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Woman sent an
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email he saw the how
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many Mina most Nene
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Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. Al hamdu. Lillahi wa. Wa Salatu was Salam ala Mala Nebia
BARDA, Mr. Bharat, we're still doing our regular Q and A's. And today we begin with our first
question. Brother Asha, from New York says that he works in a company doing some off doing some
office work. And he is saying that some aspects of his company and some of their policies and some
of their procedures are unethical. He goes into a lot of detail, but just to be like vague about
this, he says that they might change some numbers, you know, on their accounting in order for tax
purposes. And you know, it's overlooked. Everybody knows about this. So he says that his actual job
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is not directly involved in anything that's shady. But he's wondering that, does he come under
supporting haram, and hence he's worried about his it is added to this brother Ridwan says that he's
working as an Uber Eats driver. And, you know, as a part of his job, obviously, he's delivering food
parcels. And no doubt, sometimes there's going to be some haram in those parcels. He's just picks up
the food and he delivers it. And that's his only source of income. So he's wondering the shutter
rulings on that. And brother Salmaan says that he's working as a manager in an ice cream factory,
and one of or maybe some other flavors, they add some alcohol to their products. And so he is the
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manager and he must oversee the entire factory, which includes this aspect of the alcohol. So he's
worried is it halal to work in such a factory as a manager? Now, I put all of these questions
together. And of course, there's a lot more questions of such a nature. And the overall problem
comes that there are people that are working in industries and there is an element of haram going on
somewhere in those industries. And they're all worried about their sustenance, the purity of their
risk, the purity of the helenus, if you like or if you want me to make a pun on it, how risky is the
risk? Is the risk in risky business? So they're worried that are they coming under the prohibition
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of Islam when Allah says in the Quran, what I will know a little bit about your taqwa wallet, I will
know Alan if he noted one, cooperate in goodness and piety and do not cooperate in evil and
transgression. And of course, this is a basic rule that understood I mean, you should not help
somebody do haram right? This is understood. And there are many evidences for this. And again, just
so that we are familiar with these evidences, for example, in sunnah and Asahi Cabot mineral
generis, that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam came out to us one day, and you know, we were
a group of people
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sitting there, and he said, Listen to me, You shall see after me rulers, that are evil rulers, and
whoever enters into those evil rulers, palaces and agrees with them, and helps them in their volume
in their injustice, then they have nothing to do with me, and I have nothing to do with them. And
they shall not drink from my fountain. And whoever does not enter and does not help them and does
not do injustice with them and does not affirm their lies, then that is the person who is with me,
and I am with him. So this is a Hadith and Sunnah in an essay, which basically the process was
saying, look, the ruler might be evil. If you're helping the ruler, you're also evil. If you're
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doing directly the loom of the ruler, you're also evil. So this is the whole concept of helping one
another impiety not helping one another in sin and harm. And our Prophet system also said the famous
Hadith which is in you know, the authentic books of the Sahaba that the Prophet system said, whoever
calls people to good and guidance shall get the reward of those who follow him without diminishing
their reward. And whoever calls people too bad to misguidance to Valhalla shall have the sin of
those who are following him without diminishing their own sins, they're all going to be getting the
sins. So and of course, in the famous Hadith as well, that there are 10 people that are accursed
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when it comes to alcohol. And he mentioned everybody involved with the trade, right? Even the one
who's, you know, transporting it, and the one who's selling it and the one who's buying it, and the
one who's pouring it. So basically, the entire industry is accursed. It's not just the one who
drinks it is the one who's giving the bottle of wine and goes here, if this is wine and he gives it
out, he's selling it, everybody is clear. So clearly, our shady wants to shut the direct avenues of
evil. Now, theoretically, that's a great concept. And of course we understand it the point of the
Shediac is clear. But the issue then comes that there are many gradations of helping
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And what exactly does it mean to help in evil? How directly must we be involved in that in order for
it to become haram and it is a spectrum, no doubt about it that at one level you have pure halal. On
the other level level you have pure haram. And in the middle there are going to be gradation, some
which will be macro some which will be minors in some way, it will be a major sin. And if you read
the Treatises of our fuqaha, one finds that this is something that even our modern Allameh they say
that we need to extrapolate more about what exactly does it mean helping an evil because as we said,
the examples that the books of film typically give are very crystal clear, for example, giving
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somebody alcohol to drink or selling somebody alcohol, okay. But in our modern world, especially as
a minority in western lands, pretty much all of our companies with almost without exception, dare I
say, without exception, there will be elements of haram in those corporations, there's going to be
elements of things that are not ethical or not moral according to our Sharia. So does our being
there actually make it absolutely haram? Are we helping aiding and abetting a corporation in all of
its sin if our job is halal, and the fact of the matter is that this is a very detailed discussion,
and our modern rules have attempted to extrapolate and given fatawa on a case by case basis and of
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the institution of the court and of the bodies that have attempted to do so is the American Muslim
jurists Association Amba which has discussed this issue in some detail and given some good generic
guidelines. But again, these are all generic guidelines. And in a few years ago, they held a
conference in which they talked about you know, this level of injustice or this level of haram and
what constitutes the Haram upon the individual when the company might be doing something that is
haram. And they said, that we can broadly categorize helping one another in evil doing evil, we can
broadly categorize it into four categories. Number one, they said mobile, Shara and Matsuda, it is
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immediate and it is intended, you are directly involved and you are intending to be involved. It is
direct, and it is intended, for example, to give somebody a cup of wine with the intention that that
person will directly drink the wine. So you are directly involved and you are intending for that
person to do this. This is category one, category two is that it is direct, but you are not
intending. It's not your intention to help but it is still direct. And an example for this is
somebody who sells the wine, and the person will drink it later on. You're not directly involved or
somebody who sells drug paraphernalia, you know, so there's how you, you know, consumed drugs, it
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involves certain, you know, things that you use, you know, certain things to burn certain things to
ingest. There is no function of these items, except for drug usage. The person might sell it and say
hey, it's not happening on white premises, right? But this is direct, but it is not intended right.
So this is the second category or to sell a crucifix like there are Muslims that sell crosses and
they say oh look, I'm not worshiping other than Allah, I'm simply selling and then they're doing
what they are doing. So this is second category. The third category is that it is intended but it is
not direct. You intend to do something haram but what you are doing is something ambiguous and could
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be used for Halal but your intention is haram. So for example, you pay somebody money to use the
money to purchase haram to purchase drugs to purchase the the alcohol let's say right. So you might
not directly be involved but you intend to be involved right. So it is intended but it is not
direct. So this is the third category and the fourth category they said neither is a direct nor is
it intended out of these four they said the first three are all haram okay. It is direct and
intended. It is direct and unintended, it is intended but indirectly. So all of the and I gave
examples for those right. So if you intend to do something haram you want to be involved in this
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haram then clearly it is not allowed. However, if you are doing something that inevitably will be
haram and it has no purpose except haram, like selling drug paraphernalia or selling crucifixes
there is no useful you know a thing that is going to happen with these drug pervert nobody purchases
these these items except to use for ingesting harmful substances. So for you to get involved in this
business, right? It is haram completely. The fourth category, there move Bashara walau of soda in
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There's neither direct, nor is it intended. This is where they said the leeway This was said there's
a spectrum of opinion. And they said generically, it would be allowed. And no doubt some would be
more haram than others. But generic more. Haram is a harsh word here, any more gray, let's say more
ambiguous and maybe leaning towards the Haram than others. But here's where generally speaking, they
said in a minority situation, we can be a little bit more lacks. Other scholars have looked at it
from different angles. And they have asked us to consider
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five different things. So to look at five different things before you pronounce a verdict on whether
you think your job is haram or halal, we think we look at it from multiple angles. First and
foremost, again, there's some overlap with the previous I'm just fed well, but still, this is
another
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researcher that appeals to me. So
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this researcher said number one, you look at whether you are directly involved or not, clearly, if
you are directly involved in aiding and abetting something that is unethical, that is immoral, that
is illegal, something that is haram and are shady or you're directly involved in it. Clearly, this
is something that we cannot get out of and say that it is haram to be involved in Haram is haram to
help the Haram directly. You are directly involved in that with the villa murder or you know a
robbery or elaborate you know, Ponzi scheme, and you know it and you're involved with it. And you're
writing, doctoring, the books and everything you're involved in a scam. Clearly, if you're in on a
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plot, then you share the sin of the plot as well. Or if you're removed by some degrees, you are
manufacturing knives, okay, you're selling glasses. And the knife can be used to cut vegetables and
somebody can use it to commit a sin and a murderer. You're selling glasses. Somebody can use the
glasses for drinking and halal and somebody can use it for how long this is a generic glass for
example, right? So clearly, you look at the one who is directly involved in a very different way
than the one who's indirectly so this is the first thing you look at the second the second thing you
look at is what is your intention? What is your own frame of mind and intention? Is your intention
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to get involved in something that is unethical criminal Haram is that the purpose of your career is
that the entire career is based around it. Actions are judged by intentions, or you're trying to
make something halal. And things are happening beyond your control. It's not your intention. It's
not your goal. It's not there. And no doubt when you try to maintain your purity and you try your
best to be as halal as possible, then something happens that is haram. It is very different than
getting involved in a career that is inherently haram and you know it is haram and you have no
problems with it being haram. So we also look at your knee as well. That's the second thing we look
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at. The third thing we look at is the quantity of this haram. So what if it's indirect and it is
not? And so we're going one by one, right? So there's five things Number one, it must be indirect.
Number two, it cannot be your intention. Number three, we also look at the quantity of haram. And
this is a very key factor, especially in minority situations. Whether the business you're involved
with is predominantly unethical, it is lying, it is cheating, it is stealing, or it is incidentally,
you know how wrong from our perspective. So for example, you know, a question that came to a number
of security councils around the fretboard councils around the globe is a Security Council because
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the question is security that my mind was going to Security Security Guard is saying that I had been
hired to protect a building to wander around the building, and there's shops, and one of them is a
bank. There's an ATM with a bank attached to it right now. My job is security. And I'm wandering
around, you know, as a security guard, and there's clothes manufacturing, there's choose, you know,
like any supermarket or mall and there's also a booth that has the bank in it. My job is not just
for the bank, it is for the entire shopping mall. And pretty much all of the federal councils around
the globe have said that, well this is not an intentional, direct, predominantly haram enterprise.
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Your job overall is halal. And there's an element here that definitely is not praiseworthy, because
we don't like you know, you know, the banks that are involved in riba but your job is protection of
civic order. It's not to defend the institution of riba right, we look at what you're doing and that
is even the bank is haram but it is also haram to rob the bank just because the bank is doing haram.
It doesn't mean that which is giving riba it doesn't mean that it is permissible to then go and rob
so if the security guard is being a generic, you know, officer of the law and upholding civic
security, well then overall, we shall overlook this. Also, I'm the ice cream factory owner by the
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way, what a great job to be a manager of an ice cream factory. I have to say Brother, I'm kind of
jealous of you in a positive way Halal way I love ice cream. So I can only imagine marshmallow the
perks of your job just you know, eating and taste testing all day on him didn't know mashallah, what
a beautiful job there is Mashallah. So
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Ah, our brother who runs an ice cream manufacturing plant right by shallow or he's a manager, let's
say the company hired him he works his way up and mashallah, now he is the, the manager of the
factory. Now he is saying, I mean ice cream hamdulillah the bulk of ice cream is hella
Alhamdulillah, right 99% or 95% of the flavors of his company or how that, but there might be one
flavor that has added, let's say rum, right? So they add some containers of rum into a vast, you
know, amount of alcohol. I'm sorry about ice cream. For us, that flavor would not be allowed. I've
given longer lectures about you know, having quantities of alcohol and you can listen to that. But
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there's no question that when you add alcohol as a flavor to a food, and you want to taste that
flavor, that that is haram, you add rum or whiskey or brandy or any type of you know, alcoholic
drink with the intention of the taste remaining, there is no question that that final substance is
how long for us to eat or drink. But now this person is emailing and saying that he is the manager
of a factory that is producing the ice cream. And understandably, the bulk of his ice cream is
completely halal. But as the manager, he has to sign away all of the, you know, the the import and
export what's coming in what's coming out and he's overseeing and one element, one of the vats out
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of hundreds of VAT is going to have the, you know, alcohol in it. So we look at now the quantity and
whether it is predominantly highlight or whether it is incidental, and the fact to have amnesia. And
most of the in fact, I do not know of any Federal Council that has given anything to the contrary,
that when there is a small amount of how long like this case over here, then we cannot say that the
entire job is how long he tries his best to get out of being directly involved. But overall, he is
the manager and there's going to be some level of involvement, he cannot just walk away from
everything to do with that he's going to sign the sheets at the end of the day, he's going to, you
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know, make sure that everything is happening. So no doubt that that element is definitely not good.
But his entire job cannot be made haram simply because one of the flavors of one of the ice creams
has a percentage of alcohol in it. So this we can say the same applies to the Uber driver, right or
the Uber Eats driver. So the Uber driver, even the Uber driver, let's say, the Uber driver, he is
taking passengers, and sometimes the passengers are carrying alcohol with them. So he is helping and
transporting alcohol. But here's the point, not only is not that was not his so go back to all three
of these right. So here we have actually in this case, he is directly involved, but it has no
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intention, he didn't sign up to transport alcohol. And then it is something that is incidental, and
the quantity is miniscule. out of 20 passengers a day, maybe one of them might be carrying alcohol,
and he doesn't even know about it. So it's neither his intention. And it is also a negligible
amount. That being the case, the fact we're given is that it is overlooked because he's tea didn't.
So here's the point, if he signed up to be a truck driver for Budweiser, Budweiser is the Beer
Company of America for those that are watching outside of America. So if he signed up to be a truck
driver for Budweiser that is completely haram, but he's now an Uber driver or an Uber Eats and an
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Uber Eats, he's going to be delivering maybe 50 packages of food, right, the bulk of the food
packages are not going to have alcohol in them, maybe one or two are going to, but he is signing up
to be just the delivery man. And his goal is not to deliver haram and alcohol, his goal is just to
be the delivery and to gain some money in this regard. So once again, um Jen others have given the
fatwa that we overlook a negligible amount here, it's a small amount, it's not his primary thing.
It's a incidental it is not MCSA it's not intended, and it is something that is trivial. And so,
that which is incidental, does not take the same ruling as that which is direct and intended. And
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that which is small quantity does not take the same ruling as that which is the predominant
quantity. So this is the third thing that we look at. So the first thing we said is that we look at
whether it's direct or indirect. The second thing we look at your intention, what is exactly your
intention and doing your job. And number three, we'll look at the quantity number four another thing
we look at so one of our brothers emailed in the initial email he asked
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that, you know, they're, you know, basically to be again to be very explicit here, they're kind of
fudging the numbers for the IRS or whatever that they're making some things more or less for, and he
feels guilty like why am I involved in all of this? So
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and again, there's no question that you know, we have to be ethical as Muslims there's no question
that as Muslims we raise the bar and everything should be legit and and 100%. At the same time when
an entire industry is doing something that everybody knows is kind of an open secret. You know, the
shady I says mammoth be hillbillies, everybody's doing it. Then once again the shady I will be a
little bit more lacks here
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So for example, we, you know,
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the point here comes that,
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when an industry is known overall to do something that is not in the best, following the technical
letter of the law, I mean, I'll give you an example, I had a friend, you know, in the fish business
fish industry, and you know, they have a whole bunch of laws about the length of the fish and the
age or I don't know what I don't know all of these things, or whatnot. And it's well known, he said
to me that, you know, they have an 18 inch or 20 inch, or whatever it might be. And if it's an half
an inch or more, everybody knows, you're not going to be that, you know, pedantic or that accurate,
that nobody is going to make a big deal. If we just overlook it. You know, the point is that, and
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again, I'm being very clear here, obviously, we want to obey every single rule as much as possible,
at the same time when something like this becomes the norm in an industry, right? So you're saying
that in your industry, or whatever it is, for I don't understand for whatever purposes, they, you
know, increase the weight of the, you know, the package or whatever, to get some, you know, whatever
it might be, you're not involved, you're saying you're doing your job in the office, but you know,
that portions of the company are doing things that are in that gray area. So here, once again, we
say, actually, in this case, you are not directly involved. In this case, it is not even your
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intention to do that. And also, in this case, it is something that your company, or whatever it is,
it's doing something that it should not do. But apparently, this is the norm in that particular
industry that everybody knows it goes on, and they kind of sorta turn a blind eye, nobody really
gets penalized for, for doing it. So for you to do your halaal job in your cubicle, and your company
is doing something outside of your area, and you're not directly involved with you cannot and nobody
can say your job becomes haram, because of something the company is doing that is unethical, you
obviously should not get involved in that, but to what level of cooperation. So by the way, for
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example, not directly related, but it is still directly related, you know, some of these more
radical militant groups, right, they would justify, you know, the mass, you know, murder of entire
populations and even the duck feet of Muslims living in non Muslim lands, they would say, You guys
aren't Muslim, they will say to us, this is 10 years ago, when all of these these movements were
going on, they would say to us, you're no, you're not Muslim. Why? What have we done? We're praying
Salah Al Hamdulillah, Quran tahajjud, for everything, why are we not Muslim? Because you're living
in a land that has done haram, and has invaded and has plundered and pillaged, and you're giving
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taxes to them. And Allah says, do not help in any transgression, transgression and what not? So
notice here, if you were to take this rule to that level, your existence on earth is aiding and
abetting some type of injustice, right? You can be also flipped around and saying, Well, you're
buying and selling products that are indirectly supporting the system, you cannot be completely
disconnected from human society. And at some level, something can be extrapolated, where you're
buying and selling to somebody who's then helping somebody who's doing something to somebody who's
doing a haram, you cannot consider an nth degree of separation to make your actual job haram just
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because you live in America or live in a western land that might be doing something militarily your
existence does it become out on brothers and sisters, your your entire job and career does not
become haram? So we have to also see, you know, the level of distance between you and this hold on?
How prevalent is it? Is it something that is generic and everybody so by the way, here, in the
Hadith, the prophet system said, Whoever enters in upon the volume and helps him is is sinful.
However, the entire country of that volume is somehow tacitly in the end of the day, you know,
giving their taxes to him, allowing him to exist, the profit system did not say the whole country is
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going to *, the whole country is jahannam. No, because there's levels of cooperation levels of
distancing yourself from voting, and the one who enters into the palace willingly knowingly wanting
to help believing the lies, supporting the ruler in the volume cannot be compared to the peasant
who's giving the taxes to this tyrannical ruler, and he cannot do anything about that. And so this
hadith is actually an evidence against those radical groups, that the Prophet's ism only criticize
the one who walks into the palace and butters up, the ruler gets involved his entourage that is
helping in evil, you cannot take the entire, you know, population and say you're all leaving the
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fold of Islam because of this. So that's another point we look at. And then the final point that
we'll also look at so the fifth point will say is what are the alternatives? And is this your only
source of income ie how necessary is this source of income for you and are there alternatives? So we
also look at that aspect as well because as the Shediac says, Ebola to cut the Rubicon, the rehab,
that those that are in dire need situations that have the Rura you look at the dodo you look at the
the directness of the situation,
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Shouldn't and you change the fatwa based upon that, so the person who's living on the streets, and
the only job he has is to be in the supermarket and to, you know, be at the grocery store. And in
the grocery store, they will sell pork and they will sell alcohol, we will say to this person,
there's no doubt that the default is your job should not be done. But you're living on the streets,
for example, you're not being able to pay your rent, okay? In the meantime, do this job, and then
make dua to Allah and try to find a halal job. So we'll give a temporary constant concession,
because the person has no alternative. So we look at the fifth point as well. And that is how needed
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is this job versus for example, a teenager who is living in a comfortable upper middle class home,
he just wants some money to, you know, purchase the latest ps4 or Xbox or, you know, iPad or iPhone
or whatever the latest gadget is, and his parents say, yeah, go ahead and find a job and you know,
we're fine with that. This teenager who doesn't need money to pay rent, we would say to him, no way
you're going to be bagging, how long you're going to be selling alcohol. And even if the grocery
store has 90% halal, but the alcohol is there, why would you do that you don't need the money, go
find a job that is, you know, not selling alcoholic or selling alcohol is obviously you're picking
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00:26:52
up the bottle and you're scanning it and you're selling it clearly, that's not something that should
he wants you to do. So all of these five points will be looked at and look yourself to your brother
or your sister in your corporation in your career, and try your best to minimize and in the end of
the day feta Allah who must authority on fear Allah as much as you can be reasonable, Don't be
unreasonable, and understand the difference between intending haram and a predominant career that is
haram and aiding and abetting haram directly versus distancing yourself and something happening in
your vicinity. In your corporation, you're not exactly involved with it. Your job itself is headed,
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00:27:24
there's many factors to look at. And if we were to go to the nth degree, then in reality, every
single one of our lives basically in the entire world, we can extrapolate something is happening
that we're doing, aiding and abetting to the nth degree, something haram, the Sharia is not
unreasonable. Fear Allah as much as you can be reasonable. Ask the scholars of your locality and ask
the other people in your field as well about your concerns and see what they say. Generally
speaking, as we said, miniscule amounts of incidental and unintentional
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thing things that are not allowed in the Sharia shall be overlooked. As long as the bulk of your
career is halal, and you're doing that which is halal. You're being paid for that which is hella
then put up Allah has to talk to him. And may Allah subhana wa Taala make it easy for all of us to
earn a halal risk and ALLAH SubhanA wa Taala knows best.
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00:28:27
The next question actually, I'm not even going to quote a question because I'm simply going to
answer generically because I think it's time that I address this issue directly. I have received
numerous questions since beginning the series almost more than two years ago, numerous questions
about the specifics of Salah and the Sunnah way to pray, I mean, literally every single aspect of
Salah raising the hands and where to place the hands and to go on the knees or the hands first or to
raise the hazard that they showed in order to the moving of the fingers or whatnot. Every single
point, you know, people have been asking them hearing lectures and somebody says, this is the Sunnah
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00:29:10
and this is the right way. And so you know, people are wondering, I was taught to this way in my
school, the Shafi school, the Maliki school, the Hanafi school, and now I'm being told this is
against the Sunnah. So the generic question I'm asking on behalf of all those questioners, what is
or even Is there a sunnah way to pray and such that all the other ways are incorrect. Now I have
dealt with this topic generically in other q&a, but I guess it needs to be said in a very direct
manner so that inshallah any people understand my perspective in the end the day it's my opinion,
take it or leave it, it's up to you what you want to do. So this type of question, what is the
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00:29:48
Sunnah way to pray? And we hear a number of preachers and this is very common in YouTube channels
and q&a, websites and whatnot. This is the sunnah to do. This is what the process of did in the
Salah he placed his hands here, he raised the hands there, he moved it to the shahada there and
therefore, the impression is given that anybody who does not do that particular opinion is somehow
going against the Sunnah. So, this goes back to a broader question of methodology. And I need you to
understand this very simple point. And again, this is very introductory in basic level all of my q&a
is generally are very introductory level, but sometimes we have to introduce concepts and facts.
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00:29:59
There are two predominant philosophies and again, there's a very simplistic there are two
predominant philosophies when it comes to how we view the Islamic schools of law the method
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00:30:00
hips.
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00:30:53
The first is that we view them as attempting to understand the Sunnah as extrapolating from the
sunnah to us as the conduits, how do we approach the Sunnah through the meta hip through the
methodology of the jurists? So the schools of law, the Hanafi, Shaeffer, American humbly and there
were more once upon a time, but these are the four main ones, all of them are attempting to
extrapolate from the Sunnah, and tell us what to do. That's the first paradigm. And that's the
paradigm of the schools of laws themselves. And of the bulk of the OMA for all of its history. There
is an alternative paradigm. And that paradigm views the schools of law as competitors to the Sunnah,
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00:31:42
as if the schools of law are somewhat replacing the books of Hadith. And this paradigm, factually
speaking is a very minority paradigm. And there are some, you know, prominent scholars, and we
respect those scholars at we do not at all impugn their intentions and we view them as people who
wanted the truth and wanted to to, you know, come close to Allah and His messenger. And they view
the schools of fear as having deviated from the authentic sunnah as even sometimes trying to
suppress or fight against the Sunnah. And this type of philosophy we'll find it amongst, for
example, the Alia had these type of you know, movements in Indian Pakistan. So there hasn't gone the
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00:32:19
great scholar of the last century, maybe even Imam Ashoka and a little bit of that with we get from
him Ashoka. And even though it's not as explicit, but still the mama Shaka was a great scholar from
Yemen, over 250 years ago. So in the 1800s, or middle 1800s, early 1800s, in Mombasa County was one
of the most famous scholars of Yemen and he had this this type of any Hadith if you like streak, of
course, the last generation, no doubt the one who embodied this type of view, the most famous and
the most respected, is the great scholar we love and admire and respect him, Sheikh Muhammad, Nasir
Deen, Al Bundy, and all of these type of genre that type of people, generally speaking, they felt
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00:33:03
that the books of Hadith should be our direct reference, that there should not be a middle a
conduit, we should go directly to the Hadith, and then extrapolate what we need, you know, from from
them. And that's the perhaps was best or this sentiment was perhaps best embodied in the famous
book. The prophets prayer describes the lower Salam, as if you're seeing it from the beginning to
the end from the tech Bureau to Tasneem as if you're seeing it, and this book, it kind of gave that
presumption maybe when I was saying illusion that the Sunnah is all that you need directly to
understand Islamic law, and that the presumption was there that every minut detail was unambiguously
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00:33:42
and categorically preserved, and that anybody who wanted to could follow it directly and anybody who
had an alternative view was somehow rejecting or dismissing the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wasallam. But you see, this type of notion is simply not correct. And what ended up happening
is that, instead of, you know, trying to go back to the Sunnah, essentially, another school was
created with his own paradigm and its own methodology. And, frankly, this school in and of itself is
not only much less developed than any of the other schools, it has much less scholarship,
historically speaking, but also because it is not as developed it began differing amongst itself,
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00:34:24
and its practitioners were actually not consistent in extrapolating the laws of physics. Because you
see, Islamic law is not about cutting and pasting snippets of the Quran and Sunnah to form detail
law. Islamic law is about interpretation. It's about extrapolation. It's about finding exceptions.
It's about reconciling that which might differ in the books of Hadith and Sunnah. It's about working
through the wording and what a wording implies when the process has said this or did this what
exactly does it mean? Is it haram is it wajib? It is Mr. Hubbard's is it? Is it a one off? So the
books of fic are not substitutes to the books of sunnah? No, not at all. There's completely separate
00:34:24 -->
00:34:59
genre, sunnah. And the books of sunnah is one science. The scholars have fixed their job is to take
the Quran and the Sunnah, and other sources of Islamic law and then present to us codified Islamic
law. So, my position throughout all of these q&a S has always been that we should understand the
books of fic as being extrapolations of the Sunnah, ie taking from the sooner what it needs to and
presenting to us, the sooner as we apply it. The notion that the books of fiction
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00:35:46
are somehow an alternative to the books of sunnah is incorrect. The books are filled have a job and
the books are sunnah have a job to play. So therefore, to say that there's one methodology to pray
that is sunnah. And all the other ways are Bidda. That is simply not something that is going to come
from me. I don't agree with this in the first place, I don't view the month hubs as coming with this
type of notion. And in fact, if you look at it, Allah subhanaw taala really has blessed and
protected our Ummah, above any other civilization in that what we agree upon, even in our Salah is
really everything. And what we disagree about is utterly inconsequential and trivial. And I'm
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00:36:28
standing by what I say, look at all of the schools of Islamic law. All of the mud hubs pray five
times a day. All of them include the pm with the Fatiha and the record, understanding backup, and
the two sides does in every raka all of them have beginning with the beat and ending with the slim.
All of them say the same car Subhan Allah subhanaw taala all the Allahu Akbar going up and down that
Tisha hood, Salah Ibrahim Iya. All of them are in agreement about the exact number of rocker out of
the fold, and when to be quiet and when to be reciting out loud and SubhanAllah. It's a and we're
gonna say this as well. Even non Sunnis have the basics of Salah down, you know, to basically the
00:36:28 -->
00:37:08
same thing even the baldies disease that over she might be minor differences but in reality is the
same structure we recognize this. Do your Muslims recognize that outside of our Sharia look at any
other faiths civilization there is nothing comparable Allah has protected this deen and the Sunnah
prayer of the Prophet system has permeated throughout all of the strands of Islam. Now, when it
comes to where to place the hands, do you really think this is something we should be bickering and
fighting over? Do you really think that we should say Oh, this is the only way and every other way
is bolted and wrong and bid out and Allah Allah, this is simply wrong brothers and sisters, it's a
00:37:08 -->
00:37:50
wrong attitude. It's a wrong spirit and it inculcate a sense of arrogance to yourself and disdain to
other Muslims, it creates a sense of breaking the unity of the Ummah, this is look at what is in
common, and then realize that hamdulillah in reality, the Sunnah of the Prophet system really is
preserved. Now when it comes to the finer details. And I don't want to go into a lot of details
here, but every single school has its evidences. And we need to create a culture not just of
tolerance of genuine respect. So what is the Sunnah way to pray? Who's going to tell you what the
Sunnah way to pray is? Every month has its own evidences. So I will give you I don't want to go into
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00:38:27
too much detail but just to give you a flavor of this, the famous controversy of refleja Dane right
when you're standing up from the Roku and when you when you're going up, should you raise your hands
up or not? Well, two are the two and a half of them it has basically because there's reports and you
have to say you should you know, and you know one of them that have said the Hanafi madhhab says you
should not you should not do refer to them. Okay, so, those that say you should do Subhanallah they
have so many evidences emammal Bahati actually wrote a booklet called the treaties of refer your
name in Salah, and he brought any dozens of narrations of the tablet room the template tab rune from
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00:38:41
the Prophet SAW Selim, dozens of narrations that we do this emammal Buhari was very certain we
should have referred you then. Good for him to humbly school, the SHA three school many of the
Maliki school they followed all of this great and hamdulillah
00:38:42 -->
00:39:19
are we going to accuse the Hanafi school of rejecting the Sunnah? Oh, honey, what do you have to
say? Abu Hanifa says I have an authentic hadith from my share from his share from a Nephi from you
know, even was rude and it has reported without netted me I hadn't remembered that the event was
really stood up to say I'm going to teach you how the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam prayed and
he prayed in front of his students. And he raised his hands at the beginning and he did not raise
them until the entire end of the Salah. This is even a struggle of the hola Juan, for those who say
that the Hanafi madhhab or anyone who is not following the Sunnah. Would you dare stand in front of
00:39:19 -->
00:39:55
even mister with somebody who spent 30 years you know, even before Islam he was in Makkah, you know
so in terms of when I say 30 I mean, even as pre Islam he was in Morocco with the prophets of
Salaam. So somebody who spent the money from the beginning one of the first five or seven Congress
of a mystery, even miss route accompany the Profit System in Maccha. And in Medina, he was there for
the entirety of the revelation pretty much of the earliest of converts. Would you say to even miss
rude or even was rude? You don't know the Sunnah. Would you say that to him? Abu Hanifa Rahim Allah
to others following Elon Musk route. He has his evidence in his mind that is the Sunnah in his mind.
00:39:55 -->
00:39:59
That is the Sunnah. And in fact, this notion of not following the Sunnah and you're wrong or
whatnot.
00:40:00 -->
00:40:37
And our early scholars, you know, debated this and they solved it long time ago. So if you're an
authority narrates from an Molera that Abraham in Ojai was asked that. What are you going to do
about the Hadith of the Prophet system raised his hands when he did record? Okay, Abraham inukai is
the basically the Shellharbour behind me, let's just say is the Shabaab 100. Right. So the Hanafi
school is coming from a Nakai from urban Missouri, that's predominantly the Hanafi school. So
O'Brien Munna has said that so the question was, what are you going to do to the Hadith and why even
heard that he said the Prophet sallallahu alayhi salam raised his hands in record when he went down
00:40:37 -->
00:41:17
to the court. Okay. What have you been accepted Islam I think in the eighth or ninth of the hijra,
he was with the process of for a short period of time, a Prime Minister, I said, if what it had been
huger saw the Prophet system raise his hand once, then we know that Abdullah bin Massoud saw the
Prophet system never raised his hand more than 50 times Which one should we follow? So the point
being the one who comes and tells you it is the sunnah to raise your hands when you do it according
to God. And by the way just for the information, I will also do it for you then in my own salah. But
I understand the Hanafi school has its understanding of the Sunnah. They're not trying to reject the
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00:41:55
Sunnah. They're not trying to reinterpret the Sunnah. They have an authentic sunnah and they prefer
that over the others no big deal. Why do we need to problematize why do we need to come and say oh,
whoever does this as soon and the other one is better? My problem isn't the second not the first if
you feel one is closer to the Sunnah good for you do not feel the other is farther from the Sunnah
do not feel that the other is lesser wanting to to reject the Sunnah the placing of the hands again
Yanni, you know, the scholar who wrote the book about the process of prayer described he has a
position which is actually none of the four Sunni schools actually had held that technical position
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00:42:32
none of them and he felt this is the Sunnah, as if the entirety of the Ummah did not know the Sunnah
until this book was written in 1400 years later, it doesn't make any sense brothers and sisters,
there are authentic narrations, authentic narrations that some of the Sahaba prayed with their
hands, you know, on their stomach. Others prayed with their hands below the navel are the ultimate
Masood they played they prayed with their hands below the navel, which is that the Hanafi school
their authentic narrations that the tabby rune they prayed with their hands at their size, which is
the Maliki madhhab. And there's an aeration as well that one of the Sahaba put it on his chest and
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00:43:06
the chest that the shaft he says the chest means the lower chest over here right? Only one
interpretation which is really discarded by the four schools by and large set on the upper portion
of the chest which is over here. So this hadith scholar comes along and again, we respect and admire
him and he goes this is the Sunnah you must put it here high up on the chest. None of the four
schools really held that as an interpretation but because he felt it is Sunnah, so all of his
followers felt this is the real sunnah, even though in reality, if you actually technique look at
it, none of the earliest callers held this up, but that's besides the point or even those that
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00:43:42
follow this opinion, no big deal, in my opinion, you're wanting to follow the Sunnah. My problem is
not in taking an opinion. My problem is in dismissing the other opinion isn't claiming that those
who are rejecting not following you are rejecting the Sunnah, the same issue of the Shahada. And
again, just as just FYI. So you understand, again, this author of the prophets prayer described, he
had a particular interpretation. And so this is the Sunnah and he maneuvered through all of the
Hadith to get his opinion Good for him. Do you realize in that maneuvering, that's also the fact
that's legal hermeneutics, other scholars would have a different maneuvering, because within the
00:43:42 -->
00:44:22
books of Hadith, one finds so many, sometimes even contradictory narrations about the moving of the
finger. In one version, the prophet system would raise it, what does it mean raise it once and down
or keep it raised? In another version? His finger was up in another version kinda you had Rico Ha,
he would be moving it in a yet another version, that thorn Mala you had a cord, then he would not
move it. So how do you reconcile between all of these, in reality, a little bit of ambiguity was
tolerated. None of the earliest colors made it a big deal. That's why they said okay, he would raise
it means he would raise it once. And so when would you raise it clearly would raise it when it says
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00:44:55
shadow a lie, lie lie. It makes complete sense. That is one method. Another word have said well, he
would raise it means it's continually raised. So they will keep it raised the entire way. Another
might have said he would move it. So therefore this means you would raise it and you would move it
another month, he took the headaches as he would not move it so keep it down. The point is every one
of the methods if you ask them why they're doing it, guess what they're going to quote you. They're
going to quote you a hadith they're going to quote you a sunnah. So this notion of which way is the
authentic way to pray, the Syrah the responses, all of the ways that the Muslim ummah has embraced
00:44:55 -->
00:44:59
out of all of the legal schools are authentic. The problem has come that one
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00:45:41
This notion has spread amongst certain groups of people that it's my way or the highway that it is
only one way that is authentic, then this has created intolerance. It has created a feeling of
elitism, and that feeling of elitism and arrogance is far worse to be liked than, you know making a
mistake and trying to follow the Sunnah. The Sunnah way to pray is the way any school of law has
taught you any of the established schools of law. They're all sunnah. And they're all trying to
grasp what the prophet system did. And some level of ambiguity is completely fine. So pray the way
that you have been taught to pray, pray the way your parents taught you as long as it obviously we
00:45:41 -->
00:46:22
expect they're following one of the established schools of Sunni Islam. I'm not saying we invent our
own way, obviously, but to claim that one particular opinion is the only way and all of the other
established opinions are rejecting the Sunnah. I actually am strongly in disagreement with this and
this has been my consistent methodology throughout my entire q&a. We must create a culture not just
of tolerance of difference of opinion, but respect when a scholar of caliber whose track record and
reputation when he Imam Abu Hanifa, or Imam Shafi Imam Malik, Mama have that humble. Remember Ozar
you remember booth Oh, remember Latham inside holds a position, they have every right to hold it.
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00:46:58
And even if we disagree, we disagree with respect. Even if we say You know what, that's a good
opinion. But I'm not going to follow it fine. You don't follow it. You follow your share for teacher
but do not disrespect and do not accuse these great Imams of rejecting the Sunnah. And most
importantly, do not create this notion within your circles within your message within your
community, that only your opinion is the correct opinion. And all of the other established opinions
of giants of their own ama are somehow misguided no live and let live and you choose your scholars
that you respect and you follow them and hamdulillah but don't create controversy or disharmony. So
00:46:58 -->
00:47:33
with this inshallah I will not return to this question. I don't believe there is only one way that
is authentic to pray Salah all of the ways that our religious teachers and our football have done
have legitimacy to them. And I have my own way of praying which is generally speaking, I need a fall
in one of the schools but so be it it's because I've been trained and taught that way. I don't think
it is the only way all of them they would they agree about is actually much much much more than what
they disagree about. And that's the beautiful thing of our faith. Allah has preserved this deen and
the Sunnah has been preserved in all of these mudarabah of Islam and with this inshallah we come to
00:47:33 -->
00:47:38
the conclusion of today's lecture will continue next week shoulders Zack will love it said I'm
wondering what happens hula hula will catch up
00:47:42 -->
00:47:59
in Mussolini now almost Lima D one meaning MENA team one quantity now not only that he was slowed in
pain I was born in Poland he was slobby Rena was Slavia before sharing you know
00:48:02 -->
00:48:17
what unfortunately, no one was watching. The one downside the lino one downside being party was all
me now was all in I
00:48:19 -->
00:48:32
wouldn't have you Lena photo downhome one Hatfield law D was that good enough? Long I guess you know
what's going on? I don't know hula hoop
00:48:36 -->
00:48:37
Eileen
