http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fqm3SsE0ag

I wanted to dedicate this one session to what I feel is one of the most pressing issues in the lives of Muslim youth and one that I have come to experience myself personally at one point in my life. As I’ve had the opportunity to travel more recently and interact with many young people across the country, I’m noticing it’s not a problem localized to one community or limited to one specific kind of person, but rather it’s happening pretty much almost universally. I guess I want to term it a crisis of faith, and a crisis of confidence in the religion.

Alhamdulillah, many of you that are sitting here are Muslims that are eager to learn something more about their religion and they want to advance further. Insha’Allahu ta’ala you guys are the hope for becoming the ambassadors of religion not just to non-Muslims but even to your struggling Muslims friends and family that are Muslim but they’re barely holding onto their faith. They’re barely holding on to any semblance of Islam in their lives and you are, at this point, the only connection Allah has provided for them to Islam. So the fact that you are here is already speaking volumes for the kind of commitment you have. You might not think very highly of yourselves, but actually, I do, and perhaps Allah (‘azza wa jall) holds you in very high regard. May Allah accept this gathering and gatherings like this one, and make us sincere in them.

#1: “Is this from God?”

Now what I wanted to talk about, this crisis of faith. I’ll share a couple of stories with you and then I’ll talk about it in general. The first story is from a couple of years ago. I gave a khutbah in a city that I don’t want to name. At the end of the khutbah, a father came up to me and said, “I’d really like you to have lunch at our house. I want you to talk to my daughter.” I said “Okay, I guess, I have time”. He took me to his house, which was right next door to the masjid, and said, “If you’re okay with it, my daughter has some questions about Islam, so if you don’t mind, could you help her answer some of them?” His daughter comes out – and by the way, this is a Muslim family, born and raised Muslims, parents are born and raised Muslims, children are raised Muslims – and she has piercings in strange places on her face: on the side of her eye, and like a couple on her forehead. Weird places that you look at and you go “ouch!”. But anyways, she sits down and I’m kind of weirded out at this point, but you know what, let’s have her ask her questions.

She had about thirty questions, and I didn’t answer any of them. I just said, “So what else?” I kept saying, “What else?” and she kept adding stuff. She had questions like, “Well, you know, I have some friends in high school and they’re gay. They’re not bad people and they haven’t killed anyone, so why do we hate them so much? And why did God make a hell, why did He have to do that, like…what’s the point? And if He wanted to make a Hell, then why did He create us to begin with if He knows we’re going to go there? Then why’d He do that to us? And what’s so bad about having a boyfriend? It’s not like murder, you know. I’m not that bad. What’s the big deal? Why do we make such a big deal out of everything?”

At this point internally, I’ve already had three heart attacks, but externally, I’m saying to her, “What else?” And she just keeps going, and going, and going. And mind you, her father is sitting there, so if I’m having seizures…you know, I felt really sad for him, I really did.

And she just kept going and going. At the end of her thirty questions, I said: “Okay. I’m willing to spend time with you and discuss these issues with you, but I’d rather you just answer one of my questions first. If you could do that, then we can probably have a good, well-directed conversation.” There was a copy of Qur’an sitting on the dining table, so I picked it up and said, “Do you really actually believe this is from God through an angel to a man, (salAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam)? And whatever this has is perfect instruction for you and for me to live our lives in the best possible way, and if we live our lives this way, we’ll find happiness here and forever, and if we don’t, we’ll find misery here and forever? Do you actually believe that?” She goes, “No, I’m not so sure.” I said, “Well then, all of those other questions don’t matter. None of that stuff matters.”

That’s what I would call a crisis of faith. That’s the first crisis of faith, and she’s not the only one. I’ve seen this story play itself out. A lot of people have those kinds of questions but they don’t ask them, and you know I’m not just picking on girls here. Muslim guys will be raised in a religious family, will know certain things are haraam, and in their head, they’ll say, “Why is this haram? Why can’t I do that?” Then they’ll hear, “Well, Allah said so.” “You say that for everything!”

“Islam’s no fun.”

And then if somebody was to ask them, “So what’s Islam?” “Everything’s haraam, here’s my summary.” [Laughter] You know, Islam equals “‘Don’t smile, Don’t have fun, Don’t live life”, because all of that stuff is haraam, it’s forbidden. And of course, it’s reinforced because when you come to a typical masjid across the country, all you see are people that are frowning. All the time. It’s like, “Mam’nu’u at-tabassum”: “it’s forbidden to smile here.” It’s like if they even see a child running a little bit with a smile: “Hey, Masjid! Don’t you see the sign that says, ‘Sadness Only’? [Laughter] It’s like a depressing thing.

So for a child, even growing up, in a Muslim community, in an Islamic school…I’m not knocking on any Islamic schools here in Maryland since I don’t know enough, but generally, it’s run by some very angry aunties. [Laughter] Kids that are in class are just seeing angry people all the time, and the more religious they are, the angrier they are. The longer the beard gets, the bigger the frown gets, like it’s very hard to smile. So they’re in this environment all the time and there are some questions that start popping in their head. “Why am I even Muslim? Everybody around me is so miserable. We can’t do anything! Every time I want to do something fun, they say haraam! They say wrong! And all the friends I have in school, they say they’re going to hell! What do you want me to do?!”

Internally, a young man, a young girl, a young boy starts getting a little turned off by the religion. And then on top of that, let’s be honest, most parents, even if they want to put their children in Islamic schools, can’t afford to. It’s a tough economy, it’s not easy to afford, so most of our kids go to public school. That’s a reality and it’s not something you should embarrass people about. It’s just a reality of Muslims living in this country that they go to public school. So parents feel guilty that they’re not themselves able to give a quality religious education – they’re certainly not getting one at school – so they put the child in Sunday school. That’ll help, right?

It won’t. It doesn’t. Ask your child if it helped. [Laughter] I love Sunday schools by the way; I think they’re a blessing, and that they’re an important effort in the effort to educate our children. Nonetheless, ask the average child that is sitting in Sunday school on any given Sunday. You just take one random kid, especially a teenager. Pull them aside and ask them one question, “Do you want to be here?” Just ask them that one question and what is the overwhelming answer you will find? Uh-uh.

They’ve already served five days in prison at school. Prison for a child is behind a desk. What do parents do? “You need to serve some extra time. Here’s a sixth day in prison.” By definition, kids hate class. I used to be a teacher at a school, and one of the ways I would punish students if they were misbehaving is when the bell for recess would ring, I would say “You can’t leave yet, you have to finish ten more problems.” And you see all these kids sitting there and as the bell rings, the temperature in their seats rises. It hurts for them to stay inside their seats. And then they look outside the window and they see others entering the gates of Paradise. [Laughter] And they’re like, “Aww…can we go? Please, please, please! Just anything but here!” They hate being in class, and you know what we do, we just stick them in another class! Oh well, at least it should be fun, right? No, it’s not going to be fun either.

#2: Best Story Ever?

Okay, my second story now.

This actually happened in a Sunday school I used to be a part of. The class next to me was a bunch of preteen younger guys, like 11-13. Teacher walks in and says, “Today, children, I’m going to tell you the best story of all time. The best! Do you know what it is?!” This kid raised his hand. “Yes, tell me what it is.”

“Dragonball!”

This kid next to him goes “No! Yu-yu-Yugi-oh! Yu-Yu-Hakusho!” This other kid goes “Naruto!”, and they start arguing with each other. “No, that’s the best story! No, that video game had the best storyline! And the sequel was even better because it went backwards in time!” The other one goes, “No did you see that movie, oh my God it was awesome! Have you seen the third season of this, or that, or the other?”

Oh my goodness, this argument breaks out in class, and the teacher is standing there in shock. His jaw is dropped and he doesn’t know what to do. “No! No! No, this is all wrong! I meant the story of Yusuf (‘alayhis salaam) in the Qur’an!” Allah says it Himself, “We are narrating unto you in fact the best of all possible stories.” This  is a claim made by Allah, and so he was expecting the child who raised his hand to say, “Yes, I know the best of all stories, it’s the story of Yusuf (‘alayhis salaam).” But nobody said that, it wasn’t even a contender! So he says, “No, no, no, children, you’re all wrong. The best story is the story of Yusuf (‘alayhis salaam).” And the kids go, “Aww, I already know that one. Okay, yeah, sure it’s the best. Mhm.”

Do you think they really believe it’s the best? Uh-uh. That’s a crisis of faith right there. Allah said something, and our children, sitting in a Sunday school in the House of Allah, don’t believe it no matter how badly you want them to. They’re just saying it because you want to hear it. That’s a crisis of faith. That’s a huge crisis, and we have to understand how to address that crisis.

All of the other problems we have for our youth; [you probably] want to make a list, and have programs about them: “How Facebook is a fitnah”, “How YouTube is a fitnah”, “How the Internet is a fitnah”, “How stepping outside of your house is a fitnah”, “How high school is a fitnah”, “How the mall is a fitnah”, “How your friends are a fitnah”, “How your car is a fitnah”, “How your cell phones is a…”- I mean goodness gracious, oxygen is a fitnah at that point! The list just keeps going.

I’m saying that list is superfluous. I’m arguing that stuff is fluff. We have to look underneath that fluff and look at what the real problem is. The real problem is a crisis of faith. We need to understand the problem, and the problem is that our youth are not confident, not proud, and not in love with Islam. They’re not confident in the Qur’an. They’re not confident that the Messenger of Allah (salAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is the absolute best role model, that no one deserves to be loved more, no one deserves to be followed more, no one.

#3: Justin Bieber Mania

My third story. It’s part of the crisis of faith. I mentioned this story at the ICNA convention too. We’re flying to the ICNA convention and I usually take my whole family, all 28 of them. I have 6 children, and I lose count sometimes. [Laughter] But anyways, we’re flying together, and since my kids are little, they’re short and can’t really see over the seats in the plane so they’re just sitting there. My wife and I are taller, so we can see the TV screen when it drops. So there’s a movie playing. We didn’t want to see it, but it was right in our faces. And of course Alhamdulillah we don’t have headphones, so it’s a silent film at that point.

It was the Justin Bieber documentary. [Laughter] Yeah, imagine that. Well thankfully, it was a silent film, right?

So, for this documentary that is playing, I’m trying to avoid looking at it, but I can’t help myself. I can’t help myself because they’re showing this kid come and start singing his songs, and girls in the audience are crying. You could tell they’re just like, “We love you so much, I’ll die for you.” Mothers are bringing their daughters to concerts. And then somebody’s handed a voucher that says you get to meet him backstage. You should see the family, how they’re jumping up and down in joy. And in the course of that video, I was like, “Oh man, these people have nothing to look up to. This is all they have to look up to and they’re so happy at this! How sad of a life can it be?” In the next clip, there’s a Muslim girl, wearing a hijab, and she’s handed a voucher, “You’re going to get to meet Justin Bieber!” She goes around a tree, hugging it, and going crazy. And she’s not the only Muslim girl that would do that. She’s not. Don’t say “Astaghfirullah, what kind of Muslim…?” Hah, that’s the average Muslim girl. That’s normal.

So now, we have a crisis, not just of faith but of some of the fruits of faith. What are some of the fruits of faith? The faith itself is you’re convinced Islam is true, but beyond that, a step above that is that you take pride in it. And a consequence of that is that everything that is NOT Islam no longer appeals to you. Everything that contradicts Islam makes you not only not attracted, but makes you feel sad for people who are. You look at it as something beneath you.

Let me tell you what a great thing for Muslims this would be. A point of pride for Muslims would be that instead of a young Muslim man thinking, “I can’t do this, I can’t do that, I can’t do that either, everything is haram, look at my friends, they get to do this, and that, and the other”, instead of a Muslim girl who’s going to high school wearing hijab, and everybody makes comments at her, pokes fun at her, and says weird things to her like, “You look so ugly because of that thing on your head…” and it makes her think in her head, “I wish I could be like those other girls who get to do whatever they want. I can’t do anything, I can’t have any fun in life. The only thing that’s keeping me from being happy is Islam.”

[Short interruption: Personally, I think what he’s trying to get at here is if those young people were instead sad for those same people who viewed them like that, but he got distracted.]

Proposed Solution #1: Create A Culture Around Strong Friendship

So I didn’t want to just mention the crisis of faith. I wanted to also try to mention some of its solutions. It’s easy to talk about a problem, but it’s hard to talk about its solutions. It’s hard, and my disclaimer will be that I don’t claim to have absolute answers. I have some ideas, and I’d like to share those ideas with you. These ideas are the results of discussions with scholars, counselors, and youth. I don’t want to give you generic kinds of answers, I want to try to give you some kind of practical answers that may not be the absolute solution but insha’Allahu ta’ala with your own discussions amongst yourselves, you’ll come up with some better things.

The first part of the solution is that we have to create a culture around strong friendship. Identity itself, and not just Islamic identity, revolves around who you hang out with, who you spend most of your time with, and who you identify with. When you spend most of your time on a computer, you start taking on some of the qualities of the stuff you’re reading and the stuff you’re watching. It starts invading your thoughts. The kinds of people you spend time with affects you: if they’re studying Islam all the time, you’ll want to study Islam too. If they’re playing basketball all the time, you’ll develop a habit for playing basketball also. If they’re going to watch movies all the time, you’re going to want to go to the movies too. Your environment has an effect on you. The people you surround yourself with has an effect on you. The Muslim community, starting with the Muslim family and then evolving to the community, needs to actually have a campaign to ensure our young children are in the company of good role model older kids, like a Big Brother, Big Sister type thing. So when our girls are 12, 13, 14, when they’re coming up in their ages, some of the more leading Muslim girls in our community – that are 17, 18, 19,  going to college, holding on to their religion and learning their deen –  are role models, they don’t even know it. And our younger girls need to be spending time with these older girls, it’s really important – that they have someone to look up to, who’s strong in their deen. And they aspire to want to be like them.  That’s really important.

The same goes for the guys at a younger age. It’s not like what we do; we keep the little kids by themselves and the older kids by themselves and it doesn’t work out. There needs to be a kind of mentorship happening at the community level, so that our younger boys are spending time with some of the older boys, especially the ones that are mature in their religion. And we have, Masha’Allah, if not a lot of those, we have enough of those. We have enough young people who are mature in their religion, they really want to learn more about it, and they’re good role models! You know, they have youth, they have energy, they have good looks. You know they could go any number of ways in their life and they chose to submit themselves to Islam – that in it of itself is huge, and that already makes them a role model. Whether they’re ever grabbing a mic and speaking publicly or not doesn’t matter; they’re STILL role models.

And we need to put them in that position. It does two things. One, it gives young people someone to look up to, and two, it gives older kids a sense of responsibility. It makes them realize that other have their eyes on them, that they have to answer to a higher standard because they set the tone for others. And that kind of mentorship thing needs to start happening when families start doing that, and utilizing the community as a place where that kind of mentorship can happen. That’s one, that’s one suggestion.

Proposed Solution #2: Create An Open Forum

Another really important suggestion – and this is a long term thing – is that we have to be able to have forums where our young people can talk about the real questions they have without being afraid of reactions from their parents, their imam, their scholar, or their speaker. The speaker should NOT be in a position to say “You are so wrong – what you said is so bad, go make istighfar, go slaughter a goat and then come back.” We shouldn’t put them into a position of them feeling intimidated for them to even want to be able to ask a question. We need to create a space, we need to create an environment where they feel comfortable enough to be able to ask certain kinds of questions. And I say this, because of some experience. Muslim community, generally, are very conservative people. We have certain expectations of ourselves, we have expectations of our children and we have expectations of other Muslims. Within even our own family, like if your boy, for the first time, got asked out on a date, or some girl came up to him and said, “You want to go to the prom with me?”, he’s thinking about it but he’ll never tell his mother. He’s thinking about it but he’ll never tell his dad. Because you know what’s going to happen if he tells his dad, right? Inna lillahi wa inna ilahyi ra’jioon, that’s what’s going to happen! So he can’t talk to his parents about this stuff, even though it’s on his mind! He can’t talk to her parents, or even the imam, because you know what’s going to happen when she asks the imam? Next week the imam will give a khutbah: “You know what this sister came and told me?” They’re afraid of being called out. They’re afraid.

There needs to be a space where they can ask their questions. There needs to be a space where they can feel comfortable asking their questions. There needs to be training for our du’aat in how to answer those questions in a sensitive way. Realizing these are not just questions on a piece of paper that you can give a black and white answer to, there’s a person who’s really having problems. There’s a human being who’s really going through some serious struggles. And to want to spend some time understanding where this problem came from, and the best way to try and help them, this is a training in it of itself. It’s not black and white, just telling our youth: “This is wrong you can’t do it” isn’t enough! You need to understand: “Why are they attracted towards it anyway?”, “What led to that?”, “How did they end up in that position?”

I’ll tell you a story about a good friend of mine, AbdelRahman Murphy. He used to be a youth director in Chicago, and when I saw his work in Chicago, I kind of forced him to move to Dallas with me. And Alhamdulillah he’s served as youth director in Dallas for sometime. And this is a huge masjid, I mean there’s like 1000 people easily on a Friday night. It’s insanely big, with 300, 400, 500 people regularly for Maghrib and ‘Isha everyday. It’s a big, big community with lots and lots of youth. This was the first time the community hired a youth director and his announcement was: “If you’ve got a problem, come to my office and we can talk about it.” So this kind of offer has never been made to the youth before. “Come to my office, you can talk to me about whatever and it’ll stay between us.” First week: “I’m thinking about killing myself”, “I think I’m gay”, “I’ve committed the ultimate wrong act, what should I do?” All kinds of crazy stuff. And when he first came, about a hundred people just came one after another: “I think I left Islam, I don’t think I’m Muslim anymore.” All kinds of stuff! The first week he fell into serious depression. I didn’t realize…how bad things are. And it’s not that Dallas is crazy, this is average. This is happening everywhere. But our youth don’t have someone to talk to.

And I’m saying that I’m not even qualified, and for those of you who are activists, that want to serve Islam in some capacity, think a little outside the box. Yes, we need scholars, yes we need du’aat, yes we need khateebs, yes we need speakers, but man, we need counselors, really badly! We need people properly trained in psychology both in the Western sense and the Islamic sense. We need these people. We need teen counselors and mentors. We need leadership trainers, people that instill a sense of confidence and love in youth. This stuff is important! And to me, these things come first.

Internalization, Then Islamic Knowledge

And when these things are in place, then Islamic education on top of that makes sense. It makes sense because the people that are trying to learn now are already convinced of what they should be learning. Our assumption for a long time has been: “If we give people knowledge, automatically they’ll be convinced.” It hasn’t worked! Our kids will tell you about the life of the Prophet (salAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam). They are really intelligent children that are really good readers, children that get good grades in social studies, in English, in reading subjects. If you give them an Islamic studies textbook, they’re going to read it, they’ll be really smart at understanding the text, and they’ll get a hundred on the tests.

But that doesn’t mean they’ve internalized any one of those principles. That just means they’re good readers, they’re good at taking tests, and they’re going to get an award at the end of the schoolyear for getting a hundred on that test. That does NOT mean they’ve internalized anything. Our gauges and measures of instilling Islam into our youth are very shallow. It’s not the same as measuring whether your kid is doing well in math. They’re two very different things. And then our children are very smart, kids are very adaptive – especially teens – and are very cunning. They’ll tell you exactly what you want to hear. “What’s the best story of all?” “Yusuf (alahyis salaam)! (Haha got ‘em again!)” They’ll tell you because they know that’s what you want to hear. The scariest thing I’ve ever seen. Scariest thing: Murphy was doing a youth program, and he asked. “How many people believe that when you make du’a, raise your hands and make du’a to Allah, that Allah is actually listening?” Everybody raised their hand. Then he said “Okay, think about it for one whole minute, and then tell me.” Three people raised their hand. Three people, that’s the scariest thing. This is the crisis of faith, and this is what we have to address first.

Psychological Crisis Among Older Youth

This is at the younger youth level. I want to talk a little bit about the older youth. The next level of crisis I want to talk to you about is more psychological in nature. But there’s one higher up that’s more intellectual in nature. A fundamental crisis, again. You know, we’re living in a time now where obviously Islam is constantly under attack. When you think of Islam now, you think of criticism before you think of anything else. And there are certain ideas that are associated with the word Islam, with the word Qur’an, with the word Shari’ah, so if you say the word “Shariah” to an average person, what are the things that come in their head immediately, without you adding any adjectives yourself? What are some ideas that immediately pop into their head? Beheading, cutting hands, barbarism, stoning, this kind of stuff. This is popular society. And you cannot imagine and assume that Muslims that live in a society – rather, world- where Islam is constantly being bashed, will not have some residual effects on them also. It will. It has an effect on us. It impacts us.

So our youth already have some contamination in their views of Islam because they have mixed in with what others say about Islam and what they’ve come to learn about the deen themselves. A lot of times, the real foundation isn’t there to begin with. Then they go to college. And when they’re there, they already felt bad about looking Muslim, being weird, being different, being the guy that’s being criticized all the time, and then they end up in Philosophy 101, and they end up in Anthropology 101, and they end up in Middle Eastern Studies 101. And you know what happens in these college courses, right? This youth, who felt bad about Islam this whole time, who didn’t feel confident in the faith to begin with and was almost embarrassed about it, now have some philosophical arguments in his hands that justifies, “Well, yeah, I’m not that interested in Islam anymore, because you know…how do we really know if God exists? I took this course about whether God exists or not, and there’s all these arguments!” But the real problem isn’t that they have new philosophical arguments. The real problem is, they never had a real love, conviction, and loyalty to Islam to begin with. These courses only made it easy for you to make an excuse, to hide behind the façade of an intellectual excuse. That’s all it is. But they’re being equipped with those excuses.

Studying Islam in Secular Universities

And then of course you take people who want to study Islam in the west. They want to study Islam at the University of Chicago, or they want to do a Master’s in Islamic Studies from George Mason, or wherever else. All over the country there are Islamic Studies programs now: these are ANTI-Islamic studies programs and these are UN-Islamic studies programs. The entire idea behind them is: criticism. The religion you’ve learned to appreciate, love, and admire your entire life: now you’re going to do a Master’s degree, and the entire time your teachers will constantly be doing one thing with Islam. What will that be? Criticism, criticism, criticism, criticism, criticism. You don’t think that will have an effect on you? You don’t think that’ll start messing with your head eventually?

I met a friend who’s doing a Master’s degree in Islamic studies at Harvard. And he told me he was learning Islam in high school, so he got really interested, went to Syria, did some Arabic studies. When he came back, he said, “Man, I should learn more about Islam, so I’m deciding to join the Master’s program at Harvard.” So he joined. The first semester was “Introduction to Hadith”. Sounds awesome. You know what the premise of the textbook was? “The more saheeh a hadith is, if it’s agreed upon by both Muslim and Bukhari, the more it just means the authors went out of their way to tell people that it’s authentic. So the more authentic the Muslims say it is, that’s the more fabricated it actually is.” That was the premise of the course “Introduction to Hadith”. You take that for a semester and see what happens to you. Are we even equipped to handle that stuff? No, we’re not. And I’m arguing that that’s already happening. A good number of youth are in Islamic studies programs, they are developing some very strange understandings of Islam, and they are going to be the movers and shakers in the world. You think that these people that are on CNN, that come out, the Irshad Manjis of the world, are weirdos? There’s a whole army of them on the way. There’s a whole slew of them on the way. You think that’s wacky? You haven’t seen anything yet. The real show’s about to begin.

Equipping Our Youth to Leave Being Defensive

We haven’t equipped our own youth intellectually. Our Islamic schools should not be there to protect children from the “world of kufr”. Our Islamic schools are supposed to be: “This is what you’re going to find them saying about Allah’s deen, and this is how we respond.” So when you go out there, you’re not there to answer their questions, but you become the people that follow the nation of Ibrahim (‘alayhis salam). He was not asked questions, he was the one asking the questions! He was not shaken about his faith, he was making other people shaken about their false beliefs. It’s the other way around. Our entire approach to Islamic education has become entirely defensive: “There’s too much fitnah out there”, “We need to save our children and hide them from what’s going on outside”, “I fear for them when they go to college.” No! Everybody else should fear when Muslims go to college. It should be the other way around! We should be the carriers of confidence! That’s what it should be. It needs an entire rethinking on our part on how Islamic education is conducted. We’re constantly on the defense.

This is my last point about building this kind of character and mindset. We’re continuously, continuously on the defensive. I’m tired of it, personally. We don’t have to constantly explain ourselves. You know, that’s a really easy strategy that was employed even at the time of the Prophet (alayhi salaatu wassalam): just keep him busy answering those questions because if he’s constantly answering your questions, he’ll never get around to asking YOU any questions. So some Jews of Madinah would ask, “So, uh, who brings you revelation? Jibreel? Oh okay, that’s interesting.”, “Who are these people of the cave? Oh, okay, you know who they are? All right, okay.”, “What’s the ruh? Oh you got an answer for that too? Oh okay.” “How come sometimes a boy is born and sometimes a girl is born?” If he answers that, what are they going to do? Ask another, and then ask another, and then ask another. And you’ll be explaining yourself. So Allah answered a few. And then they moved on to another question. They said, “If we’re going to be reduced to decayed bones – nothing- we’re going to be created again? Really?”

This time Allah did not explain. Usually He does, right? When they asked about the People of the Cave, did Allah explain it in detail? He did. When they asked about Jibril (alayhis salaam), Allah explained it in detail. This time however, Allah drew a line: “Tell them: forget bones and decay. Even if you turn into rock, turn into metal, Allah will bring you back anyway”, which basically means: “Shut up and get lost. I’m done answering your questions. Go ahead, turn into whatever you want, Allah will bring you back. Whatever your imagination can come up with that’s even harder to mold, go ahead.” “They say, “Who’s going to bring us back?”: “Tell them the one who got you back the first time. Now get lost”. Straight answer now.

We have to see the fluff for fluff. We have to see through that not just for the sake of others, but for our own youth. We need to build confidence into our youth, as part of our education of them. If we don’t do that, we will be paying the price for that in the next ten years. I say that very fearfully as I say this to you: we are not, as the leaders of the Muslim community, doing an adequate enough job thinking about how to instill the confidence of faith, how to fight the crisis of faith among our Muslim youth. When they have philosophical problems, we tell them, “Go make wudu’ and make two rak’ah over there. If that doesn’t work, come back, and I’ll give you a special du’a. Recite that, and your problem will go away.”

If they have a philosophical problem and have doubts already, the spiritual solution is there, but you cannot ignore the intellectual solution. Our deen is intellectual and is not blind faith. Our deen is powerful. We have to believe that and have to instill that belief into our kids, especially at a time when everybody thinks they’ve got something on Islam. Christians are attacking Islam, do you know how ridiculous that is? Do you understand how absurd that is? I live in the South, or close enough. I live in Texas, and I drive around in the South a lot, and my hobby is listening to Christian talk radios. Most Christian talk radio is about Islam because they have nothing much to talk about anyways. “Oh these Muslims, their Koran thinks that we’re doing shirk. Us believers are doing shirk! And we’ve got a Koran expert here who’s going to explain everything to us!” And then they’ll have their whole show. And I’m listening to this stuff, and I’m laughing my…It’s such good comedy. It’s quality comedy, except they’re talking about “the contradictions in the Koran, and its grammatical mistakes”. When they talk about that stuff, I’m sitting there laughing…and at that the same time I start crying. Because somewhere, there’s a Muslim listening to this, who has no foundation in faith, and he’s listening to this and saying, “What?: to himself or herself? “Oh my God, that makes sense. They’re on to something. They got us!”

You know, we haven’t yet done our job of planting the right seeds. That’s my only premise, that’s my only point. We have to do that at an early age, and forums and regular programs like Young Muslims (YM), where youth get together and have company of each other, are components of building confidence in your faith because you’re around other people who have similar confidence in their faith. Confidence feeds confidence. That’s one part of it. But now we have to think even further, and really have to give some serious thought on how to develop these kinds of institutions, how to evolve our current institutions, and make them ready for these real challenges that are coming. We need to see the symptoms as symptoms, and see the actual disease that needs to be attacked. Most of the time we talk about the symptoms, but we don’t talk about the disease. May Allah (azza’wajall) allow us to see the disease, and empower us to be able to find a cure for those diseases through His Book and the Sunnah of His Messenger (sallalAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFQH6Nc9mpM

Each Ayah should be reflected on for its own merit.

• The word Ar-Rahman by itself is enough for you to reflect upon.

Ar-Rahman is a word that we say everyday in our prayers and we all know that it has something to do with mercy or being merciful.

• The first thing we are being asked to reflect on: How is Allah being merciful to me?
• What are the things that Allah has done for me that are acts of mercy by him?
• If we tried to make a list of all the mercies that Allah has bestowed upon us, the list would go on and on and we would be lost in thought forever.

Allah gave us two names that speak of his mercy: Ar-Rahman & Ar-Raheem. Why did he choose Ar-Rahman particularly and not Ar-Raheem for this ayah?

• They are both very different.
• Ar-Rahman doesn’t just mean that Allah is merciful; it means that he is extremely and unimaginably merciful.
• Ar-Rahman indicates someone who is doing something right now. So that indicates that Allah is doing something that is extremely and unimaginably merciful right now.
  • Ex. Saying someone is nice vs saying someone is being nice.
• ArRahman is really specific. And it is fitting that Allah uses this word in this Ayah because he later on mentions a specific list mercies.
• How we understand the Surah is in the light of how we understand this one word.

Ways to make a list:

• The first thing that comes into your mind, and then the second, and then the third and so on…
• In the order of priority. Most important thing first and then the next and then the next…
• In this Surah, Allah mentions his list of priorities.

Of the things that are proof of Allah’s mercy, the first thing that He mentions is that He taught the Qur’an.

• He didn’t just give us the Qur’an, or just send it down, but He taught it.
• Allah mentions this before He mentions the creation of the human being.
• Allah is teaching us that the fact that you exist is less of a mercy than the fact that Allah taught us this Quran.
• The word ‘Alama is transitive. When you say taught, you think of two things: a teacher and a student.
• If Allah taught the Quran, he takes the role of the teacher. Who did he teach? Allah did not mention the student. The mercy behind that it’s open: anyone can be the student. Can there be a bigger honor than this? It is already merciful enough that he created us, but now he is giving us this unimaginable honor and mercy of being our teacher.
• When we don’t spend the time to learn this Quran and be students of it, then we are really not appreciating a gift that Allah gave us.

The word Quran:

• Something that is read a lot
• If someone says I am appreciative of the Quran, the proof would be in what practice?
• Reciting the Quran a lot = proof.
• Allah gave us a program that requires us to read Quran every single day —> Salah

He created the human being

• The word Insan: comes from two origins
• One is that the word comes from Nasiya or to forget. So Insan means the one who forgot.
• The question is: what did he forget?
• Before we came to this earth we were introduced to Allah, and we took an agreement with Allah. (Look at Surah A’raf, Ayah 172) But when we came to this earth we forgot about that.
• One of the main purposes and definitions of the Quran is: Dhikr or a reminder
• If someone by definition is forgetful, the most beneficial thing to them would be a reminder.
• The other origin is from ‘Uns’ or seeking love or compassion.
• For someone who is preprogrammed with love and compassion, the perfect thing for them is a message that is full of love and compassion. AKA Quran.

Bayaan

• The Quran came down in clear beautiful Arabic speech.
• You have to learn the language of what you’re going to study. So to make the human being capable of benefiting from this book, Allah says that he taught him Bayaan.
• Bayaan is the ability to speak clearly; to understand speech; to communicate…
• Not only is Allah the teacher of Quran, he is also the teacher of language.
• Which language? All of them.
• Because of that we have to have respect for all languages.
• Of all the languages that Allah taught, Allah chose one (Arabic) and honored them above all.
• The ability of you and I to speak is an honor from Allah that is being compared to the honor of learning Quran.  This means that we should respect our tongues. We should say things knowing that this gift is an honor from Allah.

There’s extreme of everything in these Ayat

• Ar-Rahman:  Allah’s most extreme mercy
• Quran: The most extreme manifestation of that mercy
• Insan: The greatest creation of all other creations
• The ability for us to speak: another incredible thing – all of the knowledge and technology that we have is a product of ‘Allamahu Al-Bayaan

How do we connect all these extremes?

• If someone wants to become a recipient of Allah’s most extreme mercy, and they have been created above all other creations, and one of the signs that they are the best of all creations is they have been honored to learn the ability to speak what is the best use of that speech? Quran.
• Become students of the Quran.

As soon as this passage is done Allah starts to speak of things other than human beings.

• The sun, moon, stars, sky, and so on…
• Allah created many other things besides us. And these creations do exactly what they were told to do.
• Allah is teaching us: I made you the best of creation, and these other creations who are less than you are doing so much better than you.
• They are supposed to be less than us, but they don’t ever budge. They do exactly as they are supposed to.

Bottom line: Quran deserves our time and attention.

When Allah says he taught the speech, this means that learning the language of the Quran is something Allah has made us capable. Someone will do better than others, and someone will have a hard time, but in the end Allah has guaranteed that if you are looking for his mercy, he will make it easy.

YouTube Video Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldptkLNJPuc
YouTube Video Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-TndCYcMKo

Imagine traveling in the desert. After walking, you sit down and as you do so, a snake bites you. You go to the doctor, and he does not look at the bite (as the bite is usually something very insignificant) but rather, the doctor is worried about the poison that has entered your body and is running through your veins.

The Anger That Will Boil, Poison, and Hurt You

A man once came to the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) for some Nasiha. The man said, “Give me some advice, Oh Rasulullah”. The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said “Don’t get angry”. The man said, “Oh Rasulullah, give me some more advice.” The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “Don’t get angry”. The man said to give him some more advice, and Rasulullah (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said for a third time, “Don’t get angry”.

Don’t get angry. It’s a point blank commandment.

There is a Hadith wherein a man asked, “Who is most worthy of my friendship?” The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “Your mother, your mother, your mother”. This is a Hadith that all of our mothers and fathers know, and it is with the same emphasis that the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) answered this man’s Nasiha by saying, “Do not get angry”.

The Strongest Person

The Companions were once sitting around the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam), and he asked them a question, “Who is the strong person amongst you?” Even in our culture, if we were to answer this question of the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam), we would say, “The one with the biggest biceps”. The Companions were at least able to give a better example; they said, “Oh Messenger of Allah, it is the one whom no one else can defeat in an ultimate fighting battle”.  The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “No. Indeed the strongest person amongst you is the one who can hold back his anger at the time when the situation would call for him to be angry, yet he holds back.”

Sometimes situations happen to me, and someone would say, “Oh Muhammad, why don’t you get angry?” And I would say to them, “WAllahi (By Allah), anger is the easiest thing to do.  In fact, it takes no effort to get angry. In fact it is a sign of weakness”. On the opposite, the person that can control themselves and has patience, as the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “He, or she, is the strongest amongst you”. So if there are two brothers and one of them loses control and gets angry while the other one refrains and keeps quiet, the one who was patient is stronger in the sight of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala).

Anger and Cursing

The Companions (radhiAllāhu ‘anhum) were once travelling with the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) and a man’s camel sat down and would not move. The man got angry at the camel and he said to it, “Move forward oh camel. May Allah curse you.” This statement was just something else on his tongue (by the way, another word for cursing is ‘cussing’, or ‘swearing’ – all of them come from the same root and from anger). The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) heard what this man said and told him, “Get off of your camel and do not continue to proceed with us in a riding animal that you have cursed”.

The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) then said, “Do not get angry and curse yourselves, and do not curse your properties, and do not curse your children, for it may be that a person makes this statement at a time when Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) answers all of the Dua’. And this person’s statement, even though he does not want it to be answered, will be answered by Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala).”

The Escalation of Anger

When I initially talked about anger, you may have initially only thought about certain specific situations. However, ask where does the escalation of anger go to? It goes to the cutting off of family relationships, one of the most major sins in Islam. It goes to divorce, and it goes to husband/wife abuse. The anger escalates, and the person may even say statements of Kufr (disbelief) and Nifaaq (hypocrisy).

A boy may consistently keep on asking his mother, “Give me the keys to the car, give me the keys to the car.” Then this mother, who has not trained her tongue to worship Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), would say something to the effect of, “May you never come home”. These statements, which are curses, are said, and this boy will leave the house and will never come home. This mother will spend the rest of her life, knowing that she disobeyed Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) in her tongue and kept on going forward into the anger that Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) and His Messenger forbade her from. She will continue on disobeying Allah in this until Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) makes something very bad happen from this – we ask Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) to give us sanctuary and protection.

The Calming of Anger

There was once one of the Tabi’een (the generation after the Companions of the Prophet), and a great scholar, who had a servant girl. She once broke something very expensive and he immediately became angry (I call this snap anger: faster than cars and can go from 0 to 100 in a split second). This slave girl, when she saw how angry he had become, started reciting some Qur’an to him. The verses she recited spoke about Jannah:

• “وَسَارِعُوا إِلَىٰ مَغْفِرَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَجَنَّةٍ عَرْضُهَا السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالْأَرْضُ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْمُتَّقِي”: “Race to the forgiveness of Allah, and a Paradise is the expanse of the heavens and the Earth, prepared for the Muttaqin”.
• Allah explains who are the Muttaqin in the next verse (and she was reciting all of this to him), “الَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ فِي السَّرَّاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ”: “Those who give in the good times and in the difficult times, and those who hold back their anger and annoyances”.  These are the people of Jannah, and so when the man heard these verses being recited to him, he immediately calmed down.
• The verses continue: “وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ ۗ”: “…and they forgive people”. The man, who is now calmed down, said to her, “I forgive you”.
• The verse continues: “وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ”: “…and Allah loves those who do Ihsaan (righteous deeds and good works)”. He heard this and said, “I free you for the sake of Allah.”

Allowable Times To Get Angry

You may be wondering if there are times that it is pleasing to Allah to be angry, and the answer is yes. Most of the things that we get angry about are not included in this, but there are certain situations wherein it is allowed:

• The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) was once praying and there were pictures on the wall. While praying, he became distracted by the picture and got angry. As A’ishah (radhiAllāhu ‘anha) said, “You could see the anger in his face”. When he finished the prayer, he told her, “Take this down. Verily the ones who will be punished the most on the Day of Judgment are those that make these types of pictures”.
  • This is an anger that leads to the Dawah of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala).
  • When you see alcohol, do you become angry?
  • When you see people worshiping others but Allah, do you feel angry?

It is not a raw anger, but an anger that is channeled into positive energy where the person actually calls to Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala). They actually care about the people’s guidance.

The Most Common Anger: Between Husband & Wife

The anger that is most common is the anger between a husband and a wife.  When it comes to this, there are Hadith for the women and Hadith for the men.

• The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said again and again, “Whoever amongst you has the ability (amongst the men) to unleash their anger, yet they hold back, then this person will be brought in front of everybody on the Day of Judgment and given all of the Hoor-ul-‘Een for him to choose from as he wishes”.
• The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said in a Hadith, “Be gentle with the glass vessels (ex. when you are in a glass store and do not want to even come near the sides in case you brush against something and it breaks),” meaning “Be gentle with the women”.

So the next time a brother wishes to unleash his anger on some of his family members, remember:

1. The Hadith of the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) when he said, “Don’t get angry”.
2. The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) commanded him to treat the Qawarir (glass vessels – i.e. women) with gentleness.
   • I always ask myself this when dealing with my wife if this is fulfilling the commandment of the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam).
   • For those that hold back (“and those who hold back their anger”), they are the ones that are promised Jannah.

Specific Sunnah Ways To Control Anger

The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) commanded for us to not get angry, but he also gave us specific ways in his Sunnah in which we can practically hold back from getting angry and losing control: 1. Realize that everything is relative, and even your anger is relative.

• Once a man came to the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam), shook him by the collar, and accused him of dealing unjustly with the wealth of the Muslims. Umar (radhiAllāhu ‘anhu) wanted to kill this man, but the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) told him to leave him and then said, “May the Mercy of Allah be upon Musa. He was tested with more than this and yet he was patient”. Even the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) is taking a situation where anger could come and remembering his brother Musa.

• The next time you are getting angry, ask yourself, “What reason are you getting angry for?” There are brothers and sisters across the world that are being treated unjustly (and I am sure you hear of their stories repeatedly) that are willing to take your problems and to switch it with theirs. So instead of getting angry, say Alhamdulillah that you have such small problems. Realize the situation of these brothers and sisters around the world, and say, “May the mercy of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) be upon them, and Alhamdulillah that my tests are something so small”.

2. Say “A’udhobillahi Mina As-Shaytan Ar-Rajeem”: “I seek refuge from the accused Shaytan”. A man was once sitting with the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam), and his face changed as he became angry. The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) told him, “I know a statement that if this person only said it, all of this anger would go away, and that is A’udhobillahi Mina As-Shaytan Ar-Rajeem”.

• Your anger will even scare you. Next time you become angry, stop the anger and put a mirror beside you, and you will scare yourself – you cannot imagine that you look like this. If you just say “A’udhobillahi Mina As-Shaytan Ar-Rajeem”, then all of this anger would go away.

3. The Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said, “If anyone of you gets angry, let them keep quiet.” 4. Make Wudu.

• Let’s say you are about to get into a fight with your wife. You should tell her, “Okay, let’s have a fight but let’s make Wudu first, say ‘A’udhobillahi Mina As-Shaytan Ar-Rajeem’, say Salawat upon the Prophet Muhammad (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam), and then let’s begin”.
• If the fight continues: “Let’s do it again. Let’s sit down, let’s recline, etc.”.

Online Anger

There is something very serious that happens these days, and that is the anger via the Internet. Sometimes, just like how some people become like monsters inside their cars while driving, this is happening via the Internet. I am sure all of you have received angry emails and I am sure you have sent one as well. The anger that happens via Internet is when one thinks that nobody can see them (except Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala)) and they then unleash their anger. May Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) protect us.

Here is my quick solution for this: Based on the Prophet (salAllāhu ‘alayhi wa sallam)’s Hadith, “If any of you becomes angry, let them keep quiet”, if someone sends you an angry email (and hopefully they are the ones who have started the angry emails), your response is to type up everything that you wish to say to them in a Word document or another application that is separate from your email. Twenty-four hours later, you will not wish to send that email, guaranteed. At that time, you will delete it (and then Insha’Allah make Dua’ for me, Muhammad Alshareef).

(Editor’s note: The lecture in the video abruptly came to an end, but we hope you have benefited from the content that we were able to hear and note down. May Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) make us among those who control their anger. Ameen…).

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tF2b_Cv6i0

In the battle of Yamamah against Musaylimah:

• The battle cry was: Oh companions of Surah Baqarah!
• As the Muslims were being pushed back, Ammar bin Yasir called out to the Huffadh and made a battalion of only those who had memorized the Qur’an. This was the first time something like this had ever happened.
• In the end the Muslims won, but many of the Huffadh had been killed as Shuhadaa’, martyrs. This made Abu Bakr decide to compile the Qur’an so it would not be lost in future generations.

The Prophet peace be upon him said: “Indeed Allah will raise some people up in ranks because of the Quran, and because of the Quran others will be disgraced.”

Umar said to his governor, “You are going to people who have a buzzing like the buzzing of bees in their recitation of the Quran. Do not distract them.”

Benefits of Memorizing the Quran:

• Imagine that there are two kids: one enrolls into a Hifdh program while the other plays games on Play Station. When they go to high school later on, the Hafidh becomes a more effective student in studying because he had already trained himself as a child to harness the power of his brain. The other child trained himeslf to get immediate pleasure even though in the long run it will bring him no real benefits. So in both the Dunya and in the Akhirah the Hafidh will find benefits from this study of the Quran.
• When someone memorizes the Quran, it’s a sign that Allah loves that person. The prophet said: “Whoever Allah wishes good for, he gives him or her understanding of the Deen.”
• When someone goes to memorize the Quran they are faced with numerous tests, and it’s through these trials that they are filtered and cleansed.
• Allah blesses the person with a Nur (light) on their faces.

One of the most common characteristic of the Huffadh is that the Hafidh almost always has blessed parents.

There are two things that you are allowed to be jealous of, and one of them is to be jealous of someone who had memorized the Quran.

Excuseitis: I want to memorize the quran but…

• Your first statement that you want to memorize the Quran is not true because you made an excuse.
• People who accomplished things in their lives did not accomplish them by making excuses. Of course they had excuses, but they took them as challenges and they jumped higher in life.

Quick tips to memorize the Qur’an:

• You absolutely have to have a teacher: They should be someone who you respect and fear; it can’t be a friend who you can slack off with.
• Stay away from distractions: You can’t memorize at a football game. If you want to improve your memory, shut off the TV. Take it out of your life.
• Memorize the Qur’an through audio: There are some students who recite quietly, and others who recite loudly. The louder you read, the more you’re actually memorizing what you’re hearing. Don’t try to photographically memorize the page.
• Location of Mushaf: The direction of your eyes in memorization is not a downwards direction. You have to look forward to memorize something. Hold the Quran in front of your face and you will memorize faster.
• Eat brain food. The food you eat directly affects your ability to memorize. Almonds are good.

The Prophet said: “The person who is devoted to the Quran will be told on the Day of Judgment: ‘Recite  and ascend in ranks in paradise according as you used to recite in the Dunya’.”

With each ayah you memorize in the Dunya, you will go up in ranks in Jannah.

On the Day of Resurrection, how many ranks will you be climbing?

How many ranks would you like to climb in paradise?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2sa5ymA8SE

There are people across the world living in pain and agony, and in one way or another, Shaytan finds a way to get the better of them and derails them from the path to Allah. This lecture is dedicated to all of those individuals.

The reality of this world

• This life is a test from Allah.
• Allah says in Surah Baqarah: Surely we shall test each and every single one of you with a loss of wealth, life, profit and trade, so give glad tidings to those who are patient. Those when they are tested say ‘to Allah be belong, and to him we shall return. (Qur’an 2:156).

How do you react to the Qadr of Allah?

• Imagine you are slowly backing out a parking spot when suddenly you hit something. What is the first thing that comes out of your mouth?
• For most people it is a four letter word that they would not say in front of their mother.
• Imagine if you died and the last word you said was that four-lettered word.

Trials and tests from Allah are not just the calamities that strike us. They can also be in the form of the blessings that He gives us and we don’t thank him for, or we don’t use them in their appropriate means.

You may be tested by pain, or you might be tested by pleasure.

When being tested by Pain:

• You have two options. You can either deal with the pain right now and get closer to Allah, or you can delay dealing with the pain and seek the pity of others.
• Usually when someone is going through pain, the first thing they do is isolate themselves. This is true especially for men. This not a natural reaction. Shaitan is trying to convince you that you will cope better if you are alone. It is a deception from Shaytan
• Prolonged isolation is very harmful and detrimental to your situation.  You need to go and be around believers and people who will remind you of Allah.

Dunya vs Akhirah

• It’s not about how you live your life in this world, but it’s all about how you will be raised in front of Allah.
• Whatever you die upon is what you shall be raised upon on the Day of Judgment so let your last deed be your best one.
• Pain and suffering only become negative if they cause a barrier between you and Allah. They become positive when they bring you back to Allah.
• It’s not that Allah wants to punish you, but rather it’s an invitation, a reminder for you to go back to him.

When you isolate yourself, you see that your Deen slowly starts to disappear. You gave yourself up to Shaitan whose promise was to lead you astray and as far away from the path of Allah as possible.

The Hidden Blessing

• There is actually a blessing in trials that we don’t perceive.
• The Prophet said: ‘No individual will be pricked by a thorn except that Allah purifies him with a sin for it.”
• Trials and tribulations are a means of purification.

True Happiness:

• In this world, you will never be truly happy. No matter what Allah gives you, you will never be truly content.
• True contentment and satisfaction comes in the Akhirah in Jannah.

Points to remember:

• Allah does not burden a soul more than it can bear.
• There is always someone who is a worse predicament than you.

Umar use to say that when we were tested we use to thank Allah for three things:

1. That this trial wasn’t in our Deen
2. That this trial was not as great as it could have been.
3. That Allah allowed us to be patient in that trial

Patience:

• The Prophet said that an individual who was patient at the times of adversity will incur the pleasure of Allah, and that individual who wasn’t will incur the wrath of Allah.

The Prophet said: If any of you is tried by a tribulation, then let him remember his trial and tribulation through my calamity. For indeed it is the greatest of trials.

“Fate rarely calls upon the people at the time of their choosing” – Optimus Prime.

In times of trials and tribulations you have a decision to make. You can get closer to Allah or you can decide to live with your pain and create your own destruction.

He who has Allah has everything.

Note: Some of the stories that were mentioned in the lecture are not included in the notes. I highly encourage you to take some time and watch the lecture yourself.

“Know, may Allah have mercy upon you that it is Wajib (obligatory) on you that you know four things”

1. Knowledge & Awareness of Allah

• Know his Laws
• Submit to him
• Follow his Shariah

2. Know his Prophet

• Acknowledge and accept whatever he brought from Allah
• Comply with what he orders
• Avoid what he forbade
• Believe what he told us
• Know about him – his life and Seerah
• Love him more than anyone, even more than ourselves

Two Kinds of Shariah law:

1. Hudud – Commandments of Allah – no one can compromise them or change them
2. Ta’zeel – Open for the judgement of the Ameer or Qadhi

Three Kinds of Judges:

1. A man who knows the Haq but rules against it – Will go to Jahannam
2. A man who doesn’t know the Haq gives a rule similar to it – Will still to go Jahannam
3. A man who knows the Haq and rules by it – Will go to Jannah

Home Work. Choose a Muslim country and look up at their constitution and compare it to the Shariah.

3. Know about Islam

• General meaning of Islam: To worship Allah according to his Shar3 until the day of Judgment
• Specific/Particular meaning: That which Muhammed peace be upon him was sent with
• The only true religion is Islam
• Know about Islam with proof
• The proofs are both textual and intellectual
• They are in Qur’an and Sunnah
• Act in accordance with what this Ilm/Knowledge demands
• Amal (Action) has to have Iman with it
  

Action is the fruit of knowledge. So who ever acts without knowledge has resembled the Christians. And who ever knows but does not act has resembled the Jews.

This knowledge has to affect you in a good way.

4. Calling to it (Dawah)

• Calling to the prescribed way laid down by Allah
• There are four stages for Da’wah

1. To make Da’wah with wisdom
2. To make Da’wah with fine admonition
3. To debate with them in the best manner
4. To debate with them by means of His signs and proofs

• To make Dawah you have to have ILM – even if it’s a little bit
• There are many ways to make dawah – speeches, lectures, writing…

When you call to Allah, you are following the footsteps of the Prophets

You get massive Ajr (reward) for calling to Allah

The Prophet said: Whoever guides to some good deed, then he receives a reward like that of its doer.” – Muslim No. 4665

Bismillah ArRahman ArRaheem

Introduction:

• Ground Rules

1. If you can write, than write. If not, take a picture.
2. Wait 30 seconds before asking questions
3. Share what you learn

Bismillah – In the name of Allah

• The author – Muhammed ibn Abdul Wahhab – started his book with Bismillah to follow the example set by the Quran  (every Surah, except Surah Tawbah,  starts with the Basmallah).
• He also did this to follow the Sunnah of the Prophet.

Allah

• The title of the sole Lord who created and fashioned everything.
• All of His other names follow after this one.

Ar-Rahman

• One of the names of Allah.
• This name is particular to Allah meaning people can not name themselves Ar-Rahman
• It means the one who has as His attribute very great and extensive mercy
  
• Key word: Extensive mercy
• This mercy is for everyone – Mankind, Jinn, and animals

Ar-Raheem

• One of the names of Allah
• It means, the one who is merciful to others.
• Ar-Raheem is the one who bestows mercy upon others. (He has mercy on them)
• This mercy is for the Muslims.

Know, may Allah have mercy upon you that it is Wajib (obligatory) on you that you know four things

1. Knowledge & Awareness of Allah

• Know his Laws
• Submit to him
• Follow his Shariah

The Jahmiyyah (from Jahm ibn Safwan) claim that Iman = Ma’rifah

• Not true!
• If it was this would mean that Iblees is the Greatest Mu’min of the face of this earth, because he knew for a FACT that Allah was his Rab,  his Lord
• Iblees rejected one Sajda (prostration), and he is destined to Jahannam (Hellfire). So what about those who don’t pray?
• Also if this was true then Abu Talib the Prophet’s uncle would also be considered a Mu’min. But a Mu’min doesn’t go to Hell and the prophet told us that Abu Talib was in Hell.

The Ash-Sha’irah believe that Iman = Tasdeeq. They also say that you don’t have to proclaim the shahadah unless you are under threat. And that you don’t actually have to ever say the shahadah and you can still be a Mu’min.

Homework: Do some research about Al-Murji’ah and write a page about them. Some notes from HW:

Al-Murji’ah

• They believe that Faith (Iman) does not increase or decrease.
• They believe that deeds do not affect the faith in anyway. Even if you commit the major big sins.
• They believe that knowing about Allah and his Prophet is enough to confirm one’s faith.
• There are two groups.
• One Group believes that Iman is based on knowledge. As long as you know that there is Allah, then you are a Mu’min.
• The Other Group says that Iman is belief in Allah (Tasdeeq) but nothing will negate your Iman, not even major sins or anything.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvpiziI4hVs

The Question:

People (non-Muslims) usually ask why Islam has gender-specific roles (Hijab, inheritance, etc.). How are we to respond to people claming that Islam is sexist?

Traditional Answers: (i.e. the ones that don’t work)

Inheritance, Polygamy (man has more financial obligations, etc.)

Example from the past

This isn’t the first time that Muslims have had to deal with other styles of living that try to impose their ways and beliefs onto Muslims and disprove Islam.

When Muslims first encountered Greek philosophy, the philosophy was seen, at the time, as superior to religious philosophy. Quickly, when Muslims encountered this, there were three groups that arose out of this interaction:

1. “Islamic Philosophers”
   1. They took the Greek philosophy and changed the words (no Islam).
      1. They believed in no Akhirah, Allah not as creator
      2. they re-interpreted each Qur’anic Ayah to work to fit their beliefs.
      3. claimed that Prophets only spoke of Akhirah to get people to be pious.
2. “Mu’tazilites” – selectively took the best (they thought) of the Qur’an and the philosophies. They’re known as the “free thinkers of Islam”.
   1. They forced their version of Islam onto people.
   2. They died out (don’t exist today).
   3. They said Allah has no attributes because:
      1. that means Allah and His mercy are eternal – i.e. 2 Gods
      2. Allah, His mercy, and His grace are eternal – i.e. 3 Gods
      3. So therefore, they saw each attribute as a god itself. (So they believed Allah didn’t have these attributes).
   4. No Qadr (not everything is pre-destined)
3. “Muslims”, as in they stubbornly refused Greek philosophy
   1. They said that Allah sent the Qur’an and Sunnah, He didn’t say any guidance will come from other sources.
   2. Islam is already complete (no need for philosophy).
   3. When you have something divine and perfect, don’t mess with it.

Why is this relevant?

“The stakes have changed, but the game is the same.” (YQ)

“The tokens have been modified, but the board is exactly the same.” (YQ)

The times may have changed, but Muslims having to defend our beliefs against opposing societies, which feel their views are superior, is nothing new.

Why are people now interested in women’s roles?

People are now interested in the role of women due to events outside of Islam. Different cultures have changed certain aspects of gender roles. In recent times, Western women have been asking for more and more rights (rights that Muslim women already have). They want to “reach men” and go beyond. When they finally went beyond in their rights, it gave them the luxury to look down at the Muslim women (who’ve had rights for centuries).

Why are the regular answers wrong?

When someone asks why Muslim women wear the Hijab, often the answer might deal with them being judged on their “inner beauty”, and it’s supposed to cover their beauty so they can save it for their husbands (and family). It’s to eliminate the attraction from other men to that sister. However, what if a man tells you that he likes the Hijab? What if he said he finds it even more attractive?

There’s a problem here.

We only say these types of answers to appease another group. When we’re playing their game, we’ll never win.

The traditional answers we use are wrong because:

• 1. We answer questions on women, hijab, etc. and other minor issues, but we DON’T teach real (fundamental) Islam (i.e. Tawheed, the oneness of God, La ilaha ilallah)
• 2. Other people have invented this “oppression of women”, and this whole game. If we are fighting with their tools, we’ll definitely lose.

Differences between the West & Islam

(For the sake of these notes, the ‘West’ is just a general term to represent modern societies).

Morality

Islam says: there is one standard for what is right, and one standard for what is wrong (since Prophet Muhammad).

West says: what’s right and wrong fluctuates. (examples: premarital relations, before was detested, now accepted; homosexuality, before was rejected, now is more common)

Authority

Islam says: The only one that can tell me what to do is Allah!

West says: No one tells me what to do. (entered hedonism (self-pleasure) and humanism (philosophy focusing on the self))

Worthiness

Islam says: Taqwa and piety is what measures how much I’m worth

West says: my education level, degree, economic status, ability to get a job, etc. is what defines me.

Equality (this is a big one, we’ll put West first)

West says: A man and a woman are equal if they have the same job, earn the same money, have same rights, etc.

Islam says: A man and a woman are equal in terms of their Taqwa and spirituality.

______________________________________________________________________________

Let’s discuss equality further.

Islam says this:

• Men and women were created each to play different roles
  • Allah gave a role to men that they are more capable of doing
  • Allah gave a role to women that they are more capable of doing
• Men and women are different.
  • You can’t compare apples to oranges. Yes, they’re both fruit, but they’re still different.
  • in the Olympics, men and women don’t compete with each other.
  • at the beach, men and women cover differently.
• Because they are different, there can’t be equality in their roles.
  • A man can’t be a mother. He can’t provide that emotional love and nurturing that a woman can.

Another reason traditional answers don’t work

There will always be an inferiority complex between the Muslims and the West if we continue this method. We’ll feel that we have to prove ourselves to fit their criteria, despite the fact that we have the best way of living ever to have been conceived by mankind. This inferiority complex leads to things like a woman leading the Jumu’ah prayer (which actually happened). Because it shows that Muslims are conforming to their standards, the West loves that type of thing. We’ve “proven ourselves” to what they want. When we do this, we will end up changing our views and corrupting the message of Allah.

True Equality

True equality is this:

If I do a good deed, and you do that same good deed, then we will both receive the same reward!

We are judged and seen by Allah based on our knowledge and actions, NOT our gender (nor our race, color, or nationality for that matter).

So, what’s the correct way to answer misconceptions?

• Our job as Muslims is to convey Islam.
• Be proud and firm in Islam. Invite the people to the fundamental beliefs of Islam.
• Think about how the conversation might go:

Questioner: Why do your women have to wear that veil thing?

Muslim: Because Allah has told us that they must do so. If you believed that there was One who created you, talked to you (through the Qur’an), sent Prophets down to guide you, and has unmatched mercy over you, would you question Him?

Questioner: Uhhh…probably not. But why do you believe in Allah?

Muslim: *goes on to explain the concept of Tawheed and other Aqeedah*

In this scenario, the Muslim has taken the questioner out of his playground (his possible assumptions about the Hijab being oppressive), and brought him into the Muslim’s (dealing with really important issues). He’s playing by the Muslim’s rules now.

We CANNOT underestimate the power of La ilaha illallah! (There is no deity worthy of worship other than Allah!). How can someone argue with that?

When we allow them to enter our playground, we eliminate their offensive, and now they’re on defense.

Yasir Qadhi speaks in this lecture about his old college roommate, who’d questioned him regarding Hijab. Shaykh Yasir says how he spent the entire school term telling him the rationale behind Hijab, and how it really makes sense, and by the end of that term, the roommate finally understood it. One day, he said that it really does make sense. Shaykh Yasir reflects on the fact that he could’ve been stressing the message of Tawheed to his roommate, and he might’ve converted to Islam, rather than just know a minor concept in Islam.

Final Story from the Past

Salman al-Farsi was once approached by a Jew. The Jew questioned him harshly, “Has your prophet taught you every nitty-gritty aspect of life, even how to wash yourself after you defaecate? (Though, he used a much more vulgar Arabic word than just ‘defaecate’.) Modern Translation: Islam dictates everything to you, even how to clean your privates?

Salman al-Farsi confidently said strongly, “Na’am! (Yes!)”, and a continued paraphrased version is “You have a problem with it?”. It was as if he was saying, “You can’t even wash yourself cleanly, and you’re making fun of me?” His attitude was complete confidence in Islam and its every aspect. He wasn’t embarrassed, rather he was proud of the matter in Islam.

Call to Islam

(don’t call to Hijab, or to the “benefits of polygamy” or other minimal issues).

Islam lies in the complete submission to the will and order of Allah.

Editor’s Note: Published with permission from FAITH Publications.

Contents: Track 01 | Track 02 | Track 03 | Track 04 | Track 05 | Track 06 | Track 07 | Track 08

Track 01

• Allah has told us in the Qur’an, “إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُغَيِّرُ مَا بِقَوْمٍ حَتَّىٰ يُغَيِّرُوا مَا بِأَنفُسِهِمْ”: “Surely, Allah will not change the state, or the condition, of a people unless and until they change that which is in themselves” (Surah Ra’d, Ayah 11). Therefore, unless the Muslims change their way according to what Allah likes, Allah will not relieve them of the trials and troubles that they are going through.

• The best place for us to begin to think of changing ourselves and in our lives is to get to know Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala). As we get to know Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), we can determine our relationship with Him. Is it positive, or is it negative? Is it a relationship of devotion or one of “take it, or leave it”? Is the relationship one of commitment, or is it one of those things that “when I feel good, I’m in with Allah, and when I don’t feel good, I’m in on my own”?

• If we know Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), we will begin to respond in a different way in terms of our relationship with Him. Of course, if our relationship with Allah is strong and one of commitment, devotion, and zero tolerance when it comes to making excuses or justifying the way that we are living right now, then our situation will change very quickly by Allah’s will.

• There is no place to know Allah better than through His Names and Attributes. Allah tells us in the Qur’an, “وَلِلَّهِ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَىٰ فَادْعُوهُ بِهَا”: “Allah has many beautiful names, so call upon Him by using these names”. All of you know the famous Hadith of the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) wherein he said, “Surely Allah has ninety-nine names: one hundred minus one. Whoever counts them shall enter Paradise.” Counting here, as you know, doesn’t mean to enumerate them and to just say 1,2,3,4, all the way up to 99. Rather, counting in this case means to know those names and meanings, to memorize them, and to practice them in our lives.

Track 02

• As we begin to practice the names of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) in our lives, we will become more and more beloved to Allah and we will begin to see the mercy of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) evermore. There are many names of Allah; much more than 99. There are so many names that we don’t even know how many and only Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) knows how many names He has. There’s more than 99, and that’s for sure.

• In our relationship with Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), let us just take one name of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) and see how it influences our life, or how it should influence our lives and what type of impact it should have in our lives.

• Ar-Rasul (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) says in a Hadith, “Allah is very Modest, Shy, and is one who loves to cover and conceal. He is One that loves this quality of concealment and of modesty, of shyness.” Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), as Rasulullah (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) told us in another Hadith, “Allah is very Shy, and is Shy in relationship to His Servant. When he or she extends his/her hands in Du’a, Allah is Shy to return them without an answer or giving them nothing back in return. Of course, Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) is Shy to refuse to answer your Du’a. Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) is very Modest when it comes to sinning; when human beings sin, Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) does not like that, and therefore, Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) provides a lot of opportunity for us to seek forgiveness from Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala). It’s part of the Love of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) for us.

• For us as Muslims, we have to emulate Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) so if Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) is Shy and Modest, so we ourselves as believers, those who have submitted themselves to Allah, must also be shy. Our Hayaa’, our shyness, is, of course, different from Allah’s Shyness because we are humans while Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) is our creator and as Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) says, “لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيُْ”: “There is nothing like Allah (Surah Shura, Ayah 11)). However, when we’re shy as Muslims are supposed to be, emulating and following the lead Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), it means for us to be shy to refuse to do the work of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala). If Allah has asked us to do something, we must go ahead and do it, and we must feel shy if we refuse to do it. We must feel that something is wrong and a sense of shame. We should feel shy to refuse Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), to do what we’re supposed to do.

Track 03

• If Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) has told us not to do a particular thing, we should stay away from that particular thing, and if we begin to approach that thing, we should shy away from that particular sin. This is the idea of us having Hayaa’ as believers.

• Hayaa’ is so important for us, as Muslims, that it means the very life our faith. As a matter of fact, many scholars in the past used to say very clearly, “If a person does not have Hayaa’, they’re not alive”. If a person does not have shyness or this sense of shame of recoiling and shrinking from anything that is bad and displeasing to Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), that that person is not alive; they are essentially dead and their hearts are dead. If a person is alive, they have a sense of Hayaa’. That means that it bothers them to know to no end if they do something that looks strange and weird in front of people (something bad, that is, not something good), and they know that people are not going to be happy about it.

• So if they curse, and they know that cursing is not right, and they still go ahead and curse: if they Hayaa’, first of all, they won’t do it. And if they happen to slip, then they’re going to hit themselves constantly. They’re going to be so ashamed and it’s going to bother them to such a degree that they’re going to be thinking about it over and over, telling themselves that “I shouldn’t have done it”. You see, they have that Nafsal Lawwamah. Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) tells us in the Qur’an as He swears, “وَلَا أُقْسِمُ بِالنَّفْسِ اللَّوَّامَةِ”: “And nay, but I swear with the self-reproaching soul.” This is the state of the soul that all of us can have, in which our soul gets upset, irritated, and bothered when we do something wrong. It’ll constantly keep on telling us, “I shouldn’t have done it. That was wrong. I shouldn’t have done it.”

• That feeling only comes when you have Hayaa’. When you have Hayaa’, your soul begins to eat at you. You curse someone and you know you weren’t supposed to, then you keep on telling yourself, “I knew I shouldn’t have done it.” If you backbite, again knowing that you shouldn’t have done it (if your heart is alive, that is), if you go on the Internet and you know that you’re not supposed to be going on certain websites or that you know that you shouldn’t be putting your profile on MySpace.com: if your heart is alive, and have Hayaa’, you’re going to eat away at yourself. Your heart is going to bother you. Your soul is going to bother you. The Nafsul Lawwamah is going to keep on hitting you that, “I shouldn’t have done it. That was wrong. I should have Hayaa’ and I should be shy before Allah because Allah is watching me. Allah is noticing every little thing that I’m doing, so I should be watching every little thing I’m doing. I cannot escape Allah. I’m under Allah’s watch: ‘إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا”: “Surely Allah is Ever-Watchful and is very Vigilant” (Surah Nisa, Ayah 1). He can see anything that you are doing and everything that you are doing at any moment in time. “اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ”: “Allah, the One that nobody deserves to be worshipped but Him, and the One that is Ever-Alive” (Surah Aali Imran, Ayah 1). He doesn’t ever go to sleep, so no matter when you are doing something, Allah knows. The believer is shy and does not want to disappoint Allah. He knows that Allah is watching, so he/she has a shame of doing the wrong thing.

Track 04

• For those that are going to put their hand in the donation box to steal some money: if they have Hayaa’ and their heart is still alive, then they’re not going to be able to put their hands in there and steal some money.. If they have Hayaa’, they will not call up another brother/sister, and talk to that brother/sister, because they know they’re not supposed to since they don’t have a Wali’. If that brother or sister is not married, they know they will not meet in the back of the building, in the parking lot, or in the park, all alone without a Mahram or Wali’, that is if they have Hayaa’. If they don’t have Hayaa’, forget about Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), and their hearts are dead, they will go ahead and have a girlfriend/boyfriend and even if the girl has Hijab, they’ll keep on talking to each other without a Wali’..

• Hayaa’ is what separates us from animals. You see, animals go ahead and do stuff; they don’t have a sense of shame, of what’s right and what’s wrong. They just do whatever they want to do and follow their desires and their lusts. But we are humans, and as humans, we have Hayaa’. We’re supposed to, at least.

• Hayaa’ is one thing that you learn in an Islamic environment, in an Islamic school. You don’t learn that if the school is not Islamic. And by the way, Hayaa’ is what many refer to today in the West as your moral conscience. What they’re really talking about is Hayaa’. You can’t have a moral conscience, you can’t have Hayaa’, unless you know where it’s coming from and how to do it. You can only do it if you know the names of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala).

• There’s a certain way we’re supposed to behave with Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), and a certain way that we’re supposed to be shy before Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala). One time, the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) came to the Sahabah and he’s telling them, “Have the Hayaa’ from Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) in the proper manner that you’re supposed to have Hayaa’.” So the Sahabah said to Rasulullah, “Oh Messenger of Allah, we are shy in front of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), and Alhamdulillah, all praise be to Allah, that He gave us that quality to be shy in front of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala).” Rasulullah (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) tells them, “That’s not what I mean. That’s not what is meant by having the true Hayaa’ from Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala). The right way to be modest from Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) is…” and Rasulullah mentions four things:

1. To be mindful of what is in your head, and what you understand. In other words, all the thoughts in your head should be thoughts that are pleasing to Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala). There should not be any thoughts like, “Well, let me choose another way outside of the Qur’an and Sunnah”. Your head should not have anything such as, “Well, this person is this and that person is that” and to have bad thoughts about another person, or to try to hurt someone, or to try to think negatively, or to always be pessimistic. Your mind should not have those types of thoughts in them. Your mind should not be, “Nobody’s watching, so let me go onto MySpace.com. Nobody is watching, so let me take a dollar out of the donation box. I might as well go to a website that I’m not supposed to if my parents were watching. Nobody’s listening in, so let me turn on the music and let me listen to my favorite group”. Your head should not have those thoughts.

Track 05

2. Your stomach and the other parts of your body, like your hands, your legs, your hearts your eyes, and so on: also watch what they do. In other words, they should Hayaa’ and not to do anything that’s displeasing to Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala).

3. You should remember death.

4. You should also remember the trials that will come after death.

• That is having Hayaa’, the real Hayaa’: Watch what your mind has in it, watch your heart and the rest of the body has and is doing, think about death, and what will come after it. He (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) says after this, “Whoever wants to make it successfully to the Hereafter, should leave pleasures of this world, the glitter and glamour of this world. Whoever does this, they are the ones who have the real Hayaa’ from Allah. They are the ones that are really shy in their relationship with Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala).

• Hayaa’ is a quality that we must have in our lives. These days, you tell many people not to go on MySpace.com, don’t listen to music, not to talk to this certain person because they don’t have a Wali’ there. I don’t care if it’s on a bench in the parking lot, or wherever, you’re not supposed to talk to another brother/sister: that is the rule of Islam. But if you go ahead and do it anyway, that means you do not have Hayaa’. If a brother goes ahead and looks at a sister, knowing that he’s not supposed to look at a sister unless it’s for marriage and there’s a Wali’, that means that person does not have Hayaa’. Each of us knows that we’re not supposed to curse, use bad words, or any foul language, but when we get upset, we still use it and justify it by saying, “Well I had to get it off my chest” or “You know, I had to give him a piece of my mind.” Well, you just missed out on your Hayaa’.

• A lot of us ask the question, “Is it Haraam to watch television? Is the internet Haraam?” But the question is, “What are you doing with that television or what are you doing on that Internet?” If you’re doing Haraam stuff, then yes, it is Haraam. If you’re watching television that will take your Hayaa’ away, then it’s Haraam. If you’re on the Internet and doing stuff that will weaken your Hayaa’, then it’s Haraam. If you’re on the television to watch a show, or on the Internet, to increase your Iman and Hayaa, then it’s ok. But most of us know that we don’t go on the internet or watch TV to increase our Hayaa’. Most of the programs that are there destroy our Hayaa’. That why you have brothers and sisters who seem to be practicing, but they have boyfriends and girlfriends, or they’re listening to music or rap artists that have nothing to do with Islam, or sisters who are wearing the Niqaab and they’re sitting with brothers, talking to them while they know they are not supposed to. Why? Because the Hayaa’ is missing. Because they forgot that Allah is watching.

Track 06

• Brothers and sisters, if we want to change our situation, we got to know Allah. We took just one name of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) and you can see its tremendous impact on our lives, if we reflect on it on our lives. So critical is this Hayaa’, this sense of shyness, that if we see that a sister sees that a brother wants to talk to her and they’re not married or related by blood, then they shouldn’t be talking to each other and if the sister lets herself get into that situation, that means she’s not being shy of Allah and is not maintaining her shyness. If the brother, doing the same thing and talking to a sister that he shouldn’t be talking to, whether on the phone, Internet, back parking lot, restaurant, or wherever, that means that brother does not have Hayaa’ and is not being shy of Allah.

• A lot of us are careful on how we appear in front of others. You know that we spend a lot of time in front of the mirror, making sure everything is in place; we wear clean clothes, and we’re very careful on the way that we talk in front of other human beings. We’re shy in front of other human beings and we don’t want anybody to know our faults and don’t want to be exposed. How about Allah? What happened to Allah? “َمَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ”: “They didn’t care or value Allah the way that they were supposed to” (Surah An’aam, Ayah 91).

• Hayaa’ is so critical that it goes hand in hand with our Iman. Ar-Rasul (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) says in a Hadith, “Iman and Hayaa’ go hand in hand; they go together”. In other words, if you don’t have Iman, you don/’t have Hayaa’. If you don’t have Hayaa’, then you don’t have Iman. That’s how closely linked they are. “If one of them is taken away, then the other is taken away”. So if you lose your Iman, you’re going to lose your Hayaa’. If you lose your Hayaa’, you’re going to lose your Iman. That’s how important this is. It’s not something to be taken lightly. It’s not something like, “Oh, it’s recommended, it’s something Mustahab and we’ll do it if we can and if we can’t, we can’t”. No; if you want our situation and condition to change as an Ummah, we have got to go back to Allah, and we have to follow Allah the way that he wants us to be. That’s when our situation will change, if Allah wills it to be.

• This is why Rasulullah (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) says, “Hayaa’ comes from Iman”. It’s part of Iman. So if you see someone who does not have Hayaa’, that means that their Iman is deficient. I don’t care how much you know about the Aqeedah of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama’ah; if you’re not practicing and you don’t have Hayaa’, then your Iman is deficient. A lot of people say that we have to have the right Aqeedah – okay fine, you have to have the right Aqeedah. But part of that Aqeedah is to believe in the Names and Attributes of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala); Tawheed Al-Asmaa’ was Sifaat. So if you believe in the Names of Attributes of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala), one of his Names is Al-Hayyiy: The One who is greatly Modest and Shy. Therefore, that’s what we have to practice in our lives. So if you lie to someone, that means that you’re not being shy of Allah and could care less if Allah is watching or not. If you cheat another brother and you’re selling him a car, knowing that it has problems, you’re not being shy of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala). You could care less if Allah is watching or not. If your parents ask you not to do something, and when they’re gone or they’re not watching, and you go ahead and do it, then you don’t care about what Allah thinks and you’re not being shy of Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala). You don’t have Hayaa’, and if you don’t have Hayaa’, then you don’t have Iman.

• I’m sure that many of you know the famous Hadith wherin Ar-Rasul (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) defines Iman and says that, “Iman has seventy-some or sixty-some branches. The most prestigious of all those branches is the statement of La Ilaha IllAllah, and the slightest and least of it is to remove something harmful from peoples’ paths and the road”.

Track 07

• He comes at the end of the Hadith and what does he say? “…and Hayaa’ is a branch of Iman.” Why did he mention Hayaa’ all by itself? Out of the seventy-some branches of Iman, he mentions this particular one at the end. It’s because Hayaa’ is the basis for all of those other things. If you have Hayaa’, all those seventy other things are going to fall into place because you want to serve Allah as if you see Him. So if you are aware of Allah, you want to make sure that everything is right because Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) is watching and it’s all for him. This is why we say Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahman, In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful, because everything we do and say is for Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) (or it’s supposed to be anyway). That’s why we say, “إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ”: “You are the only One we worship” (Surah Al-Fatiha, Ayah 4); we don’t worship ourselves. We don’t worship our desires: we worship you, Oh Allah. So Hayaa’ is the basis for all of the things that we do in Islam. This is why that’s it’s so critical because it has a relationship to whether we’re going it make it to Paradise or not.

• Ar-Rasul (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) says, “Hayaa’ is part of Iman, and Iman will land you in Paradise. Lewdness, or indecency (doing shameless things), comes from the hardness of the heart (Al-Jafaa’)”. When your heart becomes hard, you become shameless and you begin to do stuff that is very shameful, and you could care less if other people are watching or not or if Allah is watching or not. You could care less about yourself and how you look in front of other people. That’s a person without Hayaa’, with a heart that’s become very hard, and very lewd. The Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) continues the Hadith, “Lewdness is from Al-Jafaa’ (hardness of the heart), and Al-Jafaa’ will land you in the Hell-Fire”.

• In another Hadith, Ar-Rasul (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) says, “Hayaa’ will bring nothing but good in your life.” In another Hadith, the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) says, “Whenever lewdness is in anything, it disgraces and blemishes it. It makes it look bad. And whenever anything has Hayaa’, it beautifies, embellishes, and adorns it. It makes it look nice.” So if you have Hayaa’ in all of your affairs, you’re going to look good not only in front of Allah, but in front of other people too.

• As a matter of fact, believe it or not, this is the hallmark quality of the believer. As Muslims, one of our hallmark qualities is that we have Hayaa’. Ar-Rasul (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam) says, “Every way of life, every religion, has a special characteristic. And the special characteristic, the special quality, and the hallmark quality of the believer in Islam, is Hayaa’.” Hayaa’. Hayaa’.

Track 08

• Many of us today, when we tell each other, “Sister, you’re not supposed to be talking to that brother because there was no Wali’” or “Brother, you’re not supposed to be looking at that sister walking across the parking lot because you’re supposed to keep your gaze away” or “Sister, you’re not supposed to put your profile on MySpace.com without Hijaab so everybody else, Muslim or Non-Muslim, can look at your profile”, and they still come back and goes ahead and does it anyway, that means that they don’t have Hayaa’, don’t care, and will sin openly. You know what the danger of that is? If you’re told what is the right thing and you still do the wrong thing, and you could care less: you’re told not to curse, but you do it anyways. You’re told not to backbite, but you do it anyways. You’re told not to have a boyfriend/girlfriend, but you still have it and you think that your parents are not watching but Allah is watching and the angels are recording and your body will bear witness against you on the Day of Judgment: you’re told all of that but you still don’t care? That means…that you don’t have any Hayaa’. The danger of that is that Allah may never forgive you and may not accept your Tawbah. This is for those who commit their sins openly and don’t care even if you tell them and just tell you, “Leave me alone and let me lead my own life”. If that’s your attitude and you could care less if Allah is watching or not, then your repentance may not be accepted.

• Rasulullah (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam), “My entire nation is apt to be forgiven, except those people who are Mujaa7ideen, those people who commit sins openly. And included in those people who commit sins openly despite the fact they’re told not to, are those people such as a man, who will do something at night and then Allah concealed their sin, but they will get up in the morning and they tell someone, ‘You know, last night, I did such-and-such and such-and-such’. Allah had already concealed their sin, but they get up in the morning and they expose themselves to the people”. These are the people that know they are not supposed to do certain things, but in the morning, they brag about the fact that, “You know, I talked to this sister or I talked to that brother. You know, I smoked last night and my parents didn’t know. You know, last night I went on such-and-such website, and you should go on it also. You know, we were totally shot last night. You know, I missed my Fajr”. There are people that brag like that. “…Those are the people that Allah will not forgive.”

• How can you increase your Hayaa’? Very simple: just remember ABC:

1. Be aware of Allah’s presence at all times. Know that He watches every little thing that you do and say, so be aware.

2. Think about the blessings that Allah has blessed you with. Respond to Allah with these blessings in a way that He will be happy with you, and don’t use them in a way that will make Him displeased with you.

• • You see, Allah has blessed you with eyes so you don’t want to use your eyes to look at the opposite gender or to look on the Internet at things that you’re not supposed to.
  • Allah has blessed you with hands, so you don’t want to use them to hit someone, to steal something, or to punch a code online to go on a certain website.
  • Allah has blessed you with feet, so you don’t want to go to the mall or to the store when you know you’re supposed to be at the Masjid. You think that your parents are not watching and you may tell others that you’re just going to the store, but you know that you’re going there to meet some guys. You know that you’re going there to check out the opposite gender.
  • Who are you fooling? No one but yourself.

3. Good company: Be around those people who practice Hayaa’ and are ashamed to do those things that Allah would be unhappy with. In a Hadith of Rasulullah (salAllahu alayhi wa sallam), “Each person is affected by the way of the people that they keep company with. So each one of you should choose your friend carefully.