In Need of Wisdom

but that sheikh said that. You wanna have a battle? And then there are people who say they talk about Islam, but the only thing they talk about is how wrong the other guy is.

They will have YouTube channels, Facebook pages, blogs. These people put a lot of effort into studying the mistakes of someone else. Get a life, dude. But anyway, that's what they do. They study, they study, and they say, in this video, in minute number 87, dude, you listen for 87 minutes to wait for a mistake? That's amazing. I'm impressed with the level of attention span you have.

This brother said this, and (أستغفر الله العظيم - astaghfirullah al-azim), this is why this brother is a fitna, and he is calling people to the hellfire, and da-da-da-da, and here's my blog to save the ummah from this guy. Does this sound familiar to you? People will benefit from someone? You'll be benefiting? I don't have to name any names. I don't care. I don't care. And this is not even about myself, because I honestly don't care. I really don't care.

I read some of the comments under YouTube videos for entertainment. That's what I do. But you know, you'll have somebody who'll say, maybe you're benefiting. You're benefiting from someone. Maybe you're benefiting from Mufti Mink, who I love. He's so cool.

You know, last time I was here, you guys remember Peace Conference? Some of you were there. I was hanging out with Mufti Mink, and I told Mufti Mink, before I tell you this, I'll tell you another story. This has happened to me twice now. I was in Atlanta, Georgia. I got out of the airport. A woman, a Senegalese woman, looked at me and said, Hey, Mufti Mink. And I said, no. She goes, I know you, Mufti Mink. You lie. You lie. I've seen your videos. I was like, no, I'm not Mufti Mink. She goes, no, no, you lie. Wallahi, you're Mufti Mink. I was like, okay, okay. I took out a picture of me and Mufti Mink. I was like, that's Mufti Mink. And that's me. Oh, you just look just like him. I was like, okay. Alright, alright.

And the same thing happened in Doha. Brother comes up to me, and he's like, Mufti Mink, right? And I was like, yes. But my favorite one happened at Dubai airport. Brother Noman Mink? That's a good one. Yes. So I was hanging out with Mufti Mink. And I said, you know, Mufti, you know what we should do? I should wear your thong, and you should wear my suit. And then we should do the lectures. And we were gonna do it, but there was no time left. So next time, I'm gonna disguise myself as Mufti Mink, and he will disguise himself as me. Talk about lack of wisdom, but yeah, that's what we're gonna do. Anyhow, coming back to the subject.

Somebody, some of you, raise your hand if you benefited from Mufti Mink. Raise your hand. See, this is why we love this man. May Allah protect this man and his family. Somebody comes to you, yeah, you know, but he's got this mistake, or some people say that he's deviant, or some people say that he's not a good scholar, or some people... Have you heard these conversations? Where do you get this some people business from?

We have this, this is not the sunnah of Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم), this is the sunnah of the Muslim community now. Anybody who will benefit people, you have to find something wrong with them. And let me guarantee you, I or anybody else who ever grabs a mic, there is something wrong with us. Because we're human beings. So if you're gonna find, look for a mistake, I will guarantee you, you will find it. Guaranteed, you will find mistakes. Because we're human beings. And if you're... Aha! He made a mistake. Yeah, he's a human being. You didn't accomplish anything. But you know what? We call this,

Commanding good and forbidding evil

What is wrong with you? This is not amr bil anything. This is you have too much free time on your hands. And you don't know how to do something positive. Do something good. Instead of doing research on the mistakes of someone, why don't you go help your mother cook? Why don't you clean your house? Have you ever smelled your socks? Go wash those instead. You know? Do something else with your life. Don't do this. You're not serving anything. That's the first kind of unwise conversation. And it takes so much energy away from the Muslims. So much of their energy is just spent on this, this rad of this one versus that one, and that one versus this one. Come on! You know?

Second Unwise Method: Being Judgmental

And then the second, the second kind of poisonous, I don't even call it wise conversations about Islam. These are poisonous conversations about Islam. The second kind of poisonous conversation about Islam is when people are judgmental. They want to judge you more than Allah will judge you. They let people know they're gonna go burn in hellfire, or this is haram, and you don't even know the discussion of the fuqaha. You know nothing. But you think it's haram, so you want to put your fatwa on the world. What qualifications do you have, homeboy? Where did you get this from?

I want to tell you a fun conversation I had. One of my friends, Sheikh Abdul Nasir, some of you know him. Sheikh Abdul Nasir and I were at a dinner, and there were some people having dinner with us, and one brother had a very short beard. He had a very short beard. And the brother next to him had a long beard. And the brother with the short beard, at dinner, turned to the guy with the long beard and said, Akhi, your face, haram. You have to... And he's embarrassing this guy at a dinner table.

And you know, when it comes to matters of fiqh, when it comes to matters of fiqh, I don't open my mouth, because I'm not a faqih. I'm not even a scholar. But Sheikh Abdul Nasir is actually a faqih. And he's sitting there listening to this guy. By the way, both of them are like 20 years old. Akhi, this is haram. In the hadith, it says you have to grow your beard, etc. And Sheikh Abdul Nasir, oh man, sometimes this guy, he's about to eat his barbecue, and he puts the thing down, and he goes, brother, where's the hadith? And he goes, I think it's in Bukhari. I was like, yeah, which bar? Who's the rawi? Who narrated it? Who did he narrate it to? How was it understood by the sahaba? How was it understood by the first generation?

How was it understood by Imam Bukhari himself? What's the commentary on this hadith in Fathul Bari? What about the Maliki school? What did they comment about this hadith? What about the Shafri school? What did they comment about this hadith? And the brother said, you're embarrassing me. Please don't embarrass me. And he said, yes, I'm embarrassing you, because you're embarrassing him. You don't know, but you like to take things and just either make them halal or make them haram. You don't have the qualifications. There's a lot of conversation that goes into, before you say Allah forbade something, you have to be very careful. There's not a small thing.

These are the limits set by Allah (Quran 2:187)

There's the hudud of Allah. You don't just get to drop haram, haram. You don't get to do that. And you don't get to decide who's gonna burn in hellfire, and who's guided, and who's misguided. The ayah that I'm reading to you today, towards the end, when we get to the end of the ayah,

Your Rabb, He knows who's misguided (Quran 16:125)

Your Rabb, He knows who's misguided. Not you. You don't get to decide that. But we love to judge people very quickly. As a matter of fact, we are so good at judging people, we judge people as soon as they walk into the masjid. We look at them, Oh, short beard. We look at them, check the pants. Oh, yeah. So quick. We send people to Nahr. This is a horrible, horrible thing to do. Horrible thing to do. Judging people through Islam. The only one to judge is Allah. Our job is not to judge. Our position is not to judge.

Then, the third, and by the way, when somebody does something wrong, if you know it's absolutely wrong, you've done your research, you've done your homework, you know for sure that it's wrong, then you have to figure out a polite way of correcting it. And maybe you shouldn't be the one correcting it. Maybe somebody else should be the one correcting it. You have to use what? Wisdom. Wisdom. Sometimes you correcting someone will do more damage than good. If I try to correct my father, it's not gonna go well. It's not a good idea. I should talk to my mom, and my mom will talk to my dad, and that way I won't get in trouble. You see what I'm saying? Sometimes you have to use wisdom, and you don't take the direct approach every time. It'll do more damage than good.

Third Unwise Method: Shallow Understanding

So the first kind of poisonous conversation is divisive. It creates divisions and talks about groups and people. The second kind of poisonous conversation is obsessed with judging people. The third kind of conversation, I kind of already alluded to it, is conversations about the book of Allah, and the sunnah of His Prophet that are shallow, that are absolutely shallow. What do I mean? You know, if you hear a khutbah, in which there are 30 ayat are quoted, 20 hadith are quoted, ayah after ayah after ayah, hadith

after hadith after hadith. How much time did you spend on each ayah? A few seconds, yes? And then you went straight to the next ayah, then you went to the next ayah, then you went to the next hadith, then you went to the next ayah. How much time did you actually think about any one of those ayahs? Very little, very little. And you know what that is? That is not healthy.

Every ayah of the Qur'an, every hadith of the Prophet deserves attention. When you give me too much of that at the same time, I actually end up paying attention to none of it. To none of it. Allah complains in the Qur'an,

Will they not then ponder over the Qur'an, or are there locks upon their hearts? (Quran 47:24)

He says,

So they can think deeply about his ayah (Quran 38:29)

Hour and a half I plan to talk to you about how many ayahs? About how many ayahs? Do you know? One. One ayah. Because it deserves attention. We need to think about it. So what happens is people will quote lots of ayahs but they won't go in depth in any one of them.

Now when you don't understand something in depth, is there a chance that you're misunderstanding it? Absolutely. When you don't understand something in depth, there is a lot of room for misunderstanding. Because a shallow understanding can be very easily a problematic understanding.

Fourth Unwise Method: Using Qur'an to Support Pre-existing Biases

Let me tell you something else while I'm on this point. This might be a little bit harder to understand but an important point. The most supreme thing that we have in Islam, the highest truth that we have in Islam is the book of Allah.

The word of Allah is in the highest place (Quran 9:40)

The word of Allah is in the highest place. The highest thing we have is what again? The word of Allah. Now what happens? Somebody says, they have a bias already. They have a thing in their mind. And the concept in their mind is, women are inferior to men. This is the idea they have in their head. Now that they have this idea in their head, they will pull a bunch of ayat, and they'll pull a bunch of a hadith, and they'll give you the name for why women are inferior to men. But what came first? The ayat came first or their concept came first? Their concept came first. And they used the ayat to prove their concept.

This is incorrect. We don't want to make any assumptions before we turn to the book of Allah. The book of Allah will decide how we should think. We don't decide how to think about the book of Allah. You understand? So there's this bias. You already have your mind made up. And by the way, this can go really crazy. Some people can say, well, we have to kill every non-Muslim. Let me prove it to you. And they'll give you 100 hadith and 50 ayat. And they can do it. It's very easy. I've seen it done. What's the problem with that? And some young 19-year-old listens to that speech and says, man, he's got so much dalil. He quoted so many ayat and so many hadith. He must be right. Because it's in the book of Allah. No.

You monkey. The conclusion came first and the research came second. In every field of knowledge, what comes first? The conclusion or the research? The research comes first and then based on the research, you decide a conclusion. This is the exact opposite of what they do. So it sounds like a very Islamic lecture. Because it's got a lot of ayat and a lot of hadith. But you know what? It's a very un-Islamic approach. Because their bias, their opinion has already taken a supreme position and everything else is being inserted inside it. Subhanallah.

And Muslims get taken advantage of. They think that's from Islam too? So many of the things we hear today, unfortunately, so many of the things we hear in the name of the book of Allah are an insult to the book of Allah. They're an insult. The exact opposite of the meaning is being taught. So many times. It's a painful thing to listen to. Wallahi, it's painful.

Fifth Unwise Method: Isolationism

Now the next, just a couple more that I want to share with you. There's this isolationist, I know it's a big word, I'll make it easy to understand. There's this isolationist conversation about Islam. By the way, these kinds of conversations about Islam, have you heard them before? Conversations that make divisions between people, have you heard that before? Have you heard conversations that judge people? Have you heard conversations where people already have their mind made up and then they use the ayat and the hadith? Have you heard these kinds of conversations? We are being taken advantage of as a population. And this needs to stop. This needs to stop.

Now another, just one more that I want to share with you is isolationism. And what that means is that they'll tell you that the only people who have the haqq is us. And if you want to be safe, don't listen to anyone else. Because if you listen to them, you will become misguided. And you want to go to Jannah, right? The only way to go to Jannah is you stay in my halaqah. You just listen to me. Because all the other people are misguided. And these people have an updated list of the misguided scholars every week. If you want to save yourself, only listen to us.

And you know what happens? People listen to them and they isolate themselves. And they isolate themselves from their family. These people cut themselves off from their own family. They don't want to listen to their family anymore. Well, my parents don't listen to my sheikh, so I don't want to deal with my

parents. I don't want to deal with my family because they're not on the haqq. And so you use the deen, and you misuse the deen to isolate people from their own families, from their own communities, from their own societies.

Well, I live in the United States. There are some isolated communities in the United States. You know what they teach you? They teach you in these communities, they teach you the non-Muslims, these are the kuffar, they are najas, they are evil people. Don't deal with them. If you deal with them, if you become friends with them, if you talk to them nicely, if you do business with them, they are a fitna, they will take you away from Islam, and they will make you kafir. So stay away from them.

And so there are masajid in America, in America, there are masajid that have been there for 40 years. And the neighbors, next door neighbors, are non-Muslims. And they have no idea that that's a masjid. Because the people in the masjid say, fitna, the kuffar.

Where did you get this from? Where did this come from? If Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) did not deal with the people in Mecca, and he isolated himself, we would not be taking shahada today. I am a Muslim because my father is a Muslim whose father is a Buddhist. I come from a Buddhist heritage. I looked it up. My great great great grandfather was actually a Buddhist. And he became a Muslim. Somebody had to talk to him and not treat him like najas. Somebody had to show him courtesy. Somebody had to treat him like a human being. Somebody had to show him love and respect. You know?

I was in the elevator in the hotel over here and the guy's name was, what was his name? Rittik. It was hard to pronounce. Starts with an H. Rittik. Obviously not a Muslim name. You know what happens? You read the name and you say, okay, is the Muslim guy Muhammad? As-salamu alaykum, brother. How are you? Hindu name, man. Two. No. Hey, Rittik, how's it going? Good, sir. He works at the hotel. How long have you been working? Four months, sir. How's the job? It's hard, sir. Man, it's tough. I know. And we just became friends. We just chatted. Astaghfirullah. I talked to a kafir. Relax, guys.

The deen does not teach you to hate non-Muslims. This deen came to bring dignity to all human beings.

And We have certainly honored the children of Adam (Quran 17:70)

Allah says, we gave respect to the children of Adam. I'll say that again. Allah says, Allah gave respect to who? To who? Children of Adam. So every child of Adam (عليه السلام - alayhis-salam) has been given respect by who? By Allah. How do you not give them respect? Allah gives them respect. You don't give them respect. And you think Islam tells you to disrespect them? Islam tells you to look at them as evil? You don't even understand the ayah.

When Allah talks about mushrikun being najas. Where is the ayah? Where does it occur? What surah does it occur in? What context does it occur in? And how does it apply? We don't wanna know. Because we

just wanna look at the surface and not study deeply. We don't have the time to study deeply. This is all the opposite of wisdom.

The Positive Message: Learning Wisdom from the Qur'an

But now we're gonna talk about wisdom itself. This was a negative talk up until now. Now we're gonna have what? The positive talk. Why did I organize it this way? Because I wanna leave you with something positive. I don't want to leave you with something what? Negative.

Now listen carefully. I'm gonna start with an ayah that belongs to surah an-Nahl. By the way, the ayah invite people with wisdom belongs to surah an-Nahl. So all the ayah that I will use to explain this ayah also belong to surah an-Nahl. They come from the same surah. And this surah at the end says, call people with wisdom. And the entire surah is full of examples of how do you call people with wisdom. The surah itself teaches you. It itself teaches you how to call people with wisdom.

The Parable of Rain and Plant Growth

So I'm gonna give you one example. Pay attention to this example. I will test you. Yes. Now listen. And you have to answer me out loud. Allah says, listen. Actually no, before that. He says, He sends water from the sky. He sends water from the sky.

He causes to grow for you thereby the crops and olives and palm trees and grapevines and from all the fruits (Quran 16:11)

Now listen. Let's see if you have a good vocabulary. What does زَيْتُون (zaytun) mean? Brothers that one وَالنَّخِيل (walnakheel) Brothers 2 sisters 0. الْأَعْنَاب (ala'nab) Sisters got that one وَمِن كُلِّ الثَّمَرَاتِ (wamin kulli althamarati) Brothers got that one. Even though you're on the girl's side. I'll give you the 3, 1. Okay, listen.

Allah says, He sends water from the sky. And then olive comes out. Palm trees come out. Date palms come out. He says grapes come out. Farm comes out. Farmland harvest comes out. Zara, all kinds of crop. And then He says, all kinds of fruit.

Now listen. If water didn't come from the sky, there would be no life on the earth. Yes or no? There would be no life on the earth if Allah did not send water from the sky. Now, if you wanna look at what grows on the earth. Does the same thing grow on the earth or different things grow on the earth? Same water but different plants, right? Same water but different plants.

Now, I'll break them into 2 categories. Farmland. Does the farm grow on its own or does the farmer have to do work also? You can't just have the rain. The rain is not enough. The rain is necessary but it's not enough. The farmer has to do work also. Grapes are delicate plants. You can't just grow them on their

own. The farmer has to do, the gardener has to do work. Palm trees are sensitive. You have to take care of them. The gardener has to take care of these plants. Rain alone is not enough. You understand?

So in other words, for farming and olives and these sensitive fruits and these sensitive trees, they have to be taken care of and a farmer or a gardener has to do work also. But when Allah says, He grows all kinds of fruits. If you go in the Amazon jungle in South America and there are hundreds and thousands and thousands and thousands of acres of jungle and trees, do those trees have fruits? Yes. But is there any gardener? Is there any farmer? No, it grows on its own, yeah?

So what I'm trying to say is when Allah sends water from the sky, things grow from the earth but some things grow because of our effort also. It's a partnership and some things grow only by the gift of Allah. You with me so far?

The Qur'an as Spiritual Rain

Now let's take this further. Let me tell you why I gave you this example. Remember, we're trying to learn what from the Qur'an? Wisdom. All of this I'm explaining to you because we're gonna try to learn some wisdom from the Qur'an tonight.

Now listen. Same surah. Allah later on says,

We did not send the book down to you except to clarify for them that in which they differed and as guidance and mercy for people who believe (Quran 16:64)

We did not send the book down to you at all. Wait. Before He said, what did He send down? Rain. Now He says, we're sending what down? The book. So now He's going to compare the book to what? The rain.

He says, we sent the book down only so they could clarify all the differences. And so it could be guidance and mercy. Now, when the book of Allah comes down like the rain comes down, the rain goes into the earth. And the book of Allah, its ayat go inside the hearts of human beings. Now, the earth used to be dead, yes? And because of the rain, what happened? It came back to life. And the people used to be dead. Their hearts used to be dead. And Allah's book has the power to do what? Bring them back to life.

The Muslim community can have so many problems. We could have lying and cheating and stealing. We have forgotten the book of Allah. Our youth don't pray anymore. They're addicted to filth on the internet. They're watching movies. We have political problems, social problems, economic problems, spiritual problems, psychological problems. Oh my God! But you know what? You could be dead. But if you have the book of Allah coming into your heart, what will happen? You will be brought back to life.

There's no reason to be depressed. I depressed you in the beginning. Man, we got so many problems. But you know what? We have one solution. And what's that solution? The book of Allah. And when it

enters into you, you could be as dead as death gets. And Allah will bring you back. This is why Allah says in Surah Al-Hadeed, He talks about the hearts that became hard.

Their hearts became hard and many of them are defiantly disobedient (Quran 57:16)

Their hearts became hard. And so many of them are corrupt. And in the very next ayah He says,

Know that Allah brings life to the earth after it has died (Quran 57:17)

You should know Allah brings life to the earth after it had died. Allah will bring this ummah back to life. You just have to apply what? The water. What is the water for this ummah? It's the Qur'an. It's the Qur'an. And if this ummah is not coming back to life, that must mean we're not applying the water correctly. That's what that means.

Two Types of Spiritual Growth

Now I told you before, when it rains, how many kinds of plants you get? Two. One of them you have to do the work also. Remember that? And the other one happens how? On its own. In the middle of the jungle there's an apple. In the middle of the jungle there's an orange. It happened on its own. We had nothing to do with it. You understand?

Just like that, even today, there will be people who accept Islam, you didn't do any da'wah, you didn't make any effort, you didn't do nothing. Allah just put the water into their hearts and they just came to Islam on their own. It'll happen even now. Does it happen or no? Just like the fruits who grow in the middle of the jungle. With no human effort. Only by the will of Allah. There are some people who come to Islam only by the will of Allah.

You know, I get amazed, I just get baffled at sometimes the emails I get, sometimes the conversations I have. I just get shocked sometimes. It still rings in my head. I was coming back with my family at the airport and there was a flight attendant. This was in Maryland. There was a flight attendant walking by. You know how flight attendants dress. They don't dress like, you know, I'm not talking about like Emirates flight attendants. I'm talking about like Spirit Airlines or something. In America, flight attendant. She walks by and she goes, I've been watching your videos. Pray that I become a Muslim soon.

I said, whoa. How did that happen? I did not give her da'wah. I don't even know her. I made no effort towards her. I just studied Qur'an and put a video on YouTube. Who did that for her? Allah did that for her. He can make it rain into people's hearts. That's not my effort. That's the gift from Allah to this woman. And may Allah give me a reward even though I didn't make any effort. And may Allah guide her to Islam. And there are hundreds of thousands of people like that.

This Christian woman just emailed me last week. She said, because you know the Charlie Haddo incident? You know about that? When the Charlie Haddo thing happened, this woman, she's a woman from Texas. And she lives in Japan. She lives in Tokyo. She says, I got curious about this prophet that they're making fun of. And I started looking for videos on YouTube and I found your videos. And I started watching your videos. And now I wanted to know that because I'm watching so many of your videos, I ran out of data on my phone. So I watch it on the train. And she started her email by saying, I'm a Christian woman. That's how she started the email. At the end of her email, she said, thank you for introducing me to Allah and His Messenger. SubhanAllah.

Sometimes Allah will grow fruits and you won't even know how. You will not even know how. It will just happen. But you know what? This is the part that's hard to understand. So I need extra attention from everybody, okay? This is the hard part in this talk.

The Need for Systematic Da'wah Work

Human civilization, anthropologists will tell us, human civilization began when human beings learned how to farm. You could not survive. Humanity could not survive eating fruits in the jungle. We had to figure out a way to mass produce food. And the best way to mass produce food is to develop agriculture. You understand? So humanity became civilized. And once agriculture came, cities came. And when cities came, nations came, civilization came. But the first step of civilization was what? Agriculture. You with me so far?

Now, when you have agriculture, you have a farm. Don't you have to direct the water? The water doesn't come automatically. You have to dig and make a canal and you have to figure out a way of delivering the water, right? You cannot just rely on the rain. You have to conserve the water and deliver it.

If we as an ummah, by the way, we as an ummah, we are civilization or no? We are. If we are going to survive, then the rain is not enough. The rain is from Allah. But you have to conserve that water and you have to make the effort of delivering it. And before we deliver it to humanity, I'm arguing today, we have to deliver it to ourselves.

At the age of 19, when I started studying the Qur'an, seriously when I started studying the Qur'an, I felt that I was cheated for 19 years. I've been Muslim my whole life. How come I don't know anything about the Qur'an? How come my school didn't teach me? How come my parents didn't know anything themselves? Why didn't they get that education? Why didn't my neighbors ever know? We are one-fifth of the world's population. These people, so many non-Muslims know more about the Qur'an than we do. How is that possible? How is that possible? How did I as a Muslim have the same opinion about the Qur'an as non-Muslims have? The non-Muslims say that it's harsh. The non-Muslims say that it's irrelevant. Why did I have those same... The non-Muslims are not impressed. How come I had the same opinion?

Something has to change. We have to cultivate. We have to provide this knowledge now to people. So now tonight, the rest of this talk is how are we going to do that? How are we going to deliver this message for ourselves and for our children and their children? And then the rest of humanity at the same time.

Detailed Analysis of the Key Ayah

Allah says,

Let's begin the ayah. Now we begin the ayah.

Invite. What does اذغ mean? Tell me out loud. Invite. Good. Do you invite somebody you are angry with? Can you invite somebody to your house you're angry at them? Hey, come to my house for dinner. You don't do that. When you invite someone, it is an act of friendship. You cannot invite someone unless it is an act of what? Friendship. So from the very word, دعو. From the very word, اذغ. If you are not friendly, you shouldn't be doing دعو. If you have an angry personality, why don't you just go memorize Quran or something, let somebody else do دعو. If you get really frustrated with people, you should not be doing دعو. Because دعو means what? Invitation. And to do invitation, you have to be what? Friendly.

Second,

By the way, if somebody is giving an angry khutbah, and you say, why are you giving an angry khutbah? Brother, akhi, I am trying to do da'wah. Like, that's not how you do da'wah. You don't scare people to death and then invite them. This is not invitation. This is get lost and get out of here and never come back.

He says, by the way, he doesn't say,

He doesn't say that. He says,

What does سبيل mean? Let's see who wins this one. Oh, brothers won again.

means invite to the path of your Rabb. Everybody knows what a path is, yes? Have you ever invited anybody to a path? It doesn't make sense. You don't invite someone to a road. You invite someone to a destination. Right? You don't invite to a road. You invite to a destination. But Allah is telling people, telling us that you have to invite people to a what? A road. A path is a road. A path is a road. There's so much wisdom in this kalam. I hope I can explain this to you in ways you will remember. Because this is one of the most powerful truths of Islam that is hidden. People don't know. People don't know.

The Path vs. The Destination: Understanding Progress in Islam

You know, people study Islam and they say, Man, sisters are learning Quran. I don't know so much vocabulary. I haven't memorized so many surahs. I don't know tajweed yet. I don't know this yet. I don't know that yet. When I learn this much, inshaAllah, then it will be good. But right now, I don't know anything. People are always worried about more, more, more, more quantity. They want to accomplish. And they keep thinking they haven't done anything yet.

If Allah is calling people to a path, like a road, are people traveling at the same speed? No. Some people travel fast and some people travel what? Slow. Some people are traveling so slow that you can't even see their progress. It's that slow. It doesn't even show up on the speedometer. It's that slow. But they're still making progress.

The problem is, we like everybody to make progress at the same speed. You should be like this one. You should be like that one. Even parents, they tell their... One of your daughters can do better than the other one. Why don't you be like your sister? They're not the same. They're on their own path.

You're asking Allah to join the road. You're asking people to join the road, not the destination. Allah is not calling you to the destination. He just wants you to enjoy the road. So many people come up to me, how do I learn Arabic quickly? How do I study the whole Qur'an quickly? I was like, why do you want to do it quickly? What's your hurry? Are you gonna die soon or something? You got time, bro. Relax. Chill out.

Allah is not interested in how much you know. Allah is interested whether or not you are on the road. And when you are on a road, how do you know if you're on a road? The scenery around you is changing. Yes or no? And you're making progress. All Allah wants from you is what? Progress. All Allah wants from you is progress. He does not want perfection from you. That's what people want from you. That's not what Allah wants from you. Allah knows what He created. He did not ask people to become perfect. He asked people to make progress. That's all He asked.

Allah makes our deen easy and beautiful. We make our deen difficult and ugly. We make people feel bad because they're not perfect. We make people feel bad because they're not completely there yet.

The Example of the Sahaba and Gradual Change

The sahaba were the best generation. Yes or no? Best generation of all time. Of all time. And these people were willing to die for Islam. Yes or no? Okay. Allah gave them ayat about alcohol in three stages. These are people that are willing to die for Islam. And Allah said,

The sin in them is greater than their benefit (Quran 2:219)

The evil in alcohol is greater than the benefit. The evil is more. Then that wasn't enough. Then later on He said,

And do not approach salah while you are intoxicated until you know what you are saying (Quran 4:43)

Don't go near salah while you're drunk. And then finally, one of the last surahs ever revealed, Surah al- ma'idah, one of the last surahs ever revealed, He says,

It is but filth from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful (Quran 5:90)

Will you stop or what? In other words, sahaba who were the best generation, Allah did not expect them to quit alcohol immediately. If He wanted, He could have given the ayah from the very beginning.

Now think about this even further. Alcohol is considered not just haram. It's also considered evil. There's a difference. Pigs are not evil. Pigs are just what? Haram. You don't see a pig and say, Astaghfirullah. Evil of shaitan. No, it's just a pig. Just don't eat it. Okay, it's a pig. Allah made it. It's not evil. Relax. Okay. But alcohol is not just haram. It is also what? Evil. Which means it was always evil. Which means it was always from the work of the shaitan. In the first year of revelation, it was from the work of shaitan. And in the 23rd year of revelation, it was also the work of shaitan. And even though it was always evil, Allah decided that people haven't made enough progress on the road yet. So they're not ready yet. So I'll give them the ayah when they're a little more ready. So I'll give them a little bit. And I'll tell them, Look, the harm is more than the benefit. Then a little bit later I'll say, At least don't be drunk when you're making salah. And a little bit later I'll tell them, Okay, leave it now. You're mature enough. Now stop.

The best generation, Allah allowed them time to make progress on the road. And what do we do? If a drunk guy, drunk guy, walked into the masjid today. He's had 2-3 beers. You can smell it from 10 feet away. And he goes, I wanna pray. What are we gonna do with him? We're gonna beat him up and kick him out? And once you kick him out, where is he gonna go? Back to the bar. He's gonna go back to drinking. He came to the house of Allah. He took a step. He took such a big step. And you said, Go back. This step is not good enough for us. You're not good enough for us.

Allah wants you to make progress on the road. And you have to let other people make progress on the road. And maybe some of them will take their time. And some of them will move quickly.

The Farmer's Patience: Understanding Gradual Change

You know, Allah gave the example of growing things on the ground, right? There's a farmer. By the way, some of you have this. So many. I think maybe in the last year, this question was repeated at least 1,000 times in my lectures. People came to me at least 1,000 times and asked this one question. Let me tell you what the question is. Brother, my husband doesn't pray. My son doesn't pray. My wife doesn't pray. My sister doesn't pray. My uncle doesn't pray. My father doesn't pray. How do I get them to pray? How do I change them? Tell me one thing I can say to them, and they'll change.

And I say, okay, hold on. I got nothing. There's a farmer. What's step one in farming? You put the seed in the ground, yes? Then you put water. Then you go to sleep. Then you wake up. Make sure the soil is clean. Then you put water again. Then you go to sleep. You wake up. You put water again. Remove the insects. Make dua. Ya Allah, take care of this plant. Does the farmer see any progress? Yes or no? He sees no progress. All the things that are happening are happening under the ground. The farmer doesn't see. If there was one thing I could do, I could just change right now and turn into a tree. Let me dig it up. Take the seed out. Make a tree out of it. Does it work like that?

Allah compared the Qur'an coming down to water coming down. And when water comes down, the life on the earth grows immediately or grows over time? It grows over time. When the Qur'an will enter somebody's heart, they will change immediately or change over time? They will change over time.

Abu Bakr as-Siddiq changed immediately. But so many Sahaba changed over time. Umar bin al-Khattab, 5 years. It took some time. Abu Sufyan, many more years. It took a lot of time. It doesn't happen overnight. People only quote the example of Abu Bakr as-Siddiq. By the way, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq is an extremely amazing example. Even for the Sahaba, he's too high of an example. What about you? People quote the greatest example and make you feel bad. There are so many other Sahaba, hundreds of thousands of them.

Allah is pleased with them and they are pleased with Him (Quran 98:8)

did not transform the same way as Abu Bakr as-Siddiq.

They took their time. And Allah is happy with them too. Allah is happy with them too.

Practical Examples of Wisdom in Da'wah

Call people with wisdom. Let them grow. Let them listen. Let them listen. I was giving a lecture in England. When I finished my lecture, a woman came up to me and said, Please don't tell anyone. I'm Shia. I've been listening to your lectures for a year. It's really helped me a lot. Please don't tell anyone. You know why? Because it's Birmingham, England. That place is crazy. You know.

Other guy comes up to me, Brother, This is my wife, myself, and about 50 of our friends. We are from the Baha'i religion. We've been listening to your lectures for a long time. Please don't tell anyone. Yeah, welcome. Sit, relax. I don't need to go after and start having debates with the Shia person or the Baha'i person or any other person for that matter. Why? Because my only concern is to get the water to the heart. That's all. The rest, who will do? The rest, Allah will do that. You're not gonna do that. Allah will do that. That's up to Allah what He does. That's not up to me.

We don't give people a chance. We're too busy arguing with them and debating with them and pushing them further away from Islam. This is not wisdom. This is just not wisdom. Call people to the path of your Rabb using wisdom. Bil-Hikmah.

The Second Element: Beautiful Counsel

And then He says,

And beautiful counsel (Quran 16:125)

Call people with beautiful heart-penetrating advice. Give people advice that will go to their heart. That will get inside their heart. Now what does that mean? It could mean a lot of things but I'm gonna keep it brief for you guys. Simple, simple lesson. Sometimes you say things that make someone angry. Sometimes you say things that they are willing to accept. And sometimes you say things that make them more upset and they don't wanna listen to you. You have to find a way of saying things that will melt someone's heart. That will get inside their heart. They won't get defensive.

Let me give you an example. You know the famous story of Hassan and Hussain (رَضِيَ اللَّهُ تَعَالَىٰ عَنْهُمَا) when he saw a man making wudu incorrectly. You remember the story? He was making wudu incorrectly. So what did they do? They say, Hey, you are such an old man. You should know better. Astaghfirullah. You don't even know how to make wudu. You should be ashamed of yourself. Let me show you how to make wudu. Did they do that? No.

If they do that, the older gentleman might be very upset. Might get really upset with them. What did they do instead? They just quietly make wudu next to him. And his heart melts. These young boys are taking their time making wudu. I should take my time making wudu. Yes or no? In other words, they used wisdom. And they used (الْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ الْمَوْعِظَةِ الْحَسَنَةِ) means you give advice in a way that's soft in somebody's heart. You don't give advice in way that hardens somebody's heart.

If they are in a mood to argue with you and fight with you, leave them alone.

And when the ignorant address them [harshly], they say [words of] peace

When people get emotional, leave them alone. Don't need to argue. No need to debate. Da'wah is not the same as debates, people. I was giving da'wah to my cousin. We were arguing for 3 hours. You're not giving da'wah. I don't know what you're doing. It's not da'wah. That's not da'wah. When people are getting silly, people are getting emotional, people are getting obnoxious, you just back off. Maybe another time. We'll talk again. It's okay. You don't have to convince people right away.

And then there's those of you that say, man, I just wanna... I did my part. Now the matter is in the hands of Allah. Like this brother came to me. You know my brother, he doesn't pray. So I told him, if he doesn't pray, that he will burn in Jahannam. And I quoted the ayah to him.

And he had not believed, nor prayed. But [instead], he denied and turned away

You know, I quoted the ayah to him and he still didn't listen. Now I can tell Allah that I did my part. I said, if I was... If I wouldn't go to jail, Allah would have slapped you right now. What you mean you did your part, you monkey?

We follow the example of the prophets, alayhimu s-salatu wa s-salam. Did they recite the ayahs onto people one time and say, well, I did my part. Ya Allah, just take them out. Let the flood begin. It doesn't work like that. You give somebody advice, until you die. Until you die.

And then some people come to me and say, but Nuh alayhi s-salam, eventually he gave up. I was like, okay, when you live 950 years, you give up too. Next time you quote Nuh alayhi s-salam, get a little bit older. Then you can tell me about Nuh alayhi s-salam. You know. This is... We don't use hikmah. We just don't use hikmah. We don't use al-maw'idah al-hasanah. Good advice. Sound advice. Make people feel better.

Treating All People with Dignity and Respect

You know, I will tell you, maybe I'll get in trouble for saying this, and I don't care. I'll just tell you how I see it. You know one of the things that really hurt me when I came here? One of the things that really hurt me, really really hurt me, is that people that are taxi drivers, all over the gulf, I'm not talking about all over the gulf, people that are taxi drivers, or people that are servants, the cleaning crew in the hotels, people that are working in the stores, you know, people that are cleaning the streets, we pass by them, and we don't even say salam to them. We don't even say salam. These are just... And it hurts me, man.

Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says,

The one who earns is beloved to Allah (Hadith)

Al-kasibu habibullah. The one who works hard to earn his money is the beloved of Allah. Allah loves the one who works hard to earn his money. The guy, the Pathan guy, who's making naan all day, and his shalwar kameez is like brown, even though it's white, it's turned brown and gray. He worked all day, and he passes by, you're like, no, no, no, wait a second. Al-kasibu habibullah. At the very least, they deserve your salams. At the very least, they deserve your salams.

And we've ingrained this idea that some people are better than others. There's no such thing in this religion. Every human being is equal. Every human being is equal. And especially the Muslims.

The believers are but brothers

Innamal mu'minuna mada? Ikhwa. Not darajat. Innamal mu'minuna ikhwa. All believers are equal. This guy comes to me, he worked at the hotel, he recognized me. Sir, can I take a picture with you? I was like, why are you calling me sir, bro? I'm your brother. Okay, sir. Sir, brother, can I take a picture with you? It's embedded in the mind that some people are better than them. That's not right. That's not right.

People are dignified. This is religion. We stand in one row, yes or no? You don't check somebody's passport before you put them in the first row. You don't check, how much money you make? Oh, you go to fourth row. You don't do that. The salah itself teaches us that every human being is supposed to be treated equally.

Yawar maw'idah hasanah in this society and in so many Muslim societies. This is happening in Pakistan. I'm not even picking on the Gulf, guys. I'm not even picking on. This is happening in Pakistan, Egypt, Bangladesh, India. You go there, some rich family goes and they go to a restaurant. I saw it with my own eyes one time. They go to a restaurant and there's tinted windows and the kid rolls the automatic window down. He's like 12 year old boy inside. A rich boy, 12 years old. And the old man who comes to him, Sir, can I get tea, sir? And the old man, 60 year old man, he says, go get it. Go get it. Like he's talking to somebody like 5 years old or something. Yes, I'll get it, sir.

Man, if I wasn't gonna get arrested, I would've taken that kid out of that... Come on. Speak with respect. They're older. It's an older person. You treat them with respect. You treat them with respect. What's the point of memorizing Quran? Studying the book of Allah and you don't treat the janitor with respect and the cleaner with respect and the taxi driver with respect. What are you learning? Why are you learning this? What's the point?

So you have to change our thinking. This is mu'idah hasanah for you. To make people feel dignified in this society. Give them good counsel. Speak to them like equals. Speak to them with respect. You know, every human being deserves respect. Every human being. And I told you today, it's not just the Muslims. Every human being should be treated with respect. Why in the world would they want to come close to Islam when they see us behave like this? What reason have we given them?

People keep saying the problem of the ummah is the political problem. It's the economic problem. It's the social problem. It's the education. I say no. The problem of the ummah is the hikmah problem. It's the hikmah problem. It's the mu'idah hasanah problem. That's the real problem we have.

The Third Element: Arguing with That Which is Better

And by the way, in da'wah that doesn't mean you're always soft. This is the wisdom of Allah. Everything is balanced. You're not always soft. Sometimes people attack you. Sometimes people make fun of you. Sometimes people insult your nabi (صلى الله عليه وسلم). When that happens, this is not the time to be soft. This is the time to be tough. And so what does he say?

And argue with them in a way that is better

And debate with them. Argue with them. Take them head on with something that is better. With what is better. If they argue, you argue with something better. If they use anger, you use calmness. If they use dirty words, you only use clean words. Because every time you respond, it should be with something what? Something better. It should be with something better.

What happens when they insult our prophet? What happens to us? You have these comments on these YouTube videos by Muslims. Oh, we hate you kuffar, and we're going to kill you, and you people are... For the sake of Allah, these guys are cursing about. What is wrong with you? Stop trolling on YouTube videos. Nobody cares about your comments on YouTube. Nobody cares.

We have to become people that speak maturely. The thing about the Muslims is we are an intellectual people. We are an intelligent people. We are a smart people. We are not emotional people. Right now the world thinks of us as emotional people. And that's our fault. Because we haven't learned from the book of Allah how to respond intellectually. We only learn how to respond emotionally. We have to raise our status.

بالتي هِيَ أَحْسَنُ وَجَادِلْهُم

The Final Reminder: Only Allah Knows Who is Guided

Now at the end of all of this, all of the calling people with wisdom, helping somebody, giving somebody advice. You know what happens? There's a really big problem. When I give somebody advice, sometimes there's a problem, I think I'm better than them. I think I'm better than them. They need my advice. And this is a problem. Especially if you get used to giving advice, then you start thinking you're way better than everybody else.

Listen, I have this mic over here and these like 18 camera guys over here putting the camera on my direction. But you know what? None of this means anything. I'm not better than you. And you're not better than me. And who is better than who? Only Allah knows. Only Allah knows. This is not a superiority thing. It's not. It can't be. And so what does Allah say?

Indeed, your Lord is most knowing of who has strayed from His way, and He is most knowing of the [rightly] guided

Your Rabb, He is the only one who knows who is misguided, misled from the path. Allah knows better if I'm misguided or you're misguided. I don't even know if I'm truly guided. I don't even know that. Before I think about guiding you, I need to know Allah is the only one who knows where I stand, what my real position is. So I have to be humble to Allah before I even give somebody else advice. I don't say, Subhanallah, these people are so misguided, I have to help them. Wait, hold on a second. I don't even know where I stand.

And second of all, when you're giving someone advice and they're not listening to you, they're not changing the way you like them to change. They're not transforming. This does not mean that they are misguided. Maybe some seed is growing and you don't know. Allah knows what's happening inside. We only know what is happening where? Outside. And we get frustrated by the outside. And we pay no attention to what's happening on the inside.

The Real Problem: Focus on External vs. Internal

This is my last comment to all of you. This is what I want to conclude with. This is one of the most important problems we're going through in the ummah today. This ummah today, one of its biggest problem is a lack of wisdom. And the lack of wisdom shows when we are only concerned with the outside and not concerned with the inside. Even within Islam.

A good boy is a boy who memorized the entire Quran. That's on the outside. A good person is someone who has a lot of ilm. That's on the outside. That's not on the inside. You could have a lot of ilm and still be a terrible human being. Is it possible? You could still be a hafidh of Quran and care nothing about Allah and His Messenger. Is that possible? Yeah.

Making somebody a hafidh does not make them a good person. Hifdh is important. My kids do hifdh too. But hifdh is only one small part of the equation. We have to fix what is on the inside. That is really, really important. More important than anything else. Anything else.

People say, you have to have, until you have a lot of ilm, you are not worth anything to Allah. I say, I don't know what Quran you are reading, but it's not the book I learned from. It's not the book I learned from.

The Example of the Jinn Who Heard the Qur'an

You know Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم) was reciting Quran and some jinn passed by. You know the story? He was reciting Quran and jinn passed by. And the jinn heard the Quran.

And [mention, O Muhammad], when We directed to you a few of the jinn, listening to the Qur'an. And when they attended it, they said, "Listen quietly." And when it was concluded, they went back to their people as warners

They passed by, and when they heard the Quran, they said, what is that? And when the whole recitation was done, they went back to their nation and they started giving them da'wah. How long did the jinn listen to Quran? Few minutes? Did they get a degree in tafsir? Did they get a degree? Where did they get the ijazah and tajweed from? Were these jinn who learned Quran for how long? How long? Few minutes.

And then what happened next? They went back to their nation and started inviting their nation to the book of Allah. And their da'wah was so beautiful that Allah made it part of the Quran. It's in the Quran that we learn their speech. Are these jinn ulama? Are these jinn fuqaha? No. These are regular jinn, regular people in their own species. But you know what makes them amazing to Allah? Their sincerity. Their sincerity.

We like to make the religion complicated. Allah makes the deen of Allah easy, simple, beautiful. So much so that even a jinn can understand it. And they don't even have a PhD. They can understand it. We like to complicate things. We like to teach everything about Islam in a complicated way. And Allah likes to teach it in a simple way. That is the wisdom of Allah. Keeping things simple. We complicate things.

The Problem of Over-Complication

Somebody recites Quran, and we say, where did you get ijazah from? Is it hafs? Is hafs al-asim? Is it warsh? Oh no, you need to... Your qalqalah needs to be longer. Your mad needs to be this. You're gonna spend 3 years doing tajweed and nothing else. You make things... This was never the case in the past, by the way. Never the case. We like complicating things. We become obsessive compulsive about something. Allah doesn't do that. Allah keeps things simple, easy.