Saad Tasleem – People of Knowledge

			The topic that I want to speak about today is really almost a refresher topic. And this serves more
so as a reminder for myself or for all of you as well. And what I want to speak about today is the
rank and the status that the people have knowledge have in our Deen or we can say the scholars, the
status and the reinfeld loves peddling tiada has given to them. And I want to start off with sharing
an ayah in the Quran where Allah subhanaw taala says innama yuck shall live under a burden.
		

			And I want to explain this just a little bit. So to start off the word Enigma, what this is really
saying is, we can think of it as only and only in NEMA only, and only the ones who have the true
hushai of a law. And this is the the fear and consciousness of a law, in action, law and a body from
the servants of Allah, and Allah. So Allah is saying here in this ayah, as if it is only and only
the scholars who truly have the pleasure of Allah, it is as if only and only it is the scholars who
truly are conscious and fearful of the loss of data. And what this means is, Allah is telling us
that a way in which a scholar, a person of knowledge, will be able to be conscious of along the way
		

			a scholar will be able to worship along the way a scholar will be able to serve a love of Allah is
unlike anyone else. And notice here in this last part of my data, says missionary buddy, meaning out
of all of the slaves of Allah, out of all of the servants of a lion, we're saying, these are all of
those people who are serving a lot already. These are people who are in the service of a loved
parity, amongst all of them, it is the owner, who have the true history of a lot, meaning, the way
in which they will be able to worship a lot, and serve a lot is unlike others. And this is because
obviously, first and foremost of their knowledge, and that is what loves proteolysis, for Unknown,
		

			Unknown, know that there's no one worthy of worship other than a lot, even the kenema our Shahada
law, the law to truly do service to the Shahada to truly fulfill with the Shahada. That means from
us and requires from us, it takes knowledge for unknown unknown law you got in the bar? And that is
what this data tells us that the people of knowledge are not like the people who do not have
knowledge good. Have you stolen that?
		

			Say, are those who know, equal to those who do not know? And this is a rhetorical question. And the
answer is obviously no, there is no comparison between a person who worships a lump of data with
knowledge, and a person who worships a lot without knowledge. And that is why the prophet SAW a
loved one I think he was sending him he said hello to him, either. You said the superiority of an
algorithm of a scholar over an individual and once again, we're not talking about just a Muslim who
doesn't care about the deen of a bunch of data, and a worship or someone who spends their life in
the worship of Allah, someone who is constantly praying and fasting and making Vica the press that
		

			I've said that a scholar this superiority that a scholar has over them, meaning a scholar is better
than an oven in a way can
		

			I not say it in color, Kim, it is like the superiority that a that the moon has over the rest of the
stars. And if you've ever looked up in the sky, when the moon is shining, there may be stars shining
in the sky as well, but your sight goes straight to the moon. Right? That is the most prominent
thing in the sky at that moment. And another narration President have said
		

			money out of an article, he said the superiority or the greatness of a scholar over a worshiper is
like my superiority, meaning the Prophet civilized, send them over the least of you. So
		

			can you imagine how the Prophet sallallaahu Selim compares to the least of the believers?
		

			As people who have human we have no doubt in the superiority of the prophets that I send them and
compare the price and send them to the one who's the least amongst them believers, it becomes very
vivid for us, we understand the rank that the scholars have in Islam, the place that loves pilotes,
Allah has given to the scholars in this religion. And truly as the prophets I send them told us that
those who carry on the job of the prophets are the scholars, those who have taken on the mantle of
delivering the message of Islam are the scholars. And this is why the prophets of Allah I send them
he said in them and Allah in the
		

			In aroma, what are subtle ambia? He said the scholar certainly the scholars are the heirs of the
prophets, the inherent towards those who inherited from the prophets, or who the scholars, because
as the President have said, the the MBR, they don't leave behind, and the Nauvoo did have meaning
wealth and property, this is not what they leave behind, you will notice that what they leave behind
knowledge to be inherited, and that is inherited by the scholars. The scholars are the ones who have
taken it taken on the mission of learning the Dean of law, learning what the prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam taught this oma for us to worship a lot, and to carry on and to deliver that
		

			message. And truly what we're talking about here is that a scholar is a person who has made the
conscious effort to dedicate their life to learn the deen of Allah. And that's why I don't care what
a person has learned. Right? A person can be a neurosurgeon, a person can be an astronaut, and they
have put in countless hours and and they have done all the all the all the work in the world, and
they're like the smartest person so on and so forth. Their knowledge will never compare to the
knowledge of a scholar. And not to say that obviously people who study for the study for you know
for their profession, they cannot be rewarded by law, of course, they can person become the doctor
		

			with the intention of providing for their family, and helping the community and so on and so forth.
In sha Allah, they have their reward with a lot, right a precedent becomes an engineer with a good
intention, of course, they can be rewarded for their intentions, but a person who becomes a scholar,
their intention is to inherit from the province on the level and as a scholar, their intention is to
learn what the prophet and the prophets have left behind in order for us to make it to Jenna. In
order for us to make it to paradise. This is the path that a scholar that a person of knowledge a
student of knowledge has taken upon, that is why we cannot compare the two. We cannot compare the
		

			life of a person or knowledge in someone other than that, and this is why the prophets have a lot
it's and then he said, mancilla, can
		

			you tell me Sufi here in Sahara loevy today
		

			that a person who takes a path in search of knowledge alone will make their path to paradise? Easy.
So while the rest of us are spending days and nights and hours and and months working for this dunya
getting our degrees and our education and so on and so forth, the person of knowledge was spending
years learning the deen of Allah who's petalite Allah, that is the rank and the and the merits and
the blessings that love is presented to Allah has given to the scholars. Now the problem is my
brothers and sisters, that as I say, this stuff, in our mind that we begin to think that these
people were just spoken about have to be perfect, that they have to be those who do not make
		

			mistakes. Those who do not earn those who we will have to agree with. And so what happens, the
moment we disagree with someone, the moment we say, I don't know, if what he's saying it doesn't, he
doesn't work with me. That's not my understanding of the dean. I don't know if I agree with the
stance that the scholar has taken this person knowledge has taken for us, we automatically *,
take away the rank that Allahu Allah tada has given to the person of knowledge, when the reality is
that every single human being will be correct sometimes, and sometimes they will be incorrect.
		

			Sometimes they will make mistakes, there is no one other than the prophets, I send them when we can
say did not make a mistake. And we can say that all have that everything that he has brought us is
crystal clear, and will never have any issues. The scholars, even though they are scholars, they
will learn and they will make mistakes. But that does not affect the respect that we have for our
scholars. And that is why the prophets I send them he told us of this very issue. He said either
hacker will hack him for instead. What a slob. No, john, that if a person is making giving a ruling,
they're they're you know, a scholar is making a judgment in a matter. And they say, you know, they
		

			do each they have meaning they have, by the way is to put in the work. The work means, hey, I spent
X amount of years studying the Dean of a law memorizing the Book of last era, learning the sun,
setting them studying the science of Islam, all of that is a precursor to each jihad. Now they have
the ability to
		

			Make the HTML and then put in the work with sincerity percent of said if this person makes a
judgment with each they had. And they are correct in their judgment, meaning a scholar says, You
know what this is my opinion. And they are correct in their opinion percent I'm saying this person
is rewarded twice why they're ordered twice? Well one for their
		

			for the work that they put in number two, they came to an opinion which is correct. And then the
item said, if a scholar comes to a decision comes to a ruling, and they made it hard for thought,
and they make and they are incorrect, meaning the scholar they did the work, but the opinion that
they hold is not correct. Because their look, let's be real, there are certain matters, where
there's going to be a right and wrong opinion. Sometimes we may not fully be aware of what is right
what is wrong, but there will be a right and a wrong. And so now the person I'm saying this scholar,
he he learned he put in the work. But he came to the incorrect opinion what happens to the scholar,
		

			the prophets I sent him said even this scholar has a reward in the law. Because they did everything
right. They did these things they put in the work. And they made a mistake. In the end when they
came to the incorrect ruling. Even this person has a reward. And this had been served two purposes.
Number one for the scholar to encourage the scholar to encourage the people of knowledge,
		

			to remind them that you will make mistakes, and you cannot be right and everything. But keep on
going persevering because the reward has been the lowest. Number two, it is for us, the layman, the
lay people to understand that even if a scholar comes to a ruling comes to a decision, which is
incorrect, they still are rewarded by law.
		

			This is the honor that Allah has given to the people of knowledge, and especially my brothers and
sisters in the time and environment that we are living in today, we are dealing with constant
differences of opinion.
		

			Why? Well, we're living in Atlanta living in America. And Muslims in America don't come from one
place. We have, we all have different backgrounds. We've come someone comes from Pakistan, and
someone comes from Egypt, and so on and so forth. Someone has born raised in America, we all have
our different backgrounds. And we have maybe different schools of thought. And we have different
things that we are used to. Right when someone grows up upon a certain opinion, in their mind, that
is Islam, their Islam is defined by how they grew up, or my parents did this. And this is what my
grandparents did. And this is what my you know, their teachers taught them and that has to be the
		

			hop, that has to be the truth in everything else. I don't know about it. So we all come from
different backgrounds. But
		

			the test that Allah has given to us is that we all are in the same place now. We're all living
together. We're praying together, most of us, a lot of us have.
		

			And we're forced to work together and to work with one another. So the question we ask ourselves is,
can we work together despite having these differences?
		

			Can we work towards a common goal, and every single person sitting here by the way, I believe we
have a common goal. We are invested as believers in this community. We're invested in the future of
this community, not for not only for ourselves, but for our children, and so on and so forth. So we
want to plan and we want goodness. And that is why in a community, we usually choose a leader.
That's why we choose an email.
		

			Why? Because we choose a scholar we choose someone who is qualified, someone who put in the work,
someone who spent the years studying someone who when we hire them, we understand that this is a
person of knowledge, and therefore they deserve our respect, regardless
		

			of whether I agree with them 100% of the time or not. We have this amazing incident amongst the
companions. It's been narrated that when Earth mount on the lower it was the halifa when he was the
ruler
		

			during Hajj. He made the decision that when the when the Muslims go to Mina, that they will pray
their prayer complete, meaning they're not going to shorten their prayer. Sorry for our prayer is
going to be prayed for a cause. Even though they love it, who was a scholar amongst the Sahaba who
many of the Sahaba would go to when they had a question about how long and how long but the deen of
Allah. Even Mr. Rhodes said this is incorrect. Even mysterious.
		

			He said no, we are traveling when we go to Mina, we are traveling. So instead of praying for our
cause, we should be praying to
		

			and that was his opinion. He said I disagree with their love of the Lord. But what happened when he
went and and when he was
		

			With your loved one, we know that he prayed behind her as much of your level. And he prayed to
complete for a cause. Even though he disagreed, because he understood that this is a matter of each
he had that amount of the lower mages he had. This is a person who is qualified to make this
decision number one. And number two, he is the leader. He is now in charge of this whole flock. And
so as a man, and by the way, just to give you a little bit of background here as a matter of law and
his reasoning, some of our scholars mentioned that his reasoning was that he said, Look, a lot of
people, a lot of people who have never made Hajj before are coming to make hunch, there are veterans
		

			coming who have never prayed before. And so I want to teach them the complete prayer. And so he made
the decision that the sauce we prayed complete, should be paid off. Well, that's his decision, even
though we disagree. But if you miss a good trade behind him, and show unity with him, even though
you disagree for the good of the community, for the good of the oma. And that is a question we need
to ask ourselves, what is more important for us, our egos, or the good of the community?
		

			How are we ever going to make progress if we
		

			pick on every single issue that we disagree upon, because there's no end to that. There's never
going to there's never going to be a time by the way, and I hate to break the seat. But there's
never going to be a time that we are living. And we're going to see that all the Muslims are going
to say we don't disagree on anything. It's not going to happen. There will be differences. As long
as we live, we're going to see differences. And that is why we have been urged to come together upon
goodness. And so that is the question we asked ourselves, can we bring ourselves can we come
together and understand, especially as I said, that love is parallel to having been in love and
		

			living in a time where we do have scholars. We are living in a time where Allah has blessed us with
people who have made the sacrifice. They decided, you know what, I can go to college, I can go
become a doctor or lawyer or engineer, whatever it may be. But you know what, I'm going to dedicate
my life to learning the deen of Allah. So I can come to my community, I can go into a place that I
can teach people what is most pleasing to Allah, Allah tada aku holy how that stuff for
		

			me was Salatu was Salam O Allah. serene in the Vienna was a Do I need to know Mohammed Allah and he
will find me moraine. In all honesty, I said pretty much what I wanted to say in the first part,
first part of this talk. But one disclaimer, I want to end upon inshallah Giada is that we don't
want to go from one extreme to the other. And so the first extreme I addressed in the first part of
the football, and that is that we don't understand the rank of the people who have knowledge that we
don't give people their due. Right. So last pellet, as we said, a lot has raised that people have
knowledge, and we don't give them the respect that they deserve.
		

			The other extreme, by the way,
		

			is to go in the other direction. And this is to say, once there is a person of knowledge that I
respect and look up to, they can never do any wrong. Meaning their their word is the absolute word.
		

			Because that is not how our Deen works. That is the other extreme. We understand. And this is, this
is a little bit of a nuanced point here, but I want to be very clear about this. Yes, we have any
mountain, we have a scholar, we follow that scholar. Right. But we never think that this scholar or
any individual for that matter is muscle is that they are free of mistakes. We never define our Deen
by one single individual. And unfortunately, that's the other issue that we're dealing with today.
Because people become well known or we get attached to an individual, we make sure that this person
is the be all and end all of our Deen. So even if they do something wrong, we go and justify that
		

			wrong. Right? And that is why the scholars of the past they would say I have learned your alphabet
region. When I Kindle regera You're a fool and
		

			that truth is not judged by men. Rather, men are judged by the truth. Meaning we don't take a look
at an individual and say everything he says is Islam. And that's it.
		

			No forward or back or left or right this is Islam. Rather men are judged by what our Deen has taught
us. There is no one who is free from mistake no one who is we are all human beings, as
		

			long as you're either standing next to the grave or the profits.
		

			Send them, as he said, couldn't learn your other window when you had enough Sahaba. He said, every
single individual, we take from them and we leave from them, except the person was in this grave,
meaning the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says something, that's it. So may I know I'll find
is the end. And that's a thought, No discussion. But everyone else can be right and can be wrong.
And unfortunately, in the times that we're living in, we almost take this all or nothing attitude
towards people. Right, so either this person is 100%, perfect. Or we reject that person outright.
And so especially in the times that we're living in, we have to understand that not not every
		

			individual is going to be right, and everything that they say, even a person I can somehow I'll tell
you, right now, think of the person that you respect the most someone who said, this is the most
knowledgeable person in the world, even they're going to make mistakes. And that's why if they do
make a major mistake, then we don't say no, this is this person has to be correct, because they are
so and so.
		

			Right? There is no obedience to the creation of a law in the disobedience of Allah subhana wa Tada.
Right. And that's why it is important that in these confusing and complex times, that we learn to
hold nuanced opinions, there may be a scholar, and I have scholars that I look up to who I agree
with 90% of what they say. But there may be some issues that I don't agree with, I don't write that
person off. Because of that one issue. I still respect them for their knowledge, I respect them for
their life, that they are dedicated. And of course, it is not our position to judge or to make
decisions about anyone's sincerity.
		

			That is one of the most dangerous places that we can go when we look at someone and because we don't
agree with them, or because we may dislike an opinion of them, as we say begin to think maybe
they're not sincere. It's not for us to judge anyone's sincerity, that is only for a lover's
Paradise Lost to Allah to decide and to know. And everyone obviously would take into account for,
for what they have done in this life. So ask Allah His pilot data, to give us the ability to
appreciate the people of knowledge and ask a lot of kind of data to give us the ability to recognize
truth as truth and falsehood as false. As a love is prevalent Tiana, that to make our hearts
		

			inclined towards the Quran and the Sunnah and those that have taken it upon themselves. They've made
it their life's mission to learn and to and to teach the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam