The Prevention of Harm: A Goal of the Shariah

hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala rasulillah al Ameen. We begin by

asking Allah after seeing these Peace and blessings upon the final prophet, Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and all those who follow his way with righteousness until the last day.

A few weeks ago we were discussing one of the traditions from under which 40 Hadees we are talking about Hadees 19 which focused on the advice that were to lapse Allah Allahu Allah, he was wa sallam gave to his cousin Abdullah Ibn Abbas. Hello, Angela. Today inshallah to talk about another ideas from this collection. Right The 40 hobbies of an hour, we these 40 hobbies, they summarize the entire religion. Which means if you want to learn Islam, in details, study the meaning of these 40 Hadees. And so the Hadith I want to talk about today is how these 32 in the novel is 40 Hadees. Hadees. 32 is so important in our lives, that we can consider it to me half of half of Islamic law.

Half of the laws of Islam can be understood from this one Hadees. And what's so powerful about this idea is that it's only four words, in the Arabic language, it's just four words.

These four words spoken by Rasulullah sallallahu, Alayhi, wasallam, are so deep and so powerful and so full of meanings that entire books have been written explaining it.

So the Hadees, which you mentioned, even madra and in the water at Rhema, Malik, and ameesha hoodie rajala, who call caller sudo la he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, da da da, da da da.

I will show you the hoody rhodiola who narrates that the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam stated, do not cause harm to yourself or anybody else. Right Do not be the cause of any type of harm. This Hadees is half of our religion when it comes to law. Because the scholars of affic have said the laws of Islam are only of two types. Either Allah is telling us to do what is beneficial for us, or he's protecting us from what is harmful to us, meaning half of this religion is the protection from harm. Now this Hadees is deep, it is so deep that this Hadees is one of the five major formulas of

one of the five major forms of meaning when you are maybe the scholars of Islam are making fatwas. There are five main formulas they use for making their fatwas. And this Hadees is one of them. Right just to list them briefly. For those who are curious, you don't have to memorize all five answers to becoming a scholar of Islam. Otherwise, just for those who are curious, there are five main principles that the scholars use for deriving fatwa. Number one, every action is judged by its intention. Number two, something that you have yaqeen about something that you are convinced about that cannot be overruled by doubt. That's a very technical one to go into, but the strings of

knowledge around me understand. Number three, when the religion gets when life gets very difficult, the laws of the religion get easier. Meaning if you can't stand in three cities, if you're too sick to pass, break up your pastor after Ramadan. This is a principle of the Sharia. Number four do not cause harm to yourself or anybody else. This Hadith is one of those five principles and number five, when there is a clash of cultures, the local culture is the deciding factor. So these five principles are the main principles of pick when it comes to when it comes to EOS when it comes to how the scholars derived the patterns. And one of these five is the Hadees we are talking about

which is do not cause harm lavadora while on the road, do not be a cause of harm to yourself or anyone else in any way.

So what I want us to learn from this audience today is three main points, right three main points, one related to the Sharia, one related to fic and one related to a flock and other manners and character. When it comes to the Sharia, when it comes to the laws of Allah, the laws that Allah has revealed explicitly in the Quran and Hadees what we learn from this Hadees is everything that Allah has declared haoran He has declared Haram. Why? Because it is harmful to us. That is why it is haram. Allah do these meetings around because he wants to make life difficult for us.

What did we say last week? We said in Surah Baqarah. What does Allah say? When he talks about Ramadan and fasting, he says, You read a lovely Kumu Yusra, you need to be comatose. Allah wants things to be easy for you, he does not want it to be hard for you. So this is the fundamental of our religion. Allah wants life to be easy for you, therefore, he is making her arm the things that make life hard for you. Like what? Alcohol right? So people making a Islamics like super difficult, you know, we can't drink alcohol. It's not making life easy for you. He's protecting you and your family and your neighbors and the people on the road from the ill effects of alcohol is protecting you from

harm? Right, people may think Islam is so strict, you know, you can't ever go from Islam protect you from all the harms that come with his girlfriend culture that we see around us, all of it. Islam is protecting you from every type of harm. And therefore the scholars of Islam say anything that Allah has made her on, he has made it her own, because it is harmful to us, whether we understand that Hamas, that's the important point, whether you understand it or not, you still have to accept that it's harmful to you. Why? Because Allah knows best. Allah is the one who made it hard on based on his knowledge that we don't have and his wisdom that we don't have. So sometimes we don't understand

why it is haram, but you accept it allow me Haram, therefore it must be harmful.

So the first point is that whatever Allah has made her wrong, stay away from it for your own benefit. Because if you engage in it, you will either be harming yourself or somebody else. Right. So in a Muslim, for example, takes alcohol. If you drink alcohol, may Allah protect us from ever doing this? What is he doing to himself, he's harming his body. If he gets intoxicated by he can harm his family, he can harm his neighbors, you can have somebody on the road and driving, right? So he stays away from what Allah has prohibited. He's protecting the entire society from his own harm. So we said three points. Number one, whatever Allah has prohibited, is harmful to us. That's why

Allah has prohibited number two, when it comes to fear. Sometimes they are things which Allah and His Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did not speak about, because they did not exist in the time of Rasulullah sallallahu. It he was summed up, but the scholars of Islam can tell you that the thing is haram. Why? Why can the scholars tell you that thing is haram, if Allah and His Messenger never spoke about it, because of this principle, LA, da, da, da, da da, do not harm yourself or anybody else. Based on this principle, we can state that all forms of drugs are Haram, even though they did not exist in the time of Rasulullah, sallAllahu, alayhi wasallam, we can see that tobacco in all of

its forms, whether it's vaping, whether it's cigarettes, whether it's the hookah, it's all Haram, because it is harmful to you. And the Prophet has prohibited us from doing anything that harms ourselves, right? So just because it did not exist in the prophets time, doesn't mean the scholars can call it Haram. Rather, this is the principle that they use, right? What is the principle allows messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in this Hadees in the most general wordings possible, has told us that anything that harms us or other people in a way that is substantial, right in a way that is detrimental to your health or to their health or to your image or your well being or their well

being anything that is seriously harmful is wrong. It is a horror show based on this, the scholars use their minds, they they study the things that people invent, they weigh the benefits and the harms and the harms outweigh the benefits, they have the right to pass the fatwa that thing is and if the scholars have declared something to be wrong,

based on the same principle, the principle that is derived from it, and many of us are unaware of this, right? These are principles derived from this. And that principle is whatever is haram to us or do it is haram to buy and sell it.

Think about that principle. Whatever is haram for us to use or to do it is haram to buy and sell it. Why? Because what is the Hadees say? Okay, let's look at the example of smoking cigarettes. Right? We know what in science that cigarettes cause cancer, right? We know it's one of the top five leading causes of death in the world today.

Now, the Hadith says do not harm yourself. How do you practice this Hadees in the context of cigarettes don't smoke. But the he also says law the law don't harm anybody else. How do you not harm anybody else? Don't sell them cigarettes. Because if you selling it to them, no way

It can cause cancer, and they are buying it and smoking and knowing that you can cause cancer, and they get cancer because of that they are sinful for causing the own cancer and you are sinful for selling them something they called them cancer. Understand this, this is a very important principle that we take very likely that in our businesses, make sure we are not selling anything harmful, whether it's a form of gambling, whether it's a form of tobacco, whether it's a type of drug, whether it's something that, you know, sometimes it's something simple, you know, that maybe there's a household glue that certain people are sniffing, and getting high on, you are not allowed to sell

it to that type of person, if you know they're going to do that with it. Right? Because you are assisting them in harming themselves. So this is very, very important. When it comes to that many times. You know, young people come to us and say, Oh, the Quran doesn't say anything about smoking being Haram. That's because smoking didn't exist at the time when the Quran was revealed. But the Quran gave us a very simple formula, don't harm yourself. How do you how do you do that don't consume anything whose harms outweigh its benefits? Should we say three things. Number one, anything that Allah has made around is, is because it is harmful to us. Number two, when they are things

which Allah has not spoken about, at all, because they did not exist in the time of Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wasallam, if the scholars come to the conclusion that this thing is harmful to society, they can make it her own. He can make it her own beast, and this is how traffic laws are formed. Right? In Islam, we actually are supposed to obey the traffic laws. Why? Because not obeying the traffic laws is harmful to society, it causes accidents, it can cause death. These laws aren't just made up for no reason they made up to protect people from killing each other on the road. So following that law is part of practicing this or this don't cause harm to anybody. Right. The third

part of this is the third aspect of this. And this is when it comes to our managing character, that in our interactions with everybody around us, our families, our neighbors, our employees, our employers, our our, our general society, whoever it is, da da, da, da da da, do not be a cause of harm to anyone in any way to such an extent that the other Hadees is that confirm this color fool law, he saw the law leave us alone, as a Muslim man selima wish the moon I mean, listen, he was at the practice law, Islam said the true Muslim is the one who others feel safe from being harmed by his tongue or his actions. Meaning what you don't cause harm. If you are a Muslim, you don't harm

others, you will live your life in a way that people when they see you do this is a good brother, he's going to help me it's going to benefit me, for the very least, he's not going to harm me. So

this heavy stuff we're speaking about, about the causing of harm.

It's a principle which isn't spoken about that often in our machines these days. But when you study Islam, classically, it comes up in every book. And he comes up with every book of the principles of ethics, and is something which is studied in details and thought in details, because it makes up half of our religion, half of our religion is avoiding anything that is harmful to us or to others. So what I want to do now is I want to go into some examples. I want to give you examples of things that Allah has made Haram, because they are harmful to society, and you may not have realized how harmful they are to society. Right? Number two, I want to give some examples of things which Allah

did not mention. But we, as humans can see that these things are harmful. Therefore, our fatawa should be that these things are Haram. Why, because of this Hadees. Number three,

I want to give us examples in our daily life of areas where many of us fall into harming others, and a stern warning to each and every one of us to stop it to stop harming our brothers and sisters in Islam, especially our families. So let's start off with the example of the first I said that everything that Allah has prohibited, he has prohibited it because it is harmful to us. Right now, when we were growing up. Many young people used to say, what's the harm in having a girlfriend? What's the harm in having a boyfriend? There's nothing wrong with all this needs to say. Right? And so what the Muslims did, a lot of them adapted the Xena culture of the non Muslims. Right? And this

became part of the culture of the Muslim that this society May Allah forgive me, guys, everyone in this community away from this evil. What is the result? What is the harm that has been caused by adapting this culture? The most obvious harm? Divorce has skyrocketed.

That's the most obvious in the countries and cultures where people are not involved in Zina divorce is at 10% 20%. Most in countries with people live lives of Xena divorce rate is 50 or 60%.

This direct correlation between the two, right, because when people are engaged in this life of sin,

they cannot be satisfied with one person. And they end up doing things which are completely prohibited by Allah and which end up harming the marriage end up harming their relationship with their children and harming the honor and harming society. The second harm that has come from this dinner culture is that children are growing up without parents. Sometimes they're growing up not even knowing who their parents are, who their fathers are. Children are being raised, who know and they don't even know who the fathers are. There are children out there who know the fathers. But you know, the parents split up because of one of them being involved in the sin. And they growing up in

a single family home because of that, a single parent home because of that, you know.

And then the times where the parents had not put any effort into raising their children at all right, because they too busy involved in fulfilling their naps and following their naps. And so now we have a crisis of parenting. And now we have a young generation of Muslims who don't want to get married, who don't want to have children who just want to have fun.

They've completely forgotten the purpose of life. Why? Because Muslims adapted this harmful culture of the West. So the same harms that are coming to them are coming to us. How do you avoid these harms? Follow Islam, avoid Zina, get married young, focus on or being alone, and you will live live a life free from harm, you will have a happy marriage, you will have Baraka in your marriage, you will have righteous children, you will have Baraka and your children, because you chose to obey Allah and avoid what is harmful. So these things, you know, they may look fun to the young people, they may look like something that they're going to enjoy. But the harms that come to them, even

psychologically, you know, from the heartbreak and everything else involved is far more than the few minutes of joy to get out of these kinds of levels. Number two, an example of things, which were not mentioned directly by Rasulullah, sallAllahu, alayhi wasallam, but that we should avoid, because it is harmful to us. Right. And that is

nowadays, many of us have this bad habits that we overeat and we oversleep, right. And if a doctor has told you that listen, brother, for the sake of your health, you need to cut down on your sleep or you need to avoid these types of food. Many of the allama have said in that case, it becomes haram for you to eat that type of food. Why? Because you know, if you eat that you're going to have a heart attack.

I understand the point. If a doctor told you listen rather you have eaten so much KFC in your life, if you eat another bucket of being you're gonna have a heart attack, it becomes haram for you as an individual to eat that bucket of wings, because you know that there is a 90% chance is going to kill you understand. Taking care of our health is part of avoiding harm. Taking care of ourselves is part of avoiding harm. We must live our life in this way. So all around us take a look at the things in our life, the things we do for entertainment, the things we do to relax the things we do in our businesses and ask yourself is this beneficial or is this harmful? Because if it is harmful, there

is a strong possibility that it is haram even though it is not directly mentioned in the Quran or Hadith because of this Hadees which prohibits every type of harm. So brother, if you have a bad habit that can cause cancer, if you have a bad habit that can destroy your lungs or your heart, if you have a bad habit that is going to cause some kind of mental illness. In stop it for the sake of our last topic for the sake of your own health topic for the sake of your family, stopping because the last lesson said La da da, da da da don't cause harm to yourself or anybody else. Follow this Hadees by giving up all bad habits that are harmful to you.

The third aspect of this case, we said number one, the laws of Allah number two, number three o'clock and adapt our personal character, how we treat people. How do we treat people, brothers sisters, you know, it's sad that we live in a time that people when they talk about practicing Muslim they talk about practicing Muslims being you know, the most dangerous and scariest people on earth. Have you ever seen as some people like literally scared of a guy with a beard, even Muslim? You know, I've heard people say things like I'll never work for a Muslim man in Durban because they all treat the employees badly before generalizing like that. You don't sense

Not all lucency the employees badly. But that's the experiences these individuals have. Right? Many of us are not aware of the fact that the way we live our lives, we may be harming our employees, we may be harming our wives may be harming our children, we may be harming society. We need to become more conscious of this. The practice of law, you suddenly spoke about this over and over again in so many cases. How do you treat your guests?

How do you treat your workers? How do you treat your wife and children? My brothers in Islam if you are treating your wife and children with harshness and meanness and physical harm, don't expect them to love you. Don't expect them to love you treating them like that. I have seen families with the parents are so harsh to their children. And then the children grow up and they leave their parents and the parents ask Why are my children love me? It's because you never gave him love. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in another Hadees

he was sitting in a gathering like this. And one of his grandchildren came and he picked up his grandchild and kissed him. And one of the men commented, you're trying to boast about his masculinity he bought he boasted and said, I have 10 sons. I've never kissed any of them. The proper so long while he was on, he turned to this man and he said, Whoever does not show mercy will not be shown mercy. Meaning what if you don't show love to your children, when they are small, don't expect them to show you love when they grow up. What you give is what you're going to get out of that relationship. So my brothers, how many of us have a loving and close relationship with our children?

How many of us have a loving relationship with our wives Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam with us or anyone who came to him and asked him Oh Rasulullah Who do you love the most?

He says he answered straightaway, I shall

immediately mentioned his wife, the in public in front of all the men. He was not afraid to let me know that he loves his wife. And when you ask Ayesha rajala one How about him. When the Tabby came to an awesome power, don't feel the love for the law leads coming in his household. She said this, she said he had never raised these hands on a woman or child, or slave, or anybody. The only time he ever raised his hand on someone was in Jihad peace or vilella. That's the only time we ever fought someone. Otherwise, he was a gentleman. He knew how to treat people well. So my brothers, when it comes to our families, are we practicing this is la da, da, da, da, da da do not harm yourself or

anybody out there. By the way, when you cause harm to your family, you are also causing harm to yourself. Because when it comes to family, what goes around comes around, right? If you are being harmful to your children, when they grow up, that harm comes right back at you. When you are harmful towards your wife, then when when she has has a limit, and she can't take any more, it comes right back at you. Right? When you are harming your employees. One day we'll come back to you. So we are supposed to be the nation of salon, the nation of peace, we are supposed to be the nation who are who Allah subhanaw taala said that you are the best nation brought out for mankind. We will Allah

has made us the destinations for mankind, meaning people are supposed to love us. People are supposed to want to be like us. People are supposed to be safe around us. There was a time when the Muslim world was so safe, that if Christians or Jews did not feel safe in Europe, they would migrate to the Muslim world because they knew the one place in the world where they would be safe and their rights would be taken care of was under Muslim rule.

Today, Muslims don't even want to work for each other because we're so terrified of how we treat each other.

So my brother's Take a deep look inside of ourselves. Allah has not revealed laws that are arbitrary. Allah has not revealed laws without reason. Allah is, Hakeem, he is most wise. So every law he has revealed is full of wisdom. And from amongst the great wisdoms that Allah has based these laws upon is this Hadees La da da, da da da which Allah has mentioned in different wordings throughout the Quran, Allah is also has stated in the Quran that wa Jalla alikum Dini means that I did not place any harm upon you in this religion, meaning there is nothing in this religion that Allah said you have to do that is harmful to you. Think about it. Has Allah made anything compulsory

that is harmful for us. Think of a single thing that is YG. But it's also harmful to you. You can't in some religions, to be righteous, you must go live in the mountains and avoid working in some religions to be righteous. You have to live a life of virginity never get married,

not Islam. Because Islam recognize the harms in this and so Allah has actually made this haram rather

Allah has made the religion such everything that Allah has commanded and recommended is beneficial for us. So Allah benefits us, fasting benefits us. Zakah benefits us and society has benefits us. He job benefits us as a society. Right? Whatever we do, in terms of fulfilling the obligations, we benefit from it. So, you know, many times the young people, they asked me, you know, what do I get out of obey Allah, you get protection from harm, and you get the benefit of being adorable. That's what you get out of out of a following Islam, you get protection from harm. Because if your friends are going out, and they are taking drugs, and smoking and you getting involved with woman, and you

are not doing that, they are the ones who are going to have to now deal with the outcome of all of that they are the ones who are going to have to deal with the headaches and vomiting in the morning. They are the ones who are going to have to deal with the STDs. They are the ones who are going to have to deal with Africa, they're the ones who are going to deal with depression. And you're not going to get any of those because you stayed away from the cause of those things. So understand and accept that in Islam, whatever Allah has decided is based on his infinite wisdom, whether we understand it or not. And based on that, we will submit to His laws, we will follow His laws, we

will obey His laws. So, how do we come to the conclusion of this presentation, I just want to again, quickly recap the main points from today's presentation for those who came late. We are speaking about Heidi's 32 from an hour with 40 Hades this idea should also find industry now even my job and the motto of Mr. Malik, it is Hasson it is graded as acceptable by the scholars of Hades. I'm sorry, the coup de la Paula Paula toda la he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, da da da da da da da, the prophets lie some stated do not cause harm to yourself or anybody else. We say that this Hadees makes up half of half of Islamic law, because half of Islamic law is telling us what to do. And half

of it is telling us what to avoid, and the half telling us what to avoid. It's all based on this idea. Avoid everything that is harmful to you, and everything that's harmful to society. So we said based on this Hadees we take three lessons Oh, my brothers, we don't remember anything else. Remember these three lessons. The first lesson is that whatever Allah has made her arm he has made her arm because it is harmful to you. So when you stay away from the arm, you're just protecting yourself from harm. Even if you can't see it straight away, you are protecting yourself from harm. Right? So accept this and submit to this, that Allah has prohibited this because it is harmful to me

whether I understand why or not. That's an important point whether understand what the homies are not. Number two, that when it comes to things not mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah, things which are new things which have been invented recently, right, new forms of technology and new forms of you know, culture and whatever has come up in recent times.

These things, we weighed them in light of this hobbies. If the harms outweigh the benefits, then they are of the opinion that if the benefits outweigh the harms, the most of the scholars will say they are permissible this is this is the principle of IQ in general. Right? That because literally everything is harmful to some extent, driving a car is harmful to some extent, right? You polluting you causing traffic, right? So scholars don't take it to that extreme, where everything is haram, rather, at the sea, in vague on the scale of benefits and harms. If the benefits are more than the harms. It's possible, right? You're driving a car, it helps people get places faster, it's more

convenient and walking, and a little bit harm comes out of it, you're polluting, and you know you're causing traffic, the benefits outweigh the harm. So it's possible. But on the other hand, you have things which the harms outweigh the benefits. If you take a look, for example, at tobacco, right, the benefits may be makes you feel nice, it makes you relax, you know, it calms you down, but the harms it can kill you know, it literally had killed millions of people every year. So the harms outweigh the benefits. Right? So therefore this policy it is Hara. And the third lesson from this Hadees is that in our manners in our character in how we treat people in how we interact with

society, in how we do business in how we work in how we treat our wives and how we treat our children in every single aspect of our lives. Do not cause harm to anybody. live a life that is such that the rest of the world feels safe around you. That is what a true believer is a Muslim move when Salima Muslim Muslim in the sun, you are getting the proper slice I'm stating the true Muslim is the one who does feel safe from any harm that may come from his hands into it.

People look at you and they feel safe around you they feel protected around you. They know you're not going to do anything to harm them. And finally, I want to end with one point. harming Islam does not just mean physical harm. We're not just talking about hitting people. Right? There's moral harm, like destroying someone's honor. Right, like slandering and backbiting that is a moral harm. It doesn't physically hurt, but it harms people in in ways that are, you know, that that only someone who had been slandered knows how harmful it is to their life. Right, the psychological harm, there is moral harm. There is verbal harm, what you say to people being vulgar, hurting people's feelings.

Be careful of that. Right? And there is spiritual harm. They are things that harm our relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala. Right saying bad things about Allah speaking bad about Rasulullah, slogging wasallam these kinds of things, they harm a spiritual they did in the heart. So when we talk about something being harmful, we not only speaking about physical harm, we talking about it comprehensively. If something damages your relationship with Allah, stay away from it. When something causes problems in your family, stay away from it. If something causes harm to your customers or your employees stay away from it, live a life in which the world feels safe around you.

That is how we practice this Hadees that is how we live by this Hadees May Allah give us all the tofield to practice and what was saved me Allah forgive us for our sins and make us from the people whom Rasulullah Some said the true believer is the one true Muslim is the one who others feel safe from his handy dandy alum. He goes through stuff like that.

Africa one and you have de la Robbie alameen wa salam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh