Sikander Hashmi – [Audio] Who to take your religion from KMA Friday Message
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Respected elders, dear brothers and sisters, my young
friends.
30 years ago, if you wanted
to learn something from a scholar,
if you wanted to hear their speech, most
likely you would need access
to a cassette
that people would generally sell or they would
copy and pass around,
or perhaps you would need to visit them,
or if they were visiting your part of
town, you would go and you would sit
in their majlis, you would go and sit
in their gathering, and you would be able
to learn from them.
50 years ago,
if you wanted to learn,
perhaps you would find a book,
you would go to a bookstore
and you would find a book, or somebody
will share with you a book from a
scholar and you would learn from them by
reading from them.
A 100 years ago,
perhaps you would go and look for a
library
in a major Islamic city, in an Islamic
country,
in a Muslim country, and you would find
their books, and you would read from them,
or you would travel far and wide
taking a long journey by
camel or horse,
or maybe by ship, and you would be
able to go and meet the scholar.
A 1000 years ago
and beyond as was the case with Imam
al Bukhari rahmatullahi alaihe
traveled
thousands of kilometers
back and forth collecting a hadith.
And it is famously reported
with regards to Abu Ayyubalansari
radhiallahu anhu,
that he had heard
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam say something.
And he wanted to make sure, and he
wanted to confirm.
And the only other person,
the only other person who he believed had
heard it was Uqba ibn Amir radiAllahu anhu.
And Abu Ayyub ul Ansari radiAllahu anhu was
in Madinatul Manawara.
And Uqba ibn Amir radiAllahu anhu was in
Musar,
he was in Egypt.
So he took that journey of over a
1000 kilometers
to find Uqbat of Muhammad radiAllahu anhu to
be able to confirm this one hadith.
And that was the sole purpose of his
journey,
so that he could confirm that he had
also heard what he had heard himself or
what he believed that he had heard from
the prophet
So the entire trip was just for one
hadith.
Today,
you look for a hadith,
right? You have numerous hadith collections, forget even
about books,
right? They're all online
at your fingertips.
Today if you want to hear a scholar,
right? You simply go online,
you don't even need to come to the
masjid
because it's live streamed.
So you'll sit at home, or you'll sit
in your car, or wherever you are, and
you'll just watch the lecture live.
Right? If you have a question,
you want to know
something, I can't do a survey right now,
but generally when I ask people, Where's the
number one place you turn when you want
some knowledge about Islam? When you have a
question, you want a fatwa, you want some
information.
Where do you turn?
Most people,
first answer is YouTube,
second answer is Google,
or vice versa.
So nowadays we say that
YouTube has become a Sheikh,
Google has become a mufti,
and next thing you
know, you know, Chad GPT
and generative AI
will be al lama.
Everybody wants to know any knowledge, any question
you're gonna go and put it in. Yeah.
And they say that's a mark of the
scholar. It is said
that the true mark of a scholar,
and actually there's multiple signs which I will
discuss, inshaAllah.
But one of them is that he is
able to say or she is able to
say,
that I don't know. If they don't know
the answer to something.
So in this regard maybe
is not too bad, because sometimes if you
ask certain questions
doesn't want to answer. And says that, This
is beyond my scope, this is not something
that I'm trained to answer,
and will not give you the answer to
certain questions.
So this is actually a good trait. But
the point being my brothers and sisters, that
with so much knowledge available, so much information
we should say, not knowledge, so much information
available,
so rapidly
at our fingertips
through our devices,
what ends up happening? There's information overload.
What is there? There's information overload. So now
you go, you want to know, okay, you
know, you wanna ask a question. So, you
know, can I,
I don't know, can I shorten my prayers?
Can I shave? Can I trim my beard?
Can I, you know, is such and such
thing halal?
You know, is it, you know, is it
halal? It's a small cannabis or whatever, you
know, whatever question you have. So you go
and you type it into YouTube,
and it comes up with the whole list
of videos.
So now you start surfing, and you start,
you know, scanning, and you say, okay, let's
hear what this person says. And Sheikh XYZ,
he says something,
Sheikh Fala, he says something else. And then
some some speaker, he says something else. And
at the end of the day what ends
up happening, you end up being confused.
So there's such a wide spectrum
of views and approaches
with so many groups and so many segments
that sooner or later we realize that we
have a problem.
We have a problem because there's a question
that needs to be answered,
and we need guidance,
and it starts becoming
difficult to figure out
who we should actually
follow. Now the reality is is that every
single person needs to follow someone else when
it comes to their deen.
Every single person,
except for, you know, very few individuals.
We all are on the same boat, we
have to follow someone
when it comes to matters of deen particularly,
especially.
Okay. Because even the greatest of scholars
today, they also have mentors.
They also have
they also have
they also have scholars
that they turn to and look up to
for guidance as well. So everyone is needy
of
guidance, everyone is needy of assistance when it
comes to the knowledge of deen. Now when
it comes to our health,
everyone agrees that the best approach
is to have a family doctor
or to be signed up at a family
practice.
Why? Because they know our history, they know
our circumstances, they know our situation,
we know them, you know,
and you build trust,
right? And they're able to help us with
regards to our physical
health and sometimes our psychological health as well.
So similarly my brothers and sisters it is
important to know who to trust when we
are in need of religious guidance.
Right? So the question is who do I
follow? Because everyone looks and sounds like a
scholar,
everyone claims to be correct. Did you ever
come across a video where the speaker was
saying, actually don't watch my video because I'm
not sure, you know, I may be wrong
so you know, go and ask someone else.
Hardly ever.
Hardly ever you will come across someone who's
going to say
that I could be wrong, don't take what
I'm saying too seriously
because there's other people who know better than
me. Hardly ever.
Right. So most people, most groups will say
that we are the most correct,
we are upon the Haqq.
We are the one who are the closest
to the truth. So everyone is saying the
same thing,
right.
And if you try to follow everyone maybe
it'll work for some of the basic things
right? But at some point you end up,
actually many times you end up with contradictory
opinions,
conflicting positions,
differing messages.
So what do you base the decision on?
You don't have enough knowledge
on every single matter to judge
who is more closer to the truth, who
has stronger evidence,
right? So how do you figure this out?
And if I go with what is easier
simply because it is easy for me for
no other reason just that it is easier
for me I like an opinion.
I like the Sheikh because he says that
you know it's okay to do this sometimes
while everyone else says it is wrong. I
like the Sheikh because he allows certain things
which everyone else says is is haram. So
I'm just gonna go towards that because like
it feels good. I like it.
What happens then we end up following our
nafs,
we end up following our desires and this
is something that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has
prohibited us from doing, right? In different places
in the Quran but in the case of
Sayyidinaud alaihis salamahu wa sallamahu wa ta'ala is
addressing him
So if a person follows their whims and
their desires
and that is the basis for their decisions,
then eventually, sooner or later, they're gonna find
themselves off the track, off the path of
sirata mustaqim, the straight path, the path of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So for us as Muslims feelings and desires
cannot be the basis for making decisions
and this is why we don't buy into
this
ideology and this narrative
that we should do what we feel like.
That if you feel like,
you know, you're the wrong gender you go
and you change your gender. Why? Again, it's
the same principle. We don't base our decisions
on feelings and desires.
In fact, what we are taught most of
the time is to counteract
and go against our feelings and desires. Because
most of the time our desires and our
feelings,
they are coming from the wrong place or
they're leading us in the wrong direction.
Right? So generally the default
position is that the nafs will direct us
towards the things which are displeasing to Allah
Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Now of course if your nafs, mashAllah, has
become pure, it's good, and it's telling you
to come to the masjid, I'm not saying
you counteract that and you fight against it,
you say, no I'm not gonna go to
the masjid. Of course not. Okay? So if
it's telling you to do something good, then
alhamdulillah, that's great. But most of the time
generally our nafs is gonna tell us to
do the opposite of what is pleasing to
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala.
And therefore we do not
base our decisions
on our desires
and our feelings.
So that begs the question then how do
we figure this out?
Who do you go to?
How do you know
who you should turn to to seek knowledge?
Muhammad ibn Sirin Muhammadullah
famous quote of his,
This
is
the knowledge of deen.
This is a serious matter,
Right? This is not something light.
This is not like a decision where you're
like trying to figure out, okay, which car
should I buy? You know, which neighborhood should
I buy a home in? You know, is
this airline better or that airline better? You
know, like those are fairly trivial things.
Right? This has to do with our deen
and the deen has to do with our
hereafter.
Right? Which
is hugely consequential.
Right? Because it's forever.
Right? It has to do with the akhirah.
So you can't take this lightly.
He says look at, pay attention to who
you take your deen from. Don't just take
it from anyone. In today's world, in today's
time it means don't just scroll on the
internet,
right? And just find any opinion, find any
scholar, find someone who looks like a sheikh,
right? Someone who sounds like a sheikh,
right? Someone who acts like a sheikh,
someone who sounds like they know what they're
talking about, sometimes, you know, someone who sounds
really impressive, has the most likes, has the
most views and you just like take them
as your source because what are you basing
them on?
Right?
So
pay attention to who you take your deen
from.
Must be very meticulous and careful because it
is not a light matter.
Now there's a few ways, the real I'm
gonna share with you the real way of
figuring this out. Okay? And the real way
of figuring this out
takes time, it takes patience, it takes effort.
But if you go through the real
method of doing this, of figuring this out,
insha'Allah Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will guide you
and will make it easy for you. Okay.
So first of all,
read the Quran,
recite the Quran, read the Quran,
pay attention to the meaning
and note the qualities of the believers.
Note the qualities of the pious people.
Note the characteristics
that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks highly about.
What What are the traits that Allah likes
in His servants? Okay. So the muttaqeen, the
mumineen,
you know the,
the, the siddiqeen, all the, you know, the
good categories of people Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
talks about,
note their qualities.
And also
the flip side, note the characteristics of all
the people that Allah
speaks lowly of.
The kuffar, the munafiqeen,
the mushrikeen,
the fasiteen.
So all the, you know, the bad people,
note their characteristics as well.
Secondly,
read the seerah, the biography of the Prophet
sallallahu alaihi wasallam. You know, and there's different
reasons why people read the seerah. 1 is
for general knowledge, 1 is to find out,
you know, facts, timelines,
when things happened, you know, when certain incidents
took place and so on and so forth.
Okay? But that's not the purpose of reading
it with the angle that I'm suggesting you
read it with. But rather you read the
seerah of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
you read the books of hadith, you read
the narrations
simply to note his qualities,
his mannerisms
and his character.
Note the mannerisms,
their character
and the qualities
of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
How did he deal with people?
How were his interactions with different in different
situations?
How did he respond to people? How did
he deal with different types of people that
he he came across?
And then build a framework in your mind
of how he was.
Because of course if the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam was here
with us, everyone would of course go to
him.
Right? All these YouTube channels will be will
be gone. Like nobody would care about anyone
on YouTube saying anything about Islam because the
prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam would be here and
everyone would go to him for guidance, you
know, all the dawil iftahas, all the fatuhas,
all the mufti, like everything would be done.
Right? We don't need any of that because
the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam was there. That's
what happened at the time of the prophet
salallahu alayhi wasalam. Right? Because the source is
there so you go directly to the source.
Right?
So if you were here
we would of course follow him directly
but because he is not with us we
try to follow the people who are closest
to him in every way
with regards to particularly
their belief
and their character and their mannerisms.
So you search for the scholars who are
the closest and as many ways as possible
to the Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam and
you follow them.
Now there's a number of qualities found in
the Quran and in the life of the
Prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam, but here are
here are some to use as filters and
Imam Al Ghazali has
written about this and here are some of
those filters that you can use. So number
1, under all conditions,
under all conditions,
you should wear a true expression of being
inspired with the fear of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
says, truly
those,
those truly fear Allah among His servants
who have knowledge.
Okay. So the first thing to look for
is taqwa, is the fear of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala. Now as I've mentioned before and
my dad says, we don't have a taqwa
meter that you can go close to someone
and you can see how much taqwa they
have. Right? It's not that simple. Okay? So
in the absence of a taqwa meter, right,
what do we base? Taqwa is in the
heart and is known by Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
But you look at the actions, you look
at the behavior of the person, you look
at
do they appear to be someone who behaves
in a manner that is God fearing? Right?
That has taqwa of Allah
that fears accountability in front of Allah
And this will impact many different areas and
you can see this if you pay attention
to how a person behaves. Secondly, an a'alim,
a true scholar is not one who tries
to acquire wealth through his learning.
He's not looking for worldly benefit,
not looking to get rich and to live
a life of luxury and extravagance
of the deen of Allah
So it's not about sign up for my
courses. It's not about subscribe to my channel
so that I can get more views and
I can get a bigger paycheck from YouTube.
That's not what it's about. Right? It's not
about raking in 1,000,000 of dollars by becoming
famous
and becoming like one of those creatures, you
know, they have helicopters nowadays down south especially
if you go to Texas, there's huge churches
and you know these some of these pastors
and people, you know, faith are flying in
helicopters and they're like, you know, we deserve
it because we're doing such great work for
for God.
Okay. That's not how it works.
Okay. So yes, they can be paid for
their time and their effort because they need
to survive of course in this world if
they're serving the deen of Allah Subhanahu wa
Ta'ala. So there's nothing wrong
in being paid for time and effort.
But to become rich
through the deen of Allah
this is not from the signs of the
true scholars.
The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
The scholars
are the heirs of the prophets, for the
prophets did not leave behind
dinars
or dirhamd. They did not leave behind wealth,
they left behind their knowledge.
Right? So the focus of the true scholars
is on knowledge, it's not on wealth.
That is not
their focus, that's not what they're about. Number
3, they have studied with deep insight, not
lightly,
the various branches of knowledge
from people who are known to be people
of knowledge
and piety.
So you're able to trash trace it down.
Who did they study from? Who were they
around?
Who taught them?
Right? Or did they learn just by watching
YouTube videos and then they started making their
own videos?
That's not how scholarship works.
Number 4, there should be no contradiction between
the knowledge and the practice of deen.
So when it comes to the knowledge that
a person has learned
and what they speak about and their practice,
it should be aligned. Because Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
detests
the person who does not practice what they
preach. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala protect us
all and guide us.
Whoever is talking
has to try their best to also practice
what they preach so there should be no
contradiction.
Number 5. They should be least interested in
the elegance of dress or delicacies
of food.
The superficial things should not attract them. They
should not be engrossed and be infatuated by
the superficial.
Always right about having nice food, you know,
looking very nice and sharp and very, you
know, focused on these superficial things. This is
not from the science of the true scholars.
Number 6. Without any necessity,
keep away from the rulers. From
the from the the the today's terms you
would say politicians
and rulers, and never visit them.
Why? Because being too close can be a
source of fitna and
they can become influenced.
So this is from the science of the
true scholars that they keep a distance from
those
who are in leadership positions
of rulers, heads of state, you know, people
of position. They keep their distance. Yes, if
there's a necessity, of course, they interact but
otherwise they don't they're not always surrounding them
and hanging around them,
doing their tawaf, you know, because they always
want something from them. No. This is not
from the science of the true scholars.
Number 7, they do not take hasty decisions
when giving verdicts and religious law. When it
comes to giving fatawah, they don't
take quick decisions,
and they're very careful when giving advice on
religious matters.
You know, they're not ashamed of admitting their
ignorance
on a matter. They don't rush into something
haram haram haram.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala warns us not to
be of those people who place lies upon
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala by saying this is
halal, this is haram, this is haram, this
is haram.
Right? So yes, if something truly is
halal and haram and Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has made it clear, then yes, they should
say that. But it's not something that they
just throw on around lightly and they take
lightly because it has to do with what
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has mandated as being
halal and being haram, so they are careful
when it comes to giving
verdicts.
It is reported from Nimasud radiAllahu Anhu. Whoever
knows then must speak, and whoever does not
know then must say, I don't know. Because
to say this, to say I don't know
is a part of knowledge, is a part
of ilnu.
Finally, of course they follow what is obligatory,
they value the sunnah, they stay away from
the haram, and the undesirable, and the dubious,
and blameworthy actions.
They are, you know, good hearted, they always
want to do what is good,
and to do what is right. They don't
fight unnecessarily,
you
know, and get into debates to show off
their knowledge
just to defeat others.
They're not proud of their knowledge, they're not
arrogant, and these are basic things,
Right? They have respect for others even in
disagreement, they don't mock others, they don't backbite
others. You know, our Anima or scholars, and
when I say our, I mean in a
very broad sense.
The true scholars of this ummah,
even when they had the greatest of disagreements
amongst themselves,
they were still respectful.
They spoke highly of each other and they
respected one another even though they disagreed on
many things.
If you see someone who is demeaning others,
who is mocking others, who is putting others
down,
who is making fun of scholars
or people of knowledge,
then know that this person is toxic
and you should not be taking your deen
from them.
Finally my brothers and sisters,
I'll end with a couple of hadith from
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
Prophet said,
That Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala does not withhold
knowledge by snatching it away from His servants,
but rather what does He do? He withholds
knowledge by taking the souls of the scholars
until no scholar remains.
And people follow
ignorant
leaders.
They are asked and they issue judgments without
knowledge, and thus they are astray and lead
others astray. We are in this process of
having knowledge lifted.
Every time a scholar passes away,
that is one less source of true knowledge
and one opportunity for someone ignorant to fill
their shoes.
I'm not saying necessarily that the person who
replaces them is ignorant, but overall
it creates a vacuum and the people who
are ignorant, they step up. So be careful
about the knowledge of deen. Secondly,
from Umar
who is reported to have said that, Verily
what I fear most for this nation
is a learned hypocrite. (QS. 1:5) Inna aqwa
from aaqafu alaha dil umma almunafiqulalim.
Almunafiq
alaalim, a learned hypocrite. So it was said
to him that how is he a learned
hypocrite? Like how could someone be learned but
still be a hypocrite? So Umar
says, He is learned with his tongue but
he is ignorant
of the heart
and the good deeds. My brothers and sisters,
the point being let us be careful about
who we take our deen from,
be judicious,
be careful,
learn about the true traits of the prop
the characteristic of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam and the true traits of the ulema
and do not fall for clickbait,
don't fall for
people who are trying to misguide others or
who are simply trying to make money for
the for
from the deen of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Be judicious and be careful because this has
to do with your akhirah. May Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala