Suhaib Webb – AlMuhasibi’s Rights of Allah Part Two
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of faith and contemporary issues, including music, in serving others, including those who are not familiar with Islam. They emphasize the importance of listening to the church's messages and not being distracted by anything else. The holy Bible provides a transformative reminder for the person who gives heart to the Prophet Muhammad, and the importance of early Islam is emphasized as it is a actual obligation to stay silent. The importance of good listening and practicing it is emphasized, and listeners are encouraged to pay attention to the Bible and stay quiet.
AI: Summary ©
It's nice to be with everyone again as
we gather for our summer nights program at
Swiss, my online school,
which has around 2,000 students across the globe.
And it's a pleasure to see some of
you here.
May Allah increase you. May Allah bless you.
May Allah,
help us to continue to grow
constructively
as a community.
We know that Tuesday nights is dedicated to
faith and.
Wednesday nights is dedicated to contemporary issues. Next
week, we're gonna start talking about music.
And Thursday nights are dedicated to
purification of the soul.
And
last week, last week, we talked about how
important that is such that
Allah says
successful is the one who always consistently works
on his or her soul, the purification of
the soul.
And we know that the prophet, peace be
upon him, said
that in a body, there's a piece of
flesh. If it's whole, the whole body is
whole. If it's corrupted, the whole body is
corrupted.
Indeed it is the heart.
Then we talked about the evolution of the
science of Tuskegee just as we have the
evolutions of the sciences of theology and tajweed
and grammar and and morphology
and rhetoric. We have also a science dedicated
in the classical Sunni
madrasa
to working on our character
and improving
our states.
So
we're reading from a very beautiful text by
a great imam, imam al Muhaasibi,
and imam al is one of the early
scholars, one of the early
leaders
of of the of the prophet
in this field.
And
he
wrote a number of very important,
texts.
And one of those is this text called
shepherding the rights of Allah.
Subhanahu
wa ta'ala. And we we begin with his
introduction.
And then he now is responding in his
introduction to the person who asked him to
write
about the rights of God. Like if you
think about
something really important for us to interrogate ourselves
with.
Do we, how much do we think about
the rights of Allah?
Like
in comparison
to ourselves.
Am I always thinking about myself?
Am I always thinking about what my nuffs
want? Am I always thinking about what I
desire?
Or do I stop? And how many times
a day do I stop and ask myself,
what are the rights of the creator who
made me?
What are the demands of Al Khalq
subhanahu wa ta'ala. So that's the purpose of
this book.
So he says, after
his beautiful introduction where he praises Allah and
sends peace and blessings upon the prophet
And for those of you that are tuning
in, right, that's what we're gonna take from
this this reading. Like, how do we gain
a greater capacity
to make sure that Allah is important to
us?
There's a great statement of al Muhasibi
in another
text he wrote called
where he says
It's very beautiful.
He says, if you want to know the
rights
or the importance that you have in relationship
to Allah,
ask yourselves
how important Allah is to you.
So
that's what we'll take from this important text.
And for those of us who may be
struggling with our Islam,
this text will give us, you know, hopefully
an added boost and help us recenter and
strengthen ourselves.
For those of us who
may feel far away from Islam because of
the unruly behaviors of people online, the bullies,
This text will really model for you, like,
what Islam really is.
And
then for those who are, Allah has guided
to be adherent
and holding on to
obedience of Allah, this will help you improve
those experiences.
So he
says,
Responding to his student,
he says, I have understood everything that you're
asking me.
And he says something really nice.
And I I prefer
that before I get into answering what you
ask me about,
I remind you of something which is key
to all of this. I appreciate that follow,
man. Thank you.
He says, before before I answer this question
that you've asked me about the rights of
Allah, let's start with etiquette.
This is a sign of great scholarship.
Great scholars don't only teach, but they also
remind us of how to carry ourselves.
How should we conduct ourselves with others?
That's why, for example, prophet Musa
they say that every blessing that he received
before he was a prophet
was because of good character.
Good character. So, as an example,
when he sets off and flees and he
sees those 2 women,
what's wrong with you?
You know, what what what what happened to
you? They said our father is a old
man,
and then he helps them.
And so when he helps them
through his Allah blesses him with a wonderful
wife.
Later on in the story of prophet Musa,
he, in Sur Taha, he says very clearly,
you know, I'm going to go and try
to fetch some fire in service of his
family.
Perhaps I will bring like some flame
from
it. Or find a source of guidance for
us. So one of our teachers said that
before is
service
And for non prophets, one of the best
things you and I can do
to bring, by the grace of Allah,
openings into our life is to serve people.
Because the hadith of the prophet salallahu alayhi
wasalam says, oh, children of Adam,
spin,
Allah says, and I will spin on you.
So here we see something very beautiful that
Allah is teaching us through the story of
prophet Musa
Klabar and Nabuwa, service before prophethood.
And also subhanallah
in our own
spaces, in in our own lives.
If we want to gain
and find blessings,
one of the best things we can do
is to serve others. That's why the prophet,
salallahu alaihi wa sallam, has said,
The best person is the one who serves
people.
So here, Imam al Muhasibi is teaching
his student etiquette.
Teaching him etiquette. Teaching him how to act.
Teaching him how to conduct himself. Teaching him
how to engage with people, teaching him how
to
step in to learning. Because the key to
learning really is character.
So he says, before I answer your question,
I want to draw your attention to something
which is key to all of this, and
this is husnestimaa,
to be a good listener.
To be a good listener.
So that by doing so, you will comprehend
Allah's call. Allah is calling us. Are we
listening
carefully? Are we paying attention to that call?
In everything that he has invited you to.
And then he says something so nice. You
know, every every line really is something beautiful.
He says, so therefore,
put being a good listener in front of
everything.
And specifically to what I'm going to answer
you about
So be a good listener
and pay attention to what I'm going to
say. Perhaps Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
will make
what I share with you a point of
benefit. One thing also that I like about
this
is that a good teacher of religion
does not allow you
to live
vicariously through them.
So, like, well, my sheikh is good, so
I'm good.
Or my teacher is good, so I'm good.
The onus is on the student.
The responsibility,
if the if the teacher is decent or
good and the student is good, the student
will benefit.
So what al Muhasibi does here is beautiful.
He teaches good character, but also he teaches
personal responsibility.
And you have to be very careful of
religious teachers who use their position
and their status to undermine
your sense of purpose
and your sense of effort. That's not healthy.
So, listen carefully so you can establish the
rights of god in your life
and you can look after them
We talked about this last time
that
whoever Allah has informed us informed us in
his book, the Quran, which we all believe
in, that
whoever
deliberately listens to the message of Allah in
the way that Allah loves
and is pleasing to Allah.
Allah
will make, masha Allah,
that a form
of dhikra
transformative
remembrance.
Not just dhikr,
dhikra.
And
it will be something that reminds them and
impacts them. It's impactful.
So it's not just like, you know, haphazardly
listening. Now I'm deliberately listening and when I
deliberately turn my attention to the reminder,
Meaning,
Allah
says,
remind them because the reminder will benefit the
believer. And if we think about a good
listening
is a Wa'alaikum Salaam. Rahmatullah Ahmed.
Good listening
is not something only that's important
in our religious
devotion,
but, like, it makes us better husbands,
makes us better wives,
makes us better parents,
makes us better friends.
So many people nowadays
are so occupied with everything except what's really
important.
And one of the signs of those people
who are close to Allah
that we learned from our teachers is that
they have priorities.
That's why he
says,
which means that giving priority to what demands
it over what secondary importance is the way
of the seekers of Allah.
And if you think about it, especially when
you're young,
you are being assailed with weapons of mass
distraction.
And if you're old and what happens, we
end up wasting so much time on
things that are not important.
So being a good listener is a way
to center ourselves and pay attention
to what Allah is saying, what the prophet
is saying,
what our teachers are saying, what our family
is saying, what our friends are saying. That's
why Anas ibn Malik radiallahu anhu, he said
that when the prophet Muhammad peace be upon
him was talking to people, even his enemies,
he gave them his full undivided
attention.
That when Allah, he says,
name something from one of his creations
as if
like
He's showing you this is what its purpose
is. So it's dhikra
to listen to that way. He called it
dhikra
because if we listen in that way, paying
attention to the Quran,
it will be impactful.
It will serve as a transformative
reminder.
And last week, Alhamdulillah,
I challenged some of you and masha'Allah, I
was so happy. I was at a class
just a few days ago in Washington DC
and this brother, he was sitting on the
ground and he came up to me. He
was really really excited
and he said, I memorized it. I memorized
it. And I said, You memorized what? He
said, The verse that you gave us last
Thursday night in Shotqaaf.
And then that brother, Mashallah,
beautifully recited the verse
that outlines
what it means, what are the components
of good listening
religiously.
That indeed the Quran is a transformative
reminder for the one who gives heart.
And like throws their hearing into it
and they are bearing witnesses to what they're
listening to in their hearts
and in their minds and in their bodies.
That's why if you speak Arabic,
is hal.
This is the 37th verse of the 50th
chapter. So that brother he he's gonna get
the prize, man. He came to me, he
stopped me and he was like, I memorized
it Al Muhasibi commenting on this verse, he
says, it is said in the interpretation
that this person has intellect
and listens attentively
while witnessing the verses of the Quran. Mujahid,
the great student of Ibn Abbas, he said
witnessing the Quran and not being distracted by
anything else with someone's heart.
And that's why we stopped last week.
Then Al Muhasibi,
he says something so beautiful. He says,
Whoever. And we talked about
and
means to, like, haphazardly
listen.
Means I'm listening to you with full attention.
Full attention.
I'm deliberate. I'm intentional
in my attention to you.
Whoever deliberately listens to the book of Allah
or the wisdom that Allah has imparted to
the sunnah of the messenger of Allah.
Or to knowledge that they're learning or to
reminder that they're hearing.
And that person is not being distracted.
They're paying attention as best they can.
That person's heart will testify.
Right? That person's heart will witness and be
part of this listening process.
You read
and
that is what Allah wants
and that is what is the transformative dhikr.
Oftentimes, we may listen to talks, we may
listen to speeches, maybe sometimes the speakers aren't
very good, they're not charismatic,
they're not trying to gain our attention, but
also sometimes they are. Instead of blaming the
speaker, we should ask ourselves.
One time, years ago, when I was very
young, I was memorizing the Quran. I was
traveling with my teacher. We were in
the Khaleed
and there was a guy, he read the
Quran for a long time, man, in Surat
Al Fajr,
and he did not have a nice voice.
And I was very young. I just became
Muslim, maybe 2 or 3 years.
And as we walked out,
my teacher was crying.
And so I
I said, are you okay?
Like, what's happened?
And he was like, man, did you hear
what was recited?
At that time, I didn't
understand Arabic very well.
So I was like, in my in my
mind, I was like, that guy's voice isn't
good, man.
You know what I mean? Like, the guy
that was reading,
his voice wasn't good, so I was making
excuse, like, oh, I didn't hear, I didn't
pay attention
because of the reciter.
So I said to my sheikh, like honestly,
like his voice didn't move me.
And so the sheikh, he said to me,
the Quran
should move you.
Like the fact that that's Quran,
you should be beyond needing, like, auto tune.
You should be beyond needing, like, any special
effects.
Just you know that that's the kalam of
Allah.
Subhanahu
wa ta'ala,
that should motivate you.
That should like impact you.
So the sheikh, he says like whoever intently
listens to the Quran, and to the sunnah,
and to knowledge, and to reminders,
and they are not distracted,
then that is someone who their heart now
will work in concert with their hearing,
and this is what Allah wants.
And then that leads to this transformation.
Because Allah called it
Then he says,
and this is how Allah has described
the great.
And this is how the Quran describes the
faithful. Like when we read the qualities of
the faithful in the Quran, we should ask
ourselves, are we living these qualities?
Like how committed are we to the qualities
of the believers?
Allah mentions
the beginning
of
the qualities of the faithful.
One of the qualities
of the faithful
adherence to Islam
is that they listen attentively
and deliberately
to the Quran.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
those who intently
and deliberately
listen to Alqaw,
meaning the Quran.
What's the outcome of that listening if it's
dhikrua?
If it's transformative,
then they follow it.
So if I wanna ask myself like, how
impactful is my dhikr?
How impactful
is my dhikr?
If it's transforming
me. How impactful is my Quran,
if it's impacting my character.
How impactful is my prayer, if it's impacting
my character?
How impactful is hearing, you know, speeches or
watching things on YouTube or TikTok,
if it's being translated into good character. 1
of my teachers, he's in jail now in
Egypt to mail out free him. When I
read Sahih al Bukhari to him,
he told me something remarkable about the famous
hadith that all of you know.
The hadith of the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam
that in Ramadan, sayin Jibreel will come to
him and recite the Quran to him, and
sayinib Abbas radiAllahu anhu says that the more
Jibreel recited to the prophet,
the more generous he became.
The more generous he became. So my teacher
said the outcome of religious studies
is translated into generosity.
That's
dhikra.
That's why we find people like Amr al
Khattab who are sinners,
When he hears the Quran and he pays
attention to
he's transformed.
Quran impacts him immediately. And there are countless
stories of this like and
others who are living a life of vice.
They paid attention just to a little bit
of the Quran,
and it led to the Quran.
It transformed them.
So Allah
says,
Those who deliberately listen to the Quran,
and they follow with actions following it in
the best way.
Allah says these are those that Allah has
guided, these are those people of understanding.
Welcome. So someone's saying, I just started learning
Islam maybe 1 month ago. I also just
learned and started practicing
evolution. That's so good. Welcome, alhamdulillah, I became
Muslim almost 32 years ago, so,
welcome to, welcome to that process. It's very
powerful, and we pray that it's made easy
for you.
And be careful, there's a there's a lot
of good Muslims on social media. There's a
lot of
crazy Muslims on social media. And there's a
lot of Islamophobes
that act like Muslims that are gonna try
to throw a lot of hate on you.
But welcome.
This class that we're talking about tonight, we
actually have a class for new Muslims that
will start in September.
Look for it, Alhamdulillah,
through my school.
The large number of people who've embraced Islam,
Alhamdulillah, we plan to do like a worldwide
class for everybody that goes through all of
the foundations of Al Islam.
Go to join.suhibweb.com
for more information.
For more information.
So, Imam al Luh Hasabi says, you got
to start with good listening.
You have to pay attention.
And the signs of paying attention to revelation
is transformation.
The signs of paying attention to anything that's
beneficial is ideally, it should lead to something
beneficial.
And that's why Allah says in the Quran
in the 7th chapter verse 204,
When the Quran is recited and it's talking
here about the context is prayer.
Then direct all your attention to it.
Direct
all your attention to it. Be deliberate in
listening to it.
And stay quiet. The reason it says,
this is really important that early on in
Islam, Surat Al A'raf is a Meccan chapter.
We know there weren't 5 daily prayers, there
were only 2 prayers, and the Muslims used
to talk during prayers.
Like that's how how much like patience there
was with them. The Sahaba, when they first
embraced Islam,
they were allowed to talk in salah until
this verse came.
When the Quran is recited, listen and stay
silent.
And most ulama says this extends to whether
you are in salah, it's an obligation to
stay silent. Outside of salah, it's recommended.
It's makru
to talk while the Quran is playing.
Then he says the example of the jinn.
You know the jinn are the devils,
They are an unseen being. They could be
good or evil.
And we find in the 46th chapter of
the Quran verse 29.
That they listen to the Quran
attentively
as what was the 17th chapter verse 47.
They listen to the Quran attentively
and even the
who were impacted
by the Quran and it transformed them. If
that's the case of those that were devils,
what about us? Like we're not as bad
as them.
So, the Sheikh, he says
Allah
said Allah mentions in the Quran
that the jinn, when they heard the prophet
salallahu alaihi wasallam reciting
at a nakhla.
Some say it was at Uqath,
you know, the,
the the fair.
And
when those jinn approached the prophet
and they heard him reading the Quran,
they immediately had
before learning.
Etiquette before learning.
One of the signs that someone doesn't have
etiquette, you can see people online when they're
using disparaging comments, they're attacking people, they're being
mean to sisters, being mean to new Muslims,
even being rude to their elders and to
their teachers. That's the sign that they learned
without edema.
But look
at
that before, you know, before he
he started his studies,
his mother, Aliyah.
What did she say to Imam Malik about
his teacher, Rabiya? She said,
take his etiquette before you take his knowledge.
It's very important.
So those jinn
verse 29,
when they heard prophet Muhammad salallahu alaihi was
salamah recite in the Quran, they said, be
silent.
Be silent.
So they were commanded, listen.
Means listen
and don't talk.
So that they their minds would be present.
And they will be able to ponder all
the meanings of the Quran.
And so that would lead to a person
really understanding the message of the Quran
and really understanding what the prophet was reading
so it would lead them
to
and and they also debased.
It's understood from this, those who don't do
that.
Allah
mentions over and over and over in the
Quran
to pay attention and listen carefully.
Then the Sheikh, as we finish tonight,
he gives a great example
of what it means to listen.
Said some of the wise people have said,
here wisdom means something which is in line
with
Muslim
principles.
It's so nice
that we should learn good listening
like we learn good speaking.
We should learn how to be good listeners
just like we learn how to be good
at communication.
Such a beautiful sort of balancing principle.
Because he said,
some of the etiquettes of this now that
you need to know, what does it mean
to be a good listener? He mentions some
of the etiquette. He says, amongst the etiquettes
of good listening
are to let the speaker finish their talk.
So, like, even in the comments,
like, wait till the end.
Right? Not not not those, like, Li Lu
and others. It's fine. But we're talking about,
like,
I have a question about this. I have
a question about that, what about this group,
what about this Sheikh, what about this imam?
That's not the topic, man.
Like, pay attention and listen carefully.
Let the speaker finish.
He said, the next etiquette and to comprehend
and understand
what the person is saying,
not to turn frequently, like constantly trying to
respond, constantly trying to pivot and get into
a battle,
to focus our eyes and ears on the
speaker,
and before we push in to make sure
we understood actually what they said.
These are some of the etiquettes. Imam Abu
Hamad Al Khazadi mentions them in detail in
but here the he mentions them nicely.
And then he mentions a really nice statement
of
one of the great early Muslims.
That the first knowledge was good listening.
Then understanding.
Then memorizing.
Then
acting.
And then to spread it. So actually what
is giving us is the path of the
the path of those near to Allah. How
do they learn? We have to be very
careful now. We're seeing on TikTok and other
places, people pop pop up who haven't been
trained,
who don't have advisors,
who don't have teachers, who don't have people
to guide them and make sure they're learning,
they may be charismatic.
They may, in fact, draw a lot of
attention,
but they usually end up creating a lot
of harm for people.
Because this is a process.
So
is saying, the first
is
listening.
Then after listening
is understanding.
After understanding
is memorizing. After memorizing
is action.
Then after action
is to spread
to spread the knowledge. So I have to
make sure that not only have I understood
it,
but also I practice it. Assalamu alaikum. My
father was 84 from Malaysia, everyday listens to
your videos. Well,
check out
I can speak a little bit of Malay.
Seek it, seek it. May Allah bless your
84 year old father with a beautiful life.
Give him the highest levels of Jannah and
thank you for your
nice comments. So, Sufian,
he says,
the first knowledge
is to
listen,
then to understand.