Waleed Basyouni – Torchbearers Of Islam Wisdom From The Greatest Scholars
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning about the life of theiter and understanding theology and social issues during the " (the)" period is emphasized. The success of Prophet Muhammad's teachings and the challenges faced by graduates during difficult times are also highlighted. The speakers stress the importance of avoiding the influence of non-Muslims in daily life and dressing well for a class, particularly in relation to their narrations and actions.
AI: Summary ©
Inshallah ta'ala I'm planning this weekend to
teach one of my favorite classes that I
think I spend a lot of time in
this class, preparing this class more than any
other time because this class is the outcome
of decades of learning, reading, and what you're
going to get in this class inshallah ta
'ala is something that you're not going to
be able to get it unless you spend
decades of your time learning and searching and
going into the books of the So I
really encourage those who are able to attend
to do so.
I promise you it'll be a lot of
fun too.
Why this is a very special topic, talking
about the life of the scholars.
Talk about history through the life of the
scholars.
You know you can talk about historical events
just saying in this year happened this and
this and that but that's not what I
do and I don't like history like reading
history like that.
I like to read history and what happened
through the lens of people who lived that
period of time.
What experience did they have?
What their personal experience looks like?
What kind of life did they have?
This class will allow you actually to get
to know a lot of people's psychology and
the social issues at their time.
How they were thinking, how they were feeling
about certain things, how this impacted their views,
their decisions, their you know positions in certain
things.
And very often when we study fiqh or
study history of the movement of scholars or
schools thoughts and fiqh or even theology, we
don't take these things in consideration.
But this class actually do.
I will allow, this class will allow us
to walk into their homes, see how they
live their life, what kind of relationship they
had with their spouses, with their children, with
their neighbors, with their society, with rulers, with
the challenges that faced them in their life.
You know and I can't you know wait
until we speak about those scholars and I
have chosen scholars from different generations from the
first century or the first from 200 to
300 then from 300 to 400.
I just give an example so you kind
of understand what this period of time looks
like, what kind of challenges that they have
and during that period of time until you
know basically the last hundred years or the
hundred years that we're living in inshallah.
We will have people from all over the
place, from India to Spain to Africa to
Arabia, from all kind of gender, men, women,
young, old, rich, poor, scholars of hadith, scholars
of fiqh, you know of quran, you name
it.
So we will have a very good you
know collections of scholars and individual who have
contributed tremendously to their society and one of
the things that we will do, this class
is a very interacting class so every time
we talk about someone's life we will always
have this kind of discussion in the end.
But tonight I want to focus on why,
why this is important.
Because first of all it is important part
of our religion, Allah yaqul wa anna hadhi
ummatukum ummata wahida.
This ummah, the nation of muslims is one
nation from the beginning to the end.
We are connected to the people who lived
before us.
Subhanallah if you ask one of the brothers
who Alex today I met at Jumu'ah,
he just became muslim, he just became muslim
Alex and when you ask him the moment
he became muslim or a sister who just
became muslim, instantly you have in your credit,
in your history Al Bukhari and muslim and
Abu Dawood and Imam Ahmed and Al Shafi,
you feel you connect to those people.
You can claim them as your you know
forefathers.
You can claim them as you know somebody
that I belong to them and that's the
beauty of this religion.
It's connect all of us together and that's
why the sahaba radiallahu anhum, if you look
at the second generation Islam which is attabi
'oon, you know they used to teach their
children not only the religion, not only the
life of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, yaqul
ibn Sa'd kanu yu'allimuna ashabahum sirata Abu
Bakr wa Umar kama yu'allimunahum surata minal
quran.
They used to teach them the life of
Abu Bakr wa Umar the same way they
teach them the quran.
They used to teach them the maghazi, the
journeys and the battles and the incident that
took place in the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam time the same way they teach in
the surah from the quran.
They teach them the love for Abu Bakr
and Umar, the love for the sahaba, the
stories of the companions.
It was something embedded in the second generation.
Then the second generation transferred to the third
and so forth and with it transferred all
the stories of the scholars and them and
the leaders and the righteous people who lived
in that time and Imam al-Bukhari once
was asked, aren't you get bored?
You're always by yourself.
He said, I never was, I never by
myself.
I never by myself.
When you see me alone in my library
or my you know inside my house, I'm
with Sufyan al-Thawri and with the Sufyan
ibn Uyayna and al-Shu'ba.
He means the scholars that he narrated the
hadith from.
I read their life, I read about them,
I read their history, I feel I'm part
of their life, I kind of connect to
them.
So I never really felt alone.
By studying the life of the scholars, we
know that they say history repeats itself but
I like what Twain said.
He said history does not repeat itself but
it rhymes.
It rhymes and that's very true.
History rhymes.
There is nothing like, you will find a
lot of similarity between them and us, between
their challenges and our challenges.
You know, yes there is a unique challenges
for every generations but you will find a
lot of similarity.
That's why the person who don't study history
doomed to repeat the same mistakes.
You know, will not be able to grow
and you look at their life, learn from
their experience.
Lucky, smart person, the one who learned from
others and the other kind of people are
the one who wait until they learn it
by themselves.
It has to be your own experience to
learn.
It doesn't work this way, you know, and
sometimes it's very costly that you have to
experience everything yourself.
No, other people's experience in life, something I
can learn from and grow.
I don't need to repeat the same experience
of the same mistake and sometimes it's very
interesting.
Like for example, Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmad.
Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmad, this is a name,
when it's mentioned it means the peak of
Arabic language.
If you think of the man who mastered
the Arabic language, if you count five people
in history of Islam or the Arabic literature,
Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmad will be one of
them.
Al-Khalil Ibn Ahmad started learning Arabic and
Arabic grammars and Arabic literature and he found
it to be very difficult.
He couldn't understand it.
He tried years, months, he couldn't get it.
So one day he said, you know what,
I'm gonna quit.
And he said, I was sitting and just
thinking about after all this time I spent
learning the Arabic language, I'm not getting it.
It's not, I'm not processing it.
He said, I saw drips of water falling
on a rock and that drips of water
have made actually engrave the rock, affect the
rock that it became like, you know, it's
smoother.
And I said to myself, my aql, my
brain and my heart is not harder than
the rock.
I'm not dumber than rock, you know, which
is dumb as a rock.
He said, I'm not as dumb as a
rock.
And yet that drip of water impacted the
rock.
And he said, I knew what is my
mistake is that I'm trying to get it
all at once.
That's why there is a very famous statement
came later.
If you try to get the knowledge all
at once, you lose it all at once.
So he said, I start taking, you know,
step by step in Africa, since I'm traveling
to Africa on Monday.
Okay.
In Africa, they said, how you eat an
elephant?
They said, one bite at the time.
So that's, that's what it is.
So he starts, I start taking one step
at the time, one thing, one, one point
at the time, until he became the one
who mastered the Arabic language.
Another scholar in Arabic language, his name is
Al-Kasa'i.
Al-Kasa'i had an imam.
He has one of the qiraat we have.
He's a great imam in Arabic language.
He said, I was 40 years old and
I was walking.
I was at that time a shepherd and
my clothes was dirty.
I am like, you know, have the stain
of the sheep, smell like a sheep.
And I was walking and this mother with
her son and her son crying because she's
taking him to the school, to the kuttab.
And she told her son, you better go
to school or you're going to end up
like this man.
And she pointed to me.
Al-Kasa'i said, I felt like I'm
an example of a loser.
If you want an example of somebody who's
a loser, I became that model representing that.
And I said to myself, no, I'm not
going to be that person.
You're talking about someone who's 40 years old.
He started his journey at the age of
40 and he became one of that landmark
of Islamic history.
When I read that, I'm inspired by that
experience.
It's not hard.
I can do it.
I can, you know, push myself.
When you study the life of the scholars,
you understand what cause changes, how people change,
how people change the course of their life.
You have to be decisive to take an
action.
He said, I started my journey as a
person who's studying medicine.
He wanted to be a doctor.
He said, so I studied the book of
Al-Qanun Ibn Sina to be a doctor.
And he said, my heart became so dark
because Ibn Sina was not just a doctor.
He was not a physician.
He was a philosopher.
And he has a very dark philosophy, Ibn
Sina, to the extent that many Muslims don't
consider him as actually a Muslim because he
went very far to say that Allah does
not really exist.
And there is no such thing called prophethood.
There's no such thing called angels or Jibreel
or anything like that.
He went very far in his views and
his ideology.
It's way more corrupt as a theologian from
a theological perspective than other religions that we
don't consider Muslim today, in any case.
So he said, it became so hard for
me to read this.
And one day he said, you know what,
that's it, I'm done.
And he start learning Hadith.
And he switch, he take that decision and
he switch.
I can tell you, Ibn Nawiyah was a
doctor and he was the most famous doctor
of his time.
The impact of Ibn Nawiyah would be like,
in my opinion, it's still very minimal.
Ibn Sina had a great job, but still
his impact is to a certain extent limited.
Compare the impact, let's say he became like
Ibn Sina even better in medicine, taking consideration
that he died at the age of 40.
Compare this to what Nawiyah is today.
Anybody who never heard of Riyadh As-Saliheen,
never heard of 40 Hadith There is many
books wrote 40 Hadith.
Many books written as 40 collection Hadith.
And Nawiyah's 40 Hadith is the most famous
one, hands down.
How many people read Riyadh As-Saliheen?
How many people read his books in Fiqh?
He is one, his opinion was at very
long time, the authority in the Shafi'i
Madhab.
And he talk about someone die, not even
in his 30s.
Well, I will never forget, I really appreciated
in Nawiyah Rahimahullah, I was once in Guam,
in an island, not even an island in
Guam.
Guam, anybody knows what is Guam is?
Specific ocean, in the middle of nowhere.
For God's sake, Guam, they don't have even
birds in their, in that island.
There's no birds, never seen in my life,
an island with no birds, except this one.
And I asked, why there's no birds in
this island?
They said, you know what, you have very
good observation actually.
Not many people will observe that.
Anyway, this is another story.
But there is no birds, and it's very
far land.
Guess what?
There is masjid there, there is Mashallah Muslim
community there.
There is an accountant there, a brother who's
from Pakistan, another brother from Malaysia, started a
masjid.
So proud of these couple, because they start
very good community there.
There's a lot of marines who became, who
are Muslims, they go to the masjid.
And anyway, guess what book they are reading
after Isha, Riyadh Al-Saliheen.
The imam know his book all the way
there.
Every corner in the world, you will see
his book.
What kind of impact that he had?
I bet you anything when he made that
decision to switch to study, it was hard,
not easy.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows that
he's so sincere.
This man is so sincere.
Now I understand the impact.
And Nawawi rahimallah was praying in the night,
just to show you, to understand how sincerity
is one of the causes for success.
And Nawawi was praying in his house, and
he heard somebody jump inside his house.
A thief.
A thief, he couldn't find anything worth stealing,
except Nawawi's shoes.
So he took his shoes and ran away.
And Nawawi rahimallah was finished, and he saw
him running with his shoes, he started running
after him.
Do you know what's Nawawi running after him
for what?
Nawawi was saying to the thief, these shoes,
this pair of shoes is a gift, say
I accept.
He's telling the thief, this is a gift,
just say I accept.
Why?
Because the gift, it's a transaction in fiqh
in Islam.
Only gift, if I give the doctor a
gift, he has to accept it, either verbally
or by action.
But if I put it next to him
and he didn't show acceptance, it's not a
gift, he cannot possess it in fiqh.
If he take it and I didn't say
approve it, it cannot be his.
So in fiqh, in order for it to
be a gift, you have to offer and
accept.
So in Nawawi, we want to transfer the
transaction from stealing to be halal and gift.
He cared about the thief not to be
sinning in front of Allah.
What kind of heart is this?
What kind of kindness is this?
I just make you understand that what why
they became so effective, why they became so
popular, it is because of their sincerity and
relationship with Allah.
We will see how good manners and moral
can be a live example in front of
you when you study their life.
And I'm saying this because I'm hurt from
so many bad examples that we're living today.
We want to really see how those people
understand what it means to represent the sharia,
to represent Islam, to represent the Quran, to
represent the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, to
represent the deen.
You have to take yourself to another level,
a standard that befitting this responsibility that you
claim.
Al-Rabi' Ibn Khuthaym, which is one of
the students of an Imam Abdullah Ibn Mas
'ud, the companion, the famous companion.
Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud used to tell Al
-Rabi' you know Al-Rabi' if the Prophet
ﷺ seen you, if he met you, he
would have loved you.
And I love that.
He said if the Prophet ﷺ met you,
he would love you.
And I read that story and I ask
myself, if the Prophet ﷺ met me, would
he love me?
Would I be one of his closest companions?
If he walked to my room, would he
love me?
If he look at my phone history, would
he love me?
If he hears my speech and my talk
and the way I treat my family, would
he love me?
If he see my salah, would he love
me?
If he see my commitment to the deen,
would he love me?
When Ibn Mas'ud said this to him
because he have seen from him what he
knows for sure that make the Prophet ﷺ
love him.
So someone like that, when I read this,
I remember this one of the early things
I ever read about Al-Rabi' Ibn Khuthaym.
It made me interested to know more about
his personality, more about what kind of role
model he was.
One of the students, he said I was
with Al-Rabi' 20 years.
I don't think I ever heard him saying
a bad word.
I don't think he said a single word
that can be written against him as a
sin.
20 years, today 20 minutes, you know.
So 20 years, can you imagine that?
One time, a man came to Al-Rabi'
house.
So he told his wife, bring me cookies,
like a nice cookie.
They bake cookies or cake, whatever.
It's a dessert.
So Al-Rabi' was making sure it looks
nice and decorated.
Then his wife said, why are you doing
this?
This man is blind and he's deaf.
He can't hear.
And he's not going to see, nor someone
would describe it to him.
Why doing this?
Why are you doing this?
He said, but Allah sees and hears.
Allahu Akbar.
Allah sees and hears.
That's why I'm doing this.
That's Al-Rabi' Ibn Khuthaym.
One time his horse was stolen.
He raised his hand.
He said, oh my God, if Al-Rabi'
make dua against someone, khalas.
Al-Rabi' said, ya rab, if this man
who stole my horse, poor, make my horse,
make him sufficient so he doesn't need to
steal anymore.
And if he's rich, make this the last
time ever to do that.
He made dua and he was asked, he
said, what, what would I gain?
That's why Imam Ahmed said, tell me what
you will gain from making dua against your
brothers that your brother go to * fire.
What this will benefit you, Imam Ahmed said.
Tell me one benefit you will get.
If your brother go to * fire, or
you pray against someone that go to *,
how this will benefit you?
How can Allah's punishment to your brother or
sister or some person, how this will help
you?
It will have zero help to you.
Will not benefit you much.
When you read the lives of the scholars,
you see how they're really role model.
Another example, Uthman.
When you read Uthman ibn Affan, the Khalifa
of the Muslimin, he said, I never ever
stare at my mother's, to her eyes.
Every time she talked to me, I lower
my gaze.
I never look at straight to her eyes.
That's Uthman on the line.
The third man in Islam, that's how he
treats his mother, the Khalifa.
And once he was asked, yeah, Uthman, when
you eat with your mom, we notice you
don't ever, you don't, you wait until she
finish.
He said, because when I eat with her,
I don't know, I'm worried that I will
reach out to something in the plate that
she desire, and I will take it without
knowing.
And I'm worried that this will not be
a nice thing.
I want her to make sure that she
take, fulfill her need and she take what
she desire first, then I will eat.
Ask me about it.
Mom's, where's my food?
Where's my coke?
Where's my things?
Gone.
MashaAllah, the kids finito.
Finish the whole thing before you even start
eating it.
Every scholar was way less than what he
was described with, some of the ulama said,
except Shuraih.
No matter what praise it was said about
him, he is much better than whatever was
said about him.
And then now he can give you example
of how noble this man is.
He said once he was teaching in Masjid
Nabi ﷺ or in the Masjid, and the
students are not mashaAllah like this, but thousands
of students.
Then all of a sudden his mother came,
you know, no matter how big you are,
you're still aish, my baby.
So the mother came and she said, Shuraih,
the chicken need to be fed, go feed
the chicken.
Then he told the student to wait, and
he went to his house, fed the chicken
and came back.
A young man, when you hear that, when
you study that, you understand, when your mom
said, take the trash, take the trash, take
the trash, take the trash, 5 cents 20
times, I never reply.
Please, can you do this?
Can you go get me that?
I'm busy, I'm this.
When you study the life of the scholar,
that inspire you to know what kind of
manners and adab.
And it's more effective than, you know, just
telling you do this or not to do
that.
You know, Aoun, Abdullah ibn Aoun, he said,
one time my mother called me and I
replied because she was far, but my voice
was raised over her voice.
Yeah, I was higher than her voice.
He said, I consider that a sin and
I made a sadaqah just to sin.
He said, I consider a sin that my
voice was louder than her voice.
That's something required when you read the life
of the story, the story of the scholars
and their life, and you go deep into
these details, it really help you and teach
you a lot about manners.
We can talk about manners, but I'll give
you a live example.
You know, Ibn Taymiyyah, there is one Maliki
scholar, he hated Ibn Taymiyyah so much.
He hated, he told the president, the Khalifa
at that time or the wali, the amir,
kill Ibn Taymiyyah, put him in jail until
he rot in jail.
He hated Ibn Taymiyyah.
Guess what?
This man died and Ibn Taymiyyah, when he
heard he died, he's a great, he's a
Maliki scholar.
Ibn Taymiyyah went to his family and he
said to his wife and his children, your
father and your husband die, I'm like a
father to your kids.
Anything they need, I'll take care of it.
When you read that, you know that the
manners and the morality and and the standard
nobility is another level.
Another thing that has a personal impact on
us when we study the life of the
scholars, man, you want your heart to be
softened?
Read the story of the scholars.
You want your heart to be connected to
Allah?
Read the story of the scholars and the
original.
If you want to put a standard for
yourself, look at their stories and it just
inspire you, it melts your heart.
Marra Abdul Malik Ibn Marwan entered Mecca.
He entered to the haram and he saw
this man making tawaf and he said, is
this Salim, the son of Abdullah Ibn Umar?
They said, yes.
He said, call him for me.
He came, Abdul Malik Ibn Marwan, this is
a great khalifa, great king, one of the
richest king in history, powerful.
So he told Salim, yes, Salim, I hear
a lot about you.
Tell me what you want so I can
give you anything you wish.
And obviously, Abdul Malik Ibn Marwan is also
biased in this because Salim and his father,
Abdullah Ibn Umar, had a semi kind of,
you know, position in favor of Abdul Malik
Ibn Marwan and the Umayyads against Ibn Zubayr
when they had a clash at that time.
So he always respect that household for a
political reason as well.
So anyway, Salim is not, he wasn't born
yesterday, you understand.
So Salim told him, would it be appropriate
for me to be in his house and
to ask someone else?
And imagine if I'm in your house, would
I ask another guest, can you do me
this for me, give me water?
No, if I'm in your house, I ask
the one who owns the house.
He said, I'm in Allah's house, would I
ask someone else?
Then he got embarrassed, the Khalifa.
See the dignity, the nobility, he waited outside,
outside Mecca, the Masjid Al-Haram, Al-Kaaba,
he waited outside.
They told him, go, king, go to your
home and we'll bring him, or go to
your tent and we'll bring him.
He said, bring him?
He's not going to come.
Let's wait.
He waited until the sunrise, it was after
Fajr, and it was hot, but he waited
until Salim left the Masjid.
When he left the Masjid, he saw the
Khalifa waiting outside.
He said, now you are outside his house,
ask me.
Are you in debt?
You have a debt, you need money, you
need whatever you need.
He said, would you give me from something
related to this world, or next one?
He said, next one, I don't control it.
Allah only made me control of this world,
or what's in this world.
He said, Allah have put you a distributor
over the wealth of this world, that's right?
He said, yes, you don't even own it.
He said, yes, I'm just a distributor.
Just tell me what you want, I'll give
you.
He said, I never asked the one who
owns it, anything from it.
Allah, the one who owns everything in this
dunya, I never asked him anything from it.
You think I will ask the distributor?
Thank you.
When you see that, you know that you
know what?
There is something, there is people you can't
buy them by your money.
Those people really, not only had good principles
in life, but they lived up to these
good principles.
They lived by these principles, rahimahumullah.
There is a scholar, used to make night,
he used to wake up in the night,
and he will pray in the night, and
he will get tired.
Then he will look at his legs and
he will do like this, just to move
the blood a little bit.
And he said to his legs, stand up.
The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ companions, they were around
him and surrounding him in the dunya because
Allah created them and made them live in
the time of the Prophet ﷺ.
So they were the only one get that
pleasure of being around the Prophet ﷺ.
But in the next life, in the hereafter,
wallahi, I will not let them be the
only one around him.
I will work so hard to secure for
myself a place next to him.
And that will inspire him every night to
pray.
That's Abu Idrees Khawlani, rahimahullah.
You see how they're connecting to Allah ﷻ.
One of them used to wake up in
the night, and he will touch the bed
and he said, wow, this is so soft
and so nice.
So warm, sometimes, especially winter coming, when your
bed is nice, especially if you have one
of these like mattress, 10 to 13, $15
,000 mattress.
You know, I still remember Sheraton Hotel, they
had this line of, you know, at one
year they said, heavenly bed.
That's how they basically sell their rooms.
They said, we have a heavenly bed.
That's really good beds, I'm telling you, okay.
It's really nice bed.
It's like they said each bed worth $10
,000, okay.
So anyway, one of these nice beds, and
he touching the bed, he said, it's so
soft, it's so warm, but the beds of
Jannah is much better.
Then he will push his way, he will
push himself away from the bed and he
will go make wubu and pray.
And he will recite, they
leave their beds, they stay away from their
beds.
With jaffa, they don't want to go back
to it.
Because they have hope and fear from Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
When you read about them, it gives you
that honor.
Subhanallah, you feel you belong to people like
giants.
I am part of that.
When people are so proud of pyramids or
tower or building or this or that.
No, our pyramids, our buildings, our towers are
Abu Bakr and Umar and Uthman and Shafi
and Ahmed.
These are giants, more powerful than any accumulating
dust that was built through history, reading their
lives.
It shows you the strength.
There is a scholar, his name is Abu
Umar, his father was a fisherman, the son
of As-Sammak from Samak, which means fisherman
or sell fish.
He was invited, okay, he lived in the
fourth century, 344 Hijri, which is about 955.
When he was invited by Abu Ja'far
al-Mansur, Abu Ja'far al-Mansur said
to him, he was writing something and he
ran out of ink.
Then he said, can you pass the ink
to me?
He said, no, that's the king.
He said, no, he said, why?
He said, I don't know what you're writing.
What if you're writing something haram?
What if you make an order for somebody
to be executed unfairly or confiscated a land
that's not, I'm not going to be part
of that.
Then the king was so angry.
How can he said this to him?
He said, no, I'm not doing anything of
that.
He said, so I'm not your servant.
The king said, I'm not making any of
them do anything.
He said, I'm not your servant.
I'm here as a guest.
I'm not going to give it to you.
Then he knows he can mess with them
because he's a very respected person in society.
Then he want to embarrass him.
There is a fly coming in front of
his face.
So Abu Ja'far al-Mansur said, may
Allah curse flies.
He said, Ibn al-Sammak, why Allah created
flies for?
Then Ibn al-Sammak said, to humiliate dictators
like you.
Allahu Akbar.
To humiliate dictators like you.
That this fly can humiliate great king like
you.
When you read that, you know you're part
of ummah.
You're part of a history that's so rich.
When a king told one of the scholar,
he said, I will set you free if
you kiss my hand.
He said, I will not let him kiss
my hand.
That king.
I will not, I will not allow him
to kiss my hand.
Abu Hanifa rahimahullah was sitting and stretching his
feet in the masjid.
So that one of the most powerful men
passing by, he's a minister.
Very powerful man.
He saw him and he was so offended.
Why he didn't change his sitting?
He's just relaxing, casual like that.
He should show respect to me.
I will do this and that to him.
So one of his advice said, no, you
don't do that to Abu Hanifa.
Abu Hanifa is more powerful than you in
this city.
He said, you want to humiliate?
You want Abu Hanifa to show you the
respect?
He said, yes.
He said, give him money.
Buy him out.
Do a favor to him.
So he sent, he said, he asked what
Abu Hanifa, let's say, makes, whatever.
He give him a thousand pieces of gold.
Can you imagine a thousand pieces of gold?
Alif, dinar.
In a pouch and they send it to
him.
Abu Hanifa smile and he told the one
who brought the money.
He said, go back to your master and
tell him the one who stretch his legs
will never stretch his hand.
When you read that, you know you belong
to an ummah that know what dignity and
nobility means.
You appreciate the value of knowledge and the
knowledge of the scholars.
And it's very interesting to see how Allah
bring people who no one, nobody and Allah
make them very famous.
When you read most of the scholars life,
he was a servant, a slave.
He was a free man by this.
All of them, not Arab, not from tribe,
not from no, nothing.
They don't descend from a family that they
just not at all.
What have made them so popular with so
their name is still until today mentioned even
in Houston, Texas in 21st century is the
knowledge.
The ilm elevated them and made them noble
and made them with this character, made this
have basically shaped their character.
And I'm telling you any knowledge will not
shape your character is not a knowledge.
Sufyan al-Thawri was nine years old.
His mom is a single mom.
She used to help him and to take
care of him, work, earn and support her
child.
She sent him and she said, if you
go to this shaykh and you learn 10
things from him, and if you found this
10 things you learned from this shaykh did
not improve your iman, did not improve your
character, did not improve your akhlaq, your character
trait, your mannerism and your connection with Allah,
leave this shaykh.
And I say, if you ever attend a
class to any organization and you ever attend
a class to a shaykh or you come
to khutbah jumu'ah to a masjid, that
masjid or that imam or that organization do
not help you to grow spiritually, morally.
Look for someone else.
And that's a challenge.
When you read about their life, you know
how they this basically journey of their life
meant a lot.
You know, a lot of people go for
work these days to earn a living.
That's right.
We go to work every day to earn
a living.
But you know what's the biggest challenge?
Is to make a life while you're making
a living.
The challenge is to make a life while
you're making a living.
And that's something so interesting to see it
in their life.
They really made a life.
They really made a difference.
I think it is Abraham Lincoln who said,
it's not the days of your life that
counts.
It's the life in your days that which
really counts.
Very powerful and very true.
You will become motivated to give da'wah,
you know, to basically to set a practical
goals for yourself, to make your surrounding better.
This is something that inspired me.
Those scholars that you read their life, they
never were lived for themselves.
They always lived for something bigger than themselves.
They always want to think to change to
be better.
Even if it is their own immediate family
and growing farther and farther.
Also, it allowed you when you read their
life to learn how to set priorities in
da'wah.
Listen to the story of Ibn Taymiyyah when
the Muslim defeated by the Mughal in Sham,
in Syria.
You know, the Mughal came and wiped out
two million Muslims in Baghdad.
They killed them.
They wiped out, genocide.
Then they start moving towards Syria.
Several battles and the Muslim were defeated badly.
Ibn Taymiyyah said, so in my city people
were talking about the fight and preparing themselves.
Then people, they used to say, If you
want help against the Mughal, go to the
grave, to the shrine of Abu Umar, ask
him for help.
Ibn Taymiyyah said, we're never going to win.
He said, I said, no fight, no training.
We're not going to train people for the
army.
He said, I change.
I said, what we need to focus on
making people understand what tawheed and iman is.
That you pray only to Allah.
Because Allah said, the victory will be given
to the muhadeen, to the mu'mineen.
Not to the people who pray to a
dead.
Not to the people who pray to someone
other than Allah.
And he said, I focus on changing them
and giving dawah and talking about this.
Until I found that this was corrected in
people mind.
Then the battle came of Shaqhab.
And he said, in this battle, we were
facing the enemy.
For the first time, the Muslim defeated the
Mughal.
Before the battle, Ibn Taymiyyah said, we will
win today.
So the people say, inshallah, mashallah, and now
their tawheed became stronger.
They even corrected Ibn Taymiyyah.
Ibn Taymiyyah said, inshallah, not if, no.
It will, because Allah promised victory to the
believers.
He knows what the priorities are.
It's just not to pick a weapon and
to train for fight.
There is something much important than this, which
is not your hand and your muscles and
the arm and the armor that you're wearing
or the weapon that you're carrying.
It's more important than the heart that you
have, the iman that you have.
When the ummah change that, Allah will change
the situation of the ummah.
That's understanding priorities.
Another example of Ibn Taymiyyah to show you
priorities.
Ibn Taymiyyah said, there were the border of
Muslims and the enemy attacking the Muslims.
And the Hanbali and the Asha'ira, which
is a sect, okay, they were fighting one
another.
I went to them, even Ibn Taymiyyah is
very harsh against the Asha'ira, which is
against the sect and group.
It's very hard, but he still considered them
part of Ahl as-Sunnah, in the general
sense.
And now we are basically facing the enemy
or non-Muslim who will come, will not
differentiate between what kind of madhab you follow
or what kind of that you do.
They will kill everybody.
He said, I went the priority.
He said, now since we have this enemy
in front of us, I told them you
cannot debate this theological issue among yourself.
Now we have to be unified against this
enemy.
That's a priority.
You learn this when you learn the scholar's
life.
You will learn to prepare, you know, yourself
for what comes, the challenge that comes.
Every scholar you study their life, every great
man and woman I come across, they always
test it and test it hard.
Because these pressures that comes on you, that
would make you strong.
That would elevate you.
And you learn through their life, how they
grow.
In Texas, there's this guy, he had a
big land, had a dog on his farm,
fall on a crack.
He thought the dog is dead.
So he was so sad.
He said, I'm not going to let any
animal get hurt again.
So he get a sand and he start
putting the sand to fill up that crack
with the sand.
But the dog was not dead.
The dog was just unconscious.
But the dog realized that he has been
buried, the dog was buried alive.
So every time the sand fall on the
back of the dog, he will shake it
off and will jump on the sand.
Every time it comes down, he will shake
it out and jump on the sand.
The sand that meant to bury that dog
alive, is the same thing that risen that
dog from that hole.
The moral here that those scholars, these things
that life threw on them, they have used
it to put together to stand on the
top of it.
So they stand tall, strong to lead.
It's amazing when you see this in real
life.
You learn how they tested so hard.
You know, Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah, Imam Ahmed rahimahullah.
Do you know, the grand mufti of the
Muslims at that time, the grand mufti.
And guess what, the chief judge of the
whole entire Muslim world, telling the king, kill
this man, and I'm responsible for his blood
in front of Allah in the day of
judgment.
I want to ask how many of you
guys know Ahmed Ibn Abi Duat or Ibn
Abi Duat?
No one.
How many of you know Ibn Zamalkani?
No one.
How many of you know Imam Ahmed Ibn
Hanbal?
Everybody.
Ibn Taymiyyah, everybody.
Their enemy disappeared.
And this, the name, I said, nobody knows
who they are.
They are the one who used to give
fatwas and kill him, the chief judges or
grand muftis or whatever.
They are forgotten.
Their name forgotten.
But those who stood their ground, those who
were patient, those who were basically holding into
these principles, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made
them survive.
And also sometimes we kind of get you
know, we'll be tested hard.
I get mad today, you know, somebody showed
me a picture, somebody put in a Facebook
post about me, was not nice.
You know, I got a little bit upset,
but I said this to myself, you know
what?
So what?
Do you know that I got just a
bad post in Facebook about me?
Somebody like making not a very nice comment
about me.
That's fine.
Do you know what happened to Ibn al
-Qayyim and I'm nothing compared to Ibn al
-Qayyim.
Not even 0.1% of what Ibn
al-Qayyim is.
One of the greatest scholars in Islam, do
you know Ibn al-Qayyim was, his head
was shaved, his shoes was put around his
neck, and he was put backwards in a
horse, and he was taken inside the basically
the city, the kids throwing tomatoes and lettuce
and things on him, and like shoes, and
he kicked with the shoes and giving names.
And that's the greatest scholar in Islam that
we all read his book today.
So what if you get humiliated?
Or somebody said bad words about you?
When I know what the scholar threw, ya
akhi, Imam al-Bukhari, who doesn't know what's
al-Bukhari?
Do you know in the end of his
life, the end of his life, al-Bukhari
couldn't find anyone to come to study under
him.
Not a single student.
People abandoned him.
He had to go to a middle in
the boonies, you know, in the end of
the Muslim world at that time.
Where?
All the way up in Russia today.
In a city that's unknown, where he was
born.
Couldn't find any other place.
Even there he couldn't find support.
When you talk about Qur'an, who's the
best book of the best one ever wrote
the books of Tafsir?
Ibn al-Jarrah al-Tabari, hands down.
Nobody, nobody questioned that.
Ibn al-Jarrah al-Tabari, rahim Allah, he
was accused that he is rafidhi.
Shi'a, extreme Shi'a.
He died in his house.
They couldn't even bury him in public cemetery.
Tested so hard.
People realize his value later on.
So when you read that, you know what?
You take it easy.
Who am I to think I'm immune to
this?
When you read this, why?
So it really has a great impact and
also sitting strategy.
Umar ibn al-Aziz said to his son,
I'm worried if I force people to accept
Islam all at once, they will leave Islam
at once.
After I die, they leave everything.
Something I learned about my kids, you can't
force everything in your kids because they're gonna
leave it the moment you're not in the
picture anymore.
Sometimes, I love one of my teachers said
something very profound.
One of my teacher once said, some student
of knowledge are not realistic.
Some du'at not realistic.
Some parents are not realistic.
Some people not realistic.
He said, why?
He said, you know, they want you today
in 21st century to represent what Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala have distributed over the companions.
The companions of Muhammad, one of them is
masha'Allah great soldiers.
Abu Bakr, great wisdom.
Umar, strength.
Ali, wisdom.
Ibn Mas'ud, you know, hadith.
Anas, hadith.
Ibn Abbas, masha'Allah Quran and tafsir.
He wants you to have all this in
you.
To be the hadith and the mujahid and
the scholar and the one who everything in
the sahaba and multiple companion, he wanted to
be in one person.
Not realistic.
You know what?
I learned that as I grow.
And as I read in this in the
life of the scholar, I see how they
are complement one another.
In a communal level, the more I study
about the scholars, I appreciate certain things.
For example, I appreciate the role of women
in society.
Often we think that because we don't read
much about it, or hear about it, but
if you actually start learning, you'll find a
lot of role the women play.
Not only as scholars, but also sometimes behind
the scenes.
Do you know that al-Shafi'i was
nothing but the product of our single mom?
A single mom who took care of her
son.
Brought to us one of the greatest scholars
in the history.
A single mom was behind al-Imam Sufyan
al-Thawri.
She took care of him.
Malik rahimahullah, his daughter, used to be one
of the, Malik rahimahullah, the book he wrote,
his daughter used to memorize it.
And used to correct and reply and comment
on her father.
When you read the role that this woman
played, and inshallah in the class, I'll give
you examples of that.
There is a leader in Egypt, his name
Ahmed ibn Tulun.
He started a state called the Tulun states.
Ibn Tulun was very fascinated by like Roman's
empire and history.
And he made in Egypt, in Cairo, something
similar to what's in Rome, the Colosseum.
Okay, like that structure, something like that.
And he used to bring the prisoners and
put them in the middle with tigers and
lions and to fight and stuff like that.
And make people watch this, torture people.
One day, this king was walking in the
street.
And the entourage, you can imagine.
All of a sudden, a woman walked from
the crowd and held his horse.
Then she said to him, Ya Ahmed.
Straightforward, his name, no title, nothing.
Who is she?
Every, the sister around him, they told, this
is Zaynab.
This is Sayyida Nafisa.
She's the grand granddaughter of the Prophet ﷺ.
He stepped down from his horse immediately.
And she said, Ya Ahmed, until when?
Allah give you all these blessings, and you're
just using them in fighting Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala, and not appreciating Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Then she gave him this, a great lengthy
admiration.
You start crying.
And Ahmed bin Turan, if you read the
history today, they will tell you in the
beginning of his life, he was a dictator.
But later on, he became a role model
of justice and as somebody who cared for
his people.
Because that brave woman.
When you read about Umm Zaynab, you know,
she used to sit on the minbar of
Masjid in Damascus.
Not to give Khutbah Jumu'ah, but the
steps.
She will sit, and people will come to
ask her.
That's in the time of what?
Who, who pray in this masjid?
Do you know who pray in this masjid?
Ibn Taymiyyah.
Who pray in this masjid?
Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Kathir.
That's the level of scholars that were there.
And she's still recognized in society as a
person of give fatwa and authority.
And she used to have a stick with
her.
And she goes by some group circle, making
dhikr, and you know, moving, and she will
kick them out.
She says, get out of the masjid.
Don't bring this bid'ah to our masjid.
Read her line.
You will learn how to deal with differences
in community.
When you read the story of al-Shafi
'i, when he said, he said, I had
a heated debate with al-Sadafi, one of
the scholars.
Al-Shafi'i, after Isha, he went to
al-Sadafi's house.
Then he held his hand out, took him
out.
And he said, Yusuf, I hope our disagreement
early in the day will be okay for
us to go to sleep in the night
while we're still brothers.
He said, absolutely.
But look at al-Shafi'i, how he
cares about his brother's feeling.
Deal with this kind of differences of opinions
should not make turn against each other.
We should care for each other's feelings.
Through the example of scholars, you'll learn how
to interact with those around you, Muslims, non
-Muslims, those who agree with you, don't agree
with you.
I can't wrap my head around some of
the stories that you read.
You know, Imam Ahmad had a doctor who's
a Christian, came to him and he said,
Ya Imam, please before you dying, basically, he
said, please, can my priest come and meet
you before you die?
He said, he can come.
You know, I love it.
I was recently in an event, and I
saw one of the rabbis, one of the
priests here in Houston, very well known.
They came to one of the Imam and
they said, it's an honor.
We've been hearing a lot about you, and
we really would like, looking forward to meet
you.
When I heard that, I was so happy
that this is how they look at one
of our Imams in Houston.
They really respect him.
It reminded me of these kind of stories,
where the scholars respect.
Imam Al-Awza'i, do you know when
he died, one third of his janazah was
non-Muslims.
One third of his janazah was all non
-Muslims, the Christians, the Orthodox Christian, the Catholic,
and the Jews, all came to his janazah.
I'm asking you, why a Jewish or Christians
will go in the funeral of someone who
is Muslim?
Unless there is a reason.
They love this man.
They know this man had an impact on
their life.
He died.
Tell me today, if an Imam died, how
many of the non-Muslims will go to
his funeral?
Will be impacted by him.
Ibn Taymiyyah, when he went to the king
of the Mughal, this barbaric, you know, army
who killed everybody in their way to Sham,
in Syria.
When Ibn Taymiyyah went to them, and he
said, you have taken prisoners, and you claim
that you accepted Islam, you should free the
prisoner.
So the king said, I'll free all the
prisoner.
He said, not the Muslims and the Christians.
Then he said, strange, you're a Muslim, why
do you care about the Christians?
He said, they are our dhimmah to Rasulullah.
They are basically, in a modern language today,
they are citizens like us.
The Prophet ﷺ asked us, those who non
-Muslim live among us should be protected by
us.
And I want them to be freed as
you free the Muslims.
And I'm not going to leave before you
free all of them.
When you see that, you know what?
And you compare this to people who undermine
the world, the people doing interfaith work and
reaching out.
Al-Baqi Al-Lani, rahimahullah, had a whole
entire, there's an institute where Muslim, Christian, and
Jews used to sit in a dar al
-hikmah and debate.
Have you ever heard of something called Isra
'iliyat?
What's Isra'iliyat?
Is the narration of Bani Israel from the
people of the book.
Where does this came from?
It came from an interacting, from listening, from
reading.
We're not inviting, inventing anything new here when
we do an interfaith work.
As long as it's guided in the same,
we learn a lot from the scholars, rahimahullah,
even in modern day scholars.
Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, he said, I went
to Sheikh Ibn Baz because he had a
book he wanted to publish in Saudi Arabia
and it has to take, you know, the
Grand Mufti has to approve it.
So he went to the Grand Mufti of
Saudi Arabia and he said, I heard of
Sheikh Ibn Baz.
I never met, I think maybe met him
before or first time.
So he told Sheikh Ibn Baz about his
book.
He said, I read your book.
He took me on the side and he
told me your book have 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15,
13, 20 points against my book.
I said, Oh my God, that's it.
I'm not going to be able to publish
my book.
He said that by the morning, I found
out that he actually gave permission for the
book to be published.
In another word, Sheikh Ibn Baz was telling
him, this is my opinion.
This is my advice to you.
But you're free to publish it because that's
your opinion.
I love an opinion like what?
They disagree on music.
Ibn Baz said it's haram.
Al-Qaradawi said it's not haram.
Things of that nature.
But see how we tolerate one another.
We have a space for one another.
You learn this when you read their stories
and their life.
That's why Imam Abu Hanifa used to say,
reading the life and the story of the
scholars are more beloved to my heart than
reading their fatwas.
Allah says, لَقَدْ كَانَ فِي قَصَصِهِمْ عِبْرَةٌ لِأُولِي
الْأَلْبَابِ There is in their stories lessons for
us.
Lessons for men or for those who understand.
That's why Qur'an is not a history
book but have a lot of stories about
the prophets and messengers, the biography of individuals.
He actually told us the history of humanity
through the life of individuals or nations.
I would like
to wrap it up by talking about another
topic for tonight.
And you know what?
I will make it just quick.
I was supposed to give you a break,
then we go.
But you know what?
Maybe in 20 minutes, I will just call
it for the night.
I'll see tomorrow.
But what I would like to share with
you something that you will find it so
clear in my class, which is something I
call it in your binder called ground rules.
I put these ground rules of how to
study history and to understand history, to enjoy
it and to understand it properly.
And one of my first rule in regard
to this, that on history, don't look backwards.
Go back and look forward.
Why?
Because anytime you look at history from here
and you just look back at history, you
don't appreciate it as much as you go
back in time and you put yourself in
this position.
I'll give you an example.
Do you remember the story of Ibn Sammak,
the one whose father was a fisherman with
the king, Abu Ja'far Al-Mansur?
You know, when the king told him, give
me the ink, he said, no, I'm not
going to give it to you.
I just said, I want you to give
you the perspective.
So you appreciate, now you appreciate him being
so strong, spoke against the king.
But I want you to know a little
bit about, go back in history.
Imagine you're living in that time.
Do you know Abu Ja'far Al-Mansur,
who's that is?
Abu Ja'far Al-Mansur executed himself 30
kings by his hand.
He killed 30 king and princes with his
hand.
Executions, have no mercy.
Some of the people that he executed, his
own uncles.
Now I understand the value of this man
saying to somebody known to be that brutal
to tell him, I'm not your servant.
You might kill someone, you might be do
something.
That's give you a very different perspective.
Appreciate a lot that position.
I'll give you another one.
Al-Hassan Basri was asked, is it allowed
to charge people for writing the mushaf?
Like if I make a copy from the
mushaf, can I get paid for that service?
He said, yes.
Now you read this, what's so big deal
about that?
That's right.
But actually, if you go back in time,
the popular opinion at that time, the Sahaba's
position was, Ibn Umar used to say, we
should treat the one who sell the Quran
like the one who steal from the homes.
We should cut their hands off.
You're not allowed to sell the Quran.
That was the most common fatwa.
The Sahaba, the companions say that.
And for someone from the second generation to
come and to say, yes, it's allowed.
Why?
The Sahaba said this because they worry about
people in the time of the companions, it
was about establishing the authenticity of the Quran.
So they don't want it to be a
business.
So there's no room for someone to make
a quick copy, to make a quick box,
as we say, you know, and it's not
going to be accurate.
You make mistakes, people will rely on the
copies and they will not memorize it.
And it's so early on time.
If you just rely on writing at that
time, the Quran will be forgotten.
So they don't want copy.
They want people to memorize it.
It was a strategy.
But Hassan al-Basri, now he live in
a new Muslim land.
There is another strategy.
Those people don't memorize, don't know Arabic much.
They're learning.
So for him, it was important to allow
the copy to be made because in that
region, in that area, they need it.
That shows you how forward thinking he was.
You understand and you value a lot of
history when you go back in time and
you understand it.
That's why every time I study, we're going
to study someone, I will give you a
background about what kind of life, where they're
living, what's going on in their time before
we go study his life, rahimahullah.
Another quick rule, knowing that actions and statements
of the scholars are not source of legislation.
And that's important.
Nobody can tell me because he said this,
it means halal or haram.
The actions and the action of the scholars,
even in the books of Usul al-Fiqh,
we have a mas'ala.
If the mufti did something, is that means
that this is his fatwa?
This is his position?
The majority of the scholars said no.
Why?
Because I might did something not because I
believe it's halal, because of circumstance, because of
a reason.
Maybe I forgot.
Maybe I got confused.
So it's not necessarily what I did, it
means it's approved.
So many people they study the scholars live
or what they said or what they did
as if it's a source of legislation.
No, the only one, his actions, his source
of legislation is Muhammad ﷺ.
So if you read there is a scholar,
for example, used to pray 300 rak'ah
in the daytime and 300 rak'ah in
the night.
One scholar read the whole Qur'an in
one night.
One scholar is used to fast every day
in the year except Eid.
That's not a source of legislation.
It doesn't mean it's sunnah or it's recommended.
We take this the religion from what?
From the Prophet ﷺ.
Another ground rule is important.
Understanding that they are not infallible.
They make mistakes.
So some people use, that's why they're not,
they're not source of legislation.
The Shia believe their Imams are infallible, but
the Sunni believe don't believe that.
We believe that they make mistakes.
Also, just an example of mistakes done, that
the Sahaba criticize.
Al-Husayn, for example, for him to carry
weapon and to fight.
It was criticized by majority of the campaign.
Nobody can say and goes against hadith in
Nabi ﷺ what he did.
Nobody can say because Al-Husayn, you know,
carried weapon and rappel, it means it's allowed
to do that.
No, the Prophet ﷺ said don't.
You can't leave what the Prophet ﷺ did
or said, what he said, for somebody's action.
No matter who, how great this person is.
That's why when Abu Bakr said you cannot
make Hajj and Umrah together.
Ibn Abbas said what you're saying, the Prophet
ﷺ allowed this, and you're telling me Abu
Bakr said no?
A stone will come from the heavens to
stone you to death.
I'm telling you the Prophet ﷺ said, and
you're telling me Abu Bakr ﷺ said?
There is no space for anyone to challenge
the Prophet ﷺ, even if that's Abu Bakr
ﷺ.
So that's an important concept to keep in
mind.
Also, another thing is studying their life, not
to expose their shortcoming, but to derive lessons
from them.
Allah ﷻ said, اغفر لنا والإخوان للذين سبقون
بالإيمان.
We said, Ya Allah, forgive us and those
who became Muslim before us.
رَبَّنَا لَا تَجْعَلْ فِي قُلُوبِنَا غِلًّا لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُونَ
Don't put anything in our heart against our
brothers and sisters.
Living or dead.
That's why when some scholar was asked, Al
-Hassan Basri was asked about the fight between
the companion.
He said, الحمد لله, Allah protects our hand
to be involved in it, so let's protect
our tongue.
And that's what we should.
But sometimes we mention, and in the class
I will mention some things happen, not the
most correct thing, wrong things.
Things that they were criticized for, but not
because we want to backbite them, but because
we want to learn from their mistakes.
That's why Quran mentions some mistakes of prophets
and messengers and noble people, because we want
to learn from it.
And that's allowed.
And also it's important because, another reason.
Sometimes when people read a lot about the
life of the scholars and you know, the
early generation, they live in a world of
fantasy.
You know, when I write a biography of
somebody, usually I focus on what?
On the good thing, that's right?
So when you read that later on, you
think that this person is always good.
It's a psychological thing.
Because all what you read about him, the
good things, that you immediately have this image
of that person that is perfect.
And some people have that image that the
sahaba must be perfect, and the companion, the
scholars must be perfect.
He must be perfect.
He's not.
That's why they get shocked when they see
some statements that's different than that image that
they put in their head.
I think it's important to shock you a
little bit.
Not to undermine the level of the scholars
of...
No, but to understand that they are human
being.
Because sometimes we're looking for perfect people.
We can't process that people make mistakes.
We can't process that people make sin.
We can't process that people can make evil
things.
Obviously, there is levels, but especially when it
comes to personality, you will find very different
scholars have different personalities.
Also understanding they were individuals with their own
personalities, habits.
Not expect the same from everybody.
Imam Al-Bukhari, he would never used to
say strong words.
If this man is the worst narrator ever,
he would say, don't write his hadith.
But you look to another scholar, he said,
he's the worst liar ever on the face
of the earth.
Somebody's name, Thor.
Thor, which it means bull or cow or
Hema, donkey.
And he said, if you narrated the hadith
of this man, you are donkey like him.
Some people very strong, strong language.
People have a different personality.
There is people so friendly.
There is people so quiet.
There is people, mashallah, fire.
You will see these different personalities in people.
Also, referring their clear statement or actions to
the unclear ones.
And this is so important.
This is part of justice.
If you hear some scholar make a statement
is not clear, is not, you know, it's
ambiguous.
Go to the clear statement.
Go to the majority of their positions.
And that's important.
That's why Sa'id ibn Musayyib said, one
of my friend from the companions of the
Prophet ﷺ wrote to me once, anytime you
see your brother did something that is suspicious,
ambiguous, could mean bad or good, always understand
it in the light of goodness, unless you
have proof otherwise.
And when your brother says something that could
mean something good or bad, always take the
good first.
Always think of the good first.
Not examining authenticity of narration.
We don't treat the story of the scholars
the same way we treat the hadith, unless
we want to establish a ruling.
And we don't establish ruling from the action
of the scholars action.
But if you want to establish ruling on
the person that you really this person said
that or believe in that, in this case,
we examine the authenticity of the narration.
Also, being moderate in one's view and position
regarding them, because some people are very extreme.
When you read in history, somebody said, one
look at Imam Ahmed equal to worshipping Allah
one year.
Just one look at Imam Ahmed is equal
to worshipping Allah one year.
Lidhahabi, when he was writing the biography, he
said, this is extremism.
This extreme, unacceptable.
Somebody said, the stick of Ahmed is better
than all the deeds of Bishr al-Hafi.
He's a righteous, you know, ascetic person.
Lidhahabi said, Bishr al-Hafi is like Ahmed,
great Imam as well.
How can you say that Imam Ahmed's stick
or cane is better than Bishr al-Hafi?
And who are you to know how the
deeds will be weighted in the day of
judgment?
That's not acceptable.
Also, being moderate and just, it makes even
if you love this person so much not
to exaggerate and not to justify their mistakes.
Imam Ibn Qayyim, when he wrote his commentary
on a great scholar, his name known as
Sheikh al-Islam of his time, Abu Ismail
Harawi.
He said, Ibn Qayyim, Abu Ismail Harawi is
someone that we love so much, we dare
so much, and we love so much.
But we love the truth more than him.
Al-haq ahabbu ilayna.
We love the truth more than him.
That's why when it's a mistake, he said,
that's wrong, that mistake.
It's not acceptable.
Also, looking into the reasons behind their statements
and action or examining the situation and time
when action or statement were made.
And this is very important rules when it
comes to understanding the life of the scholars
or the statement.
You have to understand why they said that.
What's the reason?
Is it an answering?
For example, Imam Malik or Imam Ahmed, both,
somebody came to him and said, what do
you think of somebody who practice innovations?
Should I refute them?
He said, no.
Another story.
Should I refute?
He said, yes, firmly.
Why the first time he said no?
And this one, he said, yes.
You have to look at the story.
Look, and you'll find that the one who
said don't, because this man came from Khorasan.
And Khorasan is a land where the Sunnah
is weak.
The people of Sunnah are few.
So he said, don't, because that will cause
more problem to you.
They can kill you.
They can harm you or your family.
Don't.
So understand that the reason behind it, the
story behind it will allow you to understand
where, what's the position or why they said
what they said.
Also, one of the knowing that one of
the scholars of the Muslim ummah, whose status
was agreed upon by the Muslim scholars, would
never reject the Sunnah.
That's why the four Imam, Abu Harifah, Malik,
or Shafi Ahmed, and others than them, these
great scholars of Islam, are always, we know
that they always honor the Sunnah of the
Prophet, and we don't allow anyone, especially these
days, to raise doubts about these great scholars.
You might criticize some positions of them, but
they are great Imam, well established.
Examining their whole lives and not passing judgment
based on individual incident, and that's part of
the justice.
I give you an example.
Al-Imam Ibn Khuzaymah, Rahimahullah.
Ibn Khuzaymah is a Shafi'i scholar, one
of the most important names when it comes
to the Sunni theology.
He mentioned one of the Ahadith in relation
to one of Allah's attributes, and he reinterpreted
other than the apparent meaning.
Shafi'i, Imam Al-Dhahabi said, he's wrong
in the way he treated this particular attribute
of Allah.
He said it's wrong, but if you look
at his methodology in every other attributes, it's
according to the way of Ahlul Sunnah.
But this one specifically, he did not.
So he did not judge him based on
that mistake in one incident, he judged him
based on his methodology, that is constant, consistent
in following the way of Ahlul Sunnah.
And he said, if one mistake of a
scholar will make us cancel the scholars, no
scholars will be left.
And memorize this, he said if one mistake
of a scholar will lead us to cancel
the scholar, no scholar will be left.
No one will be left for us.
And something like this also Ibn Al-Qayyim,
said.
Also learning the culture of each scholars, and
specifically, and how it kind of terminology they
use, what kind of language that they use,
it's important.
Because sometimes we understand some terms and words
that we use in the past, and we
think it's like our usage today.
No.
Like for example, Ghazwa.
Today Ghazwa, it means the Prophet's battle.
But at certain time Ghazwa, means just a
battle.
Some words might seem so rude to us
today, but in their time it was not
rude.
It's a way they talk.
So understanding that, because why they are so
rude, it's not rude, that's their culture, that's
how they talk.
That's not rude at all.
Rude here, but not there.
I remember when I first came to America,
and I don't speak English, because every language
has a culture too.
So for example, in Arabic, if I say
to you, no thank you, or please give
me this, that's a very formal way.
That's not actually a good, a very friendly
way of talking to your friends.
If you're really friends, you don't say please
or thank you.
What kind of culture is that?
But I don't know about other cultures, but
in Arabic, that's not a very friendly way.
If you're really my friend, you didn't tell
me that.
That means you treated me like I'm your
boss or something.
But in English, no.
It's so rude to say no.
You say no thank you.
So it takes us time to pick the
culture.
You get it?
So that's why when you read this story,
you can't judge.
You need to understand their culture, and what
kind of things, how they talk, how they
deal with things, in order for you to
be able to understand them properly.
Also, understanding, okay, that social and economic and
psychological influence and political influence at that time.
It's so important when you study the life
of a scholar.
If you study somebody like Imam al-Qurtubi,
he is so negative, so harsh against rulers.
He speaks a lot of very negative tone,
very harsh tone, not negative, harsh tone.
Why?
Because he witnessed the fall of Al-Andalus.
He saw how Al-Andalus, this beautiful land
of Muslims, collapsed because the rulers didn't care.
You know, when the Spaniel surrounding Qurtubi, and
killing the people in Qurtubi, you know that
the king and the khalifa was sitting with
his singer, female singer.
She's singing and dancing for him, and an
arrow came from the wind to kill the
singer, while she's singing and dancing.
He was so broken down that he start
crying, and he said, for three days, nobody
allowed to go outside.
He refused to talk to the generals.
He refused to talk to the army leader.
He said, I'm just declaring sadness over the
death of my singer.
I don't care what's happening outside.
If you live that life, and you see
your own father murder in front of you,
your own line taking, what do you think
his reaction?
He's furious.
Some people so strong in their language, do
Shia.
Why?
Because he lived in a time where Shia
dominated, ruled, killed, tortured Sunni.
So he is a little bit overstepping in
his language.
Why?
Because of that experience that he lived.
I give you an example of modern person,
because also his writing impact a lot of
modern people.
Sayyid Qutub, Rahimallah.
Sayyid Qutub is a very famous person, very
controversial figure as well.
But Sayyid Qutub, one thing not many people
pay attention to.
Sayyid Qutub, most of his life, in my
opinion, one of the worst thing about Sayyid
Qutub is the spirit of his talk sometimes
is so dark.
It is so negative.
But I understand why.
Because he wrote things unbelievable great.
Nobody can argue that.
But also has a lot of dark side
of his writing.
Why?
Because all his life was in jail.
He lived, since he became religious, I think
he only stayed out of jail for six,
seven months.
Other than that, he always tortured in jail.
Imagine if you are in a dark cell,
tortured by people, all your life.
What kind of pen?
It will be poison pen.
He's not an angel.
He's not a piece of rock.
He's a human being.
Definitely he, that's why he always talk about
al-jahiliyyah, the ignorant, the corruption, the whole
world is the bad and evil.
He has this generalizing.
Why?
Because it's the impact of the time that
he lived in.
Understanding that allowed you to take the good
and to leave the bad, to filter.
And that's important thing when you read the
life of the scholars.
Somebody lived in a relaxing environment.
Mashallah, no war, nothing.
You say, why not everybody is like that?
Yeah, because not everybody live like that.
You know, sometimes you see the language of
Muslims talking about non-Muslims in a very
harsh term.
Why?
Because at that time, every non-Muslim at
that time, the Romans and the Persians are
in war, killing.
That's what shape how the fiqh view of
the relationships.
But that's not the same when you live
in a time and in a society where
they lived next to each other.
There were non-active war happening.
These are so important to put things in
context.
Also rich and poor, you know, people in
position of power are not or prosecuted.
Not following the odd opinions of scholars, especially
when it is like rukhsah.
You know, some odd opinion of a scholars
and you go pick it up.
That's why whoever picked up all the odd
opinions will be odd person.
Imam Ahmed rahimallah said, if you take from
the people of Medina, that some of scholars
in Medina said singing is allowed.
And some scholars in Kufa said, which is
some drink that intoxicate person, it's allowed.
And from Mecca, which is temporary marriage is
allowed.
You take that opinion, send this and take
it and you collect that.
You end up fornicating, drinking alcohol and listening
to music.
Go to a nightclub and that's it.
Nobody among these three allowed all these three,
but you go pick and choose.
That's not allowed.
But here, I want you to be, there's
a nuance I want you to be aware
of.
Something a lot of people don't pay attention
to it.
For you as an individual is not allowed
for you to look for the easiest opinion.
It's not allowed.
But for me as a mufti, I'm allowed
to do that for you, not for myself.
And that's what a lot of people fail
to understand the difference between the two.
That's why the difference of meaning is mercy.
Why?
You come to me and you ask me,
Shaykh, as happened.
Yeah, Shaykh, you know what?
I married this woman.
There was no wali.
There is no wali in the time of
marriage.
Okay, there is no wali for her when
I married her.
And now we have children.
I do believe married woman without wali is
invalid.
But now somebody came to me and did
this.
I said, you know what?
The Hanafi allowed that.
That's fine.
You're good.
I choose from the opinion that I think
can fit to me.
You know, sometimes in business transactions, somebody said,
you know what?
No problem.
I will find in one of the opinion
of the scholars allowed this kind of business
transaction.
You're good to go.
So it is allowed for them.
And that's why no scholars, if you study
any scholars, you will find them that they
will choose some of the even an opinion
against what they believe in cases that already
took place or in cases that there is
a need for this kind of fatwa.
So it's allowed for you as a mufti
or a scholar to choose from some opinion,
even if it's not the strongest, because he
sees there is a maslaha in it.
And that's where the difference of opinion is
mercy for the ummah.
But it's not allowed for individual to do
that as a difference between the two.
Finally, studying their life to explore the pattern
leading to positive change.
So they can apply, you can apply this
to our modern affairs.
Transferring our study from theoretical to a practical
one.
And this is something I will focus a
lot on them.
You will hear me tomorrow saying my class
a lot.
It's not about his story.
It's about your story.
What we're going to study is not just
what they have done.
It's what we can learn from what they
have done.
It's about us today.
It doesn't matter how great he was, what
matter how great you will be.
And that's basically the spirit of this class.
And may Allah subhana wa ta'ala make
us among those who listen to the speech
and hear and follow the best of it.
Sorry to stretch you for long, but tomorrow
we'll have only 50 minutes sessions.
Thank you very much.
It's nine o'clock exactly.
It's one and a half hour.
That's very good for you guys to keep
you that late.
Looking forward to see you.
If you're not registered, register in the class.
We'll have fun tomorrow inshallah ta'ala.
One thing if you come into the class
tomorrow, one a common theme about the scholars,
they really care about their look.
Which is something strange.
Most of them really care about dress well.
So if you're going to come tomorrow to
the class, dress well.
Iron your hijab, you know.
And you know iron your though or crisp
shirt.
So just dress well.