Knowledge & Disagreement – Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan
This khutbah was given at the Islamic Association of North Texas on May 13, 2016.
Knowledge & Disagreement – Khutbah by Nouman Ali Khan
This khutbah was given at the Islamic Association of North Texas on May 13, 2016.
Sorry, were silly Emily wahoo Dr. Melissa Lee of koko de la Houma. sabitha endl motiva La ilaha illallah wa la mina Latina Amano, Amina Sally had whatever So Bill Huck, whatever so b sub m in yellow banana mean? So
my intention today in ChildLine this code byte is to share with you reflections from two to three I art of salt assura these are IR that have many, many profound lessons in them. But there's one thing in particular that I want to build up to and share with you in sha Allah. And hopefully something that can give us bring us closer to Allah is guidance in our personal lives. And as a community, Allah azza wa jal in this ayah describes the three audiences that the Prophet alayhi salaatu wa Salaam had to face. And those three audiences are basically you can even call them to audiences, the people of Makkah, the Quraysh, who worshipped idols and had no knowledge of any revelation from
before. And even if they were descendants and part of the legacy of Ibrahim alayhis. Salaam, that was long forgotten. The only thing left of some of that beautiful tradition was some rituals. And they didn't even know why they did those rituals. So the Cabo was there, and they have no idea why. And they were sacrificing animals following the tradition of Abraham and his marriage, and he was Salama, they have no idea why they forgotten all about it. So they are their Commonwealth alone, you know, they have no clue why they do what they do. On the other hand, there's the Jewish and Christian communities in Medina, that was the additional audience of the Prophet sallallahu sallam,
and they are very different from the audience of Makkah, because these are people with background in Revelation, even though that revelation was changed and it was altered. They understand the concept of one God, they understand the concept of messengers, they understand the concept of the alpha, these are things that they were familiarized with, you know, through prophets and through previous revelations, whatever they had left of those revelations, regardless, what a lot of agendas in these ayat is actually didn't doesn't just introduce us to these audiences. He actually describes to the Prophet salallahu alaihe salam why his mission is so difficult. Why are both of these audiences so
hard to convince? Talking about the mission deikun of Makkah the people of Makkah, he says capoeira lol mushy kina. Mata Rumi Lee.
It is very, it's very hard for the just for the missionary cool for the idol worshipers, it's too big of a deal for them, to accept what you're calling them to come to LA him. kabara. Allah Fulani, in in Arabic is used when something is very hard to accept. Very hard to live by very hard to swallow. Why would Allah say that about the mushy goon? Well, he would say that because on the one hand, you know, Allah tala, hahaha they would complain to him, we have all these gods. And now you're going to take all those gods and just turn them into one guy, how can we accept this? How can we get rid of all of this tradition that we've had for so many 1000s of years, I saw my dad doing
this, his father did it, my great grandfather did it. These are revered, you know, religious traditions, we can't just get rid of them. And by the way, the older a temple is, and the older an idol is, even in the idol worshipping parts of the world today, if you go to an old Buddhist temple or an old Hindu temple, the older it is, the more revered it is, the more sacred it is, the more people come and visit it. You know, the new ones great, but the old one is like a tourist attraction, if you really want to get your prayers answered. So this has been going on for centuries in Makkah, how are we going to just get rid of it? What are you talking about? This is very hard for
them to accept because they saw it as a violation. And almost like being being a traitor to their own legacy, their own their own ancestry, like kicking their ancestors in the grave or something. But there was an additional problem. And the additional problem was basically directly politics and economics. I mean, if you get rid of all of these idols, all the other tribes in Arabia have no reason to give you business, they have no reason to consider the Americans special. There's no reason to not attack the people of Macau, and they travel a lot. He thought he was safe. The only reason they don't get attacked is because they're considered custodians of all the other idols. So
if we mess with them, if some tribe messes with them in a trip, then they'll be like when we go back. Oh, you guys are the ones with the wooden one, right? I'm gonna break his legs when I get back. So they're gonna, we're not gonna mess with them because they're holding our gods hostage. Right? So but if we get rid of all the idols, there's nothing no hold, we have left over the rest of the region. We're just like everybody else, no more special status. And there's no reason for all this tourism. And takamaka as you know, is not a tourist attraction. It's not a fun place to go for the weather, nor for the people nor for the scenery, we go there because of the carbon. And the
machinery gone used to go there because of the carbon for the wrong reasons for their idols. And when people go somewhere, they increase economic activity, there's more business, there's more tourism, you know, there's more purchasing, and so their entire economy rested on those idols. So when the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was calling them to get rid of the idols is going to destroy the economy, how are we going to make any money and it's going to destroy them politically. So it's not just ideologically or philosophically, you know, spiritually they had a problem with the
Again, but they saw this as something that will destroy the entire mccunn structure, the entire ecosystem is gonna get disturbed, and that's captured so beautifully by Alok cabildo, which Nikita Matata? romilly it's very big, very hard for them to accept what you're calling them. Very hard for them. So that's the problem of mcca. But then when you come to Medina, even the Quran says when some of the companions or the Allahu taala how much money when they got to Medina, they were optimistic. They were optimistic because these people find the people of Makkah we had no idea what a book is. We don't know what a prophet is. We don't know what after like we they had no idea they would even
question Mara, man, what is this? Man? Well, we've never heard it before. They talk like that. But when you go to Medina, those are people often hot. Those are people have been Jean, they have been worshipping a lot for a long time. And if once we invite them, they're gonna see this is more suddenly, Kalima been a Minotaur rot. It's actually confirming what they have in their books, they're going to recognize it, it's going to be so much easier for them to accept Islam. And in this ayah that I wanted to share with you a lot. As always, it says no, actually, it's going to be even harder for them. It's going to be even harder for them. You think just because they have background,
it's going to be easy for them. There's a there's a group among them. This is even more difficult for them than the people of Makkah. And he gives the reasons because on face value, you would think, well, you you've been learning your book, you've been learning your Torah, you're waiting for a final messenger to come all the signs you've been studying, like we study Allah matassa. Right, we studied the signs of judgment a, and we give lectures and gurus on the signs of judgment, they, they would give lectures called the buzz gurus on the signs of the final prophet.
And they'd be waiting for him to come and now all those signs have been fulfilled, and they fulfill 100% on the Messenger of Allah sallallahu, then why not? So Allah describes what matter for Roku ilam embody majha homerun, they didn't fall into this disagreement, except even after knowledge came to them, except even after knowledge came to them. This is a very profound statement because the previous group did not accept because they don't have knowledge. Now Ally's saying this group does not accept because they have knowledge.
Because they remember the merger. In the after having knowledge, which defies common sense. Why would someone know and still fall into disagreement? I thought the purpose of the purpose of learning and knowledge is that disagreements come to an end. Once we all know we're all going to be on the same page. So Allah azza wa jal in this ayah gives a profound what is called an Arabic And not only is he an object of a verb that gives you reasons and let me put that in Simple English for you. In one word, Allah describes when is it that knowledge that is supposed to bring people together? When does knowledge become a means of disagreement? That same knowledge that was supposed
to unite becomes that that's it's supposed to be the remedy. It's supposed to be the medicine, that same knowledge becomes poison. And it's not even a different kind of knowledge. Allah azza wa jal called it a literal, meaning beyond the actual knowledge, actual knowledge had come to them. And they and because of it, they fell into disagreement. And that word, one of only actually he in the ayah, the rationale behind it is just one word. And that one word is Belkin. But in the home, the word is bellion. And it's very difficult to translate million and what am i part of my attempt in this whole, but today is to help you and I understand what does that word mean? And how does that
relate to people who know something, but I'm going to take a step back and give you some other examples. You have in the scientific community across the United States and in universities around the world, certain things that are considered consensus, certain things have become consensus. For example, the Darwin's model of evolution has become consensus. So if you go to any university, any reputable university in the world, and you're going to be studying biology in any any serious sense, the basis of it is going to be the Darwin Darwin's model of evolution. And if any non Muslim, atheist, agnostic, Christian, Jewish, any scientist even disagrees with one part of it, not the
whole thing, even one part of it, their job is in trouble. They might get ostracized from their community, they might lose their tenure ship at the university, you cannot disagree with this, this is not open up for discussion. This is established fact. Now, you talk about this and you're done. You have in the in, in across universities, particularly in the United States, of course, we have many, many, many schools that have higher education in the field of psychology, right and abnormal psychology, social psychology, behavioral psychology, we have incredible expertise in this field. And, you know, up until the 70s, the American Psychological Association was unanimously in agreement
that homosexuality is actually a it was listed as one of one psychological disorder among many, it was actually considered a psychological disorder. Not only was that removed from the list, by now, if you actually even try to ask that question. Your job is over.
You're done. They're in a society that says we are free to ask whatever questions we want. We can question anything, research anything, you know, probe anything, experiment about anything, that one question if you want, your job is not up for discussion. That question is over. You may not asked that question. So you will notice what I'm trying to get at is that even in academics in western academics, even in you know, recently, I was talking to a student of mine, who's actually a PhD in physics, who was who was telling us that, you know, you have people that, you know, in many, in many leadership, professional professorship positions in science community, they're famous atheists,
there are famous people who don't believe in God, right. And their arguments for not believing in God is basically, you know, science, they use science and evolution, etc, as primary arguments for not believing in God. And now you have mathematicians, physicists, other scientists, who are saying your arguments don't make any sense. This doesn't make any sense. When they're diving deep inside of a bacteria and finding advanced engineering inside the tail of a bacteria. They're starting to question Wait, if you're saying this is an accident, this is way too well crafted and engineered, this has to be designed by a creator, this has to be made by a higher being. This is not believers,
or Christians or Jews or Muslims saying this, these are physicists saying this, these are other scientists saying this, these are statisticians saying this, even they get kicked out of university positions, even they are denied any position. So there's some things that are just there's no room for us to talk about in certain. And we think this is an open free society. It's the image, it's the facade of a free society. But let's go back to that community that Allah described. in every field of life, there are some people who claim they know more than others. There are experts, you know, there could be a mechanic who's an expert, he's the only one who knows the cars in the neighborhood.
He's the only one who understands how the engine works. Yeah, he's the only one who understands how the transmission works. A doctor can be an expert. He's the only doctor in the village, nobody else is a doctor. He has that knowledge. Nobody else has that knowledge, you understand. And the same thing happens within religion. There's an Imam, there's a scholar, there's a group of scholars, they're shaped, they're not, perhaps they know more than the rest of the people. They're more knowledgeable. And when someone is more knowledgeable, we trust them. If I take my car to a mechanic, I don't know anything about cars, he could open up the hood and tell me you need a new
engine. All I need is an oil change. But he can convince me I need a new engine. And I'll have to believe him because I don't know any better. I put my trust in him. You understand? This is how it works. Now Allah says people didn't fall into disagreement with each other, except after knowledge came to them because of Bucky. Now, let me tell you what bovie means. What are the reasons behind which people of knowledge, disagree and turn? Turn the remedy? Turn the medicine into poison? When do they do that? The number one reason they do that is lftr will not have the ability be manolis. Thiago, Mara, linguistically the word but he actually means to have a lofty opinion of yourself, and
to be full of yourself. You can't possibly learn anymore, because you already know everything. You can't have the attitude that you're continuously learning. And there's more to learn. Because you're the act, you're the one who knows, above everybody else. So knowledge, whatever there could have been has already been attained by you. There is no reason to question what you've already arrived at. You already know everything, the attitude of a no at all. And but he also means that has said, but he actually also means jealousy. Why should people listen to his speech, when I'm giving a speech Milby? Make sure people don't listen to that guy, or don't attend that convention, or don't
go to this program. Because those people they don't, they're not nearly as good as I am. And let me convince you why they're so wrong. So now the scholar who's supposed to further knowledge, he's supposed to further truth, his entire exercise, his entire effort goes into proving somebody else wrong. Why should you not listen to him? And why should you listen to me? Because he sees if somebody else has scholarship, and somebody else is saying something that corrects what he says, he sees that as Oh my god, I'm gonna lose customers. I'm gonna get less people interested in me more people are going to become interested in him. And now their position of knowledge is no longer a
position of knowledge. It's just a way of securing their in securing their insecurities, this jealousy takes over them, you know, in the Arabic language, the word Baba, or you know, or you know, Baja actually means two things. In addition, it means a coup, and it also means a ton of demand earning. There are people who would like to keep knowledge suppressed because there's it's their way of making money. That's their way of making money. And they don't want to question anything. They don't want to be able to ask questions. Anybody who's asking questions gets in trouble. Understand what was happening in Medina. The rabbi's of Medina used to basically teach religion to their
communities, and they were in pain.
positions, people used to give them money and then get fatwas from them and things like that this was an industry, the religion and turned into an industry for them. The Prophet of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam brings the Koran and makes knowledge of revolution, open source, everybody has access, everybody has access. And some of those corrupt fatawa that they used to give are now being disagreed with, they're losing their position. The only way they can keep their industry alive is by attacking the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam. But people don't see that all people see is this is you know, if you if you're a person living in Medina at the time, and you're of the Jewish
background, and you have a rabbi that you trusted, you've heard him give his Saturday sermon, every site, you know, you know, at the synagogue every week, and you've gone and listened to him and learn religion from him. And now he says, with all of that knowledge and all of that experience and all of that confidence, don't listen to that man Mohamed Salah long as I'm, he's a liar. You know, don't go don't go to him. And he's using his credibility of knowledge to create disagreement. Because he sees himself threatened because if he accepts Islam, he's not going to be a Mufti anymore. He's not going to be an alum anymore. He's just going to be a Sahabi a student like everybody else, actually, he's
going to be less he's going to be a freshman, as opposed to some of the senior students like automobile hubbub. Now before when he was a rabbi, he was actually in a superior position where the people of reading and writing were the people of scholarship. The rest of these Arabs, they're just they don't know they're, they're Jahan. There are me. You know, they're I mean, they're unlettered people. And now some of those unlettered people are in a superior position. How can I accept that? How can I accept that he couldn't take it? They couldn't accept the religion. So there's that same knowledge that is supposed to be a means of humility becomes a means of pride, a means of making
money, a means of manipulating people, and industry, a business that's all it becomes. And this is a horrible, horrible thing to do. With the most sacred of all gifts Allah has given us knowledge. This revelation that allows that wisdom gave us it's supposed to be there so human beings can have access and benefit each other. Not so they can take advantage of each other. So he says what matter for Roku? Remember the magic homeowner Elmo Elmo bambino, there's one more meaning a fascinating meaning of Bagua in the Arabic language, they say kulu Sharon Zapata Maru de la mia blow, they save of any fruit that doesn't mature. It's also actually called Bagua. In other words, knowledge or the
scholar, by definition, is a lifelong student, a scholar of anything, I'm not just talking Islam, a scholar of anything is truly only a scholar, if they are a student until the day they die. They continuously learn. And when they learn, sometimes they go back and realize what they concluded yesterday was not the best today, they know better, and they know better, and they know better, and they keep on growing. And they keep on realizing that some of their previous conclusions were not the best conclusions. They're maturing over time. But the problem is, if you're already being perceived as a scholar by people, then you don't want to give the impression that you're a student.
Because then you can go and say, Well, I was learning and I realized some of the things that I've said before are wrong. This is the right position, or this is what I find more convincing. And this is even this is to the best of my knowledge right now. And I will continue to learn and when I learned more, perhaps I'll change my position again. Who lasagna De Niro Billy acaba mahadasha, like a public display of humility that I don't know, I don't, or I've learned something better. And I've come to a different conclusion. This is also a very difficult thing for someone to admit. It's very hard, I'd rather just like the image describes a fruit that refuses to mature and falls off the
tree. I don't want to grow and mature I want to stay exactly as I am. Even if it's unripe. I want to be stubborn in my ways. Now, this was about if you think this is about only about picking on scholars, or experts, or you know, alumni and things like that. That's one side of the equation. But these ions are universal in their value. All of us have some knowledge. All of us know certain things. Some of you are parents and your children come in question some things you've done, maybe you've done them in business, maybe you've done them in the way you dealt with some family member and your children also know a little bit about their religion and they say, Baba about what you did
here. I don't think this is right, or you're gonna teach me now. You're gonna tell me I know. And you're gonna put them in their place, because you don't want to hear it. Because you already know everything and even after you know, you can't be corrected because you can't see yourself being corrected by a younger. What difference is left between that and Ibrahim alayhis salaam, kindly telling his father that he shouldn't be worshipping idols. You know, kajaani Minami mala miotic when advice comes to you and me whether it comes from the youth or it comes from elders, it comes from neighbors, it comes from friends, if immediately you start holding on to your pride and you can't
take it then you have the same problem as the rabbi's of Medina. There's no difference
You know, my motto for Roku a Lamborghini?
Well, you may know, it's either jealousy or it's greed. Some people in the audience may Allah protect all of us from haraam earning and Milla myka. Any of you from them, you got into a bad business, you got into something that you know is haram income, you know it already, and you don't want to hear it from anybody. You want to keep on earning and pretend to keep your eyes closed, you'll just give extra checks to the machines in Ramadan or something, and may pretend that everything's gonna be okay. You know, it's like a parking ticket, you just pay the fine and you should be fine. You keep Park keep you you can afford the extra tickets, you keep the parked car
parked illegally. That's not Unless Unless law doesn't work, like the Department of Motor Vehicles, let me tell you, you can't just do whatever you want, and then write a check. And it erases it. It doesn't work that way. You can't pay your way into gender, pay your way out of hellfire. doba is necessary. If you have to recede. And even if we knowingly did something or now you know that you've done something, we have to walk out of those things. And if we stay within those things, it's either greed or jealousy of something else, or pride, or stubbornness. And these are all a desire to take over someone else. A desire an urge to not let somebody else come up. Why shouldn't we and people
know they shouldn't get into by transactions? They know that already. It's not like anybody in the Muslim community doesn't know what ribeye is. You heard it enough times already. But then when you get into whatever transaction and then your family or some concern, one says, Why are you doing this? What do you want us to live in an apartment our whole life? Look at that family, they have a house, they have a house, they have a house, we should just stay in an apartment? What's wrong with us? Allah just wants us to be poor Is that what it is and you started giving them lectures?
Because they tried to correct you, you know, we have to earn somehow. And so in when it comes to money, when it comes to position when it comes to status, when we turn a blind eye to what we already know, then we are no different from this warning that's being given. What am I for Roku in learning by the magic, a homeowner a mobile home buying a home but then as I leave you, I want to share with you what are the consequences of this.
Rarely do you find in the Quran when someone does something wrong? Allah talks like the way he talks here. Lola Kenny McLean, Saba katima Rebecca Isla De Lima sama, coup de avena. Home had it not been for a decree a word from Allah that had already come to pass meaning of verdict from a law that was already decided that I will bet allies saying I will deal with them on Judgment a had it not been for that verdict, lacunae, avena. home, they would have been dealt with immediately.
I would have dealt with them right now unless so offended by people who know and still let their pride and their greed and their jealousy override what they know that he wants to deal with them immediately. But says you're just you're getting you think you're getting scot free? No, no, no, you're not. It's just that I decided that I will deal with you on judgment day.
But there is some immediate consequence. And that's the one that I want to leave you and me thinking about. There is an immediate consequence. Allah says we're in a levena udy full Kitab I'm in Burundi him and those who were given the book in inheritance much after them Luffy Shaka Minho, Moody, they are truly in doubt about it. What happens when a generation ignores knowledge and does what they want anyway? What happens when the people of knowledge just fall into disagreement out of out of pride and arrogance that our next generation of Muslims rises, and those next generations of Muslims are doubtful about Islam itself? Luffy shakin, Minho? That's tokelauans words, the next generation
of Muslims aren't even sure if they should be Muslim. All they saw was these chef types fighting each other, arguing with each other. I don't want to deal with any of that nonsense. And actually, when you dig deep enough, all of them are greedy. All of them want money, all of them have pride issues. I don't want anything to do with this religion. As a matter of fact, they see the behavior of those people that represent the deen and they're so disgusted by that they're doubtful about the book itself, though who the men who in the in the IRA could refer to according to some Allah Al Kitab, they doubt the book itself, they start questioning the book itself, a generation of Muslims
will come about who will start asking questions about the Quran. How come this is said there? How come that is said there? This doesn't make sense. That doesn't make sense. When we don't have to imagine that generation anymore. We're seeing it. We're seeing it and some say that that goes back to your although in the end, there are doubtful about knowledge. They don't even care to learn anymore. I don't want to learn this stuff. What's the point? What do you want me to learn this stuff and argue like these people do? What's the point of it? So an entire generation of people becomes disinterested? They become they become you know, skeptical about the revelation, and they become
unsure what the point even is of learning any any religion. What's even the point? Let me check in Minho. But then if that was bad enough, it wouldn't
It was able to just stop there. Allah azza wa jal added one more word. And that's what I want to conclude with the fish that came in who marieb those of you that are Arabic students know that the word marieb is actually macdaddy. It affects another, it's transitive. In Arabic grammar, you know what that means? There, no doubt, that puts other people in doubt. They don't keep their doubt to themselves. They make a video about it, they blog about it, they post about it, they comment about it. And when other people read it, they start doubting, and then other people read it and they start doubting, they can't just keep their own, you know, was was to themselves, there was was, you know,
there was always to themselves, their whispers and their, their criticisms and their questions. They talk to other Muslims about it. They infect other youth and other you start doubting, and then they share with others and doubt like a disease spreads in the society. How can doubt spread when you had people of knowledge, I thought the remedy for doubt was knowledge and in this ayah when knowledge is not given, it's due when it's not served with any intent to overcome to further yourself to promote yourself out of jealousy against someone else, or greed. When that when those intentions corrupt knowledge, then you don't get certainty from knowledge. Then what you get is doubt in the next
generation. May Allah azza wa jal protect this oma from falling into unnecessary disagreement. May Allah protect those who are learning in this Deen to protect them from Ducky of any kind, and May Allah azza wa jal protect this generation and coming generations from doubt that is infectious. barakallahu li walakum Karani Hakeem, when a fire in your ear can be IoT with the taken Hakeem
al hamdu lillahi wa Salatu was Salam O Allah anybody Latina Safa Susana, Allah of Mali, him wahat Amina been Mohammed Al amin, Allah alayhi wa sahbihi adjumani yaku Lahore Azerbaijan Chiquita kalimba an akula Billahi min ash shaytani r rajim. In De La Hoya mala eketahuna soluna nebby Latina amanu sallu alayhi wa sallam Ooh, Taslima Allahumma salli ala Muhammad Ali Mohammed KAMAZ Allah tala Ibrahim Ibrahim al al amin in Dhaka habito Majeed Allahumma barik ala Muhammad Ali Mohammed comma Baraka Ibrahim Ali Ibrahim al al amin in NACA, hamina Majid Allah, Allah Hema como la de la in the La Jolla, San Juan de Cordoba, Vienna and infection you will mooncup whether the crew La La La Jolla
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