Minute with a Muslim #277 – Is it Halal or Haram

As an Imam, a lot of people are constantly asking me is this how does this haram? Is this how that was haram? And I don't like those sorts of questions not because I don't like to delve into the books and kind of think about these things. But I think that it speaks to our poor relationship with Allah subhanaw taala, that we're only concerned with halal and haram, that we're only concerned with doing the bare minimum or doing something that is barely acceptable, or might be acceptable, as opposed to just trying to be a better version of ourselves every single day, right? X activity, this sort of thing that you're watching or that sort of thing that you're doing, right. The implication

behind the question is that, well, if it's permissible, then I'm going to keep doing okay, what if it's permissible, but it would be better to not do it? What if it's permissible, but you should you really could be spending your time in a better way? What if is permissible, but there's an opportunity costs to engaging in this activity as opposed to doing something that's going to develop you more are going to make you more intelligent, it's going to build relationships around you all these sorts of things. We're kind of stuck, or kind of stuck in just bare subsistence. And then we complain because then we're Oh, man, my prayers are so mechanical. And I don't feel anything when I

recite the Koran and I don't feel you know, the the Eman boost or the faith or why do you think that is? All our questions are? Is this barely permissible? Can I do this thing, and the understanding is that you want to do this thing, having a relationship with a law is a little bit like falling in love. Because there's a reason why there's centuries of poetry kind of like using that sort of metaphor or analogy. Because when you're in love, all of your senses, all of your skills, all of your your talents, they're all geared towards sensing you don't have you don't you shouldn't ask, Hey, what do you like? What do you don't like, your job is to figure it out. And everything that you

have is put towards that objective of figuring out what the beloved likes and doesn't like and you're going to trip over yourself to do it, you're going to do it, you're gonna strive to do it before it's even asked before it's even expected. You want to delight the other, the beloved in how you anticipate needs, and desires and wants and these sorts of things. That's when you're worshiping Allah, when you're in love, when you care enough to actively seek out what it is that Allah is going to love more, what it is that he's not really going to be happy with you doing? Right? And so if our relationship isn't that if our relationship with a law is only kind of well, what's the bare minimum

thing that I'm allowed to do then we don't really have much room to expect to feel the kind of heaviness and emotional experience of that relationship that we might hope for