Sh. Moutasem Al Hameedy Friday halaqah, the story of Imam Ahmed Ibn Hanbal.
March 24, 2017 at the Abu Huraira Center
Moutasem al-Hameedy – Modern Chalenges
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The transcript discusses the struggles faced by graduates during the time of the prophet booking series, including the lack of diversity in their writing and the lack of understanding of the concept of Islam. The importance of protecting one's Islam and preserving its pristine message is emphasized, as it is a source of pride and luxury. The transcript also touches on the history of Islam
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hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ma in all that. So inshallah Today we will continue to talk about a man I haven't even handed since we have not covered everything we intend to mention about him, there is so much to be said about him and his his life, his contributions are probably one of the most documented being the latest of the four times in terms of time, his students have documented a lot of his heritage, and a lot of his news so and obviously as you go, you know, later in time,
there was more documentation about everything, about everything so, so that was an advantage for him. So we have a lot of details about his life.
There's something I've thought of starting with since we are studying the lives of these great imams we should not
take it as entertainment in the sense we should not just see this I was gay. That's a beautiful story. A beautiful life wonderful person made some great contributions. Let's enjoy the story go back home feeling good about ourselves.
I mean, that's a good thing. But to a certain extent, the
you know the title for this series we said look at Canada kasasa him a baritone, Lil Alabama, the i a diverse, indeed in their stories, there are lessons for us to benefit from to learn. And that's the main point behind this series. So the reason we are talking about these stories about these personalities is there is a lot for us to learn. Because there are times and their times they faced trials, challenges that were not present at the time of the prophet SAW send them all the time with the companions, or even the time of a tablet in. So imagine that it is time, there was a different challenge. There was a different challenge or a different number of challenges. So you would, we
should notice that these imams have actually developed some tools in order to be to handle their current challenges. They developed sciences they developed insights, they developed strength and knowledge that enabled them to charge head on those new ideas, philosophies, misconceptions, doubts, challenges that we're facing the Muslims. So there was a lot of challenge intellectual challenge challenges at the time, during the colorful embassy or the herbicide caliphate.
A lot of translations were taking place. So the Greek philosophy, a lot of the books were translated. And that's how the like,
the books of the Greek philosophers are still
present today. They were lost in the original language. In the European languages. These books, most of these books were actually lost. They were preserved by Muslims. And a lot of the books that you have today from Greek philosophers were translated back from Arabic into European languages. So they were preserved to a great extent in the Arabic language by Arabic translators.
This was thought to be a very active intellectual life, but it took a toll on the purity and the pristine nature of Islam itself. Because some of those who started this philosophy and those contributions, they wanted to use them to understand Islam. So they took them as their springboard as the frame through which they wanted to see and study Islam. And that led to a lot of problems, a lot of issues specifically with al Qaeda.
So this is why the term of Imam Muhammad would not have been the fitna of hunter Koran. The statement that the Quran was a creation and was not merely the words of Allah but was a creation.
It reached a climax at that time at the time of Imam Mohammed. It had been there for about 100 years. It started around
During the life of Abu hanifa, by the way, this issue came up. And it was merely an intellectual form of luxury. Some philosophers were thinking about this presenting this, and they talked a lot about the volume of death, about what is eternal, and what is created, what came into existence and what was timeless, and what was bound by time and so on and so forth. So they tried to understand a law. And they tried to understand the words of a law that hold on through this kind of philosophical
parameter. So this, they applied these laws of philosophy, trying to understand the last parameter Allah and His words. So that's why the confusion came about. So the time of Abu hanifa, for example, there was a big issue, whether on was creation or not.
And some confusion happened with regards to email mobile Hanif as well. So he was accused of saying, of agreeing with the statement, but actually, with the scrutiny, you'd see that Imam Abu hanifa himself did not agree with it, did not agree with it, but he had a certain distinction, he made some kind of nuances in that understanding. Anyway, so 100, abroad 100 years a century later, during the time of Imam Mohammed, the later part of his life, this became a very big issue because the Muslim halifa Alma moon took this like to heart he took this data, he was mainly educated by Tesla, but people come from the Tesla was extremely based the principles are extremely based on on philosophy.
They call themselves Atlanta, young people have the intellect extreme intellect and logic. But actually, the scholars of Islam have shown the contradictions that they have within their own system. But anyway, so they they have taken enough power with the with the philosopher, and they themselves were the educators of Mr. Moon, and they won him over. So he believed in this alQaeda, which is that the Koran was a creation. And he actually made some kind of a degree,
sort of some kind of a decree, some kind of a stipulation that everyone should be tested. So he sent to the police department, in Baghdad, for example, to check with to test each Imam, each of the teachers, what do you say about the Quran? Do you agree the Quran is a creation? Do you agree? It was so blatant and so obvious? So,
so that was the case. Now, going back to the point, you see that these imams were not did not, they were not just people who memorized Hadith, and remained disconnected from their environment, from the challenges of their time. Rather, they developed tools, they were very grounded in Islamic sciences, and hadn't caught on. And yet they were able to relate to what was happening in their time. And they were able to put everything in perspective.
And that's what a lot of us Muslims are failing to do today. We're failing to do this. Why? Because we have a very traditional school of thought, that wants to surround itself with walls, and wants to protect everything it has, and it wants to disconnect from everything else. And this has alienated it, and has made it to a great extent,
irrelevant, and it also has led to a great level of naivety, in terms of dealing with modern arguments and accusations that are leveled at Islam and Muslims. So the children of the people who grew in this kind of school of thought, when they are exposed to the external world, when they go to school to university, they hear some doubts, misconceptions, questions, challenges, issues about Islam, that they have no clue about, and they have, they are not equipped with any tool to be able to handle it. So it becomes a fitna for a great deal of them. And that's why we have today a phenomenon that is common among Muslims questioning their faith, Muslim youth questioning their
faith, really doubting whether Allah is there or not. Whether Islam is the truth or not doubting the history of Islam, about the prophet SAW Selim about the warfare in Islam,
and about marital issues in Islam.
And about a lot of these things, and they have no tools to deal with that.
Why? Because we're trying to feel good about ourselves want to preserve what we have, which is good. But still, we need another thing with that. So they stay disconnected from everything else. We cannot just hold on to this, we're going to understand the world through this. We're going to force everyone to agree with this. If they don't, we will disconnect from them. And that's it. The problem with this, as I said, it made us irrelevant to our times we're unable to communicate oftentimes we're unable to communicate the message in a way that people can even relate to it. So we
creating some kind of intellectual island where we live in isolation. And this has led to a lot of misunderstanding on the other side as well.
On the other extreme, you have muslims for watering Islam down. And they just want to, they want to understand Islam through the Western philosophy, the global philosophy today that is dominant in the world. So they want to judge Islam they want to accept from Islam and reject from Islam based on what modern philosophy says. And modern philosophy has its pool and its power, because it's a lived reality. You see it in the streets, you see it on TV, you see it on, on the web, on the internet, you see it. In school, you see it in universities, you see it wherever you go. And when a philosophy is turned into a way of life, it becomes very powerful and very influential.
And when you are immersed in it, when you live in it,
you you become you have a disadvantage against it.
Why am I bringing all of these things is that we what we need today is handled, I think a Muslim woman has done a very good job in preserving the the, you know, the pristine message of Islam, the beauty, the original authentic message of Islam, it's been preserved from the time of the companions that have been intubated in the Imams throughout the ages have preserved it.
But we cannot stay and live captive, we cannot stay captive to,
to something that was meant, like a lot of the arguments that we have in our data today that are being taught that are being taught to general people general masses. These were designed in response to, for example, the Mattila
were designed in response to the Usher era to the majority were designed in response to certain, you know,
issues or said, I would say inaccurate approaches to update them, or wrong approaches to our data. So these were dominant at the time. So this is why they needed to be addressed. That's why you find for example, even taymiyah and millbay, they've actually gone into philosophy after being very well established in Islamic sciences, they've gone into philosophy. And they are using the same terminology that these people use in order to show the futility and the weakness of their own arguments.
You can go as far as this, if you have a very strong grounding when it comes to Islamic sciences. But it shows you that the scholars Muslim scholars at each time every time you know they have been relevant
to whatever challenges where their time, but a lot, it seems that the Muslim Ummah is going through a very downtime, hibernation, some kind of hybrid nation. And we think our job today is just to stay true to what we have, and not be able to develop tools, authentic tools to be able to deal with the challenges we're facing today. So we've fallen short there. We've fallen short there. And we think that's all what we need to do. But we are paying from our own youth losing their faith. We're paying from our own brothers and sisters questioning some of important clear cut issues about Islam.
Because Muslims, whether you like it or not have this exposure to this Western philosophy, Western lifestyle.
they're exposed to it every day. So this is some kind of brainwashing. This is some kind of even hypnosis, day in and day out. They are bombarded with these ideas. And they're not merely ideas, they are lived ideas. They're so vivid, so animated that they are very powerful. They are images, they are lifestyle. There are characters, there are symbols, it's such a powerful flood, that is overwhelming, and it's hard for one person to fight it, or even stand in that powerful current. So what is the solution? The solution is for us to rise up to the challenge as Muslims and see embrace the heritage, the pure heritage that we have inherited, and believe in it, study it and understand
it, and also study our times. Study our times, what are the challenges? What are the philosophical challenges that are presented Islam? What are the historical challenges that are presented as what are the political challenges? What are the intellectual challenges? What are the scientific challenges that are presented to some Muslims that are causing some Muslims without a man doubt faith and that are putting some a lot of Muslims in very awkward position. Sometimes when they are asked questions, they can answer them.
I mentioned examples that I come face to face with on a daily basis. So I hope maybe some of the brothers are here. I hope they don't get offended a few times in my head because in my classes, I do mention things that I've witnessed maybe my own eyes I heard with my own ears. I've come across I've experienced firsthand. Sometimes people feel offended.
Don't mention names, but I mentioned in cases. And the reason is we want to deal with reality. I mean, we can talk. I mean, we can talk nice all day. But that's not going to help us. We need to call a spade a spade, we need to look at the challenges we're going through. Because if we do not wake up to the challenges if we keep putting our heads in the sand and feeling good about ourselves, yeah, you come to them as GGC Muslims you experience Okay, people praying Muslims, women are covered children are not Allah, you hear words of the Quran, fine, hamdulillah. But who knows that 10 years from now, the situation will be the same.
Who knows.
Because looking at the massage, the number of the youth that are coming to the massage is less than it used to be 10 years ago, and even five years ago, there's less number of youth coming to the massage than they used to be. The classes and the Holocaust for knowledge used to be more full. And that's a that's a common phenomenon in the Muslim congregation of Muslim minorities in the West, Canada, us.
UK, Australia, it's the same thing everyone is imams are saying the same thing, but less people coming to classes. less people want to learn more about Islam among the Muslims. And there is a challenge to their identity and to their faith. There are people doubting their faith, there are Muslims leaving Islam, there's an issue we have a red flag and we have to address it. So if you just keep talking nicely and feeling good about ourselves, we will know what's happening and we will be shocked. And then it might be too late for us to do anything to change it.
So there are expectations that if there is not enough youth coming to the massage and and they are all drawn into different institutions, different orientations and different activities. The huge number of massages that we are buying
they need a congregation right?
So if there is no congregation, what are these massage is going to do? And these massages depend on the funding of the community. If there's no community, what are these incentives going to do? Is it going to end up all Muslims are going to start selling massages like churches are being sold?
Because there's no congregation?
These are serious issues we need to consider don't feel good about Okay, you have 10 friends that are practicing hamdulillah look at the bigger reality.
Look at the bigger reality how many Muslims are not coming to the masjid don't pray even Juma? How many?
How many people are compromising on their Deen
and not only the misconceptions now there's more pressure. There's more pressure. You used to walk in Toronto with your job a woman walking with her hijab, no issues in Toronto. But now walk around and you see the weed looks at you everywhere you go. You don't feel comfortable. You get on the subway, you go on the bus. You see weed looks it while you're dressed up like this. People are saying it with their eyes. They don't have probably the audacity to verbalize it and attack you. But people are seeing it with their eyes. What's this?
Why are you so different?
And the whole thing that's in the media goes through their minds. So things are changing, things are changing and if we do not rise up to the challenge, we will regret it. We will regret it we have to so these imams as you see we mentioned for example,
with Imam Abu hanifa Rahim Allah, the
the knowledge was
less systematic. So there were imants teaching and people were going to so many teachers here and there and they were learning from this and that. But in Malabo hanifa, he developed a very profound understanding and structure around his own knowledge that it became a school of thought that a lot of students suffice themselves with the amount of money for
his knowledge was enough his system was enough for them to have a complete system of relating to Sherry an understanding the words of Allah and the words of the prophet SAW salah and that gave him the power and the influence.
The man Malik is focused on Hadith and his understanding of Hadith and his meticulous attention to details when it comes to the Sunnah of the prophet SAW Selim and Medina you know what the companions were upon in Medina, and documenting this and showing this crew is embodying this, through his character was such a profound influence on people that he became a greedy man.
He became a school of thought, imagine a chef, he noticed the divide between these two divergent schools of thought, these are focused so much on understanding things and building mental structures. The other one is so literalist and focused on the words of God, sometimes to the negligence of the wisdoms and the meanings behind them. So if I'm a chef, and I realize these are going to an extreme, these are going to extreme, but the truth is somewhere in the middle, we need both. You have truth with you, you have truth with you. And these two truths do not have to be divergent, they can be together, they can exist together, and that's actually the perfect formula
and that's what he did. So he came up with these sciences like a soul
and even a soul membership is considered to be the founder.
solid and solid Hadith masala Hadith. His Bukhari Salah is a book on both, he is considered to be the founder of both. So the scholars of Hadith considered the first book ever to be written or solid Hadith, or the master of Hadith is every cell of Imam Shafi, the scholars of a soul, they consider the first book to be written on their, on their science, every salad, same book. So remember, Chef, he came up with something that solved a lot of problems for people in order and in relating to the book of a lot of the time and how to relate to it. Mmm it himself. He took that to the next level, when he made it a point to
try to connect everything that came from the prophet SAW Selim, everything, literally everything. So he traveled to so many cities and so many countries. And he documented each Hadith he studied. And he went to all the known scholars who had Hadith and he took their Hadith from them, and he documented them. He documented them, everything, all the Hadith with all the narrations, with all the wordings with all the roots of narration, everything, he documented that and he had it in his memory, and in his books.
And then he built his foot based on this rich, textual material. And he was very well informed of the opinions of the scholars behind him before him. So he managed to build a very powerful system of Hadith. And that is compatible, that is integral, practical, clear and systematic. That's the excellence of the moment. And yet in it, they had a powerful contribution. And that was a gift, a gift given to him by Allah, Allah, when that predicament or that test of the issue of how to Quran became very prominent, and almost all the scholars, all the scholars of Edison that gave in why to protect their souls, and themselves, they gave in and they said a false statement. They said that in
public, why to save their own souls, save their own life. For them, they saw that as a necessity. So some of the historians at that time they said,
Could immaculate Adama kalu.
Koran
beratan, a larva. So the Imams at the time, the scholars, they gave him this idea. This is statement, they believe it's confirmed, but they said it. Why? Because they feared for their lives, except for for humans, among them, azima Mohammed
and those four Imams, two of them gave in late, like two afterwards, they just gave him they couldn't take the torture anymore.
Then there was Amanda did another one the other one died, Hama who died and Mr. Mohammed survived.
So azima Mohammed,
he maintained that and he preserved that and he sacrificed his life for that but a lot smarter presumptive
to
stand in challenge and defiance, to this kind of false testimony, false heartbeat, a false understanding that's based on a faulty logic of Mr. Tesla, trying to understand the clock, like this. So each one of those imams were relevant. So the amendment wasn't ignorant if you were ignorant, he would say, Okay, this statement, maybe it's right, maybe it's wrong. Nobody understood what it meant.
You don't find in the Quran or the Hadith of the Quran is creation or the creation, it's not even mentioned, because there's no need even to go there. But these martyrs, the letter was so much into their minds in their heads. So they actually what they did, they started to try to analyze everything mathematically, in angles, and boxes and so on. But that's how you relate to things. A lot of Montana says, Yeah, you're Latina, and we'll let us add Russia into delicata. So can you believe don't ask about things that when they are revealed to you, they would offend you? Or they would cause you harm? And that's why the prophets of Salaam says in the authentic in Allah ke
lacantina call for kathrada Sol. Allah hates for you so much talk to chat talk about everything. What do you mean by this? What's this? What did he say? What did she say? Or that he said What does he mean by that? Oh, there's a word like this. There's a word. Don't be so obsessive with this word catharsis and and excessive asking, asking asking about everything. You know, you know, there is the you know, the the paper notes that we have they say there is gelatin in it. There is animal fat in it. There is you know, pork fat in it. Oh is it haram to use it? It's gone. Don't get there. Don't get
don't give them this kind of obsession with all of these details. This is why the profit center says in the nasty
maakten in the law
One of the people that Allah hates the most in the ministry in st Maarten headlock Allah Julian salah and che in
what was said Angie in saket, Allahu Allah, a man or a person who asks about something that Allah did not make any judgment about whether it's halal or haram Allah just left it open.
Salah and she in seconds long for Holy moly.
So this thing was made heroin because he asked about it.
This way the companions of the Prophet SAW send them How often would they ask the professor send them? Hardly they would hardly ask him questions. They would hardly ask him question someone's gonna come to you this jacket. What leather is this? Is a heroin was heroin Oh was the animal slaughter the * anyway? This look like people are sitting for things like they want to make things wrong. Like people are sitting is like the survival mechanism searching where there is a mistake. Wow. That said they're gonna jump on it. And they love it. When they find a mistake when they find something wrong. I've done a great contribution have found something wrong. That is attitude is not Islamic at
all. It's not Islamic at all.
So what we have now people are obsessed with all of these small things.
The small things, I want to go back again to the why I started this whole kind of is some kind of ranting understand, but I think it's important is what I've seen in our community. Some people with good initiative, like they had some kind of conversation with some Congress, Christian congregation, a church congregation. And those guys in the church. They said, Why don't you come and tell us about Islam? We're going to give you a platform, talk to our congregation about Islam. And these brothers in there. I mean, well meaning hearts.
They shouldn't wait, well, that's good. Why not? So they go and they present something about Islam. And it's a very good response, I think, yeah, we're gonna do it. Now we're converting these people, right? We're gonna get at least one Muslim from them. They do it one time, two time, second time. So it happens a few times, then. So I was invited, I hope no one if anyone is involved in this don't get offended is just, this is something that is it's a setup. It's a setup. So we need to be careful what's going on.
So I was one of the brothers with very good intention and martial law, very active brother. He says, Why don't you come and, you know, join us one time, and you can make a speech and so on and so forth.
I said, I'm really busy at the time. But it's just, we'll see later on.
Then, a few weeks later, the brother says, We stuck. I said what he said these people have done their homework. I said what I said, we're talking about the prophet of Solomon, his Sierra, and these people have their questions ready. And these are questions we have no answers to.
And we're stuck. So wants you to come.
So I think
you need to be careful.
Need To Be careful. People are watching debates or talks by zakon, like by Ahmed deedat by Hamza sources, and you think, Oh, I can do this. And you jump in, and you get stuck. And what's the problem? You start doubting your deen? You will start doubting Islam. Because you're put in a position you're so involved. You're so dedicated. And they set you up. And are you so passionate about it? And you need to prove as well that you have good intention, and that I'm searching for the truth. So if there's evidence, I'm gonna follow it right? Because you're expecting them to have this attitude. So you're going to profess it say there is evidence I'm going to take it regardless.
Right? And now they corner you. Here's a question, answer it for me.
What about all these wars? What about concubines?
What about men marrying four wives? What kind of woman marry four men?
Where is equality? Where's women's rights?
What about this man being killed in this situation? What about this incident inside Buhari? What about this man marrying this woman? What about this age and that age? Right? Okay, you said you wonderful evidence. Go ahead. You're not. And you're stuck. Now.
That's a very difficult situation morally, in terms of faith. intellectually, you're stuck because you've been set up.
So a lot of people see these debates as economic data. It's hardly seen. They get excited, right? How can you do this? That's easy. You might do this with someone in the street you might get by right.
But when people are ready for you, things are challenge are changing. These people are learning from their mistakes. So they're coming up with new arguments that you you can't answer.
Not because there's no answer.
Because you can't answer and because we are living in a context that is mainly built on Western philosophy, modern Western philosophy, okay, because even Western philosophy changes, it's not one thing is different from country to country is different from time to time, from age to age is different, it keeps evolving and developing. So this current
contemporary Western culture is the dominant medium or we live. So and it has its immorality, it has its unethical principles, but because we live in them, we've become desensitized. So these people, when they present you with an argument, they build these arguments on these issues that you are desensitized to. So it doesn't occur to you that even the logic you are using to, to analyze and assess the spirit of the professor, or the history of Islam or some aspect of Islam is based on a faulty principle. Because you live in it, you're immersed in it. So now it's not you're answering a question, you have to go back to the underlying principles, to the logic that the assumptions on
which this culture and this lifestyle is built.
And you can't do this, you need an intellectual to do this need to be in a study, so much intellectual sciences to be able to construct an argument to fight against these. So these people have the advantage of the context, the context is in their favor, because the context has its faults. So they build on these faults. And they don't have to establish them, because they are already established. But for you to come with a counter argument, you have to demolish these principles, which is very difficult, because a lot of these assumptions are subtle. They are called assumptions, the subtle you're unaware of them. We don't even know that they are, they exist, but
they are actually there.
So that's why my advice to brothers and sisters Don't get so much involved. Don't get so much involved. If you have not studied Islam, well. If you're not so much educated in Islam, don't be don't put yourself in a vulnerable position. I'm not saying I'm not worried so much about you being embarrassed, and you can get over this, that's fine. But I'm what I'm worried about is that you start having doubts about yourself. I remember six years here in this semester, a brother came to me, he was born into a moose and Thompson family morality in a Muslim country, educated most of his life in a Muslim country. But he later on migrated here. And he brought his family. And he's an
intellectual university professor. And he reads a lot, even Islamic books. And he's very well informed in terms of Islam. And he's, he used to come to me and say, you know, my colleagues at work, and we speak about this, we spoke about that we spoke about this issue in history, this issue in Islam, this legislation and this token. And then one day, he comes to me says I want to talk to you about something and I said yes. And we sit literally there at the back.
And the message was almost empty rows after fudger. And he breaks down in tears. I say what
he says I'm doubting I'm doubting the allies, even though I don't know how to push these doubts away.
And I said you like you having debates every day with these people? Joe? He says yes is just like an obsession obsessive thinking that this would if I was not there.
And he says I can't even get it out of my head. He says, Well, I am doubting my faith, and is I'm losing sleep over that.
So don't jeopardize your faith for the sake of you know, winning someone, someone else or feeling good about yourself. Don't play second, like second like is not. second line is someone who's constructed an art he's done. He has an architecture around his arguments. So he's worked on this so many years before he became visible, right? He has his own logic as well. Okay, so any speaker, by the way, any speaker, and it's something that's well known in public speaking, any speaker, what you see of them is about 20% of what they know.
There's a lot of knowledge in the background that gives power to what they say, but they don't share it. That's normal. That's how we are human beings. So when you hear an argument, and you take the argument, you think, Oh, I can say this, right? But you don't have the background knowledge of all of this, to back it up.
So you're in a very, very vulnerable position. So what I would say don't put yourself there. Don't put yourself there. If you have an advice to someone, give it to them. But don't get involved so much. You know, doing groups and meetings and seminars and things like that, and you find yourself stuck then questioning your faith and your email. If you want to do something for Islam, what is your specialty?
It could be directly related to knowledge in Islam, maybe there's something can contribute. Go ahead. Your contribution could be something else could be in philanthropy, could be in charity work could be in youth work could be in art.
could be in writing.
It could be you could be a blogger and say you could be a simple Muslim blogger who has this the sins, the weaknesses, but they have some good aspects, you could be doing a good job, you still could be doing a good job. So we will say, Oh, no, no, no, these people are exposing this. Well, maybe. But they're since they're gonna be punished for that maybe they see forgiveness, we don't know. But there are people actually showing a beautiful side of Islam, even though they have their own weaknesses and their own mistakes. So if there is something that you are good at and you are offering, and you can offer that with the minimum amount of mistakes, and more goodness, and you can
ask people who can guide you and show you, at least that's what you should do. But trying to play someone else trying to be a mudita to holiday season. Don't do this. These people have studied for so many years, 20 years, 30 years and dedication, full dedication of study and passion. And they made it their goal. They made it their life's mission to do this. So, so don't get out of your area. In that sense. don't expose yourself to such a great fitna where you're going to lose your faith.
So I'm not supposed to talk about it. But I do think that these messages are very important these imams were not in the youth. So some of the arguments that they presented when it came to it that they were not there at the time of the companions of the Prophet SAW center.
The companions of the Prophet Solomon did not need to talk about a safe harbor he was offended that he was Socratic. Verily, the attributes of Allah some of them are related to action. Some of them are related to ally himself. Some of them are just based on evidence and things like that. Some of them are actually yeah, there is a logic and a logical understanding behind them. The competitors didn't say this, why because there was no need to plan sooner clear, but when people brought arguments that blemished the clarity of this data,
these scholars had to come up with terminology to clear the confusion.
To clear and this is an each time this is how the Muslim scholars have been doing. But in our times Muslims have not been doing well yet. Even when we try to give up give something new something that's relevant, we come from a position of inferiority like the adjusted enemy, fellow Quranic carrying scientific miracles in the Quran, right? It started as a good notion. Everything then we started chasing science everything even a theory shows up in science. Well, that's in the Quran. We so happy inferiority in its best. We chasing after what scientists say whether whether we check it's true or not. And we jump in there saying yeah, that's the one that's in the Quran. That's the Quran,
we're happy with cheering ourselves up.
What happens 20 years later, this theory, there's a serious flaw flaw with it.
We're all Muslims.
I remember when I first I was really excited when I read this, or this, which the book is being distributed and still has a good impact. But I mean, we need to be careful because that's backfiring. Now about the embryology right, the states of the embryo, and how it's mentioned in the Quran in clear detail, and so on, so forth. So one thing I was very happy with this. So I go into more detail trying to look at scientific journals and books and textbooks, what they say about this.
And it turned out that it's not so well defined, even in science. So for us to take one theory in terms of embryology are one way to look at it one classification, to look at it and say, Oh, yeah, you see that's in the Quran. But you have other classifications that disagree completely with this, and these are mainstream in science more than the one you chose. Then you present this as Islam and you are exposing people to fit. Now you know why, because if someone embraces Islam, based on this kind of argument, with good intention, later on, when someone knocks this off for them, you know, happens, the whole faith might crumble, it could be what I'm saying is that, if we are going to
contribute something we should come from a position of balance and power,
that we are coming from the revelation of Allah
will come from the revelation of Allah, and this pure has been preserved.
And if someone has good knowledge of science, they can use whatever is within whatever it is that has been attacked with from a scientific point of view and show the futility of this, but not try to prove Islam through science. That's a very low position to come from.
Maybe in their personal argument, you might want to bring some of those because the person is so much immersed in science. And it's just it's a key to open up their mind. I mean, you could do this but for this to be a general approach. For this to be the focus of so many people in so many journals, so many books as a whole movement. You
Now it's backfiring. And I'm telling you there's a there's a number of Muslims in the Muslim world and in the Arab world, there's a wave of atheism, and agnosticism, there is a wave. And it's scary and people, unlike people, officials are really scared about this.
And one of the main,
like some, some people have been researching into this. One of the main reasons behind it is the path that alleges that enemy scientific miracles on the whole on this kind of approach, has actually contributed to that greatly.
Need To Be careful. So our predecessors, these great scholars, like these four Imams, when they came up with something, it was authentic. It was based on Islam, but it was still relevant and very well informed of their time.
And that's what you find with the man met him Amata. So the issue of Quran, some Muslims, some Muslim scholars fell to it, because they were not up to date with the intellectual arguments that were present at the time. They said, That's philosophy. We don't want it. I mean, fine, you don't want it. So stay away completely from it. Don't say anything. But these same scholars, they said, What do you have the Quran this solid thinking about it, because they don't have even the tools to think about this philosophical argument. They said they made a statement and they fell into
saying something Haram, something that's Kufa
but the Imams, they will well versed in mams, they understand they understood this, understood what it means to say the Quran is the creation.
Because they were well informed of what was going on, they were keeping up to date with what was happening. So they knew when those are my Tesla came up with that statement, what it meant, where it was coming from,
what are the intellectual conclusions of these statements, because these would lead to faulty conclusions, serious conclusions about Allah and about the Quran.
So the so these imams were as up to date, and they were very well established in their sciences. So they were able to handle these situations, we Muslims are supposed to be able to handle that we can't stay outdated. If we want to deal with them. If you don't want to deal with them, you want to be safe, that's perfectly fine, perfectly fine. But don't impose this on your children. Because your children are going to have a different set of challenges than you, you can lock yourself up, you can say I don't want to have an online life, even, I don't want to do this, I don't want to even a laptop, or a smartphone, that's fine for you, you can survive if you're in your 40s and your 50s is
good. It's like 2030 years ago to stay here you can do yeah, you can get your children to do things for you. But your children, that's the that's the daily life.
Most of the work that we do is done online. Now, most of the projects that we do are done online, most of our communication was online, most of life is happening online.
So you have to equip them at least. So they have, you have to give them some kind of exposure to people who can educate them or can teach them who can help them out. If you don't find teachers, maybe you want to think of relocating,
instead of leaving your children vulnerable.
And there is a shortage of people who are able to relate.
And there are people who have their own business is just sitting there wrapping their heads in the sand. They're reading Muslim books that are authentic, and that are true and are good, but they're limiting themselves to these books that were written 1000 years ago. And they say that's what we have to deal with. And these people live in denial to the immediate reality that we're dealing with. And they want to force this on everyone, anyone who does not take that kind of perspective, anyone who says No, there isn't a new reality that we have to deal with. Otherwise, we'll be far behind that will reduce our younger generations. And we will use a lot of the people who are not so much
practicing them. They're not so much knowledge oriented, but they're intellectuals, they are educated, they have this exposure, they need some help from experts, we can't let them down. So we need to come up with arguments that are authentic, but that are relevant. And then you have these people are sitting whose heads out in the sand. They're just shooting at these guys. Oh, that's wrong, or you're selling this you're a sellout. Or you are you're compromising on your religion or you're this and you're that and that is speaking from the ivory tower on things because if these people you put them in a position where they are faced with any of these arguments, they are
defenseless, they can't do anything. But obviously they live in this kind of cage where they have caged themselves and
and they live in denial, reality and they can feel the king of that cage. And that's it. They live in their own small reality and they want to force this on everyone else.
The charms that we're going through are not easy things are going to be challenging. So you having intellect
arguments, you having ethical arguments, you having
social issues and pressures, you having political issues, you having
theological religious questions and challenges, that if we are not able to deal with, we'll be swamped.
We'll be overwhelmed.
And our imams never did this. They never said, okay, you know, the companions, we have had eath. And we have Koran. And we just recite Hadith and we teach Hadith and we recite Quran and that said, No, they looked at these arguments, what are these people saying? They say the Quran is created. What does that mean?
People understand this kind of philosophy. What does it mean? This is the statement. intellectually, it means this this is the conclusion is logical conclusion conclusions of this. They test it out, they look at it, they study it. That's, that's wrong. So what do we do we fight it back, we write about it. We establish, you know, arguments, very well
built arguments around it that are authentic in order to repel the false hood.
And that's it. That's how the images have always done. This is why the Imams wrote books on aqeedah. Why would you write a book in Arcadia when the arcaders in the Quran and the Sunnah. Well with me, it was so clear. Why would
Why would it want
to have like Tabitha hate, the Quran doesn't know why.
In response to something new,
and responds to something new there is you have the Koran you have the sooner, but when there is a new argument, it creates a new context. And that new context becomes misleading. People are unable to relate to the authentic sources. So what do you need to do create a counter context, counter argument that is relevant, that is able to charge that current argument and push it away. So people will still have access to the original sources. That's it.
That's it.
But you want to use similar language that was used 400 years ago, to be able to repel language that has been developed five years ago, by devils,
devils working 24. Seven to get some kind of arguments and circulate them.
People have studied philosophy, they've studied argumentation, they've studied influence. they've studied leadership, they've studied politics, they've studied policy, they've studied history. And these people are using all of this development in social sciences, to manipulate the world and you can see what they're doing that thing with the world with these viral videos.
With all of this kind of propaganda, they know what these guys they know what they're doing.
I mean, we didn't even know you can face them. Yes, we need to depend on the law and put our trust in the last monitor. But the processes happen with what can
do what you can do or what you're supposed to do, all you can do, do it, invest in it, and your heart rests with Allah. And that's what the scholars like I've been explaining about,
about to what torquil means to what clean means doing everything in your action and your actions, but your heart is with Allah.
That's what our call is.
So as we go, inshallah, then I will leave the rest of Imam Ahmed story for next week. But what I want you to keep in the background of your of your mind is we are studying these, we need to see the relevance and that's a bra. A bra in Arabic means a boo, boo or crossing a bridge, you're crossing a bridge from one side to the other how their side is their life, their history, their times. But we have to cross that over to our times, to our times, we can see the relevance.
We can see the relevance. So we can learn these lessons. That's what a Brian in this verse means. And that's what it means in Arabic, Hebrew. You can't for example, you know, sometimes when you watch a bedwin movie or a bedwin series on TV, you want to go like a nomad, you don't want to drive a car, you just want to go on a camel or a horse, you just feel like it. You start even you know, living a very simple kind of life. Why? Because you caught up in that you caught up in that, you know, let your child watch a movie or a series on soccer. You're going to find the child playing soccer with everything, they're going to kick everything in the house, right because they immersed
in it.
Sometimes when we study this year of the prophet SAW Selim, or the history of our great personalities, we take it as an escape, to keep away from our reality because we don't want to face it. That's not the right approach. We should travel into it. Live it as a human experience. Take the lessons and bring those lessons back and live in our times and deal with our times. We can't take the sort of the province enemies and escape you can't.
And that's the only way you can understand the Quran. A lot of us you know the Quran when it was revealed at the time of the Prophet cinema was so relevant. It talks about events that happened yesterday.
And talks about details. So it was very relevant to the companions was like, that's it. It's all about our daily reality. But look at it now, when we read it. Oh, it seems like we're talking about 1400 years ago, for 1400. Yeah, 1400 years ago. Why? Because we're unable to make this a bar or blue cross over. The Koran has the ability and that's what the scholars have been doing. They've been trying to bridge this gap between us and the Quran because we so stuck in our context. So we need to be able to travel and see and take the lessons and talk take this those lessons and bring them to our time and apply them in a relevant way. That's the only way we can understand the Quran then you
will find the Quran relevance. You find out the Quran speaks about things that are happening today. You can see the connections, where most of us will plan is just a book, read it memorize it has nothing to do with what I have my daily life. That's why that's the way you don't benefit from the whole lot.
Ask the last ones to make it easy for us. I apologize for this kind of ranting but I think these are issues we need to bring up and talk about every now and then. So we are aware of them via low FICO. So lots of them have been hammered earlier.
So this was not about him and so we changed the title.
Leave that one for next week, and so on.