Nouman Ali Khan – Objective of Sharia: A Quranic Perspective
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salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
Before I begin, can you give me a time limit? 20 minutes, okay. Excellent.
Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala MV mursaleen he was a huge marine.
semana de la humanistic regime
in the La Jolla, Morocco and to Abdullah manetti illa Allah
what is accompanied by the nasty and jackal movie
in the law honey in my eyes, you can be in the law Hakuna semi I'm the CEO of
rubbish, actually, suddenly were silly MD Waterloo North let me lasagna poco de
semana burns, I first like to take a minute or two, and express my appreciation for the effort that all of the volunteers, and all of the workers at this wonderful organization at Ignite have made to make this conference possible. Those of you that were here last year are seeing an unprecedented amount of growth. And that's from the blessing of Allah, a lot of times these people's efforts and then running around and making 20 calls about where I am or, you know, whether I'm on stage or not, etc, goes unappreciated, and it's really something that we all have to be grateful for. So inshallah Allah, let's all give them a round of applause, and appreciate what they're doing for us.
Secondly, inshallah,
I want to make an admission, and that is that the topic that was given to me the objectives of Sharia, a chronic perspective, is beyond my scope. And I want to make that clear, in a very amount of humility, but it's something that I think Muslims need to be very clear and distinct about.
A lot of times in the Muslim community, especially in a community that's trying to find itself, and we're really trying to figure this religion out for ourselves almost afresh, in this modern setting. And in this very American setting. There's a lot of intermixing, between different ideas in different strata. What I mean by that is, traditionally, there has been a distinction between scholars and diaries, people of knowledge, people of scholarship, and people that invite people to Islam, they give reminder, they give counsel, and they speak to in the language of the people. These are two different categories of people. But in our times, more and more these two categories have
mixed in with
what I mean by a scholar, I need to tell you as someone who's really literally given up their life, to study for sit at the home of other scholars to research, and to really dedicate themselves to specialize in an area within the large ocean of Islamic studies to become a resource in that area. shadia is one of those many areas, and within Sharia, you have several seas and oceans running. And then you have people like myself, and I'm not again, I'm not saying this out of humility, this is a reality check. There are people like me who claim to be dyes, who may know some things that we have learned from scholars, but by no stretch of the imagination, or reality, or scholars ourselves, we
are dyes. And what a scholar talks about, and the subjects in the issues that a scholar deals with, are at a different level. And what he does is completely different. It really is it's completely different. At various job is to take from what the scholars say. And then we iterate that and communicate that to the masses of people while and here's the important thing while understanding their limits, that he needs to understand his or her limits. There are certain areas within Islamic Studies. That is it this is personally my conviction, and I'm wanting to share it with you. At least this can give rise to a healthy conversation and shallow Tada. It's my conviction that you should
not enter into discourse about scholarly issues that lead to conflict, or that lead to very intense differences of opinion that are really only suitable for scholars that are beyond the scope of someone like myself. I'll give you a practical example. So you know what I'm talking about. Because it seems like I'm talking in theory. Somebody came up to me today and said, Brother, I have a mohawk. Is that Hello?
Because my friends told me it's hot. Um,
I said I don't know. He's a Come on. What do you think? I said, I think something but I won't tell you.
He's actually you're saying it's hard on red as I didn't
say that? I would never say that. Why wouldn't you tell me because I'm not a scholar, ask of a P. That's not my field. And even if I went to ask a scholar for you, I wouldn't tell you. Because issues, it's dangerous when people who aren't qualified start talking about them. It just gets dangerous. And we start, I mean, I've seen like, 18 year old kids that MSA is past patala, about what's valid, and what's wrong? And how about the length of people's beers, or you know, whatever else, or whatever kind of food they're eating. And these are issues that people that study the same issue for 20 years, still don't say with absolute certainty this way or the other way? Watch
yourself, understand your restrictions, your limitations. This is why it's really important for the diary to be connected with scholars. So when people ask a question that's literally above your paygrade, you say talk to him.
Here's a number. Go ask them. Here's the council. Here's the board. Here's this, here's a resource, talk to them. But then the question arises, what does the diary talk about? So that you can talk about this stuff. And what's he going to talk about, there is plenty to talk about
the the fundamentals of this religion, the fundamentals of this religion, that are supposed to be communicated to non Muslims and Muslims alike. This is the job of the diary, reminder is the job of the daddy to instill in themselves and into others, a reminder of the laws authority over us a reminder of the paradise that awaits reminder of sticking to justice, no matter what a reminder to be good to your family, or reminder to fulfill the rights of your neighbor, or the you don't need a scholar for that you need to die for that. That's not necessarily a scholarly endeavor. And you don't need to be a scholar to address those fundamentals. So we need to first of all define very
clearly what a data is and what a scholar is. And you know, what's happened nowadays, let me tell you your definition. For many of you, you know what your definition is, your definition is the guy speaks well, and cracks a couple of jokes, and has a lot of hits on YouTube, you must be ashamed.
If a few Arabic words come out of his mouth, he's got to be Ireland, he's got to be a scholar, he's got to be a puppy. It's not like that we have to have a more refined and more mature understanding of our leadership, though our days are a part of our leadership, but they're not at the top of this leadership chain. There are scholars above them. And we need to respect these these lines. And you know what happens? Here's the danger that has come before us and might even affect us. The danger is when we start elevating our data is so much that they start thinking that they're scholars, they start believing that really they had they're qualified to speak about issues that they shouldn't be
opening their mouth about, and men what that leads to, you probably have seen that your local machine, what that leads to, what kinds of drama ensues after that. And then when a diary becomes like that, and now people come to our and ask them, what's heroin, heroin, and they get used to, they get kind of a high in answering those kinds of questions. And then a scholar comes along, they say, well, that guy, you know, he's a little this way or the other and almost a competition ensues. Within those who represent those that are ambassadors of Islam, it's a very sick thing that can happen in the Muslim community, where speakers are bad mouthing other speakers, because they feel
like it's taken away from their market share.
And that happens, it's happening in the Muslim world. And don't pretend it's not happening here.
My topic was the larger objective of Sharia. And I started by saying, when it comes to Sharia, I have to learn how to implement it in my life, learning it from scholars, but to talk about shediac you better learn to listen to a scholar.
But on that note, in a general sense, in a Dharma sense, I want to share with you two things
to two places both of them come from the same surah this surah By the way, soprano Allah, Allah azza wa jal revealed this beautiful sutra and it gives us a very comprehensive picture of social ethics, social norms, social values, and this is pseudocode. Nisa certainly says a very beautiful surah and giving delivering to us anecdotes wisdoms counsel advice, laws, that that are the foundation of a healthy Muslim community. And within that framework, Allah azza wa jal revealed a lot of laws about inheritance. I mean, really complex laws about inheritance. If you even read a translation of the Quran, you're going to read it four or five times on certain nights and still see what's going on
here. I wrote out I wrote down all the proportion, but it still doesn't add up to me, because this is complicated stuff. At the end of all of that, unless there's something very profound is concluding remarks. That's what I want to share with you a lot. So it says you need to love who you buy in Allah.
Allah only intends to clarify for all of you. Well, yeah, do come sooner than later I'm in complete coma to Barney calm
and to guide you to the path of those who came the legacies of those who came before you and accept your repentance. Listen to this very carefully.
In the Christian tradition, there's this concept I had a chance to take a flight with a pastor recently, and we just got into a conversation because he saw me reciting put on in the plane. You might think that's a bad idea, but I make it a habit. So I do that. And usually I try to review whatever Quran I memorize on the plane. But what ends up happening is before I get past the first page, I pass out, and then I wake up after landing.
But this guy didn't let me go to sleep. He goes, What you got there. This was a flight from Houston to New York. So the hence the accent once you got there. I was like, the Word of God.
He had the Bible in his hand, he goes, me too.
And I said, Tell me about it. Let's talk. I just I spent a three hour flight just asking him questions. He got really annoyed with me at some points, but I tried to keep it very friendly. And I just asked him what happened to all that law. You guys have a lot of law in your book. You know, what's the point of it? He goes, Well, the point of it was to cleanse us. These are his words, not mine. The point of it was to cleanse us. But now that the blood of Jesus has been spilled, the blood of Jesus cleanses us to the law is no longer what cleanses us. Now, there may be different denominations of Christianity and Christianity, I acknowledge that but this was the particular brand
that I was speaking to.
Now, here's something that we have in common with them. Originally, though, the laws of a law purify us. salata is a purifier, hatches a purifier, is that God is a purifier of what what is the katha purifier of your will the rest of your wealth is it God is a pure saliva purifier of your knifes. It's a purifier of your day It cleanses your day.
These things and hedges a purifier of your minor sins in the shed. He is there to purify you when you're on a console login except your Toba. So your repentance could actually mean something. So he gave you the law. These acts of obedience to Ally's primary objective, according to Allah
is that they would purify us. But then he added something even more beautiful later on.
He added some kind of withdrawal at the end of this commentary. He says you read the law and you have the funcom was when it comes in Santa Clarita.
intends to lighten your burden. take a load off of you. As a human being was created week.
Allah tells us Sharia the law that was revealed upon us the purpose of it was to take a load off of our shoulders life is hard. Here's a bunch of rules that will make your life easy. Think about that for a moment. How many times have you heard I said this in a previous talk? How many times have you heard when you see a commitment? You know what the talk is around them and most Muslims are you know, that aren't that serious about religion? When you see a committed Muslim, they say that's a strict Muslim.
That's like that goes on hardcore.
He's like really like, you know, what do we associate with Sharia? Anybody committed to Sharia must necessarily live a life of difficulty. They're really hard on themselves. Muslims feel non Muslims feel like that you guys are so hard on yourself. You know you Why are you such a miserable life? And even Muslims nowadays feel this way? Why are you you know, okay, we're all Muslim. Why do you have to be so strict? What do you have to be so you know, so narrow minded, and take a week, you can't have any fun, everything's Come on. First of all, not everything is caught on.
Second of all, the laws that Allah revealed, tell us to save us trouble to take burdens off our shoulders. And when we abandon those laws and pursue solutions elsewhere, we end up in bigger trouble than we thought we could ever end up in. I'll just give you a couple of simple examples. And I don't want to make this an elaborate compensation. It's a 20 minute conversation, and it's just food for thought. I don't really call this teaching either. It's just a conversation really. That's all this is.
And as part of this food for thought, I want to share with you a simple simple example. I see a lot of VCs in the house. This is Chavez in Nadella, he went nilay logic, okay.
Um, basically to Okay.
Um, so we have our weddings.
You give an advice to a family don't have an elaborate wedding. Don't take a loan out of 30 4050 $60,000 to pull off this insane wedding. This ridiculous party that's going to have like eight different sessions. It's like the playoffs. Every day's a major event. Right? There's the maybe maybe part one maybe part two reception reception and a half and then you know,
in this thing and that thing in the shower in that shower just nikka is just simply calculating my done right keep it simple, but no, we got to go all out and why do we have to go all out because
Because your cousin had a better living, and if we don't have that kind of wedding, how are we going to show our face? What's your uncle gonna say? What's your grandmother gonna say? What's this one gonna say? What's that one go see what people are going to see drives you so insane that you put yourself in insane amounts of credit card debt. And this family this new family that has just started starts their life in debt. And they're getting presents. They're getting like 30, blended $100 gift cards, and on top of that, they inherit something they're paying off for two, three years. No wonder you know, one of the main causes of early divorces financial distress, and you're starting
a married wife with financial distress. Who put that burden on you and look at the sun novelas messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Easy, straightforward. A really good friend of mine demand Isa from Roosevelt, Long Island. I was at his machine one time for us. I was waiting for my brother and his brother walks in shape, I gotta do a niqab. He goes, Okay.
Lord, can I come after Muslim is like, fine. I gotta watch this. I gotta see this. After after Muslim. A couple of people walked into the machine, maybe eight altogether. The guy himself the guy getting married, came in with an apron dirty with blood because he sacrificed his own animal for the minima that they're gonna have after a shot. Within 45 minutes the affair was over. We hugged each other celebrated and done. That's a wedding.
That's how simple our Deen is. So think of beauty. You know, it's a thing of beauty. But when we complicated on ourselves, and we bring all these problems upon ourselves, stress nastiness, how many fights and arguments you remember happened at the time of the wedding? How many arguments how much nastiness? This one said this, they said you didn't get us a hotel room. And we didn't get a first you know, chair on the first roll. And that one was saying something about your dress and all this dumb stuff. We make our lives hard with it. Allah says the intention. The objective of these rules make your life easy. You were made we were fully convinced by the human being was created weak,
simple objectives. The last thing I want to share with you and I'm done in shalom Tada.
Is that other places pseudoaneurysm amazing. It really is one of the three branches of government.
Well, come on. Somebody here went to high school, I know it.
Okay, executive, legislative and judicial. Listen to this, listen to this, okay. Islamic law is basically a constitution. In the mahaya, Morocco and to Abdul amanatullah. Allah, Allah commands you that you give trusts to those who deserve them. And the highest trust in society is governance. It's a form of trust. The same way leading a family is a trust, being in charge of a company and being an employer is a trust. Being a teacher is a trust, being a principal as a trust, being a CEO as a trust, being a physician as a trust, being a mirror and a senator and a third trust also, and the first thing, men make sure we understand that the executives should be clean, these positions should
be given to those who deserve them. That's the executive principal.
And he says, Why is that?
The same is when you make decisions between people execute those decisions with justice, what is that? What branch of governance is that? Justice, and it goes from the bottom up when you make decisions between brothers within the family, between your children, husband and wife, neighbor, friends, Muslim community conflict in the masjid, within business partners, between teacher and student and all the way up to governance when you do so whenever there's a decision making capacity, make sure you abide by Justice. So what's already been covered? In these brief statements? You've got the executive and you've already got the judiciary, what's left?
legislative where does legislation come from the next is
amanu. I'll see you Aloha. Una What do you mean, Panama? Those of you who have Eman obioma obey the messenger and those who have been given authority among you were in Panama to fish a in photo De La Hoya Sunni so how concise How can science the entire summary of the law of Islam, you obey Allah obey the messenger and those who have been given command among you. And if you fall into this feud, return it back to the Constitution, align His Messenger Simple as that. Simple as that in one place. This is the clarity of the Quran, you will have to go all over the place to find the most comprehensive lessons. You know, he summarizes them and squeezes them in a handful of in very brief
statements, and we have lessons for life in them. I pray that Allah azza wa jal helps us appreciate the objectives of this beautiful Deen and helps us become those who not only love to obey Him, but love to see the day when these principles become a fabric of our society, where we actually see the benefits that it brings to humanity come to light, inshallah, tada, may Allah make all of us people of justice. May Allah make us people
Those that stand by those words that the messenger looks at
them on Judgement Day and looks at them and is proud to call us the members of his oma. May we be May we be part of the source of the pride of Allah's Messenger sallallahu wasallam on Judgement Day barakallahu li walakum wa Salaam Alaikum