Yasir Qadhi – The Dangers of Religious Fanaticism
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
But the Quran will not leave their throats
meaning the Quran will not be acted on
by them The Quran will not be acted
on it's just a show.
It's a shallow shell It's an outer form
We praise him and we seek his help
and we seek refuge in Allah from the
evil of our souls and the consequences of
our actions Indeed whomever Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
guides none can misguide and whoever is misguided
cannot be guided except through him I bear
witness and I testify that there is no
deity worthy of worship other than Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala And I bear witness and I
testify that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
is his final prophet and most perfect worshipper
in the incident of Hajj in one occasion
our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told his
nephew Ibn Abbas Our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam told his cousin Ibn Abbas To collect
stones for the Jamarat to throw on the
pebbles So Ibn Abbas brought a whole bunch
of stones and he showed them to the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam The Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam looked at this Group of
pebbles and he picked from them all of
the large ones and he threw them away
and he said no I want the small
ones and he picked up the smallest pebble
and he said like these Then he said
to the people Ya ayyuhan nas oh people
beware of fanaticism in the religion Iyakum wal
ghuluf ad-deen Because the people before you
were destroyed because of their fanaticism in the
matters of religion this anecdote Demonstrates that our
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is warning us
about one of the many problems that the
ummah will face and it is Currently facing
and that is a type of fanaticism that
is motivated by piety It's not motivated by
evil.
It's not motivated by trying to displease Allah
The motivation is good But it is not
done based upon knowledge in the time of
Hajj when everybody Spiritually high in the time
of Hajj with the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam can you imagine what the sentiment was
and our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says
go pick some pebbles and Ibn Abbas wants
to pick the biggest the largest and the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said be careful
be careful Because even in these small issues
even in the issue of throwing the jamarat
if you're gonna pick large pebbles You think
this is more pious to Allah what's gonna
happen?
If the crowd is throwing these big stones
rather than small pebbles and then he said
based upon this small analogy He said the
people before you were destroyed because of religious
fanaticism Because they went too far in matters
of this deem and Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala
Reminds us in the Quran when he talks
about other previous nations who went to extremes
Allah says Oh people of the book la
taghlu fi dinikum do not go to extremes
in your own religion Do not exaggerate your
own religion and our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam warned us continuously He said la tashaddudu
ala anfusikum don't make matters more strict on
yourself for you shed that alaikum Otherwise if
you do so you yourselves will make strictness
upon you and he said in another hadith
in Bukhari and Muslim He said helical mutanattinun
helical mutanattinun helical mutanattinun three times He repeated
this those who go to extremes are destroyed
Those who go to extremes are destroyed those
who go to extremes are destroyed our scholars
commented on this hadith of them is Ibn
Rajab one of the great icons of Islam
and Ibn Rajab said the not door is
of categories and of the categories is to
go to the minutiae of the Dean and
to ask what you don't need to ask
and to get involved in issues that you
don't need to get Involved in to really
keep on pestering and asking and teasing out
when you don't need to do so when
Allah says something do it and don't ask
more questions that are going to make the
issues difficult for you and the Example that
is given is one that we're all familiar
with in the Quran when Allah said to
the bunny Israel go Sacrifice a cow go
sacrifice a cow the bunny Israel began to
say what cow what type of cow?
What color cow what size of the cow?
What are the conditions of the cow?
What are the characteristics of the cow and
they kept on making matters worse for themselves
until they only ended up ruining themselves When
Allah says something do it with the appropriate
spirit and ask what needs to be asked
But do not go to extremes in this
matter Realize Oh Muslims that we have a
beautiful religion a blessed religion an easy religion
And this is not my statement.
This is in the Quran and in the
Sunnah Allah says in the Quran Who a
jet a vacuum one maja ala alaikum fit
Deenim in Haraj He has chosen you and
has not made the religion difficult for you
One maja ala alaikum fit Deenim in Haraj.
The religion is not meant to be made
difficult Allah says in the Quran you read
a law who become a user.
Ah, well, I you need to become a
loser Allah wants ease for you.
He does not want difficulty for you Allah
says in the Quran describing the Prophet Sallallahu
alayhi wasallam that the Prophet is the one
y'all are on home It's wrong.
Well, I got a little at the Canada
I lay him the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
Frees them from their chains and their shackles
that used to bind them freeing them making
them more free and more Noble or Muslims
realize one of the many problems that we
have and we've always had it throughout our
history is the problem of religious fanaticism The
problem of overzealousness within the Dean itself and
our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam Understood this one
of the core teachings of Islam is to
warn us to not become overzealous to not
become over Fanatical to not become overtly fundamentalist.
This is a common thread throughout the Quran
and throughout the Sunnah In fact in Sahih
Bukhari We learn the first batch of students
that came to study with the Prophet sallallahu
alayhi wasallam when the Muslims began When when
the people began embracing Islam When the people
began embracing Islam in the year of the
food the year of the conquest the year
of the delegations Excuse me in the ninth
year of the hijra Thousands of people embraced
Islam the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam held what
we would call a summer camp He held
what we would call a summer camp come
and study with me because you have to
teach the people the religion the first Batch
of graduates that studied with him the first
batch when he sent them back.
What did he say?
This isn't Sahih Bukhari.
He said Oh people when you go back
to your home when you go back to
your tribe Yes, sir.
Oh, well, I do I see do but
sure oh well I don't know if it'll
make things easy for your people don't make
things difficult Give them glad tidings cheer them
up.
Don't make them feel deflated and hopeless Cheer
them up give them good spirit and don't
make them turn away from the religion Waqoonu
Ibad Allahi Ikhwana and do all that you
can to unite amongst yourselves Kono Ibad Allahi
Ikhwana the first batch of preachers the first
batch of clerics the first batch of doodh
He is giving the message to all of
us preachers.
Our messages should be uplifting our messages should
be Optimistic our messages should be cheerful.
They shouldn't turn people away from the religion
They should not turn people away from the
beauty of this Dean and yet Unfortunately, what
we see today is that some people who
claim to preach in the name of religion
their version of religion their understanding of religion
Actually turns people away from the religion rather
than calls people towards it and we've always
had this version of fundamentalism in fact in
the lifetime of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
He warned against overzealousness and fanaticism and he
told us of a group We now call
them the Khadijites But he told us of
a group that would come that are the
fanatics of this ummah that are the literalists
of the ummah And he warned us that
these people are more dangerous than the ummah
than even the Dajjal in one hadith He
said that these people are more dangerous because
the Dajjal you will recognize him the Dajjal
you will see him You know, he's the
Dajjal but this group the Khadijites He was
talking about the this group this group.
You won't know they're the Dajjal You won't
know they're a part of you and yet
they're going to harm you He warned us
about this this ultra fanaticism in a manner
that every one of us should pay heed
to and so dear brothers and sisters I
want to summarize five of the dangers of
fanaticism of extremism of literalism of simplistic fundamentalism
and I want to give five points to
understand how we know something is fanatical and
And beyond the pale and also some guidelines
of how we can avoid this reality Because
the fact of the matter is we are
all seeing especially those that are of the
next generation We are seeing the rise of
yet again another wave another iteration of fanaticism
Sectarianism blind minded bigotry in the name of
the religion those of us who are older
We've seen this time and time again 20
years ago We had to deal with Isis
before that we had other crazy groups out
there but every few decades a new generation
comes and they haven't seen the past and
they think that the religion is meant to
be the Harshest and the strictest and the
most harsh fatwa and anybody who doesn't live
up to their understanding of the religion They
are immediately labeled immediately become the enemy so
much So all Muslims you are all aware
of the sectarian violence taking place around the
globe Muslims killing other Muslims Muslims bombing the
masjids of other Muslims Muslims saying every other
group is misguided other than our group so
there are many dangers of fanaticism of fundamentalism
of extremism and overzealousness and of them number
one of the biggest dangers of Fundamentalism is
that these movements?
They ignore the beauty of Islam and they
choose and pick things that demolish the beauty
of Islam Nobody looks at such people and
recognizes prophetic beauty Nobody sees the religion of
Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala amongst these fanatics Look
ten years ago when Isis was there what
bad image they gave of the whole religion
of Islam Don't we understand that even though
there are movements that are not killing other
people, but they have characteristics of those They
have the same fanaticism Nobody is attracted to
that level of fanaticism and this leads me
to my second point It actually turns people
away from the religion rather than calling people
to the religion Oh Muslims one of the
main reasons why fellow Muslims who want to
come closer to Allah deep down inside They
love Allah one of the reasons why they
don't come close.
There are many I'm not saying it's the
only one but one of them is they
see the bad Akhlaq and the arrogance and
the fanaticism of a group of people who
presume they are the spokespeople of the ummah
They presume they are the arbiters of who
is good and who is bad and the
average Muslim who genuinely wants to be a
good person Deep down inside.
They know that the Quran is true.
They want to pray They want to fast
but they come across this group and this
group their judgmental attitude their arrogance Their constant
demeaning their disconnectedness from reality It rubs these
people in such a bad way that Shaitan
comes and says to them if this is
what religiosity is I don't want to be
like these people not because they don't want
to be religious, but because those who claimed
to be religious Misrepresented religion and you can't
blame innocent people.
It's not their fault They don't know any
better when they see the religious folks preaching
a version of Islam full of hatred full
of anger Full of absolutely bizarre fatwas against
other people against non-muslims against other groups
against other genders And they're mistreating people in
such a manner in the name of Islam.
What do you expect then?
What is gonna happen to the average person
he or she will say you know What
if that is what religiosity is something doesn't
make sense leave me to myself and my
lord And so the problem is this group
has made themselves the spokespeople.
Nobody appointed them Nobody put them to be
the guardians, but they are the ones who
say you must follow us and our interpretation
So the second point fanaticism Fanaticism it actually
turns people away from the beauty of Islam
the third problem and danger of fanaticism is
that fanaticism is impossible to maintain for more
than a few years and wallahi brothers and
sisters take it from me and take it
from others older than You who have seen
this reality you cannot remain overzealous for more
than a few years It's a phase you
go through in your early 20s, and that's
it It's just a phase then you burn
out you fizzle out and when you burn
out you lose religion I cannot even begin
to tell you how many people have I
seen in my own life in my own
Iterations that I've gone through they've gone through
the hardcore phase you would think that these
people think they're walking Angels on earth and
within five years because they were so hardcore
so fanatical so overzealous within five years They've
lost all religiosity.
They don't come to the masjid They might
have left doing Salah some of them might
even have left the religion And I have
seen people with my own eyes people who
used to be hardcore fanatics who now no
longer even Identify as Muslims you cannot maintain
this level of overzealousness in a beautiful hadith
in Sahih Bukhari Our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
in the last ten nights of tahajjud of
Ramadan He entered the masjid, and he saw
his own wives our mothers.
He saw them in their tents and They
had a rope connected to the roof They
had a rope connected to the roof that
when they would fall asleep They would hold
on to that rope and force themselves to
pray force themselves extra and our Prophet sallallahu
alayhi Wasallam commanded Bilal cut off all of
these ropes get rid of all of these
ropes And then he's head to his own
wives Worship Allah as much as you have
the energy then when you don't have energy
go to sleep This is our religion.
You're not going to do more than a
normal human being can do it's gonna harm
you He said in an authentic hadith one
and you shudder how the dina hadu illa
Nobody will make this religion more difficult except
that that will end up destroying him Well,
then you shudder how the dina hadu illa
Gala bahu you're not going to outwit Allah
and his messenger that doesn't work that way
in another beautiful hadith our Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam heard of the story of three people
who came to the mothers our mother's households
and they asked about the routine of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam when they heard his
routine that he would fast and go to
sleep and he would Pray and do this
and whatnot.
They said this is he's a prophet of
Allah.
He's forgiven I'm gonna do more than this
and one of them said I will pray
the whole night to had you'd never go
to sleep The other one said I will
fast every single day and I will never
ever eat during the day and the third
one said I Will leave getting married to
women I'm gonna become a hermit a monk
and constantly worship Allah the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam heard of this and he called all
of the Sahaba and he said The way
to worship Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala you pray
tahajjud and you go to sleep and you
fast and you don't fast and as For
me, I marry women as well.
Whoever leaves my sunnah has nothing to do
with me You are not going to come
closer to Allah by making the religion more
difficult Who told you that the stricter opinion
is the better one who told you that
the harsher version of Islam is always the
more correct?
One this is an incorrect Understanding our mother
Aisha But the allahu anha said never was
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam given two choices
that were both permissible Except that he chose
the easier of them.
He chose the a Saru Huma this is
a part of our tradition and our and
our methodology the fourth problem of fanaticism the
fourth problem of religious overzealousness is that the
religious fanatic thinks he is acting on behalf
of God and Therefore no matter what you
say to him will fall on deaf ears
Because he thinks he is upon the truth
and he's acting in the name of God
Unlike the sinner who's drinking who's womanizing taking
drugs you go to the sinner Yeah, if
you fear Allah the sinner will say, you
know, you're right May Allah forgive me the
sinner knows he's committing a sin The sinner
has more chance an opportunity to come back
to the truth than the arrogant fanatic Because
the arrogant fanatic presumes that he knows the
religion and nobody else knows it and this
is the sign of fanaticism We learned from
the seerah The first fanatic was the leader
of the cottage it's the first fanatic that
came the little hoist And I he came
to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam And when
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam did not give
him the amount of money he wanted he
accused the Prophet sallallahu alayhi Wasallam of not
being fair.
He said yeah Muhammad He didn't even call
him a Rasulullah and fanaticism is always arrogant
against knowledge and the people of knowledge Yeah,
Muhammad Be fair and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam said woe to you Who else will
be fair if I am not going to
be fair woe to you?
You didn't hear what you wanted So you
accused me of being unfair and then he
said from his likes from his progeny will
come groups of people Their salah you will
think it is better than your salah and
their recitation You will think it is better
than your recitation But Quran will not proceed
outside of their throats ie Outwardly, they will
have the Dean inside.
They will have no Dean this is Hadith
and Sahih Bukhari our process and predicted the
reality of fanaticism and Overzealousness and the final
danger will mention the many dangers the final
danger will mention of the five and we
see this in our own lives fanaticism opens
the door to disunity to harshness to Sectarianism
to division of the ummah Fanaticism ends up
with bloodshed people kill one another in the
name of fanaticism Muslims and others and this
is the reality of all faith traditions what
we're seeing in Gaza It is because of
a fanatical interpretation of Judaism called Zionism fanaticism
is dangerous in any faith tradition what we
saw in our own faith community of this
group of ISIS and even right now as
we Speak in so many lands different versions
of Islam different sects of Islam are killing
other * bombing other * Physical violence nobody's
saying you shouldn't correct politely and gently But
where did you get the fatwa to go
kill another person because their interpretation is different
than yours Who told you you can bomb
masjids on Friday, which is happening across the
Muslim globe?
Where did you get this understanding from the
problem?
You think you are acting on behalf of
God you think Allah is on your side
Then how can you possibly reason with such
fanatics?
So brothers and sisters without a doubt fanaticism
is extremely dangerous, but the question arises How
do you know you're a fanatic because the
problem comes no fanatic is gonna say I'm
a fanatic.
No overzealous person No ultra religious fundamentalist is
gonna say I am wrong because they have
been brainwashed to think they are right So
let me share with you five symptoms five
litmus tests You can quickly use to see
whether you and your group you and your
position you and your scholarship You and your
group of people are perhaps beyond the fringe
of mainstream First and foremost and all of
these are from the Quran and Sunnah So
it's not from me first and foremost of
the biggest signs of fanaticism is The presumption
that only you and your little group is
correct and everybody else is going to Jahannam
Every other Muslim every other firqa every other
strand is automatically going to Jahannam our Prophet
Sallallahu alayhi wasallam in multiple mutawatir ahadith praised
the bulk of the ummah He said in
the ummati ummatan marhumah.
My ummah is a blessed ummah He said
yadullahi alal jama'a that Allah's blessings is
upon the group of Muslims He said alaykum
bil jama'a followed the bulk of the
Muslims He told us to follow a sawada
al-adham Which is again the bulk of
the Muslims because there is no Prophet after
our Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam this automatically Necessitates
that his ummah as a whole will be
rightly guided The bulk of the ummah is
upon hair and good the bulk of the
ummah their beliefs and the knowledge that they
have Nobody's saying that individually they are correct
But when you meet the individual Muslim you
ask him how many times to pray what
to do the average Muslim will know the
correct understanding of Islam even if they fall
short in applying it This is what our
Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam is saying therefore any
group that comes along any firqa that comes
along any teacher any person that comes along
and Constantly says everybody's misguided all the other
groups are going to Jahannam All of the
other scholars are sell-outs that very person
has demonstrated.
They are the fringe by their own Testimony
our Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam said hadith is
in Sahih Muslim memorize this hadith whoever says
Everybody is destroyed is the most destroyed out
of all of them Whoever says helicon us
Everybody's lost Everybody's gone the process said that
is the worst of them Because you're the
one that is assuming the worst out of
all of mankind The ummah is upon hair
and good and its scholars are upon hair
and good and the mainstream is upon hair
and good Anybody who comes accusing the bulk
of the ummah the entirety of the ummah
the mainstream of scholarship to have gone astray
By the testimony of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi
wasallam He is the one that is truly
astray the second symptom the second litmus test
that we have and this is Explicitly mentioned
by the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam when he
talked about the first fundamentalist group the harijites
He said they will attack their fellow Muslims
and leave the enemies of Islam This is
an authentic hadith where he described the harijites
They will attack their fellow Muslims and the
actual enemies will be safe from them Any
group any firqa any preacher that?
Constantly lambast and terrorizes fellow Muslims the fact
of the matter is this is not prophetic
What unites us as Muslims is more than
what divides us?
What unites us as Muslims is more than
what divides us and even if a correction
has to happen even if?
Internal debate has to happen there must be
an adab there must be brotherly love it
must be done with nasiha When a firqa
or a strand or a preacher is known
more for attacking Muslims Especially now that the
genocide is going on and they're only obsessed.
We're trying to Label other people this demonstrates
their own fanaticism the third litmus test of
fanaticism is To concentrate on the petty issues
and ignore the larger ones lack of priority
to concentrate on the very small Aspects even
if they might be correct in the broad
scale of things but to ignore much bigger
ones And this is again a characteristic of
fanaticism you all know of the terrible tragedy
of Karbala where the grandson of the procession
was assassinated and killed by a group of
evil people one of their associates one of
their friends came to do hajj and He
visited even a bus and he was in
a harm doing hajj, and he said oh
even a bus I'm in a harm and
a mosquito came buzzing and Bit me and
I smacked the mosquito, and I know that
you're not supposed to kill hunt animals You
know the the prohibition of hunting animals so
all been a bus is there a penalty
for killing the mosquito Ibn, Abbas said wah
What a strange person you are you and
your lot killed the grandson of the Prophet
sallallahu Alayhi wasallam, and you didn't blink twice
and you come and ask fatwa about a
mosquito you where's your priorities?
How can you possibly be worried about this
when looking in the reality of what you
have done and wallahi?
This is a sign of fanaticism, and I
keep on saying 250,000 people have lost
their lives in Gaza.
How can you possibly be bickering about anything
else right now?
How can you possibly be dividing the ummah
and getting involved in?
Abstract issues such as and I'll be blunt
here the sectarian issues of the attributes of
God for example.
It's a classical issue It's something that academics
need to discuss behind closed doors let students
of knowledge discuss with other students of knowledge
in a polite manner but to bring this
abstract sectarian theology Into the public eye to
have YouTube debates to have Twitter and Facebook
completely abuzz with the sectarian warfare in which
99% of the ummah is completely clueless
to what is going on and the 1
% that is super religious and fanatic fanatic
are making Takfir to be of each other
because of how they interpreted a particular attribute
of God wallahi I say this bluntly how
foolish are the people that are involved in
such sectarian online?
Politics even as the genocide is going on
have you no shame?
Imagine if you were in Gaza right now
Imagine if the people of Gaza saw you
and you are bickering online about this particular
abstract Theological point that nobody even knows beyond
your madrasa students have some shame have some
Hikmah This is the essence of fanaticism and
I say this bluntly and loudly have some
shame in light of what is happening and
leave these Academic discussions to the private classrooms
I'm not saying don't have them the right
time the right place the right audience to
drag the ummah into these Abstract issues while
this is going on truly indicates a complete
lack of wisdom and of knowledge and a
prophetic methodology This brings me to my next
point of the symptom of fanaticism.
How do you know you are a fanatic?
One of the ways you do not allow
for any diversity of thought no spectrum of
opinion My way or the highway if you
don't agree with me, you're a kafir if
you don't agree with me You're going to
jahannam Ibn Taymiyyah says and Ibn Taymiyyah was
very very blunt in what he believed But
he was also a scholar Ibn Taymiyyah definitely
has his own understanding of Islam meaning It's
a strand of Islam, but he's also a
person of knowledge Ibn Taymiyyah says it is
not allowed for any person to make his
opinions the criterion of Islam It is not
allowed for any human being to make his
positions the criterion of correctness Such that whoever
follows is a good Muslim and whoever disobeys
is a bad Muslim that is only for
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam only the Prophet
of Allah has Unconditional loyalty either other than
that Oh Muslims from the time of the
Sahaba We have had differences of opinion the
Sahaba themselves disagreed about aspects of theology Yes,
theology aspects of fiqh aspects of methodology They
all disagreed and they were still united in
their love for Islam We have to have
the level of tolerance and I will give
you a personal anecdote that is well known
Meaning I know the two people involved and
it is known that they said this and
both of these are great scholars and mentors
I admire and respect sheikh Ibn Baaz the
Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia of the 90s
and Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi The great scholar
of Islam as we're aware or many of
you are aware and I'm very fortunate I
have met both of these scholars Interacted with
them and I admire both of them and
consider both of them to be of the
mentors that I look up to and I
have met them multiple times Sheikh Qaradawi had
a different understanding of fiqh than Sheikh Ibn
Baaz We all know this or the students
of knowledge know this and Sheikh Qaradawi wrote
his book al-halal wal-haram for Islam
back in the 80s and At that time
the the country was very strict about publishing
books So every book had to be approved
by the ministry and this book was brought
to Sheikh Ibn Baaz and he read the
whole book It was read to him.
He called up Sheikh Qaradawi to Mecca They
they met and Sheikh Ibn Baaz gave a
long list of points He didn't agree with
many points, maybe 25 points.
I don't agree with this fatwa I don't
agree with this fatwa and because Sheikh Ibn
Baaz is senior and elder and and he
was a blind man Sheikh Qaradawi said I
didn't want to get involved in any debate.
I just listened Say jazakallah, jazakallah and Sheikh
Qaradawi says and this is well known.
He says this in a public lecture He
says I thought because he disagrees with my
book in 25 points He's gonna not allow
the book to be published but lo and
behold after he advised me privately next thing
I know he allowed the book to be
published and sold in the kingdom This demonstrates
for you diversity of thought the views in
halal and haram for Islam Sheikh Ibn Baaz
did not agree with them But he understood
who am I to ban other points of
view?
Who am I to enforce my view when
this is a legitimate understanding as well Even
if I disagree who am I to stop
other people from hearing another mainstream interpretation and
there was no labeling of Sheikh Qaradawi He
wasn't a sellout or a reformist or a
liberal or a demonizer or a somebody wanted
to destroy Islam This is his understanding of
Islam and Sheikh Ibn Baaz has his own
understanding Anybody who has this narrow-minded bigotry
is once again demonstrating fanaticism And then the
final point I will mention in this khutba
the five of the symptoms of fanaticism and
wallahi This is the worst of them and
again mentioned straight from the hadith of the
worst manifestations of religious fundamentalism of the worst
manifestations of overzealousness is these people lose Islamic
spirituality completely their hearts become hard and Arrogant
and they become obsessed with the outer form
of Islam and forget the inner spirit of
Islam once again These are not from me.
I quote you the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam
when he warned against the kharijites What did
he say?
He said when you look at them their
salah will put your salah to shame Their
recitation will put your recitation to shame But
the Quran will not leave their throats meaning
the Quran will not be acted on by
them The Quran will not be acted on
it's just a show.
It's a shallow shell It's an outer form
you think they're religious, but there's no Religiosity
in them.
This is straight from the words of the
Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam You look at them
you will be impressed, but there's no reality
to that spirituality Fanaticism does not bring spirituality
Overzealousness does not bring love of Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala any group any firqa any trend
any preacher That does not bring you closer
to Allah does not cause your heart to
be full of rahmah and compassion Maybe even
mocks compassion anybody who makes fun of rahmah
and makes fun of the beauty of this
religion Wallahi, they have testified to themselves that
they are in the fringe of fanaticism and
not within the mainstream This religion of Islam
is all about spirituality.
It is all about connection with Allah It
is all about this gear to nuts and
when you don't have that Even if you
have the outer form you have lost the
entire plot of Islam Oh Muslims realize that
fanaticism has always been a problem from the
beginning of Islam That's why our process and
warned against it and we have to be
careful in this day and age that we
do not fall prey To it realize this
religion is a beautiful religion.
It is a mainstream religion It is an
omelette and wasata and therefore be careful of
falling prey to these ideas Because they are
from Shaitan and not from the methodology of
our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam May Allah subhanahu
wa'ta'ala bless me and you with him
through the Quran and may he make us
of those who is verse that they Understand
and applies halal and haram throughout all I
span ask Allah's forgiveness you as well Ask
him for his the Ghafoor and the Rahman
Alhamdulillah al-wahid al-ahad al-samad alladhi
lam yalid wa lam yulad wa lam yakullahu
kuffuan ahad wa ba'du Three simple pieces of
advice to protect us from extremism from fanaticism
three simple pieces of advice First and foremost
without a doubt one of the most obvious
mechanisms is to not follow Anonymous or youngsters
to follow the senior elders to follow those
with track records Oh youngsters I'm telling you
bluntly you cannot compare a 70-year-old
scholar who has 55 years of service to
the community with some anonymous 25 year old
online fear Allah age Wisdom experience all of
it comes in handy Do not think that
a 25 year old has more zealousness for
the religion than an elder man Do not
think that a youngster knows Islam better than
somebody who has a track record for five
six seven decades We have elders in our
community that have been preaching Islam since even
before I was born We have seniors that
have decades of wisdom.
Listen to them because you cannot learn wisdom
from books You cannot replicate experience experience and
wisdom comes with age It comes with seniority
and alhamdulillah.
We have great ulama in this country and
around the world So listen to those senior
ulama and do not follow youngsters In fact
in one hadith Literally our process and described
the cottage rights as being so for how
a hlami who the foul as man They
have high fangled ideas, but they're youngsters in
their age.
So for how a hlami who the foul
as man They have beautiful slogans, but they're
all a bunch of youngsters You think they're
saying good, but they have no experience to
back up that good so point number one
follow the ulama follow the mainstream follow the
elders of your community because they have Experience
and wisdom that the youngsters don't have point
number two Never trivialize dua to Allah be
sincere raise your hands to Allah Do you
know Oh Muslim that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi
wasallam in the middle of the night in
tahajjud one of his duas was Allahumma dini
the maqturi of a fee him in a
haqqa be in it in tahajjud in sajda
He would say Oh Allah any issue that
people have differed over I want you to
guide me to the truth if he is
making dua that in confusing matters guide me
to the truth Where do you and I
stand?
Have you sincerely made dua to Allah in
this confusing mess of all of these different
fatwas all of these different?
Interpretations all of these different competing clergies.
Have you ever thought let me ask Allah
for hidayah Genuinely raise your hands to Allah
and say Oh Allah.
It's really confusing I don't know which of
these groups seems to make more sense Which
of these scholars which of these clerics make
dua to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala and the
third and final point?
To any fool whom be seen a home
you will know them by their fruits any
group or preacher That you associate with and
they make your heart softer towards Allah You
find yourself wanting to worship Allah your love
for Allah and his messenger increases This is
a very positive sign and any group repeat
preacher that your heart becomes hard You don't
find leather and peace in Salah, you don't
really want to worship you're more involved in
refutation You're more involved in lambasting.
You're more involved in academic arguments.
Well rather than spirituality without a doubt This
is a sign that something is wrong.
You will know them by their signs Look
at the fruits of the people's dawah Look
at what produces when you follow a particular
interpretation or strand and when you find that
your closeness to Allah increases Then inshallah, it's
a positive sign.
And when you find that no, there's no
connection to Allah But I enjoy debate and
I enjoy getting involved in abstract issues Then
this is not the religion of the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wasallam Oh Muslims beware of fanaticism.
Our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said hadith is
in Bukhari and Muslim In the hadith deena
yusrun.
This deen is the essence of simplicity In
the hadith deena yusrun This deen is the
essence of simplicity and ease and no one
will make this religion more strict Except that
it will end up destroying him.
Do not make the religion stricter than it
is Do not become fanatical and overzealous There
is no guidance better than the guidance of
the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam And the best
interpreters of that guidance are our senior Mainstream
people that have demonstrated their connection with our
tradition May Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala make us
amongst those rightly guided people