Shakiel Humayun – What is a Woman 69th Sermon
AI: Summary ©
The potential chaos caused by people not following guidance of Allah's commandments is discussed, including regulations and rules for engagement and the importance of commandments and regulations for compliance with laws and regulations. The speaker emphasizes the need to change one's limits and regulations to avoid becoming a close friend with the world. The speakers also discuss the definition of life and how it is defined and restricted, including boundaries and boundaries for men and women.
AI: Summary ©
Allah
subhanahu
said,
The command the creation and the command belongs
only to Allah subhanahu.
Allah subhanahu creates whatever he wills,
whatever he wills. The command
only belongs to Allah
also.
Allah subhanahu
commands
the angels
to perform certain duties and tasks throughout the
universe, throughout the galaxies.
Allah
has sent down commandments
for human beings
to follow and live their life by,
but here is where a person may ask
a question.
Why does Allah sent down commandments for human
beings?
Why isn't faith in our creator enough?
Why are there do's and don'ts?
Why are there injunctions?
Why are there guidelines?
Why are there rules and regulations?
The answer to that is
because we have free will,
and free will without regulation and guidance
can lead to chaos.
If we just look into the if we
just look at the world today
with guidelines,
with guidance,
we see we see an immense amount of
chaos. Imagine if all guidance,
all these commandments were erased,
what kind of wildness would exist on the
face of this earth?
And so if we look
into our daily lives, we will also find
the answer.
You can't work for a company
or have an employment
except that you will find at the workplace
there are rules and regulations. There are rules
for engagement.
You can't join a school, a college, or
a university except that they will have a
code of conduct.
They will have a dress code.
You can't be part
of
any
organized,
effort except that you will find rules and
regulations. You can't even drive a car without
traffic regulations.
There are rules and regulations all around us.
If you download an app, there are turns
terms and conditions you must agree to before
you're allowed to use that app. If it's
a social media app, if you say something
against their policies, you can be banned from
it.
If you look at
entertainment,
if you go to a stadium to watch
sports,
you're not allowed to livestream the game. If
you do, you can be thrown out of
the stadium.
If you look at look at investments, you
have the SEC
putting forth regulations
to make sure that the business model people
create are valid
and not fraudulent for the masses to invest
in. So if we look wherever we look,
we find rules and regulations.
Not only do we find rules and regulations
and do's and don'ts, wherever we look at
in every
daily operation that we are engaged with.
We also find that people
are willing to spend 1,000 and 1,000 of
dollars
to find out what these rules and regulations
are, to be compliant,
to learn about this guidance that will help
them improve in their daily lives. So if
you look at people who are willing to
spend 1,000 of dollars on life coaches. Why?
Because life coaches tell you and guide you
to what you should do and don't do
in your life. You look at people who
are willing to spend 1,000 of dollars
with business consultants because they will tell those
companies and businesses how they can scale, what
are the things they should do and they
shouldn't do, how can they stay on brand,
what are the things that if they do,
they will be off brand and thus they
should avoid those things. If you look at
family counseling, people actually pay money to get
counseling
so that their their family or their the
relationship between their spouses can be better? What
are the things that they should avoid? What
are the things they need to do in
to to improve their relationship?
If we look at people who spend 1,000
of dollars to have a legal team in
their company, in their corporation, just to ensure
that they are compliant,
to make sure that their do's and don'ts
are not in in contradiction to any set
law. Even when it comes to our health,
we go and pay doctors to tell us
what we should eat, what we shouldn't eat,
what are the exercises that we need to
do. So the idea
that we can only have faith in our
creator
and that the do's and don'ts should not
exist in our life, it's not something that
is in in accordance to what we see.
If we're talking about the path to paradise,
which is more important than any other regulation
or do or don't that we find in
this life, if we're talking about the path
to paradise,
then there must be commandments. There must be
do's and don'ts
because this is what we observe
when we look at and zoom out of
this universe
zoom out of this world. We see that
even in this universe, there are do's and
don'ts. There are laws of physics.
There are laws of thermodynamics.
There are rules and regulations
where this whole universe operates. So if this
is the case with the universe and if
this is the case with our daily operations
that there are do's and don'ts,
then it does not make sense to say
that the path to paradise should not have
commandments or prohibitions.
Rather, that will be in contradiction to our
observation of the universe.
It will be in contradiction to our observation
of reality.
It will be in contradiction
to our observation of how we engage in
our daily lives with every single thing in
our life.
These do's and don'ts are actually the red
lines that exist in Islam.
And without these red lines,
Islam cannot be called a guidance.
It is
the maintenance of this red these red lines
throughout the centuries, the preservation of the Quran
and hadith, and this guidance
with these red lines allows it to be
called miss be called guidance. Otherwise,
there's no difference if there's if anything is
allowed and there's no difference between guidance and
misguidance.
In the Quraysh,
the time the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
they understood these red lines
and they wanted the prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam to compromise
on these red lines.
So they said
bring us another Quran
or make some changes
to the point where Allah subhanahu revealed and
said
where Allah subhanahu
said that they're
they're plotting to try to lure you to
compromise on these commandments.
They're plotting to try to make you compromise
and try to make you invent a lie
on us. And if you did that, if
you compromise
these limits, these red lines that Allah has
set forth,
then they will take you as a very
close friend.
So
Islam does not bend to the modern sensitivities.
Islam does not bend to societal pressure. It
does not bend to peer pressure.
They said we will take you as a
close friend. Change your limits.
Change what Allah has commanded.
Change what Allah has prohibited.
Islam throughout time has not bent nor as
will it bend as Allah subhanahu has promised
to preserve this deen of Allah subhanahu.
My dear brothers and sisters, it is with
these limits,
it is with these red lines,
it is with these boundaries that Allah has
set that Islam makes us kings.
As the prophet Muhammad
where the prophet
said,
every king has boundaries.
Every king has a domain that no one
can reach or touch. And so Islam
makes us royal with these boundaries, with these
commands and prohibitions.
It raises our status because with these commands
and with these prohibitions,
we have a definition
of life. And so Allah
subhanah explains these commands and prohibitions in the
Quran where Allah subhanah said,
This is a book where its verses have
been made perfect
and then explained.
Allah subhanahu
said for the word explained.
He didn't say
He didn't say
He didn't say
All those words also mean explained.
But Allah Subhanahu wa'ala chose a specific
word in this verse to mean explain, to
use for the word explain because
comes from the word
and means a barrier between two things and
a barrier sets limits. So Allah subhanahu wa'ala
is telling us that this book is is
explained with the limits built into it, explained
with boundaries and then Allah subhanahu wa'ala
said explained by who? Explained by Hakim, the
one who has hikma, the one who has
wisdom.
But if you were to think about explanation,
if the Quran is going to be explained,
you would expect that Allah subhanahu wa'ala would
say,
That it will be explained by the one
who is Alim, the one who is the
most knowledgeable because explanation
requires knowledge. But Allah subhanahu wa'ala doesn't use
his name Alim. He says, minnadun
hakeem min kabir. The word hakeem comes from
the Arabic word hakama.
Hakama means a bridle that you put on
a horse with its reins, and the bridle
with its reins is used to limit the
horse from going to the wrong direction,
to restrain the horse
and to steer the horse and to guide
the horse into the right direction. So in
this verse, when Allah's talking about the boundaries
and the limits, Allah subhanahu doesn't use the
aileen, but he uses the word hakim
because hakim comes from hikmah which comes from
the bridle of the horse which sets limits
for the human being. And thus the definition
of hikmah or wisdom as the scholars have
defined is
is to put a thing in its proper
place. So these these limits are defined and
explained by Allah Subhanahu Meaning,
every single boundary, every single commandment, every single
prohibition,
Allah Subhanahu
has put them in their exact right place.
No one can say that a law of
Allah or a commandment of Allah is outdated.
No one can say that these commandments are
from the 7th century, and so they're not
applicable today.
Every single commandment that Allah has placed is
in its proper position and place. My dear
brothers and sisters, without limits, without boundaries,
without prohibitions and commands,
the the meaning, we have no meaning of
life anymore.
Life has no meaning without limits.
And if we take an example
of our economy, our struggling economy today,
we know that we have a debt ceiling
limit,
but that debt ceiling limit is constantly being
compromised and raised. It's raised again and again
and again
to the point that that debt ceiling limit
has no meaning anymore
because once you raise a limit over and
over again, the word limit has no meaning.
And this is one of the reasons why
our economy today is struggling and,
needs help. Furthermore,
we have
the
the we have a meaningless life without boundaries,
without commands, without prohibitions, without red lines, without
these limits.
Because without limits, the law of non contradiction
is compromised.
It is only with limits that things are
defined. We get definitions
by using limits. What is something what something
is and what something is not. That is
defined through
limits. And if we remove limits and say
everything goes, everything is okay,
then we start to compromise the law of
non contradiction
where then we have trouble even defining ourselves,
who we are. So today,
our society is struggling
with the question of what is a woman?
What is the definition of a woman? What
are the limits of a man and a
woman? We can think that we are probably
one of the most advanced societies in history,
but for centuries,
this has never been a problem, the definition
of what is a woman. And all of
a sudden today,
this
what this question of what is a woman
is somehow very complicated
for for people to answer.
And so since Allah subhanahu said that this
Quran is
has limits built into it. It has definitions
built into it. We go to Allah subhanahu
for guidance on this question. What is a
woman? What defines a woman? And Allah subhanahu
wa'ala said
He answers it by saying that Allah has
not made for a male
any 2 hearts
in his interior.
So here Allah is talking about a male
never having 2 hearts in his interior.
When is it the case where a human
being carries 2 hearts?
The only time a person carries 2 hearts
is when the person is a female and
a mother who carries a child. And that
child and look, Allah subhan'an didn't say in
the chest. He said in the interior of
that person's body. So when a mother is
pregnant, when a female is pregnant, she has
her heart, and she also carries the heart
of her child. That never exists for a
male. This is a clear definition as far
as defining a male or female with certain
biological organs. Today, a person can can go
and get a 4 hour surgery and get
all of that fixed and changed. So the
definition, the limit that Allah has defined in
the Quran
supersedes all that. And notice Allah subhanahu said
He didn't
say that he didn't say Allah did not
make for a male 2 hearts because that's
obvious. No one no male is born with
2 hearts. But Allah said,
meaning the Allah subhanahu has not made for
any male any 2 hearts, meaning not his
own 2 hearts because no one's born with
2 hearts,
but any 2 hearts, meaning he doesn't have
his own heart or he doesn't carry anyone
else's heart in his interior, and that's the
definition
of a male which differentiates from a female.
So my dear brothers and sisters, let us
celebrate the commands and prohibitions,
the red lines, the limits that we have
in Islam because the only way we can
enjoy freedom
is through these limits. And without these limits,
we defy reality. We fall into chaos. We
don't even know what a man or a
woman is anymore. I ask Allah
to make us able to follow these commands
and provisions that he has revealed for our
freedom, for our enjoyment,
for our benefit, for our guidance to the
path
of paradise.