Mirza Yawar Baig – Sahaba The Gold Standard Session 07
AI: Summary ©
The Islam culture of the western world is a straightforward, straight, and straight-loving culture with no signs of fraud or false accusations. The culture also had no mythology or tokenized culture. Visits to the place of worship are essential for understanding the culture's values and the importance of writing a letter as a way to remember a person and their actions. The speaker discusses the six values of the title of Islam, including priority, knowledge, action, brotherhood of faith, da equality, and willingness to. Visits to the place of worship are essential for understanding the culture's values and the importance of finding evidence and being true in life.
AI: Summary ©
Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.
My
brother
says to me, it's a very interesting aspect
to think about, that the people of Mecca,
even though they were idol worshippers and they
worshipped many gods and so on and so
forth, they did not have the elaborate symbolism
and mythology like the Hindus and Greeks and
Romans.
Their lives were clean and simple and pure.
They were people of the desert, very simple
people.
Their lives were difficult, very tough and because
of the difficulty they brought out the best
in them.
They made them, they were hard people in
many ways, but also because of the difficulty
and that seems to happen almost in tandem,
they also became very hospitable because they understood
difficulty.
So, they were willing to help other people
and so on.
They were very hospitable people.
They were very straight people.
They didn't have, I am talking about the
people of Mecca especially, they didn't have any
defah, they didn't have any hypocrisy in them.
They didn't have elaborate manners.
For example, a simple thing, if you went
to, many incidents have been narrated.
If you went to somebody's house and the
person said, would you like to join us
for a meal?
If you were hungry, you said yes and
you sat down.
You did not do like we have in
our modern, especially in the eastern ways.
You say, no, no, no, I am, thank
you, I am full.
You are starving, you want to eat, but
you say, no, I am full.
And the other person is expected to somehow
cajole you and to persuade you to come
and join them for a meal.
They didn't do all this.
They were straightforward people.
Are you hungry?
Yes, please give me some food.
You know, if they, what you saw was
what you got.
Very straight people in that sense.
They were not affected by the philosophy of
the Greeks or the civilization of the Romans
and Persians.
Because they were also, most of them were
unlettered.
So, they were not people who were reading
the Odyssey or the Iliad or anything of
the sort.
So, these were people who were, the fact
that they were uneducated and unlettered actually worked
in their favor.
I mean, had they been learned, then they
would have been exposed to a lot of
this stuff which could have complicated life for
them.
It did not complicate any life for them.
For them, they told stories around the campfire,
they had birds who sang hundreds and thousands
of lines of poetry which people listened to
and enjoyed.
There was practically no writing about them.
They did write, there were scribes and so
on.
But the general population, and this had nothing
to do with whether you came from a
noble family or not, most people they could
not read and write.
Most people could not, were unlettered.
So, when we say that Rasulullah s.a
.w. was unlettered, the Prophet Muhammad peace be
upon him was unlettered, he was not the
only unlettered person.
Most people were unlettered.
Most people could not read and write.
So, reading and writing was the job of
scribes.
If you needed a letter to be written,
you went to a scribe, you asked the
scribe to write a letter for you and
the scribe wrote the letter.
The corollary that happened, something that happened as
a result of this also, was the fact
that people, the word of a person assumed
huge importance.
Because usually there wasn't any document that you
could show to.
So, if you gave your word to somebody,
then only your life could wipe out that
word.
As long as you are alive, you fulfilled
that word.
So, in that culture, one of the worst,
if not the worst, accusation was to be
accused of being a liar.
Because if you were accused of being a
liar, if you did not find that accusation,
then it meant that your complete credibility, your
complete credit record was destroyed in one stroke
and obviously you could not survive in society
if that happened to you.
So, it was something, if you call somebody
a liar, you are looking at that person's
sword.
It's almost like the old wild west movies
that you see when somebody calls another person
a liar, immediately the guy pulls out his
gun and shoots him dead.
And that is considered to be a justifiable
homicide.
It's not a crime.
Because people say, well, you know, he called
him a liar.
So, he had to do that.
Because all transactions or almost all transactions were
done verbally.
One evidence of this also is that Allah
swt then specifies, specifically says in the longest
ayat in the Quran, in Surat al-Baqarah,
Allah swt said, if there is a transaction,
write it down.
If there is a transaction, write it down,
have two witnesses and so on and so
forth.
Now, think about that.
If writing down was common, then why would
Allah say it?
There was no need to say something, do
this when people are doing it all the
time anyway.
But people were not doing it all the
time.
These were verbal transactions and verbal oaths were
given and accepted.
And usually nothing happened, but obviously, there was
a chance of the thing going wrong, of
people forgetting, of going back to their world
and so on.
So, since the Quran is not for that
time alone, it's for, you know, future generations,
Allah swt then has specified and said, write
it down.
So, these were very simple people.
So, when Islam came, they accepted it and
they practiced it in its pure and pristine
form.
And they did not add anything to it.
They had no, they had nothing to add
in terms of rituals and what not.
So, even in the Jahiliyyah, they were just
simple people of the desert.
Their language was free from affectation and flowery
speech.
Their poetry was simple and descriptive, not allegorical
and symbolic.
They had no mythology, as I mentioned before,
like the Hindus or the Greeks or the
Romans, or even the Egyptians, for example, huge
mythology with a lot of philosophy and symbolism
and arguments and so on.
Even when they worshipped idols, they simply bowed
to the idol and sacrificed to it and
that was it.
There were no complicated stories and philosophical justifications
and so forth.
Now, when they accepted Islam, they brought this
directness and simplicity to the practice of Islam.
They did not engage in philosophy and argument,
there was no, you know, ilm ul kalam
and so on and so forth.
And they didn't say this means that and
that means this.
Literal meaning, whatever Allah said, this is what
it means.
Finished.
They took the Quran and the Sunnah at
face value and practiced it in sincerity and
with dedication in their lives.
The bidat in Islam did not start in
Mecca and Madina.
All the philosophy and complex theories that are
current today and on which many many books
have been written, which can't even be understood
by normal people because they are so complex
and so complicated rather, they came much later.
Now, strangely, this writing a book which nobody
can understand is considered to be a sign
of learning.
Very strange.
This is what we have done to the
religion.
This was not the standard of the Sahaba.
With them simplicity and clarity were signs of
learning, not complexity and convoluted argument and philosophy.
They were not diplomatic in the sense of,
you know, wanting something, saying something.
They were direct people.
Now, this does not mean that they were
rude or impolite or insensitive to others' feelings.
It means that they didn't say what they
did not mean.
They were completely straight forward.
There was complete synchronicity between their thought, their
speech and their action.
There wasn't any dissonance between these things.
That is the meaning of being truthful and
free from hypocrisy.
They feared the opinion of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala only.
And they feared Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's
displeasure more than the opinions of people.
They feared becoming unpopular with Allah and his
Messenger sallallahu alaihi wa sallam more, far far
far more, there is no comparison even, than
becoming unpopular with people.
So, they said what needed to be said,
no matter what anyone thought.
It is essential as Muslims for us to
develop the character of the sahaba and not
simply to listen to their stories because they
are the standard by which we will be
judged.
May Allah protect us from ourselves.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, la yakhafuna
lawmata lain.
Allah said, these are the people who are
not afraid of the blaming of the blamers.
Meaning that these people are not afraid of
the opinions of other people.
So, what I want to do is to
mention for you, and to remind myself, six
fundamental qualities that I believe that these existed
in the sahaba.
And these were their hallmark.
These were things that they stood out for.
Now, individuals among them had other qualities that
were particular to them.
But these six were present in all of
them.
And they can be said to be values
that defined them and defined their culture.
Now, I am mentioning them because they defined
the culture of the Muslims.
If somebody says, what are the values of
the Muslims, you can say these six things
which were the values of the sahaba as
being values of Muslims.
Islamic culture as we know it and as
we should try to inculcate it in ourselves
is based on these six values.
And these are the values of the sahaba.
These six qualities, one, iman and yaqeen.
And of course, we will look at each
of these in detail inshallah.
One is iman and yaqeen.
Number two is knowledge and action.
Not two separate things.
Knowledge and action.
Number three is a brotherhood of faith.
Nothing else joins them and nothing can come
between them.
Number four, the way they handled ikhtilaf, the
way they handled disagreement among themselves.
They did have disagreement, the way they did
that.
Number five, willingness to invest in Islam.
Number five.
And number six is dawah.
The willingness and the focus and attention on
conveying Islam to the rest of the world.
These six qualities were the harma qualities of
the sahaba of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
We will look at each of these inshallah
in more detail.
We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala to
help us to see them and to understand
them.
And help us to be among those who
benefit from them.
So the first and foremost of these six
qualities is iman and yaqeen.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala mentioned both of
these words in the Quran, iman and yaqeen.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala said, الذين يؤمنون
بالغيب ويقيمون الصلاة ومما رزاقناهم ينفقون والذين يؤمنون
مما أمزل إليك وما أمزل من قبلك وبالآخرة
هم يقنون Allah subhana wa ta'ala said
in Surah Al-Baqarah, the first ayahs two
and three, Allah subhana wa ta'ala said,
They are those, the believers, because the first
ayahs of Surah Al-Baqarah are about people
who are the muminun.
Allah said, They are those who believe in
Al-Ghaib, which is the Hereafter, the Unperceivable.
Now I use the word Unperceivable and not
Unseen, because Al-Ghaib is something which is
not perceivable in any shape or form, in
any way, using any kind of instrument.
Something may be unseen to the naked eye,
but it becomes seen if you use an
instrument.
Something may be unseen, but not unheard, not
unsmelled, not unfelt.
Al-Ghaib is something which is completely and
totally unperceivable.
For example, the situation in the grave, this
is completely and totally unperceivable.
You cannot put a sensor into the grave
and see what happens when a person has
been buried.
Nothing.
It's a different world altogether.
What is happening, what is going to happen
on the Day of Judgement, we know.
Only what Allah subhana wa ta'ala told
us and what Rasulullah s.a.w. told
us.
So, the use of the word unseen for
Al-Ghaib, I believe, is incorrect.
It's far more than unseen.
So, I use the word unperceivable, meaning, it
is not perceivable in any shape or form
using any kind of instrument.
So, Allah said, these are the people, they
are those who believe in Al-Ghaib.
They are perceivable.
As well as, in this case, also the
hereafter, the akhirah.
And they establish as-salah, yuqibun as-salah.
Not just pray.
Not just read salah, do salah, make salah.
We use all these terms.
The only term we don't use is establish
salah.
That's the only word that Allah used.
Allah said establish salah.
But we never talk about establishing salah.
We talk about reading salah, doing salah, making
salah and so forth.
But we don't talk about establishing salah.
Allah s.w.t. has established salah, yuqibun
as-salah.
So, they are those who believe in the
Al-Ghaib, in the unperceivable and the hereafter.
And they establish salah.
And they spend out of what we have
provided for them.
This includes zakat and it includes all forms
of sadaqat.
It includes all forms of time and effort
and energy and talent and resources that one
might spend in the path of Allah s
.w.t. And they are those who believe
in the Quran and the sunnah which has
been sent down, revealed to you, O Muhammad
s.a.w. So, they are those who
believe in that which has been sent down,
meaning the Quran and the sunnah, to you,
O Muhammad s.a.w. And in that
which was sent down before you, that is,
that these divine books which came to the
Prophet before Rasul s.a.w. in their
original divine form unchanged.
We believe that they were divine.
And Allah said, and they believe with certainty
in the hereafter.
Now, Allah said iman and then he said
yuqinoon, they have yaqeen in the akhirah.
If you see this ayah, you will notice
that Allah s.w.t. mentioned iman with
respect to Al-Ghaib, which includes the hereafter.
And then again he mentioned the hereafter, Al
-Akhirah, using the term yaqeen.
And this shows that there are, that these
are two different things.
I submit to you that iman and yaqeen
are two different concepts, but are related and
one comes out of the other.
Iman is to hold a belief about something.
To hold a belief about something, meaning, iman
is to believe that something is true.
Yaqeen is to understand how that thing relates
to you and affects you.
So, two different things.
One is that something is true.
And the second one is, it is true,
but how does it relate to me?
For example, I will give you a couple
of examples.
If I ask you where is the airport,
and depending on where you live, you say
the airport is in such and such a
place.
So, are you sure about that?
Yes.
So, you are, you have iman, that airport
is in this place.
And then I ask you, so, what are
you going to do about that?
And you will say, what to do?
You ask me where is the airport, I
told you that airport is here.
What is there to do?
But now take a time when you are
going to travel.
You are about to travel somewhere.
And I come back to you and I
say, where is the airport?
You say, airport is in such and such
a place.
And then I say, what are you doing
about it?
You say, well, I have bought my ticket,
I have done my pre-booking, pre-boarding
stuff.
I have, my luggage is ready.
I have booked my car to take me
to the airport.
So, there is a whole series of things
that you have done concerning the airport.
Now, the airport is still in the same
place.
Airport hasn't changed.
You have not changed.
Your house is in the same place, the
airport is in the same place.
Distance between your house and the airport is
the same.
But what has changed is, now you are
sure that I have to go to the
airport.
The moment you are sure that you have
to go to the airport, you start preparing
to go to the airport.
I will give you another example.
Say you are walking down, early morning walk,
you are in a beach resort, walking down
the road leading to the beach, maybe you
are walking along the beach.
And in this place you find that there
are these villas of the wealthy all along
the seashore.
And these villas have high walls and big
gates.
And every gate has a sign saying, beware
of dog.
Beware of dog.
So, as far as the belief is concerned,
if I ask you, do you believe that
there is a dog in the house?
You are sure?
Why not?
I mean, you people just won't put up
a sign like that.
So, if there is a sign there saying,
beware of dog, then I am sure there
is a dog in the house.
And if I ask you, what kind of
a dog?
Is it a little Pekingese or a Pomeranian
or something like that for a pug?
You say, no, no, no.
Nobody puts up a beware of dog sign
for a pug.
This means that there is a, probably a
Rottweiler or an Irish wolfhound or, you know,
some big breed.
Of dangerous dog, double pincher or something, right?
Alsatian, German Shepherd and not just some little
lapdog.
So, now you are walking along and you
see sign after sign, beware of dog, beware
of dog from the left.
Then suddenly you come to one of these
villas.
And as you come up to the gate,
you realize that this gate is partially open.
It's not completely shut.
There is sign saying, beware of dog, but
the gate is open.
And as you come in front of the
opening, you see there is a massive Rottweiler
sitting there, big head like that.
And as soon as he sees you, he
stands up, respecting you.
He has a Sheikh Yawa, you know.
So, out of respect, Rottweiler stands up.
And he starts, he proceeds to come towards
you.
Maybe he wants to shake your hand, right?
Maybe he wants to kiss your feet or
something, you know.
Honoring the Sheikh.
What will you do?
Has the meaning of the sign, beware of
dog, has that meaning in your heart and
mind, has it changed its nature?
Or is it still the same, beware of
dog, so many letters?
Completely changed, right?
Completely changed.
Because now, you really understand the meaning of
beware of dog.
Why?
Because now you know how that beware of
dog applies to you.
So, what do you do?
You do something.
You start to pull out your bear spray
or you start screaming or you start reciting
the kalima and say, Okay, if these are
my last moments in life, then let me
go to Allah subhana wa ta'ala with
the kalima on my tongue.
Right?
You start running like *, you start climbing
walls, whatever.
Or you try to see if you can
make friends with the dog.
You will do something to affect that situation
positively towards yourself.
Right?
Because you know, this is going to affect
me.
My question to myself and you is, we
know there is the akhira, we know there
is death.
The akhira begins with our death.
The akhira is not some far off place.
Akhira is right here.
A group of people came to Rasulullah s
.a.w. and they asked him, they said,
Ya Rasulullah, we are, where is the day?
Where is the last day?
And Rasulullah s.a.w. looked at them
and in this group was a little boy.
So, Rasulullah s.a.w. looked at the
boy, pointed to the boy and he said,
if Allah gives this boy a long life,
all of you would have seen the day
of judgment before you.
All of you would have seen the last
day before you.
So, what does that tell us?
It tells us that the last day effectively
for us is the day when we see
Malakum Maut.
The day when we will meet Allah.
I ask Allah s.w.t. to make
the last day, our last day, the best
day of our lives.
Because that is the day when we will
meet Allah.
But we have to work for that.
It won't just happen by wishing.
What are we preparing?
We all know it is there.
We all know there is death.
For a very simple reason.
Because we have all seen death as outsiders,
as spectators.
We have seen death as spectators because we
have seen other people die.
We have seen them die.
We have been to their funerals.
We have prayed Janata for them.
We have taken them to the graveyard.
You have gone down into the grave and
placed the person in the grave.
You pushed and you threw soil on top
of them.
Right?
And you walked away from there.
We have all done this.
But somewhere the penny doesn't drop.
Even though we say it.
One day I will be here.
One day you will be here.
We say all this.
But where is the difference?
That's why I gave you the example of
the sign, beware of dog.
The sign remains the same, beware of dog,
beware of death.
The nature of understanding changes.
And when the nature of understanding changes, the
person starts making preparations for it.
That is the sign.
The sign that the nature of the understanding
has changed is that the person starts making
preparations for that day.
There is no other sign.
If I am not making preparation for my
death, then I cannot say that I believe
in it.
Iman is the foundation.
Iman is the fact that I have this
knowledge and I believe in it.
Yaqeen arises out of Iman and is its
culmination.
Iman is the beginning.
Yaqeen is the proof, it's the evidence that
I have the Iman.
Iman is to look at the sky which
is showing signs of rain and believing that
it will rain.
Yaqeen is to take an umbrella with you
when you go out.
That happens because you understand how the thing
that you have Iman in is likely to
affect you.
So I have Iman that it will rain,
therefore I take an umbrella out because now
that Iman is Yaqeen, I am absolutely certain.
When you have Iman in the Akhira, it
means that you believe in it, that it
will happen one day, come to be one
day.
When you have Yaqeen in it, it means
that you understand how that Akhira will affect
us.
And so you take steps to protect yourself
from its negative consequences and to make its
positive consequences best for you.
Really my brothers and sisters, we have to
ask ourselves that what, check ourselves.
What I am doing here is to try
to give you and myself a kind of
framework to check ourselves so that we can
tell whether we do have Yaqeen in the
Akhira or we are only talking about that
we only have Iman.
The Sahaba, if you look at their lives,
their lives, story after story, give us evidence,
complete and total evidence, that they believed in
this, that they had no doubt in their
mind.
Because if you see their lives, these are
lives which are a sign of preparation for
that day when they would meet Allah swt.
We also claim to meet Allah swt.
We also believe in this.
We ask Allah swt to take us at
face value.
We say we believe and therefore we say
Allah please don't test us.
We say we believe and therefore leave us.
But that belief, how real is that belief?
How true is that belief?
Day will come when we are going to
end up, you know, we are going to
end up facing this, you know, may Allah
have mercy on us.
This can prove to be very expensive if
we don't change ourselves.
We claim to have the belief but we
do nothing.
The worst view on that is that this
is a sign of hypocrisy.
I say I have a belief and I
don't do something means I don't have the
belief.
And the very practical reality of it is
that when the time comes I will be
unprepared.
Because remember, when we are being told believe
in your death, believe in the akhira, prepare
for it.
This is to help us.
Whether we believe in it or we don't
believe in it, it will not change the
reality.
Death is death.
We will die.
We will go into our graves.
We will go before Allah swt.
We will be tested.
There is no doubt about any of this.
Therefore, I remind myself with you, let us
work in a way which, where we do
that which is beneficial for us, especially when
we know that that day is coming.