The Red Line on the Attachment to a Sheikh

Salam Alaikum wa rahmatullah and welcome to living Muslim. With the growth of the internet and social media becoming so easily accessible. Everything has to be on the internet now and everything is on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, you can't escape it. And with this has come the growth of celebrities, superstars, football stars, soccer stars, whatever the case is, and the masses and the masses of people are following. And it's happening everywhere. Now with the growth of this also the growth of our has also taken on the internet and it's also taken on the growth of this, you know, this whole social media. So joining me today in the studio to speak about celebrity ism, I guess, if

you like in Dawa, and indeed is Joining me in the studio is Chef Sajid Omar, who is currently based in Riyadh. And that's all that I can say for now. He says to me, so, Chef, thank you very much for joining us. salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa alaikum. Salaam Alaikum Bearcat, it's a pleasure, vertical African lion, thank you so much for being here. It's an absolute pleasure, and it's an honor to have you here with us. barkcloth. It's an honor living Muslim with hopless. It's an honor to be with you, I

lost my thyroid, you, Chef, with the advent of social media. The internet, as we've mentioned, this has come on to our dean and the handler, dow has used the internet for many good things, but it's also grabbed a lot of ill things along with it. But what what does sort of tend to happen? And I guess this is my question to be bit more specific to you is, many of us, we do tend to have a liking, you know, whether towards a particular channel or

particular day or shareholder, so, and then we somewhat treating this person, like a celebrity Now, is this wrong? And if so, how should I be dealing with someone that I love or someone that I admire? And keeping it hallel? I guess in that sense, there's benefit having that our accessible, right, as you said, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and all the other social platforms.

But yes, if not control, then Siobhan is always out there to cause retrogression. So if he's not going to stop something, you know, becoming exacerbated and spreading in a way, then he's going to try and pollute the rewards that can come about as a result of it, pollute the way people are accessible to it, you know,

the reasons why perhaps they attached to it, right. And that's when it carries negative baggage. So your question is, is it a bad thing?

To see the celebrity fan culture in the Dowell

or fan culture The Dow Well, the reality is that whenever we learn from anybody, it's to learn from the inheritance of Rasulullah sallallahu.

And the reality of the inheritance of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi. wasallam is that it doesn't just fix minds, but it converts hearts, it changes hearts, right? So

and the reality with regards to this inheritance is that the one who attaches himself or herself to it is engaged in an act of worship.

Now, when we understand these realities, then we understand that there are certain conditions, there's certain elements that have to come into play, irrespective of circumstance, such as sincerity, because no one engages an act of worship for anyone else other than Allah subhanho wa Taala. So the purpose has to be Allah, the means by which we worship Allah subhanho wa Taala is to seeking knowledge. When these elements coming into play, then we find, you know,

negative or negativity, in our citation that there's a celebrity fan culture here, because that shouldn't be the case. Whenever we study with a chef or learn from a diary or take inspiration, it should be for the sake of Allah. And the inspiration that we've taken, or the knowledge that we've learned has to have physical or a physical presence in our life, that we took what we learned and put it into practice. So if there's, you know, if we're going to talk about, you know, celebrity or fan, it has to be that I'm a fan, in terms of worshipping Allah, I'm a fan of the inheritance of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam because that helps me worship. There has to be a detachment

between the love that we have for the speaker for the chef for the day and the love that we have for the Sunnah of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam that we come to an understanding and say, Look, we love this person, because he's a carrier of the things taught to us by the one who we truly love. So and that is Rasulullah sallallahu This is nice. Like I like this so Can Can someone measure himself as you look, you know, my love to speak all my love to this day? Can I measure this by saying Well, okay, how much of what this person speaks of, am I actually implemented that's the measure or not, that's the measure. Nice. That's the measure that also along with

You know, also along with the whole social media and all the other stuff is we're also starting to see a new thing springing up what's not really new, but it's sort of, you know, starting to pick up pace, I guess, is conferences, and you find conferences are happening everywhere and they're happening, not just in the English speaking world, they're actually quite big all over the world and you yourself are no stranger to this, Mashallah, you know, I've seen your schedule every now and then you're sort of you're all over the place, visiting these conferences? How do we draw the line? I mean, our conferences good, I believe that they are.

But how can we make the most of conferences, because let me be a bit more specific, what I find is happening is that our Dean is becoming events. Right, so now, I'll go to a Thursday night talk, I'll go to a conference with a okay. But you know, what happens after that. So, you know, if you can maybe shed some light on on on, you know, on your personal experiences with conferences, and maybe some advice? Yeah, I mean, without opening too many cans of worms, obviously. And I think it's a follow up from what you're discussing about, you know, the internet and presence on the internet. Now, we'll have conferences that, that bring about a greater presence on the ground. So you have

online and you have on site, no doubt there's, there's goodness in it, there's blessings in if people become inspired there.

It provides a chance for somebody to, or you know, a conference actually provokes the thought of people if it's running the right way. But I think what needs to happen is that which we said earlier, that it's the worship of Allah, and the worship of Allah has to have sincerity. I want to run the conference, I got to be clear that my purpose is Allah subhanho wa Taala. And I can't be running it for the sake of running it. when that's the case, we always have to ask ourselves as, as we find in the Quran for at that hub, where are we going with this? You know, the yardstick like you said, How do I know whether I'm, I'm, you know, I attend a conference, I attend a lecture, I watch a

YouTube talk, how do I know if it's, you know, am I doing it? Because I love the speaker? Or am I doing it for the sake of Allah? And the yardstick is, how much do you implement from that what you learned? How much do you remember from that? what you learned? How much have you grown from that what you've learned, you know, is it about the selfie? Is it about the picture? Is it about me being at the event, the hype of the event, the venue of the event, the speakers that attended the event? Or is it about truly me running to the inheritors of Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, because when I heard there was an event, I knew that the messages of my beloved is going to be

presented at this event. And that's why I went, but since you asked the question, and just to call a spade, a spade, and not a big spoon, that there is this element that the internet has created, that conferences have created, that we're not saying that that was intended, no data is going out there, you know, to create fame. No conference is happening because the organization wants to create fame. But we also have to be sensitive to certain realities that are a sign of the times that come about. And when we sensitive to these realities, then we can come up with the system that allows our data to be robust in a way that people are studying with us. And we are teaching in a way that is most

conducive to Islam, that we are calling to Islam, always the conference is calling to Islam, the YouTube videos, according to Islam, the hood was according to Islam. And it's not a case that she upon has put us in where subconsciously, we call in to ourself. So, you know, these are few yardsticks that are mentioned and given the, the multifaceted question that you shed, but it is a long discussion. Okay. Sure. 111 last thing that I want to ask you, before we sort of do wrap it up is does it suffice?

Let me give you an example. If, if I'm getting the majority of my Deen, from the internet, through whether it's Facebook,

you know, YouTube videos or going to conferences? Is this enough? For me to say that, look, I've learned my Deen through these avenues? Is it enough to just attend these things? Or should my Dean incorperate more than this? I mean, look, in terms of learning, it's never enough. We know that seeking knowledge happens from the beginning of our beginning of our life, till the end of our life does there have to be a connection? So there has to be a connection, you only do I have to be connected? Not Not Not so much to measure this in the structure or the actual building, but does it have to be connection? There has to be a connection between the knowledge that you learn and what

you practice, right? Because you can't practice before you have knowledge and when you have knowledge it mandates armelle like emammal Bihari Rahim Allah in His say, he has a whole chapter Bible me Pablo poliwhirl Ahmed, write the chapter of knowledge before speech and action. Right? So these are the tons of faith, they are aligned and the real knowledge and an animal action and knowledge comes before actually before actually even if you look at the makeup of the words you have in the realm lamb comes before me. And in the armors the meme comes before the lamp and if you look at the vvv outfit, the Arabic out

Did you find lamb coming before the knee surgeon was gonna come before action, you know if we if we try and have a linguistic nuance to it or an abstract discussion of it. And even if you look at the messaging in the Quran and the Sunnah of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam.

The topic that we're discussing is about the internet age, and the celebrity fan culture. No doubt there's to be a connection. Firstly, you must learn on the internet, you must attend the conferences, right? You must learn from as many knowledgeable people as possible. And you must put what you learn into practice. But what you should never do, and this can help us avoid the celebrity fan culture is attached yourself only to one speaker, or one or one particular conference. Why? Because no one thing can give you all of the inheritance of Rasulullah sallallahu, I think there are certain there are certain conferences that can take you from level zero to level one.

After that you are in need of other machine, other teachers, other conferences, other seminaries, other programs to take you from level one to level two, and then level two to level three. If you always stuck to one, and you're stuck on a particular level, a time has to come when you have your quote unquote thinking date when you ask yourself, look, where am I in my relationship to Allah and you ask you something, okay, how come I'm not progressing? How come I'm always stuck on this level? A lot of the times people tell me that, you know, Chef, we need an emotion boost. Or you know, we really love if chef so and so comes because we're going to get the mind boost. And I tell him that,

you know,

attaching your Eman and his growth to a particular person is not sustainable. It's not sustainable. And Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam left us and when he left us, he said track to fecal matter in Temasek to be lengthy we'll look at the GitHub a lot he wasn't at that I leave with you two things, if you hold steadfast upon them both will never go astray. That's the Quran and the Sunnah, the Quran and the Sunnah that is with us forever, that, you know, you gaining inspiration from that is sustainable, because the daddy will come and leave. And then what's going to happen the next day, the right you need, even a vehicle needs to have that system which charges the battery.

Without it, you're going to keep on going through batteries. It's not sustainable for a person to keep visiting your vicinity or locality to give you that demand boost. Firstly,

financially it's expensive, you can feed many poor people, right? Secondly, we don't live forever, right? So attaching ourselves to the Quran and Sunnah is the is the Eman boost and structuring how we learn and implement what we learned will help us appreciate the you know, the great presence of the Quran and Sunnah in our last pantalla would you share I mean so so very much for joining us. barakallahu li you've brought so much joy and your brothers and sisters, I guess there you have it, there's goods and Bad's in everything that we do in our life. And for a believer, one needs to always strike the balance too much of anything is never ever a good thing. So yes, while we have the

internet and we may fall in love with Michelle, and there is and this love Allah smart Allah puts in the hearts, but too much of this and abusing this may end up destroying you. So it is always good for a believer to strike a balance. Can I take my Deen from the internet while just as the chef said yes you can. But do I take all my Deen from the internet? No, this is dangerous. Am I allowed to fall in love with a chef and take some advice from him? Yes you are. But do I take all my Deen from him and you know and from no one else and listen to him. Now within this is also dangerous. So one needs to always strike the balance. You know and just as we go to conferences, which are good things

and we got to you know, you know, we go to the Facebook and go to the internet that should not replace our Masjid. That should not replace our halaqaat it should not replace being on the ground and going so we need to strike that balance. And we ask Allah subhanaw taala to make us from the balanced ones. Check once again. Thank you so very magic and up until next time my last panel Tyler reward every single one of you as salaam alaikum