Modern Challenges

hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala Sayidina Muhammad Ali he also heavy as you may know that so inshallah today we will continue to talk about a Lima Mohammed bin Hanbal. Since we have not covered everything we intend to mention about him, there is so much to be said about Imam Muhammad, his his life, his contributions are probably one of the most documented being the latest of the four imams 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 in, 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 okay. That's a beautiful story. And beautiful life wonderful person made some great contributions. Let's enjoy this 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 the series, we said look at Ken if you're Kasasa him a Beratan liquid above the eye a diverse indeed in their stories, there are lessons for us to benefit from to learn. And that's the main point behind the series. So the reason we are talking about these stories and these personalities is there is a lot for us to learn. Because there are times and there are times they faced trials, challenges that were not present at the time of the Prophet SAW Selim or the time of the companions, or even the time of a taboo in So Imam Ahmed at his 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 advocacy or the other side, California.

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 Arab 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 Athena.

So this is why the term of Imam Muhammad would not have been the fitna of Halal Quran. 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 Muhammad Muhammad. 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 mainly an intellectual form of luxury. Some philosophers were thinking about this presenting this, and they talked a lot about Adeem, while in depth 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 Allah the Quran, 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 at the time of Abu Hanifa, for example, there was a big issue whether Quran was a creation or not.

And some confusion happened with regards to Imam Abu Hanifa, as well. So he was accused of saying, or 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 Muhammad, the later part of his life, this became a very big issue because the Muslim Khalifa al Moon took this like to heart he took this Arcada he was mainly educated by Tesla, by people from coming from them potentially, what extreme extremely based the principles are extremely

based on philosophy. They call themselves Apple, any human 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 have taken enough power with the with the philosopher, and they themselves were the educators of Mr. Moon, and they want him over. So he believed in this House Leader, which is that the Quran was a creation. And he actually made some kind of degree,

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 they 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 Hadith and Quran, and yet, they were able to relate to what was happening in that 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 thoughts, 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 get to go to school to university, they hear some doubts,

misconceptions, questions, challenges, issues about Islam, that they have no clue about, and 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 prophets are seldom 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're going to 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 become you have a disadvantage against it.

Why am I bringing all of these things is that we what we need today is the 100 I think the Muslim ummah has done a very good job in preserving the the, you know, the pristine message of Islam, the beauty of the original authentic message of Islam, it's been preserved from the time of the companions to have been debated 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, Mr. Tesla,

were designed in response to the Usher era to the Metro radio, were designed in response to certain, you know,

issues or set, I would say inaccurate approaches to our data, or wrong approaches to our data. So these were dominant at the time. So this is why they needed to be addressed. This is why you find for example, in Tamia AM, 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 that it each time every time, you know they have been relevant

to whatever challenges were at 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 not develop tools, authentic tools to be able to deal with the challenges we're facing today. So we're falling short there. We're falling 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 that 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 to doubt Eman, 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 with my own eyes. I heard with my own ears. I've come across I've experienced firsthand. Sometimes people feel offended.

I 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 the masjid, you see 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 Hella cause for knowledge used to be more full. And that's a that's a common phenomenon in the Muslim congregation, Muslim minorities in the West, Canada, US.

UK, Australia, it's the same thing everyone is imams are saying the same thing. The 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, this is an issue we have, it's a red flag and we have to address it. So if we just keep talking nicely and feeling good about ourselves, we will know what's happening and we will be shocked and then it would 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're 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's no congregation, what are these massages going to do? And these massages depend on the funding of the community if there's no community what are these muscles is going to do? Is it going to end up where Muslims are going to start selling massage it 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 have 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 thumb, a woman walking with their 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 get on the bus. You see we looks it we 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 you so different?

And the whole thing that's in the media goes through the 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 Imams teaching and people were going to have so many teachers here and there and they were learning from this and that but Imam Abu Hanifa he developed a very profound understanding and structure around his own knowledge that it became a school of thought that a lot of his students suffice themselves with Imam Abu Hanifa that his knowledge was enough his system was enough for them to have a complete system of relating to Sharia and understanding the words of Allah and the words of the prophets of Salaam and that gave him the power and the influence.

The Imam 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 Salem and Medina you know what the companions were upon in Medina and documenting this and showing this through his embodying this through his character was such a profound influence on people that he became a great Imam.

He became a school of thought. Imam Shafi he noticed the divide between a lot of a hadith 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 the Hadith, sometimes to the negligence of the wisdoms and the meanings behind them. So if I'm a chef, you 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.

That's what Imam Shafi did. So he came up with these sciences like a soul.

And even a soul Hadith Imam Sheikh is considered to be the founder

oversoul fit and also that hadith masala Hadith, his book reseller is a book on both, he is considered to be the founder of both. So the scholars of Hadith consider the first book ever to be written on a solid Hadith or the masala of hadith is every cell about Imam Shafi. The scholars are solid, they consider the first book to be written on their, on their science, or research that same book. So Imam Shafi came up with something that solved a lot of problems for people in order in relating to the book of Allah, the Sunnah of the parliament, how to relate to Imam Muhammad himself. He took that to the next level, when he made it a point to

try to collect everything that came from the Prophet SAW Selim, everything, literally everything. So he traveled to so many citizens, so many countries. And he documented each Hadith he studied. And he went to all the non scholars who had Hadith and he took that 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 faith 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 Phil, that is compatible, that is integral, practical, clear and systematic. That's the excellence of Imam Muhammad. And yet in it, they had a powerful contribution. And that was a gift relief gift given to him by Allah subhanaw taala. When that predicament or that test of the issue of Himachal Quran became very prominent, and almost all the scholars or the scholars of Edison 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

cool, immaculate Allama orlu

hola bicultural Quran

baru Ratan Illa herba. So the Imams at the time the scholars, they gave him this idea. This is statement they believe it's covered, but they said it. Why because they feared for their lives, except for for Imams, among them as Imam Muhammad.

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 Imam Muhammad did another one the other one died, Muhammad who died and Imam Muhammad survived.

So as Imam Muhammad

he maintained that and he preserved that and he sacrificed his life for that but Allah Subhanallah preserved him

to

stand in challenge and defiance to this kind of false testimony false have data false understanding that's based on a faulty logic of Almighty Allah trying to understand the Quran like this. So, each one of those Imams were irrelevant. So Imam Muhammad 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 was the Quran is creation on a decrease it's not even mentioned, because there's no need even to go there. But these Morteza there was so much into their minds in their heads. So they actually 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. Allah says, Yeah, you Hallelujah, Amen. Well, let us add one Asha into dela calm. Como, you who believe don't ask about things, that when they are revealed to you, they will defend you or they will cause you harm. And that's why the prophets of salaam says in the authentic hadith in Allah carry hella container or

call or Kathrada soil 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? Oh, 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. What Kathrada Swan 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 gelatine in it. There is animal fat in it. There is you know, pork fat in it. How is it haram to use it? It's gone. Don't get there. Don't get there.

Don't give them this kind of obsession with all of these details. This is why the prophets Allah says in them and dinner see

Mactan in the law

One of the people that Allah hates the most in the mentorship in St. Maarten in LA, or La Jolla and Salah and she in

La Jolla said and she in Sekret Allahu Anhu. 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 Chi in seconds along for holy moly, actually.

So this thing was made haram because he asked about it.

This way, the companions of the Prophet SAW Sanlam how often would they ask the prophets of Salaam? How 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 it? How long was Helen? Oh, what's the animal slaughter the Halloween? This luck. Like people are sitting for things like they want to make things wrong. Like people are sitting. It's like the survival mechanism searching Well, there's a mistake. Wow, that's it, 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 or 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 more things, I want to go back again to the the why study 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 the had some kind of conversation with some Congri 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 very good response and 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 times 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 Marshall, a 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 that

you need to be careful.

Need to Be careful people are watching debates or talks by Zakir Naik 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 the 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 was 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 want to fall evidence? Go ahead. You're not and you're stuck now.

It'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 by Zakir Naik and Adidas palaeocene. 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.

No, because there's no answer.

because you can't answer 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. It's 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 where we live. So and it has its immorality, it has its unethical principles, but because we live in them have 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 either the logic you are using to, to analyze and assess the spirit of the process, or the history of Islam or some aspect in 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, you 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. They're 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 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 masjid, a brother came to me he was born into, in terms of her family 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, he's

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 document. 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 in the back.

And the message was almost empty those after fajr. And he breaks down in tears. I say what

he says I'm doubting I'm doubting the Allah is even there. 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, it's just like an obsession obsessive thinking that this what if Allah is not there?

And he says, I can't even get it out of my head. He says Wallahi I'm 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, and he speak, 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 when I 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 and questioning your faith and your iman, 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 you 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 until you could be a simple Muslim blogger who has this, since 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, these people are exposing this. Well, maybe. But they're since they're going to be punished for that maybe deceit, forgiveness, we don't know. But there are people who are 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. And it's that's what you should do, but trying to play someone else trying to be mudita or holiday seen. 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.

Well, I was supposed to talk about that. But I do think that these messages are very important. These Imams were not naive. So some of the arguments that they presented when it came to our data, they were not there at the time of the companions of the Prophet SAW Salem.

The companions of the Prophet Solomon did not need to talk about a safe harbor er was effective that it was SIFAT exactly the attributes of Allah some of them are related to action. Some of them are related to Allah Himself. Some of them are just based on evidence and things like that. Some of them are actually here. There is a logic and understood logical understanding behind them. The Companions didn't say this. Why? Because there was no need to Quran sunnah clear. But when people brought arguments that blemished the clarity of this app Ada,

these scholars had to come up with terminology to clear the confusion

to create 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 AMI for the Quran and carry 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 saw 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 in the Quran that's in the Quran.

That's the Quran, we're happy with cheering us 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 once said, I was very happy with this. So I go into more detail trying to look at scientific journals and books and textbooks where they say about this.

And it turned out that it's not so well defined either 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, do you know what 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.

We're coming from the religion of Allah, and it's pure, it's been preserved.

And if someone has good knowledge of science, they can use whatever is when whatever Islam 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 a personal argument, you might not 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 and

Now it's backfiring. And I'm telling you there's a there's a number of Muslims in the Muslim world and even 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 Quran, 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 Imam Muhammad. Rahim Allah Allah. So the issue of Halal 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 this 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, Well, yeah, the Quran, this sort of 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, the real well versed Imams, 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 Amma 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 where 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 at all, 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

I was gonna It's like 2030 years, you're gonna stay here you can do Yeah, you can get your children to do things for you. But your children, that's their, that's the daily life.

Most of the work that we do is done on mine. Now, most of the projects that we do are done online, most of our communication is online, most of life is happening online.

So you have to equip them, at least, 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 putting 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 will be far behind that will reduce our younger generations. And we will use a lot of the people who are not so much

practicing the they're not so much knowledge oriented, but they are 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 your 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 times that we're going through are not easy things are going to be challenging. So you having intellect

your arguments, you have an ethical arguments, you're having

social issues and pressures, you're having political issues, you're having

theological religious questions and challenges that if we are not able to deal with, we'll be swamped.

We will be overwhelmed.

And our Imams never did this. They never said, okay, you know, the Companions, we have Hadith, and we have Quran, and we just recite Hadith and we teach Hadith and we recite Quran and that's it. 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 falsehood.

And that's it. That's how the Imams have always done. This is why the Imams wrote books on Arcada. Why would you write a book on Arcadia when there are traders in the Quran, the Sunnah would be to write an article was so clear. Why would the power authority the Bahai? Why would the Imam Hamid will have like taboo to hate? The Quran doesn't know why.

In response to something new.

In response to something new there is you have the Quran you have the Sunnah. 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 filler language that was used 400 years ago, to be able to repel language that has been developed five years ago, by devils,

devils working 24/7 to get some kinds 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. They're playing with the world, with these viral videos.

With all of this kind of propaganda, they know what these guys know what they're doing.

mean we live it, you can't face them. Yes, we need to depend on Allah and put our trust in Allah subhanaw taala. But the process is open whatever 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 to what color means to what color means doing everything in your action and your actions. But your heart is with Allah.

That's what they were coolies.

So as we go on salah, then I'll 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 Ibra Ebright in Arabic means abroad, abroad crossing a bridge, you're crossing a bridge from one side to the other how their side is their life, the history there are times, but we have to cross that over to our times, to our times where we can see the relevance. We can see the relevance. So we can learn these lessons. That's what a bra in this verse means. And that's what it means in Arabic, a block. 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're caught up in that you're caught up in that, you know, let your child watch a movie or a series on soccer. You're gonna find the child playing soccer with everything, they're gonna kick everything in the house, right? Because they immersed in it.

Sometimes when we study, the seer of the Prophet SAW Salem, or the history of our great personalities, we take it as an escape, to keep away from all reality because we 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 set of the prophecy was an 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 Solomon was so relevant. It talks about events that happened yesterday.

and talks about details. So it was very less 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 Quran 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'll find out the Quran speaks about things that are happening today. You can see the connections where most of us will find 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 Quran.

Ask Allah subhanaw taala 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. BarakAllahu li comm Salam salam ala Vina Muhammad

so this was not about Imam Muhammad, so we changed the title. Leave that one for next week. And shall we do