Riyad Nadwi – 30. Ikhlas Bad Deeds With Good Intentions
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AI: Transcript ©
For
attending,
yet another one of our classes with Shafi'al,
looking at the lessons from Imam Musa Al
Zahir.
Last week, we were looking at,
the problem of doubt. Inshallah, today will be
a continuation of that lesson and looking at
how to identify,
proper scholars and and and, take on them.
Inshallah.
Allah
says, if you obey
most of those upon the earth,
they will mislead you from the way of
Allah.
They followed all accept assumptions
and they are not falsifying.
Indeed,
your lord is most knowing of who strays
from his way. He is most knowing of
the rightly guided.
Brothers and sisters,
Welcome to lecture number 30
in this series
where we are learning about Ikhlas and the
related subjects.
Last week, we
continued,
in reading from the chapter by
the exposition of details
of actions in relation to intention.
And in that, we took a deeper look
into
Imam Ghazali's
statement
that
that the head of knowledge that the head
of knowledge is the recognition
and valuing of true knowledge
as opposed
to theory, assumption,
suspicion, and doubt.
This we said was
of high relevance in our context because
the dominant philosophical trend in our time is
postmodernism.
A philosophy
that demands
incredulity,
suspicion, and doubt
in regard to all narratives, in regard to
all metanarratives.
And where
narratives are considered suspect
of being pernicious
articulations of power.
Hence, the demand for incredulity towards all meta
narratives.
We're living at a time of intense
radical deconstruction.
These deconstructions
have no limit.
Everything is seen as perspectival. It's your own
perspective,
And not even
one's self image or binaries of nature are
now,
taken for granted.
It's a philosophy that demands homage to the
idea that
there can be no absolute truth,
and to aspire or to recognize
absolute truth
is always folly and
toxic and idiocy.
Here, I all I'm always amused with the
the conversation between the student and the promo.
But the student and the teacher, the the
the student the teacher and the promo student,
the postmodern student who says,
the teacher says, so, Henry, you believe that
there is no absolute truth? And he said,
yes. Of course.
There is nothing. There is no such thing
as absolute truth. And are you sure? Yes.
Are you absolutely sure? Yes. No. No. So
that's the kind of trap you end up
in
in following this
mode of thinking.
Now, in the earlier lectures, we spoke about
the difference between critical thinking and critical attitude.
We said that in critical thinking, the questions
are constructive,
and the objective is to find solutions to
a genuine problem.
Whereas critical attitude,
on the other hand, is always
destructive, dismissive, aimed at deconstruction
deconstruction,
through the casting of accusations on people's intentions,
accusing people of asserting
all sorts of,
articulations of power,
And
that
it it's accusing people of,
anything any narrative would be an articulation of
power.
And this is what is
cons you you find this push
to pull people into this idea of thinking
along those lines. And if you don't agree
with it, then you're seen as backward. And
and the
pomo
or postmodern
trend has taken on new levels of intensity
in recent years. Well, what is politely referred
to now as the,
as muscular liberalism.
But it is, in fact, a post modernist
approach to life.
So this, of course, is an approach that
is grounded in global doubt, where nothing is
sacred and everything is susceptible to deconstruction.
When anyone attract articulates a position of confidence
and certainty,
they're quickly labeled dogmatic and inflexible and narrow
minded,
which, of course, is a mental trap.
Dismissal by labeling
is a standard practice. You know, we label
you as so and so. And that's that's
the end of the story
without giving any consideration to the content of
your belief or your position.
For Muslims,
living in this context, there is
a strong need
for tools to protect our hearts and minds
from falling into these kinds of traps. And
towards that end, last week, I gave you
several
points to take on board.
Point number 1 was that the words of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala are
the absolute truth
and must be recognized as such in our
hearts,
in the heart of every Muslim. There cannot
be any grain of doubt
in the mind of a Muslim about this.
For Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, has made this
very clear from the very beginning. Alif Lamim
dalikalitabu
la rahi bafi. This book in which there
is no doubt. This is part and parcel
of your iman. Without this, a person cannot
claim to be a Muslim.
So that has to be very clear where
your certainties
should rest.
Number 2, it was that we should
understand the difference between
divine knowledge, divinely revealed knowledge,
and human knowledge.
And in this regard, I gave you
Imam Junaid's,
definition of Yaqeen, of certainty.
That Yaqeen is a permanent knowledge that does
not fluctuate, does not vary,
nor change in the heart. As opposed to,
for example, popular scientific knowledge.
All of which carry an error factor.
Scientific knowledge, And here, I'm going to,
also
give you
a,
a reason
to recognize that yeah. Okay.
Science has brought society, brought the modern world,
a lot of benefits.
But it is the the problem is with
people who turn science into a religion, to
a belief system. That's where
the issue is.
So
every scientific
finding has an error factor. In fact, there's
a formalized there's a formula for it. It's
0.5%
is accepted up to 0.5.9%
is acceptable.
So
they
And from that, we we know that all
scientific findings are provisional, which is necessary for
the progress of science. There's nothing wrong with
this. The process of inquiry, discovery, and development
is dependent on findings being provisional, interim, and
temporary.
And this is the way science works, science
is a method of inquiry that is continuous.
Science is not a belief system and that
is the problem.
When,
whenever
someone, you know, comes along and asks you,
oh do you believe in so and so
Scientific
theory?
They are in effect turning Science into religion
which is of which it it of course
it is not.
Do you believe in string theory? If somebody
comes and says, oh, do you believe in
string theory?
Then, well, it's not a belief system. It's
not it's a provisional idea, and so are
the findings of science. They are provisional.
This is the major difference between
the knowledge revealed from the divine and knowledge
acquired through
observation and reflection.
1 is absolute and the other is provisional.
1 is certain and the other embodies doubt
by the by its very nature.
This distinction
in the mind of a believer must be
clear.
And if you find yourself becoming confused over
this, then think about the example I gave
you in lecture number 29. Do you remember
the example? What was the example?
The example of the car driver from
my jungle, where I come from, from the
Amazon jungle.
The jungle the the car driver that comes
learns about the car, knows nothing about where
cars come from, then he understands
2%
about the engine. And then, on the basis
of that 2%, decides that he has the
authority to claim that the car created itself.
That is exactly
what we do
when when on the basis of knowledge, we
impoverished knowledge, we
we cannot assume the authority to make grand
claims. When our knowledge and understanding of the
known universe is only 2 to 4%,
given, of course, black holes, black energy, dark
flow, etcetera,
we we cannot assume the authority to claim
that
the universe created itself. You know, someone said
that the people who peddle science as religion
seem to be saying, give us one free
miracle and we'll explain the rest.
So what's the free miracle they want? The
free miracle is that
all is the appearance of all the mass
and energy in the universe and all the
laws that govern it,
they they all appear in a single instance
from nothing.
That's the free
miracle they want, and then after that, everything
is they they will explain. This is not
a minor aspect of the universe
that
the
the appearance of all the mass, all the
energy in the universe, and all the laws
that govern it in a single instance from
nothing, that is
a big miracle. That is something that you
cannot ignore,
in favor of 2 or 3% of your
knowledge that we have about the universe.
Point number 3 was that to keep on
board
with that we need at our disposal this
toolkit
to manage doubt because
doubtful thoughts will inevitably
enter our minds. We are susceptible to intrusions
of doubt from multiple sources. You got Shaitan.
You got nafs and
people around you. And especially, as I said,
living as we do in this current,
culture of postmodernism,
that doubt will inevitably enter. We are susceptible
to intrusions.
Even the Sahaba,
they also had
they were attacked by doubt. But then, Rasuulullah,
salallahu alaihi wa sallam, said that that is
Sarikh al Iman. The chatan, you know, the
the rubber only goes to the house where
riches are. So if you know with certainty
that the knowledge and guidance you receive from
Allah is the truth and that Allah has
taken upon himself to protect this knowledge, there
are 2 things. 1, that it is true
and that Allah says that,
We sent the Dhikr.
We sent this this this guidance and we
will protect it. Allah has taken it upon
himself to protect it and protect this knowledge.
Then doubt has to be where it belongs.
Where it must be pushed to the margins
of the mind. That's where it has to
go.
And in our day to day lives, we
do function. That's another problem is the the
well, another thing we,
tend to ignore is that, we do function
on the basis of certainties, not doubt.
As we saw in the example I gave
you last week with the stock markets
and
the conversation with the bishop,
is that
certainties
are necessary.
Uncertainty is not as desire is not as
desirable as it is often made out to
be in the modern world.
This is especially so in aspects of our
lives that matter to us. When things are
important to us, then certainties become important also.
For example,
without the belief that
the pilot of a plane is certainly qualified,
no one will sit on a pass passenger
jet. Right? Without the belief that without certainty
in your heart that your GP is qualified,
he's a qualified doctor, you would not put
your life in his hand.
You have to have a degree of certainty
in the qualification
in the qualifications of these individuals
for you to put your life, be they
in their hands, be they they're a pilot
or or a doctor.
We must not, therefore,
allow ourselves to feel awkward or shy or
embarrassed
over our certainties. That's the point. We must
not allow ourselves to feel awkward, to feel
shy, or to feel ashamed of our certainties.
And those who label us as dogmatic and
stubborn and fanatical
are deluding themselves into thinking that, uncertainty is
always desirable for life. That is not true.
When people are investing in the stock, in
the stock market with confidence
and boarding a plane in,
with certainty in the belief about the pilot's
qualification,
no one accuses them of dogmatism, you know.
By the way, what is the opposite of
dogmatism?
You can tell me.
What?
What's the answer to them?
No?
Where the where the English speak
no.
What's the opposite?
What's the answer to them? Yeah?
What?
Dogmatism.
Yeah. What's the opposite?
No.
But it's a label that's used.
The reason I'm asking this question is that,
there is
well,
the
it the
if you Google it, you will find, things
like inflexible,
those words that I've used just now, you
know. That,
narrow minded and all these other things. But
it's not really
these are all,
synonyms of dogmatism.
But the opposite
is
the the word you will find
is liberalism.
Yes. Liberalism. Yes. Liberalism.
But liberalism
doesn't carry the same
level of pejorative meaning in it as
dogmatism carries. When somebody says you're dogmatic,
that is that has
a pejorative, a negative,
meaning in it. Whereas in Arabic, if you
if you look at the words for the
the opposite, the opposite of a person who
it's the it's it's the reverse.
The opposite is a shakaq or a ulmurkab.
These all have pejorative meanings in them.
But the opposite dogmatism
is
liberalism, you know? A person that that that's
something that is that's to be aspired to.
So what we find ourselves here is that
the,
the
the
in English, it leaves us with
in a straight jacket, in a linguistic straight
jacket,
trapped in negative thoughts about certainty. That's what
it does.
Right? And that's one of the consequences of
speaking one language,
and trapped in one language. So so a
person just labels you and you're finished. You're
okay. Well, I I I'm I'm I have
to avoid being so. I have to, I
have to be ashamed of my certainties. And
that's why it happens. But whereas in Arabic,
if I say that the the opposite is
shakak,
a person who is shakirk,
a man who is engrossed, who is promoting
this idea of incredibility
and,
uncertainty,
that is negative. But in in in English,
it's not. It has no it has no
pejorative meaning in it. And that's the problem.
When we speak English, we,
and only keep
the,
the English meanings in our minds, then we
can end up feeling awkward and shy about
positions we've taken, especially in relation to certainty.
Now, an additional point we should note here
is that if someone is constantly trying to
plant doubt in your mind,
about things that really matter to you, such
as your faith,
it is incumbent upon you to avoid that
person and to avoid the situation.
To avoid it, first, physically, to avoid it.
I'm I'm I'm giving you tools to deal
with it mentally, but there are things there
are times for for you know, we can
be strong in faith and we're
but we are vulnerable
through volume of time. Remember that sentence,
volume of time. We are all vulnerable. Remember
the example I gave you about the
dislikable dog?
What did what was the example? The dislikable
dog becomes your pet with time.
So given enough time, even hard rocks can
be carved by the wind, and we are
no exception.
You can sit in a freezer with all
the good intentions to be warm.
With time though,
the cold will eventually
seep into your bones.
Now, there are two stories of, Imam
Fakhruddin al Razi that I want to mention
here. You know, he was a great scholar
who,
who philosophized quite a lot. And at the
point of death, he was,
he had
a running with Shaytan.
Chetan, he had lots of proofs for his
belief, rational proofs. He went through lots of,
dealing with a lot of doubts.
And Chetan defeated him on all.
All of the
it is said no. I'm not sure about
the veracity of these stories, but it they're
popular. They're mentioned in
lots of people mentioned them. The but I'm
I'm not sure about the exact source of
it.
But I've heard scholars say it, so I'm
gonna repeat them.
So the first story is that he's on
his deathbed and he's a philosopher and he,
Shaytan then defeats him with all his arguments
for the existence of god.
And then his sheikh appears to him and
tells him,
say that you believe
you are dying,
That I'm dying with the iman of the
old woman
in Nisapur
in Khorasan. I'm I'm dying with that.
And and with that, he was saved. He
the iman. So what did he mean by
that?
What did he mean by the old woman?
Is that a old woman's belief
was and and there's a story about the
old woman. It's that once he visited
Naysapur,
and there's a large crowd chasing him, and
people are all in frenzy over the arrival
of this great sheikh.
And then the old woman sits and doesn't
bat an eyelid about him, and then they
say, don't you know who this is? And
they said, this
is Imam Fakhruddin al Razi, the, you know,
the great scholar who has over a 100
or a 1000 different reports of proofs for
the existence of
God. And he said
that if he did not have
a 1,000 doubts about God, he would not
need a 100 proof or a 1000 proofs.
But a person who has because we are
born with proof. We are born with proof
in our hearts. Our our,
iman is in our hearts. Allah has given
us we have an experience with Allah before
we came on Earth. And that iman is
embedded, as I said, in every child that
comes to the face of the Earth. So
that was the story. That is Al-'Al Mubil
'Elm. It's to know knowledge just to know
revealed knowledge, to recognize
knowledge about Allah in your heart. Having the
ability to recognize true knowledge, beneficial knowledge, to
recognize divine knowledge,
Having the skill to protect that recognition from
creeping doubt, be it from Shaitan or from
Insane.
Now, Imam al Zali's
description of the true nature of Niyyah in
in while describing the true nature of nature,
when we did that
chapter on true nature of nia,
he called our attention to the need to
have
knowledge of what is favorable and beneficial to
us. Once you recognize
the benefit of this knowledge,
then whenever doubt is presented to you to
you, you have to be decisive
cognitively. You there's need to be decisive cognitively
and use the tools to reinforce
your heart.
And the tools for dealing with the doubt
are 3.
This is what we did last week. What
was the 3? The first was to seek
the protection of Allah from
shaitan, from
within the articulation
of the Awbud. Saying,
seeking refuge from Allah. Seeking refuge in Allah
from shaitan.
Saying that. Because it is Allah who will
save us ultimately.
The second is to
apply
the advice of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam to his grandson. What was the advice
he said? He said to him he gave
him the formula, and that formula was, daama
yuribuka
ilama yuribuka ilama yuribuka.
Leave that which causes you doubt in favor
of that which your certain
turn the mind. Focus. Take the reins of
your of your mind. In other words, take
hold of the reins of your mind and
focus it on your certain seas and push
the doubts to the margin of your mind.
That that is what you need to do.
You are in control. You are you are
able to do that, to shift to shift
your attention on what you know to be
certain.
And the 3rd step is to slam the
door shut
with bringing to mind the Usul, the grand
Usul. What was the fundamental Usul? The Usul
was al Yaqinu lai Azulu bishak.
The certainty
does not stop
certainty is not stopped by doubt. Al Yaqinu
lai Azulu
bishak.
That certainty is not stopped by doubt. Bring
to mind the mental verdict of deciding in
favor of that which is certain, as in
the example of Voodoo.
I am certain that I've made Voodoo. Therefore,
doubts about breaking Voodoo is of no consequence.
This this is the example of you. That
if you if you if you're certain that
you made wudu, then and then starting doubting,
oh, may I may I may I have
broken my wudu, did I or not? Then
those are all doubts. Those have to be
pushed away. They have to be put to
the mind to to the corner of the
mind and say no. That that's not true.
That's not valid anymore.
As long as I have certainty of making
wudu, I have wudu, and my actions will
be based on that, based on that certainty.
That is what I do. So I will
touch the Quran, I will pray, I will
do tawaf, etcetera.
And any doubt about breaking the wudu will
not affect me. That that that's how you
focus. That's how you behave on the basis
of that. Now this process is generalizable. You
can generalize it to other aspects of your
life,
wider situations of doubt.
And, finally,
you're do not feel compelled
to follow
people who invite you to doubt,
even if they're in the majority. And this
is, another problem. We got, oh, so many
people, you know, we are and especially
living as we do in the modern world,
in in terms of numbers.
And,
you know, democracy doesn't work here with in
this sort of idea
Because Allah says very clearly in the Quran,
which is the verse I read to you.
That if you were to obey,
most of those on on the earth, they
will mislead you from the way of Allah.
This is very clear
in in Surat Al An'am.
Verse 117
116, 117.
These are verses you need to keep at
the tip of your tongue.
Point number 5
was to remember that the was to remember
the 2 examples I gave you. The,
to prove that certainty is not always bad
and doubt is not always good. The example
of the link between the loss of certainty
and the stock market crash, and the example
of the tragedy of doubt being instrumental
in the killing of 500,000,000
people
by the year 2025
through
tobacco,
through the tobacco industry.
The idea that, certainty is always dogmatic, domineering,
and bigoted is completely false. And, likewise, the
idea of doubt being is always benign, benevolent,
and favorable
is also a fallacy.
And the ongoing because the ongoing 6,000,000 people
who are dying every year from
smoking cigarettes,
the
had it not been
for
the industry, the tobacco industry's
decision to use doubt as a means, then
this would have been wiped out of off
the planet for a long time now. Alright.
Since 19 fifties, it would have been more
wiped out. But because of the the use
of doubt.
So in short, remember that the smug self
righteous people who often peddle the need for
global doubt and constant,
and for constant skepticism while trying to make
you feel awkward about your certainties,
are either delusional or willfully trying to pull
the bull over your eyes for some other
reason. So you're not allowed that, and feel
shy over your yaqeen, over your certainties. Now
today,
we will continue reading from the Ahiyyah in
the same chapter,
in the section the following section. Imam Ghazali
then moves on to give examples of people
doing wrong
with
while justifying it
with scripts of good intention. This is another
problem, is that you can find an who.
And this can happen to
anyone, even the learned scholar. And this is
what he's saying. He said this can happen
to anyone.
You can run scripts of good intention
and think that you're doing something good, but
you're not.
First of all, anyone who
intends to do something bad as something,
good
with intent has an intention of doing something
good through a sinful deed, then he's not
excused.
Islam. Except if he is
new to
Islam. And
he didn't read
find him enough time to to study, to
learn, but
the command is to seek knowledge. This is
the problem. That everyone has to get there.
That if you don't know, you have to
seek knowledge, and and that comes directly from
the Quran.
Now this verse was revealed twice in the
Quran. 1st, in Surat Al Ambiya, verse 7,
and then again in Surat Al Nahal, in
verse 43.
The straightforward translation is that, so ask those
who know if you do not know. And
there's unanimous
agreement among the Mufassirim
that this is what it means.
Now, Imam,
Khatib al Baghdadi wrote that,
Okay.
I'm gonna ask you 2 words. I'm gonna
ask you to if you know the meaning
of 2 words, and raise your hand. I'm
gonna show of hands here. I'm not gonna
test you whether you know it or not.
I just need to see a show of
hands of how many people know the words,
these the the meaning of these words. I'm
gonna ask you 2 words. If you've heard
of the word and have an,
an idea of what it means, then raise
your hand. Okay? So the first word
is Ijtihad.
Yeah? Okay.
Now the second word is Istifta.
Okay.
Yeah. It's the same,
you know,
25 years ago,
I asked this question to the ISOC,
in Belial College. And I got the same
response. Everybody knew what Istiad was and very
few.
You know?
1 or 2, 3, 4 people knew what
Istihad was.
Istihad
is what the scholar does.
Istihad
is what the laity does, the non scholar.
There's
there
are adab of istiftah,
which is istiftah means
the act of seeking fatwa, the act of
seeking guidance.
If you need something, how do you go
about doing that? And there is there is
a full
list of
ada adaab, of etiquettes of how you do
this, conditions that are attached to it. How
how do you approach something? When do you
ask? How do you ask? Who do you
ask? How to respond? How how to receive
guidance?
How to relate to it? How to accept
it? How to treat it? All of that.
These are all adab that no one
people are people are unfamiliar, completely unfamiliar about.
What is Istiftat?
No one knows, but everyone knows what Istiha
is. And this is part and parcel of
this idea that I have to decide for
myself about my Islam. So everybody's everybody's familiar
with the topic with the term Ijtihad.
Everyone yes. Ijtihad is what the scholar and
not any and every scholar. Well,
high caliber
are indulging Ijtihad,
which is
looking at the sources and coming up with
new rulings based on on old ruling rulings.
That that is what Ijtihad is. And everyone
knows about that. Everyone but because this is
being popularized by people who are
being,
fooled into thinking that they are Muftahids, people
of and reformers, the so called people who
people who want to become the,
Martin Luther of the of the month, basically.
Every every month, we have a new one.
The Muslim Martin Martin Luther, you know.
So there are lots of people,
every month, you have a new one coming
up saying, oh, well. Thinking that they can
become the Martin Luther of Islam.
And because of that,
then the word istihad is popularized. Everybody is
learning about Istihad.
And nobody is learning about what the meaning
of istiftah is. Istiftah. So one of the
first things you have to learn
about istiftah is,
who's a scholar? What who where should I
go for my deen?
What is the quality? Well, who do I
speak to? So he's saying here, this is
a Imam Khateem al Baghdadi saying, oh, what
am I Elzim al Mustafi?
That the first thing that is incumbent on
upon a layer to a person who has
a problem,
if
the person who has something to he has
he he needs guidance.
That he should go to the Mufti, the
the scholar of Ifta, scholar of that caliber,
and ask for guidance.
And
if he's not
if he's not if he doesn't have
It is necessary for him to travel to
that place. If there isn't one near to
him, it is it is compulsory for him
to travel, to find someone,
to find it.
And if it's not in his it's not
in his city,
if it's not in his city,
that he he he he it is necessary
for him to travel to it. Travel to
that city where where the scholar is.
Even if it's far away from him.
That there are so many stories of scholars
of people traveling for 1 Mas'allah, just for
1 Mas'allah, from long distances from city to
city, from country to country to find out
1 Mas'allah.
So it's it's necessary for you to travel.
So and this is the first point of
adab al istiftah.
It's to know who is the scholar and
worthy,
someone worthy of your question. What kind of
scholar should I seek and where is he
to travel to him? Now if you look
at the wording of the verse we just
read,
notice that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not
say does not use the word 'alim. He
does not use the word knowledge.
Just just knowledge. What does he say?
He does not say, aalilaim. Oh, pasalu
aalilmi. He doesn't
say knowledge knowledgeable people. What does he say?
He says a person can have because a
lots of people a person can have lots
of knowledge about Islam, but without taqwa, without
huluq, without conduct, without niyyah, without intention.
And there will be no differences between him
and a highway robber, a brigand.
A person may have lots of knowledge, but
if he doesn't have this, if he doesn't
have subject number 3 what was subject number
3? Okay. We'll come back to that. See
if you remember,
the beginning. You know, the Hadith of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
That the
devastation
that someone
will cause in deen, will cause in Islam,
is were it it it that if you
if you were to send 2 hungry wolves
in a pen of sheep with pen with
sheep where where sheep is, the devastation that
they will cause is less than the devastation
of someone who will use his dean for
wealth and for position.
That is that is how bad it is.
It's worse. It it will
what does wolves do? They go and they
kill every everything that's there, then they start
eating. That's how they do. When they go
into a place with with a pen.
So he's saying, 2 hungry wolves in the
midst of a flock of sheep are no
more destructive than the man for than than
a man's greed and for wealth and fame
to his dean. We it he's using dean
who has knowledge and then he seeks. And
this is what we find today, you know.
It's people using dean to for exploitation.
So it is only when the knowledgeable
when when the knowledge is accompanied by a
special consciousness of Allah. Only when the knowledge
is accompanied with dhikr,
it becomes valid.
In other words, when the knowledge fosters a
consciousness of Allah and the carrier
that it
and the primary purpose of the knowledge is
to obtain benefit benefit,
then then that that makes it,
credited.
Nowadays, we have lots of people who are
experts in Arabic and experts in Islam, but
has nothing in their heart. Not nothing of
it has entered into their heart. And that's
why we we talked about that hadith, you
know, that.
There are knowledge on the tongue and knowledge
in the heart. And these are two different
things.
And so that person who has lots of
knowledge Arabic and lots of Islamic knowledge, he's
not in the verdict, ahlih al dhikr.
The people you are being commanded to approach
and from whom you should take your Islam
are people who possess both knowledge and dhikr.
Consciousness
at such a level
that the entire that the older knowledge can
be characterized
under the label of dhikr. That is how
that's the level of their dhikr. The level
of their consciousness. The level of their taqwa.
They're also known as Ahl Dhikr. Now tell
me,
where's the Dhikr when you take your knowledge
from of Islam? And where's the Dhikr when
you take your knowledge of Islam from Sheikh
Google?
Or
you acquire or acquire doubts about Islam from
someone who knows a lot about Islam but
does not believe in all of it. You
know, the the the this is the other
problem. Someone who has doubts.
There's a clear guidance in this verse to
be careful and cautious about who you take
your deen from.
Here, Imam Ghazali
goes on to talk about the dangers of
teaching Islam to people who are clearly intent
on using it for selfish and evil purposes.
He writes,
It's a these people who get closely. The
embarking of these,
bad
categories of of scholars, scholars for dollars, as
as they know nowadays,
on teaching the foolish and the evil for
money.
To because the, you know, those engrossed in
wicked and evil behavior, whose aspirations are limited
to disputing
with ulama, and contesting the foolish, and attracting
the attention of people,
pursuing worldly fortunes.
And taking the wealth of the rulers.
And wealth from orphans and the poor.
For in such people, if they acquire this
knowledge,
they will be
That they will be brigands on the path
of Allah. They will be robbers on the
path of Allah.
And this is why, you know, that hadith
of Rasool Allah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
That
avoid the doors of the Sultan for
That it's
avoid the doors of the rulers for verily,
it it is the becoming of intense degradation
and destruction in it. And more generally,
the pious scholars often repeat the saying,
The the worst kind of scholars are those
found on the doors of the rulers.
Because highway rebels on the path of Allah
are deputies of Dajjal. This is what Imam
Ghazali says. He says,
He become a, a deputy to Shaytan.
That he
he he have his his main focus is
then for dunya, and
then Hawa, his desires
is is the main is the main
aspect of his character,
and no taqwa.
And the tragedy of this, he says,
the the the
the people then become encouraged when they see
him committing sins. They also
follow in his path.
And then he has
his
followers,
people who he is teaching, that sort of
knowledge. It travels, and then they become they
become,
this become this perpetuates. It it then starts
to to to
In other words, this and you find this.
You find a group of, you know, corrupted
scholars, and then they have students who are
also corrupted.
And then they they exploit people.
Find you know, financial exploit
for financial exploitation, sexual exploitation.
All kinds of exploitation,
are happening,
and and and then that's a whole tradition
that develops of control and *, taking peep
taking people away. So he's warning about it.
He's saying,
that this
and this this continues with general but,
student after student, it it it continues.
And he says,
It it all goes back to the first
teacher who taught that person knowledge, give that
person knowledge,
in spite of knowing that he was corrupted
in his intention, he was corrupted in his
motive. When Musa Heredity and he's seen,
he's seeing very clearly this person's sins.
He's seeing.
That he sees this person is sinful
in his speech, in his actions, in his
food, in his clothes, in his dwellings.
And he said this person dies, this scholar
dies,
and
the effects of the sin that he started,
that one person in the beginning,
stays in the world for a 1000 years
and sometimes even 2000 years it can stay.
And so then he says,
Fortunate is he, who when he dies, his
sins also dies with him.
And then further describing the thought process of
the justification,
of some people. He's
then he says,
And this is the point he's making here
now. Is that this misinterpretation
of the intention because the of the Hadith,
that actions will be judged according to the
intention.
So he's saying,
He said some people misunderstand this hadith,
and they they apply it to by saying,
That's I want to spread deen. That's what
I intended.
That if he uses it in that I
wanted to spread deen, and if he uses
it in sin, then it's his it's his
sins, not me.
I only wanted him to use it in
good.
But
in
in reality, what's happening here is that if
you see somebody who is bad, if you
know that this person has,
you can see from all the corollaries, from
the the type of individual
who is coming here, you know, because he's
a rich he's a son of a rich
person or he's a son of the Sultan,
that you're gonna give him all this knowledge
and then he's gonna use it.
So he said the
real motive behind this is
is love of position, love of leadership. And
following, increasing your following and and to show
your your how how how great your knowledge
is.
And and so therefore, he he finds a
way to justify it in his heart.
That
that that shaitan then traps him in it.
And then he
challenges this mode of thinking,
you know, that this this reasoning doesn't work.
And he he gives a beautiful example. He
says, look. What will be his quest what
will be his answer if I ask him,
what do you think about someone?
If somebody donates a sword to a person
who is known who is a known highway
robber, how would he do? He gives him
oath, he gives him all all the things
he need. That is not that is haram.
He said in the verdict of the ulama,
this is all haram, that, Ajmal ulama, alaadhariq
haram,
in spite of generosity being one of the
most important qualities that you can get close
to Allah.
But it is haram.
Why? Because
you should know. You should know that this
this this is wrong. That,
if you know that someone is doing that,
then it is your responsibility to try and
remove
the facilities that this person have. Take away
his sword. Take away his his weapon. A
person if you know that the person is
using it for for for evil, then your
responsibility is to try and get not to,
give them more, not to give them equip
them more with with it. You should take
away their weapon. And then he goes on
to say that, wala'ilnu silahun, and knowledge is
a weapon.
So you should know. Knowledge is a weapon.
That the
is a weapon with which you fight the
shayateen.
Fight shaitan and the enemies of Allah.
And the the enemies of Allah may use
it also to attack you.
So it is
desire that leads you to do this.
He the one who prefers he's the one
who is giving heavy preference to his dunya
over his deen.
And for his desires over his.
And he he's
he he cannot control himself because of his
lowly character that he he is.
So how is it possible?
How is it allowable that you can give
such a person deen? So the person doesn't
knowledge of deen when they will use it
for their own
for for their own,
gratification.
That the early scholars used to look at
the sit at the life. They used to
look at the conduct of their of their
of people who visit them. The people who
used to attend their majalis. They used to
keep an eye on it, on on the
kind of people they were.
If they see that they were leaving nothing,
the super hour of God's prayers,
then they wouldn't show them
any honor so that people don't take them
as scholars.
They they they would refrain from showing them
honor.
And if they saw that they they did
something that was haram or,
that was illegal,
then Hajaruhu.
Then they they would leave him and sometimes
even tell them not to come to their
to their gatherings and
they didn't speak to them.
Much less teaching them.
If they know that such a person will
learn learn something and not put it into
practice,
then so he's not seeking it
for his own. Well, he's not seeking it
for Din. He's seeking it to impress people.
You know, he want shots. He want to
show off. So I want to, I I
I want to, you know, people learn to
masala and then they open their YouTube channel,
and then that's it. You know? I I
I need to increase my likes. So, Sheikh,
tell me something interesting.
Why? Because I I want to impress people.
Tell us something interesting.
And what they mean is that they want
something impressive.
Because I can put it because then I
can go and put it on the Internet
and make,
and get lots of likes. That that's in
today's context. The same kind of thing. Right?
So it's saying
they it said,
And all the scholars have sought all all
the previous scholars have sought refuge in Allah
from
the wicked scholar. The scholar who is miss
miss who,
missed his who have messed up his his
he he he his intention,
and they did not.
They
did
not
seek refuge from the wicked, ignorant person.
Okay. I'm not gonna read the Arabic because
we're running out of time and tell you
tell you the story in English that,
Ahmed ibnhambal,
the great imam, he had a he had
a student who used to visit him many
years, and then all of a sudden he
stopped speaking to him. And then he asked
him tried to ask him several times, why
why why what's the problem?
And he then eventually, he said to him
that,
that it has reached me that you have
plastered your house
the the the wall of your house
that is facing the street, the the public
street.
And when you plastered it, you you
you've taken
an inch.
An moolah tin, this much. You know, An
moolah is this much. You've taken 1 inch
of the public highway,
and from Sharia al Muslimin that this is
this is public. And you take that, and
then he said, because you've done that,
that you you are not suitable for to
become a Talib al Al. To be Talib
al Al. So, you know, This
this is a story. Fa Hakad al Murakabbat
the son of Li Aqwali. This is how
they used to check. They used to,
be careful about how things
that,
the people who they're taught, who who they're
teaching. Now what about the people who we
approach
nowadays?
So
Imam Zubaydi quotes a,
a saying of Omar radiAllahu
here in the in the tafsir when in
in the shah
of Haya al Muaddini, he says here that,
That Islam
is demolished by 3 things. The slippage,
That Islam is demolished by 3 things. The
slippage of the scholar, the hypocrite fighting with
the Quran, either fighting it or fighting using
the Quran to fight the hypocrite using it,
or misguided leaders, you know.
Now so Faizan Qawduhinamal
Aminiath, he's saying that what I'm trying to
say here is that Innamal Aminiath
pertains to 2 of the 3 categories
that we talked about in the beginning. What
were the 3 categories? There was
a a, a a a tawat wal mubahat
wal Maasi.
Tawat
are acts of worship.
Mubahat
are
neutral acts that they are allowable. They're not
acts of worship, and they're not acts of
sin. And then Ma'aseya acts of sin. So
he's saying
this verse this this this hadith pertains only
to the first two. It pertains to Ta'at
and Mubahat, which is act, acts of worship
and
neutral actions, but it does not pertain
to
sin. You cannot say that doing something wrong
with a good intention will make it good.
It doesn't work like that. It's a
Good deeds can turn to bad with bad
intention,
and neutral deeds can turn to good deeds
or to bad deeds depending on intention. But
bad bad deeds do not turn
into good intention into good
because you have you have a good intention.
It doesn't work like that.
So as we said, in the in in
the first thing you need to know in
the Adabil Istiftah
is to know who you should take your
deen from. Now nowadays, there are so many
people calling themselves sheikhs and talib al-'alim and
student of knowledge and dahi, etcetera.
People are in a state of confusion.
So they say, you know,
we're how we should know? We are how
how are the average Muslims to to know
who
who is the real who is genuine and
who is not? Only Allah knows the secrets
of the heart.
And indeed, this is quite true. We cannot
judge
what's in the hearts of people,
but there are guidances, there are signs and
corollaries that you should use to make informed
choices.
When it comes to the health of our
bodies, the health of our physical self,
we do not take risks.
For instance, we do not readily take medical
prescriptions from Google,
or from someone random, some random person on
the Internet calling himself a doctor.
However,
Flash or professional his website might seem,
we don't.
But when it comes to our spiritual self,
we're often willing to allow anyone with a
bit of in Internet charisma
to,
you know, do the equivalent of brain surgery
in our hearts and our souls.
This is dangerous and without with and with
potential tragic consequences.
And it is a phenomena that is on
the increase, and it is this one of
the signs of the day of judgment.
It is subject number 4. What was subject
number 4 in the curriculum of Islam? You
remember the hadith Jibril, what I said? Subject
number 4 was a was
almu fitani zaman.
The knowledge of the fitna of your zaman.
That is subject number 4. You know, Rus'allah
said towards the end of his life, this
had this the the Jibril came. His whole
you know you know, if I'm giving a
speech and I ask you at the end
of it, what what did I say,
it it will become hard to remember everything
I say. But if at the end of
it, I summarize it with 4 points, then
it becomes easy for you to remember what
I said. And so something similar, like, happened
at the time of the prophet. Towards the
end of his prophethood, Jibril, alaihis salam, came
and he spoke he spoke asked him these
4 questions. And in these 4 under these
4 questions, you have a summary of the
mission of what what Rasool Allah is teaching
you. So subject number 4
was Al Mu fit and Izaman to know
what what fitna, what is there. And one
of the signs at the end times that
that you will find is that fake scholarship
and people who are,
who
will misguide because of bad intention.
And that Allah will not take up the
knowledge from this world in one sap, you
know, in one stroke. But it but slowly
as all as all of my die, then
knowledge will become,
sparse, become less and less. And then
then
people will take and
ignorant
heads will be taken, and they will do
fatwa. They will give and they will mislead
people.
So before that, this knowledge will be carried
by Urdull.
This is what Rasulullah, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
said. The people who are described as Urdull.
That this
knowledge in every successive generation or,
or in
in every century, in every you will find
reliable authorities, or Adul,
who will preserve this knowledge,
rejecting the changes by extremists and the frauds
of those who make false claims for themselves,
and the interpretations of the ignorant.
Now the word Udul literally means people of
justice. The people who are in other words,
people who do
in the sense of doing justice of the
knowledge they possess.
How do you do that justice? It's by
putting putting it in practice and gaining
the,
and not
for gaining popularity and wealth. You know, Imam
Ghazali in his Mustaswah, which is his legal
treatise on the jurisprudence,
he he he he gives a definite. He
explains what Badul means. And he says,
that or Adalat or Adalat or Adalat, the
type of person you want to follow,
who you want to take your Deen from,
the person who you would recognize
as Adal, as,
with Adalah.
It denotes,
the it's the with
Deen.
It denotes consistency in character and religion.
That that is embodied in it in its
carrier
through a state that keeps him firm on
Taqwa
and Moroa,
noble conduct.
So that people will gain
their,
confidence in him. So such that confidence is
earned through his honesty. And
and then
That a person that there's no confidence in
the words of the one who does not
fear Allah or abstain from lying.
And then there's no
question that
that person has to avoid sin. That has
to be
has to be,
clear from sin.
And that is not sufficient also.
Not just avoiding the grave sin, but the
but the small sins. Little things like, you
you know, like sadaqah,
stealing and,
tricking people or
And it
you're running out of time. He he talks
about he he he said that anything that
indicates to the shallowness of his deed, even
if that means just eating in even some,
allowable actions even, but the ones that are
against good, against,
respectable character character, you know. So something that
that is that is against your,
a, the character of a noble person, like
eating in the middle of the street, eating
in the street, or urinating in the street,
all of these
urinating in the corner of the road. These
kinds of things are are are I said,
You know, the clowning around and laughing and
shouting.
You know, doing a
laughing like Shatan. Shatan loves you to laugh.
That those kinds of things are also
indications
to this person of a person's
a person's shallowness of his deen. What you
want people of depth,
so it has to and and then there
are other,
characteristics. Insha'Allah, we'll talk more about this next
week, but,
one of the things that it that I
wanted to end with is about that,
what else, this is Aladdin Abul Hassan and,
Al Mardawi. He says that,
it is, Al Adlu,
That the person where there's no no doubt
attached to him. That he's he's a clean
he has a clean slate
in in society. That has that's the kind
of person. Person you should know. Person you
person that you know and you you know
in person.
The person to know and know in person.
That's
Okay. So in summary, before you decide on
following someone and taking knowledge from of Islam
from them, make sure you know all of
these things about them. You should know about
their taqwa. You should know about their muruah,
their noble conduct, their honesty, their abstaining
from lying, from their lowly conduct, from bad
manners, from bad company. Yes, even their company.
And from rude behavior, from cheating, from the
pursuing of fame and wealth.
Mere charisma and Internet Internet popularity
is not sufficient.
You need to know the person in person,
or at least know people who know them
thoroughly.
Okay. I'll leave you with a strange but
slightly funny story,
about the same topic. You know? So there's,
there's a great scholar,
known as Sofia ibn Nureyayna.
And he had
a Arabi, a Bedouin
student who traveled to him and stayed with
him a long time, you know, and started,
listening to hadiths.
So then one day, he sought permission to
return to the bed to to his place
to to go go back to
the
Bedouin,
tribe.
So he said to him,
you know, to tell us what you learned.
You know? What what do you know about
this, what you've gained from us? Because he
was there a long time listening to Hadith.
So the Arab says,
I I only there are 3 Hadith that
stuck in my mind. And so
so he said to him,
so what's the first one? He said,
Hadith That the Hadith of Aisha saying that
Rasoolullah
used to like halwa, used to like sweet
and,
and honey.
So he said, is that that's the hadith
that stuck in your mind? He said, yes.
That one. He said, okay. What's the second
one?
He said, the second hadith is the hadith
says that says that
He said that if the Hadith that says
that if
dinner arrives
and at the time of Isha, then start
with the dinner.
So
that's that's the Hadith you're doing.
So I said, what's the third one?
Said the third one
is that
there's that it's it it it is not
of righteousness
to fast while traveling.
So so these are the 3 hadith. Now
what do you what do you get? What
kind of student is this? This is a
person who is only interested in his button,
in his in his stomach.
So this is not the kind of student
you want. This is not, you know,
this is not the kind of so from
this, you know what kind of things that
is sticking in your student's mind. What the
what what are they asking for?
Right? So
yeah. Now
homework.
This is another important verse I want you
to memorize. This is,
Surat Mujjadala,
which is the 58th Surah
verse 7, please.
That
there is no private conversation.
3, but he but that he is the
4th of them.
Nor are they
are there 5, but he is the 6th
of them. No less than that. No more,
except that he is with them wherever they
are.
Then he will inform them
of what they did on the day of
resurrection.
Indeed, Allah
is of all things knowing.
Memorize this ayah. Read it in salah.
This is part of
recognition for knowing that Allah knows what you're
doing, what you're saying
you're saying.
Yeah. Okay. Let us pray.
This this this dua that I read, I
I need to also mention this. This is
it's it's from Hadith, you know.
That
seldom would the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
stand up from a majlis with his with
his sahaba, except that he would make this
dua for them.
Oh Allah. Forgive
us. Oh Allah. Open our hearts. Oh Allah.
Open our hearts to your mercy and your
guidance.
Oh Allah. Strengthen our iman with yaqeen.
Oh Allah. Strengthen our hearts with yaqeen.
Oh, Allah, fix
the problems in our lives. Oh, Allah, you
are the one who is in control. Oh,
Allah, we rest we rest
our trust in you, and we know that
you
see and hear everything we do. Oh, Allah,
our hearts are outstretched
like beggars do.
Today, asking you to help us to turn
a new page, oh, Allah. Open
open the path for us, oh, Allah, and
keep us on this path. Keep us sincere.
Oh, Allah, grant us sincerity.
Sheikh,
for today's class, I know it's very, very
beneficial,
especially in our age, now where,
in you've got access to social media and
those people proclaiming to be scholars and and
things like that. We have to be careful
from
who we take from and the knowledge that
they're,
supposedly giving out. So very important topic today.
You know, we we learn from it, and
accept
from you, chef, and accept it from all
of us,
same time next week.