Four Imams And Their Biographies 01 – Introduction

When surely unforeseen omens,

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Hoya Dasha de cada shawanna Mohammed Abu Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi was seldom at the Sleeman kathira about my dear brothers and sisters salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. So I'm going to begin with a funny story. And it's a contrast of two things, because it's not going to make sense to you if I don't share this contrast with you. So in my fourth year at Medina University, we had a class called productivities, like the methodology of teaching. And I remember in one of the weeks, the teacher comes in, and he's super excited, and he's like, I have some amazing news to share with you guys. You know, there's a big advancement in technology that is

completely going to change the game altogether. And that's like the vibe that he's bringing up. What does he end up pulling out in the middle of the class, a projector screen that you can write on? Like, we were using that in elementary school, and this is like new technology for him. So that's like, you know, how backwards things were up until, you know, even the early 2000s in Saudi Arabia. Now, why do I begin with that story, so that you can understand what happened in my first year of Medina, and my first year of Medina, we had a class called daddy hood to Syria, which is the history of legislation. And it we discussed, you know, how the Quran was revealed how it was preserved and

written down and documented. Same thing with the Sunnah. And then it eventually led to the development of the four mazahub. And my teacher for this class. His name was Abdullah Bousada, his father actually used to be a mom of much did not, like 4050 years ago. And this man was completely completely completely different from any of the other teachers. In what sense. On one side, you had a teacher bragging about, wow, we have a projector that we can teach from now. And this man was bringing up typed up notes for all the students. And that was very unique. So not only did he make things easy for the students by bringing up typed up notes, and I can see some examples of people

saying, What's the big deal, what typed up notes, when you have to tell you write handwritten notes in Arabic, especially as a non Arabic submission and a half, like literally my forearm muscles grew in Medina, just from like all the writing I had to keep up with. So this teacher was phenomenal. And he had a wealth of knowledge. And this is a kolak was he was very, very different. Like, he wasn't serious, but he was always about businesses always about studying always about learning, and always about investing in people. And I always thought to myself somehow, you know, when I go back, one of the subjects that would like to teach is this study called the development of Islam, like how is the

Koran revealed and preserved? How is it preserved and in our them as I've developed now, in terms of the Quran, and the Sunnah, believe it or not actually did that in 2007. While I was still a student in Medina, I came back in 2007. And the very first organization that invited me was the Quran and Sunnah society in Toronto, and the videos are still up, you'll see that I have really long hair. And it's like, I'm always doing a white though white hat and like, almost a very different person. So I did that portion of it then. But I never got the opportunity to teach the history of the metalhead. And this is like, you can say literally in our world in 2017. Now, 10 years later, a las panatela

has given me the opportunity to do that. And that's something that I'm very, very grateful for. So I want to break down for you how these classes are going to work. So we have two simultaneous classes going on at the same time. Friday nights is going to be the biography of the Imams, and Thursday nights is going to be the jurisprudence principles or the will

of the Imams that what were the principles that the moms used in order to create their schools of thought. So that is going to be starting next Thursday, the third Thursday coming up, and that's going to be at eighth and eighth inshallah. And to both of these classes, we're going to be using two texts. So the first text the ones that we're using for Friday night, it's called in the company of Emma in the company of the Imams by shixin monteloeder. You can find this book on Vine on his website, so you can follow along if you if you choose to do so. And most of the information that you'll find is from this book, and I'm using other sources as well to add into the biographies. So

this is what we'll be using for Friday nights. for Thursday nights. We're using a book called The four imams by Mohammed Abu Zahra. Mohammed Abu Zahra. And that's actually a very, very thick book. And it has a section on the biography of the Imams, but it focuses a lot on the jurisprudence principles, which is what we will be focusing on. Now you may be wondering, what is the point of studying the jurisprudence principles? Now, over the past couple of years, something that I've noticed, is that a reoccurring theme in those people that have a crisis of faith meaning they end up, you know, becoming very, very weak in their faith or they end up leaving their faith altogether?

Is that their understanding of Islam

was almost non existent, that they didn't understand why they had to pray. They didn't understand why they had to faster why they had to read the Quran, or why the things were highlighted why certain things are Haram. And when you study the size of a silver fork, it helps you appreciate this religion, and helps you understand that this religion is not just about a law saying do this and don't do that. But it's about understanding the wisdom behind it. You know, in order to be able to handle law, one of the greatest memes of Islam, he said, there's nothing that Allah has made heaven, except that there's benefit in it. And there's nothing that Allah has made hard on except that

there's harm in it. So the obligation on us now as Muslims, is that Allah constantly tells us, you know, reflect, remember, understand, we need to understand what is the good that Allah wants us to achieve from this commandment? And what is the harm that Allah subhanaw taala wants us to abstain from in the prohibition. So this is how you increase your faith. And I'm hoping that through the series, inshallah, you know, as far as I know, I haven't seen anything like it in terms of like in an audio or video format. There are a couple of books out there. But in terms of an audio and video form, I haven't seen anything like it. I'm hoping that it will help Muslims appreciate their faith

more. And that's what we need. people that understand their faith and understand what they're doing so that they can get closer to Allah subhana wa Tada. So that's what the Thursday night classes are about. The Friday night classes is all about inspiration, you know. So now, we're getting on to the format of the classes. So the format of the classes, each class is going to be four weeks, followed by an introduction. So tonight is the introduction night, which is going to summarize the biographies of the Imams like Islam, as I strongly scholars, what was it that made these four scholars stick out above everyone else else? That's what we're going to be studying tonight. So it's

an introduction to their biographies, where we take we take glimpses of each of them, and then every Friday following forward, we'll be going in chronological order. So remember to follow him hola first, followed by medic followed by Imam Shafi, followed by Imam Ahmed ignore humbled. Now, like I said, it's about it's meant to be inspirational, because, you know, supposedly, we're living in very tough times. We need a spray machine, we need good role models. And these are like from the best of the role models. So that is the beginning, isn't it? The first thing we're going to be taking is the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam narrated by emammal by hockey, where the Prophet

sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he says, Yes,

Allah,

that Allah subhanho wa Taala has chosen a group of trustworthy people, whom in every generation will carry this knowledge. And that's something we have to have faith in and certainty in, and also a sense of optimism in our spinal tap that he tells us in the Koran, that he is the one that has revealed the Koran and he is the one that will protect it. Now encompassed in this is the deen of Allah subhana wa Tada. Now, the way Allah subhanaw taala, preserves and protects this Deen is through the scholars is through the scholars. And that is why in every generation, Allah subhanho wa Taala will continue to send reputable scholars that will have the admiration of the people, but

there will be principled people that will stick to the truth and will be just purely focused on spreading the deen of Allah subhanaw taala. Now when this hadith is narrated, a lot of the times the very first names that are mentioned that who was the Messenger of Allah sallallahu Sallam referring to when he mentioned this heavy, it was referring to the likes of the 40 maps and it is applicable to the likes of the for the maps. So the first thing we want to look at is what is the timeframe of their life? Imagine honey, follow him Allah was born in the year at after digital, and Imam Ahmed Rahim Allah who was the youngest of them, died in 241, after his RA, so this is the timeframe that

you're looking at, you know, a period of about 161 years. That's what we're looking at from 88 to 241 hlr. This was also known as one of the Golden ears of Islam, known as the time of the self, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he mentions in a beautiful Hadith that hodl Koran economy Thumbelina, you know, the home and Athena do know, that the best of generations is my generation than the generation that follows them and the generation that follows them. So they fall into that category of being from the best of generations. And that is the second virtue that this has. Number three, is that when you look at the formalization, that when these sciences became known as

individual sciences, it happened in this year in particular, so Originally, we only have two sources in Islam. You have a Koran, and you have the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. But where did that come from? Fix come from, where did the sciences of Hadeeth come from? Where did that car come from? All of the sciences developed during that time, and that is why it was known as the golden era.

Now, because Islamic knowledge is being studied, and it is being spread, when you look at the history of Baghdad, right, when you look at, you know, when the toddler's invaded Iraq that not only was it was it sad that a lot of deaths took place, but one of the most like, I guess the deplorable things that happened during that time was that they destroyed the libraries. And they said that he threw the books into the, into the sea. And there's so much ink that will turn the sea black. Right. So this was a part of our history, there was a point in history where non Muslims used to come to Muslim lands, to get educated, right, you want to learn medicine, you came to Muslim lands, you want

to learn engineering, you want to learn math, you came to Muslim lands, these all came and stemmed off from the golden era of Islam, when there was a huge emphasis on knowledge, and it was being spread everywhere. So on every corner, you will find a madrasa on every corner, you're finding a school, and the most notable profession was to become a teacher. And that is something that, you know, when I, when I look at this concept, if you look at how dysfunctional educational philosophy has become, in this day and age, a lot of it revolves around qualified people don't want to become teachers anymore, right? Those people that have the skills to become teachers, and are good at

becoming teachers, just due to the way that teachers are being treated, just due to how low their salaries are. They don't want to become teachers, you know, it's sort of like, you know, why aren't people interested in becoming imams? Why don't people would like to ask people, how many of you want to become when you grew up? Or how many of you had that vision? And pretty close? I'm pretty sure. It'd be like, less than a handful, right? I'm not gonna ask, but you can ask yourself, did you grow up thinking I want to become a hero when I grew up? No, you didn't have that. Why? Because it wasn't, it wasn't considered a position of repute. It didn't come with a good salary. Now, when your

educational leaders are treated like that, what do you think is going to happen to the education system is going to fall, it's going to flop and it's going to collapse. And that is why education systems, particularly in North America, are collapsing. That's what's happening all together. So the golden era of Islam thrived because of knowledge. And societies collapse, because they no longer respect knowledge. And that's what we need to understand. So these are some of the times that the we're living in. Now, understanding primary issues versus secondary issues by primary issues. We call these the Sassoon like the fundamentals of our faith. And then the secondary issues These are

called photo, that these are like subsidiary issues, that these are issues that, you know, are not trivial, but not as important as the issue themselves. When it came to matters of Akiva v. Moms were pretty much in consensus and all the scores were pretty much consensus in these first three years of Islam. However, when it came to secondary issues, there was a huge difference of opinion, there is a huge difference of opinion. Now, what is the value of difference of opinion is difference of opinion, a mercy from Allah subhanho wa Taala? Or is it a punishment from a must cannot either. And this is why when you look in the Quran, Allah subhanho wa Taala will use two different terms. He

uses love, and he uses 10 aza, if Tila will know itself is not harmful, it's not harmful within of itself, you are allowed to differ with one another. And that's not a problem. But tenaska, which is animosity and hatred, that is a result of different than that is something that is wrong in our faith. That is something that is wrong in our faith. So these great Allah, they have the laugh amongst themselves, but he still had brotherly love, they still had respect for one another. And this is what it's important to understand that, you know, a lot of people think that the formation of these mazahub that they're in competition with one another, that this eventually ends up

happening later on when you see, you know what ends up happening, particularly in Makkah, that when it came time for Salah, therefore centers that would happen, so the Maliki method would have very similar the Shafi method would have their summer, the hanafy method would have their summer and the humbler method would have their summer. And each one of them is praying to a different side of the club. So that's like the extreme that people go through. And that's what's important to understand that any form of extremism in our faith is looked down upon. But in terms of the formation of these modalities, they're meant to be curriculum. So just like you have curriculums in school, you have a

syllabus. This is for people that wants to become scholars of Islam. How do I become a scholar in Islam? You know, they'll tell you read the Koran, read this, okay, I read the Koran. I read the Hadith without making a score of Islam, North note, because you're going to need principles to understand them. So those principles to understand them are what these

schools of thoughts are actually about. And that is why it's so important to have a balanced view pertaining to these mazahub. that these were that were not in competition with one another, in the sense that just because I'm NFA, and your Shafi that we hate one another, that wasn't the point, the point of this motherhood voice, that we hear the texts of Revelation.

Let us try our best to interpret them and develop our right we need a curriculum from A to Z. And that is what these mazahub were actually about. This is what we're actually about. Now did these m&ms promote the only Verma that should be followed? And you'll notice from all the norms that that was not the case, in fact, from one of the sides of society is that people will give preference to other people's knowledge over themselves. In one particular incident that is reported about Mr. Malik, the police at that time was at the Jaffa monsoon, he saw the mothball Bhima Malik, and he was very impressed by it. He told him man, if we're going to make this the official folk manual for the

caliphate, that the whole Caliphate is going to follow. This means that regardless of what people followed in other parts of the land, they now officially have to become Maliki. When he

heard about this, he was completely distraught, he actually refused the Khalifa saying that you are not allowed to do this. Why? Because the Khalifa went on to be explained to that people already have their understandings of people have already learned from the teachers understand that it's still very early on in Islam, the Sahaba are still alive at that time, right? Understood, the mind has passed away at 93, a beautiful armor of the water that Darcy passes away 110 to the service delivery, meaning that this development of Frick has already taken place in communities where the companions want to continue to teach. So now when you bring in official manual, saying that this is

what the caliphate has to follow, is going to cause more confusion than it will cost benefit. Because Islam still so young and early on at that time. And this, my mother in law did not impose his opinion upon other people. Number two, understanding difference of opinion, is that difference of opinion is a mercy and not a punishment. In what's your perspective. And what sets that difference of opinion. There's a mercy that had all of the Imams held one single opinion, there will be no the way out of it, there will be no the way out of it. Right. So there's individuals in a situation where he needs something from Fox, that he's a difficulty, he needs to be accommodated to,

if all of the moms had one opinion on that issue, they would have created difficulty, I'll show you a very realistic, you know, example, just before the Holocaust, someone had come up and asked that, you know, there's a in engineering, when you go out on the fields, you have to wear a mask. And in order to wear that mask, you actually have to shave off your beard or trim it down very, very closely. Now, if you take the humble opinion, where the modern day humble opinion is that you have to let your beard grow altogether, in fact, you're not allowed touching your beard, right? You're not touching it whatsoever. That means that none of the companies could ever become, you know,

engineers that are on the ground, because you need to trim down your beard at that time. So imagine if all of the norms of this one opinion, that means we would have no Muslim engineers, and like a half of them would be like out of a job right now. That's the reality of it. But then you have other emails that were sitting on the shelf, the the likes of Mr. Malik, there are a lot more easygoing, that they allowed the trimming of the beard, and it wasn't that big of an issue. Right. So this is how we understand that the differences in folk are allowed to accommodate for different situations that allow the competition of different situations. And third benefit from difference of opinion is

that it shows us what are the issues, that there is legitimate difference of opinion on this issue? That is

what does that mean? So if someone comes up to you and says, there is a sixth Salah that is mandatory upon you, all of you clearly know that that's not possible, where Islam had five sellers only had five sellers. So that is an illegitimate difference of opinion. But if you were to say, Where do I place my hands in Salah, right, then you will get multiple opinions on that, because that is a difference of opinion that existed amongst the Imams. So the difference of opinions amongst the Imams, they actually showed the scope, that you're allowed to different like To what degree are we allowed to differ? These are all the opinions that existed. So these are all opinions that we can

differ amongst ourselves, and we can introduce a new opinion after that, we can introduce a new opinion. After that. There is a beautiful quote by Dr. z ceramah

He said, I do not wish that the prophets companions had never disagreed, that that had been the case there would be no legal in religion, there would be no leeway in religion. And that is why this, this is the last point in this section over here. When we look at dealing with differences of opinions, it's so important to be tolerant towards differences of opinions, that you may fall in one particular opinion. But that doesn't mean that you disrespect someone else, for another opinion that they vote for another opinion that they vote. And you can see this in a wide variety of cases where it is the way people pray, when it is, you know, the whole issue of halal meats or whatnot. These

are all matters of difference of opinion. And these matters of difference of opinion, should not lead us towards animosity or hatred towards our brothers and sisters, this is within the realm of folk. And you're allowed to differ, and it should not take away from that, you know, I've seen certain communities who can't pray behind that Imam, because he eats like the meat from like superstore or something like that. This is ridiculous. This is absurd. That's like a valid supposition that he's following. And in the greater scheme of things, it's really not that big of a deal. Right? Like when you talk about the contradiction of when it comes to like, Hello meat, you'll

see that people will like, deal with their body and drink alcohol was like, Hey, can I have like a hollow chicken on the side or something? Right? It's absurd. It's absolutely absurd. So in terms of parties, you know, this is like from the topics of Showtime. So understand that difference of opinion should be tolerated. As long as that difference of opinion is valid. How do you learn if a difference of opinion is valid or not? Well, that's what the Thursday night classes are for the Thursday classes will help us understand what is a valid difference of opinion, versus what is not a valid difference of opinion. Now we'll move on to section number two, after we understood their

times.

These imaams became great because they understood how to respond to the challenges of their time. So at that time, multiple ethnicities, and multinationals were entering into the fold of Islam, and they accommodated for all of them, they accommodated for all of them. And they stood up to the challenges of their time. And this is one of the things that needs to be brought back is that when you look at Islamic scholarship right now, it is extremely stagnant there in terms of, you know, breaking research that is taking place in terms of accommodating towards the the pressing matters of our times, it doesn't take place anymore, right, when in recent trends that I've been getting asked

a lot about is what is the rule of dropshipping? Like in the last three weeks, literally at least six people have emailed me asking what is the ruling on drop shipping? When you look online finding photographer finding research on drop shipping, almost non existent, almost non existent. Right. And this is one of the pressing things. So those of you that are selling on Amazon, this is what drop shipping is pretty much all about when you look at organ donation. Right? In 1988. There was like one research paper that was written by the Muslim mafia in Jeddah. And since then nothing has come out, like 1988. Now, there has been no developments that Muslim scholars can comment on. Now, my

understanding of this issue is that it stems from two places. It's not that knowledge has been lost. In fact, we live in a time where knowledge is the most accessible for those of you that have, you know, backgrounds in in the Arabic language, there's actually a program called a Sharmila. A seminar is like, you know, Asides from the signs of Allah Spano tala, literally, you type in a word, and it will go through pretty much every single Islamic book that has been written and tell you what it says about that word. So and it's just phenomenal. So in terms of access to knowledge, we don't have to read all these books anymore, you're looking for something, type it into Shambhala, and it

automatically shows up. So if all this knowledge is accessible, where is the problem? The problem stems from two areas. Number one, is the confidence of the scholars themselves. The scholars within themselves no longer have the confidence in their knowledge to keep up with the times they feel very confident reading these books, translating these books tell you what's inside of these books. But as soon as you challenge them to come up with the problems of their times, you'll find that they don't have the confidence to do so. And a lot of that has to do with the tablet that they brought up with themselves lot of the educational systems, they teach you to regurgitate the TGT iterate, they don't

teach you to critically think and that is something we need to bring back into Islamic scholarship that the Quran and Sunnah are not something that you know, just for that time, it is meant to be for till the Day of Judgment. So meaning that our understanding of the Quran and the Sunnah, needs to cater to the problems that people face in this day and age. And that's required.

confidence that teachers need to mentor their students and teach them, hey, it's okay to make a mistake. If you get something wrong, this is how you fix it. This is how you think this is what you're meant to understand. This is the spirit of the law that this hadith or this is trying to convey. That is the first issue. And number two, is more of a spiritual issue. Now, the spiritual issue has been reoccurring throughout history, that spiritual issue is, I don't want to lead people astray. And I don't want to have accountability in front of Allah subhanho wa Taala if I do something wrong. Now how did the Messenger of Allah sallallahu Sallam accommodate for that problem,

and this is from the beauty of our faith that the prophet SAW Selim is addressing issues that are coming much, much later on. The province of aloha new Selim tells us that when a mage trailhead makes it too hard, if he is correct, he gets two awards. If he is incorrect, what does he get, he still gets one reward for it, meaning that the scores required to make it's the highest, and try to help the people. If you get it wrong, you got it wrong, unless they give you one reward for trying, and you learn from your mistake, but in to come to the point where you no longer make an effort out of fear of being wrong, then this is something that is not acceptable. This is something that is not

acceptable. Now, how does this tie into the decline of the Ummah, the decline of the oma comes, when Muslim scholars no longer take the lead in guiding the people, right? There's two types of authority in Islam. There's political authority, and there's religious authority. These are the two main forms of authority. Now, each of them has their own responsibilities and their own duties, the religious authority is responsible for catering to the needs of the people spiritually, and you know, just food, it's wise, those are the two main responsibilities. But now, if you have a religious leadership that lacks confidence within of itself, and lacks, you know, to work within a law that

allows one to deal with them justly, that is when you know, nations collapse. And that is what we're seeing right now is the stagnancy of the oma because religious leadership is no longer doing their job. Now, the good thing is, I think scholarship is starting to recognize this that, hey, if we don't start to cater towards the needs of the community, we're going to be held accountable on the Day of Judgment. So as people are leaving Islam, as you know, more and more bad, things are happening, religious scholars are waking up, I'm going to go on to our small tangent.

I was at Islamic Awareness Day in Edmonton yesterday.

And the scope of the discussion was on dealing with Islamophobia. I'm one of the tactics that has come up in dealing with Islamophobia is the normalization of Islam within second the growth parameters. Now, what does that mean? So what that looks like is, you're now actually going to start seeing Muslims on TV in, you know, TV shows, they're no longer portrayed as the terrorist right? For the last 20 years. Anytime you saw someone in government, guaranteed he was the bad guy in the movie, or in the TV show, he is the guy who's gonna blow up the plane glove the bloody or kill someone that was how it was?

or do something bad? Yes. But now, we're noticing the exact opposite of that. So you know, there's actually a documentary that's coming out called normalization of Muslims, where there's a scene from a movie called Bad Moms, if you don't know what it is, don't look it up. But the point is, there's two hijabi sisters in it. And they're just partying like, there's a scene where they're just going crazy partying, the mother TV show on ABC called Quantico, where there's this issue that's ranking job as a part of the FBI. And she ends up committing Zina, right. And then you have another one,

that this is actually a separate documentary called what it's like to be, you know, who are the Muslims of America. And then you have a man that says, you know, I'm Muslim, and I have two dogs, and I drink, then you have a lady that comes up that you know, has like tattoos and is like, pierced everywhere. She's like, I'm Muslim, as well. And this is my wife, and there's like another woman next door. And when you look at these things, you know, it's like almost mind boggling. that either you have to be someone that is a terrorist, or you have to be a Muslim that has secular liberal values, in order for you to be a practicing conservative Muslim, is no longer going to be possible.

That is a scary reality that you need to understand that when you look at the threats to conservative, orthodox Islam, is it under huge threat? Because either you're the terrorist or you're the secular liberal Muslim, on came to be, or both.

But you came to be a practicing conservative, orthodox Muslim. If you are, you're the bad guy. That is what is happening. Now. Why am I tying this up? One of the fundamental reasons this is happening

People have become disenfranchised with Islam. people no longer find Islam relevant. One of the most beautiful things I've read within the last six months, is the greatest threat to Islam is not persecution. It is apathy, that is a result of cultural irrelevance

atrophies when people no longer care, right, they no longer find Islam relevant. So they end up leaving it. This owner will not be destroyed by the physical attacks that take place on this oma because he's promised us that, that what will end up destroying this ummah, is when scholars do not do their job in making Islam relevant. Now, when you look at the 40 moms, they excelled at that, any challenges that came their way, they found a way to accommodate any problems that occurred, they found a way to deal with it head on. So now when we're dealing with atheism, when we're dealing with financial business matters, when you're dealing with, you know, intercultural issues when you're

looking at issues of identity, religious scholarship needs to be brought back. Now you notice this whole time, I'm just going on a rant on blaming with a just scholarship. But in essence, who are the people to blame?

It is us Why? Because we no longer instill in our children, in our young people, the pride that they should have in becoming a Muslim scholar, this goes back to our fact that when you ask someone, hey, do you want to be the man when he grew up? He's like, heck, no, right? I will become anything else except in the amount. Why? Because they see the way the lambs are treated, they see the way the moms are, you know, are underpaid. And by the way, you know, Calgary is like the exception to the rule. This is the exception to the rule. Like you go to other places, I'll tell you a story about the amount of wine mustard growing up, the amount of my mushrooms growing up, they wouldn't give him a

salary. What they would give him is every Juma whatever they collected, they would give him 10% of that. And then they will tell them that if you still need more money, apply for welfare. Now his son wants to go to university, where is he supposed to get the money for that from? Right. And he's like a whole bunch of issues. So we need to instill in ourselves. Number one, the importance of religious education inspire young people to become religious scholars. Number two is that when we choose who we accept in our Islamic schools, when you look at our Islamic schools, people that couldn't get into other schools or they get kicked out of other schools, the Islamic school welcomes them. We

can't keep doing that anymore. The Islamic schools have to be pristine, in the sense that the best of the best should come to our schools. And that's what we want to raise in our schools. Number three, is that start treating religious authority properly. religious authority is not meant to be perfect. None of these imams were perfect. So they have to be treated with respect treated with honor. So that regardless of where you end up in the world, be active in the mess that you end up in and make sure that your email Make sure your resident scholar makes sure that the people that are part of your congregation are respected and treated humanely, so that when kids see them as an

example, there came one day when I grew up, I want to be like that individual. So they responded to change.

Number three, the persecution that these imams went through the persecution that these moms went through. The persecution that these moms went through was of two different types. Number one was in the dealing with the people. Number two was with religious authority. In terms of religious authority, we'll get to the specific specifics of them in their lives. But we met him Abu hanifa he's in prison towards the end of his life. In America, he had his arms broken because of a fatwa he gave on marriage. Right in the handle of Rahim Allah, He is put in prison because he disagreed with the Khalif on splendid the the martyrs of the Akita. Right. So all these issues are going on these

courts are persecuted. Now when people come out of persecution, and they're still able to lead people, that increases the honor and respect that people have for them. And as what you see, like even though all these images are prosecuted by their leaders, they didn't come out and say, Hey, we need to rebel against this leader overthrow him. He's a terrible leader. But he understood that this Muslim leader, as bad as he was not having a suitable replacement and creating chaos was a much worse thing that could happen. So they stayed quiet, they stayed patient, but they showed the people the correct thing to do without rebelling. They show the people the correct thing to do without your

balance. So that's in terms of political authority, in terms of human interaction.

One of the things that is bound to happen when you become a person of repute.

People will speak badly of you. People will always speak bad about you. This is the reality of it. As soon as you come into the public eye, people will speak bad about you, the students of Eli Mohamad wahala. They used to attend his Holocaust and he used to attend the Holocaust of someone else called al corabi. So one day, Mr. Muhammad Rahim Allah sees them leaving from South Korea these halaqa now the students thought Mr. Mohammed is going to be ticked off that you know, how could you betray me? This guy talks bad about me all the time. You know, what type of students are you? Where's your loyalty? Buddy? Now Muhammad Rahim Allah, he asked them, What did you learn? benefit me

from it benefit me from it.

And they were perplexed. They like, don't you know what this man says? Even in the holiday just attended, he was speaking bad about you. And you know, Mohammed Rahim Allah, he responded by saying that he is a man of integrity, that has a personal problem with me. And it should not prevent you from learning from him. They should not prevent you from learning from him. And this is another reoccurring theme that you find in their lives. That is a huge lesson for us, that never become so petty, that you got drawn into the drama of people, people have loads of drama, they want to drag you into their drama, stay far away from it as possible. Someone wants to drag you in the dirt,

excuse yourself, people are speaking bad about someone, excuse yourself, don't get involved in it. And the Imams of the past understood that as soon as you become a person of repute, people will speak bad against you, you just ignore it. And any form of clay that you can continue to provide, you should do so any form of code that you can provide should continue to do so there's actually something nice I wanted to share with you.

Just a statement of the mama shuffle the himolla. So a chef was once asked what is better for a man to be established in reputation and authority, or to be persecuted. So either to have good reputation and authority or to be persecuted which one is better for the man. So the angle that they're coming from, is that if you're persecuted, that you know, Your sins are forgiven, your ranks are raised. Your mama shuffled him over, he said, it is not possible to have the former until you've experienced the letter. You know, you cannot become a person of repute and authority until you've gone through some form of persecution that this person makes his persecution makes you stronger,

embrace it, understand it. And that is where the authority and reputable come from that is where the authority and reputation will come from.

The relationship between the Imams what is the relationship between the Imams How will they tied together?

The 40 mums actually have a very interesting relationship. Three of them have a very direct relationship. So in our Malik Rahim Allah was the teacher of the mama Shafi and the amount of Sheffield Rahim Allah was the teacher of Imam Mohammed Ibrahim Allah. So there's like that direct lineage over there. Where's he with? Mm hmm. Honey for him Allah. The connection is not a direct it is indirect. So it's either through teachers or through students. So in our Monica hematoma gets connected with Imam Abu hanifa Rahim Allah through one particular teacher, a ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba ba ba from the students. Have you been a bus major authority in tafsir, a 13 Hadith as

well. He is this teacher of Eman Malik and inaudible hanifa Rahim Allah, they are also connected to their students. So the two main students of Imam Abu hanifa Rahim Allah, Mohammed Abu Hassan, and abusive we'll talk about these individuals in detail. These two were teachers of Imam Malik, as well as students and the teachers of enormous suffering Allah as well as students. Now you will notice that there's going to be an overlap in this teacher student relationship, which is a point that I want to emphasize over here, that we live in a day and age where scholarship has become, you know, synonymous with arrogance and pride. When the patient is a scholar, he starts to think that you know

what, there's no one else that I can learn from, there's no one else that I can study with. I know everything out there. And if I need to research something, I can just go look up in the books myself. And I find that very problematic. This is not the way religious leadership should be. In fact, these emails shows the exact opposite. A mama chef Rahim Allah used to teach Imam Akhmad or Shula folk, and you know, I'm teaching them a sharpie Hadeeth and that was such a beautiful relationship. In fact, when you look at you know this how beautiful this relationship was, in America Rahim Allah tells the the son of Imam Shafi Rahim Allah that there is six people in this

world that I make draft for every single day. There are six people in this world that I make every single day. One of them is your father. You find another beautiful incidents between

Meaning

that in other sheffy is staying over at his house falling asleep over right in this day that us sleepovers anymore, but this loophole is very unique. Why are they sleeping over? Because they would wake up in the morning, and they would exchange knowledge. So now that's the first beautiful thing about it. The second beautiful thing about it is before a mama, mama goes to sleep. He tells his daughter that get some water prepared in advance, so that when

Shafi wakes up for chlamydia for hygiene, we have warm water to provide him that's a freezing cold at that time. So morning time comes. And Mr. Mohammed asks, you know, did you give him a shot with the water that he needed? And she says, you know, my dear father, Imam Shafi, Ramallah never asked for the water to begin with. So even after this perplexed, Now, why is the four Plex because he's thinking what type of email what type of shift is this, where he doesn't wake up?

Like how you going to be registered and you're not paying the agent. So when he approaches the nama Shafi in response to him by saying that I never lost my window in the first place, How so? He says that there are 17 different legal matters that are kept on revisiting in my head, and I couldn't fall asleep. Now, when I look at this story, I'm amazed that when you look at our sleep patterns, what usually prevents us from falling asleep, you're checking your phone, you're on Facebook, oh, man, that's so interesting, you know, and that's what you end up thinking about. Or you know, you had a bad day at work, you keep worrying about your bad day at work. But in undershelf Rahim Allah,

he's like, Oh, I was just revisiting semi fickle opinions. And if I want to see what the correct opinion was, or what conclusions I came to, and he does that the whole night, like sacrifice sleep for that. So this adjustment, there still are so many lessons to panela. So these are the types of people that we were dealing with. And that was like the close relationship that all of them had.

On the last point related to this section on the relationship.

An important book for someone that needs to that wants to study fork is the rewire of the deadly hustlin shibani of the Moto grammatic. So the student ID number behind it for him Allah, he has a aeration of the moth of Alex textbook, which is his version of it. Why is this unique, because you have someone that is originally Hanafi in his foundation, studying it from another key scholar. And he's giving commentary from the Hanafi side of it. And this book is actually published in English. That's why I'm actually recommending it for you when you read this book, and it expands your horizons, on how you could have two completely different approaches to the exact same idea. So you

want to see how the Hanafi school and the Maliki school approaches the Hadith. That is one of the best ways to understand it. So that is a very good

book to read. A very good book to read. Now,

we already talked about peaceful coexistence, the loved one another respected one another.

And we mentioned about that already.

A center of balance, okay. Staying balanced. Islam is a religion of what we call cynicism, or as Allah subhana wa tada refers it for us, that He created us an oma that is balanced or Matan wasapi that's what I was fine with Allah calls it in English is called centrism, where we always take the balanced and middle approach. Now, the scholars represented that throughout their lives in every single aspect. And I want to talk about that. So from a religious leadership aspect, even though they're at odds were their political leadership. They never supported the opposition. Understand that point, that from a power standpoint, that even though they were persecuted by the political

leaders of their times, they didn't support the opposition, but rather, they use to create their own intellectual movements that will give political advice. So people would naturally assume that because these people have been persecuted by the political authority, they must naturally support the opposition. But that wasn't the case. They always created their own opinions to which they would guide the people through. So let me give you an example.

as Muslims where we stand on issues pertaining to the environment, right, this is a discussion that no one talks about, where the Muslim stand on the issue of like animal rights. No one's talking about where the Muslims stand on like economic matters, right. These are all things that are discussed in politics. But in terms of authority, no one's there to respond to them. These imams creed

Their own political identities three within the sphere of religious thought. And that is how we spoke about those issues from a religious paradigm from a religious background. So they went about supporting or going against the leadership, but it was about creating political identity through religion and having an opinion on these matters through religion. Number two, is that from the time of the Sahaba of their mohandro, you already saw sectarianism taking place, right from the time of Abdullah, normally, the first hypothesis is that you see that the poverty already existed people that were talking about color that we have free will there's no such thing as predestination do the

tiny Mama, we talked about how Allah subhanaw taala did not have attributes, right, that the Quran was created. And it was not the speech of Allah subhana wa tada during the time of Eman while they were on. But one of the major issues of remember and it was time was the whole issue of the man that can actions exist, or actions a part of a man or not, right, this was like a big discussion during his time. So these are all issues that are happening, that the Imams are taking very balanced opinions on. Now, how does one develop doubts in these matters? This is the importance, the important, you know, crossover here, don't speak until you've researched. So anytime something

arose. If these imams didn't know, they speak to other scholars, what are your thoughts on this matter? What do you understand about these matters? Help me understand so that I can formulate an opinion. So balance is a result of meticulous research. And that's what needs to be brought back. So you yourself as an individual, you know, ask any Joe Blow is this Hello? Is this hot? Like one of the things that annoys me the most people post random Facebook statuses is x, y. And Zed Helen, as I give you a real example, by the Facebook group called Hello in Vancouver. Like it talks about, like things in Vancouver, and someone posted this morning, just today is McDonald's. Hello. And I'm like,

none of these people are qualified to answer that question. Right? So either you're coming from the paradigm of it is halaal. And you want them to validate your opinion and you know, cheer them on. Or you're coming from the paradigm that you want to see, you know, who eats it so that you can put them down? Like it's not genuine research that if you have a physical illness, you don't go to your mechanic and say, Hey, can you diagnose What's wrong with me? Well, you're buying the car, you're not going to go to your dentist, Hey, can you tell me what's wrong with my car? So why is it that when it comes to religious matters, we have no problem asking anyone, right? So always meticulously

research, those matters go back to the people of knowledge. And then the third issue or balance is in terms of their own spiritual development in terms of their own spiritual development. So what does that look like?

I'll just jump ahead to that right now.

It's quite a bit still to get through.

But don't worry, we'll finish soon inshallah.

spiritual leadership, so on spiritual development, you know, they understood that in order to be a scholar of Islam, it wasn't just about preaching and teaching. It was about building up your own personal relationship with Allah subhanho wa Taala. And I want to share you know why you saw the story from

Mama. But remember, schefflera mama used to see a legal scholar should put desktop his head in humility, and give thanks to Allah subhanaw taala mean that he should be constantly in a state of sexta. So that dust is gathering on his forehead, thanking Allah subhanaw taala for these blessings. My mother used to read the Quran from beginning to end, every seven days for the example set by the prophets companions, he spent many of his days fasting, especially during a time when he was in prison. And he was known for self restraint, asceticism, refusal of gifts, and his classes were lessons about the Hereafter, as without used to say meaning that he's always tying his classes in to

the importance of the hereafter of the man we used to say about my mother, my mother's heart was filled with all towards Allah subhanaw taala, the likes of whom I've never seen before, meaning that no one has had as much of almost panatela as Mr. Malik did. You saw Mr. Mohamad some of the language to see my father used to fast consecutive days for long stretches of time, that he would go some time without offering constant fast, but he would always fast the recommended Monday and Thursday, fast and the three days in the middle of the month. So their personal endeavor was very secretive to them, again, the importance of acting upon the knowledge that they had. So this is another thing

that made them unique is that they understood that they would, the importance of implementing their knowledge now How far would they go with this?

beautiful story winamac Mega himolla is that one day he wants to get his Yama Yama is copying. When he wants to get copying done, he paid the man a dyrham. To do this, this there was a huge amount of this man is like I've never been paid this amount before. And he asked him, you know, why did you pay this man such a large amount that he didn't do anything spectacular. And you know nothing about him Allah He says that there is not a single Hadith that I know, except that I've made a meal upon it, except that I made action upon it. Then he goes on to mention the snipe. And then he mentioned the Hadith, that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had he Jama den, and he compensated the man

with a dead hobby compensated the man with a deal. So the importance of acting upon that knowledge, the importance of acting upon that knowledge.

The man's being fallible. This is like a huge discussion that you know, did the amounts make mistakes, it's very important to understand that yes, they did make mistakes, they were human beings. And they will call the human body system a very beautiful, he says in the room, a man who makes wholesome and positive contributions to Islamic knowledge, enjoys a high rank in a slump, as well as with Muslims, he might have had a few slips in thought and made a few mistakes. For those he is excused or indeed rewarded for his sincere effort to find the truth, it is not permissible for anyone to follow him in those errors. Nor is it permissible to use those errors as a means to harm

his reputation, and good standing in the hearts of the Muslims. why this is such an important quote over here, that people that have made huge sacrifices and contributions to Islam, it is important to understand that they're human beings at the end of the day. And just because they make a few mistakes, it doesn't mean that the reputation drops over, that you start spreading, you know, bad about them that these people haven't done anything good. Now, I want to tie this in to something very, very practical.

over the winter break, there's a massive convention that takes place called the revival of Islamic spirit. It is the biggest convention in Canada. And it's possibly become the biggest convention in North America. In this conference, there is a particular scholar that had arrived off of a very, very long flight from the Middle East. And then he puts he gets put in front of someone that is like the most cleverest of like news journalists out there, like you hear this guy speak. And you can tell that this man's head goes out like 1000 kilometers an hour. He's in an interview in front of this man. And he's getting asked about very sensitive matters, he's fatigued, and he's commenting on

these matters. The ideal situation is if you're tired, don't put yourself in that situation. But now it's happened. So what ends up happening is he ends up making some slips of the tongue, he says some things that are culturally and politically in sensitive. You look at what happens at Twitter and Facebook after that. And it's as if 35 years of contribution in Islamic leadership and scholarship goes down the drain, that this man is a disbeliever. He is a hypocrite. He should be assassinated. He's for these x, y and Zed.

arrested. I don't know about that. But,

you know, it was just really, really disturbing. And I was like, Where's the balance in the oma? Why is it not possible for a score to make a mistake with still be respected? Why is there so much pressure to be perfect. And that is the reality of it, that Islamic leadership is like any other form of leadership? It is, you know, it is within the realm of humanity that as human beings, we all make mistakes. So a person makes a couple of mistakes, you shouldn't spread that evil, to reduce the reputation or to speak bad about them. And just because they make those mistakes, it doesn't mean that they're no longer a score, and they haven't made contribution to Islam. You know, I'll share

another example with you today. That on Facebook, there is a phrase that is Muslims of Calgary or something like that. And it's the quoted one of the a famous Muslim scholar that's talking about how it's nice to see a peaceful transition in politics take place that when Trump got into power, Obama left and was very peaceful. You know, there was no like shootings, no one was an attempted assassination. Nothing bad happened. And this person just goes on the road.

Talking about how you know, Islamic scholarship, you know, that this person isn't a scholar and x mindset. I haven't read in detail, but again, just disheartening stuff that just because you disagree with someone, you take away their scholarly contributions. It shouldn't be like that. Scholars make mistakes, understand they're human beings. Your role is one of two. If you're in the ability to advise them, advise them, if you're unable to advise them may draw in the center guidance because

Straight guaranteed you guys are chemistry as well. These scars are upgrading doing their duty, you will be guided as well. Seeing the religious scholarship for in the woman's best interest, it is not in the woman's best interest. And this is what we understand from the, quote,

knowledge and ethical conduct. I'll share one story here on how we dealt with different opinion. So one of the people that you never wanted to debate with was in Sheffield, I have a whole lot Why? He was more eloquent, he was more knowledgeable. His analytical deduction was on point meaning his ability to reason was amazing. So anytime that someone debated with him, I myself got him a whole lot, then ended up getting destroyed. And people always wanted to test, you know, can I go up against the amount of stuff in the debate? So there's this one individual, but most of us have said it. He said, I've never met anyone as sensible as a Shafi. I want to debated him and on an issue,

after which we went our separate ways. Later on, he came up to me and took me by the hand and he says all Abu Musa, isn't it best for us to remain brothers, even though there is a matter that we differ upon. And this is like, you know, true brotherhood right here that we will debate. Right? It's not about me being right and you being wrong and being right and me being wrong as well retrieving the truth. And if at the end of the debate, we still differ, does that mean we have to leave with animosity, obviously not in our columns, he grabs him by the hand, and he reminds him that our brotherhood our sisterhood is more important than our difference of opinion in this matter,

right priorities in our faith. So this shows their ethical conduct, even a difference of opinion.

The ability to admit when they were wrong, that anytime they gave illegal verdict, they have no shyness in saying that I've changed my opinion on this matter. In fact, when you study for this is the most kind of one of the most confusing things you'll see. In my shop Rahim Allah. He has a methodical Kadima methodology, the old method and the new method, the post Iraq and Egypt that you need two contradictory opinions from a member Shafi you like how do you reconcile this in my mother mother in law, his mother has a book

called an inch off. And this whole book on insaf is trying to derive the correct opinion from the matter of multiple opinions and amendment head on this matter. So what we see is that if these scholars progressed, they learned more, and he didn't feel shy saying, hey, I've changed my opinion on this matter. It wasn't about arrogance. It wasn't about pride, where, you know, I'm going to die with this opinion to the da da. And this shows intellectual maturity, academic maturity that these scholars showed that, you know, I'll share one example with you. In the Maliki School of Law over 70,000 of Malik's legal opinions were transmitted by students who went to Iraq. However, due to

Malik's habit of revising his opinions, this led to serious amount of differences between what were later developed into the hierarchy and the western branches of Maliki thought 70,000 opinions. Can you imagine that? So that takes a huge amount of humility, as well as sincerely as well as sincerity. Now, the last thing I want to conclude with is something on a more lighthearted note, which is their personalities, what were their personalities like? I'm looking at my Yash observed, Abu hanifa found it stressful to meet with people, since it was not from his habit to socialize. People mistook that for arrogance. But really, it was just a part of his temperament of the lovely

woman of met. He describes his father, as someone who habitually spent long periods of time alone in America used to say, I find that solitude brings peace to my heart. And he would sometimes say, a desire, the unattainable, I desire, a place where I can be left alone. So you'll notice that even though they had all of this fame, and all of this repute, the things that they deserved the most for their solitude, and they loved being alone. They loved being alone with the fact he loved being alone with their books, they loved being alone, with the Koran, and with the narrations of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So you'll notice that their temperament was one of like

solitude, they weren't public figures. So the only time you would see them in public at the masjid, and at classes, other than that they kept to themselves, they didn't interact with people much didn't interact with people much. Now, there is the interesting one, in terms of their understanding of asceticism, and wealth. So we'll talk about the family because he's the one who really sticks out on this additional hearth. He says, I visited Malik once and saw him when you find work that must have cost 500 is caused him to high level and it has the appearance of what a kink might wear. It's valuable WAC says when Mary's died, his household affects like carpets, cushions and feather pillows

were sold for five

gold coins and inventory was taken out of his estate upon his death. And from it were found 500 pairs of sandals 100, turbans, 2629 gold coins and 1000 pieces of silver. So now medical Humala was very unique. He believed that religious scholarship was meant to dress the best and look the best. Because this was part of the honor of religion, the part of the honor and sanctity of knowledge, you had to dress the best. Whereas you look at

Roma, exact opposite

demand model Hey, mala had one pair of leather socks for 17 years. And for 17 years, they would rip, he would take it to the same person and get it patched up. And one of the times the man this man, he looks at this. He's like, how do you want me to patch this up? Where do you want more patches on this is like the exact opposite. And again, both of these approaches were understood and acceptable. Now I think we live in a day and age where, you know, if any man is seen wearing like, you know, a three piece suit, that's really expensive, or he drives like a really nice car, or he has like a really nice watch. Natural assumption. Or he must be taking money from the machine, it must be

stealing donations or something was medically, I want you to think about this. I think that like none of our wives even have 500 pair of shoes, no vallauris rather at least assuming that in my logical mind 500 pairs of sandals. You have 100 Tobin's, right? What's a turban? It's like what you up on there, like almost like a head covering, like the scar used to wear turbans. That's what he used to have. And it was acceptable, and no one criticized him for it. So there's nothing wrong with scholars being rich, and showing off the blessings that they had. Right, which is going to lead to my last point that when we're talking about central balance, one thing I forgot to mention is that

he never took any official positions within the government. So all of them were offered positions, by the government's saying, become an official government scholar. But they all refused to do that. Why? Because they knew it would take away from their integrity, that they will be put in a compromising situation, because they're receiving stipends and money from their governments, they will be forced to issue for a while that we're supporting and encouraging of those governments and they never want to put themselves up situation. Number two is people will look at you right when on your salary from someone else, people will look at you as an appointed, you know, servant of that

Institute, organization, or that place. So people will not view you as having that integrity. And you'll always have that fear, hey,

I shouldn't say anything bad about them. So they always stay separate from that, and all of them were involved with some form of business. And that is why I think it's imperative that particular for religious scholarship, there needs to be two elements. Number one is financial literacy, that this is something most religious authority doesn't have, how to budget, how to save money, how to invest. And the exact opposite, which is like one of my lifelong dreams in Sharma is to establish a rock for Muslim leaders that any man How long do you want him to be your email of a master? Right? Nowadays, the man doesn't even stay five years with an organization, he gets abused, he moves on to

the other organization is patient for like another five years to visit another organization. And that's what happens. Unless you say you find an organization that you really love, and you want to stick around with him to be your email for let's just say 1520 years 60 years old, when he turns 67 years old, How much longer do you want him to keep teaching and keep coming to the mustard? What about his retirement plan, right? So this idea of a work would be to support religious scholarship, not only to take care of their salary, so that they can be independent in their research, and not dependent on others, but also so that when they retire, they don't have that stress of Hey, I'm

retiring. Now I need to keep you know, destroying myself in the service of the community. So that's something to think about. And other physicians will find that you will take the approach of asceticism take the approach of being wealthy as dealing with whatever subhanaw taala gives you. Now the last section he brings about is the principles but that like I said we'll be discussing on Thursday in the heat.

I was thinking what's the last thing I want to conclude on

the last thing I'll conclude on this with this quote inshallah,

this is a man allowed to speaking he says when people embark upon the study of religious knowledge, they need to have the love of Allah subhanaw taala in their hearts. their spirits should be humble. Their eyes should be full of tears and their tongues should be

With the attributes of our lowest praises, what they learn by seeing and engaging in righteous deeds is something that they can never get from books. And that's like the note I want to leave one, that our intention and coming to these halaqaat and learning what is the intention behind it, it has to be these things, to increase the level of a las panatela in our hearts to make our spirits humble, to increase our eyes in tears out of the fear of Allah subhanaw taala out of the love of Allah subhanho wa Taala and that our tongues constantly be busy with the remembrance of Allah subhanho wa Taala. Now he concludes with a beautiful point, that this sort of therapy or this sort of

development is something that you will never get from the books. This always has to be through human interaction. It's always has to be from learning from a teacher to a student. And then you're going on that same journey yourself that whether it is you becoming a parent and teaching it to your children, or you teaching at a Saturday and Sunday school, you know, they're sharing what I'm planning with either has given you so I think that's like the ideal note to conclude on for tonight. Or long time on Amazon Allahu wa sallam. abarca Muhammad wa ala alihi wa Salatu was Salam