Hosai Mojaddidi – An Agenda to Change Our Condition (Session 9)
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
I was made out of matter human hamdulillah so that was salam ala
eship and MDI even more saline. Say that our Mo La La Have you
been having fun with sal Allahu Allahu Salam. While he was
definitely said I'm the Sleeman Kathira I said I'm on a coma
Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh. Again, welcome, everyone for being here.
Thank you so much. We are covering a text that was written by Sheikh
Hamza Yusuf ne Manzi, check it. It's called agenda to change our
condition. I have the book here in front of me. For those who are
first time viewers, I like to just preview it right in the beginning
so that you can bring you up to speed about what we're doing here,
I do have a presentation that I've also prepared to go over the
chapter that we're going to talk about today. So again, if you
don't have the text, you can follow along with the slides, I do
highly encourage you to get the text just because there's so much
great content and it's really a wonderful resource to have for
just reference into look it over and we should review this text as
you know, maybe once a year or more often than that, whatever we
need. So Inshallah, let me go ahead and screenshare. But just to
while I do that last week,
we come Sorry, one second. Okay.
I apologize, I need to quickly message to get my screenshare
going. So just give me a second.
So last week, what we did was we talked about the chapter on
Dakhla. How to attain Dakwah the benefits of Taqwa. So you can and
all of the recordings, by the way are available. So if you go to
the previous YouTube, if you go to the YouTube page or the MCC
YouTube page, you will find all of our, our previous recordings. And
so again, just to kind of give those of you who may be tuning in
for the first time, a quick summary, the text is quite I mean,
it's not very lengthy, but there's several different sections. But
what I did is I started at the back of the text. So we covered
the appendices. And then we did the introduction and chapter one.
So hello, today we're doing chapter two. And today's chapter
is on the heart and its treatment. So I'm really excited to get into
that discussion with you today. So let me go ahead and screen share.
And Inshallah, I will
bring this up in just a moment.
Second, please, all these technical things we have to do in
sha Allah, it'll be worth it. Okay. So this Mala, we're going to
present here, and hopefully you guys can see everything. So
yesterday, we're going to talk about the heart and its treatment.
So if you're following with the text, you want to go to page 18,
in Shaba, and you'll be able to read along. So let's go ahead and
jump into the discussion. It starts off and tells us that
facilitating action is based upon true knowledge and action has two
modes. So the first mode of is the action of the heart. And then the
second is the action of the limbs. As for the heart, there are two
concerns. So what are the concerns of the heart? First and foremost
belief at PETA, we have to have a strong opinion on the Creed, the
belief, what do you believe in as a Muslim? What are the, you know
the points of opinion that we should all know about Allah
subhana, about the universe, about our place in the universe. So that
is all taught to us by our a pita. And then the second concern of the
heart is sincerity of faith. Because, you know, people can
claim to have faith, but only those who are sincere will have to
feel with Allah, right, because there are many people who are
going after pain. And they're the worst of people, the hypocrites
those who claim to be believers, but then their actions say
otherwise. So the sincerity of faith is also a very serious
concern, and a primary concern of the heart. So let's talk about
belief and sincerity a little bit more. In the text, they write here
that sound belief is accomplished by removing any doubtful matters
from the heart, and handler. This is, you know, facilitated for us.
I'll also panel data, by His grace, He makes it easy for us to
remove doubtful matters and I'll have this is why it's so important
for us to be reflective to think to try to look at the universe and
just the jaw that we should feel when we contemplate everything in
creation again from from the cellular level, you know, atomic
level, just small particle level, to the, you know, astronomical
level when you look out into the universe and you see things that
are beyond our imagination, very difficult for the human mind to
conceive. All of these things are signs aren't I yet
as of the last part that has put for us to, to, to really remember
that or or to reflect on the fact that this is not by chance, this
isn't just happen, you know, stuff other people who, again from with
no basis, that's what they claim that this is all just some some
big large accident. But of course, that couldn't be further from the
truth, this is not an accident, this is all intentional, there's
design. And that's why you see design and everything, you know,
SubhanAllah. So we have to look out into the world and really
think about this. And when you think about these things deeply,
and you of course, you seek answers from proper sources,
right, from knowledgeable people, from people who know, they will be
able to help you to, you know, go, whatever doubts you have, or
issues that you have to just work through those things. But the
answers are there, we don't shy away from asking, but we also
accept that we can't answer everything, right? There's many
things that we will just simply not know, in this lifetime, but
inshallah we have high hopes that inshallah in the next world, we
will have answers to those things. So, but inshallah that's been
facilitated right, belief, sincerity, however, we, as they
written in the texture, it's more difficult to achieve sincerity of
the heart through the actions of the lens. And this is really, you
know, a lifelong process when we talk about Majah had enough. So we
talked about the struggle of a human being, to, to just fulfill
all of their obligations. A large part of it does have to do with
actually perfecting our deeds, and making sure that we have the right
intentions, and that we do them with sincerity. Because many
people accumulate deeds, you know, you could do a lot of good deeds
in your life. But we don't know, and we'd likely won't know, in
this life, whether or not those deeds are accepted, right? We
don't know. And that's, that's the challenge is that, throughout our
lives, we're always doing that internal check, to make sure that
we are sincere when we do things when we give sadaqa when we pray
when we recite Quran, or when we given us see how are we to any
good act, that our intentions are always in the right place. And
that is why it's not, that's not very easy to do. And that's
something that is going to be for most of us a very, you know, part
of our struggle, part of the lifelong struggle that we all
have. And so even in the Quran right? Here, they say that the
entire creation was at a standstill, when it heard the
words of the Creator. So it wasn't how to reveal these verses.
Everything in creation was just, you know, it's an Amana. It's a
huge trust, right? They were only commanded to worship Allah
sincerely meclizine with the religion solely for him, right?
And then the last part that also challenges us here, this question
is not the sincere religion at the end of the heart is solely for
Allah subhanho data. So we have to think about, you know, this is
part of our mind or our you know, every day, we have to have this
presence of mind to know that it's not enough that I'm doing I have
to be doing them sincerely. Because if you just look at it
quantitatively, then you know, a lot of times shaytaan can delude
you to think, oh, I, you know, and this is where self righteousness
is a disease of the heart, many people who are practicing, you
know, their faith, ritual ritualistically they're doing
everything, you know, they do their prayers, they, they they do
all of the other obligatory acts, they may, you know, fall into self
righteousness because they think that it's enough that they do them
not realizing, well, it's from a loss product that you're doing
them, but the sincerity with which you do them, that's where you, you
make your mark whether or not you're truly sincere or not. So
that's the part that you have to focus on more because the fact
that we get up to pray is from all those prophets. So we don't
attribute that to ourselves. Guidance is from him. Right
guidance is the you know, when you when you have faith, you know that
that's from Allah, he's inspired you, but how well, you show your
faith right? How well you, you sound that you put into your
actions that's on us. So this is where sincerity becomes more of a
challenge. Now on page 19, they go into a longer explanation of this
word, purity, and really trying to understand why this is such an
essential part of our struggle. And so I'm going to read a little
bit here and there's just an accompanying slide to give you a
little bit of context, but here, they say that the Arabic word
hello hellos means purity, and the term 11 Harless means milk that is
free of impurities. This is the milk taken from the animal before
it is contaminated with anything else. So just giving you a visual
of something that
It's pure, free of contaminants right in that state, that it's
preserved, right? It's pure. And then immediately they go into the
heart, the hearts purity is contaminated by what? By wrong
actions and can only be purified by repentance and remorse. Okay,
so purity. Now another analogy here comprises a great station, so
someone who's reached this station of, you know, being a person of a
class, right? of sincerity in the religion, it's a high station to
achieve. And they've given you sort of like the, you know, the
the contrast to say that, just as fornication, for example, is a
precipitous fall into wrong action, right? Someone who engages
in that act of, you know, something clearly haram, it's like
a decline. So in the same way, that a person who's achieving or
who's achieved a class, it's it's gradual, it's something that's
it's elevating them, right. So it's kind of like that contrast
between the elevation of the mandalas and the the downfall of
the One who engages in a sin like fornication. So just to show you
this is a really heavy thing, a very important thing, then they go
on to say that scholars of the heart have identified both
corrupting and purifying actions that affect the heart state. So
this text now the remainder of this text, and particularly this
chapter, this text focuses on what facilitates the path to purity,
and how to draw near the way of struggle with the commanding soul,
right? Moreover, it clarifies matters that edify the way to free
one's intention from any contingencies that cause one to
act, for the sake of anyone other for anyone or anything other than
a lawn. So in sha Allah, this is what we hope to achieve going
through this text, right? That we are able to facilitate the path to
purity, and to free the NIA the intention to make sure that our
intention is not, you know, contaminated, that we're not, you
know, in any way doing things for other than the sake of Allah
subhanaw taala. And they go on and say that the likeness of the one
who acts, for the sake of anyone or anything other than Allah is
described in the following example. A shop owner hires a
laborer, and then says to him, this is my shop, and this is my
work, therefore, do all your work in my best interests. Despite this
decree, the laborer performs His work in the best interests of
someone else, or himself, rather than those of the owner. As
Muslims, we cannot do Allah's work and bidding when we have only our
own worldly interests at the forefront. Right. And this is
where, again, purity of intention is so important, because there are
in many cases where people may be outwardly presenting themselves as
doing things for the sake of Allah. But their intentions, they
have ulterior motives. And they have, you know, it's not for a
lot, it's for something else, it's for status, it's for maybe to gain
some worldly benefit here, reputation, there's many benefits
to in certain cultures, certainly in certain positions of in
society, there's many benefits of presenting oneself as a
religiously committed serious person, right? So there's could
be, someone could have many agendas, right? But this is why
it's so important to have purity of intention. So then, the
question becomes, well, how can we remove worldly motivations from
our actions? How can we make sure that our actions are truly for the
sake of all those aren't that and it's not that we want attention?
And this is a very relevant question. More so maybe now than
any time in human history. When you think about how,
you know, the world is turned into a giant fishbowl in many ways.
everybody's lives are I mean, there's obviously people who are
not participating. But there is a great number of people, billions
of people who are in fact, participating in this experiment
of social media, where every, you know, part of their life is
documented. And throughout the day, you get updates about
everything that someone's doing, what they eat, where they're
going, who they're with, what you know, where they work. So this
idea of getting attention constantly and seeking attention
is certainly one of the ways that one's intention can be
compromised. Because it's very, you know, alluring to have people
watching you fame and all of that that comes with it. Or just even
you know, notoriety or people knowing that you're doing
something that refuge
question that you get from that, even if you're not necessarily of
a celebrity status, you could be within your own small circle or
community or social circle or family even, there might be some
thing that you gain from sharing your life with everyone else. But
if this becomes part of the way that you are and you live, then
you can imagine how, how, how potentially every deed that you
do, that's you're saying is for the sake of Allah could be
compromised? Because is it really, if you needed to show everybody,
you know, when you went to volunteer at the soup kitchen, and
you're taking a selfie, and you know, showing everybody what
you're doing? Can you make that claim that was truly for the sake
of Allah? Or was it what they call, you know, virtue signaling
where people do things a virtue, and they just like to get that
attention for it. So this is a very deep issue that I think a lot
of us have to really think about. But this question is, you know,
something that the text is going to help us understand. And it says
right away answering that question, how can we remove
worldly motivations from our actions? The answer lies in the
rectification of our intentions, actions are only in accordance
with intentions right in the middle man of India. And thus
starting with the intention behind an act is the beginning of
achieving a state of living for the sake of Allah. So the process
of actually asking yourself and knowing within your heart of
hearts, you cannot, we cannot deceive all of us, that our the
biller, or the you know, we cannot, you know, try to hide
what's really in our hearts. So you don't have to necessarily
verbalize or articulate these things to anyone else, but
certainly to yourself, you should be at that level that where you
can honestly say, why you did something, was it so that someone
could hear that you did it? You could get status, you get praise,
you get likes followers, like, again, bringing it back to social
media.
But that process of questioning all of your actions, especially
those actions that are you claim, or are you you are trying to pass
off, as for the sake of Allah go back and do that inner inner work
of really questioning. But they go on to say that if one applies
perfume, it can be done in order to follow the Sunnah of the
prophesy centum and also as an act of charity for others, when it is
intended to be for the angels of my Lord. And in adherence to the
tradition of my prophesy centum we take a permitted act and elevate
it to a recommended or obligatory one. Likewise, food should not be
eaten merely for pleasure, we should intend the energy derived
from the food to be used for the strengthening of our bodies to
better serve Allah. So in this, you know, case, you can go and,
you know, as we said, question, what you've done to ask yourself
is it really for the sake of Allah, but the flip side of it is
actually acting with intentionality on this deep level,
where every single thing that you are doing, even just regular,
everyday acts like eating or putting on perfume, that you are
trying to find the way for it to become an act of where you're
seeking the pleasure of Allah subhanaw Without it, so aligning
yourself with the Sunnah, for example, as was mentioned, with
the perfume right, or looking back at, you know, something like a
blessing of food, as not being just this, you know, automatic
process that we have to do because we have to survive, but rather
elevating the intention to say, in sha Allah, I'm eating this food,
because it nourishes my body. And from that nourishment, I can, you
know, my body can be strengthened so that I can pray more I can go
and help people more of you see, it's like you're elevating the NIA
with which you're doing actions by instead of just like robotically,
you know, automatic processes that we've all sort of developed, where
we just wake up and just, you know, this is our, our routine,
right? And we're not really thinking about how can I gain more
reward for even those things that aren't necessarily worship? You
know, we don't equate basic things, meeting our basic needs,
for example, as being worshipped but it could be, in fact, a form
of worship when you take the time to apply this beautiful intention
to it right? And then they go on again, we're still on page 19. And
they say here that the following Hadith emphasizes the importance
of intending our actions for the sake of Allah. So this is the
Hadith. The first people to be judged on the Day of Resurrection
are the following. A man who was martyred who was brought into the
Divine Presence and shown His blessings, who admits to them and
who is asked, What did you do with all of these blessings? He will
reply I fought for your say
It was martyred. Now look at almost patatas response Allah
subhanaw taala says, the Exalted will say, you will lie, you fought
to be called a courageous man. And it was said about you and thus you
have been recompensed, right, it is then ordered that he be taken
to the fire. So this man is claiming that he died for the sake
of all US, bla bla bla bla, of course knows better. And he's
telling him, No, you wanted that notoriety, you wanted the fame,
you wanted all of those things to be said about you the praise, you
got it. Therefore, you were rewarded for what you did you see,
the reward was given to you already. And then all the villa
has sent into the fire. Then someone who studied the Quran and
taught it is brought into the Divine Presence and shown his
blessings. And he again acknowledges them and is asked why
he did them. And he responds, I studied knowledge and transmitted,
and I recited the Quran for your sake. And it is said to him, You
lie rather you desired to be called learned, and it was said
about you. It is an order that he has taken and he's dragged along
the face and thrust into it. It continues and there's, you know,
another narration about a generous man who also did the same. And he
said that his you know, his generosity was for the sake of
Allah. But it was for people to make praise him for being generous
and the same, he had the same fate. So this hadith is such an
important Hadith to reflect on. Because this is clearly telling us
as I said in the beginning, that we may never know if our
intentions are sincere in this life, and you know, we will know
in the next life, but revisiting the NEA and constantly questioning
and really being real with the fact that you cannot, in any way,
you know, trick all the biller or, you know, dilute I mean, you know,
or can, you know, lie or deceive to Allah subhanaw taala. That's,
you know, we should know that that's just basic common sense
that he knows what's in our hearts, and there's no way that we
can, you know, try to defend any other position than the truth when
when we're being asked about it. So, we should do that internal
process in this life instead of God forbid, facing a similar fate
where we end up on the Day of Judgment, being called into
question, may Allah protect us from that, but the point is, is if
we do that in this world, right, we are really clear about our Nia
Inshallah, we will make sure that our intentions are actually
aligned with the pleasure of almost profit and not for anything
else. So let's go ahead and go to the next slide. So the next
section now we're on page 20. The next after they related this
hadith, now we're talking about achieving sincerity. Okay, so, as
we said, belief in sha Allah and getting rid of the doubtful
matters, I was proud that I facilitates that for us in sha
Allah, and many people have been able to overcome those whisperings
and those doubts, but achieving sincerity is a different thing.
And this is where the struggle begins. So some of the ways
effective ways to achieve sincerity are here we have
guarding the tongue, right? So very important that we focus on
the things that you know, can potentially harm or as an inroad
to the heart, right, and the tongue, certainly, and the limbs
can, can cause spiritual ruin. So we guard our tongue, right, we
speak truthfully. And we maintain discourse in private and public
gatherings. So this is one of the first, you know, advice that they
give is, it's very important to do these three things. Watch how you
speak what you say, make sure you're a truthful person. And also
make sure you're consistent that your public and private person
that it's not that you're wearing, you know masks or you behave one
way in your home, and then in public, you're a total different
person, or vice versa. But did you have consistent see? And of
course, you know, there's certainly just to, you know, make
that clarification. Everybody has a certain degree of, you know,
private behavior, that would not be something they share publicly,
we're not talking about that. We're talking about just your
character, you know, if you are praying, and you're, you know, you
don't do foul things, and you don't speak a foul things that
shouldn't be consistent. Those types of things should not change
based on whether or not you're home or out in public, right? So
think about that, like, Are you the same person, you know, or
would people not recognize you? May God protect us from that
right? And so, the first step towards sincerity of the heart is
to protect our tongues from these things, and then to specifically
protect it from falsehood, dissembling which is to conceal
our true motives, feelings, or beliefs, and prevarications, which
is to deviate from the truth. So this is what we're seeking to
protect our tongue from these three things. And this is the
first step to achieving sincerity.
So then they go on. And they describe for us the four sources
of the destructive qualities of the tank. Okay, very important. So
there's four specific, destructive actions or qualities that the tang
may do, and we should know what they are and really how to avoid
them. So the first of course, is lying. And so right away, we're on
page 20, still moving into 21. The first just help us to understand
that we all know lying is forbidden in Islam, without valid
reason. But what are the valid reasons? So across the board,
lying is impermissible. It's haram, right? We didn't, we're not
deceptive, we don't lie. However, in certain situations, it may be
acceptable. And so let's look at what those three situations are
first, as a means to rectify between people. So as we know, you
know, human beings, we don't, some of us struggle with our
temperaments with our anger with our, you know, moods. And so
sometimes disputes happen, you know, things within families,
within marriages, there's things that can really be very disruptive
that happened. And so we can avoid sometimes things from escalating
just by maybe, you know, slightly changing some, you know, saying
some half truths, for example, like, let's say, between a husband
and a wife, if you are a family member, who is involved in, you
know, someone, maybe your sibling, maybe someone else in the family,
whose marriage is on the rocks, and they're really having a hard
time, and you are trying to soften the hearts towards one another.
And, you know, just really help them to appreciate each other
more, or to turn their negative feelings into positive feelings.
If the NIA that's your Nia, and you go to the wife or the husband,
and you say, oh, you know, they were saying all of these wonderful
things about you, and they always compliment you. And maybe that's
not true, you know, maybe they don't do things like that, but
you're just trying to soften the heart, right? Between the hearts
between these two people, these two, the spouse, these, this
couple, it's all that benefit. I mean, that's praiseworthy thing to
do. Because sometimes the ego gets to, you know, the egos, prevent
them from seeing the truth about one another, and all they see is
their own anger and resentment and, you know, shape out, of
course, they're so for you to be able to give them a different lens
with which to look at their spouse with just through a few soft, you
know, a kind words about one another or just slight, as I said,
half truths, or, you know, white truths as white lies excuse me,
Inshallah, that's okay.
I'm sorry. The next is, of course, you know, in war, we know, all is
fair in love and war, right. And as an effective military tactic,
sometimes you may need to deceive, you know, and that's to save
lives, 1000s hundreds of lives, you got to do what you got to do.
So there's certain rules of engagement that would apply here
when we're talking about military tactical situations. And then when
an individual plays with his young children again, sometimes, you
know, we may tell tall tales or kind of, you know, just in a
playful way, engage our children. And so, if you're a Nia is to, to
do those types of things, just to you know, expand their creative,
creative mind or imagination or be in a playful state, this would not
be considered deception, you're right, which is a total different
thing. And there, there may be other nuanced situations too. But
we get the idea, right, the NIA is good, you just start doing it for
certain reasons. But there, they do also make the distinction here
that the permissibility in the first two cases, right to rectify
between people or war, is through subterfuge, and prevarication. It
should never be through manifests lies, except in a case where the
other party party will clearly see through the stratagem. So you're
trying, you're subtly saying things you're not completely being
blatant with your lies, right, because, again, it would defeat
the purpose. So in such circumstances, one may lie with
the tongue, but must reject it within the heart. Okay.
Again, this is only applicable in a scenario where one's well being
or provisions of those of others is endangered. Nevertheless, be
cautious with the words because a lie might in some instances result
in a binding obligation. So this is more just like you know, FYI,
be careful that you don't be you know, go too far with this. You
know, try to be very subtle, because you could
entangle yourself into a much worse situation. So just FYI,
extra cautionary advice there. And then they give an example, an
example of a case where lying is permitted, is that of an oppressor
pursuing a just man. In that case, one should deceive the oppressor
openly, and lead him astray in this search.
In his search, this is permissible because a lie is not prohibited,
prohibited for its own sake, but rather for the harm that is
implicit in lying. In such cases, when and when truthfulness causes
greater harm lying in its stead is preferred. So, yeah, if there's
someone who's after a totally innocent person, you know, that
person is innocent, and you're trying to basically throw them
off, you know, the hunt or the search, and you lead them down a
different path, your intention is to protect someone who's innocent
from further harm. And it's not about the lie that you're telling,
right? So that's why it's permissible. And then they go on
to say, For this reason, the notion that good is good for its
own sake, and evil is evil, for its own sake, is considered false.
For example, a murder committed by an aggressor may appear identical
to an execution that occurred in compliance with sacred law. In
both its outward form and its characteristics. Someone who is
unaware of what actually transpired might confuse one after
the other, therefore, killing may be just or unjust, it is neither
good nor evil, per se. So that's a just, again, another
clarification. So that's the first thing that's mentioned as a
destructive quality of the tongue. The second is backbiting, and this
is, again, something we all need to be very clear about, because
it's not always understood to mean what it is sometimes we, you know,
people find these loopholes or they just don't have the correct
definition of what is backbiting and they may think that it's it
is, when it isn't backbiting or it isn't backbiting when it is so
let's clarify what it is. So backbiting or veba, is again
haram,
across the board in the Quran and Sunnah scholarly consensus,
there's really no dispute about that. And it's defined as
mentioning someone in a manner that would upset that person
should they hear it? So if you think about this could go in so
many different directions, right? Speaking about a person's person,
for example, their appearance, you know, things that they can't
control, we know for the most part that you know, whether or not a
person may smile, and kind of go along with the joke, if, you know,
most people don't like to be I mean, it's offensive, most people
will take offense to comments made about their appearance. And again,
things that are just very, very personal, deeply personal. But we
still find a lot of people passing these things off. Like it's no big
deal. Like, for example, coming up with a nickname, you know about
someone who maybe is their stature is, you know, shorter than that
others are or maybe then then the average right height.
A lot of people will pass that off. Like, it's not a big deal
thinking, Oh, well, they don't seem to mind. But just if you
really think about it, what person what person, whether they again,
their reaction is irrelevant, because it's really about just
common human decency to attack someone for something that had
nothing to do if and they had no control over like their physical
appearance.
You know, it's never acceptable. And so if you think, oh, it's not
a big deal, if I make a comment about someone just because they
are that way, or it's the truth, I'm speaking about, I'm describing
someone, let's say you're trying to describe someone who is, you
know, heavyset. And instead of trying to be careful with your
words, you just kind of that's the first word you use, you know that
that woman or that fat man, or that, you know, people can
sometimes be so like careless with the words that come out of their
mouth thinking that, while I'm just speaking the truth, it's not
a big deal. But here, right here, the definition is clear.
Mentioning someone in a manner that would upset that person, if
they heard it, would you say the same words if the person was
sitting there? If someone asked you to describe the same person
while they were in front of you, would you use a different set of
words? If so, then you know, that, that form of you know, describing
are the words that used to describe that person would fall
under this category of labor. It's just not.
It's not acceptable. And so you have to be more careful to know
that just speaking matter of factly or stating truths
Even if yes, someone may be a certain size, it doesn't make a
difference. The bottom line is, how would they feel if they heard
it? If they heard it, it would upset them. It's a big loss. You
see, very simple.
Then it goes on to say that, even if so yeah, so sorry, I wouldn't
be upset. That person should hear it, even if it is a true
statement. So that's what we just said, even if it's true, doesn't
matter, they're upset. Now, if the same is untrue, so let's say now
you are exaggerating something or literally lying about something
just because you don't like them. Right. The act is known as
calumny, or Colombia. I think that's how you pronounce it
Colombia. And that would be the Mima, right in Arabic. So this is
where you're now lying and backbiting at the same time, and
this is much worse. So there are some people who just had of their
annoyance with a person a hatred for a person, they may embellish
things or just literally distort truth, I mean, just lie about
them. All the biller when speaking about them, or if their name is
mentioned.
And, you know, that's completely haram like you, there's just no
way to justify that at all. You that's just a rotten thing to do.
Because it's this is how rumors get spread and lives can be
destroyed, based on a single, you know, rumor that you created just
that a feeling. You know, like you feel anger towards someone you
think that's okay. So we have to be very, very careful. And of
course, we know in sort of Infinidat chapter 49, verse 12,
this is the whole concept of Backbiting is described very
clearly, almost prompt that says, neither allow yourselves to speak
ill of one another, behind your backs. And Would any of you like
to eat the flesh of his dead brother, you would hate it. So be
conscious of our love for Allah as most relenting most Merciful? I
really love this for so many reasons. First of all, because of
course, it's the Quran, and it's Allah's brothers words, but also
because he is reminding us to not have, you know, don't be
hypocritical, don't be don't have double standards. Don't make okay
something that you know, for yourself, if someone did it to
you, you would hate it. So don't it because you know, what, I've,
in the past, sometimes when we talk about these topics, people
who engage in this, they, you know, they may find or trying to
find ways to work around what they you know, have done in the past
you said guilty conscience, right. And because some people just don't
really think it's that bad or, or if they're speaking about someone
who's wronged them, they feel so justified that they don't really
want to hear you, you know, correct them or reprimand them for
speaking about people behind their baggage, they just don't like it.
And you know, I'm sure all of us have found ourselves in those
awkward situations where we've had to shut down conversations, and
you get some attitude from people, right. But this is again, calling
us out on our double standards. Because if you're going to justify
it, you're doing it for on whatever, you know, basis you
think it warrants that, then you cannot just be real with yourself.
How would you feel if it was done to you? Right? If you had a taste
of your own medicine, as they say, How would you feel you would
likely hate it and it would bother you and you would never accept
anybody's excuses if you your best friend or your sister or someone
else you heard was speaking ill about you or mentioning even a
slight small, maybe blemish or problem or flaw that you have or
bad habit. You know, people sometimes spouses do this right.
I've certainly been in awkward situations where a spouse may
unveil their their partner in front of a group setting and you
can see that it's so uncomfortable for the whole group. And you know,
there's gonna be a huge you know, Fallout once they get in the car.
But it's like those little tiny words that are said when you're
not, you know, ready for it or it's just not comfortable to have
people know your business can set off such a strong reaction, right?
So you we all have that every person would feel hurt to know
someone speaking about them behind their back. So if you know that is
true for yourself, then don't justify doing it for someone else.
You know, may Allah forgive us, because sometimes, again, we
weren't careless. And so here on the bottom of page 21, another
reminder about this idea of all the blind eating the dead flesh,
you know, that analogy is just so hard to stomach literally. All
right. Likewise, you should detest backbiting because it tears into a
person's good name and honor. And this can be much worse than
actually tearing off
A piece of that person's physical flesh out of it. And we see that
now in our world of canceled culture, how devastating it is
when people's entire lives are completely turned upside down
based on sometimes a rumor, and we don't know, there's it's very
difficult to verify certain things we see it on, you know, I'm
talking about like high profile cases, but it's like really tragic
if you think about how sometimes people's lives have been
completely destroyed. Because of this, you know, just creating
false stories or, you know, gossiping, backbiting, whatever,
and then it just, it's like a fire that just gets a flame that goes
out of control. And at the end of the day, that person's reputation
is smeared, it's completely right, dragged through the mud, it's very
hard for people to recover, right? So we have to ask the last
president for protection from that. And then on page 22.
It says that in the above verse, Allah likens the absent one to a
dead person, the dead person is gone, and thus unable to defend
himself, just as the absent one being talked about is unable to
defend himself or herself. Furthermore, biting off part of
something causes harm to it, just to speaking ill of people causes
harm to them. A poet said, a cut inflicted by the tongue is not
unlike the cut inflicted by the hand. So again, just really
important reminders for all of us to reflect on and inshallah to, to
take ourselves into account for. So now we go into will, are there
circumstances where Backbiting is permitted? And believe it or not,
yes, there are specific circumstances where the act of
speaking about someone's potential flaws or you know, just things
that they've done that's harmful, wouldn't fall under the same
category as what we just talked about. Because again, it's about
the harm, that not speaking up about or or, you know, disclosing
some knowledge that you have about a person may cause further harm
than the actual harm of disclosing that knowledge. And so let's look
at those situations. So here we have Backbiting is permitted only
in the following circumstances, one, when appealing to an
authority to remove an injustice. So maybe sometimes you have to
unveil speak about something or someone in a situation like this,
where you're again, speaking to an authority figure, it could apply
to many different circumstances, but you are trying to prevent
further harm to remove an injustice. So you might have to
disclose certain information right? When seeking help from
others to change a wrong or to stop an oppressor from his wrongs.
So again, there's sometimes context is needed, you need to
give context for something, that context may involve
speaking about someone when they're not present, and so in
those cases, again, if the intention is to prevent further
harm, it would be permissible when seeking a legal opinion. There are
people who may be going through, you know, some business issue with
a ex partner, or business partner, and they need to get consultation.
And in that consultation, they may have to unveil unethical business
practices or other things that are private knowledge. But you need to
know what your rights are, you have to protect your interests,
right. Or some there may be again, another issue that you're trying
to avoid. And so you seek legal counsel or you know, this would
likely also apply to seeking counsel from for other situations
as well. You know, maybe you need to speak to a therapist or a
counselor about certain things in a relationship, for example,
right? When warning others concerning commerce, marriage,
neighbors and companionship, okay. For example, it's acceptable to
mention the violent temperament of a man to his prospective wife. So
if you have knowledge about someone, and then you find out
that they are, you know, being asked about for the purpose of
marriage, you know, maybe someone asks you directly, hey, I'm
thinking of so and so for my daughter, what do you think of him
or so and so for my son, what do you think of her and you have
knowledge that you are convinced or that you have evidence of you
have proof of and you really do think it would potentially cause
damage to this person, you know? I mean, there's a lot of people out
with a beloved who are they, you know, they they, they do this they
trick people. There's a lot of
fraud that happens in our community, unfortunately, around
marriage, you know, where people will present themselves as being a
certain way. But then you find out later that they have a whole
family or, you know, have children that they never spoke about, or
health conditions or debt, or all these other problems, because they
conceal those things, and they were not upfront, and honest and
truthful. So if you have knowledge that you think is actually could
potentially help people, you know, people avoid being hurt or being
scammed or being you know, in somehow abused, it's your
obligation to warn those people, right. So that those are
situations where it'd be permissible when one mentions a
man by a nickname he's known by, such as the lamented one. So this
is, you know, again, if you're going to, if you know, of someone
who has a nickname, that might not necessarily sound like really
nice, but that person is not being mocked or teased, or you it's not
a nickname that's necessarily used to disparage the person. But, you
know, it kind of doesn't have the most nice connotation or meaning
to it. If you're using it, in that case, it would not be considered
Riba, right, because it's sometimes nicknames stick, you
know, people in childhood, they'll get a name that, you know,
grandparents or a parent gave them and their whole life, they're
known by that name, and if they don't have a problem with it,
because hey, it's not a big deal. You know, it's kind of what I've
always known. And you've just, you know, got into the habit of
referring to that person by that name. That's not, that's not an
issue. But if you specifically create nicknames, or use nicknames
that you know, for a fact,
are actually to mock that person, belittle that person, it could be
anything, a totally original nickname that someone came up, it
could be a play on words, maybe that has to do with their name, I
mean, sometimes people get really could, they can get very crude
when, when speaking about other people that they will speak in
code, you know, it's like I'm, in order to justify or not even
justify, but to, to not
reveal who I'm speaking about, I'll use this code name, this is
the person's name. So every time I say this, you know, who I'm
talking about. And that nickname, you know, is to totally be a
little that person does disparage them, it would upset them, this
would not be permissible, this would be prohibited. So the
distinction is very important to understand nicknames that are, the
person themself has no problem with, and it's kind of, you know,
just everybody calls them that it's okay. But anything done to
mock them would be impermissible.
The next one would be mentioning innovation, someone's innovations
in terms of their religious practice, right. So if you know
that someone is doing something
with their or they have a, you know, practice or a belief that is
considered, you know, again, outside of what are the acceptable
differences of opinions, right, there's valid difference of
opinion on certain things, those things are not what we're talking
about, right? We don't, you don't mention that. But if you know, for
a fact, they have an idea about, let's say, and there are people in
our community who have their own ideas about a lot of things, you
know, prayer, you know, you don't need to do this, you don't have to
always do this, and they'll give people their own, like, fatawa,
you know, like, Oh, you don't have to make will do for every prayer,
or you can, you know, combine this prayer, that prayer, and they just
kind of speak from their own ideas. And you know, that that's,
that's not consistent, there's no room for that, in our tradition,
it's just their own, you know, innovations, you can certainly
mention that in a context that would apply because it's important
for people to know, you know, who people truly are, and especially
the, for example, in the case of marriage, you know, it's really
important.
Also, when mentioning the wrongs of someone who openly commits
those enormities, right, so if someone is openly committing sins,
but that person's name is mentioned in some context, and
everybody kind of knows that they do that if they drink alcohol, for
example, or they gamble
or they, you know, have relations outside of marriage, and it's kind
of something that everybody is known, knows about. And for some
reason, maybe you're discussing that person, for some context,
maybe they are in the community, and they're, you know, someone
needs their services for something and so, mentioning someone who
their public, their sins are public and you're just kind of
warning maybe someone or mentioning those things is, is
okay again with the right intention, but speaking about
their sin
He's unveiling people about what they do. What others don't know,
is completely forbidden. You can't wear it, we're not allowed to
unveil people just because you know. And so if you are even in
the context of marriage, for example, if there is a specific
issue or business, like if you're, you know that someone's about to
go into business somewhat with someone, and you want to warn them
that Oh, did you know they went into business two years ago with
so and so and it didn't go very well. And you can have you have
details, maybe very private knowledge that you know about?
That is fine, because your intention is clear. But if you're
going to add on and say, oh, yeah, by the way, he cheated on his
wife. And then I found out that he gambled or he fornicated or he,
you know, or he, I'm sorry, I mean, he he drinks alcohol, and he
does drug and you just kind of piling on a list all the bill out
of all the sins. This is now it's like a, you know, you just have
verbal diarrhea, you can't stop yourself, and you're just, you
know, unveiling someone and you need to stop, because that is not
the that's not in the context of why you're telling talking about
the person to, you know, the one you're speaking about the context
was, I'm warning you because of the business fallouts that they've
had in the past, for example. And so the extra information you can't
share. Okay. So that's really important to remember. And so let
me check time. Oh, wow. Wow, that hour went fast. SubhanAllah. I
still have a couple more. Let's see if I can do these. Oh, no, I
don't think I can do these. There's a lot more context. Okay.
Content. I mean, so let me I'm going to stop here at point number
two, which was backbiting and I'm going to get to the question and
answers because the rest of the sections, they need more time and
I'll just cut them off. So we'll have to continue with chapter two
for in two weeks in sha Allah. And yeah, I think it'll be a good
discussion in sha Allah because there's a lot more commentary.
Again, if you don't have the book, highly recommend because I love
like to just peruse this book. I'll just go over sections I've
read before because it's, they're just really good reminders, you
know, for all of us and we all have, this is our jihad. May Allah
give us sincere intention, you know, and of course may Allah give
us make our actions in line with our intentions but give us sincere
intentions we want to have the NIA but we also want to follow up
video with actions inshallah. So alhamdulillah let me go ahead and
stop the screen share right now. And then I will
Inshallah, come and check the
discussion or the comments, let's see 100 Allah
just give me one moment, I'll check Facebook as well as the MCC
page just to see if there's anything going on. Okay, so if you
have any questions, again, please feel free. I just see some nice
comments. This salams and Michelle was, which are always lovely to
hear. But if you have specific questions, let me go into the
YouTube page.
Let me know.
Okay, I'm logging on.
Oh, sorry.
Okay.
The best news, someone who feeds others, mashallah, yes, some nice
comments here. What about oils? Sister? I'm not sure if that
question was for me or someone else, because we did not discuss
anything like that. So I don't see any questions pertinent to our
discussion here. But we still have a couple minutes, like two
minutes. So if you want to ask please feel free. But other than
that, and so I hope you guys are benefiting from this class,
because I really do enjoy putting together the slides and having
this discussion. I wish it was more interactive. I wish we were
doing this in real time. You know, in person instead of the virtual
battle handler. We have to be grateful to all of us Panther for
the opportunities he gives us. And we all remember what happened when
we the quarantine started and it was Ramadan very shortly after and
I think a lot of us were really worried for good reason, too,
because it was our first Ramadan like this. But then Subhanallah
how many of us had probably the most exceptional experiences? I
know many people did. I had a really, you know, amazing Ramadan
this past year. So sometimes we we think things are a lot worse than
Allah subhanaw taala shows us the opposite. So always have a good
opinion of us. Pandaria Yes, it's a difficult time for most people.
and it has been for a while, but almost pronounced promise is true
and we have to hold on to that always no matter how intense
things get never forget the end amount of sedusa in the modern
cities now because that is what gives our heart life like we
believe in the promise of Allah subhanaw taala if he says, After
ever difficulty there's ease we believe in that and inshallah This
too shall pass. So we also want to keep all of you safe, your family
safe inshallah and may what's to come in the next few months again
male male is probably to give us strength and hold us together and
protect us inshallah from the fitna and just yeah make all of
this help us to come out of this with a renewed inshallah
understanding of our of our place and our purpose and to really just
see the world with a different lens because I think if we're
being honest with ourselves likely why we're in this situation is
because we we fell into heedlessness, we became forgetful,
we lost our way and so sometimes we have to, you know, learn that
the hard way to come back and to remember who we are so chala we
ask all this product for continued guidance and patience and, and
malice panda. bless all of you. Thank you for spending your Sunday
evening with MCC Spain Sharla please make dua for the organizers
of the volunteers and the staff in sha Allah and support MCC they
didn't ask me to say that but it is an organization if you are in
the Bay Area, they absolutely deserve our support maybe more so
now than before because it is tough times even for organizations
to just make their you know, overhead costs and all the other
there's still things still are happening you know, even though
we're doing a lot of things virtually So anyhow, that's just
my little short spiel for MCC. But do keep all them in your guys and
thank you thank you again for being here. We will go ahead and
end and I'll see you in sha Allah in two weeks. So Bismillah R
Rahman r Rahim Allah hacer el in Santa Fe Casa de La La Nina Ave. I
mean, it's funny have you with us will happy with the rest of the
Southern Sahara. Coahoma we have the crescendo and the heyland and
it's not good according to Blue Lake Allahumma salli wa salam O
Matic honestly that our MO Not happy with Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam Why not anyone's happiness for them personally when
because I'll have the ledger as I go along here and have a wonderful
evening, you guys. Inshallah take care so don't want to come over
here. We're better cattle.