Yaser Birjas – Value Of Ilm Education

AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning and transferring knowledge in Islam is discussed, particularly the concept of Payment for Development (PDP). The speakers emphasize the need for grounded learning and solid foundation in shaping one's behavior and behavior, as well as the importance of support for the "monarch" community. They also stress the importance of bringing support to the Muslim community and encourage families to support their efforts. The growth of the community in various states and the "monarch" community are also highlighted.
AI: Summary ©
I bear witness that there is none worthy
of worship except Allah.
Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest.
There is none worthy of worship
except Allah.
To read the Quran, he said, Iqra, read
in the name of your Lord who created.
Iqra, bismi Rabbika alladhi khalaq.
Khalaq al-insana min alaq.
Iqra wa Rabbuka al-akram.
Alladhi allama bil qalam.
Allama al-insana ma lam ya'lam.
He, subhanahu wa ta'ala, chose out of
every principle that is related to mankind and
humanity and this world and this universe, he
taught us, subhanahu wa ta'ala, the most
valuable thing is knowledge.
And in these five verses, five ayat at
the very beginning of the revelation of the
Quran, the word ilm, allama, qalam, and knowledge
was mentioned about six times, more than a
number of verses.
To emphasize the importance of ilm and knowledge,
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, says, Iqra, read
in the name of your Lord who created.
And he says, khalaq al-insana min alaq.
Iqra wa Rabbuka al-akram.
Read and your Lord is the one who
is most honorable, subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Allama al-insana bil qalam.
Allama al-insana, to read and write.
And then he says, ma lam ya'lam.
He didn't know.
So he taught us to read, to write,
to preserve ilm and knowledge and transfer that.
Why is that so important?
Because Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, knows that
when it comes to ilm, that's what brings
you closer to Allah, azza wa jal.
Didn't he say, subhanahu wa ta'ala, innama
yakhsha allaha min ibadil ulama?
Those who truly have the khashya, the awe
of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, in their
hearts, are those who have the knowledge.
Didn't he say, subhanahu wa ta'ala, qul
hal yastawil ladheena ya'lamoon, wal ladheena la
ya'lamoon?
Are they equal, those who know and those
who know not?
No, they're not.
They can never be equal.
And Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, is teaching
us that as a lesson.
And even He promoted those who have the
knowledge, subhanahu wa ta'ala, when He says
about the ulama, yarfa'illahu ladheena aamanu munkum,
wal ladheena utul ilma darajat.
Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, will raise in
ranks.
In the dunya and in the akhira, those
among you who have faith and have the
knowledge.
Ibn Abbas, one of his students, Abu al
-Aliya, was a servant.
He was just a servant at the beginning,
but he was learning from Ibn Abbas, the
cousin of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam,
turjuman al-Qur'an.
He is the interpreter of the Qur'an.
Abu al-Aliya became the prime student of
Ibn Abbas.
And when he comes to the halaqa, Ibn
Abbas, he tells the people around him, give
him way, give him the way, let him
come here.
And he sits next to him.
Even though in terms of the status in
the society, he might not be as noble
as they might think he is, but that
ilm brought him all the way up there.
Our ulama, they taught us something about ilm
and knowledge.
That subhanAllah, it comes to that knowledge, even
it makes some of the animals more preferred
over others.
So when you take animals of prey, as
Allah mentioned in Surah al-Mainah, subhanahu wa
ta'ala, about the animals of prey, He
said that, مُكَلِّبِينَ تُعَلِّمُونَهُنَّ مِمَّا عَلَّمَكُمُ اللَّهُ That
you teach them from what Allah has taught
you, subhanahu wa ta'ala, which means they
learn from you to hunt for you.
And when you send them, you send them
by the name of Allah, بِسْمِ اللَّهُ اللَّهُ
أَكْبَرُ So what they hunt for you is
halal to eat.
If an animal doesn't have that knowledge, you're
not allowed to eat that prey.
Can you imagine how much even ilm raised
the status of animals?
Brothers and sisters, it's because of that in
our deen.
Not just learning, also teaching is a very
noble thing.
Teaching, as the Prophet ﷺ mentioned in the
hadith, مُعْعَثْ مَا رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ قَالَ صَلَى
اللَّهَ لَسَمْ خَيْرُكُمْ مَنْ تَعَلَّمَ الْقُرْآنَ وَعَلَّمَهُ The
best among you all are those who learn
the Qur'an and then go teach it
to others.
The best among you.
And those who guide to khayr, guidance, they
will get their reward for guiding people.
And the reward of everybody will benefit from
that guidance they're giving to others.
Can you imagine how much you multiply your
deed and your reward as well too?
Many, many folds.
By the grace of Allah ﷻ.
The Prophet ﷺ, he put so much value
on knowledge, more than wealth and money.
How so?
When the Sahaba, رضي الله عنهم, they were
able to capture 70 of the prisoners of
wars in Badr.
70 of them.
The Prophet ﷺ sent to the people of
Mecca, if you would like to ransom your
prisoners of wars, send that ransom.
So people will send money and they send
whatever they can.
And then the Prophet ﷺ went to some
of these prisoners, he goes, look, anyone of
you who can teach 10 children, from the
children of Medina, how to read and write,
you're free.
But he put value on teaching to read
and write, higher than the value of money
and gold and silver.
Why is that?
Because he knows, ﷺ, that educated people, they
make better decisions in life.
And they have a better opportunity in making
something better in this world, ﷺ.
That's why ilm, whether you're teaching it or
you're studying it, is extremely important.
Brothers and sisters, however, nowadays we live in
a society where there's a lot of competition
between civilizations and cultures and a lot of
streams and even sects among the Muslims and
all these things.
Everybody is promoting themselves right now to be
the standard of sound knowledge and sound ilm.
For the believer, for ilm to have a
value, it has to be grounded in something
solid.
And there's nothing more solid than the Book
of Allah ﷻ and the sunnah of the
Prophet ﷺ.
Nothing more solid than that.
And that's why the Prophet ﷺ emphasized that
many, many times.
That you cannot do any ibadah unless you
have a proof for it in the Qur
'an and the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.
And you need to have that sound ilm
and sound knowledge in which you promote the
deen of Allah ﷻ and the practice of
that knowledge to the best of your ability.
So for that knowledge to be sound, it
has to be grounded in the Qur'an
and the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ.
Because one of the major sins that Allah
mentioned in the Qur'an, He says, that
you speak about Allah ﷻ, which you have
no knowledge of.
So nowadays there is a lot of competition
to what is considered sound knowledge.
And alhamdulillah, as we see the whole world
from around us, drowning in the oceans of
misguidance, in terms of principles and ideologies, and
many things happen, even in morality and akhlaq,
they change even the most basic things.
The most basic knowledge of biology, even.
They've changed that.
Because they have no solid foundation for that
knowledge.
They keep changing it.
But for a believer, you have solid foundation.
I go back over to the Qur'an
and the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, to
my deen, my iman.
This is where my knowledge comes from.
And that's what grounded ourselves in this society
and also our children, brothers and sisters.
And because of that, as Muslims started migrating
to this society, to the West and coming
to America, many of our children, when they
first came here, they didn't have any other
option but to be in public school.
And many of these parents, as they grew
up in this society, and then, subhanAllah, they
realized how dangerous that school system was for
them when they were growing up over here.
And then for their children, the first generation,
when they came over here.
The idea of creating a safe haven for
our children has become very essential.
And alhamdulillah, we had many, many pioneers in
the Muslim community in America.
They thought about this for many, many years
before.
Which is why before Allah, we have, mashaAllah,
thousands, actually, I would say, of Islamic schools
around the country.
Everywhere you go, here in Dallas, alhamdulillah, we
have many of these Islamic schools.
Chicago, they have more than 40 plus schools,
mashaAllah.
Even Florida, everywhere you go, mashaAllah, the Muslim
community is actually investing in that.
Now, why is that so important for us?
Especially in the time of ours today.
Brothers and sisters, I've been going to many
conferences and there's always that title in some
lectures and some themes of these conferences saying
the Muslim identity, the Muslim identity.
Why is that?
Because, yeah, the parents are actually concerned about
their children.
They're concerned about the identity of the kids
these days.
You know, 20 plus years ago, the major
concern was grown-up Muslims or non-Muslims.
That was one of the major concerns.
Right now, people are worried about growing up
to be a man or a woman.
But even to this basic identity of biology,
it's been challenged in this society, even in
the school system.
When they promote to children things that subhanAllah
defies the basic fitrah, which is the foundation
of knowledge here from the heart that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala instilled in us to
know what's right and what's wrong about these
matters.
This has been challenged in the name of
knowledge, in the name of advancement, in the
name of whatever they want to call it.
But for the believer, it's a serious challenge.
Which is why a lot of people, especially
in times like ours, are actually leaving small
cities and small towns, some of them big
cities as well, to go where they believe,
alhamdulillah, I can find a good Islamic school
for my children.
They want to preserve their identity, the basic
and the religious as well too.
They want to make sure that, alhamdulillah, at
least my kids, they grow up with like
-minded families, those who are concerned about the
dunya as well as the akhira of their
children.
Alhamdulillah, for the dunya, a lot of schools
are out there.
But how many of these schools that are
out there would promote something related to their
ibadah, their relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
And these schools became more like the bloodline
for these families to help them promote the
akhlaq and the manners of the believers in
relation to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
the people around them.
And alhamdulillah rabbil alameen, our Islamic schools, at
least here in Dallas, they are known to
be excellent in terms of academic performance.
It's not just a matter of religious education,
it's also when it comes to the academia.
Alhamdulillah, these schools for us bring friendship that
is very essential for our brothers and sisters,
the families, as well as our children.
And if you have kids in an Islamic
school, you know how valuable that is to
you, knowing that your daughter or your son
are going to the masjid to meet their
friends or going to this program after school
to do this and that together.
As a group of Muslim families, alhamdulillah rabbil
alameen.
A beautiful thing to feel safe with, at
least knowing that you have like-minded people
around you.
Brothers and sisters, we've come to have alhamdulillah
these Islamic schools.
It's one of those really essentials for any
community for it to be grounded as well
as moving forward.
And I know, a lot of people might
say, but Ya Shaykh, they're not perfect Islamic
schools.
They're not really Islamic, so they're Muslim schools.
And I agree with you.
I agree with you.
There is nothing perfect in this dunya.
But at least we're working for excellence as
much as we can.
We're trying our best, inshallah, wata'ala.
And it's very important that we support one
another.
Even if I don't have my kids in
that school, I need to still support the
project.
I need to support that principle, inshallah, wata
'ala, because it's crucial, and it's extremely important
for us as one community, inshallah, wata'ala.
Brothers and sisters, alhamdulillah rabbil alameen, here in
our community, fadallahi wa ta'ala, in your
masjid over here, we have the Islamic school
of Erbil, one of alhamdulillah leading Islamic schools
in the area over here.
When I first moved to this community 15
years ago, it was still, alhamdulillah, in the
inception, and it was growing.
Maybe it wasn't the largest school in the
area, but 15 years later, mashallah, you can
see the growth in the community itself and
the school as well.
And that requires our support, inshallah, wata'ala,
to make sure that the future of our
community, bismillah, continues to be bright, bismillah azza
wa jal.
This is why tomorrow, inshallah, your school, our
school, the Islamic school of Erbil, has its
fundraising, inshallah, wata'ala, to expand.
And why is this so essential?
Because we've seen the growth.
We've seen the growth, alhamdulillah.
There are a lot of families, they come
and they ask if there is room for
my children in the school.
Can I bring my kids to the school?
Can I register them in the school?
And we feel so bad to send people
back and say, you know what, no, but
you're going to have to be on the
waiting list.
And sometimes that waiting list can be very,
very long.
And with your support, inshallah, wata'ala, you
will ensure that many of these families have
the ability to be there, inshallah, wata'ala.
And even if you don't have children in
that school, your contribution, I hope, bismillah, wata
'ala, will create that environment.
So whatever khair, whatever ilm that these kids
will learn, whatever good that comes out of
it, inshallah, wata'ala, you are part of
it.
Your reward will be registered with Allah, subhanahu
wata'ala, so make sure to support your
community and support your school.
My dear brothers and sisters, as we speak
about the expansion of the school, people wonder
why do we need that for.
Just to give you an idea from personal
experience, for the past few weeks, alhamdulillah, rabbil
alameen, we have seen a lot of people
traveling and visiting the area, coming to explore
the potential of moving to the community, whether
it's to the Valley Ranch area or here
in the Irving area or anywhere else in
the DFW area.
And a lot of people, part of their
first question that they ask about, where are
the Islamic schools?
Do you guys have Islamic schools?
What type of Islamic schools do they have?
And just in this past weekend, the last
weekend as a matter of fact, I met
seven different people from different active states.
Four of them came from the Northeast, and
three from different other states, and everybody was
asking about the Islamic school.
And that means that many people, they will
come for the school as well, too.
So even if you don't have your kids
in that school, that is actually growth for
your community.
Human resources, financial resources as well, too, inshallah,
wata'ala, and hopefully, bidden Allahi azza wa
jal, more stability, more advancement for the Muslim
community in this area.
So support this project.
Barakallah fikum and join us tomorrow, inshallah, wata
'ala.
Wa min Allahi tawfiq.
Al-Fatiha.