Lessons On Matters Of Belief

The Trap of Shaytan with the Ummah of Muhammad ﷺ

So Shaytan used the plan with the Christians, and he succeeded to a great degree. And this is why Allah says: "Those who have said that Allah is a third of three, they have disbelieved." And Allah says: "Those who have said that Isa, the son of Mary - Jesus the son of Mary - is God, they have disbelieved in God." And the Quran says Allah says that's what the Messiah told the people, and yet they turned away. They had a dispute amongst themselves, and they turned away. They started worshipping the messenger himself, and in the process, Shaytan is so excited. He just wants to laugh at us and laugh at Allah to say, "You see, I told you these people are not going to worship you. They will worship everything besides you."

So now, if you take it a step further, you will find that later on, Muhammad ﷺ was sent. What a miracle! The best of creation ﷺ - Allah has chosen him to come to us, highest in status, the highest of all messengers, the most beloved unto Allah, and we are fortunate that he was sent to man. And he was sent to man in such a way that he was not made from amongst the rich and the haughty and those who were, you know, the rulers of the age and so on. He was a young man, orphaned at a young age. Orphaned at a young age.

And this is a point of comfort to those who have been orphaned: that Allah may have chosen you for something greater. It does not mean you are orphaned so you won't achieve. You may achieve something great.

So when he came, his life - his whole life - was to be emulated by us. It is called a Sunnah. Sunnah meaning whatever he did and whatever he did and taught - there are different categories of what he taught. Some of it is compulsory and so on. But even his life, his dress code, his method, his mannerisms - everything recorded - we should try our best to emulate him, because the Quran says:

"Indeed, you have the most beautiful example to emulate in the life of Muhammad ﷺ."

And in Muhammad ﷺ as a human being, you find that we have something to emulate. So we read about his goodness - we want to be as good, or we try to be good. We read about his kindness - we want to be that way. We read about this - we want to be that way. And so because we see how he has been, and we try to be as close as possible as we can to his method and his style, and this is the Sunnah of Muhammad ﷺ.

When he left, some people later on began to fall in the same trap of Shaytan - the same trap of Shaytan that he used with the Christians. He saw that it worked there, so "let us use it again here." So what did he say? He said, "You know, this was the best of creation." Yes, we know. So you see how Shaytan starts with something which is correct? It's a statement that is right. There's no doubt - the best of creation. "So that means, you see, if he was the best of creation, Allah loves him the most. He's a part of Allah."

Now, how did we get "he's a part of Allah"? They said, "No, he is created from a part of Allah." We have had Muslims who say this now - that he is created from a part of Allah. "And for that reason, we cannot get to Allah directly. We need to go through the messenger." So we start worshipping the Nabi, and people start saying "Ya Nabi," and people start calling out to the Prophet ﷺ.

What is the difference between us and the Christians if we do that? What's the difference? We fell in the same trap. Shaytan laughs at us.

And Muhammad ﷺ - the Quran is full of warnings to say: "Be careful how you worship your maker. Do not associate anyone or anything in partnership with your maker - not even me." Subhanallah.

So now you look at the hadith. The Prophet ﷺ one day got up and told his companions: "I have a warning for you." What is the warning? Suddenly he comes up and he says, "I have a warning for you":

(Sahih al-Bukhari 3445)

"You saw what we said moments ago about the Prophet Jesus and how the people elevated him to Godhood, and how they started worshipping him as a stepping stone. So the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ issued a warning. He says: 'I am warning you, never cross the limits regarding me, the same way that the Christians crossed the limits regarding Jesus, may peace be upon him.' Look at the statement. Now someone might not know what are the limits of Jesus, because at that time there were some Christians, but not all of them. There were some Christians, and some of the people who had accepted Islam knew. But what you would find is, the Prophet ﷺ saying and ending the statement by saying, 'Walakin qulu abdullahi wa rasuluhu' - 'Don't cross the limits and the boundaries with me, in the same way that the Christians have crossed the limits and the boundaries with the Prophet Jesus by starting to worship him and so on. You should always call me abdullahi wa rasuluhu - call me, abdun means the slave - call me the slave of Allah. If you are a slave of Allah, you cannot be worshipped. You see, that's why the word abdun comes in there. A slave of Allah, and I am his worshipper, wa rasuluhu - I am his messenger. So the slave of Allah, the worshipper of Allah, and the messenger of Allah. I am just a messenger.'"

So we learn a lot from this, because when we utter our Shahada - the first pillar of Islam that I was talking about at the beginning - we say:

There is the hadith: قُولُوا عَبْدُ اللهِ وَرَسُولُهُ - "Say abdullahi and rasuluhu. So we say عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ. So we are saying that he is the slave of Allah, and we are saying that he is the messenger of Allah. How then can we render an act of worship for him?

So Allah uses the mouth of Muhammad ﷺ to inform us about something grand:

"Say, O Muhammad ﷺ, to all the people: 'If you love Allah, then follow me.' He didn't say 'worship me' - follow me. 'I will guide you, because I am a messenger of Allah. Follow me, and Allah will love you, and He will forgive your sins, for indeed He is most forgiving, most merciful.'"

Now, if he wanted, he could have said, "If you love Allah, worship me. If you love Allah, come through me," which means people start putting their head on the ground, and in their Sujud, instead of saying words like (سُبْحَانَ رَبِّيَ الْأَعْلَى - subhana rabbiyal a'la) they begin to say different words. May Allah protect us - we don't even want to utter these words. And it is happening amongst those who call themselves Muslim. And this is why we decided to talk on belief. We cannot differ on these matters. We have to understand what it's all about.

The Beauty of Islam

This is what Islam is, and this is why Islam is growing on the globe - because of this beauty. If we were to say, "No, we are worshipping Muhammad ﷺ," well, a Christian would tell you, "Look, what makes you different from me? I worship Jesus. What's the difference?"

But ask those who are accepting Islam in their numbers: "What is it that is beautiful in this religion that is making you want to come into it?" They will say, "The concept of godhood and my direct link with the one who made me." Allahu Akbar!

My brothers and sisters, you have a direct connection with your maker. Use it.

(Sahih Muslim 482)

"The closest that a worshipper can get to his Rabb is when he is in the condition of prostration."

So when our heads are on the ground, we are the closest to Allah. Imagine, we are saying (سُبْحَانَ رَبِّي الْأَعْلَى - Subhan Rabbi al-A'la) - "Glory be to Allah." Rabbi means the one who made me, nourishes, cherishes, sustains, provides, protects, and has absolute control of every aspect of my existence. Glory be to Him - He is the highest. Al-A'la means the highest. And at this moment, my head is on the ground, so I am the lowest in terms of the positioning. My head is right down, and I am confirming that there is the deity that I worship is right at the top, completely high, and I will not render an act of worship for anyone besides Allah.

And this is why we find the point I made: the issue of respect and worship. We respect people, we respect ulama, we respect a lot of other things, but we do not worship these things, and we do not worship the scholars. We don't worship them, because Shaytan will come, and he will continue coming to say, "You know what? This person has superpowers, supernatural powers."

Understanding Supernatural Powers

So what? It's from Allah. Alhamdulillah. If someone has a - when we say supernatural power, it depends what that means. I know, one day I was sitting with a sheikh, and he's a scholar of deen. Someone told me, "This sheikh can see in your face whether you have wudu or not." Yes, and they believe this. Today we are looking at it, and we are talking about it. But there are people who say, "No, he has been given the power by Allah to tell whether you have wudu or not."

I was shocked. I was quite young at the time, and I was shocked, and I knew the sheikh, you know. So, after some time, he - people were sitting with him from the morning, and you know, later on, time of Dhuhr, he told some people, "Please go to make wudu," and some others, he left them. He didn't tell them anything.

Now, the one man is nudging me. He says, "You see? You see?" So I looked at the sheikh. I said, "Sheikh, is it true that you know who has wudu and who doesn't have wudu?" He said, "No, my son, I don't know anything of that nature. That is knowledge of the unseen, and knowledge of the unseen is only with Allah." So I asked him, "So how come you told those people to make wudu, and you did not tell these people to make wudu?" He said, "Because those people are sitting with me from the morning. These ones just came in a few moments ago."

So, look - something logical, something logical. That is so common sense. But people sitting misunderstood it, because Shaytan came to them to say, "Sheikh is supernatural, supernatural. He can tell you."

Like there is a board, you know, when you have a bus going, it has a sign saying where you are going. So perhaps they have a board saying "wudu" and "no wudu." Allah make it easy! We cannot - this is out of a question.

Knowledge of the Unseen Belongs to Allah Alone

O Muhammad ﷺ, we want you with your mouth to tell them, this is what Allah says in the Quran:

"Tell them: 'No one in the skies and the earth - no one knows the unseen besides Allah.'"

If Muhammad ﷺ told us - and he did - he did mention to us so many matters of the unseen, it was Allah who gave him that information. But the owner of the knowledge of the unseen is who? It is Allah. So none knows it besides Allah.

And we have heard this so many times. There are verses of the Quran, and one of the points I have found very, very sad, my beloved brothers and sisters, I want to share it with you. A point I find very, very sad: we are Muslims - we have never understood the Quran. That's what I find. We are guilty, and I - we travel the globe, and we look at Muslims in a Muslim country, and you say, "Brother, have you understood the Quran?" He says, "No, I recite it." "What do you mean, recite it?" "I read. I can read Surah al-Fatiha, al-Duha, at-Tin, al-Alaq, al-Falaq. You can recite." "Do you know the meaning?" He says, "No meaning, I don't know. But I can recite because I need it for my Salah."

"Well, what is your field, my brother?" So he will tell you, "I'm an accountant." "So when you became an accountant, how many books did you read?" He will tell you, "Oh, many books." "So your accountancy will help you for how many years?" "I get a very good job with Ernst and Young." "So how much are you getting?" "I'm getting paid so much - perhaps, you know, tens of thousands of ringgits, mashallah." "And how long will that last for?" He says, "Well, they will retire me at 65 - what's the retirement age here in Malaysia? 58? Oh, it's come down." I said, "65? So now the certificate is valued for less than that - even they've cut out 7 years from it - so it will only help you for this many years. And you have read so many books in order for you to work up to the age of 58, and then you retirement package. Have you read one book to prepare you for the life after death? One, one book - main book."

My beloved mothers, sisters, brothers, we are guilty. Wallahi, we are guilty. We need to understand. When we understand the pure message of the Quran, it automatically shines. It shines our ornament, and it removes the rust from our acts of worship, because we will understand what Allah wants from us. That's the Quran.

And this is why, you know, the hearts of the believers, they incline towards the word of Allah. If you have someone explaining the Quran in simple words, no matter who it is, even the non-Muslims will listen. They will listen, you know.

There is a hadith where there were the three leaders of Quraysh in Mecca who quietly used to go during the daytime. They used to fight Muhammad. They used to tell everyone, "Don't listen to this Quran. Don't listen to this man. He is a magician, he is a mad man, he is a womanizer, he wants power, he wants money." They threw so many accusations at him. But at night, separately, the one decided, "Let me..." Muhammad used to read Quran audibly - slightly audibly - near where he was, and they used to go around and quietly, you know - that time the homes were not like this where I am talking so loudly the neighbor cannot hear me. That time you say something and people can hear you. So they went - one is on this side, the other one that side, and it's dark. That time there were no street lights and so on. They are listening.

When he completed his recitation, the three were walking home, or they bumped into each other. I am talking of leaders - Al-Akhnas ibn Shuraykh, the names are there, Abu Jahl. They were the leaders of Quraysh, the ones who were fighting Muhammad. And what happened? They met on the road. They bumped into each other at night. "Hey, what are you doing awake at this time of the night?" He says, "No, what are you doing awake at this time?" The other one says, "No, what are you doing awake at this time of the night?" So he says, "Hey, look, you know what, I was..." He says, "No, no, no, no excuse. Tell us what were you doing."

And then the three, they admitted: "No, you know, the one says, 'I went to listen to this word, to see what he says, you know what, I went to do the same thing.' The third one says, 'You know what, I did the same thing." So they said, "Look, we are the leaders. We can't do this." Imagine, the sweetness of the Quran pulls the non-Muslims towards it, and sometimes the Muslims themselves are not pulled. Allahu Akbar!

The Importance of Understanding the Quran

In our age, in our age today, Muslims themselves, they just say, "No, this book is there to read, and just you must recite every morning as an ornament. Pick it up and read Suratul Fatiha, and read Suratul this and that, and just close it and put it away." We have not understood its meaning. We don't know its message. But ask them about Harry Potter - they will give you all five versions, and they will tell you, "We hope there was a sixth one." Yes, it's happening.

Quran - compare it to the other books. What are we going to tell Allah? So now you have the issues of belief that are mentioned in the Quran. How are we going to know them if we haven't even understood the pure message of the Quran?

So to end that story, they promised, the three of them, that "we are not going to return." The next day they were there, all three. Same thing happened the third day. They were there, same thing happened. Then they said, "No, no," then they started swearing oaths, and after that they didn't come.

Also, one day they sent one of the leaders of Quraysh to Muhammad to say, "You know what? Just leave your statement. What is it? Leave your statement. You want to marry women? We will give you the most beautiful of women. You want wealth? We give you wealth. You want to be the leader? We make you our leader. What do you want? Whatever you want, we give it to you. But stop saying all this. Stop talking about our idols. Stop telling people to worship Allah alone and, you know, the maker and all that."

They believed in Allah, the kuffar of Quraysh believed in Allah. The kuffar of Quraysh believed in Allah. Do you understand what I'm saying? Some people might say, "No, the Quran says..."

"If you were to ask the kuffar, 'Who created the skies and the earth?' they won't say 'my idol' - because they know the idol, I just made it now, you know. They will say, 'There is a maker - Allah created that.'"

And Allah says in the Quran:

When the ship was rocking a bit, they said, "Oh my maker, help us, help us here!" They didn't say, "Oh my idol," they know the idol cannot help me. In fact, if there is weight in the ship, and they need to kick something out, the first thing they throw is the idols. So when they are in the ship, they call Allah. They call out to their maker, to Allah, to save them. The minute they dock on the coast, they immediately begin to call their idols again.

This is foolishness. It happens to us. Those of us who have travelled by ship, sometimes it happens. When it rocks heavily, we start saying (أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ - ashhadu an la ilaha illa Allah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan abduhu). We are saying it with so much passion, because of the difficulty. May Allah make us say it every day with passion. Ameen.

Sometimes in the aircraft - I was coming now to Malaysia - we had a lot of turbulence, mashallah, a lot of turbulence. I know how it feels, and I'm sure some of you do too, when you say, "Ya Allah, forgive me if this is my... Ya Allah, take care of my children. Ya Allah, you mean it clearly. Ya Allah, take care of them. If you have decided for us to go, ya Allah, I have children I have left behind. I have this, I have that. Ya Allah, take care of them. Give them barakah, give them..." It happens. Once you land, first thing we hit the scenes, mashallah, we go here, go there, we forget what happened there. If that was the case, it would be good for us to stay on an aircraft throughout our lives! laughter

So let us not fall prey to this matter where we know Allah, we worship Allah, but only at certain points we have a high, and certain points we have - we forget Him totally.

The Pillars of Islam and Iman

Getting back to this issue, we know the pillars of Islam. I have just mentioned them. The first one: (شَهَادَةُ - shahada) (إِقَامُ الصَّلَاةِ وَإِيتَاءُ الزَّكَاةِ وَصَوْمُ رَمَضَانَ - iqamus-salati wa ita'uz-zakati wa sawmu ramadan). We know that. Then we have (أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ - an la ilaha illallahu wa anna Muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluhu) (وَحَجُّ الْبَيْتِ مَنِ اسْتَطَاعَ إِلَيْهِ سَبِيلًا - wa hajjul-baiti man istata'a ilaihi sabila). I'm sure we all understand that, don't we? We all understand. These are the five pillars of Islam.

So what are the pillars of Iman? We believe in Allah, which means (أَن تُؤْمِنَ بِاللهِ - an tu'mina billah) - we believe in Allah. Belief is something you cannot see. This is the thing. So if someone says, "Are you a Muslim?" you could be a Muslim. "But are you a mu'min?" That I can't tell. A Muslim is a submitter.

Allah makes mention of this in Surah al-Hujurat: "The Bedouins, they said, 'We are mu'min, we believe.' So Allah says, 'Tell them, don't say we believe - say we have submitted, because Iman has not yet got into your heart.'"

So this shows us - this verse shows us - the difference between Islam and Iman. Islam, when we speak about the two of them together, we are saying Islam - the actions you can see. Look, the five pillars: if someone is uttering the Shahada, we can see it. If someone is fulfilling Salah, we can see it. If someone is abstaining from food, we can see it. If someone is giving Zakah, it can be seen. If someone is going for Hajj, it can be seen.

But now let's go to the pillars of Iman. If someone tells you, "I believe in Allah," can you see it? You cannot see it. "Someone says, 'I believe in the angels,''" it is in the heart - you cannot see it. "I believe in all the previous books" - it's in the heart, I cannot see it. "I believe in all the messengers" - it's in the heart, I cannot see it. "I believe that good and bad fate is from the Almighty" - it's in the heart. "I believe in resurrection and the fact that I am answerable for everything I do, and I believe in the last day" - we cannot see that.

So this is why it's important for us to develop that belief in Allah.

Where Do We Get Islam and Iman?

Now there is a very, very interesting point. When it comes to Islam, where do I get it from? When it comes to Iman, where do I get it from? Where can I get it from? Who brought Islam and Iman to me? Muhammad. What did he come with? He came with the Quran.

Is the Quran doubted by anyone? The answer is no. For your information, for your information, the whole world admits - and they know it deep down - that the Quran is the only book in existence that has lasted so many years and is uncontaminated. So for this reason, they cannot pick on it.

The other day someone asked me, "What makes you believe Islam is true?" Oh, I have a whole encyclopedia of answers for you, my brother, but I will just say one thing: "It's book done. Its book cannot be competed with - nothing, finished." I can answer them in 50 ways, but let's start with something. And he was stumped, completely stumped - mid wicket, you know. When they play cricket, they say when you know how to bowl, the middle wicket goes, then you say, "Oh," the batsman looks back and says, "It's gone." So he was stumped mid wicket. He didn't know what to say. I said, "Its book," because he knows now - as a Christian, he was a Christian - he knows that the book is... The Christians themselves have discrepancies. There are more than 36 versions of the Bible, and all the other books have been changed. There are disputes amongst them as to this, as to that. Come to the Quran.

So, sometime later he got back to me, and he emailed me and told me, "You know what? I read that the Quran is not authentic." I told him, "My brother, keep on dreaming. This what you have said is only a trial of the jealous who don't want to accept the truth, saying it's not authentic. How can a book last so many years through billions of people who have crossed? If today there are 2 billion Muslims, remember how many have passed away - probably trillions, somewhere. If billions of Muslims have come with this book, they have read it, they have preserved it, they have passed it down generations without a change. I, being born and brought up in one corner of Africa, when I go to Mecca in the Haram, I know the Quran they are reading. I understand, I relate to it. I can correct that Imam if anything goes wrong - I know it. And the same applies if you enter the Masjid in Malaysia or anywhere else. If I enter, I cannot speak the Malaysian language - the only thing I know is when I came here and I told the people, 'Oh, I like Malaysia,' the one brother told me, 'Don't say Malaysia - you must say Malaysia.' So I said, 'Okay, I will say Malaysia from now on." I think there is Tajweed also required when it comes... So, if I come to Malaysia, I cannot understand the language, I cannot pronounce the way you pronounce, but go to the Masjid, I will understand. I will enjoy the Salah behind the Imam because I know, subhanallah, what he is reading is the miracle of the age. Allahu Akbar Kabira. Allahu Akbar. How fortunate are we!

Addressing Doubts About the Quran

So today, people are trying to look for issues. They say, "How could Uthman Ibn Affan رضي الله عنه burn those Quran?" That's one point they are raising. "How could we believe that whatever he did was valid?" Today we have the Quran. We are sitting here. Then another thing they raise about our own belief regarding the Quran: they say, "Why is it that at that time they gathered the Quran only later on?"

Let me explain to you - you need to know the answer. Why did they gather the Quran later on? At that time, the people could barely read or write. Their memories were like elephants. They had powerful memories, so powerful. The Arabs are known for their eloquence, and at that time their memories were so solid that they relied on the memories more than anything else. If someone said something by memory, it was more valid than anything. They had no need to write things down, and a lot of them could not read or write.

Allah says: "It is Allah who sent amongst those who were unlettered - majority of them were unlettered amongst those who were unlettered, Allah sent one from amongst them, one from amongst them to recite the verses to them." To read - Allah didn't say "to write them down for them" - (يَتْلُو عَلَيْهِمْ - yatlu alayhim) Because this tilawa is more important.

Today we have huffadh. Amongst 4 or 5 of us huffadh, we can come up with a Quran that we will be 100% sure there is no mistake - just amongst 4 people, even less. So tell me the group of the Sahaba رضي الله عنهم . Today, today, today - 4 people. What about the Sahaba رضي الله عنهم when so many of them gathered? What are we saying, that they made mistakes?

You see, the common logic - tell the people: let's choose any city in the world and tell them we want 4 of your strongest huffadh. Bring them here, and bring them there. Then let's talk. Now compare them to the level of the Sahaba, you know. With us, our memory becomes weaker and weaker due to technology. Have you ever thought of that? Technology has made us lazy. 20 years ago, I knew the numbers of a minimum of 200 people with their names and phone numbers off by heart, and I'm sure a lot of you did. "What's this auntie's number?" You say, "Oh, 2563384." No, don't try dialing that - I'm just giving it over. And they tell you, "Your brother's number?" You know it. "Your neighbor's number?" You know it. Today I don't know my own wife's number. Why? Because it's just a name on the phone - you just click. So technology has made us lazy.

That time, they had memories. So they memorized it, they knew it, they knew exactly what it was. And what happened? When there were battles later on, Rasulullah had instructed some of his companions to write down certain verses and certain things. They were known as Kuttab al-Wahi. Muawiyah Ibn Abu Sufyan - there were a lot of them, there were a lot of names. And they used to write some of the verses and so on. They didn't have paper like we have today, mashallah, paper and pen. They used sometimes the skins, and sometimes little pieces of wood, and sometimes parchments and so on.

So, there came a stage when there were some battles where some of those, or a number of those who had memorized Quran were martyred. When that happened, there were still a number who were remaining. So this is when it was decided at that time by Amir al-Mu'minin - even Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, it started at his time, and it continued - to say, "Let us gather the Quran and put it in a form because we want to preserve it for later on."

For example, today you have a phone which has the Quran in it. You have a little app "Quran." And after 200 years, if our children happen to say - or let's not say our children, but if the non-Muslims after 200 years happen to say that "this Quran is not valid because it took them 1430 years to put it on an iPhone" what are you going to say? You will tell them, "That's such a foolish statement. It's so thick because they had the Quran in a different form before that, in paper form, and they just transferred it."

If paper is eradicated soon, and they want to do it - they want to eradicate paper and everything - they want to make everything virtual, and you know, you will talk and your door will reply to you. You will probably see it written on the door. It's happening. It's coming. Technology is moving in leaps and bounds.

If I told you a few years ago that you will be able to talk to your phone and it will reply, you won't believe it. Today you have the iPhone 4. You talk to it, it replies, and it replies properly. I tested it. I tested it with, you know, by trying to insult the phone, and it said... What did it... The woman told me, "I don't deserve that." I was shocked. I was shocked. Try it. It works. We are Muslims - we shouldn't be insulting, but this is a phone. We are just testing it to see if it's really a reality. Wallahi, it will tell you, "I didn't deserve that." I asked her, "Are you married?" She says, "You don't want to know what she tried," and you will see. And I also asked her, "Are you gay?" She says, "That is personal." Ah, ah, try it. Check it and find out. Allah protect us. This is a phone you're talking to, and this is why sometimes I'm worried because people talk more to their phones than their own wives.

So if technology has developed and things have gone, there came a time when more people were reading and writing. So they joined the Quran and they put it in writing. But that does not mean what was in the memory of the people was not authentic, because up to today, what is in the memory of the people is still authentic. Allahu Akbar. There is no doubt about it.

So if you're a Muslim, you can argue and you can win the argument with an intellectual who has a brain a secular brain of today - to tell them: "We want to tell you that the brains of today, come and see the Muslims. Allah said: 'We will give you a gift. We will protect the Quran.'"

"We are the ones who have revealed this dhikr - this Quran - we will protect it."

Up to today, I'm sure amongst us, sitting in this - without coming out of this hall today - we can write the whole Quran if we had to sit here. Amongst us, we will find huffadh. So this is what they came with. They started to find fault in the Quran because we know it's so authentic.

And as I said, one of the biggest issues is the discrepancies that they make in the Quran, and we are sitting here with the Quran, but we've never ever tried to understand the message of Allah.

Verses About Pondering the Quran

Now I want to read for you a few verses of the Quran where Allah is warning us about those who don't want to read the Quran:

Allah says: "Will they not ponder deeply over the verses of the Quran?" That's a question for us.

In another place, Allah says:

"Will they not ponder deeply over the verses of the Quran, or are its locks placed on their hearts?" Which means those who don't want to ponder deeply over the verses of the Quran, perhaps the locks are placed on their hearts. May Allah not make me and not make you and not make us all as Muslims from amongst those.

In another place, Allah says:

That verse is in Surah Saad, where Allah says: "This is a book that we have revealed to you أَنزَلْنَاهُ إِلَيْكَ مبارك - it is blessed لِيَدَّبَّرُوا آيَاتِهِ - so that they can ponder deeply over its verses." So if someone were to ask you why was the Quran revealed, you say: "There is a verse in the Quran which says that Allah revealed the book - it is blessed - in order that they may ponder over its verses." Allah revealed it so that I can ponder over its verses, so that you can ponder over its verses. Who from amongst us has pondered over its verses?

كِتَابٌ - it is a clear verse you find it in Surah Saad - كِتَابٌ أَنزَلْنَاهُ إِلَيْكَ مُبَارَكَ لِيَدَّبَّرُوا آيَاتِهِ - those who know Arabic will know لِّيَدَّبَّرُوا means "in order that they will ponder" or "they may ponder over its verses" - وَلِيَتَذَكَّرَ أُولُو الْأَلْبَابِ - "and in order for it to be a reminder to those who have sound intellect."

So we ask Allah to open those doors for us.

Sources of Knowledge in Islam

When it comes to matters of Islam, we have matters of jurisprudence. When we say jurisprudence, how to read Salat, how much Zakat to give, or exactly who to give that Zakat to, and sometimes the exact method of Hajj, and sometimes you find certain items of, you know, clothing, or when we say jurisprudence, normally we are talking of the Islam of it - whatever. When I said Islam, in a few moments I told you those things which we can see, those things which we can actually see with the eye.

When it comes to the Islam of it, generally related to jurisprudence, we will take it from the source of the Quran, then we take it from the Sunnah of Muhammad ﷺ. And with that, we try our best to ensure - and you know, even as a layman, it's important for us - yes, we follow this or we follow that. It's important for us to ask ourselves: "You see, I am doing this. Why am I doing this? I am doing this because Allah has instructed it in the Quran." It is important for us to know that verse. It's not so difficult. Someone tells you, "My sister, why do you read Salat?" You tell them, "Because Allah says in this in the Quran, and this is the verse," and you read the verse for them. It's important for you to know that, to try. We are Muslims.

If someone were to ask a lawyer that, "Look" - and I'm giving you a real example - "if you were to ask a lawyer, 'Can I do this in Malaysia?' he'll say, 'No, because there is a law in that book which says in the constitution of Malaysia.''' He knows every detail of it. So what about us? We need to get to Jannah. We should be knowing details. We should try our best. And don't think, "Oh, you know what, what he's saying is so big, so difficult." It's not. We have our diverse - "I go to work from 8 to 5. I am like this." All those are cheap excuses. Just start. They say a mile begins with a step - one step. Take one step, see, take the next step, see. Wallahi, after 30 years, you'll have covered the mile. Who said you need to cover it today? No one said that. You know, take one step and cover the whole mile in one step - you can't do that.

My son is doing - if I tell him that you are so lucky you can use an iPod, you know, this iPod, and you can use this memorization of the Quran. When we were young, we had nothing. At a later stage, we had cassettes - those cassettes also, the tape recorders in the house, between 20 people we used one, you know what I am talking about. And it was quite difficult. Today they are so easy. In the car they have a CD, here they have this, they have something that can repeat the verse, and you can repeat the meaning of the verse at the same time.

So one day I told him, "What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for a day when a little chip is made that you plug it into your ear, and suddenly you are a hafidh?" He says, "Yes, that's what I am waiting for. That's what I am waiting for, mashallah." So that can't happen. Well, look, technology is developing, but to my brain, I don't think you can have a chip that suddenly you plug in either your nose or your ear or somewhere, or you have something that is injected in order to give you the knowledge. I don't think we can be hard drives.

So an effort is required, but we need to start. Don't be lazy. Start. That look - today we heard something, let me start. And when we start, we will be able to, inshallah, develop, and Allah knows, and He will be watching us, and He will see us.

So we have the Quran. We find out why we are doing things from there. And then we have the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ. It is also very important for us as Muslims to try our best to find out what is the difference to try our best to find out what is the difference between that which is weak, that which is not authentic. There are a lot of narrations which are fabricated. Sometimes you have someone says, "This is a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ," yet it is not. It's not a hadith.

Now the layman might say, "How should I know?" Well, you know what? You are going to need to learn a little bit. You will have to try and learn a little bit. And let us not get angry or upset when people tell us, "You know, this hadith is actually not authentic." You say, "But I've heard it all along." That answer is dangerous. You need to find out from them: "You know what? Show me. Tell me. Teach me. I want to know more." No problem. That is good. But for us to say, "This man, everything is wrong with him. Whatever we do is wrong, is wrong, it's not authentic" - maybe we are following something that might not be authentic.

Like the Quran says - and this is something all communities do not like to hear, they do not like to hear - the Quran says: when you tell people something to correct them, the first line of attack they will tell you, "First line of attack: Look, we found our forefathers doing this, so we want to follow them." Their guide. Well, I want to follow the Quran and the Sunnah. I want to follow the messenger. I don't want to die saying (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ - la ilaha illallah) Forefathers Rasulullah. I want to die saying (لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱللَّٰهِ - la ilaha illallah muhammadun rasulullah)

My forefathers, if they brought me goodness, alhamdulillah, I accept it. If not, I want to tell you - traveling around the globe and studying the Quran and the Sunnah of Muhammad ﷺ, trying to impart the pristine knowledge to the people - we find that people have mixed culture and religion, and they have married the two to the degree that the religion has become a ritual. It is no longer religion. And it's a fact. Let's face it. Let's not become upset when we are told this, because we have married culture and religion to the degree that religion has become a cultural ritual.

You tell someone, "Why are you doing this?" They say, "Well, you know what, I have to do this." And then you have someone reading Salah in a way that you don't even know, and they are doing things that are very, very mixed up. And this is why we are taught to cleanse.

What did I say? Our ornament needs to be polished. That's what I said. How will it be polished? With knowledge. Without knowledge, you cannot polish your ornament. It will continue gathering - ask the sisters here, when you have your home and you have all the dust in your lounge, every day or every second day, you dust it. You dust it. No one sat in your lounge, but you will send the maid, or you yourself, you dust it because you don't want the dust to settle. How do you dust it? You make an effort. You take either - nowadays you have a blower, or you have something, or you can have a little piece of cloth - that you go and wipe things with, every day or second day, or once a week. You will do it regularly because you don't want someone to come into your home and see dust has settled here.

You know, you find a Sheikh coming in with a white robe, and he sits. When he leaves your home and he takes his towel out and he's hanging... "I won't go to that house again." Yeah, my whole robe is dirty. Allahu Akbar.

So we want the same way we are bothered about not allowing dust to settle on our ornaments in the house. We have an ornament most important to us: that is our deen. The only way we can polish it is through knowledge. So don't be shy to learn. Go and learn. Learn more. And when we go to learn, we might find five people, ten people - the numbers don't matter. And the first day it might be a little bit boring. Why? Because Shaytan will come to us and say, "Come on, man, is this what it's all about?" Wait - knowledge comes with sabr, knowledge comes with patience. The Shaytan will come to you and tell you, "No, don't go this week, next week, because this week it was boring." And the very following week, there is something very interesting that came about, so you need a lot of patience.

I have had some brothers who were accepted at the university in Medina, Al Munawwara, and when they went there, after a few days, the brother emails me and says, "Brother, you know what, I am finding it very boring here." Astaghfirullah, may Allah protect us. Why? Because they are learning basics. Maybe they know. I said, "Look, hang on. Once you have got to a level where you now have all the basics that they have taught, are now depleted in your knowledge, you will plug into a new level. Wait with patience, because Allah tests you to see, are you worth it or not? If you don't have the patience, what type of knowledge would you like?"

Then we also have the deeper knowledge of jurisprudence that is derived from the books of Fiqh, and that is derived from the extraction of rules from the Quran and the Sunnah. That is not everybody's job, but we need to understand that we are fortunate enough to have learned in specific ways. And alhamdulillah, but there is something that needs to be highlighted - and what is that? Belief. The issues of belief - they are serious matters. They only have two sources, no third source.

A matter of belief - how do I know what to believe? So if it is an issue of jurisprudence, I take it from the Quran or the Sunnah, or from what I can term for the layman, Fiqh. We are talking of Ijma' and Qiyas. Ijma' is consensus, and Qiyas is certain similarities that are made with certain rules and so on. So for example, if someone comes to ask you, "Why is," say, the name of a drug here - maybe marijuana, you know what it is - "why is that not allowed when it is not in the Quran and not in the Sunnah?" So you have to tell them that it is not allowed because of the intoxicating factor in it, and because there are other issues which are prohibited due to the intoxicating factor in it, because of that being found in this particular item, it is also not allowed. So this is now known as Qiyas. There are certain rules and regulations in its regard.

The other day someone asked me a question - Allah safeguard us - you know, people want to ask so many questions sometimes, and sometimes to ask a question is very good. No problem, very good. You ask a question, you are given the answer. But sometimes it is a defiance - a defiance, you know. And they ask you a question: "Why is it haram for this to happen or that happen? Where in the Quran is it mentioned?" And I tell them, "It is not in the Quran." So then "I am not going to do that." Well, the Quran leads you to the Sunnah. There are so many other things that are not mentioned in the Quran.

I had to actually tell them something which was a little bit below the belt, in order for them to understand. I said, "Brother, the Quran doesn't say that you are not allowed to drink your urination." Oh, that's a very bad word - how can you say that? I said, "Just to fix you up, to fix you up. Don't come and ask me where is it in the Quran." The brother says, "Where in the Quran does it say that men and women are not allowed to sit together?" So now there are verses about lowering the gaze, there are verses about... there are so many verses which are far deeper than that. We understand it far deeper than that.

So it's like, for example, someone says, "Where in the Quran does it say that I am not allowed to beat up my father?" Well, the Quran says: "Don't even say 'oof' to them." So if you are not allowed to say "oof,"

how can you beat them? So someone says, "No, I won't say 'oof,' but I'll beat him." That is foolish. It is of greater importance. Allah didn't even discuss that because it's included in here, and it's common knowledge.

So, you know, some of these matters people don't understand. However, when it comes to belief - who is Allah, who is the Rasul, what are the qualities of Allah, the names of Allah, what do we believe about Allah, about his messenger, what do we believe about the final day, what do we believe about the angels, what belief do we have about the last day and so on, about Qadr, Taqdeer - you know what is Taqdeer, fate good and bad - that we can only take from the Quran and Sunnah. No one else's brain can be applied to those matters because they are matters of belief. We stop where the Quran stopped. We stop where the Sunnah stopped, and we want to look for the authentic Hadith. And more than that, we will say, "Allah knows best." We don't need to know.

Like sometimes people come and they ask you things of the unseen that, you know, let me give you some examples. Firstly, we start with some light examples. People ask you, "You see the dog is mentioned in the Quran of Banu Israel, you know. So what color was it, you know? Okay, what color was it? Was it an Alsatian, or was it a Labrador, or was it a Doberman?" You know, these are names of dogs. "What's the story?" We don't know. Why don't we know? We are Muslims - come on! Allah is not going to ask you before you enter Jannah, "Quickly, tell me, what was that dog?" Nothing like that. It's nothing. You don't need to know that knowledge. You don't need to know it.

To be honest, we don't fight about it. The people of the book - some of the Jewish people have divided into two groups because of the color of that dog. Wallahi, I'm not joking - because of the color of the dog of the cave - divided into two groups. Some said it was dark in color, light in color. Come on, man. Come on, it's just a lesson to be learned.

So these types of things of the unseen, we don't even need to know. Why am I saying this? Because man sometimes wants to know more than what Allah has told him - more than what Allah has told him. And in his quest to get to that, he starts doing wrong things.

So now you have a sheikh who comes - we had one sheikh who came, visited us some years ago, and he said, he was talking of Mawlid ar-Rasul, and he said, "You know what? The Prophet, when he was born, you know, Jibril came to his mother and told her..." Now this is a lie. This is a lie, because Jibril comes with revelation to Prophets. Jibril told her that, "You know, your son is going to be a Prophet. Be careful." They only knew of Prophethood later on. There were some signs, but they were not as direct as this.

So then he continued, and the people in the Masjid are crying, and I'm looking - this was a few years ago - and I'm sitting watching people crying. And I said, "But look, this man is telling a lie, and I know that he's lying." Then he continued to say, "You know, all the things around the way he was born in Makkah now look what he said - he was born where the library is, you know. Today there is a library there, if you have

seen it. He was born where the library is. So all the things around him, they made Sajdah to him in order to acknowledge his high level, because Allah ordered all those things which were around Adam عَلَيْهِ السَّلَامُ to prostrate to him in order to acknowledge his high level. So the same happened to Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم because Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is higher than Adam - we believe he's higher than Adam, yes, صلى الله عليه وسلم - but we cannot start lying to give him value. His value is there without lies. So don't lie. And if we don't lie, it does not mean we don't respect him. We respect him the most. We love him the most. Loving him means to follow him. That's what he says. Loving Allah means to follow the messenger. If Allah wanted or if Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم wanted, he could have said, "If you love Allah, then you know what, you should worship me." He didn't say that, not at all. "If you love Allah, follow the way. I'll show you how to get to him."

So this Imam, this Sheikh continued, and he said, "The Kaaba came up and went down into prostration." And the people are crying. Subhanallah, I heard some people say, "Allahu Akbar," and I'm just sitting there. And after a while he said, "The Maqam" - you know the Maqam? Today you have a golden little, like small enclosure where there is Maqam. At that time it was not like that; it's just a piece of stone. At the time, a piece of stone. So he said, "The Maqam went up and prostrated." And I'm thinking, "Hang on, that Maqam is built by these people now, this government of just a few years ago." Okay, no problem. Then he said, "The minarets of the Haram, they went up and they prostrated to him." I wanted to say, "What about the books in the library?" Allahu Akbar.

Brother, these minarets were built by the Turks later on. They were renovated by the Saudis. They were not even there. Now look, people are saying "Allahu Akbar" and crying, and they are really crying. Because why? Their iman is weak. They don't realize that your belief - you must get it from Quran and Sunnah. Don't get it from anywhere else. How can we start believing things which are from outside? They are lying to us, and the masses are thinking that this is the truth.

So this is why they start - people are thinking the minarets went down, and they are relating the story to their families: "You know, when the prophet was born, it was such miraculous that even the minarets went down." My brother, my sister, there was no even mataf at the time which was proper. It was a small little place, and the houses were right there, and the Kaaba was not as it is today. How it is covered in such a beautiful way - it was there, but it was built slightly with other bricks. They have renovated it subsequently and so on several times in history. They have changed it after Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم's time.

And then there was another one, a very, very serious one. I read in one book of one sheikh. He says that, "Oh, when Umar ibn Abdul Aziz was passing away..." Now he, rahmatullahi alayh, he was... he was a great ameer. He is counted as khamisul khulafa. He is counted as the fifth of the khulafa, although his tenure of rule was between 99 hijri and 101 hijri. Umar ibn Abdul Aziz - he was a very strong man. So they said, "When Umar ibn Abdul Aziz passed away, on his death bed, the people were saying, 'This man is so powerful, he must be buried under the green dome.'" Are you listening to the statement? "This man is so powerful, he must be buried under the green dome." So Umar ibn Abdul Aziz said, "No, no, no, no. I

cannot be buried under the green dome because there are people far higher than me who are there. I want to be buried with the rest of the Muslims."

Now, they are trying to show you the humbleness of Umar ibn Abdul Aziz. How do you know it's a lie? Who can tell me? How do you know they are lying? Who can tell me? There was no dome. The dome came - the Turks built the dome. Today, when we think of Medina, every one of us - myself included we think a green dome. That is to us is Medina, mashallah. Yes, it is, it's Medina. But have you thought that this green dome is Turkish heritage? It was built by the Turks, the Ottomans. The domes came in with the Ottomans.

So for people to tell us, we need small knowledge. We need basic knowledge to know that this is a lie. And now when you tell someone, "Brother, that's a lie," they say, "No, no, no. I don't know what Islam you have come with. You know, you have been spoiled. You don't know, you don't respect the dome." It's not like we don't respect. What do you mean, what Islam I came with? We are telling you common sense, and you... So this is why we say we need to polish our ornament.

So when it comes to difference of opinion in jurisprudence, it is more acceptable. When it comes to difference of opinion in belief, how could we be different? How could we be different when we take it from Quran and Sunnah alone? There is no difference. If someone were to say regarding Allah, asked you questions about your own maker, we all have the same answers. And this is why you have all the anbiya of Allah, their sharias were different, but their beliefs were all the same.

I mentioned it the other day in my talk: every prophet taught these pillars. They taught about Allah alone. They taught about all the messengers. They taught about the previous books. They taught about believing in... believing in the fact that good and bad fate came from Allah. They taught about resurrection, including Jesus, may peace be upon him. They taught all these pillars.

So this is why when we say the difference of opinion, we need to know that Allah has blessed us. But sometimes we are too lazy to take from that blessing, and that is the blessing of knowledge. Ask them, O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم:

"Are those who know and those who don't know equal? They are definitely not equal."

And knowledge is not copyrighted to anyone. The knowledge of deen is not copyrighted to anyone. So much so, that the hadith speaks about the sin of (كِتَمَانُ الْعِلْمِ - kitman al-ilm) - the sin of hiding knowledge. If someone has hidden the knowledge - you know something and you don't share it - there is a sin.

Today I am speaking to my brothers and sisters. I hope we have the ability to digest what I have said, because if you notice, today it was not an ordinary lecture. It was more of a lesson. It was more of a lesson where we are talking about belief, and we are talking about differences of opinion. And I tried to

make it as close as possible to a lecture so that people do not get tired. Mashallah, you know, normally when people are captivated and looking at you, you can continue. But if sometimes you speak in a lesson in a lecture theatre, half the students are asleep. So we thank Allah, and really I thank the organizers of this particular venue - brother Farid, the others, all those who have been part and parcel of bringing me along here to Malaysia. Really, tribute is paid to all of them, alhamdulillah. And we work as a team in order to get together in the plains of paradise, inshallah, as a team.

Questions and Answers

If anyone has questions, you may start putting them forward. Inshallah, I will try to respond. Normally, I am very fearful of answering questions because people try to test you sometimes. So when we ask questions, we should ask something we really need to know. And another thing, people have a habit of doing - is when they want to fix someone, they ask the shaykh in their presence, and then when the shaykh gives the answer, they all look and say, "You see? You see?" Which means, "Wasn't I telling you?"

Question about starting with the Quran:

A very good question regarding the Quran. Where do we start? Do we start with the meaning and the understanding or the tajweed, or should you take it together?

Someone says, "I found it quite difficult." My beloved brothers and sisters, firstly we should know our duty towards the Quran. We should be able to - we should try to read it, listen to the duties towards the Quran. We should try to read it, and we should try to read it correctly, and we should try to understand it. So all these are our duties towards the Quran, and we put it into practice as well. And wherever you do not understand something or it sounds ambiguous, like you will come in the Quran, you find a verse which says:

"They ask you about alcohol and gambling. Say: in them a great sin and benefits for the people, and their sin is greater than their benefit."

O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, they are asking you about alcohol and gambling. Tell them that there is a great sin in it, but there is also some goodness in it, but the sin is far greater. The sin is far greater than the goodness. So someone might read it and say, "You see, you can drink a little bit of wine." Someone might. So if we know as Muslims that alcohol is haram - if we don't understand that and we don't understand abrogation we need to sit with someone and ask them: "Look, ustad, explain to me abrogation, and I want to know the details of this verse." Once that happens, you will learn the knowledge.

So do not answer questions that come to your mind yourself - to say and jump to a conclusion without knowledge. This is what we are saying. So we do have the duty of reading and understanding and putting it into practice. Whichever one is easiest for you, you start with it. But do not say that "I'm not going to do

the others. I've done one, and I'm not doing the others," knowing that to understand its meaning is of vital importance.

You know, the hadith speaks about a reward for every letter that you read in the Arabic language. There is also a reward quite similar for trying to understand it, and trying to understand it - wallahi, I don't know how strongly we can put it. There are no words to explain to you what it will do to you and your life to know what your own maker has sent to you.

I think it's an insult, to be honest, to have read thousands of books in order to understand the world more properly, and we couldn't even read one book that our own maker - who gave me five fingers and my identity, every thumbprint is different - the one who did that for me, I don't want to listen or read his message seriously. May Allah make us start with whatever is best.

As for tajweed, it is our duty to slowly try and improve that and to do something about it. So all these three things - like someone tells you, "Do I need English or Maths?" You need both of them - simple Maths you need, and simple English you will also need. It's just an example. So in order to answer that, we need all, inshallah, and we start with whatever is easiest for us, and we will try our best also to, inshallah, incorporate the rest.

Question about reading translation vs. reciting:

Is it okay to read the translation of the Quran more than reciting it, as we are not Arab-speaking people?

That's a very interesting question. To be honest with you, personally my view is that it is very important to read the Arabic language and to recite the Quran and to try your best. But if a person cannot read the Arabic language, then it does not give them an excuse to leave the Quran on one side. They must read the English of it. They must read the English of it.

Let me quickly explain to you why we need the Arabic. We are not allowed to read Salah in any language besides Arabic. So some of the non-Muslims say, "You Muslims are strange. How can you only pray in Arabic?" And we tell them, "No, your prayer is different from ours. Your prayer is more of a supplication. If you tell a Christian 'pray,' they'll clasp their hands and they'll start saying, 'Oh God, do this,' and 'Oh God, that,' and 'Thank you, oh God,' and 'Almighty God,' and so on. That's prayer to them. To us, that is Dua it's a supplication."

Dua - is there any specific language for Dua? Even if you don't know what to say, you say, "Ya Allah, you read my heart. You know what's inside. For us, it's enough for us. It's enough. Ya Allah, you know better than me what I want to ask you. Ya Allah, give it to me. I don't know how to word it. Ya Allah." Allah doesn't mind. So you don't need a language for Dua.

They must not come and con you and say, "Your prayer is in Arabic." So what is the Salah? Salah has so much benefit. One of them is the protection of the book. Allahu Akbar. I tell the reverts, when they say,

"It's going to be difficult to learn the Arabic," I say, "Don't worry. You only need to know a bare minimum of a few short chapters to read your Salah to start with, and slowly you will be able to develop." And when they say, "But why?" I say, "Look, where is the Bible?" They say, "It's lost." "Where is the Talmud Torah?" They say, "It has been changed." "So the Quran - it didn't change. Why?" "Because you have contributed - every one of you have contributed towards the protection of the Quran - all of you, without exception - by doing what? You know Suratul Fatiha, you know another 2-3 Surahs, you know a little bit more. So if you go to your sister's house one day and she says (الْحَمْدُ للهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ) what will you say? What will you say? Every one of you - you are not a Hafidh of the Quran, you are not a Hafidh, but you will say 'Ameen.' Am I right? Allahu Akbar. Allah has used all of us, even though I don't know Arabic, I can tell someone, 'Don't change revelation, please.' Do you see? Do you see what we are saying? Look at the power of it.

So we must be happy to say, 'My Salah, I will learn the Quran, and I will try to have the meaning of it, because it will add flavor to my Salah, and I will get the true essence of it.' But even if I don't know the meaning, I'm going to learn the Arabic because I need to read my Salah. There we are. But what I'm saying is it is our duty to understand it primarily - because primarily we must understand it. So let's not divorce the recitation at the expense of trying to just understand, but we must understand it more importantly. And we need to know at least a minimum when it comes to recitation also. We can read the meaning of it, and recite a portion of it on a daily basis. Recite a portion of it on a daily basis, and read the meaning of a portion of it.

You might move slower when it comes to recitation because you are a little bit slower. You set aside 10 minutes a day for recitation, and you might try slowly, slowly. You might read 2 verses. Some people in 10 minutes can read 5 pages. And then you might read the English of it. You might just read 2 verses, and your pondering over it will be so deep that it will take you the whole day. So it all depends. May Allah make it easy for us.

Question about Malaysian titles for the Prophet ﷺ: This is a very interesting question. It says, "In Malaysia, the Muslims add another title to the name of the Prophet ﷺ. What is it? Baginda." Baginda - Sayyidina, the title given to the ruler. I think the word here used is the title given to the Malay rulers. Baginda - so it's a title given to the Malay rulers. "Do you think it is a bid'ah to call them that?"

You see, one thing is we respect the Prophet ﷺ, and in order to honor him, those who honored him the most - those who honored him the most were the Sahaba (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُم). They gave the greatest honor. They were chosen. I want to tell you why they were chosen. They were chosen to be Sahaba because of the condition of their heart. They were the most ready to surrender.

When they were drinking alcohol and the verse came, they spat it out. That's the type of people. When they were doing something, they immediately fell prostrate when the Prophet ﷺ told them, "Don't do this." They left everything of that nature within split moments. They did not say "how" and "why." Imagine

today, if someone tells you - you know, to have to eat interest is haram, for example - people will say, "He doesn't know what he's talking about. There is an issue regarding this," and so on.

So the condition of our hearts are such that we are not prepared to surrender immediately. We start looking at how difficult our life will be if we took that out of our lives. So for that reason, we are not Sahaba. May Allah grant us the understanding of the level of Sahaba.

When they were told "this is haram," they threw it straight out. When they were told "make hijrah," they left their families, they left their wealth, they left everything and they ran. When they were told "hey, we need to run this way," they ran that way. They didn't ask why. After they did it, they found out. So they respected the Prophet ﷺ. They honored him. They gave their lives for him, and they used terms for him.

It is best to use the same terms that they used. If it is in another language and it has the same connotation, we would be allowed to use it. But if it is in another language and it does not have the same connotation, then it would be better not to use it. But we don't want to fight about little matters of that nature, inshallah. For as long as we have understood what I have just said, now that what is better for us as Muslims is to use the same terms that were used by the Sahaba (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُم) because they were the ones who knew how to respect the Prophet ﷺ in the greatest way.

Question about anti-hadith Muslims: This is a very interesting question also. It says, "How do we address a Muslim who is anti-hadith, for example?"

Now a Muslim who is anti-hadith - for your information, technically speaking, they cannot call themselves a Muslim, because anti-hadith - this is a new war that people are waging against Islam to remove it. When you remove hadith, you have removed Islam, because the Quran alone - it has an explanation. You know, there is a hadith, the Prophet ﷺ says:

(Abu Dawud 4604)

"Behold, I have been given the Quran and I have been given something similar to it, together with it," which is the Sunnah.

The Prophet ﷺ says, "Be careful. Very soon a man will come sitting on his recliner chair" - أريكة means like a sofa - "sitting on a reclining chair, saying, 'This is the book of Allah. Whatever is in it halal, I make halal. Whatever is haram in it, I make haram. I don't want to take anything else.'" The Prophet ﷺ says, "Be careful of that person."

That was a prophecy. It has come. Today we see them. They tell you, "What is hadith? There is a lot of dispute in hadith. Just throw it out." Astaghfirullah. How can you say that when the explanation of so many things is in hadith? Salah is not explained in detail in the Quran - it is in the Sunnah. Zakah is not explained in detail in the Quran - it is in the Sunnah. You know, so many things are in fact almost everything, the details of it is in the Sunnah. The Quran is there. It has in it rules and regulations, and it

guides you. There are verses in the Quran that tell you that you need to follow the Sunnah, like the one that we just read:

"If you love Allah, follow me" - follow me meaning my way, my path, my explanation. That is Muhammad ﷺ.

Also, the Sahaba (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُم) - what did they do? They followed him. They asked him, he answered. So that question and answer, the copy of it came to us. How can we say it is not valid? When they didn't understand something, they asked him. He answered them. When he answered them, it was recorded for us, and it came.

Some people say, "No, it was only recorded 200 years later, so it's not authentic." It has its chain. It is the only set of historic documentation that comes with a chain of narrators to the source. Today, when they tell you about Second World War, what do they say? A man writes a book. He is living now, but he writes a book about Second World War. We still believe it and teach it in our schools, and there is no chain of narrators. He could be saying anything, and we just believe it. When they write history - history of Malaysia, history of Zimbabwe - who knows that it is authentic? Maybe the colonialists came and just put something. They normally do do that anyway. They are rewriting the history of Iraq as we are talking now, removing everything that they don't like. They will say, "We brought the civilization," and so on.

Yet we accept their books of history with no chain of narrators, and we cannot accept hadith which has chain of narrators? How foolish can it be!

And when we say chain of narrators, Islam is the only religion that has such a comprehensive, detailed discussion of all the men who were responsible from the point that the hadith was written, going back all the way to its source - whoever narrated it, where they were, who they were, what type of people they were, when they were born, the places they travelled, the teachers they had. You have أَسْمَاءُ الرِّجَالِ - they are books, volumes and volumes of books. And it's so easy. So how can we reject that?

May Allah guide those who are anti-hadith, and may Allah make them from those who realize and understand that not only do we need the hadith, but we need to authenticate the hadith. And it's not difficult. Today there is a computer program that is out where you punch in the hadith, and it gives you all the chain of narrators, and it highlights in three colors - there is red, there is green, and blue - to tell you the level of the narrator. If it is red, it means there is something wrong. You can click his name, and it will show you ten books where this man has been mentioned and whether he is a liar or not, and whether he has fabricated in his life or not. So you will now know that this hadith, there is something wrong.

I can give you an example. We might have heard a hadith: (أطْلُبُوا الْعِلْمَ وَلَوْ بِالصَّين) - "Have you heard that hadith? Seek knowledge even if it means to go to China." Have you heard the hadith? So, "Seek

knowledge" is a hadith - we don't deny that. Seeking knowledge, that's a hadith. It's mentioned in so many other hadith. But the man who was narrating the hadith, he was explaining innocently, saying, "You know, seek knowledge. The prophet said seek knowledge." Now the hadith is over. Now he is explaining to the people to say, "Even if it means going to China." So what people did, they married the two and pretended like the whole thing was hadith.

"What about China?" The prophet didn't even know the Chinese at the time. laughter "China, going to China." It's like you find a hadith which says, "Seek knowledge, even if it means going to KL." So you would know that KL was not there at the time of the prophet. So "even if it means going to KL" is the explanation of the man who is talking. It's not... it's like if I tell you something, I give you a hadith, and I explain. The prophet said that you should read salah in this way. Then I pause for a moment, and I start giving my own explanation. You would understand it. So when you write it down, you need to separate the two.

So the ulama have separated the two. Today we still find some scholars who might not have deep - you see, knowledge is so deep. You keep on swimming, and you keep on learning. I learn new things every day. That is knowledge. And you might have to modify what you've known in the past. You have to change it sometime because you now know something new. The Sahaba (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُم) used to do it. The imams of the madhahib used to do it. Imam Shafi has an opinion. Tomorrow he changes it, and people say, "Why?" He says, "Because I found something which now authenticates, which now authenticates a certain view, and it will eradicate my previous view." You find that it's not embarrassing to do that. We should, in fact, when we find we are doing wrong, we should change it.

So now there are some ulama who might not know that وَلَوْ بِالصَّين - meaning "even if it means going to China" - that addition is actually the explanation of the rawi. It is the explanation of the narrator and not the word of the prophet. They might not know that, and they will quote the hadith in the masjid and so on. But once you get to a certain level - and now I told you, we have software that is developed. There is a website in Arabic - sadly it's all in Arabic language. It will come inshallah in Malaya and everything else as time passes, inshallah. But in the Arabic language, there is even a website. You just paste the hadith, and it gives you all the information about the hadith. It will show you in which books it is, who are the narrators, what is the quality of each narrator. Subhanallah, it is so easy to learn knowledge these days. It's at your fingertips, mashallah.

I see some people with their phones, and they are so busy, and I think, "Mashallah, I hope they are using Quran." They are playing poker on the phone. They are playing poker on the phone, and they are playing games. Say, "I cracked it, I cracked it." "Did you crack a hadith, or did you crack something else?" So I think in the day we can learn one hadith. There is no harm. And if someone says, "This narration is fabricated," don't get angry. There might be another narration similar to it which is more correct, because fabrication can either be a chain, or it can either be the wording. And sometimes there can be something

similar in meaning but with a different wording which is more valid than a certain wording. Some people like to make things rhyme, you know, to make things rhyme.

So those who are anti-hadith, really, it is very difficult because they have lost the path. And we need to make dua for them and try and speak to them and explain to them.

Question about Qadar: I have the questions here. Most of the people have put in their emails, so if perhaps, maybe we might be able to respond a little bit more.

One other question says here a question about قضاء and قدر - Taqdeer. Allah says:

One of the reasons why Allah has predestined matters is that you do not become sad regarding that which you have lost, and you do not become so proud and haughty and arrogant regarding that which you have gained. So Allah has decreed it. Be happy with the Taqdeer.

I was reading a hadith very recently of Rasulullah ﷺ wherein he says that Allah - He tests everyone. Whoever is happy with the test of Allah, Allah is happy with them. Whoever is upset with the test of Allah, Allah is upset with them. We can't be upset with the test of Allah. Allah puts tests in our lives. Don't be angry. Don't be upset.

You know, we read this book, Riyad as-Saliheen. It's a good book of hadith - Gardens of the Virtuous. Good book of hadith. If you read those ahadith day by day, you will come across so many good authentic ahadith in that book. If you don't understand the hadith, go and ask. Don't just come to your own conclusion and confuse yourself. Ask those with knowledge. It's important to have link with those with knowledge, because today, technology is at our fingertips. You read on your own, you hear on your own. If you've heard something that doesn't make sense to you, or that your mind has not yet digested, or you think, "Hey, there's something that's a little bit murky here," go and ask. May Allah open our doors.

This question is very broad regarding Qadar. I don't know what the sister wants - whether she actually wants us to explain further and so on. I have just told you in a nutshell: people must not blame Taqdeer when they do something wrong.

At the time of Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْه) - and this is written in a book called Tariq Al-Khulafa - where they came with a thief. They brought him to Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْه) and he was about to have his hand cut. For your information, Islam and Sharia is very, very deep. It is not shallow. Sharia is not a barbaric law. It is the solution to mankind's problems - the rape and the sexual harassment, everything. If you follow Islam and its dress code and so on, problem solved. If they tell you that in Malaysia nowadays, in some of the public trains, they have changed the color of some of the seats to make the girls sit on the pink chairs and so on because of sexual harassment and what have you, perhaps it is because of the way they dress. When you dress Islamically, there is greater respect. And when you

handle yourself like a Muslim - sometimes you dress Islamically, but you handle yourself like a person who is, you know, flirting here and there and giggling with this one and that one - doesn't work. You need to handle yourself in a respectable manner, and people will respect you.

So if that happens, it's because they haven't had the Sharia to be applied properly in our own lives. And this is why we say, when we say "cutting the hand," do you know how difficult it is to arrive at a judgment to cut someone's hand? You need a certain type of witness. You need the witnesses to be of a certain level of truthfulness. You need an item that was stolen to be more than the value of a certain amount. You need it to have been in what is known as (جِزْز - jiz). A Hirz means a place that is considered secure for that item. So if I have my vehicle with the doors open and the windows down, I cannot cut the hand of the person who has stolen it because I invited him as well. But if it is... yes, I am guilty. If my money is sticking out of my back pocket and someone steals it, his hand cannot be cut. We are talking of someone who has stolen a specific more than a certain amount from a place considered to be safe for that item, who was witnessed with witnesses who are truthful people beyond a certain degree, and so on. After that, there will be judgment. If there is one small doubt, you won't cut the hand. You punish him in a different way.

You know, the courts of today, they oppress people with a certain law. What is the law? Beyond reasonable doubt. That reasonable doubt is not in Islam. Islam says beyond doubt - finished. It's over. If there is any doubt, you don't cut the hand. If there is any doubt, you don't execute. If there is any doubt, you don't... It is called (شُبْهَة - shubha). (الحُدُودُ تَنْدَرِئُ - al-hududu tandari'u) - or (تَنْفِعُ - tanfa'u) - (بِالشَّبْهَاتِ - bish-shubhati) All these punishments of that height - where you execute, or you have the cutting of the hand, or you have the lashing, and so on - they will drop immediately upon the slightest doubt. Slightest doubt. Whereas the courts, the secular courts, that doesn't happen. They just say "reasonable doubt - reasonable." That means there is some doubt, but you know what, the judge still believes that this person is guilty. They go to the gallows. Allahu Akbar. Allah protect us.

May Allah grant us goodness. So when the thief came to Umar Ibn Al-Khattab, after everything was done and his hand was supposed to be cut, he says, "Ya Amir Al-Mumineen, oh, you are cutting my hand. Don't you believe in Taqdeer? It was destined that I was going to steal, so how can you punish me for something that was destined for me in my destiny?"

So Amir Al-Mumineen calls the (جلاد - Jallad) is the one who is going to execute that, you know, the cutting. And he says, "Get on with your job, because it was written in his destiny that he was going to have his hand cut. He was going to have his hand cut. Get on with your job."

So what does that mean? Don't use predestiny to act as an excuse for what you have done. When you committed the crime, you committed it. May Allah grant us all forms of goodness.

Question about praying for non-believers:

There is a question: "Can a person pray for a non-believer who is ill?" Meaning you are asking Allah to cure them. You ask Allah to cure them. You need to add

something with that: "May Allah guide them." So guidance is the biggest cure. You see, when you have people who are sick and ill, when a non-Muslim passes away, we are taught as Muslims that we do not make dua of maghfira for them. We do not make dua of forgiveness for them. We can sympathize, and we can express our condolences, and it stops there. And there are reasons - I explained it a few days ago. I explained it a few days ago.

When it comes to a person who is sick, you can say, "Ya Allah, cure this person." You are allowed to make dua for the cure of a non-Muslim. But add something to that and say, "Ya Allah, cure them and guide them," because in the same way they might be injured or sick physically, they may be injured or - they are injured and sick spiritually. Don't forget the one without the other. May Allah grant us all cure from our sicknesses and guide us all as well.

Question about knowing if you are a Mu'min:

How will a person know... I think I will end with this question because there is a lot of time, inshallah, that we have taken talking. How will a person know whether he or she is a mu'min?

Well, you will know it through the condition of your heart. If you believe thoroughly in what Allah has sent down and the tenets of Iman and Islam and so on, you believe it in the heart, and you will be able to feel that belief in your heart. But the hadith says that Iman has a sweetness, and you will need some qualities to taste the sweetness of Iman. What is that? Three qualities. If they are found in you, you will start tasting the sweetness of Iman. It has a taste in it.

If Allah - or for Allah and his messenger to be more beloved to you than anything and anyone else - they are the most important. "What pleases Allah pleases me. What the messenger has come with is my following." So if that is your aim in life - that Allah comes first than everyone else - you have the chance to taste the sweetness of Iman. That is quality number one: for the person to love Allah and his messenger more than anyone and everyone else - everything besides the two of them.

For you to love someone only for the sake of Allah - "We love each other solely because we are mu'mineen. You find a person who is pious, you love their piety. You love them for that piety, and you have this feeling of respect and at the same time love for this particular person solely for the pleasure of Allah." There is nothing that brings you to a person besides the deen and besides Allah. Sometimes we are inclined to someone because we earn money through them. If they are a good Muslim, alhamdulillah, but if they are not, you might compromise your religion one day because you might lose a dollar or two or a ringgit or two. So you have people who are very big enemies of Islam, but you will attend their functions. You will be seen rubbing shoulders with them, and you will... If you have to do that for some reason without compromising your deen, it might be one of those things. But you need to know a line and a limit.

I have had cases where people have business partners whom they allow to come in their houses - yet they are non-Muslim, and they have bad habits - they allow them to come in their houses and mix with their children and play with their children without a barrier. They eat together, and they laugh together, and they go on holiday together. And the one brother told me, "Please warn the people, because my son has left Islam." "Why?" "He fell in love with the girl - the daughter of my business partner - and the daughter convinced him that 'Why must I convert? You convert.'" So he says, "Dad, it's fair - either she comes here, or I go there." So he says, "I didn't even teach my children religion. He doesn't even realize that we have such a much higher religion and much more authentic." There are thousands of reasons why Islam is more authentic and more valuable - thousands. We believe in the other messengers as well, and we put them where they belong. Subhanallah.

He says, "I lost my child to the child of my business partner. The sin I committed was I allowed them in my home without a barrier. They may come - no one is saying no - but you have a barrier. You need to know what is the line. You need to know what is the limit. You can't just have someone sitting and, you know, doing whatever they want and taking... go on holiday with them, how?" Subhanallah. These people, they might be the worst of influence. So that is the second thing.

And you will taste Iman when you love someone for the pleasure of Allah, and you love each other for the pleasure of Allah. Sometimes when we see a religious person more than us, some of us get upset. We go further, further away. I had some brothers a long time ago, back in Africa, when they saw me, they kept their distance until some time later. Brother came and told me, "You know what? I should have come to you two years ago." I said, "But why didn't you?" He said, "Your beard stopped me. You know, when you see a beard, you don't want to walk with them." I met someone at the airport once. He quickly greeted me and ran away. I said, "Hey, don't worry, they won't lock you up." He says, "No, I don't want to... it's okay, just understand me." "Okay, we understand."

So it doesn't mean anything. Those people who are claimed to be the ones who perpetrated the injustices - whether it was September 11 or what have you - none of them had beards, according to the diagrams we saw. Not one. None of them. Did you see any one of them having a beard from the 19? The photos they showed? No, I don't think not even one. So please remember, we are much calmer and cooler, inshallah.

Why I'm saying this is because you should love someone who is trying to please Allah and they are on a higher level than you. You see a woman, and mashallah, the women are well-dressed with their hair covered and so on. If someone is gone to a higher level and they have chosen to cover their face, support them. They have chosen to cover their face - support them. Love them. To say, "This woman is stronger than me. Alhamdulillah." We don't have to say, "No, that's not Islam. These people are being oppressed. These people are this and that."

Why? The hadith says: you want to taste the sweetness of iman, start learning to love those who are higher than you in your religion, and start learning to love those not only higher than you, but those who are trying to earn the pleasure of the Almighty. Love them. When you go to the masjid and you see someone reading salah, and he is trying to concentrate, and you just enter, you say, "Mashallah, ya Allah, accept his salah. What a man! We love this person for the pleasure of Allah. They are trying." So...

And the third condition is very important for all of us. I told you three things for (حَلَاوَةُ الإِيمَان - halawatu al-iman) - to taste the sweetness of iman: (أَنْ يَكْرَهَ أَنْ يَعُودَ إِلَى الْكُفْرِ كَمَا يَكْرَهُ أَنْ يُلْقَى فِي النَّارِ - an yakraha an ya'uda ila al-kufri kama yakrahu an yulqa fi al-nar) - "A person must hate to go back to disbelief in the same way they hate to go back - in the same way they hate to be thrown into hellfire."

What does this mean? This means a person should hate to go back on their religious achievements in the same way they hate to be thrown in hellfire. When you have achieved religiously, don't step backwards. If you did not used to read salah and you started reading, and you are now reading three salah a day, don't go back to two - go to four. And from four, go to five. If you are now reading five salah a day, don't ever go backwards. If you did not cover your hair before and now you started covering your hair, don't uncover it now. Don't go backwards. If you don't go backwards and you are only moving forward - one after the other, after the other, after the other - there will come a time when you taste the sweetness of iman. "I am moving forward. I am not going backwards."

For example, the menfolk: if you have left a sin for the sake of Allah, don't go back to it. After that, you must hate to go back to your previous ways which are in the displeasure of Allah in the same way you would hate to go back or to be thrown into hellfire. We ask Allah to grant us from these qualities.

Closing

I have had a beautiful two hours - I think it's been two hours almost - and we really thank Allah for giving us this opportunity. For your information, I was telling brother Farid when I was coming here, I said, "You know, I am not feeling well, and you know, I haven't really slept much, and you know, I have been taxed quite a bit," and I was complaining to him. I came here, and I don't know where it went. May Allah have mercy on us all, and may Allah accept this little effort of ours, and I hope and pray we can take a chapter from what I have said today.

There is much more. We cannot learn the whole deen in one hour or two hours. It requires a whole lifetime. May we be dedicated, and may we benefit inshallah from all those ulama in our midst who are doing a sterling job. Allah accept it from all of us.

وَصَلَّى اللهُ وَسَلَّمَ وَبَارَكَ عَلَىٰ نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ

Allah knows. Allah knows when you're carrying a monster load and you wonder how far you can go with every step on that road that you take. Allah knows. Allah knows, no matter what inside or out. There's one

thing of which there's no doubt: Allah knows. Allah knows and whatever lies in the heavens and the earth, every star in this whole universe. Allah knows. Allah knows when you find that special someone.