Walead Mosaad – Session 2 Prophetic Ethics
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of ethics in their work and the significance of "ethics" in relation to personal lives. They touch on the physical aspect of people, including their appearance, hair, and eyes, and the use of "has" and "has a" to describe experiences. They also discuss the importance of knowing oneself and oneself in the spiritual and physical makeup of oneself. The conversation emphasizes the importance of learning about one's oneself and oneself in the spiritual and physical makeup of oneself.
AI: Transcript ©
without
a helmet, I mean, I love my son, you're selling with Eric, I'm a
Bucha. I mean, so you didn't know more than I know have you been out
in the world and why hajima Sheffield was uneven. We're sad
what to do Adam, what? Mohammed Abdullah Robin Muttalib Hashem
your chorus, you are early, he was Harvey. For mine instead that we
had, he was telling me something you want to hedge energy, who is
18 pharmacological, by law, legal hochanda Hurry her lawyers, you
want her Illa Herrlich. From about. So Hamdulillah
we have
begun a
series of sessions, looking at the pivotal 20th Chapter of the here
are routine, or the Revival of the Religious Sciences for Hoja. of
Islam
of Mohammed advisory, or the Allahu Anhu. And this particular
chapter, as we mentioned in previous session, we call it
pivotal because it falls, right chronicle are chronologically or
in terms of the organization of the book in the middle, the 20th
chapter out of 40. And also it's genuinely deemed to be the heart
of the, the
center of your head. So both in his physical positioning as well
as in its meaning. Because all of the room of the dean, all of the
disciplines in the sciences of the Dean come from our profits are so
that he is continues to be the conduit that Allah subhanaw taala
chose to communicate to us and to preserve this methodology and this
way of life. And this way of
contending and dealing with our existence. So in that sense, we
can get an estimation of how important this is. And this
chapter was entitled by Roselli,
a devotee, my Isha o'clock, and the Wawa,
which are translated translates as The Book of prophetic ethics, and
the courtesies of living.
So
it's interesting that we're talking about ethics now. And
ethics is a borrow term, in terms of its etymology, doesn't, it's
obviously an English word, but I think has Latin origins. And it's
generally deemed to be one of the three main branches of philosophy,
the other two being, ontology and epistemology. So the study of
being of essence,
more or less answering the question, who are we, in terms of
ontology,
the epistemology, looking at the theory of knowledge, and how do we
know what we know. And then finally,
ethics, which is what's the right thing to do. So these are kind of
seen as the three main spheres, let's call it
activities of the human condition. And being human. These activities
are
predicated on having a clear and concise conceptualization of how
to go about actually doing these things before we embark upon them,
to understand who we are to understand how to interpret the
world around us, right, which is about epistemology, and knowledge,
and how to then go about living in the world. And if there is
confusion in any one of these three,
then the other two will be doomed, I think to failure. So if you're
confused about who you are,
it's going to be very difficult for them for you to move on from
that, to figure out how to know what you know and how to interpret
the
environment around you. And deal with your relationships and, and
your way of living, which is then ethics. And you may know who you
are, but if you're confused about how to know what's true, and
what's not true, what's false and what is not false, which is
epistemology, then you'll be confused about how to go about
living. So these three even though they are the traditional spheres
of knowledge in in philosophy, there's an obvious overlap with
Dean with religion and that's not by mistake. In fact, they used to
be the same this
The plan was only really at the beginning of the secular age that
we saw this divorce between theology and philosophy. Otherwise
the greatest philosophers, especially in the
pre Enlightenment period, were virtually all theologians. So St.
Thomas Aquinas and
Augustine.
The enamel has early also was seen as a philosopher and also as a
theologian. So, all of them were great philosophers and great
theologians.
So, what does that what's the implication?
In terms of what we're doing now with the study of prophetic ethics
with a province or settler?
The province Mark seven wasn't a philosopher. He wasn't
trying to construe what things meant,
by mere way of reason. In the Mechana, yo Ha, LA, he was someone
who was
receiving revelation, he had a direct link with the divine, who
is the source of all who was a source of how to know who we are,
and how to know what we know, and how to go about living. And so in
that sense, what we're studying here is not based upon the
conjecture or speculation of learned men or learned people.
Rather, it is what Allah subhanaw taala is communicating to us what
is what Allah God is communicating to us, via his prophet, Muhammad
SAW, and is
the epitome of mercy and that, and that it's not merely just a kind
of, you know,
here's the book, read it, and you know, figure it out on your own,
but rather, he is the living example, the prophets are seldom
is described as if the unit in the Quran is also described as vicar,
as he, he himself is the remembrance. So within the the
person of the prophesy Saddam, we have our remembrance, and we have
our clear sign. And we have also worked on Hashanah. And we have
the great example, or the best example. And so all of these
things then converge and are very important then to go and see how
we're going to about to live our life. So
going back to the book, and where we had left off, we were still in
the introduction,
as I recall, and in it, remember, because it kind of is going to
give us a preview of how he's going to go about
elucidating prophetic ethics in this chapter. So for those of you
who have the book in English, I think that would be
page
four, where we left off
at the top, where he says, rarely have resolved to bring to
conclusion, the quarter on the norms of their daily life or robot
is that right, which is the second quarter of yet
with a book, here, he means chapter that deals comprehensively
with the comportment of living, or adaptive in Malaysia, in order
that would not be difficult for students to strike from it the
entirety of the
books or the whole, or the idea in general, the whole other set of
chapters, because that's really what the idea is about, how do we
glean and extrapolate from the behavior and the words and deeds
of the Prophet and the word and states of a province are seldom
how to extrapolate that and imbibe it for ourselves.
But then, I noticed he said that each book of a quarter of
devotions, which was all about Eva debt, and a quarter of the norms
of the life and I that has already come with a discussion on some
aspects of add depth of ethical comportment, and I am weary of
repeating them and returning them For indeed, repetition is
intolerable. And people's souls have a propensity to be inimical
towards repetitions. So he didn't want to repeat the whole thing. So
he got to just summarize it. Therefore, I have deemed it proper
if you can find myself in his book to recounting the moral
comportment of the Messenger of God, so I send him and his ethical
manners that have been transmitted of Him, through attested
authority, by which is the Hadith and the bar. So that what the
Companions described of their interaction with the Prophet SAW
Selim, which is really the main source for our knowledge of the
province by setting them and then as we've mentioned many times
before, this is a trend
admitted tradition. And so the
the, the idea of
authenticate authentication and a testament to the veracity of these
reports and these narrations then has become paramount in Islamic
tradition as they are. And it also then
reflects one of the sound ways of knowing something that you hear
from a trusted source. So in our tradition, all of the Sahaba, or
duel, all of the companions are deemed to be trustworthy. And so
we only look at the chain of transmission beyond the Sahaba, so
that they are being better than those that they transmitted to.
So then, he says, In this regard, I recount them together section by
section without mentioning their change of authorities. So he has a
need. In other words, that's something that's of a technical
nature. So he only, I think, mentions the sahabi if he does
that, in order that there be governess book together with the
some in the matters of ethical conduct, the renewal of belief,
and its reinforcement by way of bear witness bearing witness to
his noble etiquettes. Each bears witness with utmost certitude that
he is the noblest of the creation of God Most High, the most
elevated and rank and the most magnificent in stature and hence
how much more so the truth of this fact on all his etiquettes are
brought together and integrated.
Then I append to the recounting of assessment report mid dimension of
his physical department. So in the Arabic language, we have this
relationship between a HELOC on HELOC.
So we talked about a SIFAT. And how clear and it's deferred and
hold up. So, the attributes that are physical in nature and then
the attributes that are internal, or you could think of external and
internal souls, the Hulk, which is also the same word for to create
halophyte a shape to create something else is the same word,
or derivative of it to describe one's outer. And then a closely
related word is then used to describe one's inner aspect. So
that means the whole you are who you are, it's not just what you
look like from the outside, but perhaps more importantly, what you
look like from the inside and we'll see that one of the two of
the prophets or send them that he's going to mention a little bit
on the hasin hopefully will hold up May I ask a lot to adorn both
my hunk my outer and my inner and they say that the inner of vodka
or the one button
that the outer is a
means or an address by which you can be guided towards the inner
aspect. And, you know, when the Quran says for example, see now if
you were truly him in authority sujood see Mahaffy would you when,
when after decision, you know, the signs can be seen in their faces,
from the effect of the sujood. Right, and those some people have
interpreted this verse, literally and physically. And they say that
if you do enough to zoom in,
on certain carpets, or rugs that have type of bacteria, that will
give you a sort of what's called as a viva, like a sort of,
you know, marker on the forehead, which is seen as a marker of
piety. Most of them have a CD and have seen this first to be
understood, metaphorically or physically or figuratively. So CMM
P, would you lean the signs on their foreheads mean authority
sujood, from the effect of their sujood, in other words, in terms
of their internal enlightenment, and then that comes on the outside
comes on the outer, right. So, you know, subhanAllah, believers,
Muslims, they have an uncanny ability to recognize that, and you
don't have to be sort of,
you know, this great saying of Islam in order to have some
recognition of that you can see in certain people, there's a type of
illumination in their faces, and it's not due to any sort of
physical light, but it's due to an internal light that then is
reflected on the outside. And this was one of the ways that the
Sahaba the Companions knew who the prophet is, and was and for the
prophets are so it was just such a great degree, that there was so
much light emanating from him that they could not discern his actual
physical silhouette from the horizon because he had so much
light.
And it's also said physically about the province so I sent him
that he did not cast the shadow.
So you
Even if the sun was on him one of the miraculous things about our
promise are seldom he casts no shadow. He was all light, some of
our hairs and so, the the hook, then the, the inner aspect is the
most important aspect. And we see people so enamored, and
I don't even know if that's the right word I would say obsessed
with how they appear physically outwardly. And we have a this kind
of, I think,
unhealthy fascination with you,
you know, remaining useful looking.
We have multibillion dollar worldwide industries now that are
dedicated to,
to artificially keeping people looking young. Right. And
we have people who suffer sort of mental crises when they realize
that they are getting older and that they are eventually going to
die. And so the physical changes that one undergoes as they get
older are also at the mercy from Allah subhanaw taala. Not
something to be rejected or something to be avoided, but they
are a reminder, right? It's alive. It's a reminder, it's an
admonition, hey, look, you know, you're getting some gray in your
beard, or you're getting some wrinkles, you're getting some
crow's feet, you're getting these things, it's a reminder, a gradual
reminder that you know, there's a there's an expiry date. There's an
end date for all of this. And
but despite that, the Prophet of Allah subhanaw taala, did not
necessarily
dictate that there would be the sort of entropy for the soul. The
soul is the opposite, actually. So the soul doesn't actually
deteriorate in the sense that the physical the outward deteriorates,
so the soul will continue. And you know, people can be at 90 100 110
years old, and their soul is youthful, in the sense that their
soul is alive, they still feel things, they still understand
things the soul doesn't become decrepid by advancing in age, and
you might make the argument that the soul actually becomes more
enriched with its wealth of experiences as it advances in
physical age. How does the soul become decrepid
the soul becomes covered by the lack of remembrance of God. That's
how the Quran describes it. A certain Dunker right, this type of
life that's decrepit, that is miserable. Because there's no
remembrance or literal remembrance of Allah, Allah, Allah. And the
prophet Isaiah them compared the soul that doesn't make any
remembrance of God as the Beit El Caribe, as the
decrepit or crumbling house, because there's no mention of God.
And so
this is how our souls then become invigorated. Right, this is how
we, we remain youthful, in the sense our souls remain youthful.
And sometimes we say how they act is how the courage or the arc is
our whole look. And sometimes this will even manifest itself in one's
physical, outward physical look, because they're invigorated
inwardly than they become also invigorated outwardly, even though
they may still have the normal signs of aging, like everybody
else has.
So that's why in these books, like that recount the Shema is they
recount the physical aspect of the promised heart center. And also,
it shows us the dedication of the Sahaba the Companions who, you
know, thought it was important, and, you know, took painstaking
effort to record every single thing about the Prophet Muhammad
Sarson. You know, they talk about how many gray hairs they counted
in his beard. They talked about what his hand felt like when they
touched it.
They would mention if a
question or comes in and the province Larson was sitting down,
that's probably how the problem was settled, would turn his head
and look up, you know, to that level of,
of detail. And then the ones after them transmitted this faithfully,
from generation to generation and so forth.
You know, there's even Hadith call about Hadith and Mozaffar. So,
Mustafa, the Hadith, of handshaking of how the province
has seen them would shake hands and passed on from one generation
to the next. So these things
sort of formed a
kind of culture and of itself around the study of the person of
the Prophet Muhammad.
And then some of them even went on to say there's a soulful aspect of
that, what some of them described as happier and mohammedia or the
Muhammad in reality, so you find in some of the books
I
like him and Julia and others and burqa we, they talk about this
happy, or topical Muhammadiyah in terms of vertical, but others
talked about the happy, acclaimed comedy, you know, the hammered in
reality and how to embody that particular reality like you can
imbibe these aspects of
the character of, of Muhammad Salim and so also to emulate him
in his states in his world. And that's one way to look at the
science of deskey
purification of the soul is how to become more Mohammed and how to
become more like Mohammed source and in terms of your, your soul,
right and to try to feel what he feels and to see what he saw and
to,
to have a love and a knowledge of God as he had, right. And
obviously, it's something to aspire to, we can't really acquire
that. But it's something that that we aspire to. So any any knowledge
then of the ultimate reality, then it's always going to be a function
of the knowledge of the Mohammed in reality, or going back to
Mohammed spy center. That's why they said kinematic I believe that
the saintly miracles are merely an extension of the prophetic
miracles. So And the greatest thing to the miracle is is the
karma is to be an upright individual. And to live your life
according to the solar Bahamas are set and there's no greater miracle
than that. Nothing is greater than that you can fly in the air and
you can, you know, walk on water and all these sorts of things, but
nothing is going to compare and measure two
kilometer is the karma, that the sanctuary miracle of, of being
upright. And it sounds easy.
It sounds like it's something that you know, within reach, doesn't
take too much effort. It's just like willpower, and then you get
it right. But when you try to actually do it, it's not that
easy. And we live in an age of crumbling.
Ethics, crumbling adab, certainly, you can describe one of the
greatest calamities of the age that we live in, is this loss of
Deb. And I don't usually usually delve into current affairs or
politics or anything like that. But something I watched last
night, when I watched 370 year old plus people
behave in a way that you would not find much different than
preschoolers in The Sandlot in the playground.
And you might find more ad AB, you know, more sort of comportment and
courtesy in the preschool playground, you know, kindergarten
lot, and then you would find in this thing that we wasted our
time, a few minutes
watching, and, and then the implications of this
cannot be underscored. This is something that we see is
progressively happening. And so really, this is, you know, some
people may consider why reading old books that are 1000 years old,
and the words are 1000 years old, and we should be, you know, get
out there and, you know, push people for change and make things
happen and dissolve and you know, that sort of impulse to to, you
know, to, in a very active way to kind of make everything change and
happen. But if you don't have the ability to affect that change
meaningfully within yourself, you will not be able to do with
anybody else.
The prophesy seven didn't just change the society. He didn't just
change his family.
He changed history. He changed the world. He changed all the worlds.
Well my son in law, Rama, Tangela, Nene, and that could have not come
except from this very powerful of love and character that he was
upon that the Quran describes or Inaka Allah, Allah who will open
Aldine when you are upon a great
character, right, you exhibit great character. So that's why we
study this, and that's why it's vitally important. And that's why
it's vitally important that we teach it to our children, that we
teach it, obviously to ourselves, we, and we teach it and live it
amongst our family, our neighbors, our colleagues, Muslim, non
Muslim, believe or disbelieve, it doesn't matter. This was the ethos
of the Prophet Muhammad, so I sent them and this is what brought
Islam from the northern to the southern hemisphere from the most
northerly latitudes to the most southern latitudes, from Asia to
Africa to Europe,
to every single corner of the globe, what other force can have
have such power except that it was propelled by this
divine wisdom?
and divine guidance. And then a lot of that happened within just
less than 100 years of the mission, the beginning of the
mission of the Prophet Muhammad. So, really, there has been no
other worldwide phenomenon like it. Right now we're kind of in a
little bit of a low, maybe historically speaking, not alone,
but kind of a, an aberration, we hope is what it is. And hopefully,
you know, this operation, you know, we may look at it like that
in sha Allah, it is a harbinger of of much, much better things to
come. But the fear in sha Allah smokable fear is coming, much good
is coming. But the question then becomes, are we going to be part
of that wave of good? Or are we just going to get in the way of
the wave of good.
So back to the book.
So he said he's going to talk about his
whole look, then his Hulk his physical comportment, followed by
the mention of his miracles, the marches that that have been
validated in the reports. And well, in order that they may
clearly make known the mobility nobilities of ethical comportment,
or adapt, and disposition, move the plug of deafness from the ears
of the deniers of his prophethood. And that's one of the signs of his
new book,
called the yard I think we've mentioned before he is the one
that said, if we had no other evidence, of the miraculous nature
of the Prophet SAW Selim except the people who left behind, namely
his Sahaba, his companions, then that would have been enough for us
as an evidence, the ability, what was a what was done, and how they
were changed. And the Quran describe the
quality matter Shahara for them in a life and called akumina. They
were on the precipice of falling into the pit of hellfire, both
literally,
you know, hopefully, cotton, or woman, you know, and also in terms
of where they were as a society, they were on the precipice of
destruction, but alas, what Allah saved them by the grace, His grace
and by the mercy that he sent, namely the prophets, Larson.
Allah is the Lord of facilitation towards the emulation of the chief
of the messenger Satan was seen in regard to ethical performance and
moral conduct as well as all the other guideposts of the religion.
For he is indeed, the one who points the way for the Perplexed
and responds to the supplication of those in need.
We shall first of all give an account of his refinement by God
most high with the Quran. Then an accountant of the summaries of the
refinements of his other more important than an account of a
compilation of his manners and etiquettes. Then an account of his
speech and his sense of humor,
then an account of his etiquettes and manners in the partaking of
food, and then an account of his advocates and manners of his
attire, then account of his forgiving nature, despite his
ability to censure, then account of his turning away from whatever
he disliked, then an account of his generosity and munificence,
then account of his courage and valor,
then an account of his humility, then account of his appearance and
physical performance. So all those other ones you just mentioned, are
part of the whole look, this
is inward character. And then an account of the totality of his
miracles and the signs of his veracity. Salallahu Salam, God
bless him and grant him peace. So all of these different situations
that we're going to learn about
how the Prophet SAW Selim spoke, how he ate, how he sat,
how he
just expressed his dislike for something, right. So in each one
of those things, there there is a
divinely inspired manner, or weigh about how we go about doing these
things. One might ask the question, then, well, if I'm going
to follow this all like you're saying, then what's room for my
personality? What about me? Where's the meat part? And all of
this? Where is the, you know, that I be myself? And, you know,
shouldn't I be myself and that sort of thing. And
one of the peculiar things about the age that we live in, is that
we do have this
sort of, you know, obsession once again, with Who am I me?
You know,
how do I view myself? How do others view me and What image do I
want to project to the world and, and so forth, and especially in
the West, there is this preoccupation with being
authentic. Right and not being hypocritical and being authentic
true to oneself. And now we have even politicians speaking the
mantra. Speak your truth.
As if the truth is not an objective thing. It's not
something that should be sought out unknown, but rather, it's
something that you project something that you articulate in
whatever manner you want articulate on your own behalf. And
I think it was Heidegger who said that the, the, the mantra of pre
modern people is Know thyself. And the mantra of modern people is be
thyself. So it's kind of been flipped about, whereas people used
to know who they are and what they're supposed to do. But the
idea then was to know oneself, and people like to visit you and
others and this is mentioned as perhaps being part of a hadith,
when out of and if so who out of out of the who were knows oneself,
then will also know God. And so the traditional way of looking at
it is not to be yourself, but is to know yourself.
Another one words, you yourself, you're like a book that needs to
be explored and that needs to be studied. And that needs to be
researched. Just as creation is. And in turn, just as Allah is. And
so all of these things are signs
often are the area to learn more clean Murphy unfussy calm Africa
to zero. And in the earth, there are signs
as well as within yourselves, do you not see do not reflect.
So it's like a last month, I left all of these breadcrumbs around,
that's leading us to him. And these breadcrumbs are within
yourself. They're in your physical makeup, they're in your emotional
makeup, they're in your spiritual makeup. They're in the trees, and
in the birds and the rivers and in the mountains and in your parents
and in your children and in your grandchildren and in everything
around you.
There are Signs for those who reflect so the question that is
not a question of being but a question of knowing.
And then who you are, or your sense of being, will be based upon
your sense of knowing. So our hierarchy, and I say this
confidently the Muslim hierarchy is one that is based upon
knowledge, not based upon anything else. It's not based upon birth,
it's not based upon wealth. It's not based upon political
loyalties, none of those things really figure into the hierarchy
or the dollar jet or the rank that one may think they have with Allah
subhanaw taala, but rather, it's by your knowledge of Allah spa
knowledge of reality, knowledge of the divine knowledge of everything
around you. So
you know, this idea of, I need to project my personality, or I need
to be me, you know, you do you and I do mean, and let me speak my
truth.
I think it's, it's a very vexing way to look at things. And
ultimately, I think it leads to failure. And it's more about know
yourself, there was not a diverse group of people that had a central
figure in your life and leaders are prioritized as the Sahaba as
the Companions. They were not cookie cutter, copy, paste,
versions of the prophets are similar. They all had their own
particular personalities. They all had their particular ways of
expressing that, but there was also the common denominator. And
the common denominator was that everything they tried to do, they
tried to do it with SN with excellence, right with it con with
with as much.
Adverb, right, this word that we keep using as much comportment and
an ethics and
insight and meaning and feeling and positive emotion, about the
things that we're doing as they could, that all of them had that
but they came out in different ways. And, you know, that's,
that's what we're trying to do. We're not trying to tell people to
ignore their phobia, right, which is the Arabic word for your
message or your temperament or how you are, people will react
differently to different things and express things in different
ways. But the idea that there's not somehow some sort of objective
reality that we all share with one another, and one that is
increasingly being promoted
in this age that we live in. It's a false notion. There is an
objective reality.
This is the first theological or it's not even a theological
statement, the first statement of logic that you find in many books
of theology and philosophy and logic and thought and so forth,
is how critical it is, as you
know, the reality of things fair better. How can you assure a
saboteur? There is a reality to things right. And that reality
means it's not up for vote or discussion, or maybe discussion,
but it's not up for a vote.
To determine the reality of that thing, stopped by popular
consensus that we can determine what's the reality of a book or a
chair or a house or a dog or a cat. But there is a reality to it.
And Muslim theologian spoke about this. And he was talking about
Mefi neffs. And
so when you ever see that phrase and books of theology phenotypes,
and other means, how is it actually is in reality, and it's
also a statement of humility from them that saying, we don't always
know that. Now, if enough said, we don't always know exactly how it
is like to say I know Allah Swarthout, if enough said, I must
say that I know a lot more about exactly how he is, that's
impossible, we don't have the capacity to know a lot more about
how he actually is. But Allah subhanaw taala is only taking us
to task in as much as we are able to draw a conclusion based upon
what is available to us. And if there's not enough
information or not enough out there for us to draw a conclusion,
then we're not required to draw a conclusion. We don't have to form
a conclusion. And Alaska does not ask us to form conclusions about
people's Noelia, about people's intentions or about people's
internal states in a manner that we're then going to act upon it,
and then deal with them or even center them based upon our
suspicions about why they're doing things and their motivations and
so forth. We call that in the middle of it. This is from the
knowledge of the Unseen. And this is one of the cornerstones and the
principal features of good character is not to take people to
task based upon your just mere suspicion of them, there has to be
something more concrete. And even if there's something concrete, it
doesn't allow you there's no license then to
draw all other sorts of conclusions based upon what you
think to be, is the situation with that person. So
these I think, are very, very timely and important and relevant
things that we don't spend enough time upon. And I'm looking forward
to in our further sessions exploring this specifically, in
terms of the Prophet Muhammad zarza them so I'm going to stop
here for today. In sha Allah, desert como la jolla, Baraka Luffy
hope all of you are given that which you seek and that Allah
raise you in degrees and in ranks and allow us to avail ourselves of
the beautiful character of the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu
wasallam were hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salam Alaikum
Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh