4. Do you intend to question the Messenger (SAW)
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Channel: Nouman Ali Khan
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Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala l mursaleen. Allah Allah He was a minister in the vicinity he
lost my job I mean home, Amina letting me know I'm so sorry what what Allah subhanaw taala hot water was a sub domain in Shaolin. This brief discussion I'd like to share with you a profound lesson, based on a handful of AI artists selected from Soto, Bukhara, and one of those is at the center of this discussion is actually a interrogation. It's an interrogative statement, made by Allah, to the messenger to the followers of the messenger so less of them, and it goes on to Luna and Sonora. soonercon Kama Sutra musalman do you intend to question your messenger like Musa was question before? This is the first part of the IRA until you do not undersell? Rasulullah casola musalman? Do
you intend to question your messenger as Moosa was question before, the latter part of the ayah is, well manyatta but then in Kufa will Eman for Kabbalah so as to be whoever replaces their faith with disbelief. He man with gopher, then they have gone far off the path. Okay. Now, the first part of the I just spoke about one issue questioning the messenger. It said nothing about leaving Islam. It said nothing about, you know, walking out of the faith and say I no longer believe in this. All it said was the criticism was questioning the messenger. The latter part, however, declared that questioning of the messenger as tantamount to what? disbelief? So it's a pretty strong statement,
right to say that on the one hand, all you did was ask a question. And on the other hand, the Lord is responding. Your question is now equal to your EMA and your faith being negated altogether, you're considered a disbeliever. It's a pretty strong statement, and one has to understand that properly. And it has very strong and powerful implications for us as Muslims forget even others among ourselves. Now to speak about to understand this context properly, we have to travel to the life of Masada, Hassan, because in the ayah, in the ayah, when Allah tells us, are you questioning your messenger? He didn't just say that he added one thing he said, Do you intend to question your
messenger as though Musa was question before and if you study certain Baccarat, there are multiple instances where Moosa is being questioned by his supposed followers. Okay. But I want to walk you through a very simple scenario, not too many elaborate, you know, technical discussions, very simple scenario. You imagine yourself as one of the followers of Musa alayhis, salam, you are, you've come to believe that he's a messenger, and you belong to the children of Israel. And he's challenging the Pharaoh. Right? He's challenging this, this power at the time you mess with him too much, you'll execute everybody. And he's challenging him day in and day out. And there's this debate going back
and forth. And tensions are rising. And you're, you're the follower whoosah. And what you see is nine signs come from, you know, but the history right, nine signs that were given to Masada saddam to to give phenomen an idea of who he's dealing with. He's not just dealing with this man, but this man represents and has been sent on behalf of the Lord of the worlds. Now, let's fast forward and now the children of Israel are about to escape the clutches of the Pharaoh. They're the big of the water. The armies are raging from behind the court of dusters rising, these guys are thinking we're getting we're gonna get killed, loose on a sudden strikes and staff, water parts and the cross. Now
imagine you were in that gathering. At that point, if you had any doubt about him being a messenger, those doubts would have disappeared. At that point you meet before then you said I'm following along. I think he's a messenger, but you know, we'll see. And maybe right before the water parted, there's a person in that audience thinking man, I got myself killed for nothing. I got I listened to a talk pretty convincingly and I followed him along, but now we're gonna get killed. But as soon as that water shifts, you say, you know what I want to get to be masaharu I believe in the Lord of nusantara. And you follow along right? Now imagine this person who followed musalla in this
miraculous crossing of the water, they get to the other side, and they start questioning Moses judgment. They start questioning when he tells them a law says something they said doesn't make any sense. Are you kidding? Are you joking? Right at his nose, what do you take us as a joke? Is that what that's what they said? Do you see a rational problem with that? Once you've established that this man doesn't speak on his own behalf.
And you've experienced with with unequivocal proof that he in fact speaks on the Lord's we have, then whether what he says makes sense to you or not the room The question is him has disappeared. And if after experiencing that miracle being convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that he does, in fact, speak on behalf of Allah, even then if you question him, isn't that the same as saying you don't really believe he's a messenger? It is, because the foundation was I came to conviction, absolute conviction that he is, in fact, a messenger. The point I'm trying to make is the ayah said, questioning the messenger is the same as this believing it put those two things together it put them
in an equation, why did it do that? Because you are the only person who would question a messenger would be one who would say, Well, I agree with most of the things he says that some of these things don't make sense to me. Therefore, they can't be correct. But when you say I agree with this, and I don't agree with this, it's as though you're debating with a human being, like if you and I are sharing ideas, you can agree with some things I say, and you can disagree with some things I say. But if you've acknowledged that this man, yes, he's a human being, but he doesn't speak on his own behalf. His his, the laws, he's speaking of the ethics, he's speaking of the principles he's trying
to make you live by, are not something he came up with, but that were given to him. Right? Then whether you understand them or not, there's no room for questioning, there's no room for questioning left. And if you still have questions, then the only possibility is you don't really truly believe that he's, in fact, a messenger. Now, that's that's one side of the scenario. I want to make sure you understand the other side, the other balanced side of the picture, which is this?
Is it okay to question to ask questions about the religion? Absolutely. That's actually encouraged, the companions would continuously ask the messenger questions. So then there's a difference between asking questions of the messenger and questioning the messenger, you understand the difference? When we pose a question is, it can be a question, I don't understand this. Or what is the correct way of doing this? Right? Or I'm doing this? Is it right or wrong? These are questions fine. Or how do I do this? That's a question. But asking a question is not the same as questioning? Why does the law say that? Why does Why is the goddess percent? Why do I have to pray five times? Why is it that I can't
have relations outside of marriage, etc, etc, etc. You can't ask those questions, because now you're not asking a question. Rather, you're questioning God Himself, you're questioning the messenger, which basically is the same as questioning Allah subhana wa, tada, because we know he doesn't speak on his own behalf. Now, once this is established, and I'll share with you an interesting conversation I had, just to give it some a reality official reality a few weeks ago, must have been more than a month now. I was in a city where I was invited to speak to some teenagers at a brunch. So a couple of girls from the family, you know, Muslim family, and you know, they've been raised,
but they didn't really learn a song formally, right? And what happens is they come into the father says, These girls have some questions, and I'd like you to try to answer them. So they gave me like a long list of really weird questions. They just came prepared with it. Right? So it was the first girl you know, she says, Well, you know,
a couple of my friends are gay. What's so bad about being gay? What if they haven't killed anyone? They haven't stolen any money? They're good people. What's What's so bad about that? Another question. After that, she says, Well, why does God want to punish people in health? Or why does even Hellfire exist, etc, etc. And the list of questions just went on and on and on and on and on. And you know, what? If I said, I said to both of them, and this was actually shocking to the Father, because he thought they just have questions about Islam, or questions about the religion. They didn't have questions about Islam, they were questioning Islam, there's a difference. So when I,
when I came to the root of the problem, I asked those girls this question flat out, do you actually believe this man named Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam we say some of them, but the one who doesn't believe doesn't say, do you actually believe that this man received revelation? And whenever he said something is right and wrong. It wasn't his opinion. It was the position of the Divine, that we have no saying, Do you actually believe he spoke on behalf of God? And both of those teenagers said, actually, we're not so sure. We're not so sure. These are Muslim kids. They've been raised as Muslims and Muslim family. But you know what? They're in the outside world. These they're faced with
a lot of questions, ethical questions that contradict what they learned at Sunday school, or what they learned here and they're off, you know, off chance listening to a hotma. So they've never been able to reconcile the two things. And when you're not able to reconcile, one of those things get weaker and the other gets stronger. And because they're not constantly reinforced or taught Islam properly, guess what's going to get stronger. There.
You're gonna get stronger, and the conviction is on gets weaker. So the length of their questions, I could have given them a proper response. You know why? Because there's only one question you have to ask them? Do you really believe he's a messenger? If you answer that question, and if you're convinced of that answer, then all of these questions automatically disappear, they disappear. And to conclude this issue, what I want to share with you is an ayah. From the Quran, it's really profound on this subject. Allah subhana wa, Tada. You know, he reveals laws. And sometimes he gives us a rationale for those laws. Sometimes, for instance, with alcohol, one of the early revelations
is what if mahoma Amer, their harm is greater than their benefit for alcohol and gambling, there's more harm than there is benefit. Before they were absolutely forbidden. It was hinted that they're bad ideas, though you might get some money out of it sometimes, or there may be some benefit that comes out of it. In the end, the harm far outweighs the benefit. That's that's a hint. Now, our doesn't have to even tell us that he could just say don't drink. And don't gamble. That's it. And the story, he doesn't have to explain to you and me, well, it's you don't drink because it has this this this side effect, okay? Or because it does this this industry or liver, or you might drink and
drive and get killed, etc, etc. He doesn't have to give any of these reasons. And even if someone says, well, alcohol is harm, alcohol is forbidden in Islam, because of spousal abuse, and because of violence. And because of incidents of clubs and things like that, look at all the harm alcohol produces. That's why it's forbidden. That's actually an incorrect position. The correct position is why is it forbidden? He said, so that's the correct position. Now, why did he say so? Maybe we'll learn something about why he did it. Maybe we'll learn some benefits of the law. But in the end, we'll never really gonna know truly, why is it that this law is in place, we will know some things
about it, some benefits of it, we can see. But the whole picture, we can see it, this is what Allah says, I started to have wishy washy, it's very possible that you really like something, and it's harmful for you. And it's very
it's very possible that you detest something, you find it disgusting, you find it unacceptable, but it's better for you.
And it is Allah who knows, and you have no idea. You don't know, you're not the ones who know. So the concluding ayah that I wanted to share with you just to bring this point home, a lot puts a scenario in front of us, which is really remarkable. This is the 66th ayah. So Lisa, Allah says when Nikita Allah him to enforce on our freedom, in theory, if we had ordained upon people, if Divine Law was revealed, that they have that people should commit suicide kill themselves, people should kill themselves, or that they should leave their homes, they should expel themselves from their homes become homeless despite owning or having a home. Now, let's think about this. The half half of the
idea again says if it was the case, that the Lord said, kill yourself, and if it was the case, that the Lord said leave your home, Allah said, leave your home despite owning a home Don't Don't go back to your home again.
Allah says even if he said something that irrational because both of those things are clearly irrational, right? That doesn't make any sense to us. But Allah is not seeing if it makes sense or not. Ally's making one point, if he said it, la casa de la home, no doubt it would have been better for them. It would have been better for for what reason? Because it makes sense. No, for the simple reason that it is He Who said it? It is that's one that's the heart of the matter that's being driven home. Now, why is this subject critical? And then we'll open the floor for some discussion in sha Allah. The subject is critical, because Muslims Nowadays, most of the questions that the average
Muslim has that hasn't had any real chance to convince him or herself of Islam, they were kind of born into the religion, or they came into the religion kind of half heartedly, etc. They didn't really throw you get a chance to ingrain themselves into conviction of this religion. The kinds of questions they have aren't questions about Islam. Most of the time, they end up being questions, questioning Islam itself, questioning the validity of a particular Hadith, the validity of a particular principle in the Quran, the validity, the rationale behind something. And even if I'm able to give you the best possible rationale, what's the ultimate rationale, that's the only one
that's going to stick? That's the only one that will never waver. The rationale is it is from Allah. How do you get to that rationale? You get to that rationale, when you're absolutely convinced that this, in fact, is a messenger? So the real question to ask and the real question to make common discourse among Muslims and non Muslims is, is this in fact, the Word of God? Is this in fact, the truth? Is he in fact, a messenger? Is it true that in fact, when he says something and does something and lives by something, it is that because he wants to? Because that's how the Lord wants him to, and therefore that's how the Lord wants us to? That's the essence of the discussion and I
pray that I was able to clarify these concepts to you with with some degree
We have description.
Here's an explicit question. So I hope you have high tolerance for this kind of content. But anyway, I'm having a hard time giving up sex with my girlfriend as long as I give her that, what is it? Okay? Well, a lot of punish me. So many people are doing far worse. You know, I'm not a psychologist. But I'm a student of psychology. And I read into things a lot. And if you study the language of the question, it's the really the last statement that this person made. That's the key. He said, so many people are doing far worse, actually, by the tone of the question, I already know that he knows it's not okay.
I already know he knew he feels he wouldn't be asking this question. If this person thought there's nothing wrong with it. The fact that he asked this question, there's something in his conscience telling him I'm doing something wrong. And to beat that conscience down, to not be able to have to answer yourself because you have to live with yourself. At the end of the day, the best thing to do is get somebody else to tell you, man, it's alright. You're doing okay? It's okay. So really, that's that's actually one way of getting yourself to go to sleep. You know, your kid is the kids whining and he's not going to sleep, you give him a little pat and he goes to sleep. That's what's going on
here. Right? A lot of people they engage in sin. And so long as somebody else can come and tell them, it's all good, then they can live with themselves. So I urge this person with all sincerity with nothing but love and sincerity in my heart for this person. I don't know who they are, that they find it in themselves that that little guilty conscience they have is a gift from Allah that they shouldn't choke and kill. That little tiny conscience will save you. This is a lot it's so powerful that that conscience that Allah put in you that guilt that led you to ask this question is so powerful unless swears by it. Well, enough Silla Rama, Allah swears by the guilty self, the
person that feels guilty on the inside. So use that as a means to come closer to Allah. That's the first thing. The second thing here is so many people are doing far worse. And then a very important thing for the Muslim in the Quran. In the Quran, there are two kinds of groups that have already been outlined in Surah Fatiha so lot. And as you know, I'm tagging him on one side, the path of those who you favored who you showered favors upon. And then the other two groups so they do not
those who earn grass and those who are lost. So to cut categories, the good and the bad, basically, the Quran is full of depictions of great people. And then the Koran is full of depictions of really terrible people.
Why these two extremes we don't really have like somebody who's not that bad kind of alright mentioned in the Quran. We have amazing people mentioned and then we have horrible people mentioned, right? Because we are being shown the the the nth degree of these things, for one reason, because if you think that you are okay doing just a little wrong, you're not really that bad. Then your archetype is the one who commits sins, but doesn't acknowledge their sense, who does something wrong, but doesn't feel like they did anything wrong. You're the first one to do that to do something wrong, but don't feel that they did anything wrong. That's at least you know, he refused a
lesson command. He didn't make such though. And what was his response? I feel bad about it. Know what, wait, I have a perfect explanation for why I did it. Right. And even not in the human brain, You created me from fire you created from quick so that attitude in of itself, that attitude of justifying your sin begins, it's a legacy continuation of the legacy of Shabbat. That's what the continuation is up. Now. Here's the key answer. inshallah tada is as follows. As a Muslim, as a Muslim who is concerned with their salvation, with concern that they will stand in front of Allah, we always compare ourselves to people that are better than us. Not with people that are worse than
us. This is the first key principle, there will always be people that are worse than you. And there will always be people that are better than you, the guy that kills 100, people will say at least I didn't kill 1000. Because I may have someone who did, right. So there's always going to be someone worse. So if that's your measuring stick, if you're seeing so many people are doing far worse, then there is no end to how low you can go. There's no end to it. But if you want really to improve yourself as a human being and you want to be true to yourself, that when you compare yourself to other people that are better than you and even bigger advice. This is taken from the linguistic
aspects of the Quran. When we ask a lot of guidance to the path. The Allah says under the path of those who favored it's in the past tense. The word favorite is in the past tense meaning we don't look for role models first role models in our time. We are to look for role models in the past because they've already finished their entire life and passed the entire test and gotten the seal of approval from Allah. The people who are alive today may or may not they may be good today. They may not be
No, there's no certainty. But the people of the fact that the past our concrete role models, this is why we asked for people to, you know, the role models are in the past, of course, the ultimate role models Who are these people? And they've been a Sydney theme or Shahada.
Right, these are the four groups of people that put on articulates are the Romans, the prophets, those who confirm the truth and the profits to companions, compare yourself to a companion. And it's not like these people are the companions. It's not like they're perfect people. They're human beings. So when I say compare yourself to those people, a lot of times you get stories in the homeless and lectures and things like that, of scholars that would stay up the entire night and pray, and they would never look outside their window and they died reading their books. And then you have this this Sahabi, who's always making the kind of a law like he's super human beings that just
never made any mistakes. They're human beings. They're human beings. They did make mistakes. They did do things they were embarrassed of, and they came to the Prophet Solomon as I messed up, what am I supposed to do? That's the best place to look, if somebody made this mistake before. Have they done was it acts of even Zilla among the Sahaba it this, this did occur? It did occur. And because they didn't know any better, you know, when you come you're in Jahangir, you're in ignorance. You live the life of promiscuity, you don't care about what you do. All of a sudden, you take Shahada Do you think in one day, you're gonna turn your entire character around and all your habits will
disappear? No, it takes time. So the companion sometimes they messed up in their training process, and they would come to the Prophet Simon said, I made this mistake, I did this, I did that. And the prophet SAW them would tell them how to repent and come back and he would keep bringing that up. So instead of justifying your mistakes, be like those who came to the messenger service for them and acknowledge their mistakes, and then asked a lot of forgive. Right, this is this is really the way of the believer for question. I will take a question from the brother.
My question is, how do you answer a non Muslim who's questioning Islam? Okay, good.
Law, Muslims ask all sorts of questions about Islam. First thing you should know about questions from a media and Media Studies point of view? Is the person dictating the questions is the person dictating the direction of the discussion? Okay, if you know, if a talk show host knows what they're doing, they can bring a guest on the show that is of a completely opposite point of view, and make them look like complete idiots. How, even that if that guest knows way more than they do? What's the only key thing? You decide what questions to ask as soon as you start hearing an answer you don't want to hear change it to another question, then move on to another question, then move on to
another question. If you set it up on carefully, it is also in addition to being guidance for humanity for all sorts of things, is also guidance for how to do Dawa, and how to deal with questions. You have the scenario in the Quran, where certain people of the book came to the messenger, some of the hundreds of them, and they tell him, Well tell us what you bring us. Or tell us who the people in the cave or who sends you revelation? What is the reality of the roof? What does the roof really mean? Right? And this, when he would answer one, they'd go to the next he would answer one, they'd go to the next. And they would keep jumping from question to question to
question. Now what happens in the beginning, you have a person that has a sincere question, right? These genuinely want to know one issue of Islam like we were listening today, or why do you guys grow beards? Maybe it's a genuine curiosity. Okay. But then there's another kind of questioning of Islam. Why do women cover? You start answering that in a convincing way? Why do you have beards? And then why do you and then you keep going, going, going and 11th? question is, why do you women cover? You said, Wait a second. That was question number one. He's just this guy's just going around in circles. So Muslims have to be a little sharp in being able to tell, is this person really asking me
this question? Or are they just trying to run around in circles? We have to have that much street smarts basically. But the heart of the matter is this. When you are asked a question, especially a critical question, like you Muslims have this crazy law about fighting and killing everyone, blah, blah, blah, something like that. Right? I am reminded of the story of Musa
masala Salaam walks up to Freetown, in the middle of the court says I am the messenger of the Lord of the worlds delivered with another scenario and he is slightly hype, delivered a new slide with me throughout looks at him and says, didn't I raise you as a boy?
changes? The question doesn't mean anything he says to him. You know, didn't you do that thing that you did? Was he referring to the murder that he committed right off? I'll take five seconds at 512 million caffeine Didn't you commit that murder? is smart. He doesn't want to respond to the statement. He wants to change with other questions. So if you study that dialogue, you learn a lot about tangent questions. But if you study the responses of Moosa, he gave brief answers to his tangent questions, but kept kept coming back to the central question. And it is really that central question. That's the heart of my topic. When Muslims asked you or non Muslims ask you about any one
issue of Islam. Try to find a way of tying
back into one central discussion is the Quran the Word of God? Is Muhammad the Messenger of Allah, you want it, you want me to answer that question for you. Yeah, what makes you so sure he's a messenger? And that's an interesting question that non Muslims by the way it is. But that's the question we want them to ask. All those other questions are actually avenues there windows, but you want to get them to the door. Right? Now whether they accept to some or not, that's up to Allah subhana wa Tada. But if you want the direction, that the conversation to be directed in the proper direction, whatever questions they ask your best response, for example, on the fighting issue? Well,
it's in the Quran. And first of all, there's a specific context where it applies that we believe it's absolutely true, because we believe that the Quran is the literal Word of God. And Muhammad Ali Salim is his final messenger who didn't speak on his own behalf. He only spoke on behalf of the Lord of the worlds and we're absolutely convinced of that. Like he didn't make anything any things up on his own. He didn't make that up at all. You want me to tell you why I'm so convinced. Right now you What have you done, you've changed the direction of the discussion. And this is really how we change we have to force the discussion into that direction. And really, it's not something that Muslims non
Muslims are averse to. But this is something that we have to learn to do with all kinds of tangent questions that come our way. Like, you know, a woman is told Why do you wear hijab?
She shouldn't say because it protects my modesty.
or Muslim mentioned herself well, because you know, you have a shameless society and look at all the consequences, at least we have our women cover up and they're humble, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, and the hair is a distraction, etc, etc. No, forget all that. You know why? Because God told her to.
Well, you know, God told him because the Quran says, Well, how do you know God's Word of God? Let's talk. He see what you're doing is you're forcing a different direction to the conversation, you want to take a written question.
My business seems to take me away from getting close to a loss of Watada, what should I do? This is a problem for a lot of good Muslims to
actually it was a problem for myself. So
you know, when you get tied up at work, then even if you take a break to pray, and you make with Lou and you're standing there and you say, Allahu Akbar, you start praying, your, your head is still at work. Right? If you're a programmer, and you're writing code, you left it halfway, and you mate, you started praying, you're finishing the line, and you're in your salon. Oh, my God, I missed that slash, right here. Go back. So this is actually a very normal thing. If you're running a business, right, and you left the cash register with a clerk and you forgot to tell them how to press the button that the thing comes out. In your salon, you're like, oh, gosh, what's gonna happen if a
customer that's what's going on in your head? Right? So, you know, mixing work and remembering a lot together, especially salon is a very, very challenging thing. You know, Allah says, there's a diff distinction in the Quran between the believer and min noon, right and alladhina amanu. There are two phrases in Arabic that are used in the Quran for Muslims, and not be known, those who truly believe the true believers and novena amanu those who have come to believe. And it sounds like the same thing believers, those who come to believe, but they're actually very different statements. They're and they're significantly different in how they're using the Quran. Just to make a complex matter
simple. And Latina Avenue, which is a common phrase is verbal, it's a verb. And a noun is a noun. And the difference between a verb and a noun is a noun is permanent, and a verb is temporary, right? When I was under the nominally speaking of those who entered into Islam, they said La ilaha illAllah, Muhammad Rasulullah. And they entered into Islam. When he speaks about minoo. He's talking about a special read of the Muslims who have firm conviction and they are actually the most mature solid people of faith. Not every Muslim is like this, you have to earn that title. Now, why am I bringing that up in a question about remembering the law or having the relationship with the law? No
matter what your business, what's your job, what's your career, whatever it is, a lot installed a an automated mechanism, a divine given mechanism. So no one whether they live in a desert, or they live in, in a jungle like New York City, or if they live out in the middle of the woods doesn't matter where they will remain connected with a law through what Salah the prayer. Now this, but you can't just pray and think you're connected to a lot. You have to have this special secret ingredient in your prayer that will keep you connected to Allah. If you don't have this ingredient, your prayer might become shallow and empty. At least you're doing it, but it's missing something. Now what is
that secret ingredient Allah says, but after noon, the true believers have come to succeed. And levena Humphries herati him and then the secret ingredient has shown the true believers have attained success. Those who have for sure, or humility being overpowered concentration, all these things in one word, in their prayer. So basically, what you're what what we're being asked to do is, I'm busy at work or I'm at home
My kids are playing in the background. And now I gotta go make a law.
As soon as I say Allahu Akbar, I have entered another dimension. It's like I went through a portal, I'm not even there. I'm giving you like sci fi examples, because I'm sure you guys watch cartoons when you're younger, right, you've entered another dimension, that world doesn't exist for you. Your kids don't exist for you, your wife doesn't exist for you, your work doesn't exist for you. Nothing exists, but it's just you and a lot. That's it. That's it, we have to enter that state when we enter into salon, which is why it's recommended that you find a quiet place to pray. And actually, my personal advice, it's not scholarly, it's just a tip. Before you start prayer, stand there for a
couple of minutes. And let everything out of your system. You're just flush your brain with all the thoughts that are running, just get them out. And then just engage yourself in prayer. And you're going to pray, know what you're reciting. Even if you don't know Arabic, learn some vocabulary of what you're reciting. And listen to talks, lectures, studies have seen of those few IR that you've memorized. So you have a deep connection with at least those ions. And the small statements we make, so cannot be lovely. So how not to be a da da, right? semi Allahu even having these small phrases is not overwhelming vocabulary. Even if you learn one of those a week, you'll be alright. But learn
that vocabulary and have a deep connection with that vocabulary. Because the law really is a conversation between you and Allah. So long as your prayer is okay. I don't care if you're at work, or you're a play or anywhere else. If your prayers, okay, you're connected to Allah, your prayers, weak, you're disconnected to a lot, even if you're in the machine. Even if you're in the machine, if your prayers distant, and you're not concentrating in your salon, you're not overwhelmed in the salon, then you're then you're still not connected to it. So it's it's not your work. That's the problem. This is my answer to the question. London's best, it does not work. That's the problem.
It's concentration in the prayer. That's the
question from you guys in sha Allah Tada, anyone from the massive audience? Okay, I'll take one from brother over here. inshallah, my question is for you. I'm a new Muslim just took my shot about a month, month and a half ago. I just lost my job about a week ago. And that's been really tough for me.
For me, it's kind of pushing me away. What's bringing me back? What's making me come here? And, you know, keep my praise to Allah. This is actually a very powerful question. And it takes many shapes and forms. It's not just your specific question. I'll give you a similar question you have. I had a, I used to work at a mosque at a machine. And a young man came to the machine, his mother had just passed away. And he came in and he said, Why is Allah doing this to me? Why is this happening to me? Right? As a similar question, why is it that even though I am Muslim, I didn't do anything wrong? Why are these bad things happening to me? The issue here, the fundamental issue here is our
definition of what is good and what is bad.
In the previous discussion I mentioned, Alonzo just says, it may be that you really liked something, but it's harmful for you. And it may be that you really detest something, but it's good for you, right? But this, this reliance on Allah, acknowledging that Allah knows better, what's better for me than even I know for myself, and that he cares more for me than anyone in the world would care for me. A lot loves this book is believing slave more than anyone else will love it. This is actually the promise of a lie your biblical Mullah, will in contempt to him when Allah sabbioni tell them if you love Allah, then follow the messenger. He said, Follow me. Allah will love you. So when Allah
loves you can't compare that love with anybody else's. There's not any comparison. No mother will love her child. Like Allah loves this life. There's no comparison. So first of all, understand Allah is not putting us through anything out of spite, or hatred, or abandonment or anything like this. And I can tell you a much worse scenario. You have, I mean, there are many, but just to pick a few. You have the messenger, some of them. I mean, who will a lot love, who does a lot love the most on the face of this earth is His Messenger sallallahu sallam. He gets revelation. And he delivers it to the people and he loves to get revelation. It is the most beautiful experience for him. But then
there's a period where he stops getting revelation, there's a gap. There's a gap. And the people who he constantly invites through revelation, they say it's so nothing new today. What's going on? running dry, or your Lord doesn't like you anymore. They start taunting the messenger. They start taunting him and hurting his feelings really deeply hurting his feelings. And still more revelation is coming. No revelations coming. Now imagine the sense of concern and the fear maybe allies in fact, disappointed when maybe I did do something wrong. A lot of reveals constellation and he says now what dark blue cover nacala your Lord didn't abandon
You, Lord didn't, you know I bid you farewell. And he didn't leave you aside, and he's not displeased with you either. So Allah sent him constellation. The first thing to note for a believer who's in distress in worldly distress, your real consolation is in the Quran. You read the Word of Allah, sincerely, sincerely, and you will find find counsel in it, you will find advice in it, you will find comfort in it, you will find the struggles of those who who suffered much more than you, much more than you and Allah help them. Like, for instance, take the story of use of a sudden, we just look at it. This is a story. We don't see the power in it. I mean, imagine a kid and you know,
an eight 910 year old kid, being thrown kidnapped by his own brothers and being thrown in a world in the middle of the woods and being left alone. Can you imagine the terror this child is going through? So panela and then that same child being sold off as a slave in a different country with apparently no chance of getting back with his father? No chance of getting back to his family? This is a horrible, horrible tragedy. If you hear about something like this in our times, some kid was left in a well, right? how deeply disturbed would you be? Right? Because that's real to us. But when we read the story, we say, Yeah, I know what happened to us. So he was thrown in there well, and
then the caravan came, and it's just a story to us. But this really happened. And it's a horrible tragedy. And then this man, that sold off as a slave. And then for something he didn't even do, what happens next, he gets thrown into prison for multiple years in a jail with a bunch of criminals, obviously, with criminals. That sounds like he's living in a nice neighborhood. Right? So now, you know, we read bits and pieces of his story. But even they're powerful enough to shake us up. But yet, what does the law say? Well, law, Hollywood, this is a very powerful phrase, and it's a recurring theme. In siliceous.
Allah was overlooking and was dominant over his affair. And then to couple that Allah says, Allah, Who Luckily for you might have shot in a lot of different nobility from my lord is subtle. My lord is subtle. So there's two things he's dominant, overpowering, and also subtle. This is impossible for anyone other than a lot. What do I mean by that? Like if you know you have a
boss who's overpowering over his employees, always hanging over his shoulder, is always kind of bossing him around micromanagement we call it right? You could obviously see the bosses influence constantly over the employee. And if a boss is subtle, laid back, takes a backseat. He works in a subtle way, then he's in his office, he may be watching, but he's not letting anybody know that what's going on. He's subtle. It was both at the same time. He's in charge of everything that's happening to us about a salon. And at the same time, because it's invisible. Allah is not in the scene, he's in the unseen, it's at the same time, it's subtle, but because it's in the unseen, and
by the way, the first entrance into our faith is what those who believe in the unseen, and that, you know,
because that's in the unseen, the workings of Allah, the plan of Allah, that we feel like Allah has abandoned us. That's what the feeling that one gets when they're in distress. But it is at that very moment when we are in distress, that a lot of really tests Who are the people who believe, and who are the people who only believe when times were good. By the way, this is a fundamental, modern Christian idea. With a lot of Protestant groups. There's this idea that if you're doing good in this world, it's because God loves you. Okay, if you're doing good in this world, you got a good job, you got a house, this paid off families, good health is good, means God loves you. And if you lost your
job, and you can't get a job, and you're homeless, this or that, or the other, maybe it's because you're out of the grace of God. God, you know, doesn't love you, etc, etc. But our position on this is entirely different if you're wealthy, or you're absolutely in abject poverty, right? Either way. We we believe that Allah loves both of them, and rather allies testing both of them. It may be that somebody wealth and luxury is a means to their destruction. We know in the Quran of people that were so wealthy to open their vault, like, you need multiple people to open the vault. And nowadays, you have a show I heard about some some brothers told me, there's a show called celebrity cribs, where
you go into these famous people's homes, and they show off their incredible mansions and stuff like that, who has a bigger crib than said Alan
Wright, who's got a bigger palace than Pharaoh and the pyramids are still I mean, talk about architectural integrity, right? The structures are still around and they're a world monument. This was his house. This is where he lived, I mean, talk about a nice place to live. Yet are these examples of successes or failures. They're examples of failures. So really, the the absence or presence of wealth or health or youth or any of these things are not a gauge of success or failure for the Muslim. All of these tests. All of these are tests. It's not that wealth is bad, either wealth can be good. And it's not that poverty is not poverty can be good too. The thing that we can
say definitively about them is
Both of them are a test to test whether we truly believe or not, do we, when we get wealth? Do we misuse it? Do we overspend? Do we not? Do we not care, we feel like I can make a lot of money, I'm very qualified, you're not qualified at all. There are people much more qualified than you that can't get a job. Right. And if you run a successful business, there are people that are much more skilled than you at running a business that have failed. It's not because of your skill as hell because your resumes are because your degree is because Ally's providing you and when he wants, he doesn't provide, he could take an economic system that is like, it's, you couldn't imagine it
crashing in the way that it did. It wouldn't feather if you said it the day before, if you would say it to someone, or the month before, if you say before the housing crash, oh, I think everything's gonna pop. This all says we're gonna pop, we're good. The stock market is gonna be the 6000. Crazy. That's not gonna happen for 50 years. That's never gonna happen. You're insane. You're conspiracy theorist. So pianola, however, turns the face of the world around and just just a blink of an eye, letting us know that it's not us that ensure our provision that it is he who's in charge, there's another level Hollywood under emelina. He's dominant over our affairs, to briefly answer your
question in Sharla. Now, this idea of, you know, what reason? Do I have to turn back to a law, actually, perhaps a lot took some worldly things away from you. So you learn to rely more on a lot? What is the slave to do but to rely on the law? We are the we're the continuation of the legacy of Ibrahim alayhis. Salam. He is the essential teaching he has is he relies only on a lot. He calls on only a lot. He doesn't even say I feed myself. He says he feeds me. He gives me to drink. He guides me. Who are you paying money while you're screening? Right? He gives me life he'll give me death. So there's a complete complete absolute reliance on a lot in the most impossible situations. I mean, I
have kids, right? I if I leave them at the mall or at the school, right, and I forget to pick them up and I'm a half hour late or something, then my wife would go crazy. Oh my god, where's the kids? What's going on? Where does he leave his wife and kid?
desert,
absolute death, and he's walking away? Why? What's he relying on water to come out of nowhere? No, he's relying on Allah. you're relying on him. But that's his only reliance and nothing else. So this is really a lot puts us through these tests. So we can show our reliance on him and then he opens doors that you couldn't even imagine. And we have to have good expectations from Allah. This is what makes the Muslim different from other other people. We never expect that from God. And I only have DB Allah says in the Hadith, he said in a hadith which he says I am as my slave assumes I am. If you expect a lot of keep you healthy, it will stay healthy by less permission. If you expect a lot of
provide you, he will provide you if you have good hopes and Allah don't have bad hopes in Allah because Allah will make your best hopes come true. Because that's what you want it. That's what you asked for. That's what you expected. So we should have all of us should have good expectation from Allah. The most thing We ask Allah for is to remain on guidance, and to remain patient with whatever he sends our way and to give us strength to build through those tests. Now let let us pass all of our tests and
I listened to lots of hip hop and watch MTV Cribs at MTV Cribs just talked about them. I can't seem to focus on getting close to God, what's your advice? Stop watching MTV Cribs and don't listen to hip hop. It's probably a good start.
Okay, I don't have bias against any particular culture or genre of music, etc, etc. I have, you know, strong objections to music per se, though there's some scholarly discussion about it, but I will show you what I'm convinced of. I think nowadays, music is probably one of the easiest means to lose your moral sense.
It is music is audio pornography. today. That's what it is. It's explicit. It's shameless. It's vulgar. It takes your sense of humanity away from you. It makes you look at women as objects worse than objects worse than animals just as these people are talking about women like they're talking about, you know, an animal really
objectifies women, and especially, I've noticed a lot of the brothers that I know of Muslims, that are really into the hip hop scene, and they're kind of doing the hip of the song, right? They're memorizing the song, and they're really good at reciting it. What perfect Did you need to write? And so they they do that? And it's just horrible language, horrible, horrific, horrific language. You know, the only simple response I have to that, if you have any regard for the book of Allah, that you really think it's from Allah, they say this one for sukumar than a man. Even the name the mentioned the word of something, the word for something bad is terrible. Once you have faith, even
the mention of something terrible is horrible for you. It's harmful for you. After you have it. You have to have a clean tongue. You have to say what you want to call it action. Tell my slave to say that which is
The best say what is the best say good things from your mouth. So this is the first thing when you say horrible things and you say things that are in direct contradiction to the law gage Allah gifted us with. And obviously you're you're you're deviating from your natural fitrah your predisposition to turn to Allah. And when you constantly, you know, listen to garbage like that, then you get deviated. And you don't find pleasure, except in disobedience to a line, that's a sign of a sick heart. So one has to distance themselves from this. This is the first step and I'll tell you what this is my personal measure does not affect law. It's my personal analysis. You don't have to take
it. But if a person finds listening to the Quran, annoying, after they've been listened to hip hop and this and that for a long time, and as soon as somebody puts their foot on the car, you know what to say, oh, man, turn that off, man. I don't want to I just want to talk. And immediately they get a little annoyed when they hear the Quran. That actually means the shell team have taken over. And they're constantly making waswas out of this person. Because what are the Shelton hate the most is to hate the Koran. They hate the word of Allah, they flee, it hurts them. So you know what they do? The because this person has left the shelter in the devil's into his heart. They start pinching at
his heart when he hears hold on and he says I don't want to hear this. Right. It's like surgery, it's like pulling a tooth for this person. This happens when you try to give this person a reminder from a buzz word, they get annoyed by like agitated like an allergic reaction. Why? Because they let the Sheltie in. And to let them out, the first thing you got to do is stop supplying them with fuel. This is fuel, this useless wasting of time. This is fuel for shaitan. They love that you waste your time. They love it. Because the the one asset, the one piece of wealth, a login every human being is time. And what is music and TV and YouTube and Facebook and MySpace and like Twitter and whatever
else. If you're spending hours and hours and hours on this stuff, what is it except destroying your time it's taking that one asset away from you shutdown would love nothing more than less pinata give you the strength to get away from these temptations. My advice that I keep going over, I can't get enough of giving this advice, find better friends, find a company that is not into these things, and try to spend more time with them. And until you wean yourself off of these habits.
Hi, can you give me advice? I'm a new Muslim, but I can't seem to pray five times a day. It's because it's been a year now. But does God really even care if I pray five times as long as I'm doing good, right.
Two things here.
The there are actually two statements, which are two different problems in the question. The first problem is this window. So that was
the first problem is I can't pray five times a day.
I can't do it.
Now, I don't believe you.
Whoever said I can't do it. I don't believe you. You know why? Because I believe a lot.
And I didn't say I believe in the law. I said I believe a lot. There's a difference, right? I believe in a lie means I believe a lie exists. I believe in him. But I'm gonna say I believe Allah, it means I believe what he says. He says subhanho wa Taala. Now you can live long enough, said Illa. Allah does not burden anyone except unless they are able to carry that burden. This one a lesson. Allah said he does not burden anyone with any responsibility, unless they are capable of living up to that burden. This is what he said. You're saying you're not able to live up to a responsibility that Allah gave you is not true. You're saying I can't pray five times it's too much. And a lie
saying yes, you can. So I have a choice between believing you.
And believing a lot. And perhaps if you didn't realize this, maybe you're lying to yourself. Maybe you've convinced yourself because of your laziness, because of your lack of will, that you don't want to pray five times. Maybe you have to I can't judge you. I don't know what the problem is. But the problem maybe you're ashamed to pray in front of non Muslims. The people can take 15 minutes cigarette breaks at work, right? They can, they can take a break and just go hang out, do whatever you can pray five times a day. So how Allah I mean, in this part of the world, where I used to, you know, wish to work in New York City. I've seen Muslims praying all over the place. In the middle of
Fifth Avenue is on the curb. The guy's making some art because it's time or you know, at the car in the in the in the university, you open the coffee machine room, and the library has like three guys praying, right? They're making some lessons or pray if there's time, they're gonna pray. That's it. We're gonna pray. So there are no excuses. That would be the cops.
I'm going to stop.
All right. Okay. So that's the first thing a law said you can. If so, if Allah gave this burden upon you, and he did, in fact, then you can convince yourself of that and rely on Allah, he'll make it easy for you. The second question is, does he really care? Does he even care if I pray or not? Now this question is actually more about does he need my prayer or not? You're freaking
Getting that the prayer isn't for Allah, it's for you. It's not for Allah. If all the people in the world all they did with their life was pray to Allah, it would not make him any richer. And it wouldn't add to his kingdom because he already owns all of Kingdom. And if not, I mentioned a lot ever again. It doesn't diminish his dominion, his kingdom, his glory in any way. He doesn't need us. We need him, we need him. So the question is, do you feel like you need to pray, you feel like that's a need in your life. And if it's not, if you feel you're free of, you know, begging Allah for his help, turning to a lion submitting before His commandments, and that's a serious problem with
your faith. It's become weak. And this question only came up, because you've been distance from Allah for so long that chiffon can come to you and say, Yeah, I know, you used to feel bad about not praying, let's just get rid of that bad feeling and replace it with why why do I have to pray anyway, that's the next phase of that disease. The first part was at least it was diagnosed, but at least you had some bad feeling guilt was still there. That's a gift from Allah. When that guilt even goes away. And you say, I need my prayer. It's all good. So long as I'm doing good. And that's the last part I want to talk about this so long as I'm doing good part, who defines What's good? There
are two kinds of good in this world. Please remember this, okay? There are two kinds of good, there's ethical good. I'm good to my neighbor. I'm honest at work. I'm nice to people, I don't steal, I don't cheat. You know, I'm these are ethics, basic ethics, right? That everybody I tell the truth, I'm honest, I pay my taxes, blah, blah, blah. These are ethical truths. Okay. And I'm honest in business, then there are religious goods, I go to fudge. I give the cart, I pray five times a day, I fast in the month of Ramadan. These aren't ethical realities, these are religious goods, good deeds that are religious, and good deeds that are ethical moral in nature. What happens a lot of
times with Muslims and with non Muslims, especially it happens with Muslims, is that we make a distinction between these two things. So in the Muslim world, you will find people that are morally good. They're nice to their family, they take care of their kids, they're responsible in the household, they're nice to their neighbors, they're honest at work, good people. But guess what, no religion.
I will need religion to be good, is what they say. And on the other extreme, you have people that pray, go to Hajj, give zeca have a long beer dress in a very religious garden, and yet terrible to their family, cheating people in business, highly immoral and unethical. So what's happened is we have separated the two dimensions of goodness, moral goodness, ethical goodness, and religious goodness. What a lot is in the Quran is fuses them together in the eye on this one idea is called idle with the idea of goodness, what does it mean to be good? If you study that idea, it is a combination of two things. It's a combination of ethical principles, like fulfilling your promises
being patient perseverance, you know, and also religious goodness, establishing the prayer giving us the car, right? So it's, it's a combination of both of those things in one place. So if you think you are in a position to define what good is, most likely you're sticking to moral goodness, and you're undermining religious goodness, like the rituals that a lot taught us. But what Allah wants is for us to have both at the same time, this is when a person is truly good. Otherwise, you're not really good. You are you have defined goodness for yourself and you have rejected a lot of definition of it. But we turn to Allah for guidance, because we can define things for ourselves. We
want him to define them for us, inshallah.
Okay, last 100 in law, how can I get my wife to take a job serious? It's been a few years now and she still won't put it on? She thinks it's a it's no big deal.
Don't tell her about her job. Stop talking to her about a job altogether. What you do is you talk to her, actually, don't you don't talk to her? Because what happens oftentimes, is the person that people least effective with, with Dawa are members of the family. Like, they would much rather listen to a stranger and actually take their advice than listen to someone in their family. It's much harder for me to give that one of my own cousins, cuz I just know Monica is talking. Yeah, something on YouTube or something. Right, cuz I'm just another just a guy from home. No big deal. Right? So this is actually a problem for speakers too. They can get down into the world. But guess
what? They got to get somebody else's tape, somebody else's CD to put in the car when they drive. I want to hear you. I hear you.
Right, this happens. This even happened to Abu hanifa Rahim Allah. The whole city of Bogota is coming to Him To ask questions. His mother's a urinal anything. I'm going somewhere else to find out what's the answer is and the way she used to go for the answer. That guy was a student of
so he would know the answer. I'll do my research and get back to you. He comes up with an EVA. He would say, tell her this is the answer.
But don't tell her it was from me
back. Right. So, the first thing is acknowledge that a lot of times religion, when you try to give it to your family, you have to be a little tactful. You have to be a little, you know, have more strategy, basically, find a really good speaker about the Hereafter, the day of judgment, the biggest problem for your wife, first of all, is not his job.
His job is a symptom, not the disease. The disease is a weakness of human. How do you strengthen the man, you strengthen the man with the reminder, what's the most powerful reminder for on if you look at the art of reminder in the Quran, was always talking about the hereafter and the destruction of the people in the past? This is the powerful reminder, people that didn't listen look at what happened to them, look at what's going to happen to them, right. So for example, the series a series on the Hereafter, right? somebody's giving a really powerful football on, you know how human beings have to struggle for salvation, a powerful reminder from Koran. If you make that a culture, in the
family, where every day, 1520 minutes, we're gonna listen to something from the Quran in a powerful way. And there's plenty of speakers and resources available nowadays that you can listen to, like, you know, the eldercare series on the Hereafter is great, I think, you know, and I don't actually know people that got off their mortgages after listening to that CD, you know, they cannot revive it is that powerful. So you take advantage of those kinds of resources and understand that you are not always the best means of Dawa to certain people, certain people need to hear it from somewhere else. And you know, we can't make that one everyone. There are some people we have an effect with some
people were completely useless with, right so everybody has their audience. So inshallah tada that hopefully helps you with the situation of your spouse. And last thing I should say about that. My, my gut feeling is her problem isn't intellectual, meaning it's not like she's not convinced it's important. It really is. She doesn't see the seriousness of well being a lot in every last commandment. That's the real issue. Once that's resolved, hijab is going to come anyway, and among other things in Charlottetown.
Although it's a practical Armageddon, organic
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will happen Hamblen