Tawfique Chowdhury – On Islam And Muslim Back Home Culture

			Bismillah Alhamdulillah As salam o Alaikum, peace be unto you. Today we're going to be talking with
our teacher, our shift, who's here to help us understand Islam, the way of all the prophets, that
way of submission and surrender, not to your desires not to man, not to one, but the one who created
man and woman, the Creator of the heavens and earth. We're going to be trying to distinguish Islam.
		

			from back home cultures, it's kind of got intertwined, you got some things, some confusion. So we
want to make sure that we have the blueprint. Because we want to do things, right. We want to do
things according to how the creator wants us to do things. We don't want to follow our desires and
get even more confused. So to help unravel the confusion, when we come back, Shaykh tofik chaudry
here on the dean, she'll be right back. He
		

			is His Messenger.
		

			Jesus was his messenger.
		

			No, I did that. Maybe it's maybe it's just to break the ice. So our equal share. How are you? How
are you? Very good. Thank you. Thank you very much for being with us. That's great. No problem. Have
you been very good. Thank you. I'm very excited that you're back with us here on the deen Show. I'm
very busy traveling, educating the people. I try to be Thank you dedicated your life to this
beautiful way of life Islam. Allah he, you know, I'm actually
		

			indebted, indebted to Allah subhanaw taala. To my families to my parents were actually being able to
do it, you know.
		

			And you were last time as we spoke, you were also pursuing your doctorate degree. Is that correct?
Yeah. In medicine? Yes. So I can call you Doctor choji. Now.
		

			I prefer you not to just call me brother. That's right. Okay, so the guy, my shake our teacher, tell
us now, we need to understand a little better. Because people know that Islam is that way of life,
the way of life while the messengers that way of submitting yourself entirely to the creator that
heavens and earth, yes, but now we have some things that are cultural practices. So there might be
some confusion to some of the lay people, because now there's some things that might have developed
over the years, and have gotten mixed up with Islam. So we want to talk about a basic blueprint. So
we don't get to mixing things up like a buffet. So what is culture? And what is accepted with the
		

			normal cultures of society? And what is clear, Islam? And what can mix and what can't mix? Let's
talk about this for a second, right? It's, I think, a really, really good question. Because
unfortunately, what's happened these days is that people have obviously been born into Muslim
families. And because of the the ultimate, the total lack of Islamic education. And the fact that
people don't even know the basics of the religion, sometimes, yes, people have forgotten the
difference between what is culture and what is Islam. So we find, for example, in Muslim countries
these days, people pray not because they really want to pray on because it's in the heart to pray.
		

			But really is because it's culture, you know, it's time to pray the dance coming, you know, what do
people generally do they just go to the mosque and pray. So we might as well do that. Yeah, for
people, for example, wear the hijab not because it's a, it's a, they actually doing it, because they
really want to protect themselves from others, or to, or to really be covered for the sake of Allah
subhanaw taala Yeah, but they're doing it simply because it's part of the culture and the job is
just become a convenient way of dressing to, to cover up your, you know, yourself. And so, in
reality, we need to break that barrier. And to break that barrier, a lot of education needs to
		

			happen. A lot of
		

			that one needs to happen to people who do know the truth need to go out and actually say that to
people. And a lot of clarity needs to come into the whole picture of exactly what basic amount of
knowledge needs to be there in the minds of people so that you can make the difference. So that
really depends upon the society that we're talking about. We know that in Islam, a certain amount of
basic knowledge is obligatory upon every single person. So what is that basic amount of knowledge
that is obligatory and every person? Well, we know that we need to know the basics of our belief. We
need to know the basics of our actions, things that we need to do. We need to know the basics of any
		

			action, that the community or the people do
		

			that
		

			They are involved in like, for example, before they do business they need to know what ruins a
business before the deal in marriage and divorce need to know the rulings of marriage and divorce.
Yes. So, ultimately, every believer is required to know a certain set basic amount of belief,
		

			knowledge and in
		

			certain basic amount of knowledge in belief and a certain basic amount of knowledge and action. And
when this is clear in people's minds, then the delineation between what is religion? What is
cultural become far more clear, because the problem is happening in that the most basic things
people are mixing up with their culture. So, we know, for example, these days, you know, female
circumcision. So, let me give you that example. Yeah, female circumcision, which is practiced in the
African countries, in a way in which the whole clitoris and the whole female genital external
* actually removed. This is something which is totally against the principles of Islam.
		

			Because the goal they say, is to not let women have excessive desire, right? That's the
understanding that is usually given. Yeah, although in Islam, there is no basis for total removal of
the of the genitalia at all to something culture that is cultural, that is a practice in African
practice that has come into Islam. Yeah. Not come into Muslims. And the practice, right? The same
way. Like for example, you might say, in India.
		

			The example is that in India, we know the Hindus, when they used to marry their daughters off, they
had to give money to the husbands. Whereas in Islam the other way around in Islam, the men have to
give a dowry or a marriage gift to the to the women. It's not the opposite, not the opposite. And I
know, for example, even my own parents, they're Muslims, right? Yes. And when they got married, it
was almost like my parents, my mom had to give a gift to my dad, although my dad didn't accept it.
But the point was, it was almost expected as a cultural practice. And we have many, many similar
cultural practices in many things, where there be times of death times of marriage, times of
		

			divorce, times of, you know, prayer and worship, you know, whether it be in our in our Hajj and
Umrah we have so many things, which actually cultural practices that we need to be routed out. And
the best way to do that is through education. Now, we put a little flavoring in our coffee, get a
latte, put a little caramel, if your steak needs a little bit of salt, you know, to amplify the
taste.
		

			What about with our way of life, this religion or you you want to sweeten up? You know, your tea,
put some extra sugar, right? But if someone arguing said, you know, we're just trying to add some
flavor here, we're just trying to, you know, spice things up.
		

			Yeah, you know what, there are two problems here. The first problem is that you actually believe
that Islam is actually deficient, or the taste is actually not good enough for you, you actually
need to sweeten it up or something like that, right? That's actually claiming that the religion is
deficient. Would you agree, that's actually claiming that the religion needs a version to or that we
need to improve certain things about the religion which is not just to our taste or something that
will be claiming that the prophecy does not give his message to us? That the Quran is not complete,
that Allah subhanaw taala did not complete the religion. And that would be a tremendous, tremendous
		

			thing to say, Would you agree? Yeah, this is why innovation is something that is new to the religion
is so disliked in our in our Deen, because not that we don't really want to want to do good for the
religion, what we're saying is, is that by actually adding something, you're actually claiming
something else, you're claiming that it's deficient? You're claiming that, that just like the food
is need salt, so the religion it needs something else. And you have the audacity to say that you
think the religion is not complete? Okay? That's the first problem. The second problem is that you
you're claiming that the religion doesn't have the sweetness, or the religion doesn't have the joy
		

			that you're looking for. And that's that's to say that, that Islam, you know, we hear this sometimes
people say that, you know, religion is all boring, and it's not, you know, we want some fun in it.
And this is not fun in Islam. But the reality is, you know, what, you haven't approached Islam in
the right way. You've looked at Islam as a set of rigid laws and guidelines, you haven't looked
beyond that. You haven't looked at the beauty of thinking what Allah even thought about the
sweetness of basking in the love of Allah even thought about like, for example, I remember my chef
was, he was asked a question by a man and a man was a chef, I've been trying to get married. And you
		

			know, I can't get married and and I'm having this this tremendous difficulty. And he gave a talk
that Till now I remember. And he spoke about how a person whose heart is engrossed in the reverence
of Allah finds no need for physical pleasures. Yeah. Right. And but Allah you know, someone whose
heart isn't in total bliss, thinking
		

			Allah, the day that you will meet him the day, the day in which he will speak to him alone.
		

			And he is standing sitting in line thinking about God, and the creation of the heavens of the earth,
the one who pond is about the day, the first night in the grave, don't think about the second night,
the grave, just the first and the grave, the water pond is about it. Well, life is filled with a
different sort of thought, in his mind, a different sort of attention span, and he has a different
sort of Outlook towards his life. And he is he doesn't waste his time looking for distractions.
Because these things are sometimes mere mere distractions, without saying that instead there's an
enjoyment. By the way, we're saying that there is tremendous enjoyment. Yeah, the profitsystem
		

			would, would have competitions with his wives, he would joke around with his wives. In one of the
narrations, we hear that the prophets of Salaam was sitting with one of his legs and one in the
house, one of his wives and other leg in the house, another wife, and and then I shall do Lana, she
cooked, a nice meal of something called ferried with, which is meat cooked with bread in a curry.
And she bought that to the solar system. And the Prophet system ate a little bit. And then he
offered it to Sofia rhodiola, who was otherwise our solar system. And Sophia said, I'm sorry, I've
already eaten. And so I just said, No, you're definitely going to eat and she said, No, I'm sorry.
		

			I've eaten as I should took the food like this. A little bit of food.
		

			And she threw it at Sophia and landed on her nose.
		

			And it's true. It's an authentic hadith letter. And so what did the Prophet some did, and he also
took some food and he threw that I should
		

			have fun is having fun now that don't have a big foot food fight.
		

			What we're saying is this harmless fun. Yeah, harmless fun. Yep. Yeah. So tell us now, okay, you
know, we see other phage they do things to bring the people in. So if the mosquitoes are empty, and
you got some people wanting to be creative, maybe we can bring them banned in the masjid. What about
this? Things like of this nature?
		

			Yeah. You know, there are certain things in Islam. I mean, there's a difference between innovation
and public good. Yeah. So we know that when the prophets of Salaam passed away, and an was in
different parts in different areas, I wasn't collected in one go. So the person can say, hey, the
people put the Quran into one into one piece, and they were all different parts. Why Is that
allowed? And why can I try and do something which would be for the public, which would bring more
good to people, just like I said, bring more people back into the muscle, you know, start all these
competitions and all these other things that you're talking about? Could you see it? You know, you
		

			go one church is competing with the next Oh, absolutely. is a rap band. The other one has a hip hop
band, and then it's a competition? Absolutely. They're filling them up somehow to keep the
memberships coming in. So Muslims see this, and maybe they say, Hey, we have some good, absolutely.
So what we're saying is, is that there's no problem with helping Islam, but as long as it is, as it
is within the realms of the guidelines of Islam. Yeah. Now we know that, for example, of course,
bands and music and dancing and free mixing, etc. This is not something condoned by Islam. Yeah. But
the point is, what if someone said, Okay, let's just not do something openly? How long? But what
		

			about doing something openly Hillel, like, for example, like the prophets birthday, for example,
let's celebrate the prophets birthday, even though even though the prophets didn't do that, yeah. So
and people will justify that, but by saying that, hey, this is increasing the love for a solar
system. But we try and we look at it objectively, we say, hey, there's a difference between public
good and innovation in something that that is done for the public good.
		

			It is, first of all condoned by Islam. Okay. Second of all, a public good is something which does
not increase the hardship upon us. If anything, he decreases hardship upon us. Thirdly, the public
good is something that that conforms to the goals and principles of the Sharia. On the other hand,
an innovation is something which increases hardship upon us. And innovation, the reason for its
existence, already would have existed in the tomato solar system with the prophecy didn't do so. So
therefore, for us to claim that we need to do something else to do more, right, would be an
innovation because a cause for its existence already existed at the time. And so yeah, so for
		

			example, we could say, you know, the need for mankind to level solar also existed far more than the
total sort of luck. So so so why should we now celebrate the prophecies and read them when the
person didn't do so? Even though the need existed at that time? Do you understand I'm saying, so
therefore, the point is my friend
		

			that we can try and use 101 ideas to increase, you know, membership or Islam. We can use 101
different ways and strategies to bring people back into the deen. As long as number one, it doesn't
go against our principles and our values. And number two, number two, as long as it's not real clear
innovation. Yeah. So now, just so the viewers will understand. What we're saying here is that
knowledge is key.
		

			So whatever is in the blueprint, this is what we follow. And no one can bring something in that's
not sanctioned by the Creator and his last and final messenger to Prophet Muhammad peace be upon us.
Absolutely. Because, you know, one of the things that that that's really important to understand is
that if a if a religion doesn't have any firm principles and basis and values, it's not a religion
at all. You see, the problem with Christianity these days is that they are redefining the values
straightaway, they are redefining the principles. Yeah. What we're saying is no, Islam has set
values and set principles and set guidelines. And then everything else can can can therefore be
		

			looked into about adding adding certain certain strategies in order to bring people in, as long as
the values are right. As long as the principles are there. As long as these things are, are clear
and set. In stone, you have some say, yeah, so otherwise, you have no ideology. So it's okay. Now,
if somebody wants to invent a better way to communicate through some kind of Super Duty cell phone,
or someone wants to invent a car that goes faster, this is okay. Absolutely. This kind of
technology, this kind of development, innovation is okay. Absolutely. But in the matters of this
perfect way of life, Islam, the religion, me and you can spice it up a little bit, we can do
		

			anything that we think now we're doing better than the cradle, you know, what if, if there was, you
know, we could just follow what we wanted to do. There would be no need to send a prophet, there'll
be no need to give us a book that would never change. Yeah, right. There'll be no need to give us a
snack or a chain of narration by which we know that our, our, our statements will assume are
correct, yeah, there'd be no need for all of this. We could just imagine what we thought was right.
What we felt was what what we knew was right. Okay. So we're starting to understand a little better
a few more points before we come to it. Because this is a very important issue, because you can see
		

			as other people of other faiths, just to get the congregation from leaving, they'll do juggling
tricks, magicians, bands, all sorts of things. And from one church to the next, or one place to the
next. Everything is different, but in Islam is the perfect way of life. Everything is there. You
just have to follow Submit. Yeah, you know, the ends don't justify the means. Yes, ma'am. Right. The
ends do not justify the means. And this is really, really important. You know, Christianity, and all
these other things we're seeing these days, sometimes they say, hey, the ends will justify the mean,
yeah. And they don't even think what the values are, they're losing out because of this, the
		

			principles of the overlooking because of this,
		

			you know, oh, these are values and principles set and set in stone. It's not only important to just
get there, it's important how we get there as well. Gotcha. So some closing comments and suggestions
for those who sincerely want to follow this way of life, how it has been ordained by the Creator of
the heavens and earth, and they don't want to get into things that have been added by man. give some
advice for that sincere, individual, those individuals, please. I think my sincere advice to those
people who really want to follow this follow the truth would be to realize that Islam is evidence
based, okay. In medicine, you know, when we practice medicine before we come to a patient, and we
		

			want to give them the right medicine, we don't just say hey, you know what, it's great to just give
him give him any medic medicine, but rather we give them the medicine. That is evidence based, that
is evidence behind it, we've trialed it on hundreds of patients and we know it to work vast majority
of the time 95% 99% of the time, so we know this is right for example. So for example, you just have
a common cold we're not going to give you antibiotics, because vast majority common cold 60% of the
time, it's viruses right you understand I'm saying yeah, so in the same way Islam is evidence based
the profits or select kept on focusing on that Allah says the code in Java can be a unit in Amman
		

			Are you believe if a untrustworthy person comes to you with information that verified we know in
Islam, for example, we don't just accept any Hadith any narration, we accept a hadith that is
authentic, because it has a chain integration back to the civil law. So what I'm saying is Islam is
about knowledge. The first one word review to the solar system was to read. The Quran comes from the
word God or to read. So the and, and the greatest miracle of the Prophet system was a book that is
meant to be read. So our Deen is about knowledge. It's about evidence based practice is evidence
based. We don't just practice anything we practice based on the evidence in the Quran, and from
		

			authentic sooner that has been proven directly to be authentic and from the Prophet system. What can
give us more satisfaction on that, knowing that we are following something that's evidence based in
the same way when we help patients we know it's evidence based? We have we have certainty in our
heart, that you know what we're doing the best thing we can for the patient, and the same way we
should be with a religion. How can we follow a book how
		

			We follow a ruling that we don't know the evidence for. Right? And this is my advice to people.
Whenever you do things do evidence based Thank you. Thank you very much. May God Almighty the
creator of law rewards you. with Eddie the pleasures online, I hope you got to benefit I surely did.
This is something that's very simple. If it's sanction by the Creator of the heavens and earth, if
there's a basis for it. The last and final mission are sent to mankind of Prophet Muhammad. He
explained it to us he taught it to us in matters of Deen religion, then we do it we submit to it.
Otherwise we don't need it. And with that said, we'll see you next time here on the deen show as
		

			salaam alaikum peace be on to you.
		

			Well, hello gentlemen
		

			kulu
		

			Amina to add him
		

			vaniqa
		

			zz Lani one former robot
		

			body
		

			the DVDs
		

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			invite all to the way of your Lord with wisdom beautiful preaching and reason with them in ways that
are best and this is a great opportunity for you to take up the obligation take up the call as Allah
has told you to do and share this beautiful message with the world Islam submission to the One God
see what everyone's talking about. You find one contradiction it can't be from God.
		

			But the rational idea the rational explanation is you do your best to give up worshiping God is one
I will never give up spreading this hope that you take the necessary steps you don't know if you're
gonna live to tomorrow.
		

			So you got to find that urgency to do the right thing right now.
		

			If you say that you do not believe in Jesus you have stepped outside of Islam you cannot be a Muslim
is attended our faith to
		

			It's cold. It's lay everybody asleep.
		

			I arise and ask a lot of thinking me own law you see, oh law you know, all the sins I do. A turn to
you to forgive my sins and
		

			receive a young man
		

			runs away. Oh, guy me