Creating and Sustaining North American Muslim Scholarship - Corrected Transcript

Creating and Sustaining North American Muslim Scholarship

Speakers: Shaykh Yasir Qadhi & Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Opening

Moderator Introduction: Our speakers for this session will be Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and Shaykh Yasir Qadhi. Speaking first will be Shaykh Yasir Qadhi, who I'm sure you all know. Shaykh Yasir Qadhi is currently pursuing his doctorate degree in Religious Studies at Yale University, and he also teaches for Al- Maghrib Institute.

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi's Address

Opening Greetings: (السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ - As-salāmu alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh)

Al-ḥamdu li-Llāh, al-ḥamdu li-Llāh who guided us to this and we would not have been guided if Allah had not guided us. To proceed: The most perfect prayers and complete peace be upon the best of Allah's creation, and upon his family, companions, and those who follow him.

The Story of Juraij - The Superiority of Knowledge over Worship

The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) told us of a very beautiful narration, a very beautiful incident that happened many thousands of years ago, involving a Christian monk by the name of Juraij.

Juraij meaning George as we say in our times, but Juraij is the classical name. This Christian monk, as was the custom of the monks of old, had cut himself off from society, and would worship Allah (جل جلاله) constantly. The monks of old, they would literally devote their entire lives for the worship of Allah (جل جلاله). Nothing except pure worship, dhikr, ibadah, salah, reciting their holy books.

That's all they would do, fast every day. And they would cut themselves off from this world. Wear the worst of garments, cut themselves off from any enjoyments and pleasures.

So this Juraij was one such monk. It so happened that his mother, who was an old lady, needed him for some chores, for some help in her house. And so she came to this monastery where Juraij had established himself.

It was a monastery just for Juraij. And she could not enter the monastery because the fiqh of the classical, not the classical, the fiqh of the previous nations before Islam, did not allow women to enter the holy

place. Women could not enter their masjids and their mosques of old.

Of course Islam has a different ruling. So the mother of Juraij called out and she said, "Oh Juraij, I need your help, come to me." Juraij was right at that time praying.

So he thought to himself, "Oh Allah, should I prefer my salah and continue, or should I respond to the call of my mother?" Juraij continued in his salah and ignored his mother. He was praying. Had he not been praying, he would have gone out.

And by the time he finished the prayer, his mother had left. The second day his mother came again. And said, "Oh Juraij, I need you, please come out."

Once again he was standing in prayer. Once again he said, "Oh Allah, should I choose my mother over my prayer? I'll choose my prayer." Thinking that this is piety and righteousness.

For the third time, the same incident happened. Juraij once again continued in the salah and neglected his mother. And his mother then became enraged.

Three days in a row she wants help from her only son. He's not coming out to help. And so in that anger, she makes a dua against her son.

And as you know, the dua of the parents for and against their children is accepted. Against as well. Meaning if your father or mother gets angry at you, and makes a dua against you, then really, seek Allah's refuge.

Because that dua will take place. Make sure your parents never make dua against you. So she said, "Oh Allah, make sure Juraij never dies until he sees the faces of prostitutes."

Meaning, make his reputation go to nothing. Allow him to be seen with prostitutes. In her anger, this is what she said.

He has this good solid reputation. Everybody loves and respects him. Destroy that reputation.

And so, Allah (عز وجل) responded to her dua. And it's one of the beauties of the incidents. And also saved Juraij's reputation at the same time.

And it's a long story. We'll have to summarize it. Because the point is only one sentence that I'll come to in the end.

So a prostitute offered herself firstly to Juraij. And Juraij ignored and neglected her. And basically told her to leave him in his worship.

So in her anger, she went to the townspeople and said, "Do you want me to basically seduce Juraij and get him into trouble?" And they said, "Yes." So she plotted and planned, but Juraij remained immune to

her temptations. Until finally, when she could not find a way to Juraij, she got pregnant with another man, a shepherd, a farmer.

And she then claimed to the townspeople, "This is the child of Juraij." Now Juraij is supposed to be a chaste, a holy man, never touched women, supposed to be a worshiper of God. Now this prostitute comes and says, "This is the child of Juraij."

So the townspeople got so angry. Even though they were the ones, this is the way how people are, audhubillah. They want to see some action.

They were the ones who enticed the prostitute as well. When the prostitute is successful, they now take their anger out on Juraij. And so they went to his monastery.

And they broke it down. And they destroyed it. And they started beating him with shoes and sticks, and stones, stoning him.

Saying, "How could you do this, Juraij?" Juraij said, "What? What did I do?" They said, "This prostitute has accused you of fathering her child." And so Juraij immediately remembered the dua of his mother. And he said, "This is the dua of my mother happening in front of my eyes."

"That I have been accused. Now this is the face of the prostitute that I'm seen with. I have been accused of doing this immoral deed."

So to make a long story short, Juraij was about to be executed by the townspeople. He said, "Allow me to pray two rakaat." So he prayed two rakaat.

And then he poked the baby, the child, and said, "Speak, who is your father?" And so the child, one of the few children, one of the few babies ever to speak in the history of mankind. Another one obviously, who was the other baby that spoke from the cradle? Everybody knows. The Prophet Isa (عليه السلام). And there are other narrations as well.

Maybe three, maybe four at max that we know of, that spoke from the cradle. So the child said, "My father is the shepherd. It's the other person."

And so when the people saw this, they apologized to Juraij, and they saw that a miracle had occurred. And they said, "We will rebuild your monastery with gold and silver." They said, "No, build it with mud and sand as it was, and let me continue in my worship."

Now of course, there are many benefits of the story. One of them being that, even though Allah (عز وجل) accepted the dua of his mother, he also saved Juraij's reputation in the end. Both came out victors if you like.

The Key Lesson from the Hadith:

But the point that I wanted to really emphasize here, in one version of the hadith, in one narration of this hadith, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari 3436)

"May Allah have mercy on Juraij. If only he had been a faqih (possessed knowledge), he would have responded to his mother instead of continuing in the prayer."

He would have saved himself all of the hassle, if only he had knowledge. And this is one of those hadith, there are many others. One of those hadith that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the knowledgeable scholar far exceeds the status of a continual worshiper.

Here is Juraij, fasting, praying, reading, dhikr, cut off from the world. But in his worship, he didn't have knowledge. And that was to his detriment at the end of the day.

Even though because of his knowledge, Allah (جل وعز) saved him from those evils. Yet another indication of the superiority of knowledge over acts of worship.

Even though acts of worship are of course blessed and holy, but of the holiest acts of worship after the fara'id is knowledge.

The Story of the Mass Murderer - Knowledge vs. Ignorance

Yet another indication is another story from the children of Israel. And that is the story of the mass murderer. The mass murderer who had killed 99 people with his own two hands.

Strangle them to death, chop them up. With his own two hands he had killed 99 people. In the history of the modern world that we know, we don't know of any mass murderer in modern history.

Mass murderer meaning with his own two hands. Who had prowled the streets and killed more than 30- 40 people. Jack the Ripper they say had 20 something.

And this is considered a huge number. This guy had 99. To his own credit or discredit if you look at it in the right way.

99. He then repented. And he went to a monk.

Once again the same monk type of thing. Just worshipping and worshipping and worshipping. And he said, "I have killed 99 people with these two hands. Can Allah ever forgive me?" The monk said, "99 people. Allah can never forgive you." So in his anger, he made the 99-100 via the monk.

Meaning he killed the monk. He repented again. And he then went to a rabbi, a scholar.

And he said, "O scholar, can Allah forgive me? I have killed 100 people. 100 people I've killed. Can Allah forgive me?" And the scholar said, "And who is there who can come in between Allah and His mercy?

Who can be so powerful as to prevent Allah's mercy from coming to you? Who is there that can prevail over Allah's rahma? Of course Allah can forgive you."

"But you are living in an evil land. You're living in a place where these murders and these evils are made alluring to you. Where obviously there was no law. That's why he could get away with it. Where no sharia was being established, so on and so forth. So he said, immigrate, do hijrah to a pious land."

"The land in such and such a place. And go worship Allah there." And the hadith goes on.

He met his death on the way there. The angels of mercy, the angels of punishment argued over who should take him. Until finally, it was the angels of mercy who took his soul because he wanted to repent.

Even though he didn't get to the land of repentance. But Allah (جل وعز) saw his intentions. But the hadith and this incident once again proves to us the superiority of knowledge over mere worship.

It is knowledge that is needed before worship. And that is why Imam Al-Bukhari in his sahih, which is the most blessed book after the Quran, and the most authentic book after the Quran. In one of the chapters he says, "The chapter of knowledge before actions and speech."

You need to have knowledge before you open your mouth. You need to have knowledge before you do anything. The chapter of knowledge before doing anything or saying anything.

An entire chapter dedicated to proving this point.

The Quranic Evidence - Adam's Superiority Through Knowledge

Yet another illustration of the blessings of knowledge. And this is a profound illustration, a profound example that we have in the Quran.

Is that, when Allah (جل وعز) decided to create man, and He told the angels, "I'm about to create this creation that will die one after the other and leave successors."

In other words, khalifa. The proper meaning of khalifa here is those who will leave one generation after the other.

The angels, they don't die. They will only die at the day of judgment. The same angel that was alive from the time of pre-Adam, will be the same angel until the trumpet is blown.

They don't procreate, they don't have children, they don't die. Angels are, in that sense, they have extremely long lives. So Allah says, "I'm creating a new creation."

"They have something called free will, and they're going to have generations after generations." The angels said, "O Allah, how can you create a creation that is so evil? It's going to shed blood, it's going to do this, it's going to do that. We are so pure."

We all understand, brothers and sisters, the need for such scholarship. But who amongst us is ready for it? We criticize these imams. Are we ready to stand in their place? Are we even qualified to lead the prayers properly? Do we know how to recite the Quran with the proper tajweed? Can we stand up to give a basic, basic khutbah about any topic? Do we have the tools needed to research anything out?

Brothers and sisters, I am honestly scared of a possible crisis.

I am optimistic that you here and people of your age will be much better in community development, in building relations with the people out there, in fostering harmony, in getting rid of a lot of the racial stereotypes and a lot of the negative things we had from the first generation. I'm very optimistic about that. I think inshaAllah ta'ala from that perspective, we will have better masjids in that regard, better schools, better civic responsibilities and agendas.

I'm very optimistic. But what I'm pessimistic about, and I pray that Allah (جَلَّ وَعَزَّ) proves me wrong, what I'm scared about is that Islamically, we're nowhere close to the level of scholarship we need. In order for any community to go forward, you need to have ulama from that community, scholars from that community.

And that is why Allah تعالى says in the Quran:

"We have never sent a messenger except that he was from the same people that he was sent to."

You have to be from your community. If you're not, how do you expect the Pakistani maulvi to understand your problems? With all due respect, if you went to Pakistan, you'd make a bigger fool of yourselves than the Pakistani maulvi does in your masjid.

You'd have no clue as to what the youth are facing and their problems and realities. Give him some slack. The reality is when it comes to your turn, are you willing and are you ready to be in his place? Can you really and truly be a mentor, a guide, a spiritual leader, a faqih, a mufti, a khatib, an imam? Are you ready to take on this responsibility? Criticisms aside, where is the substitute?

And as long as we have to continue to import our ulama and import our du'at, forever the progress of American Islam will be impeded.

We need to strike a balance. We need to have some of us studying the engineering and the medicine and all that, that's all fine and dandy, alhamdulillah. But we need to have a healthy percentage interested in Islamic studies.

A healthy percentage. Not a 100%, obviously not. Not 90%, not even 80%.

Only a few of the sahaba actually reached the level of fatwa, of iftaat during the lifetime of the Prophet صَلَّىٰ ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ. Not that many. Only a few of the sahaba became the main narrators of a hadith. Less than 12 who were the main core narrators of hadith.

But they had them, that's the point. We don't have that. And that's the worry that I have.

That until we continue to import scholarship, really and truly, we're not looking at a healthy Islam in North America. Until we have American ulama. Ulama that have really and truly studied Islam properly and they're fully American.

They speak English without an accent. They understand where we're coming from. They sympathize with our situation.

They're not living in another alternate reality. Until we have plenty of such ulama. Not just one in every city, one in every masjid.

Really and truly, we are facing a crisis of national proportions as an ummah in North America. And I'm very scared that Allah knows what's gonna happen when, you know, as I said, when leadership is passed on to us. That's what I'm worried about.

Practical Steps for Gaining Knowledge

So in order to solve these problems, we really and truly have to get reintroduced to our religion. Now, much can be said here, and perhaps in the question and answer we can elaborate even more. Much can be said here, but a number of points.

First: Brothers and sisters, ilm is not an on-off switch. Ilm is not that either you have it or you don't. No. There are millions of shades of gray in between. There will be some, Allah azza wa jalla blesses them, that they can drop everything, give up their secular education, and go and study in Azhar, in Medina, in Indonesia, in Islamabad. Go and study all over the world.

Spend decades. But those are the exceptions. If you can be like them, alhamdulillah.

If not, the first point that I'm gonna say, don't just throw in the towel. Don't just say, "Okay, well I can't go to Medina, I can't go to Azhar, I can't go, I'm just gonna sit here and do nothing in Islamic studies." No.

There's a lot you can do sitting right here now. A lot you can do to better yourselves intellectually in the Islamic sciences. So, don't have an either-or mentality.

Either I become the sheikh and mufti of North America, or else I'm gonna remain as jahil as I am for the rest of my life. Sorry brothers and sisters, it doesn't work that way. We only need one mufti for North America.

Maybe five, six, alhamdulillah, good. That's all we need. But we need hundreds and thousands of basic imams.

Hundreds and thousands of students of knowledge. And you can get to that level without ever traveling abroad. You can.

Secondly: Once you realize there are shades of gray, and I need to just improve a higher shade, that's all I need to do. Once you realize this, sit down and say, "Okay, what time do I have?" And trust me, every one of us has plenty of time. Every one of us has the same 24 hours a day.

Nobody has any more, any less. This is one blessing as the scholars say. Mankind has been given it the same in terms of, you know, the time that we're living, everybody has one second right now.

Nobody has more or less of that one second. Of course we have different life spans, but in terms of time as it goes by, okay, tangential time, it's the same with everybody. Everybody has time.

Look at your schedule, "What do I do? Do I drive to work? Or do I take the bus or whatever? I have time to listen to CDs and MP3s. I have an iPod, I have this and that. Instead of, audhubillah, listening to music, or instead of wasting my time listening to things that have no relevance and value to me, let me buy a series about the sahaba."

"Let me buy a series about the prophets. Let me buy a series about fiqh. Series are very important because you build."

"It's not just talks here and there. And every day, I'm gonna listen to these CDs and these talks every single day until I finish the entire collection. And then I'm gonna listen to them again to solidify what I know."

"Time, when I wake up in the morning, what do I do? I surf the net for 20 minutes before leaving? I don't really need to. I can cut that down to 5. That gives me 15 minutes. Let me read some interesting book about Islam."

Let me build up my knowledge of my religion. So time, you need to find out how much time you have and schedule in knowledge. You need to schedule it in.

Thirdly: You need to find a mentor. This is necessary. Why? Because if you don't find a mentor, you have no clue what to study, and how to study, and what books to buy, and what CDs to listen to.

You're just gonna be, as they say in Arabic, (الذي يحطب بالليل) which means somebody goes out at night and just collects all types of firewood. He might collect a scorpion and a snake. He has no clue what it is because it's in the dark.

You don't collect firewood in the middle of the night. You just gather whatever you can. No, you need to have somebody who's more knowledgeable than you.

Doesn't have to be the biggest shaykh around. It's difficult to get in touch with some of them. Somebody who's preceded the path and is higher than you.

And you say, "What do you recommend? What do I start with? Where do I go?" Once you've done that, he'll take you to a different level. And so on and so forth.

Fourthly: Certain things you need to study without any exception.

The most important of them, Quran and Sunnah. This is something you need to do. This should be a daily routine.

Every day, read some Quran, in Arabic and then its translation in English. No exceptions. You need food to live.

You need Quran and Sunnah for your soul. The food for your soul is the word of Allah and the word of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. If you don't have this food, your heart will die. Every day, inject in some time to read the Quran in Arabic, that's the barakah.

And then understand it in English. And then some books of hadith. One hadith a day.

I recommend you two books and I encourage everybody to have these two books and read them at least one hadith a day. The first of them, the 40 hadith of Nawawi. Read this book cover to cover.

The most useful hadith for the layman. And then once you've done the 40 hadith of Imam Nawawi, move on to Riyad al-Saliheen, also by Imam al-Nawawi.

This book was written for you, literally.

It is, in my humble opinion, the most practical and the most useful book of hadith for the layman. Riyad al-Saliheen, Gardens of the Righteous. Many translations in English, Bengali, Urdu, every language in the face of this earth, it has been translated into.

Gardens of the Righteous. The third thing you need to study, after Quran and Sunnah, seerah, the life of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. Make sure you know the life of this man. Brothers and sisters, it is really a sad testament to our knowledge.

How much filth we know. How much fahisha and corruption we know. How much evil we know.

About everything, how much useless information we know. About music, about movies, about sports. Some of which is haram, others of which is mubah, none of which is blessed.

It might be haram, it might be neutral, none of it is blessed. It is a shame that we have so much crammed in our heads. And I'm sorry for daunting you in this lecture like this, but that's the reality, okay? It is a shame that we have so much knowledge.

Really, if we did a quiz of the latest movies and who starred in what, and where the latest... I can't even say these things, alhamdulillah, I plead ignorance, and I'm proud of this ignorance. Who are the latest rappers, and the musicians and what not. You know so much about them.

So much, even statistics about sports, crammed in our heads. If only we had as much knowledge of our own religion, and the sahaba, and the tabi'un, and the great scholars, where would we be now? So, prioritize, prioritize. Make sure you have, nobody's saying cut off all the sports, and anything else that's mubah, permissible.

Fine, spend some time doing that as well. But also spend some time with this religion.

Lastly: Alhamdulillah, there are many institutes that have now formed.

Brothers and sisters, when I started practicing, in the sense, alhamdulillah, I was always practicing, but meaning interested in knowledge. When I started getting interested in knowledge, in the early 90's, there was nothing out there, nothing that I could go to, to sit and study. There were no students of knowledge that were active all over the country, preaching and teaching advanced levels.

There were a few cassettes here, a few books here. There was a time when pretty much any good book on Islamic studies, I had it on my shelf, in the early 90's. Now, alhamdulillah, there is a plethora of books, hundreds of cassettes, and mp3 files, I mean, hundreds and thousands of them.

There is no dearth of choices, just what do you want to listen to. So, one aspect that alhamdulillah, we have now in North America, we have many institutes. Many institutes that are teaching and preaching advanced Islamic studies.

Of them, of course, is Al-Maghrib Institute, which I'm affiliated with. But there are other institutes as well. There is Sunni Path, which Shaykh Faraz Rabbani is affiliated with.

There is Deen Intensive, there is Alim Courses, there is Zaytuna Institute. Many institutes are out there that are offering advanced Islamic studies. Find the one that you like the most, you're the most comfortable with, and then study your religion.

Know the basics of your fiqh. Brothers and sisters, the sad reality, wallahi, we don't even know how to do wudu properly. We don't even know what factors break the wudu.

Don't you think that, I mean, and I'll tell you for myself, I felt disgusted at myself, once upon a time that when I started studying stuff, here I am. I remember clearly, I mean, it was like an organic chemistry book,

Closing

I pray that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grants us the motivation to study His religion. He grants us the sincerity to really and truly give it the right that it is due. And He grants us the tawfiq and the patience and the determination to then put that sincerity into action.

"Our final supplication is that all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. May Allah’s peace, blessings, and grace be upon Muhammad, his family, and all his companions. And peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you."

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani's Address

Opening:

JazakAllah khair to Shaykh Yasir for his wonderful talk. And he laid out the importance of knowledge and why we have to seek knowledge and how.

And he also emphasized to us what knowledge we have to go about seeking. Now, the obvious question that arises is why does that not happen in our lives, right? I mean, if we asked everyone here, is knowledge important? Everyone would shake their heads or raise their hands, whatever and say, yes, knowledge is important, right? But then if we look at ourselves for the last five years, how much have we gained in our knowledge, right?

And while I was in college, I used to be involved in campus journalism and stuff, right? So sometimes I sort of step back from the flow of reality as it's happening and consider like what's going on, like as a journalist might. And you see, like for example, I came back to North America after about 10 years overseas.

And you run into friends you haven't met for 10, 12 years, right? Good people, practicing people, right? Have they changed very much? They've gotten older. Those who've married, you know, they have bigger bellies. They have kids.

You know, things change, you know. But where are they in their religious lives? And you know, with specific people, you think the best. InshaAllah, each one of them is one of the most beloved of Allah's servants to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.

We don't judge particularly, but the general case, people are where they're at back then. And why is that the case? When if you ask these people, people who are religious, committed to being good Muslims, is

knowledge important? Is learning important? They say, yes, of course. Then why aren't they going anywhere?

The Walking Analogy

We'll use an example to illustrate this, inshaAllah.

I'll ask the moderator actually to help me out, okay? Brother Tawfiq, could you stand up? Just stand up, don't do anything. Okay, he's in a rush. Now, the urge to learn is rather like the urge to walk, and we'll explain why.

So what I'm going to do is to ask the moderator to please walk. We've lost our moderator. Any volunteers? Okay, he's stopped.

JazakAllah khair. Sit down. Okay.

This is what happens, right? If you think about the urge to learn, it's a bit like the urge to walk. What happens? People take a few steps. He walked not more than 10 steps, and then what happened? He wandered out loud, right? What do I do next, right? And then he got this, maybe he's like got some resolve and stuff.

And he's a good guy, I kind of know. He walked a little further, right? But then he stopped. This is exactly what happens in our religious lives, right? It relates to knowledge, but it also relates to our religious practice, to our relationship with Allah, right? We get this urge, "I want to be a better Muslim," right? So I want to do something.

So I want to pray, I want to learn, all these things, right? We do them, we start. And initially it's wonderful, right? You're doing something, you're going somewhere, right? But then what happens? Exactly what happened to our dear moderator when he stopped walking. It no longer made sense.

It no longer made sense, right? Initially it made sense. Why was he walking? I told him, walk, right? But then it didn't make sense. The same thing happens in our wanting to become better Muslims or this idea, "I want to learn."

So what do people do? They say, "I want to learn." They'll take a course here or they'll do something. But then they'll drop out or they'll stop or they'll get busy with something else.

And this doesn't just happen here. You see students of knowledge who go overseas. And Shaykh Yasir can confirm this from his experience.

Most students of knowledge who go overseas, they don't complete their studies. Why? One of the reasons is they had no purpose in what they're doing.

They had no purpose in what they're doing.

If I told our dear moderator here, "Walk till the exit," what would happen? He'd be doing exactly the same thing. He would be walking. But he'd have a sense of purpose.

He'd have a direction and a goal. So he would get somewhere, right? And this is what is lacking, right? We want to learn. We want to be better Muslims.

But we do not have a sense of purpose.

The Four Keys to Success

One of the major scholars of the 20th century, Imam Shabbir Usmani, he wrote a great commentary on Sahih Muslim. All of you know the great collection of hadith, Sahih Muslim.

One of the best commentaries on it was written in the 20th century by Shaykh Al-Islam Shabbir Usmani. And he only commented about half the work and then he passed away. And the great scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani in the 90s completed this commentary.

It's published in 12 volumes. He mentions, so Shaykh Al-Islam Shabbir Usmani mentions that there's four conditions for success. There's four conditions for success.

What are these conditions? He said there's four things. If true, everything we know from the Quran and Sunnah make it manifest for us that success is a divine guarantee. What are these four things? There are four things that have to be true.

The first is our intention has to be true. So the first of these four keys of success is that our intention must be true. The second is that we must have a true goal.

So the second thing that must be true is that we must have a true goal, a true purpose. Now if you have the right intention and the right goal, you have to take the right means. So the third thing that has to be correct is the means that you take.

The means you take has to be true as well. And finally the way you go about taking that means has to be true as well. Why? Because let's say for example, you want, in a life thing, you realize you're bad to your dad, right? You always argue with your dad, right? You like the Chicago Cubs, you like the White Sox, and you end up arguing with him and you end up saying bad things to your dad.

So you want to change things, right? So you have a goal, a good goal. You want to fix relations with your dad. And the intention behind it is to seek Allah's pleasure.

What do you do? So you decide to take the means. You want to give him a gift. But the way you go about taking the means is what is wrong? He's a Cubs fan, you get him a White Sox shirt.

What happens? It's not gonna work, is it? Because you wanted to do the right thing, but you did it in the wrong way, right? And as they say, the devil is often in the details, right? So these four things have to be true, right?

When it comes to our knowledge, we have to have a goal in our own lives as individuals, first and foremost, right? We have to have a goal. Why am I trying to learn this knowledge? Where do I want to get in my life, right? We have to have a sense of purpose, right?

When you consider your academic career, people don't just show up at university and say, "Well, I want to take courses," right? Do we go about doing it that way? Well, I kind of did, right? But that's why it took me five years to do a four-years degree, right? And last year, at university, I actually failed a course that's known at university called Rocks for Jocks. It's a first-year geology course that people who are taking, like, who are artsy people, they have to take a science requirement.

So all the athletes and stuff take this course. No reading requirements in this course whatsoever. Just the exam is based just on the slides.

The slides are given to you. The teacher just reads from the slides. Really straightforward, right? It's like Rocks for Jocks, right? I failed it.

Now, the story of why I failed it is quite creative, and it's not the subject of this talk, but because it didn't make sense. Alhamdulillah, I finished it and did overall reasonably well, right? But it didn't really make sense. I didn't want to, this is not what I wanted to do.

But typically, people who succeed at university, they have a sense of purpose. "I'm here, this is what I'm trying to achieve, and this is the means that I want to take." Those of you who are not doing well at university, it's probably because you really don't want to be there in the first place, right? If you want to succeed, you want to be able to get better grades, set some goals in life.

Simple key to success, right? Set some goals and then take the right means.

Setting Goals in Religious Life

To succeed in our lives as Muslims, to seek knowledge, this knowledge whose virtue Shaykh Yasir elucidated so beautifully, we have to set some goals in life. How do I want to be next year? As a Muslim, how do I want to be in my relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Where do I want to go in life? This question that Allah asks us, "So where are you going?" And we have to set that.

And just as we plan for our worldly success, we have to plan for our religious success. And the key to our religious success is what? Is seeking knowledge.

Because whomever Allah wishes well for, He grants knowledge of religion, He grants understanding of religion.

I'm personally aware of more than one about medical issues. There are websites as well where qualified ulama in English, qualified ulama, you know, will give you fatwas about issues of a particular nature. And if you log on and do a simple search of their website of any issue, you will find, you know, modern fatawa about this.

So, research is being done. Of course, if you speak and read Arabic, then a whole new vista is opened up for you. Because all of these issues have been discussed and are being discussed as we speak by great ulama.

But, unfortunately, it's in Arabic. Or maybe fortunately, because that is the language of Islam. We don't ever want to lose and change that.

But this needs to be translated. It does need to be translated. So, hopefully, (إن شاء الله تعالى - inshaAllah ta'ala), let's hope that as time goes by, these tracks and fatawa will be translated.

But as it exists, I believe that where there's a will, there's a way. You will find many, many answers to the questions you have. And Allah knows best.

Shaykh Faraz's Addition:

You want to add to that? Just one little thing to that, right? A lot of these things, they return to fulfilling a collective responsibility. Like a fard kifaya. And we have to realize that in the fulfillment of things that are collective responsibilities, it's not just the responsibility of the ulama.

So, for example, if you have a scholar in your community, now your MSA wanted programs on this. Or as a community, you see that these issues need to be addressed, then work with the scholars. Assist them.

Very often you find students of knowledge and scholars, they don't have access to the resources because they have limited means and so on. So encourage them. Or sometimes they see, "Well, no one's asking about these matters."

So we should have a vision of facilitating these things in our communities, right? So that our scholars get this kind of training. And we facilitate the means for them as individuals and as groups of scholars to be trained in ways in which they can learn about these specialized matters as well. Because as Shaykh Yasir is mentioning, one of the wonderful areas where there's much cooperation between scholars from right across the ummah, from right across different schools of thought, are contemporary issues, right? And there's many positive lessons that can be learned from that cooperation.

But also we have to somehow connect our younger scholars with those big ulama and keep that connection so that they can acquire the training in these particular matters.

Question 2: Book Recommendations for Seerah

Written Question: Do you have any books of seerah that you would recommend?

Shaykh Faraz's Response:

We'll just consider books of seerah in English.

One of the books of seerah that is highly recommendable is Al-Rahiq Al-Makhtoom, right? It's very good. It's very clear. And it's a manageable size as a book, right? Yeah, and it's translated in English.

Sorry, the English translation is The Sealed Nectar. And that's one book. And there's a number of other books that are out there, a number of good CD sets as well.

Sheikh Hamza Yusuf has a wonderful CD set on seerah as well that many of you would be familiar with, (إن شاء الله - inshaAllah).

Moderator: One quick thing. I just want to remind everyone, when this session ends, I ask the sisters to leave quickly and the brothers then to follow.

JazakAllah khair.

Question 3: Comparing Western and Traditional Islamic Education

Question: Can you briefly compare and contrast education in the West, i.e. graduate Islamic studies at Yale, Princeton, Harvard, with traditional Islamic education overseas? How does one make a decision? Which road to pursue?

Shaykh Yasir's Response:

I've been asked this question many times in many different ways in many different angles. And people are just, many of them are just shocked that how can you have gone and studied in an institution where all of your professors are non-Muslims and they don't even believe in Allah and His Messenger and you're studying Islam from them and what not.

Brothers and sisters, if you want to study Islamic studies because of religious reasons, which is basically most of us here, you're gonna go to the ulama and the scholars. You're gonna go to the people who believe in the same books you do, who respect the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) who believe in Allah and worship Him properly. You're gonna go to people who fear Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala.

And they will teach you the traditional sciences. You're not gonna find those traditional sciences in Western education institutions because they're not meant to do so. They're not meant to, even in for example Christian studies.

Now the majority of people in North America are Christians. However, if a Christian wants to become a minister, wants to become a preacher, typically, generally, they don't go to the religious studies

department. They go to something called divinity schools or seminaries.

That's separate. That's not religious studies. That's divinity school.

Divinity school is the equivalent of a high level madrasa. I'm in religious studies. Christians don't come to religious studies to study Christianity in a religious sense.

They come to study Christianity in a historic sense, an intellectual sense. In the divinity school, you'll find practicing God-fearing Christians. You'll find people who are enthused about Christianity in a religious sense.

Typically, sometimes, typically, they're not gonna come to religious studies. Similarly in Islamic studies, we don't have the divinity school equivalents yet. We don't, because we don't have the quantity of Muslims.

We don't have that. What we do have as we started these institutions, we're offering Al-Maghrib Institute, Sunni, Baha'i, Zaytuna, Din and Tariq. These are the things that we have, but they're not accredited by the West, and it's gonna take many decades.

Allah knows best, but it's gonna take many decades for them to be accredited. If you want to study Islamic studies as Islamic studies, you don't go to Western institutions, because they're not meant for that. Rather, they're meant to teach you how the West views Islam.

How orientalists look at Islam. They're meant to give you a different perspective. Now, you know, I mean, it's not, as I said, for someone like me coming in with a background in Islamic studies, I have no problems, you know, going and studying there, even though I disagree with much of what is taught.

But if somebody has no clue about Islamic studies, he's never studied the Quran and Sunnah traditionally, and then they're exposed to this type of thought. Really, it is very dangerous, there's no doubt about that. Because they have very radically different views than we do.

For example, they don't accept hadith at all. They consider hadith, generally speaking, to be all fabrications and forgeries, you know. Many of them would deny the Quran as a book of Muhammad, of course the book of Allah, of course they deny it.

Many of them would say that the Quran has not been preserved. This is a compilation of, you know, later generations. One of the most groundbreaking orientalist works in the late 70s was called Hagarism by a very famous scholar.

In it, he actually denied that there was a Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم),there's no need for this figure. Didn't even exist. And as a rebuke to Islam, Hagarism as a reference to who? Hajar (عليها السلام) as the slave of Abraham.

This is really what Islam is, Hagarism. That's the title of the book, you know. Now as a Muslim who loves Allah and His Messenger, you come here and you hear a lot of this, you know, negative stuff.

Really, it's just not suitable and healthy. I'm doing it for a different reason. I mean, I have, alhamdulillah, background.

I'm doing it to get a, you know, a better grounding in how the West views Islam. I would not recommend it unless you go in for the same reason. If you go in for sake of Islamic studies, this is not the place, you know, for you.

So I hope that answers that question.

Question 4: Available Resources for Islamic Learning

Question: My question is about the resources that... (بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم - Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim).

Shaykh Faraz's Response:

No, that's a good question, right? Shaykh Yasir mentioned a number of them in his talk, right? Al-Maghrib Institute, Sunni Path, there's Zaytuna, the Alim program, etc. In many communities, you find locally.

Sometimes people find it very easy to overlook what's available locally, right? The grass is always greener far away, right? So, you like to bring scholars from all over and so on. And it's a temptation, right? Like, for example, in Toronto, I'm back in Toronto now. These people say, "We're bringing in Shaykh so-and-so from here and Shaykh so-and-so from there."

And they're like, "Okay, what about the scholars locally? Are you doing programs with them?" And it's like, almost like, "Oh, never thought of that," right? And that's also, especially in many of the larger cities, it's, you have local scholars who are also available, right? And there's nothing like studying with someone directly. You get to know them. You can ask them your life questions and so on.

And in the end, so one should be, because the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said:

(Sahih Muslim 2664)

"Be avid for that which benefits you."

It's not about the wow factor alone. "It's so cool. We got someone from Guatemala to come this time," right? So what, right? At the end of the day, you're trying to seek the pleasure of Allah (جل جلاله) and to learn the ways of drawing closer to Him, to submit to Him with excellence as He has commanded, right? And take the means that are available.

Find out, be avid. And this should be our criteria, right? Be avid for that which benefits you, right? What should we learn? See where you are in your relationship with Allah. What is your duty to Allah (جل جلاله)

given the circumstances that you find yourselves in? And seek that knowledge, right?

Question 5: Dealing with Different Schools of Thought

Question: In North America you find a pluralistic Islam where every masjid and imam follows different madhhab and opinion, each saying they're correct. Oftentimes you hear such divergent opinions and it leaves the seeker more confused than where they began. What's the solution to this?

Shaykh Faraz's Response:

One solution is, these words of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم):

(Sahih Muslim 2664)

"Be avid for that which benefits you."

That a lot of the difference of opinion is not relevant to you at all. It feels good, right? Because empowering, it's something you can tell your friends, "Guess what I read today," right? "Shaykh so and so got upset with Shaykh so and so and this and that and the other, it's wow," right? And then you go to sleep and you didn't wake up for fajr the next day, right? Right? What's that got to do with deen? What is deen? It's about submitting to Allah (جل جلاله). It's to become Abdullah, to become a true slave of Allah (جل جلاله) to recognize that you are the slave of Allah and He is your Lord, right? And to excel in your submission to Allah (جل جلاله)

So if you look at the key things that you have to know in your life, who differs about them? Who says that you don't have to, that in the core matters of belief, in the core matters of worship and so on, who differs, right? Who says that there's a disagreement, there's no difference of opinion about being good to your parents. No one said that, "Well, you don't really have to be good to them," right? It doesn't exist, rather.

Whether you define yourself as this or that, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, you won't get to jannah because you say, "Well, I'm from the Zaytuna crew or the Sunni path crew or the Maghrib crew." At the end of the day, you get to jannah if you are, if you're someone who has submitted to Allah (جل جلاله) with excellence as He's commanded, right? And the means to that are clear.

So be avid for that which benefits you, right? And that's a key to these things. And so most difference of opinion, the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) told:

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi 2317)

"From the excellence of a person's Islam is to leave that which does not concern him."

When people are talking about difference of opinion and argument, stop and think, "Will this be a means for me to attain unto the pleasure of Allah (جل جلاله)?" If it's not, leave it. If it's not, leave it. A scholar may have a good reason why they're saying what they're saying, right? Because this is their duty.

And those who succeed, what are their characteristics?

"They have faith and good works, and they call each other to the truth, and they call each other to perseverance."

So we have to have this purpose in life. We have to have a goal in life.

This is what I want to do. And then take the means to do it, so that we succeed. Allah gave us a very simple formula.

If you follow Him, you'll be guided. Guided to what? To all that you could possibly seek and unimaginably more. If you follow Him, you shall be guided.

If you obey Him, you shall be guided. This is what it's about. Take the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) as your exemplar in life, and you'll be guided.

Every little thing that you could possibly do, you cannot imagine a better way. It's not possible to have a better way than the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ). If you just think for a moment about driving a car, and then close your eyes and say, "How would the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) have driven a car?" And we don't have to ask someone who's specialized in hadith. The Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) never drove a car.

Never. And it's obvious. And if you hear it, it's beyond being fabricated.

So we don't even have to think about the question. But can you just imagine how the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) would have driven a car? And then you consider yourself.

You feel embarrassed.

You do so many things when driving a car that it's not possible. From what we know of the way of the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) you cannot imagine anything but the most beautiful of driving. Seriously, anything.

Can you imagine the Prophet (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) eating a bowl of cereal? How would he eat it? Every little thing in life.

"Verily you have in the Messenger of Allah the very most beautiful of examples for whoever seeks Allah on the last day."

So if he's the very most beautiful of examples, if you want to be successful in your relationship with Allah, want to be successful on the last day, take him as your exemplar.

And that's it. And be sincere therein. And you'll find success.

وَاللهُ أَعْلَمُ.

Closing

Moderator: I'm sorry to cut you both off for that as actually we are out of time for the end of our session.

So again, I want to thank Shaykh Faraz and Shaykh Yasir for their speaking.

And I want to request the sisters to leave first and then the brothers to follow. JazakAllahu Khayran.

BarakAllahu feekum.

وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

الفاتحة