Khalid Latif – Imam Nawawis 40 Hadith for Modern Times #16
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Okay. We're gonna get started.
So
we're looking at Hadith number 7
in the 40 Hadith collection
of Imam Nawawi,
People wanna just take a quick minute
before we jump into it. We started this
one last week.
So if you wanna pull it up on
your phone, Hadith number 7, you can just
Google Noah We Hadith
7
or Noah We 40 Hadith 7, if you
don't have the book.
We can also just take a quick minute.
As we're doing that, you just turn to
the people next to you. I know everyone
doesn't know everyone else. If you can take
a minute to introduce yourself, share your names,
see how your day is going,
and then we'll jump right into the the
text
But go ahead.
Do people wanna just introduce themselves to the
people sitting around?
Just like normal.
No. It's okay.
Okay. Should we get started?
This was out front of Raheem.
So if people wanna pull up the text,
if you have it on your phone, we're
looking at hadith number 7
of the 40 hadith of Imam Nawawi. Last
week,
we talked about
the narrator of the hadith, Tamim Adari,
who
was
a Christian man who some people say was
a monk, a priest
that converted in the 9th year after Hijra.
He
had a lot of interesting,
characteristics
associated with him or instances. He was the
first person to bring a lantern into the
prophet's mosque.
So to literally bring light
into the mosque
in the evening times when it's this dark.
It wasn't like a lit place. He had
a commitment to Quran.
It's a Hajjid prayer, the late night prayer.
He was the first person under
the caliphate
of
who was allowed to kinda give public
kinda advice talks to people weekly,
and then that increased
under the,
caliphate of.
He was doing it twice a week.
But we said was his conversion to Islam
after the 9th year of Hijra means that
this was also something that was being discussed
towards the latter part of the prophet's life.
Like, this conversation now that is deemed to
be one of the foundational narrations of the
prophetic tradition. If you missed last week, we
could talk, you know, it's up online,
so you can look into it. And then
we talked about the word nalcija itself,
some of its etymological
root. What does it mean? Because quite often,
it's associated just with the idea of giving
advice.
But
we offered, like, linguistically
distinct definitions of it, right, in terms of
kinda purity.
When you have in Arabic, for example,
this root,
it means to kind of purify or cleanse,
where they talk about, like, the purification of
honey, for example,
is one example we used.
Or,
a second example is to, like, kinda mend
things or bring pieces of things together. So
when a tailor, like, sews something up.
Right?
And then the third definition here
is that,
we can understand things,
what they are by understanding what they're not.
So
this word,
denotes, like, the opposite of
kind of fraud or disloyalty or these kinds
of things. So all of that gets rooted
in this word that isn't just about advisement
or counsel,
but it's about
this idea
of sincerity in these ways. And so now
we're gonna look at it
from the specifics
of the categories,
that the hadith mentions
in particular.
So can somebody read the hadith just so,
we
are kind of building relationship with that part
as well if you have it in front
of you.
The English and the Arabic, but you can
read the English or the Arabic. We'll have
someone read 1 and then the other.
It's hadith number 7.
Yeah. Go ahead.
I'm gonna read the English because even though
I'm read.
On the authority of Hamid al Gauri, may
I all be pleased with him, the prophet,
peace be upon him, said the religion is
no sin cast sincerity.
He said to whom he said, peace be
upon him, said to Allah, his book, his
messenger,
and to the leaders of the Muslims and
their common folk.
Great. Can somebody read the Arabic?
Yeah. Go ahead.
So we're looking at hadith number 7.
Is that clear? So we're looking at a
different hadith.
It's the,
hadith number 7
is
That's where it's gonna start from.
Does anybody have that in front of them?
It starts
So just to read the hadith in Arabic,
and
And so you wanna get into the place
too where even if you don't have Arabic
as a primary language,
that you're engaging the hadith in its original
text, because a lot of the nuance will
get lost
in translation.
But also there's just barakah in,
like, knowing the actual words of the prophet,
alayhis salam. You don't have to speak Arabic
to be able to understand, like, the meanings
of the hadith.
And you can pick up Arabic English dictionaries,
whatever language you speak primarily
that gives you a breakdown to understand.
But there's also just a big
kinda emphasis
on
if you are
claiming words are the words of the prophet
of God,
that they're not paraphrased.
Right? That you're saying the exact words as
best as you can so that you're not
attributing something to him that he didn't say
necessarily.
This happens quite often. Right? You know people
who they might have heard something and say,
I think there's a hadith that says this
or it says that.
But building a relationship with these texts, especially
because they're foundational,
it helps to just add a multitude of
benefits as we engage our relationship with the
divine. Do you know?
So here now, there's
different groupings of
nasiha being attributed to different categories of individuals.
Right? To Allah, to his book, to his
messenger,
to the leaders
of the Muslim,
and to the common folk. So there's these
5 groupings of people.
So I'd like for us to do is
think out here now, like, the framing of
this hadith.
There's scholars who would say that this is
the hadith in
its entirety that makes up the entire foundation.
If you know this, this is it. You
know? There's some who would say it's equivalent
to a fourth
of, like, what this religion is about. Do
you know what I mean? They put a
lot of emphasis on this,
hadith in particular,
But essentially, it's giving us now these broader
categories of how it is that we relate
to
the different kinda
groupings
of what we can relate to.
Allah, his book, his messenger,
the kind of leaders in a society,
and everybody who's not a leader. This is
fundamentally
how you engage with every aspect
of anyone you can have interactions with. Do
you know? And the qualifying term here
is one of Nasija.
Right? This
idea of having
a sincerity,
it's like a honorable conduct,
you know, a a loving trust. When the
prophet says,
it's emphasizing
in this way,
that doesn't mean that the deen is only
this thing, but it's a big part of
this thing. Right? Like, if I said to
you,
you know, love is sacrifice,
it doesn't mean that
healthy love is only about sacrifice,
but we're saying, like, this is a big
part of it. Do you know? If I
said love is kindness
and
you're in a place where you're trying to
understand what love is, you would say, it's
not an equal sign, but it's a big
part. So if the love I experienced doesn't
have kindness to it, there's probably a problem
in calling that love. Do you get what
I mean? So if the deen
lacks
sincerity
towards
these
5 recipients of sincerity,
then there's probably something that's lacking in the
implementation of one's dean. Does that make sense?
And so we wanna go through these 5
recipients of our individual,
Naseeha,
to be able to think out, like, how
do we kinda cultivate that now for ourselves
individually.
You know?
And the companions, they already understand some of
this at a base level because they're not
asking what is.
They understand it, but they're not thinking about
it just in the prism of one definition
of advice,
but thinking about it more broadly. Right? And
so the prophet says
to begin with, right, that this is for
Allah.
How do you think
one has now this
qualifying
application
in the relationship with the divine?
Like, if I was to sit and think
for myself
that the foundation of this religion
is rooted simply in this, That if we
were to submit everything that the Quran is
about, right?
The literal, like, first verse of the Quran
starts with Alhamdulillah,
Right? And the very last page, the last
verse of the last chapter, it ends with,
mankind.
So the whole idea is to understand that
everything that comes in between now
is a means that's connecting
God
to humanity.
Right? You start literally
that all praises to Allah, the lord of
the worlds. Right? And then you
end
at Sura Nas, like, literally with the word
Nas. Right?
Makes sense?
So
this is what it's about, my recognition
that God is Rab. He is my lord,
and I'm Abd. I'm a servant of God.
That's what Islam is about.
So here now, there's this
base understanding
of how we relate
to our creator.
And the first thing when the companions say,
the prophet alayhi salaam, he says,
So if one was to now start to
distinguish, what does that look like?
How do I start to actualize that in
the course of my relationship with the divine?
Where we have, like, these verses that we
looked at last week to break down the
word.
Right? That is,
qualified.
Right? It's like a pure, like, repentance back
to God. Do you know what I mean?
There's, like, that element of kinda just sincerity
when we're talking about this. So as we
look at each of these buckets, you know,
how how does that look? If one was
to think out, like, what does this mean
for me as a practitioner?
The sincerity
to Allah, what would that kind of evoke?
What comes to mind? So if you can
turn to the persons next to you and
just talk about this a little bit. And
you wanna be comfortable in having these conversations,
like, with yourself as well as the other.
If you haven't been here before, the idea
isn't to just kinda say what's the most
correct thing or to avoid speaking because you're
worried about saying the wrong thing.
But being in a place where you start
to deepen through reflection and contemplation,
what does this mean in terms of its
application?
Right? Because if you're a Muslim,
everything goes back to God fundamentally.
Do you know what I mean? So how
do I relate to God
is a very important question to understand.
And what does it look like if I
actually have a relationship
that's rooted in this
qualifying
term, a sincerity
to God. Like, how do we understand
that to actually manifest itself? So it's not
ambiguous,
but there's some metrics of assessment to it.
So if you turn the person next to
you, if you don't know them, they trickled
in later, you trickled in later, just exchange
some names. And then how does that look?
Sincerity to Allah. Like, what are some of
the things that come up? And we'll come
back and discuss. But go ahead.
Okay. So what are some of the things
that are coming up for people?
Like, if I was making
to Allah now,
like, how would that look? How does that
manifest itself?
Yeah.
We talked about a few things, but, like,
it all came down to, like, effort.
Like, putting in the effort to build that
relationship and connection
and,
resetting intentions
and, like, really, like, being,
having the right idea of what you're doing
and, like, really going in deeper on that
and not just doing things to do things.
And also, like
and she mentioned, like, having more kushr when
you pray and, like, things like that. Like,
making an active,
journey towards God.
Okay.
So here, we can kind of extrapolate something.
Right?
Like, the role of god in my life
is based on what exactly?
Do you know?
And
when I'm doing some of these things,
who am I doing them for? So we
wanna actually think about this in terms of
a list that you can have metrics that
you can reflect on both tangibly,
as well as things that you reflect on,
like, conceptually and theoretically,
because some are gonna have outward manifestations and
some are gonna have inward manifestations.
Right?
Prayer, if we were to take from that,
for example,
one of the forms of having
this
sincerity to the divine
is that you do the things that God
asks you to do.
And it has, like, a tangible element to
it in that there's not a lot of
obligations in Islam nor are there a lot
of prohibitions.
But if the base of a relationship
to a law
stems from one of these things, like, there's
a bunch of different things. Like, nasiha is
a big part of this. That's sincerity.
So how do I show sincere conduct to
the divine
if I'm doing other than what it is
that he asked of me to do? Do
you know what I mean?
Or I'm, like, willfully engaged
in things that he has said to not
do, for example. Does that make sense?
You can stem this now into a qualifying
term
that isn't necessarily
just about, like, the fulfillment of burdensome obligation.
But the root here can, like, stem into
a lot of different
kind of reflection points as well.
Because if I'm not doing what Allah has
asked me to do
or I'm doing the things that Allah has
asked me not to do,
what compels me towards those things?
What do you think?
Like, the things that Allah didn't ask you
to do, I would I would think it's
coming from the next. Good. Right? So this
is Quran. Right?
Do you see the one who takes
their, their desire as being their god?
You know?
Outwardly,
like, if you don't pray
when somebody else has told you you're not
allowed to pray
and there's consequences to it,
There's not like a sense
of judgmentalness. I'm not throwing my back against
the wall to say you don't know why
I don't do something. I'm saying, you have
to know why you don't do something.
Because if you are now taking direction
from
elsewhere,
you're taking from other than god.
Right?
So a part of this sincerity
to the divine in our tradition
is that you don't worship anything other than
Allah.
There's nothing else that you become submissive to
outwardly
or inwardly.
So inwardly,
if my nafs is in control
and it's telling me, like, to not perform
the
and I'm giving in to basic desire,
like, that's what I'm elevating to the level
of submissiveness
to. Do you get what I mean? If
I'm in a place where I have
not disbelieved
in God, but I believe in those that
I elevate to a place that I take
direction from the way I would from God.
This is also a problem
in the standpoint of Nasihah to Allah. Does
that does that make sense?
Right? So
obligations,
like the fulfillment
of the.
Do you know? It's a god centric religion.
So in the midst of it, there's gonna
be certain things that god asks us to
do that we love to do, certain things
that god asked us to do that we
struggle with, and certain things that God asked
us to do. We don't fundamentally understand.
But we're now putting that
understanding
of the divine
in a place that is exponentially
greater than anything that we can have of
understanding.
I don't have to, like, comprehend it for
it to be true. Right? Does that make
sense?
So one aspect,
you do the obligations.
Another aspect,
there's nothing that you raise to the equivalency
of being a partner to God. And that's
not just in the form of idolatry
or other things, but
as we just said, right? You can take
your own inner desires
as being what you fundamentally
submit to, you know, and that can be
a problem. What else did we talk about?
What does sincerity look like to God? Yeah.
Something Yeah. Go ahead,
I
spoke about, an incident that had happened on
my way here. I ride city bikes to,
a train station nearby,
and it was a full city bike, and
I was about
to get on to another
bike rack. But I saw someone
pulling up with their bike, and I was,
like, thought, hey. A free bike. Right?
I'll park park my bike there.
And,
someone else came in and parked and sort
of cut me off. And
I it was very easy for me to,
you know,
get upset and, you know, the possibility of
cursing that person out was tempting, but
I I have gotten to the habit of
saying to somebody that before, you know, getting
getting on a bike.
So that each following action,
is something that I can say I I
found in the name of God.
And so,
just reflecting on, like, actions and then really
wondering if,
like, your actions reflect something that
can be done in the name in the
name of name of God or or, you
know
yeah. Usually, when you ask yourself that and
reflect on it, it's pretty easy,
whether that means cursing someone out or, you
know, just
staying quiet and going about your day. Yeah.
Amazing.
And they don't have to be arbitrary,
like, methods through which we reach these conclusions.
Like, what you're saying is a part of
the Quran. Right?
Surah 4 Khan says that the servants of
the merciful,
they're the ones who walk on the earth
with humility and grace.
And when the ignorant
kinda speak to them, they respond with peace.
You know? So if we draw a principle
from it, right, we have sincerity to the
divine.
We're in a place where we're affirming,
like, what his book is saying. And it's
a little bit different from
the idea of how there's gonna be sincerity
to the Quran, which we'll talk about next.
But
we're
affirming, like, everything
that the Quran says about who Allah is,
the attributes that we learned, like, from the
text in and of itself,
the ones that we don't know, but they're
still there.
Recognizing,
like, from this
is a sense of here's where I kinda
draw my
instruction from, my guidance from. Do you know
what I mean? But it's an aspect
of sincerity,
that we can, like, kinda think out. If
I have
this sincere conduct. Right? And let let's, like,
draw this out a little bit. Do you
know? Like, what does that even mean, sincere
conduct?
Because you all some came and had iftar
with us at
out after Maghreb, or some of you have
eaten here different meals. You're gonna come to
iftar in Ramadan.
You come to, like, Jummah prayers. We'll have
lunch.
Do you think we're gonna give you, like,
rotten food?
Do you know?
Yes. You do. You You think you're thinking
about food? No? Do you ever walk in
here thinking, like, man,
one of the probably
spitting this before you give it to us?
Us. No. Right?
You're not thinking, hey. They mighta, like, had
this sitting there for 2 or 3 weeks.
Do you know what I mean?
But you rightly
are reliant on the idea that, like, these
guys are doing this because
they have a sense of responsibility
and service to us. There's a sense of
kinda etiquette that goes not into just the
action being done,
but the quality of the act in and
of itself.
Right? So a part of sincerity to God
is not begrudgingly doing the obligations
or doing it kind of at the base
minimum,
But to be in a place
where you have, like, what Radley is identifying
through the initiation
of the divine's,
with the divine's name is a sense of,
like, God consciousness
that then results consequently
in the practical implementation
of Ihsan or excellence,
like beauty in the performance of what we
do. Do you know what I mean? We
could come in here, and you guys could
be walking in, and we could just be,
like, plopping bagels in your hand, and be
like, why didn't you say thank you? Do
you know?
Or, like, Khaled and volunteers literally sit in
the office
an hour before
they hand cut every bagel, they, like, scoop
things into,
like, the plates, right, make special to offer
them. There's Ihsan in this. Do you know
what I mean? There's sincerity in the conduct
towards you. That's what we're saying. How do
you have sincerity in the conduct towards the
divine?
In, like, what you're bringing to the performance
of your will do, of your prayer,
of, like, this kind of stuff. Right? And
then you just reflect on, like, how do
I have this embedded in my relationship with
the God like, the God that created me
and provides for me when, like, I'm hesitant
in,
you know, using the restroom before I pray
because I just don't wanna repeat my will
do. So I'll stand, like, clenching everything,
hoping nothing comes
out. But it's like, come on, man. Like,
what are you thinking
about
this hadith in relation to that? Do you
get what I mean? Does that make sense?
So sincere conduct,
how does that apply
to Allah? So the performance of obligations,
the performance of other actions too, not worship
oriented,
but done with a sense of irsan,
real excellence, real mindfulness, real beauty. Do you
know in the awareness of God? Like, what
would God think if I yelled at this
person? Do you know what I mean? What
would God think if I was gossiping, backbiting?
Do you know? And so here, the prohibitions
also come in because it's not just about
the performance of the obligations,
but the staying away from what's forbidden
that includes, like, drinking and smoking up and
this kind of stuff, but also being racist,
gossiping,
lying, backbiting.
Where is their sincere conduct to the divine
in those instances?
What else did we talk about? Like, if
we were to identify Nasihah
to Allah, like, how does that look for
you and I?
Yeah. You spoke about
having a sense of guilt when it is
when you're not doing things in the righteous
way.
Yeah.
And that can be a consequence
of having actual sincerity. Right? Because we could
be sitting in the office,
and
Khaled could say to me, Khaled, like, this
food is a week old. And I would
say to him, it's alright.
They don't say thank you ever anyway. Let's
just give him gross food. And he's like,
no. I'm gonna feel bad. The heart is
giving you indication
that there's an absence
of what's needed in the conduct of the
relationship to be whole. Do you know what
I mean? And you're paying attention to those
signs. Right? And if you get to a
place
where
you're willfully able to do something that's gonna
harm somebody,
including yourself.
Right? This is a big part of this.
Nasihah
to Allah
is not benefiting Allah.
The premise
is rooted in my sincere conduct to Allah
is gonna bring benefit back to me.
So if I get to such a place
where I am now not even feeling anything
through the absence of sincere conduct,
it's giving me an indication as to, like,
the state that my heart is in, that
I don't feel bad at doing things that
I know I shouldn't do. Or, god forbid,
I feel good at, like, somebody else's misery.
I like to make someone squirm when I
see, like, the consequences
of my gossip and the, like, difficulty it
creates for them. Do do you see what
I mean? Does that make sense? How else
do we understand this in the frame of
sincerity
to the divine?
What would that look like? Like,
good, sincere conduct to Allah? You talked about
sincerity the idea is purifying.
So I think if you're struggling to do
something good and you keep struggling, you kind
of are in that purification
process.
The whole thing is like a purification
back to the self. Yeah. You're engaged in
So Yeah. And that's what the enabling is
of the sincere conduct
is that it's doing this thing. Right?
To purify. So when you're doing it, it's
like remedying your own insight.
Right? So to just run through a couple
of things in the interest of time, so
the performance of obligations,
also
extending this to, like, voluntary acts.
Right? Hadith,
which is a genre of prophetic hadith
that says the prophet has said that Allah
has said, and it says what Allah has
said. There's one that's hadith and,
like, the hadith
that talks about the extra acts, the nafil
acts.
And in this, it gives, like, a framing
for those who are the of Allah, like
the close friends of God, the ones who
do things to them that they shouldn't. They're
like at war with Allah. And then it
talks about how the obligations
or means of getting closer to God, and
then the extra acts are what increase, like,
love.
Right? So
sincere conduct to Allah is also rooted in
this thing of love. Do you know? Like,
if we're sitting in that room
cutting up iftar, and we're like, these miserable
people, I hate all of them. I hope
no one comes. That's like feeding into it.
Do you know?
Versus
if you look forward
to actually
listening to what God says,
that you look forward to, like, not doing
what God has asked you not to do,
But you bring an element of love into
it
as a way to manifest,
like, sincere conduct.
Right?
And there's not like a hidden kind of
recipe to this. This is what this hadith
is saying,
that these mechanisms
you do beyond the farad,
that's what increases
love.
So when you're thinking about, hey, what's like
the minimum I have to do? Maybe in
some situations,
that's what's gonna transpire.
Right? Like, you have a short window of
time to pray your prayers, you pray the
but if all you're doing is only the
obligation,
then it's gonna feel burdensome.
If I get to a place where I'm
I'm not thinking about what I have to
do, but what I want to do and
how I add upon it more and more
and more, we don't have to, like, perform,
provide iftars here. We don't have to do
halaqaat.
We don't have to do certain things. We
don't have to do iftars every night in
Ramadan.
Right? Why is one of the reasons that
we do it? It's because we love you
all, and we love being with you all,
and we benefit from it. But there's elements
of love that make it go a lot
easier, like staying up
till certain hours of the night, like, doing
all these other things. That's why, like, if
you were born in a Muslim family, you
know, and you had a mother that made
suhoor for you in the morning, why did
she wake up before you woke up? And
why did she eat after you ate?
And whoever did this for you, if not
for love. Do you get what I mean?
So the element of love that becomes present
in this is critical to understand,
and how do I start to think about
my relationship
with God through a prism of love
and not just something that's intangible.
Do you get what I mean? Does that
make sense?
Other things that we wanna be able to
think about here
is that within the prism of worship,
it's really important
that
a big part that you might think is
obvious is that you actually, like, believe in
Allah.
Do you know?
This is not an inherited religion.
So you gotta, like, think,
what does
mean to me?
You can know the words
and you can comprehend the translation,
but the translation and the knowing of it
doesn't mean that I actually believe in it.
And when
you have that belief,
it then assumes a lot of these other
things that I believe in Allah
and then I believe in everything that comes
with that consequently.
So who I know Allah to be is
through his book.
Right? Through the his messenger's sunnah.
Not like grandma told me this or, like,
my dad said this to me, and sometimes
people weaponize religion. Right? You know, it's haram
for you to, like, do this and that,
when, like, clearly, it's not haram.
Do you know what I mean? Right?
You can't marry someone outside of our culture.
Where does it say this in the Quran
and the hadith?
Right?
Where if anything, it shows us, like,
the opposite of this. Do you get what
I'm saying? And so you start to think
out, okay, what does it mean to, like,
actually believe in Allah
and how a part of that is also
believing Allah
and what it is that he has told
us, his divine promises?
A lot of this becomes hard to do,
not because it's complicated,
but if you don't read the Quran, you're
not gonna be able to know what it
says.
Right?
And you just think within yourself,
like, regularly, when are you engaging the text
and reflecting upon it and trying to understand
from it?
You wanna be in a place where that
sincere conduct is rooted also in what Radley
is saying, that you have a remembrance of
the divine,
like, as best as you can wherever you
go. The prophet alaihi salaam, he's described
that the messenger of God was remembering Allah
always
to the extent that the dua that you
make when you go into the bathroom
is,
like your forgiveness,
oh messenger of God. And one of the
reasons they say why this was the dua
the prophet made,
upon leaving the bathroom
is because two things potentially happened. He was
seeking forgiveness from Allah because he went into
a place where he couldn't remember the divine.
Right? Like, you don't do in the bathroom,
or because he was so habituated
in doing remembrance of God that he
made, like, some kind of there
and is seeking forgiveness for it. Allah knows
best. Right? But it's a regular part of
it. And how does that remembrance look? Not
just like rotely regurgitating
litanies
on your fingers. Right? But getting to a
place where you're
engaged
within a sense of the presence of the
divine informs my actions. You know? I took
my son to Michigan with me this weekend.
I was speaking at a conference,
and,
my wife was really supportive as best as
she could. She loves my son. So the
idea of, like,
he and I going away
makes her happy, but also makes her sad.
She wants to, like, have my kid around.
Right? It's great for me because I had
now, like, a friend to hang out with.
You know? I like spending time with my
son.
Now when I'm taking my son places,
in my head,
every place we go, I'm also thinking,
like, if my wife knew I was doing
this with our child,
right, or if I go to a conference
or some place on my own and I'm
walking around in certain places,
I'm thinking constantly. I think Medina and Kareem
would love to eat this. I think Priya
would really like this place. Right? But they're
on the top of my mind
in a lot of different ways.
This is how the prophet remembered Allah,
Not with burdensomeness,
but with a sense of love.
If I'm eating something and my son and
I, we went to this Yemeni brunch place
in Michigan.
Right? It was amazing.
And the first thing that he says to
me is,
Baba, I think mama would really like it
here. Do you know?
Why is he thinking that way?
My daughter came home on Friday,
and my son is really into mister Beast.
I don't know if everybody here knows mister
Beast. Right? But he's, like, the
most followed YouTuber
in the world.
You know?
And,
he has, like, a candy brand called Feastables.
And so my daughter
walked home with one of her friends from
school,
then she came
and she said, Kareem,
where are you? And he came. And she
said, I got you this, like, thing. And
it was a new flavor of a feastable.
And Kareem's heart was just like, thank you,
Didi. That's so amazing. And then we went
to
this, like,
amusement place in Michigan, and he won, like,
all these tickets at these games.
He, like, got a bunch of stuff, and
he said, I'm gonna give this to mama
and this to Deezy, and this one I'm
gonna keep for myself.
I wanna be like, you didn't give me
nothing, man. Right?
But this is what I'm trying to like,
this is remembrance
of the ones that you love.
He's 8.
Who is he going to remember? You know?
When we went to Cape Town, both him
and his sister said, is it okay if
we get this for this friend or for
our classmates?
Their consciousness is rooted in what their capacity
to have consciousness about can be rooted in.
Right?
You and I are built in a way
where our wiring
allows for us to be conscious of the
divine. We can be in a place where
we iterate
explicitly,
Bismillah, even in riding a bike, and then
getting to a place where now someone confronts
me
and my ego isn't what's dictating,
but the remembrance of God dictates my conduct.
Do do you get what I mean? So
here's, like, part of that sincere conduct
that we have a mindfulness or a remembrance
of Allah.
Right? And the idea of zikr
is that your self talk
builds up perception.
So when you're doing these, like, adhqars,
it's helpful because now your mind goes back
to this. Because in order for you to
remember something,
it means that your mind has to be
empty of it in order for you to
have to bring it back. You know? And
if you only think about Allah in matters
of tribulation
or trials and difficulty,
then you're not in a place where he's
gonna come to mind at moments that are
not challenging.
And now there's, like, other things in front
of you, and you have,
like, goodness in your life. How are you
expressing gratitude
in these ways and appreciation
when you're not even thinking about the divine,
let alone thinking about what's pleasing to the
divine.
Other things that come is that you wanna
be in a place where
you, like, love the things that God loves,
and you dislike the things that God dislikes.
Right? And the people
who embody the characteristics
of these actions,
you're in a sense where you have, like,
sensibility
around it. Do you know what I mean?
You don't wanna make justifications
for people just because they're in positions of
power. Do you know? I mean, may Allah
make things easy for anyone who's in a
state of distress. These guys literally
are, like, I went, like, as close to
Gaza as you possibly could go when we
raised funds to deliver aid. Like, what you
understand
that Rafa border to look like right now
is not even what you can imagine the
number of people that are there. And there's
people who fundamentally
are validating and justifying
the massacre
of all of these individuals.
Do you get what I mean?
You cannot have sincere conduct to Allah
if you're not in a place where you
also don't dislike that.
Do do you understand?
It can't be enough that you just earmark
it as well, that's wrong.
But, like, when you really have
kinda tribulation against something
or it just, like, kinda angst or anger,
it should be doing something to you. Do
you know? Like, you shouldn't be in a
place where everything just feels normal
fundamentally,
and you become desensitized
to it. Right? I said to Amira today,
the number of kefias that I see people
wearing has dropped substantially
from, like, before
New Year's time. What happened?
If anything,
like,
escalated violence has increased, not decreased.
So where does it all go? Right? And
how do we understand that through sincere conduct
to to Allah?
You wanna be in a place also when,
like, there's fundamental things that are being compromised
upon that have to do with the divine.
You know? I was walking by some people
in our office the other day, and someone
made a very callous comment
that they sat thought was just joking,
that had to do with, like, somebody else's
belief
in Christianity. You know?
And you could see, like, the person just
didn't know what to do in response to
it. You know what I mean? Like, our
book tells
us
that we don't mock people's religious beliefs.
Do you know?
So now if you see someone mocking someone
else's religious beliefs, how does, like, the command
of God
being violated
upset you in your heart?
It's not just enough that, like, somebody is
disrespecting
us for our religion, but somebody is disrespecting
somebody else.
Like, what does that mean? Do you know?
Am I sit back and, like, I'm a
bystander?
Do I become upstanding to it?
You are in a place where you, like,
have sincere conduct
because you thank God for everything he's endowed
you with, the blessings,
and that necessitates understanding God is the giver
of the blessings in the first place. You
know, this religion
posits itself off of a theology
that Allah is the owner of all things.
Do you know? So how do I show
gratitude?
1st, like, I gotta recognize that something is
there that I'm grateful for. At the, like,
base minimum, I have a cup of water
that I can drink water whenever I want
to.
That's crazy to think about.
Do you know?
And if you juxtapose it to other challenges
that come up in our lives, it's not
to belittle them, but, like, what excuse do
I have then
to not honor the when
there's people
who they don't have any of this for
days,
and they're in a place that what they
drink is, like, polluted of this,
and they're still getting down and prostrating in
the rubble of homes.
Right? They're honoring that relationship
as best as they can,
using it as a way to, like, inculcate
movement.
But a part of sincere conduct to the
divine is that you're grateful
and you're thankful
for, like, what it is that you've been
given. You sit down and you reflect. You
appreciate
what it is that he's bestowed upon you.
And the important part of all of these
things
is the recognition
here
that
this is, like, for my benefit,
because
there's not Allah
is. Right? He's self sufficient.
He's free of need. So you're doing is
not going to bring benefit to the divine.
It's gonna bring benefit back to you. Does
that make sense?
Yeah. So I like for us to do
I know I'm talking a lot. Just like
a list of stuff, but you, like, take
some of it and extrapolate from it. Like,
how do I recognize these things
as a mechanism now of how I relate
to God? Right? The fulfillment of his commands,
a belief in him,
the abandonment of what he has prohibited,
engagement of a recognition of gratitude and thankfulness
to him, loving what he loves, hating what
he hates.
Right? Being in a place where
the notion
is such that, like, god is very centered
in my life.
Does that make sense?
So what I'd like for you to do
now is just turn to the persons next
to you. What makes it difficult to do
that?
Like, what gets in the way
of making it hard? Because if anybody asks
you, like, what is Islam about? Right? A
lot of us are gonna just jump to,
like, practices.
Muslims pray 5 times a day. We fast
in Ramadan. We do this and that.
That's a, like,
consequence of something.
You have to have iman before you have
Islam, like, in terms of
iman as faith and Islam as practice.
So
what makes it hard
or difficult for us
to connect at the level of
faith
in this way?
Right? Because the iman and Allah
then becomes the foundation
for then all of these other things, thanking
Allah, following his commands, like doing this other
stuff. So what makes it hard to observe
some of these things that could be understood
as metrics of sincere conduct? If you just
turn to the persons next to you, or
what makes it easier? Like, what makes it
more helpful to kind of engage in it
so we can kinda
relate to each other? Because it's not easy.
You live in a secular godless society. Right?
That's not a knock on anybody,
but they don't run things, entities, and institutions
based off of, like, the presence of the
divine. If anything, quite often, we see the
absence of mercy and compassion
and love and hope and just a lot
more egocentricity
than god centric stuff. Right? So think about
it in that way. It can't be self
deprecating.
You can't reach the conclusion and be like,
because I'm a bad human being. Right? No.
No. Then you're giving shaitan victory. Like, really
think. What are the obstacles
that make this challenging?
What gets in the way? And what are
the things that make it easier? What make
it exciting
to do? Like, enable me to do it.
And if we can talk for a couple
minutes, then we'll come back and discuss. But
go ahead.
Okay. So what are some of the things?
What are some of the things that get
in the way? What are some of the
things that make it easier?
But maybe we can have a few people.
And then yeah.
I think so we talked about how just,
like, in general living in this society, it's
very much it's very difficult to pray,
in the sense of, like,
there's not, like, a masjid in on every
corner. You can't just walk in and pray.
And it's also, like, difficult to make blue
and, like, if you're, like, a student and
you work. Right? So there isn't, like, spaces
catered for that. And then also, like, especially
now after, like, the whole philosophy of the
thing,
it's even harder to pray in public
because you feel kind of like,
okay. Like, this might be taken a little
a little weird or whatever. But I think
in general, like, this society is, like, structured
in a way. Like like you said, like,
it's a godless society, and it's structured in
a way to make you forget God and
to, like, throw things at you constantly all
day long that get in the way of
that. And so that's, like, one thing that,
like, personally, I feel as well here. Like,
it's very difficult to, like, have that, like,
consistency and making sure you do it even
though there's all these, like, obstacles, like, in
the way.
Yeah. Definitely. And I'm sure a lot of
people can relate to this. Right? You're quite
often the only Muslim in an office space,
the only Muslim in the classroom,
the only Muslim frequenting certain spaces,
and that can be very hard as a
minority.
Right? And acknowledging it and recognizing, like, what
it does.
Other things that come up for people,
like, that are helpful or things that get
in the way. Yeah. Well, the Quran, for
example, it affirms that Allah is the best
of planners. But, obviously, you know, we can't
all see that plan as it's being carried
out. And so you see things that, like,
in the world that
break your heart, you know, And you think,
how could Allah allow this? But
you have to have faith in this plan.
So that's an obstacle that gets in the
way of, I guess, like,
fully devoting yourself.
Yeah. And, like, theological questions sometimes
that get answered with specificity, sometimes we just
have to say, I don't know.
Right? This religion teaches us to kinda think
out and reflect on who god is and
then to take that understanding to make sense
of the world.
What happens quite often in the absence of
reflections of the divine is we take, like,
the world
to then determine who god must be. Do
you know? And it then results in some
of this kind of paralysis.
You need
people who can answer certain questions. Right? Like,
doctor Sherman Jackson is a really amazing Muslim
scholar.
He wrote a book called Islam and the
Problem of Black Suffering.
You know? Because you need to be able
to answer, why would God allow for slavery
to exist?
Why do we have, like, anti black societies?
You know, why do these things happen?
Right? Somebody
who lost their loved ones and somebody who
didn't lose their loved ones, but still impacted
or just wants to know why is there,
like, a COVID 19 pandemic.
And it's not something that can be answered
just as a platitude.
Do you know? They're like, just put your
trust in God. You know? This is a
test from God, this and that. People struggle
because life
gets in the way,
and there's a deep need to be able
to answer
these theological
questions
in a way that when they're not, they
can create impediments.
That's why you can't just learn religion
from, like, sound bite kinda,
you know,
TikToks and YouTube, etcetera,
that become more entertainment than educational.
But you pick up a book and you
read it. You reflect on it. You sit
with people to kinda contemplate and understand.
You look at, like, the prophetic biography, the
stories of the companions
who lived through real difficulty and tribulation,
but they're still in a place where their
faith perseveres,
not because their faith is something that they're
holding on to in a fleeting way, but
it's helping them to understand what it is
that they're rooted in. Do do you see
what I mean? What else, like, comes up
for people? Things that are helpful, things that
are not. Yeah. Yeah. So the something we
discussed in the group is,
kind of nature. Always, like, you know, whenever
you say look at at a certain point,
you're gonna go, wow. Like,
you know, this is, like, so beautiful. Right?
And that's kind of something that always helps
me
just, like, always remember a lot is when
I go outside
and see the sunrise and see the sunset.
It's like, you know, it's much bigger than
me and much bigger than the phone. And,
like, especially in New York City, it's like
you know, I live in Jersey City, so
I can see, like, the skyline.
It's, like, crazy because, like, there's so much
going on in that city, but
bigger than all that is the sunrise and
the sunset. You know?
So that's something that's, like, always helping you,
like, remember a lot. So
Amazing. Yeah.
Right? And it's a simple thing. It breaks
away from the monotony of the day.
You go out. You find, like, solitude,
not running away to the mountains, but just
look out your window
and watch the sunrise, the sunset,
and it helps to bring now a different
sense of presence and perception
that becomes a mechanism. Right? So we wanna
think about these things. What enhances? What are
obstacles?
What else, like, can help in this regard?
Yeah.
God itself. Sometimes,
you know, if I feel like
I haven't remembered God enough
in the moment that God does come to
mind, just asking a lot to make it
easier for me to remember him in other
moments.
Yeah. 100%.
Right? Like, you turn to God and you
ask. This is like hadith, and the prophet
says in a lot of hadith
about,
reviving your iman. Right?
Like, you know, renew
your iman.
One of the things that he says is,
ask Allah to, like, increase you in your
iman, like, make for this specific thing. Do
you know?
The opposites of these things also bear impact.
Right? So if I'm present in places
that are devoid
of spaces to pray or people who encourage
it,
then
the
presence of some of that is gonna be
helpful. Do you know what I mean? Like,
if
engaging in solitude or looking at nature has
this impact, when you're engaged in things that
are just unnatural,
like, it's not gonna be, like, a helpful
thing. Do you know what I mean? Making
du'a
can be helpful, then the absence of, like,
dua, that's not gonna be helpful. Do do
you see what I'm saying? So, like, a
couple of other things, like, if you're the
only Muslim in a lot of the spaces
you frequent,
then you gotta have, like, friends who compel
you to reach, like, a a a few
steps ahead of where you might be
sometimes. Right? So, like, if this is a
consequence
of me being in a place where most
of the people
are not informed by God,
then I gotta find some time in my
day, in my week, where I'm regularly surrounded
by people who are people of God,
you know, and they have some element of
God consciousness
to them, then I'm in a place where
that's kinda replenishing and rejuvenating.
Does that make sense? Right?
Because you know what it's like.
There's not a lot of things that all
of us in this room can say that,
like, we can share in common. You know?
I wouldn't assume that every single one of
us in this room
knows what it's like
to be the only Muslim in the space.
Even sometimes when you're around Muslims, you might
be the only one that's like a practicing
Muslim. Do you know? But you fundamentally know
what it's like to be in a place
where people just don't believe the things that
you believe in.
How could that not take a toll then
and then inform, like, conduct that you have?
Right? So you don't wanna think about these
things in self deprecating ways. You wanna just
think about
what actually is there,
detangling them to then be able to say,
well, I want to deepen in this. I
want to get to a place where aspirationally,
I'll make will do in front of whoever.
Do you know? I'm gonna, like, pray, and
I'm just gonna do it. Do you know
what I mean? Like, we talked about at
Juman Friday last Friday. I don't know how
many people were here. Arrogance.
Right? The prophet has a companion by the
name of Abu Dijana,
who before battle,
he used to, like, strut around.
He put a red bandana on his head
and, like, be, like, showing you know? And
the prophet would say, you know, Allah
dislikes this kind of walk
except in this situation.
Do you know what I mean?
Because he's showing with a sense of pride
to these people.
I'm not embarrassed by who I am. You
know? But he's got, like, a group of
people that are also there
reinforcing.
You know? So you wanna think about your
relationship in a way strategically.
Why would it
not feel the way that it feels? Or
why why does it feel the way that
it does feel because of some of these
things? Does that make sense? So next week,
a couple of things just before we break
for Isha, and then we're gonna have the
second, the Ramadan class.
We'll talk about,
like, the remaining 4 groups a little quicker.
On Monday, this building will be closed next
week,
because of Presidents' Day. So we're gonna
do the Iftar
and,
these 2 halakas in my apartment building
in the 2nd floor lounge, right, which I
think a good number of you have been
to before. It's on 23rd Street and Third
Avenue. In the summer, we were doing halakas
there.
Just by a show of hands, how many
people could actually make it out there on
Monday, 23rd Street and Third Avenue?
The same times. Yeah.
Yeah.
Great.
And,
we'll send out more details online. If it
seems like it's a smaller group of people,
maybe we'll move it to my apartment, but
we'll be in the 2nd floor lounge, and
we'll go through some of these things. So
the idea here is, like, start with this.
You know? How am I
displaying sincere conduct
to Allah? And you want to, like, go
through an inventory.
Do you know? How much of my day
is in this place where
I'm, like, engaged in the or I'm leaving
it behind? How much of my day is
engaged in, like, what's prohibited and leaving it
behind? Am I bringing anything else
to the level of, like, a partner to
God?
You know, like, who is dictating and defined?
What it is that I do in the
ways,
how am I expressing gratitude and appreciation,
a recognition of the blessings that I've been
endowed with, right, that are not just an
expression from the tongue, an expression of limbs.
Like, how do I use my talents, my
skills in the way God intended me to
use them? You know, the different things that
I've been gifted and given. When we talk
about the Quran,
one of the things that is about sincerity
to his book is that it's referring to,
like, all of the revealed scriptures, that there's
a belief that there was text that came
before the Quran. The Quran is the last
testament,
but
it
has many different facets to it. One of
which is gonna be just about, like, reading
the Quran. Do you know?
And just like how we did today,
you wanna think, like, what gets in the
way of reading the text and, like, reflecting
on it? So between this Monday and next
Monday, those are, like, 2 of the things
I would suggest
just spending some time in your own reflection.
Like, how do I have that sincere conduct
that the Hadith is talking about? Right?
Is the very first thing. How you relate
to God
is clearly gonna be a foundational
aspect of this religion. Do you know?
And you'd be surprised how many Muslims there
are who don't ever even think about who
God is to them. Do you know what
I mean? Especially those who are born into
Islam, because it's just like, my parents told
me we do this. Like, people do this.
If you don't do this, what will somebody
say?
It's like removing an aspect of just kind
of exhilaration
that only belief can offer. You know, like
faith and conviction
that makes that prayer a little sweeter, that
makes the observation of something,
like, a little bit more enjoyable,
that makes the abandonment of a prohibition
something that's done with ease, because
faith is the basis of it. Right? Not
like, what can I get away with? Because
now my mom and dad are not here,
and I can just do whatever I want
to. But I know why I'm doing what
I'm doing
rooted in a conviction
that then gives me strength and energy.
Do you do you get what I mean?
Does that make sense? Okay. So we're gonna
take a pause here.
We'll pray Isha, and then at 7:30 ish,
we'll start the Ramadan class,
and go till like, for about an hour
or so. So this next Monday, people are
gonna join. We're gonna be in our apartment
building because this building will be closed. Oh,
tomorrow, the building is also closed. So if
you had plans to be here tomorrow,
for doctor Murmur's Holika, I don't know if
we're gonna do it on Zoom or not,
but we'll send out an announcement about it
along with when the building closed.
But because there's a winter storm tomorrow,
the public schools are all closed, so our
university follows a lot of their precedent.
So the building is gonna be closed, and
everything will be remote tomorrow.
So don't come here showing up for something
tomorrow because it won't be open. If people
are gonna leave after ISHA,
on Saturday,
we're doing a film screening with our Latino
Muslim group,
but the film screening is open to everybody
in the community.
It'd be really amazing if people can show
up. It'll be from 5 o'clock till 9
o'clock. It'll be dinner. The film screening is
gonna talk about,
just the establishment
and propagation of Islam
in Chiapas, Mexico.
We have some members of our community who
have gone there on and off over the
years. There's a growing Muslim community there.
We get about 5 people a week who
take their here.
A good number of them are from a
Latino background. And then there's a lot of
people who are not converts, who are born
into Latino families,
and they just don't have a lot of
space.
So similar to our black Muslim initiative,
like, you wanna come to learn about this
experience,
to show support.
There'll be free food also, and you get
to meet a lot of really amazing people.
So that'll be Saturday from 5 to 9.
And if you could spread the word, there's
an email going out. I think it already
went out at 7, so you'll get all
the details on it,
so people can be there for that. We'd
appreciate it.
Okay. So somebody called the azan. We'll pray
Isha, and then right after, we'll start the
the Ramadan.