Ibrahim Hindy – When Scholars Fail
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The transcript discusses the issue of abuse and corruption in the Catholic Church, which is allowing for more corruption and corruption. The discussion touches on the struggles of leaders with abuse and fraud, including subhanahu wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa wa
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Of the greatest actions that connect us to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the act
and the character of being honest and of
fulfilling our entrustment.
And the reality is that in today's day
and age, we have downgraded the idea of
fulfilling our entrustment or being an honest person.
And yet the Prophet ﷺ, he linked this
idea of entrustment to the very essence of
our iman.
And beyond that he linked it to the
establishment of the heavens and the earth.
So the Prophet ﷺ said, لَا إِمَان لِمَن
لَا أَمَانَتَنَا He said, there is no iman
in the one that you can have no
faith in them.
There is no faith in the one that
you cannot have faith in them.
That they're not trustworthy, they don't fulfill their
responsibilities, you can't have any faith in them.
There is no iman in that person.
A man once came to our Prophet ﷺ,
he said, O Messenger of Allah, مَتَ السَّاعِ
When is the hour?
And the Prophet ﷺ remained silent.
And he remained silent for so long, the
Sahaba began to speculate.
Some of them began to whisper, I don't
think the Prophet heard him.
Other people say, no he did hear him,
but he just didn't answer.
Finally the Prophet spoke.
And he said, إِذَا ضُيِّعَتِ الْأَمَانَ فَانْتَظُرِ السَّاعِ
He said, when the entrustment is lost, you
can no longer trust people anymore, you can't
trust them, then wait for the hour.
The day of judgment is coming.
The Prophet ﷺ here is drawing a connection
between the establishment of the heavens and the
earth.
Like the hour comes, everything is gone.
Being able to have the heavens and the
earth and everything in this world is predicated
on people being honest and trustworthy.
And that when that honest and trustworthiness is
gone, the whole universe is gonna collapse.
And so while sometimes we degrade and belittle
the idea of honesty and trustworthiness, the Prophet
ﷺ is expanding it.
Allah ﷻ tells us in the Qur'an,
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ أَمَنُوا لَا تَخُونُوا اللَّهَ وَالرَّسُولِ
وَتَخُونُوا أَمَانَاتِكُمْ وَأَنتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ O you who believe,
don't betray Allah and His Messenger and betray
your many entrustments.
This is plural, أَمَانَاتِكُمْ The many things that
you have been entrusted with, do not betray
them.
وَأَنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ While you know.
This is not just about when you're asked
a question, you don't lie.
This is not just that, oh, I'm an
honest person, I don't put my hand in
other people's pockets and grab their wallets.
I'm not a pickpocket.
No, Allah ﷻ is telling you, honesty is
that you have many entrustments.
Praying your salah is an entrustment.
Being good to your parents is an entrustment.
How you deal with your family is an
entrustment.
How you deal with the community is an
entrustment.
These are all أَمَانَاتِ These are أَمَانَة Allah
ﷻ has entrusted you with.
You have to take care of it.
The Prophet ﷺ tells us the reward of
taking care of this.
He said, الصلاة الخمس والجمعة إلى الجمعة وأداء
الأمانة كثارة لما بينهما He said to pray
your five daily prayers, if you pray your
five daily prayers, they're removing the minor sins
in between.
If you attend one Jumu'ah to the
next Jumu'ah, it's removing the minor sins
in between.
And if you fulfill your responsibilities, your entrustments,
one to the other, you're removing the sins
in between.
And the Prophet ﷺ tells us that people
will be walking on the Sirat.
They will be walking this bridge to get
to Jannah.
And beneath them is the Hellfire.
A very difficult bridge to cross.
And he says two things will be sent.
They will come by your right and your
left side.
الرحم والأمان Your family relationships and your entrustments,
your responsibilities.
They'll come to your right and your left.
If they're strong in the dunya, you have
strong rails to hold on to.
And if they're weak, then you have nothing
to hold on to.
The Prophet ﷺ said in the hadith we
mentioned in the beginning, إذا ضيعت الأمانة فانتظر
الساعة If the entrustment is lost, then await
the hour.
A whole society cannot exist without trust.
An ummah cannot exist without trust.
Look today to America.
They just elected Donald Trump as all of
you know.
If you go to the average American who
voted for Donald Trump, and you ask him,
why did you vote for him?
He might tell you a few things, but
one of the things he's going to tell
you for sure, I don't trust all these
other politicians, and I don't trust the media.
So if you say, the media said this
and this and this about Trump, he says,
I don't trust them.
You say, other politicians are saying this and
this and this, he says, I don't trust
them.
And he has reason to feel this way.
Because other politicians have been corrupt for years
and years and years and years and years.
So he has a right to not feel
trust in them.
And the media as we all know, the
media lies constantly.
So he has a reason not to trust
them.
So now he puts his trust in someone
he thinks is different.
He thinks Donald Trump is different.
This doesn't mean Trump is actually good, he
could be just as bad or even worse.
But the point is you see a whole
society, they all hate each other, they're all
polarized, they all don't trust each other.
And you see the whole society is falling
apart.
Everyone there feels like everyone else is dishonest.
And the Prophet ﷺ tells you, when the
whole world is dishonest, فَانْتَضِرْ سَاعَةً, wait for
the hour.
Now it's easy for us to talk about
lack of honesty, lack of trust when we
talk about politicians.
Whether in Canada, in America, or even in
the Muslim world.
We can look at all the leaders and
the rulers in the Muslim world who have
sold out our brothers and sisters in Gaza.
Who have the ability to put pressure, they
can stop sending oil, they can try different
ways to put pressure on them, and they
refuse.
They've sold out our brothers and sisters being
slaughtered.
We can talk about that, it's easy.
Everyone will agree, everyone will nod their heads.
The difficult conversation I want to have today
is about the people of the religion, the
scholars and the da'ees, who sometimes do
not fulfill the entrustment of this religion, and
of doing what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
has commanded.
When the scholars or the people of knowledge
themselves are corrupt or abusive.
And this can take ways in many forms.
We've seen how many dictators as they slaughter
Muslims or imprison them or torture them, bring
out a scholar to say, look, what I'm
doing is right.
Or when they justify having concerts and filthy
people dancing, just a stone throws away from
the Kaaba itself, and they bring some scholar
to justify it.
Or cases of abuse that we've seen in
places, in America and Canada.
And I'm not talking about any particular case,
but we know these things have happened.
What do we do when the people of
knowledge or the people we perceive to be
people of knowledge have failed in their responsibility?
The Prophet ﷺ said, إِنَّ أَوَّنْ مَا تَفْقِدُونَ
مِنْ دِينِكُمْ الْأَمَانَةِ He said, the first thing
you will lose from your religion is trust,
is being able to trust each other.
So I have a few points for us
to consider.
The first point is that our deen never
told us that the people of knowledge are
sinless.
It never told us the people of knowledge
are beyond reproach.
Other religions have said this.
Other religions have said their people of knowledge
are ma'soom, are sinless.
They are gurus, they are enlightened.
You have to go and follow them and
listen to whatever they say.
Islam never made this claim.
Islam tells you the people of knowledge are
important, you have to go to them, ask
them questions, yes.
But it didn't tell you they're perfect.
In fact there are verses in the Qur
'an that we have to pay attention to.
One of them Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says, وَاتْلُوا عَلَيْهِمْ نَبَئِ الَّذِي آتَيْنَاهُ آيَاتِنَا فَانْسَلَخَ
مِنْهَا فَأَتْبَعْهُ الشَّيْطَانَ فَكَانَ مِنَ الْغَاوِينَ Allah says,
tell them the story.
Tell them about the one who we gave
him our signs.
We gave him knowledge.
Even some said he had miracles that came
to him.
فَانْسَلَخَ مِنْهَا He removed himself from it.
He removed himself from the knowledge.
فَأَتْبَعْهُ الشَّيْطَانَ So shaytan followed him.
فَكَانَ مِنَ الْغَاوِينَ He was of those who
were deviant.
وَلَوْ شِئْنَا لَرَفَعْنَاهُ بِهَا Allah says, if we
wanted we would have raised him with it.
Meaning with the knowledge.
We would have raised him up.
وَلَكِنَّهُ أَخْلَذَ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ But he wanted to
adhere to the ground.
To be lowly.
وَاتَّبَعَ هَوَاهُ And he followed his desires.
فَمَثَلُهُ كَمَثَلِ الْكَلْبِ Allah says, his example is
like a dog.
Why like the dog?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, if you
chase the dog, what will it do?
It sticks out its tongue and it pants.
And if you leave the dog alone, you
don't chase it.
It sits down, but it also sticks out
its tongue and it pants.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying here,
that this is a story about a man
who had knowledge, but he was seduced by
dunya, by fame, by money, by women.
So he threw away the deen.
He used the deen to fight against the
Muslims.
He used his knowledge of the religion to
fight the believers.
And the Prophet ﷺ says here, فَأَتْبَعْهُ الشَّيْطَانِ
Shaytan followed him.
And there's two interpretations here.
It means, everywhere this guy went, Shaytan came
to seduce him to do more evil.
But the other interpretations, he was so evil,
Shaytan was following him.
He was inventing new ways to be evil,
that Shaytan didn't even think about.
Shaytan said, I'm gonna follow this guy.
Shaytan became his follower, not he became the
follower of Shaytan.
And Allah is giving you the example of
the dog, because He's telling you, this person,
whether you gave him knowledge, or you didn't
gave him knowledge, it didn't make a difference.
Just like the dog, if you chase it,
it pants.
If you leave it alone, it pants.
Doesn't matter.
And this humiliating example, of course, is the
dog, because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
humiliating him.
Just because someone has knowledge, or even memorized
the Quran, doesn't mean they're incapable of evil.
Even extreme levels of evil, as Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala shows us in these verses.
Allah tells us in another verse, كَمَثَدِ الشَّيْطَانِ
يِذْ قَالَ لِلْإِنسَانِ كفُرٌۢ فَلَمَّا كَفَرُ قَالَ إِنِّي
بَرِيءٌ مِنكُ إِنِّي أَخَافُ اللَّهَ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ Allah
says, like the example of Shaytan, who told
the person, disbelieve, do kufr.
فَلَمَّا كَفَرُ, when he disbelieved, Shaytan said, إِنِّي
بَرِيءٌ مِنكُ I have nothing to do with
you.
And the scholars of Tafsir give the story
of a man named Barsisa, who was a
devout worshipper, worshipping all the time, day and
night.
And one day, three brothers came to him.
They said, we have to travel for a
long time, and we're leaving behind our sister.
Can you take care of her?
And first he said, no, no, I don't
want anything to do with this.
But they pressed him, so he agreed.
It's a long story.
In the beginning, he just left the water
and the food at her doorstep.
Then he started to think, maybe she's lonely.
I should go give her salam.
So he knocks on the door, he says
salam.
And then now, saying salam now becomes chatting.
And now he's chatting with her and talking
to her all the time.
And then that leads to falling in love.
And that leads to zina.
And then she gets pregnant.
And he thinks to himself, what am I
gonna do now?
Her brothers are gonna come home, they're gonna
see she's pregnant, what do I do?
So he killed her, and he buried her.
And when the brothers came back, where's our
sister?
He said, she got sick, and she died,
and I had to bury her.
All three brothers start getting a dream.
The dream is telling them, dig up the
grave of your sister.
Go look for her grave and dig her
up.
All the brothers say, you had the same
dream, yes.
So let's go.
They went, they dug her up, and they
found she's been stabbed.
She's been killed.
She didn't just die.
And they understand, this man killed her.
So they went and they grabbed him.
They wanna kill him.
And he doesn't know what to do.
And shaitan comes to him, and tells him,
you want my help?
I can save you.
The man says, yes, I need your help.
He says, disbelieve in Allah.
Do kufr in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
I will save you.
So he disbelieves in Allah, and what does
shaitan say?
إني بريء منك إني أخاف الله رب العالمين
He says, I have nothing to do with
you, I'm afraid of Allah.
And this man dies in kufr.
So all the worship he did, didn't save
him.
And the point, or one of the points
of both of these stories, is that the
people of knowledge are human beings.
They're human beings.
They can make mistakes.
And they can slip.
And just like everyone else, we can follow
the steps of shaitan one after the other,
like this man, until he fell into the
worst of sins.
Abdullah bin Mas'ud radiyallahu anhu, I'm the
companion of the Prophet, he said, مَنْ كَانَ
مِنْكُمْ مُسْتَنًا فَلْيَسْتَتِنْ بِمَنْ قَدْ مَاتْ فَإِنَّ الْحَيْي
لَا تُؤْمَنْ عَلَيْهِ الْفِتْنَةُ He said, whoever amongst
you wants to rely on someone, rely on
the ones who have died.
Because the one who is alive, they're not
safe from fitna yet.
Meaning, even if you think I'm good, and
I think you're good, alhamdulillah, we're all good
people, we all love Allah and His Messenger,
tomorrow there might be a new fitna.
In fact, tomorrow there will be a new
fitna.
How do we know who's gonna pass or
fail the fitna?
We don't know.
Any of us can fail the fitna tomorrow.
Who do we know is not gonna fail
the fitna of tomorrow?
Who are we sure is not gonna fail
tomorrow's fitna?
The people already died.
I'm certain Imad Ahmed is not gonna fail
tomorrow's fitna.
Because he's not alive to begin with.
So I can rely on them, they've already
lived, they've died, they went through fitna, they
were strong, we can rely on them.
And these are words of tremendous wisdom from
Ibn Mas'ud r.a. For those who
are alive, we love them, but we don't
understand.
There's still more to the story.
Inshallah, everybody dies upon Islam.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
allow us all to die upon Islam.
But we don't know what's coming tomorrow.
The second point, one of the biggest threats
we have is that when people discover one
person of knowledge is corrupt, or committed evil,
or whatever it might be, they think now
all of the people of knowledge are corrupt.
They think all of them are like this.
See this person who did x, y, and
z, all of them now are like this.
This is called generalization.
And this is really dangerous.
Because now we're losing trust in the religion
and the people who can teach us the
religion.
So then they start going to people who
are gonna tell them, Oh, drinking alcohol is
not haram.
They're gonna go to people who are not
the people of knowledge, who are gonna tell
them wearing hijab is not wajib.
They're gonna go to people who are not
the people of knowledge, who are gonna tell
them zina is not a big deal.
Because they've now discounted all the people of
knowledge, because they generalized the corruption of some
to be the corruption of all.
And we see a powerful story of Salman
al-Farisi rahim Allah ta'ala, which is
too long to mention all of it.
He tells us his long journey of coming
to Islam.
He began in a family that was Zoroastrian,
they would worship fire.
And he comes across some Christians, and he
listens to their religion, he sees they believe
in one God.
These must have been real Christians, who had
not believed in the trinity and what not.
So he says, their religion is better than
mine.
He runs away from his people to join
the Christians.
And he goes to priests who can teach
him about the religion, Christianity.
And he goes to one priest, and he
says the man was corrupt.
He would tell the people, give money, and
he would put it in his own pockets.
And he said, I hated him more than
I hated any man.
And when he died, Salman al-Farisi told
the people, this man was stealing from you.
And they found he had tons of money
hidden.
Now what does Salman al-Farisi do now?
Did he say, oh this guy was evil,
and he was pretending to be the religious
guy.
Now the whole religion must be evil.
Did he say all the people of the
religion must be evil?
He didn't do that.
What did he do?
He went and he found another priest.
And he said that man used to be
devout, and used to worship Allah.
He said, I loved him more than any
man who didn't pray five times a day.
Meaning the Muslims who pray five times a
day, of course I love them more.
But other than them, this man I loved
him the most.
And he learned from him.
So Salman continued his journey of finding the
truth.
He didn't generalize the one person who's corrupt,
with the entire religion, or with all of
the people of knowledge.
The third point.
If we come across wrongdoing, evil, corruption, Salman
al-Farisi didn't hide it.
He didn't say, I'm not gonna tell people
about this corruption, I'm gonna hide it.
No, he told people about it.
Sometimes when there's abuse, people wanna hide it.
They say if people find out, it's gonna
look bad on the religion.
But when we do that, we're allowing more
and more corruption to happen.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, لَا يُحِبُّ
اللَّهُ الْجَهْرُ مِنَ الْقَوْلِ بِالسُّوءِ إِلَّا مَنْ ظُنِمٌ
That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not
love raising your voice, except in the case
of the person who's calling out for oppression.
Oppression has taken place.
And when we think about the Catholic Church
and all the things that happened to them,
the biggest problem they had is they would
find out someone is committing abuse, and they
would hide it.
And they would move that priest from one
church to another, and he would do the
abuse again, and again, and again.
So hiding it is actually gonna hurt us
in the long run.
If we come across allegations, we have to
take it seriously.
And if it requires it, we have to
call the police, especially when it involves children.
Because what bigger amanah is there than children?
We have to take care and protect our
children with all that we have.
The fourth point, unfortunately people don't even know
what a scholar is.
One time I was in an airport in
Cairo, in Egypt, and I'm washing my hands.
And one of the workers in the airport
came up to me, and he starts asking
me questions of halal and haram.
Is this halal, is this haram?
And I'm looking around, like, why are you
asking me?
And this is a long time ago, this
is 2013.
I wasn't even working as an imam or
anything.
I may be a volunteer, give some talks.
And I'm dressed not like this, I'm dressed
in jeans and a t-shirt.
So I'm like, why are you even asking
me?
What made you know I have any knowledge
at all?
And he was like, because your beard.
My beard is maybe a little bit longer,
but I have a beard.
And he's like, this is it.
This is the reason why he thinks I
know something.
We have a problem where sometimes anybody who's
giving a khutbah, people think he's a scholar.
Anyone who recites Quran with a nice voice,
we say he's a scholar.
No.
Scholars are few.
It takes a lot of time and effort
to become a scholar.
I tell you guys all the time, I'm
not a scholar.
Sometimes some of you come after Jumu'ah
to ask me a question, and I might
tell you, I don't know, let me ask.
Because I will go and ask people who
have knowledge.
Because I want you to understand, I'm not
a scholar.
And so when we don't have any idea
of how to distinguish the real scholars from
people who maybe are students of knowledge, from
people who maybe have just a good way
of talking, we can't make any differentiation between
them, then it opens the door for con
artists and charlatans to come in and to
pretend that they are bigger than they are,
and everybody follows them, then they find out
this person is committing evil, and now they
think, oh, the scholars committed evil.
And this person was so far away from
being a scholar to begin with.
He wasn't even in the same area code
as the scholars.
And this is a problem that we have,
we have to get better at gaining knowledge
so that we understand who are the people
of knowledge and who are not.
Who are the real scholars and who are
the students, and who are just some people
who might know a few things.
We have to know that differentiation.
The fifth point, and the last point inshallah,
what's important for us to understand, our iman
is in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, not
in the people.
Our iman is in Allah, not in the
people.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, وَجَعَلْنَا بَعْضُكُمْ
لِبَعْضٍ فِتْنَةً أَتَصْبِرُونَ We made some of you
a fitna for others.
Some human beings are a test for other
human beings.
And sometimes that test might be someone you
regarded him as a good practicing Muslim, or
you regarded him as a person of knowledge,
and then you find out he committed something
wrong.
Maybe there's a wisdom in this test.
That wisdom is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
is seeing is your iman in Allah, or
is your iman in the people.
Are we only Muslim because of the people
around us, or are we Muslim because deeply
truly in our hearts we believe in Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Would our iman be totally destroyed if one
of our friends left Islam?
It's a tough question, but it's an important
one.
Would our iman be totally destroyed if our
family members left Islam, or our parents left
Islam?
And I've seen this happen to people.
Would it completely be destroyed, or is your
iman in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
Would your iman be totally destroyed if you
found out I committed haram, or is your
iman in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not
in the people?
It's an important question.
Ali ibn Abi Talib radiyallahu anhu said, إِنَّ
الْحَقُّ لَا يُعْرَفُ بِالرِّجَالِ أَعْرِفِ الْحَقُّ تَعْرِفْ أَهْلَهُ
He said, truth is not known by the
people.
Know the truth, you will know its people.
It's a very powerful statement.
You know the truth, you know Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, then you will know the
people of the truth.
If I follow the truth because of the
people, then when the people go astray, I
no longer know the truth, I no longer
connected to the truth, then that's a problem.
I have to know the truth, I know
Allah, I know the messenger of Allah, I
know the Quran, then I will know the
people of it.
If I assume this person is from the
people of Islam, and not the people of
the Quran, then I find out he did
something wrong, then I blame him, I don't
blame the Quran, I don't blame the truth,
I know the truth, then I'll know it's
people.
Not I know the people, then I know
the truth.
فَأَقُولُوا قَوْلِي هَذَا وَاستَغْفِرُوا لِلَّكُمْ وَاستَغْفِرُوا إِنَّ
وَنَغْفُرُوا رَحِيمًا