n37 40 Preparing to stand before Allah - Advice from

Preparing to Stand Before Allah - Advice from Abu Usamah

Opening

"All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may the best of blessings and the most perfect of greetings be upon our noble Prophet, and upon his family and companions, all of them, and upon those who adhere to his Sunnah with excellence until the Day of Judgment."

Introduction

First of all, I think it's appropriate to ride on the coattails of what our brother Sheikh Shu'aib said before when he gave us a small and brief history of the pioneers from Al-Hadid who were responsible for this masjid and other masajid throughout England and other than England. I'm honored to be here in the continuation of that program. All of those elders and pioneers who have preceded us in this noble effort of calling the creation to At-Tauhid and calling the people to the proper way of understanding and performing the Ibadah and Al-Islam far away from the khurafat and the shirkiyat that have been introduced by Sheikh Khan and his ilk.

We ask Allah by His Name Al-Mu'min to forgive all of the deceased from those pioneers who took and embraced this responsibility and from those people who are still there and try to continue, and that Allah makes us from those people. We ask Allah that He causes us to be raised on Yawm al-Qiyamah with faces that are illuminated by the light of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him.

Hadith (Sunan at-Tirmidhi): May Allah illuminate the face of the individual who hears what I say and he relates it to the people the way that I say it. It may be that the one who hears it understands it, or the one to whom it was related understood it better than the one who heard it.

So when we take the hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, and we try to be the people of the hadith, we are trying to walk in the steps of a long line of tremendous scholars and tremendous people from this Ummah past. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to help us with that.

The other thing is that I say that I met many of the younger brothers. I'm very happy that we had so many young brothers who came today, and we look at the audience and we see people from different walks of life. I'm honored to say Alhamdulillah, the Prophet guided us, and he who has guided us to this Deen has made all of us brothers in this religion - the Arab from amongst us, the non-Arabs, the white, the black, and other than that.

Affairs of Jahiliyyah

It is from the affairs of the Jahiliyyah that the Muslims hold on to when we reject each other based upon a

person's color or his geographical location. That is from the behavior of the people of Jahiliyyah.

Hadith (Sahih Muslim Hadith 934): The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:

(Sahih Muslim)

"Three things from the affairs of the Jahiliyyah, my Ummah will never leave them. There will be people in this Ummah who will always hold on to these affairs of the Jahiliyyah: Number one, that the people scream and wail and holler over the dead, and the dead person will be punished because of that screaming and that hollering. Number two, people being proud about who their father is - I'm so-and-so, the son of so-and-so. And number three, people talking bad about other people because of where he comes from. What? He's Kashmiri? He's only Bihari? For Allah, this is from the affairs of the Jahiliyyah."

So when we come here today and we look at you brothers and we see your faces, we say as Allah has said in the Quran - I'm proud to be the brother of all of you in this masjid. I never met most of you. Many of you I have met, but because of that ayah, because of that brotherhood, I've never met you, feel free to come up and we'll hug and we'll embrace and exchange information and we give each other our support to the best of our ability.

Leave alone the affairs of the Jahiliyyah. We are already the minority in this place. We're going to further exacerbate the problem by splitting the ranks of the Muslims.

Judgment in Islam

As it relates to what I'm going to present today, I want to remind you of this issue of judgment in Islam. It's a tremendous issue and it has a direct connection upon the theme of this conference: people preparing themselves to stand before Allah.

The single thing that will cause people the most problems on Yawm al-Qiyamah will come as a result of the tongue and what it says. There is no crime and there is no part of your body that will cause you more problems than what your tongues put forth. So when people pass judgments and they relay narrations and they say things about people and they make accusations, then your tongue is a direct culprit of being responsible for the burden that the person puts on himself.

So we have a lot to say, but we'll get into the details of the issue later on tonight Inshallah. I just want to share with you what is said in this hadith, and it comes to us from Ali radiallahu anhu. We do not say Ali deserves precedence over Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr deserves it more, and Umar deserves it more than Ali, and Uthman deserves it more than Ali.

The Story of Ali and His Camel

Hadith (Sahih al-Bukhari):

This hadith has been collected by Imam al-Bukhari. Ali radiallahu anhu said: One day he rode to the masjid on his camel and he witnessed some of the kibar, the major companions of Rasulullah, having a good time. They were drinking khamr. They were drunk and they came from a battle.

I'm going to remind you of the first point - we have fifteen points and even more. I'll give you them gradually.

First Point: Ali's Wisdom and Respect for Authority

Ali came to the masjid, left the masjid, and found that his camel had been cut up. They cut off the hump of the camel. So the camel of Ali radiallahu anhu - he used his camel. One of us, we have a car, we go out to the car, we find someone vandalized it.

Ali's camel was used for jihad. During that time, after the jihad when the distribution of the booty came, if you had a camel you would get more than the man who had a horse. If you had a horse you would get more than the man who had nothing. But think of a jihad - not a jihad that you find people are calling to that has no knowledge connected to it, a jihad according to some that caused more problems and caused the kuffar to look at our religion and attack innocent Muslims, allowing these people to spread their imperialism when they go to our countries and they say, "We don't like your regime, we are going to change it. We want the money that you have, we are going to take it from you." Jihad has rules and knowledge connected to it.

Ali came out and saw his camel cut up, and he looked at those companions and he knew that those people did that to his camel. Ali did not take the affairs into his own hands. He did not rectify the situation with his own hands, but instead went to the authority - Rasulullah, peace be upon him.

That's how we have to teach our children. When children fight - the oldest son, the youngest son, the oldest son jumps on the youngest son when they bring the situation to the father, he becomes upset with the oldest son and says, "Yes, the wrong was with him, but you were wrong in that you took the affairs into your own hands. You have to bring it to me so I can handle it."

Ali went to Rasulullah and said, "O Messenger of Allah, they killed my camel. They killed my camel and you know I am married to your daughter and I don't have any money."

The Justice of Rasulullah

Rasulullah heard Ali's side of the story. He didn't become angry and say, "This is the husband of my daughter. This is Ali, my uncle's son, who was the first young person to believe in me when other people didn't believe in me. I owe him a sense of gratitude and thanks. I am on your side, Ali, whether you are right or wrong because I can think of a million reasons why I should be grateful to you and loyal to you." He didn't do that.

He went on his own as the leader, and this is from the humility of our Prophet and our Messenger, that he would say to the Muslims after making salat, "Where is your little brother? I haven't seen him around." "Rasulullah, his little brother died and he is sad. He didn't come out because he is sad." "Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali, come with me. Let's go visit him."

Rasulullah was a humble man to that degree. Now unfortunately in many places, the imam is unattainable. He has a barrier between him and the community, the administration. Rasulullah went to help Ali to find out what's going on.

When he came to his uncle Al-Abbas and he asked him, "Did you do this to his camel?" Al-Abbas, in a state of being drunk, he said, "You and your father, both of you are my slaves."

Al-Abbas said to Rasulullah, "You and your father, both of you are my slaves." That statement was said to him because he was drunk, and he was saying in essence, "You have the nerve to come ask me about a camel? You and your father are my slaves."

That's a statement of kufr. You go outside of Islam for such a statement. If one of us said right now, "Rasulullah is my enemy," you go outside of your religion of Islam. You say a statement of kufr.

The Main Hadith

Hadith (Sahih Muslim):

(Sahih Muslim)

"Alcohol is the mother of all filthy things. Alcohol is the mother of all filthy things."

That's the hadith that we want to share with you as it relates to alcohol and its dangers.

Lessons from This Hadith

At the top of the list, Ikhwan, it shows how Rasulullah - again - he heard both sides of the story and he did not allow his relationship or his position with anyone to cause him to follow his Hawa and give an unjust verdict.

The Virtues of Ali radiallahu anhu

When we look at Ali radiallahu anhu, the people who go overboard in praising Ali and they raise him to the level that he doesn't deserve and they love his Ahlulbayt - we say, "Wallahi, from Iman is loving the companions of Rasulullah, all of them, and Ahlulbayt. And we hate people who don't love them."

One of the reasons why we find some of the ulama in Islam who gave precedence to Ali over Abu Bakr and Umar - one of the reasons that they used to do that is if you look at the hadith in Islam, you will find the Fada'il of Ali outnumbering everyone else. He has a lot of Fada'il, more than Abu Bakr and Umar in terms of numbers, because he has his own Fada'il and then in addition to his Fada'il, his two sons Al-Hasan and Al-Hussain are from his Fada'il. Your children are from your efforts.

So some of the scholars of the past, they said that he was a Shiite, but the Shiite during that time meant that they only said Ali was above Abu Bakr and Umar, but they did not curse Abu Bakr and Umar. That's what the Shia meant back then.

The point is, Ali has so many virtues. Rasulullah could have easily said, "When it was difficult for me and all of the people rejected me and said that I was Majnun and they did what they did, Ali never wavered in his Iman. Ali, Wallahi, I walked through the desert on my knees for you." He didn't say that. He looked for the truth. "I have to find out what's going on before I can rule and judge in this situation."

So Ikhwan, take that example as it relates to your daughters, your sisters, especially the Awliya, because it's a serious problem that we suffer from. We have the Qawmiya and Asabiya - because the man is from my city or my country or my people, or she's my daughter, whatever I hear, I'm on her side and I'm against the other person. You have to find out what happened, and we'll explain that in further detail tonight Inshallah with some examples from Dawud in the Quran, bi-idhnillahi subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Respect for Elders

From the benefits of this hadith, Ikhwan, is for those of us who are younger in this audience: it shows us how the Messenger of Allah taught his companions how to respect the kibar of the Muslims.

Ali radiallahu anhu was trained by the Messenger of Allah, so we have to look at every movement that Ali made. The daughter of the Prophet, Fatima Az-Zahra radiallahu anha, she was not for any and every man. Abu Bakr wanted to marry her. Umar wanted to marry her. Rasulullah said, "No, you're too old. No, you're too old," and he saved her for Ali. She was raised up in the house of An-Nubuwwah. She needs someone who was similar to her, raised up in the house of An-Nubuwwah. He married her to Ali.

When he got out of the masjid and he saw his camel, his money, his property cut up and all of its insides thrown around the place, he did not curse his uncle who was older than him. The uncle wronged him, but Ali did not say a single word to him, because now the hikmah dictates: be quiet, Ali. Go and get the one who was above you to deal with this situation. If Al-Abbas radiallahu anhu said what he said to Rasulullah, then what would he have said and done to Ali who was younger than Rasulullah and also his nephew? Maybe he would have done something to him.

So Ali, Wallahi, was hakeem. Ikhwan, he came and he respected his uncle, and that's what I say to you brothers: where is the respect that the Muslims used to have for those people who are older than them, those people who

Examples of Excuses in Fiqh

So in our religion, we have excuses. In the books of fiqh, the ulama wrote in the chapter of Talaq, without any exception: What happens if a man divorces his wife while he's sakran? What happens if a man says, "I free my slave," while he is sakran, while he's drunk? What happens if a man does this or that while he's drunk?

It doesn't count. He's sinning - that doesn't mean it's okay. He's committing a sin and he fell into the Umm al-Khaba'ith and the greatest of the major sins, but what he said, what he did, he's not held accountable for that. If he kills someone while he is drunk, he is ma'dhur - he's excused. Of course, they're going to look into details, but that's the general ruling.

Similarly, Ikhwan, severe anger. Someone may say or do something out of severe anger. He's not himself. "You're divorced," he says to his wife, but he was majnun. It doesn't count. He can't divorce her when he lost his mind. It doesn't count.

Severe happiness even will give a man an excuse. You all know of the man who went in the desert and his camel ran off, and he thought he was going to die. He went under the tree in the shade to die. He woke up and he saw his camel over his head in the desert, and he said:

"Allahumma, anta abdi, wa ana rabbuka - Ya Allah, you're my slave, and I'm your lord."

Hadith (Sahih Muslim Hadith 2747):

(Sahih Muslim)

Rasulullah said he made a mistake from being extremely happy. His tongue didn't cooperate with what was in his heart.

That's a statement of kufr - a tremendous statement of kufr. That's from the statement of Firaun:

Quran (Surah An-Nazi'at 79:24):

"[I am your Lord, Most High.]"

But today we're dealing with some people who, when the mistake is made, Wallahi, they will connect you to Firaun. They will connect you to those people and those concepts and those ideas that you are free from those issues.

So we have the udhr in Islam. Concerning this udhr, Ikhwan, we have to give each other the benefit of the doubt, and we have to look for excuses.

That statement, "Look for, give your brother a thousand excuses" - that's not a hadith of the Messenger of Allah, but it is a concept in our religion.

And we're going to stop here because we try to make the commitment of the time, brother.

Question and Answer Session

Question: Are the Ulama Allowed to Name People and Accuse Them of Being Deviant?

The brother asked: Are the ulama, the scholars, are they allowed to name people and accuse them of being deviant and people of bid'ah? Is this according to Quran and Sunnah, and should we follow them even though they are publicly slandering other scholars?

This is from Islam, and this is what Allah has ordered the ulama to do.

Quran (Surah Al-Hajj 22:78):

"[And strive for Allah with the striving due to Him.]"

"Make the real jihad, and the jihad of Islam is the jihad of the safe, and it is the jihad of the lisan - talking, giving dawah, refuting who deserves to be refuted."

This is from our religion. There were some people of the past who used to complain and criticize Imam Ali al-Madini, Imam Ahmad, for their criticizing narrations and narrators, calling them da'eef and kadhab and so forth and so on. So those people, they made an objection: "This is slandering of these people. Their blood is haram. Ghibah is haram," and so forth and so on.

And those imams used to respond back to people who had that faulty understanding: "This is not ghibah. This is from the deen, and this is the jihad of Islam, because if those scholars did not say that so-and-so is a deviant and so-and-so is this and so-and-so is that, the Sunnah would never have been protected. The purity of Islam would never have been protected."

So ghibah, Ikhwan, is permissible in six instances. You go back to Riyad as-Salihin that everyone has, that chapter, that book, in the chapter of ghibah, and he brings the six times where ghibah is permissible. And one of those times is when you're making the change of the munkar. One of those times is when you're warning the Muslims of a pending, imminent danger.

Example from the Sunnah:

The lady came and she said, "Ya Rasulullah, Abu Jahm and Muawiyah, both of them want to marry me."

He said:

"As for Abu Jahm, he hits his women and he doesn't take his stick off of his shoulder. He's a strong man with his women. It's not for you. And as for Muawiyah, he's penniless. He doesn't have any money. Marry Usama ibn Zayd."

They weren't present, and what was said was a strong statement, but Rasulullah was giving advice to that particular lady. So it's permissible for the scholars to do this. It's their responsibility, and we hope and pray that if it is really a scholar, we have the good opinion that they do it with the proper principles and maintaining the religion and taking care of the religion.

Imam al-Bukhari was the most qualified in this chapter of criticizing narrations and narrators, but very seldom when you hear or read Imam al-Bukhari saying, "Fulan is a kadhab, fulan is a dajjal" - very seldom. If Imam al-Bukhari said, "Fulan is a kadhab," then don't look for what anybody else said, because Imam al-Bukhari, he has some wara and some hesitation. A man would be a serious problem. Imam al-Bukhari would say, "Fihi nadhar," which means he's serious. Leave him alone. But look at the words: "Fihi nadhar, lahu manakir."

And that's how our shuyukh were who have passed recently. Sheikh ibn Baz, rahimahullahu ta'ala, if he said about a person, "He's khabith" - oh, we seek refuge with Allah - because he did not talk like that. Ibn Uthaymin, he did not talk like that. Imam al-Albani, the muhaddith of the age, rahimahullahu ta'ala jami'an, he didn't talk like that.

So this is permissible and we say it should be done by the scholars and those people who are qualified.

Question: Migration to Gambia or Studying Islam Abroad?

The brother asked: Please, could you advise me? Inshallah, I'm currently working hard so that I can save money and build a house so that I can migrate with my family from Dar al-Kufr to some place like Gambia, Inshallah. Or is it better to save a lot of money and go abroad to study Islam to benefit myself and my family?

My advice: issues like this, the answer is going to be relative. There is virtue in making hijrah to save your family and your children and everyone else, and there is a lot of virtue in going to get knowledge. You have to bring the details and the specifics of your case so that an appropriate answer can be given to you. Both of them are virtuous, and we can't say until we hear what are the details, which one is the most virtuous and which one is the most applicable in your case.

Go to those people of knowledge who you trust in knowledge and put the details to them.

Question: Is it Okay to Permit a Woman to Be President or Prime Minister?

Is it okay to permit a woman to be president or prime minister for a country?

This is not from the religion of Islam. This is not from the religion of Islam.

Quran (Surah An-Nisa 4:34):

"[Men are in charge of women.]"

"The men have been given the qawamah, the responsibility over the women."

That's our deen. Women have rights similar to the men:

Quran (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:228):

"[And due to the women is similar to what is expected of them, according to what is reasonable. But the men have a degree over them.]"

"Women have rights similar to those over them in a good manner, but men have a degree over them."

From the rights over them: we're the imam in the masjid. We are the ones who call the shots. They can't be the president.

Hadith (Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 7099):

Rasulullah addressed the issue. He said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

"A group of people will not be successful who make a woman responsible for their affairs."

Now you have the Muslim today coming and he says, "Yeah, but Margaret Thatcher, she was in charge of the people's affairs and they were successful."

What success are you talking about? What success? How are you judging success? You're judging success not from Islam. Who's the muflis, the bankrupt person? "Oh, he's the one who doesn't have any money. He's the one who files for Chapter Eleven."

Rasulullah said the muflis to us is the one who will come Yawm al-Qiyamah with a lot of salah and a lot of siyam, but he hit this one, he cursed that one, took his money. So Yawm al-Qiyamah, he's going to lose all of his good deeds.

Who is the strong one? The strong one is not the one with the muscles. Mike Tyson is not necessarily strong. The strong one is the one who controls himself when he's angry.

So Islam put right some of these things that we think the wrong way. So al-falah, success, is making salah in the masjid. Success is what Islam determines.

So it's not permissible, even on our shura in the masjid - not talking about a whole country - on our shura, the women should advise their husbands. We should hear what they need, their needs, what's going on. But to have her sit at the table of the shura, it proves that those men are weak.

Question: Teenagers Proclaiming Themselves as Ulama and Attacking Great Scholars

Akhi Abu Usamah, concerning the hadith, "Whoever doesn't have mercy upon our youth and he doesn't respect our elders" - despite the hadith, there are so many teenagers proclaiming themselves that they are on the truth and that they are real Muslim ulama. They are attacking the great scholars. Most of them, they learn Islam from the cassettes. What is your advice?

Ali ibn Abi Talib, he said about these people: He said it used to be that knowledge was just a dot. It was not a lot of words. It was real easy, but the ignorant people got involved in the realm of knowledge, then it became a lot of words.

And we seek refuge with Allah from the evil of the internet. Wallahi, I don't know if you guys receive - you write an email to someone and you write at the end of it, and the guy sends you back all of this information. You say "Salam alaikum" to him, as opposed to "As-salamu alaikum." He'll write you back and give you a long post about why "Salam alaikum" is not correct and all of these other links.

And you look at him and you say, "I'm not reading all of that. Why all of this speech?" I find it amazing that people have time for all of that. And the people living in this culture that we have - you know what I'm talking about - just scroll down and say, "Wallahi, where is his life at?" And he's mad. And that's the evil of the internet, Ikhwan.

Being a person who just takes public assistance, welfare, you don't want to do anything with your time, you'll waste your time in those kind of issues.

So those youth, unfortunately, they should get a grip. They should get a life. Make yourself more productive in terms of what is going to benefit you now and in the Hereafter. And this is a new phenomenon. Wallahi, we did not see this as rampant as we're seeing it right now.

In the past, when our dawah began to spread, the people in Al-Hadith, they started giving dawah to Tawhid in countries like this, but they were first-generation Muslims. They didn't always know the details of this life. The children went to school and mixed with the kuffar, and the kids started to embrace the dawah, and we saw how the dawah began to spread and grow. At that time, we didn't have a lot of this nonsense.

Question: Praying Janazah for Shiite Muslims

A brother died in Singapore after a failure in the operation. Many Muslim Sunnis pray for them in Singapore even though they are Shiite Muslims. Is it permissible for Sunni Muslims to do janazah prayer and dua for the Shiite Muslim?

As for the ulama of the Shiite - Khomeini and those people like that - because of their knowledge and because of their position, we don't pray over them. But the regular Shiite who are like our regular brothers and sisters who just grew up and they took their Shi'ism without any research or without any knowing, we say Allah will judge their situation. Leave them alone. They are from the Muslims, Inshallah. Leave them alone.

That doesn't mean that we're going to accept their deviant beliefs and their extremism and what they say about the companions. We're going to refute them and we're going to make da'wah to them. But the regular people, if the Muslim was to pray over those people with the niyyah of "I want to get the reward of the janazah" -

Hadith (Sahih Muslim Hadith 1028):

(Sahih Muslim)

Rasulullah came out and he asked the people, "Who fasted today?" Abu Bakr - "Present." "Who visited the sick today?" Abu Bakr - "Present." "Who gave sadaqah to the poor?" Abu Bakr - "Present." "Who prayed the janazah?" Abu Bakr - "Present."

He said, "No person does this in a day except I guarantee him Jannah."

Someone says, "I'm gonna pray over them because of that, but I hate that da'wah and I hate those people and I see them as deviants. I'm gonna pray for myself." That's permissible.

But if they're ulama, they're people who are giving da'wah, or you're in a place where if you pray on them, it's gonna give mixed messages, then don't pray over them. It is from the Sunnah to not pray over the people of deviance and the people of sins. Those two girls died tragically.

Their affairs with Allah is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Question: Muslim Woman Pursuing Higher Education

Living in this non-Muslim country, is it permissible for a Muslim woman to pursue higher education studies if she lives at home, she doesn't compromise her Islam, and she can protect her religion? She can protect her honor and her dignity. She doesn't have free mixing with the men. She's not a fitna for them and they're not a fitna for her.

Inshallah, it's permissible, but it is better for her to stay in her home.

Quran (Surah Al-Ahzab 33:33):

"Stay in your homes, women, and do not make the display of the times of Jahiliyyah."

Hadith (Sunan at-Tirmidhi Hadith 1173):

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi)

"When the woman comes out of her home, the Shaitan beautifies her."

He, peace be upon him, said that's in Mecca and Medina and Bayt al-Maqdis. If the woman who is wearing the niqab and all of that, if she comes out of her home, Shaitan beautifies her. What about the woman who comes out wearing the clothes that our women come out in?

It's better for her to stay in her home.

Question: Islamic Mortgages

What is the ruling on Islamic mortgages, i.e., the Kuwait Bank?

Ikhwan, I don't know any bank, whether they call themselves Islamic or not Islamic, except that they're taking some riba from the people. In many instances, the Islamic banks are taking even more money.

If a person can make an agreement with another Muslim, with a Catholic, with an organization, an institution, where he doesn't fall into the riba, it's permissible to take the mortgage. But if he has to take the riba, it's haram.

Quran (Surah An-Nisa 4:29):

"O you who believe, don't devour your monies between yourselves with what is batil, except if it is some commerce based on mutual consent between you."

That's permissible.

Quran (Surah An-Nisa 4:29):

"And don't kill yourselves. Allah has a lot of mercy on you."

So when I get the mortgage and I give them the money, how am I going to pay them? Premium, and then in addition to that, I have to pay them all of that riba? It's not permissible. It's a major sin from the major sins - riba.

Whether it's from the Muslim or the non-Muslim, it is a major sin from the major sins. And it is seventy degrees. The lowest degree is like a man having sex with his mother. That's the lowest degree. What is the fifty-fifth degree like? What is the sixtieth degree like?

Some of us, there is an animal in Arabic - he is called the timsah, the alligator. The timsah, he has an insatiable appetite. He can eat a wildebeest trying to cross the river. He catches him, he eats him. And he's sitting on the sand, and when you come, you would think you can walk by him. He'll eat you for general principle.

Muslims are like that - the timsah. Insatiable appetite for the dunya.

As for those who feel you are being forced and compelled, as we are sometimes we have to get some kind of insurance. In Jahiliyyah, we used to drive without license and we used to drive without insurance. I would tell the person who was a passenger, "Hey look, if something happens, I'm running. You can sit here if you want, but I'm leaving. If they catch you, you're in trouble."

Becoming a Muslim, you have to be more responsible. Your father and so forth and so on. A Muslim imam caught without insurance, they'll make it into a big thing. So we get the lowest insurance, liability. If I hit someone now, fine. But I'm not going to get the insurance in which - okay, if I hit a man on 42nd Street, if you pay that much, you'll get more money back. If you hit a woman and she's above fifty, then you get more. And it's very detailed now.

The Muslim says, "I'm not getting all of that." The Muslim is a doctor, a nurse. They have to pay insurance for their business. Are we going to say, "Practice that practice without insurance"? You're compelled. Hate it with your heart. Just don't go overboard.

Take your specific detailed issues to the scholars of Islam. Tell them, "This is my case," and then they'll give you the fatwa. Not some general statement, some talk. "This is my detail. Is it permissible for me to take a mortgage out?" They'll say yes. They'll say no.

Allah knows the best.

Question: Praying Asr at 8:15 PM

I live in Redditch. My local mosque prays Asr at 8:15, when Asr starts around 5:30. Should I still pray in jamaah, or should I pray on time at home?

You should pray in jamaah if 8:15 is still Asr time. What time does Asr go out here? Maghrib comes in at 9:30.

It's permissible to pray Asr at this time, and this is not the time of prohibition. If the people of the masjid made this time an hour and a half before the end of the salah, for the maslaha of the people - it's the summertime, people get off of work, and they want more people in the masjid - it's permissible.

What is makruh, and what is the salah of the munafiq, and the salah of the thief, is the salah where if Maghrib comes in at 9:30, he prays 9:20, 9:25, and he prays real quick to get it in. But this is ample time to get the salah in.

Hadith (Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 521 and Sahih Muslim Hadith 610):

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

Jibreel came to Rasulullah and he prayed Salat al-Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha at the beginning time. And then he came the next day, and he prayed Fajr, Dhuhr, Asr, Maghrib, and Isha at the end of the time. And he said, "These are the times."

What you pray in here is permissible.

Quran (Surah An-Nisa 4:103):

"The salah, the prayer, has been prescribed on the believers at a specific time."

As long as you pray at that time, it's permissible. It is permissible. But it's always better, Ikhwan, to pray it earlier, if that's easy for the people.

When they asked Rasulullah, "Ya Rasulullah, ayyul amr ahabbu ilallah?" - "What's the best deed to Allah?" He said:

Hadith (Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 527 and Sahih Muslim Hadith 85):

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

"Salah is at its proper time," and in the narration, "Salah at its beginning time."

But he himself used to delay. If it was very hot, he would delay Dhuhr. He would pray Salat al-Jumu'ah before Dhuhr came in. But that's only for Jumu'ah. Jumu'ah comes in one o'clock, he would pray 12:30, and the people will complete the prayer before the Dhuhr coming, sometimes after. All of that, looking at what the people need.

Question: Living in a Non-Muslim Country for Dawah

I heard that it is justifiable to live in a non-Muslim country for the purpose of giving da'wah. How can a Muslim sister do this without leaving the house?

Da'wah is one of the reasons that a person is allowed to live with the kuffar. But living with the kuffar is a major sin, Ikhwan, and it closes the door for a lot of barakah in our lives. As we sit here, Ikhwan, we have to hate it in our hearts, living with these kuffar.

And whether you realize it or not, it is impacting upon us.

Hadith (Sunan Abu Dawud Hadith 2645):

(Sunan Abu Dawud)

He said, "I'm free of any Muslim who lives with the mushrikeen. Their fires cannot coexist." If you live with them, their fire is going to overtake your fire, your children's fire.

So there is a lot of evil living here, and some of us are just stuck. So if a person is looking for an excuse to be here, one of those excuses is da'wah, if he's really giving da'wah properly.

He sent Musa ibn Umair to Medina. He sent Abu Musa al-Ash'ari and Ali and Muadh ibn Jabal, may Allah be pleased with them, to Yemen. There weren't Muslims there, but they're going to give da'wah to the word of truth.

As it relates to our sisters in Islam, the world has become a global village. She can give da'wah to people who are all the way overseas by way of the internet. She can give da'wah to her relatives and the local sisters by allowing them to come to her home. She gives da'wah in many shapes, many fashions, many forms.

Just stick to what is permissible, don't compromise your religion, and she can give da'wah. There's no problem.

Closing

With that, Ikhwan, we say:

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is High and Exalted, free from all imperfections.

End of Lecture