Ingrid Mattson – Friday Gems & Shaykh Ismael Essa
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AI: Transcript ©
We wanna welcome all of you who have
joined us from around the world.
Looks like we are going to have a
very large audience for tonight's program,
our our weekly
Friday Gems program
with a recitation of Surat Al Kaf,
reflections on some of the verses from Surat
Al Kahf,
and then the second part is a reflection
or a short lesson
that
we will have, and then a q and
a session right after that. So we have
really a 2 part series, a 2 part
program coming up to you today, Surat Al
Kahf reading and reflections,
and then a lesson and q and a
session right after that, Insha'Allah. We're very excited
to have,
Masha'Allah
Sheikh Ismail reciting,
Quran with us again this week.
And for the first time in this Friday
GEMS program, we have doctor Ingrid Matson,
one of the, you know, great scholars that
we have here in North America
joining us as well.
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That that said, we're gonna go ahead and
begin with our recitation of Surah Al Kahf,
then reflections on the Surah.
If you wanna resize your screen and zoom
to, you know,
resize the size of the webcam or of
the the verses, you can do that easily
in Zoom,
by just resizing there in the middle.
And I'm gonna introduce now Sheikh Ismaila'Isa
Masha'Allah who leads the and founded the Tarteel
Academy where he teaches Quran,
recitation,
memorization.
You can follow him on social media. We're
gonna share the links to his academy and
his social media pages in the chat room.
He's always posting beautiful
recitations from parts of the Quran, and you
can learn more about his, his institute where
you can, have your kids or yourself learn
Quran, inshallah,
at the Muslim Center of Greater Princeton
in Princeton,
New Jersey area, inshallah.
That said, I'm going to now hand it
off to,
Sheikh Ismail. Inshallah, we will be projecting
the verses in Arabic,
with a translation in English
and, inshallah,
a transliteration
as well. So we're very honored to to
have you, with us, Sheikh Ismail, again,
for for multiple weeks, and he will go
ahead and begin. And then after that, Doctor.
Ingrid Matson will share reflections from some of
the verses
of Surat Al Kahf, Insha'Allah.
Thank
you so much, Sheikh Ismail, for that beautiful
recitation.
I will now
introduce
Doctor. Ingrid Mattson. Let me pull up my
slides here real quick.
Sheikh Ismail just recited Surat Al Kahf, Masha'Allah.
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Now I will introduce doctor Ingrid Matson, who
we're very honored to have with us today
on on the Friday GEMS program for the
first time, but she's been on many Celebrate
Mercy programs and taught at many of our
conferences as well.
Doctor Ingrid Matson is the London and Windsor
community chair
in Islamic Studies
at Huron University College at Western University in
London, Canada.
Previously, doctor Mattson founded and direct and directed
the Islamic chaplaincy program at Hartford Seminary and
served as the president of the Islamic Society
of North America, ISNA.
Doctor Matson's research focuses on Quranic
sciences, theological ethics, and interfaith engagement.
Some of her work can be found on
ingridmatson.org.
Ingridmatson.org.
We'll post that link in the chat as
well. Doctor Matson founded and directs the Hurma
project,
a major research project committed
to upholding
the sacred inviolability,
the hurma, of each person who is present
in Muslim spaces by elucidating
the special responsibilities
of those holding power and authority
and by educating those who are vulnerable
about their god given dignity
and rights.
So we're very honored to have doctor Matson.
As she's speaking about some of these verses,
we'll be showing the verses on screen,
as she's speaking about them, Insha'Allah.
After she's done, we will have a brief
lesson by her on another topic,
which is called engaging nature with nature
for spiritual and mental health. But now she
will be speaking about verses from Surat Al
Kaf insha'Allah.
Doctor Mattson, the floor is now yours to
to go ahead and begin insha'Allah.
Thank you so much, brother Tadek, and thanks
to Celebrate Mercy for
giving me, the opportunity and all of us
once again to connect,
to remember Allah
to reflect upon the teachings of the prophet
Muhammad
Subhanallah, Celebrate Mercy has been doing
programs for so long, and it was is
really such a blessing from Allah
that,
you know, that they already had this experience
when we,
entered this
new phase of our lives, this new lockdown
period.
Let me begin by saying just giving you
a little bit of context,
for this talk today. I am
on an island,
in the Saint Lawrence River in Canada.
I'm at a place that is
quite, rudimentary.
And, Insha'Allah, the Internet will continue to work,
definitely not hardwired.
And I cannot guarantee that we will not
be interrupted
by,
an animal.
There are many animals around here. There are,
dogs who take care of the place.
There are,
random events that could happen. I did hear
a thunderstorm,
sort of rolling in the distance. So we'll
see. It'll be one of those exciting times.
We've all gotten used to random,
you know, children or pets walking in on
people's Zoom conferences. It might might get even
a little crazier than that here, but, we'll
see. We'll take it all,
as part of this,
this new world that we're experiencing.
So, today, I had I chose to,
speak about a section of Surat Al Kahr
that
is,
often,
I would say a little bit,
while we read it, maybe some people don't
pay that much attention to it.
Certainly, the,
charismatic,
figures
like the dogs in the cave and
the,
story of Said Namusa and Khidr.
There are many more charismatic figures in Surat
Al Kahr.
So this is kind of like a,
a section that is more low key perhaps
in terms of the messages.
And I wanted to focus on it for
a few reasons.
One, to give it the attention that it
deserves.
2nd, because,
I'm linking it with
my the second part of my talk, which
will be about engaging with nature
for spiritual and mental health.
And that might seem a little surprising because
this section
of in a way
really is focusing
on on the theme of,
not being
so,
deluded
or being so,
enamored of this world that we forget that
it's temporal.
And really one of the big keys in
in our lives, one of the the tricks
in our life is for
it is to be able to balance our
appreciation
for
the life that Allah
has given us in all of its beauty
and all of our relationships
and all of the goods
to really appreciate those and not deny the
blessings
that we have
while at the same time
holding the awareness
that,
these are temporal things and that our final
home is in the next life with Allah
And that's that's not an easy balance to
make.
And so as let's let's just read
through and then,
I'm going to read through in translation and
give some brief commentary
on these verses
between,
verse 32 and 49.
So Allah
and we'll we will be,
I'll be giving them in,
translation. I have my translation alongside the one
you're seeing, so you might get some variations.
So,
set forth to them the parable of 2
men.
For one of them, we provided 2 gardens
of grape vines and surrounded them with the
date palms.
And in between, we placed other crops.
Now, of course, for much of human history,
wealth,
human beings wealth
was held in the form primarily
of land
and
the,
productive
plants
that were on that land as well as
animals
that
produced,
you know, milk, eggs, meat,
for people. That really is what what wealth
was to most people. There's a there's a
wonderful book,
about,
animals in Egypt
and, in the 19th century and animals in
autumn autumn and Egypt in the 19th century.
And it is really amazing to see
in terms of numbers
what how many people had animals and pretty
much everyone, even people who lived,
Muslim people who lived in cities or towns,
had some kind of animals in their homes,
whether they were, you know, a couple of
chickens or something like that.
Some of you who have who still have
relatives
in,
in traditional societies or in Muslim majority societies
might,
you know, might have relatives who have those
some some animals
sort of inside their house or even sometimes
on the balcony.
And what's important about that is it's not
only about,
having some access to food, but it is
about
being
you know, having these other creatures around us,
and that's something I'll talk about a little
bit more later.
So when we think about when we when
we read the Quran
and we hear about the stories of the
people before, remember that when they were talking
about wealth, they're not talking about piles of
of cash or coins or something. Of course,
there were always some people who were wealthy.
But for most people,
their wealth was in terms of these tangible
items that they could immediately benefit
from,
for their own family, but then also exchange
for, for cash or for other goods.
So here is this parable, this example, this
story that Allah
Allah gives us, and of course any parable
is to give us a a lesson. So
what is the lesson of this?
So these 2 men and one of them
had this really magnificent
garden,
with all of these different kinds of
fruit producing crops, dates,
grapes, other crops.
Continuing on to verse 33. Each of these
each of those gardens, so that one man's
many gardens, each of them was productive and
never failed.
And among them, we caused a river to
flow. So you can imagine
how,
how productive this garden was because there was
water always available. Right in the middle of
this garden, there was water. And so it
was so easy to bring the water into
the garden and and really make the crops
so abundant.
And he had abundant fruits,
So he had all of this, and they
were just producing, and he had all of
this this,
produce, fresh produce.
So this man said to the other man,
to his companion,
they were having a discussion or an argument,
I have more wealth and more powerful
followers than you. So he's bragging. He's boasting
about this
As if
the this is the result of his his
effort.
Of course, he may have made an effort,
but we know as we'll see in the
verses that
the ultimate source, the source
of the
origination of that garden and everything in it
as well as the continuum of health of
it of it is with.
So here's this man.
He is,
he's bragging about it. And by bragging it
bragging about his beautiful garden, he also becomes
deluded.
So in the next verse,
he entered his garden while he was in
a state of violating his own soul and
said, I think this will never perish.
So he's he's gotten used to boasting, and
boasting has made him deluded
by his wealth, by the brilliance and beauty
of it
so that he
he,
you know, he attributes
this
to,
his own power because he wants it as
a kind of wishful thinking.
I think
I think this will never perish.
So it's a kind of delusion and wishful
thinking
because he wants it. He wants to continue
to be wealthy and because he's attributed the
success to himself, then he thinks, well, as
long as I want it, I'm going to
have it.
Right? And so this is the the
the delusion
that entails
when we do not understand the true source
of our success.
And, of course, when he says this, this
is as we know
every sin is a violation of our own
soul. So this isn't does not cause this
disbelief or ungratitude,
does not cause any harm to Allah
Allah is,
is not harmed by us or does not
need us to benefit
him through our prayers or our gratitude.
Allah
does not need our thanks.
When we thank Allah
when we acknowledge
what Allah
has given us,
when we are grateful and acknowledge that source,
we are benefiting ourselves. Why are we benefiting
ourselves? Because we are then in touch, selves.
Why are we benefiting ourselves? Because we are
then in touch with truth,
with the reality,
and we are not in a state of
delusion.
Delusion that will lead us down a a
ever more dangerous path.
So the man now under this delusion says
he goes even further.
I don't think and I don't think the
hour is near or the hour will come,
depending how you translate it. So now
he's gone from
arrogance
and delusion and wishful thinking to kufr,
to
really denying
what Allah
has promised, which is that everyone will be
taken into account. But he kind of hedges
his bet here. So he says, well, I
don't think
the hour will ever come or or is
near. And even
if I am returned to my lord, I
will find there something better in exchange.
So so he's he's kind of hedging his
bet. Maybe, you know, first, he's making an
absolute statement of,
and now he's he's being kind of on
the fence about it. Well,
alright. So if the hour does come, even
if there's a judgment day,
I
will find something better. I will definitely get
a better
outcome. So now he's moved to,
an inflated
this this inflated sense of of himself
is, what we would say entitlement.
So now he believes
that
not only
is he the source of the success of
his garden
and that it'll last forever,
but that he is
entitled to it or is he he is
entitled to something better than it. So if
he gets it taken away,
then he should have something better.
So here we see a full portrait of
a person
who moves through the stages of,
of arrogance,
and in to entitlement
and disbelief.
Now
remember there were 2 people. So this is
this is the one who has,
you know, who has so much wealth, who
is powerful,
who has this inflated sense of of himself,
what he has and what he deserves.
And now his companion, the other,
says to
him,
arguing,
he says, do you deny
the one who created you out of dust,
then from a drop of sperm, and then
formed you into a person?
So here we have the believer
who says, woah. You know,
arrogant my arrogant friend,
don't you
shouldn't you remember
that you were created out of nothing, you
were created out of dust, and then
from that so that's the original source of
humanity.
Adam was made out of the earth. That's
our original source. And then the the next
stage of the of the source, the immediate
source
of each individual person is through the conception,
through the mother and father.
So
the the immediate source of this person then
is from the sperm drop. And then
Allah
form that person
into
a human being and a man who is
healthy.
So even our original
creation doesn't necessarily
be born,
with,
all of our human capacities
fully functional.
You know, when someone says I'm a self
made person,
I did this with my own effort, I
worked hard.
Well, the question is,
not only are you not responsible for your
existence,
but you're not responsible,
for having been born
with all of your physical
and mental
functionalities.
You could have been born missing a limb.
You could have bore been born with a
neurological
disease or a muscular disease
or with a cognitive
incapacity
so that you would not be capable
of doing this work and gathering this wealth.
So that that
again, another delusion of a self self made
man.
So here, the the other man is, you
know, the believing man
is trying to bring
this man back to reality.
Like,
you are so deluded. You've become so,
you know,
so distracted
by the wealth that you've gained
that you have a completely unrealistic
sense of yourself.
And so he's trying to bring him back
to reality, and he says
he says,
as for me, you know, and this he's
giving the believing
perspective.
As for me,
he is Allah, my lord, and I shall
not associate my lord with anyone.
So,
including
himself. Right? We're not partners with God in
doing something. We are servants of God
using,
whatever Allah has
given us.
So he is stating that position of tawheed,
the position
of
of accepting
who we are as human beings, our place
in relationship to Allah
And he says
he says this,
if only when you entered your garden
if only when you had entered your garden,
you had said
you would still see me having less wealth
and children
than you. And I just love this.
You know, how often do we say,
Right? We say Masha'Allah and we don't even
think about what it means.
Masha'Allah.
This is what Allah has willed. This is
what God has willed. So when we see
something that is beautiful, when we see something
that is,
to be appreciated,
whether that is, you know, children or things
of beauty or other forms of wealth,
then we say.
Why do we? Because we are now attributing,
what we appreciate
to,
their original source.
And if he had said that when he
entered the garden, okay, when he first entered
the garden,
he could have disrupted
this chain
of,
of of ingratitude
and delusion
that led to Kufar.
So really saying has
a lot of importance.
Is a phrase that we say
that puts a stop to a slippery slope
leading to.
And again,
when we think about our own empowerment, when
we feel empowered,
when we attribute
to ourselves,
the success
of anything that we do.
And so we start to feel the sense
of empowerment
that is,
that can lead us to say, well, this
is really
attributed to me. I am a self made
person.
Again, by saying
we can disrupt
this slippery
slope
of entitlement.
And then,
if we continue on,
so then the man says, you know,
if only you had said that, and he
fears for him that that he has been
expressed such arrogance
because
he said, you know, because you did not
say that, because you've fallen into disbelief through
your arrogance,
now it it could be
that
Allah would turn things around and that I
would get something better than you and you
would have all of this ruined.
You know? Thunderbolts
could be sent and will will
will will turn destroy everything.
The rain, the fire, the wind can completely
eviscerate a garden just in in one shot,
and that
is what happens.
So he predicts that and he predicts, or
he says, or the water of the garden
will underground and will run underground. You'll never
be able to find it because the
the,
success of this garden, the fruitfulness comes from
its access to water. If the water dries
dries up, the garden will dry up. And
we've seen that, subhanallah, in so many places
around the world. Just look at California,
now the the problem that they're having,
with water.
And indeed,
the the fear that this man has for
his neighbor
is,
comes to pass.
All of the man's fruits are ruined,
and he's wringing his hands. And it's you
know, he sees the the the plants have
have died. They've collapsed. They've fallen down on
their trellises.
And he said, now he realizes, woe is
me that I'd never ascribe partners
to my lord and cherisher,
and there is
no one,
who can help him nor can he protect
himself.
As Allah
says continuing
on,
in such it's in such times,
protection
comes only from Allah,
and he is the best one
to reward us and to give success.
Then the next,
few verses we're running out of time here,
I think for the tepseer.
But then we move from the particular story
of this parable
now to the general lesson. Right? So we've
had this parable.
We've seen these 2 people. What had happened
to them?
And then
Allah
sends us a general parable in the same,
in the same vein.
So moving to,
verse 45,
set forth to them the parable of the
life of this world.
It is like rain which we send down
from the skies. The earth's vegetation
absorbs it, but soon it becomes dry stubble
which the winds scatter,
and is only Allah who prevails over all
things.
So so in this world, we see, you
know, the spring comes, rain comes, things grow
and they bloom and they become so beautiful,
but later, they die.
And they
they're blown away,
but Allah remains. And so this is is
to the the major theme, the one that
I
mentioned at the beginning that
while we should
enjoy and appreciate
the beauty and good things of this life,
always remembering that they're temporal, the temporality
of them.
So Allah
says in verse 46,
wealth and children
are ornaments
of the life of this world.
But the everlasting good deeds are better with
your lord,
in reward and a source of hope.
So
it's they're not bad. They're good things. They're
beautiful things,
but they're not everlasting.
And so,
what are the everlasting good deeds? Well they
can be tied to our wealth and children
if
we have the right intention
but also go beyond go beyond what is
in our immediate
circle.
Because there will be that fine final time
and you,
come to the end of this section,
one day we shall,
I'll just read your translation.
Beware of the day we will blow the
mountains away, and you will see the Ursulaed
bear.
And we will gather all of humankind
leaving none behind. This
means it's just exposed. So when the earth
is laid bare, it means that there's nowhere
to hide. There's no rock. There's no tree.
There's nowhere to hide. It'll all be there,
and it will all be no longer in
a state where people can,
benefit from it.
And then
that is when,
and they will all be lined up. All
human beings will lined up before their lord
and rose.
They will be presented before your lord, and
the deniers, the disbelievers,
the ones who denied that all of what
they had in life came from Allah will
be told,
you have surely returned to us all alone
as we created you the first time, naked
with nothing, with no signs of status, with
no signs of wealth.
Although
you always claim that we would never appoint
a time for your return. So now
here they're facing what they denied.
You know, denial
is not is not helpful.
Denial
does not make the truth and the reality
go away. So here they are the deniers
now facing
what they denied.
And what will happen
and the record of deeds or the book
of deeds will be laid open
and you will see those who are wicked
in fear of what is written there. It's
all written down. There is no hiding it.
It has all been recorded,
and they will cry, woe to us. What
kind of record is this that does not
leave any sin,
small or large, unlisted? We ask
to, keep us far away
from those who will be in fear on
the day of judgment and will see a
book of evil deeds. We ask to be
among those
who will
be joyful when we see our book of
deeds
because it will be filled with things that
we did for the sake of Allah
good things,
seeking the face of our Lord.
Jazakumaloha,
Doctor. Matson,
for those beautiful reflections on verses from Surat
Al Kahf, that was very, very beneficial, and
we had so many comments from
people that were really, enjoying that lesson and
benefiting immensely from it.
We now are going to go to part
2 of the program in about a minute,
insha'Allah.
Sometimes we've called this
or a lesson or a reflection,
and
following that, those of you who are joining
us here on Zoom,
you can submit questions
for doctor Matson,
so that,
after after her lesson now, which is called
Engaging with Nature,
for spiritual and mental health, engaging with nature
for spiritual
and mental health. So that is the lesson
she's about to start for about 20 minutes,
and then we'll have some q and a
for about 20 minutes with the audience with
written questions, questions
on the microphone as well. This is something
we've been doing
for the past 3 months every Friday
on celebrate Mercy, especially while many of our
masajid are still closed,
for prayers, for for Jummah prayers especially,
and, alhamdulillah,
we've had a lot of people join.
Today only today, it seems like we have,
around 1100, 1200 people that are watching live.
Right now, over,
around 500 computers connected, many people watching as
families
and couples.
So we're we're really honored to have all
of you join us from around the world.
Alhamdulillah.
I will be introducing doctor Matson again for
those of you who joined just for who
joined late or for the second part of
the program. We do wanna encourage everyone to
generously donate
to help us continue these programs on a
weekly basis.
That does help us because there are costs
involved
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so you don't miss any videos, any live
streams, and you can even click on the
bell to be notified of new videos
and new live streams. There's a couple of
other announcements as well that we are,
partnering with Sara International
this year to,
for those of you who wanna arrange your
aid
through Celebrate Mercy, you know,
coming up.
Many people have to,
you know, provide meat to those who are
less fortunate,
arrange for the slaughtering of a lamb or
a sheep,
And
so you can do that through Celebrate Mercy
this year.
I believe the cost is somewhere around a
$160.
This will be distributed in and around Mecca
to those who are poor, and many of
them are refugees
in and around Mecca.
And Sara International will also make a donation
to Celebrate Mercy for each person who arranges
their
through Celebrate Mercy There
are other things I'll be announcing later after
the program, including some new books for kids,
a new leatherback
version of the, Shamal book.
I'll wait to announce those, till later
right after the the, the lesson,
the reflection that doctor Ingrid will make. Let
me go ahead and introduce
doctor Matson now,
She is the London and Windsor Community Chair
in Islamic Studies at Huron University College
at Western University in London, Canada.
Previously, doctor Matson founded and directed the Islamic
chaplaincy program
at Hartford Seminary
and served as the president of ISNA.
Doctor Matson's research focuses on Quranic studies, theological
ethics, and interfaith engagement.
Some of her work can be found on
ingridmatson.org.
Doctor Matson founded and directs the Hurma project,
a major research project
committed to upholding the sacred inviolability,
the hormah, of each person who is present
in Muslim spaces
by elucidating the special responsibilities
of those holding power and authority and by
educating those who are vulnerable
about their God given dignity
and rights. And we wanna encourage you all
to
follow, you know, Doctor. Matson on Twitter, on
Facebook. You can see the the the handle
there listed on the slide. We're gonna provide
that also
in the chat. So she will be,
and just an encouragement again to please,
share the live now flyer so that your
friends can join for the second part now
that's about to begin, a lesson on engaging
with nature for spiritual
and mental health. This flyer has been posted
on Celebrate Mercy's social media. You can also
text it and WhatsApp it to your friends.
Inshallah.
Without any further delay, I, will have doctor
Mattson,
give her lesson now, and then we'll have
q and a right after Insha'Allah. Thank you,
doctor Matson.
Okay. Thank you very much, brother Tarek. Assalamu
alaikum everyone.
Just just I'm going to repeat for those
who, who have joined us only for the
second half.
I am,
outside
on an island,
in my
ancestral family's home.
So,
it may be unexpected things maybe happen may
happen around me.
There could be animals. There could be dogs.
There even could be, who who knows, people
that might pop up because I have about
a 100 relatives in this area.
So, although everyone is still still kind of
keeping social distancing and keeping
sheltering in place in a way. So,
just apologies if anything interrupts us, but that's
alright. We were all
enjoying this, new reality.
So
because I do spend,
2 months of the year, typically, pretty much
almost all of my life,
except when I couldn't get here in this
place.
I really wanted to talk about,
engaging with nature
for spiritual and mental health.
I'm really blessed to be able to come
to this place that is
that is
very,
you know, we live a very basic life
here. We don't even have indoor plumbing, but
we do have Internet.
This is a modern age. Priorities.
But that way I
can I can work here, but we grow
our garden and we fish?
We hunt.
We,
really live a very natural life here. You
might be able to hear the birds.
And for me, it's such an important part
of renewal.
So I want to share,
some thoughts with you and,
knowing that for many people, this isn't an
option. This is a a real privilege
that that I have
and my family has, but there are other
ways
to benefit from this creation that Allah
has given us even if we live,
you know, in the middle of a crowded
city.
So to begin, I want to just, recall
a hadith of the prophet Muhammad
where, the companion Jabir ibn Abdallah
said that the prophet
used to stand beside a tree or a
date come on Friday.
Then an Ansari man or woman said, oh,
Allah's messenger, shall we make a pulpit for
you? And he replied, if you wish.
So they made a pulpit for him, and
that was as the as the community of
Muslims was getting larger,
the pulpit was helpful because when he stood
on it, then more people could see and
hear him.
And when it was Friday, he proceeded
towards the pulpit to deliver the khutbah,
and then the tree cried like a child.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam descended the pulpit
and embraced it
while it continued crying like a child until
it became quiet.
The prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, said it was
crying because it was missing what it used
to hear of the remembrance of Allah by
it.
This is an amazing miracle, the prophet Muhammad,
alaihis salam.
This is,
it shows that,
but it also shows that the tree was
listening
to the remembrance of God.
And it shows also
that,
living beings
form relationships
with those around them. Humans form relationships, and
all other
living beings
do as well, and they can suffer it
suffer when they're separated
from them.
Now I want to raise a slightly,
more,
perplexing,
situation for some people perhaps,
and that is the case of a stone,
a mere mineral.
So Javed ibn Samura said, may Allah be
pleased with him, said that the messenger of
Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
said, I know a stone in Mecca
that used to give me greetings of peace
before I was made a prophet.
I still know it.
It's amazing.
So this
creation
which we consider an inanimate object, a stone,
gave greetings of peace to the prophet Muhammad
Sallesen.
And the prophet remembered it and he reaffirmed
his ongoing knowledge
and connection
to that stone.
In other words,
he had a relationship.
He had a relationship with that stone.
In his commentary on this hadith, Imam Anaweeh
said, This is a miracle for the prophet
Muhammad
and in this is confirmation
of the special nature
of some minerals.
This is in congruence with the words of
Allah from the Quran when Allah says,
and among those that fall down out of
fear are God,
and the words of God who is exalted,
there's nothing that does not glorify his praises.
So that that that stones and mountains are
among those that fall down out of fear
of God.
The even the stones can fear
God.
Now,
it's quite interesting to me when I read
the commentaries
of scholars,
in centuries before modernity,
how comfortable they were with talking
very, naturally
about,
the
the life of all things that are created,
that they are
that that there are living other living things
and an affirmation of what the Quran says
that they live in communities.
And all of this is so all of
this is supported by the Quran, is supported
by the sunnah.
But we
as Muslims,
we really are still struggling to come out
of a
a
colonized epistemology
epistemology.
In other words,
we see the world now through the eyes
of the European colonialists
who brought in this idea of a separation.
They not I mean, it's a rational Christian
to make not creation. It's just world subject
to human beings and gave human beings complete
authority
to use them in whatever way they they
they wanted, and they denied that anything else
in creation
had
Sorry about that.
Dropped off.
I think you're back again, doctor Matt. Okay.
Good. Okay. We can hear you and see
you. Alright. Great. Thank you. And so they
call they they labeled,
all non Europeans
across the world, including Muslims, to be animist.
Meaning that, well, these are just people who
who very
who are irrational, they're unscientific,
and they ascribe
any kind of perspective life or feeling to
any nonhuman
beings.
And Muslims became very embarrassed
by the criticisms.
They internalized
the Islamophobia,
and unfortunately,
really threw out the baby with the bathwater.
So that that while it's true that there
were some beliefs and there have been beliefs
among Muslims as others that really deviate from
Tawhid.
I mean, to worship as the pre Islamic
Arabs did to
to treat as as gods.
Anything beside God is wrong, obviously, it's shirk,
but it is not
worship
of stones or trees or mountains to acknowledge
that they have life. And certainly
certainly it is not
some kind of, you know, unscientific,
irrational belief
to ascribe,
feelings,
emotions
to animals,
and to acknowledge the fact that they live
in communities.
And and science has more recently caught up
with this, but this is our original
faith. This is what the Quran
teaches us. This is what the sunnah teaches
us. And so
we really need to to work very hard
to get back,
to, you know, to cleanse ourself of this
colonized epistemology,
this colonized way of looking at the world,
and it's been with us for at least
200 years, if not more. I mean, to
sort of the the the
the seminal moment of
of,
really,
the Muslim world being colonized very often is
attributed to Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, so right
at the beginning of 19th century.
But, of course, that,
colonization
or the
precursors of colonization began earlier and have. So
we're living with at least 200 years of
people attacking,
you know, of of secularists,
of
European rationalists, humanists, whatever we wanna call them,
attacking how we perceive the world. And this
is why,
we feel,
you know, we're always defending ourselves with these
things, but rather than really looking
at what we need to embrace. And what
we need to embrace is the fact that
we,
as we're created in relationship
with the rest of creation,
we were created in relationship
with the rest of creation.
Think about all the relationships we have. We
have the community of the Muslim Ummah. We
have the community of
that includes the Muslim Ummah
and also
people of, other scripturalists who receive revelation from
God.
We
are in the community of.
We are brothers and sisters in humanity. All
of these things are are based in the
Quran.
So we're in these multiple layers of community.
We are also in the community of created
things. So the fundamental distinction
in,
in what is, in being, is between the
creator and the created things. We are among
the created things.
So and among the this community, we could
say the
the,
we live there and we do have a
special role
among the community of created things.
We have been given the role of being
the the custodians
of this creation,
and sometimes we do it well and many
times we do not do it well, unfortunately.
But that is also part of our community,
And we need to
we need to attend to all of our
communities,
and our relationships within those communities.
So So what do I mean by that?
So so I want you to think about
that, about about what it means to be
in relationship with the rest of creation when
you think about the prophet Muhammad, he says
some greeting a stone or hugging a tree.
Right?
So
while what I'm going to say is while
I do not shun or decry the use
of technology and innovations
that make it easier for us to fulfill
our religious obligations,
we do need to refresh our relationships
with our fellow created beings from time to
time.
So
we know that our prayer is based on
the calculation of the sun and the moon,
yet we do not go out every day
and say, oh, is it time for, you
know, is it time for us that I'm
gonna go outside and measure the, you know,
measure the shadow and see if it's time.
We look at our phones or we
wait for the event or, you know, whatever
it is. All of this is to
facilitate our practice of our religion. That's good.
I'm not a Luddite. I'm not saying don't
do that.
And
we use water
or dust.
I told you there would be there would
be some animals.
It's okay. We'll just leave him in the
background. Just think that this is this is
remember the dog in the cave who who
is at the threshold.
That's the,
that is the,
job.
One of the main jobs that
gave dogs is to protect us, and that's
why the dog in the cave is in
the threshold. Hold on. Let me just try
to get a hold of this for a
minute.
Okay. There we go.
He did his job.
So
so we use you know, we have developed
in most cases. You know, we benefit from
from homes where water is piped in, for
example.
And so we turn on the tap, and
we just don't even think of it. One
of the reasons why I come to this
place is because to make, I have to
go to this river. I'm gonna turn this
around,
show you. So I go, I don't know
if you can see that, but I I
have to make in
this river, in this great river, the Saint
Lawrence River. And so I'm I'm connected in
that case again with that river.
And
just as a phone call is not a
substitute for visiting an aunt or a grandmother
or parents who live distant, we really wanna
visit them in person from time to time.
We should also visit our relations in this
community of creative things from time to time,
whatever way we could do that. And
now during this COVID time,
we might not be able to visit our
human relations.
So let's visit our take the opportunity to
visit our nonhuman
relations
in this world of creative things, and that
will really help our mental health. In fact,
very often when I find there are people
who are alienated from family or even alienated,
they've been traumatized by the community,
I I do sometimes recommend that they they
spend more time in nature, not as nature,
but really take in this perspective that these
are my relations also.
Because Allah
has put them there for us to be
in community with and can be a way
of
healing and of gaining some strength and health
until we are able to return and reconcile
with those,
those in our community.
Now I know that during this and just
to, you know, we're getting to the end
here. Just to,
to acknowledge that
it is difficult for people
sometimes
now
to to get out. A lot of the
parks are closed down or the beaches are
closed
down, the forest, the paths.
I I I really urge you wherever you
are to advocate and,
with your local authorities to open up those
spaces
because in fact,
the the virus is
is, you know, study after study has shown
that it does not spread in the outdoors
as long as people keep, you know, a
certain amount of distance. It's really indoors where
the spread is very dangerous.
And so it's much healthier
to be outside.
That's such an important part of mental health,
physical health. It's also a way to stimulate
our senses again, particularly when you think about
children
and how if they're not in in
in school, how they're not having those interactions
with other children
and not
having, you know, being being put in activities
where they move their body around. So it
really
it there's
there's a potential for children's,
innate capacities,
to be to start to be
really weakened,
if they're just inside one space. So
so advocate with your local authorities as much
as you can
to go out into these spaces. Now even
if it is,
you know, if they aren't opening up the
parks, see if,
for example, you could see if the schools
are closed. What about the school yard?
Whatever it is,
if you have a backyard,
really try to make your yard a place
for living things. I know a lot of
people in the American,
you know, culture is to throw a lot
of insecticide
and and fertilizers and everything on the lawn
and just have this,
you know, this monoculture
green lawn. That is not healthy for you.
It's not healthy for nature.
You really want to try to put as
much in there that is, reflect some of
the diversity
of creation.
So put like flowers,
put things that smell good that will stimulate
your sense of smell,
you know, herbs,
put in things that you can eat even
if it's a small little bush for,
that grows peas or beans so you could
taste it, So you have that sense of
taste simulated as well.
And then all of those things when they
flower, they attract bees and butterflies and all
of these pollinators that are so that are
so important,
to our life.
What is true, you know, when I when
I talk about relationships with other things, remember
that,
what is what is certainly true is that
is that we love
those with whom we have a relationship.
And so if we decry what's happening in
the world in terms of pollution and climate
change and all of these things,
talking about it is not enough. What we
first do is is we have to reengage
our relationship
with, with creation,
and we will love what we have a
relationship with. We will protect what we love,
and we destroy what we hate. And so
there's there are these,
you know, kind of, cultural phobias about bugs
or insects or spiders or bees or or
other creatures,
bats. But all of those are necessary. They
were created by Allah
They have a place in the biosphere.
They are our relations. Now sometimes we may
may need to protect ourselves from some of
those living things.
Some of them are not all,
safe for us to be close to, but
that doesn't mean we have to wipe them
out. That doesn't mean we have to, you
know, poison them and destroy them because that
is really,
destroying us as well.
So so let's try to do what we
can. If you don't have a yard, if
you have a balcony, put a couple pots
on your balcony, or even if you have
a sunny window. You know, you can easily
grow some herbs in a sunny window.
And all of that is to renew your
relationship
with this community
of.
It will,
it will bring you back to
a sense of being
being at home in this world,
and
Allah has made all of this world open
and available for us, but many different things
live here.
So
find a way to be back in relationship.
You it will stimulate your senses.
It will bring you back to your sense
of
what your role is in this, which is
as
to care for this world,
and it will give you
some other living beings to be in relationship
with when you can't cannot be
around all of your other relations and friends
and community and and we feel lonely.
But being in relationship with with non human
living things can also,
ease some of some of that loneliness.
Allah
begins, and I'll end with this, the creation
story of the creation of Satan and Adam
by teaching
Adam the names of all things. When we
know the names of things,
then we know them. Right? Like, I know
if I know that this bird is a
cardinal, and this one is a robin, and
this one is a Baltimore oriole,
and this one is a osprey,
Like, now now by by knowing their names,
I I have
I, I've now oriented myself in a way
where
I I feel like, okay. I know where
I am. I know where I am in
this world.
I know who I'm living with. I know
who's around me, and that will really help
us especially during this time
where so many things are out of place.
It will help ground us in the place
that we are.
So I ask to keep each and every
one of you
safe,
to give you what you need, to feel
to feel safe
and strong
and at peace during this time. And I
ask to
protect all of your loved ones
and,
again, to reward, brother
and all of those at celebrate mercy who
have given us this opportunity
to remember
Allah and the
our blessed prophet Muhammad today.
Doctor. Matson, thank you so much.
Thank you so much. And I think a
lot of people, at least those in America,
probably wish they were could escape onto an
island right now with everything going on with
the virus here.
Sipanullah. So someone is asking a question. So
we're gonna we're gonna allow everyone to if
you have a question, you can raise your
hand and, we will call on some people
to come on the mic. But, others have
submitted submitted written questions here.
So one person is asking,
let's see. Let me scroll up here. Is
it normal to have an ebb and flow
from someone's saying I'm not sure how to
read this. Is it normal to have an
ebb and flow that last years at a
time respectively? I'm in a low point in
my life in regards to worship and sins.
It is coinciding with a new stressful career,
which I've started a year ago. I'm terrified
of losing my true self if I don't
get my old self back.
Yes. Yeah. Oh, for sure.
That that we we ebb and flow. Right?
We go through cycles of life, and this
is why we are
so you know, we should be so grateful
that Allah
has given many of us,
you
know, time to learn and grow and
make mistakes and repent
and and reform again.
Of course, we none of us know how
much time we have.
At the same time,
Allah
is the one who understands our circumstances,
and all of us are required
to,
you know,
to fulfill responsibilities
that we have towards others.
So most of us do have to work.
Many of us support not only children, but
maybe parents.
Our work is also a way for us
to make a difference in the world.
How are we going to deal with things
like,
systemic racism
and injustice
if we,
don't work at those things for a long
time. And when we work and when we
study,
it does it does take,
you know, it can take time. It can
take effort. We can
be tired and it it does take time
to find a way to get into
a new routine when we have a new
job or a new marriage or when we
have children.
I mean, I I remember how shocking it
was once I had a child,
how much time children took and
and having that feeling at first of, like,
I just you know, how am I gonna
do that and everything I did before? Well,
I couldn't
do those 2 things, and I couldn't do
it things how I did before.
So instead
instead of going back,
we have to accept what our reality is
now and think of how we will
find the way to do what is necessary
in terms of our worship
and
supplement that with high impact
high impact,
maybe occasional
or regular
events. So for example,
if we say say at a certain point
in our life we were able to fast,
do a lot of voluntary fast.
Well, one of the great reasons and wisdoms,
but
one of the wisdoms of Allah
giving us Ramadan
is that it's not voluntary. Right? So even
if we find it very, very difficult
to juggle,
or find a way to do the voluntary
fast.
Every year we're
we have this opportunity,
and a necessary
occasion for fasting.
So if if it's not possible
to do, say, many voluntary fasts or extra
prayers or,
you know, even if you were able before
to,
do more prayers
or spend more time in the masjid or
learning.
At the same time, you have to deal
with your new reality, and
we see that there's a reward for everything
that has
where when a person makes their intention
to do something that is deemed right by
a law.
Make your intention
that what you are doing in your work,
in your job, in your other responsibilities
for the sake of,
you know,
changing things in the world that are bad
for long term change.
Just wake up and make that intention, and
Shelly, you'll get a reward for that as
well.
But it will only be frustration,
you know, to to be bogged down by
feelings of frustration and guilt because you can't
do what you did when you were younger
at a different point in your life. This
is not useful, and it's also in a
way,
like, denying
Thank you, doctor Matson.
There
there's a lot of questions that I believe
it or not, after your dog started barking,
we got a lot of questions about dogs.
You know? They're all bizarre.
You know? So I you know, someone's saying,
I wanted to ask about having a dog
in the house. Are we allowed to have
dogs inside the house? I thought we shouldn't
because they keep angels away.
Are dogs haram, or is it just a
cultural opinion?
And, you know, it's very similar ones and
some sets I I knew that kids who
are watching would also get a kick out
of that too when they heard the dog
barking. So maybe you could or if you
wanna reference them. I know you wrote something
about this, but, yeah, you can address this.
Thank you. Yeah. I do have something written.
I'm not sure where it is anymore. But,
so,
so there are different schools of thought about
dogs.
1 is about whether dogs,
their their saliva
is pure or impurifying
and or impure, and the majority of schools
say that dog's saliva is is impure.
The Madocke school makes a distinction between
domestic and wild dogs. So the the school
of Medina holds that domestic dogs, their saliva
is not,
is not a source of impurity. So that's
a really important distinction.
But let's say even if a,
if you follow a school where a dog
dog's saliva is impure, well, we also know
that, you know, children and we ourselves have
lots of impurities, and we manage them. So
that if it is,
you know, if if you deem it necessary
or important to have a dog,
in your family, whether it's because you hunt
or for safety, for security, whatever reason,
know that there is a way to manage
impurities.
The inside or outside holding,
keeping dogs in the household,
yes. There is a Sahay hadith where the
prophet told
say to Aisha,
to leave the dogs outside,
because angels don't, enter the house where there
are dogs. So the vast majority of Muslims
have held that that means that when you
have a dog, you should keep it in
keep it outside.
Now what do you mean by outside? This
is this is
where we would might get into a little
bit more sort of obscure
understanding.
So for example, if you go in places
like like the Middle East or if you
think about the the the 7th century Arabs,
they they had inside place outside places inside
their house. So if you think about a
traditional, say, Mediterranean
courtyard,
right, Where you go in the compound, you
go in the walls,
of where the people live and there may
be a courtyard in front
or there may be,
you might go through a front door and
then there's a courtyard inside the house. So
there are actually outdoor spaces
inside the house.
Most American
and Canadian homes are not like that, and
the problem in in Canada certainly in much
of the year is that,
you cannot leave dogs outside unless they're, like,
huskies because of the cold weather.
And then there's also the social function. So
there's always an exception to the rule, but
it depends what the exception is. So you'll
see even if you go to Mecca, they're
they're using,
guard dogs,
like sniffer dogs,
you know, to see if there's explosive or
drugs or things like that.
If someone is using a dog for as
a as a service animal
for,
because they're blind
or visually impaired or they're living with, say,
some mental health issues,
then that,
that that service dog,
will need to be with them, and that's
an exception to the rule.
For me, I I brought my dog as
I I've written about in my article for
a number of reasons.
One of them was security because I did
have,
threats.
I had people who were threatening my life.
And in that case, you really need a
dog in the house because other what use
is it gonna be outside of, you know,
the the concern is that someone's gonna come
in your window or door or something like
that.
And also to be a companion for my
daughter, Samia. May Allah have mercy on her
who was bedridden for 10 years,
and to keep her,
safe
and to be a companion as well. So,
now I have a senior citizen
dog who now, after many years of service,
I need to,
help him a little bit as he gets
old.
And
because Allah
you know, I I always think of
So he took very good care of me
and and my daughter who who died at
the end of,
2016. So it's important that we return
his service with, kindness as well.
Thank you, Doctor. Matson. We have about maybe
10 minutes left.
So we have a couple of hands up.
I'm gonna allow
Sister Iman Bondawi to ask her question, Insha'Allah.
Sister Iman, you can turn your phone on.
Now I come,
You'll always be
to me.
Mhmm. So that it's how I will refer
to you.
So I have a question going back to
this discussion of relationship with land.
And my question is around
what relationship with land
looks like,
spiritually speaking,
when we are not on our living on
our native land, and in fact, living on
occupied land.
So, you know, I'm I'm here in the
United States and,
this land does not belong to the white
American.
It belongs to indigenous peoples and
there is a question of spiritually
whether there is a blockage
when you are occupying
a land that is occupied.
And I was hoping you could speak to
that.
That's such a great question, Iman. It's so
great to to hear from you.
I've been working on an article for a
little while about this. I've done quite a
bit of research on
on land and
how how Muslims viewed land,
even from a perspective.
And it's quite interesting to see that
that,
traditionally,
land was not
was not really owned
in in in an absolute sense.
That
the primary way of relating to lands was
use of fracked, so so being able to
use land for a benefit. Right?
And and much,
land was common land for people.
So Muslim societies always
designated,
a significant proportion to common lands.
They also designated
lands that were for, wild animals,
and also for grazing animals. So those are
other categories
that,
water could not be owned. It could only
be used.
And there are many other really, really interesting
learnings about it.
I I I
because I live in Canada and we we're
very aware also of our
obligations to First Nations and the fact that,
you know, there are many treaty lands. Sometimes
the treaties, they've been fulfilled, sometimes not.
So it's it's quite a complicated situation.
I I really urge for Americans that when
things open up again, go to the
great resource is the museum of the
I think it's called Indian American. It's one
of the, Smithsonian museums,
and there's a display there of all of
the
treaties
that up till now have been,
broken
or unfulfilled by Americans. So there are actual
contracts,
alright,
that Americans have made with various,
first nations
or,
like indigenous peoples
saying that,
alright.
We're going to do this if you do
this.
Now
because those contracts
have been broken
or not fulfilled, this is a serious problem
for us as Muslims.
Fulfilling our covenants and contracts is a major
theme of the Quran. We see it again
and again in the Quran, the obligation
to fulfill our contracts and covenants.
So that when we're living on land
that is,
that we really don't lawfully occupy because of
these broken,
contracts or covenants, it is a serious problem.
Think about how much energy we put into
ensuring that our our meat, for example, is
halal, is lawful,
that our food is halal, that our drink
is halal.
What is our situation if the very land
that we're living in is not halal because
it is it is stolen or it's the
result of deceit.
And also not
when you write a contract and you don't
pay in time,
that converts
to having stolen that land. So it is
a major issue for us. We need, as
Muslims, to understand what our relationship,
is, and we need to work
towards,
towards fulfilling these contracts and covenants and,
engaging in restorative,
justice.
You know, it might mean,
there are many different approaches to this and
the people who should guide us are those
whose rights have been taken away. So the
first step is that we have to commit
to a process of learning.
Process of learning from the indigenous people themselves
so they can,
inform us,
what their,
reality is.
And we need to undertake
the learning so we understand what our responsibility
is because we, you know, we cannot come
to a place like Canada or or America
and claim the privileges,
of living here without
also taking upon ourselves the debts that are
still unpaid.
So those things go hand in hand. Thank
you for that question, Yimann.
Thank you, doctor Matson. I have a couple
of questions submitted here in writing that are
probably we could probably wrap together, someone named
Saba who submitted them.
Doctor. Matson, you mentioned in Surat Al Kahf
that wealth and children are blessings.
Wealth is not seen as inherently evil,
but I unfortunately see in our communities sometimes
resentment or hatred towards those who are successful
no matter if these individuals may be using
their wealth for great causes to help others.
I agree and understand that worldly things are
transient,
and we should focus on the after life
afterlife. However, I don't think Islam teaches us
to look critically upon those who are
successful or wealthy. And she also tied in
another question about political ideology,
as to whether the prophet, sasanam, would ascribe
to one of capitalism or socialism. I think
this is coming up while there's a lot
of, like, democratic primaries going on right now
between,
you know, like, more centrist and versus democratic
socialists, and so that's
probably, you know,
relates to what's happening in America, especially with
these primaries too.
Okay. It was okay. Thank you for those,
questions.
So, Allah
talks about wealth and children both as and
as
means something that that tempts
us, that that is a source of temptation
for us.
So it's not something that we like, it's
really important not to,
not to project,
the, like, the fitna as an essence of
the thing. So for example, when children if
children are fitna, it doesn't mean children are
bad that they are fitna. Fitna means that
it is a source of temptation for us.
So that the the temptation is is with
us. Right? It's not inherently
good or bad that thing. Same thing as
wealth. So wealth is something that is that
is a beauty of this world,
that is ornamental,
that is beautiful,
and it is because of its beauty, it
can also,
be a source of temptation where we just
wanna get more and more and more of
it, or we love it so much that
we violate the limits that Allah
has set in order to keep it.
So it's so
nothing in the Quran,
can be taken out of context of the
rest of the Quran and the rest of
the teachings of the prophet
So let's talk about the accumulation
of wealth.
Giving in charity is is very good. I
mean, we have we have to first give
our obligations zakat zakat is not charity, it
is a wealth tax, and
it's important that we
we honestly calculate what our wealth is so
that we pay the right amount
of Zakat.
And if we really did calculate it,
you know, especially the super wealthy people, they
would be paying a lot more zakat than
they do now because,
unfortunately,
just as there's tax avoidance
with,
you know, national tax schemes, there is zakat
avoidance.
But there are many people who try to
avoid paying zakat deliberately by,
converting some of their goods into non zakatable
goods.
And they may be non zakatable
in a traditional,
fixed scheme but but not necessarily now, yet
they try to fudge it in that way.
But it's important to understand that zakat is
not only our obligation when it comes to
wealth.
We have many other obligations. So for example,
I mean, when we look at the super
wealthy people now, it would be impossible
for them
to be so incredibly wealthy if they followed
all of the the,
laws governing
financial transactions,
according to Islamic
law. So it is certainly true that there
are all sorts of rules
that people who are tremendously wealthy are are
are
are,
violating,
whether it has to do with the reba.
So really,
you know, the prohibition
on usury
is is probably,
one of the most important
and the fact that we have, you know,
we all have these,
new retirement accounts or investment accounts.
Everyone needs to look and see, is it
violating,
the laws of
prohibition of?
What about prohibition of things like futures?
And there are all sorts of financial transactions
that dominate,
you know, fiscal markets now that are simply
prohibited in this land. They're prohibited because
they lead to tremendous human suffering.
You know, some people will make a lot
of money and other people will make very
little.
Also with things like,
labor laws.
So it is it is absolutely required for
us to pay people a living wage, a
wage that they can live on. And we
don't have time to go into all of
the proofs for this,
but certainly when the prophet
told, Abu Dhar, even when he had a
war captive in his possession,
he said, feed him from what you eat,
clothe him from what you wear, and do
not give him more work than he can
do. And if he you give him too
much work, then help him with it. That
takes away the stigma of of,
like manual labor, what's considered demeaning labor. But
feed him with what you feed them the
same kind of food,
the same kind of clothes, and don't give
them too much work. So I wonder with
how many people that are super wealthy. How
do they treat their employees? Do they pay
them a living wage?
Do they,
do they overwork them?
You know, all of these things are part
of it.
And then let's look at where the wealth
is coming from. Is it coming from what
is in order to create that wealth, so
with many manufacturers, for example,
say they own a factory. Their factories are
extremely polluting.
And
so here,
by making a lot of money off of
certain goods,
they are violating the rights of of the
earth, the rights of the water, the rights
of the creatures that live in the water,
the rights of creatures that live on the
earth, the rights of creatures that live in
the air, and of other human beings by
polluting.
So that is not to that is not
lawful
to make your wealth,
with the result of,
destroying,
the earth and the ability to live a
healthy life for humans and and others as
well,
with their products that they make. Say they
make them and they produce, like, plastic or
other things.
Are they responsible
for taking back those,
goods so that they don't pollute the earth?
So you see, there's many, many, many levels
of obligations that we have that are connected
to each other.
So, you know, I'm not talking about any
one person. Of course, there's many ways
to, make a living. But even with things
like charging a fair amount so for example,
we've seen some scandals recently where people who
took a patent
on a drug,
even if that's, you know, it's questionable whether
that's even lawful and is that a claw,
but let's say it is lawful,
but then jack up the price so high
so that people have to go bankrupt. The
people who need it have to go bankrupt.
That is a form of monopoly
and a form of,
price gouging that is unlawful in Islam.
So,
so certainly I mean accumulating
wealth, in a lawful way, in a way
where we don't violate the rights of workers,
the rights of other creatures,
where we're not,
engaging in exploitation.
And then if we pay, you know, we
pay this account that is truly
due on that,
yes. I mean,
that's fine. Wealth is one of those terms
that is relative. Sometimes when we talk about
it, some people think it means one thing.
Some they'll compare it to their own situation.
But really rather than do that, what we
should do is is be honest with ourselves,
fear the day of judgment, and say, am
I fulfilling all of my obligations
as I,
as I,
make this this wealth.
Thank you. Did you wanna comment, doctor Mattson,
on the question about political ideology?
No. I mean, that's just that's
we we shouldn't
I mean, those things
I mean, who knows? That's always changing,
and
there there certainly no
what we should do is act on principle,
on holistic principles.
We should look at at benefits and harms.
We should look at consultation.
We should,
we should make sure that we're not only
promoting our own interests or our own group
interests.
So I prefer that we look at at
principles and obligations.
And once we do that honestly and together
with each other, then we'll have a better
sense
of what at any political moment we need
to do in terms of supporting,
you know, supporting,
one candidate or another.
I think we'll just have one more question
on the mic. Someone,
Saba El,
has raised her hand.
You can go ahead and use your microphone
now for your question.
If it doesn't work, we may have to
go to someone else. Saba AL.
You can unmute yourself.
We'll give a few seconds here
before going on
to Hamdiya. Okay. We're gonna have to go
on to Hamdiya.
You can use your microphone to ask your
Okay. Doesn't look like it. So I will
go to a written question then.
Someone was asking a question here about food,
and I thought that was that that would
be really useful to ask.
From Caroline, how do you think the way
we think about the food we eat impacts
our relationship with nature,
particularly in light of the inhumane way many
animals are treated here in the United States?
Yeah. I mean,
I really if you're if this is a
topic you're interested in, I really encourage you
to look up Allan Mikhail, who's a professor
at Yale University,
m I k h a I l, I
believe. And his book's called The Animal in
Ottoman Egypt, and it is just amazing because
he talks about, he shows how at the
end of the 18th century,
you know, a continuation of
the traditional way,
Muslims treated their animal the animals that they
consumed,
like they lived with them,
how they were able to,
you know, give them care,
and,
what you know, very usually, they ate their
products like milk or or
or eggs or whatever it was. Very very
seldom did they slaughter their animals
to eat, but when they did, it was
like an an individualized
it was the the animals weren't put in,
like, a truck and shipped to a factory,
which is
a, you know, a horror show. I have
I actually worked in a meat factory when
I was a university student, so I can
tell you,
I mean, it really is until now still
a horror show. And it's not just the
factory itself, but just the transportation of the
animals to the factories.
So in that book, he he, you know,
he shows
why this happened and it really is a
whole it's very interesting, the relationship between between
that shift to factory,
not only factory farming but factory slaughtering,
and,
the relationship to the increasing size of the
military because that was done in order to
have more and more protein for a military
that grew in size. And we live in
a very militarized world
where, you know, it's not only people who
defend their community, but it's primarily,
you know, a standing military
that is pumped up and and really alien
and hostile sometimes, you know, to the population.
So I I really encourage you to to
look at that.
Definitely
I mean, we know that Allah
will raise animals on the day of judgment
to testify for or against us.
And, collectively, we have a lot of work
to do.
There's some really good programs
that are, you know, happening now.
I really like what Iman Daud Yacine is
doing at Zaytuna with the Center For Ethical
Living and Learning,
And there are others who are working on,
you know, getting Muslims more involved in
treating animals humanely.
There are Muslims who are, you know, going
back to farming now and, you know, this
idea that that food should not only be
halal or the and
this is because Allah
says we should eat from the
so from the the wholesome food.
So all of this is really, really,
really important.
I do believe that we can eat animals
if they are raised and cared for and
slaughtered correctly.
As I say here, we, you know, we
eat fish that we,
fish out of the river.
Some people in my family hunt for deer
and for for geese and ducks and things
like that.
They're living their life,
you know,
out in nature
and,
you know, only it's it's extremely the government
regulates it very carefully so that the animals
that are harvested the animals and birds that
are harvested are only at a certain time
of year and only a certain number.
And, for example, you have to take males,
not females at this time of year so
it doesn't disrupt their communities.
So I do believe that it's possible,
but we do have to pay more attention
to it. You know?
I would say primarily so that on the
day of judgment, we are not going to
have these animals who are testifying against us,
but also for our health in this life.
I mean, we know that so many of
these,
you know, the way these foods are processed
is really very harmful.
But for me, I first, you know, try
to really think about our obligations
to our fellow created beings who have who
have life and feelings and community.
Thank you again, Doctor. Matson, for joining us
this week. It was really truly an honor
to have you, and, we got so many
messages of people thanking us for your session,
the q and a, the or the the
the short lesson. So thank you so much,
doctor Matson. It's been an
honor to have you. We did also share
a link to the book you referenced,
just now.
You said it was called The Egyptian
The Animal in Autumn in Egypt. The Animal
in Autumn in Egypt. Yeah. We we shared,
like, an Amazon link there for those who
want to get that. Thank you. Thank you,
brother Tawkes. Thank you. Celebrate Mercy,
and, it's really great,
being with all of you
on this
program
today.
Thank you so much, doctor Mattson. I'm gonna
share a few closing announcements here.
That that today's program was posted on YouTube,
so those of you who missed a part
of it or wanna share it later or
rewatch a part,
not only this program today, but also previous
Friday GEMS programs as well. And each of
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asked about, you know, the lessons of the
story of
the prophet Moses,
Musa alaihis salam, and the story of Moses
and Khidr,
which is referenced in Surat Al Kahf in
a few verses. So
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So if you wanna actually go from the
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through Celebrate Mercy, you can actually do that
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We also wanted to mention a couple of
exciting things. Number 1,
you may see I'm gonna show a book
here on my screen as well. Let me
stop sharing my slide for a while. So
there is a,
a new book now
that is available,
for purchase. And it is a workbook, a
study book for kids
on the Shamal of the prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wasallam. You can actually go to
Celebrate Mercy's website
and see more pictures from this book.
There's there's illustrations.
There's workbooks that they can fill out. This
is a book that kind of summarizes,
the book that we all know about, the
Shamal of Imam Tirmidi,
and it summarizes it for kids, kids around
the ages of maybe 10 to 16
or 10 to 18 years old, teenagers,
young adults,
where they can learn about the personality
of the prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the beauty and the
persona of the prophet
through this new workbook for kids. It is
a a paperback book.
It's $30, although we have a coupon you
can use to get a $5 discount as
well. We don't have
too many of these books, so,
I would encourage you to order it soon.
You'll you'll probably get it by by the
by the the holiday of Eid as well.
We also wanted to say that we have
we are now offering the leather
the leatherback version of the new Shimano translation.
Let me show you
that one as well.
So
let me grab it.
Okay. So
now you can actually order,
this book,
the Shamal book as a leather bound version.
Right? This is kind of a more fancy
version of the Shamal book,
and this is now available on our website.
So we wanted to encourage you guys to
to get that book here. I'll show it
again. This is the leather bound edition
right here.
400
hadiths
on the persona, the beauty,
the the the habits,
you know, of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. So this is available. Let me show
you,
the bundle here. We actually have a bundle
you can get as well. So you may
wanna get this, for Aid as well as
a gift.
All of those books I just talked about,
you can get with this coupon here, Friday
5. We'll give you a $5 discount. So
you're already saving on the bundle, but you
can also save with this coupon as well.
So what is the Shamael exactly? What is
this book we've been talking about?
In summary,
this book of the Shamael
is
415
Hadiths
on what the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam looked
like. How did he walk? How did he
talk?
What was in his home? What did he
wear? What did he eat, and what did
he drink? And how did he eat, and
how did he drink?
How did he interact with people and his
family? And how did he interact with people,
you know, in the roads of in the
streets of Medina?
What was his persona like? What was his
personality like?
This is not the story of his life.
This is the story
of what it was like to meet the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam personally,
interact with him,
observe him.
How did he worship? How did he cry?
How did he laugh? How did he smile?
How did he joke around with his companions?
His sense of humor,
you know. So it's a really, really beautiful
book,
that it's a classical book,
a compilation of these 415
hadiths. This is probably the best English
translation you can find,
because it's newly translated, and it has nearly
a 1000 footnotes
of commentary
as well. And you can see the book
itself is kind of like a work of
art, the way it was beautifully
designed as well. So this is the book
I've been talking about that we have been
selling.
We are actually the exclusive distributor in the
United States, but now
there is this special leather bound edition
that you can get.
It's more expensive. It's because it's leather bound,
but,
it's a beautiful gift that you can get
insha'Allah,
and you can find that on our website
on atcelebratemercy.com,
Insha'Allah.
We also wanted to mention that those of
you who
shop on Amazon, and I know many of
you all probably do,
while shopping on Amazon, you could be benefiting
Celebrate Mercy through this program called Amazon Smile.
All this requires you to do is instead
of shopping on Amazon dotcom,
you would go to
smile.amazon.com,
and then choose Celebrate Mercy
as your chosen, you know, charity,
to donate to. Right? So you go to
smile.amazon.com.
You choose celebrate Mercy as your nonprofit
organization that you wanna support. And every time
you shop in the future
on smile.amazon.com,
a portion of your transaction will be donated
to celebrate Mercy.
So it's important that you bookmark it too
because it's easy to forget when you wanna
shop for something
like a vacuum cleaner or a book or
something like that. It's easy to just go
to amazon.com,
but you should be going to smile
dotamazon.com.
Bookmark that site
and choose Celebrate Mercy, and you only have
to choose it one time. And from here,
you know, going forward, it it will make
a donation to celebrate Mercy. If we can
get thousands of people to do that when
they shop on Amazon,
it could be a huge benefit to us
and help us to continue our programs.
We have some exciting programs for kids that
we are gonna be announcing soon. I know
we've been saying this for the last few
weeks, but I I promise you it is
coming very soon.
Programs for teenagers and younger kids as well,
inshallah. We also have some exciting programs related
to Dhul Hijjah, the first 10 nights 10
days of Dhul Hijjah that are coming up.
So if you wanna be alerted about these
upcoming kids programs,
you can visit celebrate mercy.com/
kids. That's celebrate mercy.com/kids.
Some of you may also be interested in
supporting a project
to publish 3 books, a project to commission
3 books
about the black companions of the prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. This is a book
project. We're trying to raise $90,000.
We've raised now over $10,000
just in the last couple of weeks.
It is a 3 phase project
to translate this classical book
by Imam al Suyuti about the black companions
about around the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Not
only is it going to be
a translation project, but we wanna translate the
book,
into a kind of a textbook that can
be used by imams,
teachers,
scholars.
We also want to have a devotional version
where it's a book an adapted version
inspired by this book and similar books, which
is strictly stories of these companions
that it would be very easy to read
even for kids like teenagers and above. So
think about books like Martin Ling's,
Karen Armstrong's book about the prophet's life,
other books you may have read
about stories of the companions. This would be
the same thing, easy to read for people
of all ages, you know, starting probably at
the age
of 11 or 12 and older.
Then we wanna have a a
book
for younger children, illustrated book
called Black Lives Around the Messenger, sallallahu alaihi
salam, with illustrations,
easy for kids under the age of 10
to benefit from parents can read these stories
to their kids.
And so this is a three phase project
focused on the black companions around the prophet,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Many people don't didn't
even know that this was a genre,
that you could study,
and that there were even books about this
topic. We just had an entire class on
this, and you can watch the opening session
for that class on our YouTube channel
Inshallah. But if you'd like to support this
project, you can visit launchgood.com/bl
and make a contribution.
This is a tzedakah jaria
because you are contributing towards a project
that will benefit millions of people for decades
to come.
And we know that
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
all of our good deeds end when we
die. When we pass away, our good deeds
end, except for
three things. And one of those three things
is,
leaving behind beneficial knowledge.
So imagine that you're contributing to a book
that people will continue to read even after
our lives end, and it will be a
source of barakah,
of good deeds that will benefit us on
the day of judgment, Insha'Allah. So this is
not just a book project. This is a
project that is tied to infinite
ongoing
rewards
that can benefit us in the afterlife, Insha'Allah.
So we hope that you all will generously
support this book.
The first phase we've almost raised enough money
for the first phase of this project, which
is the translation,
the translation of the book,
as I mentioned before.
Those are our announcements for today. We hope
that you all enjoy today's program.
We hope you'll continue to support these programs.
And, inshallah, we look forward to announcing some
upcoming exciting programs. I I do apologize if
we weren't able to get to your
questions today.
Usually, we have a lot of questions for
these programs, and we're not able to get
to each and every one. And I was
trying to select
people that may have not asked questions in
the past or made comments in the past.
So, please forgive us if we didn't get
to your question. But inshallah, we'll hopefully, you'll
be able to join us in the future
and and ask your questions inshallah. Well, I
I think there is one more announcement I
can make as well.
2 more announcements.
If you're interested in Celebrate Mercy's, Umrah trips
where we go to
from Jordan
to Jerusalem
to Mecca to Medina. You can learn more
about these trips. Obviously, we can't do these
trips right now during the coronavirus, but if
you're interested in the future
to join these trips as we take great
teachers
to these sacred places to learn about the
life and character
of the prophet Muhammad
then we encourage you to learn more and
sign up,
fill out the interest form,
at celebrate mercy.com/trip.
And if you're interested in signing up for
a recorded class,
a 22 hour recorded program called portrait of
a prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
this in this class,
this entire book
of the Shamael,
that I talked about earlier, this green book
here
was taught from cover to cover in this
recorded class. So you can literally get the
book
and then go through each and every single
hadith,
415 hadiths
in this recorded class in your own time.
Whenever you are available, you get access to
the videos for 6 months,
and you can follow this 22 hour class
and study this book with qualified teachers from
cover to cover.
You get 6 month access to the videos.
You can get a $10 discount. This is
a paid program,
but we also do have scholarships available
if you can't afford it. So just go
to celebrate mercy.com/portraits
to learn more. You can watch the opening
session of that class,
and then you can sign up if you'd
like to enroll
in that paid program
portrait of a prophet. And remember, we do
have scholarships available
if you can't afford the cost
of the class, Insha'Allah.
That class, as I said, finishes this entire
book from beginning to end
with qualified teachers. This is a book, by
the way, for a 1000 years, this book
was about was the most popular book. Many
scholars say that this book was the most
popular book in the Muslim world
after the Quran
for about a 1000 years, because it is
a book that Muslims have used
to attach their hearts to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam by learning about him. You can't
love someone
that you don't know. You can't love someone
that you don't know. And this book helps
people to know the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasalam
at an intimate level about his personality and
his beauty,
Thank you all for joining us again for
this week's program of the Friday Gems program.
We wanna thank Doctor. Matson again. Please keep
her
and her family in your prayers, and we'll
continue again with those programs next Friday,
and be announcing very soon some programs for
both adults and for children
as well and teenagers too. Take care.
Thank you all for supporting us on a
weekly basis or on a monthly basis.
We couldn't do any of this without your
generous support. Take care.