Mirza Yawar Baig – Goals of learning #1
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning and practicing Islam for personal and professional growth is emphasized. Visits to the holy city of Jerusalem are encouraged, and individuals should study and understand the Bible to gain confidence and knowledge in their work. Visits to the holy city of Jerusalem are encouraged, and individuals should study and understand the Bible to gain confidence and knowledge. Visits to the holy city of Jerusalem are encouraged, and individuals should read and practice the Quran to improve their understanding of the meaning and value of it. Visits to the holy city of Jerusalem are encouraged, and individuals should stay close from what doesn't please them and focus on the path of witnessing.
AI: Summary ©
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most
Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the messengers
and prophets.
Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
Peace and blessings be upon him and his
family and companions.
My brothers and sisters, Alhamdulillah, I always thank
Allah a great deal for the fact that
there is a lot of interest, especially among
the younger generation, among the youth in Islam.
And that is something which I hugely appreciate
and I thank Allah for.
There was a time when this was not
the case and Alhamdulillah, we seem to have
broken that.
So lots of discussions and questions and haraqas
and people teaching and learning.
That's the upside.
The downside of this is that in this
eagerness to learn and eagerness to be doing
something, very often the people involved, they lose
track of the methodology of learning.
They lose track of their actual goals of
learning.
And as a result, they fall into the
trap of shaitan and these discussions and haraqas
and so on end up with people getting
irritated with each other and fighting each other
and so on.
And the chief reason for that is because
there is this, quite understandable, but there is
this fascination for fiqh, for different masail of
fiqh.
So now this is a terrible thing because
it's something that is dangerous because fiqh is
a speciality and it is a speciality that
even to get there, you have to have
a whole lot of other things that you
should know before you approach fiqh.
And then you have to study the usool
and the rules of fiqh.
And only then can you get into understanding
fiqh.
So fiqh is not something that you just
pick up a book and you read through
it and you find one hadith and you
say, well, this is what the ruling is.
This is what happens, unfortunately.
And that's why I want to talk about
that.
So many times people will write to me,
send messages or call, and they will say,
I was discussing this matter and what is
the ruling on it, which is halal or
haraam.
And many times or almost all the time,
the matters that they are talking about are
what we call in the style of the
sharia, the language of the law, furway masaya,
which is tertiary.
Things which are, I won't say unimportant because
they are important, but they are like secondary
importance, tertiary importance.
They are not things that will send you
to Jahannam or Jannah.
Thanks to the Internet.
May Allah have mercy on us and on
the Internet.
The fact of making things easy also opens
the door for falling into problems because things
become so easy that you lose the vaqar
of that thing.
You lose the greatness of the thing.
You lose the respect for the thing.
On a side note, that's why Rasulullah said
don't make Umrah again and again.
Let the magnificence and the nobility, the
holiness of the experience.
Enjoy that.
Let that be with you.
Don't make it into a routine thing that
I normally pray Asr in Masjid al-Haram.
So I go there and make Umrah.
I just pray Masjid in Asr.
Please go and pray Asr every day.
No problem.
But don't make Umrah every day.
Don't make Umrah again and again and again
because it can take away the awe of
the experience, which is such a beautiful thing.
To come back to my subject here.
So when people get into this issue of
just referring from here and there and the
Internet and what not, they get a lot
of material.
No doubt about that.
But most people who are not trained in
the Islamic Sharia, in the Islamic methodology of
teaching and learning do not know what to
do with the material that they see.
So when they see something, they say this
is what should be done and many of
them get very rigid about it.
And they say this has to be done.
This is something which is compulsory.
They get into that kind of a mental
framework with that.
Whereas it might not be.
It might be something in which there is
a lot of flexibility.
Yes, there is a ruling, but it is
not necessarily something which is so strong.
Or vice versa, it may seem to be
something which is not so serious, but it
might be very serious.
Now if you understand the methodology of it,
then you will not be deceived.
You will not be confused.
But if you don't know that, then there
is a chance.
So what I tell people is be clear
about your goals of learning and have benchmarks
for them.
So the first thing is learn about Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That's the first and foremost thing.
Because our religion is based on the worship
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alone and
therefore you cannot worship somebody you don't know.
So learn about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Memorize Quran.
Ask yourself, how much Quran do I know?
How many surahs?
Then benchmark yourself and say, how much did
I know same date last year?
Is there a difference between how much I
knew same date last year and how much
I know today?
Now if there is no difference, then there
is a problem.
So say, how can I increase my knowledge
of memorization, knowledge of the Quran?
I'm talking about just memorization, first of all.
So memorize.
Now once you are doing that and there
is some progress, even if you are memorizing
a little bit every year or every month,
that's good enough, alhamdulillah.
But try to ensure that you continue on
that journey of memorization.
Make the niyyah and say, Allah, I want
to become a hafiz of the Quran.
I want to memorize the entire Quran.
And start and make sure you are learning
something, no matter how little it is, even
if it is one ayah.
But make sure you are doing that, because
the beauty of that is that even if
in that journey you die, then Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala inshallah will resurrect you and
me, if I make the same niyyah, with
the hufas, with the people who actually memorized
the entire Quran.
So this is the barakah of the mercy
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that even
though I did not reach my goal of
memorizing the entire Quran, because I had that
niyyah, I had that intention, and I made
the effort, even though my effort was not
completed, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give
me, inshallah, the reward of having made the
effort as if I succeeded in my goal.
So that is very important.
Memorize the Quran and say, how much do
I know now?
Start from there, how much do I know
now?
And then say, how much did I know
last year?
Is there a difference?
If there is no difference, then start memorizing
and increasing that every year.
How much more this year?
Right?
Number one.
Number two is, then you say, understanding the
Quran.
So it's not only a question of memorizing.
You say, am I reading the meaning of
the Quran?
First of all, start just with reading the
meaning, the translation of the Quran, if you
don't know Arabic.
And even though people know Arabic, the Quranic
Arabic is not easy.
Quranic Arabic is classical Arabic.
It has very beautiful nuances and so on
in it.
It's not so simple to understand.
So read the meaning of what you are
memorizing.
Right?
So do that.
And there again, spend some time in that.
Then say, how much more do I...
I'm reading the translation.
How well do I understand that?
Then try and read the tafsir of it
and the exegesis of it.
So that's elaborating on the translation.
And say, well, in this tafsir, how much
more do I know now?
So, for example, you are reading Surah Al
-Fatiha.
You say, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
In the name of Allah, Most Beneficent, Most
Merciful.
Alhamdulillah, Rabbil Alameen.
All praise and all thanks be to Allah,
Who is the Rabbil Alameen, the Creator, the
Sustainer, the Protector, the Maintainer of the entire
universe.
He is the Most Merciful, the Most Beneficent,
the Most Merciful.
He is the Owner of the Day of
Judgment.
He is the King of the Day of
Judgment.
The Day of Judgment, Allah is the Day
when we will be presented before Allah.
I worship only You.
We worship only You.
And we ask help only from You.
And then, Hidrah, Salatul Mustaqeem.
O Allah, guide us to the path of
those, a path of steadfastness, a path of
righteousness, to the straight path.
The path of those who You blessed, who
received Your ni'mah, Your blessings, Your gifts.
غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ Not the path
of those who incurred Your wrath, because of
their actions, and who were also not the
path of those who went astray.
Maybe they had a good intention, but they
did wrong things and they went astray.
So now you memorize Surah Al-Fatiha.
And after memorizing Surah Al-Fatiha, you have
now read the translation of Surah Al-Fatiha.
Now go into the tafsir of Surah Al
-Fatiha.
And say, what is it that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, when I say, Bismillahir Rahmanir
Rahim, what is the kaifiyat on me?
What is my heart saying?
How does it feel to take the name
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in His
glory and majesty?
And when I say that, how do I
feel and what not?
I mean, this is the thing.
The thing is, to spend time with the
Kalam of Allah, to spend time with the
Quran, to spend time with the Kalam of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, so do that.
To make sure that you are doing that,
the tarjuma and the tafsir.
Now once you do that, then you, to
whatever you memorized, to do that, memorize it.
And once you've done that, then you go
to the next stage of whatever you are
memorizing.
Right?
Ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Jalla Jalaluhu,
to help us to be focused correctly and
to do what pleases Him and to stay
far away from what does not please Him.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to
be with us and for us and to
enable us to live a life where it
is a means of khair and barakah for
us in this dunya wal akhirah.
May Allah's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon
the Prophet, his family and companions.
May Allah's peace, mercy, and blessings be upon
you.