Mirza Yawar Baig – Learning from Hadith Jibreel
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AI: Transcript ©
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the Messenger,
the Prophet, and upon the Messenger of Allah.
Peace and blessings be upon him and upon
his family and his companions.
Peace and blessings be upon you.
Next, I think what I would like to
do is to begin roughly from where we
thought we'd begin last week, which is the
issue of Aqidah, of what we believe.
And for that, I think I want to
begin with the Hadith, which is called Hadith
Jibreel.
The Hadith of Jibreel, peace be upon him.
And this is the first Hadith in Sahih
Muslim.
The Hadith is narrated by Abdullah ibn Awar,
the son of Umar ibn Al-Khattab.
And he said, we were sitting with the
Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, so the
Prophet was there, there were a lot of
people with him in the Masjid.
And he said, a man came who was
dressed in extremely white clothes, very shiny white
clothes.
And his hair was very dark, very black.
And there was no sign of travel on
his clothes or on his body.
Now that itself was something that they found
debacle because in the days when you travelled
on horseback or caval back or something or
walked through the desert, if you came from
any distance at all, it was almost impossible
for you not to have some dust or
some sign of travel, either on your clothes
or your body, especially if the clothes are
white, then it would immediately show up.
But here was a man who came and
he had absolutely no signs of travel on
him.
And then Sayyidina Umar ibn Al-Radhilal says
that the man came and asked for permission
to come close because this is from the
adab, from the manners of the gathering, that
if you come in, you don't step over
people and you don't push through people, you
sit where you are, where you have space.
But this man asked permission to come close
to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him,
and Rasulullah called him, so he came.
And then he sat in front of the
Prophet, on his knees, in a position of
the shahood, you know in salah when we
sit down for tayyab, the legs bend down
underneath.
So he sat in that position and the
Prophet Muhammad was also sitting in the same
position.
He sat with his knees touching Rasulullah, peace
be upon him.
And he leaned forward like this and he
put his hands on the thighs of Rasulullah,
peace be upon him.
So he was sitting like this and he
put his hand like this.
Now, the Sayyidina Umar and the others, they
all remarked on this, they said it's a
very strange behaviour because first of all, he
comes in right at the front, and secondly,
he's leaning forward and he's putting his hands
onto the thighs of the Prophet, peace be
upon him, which was again very unusual because
the people were, they treated the Prophet, peace
be upon him, with so much respect that
they did not, you know, usually they didn't
even go shake hands with him or if
they shook hands, that's about it, they didn't
touch him anywhere and so on.
So here's this man, and then he asked
a question and he said, Ya Muhammad, again,
they were very surprised and shocked because the
people did not use the name of Rasulullah,
peace be upon him, to call him, right?
Because in our culture, you don't call somebody
by name, you call somebody by their title.
Or if you have to use the name,
you use the title before the name, right?
You say uncle, so and so, or your
parents, you call them father, mother, right?
You won't call your father, Ya Shaukat, right?
You never do that.
You know his name, it's not that you
don't know his name, but you don't say,
you won't call your father, Ya Zahoor, I
mean, so you say daddy or something else.
Or if you have to say, for example,
if you have to call his father, you
won't say Mahout, you say uncle Mahout, right?
Because this is a matter of respect, this
is how we call people.
You call me, you don't call me, Yaward,
you say Sheikh Yaward or something.
Here is this man who is saying, Ya
Muhammad, directly to him, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
The Sahaba never used his name, they always
used to say, Ya Rasulullah.
He said, O Messenger of Allah, out of
respect, they didn't say, Ya Muhammad, but this
man is Ya Muhammad.
So, before we even go into the Hadith,
there are several of these things which Sayyidina
Umar R.A. noted, and the Sahaba noted,
and they said, this is very unusual.
And then he says, Ya Muhammad, what is
Islam?
What is Islam?
So Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Islam is
believing in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, the
Glorious and Magnificent, that only He is worthy
of worship, La Ilaha Illa Allah, that only
Allah is worthy of worship.
And to bear witness and to believe that
Muhammad, peace be upon him, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
is the Messenger of Allah and the last
and final Messenger, to establish Salah, to pay
Zakat, to fast in Ramadan, and to make
Hajj to the House of Allah, Qubaitullah.
So he said, what is Islam?
And what did Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, how
did he answer, what are these five things?
What are they called?
The five pillars of Islam.
Five pillars of Islam, right?
So he said, what is Islam?
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam answered him with the
five pillars of Islam.
And the man says, you have spoken the
truth.
Now the Sahaba will be even more surprised,
here is this man, he's asking a question,
and when he gets the answer, he says,
you have spoken the truth.
So that means that he knew the answer
already.
I mean, how does he say he's spoken
the truth, unless he knows the answer.
So the way their mind is working is,
you knew the answer, why did you ask
the question?
So he's not asking to get information, he's
asking and then he's confirming.
Then he says, what is Iman?
What is Iman?
And Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam gave him the
answer for, what is Iman?
What is Iman?
Yes, faith, but what is the correct answer
for that?
I believe in Allah and his angels, and
his books, and his messengers, and the Last
Day, and the Day of Resurrection, and his
power, and his evil, and his good, from
Allah.
So he said, Iman is to believe in
Allah, is to believe in the angels, the
Malaika, Wa Qutubihi, to believe in the books,
the divine books of Allah, which Allah revealed,
Wa Rusulihi, to believe in the prophets, and
then, Wa Ma'asaba Adilmaut, to believe in
Resurrection, to believe in the Last Day, to
believe in the Resurrection after death, and to
believe in the Qadr of Allah, to believe
in destiny, that Allah has written both the
good of it and the bad of it,
the evil of it, evil meaning what we
think is evil from Allah's perspective.
Everything is good, but hardship and so on
and so forth.
So he said, what is Islam?
He said it is to believe in Allah,
his angels, his books, his messengers, the Last
Day, and the divine destiny of good and
evil.
And again, the man who came, he said,
you look like an evil being.
So he was there, so he said, you
have spoken the truth.
So again, the Sahaba were very surprised.
And then he said, the third thing he
said, so first he asked what questions?
What is Islam?
Second question, what is Iman?
Third question, he asked him, what is Ihsan?
What is Al-Ihsan?
And Rasulullah said, أَن تَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ كَأَنَّكَ تَرَىٰ
وَإِلَّمْ تَكُنْ تَرَىٰ فَإِنَّهُ يَرَكُ He said, to
worship Allah as if you can see Him,
and if you cannot see Him, know that
He is seeing you.
And the man said, you have spoken the
truth.
To worship Allah, just think about that, when
we stand in Salah, do we have this
awareness?
You must stand with this awareness, that I
am standing before Allah.
He said, to worship Allah as if you
can see Him.
Because Allah is real, Allah is not a
concept, He is not imaginary, He is not
a theory.
Allah is real.
So I am standing before Allah, where is
Allah?
He is here, in front of you.
I can't see Him, but He is there.
I can't see the air, but the air
is there, that's our breathing.
You don't have to see everything, right?
We know there's electric current, we know the
phones are working on signals which come, and
we don't see the signal, but we know
it's there.
And so also with Allah, we know Allah
by His creation, by His signs.
You know the signal by what it's doing
on the phone.
You see electricity by the signs of illumination,
and so on.
So we don't see Allah, but we know
He is there because of His signs, His
creation.
And then, the Prophet says, and though you
can't see Him, know that He is seeing
you.
Know that He is seeing you.
And then, the man says to him, inform
me about the hour.
When is the hour?
The hour is the Day of Judgement.
He said, when is the hour?
And Rasulullah said to him, the one asking
and the one knowing, he said the one
asking knows as much as the one who
is being asked.
Which means that neither you know it, nor
I know it, only Allah knows when the
hour will come.
The one who is asked knows no more
than the one who is asking.
Then he said, tell me some of the
signs of the hour.
And Rasulullah said that the slave girl will
give birth to her master, to her mistress.
And barefoot, destitute shepherds will compete with one
another in the building of magnificent buildings, construction
of magnificent buildings.
So he said, what are the signs?
And Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, the slave
girl will give birth to her own mistress,
to her own master.
Sounds strange, because to be somebody's slave, the
person who you are the slave of should
be there.
But here, Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is saying,
the slave girl will give birth to her
own master, her own mistress.
And the Wahdis said, the scholars of Hadith,
they said, that this means that a time
will come when children will treat their parents
like their slaves.
They will order their parents around and they
will not respect their parents.
They will treat their parents like their own
slaves.
So the mother gives birth to the child,
but when the child grows up, the child
treats the mother like his servant.
And then he said, shepherds, destitute shepherds, will
compete with one another in constructing magnificent buildings,
which means that people who were previously, they
had no money, they had nothing, will suddenly
get money from somewhere and they will compete
with.
All you need to do is to go
to Dubai, or go to any of the
Middle Eastern countries and you'll see this happening.
And I went to their history and they
were literally shepherds, actually shepherds.
And today, thanks to oil and so on
and so forth, they're building Buruj this, Buruj
that, Buruj Khalifa and Buruj what not.
Taller and taller buildings.
And then, a questioner went on with me,
the man left.
And he says that I remained there.
And Rasulullah said to him, Ya Umar, do
you know who that was?
He says, Allah and his messenger know best.
Rasulullah said, he was Jibreel and he came
to teach you your religion.
He was Jibreel and he came to teach
you your religion.
Now, if you look at this Hadith, there
are several things that we need to focus
on and think about.
Firstly, take the physical things.
Here was a man who came to, apparently
came to ask some clarified doubts, ask questions.
And he came and he came and sat
as close to the source of knowledge as
he could do.
Like how you are sitting now, right around
me.
Not like how we generally sit in the
masjid.
The first thing you do, get up from
there and go and sit at the end
of the masjid.
I mean, they're still listening because there's a
mic and so on.
But they won't sit here, they will go
sit there.
I tell them I don't bite, I mean,
you know, I'm harmless.
They will sit right in the end.
Or you sit on the wall and you
put your legs out like that and as
if you're relaxing in a cafe or something.
No, this is not the...
See, the purpose of Islam is to teach
us the adab.
So, Jibreel-e-Islam is teaching the adab
of learning.
You come, sit close to the teacher, complete
attention, right?
I'm not saying necessarily you have to sit
there and put your hands on my thighs
or something, but total attention.
I should make that disclaimer first, or the
next thing I know, everybody will be sitting
on my head.
So, you know, but complete attention, right?
It is not here, there, somewhere, playing with
the phone or something.
No, complete attention, because you came to ask
something.
So, pay attention, look at the person.
Look at the teacher, listen to the teacher.
Number one.
Number two, asking questions.
Asking questions, right?
Somebody asked, Ibn-e-Abbas and many people
asked, the Sahaba who were very close to
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and who narrated many
hadiths, Abdullah ibn Masood.
They asked him, how do you know so
much?
Because you spent some time with the Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
How is it that you know so much?
You know more than other people.
How?
He said, because I had an alert heart
and I had a tongue which asked questions.
He said, I used to ask questions.
And when I was given answers, I listened
to them, I made a note of them,
I remembered them.
My mind wasn't wandering here and there, I
was paying attention.
So, Jibreel Sallam is showing that today, when
we look at teaching and learning, not only
the way we sit in the masjid, may
Allah forgive us, so we should change all
this, the purpose of all this is we
should change.
But also if you take knowledge, for example,
our knowledge is on the internet.
The way of taking knowledge is pushed away,
right?
It's some remote thing from somewhere.
It's on the internet, it comes from somewhere,
you don't know the sources.
Many times people go to the net and
they get very confused because now on one
matter you've got like 15 different opinions.
Unless you know the fundamentals of religion, or
whatever the matter is, you'll get confused obviously.
But this is not the way, the way
is get close to the source of knowledge.
So Jibreel Sallam is showing that.
Then he's asking questions, now think about this.
Obviously from the first question onwards you know
that the one asking the question, really it
is not his doubt, he knows the answer
himself.
That's why he's saying, you spoke the truth.
And who is he asking about Islam?
Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he's asking the
Prophet.
So the Prophet doesn't know what is Islam?
Why is he asking you?
This is a way of teaching.
So this teaching, this question, it's like a
role play, right?
It's like a role play.
So I'm asking a question and I'm asking
the question to somebody who I know knows
the answer, right?
So if I say Nimra, tell me this.
Now I know Nimra knows the answer, now
why am I asking you?
Because between the two of us, I say
Irshad, tell me.
I know you know the answer, but the
reason I'm asking is because when the two
of us have this conversation, other people are
listening, they learn.
They don't know, but they learn.
So it's one of the methodologies of teaching
where you do a kind of role play,
question and answer between two people, both of
whom know the subject, but the question and
answer is being done to teach the others
who may not know.
So that's another methodology of learning and teaching
and it's something that also you can practice
sometime, inshallah, it's a nice way of doing
it.
And then if you look at it, think
about what he's asked.
The first thing he asked was Islam.
And if you look at the five pillars
of Islam, all of these five pillars are
actually actions, apart from the shahada.
The shahada also, if you say, ash-hadu
wa, ash-hadu wa la ilaha illa Allah,
I bear witness, it is something you are
physically doing, you are bearing witness.
So it's an action, right?
So, and then salah, of course, is visible,
it's an action.
Fasting is an action, zakat is an action,
hajj is an action.
So these five are in the visible domain
of Islam.
So these are the things where, for example,
if you say, well, how do I know
somebody is Muslim?
Well, you look for this.
Does the person pray, right?
Shahada itself, you can ask someone, but otherwise,
first question, do they pray?
If somebody's not praying, you say, you know
what, I mean, the guy has a Muslim
name, his name is Abdul Rahman, but I've
never seen him in the masjid, I've never
seen the person pray, so is he a
Muslim?
I don't know.
Because if the person is not praying at
all, is he a Muslim?
How do I, I mean, I can't go
into somebody's heart to see, I don't know,
but I, you know, I mean, there's no
visible sign.
If somebody's a Muslim, well, what is the
sign that the person is a Muslim?
Well, he has a beard, well, a beard,
his facial hair, I mean, you know, if
a Muslim has a beard as a sunnah
of the Prophet, this is a very important
sunnah.
I'm not making fun of it, but I'm
saying, beard alone is not sufficient.
Prayer is the condition.
Do you pray?
If you say, yes, I'm doing that.
So also fasting and so on, these are
outward actions.
Next question he's asking him, if you see
the way of the Hadith, it starts on
the outside, goes inside, goes deeper inside.
So next question he's asking is, what is
Islam?
Now, if you look at all those things,
amantu billahi wa malaikatihi wa qutubihi wa rusuli,
all of that is inside.
I believe in this, I believe in this,
I believe in this, I believe in this,
where's the belief?
Belief is in my heart.
So I believe in Allah, that there is
no one worthy of worship except Allah.
I believe in the angels that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala has created.
What do I know about them?
That these are beings, these are living beings,
these are creatures that are different from us.
They are created different from us.
So, you know, they are created out of
light.
They have different roles that they play.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives them different
things to do.
And then we have the books, wa qutubihi.
Which are the books?
We know the names of four.
We have the Zaboor, which was sent to
Dawood alayhi salam.
We have the Torah, which is sent to
who?
Which prophet got the Torah?
You don't know, you're pretending not to know.
Musa alayhi salam, exactly.
Then you have the Injeel.
Who got the Injeel?
Isa alayhi salam, right?
Jesus alayhi salam.
And then we have the Quran.
Who got the Quran?
Exactly, Muhammad alayhi salam.
So, we have these four books.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also sent some
books on Ibrahim alayhi salam because so of
Ibrahim.
And he sent maybe other books, because he
sent many books, but those are not known.
But these four or five, if you take
so of Ibrahim, we know.
So, we believe that these are divine books
revealed by Allah to different messengers.
The only difference is that all the other
books, the Zaboor is completely lost, doesn't exist
anymore.
Torah exists, the Injeel exists.
Injeel is, some people say gospel, some people
say Bible, but Bible, we know the Old
Testament, New Testament, so we're really saying New
Testament.
But we know that these Torah and the
New Testament or the Old Testament, New Testament,
these have been also changed.
Some to a greater extent, some to a
lesser extent, but people have, because what is
the proof that it's been changed?
Because the Bible, for example, there is a
St. James Version, or this version, or that
version.
So, obviously, version means what?
It means it has been changed by somebody.
But the Quran is the only thing which
has only one version, and that version is
what came to Prophet Muhammad alayhi salam.
There is no change in the Quran.
Any Quran, anywhere in the world, any country,
is exactly the same.
There is no difference whatsoever in the Quran.
There may be a difference in the script.
For example, in India and Pakistan, we have
used the Nastariq, the Urdu or Persian script.
With the Arabic Quran, we use what's called
the Uthmani script.
So, there may be some difference in terms
of how it is written, but other than
that, no difference.
You take the Nastariq script and you take
the Uthmani script and you read, it's exactly
the same thing.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen is exactly that.
No matter this script or that script, there
is no change.
So, we know the Quran has never been
changed.
So, where is the belief?
Again, in the heart.
We believe in the books.
We believe in the last day, that there
is a day of judgement, that we will,
after we die, we will be resurrected, we
will stand before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
we will answer for what we did or
we chose not to do.
This belief is in the heart.
Similarly, the belief in the destiny of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala has written our destiny, as we
said, the khairihi wa sharrihi, meaning the good
and the evil.
The evil, there is no evil from the
perspective of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but
evil, for example, if I have some hardship,
I say, oh my God, why did this
happen to me?
But there is a, it happened to me
for a reason.
The reason could be either to, as a
minor punishment, to stop me from doing something
wrong I was doing, to bring me back
to my senses, so to speak, or it
will be to teach me a lesson, a
lesson in patience, a lesson in courage, a
lesson in fortitude and so on and so
forth.
So there is no, from Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, there is no, he said, biyadil
khair, he said in his heart there is
only goodness.
So, for example, the question that people often
ask, so what's so good about children dying?
What's so good about poverty?
What's so good about people starving, right?
You say only good comes from Allah and
Allah does everything, so the poor guy, the
homeless person is also because Allah made him
homeless.
The person dying is also because of that.
What's so good in that?
The good in that is that it gives
people like us, who have homes, who have
money, who have resources, an opportunity to help
those people, right?
Now, you get rewarded for helping, but if
you lived in a place where there was
nobody to help, what would you do?
Very easy to understand, especially for those of
us who are connected to our old homelands.
In a place like Pakistan, for example, or
India, no food is ever wasted, nothing.
Why?
Because there are poor people.
Because what you don't eat, the servants will
take, or somebody else will take, or the
poor people will take.
Or if nobody is there, you have a
goat in your yard, the goat will eat
it, or the dog will eat it, or
the cat, or the chicken, somebody.
But in America, you don't have goats and
chickens and whatnot, and you don't have poor,
poor people.
So literally, expiry date, it goes into the
garbage, into some landfill.
So even if you have the food, you
say, no, I don't want to throw the
food.
Well, then eat it.
Well, I don't want to eat it, so
what do you do?
So the fact that there are people in
need is to help you to help them.
And on the reward, if you choose not
to help them, so many times people say,
you know, why did God do that?
So it's like saying, for example, if you
are a policeman, an example I always use
is, supposing you are a policeman, and you
see a store being prompt, right?
You see somebody breaking into a store, and
you are sitting there in your cruiser, and
you are saying, you know, what's the use
of this government?
What is the point in having a government?
Does that question make sense?
What's the government got to do with it?
You are a policeman, you have been given
a uniform, you are being paid to implement
the law.
Somebody is breaking into a store, you want
to sit there and blame the government?
What are you supposed to do?
Go catch the guy, go stop the thing,
isn't it?
That's why I said, go stop the thing
happening, that's why you are there.
So when somebody says, see the poor people,
why doesn't God do something?
I say, God did something, God created you.
He did something already, He created you, He
gave you more than you need.
How many people in this room are even
in the wildest dream, even in your nightmare?
Have you ever had a nightmare that tomorrow
morning I won't have food on the table?
Have you had nightmares of bears chasing you
or falling off?
So the thing is to, therefore, as I
said, when you say, why doesn't God do
something, He does, He did, He created us.
So you're looking at the Hadith Jibreel, where
it starts with the external actions, comes to
internal actions, our beliefs, and then it comes
to something even deeper than that, which is
a sense of connection with Allah.
Where the Prophet said, وَأَن تَعْبُدَ اللَّهَ كَأَنَّكَ
تَرَىٰ Worship Allah as if you can see
Him.
And if you cannot see Him, وَإِلَّا تَقُونَ
تَرَىٰ فَإِنَّهُ يَرَىٰ Know that He sees you.
Now, the important thing to understand here is
this doesn't restrict, it is not restricted only
to worship.
The worship is given as an example to
illustrate.
But the principle is for the Muslim, every
single behaviour of his or hers must be
as if they are seeing Allah.
So if I'm teaching this, how must I
teach it?
As if I'm seeing Allah.
If I'm talking to you, how must I
talk to you?
As if I'm seeing Allah.
If I'm dealing with my family, how must
I deal with them?
As if I'm seeing Allah.
If I'm selling something to somebody, I'm a
seller, I have a customer, how must I
treat the customer?
How must I sell?
As if I'm seeing Allah.
And knowing in all of these situations that
though I don't see Allah, Allah is watching
me, Allah is seeing me.
So if I tell you lies to sell
this phone, Allah knows.
I might deceive you, but Allah is seeing
me.
I can't deceive God.
In the name of advertising, I tell you
some story and send you the phone, then
after you go, you say, oh my God,
this man lied to me, this phone is
not working.
No, no, no.
Allah is seeing me, I must have that
awareness within myself that Allah is watching me.
And then, of course, as we ended with
that, Sayyidina Abu Bakr al-Khattab said that,
the Prophet asked him, do you know who
that was?
He said, I don't know.
Allah and His Prophet know best.
He said, this was Jibreel, this was the
angel Jibreel.
He came to teach you your religion.
So that solves the mystery of why the
question-answer was happening.
It was Jibreel Salaam who came to teach.
So it was a teaching methodology that was
being practiced.
Right?