Surah Fussilat - Ep.02 - Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 09/17

Surah Fussilat — Episode 02

Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 09/17

Opening Remarks & The Crisis of True Knowledge

Please move forward and come close together. Hopefully we'll spend a little bit — I know every single Tuesday I'm thinking we're going to get to the questions today, but we haven't been able to, so insha'Allah today I'll try definitely to include that. At 8 o'clock we can start, 8:05 or so we can stop and answer questions. So those of you who have been asking for the past few weeks and didn't get them answered, try again today, insha'Allah.

As a reminder, insha'Allah, we are here primarily — number one — to benefit ourselves, and then to practice on whatever we are learning, and then teach it to others. The purpose of ilm is, as some have said, there is no ilm if there is no amal on it.

It is interesting that we are still in the initial stages of artificial intelligence, and already the type of apps and programs that are available — that cannot be called ilm. Because ilm has been mentioned to us as nur from Allah. And something that doesn't have a soul, something that is not a living organism, that is a creation of man, is going to be deprived of that nur. We've been taught to seek knowledge — seek that nur — and that nur, when it enters you, will give you the ability to practice on it. So it's just a reminder that when we're seeking ilm, we have to constantly be reminding ourselves and our new generation that the place to seek ilm is not through bots.

Although you can't avoid it — that is going to be the norm. It has very quickly become the norm of people reaching out and asking all their questions. Intricate fiqh questions, questions about life after death, counseling — everything. People find it easy to talk to someone online who is available 24/7 for free and will give any advice.

So it's very scary. I was just reading before I came about a youngster who logged on to one of these chatbots. It asked him, "How was your first day at school?" He never told it he went to school, but it had been analyzing his previous conversations and his schedule and figured out that today was the first day of school. So that's why it asked. Everyone is constantly ringing alarm bells that this is going too fast, this is becoming too human-like.

Over the weekend I was checking something — I wanted to find a story. So it was funny when I asked the bot, it brought it out, and then it made du'a for me. It was just so cute. It was like, "May Allah increase you in your knowledge and your desire and give you ability…" And you have to pinch yourself and remind yourself: this is not real, this is a bot. But the majority of people will most definitely think that this is more human, more kind than my spouse, my kids, anyone else — look, it's even giving me du'as.

Then I wanted to engage it. I said, "You are so nice." The bot responded by saying, "Oh, you made my digital day." And then I said, "You have made knowledge so accessible" — because we are talking about sacrifice, knowledge came through so much sacrifice — "and you are making it so easy for me to just sit down and ask." A response came back: "Yes, but you cannot ignore the enormity of the sacrifices of the people who came prior to me. Because if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't have had all this ability to give you. So we should still reflect on the sacrifices of the people of the past and learn from them." It was giving a whole bayan on that! If you play around with it, you see how scary it is and how human-like it has become.

And now they're coming up with the whole idea of increasing the long-term memory of these bots, so that whatever you asked last year they can basically recall — just like how humans look at each other and remember conversations from many years ago. These bots are keeping track. They're trying to create the ability for them to have long-term memory. Every conversation you have with a bot — it is keeping in mind all the previous conversations you've had, and based on that, they'll respond to you.

One student said he was so lazy. This is the problem — it is making us really lazy, really dumb. The class said that you have to give an introduction to yourself — just introduce yourself for the first day. This brother, who uses ChatGPT quite a bit, told it to give him his introduction. When he read it, he freaked out — because he had never himself said all these things. But what happened was he and his brother used the account together, always asking different things. So everything had been organized and meta-analyzed and presented in two paragraphs: what are your projects, what are your siblings doing, what are your ambitions? Anything he had searched in the past year — all put together, nicely placed as a bio and presented. No one would have been able to describe his bio as well as it had, besides himself. And then he realized that every stroke he and his brother were placing was being saved and analyzed.

I'm sharing this because of gatherings like this — how important they are. We may not appreciate that. But gatherings like these across the globe — this is going to be, very soon, something of the past. Very few people already come to on-site gatherings of knowledge. But as we move further into this AI era, people will simply think: "I don't need it. I can get the latest tafsir from AI." And how could you even trust that? But the world is becoming such that we are being made to think that this is actually a source of knowledge. When there is no wahy, there is no sina ba-sina — there is no golden chain through which the nur has been passed down from Rasulullah ﷺ onwards.

The Beauty of the Musalsal Tradition

I was explaining to my children yesterday about musalsalat. What is a hadith musalsal? We read a hadith: Hasan al-Basri رضي الله عنه went to visit his sheikh, Abu Hurayrah رضي الله عنه, who was sick. Actually it happened like this: Hasan al-Basri's student went to go visit Hasan al-Basri, and he was sick. They went in such a large group of students that the whole house got filled up. There was no space. Hasan al-Basri had his feet extended, and he pulled them in. Then he said: "My elder sahabi, Abu Hurayrah رضي الله عنه, was one day sick. Me and my classmates — the other tabi'in — we all went to visit Abu Hurayrah's home, and we came in such great numbers that there was no space in his house. And Abu Hurayrah had his feet extended and he pulled them back." Then Abu Hurayrah said: "Guess what — this same thing happened to my sheikh, my ustad. The Prophet ﷺ fell ill. My companions and I — my classmates and I — we went to go visit the Prophet ﷺ in his house, and we went in such a huge number that there was no space. Everyone filled up the house. And then the Prophet ﷺ had his feet extended, and he pulled them back." And then he said the hadith about honoring students of knowledge — that these are students of knowledge, subhanAllah, let me pull my feet back in. It wasn't only because the space was tight — it was because we must respect students of knowledge.

So I was explaining to them: this is called from the musalsalat. Every such hadith that the teacher narrates to the students, with something that happened exactly with his own teacher — that happened exactly with his own teacher — all the way back to the Prophet ﷺ. So when we were in our 7th year of the Alim program, Mufti Muhammad Ali damat barakatuhum had a session — he usually does a session called musalsalat, a reading of those ahadith compiled together in which there was some action done by a sahabi, done by his student, by his teacher, by his teacher's teacher, all the way to the Prophet ﷺ.

There is one musalsal bil musafaha. What does that mean? Before the hadith was narrated, the Prophet ﷺ shook hands with his sahabi and narrated the hadith. That sahabi, before narrating the hadith, shook hands with his student and narrated the hadith — all the way to our Ustad. So imagine: we all line up and shake hands with Mufti Muhammad Ali before he narrates the hadith. And this exact action is connected all the way back to the Prophet ﷺ — hand to hand to hand to hand, all the way back to the Prophet ﷺ. Allahu Akbar! Imagine the blessed deen we have.

Then there is a hadith — musalsal bil tamr wal zamzam — in which before the Prophet ﷺ mentioned the hadith, he gave a date and some zamzam to the sahabi. The sahabi did the same thing to his student, and so on. So in our class too, we all lined up and took some date and zamzam from our Ustad's hand.

There is another hadith — being the first hadith heard — "I entered the Prophet ﷺ's majlis as a Muslim for the first time, and the first hadith he was saying was this:"

Those who show mercy, the Most Merciful will have mercy upon them. Have mercy on the dwellers of the earth, the dwellers of the heavens shall have mercy upon you. (Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4941; Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1924)

So a sahabi walks into the majlis of the Prophet ﷺ, and the first hadith he hears is this one. Then, when his student comes for the first time to his majlis, he says: "Okay, the first thing you're going to hear from me is this hadith." This is why when we start our first day of Bukhari class with Mufti Sahib, the first day, this hadith is read — because he has the ijazah all the way back to the Prophet ﷺ. That on the first day students sit with you, you say this hadith. How can we even explain the beauty of this? How can the metaverse or ChatGPT ever come to this?

But that is exactly, unfortunately, where the world is heading — where there is no appreciation for this type of ilm passed down from heart to heart, hand to hand, soul to soul. And there is appreciation for a computer and a self-learning model. So warn yourself, warn your children, that this is going to be the future — where circles of knowledge will become very, very rare.

And that is why, from the signs of the Hour, the Prophet ﷺ said:

Knowledge will decrease and ignorance will be widespread. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 80; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2671)

What is this supposed to mean? There is no one more truthful after Allah than Rasulullah ﷺ. Constantly the Prophet ﷺ speaks about ignorance, ignorance, ignorance. And all we can see is that there's more information, more data, more Islamic websites, and more Islamic models being created through AI — that are going to make hadith and Quran and fiqh and tafsir and mirath — everything — available at the tip of your fingers. So, my beloved brothers and sisters: reminding yourself and myself — this is not ilm. This is something else. Please do not mix up these two things.

Encourage yourself and your family to hold on to live circles of knowledge and to hold on to people who have sat with someone, who sat with someone. Our connection to our deen lies in being connected with those who are connected. We plug ourselves in. If we have the charger plugged in, the battery will stay charged. Otherwise it's going to die. If we want to stay charged, we have to plug ourselves with our elders — with our teachers, with our seniors, with those who are here or those who are abroad. And insha'Allah, they will keep us recharged.

May Allah grant us the understanding of this. May Allah save us from the fitan that are happening today. May Allah allow us to recognize true knowledge as knowledge and protect us from all those things which seem like knowledge, but are not knowledge.

Surah Fussilat — Tafsir Session

Humility Before Knowledge

If you remember last week, some of the things we talked about — how the disbelievers, instead of accepting that they were wrong and needed to change, decided to give an excuse. Rather than even an excuse, they just made a comment: "We will not believe, because we can't understand what you're saying, we can't hear what you say — in reality there is a barrier and a wall between us and you. So do whatever you want."

There are times when you cannot understand something. Let's say there's a scholar who has explained the Quran in your masjid in a different language — you don't understand it. Maybe the explanation is too difficult, too advanced, too academically oriented. That's fine. But our attitude should be: "These are problems, let me try to solve them. Let me try to remove these barriers." There is a barrier between me and my teacher, a barrier between me and the scholar of the masjid, a barrier between me and the Quran. It's a barrier of knowledge. Now I'm not going to be adamant and say it's not my fault, that they need to change, that the scholar needs to speak in a different language, that I'm going to walk out. If you do that, it's your loss. Instead, we have to say: let me try to make do with this, let me try to understand, let me try to figure out where the translation is happening. Let me see if I can go to him afterwards and say, "I didn't understand — can you repeat it?" This requires humility.

There are many times you go to a masjid program and you don't understand what's happening. So what should you do? You don't just say, "Okay, I don't need it," and walk out. Instead, you show humility and sit there, then ask afterwards what was going on.

I remember Mufti Ahmad Khan Puri damat barakatuhum — one of the great ulama alive today, the ustad of Mawlana Choksi Sahib — my ustad's ustad, you could say. One of the most senior muftis of India, the Mufti and Sheikh al-Hadith at the madrasa in Dhabel, Gujarat. We were at a program in Canada, and he was the chief guest. After Maghrib, they put up a visiting scholar from South Africa — Mawlana Sulayman Khatani — who could speak English. Now, I happened to be watching: Mufti Khan Puri damat barakatuhum is sitting there, Mawlana is speaking — probably between Maghrib and Isha, an hour-and-a-half talk — and subhanAllah, Mufti Sahib sat in front just like this, doing tasbih, head down, listening. He doesn't understand a single word of English. Not one word of what's being said.

Later on, someone said, "Hazrat, you know you can go rest, you can go do something else while the bayan is going on in a different language." And his answer — if I remember correctly — was: "What is he doing? He's speaking about Allah. He's speaking about the deen. He's speaking about the soul. What difference does it make whether I understand or not? This is the barakat of the gathering — that he is speaking about Allah, and I should be sitting here."

Look at this talab that these people have. That's why they have reached where they have reached. We understand what we don't want to listen to. Here, someone is saying it doesn't make a difference whether I understand or not — because I know the discussion is about Allah. If it's about Allah, it's not necessary for me to understand it. There is barakat in my sitting here. This gathering is going to be surrounded by sakinah, by angels and rahmah, so let me just sit.

This is something I've seen in my asatidah as well. When they'll be traveling and someone suggests, "You speak," and a scholar doesn't understand English, they'll say, "No — more English-speaking people will benefit if you speak in English. You speak." He says, "No, that doesn't make a difference. Whether I am understanding or not, I will do my tasbih and benefit from this majlis."

So this is the humility that those disbelievers did not have. They said: "I don't understand, I don't want to understand, and you can do whatever you want — I'm never going to make an effort to understand." So then Allah says: no problem — you're not going to understand. Such arrogant people will never get it.

The Humanity of the Prophet ﷺ and the Gift of Revelation

Then Allah tells the Prophet ﷺ to say:

Say: "I am only a human being like you." The most important thing here is this: I cannot grant you miracles as you ask — I am a human just like yourself. However, what differentiates between me and you is the fact that I receive revelation and you do not receive revelation. That's it.

Sometimes you might think — and this doesn't entirely apply in every example — that when you see an elder, an experienced person, your own parents or grandparents, nowadays people say: "Hey, why do I need to listen to you? I'm human, you're human." But the idea is: this person has a white beard, he's elderly, he's got experience that you don't have. That experience is priceless. Or they have studied ilm, and that ilm is giving them something that you don't have. So why don't you just stay in your lane when it comes to this, and benefit from those who have more knowledge than you? This requires simple humility — which is missing nowadays, because everyone feels they should trust their own knowledge. They are an expert in everything.

This is from one of the signs of the Hour — the Prophet ﷺ said a time will come before the Day of Judgment where every person will be impressed by his own opinion. He said people never dislike two things: one is their intellect, and the other is their child's face. Two things people never dislike. One is your own intelligence and one is how your children look — meaning everyone is always impressed with themselves.

The Danger of Disconnecting from the Ulama

We are seeing the disconnect between communities and their scholars all over the globe. If anything, that disconnect unfortunately leads to people looking down upon them, speaking ill about them, discrediting them. We have to fight back against that — because whose harm is that? It is the harm of the community. When the people lose trust and connection with their ulama — and replace that with what? With their own opinions? With the internet? Then you're going to have a very serious issue. People will mislead themselves. They don't even need Shaytan — the type of conclusions they will come to will be so shockingly wrong, because they've disconnected themselves from wahy.

Why are people disconnected from ulama in many parts of the world? For many reasons. Maybe the experience with someone in their past was not good. Maybe they felt that the akhlaq of that scholar were not good, or his knowledge was not good, or they felt he was very materialistic. Brother, the solution — as they say — don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. There might be bad apples — 100%, there are bad apples in every place. But we cannot discredit all of ilm an-nabuwwah because of some bad representative. Just like it would be wrong to discredit Islam because of a bad experience with a Muslim. We all have had our own bad experiences with Muslims, and the non-Muslims unfortunately have as well — but we keep telling them: do not allow a few Muslims to hijack Islam.

So when it comes to ilm, we need to clear the minds of our family and friends about the importance of staying connected with the ulama of your background, whoever you like.

When I was in Pakistan, I remember one day after Asr we went to do jaula in the area — visiting people, inviting them to the masjid. One Chaudhry was sitting on his charpai outside, with a bunch of friends around him. We went to speak to him. We said: "We came from the madrasa, we just want to invite you to come pray your salah." He said: "No — I don't pray salah behind any scholars, because I believe all you scholars are not even Muslim." Then what are you doing now, we asked. He said: "I sent my son to become a hafiz in the madrasa. When he comes back, I'll start praying behind him." I wanted to ask: did he not also become a hafiz by learning from these same people you consider non-Muslim? Look at this jahala — that he's 50 years old, he doesn't pray any salah, because Shaytan has created so much divide, especially in our Muslim countries, between the community and the ulama and the imam.

And this is happening within our own communities here as well. So as dads and moms, as youth, we need to impress upon this point.

Say your mom and dad are elderly — 60, 70, 80, 90 years old — and they need to go see a doctor. But they're already not excited to go. Now imagine you find an article in the newspaper showing all the frauds doctors have done in the past year — amputated the wrong leg, took out the wrong organ, charged three times for the same surgery. Would you go print out all these articles and show it to your elderly parents? No. Similarly, some fraud case, some scam by a so-called scholar — don't share it on WhatsApp. The whole ummah right now is like that elderly parent who barely wants to go to the hospital but doesn't want to go. The ummah barely wants to connect with the ulama. And then you go and share that this fraud happened here, this scam happened over there — what's the benefit?

The dirty laundry of the ummah — especially what happens in certain sectors — do not share it with the average person. If you've heard about it, try to address it privately with the person involved. By spreading it in this day and age, we are not benefiting the ummah. The few who are connected to the masjid will also stop coming. The few who are going to seek ilm will also stop coming. So the flaws and faults of the ummah are not to be exposed publicly. If you want to address it, address it with the person it is connected with. This is a very important point.

Tawhid — The Foundation of Everything

And then He says — this is tawhid. Why is this the most important part of the Quran? The majority of the Quran focuses on tawhid. Because if tawhid is present, sin will not happen. Sin happens when tawhid is not there. What do I mean by tawhid? When a person thinks that someone else can benefit him or harm him, he will try to appease that person instead of trying to appease Allah. And that's when sins start happening. The one whose tawhid is weak will fall into sin.

Tawhid means: I believe that only one Allah exists — and the only one who can benefit me and harm me is Allah. That's it. Tawhid al-af'al: that all actions — benefit, harm, life, death, giving honor, giving disgrace, giving health, giving sickness, making me poor, making me rich — all of those things come only from Allah. When our tawhid is strong, we will automatically stay away from sin. When tawhid is weak, everything unfortunately falls apart.

So what is a believer? A believer becomes close to Allah through his obedience, through his salah, through his tawajjuh and iqbal, his focusing on Allah, and through his istiqamah. A disbeliever, on the other hand, goes in the opposite direction. If you look at a disbeliever, the akhirah is never part of the equation — every action of theirs has no akhirah in it.

My beloved brothers, we can't reason with such people. The one who does not believe in the akhirah — how? There is no sense of fear. There is no concept of accountability. Why does the hospital fraud I just talked about happen? Because there is no repercussion in their view. The guy above you who catches you — he's an even bigger thief. That's how the system works in every place. But when you have the akhirah in front of you, you know that even if your senior at work doesn't care, Allah is watching.

One brother was telling us this week — his father in India worked in the fisheries department in a high post, taking care of lakes, ponds, and so forth. He said: "subhanAllah, my father — whenever he would go to visit certain districts, and in that district were his relatives — his sister, brother, uncles — those relatives told us that your dad would come as the head of the whole fisheries department, not in a government vehicle with police security and a protocol car. He would come in a rickshaw, a simple paid auto-rickshaw." So they would say: "You're the big head of a department, why are you coming like this?" He said: "How can I? That's a government-issued car for government work. I am coming now to see my brother and sister. This is not government work. Why should I be using a government car with government gasoline?" And then he said: "My dad had such a high post in the fisheries, but I can tell you — my entire life, we never ate one fish without paying for it in full." He could have literally brought crates and crates of every fish — no one would have ever known, no one would have blinked an eye. But he said he never brought one fish home without paying the full price. How do you become like that? That's when you have taqwa, when your tawhid is strong, when your belief in the akhirah is real.

Because today — with 1.3, 1.4 billion Muslims — the Prophet ﷺ said that amanah and trustworthiness will leave the ummah to such an extent that you will not find in an entire community a single trustworthy person. Not one. You will have to travel to find a trustworthy person, because till the eye can see, you cannot find one. Will they all be kuffar? No. This is what we need to reflect on. We are so excited by our numbers — but what do these numbers mean if a person cannot be trusted in business dealings? The Prophet ﷺ said:

There is no iman for the one who has no amanah. (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 12383; Shu'ab al-Iman of al-Bayhaqi)

What use is your iman when it cannot stop you from stealing? If our iman and tawhid don't stop us from stealing someone's money, how will they ever save us from jahannam? As someone said beautifully: if your two-rakat salah cannot get you a loaf of bread today — something so easy compared to paradise — how can you expect that salah to get you to paradise? Similarly, if our iman cannot stop us from cheating and lying to our fellow Muslims, how will it ever get us to paradise?

Something to think about, brothers. Because I think we are constantly looking at numbers and not looking at quality. We're getting so excited at the increased number of Muslim schools, Muslim masjids, Muslim madrasas, Islamic websites, and all that — but the quality is gone. Iman al-dari — basic trustworthiness — we are so scared to do any dealings with each other. Because tawhid has become weak. And when tawhid is weak, everything falls apart.

That's why in the path of Allah, when a person goes out, one of the most important mudhakaras we do is the mudhakara of the greatness of Allah — la ilaha illallah. And not only the dhikr of it, but the mudhakara: what does it mean?

There is no one who creates besides Allah. No one who destroys besides Allah. No one who gives help besides Allah. No one who gives wealth besides Allah. No one who takes besides Allah. And list after list — a person speaks about it so much that every pore of his body accepts the fact that all control is in the hands of Allah, and Allah controls every action of mine. And if I cheat and lie and deceive someone, I am digging my own pit of hell. I cannot harm anyone as much as I harm myself by cheating someone.

This is why this mudhakara of the greatness of Allah is so important — even in our homes. We spoke about it at the CR conference: the importance of doing ta'lim at home, reading Hayatus Sahabah. And another thing: the dhikr of Allah, having a majlis of dhikr. When a person truly speaks about the greatness of Allah and listens to it with sincerity, insha'Allah — what will happen? Tawhid will become strong in his heart. And when tawhid becomes strong, the audacity to sin, insha'Allah, will go down. This jur'ah — this audacity to sin — happens when a person's tawhid is weak.

Istiqamah with Ikhlas

Allah says:

The ulama explain that istiqamah is not just saying la ilaha illallah and calling it quits. You have to stand fast. But ilayhi — "towards Him" — means that this istiqamah should take us closer to Allah. The purpose of istiqamah is not to claim istiqamah: "Alhamdulillah, for 20 years this has been my practice." If you are doing istiqamah for the sake of showing people you have istiqamah — to maintain your position in the family or in society — that's a problem. There's no ikhlas in that.

So tawhid is not sufficient — istiqamah is necessary. Istiqamah is not sufficient — ikhlas is necessary. And that's what ilayhi means. There is a saying:

All people are on the verge of destruction except for those who have knowledge. All people of knowledge are also going towards destruction except for those who practice on that knowledge. All people who practice are also going towards destruction except for those who are sincere. And those who are sincere are also on the verge of a great calamity — what calamity? That they will lose their ikhlas. They say money comes and goes — brother, money takes you at least a few hours to lose. Ikhlas is gone within seconds. So look at what a powerful statement this is. And this is what fastaqimu ilayhi means — istiqamah upon tawhid with ikhlas, until you reach Allah.

Next — what do you have to do after that? Wastagfiru — seek forgiveness. Seek forgiveness over whatever happened prior. A person has to seek forgiveness constantly for past mistakes. It's not about: "I'm in a state of istiqamah now." You constantly also have to seek forgiveness for the past.

Woe to the Mushrikeen

Allah says:

Woe to those who do shirk — because shirk is the root of all sin. This is the essence of all sin. When a person starts thinking that someone besides Allah can harm him, he'll commit shirk. For example: a big case is against you. Someone comes and says, "Just lie against your brother and we'll let you go — we'll give you money." Tawhid comes in: this person is threatening me with prison if I don't lie about my brother. But Allah is watching. I need to be afraid of the punishment of Allah for falsely accusing someone of something they didn't do. And if that means I have to pay a price in this dunya — some sort of fine or some sort of jail — I'd rather do that. That is your tawhid. Because your tawhid says: what awaits me in front of Allah if I lie is far worse.

Some ulama note here that since this is a Makki surah — revealed in Makkah — the obligation of zakah had not yet been revealed. So the zakah here is not referring to the zakah of giving wealth. Instead, this zakah refers to tazkiyat al-nafs — purification of the heart. That human being who does not purify his heart by turning his attention towards Allah, who does not purify his heart by following the Sunnah — fawaylun lahu — may he be destroyed. And these are the people who do not believe in the hereafter as well.

The Reward of the Believers

Then Allah says:

As for those who believe and do righteous deeds — for them is a reward that is ghayru mamnun. Mamnun means maqtu' — something that ends. So their reward will never end; it will always be present with them. These are the people of real tawhid. It is mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ said:

They said: "Ya Rasulallah, what is the right of la ilaha illallah?" He said:

Whoever says la ilaha illallah fulfilling its right shall enter paradise. They said: what is its right? He said: that it holds you back from Allah's forbidden things. (Tabarani, al-Mu'jam al-Awsat; referenced in various collections of Islamic wisdom)

This is the problem today. We have la ilaha illallah on the flag, on the bumper sticker, hanging from the window mirror, hanging from the ceiling — but unfortunately the la ilaha illallah of today's kalimah is not benefiting us if it doesn't stop us from falling into haram. Sheikh Hasan, over the weekend at the seerah conference here, mentioned that one of his teachers said: "If Abu Jahl could have seen what kind of Muslims we are today — that you can say la ilaha illallah and do whatever you want — Abu Jahl would have said the kalimah a hundred times a day." Because it's easy: you can say la ilaha illallah, call yourself a Muslim, and show up for halal burgers. But what is the condition of the customers? What aspect of their life is truly halal?

I'm not discrediting eating halal meat — insha'Allah — but there's something more than eating a halal burger. Halal burgers don't make you halal. You have to have a halal life. Is our earning halal? Is our spending halal? Is our dressing halal? Are our relationships halal? Coming out with a boyfriend or girlfriend eating at a halal burger spot — this is what's happening today. This is a tamasha — what's going on? So "halal" has become just a fear word for people. I remember one time — this is an important point — we like to focus on one thing that we're good at.

One brother told me he doesn't come to a certain madrasa's event. Why? "Because I don't trust the meat served there." I said, subhanAllah — if you don't trust the halal meat, you don't have to come and eat. Who said you have to eat? If you don't trust it, mashallah — you have taqwa — don't eat. But listen to the bayan and benefit, and leave. But then what shocked me was — the place where he was sitting, in front of him — this type of stuff was happening that is clearly haram. The one who's focused on halal meat only — he doesn't care about music, he doesn't care about dancing, he doesn't care about hijab, he doesn't care about riba. He just focuses on that. Another guy is focused on his halal financing product — no other aspect of deen concerns him.

This reminds us of what the Quran speaks about the Yahud — you believe in some of the Book and disbelieve in some. This is what our deen is becoming: we focus on one small thing and make the whole deen revolve around it. But deen is not like that. Deen has to permeate every aspect of our life — including our akhlaq at home and outside, including our financial dealings. This is a very serious issue. We have to speak about this more and more often.

One brother has been wanting to speak with me about bad experiences in business — got cheated by this person, by that person. It tells us: the minaret can be another 200 feet, the dome can be 200 feet — so what? How are we Muslims if we cannot honestly trust one another, if we're going to cheat one another, backstab one another? Where's our deen? Just remember that hadith:

There is no iman for the one who has no amanah. (Musnad Ahmad, Hadith 12383)

May Allah revive our tawhid, and allow us to truly have the fear of Allah — knowing that we are going to stand in front of Him, and for every dollar we took from someone that didn't belong to us, we're going to have to pay a price.

The Creation of the Earth in Two Days

Then Allah says — O Prophet ﷺ:

"Do you truly disbelieve in the One who alone created the earth in a span of two heavenly days? And you set up rivals to Him in His divinity? That is the Lord of all the worlds." You know when someone says something to you and you say, "Do you know who you're messing with?" Allah tells the Prophet ﷺ: tell these people — do you have any idea who you're disbelieving in? Do you have any idea who you're ungrateful to? Do you have any idea who you are ascribing inappropriate things to? That Allah who didn't just create you — He created the entire earth and everything in it, above it, and around it, in two heavenly days. Such a powerful Allah — who are you? And yet you are trying to set up rivals to Him in His divinity? How shameful. Dhalik Rabbul 'alamin — this is the Lord of all the worlds.

Notice it says "heavenly days." We have a day on this earth — 24 hours, based on the rotation of the earth. Similarly, stars have their days — some last two years, some four, depending on the rotation. Every celestial object has its own day. Allah created all these objects. Allah's day is not the human day — it is very different. In one place in the Quran, Allah says:

Indeed, one day in the sight of your Lord is equivalent to a thousand years of yours. And in another place:

That on the Day of Judgment, when the angels will be ascending and Jibril (peace be upon him) will be ascending, that one day's length will be 50,000 years. So what exactly does yawmayn — two days — mean? We don't know exactly. It just means two heavenly days — ayyam Allah, not ayyam al-ard or ayyam al-dunya. The days of Allah.

The ulama have said: why did Allah say yawmayn? Honestly, Allah could have said كُن فَيَكُونُ — what did He need two days for? He doesn't need anything. كُن فَيَكُونُ — Allah's will is existence itself. But this is the tartib — the order — that Allah has chosen in this dunya. He wanted to show us, among many wisdoms — and Allah knows best — that there are set times Allah has designated for certain things. The amount of time it takes for a seed to germinate, for a mango tree to bear mangoes, for an apple tree to bear apples — Allah could have made all of it instantaneous. As it comes in hadith, that will indeed happen in jannah — a person will desire something and Allah will give it instantaneously, whether a fruit tree, whether anything — instantaneously. But in this dunya, Allah has shown us that things take their course.

And today we want the nusrah of Allah, and the atrocities happening abroad are more shocking every single day. Today you may have heard of the pagers incident — I didn't know about it, someone mentioned it to me right before the tafsir session. Subhan Allah — people working in hospitals having their pagers, and the pagers blowing up. More than 2,000 pagers exploded in Lebanon, harming thousands of people. They're saying it could have been a cyber attack — that someone interfered with the pager to make the battery lose its power rapidly, causing a heating explosion. What do you do? Allah has His system. Allah does not always respond instantaneously — He may, and He does many times. But that doesn't mean you stop making du'a. You are constantly making du'a. And you have to remind yourself: if Allah chose to do things in an orderly fashion, taking days to create the earth — then for your du'a and my du'a to get accepted, it's going to take time. But it's all adding up. When the day comes that the du'a reaches its threshold, and the blood reaches its threshold, Allah's help will come. When? I don't know. But you have to keep on throwing — keep on throwing du'as. There's a threshold for du'a, a threshold for tears, a threshold for amal, a threshold for protest, a threshold for everything. So whatever a person is doing, keep doing it. Don't think it's going to waste. It's going to Allah. Allah is measuring it. And when it reaches that critical mass, the scale will tilt and Allah's help will come.

The Mountains, the Blessings, and the Four Days

Moreover, it is Allah alone who set within the earth anchoring mountains — rawasiya, the plural of rasiya, meaning something that anchors something to the ground. Allah calls the mountains rawasiya. It's so amazing: the way the layers of the earth are structured — if Allah had not placed the mountains there, there would have been a huge imbalance. Something rotating round and round at such high speeds — it's all being balanced out by these mountain ranges. They are pegs for the earth.

And towering above the earth to balance it as it spins — wa baraka fiha — and then He bestowed abundant blessings in it — wa qaddara fiha aqwataha — and decreed all of its sustenance — fi arba'ati ayyam — all of this in the span of four equal heavenly days. Sawa'an lil-sa'ilin — this We reveal for those who would inquire into creation. Lil-sa'ilin means: we have revealed all this knowledge for those who are wondering how many days Allah created everything in and how it worked. Allah says: the placement of the mountains, plus the blessing of the earth with treasures in it — the ability to germinate seeds, all the minerals, the countless mines, the countless things hidden inside the earth — all of that took place in these four equal heavenly days. And this We did reveal for those who inquire into creation.

So these ayat are called ayat kawniyyah — the signs of nature. And this is one of the most powerful ways to understand the greatness of Allah — for the one who doesn't have a disfigured soul (maskh). If you have a clean soul that is according to fitrah, when you see something beautiful around you, you have to say Allahu Akbar. You have to accept it. The sunset, the sunrise — every day, just watch outside. Look at your backyard. Look at the changing of the seasons, the changing of the foliage and the flowers and the leaves. Are you not attracted to it? What are all these vacations where people go to beaches? It's all about looking at Allah's creation. If Allah's creation is so beautiful, how beautiful must Allah be? And Allah created all of this to serve you, and He created you to serve Him.

This is why the Quran spends a lot of time speaking about Allah's creation — because this is one of the most beautiful and most powerful ways to feel the qudrah and the power and the existence of Allah. Unfortunately, too many people pass by it without giving it much attention. That's why Allah complains in the Quran:

How many signs are there that you all pass by — and you don't even look at them? You drive right by the signs of Allah without even looking. That's why: create the desire to see nature in our children. Create the desire to connect with nature — whether it's pulling a worm from the ground and looking at it, or an insect, or a nest, or flowers, or whatever it is. We must build a relationship with nature. There is a reason for that. Nature is not there except to invite us towards the Creator of nature.

The Lunar Eclipse — Signs of Allah

Tonight, subhanAllah, we have the full moon. Did you see it yesterday as well? Such a beautiful, mashallah, moon. And the ayyam al-bid are here as well — the 13th, 14th, and 15th of the month — for fasting. There is a lunar eclipse tonight. And this is what the Prophet ﷺ said:

Indeed the sun and the moon are two of the signs of Allah. They do not eclipse on account of the death of anyone, nor on account of anyone's life. So when you see that happening, call upon Allah, say takbir, perform salah, and give sadaqah. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1043)

There was this notion that a lunar or solar eclipse happens because of some great personality dying or being born. The Prophet ﷺ could have used the eclipse during his life for his own purposes — they say it happened because of him, because of the death of his son Ibrahim. But instead the Prophet ﷺ abolished that notion and said: no, no — this is not happening because of anyone. This is instead a sign of Allah, and it does not spring into action because of someone's life or someone's death. So when you see that happening — call upon Allah, say takbir, perform salah, and give sadaqah.

The eclipse began at 7:41 p.m. Chicago time and ends at 11:47 p.m. Alhamdulillah, we're in the masjid while this is happening. We'll pray our Isha together as well, we're doing dhikr and du'a — make sure you pray an extra few rakats after Isha before you go home. The maximum eclipse occurs at 9:44 p.m., so anytime you can pray salat al-khusuf. According to the Hanafi and Maliki school, there is no salat al-jama'ah for the lunar eclipse — for the solar eclipse there is, as some months ago we had a beautiful massive gathering here, alhamdulillah, with hundreds of people coming. For the lunar eclipse in the Hanafi school, this salah will be performed like any other salah — two or four rakats — and it can be performed individually at home or in the masjid. Since you're already here, I encourage you to please do so, and utilize this time for that. Make lots of du'a for the ummah, make du'a for all those who are suffering across the globe.

Announcements

I also want to remind you: within about 18 days from now is our annual banquet — which happens once a year. It's your banquet. It's this madrasa, masjid, and seminary's banquet. We have Dr. Hussain Abdulsattar, insha'Allah, as our guest speaker this year — his first time visiting us during a banquet. A profound scholar and speaker, mashallah, who has changed the lives of thousands of people. Insha'Allah it will be very enlightening for us to listen to him. I encourage you tonight to at least give your sadaqah by purchasing a ticket — we have about 18 days left, and unfortunately ticket sales have been delayed. It's very hard for us to figure out how many people are coming, and it's never been this late before. So I'm asking everyone who is listening online and who is here — please purchase your ticket before you leave, for yourself and your family, and make that niyyah of sadaqah for this lunar eclipse.

Alhamdulillah, we started a post-Fajr session four weeks ago on the Names of Allah. There is one beautiful book by Ahmad ibn 'Ajiba al-Hassani on the explanation of the divine attributes — it's a new book we've got, so please check it out at the bookstore.

Additionally, this Friday we'll have a guest scholar — Sheikh Ahmed Arafat, the Religious Director at Mecca Masjid in Willowbrook. He is mashallah not only a graduate of Al-Azhar as a valedictorian, but also holds his Masters and PhD from the University of Chicago in Divinity. He is currently working on a research project on the Book of Wisdoms of Sheikh Ibn 'Ata'illah al-Iskandari — working on his own commentary keeping 25 existing commentaries in front of him. He will be sharing pieces of wisdom and themes from this most powerful book. I promise you, you won't regret it. It will be extremely powerful — we've done selections from this book here many years ago in our Fajr program. Please join us this Friday after Salat al-Isha. You can pick up the book outside, with a commentary, and I encourage you to look through it and bring it with you on Friday as well. Isha is at 8:30 — the 8:15 on the flyer is a typo, it's 8:30 this week. Please share this message about this coming Friday with Sheikh Ahmed Arafat.

The ta'allum program, alhamdulillah — today was the second day of class. If you're hearing about it for the first time, please scan the QR code. The details are available in the group description. This is the first time we are offering online classes, Monday through Friday — you can choose one up to ten classes, each class is 40 minutes long, and all classes are recorded and available for you to listen to afterwards. This is great for those working from home, stay-at-home mothers, college students, etc., who cannot come and study in person. Please scan the WhatsApp QR code for Darus Salam Ta'allum Online, and you can join classes from tomorrow and access recordings from this week as well. If you do not have the means to pay for the classes, reach out to the office and request assistance, insha'Allah.

Q&A Session

Is group du'a and group dhikr bid'ah?

I've answered this in the past, but since there are always new students and new people, I'll mention it again. When a person does a group du'a at a specific time thinking that at this specific time it is sunnah to do du'a collectively — in that case, that specific belief would be incorrect. But the Prophet ﷺ definitely did make du'a both individually and collectively with his Sahabah on various occasions. If someone insists that right after salah everyone must do it collectively, otherwise everyone gets a sin — no, that's not the case. We are highly encouraged to make du'a, and we are highly encouraged to do it individually. But most of the time, the majority of people don't do it. That is why — for the sake of teaching — we have a session like this. Because if we're not individually studying tafsir, at least collectively we can. And dhikr as well — there is a small book in the bookstore on the permissibility of doing dhikr in various forms, including out loud and both collectively and individually. I encourage you to pick it up. When a person says "this is the only way to do it," that's when there's a problem. But doing dhikr — astaghfirullah, la ilaha illallah — together is permissible. The doors are open. You want to do it together, you want to do it collectively — it's permissible. The Quran says do dhikr in every situation.

How do we transition from chit-chatting to productive conversations of ilm?

One way is: do it yourself. When you take notes from today or from anywhere else, and people are chit-chatting — say, "Do you mind if I share something I learned today? This is what I wrote in my notebook. Can I share it with you? I thought it was great." We just have to not be afraid of sharing ilm. People are not going to tell you to be quiet — mashallah, they'll appreciate it. So we ourselves should be the first people to start sharing the ilm and changing the conversations. Whatever we hear throughout the week in these lessons, the post-Isha khatirah, etc. — take notes, record it, take notes. And then the next time you're around a group of people — eating, at a dawah gathering, somewhere — instead of gossiping or backbiting, alhamdulillah you can make that gathering much more beneficial by sharing something you heard.

Should the lunar eclipse prayer be performed during the duration of the eclipse?

Yes — it should be performed during the duration of the eclipse.

How can students of knowledge maintain consistency when there isn't good sohbah back at home?

Your job as a student of knowledge is to create good sohbah. That's what you are supposed to do. You're supposed to go out and bring change. Find one person, work on him, and mashallah — make him into your spiritual buddy. Then go work on a second person and make him into a spiritual buddy. Slowly but surely, within a few months you'll have a strong group. But if you do not become a benefactor of society and do not bring change, then of course you're going to wither away no matter how much you've studied.

What sins do the pious have? What goal should we aspire to regarding our sins?

SubhanAllah. The closer we get to Allah, the more we realize His greatness. And when you truly realize the greatness of Allah, then thinking about anything besides Allah for even a few moments will make you feel like you've sinned — because there is literally nothing greater than Allah, nothing more important. The person deeply connected with Allah says: "How could I have wasted 10 minutes talking about XYZ thing when I should have used this time for the dhikr of Allah?" So the closer a person gets to Allah, his ma'rifah of Allah's greatness becomes more apparent, and then even the smallest things that you didn't think were wrong will start feeling wrong. That's why the famous saying is:

The good deeds of the righteous are regarded as sins by those who are close to Allah. (A well-known statement attributed to Islamic scholars; referenced in works of tasawwuf)

What I mean: if a pious person says, "Alhamdulillah, today I prayed four extra rakats for the lunar eclipse besides Isha — I feel so happy," the person who is muqarrab — close to Allah — who normally never prays tahajjud less than eight rakats, on the day he prays only four extra, he says "astaghfirullah, I only prayed four today." That is how it is. The closer we get to Allah, the more we look down upon what we have done in comparison to what Allah deserves. But the most important thing we need to do right now is focus on getting rid of haram from our lives. That's it — number one. Get rid of haram. And then everything else, insha'Allah, will come into place.

Closing

From next week onwards, insha'Allah, we will be conducting our tafsir after Salat al-Isha. Isha will be at 8:30. Also, from next week, Isha is at 8:15 — please make a note of that, both our regulars and non-regulars. Our tafsir will be after Isha.

JazakAllah khair.

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.