Sincerely, Yours
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Sincerely, Suleiman Hani
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. Jazakumullahu khair for joining us for another episode of Sincerely Yours. I'm your host Ibrahim Hindi. My co-host Sheikh Abdullah Aduro. He's running a bit late. Inshallah he's gonna join us Hopefully a few minutes You know a few minutes into this inshallah But alhamdulillah we're back. We have a great guest this week That we're really excited inshallah to interview and I'm sure that so many of you inshallah are gonna be really excited To learn from and as you all know this session and these sessions that we hold every week They're really meant for you to have interaction with our mashayikh, with our guests, with our students of knowledge So we want to hear from you. We want to connect with all of you inshallah So let us know in the chat say assalamualaikum Let me know where you're coming to us from. We want to connect with each and every one of you Assalamualaikum, I see Suad from Canada. MashaAllah. I miss Canada. I'm still in Mecca I wanted to show you Maybe the window, but it's not gonna give you that good of a view But I hope inshallah I'll be back in Canada with everyone. Baytullah Let us know where you're coming at us from we want to hear from all of you and let us know your questions If you have any questions, if you have any feedback, you know put it in the chat If you have you know great ideas for these sessions you can go to The link in the description you can give us feedback, speakers you want us to invite in the future You know different kind of questions you want us to ask our guests inshallah We want to hear from each and every one of you Assalamualaikum from Belgium working in the night shift. I'm working the night shift too brother I don't know if it's a brother or sister, but I'm working the night shift too. It's 2 a.m. over here Alhamdulillah, not complaining. I'm really happy to be here and inshallah interview our guest I see brother Danish, assalamualaikum from Leicester. I always trip up on that on that word. I think it's Leicester, right?
Probably maybe not I'm messing it up inshallah. You in the UK, everybody in the UK can tell me how I'm messing up that pronunciation inshallah Sister Ruqaiya, assalamualaikum from the UK Dr Mayala, assalamualaikum from Saudi Arabia but in DC right now Assalamualaikum, jazakumullahu khair for joining us Alhamdulillah we have people from all over the world joining us from Algeria, from Kuala Lumpur, from Nigeria, mashaAllah from Germany InshaAllah all of you are in my dua. Every single one of you is in my dua inshallah while I'm out here in Mecca I'm gonna head over to Medina inshallah tomorrow And I'll be making dua inshallah for all of you biibnillah Salam from Montreal, Canada. We love you. Yeah, absolutely inshallah I can't wait to get back even though it's going to be always bittersweet to leave the Haramain My audio is breaking up Uh, if anyone else is having that issue, please let me know. I hope that's not the case I hope everyone can hear me biibnillah Okay, so we have a great guest who I'm going to introduce to all of you who I'm sure Most of you are already familiar with alhamdulillah We have inshaAllah today Sheikh Suleiman Hani. He is the director of Academic affairs at Al-Maghrib Institute and a research scholar for Yaqeen Institute and a resident scholar in Michigan. At the age of 14 Sheikh Suleiman completed a 10-month Quran memorization program and began his intensive studies under numerous scholars earning dozens of traditional Religious certifications in the process. He later earned a master's degree from the University of Jordan's College of Sharia Ranking first in his class and a master's degree from Harvard University where he studied religions, philosophy, political science, and psychology Over the past decade he has served as an imam and a community leader in Michigan Lectured in dozens of countries
Published a number of books and articles and was featured on the largest Islamic television stations worldwide So inshaAllah, please join me in welcoming Sheikh Suleiman Hani. As-salamu alaykum Sheikh, how are you? Wa alaykum as-salam wa rahmatullah wa barakatuhu Sheikh. Sheikh, I actually had no idea you were in Mecca. SubhanAllah Keep us in your ya'aab. May Allah accept from you Ameen, ameen ya Rabb. Alhamdulillah, I've been here for a week and Another week inshaAllah and I'll be leaving biidhillah May Allah accept Alhamdulillah. You know Sheikh, one of the things like the past few weeks I know this like comes from a place of privilege and I feel bad saying that because other people don't have the opportunities that Maybe myself and you've had but the last two years of not being able to come here Not being able to visit the Haramain and be here Well, I gave me anxiety. Like I've started to feel like I don't know if I'm ever going to be back And so once I had the opportunity and I couldn't say no and and Alhamdulillah, it's been amazing SubhanAllah, you're absolutely right Sheikh. I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy to be here You're absolutely right Sheikh, especially for those who have been going, you know on an annual basis or taking groups leading groups SubhanAllah, these last two years have been very very different. May Allah SubhanAllah allow us to all Perform hajj and awrah many times in our lives Ameen, ameen ya Rabb So Sheikh, you know the the purpose of these conversations is really to You know give the audience an opportunity to get to know, you know Who are the Masha'ikh if they, you know read some of your great articles, and we had a great series of articles recently that came out In Yaqeen, if they, you know, watch your lectures or your khutbas or things like that You know, sometimes they don't get to know who the person is, right? And so we want we want everybody wants to get to know who you are and that's really the point inshallah of these sessions And so, you know, maybe we'll start off like telling us your story Like where did you when did you decide really to start pursuing knowledge?
When did that become something that you know, you felt dedicated towards? BarakAllahu feekum Sheikh, anjazakum wa khayran May Allah SubhanAllah bless everyone who's listening May Allah SubhanAllah bless you with the best of this life and the next and reward you all, Allahuma Ameen In terms of pursuing knowledge, so I guess a big part of my experience and my story is Alhamdulillah Goes back to my parents, may Allah SubhanAllah bless them and preserve them And all of our loved ones, Allahuma Ameen My father from a very young age was very active in da'wah, seeking knowledge, being very active in terms of You know the masajid, Islamic centers They grew up in that environment And when they came to the US, so I am the son of Palestinian immigrants, Alhamdulillah When they came to the US, my father, one of the very first things that he did was They found some people who were similar minded and opened an Islamic center in Charlotte, North Carolina Alhamdulillah, a number of people and it's still very active today, Alhamdulillah And I came to Michigan, I was very young at the time and I have been here ever since, Dearborn, Michigan Basically a center and home to one of the largest concentrations of Muslims and some of the best food in the world, Alhamdulillah And I don't mean just in the US, I mean like some of the best food in the world, MashaAllah And some of the worst streets, but some of the best food and Alhamdulillah My father, you know as well with some other people And actually with my mother, they opened an Islamic center here in Michigan, Islamic center of Detroit A number of people together, Alhamdulillah, basically were there in the beginning and now it is Alhamdulillah one of the most active masajid here So the reason I mention that background is because I thank Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala for my parents because From a young age my father used to emphasize, you know, seeking knowledge, memorize the Quran, my mother as well I cannot count the number of lessons that I've taken from them, Alhamdulillah And because of that, I assume, because I was in the environment of the masjid frequently, I was
always attending programs, classes Islamic school for a number of years as well I think that ended up leaving a significant impact on my family I think that ended up leaving a significant impact on me in terms of wanting to seek knowledge And if I had to pinpoint a specific time when I consciously said I want to do this Intensively and much more for the rest of my life I think it was when I was in ninth grade, I was 13, 14 years old I left actually for a year, I left my parents house and I lived with my uncle My uncle Yusuf, may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala bless him and reward him And when I lived with him for that school year, this was when he was single and he still wasn't married He was teaching at the Islamic school and he was running a Quran program on Sundays And he's a role model for me So going to that Islamic school, seeing a good environment After a kind of, you know, a break from that in terms of public school and private school I don't know what happened that year, but I think Just being immersed in the environment of always being in the masjid, memorizing Quran My uncle himself was a role model in many ways. That inspired me to continue much more than before and I think from there it just, alhamdulillah, continued to increase in terms of wanting to do this for the rest of my life So alhamdulillah, a lot of the credit goes back to You know, after Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, the blessing of having parents who really emphasize them, my uncle and many other teachers along the way, alhamdulillah You know, Sheikh, as you were talking, I was just thinking that, you know, subhanAllah, we've had a few guests during, you know, having these sessions once we started them, this weekly talk show And, you know, a lot of the speakers are different. There's diversity, some of them are converts, some of them, you know, really grew up not being very religious, but You know, one of the common threads through a lot of them, not everyone, but a lot of the different scholars and students of knowledge we talk to Is their parents, right, and the impact of their parents and just like maybe think about the verse in the Quran وَكَانَ أَبُوبٌ أَصَالِحَا
Right, that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, you know, saves these orphaned children and their wealth because they had a father who was righteous SubhanAllah, do you think like that's That's like one of the blessings that sometimes people just underestimate that what you do Is going to be seen not just like the effects of it is not just seen in you but like in your offspring Maybe even like generations and generations later what you do today might, you know, influence the world then I agree with you 100% Sheikh. SubhanAllah, just a few days ago. I had just referenced that same exact part of The ayah in Suratul Ka'af to someone وَكَانَ أَبُوبٌ أَصَالِحَا Because at the end of the day we know that Being righteous is not just a matter of seeing its effects in the next life There are many indications of doing good and having some blessing in this world or seeing some effect of it Before a person departs. It's not always the case, but oftentimes people do see the The effects and the rewards and the blessings of a righteous grandfather, righteous grandmother, righteous, you know parent The impact that it has on their children, you know, you just look at Imam Al-Bukhari, raised by a single mother Look at Imam Ahmad, so In terms of their parents, in terms of the mother, in terms of the father, you do find an effect no doubt whatsoever and I praise Allah SubhanAllah for my parents every day and Even for my my grandparents, may Allah SubhanAllah bless them. They also instilled a lot of these values In their children and it's seen even you know amongst my uncles and cousins and others, Alhamdulillah, may Allah bless them I mean Sheikh like besides your parents, do you think there's someone who you could like point to who you think like this person had like the greatest impact on your life? It's a really really tough question because there were different individuals that had an impact on me in one area of my life That was very crucial and then a different area of my life. That was also very important If I had to say other than my parents and siblings like direct family
I would probably say my uncle Yusuf may Allah SubhanAllah bless him and reward him and his entire family He living with him for a year as a 14 year old Left a significant impact on me. He's still a role model to this day Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah Do you think like from that perspective like I remember myself, there was a brother SubhanAllah he Converted to Islam around the same time as Malcolm X actually And you know, he lives in Toronto and he's known to the people in Toronto And he was actually someone who gave dawah to Sheikh Bilal Phillips And this brother used to be in the masjid During Ramadan and I was a young, you know 13 years old 13 year old and I would be in the masjid with my friends doing at doing atikaf You know, we're really just like playing and talking and you know praying a few rakahs, but you know, just chilling mostly And you know, he would Wake us up for fajr and You know just like in a humorous way try to wake us up for fajr sing sing something to wake us up And he just kind of had that like big brother feeling right and You know, I don't know. I think maybe like at that time you kind of need when you're young You hear it from your parents, but you need to hear the same thing from someone else That you kind of connect to look up to you think there's something there that like we need like You know, like people say it takes a village right? Like it can't just all be the parents Who raised the child like there has to be that? Outside influence that kind of gets to the child a little bit 100 percent a million percent. I think it's a million percent a hundred percent a million percent and I Subhanallah, I mean sometimes it takes years to get to that realization because of you know, like when teenagers are growing up and they're rebelling or they're maybe not rebelling, but they're kind of Uh, their parents are one thing to them and it's usually authoritative even if friendly or compassionate They might be more receptive to taking certain things from other people depending on their experience their relationship
for sure having mentors and And um older, you know siblings if you will, uh, quote-unquote siblings an older brother older sister in the community, uh relative Somebody to kind of like give you that advice it. Yeah, sometimes it's more impactful Unfortunately more impactful until that person grows up and realizes years later and my parents were right I should have just listened to my parents and then you see the same thing and you know And the children are on you subhanallah. They will likely take it from someone else when I um I was kind of thrown into an imam position when I was 19 years old And the reason I say thrown into is because I was invited to lead tarawih prayer So I went and then the masjid they didn't have an imam. So they said can you move, you know here and Just lead prayers and if you can they started asking me for like a two minute khat They don't just read like something simple hadith said sure I can do that the problem with that is being thrown into that position is Um people see an imam and they assume you study sharia at that point. I was still studying alhamdulillah, I had completed a lot of my studies, but I wasn't ready for a lot of the issues that people came with And I would frequently have to say I don't know or i'm not an imam or i'm not a scholar Or I redirect to somebody else. But one of the most common things that people would come to me with was the following My son my daughter. They're not listening to me. Can you talk to them? Maybe they'll listen to you Subhanallah sometimes, you know people There's this barrier between them and a parent and authoritative figure and unfortunately, and they'll take it from someone else Subhanallah, which reminds us that we are in need of being mentors to other people Even if they're not our children We are in need of raising the children of the ummah around us. It takes an ummah to raise a child Maybe we can say and We also need to be aware of that like the different dynamics in our communities Who is helping the younger generation who's showing them around guiding them as an older brother or sister Allahu'a'ala Yeah, absolutely subhanallah Subhanallah, that's uh, that's actually something that I was reading into studies about because
You know the parent has so much influence on the child when they're like very young like three four five six But as they start getting into like that pre-adolescent stage, you know, eight nine ten getting into those teenage years Their parents matter less and less and less to them and their peers their friends matter more and more and more to them And you know subhanallah It's just I think the parent has to in those early years try to make sure you set them up with like good friends You know your your family friends are you know Good influence have similar values and you're trying to set that situation up because you have to expect There's going to come a point where they just like don't Connect with you that much anymore Um, and then as they get older by the way as they get into their adulthood their 20s They start connecting back to their parents more. So it's interesting, you know, such um Um cycle that we tend to go through but it's just like I think one of the biggest advices is to have You know try to put your you can't control everything. Some things are in the hands of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but just having You know some thought about making sure that your child is growing up with other peers or mentors or people like a little bit slightly older than them that they can look up to That would also, you know guide them hopefully in the right direction Absolutely agree shaykh 100 percent subhanallah. Um I it there's some barakah some taufiq some things that Cannot be measured but it starts at a very very young age and it starts with the parents Yes, absolutely um so You know shaykh that was an interesting point and I kind of you know I feel a similarity to that because I started giving khutbahs here and i'm not here But I went back in toronto in that area when um when I was about 19 as well and um You know, I kind of feel the same thing where like people are expecting things of you and you're just like i'm actually not ready like I have like a tiny bit of knowledge and And you know, they just kind of kind of want a youth leader and they kind of put you up there
um, how did you deal with like all those expectations of you at a young age because kind of like some people In retrospect shaykh like I think back and i'm like man I could have I could have gotten destroyed by that Like I could have like lost my iman because they put me in a leadership position too early alhamdulillah, like I've you know, that didn't happen and I had mentors but do you think like um Just from your own experience like, you know, how did you handle that? uh I I think um, it's extremely dangerous for a community to allow that to happen and for that individual not to have mentors uh, alhamdulillah, like one of for me one of the things that really helped was um, I had already known before I was I mean, I guess you were aware as well that um, Don't don't speak about things. You're not qualified to speak about always go back to teachers your mentors Uh, so I I had a lot of things in which I had to turn to Uh teachers and ask them questions and um, you know redirect and so on and so forth um and and knowing my limitations as well, but also it forced me to learn so much and it raised the standards for me and forced me to kind of overcome this challenge of Wanting even more to be able to help more people alhamdulillah Assalamualaikum sheikh Waalaikumussalam Apologize for my tardiness That's all right How are you Alhamdulillah, i'm good. I'm good. No complaints. No complaints whatsoever. How are you sheikh? Alhamdulillah There's someone in the in the chat I think father luqman he asked like three times where's Your fans are waiting for you Everything okay Yeah has some technical difficulties today happens i'm from last week also Yeah, i'm glad that you rectified it. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah
We're just talking to you know, sheikh sulaiman about like his journey into knowledge and all of that and it's probably he was he was kind of put on the Stage of community leadership at a young age. He was only like 19 and and they had him You know giving khatiras and talks and so we were kind of talking about that and you know dealing with that and managing that um so like that that that Could be such a difficult position to be in and but like you know Like sheikh sulaiman said like it kind of forces you to either rise to the occasion or or not and and sometimes it can be a good thing that you know, here's a challenge and you got to gain that knowledge because you want to help those people and Um, it can be a motivating factor So so what what what exactly did you mention the exact? I want to say exact well the exact actually like was it your parents that said no you're going to go do this Was it an imam that got sick one day? You had to give the khutbah what what happened? Like what happened? Well almost no, no, I didn't actually so I to to kind of go back a little actually when I was 17, I had to give the first khutbah to like a good 350 people and so um That's when I learned like the hard way that turn to people who know turn to your you know, your father your mother local sheikh So, uh, I actually I remember asking my father to help me write out and prepare like a really really good Khutbah I said it's my first one. It has to be really good and it was about sincerity and uh Two years after that was leading taraweeh. This is what I had been mentioning basically led taraweeh had a masjid They said can you move to our city? It's about an hour away. There's university there as well Can you move here and just lead salawat? We'll you know, give you the house of the masjid. We'll take care of you So I thought about it. My parents encouraged it. Uh, my father encouraged it They said it will help you. Um, it's beneficial for you So there was some encouragement obviously when I took this position, I thought I was just leading salawat But it came with Friday khutbahs. It came with khawatir, you know and then answering people's questions, um, so
I I was saying basically uh, number one it forces us to uh To overcome that challenge of not knowing and also reminds us to be humble and say I don't know i'm not qualified when we're not qualified right and number two It's there's there's a really important reminder here for all the busy imams and shiukh around the world and Those who know and those who have knowledge in any field not just imams That's when you see someone put Kind of um in that position and they're still young Uh, give them a lot of advice So they know that if there is something of difficulty that they'll turn to you rather than feeling like well I'm expected to just know and not ask Uh, and alhamdulillah I had a lot of teachers and mentors who I could turn to and still turn to for questions Um at that time I was learning a lot more subhanallah a lot more intensively and you know Experiencing things for the first time but I I can't think of a situation in which I said something that now like years later I'd be like man I should not have said that uh, I think because I it had been instilled in me Be very very very cautious if you're ever put into that kind of position And that's the same advice i'd give to you know any young uh up and coming imam or any person in any position in our community around the world Absolutely subhanallah that's like I said, like that's kind of my experience as well I used to write out my khutbah shiakh like line by line Not that I would read it line by line because like I was very familiar with it But I just like I was so worried about saying something wrong That I just wanted to write it out line by line. So I know exactly what i'm going to say And you're you're right shiakh like it saves me because when I was younger, you know, to be frank I had opinions back then that today i'd look at and be like, I can't believe I used to think that But alhamdulillah, like I wanted to stay within what I knew 100% every scholar agrees with it's part of our deen I didn't want to go beyond that and you're right Subhanallah that saved me and that was part of my mentors and parents who kind of like Encouraged me to stay and like, you know What's there's no difference of opinion at all because i'm not a scholar and I was a young kid i'm trying to give khutbahs
Building off that shiakh, I have this thought because you know I think about like today's day and age Like us being put into those leadership positions at a young age was was kind of a little bit of a fitna But even then like you're in the masjid and there's other mashayikh And there's other people in the community elders who know you who can give you advice who can You know pull you aside and be like, what are you saying? What are you doing and like set you straight? Today people can become super famous on youtube in like two minutes And I got a huge following and like I worry subhanallah about that like, you know We know imam malik was giving fatwas at a young age, but everybody knew him at a young age, right? And they saw him in their community and they saw him every day and they saw his ibadah and they saw his knowledge, right? So even though he was young and in a leadership position Like the community had seen him now people pop up and you don't even know who they are And you don't know if their community knows them and they get this sudden fame and even if they're doing good work They get that sudden fame and it can be overwhelming. I was just wondering like based on your experiences if you had any thoughts about that Yeah, subhanallah One of the ahadith that I covered in in the maghrib seminar About imam muslim in his compilation Essentially was about knowledge and how at the end of times ignorance would become widespread and it is one of the signs that has in a way Already started to manifest in the community In a way already started to manifest in different forms and that people would take from those who are ignorant, right? they would mislead themselves and mislead other people and I commented on and I said in addition to this let's look at the concept of leader not just necessarily as a political leader or Somebody who has an islamic authoritative position But also an influencer somebody who's leading a group of people somebody who Says something and people are listening and they're commenting on and giving opinions on Religious matters when they don't have the knowledge or the qualifications or they're just flat out wrong about what they're saying
Be careful where you take your religion from just something we need to keep reminding our communities Be careful where you take your religious knowledge from Especially in this day and age subhanallah Following does not equate to you know, trustworthiness integrity a role model good character or knowledge or accuracy Subhanallah, it's just something that we have to keep I guess emphasizing and raising awareness about and reminding those who are suddenly thrown into The spotlight, you know to be cautious to advise them to Support them perhaps some of them will inshallah change their ways. You never know You know, there's so many stories of other day. Somebody told me about a singer. I believe a singer from like the middle east Who I guess repented and put out a public video saying I'm discontinuing what i'm doing and i'm switching over to quran recitation, you know moving forward because it's more pleasing to allah And this is what I hope others will take from and of course there's backlash but It's just we need more of those kinds of stories and people to give advice to anyone who's thrown into that position Allah ta'ala Subhanallah shaykh You know, it's With the whole With the whole issue of the whole, um, I guess you say journey Of tolebal al of seeking knowledge and then with the introduction or the presence of Social media and you know shaykh ibrahim mentioned and you mentioned the word fitna Along with that What have you seen And and not just and i'm not this is not an introduction to say that look it's it's bad now and You know, I got some gray here. So it's like, you know back in my day. It was much better. You know, i'm not saying that but With the presence of social media and how one can
I'll use the word very lightly with lowercase letters learn their dean What are you seeing in regards to the um, i'll say the the What's the word I want to use the potency of the knowledge with the youth now as opposed to you know back Back in the day, you know, we would go to the masjid we would sit and we would listen from mugga to isha So I feel like so like for instance at my masjid the dhulus that I give I give them 20 minutes after isha Why because I know mother to isha Generally with the community it's not But before it was like mother to isha is like that's when the lesson was you wait till the other hand of isha You know after mugga five minutes inshallah, there will be But then nowadays it's like okay Um, I don't have to go. I mean I can get facebook live You know I can do that while i'm studying i'll study, you know, kitab al tahira. I'll study. Yeah, you're well at the same time With that presence. What are you seeing with the the the application or with The strength of the knowledge with the youth nowadays What's this is there a shift is it positive or negative or is it just this is the way it is and it's changed but it's still the same as far as the The the potency of the knowledge and the integrity of the knowledge Yeah, subhanallah sheikh. I I think it's anecdotal what i'm saying. It's it's highly subjective It's based on my limited experience, but I think most people are sharing a similar sentiment in the For the most part it seems like the standards of knowledge have decreased the depth of knowledge has decreased attention span I don't think that's just my opinion. I think for many people attention span has decreased People can't read articles anymore They spend a few seconds reading headlines and then they move on and they assume they know exactly what happened People listen to you know, 60 seconds 30 seconds of A lecture and that's their boost for the day however While while you know that that is a general observation at the same time it seems like there is in some
Pockets and circles here and there it seems like there is a revival of generally a pursuit of islamic knowledge And the reason I say that is because of the number of students that are now accessing institutes And scholars and programs, uh, perhaps more than before because of the internet and social media Now you have the internet and social media Now you have the entirety of basically everything yaqeen has of lectures and programs and classes Everything that yaqeen is producing is accessible and it's a lot of content masha'allah So there's this and there's that seems like there's a revival in general But structured long-term learning, um being in depth, I think generally You know, i'm noticing a decline in some places and others perhaps are noticing a decline I think it's a matter of us going to those and going back to the foundations Those who are interested in seeking knowledge and giving them high standards to pursue Subhanallah with each each maybe decade. It's as though we're taking Less and less of each topic and making things more, you know surface level digestible content Allah ta'ala anam Right services level digestible, right? Right subhanallah That's interesting. So what what was it like? What was the process like? I mean when you What was the first? Book that you studied with who and when you first started your journey That is a real I don't think anyone's ever asked me now the first book I studied I uh I don't know that I would be able to remember A specific text that was the first um because generally uh growing up alhamdulillah my father Went through a number of texts with us and in the masajid. I was always in the masjid growing up Initially just running around between the rows of people but later on alhamdulillah You know kind of shying away from being a troublemaker and starting to get a little more serious Um, did you have a nickname? Did you have a nickname? I did not I wasn't bad enough of a troublemaker to have a nickname. I was the imam's son or the sheikh sheikh
Sheikhani's son sheikhani's son. Okay. Okay. Yeah So I uh, yeah, I wasn't bad enough of a troublemaker and I I think maybe I was just You know strategic enough not to have a nickname Well, did you have a nickname sheikh sounds like you had one? No, I didn't have but well, you know, it wasn't because of running around and not the masjid it was It was running around, you know Alhamdulillah So alhamdulillah, I I don't remember like a specific first text but generally Going through you know compilations with commentaries and uh, you know, I don't remember compilations with commentaries with my father, um, I cannot count the number of times we'd go on a Family trip and would have to study we would have to study Um, like 40 of dawi or riyab al-saleheen or any other text Um, it was a part of every experience that we had as a family and that my father and my mother used to emphasize Like with every day, uh, despite us. Yes having fun doing this doing that you have to learn some quran You have to study hadith. You have to study tafsir Um, I remember my father getting me a set a tafsir set um early on maybe in uh middle school high school As a gift, you know like to to read and to study Um, so there are no and he used to randomly when I would ask him a question He'd go to his shelf find a book. He's like read this Like this will answer a lot more than just your question Um may allah reward him for that. So I I benefited from a number of texts I don't remember a first but it was a lot of tafsir and and uh hadith text Allah ta'ala. MashaAllah. MashaAllah. Tabarik Allah That's beautiful I know there's a ayah that you wanted to reflect on today. Uh, Maybe this would be a good time inshallah for you to To give us some reflections inshallah that we can benefit from sure, uh So
I had two in mind. Uh, i'll stick to the initial suggestion that I had. Bismillah. It's the saying of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala We're going to talk about three types of muslims So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says what is translated as and then we granted the book to those we have chosen from our servants and then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us about Uh, three types of muslims and when I say three types of muslims This is the predominant opinion of scholars about what this is referring to Imam al-qurtubi rahimullah has a long list of opinions He's one of the great scholars who compiled a lot of information for us to understand the quran and amongst other things And so he he compiled a number of opinions about this the three categories that are of people that are mentioned here And ibn kathir rahimullah his opinion also quoting some of the sahaba And some of the tabi'een was that this is referring to three types of muslims And I want everyone to imagine for a moment That we are standing on the day of judgment. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make our standing a standing of ease and relief Imagine we're standing there and the names of people are being called the first group to be called Is the best group those are the people who are ahead? Those are the people who are going to enter jannah without any accountability No hisaab whatsoever and you're hoping you're wondering I really want us to get into that That experience of trying to envision something that is very difficult to envision And trying to imagine standing there and wondering did I really do my best was I amongst the best was I? Amongst those who excelled that I always push myself or was I lazy is my name going to be called? So subhanAllah like in this ayah you have first Famin hum dhalimu linafseh Those who oppress themselves
Those who oppress themselves and then those who follow follow a middle course between the first group and the third group And then the third group and those who are ahead Sabiqun bil khairati biidhnillah They were ahead by the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that is the ultimate bounty The scholars say the group that's mentioned last those who are ahead They're mentioned last because they're the smallest in number Those who are mentioned in the middle are are second in number and then those who are mentioned Basically first famin hum dhalimu linafseh They are the largest group of people Those who oppress themselves And if we are referring here to Muslims and this is the meaning of the ayah Then we would say it is the type of person as Ibn Kathir Ahmad said It's a type of person who commits a lot of major sins Somebody who slacks off with their obligations and I'm paraphrasing here Somebody who slacks off with their obligations Someone who does not repent often They don't really go back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And they may justify their sins They may be completely desensitized They may feel distant from Allah They may feel like I'm not a practicing Muslim I'm not a good person There's no hope for me I'm guilty, I'm this, I'm that And so this is a person who is oppressing themselves It's interesting for us to reflect on zulm in this context Why? Because today with people talking about social justice Perhaps more than ever before Because of just how interconnected everything is People are always emphasizing rights The rights of people The rights of the environment The rights of animals The rights of this group or that group Or this segment of society The rights of other nations And what we forget along the way In many cases is the right of your soul upon you The right that your soul has In terms of worshipping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And that is the most important right to fulfill The right of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon you So those who oppress themselves فَمِنْهُمْ ظَالِمُوا لِّنَفْسِهُ They are in other words Violating a right We're people of rights and justice And sometimes we forget about our souls
We forget about the right of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala In addition to this Some of the scholars say This is the type of person who Might be postponing or rather sorry Procrastinating their tawbah for a future That is not guaranteed They think one day I'll become religious One day my heart might wake up One day maybe I'll change And they don't take action And the sad thing is It's the group that's mentioned first And it's the largest So we're looking at the state of the ummah today And we see we have almost 2 billion Muslims in the world But can we say that we are all Quality Muslims We have quantity And it's hard, it's really difficult to Pinpoint just one specific Area of need because our ummah is in need of At least 15 to 20 different things To revive it And it's multifaceted, it's something we're all in need of And we're all working on together And we start with ourselves But the majority of people are oppressing themselves And they are not They are not working on the very foundations That they need in order to restore that right And as a result of restoring that right You are in a way Benefiting the entire ummah يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا إِن تَنْصُرُوا اللَّهَ يَنْصُرُكُمْ وَيُثَبِّتْ أَقْدَامَكُمْ Well you believe if you give aid or assistance to the religion of Allah, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will give you aid and he'll keep you firm as well The second group of people are those who follow a middle course وَمِنْهُمْ مُقْتَصِد Middle course here does not mean Some people misunderstand this as like the middle path Like ummahan wasafah That's not what it means but rather These are the group that is in between the first and the third This is the type of Muslim who Generally does not fall into major sins Generally they don't necessarily do all of their sunan All of the voluntary acts of worship Perhaps they're falling into a lot of doubtful things Maybe they're falling into grey issues Maybe they're falling into that which is makrooh Detested, displeasing to Allah But not necessarily at the level of haram
However they are human beings And when they sin they go back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la They don't procrastinate for a future that they know is not guaranteed This is the middle course And I would say interestingly In some of the classes that I taught I would mention this And I would ask how many people feel like when they think of becoming an ideal Muslim This is what they're looking for They're not thinking of that last group, the elite They're not thinking of those who are ahead They're thinking that's ideal If I can do that I feel like I would be a religious Muslim And then you have وَمِنْهُمْ سَابِقُوا بِالْخَيْرَاتِ بِإِذْنِ اللهِ Those who erase ahead Those who erase ahead generally speaking Are trying to do as much good as they can Meaning they value their time They know who Allah is They know why they are here They know how important it is to spend every waking moment in some form While you're working, while you're studying While you're raising your children... While you're having moments of leisure with family That in some form it's connected to your purpose In some form it's connected to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala And they're always looking for opportunities to invest in the hereafter They're not waiting for opportunities to come to them and then to accept their decline They're racing These are the people who are fulfilling وَسَارِعُوا فَاسْتَبِقُوا وَفِي ذَلِكَ فَلْيَتَنَافَسِ الْمُتَنَافِسُونَ Let the competitors compete لِمِثْلِ هَذَا فَلْيَعْمَلِ الْعَامِلُونَ Let the doers do, meaning take action So these are people of action And may Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala guide us to be amongst them These are the people who are the closest to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala السَّابِقُونَ But there's a really important point here which is that Sometimes when people hear this They hear, wow these are the people who are ahead They're the elites, they're the few They think, well I can never be amongst them, I'm not perfect And I make mistakes The scholars say this group of people also could fall into sin They could fall into sin However, what distinguishes that person from let's say the first group فَمِنْهُمْ ظَلِمٌ لِنَفْسِهِ Those who oppress themselves Is that this is the person who knows that if you fall into sin It's a serious matter So number one, go back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala immediately
وَأَتْفِعَ السَّيِّئَةَ الْحَسَدَةَ تَمْحُوهَا And you know that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala will accept your repentance However, this is the type of person who learns from their mistake They learn from that trick of shaitan They learn from that door that was opened that They're usually very cautious about They go back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala So they're not perfect but They're perfect in the sense that When they make mistakes, they know what's required of the believer And they go back to Allah, they don't procrastinate In addition, it was mentioned in some of the tafasir that They place a lot of barriers Between themselves and that which is displeasing to Allah So they don't play with fire They don't open doors That shaitan is taking advantage of They don't open doors that could lead to other doors of haram I'll give an example here and a lot of people don't like this example If you're using any social media app You know that with some apps and some websites You can control what you see You can control, let's say, your newsfeed You're subscribing to certain things and that's all you will see With other apps, there are algorithms And often times, you are exposed to things you do not choose to see And they may be haram for your eyes to fall upon And these are the common apps today, unfortunately And this type of thing is spreading So we should ask ourselves, am I reckless with my soul? Do you just scroll randomly, mindlessly through these kinds of apps Wondering, what if my eyes fall upon something haram? What if you listen to something you shouldn't listen to? The one who is in this elite category Maybe I shouldn't even use the word elite But the one who is trying to excel as much as possible They're wise, they're strategic, they have foresight They know that when Allah says Inna shaitana lakum adooun fattakhiduhu adooa The devil is an enemy to you so take him indeed as an enemy That means I have to be cautious, I can't be reckless That means that the websites that I use The things that I watch, the people I talk to, the places I go I have to be cautious and filter things out There's a barrier between me and that thing that is haram So I don't accidentally come across it And if you know it's there and you're still using these things Then you're being kind of reckless with your soul
May Allah protect us and guide us and forgive us These are the people who are essentially looking for opportunities to do good They don't complain When there's a masjid fundraiser, when somebody posts a charity link They don't say, oh my god, another charity link It's not like alhamdulillah an opportunity to invest in my akhira I always ask, especially when we're talking amongst brothers Who are talking about cryptos and stock markets and everything else That if you knew for sure that tomorrow Let's say any one of these cryptos or bitcoin or anything else Was going to be worth a thousand times or a million times what it's worth today That if you invested a dollar today, tomorrow it's a million And it's guaranteed, guaranteed How much would you invest? People say I would invest everything if it's guaranteed I would invest everything, why? Because you place the value on the return Whereas when you deal with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala When you deal with Al-Kareem You are investing something really insignificant in terms of time and effort Compared to what you're getting of reward from Allah Of pleasure, of relief in the next life And that's why Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says Dhaalika huwa alfadhu al-kabeer And then moves on And then we hear about the people of paradise Wa qalu alhamdulillahi allathee adhhaaba AAanna al-hazan They enter paradise and they say Praise be to the one who saved us from difficulty Al-hazan, hardship, sorrow Different forms of negative experiences People enter Jannah, they no longer feel pain And that's the pain of this life It's gone, it's over No more trials, no more tests You worked hard, you saw Allah's mercy You pushed yourself when you were feeling lazy And maybe when other people were trying to hold you back You kept moving your head towards Allah And also the sorrow and the hardship of the day of judgment Meaning you are saved from the hellfire And entering into paradise by the mercy of Allah And then it says Inna rabbana laghafurun shakoor Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says That these people are saying Our Lord is indeed all-forgiving You can't make it to Jannah without Allah's forgiveness And shakoor, He appreciates everything that you've done Your hard work will pay off And so if I had to summarize all of this
And give some kind of practical advice To those who are listening May Allah bless you all and your loved ones I would say no matter how busy you are in life Seek beneficial knowledge consistently It will help you Number two, no matter what sins you commit Return to Allah immediately Number three, no matter how much effort it takes Surround yourself with good company And number four, no matter how tempting this world is Work towards Jannah productively We have very limited time in this world We ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless us To be amongst those whose names are called first And they are able to enter Jannah Without any a'adhaab and any hisaab Allahumma ameen Sorry, go ahead Chef, you want to play a bit of rapid fire? Sure I'm a very cautious person Anxiety Before the rapid fire, Shay I just want to make sure And maybe someone in the chat can help us But I know there was a book It was called like the 114 By somebody named Suleiman I can't remember the last name Was the last name Hani? Do you know what I'm talking about, Shaykh? Allahu A'ala Yeah, yeah Jazakumullahu khair for the plug, man Jazakumullahu khair Can you tell us about the book? You may know him Yeah, I know the brother He actually He wanted to write this book when he was like When he was like 1920
And long story short He went to Turkey for a summer program Like a scholarship program for something in the summer At the age of 21 And he had been saying like I'm going to write this book I'm going to write this book People need an English language There's nothing like it SubhanAllah There's a little bit of articles here and there A Qutayb here and there But like a comprehensive compilation Of all the hadith in one place And then he went to this program And he was the only person who chose A specific track, a field And nobody else there wanted that Everyone was going to like the courthouse for law And the hospital for medicine And I chose media and communications Because I wanted to utilize that To benefit people through it So they canceled my program I had nothing to do for an entire summer I literally morning to night Right next to a masjid At a dormitory, Alhamdulillah And you have three meals a day Going to five prayers in the masjid And in fact there was barely any internet there So I said you know what? Time to write that book And I finished in eight days, Alhamdulillah Beginning to end Compilation, master Sheikh, I had nothing to do Nothing I even submitted it I think that summer Was one of my most productive summers And I think I read Alhamdulillah that I had like 300 PDFs With me of Islamic books at the time I think I went through maybe 250 of them And I was taking notes, I was learning Sheikh, that's what happens when you cut somebody off And they have nothing to do There's a lot of lessons in that small story Wow It's a recipe, anybody needs to write a book Just cut off your internet And live next to a masjid And you'll get it done in ten days I had no choice, SubhanAllah This was in Turkey? So I was in Turkey And that was the initial draft Of course over the years I fixed up a lot of things And Alhamdulillah learned a lot Through that experience 114 tips to help you finally memorize the Qur'an We have several brothers and sisters In different countries Working on translations Or completed their translations Of these books, Alhamdulillah And if anybody's interested in it You can find it on Amazon
And pretty much many of the Islamic bookstores Around the world, Alhamdulillah We do have it on six continents And a lot of times I have volunteers helping to distribute the book To organizations and You know, hifth schools and things like that So it is on six continents We're just working on finding somebody In Antarctica, InshaAllah Ta'ala To host the book, Bi-idhni-Allah Ta'ala But on a serious note JazakAllah khairan Sheikh for mentioning that No, no, mashaAllah, it's beautiful So what made you choose 114? Because of the number of the chapters? Well, no Initially, I'm like, how many tips am I gonna do? 50, 60, I started compiling that hadith And the problem is I kept running into tips, ideas I said, you know what? Let me make this shorter and easier to read Over the duration of a longer period of time I felt that, and I think this was accurate, Alhamdulillah That most people, the majority of people Like things that are numbered They're easier to digest Short, sweet numbers That's how a lot of websites are these days So 114 was because When I was listing them out I just, I had so many And I didn't know what to do with them So 100 sounded good But then I had a few extra ones So I pushed it up to 114, Alhamdulillah Sheikh, this may be, you know what? And just, you know, before I mention it You know, I just want to put it in the request Before I forget Just make dua for me That's the request, that's what I ask Now I'm gonna mention what the idea, inshaAllah Make a video series out of this, Sheikh And Ramadan is here, Ramadan is coming close If you made that maybe 10 or something You know, 10 taken from the 114 I did, Sheikh May Allah bless you I'm gonna make dua for you anyway I am gonna make dua for you anyway So I did last year And initially I was gonna do 30 tips To memorize the Quran The feedback was Most people in the world don't want 30 tips To memorize the Quran Call it something like 30 ways to connect to the Quran I say that's very different, but I'll do that I was planning on doing SubhanAllah video series for a while It was on the back burner
Because I thought most people who need this Will likely consume the book or articles And things like that I learned from the experience A lot about what people are looking for It got to the point where I was teaching Quran At a number of organizations or schools And also, Alhamdulillah, helping with some Quran memorization schools And people would ask the same questions So I'd say, you know what? I have a book now, so just go read the book And if your answer is not there, then Inshallah Ta'ala I'll add it to the book and I'll answer it for you But I should do a video series Your absolute right, Sheikh And Inshallah Ta'ala, perhaps you can help us out with a series But you do have a website as well, right? Suleimanhan.com? Imamsuliman.com So you have a number of your videos there And a number of your efforts in literature as well, correct? Alhamdulillah, yeah Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah That's good. I guess before he comes back to rapid fire What advice would you give to someone Right now, around this time Ramadan is coming in In regards to getting close to the Quran I mean, you've had students, you know A plethora of students throughout your years of teaching Quran What are some of the ailments you've seen with some of the youth Some of the young professionals When they have that intention to want to do something With the Quran, but they don't know the first thing to do What would you advise? That's excellent. BarakAllahu feekum, Shaykh The first thing that I would say is Recognize its value Understand what it is that you're connecting to It's not just the Muslim scripture or Islamic scripture It's the word of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala You're receiving correspondence from Allah So when you recognize and you reflect on that Every day reflect on it As you recite the Quran in prayer and outside of prayer I'm reciting the word of Allah to His creation And it's the final miracle, the final mu'ajiza For all of mankind It's the greatest gift given to the Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam A gift that no other messenger was given before And it is timeless So it's something that you recognize as a lot of value And the second is to make sure that there is
A really consistent daily connection to it And that, very frankly, it's not a side goal It's not a small thing you're checking off your to-do list Like your laundry or your car or something else No, if you place the Quran as one of the major goals in your life The same way you think about secular education or your work You'll start to realize that when you put in that effort You're going to get a lot more out of it And that could mean that you're spending time just reciting and reflecting It could mean that you're studying its tafseer It could mean that you're going through a video series Quran 30 for 30, there's a plug It could mean that you're memorizing, that you're teaching But in some form, you're always engaging with it As one of the main parts of your life Don't put it on the side I spoke to a brother who is super productive, mashaAllah Well-known in the US and Canada and in many countries And he said, listen, the thing I'm struggling with most Is connecting to the Quran Even though I'm teaching people how to be efficient with their time And organize and all of this But I can't, I don't feel like I'm putting enough effort Or something's missing in my memorization of the Quran So I coached him for a few months just to get him started Alhamdulillah, he did excellent I think now he finished maybe 20 adza in the last two years He said the thing that helped him most was the advice of Placing the Quran as one of your major goals for the year And by that I mean, it's not a small thing It's not a small task It does take time, it takes effort You will find barak in everything else that you thought you were sacrificing You'll find more barak in your time You'll find barak in your memorization, your memory Your health, your family There are countless benefits It changes your life to connect to the Quran as a way of life I ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for all of those who are listening For all of our brothers and sisters around the world To make us amongst the people of the Quran Who connect to it morning and night and reference it often And see the world through the Quran Ameen, Jazakumullahu khair Phenomenal advice, Jazakumullahu khair Jazakumullahu khair SubhanAllah, it's a great point And I think one that everybody needs to hear
Especially as we're getting into the month of Ramadan, Shaykh We have so many questions and we're not going to be able to get to all of them But here's a good one I think maybe we can focus on It says, how do we instill faith in our spouse or our family or our friends For example, for them to be patient for any problems without being overbearing Or seem pushy or stubborn That's a great question May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala reward the one who asked, mashallah The first thing that we should emphasize is that No two people are alike, right? So you have different personalities, different experiences with siblings Family members, relatives Sometimes it's the dynamic as a child asking for a parent, a parent asking for a child Who that person is matters in terms of their receptiveness And then as well, beyond that, your relationship with them How comfortable are they with you? Because with some relationships, I assume we can all relate to this You can be 100% comfortable to give advice as it is and that person is receptive And with other relationships, the person is so distant or sensitive or defensive Or maybe there's ego that you have to be very, very calculated with every word that you're giving And sometimes you can't even give advice where some people are like If you give me advice, I'm just going to cut you off So it depends on who the person is The best thing you can do, number one, is keep a relationship strong with them In terms of the relationship itself Make sure you have a good relationship Number two is your character with them That you're not just trying to instill faith in your spouse, family, friends and others But rather you are a role model And that speaks louder, subhanAllah, than anything else And the third is in terms of people having sabr, perseverance, patience For any problems that they're going through It might be that you shared a story, an experience of your struggle And that could help them relate to what you're saying It could be that you're asking them advice that they need to hear
Or you're asking for somebody else Like, hey, you know, I had this friend that went through such and such How would you advise? What do you advise me to say to them? Sometimes that works because they're hearing the very advice that they are in need of And other times it's just a matter of staying connected on good things Listening to lectures together, going to the masjid together Some of the best friendships I think that last And for many people those are the ones you remember, subhanAllah Are the ones in which you might have just attended a program together A seminar, a class Stay busy with good things And you'll find that it becomes easier to quote-unquote instill faith in other people And teach them what it is that they need to know While also, again, trying to grow yourself, inshaAllah ta'ala InshaAllah, JazakAllah khair for that, Sheikh I'm kind of in a tough spot I don't know if the Meccan police are going to kick me out of the desk I'm sitting at Oh man, you did that thing where you didn't ask, huh? I did ask, but it's the middle of the night I think whoever is the hotel management is not here That gave me the permission Allahumma sa'al So, you know, at the risk of getting arrested live in front of everyone I mean, that would increase our ratings, I'm sure There you go People will be on the road a lot Sacrifice We have some good micro content of them, you know, clipping that Me getting arrested here But Sheikh, so maybe we can end with the question we like to ask everybody Which is really like, what advice would you give your younger self? If you can go back and meet Sheikh Suleiman when he's 19 years old and about to talk to people You know, what advice would you go and give him? A few things The first is, do not get attached to any phase of life You will go through stage after stage, you will experience changes in life And it is inevitable And of course, we observe that as human beings An empirical observation in death all around us
And the changes of, you know, the seasons of life and the growth of a child You see them as they're born and then 10 years later, 20 years later, 30 years later And then when they're old, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la grants us all good health and long righteous lives So don't get attached to anything in this world because it's all temporary Including the phase of life that you are in right now Don't get too comfortable with it, right? If you are very attached to it, the change will become more difficult And when it becomes difficult, some people struggle in their faith So don't get attached to any phase of life And the second is, cherish and value the time that you have And the time that you have with your loved ones And the third is, remember that the pain of self-discipline Especially when it comes to like jihad and nafs, pushing yourself and striving And being as productive as possible the limited time that you have The pain of self-discipline is nothing compared to the pain of future regret And the pain of consequences And the pleasure that someone may experience in this world of laziness Or the pleasure of even haram is nothing compared to the pleasure of the akhirah The akhirah and the pleasure of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala That the believer will experience May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala make us amongst them And then the last thing I would say is As much as you value time already, value it even more by using it more wisely JazakAllah khair We need to write my book in 7 days, Sheikh, not 8 days 8 days wasn't valuing your time enough JazakAllah khair MashaAllah MashaAllah, beautiful advice Write it in gold, mashaAllah JazakAllah khair, Sheikh JazakAllah khair, Sheikh JazakAllah khair, Sheikh It really benefited a lot from you I know the chat was more active than normal And so I know a lot of people, mashaAllah, have benefited as well And I wish we could stay on longer
But I'm really risking myself here, Sheikh About to get arrested So I just have to conclude here JazakAllah khair And hopefully, inshaAllah, we have you back on this program once again JazakAllah khair JazakAllah khair May Allah bless you May Allah bless you InshaAllah, salam alaykum Salam alaykum
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