Saad Tasleem – Only God Can Judge Me

			The topic is called, only God can judge me. How many of you have heard the statement before? Only
God can judge me. Okay, another quick show of hands. How many people have heard someone say this on
Facebook or Twitter?
		

			Okay, very interesting. So this is one of the topics that I felt was very important to talk about,
because it does get mentioned on as we saw, it does get mentioned a lot on Facebook and Twitter. And
there does seem to be a lot of misconceptions and misunderstandings regarding the topic of judging
someone, or telling someone what they're doing is wrong, or something like that. And one of the
things that I found regarding this issue is that many people who accuse others of judging them, and
there's usually like two sides of the story here, but on either sides, what the common theme is that
people are very quick to point the finger to the other person. So someone who feels like they're
		

			being judged. They'll say, like, Who are you to judge me? Only God can judge me or, as they say,
sometimes don't judge me because i sin differently than you. Right? One of those statements. Now the
interesting thing about that statements, Pamela is when somebody says like, Who are you to judge me,
so someone may someone may have come up to another person said, Listen, this thing that you're
doing, it's wrong, or you shouldn't do this, or whatever. And the person says, Who are you to judge
me. And the irony there is of how to line up and think about this is that the irony there is that
when you tell someone that they're judging you, you're actually judging them back. Because what
		

			you're telling them is, your intentions are not sincere. You're trying to put me down, who are you
to make this judgment upon me, and maybe, just maybe, they don't, they don't, they're not trying to
judge you. They're not even trying to say anything about you. Maybe they're just trying to advise
you. Maybe they are commanding the good and forbidding the evil, as we know, and joining that which
is right upon other people and getting people to stop doing those things which are bad or evil. That
is a part of our Deen. It's a part of Islam. And actually, it's part it's part of our Eman as well
as a loss of what to Allah. When he mentioned, commanding the good and forbidding the evil loss
		

			pinata says, couldn't to hire a nurse that you are the best of nations raised up for mankind. Okay,
why are we the best of nations? What makes us the best of nations to morona Bill Maher roofie, what
an honor. I didn't want that you come out and the people to do that which is good. And you stop the
people from doing that which is bad and evil. And then Allah subhana wa tada says, What took me no
Nabila and you believe in Allah subhanho wa Taala. And what's interesting about this area right
here, this verse in the Quran, is that Allah puts commanding the good and forbidding the evil before
the mountain, Allah subhana wa Tada. And the scholars have looked into this issue and they said,
		

			Why, why is it that this issue of compounding their good are telling people to do that which is
good, or stopping them from doing something which is evil? Why in this ayah has Allah subhana wa,
tada put this before he man, and there's two meat two main reasons for that. Number one, in the
nations that came before us, one of the issues that they had, is that they would take their, their
right and wrong, and they would only apply it to themselves. So they'd be like, you know, I'm okay
as myself as an individual. But if I see someone doing something wrong, or someone is oppressing
someone else, or someone is harming someone else, or someone is doing something which is evil, then
		

			that's basically none of my business, as long as I'm okay by myself. And this is one of the traits
that was present in the nations before us. So to remind us and to show the importance of stopping
people from doing something which is evil, and encouraging to do people that which is good to show
the importance of that Allah subhanaw taala put it before even mentioning the man of the person. And
the second reason, obviously, we know is that, as I mentioned, commanding the good and forbidding
the evil is actually part of our emotion. It's part of our faith, meaning our faith, our email is
not complete, it cannot be perfected, until we become those people, that when we live in a society,
		

			we enjoy that which is good. So we encourage people to become better people, we encourage them to
become better members of society. And at the same time when we see something evil happening, when we
see something wrong happening, that we are the person we are the nation, we are the people who are
who will stand up for that which is right and will stand up for someone who is being oppressed. And
this is why Allah subhanaw taala mentions is even before mentioning the man of a person. So like I
said, a person who is telling the other individual and says listen, who are you to judge me? Maybe
they're just trying to enjoin that which is right and forbid that which is evil, or maybe they're
		

			just trying to advise you. Maybe Maybe because of their love for you and they're caring for you.
They don't want you to do something which is wrong. And it's out of their their love for you and
care for you that they advise you. And we actually know that advising just like committee
		

			Only the good and forbidding the evil, it's a necessary part of Islam. And SubhanAllah. If you are
actually imagine a society in which no one ever tells the other person that they're doing something
wrong, or never, or a person never encourages someone else to do something, which is good. If you
think about a society like that, it would actually be a very chaotic society. And it would be a very
troubled society. Because anytime something would do something wrong, and you would want to tell the
person, the person be like, Listen, who are you to judge me? Right? Only God can judge me, or, for
example, and I'll give you an example, which will make it more real for you. You imagine someone
		

			murders another person.
		

			And then when you go when the cops go to arrest this guy, and they're like, you know, this is not
right, committed murder and all that. He says, You can't judge me, in my eyes, this murders, okay.
		

			And this is this is how we see that in a society in which no one is commanding the good and no one
is forbidding the evil. This is a society which will have troubles, and it's not possible to live in
a society like that. So one of the issues, like I said, is that people who feel judged, instead of
looking at what is happening, or what is being criticized in them, or and that is our responsibility
as Muslims, we're obviously not responsible for, for making sure that the other person is okay with
Allah subhana wa, tada, yeah, will encourage other people. But the first person that we're
responsible for is ourselves. So when someone criticizes you, or condemns you, or whatever, and one
		

			of the excuses that is often used is, the person spoke to me and in a rude manner, or they weren't
nice when they, when they advise me, or they, they didn't use the best words, when they advised me,
they were rude with me, and one, and that's used as an excuse. And for us, we should look at
ourselves and say, listen, maybe there is truth in what this person is saying. And as something that
scholars would mention, is just because the way the message was delivered to you, just because of
that, don't discount the message. Or maybe you don't like the person who delivered the message to
you. Right? That's not, that's not a reason to discount the message, as you've had a lost part of it
		

			is not going to law is not going to question us about the actions of others. What Allah will
question is about is our actions. So when a brother or sister came to us and said, You know what,
this thing that you're doing? It's not right, it's not okay. That did we say, Listen, don't judge me
like, Who are you to judge me? Or do we really become introspective and say, you know, what, maybe
there is some truth to what is happening here. Maybe there is some truth to what is being said here
as the role model, the 11th hour, and he would say, he would say, may Allah have mercy upon the
person who brings me the gift of my own shortcomings. And he would be happy. And he would say,
		

			Alhamdulillah, we have people that are willing to stand up and tell me when I'm doing something,
which is wrong. And like I said, we need that in society, we need people like that. And on the other
hand, by the way, the other side of the story, it's the same issue. So on this side of the story,
when someone feels judged, they'll point the fingers to the other party and say, Listen, you are
judging me, this is not right, you were rude, you didn't address this issue properly, and they'll
just discount the message. On the other hand, the same thing happens when people start pointing
fingers towards the other party. So you may have a brother or sister who does advise someone, or
		

			they or they they do call them out on an issue or something like that. And that brother will will
turn around and say, listen, you're just ignorant of the fact that commanding the good and
forbidding the evil as part of Islam. So it doesn't really matter how I advise you, it doesn't
really matter what I said, you need to understand that this is part of Islam. Well, you know, what
else is part of Islam? In Islam, we have etiquettes. And we have conditions and rulings. And things
we need to understand before we put ourselves in a position where we advise another individual, or
we come out and the good and we forbid the evil. For example, the first thing a person should ask
		

			themselves, when they're in a position where they want to tell someone that what they're doing is
wrong. Is that is my intention sincere in this advice? Why am I advising this person? Is it because
of maybe maybe I have some insecurities in myself. And that's why I feel like I need to call this
person out. Or I need to say that what they're doing is wrong, because that'll kind of cut them down
and bring them to my level. Maybe it's because I want more attention. And we see this happen a lot.
You know, like I said, especially on Facebook and Twitter and things like that. You'll notice
there's always a certain amount of brothers and sisters, which I personally there's something I
		

			mentioned my cost as well. We call it the peanut gallery. You guys know the peanut gallery is the
peanut gallery are those people who sit online and just criticize everything. Right? So they're
sitting in their grimy pajamas in their basement somewhere, doing nothing for the sake of this Deen
doing nothing to help the Muslim community doing nothing to help the organizations that are doing
good out there. The only help that they're doing is to help
		

			Every one what they're doing is wrong. Right? As they say, it's easy to it's easy to be a critic. So
the first thing that a person needs to ask themselves when they're in a position where they're
commanding the good or forbidding the evil is, what are my intentions behind commanding this good or
forbidding the evil? Why am I doing this? Am I truly doing this for the sake of Allah subhana wa
tada for the sake of Allah, do I truly want goodness for the person. And somehow the Prophet said a
lot, I said them. In his demo, you'll notice one thing people often quote the price set them and
they'll say, the price that I'm forbade this, or the price that I have commanded you to do this.
		

			Well, there's a characteristic that the Prophet sallallahu send them hat. And that characteristic
was that he cared about the people that he was making Dawa to the people that he was calling to
Islam, the people that he was calling to the worship of Allah, He truly deeply cared about those
people. And this is why a lot of how do I says about the prophets that a lot I send them
		

			to me mean that perhaps you will kill yourself out of grief that these people do not become
believers that they don't accept the message of Islam. This is how much the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wasallam cared about the people that he was making dare with you. That is the amount of
sincerity the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had. So when you're taking on the job of the
Prophet send them and showing people the truth and calling people to Islam, and commanding the good
and forbidding the evil, we must also have the traits and the characteristics of the prophets that
ally send them this sincerity in his call to Islam, the caring for the people, that's part of
		

			delivering the message of Islam. The second thing that a person or another thing that a person needs
to understand before they're in a position where they call someone out or tell someone what they're
doing is, is right or wrong. That part of the etiquette of advising someone is that the advice
should be given privately. Right, one of the one of the things that we see on Facebook is that
nothing's private, obviously, right? So when someone sees someone doing something wrong online,
instead of contacting that person individually, or something like that, they'll put them on blast on
Facebook, right? Or can you believe someone did this or something like that. And what they're not
		

			realizing is that the whole world now is a witness to what you're saying about this person. And when
you take any individual, and you put them in front of people, and you start criticizing them in
front of people, they're immediately going to put up a wall, and they're going to become defensive.
And they may not even listen to what you have to say. And this is why part of the etiquettes of
advising someone is that you talk to them privately. And not only privately, you talk to them
personally. And I've seen people you know this happens very often I've seen people say, Well, the
only reason I'm calling this person out, or the only reason I'm saying this about this person is
		

			because I want them to change. I want them to become a better person, I want goodness for the oma, I
want goodness for Islam. And so we say if you truly wanted goodness for this person, you would talk
to them personally. Right on an individual basis instead of telling other people what you think is
wrong about this individual. Right, that's part of the etiquettes is part of the rule. These are the
conditions of advising someone also is that part of advising someone part of commanding the good and
forbidding the evil is that our intention should first and foremost be to conceal the faults of
others. And then we help them improve those faults. That the also the default is that with a Muslim
		

			with a fellow Muslim, we never want to expose their sins, we never want to as they say put them on
blast, right? We don't want to do that. We want to hide the sins of our fellow Muslims. And so when
we hide their sins, they know that we care about them. And then when we go and advise them, they'll
be more willing to listen to us and as we know the profits of a lot of them said that the one who
conceals the faults of their fellow Muslim, that Allah subhana wa tada will conceal their faults on
the Day of Judgment. And what's scary about this hadith panela is that each and every one of us, we
have faults, none of us are perfect, right? And I don't care who you are like the biggest scholar in
		

			the world, the most pious person, no matter who you think someone is, everyone makes mistakes. No
one is perfect. Right? And so would we want that Allah subhanaw taala not conceal our faults in the
Day of Judgment, and another Hadith the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and this I consider it
to be actually a very, very scary idea. And this Hadith, the Prophet sallallahu sallam, he says,
mentor,
		

			Muslim,
		

			Allahu our otter, that the person who goes out of their way to find the faults of other people to
expose the faults of other people than Allah will expose their faults, woman to Allah who will alter
your bio, and whoever has their faults exposed by Allah, then this person will become ruined.
wallow, Karna fijo theoretically, even if this person is hiding in the depths of their house, Allah
will expose this person's issues. And so the question each and every one of us should be asking
ourselves before we sit there and criticize
		

			Other people, or we call them out in front of others is that if we were put on that same scale, if
all of a sudden today someone exposed all of our issues, all of our faults, would we be okay with
that? And let's be honest, one of the reasons why we call other people were pointing fingers at
other people who criticize other people, is because it's a lot easier than dealing with our own
issues, right? And Subhanallah This is what happens a lot of times, because if we busy ourselves, if
we concern ourselves with the faults of others, then there's no more time left for our own issues,
in our own faults. And as most as Muslims, we are responsible for, like I said, first and foremost
		

			for ourselves, and the status of our own heart and the status of our own soul.
		

			Amongst the other etiquettes of advising someone is that before you tell someone what they're doing
is wrong, is that you understand the issue, and you have knowledge of the issue. You know, it's not
an issue and I know this happens a lot. Someone says, You know, I heard so associates say that this
is not okay. Or I you know, I attended this class. And in the class, I heard the sheriff said that
this is how long so then they'll take out their foot to a hammer, right? You guys know, the futsal
hammers, you know, like Thor has his hammer, super Muslim has a futsal hammer, and the hammer is,
you take your hammer, and every time you see someone doing something which is wrong, you just smash
		

			it on their head, right? And you're like, this is the photo, this is which this is that which which
I have learned, right? It's had a lot the scholars of the past, they would be very, very, very
careful when it came to speaking about matters of the religion. And as Imam Malik, for example, he
would say that when someone would ask me a question about Islam, I would envision myself standing
between heaven and *. That is the responsibility I felt before I spoke about Islam.
		

			Right. And as we know, if our Darrell if our call to Islam is void of knowledge, then not only will
it be fruitless, sometimes it can cause damage to the call to Islam. How many times have we seen
people say things in the name of Islam? or, or, or Command things on the name of Islam in the name
of Islam, and because of their lack of knowledge, instead of doing good? They end up harming Islam,
not Islam, but at least the image of Islam, or the people have the image that people have of Islam.
And this is why email and Bahati Allah, Allah, in his book, say and Bahati write this book that we
all know the second most authentic book on the face of this earth, after the Quran. In his book, he
		

			has a chapter titled
		

			kubla cola man, that knowledge proceeds speech and action. Meaning if you don't have the knowledge
of something that how will you act upon it? How can you tell someone what they're doing is right or
wrong, when you do not fully understand this issue?
		

			Knowledge precedes speech and action. And so it's not a law. On the other hand, at the same time, we
see people who are poor who are criticizing others. And if they if you actually maybe sit down with
this person discuss this issue with them, they may say something to you, like, you know what, I just
heard the shift say it and support a lot. When was the last time that that was a deli? That was a
proof in our in Islam, where we can say, listen, the reason why I've taken on the mantle of
commanding the good and forbidding the evil is because I just heard someone saying,
		

			and when it comes to knowledge, the other issue is not just knowledge of the issue, but knowledge of
what you're what you're commanding, or who you're commanding. Sometimes we call people out, we tell
them what they're doing is wrong. And we haven't even gotten the fact straight. We don't even know
if someone has done this or that or not. And so finally, I'll give you a personal example, regarding
this. You all have heard about the class that I teach, called the fifth of Chilean people, you all
have heard this, I was here a couple weeks ago, I taught it here.
		

			One of the things about this class about the seminar is that people hear that title of the seminar
is called a fifth of chillin. And people make a lot of assumptions about the class. And I've even
heard people criticize the class and say, You know what, this is a class where, you know, he's just
gonna he's just gonna tell us that, you know, there's, there's different camps, when it comes to the
classes, there's like, there's a more conservative camp that thinks that I'm just going to come in
class and say everything is headed, right? And then you have the other camp who makes the assumption
that I'm going to come into class and say everything is hot. All right. But I often tell people,
		

			people who come to me and they criticize the class, or even people come to me and they'll say, you
know, so and so has been criticizing your class, I'll be like, Listen, unless this individual has
taken my class, unless they have sat in my class, I really couldn't care less what you have to say
about this seminar, because they have no knowledge, they do not understand what this seminar is
about. So before you tell someone that what they did was wrong or before you call someone out, you
have to know that, that that is the truth. That is exactly what happened. Right? And this is why in
Islam, even going off of assumptions is something which is considered very, very negative. Whereas
		

			the Prophet sallallahu Sallam he said Yakumo he said
		

			Be aware of making assumptions, making assumptions about people. He said it making assumptions about
people is the worst acculevel Hadith is the worst of false speech, that are out of all the negative
things that you could say out of out of all the bad things you could say, out of all the bad things
you could do, one of the worst type of speech is to make an assumption about someone. And a lot of
times when people call other people out or say that what they're doing is right or wrong, it's based
off of an assumption. And because like I said, because of the work because we live in a world of
Twitter and Facebook, news gets passed around, and we don't check the facts. We don't think about
		

			it. And this is why we believe in things like Kony 2012. Right. This is a story went viral, people
are getting really upset on the internet, we need to save Africa and all that kind of stuff. And it
turns out that a lot of the facts that we heard about this whole campaign were false. Right. And
once again, if we as Muslims, if we held on to our morals, we were like, you know what, before I
speak about something before I say this is right, or this is wrong whenever I have to check the
facts, because Allah subhana wa, tada will hold me accountable for what I have set. And not only on
like a global level, but on an individual basis. Even when we have interpersonal relationships,
		

			before we assume anything about someone, or we make an assumption about their intentions, we have to
check the facts, we have to make sure that what we are being told about this individual is actually
true. And then on top of that, once we're told that we go, like I said, we go to them on an
individual basis on an individual level and talk to them personally, because that shows them that we
really care. Part of the etiquettes of commanding the good and forbidding the evil is that we as
Muslims, understand the levels of commanding the good and forbidding the evil.
		

			That there is not always it's not always an issue of you have to stop the evil happening at the
exact time. Sometimes, if you weigh the harms and benefits the harms in you speaking out against
someone or physically stopping someone from doing something evil, the harms of that may far outweigh
the benefit that you think that will come out of that. And as we know the profits and why send them
he gave us three levels of commanding the good and forbidding the evil. The process that I've said,
Man Rahman C'mon, Karen, for Yahoo big that when you see someone doing something evil than they
should stop it with their hands. What Islamia stop there for Billy sonny. And if they're not able to
		

			do it with their hands, meaning physically stopped this evil auction that is happening, then they do
it with their tongue, they speak out against it well, in lumea, so Claire phobia will be. And if
they're not able to do that, then they do it with their hearts, meaning they understand and they
know in their heart that this action that is taking place is wrong. And one of the things the
scholars mentioned about this Hadeeth span a lot. And this is something that people may not
initially pick up from this hadith is that people think that when it comes to the ability, it means
that you're actually physically not able. And what this call is mentioned is that when it comes to
		

			the ability, the ability means weighing the harms and benefits. And if you've had a loss, sometimes
we don't realize the damage that we're causing, when we come out and the good or forbid the evil or
we call people out or whatever, without knowledge and without looking and taking a second look at
the harms and the benefits of what we're doing and what we're saying. And so this is why I feel in
this issue's Pamela, I know people were expecting me to speak about one or two, either of the sides.
So some people were coming here expecting me to say, listen, we just need to stop judging people to
stop talking about stop saying anything to anyone. On the other hand, there are people expecting me
		

			to say, Listen, you need to remind the people that it is wajib, that it's it's it's a responsibility
in your religion, to command the good and forbid the evil. And the reality is that both parties need
to be introspective, both parties need need to take a look at themselves and say, I have
responsibilities in this situation. I have responsibilities in this case. So to the one who is
feeling judged, or the one who accuses the other person of judging. The final thing I will leave you
with is this. Remember that Allah subhanaw taala is not going to question you about the actions of
the one who you thought was judging you, whether they were rude with you, whether they were mean to
		

			you, whether they advise you in public or all that kind of stuff. That's wrong, but that that's
that's between them and Allah subhanaw taala. What Allah will question you about is that once
someone came to you with this advice, when someone told you that what you're doing is wrong, or that
you have to do this, how did you react in this situation, and that is your responsibility as an
individual. So I would say, just because you don't like the messenger, don't discount the message or
just because you don't like the way in which the message was delivered to you don't discount the
message to the other side to the other party. I would say to you that yes, we know it is part of our
		

			email to command the good and forbid the evil and it is part of Islam to advise people
		

			With that, which is good, but it is very important that you understand that we do have rulings and
we have etiquettes and we have conditions that must be fulfilled before you advise someone, right?
And Allah subhana wa tada knows best. Well hello there, I wanna handle a horrible alameen wa Salam
alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh