Amidst the Turmoil Seeking Clarity & Balance - Ustadh

Then gain iman, then lose iman. And you'll find this, especially with youth. If you talk to youth, if you talk to Muslim youth, and you have honest conversations with them, you'll find that they have serious questions about their faith.

Serious doubts about their faith. And sometimes the iman will be on a high, then the iman's on a low. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم told us about that.

So there's strife, there's instability. The Chinese have a curse. They say, may you live in interesting times.

May you live in what? Interesting times. That's the kind of time that we live in. Very interesting times.

So it leads to the different problems that we find. Amongst them being, very prevalent ignorance. That there'll be widespread ignorance.

The Problem of Knowledge and Teaching

And I'm trying to lead to kind of getting to the core of the conversation. It's narrated in the Tabarani that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said to the companions:

(Reference: Tabarani)

This is a really important hadith, very very important given the context we find ourselves in: "There will come a time where there are many jurists, many people who have legal understanding of the religion, scholars if you will, and very few preachers, people who give sermons.

Many people who are able to give knowledge and few who are requesting it by asking. Action in that time, meaning the time of the companions, is better than knowledge. But there will come a time upon the people where there will be few scholars and many preachers.

Few people requesting, I'm sorry, many people requesting knowledge, few people who are actually qualified to disseminate it. And in that time, knowledge is better than action." What does this mean? For the companions, there were people who understood the religion well.

And for the early generations of the Muslims, there were people who understood the religion well and had a deep, holistic, sound understanding of the religion. And for them, doing devotional works was better than just merely studying and teaching knowledge. But he said, there will come a time upon the people where there will be very few scholars, but many people preaching.

And those, at that time, there will be people who have really important questions, many questions about the religion, but there are few people who can actually answer those questions. In that time, studying knowledge, understanding knowledge, and then disseminating it, is better than just doing a lot of devotion. Are you all understanding what I'm saying? Are you all understanding what I'm saying? Okay.

This is part of the problem that we have. You can't differentiate between somebody who's giving a lecture and somebody who's actually a scholar. One of the things that happens is people get honorific titles, ustadh, sheikh, doctor, il'allama, il'arif billah, from going to a weekend seminar.

Or studying for a year or two, and then they get honorific titles that they don't actually deserve. And one of them said, the only thing that corrupted the tradition of the Muslims is people receiving honorific titles that they don't deserve. Are you all listening? Imagine if you went into the hospital, and you said, I need a doctor.

And the janitor came up and said, here I am. Here I am. I work in a hospital.

You may think I'm a janitor, but in reality, I'm a doctor. Doctor janitor. And then you said, you know, you need medical attention, and you can't differentiate between the janitor and the nurse and the doctor and the surgeon, etc.

Right? So you find people who are giving sermons, they're giving lectures, and that's fine, and that's good, and it's good to give lectures. But there's a difference between giving a lecture, and actually having deep knowledge of the religion. In addition to that, we're in a time that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم predicted.

He said, people will tell a lie, and it will immediately reach the horizon:

"A person will say something that's not true, and it will immediately reach the horizon." Does that sound familiar to you? Imagine for the companions, or even for our grandparents.

If somebody wrote something, they wrote a letter, and then gave it to the post, how long would it take for it to reach somebody? Now, someone says something, they write a letter, or they write a Facebook post, or they make a YouTube clip, send, boom! And it's out there for everybody to see. So you have a lot of people preaching about the religion, and also then, quickly disseminating the thing that they're preaching, and we're unable to differentiate between people who are rightly guided scholars, and people who are just merely preaching about the religion. So this is one of the problems that we find.

Examples of Problematic Teachings

I want to, with your permission, provide examples of a few really ridiculous things I have either personally heard recently, or people that I trust, and know would not lie to me, told me that they've heard about recently. I want to qualify, and kind of provide a disclaimer, that I'm not mocking the religion, nor am I mocking the people who may have made these statements. But I'm saying it to provide evidence to what the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم told.

This is true. There will be many people who give khutbah, but few people who actually have knowledge. For example, two trustworthy Muslims I know, that I have no reason to doubt them, attended a Friday sermon recently, next door to the place where Ta'lif is, in our headquarters in San Francisco Bay Area.

There's a masjid right across the street. There was a guest speaker giving a Friday khutbah, and two people that I know were there attending the khutbah. One of the things that the person said in the khutbah is, whoever breaks their fast during Ramadan, with the Shiite, their fast is invalid.

So we can chuckle, but imagine you're a brand new Muslim. You just converted to Islam. Or you're a Muslim person who grew up in a Muslim family, but you just recently recommitted to Islam.

And at the university, you have Sunni friends, you have Shiite friends, you have Sufi friends, you have Salafi friends, et cetera, et cetera. And this person says, if you break your fast with the Shiite, your fast is invalid. La ilaha illallah.

So I start thinking about some of my iftars this last Ramadan. And the most interesting one was at the Facebook campus right in front of Mark Zuckerberg's office with the LGBTQ, the gay pride flag flying behind the thing, where they asked me to give a lecture. And ironically, the Qibla was exactly at Zuckerberg's office.

It was exactly like, you face the Qibla, Zuckerberg's office is right there. Subhanallah. Mark really worked out the corner office where his thing is going to be.

And they asked me to give a sermon. And literally, Mark Zuckerberg's office was for me to, literally for me to like the third row right there, that far away. And then we made the adhan.

In the middle of what they call Hacker Square on Facebook's campus. I don't mean online people. I mean what? At the Facebook campus, the physical campus.

Are you all following me? It wasn't like a virtual iftar. It was like actually at Facebook's campus. Literally.

And we made the adhan and broke the fast with dates provided by Facebook. So I started thinking, well, if I broke my fast with the Shiite, and that was invalid, I'm really in trouble, right? Because subhanallah, it's hypocritical, isn't it? People say, what? I said this to one of my teachers, who's a real faqih, someone who studied Islam for 30 years, 40 years. I said to him, this person said if you break your fast with the Shiite, your fast is invalid.

And he's a faqih, like a proper jurist. But you know what he said to me? He didn't give a fiqh answer. He gave a seerah answer.

And he said, subhanallah. He said, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم ate with kuffar? The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم ate with people who worship idols? Are you all listening to me? But he said, no, don't break your fast with the Shiite. And I would contend that the difference between that and people who would go as far as to kill other Muslims is a difference of degree, not a difference of kind.

Because if you say, for me to break my fast with somebody who I disagree with, I may have profound, clear, methodological, or theological, or jurisprudential difference with somebody. But if you say that if I break my fast with them, God is not going to accept my fast for me eating with them, then they must be

such a bad person, that, hey, are you all following what I'm saying? It's a difference of degree, not a difference of kind. Another really interesting thing happened.

A friend came to me, he says, I have a non-Muslim friend, he's interested in Islam, and I want to take him to Jumu'ah. I said, don't take him to Jumu'ah. He said, brother, may Allah forgive me, I have a good opinion.

I said, if I was you, I wouldn't take him to Jumu'ah. He said, why? I said, 50-50. You never know what you're going to get.

He said, brother, you're just having a bad opinion. I said, OK, fine. He took him to Jumu'ah.

He came back to me, he said, you were right. I said, what? He said, I took him to Jumu'ah. I said, well, what did he say? He said, the whole khutbah was about the permissibility of lying to a non-Muslim to get them to become Muslim.

It's a... Where did you get that from? But what? The person's on the minbar speaking on behalf of Allah وسبحانه وتعالى ورسوله صلى الله عليه وسلم saying what? It's OK to lie. And now imagine the non-Muslim in the audience going, so, are you guys telling the truth or lying? Right? These are examples. Another example.

Another example. A person recently said, whoever lets their wife or their mother or their sister work in a public setting where they're mixing with men is not a man. Subhanallah.

Is not a man. Ya Allah. Because it's assuming now that if a Muslim woman is working in public that she's somehow compromised on her dignity, compromised on her religion, that she's not intelligent enough and skillful enough and agile enough to navigate space.

What are you? Whoever is not a man. Interestingly that same khutbah, the brother said, and our problem is technology. Which you could say there are a lot of problems with technology, but the problem is he was reading his khutbah from an iPhone.

Masha'Allah. Another khutbah I recently heard, a week after, I don't know if you heard about Ottawa. In Ottawa, Canada, there was a person who unfortunately killed a soldier and then after killing a soldier, went into the parliament and attempted to further kill other people and then was eventually killed by the security and the person died after that crime.

One week after that in Canada, a person said in their Friday khutbah, he began his khutbah with, our problem is sorcery, magic. Which, you know, there are problems with magic, but let's keep in mind that we're in a very sensitive political situation. But he began his khutbah by saying, our problem is sorcery.

And the person in the audience said, yeah man, Harry Potter is really like, it's like, that's what's right, Harry Potter. And then after that he switched to getting into socio-political commentary. And his political commentary was, the question has never been whether to kill gay people, but how to kill them.

No, you're laughing, but think for a second. Think for a second. This is a Friday sermon.

It's Jumu'ah. This is what you're giving the core of the religion to a group of people who are coming, wanting spiritual rejuvenation. They want guidance.

And they also, if you're going to give socio-political commentary, you should give socio-political commentary that is relevant to the people you're talking to. Give them the context. One time a person came to a city we have in America, where there are over 500 students from Saudi Arabia studying on scholarship from their government.

And the person's khutbah was about how the kings are invalid in Islam. How monarchies are invalid forms of government. Well, how do you think that works for the 500 Saudi students who are sponsored by their king to come to America to study? And now the conversation becomes what? What do we do? Akhi, akhi, think about the people you're giving the khutbah to and the relevance that it has.

These are some examples. Another khutbah I personally heard, the person said in the khutbah, to say Merry Christmas to a Christian is worse than killing or fornication. It's worse than killing or fornication.

So now imagine the young Muslim finds himself in the grocery store and the non-Muslim person behind the counter says, Merry Christmas. He's stuck with one of two choices. Merry Christmas.

Why do you shoot? It was either Merry Christmas or... Ya akhi, subhanallah, subhanallah. And these are just examples. So you see, why we find young Muslims inclining toward extremism, inclining toward forms of Islam that are completely inconsistent with the historical legacy of normative Islam, completely... Have there been problematic elements in the Muslim community? Always.

But I'm talking about normative Islam, the core of the community, young people inclining toward articulations of Islam that are completely off the map, completely insane, completely irrelevant, and predatory and dangerous because they're hearing these things in sermons thinking that it's actually from the core of Islam. And this has to do with the fact that people are preaching, lacking knowledge. I'm gonna try to get toward the good news.

The Good News

A similar narration from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلمwhere he said in the Sunnah authority of Abu Dharr, and it's in the collection of Imam Ahmad:

(Reference: Musnad Ahmad)

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, "A time where there are many scholars, few preachers. Whoever amongst you left so much as one-tenth of their religion, one-tenth of what they know, will be ruined. And there will come a time upon the people when there will be few scholars and many preachers.

a lofty place. Meaning what? Working 40 or 50 or 60 hours a week, being in grad school, having the responsibility of supporting a family, having to work, having to go to school, having to pay bills.

Let's be honest, it's hard. Sitting back, drinking tea, making dhikr, making salah, making wudu in the ocean, making salah on the sand, it's not that hard, is it? What would you rather be doing honestly? A, 40 hours a week, 50 hours a week, 60 hours a week, or being on the east coast of Malaysia, drinking coconuts and eating satay, and making dhikr? B, A or B, which would you rather honestly, what would you rather be doing? Thank you. So perhaps if you're in the world where you have to work, and you have to support your family, and you wanna be making dhikr somewhere in a cave, so to speak, perhaps that's from a (شَهْوَةٍ خَفِيَّةٍ - shahwatin khafiyyah)

Maybe that's something inside of yourself that makes you want to what? Be off working, not working. But if you're in a situation where you're able to remember Allah, and you don't have to work, and you don't have to worry, alhamdulillah, you have money, alhamdulillah, everything's taken care of, and you want to be working, then you've come down from a lofty place. Because some people, subhanAllah, Allah has made it that they have to work 12 hour days, 14 hour days.

Some people longer than that, some people barely ever sleep, some people just take naps in between their job, just to be able to support their family. Don't you think that that's jihad enough? Don't you think that that's enough of a struggle? Don't you think that that's enough of a difficulty? And remember that the man came to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) not to go fight in some sectarian, horrible, evil, criminal war, but to fight for a cause of justice with the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). And he said, Ya Rasulullah, I want to come and fight with you. And he said, Are your parents alive? And he said, Na'am, they're alive.

He said, He said, Make your jihad in serving your parents. Make your jihad in what? Serving your parents. But some people want to go, often do something, you should be exactly where you are, and be pleased with where you are.

And if you're going to move, move when Allah moves you. And before you move, seek the consultation of your elders and the scholars. Am I making sense everybody? Beginning to wrap it up.

Heart Work is Hard Work

Then, admit that heart work is hard work. Heart work is hard work. What do I mean by that? Let's imagine metaphorically that you have a yard, and you have grass, and you have plants and trees in your backyard.

And your neighbor also has a yard, and they have grass, and they have plants, and they have grass, and they have trees in their yard. And your yard, you haven't been watering it, you haven't been taking care of it, you haven't been treating it very well. So the grass has got brown, the trees are dying, the plants have all fallen apart.

And you look over your neighbor's fence, and you see that they have some leaves on the grass. And you say, I need to go work, I need to go tell the neighbor that their yard is a mess. What would you say about

that person? They're more worried about their neighbor's yard, when they need to be worried about what? Their own yard.

The artwork of heart work is hard work. Working on your own self. Making sure that you've been honest about the fact that you have situations, you have a room for improvement.

If you're worried about fixing the world, and you haven't started working on fixing yourself, then your priorities are off. Focus first on yourself. (قُوا أَنفُسَكُمْ وَأَهْلِيكُم نَّارًا)

(Reference: Quran 66:6)

says in the Qur'an, save yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel is men and stones.

So you have to start with yourself, and recognize that that's difficult. Remember the story of the man who was a student, and he had the clothes of a student, the attire of a student, and he had his books, and he had his turban, and his books with him, and he had a shawl, and he was perfumed, and he had the adab of a student, and he was dressed like a student. And a person came carrying the waste of the city, because they didn't used to have plumbing, so they used to have to basically remove the waste, the sewage manually.

So the person carrying the sewage, you could say like a garbage person, but removing the sewage, came and the student passed by him, and he thought to himself, wow, this smells really bad. He didn't even say anything. He just thought to himself, Wow, it really stinks.

But the person carrying the sewage was (مِنْ أَهْلِ الْكَشْفِ - min ahlil kashf). He was somebody who even though he was just a sewage carrier, he could see with the light of Allah.

And the student didn't even say anything, he just thought to himself, wow, that's really stinky.

And the sewage carrier said to him, (لَيْسَ أَسْوَدَ مِنَ الَّذِي فِي قَلْبك - laysa aswada minalladhi fi qalbik) He said, it doesn't smell as bad as your heart. It doesn't smell as bad as your heart, because what? You see yourself as all mashallah, fine and dandy, alhamdulillah. You're so beautiful, you're shining.

Oh, mashallah, look at you, you're pretty. Fair and lovely. You're beautiful, right? No.

The person who's carrying the sewage was humble, but this person was arrogant. So us beginning to work on our arrogance, beginning to work on our vanity, beginning to work on our envy, beginning to work on our laziness, beginning to work on the things that Allah knows we have hearts that need help. May Allah heal us all, ya'rub al-'alameen.

Begin to work on that first, focus on that first. It's hard, but Allah is generous. And if you work on it, inshallah Allah be with us.

Slow Down

And then my final piece of advice for all of us is slow down. Just slow down. We've got to take time and just slow down.

One of the reasons young people are inclining toward articulations of Islam that are not healthy is because they're just going too fast. And you need to slow down and realize things take time. One time when I first became Muslim, I came from a generation of people who were very disgruntled about injustice in society.

And we wanted to rage against the machine. We were the generation that brought you F the police. We were the generation that brought you punk music and hip-hop and graffiti and all of these things.

And so when I became Muslim, I was angry and I was disgruntled and I wanted to fight against injustice. And I came to one of my teachers and I said to him, Sheikh, what's your advice for young people who want to struggle against injustice in the world and want to make a difference? He looked at me and he said, get married. And then he walked away.

Awkward. Get married. Why? Because if you get married, that's one of the ways that you can fight against injustice is to build a just family, to build a healthy family.

That's how the society begins to become cured. But you're not going to cure society if you're not curing your own family. But we have to just slow down.

Because religion is kind of like marriage in the fact that you can have a honeymoon. When you first convert to Islam, anyone who has converted to Islam remembers the honeymoon period. Right? Every time you see a Muslim, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

One time I was in the grocery store and I saw a brother, mashallah, he had a big beautiful beard and he had a big beautiful black turban on and he had a big beautiful black robe and his back was to me. I was so excited. I saw the Muslim.

So I walked up and said, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. He turned around, he was a Coptic Christian priest and he had a big cross.

Sorry.

You remember the honeymoon period. Or young people, you know, you commit to the religion or you attend lectures or you meet a sheikh and you get excited. And so then it becomes like a fad, like a bandwagon and you get excited.

Question, what happens after the honeymoon? Because after the honeymoon, and anyone here married who had a good honeymoon can tell you that after the honeymoon, you really have one of three choices. First choice is what? Stay married and stay happy and realize that the honeymoon was just a honeymoon. Stay married unhappy and realize that the honeymoon was just a honeymoon.

The third option is what? Get divorced. And you don't want to do that, right? Unless there's a real necessity to do that. The same thing happens when the honeymoon of spirituality ends.

After the fun period is over and it gets time to get working. When the bandwagon is gone, when the fad is gone, when it's not about fun anymore and it's about actually building your religion and building the community, the honeymoon is over. So what are you going to do then? What are you gonna do when you come face to face with the challenge of actually getting yourself right before Allah, getting your family right, getting the society right? Taking that seriously and realizing it has to be more than just hashtags.

It has to be more than just posting online. It has to be more than just taking pictures or clicking or liking or unliking or forwarding or retweeting. That if you're really gonna make a change in the world, you've got to move beyond clicktivism.

Moving beyond what? Clicktivism. Or some of them call it slacktivism. Where you think that you're an activist but you're just a slacktivist.

Moving beyond that and getting to the work of really making a change in the world. That starts with working on yourself. Allahumma, if anything I've said is a benefit, that's from Allah.

And if anything I've said was rubbed you the wrong way or made you feel uncomfortable, that's from my nafs. And I ask Allah to forgive me. We pray that Allah make us from those who listen to speech and follow the best of it.

Those are the ones who God has guided and they are the possessors of intellect.