Shadee Elmasry – Safina Society Podcast S1 E1 Tradition, Marriage, History

Shadee Elmasry
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning and finding a scholarly teacher is emphasized in the conversation. The speakers emphasize the need for a clear understanding of the Prophet peace be upon them, the importance of learning from past experiences, and avoiding crisis in college. The speakers also discuss the history of coffee in Yemen and the importance of marriage in the country. The segment ends with a brief advertisement for a podcast and a group of brothers asking for coffee.
AI: Transcript ©
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Salam Alaikum everyone and welcome to the first Safina society

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podcast. My name is Maureen. I'm one of the students here at Safina

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society and I'm here with my teacher, Dr. Shadow Masuri. And

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today we're going to be having a light conversation. Before we get

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started, I'd like to have Dr. Shadi give a small introduction to

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himself and a little bit about Safina society. So, grab some

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coffee, grab some tea, and why don't you join us for some light

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conversation today. So inshallah here's Dr. Shetty. Smilla rahmanir

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rahim. hamdulillah Lama, Surya Barik, ala Sayidina Muhammad wa

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salatu salam? Well, I'm originally from New Jersey. And I started

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seeking knowledge, probably when I was pretty young, 12 and 14. So

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mache came, and I started very lightly, but I was very interested

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in the lifestyle of scholars from a very young age, and then

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eventually at around 1718 started studying and didn't look back and

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you're always continuing to study, the resources were much so even

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until now, I'm still you know, studying. I have teachers once and

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twice a week, with whom I still continue studying. In 2013 and

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2012, I came to New Brunswick Islamic center, start teaching.

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And really what I wanted to do is have an institute for traditional

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Islamic knowledge. So they were generous enough to allow me to

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incubate Safina society, which is the organization inside of mbyc.

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So that's the situation we're in right now. Safina society is an

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organization dedicated to disseminating traditional Islamic

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knowledge live and online as well. And there have been a lot of

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people asking for a podcast. So I started looking into to what

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podcasts are all about, you know, what works, what doesn't, and here

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we are doing one, so Inshallah, you know, people could benefit

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from it.

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So thank you, Dr. Shadi for the introduction and the kind words,

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so in sha Allah, you know, there's some things, there's lots of

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things I'd like to talk about on this podcast. But

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you know, one thing that's, you know, for me, personally, been

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bothering me is, you know, what can I do about my spiritual

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situation in terms of how I'm feeling based on recent events

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that have been happening in the world? So, you know, there's just

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lots and lots of carnage. And I would say, you know, fifth nine

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evil that's gone on in the world, and sometimes I just feel like an

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emptiness inside, and I don't know what to do. What do you think, you

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know, you know, how do I how do I deal with this? Well, firstly, the

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news is actually really bad, the news is really negative. The news

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itself is not a neutral thing. So I actually don't watch a lot of

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news, believe it or not, you get the BBC popups. If you if you

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watch a lot of news, you're going to be very depressed. And

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increasingly, if you just don't mind your business, if you're

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involved in anything, you can get really depressed by the state of

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things in the world today, but Muslims, stew, young youth amongst

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the Muslims, their default setting, if they start looking

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into things, if they're not connected to an Imam, or a scholar

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who could could show them the ropes of the world, okay, and

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navigate the meanings of the Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet

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peace be upon him, your default setting is going to be confused,

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right? It's not It's very complicated. And the Prophet peace

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be on him said, Whoever lives long after me. Okay, we'll see much

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difference. Sarah, at 11, cathedra, there's going to be a

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lot of groups, there are going to be a lot of opinions, there's

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going to be a lot of differences, okay, a lot of breakups, between

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groups, a lot of disputation. So we constantly have these types of

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times of confusion, right? And this is why the real, the solution

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to all these things is constantly going back to knowledge and people

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even that itself, the path of knowledge itself is confusing,

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because you're going to be told there are three four paths and

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each path is telling you the other is right and the other is wrong,

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or one is right and one is wrong, right and they're mutually

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exclusive. So you're going to be furthermore confused. So really,

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if we're going to agree that knowledge is of prime import to

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understand the world, okay? Then we have to understand how to seek

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knowledge and we're going to tell you, you have to follow living

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scholars. So then we need to go further and see well what what

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which living scholar?

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There are so many living scholars and from this we have from the

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Prophet peace be upon him a cut from the Prophet peace be upon him

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that he said the Scott the living Scott

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Allah is the One who you see him you remember a lot so that the

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ruya Vokera law if you see him he remember Allah. We also know that

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ensuited Yusuf, it tells us will focal Cooley, the element name

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above every scholar is a greater scholar, which means the sign of a

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true scholar is that he has teachers, he has greater teachers

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above him. All right, he didn't, he doesn't wing it. You got a lot

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of people out there today. They're just winging it. They're not part

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of anything. They don't have teachers. They don't have mache.

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They're not connected to any tradition of scholarship. So how

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do we know if their judgments are right or wrong? If they don't have

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a teacher? Okay. How do we know anything? There was? Absolutely

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no, I agree. So, you know, for, you know, for me, it's a Finnish

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society, it's been easier to come in contact with teachers and get

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to know more people. But you know, before I came here, it was very

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difficult to really get in touch with the right teachers and to

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learn the right knowledge. And I would say the majority of people

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today don't even know where to start. Right? Where do you get the

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right teacher? Who do you contact? And let's say, if we were to focus

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our, you know, range down, let's just take the average Muslim, what

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is the average Muslim supposed to do? This is a good question.

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Because

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how do you start and in anything, really, just getting your foot in

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the door is the biggest accomplishment. I remember myself

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being totally confused. Now, I love scholarship and knowledge but

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didn't know that our Alma was as divided and broken up as it is,

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which is prophesied. So

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the Prophet told us this, this is going to happen, which gives the

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person comfort because when you see a problem, and there you have

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your Prophet peace be upon him telling you that he's telling you

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that is going to happen. That means he's also giving you an

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antidote to it, right? A solution to it. All right, he recognizes

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it. So you know, this prophet, Prophet peace be upon him. He's

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not with us today, but it's prophecies are living amongst us

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today we see in front of our own our own two eyes. So the way I

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begin, was I asked myself what access do I have? And that is

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Allah. So you have Allah right. And we have a DUA, that is the dua

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that will deliver you right to the scholarship, that is going to be

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true Allahumma Edendale Khan, what is it gonna do? Well, I didn't

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know about that about them. What is it gonna just you know, this is

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a dua that should be said, in the last third of the night, in the

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prayer in the sexta. With tadagra with desperation, whenever a

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person is confused about the truth whenever an individual doesn't

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know. All right, and fits in it is not fits, and it has a couple of

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meanings. Number one is temptation. Number two, it's

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killing right. And the third definition of it is when the truth

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and falsehood are confused, when the truth and falsehood are

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confused, right? And a person doesn't know truth from falsehood.

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At that point. That's what we call fitna, right. We call that fitna,

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and this dua is supposed to clear up the fitna. On top of that you

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have in the Quran. Okay, well may have tequila. Yeah, aloha.

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Maharajah. All right. What is Oakland? Hola, Jessup. All right.

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And we have

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this idea which states whoever it's Taqwa Allah will show a way

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out for him. This isn't everything in knowledge and wealth. In any

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situation. Whoever has Taqwa Allah will show him a way out. Okay?

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Well, my tequila your Allahu Allah, whoever has Taqwa. Right.

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And we the Prophet peace Ivana said whoever acts upon what Allah

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taught him, then Allah will give him more knowledge directly from

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himself. And that knowledge directly from himself is not

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anything new. It's understanding of what's right and what's wrong.

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Okay. All right, whenever you have a dilemma, what is this right or

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that wrong? So most people out there, they are suffering from

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this and will continue because as new events come, you get more

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confused by new events where there's no precedent on these

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events. So even the contemporary scholars will be different. And by

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the way, in America, you have very few scholars, you have advanced

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students of knowledge, right? So even in America, don't say oh,

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these are Scott, do we have advanced students of knowledge we

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also have, we have to recognize that okay, advanced students of

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knowledge, that means there'll be susceptible to mistakes and they

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have to have teachers that they go back to Alright, as much as

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there's a movement now to this. Alright, let's develop our own

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scholarship. How are you going to develop scholarship when you don't

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even have scholars in the first place?

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You have to have there has to be a constant go back and forth. And

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the advanced student analogy is going to be wise enough to

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recognize what part of his teachers teachings are

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relevant to his location, right and which part were are absolute

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right to every location. So could you Could you repeat the dua for

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us once again, the DUA is Allahumma Medina haka, what is

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what are they not about Allah about Allah? What is up and he

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never, which means Oh Allah, show me the truth as truth. Right, and

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give and bless me with the ability to follow it and show me falsehood

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as falsehood and give me the ability to avoid it.

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And we avoid falsehood, right? Some people out there, and Islam

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is not

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a type of free for all operation. If once you know that something is

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a falsehood, the proponents of that falsehood we are taught to

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stop listening to them completely. Right? And he's someone with a

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complete heresy in the deen, why you're going to confuse yourself,

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right? You're gonna confuse yourself, you're going to be

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confused, okay. And you're going to end up going in circles. Okay.

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And the if you had any other discipline, in any other

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discipline, you spend a long time choosing which university you go

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to, and then you stick to it, you don't switch every two years. You

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don't take a class here and a class there, you don't switch out

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after freshman year. And then after sophomore year, switch to

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another school trainers, if you're going to get a trainer, you're

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going to think very hard on who is the right trainer. Okay, you'd go

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and spend a little time with this person a little time with the next

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person all the time with the third person. And then you figure out

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which trainer right is going to suit you and you stick with them.

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The people who switch and go back and forth. These are the least the

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last people to learn, right? are the last people to achieve or

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attain anything you need consistency in all disciplines. So

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imagine now the most important discipline the discipline with a

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lot of detail. The discipline with the most on the line, there's we

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have heaven and * on the line. Right? So a person should spend a

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lot of time first asking the question of from whom do we take

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our deen? Right What are the signs of people we said the first sign

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is if you see if you're in their presence, you remember Allah azza

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wa jal, the second sign, all right, is will focus equally the

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element Aleem above this person is another scholar, which means and

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above that scholars and other scholars and above that scholars

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another scholar, what do we call that? It's not a chain of

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transmission. Right? He's not coming out of the blue. So this is

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a very important subject this subject of who do we learn from?

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Right. And it's and not only is it important, but it's a problem

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that's occurred, that I see regularly, you know, there's so

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I'll give you an example. You know, when I when I was in

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college, you know, when I was learning knowledge for the first

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time, what I encountered was

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mediocre students of knowledge almost. But I didn't know

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anything. Right? I was a novice. And so when somebody would tell me

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something, I would take it at face value. And I would assume that

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this is correct knowledge. And I see this a lot when it comes to

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universities and assays, a lot of different areas. And what comes

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there is also almost a an arrogance of knowledge and, and

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and a refusal to learn from the right teachers, how would you, you

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know, what advice would you give for there are a couple of things

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that you touched on there. couple of important things. The first

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thing is that

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not a lot of people are taught epistemology, which is quite

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simply the question of what determines truth, right? Or if you

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want to use even simply some journalistic if you want to call

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it journalistic ethics, or values, or criteria of what is your

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source, right? In the court of law, if a lawyer says something

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and makes a claim, he's got to back it up with a source, okay?

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All of knowledge is one of two things either transmission, or he

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had right transmission or a self thought of theory, right? A theory

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from yourself. If it's transmission fossa, we ask a

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Sahar, we ask you, all right, how why should we trust the person

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that you're transmitting? From? Who did you get your information

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from? I teach my kids actually, they come and they tell me things.

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Things that happened. I asked them, Who told you this? Oh,

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someone's on the playground. Alright, you got to learn a little

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lesson here called Who is your source? Right? Well, that's not a

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trust. That's not acceptable source. Absolutely. So secondly,

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if it's HD head, then what's your evidence? So the first thing that

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I want to bring people's attention to, when you hear things about the

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dean, the first question to ask Who did I hear this from? Because

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a lot of times people make claims that aren't even true. Okay? And

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because maybe they look like a reputable source, or we didn't

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even think of the concept of questioning the source. Okay. So

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you got to always question the sources number one. Secondly,

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alright. Secondly,

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is the issue of arrogance, knowledge is as valuable as it is,

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it can be used as a wield shaitan can wield it against the person.

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Right? And this is why, in traditional Islamic knowledge,

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we'd never separate between knowledge and piety, right

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knowledge and the acts of ritual worship and the service of the

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community and the service of the family, the old lemma, in the

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past, the Sahaba, the ultimate, all the people the past, they

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never separated. The agenda of knowledge or the institution of

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knowledge.

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From the whole path of life, right and the path of salvation with

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Allah azza wa jal, the two aren't separate. And unfortunately, the

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university setting does separate that, right? You can't deny that

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the university separating the setting doesn't do this, the

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university setting, right does not have a concept of incorporating

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your knowledge of staying humble, of passing your knowledge on to

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others, of making sure your knowledge is a benefit for your

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afterlife. What you do with your knowledge is never even brought

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up. Right? So this is one of the problems is where when, when

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knowledge becomes the setting of knowledge, the actual setting of

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where learning takes place, tells you immediately a lot about what

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you're going to get as a result. So I'm actually a big believer

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that behaviors are determined before anything happens with just

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the setting. Right? Just the setting of how this learning is

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taking place will indicate to immediately how it can be used or

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misused.

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Certainly, so you know, you mentioned a few times

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traditional knowledge, right? So, I mean, I think I understand

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exactly what traditional knowledge is, but what's the, what's the

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real difference between, you know, modern knowledge versus

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traditional knowledge? Okay, that's a good question. Now, when

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we talk about traditional knowledge, I can tell you what I

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mean by it. What I mean by traditional knowledge is that

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which is passed on, in which there is a sacred that is recognized,

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the first thing in any concept of the word tradition, is the word

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sacred. something sacred is recognized and agreed upon and

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guarded.

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Okay, then it's passed down, it's passed down, and the passing down

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of the baton, right, is as sacred as the baton itself, the way it's

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passed down to whom it's passed down the whole process, where if

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we say modern, we're going to remove the word sacred, right? And

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we're going to replace it with the word mundane or secular. Okay? So

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modern knowledge looks at the sacred traditions. So if you're

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going to study Islam or Judaism, Christianity at a university, you

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are basically taking a dead corpse and dissecting it, that's what it

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is, it's treated like a dead corpse. Whereas if we're saying

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traditional Islamic knowledge, Islam is, let's say personified by

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a baton. And it is a golden baton that is handed down from one

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teacher to his student, he has to check his student first and make

00:17:39 --> 00:17:42

sure his student is on the right path. I've never had a teacher who

00:17:42 --> 00:17:46

has never advised me of Taqwa. I've never had a teacher who never

00:17:46 --> 00:17:50

asked me how my prayers were. They always ask, Well, are you federal?

00:17:50 --> 00:17:53

Are you doing federal, a federal in the masjid? You're doing these

00:17:53 --> 00:17:57

things? Okay. I've never had them not advised me if they see a

00:17:57 --> 00:18:02

mistake happening, right? So they are checking. It's like having a

00:18:02 --> 00:18:05

you could say pure milk, you need to make sure the cup that you're

00:18:05 --> 00:18:11

pouring it into is pure, and the process of the transmission, how

00:18:11 --> 00:18:15

it's transmitted is as valuable as the thing itself. This is what we

00:18:15 --> 00:18:18

mean when we're talking about traditional knowledge. The subject

00:18:18 --> 00:18:23

matter is sacred. We all agree upon that. The Guardian, which is

00:18:23 --> 00:18:28

the scholar of that sanctity, himself is viewed differently than

00:18:28 --> 00:18:31

any other people. Allah tells us. How do you study Alinea, Animoto?

00:18:31 --> 00:18:35

linaria Laila, mon, are the ones who know are they equivalent to

00:18:35 --> 00:18:39

the ones who don't know? So that person who has, Allah has

00:18:39 --> 00:18:44

entrusted him with keeping this knowledge sacred, and guarding it

00:18:44 --> 00:18:46

and spending his whole life reviewing it and studying it to

00:18:46 --> 00:18:48

make sure he's understand to make sure he's a sound vessel for it?

00:18:49 --> 00:18:52

He himself is in a sign of Allah azza wa jal. This is why in

00:18:52 --> 00:18:56

traditional circles, we love our ships, right? We love them. We

00:18:56 --> 00:18:59

don't go astray in our love for shakes like some Janya, probably

00:18:59 --> 00:19:03

in this day and age, it's a minority, but you do have groups

00:19:03 --> 00:19:07

out there who go astray in their love of a chef. But we're not

00:19:07 --> 00:19:09

going astray in our love of a chef, right? And America. I don't

00:19:09 --> 00:19:13

think that really exists very much, but maybe it does. But we

00:19:13 --> 00:19:16

are Schick is not just a professor, you know, he's not a

00:19:16 --> 00:19:19

professor, you're gonna sit in his class with your PJs on and your

00:19:19 --> 00:19:21

feet in front of him. And he's just whatever he says it's just a

00:19:21 --> 00:19:24

guy who read a little bit more than you. That's what a professor

00:19:24 --> 00:19:29

is. He's a guy no different than you. Right? In his moral and

00:19:29 --> 00:19:33

ethical character. He just read a little bit more than you, right?

00:19:33 --> 00:19:36

That's all he is. A Sheikh is not a Sheikh is someone

00:19:37 --> 00:19:41

who is guarding himself because he's a vessel of this knowledge.

00:19:42 --> 00:19:45

There has to be an upgrade example and I myself, every year, every

00:19:45 --> 00:19:50

day, I look at myself and check myself because even though I'm

00:19:50 --> 00:19:53

just a student, and but I'm still passing knowledge on and everyday

00:19:53 --> 00:19:56

I look myself Is this the behavior of someone and you got to fix

00:19:56 --> 00:19:59

yourself and you make mistakes. And the mistake it's an

00:19:59 --> 00:20:00

embarrassment to

00:20:00 --> 00:20:02

Make I'm not saying mistaken knowledge I'm saying mistakes and

00:20:02 --> 00:20:07

o'clock. Right? I've made mistakes with people, right? Been harsh

00:20:07 --> 00:20:09

with people. But I go back to myself and say look, is that

00:20:09 --> 00:20:12

you're, you're not, there's not a university class, he just no one

00:20:12 --> 00:20:16

cares. No, people look at your o'clock, right people look at your

00:20:16 --> 00:20:19

character. People look at your prayer in the masjid, people look

00:20:19 --> 00:20:24

at your behavior. So teaching this knowledge if you become a teacher

00:20:24 --> 00:20:28

in any way, shape, or form, right, in the traditional pie artistic

00:20:28 --> 00:20:31

setting, you are the first person who's going to improve, because

00:20:31 --> 00:20:34

every day, you got to look at yourself in the mirror and say, Is

00:20:34 --> 00:20:36

this the behavior of someone who's passing on the hadith of Rasul

00:20:36 --> 00:20:40

Allah? This is the behavior of someone who's teaching people FIP

00:20:40 --> 00:20:44

and spirituality into soul with an aroma Khurana tafsir. And it's a

00:20:44 --> 00:20:48

contradiction. So this is the big the meaning of when we say

00:20:48 --> 00:20:51

traditional knowledge versus secular knowledge.

00:20:53 --> 00:20:57

See, my thing was right, when I was at university, and and I could

00:20:57 --> 00:21:00

probably say this a lot about a lot of other people. Right? The

00:21:00 --> 00:21:05

bigger concern isn't the dean, right? Of course, it's it's, it's,

00:21:05 --> 00:21:09

it's unfortunately, just that's just not on many people's minds.

00:21:09 --> 00:21:14

And the reason why a lot of people are at MSA are a variety of

00:21:14 --> 00:21:18

reasons. And in the end, the dean is really just one reason you

00:21:18 --> 00:21:23

know, who I feel benefits the most, from, you know, I feel

00:21:23 --> 00:21:25

benefits the most in these essays,

00:21:26 --> 00:21:27

is,

00:21:28 --> 00:21:34

once someone has a tribulation, and a trial, I look at MSH. And I

00:21:34 --> 00:21:38

see the people who have had trials and tribulations. These are the

00:21:38 --> 00:21:41

people who benefit the most. Right? In college, you go into

00:21:41 --> 00:21:45

college, you get something happens, you're not used to the

00:21:45 --> 00:21:50

environment, all these things, right. And then you go into maybe

00:21:50 --> 00:21:54

a type of crisis. You're in crisis mode, you don't know who you are,

00:21:54 --> 00:21:58

you don't know what you believe. Right? You're now through all

00:21:58 --> 00:22:01

these ideas are thrown at you. I see these college kids every day.

00:22:01 --> 00:22:04

And they're always looking for something. Right? Right. And a lot

00:22:04 --> 00:22:09

of them right when they have, especially if they have a Muslim

00:22:09 --> 00:22:14

origin to them, right? If that was Muslim families, okay? Then they,

00:22:14 --> 00:22:16

they know where to go. So they start coming back to the masjid,

00:22:16 --> 00:22:18

they start coming back to

00:22:19 --> 00:22:22

coming back to Allah studying the CEO of the Prophet peace be upon

00:22:22 --> 00:22:26

him. So a lot of people who have that type of existential crisis in

00:22:26 --> 00:22:29

college, right, and they start wondering why they exist, what are

00:22:29 --> 00:22:32

they doing or how they're supposed to live? And they start coming

00:22:32 --> 00:22:35

back. Unfortunately, a lot of people have this, but there are

00:22:35 --> 00:22:38

people out there there are groups fighting for your soul, there are

00:22:38 --> 00:22:42

groups fighting for your kids souls, right? And they want you

00:22:42 --> 00:22:45

there. They want you on their side, and they want your kids on

00:22:45 --> 00:22:48

their side, everyone's you go to university and 100 groups are

00:22:48 --> 00:22:51

going to pull you, right. So which one are you going to go to? That's

00:22:51 --> 00:22:54

why we have to have our youth have to be grounded, right? I have a

00:22:54 --> 00:22:58

class in Sofia society called Dina essentials. And all it is is

00:22:58 --> 00:23:02

preparation for the polemics, right, and the hockey, the

00:23:02 --> 00:23:05

pitfalls, and what they're going to be presented in college so that

00:23:05 --> 00:23:09

once they enter college, I want them to have seen it all. I want

00:23:09 --> 00:23:11

them to have seen. I want them to be

00:23:12 --> 00:23:17

thoroughly aware of what what kind of proofs to their philosophy,

00:23:17 --> 00:23:19

teachers are going to try to bring them against God. All right, I

00:23:19 --> 00:23:22

want to be thorough, thoroughly aware of how we're supposed to

00:23:22 --> 00:23:25

handle sexuality, right? How are we supposed to handle the

00:23:25 --> 00:23:29

questions of sexuality? I want them to be able to dice it up in a

00:23:29 --> 00:23:32

nuanced shades, right? So that they could not look like

00:23:32 --> 00:23:35

blockheads, right and not lose their Deen at the same time. All

00:23:35 --> 00:23:36

right. So

00:23:37 --> 00:23:43

out in college, colleges, if your kids are not educated in the Dean

00:23:43 --> 00:23:46

before they go to college, right, if you relied on your local Sunday

00:23:46 --> 00:23:49

school, even your Islamic school, you might be in for a little bit

00:23:49 --> 00:23:51

of surprise, they're gonna be in for a surprise. And you might be

00:23:51 --> 00:23:56

in for a surprise of the result. Because college is you got 100

00:23:56 --> 00:24:00

groups out there trying to pull at your, at your soul, and they want

00:24:00 --> 00:24:05

you and we, the Muslims have to want the more. We have more to

00:24:05 --> 00:24:08

fight for. Right. And that's why we're doing I'm out there and

00:24:08 --> 00:24:12

trying to get involved in any type of media. Right and get the

00:24:12 --> 00:24:13

message out there.

00:24:14 --> 00:24:18

Through all the mediums. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I do

00:24:18 --> 00:24:22

see you eyeing your coffee. So why don't you tell us a little bit

00:24:22 --> 00:24:25

about what you're drinking today. People Muslims have gotten

00:24:25 --> 00:24:27

obsessed with coffee to be honest with you and when people say why

00:24:27 --> 00:24:30

do you got so obsessed? Firstly, everyone's obsessed with coffee.

00:24:30 --> 00:24:33

Sure on the eastern west coast, the life that gets us so stressful

00:24:33 --> 00:24:37

Allah azza wa jal give us a little gift. Right one guy told he said

00:24:37 --> 00:24:39

What Why are you so obsessed with coffee? Right? You don't know You

00:24:39 --> 00:24:42

don't love anything else? And he gave a honest answer. He said

00:24:42 --> 00:24:45

honestly, I love a lot of things, but most of them are haram.

00:24:46 --> 00:24:51

Right? So I mean, that's, that's what it is. And but you got to be

00:24:51 --> 00:24:55

careful. We don't like any type of addictions, especially if we're

00:24:55 --> 00:24:58

people of fasting if you fast you can't be addicted to anything.

00:24:58 --> 00:24:59

Right?

00:25:00 --> 00:25:04

In Yemen, coffee, the first people who discovered it were actually

00:25:05 --> 00:25:08

Muslims in Yemen. And there is a dispute that some people say that

00:25:08 --> 00:25:10

Ethiopians that Ethiopians are fighting for the Yemenis are

00:25:10 --> 00:25:14

fighting for it. Yemen was relevant in world history for

00:25:14 --> 00:25:17

about 90 years. And when they had coffee, and no one else had it,

00:25:17 --> 00:25:22

right, the Ottomans, maybe it was a little bit more. I mean, Mocha

00:25:23 --> 00:25:27

is a city. It's a port in Yemen, right? And support in Yemen, and

00:25:27 --> 00:25:33

the beans. There, they're a little bit different. The aid got it

00:25:33 --> 00:25:38

spread coffee spread through the worshippers. True that it was

00:25:38 --> 00:25:43

called the Muhammad had been I've heard this before. And so as I had

00:25:43 --> 00:25:47

my professor and so as he said, your first assignment is on the

00:25:47 --> 00:25:51

moment had dead is to get out check out every single book from

00:25:51 --> 00:25:56

the Source Library, which is the fourth biggest library, Islamic

00:25:56 --> 00:26:00

Studies library. Islamic library, in the Western Hemisphere was

00:26:00 --> 00:26:03

University of London. So as your job was to get every single

00:26:03 --> 00:26:07

English and Arabic historical source on Yemen, and read them in

00:26:07 --> 00:26:11

the hole in the summertime, and I spend the summer it was the summer

00:26:11 --> 00:26:19

of 2003. I went and I had probably three piles of books, right around

00:26:19 --> 00:26:25

my desk and one of them was the history of coffee, right because

00:26:25 --> 00:26:33

the Ottomans went and fought 90 years against the the Shia disease

00:26:33 --> 00:26:39

in the north, for control of the ports. After the Zaydi is, fought

00:26:39 --> 00:26:42

the Ottomans for 90 years, they got very good at war, as soon as

00:26:42 --> 00:26:46

the Ottomans left, right, as soon as the Ottomans backed out of it.

00:26:47 --> 00:26:50

The 80s were so strong, they conquered the rest of Yemen. Right

00:26:50 --> 00:26:54

and that's why Imam and had dead in his lifetime, he Tarim was

00:26:54 --> 00:26:58

conquered by these, these at she and that's why he refused to be an

00:26:58 --> 00:27:03

imam. Right. And that's why in the Rajib, in the Euro, famous vicar

00:27:03 --> 00:27:08

that had that compiled file, things that were sort of answered,

00:27:08 --> 00:27:10

antidotes is ABCD.

00:27:11 --> 00:27:15

So he has a verse in there, he says, playing with the mushiya

00:27:15 --> 00:27:19

didn't have good and bad come from Eliza. Because the mock Desi like

00:27:19 --> 00:27:22

thought rationalist thought says that the good is from Allah, the

00:27:22 --> 00:27:25

evil is from ourselves. Right? It's a little bit of a diversion.

00:27:25 --> 00:27:28

But you know, you got a lot of these people, you know, they're

00:27:28 --> 00:27:33

they just got nuts over coffee. And it's a type of like a yuppie

00:27:33 --> 00:27:35

hippie thing. And it's one of the few things that Muslims actually

00:27:35 --> 00:27:38

have to be proud of is that they're just not even some of that

00:27:38 --> 00:27:40

they have to be proud of. It grew in their countries, they didn't

00:27:40 --> 00:27:44

invent it, right? They just happen to grow in their countries. And

00:27:44 --> 00:27:48

it's called the Arabica bean for that reason. But coffee to me is

00:27:48 --> 00:27:51

one of the biggest numbers. People are so weak, the amount of

00:27:51 --> 00:27:53

people's we can't even wake up. That's how weak people are, can

00:27:53 --> 00:27:56

even wake up. So I think think about Allah gave us this as a

00:27:56 --> 00:27:56

Rama.

00:27:59 --> 00:28:05

It's a miracle. The coffee growers of Yemen, they recite to us, they

00:28:05 --> 00:28:08

have to ask for coffee. I mean, their whole economy used to be

00:28:08 --> 00:28:11

based on coffee, right? Their whole economy was based on coffee.

00:28:11 --> 00:28:15

And it's only now that they had down there, right. In West Africa.

00:28:15 --> 00:28:18

It's the green tea and yet Minister coffee so that Facha has

00:28:18 --> 00:28:19

that they recite all right.

00:28:21 --> 00:28:25

So so another topic that I'd like to talk about before before we do

00:28:25 --> 00:28:28

close here. And you know, so I was

00:28:29 --> 00:28:32

just getting the word out that we were going to start this in a

00:28:32 --> 00:28:36

podcast and naturally a bunch of brothers asked me to talk about

00:28:36 --> 00:28:40

the topic of marriage. Marriage. Yes, yes. They they asked me you

00:28:40 --> 00:28:45

know, you know, what, what, what's what's wrong with the way we

00:28:45 --> 00:28:48

conduct marriages as youth of today?

00:28:51 --> 00:28:53

Safina starting a management matchmaking.

00:28:55 --> 00:28:59

Trust me, if I started a matchmaking operation will be very

00:28:59 --> 00:29:01

easy, right? You won't have much choice. But

00:29:04 --> 00:29:10

so here's the problem is the problem with most youth is they do

00:29:10 --> 00:29:15

it the other the wrong way. Right? They come to me. Firstly, it's a

00:29:15 --> 00:29:18

pattern. Every few months, I get a brother. He says it's an

00:29:18 --> 00:29:22

emergency. I really don't even know you. And it's an emergency.

00:29:22 --> 00:29:24

Okay, so what is the emergency? We don't even know each other, but

00:29:24 --> 00:29:27

he's coming to me for an emergency. All right. I love a

00:29:27 --> 00:29:32

woman. But my mom said no. Right. Here's the thing. I love a woman.

00:29:32 --> 00:29:37

So my mom said no, but my mom said no. Okay, so he did it backwards.

00:29:38 --> 00:29:41

He fell in love with someone before thinking. And this is just

00:29:41 --> 00:29:44

common sense, right? Just common sense. If you know for sure you

00:29:44 --> 00:29:48

got to go through your parents. This is if you have parents, if

00:29:48 --> 00:29:50

you have Muslim parents, if you're a convert, you have different

00:29:50 --> 00:29:53

story. If you're like 40 years old and not married or you're 36

00:29:53 --> 00:29:57

you're already making a decent salary. It's different. But if you

00:29:57 --> 00:29:59

got this young guy, his dad's paying all his bills.

00:30:00 --> 00:30:03

Okay, he still goes, we can't even go play flag football with his

00:30:03 --> 00:30:06

friends without asking his mom. All right. And then he falls in

00:30:06 --> 00:30:10

love with someone, before he even thinks about his parents. You

00:30:10 --> 00:30:14

don't have a crisis, you have stupidity. Okay. You are not in a

00:30:14 --> 00:30:18

crisis, you're in stupidity, your crisis is your stupidity. It's

00:30:18 --> 00:30:22

just think about it. It's common sense, right? You know, for sure

00:30:22 --> 00:30:26

that your situation will require you to go through your mom and

00:30:26 --> 00:30:30

dad, you ask them, okay, are you willing to do it by yourself? By

00:30:30 --> 00:30:34

yourself? So no, no, I would never, you know, marry without my

00:30:34 --> 00:30:38

mom's happiness and approval. Okay, so you got a good head on

00:30:38 --> 00:30:41

your shoulder from that perspective, these people raised

00:30:41 --> 00:30:44

you, they spent money on you. And they have the right to be happy at

00:30:44 --> 00:30:48

your wedding. Right? So but then you went off and have developed a

00:30:48 --> 00:30:53

relationship with a woman for five months on the campus, right? Or

00:30:53 --> 00:30:56

online, and you fell in love, and she fell in love, and you never

00:30:56 --> 00:30:58

thought twice. Alright? Is this thing going to work with my

00:30:58 --> 00:31:01

family. So you want to bring two things together, but you went

00:31:01 --> 00:31:05

opposite ways, right? And now you want to bring them together, it's

00:31:05 --> 00:31:09

not gonna work that way. So all I'm telling you is be logical. If

00:31:09 --> 00:31:14

in your life, you need your parents approval, because you're

00:31:14 --> 00:31:18

still just a young guy, you're sort of dependent upon them. I

00:31:18 --> 00:31:20

mean, in theory, you always want your parents to be happy. But once

00:31:20 --> 00:31:23

you're 40 years old, you're a guy, 40 years older, a woman 40 years

00:31:23 --> 00:31:25

old. At that point, you're ready out of the nest, your parents

00:31:25 --> 00:31:27

aren't going to be much, you know, they're not going to micromanage

00:31:27 --> 00:31:31

your situation. But you got a 20 year old guy or a 23 year old

00:31:31 --> 00:31:35

girl, okay. And their parents are very involved in their lives. All

00:31:35 --> 00:31:37

my advice is my first piece of advice is, you know, use your

00:31:37 --> 00:31:41

noggin, use your brain and think that if they're going to be

00:31:41 --> 00:31:45

involved, then you might as well right, consider that before you

00:31:45 --> 00:31:49

develop a relationship five months into some with someone, and then

00:31:49 --> 00:31:51

you come crying, right? And what do I do with these young people?

00:31:52 --> 00:31:56

You know, what do I do? I just tell them, you, you knew your

00:31:56 --> 00:31:58

family is going to be involved, but you fell in love anyway,

00:31:58 --> 00:32:02

without, you know, talking to him about he knowing that they're not

00:32:02 --> 00:32:06

going to be involved. Right. So this is the first point of many

00:32:06 --> 00:32:09

different points that are practical points. Right.

00:32:11 --> 00:32:15

Absolutely. And, and I'm, and I guarantee you that you know, we'll

00:32:15 --> 00:32:18

have more conversations about marriage in the future, as it's a

00:32:18 --> 00:32:19

very exciting topic.

00:32:20 --> 00:32:25

But since Isha is around the corner now and then we hear the

00:32:25 --> 00:32:30

unknown Insha Allah, it's about time that we wrap this up. So once

00:32:30 --> 00:32:33

I'd like to thank our listeners today in sha Allah, so please join

00:32:33 --> 00:32:38

us next time for our Safina society podcast. We'll try to be

00:32:38 --> 00:32:42

regular on this inshallah. It was a pleasure talking to you, Dr.

00:32:42 --> 00:32:45

Shetty, and it was a pleasure hearing from you. Sharla Could you

00:32:45 --> 00:32:48

give us a small dua before we end So Monica law Moby Dick Nisha?

00:32:49 --> 00:32:52

Illa Illa Anthony iStockphoto going into a lake with acid in an

00:32:52 --> 00:32:55

in Santa Fe Of course. Illa Lilina, Illinois, Minnesota, what

00:32:55 --> 00:32:55

will happen?

00:32:57 --> 00:32:58

Salam Alaikum

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