Mirza Yawar Baig – Correct the Niyyah to study Islam
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My brothers and sisters,
one of
the,
things we see
is
in itself good,
which is an interest in Islam.
An interest in understanding that they in lying
that they
an interest in
trying to do the right thing,
and so on and so forth. So these
are
have been the good things. But
this world
is full of things which are
good,
but which
in excess or if they are done
in a way which is,
different from
the preferred
and correct ways, then that makes it deeper.
And that's the same thing applies also to
this interest in
being. Where the interest is purely for the
pleasure of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Meaning that I want to learn
in order to practice.
My idea of learning
is to practice. It is not anything else.
And so I learned something and I put
into practice.
And this is
beautiful. This is,
you know, the way it should be done.
We have the famous story
of,
who took 12 years to and then he
and,
he my mother's father's friends for the dinner.
He started the camel.
So they asked him,
why did it take you so long? Why
did you take 12 years to memorize this
one surah?
And,
he said,
the way we used to learn with Rasool
was
that you would take 10 ayaats.
You may be able to memorize those 10
ayaats. We would understand those 10 ayaats.
We would reflect on them.
We would introspect to see
how our lives
resonated with those ordnance and we made changes
we correct ourselves.
If there were any
messiah,
any,
you know, issues of being connected
with those, we
made sure that we
followed those things if there were any,
any rules,
any orders, command the Allah, we made sure
that we followed them.
And only when all of this was over
and we
were
happy
and content with what we were doing, then
we would go for the next. So it
took this long.
Now this is a clear indication of
how being is to be studied, which is
with the intention
of
practicing it
and the intention of.
Said, one of the signs of the
of the last day,
approach of the day of judgement,
is that people seek knowledge
without concern for the deen.
They seek knowledge for this other than
deen. Number 2, he said that they
study,
the deen
with no intention of
implementing any of it.
They're not studying in order to practice. They're
just studying for the sake of studying.
There's no intention practice to deen. And he
said the third thing is where they seek
the dunya
with the armal of the akhirah.
They seek the dunya by doing
things which are
for
or we should be exclusively
for seeking the with Allah
We ask Allah to save us from this.
In other,
hadith
narrated by
Abdullah ibn Masood Radiramu, Rasood Rasoolam said, do
not seek the knowledge of Islam
for these three reasons.
And the reasons he gave was,
he said, do not seek knowledge
to argue with the.
Don't seek knowledge to argue with the jurors,
to argue with the, to argue with the
scholars.
Number 2, he said, do not seek knowledge
in order
to look good before the.
He said, do not seek knowledge in order
to look good
before the fools.
Ignorant bunch of people
and even you have a little bit of
knowledge, and they say, oh,
This person is so,
knowledgeable,
and he's such a fantastic, great scholar
and so on. The simple question is how
do you know?
How do you know he's a great scholar?
Have you some?
Have you some way of judging
to say who's a good old scholar and
who's not a great scholar? I mean, do
you know anything about
the levels of scholarship and so on? Right?
So you say he's a great scholar because
most people say you're a great scholar as
long as you say things which they like.
This is the reality of dunya. Right? Who's
a great scholar? Somebody who says the kind
of stuff I like to hear. So if
I tell you that zakat is not fond
on you, a great scholar.
If I tell you that zakat has to
be paid only one time in your lifetime,
I'm a great scholar.
I'm I'm telling you to do something which
is haram. I'm telling you something which will
put you in the hellfire. But you don't
you you don't have the you do not
even have the knowledge to understand that. Right?
I mean, your ignorance is
what is great here is your ignorance, not
the knowledge of the scholar.
But people don't understand it. So you know,
oh, so and so the grace call.
The so the said,
do not,
seek knowledge in order to look good before
the sufaha.
Look good before the
before the fools. And then he said, do
not seek knowledge,
not to look good, not not to argue
with scholars,
not to and do not acknowledge to attract
the people towards
you. To attract the eyes of the people
towards you. To see, to become popular, to
become,
you know, this,
great
sheikh
who has so many followers on Instagram or
whatever it is. So don't seek knowledge for
the for these three reasons. So don't seek
knowledge
to argue with the scholars. Don't seek knowledge
to look good before the fools.
And don't seek knowledge to
to to attract
the eyes of people. Meaning, to
become popular
with the with the masses.
Truly, it is a such a tragedy that,
how Satan fools
and, turn something which,
you know, should be
a means of getting the Jannah,
into something that puts it in in peril.
Well, now we don't know if I go
to Jannah or not because
of the way I'm doing
something which in itself is good.
But the good thing I do in a
way, which is,
which is halal, which is prohibited.
And so, therefore, that good thing turns into
evil. It is very, very important
to
keep this in mind, to keep on
alerting ourselves,
warning ourselves
not to fall into
these traps
of shaytan.
Because that's what this is. This is a
these are all traps of shaytan.
And if we fall into them, then we
go away shaytan.
My brothers and sisters, it's a very, very
important thing.
Asking questions,
it's not we are not here,
prohibiting. We're asking questions.
We're just saying,
go to the.
Ask yourself,
why am I asking this question?
Because in the we
have,
we know this hadith and we have heard
this
multiple times and so on and so forth.
And, therefore, we should be clear in our
minds about
the,
the truth of this hadith. And the truth
of the hadith is that
ask yourself, why am I asking a question?
There's only one reason
to ask a question,
and that is to clarify
how must
I act in this case.
So I heard about something.
I want to practice it,
but I have some
confusion, some doubt. I need a clarification.
And therefore, I'm asking a question. That's it.
If the reason is anything other than this,
and then believe me, don't ask that question.
Clarify first with make sure that you,
correct your reason
before you
answer it, before you ask yourself.
Should I ask this question and answer in
your side?
My niyya is good. I
intend to practice, then ask the question, and
as soon you've got the clarification,
practice the
others. Many people ask questions to put the
issue.
Whoever they're asking, they want to
show off their,
own knowledge. So they ask a question. They
are not interested in the answer. They want
to show how much they know.
Some people ask questions because they want to
put the share in a tight spot.
So they ask a question which is
potentially embarrassing,
question which can lead to difficulties,
and so they ask these questions.
And, you know, they put the Sheikh in
a tight spot.
Some people ask questions
because again, not because they want answers, not
because there is any,
practice involved in it, but because
they want somebody else
to hear that answer from
the mouth of the sheikh.
So
instead of telling somebody
that interest is haram,
because it is,
you go you wait for
a time when there is a Sheikh around,
and the other person is also there and
say, Sheikh, he's interested.
And then the shirk was interested in haram,
so this other person hurried from the shirk.
Now 3 different,
reasons.
The first two are
reprehensible.
They are,
you know, that that kind of questioning is
haram. Literally, I mean, it's something which
is terrible. It must never be done.
Don't try to, embarrass,
a teacher.
Don't ask questions
because you want to show off.
Never do that because you destroy your own.
And
embarrassing a teacher is not
beneficial to you or anybody else.
The third kind of questioning
is not bad.
This is something which
is sometimes,
a sign of wisdom because
sometimes people
know the right answer.
They even know that there's really no need
even to tell them.
But,
since they are
continuing in their disobedience
and disobedient way of living,
you say, well, you know, somebody thought to
tell them. And that somebody has to be
you because you are the closest to them.
But then you know that these people, they
will not listen to you. Not because what
you're saying is wrong, but because you are
saying it.
Very sad to say, but I've seen this
happened
many times in
with parents and
and, children,
and to also
a great extent,
with pair with
the spouses, husband and wife.
So the parent knows,
the father or mother knows that what the
child is saying is right,
but they will not
accept. They will not listen only because
this is my child.
This is some, you know, little kid,
who grew up in front of me. What
the * does he know?
Please understand
that
one of the reasons why
some of the
seniors of the Quraysh
rejected the
message
and teaching of Rasool Salam
was for precisely the same reason.
They said he's a kid. I mean, he
is he's my nephew.
Right? He's my nephew. He is,
I mean, I he literally sort of played
in my lap when he was a little
kid.
Why should I listen to him?
So this arrogance
of looking down on somebody because they are
young,
this is destructive. This is this is haram.
This is prohibited.
This is destructive. This is something which is
totally and completely
avoidable and must be avoidable. There's no 2
ways about this.
So so also with husbands and wives, may
Allah have mercy on us.
Instead of being supports for each other. Even
though some of the,
youth today, I want to get married because
I want this wife of mine to be
my greatest supporter and dean.
And then you get married and your wife
is trying to tell you something,
but then you get offended because you say,
oh, what? You know? How can you know
more than I do? Well, you just said
you wanted her to be a supporter indeed.
And she's trying to support you in this,
but you don't seem to, you know, like
that. So
rejecting
of,
something which is good and beneficial for you
can
only harm you, not anybody else.
My father, Raul, used to say,
if 3 people tell you that you are
drunk, lie down.
He used to say so
it's his way of saying, if you are
rejecting feedback,
you're doing it to your own,
detriment. Right? So he he would say, if
3 people tell you you are drunk, lie
down.
Because you reject the first person, no. No.
I'm not drunk.
Alright. And second person also tells you, look.
You're you're walking
in this wavy fashion,
which is not normal.
So
maybe you're drunk. No. I'm not drunk. Alright.
So you're not drunk.
And the 3rd person comes to you and
say, hello.
You know, you you how how many what
number is this? Right? And you're seeing 6
fingers.
You're drunk.
He said, I'm not drunk. So then what
happens?
Then you do something stupid.
You enjoy yourself, you kill yourself.
You kill somebody else.
So,
if 3 people tell you you're drunk right
now. So if 3 people tell you that
something is wrong, then something is wrong. Believe
me. Whether
you believe it or not, whether you agree
with it or not,
all of that makes no difference. Because
if 3 people are telling you
meaning, you know, if more people are telling
you something that there is something
in you that
requires correction. My brothers and sisters, the only
person in the world
who was free from sin, who was free
from the need to be corrected was the
Rasool.
He was.
Everybody other than him,
irrespective
of who that person is or was,
was and is in need of correction.
And we have
absolutely fantastic,
you know, stories of our sort of
of the great scholars
of our predecessors
who
took correction from the,
most unlikely sources,
but they did.
So for example, I'll tell you one wonderful,
story,
true story.
Came into the masjid
and
before
Salat al Maghrib. So he came to the
Maghrib, to the Maghrib just before
Salat al Maghrib.
And
he was about to sit down because the,
general rule
is
that when you are in
the time
of, of of the,
a time when salah is
prohibited,
which is the time of
and
and. So the time of
sunrise, sunset,
and when the sun is directly overhead.
These are the three times where it is
preferred not to make Sajidah not to pray.
There are some
specific instances where you can make,
but I'm not going to that. I will
not go into that. There's some but, anyway,
so very close to Maghrib. And we see
this incidentally on a side note. This is
something that many of the people who come
into massage their brothers and sisters.
I see this all the time.
They come like there is 1 minute for
Adan,
2 minutes to Adan, and they pray.
It is better for you to just sit
down
and not to pray.
Because the outcome of not praying
in the time of,
of time of Uruk,
sunset
is stronger and
more important than
actually praying. So
this,
was the case. Was
going to sit down.
When there was a a young boy
who was sitting there, and he
said to mam Malik,
Rasulullah Salim said, do not sit
until you have prayed to rakat
of,
salah
and Imam Malik immediately
raised his hands and made
and he prayed
to
and then he sat down. So after
was over,
his students, they asked him, they said, Yaima,
it is your fatwa. It is, you know,
you have said that
we must not pray
salah
at this time,
but,
we saw that you prayed.
Said,
the boy quoted
Rasulullah.
So what do you want me to do?
When he quotes the Nabi alaihis salam, I
obey.
That's it.
I'm not going to
correct the boy
even though
he could have done that.
I'm not going to tell him that what
you are saying doesn't apply right now for
this season that he he said I for
me to obey the Nabi,
is
primary.
There's nothing which supersedes that.
So he quoted the promise of salah, and
I obeyed.
I see this beautiful
akhlaq. See this beautiful,
way
of thinking. See this beautiful decision making.
When he's saying that the Nabi alaihis salaam
is not,
his word
is not open to,
to argue it.
He says we obey.
And that's what I want to leave you
with, which is the question,
the issue of learning.
Let's correct our
Let's correct our niyat, our intentions
of why we want to learn Islam. And
make sure that the learning of Islam
itself doesn't become a problem for us. Instead
of being
a source of great mercy and blessing,
it should not become
a reason for trouble
for us,
where
after
taking all the time and trouble
to study the religion, we end up with
nothing in the back because
our knee was wrong.