Suhaib Webb – SWISS Summer Nights Aqida & Ihsan
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AI: Transcript ©
Okay. There we go.
Alhamdulillah.
Finally,
Quran says, we taught
people what they did not know. Alhamdulillah.
So Bismillah Alhamdulillah, Wassalamu
alaayna Muhammad
Assalamu alaikum to everybody. Hope everybody is doing
amazing.
Alhamdulillah. Appreciate everybody's patience. You know, I'm not
the most technically savvy person. So,
I've been trying to get this to work.
Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah. Allah is merciful. So, Asalaamu Alaikum,
teach and every one of you. It's a
pleasure to be with each and every one
of you. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
increase us in good. So as I was
saying,
earlier
that
this is part of our summer series here
at Swiss that we,
plan to do, like, summer school, if you
will,
that we and I'm trying to fix this
as well. There's a lot going on.
A
lot going on.
So I appreciate everybody's patience. So we'll try
to meet every
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Tuesday nights, we'll go through a simple text,
actually, an Azhar texts.
It's, part of the Ezhar curriculum, alhamdulillah,
that I translated some years ago. It's published.
You can find it on Amazon, alhamdulillah.
So we'll go through that text together over
the next few days. It's a text that's
taught, in the ISAR system, but we'll try
to make it a little bit more,
grassroots,
if you will,
for everybody.
And then tomorrow night,
Wednesday nights, it's really good. I think you'll
enjoy it. We're going through some contemporary issues.
My background is in Islamic law, hamdulillah. It's
what I specialized in, and we're going to
go through tomorrow night a discussion on why
why Muslim women are forbidden for marrying
non Muslim men?
Why is that position there? Why is that
the valid position?
And what are the evidences of that position?
The week after that, we'll talk about some
issues related to interest,
and then the week after that, we'll talk
about,
some fiqh related to direct actions.
And then the final week, we'll talk about
issues related to voting,
around voting. So we'll try to go through
some of the contemporary issues that are important
to people.
And then on Thursday nights, we're going through
a book in Tassawaf,
by Imam Al Muhasibi. So every Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, I'll meet you here live inshallah now
that I got
the tag down and it's great to be
with each and every one of you. We
begin first by praying for the brothers and
sisters in Gaza now, almost 200,000 people
have been massacred and also in, in the
Congo. And I have a friend that I
spoke to yesterday in the Congo,
had classmates from the Congo, hamdulillah.
Around 2,000,000 people have been killed,
in the Congo, and it's something that the
world is not really paying attention to,
as well as our Sudani brothers and sisters.
So tonight, hamdulillah, last week we began to
talk about what is an iman, and we
noted that the definition of iman
in the theological realm really agrees with the,
the dictionary definition, which is Tasdiq to affirm
something. You
know,
is to Yusuf after Aude Bilay and Mishaitan
Rajeem, the sons of Yaqub. They say to
Yaqub after they've
told him the story about what happened to
their brother, the lie that they made up
about what happened to their brother.
They said,
and you will never affirm what saying.
Like you will never to siddiq maqunna,
like you will not affirm what we've said.
So the word Iman linguistically
means to affirm something.
Tells the and that's a very important
word that we'll get to maybe in the
future
if we have time, because how do you
get to a point where you can affirm
something? The opposite of tells
tazdirk is taghrib
to deny it. Okay?
Linguistically,
that's the meaning, and then of course the
majority of Sunnis, not all the Sunnis
define Iman is Tasdirk Al Kalb.
Is to affirm it with the heart and
to say
Now we talked about some issues related to
the Shahada last week,
just on Friday, mashallah, in the the masjid
in Las Vegas. I saw 2 brothers accept
Islam. We have a lot of people embracing
Islam. We don't need to make things more
difficult for people,
right? We don't need to overburden people with
things that aren't there.
Then we talked about the definition of Sayna
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallamah when he was
asked about Iman, he said to believe with
Allah, with his angels, with his books, with
his messengers, with the day of judgment and
to believe,
with the hereafter and to believe in Qada
and Qadwalaykum salamu alhammatalabdar
Rashid.
So that's the definition of the prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam. And then we talked about
something really important, and that is that oftentimes
it's mistranslated.
It's translated as I believe in,
but the word bat in Arabic b, it
implies.
Right? The word ba has a number of
usages as an article preposition.
One of them is like when you use
something ba'ul'ala.
So, you know, like you can say,
kitab tu bil qalam, like I wrote with
the pen. So the pen is like the
tool I'm using to write, so this is
Baab Ba'ul Ala.
Also the Baab isti'ana,
right?
By Allah,
I will do this.
The other meaning of ba is ba al
ma'iya with.
So jit to be amrin, I came with
amr,
and this is very important. Pay attention, listen
to this man. It's very important. I know
the environment,
the current environment of the Muslim community is
not one that encourages learning,
but wallahi, if you learn a little, you
benefit a lot. That's been my experience my
whole life.
So the word ba also means to be
with, I came be Amr.
So when we say,
I believe with Allah,
Right? The implication is this witness, what's called
what
our scholars call in Arabic, even Hisham,
from the same word as Sahabi.
The same word as Sahabi.
So
means that I have this Sahba, I miss
Boston too, Wallahi.
I,
I have a sohba with Allah. I have
a relationship with Allah. So it's not just
I believe in,
it's I believe with, of course not literally,
we're not literally with Allah, Allah Subhana Wa
Ta'ala is ahirafaqaybari,
he's transcendent.
But when we reframe our relationship with faith
is I am with Allah, I'm with the
Prophet, I'm with the angels, I'm with the
books, I'm with the hereafter, I'm with fate,
whether good or bad. This is a much
more dynamic relationship
than the simple acquisition of rules.
Because now I understand that whatever is going
on in my life, and wherever I am
in my world,
I have a responsibility
to act as though
I am.
You know what I'm saying? In this
powerful relationship with Allah, with His angels, with
His books, with His messengers, with the day
of judgment,
with Allah and other. So that's a very
different way of thinking. The type of choices
that I make, the type of decisions that
I make in the face of sin and
evil
are going to be indicating
an indication of my sense of Alhamdulillah
being with Allah, being with the messenger of
Allah, being with the Quran,
being with the angels, being with the hereafter.
So if I sense that Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala sees me, so that's my ability to
have this witness with him. Nothing
is hidden from Allah.
So if I have a choice to do
sin or evil,
if I know that Allah sees me, walhamdulillah,
I'm with Allah, I choose the right thing.
Number 2 is
with the angels. I know the angels are
monitoring everything I say and everything I do.
So now I'm I'm gonna make the choice
like,
Allah says that the angels are with you,
they know everything you do.
So Allah says about himself,
can Allah
in the Allah Haqqana'araykum
Raqeeba,
Allah is with you, Allah sees you, He's
Raqib
about the angels. The
angels, they are there
monitoring you.
Number 2, the books. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam said, Al Quran, Hujatulakaawarik,
the Quran will be for you or against
you. So I'm with the Quran and the
Quran will either testify for me or against
me. We know the beautiful hadith of Sayyidina
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam that the Quran will
come and plead with Allah that this person
left their sleep to recite me.
The Quran will become a pro bono lawyer
for the Abid
in this dunya, SubhanAllah.
Then the hereafter
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
like with the akhira, they have certainty. When
I have certainty with the akhira,
that means again, the type of life I'm
living, the type of attachments that come into
my heart,
the type of things that may dissuade me
from living a life of the people of
Jannah, is easier for me to sort of
weed that out of my life because I'm
with the hereafter.
And then finally with Qada and Qadr,
bad things, good things, it doesn't bother me.
I'm with Allah. Whether it's good, walhamdulillah,
whether it's bad, I'm I'm patient for the
sake of Allah. As the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said, amazing is the believer. Every
affair of the believer is good and that
is for no one except the believer.
When they are afflicted with some difficult when
they are afflicted with a blessing, they are
thankful, and that's good for them. When they're
afflicted afflicted with some difficulty,
they are patient and that is good for
them. Wa laihi sadari kali ahadinilalal
mumin.
Then Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam said the
only one that gets this is the believer,
SubhanAllah.
So our life in qada and qadr is
between gratitude
and resilience.
So that's what we talked about last week.
Today, briefly,
want to talk about the first obligation of
Islam.
The first obligation.
When I ask people, and I'm asking people
now in the comments, like, what's the first
what's the if you haven't taken this class
with me, you can answer. If you're taking
this class, don't answer.
What's the first obligation?
If we ask people,
What's the first thing that we have to
do?
So somebody, Masha Allah, said salah, may Allah
bless you, Masha Allah, it's beautiful. Someone said
salah,
that's that's a good answer.
Someone said, say SubhanAllah,
that's a good answer. SubhanAllah,
Great answer Mashallah. Anyone else, what's the first
obligation
in Islam?
So we can think about it this way.
If you don't know how to pray, can
you pray?
If you don't know how to say SubhanAllah,
can you say SubhanAllah?
So the first obligation,
if you don't know what it means, can
you say Shahada? Mashallah, someone's saying shahada. These
are great answers. Actually, 2 people are saying
shahada. I think shahada may win,
the vote.
But if somebody doesn't understand Shahada, doesn't understand
what they're saying,
is that Shahada valid?
So here we see something. No matter what
you've mentioned, whether it's an act,
whether it's a thikr, whether it's a belief,
All 3 of them. Pay attention that is
great examples you gave hamdu'ilah.
All 3 of the examples that you gave.
All 3 of them need knowledge.
All 3 of them need knowledge.
How to pray, needs knowledge.
How to make vikr, needs knowledge. How to
believe,
needs knowledge. So the primary obligation
in Islam
is to learn and to think.
What a what a beautiful religion. And oftentimes,
when when Muslims hear this because of the
way that they've been educated, or the people
that they may have been around, who may
have been intimidating
educators,
they're shocked.
But we are a community
who believes, walhamdulillahi
rabbilalameen,
in education.
Education.
That's why the only thing
that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was commanded
in the Quran is to ask for an
increase in knowledge.
Oh my Lord, increase me in knowledge. And
if you look at the verse, it's really
interesting. It doesn't say
with Adiflam.
He says
Why? Increase me in knowledge,
not the knowledge,
knowledge. Why?
Any knowledge is beneficial
Oh my Lord, any knowledge
to show us the importance of learning.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the Quran
says,
are those who know and those don't know
the same. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala promises that
the people who learn, they will be raised
in their
their relationship with Allah in the hereafter.
Allah Subhanu wa Ta'ala says,
Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will raise the people of
faith and the people of knowledge amongst you.
And Allahu Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in the Quran,
he compares the people of knowledge
to the angels.
When he says Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, shayid Allahu
Anahu
That Allah testifies to his oneness, the angels
testify to his oneness,
and the possessors of knowledge testify to his
oneness. 1 of our teachers, Sheikh Baha Habesh,
lai'arhamu, he died of covid
from Egypt. He said, Allah compares the people
of knowledge to the angels,
because the job of knowledge should take you
to the Yaqeen
like the angels have, if possible. And number
2, the knowledge should cause you to work
to stay away from sin and evil, subhanAllah,
just like the angels.
SubhanAllah. But the point is the first obligation
is to learn.
The first obligation is to think.
And so Sheikh Ahmed ad Dardir,
in this book that we are going to
go through together, he says, yejibu. The word
yejib means wajib fart.
Yajibu, we know the waw is gone from
the front of the word wajiba, in the
Mudari, always the harfa'illah,
Mahfu is Mahthufa,
you know, whatever you have with alif, well,
or you at the beginning of a past
tense verb, when you make it into a
present tense verb, you cancel
one of those.
Yeah. So you don't say,
you say, you jibbu.
It is obligate obligatory
upon the mukalaf.
And here he says, this is the primary
thing that we have to learn, that what
is obligatory
upon the mukalaf, we'll talk about the mukalaf
in a second,
the responsible person
is ma'rifah of Allah.
That's why when you say their first obligation
is to learn and think, it's true,
But within that, the most important obligation of
learning and thinking is to learn, think,
and think about Allah.
And that's really a way to respond to
atheists
who say, because of their experience with the
judo Christian, or more so the Christian community,
They said that religion doesn't encourage you to
ask questions.
Religion doesn't encourage you to learn. But subhanAllah,
look look, the first obligation of Islam is
to think and learn about Allah.
That's why one of the names of aqeedah
in Islam, what's it called? Al Muqalam.
What does Kalam mean? Who can tell me?
Al Muqalam, the knowledge of what? What is
Kalam?
The answer is in our tradition,
our scholars were smart, so they named theology.
What? Ilmu Kalam, the knowledge of talking, because
you're going to talk about Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's not il musukut, the
knowledge of being quiet, it's ilmukaram,
we should talk about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And that's why in the Quran,
pay attention Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala invites us
to think about him in 2 ways, generally
and specifically. And usually when someone's shy or
someone doesn't want you to think about them
or someone doesn't want you to know them,
they try to hide either their particulars
or their general general qualities.
But in the Quran, Allah commands us to
learn about him generally, Faram, annahu la ilaha
illahu, you must know, you must learn La
ilaha illallah.
But then also Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
commands us to think about the particulars of
how Allah does
thing. Did you not see the fa'il, the
actions of Allah?
Right? The commands of Allah is what it
means.
Look at the details.
So not only is Allah unlike
other religions that atheists confuse Islam with, Allah
is not only inviting us to learn about
him generally, but also saying, look at the
specific things I've done so that you can
draw nearer to me and know me more
and more and more and more. SubhanAllah.
It's very different.
And that's why we have to be very
careful when we teach religion
for educators and teachers. I'm more worried about
content providers who are untrained,
that they are in their own insecurities and
inability to feel comfortable in their ignorance.
They push people away. But in front of
Allah, all of us are ignorant, SubhanAllah.
Every day of my life I learned something
new about Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Every day I've been Muslim
now 30 something years. Every day of my
life
I learned something new about Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala.
But the point is the Quran
encourages us to look and learn about Allah
in a general way, in a specific way,
it's called the Imuqalam.
So
The first obligation
upon the mukalaf
is ma'rifah of Allah.
That's why Imam Abuhamad
al Qazari Rahimohullah,
Imam al Qazari,
Imam al Thehabi,
the student of Imam Ibn Taymiyyah,
he writes about Imam Abu Hamad Al Qazari
and Imam Adhahabi is Athari
in his aqeedah.
He writes about Imam Abu Hamad in Siraalam
Manubala,
his history of the Ulema.
He mentions some of the criticisms
that were thrown at Imam Abu Mohammed.
Al Qazari
Rahimuhullah.
Then after responding to those criticisms,
Imam Ad Dahabi says,
Then he says,
Imam,
Daha'bi, even though he has his differences with
the Imam Al Qazari, compare Imam Daha'bi to
the immaturity on social media.
After mentioning Abuhamad he says, but where is
anyone today in our time like him?
SubhanAllah, look at the adab and the etiquette.
So Imam Abu Hamad Al Khazari said, the
first thing we have to learn about is
Allah.
The first thing we have to learn is
about Allah. And the word that Sheikh Ahmed
ad Dardir, he uses and someone asked what
book is this? It's,
which is taught in the SR. I translated
it. You can find it on Amazon. If
somebody can't afford it, just send me a
message. I'll send you the PDF. Just don't
tell,
Jeff Basil
that I sent you the PDF. You're gonna
get me in trouble.
He says,
The word Marifa
is a very beautiful word, you know. It's
from the word araf.
Araf means something that sticks out.
That's why we say a nice smell is
called the Orf.
Orf Anashir.
There's a famous book, in Ahmed
Heb.
So
means a nice smell.
Is the ability
to learn about something that you had to
invest in. So, like, if you smell something,
you think it's something nice, but you're not
sure. You have to you have to keep
smelling and smelling and smelling and smelling until
you arrive to affirmation.
Pay attention to the word I use now.
So you affirm
that that is what it is.
With Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, we arrived to
Ma'rifa when we learn from the Quran and
the sunnah and through worship and through Allah
opening up our heart, Alhamdulillah,
we learn and learn and learn and learn
until we arrive at the affirmation
of Allah's existence,
and who Allah is, and what did I
define iman as, as affirmation.
So the the outcome,
natijat
sihat al marifa
tasdiun
kamilun
sahihun.
The outcome of truly learning about Allah in
this way, Arf,
with my senses, with my mind, with my
heart, with everything learning,
the outcome
is Usaddiqujulullah,
that I affirm the existence of Allah
as Allah has commanded in the Quran. And
that's why I said earlier the meaning of
iman is tazdik.
SubhanAllah. And that's why the Quran says
that those who have the most reverence for
Allah are those who know him.
Those who have the most reverence for Allah
are those who know him.
So, and pay attention. The prophet said, when
someone steals, they're not a believer. When someone
commits zina, they're not a believer.
Why? Because at that moment, at that moment,
their knowledge, it's not that they're kufar,
but their knowledge has fallen.
So the outcome of Marifa, the Natija to
Marifa
is to affirm the existence of Allah.
So the Sheikh,
Sheikh Ahmad ad Dardi
He said that is the first
obligation, and you're gonna go on this journey
with me over the next few weeks,
especially
tonight and on Thursdays
on this path to Allah.
So many people can take us to so
many different places, but where we need to
go is to Allah,
because it's better we go to Allah now
than after we die.
When we die, we're gonna meet Allah.
So we should be preparing now and living
as people of Jannah now,
and and being ready. How do we do
that?
Ma'rifah of Allah. How do we achieve ma'rifah
of Allah? From Quran and Sunnah. How it
describes Allah, the principles and rules taken from
the Quran and Sunnah that we take from
a book like this in theology.
And number 3, worship.
The more we truly worship,
the
more
our Ma'rifah and zouk
of Allah will increase.
So the Shaykh he says
That the primary obligation
is this Ma'rifa.
The word Ma'rifa I said earlier is really
important, something that sticks out. That's why what's
the 7th chapter of the Quran? Who knows
the name? What's the name of the 7th
chapter of the Quran?
Surah 2,
a'raf from the same word,
because the the the planes stick out.
What is custom
called in Arabic?
Because it's what it's what defines a people
is their customs.
Right? What they do, their norms, their customs
is called Uruf because it sticks out.
So
ma'rifah of Allah
means that I invest
in learning
about Allah
till the haqq and the haqqiqa
stick out.
The haqqiqa.
And now I live in this world
not as someone who's blinded by the world
and can't see Allah.
I live as someone who is seeing the
light of Allah and the command of Allah,
and that dictates everything for me in this
dunya.
And that's why the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam has said, to worship Allah as though
you see him even though you can't see
him.
At least you know he sees you. Exactly,
that someone wrote, subhanAllah, those who know Allah
through Allah's attributes smell their fragrance and know
the fragrance. Exactly. Why do we have 99
names of Allah?
To allow us to contextualize
our experiences
within that ma'rifah of Allah.
As one of my teachers used to say,
the disbeliever says it's because of nature.
The believer says that nature is because of
Allah.
Right? It's 2 2 very different things.
That Allah has no cause, but everything around
us has a cause and the cause of
everything except Allah is kun faya kun.
And this is what it means to say
La Ilahi Allah. Somebody maybe say, this is
Wahdatulwujud,
you Sheikh, this is not Wahdatulwujud,
this is Wahdatushuhud.
It's a very different thing, Wahdatushuhud.
So the Shaykh he says,
That the first obligation
is to know
what is obligatory to Allah, which are 20
things, actually 50 things. What's obligatory
to the prophets that we have to learn
are around 12,
and then what we have to learn which
is an obligation to believe about the angels.
And that's what we're going to go through
bi izni laihi subhanahu wa ta'ala. BarakAllahu
fiqum.
Next week we're gonna talk a little bit
about the mukalaf,
who is responsible,
and it's very important.
And then we'll get into what is an
obligation for us to believe about Allah in
detail. If you have any questions, I'll take
them now. If not, mashallah, I like to
keep it short and sweet. Tomorrow night, we're
going to be talking about a very important
issue that a number of people ask about,
and that is why can Muslim women not
marry
non Muslim men?
So we'll talk about that
and give
the reasons for that. So every someone's asking,
is this weekly or daily? So every Tuesday
night, we do aqidah.
Every Wednesday night, we do a contemporary issue.
Every Thursday night, we do Tosawaf
or
at 11:15
New York City time.
And this is sponsored free by our school,
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have any Swiss students in the comments box,
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Yeah, 11 pm, 11 pm Eastern. Thank you.
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Right? But we teach Arabic, Qara'at,
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And as Imam al Shaltibis says, Wa Alaihi
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Muttaakila.
If there's any questions, if not, Alhamdulillah, I
hope this gives you something to think about.
Ma'arif of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, how that
should be translated into obedience
to
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Join.
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Someone's asking. So someone said great school, highly
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I think people really enjoyed it. Alhamdulillah.
Habakkala haftani fee. May Allah bless you insha
Allah.
Any other questions? If not, we'll see you
guys tomorrow.
I'm gravely limited, especially on TikTok, man. It's
crazy.
What they told me that every one of
my post is being monitored.
Meta, they told me that I am shadow
banned.
Alhamdulillah, they can shadow ban me, but they
can shadow ban the Ummah. So if you
can help spread the word,
that will be participant,
much appreciated.
JazakAllah Khairan. Wassalamualaasayda
Muhammad