Qur'an 30 for 30 | Season 4
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Juz’ 6: Sh. Yaser Birjas & Dr. Ahmed Khater | Our Deen is All About Caring For Each Other
Islam invites us to unity, and the verses of juz 6 offers some guidelines on how best we can step towards unifying. Supporting one another in righteousness, enjoining good and forbidding evil, standing for justice, and supporting our scholars are just a few ways we achieve cohesion and show love for the sake of Allah.
Dr. Ahmed Khater and Sh. Yaser Birjas join Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Abdullah Oduro to discuss and ponder upon Surat al-Nisa and Surat al-Ma'idah from juz 6 of the Qur'an.
Download our FREE eBook “Qur’an 30for30: Judgment Day Edition”.
0:00 - Intro
4:28 - Dr. Omar Suleiman reflects on how to work together for the sake of Allah
6:37 - The warnings in Surat Al Imran
8:09 - Support each other in unity
9:41 - The story of Cain and Abel
11:52 - Sh. Yaser reflects on the transition between Surat an-Nisa and Surat al-Ma'idah
15:07 - Our deen is all about caring for each other
16:21 - The problem with today's society
18:34 - It's not what you do; it's how you do it
19:23 - Sh. Abdullah Oduro reflects on the lives of those who call to good and forbid evil
21:43 - The Qur'anic worldview on prophets
24:33 - The differentiation of iman
27:32 - Dr. Ahmed reflects on the importance or ruling by the rule of Allah
29:22 - Scholars and jurists preserve the religion
31:24 - It's our turn to preserve this deen
36:17 - We must encourage people to learn their religion
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu everyone. Welcome back to Qur'an 30 for 30. Alhamdulillah rabbil alameen. We're now on Juz 6 and we are joined by not just one but two deeply esteemed guests. Walhamdulillah rabbil alameen. We have with us Fadhilatul Diktor Dr. Ahmed Khater. Walhamdulillah we're blessed to have and honestly, you know, mashallah one of the unique legal minds that we have alhamdulillah in our community here in the United States. He's not going to like any of this so we'll just, we'll increase it Shaykh. You know, but someone alhamdulillah rabbil alameen who is with the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America primarily helping the efforts of AMJA, Al-Majma' al-Fiqhiyya, the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America. A graduate in law from Berkeley and really focuses on the shari'a, the legal genius of the shari'a. And the reason why I give you this introduction Shaykh is because it fits perfectly the Juz that we're in today alhamdulillah. So we're blessed to have you Shaykh Ahmed, Dr. Ahmed from Sacramento. And we have Shaykh Yassir Brijas alhamdulillah rabbil alameen, our Shaykh, our leader, our imam, our role model. Shaykh I don't know what more to say but here in Valley Ranch, our imam. Anything else Shaykh? Our neighbor that's all. Our neighbor alhamdulillah rabbil alameen, our neighbor. So alhamdulillah, Shaykh Abdullah, Shaykh Yassir and I live within a few minutes of each other. Shaykh Ahmed, tafadhal. Can clear a house for you down here if you'd like. I heard the prices down there are low already. Here it's torture only in California. So Californians are driving the price up like constantly. It's all the people in California that keep moving to Texas that are messing with the house prices here. Ma'allah wa safa' Allah. Ma'allah forgive all of the brothers and sisters in California. Shaykh Ahmed, we're going to begin. I have a question for you. It's a legal question. You're a legal scholar and it's a very unique situation that we have.
You know from Amjad, I could send this fatwa request to Amjad, to the Assembly of Muslim Jurisprudence of America, but I'll just ask you since we have you here. What's the ruling on an imam who bullies another imam in a masjid? And doesn't let him have his office space in a masjid. What do you do with the imam that doesn't let you have your office in a masjid? I think we're going to need a special surah session for that, Shaykh. He started it. He's asking for it now. Can you tell us what's happening in this picture? Can we have this picture on the screen? What's going on in this picture? I'm trying to understand. As you can see I'm wearing the same robe as in the picture. And your beard is just as black so people know it's the same year. Like this is recently, right? No, of course it's not. Seriously, this is maybe what, six, seven years ago probably? But definitely I used to enjoy my desk, alhamdulillah, when I was the only imam at the Valley of the Rents Islamic Center. Then we had an invader who wanted to take my space. He wants to always break into my office. So I just have to scratch him out of it, man. I mean, it's too much for me. Right? Look at his face, mashaAllah. Even when we moved to the new masjid, mashaAllah, he has his own office right now. But he always has an excuse to come through my office, to go to his office. I don't know why, man. Why are you doing this? It's out of love for you, shaykh. Love for the sake of Allah. I recently noticed that even you moved your parking spot from that distance. Now it's next to my parking spot. What does that exactly mean? What are you trying to do right now? Iqtida, bilaliyat, mashaAllah. That's it. Exactly. JazakAllah khair, shaykh Abdullah. You know exactly what's happening. I know. So shaykh Ahmed will need a fatwa from Amjad.
We need a surah session. We need your help. Lovely to have both of the amr shaykhs here with us. May Allah increase us in love for the sake of Allah and allow us to work together for the sake of Allah always. Allahumma ameen. InshaAllah ta'ala we'll go ahead and get started. Alhamdulillah wa salatu wa salamu ala rasulina wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa man wala. SubhanAllah the actual topic that I'm going to be beginning with is actually this idea of working together for the sake of Allah subhanAllah. So it matches what I hope inshaAllah ta'ala we're trying to do here and I hope even Quran 30 for 30 on a consistent basis is a reflection of that. Alhamdulillah. But when you come to Juz 6 and this is subhanAllah such a beautiful Juz for the purpose of the perfection of the shari'ah just being so self evident. This is the Juz in which Allah subhanAllah ta'ala says in surah al ma'idah اليوم أكملت ركم دينكم Today I have perfected your religion for you and I have completed my favor for you and chosen for you Islam as your religion. And you see the pure beauty and coherence of the law. You know and I know Sheikh Ahmed will be speaking about this inshaAllah ta'ala from the covenant that we take with Allah subhanAllah ta'ala in regards to our dietary laws, in regards to our rituals, in regards to our interpersonal laws. So many different things which inshaAllah Sheikh Ahmed will speak about. But I wanted to just point to a few things that are not necessarily in regards to the law but that speak to the maturity of a community at this point particularly coming out of some of the warnings that we had in the previous two ajza' in the previous two chapters. So for example in the second verse after Allah subhanAllah ta'ala speaks about some of these new legislations that we have now as an ummah of Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam and warns us not to transgress.
Allah subhanAllah ta'ala says, wa la yajrimannakum shana'anu qawmin an sadduukum AAani masjidil haram an ta'tadu. Allah subhanAllah ta'ala says do not let your wrath against those people who stopped you from the sacred masjid move you to commit transgression and injustice. And of course this is something that we learned in the previous surah, surah an-nisa, you know this idea of justice all around and to not let your hatred for people or your sense of revenge, vengeance lead you to a place of injustice. So Allah azza wa jalla is telling us to maintain our own standards. But this is now something that is very profound that comes in this verse. If you think back to the warnings in surah al-Imran, Allah subhanAllah ta'ala says, wa la tafarraqu wa a'tasimu bihabli allahi jami'an wa la tafarraqu. Hold on to the rope of Allah all of you together. Do not become divided sects amongst yourselves. This is not what Allah subhanAllah ta'ala intends for you by this revelation that you now start to break each other into sects. Rather hold on to the rope of Allah subhanAllah ta'ala. And then last time we spoke about this, it transitions to intanaz'atum. But when you have your inevitable arguments, you will still have disputes, you will still have arguments. Go back to Allah and the messenger salAllahu alayhi wa sallam and that pristine path of guidance that's been given to you. So Allah gives you a mechanism for how you resolve your issues. So there are going to be human dynamics in any human relationships, especially when that plays out in the community sense. When you're united by cause, not by identity anymore, not by similarity of a social context or framework, not because of family ties. You're united by a cause. And so the only way you can bring yourselves back to unity is to go back to the original cause.
And to not let those natural human infractions become human diseases of ego, of envy, of pride, where we start to dig our heels in and we start to fracture the community. And we start to get away from what Allah subhanAllah ta'ala has called us to. So what does Allah tell us now? So it goes from wala tafarraqu, two juz' ago, do not divide yourself into sects, to a mechanism, intanaz'atum, a mechanism. If you argue here in surah al-ma'idah Allah subhanAllah ta'ala says in the end of the second verse, wata'awanoo alalbirri wattaqwa, wala ta'awanoo alalithmi wal'udwan. Support one another in acts of righteousness and piety. Do not support one another in sin and transgression. SubhanAllah, wattaqoo Allah, inna Allaha shadidoo al-iqa' And fear Allah. Allah is severe in His retribution. So now the mandate to cooperate with each other, to work with one another and to produce for the world what you are supposed to produce. To be that ummah that you are called to be fully. You now have the full deen that's been given to you. Now act in accordance with it. And you can't do it alone. You can't do it alone as an individual. You can't do it alone as institutions. You can only do it together. So support one another in righteousness. Support one another in God consciousness. Do not support one another in sin and evil. Because unsir akhaaka dhaariman mazloon. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam taught us a new way of thinking. Support your brother whether he is wrong or whether he is wronging. How do you support him when he is oppressing or wronging? By stopping him from his oppression. So don't support each other in evil. Support one another in good. And SubhanAllah, finally I'll leave you all with this sort of to set the tone for the rich discussion that we will have today inshaAllah ta'ala. The story of Cain and Abel. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala starts this in Surah Al Maida in verse 27.
So that's chapter 5 verse 27 where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says to narrate to them, wa tdu alayhim, to narrate to them the story of Ibn Adam. The story of the two sons of Adam. And Allah Azawajal gives us in these next few verses the story of how one of them puts forth a sacrifice. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, fa taqubbila min ahadihima walam yutaqabbal minal aakhir And see here's the thing here. It was accepted from one of them. It wasn't accepted from the other. Now the one whom it was not accepted from, did he try to get back to the original cause of the lack of acceptance? Did he go to his brother? Did he go to the righteous community, which is a small community at that time, to try to come close to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala? Or did he blame the other one for his failure? He blamed the other one for his failure. So what did he say to him? la aqtulannak, I'm going to kill you. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tells us that the response was, innama yataqabbalallahu minal mutaqeem Look, Allah accepts the sacrifices only of those who are God conscious. This is a profound response because sometimes we blame others for our failure. And so instead of me focusing on trying to be the most pleasing member of the community to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and competing in taqwa and helping my brothers and sisters in taqwa and enjoying piety and righteousness, when I see failure or I see someone else's success, I focus my energy on chopping that person down rather than trying to get back to a place that would be pleasing to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and move my community towards that which is pleasing to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. So it's very profound because the message of Iblis to Adam Alayhi Salam was very similar to, I'm going to kill you. He wanted to eliminate Adam Alayhi Salam instead of think about how he could be a more pleasing servant to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And so we only succeed together. And here you have now that call to the community.
And inshaAllah ta'ala with that to my beloved colleague, Sheikh Yasser Birjas. Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen, salallahu wa sallam wa baraka to our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions. Tasliman kathira thumma ma ba'd. So the sixth juz extends into two surahs. The end of surah an-Nisa and then continues all the way to most of the surah al-Ma'idah. If you look at the beginning of the juz, it's a little bit different than the common theme of surah an-Nisa. Surah an-Nisa is more about social reform. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala speaks about the rules for family, the rules for women, the rules for inheritance, orphans, the relationship between the governor and the governor, and all these kind of different rules that it's really focused on establishing a society. But then there's a complete shift in the end of surah an-Nisa when Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala starts speaking about Bani Israel, specific about the people who were supposed to be the followers of Isa Alayhi Salam, Prophet Isa Alayhi Salam, what happened with him, and thinking that they crucified him but he was not. And then the surah ends there. Surah al-Ma'idah speaks right now, subhanAllah, about the relationship between us and the people of the book. So there are many rules, many ahkam, related to the people of the book, the people of the scriptures. And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala reminding us about some of the good qualities they had and many of the things that we should avoid, that unfortunately they wronged when it comes to the message that was delivered to them and given to them. So it's more of like connecting the end of surah an-Nisa with surah al-Ma'idah in that regard. But what stops me really is the last few ayat in surah number 6, and that's ayah number 78 and 79. Ayah number 78 and 79 in surah al-Ma'idah, chapter number 5, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says,
لعن الذين كفروا من بني إسرائيل على لسان داود وعيسى بن مريم ذلك بما عصوا وكانوا يعتدون كانوا لا يتناهون عن ممكن انفعلوا لبئس ما كانوا يفعلون So Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says here that cursed were those who disbelieved from the children of Israel at the time of, before the time of Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam, by the tongue of Dawood and the tongue of Isa, the son of Mary. Why so? Why is that? Because they عصوا وكانوا يعتدون, they disobeyed, and they were transgressors. So they transgressed against, you know, themselves, against each other, against the teachings of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala was sent to them. Then Allah says about them one thing that He highlighted for us as Muslims to be aware of, and be careful though not to fall into that same trap. He says, كانوا لا يتناهون عن ممكن انفعلوا لبئس ما كانوا يفعلون They used not to prevent one another from the wrongdoing that they did. So when they see someone doing something wrong, they never really talked about it, they never really, they pretend that it doesn't actually concern them, and it doesn't matter to them. قال الله تبارك وتعالى لا بئس ما كانوا يفعلون How wretched was that which they were doing, which means not being concerned for one another is a disaster. Shaykh Omar talked about, you know, being concerned about how people are successful, and unfortunately now we go after them because we don't want them to be successful. But this message is completely the opposite over here. I want you to be successful, but I want you to be successful not just in matters of dunya, but also in matters of the akhira as well. Our deen is all about caring for each other. The Prophet ﷺ mentioned the message to us, he says, قال صلى الله عليه وسلم He says, أحب الناس الله أنفعهم للناس They're the most beloved people to Allah ﷻ, are those who are most beneficial to other people. How can I bring benefit to other people? Allah ﷻ mentioned that as a mission for us, the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ, when he says, كنتم خير أمة أخرجت للناس You were the best nation ever produced to mankind.
تأمرنا بالمعروف وتنهوننا عن المنكر Because you enjoin good and forbid evil. So you enjoin good and you forbid evil. So we are concerned about other people. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he mentioned that one of the highest qualities of a believer, what did he say, صلى الله عليه وسلم قال لا يؤمن أحدكم حتى يحب لأخي ما يحب لنفسه You're not a true believer until you love for your brothers and your sisters what you love for yourself. And the ulema, they say, countered it as well as correct. Meaning, and you hate for your brothers and your sisters what you hate for yourself. So if something you believe is wrong and something is haram because Allah said so and the Prophet ﷺ said so, I need to make sure that my brothers and sisters are aware of it. So therefore, it's my duty towards one another to help each other to do the right thing, insha'Allah. Where is the problem today in our society? The problem today in our society, we're living in an extremely individualistic culture. People are concerned about themselves. People, they just become now the heroes of themselves. Everybody is making their own story. Everybody wants to become their own celebrity. Everyone wants to be themselves and so forth. And subhanAllah, this was even maximized through social media. People, they focus too much on themselves. And nowadays, when you see someone doing wrong and you advise them, what do they tell you? None of your business. They say, none of your business, that's between me and Allah ﷻ. You know, Iman is my heart. May Allah bless them. May Allah grant their hearts to the Lord of the worlds. That's what I mean. There is no doubt about it. But I can't accept that it's not my business. Because as a Muslim, it is my business to care for you. It is my business to know that you're doing the right thing. And if you're doing the wrong thing, I need also to remind you. Because Allah ﷻ, in these ayats, in surah al-Ma'idah, He's telling us that one of the biggest mistakes of Bani Israel is that they never enjoined good or forbade evil properly. And when they see someone is doing wrong, unfortunately, they just kind of like pretend it's not their business and they don't care about it. Worse than that, unfortunately, there's a trend now among the young Muslims specifically. Even though they know someone is doing something wrong, they're doing something haram,
but just out of their compassion to this individual, they would go and they congratulate them, for example, they cheer them up and they make them feel good, even though what they've done and what they're posting online is something wrong and something haram. That runs contrary to our major principles of al-amr wa-l-ma'rufa an-nahi an-al-munka. Look, as Muslims, we are responsible for others. That's our duty to Allah ﷻ first and foremost and to the people as well too. This is why Allah says, كُنتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ أُخْجَلَتْ لِنَّاسٍ The best nation ever produced in mankind. And that's contrary to what the ayah is speaking about Bani Israel over here is that they never really, they never spoke about the wrongdoing of others. Why? Because they felt it's not their business, and they let them go with their wrongdoings. If we continue on that same path, it becomes a problem, becomes a disaster for all of us. Finally, somebody might say, but wait a minute, if I'm going to be always doing al-amr wa-l-ma'rufa an-nahi an-al-munka, I mean, I'm going to be keeping, you know, maybe rubbing people the wrong way. Look, it's not really about what you do, it's how you do it. That's what's going to matter the most right now. It's going to matter the most is how you deliver your da'wah. It's extremely, extremely important. Just because you're right, it doesn't mean you're going to be right in the way you're delivering it. Just because you have the truth on your side and the haq on your side, it doesn't mean that you are going to deliver it in the proper way. And the last thing you have to understand, Ibn Mas'ud said, radhiAllahu ta'ala wa-l-adha, inna al-amr wa-l-ma'rufa an-nahi an-al-munka lam yada'a li-sadiqa. Enjoying good and forbidding evil left me no friends. So you have to accept that the path to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala comes with consequences. If you lose the companionship of people in this dunya, I hope inshaAllah Allah will provide you with the best for you in the dunya and in the akhirah. Wallahu ala. JazakAllah khair Sheikh Yasser. Sheikh Abdullah, at-fadhal. Bismillah wa salatu wa salam ala Rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa minallahu anba'at. That was very beautiful.
When speaking about calling to the good and forbidding the evil, this is important for all of us because the reason that it's important is because we naturally have that within ourselves. If we look at our family members, if we see a family member is doing something wrong, something that they should avoid, we will tell them. And if we see something good that they're doing, we want to encourage them to do that as well. So when calling to the good and forbidding the evil is something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has placed within us, but we still have the choice to make. And Sheikh Yasser even mentioned it as well, the athar that was mentioned, the statement by the companion radiAllahu anhu ma, that he would have no friends because in the dunya, in the end of the day, our purpose of life is to show gratitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by implementing to the best of our ability, what he has given us from this sharia, which Sheikh Ahmed will talk about inshallah ta'ala. But what I want to capitalize on are the individuals that were the epitome of this example in calling to the good and forbidding the evil. But I want to start with one story, particularly my story when I was a non-Muslim and I was asking about Islam, or I was hearing Islam for the first time, particularly by a couple of friends of mine that were from Brooklyn, particularly my man Khalifa and Abdul-Baqi. They were telling me about Islam and I had a question ready for them as they were telling me about the oneness of God and Muhammad peace and blessing be upon him, who I never heard about. My only question was, okay, what's the belief, what's the Muslims belief in regards to Jesus? And I thought when I asked them this question, they will say, well, you know, we don't believe in Jesus, but we have Muhammad over here and that's what we have. And you know, this is the belief and this is the truth. But one of them said, you cannot be a Muslim unless you believe in Jesus. Meaning that you believe that Jesus was a prophet. Believing that Jesus came with the message of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, the message of your creator. When I heard that, I really got confused, but it was more not confused, not knowing what they were saying or understanding what they were alluding to. It was more of, wow, how come I never heard about this before?
And that question kept every single day, it was like, this may be the truth. That is why I want to bring this verse, particularly in the chapter of An-Nisa, chapter four, verse 151, the 150, 151. It is the Quranic worldview in regards to the belief in the prophets, which is a pillar of our iman, a pillar of our belief in Allah and our belief in Islam. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, afta'udhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim, inna allatheena yakfuruna billahi warusulihi wayureeduna an yufarriqu bayna Allahi warusulihi wayaquluna nu'minu bi ba'din wa nakfuru bi ba'd wayureeduna an yattakhidu bayna thalika sabidah Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says in verse 150 in the chapter of An-Nisa, he says, there are those who disbelieve in Allah and his messengers and seek to differentiate between Allah and his messengers. And they say, we believe in some and deny others, and they seek to strike a way between the two. So now what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la hears is kind of bringing it the opposite direction. What is he saying? Firstly, he is mentioning the belief, the result. And then he mentions what particular aspect of that belief it was that caused him to disbelieve. And then he mentions the actual statement. So the first thing he says is, there are those who disbelieve in Allah and his messengers. They disbelieve in Allah and his messengers, and they seek to differentiate between Allah and his messengers, differentiate in aspects of belief in Iman. If you believe in Allah, you believe in his messengers, all of them. And this is the belief in Islam, that if you disbelieve in one messenger, it is as though you disbelieve in all of them. This is very important because we as Muslims believe in Jesus, we believe in Moses, we believe in Abraham, all the prophets that are in the previous scriptures, but we believe that they were messengers with a message to tell people about the oneness of Allah. And that's the first pillar of Islam. I bear witness that there is no one worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is the prophet, and that Muhammad is the last prophet, and that Isa was the prophet,
and that Moses was a prophet. They had the same responsibility, was to tell the people about the oneness of Allah. And telling the people about the oneness of Allah is calling them to good, which is the ultimate good, which is there is no other creator except the creator of the heavens and the earth. And he is the one you should devote all of your worship and gratitude to, and leave off all of these forms of polytheistic practices and immoral acts and statements. That's calling to the good and forbidding the evil. When someone does that to you, each and every single one of us has had someone that quote unquote calls us out, or tells us something that they know is not good for us. We may not like it at the time, but later in life we realize those were some wise words, or I appreciate that person being patient with me. This is what we see Allah's sunnah that he does with all of the prophets, putting them through trials and tribulations, only to guide you all, to send that message to you, to call you back to the oneness of Allah, and to act and act accordingly. So when Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says firstly, the differentiation of Iman, it was that was the aspect that took them out of the fold of Islam. Because during the time of Adam till now, we believe that they were Muslims, they submitted and surrendered to the will of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. This was the belief of all of the prophets, and Muhammad being the last of them. So the aspect that took them out of that fold, or the aspect of disbelief of the people that Allah is talking about, is that they differentiated between Allah and the messengers saying that we believe in Allah, but we don't believe in the messengers. Meaning that we don't believe in one of the messengers, which is a symbolization of believing in, not believing in all of them, because they all came with the universal message, La ilaha illallah. There was no one worthy of worship except Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And that's the second point, that not believing in one of them is as though you don't believe in all of them. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la mentions in the next verse, verse number 151,
ulaika humul kafirun haqqa wa a'tadana lilkafirina a'zaaban muheena Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says here, it is they indeed who are beyond all doubt unbelievers. And for the unbelievers, we have prepared a humiliating chastisement. Now here, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la in the Arabic, it's so rich because he says, ulaika humul kafirun haqqa not ulaika kafirun. He says, those people, they are verily the ones that disbelieve. This is to show a level of emphasis that there is no doubt that the individuals that had that previous belief or that had that previous belief that was mentioned in the earlier verses, differentiating between Allah and the messengers or saying, we don't believe in this messenger and we believe in this one. Those are the individuals without a doubt have that aspect of disbelief, haqqan. He said, without a doubt, it is the truth. And then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, wa a'tadna lil kafirina athabin muhina and we have prepared a humiliating chastisement. Then Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la here again, repeats wa a'tadna lil kafirin. He says, and we have prepared for the unbelievers again. Scholars mentioned, Allah said the unbelievers again to show the severity of the situation and the surety of this type of reward, the chastisement for differentiating and not believing in one messenger that devoted their life to calling you to the oneness of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. So in accordance and also in agreement with what Sheikh Yasser was mentioning about calling the good and forbidding the evil, that we should have this general care for our Muslim brothers and sisters, which is assisting in good and calling away from evil. As Sheikh Omar mentioned, ta'awun and assisting each other. We should believe in all of the prophets and that is the ultimate belief in Islam, showing ultimate respect for all of the individuals Allah has chosen to send this message. JazakAllah khair Sheikh Abdullah, beautifully put. And Dr. Ahmed, inshallah, we're gonna ask you to give us the summary from a worldview perspective. And again, the legal coherence
and everything that's being spoken about here. How does it all make sense in the capacity of Surah Al-Naidah and in this Juz' in particular? Fadlashaykh. Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. All praise is due to Allah and may His peace and blessings be upon the Prophet Muhammad, his family, companions, and those who follow in their footsteps. To proceed, in this Juz' we see many rulings and we see the importance of ruling by the rule of Allah. And a Quranic worldview we can take away is the importance of preserving this religion and passing it down and preserving this knowledge and producing people who will do this for the Ummah. This religion, this Shari'ah, is perfect, complete, suitable for every time and place. And we must believe this. And we also must work towards protecting it. And the Sheikhs, may Allah preserve them, they spoke about working together as a community, that we are united upon one message of Tawheed, and that we need to enjoy the good together and forbid the evil together. And as one Ummah, we need to work together to preserve this Shari'ah, this religion, and pass it down to the next generation. And know this, this religion, this Shari'ah, will prevail, will spread, with us or without us. And so we have to ask ourselves, will we partake in this honor or not? Indeed, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has preserved this religion and has spread all over the world. SubhanAllah, Islam has reached people in the English-speaking world while sitting comfortably in their homes, right now, listening to this podcast. And our Prophet, peace and blessing be upon him, said, this matter will certainly reach wherever the night and day have reached. This religion will reach all over the world. This matter of ours, this religion, will reach wherever the night and day have reached.
And from the reasons for the preservation of this religion, and it reaching us all the way on the other side of the world, is that Allah the Almighty has brought about scholars and jurists who know this Shari'ah, and know this knowledge, who dedicate their lives to serving this religion. They were like walking endowments for Islam. They spent their lives, their wealth, everything, to study and teach Islam so that it could be passed down to us, completely preserved in text, and in understanding, and in meaning. And if we had time, we would have mentioned many stories and examples from the biographies of the Imams in this regard. Sufyan al-Thawri, he said regarding this, that angels are the guardians of the heavens, and the people of Hadith are the guardians of the earth. The ulama, the scholars, they are the guardians of the earth. They are the ones who preserve this ilm, and they respond to attacks and doubts. They are the ones who work day and night to pass down this religion to us. An example of this happened during the time of Harun al-Rashid. He had arrested a heretic. And this heretic, before being executed, he said to Harun al-Rashid, what are you going to do about the 1,000 Hadiths I fabricated? And another narration, 4,000 Hadiths. What are you going to do about all these Hadiths I fabricated? I made the halal haram and the haram halal. So Harun al-Rashid, he said, what are you going to do about Abu Ishaq al-Fazari and Abdullah ibn Mubarak, who will go through all of these things that you made up, and pick them out, all these Hadiths, one by one, letter by letter. These are the ulama who are the guardians. They are on the front lines. The ulama, the people of Hadith, are the guardians of the earth. This religion will prevail, will be preserved, will spread. And so these scholars, may Allah reward them and shower them in his mercy. They did their part. And may Allah grant them the highest level of paradise. But now, dear brothers and sisters, the torch has been passed to us.
It is our turn to dedicate our lives to serving this deen, to studying and teaching this religion, so that it may be passed down to the next generations. And this is particularly crucial for the Muslims living as minorities in the West, where day and night, we're surrounded with attacks and doubts about our religion. And now not everyone is going to be able to study and become a scholar, but we can all do our part. All of us, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has blessed us with capabilities and gifts and abilities that we can use to serve this deen. So all of us, again, bringing back the themes that the Mashaikh spoke about, working together as one community, enjoying the good together, for bringing the evil together, together as one community, as one ummah. Together, we can produce those and institutions that will connect the past with the present and continue this unbroken chain of religious transmission. And all this will occur if we put our hands together and work together as an ummah and a community, united under La ilaha illallah. And this is crucial, dear brothers and sisters. Yani, some scholars even said there must be a mufti for every distance of shortening. There must be a mufti for every distance of shortening. Yani, how many scholars have we produced? How many people to serve this deen have we produced? We have the potential in our ummah. No doubt about that. We have the potential in our ummah. MashaAllah, we have gems in our community. But unfortunately, many families, they don't wanna send their children to be scholars or to serve the deen. Yani, we see this, many families, they only send their kids who get bad grades to Islamic seminaries or universities, especially back home, yani. So we should be sending our most intelligent children to study the deen of Allah. Yani, how many of us, we have children who get good grades, we'll say, no, they're gonna be doctors, they're gonna be engineers. I remember this happened to me, but that's another story, another time, inshallah. And so we need someone who will say, we need people who will say, this son of mine or this daughter of mine is for Allah. I will support him, and he will become, or she will become a scholar for this ummah. Or they will be someone who will serve the deen in this capacity.
Yani, if we see potential in a child, then encourage him or her to seek knowledge. Encourage them to serve the deen of Allah. Send them to be a scholar and the like. Send them to the ulama to take them under their wing. And this was the way of the imams of the Salaf, Imam al-Dhahabi. He went to Ibn Dhaqiq al-'Eid, Shaykh of Islam, of course. And he wanted to study with him. So Ibn Dhaqiq al-'Eid, he tested him. He tested al-Dhahabi. And so he asked him, he said, who's Abu Muhammad al-Hilali? So he responded, he said, Sufyan ibn Uyayna. Then he asked him again, another question. He responded again, he said, Sufyan ibn Uyayna, you, you're with me. You're with me. I see the potential in you. You're gonna study with me. I'll take you under my wing. And this is the way that we must move forward as a community. Not this nafsi, nafsi, myself, myself. Look at, you see this brother, mashallah, has potential, has abilities that Allah has given him that you don't have? Support him. Or this institution, or this community. Doesn't always have to be you. You don't always have to be in the front. You can be supporting from the back. Sometimes you'll be in the back, sometimes you'll be in the front. What matters is the goal. What matters is the mission. And we need people that all they care about is this deen. We'll cut off the dunya. I don't care about the dunya. I want this deen. I want Jannah. I want to reach Jannah by serving this deen, by teaching people about this deen, by preserving this sharia, by showing how it is suitable for every time and place and superior over all other laws and all other teachings and all other messages. Yeah, subhanAllah, this reminds me. And just let me know inshAllah when I have to stop. But this reminds me, I was traveling with Sheikh Tahir Wyatt one time. We were in the car. Habibullah ta'ala. And I asked him, Sheikh, why are you not on social media? And all the mashayikh, they have social media and platforms. And this is from the modern means of spreading ilm today. He said, I don't care about likes. I don't care about followers. All I care about is Jannah. Yeah, this hit me. This hit me like a, what do they say?
A sack of bricks or whatever. That, yeah, this ran me over with it like a truck. I was like, subhanAllah. Another time with one of our mashayikhs, Sheikh Yusuf Hussain, Habibullah ta'ala. We were together with some other mashayikh and we were giving lectures and teaching classes. And we were told, there'd be these many people attending and these many people have registered and so on. And then we came in, we didn't see that number. And so we were discussing about the low attendance and so on. And he said, let us not complain because I'm afraid that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will remove the barakah. Yeah, this also hit me hard, subhanAllah. And so I'll end with this. I remember, unfortunately, we are preoccupied with many other things. We're preoccupied with the dunya and flashy topics. And we often don't care about the gatherings of knowledge, but we have to encourage people. I know it's hard, sometimes it's dry, but we must encourage people to step out of their comfort zone and take some time out of their day to learn something about their religion. And I remember, I'll end with this, in our masjid here, Masjid Noor in Sacramento, one of our mashayikh, Sheikh Ammar Hussain, Habibullah ta'ala, he was doing a conference on ruqya and jinn and magic and all that. Yeah, and Sheikh Omar, I don't wanna tell you, the attendance, like the attendance you see now for taraweeh, it's the same attendance was for that lecture. It was like Eid. We had to put extra chairs in the lobby and in the multipurpose room and in the parking lot. And I was like, Allahummarik, mashallah. The next day I had a class, I think it was inheritance law or something, the same masjid on the same stage in the same chair. And so I came and sat down. And of course, with all the extra chairs added, it really emphasizes how empty the place was. No one was there for that class. One or two or three people, and I don't even know if they were awake. So I was, subhanAllah. And so some people, the Sheikh said, if you spoke about the fiqh of jinn, you'd get many more people. So the next day I posted,
there are chapters in the books of fiqh that talk about the fiqh of jinn. So I posted some pictures from the chapters on the fiqh of jinn. The point is, unfortunately, the gatherings of knowledge now have been boycotted or they are empty or people are occupied with the dunya. We need to take people back to the main mission and goal. And forgive me for taking too long, but this is a passionate subject I really like to talk about. We need to serve the deen of Allah in any capacity that we can. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to use us for that, which pleases Him. And not for that which pleases Him. And may Allah's peace and blessings be upon His final prophet, Muhammad, his family and companions. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knows best. Ameen. JazakAllah khair. Ahmed. Dr. Ahmed, there are two things I want to actually bring to the group inshAllah in conclusion, sort of in final thoughts. I think the first one is mainly, Sheikh Yasir, you spoke about correcting and enjoining good and forbidding evil. And sometimes people forbid evil with evil. And they sort of abuse that concept. So how would we address that? And then the second final thought, as we kind of go around just everyone, 30, 45 seconds quickly inshAllah ta'ala. What if I feel left out of this equation? You know, I'm not a scholar, I'm not a student of knowledge. I'm barely trying to pray five times a day. I'm just trying to get back to Allah's parents on Ramadan. I'm really struggling with just the fara'at. So how do I find myself in this discussion about the succession of community? So we'll go around the room inshAllah for a final thought, Sheikh Yasir, go ahead. So alhamdulillah wa shakallahu wa sallam wa rasool Allah. I mean, as a Muslim, it's part of my duties to give da'wah. One duty is to myself learn and practice. And the other duty is to give that da'wah. And what we ask people is to give to their capacity. No one is asking people to give da'wah for things they don't know well. If you have learned how to make wudu, teach other people how to make wudu. If you learn Surah al-Fatiha, try to help people to memorize Surah al-Fatiha. You will always find somebody who needs help with something that you know alhamdulillah rabbil alameen. So I don't want Muslims to feel that they're left out because I don't know much. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, he says, balighu anni wa la ayah,
deliver even if it was one single ayah. So do not belittle the effort that you can make, inshAllah, to Barakah wa ta'ala, just in your own capacity. The other thing, if you think, well, I'm not at that level and I can't really give it, look, no one's gonna be perfect. So if you're gonna wait until we become perfect so we can deliver the da'wah, no one will be sitting here in front of you right now. So we're gonna have to do our best, inshAllah, to maintain what we teach and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it true to the message of Rabbil alam. JazakAllah, Shaykh. Any final thoughts, Shaykh Ahmed, Shaykh Abdullah? Just one thing, I remember there's a Shaykh, Shaykh Sayyid Adly, he mentioned something very beautiful. He said, call people to the sunnah with the sunnah. And he called people to the sunnah with the manners of the sunnah. And subhanAllah, one of his students, Dr. Aisha Hatta, he was in my masjid a long time ago, and he gave a lecture, and he said, and after the khutbah, he said, if anyone wants to learn surah al-Fatiha, like Shaykh Yafsa's saying, I will be here from Salat al-Maghrib. MashaAllah, just to teach people surah al-Fatiha, a gesture that almost any one of us can do. You know, and mashaAllah, the people came and he was able to teach them and get the reward of teaching surah al-Fatiha. Just so at your capacity, do what you can, inshAllah may Allah reward you. Shaykh, I remember a surah, I have to mention this quickly inshAllah ta'ala, how to correct the sunnah or the right thing with the right way. At a surah story that was told us by one of the mashayikhs, subhanAllah, he says in the haram in Mecca, you know how people come from different parts of the world? They have their own practices. So it seems that one of those people who was visiting for umrah or hajj probably, sat next to one of the locals, who maybe followed the sunnah particularly in a certain way. So after Salat al-Faridah, this gentleman, he, you know, extended his hand to shake hands with him, like in our culture, some qadisi, taqabbal Allahumma, like this. So this guy, he turns to this man and he says, bid'ah, just like that, pushed him away saying bid'ah. So the man in a simplistic way was so offended and so subhanAllah and shocked, he goes, ya'ni illat al-sunnah, ya'ni being rude is sunnah. But this is the summary of this whole message.
Being right does not necessarily mean that you're going to be right in the way you're delivering it. So you have to make sure that you have the right message, the right knowledge for it, and the way you deliver it is with compassion and with love and with gift. Wallah. I think subhanAllah, that idea of like, you don't want to provoke the nafsi response from someone else to where the whole effort of us trying to enjoy good and forbid evil becomes tarnished then by the stoking of egos that then start to come up and people's natural, you know, desires and reactions to these types of things take away from the message at the end of the day and what we're trying to do. And the transition and the succession of that message. So Surat al-Ma'idah, once again, is about the transition, succession, the genius, but the community has to manifest that genius in the genius way that the Prophet ﷺ taught us how to do so and how he raised this community. Hopefully we can do that inshaAllah by working together. And Shaykh Ahmed, just a suggestion for you. If you do a conference on the fiqh of marriage of jinn, it's gold. The fiqh of jinn getting married, your masjid will be full, Shaykh. You can do the inheritance laws as well of jinn and then you can just, it's clickbait. You can move on to the human beings after that, right? Shaykh, he actually offended. You said fiqh of marriage. He has a fiqh of love class. Oh, sahih. The fiqh of love of jinn, anyway. There you go. When we were in school, when we were at the University of Medina, three topics all those people talked about. Number one, unfortunately, bashing teachers. Number two, marriage. Number three, jinn. Always talk about that stuff. So if you make conference on one of these three things, you'll find someone to come and attend. That's part of the lecture, Shaykh. What do you do if your jinny wife bashes your Shaykh? Khalas. Astaghfirullah. This is why I came to Valley Ranch to help you, Shaykh, with these framings, right? You know what? I'm going to be waiting for you at the parking spot. We'll see. Allah yastur. Allah yastur.
Jazakumullahu khair, masha'Allah. It was wonderful to have you all. Barak Allah khair. We'll see you all tomorrow, inshaAllah, for Juz 7.
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