Islamic Revivalism
By Abdullah Hakim Quick | 2026-01-15T12:17:52.212882+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Islamic Revivalism
Opening and Greetings
I begin with the greeting words of Paradise. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullah. And I want to take this opportunity to also bring the greetings to the brothers and sisters here with the Forum for Social Studies from the 14th Annual Riyadhah and Shura that was held in Cleveland, Ohio.
It's still going on now. There's part of a Shura discussion which is going on now. And Imam Jameel Al-Amin of Atlanta, one of the important leaders in America today, sent his greetings here to you.
Alhamdulillah, it was a gathering of Muslims, brothers and sisters, who came together from all over North America and Canada also, to enjoy themselves Islamically. And there were workshops. And also today there is a very important Shura discussion.
The Riyadhah Initiative and Community Building
And this Riyadhah is a new activity. This is the 14th one. And it's sort of an alternative Olympics, so to speak. There's a competition in basketball, there's track and field. There are a number of different sporting activities that go on for brothers and sisters. And it is a halal way to be involved in sporting activities.
And I can say that the Toronto team that was there made a good showing in the basketball tournament. We didn't win, but alhamdulillah we made a very good showing there. And so Toronto has a name now and has a very good reputation in Islamic circles, not only for lectures and Islamic community, but also amongst the youth.
The Crisis of Division in the Muslim Community
And one of the very important discussions we had yesterday in this gathering of Muslims was looking at the development of Islam in North America and in the West. To try to see how Muslims can relate to each other and to try to look in a practical way at the problems that we are facing. And this is an ongoing discussion.
Because the purpose of our gatherings, the purpose of the lectures and the knowledge that we are gaining, should not be only to attend the lecture. But it is crucial now that the purpose for our gatherings after seeking the pleasure of Allah, should be to be very practical, a very practical effort to try to establish Islam and to try to deal with some of the great problems and crises that we are facing in the Muslim community. And in the past two years in the different cities and continents that I've had the opportunity to visit, I've noticed a very serious tension now that you find in many of the areas.
And in many cases you find, you come into a city and you find Muslims divided. And as we heard you'll find ethnic masjids, you'll find masjids based on Islamic movement. This is a crisis in our times.
Because as we heard that the salat itself and all of the aspects of Islam emphasize jama'ah, that we should be together in one group and not divided. And there are so many places in Quran where we see that Allah tells us to stay together, hold on to the rope of Allah, be not divided. And it really is one of the most important activities of a Muslim to try to unite with other Muslims.
The Principle of Change
And so with the great change that is coming about, with the great crisis that we find ourselves in, when we turn to the Quran we find that Allah tells us:
"Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change that which is inside of themselves." And so the change that we have to go through is a great change. And we were looking at cultural continuity.
Historical Example: The Wathiqa Document in Jamaica
We were looking at the closeness that Muslims have to each other. And there is actually a type of isnad, or a type of chain of information that has gone on between Muslims, not only in the early centuries of Islam, but even within the past two to three hundred years. And so in this discussion, we looked at a very interesting historical happening that went on in the Caribbean.
In 1821-22 in Jamaica, in a province known as Manchester, some of the captured prisoners of war, who are known as slaves, made a great rebellion. And they were passing around between themselves a document written in classical Arabic language. Now this document, this form of Arabic is the Maghribi script.
In the Maghribi script, the fa has a dot underneath, and the qaf has got one dot on the top. And when you're writing along, when you end the sentence, it has sort of a half moon, and there's no dot on the noon. So if you see da-lean, there's no dot for the noon.
And you have to sort of get used to reading it. This is one of the ancient Arabic scripts that was established coming from the Arabian Peninsula, and then it was established in Andalusia, and in North Africa, and in West Africa. And so this document was known as Wathiqa, Al-Wathiqa.
And a Nigerian scholar, Dr. Ousmane Bougadje, was a very well-known scholar from Northern Nigeria, has recently put out a paper where he linked this document being passed in the Manchester province in Jamaica, with a document written by a great Islamic reviver, Sheikh Ousmane Ibn Foudi, rahimahullah, in West Africa, which was known as, Wathiqa Ahlus Sudan. This is the document, or the manifesto to the people of the Sudan, meaning West Africa, Central Africa, and the whole of Africa. And this is sort of his manifesto of jihad.
And so what this document did for the people there in the Caribbean, it was a call to jihad, that they should unite themselves, and that they should resist the fact that they were captured, and the occupation that went on. And a great rebellion happened, which is one of the rebellions that led toward the liberation of the people in Jamaica, and in other parts of the Caribbean. What is important for us, is the cultural continuity.
The Chain of Islamic Scholarship: From India to West Africa
Here are people now in America, who are passing out a document, connected to a document written by a great scholar of Islam in West Africa. And to take it a step further, when we look at the life of Sheikh Ousmane Ibn Foudi, rahimahullah, who is known as Ousmane d'Anfodio. We find that in the 18th century, there's a great scholar of India, Muslim scholar, Shah Waliullah al-Dahlawi, rahimahullah.
And those of you who are aware of Islam in the Indo-Pakistani subcontinent, know that he was a great mujaddid or reviver of the faith, specialist in hadith, specialist in Islamic sciences. And he worked very seriously throughout his life to revive Islamic knowledge. Shah Waliullah al-Dahlawi was the teacher of Muhammad Murtada al-Zabidi.
And he was also a Muslim scholar from India, who traveled to Yemen. And he settled at some point in Zabid, a section of Yemen, that is known for great scholars of Islam. And Muhammad Murtada was the direct teacher of another scholar whose name was Jibreel ibn Umar.
And Jibreel ibn Umar was of the people who are known as Tawariqah. And these Tawariqah people or the Tawariqs, they live in the Sahara desert. And they're known because the men cover their face. Their turban comes around, the men cover their face. And so Jibreel ibn Umar had his Isnad from Muhammad Murtada to Shah Waliullah al-Dahlawi. And Jibreel, Sheikh Jibreel, was the direct teacher of Sheikh Uthman Dhanfolio.
And so his Isnad goes right back there to this revivalism. In another part of the Sheikh's Isnad or his ijazah, the permissions he was given, there is the writings of... There is a man by the name of Muhammad Hayat al-Sindhi, who was a great 18th century teacher, who also came from India, and he settled in Medina. And he was one of the most famous teachers of hadith in Medina at the time.
And many great revivalists of Islam studied underneath Muhammad Hayat al-Sindhi. One of them was Abul Hasan al-Sindhi. And going back a little bit, Muhammad Hayat al-Sindhi, amongst his students was Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab, who was famous for the revival of Islam that went on in Arabia.
And we are still very much being affected by this revival today. Another one of his students was Abul Hasan al- Sindhi. He also taught a number of scholars who went back to the Burma region, to Indonesia, to other parts of the Muslim world.
And they also came with a revival. So Muhammad Hayat al-Sindhi, also specialist in hadith, tafsir, revivalist of Islam, Abul Hasan al-Sindhi, and a man by the name of Muhammad ibn Raj. And he is the uncle of Shaykh Uthman Dhanforio.
The Mulazama System of Education
And so Shaykh Uthman Dhanforio, coming in this tradition in the desert, studied with his uncle, he and his brother Abdullahi. They finished Sahih al-Bukhari underneath Muhammad ibn Raj. And this type of scholarship that they were involved in, is what is called the mulazama system.
And the mulazama system is a system of knowledge. And this is something now which is being tabled by brothers and sisters here, in terms of being a new form of education to go on within the Muslim community. Not only just the lecture type education, where there's a lecture there, and you go listen to the lecture, and everybody sits, and then everybody goes home.
This is the mulazama system. And what this involves is, that the teacher has sort of a community. It's a community based form of education, where you not only learn from the scholarship of the teacher, but you also learn from the life of the teacher.
And so you don't just listen to the lecture, but you live with the teacher in a community. So you pray together, you eat together, you work together, you travel together. And so you not only pick up from the teacher his isnad in terms of the intellectual information, but you also pick up from the teacher his approach to Islam, his practical approach to Islam.
How does he deal with the crisis? If a crisis comes in the community, then you're there with the teacher. And then you are able to pick up how he approaches the crisis. How does he call to the good? How does he forbid evil? How does he govern? How does he relate to the leader or the ruler in the land? And so this mulazama system was the one which was used by the ulema of the Sahara desert, and in many parts of the Muslim world.
The Life and Mission of Shaykh Uthman Dhanfodio
And Shaykh Uthman Dhanfodio was involved in this. And just to give you an idea, again this is the 18th century, and we also had this discussion at the Ikna Convention, to try to broaden our understanding of Islamic scholarship. Just to give you an understanding, Shaykh Uthman Dhanfodio rahimahullah, after studying underneath a series of teachers and getting ijazah, or permission to be able to teach in Quranic tafsir, and also his knowledge of nahu and saraf, of the grammar of Islam, also poetry.
He also went on to study the seerah of the Prophet, different areas of Islamic studies. By the age of 20, he was considered to be a scholar, and he went into the field. And he spent 30 years in the dawah.
And after 30 years of teaching and preaching in different sections of an area called Hausaland, he became a threat to the government. And the governors at the time were pseudo-Muslims, they were supposed to be Muslims, but they were mixing up the local religion with Islam. In other words, all types of bid'ah and cultural traditions are all mixed in with Islam.
So the Shaykh then was called to the court of one of these kings. And when the Shaykh used to travel, he traveled with 1,000 students. And so anywhere he traveled, where he stopped, they would have a lesson.
And so this is how they moved throughout the countryside. And when they went to the court of the king, and this is somewhere around 1803 or so, when they went to his court, the king sent a courtier out who shot a gun at the Shaykh. The gun backfired and killed the courtier.
And so then the Shaykh left with his students and they made hijrah. They followed the sunnah, they made migration, and they took bay'ah. They made a pledge to him that they would be prepared now to go to another stage of Islam.
Not only to be just students, but they took a bay'ah to the leadership. That they would be prepared to sacrifice even their lives in the path of Islam. This is how Islam evolves.
The Evolution of Islamic Community Commitment
And this is something that our communities have to look at because we're stuck in the masjid phase, or the conference phase where you just sort of go out, go to the conference, go to the masjid, everybody leads their lives. But there's another phase of Islam where the jama'ah starts to be involved and we are committed to each other on a higher level. And so at that point, the pledge was made, and to make a long story short, a jihad was called.
And the Shaykh himself, it is reported, had a dream. And the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, came in his dream along with other scholars of Islam, and he was given a sword, which is called the sword of truth. He was also given a turban, a green turban, and a mantle, an abaya.
And he was told in this dream that he had to go forward and defend Islam. And so they were successful, alhamdulillah. And when the jihad was finished, they controlled 250,000 square miles.
His students became the governors. And they used to communicate with each other in classical Arabic language. Their letters, many of their letters are still available today. Where they would communicate with each other. And they ruled for over 100 years before the coming of the British into that area. And so what is important for us in cultural continuity is the fact that the Shaykh, rahimahullah, was faced with a fitnah.
He was faced in the path of dawah with divisions coming amongst Muslims and with tensions that were coming. And so in tradition of Isnad, going back to the scholars of the desert, of the Maliki tradition, going back to Mecca and Medina, where the revival of Islam was going on in the 18th century. And we need to look at this revival because this is very close.
The Inroads of Shaytan: Introduction to the Ten Points
In terms of the revival itself, how do you go about cleansing your inside? What are some of the difficulties that
are involved in this revival? And in one treatise done by the Shaykh, in one section, he called the section
He called it the inroads of the Shaytan. That the Shaytan, has taken certain steps and by certain weaknesses in the heart of a Muslim or in the practice of a Muslim, the Shaytan is able to come in and to bring differences between Muslim and other Muslim, masjid and other masjid, jama'a and another jama'a, a group of people, another group of people. And so by that, it holds down the revival of Islam because people spend more time fighting each other and being involved in confusion than dealing with
calling to the good and forbidding the evil. And so this
other great scholars called it
The tricks and the wiles of the Shaytan. When we look back in terms of cultural continuity at the writings of this great Shaykh known as a Mujaddid, a revivalist in West Africa, we find that his Isnat and his way of approaching this is very similar to many great scholars of Islam, Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Al-Qayyim, Imam Al-Ghazali, Ibn Rajab. You find many great scholars of Islam had a similar way of approaching this.
And I want to give you 10 points today. And we are studying this in a number of the circles, a number of the conferences. 10 points put down by the Shaykh in this section of
And we should look at these points, study these points, and if they do exist within us, try our best to bring it out.
Point One: Al-Hasad wal-Hirs (Envy and Jealousy)
In this work, the Shaykh Rahimahullah in his point number one. Point number one is
This is envy or jealousy and envy. And this is one of the inroads of the Shaytan into the heart of a Muslim and into the community.
And the Prophet, peace be upon him, said, there is a lump of flesh in the body, which if it goes wrong, the whole body goes wrong, if it goes right, the whole body goes right, and that is the heart. He also said, alayhi salatu wassalam:
(Sunan Abi Dawud 4903)
Jealousy eats up your good deeds like a fire eats up firewood. And so to covet, as they would say in English, or the envy for your neighbor or another Muslim.
We can be involved in prayer, in fasting, in calling to the good, forbidding the evil, but if hasad enters the heart, according to this hadith, it will burn up all of the good deeds. And so what is this? If another Muslim, if another person makes progress in life, they make material progress, they make intellectual progress. For instance, Ali comes driving up and he has a new car.
Ali comes and this car is one of those new ones, bubble shaped Ferrari or something like that, and nobody knows whether it's a rented car or not, or what it is, but Ali is driving a Ferrari. And so everybody starts to look at Ali now, if you want a Ferrari like his, you're okay. Because you want him to have his, but you would like to drive a vehicle similar to that, so you can ride down the road and you can go very fast.
But if you want one, and you don't want him to have his, this is hasad. It's a negative feeling. It's an evil type of feeling.
And so this feeling makes sort of a negative vibration. And then Ali comes, he gets out the Ferrari, As-Salaamu Alaikum, everybody says, Wa-Alaikum As-Salaam. Everybody is looking away, and okay.
And this is real now. And some people get this feeling, Wa-Alaikum As-Salaam, with little children. And I know that in some parts of Arabia, if a mother has a baby, the family has a baby, and then you come to visit them, and they have that little baby there, you have to say amongst the Bedouins in Medina, you have to say, Masha'Allah, Tabarak Allah.
You have to say that. You got to say, Alhamdulillah, Masha'Allah. You got to say something good.
If you say something negative, or you don't say, Masha'Allah, Tabarak Allah, they start feeling maybe this hasad. And people, this ayin, the eye, the evil eye, and they are really afraid of this. And there's something in this eye, there's something that the Shaytan can take, that negative vibration.
It's like when you do good to somebody, you get a good feeling. When you're around a negative scene, sometimes you can feel a coldness, your hands get cold, you feel tension in your nervous system. It's sort of a magnetism that we put out.
And so this hasad and hirs, now is there, and this is why we have Surah Al-Falaq. When you are seeking refuge:
You are seeking refuge from the hasid, the envious, jealous person, if they train this envy on you. So this is very evident today, within our communities. A person makes progress, a jama'a makes progress, one leader, another leader, we can see the danger of Al-Hasad, Al-Hirs. This is the point number one.
Point Two: Al-Ghadab wal-Shahwa (Anger and Uncontrolled Desire)
Point number two, is Al-Ghadab, Al-Shahwa. And he talked about anger, and uncontrolled desire. I'm just giving you an abbreviation of what he wrote. It is anger and uncontrolled desires.
Now, anger is something which can come up in you. But if you cannot control your anger, then that can destroy the relationship of one Muslim to another. And when a man came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, on one occasion the Prophet said to him, as a nasiha, he said:
(Sahih al-Bukhari 6116)
Don't get angry.
The next is uncontrolled desires. And in this society today, there is a push which is going on in the television, in the media, for this uncontrolled desires. And the height of it probably is when you see the homosexual
gatherings and what not, where people are just totally out of control.
And where their desires and their animalistic instincts totally take control of them. This is a danger. And this also is a danger to Muslims. If that desire comes in now, for the things of this world, or the physical desires, this is one of the ways of
And it is something we have to watch out for.
Point Three: Al-Tama' (Greed and Ambition)
The next point was
This is like greed and ambition. Greed and ambition. And we find, one of the problems we are facing is ambition in leadership.
That people now fight for position within the Muslim community, or groups, fighting for position, fighting each other for domination or control over a masjid or a group. And this is dangerous, and this is not in the way of the sahaba
Because amongst the sahaba, you will find that when it came time for the leadership, they didn't want the leadership.
And that is the sign of a person who should be the leader. It's the one who has the authority, the one who has the taqwa, and doesn't want to be the leader. But the one who wants to be the leader, who fights for it, that is the one where the
And some people even in voting situations, they will do something like they do here. They campaign. You know here if you're running for office, you have a campaign.
And so you spend a lot of money and you put yourself, and I will build you new offices, and I will clean up the streets, and I'll lower your taxes. And of course when he gets in office, he doesn't do hardly anything that he promised you. But he campaigns.
So the Muslim campaigns too. And those who say, brother, I want to be the emir, can you vote for me? I think I have a lot of good qualities, and you know whatever, pull you aside and look, we come from the same village. And I think that we should be the ones who control this masjid.
This is real. This is real. And what the Shaykh was talking about, it is a danger. That if greed comes in, if we are living for the material things of this world, if ambition, we're striving against each other to get position, to get title, then that can weaken your heart. And it will stop the revival of Islam.
Point Four: Excessive Love of Food and Drink
Point number four, is excessive love of food and drink. Excessive love of food and drink. Especially beyond what is needed for your survival. And this is a serious problem, because excessive love of food and drink is something that opens up the desires.
And we were talking about this yesterday in America, because in some parts of America, the people, they fry a lot of foods. And then the sugar. So if some people, if they get sugar and grease in their body, their personality
changes.
If there's too much sugar and grease in their body. This might sound strange to you. But if you drink a lot of Pepsi and Coca-Cola, some people who drink a lot of this get hyper, when they start drinking.
So food actually doesn't... This is the reason why, look at the Prophet, when he tells us, three days in the middle of the month, you should fast on the three white nights. Now, there is a definite connection between a full moon, and the tides, and mental disease. There's a definite connection between the change of the tides when they come in and out, and the magnetism, because our body is mostly water, right? So there's a connection between the water and the magnetism.
And some people can be thrown off and get agitated and nervous during this time. You find in many of the classical movies and books of literature in the western world, that the werewolf or the vampire comes out on the full moon. Like when you see the full moon, then the werewolf is calling and the vampire wants to drink blood and what not.
What that is tied in with, is that people who have schizophrenia, and manic depression, and many of the different diseases, are affected by... in some cases by the moon itself. So the Prophet says to do what? Fast. So you don't put the food inside your body, you don't agitate your body during these times where you can get upset.
Also the fast in Ramadan. If you fast once a year then, it gives a different type of balance to the body. Especially with the food and the drink.
Point Five: Al-Ajalah (Haste)
The next point that the Shaykh made, Rahimahullah, is Al-Ajalah. He said, Haste. Doing things too quickly except in necessary acts of worship.
Except in necessary acts of worship. So in other words, if Salat is going out, if you gotta make your Salat, then it is good for you to try to make it as soon as possible. Don't be lazy and take your time, you gotta make your Salat.
If you have the wealth to make pilgrimage to Mecca, then you should make the pilgrimage to Mecca if you have the ability to go, you have the wealth, you should make it as soon as possible. Don't say to yourself, Inshallah, when I get to be 55 years old or 60 years old and whatever, then I'll make Hajj. No.
Because Allah could take the life of a person at any point in time. So, haste. Doing things too quickly.
And I can say honestly, one of the problems in our community is haste in marriage. Getting married too quickly without proper analysis being done by the Wali for the sister and without looking at both sides and trying to see, is this a suitable marriage? Are the people suited for each other? Negotiation should go on in the marriage. But when Al-Ajala comes, then everybody rushes into it, and now we are struck with a lot of divorce.
And the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:
(Sunan al-Tirmidhi 2012)
Haste is from the devil. It's from the shaitan. So there it is right there. Madakhil Iblis. Al-Ajala Minash Shaitan.
Point Six: Excessive Wealth
The next point is wealth. If it exceeds the amount needed to fulfill your basic needs. Too much money. Too much money. Because if you get too much money, and you go beyond it, you find especially in this world today, that you get caught up in your taxes and in mortgages and this and that.
And when you get caught up in the life of this world, then that can be a roadblock for the practice of Islam. And the shaykh in looking at wealth, also looked at another relationship with wealth, and that is the danger of poverty. Fear of poverty.
And in Surah Al-Baqarah verse 268, we have that Allah has told us:
In this verse it says that the shaitan, here it is again, he promises you, and he tries to intimidate you with poverty. And he orders you with immorality, with indecency.
But Allah promises you forgiveness and a great preference. And Allah is most expansive and he has knowledge over all things. And so you see the two, the difference between the two.
But the shaitan now, the fear of poverty. And we have many cases of people, when the stock market are crashed, or if they lose their job, then some people commit suicide. Or they become depressed.
They become so depressed that even they start looking at their salat and they say, I don't even feel like praying now. I don't feel like fasting. Why is he depressed? When you ask him, you find out he lost his job.
So you lost your job but your rizq is maktoob. Your provisions are written by Allah. You have to strive, but you have to depend on Allah.
That if you don't get your provisions in one way, Allah will provide for you in another way. So the fear of poverty, or excessive wealth, when it exceeds the amount that you need to survive.
Point Seven: At-Ta'asub lil-Madhhab (Fanaticism for Schools of Jurisprudence)
The next point is, and this is a very heavy point for us, fanaticism, at-ta'asub lil-madhhab. This is fanaticism for the school of Islamic jurisprudence. Fanaticism. And so we have today, a struggle going on in our community, a needless struggle, between the followers of Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Malik, Imam Ash-Shafi'i, Imam Ahmed, and also many brothers and sisters who say, I don't wanna follow a madhhab.
Point Seven: Differences in Schools of Thought
That's another madhhab. So there's a struggle going on now between these groups. And when you look to the scholars themselves, when you go back and actually see what they wrote and spoke about, there's no tension amongst them.
Because they were students and teachers of each other. And so this is really another difference coming up. And as I mentioned before, a person even came to me and questioned and said, Can a Hanafi marry a Shafi'? Can a Hanafi marry a Shafi'? I said, oh is that right? Are you a Catholic and they are Jehovah's Witness? Are you another religion? Are we Hindus? What are we talking about? Or can Maliki marry Shafi'?
Imam Ash-Shafi'i was the student of Imam Malik. And when you look at them you find that they took from the same source. And Imam Malik rahimahullah was reported to have said, everybody is subject to mistake in affairs of Sharia, except for this man. And he pointed to the grave of the Prophet. Only that person is not subject to mistake in affairs of Sharia.
But all of us are subject to mistake. And so the Imam said:
If the hadith is correct, that's my school of thought. And so it is important for us today, if you are established with the school of thought, that's fine.
But if there is a discussion of a scholar that overrules the discussion of your school of thought, then there is nothing wrong with you following another scholar of Islam, as long as they are basing it on Quran and Sunnah. There is nothing wrong with this. And fanaticism, ta'asub, and fighting each other in the school of thought, is one of the inroads of shaitan to break up our community.
Point Eight: Hatred and Contempt for Those Who Disagree
Another point is, hatred and contempt for those who disagree with our opinion. This is a very serious issue. And in London, England, and in New York, in certain areas, this is a serious situation.
That we actually have Muslims, and it's here to a certain extent, maybe not as bad as it is in London or in New York. But it's here. And that is, sometimes, and I've witnessed this myself, I've traveled to London with one particular group, and there's lectures and gatherings, and then two months later, I go back to London with another group.
And then the other group says, were you in town? Because they do not attend any gathering of the other group. They don't go to their mosque, they don't allow advertisements or flyers in their area, they discourage their people to go to listen to the lecture. And they say, he's a deviant Muslim, or he doesn't have a school of thought, or he has the wrong school of thought, he can't speak Arabic, whatever it is.
He doesn't dress Islamically enough, or she doesn't dress Islamically enough, or whatever the argument it is, it becomes a means, an obstacle. It becomes an obstacle or a barrier for unity amongst the Muslims. And this is
the crucial area that we need to study, to see what are the obstacles that are dividing us up.
Point Nine: Burdening People with Deep Theological Questions
The next point, point number nine. This is burdening the common people with pondering the essence and descriptions of Almighty Allah more than is absolutely necessary. This is another important point.
It is here in Toronto, but it is not as intense as it is in London or New York, or in other parts of the western world. And that is, students of knowledge who gain an understanding in aqeedah. And this is particular in an area called tawheed al-asmaa wa-as-sifat.
And in the time of Shaykh Uthman ibn al-Fawzi, rahimahullah, there was a book called aqeedah al-sughrah. This is a book done by a famous scholar named al-Sanusi. The Sanusi order was a very famous revivalist order in Libya and in the desert.
And Shaykh Sanusi wrote a book called al-aqeedah al-sughrah. And in this work, there's a very heavy emphasis in terms of tawheed al-asmaa wa-as-sifat, that the names and descriptions of Allah should be confirmed as the way they are. You should not add to them, you should not take away from them.
And you should not try to compare Allah to the creation. You take a middle position. And if Allah says something about himself, you accept that, and you don't try to say how it is.
This is part of the revival of Islam. It is part of the revival. And the isnat of Shaykh Uthman ibn al-Fawzi, rahimahullah, goes back to the isnat of many of the revivalists in the 18th century.
But the problem is, some of the students of knowledge were taking this understanding of tawheed. And instead of teaching Muslims, they were using it as a test. They would test you with it.
And they say, Brother, where is Allah? What do you think about this book? And if you don't answer the question correctly, they will say, you're a deviant. You're a deviant Muslim, don't go to the lecture, stay away from that person. And they would ostracize the person from the movement.
So the Shaykh wrote a number of treatises in this area and showed these students of knowledge that he called al- mutakallimun. He showed them that the Muslim who makes shahadah(لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱللَّٰهِ ﷺ) and prays to the qibla, is on the fitrah. That person is on the natural way of Allah.
And so, if that person does not know detailed information about tawheed al-asma wa as-sifat, then you should teach that person. Because their heart is clean. If they don't know, teach them.
Don't use your knowledge as a means of testing the people and putting the people to a fitnah. See the difference between the two?
Because if that knowledge that you have in aqeedah is being used to test the people and to punish the people, it will become an obstacle in the path of the revival of Islam. And it is happening today in our communities.
Other people outside of tawheed al-asma wa as-sifat, in tafsir, or in Arabic language, or in hadith, who gain knowledge, use the knowledge as a sledgehammer to pound the head of another Muslim. Instead of using that knowledge to raise and elevate the other Muslim. That's what the knowledge is for.
Because there's always somebody who has more knowledge than us. And Allah is al-alim. Allah has knowledge of all things. And so our knowledge in comparison to Allah is nothing.
Point Ten: Su-adhan (Holding Suspicion Against Muslims)
The last point of the 10 points is holding suspicion against Muslims. This is called su-adhan.
And Allah has told us in surah al-hujurat, verse 12:
Stay away from most forms of suspicion because surely even some of suspicion is sin. Su-adhan.
And that means, that you look at somebody, or you hear something about somebody, and you assume the worst about that person. But the sharia gives a type of baraa to a Muslim. If you are a Muslim praying to the qibla, you have shahada, then you are innocent until proven guilty.
But if a person has su-adhan, you're guilty until proven innocent. You see the difference between the two? Su- adhan. And it is reported that there were three people amongst the sahaba, who when they spoke to you, they told you the truth.
And if you spoke to them, they would not accuse you of lying. Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, Uthman ibn Affan, and Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah. That was a great quality that they had.
And su-adhan is causing confusion in the community. Sometimes su-adhan might even be how you dress, or who you're with. Or where you make salat at.
Or what school of thought you are. Or which country you come from. There's different ways the su-adhan can come in.
But a Muslim should be given the benefit of the doubt. And if there is something wrong with another Muslim, then it is our duty to go to that person, and to let them know in the best of ways:
We say to them, we let them know about the mistake in a gentle way. In a gentle way.
As the Quran says:
That you are humble with believers, and you are powerful and mighty with the disbelievers.
Remedies for Spiritual Revival
And so these are the points, made by the Shaykh, Rahimahullah. And his remedies, or some of his remedies, include the fact, that we should strengthen always our taqwa.
And that our consciousness of Allah, should be a combination of (الخوف والرجاء) Fear and hope. It's a combination. That you fear the punishment of Allah, but you hope in the mercy of Allah.
Also, tawbah. That we should practice tawbah, repentance. That if we do wrong, we repent to Allah.
And if as long as we have repentance, then we can always have an optimistic look at life. Once repentance goes out of the heart, a person doesn't realize repentance. They give up, and they go into despair.
And so tawbah is a very important thing. Also the Shaykh, also focused on (التَّوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ) And that is dependence on Allah. The more we depend on Allah, the more we see Allah as Ar-Raziq, as the provider.
Al-Hafiz, as the protector. Al-Qadir, one who has power over all things. Al-'Alim, knowledge over all things.
When we start to look at Allah in the proper way, and we depend upon Allah, then the fear of poverty, that the Shaytan brings, the fahsha, he commands us with indecency. Then insha'Allah we will not fall victim to these things. Also that we should focus upon rida, contentment.
That however Allah has made us, whatever wealth that we have been given, we say alhamdulillah. And as the hadith says:
(Sahih Muslim 2999)
It is strange, affair of a Muslim, of a believer. That if something good befalls them, they thank Allah and they get blessings for it.
If something evil befalls them, they have patience and they still get blessings. So this is the amr al-mu'min, this is the way of the believer. That have rida and have sabr, have patience.
That we have patience with the created things, patience with what Allah has prohibited us from, and patience with what Allah has commanded us with. Also He gave the example that we should also consider zuhud. And that means that we do not focus upon material things.
The Danger of Materialism
That we can live without material things. And many of us who may have come from humble backgrounds, and I'm talking about myself also. If you have come from a humble background, and you come to a place like
Canada, and then you start to get used to hot and cold running water, and the hydro is on all the time, and you go to Loblaws, and look at the food in Loblaws.
Mashallah, I mean we have to go out and say, I won't eat sugar today, I won't eat starch. You gotta tell yourself, I don't wanna eat food.
Then you go back to the Muslim world, where they're establishing salah, where Islam is being practiced, where haya, modesty is still there. But the lights go off 5 hours per day. Maybe the water goes off for 10 hours. And if we don't watch out, you change.
And you say, I can't live like this. You get a little stomach ache, because of the food that happens to everybody. You get malaria.
Oh man, some brothers, they're running from malaria. But the virus that's hitting us here in Toronto, is 5 times worse than malaria. I'm telling you, I had my malaria.
I went to the desert in northern Nigeria, and I got malaria. But the virus I got this year after hajj, it was worse than malaria. Okay, so forget about that.
And if the water goes off, alhamdulillah, you catch your water earlier in the day, and then the water is there. If the lights go off, alhamdulillah. But if we get too used to these things around us, and we can't go back to simple life, then the shaitan will threaten us with the loss of wealth.
The fear of poverty. And that fear of poverty and loss of wealth has caused Muslims to do some strange things. Some strange things. Turn against each other. Turn against their faith. Give up practices which are sometimes compulsory practices of Islam.
Conclusion and Call to Revival
And so, these are some of the advices given to us by one of the great mujaddid scholars of Islam, revivalists of Islam, a chain leading back to the revivalists of the 18th century. And I ask Allah that He would help us in these times into a new revival of Islam, that we can revive the sunnah of the Prophet, we can go back to the time of the sahaba, that we can go to the sources and put it in a practical way that can be used within our communities.
Question and Answer Session
If you have any questions, you could come to the mic before we break. Or if you want to write, you can just write it down and pass it on here for reply. Yes, brother.
Question 1: About the Mulazama System
Question: We are talking about the Muslim system where people would be attached to a certain shaykh and
learn from him. I just want to give this because we know of a certain case where a shaykh wrote that knowledge and he had an example, that my shaykh said this and my shaykh said that. I just want to give this system is not going back to that sort of way where people get attached and they sort of lose focus on where they should be taking their guidance from such as Quran and Sunnah and take off the guidance from a certain shaykh.
Answer: Okay, this is a very good question. What the question is, the brother is asking about the mulazama system. And that is the system where you are underneath a shaykh and you are studying and living with that person. And the question is concerning, you know, some people are into their shaykh so much that they almost worship the shaykh.
And his words become like Quran and Sunnah. No, what I am talking about, there is a difference between, I think, what you are talking about is something that is used in some groups of tasawwuf. That is where you take on the shaykh as like a murshid or a guide in your life. Right? As a total guide. What I'm talking about is an educational system. It's an educational system.
This is the traditional Islamic educational system that has been practiced over a thousand years in the Muslim world. And that is, there are certain specialties. You see the idea of having everybody in a university, right? In one building in a university and you sit and you have a blackboard and chairs.
That is a recent UNESCO 20th century idea. The traditional idea is, if you look at Bukhari and Muslim and the people who compile hadith, they would travel to certain parts of the world. Because there would be a shaykh in the area who was specialized, who knew a hadith or who was specialized in a certain area.
So you would go to that person for your specialization. And from the time of the Prophet ﷺ, there were certain people who were specialists. There were people in tafsir, there were people in Qur'an, there were people in halal and haram, in general jurisprudence.
And the Prophet ﷺ showed the ummah that these people are like fuqaha, like Ali ibn Abi Talib was faqih. Zayd ibn Thabit, if you want your Qur'an, you go to Zayd. So this is a system that developed out of that.
And what it means is, there is a certain scholar who knows the study of, for instance, nahu, grammar. So you will go to that person and you study with that person until you complete the texts. But you're also living with the person.
When you're finished, if you are successful and you can teach, he gives you what is called ijazah. He gives you ijazah. And then you go to another shaykh in another area.
Sometimes you get a shaykh that has five or six abilities at once. That's where you get the words like shaykh ul- Islam and you get terminologies like this. But when you go back and look at the great scholars of Islam, in the books that you're reading, whether it's Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Kathir, al-Ghazali, whoever it is, you'll see that they say in their biography, he took his hadith from that person.
He took his tafsir from that person. He took his nahu from this person. This is the traditional Islamic system of learning.
That's a little bit different than I think what you're talking about. You're talking about a murshid system used in some of the tariqas, the Sufi tariqas. That's a little bit different because it goes into a different relationship.
What I'm talking about one that's based on education and application of the knowledge. So it's a knowledge- based system that is being used. And people are now seeing the advantage of going back to this knowledge- based system where the practice of Islam is also tied in.
So it's a little bit different system. And again, it is something used by the revivalists and the great scholars throughout Islamic history.
Question 2: About Bay'ah (Pledge of Allegiance)
Question: Another question is, are we allowed these days to have bayah? On the hands of some leader and on what basis? What are the qualities of the leader who wants bayah?
Answer: Okay, now this is a very important question. Because in America, it's not so much in Toronto, but in America, there are groups that take bayah. And the bayah means a pledge. In the time of the Prophet ﷺ, the first bayah that any Muslim, we all take as Muslims is:
That is a pledge. So when you enter Islam, that's your main pledge. But however, when you look at, for instance, the battle of Badr. In the battle of Badr, when the Prophet ﷺ had organized the believers to go out for a caravan.
They had their goods. Their goods had been stolen from Mecca. And in the course of events, when they turned around, they saw an army from Mecca, three times the size of their army.
So the Prophet said, he did ishara. He went to the Sahaba and said, where do you stand? And they made a pledge to him. They made a pledge, we'll follow you anywhere.
So now it changed from dealing with the caravan to facing an army three times your size. And it was a confirmation, commitment to go to another stage. And they took the commitment.
Another famous bayat, bayat Ridwan, is when the Sahaba, who went with the Prophet ﷺ, to make Umrah. And they sent Uthman ibn Affan to negotiate with the Kufa. The word had come to them, Uthman was killed.
Now they had intended to make Umrah. But because of the killing of Uthman and the hostility, the Prophet did ishara again. And they made a pledge under a tree, that they would now change from people who came to make Umrah to mujahideen who would give their life.
That is a bayat. It is a pledge, a commitment to go from one stage of involvement to another stage. Then there is another bayat which is spoken about in Sahih al-Bukhari. And that is the bayat which is taken to the khalifah.
When there is a khalifah in the Muslim world, an authentic khalifah, that we all as Muslims should have bayat to that khalifah. And if you don't have bayat to the khalifah, you could die as a Christian or a Jew, in the eyes of Allah. So, this is just a summary, there is more discussion on this.
But basically speaking, the bayat today, we have no khalifah today. Inshallah, we get one soon. According to the traditions, we're coming close to the time of the rightly guided leadership again.
It's coming. So inshallah, we're gonna get one soon. So that bayat for the khalifah is not in effect.
And if any leader comes along today and says, you follow me, and if you disobey me, you're gonna die like a Christian or a Jew, or your blood is halal, this is a wrong understanding from my understanding, and the understanding I have gotten from questioning. I have questioned scholars about this. And the scholars that told me, that that bayat does not apply to your organizations.
But you can take a limited commitment for a specific goal. You're gonna do educational program. You're gonna be committed to the jama'ah.
And that's okay. You commit yourself. But it doesn't mean if you broke the commitment that you're a munafiq or you're a kafir or something like that.
It doesn't mean that. This is taking a little bit out of context.
Question 3: Why is the Muslim World in a Mess?
Question: It says, why is the whole Muslim world in a mess? Nowhere Islam is practiced properly. Even in Saudi Arabia people have no rights. Education is denied to expatriates. Children and so on, no human rights.
Answer: We are in a transition period. And Ibn Khaldun, rahimahullah in his muqaddama, looked at the history of Islam in a cycle. A circular motion. That we go from a low level to a high level. We go around. There's generations where we practice Quran and sunnah.
It's dynamic. When we forget about it, then corruption sets in. And so we are coming out of a corrupt state where we have left Quran and sunnah.
Our leaders become the worst people with no mercy. And now we're moving back inshaAllah towards that time of the practice of Quran and sunnah. People are calling for this practice all over the Muslim world.
But the leaders that were installed after the colonial period are people who defend the colonial system. They look like us. They have our languages.
But they defend other laws than the laws of Allah. That's the reality. And so what is going on now? We're in a transition period.
And may Allah help us. Because it's a fitna. But as the Prophet peace be upon him said, in a long hadith of Hudayfah, when Hudayfah was speaking, asked him about the last days.
At the end of this hadith, the Prophet peace be upon him said, in the time of the fitna and the crisis, Alaykum bil jama'ah. Go with the jama'ah and the imam. And the leadership.
Then Hudayfah said, What if there's no jama'ah and no imam? Then the Prophet peace be upon him said, Then hang on to your faith. Like biting on to a tree. Hang on to your faith until Allah meets you in that condition.
So if you cannot find an authentic jama'ah or imam, that does not mean you give up Islam. Because when you go in your grave and I go in my grave, you're gonna be questioned for what you did. And you can't say, Well imam such and such, he wasn't a good Muslim.
The Saudis or the Iranians or the Egyptians, that's not the question of Munkar and Nakir. About the Muslim world, the king of Morocco. That's not Munkar and Nakir.
They wanna know about our deeds. So the first thing we have to do is to try to deal with ourself and try to be around as many practicing Muslims as we can. And to try to have patience.
Because we are in a transition period. And insha'Allah in the next 10 years, I believe we will see some tremendous changes going on in the Muslim world. Insha'Allah.
Question 4: About the Four Imams and Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab
Question: Here it says, Most common Muslims has been labeled as inactive. No ideas in his mind. How minds function not able to present.
I'm not sure of this question here.
Question: It says, Islam tells us to follow only four imams. Where does imam Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab fall in?
Answer: Okay, in this case, the word imam is used in many different ways. Imam generally is used as a person who leads salah. There are other times imam is being used as a person who is a scholarly person who leads people in jurisprudence.
But what you have to understand, I'm gonna be very honest and straightforward with you. Along with the four imams, there were other imams. They were not the only imams of jurisprudence.
There are scores of imams. And some of them had books. But it is because these imams, their jurisprudence was taken by the leader of part of the Muslim world.
And he established that fiqh as the fiqh of his khilafat or his rule. Then it became the fiqh of the people in that area. For instance, the Abbasid Khulafa took Abu Hanifa's school of thought as their fiqh.
And so therefore, all of the lands that were underneath the Abbasid Khulafa, you will find up until today, they are following the Hanafi fiqh. When one of the Umayyads, Abdurrahman As-Saqqar, fled and established along with the Muslims of North Africa and West Africa, Andalusia, Al-Andalus. They carried along with them the fiqh of Imam Malik, rahimuhullah, who never lived in North Africa, who never lived in Andalusia.
He lived in Medina, right? But they carried his fiqh, and they made the fiqh of the rule of Islam in Andalusia, in North Africa and West Africa, the Maliki fiqh. So therefore, that is where you will find people who are Malikis up until today. Imam As-Shafi, rahimuhullah, from Gaza, originally from Gaza, established himself finally in Egypt.
And so the Red Sea area, Egypt, Sudan, then going down where the people took the trade routes, Southern Arabia, Yemen, Swahili lands, and then going into Malabar in India, Malaysia, Indonesia. These areas connected by the trade routes are the Shafi'i areas. So when you understand the spread of Islam, when you understand the political setup, you'll see why these four imams, their fiqh became the dominant fiqh.
But they are not the only imams. They are not the only imams. Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab was a person, was a scholar, a Hanbali, he was Hanbali.
And he was a scholar of Islam in Arabia. And he tried to revive Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. That is all.
He is not one of the imams of the jurisprudence of Islam. He is a recent phenomenon in the 18th century, someone who tried to revive Islam. These other people are the major scholars of Islam who have given us the fiqh and jurisprudence.
So they are not all the same. Imam can go to anybody. So if the person is the imam of Tariq Mosque, Imam Hamid Jabir, and I'm saying his name in goodness, may Allah protect him and help him.
That doesn't mean I'm saying he's like Imam Abu Hanifa, right? That if you follow Imam Hamid, it's like following Imam Malik, right? He's the imam of Tariq. You pray behind him. He leads us in salah.
He helps us in our needs in the masjid. So imam can be used in many different ways.
Question 5: About Living in Non-Muslim Countries
Question: It says, today there are a lot of groups that talk to you and tell you to leave the country because it is impure and go back to your home. Yet whenever they run into trouble, they come to Canada for help. I'm 16 years old and was born in Canada and English is my first language. I can speak Arabic fluently. Originally from Egypt, but I live here and plan to stay here. What right do they have to do this?
Answer: This area of hijr is a very long discussion. And I don't believe that there's any set answer to this. And I remember a number of years ago, Sheikh Jafar Sheikh Idrees, it was an Isna convention, the zonal convention in Canada.
He made a statement and he said, he cannot see anything in the Islamic law that gives the right for Muslims to be living in Canada in America today. There's no proof that we should be here. That we're living in haram.
Now... And he was being sincere because if you look in the books, you don't find anything. Because there was never been a precedent where Muslims leave Dar al-Islam and they migrate to Dar al-Kufa. They leave the abode of Islam and they go to the abode of disbelief. There's no precedent for this amongst the scholars. And the people chased Sheikh Jafar into his room and they kept him up all night till the next day he had to come back. And he revised this statement.
Showing the flexibility of a scholar. And he said, yes, because people made a legitimate argument that sometimes you're leaving the Muslim world because of you're oppressed. In some parts of the Muslim world, if I was to say this, what I'm saying now, the secret police would be waiting for me right there.
They said, okay, Mr. Hakeem, tafadhal, mashkoora, to the jail. Tafadhal. Right away. I think there's even a copy of the Mujtama'a. They're talking about hurriyah in Canada. The recent Mujtama'a magazine. They're talking about hurriyah.
And some people look at people like me or someone else like we're mad men, we're crazy. But that is not because we're mad men. That is because one good part of this part of Canada and America is that they give you freedom of speech.
This is one good part of this area. We're supposed to be Islamic. They give you freedom of speech.
They're not gonna take you to jail just because you say something. Of course, if you start going too far, then there is obscenity loss. But basically you can express your opinion.
Right? So there's no set answer. If inshallah there is a khalifa who arises, then we would be obligated to go to that area. And may Allah raise that khalifa up.
So there's a few other questions here. And inshallah we'll take these a little bit later. Thank you for your patience.
"And peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you."