Suhaib Webb – AlGhazzali’s The Way of The Worshipers (Part Eight) The Obstacle of Knowledge
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Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
So alhamdulillah we explain this then he says
something so nice
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala he says something
so nice here. He says all the evidences
of Tawhid
the foundations of those evidences
are in the Quran.
Mashallah.
We have to reorient
people
when they are struggling in their Iman
or struggling in their
lives to first go to the Quran,
not to people
not to other human beings.
Fasheikh says
all of the evidences for the foundations of
Tawhid
The person asking about taraawee, alhamdulillah, in Instagram,
there's no need to waste people's time on
that. We talked about it last week, insha'allah,
Habibi. You can go and watch the lecture
from last week, insha'allah.
We explained it over there. Mubarak Lafiq, great
question.
Then he says, and those evidences are mentioned
by our teachers in the books of Usurudim.
Then he continues and he says
This is actually a very beautiful statement that
we should take with us throughout our lives.
And that is that
That anything
whose ignorance
prevents us from feeling secure about our state
in the hereafter,
then learning about it is an obligation.
Allahu Akbar.
So how should I prioritize what I need
to learn in Usuluddin?
The questions, who's your Lord?
What's your Deen?
Who's the one who taught you this religion?
Right? Being ignorant of it
is not gonna be an excuse.
Being ignorant of it may actually prevent me
from being secure in the hereafter.
Then that is an individual obligation upon me.
Is not allowed for you to avoid it.
Sheikh emphasized and he says so that is
what it is.
Then he
says,
Here he says something very beautiful.
He says, so we talked about Aqidah,
we talked about fiqh,
now let's talk about
seer to Allah. Right? That relationship between you
and Allah.
He says, as for those things which are
an obligation for you to know
You have to know what it what is
obligatory
and what is prohibited.
Until you start to experience the greatness of
Allah.
And sincerity to Him.
That you experience like sincerity and purpose
and the preservation and safety of your actions.
Insha'Allahu
Azzawajal and he said, this is what we're
gonna go over in this book here.
Then he says, excuse me,
and
then what you have to know related to
the issues of Sharia,
He says something here also is nice, man.
He says anything
which is an obligation upon you,
then knowing about it is an obligation.
So that you can do it.
Like purification, like prayer, like fasting.
It says as for things like Hajj, zakat,
jihad, marriage,
other things like this, right, they become obligatory
upon you at the moment you need to
do them.
Right? So you wanna go to Hajj, so
you should take like a course how to
make Hajj, you need to pay Zakah, reach
out to someone who can help you pay
Zakah,
and so on and so forth.
So that you can perform them correctly because
if you don't learn about them, how are
you gonna do it? Fahadahhadunmayalzamul
abda tasiruhuminalilmilaamaha.
He said these things Suraj just explained to
you what you have to know about Usurudin,
what you have to know about Sir to
Allah, you know Sir with Allah your relationship
with Allah and what you have to know
about fiqh fahadah hadun
This is what you have to know
without any shadow
of a doubt.
And the reason that these things are far
of this because you can't achieve success, meaning
in the hereafter without
them.
Maybe
yeah. What he means someone's asking, you mentioned
marriage and obligatory at that time. Yeah. So
someone starts to feel like, you know what,
I wanna get married,
right? Then at that moment, they need to
start learning.
How do you get married according to Sharia?
What are the things that you need to
have in place?
What are the conditions of nikah?
How does nikah happen?
Right? What are the rights of each spouse
and responsibilities?
At that moment, they should know that as
much as they can
in a general way before they get married.
And this also includes emotional and psychological issues.
Maybe you might ask, does this mean that
I have to learn everything related to the
science of theology,
which is going to allow me then to
defeat the other religions around me, like if
they try to argue with me,
do I have to know all that stuff?
So someone's saying, do I have to know
everything
about theology and Sharia to the point that
I can, like, defend Islam at the highest
level from the attacks of the disbelievers,
and I can defend Islam from Ahlubida.
Me just as a normal person, do I
have to know all that? He says,
This is the job of scholars.
This is a communal obligation. A communal obligation
today, I think, in Yaqeen, there's a great
paper that came out,
on expanding the idea of fawdukifaya.
You should read it. It came out, I
think, today. It's really good, Masha'Allah, written by
a sheikh Youssef Wahab al Azhari, one of
one of our dear brothers.
He said,
and what is an obligation upon you is
to know whatever is going to set your
creed correct.
What is going to allow you to
have proper belief in Allah
We talked about this 2 weeks ago, the
50 obligations,
and
any doubt that you may have.
No more.
This is very important.
He said and this is the opinion of
the majority of Sunnis.
We know that the majority of Sunni ulema
throughout history.
I
like to tell people who say Islam
is anti intellect,
this and this, you can say, man, the
science of theology is called the
the knowledge of talking because we should talk
about God,
Na il msukoot,
the knowledge of being silent.
He said
also it's not
a must upon you to
know the secondary
issues of the scholars of theology,
like we see now between the Salafis and
the Sufis and the people of Kalam and
the people of Athar, unfortunately, presenting these secondary
issues as the main issues when these are
issues of secondary importance.
Then he says here's the point that I
made earlier
Here he says something.
But if you encounter a doubt in your
life or something that starts to confuse you
related to theology, at that moment, you need
to ask about it.
And Sheikh Al Qazari says, be careful of
wasting your time arguing
and fighting with people. Can you imagine if
he was alive today and he saw this?
Western Muslims need to fear Allah
because for the last 25 years,
we have not taught Islam to build
amongst ourselves.
We taught Islam to destroy each other
and look at the fruit.
So he says
Be careful of arguing
and debating
for Inna Hada'un
because it's a sickness, mahadun, a pure illness,
for which there is no cure.
So with all your might, avoid it.
Because the person that gets caught up in
it will never succeed.
And now if we we ask most Muslims,
what are you learning? They'll talk about I
learned this sheikh was wrong, this sheikh was
wrong, this scholar was wrong, this group is
wrong, This is wrong. This person made this
mistake. This person made this that's not learning.
That's talk show. That's Jerry Springer, bro.
But if you ask them, can you read
Al Fatiha correctly?
No.
How you treat your wife or your your
children or your husband.
Right? This online
social media Islam
needs to be regulated in a way that
it's constructively
building people,
not amplifying differences and turning things into talk
shows.
Why, why, SubhanAllah, we're gonna imitate other people.
Then he says,
He says, and know that if there are
scholar or a scholar, but he would say
scholars,
amongst you, wherever you live,
that are dealing with the issues of theology
and fiqh and purification of the heart and
responding to the
aggressions
of non Muslims,
then it's not an obligation upon you.
Said the same thing with.
If you don't have to know all the
little subtle things about the heart and the
and the soul and this and this, this
is how people got lost.
He said, but what you gotta know,
You have to know about those things that
are good for your heart that are gonna
be about your salvation so you can avoid
those evil things.
And those things which Allah has commanded for
your heart to adopt.
And I'll say this now, one of the
most important things that the hearts of the
Muslims should adopt is having a good assumption
with God.
And nowadays you find that hard.
Then he mentions what are those obligations on
your heart? Sincerity,
being praise praising Allah, being grateful,
relying on Allah.
You have to know those things so you
can do
them.
So also the same thing with Fiqh, you
don't have to know all the secondary issues
like
sales and transactions and renting and marriage and
divorce,
The deeper issues, not the foundations.
And criminal offenses
because that's for scholars to know, for teachers
to
know. Then he says
Now as we finish, he takes us into
the last important point about knowledge.
And that is
after identifying what is knowledge, the purpose of
knowledge, the three type of knowledges we should
focus
on, talking about innovation and religion, then talking
about what we have to learn and what
we don't have to learn, Now he talks
about having a teacher.
And if you say
those things that you mentioned that I have
to know,
right? Those foundational
aspects of knowledge,
especially here related to tawheed.
Is it possible to achieve that without a
teacher?
He said, of course, if you have a
teacher it's going to make life easier for
you young.
It's
gonna make it easier and you're gonna be
more relaxed because you have like it's like
someone guiding you, right?
But Allah can bless who he wants.
So the sheikh is saying,
It's better if you have a teacher.
It's easier. It's gonna make life easier for
you.
Then he says
talking about this way of knowledge,
this obstacle of knowledge,
he says
It's not an easy
obstacle
but if you stick through it and you
push through it, you will achieve
what you're looking
for.
Its benefits are great
and to avoid it, it's gonna give you
a hard time
and its danger that we talked about earlier
is immense.
How many people turned away from knowledge? Because
sometimes, man, I just don't want to learn,
dude. Like, I don't want to learn, bro.
I'm good.
So now he's warning people, don't don't be
negligent of learning.
How many people turned away from it and
went astray?
And how many people tried to
take this path and slipped?
And how many people went through it confused.
Just talking about more or less
is
it's a dangerous
long
important path. So it's a good time for
teacher.
But of course, everything is with Allah.
Allah.
So after talking about, yeah, you know, teacher
not teacher, then he mentions, like, yo, this
is a tough path
to make it easy for yourself if you
wanna have a teacher. Then he mentions that
everything rests on knowledge,
And that the benefits of knowledge
we mentioned earlier how much you need it
in order to worship and perform and live
life accordingly.
And how Ibadah itself is founded on knowledge.
Especially the knowledge of Tawhid
and the knowledge
of the path.
He said and ruya means it's probably weak,
right. This form ruya is called siratul tamreen.
Means like it's not necessarily strong but it's
there for a lesson
that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala revealed to Sayna
Dawood
He said to Sayna Dawood, learn beneficial knowledge.
Sayyidina Dawud said,
What's beneficial knowledge?
He said that you learn
about my transcendence,
about my greatness,
about my authority
and my complete power over all things, Allahu
Akbar.
Allahu Akbar
because that's the knowledge
that's going to bring me
closer to you.
He
said I wouldn't be happy that if I
had died as a child.
And
I never had the chance to grow and
learn and know Allah
SubhanAllah.
He said, you know, I wouldn't be happy
if I died as a child and went
straight to Jannah
but I never had the chance to grow
and know Allah.
That's the difference between someone
Arif and
Alif
That wouldn't make me happy if I just
went to Jannah but I never had the
opportunity to know Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Then Sayyidina Imam Al Ghazari
He
says that you know the people who know
Allah the most are those who have the
most reverence for Allah
and those who are most in worship
And those who are most sincere to Allah
Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
At the end he finishes
talking about sincerity.
And he says, you know, as to the
difficulties
of these things then strive hard to be
sincere in seeking knowledge.
And let and you know he's saying here
especially for the non scholar,
you should seek the meaning
and the general feelings and correct understandings of
Islam.
Not all the riwaiyah, this Sheikh, this Sheikh
from this, from this, from this, this, this,
this,
this, this.
Sayyidina Imam Malik used to say,
and the is not just about this from
this this this this
the Allah puts in the heart of the
people. Of course we have to learn
but you don't have to get into all
that stuff.
Now at the end, Imam Al Khazadi talks
about something I think is very important.
You know, SubhanAllah, when I first studied
and finished the Quran,
I memorized the Quran, alhamdulillah,
And my teacher in Oklahoma,
I was asked to give a khutba at
a small MSA, you know,
like small and why he's been to Oklahoma,
he knows, like a small MSA.
So I thought, halas, it's nothing, you know,
just go first time, give a hubba at
a small MSA
Hafitul Quran Alhamdulillah memorize the Quran no problem.
So I went to my Sheikh
and said, Yes Sheikh,
this MSA asked me to come and give
the chutba.
He said, No, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no,
It's not good for you.
It's not good for your development, man.
And I remember what he told me, the
statement of Sidna Imam ibn
I forgot. But Saidni Imam bin Mu'taa Allah
says dig yourself in a deep earth.
He says,
dig yourself in the earth, deep, fertile earth,
because what's not dug deep
will never grow and it won't ripen.
I want to warn those brothers and sisters
that are new to knowledge, you should not
have Instagram accounts.
You shouldn't be out there like that.
You need to be working on yourselves.
You don't need to be building
building yourself in that way. That's not the
way of knowledge.
1 One of my teachers, Sheikh Abdul Hamoud,
from Yemen used to
say, The knowledge is between you and Allah.
It ain't for the people.
When I memorized Surat Al Imran, I went
to the Sheikh and I said,
He said, no, no. We're not having a
party in the Masjid. We're not doing nothing.
He was trying to teach me something. I
said, why? He said, it's not for the
people.
You didn't do that for the people.
I remember one time in Azhar, I was
walking across the campus,
and one American came to me and grabbed
me and said, I wanna talk to you,
I wanna talk to you. How can I
go to the this university in Egypt? I
said, why? They said, I wanna be famous,
then he started to mention some famous
Imams.
I said, that's why you wanna study this?
That's why you wanna learn?
You wanna learn for this reason?
We have to be very, very careful.
So if you're new to your studies
and you don't have a guide or a
sheikh,
man, don't be jumping on on online, man,
and making a name for yourself like that.
It's not appropriate
because you're not ripe yet.
An unripened fruit,
it doesn't taste good.
It actually can poison people.
That's different.
I I I someone's asking, but how are
we gonna listen to you? I'm not saying
I'm free of that test, but I put
in my work.
I didn't start in the public. I don't
think people hear what I'm saying. You don't
wanna start in public. You don't wanna start
with fame.
Start with sweat and blood and tears.
Start living poor for studies. I remember there
was a brother in
Egypt from the US.
He he struggled, man, to stay there to
study. He experienced poverty.
So, I don't think people are hearing me.
I'm saying as you start, as the seed
starts to grow,
the light of fame is gonna burn that
seed. That's not a good thing.
Learn first
and then talk to your teacher
and get that permission.
That's the point. It's like someone that goes
to the gym once and now they wanna
go in our competition.
Like, what are you gonna accomplish?
And the knowledge in the beginning demands
secrecy.
It demands that it's for Allah.
So he
says
He says, so be careful. One of the
most dangerous things of knowledge
is that somebody who seeks it to gain
the attention of the people.
And to sit with
the leaders, right, the government leaders and so
on without any real reason.
And to argue with and here it means,
like, people who like to debate. There's another
narration says,
the dumb people.
And then to like, you know, capture
others.
And this is a bankrupt
business, man,
and great loss.
Whoever learns knowledge
to,
you know, impress
the
and to argue with ignorant people and to
gain followers and the attention of people, Allah
will put that person in hellfire. We ask
Allah to protect us all. None of us
are free of this. This is a challenge.
We ask Allah to forgive us all, You
Rabb.
This hadith, by the way, is weak. It's
related by Tirmidi, but the meaning is Sahih.
Then he mentions the statement of Sheikh
He fought in jihad for 30
years.
He said, I never saw anything more dangerous
than knowledge and the danger it presents, meaning
that feign, that thirst
for attention.
He says also be careful
that Shaitan will try to use this against
you say oh don't learn you shouldn't learn
it's too dangerous
this narration of Leila Al Mi'raj
He said actually excuse me he says and
be careful that Shaitan tricks you and makes
you think oh you have a lot of
knowledge so you don't have to practice you
don't have to worship your knowledge is good
Then he mentions that the Prophet
on the night of Islam Mi'raj
he saw the hellfire and he asked
who are the most people in hellfire? They
said
the
impoverished
and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and
he said
from wealth then he says
one second my screen here
yeah. So he says be careful
that everything he said that Shaytan will try
to trick you and keep you from learning.
Oh man, I'm not gonna learn this, it's
very dangerous, like
I don't wanna learn because of all of
these challenges. La la, you have to trust
in Allah. Whatever Allah has given you, you
take it,
right, what you have love for. But
love needs, like,
direction, man. So when we're saying here,
if you just started learning, you shouldn't be
on Instagram
paying for likes.
You shouldn't be in that space.
The knowledge starts
in secrecy.
The knowledge starts in the cave of hira.
It doesn't start on
The other problem with that is is that
when I accustom my knowledge to the ethos
of, say, Instagram or TikTok or Snapchat,
then this is what is going to now
create the standards of edeb.
And that's wrong.
You know, some of the greatest scholars, they
had no followers.
Like, it's the truth.
And some of the great scholars that you
love now, they died alone.
They weren't popular in their lifetime.
Imam al Bukhari,
subhanAllah read about how he died. Imam Ibn
Rushd.
Imam Ibn Rushd, he died under house arrest.
Al Qadi Ababaqibin
Laarabi or Al Qadi Iyad if I remember,
they went to visit him and they asked
the people where is he? They said he's
he's in this old house by himself.
Sayna Imam Malik,
you know for an extended period of time,
he didn't go to the masjid to pray
because of fitna.
Dawah manasize these people.
Sayna Imam Abu Hanifa,
he died in prison.
So the ethos of knowledge has never been
about likes.
It's about Ikhlas,
to be with Allah.
And we had to be very careful of
how, especially in the West, contemporary religion as
it's portrayed in the West is very shallow.
It's one that roots itself in attention.
Say the truth even if you're by yourself,
in a polite way, of course.
So the end of this section, Saydna Imam
Al Ghazari, is undermining everything we understand to
mean a person's value today,
And that is that the real value is
on life and
offline.
And we have to be very careful, even
though the older
people, teachers like others, all of us, none
of us are free of this danger.
Control yourself, check yourself. I posted about this
today on Instagram.
What is really valuable to you? Who are
the people that really inform your intrinsic value?
That's where you wanna take your light from.
We're commanded to teach. We're commanded to engage
the people. Absolutely.
Whether it's 2 people or a 1000 people,
it don't matter.
Doesn't matter.
And what orbits around me? My wife, someone
asked me. It's a great question. I love
it. My wife. The first person to tell
me if I'm doing right or wrong is
my wife.
Who knows if I misfederate in the masjid?
My wife.
Right? So you you that's why Sayna Yusuf
said about his mom and dad, they are
the sun and the moon,
And my brothers are stars. That's what orbits
around him. That's what reflects
his illumination, and that's what he reflects.
Right now, Instagram, they told me, if you
go live, we'll pay you to go live
if you do certain things.
I'm like, Nah, man. I'm not about that,
bro.
Don't get me wrong. I'm trying to get
paid,
but not like that
because don't start to wonder.
Just people trying to do, man.
So you gotta be careful,
and none of us are free of this.
You ask yourself right now as you listen
to me, whoever you are,
how much weight does social media put on
your sense of self worth?
How much weight
of something that you don't even know for
real is it's imaginary.
That weight
should come from people
closest to you, people who love you,
people who care about you.
When I see N. Y. Every week, I'm
happy because I'm knowing N. Y. Now almost
30 years. It's crazy. I know NNY when
there was a tornado in Oklahoma. NNY came
to my state.
That's that's a ride or die person.
I can take value from my relationship with
Anwar. They've known him for I knew it
when they started Islamic Relief.
Yeah.
Yeah. Go ahead.
I've known this since the 90.
And what we knew about the chef is
he would do whatever his teacher said.
What the chef said today
is easy to say. It's more difficult to
do. So he was teaching clear instructions.
When we invited him to Islamic Relief events,
he would first need to get permission from
his sheikh.
He spent years
years paying his dues.
Then after his teaching in Oklahoma, he had
other teachers in America, then he spent years
studying
in Aurangzeb.
Then he came back, and he studied. He
didn't have an Instagram,
Snapchat,
or the Swiss Academy
for decades until he put the hard work
in.
So I just wanna really verify what the
sheriff is saying. He's not paying me to
just say this. I just wanna verify what
he's saying.
He actually does, and the weaknesses were nodding
for 30 years who have seen this. So
the Instagram today came from the hard work
memorizing the Quran, studying from scholars from Africa,
and going anywhere in the world to study.
Barakalof.
Barakalof.
And most of the, you know, most of
the brothers in my era and sisters, we
learned from imam Saraj.
I remember we would invite
imam Siraj and Jamal Badawi and they would
not take money.
They would not take money.
Recently,
someone contacted me,
and they said, we know you're an influencer.
I said, the only thing I'm influencing is
my diapers daughter, bro. My my daughter's diaper.
And my oldest daughter who's trying to decide
what college she wants to get into. That's
who I should be influencing.
How much do you charge per letter?
I said, nah. I don't know nothing about
all that, man.
It's not because I'm a good person, but
that's not that's not Islamic work, man. That's
not how we work for, we need to
help and support each other. Heard about 1
imam,
in the US, Anwar,
he
refused.
He refuses
to take money for Palestine and Kashmir and
and and,
Ethiopia.
He said, I refuse. I I can do
any other relief work you want me to
do and the Uyghurs,
I think, is what I heard. But he
said, these people and the Rohingya. He said,
I'm not taking money. I'm gonna do the
work, and I know that he did a
whole
contract for 2 weeks
in the month of Ramadan.
Every day public posting, putting stuff out. I'm
not gonna say his name because he told
me not to. And he told me, I
cannot sleep at night taking money because of
what's happened in Palestine. I cannot
take because he's not a relief relief organization
that's different, Hamdah. They need that money to
function.
But he himself as an imam, he said,
as an imam, it's not right for me
to take money from people like this when
we're helping the community.
I said, subhanallah. And that brother he meets
almost contacted,
you know, some of those organizations like, yo,
can you slide him a little something, you
know, slide him a little something.
But he was like, I can't take money
for that.
I can't take money for that. Who taught
us that stuff, man? It's Imam Suraj. Man,
Imam Suraj and doctor Jamal do not get
enough credit
for how they raised us
and taught us
what it means to work. And and Imam
Suraj used to always tell us
that it's an honor that Allah allows you
to work for him.
Like that's enough.
So here Imam Al Khazadi says,
He said, don't do far for that because
it is reported, I mean, it's not strong
that the prophet said
on the night of Israel in Mi'raj
Al Nar. I saw hellfire
in the most of its occupants were the
poor.
They said, you mean they didn't have money?
They didn't have knowledge.
And keeps saying it over and over who
hasn't learned is not going to be able
to worship correctly.
He said, you know, he's this is of
course is hyper hyperbole
but he's like, if somebody worshiped Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala like the Malaika for for a
long extended period of time without knowledge, they
would still be in trouble.
They would still be in trouble.
So work hard to seek knowledge and study.
And avoid being lazy and like you know
we say in Oklahoma like heavy boned
because you're going to be lost.
Then he says,
And
And this says you know again kind of
going back to what he said earlier,
the crux of this issue is that if
you were to look at all the evidences
around you,
they would point you to the fact that
you have a God who's all powerful, all
knowing,
living, willing,
hearing
and seeing.
And he says who of course
you know, is is free and transcendent of
any kind of beginning or end,
right, or any type of human speech or
human knowledge or human physical will.
Free of any imperfections or mistakes.
Of course, he's going into these issues about
God again, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and the foundations
that you know that Allah is free of
imperfections,
free of being like creation.
Creation is like him. He's not had it.
He doesn't have a beginning or an end.
And I actually have a lecture on YouTube
introducing Aqidah. The first part's up, second part
hopefully will come this week, and it's impossible
for us. It's not allowed
to compare God to any of his creation.
So therefore, we don't describe him in a
location
or a place Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Then he talks about the prophets. He says
He said, if you were to take just
a glance at the miracles of the prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the signs he brought
and the things he taught and the announcements
related to his prophethood, you would know that
he
is trustworthy,
truthful
and honest
in everything that Allah
sent him,
Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam. I'm trying now to finish,
this chapter, let's see how much we have
left
because,
yeah, we don't wanna take too much time.
We may stop here
just because, yeah, it's getting now almost 8.
It's been an hour and a half.
Nah. We'll stop there because there's still some
more things to cover next week.
We'll continue with the and
we'll finish
it. Alhamdulillah.
For those of you joining on Instagram, this
is recorded. You can watch it on Instagram
again, and also it's put up on my
YouTube page. Most importantly, you can join us
here on the zoom
aticnyudotorg.
If there's any questions,
I'm more than happy to take them now.
Let me just glance
at the chat. As I said earlier, the
reason that I'm reading this in the Arabic
is unfortunately the translation,
is not bad, but it's not good.
Right? It the translation I found,
was not as
is not as precise
as it should be.
And now I'm just translating
from the dome, so I'm sure in my
translation there'll be some challenges,
but it happens. Alhamdulillah, umatafiq
illa billah.
And again, ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to
help us to,
you know, protect us from challenges. None of
us and that's why we have to have
a community that supports one another.
We're in a strange place because we
we
have adopted the hatred.
Hating a Muslim is popular. Right? So perhaps
we have inadvertently
translated that into hating each other. So we
love to find shortcomings, but everyone makes mistakes,
man.
We have to create a community
that when it comes to, you
know,
mistakes that are normal, right, I'm not talking
about egregious errors and things like that,
we carry each other a little bit, man.
Nah.
So there's a few questions, I'm taking them
now. I see
is here. Allahu Akbar. Imam Mark Manley is
here.
And Asan is taking notes, that's the other
thing if you're on the zoom
Masha'Allah you get to check out the notes
that Asan has taken. This class is recurring
every Tuesday Alhamdulillah at 6:30 pm Eastern.
We're reading Minhanjul Abideen of Imam al Qazari
where he recognizes 7 obstacles to a life
of faith and devotion, and the first is
knowledge. He helps us navigate the dangers
of knowledge,
right? Any questions before we let people go
Barakal Afiq also Anwar for your nice words,
may Allah bless you
inshallah.
Alright, Gom, I have a question. Absolutely.
So you were talking about how when it
comes to, like, the pursuit of knowledge or
when you're studying or anything, we shouldn't really
be out there
kind of,
you know, exposing that too much especially when
we're in the beginning.
Is that more so in regards of, like,
speaking on issues that we don't really have
any idea about or just in general where,
like, disengaging with the community
and, for example, like, Quran reflection circles and
things like that?
Yeah. So, again, like, I know who's asking
this question. Masha'Allah.
Masha'Allah, good student, good good person, alhamdulillah, may
Allah bless you and your family,
NYU folks.
So we need to take everything I said
in moderation,
right? We don't wanna go
too extreme,
right,
in either way. So when you talk about
in the early
stages of our studies,
right, we do not need to put ourselves
out there in the culture of exhibition
that is really just there for attention.
But let's say you I know you. So
let's say your local masjid. Right? They need
some they need a woman to conduct a
tafsir circle for young people. You should do
that. Absolutely.
That's very different. But think about it. In
my time, the
back in those days, that's where you got
all the attention.
Right? That's where you you may get unhealthy
attention. But the sheikh, at the same time,
he didn't let me do that.
He made me teach Ajromiya
to num to to new brothers.
So he kept me away from the bling,
but he had me working. He had me
going into the prisons and teaching people,
right, at that time. But he
kept me away from that, you know, the
the the the the glitz, man,
the unhealthy attention.
I hope that answers your question. So most
definitely, like, say, MSA halakaz,
things like that where they need people to
teach. Of course. Because if nobody does it,
it's not gonna happen.
But what what we're talking about here is
especially the way the world is now. Right?
Everybody, you know, people jumping off concrete buildings,
man, 300 feet above the earth to get
attention. It's crazy.
Right?
This is what Imam Al Khazadi is warning
us about. Right? Falling into getting
the shine
before we're we're ready.
In fact, my teacher, he told me a
funny story.
When he was teaching in Senegal,
he said there was this guy. He became
famous because he had a nice voice.
He didn't really have a lot of knowledge,
but he had a nice voice. So people
started to invite him to sing, like, what
you what what some people, like, consider, like,
and stuff. Right?
So, know, he would do it, and people
got confused. Like, wow. He has a nice
voice. That must mean automatically it equates to,
like, knowledge.
So then
he came to the sheikh,
my teacher, Sheihan,
and he said, can I study with you?
He said, yeah. He said, okay, Sheih,
Just one one request.
Can I go in the back door of
your house?
Can I go to the back the alley
at nighttime?
The sheikh, he said, such a strange request,
but then the sheikh, I realized he didn't
the guy, he didn't want people seeing him
learn.
That's the other good sign of a teacher
that you see them learning. My teacher used
to say, and Elzhar Sheikh Hejazi used to
say, a good teacher not only teaches you
how to teach, he teaches you how to
study. He teaches you how to sit and
learn.
I remember in, in the 1st year or
second year, doctor Hassan, who was our teacher
in in Madaki firk, who was like,
man, this dude's,
like, 10 brains. You know what I'm saying?
And we would go to the class of
Sheikh Ahmed Taharayan,
and he would be sitting next to us
taking notes.
But not only did he teach us,
like,
you know, as a teacher, but we saw
him as a student.
And I think that's what, you know, what
Imam Khazari is saying, like, don't make the
reason for teaching
attention.
Any other,
I hope that answers your question, InshaAllah.
Any other questions, InshaAllah? We know this Friday,
the ICNYU is opening up to NYU folks.
Looking forward to being there, alhamdulillah,
in NYU. Masha'Allah.
Masha'Allah.
A lot of students,
a lot of coworkers and friends.
And then the second thing is on Friday
night, we're also gonna have a program,
hopefully in Brooklyn Park with myself
and Imam Khalid
by Jane's Carousel.
So we look forward to seeing people
look for that information, I think, to come
out on Thursday.
Any other questions people ask? And every Tuesday
we meet at 7, 6:30,
sorry, Eastern,
and we'll continue to read through the book.
And the reason that we're reading through the
book
is the translation is a little bit a
little bit God bless people. You know what
I mean? I have no
gripes. It's not easy.
But Shala, we want to make sure that
we're really reading it well.
Any other questions?
Someone's asking, I suffer from low mood and
anxiety disorder. What can I do to be
more disciplined? I I don't know. This is
not my field,
but I think this is something that you
may need to talk to your primary physician
about and then maybe see if there's like
some type of therapy
or even medication that you can take. This
is not something that I'm trained in, so
I'm not able to give an answer
for that
Insha'Allah. May Allah cure you and bless you,
and really thankful that you felt comfortable enough
to ask that question here. May Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala raise you, Insha'Allah.
We ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and yussabidnaal
haqqwa, yusslihavadana
wa sabatqaddamana
wa yasurnayarabalalameen.
InshaAllah, we'll post the recordings of this later
on YouTube. Assalamu alaikum.