Reflections on the Story of Ibrahim With Ustadh Murphy

Salam Alaikum

Welcome Home level hamdu lillah wa salatu salam ala Rasulillah are at he was having huge rain. Welcome everybody. Just quickly some housekeeping before we get started in sha Allah. So the overflow is live and ready. So if you're here

and you don't have a spot to sit, we don't want you to be uncomfortable. So you can Sharla head over to the multipurpose hall the only challenge is that you're gonna have to walk around because the construction for the new school year is in between us and the multipurpose hall now. So the TV's are on the audio is good, you'll be comfortable. If that's what you prefer. Insha Allah that's available to you, isn't it?

I hope everyone in sha Allah had a wonderful weekend. Welcome back to HEartwork as you can tell the man in the stunning blue cord though Mashallah.

Next to me shake Yasir qadhi hamdulillah has been so nice to come and visit us and to spend some time here with us in sha Allah on this Monday night shake welcome. This is HEartwork it's our weekly session for our community young professionals and those young families that want to come and connect to the tradition. So we we alternate between different topics and we're currently on the topic called Becoming a Friend of Allah, where we talked about of course the, the friend of Allah as as described by Allah subhanaw taala himself, Ibrahim is that um

and before we get started, you know, we have insha Allah some AI that we're going to reflect on tonight and talk about but before we get started, I wanted to ask, you know, first of all, how are you

sinned, I want to point out Allah

hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah thank you for inviting me, thank you for welcoming me to your safe space and Hamdulillah I hope it's safe for me as it is safe for all of you. And I've heard lots of positive things about your coffee shop. So one day sha Allah will have the chai, you just had the chai, which was really good. Yeah, the coffee and other de sha Allah. But it happened that I'm doing fine, life is good life is busy. Alhamdulillah and I ask Allah subhanaw taala to keep all of our iman strong and to give baraka and our time, and to allow us to live productive lives so that when we leave in sha Allah we leave with a very positive legacy for the people that we are leave

leave behind, and we take that legacy forward for Africa inshallah. I mean, I mean, I wanted to, you know, I've known Shaykh Yasir now for almost probably 20 years, the first time that I that I met Sheikh, he also was in Chicago. So I was born and raised in Chicago, as you guys know, the fourth holiest city in the world.

Chicago Sharif. I don't think there's much to wrap on this statement, but I mentioned Yasur, a long, long time ago, and it

it goes without saying, but I'll say it, which is that Shaykh Yasir used to be at that time, right 20 years ago,

kind of like one of the more young up and coming teachers right had arrived back from Medina and was teaching classes on the weekends with a method of Institute and now Sheikh, mashallah Yasser has, you know, basically evolved and grown into what I would consider now to be one of the elder scholars in America in the world really been in America for us, who are just students and teachers. And quite literally, the space that you're sitting in routes, quite literally would not be possible without the work that Shaykh Yasir did. For those of us who are sitting in his classroom, in the Westin Hotel in Chicago learning light of guidance 2004 2014 Hana Allah. So I have to thank you. And you

know, everyone who's benefiting from routes has to know that there are many people on that journey that sort of molded routes into what it's become.

Many of you guys hear me say a lot that the connection that we have from places like this is community but community is built through knowledge. And that's something that amongst all my teachers shake, Yasser was one of them who made a huge impression on that with life without knowledge is no life worth living. And so that's why it's such an amazing feeling to have him here hamdulillah and we wanted to continue where we left off last week. So we're doing the series of Prophet Ibrahim Abraham peace be upon him, and we're going chronologically through the Quran. Now the name Hadith Allah she asked her before we get started with the Quranic portion. What what what

what was it about Ibrahim alayhi salam from your knowledge and your survey of his life that made him so unique and distinct to Allah subhanaw taala to give him that title, Jade spindown hamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Rasulillah who either early he will be here Woman Well, Muhammad, the Prophet Ibrahim alayhi salam is the only prophet in the entire Quran that ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada commands our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu. I set him to take as a role model, the only prophet The only that is expert

lucidly said of course, generically, every story of every prophet is meant to be lessons for us and even for the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, but to specifically say that look at the candidate who sweat on Hasina, you have a good Oosa a good role model for Ibrahim Ibrahim, that only happens to one prophet and that is the Prophet Ibrahim it has Salam. So Allah subhanho wa Taala is telling all of us that there's something about this man, that is so amazing, that even the greatest man on earth who ever walked the face of this earth, even he is told, take him as a mentor and role model and by the way there shows you no matter how great you are human beings they need mentorship, even

the greatest, you just need people to encourage before and of course, the process is the greatest human being. But in his modest in his humility when somebody came to the process and said, Yeah, hi Earl, 30 year old best of all mankind, He himself said, no, no, that's my father Ibrahim Ali has, even though he is the best of mankind, right? But the one who is the best should not view himself as being the best let others acknowledge Him we acknowledge but when he was said the best of mankind, he does not believe himself to be the best and that shows he is the best like to to ascribe piety to yourself is not a part of Taqwa. So, the question you're asking me is what makes him special,

frankly, much more than can be summarized in a few points in this, but Allah azza wa jal mentions that Ibrahima, kind of own mutton carnita Lila, right, this is a powerful verse Ibrahim is an ummah. Oma has multiple meanings. One of them you all know what OMA means. Oma means a nation. And it's really powerful that Allah uses OMA for Ibrahim alayhis salam, despite the fact that unlike many of his progeny, unlike Musa and their ISA and the process of who have massive Omers Ibrahim did not have an omen his lifetime. Understand this point, Ibrahim alayhis salam did not have a massive following in his lifetime. And yet Allah calls him an OMA, you don't need a physical OMA to make the

impact of an ummah. You don't need 1000s of people around you to make the impact of in fact, more than 1000 more than a few 1000 Ibrahim Ali his is universally acknowledged as the greatest and the most respected human being on the face of this earth in terms of quantity, in terms of quality, our processing, yes, but quantity wise, again, Jews, Christians, Muslims are more than 50% of this earth, Jews, Christians and Muslims put together they are the Abrahamic faiths, and all of them love and respect. Ibrahim alayhis salam, not all of them love Moses, the way they live Ibrahim, not other love Jesus, not all of our process of of course, quality wise we do. But quantity wise it is Ibrahim

alayhis salam. So Allah azza wa jal is indicating that your legacy is not based upon the quantity of your followers. You can be a one man OMA as Ibrahim alayhis salam was and of course so many other things can be derived. I mean, again, why is Ibrahim such a role model? Allah azza wa jal mentions were exhibited that Ibrahima booty can imagine for a Tim Hoonah.

Recall and know that Allah tested Ibrahim with many commandments, and he perfected all of them. Once he perfects them. What does Allah say? Allah in Niger NRC Imam, once you fulfill the commandments of Allah, your mom your status rises up, and he perfected the commandments to such a level that Allah azza wa jal says, As soon as he finishes all the tests, I'm going to make you an imam for all of mankind. So how does one gain legacy and respect? How does one gain impact it is by strengthening your relationship with Allah subhana wa Tada. When you strengthen your relationship with Allah azza wa jal, automatically, your impact on other people, automatically the quality of your life changes,

you become a person whose charisma whose character, you don't have to have the sharpest tongue. You don't have to have, you know, the greatest wit, Your luck is going to speak volumes more than anything else. And this is what we learned of the many things about Ibrahim alayhis salam. So to summarize, Ibrahim is a role model like no other prophet as a role model. And again, there's no comparison like putting up and down point is though, in some aspect, Ibrahim Ali Salam is unique. In some aspects. He's totally unique. And in many aspects, our processing is unique. We're not in the business of competition, but we do recognize uniqueness and Ibrahim alayhis salam has plenty that is

unique. And the most important thing is his sincerity and his humility, and his love and compassion for all of mankind. I mean, I don't know if you guys have done this story yet or not. I don't know your chronology yet, but we haven't you haven't

Don't just started last week, okay, so you're gonna learn, very important and it's a really interesting maybe later on, we'll go into this tension here. But the people have looked at the histogram, right? Loot one, it has people off the face of this earth. When the Allah answered that da, Ibrahim alayhis salam begins arguing, give them another chance. And Allah calls Ibrahim compassionate and merciful. Right? But then Allah says, Look, I have said it so now you shouldn't intervene. There's an adult with Allah if anybody else okay? But with Allah azza wa jal, you can't negotiate this matter. So that's a different story. point is though Allah praise the compassion, and

then said, but it shouldn't cause you to negotiate with me, but the compassion is praiseworthy, right? In Abraham Allah wa Hoon, had him write his Haleem Haleem is like, just full of forgiveness. So Ibrahim Yuja DeLuna if you owe me loot, he was arguing with the angels. How was he arguing? Come on, give them another chance, you know, don't do it. Now we'll just stall it for a little bit more. And Allah azza wa jal mentions, he did this because his heart was full of a softness right. And this is a really deep point, maybe later on, we can get into this. But this is a praiseworthy aspect of Abraham, it has set up the fact that his heart was so much full of love for all of mankind, even

those that were disobeying Allah, even those that were going to be punished, okay, the punishment is there, but your heart doesn't have to have hatred, somebody's doing something wrong, you know, there should be some some compassion as well, that you want to have them guided giving them another chance. So all of this we learned from the stroke, what it is to them, and much more than this reminds me of the point in the theater where the prophet I sort of said, I'm like, after battles when some of the Muslims would be celebrating, he would be he would, he would generally be in a somber state, realizing that those people who had died in opposition, right and literally in the

state of warring against the Muslims, that it wasn't ultimately going to be for their benefit. And the prophets also had that compassion. This is one of those amazing things that you see, even spiritually, that lineage we know that the Prophet SAW Selim, of course, is physically and and from a family point related to the Prophet Ibrahim, I said, um, but even spiritually, he took that, you know, shaved last week, we talked about this point. And essentially, we made this and we left it as our one point from last week, Ibrahim had to stand up in a moment of principle. The Quran says to his father as a, and he asked this very difficult question. And we all know, we've had difficult

conversations with our parents, right? I was gonna actually even ask you, what is it like having not gone to med school?

I mean, you're a doctor, but kind of right. Thank you. So like, like, do you help? Do you help people on planes? Or are you not that kind of doctor?

You bring you up with the meme zero?

I kid you not seriously. One time my mom introduced me to somebody. And literally no exaggeration. You know, she said, you guys speak to some of you will say didn't or the right. Your doctor had like an ously doctor.

Yeah, he's a doctor, but he's not the real doctor. Don't get confused.

It's like so.

So tension with parents right on the spectrum goes from he's a doctor, but not a real doctor to what the Quran mentions about Ibrahim Salaam. And we just finished I know that this is one of your favorite chapters I wish we could have gotten you for that was the story of Satan, the use of it said I want this with yaku. And so we started last week saying, look, the Quran has a plurality of experiences, right? You have Yusuf and Yaqoob, Joseph and Jacob, great father son relationship, but there are many in this room that read that story, and they can't help but feel a void. How does the Quran giving us this relationship now? Right? Because in reality, you would say, Well, shouldn't all

prophets have perfect relationships in their home? Shouldn't they be able to live a perfect family life and sometimes we feel guilty as Muslims, knowing that we want to follow with the Prophet ISIL Salam came with, but we do have tensions in our home. What's the wisdom and the Quranic guidance on sharing a story of a prophet who struggle with his own father, so we don't get to choose our families, Allah chooses. And every one of us has to deal with different types of family situations and dramas. Now, when you're young you think only your family's messed up everybody else's family is picture perfect. I can assure you, every single family has its ups and downs. I'm not saying

everybody's equal. Definitely some have different and more different problems than others. But every single family has its issues and relationships. This is the reality of life. And we need to understand that that's really one of the purposes of life to be tested in different ways. So family collectively is a test. Wealth is a test free time is a test. Every blessing Allah has given us is also a test and every test is a potential blessing. That's the reality of life.

If nobody has a perfect life, the perfect life that's in the Acura that's in the next slide. That's the whole point here, right? In fact, what do we learn? Again, all of these are collected collected points here. What do we learn about grief and stress? What do we learn about anxiety? The first phrase that will come from the people agenda when they enter agenda, like when you enter agenda, right? The Quran tells us and sort of felt that what are you going to say when you enter agenda? It's not Oh, my God, look at all the furniture. Oh, my God, look at my mansions. Oh my god, what is the first thing you're going to say? When you enter agenda? We'll call it will hamdulillah hinder

the hubba Annelle Hassan

Al Hamdulillah. Finally, nothing to worry about.

I want you to think about that phrase.

When does grief actually stop? Not when you leave your parents house. A lot of you at this stage think as soon as it got out. I'm gonna live a happy life. So Allah, sorry to break it to you. Life is just beginning when you leave the nest. Sorry to break it to you but you're gonna have no matter how difficult the situation by and large Allah knows each one. But generally speaking, your biggest battles are still ahead of you. I'm sorry, I'm somebody's gotta tell you this, like an older brother, your biggest battles are ahead of you. And sometimes those battles are, you know, again, those who are parents know this, the day that Noah protect all of your son or daughter's fallen

sick, you're driving to the emergency room, that battle, just wait till that happens and everything before that is going to be a walk in the park, the Battle of an emergency room and I want one call. And we all know this as parents, you know, that battle SubhanAllah. And may Allah protect all of us in our children, whatnot, but you don't know the meaning of those types of battles. If you just have a shouting match with your mom and dad, and I'm not trying to trivialize I'm sure some are really bad and whatnot. But I'm saying there are many battles ahead in life, right. And there is never going to be a point in your life where everything is going to be checking all the boxes. That's not

what this life is for what you're thinking of is Jana. And if you want Jana, the way to get Jana is by battling one anxiety after another, overcoming one stress after another dealing with one grief in the proper manner after another and you keep on doing that and keep on doing that and keep on doing that. Until finally there is no more grief and you're entering Jen now. That's what you do. So family is going to be one of the greatest causes of fitna.

If it's not your parents, without a doubt, marriage, even good marriages requires a lot of hard work. Everybody know those of you that are married you notice right? Those of you that aren't somebody's gonna tell you like an older brother Stop daydreaming about these romantic Hollywood or Bollywood movies that they lived happily ever after. That's why the myth finishes they lived happily ever after the story finishes at the wedding because nobody wants 10 years down the line right nobody wants the you know postpartum whatever. They don't want that. I just want to clarify we have happy marriages. I'm good enough. This is not like a therapy session where she Yasser is just

letting loose like, wait and see No, no, but I think what you're saying shake because there's realism there's there's a reality Alhamdulillah I'm actually today's what day what's the date today is August 14, I'm celebrating my 27th anniversary. Wow, we just came back from Switzerland 10 day vacation and Hamdulillah 10 days ago, by the way, Switzerland Mashallah. Two thumbs up just mush. Just pack your ramen from America. Very, it's true to two so expensive. So alhamdulillah though in all honesty, Alhamdulillah great marriages that were thank Allah Subhana Allah to Allah will light I would not be here if Allah hadn't blessed me with my better half. No question about that. But I'm

trying to explain. I'm trying to be an older brother to some of you here to because if you don't understand the reality of marriage, if you don't understand that marriage is really going to be one of the most difficult emotional realities, even if insha Allah Allah, it's also one of the biggest pleasures, right? The point is, the UPS have to be much more than the downs. That's the goal, right? But somebody's got to tell you, there's going to be downs, somebody has to just lay out the facts for you that some of your most painful experiences in life are going to be marital disputes. And we learned this from the Sierra I mean, come on, what more do you want? Our prophets of Allah who

either you will send them for one month, he was sleeping in the masjid. That's when the famous incident happened. When Bob saw the the marks on his back, why was he in the masjid? Because of marital issues? Because of back and forth and is like I just can't deal with this. I'm gonna go sleep in the masjid. For one month. He was in the masjid Allah, Allah revealed Quran and I have five lectures on this in this era, if you want to listen to that. My point is Why did Allah subhana wa Taala even to the process and demonstrate this reality? Because he's the role model for us? Yeah, and this and we mentioned this last week we said the Quran doesn't have all the historical details

in the numbers that you might find in other religious texts because ultimately the purpose of the of the book is guidance and

The reason why you have these ups and downs being memorialized and contained and preserved is because we all need these in order for us to be guided. Imagine if the Quran was just filled with stories of prophets that had really beautiful and very they would dreadful remodel, there'd be no mentorship and what do you need more shifts than when the time when you're down in the Quran? You need to look at the story of Brahim. I mean if you have an argument with your parents or a situation with your relatives and you look at the story of use if I mean even with his father it was good with his brothers it wasn't right and then you look at with with with new how they set up his son, right

there was difficulty if you look at every prophet, there was some sort of familiar relationship that had some tension some issue why doesn't matter who's reading the book, you're gonna find yourself in one of their shoes in one of their situations does that have no hidden check? You know, the next idea, when he has that tough conversation, Allah Tada says that He granted him something called an Melkote and he allowed him to be able to look at that like annuity Ebrahimi. Mallacoota, similar to a lot that he gave him the access to the kingdoms of the heaven and the earth, so that he could be from amongst the Millennium those who have a theme. And one of the Tafseer is very beautifully it

mentioned that the Mulk is whatever you can see in this world Madhavi Artemis shahada, min and max suicides? Well, the mela code malaba, for you has been my honor, as for our Ruby Yeti, that it's the ability whatever you see in this world, there's one meaning but then what Allah gave Ibrahim this melakukan was the ability to see something beyond that something deeper than that. All of us shift live pretty mundane lives. I mean, we have our jobs and our families and our situations and our studies and our coffee and our social lives. How can we transform our hearts to be able to see Allah in every moment? Is there a process? Or is this just only reserved for prophets? So this I actually

is really powerful in this story is very powerful, because this is the beginning of Ibrahim's adding some spiritual awakening, right? And what is key to note here at this stage, he's not a prophet. At this stage, God has not come down and communicated with him. So this entire narrative of him challenging his people of him destroying the idol of him telling him look at the sun, the moon, the stars, he's not yet a prophet. And of course, this is a really deep, you know, philosophical conversation, which maybe another time I have papers on this academic papers on this presented as well. We're not going to go there, but the reality of truth and how could you proclaim Alison, I'm

no such certain truth without any revelation? How did he know monotheism? How did he know to debate about this? And he doesn't even he hasn't communicated with ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. Right. And that's a really deep question. Because here is a very important point. By the way, as you read this story, a lot of times people misunderstand that. Ibrahim actually thought the sun is his God and the moon is has got who the biller know who's the biller? That's like paganism, right. Ibrahim Ali Salam was not, you know, saying, Oh, this is my God, this is my God. This is my God because Allah negates seven times in the Quran. He was never a pagan. What I mean when we should have kin seven times

Allah says Hanifa, and Muslim Ah, he was always a Muslim, right? He never committed chick. So this notion of him saying the sun, the moon, the stars, this is an argumentation technique.

He knows Allah is his Lord, but his people worship the stars, his people worship the celestial objects. So he's employing argumentation technique the same way he destroys the idols. And then he goes, Oh, the big one, did it? I mean, he knows the big one didn't do it. Right? The big one did it because he wants to show them the incapability of the idols to even, you know, defend themselves. Right. So the question here, then, where and how is this bravery coming forth. And of course, this is why Ibrahim Al Islam is a role model, because at this stage, he's me and you he's not a prophet. At this stage. Gibreel has not communicated with him. Ironically, Djibouti will communicate with him

when, when he's thrown into the fire. This is so like, metaphysical, spiritual, profound, he walks into the fire a human he's thrown into the fire a normal human, and he's saved as a profit. Like, quite literally, that's when Allah Azza blesses him with profit. And not that of course, we should follow that particular person, obviously, but metaphorically, metaphorically after the event, by the way, we're going to have it

symbolically When will you be your most powerful symbolically when you're going to win? Are you really going to get that blessing and boost from ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada. When you quite literally put your trust in Allah and you do the right thing? Simple as that. And O'Brien has some story shows that right? And again, at this stage, by the way, how old is it Raheem? Probably 1415 years old.

He's not 4050 I mean, he's a teenager, right? Because again, the other suitor, how hard was it to submit an affair 10 years ago to whom your hourly rate Rahim? They said, there was this young kid talking about the idols. They say his name is Ibrahim

fatter young kid, 1617 years old, right? He's just a child or a teenager. And yet the courage that he has the conviction, what are you gonna middle morclean? In? How do you get that level of conviction and the bravery at that stage? There was no Muslim on Earth. Think about that. And that's why when he fled with Saara to Egypt, what did he say to Saddam? He said, there is nobody that is worshipping Allah, except me and you right now. Nobody. So this story takes place and there is no solder in the picture is not married. So therefore, at this stage, he is literally standing up against all of mankind, to preach the truth. Now, here's the really awkward question.

People don't really worship idols in our times. But what are the equivalents in our times of false truths that mankind has accepted? I was gonna ask this, so thank you.

No, I was gonna say the reality is, no, we don't have the you know, I always tell people that the closest thing you can think of is that horse in front of PF Changs we don't have those interesting. Okay, yeah. I have a six year old I have to be creative. So the reality is that we don't we're not going to see people prostrating and devoting themselves in the common you know, public to things like that. But does that mean that we're safe from Schick? Obviously, not paganism has taken different forms. paganism has taken different forms, we no longer by and large Western society in particular, obviously, you go to the Far East, and you know, you see this line, you see it all the

time. But the types of paganism we have now our intellectual paganism, frankly, at some level, the paganism as we have or even more Kufri, than the paganism is of the past, to reject God and the existence of God is a worst form of paganism than worshipping multiple gods. Think about that, to reject God in totality, atheism. Right, is a worst form of arrogance. And Cofer, then the paganism of the past where you actually believed in one Almighty God, and then lots of mini Gods underneath, right, so we have multiple manifestations of rejections of God outright or rejections of Allah's authority over us. And so the notion that ethics and values and laws is not something that I need to

take from a higher power. That is a type of paganism. Literally, it's a type of because one of the names of Allah is an Hakim, the one who is the lawgiver. And when you reject Allah as the law, our ethics, our values, we are not qualified to dictate our own values. It is Allah, who's going to tell us right from wrong? Sure we're given a moral compass, right? But what do you do when your compass is corrupt? Who's going to correct the internal compass, you need the Quran to verify your internal compass is pointing the right direction. So my point to you right there on a loved one, Allah says, Allah UTR, config, if you limited empty net, that if you were the ones that had to decide, and the

prophets all sudden, was the one following you, like imagine switching places, instead of him being the one who gives us ethical code and laws, you're the one that gets to decide a law actually says you would hate it. And how many times have you made a decision like an ethical decision, a moral decision, and then almost immediately, or very shortly after you regretted it? Right? The reality is that our own evidence of our capability is almost daily. And so this idea is not just spiritual, it's also quite logical, right? If you want to understand the importance of having a less power, tada in a moral position in your life, just look at your own mistakes that you've made. And realize

that whenever you align yourself with Allah, and that's why we ask Allah to align our hearts with what he loves. Because just because your heart loves it doesn't mean it's okay. Doesn't mean it's good. Right? I love chocolate cake, especially after, you know, the kids go to sleep. I love calories late at night, right? But it's clearly not doing well for me. All right, Hamdulillah. You don't stop nodding, people are nodding. That was not like an agreement thing, right? That was a rhetorical thing. The point being is that we make decisions all the time and we end up regretting them almost immediately. But if a person aligns their heart with what Allah subhanaw taala loves, it

might be difficult. It may not be easy, but it will always be free from regret, I ask a lot to put on is actually a beautiful verse in total out of memorize this verse, whatever, whatever, I'll help go home left so that the summer water will or the woman fee hymns, if truth were subjugated to their whims, if truth followed their desires, truth is above the desires of a group of people, right? We do not vote for morality, morality and ethics transcends a majority vote. We need to understand this point here. Just because a group of people decide something is right or wrong doesn't make it right or wrong. That's their decision. And Allah says in the Quran Wallah with tebal Hakoah home if truth

were subjugate,

did to their whims and desires left VESA that is somewhat or other one fee and everything in the heavens and earth would become corrupt truth is above the desires of a group of people. And because of this, we need a higher source of guidance. That's where the Quran and the life of the process have come into play. One last question check and then we want to open it up to q&a. In this in the there's a passage and so with an MBA, and we're going to do more of this inshallah next week in the following weeks, but there's something that you mentioned, when they Ibrahim I said I'm goes through this process of trying to demonstrate to these people that have had all of their faculties sealed,

meaning that their logical conversations are not working him trying to rhetorically engage with them is not working. So he engages in this, this practice, which he hopes this demonstration of sources protests, where he hopes that it will, it will, you know, crack, no pun intended, the seal that's around them to show them their own flaws. And that plan that he has, is that they have all these inanimate objects that they fashion they created. And then they themselves devote themselves to in worship. So while they are gone one day, but on him I said, I'm in the Quran memorializes this moment, he destroys all of the idols except for one, except for the biggest one and then he takes

the weapon that of destruction and places it in the hands or in the lap or the possession of the one that is the biggest one. So there's only one idol left and it has the the axe or the the club or whatever it may have been. And when they come back, these people are furious because they see all of these deities that they worship these these stones that they pray to, they're all destroyed. And they say a shake Yasser mentioned that they describe him fall loose and manifest. Ah, you have Kulu, who you call who the WHO Ibrahim that we heard about this guy, this young man, Ibrahim, that he was speaking about doing this plan about doing this thing. So let's go ahead and interrogate him. Let's

go and indict him. And they go in they ask Ibrahim I sat down. And they wanted to sort of make this this big Inquisition this trial that they were going to try to find him guilty in front of everybody. They asked him was it you who did this to our gods, Ibrahim? And Ibrahim responds? And he says, no, why don't you ask the biggest one, he's the one that has the weapon in his hand, ask him if they're those who can talk you into fluent. There's a verb here that I think is very interesting. Photojojo ILA and footsy him. They it's they turned into themselves, they retreated inward. And they started to have this almost internal dialogue, whether it was individually or whether it was as a

collective. And they said to each other, that

we know that we're wrong. We know that we're wrong. So there's a point here shift that I want us to think about and finish on, which is, every single one of us in this room can identify with that I probably raise, no, don't raise your hand. But think to yourself, if you've ever thought in the moment, as something's happening or going on and you're standing on clearly the opposite side of what's correct. And you have that deep introspective thought where you say, You know what, this is not right. What I said what I did what I this is incorrect. Che how do we take ourselves from that moment, and not become those people? Who then go back on what they know to be correct and keep

charging down the path of deviance or the path of wrongdoing? How do we humbly own up to our mistakes, and come out of that trance of desire or whatever it may be and fix ourselves to get back on the straight path? Excellent question and point and just quickly before I answer that, so remember, this story is taking place before Ibrahim Ali Salam becomes a prophet. He's doing this as a regular Muslim, quote, unquote, right. And so this type of technique, he literally said the big one did it. Technically the big one didn't do it. Right. And that's why in the Hadith in Sahih, Bukhari, you know, on the Day of Judgment, when people go to put on him and say, you make sure you

make sure fire, he's gonna say, No, I said, a lie. And I feel so guilty about it, or I said, Three lies. And he's gonna mention this little trivial thing here. And his guilt is so much I said, something I shouldn't have said, right. But he did this when he wasn't a prophet says Interesting, interesting point here that this little tactic, even though you're trying to prove a bigger point, it caused him to feel a lot of guilt later on. But he's excused because he wasn't even a prophet. He's a teenager trying to draw the point home, but your question is really pertinent. And that is,

well, another point to be mentioned, again, so much, there's so much profundity in these verses, actually, I think, a very important point that needs to be mentioned.

The dangers of having

wrong group of friends.

Because Allah mentions that when Ibrahim spoke the truth, many of them understood and realized it. Then through Moluccas to Allah Russa him, then after a bit of conversation, they're like, no, no, he's wrong. Right? And how many times has that happened that somebody brings up you know, the sensible or the right thing. And for a while, the group's like okay that but then one or two or three or four voices come and drown out that good. The same thing happens at the death of a bulldog.

as well, right? He was so close he was going to, he was going to, and then Abuja hell comes in at the end and changes everything, right. So you have to be careful that you're around the right group of people, because you might have the potential to be much better. And your friends that you have chosen are holding you back.

And in the end of the day, you chose them. Nobody's forcing you to hang around that wrong crowd, right. And this idea is another indication because Allah mentions many of them, their conscience came out to like, you know, these idols aren't gods, you know, this. I mean, come on. He's, he's spoken the truth. But then what's going to happen when you allow, you know, the people with wrong personalities, wrong ideas to take charge. Therefore, one of the techniques and tactics of overcoming such negativity is to make sure your group of associates and friends have good hearts. They want the truth. If you're going to surround yourself with people of good, you will find

goodness. And if you're going to surround yourself with people of evil, then what do you expect is going to happen? So this is teaching us as our profit system said, Ask your heart, it's tough to call back. Ask your heart. Because your heart if a pure heart we're talking about, especially when you feel a twinge of guilt, right, by the way, the absence of guilt doesn't mean the action is valid. Don't feel the script here, okay. Oh, man, if you don't feel guilty, then then that's a problem. But generally speaking, generally speaking, again, not every aspect of fear, but the moral issues of life, the moral issues of life, right. We're not talking about the technicalities of

filth, if you don't know and what not, then ask the chef and they'll get the fatwa. But how you treat somebody, if you feel guilty for how you treated somebody, chances are like nine times out of 10, or 99 times out of 100, that you did something wrong, because Allah gifted us this is a very profound point. Allah gifted us with something called a conscience. Can you imagine if we didn't have a conscience? Can you imagine if we didn't have that pinch of guilt? Of course, the technical term is fitrah. The fitrah is conscience. I taught you the fedora 20 years ago, in February, effectively Allah gave it to me, but yeah, I taught you about

elaborated on it. You attend to the seven when did you hit the right? Yeah. Okay. So we went into a lot of detail. Funny story, I will tell you about Friday morning, and it was on that. But anyways, I got some visitors. Oh, yeah. Remember that? Yeah, that's a whole different thing. Okay.

We had a really technical advanced class about the fifth row while I was doing my PhD, I have an entire chapter about the fifth row while I was doing it, I was teaching a class advanced class remote seminar. So we went over that, that chapter over there. But my point being, think about the blessings that Allah has given us by giving us a conscience. Can you imagine if we didn't have a conscience, that moral compass, right? It's a gift from Allah. And that moral compass exists in every human being, by the way, that's why even the non Muslim, right, who doesn't believe in Allah, if he or she does something unethical, immoral? There's something in their conscience pinching them,

right? Why? Because Allah wants to give you an internal compass, that internal compass, it is meant to guide you do north, which is Hidayah, it's meant to keep on telling you you're off the path, right is going to keep on knowing at you. And we firmly believe that only by following Islam, will your conscience be absolutely clean and pure. By following the guidance of Allah, by having a connection with a law, your conscience is going to be pure, you're going to find Sakina that is the ultimate peace, the ultimate peace when your soul is at rest. When you feel nobility, when you feel productive. When you feel good about life, you're only going to feel good about life when you're

living the life worth living. And you'll only live the life worth living when you've turned to Allah subhanho wa Taala and had that connection with him. So we learned this all from the story, Abraham, it says more clear, and we have some questions here should I want to go through? So if you want to ask questions, feel free to scan the QR code and send them in. We have a question here from I think a brother or sister who's Kurdish because the question is is Prophet Ibrahim Kurdish?

Because we know he was from North Iraq. The ethnicity known as Kurdish SNESs came way after Ibrahim alayhis salam you're not answering the question. So how can you back project so when I was in Saudi Arabia, right. A journalist Listen, listen to this a journalist said that this when I was there, a student in Medina was there for 10 years right so I a lot of things happened in my lifetime. during that phase, a journalist not a scholar, not just like, you know, Salafi like, yeah. He said, Why should we not be proud to be sue these? Then he said that our offices and was a Cerruti.

When he said this, it causes a huge controversy. I'm not the only one that causes controversy, I know caused a huge controversy. Like can you call the process of absurdity and of course

As the scholars came hard down was like, No, you can't do that. That's like a, an identity that has come 60 years ago, you're gonna back project a tribal identity that didn't exist this family, right, literally the family name. Yeah. And so you can't do that, because he's looking at his national nature, of course. Yeah. He's like, and so the scholars said, You can't do that. So we have to avoid back projecting these types of identities onto the process and was Karachi no problem. Yes. He was out of no problem. He was Hashem no problem, because those identities, things that happen after he you can't tabac project on? So that is the technical answer. It is it is spinal. I wonder if that

guy had a bunch of shirts, my profit is already getting ready to start a business trying to set that up. There's a question here that I think is interesting shape. Because

when Ibrahim asks these, these people, you know, why are you worshiping these these idols? They said, We found our father's doing this, right? That this is something that we've inherited culturally. So someone asks, you know, can we talk about Ibrahim? I said, I'm disagreeing with his father as it relates to the culture versus what was truly Islam, ie, if a Muslim parent chooses to follow cultural norms over Islam? How does an average person engaged with filtering this stuff? That is a much deeper question than we have time to answer. What advice would you give to somebody that's, that's in that environment, you have to separate culture that is anti Islam, from a culture

that is neutral from culture that is pro Islam, there is an entire spectrum of cultures here. And in order to answer that question, you're going to have to know Islamic law and Islamic adapt and Islamic norms. You cannot answer that question without knowing what Islam says. Some aspects of culture are anti Islam, explicitly anti Islam, right? Aspects of Jaha boasting about your culture, you know, other aspects, I don't want to mention too explicitly, most of culture is neutral, ie, neither is it for nor anti is just there. And if it is neutral, then Islam does not prohibit it. And Islam obligates respecting one's elders. So if the culture is neutral, and you in trying to tell

your parents I don't need to do it, are showing disrespect to your parents, you're falling into another home, even though the culture might be neutral, if you understand what I'm saying here, right. And then there's culture that is actually pro Islamic, even though not might not be explicit, for example, how we show respect to our elders. Okay, how we show respect to our elders. Now, again, culturally speaking, at least in Indian, Pakistani Bengali cultures, and I speak only because I'm from that culture. When we sit in front of our parents, we don't sit with our feet, pointing them, okay, we all know this, okay? If you do, you're gonna get smacked. Like, when you're gay, that's it,

or maybe even as a little, that's the reality. Okay? I remember, back in the days of my different phase, right? Somebody who said was the Delete for this? There is no delete, if I sit like this, and in front of my mother, what's the big deal? Right? He's wanting the explicit that he Yeah.

Don't put your feet on the front of your mother, like, you know, did the deal actually is quite ironic Wafula Huma Jenner has ruled him in a row. It's literally in the Quran, when Allah gives the metaphor, lower your wings of humility in front of them, literally, Allah is saying, put yourself in a humble position when you speak to your parents, right. And so in our culture, that is manifested by not putting your feet in front of the parents, so if some, you know, technical into, you know, hard core fundamentals, but what's the deal for this? We say, this is a culture that is pro Islam. Yeah. You don't need an explicit idea and you have no right to come and say, the Quran doesn't say,

I don't have to put my feet in front of my parents, you know, so my point I'm actually purposely giving generic examples because there's a lot more controversial stuff. I don't want to go there. Because not because I don't go there other places you want to go there. You love going on not not right now live.

out beyond the boundaries. Yeah, that's where you'll find me your team there, you don't combine further. You're there. That's where you're at, along with.

What I want to say this though, very clearly, brothers and sisters, be careful. Be careful and learn before you pronounce judgments and verdicts. Ask the people of reason and knowledge and be open minded and don't be arrogant because there are aspects of our cultures that might not be enshrined in the Quran and Sunnah. But they are positive and conducive. And for you to come along after having attended 510 has been thinking you know better, you've actually probably going to cause more damage in the long run than good. So be careful in this regard. And don't assume everything that you disagree with is like Ibrahim and idolatry and the father. No, it's not. Not everything in your

culture is idolatry. This was clear cut. This was clear cut. This is clear. Cut your cut out I'll come back. There's one thing that you shared with you

You know, publicly before and I heard it, and I really loved it. And it was basically you said that the more that I learned, the more humble I became, or the more that Allah humbled me, right? And can you elaborate a little bit on how dangerous a little bit of knowledge can be? Our scholars say a little bit of knowledge is a very dangerous thing. Because when you don't study the entire spectrum, when you're taught one position, one narrative one opinion, and you're not even aware that there's a spectrum or that that opinion might have exceptions, then you automatically assume anybody who disagrees with that little interpretation that I was taught. He's somebody who's wrong, misguided,

you know, destructive to Islam. And the biggest example that we need to learn over and over again is that of the first Shiism that happened in Islam, the Hutterites they thought themselves more pious than the companions of the process of them. And in their piety. They began murdering This is ISIS mentality, literally, in their piety, they began killing people that they thought were not as good as them, right. And this is the slippery, stepping stone to fundamentalism to fanaticism. Be very, very careful. When you haven't studied Islam, follow the mainstream scholars, I keep on saying to the people that don't follow the voices that are on the fringe in the margins. This OMA is a

blessing OMA this from our Prophet system in the OMA to mutton Martoma. The bulk of the Ummah is upon good and fair, the bulk of Islamic scholars, they are united in the fundamentals. They're not evil people, the bulk of the Ummah, of all strands are good people. And if anybody says the entirety of the Omar 900% of the OMA is misguided, then as the process said, Whoever says my own was misguided, he's the most misguided of them. This is it. So one sign of fundamentalism and fanaticism. One sign is to claim my way or the highway to claim this one small strand is correct and everybody else is wrong. No flip the script, the bulk of the Ummah, is upon good and hair and the

bulk of the OMA their theologies and their methodologies are Salvationist ie they shall get to gender, the differences are not going to be punished worthy, you know, trivial issues between the mainstream bulk of the Ummah, choose any one stick to it, and respect the other mainstream hamdulillah Simple as that. Remember how we call them blur? The people haven't given up people who pray towards Makkah. As long as somebody prays towards Mecca, then generally speaking, they're your brothers and your sisters like this is a Hadith of the Prophet system, that masala Saldana will be hot and I was struck by that people that's enough of a Muslim, right? If somebody is going to do

will do face the qibla, prostrate towards the cab, right? That person is a Muslim. That's the bulk of the almost upon good attempt to investigate. How do you get over guilt? When you ask forgiveness from Allah knowing you've done something terribly wrong, when the guilt is holding you back? How do you process past that?

So firstly, the question arises,

is all type of guilt necessarily evil to have? Guilt is of categories. Guilt is of different types.

A guilt that motivates you to compensate for a sin is the essence of iman. And you don't want to get rid of that.

That's a healthy guilt, a guilt that motivates you, like a simple reality that you will understand you did something wrong to your best friend, you feel guilty, what are you going to do? You're going to make it up? Isn't that healthy for your friendship? Isn't that healthy, and inshallah when you get married, the same thing is going to happen, you hurt your spouse, you need to make it up and you're going to do something to make it up. That's a healthy guilt. So we need to overcome this simplistic notion of all guilt is negative No, some guilt is what motivates you to be a better person right? Now, when will guilt become negative when is debilitating when is going to stop you

from doing something when it's going to cause you to just go into withdrawal symptoms or depression or cut off from any good that guilt is wrong. So if guilt is causing you to not do other types of good, that is a shape onic guilt.

And I'm going to be very explicit here. Let not the guilt of one sin, prevent you from doing good deeds and other areas.

Let not the guilt that you're feeling because of one negativity in your life because of one area that you're falling short. Let not that many failure, prevent you from success in other fields of your life. If that is happening, then that guilt is debilitating. Can you grow hypothetical? You have to be very, very cognizant of your own heart

because Shavon

This is a mental play and mentions is and also even though Roger have in his book,

in his book of the reality of RIA, he mentions this one of the tactics of shaytaan. He's going to make you feel so guilty, that we you see an opportunity for good, and you're going to say, I'm not worthy of it, I'm not going to do it. This is a tactic of shaytaan. So, if you are guilty of some sins,

and an opportunity comes to do good.

And you say to yourself, Man, I'm not worthy of that.

Maybe you're not maybe, but then flip the script. I'm not worthy of it. But what if, what if I'll do this so that I can counterbalance my sins? What if I do this good deed, so that on the Day of Judgment, I can say to Allah, Oh, Allah, I have these mistakes, but also have this good as well. Right? So don't cut off all of your avenues to Allah simply because when Avenue you're falling short in,

okay, now you have to be careful because you also don't want to become, you know, arrogant and you're guilty. You don't want that guilty just like I know, you have to be careful, and it's healthy to feel guilty for sin that you have done. It's healthy. If that guilt motivates you for Toba motivates you to do other good keeps you in check in other arenas it's healthy, but if the guilt prevents you from reaching potentials and other areas, that's where shaitan is winning.

So if someone's looking up your greatest hits online right now

are enzymes derived from animals caught on I want you guys to know the reason why we can eat hot Cheetos The reason why is because of this man sitting next to me.

Remember the story I told you I told you guys a story. I was at a gas station in that when the guy came and asked if this was a Chicago I think somebody probably it was definitely Chicago 100% of Chicago Chicago. Yeah. We're in the class when the guy was probably the guy he didn't want to pray behind because I eat hot Cheetos. So

someone's looking at the Greatest Hits and they got Can you tell us some gin stories? Nope. cannot do that.

I can but no no. Can't you can I can we can send them to Epic and shot like and hear him there.

There's there was one that I like. We have one more time for one more probably? Sure. I'll love it.

Oh, okay. What is the threshold that a person has so back to the story but only my son I'm so he's having this really tough conversation with his father. And as we'll come to know, as we explore this series more, there's a point where he has to make a departure from his father and he makes his very emotional dua

to his father, or to Allah about his father and he says, I'm going to pray that Allah Tada forgives you, and I'm gonna pray that Allah guides you.

What is the threshold shape of a person making that decision? of I don't want to say cutting off because we don't believe you know, let you live in

a yes or ha who felt that I am that you know, a person can't abandon somebody totally. But what's the what's the threshold that a person can place in their own life for setting a boundary?

This is not a question of filth. It's a question of, of etiquettes. There is no equation I can teach you. It varies from person to person situation to situation, your tolerance and the other person's tolerance, your toxicity, the other person's toxicity. There is an entire, you know, infinite permutations possible here. And it also varies from time to time. In other words, what happened when you're 17 should not live with you till you're 27. So, generically, the general rule is that

you are not allowed to be rude to your parents. When Abraham's father says I'm going to kill you, Ibrahim says salaam when they steal for Lockerbie. And he saves himself by walking away, he didn't just sit there and let him be killed, right. So yeah, you got to save yourself, you got to protect yourself. But generally the general rule you just don't have the right to be rude to your parents. Now again, there's a lot more to be said about the etiquette sometimes you might have to very rarely but generally speaking, you control your tongue, you don't lash out and if you need to speak in a firm manner you do so with wisdom and whatnot, if you need to cut off because being in their

presence is harmful. And this is very rare, but it does happen. It is it is possible and

okay, not to mention too specifically, but there might be things that have happened in your childhood that actually give you PTSD, okay, things that are less you understand, some of these things should not be said here. But sometimes these things happen, right? And you being in the presence of a person who has done something to that level might cause you to, you know, just lose your control of your legitimately so it's literally PTSD. If that is the case, then obviously we have a different ruling here right? So you can't just give a generic ruling for every single situation, but you try your best to Repel evil with good as much as you can. You try your best

First, and at the very minimum, you never Repel evil with evil with your parents at the very minimum, even if you have to cut off, right, any move yourself from this situation. And then also may I say generically, never give up hope of change. Because you know, when you're again 17 1819 things might happen, situations might arise, words might be uttered. You need to grow up, even if your parents believe it or not, don't grow up. You need to be Ibrahim alayhis salaam, here and move on. Learn to forgive if possible, and keep on trying to have good connections, good relationship, every few whatever is again, so much can be said here. But why would you want to cut off permanent

ties if there's potential for change? And by the way, and again, because of who we are, we meet people like this all the time. All the time, I meet people that because of one massive family argument or dispute and whatnot, they cut off ties. Next thing you know, the parent is gone. And there can no longer be any ties formed the cease and desist. Yeah. And then the person comes like, what do I do now? I'm so guilty, I never made up and never tried again. 10 years went by 15 years went by, I wish I didn't have that much anger for 15 years. It's too late. I mean, how long are you going to hold that much hatred, maybe they've changed, maybe, you know, and even if they haven't,

you know, power dynamics change again, let an older brother tell you this, right. When you're 17, you're eager to leave the nest, you don't have the power, you are 17 You're not financially in control. You're not even paying your own, you know, insurance for your cars you don't have. But when you're 37, and your parents are 7580, the power dynamic shifts, you have to be the patient one, you have to have the sensibility, right? You need to maintain the course. And people like us we're seeing these power dinners, one of the most painful things you will see is that power dynamic shift. At one point in time you're eager to leave, leave, leave, then you might not have that opportunity

to be with your parents, right. You have to understand these realities. So never lose hope of change. Always try to be following the footsteps of Ibrahim alayhis salam, and bottom line. In the end of the day, it's not your parents who's going to reward you it's ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada you're not doing this for their sake. You're not doing this to get anything from them. You're doing this because on the Day of Judgment, one of the biggest sources of your reward is going to be how you treated your parents and shallow dad. This is awesome. Okay, and I really appreciate your time. I had no I didn't know that you flew back in today. So this makes it even more Subhanallah very we

appreciate all the time that you gave. I thought I bless everybody here. May Allah make us all people who love the Quran I mean people who look to the Quran for our answers for our problems, and that we can emulate this beautiful character of our Prophet Ibrahim is set up and that we can become our own friends of Allah subhanaw taala with our Creator and Sustainer ALLAH SubhanA wa Tada We ask Allah Tada to bless everybody here with ease in their life of the Buddha and their health and their wealth and their family with strong Eman. Ask Allah Tada to untangle any of the challenges that people have here. ask Allah to Allah to purify our hearts and souls from all of the sins that we've

committed, and that he makes our hearts ready to receive the light of faith and that we are able to act upon the Spirit the faith that He gives us. I mean, I mean, you're a bit odd. I mean, subtonic along the hammock, I showed the ILA Hey, Lance and I started going to the lake to Zachman LaQuita.

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