a big deal we do not want to
have a picture of an actor associated with
the prophet but anyway but with the sahaba
as well the prevalent position among Muslim scholars
is that no depicting of the sahaba the
major sahaba the major sahaba and some of
them have different but at least the four
khulafa they were very adamant about them some
of them extended this some of them extended
this beyond so we don't depict the sahaba
but when they had a series about Omar
radiyallahu anhu I had mixed feelings I had
mixed feelings should there be a series about
Omar should there be a series about Omar
and should Omar everybody remembers that series most
of you have watched part of that series
most of you will associate Omar's image with
that actor's image when I talk about Omar
will you remember that actor most of you
will remember that actor you don't?
you never watched it?
ok, but if you watched it you will
associate ok, you have your own image but
what I'm trying to say is the scholars
had a point in disallowing the depiction of
the great sahaba you don't want to associate
their image with an image of an actor
and the actor may be decent may Allah
bless them but I'm just saying that even
if they are you don't want that and
certainly for the prophets no, no, no but
then when the series about Omar was produced
I had mixed feelings and up until now
I recommend for youngsters to watch it because
no matter how much we talk about Omar
and Amr Ramada and how he became darker
and emaciated and how he did this and
did that and so on it is not
like watching that series for young people impressionable
young people and if there is so much
if Omar is being attacked this hard and
this much and this frequently then you want
to immunize younger people by making a personal
connection between them and Omar Omar equals sunnism
Omar is the figure most important in sunnism
I hate not to say Abu Bakr but
because of the difference in accomplishments that the
prophet himself salallahu alayhi wa sallam pointed out
so if if the figure the prophet salallahu
alayhi wa sallam is the most important figure
of course but that is for Islam but
when it comes to the divisions afterwards so
Omar is the most important human figure of
sunnism and that is why he is being
attacked the way he is being attacked so
establishing a personal relationship with Omar of course
has to come way after establishing a personal
relationship with the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
and we're still saying no depiction of the
prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam but we're and
I am still saying no depiction of Omar
but I am saying ...
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Hadathana bishr ibn muhammad qala akhbarana abdullah qala
akhbarana shu'aba ana abi amran al jawnayi
ana abdullahi ibn assamit ana abi dhar qala
awsani khalili bi thalas asma'u wa utiya
speaking in the first person here walaw li
abdin mujadda al atraf wa iza sana'ata
this is second person here wa iza sana
'ata marakatan fa akthir ma'aha thum manzur
ahla baytin min jiranik fa asibhum minhu bi
ma'ruf the other hadith have the same
meaning hadathana al humaydi qala hadathana abu abdussamad
al ammi qala hadathana abu amran al jawnayi
ana abdullahi ibn assamit ana abi dhar qala
qala anabiyyuh sallallahu alayhi wa sallam ya abad
dhar iza tabakhta marakatan fa akthir ma'a
maraka wa ta'ahil jiranik awi qsim fi
jiranik hadith 113 abu dhar reported that the
prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam advised him listen
and obey, listen and obey even if the
leader appointed over you is a slave with
amputated limbs when you prepare stew and extra
water to add extra water to it then
look at the households of your neighbours and
share it with them in kindness hadith 114,
abu dhar reported that the prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam said abu dhar, if you cook
some stew add extra water to it and
look after your neighbours or share it with
your neighbours so the point in the hadith
in addition to the point of sama'a
wa ta'a to listen and obey and
this is a point that was emphasized by
the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam so much,
why?
because Arabs are rebellious by nature you know,
rebellious rambunctious, rebellious by nature you need to
really exert a lot of effort to subdue
them it was always it's always been true
it continues to be true you put 20
Arabs in one room, they come up with
21 opinions and they fight so the prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was aware of this
acutely aware of this problem and that is
why sama'a wa ta'a, listen and
obey because since when did they listen and
obey we're not talking about Arabs in Yemen
for instance we're not talking about the Qahtaniyin
in Yemen and Oman because these had civilizations
and they had basically hierarchy and civilization and
so on and so forth but we're talking
about the Qahtaniyin in particular you know, north
of Yemen all of the peninsula north of
Yemen did they ever sort of did they
ever honor or respect a hierarchy outside of
the tribal hierarchy and even within the tribes
there was competition you know, the clans of
Quraysh they were always competing, competing over everything
why did they reject the prophet sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam mainly because of competition now if
Banu Hashim will have one of the children
of Banu Hashim is now a prophet, where
do we go how are we going to
compete with this when do you catch up
with this, you never catch up with this
so no, he's not so they needed a
lot of emphasis on the concept of because
you can't really produce a civilization without hierarchy
you can't produce a civilization without hierarchy and
if you guys continue to be feudal tribes
you will never be able to produce any
civilization no good will come out of you
if you continue to be feudal tribes so
you have to listen and obey so much
emphasis on this the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam and this is like a genius statement
from the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he
wants to say that generosity and simplicity are
not mutually exclusive you could be very generous,
still very simple if you're making stew just
add extra water and share with your neighbors
it will do the same job it will
taste a little bit less rich but it
will do the job you will be full
they will be full and it will do
the job so generosity, it doesn't have to
be takalluf it doesn't have to be takalluf
whatsoever there is no reason for pretense or
overdoing it remember abu'l hafiz al-naysaburi
and al-junaid there is a story of
abu'l hafiz the one single comment that
abu'l hafiz had after spending a year
with al-junaid being treated very kindly by
al-junaid and very generously by al-junaid
the one simple comment abu'l hafiz wanted
to share with him on his way back
to naysabur there is the amalika takalluf there
is i don't want to even say pretense
because pretense would be a little too much
for takalluf huh?
it's overboard, overdoing it there is lack of
spontaneity simplicity so don't do this like when
you have hosts when you have guests from
al-fukara don't do this be hungry with
them as they are and full when they
are so don't overburden yourself and don't overdo
it so you could be generous without takalluf
you could be generous with complete simplicity and
that's what the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
was advising abu dhar to do and why
abu dhar in particular?
because abu dhar was a poor person and
certainly you know that socialists in our country
they're their biggest fan of abu dhar right?
their favorite sahabi all the time they have
nothing but abu dhar because he had some
socialist tendencies he had some sharing tendencies but
certainly he was not a socialist he is
not a socialist like them but he had
certain comments and statements that socialists can certainly
use so the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
was advising abu dhar to be simply generous
and generously simple and that's what the prophet
salallahu alayhi wa sallam was advising