Ismail Kamdar – Fiqh No place For Emotions
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the complexion of science and the importance of learning the principles and systems of Islam. They stress the need for unbiased thinking, respecting others' emotions, and being true to oneself and others. The speakers also emphasize the importance of avoiding arguments about religion and being true to oneself and others. They advise against seeking fatwa from a book or YouTube video and emphasize the importance of living a life that is pleasing to Allah.
AI: Summary ©
Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh hamdu lillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah Ahmed
Hamdulillah, it seems like my previous video on fake and cultural considerations was something that you are benefited from. So I thought I'll continue talking about fake. And when they get a bit more controversial today talk about an aspect of fake that a lot of a lot of people don't like, right and why it is the way it is.
And that's the idea that fake is a very dry science, it is focused on facts, it's focused on evidence, it's focused on principles, it is, for lack of a better word, it, it doesn't care about your feelings, right? It doesn't care about your emotions. This is something that people in this generation seem to struggle with, right? When they see a ruling from a scholar, either past or present, that contradicts their desires, or their own idea of what's good and evil, or what's nice. When they see something that they think is unjust, or gross or disgusting, or against the values they were raised with. They have a visceral reaction, right? They have a very angry emotional
outrage.
And
the response isn't built on fake principles. It's built on emotions.
And there's a specific group of people who this applies to more than others, I'm not going to mention who it is you know who you are. But really, this this is a problem of modernity, this isn't a problem that's always been there. Right? This is a very much a result of the world we live in today. Globalization, hyper individualism, liberalism, feminism, all the isms put together, the idea that anyone anywhere in the world can study or read, any fake opinion, any state state at any point in history.
And the idea that we all can have our own opinions and state our mind. All of this is not really an Islamic approach to law at all. Right? So to begin, let's put fake and fatawa in the historical context. So what exactly is the science? How did it work historically, and from there, we understand where the contemporary problems are coming in from. So historically, the way the Muslim world would work, right, you'd have the government, the Khalifa, the Sudan, and his,
his administration and his army, they will be in charge of a few things, they will be in charge of protecting the borders, jihad, or defensive and expensive, they will be in charge of appointing judges, who would be independent scholars who had studied the local Madhab, they will be in charge of safety and applying the the laws and the collecting of the cigar and the jizya. And a few other things, right, they wouldn't really, they wouldn't really interfere much with the life of the average person, or people don't realize this, that we live in a very strange time in history, where everyone thinks they free, right, but the government controls your bank, they control your passport,
they control your taxes, they control what you speak about. There's more control over people today than at any point in history. For the average citizen, and if you had to live under Sharia, you have a lot more freedom, the government did not interfere in the lives of the average person in the Islamic land, rather, what the government would do was they will, they will appoint the most qualified orlimar that they could find, as judges and move these, and they leave it to them to handle the affairs of the people. So the average person would just go about their life, you know, they'd be a farmer, businessman, or whatever it was, they lived their lives, that study a little
bit, the basics of Islam, whatever you need to practice, you know what, what's talking about to ourselves. And
each of them would have like a scholar, the day in contact towards every village, every town would have the old AMA, and people will be in contact with the local scholar. And they wanted to know if something is halal or haram, they would ask the scholar the scholar would tell them and that's the way it works. You just follow your local scholar
if there was a dispute, or legal issue, so for example, two people are fighting for custody of a child or they're fighting over ownership of a home or something that's illegal matter. They will go to the kadhi to the judge, and the judge would judge them based on the demand habit based on the old based on the circumstances, you would give them a private fatawa for those that specific individual individuals in their specific situation, and they will accept it and they will follow it. Difficult, very dynamic. There wasn't this state
law that was forced upon everyone, right? Rather, these laws were just left up to the local Allama, the local Alama were in charge of studying and interpreting the Scripture based on the local madhhab. And they whatever rulings they arrived at, that's what the people of the locality would follow. People wouldn't they wouldn't expect the law to match their own desires. This is a very modern way of thinking. Rather, if the local Marana or chef told them this is haram, let's stay away from it. If they told them that you owe this person the money, they will go ahead and pay it. And you know, the level of independence that these judges have you see in the terminal Oliver Rashidi,
and sometimes even the Khalifa himself, will could be taken to court and could be on the receiving end of the judgment because it function independently. So what is all of this relate to our topic? Well, historically, the average Muslim wouldn't read books or
they wouldn't be exposed to the fatawa of scholars all over the world in every point in time.
They wouldn't be arguing and debating over issues of faith. They just be living their lives, worship Allah and earn halal and raise your family. You know, love your life, that that's what life was like. In the Islamic world. You worship Allah, you earn halal, raise your family, enjoy Halal pastimes, and you just live your life? If you have a question, you ask the chef, if you have a dispute, you go to the coding, right? That's it that life was simple. And so people wouldn't involve themselves in this discussion, they would consider you to be above the level. Right? On the other hand, the Alama. From that time, right on today, go through a system of training, multiple years of
training, they learn the language, they learn the principles, they study a Madhab they learn a methodology of analyzing Quran and Sunnah they learn a book effect, they learn another book of IQ, they learn comparative Fick, they learn how to deal with unique situations based on culture based on personal issues like, like, for example, in certain issues of fake, you take into consideration, personal,
unique circumstances, right? So in this example, the custody issue, you're going to analyze, the judge is going to analyze the character of the husband and wife that you did to to determine who is more suitable for custody, right, it wasn't just set in stone. Yes, there were general guidelines, a certain age that will the father was an agent with a mother. But this could be disputed in court, like if one was an alcoholic, or the other was a malted. And you know, something of that nature. There's a variety of different rulings would end up applying. But
the scholar was trained to handle the situation. And part of the training was learning to divorce emotion from the process. The scholar had to approach Fick without any emotion involved, neither his own nor the people he was dealing with. So we hear stories of the past that if they already was in a bad mood, are angry, they wouldn't go to work, because he didn't want that to affect the fatawa or the judgments between people. They wanted to make sure they were as unbiased as possible. There's no emotions involved. It's pure logic and rationale, based on Quran sunnah. That was sort of the mantra, right? That you have a very systematic approach. You cannot involve emotions in this at all.
It doesn't matter how much one side is crying and the other side is sitting there all stoic, you cannot feel sorry for the one who's crying or feel admiration for the one who's not crying. You have to be just you have to be unbiased, you have to listen to both sides equally and judge them by the Quran and Sunnah.
So the average person would not get involved in fake discussions, they would just ask someone if they needed to know. And the Allama would follow a very set methodology based on the principles of the mazahub the Quran and Sunnah the goals of the Sharia, the Maxim's of thick, and they would not allow emotions to interfere with this at all.
This is how thick and fatawa and judgments worked within the Sharia land within direct Islam, for the bulk of our history. It didn't matter whether you were living under Omega rule or Abasi, the rule of thumb lucru, the Ottoman rule, or whatever it was, that's how it worked. Right? You the Allah Ma and the judges, they had their own system separate from the government, and the average Muslim trusted them. They had this trust in their scholars, and they would accept the judgment even when it's against you. And he's understood that
Fake is not always going to be in your favor. The rules of Islam are not always going to match your desires, your goals, your wants. Sometimes it is for you, sometimes it is against you.
Because this is Allah's religion, not your religion. This is about what is right, not what you want.
Unfortunately, we now have a generation of snowflakes, people who have fragile egos, people who are easily hurt, easily offended people who can't, who are who never been told in their life that they're that they're wrong. You've never been told in their life, you can't do this. You can't say that somebody else has rights over you or you have an obligation to someone else, you need to respect someone else, they haven't been told us and then they see fit our you need to respect this person, you have rights towards that person, you are obligated to do this. And they are outraged. They are angry. They are
you know full of this. This emotional reaction like how dare you tell me what to do.
Now if you are a Muslim, and your life is about submission to Allah subhana wa Tada then yes, you're going to get told what to do. They are going to be why Jabbar obligations, they are going to be Mohammed prohibitions. They are going to be Mr. Hub recommended actions there's going to be mcru disliked actions. And scholars are going to derive this from the Quran and Sunnah. And they are going to tell you honestly what the fatwa is honestly, what the ruling is based on their each Jihad and your scholars understand sometimes each Jihad isn't right but it is, it is a it is based on a set methodology and done in the correct manner that Allah will reward it. But what we have today is
people overriding each Jihad not with an equally Jihad but with emotions, right? They want to they want to override each Jihad based on emotions. And, you know, not only do they have this reaction to the opinions of scholars today, but even scholars of the past. So you'll hear them say things like so and so scholar 1000 years ago said that, oh, he's a misogynist. Oh, he's, no, how dare he say such a fatwa. He's oppressing people. You don't live in that time. You didn't live in a place you didn't know what the culture was like, what the context was like, You have no right to be talking like this about the Obama. Right? If you consider yourself a Muslim, then please when you yearn for
Dawa of the Muslims of the past, even if you don't follow it, at the very minimum, don't say anything vulgar or disrespectful about your Muslims who have passed away before you.
These are people who may have had very close relationship with Allah subhanho wa taala. And your words could be held against you on the Day of Judgment. The believer either speaks what is beneficial or stay silence.
So let me give you an example of a fatwa that's reasonably been circulating on social media that
is a off base past fatwa. It's based on on a local culture. And the scholar who said it, he said he based on the culture of his time, but people today,
were outraged by now. Yeah, there's two sides. Both sides are problematic. One side of people who are just sharing these classical ancient fatwas out of context, with no commentary and explanation, just to get outrageous to trigger the algorithm and get a lot of followers and likes and reach on social media. This is wrong. You should not be using fake like this. Right? This is fake is not something to play around with, just so you can become popular.
Please be wise in how you promote Islam. This is your selfish and self centered approach to Islam.
The reaction is just as bad when people are criticizing the religion and criticizing the scholars using the most vulgar and harsh of language fear Allah don't talk like this fear Allah. Really, a Muslim should never talk like this about another Muslim, especially a scholar who passed away a long time ago. Control your tongues.
So there was this fatwa, there was posted on social media, where scholars said that a woman shouldn't call her husband by his name, but by a respectful title.
And the there was a lot of outrage, and a lot of emotional and disgusting language thrown in the way of that scholar. By basically teenagers and young people on the internet. We don't understand fake, right?
And this is oppressive and sad. It's misogynistic. They call him all kinds of names. Fiala don't don't please, as a Muslim don't talk like this.
Understand the context of the fatwa. Firstly, this is not Quran and Sunnah it is a fatwa based on earth based on the culture of the time.
And whether you like it or not, the culture of most places and most times for most of history right, our own grandparents
Generation was that a woman would not call her husband by his name, but by a respectful title.
And it's still a place in many cultures around the world today. It's still the norm in many cultures around the world today. But what happens is, and you see this specifically from American Muslims, sure, sorry for having to point you out. But American Muslims have this problem of taking American ideas and culture and projecting it onto the rest of the world, and considering any other culture to be backwards or misogynistic or oppressive, just because it's different.
Hold on, why, why is it bad? To be respectful to someone? Especially if they're your leader or in a position of authority?
What Why is it a bad thing to use respectful words? It's not a bad thing, right?
Yes, we can argue that the fatwa is culturally specific, and if you live in a different culture doesn't apply to you. And that is true, that is 100% true. And it's very
rash to just be sharing these photos online without any consideration for the explanation and whether they apply globally or not.
But I'm more I want to address the other side, which is you are rejecting a fake opinion, not based on Quran and Sunnah and the principles of Islam, but based on your own docs, based on Western culture, you are rejecting and an illegitimate fake opinion. Okay, rejecting it is not always that bad, because a fake opinion is only not copy. It's, it's speculative. It's not definitive. So if you had to reject it based on evidences that that's not a big deal. But it's more than just rejection. It's anger. It's outrage, it's name calling. It's during labeled scholars of the past, this is the problem. Right? I know. People say you can get in trouble for for seeing all this. But it's fine.
Nobody watches my channel anyway, I can get away with seeing all of this. So
understand that there's absolutely nothing wrong with this fatwa,
contextually, culturally, at a time and place when the scholar said it and in most cultures throughout history, and in many cultures around the world today, that's the way families operate that is what is considered the norm. And by the end, this call even says Haram is simply said it's not appropriate. Like it's, it's disliked. If people don't don't want to be told today even that this is disliked or that is a slight or you need to be respectful to others. No, there's this life's become all about me, myself and I, and we want the film to to project that, right. So
one of the other problems that came out of this is the response of the Allama. And I've been noticing this very quietly over the past 10 to 15 years, I've been watching a lot of people's social media, how it's changed over time, right? So like, what do you notice, like 10 years ago, some scholars tried a bit of an experiment, right? They post on Facebook, the rights of the wife, and we'll get hundreds of likes and lots of comments and lots of praise. And then they'll post the rights of the husband. And you will just be angry, visceral, hateful comments. How dare you tell women what to do?
So husbands don't have rights. So what were what what was the response? For many people, they either stopped talking about these topics, we ask Allah has protection from ever being amongst that. Or even worse, they started to change it. They started to, to say, oh, Islam doesn't really say that, Oh, that well, just for that time, or you can ignore that or, you know, for our time, we can do things differently and decided to just change and change and change.
Now for those who just stopped talking about these topics, right, if other people are talking about it, fine, but if no one's talking about it, and specifically if you are a scholar and people ask you about it, and you don't state the truth, then this reminding you about the Hadith where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, whoever is asked about knowledge and conceals it, Allah will clothe him with a bridle of fire on the Day of Judgment. This is a sir here, this incident, really, where we are want people to have knowledge or warned that if you have knowledge, and people ask you about it, and you conceal it out of fear of the people, you will be punished for that on the Day of
Judgment.
And I'm seeing too many people do this today. To me, people are concealing important knowledge. And now 10 years later, we have a whole generation who's never heard this knowledge at all. They've never heard about the rights of the husband. They've never heard about a woman's responsibilities in marriage. They've never heard about the restrictions on gender interactions about modesty about lowering the gaze. All they've heard is what they want to hear
And he gets worse with with the algorithm of social media. Because with the algorithm, social media, once you've liked a certain post, you start seeing more of that post only, right? If you like a certain type of video, you start seeing not only that type of video only, so you're not seeing what you need to see. You're not hearing what you need to hear. You're just seeing and hearing what already what you already believe what,
what already agrees with your next.
So that first approach of being silent, it's not good. If you're a person of knowledge, you have an obligation to speak the truth, what wisdom would come compassion, with proper explanation? But you should speak the truth. Right? If something's an obligation, you should say so if something is a prohibition, you should say so it doesn't matter how many people are angry with you. It doesn't matter if the whole world turns against you. Your job is to be brave and honest and wise and compassionate and speak the truth. Right, yes, worded nicely. Yes, sir. Explain the wisdom behind the law. But don't hide it, make sure you speak the truth.
The other approach is
even a bit an even bigger problem today right that we have
people now trying to change the religion
or just make some compromises in times of change, the culture has changed. And to some extent, there is some truth to this, to some extent, there is some room for cultural variety, but it goes too far. It goes too far. And there's like no end to the amount of changes people are making.
So, the scholars have to be responsible, it goes back to what I mentioned in my previous video about all about local culture, you have to look at the cultural practice and what it is leading to what are the ends of the what are the goals of that. Because if you are saying certain things are allowed, because they are the cultural norm,
and you're not thinking ahead to what the cultural norm is going to do to our society, 1020 3040 years down the line, then you are doing a disservice to your community by allowing it.
You're doing a disservice to your community, you have to be very careful about what you say. Especially if you are a minority in a non Muslim land where the dominant culture is one of hedonism of just blindly following your knifes we cannot afford to have a Muslim culture that's all about following the knobs. That is the opposite of what Islam is. Islam is not about you and your desire is about pleasing Allah subhana wa taala. And our fake.
I will fit needs to reflect that.
So to summarize, five things you need to remember about fake whenever you see a fatwa that you don't like whenever you see a fatwa that seems odd whenever you say fatwa that you don't understand, remember these five things. Number one, fake is not based on your feelings.
Fake is not based on your feelings. It's not based on how you feel, or, you know, this doesn't sit right with me, or I don't like this or anything like that. No, that's not fake. Fake is not based on your feelings. It is based on a set of principles. Right? Whatever those principles lead to it, those principles lead to us declaring something haram It's haram. We're not going to go against those principles because someone's feelings get hurt in the process. Similarly being Halal if something is halal is halal, right?
Number two,
fake is about pleasing Allah subhanho wa taala. It's about trying to arrive at the conclusion that is most pleasing to Allah. The goal of the scholar is to make the fatwa or the verdict such that it is pleasing to Allah.
And what is pleasing to Allah is not always pleasing to you. It may be the opposite of what you want. Right? But the scholar isn't interested in worshiping you. He's interested in worshiping Allah. And so he's fatwas will reflect that.
Number three, number 3/5 is sometimes for you, and sometimes against you. You have rights, but you also have obligations. You have the right to good treatment, but you also have to treat other people well. You are sometimes the one who will be on the receiving end of a fatwa. And sometimes you will be the one in whose favor that clockwise. It's not always going to be on your side. You know, I'll give you an example of this. Few years ago, one lady contacted me and she was outraged that in certain situations, the husband gets custody of the child
and asked her why not outraged that in other situations, the wife gets custody of the child. The mother gets custody of the child. And she says because he's
not fair for the husband to have custody of a child? I say why would it be fair then for the wife to get custody of the child? But she seemed to have this idea that it must always be the mother, never the Father. How is that just? How is that fair? You are just using emotions here. There's no logic. There's no Quran, there's no sooner there's no, it's just that you are a mother. So using mothers are the ones who are always right now, sometimes fathers are right. Sometimes the father is the right person to do to, to take care of the child. Sometimes the father is the one who's going to fulfill the rights most. It's up to the judge to figure it out based on this situation of a specific
family. But to say that he has to always be this or always be that just because that's the group that you're from. That is what is unfair. That is what is unjust. So sometimes it's going to be for you. Sometimes it's going to be against you. Sometimes the sheriff is going to say you are right, sometimes they're going to say you are wrong. Guess what? I know, for people growing up in the West, whose parents never told them no one ever told them you're wrong. I know some of you grew up feeling that you're special. And you're always right. You're not You're not always right. Sometimes you owe other people things. Sometimes you have to apologize to someone, sometimes your opinion is just
completely wrong. Right? It's not about you. Fick is not about you.
Sometimes it is for you, sometimes it is against you. Number four,
Islam is about submission.
And that submission is built upon accepting that Allah knows best.
So yes, there are laws in Islam that you are not going to like what Allah knows best and you know not
right, the verse about jihad. Fighting is an obligation upon you, even though you don't like it. And perhaps you don't like the thing and it is good for you. And perhaps you liked the thing and it's bad for you. But Allah knows best and you know not that verse should govern how we view the whole of the religion.
Sometimes you love something, but it's bad for you. Trust Allah when he says It's haram. Sometimes you hate something, but it's good for you. Trust Allah when he says it's halal.
So it's not about you. Right? If you accept that Allah knows best you will submit to the laws of Allah, even when they are not in your favor.
Number five,
right. So this go over one more time. Number one, it's not based on your feelings. Number two, it's about pleasing Allah. Number three, sometimes it's for you, sometimes it's against you. Number four, trust Allah's law and submit to it. And number five, when you are seeking a fatwa be just when you are seeking a fatwa be just seek the ruling that is most pleasing to Allah do not go fatwa shopping to find someone who justifies what you already believe. Right? If the Allah ma are telling you something is wrong,
except it I mean, they will have the evidences, obviously, you're allowed to ask for evidence. Sometimes the evidence may be a bit advanced for you to to understand, but you're allowed to ask for it. But to reject an evidence based fatwa, just because it goes against your feelings against your emotions. This is something completely anti Slavic that will lead you astray.
So and this would
some final advice, right? Advice. Number one.
Avoid debates about fake on social media. It's not for you to get into fake is a very advanced science you need to study social and fake you need to study my positive Sherea kawaii PR you have to study in Madhab studied comparative IQ with the other month hubs. You need to study all of this before you can understand what's going on in the bookstore. So the taking an individual fatwa from a book of fake put it up on Twitter, and have everybody argue about about it. This is extremely problematic, extremely anti Islamic. This is not the right approach is stay away from these arguments completely. It is not your place to get involved. Number two,
when it comes to fatawa please follow your local Allama folk follow the local scholars who you trust, right? I'm sure there's someone in your locality who's scholarly who you trust, follow them. Don't go back to our shopping. Don't follow scholars from a different culture because they don't understand the time and place that you are living in. It's better to follow a scholar from your culture and your manhood because they will understand your situation better. Right? Number three, if you really want to get into fake if you really liked the subject, you understand that we saw you understand the COA you want. You want to understand all of this studied systematically with the
Obama.
Don't just read a book, don't just Google it. Don't just watch a bunch of YouTube videos systematically studied over a five or 10 year period with the Obama
right this is this is the right approach if you truly want to understand the deeper number four
when you are dealing with vehicle whether you are studying it or reading
about it or attending a lecture on it, or just seeking a fatwa from your local scholar. Remove your feelings completely.
Accept the fatwa based on the ozone.
Understand the disabled Allah's law, not about you.
And sometimes Allah's law is in your favor. Sometimes it's not in your favor. It's all about the pleasure of Allah not about pleasing you. So when you are seeking a fatwa, when you are studying fic do not involve involve any emotions, this is not a place for being emotional. Number five, if you disagree with a scholar, if you disagree with a scholarly opinion, past or present, but it is a genuine scholarly opinion from a scholar
can stay quiet.
There's absolutely no benefit in you attacking the scholar calling him names fighting with him arguing with him. He's someone who passed away years ago to be talking bad about the dead. That's a whole different situation where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said Do not curse the dead because they've already received you know the reward or the punishment. So it is not permissible to be talking about about the dead, especially a Muslim brothers and sisters who have passed on before you. So it is best to stay quiet and avoid the discussion altogether. If you follow a different fatwa just follow it don't don't don't get involved in arguments, right? argumentation about fake is
completely unnecessary. Let's just try to go back to that old way right where you just focus on earning Halal money, loving Halal life, raising your family and worshiping Allah. And if any issues come up, you just ask your local scholar, life will be so much more pleasure pleasant and easier. If we do it, it'd be so much more pleasant and easier if we just do this, instead of wasting our time arguing about subjects that we are not qualified to deal with right, arguing about subjects that we are just not qualified to deal with.
So to end
on the end, one last point, if you are living in the West, or you studied in the West,
do not expect fic to match up with liberal secular values. This is a ridiculous expectation. The laws of Allah
revealed in the Quran and Sunnah that are meant to purify the soul and help you to worship Allah and live the life of a righteous person and not going to be the same as the laws of a hedonistic, atheistic community that's all about pleasing enough and being animals. They're not going to be the same at all. Sometimes they may be the same, but most of the time they are not. So for someone growing up in the west with an inferiority complex towards the west, to expect Islamic law to agree with everything that the kuffaar say this is ridiculous. This is absolutely ridiculous.
So as Muslims, respect scholars, even if you don't agree with them, the way to disagree respectfully, I don't know why this generation doesn't understand that you can disagree respectfully. Understand that Allah's laws are not always going to be what you want. This is Allah's religion, not yours. And just focus on
living a life that's pleasing to Allah, focus on living a life of pleasing to Allah, and sometimes that means doing things that you don't want to do. Right? Sometimes it means following rulings that go against your knifes many times it means that because part of Islam is purifying the soul.
So basically, my message is quite simple.
When it comes to pick, leave your feelings at home
and follow the law because this is not a place for feelings. Right? Salam aleikum