Suhaib Webb – Need Refueling BiWeekly Study Circle Imam
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Welcome to our biweekly gathering as we're going
through an important text,
called
Kunuz,
Sunnah, and Nabawiyah,
which are, like,
choice selections from 40 hadith
that are related to a science called Usul
Udhi.
And,
welcome to the live.
For the the appreciation.
Before we get started,
I pray that
everybody is well, safe, and sound under the
circumstances,
and I certainly,
wanna welcome you all. And,
want to encourage you to find,
you know, a space where you can come
and learn and grow. It's very important that
we learn,
especially in this time. We live in a
very interesting time
where there is a a a hatred for
specialization
across the world,
and there is an anger at times towards
things which is appreciably
which I appreciate.
But in general, we're finding a a a
time of great decentralization,
and
things are are falling into
kind of, like, scattering a lot of fake
news out there. We see the recent
events at the Capitol in the United States.
We see now the
oh, it can only be considered, like, the
velvet glove reaction to those events we see.
Muslims themselves, especially within North America, have been
consumed with politics
to the point that at times
the the language of politics has replaced the
language of theology.
And that's very concerning because
political language is largely based on human constructions,
and and at times, there is already existing
language
within Islam
to address issues.
So when we are using
terminology, like people say, this is a liberal
Muslim or this is a conservative Muslim,
We're actually using a nomenclature which is foreign
to who we are,
and because it's foreign to who we are,
does not allow for a proper diagnosis.
It doesn't allow for a proper diagnosis. And
the irony
is that in in in both situations, people
will be, you know, claiming to oppose
a system, but they're actually using the nomenclature
of that system.
So
the first thing that Allah
taught Adam,
is how to name things and how to
use names.
So it's important that we learn if I
find that the nomenclature
I use to see the world and and
make analysis
is void of the cleansing nomenclature
of theology
and my religion in particular, then I need
to stop and ask myself, what have I
put in the vessel?
Academics
and and and and it's we're we're we're
using, like, terms to describe us
Muslims.
And I remember sheikh doctor Zakaria Sadiq, he's
a a PhD from Al Azhar.
He said, like, we don't need your terms.
Like, we don't need your terms.
And then he began to explain
the different terms for these issues in Adobe,
and I was translating
as best I could. And there were times
where I said, you know, honestly, because of
my own shortcomings, there are certain nuances to
these Arabic words that are not found in
English.
So I think it's important that we, as
a community, are very careful
that we do not get caught up
in
these
the splintering of broader society
and the shedding of meaning that's happening in
the broader society
based on the nomenclature
of people who terminology
are outside
of our system.
Because when I say, man, that's a liberal
Muslim, I'm using a term which doesn't really
have the same meaning that someone may be
looking for within the areas of Aqidah and
Sharia and Tass
When I say this is a conservative Muslim
or this Muslim is on the right, you
know, the word right in Islam is something
positive,
So I'm using a terminology which is foreign
to the terminology of Islam,
and that means that my ability to diagnose
is limited. I don't have the vocabulary to
engage the community.
And then I may be over
emphasizing something which is not found in the
kind of the
the the the,
engagement
of the the the the classical works of
Islam
or vice versa. And here's a great example.
Someone asking me, do you follow the Salaf
or the Sufi? This question would
have not been
asked
the mus
who on on both extremes,
right, are unfortunately contributing to the destabilization of
Sunni Muslim unity.
Sunni Muslims 2 to 300 years ago
would have never said,
I'm I'm, you know, following,
they would have said, I follow 1 of
the 4 MedHabs. My aqid is Athari, it's
Ashari, or it's Mataridi.
This was the history of us as Sunnis.
And 250
years ago, a new type of Sunni Islam
comes into existence as we learn together, which
primarily functions, and I have to say this
with respect to some of Salafi brothers and
sisters.
Wherever Salafism goes in the Sunni community, it
destroys
and wreaks havoc on who the most.
Let's just ask ourselves this question.
Wherever Salafism goes
as a religious system,
it contributes to the destruction of who the
most. And in fact, you can meet some
salafis in the masjid, and you ask them,
who do you hate the most in the
masjid? It will be the imam.
But that's impossible if you're not a Mujtahhid.
You cannot follow the Quran and sunnah on
your own. This is a foundational
principle, and this is an outcome of the
contemporary age.
The contemporary age believes in the death of
expertise,
whether it's taking from a a medical doctor.
You know, I don't trust these medical doctors,
man. I'm gonna I'm gonna, you know, cook
some some water I made from my will
do and and cure my illness, or whether
it's in art. You know, I don't trust
artists. I'm gonna teach myself. This is an
age now. As I said earlier,
a symptom of this age outside of greed
and opulence and a hatred for God, one
of the symptoms of this age because of
the narcissism
that exist in this age is a hatred
for expertise.
So when we talk about the more extremes
form of Salafism,
absolutely, it is opposed to Sunnism
because Sunnism was always about respecting the Imams.
And not not saying that sacred, and this
is kind of the extreme of some of
the neotraditionalists,
right, that turn some of the Sufi teachers
into, like,
you know, unimaginable
superheroes.
In the middle, you find that Sunni Islam.
And I can speak on on behalf of
Shia,
brothers and sisters. But in Sunni Islam, we
have a respect for taqleed, of people who
know.
We have a respect for of taqleed, of
people who have more knowledge than us. This
is an agreed upon opinion.
So the idea that someone with zero training,
zero expertise,
0 knowledge of the Arabic language,
can take the Quran and take the hadith
and make is
a symptom
of a post colonial society
that has no respect for expertise.
And this is this is a great example.
I'm glad the brother asked this question of
when I say we are now adopting a
thinking and a nomenclature,
which is not in line with a religious
nomenclature.
And and that's why oftentimes
you find, and I say this respectfully,
extreme Sufis
and extreme Salafis, but largely extreme Salafis who
have actually murdered Muslims,
right,
are not able to understand the Sunni Muslim
community because their nomenclature is not Sunni.
It's Salafi. It's Najidi.
And that's why the ulama warned us
very early on, the majority of scholars,
of this kind of defragmenting
idea,
and and and this is not to attack
now moderate Sadafis, of course. I'm talking about
the extremes
who go into communities
and wreak havoc
on the
and and and tell people that their prayers
are wrong. And destabilization
is the outcome.
It is an extension
of this deconstructionalism
that we find in European post Hellenistic
barbarians
that can't respect anything that claims to be
the truth
because at the end of the day, as
we see now how these people in the
capital are being dealt with, it's rooted in
Eurocentrism
and white supremacy.
And and and and and this, we have
to have an academic conversation. It is not
about
and emotions. It is about what is the
nomenclature
that you use, and we'll talk about that
as we go through, subhanallah, this text. But
it's important for Sunnis to know that we
have been indoctrinated.
There is a lot of money being
fund and put into the community,
right, to divide us and to realign
what
traditional
we can say mainstream Sunism is so that
now and this is something to think about.
Sunnis
hate Sunnis more than anyone else.
You will you will find
a Sunni
passionately
ready to wreck another Sunni as we shouldn't
be passionate about wrecking any any Muslim.
But the question is, how did that happen?
Where did that come from? What books do
you read? Why is it when you put
the name of a fatwa online,
if you look at the fatwa websites that
pop up, they're all being sponsored
by people with a Salafi agenda? Like, that
that is a
that we should critically
and where are the independent fatwa are free
of any government,
influence, like, Amjay is doing a great job
with the American Fit Council is doing a
great job. And and this is not, again,
to attack anyone.
But if you're going to be Salafi, then
say I follow a a a school and
ideology
outside of the regular fragmentation
and and, the regular, excuse me, construction and
scaffolding
of Sunni Islam. It's just be honest.
And if someone is
not about that and understanding of that,
then that's okay. We don't need to fight
and argue, but we need to be aware
of these things. We need to be aware
of these things. And we see now in
the comments always,
there's a few atheists. It's interesting that atheists
always claim they don't need religion. But for
example, the person in the comments box is
making a fool out of himself,
is showing
by his atheism
that he is absolutely
morally bankrupt
and has no value how to talk with
people. Like, who just comes to someone
and immediately,
you know, starts cussing them out and doesn't
know them? I think someone needs to tell
this this person. You did it with some
grown men.
Right? We feed I got kids to feed,
bro,
and I guarantee you
that these people are hurting on the inside.
So we have a job to do as
a community, man, and we need to work
together
and and be honest about issues. We can
be honest about where we come from, that
this is not something from normative, mainstream, Sunni
thought. That doesn't mean you're a bad person.
If you want if you're so hurt about
it, then become Sunni.
Right? Follow one of the 4 madhebs
without, you know, fanaticism.
Follow one of the 3 aqidas, and stop
working to destroy the masjids and the imams
and the community. It's
Khalas. It's not easy, man.
Anyways, so that question
actually
really resonates with what I said that we
have been exposed to a nomenclature, and this
is one of the concerns that that we
have to to to think about
is that if we look at North American
Muslims,
there's very little concern for learning now, but
there is a massive focus on politics.
So we have to ask ourselves, have we
allowed ourselves to be swayed by the currents
around us, or are we
impacting people?
The language of politics isn't wrong, but just
like any other nomenclature, it cannot supplement or
replace, excuse me,
the language of d.
Nah, man. That's not a wig, man. That's
COVID hair. Oh my gosh. Someone asked me.
COVID hair, bro. You know about COVID, man?
Can't nobody get a haircut.
Can't nobody it used to be a song
back in the days. I need a haircut.
My man asked me if I have a
week. Come on, man. Oh, you gotta hate
like that, bro.
That's awesome. I love it, though. I love
it. This is fruits of Jannah. This is
not a fruit of the loom shirt. You
guys are so critical tonight.
Goodness gracious.
You know, I coulda I coulda, you know,
play Fortnite with my son or something, but
y'all so critical.
No. It's all good. We got love like
that, my. Nothing but love.
But that's what we need to learn. And
if we look at sometimes the social media,
are we are we reflecting
through our aesthetic
the influence
of people who may be amplifying the temporary
world,
acting in ways that are somehow kind of
foreign to who we are as a community.
So learning is extremely
important.
And and and
learning
really is the ability to understand words.
And when we understand words,
we're
able to think usually correct well, to work
together, but I think it's important I'm putting
a class together in the future
on the the the signs of this age.
One of the signs of this age is
the death of expertise.
So a free for all Islam, I don't
need scholars. All the scholars are are scholars
for dollars. All the scholars are sellouts. All
the scholars are. I said, by the way.
All the scholars are this and this and
this and this and this. Trump is a
symptom of this society.
I don't need scholars, scholar
so I am now falling into a broader
symptom of the west,
right, which is the death of expertise.
Right?
So
that's why we gather every Friday night.
Much love to everybody. You know what I
mean? I'm not a hater. Everybody's welcome. Insha'Allah.
We just got dropped some f bombs by
an atheist who said we don't need religion.
I don't I don't need religion. F you
f you f you f you. I hate
life. Oh, you suck. Religion is horrible. What
I need
I wonder what that person needs religion for.
Maybe
basic
common
courtesy.
Basic
common courtesy.
Right?
So,
yeah, you're right, Omam. I'm, you know, stick
and jab, baby. Stick and jab. 1, 2,
then hit them with a 4, man.
Anyways, we're reading from a monumental book,
a monumental book,
and this book is written by the teacher
of my teacher's teacher.
He was really a great person. May Allah
bless him. He spoke multiple language.
He was a person of
of great character. He loved the ummah,
and he worked really to teach the to
the point that, he
he died in Pakistan. Like, imagine he was
an Egyptian ez hari, but he went to
Pakistan, of course, in 1955, so this is
close to 1947.
Right?
Goes to Pakistan, Zanzibar,
Pakistan. I got love for Pakistan all day
long.
I converted. I accepted Islam in a Deis
y community. Alhamdulillah.
But imagine, like, Sheikh Abdul Douraz went to
Pakistan, and he actually died,
in in Pakistan. Subhan'Allah.
Subhan'Allah.
Yeah. It's that book right there. So tonight
we're gonna talk about the meaning of the
word deen, and and then we're gonna get
back to reading some of the beautiful Hadith
of our beloved messenger, Muhammad
You know, our ancestors,
our spiritual
ancestors
loved to read hadith.
I remember I had a teacher
When we would read hadith very old, and
we would say,
You
know, from Abdullah ibn Omar, he would cry.
Subhanallah, he would cry. You know?
And we
ask him,
like, why are you crying? And he said,
I love
Abdullah ibn Like,
It's, like, really
a very simple thing, but, like, a beautiful
thing. Right?
So tonight, we're going to talk about the
word deen. That's a great question, Samuel. Deen
means religion.
Right? And within within classical
Islam,
Daniel,
we we happy to I mean, Samuel, we're
happy to have you here, man. Welcome, bro.
And I see someone in the comments saying,
I don't feel like I belong here. I'm
not righteous. Listen.
If my sins had a smell, nobody could
stand next to me. Ain't ain't nobody here
better than nobody else.
Right? Alhamdulillah, we're here.
We love you. We welcome you.
You
We're going to be here as long as
you don't drop f bombs like that one
atheist who says he doesn't need religion to
just prove his character.
So what is deen?
Right? We're all Muslims.
The word is something very important to us,
often translated as religion.
Right? And the sheikh, he says
The sheikh, he says, what is the
Sheikh Abdul Aduraz? And what I love about,
Sheikh Abdul Aduraz Mohammed Abdul Aduraz is he
teaches by asking questions. Right? Which is, like,
really dope. Right? He's not just, like, this
is what Islam is. Be quiet.
He's not like the atheist who cussed this
out without even introducing his or herself. I
mean, at least you could have said, hi.
My name is mister atheist, then cussed this
out, but you just went in. You just
went in.
Right? It was like a it was like
a scene from a 8 mile. You just
grabbed the mic, and you just started tearing
everybody to pieces.
But the sheikh, he says, it's all good
if you're not Muslim, bro. You're welcome, man.
There's there's no there's no sign here that
says only Muslims are allowed. My brother watches.
My brother's not Muslim. So what's up, brother?
If you're watching, I'll call you later, man,
to collect that debt, you owe me. But
I'm just joking. But the sheikh, he says,
what is deen? And for us as Muslims
now, we should think about this. Like, what
is deen? The deen, Allah refers to it
in the Quran as a Amana. Right?
Right? That
the trust was given to us, and the
trust
is is religion,
is deen.
And then the sheikh,
he asked a very good question. He said,
you know, because if you think about different
religions
and and and different
and different,
philosophies.
Some say that religion is only something intellectual.
Some say that religion is related to dogma
and belief, and others say that religion is
only actions.
And here's where we wanna pay attention.
Sheikh, he says that
and he didn't say
because
the word
did not get added to that term until
almost 200 years later.
Right? The word
the word
as I heard from Sheikh Dido, came almost
200 years later. The the the the traditional
term is
He says,
which that's why the sheikh, he says
and
he
He says, you know, these are the the
Sahaba and the majority of Muslim theologians
through history.
He says,
He says something really nice. Someone ask and
see the book. I'm happy, and I'll post
the book later too.
He says that deen, according to the majority
of theologians and scholars,
and and,
religious teachers,
is three things.
The first is
the mind.
Right? What you
affirm in your mind
and your heart
together.
2nd
is what you say,
and the third is actions. So now we
can see something beautiful about Islam, man.
One of the reasons that I became Muslim
is I remember and there's Muslims who do
this too, so by no means am I
trying to say
Muslims are, you know, all great, but this
was a reason for this is my story.
Right? And that is that when I was
non Muslim, we would go to the club
on Saturday
and try to do as much ratchetness
as we could
because we said,
will be forgiven on Sunday. So let me
clock as many sins as I can,
look how jahil I was, so that I'll
be forgiven, immense forgiveness,
on Sunday.
Like, subhanAllah,
may Allah forgive me. I was very young,
but, you know, man.
One of the things that when I discovered
Islam that really touched me was this very,
very comprehensive
idea of having a meaningful relationship with God.
Because
as scholars say that in reality, the human
soul
desires a relationship with God more than the
stomach desires food.
SubhanAllah
SubhanAllah.
So
when I learned that in Islam religion means
what you believe,
what you understand and believe,
what you say and how you live, I
was blown away.
I was blown away. I said, man, this
this is what I'm looking for. And we
find this beautifully,
beautifully illustrated in the Quran.
Allah says,
Allah
says,
Allah says,
say that my prayer and my my sacrifice,
like
and my and he doesn't say if you
understand Arabic,
If understand Arabic is something so nice here,
And the translation is not easy to render.
It says that say my prayer, my sacrifice,
and let me explain it to you this
way. If it said, it would mean, like,
part of my life. Like like, part of
my life. But,
excuse me. Because it has a meme
in front of it, it says,
This is called.
And I don't wanna make it too complicated
for you, but this is amazing, actually. This
is so cool.
And that meme,
meme usually in Arabic brings with it a
sense of plural. So, like,
you,
they,
and you, plural.
Allahumma.
We say Allahumma the meem at the end
of Allahumma means you're calling on Allah by
all his name and attributes,
subhanAllah, his illest qualities.
So Mahya
doesn't mean just part of my life. It
means
my entire life.
Every
moment of my life
is for Allah.
SubhanAllah.
Like, everything.
That's why the prophet said actions are by
the intention. I mean, acts actions will be
rewarded by the intention.
So we know as Imam Al Haramain mentions
in the Burhan, a great text, like, if
you sleep with the niyyah, if you sleep
with the intention,
you get the blessing. If you eat with
an intention, you get blessing. If you walk
or train, lift weights, do kettlebells, whatever, do
it. Go to the spa to help yourself
revive so you can be a better person,
inshallah,
with the right intention,
that's for Allah. That's Mahayak.
That's Mahayak,
not
The word means, like,
a
small part of
your life, but
the whole thing.
SubhanAllah.
Also, you see this beautifully illustrated
in Surah Ibrahim.
Surat Ibrahim
Allah
says,
Have you not paid attention
to how Allah
sets 4?
An analogy.
Allah no. You don't have to learn Arabic.
I'm from Oklahoma, man. I can barely speak
English.
So don't don't don't my Arabic is not
that good, man. But to be honest with
you, I had a good teacher who is
from
Sunira and also from Esar. You know, El
Azar, they don't play around, but I barely
speak English, man.
Because Samuel the Deen was forgotten. That's mentioned
in the Quran. Over time, we know the
Arabs that's a great question. Samuel is saying,
then why did the prophet bring Din if
Din existed before him with other prophets? Because
we know the Arabs,
especially when Banu Huza came into Mecca and
pushed out the offspring of Ishmael,
Amr ibn Luhi. I say Luhi.
Amr ibn Luhi
brought
idolatry into the Arabian Peninsula, and they forgot.
Like now,
have we forgot justice when it comes to
punishing those white people who invaded the capital?
Right? Have we forgot justice because,
you know, people of a paler skin?
If you ask people, are you justice? Say
yes. But do they act on justice? No.
So they need to be reminded.
When all those hedge fund people lost all
that money,
right, over at GameStop.
GameStop. GameStop. Right?
What's one of the things people said that
this exposed when Robinhood took Game
Stop off its search engine and no longer
allowed you and me, regular people, to buy
GameStop.
It exposed that people have forgot justice.
Like Spice 1 said this old rapper when
I was a kid, it ain't justice.
It's just us.
So people
forget. People need to be reminded. So prophet
Muhammad
is sent to be a reminder and sent
to be a reminder for all humanity. Samuel,
that's a great question.
It looks
like you're thinking.
Ibrahim,
and this is the verse that I want
people to study this week.
I would I think it's good if you
can memorize this verse, man.
Like, if you can memorize this verse, that
shows that you're really, like, g ing up
in the.
You're not just here for, like, you know,
whatever. Look. No. You're, like, really trying to
learn
because, you know,
it's relaxed and it's chill, but there's a
lesson happening. Right? The revival of Islam is
gonna come from you from y'all,
from y'all young folks.
Right? And in order for that revival, no
Islamic revival happened in history,
Whether it was Salahuddin,
whether it was the Sunusiyan
in Libya, whether it's Imam Shamil
in Chechnya,
whether it was Imam Kashmiri
in the subcontinent,
every single
revival of Islam
historically
started
with the halaqa of tafsir.
With the halaqa
of tafsir,
with a study
of the Quran.
And the dunya tries to get us to
waste
our youth
to get caught up in a lot of
other stuff. No doubt those things are important,
but I have to be
determined
to learn. And don't let Shaytan come to
you
and tell
that,
you know,
you
our atheist friend is back,
Still dropping f bombs.
And shaitan will come to you
and say to you, you're bad.
You're a sinner. You're evil. You know, the
night before I became Muslim
the night before I became Muslim, I was
smoking weed. I was
blazed up
at a fraternity party. I was pledging alpha
phi alpha. Don't tell the alphas because they
wouldn't have liked it, but I was with
some Kappas and some omegas. I'm saying, if
you know what that means,
And I remember the next day,
I met the sheikh
that I had been talking to for 2
or 3 years.
And I remember feeling like, yo, man. Last
night, I was
getting blazed.
You know?
I felt really bad.
And then the sheikh, he said to me,
do you wanna go to the mosque?
Look look how look how lost I was.
Look how lost I was.
At first, I was shy. I said, nah,
man. I can't go to the mosque because
last night, I know what I was doing.
I'm a bad person.
But then, subhanAllah,
I realized
that
that,
there was another party in the same city
as the mosque in Norman, Oklahoma.
So I was like, yeah. I'll go to
the mosque and stuff for Allah's name.
I'll go to the mosque,
get the halakkah,
and then go to the party.
And then, again, I felt shy.
Like, man, I shouldn't go, man.
Like, what did I do last night?
Like, how could I be with this guy
and this white beautiful, full he has so
much nur. You know, like, he has so
much nur in his face. He's such a
beautiful human being, Sheikh Abdulrahman.
Such a beautiful person. He can you hit
the Shabab? You know? Like,
he he knows how how he's the one
who taught us how to how to deal
with people, to be honest with you.
So he was like,
you should just come.
So I went, man.
And then I went, and they had this,
like, halakah. He was talking about Tawhid and
Shahada.
At that time, I thought I was Muslim.
I didn't know I didn't know that you
you say La ilaha illallah or anything. I
just thought I was Muslim.
And then
after, they prayed Isha.
And, subhanallah, it was it was amazing. Like,
they prayed Isha,
and I was watching them pray
because I didn't know how to pray, so
I was, like, embarrassed. You know? Like, sometimes
when people
people don't do things, it's not because they're
bad. It's because they're embarrassed, man. So you
have to, like, facilitate an entry point for
them. You know what I'm trying to say?
Like, it wasn't that I didn't wanna pray,
but I didn't wanna make a fool out
of myself.
So there's pride.
So after,
we were all sitting together
at the back of the masjid.
And this one,
this one,
uncle,
he was like,
why didn't he pray?
Like, why didn't why didn't he pray?
And
then, subhanAllah,
The guy said to me the guy said
to him, he didn't pray because he's Muslim.
Right? He didn't pray because he's Muslim.
And I was like, no. No.
I'm Muslim.
And the whole circle was like, what?
What? What? Like,
you know, they were, like, really
shocked. You know? Like, what?
And then I say, yeah. Yeah.
I'm Muslim.
And then the sheikh, he said,
did you take Shahada?
I said, no.
He said, no, brother. You gotta you gotta
take Shahada.
That night, I became Muslim,
and that night, I didn't go to that
party.
The moral of the story is if Allah
puts you in a situation,
have confidence in Allah more than you have
insecurities with yourself.
If Allah
has put you somewhere and brought you somewhere,
trust that.
So, like, my my man was saying, like,
I'm not a good Muslim. I shouldn't be
here. Oh, no. You should be here.
Oh, no. You're aware you have you you
are aware it was decreed you would be
before you were created.
You are aware you should be before creation.
You are now in this halakah
because you are the translation of.
You are that representation.
So we're gonna finish. I don't wanna take
too much of your time because I got
a little bit off track because of our
our cordial guest.
We are such a cordial guest.
He's super friendly.
Nothing like people telling us they don't need
religion and they start cussing us out, and
they're so intolerant.
What happened to the tolerance of the god
delusion?
What happened to the tolerance of Richard Dawkins?
What happened to the tolerance of atheism,
being a cool, smooth atheist
who is a gentrifier
and drinks turmeric lattes and, you know, doesn't
and wears, like, 0 waste hemp, but then
contributes to, like, the prison industrial complex. But
life's great for you because you're an atheist.
Right.
So
if you go to Sultan Ibrahim, brothers and
sisters, we're gonna finish now, you see the
explanation of Mahiyyah,
the foundation of Sunni creed, is that and
I believe also the Jafarites believe this as
well, that
the of Ahlobayt,
that
creed is conviction
of the mind and the heart, what we
say and what we do. We're gonna build
on this more in 2 weeks. But if
you go to Surah Ibrahim,
and don't forget the hemp underwear
that Surah Ibrahim
says very beautifully that Allah sets forth a
wonderful analogy that says, this analogy is like
a good word, which is like a good
tree. The good word is.
The good tree is our heart. It's analogy
for our heart, the roots.
The roots of the tree are the heart
and the mind.
Right? Well
are
the the words, indeed, we do. Look how
the Quran
compares our faith
to a tree.
We can now take a step back,
and we can ask ourselves,
what kind of fruit are we producing?
Right? It's a very beautiful way to make
an analogy of where my faith is.
Is my fruit ripe? Am I rushing it?
Is it bitter?
Is it, you know, is it healthy?
Is it helping others? Like, the the role
of the Muslim is to give fruit,
like, to to bring,
you know, fruit to the world.
Allahu Akbar.
Like, that's amazing, man. When the prophet
said, one of the last hadith came out
of.
The best
person is the one who helps
people. And, also, this talks about ministry.
You know,
people will come and say, man, you changed.
This person changed. Of course, they changed
because,
and that's why I talk about fruit. Y'all
see that? See the fruit and the fruit?
Mhmm. Pay attention.
Something going on here.
I brought visual aids.
But but no. This is good. But
it also allows us to understand and care
for each other.
So
when we see people
that are their fruit,
they may tell us, like, their fruit isn't
ripe.
How do we serve them?
How do we garden?
Our relationship with each other as believers
is to garden our fruit.
SubhanAllah.
Now you can appreciate that what the Quran
is getting at is much more deeper. You
don't smash fruit.
You don't waste fruit.
We don't throw fruit outside.
Right? We make sure that we help people
as they try to cut the weeds, make
sure the soil is in the right place,
make sure that the seasons
impact every single one of us.
When my mother died,
it's the most difficult thing in my life
I saw my mother die in front of
me.
I pray that none of you
ever have to experience that.
I swear, Masha'Allah,
less than 10 minutes
after my blessed mother died,
I got a phone call from one of
the brothers that I've been knowing for years.
Assalamu Alaikum Wa Alaikum Salam. How you doing?
That's looking after fruit.
That's caring for people.
If we see people struggling,
we don't blame them for the rotten fruit.
We try to help them because the fruit
is there.
And that is one of the the again,
as I talked about earlier as we stop
now. I don't wanna take too much of
your time. Forgive me. I went too long
today.
Is
when did we become like others
who don't appreciate that people can be better?
Right? That people can change, that people can
make tovah,
that people can improve,
that seasons
impact the hearts,
Seasons
impact the soul.
That's why the prophet said, salallahu alaihi wasalam,
and tajjah al Quran
arabi as said qalbi.
Oh, Allah, make the Quran the springtime of
my heart because the spring is when the
fruit comes.
The spring is when we're healed.
The spring is when life comes back to
the earth after the winter. The spring is
what brings us a sense of value after
being out in the cold.
We don't have to be like the people
around us.
We have something amazing that is meant to
heal
a fractured world
and guide and call people to justice who
have swerved from the truth.
That's our job.
But we have to free ourself, as I
said earlier, of the nomenclature that's out there,
and that's why, actually, I haven't told you
this, but as we continue,
the subject of this book is Usur Al
Din. And Usur Al Din are 3 things
that we're gonna talk about next week, insha'a
or 2 weeks from now, insha'Allah, because we
meet biweekly. If you have any questions,
we can take those questions. Let's quickly review
kinda what we talked
about. We were talking about how
the the the the faith of Islam,
we have to be very careful that we're
not overly influenced by the contemporary world around
us because it's dominating.
Right? It dominates the culture. It dominates fashion.
It dominates
trends, beauty.
It it it dominates everything.
Right? It it's so powerful,
and it's impossible for us to escape it.
Right? That's impossible. We're all going to be
impacted by it. But how can we center
ourselves so that we don't fall into the
same kind of negative
symptoms of this current age? For example, the
death of expertise. There's no rest respect for
expertise anymore.
Like, there's no respect for it. How do
you find it in the community?
Right? When people don't respect, you know, we
don't we don't idolize, but we respect.
Right? And then and then and then another
thing we talked about is this age is
not about investing in healing people, but we're
fruit.
When you look at a Muslim,
you're looking at fruit.
Masha'Allah.
And when you think about your own growth,
what are you exposing your fruit to?
What kind of soil have you planted the
seed of your iman in?
What do you expose that iman to? What
are the elements
that the iman is exposed to is going
to impact
how I believe and how I think.
So may
Allah bless all of you.
May Allah
increase you in
I I
and I hope
the best for even those of you who
I don't know. I certainly appreciate your presence.
If you have any questions, we can spend
a few minutes
asking those questions. If not,
We'll see you 2 weeks from now.
Try to take notes. Whoever sends me the
best notes, I'm gonna give them a scholarship
to my school. Whoever sends me the best
notes they took, you can just send me
pictures on your phone. I'll give you a
scholarship to my school
for your life, for your entire life.
Right? So
we wanna encourage people to learn. People always
saying young people don't wanna look how many
people here, man, on all these different social
media avenues. Masha'Allah, man. Young people wanna learn.
You just gotta wanna teach,
and you gotta wanna learn. I tell people,
if you wanna teach young people, you gotta
wanna learn from young people.
That's how it
works. You can't just go in like the
atheist and cuss people out.
The atheist was mad, man. Atheist is the
atheist
just jumped into the halakon and was like,
f all y'all.
I thought he meant forgive all y'all. No.
No. Look carefully. I said, oh, oh, okay.
This halaqa starts at 10:30
PM
EST.
Everyone, if you need photographs, hit up, I
mean, a photo. You can tell. She's a
photographer.
I bet she needs some help during COVID
because COVID 19 is no joke, but people
still need nice pictures.
So I'm in a photo right there. You
can see I'm not getting any money from
her. No free pics. Nothing like that. I'm
just trying to help someone out.
Did Allah ever say what he will? Allah
mentions his will all the time. Samuel, if
you reach out to me, I'll send you
a copy of the Quran.
You can read it. You're gonna find it
there. What is the situation about investing in
cryptocurrency?
There's a great article online written by some
Muftis from South Africa. So if you, like,
type Google
cryptocurrency
South Africa,
man, that's the best thing I've read on
this subject. Like, it's really, really thorough and
breaks down,
the whole thing about cryptocurrency. That's a lot
of hearts,
What is the verse that I want y'all
to memorize? Oh, you're gonna put me on
the spot?
You're gonna put me on the spot? Okay.
You know, my memory is not that good,
so let me see here. Dang. Put me
on blast
put me on blast on the on the
on the IG live, Facebook live,
on
whatever live. So it's Sultan Ibrahim.
I think it's verse 12,
but if I'm wrong, don't tell my teacher
because he's gonna get at me later. Or
verse 21, I think. Verse 21. I always
get it backwards. If I said verse 12,
it's verse 21.
Yeah. No. Oh my gosh.
Yeah. I'm I'm really wrong. Stuff for loving.
Whoo.
I'm really wrong. Oh my goodness gracious.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting there. I'm getting
there. I'm getting there. I'm getting there. I'm
getting there.
Oh, okay. I skipped it. My bad.
Yeah.
I was close. It's verse 25.
So if you go to the 14th chapter
verse 25,
mashallah,
verse 26.
Yeah.
Actually, verse 24, verse 25.
Verse 24 and verse 25.
Yeah.
Yeah. Memorize that, man. Memorize that and send
send it to me send it to me.
It's a very important verse. It's so beautiful
too.
So it's Ibrahim verse 25.
One of the sheikhs out there that is
okay. Nah, man. I'm not a sheikh man.
I quit a long time ago. This is
very normal.
I couldn't handle the pressure, man. I couldn't
handle that pressure, bro.
Yeah. You know what? Omar Azadi is right.
Joe Bradford is is, like, he's good at
that. Yeah. That's good. That's a good point.
Yeah.
10:30 EST
New York time.
What is halal quoting? Halal quoting is
you find someone you like,
You think that there may be some potential.
You get some people involved who are responsible.
Right? Someone acts as an intermediary.
You meet a few times in a proper
setting.
You talk about things, and then you see
is there potential or not. Not for marriage.
That's the mistake.
Not potential for marriage. Is there potential for
the potential of marriage? Is there potential for
potential for potential of marriage?
And then you see.
And then you talk for, you know, quite
a while, and some of that should also
be facilitated. And then I encourage you, if
you can, to go to a marriage, premarital
premarital counselor,
not a sheikh.
That's that's for different issues. The sheikh is
the religious stuff. We go to the shuk
for religious stuff, but I mean, like, a
Muslim premarital counselor.
And you do all the stuff that they
tell you to do, and you keep inshallah,
if you have a good relationship with your
parents or your care provider, you keep those
people involved. And then you make a
at least 25,000
times
because that's what people do. Right? Make
at least 25,000
times said as a
joke, and then
you make the decision,
and you leave it to
What is my opinion on Mohammed ibn Abdulwahed?
Mohammed Abdul Wahab, it's enough for you to
go and see what the ulama of his
time said about him,
what his own brother wrote about him. So
academically,
they're very critical of him because he opposed
things and did things that went against mainstream
Suni thought.
Right? So you can you you instead of
asking me a loaded question, it's gonna create
a lot of differences in fighting and all
this stuff. I don't have, you know, any
beef with people, But just go read what
the ulema around him wrote about him from
Egypt and Africa and Pakistan now or Zindia
then and Bangladesh and Indonesia and Malaysia and
his own family.
You can read, and then you'll be able
to come to a conclusion,
what they said. But we need to move
beyond all this, man. All this all that,
man. Muhammad Abdul Wahab ain't gonna come help
us right now.
The Sheikh Abdul Khare Jalani and the Sufis,
they're not gonna come help us right now.
We gotta help ourselves.
And if you and I choose to hate
each other, that's on me and you. Respect
to all all the people who passed. May
Allah forgive them, bless them, and get them
give them gender for what they deserve. But
you and I,
those people that have passed away, they are
not gonna come right now and help you
and me make sure that people have food
on their table, that the prison industrial complex
is shut down, that Palestine is no longer
occupied, that we're passionately educating Muslim young people,
that we're helping Muslims that are going through
challenges, that's all me and you. But if
you and me are so busy arguing about
who people were that we're not able to
calibrate that to help anybody, we wasted our
life.
So let's ask ourselves, where did these wars,
these inter Sunni wars, where have they gotten
us?
Where have they gotten us?
Where where has any of that stuff
gotten us?
Right? Where has it gotten us?
Nobody wants to talk about it, so we
just keep fighting and fighting and fighting and
fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting.
And look at the ummah.
Religious people fight better than anyone else.
So now,
you know, that's your business, man. I don't
have to agree with you, but I still
gotta love you.
Exactly.
Exactly. Look at the Muslim world. And then
so maybe we should start thinking.
Is there someone that is trying to make
or encourage us to fight and hate each
other? Are there agents amongst us that are
working to destabilize us more and more so
that we cannot even
serve our own community.
You have a person in the chat box
now asking about abortion.
Contact me, and and we'll walk through that.
I'll walk with you through whatever you're trying
to go through. That's what I'm here for.
But if I'm busy arguing with you all
night long in the in in whatever you
contacted me, you said this, this, that we
just go back and forth, back and forth,
back and arguing, arguing, arguing, arguing till Fudger,
causing me to miss my 90 day fiance,
which came on tonight, which is my wife
and I's favorite show.
I'm sorry. We all have our own little
ratchet. Okay? I still got my ratchet Oklahoma.
If you cause me to miss 90 Day
Fiance because you and I are arguing about
these historical figures,
but more importantly, as I'm arguing with you
about some historical figure who died centuries ago,
I can't help the system that needs help
with an abortion issue.
That is
who we are.
We are not able to help people.
So I'm not getting involved in that. Go
read for yourself, man. Go go use Google,
man.
Any other questions besides those loaded questions of
people trying to get everybody in trouble? Yeah,
man. 90 Day Fiance. Y'all see that Muslim
sister from Morocco?
Man,
why make it easy for her?
That that that white boy that white
almost said something that can cause me to
lose my job stuff a lot. But, anyways,
as a fellow white boy,
I should be able to tell her that
white boy is up to
no
good.
She needs to, you know,
We should help her find a better husband.
You know what I'm saying?
So
that's a very important question. Why do parents
justify abuse? Because they're wrong,
and you need to contact me, and let's
walk you through this. Nobody should be justifying
physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse.
No.
There's there's no there that's not allowed.
Right? I I'm I'm the father of 3
kids.
They are a trust
given to me by God,
and they are born into my rights as
a father.
But if I god help me. If I
were to harm them, abuse them, I lose
that I lose that, NAPA.
I I lose that.
I've lost it. And we tell these young
people, you have to forgive
family members who abused you. No. You don't.
You do not. That's between them and Allah.
That's between them and Allah
Yeah. You can you can reach out to
me at suhayweb.com.
You can email me for there.
Are there any fatwa websites that are out
there that are back not backed by the
southern by by the Saudi regime?
Oh, sorry. The or the CIA?
AMJA is 1, and AMJA, of course, has
some moderate
scholars, but they they're scholars. Right? They're they're
balanced, responsible people.
I don't know, man. You know? I mean,
then you have, like, Dara Iftar in Egypt.
It's it's a great place for Fonto, but
the Egyptian government is really
got its clamps on some of these situations.
So I encourage people to read Fatwa with
one eye open. Right? Read
I say something.
I'm not perfect.
You should be critical and constructive.
American North American fit council is good. Is
good here in America.
I don't know.
You have,
Sheikh Hasid Noor is good.
You know, you have Faraz Roubani and Seekers
Seekers Guidance, I think. They're good.
Muslim Matters, good. Right? You got you got
you got people out there that are doing
great work, man.
But I'm not I'm not up to date
necessarily on everything.
Investing as a Muslim, again, I think people
recommended those people you can reach out to
on that. My my specialty is not investment.
I'm too poor, man. I can't invest, man.
I'm not the guy that can invest, man.
That's not Yakin is great. Yeah. Yakin is
good. And look at the efforts to destabilize
Yakin.
Right? That that should cause people to raise
their eyebrows. Like, why is it that every
time we have a Muslim leader, like, say,
Omar Suleiman, who does a wonderful job, who
begins and is not is not perfect, is
gonna make mistakes. And if comes out and
says, let's not make mistakes, then forgive the
person. Don't don't break the fruit.
Don't smash the fruit.
We wanna smash everybody.
We wanna smash them.
Okay. I was, you know, in Boston when
the Boston bombing happened. I could tell you
it's extremely hard.
It's extremely difficult to be under that pressure.
It's hard, man, and we're human beings. You're
human beings. We make mistakes, man.
But look at the efforts to I'm not
talking about if there's academic criticisms. That's different.
But why suddenly the effort to destroy Yaqeen
and Omar Suleiman?
Because Omar got to the point where Omar
is flawlessly making dawah to the Muslims
and impact in broader America, in in the
broader west.
People don't want that.
People don't want that.
They don't want Islam. They don't want another
Malcolm. They don't want someone that's gonna have
that kind of impact, and I'm not comparing
Omar Suleiman to Malcolm, of course. But I'm
saying because Malcolm is.
What I'm saying is
they don't want that that front piece
that is opening up the door so people
see all that light inside and wanna come
in.
So you shut all that down.
You attack people.
I remember when during the Boston bombing
happened in Boston, the attack that I received
by Muslims
was horrible, and most of the things that
were attributed to me, I never said never
I said, who are these people? I never
said this. Right? But then when I went
on CNN,
and I went on Face the Nation,
Fox News ran a special on me, 2
day special where they brought some convert
from
back in the days
who was saying, like, when I converted to,
hey. Webb told me to, like, learn how
to use a weapon and shoot people.
Like, what?
So so we gotta be careful in closing
ranks. There is legitimate academic criticism
of anybody. That's healthy. That's a healthy thing.
Nobody's above criticism.
But we don't need to destroy
each other, man.
That's wild, man. That's wild. That's wild.
Any other questions
before we go? We our hour is up,
and, you know,
it's late. Some of us are old. You
know what I mean? Some of us,
you know, back starting to hurt, need to
take some leave.
1 25th
Uptown.
I see the Uptown flavor.
The act of * has plagued the ummah.
What is your opinion? I mean, you stick
with the majority of the. Right? You wanna
stick with the majority of scholars. There's a
minority. Of course, The Hanbalist have a very
interesting opinion on that,
but the majority say we should try to
avoid it as best we can unless, of
course, you know, a person feels that they
are are really about to fall into, you
know, some difficult situations, then, of course, you
know, there's Ruksa.
But we also don't need to frame *
like it's Zina.
*
is not Zina.
Is,
and that's irresponsible
to tell people *
is. It's not. Go to any book of.
I got one here somewhere. Where's my book?
Oh,
anyways, I have my book of here. But,
like,
go to any book of. There's no there's
no punishment
for *.
But it's considered
highly disliked.
You know?
And sometimes, man, people you're in a highly
sexualized society, man. People are struggling, man. People
go through very significant
challenges. People get hit on at work. People
getting people trying to approach them the ways
that they they could never imagine.
So they're surrounded in a highly sexualized
environment. In that situation where some of the
Hambly say if someone feels like they're gonna
slip, the Hambly's allow it. Right? The majority
don't. I think the Hambly opinion is is
a responsible opinion. People are struggling, man. And,
again, we gotta think about the fruit, but
*
is not
zena.
It's not zena.
Any other questions?
No more atheist here cussing us out.
Someone told me consuming non halal chicken can
cause Allah to not accept my prayer for
food. So first of all, nothing can cause
Allah to do anything. Allah is beyond causes.
A simple way to think about this is,
did Allah exist before causes?
Like, just think about it. This is really
dope. Did Allah
exist before?
There you go.
So
nothing can cause a lot to do anything.
But we should avoid
we should
avoid
we should avoid
the things for which there are doubtful issues
on them. Chick Fil A, you know, first
of all, it's not healthy, man.
It's not healthy. It's not good for you.
You should avoid it. Right? You can eat
some kale and some you know, get some
grilled chicken tikka from the local masjid or
from, I mean, a local restaurant. Sometimes the
masjid is better than actually the restaurant on
its star for real.
But, you know, you can you can do
things like that, and you keep the money
in the community. Right? You keep the money
in the Muslim community. You keep the dollar
in the community. So there's for that.
But with Chick Fil A, that's not healthy,
man. Eat that stuff, man.
How are Quran chapters name? Majority of the
names of the Quran came from the prophet
and then others came from the Sahaba.
Good question. Beer batter, I don't know. I'm
not I'm not my relatives are from London.
No offense. You know what I'm saying?
I don't roll with England.
I ain't bought about that beer battered fish.
I'm bought that cabbage.
So you might wanna ask someone in England
about beer battered fish.
Any other questions?
Delivering pork with Uber Eats. If you have
no other job, Aki, if you can find
no other job right now, and it's COVID
19, you gotta take care of yourself and
your family.
Just do your job
and ask Allah to forgive you and have
the intention
that as soon as I can find a
job that's more halal, I will take it.
But
you wanna try to avoid,
you know, that when you can,
May Allah
bless you guys.
Keep
everyone else in your duas.
May
Allah raise you up
and bless you. We'll see you inshallah in
2 weeks.
Forgive me if anything I said wrong is
for me. Anything I said is good is
from Allah. And
keep a smile on your face.
Stay safe.
Stay
someone who's bringing fruit and care for the
fruit of others. We'll see you 2 weeks
from now at 10:30. Let people know.