Tom Facchine – How Evil Is It To Make Up Things About Allah
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the misunderstandings of Islam, including taboos and false accusations, and the negative consequences of shrooming people to say their name and the use of animals as bait. They stress the importance of paying for one's z achievements and avoiding wasting one's wealth, and emphasize the need for individuals to make their own decisions and set boundaries for their health. The speakers also emphasize the importance of being compassionate when dealing with people who are exposed to porn and other negative behavior, and stress the need for being mindful of one's behavior.
AI: Summary ©
Surah Al-An'am has been a genuine
revelation, okay?
How do we tell between the stuff that's
made up, the stuff that's phony, and the
stuff that is actually genuine revelation?
Remember way back in the beginning of the
surah, Allah Azza wa Jal was talking about
how to tell a fake prophet from a
real prophet.
Anybody remember any of that?
We had, Allah told us that a real
prophet is not going to ask for money,
okay?
He's sincere, he doesn't accept anything in return.
A real prophet is not going to claim
to be something he's not.
He's not going to claim to be an
angel, he's not going to claim to be
God or son of God or something like
this.
We also said that he's not going to
claim to know more than he actually knows.
He's not going to pretend that he knows
every single thing of the future.
He's not going to promise his followers that
he's going to make them rich.
These were some of the many things that
Allah Azza wa Jal told us so that
we could go out in the world and
when we see somebody who claims to be
a prophet, that we have actual criteria to
be able to say, yes that's possible, no
that's not possible, and obviously this applies to
the past because there's no prophet after Muhammad
ﷺ.
We also had other sorts of things where
Allah Azza wa Jal was talking about genuine
religion from phony religion, okay?
People these days, they're very, very sloppy when
it comes to this concept.
They talk about religion and it just means
to them, it means anything that anybody believes
in, right?
I want to make up my own religion,
Pastafarianism or whatever, right?
The Flying Spaghetti Monster, all these sorts of
things that came about as like a joke
because if you're going to open that door,
then I can just make up anything I
want.
I can make up my whole religion, I
can make up my God, I can make
up my priests, I can make up my
text, I can make up anything.
So Allah Subhana wa Ta'ala is trying
to get us to think about in this
surah, Surah Al-An'am, what is real
religion and what's fake religion?
What's real guidance and what's fake guidance?
And so, he talks about some of the
taboos and the things that the Quraysh had
made up when the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam stepped onto the scene.
What was the situation, okay?
We know some things already.
We know that they were doing Tawaf, right,
around the Ka'bah at the time of
the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam when he
was growing up.
But they were doing it, what?
Naked and drunk.
So they had this ritual that began with
Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam, but they had invented things
on their own, from their own sort of
rationale, and they thought that it was worshipping
Allah.
But in reality, they were just making stuff
up.
They also had other types of taboos when
it comes to marriage and divorce.
They had other types of taboos when it
came to what they could and could not
eat, right?
And these were things that, bit by bit,
Islam is breaking down and calling out and
saying, wait a second, that's not true.
Allah never said that.
And that's the center point, the main point
of this part of the Qur'an is
that Allah is saying how evil it is
to make up something about Allah.
It's not just about your culture.
It's not just about saying, well, I believe
in this.
If you're saying that Allah says this and
you're wrong, you're lying, it's basically the worst
thing that you could do.
It's the most arrogant thing that you could
do.
Because you're taking other people, normal people, they
want to follow what Allah says.
They want to do what's right, and they
want to stay away from what's wrong.
Then some joker comes, and he's making up
stuff, and he says, well, Allah likes this
and Allah doesn't like that, and he's making
it all up.
What an evil person.
Look at how many people they lead astray.
And that's what Allah wants us to be
aware of.
And so he starts with this part, we're
almost at the end of the chapter, and
he starts by talking about some of the
things that the Quraysh had been doing and
the things that they had been believing in.
This starts at 136.
وَجَعَلُوا لِلَّهِ مِمَّا ذَرَأَ مِنَ الْحَرْثِ وَالْأَنْعَامِ نَصِيبًا
وَجَعَلُوا لِلَّهِ مِمَّا ذَرَأَ مِنَ الْحَرْثِ وَالْأَنْعَامِ نَصِيبًا
This says that they used to claim that
part of the plants and part of the
creatures were for the idols.
This has two meanings.
It means that they thought that maybe Allah
created some of the things that we see
on earth and maybe the others created other
things.
It also meant that they reserved a part
of their harvests for the idols, right?
So every day, let's imagine we're a hundred
years ago, we're back on the farm, right?
We're growing this crop and that crop.
It's harvest day.
We get all of it together.
We have what we need to survive.
We have what we need for next year.
But then we're going to take part of
it and we're going to say, this is
for Allah.
We're going to sacrifice it for Allah.
Then we're going to take another part of
it and say, this is for this God,
this statue, this idol.
This is what they were doing.
فقالوا هذا لله بزعمهم وهذا لشركائنا So they
said that, okay, this portion is for Allah
and this portion is for our idols.
فما كان لشركائهم فلا يصلوا إلى الله وما
كان لله فهو يصلوا إلى شركائهم ساء ما
يحكمون If that wasn't bad enough, they weren't
fair when things went south.
Not every year they had enough, right?
You can't rely on your harvest every year.
So what happens if it's a tough year?
You don't have as much as you're used
to.
You got three pools.
You got the pool of what you need
to survive.
You got what you decided was going to
be reserved for Allah and you got what
was reserved for the idols.
Which do you think they were going to
take away from?
They were going to take away from the
one that was for Allah.
And they will keep the one that was
for the idols, you know, exactly how they
wanted it to be.
And they'd keep the one for themselves, but
they would take away from the one from
Allah.
That was what they used to do.
And so Allah says ساء ما يحكمون How
evil is what they judged?
They were judging completely wrong.
You've got Allah سبحانه وتعالى who owns everything,
controls everything and these statues that they made
for themselves, that they're claiming have power, deep
down they know that's not true.
And they're going above and beyond for the
worship of these things and they're falling short
in their worship of Allah سبحانه وتعالى.
Then Allah changes the topic and he brings
up something that's more current to what they
were doing.
وَكَذَٰلِكَ زَيِّنَ لِكَثِيرٍ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ قَتْلَ أَوْلَادِهِمْ What
was one thing that the Quraysh were doing
at the time of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ?
What did they do to their daughters?
They used to bury their daughters.
That's right.
They did not like girls as much as
they liked boys.
Allah references it in the Qur'an.
He actually calls out the Quraysh because if
they would have, one of their ladies would
get pregnant, they would have a boy, they
would be all happy.
And if it was born and it was
a girl, Allah سبحانه وتعالى said their face
would darken, like the face you make, as
if someone told them bad news, subhanAllah.
And some would actually take it to the
extent that they would actually bury them alive
because they viewed them as a liability.
This is tribal warfare.
Maybe someone's going to kidnap them and defile
them.
They have to pay for something.
They have a mouth to feed, but it's
not going to bring in any income.
This is how they looked.
They didn't depend upon Allah سبحانه وتعالى.
So this is one of the things that
they were doing.
That's why Allah says, and just like this,
he's talking about with the whole inventing things
about this is for the idols and this
is for Allah.
Just like that, their idols beautified for many
of the idolaters killing their own children.
Why did they do it?
Because it was beautified to them.
This is one of the ways that the
devil works.
Allah says it multiple times in the Quran,
تزين, he makes it seem okay.
He makes it seem beautiful.
We have anything in our society that makes
sin seem beautiful?
Anybody see a rap video lately?
Don't answer that question.
What do they do in the rap videos?
They're in the club.
They're with the girls.
They got the alcohol.
They got all these things.
What are they trying to make it look
like?
They're trying to make it look beautiful.
They're trying to make it look good.
They're trying to make it look cool.
You've got kids that'll rip holes in their
clothes to look like celebrities.
You got kids that don't have a bullet
in their leg, walking like they got a
bullet in their leg, imitating people because they
think it's cool.
This is how it happens, by having it
beautified to them.
This thing is beautified.
These things, these people are taken as heroes.
What is it for the girls?
That's for the guys.
We've got the Instagram models, right?
Yeah.
We've got the, do all yourself up in
makeup.
You got all your followers.
You're giving hearts in the comments to everybody
who's saying, mashallah, mashallah, mashallah.
And you're putting your beauty on display for
other people.
In that way, we make it seem good.
The devil makes it seem good.
The devil beautifies it to us.
I'm a proud, I'm an unapologetic Muslima.
Are you really?
Putting yourself out there like that.
How many married men are looking at you
in your pictures?
You're causing another man to sin, who really
should only be looking at his wife.
And you think that this is something that
is good?
How is that possible?
It was beautified to you.
The Shaitaan gave you a rationale.
The Shaitaan gave you a reason, an excuse,
and you went with it.
This is how the devil works.
He makes it seem beautiful.
He makes it seem beautiful.
So how good is the devil at making
things seem beautiful?
He even made the Quraysh think that killing
their own daughters is beautiful.
Something that just violates our natural, internal, everything,
our instinct.
It's your own child.
You feel protective over your own child.
That's instinct.
So if the devil can take somebody so
far, that it can ruin that instinct to
protect and it can actually turn it into,
we want to kill the thing that we
were created to protect.
Then don't you think he can do the
same to us when it comes to, again,
the social media and putting ourselves out there?
Gentlemen, you think you're doing dawah to a
sister?
As-salamu alaykum, sister.
Ameen, sister.
Yeah, you're up in her DMs, right?
And you think that you're doing dawah?
She's close to Islam, Imam.
She might convert, but she's got to have
someone to guide her.
And the devil's making it beautiful to you.
And the devil's tricking you.
Doesn't that happen?
That happens.
I'm out there, I'm being a positive role
model for the young Muslim sisters with my
makeup and my form-fitting hijab and my
form-fitting abaya.
And I'm an unapologetic Muslima.
Don't you think the devil's beautifying something to
you?
You're darn right he is.
Which is why we need to check ourselves,
brothers and sisters.
And we need to have people who are
mentors and we have to have accountability.
And we have to never, never, never just
take it for granted that we're going to
be able to figure out every single thing
that we're doing wrong.
It's not possible.
We need that third-party audit, right?
We talked about religion.
True religion is a third-party audit.
Somebody outside of you.
Somebody who's not just going to hype you
up for doing the wrong thing.
And so that way, Allah ﷻ said that
the devil convinced them, beautified for them, killing
of their own children.
لِيُرْضُوهُمْ وَلِيَلْبَسُوا عَلَيْهِمْ دِينَهُمْ And to confuse them
in their deen.
Remember, they thought that this was all part
of their deen.
Not just something, oh, I know I'm sinning
on the side.
They actually thought it was their religion.
When they're walking around the Ka'bah naked
and drunk, they thought they were worshipping Allah.
Do we have that today?
Oh, yeah, we do.
Yeah, we do.
Don't shake your head.
Of course we do.
We got the white pigeon.
Remember the white pigeon?
We go to the faqih and he's really
the sahir.
He's really the magician.
Right?
And we put an Islamic label on him.
We say, oh, this is, you know.
Is this a similar thing?
Yeah, it's a similar thing.
We can be, the devil can have us
so that we're doing something that Allah hates
and we not just think it's okay.
We actually think it's part of the deen.
Yes, it happens.
وَقَالُوا هَذِهِ أَنَعَامُ Allah's gonna keep on going
into other examples of this, what they were
doing.
وَقَالُوا هَذِهِ أَنَعَامُ وَحَرْثُونَ حِجْرٌ لَا يَطَعَمُهَا إِلَّا
مَنَّ شَاءُ بِزَعْمِهِمْ So they said that, okay,
there are certain foods and certain animals that
are off-limits.
Nobody can eat them except who we say.
Remember, we said that from the beginning.
What's the appeal of shirk, of idolatry, is
that someone's gotta speak for the idol.
Idol can't speak for itself.
So now somebody's gotta put themselves up and
say, oh, I know what the idol wants.
I know what makes the idol happy.
I know what makes the idol angry.
You can't do that.
You have to do that.
You have to do that.
That's the idea behind shirk.
So they had this when it came to
food and when it came to animals, and
when it came to their harvest.
They had certain things that said, no, no,
no, no, no.
Nobody gets to eat them except for who
we say.
وَأَنْعَامٌ حُرِّمَتْ ذُهُورُهَا And some that you couldn't
ride.
وَأَنْعَامٌ لَا يَذْكُرُونَ اسْمَ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهَا اِفْتِرَاءً عَلَيْهِ
And even some animals that they used to
eat that they wouldn't even say Allah's name
over when they sacrificed it.
سَيَجْزِيهِمْ بِمَا كَانُوا يَفْتَرُونَ They're going to be
rewarded or rather punished for that which they
used to invent.
اِفْتِرَاء Is the key word here.
Is that they're inventing lies.
They don't have any evidence for this.
They don't have any sanction from Allah SWT.
And that's one of the worst things that
you can do.
Like Allah said on the next page.
وَقَالُوا مَا فِي بُطُونِ هَذِهِ الْأَنْعَامِ خَالِصَةٌ لِذُكُورِنَا
Sometimes an animal would be pregnant, gonna have
another animal, and they say this is specific
for the men.
Women can't eat it.
Yes, that was one of their taboos.
وَمُحَرَّمُونَ عَلَىٰ أَزْوَاجِنَا And it's not allowed for
our spouses to eat it.
وَإِن يَكُن مَيِّتَنَ If it was born dead,
if it was a stillbirth, فَهُمْ فِيهِ شُرْكَا
Then both of them could eat it.
You see how crazy people can go.
Every single one of our cultures has one.
My family comes from Italy.
My family is Italian.
Italians have the same stuff.
They got like a horn.
You see people like driving with a horn
attached to like the rearview mirror.
All these sorts of different superstitions.
Even people of Mecca and Medina, people of
the Hejaz, the old timers, they said that
when a guest used to leave the house,
they used to take a bowl of water
and throw it out the door to chase
away the bad spirits.
Whatever, whatever that means.
You got the people who say you leave
a prayer rug out, okay?
You gotta fold it up or else the
devil's gonna pray on it.
There's others that say you gotta leave it
unfolded or else the devil's gonna do something
else to it.
Iftar.
Iftar.
Where did this come from?
Did Allah send this down?
Did the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ send this down?
Or are people making up stuff about Allah
and what he likes and what he doesn't
like?
People are making stuff up and that is
one of the most oppressive and ridiculous things
that can happen.
So all of this is in that neighborhood.
سَيَجَزِيهِمْ وَصْفَهُمْ Allah ﷻ is going to give
them what they deserve.
إِنَّهُكَ حَكِيمٌ عَلِيمٌ And Allah ﷻ is most
wise, most knowing of what they were doing,
who's right and who's wrong.
قَدَ خَسِرَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا Excuse me.
قَدَ خَسِرَ الَّذِينَ قَتَلُوا أَوْلَادَهُمْ سَفَهَمْ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ
Allah ﷻ says that these people who were
tricked into killing their own children are in
loss.
خَسِرَ Loss.
They used to kill them, سَفَهَمْ Foolishly بِغَيْرِ
عِلْمٍ Without any knowledge or warrant to do
so.
وَحَرَّمُوا مَا رَزَقَهُمُ اللَّهُ افْتِرَاءً عَلَى اللَّهِ And
in that way, by killing their own children,
they were actually cutting off Allah's rizq to
them.
Isn't it crazy?
People, they make du'a, they ask, Oh
Allah, give me rizq, give me from your
bounty, give me, I need this, I need
that.
Allah gives you a child and then you
go and bury it.
That's like if I give Muhammad a Bugatti
tomorrow, everybody knows I'm rolling in it, right?
The imams, right?
They're rolling up in their Bugattis.
I give you a Bugatti tomorrow and then
you go and you drive it off a
cliff.
I say, yep.
You take something that somebody gives you that's
precious and you completely ruin it.
Is that gratitude or is that kufr?
Is that shukr or kufr?
We have both of these two things, it's
a binary, either gratitude or ingratitude.
That's ingratitude.
You take something Allah gives you, precious, takes
nine months to bake in the stomach.
Right?
You're making your plans, you go through all
this trouble and then your poor wife has
to go through so much pain to birth
it and then you're gonna kill that child
and bury it, subhanAllah.
That's the extent that the devil can take
us if we're not careful.
قَدَضَلُوا وَمَا كَانُوا مُحْتَدِينَ They have been led
astray and they are not among the guided.
وَهُوَ لَذِي أَنشَأَ جَنَّاتٍ Allah is talking about
Himself.
Allah is the one who began gardens.
مَعْرُشَاتٍ وَغَيْرَ مَعْرُشَاتٍ وَالنَّخْرَ وَالزَّرْعَ مُخْتَلِفًا أُقُلُهُ
He's talking about all of the benefits.
He was just talking about rizq.
He was just talking about sustenance and bounty,
children.
Now he's gonna talk about all the other
sort of sustenance and bounty that he gives
us.
He's talking about gardens and we've got dates
and we've got plants.
مُخْتَلِفًا أُقُلُهُ All of them are different in
their taste even though they all have the
same water.
They all grow from the same soil and
yet they all taste different.
You take a mango and a date, completely
different.
You take bread and you take an apple,
completely different.
All that grows from the ground, same water.
وَالزَّيْتُونَ وَالرُّمَانَ Olives, pomegranates, مُتَشَابِحًا وَغَيْرَ
مُتَشَابِحًا They're similar to each other and yet
they're different at the same time.
Things grow, they ripen, you pick them.
It's the same rule for everything and yet
one is sour, one is sweet, one goes
bad very quickly, one lasts a long time,
one is hard, one is soft, you've got
nuts, you've got all these sorts of different
things.
All from the same water, all from the
same soil.
Allah says, كُلُوا مِن ثَمِرِهِ إِذَا أَثْمَرَ So
eat.
It's a command, but it's meant to be
like an invitation.
This is your rizq, this is your bounty,
so eat from it when it's ripe.
وَآتُوا حَقَّهُ يَوْمَ حَصَادِ And give those their
due right on the day that you harvest.
This refers to two things, this refers to
the zakah, because zakah, if you have a
farm, is different than zakah for us today
with money and we have cash, we have
bitcoin or whatever you guys have.
You have to pay every year if you've
got a certain threshold, it's above a certain
threshold, it stays above that threshold for a
year, you have to pay 2.5%. What
if you've got an apple farm, apple orchard?
You're not going to have your apples for
a whole year, you're going to harvest them
in the fall, you're going to sell them,
then you're out.
So how do you pay zakah on an
apple farm?
You pay at the time of harvest.
At the time of harvest, there's a certain
percentage of what you take, and you pay
from that.
So the first meaning, giving on the day
of harvest, is you give your zakah on
the day that it's due, if you have
something to harvest.
And the second is, there used to be
a tradition that the beggars and the poor
people would gather at a place on the
day when the harvest was going to happen,
and it was understood that you would give
them something.
Anybody who knows the Quran, towards the end
of the Quran, there's one ayah that talks
about this, there's a group of people who
conspire with each other, and what do they
say to each other?
It's like, yo, let's go early to the
farm, so that we harvest it all before
the poor people come.
And that way we'll keep it all to
ourselves.
And then what does Allah do to their
farm?
Destroys it.
And then they regret, and then they repent,
right?
So this is exactly the same sort of
thing.
So there's a due to be paid, it's
not your money, it's not your risk, this
is something Allah gave to you.
And so other people actually have a right
to it.
It's not my body, my choice, it's not
my money, my choice, it's Allah's money, it's
Allah's body.
And so they have a right too.
Which is part of the reason why the
vast majority of scholars, they say that it's
preferable to pay your zakah locally and to
pay it publicly.
In this masjid, we have all types of
people.
We've got poor people, we've got rich people,
we've got every color, we've got every country,
we've got people from the inner city, we've
got people from the suburbs, we've got everybody.
Okay.
So what if you take the poorest person
in our community and he's making sujood in
the prayer next to the richest person in
our community.
He sees the Rolex watch, the guy next
to him, he sees the press suit, he
goes out in the parking lot, he sees
he drives away in a Benz or something
like that.
How's the poor guy going to feel?
How's the poor guy going to feel?
What's the devil going to try to get
the poor guy to feel?
Jealous, right?
Okay.
So if the brother pays zakat locally, does
that help the poor guy?
Yes, it does.
He says at least he's paying his fair
share and staying in the community.
Okay.
It makes him much more easily accepting of
the fact that Allah decided there's going to
be this big difference between the two.
But if the brother sends his zakat home,
quote unquote home, guess what, this is your
home.
Back home we say.
It's not your home.
This is your home.
They send it to Pakistan or you send
it to Egypt or you send it somewhere
else.
You never see the zakat over here.
How are you going to feel?
Wait a second.
What's he doing?
Why doesn't it get paid here?
That's why the vast majority of scholars say
that it's far preferable to pay your zakat
in the area which you live and make
your money.
So we're talking about that.
We're talking about the rights of others upon
our wealth.
And then Allah says, وَلَا تُسْرِفُوا۟ And do
not waste.
إِنَّهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الْمُسْرِفِينَ Which proves that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't love everything and
everybody.
Allah says, He does not love people who
waste.
وَمِنَ الْأَنْعَامِ حَمُولَةً وَفَرْشًا From the animals, the
livestock that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has
created, there are those that you ride and
there are those that you actually use their
hides for clothing and for blankets and for
things like this.
Look at all the benefits that Allah has
put back in the day.
Even now, if you go back to Somalia,
you go back to Bosnia, even you go
back to Italy, you see that they use
every part of the animal.
Right?
They use the bones.
They use the skins.
They use the brains.
They use everything.
Okay?
That's how Allah made it.
That's an ayah.
That's a sign from Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
If stuff had evolved randomly, do you think
we'd be able to use every single part
of it?
Maybe, maybe not.
But every single...
Man, the first time I slaughtered my own
animal, I was like, this is from Allah.
It's crazy.
You guys ever do it?
You guys ever slaughter an animal?
Yeah?
Okay.
It's all up in that sack together.
You slip that thing, all the organs come
out.
Just like one package.
It's like...
I was like, subhanallah.
Then you start peeling back the skin.
It's like, yo.
Okay, yeah, it takes effort.
But it's like, it was created for this.
You know what I mean?
It's like, it's easily separatable.
You can separate it easily.
That's a sign from Allah.
If it wasn't from Allah, who knows?
Maybe you've got some organs over here, under
the arm, and other organs down the leg,
and other organs, whatever.
All mixed up.
Difficult.
But it's not that way.
Everything is just in a nice little sack,
comes right out.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made animals
in a specific way to benefit us.
حَمُولَةً Something you can ride.
وَفَرْشَةً Things that you can use for leather.
Allah says again, inviting us.
كُلُوا مِمَّا رَزَكَكُمُ اللَّهُ Eat, then, from what
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has provided for
you.
وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ And do not follow
the footsteps of shaitan.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't just say
to don't follow shaitan.
He says, don't follow his footsteps.
Which means that it happens slowly, slowly, slowly.
It also means that you don't see him
directly.
Right?
If Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, don't
follow shaitan, it would be like, you see
the shaitan walking down the street, don't follow
him.
Okay, that's easy.
That's not how it happens though.
You see the footstep, you see the footprint,
and you say, what's that?
I wonder where that goes.
And you don't realize that that's actually shaitan
was just there.
And then you say, huh, okay.
What's going over here now?
And before you know it, you're being taken
further and further away from Allah's pleasure.
إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ أَعْدُوٌ مُبِينٌ The devil is always
a clear enemy to you.
And another ayah, Allah says, so take him
as an enemy.
I mean, act like he's your enemy.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues to talk
about food.
And he continues to talk about animals.
ثَمَانِةَ أَزْوَاجٍ Allah says that there's eight types
of livestock.
And this has implications on fiqh.
When we talk about zakah, it has implications
for what's permissible for us.
So there's eight types.
If you reduce it to species, there's four
types, male and female of each.
مِنَ الْطَعْنِ إِثْنَيْنِ وَمِنَ الْمَعْزِ إِثْنَيْنِ And it
says male and female sheep, male and female
goats.
Then Allah says, قُلْ أَذَكَرَيْنِي حَقَّ الرَّمَأَ مِنْ
الْأُنثَيَيْنِ أَمَّا اشْتَمَلَتْ عَلَيْهِ أَرْحَامُ الْأُنثَيَيْنِ So Allah
is now taunting the Quraysh.
He's saying, okay, which one's haram?
You tell me.
Which one is really off limits?
Is it the male?
Is it the female?
Is it what's inside the stomach, inside the
womb of the female?
You tell me.
It's a rhetorical question.
And Allah says, نَبَؤُونِي بِعِلْمٍ It's a challenge.
He says, inform me with knowledge.
إن كنتم صادقين If you guys are truthful.
Then he brings out the remainder.
He says, وَمِنَ الْإِبْلِ اثْنَيْن وَمِنَ الْبَقْرِ اثْنَيْن
And male and female from cows, male and
female from camels.
قُلْ أَذَكَرَيْنِي حَقَّ الرَّمَأَ مِنْ الْأُنثَيَيْنِ أَمَّا اشْتَمَلَتْ
عَلَيْهِ أَرْحَامُ الْأُنثَيَيْنِ Same thing.
Which ones are haram, guys?
Is it the males?
Is it the females?
Is it the unborn?
أَمْ كُنْتُمْ شُهَدَاءَ إِذْ وَصَّاكُمُ اللَّهُ بِهَٰذَا Were
you guys witnesses when Allah told you what
you're claiming is taboo, is off limits?
And then Allah brings it home to the
point.
He's been talking for over a page about
animals, about food, about the taboos that the
Quraish used to have.
Here's the main point.
فَمَنْ أَظْلَمُ مِمَّنِ اِفْتِرَىٰ عَلَىٰ اللَّهِ كَذِبًا Who
is more oppressive?
Who is more wrongdoing than somebody who makes
up lies about Allah?
Why do they make up lies about Allah?
لِيُضِلَّ النَّاسِ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ To mislead other people
without knowledge.
And that's a double meaning there.
Meaning that they have no knowledge when they
misled other people.
They're not going off of anything that Allah
sent down.
They're making it up.
And it also means that they mislead people
who don't know any better.
Right?
Which shows us that every single one of
us has to take responsibility for educating ourselves
to the basics of Islam.
Because if you don't know any better, someone's
gonna fool you one day.
Right?
When it comes to what's your rights, what's
not your rights.
We see this a lot with the sisters.
Marriage and divorce.
Majority of sisters have no idea what Islam
says about marriage and divorce.
And so they get in horrible situations.
You get somebody whose dowry, he wants to
get married to you for a song.
Sister, that's your bargaining chip.
Your dowry.
5K, 6K, 7K.
At least you can restart over.
Keep it in the bank account.
If he leaves you.
But now you're in love and you lovey
-dovey and you talk about this.
He wants to just give you a Quran.
Is it permissible?
Okay, it's permissible.
Is it in the best interest of the
female?
No, it's not.
A lot of women aren't aware of their
rights when it comes to divorce.
They think they have to stay into an
abusive marriage.
And a lot of times the parents, what
do they say?
You're gonna embarrass us if you get divorced.
You're gonna bring shame on us.
Our reputation.
Go back, make it work.
And she's getting whooped up on.
She's getting beat up.
Where in Islam is that?
The sisters don't know their rights.
And so this stuff goes on.
You have to educate yourself.
You have to know the bare minimum.
At least enough to protect yourself.
So that people don't come and say, well
this is what Islam says.
That's not what Islam says.
And who is more oppressive and unjust than
the person who makes up something from Allah?
Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, So
Allah now is going to, he's been just
like cutting down, cutting down, cutting down, all
of these false beliefs that the Quraysh had,
especially about food, especially about money.
And so now he's going to give us
the real stuff.
The real truth.
So what is permissible and what's not permissible
when it comes to what we can eat,
what we can't eat?
قُلْ لَا أَجِدُ فِي مَا أُوحِيَ إِلَيَ مُحَرَّمًا
عَلَىٰ طَعَامٍ يَطَعَمُهُ So here's the setup.
And check out the setup.
It starts with the negative.
Allah tells the Prophet ﷺ to say, I
don't find anything that I've been, that's been
revealed to me like haram, meaning nothing is
haram except that gives you default permissibility.
That means things are permissible until they're proven
otherwise.
Okay.
مُحَرَّمًا عَلَىٰ طَعَامٍ يَطَعَمُهُ إِلَّا Except for أن
يَكُونَ مَيْتَةً First is that it's, what do
we say?
It's carrying is like the official term.
Basically, it was killed without slaughter, got hit
by a car, fell from a height, right?
Something happened where it wasn't ritually slaughtered.
It was killed by accident basically or died
on its own as opposed to being either
hunted or sacrificed.
That's number one.
أَوْ دَمَن مَسْفُوحًا Very important.
He says blood, blood is haram.
But Allah qualifies it here with a word
that He didn't use in the other parts
of the Qur'an where He brings this
list.
دَمَن مَسْفُوحًا means the blood.
A lot of people, we get freaked out.
You go to the grocery store, right?
And you buy your ground meat or whatever
you buy.
You go home and you open it up
and it's red, right?
You gotta wash it.
Is that blood haram?
Muhammad, what do you do?
You're washing all the flavor away, right?
Is that the blood that Allah is talking
about when He's saying?
That's right.
And Allah says here مَسْفُوحًا means the blood
that gushes out when you slaughter.
You don't take that blood and then go
drink it or collect it and eat it
or something like that.
دَمَن مَسْفُوحًا That's what Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is talking about.
So that little bit of blood you see
in the...
Yeah, that's gonna be there.
You're not gonna be able to get it
out.
You're gonna take soap and just like, you
know, rub your meat down with soap until
it's white.
It's not gonna happen, right?
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala qualifies it
here دَمَن مَسْفُوحًا The blood that issues forth
when you slaughter, that's not okay to eat.
اَوْ لَحْمَ خِنْزِير Easy, pork.
فَإِنَّهُ رِجَسٌ أَوْ فِسْقًا أُحِلَّ لِغَيْرِ اللَّهِ بِي
Okay, so these are all things that are
haram.
You guys got the list.
Things that die on their own.
They're not slaughtered or hunted or whatever.
The blood that spills forth or that comes
out when you slaughter.
And لحم الخنزير, right?
Pork.
And then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said
earlier, anything that is slaughtered without Allah's name
over it.
And the sharia is all based off of
what's good for us.
What's good for us.
Which is why then Allah mentions the exceptions.
فَمَنِ الطُّرَّ Whoever though, so whoever is, they're
in a dire need, right?
They're gonna die, right?
غَيْرَ بَاغِن Without going overboard.
وَلَا عَادِن And not going back to it.
فَإِنَّهُ فَإِنَّ رَبَّكَ غَفُورٌ رَهِيمٌ Whoever eats any
of this stuff, listen, if you have to,
as long as you don't eat too much
of it, and as long as you don't
go back to it, because now you like
it or whatever, then Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is forgiving.
How are we doing on time?
All right, three minutes.
I'll let you guys go so you can
go watch Super Bowl.
So yeah, that's what I said.
I said, what's Super Bowls today?
Yeah, but some people, you know, some people.
Yeah, like, who's playing the Yankees, right?
No.
Okay, then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he
seems like he's changing subjects, but really it's
the same thing, but put in differently.
He says, وَعَلَىٰ لَذِينَ هَادُوا حَرَّمْنَا كُلَّذِي ذُفْرٍ
He says, and for the Jews, we have
actually, you know, there's a subtle difference here,
okay?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uses different words
to address the people of the book, depending
on if he is inviting them to Islam
or blaming them for what they did wrong,
okay?
So you'll notice that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala, if he's inviting them, he'll call them
Ahlul Kitab, okay?
And if he's blaming them, he's going to
call them, الَّذِينَ هَادُوا The people who became
Jews, right?
Literally, the translation of it.
The people of the book over here is
like, yo, people of the book, this is
common ground.
Come on, let's go.
You agree to this covenant.
We did this for you.
Come on, let's get back right.
And then he has over here, oh, you
who literally like became Jews, like you did
it to yourself.
You used to be like on a straight
path, and then you went off and you
made this whole thing, and now that's what
you're on.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going
to throw shade at them a little bit.
He's saying, وَعَلَى الَّذِينَ هَادُوا And the people
who became Jews, We forbid, حَرَّمْنَا كُلَّذِي ذُفْرٍ
Anything with cloven hooves, which includes some things
that we are allowed to eat.
Their sharia is different from our sharia.
وَمِنَ الْبَقْرِ وَالْغَنَمِ حَرَّمْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ شُهُومَحُمَا So for
cows and ghanam, and for sheep, we forbid
for them the fat.
إِلَّا مَا حَمَلَتْ تُهُورُهُمَا Except for that, which
is to carry them.
أَوَالْحَوَايَ وَأَمَّ اخْطَلَتَ Okay, so there's these other
sort of particular rules.
The main idea is that there were things
for the Jews that they were not allowed
to eat, that we are allowed to eat.
Now, what's the relationship between this part and
what came before it is that somebody might
look at the Jews and say, well, wait
a second.
Are you guys making this up on your
own too?
Just like the Quraysh were doing?
And Allah is saying, no, actually.
Actually, that is from Allah.
But Allah gave that specifically to them for
a reason.
What does He say?
What's the reason?
ذَٰلِكَ جَزَيْنَاهُمْ بِبَغِهِمْ We did that as a
punishment for them.
We actually made it harder on them because
they were always wiling out.
They were always trying to oppose our messengers.
They even tried to kill the messengers sometimes.
And so this is how we made it
harder for them in response to their attitude.
Right?
It was an attitude adjustment.
So again, look at how Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala actually anticipates what the reader is
thinking, responds to it, but doesn't say it.
You're reading this thing about the Quraysh and
what they used to do, and then maybe
you think, huh, you know what?
I remember hearing somewhere that the Jews, there's
this thing that they can't eat, and this
thing.
I wonder if that's the same situation as
the Quraysh.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, no, actually,
I did that in response to their poor
attitude.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala responds to
that sort of doubt.
وَإِنَّا لَسَادِقُونَ And we are the one that
tells the truth.
All right, it's 620.
I think that's enough for today, inshallah.
We'll stop it there.
We're very, very close to the end.
Yeah, we are.
Just two more pages, three more pages.
سُبْحَانَكَ اللَّهُمَّ وَبِحَمْدَكَ شَرَوْاً لَا إِلَىٰ أَنتَ أَسْتَغْفِرُوا
وَأَتُوبُ إِلَيْكَ Any questions, comments, concerns?
Yeah, yeah.
Seafood does not require to be slaughtered.
That's correct.
It does not require to be slaughtered because
the Prophet ﷺ was asked about the sea,
and he said that it is حَلَال مَيْتَتُهُ
He says that its dead are permissible.
You understand?
So, the dead that Allah was just talking
about here, something that dies on its own,
something that is killed without slaughter.
Okay?
And actually these are like two of the
exceptions in the hadith.
One of them is al-jarrah, which no
one here eats, alhamdulillah.
Any of y'all eat locusts?
Nobody eats locusts here, right?
They used to eat locusts back in the
day.
And so, do we have to...
You know, Mexicans, they eat chapulines, you know
that, right?
It's like they eat grasshoppers.
It's actually part of the cuisine.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, man.
They're good.
No, you should try it.
Chapulines, wey.
No, no, no, no, no.
They're good.
They're good.
You know, I used to...
No, I used to live in Poughkeepsie, where
there's a lot of Mexicans that live in
Poughkeepsie.
And there used to be a lady that
used to sell grasshoppers out her fridge, you
know, in bags, like little plastic bags.
And she'd sell like tres leches cakes and
then chapulines, and grasshoppers.
And we used to buy some from her.
It's not bad.
Anyway, do you have to sacrifice the chapulines?
No, you don't.
Because it's in the hadith, a jerrod, right?
And then the other thing is fish.
Do you have to sacrifice fish?
No, you don't.
A whale?
I don't know.
I don't know anything about eating a whale.
I would like to see it.
Show me what you read someday, inshallah.
Bring in what you read, because I don't
know.
I don't know anything about whales.
I've never eaten a whale.
Alhamdulillah.
I don't have any plans to eat a
whale.
Any questions?
Anybody upstairs?
Yeah, go for it.
Yeah.
Why would it be haram?
First of all, remember the default Allah said,
right?
That there's no haram except XYZ.
So it has to fit into the category.
The question is about sushi or sashimi, which
is the raw, real raw stuff, right?
So first of all, it has to be
permissible until it's proven haram.
We don't just go saying, well, you know,
can't do that.
And then second, if it's fish, then it
comes under Sifat's question, which is that it
doesn't have to be slaughtered.
So you're good.
I love sushi, by the way, inshallah.
Yes, that's what Allah says.
Yeah, He says, Jazainahum, right?
Jazain.
Bebagdihim.
You know what baghi is?
Bagha, right?
It's because they went overboard.
They went too far.
This refers to their attitude towards the messengers.
They were always trying to control the messengers
and oppose the messengers and stuff like that.
So actually, you know, pardon me, this is
something that we can eat.
We can eat kosher because it's actually stricter,
you know, with these sorts of things, you
know, the separation of this and that.
There might be certain things about kosher.
I'm not obviously an expert on what's kosher,
but there might be certain things, like I
don't know what the kosher attitude is towards
alcohol, for example.
But when it comes to the separation of
the dairy and the meat and when it
comes to actually like the slaughter and things
like that, the things that are kosher should
be fine, inshallah.
You got it?
Benefit us.
It says, the question is about eating whales.
Yeah, I don't know.
I'm not going to, I mean, it says
that it's in Sahih Bukhari, so you can
go with it, inshallah.
You have plans?
Plans to go whaling?
Okay.
You know, no, it shows, it shows, you
know, there's a difference between the attitude of,
you know, some of the scholars when it
comes to hypothetical questions, right?
So you have the school of Madik Ibn
Anas who was like, okay, we also have
a question in the Zoom.
Madik Ibn Anas, if he was asked a
question, he would respond, has it happened yet?
And the answer was no.
He said, don't ask me, right?
So that was the attitude of Madik.
The attitude of Abu Hanif was the opposite.
He would always throw to his students like
these crazy hypothetical questions like, well, what of
this?
What of that?
What of that?
You know, and so there's two different styles
and they're both, they're both fine and permissible.
Somebody asked in the Zoom, what about things
like clams and mussels?
No problem if you're a part of the
Jumhor.
I know the Hanafis have a problem with
crustaceans and I'm not very educated as to
the Hanafi method in particular and what their
reasoning is, but with the Jumhor, there's no
problem with crustaceans, that they're part of the
sea creatures.
They come from the sea.
They spend their lives in the sea and
so they take the ruling of fish.
You don't need to, you don't need to
slaughter your crabs.
Oh, sorry.
The Jumhor, when I say to the Jumhor,
it means that usually it's, we're talking about
three out of four of the legal schools.
So you've got the Hanafi school, you've got
the Maliki school, you've got the Shafi school
and you've got the Hanbali school.
Okay, so if three says one thing and
one says something different, then I'll say that
the majority, the Jumhor, say this.
So the Jumhor refers to the majority and
usually I'm talking about the more attempted, like
the relied upon opinion within that legal school
because even within every legal school you find
diversity and things like that.
Someone asked a question.
What about eating at a restaurant that serves
non-halal food?
Well, you know, I talk about the halal
issues with restaurants and food like that.
I liken it to COVID.
Remember when COVID was all up in our
faces and changing our lives?
You got people who leave their houses with
three masks on and gloves and the face
shield and the hand sanitizer to the belt,
right?
And then you got people who just like
it's all a hoax, right?
And you've got different levels in between.
So when it comes to food, you have
to, you're going to have to choose the
amount of caution that you're going to exercise.
It's your decision.
So when it comes to, if for people
who are looking to be strict about it,
yeah, I mean, if you've got non-halal
food that's there, if they use like the
same grill and they've got pork that they're
cooking on the same grill and then they're
going to go cook your food, same utensils,
the same everything, I mean, that skeezes me
out.
I wouldn't want to do that.
Like, alhamdulillah, where I'm at in my life
right now, not that I was always there,
but where I'm at in my life, I
wouldn't eat at a place like that, you
know?
Is it strictly haram?
I would say, you know, your relationship with
your Creator, it shouldn't just be about what's
strictly haram.
Like, what are you comfortable doing and how
can you improve, right?
And so maybe that's what you're doing, that's
where you're at right now.
I've been there, right?
But maybe five years from now, you want
to be in a situation where you're more
careful than that or you want to be
doing something better.
You know, the general thing is there's always
room to go up.
And so people are going to exercise the
amount of caution that they're comfortable for.
The same thing with, like, Chick-fil-A.
You know, everybody's like, Chick-fil-A is
halal, it's not halal or whatever.
I don't know, maybe it is.
It's possible.
But do I want to be eating, like,
fast food chicken anyway?
Probably not the best thing for me.
So there's lots of different concerns when it
comes to food, when it comes to halal,
and when it comes to doing more than
the bare minimum.
But at the end of the day, it's
about you and your relationship to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And you've got to grow in it just
like anybody else.
Again, it's the same thing, bro.
Let's not look at it as just, like,
permissible or not permissible.
He's talking about a restaurant where there's alcohol,
where it exists, but it's not on your
table, it's not being served to you, or
whatever.
It's the same thing, bro.
You're going to have to make your own
decisions and you're going to have to own
your own decisions.
You know?
There's a certain convenience, right?
Obviously, in a non-Muslim country, to go
in places that have that.
But then if there are people that want
to go above and beyond and take a
stand on certain things, then that's something to
take a stand on.
You know?
You don't have kids yet.
Right?
Yeah, you still don't have kids.
Right?
I'm right, alhamdulillah.
I was, like, trying to think.
So one day when you have kids, you
might feel differently.
Right?
My oldest is 12.
You know?
I wouldn't take my kid out to a
restaurant where there's alcohol just because I don't
even want them to see it.
You know what I mean?
I don't even want them to think about
it.
And that's me.
That's the decision that I make.
Am I worried halal, haram?
I'm not worried about that at this point.
I'm worried about what's going to put...
I know the life that I lived.
I lived 20 years not a Muslim.
I want my kids to be better than
me.
And I want to set them up to
succeed so that they achieve more than me.
And so if I want to protect them
from certain things, how much caution am I
going to exercise over certain things?
Right?
I'll give you a real example when it
comes to the phones.
Okay?
You got a lot of kids now 11,
12 years old and they have smartphones.
Okay?
You know what the average age to get
exposed to * is in America?
11 years old.
11 years old is average.
That means that there's people getting exposed younger
than that.
I won't let my kid hang out with
somebody who's got his own phone at 12
years old.
Sorry.
We can go over all together but I'm
not letting my kid go in a room
with your kid and you let your kid
have a phone.
That's not cool with me.
Right?
You're talking about changing somebody's life.
Okay?
Somebody who gets exposed to * sees something
like hardcore or whatever at the age of
12 you just change that kid's life.
And you're going to take the amount of
caution you're going to take.
So it's like that.
Yeah.
You know I was a vegan for 2
years when I was a teenager.
That's right.
When I was 16 years old I was
a vegan.
Veganism as a philosophical position is not from
Islam.
Allah just said in the verses we went
over today كُلُو That's a command.
Eat.
Because eating of what Allah made for us
is an expression of gratitude.
Right?
We're actually taking advantage.
You know you would feel weird.
You invite somebody into your home.
Right?
If you invite somebody into your home you
guys got that nice Somali tea.
Mashallah.
Zanjabiah.
That stuff is nice.
You make it.
You pour it up.
You got sambusas.
Don't tell the people from South Asia but
the best samosas are Somali samosas.
Mashallah.
You got everything else that's going on.
What if your guest was like no thanks
I'm good.
No I'm not going to eat that.
No thanks I'm good.
No I'm not going to eat that.
How would you start to feel?
You start to feel like a little bit
like is there something wrong?
You think you're better than like you know
you think you're too good to eat my
food or something like that.
So if Allah made animals and like we
said He specifically made them we could benefit
from every single part of that animal.
We can ride on it.
We can make it do work.
We can train it.
We can breed them.
Right?
We can eat from them.
We can you know milk.
All these sorts of things and then someone's
going to be like no I'm good.
No no no I'm not going to do
that.
That's closing yourself off from a path to
being grateful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Okay.
Now if somebody has an economic critique about
factory farms and stuff like that I can
roll with that.
That makes sense because like that's what I
was talking about with you know Chick-fil
-A or whatever.
You don't know what kind of lives that
these chickens live.
Sometimes they're like packed up on top of
each other and pooping on each other and
stuff and that's their life.
Life.
And so like if that if you think
that that doesn't make Allah happy and you're
like yo in America I can't eat meat
because like they do crazy stuff with their
meat and stuff like that.
I can respect that.
That's cool.
But when it comes to eating any meat
at all Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said
that this is one of His signs.
He commanded us to eat.
I mean you have a Eid Al-Adha
literally.
It's like the festival of the sacrifice.
It is a part of it's a part
of our religion.
And here's a broader point for everybody.
I was in a discussion earlier about with
some other guys and other imams and stuff
like that on WhatsApp we were talking about
how to deal with Muslims or people who
want to convert to Islam but they might
have same-* attractions.
They might be LGBTQ or they might be
quote-unquote queer Muslims.
Okay.
And so somebody was saying well we need
to be compassionate.
We'd be merciful and compassionate and stuff like
that.
And we're like well yeah that's true but
you have to be careful.
There is no mercy more merciful than Allah's
mercy.
There is no compassion more compassionate than Allah's
compassion.
Right.
So we can't put ourselves in a position
like we're acting like we're more merciful than
the prophets of Allah.
If your mercy doesn't look like his mercy
that's not mercy.
You look at Allah's compassion.
Didn't Allah punish the people of Lut?
Yes he did.
Okay.
Now obviously that's a very different thing from
the situations that we deal with but if
you are going to not be able to
tell some person this is not okay in
our religion I sympathize with you.
You're struggling with a sin just like an
alcoholic struggles with a sin.
Just like somebody who's addicted to * struggles
with a sin.
If that person can accept that welcome come
and pray.
No problem.
You're one of us.
Easy.
But if you're going to try to be
like this is okay and this is who
I am and I can't be told any
different that's like you coming and saying well
I'm an alcoholic and alcohol is permissible and
it's not.
No it's not.
And then for someone else to come and
say well you need to be merciful about
this person or else they're not going to
become a Muslim.
I'm going to say is your mercy more
merciful than the mercy of the Prophet ﷺ?
Is your compassion more compassionate than Allah's compassion?
What's the standard of compassion and mercy?
It's Allah and His Messenger ﷺ and there
is no such thing.
If your mercy looks different than that then
it's not mercy.
It might be cowardice.
And that's just real talk.
It's the sweet spot.
We're not supposed to be jerks.
We're not going to be jerks to anybody.
But yeah this is the religion.
It is what it is.
You've got shortcomings.
I've got shortcomings.
Do you anybody here in this room practice
Islam 100%?
No.
You're talking to me you never looked at
anything on your phone that you shouldn't have
looked at?
No.
Everybody makes mistakes.
You're talking to me you never talked about
someone behind their back?
Of course.
Every single one of us has shortcomings.
But the difference is a person of faith
a Muslim accepts this is what's right this
is what's wrong and I'm doing what I
can.
I accept myself as an imperfect I'm a
sinner I'm somebody who does not do everything
but at least I know what's right and
what's wrong.
That's different from somebody saying you can't tell
me what's right or what's wrong.
I know better.
You know better than this?
What's right and what's wrong is in here.
Okay?
Regardless of how you feel about it.
All about compassion.
All about mercy.
But limited to this compassion and this mercy.
Right?