Safi Khan – Soul Food Imam al Ghazali’s Four things to avoid
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of avoiding bad deeds and finding one's own mistake in public. They stress the need to be mindful of oneself and others, as well as the danger of ignorance and pride. They also touch on the success of online shopping and the importance of avoiding false advice and finding people to build and become ready for the next stage of one's life. They emphasize the importance of avoiding false advice and finding people to build and become ready for the next stage of one's life.
AI: Summary ©
Sorry, guys. The Internet is,
is going wild. We're just trying to get
trying to get live.
We'll do a live. Okay.
Insha'Allah, we're gonna go ahead and continue the,
the reading that we've been doing from Imam
Al Zaid's Ayuhid Warad.
We're actually almost at the end.
It's it's,
you know, it's fitting that the end of
Imam Al Ghazali's book is gonna be something
that's very long and kind of drawn out.
But he's finishing with sort of like these
major parting advices,
that he wants everyone to sort of know
before they depart from this book.
Let me just get the text pulled up
here, and we'll get started Insha'Allah.
Let me try it. Oh, no. It's fine.
I don't know why it logged me out.
Okay.
Yeah. There's something. Can you hear me? No.
Sorry. Okay.
Yeah.
Okay. So,
so who who remembers what we were talking
about last time?
There's, like, 44. You guys remember what we
were talking about last time?
Four things he said. Stay with me. Yeah.
And then 4 things he said too.
Yes. So okay. Very good. So we talked
about this last week. Imam al Khazadi said
that there's 4 things that he advises
that you have to stay away from, and
that there's 4 things that you should do.
We talked about this because it's very important
that we understand that in Islam,
there's not only the process of doing good
deeds, but also there's a process of what?
Staying away from things.
In fact, the prophet
he said,
right?
That whatever I have forbidden from you or
whatever I've told you not to do, then
what?
Stay away from it. Don't do it. Okay?
So not doing something that is wrong
is actually
in in in Islam considered very reward worthy.
We always think of good deeds as being
like pray salah, give sadaqa,
etcetera.
But it's also equally as powerful for a
person's iman
to not do something that's haram as well.
We oftentimes kind of slide that to the
side, but that's very good. So Imam al
Ghazari, he gives us 4 things before he
tells us to do them.
He tells us now, first, you wanna stay
away from 4 things. What were the first
things that he said to stay away from?
The first one.
Yeah. Good job. Masha'Allah. Good job. What's your
name?
Joshua. Joshua. Masha'Allah. Excellent.
Argument. Don't argue.
He said do not argue. Arguing is something
that you should just not get involved in,
right, at any at any level.
Why? Because he mentioned in summary
that argumentation
generally always leads to bad things.
Like, 99 times out of a 100, when
you get into an argument, it's not gonna
make things better.
Maybe you have that one moment in your
life,
right, out of the span of 7 years
that you argued, and out of that argument
came some sort of good, you know, goodness.
But generally speaking, do we agree arguing leads
to bad things? It leads to hurt feelings.
It leads to people being upset, resentment,
anger, tears, all of that. Right?
They just don't argue.
And
even worse than all the other stuff
is that both people, when they argue,
they walk away feeling this, like, cloud of
arrogance.
Because what happens when you argue with somebody
is nobody wants to admit that they're wrong.
Even if you're wrong like, you might know
you're wrong, but what do you start to
do?
Start to figure out ways to, like, show
the other person that they're wrong, even though
you know you're wrong. It's, like, weird. I
just saw a meme that was hilarious. They
said that,
it was, like, a picture of Kermit the
frog and his face was, like, shocked. Do
you see this meme? And he said, the
face you make when you're looking for your
homework when you know you didn't do it.
You know, you're looking at your backpack and
you're like, right? So I don't know why
I brought that up. I thought it was
hilarious. But
nevertheless
oh, oh, because you can know you're wrong
and still try to defend yourself.
Like, the human being is so. You can
know that you are wrong. 100%
fact. I am wrong, but you still defend
your your point. Why? Because you want to
defend your pride, your ego, every I can't
be wrong. I can't be wrong. Right? It's
very difficult for a person to say, I'm
wrong
Just to say those words. So tough. Right?
So Imam Ghazali says, just don't argue. It's
gonna make you into a monster. It's gonna
make you into an arrogant, proud monster. No
one's gonna wanna be around you. Imamzar Nougie,
in another book, he says you're gonna start
to,
you're gonna start to have this adawah. You're
gonna start to have this enmity. Everyone's gonna
hate you. You're You're gonna hate everybody. It's
just gonna become this thing. Right? You start
to pick on everybody's small flaws. Don't argue.
But he says there are
a couple exceptions.
Right? And the exceptions are, he said, number
1, this is a tough one. You don't
care if the person if the person's right
or you're right. When you argue with somebody,
you're like, I actually don't mind if you
win
because my goal is not me versus
you. It's us trying to find the
truth. That's it.
So sign number 1 that it's okay for
you to argue with somebody
is actually if you don't mind if they
win the argument.
Right? So So Sammy and I are gonna
argue who's better, the Bears or the Cowboys.
We all know the objective truth are the
Bears. The Chicago Bears are better. Chicago is
better than Dallas in every way,
except for maybe a few. Put them here.
That's the only difference. Right? Okay.
So Sammy, in his heart, should not feel
any sort of disappointment
when when we talk. Right? Yeah. Okay. Good.
Let's move on. Alright?
So you don't mind you don't mind everyone
here is like, what is going on? It
was an inside joke between us for, like,
years. Okay?
Number 2 is that you don't wanna do
it in public.
You don't wanna destroy this person in public.
What does that what does that do? Because
that shows that you're also not what? You're
not you're not trying to just slam dunk
on this person. You're not trying to just
win a fight.
If you would have this debate in private,
it shows that you're sincere.
Okay?
And then he keeps going, and he keeps
talking about this particular disease in the heart
of a person when they argue.
And he says
that it's comes from a source of ignorance.
Imam Ghazali talks about a certain kind of
ignorance that's,
he kind of coined this term, jahlmurakab,
which means
you're ignorant
and you don't even know how ignorant you
are.
Right? It's one thing for a person not
to know something.
Everyone here doesn't know something. Yeah?
Yes? Yes. Okay. Yes. That would took a
lot for everyone to admit that. You don't
know something. Right? Like, if somebody walked in
here, like, can anyone here, you know, I
don't know. Can anyone here, like, rewire,
you know, this alarm system for me or
something? Or, like, can they, like, help me
start my car? Can you jump my car?
Can you change this? Can you do that?
There's people in here like, yeah. I don't
know. I don't know. I'm sorry. I can't
help you. You know what's even more dangerous
than a person who doesn't know?
Up no. A person who doesn't know, they
don't know.
Now that's why Jadmurakab literally means
compound ignorance.
Ignorant of your ignorance.
That's the most dangerous person in existence.
Because they walk around with the confidence of
a master,
but they have the actual competence of a
fool.
Okay?
And unfortunately, he says in religion, you find
that a lot.
Everyone thinks they know religion. Everybody.
Being a Muslim does not give you expertise
in religion.
You're Muslim. Alhamdulillah. I'm Muslim. Alhamdulillah.
But I'm not an I'm not an expert
in the religion just because I'm Muslim. That
requires study. That requires training. That requires mentorship.
That requires a lot. Right?
So he says
that ignorance
is of 4 types. This is very famous
Guzzadhi style, by the way, where he goes,
let me give you 8 points. Point number
1, let me give you 4 points within
that point. Point 1 a, 1a1,
1a1a2.
Like, that's how he works. He has flowcharts
out the wazoo. Right? So he says that
the ignorance that you'll find in a person
that likes to argue a lot is, number
1, that they question and object
to everything that they hear
without even knowing anything about it. What was
that again? What was that again? That they
question and they object
to everything that they hear
without even knowing anything about it. Okay. Anyone
here, like, really good at something?
Anyone here really good at baking?
And we hear, like, really good at something.
Yeah. Okay. There you go, Hosni. Alright.
So Hosni starts telling me what's what's a
really difficult thing to bake?
Macarons. That's what everyone goes to, by the
way.
Macarons. Okay. But let's say you were really
good at it. Right? So what's the first
step? Like like,
you have to whip the egg whites or
something?
Okay.
Let's say that you were like, you have
to whip the egg whites. Do not include
the yolk. And I'm like, why not? Yolks
are good.
I don't even know anything.
I'm dumb. I can't even say macaron correctly.
I said macaroon. Right?
And she okay. Well, don't say that. You're
supposed to be the master. Right? So that
so
that and then Hosni is like, no. Look.
I'm telling you. You cannot include the egg
yolks. It messes up with the proteins that
I actually know a little bit about this,
by the way. That's why so this is
a bad example. But okay. I looked into
it once, and then I gave up.
Okay. Okay.
Alright. The 4 of the 4, you mean?
Yeah. Okay. Okay. So so number 1 is
that person who objects and argues and you're
like, calm down. You are just figuring out
who you are right now. There's no need.
You're not standing on anything to object. It's
one thing
if you meet with somebody who knows just
as much as you do, right, or more
or whatever. They're on the same path. And
they can they can question something because they
disagree. You know, like physicians, for example, you
might go to one doctor. Right? Orthopedic surgeon.
Do I need surgery? They say, I don't
think you need surgery, but you can get
a second opinion. Who are you gonna get
a second opinion from? Not from,
you know, not from, like, you know, a
chef.
Do you think I need surgery? Chef's like,
I don't think so.
What do you know about orthopedic surgery? You
go to another orthopedic surgeon. That's where you
get your second opinion from. So his point
is ignorance is so dangerous that a person
feels so confident.
Just being like, no.
That's not how it's done. You're like, you're
not even you don't even know anything here.
You're not even literate in this science. Right?
And and some of you maybe are are,
you know, in the point of your of
your
of your education,
where you do have a little bit of
a mastery of something. And it's interesting. You
notice the more you study something, the more
you learn and you kinda go into a
field about something, the more you realize how
confident ignorant people are.
The confidence is insane.
You guys ever heard of the Dunkrueger curve?
You guys never heard this before?
Like, it's like a proven psychological phenomenon in
in societies.
The Dunkrueger effect. Sorry. That's what it's called.
Basically, it's a it's a it's a curve
where
the,
the more you know about something,
they found the less confident you become
in your knowledge of that thing.
And that's Islam. That's what Hassan al Basri
said. He said, When I first started studying
Islam, I thought I knew everything. Then I
made a little bit of progress, and I
got a little bit scared, but I still
was confident. Then I studied for years, and
I realized I know nothing.
Right? So the ignorant person, if you find
yourself kinda walking into every gathering with an
opinion on something, with confidence on something,
watch yourself. Not good. Okay?
And he says interestingly, he brings up Imam
Ghazadi says, this actually comes from envy.
This confidence from ignorance actually comes from envy.
The person feels envious. Why can't I be,
you know, a master of this? What makes
you so special? What did you do that
gives you the right to talk about this
and this and this, and I can't either.
I'm just as good as you. That's a
lot of envy. So that's what he says.
That that ignorance comes from envy. Then he
says the second way that ignorance
kind of manifests
is through, and this is Azadi for you,
stupidity.
Just straight dumb.
Alright? He's like, there's, you know, some people,
they have it and some people they don't.
Okay? And that's just the reality. Imam al
Zari says some people are so confident in
their stupidity
that they reveal themselves as being very foolish
people.
And he says that Imam, he says that,
Sayidina
Isa, the prophet Isa, Jesus alaihis salam, he
said that I was able to bring the
dead to life.
Like, he was basically talking about one of
his miracles from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that
I was able to bring the dead to
life,
but I was unable to fail curing the
stupid one.
We meaning what?
It's a more of a miracle to bring
a stupid person to the reality
of their lack of knowledge. That's more miraculous
than the miracle of Isa bringing a dead
person back to life by the father of
the law. Okay. So he said the fool
occupies himself with acquiring knowledge over a short
span of time.
Little bit of time, you know. There was
once a really I have a funny story.
It's a 100%
accurate and true. I'm not making this up
at all.
My friend sent me an article, and the
article said, like,
79 or 87%. I forget exactly the number.
87% of people who come across, like, articles
online don't read the article. They just read
the headline.
Do you guys know know what I'm saying
here? Yeah. You see an article headline, and
you read it, and you're like, wow. And
you just keep going. You just move on
to the next one.
And my friend who sent that to me,
he goes, isn't this crazy?
Isn't that crazy? And I said,
yeah. And I go, what did the article
say? And he goes, I don't know.
He didn't read it. He sent it to
me without reading it. A 100%, like, accurate.
And we both just cracked up. We're like,
that's
crazy. Like, we literally became a statistic in
that moment.
Right?
And this is
this is if if anything, you know,
all you have to do is be on
TikTok or Instagram or Twitter or any of
these platforms to know
that the amount of research and depth of
research that people have
into something before commenting on it is at
an all time low.
All time low. I mean, the confidence
if you guys ever watched political commentators or
or, you know, world analysts on, like, the
news comment on so confidently on Islam,
like, so confidently.
It's crazy. And you're sitting there, and you're
like,
where do I even begin?
I don't even know where to start.
You're so off. I don't even know where
to begin. Right?
This is the level of unfortunate confidence that
the fool has, but they feel like they
know everything because they've done a little bit.
Okay? This is where you wanna pick up?
No. You don't mind. We have time. Keep
going? Okay. Alright.
Just kidding. It's only 3.
This is 4.
I think he well, the translation was yeah.
It's off.
Okay. So oh, the 4th one is, the
disease which is curable. So 3. Yeah. So
yeah. And then he says the third one
is,
and this is crazy. Okay? This is kinda
like the worst version of the 3.
The one who
is so
arrogant
that they walk into a gathering, and they
hear a bunch of specialists talking about something.
Okay?
And so let's say, for for example, like,
they walk into a room, and there's, like,
a group of doctors that are talking about
something. Or there's a group of, like, investors
talking about the the market or the economy
or there's a group whatever. You know? You
pick a you pick a specialty.
And they walk in, and they start hearing
language that they don't understand.
What's a word, for example, in a field
that most people don't know what it means?
Who?
Yeah. What's a word?
Like give me a word.
Java.
Java. Okay. What does Java mean?
What's Java? Do you guys even know what
Java is?
Yeah. It's a lang it's a coding language.
It's like a computer language. Right? It's like
c plus plus or whatever. Anyone else?
You know what's a coffee? There? Okay. Yeah.
That's a way to refer to coffee. Very
good. Okay. You guys were talking to me
about sneaker drops last week? Would Halal or
Haram to use bots
to to to get okay.
Yeah. This is like apparently, it's a huge
mess. Like, look at this. Like, they don't
just like everyone just lost their wudu collectively.
They just lost their will do. There's no
will do on this other room now. Okay.
So
so so, again, this is a side of
this is a a a, like, a part
of the world,
like,
sneaker sneakerheads
trying to win, like, basically
trying to get an opportunity to buy these
sneakers. Right?
And
this is jargon that,
like, most people just don't understand.
Like, can I can I buy a bot
to let me win, to let me to
to to give me a shot? So someone's
like, what does that mean? So he says,
imagine walking to a room where everyone's using
this this jargon. They all get it. Right?
They're all talking. It's clear that they all
understand each other.
And you walk in, and you're like, I
don't get this.
It's false. Fake news.
He says that. He goes, people walk into
rooms
with scholars, especially of religion.
And the scholars are discussing something, and they're
saying, Well,
you know, what's what's the Allah behind this
situation?
What's the causal relationship behind these different things?
They're trying to figure something out, right? Is
this halal? Is it haram? Is it mustahab?
Is it mandub? Is it makru? What what
is it? And they're talking,
and one person just kinda says, you know
what? I don't get what you guys are
talking about, but, you know, it just doesn't
sound right to me.
That kind of dismissiveness
because you don't understand the language.
He says,
the one who when they seek guidance just
because they don't understand
the greatness of the language that they're hearing,
instead of saying, I'm not smart
enough to understand it, they say what? This
stuff is dumb.
Right? Why? It's hard for a human to
say what?
I'm dumb.
You know?
I look, guys. I've been studying Islam for
now a third of my life, okay, in
in in some formal capacity.
And in the beginning part of it, I
was
incredibly stupid in how confident I was.
Right?
And as I've traveled more and learned more
and studied more, it became more apparent to
me that which I didn't know. Right?
And one of the heights of this moment,
one of my favorite moments in life
was when I was attending a conference. It's
an academic conference in Istanbul
at this university called Ibn Khaldun University.
And the conference was on
not just Hadith
because that's a really big topic, and not
even just
Sahib Buhari, which is the one of the
collections, the foremost collections about Hadith,
But
a collection of, like, 17 different chains of
transmission within Sahih al Bukhari and how the
different word usage in those 17 different chains
meant different things and how the people who
knew it. And I'm sitting there. My friend,
who's a student at the university, he was,
takes me. He's like, come with.
And I'm sitting there, and I'm like, wow.
I know nothing. Like, this and they were
all speaking a language that I can understand.
Like, linguistically, I understood them. Right? Everyone's speaking
Arabic. And I'm like, okay.
Okay. Okay. Right? I'm following you, but I'm
not following you. Right? And that's when you
just smile and look and and and nod
like a dumb person. You're like
right? And they ask you, what do you
think? And you say, InshaAllah. You know, you
just you don't know what to say as
a response. So
there are certain levels of expertise
that you just have to admit you don't
have access to. You just have to admit
it.
And this happens in Islam. Why did God
do this to me?
Right?
Why did it happen this way? Why do
we have to do this in Islam? Why
this? Instead of a person just humbling themselves
and saying, you know what? I don't know.
I just don't know why.
I do it because Allah told me to
do it. I can't give you an exact
answer as to why. Why do we pray
5 times a day? Why not 10?
Yeah. Because Allah said so. But for a
lot of people, that's not a good answer.
I need to know why. I need to
know why. Why only 5? Why not 10?
Why not 1?
The problem why the the issue is that
we don't have the ability to simply just
say,
I submit to Allah, the Lord of all
the worlds.
Because that takes some it takes some humility.
You gotta be humble.
Right?
So he says, imagine being walking in there
and just and just and just and just
shouting at everyone who's who's smarter than you.
Y'all are dumb. Alright? I don't know what
you're talking about. This doesn't make sense to
me. Right?
That, unfortunately, is all too common. So he
said, never ever debate this kind of person.
These three people, never debate them.
Number 1, the one who is
ignorant and they don't even know it and
they're envious. You can tell that they just
wanna win because they're envious of your of
you. Number 2, he said is
the one who is
just
foolish, just a dumb person. And the third,
he said, is the one who is so
dismissive
of everything they don't know. You're never gonna
be able to win. He did say, however,
that there is a 4th version of ignorance.
But unlike the other 3, this one's actually
treatable.
The ignorant person who actually seeks knowledge.
The ignorant person who comes and says, can
you teach me? I don't know. I would
love to learn.
I have no idea what I'm talking about.
I try to look it up. It's not
making sense. Can you make it make sense
for me?
He says that ignorance is admirable
because it led a person to what? Humility
as opposed to pride.
Ignorance that leads a person to humility
is admirable ignorance
because it encourages a person to start learning,
whereas the one that leads to pride is
not admirable at all.
Okay. I'll go ahead and let Seth of
Fatima take it from here. The second thing
that we need to avoid. So now we're
going back in the flowchart. We just went
one 1 a, b, c, d. Now we're
going back to number 2. What's the second
thing that you should avoid,
in in the grand scheme of thing in
in life? Okay.
Oh, this one's so bad.
And then I So meta. Completely regret it.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Thank you for covering this side for me.
Oh, no.
Listen.
You'll see.
Yeah.
Everybody.
So the first one, kind of the overall
overarching thing that he said to avoid
is arguing with people. You know? Argumentation.
And then he gives, like, the different types
of people, different types of situations.
In the second one,
when you're when you're put into your mind
or understand kind of just the context of
what who he's talking to. Right? He's talking
to a student. This is someone who he
has given
spent a lot of time with, someone who
he has mentored, someone who has been on
a journey with him.
Obviously, now that person is, you know, on
their way out the door to fly. Right?
So you would expect that the next thing
that they're gonna do he's telling him if
you're in the if you're around people, with
them, don't argue, don't do this, the next
thing that that person will probably think that
they're gonna be doing is what? What do
you guys think?
Someone who studied.
You're in your profession to learn about a
lot of things. You're done. You're graduated.
What is the next step for that person
to do?
What
yeah. Teach. Right? Get a job to teach.
And so he says in the second thing,
and it gets really awkward here, he says
the second thing to avoid
and to try your best not to do
is become a preacher.
K? That's why he was very become a
preacher. Don't be don't do that.
He says that you should not seek or
you should shun becoming a preacher and a
warner
because there's so much harm in doing that
unless
you practice what you preach.
How many times have you come across a
person
or someone or maybe even yourself
and they tell you you shouldn't do this,
you shouldn't do that, you shouldn't do this,
you shouldn't do that. You turn around there
and doing the same thing.
How does that make you feel?
Yeah. You're like, why should I listen to
them?
Why should I listen to you?
Or you may listen to a lecture, go
to a program,
and they're teaching you about how compassionate and
merciful the prophet SAW was.
And in that same, like, gathering,
that same person does something that you're like,
but you literally just talked about doing the
quite quite the opposite of that.
It creates a level of distrust
when it comes to the message that is
being given.
And more so than being harmful for the
congregation, for the person that you're preaching to,
it's also harmful for oneself.
Why is it harmful for yourself?
I guess it kinda normalizes
going against it in essence. Okay. It it
normalizes
going against it. Going against what?
Very good.
It normalizes
kinda your flaws,
but then you're like, well, I'm preaching about
it, so I'm okay. You know?
Another thing is
that hypocrisy in inactions is real.
We're we're put too quick to call people
hypocrites.
Just gonna let you guys know that. Very
too quick.
However,
hypocrisy in action is real.
So it may be
that someone clearly knows that this is something
that they should not be doing,
and they do it, and then they go
and preach to other people don't do x,
y, and z.
And so Imam al Ghazali, he tells his
student, he says
not only should you not preach but you
should shun it. Like you should not It's
like almost having, like, an aversion to it.
And the reason being that if you're not
ready to practice what you're gonna tell other
people, then you have no right to say
that.
And we see this in the life of
the prophet
that when companions and people will come to
the prophet
and they will ask him questions
or they will say, you Rasoolallah, what is
the best thing that I should do to
go to Jannah? The prophet said to one
man in particular, he said, the best of
you is the one who is good to
their families and I am good to my
family.
And then you have years later after the
death and the passing of the prophet
when Aisha Baliwal,
would say that the prophet never, like he
was someone who was so kind and so
soft hearted and so compassionate and so loving
to his family that he never raised a
hand to anyone in his family.
That you had people that were in his
care.
That the prophet has sent Anas Bemalik, the
prophet sent him to do something. He asked
him, can you do me a favor? Anas
Bemalik said, yes. I'll do you this favor.
He's living, like, basically in the house of
the Prophetess. And Prophetess is basically taking care
of them. And Anais Bemalik then goes outside
and he starts playing around. K?
Loses track of time. It's like when your
mom tells my mom's here so this is
really awkward. But it's like when your mom
tells you to take the chicken out,
right, before I get home, thaw it out,
and then you get on a computer,
start watching TV, texting on your phone. What
happens? You forgot.
K? Then she's like, I'm 5 minutes away.
And
and you gather everybody in the house and
you start blowing it to see if it's
gonna defrost.
Right? So he's playing
and the prophetesserner walks up and sees him
and he's like he just looks at him.
And Narayan says that he says that he
never asked me, like, why were you here?
Like, why didn't you do what I asked
you to do?
So the prophet led by example.
He didn't just preach to people
or tell people to be one way and
then be completely the opposite.
That's not how he was.
And so here, Imam Abu Ghazali
is giving his student this very real advice.
And he says that think about the time
when this advice this type of advice was
given to Isa
alaihis salam, the son of Menniam.
And it was said to him,
listen.
Preach to yourself.
And when you have preached to yourself or
when you're done preaching to yourself, meaning you're
done getting yourself in order, k,
you're done making sure that you've covered your
basis. You're done making sure that you're working
on your relationship with God. When you're done
with that, then you can preach to other
people.
Otherwise,
your Lord, you will stand ashamed before Allah.
You will stand ashamed before Allah.
And the reason is because
imagine
someone is telling somebody else how to be
great,
And then you go before Allah and you're
like, Allah, I didn't know how to be
great.
Allah is like, you just told so and
so down the street how to be amazing.
All you had to do was take your
own advice.
That is it.
And so he says for for
for his,
his student to avoid
preaching.
And then he gives him he says that
if you are entrusted with this task,
in the event that you're entrusted with the
task of teaching or preaching,
then you should avoid 2 characteristics.
Before we get into the characteristics, this is
something I wanna focus on a little bit
because
we've talked a lot about the methodology
and the way of, like,
this different type of knowledge, this different type
of journey and learning,
that a big part of it is mentorship.
Right?
Someone
who has been mentored
and they have someone like a teacher that
is very close to them that teaches
them not only books but also how to
be,
then they get entrusted to go and preach
to others.
It is just that, a trust. It is
a handing of the baton. Okay?
And the reason why I say that is
because
you find that the most problematic times
are people who get up and they've entrusted
themselves.
Like they're the ones who are like, I'm
ready to go out and preach,
And I'm gonna tell everybody what they need
to hear.
A lot of things go wrong.
A lot of things go wrong. Sometimes it's
as simple as tact, how to be tasteful
in what you're saying.
For example, the Quran talks about hellfire.
Right?
Somebody can present verses about the hellfire and
it can serve as a reminder for you.
When you feel a little shook, right, you
feel a little like, k. I need to
get my life together.
Sometimes somebody can present the voices of hellfire
and you're like, what's the point? We're all
going to * now.
Am I wrong?
He said no real loud. So that means
I'm really not wrong. I got you.
Yes.
Right.
And that's a lot of times because with
mentorship,
with having teachers and people,
it helps you in being able to do
things the right
way. And he's saying that if you're not,
1, not ready to practice what you've preach
what you're preaching and what you've learned, then
don't do it. And
2, even if you feel like you're practicing
what you preach, guess what? You have to
wait until you're entrusted with this. You have
to wait until
you
you are being told that, hey. Okay. You're
ready to go out there.
And even that in and of itself, then
he gives more things that you should avoid.
But we put this, like, in our lives
today.
It is so important for us to recognize
that there are people who came
and walked the paths that we walked.
As as much as we're like, oh, this
life is like weird. I'm studying this and
things are different now,
you don't have to repeat the mistakes of
others. You don't.
Getting a mentor, someone to help you in
your journey of life is very important.
It's extremely important.
Whatever journey it is you're on, whatever profession
you're going through. Because you don't want to
take a leap
too quick and you don't have the wings
to fly.
And then you look like a frog.
And then you feel like a frog.
You don't want that.
So you get people
that will help you and that will build
you to be ready.
And when you're ready for that leap, guess
what? You'll sore.
But you'll still have the humility
to grow
and that's what you want. And so he
says that if you're entrusted with this, there
are 2 cat 2 characteristics
that you have to avoid.
The first one
is being
really fake in your speech.
It's when you're like super flowery,
okay, and you decide that, you know what?
I'm gonna add all of this poetry and
poetry is not bad.
I'm explain. But you're gonna add all these
poetries and these little these little, sayings. And
you ever
met someone who tries to be hip?
Why everybody look at you? I'm sorry.
I didn't even look up. I was just
like
it just felt the heat of eyes. How
does it feel? It's, like, weird. Right? Like,
all of a sudden, someone comes in. They're
like, alright, guys. Time to get lit with
this lecture, and everybody's like, what?
Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Sofia's like, lit with
lemonades on Friday night.
Right? Lemonades.
I love it.
Right. So sorry. This is so live. We're
we're gonna I cut this snippet out and,
like, send it to Safia every Friday. You
know, for my nerve. But, yeah, you ever
see somebody trying to, like they're just they're
just saying things to try to, like, get
people's reaction,
That's what he's saying. He's saying don't do
that.
If you're gonna go in
and you're entrusted with this, then everything about
you
that has got you here, that's fine.
You don't need to change who you are
to try to appeal to people.
Right? You don't need to change your speech
or your jargon to try to make someone,
like, get what you're saying.
And then he brings a very
powerful
point. He talks about
what
preachers in Islam do. They're they're giving reminders.
And mainly those reminders are about Allah excuse
me, Allah
and about the hereafter and about, you know,
the fact that this world is not the
only thing that we work for. And he
says reminders are just that, they're reminders. Like,
God can speak for himself.
Like, Allah SWANTAWA'S
words are beautiful.
Allah SWANTAWA'S the things that he gives us
to be able to remind people, the things
that he gives us to remind ourselves, they're
beautiful in and of themselves.
The speech of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam is beautiful.
You don't have to go
and try to create something if it's not
there are people who are creative
and they have a way with words and
it comes naturally and it flows and you
don't even feel so weird about it. But
then there are people who will go and
try to create something out of nothing. It's
like, no. Just say what you need to
say
and know that, like, with your sincerity,
guess what? It'll stick.
It'll stick.
You just go and you say what you
have to say.
The second thing that he says,
and I am skipping over a little bit
of things, but the second thing does the
second characteristic that he says that you should
avoid
is that you should avoid
your
he says that you should avoid your speech
being something that you're only saying it because
you wanna rile people up and that like
you want people to get excited. You know,
you want people to leave and be like,
oh, that was the best, you know, lecture
that I ever went to or that was
the best hangout I ever went to. Like,
that's not that's not why you're here.
And this becomes problematic because guess what?
When someone's
intention
or when someone's will or when someone's,
you know,
point of saying the things that they're saying
is to rile other people up or get
other people excited,
you start to say things that are appealing
to other people.
You won't say what you what you really
need to say.
You won't be preaching the message of Allah
at that point.
At that point, you're preaching what your nafs
wants.
And that's for everybody to like you, for
everybody to be like, yeah, I want that
person at my house. I wanna invite them.
I wanna be friends. No.
He's just reiterating here that listen,
now that we've covered you not arguing with
people
and we fixed that, When you do talk
to people, this is how you speak to
them. You don't have to be fancy. You
don't have to make all these jokes. You
don't have to have all these things. No.
Be yourself
and don't try to speak to them from
the standpoint of trying to rile them up
so that they can always hear you speak.
So this is the second one that we
are have covered here. Mhmm. We're gonna go
ahead and stop here because we wanna take
a little bit of questions, and then we
wanna do a fudger.
Yes. Yeah. You said fudger.
Avoid your speech,
that you are saying only
I'm sorry? You said,
avoid your speech?
For something.
Yes. The second
what the second characteristic
is avoid your speech to excite other people.
Excite other people. Yes.
Okay.
Thank
you. You're welcome. Any questions
before we wrap up
for?
So do you do that people have to
address slash argue stuff to base someone ignorant.
Like, sometimes the situation you just cannot get
around it. Like, you have to face
them. Islam. Allah says, Allah
says,
Like, when you have to face ignorant people,
Sometimes you just say, thanks.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Just that's how you answer it.
Yeah.
Yeah. Because it's at the end of the
day, it's like, you know, like he's saying,
you're not really gonna do much, and so
it's better not to it's better not to
throw yourself into the ring.
So you just you know, this person says
something you say,
Inshallah.
Like, you
know, that's it. And and, again, you're not
doing condescendingly. You're just kinda like, I appreciate
it. You know?
And then at some point, if they get,
like, reckless, then you just walk away.
Yeah.
Any other questions? It's not very satisfying, but
it's the smartest route.
Mhmm.
So there's a difference between giving advice and
preaching.
Right? So if you're friends with somebody,
you know what I'm saying, and you know
they're struggling with something, you guys are talking
about it. You know, there's nothing wrong with
giving advice like, hey. Like, we struggle.
We all do. But we both know that
this is, like, something that we need to
do better. Right? That's very different than me
showing up here and being like,
you should not do x, y, and z,
and I'm doing that. Right? That's a it's
a very different tone that you should take.
Does that make sense?
Agreed. No. A 100%.
Can you have one more question?
You good? Alright. Yep. Alright. Let's pray
because came in
at 7:59.
Wow. Really? Yeah. Oh, I came in at
8:10. Yeah. Alright. 759 now. So we'll pray
and then we have some some light, you
know, refreshments outside of everybody. Okay? Alrighty.
How many times I should have?
Listen.
When you listen. When you come here, you
sign a waiver.