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36
Afterlife
"You Owe Me." Free Yourself from Riba and Debt | The Other Side: Barzakh and Beyond Ep. 18
40
Afterlife
Was it that big of a deal? Your Wudu is Serious | The Other Side: Barzakh and Beyond Ep. 17
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Roman Emperor Who Almost Became Muslim & Conquest of Jerusalem | Al-Aqsa: Past, Present, and Promise
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The Blessed Land of Al-Sham: Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan | Al-Aqsa: Past, Present, and Promise
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Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Tamim al-Dari (ra): The Palestinian Sahabi That Met Dajjal | The Firsts
145
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Adi ibn Hatim al-Tai (ra): From Christian King to Companion | The Firsts
156
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zayd ibn al-Khattab (ra): The Quiet Brother of Omar (ra) | The Firsts
161
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Tulayha ibn Khuwaylid (ra): From False Prophet to Shaheed | The Firsts
347
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Amr ibn al-As (ra): His Wicked Father and “Better” Brother | The Firsts
353
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khalid ibn al-Walid (ra): The Legendary Military General | The Firsts
494
Quran
Juz’ 26: Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed and Dr. Zohair Abdul Rahman | Our Afterlife and Our Purpose
610
Allah
Finding Faith Through the Prophet's ﷺ Conviction: Dr. Omar Suleiman | My Moment of Conviction
724
Social Justice
A Conversation with Afreen Fatima on the Plight of Indian Muslims | Dr. Omar Suleiman
735
Prophets
Why Is Asking "Why Does God Asks Us to Worship Him?" Flawed? (Part 2) | Yaqeen Whiteboard
771
Angels
Ep. 13: The Hadith of Jibreel (as) | Angels in Their Presence | Season 2 | Dr. Omar Suleiman
805
Afterlife
Sincerity Shines and Hypocrisy Blinds | Judgment Day: Deeds that Light the Way Episode 25
962
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Anisa, Al-Numan, and Amir (ra): On A Boat From Abysinnia | The Firsts
969
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khalid Ibn Sa’id Ibn al-'As (ra): A Dream of the Prophet | The Firsts
985
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Zaynab Bint Khuzayma (ra): The Mother of the Poor | The Firsts Shorts
995
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Shurahbil Ibn Hasana (ra): The Scribe and Commander | The Firsts Shorts
1017
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Al-Shifa bint Abdullah (ra): The Healer and Scholar | The Firsts Shorts
1070
Life of the Prophet (seerah)
Khawla Bint Hakim & Uthman Ibn Madhun: The Righteous Couple | The Firsts
1186
Islam in the West
Dr. Ahmed Osman: The Martyrdom, Funeral, and Burial of Malcolm X | Yaqeen Presents
1539
Acts of Worship
When the Prophet Sent People Home from the Masajid for Taraweeh | Daily Reminders
1654
Identity
Keeping Masculinity from Trending Toxic - Dr. Jonathan Brown | Reframing the Gender Question
1658
Social Justice
Overcoming Compassion Fatigue, Numbness, and Burnout - Sh. Omar Suleiman | Khutbah
1698
Acts of Worship
Day 24: When the Night Draws its Curtain —The Importance of Tahajjud | Ramadan Strong
1750
Social Justice
Conflict Resolution: The Line Between Justice and Peace - Sh. Omar Suleiman | Lecture
1751
General Psychology
Spiritual Personality - Zohair Abdul-Rahman | 2018 Yaqeen/MAS Academic Conference
1766
Contemporary Ideologies
Conversations at The Carter Center: Harmonizing Religion and Human Rights
1767
Education
How Yaqeen is a Resource for Our Community - Sh. Omar Suleiman | Making Principled Progress
1773
Islamophobia
How Yaqeen Heals Internalized Islamophobia - Dalia Mogahed | Making Principled Progress
1795
Jurisprudence (fiqh)
Appreciating Scholarship: Intro to Islamic Law - Tesneem Alkiek | Yaqeen in NY
1824
Acts of Worship
Episode 6: The Highest Companionship in the Highest Garden | Prayers of the Pious
The Prophetic Method of Teaching Uncomfortable Truths
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. So I think this is the longest time that I've been away from Seattle for a very, very long time, for several years, alhamdulillah. I know that it's been almost two years since I've had a chance to be at this community. So it's wonderful to see, alhamdulillah, the incredible progress that the community has made. We sent Ustadh Adam from Dallas. So you're welcome. And I also want to thank the community here for hosting us today, alhamdulillah, for this program. The last time I came, does anyone remember what I taught? What was it? You can't just nod your head and not answer. The life of who? Salman Al-Farisi radiallahu ta'ala anhu and his pursuit of the truth and everything that he was willing to undertake in order to arrive at the truth and then how he embodied that truth and became a torch, a light for the entire world amongst the companions of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. And if I do get the chance to come back, I'll teach inshallah ta'ala on the life of Al-Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz Malcolm X rahimahullah ta'ala, who faced in the last year of his life in particular, the consequences of embodying the truth that he found and that is a personal favorite for me to teach out of all the seminars I've taught in the past about his life. And I want you to just appreciate inshallah ta'ala that what's happening throughout the day is this is building frames. It's giving you a perspective on how to approach the world. This is part of shaping our worldview. Now, the first two topics were a lot heavier than the topic that I have, heavier in the sense of substance and in the content.
What I'm going to be speaking about, it puts you back on the side of delivery, the one who is actually giving the message. So it actually puts you on the side of the delivery of that content, the delivery of that da'wah. And it's this term that we coin compassionate orthodoxy. And obviously those things are important, both in the side of compassion and in the content in regards to the orthodoxy. Compassionate refers to the delivery, orthodoxy refers to the message retaining its purest form. And many times under the illusion that the only way to make someone accept a message is to alter it, and that is in fact compassion. We do not do a service to that person. And in the process, we also lose the message itself. So I actually put together some slides too, and I usually never do this, but just because I had to be on par with Dr. Nazer, Sister Tasneem. I put together some slides as well insha'Allah ta'ala about how do we arrive at a compassionate orthodoxy. How do we deliver the message properly? And this is something that's always going to be subject to debate. And I want you to appreciate that the diversity that existed in Islamic law and among scholars was also because of the different ways in which they viewed the world and the different approaches that they had at trying to arrive at the same conclusion. The goal was to preserve the deen. The goal was to make the deen as pragmatic as possible, as practicable as possible, without compromising the foundations of the deen.
And it was always a sensitive discussion as to how to gauge where people are at, what they are ready to accept, and how the message should be packaged and delivered to them. Now here's the thing. All of them were acting upon usul. They were acting upon a great sense of care when it came to methodology and how they arrived at their approaches. Not just how they arrived at their opinions, but how they arrived at their approaches. And most of the time in our situation when it comes to delivery, we're not acting upon a methodology. We're acting upon our own personal experiences. And sometimes we do great damage to the deen because we don't deliver it properly. So for example, if you deliver orthodoxy but without compassion, you actually run someone away from the orthodoxy. You run someone away from the message. When the Prophet ﷺ said, Inna minkum munaffireen, there are those amongst you who turn people off from the deen. You run people away from the deen. He was speaking to a companion, Mus'ab ibn Umair, I'm sorry, Mu'adh ibn Jabal radiyallahu ta'ala anhu, because Mu'adh was reading long surahs in Salatul Isha, and that became difficult for the people. And the Prophet ﷺ said, Amongst you are people that run people away from the deen. All he was doing was reciting Quran. But you need to gauge where the people are at. And when the man came to Mu'adh and told Mu'adh that, you read too much Quran, you need to shorten the surahs, and he complained to the Prophet ﷺ, Mu'adh's natural response was, he's a munafiq, he's a hypocrite. Now by the way, no one loves the Quran more than the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ is a man who would read, Al-Baqarah, Ali Imran, An-Nisa' in one raka'ah. Make your feet bleed because of how much he read Quran. There isn't really much for him to relate to a person who thinks that
reading Suratul Qiyamah is like Yawmul Qiyamah in Salatul Isha, like it's too long. That's not something that the Prophet ﷺ can relate to from an experience. But the Prophet ﷺ put the onus on Mu'adh, and told Mu'adh to read shorter surahs, and said, There are those amongst you that turn people off from the deen. You run people away, you deflate people. That's with the Quran. So if the purest form of da'wah is to recite the Quran, there isn't even a tafsir of the Quran there, or an interpretation or anything that's being added on to it. And even in that situation, you can turn someone off from the deen if you don't do it properly. Then what does that mean with secondary material? And our approaches, when there has been such a distance between us and the physical presence of the companions of the Prophet ﷺ on this earth, it means we need to be extra careful. Now cherry picking exists not just with opinions. It exists with the way that we read the seerah of the Prophet ﷺ too. We read the biography of the Prophet ﷺ, and craft entire methodologies out of. Let me give you this example. Or let me explain this to you in common discourse and debate. If you are looking for leniency from the Prophet ﷺ seerah, you will find it. If you want to craft a narrative, for example, about engagement, how we should engage with our enemies, you can misapply the Prophet ﷺ's engagement in a principled way, and justify unprincipled engagements by focusing on the fact that the Prophet ﷺ engaged his enemies. We all know that the Prophet ﷺ engaged his enemies, but there are parameters. And you could take advantage of the people upon whom the nuances will be lost, and craft an entire narrative. You can use hudaybiyyah to justify every type of engagement that you have,
if that's what you're trying to do. And find all the examples and create a narrative out of that. But you wouldn't be true to the wholesome seerah of the Prophet ﷺ. On the other hand, if you're looking for a fight, if you're looking for a battle, if you're looking for a time when a little bit of harshness, or a more assertive or aggressive reaction was undertaken, you can find that in the Prophet ﷺ seerah too. And you could turn that into an entire narrative, like we gotta stand up to the enemies and we gotta put them in their place. And you could do damage, and depart so far away from the prophetic methodology, while only quoting prophetic sources. كلمة حق، وريد بها باطل Ali r.a mentioned that sometimes a word of truth could be spoken. وريد بها باطل, and what's sought is falsehood. So it's a word of truth that's spoken. What's behind it though is falsehood. Okay, I got asked this question, I was in DC two days ago. What's wrong with all lives matter? I said كلمة حق، وريد بها باطل There's nothing wrong with the motto or with the words that face value, but it's what's behind what's being said that's problematic. So when people quoted Quran and Ali r.a, and said إن الحكم إلا لله That verily power and authority only belongs to Allah. كلمة حق، it's not that you're saying anything wrong, it's what you intend by it, and the narrative that you're creating based upon it that is falsehood. So if someone wants to be a little bit aggressive, they take a few incidents, and they color the entire seerah of the Prophet s.a.w. that way, and they justify their harshness with that. So the first thing is this, when you read the seerah of the Prophet s.a.w.,
understanding the default versus the exception. The default. When the Prophet s.a.w. says, إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ الرِّفْقِ فِي الْأَمْرِ كُلِّ That Allah loves gentleness and leniency in all things. That's the default. You will not hear the Prophet s.a.w. say, Allah loves severity in all things. Even though sometimes the Prophet s.a.w. implemented a more severe measure. But the nature, the default, that which should only be departed from in justifiable circumstances, to arrive at the same goal that is sought with the leniency, is the exception, not the norm, not the default. So to take a few incidents, and then to cast the Prophet s.a.w. in that light, and to turn the Prophet s.a.w. into someone who's condescending, harsh, prideful, which is a disease that religious people often fall into, is deeply problematic. You take the asr, you take the default, and the only time the Prophet s.a.w. departed from the default, is when he needed to do so to arrive at what was sought by the default. So the Prophet s.a.w. did not depart from gentleness, because someone was really a jerk. Or someone really really got on his nerves that time. Or someone really really, you know, their tongue was that bad. The Prophet s.a.w. showed gentleness, rizq, as a norm in his da'wah, because that is usually the best way to get someone to change something that they're doing, in a way that empowers them. Brings them to a place where they feel empowered to make a change in their lives. To be willing to reassess their own world views and conclusions. To be willing to add on to themselves an inconvenience for a higher purpose.
Usually gentleness is what's needed. The Prophet s.a.w. taught us to put our ego aside and to think in that way. If he departed from that gentleness, it was because that person needed a departure from that gentleness, for their own good, in order to arrive at that same place the Prophet s.a.w. was seeking. But the default stays what? Inna Allaha yuhibbu al-rifq fil-amri kulli. Allah loves gentleness in all of his affairs. So in all of our affairs, gentleness should be the norm. It should be the default. It should be the starting place. It should not be a 50-50. And you can't even say an 80-20. It's the norm and you only depart from it when there's good reason to do so, for the good of the person that you're doing da'wah to. For the good of the person that you're calling to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The second thing is that the Prophet s.a.w. is described, wa innaka la'ala khuluqin azeem. You are upon an exalted standard of character. He's described as rahmatan lil'alameen, a mercy to the world. Allah describes the Prophet s.a.w. by his defining traits, not by exceptional circumstances. And a dishonest reader of the seerah negates those noble traits by taking exceptions and turning them into traits. Taking situational behavior and turning it into normative behavior and assigning that to the messenger s.a.w. And in the process runs people away from Allah and runs people away from the messenger of Allah s.a.w. as well. Now, removal of the nafs. Removal of the ego from the conversation. Typically in an argument, the first thing that's lost is the thing that you were arguing about in the first place.
Right, if there's an argument that takes place or a debate, it usually quickly moves on from the subject of the argument and the subject of the debate into the spokespeople of the argument and the spokespeople of the debate. And it becomes very highly charged with our nafus, with ourselves. The way that I want us to look at this is actually starting off with ourselves. The Prophet s.a.w. taught us, no one of you believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself. Many ways or in many situations, the Prophet s.a.w. taught us to treat people the way that we want to be treated. Right, approach people the way that you want to be approached. And so the very first thing that you should consider in calling someone to Allah or in doing da'wah, presenting something that might be difficult to bear for them is how would this be approached with me in an ideal situation? How would I want to be spoken to about this? What are the considerations that I would have? And this is where you start from. Imam Al-Shafi'i r.a, he said that the veil between a servant and Allah is his nafs, is his self. That is the hijab between a servant and Allah s.w.t. Bringing that veil down requires you on an individual level to undertake actions that will remove the nafs so that you can fully be in contact with Allah s.w.t. When you're talking to someone, the last thing that you want to do is create a situation, create a scenario in which you have instigated or agitated their nafs so that they can't hear anything about Allah when you're speaking to them. Generally speaking, no one likes to be told that they're wrong, right? None of us like that. None of us like to be on the side of falsehood
in a debate between truth and falsehood. None of us like to be called in or called out. It's just particularly, particularly aggressive when it's called out. But people in general don't like to be on the receiving end of advice. They don't like to be wrong. And what the Prophet s.a.w. teaches us to do is to take actions when you're talking to someone, whether that's your child or someone in the street, that would ensure as much as possible the removal of the nafs from the equation. My goal is not to win the arguments. My goal is to win the heart. My goal is not to prove that I am right. My goal is that the person in the wrong comes to the conclusion that they can be right. You see the difference between these things? So when you're talking to someone, the removal of anything that would agitate their nafs as much as possible to make the message as capable or as potent as possible of reaching the heart is the goal. Whatever I can do to ease that veil out of the way so that my heart can reach yours. And then it comes to the heart to heart conversation. But you can't have the heart to heart conversation with the nafs in the way. Because what disconnects the heart from Allah is what disconnects people from each other too. Right? Pride disconnects us from Allah and it disconnects us from each other as well. So you want to remove the veil from the heart, and then, لَا يَنفَعُ الْقَلْبِ إِلَّا مَا خَرَجَ مِنَ الْقَلْبِ As Qadi Iyad rahim Allah said, nothing benefits the heart unless it comes from the heart. Then you can have a heart to heart conversation. It's very interesting is that, if you think about the shaitan, Iblis.
Iblis had absolutely no confusion whatsoever over the truth. It was his pride that led him to a place of rejection. And so it's not always about the content of the message. Sometimes it's about the implications. Sometimes it's about the perceived degradation. And there is a level of humbling yourself that's necessary to come into the fold of full Islam, the fullness of Islam, right? But that degradation should not be to another human being. So I'll humble myself to Allah, but do I have to degrade myself to you? Right? There is a difference between those two things. The third thing here is that qualifiers are not a sign of weakness. Qualifiers are not a sign of weakness. The prophets used qualifiers when they spoke to their people. The prophets tried to reach their people by, if you will, softening the blow. Alright? So there's this idea that, if you speak too nicely, then you're automatically speaking dishonestly. If you speak too courteously, then you're automatically speaking connivingly. So if you use so many qualifiers and so many different things before you get to the message and employ those tactics, that means you're afraid, that means that you're scared, that means you're a coward. Whereas in reality, you're actually interested in the rise of the truth, not you as the rise of the spokesperson for the truth. You actually want to remove your voice as much as possible because God forbid that in the process of trying to call someone else to overcome their nafs, you grow your own nafs. That defeats the entire purpose of da'wah. That it no longer is calling to Allah, it's calling to yourself. It's no longer calling people to hear the Quran,
it's calling them to hear your voice. It's no longer getting people to prostrate to Allah, it's getting them to bow to you. That's where it becomes deception for ourselves as well, being in the capacity of giving da'wah. So actually, using as much hikmah as possible, as much wisdom as possible, being as gentle as possible, softening the blow, being as courteous. In fact, humbling yourself to Allah. Humbling yourself to the person as you call them to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So that they don't perceive that this is just you trying to take advantage of a situation as opposed to calling them to Allah. All of that is from the tradition of the prophets and it's in the interest of the preservation of the truth. It's not out of fear, it's not out of cowardice, it's out of a love for the truth. And the willingness to even humble yourself in the pursuit of that truth, not just for you, but it being manifested in the heart and the tongue and in the ears of the person that you're speaking to as well. So body language is important. If you look at the sunnah of the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, it's actually profound how much emotional intelligence the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam had, how much of an awareness of his environment he had salallahu alayhi wasalam, how much he paid attention to detail when speaking to or being spoken to. So a person could be speaking to the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and they could be spewing the most incredulous nonsense ever and he'd sit there and he'd let them finish salallahu alayhi wasalam. When the kuffar of Quraysh addressed the messenger alayhi salatu wasalam as aggressive as they addressed him, and they poked and poked and poked and poked and they spoke and spoke and spoke and spoke, he let them finish salallahu alayhi wasalam. Go ahead and get it all out because this shouldn't become a shouting match. You know, and the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam understood that when someone is in the midst of speaking, even if they have not completed their sentence, if their thoughts are still incomplete,
then they're not going to be able to hear the thoughts that you're sharing with them. So he'd let them finish. Get it all out. Say everything that you have to say. That was his attitude sallahu alayhi wasalam, whether it was from somebody who was a disbeliever and aggressive or it was from someone who was a believer and a friend to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam, a companion to the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. So the prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalam employed a remarkable level of consistency. The prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam always giving you his ear. The prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam not pointing at you. Can you imagine? The prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam paid such attention to body language he wouldn't point at you, He used his entire hand salallahu alayhi wasalam so that you didn't feel antagonized even by his finger and this finger He didn't feel hurt by it. You don't feel like he's pointing you out. See I'm pointing at you guys I'm trying to explain it. You don't feel like he's pointing you out See we all have a long way to go until we reach the Sunnah of the Messenger salallahu alayhi wasalam He used as much as he could To show the person that he was being considerate of them. He faced you with his entire body The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam did not walk past people like this He gave you his entire attention The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam did not degrade the person that came to him You know one of my favorite hadith is the hadith of Dhimam ibn Tha'labah The rough Bedouin walks into the masjid. He was so coarse and so harsh in his voice and that the Sahaba Said that he was addressing the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam was sitting down They said we gathered after some time that he was asking him about Islam because his Accent was all off the words were so rough and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam did not degrade or belittle him or make that person Feel like they were out of place or that they were less deserving of the attention of the Messenger sallallahu alayhi wasalam So giving you his entire body language
I'm not gonna go through the methodology here in regards to body language But just basic considerations and courtesies the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam showed those in the midst of conversation so that he gave you the feeling of Importance and that's really what it boils down to body language often conveys The value that you're assigning to that interaction So the Messenger sallallahu alayhi wasalam giving you the fullness of his attention The fullness of his attention can convey through his body language allowed for you to be receptive To what he was gonna say to you sallallahu alayhi wasalam because you understood that he was not failing to take you seriously Right the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasalam was taking you seriously He was taking your concern seriously. He was listening to your arguments, whatever they were He was considering what you were saying sallallahu alayhi wasalam no matter what it was that you were saying In orthodoxy as well when it comes to the concept of graduality Tadaruj and da'wah, graduality and da'wah A lot of people would also scorn at that thought that or scoff at that thought that how can you be gradual? With the truth the truth is there it's manifest Ja'al haqq wa za'at al batil, the truth is here falsehood has gone. So what's the point of being gradual? understand that the goal of Conveying the message whether it's to a child or to a friend or to someone who's a foe the goal is To remove the person from the sin anything that would do the opposite of that is sinful itself so the purpose of graduality is to give them the ability to Be able to comprehend it You know subhanAllah one of the one of the examples that one of my teachers gave very basic example We talked about al ma' water Allah often refers to
Divine guidance or speaks about it in the context of water shari'ah means a path that leads to water, right? so water is often the The metaphorical counterpart of guidance, right? It's analogous to guidance Can you hurt someone with water Yes, you can you can drown them with water They could drink too much water at a time. It's very hard to do that if the water is pure But still at the same time even with water it could do more harm than good if it's not applied properly and This is an example that we find from the prophets. I saw but when it comes to one of the tribes that the prophets like some dealt with And this is a narration so here Bukhari of Benno Hanifa that these people they told they were the last people to accept Islam the last people to accept Islam as a tribe and They basically kept on putting these conditions on the prophets. I saw them. It's a pretty remarkable Hadith will probably write a paper for it on your pain one day an article that draws out the entire Shelf of the hadith the point being anything the prophets like some told them they came back with a compromise So the prophets lie Salem tells them to pray five times a day. They say that's too much We'll pray once a day. Okay, fine, maybe three times a day It's like this isn't Musa and Islam a rods anymore. The Dean is complete. It's five times a day Prophets like some tells him about fasting. No, no, no, we can't do all that fasting once a week twice a week I'm gonna be the hot lava. The Allah and who is there and he's watching this interaction with the prophets I sell them in them and all model the Allah and who's steaming? how is it that these people have the nerve after all these years of rejecting the prophets like some and they're trying to make compromises and and the prophets like some told Omar or the Allah and who look
They will they will end up praying and they will end up fasting They're gonna end up doing all the things that you're afraid of them not doing Because the prophets like some did not change the hookah of it He didn't change the rulings The prophets like some told them you know what start with that move on Start with that. You'll get there. What happened is that once they started praying three times a day? It was like, okay Now we're gonna pray five times a day. It was a natural growth for them So I always remember a brother that came to me and and you know He would come to the masjid and all types thing. He didn't take shahada. It was two years later And I said, why haven't you taken shahada? I'm just curious. He said can't give up my pork The man loved this pork sandwiches so much Well, by the way, I'm not even making it up and it was two full years every time mentioned I think of his face when I told him just become Muslim and give up your pork in time inshallah All right, so it's better if you take your shahada and go eat your pork sandwich knowing that it's haram to eat Then avoiding shahada because you love your pork sandwich Alhamdulillah, he eventually gave up the pork too. I think alhamdulillah. He did it at least the last time I checked up on him I haven't spoken him in years, but in time the pork went out the window, too So the prophets I some understood that look the standards not being adjusted. That's where this becomes dangerous When the orthodoxy itself is compromised for the sake of suiting this individual person's weakness or this group's weakness That's when this becomes problematic otherwise Let them grow into it Encourage them to grow into it and we find this subhallah with Omar ibn Abdulaziz rahim Allah when Omar ibn Abdulaziz is a very powerful narration that when he assumed the khilafa the caliphate and there was so much corruption that had been done and
Omar ibn Abdulaziz raised a son that was so religious so pious and Abdul Malik ibn Omar that he would You know Omar radhiallahu anhu said that he would he would you know He would push me to Allah that he was this was a young man that Omar Empowered to a point that he'd give his father an asihah. He would remind him of Allah He would push him and so as Omar ibn Abdulaziz is spending day and night trying to rectify all the corruption and all that's been done in the ummah His son points out a new bid'ah a new form of corruption a new this a new that and Omar ibn Abdulaziz said Oh my son I don't want to bring them all or force them upon Islam all that one time because then they will leave Islam all at one time I Don't want to force it all on them at one time because then they will ditch it all at one time at the first Opportunity that they get they would feel so overburdened So hurt by that they would ditch it all at one time the minute that the force That put the Islam on them is removed so too will Islam be removed from them because Islam would have only been experienced by them as a prescribed burden not as an attained gift So Omar ibn Abdulaziz said I'm not gonna do that even though Omar made and I know the word radical is usually bad especially when it's used in a masjid or when it's used in anything Islam or Muslim But Omar radiallahu anhu really brought in radical change in so many different ways But even then he was exercising some caution and not doing everything all that one time because he wanted the people to grow into that So while he was passing his reforms Radiallahu anhu bringing the people back upon the Sunnah. He did not do it in a way that made the people hate the Sunnah He led by example. He set the standard and he let people grow into it
So the standard is what cannot change no matter what no matter how weak someone is or how how somebody is Or how someone is feeling? The best thing to do is to take the ayah from the Quran Uda'u ila sabili rabbik, call to the way of your Lord with two things Al-Hikmah Wisdom and what's the second one? Al-Mu'idha al-Hasana Allah Azza wa Jalla says call to the way of your, that says halftime, right? Okay, call to the way of your Lord with wisdom and Then with good beautiful preaching if you break this down The first thing that you see is call to the way of your Lord meaning there should be no Ambiguity about what the way of your Lord actually is at any point in your dawah There should never be any compromise on what the message itself actually is So call to the way of your Lord Ala bayyinah, ala basira, with absolute evidence, with proofs, with full clarity about what it is But Allah Azza wa Jalla emphasizes afterwards the methodology with which you call Allah does not even use the word ilm, funny enough Allah doesn't use the word knowledge Allah uses the word hikmah, wisdom. Hikmah comes from the origin of it is the horse's reins Think about a crazy horse, al-hakamah A crazy horse, a horse that doesn't have its reins to keep it in control and how wild it goes Hikmah governs knowledge, it governs that ilm, it makes sure that you apply it with wisdom, that you teach it with wisdom Otherwise, it's like unleashing a wild beast on people. You do more harm than good. You do a disservice
So bil-hikmah, wisdom, most of wisdom, al-Izz ibn Abdus Salam rahimahullah ta'ala said most of wisdom is in the proportion that's given so it's obviously when it comes to the you know, the The words that you choose being very aware of the words that you choose and many of the things that we already mentioned about the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, yes, even when speaking to a child Even when speaking to someone that's very close to you being very conscious of those things that could make or break your dawah Still what it really comes down to is also proportion Right? Speaking to them with doses that they can handle in ways That not just they can handle in ways they'll actually appreciate In ways that they'll actually appreciate You know, I once heard one of the mashayekh, he said there's you know Sometimes people make this binary choice between give people what they need and give people what they want, right? So he said the the middle ground is give people what they need in a way that they want That's bil-hikmah wal-maw'idah al-hasanah Give people what they need in a way that they want. So you give it to people, one that's possible Obviously sometimes that's not possible But as much as you can, right? So proportional and with graduality, bil-hikmah, Allah emphasized hikmah and then Allah emphasized With beautiful preaching Maw'idah is heart to heart, hasanah speaks to the care, the goodness that you use as you're delivering that So the maw'idah is the substance, the hasanah once again emphasizes the care that you use as you're delivering that message from heart to heart Let it not be mind to mind, tongue to tongue, let it be a heart to heart conversation Something that usually cannot be achieved through the internet by the way, can't be achieved through writing Can't be achieved through writing, it requires a sit down, it requires a relationship that's built
It requires some level of trust that is built before you can speak to someone in that way and really challenge them And the last thing that I want to do here is an exercise The example of Ibrahim alayhi salam in surat Maryam It's a fantastic example because Allah actually shows how all of these things are incorporated In the da'wah of Ibrahim alayhi salam When Ibrahim alayhi salam If qala li abihi ya abati lima ta'budu ma la yasma'u wa la yubasiru wa la yughni'an ka shaya Oh my father, oh my dear father, ya abati, he speaks to him in the most honorable way not Oh kafir, not you horrible human being, not you idol maker. He wasn't even an idol worshipper, you idol maker No, ya abati You have not ceased to be my father and you are my beloved and dear father, ya abati in the most endearing term lima ta'budu ma la yasma'u wa la yubasiru wa la yughni'an ka shaya Why do you worship? That which doesn't hear, that which doesn't see, that which does you absolutely no good Focusing it all on the object of his worship. This isn't about me Just think about what good do these gods bring to you in the first place? What are you gaining out of worshipping these gods? Then he says to him Ya abati, inni qad ja'ani minal ilmi ma lam ya'tika fattabi'ni ahdika siratan sawiya Oh my father, my dear father inni qad ja'ani minal ilmi ma lam ya'tika You talk about qualifiers, there are possibly no more qualifiers than found in these four phrases qad ja'ani It has come to me So I did not attain or acquire this knowledge Allah blessed me by exposing me to it and in the case of the prophets that means direct divine revelation
qad ja'ani minal ilmi Some of that Which is of knowledge not all of knowledge He didn't say to his father. You're a complete fool and I know everything now So listen to me, which is what a lot of kids do with their parents, even though they have no divine revelation All right minal ilmi some of That knowledge that you have not been exposed to so it's not because i'm more capable than you Allah exposed me through direct revelation to some ilm to some knowledge that happened to not come to you Then comes Do not mistake These qualifiers for a lack of confidence in the message fattabi'ni ahdika siratan sawiya So follow me and I will guide you to a straight path a complete and balanced path Sawi means without fault or defect that the path is one so I expose the faults of your path in the first sentence shook your confidence and that which you thought was Was true in the first sentence second sentence. This is a fully Bulletproof path. This is a path that is flawless That is without defect that is without some of the problems that i've mentioned to you in your current belief system fattabi'ni ahdika siratan sawiya ya abati la ta'wud ash-shaytaan inna ash-shaytaana kana lil rahmani asiyya Oh my dear father don't worship the shaytan Verily the shaytan is ever disobedient to his lord subhanallah. He ascribed the disobedience not to his father but to the shaytan That it's the shaytan that's disobedient to his lord. He didn't call his father asi Do not follow the shaytan because the shaytan is ever disobedient to his lord ya abati Oh my dear father
inni akhaafu an yamasaka a'dhabun min ar-rahman fatakuna lash-shaytaani waliya Oh my dear father i'm afraid I'm afraid for you This is not because I enjoy Preaching to you. This is not because allah gave a son something to one-up his father This is not because I enjoy being the spokesperson for truth What is a clear and manifest truth to a person that's upon falsehood and usually throughout my life You were the one dictating terms to me and talking to me This is because i'm concerned about you. This is because I love you. This is because I do not want you To face the burden and it's very beautiful how he even removes his father just as he removed his father from the disobedience He removes his father from the consequence of the disobedience while still making clear what consequences of disobedience he is facing Actually are So don't worship the shaitan because the shaitan is ever disobedient to his lord and then the next ayah verily if you were Or i'm afraid that you become a companion to the shaitan because we know where the shaitan is going to be so I fear That if you follow in his path of disobedience, you face his consequence of disobedience It's really beautiful. He removed his father from the disobedience attributing the disobedience directly to him while still making clear that it is an act of disobedience And he removed his father from the consequence of that disobedience while still making clear what the consequences of that disobedience were All of that was to do what was to remove nafs from the equation Anyone who's a parent knows that the worst truth to hear is the one that comes on the tongue of your child Like it's okay if a peer proves me wrong Or if someone else like a parent proves me wrong But it really stings if it's your child
That says something and you know at some point that they're telling the truth and those of you that are children don't get ahead Of yourselves you're rarely right, but sometimes sometimes You might be right and it stings because it's I used to change your diapers Who are you to tell me about my worldview I brought you into this world It's difficult ibrahim alaihissalam was removing nafs From the equation what happened his father still responded with nothing but ego Which means that at the end of it all in the mahalika that upon you is to deliver the message purely and beautifully Deliver the truth in a truthful manner Deliver the pristine beautiful message of islam with a beautiful methodology from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam The result of actually reaching that person's heart that's not in your control And sometimes by the way, we make bad decisions and we start to alter the message of islam Because we're afraid that it will not persist Islam does not depend on you or me Allah will preserve this deen whether it's through us Or without us Islam doesn't depend on us to where we need to alter it in order to maintain its survival we are tasked with conveying it and seeking to convey it with as much diligence and zeal as possible and Reassessing our methods of how we convey it as much as we can as if we're responsible for it But knowing ultimately that we are not We are not tasked With the actual survival allah has taken that upon himself So in the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
Inna alayna jama'ahu wa qur'ana fa iza qara'naha fastami'a qur'ana Right, so even to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam When the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was hearing these messages the quran in great quantity It is upon us to preserve the quran so don't You know don't be hasty with it. Listen to it. It'll come to you. It'll be gathered in your heart Oh messenger of allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam It's not the tongue or the memory that's going to keep the quran It's that allah has chosen your heart as a capable vessel for it to be gathered in likewise We do our best with the message We reassess our methods of delivering that message while staying true to it We try and we try and we try and we try knowing throughout that entire thing. The message doesn't need us The message doesn't need us because when we start thinking that way Then we start making bad decisions And that's where we may actually start to alter the message rather than our methods for delivering the message because we think That that's the only way for the message to survive and that's where it becomes. That's the the fine line where it becomes deeply problematic The last thing here is the spirit in which we speak to um Or there are two more slides What it means to speak to someone with compassion and with the goal of removal of a burden number one understand That the truth is a burden The truth in its nature is burdensome Because the truth naturally restricts you in certain ways It opens pathways, but it restricts you. So you have to understand that when you're speaking to someone and you're Preaching orthodoxy or you're trying to impart the message of islam. You are burdening them by the nature of the message No one says it's going to be easy
No one says it's going to be easy So the question that you have to answer for yourself and you have to be able to convey is well Why do you want to burden the people? Is the burden that you're placing upon them out of cruelty towards them or out of a desire to see them restricted Or because you believe that islam in its nature is punishing and restricting SubhanAllah one of the most beautiful things, you know when you when you read the statement of ribi ibn amir May Allah be pleased with him. Ribi who said that Allah has sent us Linoo khajjah al-ibad min ibadat al-ibad ila ibadati rabb al-ibad that Allah has sent us to take people from from being enslaved To what to other slaves to being enslaved to the lord of all slaves And he mentions women Jody ladiana la Adla Islam from the injustice of other systems to the justice of Islam That last one is very powerful woman leaked the dunya ila sa'at a dunya al-akhirah To remove take them out of the constriction of this world the suffocation of this world to the expanse of this life and the next Meaning the burden that you bring to them is not really a burden once they understand That it is actually expanding Their hearts it is actually expanding their reward. It is actually an opening for them rather than doors shutting Islam cannot we cannot resort to orthodoxy or reference orthodoxy only when we speak in the context of restriction And this is by the way, you know sister Tasnim mashallah hit on a lot of thought-provoking points One of them I mean Instead of just talking about the way that the british uh system this uh What appeared to be a superior system? of western liberalism
was able to prey on the insecurities of The muslims that existed at the time and we're living with the implications until now Sometimes sometimes in our situation as well We feel like our islam is so threatened and we start to use terms that other people use with the same meanings that they have So conservative means harsh Lenient means liberal and that couldn't be farther from the truth Conservative when you think conservative, what are you programmed to think of? You're programmed to think of callousness you're programmed to think of conservative as harsh Cruel tone deaf and then we use those same terms when we're talking about the deen And that's the problem Islam does not bring a burden to people islam brings opening to people So yes, while it brings discipline discipline does not necessarily mean restriction of purpose or reward Discipline means that you have to take certain measures in order to realize true liberation And you have to deliver it to the people in that way Islam cannot be delivered to people as a burden and subhanallah. There was one statement That one of the salaf, uh, you know correlates between dawah and khidmah that you cannot do Dawah to the people unless you do khidmah to them. You can't call the people to islam Unless you serve the people in islam You can't call the people to allah unless you serve the people for allah. Why because the Place in which your dawah to them should operate should be from the same place that your khidmah to them operates. What does that mean? When you serve the people you demonstrate in sincerity That you have their best interests at heart and that you're willing to make sacrifices of your own time your own effort Your own resources for their goodness You demonstrate a track record of wanting good for them and in the process you curtail your own ego
Then when you come to call them to allah you call them to allah in the spirit Of wanting to serve their interests in the hereafter And because the khidmah correlates with the dawah the service in the dunya we sense in the worldly sense correlates with the dawah The call which is naturally Angled towards the hereafter You demonstrate a consistency that you're operating from the same place So when the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam calls the people to allah He already has a plan He calls the people to allah He already has years to say I care about you. I served you for allah and I will continue to serve you for allah But while I serve you for allah In trying to make this world a better place for you I call you to allah in trying to make the hereafter a better place for you, too And it's for your own good. It's a concern for you Not for myself If that compassion is lacking in the message if you cannot even show people that you care about their worldly being How is it that you want them to put their faith in what you're calling them to in the hereafter? You don't even care if I can eat or drink here Or if I have shelter here if my bills are being paid here if I have emotional well-being here Why in the world should I believe when you call me to this heaven and hereafter? That you're sincere if you don't care if i'm living in hell on earth Why should I take you seriously? in your dawah Mr. Powell is listening to Robert Jeffress and sometimes unfortunately As conservative muslims. We sound exactly like our conservative texas christian brethren And the only thing that I was listening robert jeffress for those of you that don't know he's a pastor out of dallas And he's trump's pastor. He's always the guy that goes on fox news and gives trump his cover
And when they had march for our lives because of gun violence Uh, you know and against gun violence. He instead put up a sign billboard in dallas He has a huge church called we're gonna do a march for our eternal lives Like you know what who cares about this life let's march for our eternal lives people Let's go do a march. It's like are you that deaf? So you don't care about their actual lives here But you expect them to care about the lives that they still don't even know for sure exist in the hereafter And the only thing he has to say about borders and border walls. Well, there are border walls in heaven That's what he said That was his answer there. So, you know where trump's getting it from, right? The wrong fatwa shopping we got to get him some new people to fatwa shop from So there are border walls in heaven. So, but you know, sometimes we talk like that too, by the way Just not with that absurdity, but with the same spirit of just tone deafness. I don't care about you here Why should why should you think I care about you there, right? So you have to demonstrate With that orthodoxy at that point. It doesn't matter what you're giving to them Once you've demonstrated that you want good for them. They'll consider it When you know that someone is going to be a bad person When you know that someone loves you and cares about you isn't concerned about you Even if what they initially Say to you seems preposterous At its initial suggestion if they've already demonstrated the goodwill Your ego has been disarmed your apprehension will be temporary and you'll say okay, well tell me about it. Let me listen to you Because you've already shown me that you care about me and that you want good for me That's important Ali radiallahu ta'ala anhu has a very beautiful statement Which he says he was asked about the best scholar. Dr. Nazer went over what makes a scholar qualified
Sometimes a scholar can be qualified but not necessarily the best at Delivering that knowledge or in messaging, right? And he said that the best faqih Is the one Who does not make you despair from the mercy of Allah While at the same time not giving you concession to disobey Allah so beautiful Say it again. The best scholar is the one who does not cause you to despair from the mercy of Allah While in the process, he does not give you concession to disobey Allah Do you guys get that or do I need to say it a third time? Say it one more time Say it one more time. The best scholar is the one that does not cause you to despair from the mercy of Allah While at the same time not giving you concession to disobey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala I'm not going to repeat it a fourth time. You can watch the recording will be up on Yaqeen's website insha'Allah A statement between Ibn Zubair and Ibn Abbas. May Allah be pleased with them both Abdullah Ibn Zubair RadhiAllahu ta'ala anhu, Abdullah Ibn Abbas radhiAllahu anhuma, may Allah be pleased with them both and their fathers They disputed about the methods of delivering that message And Ibn Abbas radhiAllahu anhu is generally associated with a sense of leniency in fiqh in jurisprudence and this was a man Who the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam You know made dua for himself like think about who we're dealing with. We're talking about Ibn Zubair who's the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam You know prayed for he mixed his saliva with his saliva when he was born the first child born in Medina And Ibn Abbas radhiAllahu anhu who the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam held and said Allahumma faqihu fideen wa allimhu ta'weel. Oh Allah grant him a great understanding of this deen and teach him proper extrapolation interpretation Which one of these guys is going to be wrong? But Ibn Zubair
Questioned Ibn Abbas's methods and that's okay. They argued about what the best way to preserve the deen was the point being However Ibn Abbas, do you think Ibn Abbas ever made things easy because he wanted to water down the deen? No, but people would accuse him of watering down the deen Do you think that Ibn Zubair acted a little harsher because he wanted to run people away from the deen? No, but people accused him of that The message that we take from this is that they were both operating out of a desire to ultimately see the deen thrive and succeed And so we have to be willing to reconsider reassess our methods of how we deliver that message There's mercy in that diversity too not just in opinions that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us area to uh to represent And what it means to represent Allah recognize that you know They say naqlul fatwa fatwa and fiqh to transfer a fatwa a ruling is like giving the ruling itself Allah gives you the ability to teach someone else They are hostage to the way that you're explaining Allah to them and the message of Allah to them What that means as a representative of God in that state is that you do not have Allah's authority, but you must speak truthfully Truthfully to the way that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala conveyed the message through the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam to us And it's important to keep that in mind as you're speaking to someone The last thing is this what does it mean to listen to someone in pain? Most of the reasons why people end up With faith crisis is because of something that's deeply personal to them Some form of trauma some form of grief that rocked their world and the intellectual was not immune to that rocking of their world And a lot of times it takes for you to just listen to the pain Of that person listen to them talk about why they're having these issues as opposed to just treating the issue at face value
And that's usually the best favor that you can do to a person Alhamdulillah yaqeen We've had two sisters masha'Allah that are both licensed therapists and also well-grounded students of knowledge That have been working for almost an entire year now Actually, it marks an entire year on a on a whole collection A whole series on understanding the relationship between faith and trauma and every month We're releasing a chapter and we're going to treat that with infographics and videos and curriculum So people can try to make sense of the connections those deep connections between what we experience And how our worldviews are going to be shaped in accordance with that experience So I just leave you with this hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam Very famous narration, but it can teach you it teach us Myself all of us about how to be sensible and how we convey the message of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam A young man comes to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam As he's sitting in the masjid amongst his companions And he says to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam Give me permission to commit fornication Give me permission to commit zina Imagine how disrespectful that is Imagine if you're Abu Bakr or Umar who puts the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam rightfully so on such a pedestal Understands the maqam, the status of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam What that does to you to hear someone approach him in that way Young man and say give me permission to commit zina Let's go through what the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam does Number one approachability There's something to be said that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam created a culture To where that young man knew that he could go to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam Speak to him and not be admonished for doing so That he knew that out of everyone in the masjid I could go straight to the head Straight to the one to whom divine revelation comes Ask him a question and he'll answer you To whom divine revelation comes, ask him a question like that Approach him with something like that and he will not condemn me Approachability is the first thing
How approachable are you? If your children are not talking to you about their issues It's not because those issues are not there If your community members are not talking to you about those issues It's not because they're not there It's because there has not been sufficient efforts or attempts Given to creating an aura of approachability Ask, I'm here for you Ask, I'm here for you The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam created that With his body language, with his words With the environment that he established in Al Medina Al Munawwara The second thing is the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam paid attention to him The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam did not roll his eyes or mock him You know how bad it is? Let me tell you something that you should never do by the way Because it might happen in the Q&A right now Someone asks a question and everyone laughs A young person musters up the courage to ask a difficult question and people mock that person Sometimes it happens online too right Someone asks a question and they have to bring themselves They care enough to ask that question and people like laugh at it Or the speaker makes fun of them And may Allah forgive me because I know I've done that before too So may Allah forgive us all It hurts someone when they muster up the courage to tell you something like that And you mock them with your expression The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam paid attention to him He didn't laugh, he didn't scoff, he didn't... God, just someone go handle this boy He listened sallallahu alaihi wasallam The third thing, compassion Which is conveyed from the start to the finish of this interaction The fourth thing, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam did not minimize the issue When someone comes to you with an issue and says that they have a problem Don't put down their problem It's very interesting that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam taught us as a coping mechanism It's healthy for us that when we don't have much we look to those who have less Or when we're going through a problem we do look to those that have bigger problems
For ourselves, when we have that ability to do so But don't tell someone else your issue is insignificant or not important Like listen to me young man, you want to commit zina? Look at that guy over there who's sitting in the corner of the masjid He's 45 years old He never asked me for permission to commit zina He didn't do that sallallahu alaihi wasallam There were companions like that by the way that were a lot older than the young man That had never gotten married, were unable to get married Or to find legal ways of dealing with that shahwa But the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam did not minimize his issue The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam explained the ruling at his level The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said to him Listen to me young man He said, would you like for someone to do so with your mother? He said no He said with your sister? He said no He said people are like that too Now someone might look at that and be really offended Right? Like what an example You know what? It was a culturally appropriate example And it was an example that would resonate with that young man The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam spoke to him at his level Addithu an-nas bima ya'rifoon khatibu an-nas ala'iquorihim Speak to people with things that will resonate with them And speak to them at their intellectual level You don't have to use that So your son comes home and asks you for permission And you respond with that and it totally blows up in your face That's not the point here The point is the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam reasoned with him He came down to his level sallallahu alaihi wasallam Lastly, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam made dua for him He prayed for him At the end of this interaction, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was not satisfied With having satisfied the question He reaffirmed that this was for his own interest By putting his hand on the young man's chest And making dua for him
And subhanallah, that young man felt the impact of the dua of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam And his hand on his chest At no point did the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam change the ruling of zina At no point did the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam compromise his own self-respect At no point did the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam compromise the integrity of the message At no point did the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam minimize the crime of zina All of that while in that interaction Helping that young man rise above Not the desire But what he was seeking to do or what he was looking for The permission that he was seeking to act in that desire In an inappropriate way We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to grant us that same compassion That same love That same ability, that rahma To make us firm upon the truth ourselves And to make us able conveyors of the truth as well Allahuma Ameen, Jazakum Allah Khayran, Wassalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
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