Moutasem al-Hameedy – 40 Hadiths of Imam Nawawi #03
AI: Summary ©
The importance of sh patterning, fatwa, and backbiting in Islam is discussed, along with the need for qualified individuals to navigate certain situations. The speaker advises against praying to hate before Maghrib and suggests praying only when the situation is changing. The importance of protecting one's religion and not letting things happen to the heart is emphasized, along with the importance of fixing one's heart and not letting things happen to the heart.
AI: Summary ©
Instructed the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam to
say, I don't find in what was revealed
to me things that are made haram except
for these categories,
and they are numbered.
There are a few. Okay. So Alhulubayeen, Al
Haramubayeen. This is
we call this in Islam
Al Hukum, the general ruling. For example,
shirk
is the biggest haram, the greatest haram. Shirkubillah
a zawajal to worship others besides Allah.
To pray to them.
To pray to them. To supplicate to them.
Make dua to them.
To prostrate to them.
And even
to fear them as much as one should
fear Allah.
To love them as much as one should
love Allah. All of this falls into shirk.
Shirk.
What else?
Murder,
killing an innocent person.
The kabar, the major sins, Azina,
Qauluzur.
Right?
False testimony.
All of that is haram. Lying is haram.
Stealing is haram. Backbiting
is haram.
A lot of evil suspicion and thoughts are
haram.
So Alhulalubayin.
This is called the Al Hukum, the general
ruling.
The general ruling. We have to differentiate between
two things. The al hukum and al fatwa.
Al hukum and al fatwa. And often people
get confused with this.
Al Hukum is what Islam says about this.
Is it halal or is it haram?
Is it halal or is it haram?
But in specific situations,
sometimes there are implications.
There are implications
where concessions could be given.
Sometimes something haram
but this
is circumstantial. It is contextual.
And you can't do fatwa for yourself. What
is haram is haram.
But now when you present your case to
a qualified Mufti,
right, there might be circumstances
where you are allowed to engage in Haram
minimally.
Why? Because of a specific situation.
Specific situation.
Okay?
So we're not gonna get into this, but
we would just wanna differentiate between shukum
and and fatwa.
For for the general public, it's important for
them to know the shukm, the general ruling.
But the fatwa
requires a qualified person. You can't do a
fat you can't make fatwa for yourself.
You can't give fatwa to others.
This is why we should hold off when
it comes to
giving people advice as to how they should
navigate a specific situation.
How they should navigate a specific situation.
Why? Because you might be giving about you're
not a person of knowledge. You don't realize
the levels, the gradation
of rulings,
and how they come in conflict sometimes, the
dynamics, how they play out in real life.
For example, there are certain situations where backbiting,
talking about someone behind their back becomes halal.
Sometimes it becomes an obligation.
That doesn't make backbiting
haram
halal.
The ruling that is is this it's haram,
but in a specific situation where there is
a fitwa
and a greater harm cannot be avoided except
with committing the lesser haram,
because you have to commit one of them,
then that becomes a fatwa. It's not for
the general public. It's only for a qualified
Mufti. So this is why you might be
saying to someone,
you know, no, you know you shouldn't be
doing this because it's haram.
But you don't know their situation and you
don't know that by you advising them you
are pushing them to commit a greater haram.
But for you, you can't deal with haram
is haram. That's your place. Yes. That's the
general ruling. But your place is not to
give fitwa as well. So the fitwa is
for the mufti.
They can assess the situation, they know how
they understand it, and this is how they
deal with it. This is why you will
find people say, you know, but
is this halal or is this haram? But
sheikh so and so said it's halal. Why
are you saying it's haram?
People are confusing hukum ruling, the general ruling
with the fatwa. Fatwa could be in a
specific situation. This is why you find someone
taking a concession,
You shouldn't take it yourself. You don't know
because maybe they have a fatwa and you
don't have it.
They have they have a situation that calls
for this fatwa, but you are not in
a similar situation.
And this is why one of the rulings
that are agreed upon unanimously among Muslim scholars
is that
fitwa,
it changes
when the time or the place
changes, when the circumstances change. We're not talking
about the ruling.
Hukum. Hukum is is clear. Halaalbayin and halaambayin.
Between them there are doubtful matters.
Mushtabihat could be doubtful and you could be
say
or you could be said about them, they
are gray matters.
They hold elements of halal. They hold elements
of haram.
Most people don't know how to navigate these
issues. They don't know the ruling about them.
Who knows the rulings? The
scholars.
The scholars, the people of knowledge.
This is what Allah says
These
are the doubtful
matters. Now doubtful matters
could be doubtful in themselves
or they could be doubtful due to the
situation.
Last week we mentioned one thing.
Right? We mentioned when you come before just
before Maghrib to the masjid, 5 minutes before
Maghrib,
should you pray to hate in masjid? Because
many people ask this question afterwards, so we
answer it as well.
Should you
pray tahit al masjid,
which the prophet salawasalam
commanded in one hadith, or should you avoid
because the prophet salawam prohibited
praying at this time?
Which one should we do? We said the
scholars differed with regards to this. And I
said something, by the way, last week that
the majority of the scholars, I said, they
say that Tahit al Masjid is Wajib. Sorry.
This was a slip of the tongue. Someone
pointed out to me.
Actually, the majority of the scholars the majority
of the madahib say it is sunnah.
Hayat al Masjid is sunnah. Okay. But
the stronger opinion that is more in line
with the clear instruction of the prophet salaam
is that it's wajib.
Now the scholars said,
should the person sit or should they pray
tahiyat al masjid?
There are scholars on this side. There are
scholars on this side.
This is one of the doubtful matters. It's
not not necessarily very serious, one of the
doubtful matters. What do you do about it?
Don't make fitwa for yourself. You don't know.
Although this is an act of worship, it's
not halalu haram, but just a doubtful matter.
You ask a person of knowledge that you
trust and take their fatwa.
You say but this hadith that's not your
place.
It's not you can't you can't navigate these
differences.
Now if you wanna learn, okay, learn holistically.
Study fiqh, and you can ask in a
class of fiqh about this what okay. What
about this hadith? What about this hadith? It
becomes a fiqh discussion.
Clear? But when you're asking for fatwa, you
take the fatwa.
And it would be good as well to
generally ask for the evidence respectfully.
Respectfully.
Okay?
So there are things. Right?
Things that come up, especially new things.
Bitcoin when it came up. Right? And other
issues.
Should I invest in this or should I
not invest in this? Should I deal with
this? Can I is this dealing halal or
is it haram? Some some sort of mortgages.
Right? Some
so so called Islamic mortgages.
You look at the contract,
there's a lot of fine print.
And then there is it seems it's not
like one contract. It's so many contracts in
one. There's so many transactions in this. There's
so many closes and it gets confusing.
So this is why sometimes people say, oh,
what do you think about so and such
and such Islamic Mortgage?
You know
what? If I read the contract, I can't
I can't make out anything out of it.
It it it it it has jargon, like
specific language, and I don't know exactly what
it means. You need someone who's very familiar
with those finance
terminology,
right, and all of these issues,
and who's also,
very well established in the Islamic
transactions,
The fiqh of transactions,
selling and buying and all of that stuff.
So you need someone who understands all of
that and can translate
this into this.
Because things the same thing is called differently
in this because these are 2 different worlds.
It's called differently here than it is here.
And if a person does not know the
translation and cannot translate this into this and
doesn't make the connection,
it will be problematic.
Okay. So these are doubtful matters. It's not
for me. It's not for you.
Who is it for? It is for someone
who's, again, qualified for and who specializes in
this.
Somebody could study traditional fiqh and they know
the rulings of selling and buying and business
and trade. Right? But they're not familiar with
the language of today.
They're not qualified to give fitwa on a
specific contract. They're not. Why? Because they can't
understand it. How can they apply the rulings
to something they don't understand?
They need to have something called tasawwurulmas'allah.
Right? Understanding
proper properly grasping what they are giving fitwa
on.
Okay? So these are important things to keep
in mind. So this is these are doubtful
matters, and you probably are gonna find some
opinions say it's okay. Some opinions say it's
not okay. Those okay. That's a doubtful matter.
What should I do? What should I do?
Best thing here is to use
higher place here to use warah.
Warah is this is what the prophet is
saying.
He who stays away from doubtful matters.
Yeah. They could be they could be okay,
but they could be off.
You know what? No. I'm gonna play it
safe. I'm gonna stay away from all of
these things. I don't want them.
But it's gonna make your life difficult. I'm
willing to put up with this difficulty, with
the disadvantage, but you know what? I wanna
protect my religion. I wanna protect my statue
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
I don't wanna get into something doubtful. And
Irblihi, your reputation,
your name.
Why? Because when people sometimes fall into something
haram or something doubtful,
you know,
people will talk about them.
So he who stays away from doubtful matters,
then you have what protected you? You have
played you played safe. It's better. And the
prophet says, but the person who keeps getting
into these doubtful matters, thinking they're smart, I
can navigate this. It's doubtful so it's okay.
Many people say, oh scholars have differed about
this so I can do whatever I want.
No.
No. Oh, there is disagreement on this. The
evidence is not very clear. I can do
whatever I like. You're following your hawa. You're
following your desire. What happens?
It starts small
and ends up being big. The prophet
says like a shepherd
pasturing around
sanctuary, protected area,
reserved area. You can't get into this.
Private property.
You're saying, I'm not getting into it. I'm
just at the borders, so I'm not getting
there. Eventually, these are sheep. Right?
Obviously, they're gonna get into the sanctuary.
You always need a a cushion.
You need a a buffer zone, safety,
distance.
That's important
for you in Islam.
That's important for you in Islam.
So why? Because this there's a beautiful
analogy here as well. The shepherd,
he thinks he's in control in his sheep.
Your nafs, the desires, the forces that are
playing out within yourself are just like sheep
are just like sheep. You're not fully in
control of them.
They will sneak
here and there.
You don't have full control, and that shows
you that you can't always be in full
control of yourself.
This is why you need the safety distance.
People will do this on the highway. Right?
You leave safety distance, but there are people
who, you know
you know,
cut cut you know, drive in front of
you, push themselves right in front of you,
and they cancel this safety zone.
Or people who really sort of,
tailgate others
stay right behind them at a higher speed
and say, you know, and if you if
you happen to complain to any of those
people, they'll say, you know,
you know, I haven't sort of haven't bumped
into you. I haven't done anything.
When I touch you, you can open your
mouth. That's what people say. Right? Or someone
comes into what? Your personal space.
They say I'm not touching you, but they
are in your personal space. That's a cushion.
That's an important safety distance.
You're coming into my space. Right? But no,
I haven't touched you.
Eventually you're gonna touch me.
Eventually
there will be a point where you will,
you know, have an accident.
The same thing applies with the religion.
Stay away from the haram
and stay away from doubtful matters.
Now sometimes there are extreme circumstances.
In extreme circumstances or difficult challenging circumstances,
doubtful matters,
you can engage in them then because it
becomes a matter of necessity.
But not blindly
and not completely openly,
still you need to be meticulous about it.
You need to ask a qualified Mufti,
person of knowledge.
We come to the last bit of hadith,
which is very important.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says
There is a morsel of flesh
in the body.
If it is whole, if it is sound,
then the whole body will be sound.
But if it's corrupted, the whole body will
be corrupted.
So there are ways of relating to this.
First,
we can take this as an analogy,
an example.
Physically speaking the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam is
saying the physical heart,
the morsel of flesh,
when it's healthy, when it functions well, the
rest of your body functions well
because the heart is the one that pumps
the blood,
right,
into the rest of the organs. If you
have any weakness
in your heart,
you know you're gonna start to suffer. Your
kidneys will start suffer. Your brain will start
to suffer. Your joints will start to suffer.
Your skin will start your eyes will start
to suffer. Why? Because they're not getting enough
nutrition.
When the body is compromised, then the whole
body is compromised. Everything in your body gets
weaker.
But when the heart is healthy and it
pumps well, and that's why people get into
exercise.
1st and foremost, it keeps your heart healthy.
It strengthens your heart, and that health
spreads out into the rest of your body.
Everything gets its the nutrients
gets what it gets every organ gets what
it needs. The tissues get what they need.
Cells get what they need.
So this is an analogy. The prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam is saying just like the
physical heart
is the center and the foundation
of the health of your body, your physical
body, your physiology,
similar things spiritually.
The well-being of your spiritual heart
is the foundation for your actions being healthy.
Your external, your prayer,
your dhikr,
your recitation of the Quran, your fast, your
zakah,
your enjoining the good and forbidding the evil,
the acts walking to the masjid,
the things that you do. How can they
be healthy when your spiritual heart is healthy?
So that's one way to look at this
hadith that it is an analogy.
It is an analogy comparing your physiology
to
the tazkiyah side, the invisible side of you
which is the spiritual heart and your actions.
So just like when the heart is healthy,
your organs are healthy,
same thing when your spiritual heart is healthy,
when you purify your heart, when you do
tazkiyah for your heart, when you take care
of your heart and your heart is Qalbun
Salim, then your actions
will be healthy.
Your prayer will be
correct. Why? Because it's based on sincerity,
sincere intention.
And it's done for the sake of Allah,
following the
commands and the instructions of the Prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. But if your spiritual heart is
not healthy, you'll be doing actions. Just like
physically, you'll have limbs,
but they won't be healthy. They might look
good, but they don't function well. There is
weakness in your muscles. Your kidneys are not
functioning well. You have problem with the intestine
and in you have some indigestion.
Why? Because there's not enough blood flow going
in there. Why? Due to the weakness in
your heart. Same thing, you might be doing
acts of worship but if your spiritual heart
is not healthy, doesn't have tawhid, doesn't have
Ikhlas,
doesn't have love of Allah, is not purified
of evil
showing off,
is not purified of evil,
which is self centeredness.
Right?
It's it's not purified of evil intentions
and desire and hawah and attachment to the
worldly matters.
The new actions might look outside
good
but they will be hollow.
They will be weak. They will be sick.
Your actions will be ill. They will not
be well.
And that's what the prophet is saying. That's
one way of looking at the hadith. Another
way of looking at the hadith
is actually,
the connection
between
physical heart
and the spiritual heart.
There is a connection.
There is a connection between the spiritual heart
and the physical heart.
What is this connection? We don't know.
We don't know.
Many of the scholars they would say they
would talk about Al Qalb or about Arruha.
They would call it they would define it
as
means an invisible
entity.
That's what is. You know? Invisible.
Invisible entity,
laha ta'alukun
billuqal bill ladif as sadr.
It has some connection
to the heart, the physical heart that is
in the chest,
But they don't know what the connection is.
So people would say, you know, people thinking,
you know, with heart transplant,
oh, you're removing the heart. So what happens?
No. That's the physical heart.
That's the physical heart.
There is a very strong connection between them.
And this is why it's a healthy analogy.
But it's not. This physical heart is not
exactly the spiritual heart. So let's say
there's a heart transplant.
Someone gets the heart of a donor.
Does that mean they become a different person?
No. Does that mean if the donor is
a non Muslim they become a kafir, like
Like this Muslim becomes a kafir?
No.
And people so people were confused like why
is this? What No.
The spiritual heart
is different,
but it's connected, strongly connected.
How? We don't know. That's that's a mystery.
And this is part of what the verse
in Surah Al Isra where Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala says
And they ask you about the ruh, the
soul.
One of the meanings of this is the
soul. Ruh also means malaika.
Right? But let's say the soul, the main
meaning here, it that belongs to Allah. Allah
did not share the info so much information.
It's a it's a mystery.
The soul is a mystery and will remain
as a mystery. It will remain
as a mystery. So
the physical heart is not the same as
the spiritual heart despite the very strong connection
and similarity
between them.
Now what does this tell us? What are
the practical implications of this? Is that
something that is narrated
from the companions, from the early generations
They used to pay attention to fix their
hearts more than they paid attention to fixing
their external actions.
Why? Because once you fix your heart,
the prophet is saying once your heart is
in good shape,
everything else will be in good shape. So
once you fix your heart, you are automatically
working on your actions.
But many people say, oh no no no.
This is like these are
heart softening matters. That's a funny thing about,
you know, how
the the the influence
from
years of colonization,
years of indoctrination,
and and and years of misinformation,
centuries
on the Muslims,
Muslims started to come to the core of
their religion and see it as something on
the on the periphery, like on the margins.
Oh, these are heart softening matters. Oh, forget.
That's not important.
What?
Work on the heart.
Oh, no. That's something you can do on
the side. Let's get to the real things.
Where Allah says in the Quran, what?
Right?
He who does tizkiyah, these are the ones
who are gonna be successful. The ones who
don't do tizkiyah, what are they gonna happen?
Khab. They're gonna be the losers. And we
say, oh, no. These are heart softening matters,
issue matters of the heart. Oh, no. That's
soft stuff.
We wanna get the real thing. What is
the real thing?
That's the real thing.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says
On that day, your wealth and your children,
whatever you possess will not benefit you. What
will benefit you? Healthy heart.
Healthy heart. So how will we convinced
that a healthy heart is not important?
What's important No, no, I need to learn
this, and I need to memorize this, and
I need to memorize that. None of this
benefits you if your heart is not good.
So the first thing you have to secure
is your heart.
You have to work on the tazkiyah, the
purification of your heart. You have to get
it right. That's That's what the prophet is
saying. That's the hadith.
There is this morsel of flesh in the
body. If it's healthy, if it's whole, if
it's
intact,
then the whole body will be will will
be in the same state of of health
and well-being.
But if it's corrupted,
the whole body is spoiled and corrupted.
So the prophet is saying if you don't
get your heart right,
then your actions which are similar to the
limbs are gonna be corrupted. You'll do probably
a lot of actions.
You can do a lot of great actions,
but you know what?
They will not be for Allah.
They will not be for Allah. And people
think tazkiyah is hard softening matters, or it's
on the side.
Tazkiyah is hard work.
And it's the work of the real
of the real people. It's the it's the
real deal. It's very hard work.
And it's shaitan that gives people the impression,
oh, that's something you don't decide. It's a
soft matter.
Why? Because shaitan doesn't want to get you
there.
Shaytan, that's the real thing. That's the real
work in Islam.
Okay. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to guide us and I hope this has
given us, you know, some sort of a
glimpse. Summary of the hadith, the prophet
is saying, halal is clear, haram is clear.
These are the general rulings. And between them
in the middle, there are some gray there's
a gray area.
Why? Because not everyone can understand the texts
properly.
Zina is is haram. Everyone agrees on this.
No one has doubts.
Right? No one has doubts.
Eating
eating eggs,
halal. Right? No one says it's haram. Everyone
agrees on this. But there are areas again
where the evidence is not so decisive and
it requires a specialist
to go through this. And even specialists might
disagree.
So how do we handle these issues as
a as a Muslim? What do I do
with these things as long as I can
stay away with from them even with their
sacrifice, with their price?
Protect your religion, 1st and foremost. That should
be your priority. I want my religion even
if I'm losing on a profit, if I'm
protecting my religion, that's the most important asset.
If I once I secure this,
they then I have the luxury to look
at things.
But anything that causes
that poses a threat
to my religion,
You know what? That's a door I'm not
gonna open. You know, but other people are
making profit out of this. And some you
know, it's a doubtful matter. I wanna be
safe. I wanna meet Allah safe and clean.
And
then
so if a person stays from this, they
protect their religion. But if a person has
is is is becoming more bold,
right, and ventures into these doubtful matters, say,
you know,
Eventually you're gonna fall into haram because it's
the steps of shaybaan. It's always steps.
You're gonna end up inevitably you're gonna end
up in haram in in in the haram.
Why you see this sometimes there are people
who really drive aggressively
and very dangerously and they get away with
it. But eventually they will be caught.
Why? Because they get so used to it,
addicted to it, they can't drive normally.
It starts as fun and they say, you
know, I just do it for fun. But
then eventually it takes hold of you and
you can't stop it. You can't help it.
You're always driving aggressively and you will be
caught. This is this is usually when you
mess with Haram, you mess with unlawful things,
with
bad things, that's where you end up. It's
not where you start, it's where you end.
That's the issue always. And this subhanAllah, this
is advice from many of the companions of
the law of Hanam. Don't look at things
how they start, look at things with how
they end,
what they lead you to on the long
run.
Many of these sins people fall into them.
They start with something that is okay,
but the downhill,
you know, slip starts going rapidly.
And the most important thing is the heart.
Work on the heart. Fix the heart. Things
eventually will be fixed. But if you don't
fix your
heart, it could be that all of the
work you're doing will be against you.
So we ask Allah to guide us and
help us.
Make dua for yourself, your families, and for
the Ummah