Zakaullah Saleem – 54 Riyad asSalihin
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AI: Transcript ©
This is the 20th chapter of the book,
titled,
Guiding People Towards
Good.
And calling people towards the guidance.
And
within this chapter is also discussed
the calling
towards misguidance.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
call people towards your Lord,
towards Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah also says
in Surah Al Nahal,
Call towards the path,
towards the way of your Lord
with wisdom
and with good preaching.
Allah also
says and help
one another
in
righteousness
and piety and taqwa.
There are many ayaat of the Quran
that gives us the virtues of
guiding people towards the good
and calling people towards the deen of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Towards the worship of Allah, towards
the Tawhid of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And this chapter is similar to the previous
one
and it says,
it states the virtues
of guiding people towards the Deen of Allah
As in fact this is,
the
best
path, and this is
the best
way
and this is the best conduct of your
life.
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was sent by
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala as a
caller
towards the dean of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
To the path of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala himself
guided the prophet Sallallahu Wa'alehi Wasallam with regards
to
the way
and
the method of calling people to the deen
of Allah.
As Allah
says
in
Surat,
call
people
towards the path of your Lord with wisdom.
And it is something
that is compulsory.
You have to have wisdom
when calling people to the Deen of Allah
Well,
and with good preaching.
And based on this ayah, the scholars have
said that there are number of conditions
for the person to call people to the
deen of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and to guide towards the deen of Allah
There are many,
one of them is
that the person
who is calling people towards the deen of
Allah,
he and she
themselves
need to have enough and strong knowledge.
You cannot call people to the deen of
Allah,
you cannot people,
you cannot call people towards any good if
you yourself
are not sure about that good or you
do not know
the virtues of that good or you do
not have any evidence from the Quran and
sunnah, you do not know. Allah says in
the Quran,
Say to them, Muhammad salallahu alaihi wa sallam,
this is the path, this is my path,
this is my way.
By traversing on this path, I call people
towards Allah
and Basirah the word Basirah is higher than
the knowledge.
Basirah
can be explained in detail, but in in
in short terms,
basira
means,
the deep knowledge.
Not only knowledge,
rather
you have good understanding
of what you're calling people to.
So I call people to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala
on basira, on strong knowledge,
myself and all those who follow me.
And this I actually refers to the people
of knowledge who call people to the deen
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
based on their strong understanding of the deen,
based on their strong understanding of the Quran
as well as the ahadith and the sunnah
of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam. So this is the first condition.
Sometimes we find people
that they have this passion
of calling
others to the deen of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala
but when it comes to their own personal
knowledge, they have little or none at all.
And what happens that they end up calling
people towards misguidance
because they themselves do not know.
You may be calling someone
thinking that you are calling others to something
good, but in reality that is not good.
That may be an innovation,
But you learned without any understanding,
without any strong knowledge. You have heard your
other people, other Muslim perhaps
doing,
you know,
doing such an, you know, such thing that
are actually innovation, that are not in reality
the deen, part of the deen of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala.
But your understanding is that is perhaps is
good, something that is good. But in reality,
it is not good.
So,
in order for you to call people to
the deen of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
you have to have enough or good knowledge.
It does not
mean that you
must be a scholar, you must be,
you know, a student of knowledge. No. It
can be. Whatever you have knowledge for you
can be you can call people towards it.
But the main point is that whatever you
call the people towards
you must have the knowledge and the understanding
of that particular part of the deen. For
example, if you are calling others to establish
5 daily prayers, obviously, every single Muslim knows
that 5 daily prayers are the biggest obligation
upon every single Muslim.
So, there is no harm for you to
call others to establish the 5 daily prayers.
If you if there are people within your
relatives, amongst your friends, who do not perform
their 5 daily prayers, then it is your
responsibility,
your obligation that you call them
and advise them to establish 5 daily prayers.
And for this particular
part of the deen, you do not need
to have deep knowledge.
It is sufficient for you to know that
the salah, establishing a 5 daily prayers is
the second biggest pillar of the deen of
Allah subhanahu
But when it comes to the details,
the akham and the rulings
concerning the pray,
when the time of each pray starts and
when the time of each pray ends
and what are the condition for salah
and,
actual way of performing salah from the beginning
until the end. You have to have knowledge
of that. You have to have knowledge.
You cannot call others and you cannot continue
advising others to perform the salah in a
particular
way for which you yourself have never studied.
All you know
is that you have heard others
or you learnt something in your childhood and
you carried on praying the same way.
Okay?
But when you grow up, you have to
have knowledge in
in in order for you to
advise others
to perform the salah in a particular way,
you have to have knowledge, you have to
have evidence from the Quran and the hadith
of Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wasallam.
Likewise,
when it comes to Zakah,
yes, we know Zakah
is one of the pillars of Islam.
If you know someone within your relatives or
amongst your friends,
who have enough wealth and you think that
they should be paying zakah.
But if you are not sure,
then before you advise them to pay zakah,
you must check with someone who is
knowledgeable.
And then once you have learned,
now, what is the requirement, minimum requirement for
paying zakah, then you can advise them. And
when it comes to again, the details of
the zakah,
how much should be paid, when it's
you know, when zakah need to be paid,
these these are the fine details. If you
yourself do not have knowledge,
don't just simply give a kind of fatwa
or answer the question if you do not
know.
You must have heard
that a person came to Madinah al Munawwara
during the time of Imam Malik Rahimahullah.
One of the greatest imams,
Imam Uddaril Hijrah, Imam Muhalli Sunnah, Imam Malik
Rahimahullah.
And the person had traveled from far away
and he came to Madin al Munawara and
he had a long list of questions to
ask Imam Malik
He started asking question.
There were only few question that Imam Malik
answered, and most of the questions, Imam Malik
answered saying,
I do not know. I do not know.
The person got bit upset. He said, I
have traveled far, you know, from far away,
and I came to Madinah Munawwara thinking that
you are the one of the greatest imams
and I expect you to answer all my
question.
Imamalik rahimahullah,
he said
for me saying is
better
than answering without knowledge.
That is why
having a knowledge
is something that is compulsory upon every single
Muslim. Rasulullah
said,
Muslim. You must have enough knowledge by which
you can worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala correctly.
In order for you to perform the salah
correctly according to the sunnah of Rasoolullah salallahu
alaihi salam, you must have knowledge.
And when it comes to knowledge, my dear
brother and sister in Islam,
the knowledge is always bay always based on
evidences.
If you do not know the evidence,
then it is not actually knowledge, it just
simple information.
Simple information.
And when you have strong knowledge based on
the evidence
then only you can advise others and then
you can guide others to the deen of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So, this
is the one of the basic conditions
for the person
who has a passion to
call people to the deen of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala
and it does not also mean that you
abandon calling people to the deen of Allah
simply having the excuse that you do not
have knowledge.
This is not the solution. The solution is
that you make efforts and you seek knowledge.
This is the solution.
You seek knowledge
and then based
on what you understand and what you learn
and you seek the knowledge for, you guide
people towards the deen of Allah, So
this is the first condition.
The second condition is,
as the scholars have said based on this
ayahu
Allah
says
that you call people towards the part of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with wisdom,
with good preaching, wajadillum
billatihaasin
and if need be, you can argue with
them but in a good way.
It must not be an argument for the
sake of argument
that can lead towards fight
and
bigger problems.
Such argument,
such debate is not permissible in Islam.
Yeah. You can have debate, you can have
argument based on the knowledge, based on the
evidences,
but first and foremost,
your intention must be clear, your your intention
must be
sincere. If you want to have argument with
someone,
your intention must
be to call them to the deen of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And even before you
start the argument, you must have knowledge. That
is why the first condition is that you
have strong knowledge.
And the second one is
that
you know the condition, for sure, you know
the situation of the other person.
You cannot just presume
that someone may
have this,
thinking or disbelief
and unfortunately this is what happens
mostly amongst the Muslims.
We end up accusing others
of what they do not actually believe.
You may be thinking that someone hold this
belief or that belief,
without a knowledge. You do not know their
situation. Oh, other than belief.
If you see someone
doing
something that apparently seems incorrect or wrong
according to your understanding,
you must know the reason for that before
you go ahead and
and and start criticizing them.
Why have you done this? Why are you
doing this? You must know their condition, you
must know their situation,
you must know their reasoning,
why they have done,
you know,
such acts
before you advise them and then after that
you can advise
them because the situation of the people can
change from time to time, from place to
place
And especially when it comes to the matters
of the fiqh. Yes, there are certain matters
that are confirmed, that cannot be changed.
Okay. For example, let me give you an
example, nowadays here in the UK,
we find that people,
especially during
the summer months,
during these days, some of the masajid,
they combine between Maghrib and Reisha
on a regular basis.
Although we do not agree with it.
But
it does not
mean and it does not give you any
right to say that all those who combine
their salah on a regular basis, their salah
is not valid.
This is not correct. And you cannot approach
a person saying, you know, because you are
combining every
single day, This is haram, this is not
for you, this is your salah is not
valid. No. This is not the way to
advise. You must understand
their point.
And then
if if you do not agree with it,
you can advise
based on your knowledge
based on your knowledge. If you have a
valid point, if you do not combine if
you do not agree
with combining Maghrib and Isha,
you must know the evidence.
Why? Why is it not permissible
to combine and isha on a regular basis?
You must have knowledge for
that. If you do not have knowledge, you
will end up arguing others and pushing them
away from yourself and then from the deen
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is only
one example. It can be any other it
can be many other examples.
So, this is the second condition that the
person you are going to advise,
you must know
their situation, their condition, and you must understand
their point.
And
you may come across a person
who has done something that is probably apparently
wrong according to your understanding,
but when you have conversation with them, you
may find that their point is valid and
you are on wrong.
So that is why
knowledge
for everything is
compulsory. It is it is essential.
So you must have knowledge first and foremost
for yourself, for your own betterment and for
you to practice the deen of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala properly and then for you to
guide others.
That is why
the scholars have said that one of the
shortest surah in the Quran which Suratul Asl
in which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
This surah
is a comprehensive surah that
encompasses
every single aspect of the deen of Allah's
ul jalal albikam. Because in this surah Allah
says, verily the man is in loss except
those who believed in Allah. And for for
you to
have a strong belief, you must have knowledge.
For for you
to have a strong belief, you must have
knowledge.
Because your belief without of without knowledge is
not actually a belief.
How many of us, we actually
believe in certain things, but we do not
have knowledge.
That is why seeking knowledge is compulsory, it
is it is essential
for your own belief, for your own practice,
and it is also essential for you to
call others to the deen of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And then the third condition the scholars have
said based on this ayah again that you
must call people towards the part of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala with wisdom
and good preaching
that when you call someone towards towards something
good or you prohibit
others from doing something wrong,
you must make sure that it does not
lead to something that is
worse, that is even
more harmful or more,
you know,
or or something that is greater in sin
than the one that, you know, than the
one they, they, you know, they were doing
or they were practicing.
Okay. So this is these are some of
the basic conditions
for the scholars and for the du'at,
towards the deen of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Then, Imam An Nawawi rahamahaullah as usual after
quoting
few verses from the Quran under this chapter,
he has quoted the hadith of Abu Mas'ud,
Ruqba bin Amr al Ansari al Badri RadiAllahu
ta'ala. And he says, that Rasulullah salallahu alaihi
wa sallam said, mandalaalakayrin
falahu mithlu ajari fa'ili.
Whoever guides someone towards
something good,
he will get the reward
similar to the reward of the person
who acts upon that good.
So this is subhanallah, this is the beauty
of this religion.
For example,
if you advise someone to establish their 5
daily prayers And with your nasihah, with your
advise,
the person becomes regular in their 5 daily
prayers
for the rest of their life,
every single time they perform the salah, they
will get the reward and exactly the same
reward you will be getting also.
This is the deen of Allah
You teach you teach 1 person one single
ayah of the Quran.
One single ayah of the Quran
and as long as that person continue reciting
that ayah, each time the person recite the
ayah, you will get the reward as well.
That is
why the ulama has said that the dua
of the deen of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
are those that
their good deeds never cut off and they
have
no gap. Basically, day night, every single moment
they have their good good deeds increasing, increasing.
The reward is increasing all the time. Even
when they go to sleep, the reward continue
increasing.
Why? Because you may have taught someone
one short surah of the Quran,
and that person, each time the person recite
the surah, you'll get the reward. You may
not know when and what time the person
is going to recite the surah. You may
be asleep, and the person is reciting the
surah.
But you, because you have taught them Surah,
or the hadith of the prophet,
or you guided them to towards something good,
whenever they do that good act,
although you are, you are not away, you
are busy in you, with your own stuff,
or you are even asleep,
you will be getting the reward, and the
reward continues.
The reward continues.
The person you taught,
and that person will be teaching someone else.
He will get the reward and you will
get the reward and the chain continues, subhanallah.
Just imagine the reward of the prophet salallahu
alaihi wa sallam and the reward of the
companions of the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam.
All those who made efforts and they conveyed
the Quran and the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu
alaihi wasallam to us.
Over 1400
years have passed and those companion, they
are continuously
getting that reward.
Likewise, the Imams, which is Imam Abu Hanifa,
Imam Malik, Imam Ashafi,
Imam Malik, Imam Shafi, Imam Muhammad, Imam Bukari,
Imam Muslim, Rahim
all these great imams. They are continuously getting
the reward of all
that good work that they have done and
all the
hadith that that they have reported, they have
narrated to us.
This is the beauty of the deen of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So every single one
of us, we should be trying to advise
others towards the deen of Allah subhanahu, guiding
people towards deen of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
calling others to the deen of Allah,
advising
every single day,
someone to the deen, to the khey, to
the good.
So that the person
starts acting upon that good and
your
accounts open and you continue getting the reward
on a daily basis, on a regular basis.
The second hadith in this chapter
is what the Imam An Nawawi has quoted
the hadith of Abu Hurair radiAllahu ta'ala. He
says that the messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi
wa sallam said,
Whoever
calls
towards the guidance,
He will have the reward similar to the
reward of those who follow that guidance.
Without having the reward diminished in any form
of shape.
So the person who guides others towards the
guidance, towards the deen of Allah
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, he will get the
reward
of every single act that the person do
the
that the person does
because of your guidance, because of
your advice.
And
without,
without any deduction from their reward or from
your reward, you will get be getting exactly
the same reward.
And this is also the case
if you guide someone
to misguidance,
if you call someone
to misguidance or you
guide someone towards an evil act,
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said
And whoever calls towards the misguidance,
he will have
the sin similar to the sin of the
person who commits that sin.
And they and their sin will not be
diminished in any form or shape.
That
is why
the scholars always emphasize on seeking knowledge and
calling people to deen of Allah
based on knowledge because you do not
want
to guide people
towards something that you perhaps thinking that is
good but in reality it is not good,
it's an evil or it's an innovation
and instead of getting reward, you may end
up earn earning
the sin.
The next hadith is the hadith of Abu
Abbas
Sahel bin Saadasa radiyaAllahu
ta'ala who says,
that the messenger of Allah alayhi salallahu alayhi
wasallam said,
on the day of Khayr.
Tomorrow morning I will hand over
the flag of the Muslim army
to the person
that
on whose hands Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will
grant the victory.
Warasoolahu
wa yuhibullahahu
wa rasoolu
and that is going to per that is
going to be the person
who loves Allah and his messenger alayhis salatu
wasalam and Allah and his messenger
love him as well.
The Sahabi Sahal bin Sadr radiAllahu ta'ala says
So people went to sleep thinking
every one of them,
they were thinking who that person would be,
will be given that
the the, you know, who will be handed
over that flag of the Muslim army.
And,
the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam has already told
the virtues
of that person that the person loves Allah
and his messenger and Allah and his
messenger love him,
also.
All the companions, obviously, all of them, they
loved Allah and His Messenger.
And Allah and His Messenger alaihis salatu wa
sallam, they loved the companions as well.
Every one of them,
they were expecting that
they might be the ones
whom will be given the flag.
Then the Rasulullah then Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa
sallam said, Aina Ali ibn Ubitaalib.
Where is Ali ibn Ubitaalib?
The companion said, You Rasoolallahu wa iahi
nay.
His eyes are hurting. He has something in
his eyes that his eyes are hurting. The
prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
call him bring him to me
fa utiya
bihi. So ali radiAllahu ta'ala was brought to
the Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam fiyaayna.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam,
put his saliva on
the eyes of Ali RadiAllahu ta'ala Anhu. Radi'ala
Hu and then he made dua for Ali
Radhiyallahu Ta'ala
And Ali Radhiyallahu
Ta'ala all of sudden, he was cured as
he had nothing wrong with his eyes. Then
the prophet salallahu alaihi wa sallam gave him
the flag and then he said, you Ali
Allah, shall I go and continue fighting them
until they become like us? The prophet salallahu
alaihi wasallam said go
and
fight against them
and before you start the fight with them,
make sure you call them to the deen
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So this is
the way of calling people to the deen
of Allah, to call them to Islam,
and inform them what is
compulsory
upon them, what is obligatory upon them from
the right of Allah, and
then the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said by
Allah,
if Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala
guides through you only 1 single individual,
it is better for you
than having the red camels.
Red camels at that time
were were considered
the best kind
of camels in Arabia.
And they were known as best form, best
kind of peace
for riding. So the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam said, if Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guides
through you
only 1 single individual,
then it is better for you
than having red camels. It is similar to
what we can say nowadays
that if Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guides through
you 1 individual,
it is better
for you than having an aeroplane.
This is something that we can, you can
think of, something that's really high.
It is better for you,
in different, in many ways.
One of them is,
that these worldly
luxuries, you may benefit yourself
for time being, for a limited time, until
you are alive.
After you have left this duniya,
these luxuries are not going to benefit you
at all.
Whereas,
your guidance,
your guiding others to the deen of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala as we said early on.
As long as they continue practicing
and acting upon that good, you will continue
getting the reward. Even after you have left
this dunya. That is why Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said, idamatabnu
Adam in kataaanhu
amalu.
When the child of Adam dies,
all of his good deeds are cut off.
Obviously, the person cannot perform salah anymore. He
cannot fast anymore. He cannot give him charity
anymore.
He has left this. All of his good
deeds are cut off, except
3 good deeds
that he and she continues getting the reward
while they are in their graves.
And one of them is,
a beneficial knowledge.
Knowledge that you leave behind,
knowledge that you teach others and people benefit
from it as long as they continue practicing
the deen of
Allah based on the knowledge that you taught,
you will be getting the reward.
May Allah
give us and ability
to call people to the deen of Allah
and may Allah
enable us to increase our knowledge,
and we must also make dua to Allah
all the time. The dua that Allah
himself taught his Nabi
Say, oh, Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, oh, my
lord, increase me in my knowledge.
We are always in need of increasing our
knowledge
and there is no end for seeking knowledge.
Never ever.
Ever. So continue seeking knowledge, making efforts, and
along with this, continue making dua to Allah
Allah that Allah
opens up your chest
for the deen, for the knowledge, and that
Allah
increase you in knowledge. May Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala give us to a few capabilities.