Safi Khan – Soul Food
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AI: Transcript ©
Okay.
Everybody.
How's everyone doing?
Some beautiful weather this week. I hope everyone's
enjoying it. Right? It's like amazing. It's amazing.
It's amazing. It's like seventies, like, all
all week long. So, you know, this was,
I was I was kind of joking around.
Not really joking. It was actually pretty serious.
But I was literally talking to one of
our, our team members, and I was like,
you know what everybody complains about how hot
it is in Dallas in this summertime? But
I'm like, this is also like the give
and take. Right? Yeah. It's, like, hot, really,
really, like, sometimes unbearable in the summertime, but,
like, it's literally February 1st
and or 2nd or whatever. Yeah. February. And
literally, you guys are in 70 degree weather
all week. I mean, this is, like, unheard
of. So come to that. Grass is always
greener. I hope everyone inshallah is enjoying,
their their their time in this this awesome
awesome weather.
Alright. So
we are going to continue on, and as
you guys are gonna notice this, it's gonna
be really interesting, which is that as we
continue on with this solop,
before we would like cover
2 ayats, maybe 3 ayats every single session,
We are going to start now covering more
like 1 per session just because you can
see how in-depth the actual verse is. It's
like extremely dense. Alright?
And each verse from now until the end
of the series, which inshallah and inshallah shouldn't
be by the time that Ramadan starts,
Each verse is filled with like 4 or
5 lessons
each. Okay?
And so
literally, you know, I always say to people,
Surah Al Hajua'at is incredible for multiple purposes.
One of the purposes is that it's extremely
extremely comprehensive.
It covers pretty much like every social issue
that a person can go through in their
life. Right? If you live within a community,
a family,
you live within an ecosystem where you have
to interact with human beings. I mean, this
surah quite literally covers every corner possible,
and it doesn't leave anything to interpret to
the mind. Right?
And this is one of the lessons of
our religion. Right? A lot of people, they
will kind of look at other religions and
say, okay, you know, like they talk about
God and prayer and you know, the faithfulness
that you owe to Allah and etcetera. But
Islam has an entire surah talking about not,
like, mocking and belittling people.
I mean, this is an incredibly, incredible part
of our religion, but I think a lot
of Muslims sometimes were born into it, ended
up kind of taking it for granted.
It's like just normal to us, but I
want you all to know the first thing
for today is just appreciate
it. Just appreciate the extreme detail
that Allah gives us in Quran
that is so
rare in religious texts. Right? In in in
any other religion. Okay?
And so, It's a point to kind of
reflect over and just, and and appreciate. So
today,
we're going to talk a little bit about
the idea of mockery and ridiculing people.
We're also gonna talk a little bit about
the idea of
the idea of
perhaps the people that a person really feels
and mocks
the fact that they may actually be closer
to Allah than than the person who's doing
it is. And then inshallah at the very
end we're gonna talk a little bit about
the idea of
when a person repents for the the mistakes
they've made. Right? The sins that they've committed.
What should be the attitude or the behavior
of the people around them? Right?
A lot very beautifully illustrates. Right? Like what
the expectation is of a community
that is around a person
who may have committed certain mistakes in their
life, but they have now kind of amended
their ways. They have kind of like made
made made made, you know, differences in their
lifestyle and changes in their in their life
and how do we kind of handle that
as a community. Alright. So
inshallah, we'll begin. So Allah, he begins and
he says,
Again, you guys notice here, like, a very
common theme in the surah, which is you're
a believer. Right? The standard that you're held
to is higher. You are not a regular
person. And again, not a means of us
feeling better than other people, but it means
of us holding this really, really incredible
trust
that we have, that we all carry around
with us. The fact that you are a
Muslim. Right? So Allah addresses
us as
When you'll see in the Quran, Allah will
sometimes say.
That's what he's referring to, like, humanity as
a whole. Right? Like, everybody pay attention to
this. But this particular point or these particular
points, Allah will mention you specifically because Allah
will not say
and then follow with
the the the the the conversations that we're
gonna have today because
Allah knows that when you take upon yourself
there is a standard that you carry yourself
with that the rest of humanity just doesn't.
And again, don't feel arrogant about it. Feel
honored by it. Right? Like, because I carry
these words within my heart that I believe
in Allah and I believe in his messenger,
there's no way that I can be I
I can have a standard lower than other
people. I have to hold myself up high
because that's the expectation of a person who
believes in such heavy reality. Right? So Allah,
he says, then
he says,
Okay? He says,
don't
let a group of people and particularly he
mentions both men and women actually. You'll find
it really interesting here. Okay? He says,
let not a group of men
scoff or ridicule or belittle another group of
men. Okay? And he says, Asa
because perhaps the person that you're making fun
of may actually be better than you and
then he says
and do not let a group of women
ridicule another group of women because of the
same reason that they're the the people who
are the victims can actually be better than
the people who are the the suspects. Okay?
Now what does this mean? Okay. The prophet
he actually in his tradition
illustrates to us what it means to like
scoff or belittle. Okay. So he says,
He says
that arrogance,
right, Al kibab,
the feeling of arrogance
comes from
from refusing the truth.
Okay?
Like, you live in this, like, delusional world.
That's where arrogance is. Right? Like when a
person is arrogant, I mean, everyone in here
has probably
encountered arrogance to a certain level in their
life and whether they've seen it on somebody
else, whether they've caught themselves going through a
moment of arrogance in their lifetime, whatever it
may be. But I can guarantee after that
kind of moment was witnessed,
you realize how foolish that moment of arrogance
was.
Like, I really thought that this
qualified me to be better than that person.
Right? Like, I really thought that the fact
that I went to this particular school
made me better than that person. Like, perhaps
I thought that having this job made me
better than that person.
Right? These are the the the qualifiers that
human beings sometimes kind of put in their
lives. Right? You guys ever walk into, like,
a a gathering and like, oh, my kid
is going to, like, this school and my
kid's going to that school. Where where where
is your daughter going? And you're like,
hamdulillah, man. You're going to college. Right? But
whatever you said was almost like scoffed at.
Right? And I remember growing up, you know,
I used to always, like, kind
of witness these conversations
and I these will always make me so
uncomfortable because it always leaves someone
who's an incredible person
look and feel extremely terrible about themselves. You
know what I'm saying?
And so the prophet
he says,
it's
the refuting
of truth.
You're like this you're like in la la
land. Like you're this like person who's like
made this false sense of reality for themselves
and they live in that sense of reality.
They think that like whatever
they they qualify as important in their life,
that makes them way better than other people.
And sometimes people use religion
in a really twisted way to make themselves
feel better than other people. Oh, yeah. Like,
I'm like a masjid goer. What are you,
man? You know, like, Ramadan's coming up. Right?
How many times have people heard that stupid
phrase, Ramadan Muslim? I'm like, what the heck
does that even mean, dude? Like, we're all
Ramadan Muslims.
You know what I'm saying? Like, when people
state those those phrases, it really kind of,
like, makes me think to myself, like, oh,
hey. Welcome back, Ramadan Muslim. I'm, like,
aren't you happy to see this person? Like,
aren't you happy that you're able to participate
in such an amazing, amazing community feeling? Like,
why belittle someone like that? Like, why why
why why ridicule someone like that? Why make
someone feel so much lesser because of something
like that? Perhaps that person is trying to
go closer to Allah, but you're ruining for
them.
Right?
And then he says,
and it is
belittling people.
That a part of refuting the truth is
belittling people around you.
Making people feel small about the accomplishments they
have in their life. Right? Oh, hey, what
did you do? Oh, I'm doing this and
this and this.
Right? Like, oh, man. Like, must be nice.
And nowadays you have, like, the weird, like,
kind of, like, the the the the false,
like, sense of,
like, being nice. Right? Like, oh, it must
be so nice to be so free all
the time. Me. No. No. No. Super busy.
Barely getting to sleep. Like, I want the
entire world to come together and just, like,
applaud that person. Like, we'll do one collective
for you.
Okay. Because you so deeply desire
that praise and like that that validation.
You know that it's so subhanAllah
when you look at the the the example
of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, you'll find
something very incredible, which is he never spoke
about himself in like a lofty manner no
matter how high his makam was.
Right?
And it shows you the tradition of the
other prophets that came before him.
Musa, Ibrahim, right, you know,
Yusuf alaihi sallam, Suleyman
Dawood.
I mean these people were like they they
they were high up there in terms of,
like, their status and their their their their
their station
of honor, their isa, their karama. They were,
like, up there.
But never will you ever find them going
up to somebody
who they're teaching about Allah and that person
denies it and they're like,
how dare you know who I am? Like,
if I can't do it nobody can do
it. Right? I mean, this is so it's
so false.
And you'll find that tradition,
people who are confident about themselves
they don't have to be the loudest people
in the room.
They don't have to bark the loudest in
the room. They don't have to talk about
what they do constantly because
hamdulillah they're so overwhelmed with gratitude to Allah.
That's what their confidence does to them. Right?
People with true confidence
they don't have to talk about it because
they already know that Allah
has given
them so many blessings in their lives that
all they do is
I don't have to, like, go out and
I don't have to go out and flex.
I don't have to go out and, like,
show people that I do this. I don't
have to, like, put under, like, my my
my Instagram bio, like, this entire, like, lengthy
thing that I am. Like, oh, I'm the
co owner of this. Have you not heard
of it? Like, you know, this this entire
thing. Right? The people who truly, they they
know where they are, they know their confidence,
they don't have to prove anything to anybody.
This is the reality of confident people, right?
And so the prophet
he says
walham sunnaz
these people in order for them to feel
better about themselves they have to put other
people down
That's like a part of their like self
bettering process in a really weird twisted way.
They feel like
I can't like and
subhanallah, you know, there's a very famous aden
who says something that's very powerful about this,
that these people who do these things and
they feel this way, they truly misunderstand Allah
because they feel that if somebody else is
kind of like similar to them, that they're
not unique anymore.
Like, oh, like if Allah gives us another
person the same exact kind of like accolades
that he gave me, like there's not there's
not enough room for 2 of us. You
know what I'm saying? So they have to
compete with that person.
But a person who who is confident with
Allah, they know they're like, yeah, And they're
like, yeah. There's like 8 1,000,000,000 other people
that have done a lot of similar things
to me and but but but guess what?
I'm I'm happy. I'm content. You ever ask
yourself, like, what's contentment?
What does that mean? To be content with
yourself, to be happy in your life. What
does that mean? It means to not have
that feeling
of competing with other people and by doing
so putting those people down. Right?
And you know what's really funny?
The word
in Arabic
like, linguistically
it means to, like, bury.
To, like, basically, like, plunge something, like, underneath
the ground. To bury something underneath the ground.
Like you are so, like, not confident in
yourself, so in order for you to look
like you're the only person standing, you got
to basically dig other people into the ground
around you, so you look like the tallest
person in the room.
And this is what the prophet describes.
Right? So
be wary of belittling other people. Alright?
And
he says why?
Particularly in this Surah, he says
right?
Perhaps the person that you're belittling
is actually better than you.
Like you're out here making this person look
like a fool to the public
but in reality, they are closer to Allah.
They're way closer to Allah than you are.
So now, not only do you look foolish,
but you're actually hurting someone who Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala loves. You know, all those people
that used to mock and ridicule the prophet
in Makkah.
Right? Abu Lahab, Abu Jahl,
you know, all these people that used to
kind of
like mock the prophet they used to call
him. What did they call him? They used
to call him horrendous names. Right? Oh, he's
just like a magician man. He's like a
poet. He's just like good with twisting words
and blah blah all that stuff. When the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam's son passed away,
okay, alAllahu alaihi wasallam's
son passed away they would say about him,
like, he's cut off.
He's cut off. Like, there's nobody that's gonna,
like, basically carry on his legacy after him.
They just say all the awful things about
him,
but they never realize, oh my gosh, like
I'm insulting a person of
God's
like love.
You know when you see a person who's
close to Allah, I know everyone's kind of
witnessed this in their lifetime. Right? Like a
elderly person or a pious person you know
in your community. Like, what do you want
to do with them? You're like, I just
want to, like, get close to them. I
want to talk to them. Right? Just kind
of like, just man, like, just benefit from
being around their company. Right? I want to
benefit from being around them, man. If they
pop in a duas for me over a
loher, like, I'm gay. Alhamdulillah. Like, your du'as
are so valuable. So I want to be
close to you. I don't want to ridicule
and mock you. Because you could be better
than me. And this is why Allah
and the prophet he says specifically in the
narration he said this is particularly why human
beings have this false sense of attributing quality
to the wrong things. He says in
the in the Allah right that indeed Allah
indeed Allah does not look at your appearance
money.
Like God doesn't look at your appearance, your
suar,
nor your amwal, your money. Like, this is
stuff that human beings put stock into. Right?
Yeah, man. Like, what's your salary? What'd you
start in? What degree did you get? Oh,
liberal arts.
Goodness gracious to me. You know, the lost
and kinda wants how to heal you. Like,
no. No. We we we do this to
people. I really it's really sad. And and
this is so interesting because it talks about,
like, mockery because everyone has this I'm just
joking around. It's not that big of a
deal.
I've heard people like
it's so mean, like I see I've heard
people go up like graphic design being like,
oh, that's cool. Like so like you draw
for a living. Like that's really nice. Like
why would you do that?
Like why would you do that? Like may
Allah sometimes make you the worst doctor of
all time.
Like why why would you want why would
you put something down like that? So, like,
you know, we we have this tendency
where we attribute to ourselves
these false sense of, like, quality, oh yeah,
like if I do this, if I get
this degree then I'm going to be this
person or that person
so the Prophet says
Allah does not look at those those things,
man. You could be the most beautiful person
in the world
on the on the outside.
You could be the most wealthy person in
the world in your bank account,
and Allah could care less.
Rather,
Allah
will actually
judge you.
Allah will look out. Allah will
will will will
see your
what's whatever's within your heart,
and whatever deeds you've done with the goodness
of your heart.
Because I'll tell you, a person can have
the world's
weight of gold
in their bank
and can be completely
robbed of any Khayr on the day of
judgment.
And a person can be
very kind of low in their monetary value
in this dunya,
and on the day of judgment you'll see
that person sitting on a mountain of gold.
And that gold is not the gold of
the dunya. The gold is the gold of
iman and the gold of their deeds.
And the and the person who used to
have those 1,000,000 of their bank in the
gunyah, they'll look at that person and be
looking up at them for the first time
in their life.
Because they used to look down at everybody
from their, you know, livestock, their cars, their
this, their that, their clothes. They used to
look down upon everybody around them. And on
the day of judgement, those same people will
be looking up at those who they used
to look down upon in the dunya. Right?
So don't be so quick
to pass judgement
on people around you. Okay?
And, you know, particularly here, subhanAllah, Allah mentions
both men and women. And, you know, know
something's really interesting here that the scholars they
mentioned is so powerful.
Because one of the scholars they asked, why
would Allah not just say like, oh people,
right? Right?
Don't don't don't, you know, don't,
mock or ridicule or belittle other people, perhaps
they're better than you. Why did Allah mention,
like, raju, like, in men and then nisa
in women? And you know what's so interesting?
The scholar he he said, like, one of
the mafasidun he said, because men and women
ridicule each other differently.
Think about what guys dig each other for,
think about what girls take shots at other
girls for, it's not always the same. Right?
It's not always the same. There's different qualifiers
of what people put value into.
Certain men will take shots at other men's,
you know, masculinity or whatever it may be
and certain women will take shots at other
women's ability to do whatever they do. I
mean,
it's all very specific
because Shaifan
is focused on trying to create the most
harm,
right? So the more specific a person can
be in their in their rudeness
and be, like, lewd and and accouth of
people,
the better shaitan is at his job
so he specifies
oh, if this person is struggling with this
you should take a shot at them for
that
like, don't be generic like be specific, go
at them for that. Y'all know people who
just like pick and pry at somebody,
like a person's like, you know, their their
weakness,
like a spot that's sensitive for them, There
may have been something that they went through
or like a moment that they struggle with
and there's a person who just knows, they
just know that part of the body and
they're just going to kind of twist the
knife, right? Because I know that's exactly where
it hurts.
This is this is such a sheilani trait
though.
It's such a sheibani trade
to like know people's weaknesses and exploit them.
And you know, Safranil will talk about this
in a little bit in our session but
one of the the the wisdoms that one
of the hard on that shared is that
if you are a person who has been,
who has been made aware of another person's
weakness,
know that Allah
is giving you a responsibility.
Like you know this person's vulnerable, you know
this person's vulnerability,
don't abuse it.
Don't abuse it. You can actually help this
person heal
rather than hurt this person more than they've
already been hurt. Right. And so it's so
incredible, SubhanAllah.
Okay.
And then
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues
and he says
that
So the first thing he says is
Okay. And
is really interesting because it literally means, like,
do not
basically defame one another.
Do not defame one another. Okay.
Like yourselves, don't do it don't do it
to yourselves.
And one of the scholars wrote something really
interesting here. He says, you know, this idea
of of of lambs.
Lambs is basically using your tongue to harm
other people. Okay? Anyone ever read that surah?
It's in just Amma. It's really short. So
it's Muhammad
Allah, he says,
right? What's that surah all about? Allah mentions
hams and lambs. He says.
Right?
Hamz
is the basically kind of like the idea
of, like, going after people, like, always trying
to find faults within people. And
is the actual, like, action that the tongue
does to make it happen.
Right.
Spreading gossip,
spreading false rumors,
talking bad about a person's weaknesses.
This is what lambs is. Okay?
Like people going around and allowing their tongue
to be the reason why they never entered
Jannah. Abu Bakr Assadiya
used to walk around and he used to
hold his tongue and used to say, hada
hada, like this right here, this right here.
And then he's like, what? When you meet
Abu Bakr, what are you doing? He said,
this is the thing that's going to get
me into hellfire.
Like this thing right here.
It's not going to be like anything else,
it's not going to be my lack of
salah, it's not going to be my lack
of, you know, you know, fasting the Ramadan,
not going to be my lack of pain
in my zakat, it's going to be this
and the damage that it does.
How many times have you all witnessed in
your lifetime
relationships being broken because somebody said something about
another person?
There was no punches thrown on, there was
no visible harm done
but the word that a person mentioned about
another person completely ruined that relationship
And, the reason why Allah stresses
the damage the tongue can do
is because that damage is extremely
hard to actually undo.
You know, like when you when you harm
a person physically, right,
like that wound heals.
It's like a part of the miraculous, it's
like the marijazah of like the human body.
It's part of the miracle of the human
body. But when a person
harms another person via the tongue,
that pain sometimes lasts forever.
It lasts forever.
There was a moment in which, you know,
Sayna Aisha
the beloved wife of the prophet
there was like a gossip that was spread
about her.
And again, like this is it proves to
you that it's not like a new age
conundrum. Right? And it happened during the time
the prophet was alive
That, you know, that there was a'udh billah,
this gossip going around some of the the
the the Unafi'un,
the hypocrites of Menina
that, you know, the wife of the prophet
had done certain immoral things.
Oh, like, why was she seen with that
person? Right? Like, why why did that happen?
Like,
does that sound familiar to you guys? Like,
it's like modern day. Right?
I saw her at the mall with a
guy.
Who was that guy? Right? Like, I'm gonna
make it my life mission now.
Like, Zohar? Never heard of her. What? Who's
that guy? Right? Like, have you be focused
on your prayers. Like, don't worry about that
person.
Okay. Like, even if that person is wrong,
like, what what why are you so why
are you stupid around about it? What are
you gonna do about it?
Post some stupid generic tweet about it? It's
like, I don't know. Like, what are you
gonna do about it? Like, that's not the
way the prophet would have addressed it. 1st
and foremost, the prophet wouldn't have given that
person 70 excuses.
The prophet would have given that person every
excuse in the book
before he assumed something that was
guilty of that person.
And then the second thing, if it was
something that was wrong, that was verified because
what we talk what do we talk about?
When news comes to you make sure that
you verify it. Right? Make sure you made
that that you validated that it's not something
that's false because you could be ruining somebody's
life without news.
Now if you validated it and verified it,
number 2 is make sure that you are
even in a position to correct that person
How many times have everybody like how many
times have people seen other people catching somebody
doing something wrong and all of a sudden
every single person becomes a shade?
And then for some reason some dumb dude
goes on like TikTok live at like 12
AM and says that will take pictures when
their camera rolls.
This hit home. Right? I mean, like,
well, why I'm I'm telling you guys right
now. I'm telling you guys right now. Well,
why I mean, I had the hardest time
not going full troll mode on those videos.
Like, my wife was sitting next to me
and she saw me laughing. She's like, what
are you laughing at? I'm like, please, y'all
love. Give me strength, y'all love.
I
like people sitting,
talking about these
lost things.
What if there are Muslims in the world
who are struggling with their salah? No. You
know, women should not take pictures on their
camera rolls. Why? Because the Apple CEO gets
ashes too.
Bro, if Tim Cook looks at my personal
camera roll, man, you earned it bro. Like,
that's a lot of work.
I mean, this is the extent that we've
gone to as an owner man. Like, how
sad is it?
How sad is it? Like, the we're sitting
around circles talking about these things with
people's thought
of it is in question. Like, people are
struggling with things that are obligatory.
So the prophet
wouldn't even like he wouldn't even go near
that and even if you're a person who
is qualified to address it then you would
pull that person aside
and say, hey, you know, in in the
best manner possible,
hey, because I care about you, I wanted
to make sure that, like, you're doing okay.
Right? That's the way the prophet would address
it. A man, guys, a man came to
the prophet and asked him permission. You Rasoolallah,
give me permission to commit adultery.
Literally, it was used to see that the
words that he said were as such
and the prophet
he told him, hey come sit with me.
Come sit with me. Let's talk about this.
Do you have people in your family that
are also, you know, women and you know
sisters and a mother,
cousins, and aunts? Don't you? Yeah. Of course
I do You Rasoolallah. Well, then how would
you feel if a person came to me
and asked me the same question but geared
towards a person that was in your family?
And that same man, he says, when I
entered,
you know, that question,
there was nothing more desirable to me than
the shahua that I had in my heart,
the desire that I had in my heart.
And when I left the company of the
prophet there was nothing more appalling to me
than what I wanted to do when I
walked into his company.
I mean, you see, like, the difference that,
like, being beautiful with your process and methodology
can do for a person. Like, what if
that person went and completed, like, their maghrib
salah and their ishah salah and did, like,
beauty to their to their
obligatory,
prayers the the rest of the night because
the prophet was
beautiful in the way he handled that situation.
Right? So, wathal nizoo and fusakum.
Don't defame one another.
Don't defame one another. Don't take shots at
one another.
Anfusakum.
Right? Anfusakum,
by the way, means like it like literally
in Arabic, it means like yourselves.
Allah didn't say don't befamed them or don't
befamed, like, the people around you. He said
don't befamed yourselves,
And there's a very beautiful reason to ask
why.
Because
he says one of the scholars, he says
that
when a person
they understand the true meaning of imam, of
Islam, what it means to be a part
of this religion they know by defaming the
people around them they're actually defaming themselves.
Anybody ever heard the hadith love for your
brother what you love for yourself?
So, if you're okay doing that to somebody
next to you, you're okay doing that to
yourself.
Plain and simple as that.
You're okay spreading gossip about the people around
you? Okay. Sounds good. You should be cool
spreading gossip about yourself
because that's the standard of a Muslim.
That's the standard that you hold yourself to.
You should love for them what you love
for yourself, you should hate for them what
you hate for yourself,
but if you're doing that that means that's
the standard that you hold yourself to. Okay?
And then one of the scholars gives a
very, very beautiful, beautiful lesson here. He says
and this is why we've derived
the maxim.
And in English, the maxim reads,
you yourself have faults
and the people around you have eyes.
So the moment where you feel like you
can just go around picking people, like other
people around you apart, know that those people
who are you picking apart also have eyes
that they see with as well.
And this is why there's a, you know,
famous poem, it's like a couplet that was
written in Farsi. Beautiful beautiful couplet.
It
said that as long as we were unaware
of our own faults,
we look at the faults and failings of
other people.
But when we started looking inwardly at our
own faults, there remained no sinful person in
the entire domain.
You can, like, translate that poem. It's beautiful.
Like, as long as we neglected our own
shortcomings, like, yeah, everybody was simple around us.
Right? Oh, yeah. That person has that problem,
and this person does this wrong, and that
person lacks this and that. Oh, yeah. All
these people are problematic.
The moment that I took into consideration my
own setbacks
I didn't have a single minute to think
about the faults of other people.
I was too concerned about my own
and this proves another very beautiful social point
about being a human being which is the
more you busy yourself
with your own development
and your own maturity as a Muslim,
the less time you'll have for just like
nonsense stuff, man.
The less time you'll have to pick out
other people.
The more bored you are
the more you'll notice all these other things
that are probably none of your business
that have nothing to do with you,
that have nothing to benefit you with.
Why do you know it? Oh, I just
know it man.
It's because we don't spend enough time looking
inwardly.
We spend way too much time looking at
other people,
Wasting time, wasting days, how many times have
we woken up all day and we've neglected
things that we were supposed to do, but
because we had all that free time we
engaged in so many things that just brought
us no benefit.
It killed our time. We're just scrolling on
Instagram for like 2 hours.
Oh, did you know this person did this?
That person did that and that person was
this and that person was wearing that. I
mean,
you know, like that entire so kind of
like, you know, I always wanted to, like,
always wanted to share this with people is
that that entire
aya in the
Quran that talks about lowering your gaze.
Allah he says,
tell the believing men and women to lower
their gaze.
Allah never once mentions
if they're
wearing this or if they're wearing that.
Like, Allah's command is regardless of the people
around you.
Like, Allah doesn't say, establish
your prayer if everyone around you is praying.
Nah. If no one's around you is praying,
then like, alright. Take it easy. You're good.
No. No. No. The command of Allah is
to do x, y, and z.
If you are so bothered by the people
around you
or you are so, like,
concerned
and not concerned in a good way, just
concerned in an entertaining,
curious way,
then that means you are not doing justice
to the life that Allah has given you.
You have your own life to worry about.
You have your own deeds that will that
you'll be held accountable for.
You're not going to be asked about that
person who is doing x, y, and z.
Allah is not gonna say, hey, you know,
Maryam, why did you, allow that Muslim woman
that lived in Valley Ranch to, like, go
out there and do x, y, and z?
Allah will be like, no, no, no. I'll
talk to her.
We we will talk I will discuss with
her
why she did certain things. Maria,
Khadija,
Mohammed,
Amin, why did you do what you did?
And did it positively affect the people around
you or did it negatively affect the people
around you? Okay?
And this is why, SubhanAllah, you know,
very, very beautiful statement here,
that Ibn Khasr radiAllahu anhu, he said, he
said, I would not like to even scoff
at like a dog,
lest Allah
turns me into 1.
He goes, I didn't have time, like, after
these ayahs came down, I didn't wanna be
little animals because Allah I was afraid that
Allah will turn me into that.
Don't be surprised. Like, what you know that
phrase, like, what goes around comes around?
Like, you look around the faults of other
people, just don't be surprised if Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala allows you to fall to that
same track.
You're so obsessed with their life, oh, Allah
will give you their life.
Ibn Mas'arri he mentions that, it's very very
beautiful
and then he said,
subhanAllah
he says after here
that this is why,
you know,
the following
was given to us, which is the final
part of this ayah where he says,
Then he says,
do not defame one another
nor call each other by
names that would be offensive to them.
How evil is it
to
act or remind a person
about
their flaws and faults after they have found
faith?
And then he says whoever doesn't repent from
these,
they are truly the ones
who are wrongdoers. Now, I'm going to pause
here inshallah for a second, and I wanted
to get a little bit of kind of
feedback from you all and conversation going with
you all.
What are some of the harms?
Right? And I'm going to have you guys
talk to people around you. What are some
of the harms
that can come about from a person
bringing up past
sins and mistakes
of a person
who they're around. What are some of the
harms of that? Why is that so frowned
upon in our knee?
To bring up past mistakes of a person.
Why is that something that is spiritually harmful
for a person? Want you guys to inshallah,
talk to the person next to you, and
inshallah, I'm gonna call on some of y'all
to share some thoughts and reflections inshallah. Go
ahead.
Alright. Let's
talk.
I wanna hear some of y'all's,
y'all's reflections and some of y'all's thoughts.
So
what are some of the harms? Why is
it so pressing in our redeem
that a person doesn't
bring up the past mistakes and the past,
you know, setbacks of another person.
Let me hear y'all's thoughts inshallah. Who would
like to share?
Miss Milne. What are some of the lessons?
Yes?
I feel like it invalidates
the person who's come so far as progress.
Mhmm. And then it just kind of it's
like a balloon
Yeah. Like for the person who's made it
so far it could be
it makes a person feel like they're only
worth whatever their worst was and not what
their best was. So it kinda makes it
feel like, what's the point of me trying
to,
like,
do good on whatever
I might have done wrong in the past.
Yeah. Exactly. You know, people begin to believe.
Right?
And subhanAllah, you know what's so sad?
You know,
I don't know if I've ever shared this
story before here but I've definitely thought about
it before which is you know the story
of
the the the 2,
the 2 men
that upon the the migration of Prophet and
Abu Bakr they would basically be known to
like steal from like passing caravans
and so when the Prophet
he went near that area, the prophet kind
of knew about them, he had heard about
them and so he asked, he said, hey,
I know that you guys are like in
this area, like imagine going through like a
really really rough part of town and there
are a couple of guys or a couple
of people who like just kind of like
are known to like steal and and make
life tough for people who are passing through
that area and imagine like a person knows
about it so they're like, alright, you know
what I'm walking out here and I know
you're here so why don't you just go
ahead and come out real quick. And so
the prophet did exactly that and they were
shot. They were like they were like behind
their little like boulder and they were like,
what? Like no one calls us out. We
usually like surprised. Right? Like they that we
do that. And so the prophet called them
out and the prophet says
come. Let's talk.
And they're just like they're they're terrified
because no one's ever treated them like that.
And so he asked them
who are you?
Right? Who are you? What are your names?
And the answer of these two men will
baffle you
because it proves exactly what she said which
is that when you tell a person
long enough
that they are
x y and
z, they'll start believing
it. They'll start believing it even if it's
not who they are.
Like you go and tell somebody that made
a mistake like 10 years ago like hey
man like you are gonna always be known
as this person
they'll start believing and carrying themselves like that
and so the prophet he asked them who
they are
and they
said
like we are 2 bad people
And that and that answer like
it
it bothered the heart of the prophet
that you shouldn't
feel that way about yourself.
That you're a terrible person to the core.
We don't believe that actually by the way.
Like human beings are not born like
that. In fact, we're actually born the opposite.
We're born with Fiddler. We're born with like
closeness to Allah. There's this proximity you have
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Only by like nurture does a person start
believing things about themselves that have nothing to
really do with them.
And so the prophet sat with them and
said to everybody you're not bad.
You're not bad people, you just made a
few mistakes in your life.
Doesn't make you who you are. And when
you start instilling that in people,
you start
healing
the wounds
that a person has had to live with
for decade after decade after decade.
So very beautiful she said that this person
begins to start believing these things about them
that this is who I am. No matter
how much I try to improve and progress
in my life, I'll always be known as
that one person who did x y and
z. Right? Very good. Anybody else?
What else? What's under harm?
Yes.
I don't know if it's true, but I
heard that if you judge someone for their
sin, you won't pass away until you commit
sin. SubhanAllah.
SubhanAllah.
So beautiful. There's actually a very strong narration
that talks about this where a person
who basically,
you
know, denigrates
a Muslim
who has committed a sin
of which they have repented for. Right?
So
they made a mistake. Sure.
Every human being makes mistakes, but they made
a mistake and then they made talba.
They made istafa.
They asked Allah ta'ala for forgiveness.
Okay?
Allah takes it upon himself
that he will get the person
who belittles them for the sin that they
repented for
to commit that very same sin and expose
him to embarrassment and humiliation
in this world and in the hereafter.
And this is found in in in my
book
that a person who has repented to Allah,
they've done a mistake but they repented to
Allah and then you bring about that mistake
again to them, Allah will allow you to
fall into the traps of that same mistake.
And not only that, there will be humiliation
for you
because you decided to humiliate them.
You see how poetic this this religion is
which is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala takes
into account every single thing that a person
does
and doesn't let any of that slide, right?
And so one of the things that, you
know, we wanted to inshallah end with in
the next couple of minutes is
when we look at other people around us,
just function
just function off of the premise
that even if you know that this person
made mistakes in the past that this person
has repented to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Just function off that premise.
If you function off the premise that everybody
makes Tawba every night before they go to
sleep, trust me, you will have such a
better time than this dunya in your interactions
with the people around you.
Because you will no longer see that person
as this terrible human being. Now, am I
saying this to automatically trust everybody regardless of
what they've done? No. No. No. I'm not
saying to be best friends with them. I'm
saying to not judge
their spirituality
based upon what they did.
Well, lie I've met I've met some of
the most beautiful spiritually intact people
who may not look into the naked eye.
And I have met some of the most
spiritually
dirty people who on the exterior look like
they're absolutely Muslim.
So what is the goal? The goal is
to make sure
to assume of everyone
that whatever mistakes they've made insha'Allah they spoke
to Allah
about it.
It. Okay?
And this also has another meaning which is
to not like call other people by
names that they find
offensive or rude. Right?
I mean, there is a famous story and
the prophet by the way always used to
come to the defense of these people. There
was a story of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud who's
a very kind of like if if you
want to describe Abdullah ibn Mas'ud like in
a physical way, he was a very, like,
kind of petite person. He was not like
a big human being. Right? He was not
like Musa alayhis salaam who, like, in Briwayat,
that shows that, like, he was massive man.
Right? Broad shouldered. Abdullah ibn mister Abdullah he
was a smaller person. So one time, Abdullah
ibn mister, there's a hadith that he was
climbing the tree that you get like siwak
from. You know, like the the that you
brush your teeth with. So he was on
the tree where those branches were and he
was trying to, like, pick branches off to
basically kind of like give to the companions.
And so the narration mentions that there was
like a strong wind that blew and so
a part of his, his his his
garment
that he was wearing kind of flew in
the wind and it exposed his legs.
Okay?
And, you know,
it's so interesting how
time has gone by
but certain, like, cultural things will just never
ever stop being human.
Like, any chance that guys get to, like,
take shots of their boys, they will take
it.
Because you see, like, your boy trip up,
you'll have a girl write about how it's
an ick and you'll have a guy talk
about how, like, it it was like the
funniest thing they've ever seen in their life.
Right? So like I believe this is like
his garment is blowing in the wind and
so like I said he's a petite person,
his legs are small. So all these sahas,
these kibbeh, they start laughing. Mhmm. Like they
start laughing and and by the way the
Arabic of the hadith is interesting and denotes
that they were laughing like out loud, not
just like kind of like internally, they were
like laughing laughing and so the prophet he
looks at me and says what are y'all
laughing at?
And like you Rasoolallah we're laughing at his
shins
like straight up like this is like the
old this is a hadith.
You Rasool we're laughing at his legs
and the prophet he looks at Abdullah ibn
Mas'ud and he looks back at the sahaba
and he says
by Allah
each of them will weigh more than
on the mizan in the afterlife,
on the scales of the afterlife.
Shut it down.
Close that door. Make fun of him now.
Right? Like, try it again.
What other? Like, you wanna make fun of
his arms next? I'll give you another example
of another mountain range. Right?
He just, like, closed that door.
He came at the defense, and this was
a bit mas'erud. Take the example of a
person like we just talked about made mistakes
in the past. There was a person by
the name of Iklima bin Abi Jahlil.
His father was quite literally a man who
the Prophet called the firaun of my community
and so after the Prophet
came back to Mecca, Ikrima being the son
of a man who quite literally tried to
kill the Prophet on several different occasions, Ikrima
was like, alright, dude, I gotta leave.
Like, Mecca is Muslim now, like, I just
gotta bounce because, like, they hate me.
They hate me. His wife actually become Muslim
by the way so there's like one thing
holding him back. So he just decided to
bounce for a period of time
and so the prophet sallallahu alaihi was like
where's Ikrimah? By the way think about this
the prophet used to notice these absences.
You know, like, people that we don't like,
if we don't notice their absence, we're like,
oh, I'm noting that. What did happen? Their
god, Yalla.
Allah has answered my duas.
The prophet was like,
where where is he?
Like, why is he not here?
And the wife of Ikhima she goes oh
yeah he's you won't be seeing him around.
Are you kidding me like what his family
did to you?
You expect him to stay back? He is
terrified of you Rasoolah.
And she in the prophet says something very
interesting. This is like a almost a culturally
and like
in Mecca and Medina at that time was
a very cultural like honorable moment. The prophet
took off his turban like something he was
wearing on his head because whatever you wear
upon your head is like an honorable thing.
Right? So he took off his his turban
that he was wearing, he gave it to
her, and he said, I'm gonna give this
to you. Go find him and show him
this.
Like, I'm this serious that I wanna talk
to
him. Like, take, like, my my my gold
watch. Like like, it's like the equivalent of
that. Like, it's like a like a collateral.
Right? I want I want him back.
And when she went to get him the
prophet he looked at his companions the Sahaba
that were around him and by the way
you don't think the Sahaba had like an
ill taste in their mouth from the Ikrima's
family? Oh man like they were trying like
they he tried to kill them
And the prophet he turns to his Saba
Sahaba and he says, hey. When
Ikrima comes here, don't ever mention any of
the things that his dad did.
We don't talk about that stuff, man.
Look. If he comes and he says,
he's one of
us. He's one of us. We don't mention
all the stuff that happened in the past
like that. He might be trying to turn
a new people.
You do not want to be the person
who
is the hand that stops the leaf from
making this full turn.
You do not want to be the person
whose words
blow that leaf back over on its other
side.
You want to be the person who helps
the turning of the leaf go full circle.
Imagine on the day of judgement, Allah asks
you, this person was so close to turning
to me, but you said that one thing
to them and they decided to go back
the other way. How do you explain yourself?
Allah protect us.
Allah protect us.
So, the lesson from the final part of
this ayah is to make sure
that we are not people who fall on
the wrong side of that coin.
That we're always like making fun, ridiculing, mocking,
calling people by things that they don't like.
And then finally, at the very end, Allah
Ta'ala, he says,
And for those who do not repent, because
we just listed a long list of infractions,
don't do this, don't do this, don't do
this, don't do this, but even after all
that, Allah says,
Tawba Tawba Tawba. You made a mistake with
somebody?
Make
toba, make amends, it's not too late, you're
living, you're breathing.
Don't bury your self into the ground and
say oh yeah, it's too late man, I've
burned bridges with like 80 people in my
life, what's the point now? No, no, no,
you're still waking up the next morning
as long as you are a ilayb it
is Allah's sign to you to continue to
turn back,
Don't close the door on your life before
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does it.
Don't call it quits before Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala calls the angel of death for you.
The only people who have cursed themselves
until the end of time is 1.
They cannot find it within themselves to say,
you Allah, I made a mistake. Please forgive
me.
As long as you can do that
there will always be
amends
and a way to turn back to Allah
Okay. And insha'Allah, we'll pause here as the
adan just came in so it's time insha'Allah
for assault of Isha. We ask Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala to protect us from being people
who belittle other people around us and elevate
ourselves at the expense of other people's honor
and their dignity. We ask Allah
to protect us from being people who mock
and joke and make fun of other people
to take them down. We ask Allah
to never allow us to fall into the
trap of being people who feel arrogant about
ourselves by putting other people down. We ask
Allah
to allow us to be people who speak
words
of goodness, of beauty to those around us
and we ask Allah
to protect us from ever falling into the
same traps that we never thought that we
would fall into. We ask Allah
to allow us to be people of quality,
of Ihsan,
of beauty, of iman, and we ask Allah
to allow us to be people who radiate
what it means to be a Muslim for
ourselves and to those around us.
It's a little preview for everybody here. The
next verse is gonna be all about suspicions.
Like, like, thinking to thinking like, oh, why
why why this why that insha'allah. That's gonna
be insha'allah next Thursday. I also wanted to
share one thing with you guys as well.
I don't know if you guys have seen
the company or not.
We are going to be hosting a really
really cool Ramadan for a prep program insha'Allah.
Not this Friday night, but next Friday night,
on February 9th. It's gonna be a poetry
night insha'Allah where people will be able to
come enjoy listening to to y'all around you.
You know, people have, masha'Allah, beautiful talent in
this community. So come out insha'Allah.
If you'd like to perform a piece, then
there's a form here at the bottom where
you can basically kind of like submit that,
you know, ahead of time. In that way,
inshallah, we can kind of like look at
it, make sure that everything is good, and
then you can obviously, you know, perform that
piece inshallah in front of everybody if you're
brave enough to do so. But if you
just would like to attend, there's obviously free
admission for everyone who just like to attend
and be a part of the event as
well inshallah. Tell the people around you, tell
your friends about it inshallah. We'd love to
have a packed house on Friday night on
9th. Inshallah, we'll see you guys then. The
RSVP link is, with ccfw.orgforward/poetrynight
inshallah. We'll see you guys next Thursday and
hopefully inshallah for this event as well. Assalamu
alaykum Warahmatullahi.