Suhaib Webb – Al-Muhasibi’s The Rights of Allah (Part Three)
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AI: Transcript ©
Praise Allah
Send peace and blessings upon our beloved beloved
messenger, Muhammad
on his family, his companions, and those who
follow them until the end of time.
My apologies for being a little bit late.
I had actually 2,
programs I had to attend to. But it's
great to be with everybody and forgive me.
My voice is,
still
a little bit shot from,
the other night or the other yesterday, actually,
the demonstrations.
Lost my voice.
So we are reading every Thursday night from
book,
and Imam al Muhasid, which is a book
about,
looking after the rights of Allah
It's important that we understand that we have
to balance rights in our life. We don't
think of just
one set of rights for another set of
rights. We have the famous hadith of the
prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam.
Those men who came to say to Aisha
and,
you know, they
inquired about the worship of the prophet
And when they they heard about how the
prophet worshiped,
some one of them said,
you You know, I'm gonna pray. In
the night, I'm never going to sleep.
The other one said, assume I'm gonna, like,
fast every day.
The other one said, like, I'm never gonna
get married.
And so the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
when he was told about these people,
Right? He went and corrected them
and balanced them, showed them there's multiple
rights that you have to honor to be
a Muslim.
And the statement of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam that to one of the Sahaba
who was going a little bit, you know,
hard in worship. He
that your your your your body has a
on
you.
And your soul has a right upon you.
And your wife has a right upon you.
And your lord, Allah, has a right appointment.
So, like,
give
everything
its rights.
Make sure that you should ensure that everything
around you has its rights.
So imam almuhazibi
in this text that we're reading together
focuses on one of the fundamental rights that
we have to observe,
and that's the right of the one who
created us. And how often do we even
think about the fact
that Allah
gave us everything?
What have we given back
from what Allah has given us? How do
we use
the blessings that Allah gives us? That's riyaa.
The The word riaya,
rah is a shepherd. So how do I
shepherd
the rights of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? In
a time now where we're pushed to think
about the rights of so many things around
us, which is super important.
We wanna make sure that we balance
all of that with also the rights of
Allah
and that we don't use the rights of
Allah to neglect his creation.
We made you a balanced
community.
And the prophet
said,
The the
the the best
the best things are balanced.
So
the secular world may try to pull you
to neglect certain things,
and then you your assumptions of religion or
maybe you've been exposed to people
that push you to focus on religion
to the extent that you neglect the world.
So give everybody
everything it's right. And how do we know
what are the rights? That's what teaches us.
So I was so happy yesterday.
Again, my voice is gone. Excuse me. But
I was so happy yesterday to see
at the demonstration people praying.
Like, that is the embodiment of the statement
that we're talking.
That they are observing
demonstrations
on behalf of defending
Palestinian people speaking out against Netanyahu's
visit
to the capital, but at the same time,
they observe the rights of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
And that's why in the 5th chapter of
the Quran, for those of you involved in
activism and organizing
and those of you involved in worship
and may be around people that say you
shouldn't go to demonstrations, you shouldn't be involved
politically.
We have Islam and we have politics.
Listen
to
this verse.
So the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wa
Salam, he,
Alhamdulillah, chooses us to
has taught us
to have this balance.
So listen to this verse in the 5th
chapter of the Quran.
Allah
mentions the story of prophet Musa alaihi salaam.
And in the story of prophet Musa, we
know that they were commanded to go into
sacred
land.
Go into the sacred land.
Land.
Oh, Musa, there are strong people.
We don't wanna go in.
So a whole nation of people
still suffering from Stockholm syndrome
are too scared to enter into,
subhanallah,
this place.
But then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
Pay attention to the verse.
That 2 men
who feared Allah from that tribe who were
too scared to go into
that city.
They said
they said what? Go in.
2 men who had reverence for Allah, the
Haqq of Allah, the right of Allah, they
kept it in their heart.
They said go in. So these 2 men,
they married the rights of Allah
with their social responsibility,
their their commitment to the social fabric.
Those 2 men who will revere to Allah.
They said go in.
Because if you go in, you'll succeed. Why
will you succeed? Because whatever Allah has ordered
is good. But what do we learn from
the verse in this age of people worship,
activism, activism, worship. They're all worship.
But within that framework, let's give everything it's
right.
So imam al Muhasibi is focusing on the
rights of Allah. So, like, as you're hearing
this,
you you don't need to think, well, what
about this? What about this? What about that?
Or what about this? Or what about no.
No. The focus of these books is this
book in particular is called
shepherding
the rights of God.
So that's one bucket of many buckets that
I am responsible for.
So he says
He's responding to the question of one of
his students that asked him about, like,
how how do, like, how do we observe
the rights of Allah? How do we get
close to Allah?
So he says,
He says something so beautiful.
He says,
regarding what you asked me
and the rights of Allah, the rights of
god almighty, the almighty, and fulfilling his rights,
You have asked me about something
that is extremely
important.
Something incredible.
That most listen to this. Imam al Muhasibi,
subhanallah, he he he lives
in, like, the 3rd century
after the time of the prophet, peace be
upon him.
And he's saying,
you're asking me about something now that people
in this time neglect.
Muhammad, you know, mid 3rd century.
Can you imagine
what
an imam, a muhazib would say if he
saw me,
he saw us.
Like, if he's saying in this time,
this age of many righteous people,
that many people have neglected the rights of
Allah.
Imagine what he would say now, subhanallah, may
Allah give us Afiyyah.
And he said, the responsibility
for the rights of Allah
is something that Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, entrusted
to his prophets
and those he loves.
Like,
if we wanna think about this,
the people that Allah loves
are the people that he entrusted them to
be thinking about
what are the rights of Allah.
Like, sometimes even religious people, they won't do
this.
So they may do something,
but their mind is not on Allah.
Said there are some people who make Hajj.
But why they're making Hajj? They're making.
They're showing off.
So people ask him, like, how could, like,
how could someone make the pilgrimage
and be showing off?
He said, because while they are in Hajj,
they're thinking about, oh, when I go home,
people are gonna think good of me.
People are gonna call me Hajji.
People are gonna think this about me.
Peep so they are observing the rights of
people,
not the rights of Allah.
So Al Muhasib, he says to ask me
about the rights of Allah and how to
establish them in your life is an incredible
question
that most of the people of this era,
2nd century after the 3rd century after the
prophet
have neglected.
And this concern
about the rights of God and establishing the
rights of God
is something that Allah, God Almighty, has entrusted
to the prophets
and those he loves. So if I wanna
know
if Allah loves me,
I can now ask myself a question.
How often do I think about the rights
of Allah?
And that doesn't just doesn't mean also, like,
I'm not doing good work.
Like, I'm not active
in helping the world. Those go hand in
hand.
We know the famous hadith of the prophet,
salallahu alaihi wa sallamah.
May Allah protect us.
May Allah protect me.
That in the hereafter,
there will be a person that Allah will
ask them. I was sick and you didn't
visit me.
I needed clothes, you didn't close me.
I needed food, you didn't feed me.
Think about the world today,
and think about this hadith.
And think about how Muslims are busy attacking
each other,
arguing with people that aren't worth worthy of
their time. Instead of neglecting the mandate of
Islam
to heal a fractured world and bring good
to people.
Just think about this, that in the hereafter,
subhanAllah, that person
is is going to be
asked
and questioned.
I needed food. You didn't feed me. I
was sick. You didn't visit me.
I needed clothes. You didn't close me. And
that person will say, you
Allah.
You Allah, how
could I do that? You're Allah.
And the last will say to him, god
almighty will say, there was a person who
was hungry that you didn't feed that you
knew.
There was a person who needed clothing
that you didn't provide clothing for.
There was a sick person
that you didn't visit,
and you knew
and you knew that.
That's how you could have done that.
So by no means we're talking about
establishing the rights of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And
looking after those rights, it doesn't mean we
separate them from our mandate to heal a
fractured world.
The smart Muslim is the one who sees
these things as one.
So we don't need to compartmentalize, like, our
activism and our worship. We should bring them
together. Like yesterday, I saw people
masha'allah, protesting,
but also praying.
I saw people protesting
and giving out water. I saw people protesting
and
and
and looking after other people.
So, like, subhanAllah,
like, that's that that marriage that we wanna
see. In Uhud,
when the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam's armies
are suffering,
and then
there's one of the Sahabi'at
who's scared,
and
and
he looks at her
and he smiles.
Why does he smile? Because
he wants to come for her even though
they're in a battle.
The prophet
is concerned about someone else, like, in a
battle.
Nowadays, we live in a time where people
forget their parents
when they get rich.
People forget their spouse
when they get rich.
People forget their kids
when they get rich.
Saydun and Mohammed, alayhi
salaam,
remembers people even in battle.
Like, he has a generosity
to
comfort someone even though arrows
are passing by them and his blessed
tooth was
injured.
That's the Muslim.
And that's why the prophet salallahu alaihi wa
sallam in the hadith,
which is a beautiful hadith from Abu Ibrahim
radiAllahu anhu.
That the prophet
said that the believer is like a tree.
So so
tell me
tell me,
you know,
what tree it is that's like to believe.
Right? It's like the it's like the believers
like this tree.
And they said to him,
They
didn't know.
And then
said to his father, like,
I knew it was the day tree.
Why the date tree?
Imam Ibn Hajri says the Muslim is like
a date tree
because
a day tree
provides benefit
in all
seasons.
Summer, winter, fall, winter, spring.
So the believer also is
providing benefit in all moments,
all places,
all situations.
That's how we wanna think about
ourselves,
About the rights of Allah
also
within that are the rights of the people.
Like, if you're Muslim
and you're, like, hating on people in the
comments, you're not fulfilling the rights
of Allah.
You're you're saying things to people
that are hurtful,
but the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam
commanded us not to talk like
that. Commanded us not to talk like that.
He said,
so when you see people attacking you in
the comments or saying something,
understand they're broken.
You're a whole.
Just keep stepping. You pray for them.
So the sheikh, he continues, he says,
He said, you know,
that
there is a beautiful hadith narrated from the
prophet
From and listen to this is net.
From Mohammed a Mohammed Al Baqir,
ibn 'aribnir Hussain.
From Mohammed Al Bakr,
from 'aribni Al Hussein. If you're Shia, you
know these names. They're very important to you.
Sunnis,
these names also, these are Imams
in our
tradition, but unfortunately, we neglected our tradition a
lot.
So one Mohammed a Al Baqir
from his father, Ibn Ali ibn al Hussein,
Jina Abidine,
The only one of Sayna Imam al Hussein's,
sons who survived Karbala
from Al Hussein, the grandson of the prophet,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
the son of Fatima Tawint Nabi, sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam,
the son of Sayedaf Fatima.
You
know, for Sunnis, listen.
Imam Ahmad Bulhambal.
Imam ibn Hajar, first of all, he says
this chain from
Sayna Jafar al Sadiq, from Sayna Muhammad al
Bakr, from his father Sayna Abidine, from Sayna
Imam al Hussain,
back to Sayna Arie or Sayna Faltima,
back to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
Is one of the strongest
isnaads we have.
1 of the strongest
isnaads in the Sunni canon that we have.
In fact, Imam Ahmad al Hanbal,
he said that if you just read
the senate
from from Imam Ahmed
to Imam Rehba
to Sayidni Imam,
Ja'far al Sadiq,
from his father Mohammed al Baqir,
from his father Zain ul Abidi,
from his father,
Imam al Hussein, from his father, Saydahari ibn
Abi Ta'd radiAllahu anhu ajumayin.
He said, if you read Imam Ahmed,
who's our imam, and his sunnah,
if you read
this
isnad to a crazy person, it will cure
them.
1 of the brothers in TikTok, I wanna
correct something. He said, let's talk about establishing
the sharia.
We're talking about akhlaq and the rights of
Allah.
This is the head of the Sharia.
Before you can have an Islamic state, you
have to have an Islamic state of mind,
brother.
The fact that you blur out like that
and yell like that shows you're not ready
for that because you don't have the character.
Leadership can't. Leadership without character is a facade
who will destroy everything.
So if you heard earlier what I said,
we don't separate any of those things, but
we believe that we have to look after
each one. But because you're late, perhaps you
missed and now you're interrupting
because you're incapable of being on time and
showing the necessary maturity
and and and duty to actually lead a
state. Because if you're gonna lead my state,
brother, I need you to show up on
time.
But this is not from Mohammed ibn Arib
Hussein from
The great king meaning Allah
At a time when all of the righteous
will be protected from what they fear. What
he means is
that in the hereafter, people are gonna be
scared or to heaven or *. So at
that moment where Allah has protected
all of those righteous ones
from what they fear.
And it has brought near to them and
caused everything that they aspire
for
to happen.
And to reach even things that they hope
for and even things that they never thought
they would achieve. Meaning, at this moment
and the hereafter, while Allah has
protected these people from anything that will cause
them to be scared,
and blessed them with anything that they dreamed
of and anything that they they never thought
they would be able to achieve.
At that moment, Allah
is going to show himself to them.
And at that moment when they see Allah
they will have achieved
the
utmost
honor
and the pleasure of
Allah.
That this rank that you have now achieved
is a rank for which there is no
higher honor
or nobility.
And there's nothing. There's no goal after this.
There's no greater gift than this than to
see Allah. May Allah make us from those
people.
What will Allah say to them?
In this moment,
what will
Allah
say to them?
Welcome my worshipers.
Welcome my worshipers.
Just close your eyes for a minute. Imagine
the life that you lived up into this
point.
Just imagine all of the challenges, the mistakes
we made,
the successes we had,
the sins we may have fallen into,
how we turn to Allah. We repented to
Allah because we need nothing else to forgive
us but Allah. We don't have anything between
us and Allah. It's just us and Allah.
Like other religions, they need something to be
forgiven. Allah is the one who forgives.
Imagine after the life that you live
and maybe the struggles you're going through now,
maybe some of you are going through some
challenges at home or wherever.
Just close your eyes for a minute
and imagine that after all of the life
that you spent struggling to be near to
Allah,
you hear
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say to you as
you enter into his pleasure.
Allah
will
say to you,
welcome my servants.
Welcome my worshipers and my neighbors
and those who I have favored from my
creation.
Ra'u
who looked after
ahadid,
this promise with me who have fulfilled my
rights.
And what I
they they looked after what I encouraged
And that that these are those, sorry, he
says, and they feared me in the unseen.
Like we don't see Allah, but we fear
you
because they looked after what I
left them to shepherd and
what I
left them as responsibility.
Like, imagine
imagine that you hear this
after everything even to.
Welcome,
oh, my worshipers
and my neighbors
and
those best from amongst my creation
who shepherded
this promise with me.
And looked after what I commanded them
and feared me
because I left them to shepherd these rights
and look after these rights.
Imagine you're that person.
So then Sheikh, he says, fakudumaamalallahu
ta'ala bihiqamalaba bihiqadamalaba
bihiyaati. Anything Allah has commanded you, by default,
he is commanded that you look after, like
you're Sheperly.
Like you get a brand new car, you're
not only just looking after the car, but
you're looking after anything that may impact the
car. Your children, you don't just look after
your children, but you look at the things
around them. Things that are important to us,
we have
systems of protection around them.
So he's saying this is an important axiom
in character.
That whatever Allah has commanded you to establish,
by default He has commanded you to look
after, like make sure you don't let it
slip. As
the prophet said,
Every one of you is a shepherd,
and every one of you is going to
be asked
about
his or her flock.
Yes. Someone gave me this from Sudan.
Is my favorite. So comfortable.
And I lived in Egypt for 7 years,
so
had a lot of Sudanese classmates
from
used to eat.
He says, so the servants must fulfill what
Allah, the exalted, has obligated upon them
regarding themselves
and those they are responsible
for.
For the imam, the leader of a country,
We think about Sudan. Now may Allah bless
the people of Sudan
and bless them with noble leadership and honest
leadership.
The leader is responsible for people.
It is his responsibility,
and he must safeguard what is entrusted concerning
their matters.
Okay.
And this applies to, you know, everybody whether
in general or in particular. We all have
things that we are responsible for.
Say
He used to say,
I worry
that, you know, if in the streets of
it means Baghdad,
a a lamb
or some type of animal were to trip
or fall.
I would fear, and, yes,
that Allah will ask me.
Like Allah will ask me.
Like specific rights, I have to look out
for myself and the rights of others.
I have to look after those rights.
That Allah has commanded and not only to
establish
those rights of themselves and the people around
them, but to protect them
and to honor them.
And
so this is what it means to establish
the rights of
To look after those rights that are specific
to me
as well as those rights that are due
to those around me as I said earlier,
Praying and demonstrating.
Passing out water yesterday in DC and
and praying.
Fulfilling the rights of everyone.
You're a khatib,
be good to your family. You're good to
your
family, pray. Don't just say, oh, I'm a
good person, and then we neglect the rights
of Allah, Or, oh, I'm a good worshiper,
but I'm mean to people.
That's a mistake. So when you see people
in the comments trolling and attacking people,
you can quickly understand that fulfill the rights
of Allah for sure, but they
are deceived by this because they mistreat other
people.
But how we treat other people is from
one of the rights Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
has commanded us to establish.
So what are we taking from the text
of Al Muhaasibih now when he talks about
the rights of Allah? What is one of
the signs that I am fulfilling the rights
of Allah?
It's
balance. It's balance.
Someone's asking about abusive parents.
Would you be willing to talk about the
rights of Muslim children and how to deal
with Muslim abusive parents? First of all, man,
everyone here
make a lot of dua for this person.
It takes a lot of bravery. It takes
a lot of vulnerability
to put yourself in this position.
I'm sure it wasn't easy to type the
question out. You know?
And for anyone that is going through
abuse at home,
it is not a fault
on anyone
to accept abuse.
It is not an obligation
to be resilient with abuse.
In fact, the opposite.
If you are able to
somehow
do something to stop this abuse,
whether through your family, whether through intervention,
whether the community leadership,
maybe even through the legal system.
That's your
right. Nobody can hold abuse over your head
and say that you have to be patient
with this abuse for the sake of Allah.
Number 2 is if you're older and you
are sexually,
emotionally,
financially, or physically abused by someone and they're
in your family, you don't have to be
nice to them.
This is popular stupidity versus
unknown scholarship.
Popular stuff. People say, well, someone said someone
said someone is not
someone's not a scholar. Someone's not trained.
Someone has no. But
who is the?
In fact, in the is
not allowed for us to take something from
someone who's unknown. Someone said, we gotta get
someone.
Number 2 is if you could reach out
to me, the person that asked a question,
I can get you in touch
with some Muslim clinicians
that should be able to help you with
resources and assist you.
Number 3, we have to push in as
a community and stop
child abuse
and any type of abuse that's happening,
especially we're seeing with young people.
Because
as as parents, yes,
you
are born indebted to
us. Like, we have rights on you.
But if we violate those rights,
we have to earn them back.
Right? It's not just carte blanche.
Now Allah bless you, and now Allah give
you healing. Reach out to me.
I'll get you in touch with some people.
I have no idea stuff for Allah, what
that means.
Oh my gosh. God bless you. Someone's asking,
what does stuff for Allah mean?
You're right, man. That's a good question.
Someone can type it out for them at
TikTok.
Means, oh, Allah,
I seek your forgiveness.
That's a beautiful question. You're a beautiful person,
man. Ask that question like that.
That's that's that's beautiful. That's a beautiful question.
You didn't offend anybody, man. That's beautiful.
You guys just TikTok is different, man. It's
a great question. Don't worry. We've all been
there. It's hard to keep up sometimes with
all that
jargon. So thank you for asking. Listen, you
didn't offend anyone. You made everybody smile. People
showing you love, man.
So
a great Muslim leader, Omar
of, he used to be scared even if
an animal he was the leader of a
Muslim,
the Muslim empire at that time.
Even if an animal tripped,
he was, like,
scared
that God will ask him.
So here we see the balance between a
leader, a father, a worshiper,
as well as being worried
in his role fulfilling the rights of others.
Next time,
we'll talk about how do we
define
what are the rights of God. We gave
the general definition.
Number 1
is to be obedient to God, to stay
away from sin, to stay away from evil.
And number 2, to look after the needs
of people
according to our ability.
Next week, we'll get into the specifics of
that.
May Allah
bless all of you. If any of you
were at the DC,
protesters today, it was really amazing. You guys
did such a great job. It
was
so powerful,
and we hope that the people from Palestine,
Sudan,
Bangladesh,
the Congo,
Sonia,
Massie's
family heard
Forgive
me at my voice is gone from yesterday.
May Allah bless you. May Allah increase you,
and keep us in your dua.