Suhaib Webb – Good & Evil In Islam Introducing alIzi alDin ‘Abd alSalam’s alQawaid alSughra
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The importance of learning to be a "sweet guy" in Islam is discussed, including the definition of pleasure and happiness, the use of " Mas lifting" and "steduhre" in Arabic language, and the importance of obtaining good in the future. The speakers also touch on the concept of pleasure and happiness, its use in the umrds, and the importance of observing the sun and creating the sacred in one's life. They emphasize the need for people to consider nuclear weapons and predatory capitalism, as it is the only way to achieve happiness and pleasure in the future.
AI: Summary ©
I hope everybody's okay, not overwhelmed. I know
I know sometimes Fridays can be tough,
and and,
you know, we're a little bit
exhausted,
so to speak.
So we ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to
facilitate Insha'Allah
and make things easier for each and every
one of us. Insha'Allah.
So
we're going to start now. I'm going to
read his text in Arabic and then translate
it Insha'Allah.
And, we'll have some some discussions hopefully well
warranted and we should finish around 850,
8:45.
If there's any questions, this shall align in
tomorrow.
I don't think we'll take 4 hours. That
may be
exhausting for people, but we'll see,
how people help people feel.
So again, let's kind of contextualize. We're talking
here about what are known what's known as
al Masali.
Maslaha means a benefit
And Islam
divides these benefits into 2.
What's related to the hereafter
and what's related to this life.
So
And we're now going to read,
perhaps maybe for the first time,
that I know of,
text is going to see
English.
So bear with me also
as I try to stumble
through this with you inshallah.
Is really an incredible scholar,
a person of incredible principle
who while he was in Egypt
became so frustrated with the Mamalik
who were at that time
ruling Egypt, mamalik means slaves.
So he said to them, you know,
you're still designated. Of course we have to
put this in the context of where we
are now.
He said, you guys are still designated as
slaves. So how can you be the sultans
of Egypt? I'm leaving.
So he started to leave Cairo
and as he was leaving
the governor of Cairo was Malik,
came to him and said,
take me to the market and purchase my
freedom
if that'll make you stay.
So
he went to the market with the aristocracy
and he bought their freedom
and then he sold their freedom if you
will.
So his nickname is bad.
And that was because they were very corrupted.
So throughout his life,
he's a person who took like principled stances.
It's very rare today to find people like
this.
Sheikh Sadik Alokhayani in Libya
is someone who has taken principled stances.
May Allah protect
him.
He says,
so he begins his discussion.
He says in clarifying what is and what
is right?
You know like
had the same word, Ahmedosole
had righteous deeds.
So
are those things that are going to bring
good into society and good into our lives
and my facet are those things that are
corrupting agents
that bring corruption.
He says
This is actually one of the major axioms
of Islamic law
but he's just writing it. He says
Allah
sent
prophets
and
what's good in this life
and good in the hereafter
and to protect
from anything that would corrupt them.
And one of the things that we can
gain from reading a text like this, I
mean, Isidin Abu Salam
lived in the 7th century
after Hijri. He dies around 660.
One of the things that we get from
this is that we are now forced to
address
the furnishings of postmodernity
coupled with this gumbo of Eurocentricism
that Islam is backwards,
that religion is incapable,
and that in particular,
Muslims lack the sophistication
to be what we would consider domesticated for
modern life.
But when we run into this ancestor
who's breaking it down like this,
suddenly we're like,
wow, man. We were some amazing freaking people,
man.
Like Subhan Allah.
We had some incredible people in our community
and we still do.
So I also feel that studying
classical texts is somewhat therapeutic.
And it's important to note that is the
idea of the Islam is a Sufi.
Like he was
a jurist,
was a brilliant theologian.
He was a political activist.
He stood against a corrupted government,
and he's Sufi.
So he said
Allah
sent prophets
and revealed text
to establish good in this life and the
next. Can anyone here think of a famous
Dua that we all learned
that teaches us to seek good in this
life and the next life?
Anyone know that dua that would support this
idea?
Exactly.
Exactly. Right.
Okay. Now the the notice anyone can even
type the dua in the box for people.
I'm sure they would appreciate it. Right? Our
Lord give us good in this life and
give us good in the next.
We have a very beautiful statement
that says
That you should seek dunya in a way
that it doesn't harm your
hereafter.
And seek the hereafter in a way that
doesn't harm your dunya.
SubhanAllah.
Yeah. But mysticism, Najneen would be kind of
a Barnes and Noble y type term. You
know, Sufism tends to be married at the
hip with Islamic law.
But the kind of gentrified
form of Sufism is one that has untethered
itself from law.
But early Sufis, someone like him,
are going to see that Sufism has to
be
shine through the door of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
Thank you, Bushra.
Then he says
then he begins to define what is called
and means pleasure.
So so the meaning of in
in language
is pleasure.
Or something that leads to pleasure.
Or happiness.
Right? Or something that causes happiness.
Here you can see the
expanding
idea.
And also if you think about what he's
saying,
he's not only saying that is
found in the observance of religious literature.
But maslah is also how people feel in
our community.
Do Muslims feel happy
as Muslims?
Do Muslims feel
happiness
around one another?
A young woman that has to go to
a mosque and ask herself, I wonder if
they have a place for me even to
pray. Are we achieving the for
her?
Are we now organizing as a community
to ensure that she experienced?
So now you can see why we're reading
this book, man,
because it's not simply about, oh, this is
so cool. There's like the Sufi guy, and
he was a legal theorist, and he wrote
about.
Is a mandate
that makes sure
not only am I worshiping Allah
but that I make sure people in the
Ummah
find value in this.
So he defines it. He says,
and this of course is the legal definition.
So
means pleasure
or what leads to that pleasure. So now
think about the policies in masjids or the
policies in Islamic centers.
Or what happened, for example, in a masjid
a few years ago in New York City,
where during Taraweeh, an individual got up, started
yelling at the women, telling them that that
they're a problem, telling them that they shouldn't
be in the mosque.
If we just take this definition that he
gave us
that is happiness and pleasure in what leads
to it.
If someone is truly thinking about
establishing the religious
benefit in the lives of people,
would they eliminate
the structures that cause pain in the Ummah?
Absolutely.
So as I said earlier,
the experience of you reading this text with
me should be one that dilates you
in a positive way.
And feel free to differ with me even
though I'm right. I'm just joking.
Joking.
It's pain.
It's pain.
So the prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
Sidi Abdul
is saying
Or depression and anxiety
or what causes it. Here he's not talking
about of course
issues of mental health. He's talking about things
that cause this.
Right? Things that make this happen.
And he says the Sharia
doesn't differentiate between
small maslaha
and great maslaha
and small masada and great masada, meaning
it defines them as such. Such. It it
differentiates from them in the sense of like
approach.
Right? Like you you may find someone doing
something wrong. If you stop them, it creates
a greater wrong so you don't stop them
like the guy who urinated in the prophet's
mosque.
But what it means here is it's designation
as this is Maslaha,
this is Maslah.
So he says, that's why, you know, you
have the statement.
Whoever does the Adam's weight of good will
see it. Whoever does the Adam's or the
evil will see it.
And Adam or what's greater than that.
He said Allah commands us to try to
be excellent in all things that we do.
Every good is considered a charity.
And to say a good word is charity.
And to meet someone
while you're smiling
is and to remove something from the the
road
or to help someone in the road
is Maslaha.
So here we see you see
Abu
Salam expands the beneficial to
the most insignificant
acts of good
to the greatest acts of good.
And the same thing for evil.
He says Allah
has encouraged us
to seek
and to work for what is going to
be good for our hereafter.
Allah
says
And those people who do good, who have
faith and do good deeds,
they are going to
experience Jannah in the hereafter
in delight.
Allah says
That the rewards of Allah are better for
those who believe
and do good.
Those who work hard to be devout to
us we will guide them.
So of course Islam frames
the of the hereafter
achieving good in the hereafter for ourselves
and others
as a priority.
It says Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala does this
by praising
the acts which lead
to pleasure and happiness in the hereafter.
Praising the one who does those acts
And what he has established for the beautiful
awards
for those who do those acts
and the gifts that he will give them.
And the same thing applies to doing mafasid,
which will harm our hereafter
that
Allah shames those people,
it denounces those people,
mentions punishment, the opposite of
the opposite of pleasure and awaits
such people in thereafter.
This is in the Quran
you find synonyms
for the word and
again what is mean if someone can type
it for people?
Good or benefits.
What does Mafsada mean? Evil,
right, or corruptors.
Thank you Sabrina.
He says that in the Quran Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala uses different words to talk about
this concept of and
So for example, something which is beloved, something
which is loved by God and the messenger
is maslaha.
Something which is repulsive is
is something
which is called is
understood to be.
What's called
is understood to be evil.
Is like a good deed. Is a bad
deed.
And so on and so forth.
Then I mentioned something really interesting as a
side point.
Yeah. Yeah. It means it means, of course,
in this context, Sophia, more than the,
kind of standard Arabic idea. Right? Self interest.
Maslaha here means
what is going to bring the good
and your life and others, like, in a
broader way.
But in and not even in colloquial Arabic.
Right?
And
what is good for me?
Thank you for sharing. He says,
and out of etiquette
He said out of etiquette,
we should never talk about acts of worship
even if they're difficult
with words that imply their
method.
It's, like, really nice.
Here he's making kind of a side point.
He says, out of etiquette.
Right? Since we now introduced, like, here's the
word here's
the word here's the synonyms for each. He
says,
He says that, you know, when you talk
about worship,
if it's hard or difficult,
you should not use words that would imply
that act of worship is a must set,
is evil or bad.
So like I would be like, Ramadan is
coming. You know sometimes we hear people talking
about Ramadan, I would be like,
Like, I heard someone say, like, man, I
hate when Ramadan starts.
You know, we're like prayers just like such
a no. I just prayer is just like
so bad for me. No.
Let's not add up.
Actually,
mafsada its root is fasada. Yeah.
Mustar was called mastormini.
Mafsada
and Masari is called mastarmini.
But I don't wanna make it too hard
for people,
here.
He said even though
Even though Jannah is surrounded by difficulties, right,
and hardships like,
you know, we have to be very, very
careful. He he sorry. He says,
He says, you know, out of etiquette, you
should never talk about acts of worship and
devotion
in with words that imply like it's it's
bad. And you should not talk about evil
and sin with words that imply it's good.
It's like nice.
Then he goes into a very important discussion.
He
says,
That causing benefit
and preventing harm
has different types, different types of intensity,
different types of
different parts, if you will.
But I don't like the word parts even
though he used the word because
the implication here is
different levels.
So now what he's going to introduce to
you after talking about kind of the purpose
of Islam and Sharia,
and then you know the idea of and
you
know pleasure or pain and what causes them
And then talking about how Allah
has divided this into those which are related
to this world and those which are related
to the hereafter and then encourage us to
make, you know, the
of the hereafter
our our our focus. Because if I believe
that the of the dunya
are greater than the of the hereafter this
is where I'm gonna disobey Allah.
But if I know that the good in
the hereafter
far outweighs
this world,
then I'm going to be able to maintain
focus and balance. You can see kind of
where this is headed.
Now he's gonna talk about the different types
of Maslaha
is
with in the context of this life and
the next life.
And he says
the first is called
a
necessity
a necessity
is something
Life will cease.
So without them, we die.
But without them, religion won't be able to
function.
So this is called
masala.
For example, food.
That's why Islam allows you to eat pork
if you're gonna die.
We have a great axiom in Islamic law
that says, if somebody is facing necessity,
they're allowed to engage in the forbidden.
So the first type of Maslaha is conditioned
on the existence
of the things I need
intrinsically
to function
whether physically
emotionally
psychologically
and then related to religion.
So for example, in religion, that's why Imam
shot, Imam Masudi said, every city has to
have one mufti because without a mufti it's
how can people live there? How would they
know? It'll be complete chaos like we see
now.
People don't respect the people of knowledge anymore.
They just run over
them. That's why there's this hadith, it's not
strong. It says the Ummah will treat its
Ulama
like Bani Israel treated his prophets. Well, it's
true.
So scholarship
is a necessity.
Masajid
swites for the to have a masjid
for the key fight to have a more
than these are necessities for people to function
in their religious life.
So number 1 is a
the thing that we have to have in
our lives,
like our health.
The second is called Al Hajji
and the Hajji means a need
Something that I could live without it, but
it would make life better.
For example, like air condition.
Well, I have a nice carpet in the
masjid.
And the last is called
which means I don't have to have it.
You don't have to have it, but, you
know, it just kind of makes things
perfect.
The cherry
on the ice cream.
So the Sheikh is saying that the Masaleh,
the benefits of this life for the next
are resting
on these
three kind of foundational
things. What's a necessity for me to experience
happiness?
What's a necessity
for me to be able to
work on my hereafter?
What's not a necessity, but may make my
life better,
make my worship better, but not a necessity.
And then finally, you you know, like rubber
sock. I don't have to have rubber socks,
but my shawl would be nice.
How that tuck meaty.
And then he begins to explain them. He
says,
He said the first thing that you wanna
have in front of you individually
before you talk to start to talk about
the public good, we have to talk about
the individual good. The first thing that has
to be in front of you
is what is a necessity for you to
experience pleasure in the hereafter
and that is establishing the obligations
and avoiding what's haram.
If you think about what the Sheikh is
saying you can see the intersection
of his legal training with his tusslewuf.
So he says
That the necessity
related to the hereafter
is obeying Allah.
This is establishing
the mandatory
acts
by Tarkul Muharramat
and leaving the Haram.
So if you think about what we're doing
today through this kind of journey through Islamic
legal philosophy
as you start to encounter some of the
fitna in the currents
of the Western world, you'll remember
that the necessity is obeying Allah
for the hereafter.
My
my happiness,
my pleasure
ultimately in the hereafter is in obeying Allah.
And he says
the second type
of maslaha related to the hereafter
is observing the sunnah.
Right? So is
the
after
after
And it also talks about
And what that means is the signs and
representations of the sacred
in our lives.
Because that's going to if we're if we're
furnished with the reminders of the sacred around
us, it's going to encourage us to be
better.
But you could enter *.
You could enter heaven, right? Without praying the
perhaps,
but you can improve your Jannah. I can
improve my Jannah Inshallah
by praying
them.
What that means are those things which the
prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam encouraged us to
do but without emphasis.
For example, salatul duha
according to most of the
having someone write the contract is considered Mandubal,
though now most scholars, we're going to talk
about it later on. They're going to say
no, no for the most law, how you
have to write the contract down. Of course,
now you have state law that governs
this, but that's.
It says examples of necessities
related to your worldly life are food and
drink,
shelter,
clothing. And he mentions Nikka, although there's a
difference of opinion about this, But what he
means is like if nobody gets married and
nobody has kids,
right,
civilization would cease. We could also add to
this healthcare.
Okay.
What just happened?
Where did we just go now? Isn't that
a public policy issue right now? Isn't there
a public health crisis in America?
What does
al Musa'i Adunya we, how does it help
inform us about things like
health care,
education?
Why would some Muslim stop girls from going
to schools?
If knowledge is one of the most solid.
So now we can see that what we're
getting here briefly tonight, and of course this
is an introductory
class, right,
is something that's gonna allow you to evaluate
at a broader level
the policy actions of Muslim states, Muslim actors,
and even Muslim groups or Muslim organizations
or Muslim centers,
Muslim leaders,
or yourself.
He says in those things which are like,
think
about this in the lens of predatory capitalism.
He says that the lowest level
of Maslaha related to dunya are things like
a huge house.
Great tasting
food,
amazing tasting drinks.
If we look at predatory capitalism,
we can see that Islam and the West
don't get
along because this is a priority.
It ain't about having a fat crib,
caviar,
a Bugatti,
and a 75,000
inches flat screen television.
That's takmini.
What comes first?
What comes last?
The.
It doesn't mean those things are bad either.
That's not what he's saying. What he's saying
is,
what are
my and your
priorities
in the shade of Islamic law?
That's all they say.
So one of the things that I like
to do when we read this part is,
you know,
do I treat what's like a necessity as
a necessity?
Absolutely. But of course, Sabrina, I'm not talking
to the whole world. I'm living in the
west. So
I I'm very careful
and I appreciate you asking that to speak
to where I'm at.
I don't like to speak about about things
I'm not
aware of,
but
if we look at the history of
the economy
and we look at the destruction of the
Waq system
by the West,
the bankrupting of the walk system in the
Muslim world.
Thanks, Bushra.
There is certainly
something to be said about
the aggressive
economic policies.
Just look at Iran.
That, you know, the West
engages in
to suffocate people.
They had to create their own vaccine because
they couldn't purchase vaccines because of sanctions.
I'm not saying they're perfect, but I'm saying,
like, medicine?
Doesn't medicine follow
under
a Isn't that right? The vaccine and look,
we see America. Why is the vaccine free?
As I said today in the, you can't
support gun control in Compton
and not care about gun control on the
Gaza Strip.
Nobody wants to talk about that. Kids support
gun control in Inglewood
or
or
west
east Brooklyn,
but then you're about no law and order
and no gun control.
In Afghanistan
or Syria
or Iraq
or Yemen.
You can be a neoliberal
and care about gun control,
but do you have no problem with McDonnell
Douglas
selling weapons of mass destruction
to people that are bombing the Yemenis into
pieces?
So now if we take the idea of
and we apply the human life
as the major
of Islam,
then we can understand why many of the
ulama
consider nuclear weapons
absolutely forbidden.
Absolutely forbidden.
So where we're headed with this hopefully by
tomorrow
is this gonna be like,
I never knew that Islam was like this.
And you're gonna feel invigorated
to inject
yourself perhaps into places
in different ways.