Tammam Alwan – Walking the Path of Knowledge Steps Towards Jannah
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AI: Transcript ©
All praise and thanks are due to Allah.
We praise him, and we thank him. Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
We seek his assistance,
and we seek his forgiveness.
We take refuge in Allah from the evils
of ourselves and from the sinfulness
of our actions.
Whomever Allah guides, none can misguide.
And whomever Allah misguides, none can guide.
I bear witness that there is none worth
worshiping but Allah alone
with no partner. And I bear witness that
Muhammad salallahu
alayhi wasallam
is his servant and final messenger.
Allah reminds us in Surat Ali Imran,
he says, oh, you who have believed,
have taqwa of Allah with the taqwa that
is due to him,
and die not except in a state of
submission, except in a state of Islam.
And he also says, subhanahu wa ta'ala in
Surat Al Nisa,
he says, oh people, have taqwa of your
lord who created you from one soul and
created from it its mate,
and disperse from both of them many men
and women.
And have taqwa of Allah
through whom you ask one another in the
wombs.
Surely Allah is ever over you an observer.
We have an authentic narration, Sayyidna Abu Hurayrah
radiAllahu anhu
says that one day I came to the
messenger of Allah and I said, you Rasulullah
salallahu alayhi wasalam.
You know, I've heard so many hadith from
you that I keep forgetting.
And so the Nabi salallahu alaihi wasallam says
take your
your overgarment,
your rida, and spread it.
He says so I spread it on the
floor, and then the Nabi salallahu alaihi wasallam,
it's like he was gathering something with his
blessed hands salallahu alaihi wasallam. And in one
narration also mentioned in Bukhari, it's like he
was putting something in it.
And then he says, now now close it
and wrap yourself with it.
And so Abu Hurayrah says, I did that
and after that moment, I didn't forget any
hadith.
And who is this
but the most prolific narrator of hadith? If
it weren't for him
being so vigilant
about
conserving the hadith and protecting the hadith, much
of what we know today about the nabi
salallahu alaihi wa sallam we wouldn't know.
Yet what is it
that caused him to go to the nabi
salallahu alaihi salallam in the first place
and ask him for this thing and mention
him and complain. Tell him I'm forgetting these
ahadith.
It was
his vigilance, his health over what? Over knowledge,
over ilm.
And there is so much value for ilm
for knowledge
As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in
Surah Al Mujadila.
He says,
He says, Allah will raise up by many
degrees
those of you who believed
and those of you who have knowledge.
Belief and knowledge.
And Allah is well acquainted and aware of
what you do. And he says
in Surat al Zumr,
he says,
He says,
how can those be equal?
The ones who know or the ones who
don't know. How can they be equal in
terms of their degrees, in terms of their
status?
And he says, only those who have understanding
will take heed and remember. And we know
in the famous hadith that's in the 40
of imam and Nawi, an Abi Hurayra radiAllahu
anhu, this
this, Sahabi.
He narrates,
That whoever
walks upon a path,
travels a path and seeks knowledge therein, then
Allah will ease for him the path to
Jannah.
And so literally by seeking knowledge, it makes
it easier for us to enter Jannah. So
we might ask what kind of or what
kind of knowledge is this? Is there value?
Are we talking about mathematics and science and
engineering? Are we talking about degrees and graduate
level degrees? No. Not in these ahadith.
Is there value to them? Yes. Even Al
Khawarizmi Rahimuhallahu
Ta'ala in his introduction to algebra, he talks
very beautifully
of mathematics
and how he intends to help people
split inheritance
in the proper way. And so he's like,
I'm I'm coming up with these formulas. And
if it weren't for him, this tablet wouldn't
be working. Our computers, our our phones,
our smartwatches wouldn't be working if it weren't
for him
So there was intense and immense value in
that knowledge, of course, but this is not
what's being referred to here.
This is referring to knowledge of the Quran,
knowledge of the hadith, knowledge of fiqh,
You know, proper Islamic sharia. Both
How do I personally worship Allah? Wait, do
I have wudu or not? How do I
pray? Do I have to remake my prayer
up or not? Is my fast valid or
not?
And Okay. Now I'm in this business deal
or even a small transaction.
Is it Sharia compliant?
Is it proper what I just did? Is
that halal or not when it comes to
family issues and even inheritance like we mentioned?
And also
issues related to aqeedah. Who is Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala? What are his attributes?
How can I better understand him so when
I'm I'm I'm calling upon him in the
depths of the night, just me and him,
I better understand and I can engage with
him And the hulama have kind of taken
what we say as knowledge and general ways
to seek knowledge? They've split them up into
2 major categories.
And I'm specifically mentioning this here to challenge
us as a community to really level up.
You have
are general
reminders, like this khutba.
It might be spiritually uplifting. It might cause
you to think of something. It might be
like the Islamic conferences we attend, just a
general lecture. It's cool. We go there. We
benefit,
but sometimes it goes away afterwards. It might
be like the khatiras we attend. And then
you have what they refer to as ilm.
And here in this technical
sort of terminology,
it's referring to a structured curriculum.
You're reading the Quran, you're studying it ayah
by ayah, surah by surah, you're reading the
tafsir, you're studying hadith and the meanings of
the hadith, you're studying fiqqa. It doesn't need
to be in book form but it oftentimes
is in book form, in class form. And
this is what I want us to challenge
ourselves of like how can I level up
in terms of that type of knowledge? Alhamdulillah,
I come to the masjid. Alhamdulillah, I attend
Salat Al Jum'ah. I attend the Qatiras. I
stay for those. I attend different lectures. If
there's a conference I go, but how can
I really level up in terms of that
next
People might ask,
must I drop it all?
And we do have examples here in DFW
and even here at VRIC where people, they
took a gap year and they moved down
here. They say, I want to study Arabic.
I want to study Islam.
Or just in this past academic year, I
know of a handful of examples of people
who are working full time and also enrolled
full time studying Arabic. Why? For the sake
of 'alam.
Crazy schedule. You're working full time. You're studying
full time. You're doing this. But they did
it.
Do you need to do it? No. You
don't need to go to that extent, but
there are inshallah. I'll give 5 practical reminders
that we can apply today, all of us,
of how we can make a part of
our lives. First of all, limiting
distractions.
The devices that we use, we're all, subhanallah,
we're all susceptible to it.
Whether it's scrolling endlessly
from video to video or post to post
or even things that are kind of,
very shallow in terms of knowledge. Wikipedia, this
article to this article to this article. And
we're not really building depth in terms of
knowledge, but rather it's shallow. A mile wide
and an inch deep as they say. And
so try to limit that. Try to have
times in your life where you're like, okay,
I'm gonna just unplug from Whatsapp for a
little bit. Or I'm gonna turn off my
phone for a little bit. Or I'm gonna
put it aside for a little bit. Or
I'm gonna limit my own screen time. I
don't need to watch all these shows and
binge binge watch all of these seasons and
movies and everything. Let me give it a
little bit of a break.
2,
focus on the basics.
Some of us might not have finished our
which is a upon every single Muslim.
What do I have to know? The essential
things I have to know about Allah. The
essential things I have to know about fitqah,
about how do I live my life as
a Muslim.
What are these instructions? Start with that.
And if you've done that, then move on.
But you don't need to move on to
complicated things. You don't need to pontificate over
very complicated philosophical matters that might not even
have a transformative
impact on your day to day life. Start
with the Quran.
Ask yourself, when is the last time I
read the Quran cover to cover
with the translation of the meaning in my
language?
Simple. Cover to cover.
When was the last time I did that?
Or if we know Arabic, when was the
last time I I I recited just a
very basic tafsir? It doesn't have to be
a complicated one, a very basic one. Subhanallah,
because the Quran is,
the speech of Allah,
it's endless.
It's infinite in terms of the fountains of
knowledge, subhanahu, that we can derive from it.
You might be surprised that when it comes
to tafsir and they talk about the big
mufasirs, the famous mufasirs,
they mention al imam al al lusi
raheemahuallahu
ta'ala.
And you think maybe he's a contemporary of
Tabari, maybe from a 1000 years ago. He
passed away in the 18 fifties,
Iraqi scholar.
18 fifties, less than 200 years ago, and
his book is considered one of the pillars
of of tafsir, classical tafsir.
Yet after a 1000 years of scholarship, he
still was what? Finding things, especially from the
linguistic
aspect of the Quran.
Ibnu Ashur. Ibnu Ashur amazing. It's phenomenal. He
passed away in the early seventies. He's from
Tunis, Tunisia.
And if you read his tafsir, you're like,
wow. He's come across new things about the
Quran. Just
synthesizing what's been said in the past and
adding things about Arabic grammar. You know what?
This point of Arabic grammar, looking at this
ayah and these Wow, subhanAllah.
There's no end to the Quran. Hadith, sira.
When was the last time Ask her, when
was the last time I read the sira?
Cover to cover.
Cover to cover.
So focus on the basics.
3, set a program and a regimen.
It could be a self disciplined, self guided
course. And there are some of them online.
Right? I'm not saying to study without a
teacher, but there are some online, subhanAllah, where
it's like, okay, you do this and you
can ask questions on a forum, but it's
kind of self guided.
Or am I gonna join a class? SubhanAllah.
I cannot keep up with all the institutes
here in the metroplex.
They keep popping up. Anous Sheikh moved to
town. Mashallah, he started an institute. He's teaching
this book and this book and this book.
Oh, he has classes on this and this
and that. And also sisters, mashaAllah.
Scholars, female scholars coming to the community, or
guest scholars. Amazing opportunities we have. Start locally
and look for those opportunities and say, I'm
gonna enroll one day a week.
I'm gonna enroll online and sometimes attend in
person. What can you do? See what you
can in your capacity and take advantage of
local resources. 4,
don't dismiss the barakah of doing it in
a group.
Halakat. So simple. SubhanAllah. It's been happening since
the time of the Nabi salaam.
You get together with a few brothers or
a few sisters,
or sometimes families, sometimes children,
and let's meet once a week for 1
hour.
You'll be amazed in 52 hours a year
how much progress can be made in terms
of studying things, subhanAllah.
And we already have plenty of halakats in
the community.
Inquire, seek them out, and join them, beidulillahi
ta'ala, or start 1.
Engage your family members. Maybe it's something spouses
can do or a family. Okay. You know
what? We're gonna read this hadith book. It's
not riyal dasalihin or the 40 of imam
I know. We're gonna read this. Or 40
of imam I know. We're gonna go deeper
in terms of our our shirk of it.
And examples, again, examples. In our masjid, we
have the firsts.
Phenomenal. It's so detailed in terms of the
biographical accounts of these first believers by doctor
Omar Suleiman.
We have the Tasil class. Again, this is
like so. It's so organized. We're going through
this classical book. When you look at the
major Muslim cities, it's always like, oh, I
wanna study this book. Oh, this sheikh is
giving it in his house on Mondays Wednesdays
after Maghrib. Oh, this sheikh gives it at
this famous masjid on Tuesdays Thursdays after fajr.
There are so many opportunities, and insha Allah,
with our seeking the knowledge, we can increase
them here locally. And 5th and finally,
don't discount the time that you have.
We
have the same 24 hours that they did
in the time of the Nabi salalahu alayhi
salalam. Yes. There might be less barakah in
it but we have the same hours. We're
just so oftentimes distracted that we waste those
hours. We squander those opportunities. SubhanAllah Ta'ala.
How many taxi drivers do we know or
have we heard of in especially Muslim majority
countries? But I saw a video recently about
what? One brother in the UK.
He said, I memorized the Quran while being
a taxi driver. How? Well, between customers, I
open up the must have. I'd read the
aya, and then I just keep repeating it,
repeating it, repeating it, repeating it, repeating it,
and
then I memorized it. And then I did
the next and the next and the next.
Oh, I finished the page. Now let me
do the next page, and the next page,
and the next And then he finished, and
now he's reviewing and reviewing. And there's no
end to review of the Quran, of course.
Until you pass away, you keep reviewing the
Quran.
I love the story of the shopkeepers of
Damascus.
I heard it from one of the ulema
of Damascus, Syria.
He said the shopkeepers in Sur Al Hamidiyyah,
this
this ancient centuries old market next to the
Umayyad Mosque,
He said they wake up at Fajr, and
they go to the mosque. They walk to
the mosque,
and then they attend the after Fajr. So
maybe they're doing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Let's say as an example. And Aqidah on
Tuesdays Thursday. And they come with their notebooks,
and they take notes, and then they go
home after the maybe shuruk time, they pray
Doha. They have breakfast with their families, and
then they go and they open their shops.
When Doha time comes, they go to the
masjid, lock up, and then they go home,
they take a nap, have lunch with the
family,
and then they go and they reopen,
and they might open till, let's say, Asar
Maghrib.
At that time, they close their shop again,
and they go to the masjid. Again, 2
lessons a day, subhanAllah.
And they might attend another dares, bring their
notebook, bring the book that's being studied, and
they'll do that. And he said, in this
way,
if if a person has been doing this
for 10 years, 20 years, imagine the knowledge
they have. If they were to come to
America, we say, shift. I mean, you're you're
so knowledgeable. You're you're like a scholar, You've
studied so much with all these and everything.
How are we sacrificing
like they sacrifice their time?
You hear of a sheikh who's visiting, and
suddenly, oh, he's giving an Ijazah in,
one of these books. Great. Or this hadith
book. Great. He's gonna recite to you as
he heard from his teacher, from his teacher,
from his teacher, all the way to Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and he's gonna give
a shara.
Very basic shara, but a shara. He's gonna
give an explanation. Great.
I know some people, subhanallah, they're flying out
there. They're using their PTO to what? Take
advantage of it. Every single moment, every single
dollar that we spend for ourselves or for
our families to gain knowledge, we should think
of even more than p than, professional development.
At our workplaces, what do we do? We
say, of course, I'm gonna spend 5,000, $10,000,
$20,000
on this course or this certification. Why? It's
gonna come back to me tenfold. Well, this
is gonna help us with our akhira.
And as we think of the people of
Gaza and of Palestine, subhanAllah,
till this day with the bombs falling, till
this day with we we see the evacuations.
No. Run over here to this so called
safe zone while the bombs are falling in
that safe zone. Lies being told to them.
Massacres on a daily basis, subhanAllah.
They're still seeking knowledge.
They're still seeking knowledge.
I saw a video recently of girls. They
had finished their hifla of the Quran and
said, okay. We wanna do this exam again
where we recite the whole Quran in one
day. This is like an exam. So they
sat with their teachers
in a shaded area, a makeshift sort of
tent room outside
from morning until
the end of the day reciting what? Reciting
the Quran.
We have an amazing opportunity before us. We're
in safety, alhamdulillah.
We have prosperity, alhamdulillah.
We have health, alhamdulillah.
Every one of us, young and old, can
take advantage of of seeking knowledge and leveling
up what we do. Let us not be
like the ones who expect from our children.
What? Become a hafid, and then we don't
have anything to show for it ourselves.
Oh, I want you to become knowledgeable, but
we're not doing anything ourselves.
And we'll end here.
Allah.