Yahya Rhodus – The Enduring Legacy of Islamic Knowledge – Illuminating Hearts Across Generations
AI: Summary ©
The conversation covers the blessed blessings of Islam, including a belief that everyone can see the light of Islam, a belief that everyone can see the light of Islam, and a belief that Islam is still alive and alive. The deification of Islam has been discussed, with a person named Shaykh Boabdala associated with India and serving in the Deen region. The importance of learning the religion correctly and finding one's own values in society is emphasized, along with the potential benefits of renewing spiritual aspiration and contributing to society.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillah, what a blessing from Allah ﷻ to
be gifted the greatest gift of all which
is the gift of Iman, to have absolute
certainty that Allah ﷻ is real and that
He is our Khaliq, He is our Creator
ﷻ, He originated us, He brought us into
existence ﷻ and He blessed us to come
at the very end of time and to
be followers of the best of all creation,
Sayyidina Muhammad ﷺ, the Imam of the Anbiya
and the Mursaleen.
What a blessing from Him ﷻ, this is
a blessing no matter how much it is
that we give thanks for it, never ever
truly will we ever show the gratitude that
He deserves ﷻ for this great blessing.
And when someone is blessed to travel to
the lands where there are Muslims, whether it
is a Muslim country or whether there are
Muslims living as a minority in a predominantly
non-Muslim country, one starts to see the
traces of these blessed words that we've heard,
the spreading of the light of Sayyidina Muhammad
ﷺ.
1400 years later and this light is still
as strong as it ever was from the
bounty of Allah ﷻ and it is widespread
and in fact everywhere it is that you
look that you see continual rebirth of this
blessed light of our Prophet ﷺ.
And our Lord ﷻ told us about this
in His book, no matter what it is
that people try to do, you can never
erase the light of Islam.
No matter how much people try, no matter
whatever it is that they say, no matter
whatever it is that they do, the reality
is as He Himself has stated ﷻ, that
they want to extinguish the light of Allah
with their mouths, with the things it is
that they say.
Allah ﷻ is going to complete His light.
And the Mufassirin say, what does it mean
for Allah ﷻ?
Allah ﷻ is going to manifest this light
as He wants to manifest it ﷻ spanning
different centuries and Alhamdulillah 1400 years later and
this light is still shining.
The Abdul Fakir was blessed to visit several
Muslim communities in the country of India and
you see it's an example of how strong
this light is.
Places that people might not know of, that
people that names that they might not have
heard of, but the light of Islam is
strong.
And in some of these places, they don't
just have 20 or 30 students like we
have here, they have thousands upon thousands of
students.
Thousands upon thousands of students.
And on one occasion they gathered for us
about in this one place that only 2
% of their students and 2% of
their students was a gathering of about 1
,000 people.
And almost all of them were young.
And they had just as many girl students
who weren't present there, we were just addressing
the young boys and the young men.
And they only could bring what they could
from their 30,000 plus students that are
in their various schools on their seven campuses
and just, this is just one organization under
one particular teacher and there's many, many others.
And what came to this Abdul Fakir's heart
is, is that who would have thought that
400 plus years ago when that company was
established and really those political objectives behind it
to dominate those people and everything that led
to the * and ravaging of those lands,
who would have thought and certainly those who
colonized those countries did not think that 400
plus years later after everything had happened, is
that this is still very much alive in
this very moment.
Very much alive.
Thousands upon thousands of students studying the Deen
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Still to this day, memorizing the Book of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Memorizing the statements of our Prophet ﷺ.
Worshipping as our Prophet taught us to worship
and we know that we pray as he
taught us to pray.
When we follow the Sunnah it's as if
they were following the one who was right
before our eyes because of the blessing of
this transmission.
Who would have thought that this would have
remained after everything that happened and all of
the various attempts to quell this.
That Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, this is
his Deen.
That this would still be present in this
way.
But this does not come haphazardly.
This came at the hands of people who
worked extremely hard day in and day out.
And one of these blessed individuals by the
name of Shaykh Abu Bakr Ahmed, who is
the Mufti of India.
And he is the Grand Shaykh of this
particular region.
He is someone who has been serving this
Deen for decades.
He is someone that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta
'ala has brought great Tejdid and amazing renewal
on his hands.
And several generations after him, still to this
day, he's affecting people.
And on one of our trips, we had
to travel from one place to another in
Kerala.
And it took us about four and a
half hours.
And some of these roads that weren't these
nice, comfortable highways and interstates that we have.
And oftentimes you're in small back roads and
people driving not like we're used to here.
And a lot of bumps in the roads
and roads weren't even in the best of
condition.
By the time that we were about to
arrive, that I looked at Marek and asked
him to look into, maybe we should just
take the train back.
And then once we got there, I asked
him, I said, Shaykh Abu Bakr Ahmed, who
they say is 90 years old, I said,
does he travel on these same roads?
And they said, all the time.
I said, he spends his life traveling on
these roads.
Five or six different gatherings to this day
in different areas, in different cities, sometimes two,
three, four, five hour drives.
And I said, la hawla wa la quwwata
li billah.
It's that one time going this distance that
you start to find other ways to have
more comfort.
These are people that have been doing it
for decades.
He's 90 years old and he's still active.
He needs people to help him stand up
and deliver speeches and to help him walk
up to the stage.
And he's still traveling hour-long distances in
service of this deen.
What a blessing to have people like this.
These are the people that our Prophet ﷺ
referred to when he said, is that, that
yahminu hadhil ilm min kulli khalafin idoolu, is
that this knowledge will be carried in every
generation after him ﷺ by the idool of
that generation.
The upright people who are completely devoted to
this deen.
They will always be there.
La tazal ta'ifatun min ummati.
There will always remain a group of my
ummah that are outwardly manifesting the truth.
These people will all be there.
And these are the people that have internalized
what it means to, that to understand the
book of Allah ﷻ and follow our Prophet
Muhammad ﷺ.
And if you look at the history of
this blessed place, it wasn't always like this.
And in fact, they trace it back to
this very special mosque which they call the
Ponani Mosque.
And in it you find right next to
it buried a very special person, the grandfather
of one of the great texts of the
Shafi'i school, Fath al-Mu'in, whose
name was Imam Zayn al-Din al-Ali
al-Milyabari.
He's the grandfather of the author of the
text of Fath al-Mu'in.
And they say that he was one of
the first ones, he said he was actually
the first one in this region to go
study the deen of Allah ﷻ.
And he brought back these teachings and this
is now about 550 years ago that he
did this.
And he's the one who sent his grandson
to go study with Shaykh Ibn Hajar, the
famous Shaykh Ibn Hajar al-Haytami.
And he learned directly from him.
And they say, is that when, his grandson's
also name is Zayn al-Din, Imam Zayn
al-Din bin Abd al-Aziz bin Zayn
al-Din al-Ali al-Milyabari.
He was accompanied by his Shaykh after studying
him for an extensive period of time in
the blessed city of Mecca al-Mukarram.
And he came back with him all the
way to this blessed place and this mosque
still exists.
And in fact that they say that there's
a blessed rock that Shaykh Ibn Hajar himself
put.
And this, in the middle of this mosque
where the graduations of the various schools take
place in this mosque to this day.
In 550 years past and from the blessing
of those first individuals who sought knowledge of
this religion is that you're seeing all of
these traces.
The results of the work that someone is
doing might not appear in the first two
or three years that they do the work.
Nor even the first five or maybe even
ten years.
It might even only really become clear long,
long after they return to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
And this is why that we can't be
connected.
We have to be detached from the results
of our work.
Is that whether they were able to affect
one person or 1,000 people or 10
,000 people.
It's about being principled and being detached and
doing things because we know that our Lord
subhanahu wa ta'ala that he wants us
to do them.
But if you think about the blessing here
one of the meanings of this is that
this shows us the importance of ilm.
This shows us the importance of studying this
deen and learning our religion correctly.
These individuals learn from masters and they took
this knowledge back to the places that they
were from.
And then they spent their time teaching.
And they spent their time further studying.
And they spent their time going out to
the people to teach them the realities of
their deen.
And then look at the athar and the
traces and the effects that this happens that
has in the long term from the blessing
of what these blessed people did.
Such that you see this incredible manifestation of
the preservation of this deen.
And this is something that strengthens your iman
to see firsthand right before your eyes.
And this is just one of many places
in the Muslim world that is like this.
The vast majority of these places we're not
aware of.
You might hear a story here or there.
But if you would travel far and wide
is that this exists all throughout the Muslim
world and where you find Muslims living that
have traditions i.e. is that they have
a chain of transmission back to that early
generation from the great scholars.
From the great scholars who came before them
back to our Prophet himself ﷺ.
And then what this does is this renews
your himmah.
This renews your spiritual aspiration.
Because it becomes clear then what exactly that
it is that we have to do in
these lands in which we live.
And then even though we might think now
that Muslims are only a small percentage of
the overall population.
Maybe something like 3%.
Is that it's not going to be like
that forever.
We have to lay the foundations and do
what it is that we can.
But the key to all of that is
the light of knowledge that comes from studying
his book subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And from studying the sunnah of our messenger
ﷺ.
And then all of the sciences that are
derived from the Qur'an and the sunnah.
This brings the heart to life and this
enables an individual to be able to make
a real long lasting contribution about which our
Lord says subhanahu wa ta'ala wa amma
mayanfa'an nas fa yamkuthu fil ard.
As for that which benefits people, it will
remain here on earth.
And nothing is more beneficial than what our
Lord and our Prophet ﷺ have told us
is beneficial.
This is the epitome of what it is.
Of anything that is beneficial.
Alhamdulillah that we are able to receive this
and it's accessible.
And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to give us tawfiq in this affair and
that may we live to see the day.
We hope that the fruits come that in
the short term before the long term.
Is where this deen is transmitted.
Not just in one or two locations or
three or four locations in these lands in
which we live.
But is that we want this to be
a place where there are hundreds and thousands
of scholars that have learned this deen and
that are imparting that knowledge just as we
see today in this blessed province and there's
other places in India it's the same.
Is that there are literally thousands upon thousands
of students of knowledge.
Almost to the extent where we're looking at
ourselves like do young people here do anything
else?
Because they wear certain types of clothing that
indicate that they're students of knowledge.
It's like do young people here do anything
else?
There were so many of these people and
thousands of ulama of scholars that have studied
this deen and are contributing to society and
this is one of the very blessed things
that you see there is that they are
integrated at every single level of society.
It's not that they're just studying in their
corners and in their silos.
They are integrated at every single level of
society.
They have water treatment facilities so they can
provide pure water to their neighbors.
They have entire buildings where they house 4
,000 plus orphans and this is just one
project that we saw.
They have schools where people learn different types
of vocations and technology, have law schools and
these are all under the banner of these
great shuyukh and a long list of other
things that well integrated every single level because
they're in the service of their people and
they're in the service of their people even
if they don't believe the same as them
and as a result that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala made them beacons of light and
people start to through them come to know
the realities of the deen of our Prophet
Muhammad ﷺ and may we be like that.
Where our being itself people come to know
the truth of this religion and then inshallah
ta'ala before we even say anything and
then that our words inshallah confirm what it
is that our state is already calling to.
Ya arham rahmeen wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam wa
alhamdulillahi rabbil alamin.