Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. But I want to start from this verse in Surat Ali Imran. The verse is, I believe, verse 68. I'm not Dr. Zakir Naik. Mufti Saab tries to be like him sometimes and slips with his verse numbers. But I believe verse 68, but it is the verse, Inna awlan nasi bi Ibraheem lallatheena taba'oohu wa haadhan nabiyyu wa allatheena aamanu waAllahu waliyul mu'mineen. That verily those who have the greatest right to claim Ibrahim alayhi salam are those who follow him. And this prophet and the believers and verily Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the protective friend of the believers. I want to let you know exactly why I'm starting from this place in particular. Because as we see what unfolds in the land of Palestine and the land of Palestine, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala free it all from the river to the sea. There is this annoying pushback, this annoying retort that some Europeans who have tried to construct within our land European style resorts and European style cities and import people that are foreign to that land and remove the people of that land. That there is this constant claim that is being made that even some Muslims tend to inherit an inferiority complex. Now the thing about an inferiority complex is that it's not necessarily based upon the concept itself, but it's based upon how you feel towards that concept. Let me put it to you this way. You might feel uncomfortable speaking about Isa alayhi salam, about Jesus peace be upon him as your own around a Christian who worships Isa alayhi salam and who says Jesus, Jesus, Jesus constantly right. You might feel a
sense of discomfort like you almost have to apologize for claiming him and talking about him as your own as if you know what we believe in Isa alayhi salam as he taught about himself alayhi salam. We follow him the way that his followers followed him. We worship like Isa alayhi salam. It's not disrespect to you to say that I love Isa alayhi salam. He's my prophet and we follow him and we shouldn't feel bad for talking about him like our own in the sense of feeling a great sense of affinity towards him and not backing away from him nor shying away from the idea that we worship as he worshiped alayhi salam. He is the prophet of Allah who was born by his word who will be sent back to restore truth on this earth. He is from the greatest of the messengers of Allah. Our prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam who is closer to us than ourselves said that there is no one closer to Jesus peace be upon him than me because the prophets are brothers and there is no prophet between he and I. We feel a great closeness to him a great affinity so we should not apologize nor should we almost you know nor should we put all the qualifiers up front when we're talking to someone who claims Isa alayhi salam who mentions Isa more as if we have to be let into the room to talk about him. We don't have to be let into the room to talk about him. The one who sent him revealed about him to our ummah. Why am I starting with this? Because you'll start to see there's a genre of verses and ahadith that came down in this regard to address the way that people might have been feeling and this verse many of the ulama said this verse many of the scholars of islam
scholars of tafsir said came down around the same time that the muslims were in Abyssinia. It's a very strange concept so I'm going to explain it to you this way. When the muslims were in Abyssinia what was the religion of Azhama and Najash alayhi salam? It's christianity. He was a devout christian they were around bishops they were around people who knew the scripture they were still new in islam they didn't know too much about Isa alayhi salam just yet. Most of what has been revealed about Isa alayhi salam came in Medina when the muslims were encountering the people of the book. Al-Ihram didn't exist yet right? So there's limited information that the muslims have about islam. The most that's revealed about Isa alayhi salam at that point is surah Maryam. That's what we know about Isa alayhi salam is surah Maryam which doesn't have great biographical detail about Isa alayhi salam. You're amongst the people who read about him, who worship him, who know him so intimately in accordance with the scriptures that came down to them. So you can feel a bit intimidated by that environment to dare to speak about Isa alayhi salam. Now when you start to unveil the interactions between Jafar ibn Abi Talib and Najashi, you start to find a lot more depth in the conversations. So for example many of the scholars say that the first time that Najashi heard Qur'an was actually not surah Maryam. If you realize there are a set of interactions between Jafar and Najashi. And so the first time according to some of the scholars of Tafsir Nafsilah, the first time Najashi asked him to recite to us something of the Qur'an, Jafar chose surah al-Akabut, surah al-Rum
and surah al-Kahf in some of the narrations. The point is that he recited to him something other than surah Maryam. He started with that point and Ali ibn al-Has forced the issue radiallahu ta'ala from the al-sah and said to Najashi you should ask these people what they say about these. You should ask them what they say about Isa. And it was then that Jafar radiallahu ta'ala says we say about him what our Prophet ﷺ taught us about him and what was revealed to them and Najashi says what is it that was revealed to you about him and then he starts to recite until the end of the story of Isa it's only about 15 verses. But when it was recited immediately Najashi is taken aback, his eyes filled with tears. Those that have been in pursuit of Isa and they just knew something was off. They knew something was off and I can tell you subhanAllah I just met someone yesterday who insha'Allah will be publicly announcing our Islam soon who is very influential and was a devout Christian. And one of the things that he was saying yesterday he was saying subhanAllah people won't believe me when I say that I became Muslim because of Jesus alayhi salam. So beautiful what he had what she said about him. You know if you really ask some of the early books of Shaykh Ahmad i-Daghrafi radiallahu ta'ala where he's he was doing the work when very few people were doing it right that local work about Jesus peace be upon him he actually introduces one of his books and I can't remember which one it was
at the moment but he says that he actually sat next to a good Christian and he recited surah Maryam from the Quran and he said read to me about Maryam from your scripture and he said be honest which one would you like to give to your teenage daughter which one would you feel better about giving to your teenage daughter to read to get introduced to Mary Jesus and he said that the man as a theologian couldn't help but admit I prefer this version. It's absolutely beautiful it's gorgeous it's thorough it's coherent it's comprehensive and so step into it lean into it this is your prophet this is a prophet that was sent not to you as your ummah you're not the ummah of Isa but he was sent to you by your lord and on the day of judgment when you are when we're witnesses upon the people guess what we're doing we're standing next to the prophets Nuh and his people have a debate we step in we say we know Musa and his people have an argument we step in we know Musa he did what he was supposed to do we step in on behalf of Mary we're there as witnesses upon the people on behalf of the prophets of Allah right so lean into it this is your prophet you love him you have a theology that incorporates him perfectly beautifully that an honest and a sincere heart and mind will say that makes a lot of sense I've always loved Jesus but I didn't understand a trinary you know how many times I've heard about people that embrace his thought like I knew it I always loved Isa I saw some of you in here might be converts to Islam and you have that experience I always loved them but it just didn't make sense now it makes sense now I can still love him without having
that internal conflict lean into it right now here's what I'm saying or why I'm starting with it's not that some of the scholars say that the ayah that those who are closest to Ibrahim are those who follow him some of the scholars say that that is because the people in Mecca and the Jewish tribes in Medina both tried to say to Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam and his ummah from different directions we have Ibrahim salallahu alayhi wa sallam Ibrahim is one of us can you imagine they claim Ibrahim they claim him in a different way they claim him from a place of lineage and then you go to Medina and you have rabbis who are thoroughly read in the Torah that can quote you all sorts of details about Ibrahim you know a few things about him but what you know about him is correct thank you and they can throw a book at you literally and I've lost the time to add a saying don't feel inferior to them don't take a back seat not when you're with the Najash and the Christians in Abyssinia nor with the Jews in Medina nor with the pagans in Mecca your prophets don't let anybody else tell you that you don't have a right to them because you claim them the way that Allah sent them so feel that closeness demonstrate that attachment they are yours and you are theirs because we are all for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and they fit within that divine scheme and so this verse was revealed paralleling the Muslims in Abyssinia according to some of the scholars from the Muslims not interacted with the people of the book in Medina who are saying come on what do you guys know about prophets what do you know about Abraham what do you know about his you know about about the chosen
people what do you know about who he has promised this to and who he has promised that to and the same mind games get played with us now with the whole land of Palestine with Jerusalem and subhanAllah the way that I think it's important for us to intervene at times whether we're talking about Isa alayhi salam or Ibrahim alayhi salam or Musa alayhi salam or Suleiman alayhi salam what makes your starting point of history more authentic than mine because from a historical method perspective we can trace the books you're parroting a narrative that wasn't born until this century from a completely unorthodox paradigm foreign to your faith we have an authentic unbroken chain for 1400 years why should I start from your departure point in history and then try to argue with you on the basis of that departure point it's like someone says oh that's you know how dare you talk about you know this conception of the prophets like you have to start from the biblical conception and then try to fit in the islamic conception no no I reject everything you say about a prophet of Allah that's not befitting of a prophet of Allah everything I don't have to prove to you that Dawood alayhi salam is innocent of the crimes that you associate him with I don't have to prove to you that he did not send a general out because he wanted the general so he sent the general off to murder so that he could take the wife of the general I don't have to prove to you that Dawood alayhi salam was not a drunkard your entire conception of prophethood does not fit the divine scheme we start from a consistent coherent departure point in history
and that's why when the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam comes into Medina and who gets to claim Moses who gets to claim Musa alayhi salam and they are fasting the day of Ashura and the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says you're closer to Moses we love Musa alayhi salam we will take this as a day of fasting it wasn't a confrontational statement it was a confident statement very different things very different things like the prophets like someone you imagine him saying that he's not getting up in people's face he's saying it to his community hey don't sit there and watch from the sidelines we love Musa alayhi salam we are Musa alayhi salam we are closer to Musa alayhi salam the mistake that we make with Jerusalem by the way with Al-Quds our history with Jerusalem does not start with Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam doesn't start with Al-Isra, Al-Mi'raj the whole history of the prophets of Allah that were sent Ibrahim alayhi salam the first prophet that we know of that lived and died in in Palestine may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala liberate him the first prophet we know of that lived and died in the islands right for sure there are other tafasir about other prophets that came before but he's the first one we know of don't we say that they were all Muslims so why are you starting your history with Jerusalem from Al-Isra, Al-Mi'raj no yes Sulaiman alayhi salam lived there yes prophets were there and they built for the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala a masjid a place where
Allah is to be worshipped where prosperation takes place yes righteous people have come and gone we claim all of those who worship Allah the way that we worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala therefore we feel an attachment we feel a connection that attachment and that connection has never meant for us bulldozing people and murdering people and displacing people and cutting people off that's the way you deal with your conception and so both your connection is deviant and the way that you deal with your connection is deviant we never did that but we're not going to start our history from this Al-Mi'raj we're going to go back we're going to go way back to our father alayhi salam Ibrahim alayhi salam wa huwa abu al-anbiya and he is the father of the prophets alayhi salam now let's talk about this concept so in the olden house the closer the closest to Ibrahim are those who follow him the closest to Musa are those that follow him the closest to Isa are those that follow him and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says about the prophets alayhi salam what the prophet is closer to the believers than themselves our prophet is nearer to us than ourselves and so there is this word that keeps on coming up who gets to make the claim who gets to demonstrate closeness let me tell you subhanAllah in this day and age we are 1400 years removed from our beloved prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is there a central authority of Hashemites the children of the descendants of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam that by and large make a claim that the community yields to that we do
DNA tests to try to prove that this person is Hashemi and this person is not and that's where we yield our authority to or do we look to those who cling to the way of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and the way that his family alayhi salatu wasalam practiced do we look to that and that's how we denote authority in our community it's how we denote authority in our community there are people that love the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam more than themselves and they have absolutely no bloodline to them alayhi salatu wasalam and who follows the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam put in quantum to him follow me and Allah will love you those that follow the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam are those that get to make the closest claim to him alayhi salatu wasalam those that will be closest to him on the day of judgment are those that follow him are those that are plentiful in their salawat upon them salallahu alayhi wasalam are those that have the best character in following the best example of character in him salallahu alayhi wasalam that's the claim of closeness so start from this verse and that's why Allah says and this prophet think about the power of language here the function of language speaking to people of the book people that mocked the idea of a prophetic connection or the connection of the prophets lights up on these arrows from Mecca a pagan society they mocked the idea of a connection and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala saying this prophet this one not the one that you all have imagined and because he didn't show up the way that he wanted them to you denied him because he didn't come out
from bani israel you didn't like him this prophet right here this prophet has the closest connection to Ibrahim not you and those who believe and verily Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the protective friend of all of the believers but I want us to actually build this coherent connection and I want to start from a few places number one the idea of who's closest to Ibrahim closeness to Ibrahim number two that of the beauty of how Ibrahim is described in the Quran is that everything that Ibrahim achieved in terms of equality those are achievable qualities in lesser proportion to this one everything that he achieved there are achievable qualities that we can implement in our daily lives to this ummah but in the force number three Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said to follow Ibrahim alayhi salam in creed and in character and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that you have an Ibrahim you have a good example in his character you have the creed of Ibrahim alayhi salam and the person who mastered it most is the most blessed son of Ibrahim alayhi salam Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam whose life is in great detail to you all right so let's kind of walk this back I want to actually start from this particular place Ibrahim alayhi salam has certain titles in Islam one of them is Al Khalil he is the
friend of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is it possible for you to be a friend of Allah yes or no absolutely and what do we call the friends of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in our religion? Al Awliya, the Awliya, they are the friends of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to take you in to be your guardian to be your protective friend you cannot achieve being a Wali of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala unless you are a abdu of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you start from Ubudiyyah you start from a place of great servitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then in the process of that servitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you attain friendship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala okay so it starts with servitude it graduates to friendship and this is a scheme that we have in terms of our practice and in terms of our position in terms of our practice you start from being a Muslim you go from Islam and then you graduate from Islam to Iman as Ibn Majid Rahim Allah said you start from practice and then you have faith where you internalize what you are practicing and then when those two things are married beautifully you have Ihsan excellence that refers to your practice which is that you worship Allah as if you can see him that the external and the internal are in such harmony with each other that is as if you can see the longer that you can see the divine in himself subhanahu wa ta'ala and that is your ultimate guide at that point that refers to
output right Muslim mu'min muhsin Allah make us from a people of Ihsan on the position side of things the maqam the ranking so that's practicers position you are with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and to be in a state of abodea to be in a state of servitude is to submit yourself to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wholly entirely enter into the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala enter into Islam entirely enter into submission entirely don't follow the footsteps of shaitan Ibrahim is a Muslim he's a person who entered into Islam entirely the footsteps of shaitan for Ibrahim were different from your footsteps of shaitan his footsteps were much more significance why because the footsteps of shaitan for Ibrahim is why are you going to sacrifice your son and that's a hard Hajar why are you going to let him do this to your son Ismail why are you going to let your father do this to you the whispers and the footsteps of shaitan are plenty and they are severe and they're far more consequential but what do you call it the city Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says when he says to Ibrahim aslim submit yourself Ibrahim says I submit myself to the lord of the worlds don't ifs or buts there is no wow no no Allah says aslim submit he said like submit oh Allah so in terms of franking you go in as a
you graduate in position to be a friend of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to be of the awliya of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the awliya are akhfiyah as Ali radi allahu ta'ala said they're hidden amongst the people no one knows who a wadi of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is like you don't get a badge you don't get a coat you don't get a miftah turban all right you don't get you don't get anything to denote that Allah azawajal has hidden his awliya amongst his ibad right akhfiyah awliya you see what Ali radi allahu ta'ala was saying the awliya are a smaller group of the ibad the friends of Allah are smaller amongst the servants of Allah so you don't know when you're dealing with the ibad of Allah which of them is a wali of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the person next to you might be a wali of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala your mom or dad might be a wali of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala your child might grow up to be a wali of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you don't know you have no idea but you are concerned with graduating into a state of wilayah to be a friend of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala now Ibrahim alayhi salam achieved a friendship with Allah that is specific to him that's special to him and that is al khalif to be that close exclusive friend of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he says that the word khalif only it's like your best friend and only Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can have more than one khalif but for us you can't have more than one khalif that's why the prophet sallallahu alayhi asalam said about Abu Bakr as-siddiq radi allahu ta'ala anhu that had Allah not already taken me as a khalif I would have taken Abu Bakr radi allahu ta'ala anhu as a khalif but Allah azawajal
already took me as a khalif so only Allah azawajal can have more than one khalif a person cannot have more than one khalif in their nature it's a very intimate friendship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the point that I'm trying to make here is that for us what we are aiming for when we study the life of Ibrahim is we die he has a special friendship with Allah you are studying the life of the friend of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala do you want to be in a state of friendship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala if so try to live your life like Ibrahim is highlighted and friends show themselves generally speaking in good times or in bad times dark times that's when you learn who your friends are right you learn who your friends are in dark moments and so generally Ibrahim's life you're seeing tragic moments in his life but in those tragedies you're seeing closeness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you're seeing a friend of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rise why is this significant to us from a place of tahseer because go back to the verse then they don't figure out how to live in 68 or 69 68 verse 68 Allah is the protective front of the believers Allah is the wali of the believers I want to walk you back to Subhanallah Allah is the friend of those who believe he takes them from darknesses to light
those who disbelieve their awliya their protective friends are those silly gods god-like figures that they think are gods that take them away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that they have set up instead of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala their idols their tyrants their trends all of that can fall into tahut by the way if you look at it in its broadest meaning okay and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says whoever disbelieves in all of that and believes in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you have held on to the trustworthy handholds right there's absolutely no breaking out that trustworthy handhold must involve all of your and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala transitions to what can anyone tell me what's the next verse I know it's locked in my lips I need to break now inshallah so I'll just finish up with this point where does Allah take us you want to see what a friend of Allah looks like who's been taken from darkness to light who's been taken from confusion to clarity versus someone who has been relegated to darkness and confusion look at this situation where Ibrahim is arguing with this person who claims to be a god-like figure when Ibrahim stood in front of that tower and said my lord it is light and my work is you want to see you want to see what a friend of Allah looks like in a difficult situation
with all the supports of power and you might not be considering the psychological impact again the interiority complex is the media that a Muslim could be feeling all these people know there's a lot we speak Hebrew they speak the language of Ibrahim and we're the followers of how is that possible how can you insist upon that right before you get into it and Ibrahim is in front of this brutal tyrant and he doesn't have the structure to the power around him but he has the power of clarity and he says my work is light and my work is light he said I give life and I give death watch this watch what I'm going to do very quick what is he doing he brings someone who's given a death sentence he says you're free to go then it brings on entirely innocence and it makes a peace now if you're Ibrahim this is no longer just a discussion of of you know theology this is a theological discussion this is someone flexing their ego flexing their muscle intoxicated by their power callous hairless reckless you know how these people worship themselves you see better than that yahoo did you see their own reaction you see by the way there's a hama and sometimes I can't tell which system is in the white house and which one I'm telling you but there's always two of them right they're always kind of hanging around each other okay the way these tyrants feed off of each other it's never a tyrant alone but pay attention to tell a lot you think that he cares about his hostages that you're relevant to him cares less about palestinians palestinian life but everything when you become that when you become that intoxicated by your own needle or your own power and you worship out everyone is just a tool it's just literally peace
is going on in front of a table pause I don't see anybody as human beings because I'm going to need to stay in power so there's a psychological element here right and I go on my response that's my lord dave is lying from better life he says watch this I gave life my gift god and while he marries them up so this fit in a lot of that oh yeah go ahead unless it had to cause the sun to rise from the east and set in the west go ahead and make it rise from the west and the madness completely taken aback why did my psychological torture not work on me why are you awful I don't like when I can't torture someone or torment someone or psychologically twist on to probate me why aren't you listening to the wrong power what is the what why is my brute force not working with the bookings that let me talk about well going to let me cover unless can't add up what the wisdom of them using that language like he's completely baffled baffled it's not just the strength of the argument it's the clarity of the one making the argument like how did you say that to me after all I just did in front of you how do you have that internal clarity and that internal strength aren't you afraid of me absolutely not that's why the palestinian child frustrates his itis aren't you afraid of me no your tank garbage I don't care about your power you don't have any your power means nothing killing you go ahead it frustrates them it flusters them it's not just the strength of your argument it's the strength of the person making you
and the greatest deprivation for you is a lot of luck guiding your own transits you are cut off from me this is a friend of allah you don't get it and abraham leaves unscathed untouched by that tyrant the point that i'm making and we'll bring it off the spot is that a lot of transition to the story of iran after they're saying allah is the wali of those who believe and in the verse there is a constant emphasis on this idea may allah make us from the friends of allah you
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