Yousuf Raza – Ramadan Nights 2021 Day 15
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
We seek refuge in Allah from the evil
of our souls and from the misdeeds of
our deeds.
Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and
whomsoever He leads astray, none can guide him.
We bear witness that there is none worthy
of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is
His servant and Messenger.
Verily, the best guidance is the Book of
Allah, and the best gift is the guidance
of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.
And the evil of affairs is their occurrence,
and every occurrence is a creation, and every
creation is a misguidance, and every misguidance is
in the Fire.
My Lord, explain to my chest and ease
my matter, and remove a dot from my
tongue, so that my speech may be understood.
O Allah, benefit us with that which You
have taught us, and teach us that which
benefits us, and increase us in knowledge.
O Allah, show us the truth of things
as they are.
O Allah, show us the truth, the truth,
and grant us to follow it.
And show us the falsehood, the falsehood, and
grant us to avoid it.
Ameen, O Lord of the worlds.
Ameen.
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Moving right along, we're in the 10th hukooq.
Surah Ma'idah has, so far, shown us
a culmination of the discussions that are taking
place in Surah Baqarah, Ali Imran, and Nisa.
The address to the Bani Israel, the meaningfulness
of that address for Bani Israel, as well
as the people of Islam, the claimants to
Iman in the Qur'an, in Rasulullah ﷺ.
The final aspects of the Shari'ah are
revealed in Surah Ma'idah as well.
The beauty within the structure of Shari'ah
is alluded to.
The importance for the struggle that we spoke
about yesterday and how that reflects the attributes
of Allah.
We briefly alluded to that.
We pick up from there, from this ayah
onwards.
A'udhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim.
Ya ayyuhal rasul, messenger, baligh ma'unzila ilayka
mirrabik.
Convey whatever has been revealed to you from
your realm.
The pressure on Rasulullah ﷺ to communicate the
message was immense.
It was inconceivable.
It was unimaginable.
As sensitive as he was, as conscientious as
he was with respect to the duty that
he owed to Allah ﷻ, the duty that
he owed to humanity, his perspective or his
understanding of it was so deep that he
was troubled by it.
He was hurt by it.
The burden literally was weighing him down for
23 years straight.
And he would do whatever he could to
portray that message, to communicate that message.
Rasulullah ﷺ did not just adopt one strategy
of communicating the message.
He would do it whatever way he could
possibly muster.
And what worked, he would replicate.
What didn't work, he would let go of.
What was mandated in one time, he would
employ it.
Whatever strategy needed to change, he would change
it.
And he would always be looking within himself
to see if there is anything more that
needs to be done on his part or
if there is anything that he may not
have done that is resulting in the people
rejecting him.
To the point that the Makkan Qur'an
is rife with consolations and reassurances that don't
worry about it.
It's not your fault.
It's them.
So this ayah and many others like it.
Rasulullah ﷺ carried this out to the point
every ayah that criticizes him, that identifies him,
that reveals something personal about Rasulullah ﷺ.
He would beautifully, without objection, without batting an
eye, communicate that to everybody.
He has, he put everything on the line
for communicating the message, communicating the truth, that
not even an iota of that truth would
remain hidden from people in any way.
وَإِن لَّمْ تَفْعَلْ فَمَا بَلَّغْتَ رِسَالَتَهُ And if
you do not, hypothetical situation, if you do
not, possibility still open, if you do not,
then you have not communicated the message.
وَاللَّهُ يَعْصِمُكَ مِنَ النَّاسِ Allah will protect you
from the people.
And the reassurance that is necessary that in
communicating this message, this is tough love that
is being expressed in a lot of these
ayahs.
Demands that are being made that people are
not going to be comfortable with.
What was demanded of Arabia, what was demanded
of the Muhajireen and Ansar, what was demanded
of Quraish earlier, it was no joke.
It was world changing.
It demanded for them to come out of
their comfort zones a long way, all the
way to Persia and Rome, actually.
It demanded of them something that even within
their ancestry, they couldn't see.
It demanded of desert Arabs to grow to
the extent of being a significant force for
Rome and Persia to contend with.
It was flabbergasting.
It was flabbergasting.
And more than anything else, it was asking
of the agreeable nature of Rasulullah ﷺ.
The kind heart of Rasulullah ﷺ who, again,
go back to Mecca at 40 years of
age, what kind of life has he lived?
He's not the spotlight person.
He doesn't desire to be the center of
attention.
He doesn't want political power.
He has no use for unlimited riches for
himself.
He would do whatever he could with the
wealth that he had or Khadijah had for
the welfare of the people in his vicinity.
But that's about it.
He wouldn't engage himself with popularity for the
sake of popularity or power for the sake
of power.
That just wasn't his way.
He was, for the most part, non-confrontational.
And any sort of confrontation that he would
engage in would be meaningful.
He would not.
He was, at 40, at his shrewdest, as
smart as he was.
He was very intelligent.
And he knew what was going on in
Mecca around him and the implications of everything
that people were doing.
And it hurt him deeply.
But he didn't know how to carry it,
carry any alternative forward.
What was it that he could come up
with or do that could change anything about
the way the people were behaving?
He could identify, he could make the links
between their polytheism and the injustice in society.
But on what basis, on what authority, were
he to stand up to do anything about
it?
He would not.
He wasn't an anarchist.
He wasn't going to throw something out there
and see what happens.
He had to have a backing.
He had to have a reassurance.
And he was troubled.
He had, again, age 40.
He was looking at the condition of the
world around him, and it hurt him deeply.
It hurt him deeply.
His contemplation, meditations, prayer in Hira were very
troubled.
It wasn't a sanctuary for him in which
he was just, you know, attaining the states
of nirvana as we would associate with meditative
recluses.
Rasulullah ﷺ was very, very hurt.
Very, very sensitive.
And when the Qur'an was finally revealed,
the implications of the revelation, what Qa'd bin
Naufal told him straight out?
You're going to be exiled.
Your people are going to force you to
leave your land.
He couldn't believe it.
He couldn't believe it.
My people are going to ask me to
leave?
Rasulullah ﷺ's lifestyle, what he and Khadijah were
used to, they were good people.
And they were known to be good people.
And yet popularity meant very little to him,
but being known, being renowned as good, trustworthy,
truthful, he valued that highly.
These were his hallmarks.
He was about to lose that for good.
He was about to stand in the face
of people he respected deeply.
And he was going to suffer their backlash.
His children were going to get divorced.
His tribe would have to answer the question,
do we keep him or do we ostracize
him?
It was heavy.
Him communicating the truth in the face of
tyranny meant Bilal would continue to be tortured,
Yasser bin Sumayyah would die.
Him continuing to preach the truth meant that
the pampered Musab bin Umair would no longer
be pampered.
Forget about being pampered, he wouldn't have a
place to stay in his own house.
He wouldn't have clothes to wear.
The implications of all of what he had
to do to communicate truth were very clear
in front of him and they hurt him
deeply.
And for the person that he was who
would not want to distress another human being
for a second, he weighed very heavy on
him.
He kept going.
Allah is going to protect you from the
people.
The moment you are putting out the truth,
you are walking around with a target on
your head.
And quite literally the target on his head
was for his life.
Who would have thought?
The greatest of progeny of Ibrahim is going
to be the most wanted in Mecca.
In Mecca where the murderer of your father
was given protection because it's the haram.
You can't avenge that.
But Rasulullah ﷺ was open game.
Not only that, there was a reward for
his life.
Allah will protect you from the people.
Allah will not guide the disbelieving people.
Say, people of the book, you have no
standing until you observe
what has been revealed in the Torah, until
you establish what has been revealed in the
Torah, what has been revealed in the Injil,
and whatever has been revealed to all of
you from your father.
You want to reclaim the favor of Allah?
You have to take what he has given
you seriously.
It has to have a significance in your
life.
You want to have a standing again.
By all means, those doors are open.
Take what we've given you seriously.
وَلَيَذِيدَنَّ كَتِيرًا مِّنْهُمْ مَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَبِّكَ
الطُّغْيَنًا وَكُفْرًا And for sure, it has been
revealed to you, Ya Rasulullah, shall increase most
of them in rebellion and disbelief.
The more truth that comes from Rasulullah, the
more enemies he gets.
The more transgression, the more disbelief.
And yes, enemies for him fuel for the
hellfire.
And that's not what he wants.
He's not vengeful.
He's not resentful.
He doesn't want that these people just believe
in him.
They suffer in the hellfire.
It hurts him to imagine that that's going
to be the consequence of him doing his
job right.
فَلَا تَأْسَأْ عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ So do not
grieve.
Again, why is this phrase relevant?
Because that feeling is real.
Because he's hurt.
Because he thinks about the damnation that they're
asking for in opposition to him.
And hellfire is a place he wouldn't even
wish for his worst enemies.
And so he does grieve for them.
Which is why he's asked not to.
Don't worry about them.
Don't grieve about these disbelieving people.
مِنَ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا الَّذِينَ هَدُوا وَصَوْبِعُونَ وَالنَّصَارَةَ For
sure, the Muslims, the Jews, the Sabians, and
the Christians.
مَنْ آمَنَ بِاللَّهِ وَالْيَوْمِ الْآخِرِ وَأَعْمِلَ صَالِحًا The
ones who believe in Allah and the last
day and act.
Again, whether it's the hadu, the sabi'un,
the nasara, or the alladhina amanu.
Here meaning Muslims.
The requirement has always been belief, yes.
But that which translates into solid action.
Required action.
Not belief that is a pronouncement for initiation
in a cult.
Or the acquisition of a label.
No.
Why do you continue to reduce this incredible
opportunity of Islam?
Islam is an opportunity.
Opportunity for iman.
Opportunity for ihsan.
Opportunity to get the wasila to Allah.
Opportunity to become the best you can possibly
become.
Since that opportunity was taken up by Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the Arabs, the zone
of proximal was the word.
Development.
Zone of proximal development went through the roof.
It went through the roof.
The Arabs were capable of prior to the
Quran and what they became capable of after
the Quran.
After Islam.
After entering in.
Because at every step of the way, there
were demands made of them and they said,
It wasn't easy, but they said it.
And the miracle was achieved.
In the span of 23 years.
The more you understand.
The more Islam you develop in yourselves.
The more proactive.
The more proactive.
The more results it should yield.
Measurable results.
There will be no fear on them and
nor will they grieve.
We have one of the primary motivations.
That we have.
Words, spirituality.
Words.
Any sort of religiosity.
Or any sort of joining of a group.
It is fear based.
It is, there is a.
Existential angst or an existential anxiety.
Where, who are we?
What are we?
Where did we come from?
What's going to become of us?
What's going to become of all of humanity?
What's going to become of me?
Forget the rest of humanity.
That's the question that sits inside me that
worries me.
There's a hope that every human being has.
And what groups offer.
What.
Religions offer is a security against that hope.
Another drive.
An emotional drive for a spiritual.
Fulfillment is the cousin.
Something that we can't contend with.
From childhood onwards.
And that is.
The idea of loss.
We, it's not there anymore.
The very.
Primitive experience of that.
Developmentally speaking.
Is separation from a mother.
Loss.
What do we do?
She's not here anymore.
How are we going to operate?
We lost her.
We used to have her all the time.
We were one.
That oneness was disrupted.
A separation came in.
Now there's time of the day that I
have to spend without her.
How does that make sense?
That, that incredibly traumatic experience every single human
being goes through.
And how parallel to that is the development
of language.
And with the development of language.
Is.
A semblance of control.
That comes in.
A control that.
In the absence of mother.
I can retain her.
In language.
And then.
From her name.
It becomes her legacy.
But then this transition.
This transition for language to actually be able
to reassure me.
Of the loss that I've, I've experienced.
Language has to take on.
Very.
Complicated conceptions.
As I do grow older.
As I do grow older.
Because I continue to experience loss.
I continue to make attachments.
To people, to things.
And I continue to experience their limitations and
loss.
And each loss.
Is representative of the ultimate loss that I
will experience in the form of death.
But everything will be lost.
And the question is always looming over me.
So what's the point?
What's the point?
It is all going to go away anyways,
good or bad.
It's not going to last.
And if it doesn't last, what's the point?
So this person.
Coming from within.
And again.
The religious groups.
Socially, one of the functions that they perform.
Is.
They offer the security.
Against loss.
This consolation, this reassurance.
They offer to be the mother.
Or the father.
But we're going to be.
We'll take, we'll embrace you.
We'll take hold of you.
You can be a part of us.
You can feel like family here.
And all of what you lose.
Don't worry about it.
The family will ultimately be reunited and get
it back.
The Quran adds something to that list.
The Quran says.
This becoming a part of a group.
Is not going to cut it.
For your cousin or your clothes.
What is going to cut it.
Is consistent.
That that Iman.
Other than being an announcement of your membership.
For the group.
Is supposed to be a step in the
direction of proactivity.
Of action.
Of social change.
Consistently.
And because that is a consistent requirement.
The feeling of angst and loss.
Is also a consistent experience.
And the protection.
That even the highest form.
Of spiritual commitment gives or provides.
Against fear and against loss.
Against anxiety, against depression.
The Quran says.
Is at best relative.
At best relative.
Ultimate.
Is promised in the hereafter in the form
of.
Paradise.
For here.
As far as we've already seen.
The Quran does not promise.
The Prophet did not promise the Sahaba.
Any.
Didn't sing them lullabies.
Join us and everything is going to be
perfectly fine and okay.
Those who did.
Interpret this from the Prophet's message.
We will see in Ahzab.
We've already started seeing.
We saw a lot of that in Nisa.
When the going got tough, they got confused.
What the * is this?
We were promised luxuries.
We were promised ease and comfort.
We're having to struggle.
We're having to sacrifice.
This doesn't sound right.
So the most that this commitment brings.
Is a relative degree of satisfaction.
A relative degree of protection against anxiety.
Against grief.
As.
Because the anxiety and grief is going to
be.
Perpetual.
As long as you're alive.
As long as you're alive.
You're going to have to confront them one
form or another.
For the course of your.
Religious development.
For the achievement of your spiritual goals.
You're going to have to form.
Emotional attachments.
And then you're going to have to let
them go.
You're going to have to employ.
Your own personalities.
You're going to have to have these.
Inclinations towards liking this.
And liking that.
And loving this and having a passion for
that.
So as to direct that.
As.
But then there will always come a time
where you're going to act.
You're going to be asked to give it
up.
To let it go.
And that's going to be tough.
And that's going to be tough.
And you will have to relearn the lesson
of.
Again and again and again.
With a new meaning each time, hopefully.
With a deeper understanding.
Not new altogether, but deeper.
Stronger.
More meaningful.
Because as you move forward.
As you grow.
As you grow.
The extent of the loss.
Seems to increase.
The degree of fear.
Only looks to increase.
For the Muslim community.
Was far more threatening.
Than anything.
Any other expedition.
Brought in.
And then Tabuk.
It just kept getting tougher and tougher.
So the.
Ultimately in the Akhira.
Most definitely.
And on a consistent basis for the consistent.
Confrontations with fear and person in this world.
Just enough to maintain that polarity.
That keeps you going.
Keeps you working, keeps you working, keeps you
working.
Any consumption of.
That takes that polarity.
That necessary polarity away.
What is that polarity?
What you are and what you need to
be.
Because what you need to be, you have
to do.
You have to work.
You have to work.
You have to walk and struggle towards.
And in.
Struggling towards that with the hope, with the.
With the aspiration that this is going to
do it for me.
And then as soon as you get to
that.
That month or that goal.
You've made that contribution.
You've internalized.
An abstract potential made it.
Forever real in the form of.
As concrete as an action can get.
A new demand is made.
You're asked to get up, move on.
The cycle starts.
But it's not cyclical.
You're not going around in circles.
It's progressively.
Higher levels.
And so we did take a covenant.
From the bunny.
And we sent messengers.
Towards them.
Whenever a messenger came to them.
Which was not in accordance with their desires.
See, you take the whole.
You take away.
The action that is required.
And you just restricted to.
You just restricted to.
A group that this proclamation of.
Makes you a member of.
You're satisfied.
I did it.
This is my group.
We're going to paradise.
This is our caravan.
And next stop.
Next stop.
As soon as the prophet comes.
And bursts your bubble.
What's going on here?
You had work to do.
You had stuff to take care of.
Like what?
Why did you have to do that?
We're having so much fun here.
We're all so cool together.
We're like, you know.
Next stop paradise.
Religion having become.
A wish fulfillment.
They denied some of them.
And even killed others.
How passionately.
Their religiosity was wish fulfillment.
They were so passionate.
As soon as that bubble of that wish
was burst.
Whoever threatened to burst it.
They're like.
We're going to get you out of the
way.
Even if it was a prophet.
The greatest example of what they're trying to
do.
There will be no punishment.
They turned blind and deaf.
And yet.
Allah turned to them.
In forgiveness.
Gave them another opportunity.
Gave them another chance.
Consistently generation after generation.
As well as for an individual.
One stage of life after another.
Again they became blind and deaf.
What does it mean to become blind and
deaf?
You're not seeing.
You're not listening.
What do you see?
What do you listen?
It's the result of your.
When your bubbles are burst.
By someone.
When you disagree with them.
And they're telling you how that was a
bubble.
Or how when you disagreed with them.
How you didn't.
Look at the truth that they brought.
Turned away from it.
Weren't willing to look at that.
Or listen to that.
And then in turning away from it.
You saw that according to your own.
Predictions.
Your own understandings.
It didn't work out.
It didn't work out.
But you became blind and deaf to that.
Again.
What tools are we talking about?
For a spiritual growth.
Ability to see.
Observation.
Ability to hear.
But Allah was watching all of what they
did.
They were blind to their own actions.
And the consequences of their actions.
And listening to somebody telling them.
Yo, this is where you messed up.
You still got a chance.
Come right over.
Let me show you how it's done.
What more you need to be doing.
No.
We already know whatever there is to know.
Allah is watching.
You don't want to watch?
By all means.
And they have this belief.
They have committed kufr.
Those who say that Allah himself is the
Messiah.
The son of Mary.
Whereas the Messiah said.
Bani Israel.
Enter into the Ibadah of Allah.
My Rabb.
And your Rabb.
Let's get this relationship going.
That's what Isa said.
But when you have to.
When the dissonance.
Necessitates.
This rationalization.
When the.
In group contentment.
Against prison.
Against hope.
When your belief.
Is threatened.
By a demand for action.
Where you are so content.
With the paradise you made for yourself on
earth.
In your head, in your bubbles.
And consistently.
Evidence is to the contrary.
Truth is pointing towards the other direction.
Then you are compelled.
To reinforce.
To strengthen.
To rationalize.
The deviance of your ways.
When people are starting to develop doubt.
This is not working out.
Then the mind starts working.
How do we make sense of it?
Reality proved us wrong.
What do we do?
So either you can take the evidence of
reality seriously.
And upgrade.
What was previously holding you in the bubble.
The beliefs that you were so strongly latched
onto.
The umbilical cord that you are unwilling to
cut.
You could have reconsidered that.
And seen what reality is showing you.
Or you could confront the reality.
Hitting you hard in the face and bursting
your bubble.
By going back to those beliefs.
And strengthening them further.
By more stories.
You know what?
You know why we need to continue in
this?
Failed experiment?
God was there.
Jesus.
Jesus was God.
Really?
A prophet becomes God.
So that wish.
You can continue to hold on to it.
You don't have to let it go.
So nobody steals your Christmas.
You can sleep easy.
You don't have to worry that Santa is
going to come tomorrow.
With a lot of gifts for you.
Fair enough?
It was very clear.
And you have testimony to that.
In your books.
Whoever ascribed any associate with Allah.
With him.
Allah has forbidden him paradise.
He is going to reject all gods other
than Allah.
Isn't this what makes you a monotheist?
Isn't this these descriptions.
Elaborate discussions within the Bible.
Against shirk.
Isn't that the defining feature of what your
religiosity is about?
He is going to reject all gods other
than Allah.
And then place himself.
On their seats.
Out of that world.
There is a board.
For the person who does that.
And there will be no one to help.
The unjust people.
Unjust in what they have done.
With this understanding of Tawheed.
Unjust in how they.
Who were worthy of God.
Sold themselves short.
And saw themselves as.
No better.
Than the worshippers of one idol or another.
And unjust as to how.
These levels of injustice.
To themselves.
Manifested in their oppression.
Of whoever else.
Within their circle of influence.
Their circle of relationship.
The vulnerabilities of.
Your close ones.
Those under your authority.
They became all the more acute.
And all of these three levels.
They have disbelieved.
Those who have said that Allah is one
of three.
Again, all of these fabrications.
Ways of.
Maintaining that.
In group.
State of Nirvana.
That allows you to evade responsibility.
And continue in the bubble.
Well, there is no one.
Other than the one God.
The one God.
And if they don't stop saying.
What they say.
Then those among them who disbelieve.
Will definitely face.
A painful torture.
A painful punishment.
Don't they repent before Allah.
And seek his forgiveness.
Allah is forgiving and merciful.
The Messiah.
Son of Maryam.
Was no more than a messenger.
Many messengers have passed on before him.
And his mother.
Was a Siddiqa.
In the sense that she was truthful.
But then Siddiqa in the terminology of the
Quran.
Or for that matter being truthful.
Getting that certificate from within the Quran.
From within the terminology of the Quran.
Is saying.
It is placing you at a different level
altogether.
It is.
Abu Bakr Siddiq.
He was given this certification of being Siddiq.
It is speaking of an achievement.
That certain people are predisposed to.
Or if they work towards.
They are likely to acquire.
As in the.
The title.
It is that.
Those are the titles you want to work
for.
But did you really get them.
Not get them.
It is.
What is decided by Allah.
Communicated by Rasulullah.
But we don't have that communication either.
So now Siddiq Shaheed is.
Day of judgment decision.
Both of them used to eat food.
How we clarify the ayat for them.
How are they turned away.
How are they turned away.
The ayat in front of them.
Yet they turn away.
Yet they insist.
Would you enter into the Ibadah.
Of someone other than Allah.
Who has no authority.
Neither to harm you nor to bring you
any benefit.
Whereas Allah is all hearing.
All knowing.
See the benefit.
Of taking on a God.
That in your heart of hearts.
You know can't hear can't know.
Is that you can sneak around.
And do.
Pretty much a whole lot that you wouldn't
be able to do.
If the only one you were worshipping.
Is the all hearing all knowing.
Because it's so convenient.
Because when you're presented before.
The one who wasn't all hearing all knowing.
And you're like what the *.
Am I hearing you did this.
No I didn't.
I love you.
They can fall for it.
But.
In your head.
You can get away with so much more.
If it is a limited being.
That you have to ultimately be answerable to.
Who is so soft.
Don't worry about it you're okay you're with
me.
You love me.
That's so nice of you.
So in our.
In our puny rationalizations.
Which take on incredibly complicated and.
Convincing forms.
But ultimately their fruit is what.
What are they betrayed by.
Their social impotence.
The ingestive.
That emanates from them.
The inactivity the passivity.
The opioid.
That those.
Conceptions serve as.
Allah.
Say oh people of the book.
Do not exceed.
Torah Injil.
By extension.
Quran.
Do not exceed.
Limits in your religion.
Guess what there's limits in religion.
Even in religiosity in spirituality.
There are limits.
The moment you start exceeding those limits.
You are the worst representatives.
Of that religion.
You are the worst representative.
Without truth without evidence.
Evidence based practice.
Evidence based.
Beliefs.
The moment you take that.
Condition that precondition of evidence away.
Or you define it so vaguely.
Or you are absolutely relativistic.
As to what qualifies as evidence.
Anything goes.
Anything goes.
Evidence doesn't have boundaries anymore.
Truth.
Is thrown out.
And when that starts happening.
When that starts happening.
Who are the worst representations of religiosity.
Walking on earth.
The religious people.
Who are the ones complicit in the.
Oppression against humanity.
Religious people.
And when kind hearted.
Justice oriented.
People with eyes and ears.
See the effects.
Of this sort of criminal religiosity.
And when they have the.
The bravery.
To stand up and ask what the *
is this.
You are doing all of this in the
name of religion.
And then the religious people say.
God told us to do it.
It is our belief in God that leads
us to do it.
You should do.
And then the other person is like.
This is God.
This is what he wants us to do.
This is what he sanctions and allows.
This is what goes on in his name.
We don't want to have anything to do
with this God.
You keep your God to yourself.
We are better off without him.
We are better off without him.
We don't want to have anything to do
with a God.
In whose camp.
There are so many believers.
And men.
Women and children are not safe.
The properties are not safe.
We don't want to have anything to do
with them.
We don't want to have anything to do
with the God.
We don't want to have anything to do
with the God.
We don't want to have anything to do
with the God that sanctions the actions of
these criminals in power.
Thank you very much.
We don't want to have anything to do
with a God who is utterly unconcerned.
With our state of affairs.
With where we are at.
We don't want to have anything to do
with them.
Thank you very much.
We would rather take care of these people
ourselves.
And so now humanitarian work, humanism is
a standard that is raised in opposition to
religion.
It becomes a religion in itself, a godless
one, humanity first.
Why did this slogan ever have to be
raised?
Because the conception of, or the mainstream effect
of religion, of the religious age, the culmination
of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim rule was
such that in the name of religion, humanity
was last and humanity was suffering.
Why?
Because there was thaghloo fee deenikum, there were
extremes in religion.
So do not cross extremes or do not
exceed limits, do not go to extremes in
your religion.
Do not follow the desires of people who
went astray before you.
The moment you start crossing boundaries, you have
opened up the doors to following the desires
of one group or another.
Or you have followed in the legacy of
how other religions got misled, whereas the inability
to distinguish demonic religiosity from divine religiosity, inability
to distinguish that.
And demonic religiosity is, for the most part,
or even in its entirety, the pleasure, the
vain desires, the limitless desires of a class
of people, where all that they ever want
to get out of it is that state
of nirvana, that tranquility and peace, and anything
that asks of them to let that go,
to put that on the line for some
human good, they don't want to do that.
Religion becomes a comfort zone.
Religion becomes a reason why people don't want
to get out of their comfort zone.
Humanity suffers.
وَأَضَلُوا كَثِيرًا لِمِسْلَدْ مَنِي وَبَلْوَنْ سَوَٓاءِ السَّبِيلَ And
they went way off track.
أَقْبِلْنَا لِلشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ لُعْنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا مِنْ بَنِي
إِسْرَائِيلٍ عَلَى لِسَانِ دَاوُودَ وَعِيسَ بَنِي مَرْيًا So,
cursed were those who disbelieved from among the
Bani Israel through the words of Dawud and
Isa, the son of Maryam.
The prophets of Allah, they never held back.
They were not supposed to hold back.
And now, it makes more sense looking at
the ayah telling Rasulullah ﷺ بَلِّغْ مَعُنْزِلَ إِلَيْكَ
Proclaim, communicate, convey what is being revealed to
you.
Because he has to perform this function of
لُعْنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا That the people from within
his own community And Kufr doesn't necessarily just
mean leaving or rejecting Islam.
As we have seen within the fold of
Islam after having become Muslim There are acts
of that are tantamount to Kufr.
There are attitudes which would be of Kufr.
Not Kufr so that anyone can do Takbeer
of you and push you or judge you
to be out of Islam But that's for
individual standards for our own personal reflections.
And a social reflection that as a community,
are we a people of Iman or are
we a people of Kufr?
Individual judgments to a side, not our place
to make them.
Nevertheless, it is to pronounce against these attitudes,
these behaviors, these actions, strict criticisms.
Call them a spade when they are a
spade.
To be that blunt is one of the
responsibilities, it is a prophetic responsibility.
And the nicest, I mean when you think
Dawood Alayhis Salaam You think melody, you think
singing, you think somebody in his most beautiful
voice Doing Tasbeeh and Alhamdulillah along with birds
and that's the image you get.
And we're going to talk about him a
little bit later on, maybe next year.
And what he's portrayed as, he just wants
to play.
He wants to spend time worshiping.
Isa Alayhis Salaam, who could be more soft
hearted than the one who wants to turn
the other cheek?
Who advocates that?
It was a necessity at that time.
The entirety of Rasulullah Alayhis Salaam's time in
Mecca was about turning the other cheek.
The one who, when he sees the carcass
of a dog and everyone's just put off
by the smell and the hideousness of the
sight.
Talking about how white its teeth are.
The one who is as soft hearted as
Isa Alayhis Salaam was.
And so particularly these prophets being referred to,
to Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, who's also very
soft hearted.
And to be blunt, to express this tough
love, it isn't easy.
It is asking him, as it asked them,
to come way out of their comfort zones.
Way out of their comfort, to hurt other
people for their own good.
To hurt their feelings.
To let them know that their religiosity is
more demonic than divine.
To let them know that.
And you will see Isa Alayhis Salaam in
biblical passages doing that repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly.
He would tell the most practicing of them,
that you're like graves.
You're beautiful decorated on the outside, but nothing
inside.
Death inside.
There's a lot of pomp, there's a lot
of show, there's a lot of decor on
the outside.
But empty inside.
This is his criticism of their religiosity.
He called them whitewashed tombs.
He would say that the temple, the temple,
the equivalent of the masjid, is a den
of robbers.
These are biblical verses.
He would say that you're the kind of
people who are so obsessive over things so
small.
You're filtering out gnats, you're filtering out mosquitoes,
while not paying attention that you're swallowing camels.
You're devouring such, you've allowed yourself such flagrant
sins, which are not sins in your book.
But then you're obsessive about the nitty gritty
of religiosity.
All of these, you'll find the Bible talks
to the Bani Israel and says, you are
that wife that cheated on her husband the
first night.
Speaking about that incident of taking the Ijl
as God.
So the Quran refers to passages like those,
and says that Bani Israel has already experienced
this.
This is a prophetic duty.
لعن الذين كفروا من بني إسرائيل على لسان
داود وعيسى بن مريم ذلك بما عصوا.
That was because they disobeyed.
وكانوا يعتدون.
And they exceeded limits.
كانوا لا يتناهون عن منكرٍ فعلوه.
They did not stop one another from their
evil practices that they were involved in.
And so it took for a prophet to
call them out for that as well.
That there's evil prevailing and you're silent.
That means you're complicit.
You're party to it.
لَبِأْثَ مَا كَانُوا يَفْعَلُونَ How wretched was that
which they were doing.
يَفْعَلُونَ يَعْمَلُونَ The little Arabic that I was
able to pick up from whatever of Ustadh
Noman Ali Khan that I heard.
يَفْعَلُونَ is more reflexive action.
It is more automotive.
It is more something that you just do.
يَعْمَلُونَ is more conscious, more deliberate.
Here, the criticism or the wretchedness of this
not consciously deliberating and getting out of those
reflexive, reactive modes where it goes on as
usual.
You see it, you ignore it, you move
on.
And you do not respond to the evil,
which would have been an amal, which would
have been an active, conscious, deliberated, deliberate conduct.
No, rather than conduct, it was a behavior.
Stimulus response.
In this case, stimulus, but no response.
You became habituated in that.
The more habituated something is, the more fi
'il it is.
The more conscious, deliberate, outside of your comfort
zone it is, the more amal, the more
effort it takes.
تَرَى كَثِيرًا مِّنْهُمْ يَتَوَلَّوْنَ الَّذِينَ كَفْرُوا You will
see many of them befriending the disbelievers.
لَبِعْثَ مَا قَدَّمَتْ لَهُمْ أَنفُسُهُمْ How wretched is
what they sent forth for themselves.
تَقِتَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ That Allah's wrath is on
them.
وَفِي الْعَذَابِهُمْ خَالِدُونَ And they will be living
in the punishment of *.
So there's the priorities that they have towards
their own people, towards a society that they're
not interested in.
But when it comes to this diplomacy, for
those who have openly declared their animosity and
intent for war even, against their people, they're
perfectly fine with them.
وَلَوْ تَنُوا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِاللَّهِ وَالنَّبِيجِ وَمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِ
Had they believed in Allah and the Prophet
and what has been revealed to him مَتَّخَذُوهُمْ
أَوْلِيَا they would have not adopted them as
friends.
They would have not taken those people as
allies, those who are sworn enemies.
وَلَكِنَّ كَثِيرًا مِّنْهُمْ فَاسِقُونَ But most of them
are rebels.
لَتَجِدَنَّ أَشَدَّ النَّاسِ عَدَابَةً لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا الْيَهُودَ
وَالَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا And you will find, of all
of mankind, those who are most severe in
enmity towards the believers are the Jews and
the polytheists.
And that says something.
Because as far as Sharia is concerned, as
far as faith or tenets of faith are
concerned, you would find Judaism to be the
closest to Islam.
To be the closest to Islam.
But as far as the effects of Scripture
gone wrong, or a degenerate society of Scripture,
a people of Scripture who have gone way
off track, the effects are very similar to
a society of shirk.
A society of shirk.
That ultimately, when polytheism is carried on in
the garb of monotheism, it's more devastating.
And so when the two of them are
confronted with, when those attitudes are confronted with
Islam, Rasulullah, Sahaba, and how the Qur'an
is being represented by them, it triggers them
the most.
It brings out the most enmity.
وَلَتَجِدَ مِنْ أَقْرَبَهُم مَوَدَّةً لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا And you
will find the closest in affection towards the
people of Iman, towards the believers, الَّذِينَ قَالُوا
إِنَّا نَصَارَاءٌ Those who say we're Christians.
These are patterns.
Exceptions are to be kept in mind.
This is not absolutely generalizable that all of
them are going to be like this, but
necessarily the patterns are something that we've all
experienced.
History bears witness to it.
And anyone who has experience with them will
find.
And generally, you will find Christians to be
more kind-hearted people.
Their empathy, their kindness, the way they reach
out for you, the way they would go
out of their way for you.
It's exceptional.
It's mind-boggling, actually.
How much they're willing to do for humanity,
for others.
And it's something that this graciousness, the people
who celebrated God's grace the most, are the
most gracious, and have given this gift of
graciousness to humanity the most as well.
And how much of missionary activity is accompanied
by activities of charity, of healthcare, of food,
of simply poverty alleviation for other people.
It's for everyone to see.
وَلَتَجِدَ أَقْرَبَهُمَ وَدَّةً لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَلَّذِينَا قَالُوا إِنَّا
نَصَارًا ذَلِكَ بِأَنَّ مِنْهُمْ قِسْتِيسِينَ وَرُهْبَانًا That is
because from within them are true priests and
monks.
وَأَنَّهُمْ لَا يَسْتَكْبِرُونَ And because they're not arrogant.
That from within their ranks, their religious leadership,
there is goodness.
And their trait of humility allows for them
to open their hearts more.
And consequently, you would always also find not
only in their treatment and the love that
they extend towards Muslims, you will find Christians
are more fervent.
You would also find that their openness to
studying and learning to Islam and embracing it
is also more of a Christian thing, rather
than a Jewish or a, in our day
and age, Hindu thing.
وَإِذَا سَمِعُوا مَا أُنزِلَ إِلَى الرَّسُولِ Moreover, when
they listen to what has been revealed to
Rasulullah ﷺ, تَرَىٰ أَعْيُنَهُمْ تَفِيضُ مِنَ الدَّمْعِ مِمَّا
أَرَفُوا مِنَ الْخَرْجِ you will see that their
eyes filled with tears as they have recognized
the truth, that their connection, their commitment to
Isa ﷺ, to Maryam ﷺ, and generally to
the prophetic tradition and scripture, is such that
they're able to identify the sibship, if you
will, or that the Qur'an and the
Bible are not strangers, there is a kinship
between them.
There is strong relationship between them.
They're from the same source.
They're able to pick up on it.
They're able to see the harmony.
They're able to see the beauty as it
complements.
أَنْتُمْ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا آمَنَّا And they say, أَوَالرَّبُّ
We have belief.
فَاكْتُبْنَا مَعَ الشَّاهِدِينَ So register us among the
witnesses, those who have borne witness.
So again, their greater love, their openness, their
humility, leads to their taking these ayahs more
seriously, and eventually, some of them ending up
embracing.
وَمَا لَنَا لَا نُؤْمِنُ بِاللَّهِ وَمَا جَاءَنَا مِنَ
الْحَقِّ And they would say, Why would we
not believe in Allah and what has come
to us from the truth?
The humility as a necessary ingredient for openness
to al-Haqq.
وَمْ نَقْمَعُ أَن يُدْخِيلَنَا رَبَّنَا مَعَ الْقَوْمِ الصَّالِحِينَ
And we hope that our Lord will admit
us among the righteous.
We hope that our Lord will admit us
with the righteous people.
Contrast this with this belligerent certainty that we've
been speaking about.
That is, in its conviction, that belligerent certainty
about their own faith.
Not about the articles of faith, but about
their own faithfulness towards those articles.
They're very convinced.
Here you see a more probabilistic, a more
hopeful, a more humble approach.
In which the faithfulness, there's always a lingering
suspicion about it.
There is hope, but there is always that
fear as well.
What if we don't?
مِن بَيْنَ الْخَوْفِ وَالرَّجَاء This between fear and
hope.
They balance the beauty of their faith.
وَنَثْمَعُ وَيُدْخِلَنَا رَبَّنَا مَعَ الْقَوْمِ الصَّالِحِينَ And we
hope that our Lord will admit us among
the righteous people.
فَأَثَابَهُمُ اللَّهُ بِمَا قَالُوا So Allah rewarded them
for what they said.
جَنَّاتٍ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارَ With gardens beneath
which rivers flow.
خَالَدِينَ فِيهَا To live in them forever.
وَذَلِكَ جَزَاءُ الْمُحْسِنِينَ And that is a reward
for the people of Ihsan.
For the people of excellence.
For people who sought excellence.
For the people who sought beauty.
وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا وَكَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا In contrast, those who
disbelieve and reject our signs.
أُولَٰئِكَ أَصْحَابُ الْجَحِيمِ These are going to be
the companions of the Hellfire.
And it is interesting to note that this
ayah, and there was a similar one in
Surah Al-Imran, in which this reaction of
a group of Christians to the Qur'an
is noted.
That they hear these ayat of Allah and
there's this resonance, this kinship that they're able
to appreciate.
That it hits them.
And how their eyes start streaming with tears.
On one instance, Abu Bakr commented on that.
And he said that there was a time
when our hearts were as soft towards the
recitation of the Qur'an.
This is the one with the softest of
hearts.
Who recognizes that things were different.
And of course, there is no question that
the maturity of his faith at that time
is unparalleled.
And the new group, as passionate, as zealous
as they are, had even come close to
the faithfulness of Abu Bakr that has seen
the test of time.
That has stood the test of time.
Yet this comment tells you something about the
emotional response to the ayat of Allah.
That there can be a spiritual maturity which
is emotionally not as responsive as a spiritual
naivety.
At an earlier stage of spiritual development.
Quite a possibility.
That you're more fervent, more zealous, more committed.
More overwhelmed with passion.
Emotionally.
In the earlier stages of your spiritual growth.
The honeymoon period.
Of spirituality.
Than in the later stages.
It doesn't say that there is any regression
necessarily.
Regression and possibility is also there, of course.
But there is another level of demand at
heart.
Bottom line being, emotions cannot be the ultimate
marker.
They're an important marker throughout this journey in
different ways.
But not the absolute marker.
In any case.
You who have belief.
So do not prohibit the pure things which
Allah has made permissible for you.
Do not transgress.
Do not let people get away with irresponsible
living.
Irresponsible conduct.
By absolving themselves through more and more prohibitions
upon themselves.
Don't let this become a priority in your
religious camps.
Where when they identify what it means to
be religious.
Then it is in synchrony with a pathological
guilt.
That they're harboring for one reason or another.
Which may have been worsened by emotional and
spiritual blackmailing.
Which is prevalent in the name of religious
preaching.
And that pathological guilt.
Then find this punitive.
This subtle ways of self-harm.
Self-punishment.
Very alluring.
Very attractive.
Very atoning.
And calls it a day of that.
Calls it a day of that.
The rest of what religious growth or spiritual
growth demands.
Is lost.
And.
That.
Impractical degree of prohibition.
Is unsustainable.
To the point that eventually.
Those who even.
Take this upon themselves.
That for them, their connection with a law
is all about what they cannot do.
More than anything else.
But at level at one level, they desperately
want to do all of that.
But their commitment to religiosity is so strong
and so rigid to even acknowledge that they
want to do otherwise.
And it's something that they can no longer
fathom.
And they wouldn't allow for that wish in
their conscious daily.
Life.
To manifest in their heads.
They wouldn't acknowledge.
That all that they have pronounced.
Upon themselves.
It's something of a natural desire that springs
up every now and then.
They wouldn't even allow that desire to naturally
spring up.
They would be guilt associated with that.
The police outside is a hazard.
Policeman inside.
And that policeman, as soon as that.
That incredibly.
That.
Wish.
Springs up.
Shut up.
Doesn't allow to spring up.
And so it springs up in dreams.
It springs up.
In the form of resentment.
Against.
Against their own selves.
Further pathologizing that guilt.
Further worsening that guilt.
Because you can't be resentful towards God.
You can't voice that resentment.
But that resentment is growing.
The possibility of good.
That that person is capable of.
Is as.
Time goes by shriveling away.
Because that burden of.
Pathological guilt.
And.
Resentment against God.
And how that manifests itself as.
Or humanity.
Other people in humanity.
And that manifests itself as an arrogant and
condescending.
Reaching activity.
You are in their presence.
People feel constantly judged.
Look down upon.
Dismissed and rejected.
And this.
Individual.
And social catastrophe.
That this religion of haramness.
Promotes.
And continues to promote.
Proclaim something haram.
Is a big deal.
Big deal.
Can't take it light.
Haram is a big word.
Do not prohibit the pure things which Allah
has made permissible for you.
Do not transgress.
Allah does not like those who overstep.
And this concept that has developed that the
harder it is for you.
The more it.
Crushes your desires.
The more tasteless it is.
The more bitter and sour it is.
The better the more righteous it is.
Fine.
These extreme expressions of religiosity.
Are seen as a sign of Taqwa.
Or higher Taqwa.
It is closer to Taqwa the more the
greater that you do.
Okay.
Suit yourselves.
And eat permissible and pure food of what
Allah has provided you with.
And have.
The Taqwa of Allah in whom you are
believers.
Allah will not call you to account for.
Unintentional oaths.
You just randomly.
By Allah.
Keep saying that.
You don't mean it.
It is just.
A part of your speech now.
Rhetorical.
It says something about you.
But not something to be held accountable for.
He will hold you to account.
For oaths which you swear with earnest.
Everyone knows within their own speech.
And in conversation with others.
When oath is being taken.
Which is not just the random rhetorical.
It is for good.
Consciously intended.
The penalty of breaking an oath.
That conscious deliberate.
Well thought out intended oath.
Or at least thought out.
Even if it is not well thought out.
But thought out nevertheless.
The penalty of breaking an oath.
Because you have to take your commitment seriously.
Allah is not going to go to the
extreme of holding you to account.
For everything that emanates from your tongue.
He is not going to do that.
But also he does not want you to
take commitments.
To start going to the other extreme.
Of taking commitments lightly altogether.
So when you do make an oath like
this.
So that the sanctity of the word of
a human being.
And their commitment is taken seriously.
If you do break such a commitment.
That you made in the name of God.
Then you feed 10 people.
To make up for it.
With the food which you normally provide to
your family.
Or provide clothing to them.
Or you set a slave free.
Again.
For a person to come to recognize.
The social import of personal conduct.
The compensation is social activities.
Activities of social engagement.
Of social empowerment.
Of social development.
Of social welfare.
Of letting people grow economically.
Liberating a slave.
Feeding 10 people.
Taking care of their clothes.
The way you would for your own family.
All of these ways.
For you to recognize the gravity of your
oaths.
And then for something good to emanate from.
A wrongful act that you are guilty of.
And what that does.
As an appropriate channeling of that guilt as
well.
Because guilt has a pathological potential.
It has an incredibly spiritual potential.
Potential for growth.
It can be pathological as well.
The one who cannot find.
The priority is the social welfare.
But if there is no resources for that.
Then the three days of continuous fasting.
That is the expiation of your oath.
Which you have sworn.
Bottom line.
This is how Allah makes his ayaat clear
to you.
That you may become grateful.
To the path for gratitude.
You who have believed.
For sure.
Intoxicants, gambling, altars.
Stone altars and divining arrows.
Are filled with the healthiest, wealthiest acts of
shaytan.
Stay away from them.
So that you may succeed.
What are intoxicants good for?
Direct stimulation of.
Chemical stimulation of pleasure.
Happiness is to be had.
Or pleasure is to be had by genuinely.
Psychological or spiritual.
In terms of your psychological achievements.
Something social that you have done.
Something in terms of a relationship that you
have achieved.
In terms of a professional development that you
have achieved.
In terms of a spiritual growth that you
are engaged in.
Natural byproduct of that is a contentment.
Measurable by dopamine release in your brain.
Measurable.
It correlates.
You bypass that.
You stimulate the brain centers directly.
Now it is pleasure for the sake of
pleasure.
Pleasure is not a byproduct of a meaningful
activity.
It is an end in itself.
It is being done for its own sake.
And intoxicants open the doors.
Open the doors to all of that.
And had we taken this phenomenon seriously and
recognized what it is worth and how important
it is for society then the degree to
which alcohol is felt to be harm or
the stigma that it is understandably and rightfully
so within Muslim communities that would extend to
other drugs that have a similar effect.
Some which have a more devastating effect.
There could be something done to curtail the
devastation that drug abuse causes within society.
Unfortunately, we didn't take the effects of these
phenomena within society seriously enough.
And so now there is a generation of
being lost to the cult of pleasure.
To the cult of happiness in the form
of drugs.
to the cult of pleasure in the form
of drugs.
Gambling.
Money on money.
Making money off of money.
Interest was the certainty of profit.
Gambling is the other end of that extreme.
Business is risky.
Gambling is incredibly risky.
But the hit the high that you get
from winning the top is very similar to
what drugs give you.
What intoxicants give you.
It's a straight hit.
Again, the degree to which drugs hit and
give you the pleasure is usually unattainable by
normal tedious effort in real life.
Literally quantifiable.
If usual achievements regular routine achievements in your
life release 100 units of dopamine in your
head then what you get out of drugs
will be off the charts.
It will be multiplied much more than that.
And it's that hit which is so addictive.
In gambling as well when you hit the
jackpot when you win when your luck cashes
out the amount of cash you get what
that does to you the reward and simply
in terms of magnitude it is so much
addictive.
And that addictive nature of these activities is
what keeps you going back for more for
more, for more, for more.
Both in gambling and in alcohol the short
-term benefit that you got the immediate gratification
that you got and the extent to which
you got it is usually it's short-lived
and for the most part addicts and gamblers
search in vain for that magnitude for the
rest of their lives.
It's not regular it's very irregular in how
it satisfies your pleasure centers.
You can say this definitely for an addict
that the high that they got the first
time around especially the harder drugs is something
that they are chasing for the rest of
their lives.
And pretty soon it's not about pleasure it's
about avoidance of pain.
It's not doing that activity it's avoiding what
that does to them the pain, the physical
pain, the mental pain the anxiety, the depression
they go back to just rid themselves of
the pain it's not positive pleasure anymore it's
negative pleasure which is avoidance or treatment of
the pain that has now started developing.
Gambling is similar.
Idolatry again instant gratification a
bargain in which you play both hands you're
on both ends of the contract you define
the terms you define the standards you define
the conditions you define what it entails of
you the more you know, the more you
want.
Divining arrows divining futures take away the responsibility
of choice you just attribute that to the
superstitions that have done it for you the
responsibility of choice the growth potential in making
the real choice in life based off of
experience, knowledge other people's genuine advice has taken
away the leap of faith in Allah and
in yourself has taken away how all of
these activities ultimately breed a demonic selfishness self
-interest is an inherent human trait we want
pleasure, we want money we want a security
that comes in spirituality we want that we
want to know what we should do in
the future but in all of these wants
is this role of your own self taking
the effort making the choice doing the work
being responsible for it and then the element
of trust in Allah in all of these
avenues of immediate gratification that's taken away and
that very natural instinct desire for pleasure, for
money for a religious satisfaction for knowing the
future in all of these activities that is
displaced by a very selfish the self-interest
becomes selfish which becomes demonically selfish to the
point that you are blinded to the other
all you see is what is it in
for me and overall the culture of selfishness
is community destroying it is not life giving
therefore these are filthy acts of shaytan so
stay away from them perhaps you may be
successful as an individual breaking free of these
demonic inclinations within you making appropriate use of
those very natural instincts for pleasure wealth, satisfaction
knowledge at least these four and appropriately channeling
them in the long-term process that real
life is these are all cop-outs these
are all shortcuts these are all the forbidden
trees that promise you once you just eat
from the tree bliss and each attempt at
the tree only makes you realize more and
more that it is the long game that
is required of you the marathon that you
are required to run shortcuts don't work shortcuts
don't work and it is when you get
the idea of shortcuts out of your head
put in the real effort take the real
risks suffer the real losses learn from your
mistakes from your sin the whole process actually
begins that's falakh for individuals as well as
for a community this is your view wrestling
through that channeling these gifts of Allah that
your instincts are in the appropriate direction through
self-discipline and taking them to their rightful
place to their honored place all the conflicting
contradicting situations they create within your person your
psyche you navigate those orient them orient those
contradictions in a self-transcendent direction and you
see how they bloom how they become incredibly
incredibly divine in their expression, in their manifestation
along that way and definitely shaytan wants to
cast among you enmity and hatred resentment and
hatred necessarily when you are part of the
cult of personal satisfaction alone the cult of
selfishness and the other person and you can
show it you will be hateful or if
you consciously acknowledge it that's hate you can't
that's resentment you're denying it but it's still
there either way it is anti-community through
intoxicants and gambling particularly these two and prevents
you from remembering Allah and also from prayer
again both dhikr of Allah especially in the
form of prayer is that which helps you
get out of this this vicious circle spiral
of selfishness are you going to stop?
so obey Allah and obey the messenger and
beware if you turn away then know that
it was only on our messenger to just
convey the message clearly there is no blame
on those who believe and do righteous deeds
for what they've eaten even if this is
khamr alcohol before prohibition or before acceptance conscious
acceptance of Islam if there have been indulgences
of that sort then so be it that's
fine to continue to insist that's become a
permanent part of your system and there's no
way back that's not the way of Allah
he didn't hold Adam he
didn't hold that against them for going next
to the tree you'll go next to the
tree you will eat from the tree you
will take from the tree you will have
unreal expectations from the tree and they will
be instigated in your heart by Satan no
problem, perfectly fine and what you do afterwards
to continue to go towards the tree again
and again at the same tree that's messed
up that's demonic so if it's done in
the past that's fair enough but you come
to the recognition you believe and act righteously
when they have taqwa of Allah believe and
do good righteous deeds so there's three levels
after the conscious recognition the first level is
constant effort you believe it, you do it
the discipline that taqwa entails with respect to
your action you engage in it and it's
difficult to pull away but you're doing it
you're putting in that conscious effort you're keeping
yourself away from all the addictions of past
life then they continue with the taqwa of
Allah the taqwa continues, the self-discipline continues
but the level has now gone from Islam
to Iman now the amal-e-saleh is
understood it has become more of a habit
it in itself has become happily a replacement
of the meaningless addiction it has now become
a meaningful habit then they persist with taqwa
the taqwa continues across the board across all
these stages and now the person is speaking
excellent better and better more and more beautiful
truer and truer it's the new level in
which Iman is understood struggle is understood it
has become habituated now he's a creator of
beauty now Allah is working with him now
his khudi is to the level where khuda
bande se khud pooche bata teri raza kya
hai now his choice shapes history his choice
Allah responds it's a new level altogether thummat
taqwa ahsan wallahi yuhibbul muhsinin in other words
Allah loves the people of Ihsan ya ayyuha
allatheena aamanu layabluwannakumu allahu bishay'i minassayid you
who have believed in Allah will put you
to trial by something of the game which
is to be hunted your hands and spears
can reach it in the state of ikram
there's this perfect target juicy target but you
can't because you're in ikram you're capable otherwise
but you won't in a lot of ways
the state of fasting so that Allah knows
who fears him in spite of being in
that scene whoever crosses the boundary after this
for him it's a painful punishment and the
painful punishment doesn't necessarily always have to mean
hellfire there's a kafara or it's doing something
like this which in itself is a labor
which is painful sacrifice that has to be
made ya ayyuha allatheena aamanu you who have
believed so do not kill the wild game
while you're in a state of ikram and
whoever kills it intentionally then a compensation of
domestic animal of an equivalent of one he
has killed judged by two of your just
men okay, this is equal to that so
there's a wild animal those that are open
for hunting and then there's those domestic animals
the domestic animal is going to qualify as
a sacrifice it is to be brought as
an offering to the Kaaba or an atonement
of feeding needy people with the food of
same value or fast the same number of
days so that he may taste the consequences
of what he did Allah forgives whatever of
this has happened before and whoever repeats it
Allah will take retribution from him Allah is
mighty the owner of retribution the pursuit of
water games fishing in its use as food
is made lawful for you as a benefit
to you and the seafarers as those journeying
by sea but the games of the land
are not permissible for you as long as
you're in the state of ikram outside of
ikram, no problem, hunt as you like observe
the taqwa of Allah to whom you will
all be assembled Allah has made the Kaaba
the sacred house a place of standing for
the people so are the sacred months the
animal offerings and the animals * as a
mark of dedication this is for you to
realize that Allah knows whatever is in the
heavens and whatever is in the earth and
it is Allah for sure, He knows everything
so know Allah is severe in retribution and
that Allah is extremely forgiving and merciful it
is not upon the messenger except to communicate
the message Allah knows what you're hiding and
what you're revealing what you're revealing and what
you're hiding قُلْ لَا يَسْتَوِي الْخَبِيثُ وَالطَيِّبُ and
so tell them good, evil and good are
not equal وَلَوْ أَعْجَبَكَ كَثْرَةُ الْخَبِيثُ even though
the abundance with magnitude of evil may impress
you فَاتَّقُوا اللَّهُ so observe the taqwa of
Allah people of deep tenth people with refined
reasoning لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ so that you are successful
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا يُّهُوْ هَمْ بِلِيبْ لَا
تَسْأَلُوا عَنْ أَشْيَاءٍ تُبْضَ لَكُمْ تَسْأُكُمْ do not
ask questions about things if clarified for you
will put you in trouble going into the
nitty gritty of this what do we do
after this, how do we do after that
is this okay, is this not okay, what
about this version of that is it okay,
what about if I'm relax you wanna get
yourself in more and more trouble?
there is plenty out there, the more you
go into it the more difficult you're gonna
make things on yourself and then that's all
of what your religiosity is going to end
up becoming so a person comes to Rasulullah
S.A.W do I have to do
Hajj every year?
should I do Hajj every year?
Rasulullah S.A.W doesn't answer, he comes
in do we do Hajj every year?
Rasulullah S.A.W becomes angry, he's like
what if I say yes what if I
say yes?
can you keep up with that, will you
be able to do that it will become
so for the end of times let it
go there are so many things that are
left to your individual judgement between you and
your conscience your conscience and Allah and it
is necessary for that personal growth for personal
spirituality that it is left as such you
don't have to bring everything you want absolute
clarity, 100% certainty exactly what to do
when, no you're not going to find that
and thankfully the more you go out for
it the more confused you're going to get
thankfully because if that was not the case
and everything was given to you on a
platter what is it of your own conscience
and decision making that is being developed if
everything was no, that's not how it was
supposed to be anyone who claims otherwise in
their exaggerated eulogizing of Sharia does everything dearly
what we do 24 hours of the day
no it doesn't it shouldn't, it wasn't supposed
to for a good part within that structure
of Sharia is room to breathe is room
to make your own choices be responsible don't
turn Sharia into another form of your superstitions
to perform that function for you to again
deliver you of responsibilities of choice making of
exercising that freedom, getting things wrong learning from
consequence if clarified for you it would put
you in trouble and this person would come
to Omar and ask hypothetical situations what if
this were to happen and then that were
to happen and then what should we do
and we're like we had the person beaten
up you don't mess not with the Deen
not in front of Omar those situations have
not happened no room for intellectual gymnastics with
him if and when they do I will
gather the best minds in Mecca and Medina
those sources to him and they would figure
it out for now get out of here
if you ask about them while the Quran
is being revealed they will be clarified for
you but is that clarification necessarily good what
if I do answer that question what then
what if you have then this additional very
concrete lots to carry Allah is letting it
go Allah is forgiving and tolerant surely
people before you did ask about such things
then they became disbelievers because they couldn't sustain
it it was so impractical it became impractical
for them they couldn't sustain it surely people
before you did ask about them so continuing
with this discussion of how people have this
tendency that in their religious zeal they want
to know more and more of what is
mandatory and what is obligatory and what is
prohibited they want the entire list so they
can really do it well and the passion
and zeal in its own place overall the
attitude is being discouraged as to how it
can lead you to become incredibly obsessive and
the purpose of religiosity the room that this
religiosity and spirituality was supposed to give you
for personal growth for your own active participation
as a conscious free individual how the more
and more these external prohibitions and limitations you
impose upon yourself the more you limit that
growth and although it is a facility in
one sense that there is less and less
for you to choose it has a cost
there is less and less that you can
now give which is uniquely yours and that's
choices that you have to make so you
can well imagine how religious potential of a
young zealot who turns towards religion who turns
towards God and wants to know more and
more and do more and more and whatever
potential that they have intellectual, economic, social aesthetic
rather than carrying their spirituality and their connection
with Allah to develop in all of these
wonderful directions and looking to contribute goodness, truth,
beauty in the world through all of these
avenues the typical convert to religion and this
doesn't have to be a convert from another
religion it can just be a conscious, deliberate
move towards more religiosity it gets caught up
in mandatory and prohibited halal not just fard
and haram the do's and don'ts give me
a checklist of do's and don'ts and that's
all of what it becomes and that's all
of what it becomes so the Quran gives
you general instructions intentionally kept vague pray, salah
your parents have taught you how to pray
but exactly what, where should we put our
hands do we or do we not what
amplitude what frequency do we wriggle the finger
are we the toe crushing kind or not
which is the absolute truth from Allah you
can go down that route and you can
spend weeks and months and arguments and debates
and oh my god and you can become
a part of the bid'ah brigade where
everything is bid'ah you can become part
of that the Quran tells you straight out
observe hijab, dress decent what does that exactly
mean and you go down that path and
before you know it hands are covered, eyes
are covered jet black dresses that's now the
order of the day the highest form of
taqwa is the more you resemble shuttlecock
and I understand that that's it has its
own space and respect and people want to
do that by all means but when you
portray that as the highest form of taqwa
you're asking for it the impracticality of it
can you carry that in your hospital duties
can you carry that in your university and
before you know it hospital duties and universities
are also haram they're not supposed to be
carried out either that's what it is and
that's what it is example so Allah did
not institute superstitions like bahira and sa'iba
what are all of these things bahira is
a female camel with five offsprings and the
last one is a male sa'iba is
when somebody became ill and he set a
female camel free and he set that free
to gain health and then wasila is the
first child of a goat which is if
it is a male it was to be
sacrificed if not then it was not supposed
to be sacrificed and then ham is the
male camel whose grandchild was fit to ride
do you see what's going on here does
that remind you of your fiqh 101 down
to the nitty gritty details of priority number
100 if at all he says I have
nothing to do with this I didn't institute
these things they became the religion for the
people of Makkah they were doing it with
a religious zeal and a passion and commitment
in fact the disbelievers have invented lies against
Allah most of them just don't use their
aqal because the more you have these declarations
of mandatory of fard and haram the less
room for aqal you're leaving the more intellectual
dwarfism you're promoting and as hooded as that
is to the ends of a particular religious
class who wouldn't want people to develop intellectually
left they come back and question or ask
uncomfortable questions it is not good for the
community you don't want these individuals and they're
asked to come towards what Allah has revealed
and the messenger says now for us is
what we've inherited from our ancestors so now
all of a sudden it's evidence from authority
and the authority of ancestry becomes the absolute
rationalization as to why that is the religious
way to be even though their fathers did
not know anything that all of those all
of what they instituted was without evidence without
knowledge and they weren't guided you who have
believed you stand responsible for yourselves how much
of this obsessive religiosity is an escape from
genuine responsibility you're responsible for yourselves and
how another form of this evasion or responsibility
comes in when you obsess over others not
listening and following as hurtful as that genuinely
is you are responsible for your own self
anyone who goes astray will not harm you
as long as you're on the right way
you will all return to Allah all of
you together and so one of the greatest
problems that anyone who starts taking religion seriously
is when people don't take them seriously and
for that reason to be hurt by the
Rasulullah was hurt the fahaba were hurt the
idea being you do what you have to
do you become the inspiration that you have
to become you become the teacher that you
have to become teaching converting that's not you
even if preaching in its appropriate declared way
as it's supposed to be converting is not
you it's not your responsibility don't become obsessed
with that because that obsession in itself is
going to is another wall that you bang
your heads against and miss out on so
many other genuinely meaningful activities that you should
and could have been engaged in so he
will let you know exactly what you used
to do testimony should be taken among you
when death approaches any of you at the
time of the will should be two of
your just men or two others from outsiders
from another tribe if you are traveling in
case you are traveling and the calamity of
death strikes you detain them after prayer to
swear by Allah if you doubt their honesty
and they should declare in their oath that
they are not going to sell this testimony
that they are not going to do away
with it because at the end of the
day the person who is dying this is
his will the future of his of his
of his offspring is hanging by it and
if the person the people who are strangers
and the only way of getting this testimony
across is through the strangers and holding these
strangers to their commitment to Allah trusting them
on account of their faith so that the
the wealth or the inheritance reaches those who
rightfully deserve it even to a relative and
we will not hide the testimony of Allah
and if we were to do that then
we will be very sinful but if it
is a certain that both of them were
guilty of sin then they should be replaced
by two other men from those who were
deprived of their right by the first two
then they should swear by Allah and declare
that our testimony is stronger is truer than
the other group pair's testimony and we have
not transgressed if we do that then we
would for sure be unjust this is more
likely that by this procedure they will bear
true witness or at least they will be
afraid that their oath can be contradicted by
subsequent oaths so whatever you can do with
respect to the trust of another person's face
holding that to account bringing reaffirming reassuring that
through the process as to how it goes
ahead and making sure that there is somebody
to to check that to balance that to
hold them to account for that and listen
to him because if that is missing then
you can play around with these regulations and
Allah does not guide the disobedient people and
the day Allah will assemble the messengers and
ask them what response did you get they're
going to say we know nothing so it's
the day of judgment all of humanity is
gathered messengers are called out beginning to end
what did people say to you how did
the people respond to you they said they
will say we know nothing you it is
you you are the one who knows all
hidden things if Allah specifically Allah will call
out Isa Ibn Maryam Isa remember
my blessing on you and on your mother
and how I strengthened you empowered you with
the Ruhul Qudus with the Holy Spirit you
spoke to people you spoke to people when
in your cradle and when old of age
and when I taught you the book with
them the gospel and with
my permission when you made a form resembling
a bird from clay and then you used
to blow into it and it used to
become a bird with my permission when you
used to cure the one who was born
blind and the leper with my permission and
when you used to bring the dead back
to life with my permission and when I
restrained the Bani Israel from harming you when
you went to them with clear signs and
those who disbelieved from among them said that
this is nothing but clear magic and when
I inspired the disciples to the Ashab of
Isa received not a prophetic Wahi but an
intuitive experience an intuitive non-prophetic proclamation from
the divine that there is within our intuitive
experiences that which is divine and that which
is demonic a prophetic intuitive experience is divine
protected from the demonic specifically with respect to
the scripture that they proclaim and when I
inspired to the disciples that believe in me
and my messenger and they said we believe
so how this experience of faith for non
-prophets how there is an intuitive dimension to
this experience of faith to this testification of
faith it is not all based on observation
it is not all based on reasoning that
there is a definitive intuitive dimension to the
process of faith an undeniable experience just like
within the scientific community and scientific discovery an
experience of a scientist or the hypothesizing of
a scientist the incredible discoveries inventions creativity that
emanates from brilliant scientists all across history but
more particularly in the past couple of centuries
how there is a clear-cut intuitive dimension
to that by their own testimony that scientists
who were not religious scientists that did not
belong to any organized religion as such would
testify to how their discoveries came to them
appeared to them the periodic table that we
all know a very important step in its
development appeared to Mendeleev in his dream a
very important step in the representation that the
periodic table is came to Mendeleev when he
wasn't even thinking about it and it came
to him how many a western scientist talk
about working through a problem getting stuck not
being able to do anything about that problem
and as a consequence as a consequence giving
up on it getting engaged in something else
some other form of excursion some other activity
with their family with their friends traveling this
that community service and when they're not working
on the problem bam they're struck with the
solution of that problem worked out worked out
in a way very different drastically different from
the direction that they were going and it
leads for them to talk about the unconscious
sources that of the infinite possibilities that could
have come to them how the one which
is most likely to be true and their
subsequent experimentation verifies that it was the bam
that they experienced the intuitive flash that they
experienced that they felt was true and humanity
bears testimony that this growth this development this
exfoliation of knowledge that we've experienced was impossible
forget improbable impossible even the infinite possibilities that
scientists had to work through that it was
it wasn't humanly possible to work through those
infinite possibilities and reach the right ones all
the time or most of the time but
they did they were able to choose from
within infinity that which was going to work
that which has been working so the intuitive
capacity of non-profits and its knowledge giving
capacity and how the how are you experiencing
this and it being an instrumental step in
their faith that they proclaimed in isa alayhis
salam so no objection on religious people from
an irreligious people who are given to science
or if not science then scientific thinking in
their daily routine they are always always relying
upon these intuitive flashes within their routine lives
and living by them and therefore have no
standing to reject religious experience and that too
in its more advanced developed and protected form
has the prophetic experience of all the prophets
culminating with Rasulullah salallahu alayhi wasalam when you
do that when you close doors upon that
then you close the doors and you have
to close the doors upon a very important
source of knowledge for your own scientific institution
for your own scientific thinking process in your
non-scientific lives daily and how much of
a dogmatic insistence on rejecting that dimension of
human experience has resulted in a degenerate a
dysfunctional scientific paradigm and scientific schools of thought
anyways coming back I gave a presentation on
this yesterday so I had to go on
this before so when the disciples were inspired
and they believe in me and my messenger
and they said we believe we bear witness
and bear witness that we are for sure
Muslims when the disciples said and
this is so beautiful the intuitive experience has
happened the proclamation of faith has happened but
they still require a further verification and demonstration
they still require further how scientific is this
how much of the scientific method is being
mirrored in this and being honored in response
Jesus responded we really are believers they said
we want to eat from it be provided
from it and it's providing both food yes
that's what they're asking for completely but also
a nourishment for their verification for their proclamation
of faith and our hearts feel satisfied and
we know and so that we may know
that you have spoken the truth to us
and we become witnesses to it so this
request of the is not audacious it's not
arrogant the way the people of Musa we
want to see we want to see Allah
outright it's not like it's not the Quraysh
asking Rasulullah we want this specific kind of
an ayah the request may be the same
but it's coming from a very different place
it's coming from a very different place and
therefore the response is different this one is
honored so Isa goes ahead and makes a
du'a to Allah send us down a
table spread with food from heaven it will
become a feast one of a kind for
those before us and those after us it
will become a sign from you and provide
for us as you are the best of
providers and Allah said of course I will
send it down to you but then after
that demonstration and verification those of you who
disbelieve I will punish him with a punishment
the way I have never punished anyone in
the world and when Allah said son of
Maryam was it you?
did you say to the people and take
me and my mother as gods other than
Allah I could never
say what is not for me to say
which I have no right to if I
had said anything like that you would have
known you know exactly what's inside of me
I don't know what's inside of you you
know knowledge of the unseen I did not
say anything to them except what you told
me to which was engage in the Ibadah
or give yourselves into the Ibadah of Allah
who is my Rab and your Rab and
I was a witness over them I was
responsible for them as long as I was
among them but then when you took me
up my entirety you yourself were watching over
them and you are a witness over everything
if you punish them then they are your
Ibadah but if you forgive them you are
the almighty all wise on the day of
judgment Isa Alayhi Salaam standing up for his
people knowing what they have done saying you
know you are forgiving Allah will declare this
is the day when the truth of the
people truth of the true people will be
of benefit to them what does truth look
like it looks like gardens underneath which rivers
flow how it concretely manifests itself on the
day of judgment they will live therein forever
Allah will be pleased with them and they
will be pleased with him that is the
great success to Allah alone belongs the sovereignty
of the heavens and the earth and whatever
is in them and he has power over
everything Al Fatiha