Be People Who Purify Their Tongue

Be People Who Purify Their Tongue

The Mission of the Prophet

The Prophet ﷺ was sent as a Bashir (bearer of glad tidings) and a Nazir (warner). The Prophet ﷺ said that he did not see any good except that he indicated it to us. He did not find any evil except he warned his Ummah from where they could get it.

The Importance of Understanding the Deen

For Allah, the good of this world is based on understanding. Mu'awiyah (may Allah be pleased with him) relates a hadith:

"Whoever Allah wants good for, He gives him understanding of the deen." (Sahih al-Bukhari 71, Sahih Muslim 1037)

And the Prophet ﷺ said: (وَإِنَّمَا أَنَا قَاسِمٌ وَاللَّهُ يُعْطِي - "I am only the one who distributes this out, but Allah is the one who gives it in the first place.") The Prophet ﷺ is the one that disseminates the knowledge of this deen, but Allah is the giver of that knowledge.

The ulama say that the condition in that sentence is contained in what was conditioned upon it, which is that there's no good unless somebody has understanding of the deen. That Allah, if He didn't give a person understanding of the deen, He did not have His irada (will) or His desire connected with good for that person.

(مَنْ يُرِدِ اللهُ بِهِ خَيْرًا يُفَقِّهْهُ فِي الدِّينِ - The one that Allah wants good for, He gives him understanding of the deen.

Seeking Knowledge and Avoiding Argumentation

(الْفِقْهُ فِي الدِّينِ - Understanding in the deen. And the Prophet ﷺ said: (تَعَلَّمُوا - "Seek knowledge." وَإِنَّمَا الْعِلْمُ بِالتَّعَلُّمِ - "Knowledge is sought through learning with difficulty, by pursuing it."

But one of the things that destroys pursuit of knowledge is (الْمِرَاءُ فِي الدِّينِ - argumentation and disputation in the deen.

In the hadith, the Prophet ﷺ told us:

"No people goes astray after they were on guidance except they're given in place of that guidance argumentation." (Sunan al-Tirmidhi 3253, Sunan Ibn Majah 48)

Sheikh Muhammad al-Ghazali (may Allah have mercy on him), who just recently died, the Azhari scholar in his book (أخلاق المسلم )The Ethics of the Muslim), said that probably one of the main reasons for the state and condition of this Ummah is (جَدَل - argumentation and disputation. And it's argumentation not of the (عُلَمَاء )scholars) but of us, the (عَوَام )common people), the simple people who have very little knowledge, if any at all.

Argumentation not just in deen but in everything - in politics, food, everything. And this is empty, meaningless. There's no benefit in it.

The Prophet's Warning Against Disputation

Many of the sahaba relate:

(رُوِيَ عَنْ عَدَدٍ مِنَ الصَّحَابَةِ رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُمْ جَمِيعًا قَالُوا : خَرَجَ عَلَيْنَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ يَوْمًا وَنَحْنُ نَتَمَارَى فِي شَيْءٍ مِنْ أَمْرِ الدِّينِ - "It is narrated from a number of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them all) who said: The Messenger of Allah came out to us one day while we were disputing about something from the matters concerning the deen."

(فَغَضِبَ غَضَبًا شَدِيدًا لَمْ تَرَ مِثْلَهُ - "He became fiercely angry. We didn't see anger like that from him before."

And then he warned us and said: (يَا أُمَّةً مُحَمَّدٍ مَهْلًا - "Take your time, O Ummah of Muhammad." (إِنَّمَا هَلَكَ مَنْ كَانَ قَبْلَكُمْ بِهَدًا - "Those before you were destroyed because of this."

(ذَرُوا الْمِرَاءَ لِقِلَّةِ خَيْرِهِ - "Leave disputation because of how little benefit is derived from it."

(ذَرُوا الْمِرَاءَ فَإِنَّ الْمُؤْمِنَ لَا يُمَارِي - "Leave disputation because the Mu'min does not dispute."

(ذَرُوا الْمِرَاءَ فَإِنَّ الْمُمَارِيَ قَدْ تَمَّتْ خَسَارَتْهُ - "Leave disputation because the one who disputes, his loss is complete."

The Loser in Disputation

This is a loser. That's what it is (خَسَار is a loser. And the losers are people who do nothing. They gain nothing from life. They spend their life in vain pursuit, in trivial pursuit. These are losers. (أُولَئِكَ هُمُ الْخَاسِرُونَ )Quran 2:27( They're not the (رَابِحُونَ )winners), they're not the (مُفْلِحُونَ )successful), they're the (خَاسِرُونَ - the people who lose everything.

So the Prophet ﷺ said: (ذَرُوا الْمِرَاءَ قَدْ تَمَّتْ خَسَارَتُهُ - He kept repeating this. "Leave disputation."

(ذَرُوا الْمِرَاءَ فَإِنَّهُ لَيْسَ مِنْ أَحَدٍ يُدَاوِمُ عَلَى الْمُمَارَاةِ إِلَّا كَانَ إِثْمًا - "Leave disputation because it is not except a wrong action that somebody continues to be in."

(ذَرُوا الْمِرَاءَ فَإِنَّ الْمُمَارِيَ لَا أَشْفَعُ لَهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ - "Leave disputation because I don't intercede for those who dispute on the Day of Judgment."

(وَأَنَا الزَّعِيمُ بِثَلَاثَةِ أَبْيَاتٍ فِي الْجَنَّةِ: فِي رِيَاضِهَا وَوَسَطِهَا وَأَعْلَاهَا لِمَنْ تَرَكَ الْمِرَاءَ وَهُوَ صَادِقٌ

"And I am the guarantor of three houses in Paradise - in its lowest, middle, and highest - for the one who leaves disputation and he is sincere." (Sunan Abi Dawud 4800)

(ذَرُوا الْمِرَاءَ فَإِنَّ أَوَّلَ مَا نَهَانِي عَنْهُ رَبِّي بَعْدَ عِبَادَةِ الْأَوْثَانِ الْمِرَاءُ

"Leave disputation because the first thing that my Lord prohibited me to do after leaving the worship of idols was disputation."

That's a very powerful hadith. And all the words of the Prophet ﷺ are powerful, but if you look now at the condition of people in this Ummah, the level of knowledge which has reached a level never before in the history of this Ummah has this gotten so low.

The Decline of Islamic Scholarship

Where are the great institutions? In Al-Qarawiyyin, in Zaytuna, in Al-Qayrawan, in Al-Azhar - there were 70 universities in Damascus alone. They said Saeed ibn Jubeir said at every pillar in the Umayyad Mosque was an alim teaching.

Go there and look now. Go there. (فَانْظُرُوا بَعْدَنَا إِلَى الْآثَارِ تَدُلُّ عَلَيْنَا آثَارُ - Go and look at what's left." Look at the great universities of Islam.

And those people, as Raghib al-Isfahani said, it was makruh (disliked) for them to dispute. So what about people who have no knowledge? Who are ignorant of the book of Allah? Who are ignorant of the Sunnah, of the message of Allah?

Signs of the End Times

Now, one of the signs of the end of time, the Prophet ﷺ said:

(لَا تَقُومُ السَّاعَةُ حَتَّى يَكُونَ آخِرُ هُذِهِ الْأُمَّةِ حُولَهَا

"The end of time will not come until the last portion of this Ummah..."

The Story of Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali

Somebody told me - and I wasn't present - somebody told me that there was a gathering, and no names were mentioned to me so I don't even know who the people they were talking about. But they asked me just out of concern that somebody asked about Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (may Allah be pleased with him).

And he's by consideration of some of the Ummah from the Salaf, because some put, like Al-Maqrizi and others, put the Salaf in the first five centuries of Islam, and after that it's Khalaf. But according to Adh-Dhahabi and many of the great scholars of this Ummah, they said that there's ijma' (consensus) that he was a mujaddid of this Ummah.

The Prophet ﷺ said:

(إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَبْعَثُ لِهَذِهِ الْأُمَّةِ عَلَى رَأْسِ كُلِّ مِائَةِ سَنَةٍ مَنْ يُجَدِّدُ لَهَا أَمْرَ دِينِهَا

"Indeed Allah sends to this Ummah at the head of every hundred years someone who renews the matter of this deen for it." (Sunan Abi Dawud 4291)

But his name was brought up to be used as an example for some youth, and somebody said that he wasn't a good example in the gathering. And this is unbelievable! Oh yeah, it's unbelievable. I mean, he's (أُسْتَادُ الْأَسَاتِذَةِ )the teacher of teachers( (شَيْخُ الْمَشَاخِ )the sheikh of sheikhs). That's who he is - Abu Hamid al-Ghazali.

(أَبُو حَامِدٍ الْغَزَالِيُّ وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا - But this is a disease when the ignorant people of this Ummah talk about the mountains.

Like the one said:

(يَا دَابَّةً لَيْسَ لَهَا بَصَرٌ ، نَاطِحُ الْجَبَلَ الْعَالِيَ لِيَقْلَعَهَا

"O creature without sight, butting your head against the high mountain to uproot it."

It doesn't harm the sun when it's in the middle of the sky because the blind man can't see its light. Oh, the one who's hitting his head up against the mountain:

(أَشْفِقْ بِالرَّأْسِ وَلَا تُشْفِقْ بِالْجَبَلِ

"Have compassion on your head and don't have compassion on the mountain!"

The Greatness of Al-Ghazali

Imam al-Juwayni, who has the name (إِمَامُ الْحَرَمَيْنِ )Imam of the Two Holy Sanctuaries), one of the greatest usuli scholars of this Ummah, who was the teacher of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, one day said to Abu Hamid: (يَا فَقِيرُ - "O faqir (poor one)."

And Abu Hamid (may Allah be pleased with him) became upset that he as a student was being called a faqir.

And Imam al-Juwayni said that he realized that the imam was bothered by being called that name. So he took him into a room filled with his books and said: "I wasn't given the title faqir until I knew all the books in this room."

Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (may Allah be pleased with him) said that he didn't speak in (عِلْمُ الْأُصُولِ )the science of fundamentals) in (أُصُولُ الدِّينِ )the fundamentals of religion), until he memorized 12,000 pages of Abu Bakr al-Baqillani - 12,000 pages! And now people talk about him like they talk about somebody just down the road.

If you read the (رِحْلَةُ )journey) of Ibn al-Arabi - Abu Bakr al-Qadi - another imam who the Ummah has agreed on his rank, his book (أَحْكَامُ الْقُرْآنِ )Rulings of the Quran) is one of the basic foundational books on Ahkam al-Quran. He said when he went into the presence of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali in Baghdad, he never saw anyone like him.

He said he melted in his presence, and this is one of the greatest scholars that Andalusia produced. He said he melted in his presence, and he said suddenly things that were unclear became clear to him.

And he spent time, and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali sent a letter to Yusuf ibn Tashfin, who was the leader of the Murabițun, the imam of the Dawlah al-Murabitah. He sent him a letter and he praised in it Ibn al-Arabi, talking about the little time that he spent with him: he gained more than many students had been with him for years.

(أُولَئِكَ الرِّجَالُ - These are the men of Allah.

Respecting the Scholars

And part of the (تَعْظِيم )exaltation) of the (شُعَائِرِ الله symbols of Allah) is to have ta'zim for the ulama.

Allah says in the Quran:

"And whoever exalts the symbols of Allah - indeed, it is from the taqwa of hearts." (Quran 22:32)

The sha'a'ir is anything (وَأَظْهَرَ وَتَعْيِينِهِ بِفَضْلِهِ - anything that Allah has shown that it's something great.

And Allah said about the ulama:

"Are they the same, those who know and those who don't know?" (Quran 39:9)

(إِنَّمَا يَخْشَى اللَّهَ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ الْعُلَمَاءُ

"Those who fear Allah from among His servants are the scholars." (Quran 35:28)

(يَرْفَعِ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مِنْكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْعِلْمَ دَرَجَاتٍ

"Allah will raise those who have believed among you and those who were given knowledge, by degrees." (Quran 58:11)

Recite the book of Allah and see what Allah says about knowledge. See what Allah says about the ulama. Look at the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ about the preference of the alim over the worshipper is like my preference over the least of you.

People have to understand who these people are. They have to understand. We have to understand who these people are.

The Value of Scholars' Ink

The Prophet ﷺ said that on Yawm al-Qiyamah, the blood of the shahid and the ink of the scholar - (مِدَادُ الْعَالِمِ وَدِمَاءُ

الشُّهَدَاءِ - they're weighed in the balance. And he said that the ink of the scholar will outweigh the blood of the martyr.

Sheikh Ad-Dukh Khayr (may Allah have mercy on him) commented on this hadith. He said: "The highest thing that the shaheed gives is his blood, and the least of the tools of the scholar is his ink."

The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sunan Ibn Majah 223)

"I was sent as a teacher, and indeed the scholars are the inheritors of the prophets."

I was sent as a mu'allim. That's the words. Allah sent him as a teacher. And he said that the ulama are the inheritors of the prophets. They inherit the wealth of the prophets, which is knowledge.

So who is going to speak about these people? This is the sign of the age we're living in.

The Danger of Speaking Against Scholars

Adh-Dhahabi, who was the student of Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him), one of the greatest scholars of (جَرْحٍ وَتَعْدِيلٍ - jarh wa ta'deel) (critical evaluation of narrators), which is the science of critically analyzing the words and the state of the scholars who transmit hadith, said about Ibn Hazm (may Allah have mercy on him), who's one of the ulama of Islam: Because his tongue was so hard on the other ulama, his books were left by the ulama and little benefit was derived from them, simply because his tongue was harsh on the ulama, because he spoke with a harsh tongue.

And one of the reasons given by the ulama for that is that he was mainly self-educated. He had little training amongst the shuyukh. And that is a sign of people who are self-taught, who buy books and they start reading books and think that they are ulama, think that they can give fatwas.

When knowledge is taken (مِنْ بُطُونِ الرِّجَالِ لَا مِنْ سُطُورِ الْكُتُبِ - min butoon al-rijal la min sutoor al-kutub) - "from the chests of men, not from the lines of books."

The Isnad is Part of Our Deen

This is something - (الْإِسْنَادُ مِنَ الدِّينِ - al-isnad min al-deen) - the isnad is part of our deen. And there's no science from the sciences of Islam that doesn't have isnad. It's not just hadith. It's not just hadith.

You go now - right now you can go and I can call you a shaykh right now who teaches the (عَقِيدَةُ - aqeedah) (creed) of Imam At-Tahawi with an unbroken chain of isnad back to Imam At-Tahawi, that can teach you the (رِسَالَةُ - risalah) of Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani with an isnad of unbroken scholars, one after the other.

Knowledge is not taken from books. It's taken from human beings. And people have to learn the (أَدَب - adab) (proper manners). And the loss of adab in this Ummah has destroyed us. We don't have adab amongst each other. But why should we have adab amongst each other when we don't have adab for the best of us? Why?

Allah's Warning About Harming His Awliya

And why should Allah have compassion on a people when Allah says:

"Whoever shows animosity towards one of My awliya, then I have declared war against him."

If the ulama aren't the awliya, then Allah has no awliya. And (إِيَّاكُمْ - iyyakum) - we should be aware also about the books of the ulama who talk about each other. Because this is something that all of the scholars have warned about - about students who don't have a lot of knowledge reading books and reading like "Ibn Taymiyyah says such and such about so and so," "Adh-Dhahabi says such and such about so and so."

Those first of all (الْجَرْحُ وَالتَّعْدِيلُ - al-jarh wa ta'deel) (criticism and authentication) - it's for the ulama of hadith. It's not for somebody to just go pick up a book and start reading it. And the ulama of hadith said that they are literally on a pit from the pits of the fire - the people who do jarh wa ta'deel. They literally feed themselves on a pit from the pits of fire. And they have fear about saying things about narrators.

But now, like the Prophet ﷺ said, people will say a word and they don't give it any thought, and it takes them down into hell for like 40 seasons, straight down into hell.

(Sahih al-Bukhari 6478, Sahih Muslim 2988)

"He says a word and gives it no concern."

He just says it.

Becoming an Ummah of Hearsay

And then the other thing - we become (أُمَّةً بَبَّغَائِيَّةً - ummatan babaghaiyyah) (an ummah of parrots). You see, we hear something and then, no, there's no (تَحَقُّ - tahqiq) (verification), there's no (تَدَقُّسٌ - tadaqqus) (scrutiny).

"Indeed in that is a sign for those who discern."

In the Quran - the Quran is for (مُتَوَسِّمِينَ - mutawassimun) (those who reflect deeply). Who are the mutawassimun? Mutawassimun are people who look deeply into matters. They don't superficially just hear something and then take it at face value.

The Age of Misleading Leaders

And beware too - this is the age of (أَئِمَّةٌ مُضِلُّونَ - a'immatun mudilloon) (misleading leaders). This is an age of imams that lead people astray. That's what it is. وَنَعُوذُ بِاللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ مِنْ ذَلِكَ - and we seek refuge in Allah from that.

This is the age of people that are leading other people astray. Because the Prophet ﷺ said in Sahih al-Bukhari:

"Indeed Allah will not take knowledge by snatching it suddenly from people."

By seizing the scholars of this Ummah - حَتَّى إِذَا لَمْ يُبْقٍ عَالِمًا - "Until not even one scholar remains" - اتَّخَذَ النَّاسُ رُؤُوسًا جُهَّالًا - "They'll take as leaders ignorant people" - فَسُئِلُوا - "and they'll ask them questions" - فَأَقْتَوْا بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ - "And they'll give fatwa without knowledge because they have no taqwa - فَضَلُّوا وَأَضَلُّوا - "They go astray and they lead others astray."

The Importance of Taqwa in Giving Fatwa

When I was in the Emirates, one of the muftis there from Mauritania, a man of immense knowledge, Shaykh Abdullah al-Siddiq - he was in, a man came in and asked him for a fatwa, and he said: "Come back tomorrow."

And the man turned to me. He said: "What's the matter with the shaykh? Does he know anything? He's looking at me like, 'Does he know anything? Why doesn't he give me an answer right away? Why doesn't he give me an answer right away? Does he know anything?'''

Because the man has (وَرَعٌ - wara') (piety), he has taqwa. He doesn't just give a fatwa like that. And traditionally, the word in Arabic for fatwa is (نَازِلَةٌ - nazilah), nazilah is the same word for tribulation. It's a calamity that descends upon the head of the mufti. And the muftun had fear about fatwa.

One of the sahaba - you read (آدَابُ الْمُسْتَفْتِي وَالْمُفْتِي - Adab al-Mustafti wal Mufti) (The Etiquette of the One Seeking Fatwa and the Mufti) - you read the book about the adab, the courtesy of asking for fatwa and giving fatwa. One of the things mentioned in that book is that the sahaba - one man would ask them a fatwa and he would say: "Go to so-and-so." And they would go to so-and-so and he would say: "Go to so-and-so."

And now, like Sheikh Shah of the United States said: كَثُرَ الْمُجْتَهِدُونَ - "The mujtahidun have become many!" Everybody wants to give fatwa. People read Sahih al-Bukhari and suddenly they're (مُجْتَهِدُ الْعَصْرِ - mujtahid al-asr) (the mujtahid of the age). They know all the (أَدِلَّةُ وَالْحُجَجُ وَالْمَرَاجِعُ - adillah wal hujaj wal maraji') (evidences, proofs, and references(.

People used to - Imam Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "He didn't give fatwa until 70 scholars in Madinah gave him permission - 70 scholars in Madinah gave him permission to give fatwa. Then he gave fatwa."

The Flesh of Scholars is Poison

Now Ibn Asad (may Allah be pleased with him) said:

لُحُومُ الْعُلَمَاءِ مَسْمُومَةٌ

"The flesh of our scholars is poison. The flesh of our scholars is poison. You'll die from it."

سُمَّ قَاتِلٌ - It will kill you.

Adh-Dhahabi said: "No one will speak about the ulama in this Ummah except Allah will kill their hearts" - يُمِيتُ قَلْبَهُ - "He'll kill their hearts."

And the worst thing about a dead heart is when you hear (وَعْظٌ - wa'z) (admonition), it doesn't have any effect on you. You'll just go on the way you were going before, because the heart's dead. That's what happens - the heart dies.

Signs of the End Times: Dead Hearts

And one of the signs of the end of time is (مَوْتُ الْقُلُوبِ - mawt al-quloob) (death of hearts). The hearts die. People have no fear. There's no taqwa.

أَوَّلُ مَا يُرْفَعُ مِنَ النَّاسِ الْخُشُوعُ - "The first knowledge to be taken away from people is fear" - there's no taqwa.

The majlis (gathering), if there's no dhikr of Allah, if there's no ilm, if there's no ta'lim, it's a waste of time. طريق the Prophet ﷺ said it's just empty foulness, like you got up from a dead carcass. People that sit in gatherings and no mention of Allah, no mention of the knowledge - these things it just ends up (جَدَلٌ - jadal) (argumentation), just argumentation, politics, writing.

شِيرًا، أَنَا أَعْتَقِدُ هَذَا، هَذَا، فُلَانٌ قَالَ، مَا رَأْيُكُمْ - and it's just that. That's what it is. يُعْجَبُ كُلٌّ بِرَأْيِهِ - "Everyone is amazed by their own opinion."

Time is Precious

Time is the most precious thing you have, and it's the easiest thing to lose. And I'll tell you, time is going fast. Time is speeding up. If you don't think time is being cranked up right now, then... Time is going fast and everybody's feeling it. Not just as you get older - even young people are feeling it. Time is speeding up, which is one of the signs of the end of time.

سِيرُوا إِلَى الْعَمَلِ سِرِيعًا - "Quickly go to action! Quickly go to action!"

Those who turn away from being taught, what do they say?

لَكُمْ أَعْمَالُكُمْ وَلَنَا أَعْمَالُنَا

"You have your actions and we have our actions." (Quran 10:41)

And if you don't want... ignorant people then are going to waste our time, because time is too precious.

Like one of the Salaf in Makkah was walking - there were people sitting in the street, empty talk - and he said: وَاللهِ، كَأَنَّهُمْ اشْتَرَوْا مِنْهُمْ سَاعَاتِهِمْ - "By Allah, it's as if I could have bought their hours from them!" I wish I could have bought something there, just bought it, because time is going.

We're all getting gray hair. We're all heading towards the grave. We're all heading towards the grave. غَدًا فِي الْقُبُورِ - "Tomorrow in the graves."

The Questioning in the Grave

And we're going to be asked. We're not going to be asked about: "What's your opinion about...?" We're going to be asked:

مَنْ رَبُّكَ؟ مَا دِينُكَ؟ مَنْ نَبِيُّكَ؟

"Who is your Lord? What is your religion? Who is your Prophet?"

And there's a lot of people that aren't going to answer that question. And a lot of them are going to be people who said... because by the قُدْرَةُ اللهِ (power of Allah) they can't talk. It's one of the signs. They call it stage fright - they can't, they lose the power to talk.

There's people that take tests in the dunya - I'm telling you, they take tests in the dunya and they can't remember anything. They lose everything, goes blank. They just go completely blank and they fail the test. And you can't go and tell the instructor: "I forgot it all! I know the answer! Let me take it again!" It's over.

مَنْ رَبُّكَ؟ - "Who is your Lord?" And it's not enough to say: "People used to say, so we said it." Because تَقْلِيدٌ (blind imitation) - to blindly imitate in the كَلِمَةُ (testimony of faith) is not permissible. That's the رَاجِعُ (predominant opinion) from the ulama - to make taqlid, blind following of our ancestors, our fathers, in the kalimah is unacceptable.

The State of Affairs

So this is the state. This is the state of affairs. I don't know who has all this time, but there's a lot of work to do - all of us. And we're all مُقَصِرُونَ (falling short). I don't know anybody - in fact, really, if you look in traditional Islam, we don't have حُكْمُ الْفُسَّاقِ (rulings for the upright). Every single last one of them, if you took the traditional تَطْبِيقِ (application) of the ulama before, in the old days, and you show up in court and they look into your life, you'd be banished - including me. We'd all just be فُسَّاقٌ (transgressors). They wouldn't even take a شَهَادَةٌ (testimony) from us. We couldn't even bear witness. And we're talking about Abu Hamid al-Ghazali? They wouldn't even take our witness. They'd say: "Get out of here! You're just rabble!"

We have to... something has to change. You know, people, we need to get doing things, not just talking. You know, I don't know. I just feel every day it just seems more urgent for me. That's the way I feel. It just seems more urgent. You know, the sleep gets deeper. It just seems more urgent.

We Are Mu'minun - We Don't Give Up

But, you know الْحَمْدُ للهِ (all praise to Allah), we're مُؤْمِنُونَ (believers). And nowhere in the book of Allah do I see: "You just give up." I don't see that anywhere in the book of Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ said things are going to get bad. And what did he tell us to do?

"Hasten to do good deeds! Get working!" (Sahih Muslim 118)

When things get bad, get working! If you're planting a seed, get planting it! Get planting it!

And death is سَاعَةً (sāʿah) an hour) - that's saah, our own death. We don't have to wait for the big one, but it could be around the corner.

"And what will convey to you? Maybe the Hour is near." (Quran 42:17)

The Prophet ﷺ said: "I was sent right in front of the last hour."

Remembering the Signs of the End Times

And one of the foundations of our deen in the حَدِيثُ جِبْرِيلَ عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ (ḥadīthu Jibrīl ʿalayhis-salām) (Hadith of Jibril) is that we're supposed to remember the signs of the end of time. It's right in there in the hadith - the second hadith in Imam An-Nawawi's الْأَرْبَعِينَ (al-Arbaʿīn) (Forty Hadith). It's considered the essential hadith that explains the deen of Islam. And amongst that hadith is the signs of the last hour.

Stupid people from this Ummah will curse the first people. Don't just talk about them like: "They were men, we are men. They're men and we're men." Well, why? We don't have a man amongst us! We don't have a man amongst us! I want to see one man - including, I put myself right in there in the first group. We don't have a man amongst us.

Real Men Are Qawwamun

When I was in Canada, somebody said they were asking about the women, and I said: "Well, people have to listen to the women. The Prophet ﷺ took counsel from his wife."

And one of the men in the audience said:

"Men are caretakers of women." (Quran 4:34)

"Men are caretakers of women." Let me see the men! That's why... And if you look in the tafsir of that ayah in the Quran, it says: "They fight jihad in سَبِيلِ اللهِ (sabīli Allāh) (the way of Allah). They enjoin the good. They compete with virtue. And they study hard to preserve this deen." That's the tafsir.

Where are those people?

They haven't been around for a while. So don't apply some ayah that you think you're in there. Allah said رِجَالٌ (rijāl - men). He didn't say ذُكُورٌ (dhukūr - males). قَوَّامُونَ عَلَى النِّسَاءِ (qawwāmūna ʿala n-nisāʾ) - He said رِجَالٌ قَوَّامُونَ عَلَى النِّسَاءِ (rijāl qawwāmūna ʿala n-nisāʾ) men are caretakers of women(.

Men! I mean, they'd be men too if it was just a hormone that gave you a beard.

The Anger is From Concern

So maybe the مَقَامُ (maqām) (station) is مَقَامُ الْغَضَبِ (maqāmu l-ghaḍab) (the station of anger). I know I'm not meaning to be upset, but it upsets me. You know, I read a book the other day which was... I just started it because I actually bought it. It was about Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, and the book, it turned out, was all just cursing him. I couldn't... سَبُّ الْعَالِمِ (sabb al-ʿālim) - "Cursing the scholar" - like the سَبُّ الْعَالِمِ (sabb al-ʿālim)

And it had Abu Hamid al-Ghazali reading it, and he's just cursing Abu Hamid al-Ghazali. I couldn't believe it. Nice book, published in Beirut, looked very good. Even on the back, it looked like it was praising him. And then you open it up - that was to trick people to buy it. سُمٌ بِالْعَسَلِ (summun bil-ʿasal) (poison with honey), as the Arabs say - poison with honey.

Tests and Trials for Those Who Work for Allah

Just... I think that it's a natural condition that anybody who does any work for Allah and His Messenger, they're going to have أَذًى (ʾaḏan) (harm). That's the nature of the world. The Prophet ﷺ had adha. People gave him a hard time - the Prophet ﷺ, the best of creation. They even spoke accusing his wife of adultery. And this is the type of environment.

And that was all for رَفْعُ الدَّرَجَاتِ (rafʿu d-darajāt) (raising of degrees) and to تُحْبَطَ الْأَعْمَالُ (tuḥbaṭu l-ʾaʿmāl) (test the deeds). But for the believers, for the mu'minun, we have to be aware of this. Because those are the مُنَافِقُونَ (munāfiqūn) (hypocrites). Those are the munafiqun, except with rare exception who make تَوْبَةٌ (tawbah) (repentance) because they realize:

"Those who harm the believers - men and women - for things they never did." (Quran 33:58)

And that happens. When I was in Canada, I saw Abdullah Hakim Quick, who graduated from Madinah University. He told me he was in Philadelphia and people were going to blows in the masjid. And somebody came up to him afterwards, apologized. He said that he used to talk about him all the time because he heard people saying things about him, and he would just repeat them. And then he apologized.

He said: "Excuse me, but I don't think we should be from those. I don't want to be from those people."

Purifying Our Tongues

I mean, we should be people who purify our tongues. Like one of them, when he was asked about the فِتْنَةُ (fitnah) (trial(

he said - عُمَرُ بْنُ عَبْدِ الْعَزِيزِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ (ʿUmar ibn ʿAbdul ʿAzīz, raḍiya Allāhu ʿanhu) - he said:

"Allah purified our swords from their blood, so why should we pollute our tongues with their flesh?"

Why? Why? So what's the benefit?

And that's why the Prophet ﷺ said:

"Leave disputation because of how little benefit is derived from it."

Disputation and these things, because there's no benefit in it. Do things that are beneficial.

Be People of Action

Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "I hate to see a man not working for his dunya and not for his akhirah - just بَاطِلٌ (bāṭil) (idle), somebody who doesn't do anything - بَطَّالُونَ (baṭṭālūn) (idle people)."

That's what they call them - the shisha people. Sit around all day long just نَرْجِية (narjīya) (hookah) or whatever they call it, just talking about empty things. No! Let's be people of جِدّ (jidd) (seriousness). These people get serious - هِمَّةٌ عَالِيَةٌ (himmatun ʿāliyah) (high aspiration), a high aspiration, not هِمَّةٌ دَانِيَةٌ (himmatun dāniyah) (low aspiration(.

They say dunya is هِمَّةٌ دَانِيَةٌ (himmatun dāniyah) - it's a low aspiration. And akhirah is هِمَّةٌ عَالِيَةٌ (himmatun ʿāliyah) - it's a high aspiration. But what do you say about people that aren't doing anything for their dunya and not doing anything for their akhirah?

Where do you put them? I mean, where do you put those people?

Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: أَسْفَلُ السَّافِلِينَ (ʾasfalu s-sāfilīn) - "That's where they are. They're the worst of the worst."

Closing Du'a

I say this and I seek forgiveness from Allah for me and for you.

"O Allah, grant honor to Islam and the Muslims."

"O Allah, grant victory to Your religion, Your book, and the Sunnah of Your Prophet."

"O Allah, unleash the sword of Your vengeance upon Your enemies."

"O Allah, grant victory to the Muslims and forbid immorality."

آمین