11 28 2014

Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. Whomsoever He guides, none can misguide him. Whomsoever He leads astray, none can guide him to the truth. I bear witness that there is no one worthy of worship but Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

Living in Times of Excess

We live in a time of excess. We live in a time of abundance. We live in a time when human health is at an all time high. When wealth is at an all time high.

But in the inverse, we also live in a time when poverty is at its worst throughout the world. We have extremely beneficial, extremely good rates of health, length of life. People aren't dying as they used to.

Many times, infant mortality was one of the main causes of people not surviving. Diseases like the flu used to take out entire populations. Now there's something that we get a shot for at our local drug store, and we're fine.

We have so much to be thankful for. But we also have so much to be careful of. These excesses that we experience in our life, they stem from another type of excess.

And that excess can be praiseworthy at times. When we try to use the faculties that Allah has given us to better our lives and better those around us. And they can also be damaging.

In that we use it to absolve ourselves of responsibility towards those around us. We have a certain form of greed. A certain form of gluttony.

That may motivate us to come up with things that benefit people. But many times it motivates us to do wrong to those who have themselves done no wrong to others. And most importantly, it leads us to do wrong to ourselves.

The Gluttony of Knowledge

But there's a different type of gluttony. Something I believe that's at the core of the gluttony of the body. And of accumulation and of consumption. It seems to be extremely contradictory. That yesterday so many people were expressing so much of what they were thankful for.

And then today, unfortunately, we'll hear in the news about people being trampled. About things that they were trying to gain and accumulate to say that they were thankful for. It seems contradictory that we would have people expressing their thanks.

And at the same time, young men with their hands up being killed in the streets. But all of this excess stems from an excess that we have in our heart. To not act as moral people. To not be people of principle.

The Story of the Cow

Allah gives us an example of this in Surah Al-Baqarah. Indeed this story is so important. The Surah was named by the Sahaba because of this story.

And when Moses said to his people, God commands you to slaughter a calf. What was their first reaction? Was their first reaction, سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا, we hear and we obey? No, their first reaction was:

What do you take us for a joke? This was the first reaction. This was the excess. This was the gluttony of knowledge. In that, we don't want to act on principle. But we want to absolve ourselves of responsibility. By first, some form of ad hominem attack. You take us for a joke? Who do you think you are?

Moses said, I seek refuge in God from being amongst the ignorant.

They said, call upon your Lord and have Him clarify for us what it is. SubhanAllah. Making this request. When in fact, all they had to do was slaughter a calf. All they had to do was make one proactive decision. Which would have been an act of obedience. Regardless of what that calf was.

Many Qurra of the past, they used to stop at this verse. To emphasize that it's just a calf. All you're asked to do is one simple thing, be a good person. Listen and obey. Do an act of obedience which for you will be rewarded. They insisted, no, we have to know what this is.

The story continues with more and more detailed questions, until finally they asked about its color:

It's a yellow bright cow. Pleasing to the eyes. After He clarified for them the age, the color, all of these details. What did they say?

Now you've brought the truth. Now you've given us clarity. Who is the one to ask for clarity in this situation? Is it Musa that's supposed to answer their calls for clarity? Or they as believers who supposed to act on principle?

The Danger of Excessive Detail

The gluttony of knowledge. Where we dig down and we dig so deep that we make things difficult for ourselves and for others. We want to become dogmatic followers of minutia. So that when we're asked we can say, I've fulfilled 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I've done what was expected of me. I won't give anything more.

But this idea, this idea of some authoritarian overarching rule system becomes oppressive eventually. When people lose the ability to make decisions based upon what Allah has ingrained in their heart from the fitrah and the principles of truth and righteousness that He sent down in the Qur'an and in the Sunnah.

The Story of Two Men

And there are other instances of this that we find in the stories of the people that came before us. The Prophet ﷺ said, as narrated in Sunan Abu Dawood:

(Sunan Abu Dawood)

Allah took their souls at that moment and they were on the plane of the day of judgment standing before Allah. And Allah said to him: "Who is it that has the audacity to say that I will never forgive so and so, I have forgiven him and all of your actions have been rendered void."

The gluttony of knowledge. The idea that somehow by fulfilling a set number of rules we somehow become better and more moral. We somehow have the right to judge others. The act of being a judge is something which is Allah's right alone.

The Simplicity of Islam

During the Hajj of the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ said: "Allah has written upon you that you make Hajj, so make Hajj." A man said, "In every year, O Messenger of Allah?" The Prophet ﷺ was silent. "In every year, O Messenger of Allah?" he was silent. "In every year, O Messenger of Allah?" he was silent. The Prophet ﷺ said: "Leave me as long as I leave you. Because if I were to say yes you wouldn't be able to. If I were to say yes, you wouldn't be able to. And if you were not able to, then you would disbelieve."

So Islam is something which is simple. This is a discussion amongst scholars of legal theory. When a word is used in the Arabic language or a command is used in the Arabic language - when somebody tells you, get me a drink of water linguistically, does he mean keep getting me a drink of water over and over and over again? Or does he mean, give me one drink of water? When the Prophet ﷺ said, make Hajj, did he mean one? Or consistently? The Arabs say, in the language, means one time. So we understand things as they're said.

It's just a cow. Had we done that one thing, we would have been fine. Had we warned that one man, we would have been fine. But when we go beyond that, to make things difficult for ourselves. Why do we do that? We do that because we have an innate sense of absolving ourselves of responsibility. We think through detail, we'll resolve ourselves of responsibility.

Clear Guidance and Misapplication

The Hadith of al-Nu'man ibn Bashir: "Halal is clear, haram is clear. Between these two are things which are not clear. Many people do not know them."

The Prophet ﷺ condemned those who misapplied principle. Who spoke without knowledge, as well as those that inquired about things that didn't directly relate to the application of the principles that they were given.

If you think about everything in the Qur'an, many times those issues come up. To guide people back to how they should be people of akhlaq, people of character and principle.

Principled Faith vs. Dogmatic Following

A gluttony of knowledge. A knowledge that's based upon accumulation of information, and not based upon practical application. Principled application.

When we look to the life of the Prophet ﷺ, we can see that the Sahaba were the first and foremost in implementing the principles of being good people.

It's not befitting for a believing man or a believing woman, when God and His Messenger have decided something, that they have any choice in the matter. Does this mean that our faith is a faith in which we give up our minds and our ability to think to a dogmatic system? No.

Because despite this verse, we find instances in which the people would still ask questions, but why were they asking the questions? So that they would absolve themselves of responsibility? No. So that they could bring about what was beneficial for themselves and for others.

The Example of Badr

Notice during the battle of Badr, when the Prophet ﷺ was going to camp in one area, and one of the Sahaba came to him, and he said to him: "O Messenger of Allah, is this something that God has revealed to you? Or is it something that you're doing because of war and tactic?" He said, "This is war and this is tactic." He said that in that case, I advise you to camp near the wells, so that we may have a monopoly over the water.

So, even though he understood the principle that was in the Qur'an, it didn't prevent him from applying it in the proper time and the proper place.

The Definition of Righteousness

When the Sahaba would ask questions of the Prophet ﷺ, a man came to the Prophet ﷺ asking about righteousness. What did the Prophet ﷺ say? Before we even mention what he said, think about what the man asked about. What is righteousness? Many times we have the assumption that we know what righteousness is.

Which is exactly why Bani Israel said, أَتَتَّخِذُنَا هُزُوًا - Are you joking? You think we're a joke? We know what's proper for us to do. Why would you even ask that? So, they started to ask about incessant details that really didn't matter to the principle of the matter, to the foundational issue that was at hand to obey God.

A man came to him and he said, "What is righteousness?" The Prophet ﷺ noticed. He didn't guide him to pray to our Prophet ﷺ this time, do this, do that. He didn't give him a laundry list of things to do. He guided him to foundational principles of character in our faith.

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2553)

Righteousness is good character. And sin is that which shakes around in your chest and you're afraid of people finding out about it. Guiding us to principle.

Yes, the rules are important. The rules are important. But those rules should never overtake and overcome us and make us incapacitated to be people of principle, to be people of righteousness. In fact, if you implement the rules correctly, you'll find that naturally you will be a person of bir, a person of righteousness, a person of akhlaq, a person of character, a person of salah, a person of good nature.

But when you're dogmatic on the rules and you disregard the principle completely, then you'll find that your life will become more difficult and you'll find that you won't be able to stand up for those things which are just and which are right.

O you who believe, be with those that are truthful.

Closing Du'a

O Allah we've wronged ourselves and we've transgressed upon ourselves and if you do not forgive us then we'll truly be from amongst those that are lost.

O Allah make our feet firm and give us victory over those that do injustice to us and to others.

O Allah make righteous this land and all of the lands that are yours in every place and every time.