Lecture
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17
Social Justice
Islam, A Coherent Social Justice Tradition | Omar Suleiman | 16th MAS-ICNA Convention
22
Jurisprudence (fiqh)
Appreciating Scholarship: Intro to Islamic Law - Tesneem Alkiek | Yaqeen in NY
26
Islamophobia
How Yaqeen Heals Internalized Islamophobia - Dalia Mogahed | Making Principled Progress
29
Education
How Yaqeen is a Resource for Our Community - Sh. Omar Suleiman | Making Principled Progress
34
General Psychology
Spiritual Personality - Zohair Abdul-Rahman | 2018 Yaqeen/MAS Academic Conference
35
Social Justice
Conflict Resolution: The Line Between Justice and Peace - Sh. Omar Suleiman | Lecture
47
Identity
Keeping Masculinity from Trending Toxic - Dr. Jonathan Brown | Reframing the Gender Question
Becoming the Best Version of Yourself | Dr. Omar Suleiman
In this lecture, Dr. Omar Suleiman talks about how we may find ourselves excelling in one area of faith, yet severely lacking in another. How do we identify our blind spots and become more balanced and complete in the sight of Allah?
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh MashaAllah, in California, y'all do Jum'ahs at night. It feels like so strange to be here again at night time. Alhamdulillah, before I get started, I just wanted to once again show gratitude and truly honored to be in the presence of my beloved brothers, Sheikh Atif, Dr. Hassan, Sheikh Anas, alhamdulillah, and everyone here from the staff at this incredible center, the Rahma Center, alhamdulillah. It's growing, it is flourishing, it's vision-driven, and it's beautiful to see it coming together. So I pray that inshaAllah ta'ala I'll be able to see it over and over and over again, and that we be united multiple times with Allah ta'ala and that which is pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I also want to thank the volunteers, mashaAllah, and the security. If they got a little unnerved at some point trying to get you in, trying to get you through this door, and if they seemed like they were panicking at some point or things became difficult, please forgive them and in fact thank them, because it's not easy to manage an event with a space that is limited. Alhamdulillah, everyone that comes here with the right intention, inshaAllah, will be rewarded fully. And you'll get more than what you could get from a lecture, bismillah ta'ala. So please forgive them and thank them, and I'm certainly grateful to all of them. Jazakumullahu khairan, may Allah reward you all. And on your way out, say thank you to them as well, bismillah ta'ala. And then jazakumullahu khairan to all of you, alhamdulillah, for coming again. I know I was here not too long ago. How many of you were here at that event, by the way? Alhamdulillah, mashaAllah. So it's good to see so many of your faces once again. Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala Rasulillah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. So tonight is going to be one of those topics that if I don't make you a little bit uncomfortable, then I failed in my mission tonight.
And if I don't heed my own words and make myself a bit uncomfortable, I've also failed. So I want you to understand that the topic is very specific for a reason, and I'm not intentionally offending you, but I do hope inshaAllah ta'ala that every single one of you finds something in this lecture tonight where you say to yourself, maybe that's where I fall and that's where I need to work. Maybe that's where I fall, and that's where I need to work. Why? Because we all have deficiencies. And if any of you actually read the title of the talk before you signed up, How to Become a More Wholesome Muslim, there's meaning to that. What I could do is I could talk to you about the things that I'm pretty certain, as an audience, as maybe a masjid-going audience, or an audience that typically goes to masajid and engages in Islamic activities and is familiar with Islamic education online, I could share with you the things that I know that most of you probably already do and encourage you to do more of it and talk about the rewards of those things. But actually what I want you to do, and what I find is the most useful exercise at the beginning of any talk, is for you to actually do your own introspection and ask yourself, if I was giving advice to myself, if myself just walked through the door and I was another person and I had to give myself advice as a friend, or give a lecture, or talk to someone on a heart-to-heart basis and say something that might be an uncomfortable truth, what would I say to myself if I knew myself as a friend for let's say five months and I've spent every day with you for five months? Then I'd probably have a pretty good idea of who you are.
Now you've spent every single moment with yourself since you've been here. But I'm talking about if your self was a friend. Five months, six months, I've seen you every day and now I need to have a really uncomfortable conversation with you. What would I have to say to you? And what would be the nasiha, the advice that you need to hear? And subhanAllah you'll find that Sayyiduna Umar r.a. mentioned that that contemplation, introspection is like holding up a mirror to yourself. And it is the clearest, most clarifying mirror that you can possibly have. You see if you have a righteous friend that is willing to share with you certain things that you might need to hear at times because they love you more than they love your friendship. Those are special people by the way. If you come across one of them, alhamdulillah. They love you more than they love your friendship. I'd rather tell you something that I think you need to hear even if that means that I might alienate you from me because I think it'll make you a better person. Very few friends are like that. And when you find a friend like that, make sure that when they give you nasiha, when they give you that sincere advice, you thank them in a way that they will want to give it to you again and that they'll be willing to receive it as well. If you have people like that, those are the people that Allah is talking about when He says, They enjoin one another in truth and they keep each other patient. Those types of friends, right, that will actually take the time and care to love you more than they even love your friendship. Now, yourself is even more clarifying. Especially if you're paying close attention to yourself. And you should care about your hereafter more than anyone else cares for your hereafter. You see, there's a handoff point, especially for many Muslims that grow up in Muslim households, where your parents care more for your Islam
than you care for your own Islam. And then there comes a point where you've got to take control of your own narrative and your own religion and your own story. And this has to become now your pursuit. It's no longer them waking you up for prayer, it's yourself waking up for prayer before they can even come, knock on the door. It's not them reminding you, it's you reminding yourself. Because you realize at some point, you love your success in the hereafter more than they love your success in the hereafter. I'll give you an example from a worldly perspective. You know, there's a point in life where a person who's pursuing a certain level of education has to have buy-in in their own education. Your parents can put you in the best schools. Think about the worldly perspective. They can get you the best teachers, the best education. They can invest in your after-school education. They can help get you enrolled in the best universities. But at some point, it's going to be you sitting in that chair in the classroom, and if you don't choose to learn and succeed, you're just going to fail, even in the best university. There's a spiritual analogy there too. That even if someone gets you the best environment, the best teachers, puts you in the best community, puts you in the best university, the university of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, which is the university you want to be enrolled in, his sunnah, at some point, you've got to be wanting to succeed and learn and grow, or else you fall off. Now that's just one example of this. So as I said, if I don't make you a little bit uncomfortable in this lecture, then I failed as a lecturer. And if I don't heed my own advice and make myself a little bit uncomfortable, then I failed as a Muslim, to be honest with you. So let's talk about this subject for a bit, inshallah ta'ala. The idea of being a more wholesome Muslim. Now the first way I want you to look at this
is I want you to take a step back, and I want you to think about some amazing people we have in history, and some of the qualities that made them amazing. And whether those qualities match the typical circumstances of those people. So I'll start with the Prophet of Allah. Who are the wealthy prophets you think of? Who are the wealthy prophets? Like the prophets that were rich, the prophets that were wealthy, the prophets that were powerful. Suleyman alayhis salam. Who was his father? Dawood alayhis salam. The Prophet Dawood alayhis salam. So one of the beautiful things that you see with Dawood and Suleyman is that Suleyman alayhis salam is a Prophet of Allah. Therefore he's naturally nourished in righteousness and made worthy of being a recipient of revelation. But it's beautiful when you see succession in the Quran between parents and children. The most common ones we talk about are Ibrahim alayhis salam and his children. And then that to Yaqub alayhis salam, to Jacob. And then to Yusuf alayhis salam, to Joseph. And there is such a consistency there. And you can see the same elements of righteousness and beauty transitioning from one parent to the next. Which is beautiful. You don't just see that they all are Muslims. But if you met Ishaq alayhis salam or you met Ismail alayhis salam and you had known their father Ibrahim alayhis salam, you would see it. You'd catch it. There is Ibrahim alayhis salam. You remind me of your father. It's a good parent. If you met Fatima, you would see everything of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam if you knew the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And it used to stun people to the point that they'd say, subhanallah, even her walk was exactly like the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Aisha radiallahu anha said, I've never seen a person who resembled the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam more. Hadyan wa samtam.
In mannerism, in appearance, in every single detail like Fatima to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So there's a transition. Like if I met Ismail and Ishaq and I knew Ibrahim, may Allah allow us to one day know them all in person in paradise. Allahumma ameen. I'd say, I see your father in you. I can see your mother in you. I see the transition point. I see the characteristics. So if you met Sulaiman alayhis salam and you had known Dawood alayhis salam, there's a clear transition here. There's a beauty in the similarities of their character. Now Dawood alayhis salam, as I said I want you to take a step back and think about a wholesome person. Dawood alayhis salam, from a worldly perspective, is marked by his wealth and his power. Right? He's a powerful Prophet. He's a wealthy Prophet. He's in the dunya we sense, as he is in the dini sense and all of the Prophets are successful. Right? But if you saw his worldly achievements, there's success there. Right? And usually with that type of success, which his son inherited and then had grown in a way that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decreed in response to his dua, customized an even bigger kingdom, usually people that have that type of success have certain flaws that become more pronounced, even sometimes to their own ignorance. You know if you were to take yourself, and some people have witnessed a great variety of change in their lives in terms of their economic circumstances. I know many of you are young and you haven't gone through that. Right? But at one point very hard working, poor. At some point still hard working, but maybe they succeed in a worldly sense. Maybe some people came from a country
where certain expectations of service and respect were not necessarily there, but now they're in a different type of society and so that expectation and that service is there. It's like you know I'll never forget and may Allah forgive this brother and I gave a khutbah today about not mocking people, but it hurt me to hear it honestly. I remember in hajj, a very specific moment in my life may Allah protect us all and accept our hajj, but we go there with expectations like hey I paid for the package, right? And this guy, you know a bus is late and he goes to the guy who's running the buses and he asks him when the buses are and the guy kind of brushes him off and in the thickest accent that was not an American accent says I'm an American. Like mashallah, get back in line. But there was something that came from like a change of circumstance meant a change of how I expect the world to approach me now. Like when you get wealthier, may Allah grant you all goodness in this life and in the next, whether that's manifested in wealth or not, but when you live a life of more ease, you expect better service at the restaurant. You're more easily irritated because your circumstances dictate this idea that I've paid my way up to expecting a certain level of treatment at this point in my life. Maybe I wouldn't have had that same level of expectation earlier on. And I don't recognize that as arrogance in myself, but in reality, what changed? What changed, right? So with Dawood alayhis salaam, powerful, wealthy, successful, yet look at what he's praised for in the Quran and the Sunnah. Take a step back. He's praised for his worship.
He's praised for his ibadah, which is very significant here because Adam alayhis salaam, when his descendants were being extracted from his loins, he saw this light in the creation. And he said, who is that child of mine? And he was told it's Dawood alayhis salaam. And Dawood was so beautiful that Adam alayhis salaam gave him several decades of his life. So this man needs to live more on earth. What did the prophets alayhis salaam praise about Dawood alayhis salaam? Can anyone tell me? Anything you remember about Dawood alayhis salaam and his ibadah, his worship? Any hadith you may have heard? You can raise your hands. I don't want to hear the mumbling. Anything you've heard about Dawood? Yeah. A wise person. It's hikmah. It's praised. He was generous. He was generous. The sheikh just gave you an answer. What did he say? He was a king. Why is no one repeating the answer of the sheikh? He was right. Qiyam al-layl. Mashallah. What's your name? Iman. Mashallah. May Allah bless you and increase you. Qiyam al-layl. The first prayer at night, qiyam al-layl, is the prayer of Dawood alayhis salaam. You know that last third of the night? He traced that to Dawood alayhis salaam. That Dawood alayhis salaam used to wake up in the last third of the night. Meaning Dawood alayhis salaam was not satisfied with simply being wealthy and being a prophet and someone who gives a lot. He also was pushing himself to pray at night. What else? There's another very distinct ibadah, act of worship that he was famous for. Yeah. What is his fasting? Someone raise their hand. What was his fasting? This can mean many things.
Day on and day off. Jazakallah khair. May Allah preserve you. Day on and day off. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said the best fasting is the fasting of Dawood alayhis salaam. He would fast a day and break his fast the next day. How amazing is that? His habit was to fast every other day. Alayhis salaam. Now you think of a man wealthy in his kingdom. He's a prophet of Allah. He has a long resume. He has a lot to be praised for. He's sitting here establishing Islam in the world. Right? But he still found the prerogative to rise from his comfortable bed in the last third of the night and to forsake his comfortable wealth every other day and fast with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Beautiful person. So he has these qualities that aren't typically associated with someone that might just think, well hey, I just write my check. I just give charity and that's it. Alright? But on top of that, he also has all of the qualities that actually match his circumstances. So there are certain qualities, good qualities that might come more natural to you because of your upbringing, because of your privileges, because of your circumstances and you're expected to shine with those qualities and then not have the blind spots and the flaws that might come with that place. So when someone gets wealthy, what is one area of charity that usually a wealthy Muslim will resort to? If someone gets wealthy, Muslim gets wealthy and they start to give charity. There are different charitable projects. I just realized that that's a bad question because mashallah you're going to start naming a bunch of projects. But what about sponsoring orphans? Sponsoring orphans usually is a project that hits deep with people's hearts. Especially the Muslims. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that I and the one,
I and the one who sponsors an orphan are like these two fingers. May Allah grant us this closeness to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam on the Day of Judgment. But there are different ways, right? There's someone that just writes a check and there's someone that does even more that shows a great deal of empathy and love. And it's harder when you're more removed from the circumstances of the one you're giving charity to right? It's harder. So even while, it's actually interesting subhanAllah the psychology of charity that even while you might be giving more you might be connecting much less to the recipients. You're giving more out of a sense of responsibility. You need to write bigger checks because you have more money now. You need to sponsor more people. But their experience is becoming more and more distant from you. And of course in our day and age there's something that needs to also be accounted for which is that there's no longer that idea of going to someone and giving them sadaqah and being in their presence and actually seeing it and experiencing it and getting the softness of the heart that comes with it. Now Dawood Alayhi Salaam could have simply said to his minister count how much wealth I have and then allot this percentage like he's doing taxes. But you don't do sadaqah but Dawood Alayhi Salaam was known for always surrounding himself with the orphans. What is this based upon? If you read, not to get too technical but it's a beautiful saying. If you read Adab Al Mufrat one of the collections of Imam Bukhari Rahim Allah Ta'ala where he breaks down chapters of hadith on noble characteristics, noble traits. He has a chapter which is named after this beautiful statement
of Dawood Alayhi Salaam. The narration from Dawood Alayhi Salaam that Dawood Alayhi Salaam said كن لليتين كالأب الرحيم كن لليتين كالأب الرحيم Be to the orphan like a loving father. كن لليتين كالأب الرحيم Be to the orphan like a loving father. Meaning when Dawood Alayhi Salaam surrounded himself with orphans he wasn't just writing a check. He was taking deep interest in their lives. كن لليتين كالأب الرحيم That's the type of household that a Suleiman Alayhi Salaam comes from. Who will never be blinded by wealth. You see now it kind of makes sense. How did Suleiman Alayhi Salaam get removed by any of the kingdom in front of him. Anything that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la put at his disposal. Because he had a father. Of course first and foremost Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la nourished him in revelation. But he had a living example that certainly put an effect on him. Where his father was so disconnected from the wealth of this world that it was at his disposal. So he carried on the same attitude of his father and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la grew his kingdom. But he treated his kingdom the way his father treated the kingdom. Meaning the wholesomeness of Dawood Alayhi Salaam translated to the wholesomeness of Suleiman Alayhi Salaam. So I just want to talk about good qualities for a moment. This is not the part that makes you uncomfortable. This is the part that makes you think a little bit about how wholesomeness is looked at through our deen, through our tazkiyah. But not the part that makes you uncomfortable. Another example Uthman RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhum. Uthman Ibn Affan RadhiAllahu Anhum. A very wealthy man. Exceedingly wealthy man. I'm using wealth because it's an obvious example to start with when we're talking about good qualities.
What was the quality other than sadaqah, other than charity that Uthman RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhum was distinguished by? He was shy. Haya is a much broader term than shyness, but so modest. Haya includes modesty, humility, shyness. It includes many different things. But Haya Uthman RadhiAllahu Ta'ala Anhum, if you knew him, the love that people had for him, the wealth that he possessed, the position that he possessed in society, yet he would be the quietest person in the room. He'd be the shyest person. He didn't walk around with swag. He walked around with a lot of humility. To where, if you didn't know him, you wouldn't assume anything about his circumstances. You might even assume the opposite. Because he was quiet. He was shy. He was modest. He was humble with people. You'd never know. So he had a quality that was expected of someone of his circumstance, and he shined with it, which was super generous with his wealth. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam asks for something, he comes forth, and he gives it. Which is what you would want from someone that has that wealth. But then he has a quality that is rare to find with someone that has those circumstances. Wholesomeness. You see what I'm getting at here. Luqman Al-Hakim Alayhis Salaam. Luqman is known for his wisdom, his wise speech. Deeply poetic. His parables were legendary. Every time he spoke, Alayhis Salaam, it became a statement that was etched in the hearts and minds of everyone that was around him. So poetic. So eloquent. But Luqman Al-Hakim was distinguished actually by his silence. He went to a gathering, Luqman was the quietest person there.
Ibn Al-Jawzi Alayhis Salaam has a story, and this is not a hadith, so I want to point this out there. It's just a parable about Luqman Al-Hakim. He said that it was said that one time Dawood Alayhis Salaam spoke in a gathering, and Luqman Al-Hakim was in that gathering. He's talking about this idea, and he said that Luqman did not speak the whole time. So Dawood Alayhis Salaam asked him why he didn't say anything. And he said, is there any use, I'm paraphrasing, is there any use in speech unless it is about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and is there any good in silence unless you're thinking about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So your silence should be meaningful, your speaking should be meaningful. I was in a meaningful silence. And I didn't find that meaningful speech overcame the beauty of meaningful silence in these moments. Again, this is not a hadith, it's a story that's narrated that Ibn Al-Jawzi Alayhis Salaam mentions, but certainly a great wisdom, and the Prophet Alayhis Salaam praises his wisdom even more than that. Allah praises his wisdom in the Quran. Usually people that are poetic are going to talk more. Usually people that are eloquent and articulate are going to talk more. And they won't know when to be quiet. Because they'll start becoming invested in their own speech. And the Prophet Alayhis Salaam mentioned that one of the signs of the Day of Judgment is everyone is fascinated by their own opinion. Everyone has an opinion and everyone is fascinated by their own opinion. As if it's an informed opinion. No. Getting a bunch of retweets and a bunch of likes and shares and a bunch of forwards and people that think at the same level as you confirming everything that you say does not mean that you have an informed opinion. Just because it resonates with a lot of people doesn't mean it's informed. So one of the signs of the Day of Judgment is everyone becomes fascinated by their opinion. I shared an opinion, it's the greatest thing in the world. It sounded great. Even if it was entirely uninformed and illiterate but it sounded great. So people get used to hearing their own voices.
And if you're articulate like Luqman Al-Hakim Alayhis Salaam, silence is not usually a trait that you're going to find. So the quality that was expected of him, wisdom with his eloquence, he called to good things. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala immortalized the conversation of a man with his child on their walk. I mean you have to be an incredible person of character and wisdom that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will turn this advice that you're giving to your son on a walk into a surah of the Quran. Right? So a man who spoke with wisdom and who spoke with benefits. So he didn't use his eloquence in a way that was misplaced. He used it for good things. And he also did not let that good quality own him. And betray him by taking him away from another good quality which was learning to practice silence when it was necessary. Khadijah Radhiya Allah Ta'ala Anha. A woman who was of perfect faith. Khadijah Radhiya Allah Ta'ala Anha was exceedingly beautiful, exceedingly wealthy, exceedingly prestigious. She has everything that a person could want in that society. Yet Subhanallah look at her qualities of humility, of modesty, the support, the loyalty, the way that she valued character in people. Right? She was in the rooms with people who could care less about character. They were all about folly. They were all about materialism. They were all about image. They were all about all of the superficiality. Yet what does she look for in people? Sidq, amanah. Truthfulness, trustworthiness. And Allah gifted her with a Sadiq al-Amin as a husband. So supportive, so modest, so incredible. So she has the qualities that would be expected of her. A righteous woman of her prestige. What does she do?
She frees slaves with her wealth. She sponsors the weddings of young women that couldn't afford to get married in her society. She pays Mahab. I mean her home was a soup kitchen in Jahiliyyah. She literally had a green tent, a canopy in front of her house that people knew to come to her house and that she was always going to spend on people. Even before she married the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. So she had the qualities that were expected of a person of that stature. But then she had these qualities that are seemingly contradicting. I think you all get the point here so I'm not going to go into more examples because I could go all night and I realize that time is already moving. But most of the companions of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam exemplify this in such a beautiful way. Umar ibn al-Khattab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. Another example that you could take and that you could subhanAllah dissect the beauty of his tazkiyah. Strong, powerful. But subhanAllah if a young child told Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu, fear Allah, his ego never betrayed him. Never betrayed him. Shaytan fled from Umar because Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu kicked his ego in the mouth. Figuratively like his ego had no place with him therefore shaytan had no opening with him. So you could tell Umar to fear Allah, Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu would fear Allah right away and say why? What do I do? Right? So his strength was expected of a man of his stature and prominence. But at the same time he had these qualities that were not expected of a person who had that type of an imposing presence in society. Now, what does this have to do with being a more wholesome Muslim? So we launched this study at Yaqeen and I'm going to actually invite all of you at some point inshaAllah ta'ala to go on the website to yaqeeninstitute.org and take the religiosity quiz at the bottom. If you scroll right down you'll see religiosity quiz, a portrait of your religiosity. It's called BASIC.
Belief, Attitude, Spirituality, Institution, Contribution. BASIC, Belief, Attitude, Spirituality, Institution, Contribution. What does it speak to? Where did this come from? So this is actually a quiz and a methodology, a data methodology that was worked on by Dr. Uthman Omarji who is here in SoCal by the way and some of the scholars that are here. Alhamdulillah Rabbil Ameen. I just got the 10 minute mark. Brother Nabil, I'm sorry, I'm going to go. Alright. But they worked on this data collection or a methodology to where what does it mean to measure the wholesomeness of a Muslim? So I'll give you practical examples. You might find someone that has great attitudes about their religion. You ask them about Islam and they light up and they say, I love my religion. They don't look the part. They don't pray the part. They're not in the masjid. But you meet this person in public and you ask them about Islam and they light up. They have a great attitude about their religion. They'll defend it against any Islamophobe. Attitude is great. Maybe they're lacking in other areas. You have some people that have great spiritual practice. But their spiritual practice is not translating to any level of contribution back to the society, back to community. That's a deficiency. The spirituality part is great but how do you launch them into the contribution? There are some people that have strong belief in Islam. Like their creed is solid. Philosophy. They could argue with people. They could do dawah to people in the park. They could take on people in all types of things. But they're not really practicing Muslims. It's really relegated to the intellectual space. Because we have a tendency to imbalance. And our lives are an opportunity to try to balance ourselves out to be the most wholesome servants of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala before we meet him.
You might have someone that is BASC heavy but they don't have a connection to the masjid. And I understand institutions, sometimes masjids are not welcoming. Sometimes you're not finding yourself in a masjid. But you know what? The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said the masjid is the home of every believer. المسجد وبيت كل مسلم Every Muslim, their home is the masjid. Their spiritual home is the masjid. You gotta have a place of institution in your life as well. And institutionalizing your good efforts. So how do I fill these categories so that I don't meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with a great deficiency in any one of them? What do I need to hear? What do I need to start practicing while I build each one of these? Now every one of us is going to be imbalanced. But we don't want to be imbalanced in a way that we have fundamental flaws that go unaddressed in our personalities. And the worst type of situation that you can be in or of the worst situations is when you're actually being betrayed by a good quality that you possess. Meaning what? Every time you think about improvement, you merely think about a good quality that you already have and simply embellishing that good quality further. I'll give you an example. And to Allah belongs the greatest example. So this is different but just maybe a human one that you can relate to. A parent tells a child, I need you to do this chore by 8 o'clock. A child comes back, doesn't do the chore, says, mom I bought you flowers. Alright great, can you go do the dishes now? I cut the grass. Okay but can you go do the dishes? I vacuum the living room. What's happening here? There's a disconnect between what you're supposed to be doing and something that you might be doing that might be good. It is good. It's nice that you vacuumed. It's nice that you cleaned up. It's nice that you cut the grass.
It's nice that you did all these things. But you were told to do something very specific and you're not doing it. Now that can become a fundamental and fatal flaw, right? Now with our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, this is a form of ghurur, deception, delusion. Imam al-Ghazali rahimahullah ta'ala talks about a very specific type of ghurur here, right? And that is the ghurur of the righteous. So he says, the righteous in quotation marks. So he says for example, the people that can really get caught up into this. He says scholars, worshippers, people of tasawwuf, so spirituality, and wealthy people. Now what is he talking about here? He says the scholar might feel a sense of immunity because they teach the religion to the people. And so religion becomes relegated to theory. Preaching. Telling other people what to do. And the person has no time to practice anything that they are doing. Even worse, lima taqooroona ma la tafa'aloon. Intentionally doing other than what they say. Or just not practicing it. Letting the hearts rust. Not doing anything while telling people how they should be better. And they justify that to themselves by saying, I'm busy. I got to teach the people. And so they live in books and they teach in books. And they sleep in books. And they never experience Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They might know about Allah, but they don't know Allah. So they are teaching people about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but they are not getting into it. And that's a form of delusion. And even worse than that, I can tell you this. That in the culture, and let's not just take scholars and pick on scholars. People of da'wah. People who are of the quote unquote religious class. In those circles, some of the worst spiritual diseases go completely unchecked. Because when you see a bunch of religious people backbiting, well they are religious. And so if this person is doing it, then it must not really qualify as ghibah then.
And if this person is doing it, this person is doing it. It can't really be that corrupt. It's so much more blatant and obvious when it's a bunch of people that are clearly far away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Talking about something that distances them from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So even the culture that gets created around scholarship and da'wah and things of that sort can be a poisonous one. So ghurur, deception, a fundamental flaw goes unaddressed. A person might worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala a lot. So you could be practicing a major sin. Insisting on a sin and having no intention to address it at any point in your life. But you pray extra. You fast extra. Alhamdulillah you pray qiyam al-layl. That's amazing if you're praying sunnahs as well. That's amazing if you're fasting more than Ramadan. But Allah is not going to ask you on the day of judgment, why didn't you fast Mondays and Thursdays? Or why didn't you pray at night? And you might be developing an arrogance in the process of that. Self-righteousness. Looking down upon the quote-unquote sinners. And so delusion, even though what you're doing is good, you need to address the fatal flaw. People of spirituality, and he's speaking about a very particular class of people that think that they have access to some secret relationship with the divine. To where they no longer need to do the actions that are required of the ordinary. So they've reached an extraordinary status where they no longer even need to do the ordinary practices. And people of wealth, and this is by the way very much so. Not to pick on rich people, I'm sorry. We love you when you give to the masajid and you give to the institutions. But on a serious note, if you think about where Christianity is going, capitalistic American Christianity is going. Write your cheque to God and you're good. As long as you're putting that cheque in the bucket on Sunday, you're good. Write your cheque. And we can have a manifestation of that as Muslims. Imam Ghazali is talking about it.
Centuries ago, where a person feels like, I give charity, and what happens when you give charity? MashaAllah, Takbeer, Allahu Akbar. Everyone says, MashaAllah, that brother is so generous, that sister is so generous. And they praise and praise and praise and praise. And that person goes home and commits the same sins every day and night. Lives in haram because no one even tells them that what they're doing is haram anymore. Because they want them to keep writing those cheques. It's not Islam. You don't get to write a cheque to God and just turn away. You've got the same haram and halal as everybody else. But it can feel that way. And society will even prompt you in that way. And the delusion, hence, will grow. So, how do we draw the line? How do we start to come out of this? Well, for one, Ibn Al-Qayyim says something very powerful. He says, as for hasanat, good deeds. He said, both a righteous person and a sinner is capable of doing good deeds. But no one is able to abandon sin unless they're truthful with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Not doing something that Allah tells you not to do is harder than doing something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells you to do or tells you is good for you to do. Think about this for a moment. It's powerful. Why? Because good deeds resonate with your fitrah, the inherent goodness inside of you. So you feel good when you do good deeds. And so you could sit in that place and you could get very comfortable in that and keep on embellishing your good deeds. Giving charity feels great. Volunteering feels great. Praying feels great. And in the 21st century there are books being written about this. Religion is being relegated to your latest method of self-care. It's your yoga practice on the side. It's how you feel better about yourself when you go to sleep at night. I said I'm going to make you guys a little uncomfortable. I don't want to be rude here.
But think about it for a moment. So you give enough charity, not to the extent that someone needs it, but to the extent that you need to feel good. So that's the amount that I'm going to allot for my life. I'm going to volunteer, and especially in these disaster zones. Look, and my heart is not immune. SubhanAllah, like we go to relief camps, distribution sites, and if someone's carrying around the camera the whole time, there's something that can happen there. So you got your great selfie with the dying refugee and then you just walked away. Something's wrong here. It's the 21st century though. It is a culture that we have. By the way, that doesn't mean that it's not good for people to be filmed in charity, to invite other people to do good. This is just like every other form of charity. But I'm saying if you only do it to the point that it makes you feel good, not to the point that the other person needs, this is what religion is becoming in the 21st century. So you sit in a good place, a place where good deeds make you happy, but you're not abandoning what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells you to abandon, and that's where true sacrifice comes. And Ibn Qayyim says, even atheists are willing to do many good things because those good things make them feel good. So you'll find atheists that will do good deeds and good actions that give them that sense of joy, but when it comes to sacrifice, no, I'm good. I'm good. So what ends up happening is an imbalance with a fatal flaw in your life, where you're able to come to peace with the existence of disobedience to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and you justify it by saying to yourself, but I do all these other good things. I think I'm okay on the Day of Judgment. And I heard the khutbah, and the khutbah said that a person who does this good deed and this good deed is great, and is going to come on the Day of Judgment with this way and this way and this way.
Yeah, but if you don't address that other stuff, you've got a hole in your bucket, and the water is coming through. So you can keep on pouring water in the bucket, or you plug that hole so that the water stops falling through. And there's also a sense of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari radhiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he says, and I'm paraphrasing because of time here. He said a person might do a good deed, and they rely on that good deed, and they forget their sins until they meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, depending upon that good deed, and then they find instead that their sins surround them from every direction. Whereas another person might commit a sin, and never stop fearing the consequences of that sin, until they repent subhanahu wa ta'ala. And they know sincerely that they come on the Day of Judgment, and they find that that sin is not only not a source of distress and consequence for them, but is actually a good deed that's been written down for them. Because istighfar, sincere repentance, turns even sins into good deeds. So they didn't depend upon a good deed that they were doing, and then say, I'm okay, and I'm going to live with these sins that I know are present in my life, with no intention to ever relinquish them. And then they met the consequences on the Day of Judgment. And of course the worst manifestation of that, is when the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, attadroona man al-muflis, do you know who the bankrupt person is? The bankrupt person is the person who comes with all of their prayer, all of their sadaqa, all of their fasting, but at the same time, sabba hadha, wa shatama hadha, wa akhtaba hadha, wa dharaba hadha, cursed this person out, foul-mouthed this person, backbited this person, abused this person, and all they find on the Day of Judgment is, they basically have their salah, their siyam, their sadaqa taken away from them and given to someone else. Now that's living a life of hypocrisy, where you think you can be good with Allah and bad with the people, and that's not possible.
That's not possible. So this is one way that you start to identify, like never justifying fatal flaws. So when someone says, brother, sister, the religion is not all that, and they'll point to certain rituals in Islam, and you're right. The religion is not all this in terms of a ritual, right? But if you're saying that to diminish the ritual, to diminish ibadah, to diminish an act of worship, you're only fooling yourself. It sounds great as a tweet, it's not going to go very well for you on the Day of Judgment. And then if someone else comes and diminishes character and says, who cares, this person does this, but at least that person prays, at least this person does this, at least I do this, at least I do that, and diminishes. Major, major, major character flaws. Then on the Day of Judgment, that person might end up as a bankrupt person. So how do we start to deal with this? Insha'Allah ta'ala, a few things that I'll mention. Number one, the fara'at, what is mandatory is the same for everyone. And halal and haram are the same for everyone. Listen, we're coming to a time where people are just not going to tell you what you need to hear anymore, because people are not going to want to offend your sensitivities and your sensibilities. We're living in a time where algorithms are catered towards what you like to hear and what you like to see, not what's going to challenge you to be better. Everything around you is becoming more intelligent at satisfying you and your delusion. And you have to do that much more work to overcome that, and to make yourself hear what's going to actually better you, insha'Allah ta'ala. Ramadan, when it comes, is a great time to do that, by the way. It's a great time to do that. There are things that I need to hear, and even if someone's not telling it to me, I'm not just going to keep on looking for confirmation bias. And the algorithm is inherently confirmation biased.
So you start with what? What's fara'at? What's mandatory on every Muslim? What's halal and haram for every Muslim? And if I'm falling short somewhere there, what's my game plan to get to it? Even if I'm not yet there, but I'm going to acknowledge it, and I'm going to be uncomfortable with that discrepancy, and I'm going to try to make progress towards settling that discrepancy in my life, whether it's on the side of ritual or on the side of character. That's number one. Number two, there are recommendations for healthy spirituality in the realm of what is nawafil, in the realm of what is voluntary, that will benefit you in every one of these buckets. So for example, qiyam al-layl, the night prayer. Even if it's 15-30 minutes, even if it's two rak'ahs. Qiyam has a way of infusing goodness into every single one of the dimensions of your spirituality and your character. Because it makes you more focused on the side of Allah, it makes you more introspective, it makes you more reflective, it makes you more disciplined. It is so wholesome as an ibadah, as an act of worship, that it will infuse goodness. It's completely voluntary, but it will infuse goodness into all of those. Reading the Qur'an is one of those as well. You can't say that, well, for this deficiency I need to read less Qur'an. No, reading the Qur'an is always going to have some way of pushing you. Making du'a is always going to have some way of pushing you. So finding those acts of worship in the voluntary sense that push you towards a softer heart and a greater zeal in trying to please Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The next thing that we find is that growing in one area of ibadah or character will inherently affect the other areas of your life. This is, subhanAllah, a very powerful statement from al-Qayyim rahimahullah as well on this idea. And before I say the statement, let me give you an example here.
If you're going to the gym and you're working out a primary muscle, there are all sorts of benefits to surrounding muscles, right? That maybe will not be identified on the chart on the side of a machine. But your overall health is increasing, and the muscles around it are getting stronger as well. And sometimes there are really small muscles and small things that people don't even see, right? But there's an overall benefit. That doesn't mean that you don't have to focus some attention and diversify and hit those different muscle groups. What that means is that when you're improving one element of your health, you're improving all of it. So when you're becoming a more focused Muslim on your character, on your faith, and you're actually targeting certain goals for yourself every single year, that this year, this is how I want to look like a better Muslim this year. That's going to, at the bare minimum, influence your ethic and how you approach your relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and it will influence other elements of your character as well. And ibn al-Qayyim rahimahullah speaks about this particularly when it comes to good character, when it comes to good mannerisms. I just talked about how some people might excel in ritual, but not necessarily character. Some people might excel in character, but not necessarily ritual. And that discrepancy is sometimes very clear. He said, rahimahullah ta'ala, الدين كله خلق فمن زاد عليك في الخلق زاد عليك في الدين Subhanallah. He said the religion in its entirety is good character. So whoever surpasses you in good character has surpassed you in religion. This separation of practice from practical on an everyday life is not an Islamic separation. This is a religion that is meant to transform every single facet of your life. If you have a prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam who taught you that there is a connection between your dhikr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with your tongue and your heart and the foot that you're going to step into the restroom with,
then certainly the sunnah transforms and connects and aligns everything from how you act in the masjid to how you act in your most private room in your home. From how you act with the closest person in the world to you with the person who's furthest away from you. From how you act with someone who has a financial commitment to you to someone who has absolutely no worldly connection to you. It's going to transform that and align it because the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam taught us something that's coherent that transforms character and deen all together. The last couple of things I'll say here is that if you address those things, that's where you'll find that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will unlock a particular brilliance for you. So this isn't contradicting to say that the sahaba had specialties even though they were all balanced. They did have specialties, things that they excelled in. So Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, may Allah be pleased with them. Khadijah, Aisha, may Allah be pleased with them. They didn't excel in the same ways. They were balanced, they had the fundamentals and then they had a particular genius. Just like a good basketball team, a good football team and the companions are far greater than any team. But you got to have the center, the power forward, the small forward and you get where I'm going with this. The shooting guard and the point guard and I'm not going to start assigning which companion is who. But you got to have people playing their different roles and that's how you become a more wholesome team, that's how you become a more wholesome community. And the beauty of the companions is that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was able to unlock that genius in every single person. So you don't necessarily look at another person and say that's how I'm going to be a good Muslim. Imam Malik Rahimahullah Ta'ala, one time there was a man, it's a very famous letter, I'll read the first few lines of it. A man who sent him a letter that was admonishing Imam Malik Rahimahullah because he perceived a deficiency in him in one particular route. This was sort of the thing like the scholars and the warriors, there are very few people that were playing both roles, that were scholars and warriors in the battlefield as well. So sometimes the warriors would say
that guy is just sitting in the library the whole time. Sometimes a scholar would say that person who is active all the time doesn't even have real ilm. And that could be a trick of shaitan to start pitting people against each other. So Imam Malik Rahimahullah responded with a very famous statement, he said إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَسَّمَ الْأَعْمَالَ كَمَا قَسَّمَ الْأَرْزَاقِ He said Allah has apportioned His good deeds the same way He has apportioned His sustenance. Meaning what? Just like some people have different worldly circumstances that are more favorable in one regard, some people have a particular portion from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that comes natural to them in terms of good deeds. Their personalities, their environments have cultivated them, their circumstances towards easy low-hanging fruits when it comes to good deeds. He says, فَرُبَّ رَجُلٍ فُتِحَ لَهُ فِي الصَّلَاةِ وَلَمْ يُفْتَحْ لَهُ فِي الصَّومِ He said a person for example might find that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has unlocked the door of prayer for that person but not necessarily with fasting. Meaning what? Not that they don't fast Ramadan and they pray Qiyam al-Layl. No, but that they find it easier and more pleasing to pray extra but they don't necessarily fast extra. That's not their ibadah, that's not their worship. And he says, وَآخَرَ فُتِحَ لَهُ فِي الصَّدَقَةِ وَلَمْ يُفْتَحْ لَهُ فِي الصَّوْمِ And another person who Allah made charity easy for that person but not necessarily fasting. So he goes through these examples and he says, look, I'm satisfied, I know that Allah has opened a particular door for me in ilm, and I hope that Allah will accept it. I hope that Allah will accept it. Abdullah ibn Mas'ud radiallahu ta'ala anhu, one time someone went to him and said, you know, we don't find you fasting extra days, it's very peculiar. You don't necessarily fast too many extra days. This idea that everyone who's getting religious should start to fast Mondays, Thursdays, the middle three days, every other day for example. They didn't find ibn Mas'ud radiallahu ta'ala anhu necessarily shining in that regard. And he said,
look, I teach Qur'an all day. I read and I teach Qur'an. Abdullah ibn Mas'ud radiallahu ta'ala anhu was a walking Qur'an. And he said, that qiraat al-Qur'an is more beloved to me than al-siyam. He said, for me, reading the Qur'an, teaching the Qur'an is more beloved to me than fasting. I'm happy with what Allah has apportioned for me here. Like, I'm okay with this. Excelling in this regard. So you're not necessarily going to excel in everything, but excel in the things that come easiest to you without being betrayed by those qualities. If I could summarize this past hour, excel in the qualities that come easy to you, the deeds that come easy to you, without betraying those qualities with flaws that you ignore. Alright? Now with that being said, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam also said, that there are two types, that envy is bad except in two cases. Envy is bad. La hasada. There is no envy except in two cases. A person who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave knowledge to and they recite it, and one narration spread it, meaning that they read it at night, so they pray at night with that knowledge, they recite the Qur'an, or they teach it, they preach it. Right? So a person who Allah has given ilm and they spread it, or a person who Allah has given wealth and they spend it. Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, there is no envy except in these two cases. But isn't that a contradiction to what Imam Malik rahim Allah said? Absolutely not, and I'll tell you why. Someone might say, I really, really want to be that rich person. Alright? And I will give sadaqa if I get rich. But what they envy about the person is not the sadaqa part, they're using the sadaqa part to embrace that position and not find a contradiction with their religion. So if I get there, I'll give a lot of charity too.
They might like the praise that comes with it, they might like the lifestyle that comes with it, and says, well the sadaqa certainly washes that away, and so this is great. I want to be that person. Right? So you get a community where every single person wants to become a doctor. We need doctors by the way, I'm not telling anyone to drop med school. But every single, they think wealth, wealth, wealth, wealth, and there's more to it than that. Right? But the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is not talking about that. The Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is talking about a person who sees someone who's benefiting with their sadaqa, and they're envying the benefit part. Like, I wish I could give that much benefit. And so what does that translate into for them? They try to make up for their inability to give charity with their wealth, with their volunteering, with their work, with all of the other things they can do with themselves, so that they can match the benefit in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And he said sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, a person who Allah gives knowledge to, and they spread it. Now by the way, in another narration, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said that whoever seeks knowledge so that they can argue with scholars, shame the ignorant, or turn people's attention to them, Allah will enter them into hellfire. May Allah protect us all. So you're not envying the... Man, I want to be a speaker. That looks great. I want to be on YouTube one day. I want to have TikToks going viral. I want to have this and this and that. I want to be on the minbar one day. No, no, no, none of that. They're envying the benefit and saying, I want to benefit people like that. I want to be a guide for people towards khair, towards good. So that's either going to unlock in me that I need to learn more, or I need to find ways to maybe open the pathways of ilm for other people. So maybe I'll facilitate that knowledge towards other people because I want to get some of the reward of that benefit. So the competition does not become about the specifics, it becomes about the reward and output.
That we all have this zeal to want to compete, and that makes us all better. That makes us all better. I don't want to use too many basketball examples. I feel like I've used too many of those already. Some of you are like, we don't know what you're talking about here. But a great player doesn't just study everyone at their position. They become a student of every great player and try to adopt what they can, try to learn from what they can, and bring it into their lives. And that keeps them getting greater, greater and greater and greater and greater. What does that mean for a Muslim? وَفِي ذَلِكَ فَلْيَا تَنَافَسُ الْمُتَنَافِسُونَ Let them compete in that good. سَابِقُوا Rushing, racing. عُمَرُ بِنْ عَبْدِ الْعَزِيزِ رَحِيمُهَا اللَّهُ You all have heard of Umar bin Abdul Aziz, rahim Allah. So in two years, this man turned the ummah around. 38 to 40 by the way. He was only 38 years old when he became the khalifa. Incredible human being. The great grandson of Umar bin Al-Khattab, radhiAllahu ta'ala anhu. Incredible human being. One of the most accomplished people in Islamic history is Umar bin Abdul Aziz, rahim Allah. He died when he was 40. He was the governor of Medina when he was 25 years old till 32 and then he became the khalifa at 38. What the man did, radhiAllahu ta'ala anhu, is incredible. I mean one of the most accomplished people in Islamic history to the point that there is consensus according to many of the scholars that he is the first mujaddid of Islam. The first reviver of Islam after Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, radhiAllahu ta'ala anhu. In his generation, he is the reviver. So if you're Umar bin Abdul Aziz and people are telling you this stuff and you're seeing the accomplishments, you're probably thinking to yourself like, I'm good. I'm good. But Umar bin Abdul Aziz one day goes out in the morning to do dhikr and he finds Mujahid, rahim Allah, who was a mufassir of Quran, a great scholar of tafsir, and he finds him remembering Allah at the riverbank
and crying and weeping and getting close to Allah. And he looks at Mujahid and he goes, Woe to you, O Mujahid. كيف ألقى ربي في يوم أنت فيه مناقي How am I supposed to meet Allah on the same day that you meet Allah? Man, I gotta do better. How am I supposed to meet Allah on the same day that you're gonna meet Him? He saw something Mujahid was doing that he wasn't doing that inspired him. It didn't shut him off, make him despondent, because that's how we are as an ummah. And his great grandfather, Umar bin Al-Khattab, رضي الله تعالى عنه, had one person in the ummah after the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, that was greater than him and that was Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, رضي الله عنه, and Umar, رضي الله عنه, what does he say about himself? I always wanted to compete with Abu Bakr and he always beat me out. So I thought one day I'm gonna surpass him and this is probably a good segue into a fundraiser, because you've all heard this maybe in a fundraiser. One day I was gonna surpass Abu Bakr, رضي الله عنه, the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, was asking for wealth. I brought a bunch of my money. The Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم, said, what have you left for your family? He said, half of it, يا رسول الله, for Allah and His Messenger, half of it for the family. MashaAllah, أحسنت يا عمر. Great job. Then Abu Bakr, رضي الله عنه, comes and he gives all of his wealth for the sake of Allah. And he's like, I don't know what to do. I can't beat out Abu Bakr, رضي الله عنه, but he kept trying. And some of the greatness of the khilafah of Umar al-Khattab, رضي الله عنه, is that he always had Abu Bakr, رضي الله عنه, ahead of him and was always thinking to himself, أتعبت من جاء من بعدك. You've exhausted everyone that comes after you. I gotta do better. I've gotta be like you. I've gotta try to be more like you. That's the culture we wanna have. And so being a more wholesome Muslim means being a more wholesome community and it means looking at the best examples around you to inspire you, not the worst examples around you to make you complacent, or even worse, condescending and judgmental. Looking at the best examples,
people that have something that you know that you don't have, and I want the benefit and the rewards, I'm gonna push myself to do even better. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى make us people that inspire and are inspired. And may Allah سبحانه وتعالى forgive us for our shortcomings. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى rid us of any of the destructive flaws that could do away with our good deeds. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى guide us towards that which is pleasing to Him. That which makes us more pleasing servants to Him. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى rectify us and rectify through us. May Allah correct our hearts, correct our deeds. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى correct our creed, correct our ideas, correct our practices, and allow us to die in a way in which we have reached that which is most pleasing to Him. May Allah سبحانه وتعالى correct us.
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