Omar Suleiman – Does Islam Ever Change The Role of Ijm (Consensus) in the 21st Century ?
AI: Summary ©
The importance of attending conferences and engaging with topics, particularly in Islamic law, is emphasized. The need for reform and renewal is also emphasized, as it is necessary to achieve the desired goals of Islam. The importance of history and legislation is also emphasized, as it is a crucial part of the church's message. The need for a strong understanding of the Prophet's teachings and protecting their values and history is emphasized, along with the importance of showing faith and acceptance of Islam. The discussion on protecting one's faith and culture is emphasized, as it is a crucial part of the church's message.AI: Transcript ©
I want to encourage you, before I even get started to make sure that you attend all of the talks in sha Allah Tala of this conference,
I know that there are multiple sessions and all of them are very valuable. But you know, the team really put a lot into putting together a beautiful diverse program for you to attend today in sha Allah Tana. So have your notepad ready and try to be present in sha Allah Tada and also engaged with the content, engage with the topics, it's meant to be a little bit more of an intimate discussion on some of the subjects in sha Allah Tada. And there is an element of spirituality and elements of intellectual discussion, there's tough seed, there is test Skia, there is fic, that's going to be covered. So a lot that's going to be covered in sha Allah Tada over the course of this conference.
With that being said, My topic is a topic that is actually a pretty dense topic. It's the topic of each map, the topic of consensus and consensus, not just as a concept, a broader concept that we discussed in Islamic law, but as a source of Islamic legislation and the implications of that for us today. And I am working on an article on this. And sometimes, or in the past, I've given a talk on an article I was working on, I never actually got to complete that article. So inshallah Tada, you can hold me to it. If I show up to the next conference, and I'm giving another talk, and the article is not published by done, then you can tell me what happened to the article last year in
Charlottesville. But hopefully it won't get to that, to that level of in the nighttime. And as I was writing the article and compiling my notes for it, I realized that if I start to read from my notes on the article, then I'm going to end up reading the first couple of pages, and then I'm not going to get to
at least not get to present a broader perspective of what I personally hope to achieve in sha Allah to Anna, with this particular article. So the concept of edge map, the concept of consensus, please into the concept of change. I literally just got done an interview
with the news station A few days ago, the question was, isn't it time for Islam to update itself? Is it time for Islam to change? is Islam in need of a change? And I know that we can give very, you know, short answers to this. And so the short answer would be no, obviously. But you know, for some that are grappling with the scope of what Islam allows in terms of change,
either on an individual level or on an institutional level, right? They want a deeper answer. And we're living in a time where fluidity is not just in regards to law and legislation, and regards to principles, but even in the very notions of creed and what objective truth is. And if there is a notion of objective truth, you know, subhanAllah you're not just talking about perennialism in the ideological sense, or in the theological sense of universalizing religion universalizing theology or saying that there are wisdoms to be appreciated from different religions in different ways, but turning them all into one way or the attempt, and inshallah Tata will not be very successful. But
the attempt, you know, to, to form a, an Abrahamic religion that erases distinctions between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the name of coexistence, which is actually not just an affront to serious Muslims, but an affront to serious Jews into Syria as Christians as well, if you think about it, right to erase the tenets, and all distinctions in the name of coexistence. And the suggestion is that if you believe in a truth that is different from someone else's belief, in truth, that you are not able to coexist. And so that plays out in discussions around celebrations and holidays, and, you know, you're not truly an intolerant person, if you uphold your own standards.
And I can tell you that that's not true, that Muslims
have been able to historically and can inshallah try to uphold their claim to Islam as divine truth, and at the same time actually be pretty good neighbors, and be loving and, you know, able to not just be tolerant, or be tolerable, but to actually contribute to their societies and to unlock some of the brilliance that that society and that collective community has to offer. So it's not a barrier to progress or coexistence, as is the underlying call that you find, you know, within erasing distinctions within religion. Now, with that being said, when you come to the issue of fix the issue of law legislation, and what it actually means to have a coat, I want to actually start
with
and I only put a few passages here on my phone so that I wouldn't have my full notes and
front of me, but I still had to read this passage because it was really beautiful. Dr. Huntsman had huffy the whole lot to Anna, who wrote an article for Yaqeen. I want to say, about a year and a half ago two years ago, about the concept of touch deed the concept of reform and renewal. He wrote a beautiful paragraph he said, our deen is a living entity, with one spirit, consistent objectives, and overarching Maxim's but with a flexible legal framework that can appropriately engage with changing realities. Renewal is thus the appropriate word. But if it is about renewal, how does one renew the religion does this mean we have the liberty to change the divine instruction, the default
status in the religion is that it remains unchanging. And most of what is meant by renewal ie touch deed is actually restoration achieved simply through reviving that which is original, and cleansing it of that, which is unoriginal, such as innovations and customs, which conflict with the revelation. Aside from that, there's another type of renewal, and that is the HDX had based renewal. So, you know, when the tradition becomes conversant with new realities, changing realities, and does not just, you know, expand the boundaries of restriction where need where it needs to be, but actually talks about new ways that Islam can address these changing realities. But this is a really
beautiful passage, I think that he talks about sort of that balance, right. For some, when you talk about Islam not changing, what that really means, is an insistence on certain cultural practices that actually do need to be removed, because they have tainted, what is pure. And what has unlocked the genius of the global Muslim community throughout history, and currently shackles the present. You know, for some, it's like, we have to insist on these particular cultural values that have been that have this fusion with Islam, or have an Islamic exterior. And, you know, that is obviously in opposition to what we're trying to achieve when we're talking about TechDis when we're talking about
renewal, and I think it's very important to understand that even when you talk about Mecca, this is very profound when you think about the idea of change, and the idea of insisting on tradition, the mannequins with all of their insanity, and burying young girls alive, which was a practice of some of the tribes in kurush. With all of the practices, the lewd practices that we see, they, even with their idolatry, still had certain traditions that they insisted upon. So they took the pure way of Ibrahim alayhis salam. And they insisted on the certain rigid practices, right, that had no basis whatsoever. And so you know, this idea of how they practice the Hajj with their idols, the Hajj,
which is supposed to be a ritual, where you honor the Oneness of Allah subhanho wa taala. And they turned it into something that not only departed from the entire spirit and creed of the original Hajj, but they also introduced practices that made it just so unnecessarily difficult and in the name of moral progress, or in the name of spiritual purity. Right. So for example, doing Hajj without clothes, that was them. That wasn't the Muslims. And they do it in the name of tradition, to enter the homes from the back rather than the front during the times of hedge. Right, so you have to have this very particular, you know, rigid way of entering into the home, the way that they
prohibited certain, you know, put certain restrictions that you have, you know, it's like what are these restrictions, and in the name of insisting on tradition, some of them made no sense whatsoever, even by their, their the standards that they were claiming, and some of them, you know, just played into the overall dynamics of what they were putting forth in regards to societal hierarchies. So for example, putting the poor in one place, lifting the door of the Kaaba so that only some could access it. These were things obviously, that played into the overall structures that they were establishing, right Subhanallah the toe feet, or the lack of Tofino success that they had,
where they, they put the poor and alpha, right, the downtrodden alpha, and we will stay here in the vicinity of the cab. And of course, the best place to be is alpha. So even they insisted on certain practices that were strange and backwards, and in the name of tradition, preserving tradition, where they were willing to sacrifice the most fundamental element of the tradition of liberal humanism, which was to hate the entire purpose for which the Kaaba was built. The entire essence of the religion will throw that to the side, but we will maintain this practice. In fact, we'll make it more strict to give the illusion of, you know, an insistence upon tradition that we are a people of
tradition. And so you find that sometimes right and cultures where there's an insistence on certain things, why because Dean, this is our religion. This is our way these are our values and it's like
This has nothing to do with the deen whatsoever. Not only does it undermine the very premise that assemblance of this practice was built upon, but it actually is a practice that is completely foreign to Islam. Now, here's the thing.
What happens when our collective ignorance makes it hard for us to even be able to distinguish truth from falsehood anymore? To be able to sort out religion, from negative practices of culture, because culture is beautiful culture is not frowned upon inherently in Islam, by the way, culture is actually looked at, as a gift from Allah Subhana Allah Tada. It's a gift that Allah gives us languages and practices and things of that sort. We don't frown upon culture. Islam as a filter of culture, Islam does not negate culture, right? But what happens when our collective ignorance makes it so that we can't distinguish those things anymore? Right. And so then, you know, work with me
5060 years from now, let's say that we don't have technology anymore that the internet crashes and that you don't have access to your favorite festival website. You don't have access to you know, your cinema website, your Hadith database, and there is no longer an emphasis on producing Islamic scholarship. Why? Because, you know, for for even the student of knowledge, I can go to the mecca of a shaman, I can find my Hadith, I can find my my text and just glean it from there. What's the point of memorizing Hadith anymore? What's the point of sunnah anymore of chains of narration anymore? What's the point of understanding the sciences of assorted Philip, and filth and collides and all
that is foreign? Now it's not, it's not necessary, because it's not going to affect my immediate profession, I can be a great Imam. And I can go and I can just simply search these databases from now on what happens when all the databases are gone.
What happens when people are, you know, so removed from their religion, the foundations of their religion, they just can't tell anymore. And so, the year 2016, please don't hold me to this number. I'm not, this is not a prophecy. Okay. I talked about this. The Day of Judgment is 2024. No, it's not. Allah knows best. Maybe it is. But there is no reason to think that it's going to be this year that year.
But you know, what happens to that young person that can't distinguish anymore? They just reject the whole thing.
All right, so I can't sort out anymore. What is truth from falsehood? And that's why the period before Islam is called what?
Janelia? Ignorance. Okay. Because Sandman Fattah sealed the Allahu Anhu was admirable as his pursuit of truth was, it's not a reasonable burden on the individual to have to go underground. From, you know, Persia to Syria, to Iraq, to Turkey, right from from Anatolia to Damascus, and all over the world trying to find these few people. MCI M, and LM Kitab, the small group of people that still know the truth. And that's why the people that die in the later part of Janelia, as a collective are held to a different standard of accountability. Allah judges every individual differently, right. But that's that is a period of jehadi It's a period of great ignorance because I don't know anymore.
Some Helen and you have those shining examples of sincere truth seekers.
One of my favorites, and Subhanallah like I really love this man. I really love this man. I really want to meet this man. They did not fail the Allah Tala. And who if you follow the series, the first we did,
you know, pretty extensive biography of him. This man Subhanallah who is going to the Caribbean
and saying Allahumma la? Oh, well, I don't know. Are you Julia Hubway. Like, I really don't know where to go with this. But I know I want the dean of Ibrahima Islam and I know that you're one I know these idols are not you.
And if you show me that path, I bet to Kirby, I will worship you with that path. But I don't know, I don't know what to do. And he just falls into sujood prostration, and cries and cries and cries and cries because I don't know what to distinguish anymore and the purity of his fitrah which is why on an individual level and as this is one of the problems I mean, not reading from the articles, I'm gonna go from place to place but the purity of the fitrah the purity of your natural inclination, the sincerity of your pursuit actually gives you a greater sense of insight and gives you an ability to sort sometimes truth and falsehood in ways that you don't even know. Because your sincerity
guides you towards truth because this path is in accordance with the way that Allah subhanaw taala created us so the sincere seeker will naturally find their ways aligning. So as a developer, I'm gonna fail. You know, he doesn't he can't sort out
what's happening in front of him. It's very cloudy, but he can sort out that idols are not gods that
The way of Abraham was one guy, he can sort out that there's something morally repugnant about taking a young girl and bearing her life. There are a lot of people that could not even their moral compass had become so corrupted, they couldn't even see that anymore. And you think, Oh, well, you know, we would never get to that, again. I hate to break it to you, but future civilizations, as you know, the process of filtration and re purification, we'd look back on some of the practices that have become normalized in our times and think what a morally repugnant practice and where were all of you.
How did my grandma and grandpa, how did they not do anything about this? How did they just let this go? How did they think this was okay? Okay, so every generation that, you know, it gets foggy sometimes in certain regards, but say them and I'm gonna pay some honey so sincere. And this pursuit, Allah opened his heart to say, this is morally repugnant. And he goes, and he protects these young girls, as they're about to be buried alive. And he takes them to his home, he raises them until he marries them off. Well, the Allahu Taala on what a man that's why he's one Oman, the Day of Judgment, though, stands as an OMA by himself, because that's not a reasonable expectation of
everybody in that time. It's just not normal for everyone in that time.
So what does it bring it back, bring us back to
one of the scariest heartbeats to me, because I could see it happening in smaller context.
Is when the prophets lie some describes this time where people are saying, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, and they're asked why? And they say, Well, I think our we used to hear our parents say this.
We don't eat pork. Why? Well, we're Muslims. And we were told that as Muslims, we don't eat pork, nothing else about that person is Muslim. No salah, no car, no nothing but as a collective. They say, you know, we used to hear our parents say there's one God that's all we have La Ilaha illa Allah. So you have these things that survive little things that survive but the overall gel the overall ignorance has made it so foggy that you no longer can sort out truth from falsehood.
And of course, the prophets I'm certain the Hadith in Sahih Muslim not to call Messiah had to Allah you call Phil out Allah, Allah
Subhanallah the our will not come until there is no one on earth even saying the name Allah anymore. You imagine that? Right? So like, what if the world was created for the worship of Allah subhanaw taala, then there is no more point to this hub of debris at this point when people don't even say the name Allah anymore. What's the point of this world that at that point, it's ready to wrap this up?
This is this is done. Right. The Earth has expired. As Allah's name is not mentioned anymore.
What does this have to do with the topic of change and HMR. And I thought we were talking about a sort of fifth and I thought this was an academic conference. I did too. And I'm trying to figure out what my train of thought was as well.
But on a serious note,
the problem is ignorance. And when the collective ignorance fogs, and when you marry that collective ignorance with unrestricted desire, then everything becomes fluid. And so truth no longer restricts desire or dictates principle. Desire dictates your blue and how you shape the truth, or your claim to truth.
And you can't make any more claims to tradition or history or legislation or law or principle or any type of divine rubric. Why because
people's knowledge of that is being lost.
So I bring it back to this.
The beauty I was walking back to my room last night, and I was hearing the Messiah reading the Quran, in Quran
recitations, with ehsani with chains of narration.
I read to my chef who wrote to his chef who wrote to his chef who wrote to his chef who wrote to his chef who wrote to his chef. And by the way, if you have a sonnet than anything, it's so there is an excitement and I encourage everyone to actually undertake serious studies that doesn't mean you become a scholar but mashallah, you have seminaries everywhere, right? You have summer retreats, where you can study a text with with a scholar, and then I read to this person to read to this person and read to this person right to this person who read to this person who read to this person who read subtle, subtle loss of Allah when he was
like, whoa Subhan Allah, it connects me to the Prophet slicin him in in a tangible and textual way.
What beauty is that? There are people that I know that memorize some of my own teachers memorize. So he had Bukhari and Sahih Muslim and more books of Hadith from front to back, and they don't even stutter when they recite it. And they can read the whole chain of narration for every Hadith. Now, someone might say, it's kind of pointless, right? I mean, you can just Google the chain just go to their websites.
can go to this website and open up the Senate. Isn't that? No, it's beautiful. That is where the salvation of Islam is. Now stay with me for a moment. Some people would say, you know, you go to these Islamic seminaries. And by the way again mashallah amazing seminaries here in Chicago man lost pants, I bless all of these aroma and their institutions, those that are within the corpus of Anna cinoa, Gemma and extending these these legal traditions and schools that are just beautiful. And you think why are they studying Kitab with the Hara? Like do I really need to go into all of these details of purification and water? And what nullifies will do and what doesn't know if I will do
like, do I really? Why does he Why do you have to go through all of that?
But the genius is that we have a written an oral tradition that is unchanged and timeless that we can continuously go back to
that can rescue people from the fog, when the fog makes it so difficult, even for a sincere seeker to be able to sort out truth from falsehood anymore.
Now we come to the dean, we come to the legal tradition. Does that mean that Islam does not change? Does that mean that Islam is restrictive? regressive? No, it actually means it doesn't mean Islam is regressive. It means Islam is resilient.
It doesn't mean Islam is regressive, it means Islam is resilient. The admiration that other legal scholars from other traditions and philosophers have of this Deen in fact is that you're reciting the same Quran over 1400 years. And you have preserved the Quran, the recitations to the point that you know the names
of everyone that recited it up until your point and you have people that are memorizing it, that you have preserved your Hadith. Can you imagine somehow the Hadith of the Prophet slice on him? If you take the system and when someone you know, comes out, so he had Makati based on an article they read on Google or a seven minute YouTube video?
All right, I'm like, Do you know what the memorable hottie did? For every single Hadith he put in that book, the amount of you know, in academia, you talk about how peer reviewed is an article the you know, the level of peer review the science that goes into that it's not the Quran, it is not the Quran, that's not the claim. But there is not a religious book in the world that belongs to any other tradition, that is a fraction of the authenticity of so he had a body and hamdulillah for that, that's incredible. That's something to be proud of. That we have a collection, not just in so he had Behati right, so he's Muslim, and, and different, you know, mostly Muhammad, the different
books, the six Books and Beyond, but the overall body like we can connect ourselves to the Prophet sallallahu Sallam in a very meaningful way, in in a way with confidence that we are gravitating towards an a person, and his way and his explanation and his understanding of the revelation that came to him that's beautiful, that allows us to connect to something very meaningful, very tangible. And when it gets foggy, we can go back to something.
And when it comes to the next level of that, well, what is it map?
This was supposed to be the talk, all right.
It is the idea of consensus.
Now, consensus,
is a guard for the understanding of the suddenness. I want you to think of it this way with guards, the interpretation of the Quran is the way of the Prophet sallallahu wasallam. Otherwise, they become words that can be played with. And if you're intelligent, and nefarious enough, you can play with anything to make it sound like exactly what you want it to sound like.
All right. And that's why you've had attempts throughout history. If you if you don't have anything to govern the interpretation of a text than that text is hostage to the interpreter. And so as Muslims, we have the way of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam So when Allah says Akima, Salah, established the prayer, we have the way of the Prophet, slice them to tell show us and tell us exactly what those five prayers are. There may be minor differences in regards to where a finger or a hand is placed, but the overall solid that if you were to pray, like just think about this, if you were to walk into a gym out right now into a congregation, and you had a bucket and all modern Earth
man and I Lee will hustle per se may Allah be pleased with them all. You'd be praying like them.
You would not look like a weirdo praying next to them.
Okay, that's beautiful. So you have the Sunnah that governs the interpretation of the Quran that gives us a proper understanding that's especially important in terms of creed. I remember there was a man that was debating Sheikh Hamad DDOT Rahim Allah and he said Trinity is in the Quran.
You'll never heard this have you ever heard Trinity in the Quran?
Can anyone tell me which I a Trinity ism?
Yeah.
No, so that's that's the right answer.
I'm talking about the pastor's answer the right answer is that they've disbelieved when they when they attributed three to Allah subhanaw taala. But this man who's arguing with him with the dots, he says Bismillah R Rahman Rahim
Salam
I mean, he got like, like, he was so convinced and convincing.
I found it.
All right. So of course, common sense also sometimes is important. But there is also the fact that we have the way of the Prophet slice on the explanation, the teaching of the Prophet saw something that governs the interpretation of the text to a point that we don't lose the fundamental meanings of those texts. Right, so the Quran is preserved, obviously, in Word and letter, and it's been inscribed in the hearts of countless people over the ages, but the way of the prophets lie some and I want you to think about how important it is in terms of testimony or in terms of legislation. And because this is a general audience, I'm not going to get too into the details of the legal
terminology here. But the idea of testimony or legislation that the Sunnah is elevated. Why because if the words of famous Salah were not in the Quran established, the salam was not in the Quran, but we still had the Sunnah of the Prophet slice of them. And we, we still sorted that out, then we would understand any general meaning that calls to vicar that calls to the remembrance of God or calls to supplication and prayer, to still be in upheld practice, the practice of Salah would not be lost from this community, we'd still be praying five times a day, because that's how important it is, in terms of legislation. Nothing is like the Quran in terms of its glory and its sanctity, but
from a legislative perspective, and from a survival perspective and what reaches us. Now, when it comes to consensus when it comes to its merit, it is a principle that exists within our corpus, the idea of consensus that that consensus is important. Why? Because you then have the collective generation that understood the words of the Prophet slice them all in a singular way.
All right. And so the amount that cannot be questioned or broken is the amount of the generation of the prophets lie Selim.
I want you to think about how ridiculous it sounds.
And you know, I say this, and I don't want to be I don't want to mock here. I really don't want to mock I'm not the guy that said Bismillah R Rahman Rahim. But the you know, in the sense that it means Trinity, but the person who sincerely just came across something that seemed really enlightening and made life a lot easier for them and more convenient, because they found this new opinion interpretation of the Quran, or Hadith, and they, you know, it just gives them exactly what they want. I don't have to make a very inconvenient change in my life. Because I found this really intelligent sounding Remember, it's foggy now I don't know that was solid, I don't know the
foundations is really intelligent sounding article that explains the verses, and explains the Hadith in such an easy way for me to follow.
Can you think about how preposterous it is?
To think that a person in Chicago, let's make it even more preposterous in Dallas, a person in Dallas and Texas, in 2021, has understood the Quran in a more accurate way than the one upon the home called upon whom the Quran was revealed, and everyone around him.
And I got it. Why? Because based on my freshman level Arabic,
this is seems to be saying this.
And you know, what,
if I'm on line, and I'm going, you know, if I'm suffering, and I don't want to use the word suffering, because sacrifice for a greater cause is not suffering, it's growth. It's rewardable. When you know what you're doing, when you know that Allah is smiling at you, for whatever inconvenience you are undertaking for his sake, it's actually not suffering Hamdulillah you smile like Dr. Yusuf Sinha,
right. I mean, subhanAllah like, you know, you're, you're at peace, you're at ease with that, right? But man, like this is so much more convenient. And it and I can forward this article to everyone. And this person is a PhD at so and so University and you don't you can't even verify that person's credentials. You don't even know if that's really their name. But you know what? Sounds good. Can you think about how preposterous The idea is that someone figured out something about the revelation that the one upon whom revelation came, and everyone around him the most righteous people, as a generation that have ever walked the face of the earth? You got it? And they did not. So the amount
of the consensus of the companions is the unbreakable consensus. And there is no one literally in the history of our tradition that tries to penetrate that or tries to question otherwise. The question then becomes afterwards, right. That touched me aren't limits Seattle dadada the nation this OMA does not agree upon error and falsehood as a principle, right? This OMA does not agree upon falsehood and
and misguidance the scholars of a single generation will not all come to a consensus on something that is false. You know why? Because that would be a bad assumption of Allah.
Because the whole idea of Allah subhanho to Anacin as Yeoman committed to the communal come, today I perfected completed my favorite upon you perfected my religion for you.
The whole idea that Allah Subhana Allah would misguide collectively, the entire community that is distinguished by pristine guidance is about assumption of Allah subhanaw taala. It really is. Right? And so the idea that the entire body of scholarship of any singular generation could be an error
is actually a very strange indictment to make.
Now, how do we approach each mound for the common person? Okay, I know my time is getting is starting to run out how much time
all right, I'm glad I didn't let you read my bio.
How much time how?
What's important to know about edge map for me consensus for me in the in the idea and of course, the article and Charlotte's out, I promise you in sha Allah Tada, I will, I intend to write it in sha Allah to Allah within the next few months and finish up in the nighttime, but there's the merit of the companions, then there is the edge of a singular generation. Now, there is debate amongst the scholars about whether the age man of a generation other than the generation of the companions is binding upon the whole ummah. And that's a reasonable legal discussion, especially when he talks about the earlier generations like with the amount of the tambourine, which is not really going to
depart from the amount of the Sahaba anyway, because the amount of the second generation, they're pretty much the kids of the Sahaba, and people that embraced Islam directly at the hands of the sahaba. But let's say the amount of the third generation of Muslims, is that binding upon us as Muslims today, that's a legal debate. There is no consensus about that degree of consensus, right? That's a legal debate for us. However, follow me the earlier that consensus is established. The earlier the consensus is established, then generally speaking, the more likely that consensus is to be correct. Why because the earlier the generation, the less distance it became, from the initial
point of Revelation, as well as it having a greater level of righteousness and religiosity because the prophets like sunset, Plato and mazzucato need the best generation is my own land and those that follow them and those that follow them, and those that follow them, right, so there's a closer
point to the point of Revelation, as well as an overall level of religiosity. However,
we can't say that after the companions of the Prophet slice, I'm that there is consensus amongst the scholars of Assam, that every consensus of every generation that followed was binding, and in fact, Imam Muhammad Rahim Allah, to great objection to people that claim consensus, because that's what they immediately knew in their own in their own circle, and their own world. Think about a world without mass technology, right? If you live in a particular context, let's say you live in Baghdad, and I'm using that as an example, because it's a hub of Islamic scholarship and history, right? You never been to Medina, or you're in Damascus, or you're in Egypt, or wherever it is, you're in
Timbuktu. You're in some of these, these great hubs of Islamic civilization. And everyone in your context agrees on something. And so you write it down, and you claim it as a map, that there's consensus amongst the scholars because every scholar you met, and it might have been a large body of scholars in your context agrees upon something. Muhammad Rahim Allah, he really had a problem with that. So he said, stop saying it every time you don't know of a difference of opinion. Instead, learn that and Amalfi laugh and oh, these aren't, we don't know the difference of opinion on this, because it's safer that way. Because what might end up happening? Is that primary evidence, meaning
an authentic hadith, or some, some difference amongst the Companions, shows itself later on. And then what do you say, well, this person in the third century savage map,
so I can't go beyond that. That's unjust. And that actually stagnates and it harms the overall collection of what we have today. So that's one thing. So the first point is the merit of the companions is established, right? The consensus of the companions is an established point. And then you have the earlier the consensus established, overall, that consensus is likely even if it's not binding, it's likely to be most correct, right? The earlier the consensus is established with generations that came before then you have the consensus of the scholars of your generation, and I believe, I do believe this, and I'll go into details in the article Inshallah, that the consensus of
the scholars of your generation is binding upon that generation because that's the point of an ummah, Allah will not misguide the OMA collectively, the OMA cannot be collectively misguided. You can't have everyone that studies the tradition with its foundations and its branches at a serious level. All disagree on something as a collective body. Now we're living in an era
where you literally open a Twitter account. And if you are outrageous enough,
you become an authority suddenly
that does not violate the consensus stick with the vast majority of people. Allah will not misguide the vast majority of the scholars in the OMA because the idea here is that now anyone, seriously anybody? I mean Subhan Allah I do believe that as you know, we're getting 510 years from now. May Allah protect us May Allah protect us Allahumma Hopko was looking at TBR Well, Arenal Bella Bella, was looking at the Navajo you know that we ask Allah to show us truth as truth, so that we can follow it and to show us falsehood as falsehood so that we can avoid it. I think about how, how chaotic things are going to get
with people presenting themselves as authorities. And what gives a person credibility is the size of their following alone, not their scholarly credentials, not their a Sonny's not they're not their chains back to their scholars, not there, none of that. So I do believe that within a generation looking to the vast majority of Islamic scholars and bodies and institutions, that a Muslim is safe, you're safe with your iman, at the end of the day, you want to be safe with your faith, you're safe with your iman, when you stick to those things.
Okay, you don't want to you don't want to play with your eemaan here Subhanallah you find with the Scot you find with the righteous
you know the same terracotta Innisfil Halal that we left half of Halal out of fear of falling into heaven. Am I'm done right? We left half of Halal out of fear of falling into haram. Right that this was the attitude of the companions, the attitude of the righteous that came before that even if something is debatable within proper means I don't want to I don't want to compromise, I don't want to put my faith in jeopardy here. Because the entire it goes back to the entire purpose. That's what I was talking about yesterday. The entire purpose and pursuit of my life is the pleasure of Allah subhanaw taala. So if this added level of safety, inconvenience is going to mean that I stay within
the bounds. And I don't violate that hamdulillah I'm happy with that. I'm pleased that I you know, I can show up on the Day of Judgment. So yeah, Allah, I, I did what I did, and I thought that I was following again, the established what appeared to be the established consensus amongst my time in my community. Now you're going to have odd fatawa that come out in every generation stay away from the odd.
Stick to your overall faith, your overall practice, should not be cherry picking from here or there, what suits you. And then finding the most convenient opinions here are there so that you can stay within your faith, then what's the point of truth? Right? What's the point of truth? And what's the point of a claim towards truth? Lastly, I'll say on this, a man or woman, a dean, Laura, this is something that is a position that even the scholars that had issues with some of the claims to a dramatic consensus, they believed in this concept of Alumina deem the load of water that which is known within the religion by necessity. So if someone comes up to you right now says I didn't know
Muslims have to fast Ramadan.
Someone says that in the audience, are you going to believe them? As a Muslim, someone that grew up and was born and raised Muslim says, no one ever told me you got to fast Ramadan? No one ever told me I can't eat pork. You mean I can't drink this alcohol? Are you serious? No one ever told me this. This is a monument at the end of the bedarra that which is known in the religion by necessity means it's, it doesn't even need to study law. It doesn't need evidence. It's it's so known and well established amongst the Muslims that you can't do certain things and that this is part of the religion, that when someone claims or puts in a revisionist narrative, it's like, yeah, no, thank
you. Right. Now the problem becomes again, collective ignorance makes that my Lumina Dean bigger or smaller and smaller to where what is known at some point is this likelihood Allah because that's what our parents used to say. And so that's why the prerogative for us as a community is knowledge is there and know your dean, know your history, know your soul learn. We need more students of knowledge, we need people to go to column like Fatima did. So, because she's gonna cut me off and learn and Sutton graduate from seminaries. We need people to do this. Because we need people to know their foundations, we need people to know their tradition. That's what's going to give us life. The
stagnation is when we restrict ourselves in other ways that are not found within our deen.
That's when the stagnation happens. And when we don't produce with the values that we find in the way of our Prophet sallallahu it was this Dean gave great things to the world. It never shackled the world and unlock the brilliance of human potential by connecting it to the Divine by knowing our parameters as human beings that actually allows us to unlock our genius in the areas that
Allah subhanho wa Taala has given us gifts, the gifts of intellect the gifts of perception, the gifts of empathy, the gifts of being amongst the people and reading their situation, and a tradition that is flexible enough to accommodate those changing realities and also continue to make progress for the world. May Allah subhana wa Tada allow us to be a community that is not shackled by its tradition, but instead grounded in its tradition and in constant in constant production. May Allah subhanaw taala allow the fruits of our iman to be plentiful? May Allah subhana wa Tada allow the foundations of our iman to be well grounded in all of our hearts Allahumma Amin does that can
Loffredo sound like well I'm sorry
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