Suhaib Webb – Satan’s Tricks, Closeness to Allah & Character Intro To The Qur’an’s First Chapter (Part Two)
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We send peace and blessings upon our beloved
prophet Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wasalam, upon his family, his companions,
and those who follow them to the end
of time. So first of all, assalamu alaykum
to everybody.
Nice to see everybody again. Actually, for the
next 2 weeks, I'll be out of town.
I'll be out of the country, and then
we'll start again, I think, the last
2 weeks or last week of June,
and we'll finish then the rest of the
chapters.
So last time we sort of brought this
introduction to Surat Fatiha,
and we touched on one of the important
lessons
of the of the chapter itself
is that it has this underlying meaning of
balancing our
utility and agency with
living a life for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And so today we're going to talk about
so
I did this lecture, like, 22 years ago
at UC Berkeley. It's actually, like, 23 lectures.
So I'm just gonna give you, like, the
of course, it's changed in 23 years, obviously,
but I'll just give you some of the,
like, the
cream of the crop, as they say, and
things that may be more applicable contextually to
where like we are now in human history.
But that is actually transcribed somewhere.
Some person transcribed it
back in the days.
I think if you search it online, you
can find it if you wanna, like, read
through some of it. That was a long
time ago. I was a little bit younger,
so maybe a little bit more reckless.
But, it was good. Alhamdulillah.
So what we want to talk about today
is shaitan.
Because we start our relationship with the Quran
by saying.
It's actually obligatory.
When you read the Quran to say, I
seek refuge in Allah from the cursed
devil.
That phrase
is called
istiaada. The word istiaada
means to seek protection.
Like where you run for shelter. Almost like
when I was young, I remember my first
one of my first memories is my father
carrying me in Oklahoma to a cellar
and, you know, telling me, like, there's a
tornado.
I had no idea what a tornado was.
But that that feeling, that intensity,
that sort of need to flee,
is what a'udu means.
What I wanna talk to you quickly are
first three
areas where shaitan or entry points or triggers,
maybe if you wanna think about it in
this language of today,
that shaytan uses to weaken a person.
Like, entry points
to
find us when we're vulnerable or to find
us when perhaps we are susceptible
to, like, doing something or acting in a
way which is inappropriate or even just having
sort of bad attitudes.
And then what I'll talk about are the
different,
behaviors
that are inferred by the opposite of the
meanings of Fatihah that Shaitan
specifically uses to attack us. So 3 are
like general sort of universals that he attacks
everyone with. And then within Surat of Fatihah,
when we invert the meanings of the verses,
we see these are the specific ways
which
the devil
attacks people.
Menazal al Sayedin talks about them also. And
there are 3.
The first
is desires.
The word is really interesting, you know, in
Arabic
is from the word which means to fall.
Because ancient I talked about this last time.
Arabs named by something by what it usually
does, what it leads to,
what it's known for. Because usually someone who
lives a life of irresponsibility
is going to fall.
Metaphorically. Right? They're gonna have some lapses in
their life. So we say,
by the star as it sets. The same
word,
the star,
from.
So the star as it like, you see
look up, looks like it's going down.
Right? So here,
someone who follows their desires
will eventually, like, fall low.
Right? Persons brought low by following their desires.
Allah says whoever controls themselves lives a life
of discipline,
keeps their nafs in check,
paradise will be there like they're abode.
So shaitan will come to us
and try to make evil look good,
to exploit,
you know, the worst is your is your
nuts. Right?
Because it's like, it will always find a
way
to do something.
But here Islamically.
Following the ness is not only
in a in a like a liberal ethos.
The other area that Shayatan attacks, which we
don't talk about enough, is being
overly religious and irresponsibly
conservative to the point that you find no
mercy in the deen anymore.
So there's 2 components to desires.
I can follow desires in, like, evil,
but also if I become, like, someone
who becomes, like, an
compulsive in unhealthy way about religion.
I had a friend, we became Muslim,
early on.
So I remember, like, he would always come
to Salah, and he he was, like, dripping,
not nice clothing, like water.
And I was like, man,
like,
what's wrong with you? He's like, oh, man.
I don't know if I have wudu, man.
I think I heard something. I think I
felt something. That's from shaitan.
Because after a while, then he told me
one time, he told me, man, I prayed
also, like, 13 times today. I was like,
bro, like, how do you have a job?
He's like, I I don't know if Allah
accepted my first one. You know, I I
don't know if it's acceptable. So this is
what I mean.
So shaitan will either come to a person
desires Islamically is more than just saying because
we have to be very careful about how
political nomenclature has replaced religious nomenclature. We think
about desires. We tend to think of, like,
liberal
political ideology
to the exclusion of
white neoconservatives.
But religiously, it's a it's it it it
it's it supersedes that. It's bigger than it.
It doesn't allow itself to get stuck in
the muck and mire of political nomenclature. Religious
nomenclature
actually should supersede political nomenclature. I am a
prophetic community that may do politics. I'm not
a political community that may do prophecy.
That's a challenge.
So when we talk about following desires,
it doesn't just mean like haram.
It could also mean going overboard
in religion like the Hawarij,
the early Muslim group who they actually exceeded
the Sahaba in their worship. They exceeded the
Sahaba in their,
if you will, commitment
to religion. But the prophet said about them,
they're
the worst people.
And They killed Said Nadi.
So when we're talking here about following desires,
we have to expand it.
And and how do we save ourself from
that? Well, I mean, it's easy, actually. If
you think about it, the first one's easy,
staying away from what's wrong. Like, we all
know what's wrong.
Most of the fatawa people ask me are
not about what's wrong. Most of the fatawa
that people ask me about negotiating what's right.
That's more complex.
If you're a lawyer, litigation,
things that are egregious crimes,
usually it's pretty clear cut.
But, you know, is this tree in my
neighbor's yard or my yard?
That's where it gets complex. But
the second part can be a challenge.
How do we manage
and administrate religion in a way that it
should achieve 2 things?
Number 1, it should be meaningful. So it
should it should
charisma is important. It it should touch me.
There's a beauty to religion that should, obviously,
that should, you know, bring enlightenment to my
heart and please me,
But then also, it should be sustainable.
So when I I became Muslim, I had
a great teacher. He said, whatever you do
now, you need to be able to do
it when you're a grandfather.
And I was like, what? I was like,
I'm ready to go hard. He's like, but
will you be able to live a life
of going
It's better that you live a sustainable religious
experience than one that's just like meaningful but
not sustainable,
as we'll talk about later on.
And the way to do that is to
follow the sunnah.
That's why the Prophet has sent, salallahu alaihi
wasalam, to balance to show us the balance
of Islam.
So no matter who you run into, shaykh,
religious group, tariqa,
whoever, and you feel like these people are
sort of crazy, but these are religious people.
No. No. The prophet is the measurement,
The practice of the prophet is the measurement.
And we have a beautiful hadith because sometimes
people feel guilty like, oh, at work, I
feel bad. But work is worship.
Oh, I'm in school. I feel bad. But
school is worship.
The smart Muslim is the one that doesn't
have to compartmentalize
moments of worship, but sees their whole life
as an opportunity for service, as we'll talk
about hopefully today.
So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, Al
Qarafi, the great judge, the madiki legal theorist,
he said the prophet has more than 30
roles.
A husband,
a grandfather,
a father,
a friend, a neighbor, a prophet, a general,
a prophet, a general, a a general,
someone who sold and
purchased. All of those are are part of
his life. All of those fall under
worship.
So not allowing yourself to
feel that way. How do you feel how
do you balance that? Look at the life
of the prophet,
That's the balance. The sunnah actually is meant
to be a mediating instrument
in the face of 2
articulations
of religious extremism.
One is negligence,
and the other one is irrational commitment
that leads to problems, that leads to instability.
So the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam, in many
ways as Allah says about him,
he removed the chains from people.
Meaning, the the the the Jewish law was
one that had a rule for everything.
So he removes that, but then also Christianity
is emotion without law. So he removes that.
So in the middle between Magdubia Alayhim and
Abbarin is the prophet, as we'll see later
today.
Between that is the sunnah
of sayna Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam. And
that's why in that beautiful hadithos, men, they
came to say to Aisha and they
and they asked her, like, tell us how
the prophet worship
And after she said
they said what? Like, I'm gonna fast and
never break my fast. I'm gonna pray and
never sleep. I said, I'm never gonna get
married.
This is a good hadith,
related by Atir Midi. And then the prophet
heard about it. What did he do? He
ran to them. Because we have a great
axiom in Islamic law. When there is a
need, it is impossible for us to believe
that the prophet would not teach.
Hajj,
sorry, Egyptians. Right? The delay of of the
clarification cannot happen if there's a need because
the prophet is a rahma.
So he actually went to them. He found
them. This is also community leadership.
How many times maybe someone is in a
mosque,
youth director, Sheikh, imam? If you see,
I remember Imam Khaled in New York, he'll
go to AA with people.
Right? The prophet is with the people. Right?
So if he hears there's a need,
he pushes in, alayhis salatu salam. So he
went to them and he said, what? You
know, I pray and I sleep, I fast
and I break my fast, and I marry
from
who turns away from my sunnah, this balance
is not from me.
So that's the first.
And
means irresponsible,
irrational conservatism,
and then heathenry,
and then heathenry. The second,
door of shaitan
is negligence.
You know, one day I'll do it. I
got a long life.
SubhanAllah, I was sitting one time with this
guy. He was 77 years old,
and he
did not pray
fajr.
And he told me, wallahi, I tried not
to laugh. He said, but you know, I
have a long time, alhamdulillah.
I've changed myself. I said, you Allah.
I said, okay, bro. I mean, yeah, if
you live to be 78,
You know, like but look, like
like,
shaitan will
make us negligent,
and and we have to be very careful
of this.
And that goes back to thinking about what
is your circle of influence, what's your circle
of concern, like what can I really impact,
what am I dreaming I can impact? What's
followed on me, what's an obligation upon me,
what do do I need to do? And
that's why I always say,
mature religious people have their borders. Like, they
know how even socially.
Not just for, like, haram and halal, but
they know, like, with their family,
when I go home, I'm honey and baba.
That's it.
That's it. That's my job. When I go
home, that's who I am.
So you wanna think about what kind of
parameters do you have in your life, and
then you wanna think about what do you
need to feel valued in your life so
that you can export value to other people
that allows you not to be negligent because
you know what's important.
And sometimes we get confused. We think as
religious people, having concerns is, like, selfish. No.
No. No. What are the things I need
to to be meaningful and sustainable?
What are the things that I need to
be part of a community? What are the
things I need to do to be contributing
in a positive way? Put the mask on
first.
Oftentimes, you find people, they wanna put the
mask on the whole hood, and they ain't
put the mask on their face. And then
the plane drops, and they pass out first.
Save yourself from *.
The 3rd
door of Shaitan, who wants to guess?
Go for it, man. So we did desires.
We did negligence.
And negligence is in everything, like my age,
my wealth,
you know, my family.
People sometimes, they wait till their kids to
become 30, and they come and say, can
you make my kid a good Muslim? First
of all, I ain't no kid. It's a
30 year old big baby. Right? And then
and then, like,
the
religion is a process.
It's not a event. So we can try,
but,
like, this is something that should be invested
in over time. It's gonna take time.
What do you think the 3rd door is?
Yes, sir. Yes.
Despair. Almost.
Despair. Almost.
So now we're talking about 3 huge doors
that all that might fall under. We're gonna
get to that particular soon, but this is
a big door. It covers, like, the the
things earlier I talked about. Like, they're they're
they're they're axiomatic almost. Right? They touch on
everything. So this one,
I've seen this one do a lot of
damage, man.
No. That's what they said. No. Good try.
It's interesting how everybody's saying that, though.
Arrogance? Arrogance? Almost.
I mean emotions. Don't make me mad at
you guys. Emotions? I'm giving you a hint.
Oh, anger? Anger.
Like, everybody got scared. I'm not gonna get
mad at you. I promise. But
That's why even in Islamic law, we have
an axiom
that if you're angry, don't give a fatwa.
Mhmm. Like if you're in a bad mood,
you're having a bad day, just go home,
man.
Just go home, bro. If you're if you're
in and that actually extends to, like, if
you're in whatever reason, you're emotionally unsettled.
Don't answer questions today
because you you may project
that. And when that man came to the
prophet, peace be upon him, and he said,
advise me, what did the prophet tell him,
sallallahu
alaihi wasalam? Don't get angry. It doesn't mean
that you cannot become angry. That's impossible.
What it means is don't act in anger.
Right? Because in generally, we say emotions are
not, like, part of taqif.
It's not something that has, like, a specific
ruling, but acting on those emotions can be
a problem. Right? So
learning to not act on it. The prophet
said, if you're angry, what do you say?
Because of one of these doors.
How do you deal with desires? You think
about death.
Right? So it helps discipline me. How do
I deal with negligence? I think about I
only have a short time here. Not like
the guy that was 77 and was telling
me,
I got a long time left. Like, I
mean, I didn't know what to say to
him. You know, I can't say you don't
have a short long time left. My
man thought he was
he had some time. So these are the
3
big doors.
And that wherever that transcription is, I talk
about it a lot, but I would also
encourage you to sort of explore them for
yourself.
Right? See see how they work in your
life. Like, how does desires how do how
does negligence
how does anger sometimes we're negligent of each
other.
Don't say hi, we don't say salaam, we
don't call each other, we don't look into
each other. We we're brothers, we're sisters,
maybe that person really needs us.
So these things, again, they're very almost axiomatic.
Right? They applied to everything. So these are
the first three major doors
that Shaitan is going to use to then
come at particulars, like despair and so on
and so forth.
Number 1, we said was that it's desires.
Number 2 is negligence. Number 3 is anger.
That takes us now to, like, to specific
sort
of particular
attacks of shaitan that we can recognize in
reading sort of Fatihah
by inverting sort of the verses.
So if we say
with the name of Allah, the most gracious,
the most merciful.
If you invert that, it's gonna lead to
what
brothers and sisters
suggested. Because we talked about the basmalah is
an invitation for you to push in,
right, to to claim a place in your
relationship with religion.
But then there'll be failure, there'll be mistakes,
we'll slip and we'll fall.
And that's where shaitan comes in. Our scholar
says something very interesting. Before you commit a
sin,
shaytan will make you the greatest theologian about
Allah's mercy.
Like, you you you are Allah so forgiving,
and you'll be able to quote hadith. If
you do this, Allah will forgive you whoever
says,
all their sins will be forgiven. Obviously, because
he's trying to entice you and I to
fall into
sin.
But after the sin is committed,
he will make you a scholar of Allah's
punishment
so that you despair.
You give up.
That's why oftentimes when we make a mistake,
you know, the last thing we wanna do
is pray. But the prophet said whoever sins
and prays 2 rakat around 7 hours after
the sin let's not
make it overly compulsive, but you get the
idea.
And if they repent to Allah sincerely within
that time, that sin is forgiven. The opposite
though, usually when people make a mistake, you
tell them pray. What would they say? I'm
not good enough. I can't pray. I'm evil.
I'm a bad person. But look how the
prophet emancipates people,
liberates them from despair and says, Allah, push
in.
Seek Allah's forgiveness.
So the opposite of Ar Rahman Ar Rahim
in its context
of action
and pushing in
is to give up.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says nobody
despairs of Allah's mercy
except those people who went astray.
In the Quran,
it is explicitly
stated
that despairing of Allah's mercy Don't
don't
feel bad if you've done it because we're
learning, right? Something that you didn't learn before,
don't hold yourself accountable for it.
Don't blame yourself. You didn't know.
Allah says,
The noon is gone
to tell you that this is an absolute
command
prohibition.
You are forbidden to despair of Allah's mercy.
We know that this verse was one of
the most favorite verses of the prophet
Say my servants who have wronged yourself, you
are forbidden to despair, of
Allah's mercy. Also,
Abdullah Idomasuri said like, this is the most
beloved verse to me under the heavens, under
the sun. Like, this is the verse that
gives me hope. But Al Hakim is a
great narrator of Hadith. He said that there
was a man,
he had not embraced Islam. And
he contacted the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
and he
inquired
about embracing Islam,
but he said to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam like, if you took my sins
and the sins of the people of Medina,
my sins compared to all the people of
Medina will be more.
And then he began to mention a litany
of really bad things.
You know, unmentionable,
actually.
And then he said, will Allah forgive me
if I become Muslim?
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he
was, like, shocked by this man's candor. You
know? Like, this guy's letting it out. You
know?
And then the verse came. This verse came
for this person.
So now, like, we see, especially with what's
going on in Gaza, may Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala
free the people of Gaza and Palestine,
and Congo and Sudan.
That
that a lot of people wanna be Muslim
now.
But we're like RG, Arli, are already legislating
their interest to Islam before they even embraced
Islam. Like,
there's no sin after disbelief, right? And I
remember when I first became Muslim, there was
an right?
And I remember when I first became Muslim,
there was a old head. He passed away,
Allah have mercy upon him. He died during
COVID, he had COVID from he was from
New
York. So he he was the person that
taught me how to pray.
He actually taught me like the habit of
praying.
Right? The habit. Because I like to tell
people when you embrace Islam, it's also like
embracing habit. Like, there's new habits that are
gonna happen. One of them is salah. So
he told me,
like, it's gonna be hard for you to,
like, go from Sunday morning
in T. D. Jakes
to praying 5 times a day. I was
like, yeah. This is crazy. How do you
do it? You know? I was like, insane.
You know? And
then he told me, I did it because
of heroin.
I was like, like, how? He's like, the
only thing that would keep me from using
heroin,
salah.
And so he said, like, I discipline myself
because
don't come to pray intoxicated. So I knew
I couldn't pray. I wasn't worthy of Allah
if I was not an off.
So I I embraced Islam as a heroin
addict.
And my first 13 years or so of
Islam,
I negotiated this addiction
around salah. And then finally, he got professional
help, like secondary professional help, if you will.
But I always remember what he said to
me. He said, maybe you think, like, oh,
how how was I using heroin those 1st
years of my Islam? He said, but remember
this,
bring him to Allah, Allah will clean him
up.
Like, it's not your business.
Like, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one
you taught. Allah is the one who purifies
people. Same thing for those who are born
Muslim.
So here, that man, the prophet doesn't legislate
his entrance. He just gets quiet, and this
verse comes. Say in my servants
who have wronged themselves by sinning, you are
forbidden
to that man
to give up on Allah's mercy.
Indeed, Allah forgives the sins, and here Arabic
is called something called tawkit.
In Allah means forgive sins. He says, Jamiyan.
When I learned this, I had a roommate.
He was from Karachi. Masha'Allah, I was my
man. And, you know, he he used to
make a nice biryani in college. So, like,
one time I ate all his biryani.
May Allah forgive me. I was a bad
roommate.
Amen. And then he came home, he's like,
did you eat the biryani? I was like,
which means like I ate it, then I
said,
which means not even one grain of rice
is left.
So here Allah says, Allah forgives the sins.
All of them.
That's why Al Ghazari
in Minhajal Abideen maybe in the future we
can read Minhajal Abideen here. He says that
out of the 7 important qualities you should
have, the macros of your life,
spiritually, the second is repentance.
It's
Tawba. So the opposite of is
despair.
Alhamdulillahi hurabillahalamin,
the opposite of alhamdu is dhikr.
Why are men called dhikr?
Because men should be people of thikr.
When you talk about, like, talks you know,
defining masculinity and all this kind of interesting
stuff. Like, think. Remember I told you, I
did it on purpose. Arabs name things by
what they primarily
do. So the primary function of someone who
achieves prophetic manhood, the zakr should be in
a state of zikr.
SubhanAllah.
Does it mean also Allah
says for women, so don't get don't get
upset.
But we need to sometime push into with
brothers and remind them we have to be
people of dhikr.
So the opposite because the word I mean,
we don't have time. It's a declarative sentence,
but, actually, it's a command.
In Arabic, it's called
So
you
see it in but actually it's You see
it, it's a it's a command.
Alhamdulillah
means actually saying either
If you wanna praise me, say Alhamdulillah.
That's why if you look at the tafsir,
you're just gonna say, Alhamdulillah.
They're telling me what I told you now.
So the opposite of saying Alhamdulillah is negligence.
Again, if you think about what I said
about the 3 doors, you're gonna find all
of them showing up here in these particulars.
So the opposite is not to say
not to be thankful, not to be live
a life of gratitude, which leads to a
state of remembrance.
We say that
remembrance,
thikr,
is the outcome
of gratitude,
and gratitude
is the outcome
of giving or paying attention. We say,
That the offspring
that dhikr is the offspring
of of gratitude.
And that gratitude is the offspring of thinking.
Like, SubhanAllah, Allah did this. Alhamdulillah, Allah did
this. Alhamdulillah,
Allah. So having, like, good thoughts.
We say actions are the outcome or the
the offspring of
thinking. So,
the opposite is not to be grateful,
which actually indicative of a messed up understanding
of who God is,
and then leading to saying Alhamdulillah.
Rub Bil'a'alah mean?
The word rub is hard to translate. It
has a number of meanings.
I don't like the word lord
because in Amia, in Egyptian, we say
That's the lord of the
apartment. Like, here we say what? Landlord.
But actually, in the context of this verse,
the word rub has about 6 meanings. One
of the words of rub is creator and
sustainer.
So the one who created
and sustained everything.
Shaitan, the opposite of that is for us
not not to have that type of relationship
with Allah, not to have relationship with Tawhid,
not to see that there's a sole creator.
He was asked what is Tawhid?
He said something beautiful.
He said a Tawhid
and Ta'alam is to know
that.
That Allah's power is in everything and it's
not mixed with anything
else.
And that his creation is in everything without
anything sharing with him. This is Tawhid.
And then he said the third component of
Tawhid
is to know
that
his command is the cause for everything that
exists.
And his existence is not contingent
on anything.
So three things. Number 1, to see the
power of Allah
manifest in everything because you're with Allah, not
in Allah. Remember?
And is to worship Allah. Though you see
him, you can't see him. But you can
see his authority, his power, his names, his
attributes, his qualities. Doctor Jinan, she has a
great book on the names of Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala, Jinan Yusuf, in English. It's so
good that she talks about this kind of
stuff.
The second is to see that he created
everything
without any weakness, without any need,
without any partner.
The third is to know that
everything in creation is because of his command
and his existence is not contingent
on anything.
And then he said after that,
And the last part of Tawhid is that
anything you think
Allah is opposite of that.
That's what mean. The opposite of that is
shirk. To
think that something else can influence
or have an impact on the world
that can cause something to happen to lose
that relationship of rubobiyah with Allah.
It's one of the greatest tricks of Shaitan.
That's why Allah says,
meaning. This is one of the tricks of
shaitan to make you fear his supporters. Don't
fear them. Fear me.
Another point
back to what I said that this verse
talks about remembering Allah abundantly. Like, sometimes when
you're down, sometimes if you're struggling, sometimes,
you know, as you get older, alhamdulillah,
you're going to appreciate the fact that religiosity
is like a roller coaster.
You're going to have your ups and downs.
That's why imam al Bukhari, one of the
first chapters, is that iman increases and decreases.
One of my teachers said if your iman
didn't decrease, dua would have no meaning.
Like, you wouldn't rely on Allah. You just
like be, I'm good. Alhamdulillah, everything's great. Masha'Allah.
But sometimes that can actually be a blessing.
A weakness in religious religious practice and feeling
can actually be a blessing if it leads
us back to Allah. You Allah, increase my
iman.
So, the word
is translated as worlds.
But what do you call a flag in
Arabic? Adam.
Adam
Gesh. Sorry. Adam Majesh.
The flag of the army.
What do you call a sign?
Because
are actually signs.
Of what?
That's the question.
We say,
that an Adam is something that directs you
to something else, not itself.
So
everything in the world is given this important
title.
Al Amin.
He could have said
Alhamdulillahi.
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of creation.
But he said, Al-'al Amin,
because everything around you is an opportunity
and a sign for you to remember him.
But in my specialties
in Islamic law, so forgive me if I
go on attention.
But in Islamic law, we have major axioms.
One of the most important axioms for functionality,
Muslim functionality
is
that the origin of anything that benefits
is permissible.
Meaning, the default. So now people, you can
see how colonialism to some degree I don't
like to blame everything on, you know, I
don't wanna get into much decolonality,
but
now when Muslims ask questions, they're like, is
it what?
Is it what?
They ask, is it halal?
But the default is halal.
The origin of everything that's beneficial is permissible
unless there's a text
or a
explicit analogy by a jurist that says it's
forbidden.
So I shouldn't go around and say, is
it what?
Halal. Is it halal? I should ask what?
Halal. Because because the origin's permissibility. That's why
Allah says in the Quran,
The the the the the the the third
verse of the 5th chapter, it says, forbidden
for you is the passive. Forbidden for you,
if it was made forbidden, that means before
it was forbidden, it was what?
It was permissible. Where are my lawyers at?
Don't tell me I'm a patent lawyer. Come
on, lawyers.
Yes. Lawyer and training.
Lawyer and training. Okay. I'll give you a
break. But
forbidden for you are caring and,
the blood that's coming out of animals that
haven't been slaughtered correctly
and pig. So if it was made forbidden,
then it means before Allah made it forbidden,
it was understood to be what?
See that? That's his axiom.
So,
the Lord of everything around me is a
sign. Everything, unless there's a clear text
or there's a strong scholarly consensus that or
strong scholarly opinion that is forbidden.
So therefore,
should lead to dhikr
that should also lead to what? Engagement.
Pushing it.
We're not a frightened community. We're emboldened community.
We don't flee from the dunya. We see
the dunya as an opportunity.
So the first
2 tricks of shaitan to keep you from
dhikr. Number 2, to fall into, like, associating
partners to Allah and his lordship. And then
the third one we can say is goes
back to kind of the idea of,
you know, not not being
I don't wanna say
brave,
but not being Khalifa,
being a weakling.
The next verse,
the opposite of that is despair.
Why is it emphasized so much? Because in
our in trying to do all this, we're
going to make mistakes. We're going to fall.
We're going to have shortcomings.
And until we die,
those shortcomings shouldn't defeat us. We can turn
to Allah.
We read the hadith to our teachers with
isnad back to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said, there's a
person who commits a sin and they repent
to Allah.
And Allah says to the angels,
look at this person. They believed in me.
They asked for my forgiveness. I forgive them.
Actually, the hadith is like 3 or 4
times in the wording. When we read it
to
our teacher he read it to us, sorry.
He just kept reading it. Like, we went
we're like, man, hadith's done, man. They keep
reading it. I will forgive him. I will
forgive him. I will forgive him. I will
forgive him. I will forgive him. And we
said, Sheikh, Sheikh, Halas.
What? What print are you reading? He said,
No. No. This is how he learned it
all the way back to the Sahaba, that
Allah's mercy won't stop until you stop it.
So we don't stop reading the hadith to
the students and says, Stop. Stop. Stop. You
you went too far.
To remind you that as long as you
sincerely turn back to Allah and try to
live a life of responsibility,
Allah will forgive you, The
next,
Oh man.
Is a reminder. Okay. It's nice. Allah is
merciful. Everything is cool,
but don't be irresponsible.
The opposite of Shaitan will try to make
us forget the hereafter,
forget the meaning with Allah.
Allah says that Shaitan will trick them
to make them forget remembering Allah, to make
them forget the
to make the remembered to make them forget
meeting Allah. But subhanAllah, the akhirah is mentioned
on every page of the Quran,
for a
reason.
Because
it's easy
to forget living for the hereafter.
So implies purpose.
The opposite of that
is I live for my I I live
to die.
Right? Or do I die to live?
The next
Of course, the opposite of that is shirk,
to worship something other than Allah.
Doesn't mean, like, you're asking someone, like, directions
on the street.
But at a broader transcendent level, everything I
need in life,
I turn to Allah.
I gave you everything you wanted, and I
also gave you what you didn't need, and
I kept away from me what was probably
bad for you.
The famous hadith of the prophet salallahu alaihi
wa sallam, related by Imam Haakim, that there's
a person, you Allah, I want this, I
want this, I want this. And Allah says,
look at this person. They keep asking me
for to give them what if I gave
it to them, it will harm them, but
I love to hear their dua. So let
them make dua. The angels will say, yeah,
Allah, please answer this person. They'll say, no.
No. No. No. If I gave it to
them, it will harm their.
But I love to hear their dua. Let
them make dua.
The last, and we'll talk about it in
a second,
are these characteristics.
So
what Shaitan wants us to do is to
either be Abdalin or Magdubia Alayhim.
And we're asking Allah for guidance.
I skipped the verse. The opposite of
is to neglect dua.
Allah will never answer you. You're not good
enough or we're just negligent of dua. We
don't pay attention, but
and we don't make dua for the right
stuff.
Why in the Quran
saying, Al Razi says, people will say, but
we're already Muslims. Why are we saying guide
us to the straight path?
Says something beautiful. He said because to stay
on the straight path is not easy.
So when the Muslim says,
they're asking for, give me consistency.
Give me that stability.
Help give me the maintenance.
Al Zinni, and this is a
There's something beautiful here I wanna share with
you. I hope everybody okay?
Sure.
There's actually 2 there's 3 here from the
7.
Don't wanna make it complicated for you, but
one of them is really nice. Shatabi. Imam
Shatabi, he's from Andalusia. He was blind
and he dictated a poem that's more than
1,000 lines. We memorized
in nakira'at, and he was blind. This is
your ancestors' min.
How can a blind person do that? Well,
how can people in Gaza take on the
greatest military power, all this political,
corruption and hypocrisy?
Even us in America, like who are we
compared to APAC, man? And our organizational skills.
But now you see, like,
generation z is like, man,
this is my Uber driver. I had to
queue fire
in the front of his car. I was
like, yo, what is going on? This is
not like when I was younger.
I have a flat I have a shirt
that says, make Israel Gaza again.
And this lady at my daughter's school, she's
like, I really need to talk to you
about your shirt. I was like, oh, man.
Some parent got me kicked out of Waldorf
out there in the middle of the jungle.
Like, I thought we're all hippies and cool.
And she is like,
where can I get that shirt? I like
it.
I was like, we'll give you a parting
present for the end of the year.
But, like,
Allah is doing that.
Like, subhanallah. Like, it's
amazing.
So the word
was seen, Asad, actually its origin is seen.
Says
in his poem,
Look how genius he was. He says,
So even he's blind, but he said the
different
to his students who wrote it. And here
you hear sod and sin.
From Ibun Kathir, he was one of the
from Mecca.
People, they tell me you make it hard.
We need to raise the discourse.
Like, if you listen to stuff like this
when you were 14, where would you be
now? You'll be an island.
But instead we told you, you know, pleiata
2 talks. It's good. Again, the 13 is
different. But we need to create a climate
of education also.
Also. Also we say, if you're Egyptian, you're
gonna laugh. Like
Egyptian
Amir, called Ishman,
All that goes back to the Sahaba.
Because Islam believes in entry points. Think about
it, how hard it is for us to
read Arabic. Even them, they had different tribes.
Some said
some said
but everyone had a place in the community.
See something there.
So but the word Surat
was sad, its origin is seen.
But the people of Hejaz,
the prophet's dialect, there's
a difference of opinion. Some of them said
Some of them said
Later on, they started saying,
like like, you can say,
the development of the language,
evolution of the language before it became slang.
Thank you so much. Allah bless you. The
word
actually comes from a word which means to
swallow.
The Arabs say,
I tell this to my daughters, Don't be
too nice, someone will swallow you.
Like if you're always nice, there's people out
there, they're not nice.
So they look for people like that.
You'll be swallowed.
Why would it be called
then later on it meant a path? Even
now if you say it means a path.
But in its ancient,
ancient language,
even till now we say,
someone who swallows.
Because if you go down a path and
you walk far away, it looks like the
path swallowed you.
You see someone walk down a a road.
If you watch them, it looks like they're,
like, being swallowed by the road. So here's
something beautiful that
Islam should envelop us.
It's it's something that brings people in.
It's something that touches all of our lives.
It metaphorically,
nicely encompass us, if you will.
So,
and then the last shaitan will try to
make us either from those
who went astray or those
who earned anger.
There's 2 more things we'll share about Fatiha
and then we'll stop because we're not going
to have time. We have other chapters to
talk about. We're not going to talk about
them like this,
But fatiha is important.
Why? Because
it's on your playlist, man.
Right? Fatiha is on everybody's playlist. For those
of us who embrace Islam, usually after like,
like,
like, you go to, like, the little ones,
you know.
Not sort of
like,
Yeah. And then it's like fat here.
Because those could be managed.
Right?
The Surat of Fatiha teaches us how to
draw near to Allah
because we said that last week the theme
of Fatiha, one of the themes from the
Basmara is to use
your utility
to push in. The statement, Bismillah Alhaman Rahim,
it can't work without a verb.
Who puts the verb? There you do.
But then, like, how how do
I push in
is the question. There's a lot we could
talk about Fatiha. There's a great lecture by
a scholar called 7 proofs of prophethood from
Surat of Fatiha. Like, a lot going on
in Surat of Fatiha. A lot. That's why
it's
the foundation of the Quran. But in Arabic,
it has something really cool that we hate.
At least I used to hate it when
I grade papers.
It's commendable to change the tense
for a rhetorical
sort of aim.
So the Arabs
at times they'll change the tense
because in Arabic they value the mantuk,
what's spoken,
but they're also great, great Eribest value, the
mafum,
what you
infer, what's understood.
So it's not just what I hear,
it's also what I understand. For example, Allah
says.
Don't say to your parents,
so the opposite
also means don't abuse them physically.
Like, if that's forbidden, anything bigger than that
must obviously be forget forbidden.
I'll give you an example. Surat Al Baqarah
is beautiful.
Allah talking to the prophet, peace be upon
him.
He says, Alam ta'alaam annallahhaaraqulishayinqadir.
Don't you know that Allah controls all things?
Talking to Sayyidu Muhammad alayhis salam.
Don't you know that Allah controls all things?
But look at the end.
It changes tense.
Doesn't talk to the prophet anymore,
suddenly it says, and there is for all
of you the whole ummah of the prophet.
You and I, Everyone who's been Muslim since
that time till now is in this verse.
And none of you have any helper or
supporter
except Allah.
Why does the tense change?
It's saying, you, you, you, Muhammad, you
you, you, you, then you all. Why did
that happen?
Same thing happens when the qibla changes.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
We see you, You Rasulullah Sallallahu Wa Salam.
You're looking up. You want the qibla to
be changed.
And soon we will turn you to a
direction, you,
you Muhammad, alayhis salam, you will like it.
But then look,
not kakam, kum, kum, kum, kum, shatra, which
means
and wherever all of you are, all of
you turn to the qibla and all of
you pray.
The tense changes. Why? Because you and I,
we have a prophetic responsibility.
Maybe if we read the verse, oh, it's
just for the messenger of Allah. We've heard
people say it all the time. I'm not
Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam.
I don't have any stake in this.
But Allah is reminding us,
unlike any other community that came before us,
I will switch the tense out, we could
say in slang, I'll flip the script
to remind you that if this is your
prophet,
you're prophetically
responsible. That's what's understood.
That's not what's spoken.
This in Arabic is called
il, lamb like ill, it's ill or he's
ill, sorry.
In in in Arabic, if you wanna do
a u-turn, what do you say?
Lift.
Flip it. Lift.
Right? So
means the tense
changes. Whole section of rhetoric
is remarkable.
It's
a little bit difficult, but it's worth the
effort. It's easier than freaking CrossFit and eating,
you know,
stabbing Monjero in your stomach.
But in
it happens. Who here can help me? Where
does the tense change?
And how does it change? And where does
it change? It's remarkable. There's an incredible lesson
there waiting for you to uncover it. And
if you think about what I just told
you, this whole changing tenses thing, if you
take this with you when you go home,
your reading of Quran now is gonna be
like 3 d.
Because now you're gonna be like, I'm looking
for this.
Oh, found it. Why? And
that's how you engage in tadabur.
That's why I worry sometimes when we teach
the Quran in English, we don't give people
skills. You can find this
in English. Tense changes. I actually believe it
should be done wrong like it would be
done in English because it will throw you
off. Because that's what the Arabic does.
Why was it singular pronouns, singular pronouns, singular
plural.
Plural pronoun, why? That's actually how it feels
if you pay attention. Same thing should that
that feeling should be in English. So the
person reading it is like, this is bad
and good. Well, the Quran, no, no, no.
This is me. I got a problem. They
say what?
If you have an infection in your mouth,
don't blame the chef.
If my eye is infected, don't blame me.
Blame Picasso or Keith Haring.
That's me. Let me start with myself. So
why is this happening?
And then I'm immediately, we talked about this
last week, brought into the narrative. Now I
have to engage.
It's not
religion's here,
I'm here.
No. No. Now there's this, like, this combustion
happening
between the heavens and the earth. That's what
the Quran wants to facilitate, this relationship between
the heavens and the earth.
And then you have to go through a
lot. I'm not good enough. I'm dead. I'm
not a scholar. Ain't nobody has to be
a scholar right now.
Just
uncover what this meaning is for you. So,
where is it happening in Suratul Fatiha?
The tense changes.
You don't have to be like a student
of Robert Frost or Canterbury Tales to put
this together, man.
Listen to the last few discs back and
forth. It was even in those, I think.
The famous
mixtapes that were dropped over the last few
weeks.
Happens all the time.
Yes, ma'am.
It's alright. Be confident.
Push and be confident. Don't worry.
Alhamdulillah, be confident. Good? But see what you're
doing right now? You guys are thinking. Where
is it? Where is it? Where is it?
Where is it? That that's that's really what
we wanna we should actually train people to
read this way In English. Especially our high
school Muslim high schools should train
young people how to read the Quran in
English.
Oh, you'll take them away from the Arabic.
Man, most of them ain't learning Arabic, bro.
Hate to break it down to you. That's
just what it is. It's it's not an
easy language to learn. Like, that's just gonna
happen. But at least, let they might get
inspired though.
And then wanna
learn Arabic. Right?
Who else? I'm a get to you. Who
else?
Yes. Hold on. You you 2, I know.
I'm with I'm with different some different different
voices here. Forgive me.
Wanna make sure we step up, step up,
and step up. Everybody's stepping back.
Who will step up, step back?
You guys stepping up, great. And you step
back too. But I'm I'm
who's gonna step up?
Where does the tense change? The question is,
it starts in the 3rd person. The chapter
starts in the 3rd person, as though someone's
like saying it to you.
You know, alhamdulillahihorabil-'alameen.
Arrahmanu
Rahim. This
is all alghaybir,
Go ahead.
I I,
I was thinking what you were saying, which
is I think it changes at
because at that point,
it goes from 3rd person to
you're asking.
Yeah. Who's in conversation now, though?
Like, what happened? It it pushed into a
conversation.
But who's the conversation between?
You and who?
Yeah. Exact man. Subhanallah. That's why Al Fatiha
has called a salah.
It's one of its names, a dua.
Yes, Akhi.
Oh, he did not do that. Absolutely. That's
where it happens.
All praise be to Allah, the Lord of
the worlds, like someone's describing it to you.
Most gracious, most merciful,
sole controller of the hereafter. Then,
bam,
you're talking. You're not listening. And who you
talking to?
That's called Iltifat.
Iltifat,
like tea, Iltifat.
Switching.
Why though?
So now we we've all dissected
the mantuk,
what's spoken.
Why?
Ibn Kathir talks about this in his tafsir.
If you wanna go back and read it,
you'll find it in the beginning of his
tafsir, in Surat Al Fatihah.
Why though?
Like That's the point where it turns into,
like, a.
Yeah. But why? Good. But why?
Like, why why why now
are you able to be this close?
Like, what happened from the beginning
to this point?
That's the feeling. The feeling is like there's
almost like transitions happening.
I'm getting closer. I'm getting closer. Getting closer.
And now the first thing I'm gonna ask
is,
you alone we worship.
Well, I'm gonna declare, actually, before I ask.
You alone we worship.
You alone we seek for help. And here
the object comes before the verb in Arabic
for a reason.
Means only you.
Only you.
Because the the key to getting close to
Allah
is still hid.
And the first few verses of Shur'at Fatiha
are the oneness of god personified.
Stephen a Smith. Oneness of god personified.
Number 1,
is I have acknowledged that Allah is the
sole
cherisher, sustainer, maintainer of everything. It's the foundation
of Tawhid.
That he has unique
unique qualities and attributes that transcend anything I
can imagine. His mercy is unimaginable.
That he's the one who controls all things
in the hereafter. Actually they say all the
foundations of iman are there. When you say
is the one that gave you everything you
needed. So that includes what you have in
your life, but what you need spiritually. So
it immediately means Quran.
It means prophets.
Arrahman al Rahim implies
he's forgiving something.
So how do I know, like, rahma andur
Rahim? How do I know what I've done
wrong to need that rahma? Again, prophets, books,
teaching me what's right, teaching me what's wrong.
Is belief in the hereafter,
and also in prophets and books are angels,
and then also
So those first three verses have all 6
pillars of
iman right there, whether explicitly or inferred.
And so when I've acknowledged this belief,
this knowing Allah,
even says something beautiful. As you start the
surah, you say,
It's like you took a step to Allah.
Like you took a step to
like you took took a step to Allah,
and now,
And after I acknowledge
that Allah is the only thing I worship,
and that Allah is the one I seek
for help, now I've made a proper,
if you will, approach, and I can ask
Everybody understand what we just said?
So it's like what's taught in the first
few verses of Suratafatiha
are the
key to having this relationship.
And that's why that tense changes.
It's very interesting too because it's in the
3rd person, which means that you have to
sort of accept it.
It's not telling you, like, this, this, this,
this. Saying, all praise be to Allah, the
lord of all things that exist, the most
gracious, the most merciful, master of the day
of judgment. Now I have to ask, do
I believe that? If I do,
I translate that into worship.
And now I can what?
Guide me. That's why the word Hidayah, guidance
is from Hadiya. What's Hadiya?
Gifts. Because Allah gifted you to be in
this moment.
The moment of guidance is a moment of
gift. What are you gonna do with it?
How am I gonna use the gift? And
that takes us to the end of
although really it's like the beginning. You know
what I mean?
And that is that in my life, as
a person who uses his or her agency,
as we talked about last week, and now
aware of all the tricks of shaitan and
all the stuff that's going on
in my life, my relationship with the knowledge
of Islam and the practice of Islam and
the faith of Islam, I will have
one of 3
characteristics.
The first is I act on what I
know.
So I learn
and then I I live.
I like that word. Like, I live right.
That's Anamta'alayhim.
The people who learn,
the people who practice what they learn.
Why do you say what you don't
do?
Allah says to the followers of Musa,
you you tell people to do good, but
you don't do it yourself. And you read
it. It's right there in front of you.
So
are those who know,
learn, and practice,
and struggle to practice. Okay? We're not talking
about like Utopian practice.
They struggle to practice.
They work hard.
They may even falter, but they're they're they're
trying. There's effort.
Okay?
The next
is
what's understood here. Not the path of those
who earn someone's anger. We said it's the
passive here. It's not the present. I like
the translation when they say your anger. It
doesn't say in the Quran. It doesn't say
It says
As though Allah is wrath is something you
gotta really work for.
Like, it's a passive. It's not an it's
and is
the is the active.
I'm in your life. I'm guiding you. I'm
here to guide you. Just take some steps,
make some effort.
I will guide you.
Like you really
you're cruising for some trouble, man.
Like you brought this on yourself. That's the
feeling of
Who is
those who don't practice
what they know? The the the the example
in the Quran are the followers of Musa
Allah said the example of those people that
had the Torah were like a donkey with
books on his back. He got the books,
but it doesn't employ
those books.
It doesn't utilize that knowledge.
If we ask any human being,
except maybe some of the crazy nut jobs,
is killing babies wrong?
Is dropping bombs on populations,
civilian populations, wrong? They'll say yes.
They know it to be wrong, but the
actions,
right, is leaving the Congo and the situation
is the the famine in Sudan. What's happening
there? They're saying that, you know, millions of
people may die before September. Is this wrong
here?
The infrastructure here at Atlanta, they ain't got
clean water.
Flint, Michigan till now.
Georgia Avenue, god help us all.
It's like craters.
Right? Public school system.
These are things that people know,
but they don't act on what they know.
That's why in the Quran
a very important example
where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala talks about in
the time of Suleiman, there were people who
knew, but they didn't act on what they
know. And we find something here in logic
which is unique. It challenged the Aristotelian logic
that you cannot have 2 opposites.
Allah says,
They knew
that what they did was wrong.
But it was the worst thing they could
have done.
If they knew. You just said they knew.
Now they don't know.
Why? Because they didn't act on what they
knew. They acted against what they knew. So
in Islamic sort of theology, we say what
you don't act on still doesn't exist. It's
a long discussion. Still. Something
Something exists when you bring it into action,
when you bring it into the physical world.
So they knew that what they were doing
with magic was wrong, but they didn't act
on what they knew, they acted in opposition
to it, so
they were like
It's like they're ignorant.
The last
are those who don't know,
but they try to do things based on
emotions,
based on desires. The archetype you find in
the Quran are those who distorted the message
of Sayyidina
Alayhi Salaatul Salam.
But that can also be us.
So in my life, as I live my
life, I'm gonna find I need to measure
myself now. Everything I talked about within those
things.
Acting and trying to act on what I
know as best I can responsibly, of course.
Staying away from 2 extremes. I I told
you earlier, ibn Qayyim has a great statement.
There's no command or prohibition in the Quran
except there's a shaitan
sitting there trying to guide you either to
be crazy lunatic freak religious najab
or a heathen.
Like, one of the 2.
Right?
I wanna be in the middle here.
Number 2,
people who,
know and don't practice.
Number 3, people who don't know
and try to do things. One time when
I was about 14, people asked me how
I became Muslim. There's one story that's really
crucial in all of this. I don't think
I told you. I was invited by a
friend of mine in a country church. Country
churches are different, man.
Okay? Country church
in, in,
Northwest Oklahoma.
I've only been there once, and you're gonna
know why when you hear the story.
So I go in the church, right, and
they have these boxes,
and it said do not, like, danger or
whatever.
So I'm like, man, this is church. This
ain't the club. Like,
what's in these boxes, man? Right?
Then this dude pulls out some snakes.
Rattlesnakes.
And he's like, you know,
Jesus Christ
is inside me
because he's inside me. These snakes will not
bite me.
Who's willing? He started looking. I'm like,
I got some Taco Bell inside me, bro.
I got Jesus, bro. Like, he starts looking
in the audience. I'm like, 16. I'm like,
not me.
Right? Who's willing to
show and this is not,
you know, to ridicule you. This is a
sad situation, but this is an example of
acting without any knowledge. It's just like you
you feel good. Why would you do this
to yourself? And then I think, there's a
I think on on TV there was, like,
a or on Max, there was, like, a
documentary about one of these communities, they die.
Like, people die.
Right? Because there's no there's no filk.
So filk is what protects me from acting
irresponsibly on my emotions.
Talsalaf is what's keep me from being Magdubialayhim.
And aqidah is what sells both of them.
Is basically
and practiced correctly.
So we finished at Fatiha. We did quite
a bit of information
in 2 sessions.
When I come back,
we will do Surat Al Asr
just because, like, Surat Al Asr is on
our playlist. Right? And then we'll go to
Surat Al Fil.
And after Sur Tafil, we'll finish.
Then in the fall, we're gonna start, like,
night school here insha'Allah.
We'll see hopefully, Bin Nila, to
schedule, permits inshallah. Any questions or comments before
we
yes, ma'am?
You said,
for negligence
and desire,
remembering death,
cures them for about anger?
The prophet said say,
Also, maybe someone needs anger management. Like, we
have to be honest. Right? Sometimes anger can
be a manifestation of
unengaged childhood trauma.
It's not a bad thing.
I like to tell people your emotions are
like superpowers. You know, like superpowers?
Superheroes, they can only use those powers a
little bit.
But, like, if they can't manage that superpower
like, an anchor can be good.
If it's directed towards
what's noble,
love can be bad.
If it's directed towards trifling
right? We're like, no. Seriously. Like, where do
I where do I direct my excuse me.
I'm a little different, so forgive me. We're
in DC, though. It's okay.
Yeah.
And we're a younger audience here, but,
you know, like, where do I
Imam Abuhamad has a great statement in the
he says, all emotions are good to bad.
It just depends what I use them for.
So I like to tell people, your emotions
are kinda like like you're a superhero. You
get tired. People get angry, they get tired.
So
maybe that might need some assistance. Maybe I
need to walk through some things. What triggers
those emotions? That trigger may not be a
bad thing. Someone's mistreated
and that triggers their anger, that's a good
thing. Just how do you
sort of administrate that that anger?
So the prophet said
he also said to make wudu.
He
said that anger is from fire,
the fire of shaitan, so make wudu and
Sahih Muslim.
And also he said like, there was a
man one time. He's very angry,
and the prophet saw Islam said, like, sit
down. Like, sit.
Like, compose yourself.
Yes, ma'am?
Human. But then near the end, you talked
about how
if we know and we don't do,
we're a part of the Jadhayah. So what
if you're in in that middle ground? And
because middle ground is so subjective, you know,
my version of middle ground could be totally
different than somebody else's version of middle ground.
It could be just someone who's, you know,
constantly fighting against their knaps at the same
time. You know, my version of middle ground
could be totally different than somebody else's version
of middle ground. It could be just
someone who's, you know, constantly fighting against their
lapses at the same time, you know, trying
to do,
you know, the sunnah, trying to be as
on the straight path as they can. So
to what distinction is the middle ground
I'm trying to figure out how to say
this. To what distinction is the middle ground,
you know, taken as us doing our best
without being
1st of all, I wanna thank you for,
like, thinking through this question.
That's good. Right? You're you're you're you're engaged.
Right? So So don't apologize.
Right?
That's why we learn orthodoxy,
and I think that's one of the backdrops
that we lose as a community.
Sometimes even especially Sunnis, we get really upset
when we hear the word orthodoxy.
Why? Right? In the sense of this is
part of our religious
historical ancestry
that's crucial to our community. Is that because
we've been colonized? Is that because we have
been influenced in a way that's unhealthy? Or
or there
we can have legitimate questions about orthodoxy as
well. Right? But one of the goals, specifically
at fiqh, is to lead to balanced practice.
The goal of
is to lead to it's gonna sound weird.
Leads to balance
without being
Right? To sowaf leads to being
spiritual, but not being dalim.
Akhida leads to being
an those
who know Allah,
All of that. So by learning and I
encourage people to learn 3 things. This is
what you need to learn. Everything else you
wanna learn it, it's like
a char on the food or, you know,
Tabasco
on,
or steak sauce on our steak.
But not
the fighting between the salafis and sufis. This
is nonsense stuff. A waste of your time.
Ain't gonna take you anywhere. You wanna learn
like what I quoted earlier, Azulun al Masri.
What's
tawhid? To see Allah's power in all things,
to know that Allah's creation happened.
That's I want functional.
I don't want theoretical.
Right? I don't want to just sit around
and think about theology. No. I man, man,
I gotta go to school. I gotta work
every day. I'm trying to maintain my kids.
My I saw like, I'll be honest with
you. I disappeared from the public scene for
a long time because my mother died right
in front of me. Nobody even asked me
except doctor Sherman Jackson called me.
Because he his mother, because we're both Muslim,
became Muslim. Right? So we all have our
moments, man. Moments of truth.
So I need that kind of tawhid.
The prophetic tawhid is not a tawhid that
they're always fighting about what the other prophets
did.
But look at Muslims how we teach it
now. This group is wrong. This group is
wrong. This group this imam is wrong. This
sheikh is wrong. Bro, I'm just trying to
make it through work, bro.
I'm just trying to pass as a freshman
right now. You know? Like, I I I
think that's one of the good things, becoming
Muslim. You parse this stuff because you don't
have time for it, ideally.
Because, like, I gotta learn this. I gotta
live it. And I I understood when I
became Muslim, like, I need to experience this.
Like, this is gonna take time. Like, this
is a big thing. You know? It's not
going on Sunday and going home and holding
snakes. Like,
this is a this is like a lifestyle,
right, that I gotta kinda add into my
existing life. Right, bro? So the change
made me parse, oh, this is an absolute
waste of time. This is and also, there
was no Internet. Well, it was there, but
it was very slow.
So I didn't have access to all the
information.
So I think one is learning functional
theology
that addresses
your concerns.
It doesn't It's not good if I teach
you a class in theology. I'm like, you
know, 600 years ago, there was this guy
in Asfahan
who said the angels were made of coal.
Today, we're gonna spend an hour and a
half breaking down that issue.
It's like, bro, I'm dealing with Richard Dawkins,
man.
I'm dealing with Bill Maher and Shaytan.
He's not Maher and anything. I'm dealing with
whatever I'm dealing with. It ain't the guy
and us behind who said angels are made
of coal.
And I I I believe there has to
be a reform
in our education system,
not that throws the tradition out because it's
very important. The tradition actually is very important,
but then encourages
teachers and educators
to talk about, like, now. Like, what I
and and so I I always say a
good theologian, before he teaches, he asks people,
like, what are the biggest issues you're dealing?
And then that becomes a curriculum. Second thing
is fiqh,
and not ancient fiqh,
today's fiqh.
So, of course, with worship, things don't change.
Worship's been the same. We should learn how
to worship correctly. But then, like, why do
we have, like, all these problems around marriage?
Why don't we have in Muslim high schools
or even Sunday schools or weekend schools a
proper textbook on nikah?
What are the rights and responsibilities of a
husband and wife? What what what do you
do if you have marital discord? Like, we
don't even have it.
And then we wonder why we leave people
out here with, like, a lot of
smoke and mirrors
and missing plate you know, missing information, and
then they have to of course, you're gonna
go to your culture because the closest thing
to Islam is the culture. So the culture
becomes sort of the filler.
So sometimes we get mad. I can't stand
my parents' clothes, but they that's what they
had to do.
It wasn't there for them, so they had
to kinda make do, you know, and bring
in, like, sort of a cultural component to
to
to survive.
So second second thing is filk. And, again,
I I tell good filk teachers, we teach
filk. After you get past prayer, we'll do
all that stuff. And even there, right, ask
people. I I did this one time with
a student of mine. I said, ask your
students
what are the most important questions. He said,
man, what I taught them was not it
was the opposite. What they thought important was
what I thought wasn't important. What I thought
was important. They were like, we already know
that, bro.
Can I wear a concealer and make what
we'll do? That was the top question he
got. Seriously?
He's like, I don't know what concealer was.
I was like, okay,
we'll
go to the mall, man. We'll straighten you
out. Right?
I'm not answering that question. You take his
class. But the point is, like, that was
a question to ask him.
I said to him, what are the top
four questions?
Perfume or alcohol?
Eyebrows, I had no idea about that till
I started doing Snapchat questions,
facial
stuff,
like if does the water make it there
or not?
And,
nail polish.
And then for men, it was issues related
to, like, can I pray at work of
this kind of situation, whatever, can I join
prayers, things like that? It wasn't what he
prepared.
So when you push into,
no doubt, there's things teacher probably tell you,
these are things you have to learn. But
after you get past that,
the maseil,
the questions, need to be what's important to
you. That makes it meaningful and sustainable.
That's my that's my mantra in education, religious
education. And then Tasawaf.
Not Tasawaf of the weird Barnes and Noble,
we're out here in space.
No, like I gave a hookah here, I
think, 10 years ago at that church, how
not to be a gentrifier.
That's dissolves.
Like, how are you not committing to the
the the punishment of a local population?
Like, you should be worried about zom. How
do you live? How do you push in
and live responsibly?
So not not the tasolev that's rooted in
this group fight, in that group, in that
sect, in this sect, in this no. No.
I need the tasolev that leads me to
worship Allah. Do I see him even though
I can't see him? I know he sees
me. If you focus on those 3 subjects
for your whole life outside of reading the
Quran correctly,
faith,
fiqh,
spiritual development,
you're gonna be fine.