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 snatch, 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