Suhaib Webb – The Branches of Faith Sh Mahmoud Hijazi

It's my honor and my pleasure to introduce

everyone to doctor Mahmoud Hijazi.

Actually, the son of one of our professors

in Azhar, doctor Fatiha Jazhi, who was the

former dean,

there in the college of Arabic, especially in

the department of Balakha.

Sheikh Mahmoud, he is a graduate of Al

Azar University with a specialization

in, local Arabia and the different sciences related

to Arabic language. And also

he's currently a teacher, in the Azhar system.

And actually one of,

one of our

someone that we have like a lot of

love for and someone that I've known. And

I've known him actually more than 20 years.

Taqrib Ashwin Sanah

SubhanAllah.

And we spent time together in Egypt. So

he's going to be coming to Swiss every

week here live,

teaching the book of the Imam Al Bayhaki,

Shoaib al Iman, the branches of Iman. We

have a doctor Marwa Ibrahim who is doing

her PhD, soon to be a doctor inshallah,

at University of North Carolina.

She's going to be translating, and then I

will be in the comments making sure that

they get any relevant questions.

In the name of God the merciful and

the compassionate

and we send our sings and praise and

salutations

upon

prophet Muhammad

The Sheikh welcomes you warmly

at this meeting, at this gathering

and introduces,

the book he will be discussing, which he

recommends as a book that

every Muslim should read or know about.

It is an abridged version of a book

on the branches of faith by Imam al

Bayhaghi,

and it was abridged in this current version

by who's

of Shafi'i

from the Shafi'i tradition.

He explains that it is a short book

but contains

great knowledge,

and it contains

the information,

as well as

quotes from Hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi

wasallam on how we understand the branches of

faith.

The sheikh

mentions the Hadith that there are over

70 branches of faith.

The highest is to bear witness that there

is no God but Allah and that Mohammed

sallallahu alaihi wasallam is his messenger,

and the lowest

is to remove any harm from the road.

And modesty is also of faith.

Said,

why then Tahareem

The sheikh introduces

the the contents of the book.

He begins with the important branch of Iman

that is

explained in the book and that one being

love of Allah

and fear of Allah.

And

the Muslims

the Muslims

should have both

fear of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and love

for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

and should find the balance between the 2.

And that will be explained in the book.

The second most important

aspect of faith or branch is

love for the prophet, sallallahu

alaihi wa sallam,

And,

and then followed after that is explaining,

the

duties of the Muslim towards people,

and society.

The sheikh is explaining that Imam Al Bayhafi,

the author of this book,

has

a great place in Islamic tradition.

He has published over a 1000 works

and a

very different topics covering,

the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,

and his characteristics,

the Sahaba, the friends of the prophet,

and so on. And he recommends

to,

check out Alsheikh Al Bayhirki's

works and learn about him, Imam Al Bayhirki,

through through the Internet.

The sheikh is explaining the providing a background

for

the life of the author who abridged

the book by Sheikh Alba Imam al Bayhafi.

The abridged version we are reading is, bridged

by Sheikh Al Qazwini who's of Shafi'i from

the Shafi'i tradition. He was born in Tabriz

in 653

Hijri by the Hijri calendar.

He was a legal jurist who traveled to

Syria, Damascus and was appointed head of the

jurist there.

And he was buried in Egypt near

the Safay burial site.

The Sheikh is explaining to us that the

opening of the book,

begins with

of thank thanking Allah

sending praise and salutations upon prophet Muhammad

and that he explains that

the reason for the believers joy or happiness

in this life is to is,

is to be a follower of,

of the prophet Sira or the prophet's,

life and and guide guidance

and and that would lead Insha'Allah the believer

to gain closeness to Allah both in this

world and in the akhir insha'Allah.

And he he explains the structure of the

the the subsequent chapters which will begin always

with a verse of the Quran

followed by a Hadith of prophet Muhammad to

support and followed,

by the,

the

the takeaways for for the reader inshallah.

The sheikh is,

citing a verse in the Quran, chapter 5

verse 15. There has come to you from

Allah a light and a clear book.

And the sheikh explains that the light was

mentioned before the clear book, and the light

here being the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam

and his sunnah,

And the book being the Quran.

We understand this to mean that understanding the

Quran,

understanding the sunnah of prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi

wasallam is a prerequisite to understanding and interpreting

the Quran.

So he encourages

everyone to base their understanding of the Quran

on their on an understanding of the life

of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and

his hadith.

And not to sort of try and understand

the Quran,

separate from the life of the prophet.

No.

We come now to the first branch

and, the first branch being faith in Allah.

For anyone who enters Islam, faith in Allah

is

said and proclaimed in the shahada as,

we as a statement of bearing witness that

Allah, there

is no god but Allah, and prophet Muhammad

is his messenger.

The verses that are cited here in in

support of,

to start or to begin this this this

discussion of this important branch in Islam,

are 2 verses. The first verse is,

chapter 2 verse

285.

Oh, you who believe, sorry. The believers

believe in Allah, and I I'm translating,

just a section of the of the verse.

So believers believe in Allah, and Surat An

Nisa,

verse 136,

all you who believe, believe in Allah.

Islam Islam Islam

Islam

Islam

Islam

Islam

Islam Islam

So the sheikh is explaining

Iman and and explaining that the word am

is the root of the word Iman and

it comes from safety. The opposite

of iman, therefore, is fear.

So safety,

is is a core concept in in

in iman.

What is Islam then? Islam

in

translated in English, it means peace.

And so

the believer

with both Iman and Islam

has both experiences both safety and peace.

And the place of Iman is in the

heart.

Iman is

belief that

God exists

and,

and then we

we we

we follow, inshallah, the rest of, the explanation

with the Sheikh.

So the sheikh is explaining that belief in

god and belief in god's existence

is then followed by obedience. And obedience to

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,

and and then the

belief in in Allah's,

messengers and and apostles and,

believing that prophet Muhammad

is the last messenger. The final messenger also

requires obedience,

to to prophet Muhammad

and the sheikh explains that

we make no distinction between any of the

prophets.

We we don't we don't distinguish between,

the

messengers that Allah

has sent, and we believe that Sayyidina Muhammad,

prophet Muhammad, is the final messenger.

Al

when

Iman is of 2 kinds. Iman can be

an

both an inward iman and an outward iman.

The inward iman takes the form of,

for example, intentions that we make when we

worship Allah. We we have to

make the intention

inwardly.

The outward iman are the actions that we

we may take such as

praying, giving charity, performing pilgrimage,

and they're both forms of obedience to Allah.

The sheikh is citing a a Hadith of

reported that the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi

wa sallam

said I have been

commanded to fight against the people until they

testify that there is no god but Allah

and that

the messenger and that Muhammad

is the messenger of Allah.

The sheikh explains that this

commandment to fight is not,

is not to take up arms and create

an army and force people to proclaim the

oneness of God, that would be a very

incorrect understanding. What we understand

is that if a Muslim is forced to

fight, he must defend himself but must never

initiate aggression.

The

incorrect understanding of this hadith would be inconsistent

with the Quran. I

have

my faith,

and you have your faith,

which is

which is in the Quran and would be

inconsistent if one were to interpret the hadith

incorrectly.

The sheikh will expand further on the meaning

of the hadith that was mentioned at our

next meeting given the time constraints,

and he makes dua for all of you.