Suhaib Webb – SWISS Islamic Studies 1316 Part One Course Introduction
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Go
here.
So if you guys go here, you should
be able to
follow me here.
I don't know what is going on with
this thing, man. This is this is nuts.
Unfortunately, it looks like Crowdcast
cannot handle this many people.
So
I'm going to
go here.
Okay.
So it looks like we had to move,
because we have so many people on that
that platform. It looks like Crowdcast
can't handle
that number of people.
So the text that we are
going over
is a text called the Essentials of Islamic
Faith.
Alhamdulillah.
That book we are going to teach, to
you all, and it's a very important book
that kind of covers the foundations of faith
and and really helps make things,
I think relevant
to the lives of young Muslims. As I
said earlier,
it's it's
it creates,
satisfaction and motivation
as well as a sense of responsibility and
discipline.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the Quran he
describes
He was like dead, Allah resuscitated him with
faith. If we look at the magicians in
the time of
those magicians, subhanAllah,
they had this awakening, right? They had this
revival of faith. Unfortunately, now we see sometimes
with this demographic
of young brothers and sisters, the way faith
is taught, you're intimidated,
you're not encouraged to ask questions, you're not
encouraged to engage in the name of neo
traditionalism,
you turn the Sheikh to be more important
than Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and so on
and so forth. And these are a lot
of serious problems in our education system, or
we just have people who are untrained and
unqualified teaching,
and again hurt people.
So hurt people hurt people, we want to
motivate you and to encourage you and want
to be there for you and your
parents, especially as you're going through this difficulty
with the coronavirus,
all of us are quarantined.
It's not easy, it's not easy, it's a
very fearful time. So we thought it would
be important, masha'Allah, to kind of recap and
go through a text
that touches on the foundations of faith and
aqidah
faith and aqidah.
So the book that we're going to go
through is called Al Aqidah al Tawhidh. It's
written by a teacher of a teacher of
a teacher of one of my teachers, Masha'Allah.
And it's it's a really cool book and
I wrote an explanation
of it and I used the questions
that I got on Snapchat from young people.
I use those questions from them to actually
put this book together. So that way it
stays somewhat relevant. And I encourage you also
to ask questions. Right? And engage. The more
you ask, the more you you you learn
and the more you engage. I I remember
when I started teaching at NYU, I started
teaching a a a halakah for young Muslims
and,
it was in tafsir. And people would raise
their hands and whenever they would raise their
hands, they would say, like,
sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
And, you know, I began to notice, like,
why are people saying they're sorry?
And
it was strange to me. So finally, I
wasn't taught that way.
I was taught that, you know, it's encouraged
to ask questions.
My teachers were secure enough for people to
ask them questions,
and if they didn't know, they didn't know.
So I remember
finally asked them, like, can I ask you
guys a question?
Why are you
saying sorry before you ask? And they said,
well, we were taught, like, in Islam, Sunday
school allowed to ask questions.
You know the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
he said you
know the
for
any illness is to ask a question
is to ask a question. So, alhamdulillah, we're
gonna start this text together. In the chat,
you can actually find an unedited
print,
of Rilla
that you can use
as we go through this book together In
the introduction of this book, and there are
actually going to be quizzes, drills,
questions, and answers. There is actually a syllabus
that I will be sending out to you
as well.
So, Insha Allah, this is this is an
actual class. Right? You're expected to do certain
things.
In the beginning of the book, I talk
about an experience that I had when,
I was very young,
and SubhanAllah, I was traveling
on the road from Kansas City to Oklahoma
City
and this was like in the nineties, man.
So I actually when I was in college,
because conversion also comes sometimes with a financial
sacrifice.
So when I converted to Islam, I immediately
had to become self reliant. I had to
fund my life, basically.
So I bought a car for $250.
Yes.
$250.
$250.
It was crazy.
And
that car was an orange 1983
Toyota.
Yeah. And it had this old school radio,
that, you know, like, you could only listen
to, like, radio. So as I was
driving home,
I
started to, like, get sleepy. You know what
I'm saying? So I turned on
the radio, and I started listening to talk
radio. And this guy came on. He was
like, today, we're gonna talk about a threat
to America. He's this white dude. We talk
about a threat to America, the incoming invasion.
I was like, holy holy camo. Like,
incoming invasion, you know, start freaking out. And
he's like, al Islam and these Muslims.
So I was like, what? So I got
upset because I was Muslim. I was actually
in a tow. You know what I'm saying?
Going to the country,
the $250
Toyota.
And,
so I pulled over and I got to
a pay phone, for those of you who
remember what a pay phone is.
And I called the radio station,
and I was ready to go go full
double barrel on this dude, man.
So
I called the radio station,
and
I got on. And I didn't say, like,
my name is Suhayb Abdul Jabbar, even David,
even Mary, even Abdul
I was like, my name is William Webb.
You know what I mean? So I used
I used that card. So, yo, my name
hello. My name is William Webb.
So I talk like that. You know what
I'm saying? And,
I got on,
and they had this specialist who was an
Egyptian Christian,
and he was just, like, throwing us under
the bus, man. He was, like, really, really
saying things about Islam that are unacceptable.
So I I got on the air with
him, and I began to go back and
forth with him, and he got so angry
that
the host asked him to calm down.
But the reason that I was able to
do that, the reason that I was able
to pull over,
look for 75¢ in my seat, and make
that phone call is I had studied.
I was studying with a teacher,
and
that gave me the confidence.
And one of the the the outcomes of
studying correctly
is confidence, not arrogance. There's a difference between
arrogance and confidence.
Confidence.
So
that is one of the reasons that I
put this book together for young people is
that I feel sometimes the ethos of education
in the Muslim community is very power driven.
It's about establishing personal power of the teacher
or personal power of the group or personal
power of the board, and even sometimes unhealthy
power between family and child.
To be honest with you, where I believe
that religion is liberation.
Right? Religion is about having a relationship with
Allah
that teaches me how to have a responsible
relationship with my parents, with my friends, with
my family and others.
So this book, alhamdulillah, is the fruit of
that experience.
And the second thing is, as I said
earlier, when I was on Snapchat a few
years ago,
I took all the questions
that people ask me about faith, and I
plugged them into
this text. So we're going to go through
an actual Azhar textbook, Azhar is like the
Hogwarts to the Muslim world. Azhar
is like the Hogwarts to the Muslim world
without the magic,
And then we're gonna go through the questions
together.
So if you actually look at the text
that I sent you,
there are actually are going to be 9
sections that we're going to cover. It's in
the syllabus. And for parents, I have the
lesson plans available.
So if you contact me through Swiss, I
can send you,
and I'll put my email address here, Swiss.
I can send you in for the students
that are interested. I can
also,
the
lesson plans
and so on and so forth. So
let's start actually the first
chapter of the book after the introduction where
I talk about my experience,
in the car is the first thing that
Sheikh Ahmed Dardir, the writer of the book,
says and and says is a foundational
obligation of Islam
is something very powerful.
And I've always found this extremely beautiful. It's
one of the reasons I became Muslim
is because as a Christian, I was told
not to think. Right? As a Christian, I
was told
but Sheikh Ahmed dear, dear, he says and
and you can see it in the chat.
I put it there for you insha'Allah.
He says that in Islam,
the first obligation, the first thing that's obligatory
upon any human being from the perspective of
Islam is what he's gonna talk about now.
This is what we're gonna talk about today.
What is the first obligation
of Islam?
And usually and you can type it. Let
me ask this question.
Without looking at the text or without trying
to answer from the text I showed you,
what do you actually think the first obligation
in Islam is? Like, if if you were
to
to, just based on what you know
Just based on what you know, what do
you think the first obligation of Islam is?
And oftentimes when I ask students is they
say salah, zakah, hajj,
you know, they say,
being a better person,
you know,
being good to parents. So my question is
to you in the chat, and you can
type answers.
What do you think
the first
obligation
and the son is.
And I'm just gonna be professor, so you
have to forgive my my typos.
So,
someone said to believe, to worship Allah. Good
job, Sana. Excellent. Asim, says to read.
Excellent job.
So
all those answers are are are sort of
correct. In fact, Asma is really close. Amna
is saying to pray, sunnah, to have faith.
I really happy to see you guys sharing,
to think for yourself, Susan Sultan, you're getting
a like.
I'm actually gonna like everybody's because, you know,
there's really no wrong answer when you're learning.
Learning is the ability to take risks. So
if you fail, you can learn from failure.
Oftentimes, teachers don't want people to make mistakes,
but often it's through mistakes that we learn.
Nice job, Bahap. Nice to see you. That's
my sister. You know, I
I was asked my teacher one time,
how did you memorize the Quran so well?
And he said to me, because I forgot
it so well. Like, really beautiful thing. It's
like, because when I forgot it, I will
go back and memorize it.
Right, with greater vigor. So the point is
he's saying,
it's okay to make mistakes. Right? Oh, Hooma,
I love your suggestion. Do not harm others.
Masha Allah.
To worship Allah and do what is told
to you. That's excellent to bear witness that
there's no except Allah. Masha Allah, you guys.
These are great suggestions. And I see you
moved to Ikram who's a scholar, Masha'Allah, great
scholar here with us. So
according to Sheikh Ahmed Dardir and according to
the majority of of Sunni theologians putting the
text here again that we're reading together and
the link to the text above.
That's beautiful.
The first obligation
is to think.
And in classical
Islamic theology,
you have this notion of what are called
wasa'il and maqasid,
means and objectives.
So, like, wudu.
Wudu is a means to salah.
Right? So wudu, since salah is an obligation,
wudu now becomes an obligation.
This is a really, really cool point that
sometimes
in Islam,
I'm gonna type in here for you means
become the same
as their
goals.
Meaning, they take the same ruling. So like
wudu, just to make wudu is sunnah. Right?
To be in the state of
wudu. But because wudu is
a means to accomplish an obligation,
it becomes an obligation.
If you can understand at a very young
age, and and and I and I don't
like when people say young people are stupid.
No. When you're young, you have greater energy
for wisdom.
You have greater energy to learn.
Like, we don't have this kind of,
ageism
in Islam. We
respect and,
we respect our youth.
So
at this age between 13 15, if you
can begin to start to think of your
life within the framework of
these are the things that lead to other
things.
So, like, I wanna go to college. Right?
I wanna go to a good college. What
is gonna cause me to go to college?
And sometimes when I'm advising students at NYU
and they ask me, like, I wanna go
to Oxford. I wanna go to Harvard. I
wanna go add a student.
She wants to volunteer
in a refugee camp in Lebanon. May Allah
bless her. We had a student who went
to the border of Mexico
and America and entered under Imam Khaled's guide.
Like, she started an NGO to help sexually
trafficked
to women that were being kicked out of
America by ICE. Like,
when I asked these people, how did you
get there?
I don't like to, like, hear, like,
the beginning. I like to hear the end
and walk backwards.
So one of the things I want you
to think about is in your goals in
life.
It's every Monday, actually, every Monday and Friday
in in the Surah. I want you to
think about walking backwards. So here's my success.
I wanna be an imam.
Okay. How did I get there? Then I
go backwards.
I graduated from Azhar. How did I get
to Azhar? I went to Madras.
Why did I go to Madrasah?
Then what did I do? So try to
think about things backwards. So if you look
at salah, salah is an obligation.
So will do is a key to salah,
so then will do becomes now an obligation.
It's a strategy.
Now with faith,
how does someone have faith?
And I'm gonna ask that question. How
do
you have faith?
So if you can imagine yourself right now
as the best believer,
how did you get there?
Where you have that in that you wanted
to?
I'm gonna ask that question to you guys.
So how did you get to that point
where
I have this high level of faith, my
relationship with Allah is healthy?
What was key to that process?
What was like one of the more important
means to achieve that? So go backwards. We
tend to think of me and then I
have to work towards like faith. No. Think
backwards.
According to the majority of our our scholars,
and and here's what Sheikh Ahmed Dardir says,
and this is so beautiful, man.
This is so beautiful.
The first thing is to learn.
The first thing is to think. So he
says
Right here you see
Because if I don't know, I can't believe.
So knowledge,
according to the majority of our scholars,
comes before faith.
That's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, if you
go to,
let me find the verse for you quickly.
Look at this verse in Quran.
And it may actually be in the text
I sent you but I just wanna make
sure that I'm I'm I'm giving it to
you here.
If you go to Shulto Muhammad, such a
beautiful surah
If you go to Shulto Muhammad,
if you go to the 19th verse,
the translation kind of loses something. I wish
I had the clear Quran translation with me.
But because it's by Mustafa Khattab, it's so
good.
But actually the verse
here we used to know
You must learn
So learning
comes before
faith.
Isn't it incredible to know if you look
at like the Islamophobes
on TV, maybe some bullies at your school,
maybe even people around you sometimes ask crazy
questions about Islam.
They think that Islam is, like, anti intellectual.
They think that Islam
is anti use of the mind. We are
the only religion
who its first obligation
is to think and learn,
and that comes before
faith.
And that's why over and over in the
Quran,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
will they not look?
They think about the heavens and the earth.
What is it they're thinking about?
They're thinking about Allah.
So I want you to understand something in
this class. This is not like a class
you've ever taken before with a teacher perhaps
that you've ever had before.
I want to encourage you to think.
I want you to feel empowered to ask
good questions.
I want you not to be a shy
student can't learn. I don't want you to
be those kids that I used to teach
and say, sorry, sorry. You know what I
actually did in that halakah? I said, whoever
says sorry, they have to pay $5
to Islamic Relief or Penny Appeal or LaunchGood
or something. Like, if you're
gonna keep saying sorry, then
you have to, like, actually give charity. Don't
be sorry for asking a question.
It's important to you,
and you have that question. So I want
you to
feel in this in this that we share
together, and tomorrow we'll try to get crowdcast
working again. We had so many people there.
It's crazy. Almost a 1000 people registered.
But the first obligation
in Islam
As we as we finish,
today
because of the interesting technical difficulties, and I'm
so thankful for your patience and
grace,
you know, and and and and not,
you know,
getting frustrated or upset. Like, you don't have
to worry about me. I'm good. I've been
doing this for quite a while. So,
inshallah, Allah will give me Sabr.
But what is it that I wanted you
to learn today? First of all, my personal
story. I thought it was very important to
share with you my personal narrative, so we
can build a real relationship with one another.
And then secondly, the introduction to the text,
why I wrote the text and why this
class is important. And then first is the
first principle.
That the first obligation
is to think
and learn.
And there's actually a really cool text that
I teach,
3rd year or 4th years.
And in in that in that
he he says
he said the first obligation
the first obligation upon you is
to think is to think.
He said
the first obligation is marifa. The word marifa
also
is a very beautiful
you said marifa. Marifa has two meanings. Word
marifa
is from
and
means to smell. If I say
I smell something, you know, a here's example
I can give you,
like, my wife,
is Lebanese Persian. So that means I eat
really good
I
cook well because I can't keep up. Oklahoma
and Iran and Lebanon, there's no
you can't compare the 2 when it comes
to culinary talents. So my wife's here, I'm
some down here I'm somewhere down here with
McPinto beans and tortillas.
Not even tortillas, biscuits, old school biscuits from
the country. She's doing like kebabs and she's
killing the game. But
if you ever woken up in the morning
and you think you smell breakfast, you're like,
or like at the time of iftar, you
smell something and you're like,
what is that? Is that manakish? Is that
biryani? Is that nahari? Is that, like, halal
turkey bacon? What is going on? And you
smell it. You smell it. You smell it.
And and then as you get closer to
it or as you get to the kitchen,
you smell it, and then
you realize what it is. So the smelling
is is out of out of out of
too shape.
The
the
outcome when you
figure out what it is is called marifa.
It's really beautiful. Right? So when I'm able
to make a judgment on what I've smelled,
that's marifa.
Here in Islamic theology, in our tradition, it's
used metaphorically to mean 2 things.
Marifa means 2 things,
and you need to know this.
Number 1,
learning
rules
and principles.
And forgive my typos.
Number 2 is to live.
Because in order for me to understand what
is being cooked, I have to experience. I
have to go and get close to it.
I have to go and get close to
it.
And and and I can't just be like,
wow. You know,
this is so cool. No. I have to
I have to learn some rules. So in
my relationship with Allah, there's rules that I
learned and that's what this book is gonna
teach us. Right?
At the same time, I have to live
faith. I can't just simply,
you know, learn and not live. I have
to
live and learn.
I have to live and learn. So the
word marifa when the Sheikh,
he
says, When he says the first obligation upon
you is marifa. You know what that that
means? Something really powerful and really invigorating for
you.
That means that
you not only have to learn faith, you
have to live it.
Allah says about the prophets,
that the prophets walked in the markets.
They didn't just learn Allah
taught you, but then
you're the Ummah that sent to the people.
So let us ask ourselves if we wanna
be critical in our evaluation of Islamic studies
teachers.
If we wanna be critical of some of
our parenting,
Are we encouraging
children to be inquisitive when it comes to
issues of faith?
Are we encouraging younger generations
of Muslims to ask questions?
Are we encouraging them to live faith, or
are we incubating them from the world in
a way which is perhaps unhealthy?
That
the prophets experienced and that the sheikh is
talking about is the marriage
of learning
with living. So in my class,
this class with you, 13 to 15 year
olds. This class with you is I'm going
to challenge you to learn.
Inshallah, when this virus is gone, I'm going
to challenge you to live.
And then you're gonna you're going to reflect
your experiences back to me. So you teach
me. A good teacher isn't someone who just
teaches. A good teacher learns.
So this class is about learning
and living.
Learning and living. Not just learning and not
just living. To live without learning would be
to be like heathenry.
To learn
without living would be hypocrisy.
So Islam is about the marriage of learning
and living. What a beautiful religion. Our religion
is dope. And that's why it's important to
study
classical text because the classical text sometimes
suddenly
accomplishes someone. Sheikh Ahmed Dardir
Rahim Ohola. His
first obligation is to learn and live.
Not just to learn
and not just to live.
He 3 is to live without learning.
Learning
without living is hypocrisy,
and that's why
now you can appreciate.
That's okay, Em. Pray for us. And when
you go pray, you can come back. It'll
be recorded.
It will be
nowhere.
So at the end of it, what do
you ask Allah?
Guide us to the straight
path. The way of those who earned your
favor. Who are those who earned your favor
according to Ibn Qayyim? Those who earned Allah's
favor are those who learn and live.
Learning and live right. Not just live. Live
right.
Those who learned and didn't live right.
Those who went astray are those who live
without learning.
So subhanAllah,
every
every time we say
guide us to the
path
of those you blessed or those you favored.
We are actually
we are
And I'm typing in here for you. We
are actually
asking.
Guide
us to my
Oh,
yeah.
I think you guys are gonna enjoy that.
So
I'm asking Allah to make me someone who
learns and lives.
Then he uses the word and tomorrow
we're going to talk about
what is the and what it is that
we should learn.
I can take any questions that you have.
Now I see a lot of questions about
scheduling. Listen.
Whenever I teach a class like this, I'm
gonna give you housekeeping items before and after.
This class is taught 3 times a week.
Monday,
Wednesday, Friday, it's on Crowdcast. But today, so
many young people, we had a 1,000 young
people register,
came there that
they they broke the Internet, man. Forget the
Kardashians, man. We got the Muslims breaking the
Internet.
We break it with Noor. You know what
I'm saying? We break it with light.
So and we moved it to Facebook live.
If on Wednesday at 2 o'clock EST,
we have another problem like this, we will
come directly to Facebook live and teach again.
So the book is posted. The PDF is
there. You can register Miriam at if you
put Sui Swiss,
s w I s s. Let me let
me put the link up for you. Here's
if you can register.
Swiss
Event.
Right.
So hey. So let me let me put
this link for you.
Here's the schedule of all the the courses
that we're offering
at SoHEY Web Institute. Everything is free.
We have classes for 13 to 15 year
olds, this class. 16 to 8 year 18
year olds, which is about to start in
a minute. We have Imam Abdul Adani. Who's
gonna be teaching a class to 19 20
year olds. We have Sheikh Hassan Fay, who's
gonna be teaching college students. We have sister
Rumaisa who's doing yoga on Saturday mornings. Sister
Mubarik Ibrahima. Mubarik
Ibrahim is gonna be doing fitness on Sundays.
We have a class tonight on Teskilat Nasoshek
Imran Masurha.
So there's a lot happening. It's all free.
If you wanna support the work that we
do, you can enroll at SWISS for $10
a month. That's all we ask at swiftweb.com.
Stella, we'll see you guys tomorrow
for all the technical issues,
that we went through. My apologies. If tomorrow
when we jump on, Wednesday, when we jump
on, the crowd quest platform, if it still
has problems, immediately we'll come here, and we'll
meet you guys here. But I appreciate your
patience. So what did we talk about today
as we finished?
We talked about my personal narrative to build
a relationship with one another.
Secondly, we talked about,
parents, you need to email me
here to get the lesson plans and the
syllabus.
On Wednesday, you'll have homework for the first
time. I was gonna give you homework today,
but
because I didn't have enough time,
to start yet. The 6th to 8th o
is gonna start in about an hour.
And
we'll share that that those homework options with
you on Wednesday.
And what else we talked about is the
idea of the first obligation or primary obligation
of Islam is that means can take
the the the same importance as what they
lead to. So like if you if you
wanna if you wanna play basketball, you can't
play basketball without a basketball. So the basketball
is as important as playing.
So we'll do it to salah.
Learning to faith is the same. So learning
to faith is like that that ball to
playing basketball.
You understand that? So we talked about
about life,
a a a a way of structuring it
based on means and objectives. And then I
said, walk it backwards. Like, start from success
and ask yourself how you got there. Because
you know why?
If you can't imagine how you got to
be
in what you're trying to do, then maybe
you're not really gonna go there. Like, you
gotta have a path in your mind of
how you got there. When people come to
me, like, you know,
I want to be an electrical engineer. How?
I don't know. How are you gonna do
it if you don't?
And then we talked about the primary obligation
of Islam.
The first obligation is to know God
is to think and live for God,
and to think and live
and believe in the minds, and to think
and then believe in the prophets.
Inshallah,
on Wednesday
next. And if you wanna read ahead, you
can and do the homework. And if you're
a student in this class,
you can send me your homework assignments.
So if you keep reading,
you see a short discussion about what responsibility
is, and then there's like 5 or 6
questions there. If you have any questions now
about the coursework that we covered
just now, we can take it. If not,
I will see you guys. We'll try once
again on Wednesday at Crowdcast. Inshallah, hopefully it
will work.
If it doesn't work, barakallam fika, and
to those of you who joined,
on Facebook live, it's nice to see you.
I pray that everyone's quarantine
is an opportunity to find something about our
souls and our relationship with Allah, to increase
our relationship with our families, and this time
that we have together. I'm gonna be starting
a class for 16 to 8 year 18
year olds in about an hour.
We'll try again
on,
Crowdcast.
And if it doesn't work there,
we'll move here.
Nora, there's no need to reregister. You can
just jump in from there, and I appreciate
you being a top fan, and I really
appreciate that, Nora. You can jump in.
Ghaida, I said homework will be given on
Wednesday,
because today, we didn't have time to do
the homework because of technical issues,
subhanAllah.
But it's a pleasure and I think especially
the young people who stayed patients patient and,
you know,
continue.
You didn't miss. Again, the homework will be
given on Wednesday. There was no homework given
today.
So there was nothing that you would need
to think about. But if someone wants to
go ahead and read ahead and do the
homework that's there, it's in the reading.
They can do it.
Zakam Allahu Khairan Barak Allahu Fikum.
We really appreciate you. And there are actually
gonna be classes for senior citizens. There's a
class tonight for senior citizens. There's actually a
class tonight at 8:30
on purification of the soul with Sheikh Imran,
that is open to everybody. We have almost
700 people
registered. Sorry. 400 people registered in that class.
It's good to see you. I need to
get in touch with you and talk to
you about some