Nouman Ali Khan – About Thought Process

Nouman Ali Khan
AI: Summary ©
The Bible is used to inform people of the church's actions and create evidence of actions. The importance of visualizing evidence and following a process is emphasized. The speakers stress the need to be serious about listening to evidence and processing it. The use of words like "has" and "has not" to determine one's point of view is emphasized.
AI: Transcript ©
00:00:01 --> 00:00:04

Are you in Sydney MD, Dr. Tammy disseny have

00:00:05 --> 00:00:08

a lot of muscle COVID-19 multimedia ilaha illa. Allah

00:00:15 --> 00:00:24

allows in a slot to the slide is important for many reasons, but one of them is that Alaska was started and ended up with the invention of the Israelites. And

00:00:26 --> 00:00:28

that's important to know, because the Israelites

00:00:29 --> 00:00:39

were considered people of knowledge, people who have knowledge of previous scripture, it has more profits than anybody else. And so among the audience of the Prophet, I suppose that I'm the religiously knowledgeable.

00:00:43 --> 00:00:57

And so that I mentioned them in the beginning and at the end of the Select. So in the middle, a lot of what has to do with the sutra has to do with is people that have knowledge that are practicing, you know, unlike the machico, maka, who has no background, in all this, as we talked

00:00:58 --> 00:01:38

about, you came to warn a group of people whose ancestors were not warned, meaning for many generations, the Michigan had no knowledge. So there were a couple a few, as opposed to that the Israelites had knowledge. In any case, Allah says this remarkable is really what I wanted to share with you and think about with you. Is this short if in which allows Oh, Jim gave us a commandment, I really a prohibition, meaning a love for Venus from something. And usually when you think of when you're forbidden from something, you think of an action, like don't eat this, or don't look at this, or don't do this, like their actions. Here, alarms origin is actually speaking not only an action,

00:01:38 --> 00:02:12

but also a thought. And that's preventing us from thinking a certain way, or letting our minds be used a certain way. Right? Because Ron didn't just come to correct our behavior. As a matter of fact, before our behavior, the goal of the Quran seems to be to change the way we think. And that makes sense, because unless you change the way you think, and I change the way I think our actions are not going to change. So really, it's our minds that are being influenced by Eliza, which is why you find in the Koran, the, you know, when elect criticizes people, he says, I find that dark, you know, in the afternoon, I look him down the room.

00:02:14 --> 00:02:27

So they think so they understand, so they think so they understand, why don't you understand, why don't they understand, etc. And that's constantly a call on us to use our minds. In any case, Allah says in this ayah, with thoughtful malice, and

00:02:28 --> 00:03:08

he says, Don't become a follower, in a sense, almost like a blind follower, or don't become overly confident in what you don't have any knowledge of Kava in Arabic is actually is from the back of an animal's neck. And when people used to ride the animal, then their head is their eyes are constantly on this back of the neck. And wherever the animal turns, that's where your eyes turn, your The scenery is changing. But that is one constant. It's kind of like the steering wheel in your car, wherever you go. One thing is constant in your view that your steering wheel is right there can't escape it, right. So the idea of the word alpha is actually to follow something that you are just

00:03:08 --> 00:03:17

it's always a constant, it's always there. And it's like it's it can move, everything else can change, this can change. Now, what Ally's commenting on here

00:03:18 --> 00:03:25

is that it's for some people, there are some kinds of ideas or some assumptions that are like the foundation of a building, they're always there.

00:03:26 --> 00:03:35

And then everything else they think about is built on top of that. Okay, to make this easier to understand, let's look at it another way. somebody walks into the machine says hello world.

00:03:36 --> 00:04:14

Everybody heard it, everybody saw the person everybody heard it. But everybody, not everybody's thinking the same thing. They're looking at the same thing. They're hearing the same thing. But one person saying Mashallah, he said Sam, and some other guys thinking, What is he thinking is walking and things like that? I don't have to look on this guy's face. People are processing things differently. Everybody's got their own base. And on top of that, they're building their thinking you understand? So Allah says, Don't formulate opinions, or don't formulate thoughts based on something you don't fully know what happens for human beings is we know some bits of information. And we fill

00:04:14 --> 00:04:48

in the blanks with our assumptions. We fill in the rest of the legs with our assumption. So if somebody is walking that way, or somebody, you know, somebody came late, then Okay, now, for some people, as soon as they see they came in later on some people, man, they can't even leave behind his job on time stuff. These are the thoughts that are running in somebody's mind, in somebody else's mind. I don't know what just happened. I don't know if it was a death in his family. I don't know if there was an accident. I don't know what trouble they're having. I'm praying. They're doing okay. That's another kind of thinking. But the second kind of thinking was based on what I don't know,

00:04:49 --> 00:05:00

which is the baseline was I don't know, and because I don't know, I will not forget other opinions. What I see and what I hear is not enough. What I see and what I hear is not enough.

00:05:00 --> 00:05:11

So a lot has been built on this idea in this short but profound is not up to my knees and that can be him don't become confident and follow as a matter of fact,

00:05:12 --> 00:05:18

even women Buddha does have a lot of commenting on this word, he said that Taku, the mother,

00:05:19 --> 00:05:52

submit 108 with a lambda, meaning if you say, you know, you act as Do you know, the whole story, even though you don't, or you act as if you, you know, I know everything, but you don't, you just see one bit, and you can fill in the rest with your imagination. And what happens when people get used to doing that, is they become very confident in their assumptions. Very confident. So if somebody somebody come to me mean, somebody in your family, this person is no good. How do you know they're no good? I know, people know, how do you know but I know.

00:05:53 --> 00:06:14

I know, okay, I wasn't born yesterday, I can tell from just looking at someone what's going on with them. And so this idea that you're so confident about sizing someone up just from the look on their face, or just from the way they're dressed, or just from one thing they said, you say one thing and I think about you know, I got you all figured out. This is laptop fu money.

00:06:16 --> 00:06:34

And this is not just done in your, in your personal life. This is done in the media. This is done in politics. This is done in academics, this is in every sphere of life, you can take bits of information and create a story. Now what's before I get to the rest of the items, again, I want you to visualize some things. You see

00:06:35 --> 00:06:51

the way information works, way knowledge works. I could quote one layout. And I could put another item and another item, another item and give you a conclusion. Right? And I could code 5678 I or Hadith. At the end of those. I have no idea Thursday.

00:06:53 --> 00:07:09

And if you don't know any better you think man, he has all this evidence for his conclusion because he proved his point using Quran and Sunnah. But it's possible. And this is the part I really need you to pay attention to, it's possible for people to come up with a conclusion first.

00:07:10 --> 00:07:12

And then make a list of the evidences later.

00:07:13 --> 00:07:36

Knowledge is supposed to be first you come up with evidence, you think about the evidence, and then you come up with the conclusion. So the conclusion is supposed to be the last thing you arrived. But in some people's mind, and I've seen this happen in the study of Islam, forget something else, even in the study of Islam. And so you start you can have somebody decides that women are inferior,

00:07:37 --> 00:08:16

or women are bound to go to *, somebody decided that this is their, this is the thesis. Now that we've made that conclusion, we're going to find bits and pieces that I have used from wherever they can find in string together and then give a speech and it sounds like they got so much they need to get to this conclusion and all the all the items that contradict this conclusion are somehow missing. They weren't mentioned. But for someone listening, it sounds like they're following knowledge. This is also an the antithesis of what I thought formalise alchemy, and this is what they do in the media, don't they? They take one story, one soundbite one snippet, one incident one

00:08:16 --> 00:08:32

picture, then another one then another one that another one and paint a picture about a group of people paint an entire picture about a religion and come into conclusion. We say Where did you get this conclusion? They said Look at all this evidence, and conveniently, all the evidence that contradicts this conclusion is missing.

00:08:33 --> 00:09:06

This is why when you try to arrive at a conclusion you and I are supposed to look at the evidence for something and also with an open mind look at the evidence against something and really find a balanced view towards the end and then say okay, this is the conclusion what has to reach? What are what allows remedy allows remedy in this ayah is actually the remembrance interestingly enough, instead of remembering some Judgment Day, it seems unconnected seems the eye out in the eye and the beginning was don't follow something that you're not certain of don't make the false basis for your thoughts. He says in the summer when I saw when

00:09:08 --> 00:09:23

I will stop there for a second he mentioned three things. He says hearing, seeing and the heart. You get to sleep components hear hearing, seeing and the heart and these three are in order. The first thing we're going to be asked about is hearing

00:09:24 --> 00:09:49

here and hearing is more important than seeing for human beings. As a matter of fact, the most important gift that human beings have been given is the Quran. And the Quran is not something to see the Quran is something to hear believers all over the world. There's their declare their declaration of faith is we hear and we obey. We heard a messenger calling to the call. Submit now when do you need an email? Send me an alert.

00:09:50 --> 00:10:00

Right? First time you listen to it. The message is supposed to be heard before anything else. heard before anything else and this is important. You will

00:10:00 --> 00:10:04

thing but the eyes are important to seeing is important also. But the thing is, when you see someone,

00:10:05 --> 00:10:07

when you see someone and they haven't opened their mouth, you know nothing.

00:10:09 --> 00:10:25

You're knowledgeable, or ignorant, you don't know if they're speaking the truth or they represent the false, you don't know anything. The moment you hear what's being said, moment you analyze what's being said, then really the true analysis is here. This is what makes us different from animals, animals can just see a conclusion.

00:10:26 --> 00:11:00

And those can just see, but human beings don't just hear sounds being processed, we analyze, unless as the what you listen to, is going to be questioned. You know what that means? Before we go any further, it means that you and I have to become very serious about where we get our information from. What is it that we're listening to? Who is it that we're listening to? Why is it that we're listening to them? And if even if you're listening to anybody, even if you're listening to the news, or to some lecture, or somebody's giving a talk or whatever you're listening to? In what way? Are you processing it? Are you processing it with the assumption that I already know what this guy is

00:11:00 --> 00:11:11

all about? Are you know what these people are all about? Either you're overly in favor of something? Like some people love a certain news channel, right? So even before the speaker speaks, something they already know, he's going to tell the truth.

00:11:12 --> 00:11:16

This is absolutely true, no matter what, because this is the channel that protects my country.

00:11:17 --> 00:11:37

You know, they've already made that decision. Or there are people that are so against before the guy even opens his mouth, this guy's nonsense. These people don't know what they're talking about. You haven't even heard you've just seen, and you're like you've written people off? No, whether you're against someone or in favor of someone be ready to stand against someone you're in favor of.

00:11:38 --> 00:12:09

Be ready to stand in favor of someone you might have been against maybe 99%. You disagree. But the 1% you agree, you have to say I agree. You can't just disagree with everything, because the ultimate loyalty is actually time that up for the company. And so you know, for young students that study slumps, and indeed, they develop a love of their teacher, whoever this new Oran from Tafseer, from the from field from nakida. From the develop a love of them, out of love of them if they said something, and it's not making sense to the student

00:12:10 --> 00:12:31

is not making sense. I mean, you have this opinion, you have this conclusion, but I have read otherwise. Or I've learned otherwise, you were saying Well, now I have to choose between my loyalty to my teacher, or my loyalty to what I'm convinced them and I should question and some students say I shouldn't even ask the question is disrespectful to the teacher? I see how if angels didn't understand something, they asked a lot.

00:12:32 --> 00:13:09

Why are you putting a human being on earth? He's gonna spill blood, they asked who they asked Allah. And that's not disrespect. So how are you and I thinking that questioning something to get to knowledge is disrespect. As a matter of fact, the greatest kohai in the oma, all of them became great, because they disagreed with their teachers. That's how they became what they became, you know. So that's a bit on the side about hearing, then he says in the summer, well, bizarre to look at something. Now, it's a process is telling us the processes first, you really have to analyze the information. And once you truly analyze the information, the way you see things is going to change.

00:13:10 --> 00:13:12

I told you, when somebody walks in, everybody sees the same thing.

00:13:13 --> 00:13:37

But if they're thinkers, and they will actually end up seeing the same thing, they will not make assumptions, they will not fill in holes with what they don't know. So the way they look at reality, the way they understand events is going to change. They're not going to jump to conclusions towards or in favor of someone, they're not going to judge the conclusions against someone. They're not going to say I already know what happened. And tell you one interesting story.

00:13:38 --> 00:13:41

So Angela, will come home because I know I'm late. So

00:13:43 --> 00:13:44

Nissan, Nissan was

00:13:45 --> 00:14:19

a royal he was raised as a prince in Egypt. And the followers his his own race, the Israelites were slaves. And they were treated like garbage. The police used to beat them up, around even says that they used to let their women live and she killed the sons every other, you know, brothers every year, but every so often because they didn't want too many boys, because that'd be too many population, they might stand up and fight against them. So they want to control the population of the slaves. But let the women live also means humiliate the women, and the men couldn't do anything about it. This is the kind of life they live and they were tortured and beaten, forced to do work.

00:14:19 --> 00:14:30

This is what they were used to doing musante cinemas in the street one day, empty streets. They do that time it's the afternoon time hanaa off let him in and he sees a police officer beating up asleep.

00:14:31 --> 00:14:59

A cop beating up asleep. Now he This is not a new scene. You've seen this 1000 times. You see this happens every day agent has been going on for centuries to understand. And here he is he sees yet another police officer beating yet another horse lame innocent guy. And he decides to defend and he throws in the you know the story throws a punch and the police officer died. He tried to stop and he threw a punch the police officer died. What's interesting to me, is what he said right after that

00:15:00 --> 00:15:04

Immediately after Moosa Nissan punched him on record since he said,

00:15:06 --> 00:15:08

this is from the work of Chevron,

00:15:09 --> 00:15:30

what he just did, he called himself work of shame on why he did the right thing. He stopped oppression. These guys, these are for the oppressed, my fellow Muslim Brothers every chance they get. And here it is another case of the same thing. What he realized is that he didn't properly investigate, every case is different.

00:15:31 --> 00:15:43

So what if you saw it 1000 times the number of 1001 is a unique case. And it turned out that in this case, actually, the guy was the criminal. The guy was a con artist who actually ended up getting massages, and I'm in trouble. And

00:15:45 --> 00:16:00

so what mousseline salon has taught us there is not to jump to conclusions. And it's so easy to do. So if emotions get fired up, you can just jump to a conclusion. Right? So what does Elon mentioned he says, seeing, hearing and what was the last thing I said, the heart was

00:16:01 --> 00:16:04

on in Arabic, the word for the hardest.

00:16:05 --> 00:16:32

But another word for the heart is flat, which comes from the verb. For other Latin, Latin for eat, to roast meat, the word is used when your heart is overwhelmed, like if you're really angry, or you're really excited, or you're really in love, or you're really full of hate, or you're really anxious, or you're really afraid, or you're really sad, when your heart is set on fire by an emotion, when you're overwhelmed by an emotion, that is no longer called a gun is called,

00:16:33 --> 00:17:06

alleging that when you hear something, and you see something, and it fires you up, and because it fired you up, you acted a certain way, you got emotional, you got riled up, and you acted a certain way. And then later on, when people do that, you say, you know what I was, I wasn't myself. I did that. I didn't mean it. I wasn't mean, this is not this is not the normal mean, but you will get fired up, they say things they do things that they wouldn't normally do. Less has, all of that is going to be interrogated, meaning you're not going to be able to say before Allah, Allah was really emotional at the time. And that's why I did that.

00:17:07 --> 00:17:42

Allah says, I will ask you about what you heard, I will ask you about what you saw. And I will ask you how you allow your emotions to run crazy. And do whatever you want, I will ask you, you'll be questioned about that. Why? Because if we truly were people are listening, if we truly were people of analyzing our emotions would not be the first response or thinking would be the first response. And that's really the conclusion of what I wanted to share with you to see how will you know that you're following this ayah? Or not following this, if there's this commandment of Allah is powerful? How will we know because as I said, it's reminding us of judgment day because the lesson a little

00:17:42 --> 00:18:14

question is on judgment day about this, did you follow this process? How do you know and I know for following this process, when you hear the news, or you're in the middle of a conversation, or you get some information, if you are the kind of person that quickly gets emotional, and has an immediate conclusion about what all of this means, before you say, hold on, let's think about this. Hold on, let's analyze this. Let's get the full picture before we jump to conclusions. If you don't have that, if you haven't, if somebody in your family said no, no, let's think about what do you mean? Think about it, you want to just sit there and do nothing.

00:18:16 --> 00:18:24

This means we're not cowards, we have to respond, we have to do something. If that's your reaction all the time, then you're in violation of the sign.

00:18:25 --> 00:18:45

That because then you're odd is being run in whatever direction it was, and the summer imbeciles are not being used to contain it. Now being used to keep it in check. And what happened with Musashi Salaam saw something that upset him, and he took action he called it the work of what cheban the work of shavonne that is the work of shaitan beside New Zealand today.

00:18:46 --> 00:18:55

Somebody who listens to bits and pieces of information makes a conclusion in their head about who these people are, nobody will be willing to kill another human being until we completely dehumanizing.

00:18:56 --> 00:19:12

He's been following rhetoric and toxic information for months and months and months until it's built up in his head. This in addition to all the other psychological disorders that was been going on, over again, we're reminded of an example. Mila, give the Shahada Jana, and their families suffer that their loved ones are in Jannah.

00:19:13 --> 00:19:36

But I have to say, what you see the news reports that is extremism. The news reports data, that action is extremism, what is telling us that that evil did not start in that budget, that he will start and when this person was given something corrupt to here, and corrupted see over and over and over again until their heart became overwhelmed and they took that action.

00:19:38 --> 00:19:59

So there was something happening way before it's been boiling for a long time. And then it boils over and tips over every now and then when you see an extreme incident within the Muslims within the non Muslims in any context. It is a result of this. It is a result of people not being able to gauge their emotions control their emotions. Why? Because they're no longer and people thought they're no longer

00:20:00 --> 00:20:38

critical thinking and this is something that non Muslims are guilty of this is equally something Muslims are guilty of equally so the Muslims, we don't like to take a step back and just think before we pass judgment before we make conclusions before we take action. And as a matter of fact anybody who says let's stop before we take action Let's stop before we say something let's stop before we let's analyze maybe we're going to do more damage than good. Let's stop and do a little bit Why are you being a coward? We have to take action we have to stand tall we have to be brave the more emotional you get the further you are from the truth. Further You and I are from the trust in

00:20:38 --> 00:20:45

the somehow muscle if you can and muscular last reminder I share with you the I am began not talking about each other can be

00:20:46 --> 00:20:54

the is started with knowledge and ended with extreme emotions. Yeah. Why? Because those are two opposite things.

00:20:55 --> 00:21:00

Even if you have a lot of knowledge. If you're not able to control your emotions, that knowledge means nothing.

00:21:03 --> 00:21:31

And even if you have a little bit of knowledge, but you're able to control your emotions, you're able to hold back and be able to say you know what, I don't have all the information. I'm not going to pass judgment. You can take a step back and admit your ignorance, then you're going to be you're going to save yourself quite a bit of trouble. Quite a bit of trouble, realize that we can truly make us the people of thought the people that then use the gift of hearing and the gift of seeing and the gift of the facade in the way that God wants us to use it

00:21:34 --> 00:21:34

in a funny way.

Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan ponders and reflects on some of the Ayahs from Surah Al Isra.

These particular set of ayahs starts with knowledge and ends with extreme emotions. This is because these two opposite things are crucial to us. 

This can be elucidated by saying that if one has a lot of knowledge but  if he is not able to control his emotions, then that knowledge means nothing and even if we have a little bit of knowledge but we are able to control our emotions and are able to hold back and be able to acknowledge our incomplete information, then we are of the intelligent people who are also able to refrain from passing judgment. 

 

Share Page