Yusha Evans – Dawaah Traning Program week 5
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AI: Transcript ©
Perfecting the sulukah, perfecting the behaviors, and perfecting
the akhlaq, perfecting the adab.
Because then your da'wah, even if you
only know a little bit, your da'wah
becomes more effective because you have the mannerisms
of the du'at, the mannerisms that the
Prophet ﷺ used and his companions, etc., so
on and so forth.
Last week we were talking about, we ended
up with the concept of the jama'ah,
of sticking with the community, of being a
part of the body of the Muslims, of
calling to the jama'ah, calling to the
body of the Muslims, not calling to a
hizb, not calling to a certain sect or
a certain ideology.
We are calling to Islam, and Islam is
the Qur'an, the sunnah, as understood by
the consensus of the majority of the Muslims.
Today, insha'Allah ta'ala, we will talk
about education.
We're going to talk about ilm.
Now, ilm is one of those concepts that
after you have these other sifats, we've talked
about sincerity, we've talked about all the other
things you must have, then one must attain
knowledge.
Because you can't call somebody to something that
you yourself don't know.
Like if you ask me for directions to
a place here in Dallas, most likely I'm
not going to be able to give you
those directions because I don't go around too
much, and plus Dallas is a big confusing
city, I use the GPS for everything.
So I tell you, I really don't know.
I cannot help you get to a place
that I don't know how to get to.
So it's the same with calling to Islam.
We cannot call to that which we do
not know.
This was one of the advices always given
to me by my teachers, and a gem
of advice given to me by Shaykh Abdullah
Shantiti.
He said, make sure that your da'wah
is, even if it's just a little bit
that you know, make sure that your da
'wah is according to the Qur'an, and
according to the authentic sunnah of the Prophet
ﷺ.
Make sure that anything you say with regards
to da'wah, you can trace it back
to the Book of Allah, His Prophet, or
a scholar of those two, insha'Allah.
Allah ﷻ says in the Qur'an, He
told His Prophet ﷺ, He commanded him to
say, قُلْ هَذِيهِ سَبِيلِي Say, this is my
way.
Say, this is my path.
This is the path that I travel.
أَدْعُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ عَلَى بَصِيرَ I call to
Allah upon basira.
And the scholars of tafsir say that basira
is upon knowledge and revelation that is given
to me by Allah ﷻ, upon insight given
to me by Allah.
He's not calling to anything that He Himself
has made up.
Everything that He is calling to, Allah is
telling them to say, that I call to
Allah upon basira, upon sure knowledge, upon revelation
from Allah, upon that which I know to
be true.
اَنَا وَمَنَا اتَّابِعَنِي وَسُبْحَانَ اللَّهِ وَمَا أَنَا مِنَ
الْمُشْرِكِينَ Me and those who follow me.
So the Prophet is being commanded to say,
there's a very important verse about da'wah,
that I call to Allah upon basira.
So do those who follow me.
And glory be to Allah, we are not
of the mushrikeen.
Meaning that those who follow the footsteps of
the Prophet ﷺ in giving da'wah must
also do so with this same basira.
And this basira is knowledge from Allah ﷻ,
calling to that which we know to be
true from the book of Allah and the
sunnah of His Prophet ﷺ.
Also the Prophet ﷺ said in the collection
of Imam Tirmidhi ﷺ that seeking knowledge is
wajib.
Seeking knowledge is wajib upon every Muslim.
To have knowledge is wajib upon every single
Muslim.
And we talked about one of the most
important knowledges that we have, one of the
qualities of the du'at, was to have
knowledge about three things.
Does anybody remember any of those three things?
What are those three things that I said
that du'at must have knowledge of?
Number one, ma'rifatullah.
Knowledge of Allah ﷻ.
Number two was...
We'll quiz you about that a little bit
later.
We'll have to go back into it.
Number one was knowledge of Allah ﷻ.
Number two was knowledge of the person to
whom they are calling.
And then number three, ma'rifatul-Islam.
The Adility wal-Hajjah.
And the knowledge of Islam based on its
evidences and proofs.
If you look in the Qur'an, Allah
ﷻ says in surah Muhammad, فَعَلَمْ أَنَّهُ لَا
إِلَهِ إِلَى اللَّهِ فَعَلَمْ So have knowledge of
la ilaha illallah.
There's a command from Allah in the Qur
'an in surah Muhammad.
فَعَلَمْ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَهِ إِلَى اللَّهِ So have
knowledge, have the knowledge of la ilaha illallah.
Not just be able to recite it like
a parrot.
I mean you can teach birds, you can
teach a parrot how to say la ilaha
illallah.
They're already Muslim by the way.
But you can teach a parrot how to
say la ilaha illallah.
Doesn't necessarily mean they understand completely what they're
saying.
You could teach many anything to say la
ilaha illallah.
I could go and tell a non-Muslim,
put a gun to their head, say la
ilaha illallah.
They're gonna say it just because I commanded
them to say it.
Doesn't mean it does them any benefit.
They have no idea what they're saying.
So Allah commands, فَعَلَمْ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَهِ إِلَى
اللَّهِ So have knowledge of la ilaha illallah.
What does it mean?
What does it mean?
And it's very simple when we break it
down.
We talked about, later on we'll get into
the deeper concepts of تَرْحِيدَ الرُّبُوبِيَّةِ تَرْحِيدَ الْأُلُحِيَّةِ
تَرْحِيدَ الْإِسْمَاءِ وَالْإِسْفَاتِ We've covered them briefly.
But la ilaha illallah is a negation and
affirmation.
It's simply that.
And it's a negation and affirmation.
Because if you would've went to the Meccans
at the time of the Prophet ﷺ, if
you would've went to the Meccans and said,
Say, أَمَنْتُ بِاللَّهِ Say, you believe in Allah.
What would they have said?
Allah says it in the Qur'an.
What would they have said?
We already believe in Allah.
They would've said, okay, أَمَنْتُ بِاللَّهِ We believe
in Allah.
But they had placed intercessors between themselves and
Allah ﷻ.
When they were asked, why do they worship
Allat, Al-Uzza, these others, they would say
that they are the intercessor between us and
Allah ﷻ.
We speak to them, and they speak to
Allah ﷻ.
Without them, we have no ability to have
connection to Allah.
So the Prophet ﷺ was commanding them to
say two things.
Number one, الله أحد Allah is singular, unique,
alone, one.
There's nothing like Him.
There's no intercessory.
There's no intermediary.
There's nothing that shares His power.
There's nothing that can harm or benefit you
besides Him, etc., etc., etc.
And then the shahada, لا إله إلا الله
First, getting rid of all of the other
idols.
لا إله There is no إله.
Because the word God, and this is also
I was asked, I've been doing, my counseling
sessions are not always just counseling.
That's why they're called coaching sessions.
I have had a young man, I think
I've had five, six sessions with him.
Because he's interested in Islam, but he's an
academic.
So he wants to academically understand Islam.
So he's been coming to me for sessions.
And one of the questions he has was,
why do Muslims always say Allah rather than
God?
Why is it?
Because it feels different, right?
It feels like I'm going to be now
worshiping another God.
He's a Christian, by the way.
I said there is no difference in concepts.
The difference is that the English word God
is a very weak word.
The English language by its way, it's one
of the weakest languages on planet Earth.
But the word God is a weak word
referring to the Creator.
Because the word God in Arabic is إله.
إله is anything that you worship.
Anything that you worship.
I literally could take a bottle of water,
I usually have on the table.
I could take a bottle of water at
home.
I could give it worship.
I could think that it brings me benefit
and harm.
And that becomes an إله.
That becomes an إله to me.
The Meccans sometimes when they didn't have a
God, we know this from one of the
companions, they would make one out of dates
and sticks.
They would make a God out of dates
and sticks and make that an إله for
themselves.
And they said that we were so foolish
that we would do this until we got
hungry enough.
And then we would eat it.
Then we would just eat it.
So anything can be made to be an
إله, right?
Anything.
Sometimes our إله becomes ourselves.
We become our own إله sometimes.
And that is the new religion of the
world by the way.
The new religion of the world that is
becoming the most prevalent religion of the world
is the religion of self.
The religion of self.
That whatever I feel is true.
Whatever I think is true.
Whatever I, you know, concept about the world
is true.
Whatever I concept about my own identity is
true.
It's the religion of self.
People have made themselves their own إله.
And Allah speaks about this in the Qur
'an as well.
But an إله, it cannot be Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
When we say Allah, we know very, very,
very basic Arabic grammar.
If you take the word إله and you
want to make it a definite article.
You want to point out that there is
one specific إله.
You put an AL in front of it.
And then it becomes Allah.
Allah is الإله.
The إله, the only إله.
That is it.
So when we say لا إله, first the
part of the shahada is a negation.
There is no إله, except Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So the shahada, it is a very clear
declaration that I serve no إله.
I worship no إله.
I believe in no إله.
I believe in no other God.
I serve no other God.
I worship no other God other than Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala who is الإله.
He is the only one.
So this is why Allah says فَعَلَمْ أَنَّهُ
لَا إِلَهَ إِلَى اللَّهِ Have knowledge of لا
إله إلا الله.
Because we see all these other religions, even
the ones that are very close to us
in worship, they still have problems with ترحيد.
They still have problems with this concept of
Allah being the only إله.
They still have a problem with that.
Especially when it comes to Christianity.
There are some Christians who are very close
to us when it comes to like a
Seventh-day Adventist and other things of this
nature.
They don't believe Jesus to be God in
the flesh but they believe Him to be
the begotten Son of God.
So He is kind of God, part God,
from God in that essence, if that makes
sense.
But that violates the principles of لا إله
إلا الله.
It violates the principles of ترحيد.
The Prophet ﷺ also said and this is
in رِيْرَ صُولَحٍ that one who treads a
path of knowledge, one who goes on a
path of seeking knowledge, then Allah will make
easy for them the path to Jannah.
That someone who goes on a path of
seeking knowledge, then the path to paradise will
be made easy for them.
Because knowledge is that thing that gives you
يقين, certainty.
And Allah ﷻ gives praise in سُرَةُ البقرة
in the very beginning of those who are
يُقِّنون.
Those who are people who have no doubt.
How does one cure doubts?
When we talk about, and that's a lot
of things that our youth deal with today,
is شُبُحَة.
Doubts, doubts in the religion.
Doubts are cured with knowledge.
You cannot cure a doubt with anything other
than knowledge.
That is the only way you can cure
a doubt, is knowledge.
And that knowledge needs to be sincere and
learned.
For instance, you might trust me and you
might believe I'm an honest person.
And if I told you that there was
a pet store in Dallas that sold purple
monkeys that only ate Skittles, right?
And you might believe me and say, Brother
Yusha is honest and trustworthy, so you might
start relaying that information.
That's not the same kind of knowledge you
would have if you went to the store
yourself.
All the purple monkeys, all of them being
fed Skittles, that's a different level of knowledge,
right?
Now, when you tell someone else, your source
is, I have seen it with my own
two eyes.
I have gone and done the research.
So it's different than just saying that I
heard Shaykh so-and-so say it.
That's fine, if Shaykh so-and-so is
knowledgeable and accurate.
But when you go on your own path
of seeking knowledge, you obtain certainty.
Certainty, inshaAllah.
So knowledge is very important.
The Prophet ﷺ, and this is in al
-Tirmidhi as well, he said that a servant
of Allah will remain standing on the Day
of Judgment until he is questioned about his
time on this earth and how he used
it.
It's one of the things I always talk
about in my reels, my podcasts, etc.
And I've even given the khatrah here once
very early on when I first started, so
some of you may not have been here.
I said, what do you believe to be
your most valuable commodity on this earth?
The most valuable thing you possess on this
earth.
Some people would say right away that the
most valuable possession is money.
Maal, money.
Money comes and goes, right?
Money comes and goes.
You can make it, you can lose it,
you can spend it, you can gain it
back.
There are so many people who have had
money and lost it and gotten it back
and lost it and gotten it back and
lost it.
Your health.
You can have it, you can lose it,
you can get it back, you can lose
it, you can get it back.
There are so many things, so many other
commodities that you can have and lose and
then gain back.
The most precious commodity that you possess is
the one single commodity that once it is
spent, it never returns.
What commodity is that?
If you were here been long enough to
remember that talk.
Time, time, time is your most precious commodity.
And let me tell you, take it from
those of us who in here who are
already starting to have grades.
The more grades you get, the more that
becomes a reality to you.
That your time is your most precious commodity.
Because once it is spent, it never returns
to you.
This is the one commodity that you can
never get back, no matter how much you
try.
And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
reminds us of the greatness of this commodity
in the very beautiful surah we talked about
in one of the other sifat, wal-asr,
by time.
inna al-insana lafee khusra Mankind is verily
in loss by the passage of time.
Time ticking away, ticking away, ticking away.
And then I said that there was a
surah about that way said because illa allatheena
aamanu wa aamilu salihaati wattawasa bilhaq, wattawasa bil
-safar.
Except for those who believe and do righteous
deeds and call one another to the truth,
which is Islam, this is da'wah.
And they call one another to be patient
because if you're gonna be involved in da
'wah, you'll have to be patient.
You remember that if you've been around for
these sessions long enough inshaAllah.
And then we also know from the authentic
hadith al-Qudsi where Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la says, I am time, therefore
do not abuse me.
Do not abuse me.
So time, wasted time is one of the
things you will regret the most because you
cannot recoup it.
No matter how much you regret it, you
cannot recoup it.
You can regret many things and fix them
except time that is spent and is gone.
And every second, tick tock, tick tock, tick
tock, it's gone and it never comes back.
We live in the present moment and that's
all we have.
That's also why I gave you the advice,
forget the past, it's gone.
The past is gone, you cannot return to
it.
For the things that you regret in it,
make tawbah to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la and try to make right what
you can make right.
The future is a concept of time that
we construct and that we use in explaining
timeframes, right?
Even in the Qur'an, Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la says, do not say
they're gonna do anything tomorrow without saying insha
'Allah, it's a concept of time.
Or we say I'll do something buqarah, insha
'Allah.
Tomorrow never really happens in the term of
physics, in the term of time space.
Tomorrow never exists, right?
When you wake up tomorrow, what's it gonna
be?
Today, that's it, you cannot go to tomorrow.
Tomorrow's just a way we frame how we're
going to live our lives.
But in reality, we can only exist according
to the laws of physics that Allah created.
We can only exist in the present moment.
You can't move it forward, you can't move
it back.
Not possible, they've been trying to figure out
how for so long, it is not possible.
And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
says this.
He talks about when nations, when He has
decided and decreed for a nation's time to
come to an end.
And Allah says it's about every nation.
Every nation has a set period of time.
And when that period of time has come
to an end, they can neither delay it
nor extend it, even for a moment.
When the angel of death is presented to
you, you cannot delay it nor extend it
for a single moment.
So the concept of time is your most
valuable commodity, and it will be one of
the very first things that you'll be asked
about on the Day of Judgment.
Your time on this earth, how did you
spend it?
He will also be questioned about his knowledge
and how he utilized it.
He'll be questioned about his knowledge.
How did he utilize it?
This is why the ulema have such a
huge burden to bear.
This is why we give them such great
respect, is because they have spent so much
of their time learning this knowledge, and also
they will be one of the ones to
hold to account the heaviest on the Day
of Judgment.
One of the first three categories of people
to be thrown into * will be the
ulema who were not sincere.
The ulema who were not sincere in their
knowledge, not sincere in seeking it.
They did it for the wrong reasons.
That's why I spoke the very first quality
of the sifat al-du'a was the
khalas, having sincerity.
Having sincerity even in seeking your knowledge.
Even in seeking your knowledge, because if you
seek knowledge in order to be known as
knowledgeable, that will be your reward.
On the Day of Judgment, you'll have nothing.
If you seek knowledge in order to just
argue and debate with people and outsmart them,
et cetera, that's what you're gonna get the
reward for.
Knowledge has to be sought sincerely for the
sake of the love of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
That knowledge, even if you never are able
to give it to another person, it is
sought sincerely for the sake of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala I remember I was sitting
with, I went to, I think I've mentioned
this once before, if this was very early
on, a lot of you might not have
been here.
I was in Medina one summer, and I
was invited to Shaykh Abdullah Shankiti's house.
He kept putting me off during the week,
and I kept wondering like, why is he
putting me off?
He's like, come on Friday evening, Friday evening,
because I had some questions I need to
ask him.
And on Friday evening, I went with one
of the senior students of the jamia, a
brother named Hasib Noor.
Many of you might know who he is,
might have heard of him before.
He's an imam in California now.
We went to Shaykh Abdullah's house, and one
of his mates said they're on the roof.
Shaykh Abdullah had a tent on his roof.
A lot of people in the Middle East
do this.
He had a nice tent on his roof.
So he went up to the roof, and
as soon as we walked in, Hasib squeezed
my hand so hard, like I thought he
was gonna break my hand.
What are you doing?
And he snatched me over to the corner,
because the whole tent was filled with men
sitting around.
And a few of them I recognized.
I recognized Shaykh Mohammed Mokhtar and a few
others.
He pulled me to the side and he
said, sit down, we're not supposed to be
here.
But he invited us here.
He's like, I don't know why.
It was a yearly meeting of the scholars
of Mauritania, like the senior scholars of Mauritania
were having a meeting.
And in this meeting is a meeting that
is closed off.
Like you don't, like this is not a
meeting that is just open to the public.
And what they normally do is they would
sit around and talk about the issues of
the day.
And there would also be fatwa, where this
is how much respect the scholars of Mauritania
are given.
There would be fatwas that would be coming
down from Kabir al-Ulema.
But they would send them first to these
scholars.
They would send them first to these scholars
and ask them to give us some feedback,
give us some advice.
And I remember this, the level of akhlaq
of the scholars of Mauritania, I've always noticed
to be something quite different, right?
They began the halaqa, but everybody had to
recite from the Quran, including me with my
horrid recitation.
But anyway, and then they would start discussing
these fatawa and the respect they gave to
one another.
Like if there was a question about the
Quran, they would say this is for something
for Shaykh Abdullah to answer, because he was
known as the mufassir of Medina.
If a question of fiqh came out, they
would say this is Shaykh Muhammad's.
Whatever the person who had the seniority in
that field, they would leave it to them.
They would not try to overstep one another
in this.
And I remember the fatwa that I was
able, I was actually able to watch them
discuss is the Kabir ul-Ulema were trying
to come up with a weight of measure
for the mud of Umar.
The mud of Umar, like, because they said
that this, this is a representation of what
the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam used to make
wudu with, the amount of water he would
make wudu with.
And they had a container, wallahi, it was
so small.
You know, the Turkish coffee pots they use,
they put on the sand.
It was literally like this small, like something
this small.
And they were even asking some of the
younger students of these ulema who were there
to make wudu.
Like, let me see you make wudu with
this.
And they were struggling.
They were struggling to make wudu out of
this thing.
And this is what the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam used to make wudu with.
Every time I see us now throw in
a faucet and make wudu, I'm just like,
that's probably like, we probably used 50 in
a minute.
50 amount that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
easily used to use to make wudu.
Like, you don't need to make wudu.
Most of us make wudu when we're trying
to make wudu.
You go to the bathroom and you can
tell.
There's probably like 10 month worth of water,
you know, just hanging around in the bathroom
when we leave.
But anyway, reason I'm mentioning this is, at
the end of this, the reason Sheikh Abdullah
invited me, which I didn't know he was
setting me up like this, is he wanted
me to tell these scholars about my story
about how I came to Islam.
He wanted me to, and I refused.
I was flat out refusing to even open
my mouth in that room.
But he pushed very hard.
He pushed very hard and came over to
me and explained.
He said, look, all of these people in
this room are like doctors who've never seen
a patient.
They're like engineers who've never been able to
design a building.
They love da'wah so much.
When the knowledge they have, they would love
to share it with as many people as
they can, but most of them live in
a bubble.
They live in a bubble where they're surrounded
by Muslims all day long.
So they never get to meet people who
don't know what Islam is.
They never, he said, there are some scholars
here.
There was one great scholar from Mauritania that
was there.
He said, this man, his whole life, he's
just wanted to give da'wah to people,
but he's never been in the environment to
be able to do so.
So when they meet people who have come
to Islam, they love to hear their stories.
And they know that I've told them that
you're a person who travels the world giving
da'wah.
So I gave my story.
I told my story about how I came
to Islam.
And when I talked about the fact that
no one gave me da'wah, that I
lived across the street from a masjid my
whole life, but no one had ever approached
me, many of them just broke down crying.
They just broke down crying because they're thinking,
how is it that they are Muslims?
They could not concept that there are people
in the world who know about Allah.
Even when Shaykh told, how are there people
in the world that know about Allah?
They know who Allah is and they see
non-Muslims every single day.
And they don't think to tell them, like
what is wrong?
That to him, he could not concept this
understanding.
So he, you know, that was what I'm
trying to explain to you is that knowledge,
knowledge has to be used to benefit other
people.
Once you learn, you become responsible.
You become responsible.
This is what one of my earliest teachers
told me, that brother Yusha, you carry a
double responsibility.
Number one, Allah guided you.
And he's given you some knowledge about Islam
and da'wah, et cetera.
Number two, you are born and raised amongst
these people.
And it has always been the hukm of
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and
the wisdom of Allah is that He would
always send a messenger from the people.
If you look in the Quran, He said,
we sent, you know, we sent to these
people their brother, Musa, their brother, their brother.
He would always send from amongst those people.
He said, so the fact that you were
born and raised here and now you have
the knowledge and Allah has guided you, you
share a double response.
You share even bigger responsibility because you understand
them like I don't understand them.
You can speak to them like I can't
speak to them.
You can get to them on a level
that is deeper than I can get to
them because they're always gonna see me as
a foreigner.
So he said, you have a double responsibility.
He said, lastly, he will be acquired, he
will be asked about his wealth, how he
acquired it.
Did he earn it halal?
And how did he spend it?
Did he spend it halal?
How he acquired it and how he spent
it.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said this also
in the collection of Imam al-Tirmidhi.
He said, knowledge from which there is no
benefit is like a treasure from which nothing
is spent in the colors of Allah Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
He said, knowledge, and this is one of
the du'as that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam used to make regularly and we make
as well regularly is Allah grant me knowledge
that benefits, knowledge that benefits.
He said, because knowledge which is of no
benefit is like a vast amount of treasure
upon which none of it is spent for
the sake of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta
-A'la.
And when you don't spend wealth for Allah,
guess what happens to it?
It has no benefit to you, it's gone.
It's gone.
This is another thing my teacher Muhammad Zakiruddin
Sharfi Rahim Allah Ta'ala, he told me
one time, he said, Brother Yusha, wealth, wealth
is something that you'll have and you'll spend
in your life.
He said, but the only wealth that will
benefit you on the Day of Judgment, if
you really wanna own wealth, spend it for
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
He said, because everything else that is spent
is gone.
It is gone.
If you spend money on yourself, food, whatever,
it's gone.
That's it, it's done.
If you keep your knowledge and hoard your
wealth and you hoard it when you die,
it gets distributed to your inheritors.
He said, but every single penny you spend
for the sake of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la becomes wealth that is transferred
into an akhirah bank account.
A bank account in the next life.
And that is the true wealth, that is
real wealth.
Everything else, he said, is just paper, it
just passes back and forth.
It's what we have given meaning to.
He said, but real wealth is that which
is given for the sake of Allah, because
now it becomes of benefit.
Prophet ﷺ said the same thing about knowledge.
Knowledge that is not used and is not
made to benefit people is the same like
wealth that is not spent in the path
of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
The Prophet ﷺ also said, Allah, His angels,
and all those in the heavens and the
earth, even ants in their hills and fish
in the water, falling down blessings on those
who instruct others in beneficial knowledge.
So basically he said that those who give
people beneficial knowledge, those who teach beneficial knowledge,
that every creation of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la, even the ants in their
hills, the fish in the sea, they all
ask Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la
to send blessings down upon this person.
This is why the Prophet ﷺ said that
the best of you are those who learn
the Qur'an and teach it.
The best of you are those who learn
the Qur'an and teach it.
That is the best of mankind.
The Prophet ﷺ also said, he commanded us,
acquire knowledge and give it to other people.
Acquire knowledge and then give it to other
people.
Because knowledge is that thing which is not
supposed to be kept.
It doesn't belong to us.
It's supposed to be shared.
If you've learned it, and if you've learned
it and Allah has given you knowledge, He's
given you knowledge in order to give it
to someone else, in order to share it
to someone else.
We are supposed to pass it on.
Pass it on, it should not die with
us.
Because if it dies with us, that becomes
the big problem.
The Prophet ﷺ said that knowledge would be
taken from this ummah through the death of
the scholars.
Through the death of the scholars and then
their wives coming to replace them.
Nobody else learning to seek knowledge to share
it on.
That the death of the scholars, this is
why when we see the death of great
scholars, we should take it as a serious
detriment to this ummah.
Because their knowledge just dies with them.
Unless they have students who they've taught it
to and have actually learned it and want
to impart it, it will die with them.
It will die with them and eventually will
come to a point where there's nobody left.
There's nobody left to impart this knowledge to
mankind.
And people are just literally saying لا إله
إلا الله because it was known to be
said.
The Prophet ﷺ said, if anyone travels a
road in search of knowledge, Allah will cause
him to travel on one of the roads
of Jannah.
The angels will lower their wings with great
pleasure to one who seeks knowledge.
The inhabitants of the heavens and the earth
and the fish in the deep waters will
ask forgiveness for the learned man, for the
scholar.
The superiority of the learned over the abid,
meaning the superiority of the scholar, the one
who has knowledge, over the one who is
just an abid, just one who worships Allah
ﷻ.
He said, it's like the superiority of the
sun over the moon.
Like the superiority of the sun over the
moon.
Yes, the abid is going to be rewarded
for worshiping Allah ﷻ, right?
But the scholar is the one who departs
that knowledge on how to even worship Allah
ﷻ brightly.
I mean rightly.
So, the superiority of the sun over the
moon.
We don't even see the moon without the
sun, right?
Without the sun, we would never see the
moon.
At night, we would never even be able
to see the moon.
Yes or no?
It is only a reflection of the light
of the sun in which we are able
to see the moon.
If not, when it's not, when the sun
is at an angle, we know this through
the lunar calendar, when the sun is at
an angle, after waxes or wanes, we have
what's called the new moon.
Can you see it?
No, you can't see it.
There's no light on it.
So, the scholars are the light that give
even us, those who want to be worshipers
of Allah ﷻ, knowledge on how to worship
Him properly.
Because one of the qualities of, or one
of the prerequisites of worship is that it
must be based upon ilm.
It must be based upon knowledge.
Worship of Allah ﷻ that's not based upon
knowledge is not beneficial.
It's not beneficial.
Even when I worship, we have to know
why we worship, why we do the things
that we do.
Because if they don't trace themselves back to
the Qur'an or back to the sunnah
of the Prophet ﷺ, we're not supposed to
do them even in worship.
Even in worship, we can't make it up.
He said that the ulema are the inheritors
of the anmiya.
The ulema, the scholars are the inheritors of
the Prophet.
He said, we don't leave behind, you know,
wealth.
They don't leave behind gold and things.
He said that what we leave behind is
knowledge.
We leave behind is knowledge and the scholars
are the inheritors of that knowledge.
Because the Prophets leave no monetary inheritance.
They only leave knowledge.
And he who takes it, take an abundant
portion.
So, if you're going to take from knowledge,
take the most abundant portion of it that
you can.
And this is from the sunnah of Abu
Dawud.
So, having knowledge and a proper educational training
of how to impart that knowledge is of
key importance.
So, that is why we do this session
or these sessions.
So, that not only for those of you
who are encouraged to go out and give
da'wah, that's good, having the encouragement to
do so, but you also must know how
to do so.
You must know how to do so.
In Islam, not only must we have the
intention and sincerity to perform an act, but
we must also make sure that that action
is based upon knowledge.
It is based upon knowledge.
And that knowledge is derived from the Qur
'an or it traces its origins back to
the Qur'an or the sunnah of the
Prophet, peace be upon him.
I tried to stick to that very fiercely
throughout this course that I designed.
And again, I gave it to some scholars
who verified it.
My teacher, Shaykh Waleel al-Manisi, I gave
it to Shaykh Abdullah as well.
His son-in-law looked at it for
me, went through it with him.
So I wanted to make sure that everything
we depart is from the Qur'an and
the sunnah.
But that is the sifat that I wanted
to impress upon you today, is that going
forward, knowledge is what we're going to be
trying to depart when it comes to our
da'wah insha'Allah ta'ala.
And if you don't know a lot, because
a lot of people use the excuse, I
don't have knowledge so I don't give da
'wah.
That does not free you from an obligation.
We talked about this, right?
If an obligation is fard, then you must
also know how to perform that obligation.
You can't say that I don't know how
to pray, therefore I don't pray.
No, then it becomes mandatory on you to
learn how to pray.
So not knowing how to give da'wah
does not free you from giving it because
Allah has ordered it.
You must learn how to give it insha
'Allah ta'ala.
And that is what we're going to go
through with this course.
But even if you only know very little,
even if you only tell a person that
if you believe in Allah, you'll be successful.
This was the simplest da'wah the Prophet
salallahu alayhi wa sallam sometimes.
He would say, قُلْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَى اللَّهِ
تُفْلِحُنُ If you say, لا إِلَهَ إِلَى اللَّهِ
you'll be successful.
All you have to do is the part
which you know, impart what you know.
Maybe you don't know much and you only
have some da'wah pamphlets and you hand
them out.
Whatever it is that you can do, do.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows and He
will take care of the rest.
Bini Allahi ta'ala.
Any questions on what we covered today?