Suhaib Webb – How Do We Learn About Islamic Beliefs
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Now the billi is Sami Alim with the
shaitarajid
Muhammad
and his family, his companions, those who follow
Assalamu alaikum
to everybody.
Hope everyone is doing well and welcome to
our second session here,
in partnership with young Muslims.
We want to welcome all of our young
Muslims to our program here at Swiss, as
well as our
Swiss students. And as I said,
I'll post a questions,
tonight for these assignments that will come with
this course, as well as the syllabus inshallah
for tomorrow.
And for those of you who
decide to engage in the actual workforce work,
you'll be able to next year when we
launch our
degree or certificate series at Swiss, you'll be
able to retroactively
use this course towards those credits,
via the
last. So we get started before,
are there any, for those of you who
are able to participate last week, are there
any
thoughts or questions,
from last week? Let's hear from some of
people who participated. I received a few emails
from people which were very,
invigorating and exciting. And some of you have
sent me a few questions that I need
to get back to.
But how are we feeling after our initial
introduction to the course?
Some of the house cleaning,
rules for the course, introducing you to the
classrooms
associated with the course, and then beginning
to introduce the text,
the author,
some things about the life of the author,
and then actually his introduction. And then reading
the actual
first line,
of his,
his poem
on an introductory to theology.
As I mentioned earlier, this is the second
course
in our 3 part series at SWISS. We
have a 3 part series that is basically
an introduction
to theology,
to acts of worship and then to purification
of the heart. So this is preparing someone
to then become a student.
So this is the second,
in three level courses that cover theology. So
any thoughts or comments,
from,
brothers or sisters that were
here last week or any questions pertaining to
the material. I also posted
the video in the YM
Google Classroom. I'm going to do the same
for the classroom for those of you who
are not in the YM cohort.
Just making sure also that the YM guys
receive that video as well as the text.
So let me know about that as well.
So
we're going to start the first chapter. And
we said that the goal of the text
of Imam al Marzukir Rahim Muhullah,
our number of goals. 1st is to provide
someone the furnishings
of
the foundations of Islamic belief.
A perspective
on Sunni orthodoxy. You mentioned there are 3
different.
Met haves related to historically to Sunni
orthodoxy, they don't really differ on outcomes. They
differ on ways.
And hence you find often people online who
are arguing
on issues related to APIDA.
If you listen very carefully,
what they're arguing, arguing over our methods of
coming to the exact same conclusion
and Islamically, we want to avoid arguing over
wasa unless of course they're forbidden. We don't
argue over means unless there's something like absolutely
Haram.
But if you listen carefully to side all
the sides and the Aqidah wars that you
find on TikTok or whatever, they're actually arguing
over means, not outcomes. They actually agree on
the outcome. So maybe you,
if you are a Halaka leader involved in
YM or engaged in anything like that,
you can push in at a higher level
and say,
but don't you agree on outcomes?
And they're going to say yes. So that'll
what actually are you, are you arguing?
And we mentioned
last week that if you went to the
Sahaba
with a lot of why are they him
and you mentioned any of the terminology that
you find all the different med heads of
Akita using. They would have no idea what
you're talking.
If you went to the Sahaba and said,
tell me, what do
you, they would have no idea what you're
talking about.
If you went to them and said the
20 attributes to the 20 qualities,
they would have no idea what you're talking
about. That doesn't mean that the scholars who
came after them
and investigated
and concluded that these are ways to teach
what wrong,
Who's wrong now are people fighting over
this? These are legitimate issues related to how
we teach
just like they would have no idea what
Tajweed meant. If you said to even our
best, what the yellow one, Homa,
Hey, let's learn Tajweed.
Ask you what do you mean by Tajweed?
If you ask him, let's learn,
to have see it would have no idea
what you're talking about.
So what I want you to appreciate is
that
there is a process
of coming to conclusions that are all agreed
upon, but the way
of arriving at those conclusions are different.
And that's why there's a beautiful axiom
mentioned by a Sheik Ahmed Zabukh
who said
He said that different means do not necessarily
necessitate
different objectives.
They said,
In
fact, oftentimes people may differ
in the ways they arrive to certain conclusions,
but they agree on the conclusions. That's what's
important to us.
So all the different schools in Sunni creative
Aqidah,
if you ask them, do they believe Allah
is 1? Believe Allah. Allah is 1. You
ask them, do they believe Allah is transcendent?
They believe Allah is transcendent. And
that's what we're asked to believe.
So the sheikh begins the section on the
relationship between faith and reason.
The intellect
is extremely important
in Islam.
The only thing that the prophet, peace be
upon him, was asked
or commanded
to ask an increase in his knowledge.
In Surataha,
Allah says,
Oh, my Lord, increase me in knowledge, and
Allah who
says in Surat Muhammad
Taalam
and Nahula Ida hilullah.
You must know
that there is no God by Allah. You
must learn.
Why do you think the majority,
if not all,
of Sunni theologians, as well as Shia theologians,
by the way,
state
that the first obligation
is to think.
The first obligation
is to learn,
not to pray, not to say Shahadah,
not to fast,
not to get involved in Dawah.
Why?
And it's something very unique to Islam,
The idea of quote unquote blind faith. Islam
doesn't believe in blind faith.
Islam believes in informed faith.
It's very different.
You need to remember that.
Islam doesn't believe in blind faith. In fact,
we we have a very important axiom
that we may talk about tonight that taqid,
blindly following in areas of faith is not
allowed.
But where we are commanded to blindly follow
our scholarly issues related to creed,
which are secondary in nature. We talked about
that last week Or issues of fiqh, which
need scholarship, like, are t cells permissible?
You know, what's the deal with Bitcoin?
Obviously, that needs
scholarship, but we need to be very careful
of people on the far left who say
this this is like a meritocracy.
This is, you know, creating authority. Well, in
the absence of authority, you always have tyranny.
Right? That's the truth. Like when there is
no authority, then somebody is going to push
somebody around.
So definitely there is a role for
religious scholars to have authority that's earned.
But this axiom, you want to remember, it's
the second axiom. I'm very big into axiomatic
education.
I think it saves a lot of time.
And that is that
That in foundational issues,
it is not allowed for anyone to say,
oh, I I believe it because
such and such imam believes in it or
my parents No. People have to learn,
they have to be informed,
and they have to make a decision.
So it's unique to Islam that we do
not believe in blind faith, we believe in
informed faith.
We should be informed.
And that's why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
has said in the hadith of Sayyidina Asmar
ibn Hassan
as related by ima Muslim,
whoever dies,
knowing
being informed about
and then affirming it
went into paradise. So you may run into
people,
especially in neighbor nets, right? MSA campuses,
they run into your, your own children. Who've
been exposed to people. Who've told them
just be quiet and believe, and that creates
trauma.
Whereas you can say,
no, Islam actually commands you to be an
informed believer.
That's very liberating, man.
You have to learn. In fact,
Allah says,
If we only knew,
we would not be in *.
So that for that reason, a sheikh Imam
al Marzope,
he starts his chapter with
the intellect
because the intellect is central to this.
And that brings into a lot of questions
that we don't have time for.
For example, what are the sources
of correct understanding of faith?
How do I make sure
that I'm exposed to responsible
educators
and responsible education
that I'm able then to come to proper
conclusions.
So we're going to spend a little bit
of time talking about
today. Any thoughts or reflections on that from
you before we begin?
Feel free just to unmute yourself and share.
But,
you know, these are, I think, very important
concepts, especially at a grassroots level. I I
came through the grassroots.
I came through the ground level up as
they say in Islamic work, I was like,
you guys organizing things,
you know, posters,
events,
you know, getting people, I did a PlayStation
tournament to get people to come to the
Masjid. You know, we had a biryaniathon,
like who can make the best biryani, You
know? All kind of stuff, man. I've been
there on that grass. We've been on the
streets asking brothers not to sell drugs. I
gave a shahada in a trap house for
guys.
And so I appreciate
you and wherever you are. You're the backbone
of the work,
and it's important that you equip yourself. So
one of the things that you may wanna
use when you talk with people is, like,
Islam doesn't believe in blind faith. Islam believes
in informed faith.
Any thoughts or reflections on that from you
all before we jump in? I see Amar
has his microphone.
Hello. Quick question regarding what you mentioned about
taklid and foundational issues.
How would you define foundational issues, and then
where would you draw the line of where
we should not do taklid?
That's that's why we're taking this class, man.
That's I set that up, bro. I set
you.
That's why that's why we're taking this class.
How do we identify what is a foundational
issue? That's a great question.
That's a really and that's an important question
because people confuse them all the time.
So I defy 5 issue. Do you keep
that
issues of Afrita then by foundational issues? And
issues of fiqh, like 5 daily prayers is
foundational. That's nobody's.
You know? We're not we're not allowed to
say, hey. 5 daily prayers are the.
Absolutely not.
5 daily prayers are mentioned in a very
clear
narration of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
So not only issues of Aqidah, but issues
of faith, of of fiqh and issues of
even character
that are foundational. How do we know? I'll
I'll make it simple now, but we'll unpack
it in the future. And this is also
something we would study in Usul al Firk,
and that is the foundational issue is something
which is clearly expressed in the Quran or
Sunnah
and whose meaning is clearly expressed, meaning it's
not interpretive.
For example,
where do you put your hands when you
pray is interpretive.
The narrations themselves are a little ambiguous and
the actions of the Sahaba are different.
So that shows there's wiggle room there, but
praying itself,
there's no difference of opinion.
So prayer is a foundational issue where you
put your hands.
Do you say the baslala? Do you not
say the Bismillah UHman or even prayer? It's
a secondary issue.
Issues of Aqeedah, if you ask any if
you ask my 4 year old daughter, is
Allah 1? What's she going to say? You
Allah is 1.
That's a foundational issue. That that's something which
no one can differ over.
Allah
existed before time and will exist after time.
His existence is not in need of existence.
Al Samad,
something that we all know to be foundational.
The prophet
being the final messenger of Allah.
One more salin. That's why there's 2 in
this verse. It's for to make it absolutely
immutable
that the Ras al Islam is the final
messenger.
How do we interpret some of Allah's attributes?
We affirm everyone affirms their transcendence, which is
foundational, but the means of interpretation
is where they differ. There's no takfir in
this. This this isn't an issue which is
being used to divide the Muslims as we'll
talk about.
Did the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam see
Allah on the land of Isra and the
Araj?
Even the Sahaba, they differed on this issue.
Do the dead hear or not? The Sahaba,
they differed on this issue. So foundational issues
we recognize by
their clear expression
and agreed upon interpretation,
but we'll unpack that more. And one of
the easiest ways to figure out if something
is
not foundational is the Sahaba
differ over it? I like to reverse the
conversation.
People tend to say, let's see where the
Sadaf agreed
to understand what's foundation. Absolutely.
But let's add another layer to this, and
let's see where the salaf differed
so that we can also identify what is
not foundational.
Understand?
So there needs to be duality in that
discussion
that'll create more layers.
And the third is, what were the things
that the Sadegh didn't talk about?
So those things that they did not talk
about are obviously left to
later generations. That's why Imam al Shehaf, he
said, a foolish person thinks that anything the
Sadaq didn't talk about is biddah.
The the message of Islam has to last
to the end of time. So in that
case, neighbor nets would be Bida.
No. Neighbor nets, they fall under the general
command of the Quran to make dua,
to organize the Muslims,
to teach, to instruct.
So we'll unpack this insha'Allah
as we go on, but that's an excellent
question.
So Islam recognizes the importance of the intellect.
Allah's Prophet says
That indeed
in the creation of the heavens and the
earth,
and in the difference between the night and
the day are signs. The word Ayah
in Arabic
is something that directs you to something else.
It doesn't direct you to itself. It's not
part of what it directs It
it directs to something other in itself. So
everything in creation is an Ayah because it
directs us to Allah, but it is not
Allah.
Understand?
Li'ulil alvab
to people of pure understanding.
Imam warqutabi comments on this verse. He says,
those who employ their minds to ponder on
the signals. That's why I translate the ayaat
to signals. They're a signal of Allah,
a sign of Allah around them.
When Allah revealed this verse to the Prophet,
this verse here, the Prophet said, Wretched is
he who recites it and doesn't ponder on
it. Like, who reads this verse in Surah
Al Baqarah
and doesn't ponder on it? Doesn't make him
or her stop and think?
That person is like, they're a loser, man.
Conversely, the Quran knows that those who fail
to use their intellect will be in *.
I mentioned this verse earlier from Sultanuluk.
They said if we had only listened and
thought,
we would not be together in *.
Imam al Hazari
has a beautiful,
beautiful statement
about the relationship between faith and the intellect,
which is absolutely marvelous.
Like, he said the intellect is like a
torch,
and the sharia is like its oil bill,
allowing it to burn. So without the sharia,
then a pure intellect, a a a sound
intellect won't won't be
ignited. You know? Sayedna Umar, there's a funny
story.
Someone came to him and said, prior to
Islam, you're
exceedingly intelligent.
Why weren't you guided? He said, because my
intelligence didn't have guidance.
He didn't have that oil.
So the intellect is like a torch, and
the Sharia is like it's oil allowing it
to burn.
If there is no oil,
there is no flame.
And if there is no flame, the oil
will not ignite.
In that can in that context, Allah says,
light upon
light.
Thus, the Sharia works as the intellect in
the physical world,
while the intellect
of the conscience
is that oil,
is that Sharia.
Any thoughts on this quote
of Imam Abuhamad al Qazari?
That the intellect is like a torch and
the Sharia is the oil that lights that
torch. And
it causes it to extend.
It causes it to burn
out. So it's a guy. It did not
only gives itself. It gives others. It's a
very beautiful analogy Masha'Allah.
Any thoughts on the statement of Imam Al
Azeri
before
we continue.
This is a great quote to use when
people ask you, like, what's the relationship between
faith and the insight,
right? What I'll I'm going to give you
guys the assignment is to give me a
more modern example. They'd be the PlayStation and
the joystick. I don't know
whatever works me,
but to think of some kind of modern
example that we could use now for people,
Meaning both are adherent to one another without
an intel intelligent mind, religion will stay dormant
or be used to harm. And without religious
guidance, the intellect will not be able to
live a faithful life. Think about Oppenheimer.
Like, what did he use his intelligence for?
That is important as we step into the
next slide.
So the sheikh, he says,
This is the first sort of principle in
the text,
and that is the obligation to learn that
I've been talking about.
Then he says to proceed, you must know
the obligation of ma'rifah.
The word ma'rifah is from the word is
to smell.
Say, like, a permeating smell.
So that implies that I have to look.
I have to engage. I
have to be active in the process
of Marifa
of being able to conceptualize.
Ma'rifah is largely
linked to being able to generally understand something.
That due to Allah are 20
universal concepts.
Maybe somebody asked, why don't we talk about
the 99 names of Allah? Because between us,
it is a contentious topic.
The Hadith about the 99 names of Allah
mentioned by Imam Matir Midi
is considered weak.
So what exactly are all of those 99
names? So that opens up the door to
people
to have to navigate differences which they may
not be prepared for.
So
many scholars, what they said is let's encapsulate
all of the attributes and aims of Allah
into 20 universal ideas that will
be an umbrella to all those names.
And that's very important because it simplifies learning
theology. So we see here a commitment to
teaching the masses.
Number 2 is steering them away from differences
and contentious issues, which they're not trained for.
Number 3, these kind of twenty principles are
so universal that wherever you are the face
of the earth, you could have a conversation
with a Muslim or a non Muslim.
So the third reason for because if you
go to, like, a non Muslim, you're like,
You know, I'm not sure it's really what
are the names of Allah's if it's a
whole lot, but it could be the name
of Sifa'at, and it may not be authentic
because, you know, the Hadith. And non Muslims
are gonna look at you like you're a
fool. Not even non Muslims. If you get
some kid off the streets
who's, you know, been smashing chicken 65 for,
like, 6 years. Now you bring him into
the masjid. You start to tell him about
the and the first thing he's like, yeah.
9 99 names on here. Well, you know,
actually, there's a difference of opinion about the
9 names. You're gonna push them out.
So he we see something in this methodology.
Just like the methodology of those who teach,
scholars were about equipping Muslims to be able
to step into the role of public prophets.
And what I mean by public prophets is
publicly representing prophetic teachers,
being public intellectuals
to avoid the particulars and the secondary issues,
which are going to be complicated for people
and over
burden them
as Allah says,
Allah wants it to be easy for you,
not hard for you.
And the prophet
said
to teach and facilitate. So sometimes maybe you
learn something, maybe you go and study. I
remember one time when I was in Egypt,
there was a brother who was in a
mass, not in a neighborhood, and he came
to Egypt and he learned.
And then I I came back to the
US. I met him. I said, hey, how
did your how was your usrat? He said,
my usrat died.
So what do you mean? How does the
die? He's like, man, I brought all these
complicated books, bro. I was trying to show
them what I learned in Egypt and these
cats. They never came back. Of course they
never came back.
So your, your job is not to impress
people. Your job is not to make things
complicated.
Your job is to teach people
and to help them and to facilitate a
relationship with Allah
So that's why here we have Ishwarul Asifa,
twenty concepts about Allah,
which the mind
will accept
and
the Sharia supports.
That's very important. And the Sharia, of course,
has the final call.
But the mind also I remember when I
was not Muslim and I read this,
treaties by
a scholar of Christianity who invented the Trinity.
And he actually wrote he was in Egypt,
to Scandaria. He wrote, I actually do not
understand what I've
infant
like 3 hours 31.
I remember thinking like, this is crazy, man.
This is the guy who founded it, man.
He doesn't his mind cannot accept it. But
if you say to most rational people,
do you believe a god exists? They may
say yes or no, but even the atheist,
you said, okay. If
if God exists, what would he be like?
They'll say he's gonna be transcendent.
He won't be like creation.
So here, these 20 principles, we're gonna go
through some of them,
are meant to equip you
to be a public educator.
So Imam Al Rasulqi mentions the obligation of
knowledge after praising Allah and saying peace and
blessings upon the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, but
here's the principle I mentioned earlier. Because if
we say that learning is the obligation,
certain
components of this of learning are obligations that
Imam al Qazali talks about in
that I teach it in the second season
or second level in,
purification of the heart, that book by Imam
Abuhamal Khazadim bin Hajj al Abidi,
and Sheikh Meccail is teaching it now I
think at Panam online.
Imam Abuhamal Al Khazari talks about very clearly
what you have to learn.
What there's no taqleed in, back to that
question earlier. So there's no taqleed in religious
fundamentals.
That's why we say, You
cannot force anyone
to be Muslim.
We are guided or you're
or misguided. You are guided or you're misguided.
Doesn't there's no compulsion in religion. Why? Because
a person has to learn, be informed,
and accept and embrace Islam,
And that's why Imam Al Razi says what
that means for you is that there are
certain things you are responsible for learning.
Here, the translation, I I need to put
it there. Let's say, now Razi says there
is no
blind following in the foundations of religion.
The second principle that we take from knowing
that knowledge is obligatory is that knowing Allah
is learned. What does it mean learned, though?
It's a very important idea
because we live now in an age where
the,
the qivla of this era is the individual.
So maybe you read into people, even at
MSA, NeighborNets, or Masajid who say, I think
this, I think this,
I feel like this. I feel listen,
Habibi,
This is religion. This is not Islam.
It's Islam,
right? It's not my Islam. It's Islam. It's
not what I think.
It's what, what I've taught
in foundational issues.
And there's a great statement of Al Qadi
Abu Bakr even Al Arabi. Even Al Arabi
without the Aliflam is the Sufi
contradiction. You know, the one that's in,
but also it's extremely
controversial. I want people But Adi Flam is
a different person.
Abu Bakr even Al Arabi is one of
the greatest Maliki scholars in history.
He was a polymath.
He was a genius, and he's also hilarious.
Certain things that we'll we'll narrate in the
future.
But he says about
religious faith
foundations. He said, obligatory
knowledge of faith is not achieved by necessity.
What does it mean achieved by necessity?
The outcome of social dynamics.
That I'm just like, you know what?
There's 1 tall building in the world, so
that means there's 1 God.
My issue
has to be learned
by inspiration.
Oh, last night, you know, I ate some
incredible quinafa and then I was inspired.
Now I believe I saw The Rock came
back to wrestling, so I became inspired.
So now I believe God is 1. Not
a Shia.
That's some Baqwa stuff, bro. Take that and
go somewhere.
Take that and go somewhere.
But you have to be respectful to people.
Don't say don't say it's Baqwa. If you
speak Urdu, you didn't hear me say that.
Or by
following a scholar. Oh, well, you know, you
also have told me god is 1, so
god is 1.
Nor from what someone has heard from someone,
does this not sound familiar?
I heard from someone.
Someone said someone said.
I I like to ask people, who's someone?
Well, actually it's me. That's why I thought
or my cousin or my aunt or, you
know, John from Brooklyn.
That's not how it's gonna work, bro.
It's not this is a Dean. It's not
sloppy. The only way to achieve this knowledge
is to learn and to think.
It's a very beautiful statement.
The citation is there.
Another and another doesn't mean just to think.
It means to be deliberate
about thinking.
Theology is going to push us to think
and provide frames.
All of the world now is arguing about
can hang a frame on the white wall
of white supremacy.
Everybody wants to frame part of that wall,
whether it's, you know, anti black racism, Islamophobia,
gender based bi of bias or violence, you
name it. Right? So if you are fighting
over where, what frame gets to frame that
white wall, Islam says, look,
think beyond this.
Those those things certainly have a place,
right within religious discourse,
but to the point that we start fighting
over it.
So in Masajid, you see people fighting over
ethnicity, they're fighting over what frame they can
have
to understand the world. The style is
challenging, challenging us to think very differently.
So here,
Ubaid Abu Bakr says, how do you use
your mind, man?
You have to invest.
In today's age, people trust themselves too much.
Like, subhanAllah, I remember, you know, I hate
to give the dad talk. I have 4
kids, so I'm gonna give it anyways. I
don't care.
And that is
that people this day, people really trust themselves.
Like they really trust their conclusions. I remember
as a young person, it's one of the
reasons that maybe I became Muslim. I was
always suspect of certain conclusions I may have.
I, I felt it was important to be
an interrogator of my
ideas.
This is an outcome of a period that
has identified people as the ultimate beings, the
sole agents on earth.
The outcome is inflated opinions and experiences.
And sadly, the prophet warned us about this.
Listen to this Hadith.
He said, command the good and forbid the
evil until you see stinginess, obeyed
the temporary world impacting,
and every person with an opinion amazed by
his idea.
Just because I got an opinion, it must
be this good.
At that time, focus on avoid the masses
because without a doubt, days are coming near
which resilience will be like holding on to
hot iron.
At that time, the good deeds of a
devotee of Allah will be equal to the
works of 50 men who act like the
Sahaba. This is a good Hadith.
So the remedy for this is what you
guys are doing,
is to learn. And one of the challenges
we have within America with some community
is everyone wants to entertain it. Nobody wants
to study.
Like we want to be entertained.
You know, there's a place for that,
but no one will invert it. Like no
one will say
to the entertainers,
teach us.
It's only to the educators. Can you please
just make us laugh? Can you make it
cool?
Okay. There's a place for that,
but there has to be learning.
The third question
that the obligation of learning brings up is
what is responsibility?
Because it's an obligation for people who are
responsible.
Not all people, not my children.
So if you see what I'm doing here,
I'm teaching you, this is a very classical
kind of theological way of teaching
that you take apart from a text like
here that learning is the obligation,
and then you begin to layer it with
questions
so that you expand
thinking about it. So the first is
that taqleed fulsul.
There's no in
the foundations.
Number 2, knowing that God has learned,
and that takes us now to the 3rd.
And as you study theology,
more and more issues begin to be added
to each point.
And then also contemporary theologians who are constructively
and critically engaging this era are going to
bring questions for today.
That's why you are important in this class.
You will help bring questions that we get
added.
So the first responsibility
is to learn.
This
from an Andalusian scholar ibn Ashir.
The first obligation upon a responsible person, and
Yarifa,
is that they have to employ their intellect
to know
The first obligation upon a person
who's responsible
is
is to use his or her mind.
And to know Allah and his messenger based
on
the evidences from Quran and so.
So here we learned something, the notions of
extremists like Richard Dawkins,
Bill Maher, Sam Harris,
and the late Christopher Hitchens,
that Islam is, as Harris stated,
the mother lode of bad ideas,
la tatalaali,
are false.
If Islam is is as they said it
is, the first obligation would be silence not
to think.
If it's if if Islam is how it's
portrayed by these people,
then first obligation would be to be quiet.
And unfortunately, we have some Islamic study teachers
who teach that way. Right? We have educators
who don't encourage people to the void that
I'm begging you guys to ask questions and
you're not conditioned to ask questions. So you
don't, You're just not used to it.
So I'm imploring you. What do you think
about this? Think about this, ask about this,
but we're not coming from
largely experiences where educators said,
think and ask, think and ask, think and
ask. It's no. Be quiet, be quiet, be
quiet, be quiet, be quiet. Don't ask questions.
No. Ask questions.
So we've actually created a climate
that is sort of antithetical to Islam. Islam
says think,
and the prophet said, the remedy for any
illness is to ask a question,
but now we have a community, especially in
the US
that is conditioned
for silence.
And I think there's, there's a number of
reasons for this.
One of the reasons is everything is taught
by 1 person. We don't even have seminars.
We should have seminars. We should all sit
around the table. We can open up a
text. We should begin to discuss the text.
What are your reflections? And the first thing
you'll say is I'm not a scholar. Well,
you're no one's asking you for scholarly reflections.
Right? That's not what's being solicited. What's being
solicited is what do you think?
So this idea
that
outside of scholarly
publications
and opinions, like I'm just having this weekend
in Houston, Texas, people that are going to
share there are, are scholars.
They're, they're qualified.
But to the extent that if we were
just to sit in a rush it every
Sunday and say, Hey, we're going to read
this text. Hey, what do you think about
it? Salina. Salina says, You know what? I'm
not a scholar. I can't say anything. Wow.
First of all, whatever you say and I
say is not going to become orthodoxy, like
we're not that important.
But that we've created a climate where the
only way we study is the sheikhs on
the stage giving a lecture, the mimbar giving
a lecture, or teaching. We don't even have
seminars where we sit around together and we
discuss.
And you know why that's important?
Because that will also teach the teacher.
Imalaz Zohri, when he would go to Medina
for his vacations on Eid because he was
from Medina,
he would go and ask everyone what's going
on. What are the latest trends?
So he could become an informed scholar,
and he would be contextually appropriate for his
time.
I know this is kinda powerful, man. You
know?
Liberating.
I've explained this to so many people.
1st obligation is to think, and they're like,
I can't believe.
It's like, well, thank.
If you can't believe it, then think, man.
But that's the first obligation. And that's very
powerful when you talk with Muslims who are
being pulled by atheism.
You have Muslims who are being pulled
into ways that are misrepresenting
Islam.
Yes.
Jardine has a question. Yes, sir. I'd love
to see that hand up, bro.
I apologize for my camera being off. I'm
having trouble with it. But,
I had a quick question. You know, I
really like your point about the seminars, and
I'm wondering as somebody who wants to inshallah
make this potentially happen, what are some steps
that you might take? How would you approach
it? How would you,
know, go about setting something like this up
at a local masjid?
I think it's very important that you actually
teach people you have to frame the expectation.
What is the seminar?
Like, what does the seminar mean?
I'll give an example. Years ago, doctor Musambo
Siddiqui, I was asked to moderate a session
for him on Fatwa at a mass conference
in Los Angeles.
So, okay, it's packed. There's so many people.
Doctor Siddiqui is this immense scholar. He was
formerly the head of the FIT Council, which
now we just voted, doctor Yasir Khadhi is
now in charge of our Fiq Council. And
so
doctor Siddiqui,
you know, he he got ready, and the
first question was, you know, Shay,
like, I don't know if I should take
this job or not. And it wasn't like
the job is involving anything forbidden. It was
more like, dear Abby,
you know, like, what are you thinking? So
all the questions were not related to Fatwa.
So finally I had
to stop. And I said, Shaykh, with your
permission. Then I said to people, here's how
you need to ask questions.
So you ask, you'll say the question that
you wanna use right now, Doctor. Saditi is
what is the ruling
should look like?
So number 1 is and after that, the
questions were amazing, but I had to teach
them how to ask questions. We don't even
know how to use our scholars really in
our community. We don't even know what to
do with them.
So I think, at your dean, the first
thing is you need to like really set
the expectation of
what's a seminar,
right? What are going to be kind of
the processes
that
Right. And then that's also for the Sheikha
imam will come because sometimes Sheikha and imams
have also gotten used
to just be in the guy with the
microphone or being the girl with the microphone.
And And they get a little scared when
other people start talking, you know, it gets
a little, it gets a little uncomfortable. So
you want to also make sure they understand,
and then you need a good moderator.
You have to have a good facility. Someone
who can be a bully,
a nice bully. Right? Not rude, but say,
okay, thank you. For example, we're not looking
you've seen this at at YM
convention, ICNA convention, when you have Q and
A, you always see there's that one guy
that has a 15
minute question that's not a question. It's a
comment.
So what you can say is we're not
looking for comments that every has, everybody has
1 minute to answer and then for the
shit,
Right? We only got about 20 minutes for
questions and answers. If you take 20 minutes
for one question, this is a disaster. So
Sheikh,
with respect,
love, admiration, you have 1 minute to answer
or 2 minutes max the question, and then
I will have to stop you.
So you've got to create that expectation. And
then you choose a topic, which is important
to the people, maybe in your area.
You put together some discussion questions
by asking people,
Hey, you know, this is the topic. What
are some important discussion questions you have? If
worst comes to worst, F Chat GPT.
Hey, Chat GPT,
act like the Sheik of all sheikhs and
give me 5 discussion questions
on this topic for a seminar.
Chat GPT will hook you up, man. I've
done it.
You have to, you know, change the words.
It's Chad Bichi. It hasn't taken shahada yet,
but it's very close to taking shahada, mashaAllah.
So
you may have to edit it, but it'll
give you some ideas. I'll give an example.
I I've checked GPT last Eid.
What are the 3 most important topics to
talk about Eid for the Muslim community?
You know what his first after faith and
everything. You know what his first suggestion was?
Social
entrepreneurship amongst Muslims to create economic
independence from the west.
I was like, dang, chat GPT.
You in the game, bro? Like, just let
chat GPT give it the whole fuck.
Right?
And then it talks about,
you know, the role of nonprofits
and just I was like, wow, look at
Chad GPT.
But actually did it say, to, to create
independence for the west. It's said to create
independence
for your faith
and that your ability to earn by the
grace of Allah
would allow you to then sustain your faith
practice. I was like, Chad GPT is doing
great.
The next question is, what is responsibility?
How do we know someone's responsible? And I
need you to sort of pay attention here.
And again, the same poem, ibn Asher, he
says,
So the first responsibility
is what? Intellectual
cohesiveness
and health.
So
anyone that has mental health issues,
we we have to gauge
the impact, and that's where you have
interdisciplinary
work between the IBAM and the FIT Council
and clinicians and emotional health providers and psychologists.
Someone who has any kind of impairment intellectually,
their takleef
is either going to be reduced
or none.
For example, some of the Alzheimer's,
we don't, we don't expect them,
especially late stage Alzheimer's, may Allah protect us
all and protect and heal those who struggle
with this
difficult disease.
We don't expect them to be able to
worship the same as someone who doesn't have
Alzheimer's.
Somebody who's suffering from acute trauma,
There's going to be
mercy in their taqleef.
Someone that has eating disorders in Ramadan is
a great example I can get you
where
fasting may trigger
bulimia or anorexia.
Ma'al bullu. What does bullu mean? The
and and aqal means 2 things,
intellectual health and emotional health.
Not just the intellect, the emotion.
The third and or or second is means
that they have physical maturation.
What happens if you have someone in your
neighborhood that who may be physically capable of
worship, but intellectually, they have not reached that
ability to moralize.
The Hanafis have a beautiful principle called Taklifanakas,
which means they are,
not completely held accountable.
Someone may be intellectually capable, but physically capable,
for example, of fasting.
So until both are there, we don't have
full.
You understand? Four responsibility.
I'll be for women means menstruation,
not the breaking of the hymen because
the breaking of the hymen could be to
riding a bicycle, could be to
a number of things, even sitting,
but here it means menstrual blood,
or hamli or pregnancy.
I will be mani.
Or if a man has a seminal emission,
I will be in where
they have Under Armour pubic hair. And if
none of those are capable,
have haven't happened,
I'll be except for the mic.
The other physical,
identificators,
indicators, excuse me, of
at 18 years old. Somebody reaches 18 years
old
and they have their intellectual prowess, but they
lack the physical
signs, then at 18, they become responsible. Hawl
al Bahr.
Al Qadhi Iyas is something beautiful. He added
one more
principle to this.
What makes someone what do you mean by
responsible? Responsible to know and worship.
Responsible to know and worship to believe,
right? As we're talking about theology,
Al Qadir Iyad says very beautifully
that the the another is that the information
about Islam reached them.
So maybe people in your class ask, like,
what about Eskimos, or what about those people
in the middle of nowhere who never heard
about Islam?
We're going to talk about them later in
greater detail, but they would fall under this
idea.
Allah says in the 17th chapter of the
Quran,
We will never punish people until we send
a messenger.
So when we say that the message has
reached them, we don't mean they heard it
on a rap song. Somebody's saying a
or they saw something on the news or
they were playing a video game. Like, you
know, the Spider Man, the one in New
York city and it has like a hijabi.
No, no, no.
They are properly exposed to Islam.
Right? You could evaluate them on it. They
they could be evaluated because
why were all those communities destroyed
previously?
Because they could be evaluated.
They rejected Islam.
It wasn't they heard, you know,
ASAP Ferb saying, and
they're like, oh, wow.
Now I'm Muslim. Like, it's not how it
works.
There's a deeper sort of level of what
we call
exposure,
prophetic exposure.
So what about those people who don't know
the opinion held by the majority? There are
3 opinions about them that we'll talk about
later when we talk about the prophet's parents.
K? The opinion held by the majority of
ancient scholars of Islamic theology is that people
who have never been properly exposed to Islam
will be questioned in the hereafter,
and the law reward or punish them based
on his mercy
and justice.
This is part of a long hadithala Sahih
Muslim
that we'll talk about in the future. That
does not mean we treat them as Muslims.
In fact, there is a thiela, another axiom.
We regard them as non Muslims in this
life, but leave their case to Allah in
the hereafter.
So we don't expect them to pray, wear
hijab, make them be hot.
No.
But we leave their here after 2.
The last point before we stop, principles and
priorities. By linking knowledge to faith, Marzuzuli is
touching on an important principle in Islamic thought.
This principle, you wanna write it in gold,
keep it with you for the rest of
your life.
What is needed to complete an obligation
becomes obligatory.
So when I became Muslim, one of the
OGs told me you need to go to
school and get a job. I was like,
why? He said, because what is needed to
complete an obligation came obligatory.
And if you don't have financial independence
as a new Wilson,
you will be suspect to being manipulated by
your family who are not Wilson.
Is brilliant. This is a very powerful strategic
axiom in Islamic law. Whatever I need to
complete a wajib becomes wajib. Whatever I need
to complete a farr becomes farr. Like, wudu
is not farr, but when it's time to
pray, wudu is what? Farr.
Because it's needed to complete salah.
So here knowledge
is a means to know Allah and knowing
Allah is the obligation. So therefore knowledge becomes
what?
Obligatory.
Knowing Allah is Afarit.
So that means that learning about Allah is
Afarit.
That's the principle.
That means that these that Islam deems permissible
or recommended become obligatory because they are prerequisites
to
a fault.
An example I give is.
At a deeper level, this principle represents a
strategy that prioritizes
and organizes things according to their importance in
the hereafter.
If someone were to live by this one
principle faithfully, he would be amongst the close
friends of Allah because his priorities, her priorities
will be aligned.
Their priorities would be what I need to
do to com complete an obligation. So for
example, if I stay up
all the time late at night playing video
games or watching something or even doing dollar
plans and I misfudger,
sleeping early became obligate
because sleeping early is what leads to me
completing an obligation.
That brings us to the question that was
asked, obligatory
religious knowledge.
I'm glad,
the question was asked.
Says,
what is obligatory for you to know
will be his knowledge of in in the
con in the context of theology only. Okay?
The knowledge of God's oneness and related matters.
And then he mentions later on, Adi Aboubekar,
that if we wanted to unpack what's obligatory
for you to know,
the study of Tawhid
is restricted to 3 parts. What we have
to believe about Allah,
what is not allowed for us to believe
about Allah,
and what is possible in our belief about.
I'll give you three examples to make it
clear because we're gonna talk about this in
the future. Number 1, we have to believe
Allah is 1.
Number 2, it's impossible. It's not allowed for
us to believe the Allah is 3.
What's probable?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala could bless me to
get into grad school
or not to get into grad school. To
marry this person,
not to marry that person.
So what I have to believe, what I
have to deny, and what's probable. Probable tends
to deal with Qadah and Qadr,
my fate.
The sources of Islamic belief
Also, again, we go back to Qadi Abu
Bakr who says,
the obligation is to due to
sorry. He says, what are the sources that
guide our thoughts upon God? What
we should think critically about this and constructively.
What are the sources that guide us to
God?
Revelation.
Must what we must believe about here and
what we must reject and as an extension
what's possible, there you see the according style
of revelation.
Because without revelation,
I'm I'm I'm lost.
In today's world, that answer is really sloppy,
and you may find yourself confused. As I
addressed previously, Islam takes this question very serious.
Knowledge of Allah does not rest on personal
whims, what you've heard, or following another person.
So what does it rest on? In other
words, from where must you learn? What sources
must you take your faith from? And here's
the answer, the obligation due to Allah and
how to think about him are learned strictly
from the Sharia.
Not the intellect
alone, not the intellect by itself means the
oil and the torch we talked about earlier,
Imam Ghassadi,
as we previously established, and this is the
case for all obligations.
Identifying good and evil and the forbidden and
the permissible. The source for knowing them is
the Sharia.
There is no guidance related to Taklief,
except it comes from the Sharia.
And what that means is that the source
of thought, faith, and practice is the Quran
and Sunnah and the sources of Sharia
as understood by scholars,
or even if they differ, but still we
consult them because without the letter, we will
without scholarship, we'll have chaos and continue. I
said earlier,
the lack of structure this is my problem
with the leftist.
The absence of authority
always
leads to tyranny.
Like, always.
Always.
For that reason, the Quran says
as the people
of knowledge.
And here are the questions that I want
you to think about as we stop, hamdulillah.
How does the Imam Marzukri emphasize the importance
of knowledge in establishing a relationship with Allah
and His Messenger?
How does he distinguish between obligatory and non
obligatory learning?
What is the concepts of taqid and why
is it prohibited in matters related to religious
fundamentals?
How does that align with the Quranic principle
of no compulsion?
How does the opinion of scholars like Imam
al Razi and Imam ibn Ashiq challenge the
notion of blindly following things religiously?
They they say you have to learn.
What does what role does intellectual engagement play
in acquiring knowledge and faith?
In what ways does the modern age characterized
by inflated opinions, experiences, contrast
with the Islamic emphasis on thinking, learning, and
contemplation?
How does this relate to the concept of
responsibility?
Discuss the significance of Islam's first obligation as
articulated
by those 2 Imams? How does the requirement
to think and know God challenge negative perceptions
of faith
propagated by certain atheists and other idiots?
Why is the idea of responsibility
central to understanding one's duty to learn and
live a faithful life?
How does the principle of responsibility
counterbalance the tendency towards blind conformity or unchecked
autonomy? Or as the case tonight I mentioned,
nobody asking questions would ask.
Hit hit. According to the conditions of responsibility
outlined by Ibn Aishir and Al Qadi al
Iyad, what factors determine an individual's duty to
learn Allah's Messenger?
How does this underscore the importance of intellectual
maturity?
Explore the concept of responsibility
in relationship
to individuals who have not been properly exposed
to his son.
How does the principle, what is needed to
complete an obligation becomes an obligation,
guide the prioritization of religious duties, beliefs, as
well as your life?
Give some examples.
And finally, what is meant by a obligatory
religious knowledge as defined by Al Hadid al
Abi. Make du'a that this book will be
published
early 2024.
And then we're going to talk about next
week, goes back to the question earlier. How
do we know 8 by the each is
obligatory? Like, how do you know that?
Like, why do we believe what we believe?
But we'll stop here. If there's any questions
or comments,
we are,
And, you know, thank you for that.
Adjardin, I think he, saying thank you for
the detailed response, but, you know, honestly,
we're going to continue the incredible question you
asked
next week. Because not only do do wanna
talk about what are the sources and what
is, but then how? Like, how do we
know something have to believe? How do I
know something's foundational?
I'm glad you asked that question to me.
I'm doing a somewhat decent job in setting
things up
to slowly follow sort of a system, a
linear
kind of logic I put together.
Any questions or thoughts from,
brothers and sisters in the chat?
Yes, Amar.
Sorry, again. Again,
El Stado is a doctor in Chicago. He
often uses a phrase of
faith of the grandma,
and he uses that to refer to people,
like, basically, the faith of the grandma who
really does not know much about Islam but
is Muslim because
I don't know. Maybe she accepts Islam because
it's, you know, it's the truth or maybe
it's because her college simply said that and
they accepted the basics, whatever they knew, to
little that they knew. So the question is,
like, what level of knowledge is is acceptable?
Like, would that be acceptable for someone to
be Muslim? Like, someone that knows a very
minimum basic
and lives a life as a Muslim to
the culture?
That's a very that's a wonderful question. I'm
glad you pushed it. It's something that could
actually be added as a 7th
question.
Right. And that is like,
what is talking about is the faith of
the old woman. Right? The old woman, you
go to the village, you tell her to
her the judgment, she cries.
And
that's based on a very important principle in
Islamic theology
that people are obligated
to believe in faith in a general way
without specifics.
So what that
slave woman, the prophet asked her, Ela Allah,
Where's Allah? What did she do? She pointed
up. Does it mean God is up like
up? No, she means transcendence.
Did the prophet say to her, like, what
did you point up? That's Haram you're allowed
to put up. That means God has a
direction. That means God's human. Of course not
because she's she's a very simple person. That's
her affirmation
of.
So based on that, we say that foundationally,
what is obligated,
an obligation upon the masses
is a general affirmation
of Allah,
prophet Mohammed in the hereafter.
Without going into specific details. And that's the
danger sometimes
of people online
who push people
and make them talk about things that they
don't know.
So someone tells you, I believe Allah is
flawed, you say. What do you mean by
oneness? Just leave them alone, man.
I believe the prophet is the final prophet,
So I said, what do you mean by
final? Just leave them alone.
So that type of interrogation is something that's
really rooted in Protestant Christianity
and some of the extreme sects of Christianity
that Muslims kind of seem to have been
impacted by,
whereas classically the prophet Askar enAllah
points up.
But for people like yourselves,
the faith of the old woman might not
work. That's because you ain't in no village,
bra.
Shoo Chicago.
It's just a little bit more complicated on
Devon street
than the village.
So for each person, there is their responsibility.
And if I'm going to be involved in
Islamic work, education,
teaching,
I I need to learn
what is
kind of permeating the minds and consciousness and
imaginations of the Muslim community
so that I'm able to respond.
Any other questions or comments? We can also
take them in the chat.
If no one else is asking, I haven't
a follow-up question with that, and it goes
right with you.
But the question goes that
if
the old woman is accepted in agenda because
she simply accepted
the basics of what society told around her.
Why would the same not apply for a
Christian woman who is, you know, very simple
minded and says, oh, Jesus is my god.
And,
you know, so does the basics, but is
essentially just influenced by her own community as
well. So this is another very important reflection
that there's 2 parts The answer number 1
is those people
have not been exposed to Islam in a
way that they can reject it. We say
there are cases rest with God. We don't
say they go to *. We don't say
they go to heaven.
Number 2 is when the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wasallam sent, and Yemen, those Christian.
They said to them, teach them about Tawhid.
So it's an obligation to expose them. It's
an obligation to try to.
So the difference between her and those people
is that woman hasn't raised Islam,
grew up as a Muslim, affirmed Islam, and
now she's
In a general way, Muslim
As for the others,
there's the issue of dawah.
Have they been exposed? Then they are responsible.
Have they not been exposed? We need
to
talk. Feel free to share. If you have
a different thought Amar or you don't agree,
it's perfectly acceptable at all words. I don't
get upset if people just hurt me. That's
that kind of When it comes to Islamic
studies, I try playing devil's advocate because I
want to, you know, be able to answer
any questions. So to push this even more
what was I gonna say? This is it's
not a complicated question at all. Sure. Sure.
But in terms of, like like, the person
who's seeking all of God's justice,
they would, like I feel like they would
push this more, and they would say, like,
if the for the old woman, she's accepting,
like,
like, her if, for example, someone came to
the Muslim woman and they gave some, you
know, some philosophical argument about why God isn't
true or why Jesus is a God, and
she's not gonna understand either way. And she
said she just rejects it based on, you
know, her blind her faith and a blind
faith in a way, but she has, you
know, faith, you know, just that those essentials.
In a similar way, if a Muslim gave
Dawah to a Christian lady
and she didn't, obviously, she can't really engage
in that kind of conversation, but she does,
you know, blind nieces.
I know I experienced Jesus or whatever that
Christians say.
Why would that not be valid for her
if they're both using the same thought process
at that point?
Because one is a Muslim and one isn't
there are 2 different cases.
What is already a believer
in? We believe that general faith across the
board, we're not how wattage.
So we don't go around and kill Muslims
who say they believe in God, alhamdulillah,
and the majority of the people around the
prophet were
general believers.
They they they were not
detailed believers. Right?
As the example earlier, the other situation is
because she has been exposed
to Islam,
exposed to a prophetic dawah, and we find
in the Quran
that people that were exposed to prophetic dawah
and rejected it were punished. Even if they
said, We found our fathers doing this. We
found our mothers doing this. It was not
an acceptable
excuse. However,
again,
her ultimate judgment would be based on the
quality of the message that was given to
that person you're talking about, the Christian woman,
And we believe as Allah says in the
Quran,
nobody will be wronged in the hearth.
Nobody.
So whatever her judgment,
I think we need to leave what her
judgment is in the sense of it's a
hypothetical
and they need exposure. What maybe the person
that gave her dawah didn't do a good
job.
Let's say it was a prophet that gave
her dawah sign the Quran, those 2 going
to *,
who rejected the prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam.
But other than that, it depends on the
level and quality of the message that was
given to her and the character
of that
person.
Got it. That makes sense.
Yes, Taha. Excellent. It's a great question, Amar.
Like, Amar, I'm so happy that you,
I know it's uncomfortable,
right.
To share those kind of reflections. I really
want to give you a goofy
up
for pushing it and asking
questions that people might not like to ask.
Everyone give Amar, like, a round of applause.
Yes, sir.
So in 1.7
about obligatory religious knowledge,
I think you referenced that
says that the study of is, 3 parts.
Like so what's obligatory, what's permissible, and what's
improbable.
Is this the, like, 3 rational
the 3 rational judgments since, like, in reference
to, like, something similar like what Imam Sanusi
uses in Shar Amogh Barahain?
I just wanted to clarify. Absolutely. Because and
this is not,
Marzoukis quote. This is.
Yeah. And you'll find the citation there.
Absolutely. From the same exact
school, same exact line of thinking, same madrassa.
However,
he is also not only saying are they
intellectual,
but also he ties this to, to Shariah,
the Sharia.
So
the, this school in particular wants to marry
both
to show people that,
you know, the Sharia
it supersedes the intellect, but oftentimes there will
be overlap
because if, if faith and Allah was illogical,
it wouldn't be far.
SubhanAllah.
Right? In that sense, like impossible, impossible to,
and what I mean by logic is Sharia
defined logic, not my logic.
Yes. Omar Sheikh Omar is here. Sheikh Omar
is a half of the Quran. He's also
a sheikh,
so I hope you guys will take advantage
of him. Yes, sir.
Yeah. Sorry.
Shay, I just had a a a question
kinda related to,
the topic of iman. You know,
the the the hadith of the prophet
where where he says that,
you know, the one who has even an
Adam's worth of iman will
eventually be taken out of the hellfire.
And we know that,
on at some level, every single person has,
right, like,
some some level of iman.
So how how do we kinda,
you know, reconcile that? Also,
even, like, the, the sign of iman is
to remove something that's,
you know, harmful from the from from the
road.
So how does that kinda,
all fit together?
Again, I want to emphasize. Omar,
think, is the most patient person in the
world. He lives super close to me, and
we're supposed to be on a phone call.
I don't know how long it's been on.
I'm so sorry, man.
But should I take my house? Sheikh Hammar
has the.
I think he did his course.
Guys, you know, he did all some heavyweights
in the chat box, bro. Watch out.
So this is actually a very good question
that the authentic hadith the prophet says that
anyone who needs to leave or over time
feel free to leave We're recording it We
can post it later
You can watch it later.
That anyone that has the Adam Waite of
El Eman,
which means what kind of iman are we
talking about? How do we define iman?
We'll talk about this later on.
What does iman mean? Belief. Believe in what?
So we have to go to the Hadith
of Jibreel
to believe in Allah, his angels, his books,
his messengers, the day of judgment, and Allah
will quadr.
So the person that has an atom's weight
of Sharia compliant
iman.
Not any Iman, not Iman and, you know,
you know, freaking chocolate headed dragon that I
pray to or something.
No, El Eman here means
Eman, which is Sharia compliant
as defined by the Sharia.
That's why Al Qadi Abu Bakr, his his
statement here and I want to encourage you
guys to go back and reflect on some
of this stuff, man.
But especially this quote
of Al Qadi,
where he says,
obligatory knowledge of faith is not achieved by
necessity, by nature.
Talk about fitra in the future. Fitra doesn't
mean people are born
in a state of, like, their
by inspiration
or by blindly following a scholar nor from
what someone has heard. The only way to
achieve it is to think, meaning is to
learn
what Islam says iman is.
So those people that you're asking about,
Yashir Kumar, are those who believe in a
Sharia compliant way.
Yes, Sam.
Hi.
Yes, ma'am. I was I wanted to, I
wanted to ask you
the
quote, if I have it correct, by Imam
Ghazali when he said
that faith is a light that is put
into one's heart.
How do you understand that within the context
of what you're saying here?
No. No. You said that the intellect thank
you for asking this question, by the way.
That the intellect is like a torch and
the Sharia is the oil. It's not talking
about faith being put in the heart,
allowing it to burn. It's just talking about
the relationship between thinking
and in the Sharia
and how the Sharia is going to guide
our thoughts on issues like this, on faith
and worship and devotion, not on everything,
but on issues related to religious beliefs and
practice,
the oil that should
fuel that life is
Sharia.
Thank you. No, thank you. Thank you for
asking. These are good questions, man. Thank you
guys. I
really enjoy when people ask questions.
How did any other questions before we,
jump off inshallah
Omar? I think you had a second question.
Did I answer it?
Yeah. Yeah. No. No. No. All my questions
are answered.
Okay. Just wanted to make sure.
Everybody. We will put up the syllabus soon.
Forgive me, as well as the recordings. I'll
put the recordings in both Google classrooms
so that you can have access to them.
SWISS, the website, and the app are going
through, like, some major upgrades right now, alhamdulillah.
But, of course, that's going to bring with
it some,
under construction type,
challenges.
But I really thank you, Sam. Thank you.
I think you have your head up again.
Feel free to ask quickly. Sorry.
We no. I think I I think I
hadn't, lowered my hand. I'm so sorry. Was
I supposed to lower it?
No. No. You can keep it up as
long as you want. So I'll just keep
calling on you, though. I'm Laura, your mic
is off. Do you have another question? My
shall you ask me such good questions, Matt?
Not a question related to that class, but,
how can we reach out to you if
you have any personal questions?
So my email, I believe, is in the
Google Classroom. If not, I'll put it there
for you all. S [email protected],
You can reach me there inshallah. Give me
some time. I usually take a few. You
ask Ola a few years to get back,
but, oh,
and Tasneem knows also, unfortunately,
but, do I will certainly respond to you
guys inshallah.
Next week. We continue talking about how do
we identify
why we believe in what we believe, but
then we get it to talking about
a method for knowing Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
through one of the 3 sort of
mainstream theologies.
Thank you guys.
Tasneem, there is a Google classroom.
If you email me, I'll send it to
you. I'll I'll send it to you. And
the recording, Selena, are on the Google
classroom. Just one second.
Don't jump off. I will, I'll pull that
up for you now
and I'll share the code
to our
Google classroom. Yes. Not Eli did not make
it to the class. I hope so. Everything's
by email guys.
Let you let it off. You're here. If
you are, let us know.
There is the Google classroom code for Salina
and Tasneem.
Okay guys thank you so much, may Allah
bless all of you,