We are to unite as Allah commanded in the way Allah commanded there is variation the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam they’re not a matter of conflict or like diametrically opposite irreconcilable differences these are not the right and wrong they’re right and right so let’s let’s get down into um yeah sure Welcome back to Dogma disrupted today we’re going to talk about unity and differences in the ummah a very very important topic that has a lot of confusion surrounding it some people think that in order to be united we can’t disagree about anything and then some people have the opposite opinion
That basically it’s a free-for-all and we can have any disagreement whatsoever which begs the question of what does truly unite us as Muslims so today to help us navigate this topic we’ve brought back our beloved Sheikh Muhammad welcome back to the program so let’s get right into it what is the
Status of disunity in Islam is this Unity something that is a significant threat or not certainly I mean as the scholars put it because the verses and Hadith are so clear uh let me rewind and say Bismillah alhamdulillah there is nothing more uh emphatically uh enjoined in the Quran and soon after the
Head for the Muslims than uniting upon that or hate you know Allah azzawajal often speaks about Brotherhood with the widest net if you will when he says all of the Believers are on a single or are upon a single Brotherhood uh fraternity Brotherhood and Sisterhood of course uh we have the prophet sallallahu
Alaihi wasallam warning before his departure that there has curled up on you the disease of the Nations before you uh which is envy and of course that’s what eats away at the Brotherhood fabric the social Fabric and then eventually you’re envying the blessings and then it transfers to the
Blessed himself right then hatred he said Envy then it becomes hatred he said and that is the Shafer and I said I don’t mean that would shave’s hair but that would shaves off the entirety of their religion so it’s almost like the religion at its most fundamental level
Is about to hate but without the Brotherhood you will not maintain it and you may actually reverse your commitment to tawheed uh as our teachers used to say if your brother for the sake of Allah you can’t get past his differences or your differences with them then your
Issue isn’t even with your brother anymore it’s with Allah himself how could you not accept as your brother someone whom Allah has accepted as worthy of being his servant give us an illustration of how that happens it’s really fascinating to think of the um jealousy okay jealousy and then it
Grows in a fast until someone becomes yeah displeased that somebody else obtains some sort of blessings or status or something make it very very plain for us like an example of how that then undermines the religion itself because some people will think oh well that’s just their individual
Problem they’re going to be sinful but we’re saying this is an existential threat right to um the establishment of Islam or the longevity of Islam so how do those two things relate right of course I mean believe it or not this is these are all the uh the muddy uh Battlegrounds of the
Ego like we talk about the ego all the time but all of the uh the damage you may see on the world stage with Muslims or with non-muslims look at how much damage the ego when left Unchained you know can cause what is racism but it is my race
Like no one’s actually defending someone else’s race maybe in the spirit of Justice or something but they don’t actually anyone who believes in a superiority Dynamic doesn’t believe in anything but their own superiority yeah if you think of even like this blind patriotism or blind nationalism
Tribalism and then you just have sort of the groupisms even within the religious languaging so this we call being identity Centric and identity Centric religiosity is actually an egotistic religiosity it’s not god-centered and so Allah called us to hate because every good is found there in this world before the next
You reverse it then you can expect anything from anyone even in the name of the religion they just tokenized it it’s a veneer but it’s really about you know identity centrism it’s about me and who’s close to me and who agrees with me and who looks like me and that’s it yeah
No that’s exactly what I wanted to tease out a couple things occurred to me as you were describing that one of them how how many disagreements and controversies at the base level even sometimes unfortunately between the or the mat go back to hasid go back to
Envy of one another and I’m sure you’ve seen it and I’ve definitely seen it in in my studies that one of the why why is this so dangerous because people will start to conscript the dean in their effort to basically score points against somebody else right or somebody else uh
Whatever differences that they have now they have them in their crosshairs they’re targeting that person and any little piece of evidence whether it comes from the dean or somewhere else or something that’s like the other person slipping up now the entire person’s orientation is just grabbing whatever
They can right it’s like a it’s like a you know a bar fight like grabbing whatever they can in order to punish the other person and to prove them wrong or to one-up them or to knock them off of a pedestal and in that process yeah I’m so sorry it
Is so interesting how it knocks you off your otherwise very methodical very sort of scholarly astute methodology yes like when I hate you I will consider a suspicion about you fact right and then think of groupism as well when I love you I will consider facts about you unfounded rumors yeah
And so in that case we are no longer Abdullah we are not the Servants of the truth we are not Allah’s name is the ultimate truth and so we are obligated to Pivot with truth wherever it goes we’re no longer that person anymore yes
I mean one of the things this was a nice little litmus test that Sheikh Abdullah shankiti introduced to us you know he said that one of the ways that you can tell if you’re on the right path is if you’re equally happy that someone is being Guided by other than you right so
You put out a video somebody else put out puts out a video and someone comes to you and they say yeah I’m not really very you know uh I’m not a big fan of of your lectures are you kind of boring but but his stuff is fire you know if you can
Say like take that with a smile and so say alhamdulillah I’m so glad that you found something that is speaking to you that’s how that’s holding you on to this Dean then that’s sincerity right whereas whereas if you’re being eaten Away by by has said by jealousy and envy then the
Temptation is be like is to be like oh well we hear this all the time right it’s like well I don’t I don’t agree with everything he says yeah no duh right it’s like nobody agrees with everything that anybody says but what I’m doing is I’m throwing shade and now
It’s like well he’s got this mistake over here oh yeah uh you know make sure we or sometimes here’s another one we hear um make sure we should be taking from the major Scholars right kibara we shouldn’t be taking from and all of these sorts of you know little tactics
Were so sneaky we’re so Suave and sneaky when it comes to the ego and sort of this game that we play of throwing shade at other people out of Envy subhanallah like the vast majority of time that at least occurs to me that it’s out of Endy the Lord protect this man you’re
Absolutely right I mean the second thing that it was getting me thinking about you know um you know and Al Imran but especially like one of these one of the main I think points and you you just mentioned it is about relating to Truth Versus identity right
This is something that you know we both teach for for legacy um you know I I hammer into the kids like all the time like look at how Bennett Israel specifically and the nasada right but they they basically it was like they were one of the kids who the teacher
Gave them something okay and they imagined that their worth was because the teacher only gave it to them right and then if the teacher turns around and gives it to something to somebody else now they’re upset now it’s not special anymore right that’s basically what Ben Israel and the nasada
And the Christians did for Allah’s guidance his prophethood his books his Revelations right they got it sent down to them and they’re misinterpreting that act as well this is because we’re special this is because we’re God’s chosen people this is because we’re the saved sect or we’re this or that
And so they construct this group identity it’s no longer about following the truth they construct a group identity around it and then now allows guidance and prophethood and book go to somebody else they’re like what wait a second it’s like we’ll never believe we can’t believe and there’s where that
Jealousy comes in and Allah calls it jealousy we’re never going to believe we’re going to fault fine we’re gonna you know make unrealistic uh demands on him to prove right his his disciple yeah exactly so subhanallah so all this has taken us a little bit on a tangent but
It it gets back to how important Unity is in Islam okay that Unity is something Allah commands and expects and it’s not just um it doesn’t just have political ends right some a lot of people I think they hear the word unity and they’re thinking
Okay yeah well we need to be United for politics that’s true but we also need to be United for Islam to actually Thrive and survive even in your own heart as an individual because because if you don’t then you’re going to get wrapped up in this other thing Envy jealousy Etc
So maybe maybe we can go through I know that you’ve done some work on this already what are the different causes of unity excuse me disunity why does this Unity happen and then we’ll transition I think to talking about um our sensors right when it comes to uh
Picking out disunity because some people have sensors that are too sensitive they think that everything is disunity and then some people have sensors that are dead and they’re not working anymore they think that everything’s fine but first why does this Unity happen in the first place speaking about disunity he does this
Very clean job of consolidating it all into root causes and those are uh which is ignorance just lack of education and belly which is transgressiveness um we spoke a little bit about transgressiveness when like you should know better or you do know better but you’re sort of uh justifying for
Yourself double standards to the end of it but lack of education is a big part of it because we are to unite as Allah commanded in the way Allah commanded so there are artificial conflicts that could happen sometimes or there could be an over laxity balance is good everywhere right so when
Artificial conflict being overly stringent being too tight there are some differences that aren’t even disagreements meaning they’re a matter of variation they’re not a matter of conflict or like uh diametrically opposite they are concilable differences so there’s variation the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam taught in the wordings of the event or approved of
There’s variation in the Quran of the Quran these are all variational differences these are not right and wrong they’re right and right and in that stuff it becomes absolutely wrong to disregard to sort of object to any of this because you in fact are objecting to something taught by the prophet
Sallallahu it’s not even like an interpretation of what the prophet may have the stuff he taught and so unless you identify that first you just need to hold off like which one is this and you even in Islamic work everyone’s got a niche like even the sahaba some of them were educating
Others more than anything else that was their strength to Barack Allah others were very very invested in you know Injustice social justice the Justice between people like some of them were uh you know were known for their subhanallah their very delicate natures and spirits and and
Uh it was phenomenal and very few of them actually none of them acceptable was Abu Bakr and it’s an important point because with variational differences you got to give room for people you know yakim you have that spiritual personality assessment which is useful to let you know you can be 100 Muslim
When you’re covering your bases but really excelling after that in whatever Allah has blessed you enough strengths when the prophet saws said whomever like doubles their contribution spends a pair in the path of Allah he will be called uh from the gates of paradise and it will be said
This was a a great decision you made and then whomever is called whomever is of the people of Surah meaning they excelled in Salah they will be called from the Gate of Salah and whomever was from the people of meaning distinguished in zakah they’re going to be called from the the
Gate of Charity and whoever was distinguished in Jihad will be called from the Gate of jihad and whoever was distinguished in fasting will be called from the Gate of Ryan and then Allah will anyone get to you know choose from all eight uh the variety right he’s
Saying can someone sort of subsume or could have all of this uh he said yes and I hope that you will be that person or of those people it’s beautiful about Abu Bakr but it was also sort of a reminder for everyone else that don’t expect of anyone to be
Able book let them you know like an exceptional well-roundedness like most people aren’t going to be the you know uh Four Season athlete and on the Dean’s List and also you know like all the other sort of you know doing everything but that was Abu Bakr right even more so
You know I remember just a quick anecdote that came to mind used to not fast almost at all the voluntary fasts because it would weaken his body he was a very frail build from being able to recite and teach the Quran and he was you know the utmost Authority uh in the
Beauty of his recitation and and I took 70 surahs straight from the mouth of the message of Allah to the end of his accolades so even with right yeah no masha’allah no that’s important right people need to be um given Reuben to breathe right and room to be fully
Muslim and it’s an important you know a really really important way of thinking about it as you mentioned this is the whole Sunnah right so we I think we we fall into that that problem a lot where we pick one thing and say this is the Sunnah and then we assume that anything
Else displaces it and is not this one no it’s like we’re talking about embracing the whole Sunnah right whether it’s or the different sort of ways of of worshiping and being and things like that um no so that’s that’s tremendously significant so let’s let’s get down into
Um yeah these different things yeah sure yeah okay of course conflicts we don’t mean hostility we mean that these are views that can’t simultaneously all be correct but there’s something that has to be kept in mind some of these we have to excuse some of them we won’t excuse
So when there’s conflictual conflicts like you know lawful unlawful some of this is excusable because we can’t know in the life of this world which one is actually the stronger view so it’s an academic problem it’s a problem that we yeah it’s not that objectively or what we would say
Ontologically yes there’s one truth but epistemically we’re Limited in knowledge and we can’t know for certain which one is completely right and that’s the view of the majority at least the majority of osun scholars believe in the concept of a they’re called meaning they sort of consider wrong one of the two opposing
Views and for rational reasons you know they can’t both be right at the same time in the same way logically speaking so with those conflictual views there’s right and wrong but we don’t know it it’s speculative that’s why they’re called Vani issues means speculative unclear and Allah was not forgetful and
Allah was not limited if he wanted to make every last ruling in Islam as you know Allah says in others uh so definitive that no two people would ever disagree on his intended you know uh the intended meaning there it would not be hard for him to do that yes but rather
Since life is a test not just a test of conduct but a test of humility a test of intelligence he wanted to test uh who’s going to be more objective than others who’s going to be more committed to learning than others who is going to be a more self-restrained to concede once
They get convinced that not their view turns out to be kind of stronger at least for me and so the stronger view in the excusable issues that is never an absolute we I have to keep this in mind that many students have knowledge when they finally get to that level of
Legal Theory and there’s like wait a minute so the stronger view thing was alive say no no not a lie it’s subjective you know right exactly that’s important subjective and individualistic often right it’s not necessarily A circumstantial like context different assets so that that is the the excusable you’re
Obligated to excuse those No Way Around It uh call me back up just for one second so we get the big picture so we’re talking about a typology of differences okay so the first category we said they’re not really even differences they’re variety and they’re actually the entire Sunnah right things
That probably said I’m taught things Allah revealed that if you’re actually shaving them off you’re actually shaving off Islam you’re actually like like uh abandoning creating this Unity yes you’re creating this Unity through your uh quixotic an English major quixotic sort of uh quest for false Unity okay and then the second the
Second category are things that are actually disagreements but we’re talking about there are valid disagreements within that we said that there are a lot there right there are certain things that Allah made so obviously clear that there’s no room for interpretation there’s no room for differences of opinion that’s not we’re talking about
Right but there’s a whole whole lot of things and actually more than I think the average person would like to admit the average practicing Muslim would like to admit that are lonely issues meaning that they’re not go out there they’re not absolutely completely settled and
Set issues that now we are in the realm of yes there are multiple interpretations and those multiple interpretations are valid that’s where we’re at right fantastic yeah so you know there’s a few things here that I’ve come across in dealing with people that number one people could be a little bit
Uncomfortable with this and that’s why I said it’s part it’s you should expect life to be confusing yeah a little bit the test of life this is the examination rule you shouldn’t expect to have the answers uh well you set up beautifully and I’m just going to interrupt for one
Second because it actually demonstrates your sincerity right if there’s that little bit of wiggle room where something is not like painfully obvious it will say a lot about an individual what they’re going to do with that wiggle room whether they’re going to take um a conservative opinion or a stronger
Opinion or or how they’re going to relate to that sort of ambiguity I think says a lot about our moral character so that’s a very important Point God’s not trying to win an argument with you he can win if you want to win right you know it’s not some uh Dr Hatton actually
He pointed out very beautifully a long time ago he’s always stuck with me if God wanted he could have sent Moses without a speech impediment yeah if God wanted he could have sent Jesus without the social impediment of not having a father in a patriarchal society right
Yeah but he’s not trying to win an argument he is he gave you enough reasons to believe in Jesus enough reasons to believe in Moses peace be upon him so if you want to Now look for an excuse to be dismissive of their ministry here it is right now if
Allah wanted there could have been a bigger difference between the the genetic makeup of the chimpanzee and the human being right yeah but God’s not trying to win an argument yeah the person who’s looking for the excuse to reject will find that excuse and the person who’s looking for an excuse to
Believe will find that excuse yeah so how so that that’s the first thing I wanted to say about you know why wasn’t it clear it’s God’s wisdom and here are some examples of that even in sort of the the endorsement of prophets it could have been more quote unquote waterproof
Right but no that’s not the point the next thing I want to tell you is the the matters of agreement as you put it are far less in the matters of disagreement in terms of the practice uh the applied law the the day-to-day but that does not mean that the matter
Of agreement in Islam are like nil or insignificant the books of each man scholarly consensus unanimous agreement those are significantly bigger significantly bigger than the constitution of any modern day country right okay true and even the Constitutions being shorter are still being interpreted and reinterpreted these matters of ijumeh
Are decisive and conclusive and clear and it’s actually of the reasons why the Muslims are united relatively compared to every other civilization 1400 years later Allah created and protected this set Allah is one no disagreement on what that means the Quran is his book no disagreement that it’s his book is the
Final Prophet no disagreement there being good to your parents is Mandatory Murder is Haram fornication and interests are intolerable we have a lot alhamdulillah you know pork is not so all of this is actually a very substantial framework to huddle around as Muslims historically even so it’s
Great so don’t be like oh man what can we actually agree on no we have more to agree on than anyone else and that’s of the reasons by the way that we just had an open house here in the message yesterday the day before and he told me
Like how do you deal with other mosques I was like I know what you’re saying you probably Google the denomination when you’re going somewhere this when you’re on vacation in the summer to worship I Google mosque near me right people don’t appreciate that except like Converse appreciate that and people who
Understand a little bit more but that is extremely significant that if you’re a presbyterian okay uh when you’re traveling yeah you’re only looking for a Presbyterian Church uh and it’s not like this is not it’s not even analogous to like Sunni Shia like like the the degree
Of denominational I don’t want to say bigotry is too strong of a word but um exclusivity maybe let’s say uh within Christian practice is very significant like especially you know Catholics you’re not even going to be able to get the Eucharist if you show up for mass
And you’re not and you’re not an actual Catholic or maybe you’re reformed or maybe you’re even within yeah even within the denomination there’s the membership issue in the ties right yeah yeah so it’s like very very exclusive uh whereas yeah subhanallah you just pop in Google mosque near me and you go and
Once in a while we have a laugh because you stumble into something that’s beyond the beyond the pale yeah but normally normally nine times out of ten you’re gonna be safe and you’re gonna have a you know a normal sort of Sunni experience so here the last thing that needed to be
Said on this issue is how do we know how do we know what is excusable what is inexcusable yes so uh you know his great chef a scholar and uh he’s Beyond needing an intro but he was especially known for his Acumen in legal Theory and all the discussions today are
Discussions of legal Theory uh for the most part even though it does sort of touch Creed and we should also put a disclaimer out there in a minute about this but he said look when the scholars of Islam they’re respected and they know each other right mainstream Sunni
Scholars disagree on an issue and they don’t the scholars forget us messy laymen and they don’t excommunicate one another right like they don’t uh Blacklist one another then this is he offers two very nice sort of markers for what that defines or the boundaries of disagreement he said number one that is
Their agreement actually yes that disagreeing here is permissible yes right so what’s it called in the books of Soul it’s called um right yeah exactly it’s like yeah it must be in those views yes and and therefore we’re going to agree to accept those views conversely it also means the
Truth cannot be outside those views because the ummah would not be left in the dark for a minute there would never be an era upon which there wasn’t the correct opinion so if they’re disagreeing that me and they’re not excommunicating each other they’re not sort of like canceling each other that
Means they’re agreeing on the fact that you can disagree Within These views yes he said the second thing this proves when they disagree and accept that disagreement from one another is that the matter is one knee it is excusable and that’s powerful because many times we come forth with the evidence of our
Meth Hub or for non-meth Hub whatever it may be say but the evidence is clear but like respectfully respectfully if it were clear would these people who are far more intellectually enlightened and gave it far more thought and were far more spiritually refined which means like entitled to the correct
Understandings were they all in the dark why did they disagree if it was that clear right you you got to sort of like turn the gun on yourself for a second say wait a minute maybe it’s me yeah maybe I just I I’m not able to see it
Outside of this very limited scope and that’s my problem you know the scholars used to say that is from of intelligence not just a lack of Adam yes you know to suspect the other party a lot of times it’s not just because you have poor manners it’s also because you have very
Limited intellectual vantage point it’s almost like your imagination right subhanallah uh I I have to interject with with I I’ve been thinking a lot about books that we don’t have in English right and it seems to me that Ishmael both theoretically and a rundown of what is like truly agreed upon that
Would be a tremendously useful thing to have in the English language because there’s a lot of sloppiness when it comes to you know you and I know if you go into an assured fifth book you know there are different even differences of opinion about in theory right
Um you know but these are things that uhmat is kind of thrown around right within the the English-speaking space whether there is agreement or non-agreement I just feel like it’s very poorly understood because when you were talking I was thinking about well um that that subtle point which I
Believe is the majority opinion about the agreement upon the disagreement and the scope of disagreement you have another sort of party that would say well there is a disagreement but then everybody’s sort of United on on one opinion and that’s Edge map and then yeah it needs pushing out and there are
Layers of Ishmael that Scholars traditionally have spoken about that is right and right was sort of tested approval but then there’s also a discussion of wait a minute you guys just didn’t have the communication channel to know that at the same time someone across the globe was opining elsewhere and understanding otherwise
And so these things do need some fleshing out in Arabic and English actually believe it or not yeah it feels like we could benefit that there’s a lot of there’s a lot of gray area even just the gap between what exists in Arabic and English which is always massive but
It feels like this could be a quick hit and a low-hanging fruit to just up the up the level of discourse when it comes to ismat and to provide you but until then let us say that on the individual level no one should feel like they are authorized to state of view without
There being precedent yes you gotta check first you can’t just assume and on the flip side no one is allowed to disregard of you without first confirming that there’s no precedent yes that’s important yeah no and the president then you’re going to have to establish a Bonafide after that
President that that was walked away from or something okay but that uh filter uh otherwise you have no deed in a thousand years yes no let’s talk about that a little bit because you and I can geek out about usul and stuff like that but
We have you know a very very uh low level though it is something of knowledge compare that gives us access to certain conversations that other people don’t have okay so there is a difference between a Layman or somebody who’s not uh studied like going about these things and relating to other
People’s differences right um versus somebody who has at least the tools even if they’re you know compromised severely etc etc so maybe we can talk a little bit about those differences to what because when I was watching you know and you have mashallah on your message Channel you know you
Have a um a wonderful series that goes through these issues and one of the terms that you used and I know that you’re you’re translating obviously from Arabic and you said like an independent researcher and I was just thinking about how many people are self-styled independent researchers right that
Imagine that because they can look up something on Islam q a in English that their mashallah that they’re an independent researcher and that’s not what you mean right so let’s talk about it’s right yeah right so let’s talk about how one’s level of knowledge affects how they should be coming at
These differences of opinions and each map in the first place you know you guys know sort of how close I am the love of my life Dr heitzman Hajj uh I’ll never for one time I was sitting in his living room and we were talking about some issue uh
And then he turned to me and he was like Reminiscing on his like you know childhood and it’s normal everyone’s sort of we humble Insha’Allah we get uh we humble up or humble down should I say as as age grows and you know your ego tones down a few notches
He said to me can you believe it Muhammad can you actually believe how deluded we were there was a time when we were saying stronger View and weaker view before we knew let alone mastered knew that certain Sciences existed that these Scholars were using to arrive at their conclusions he’s like can you
Believe how crazy we were Muhammad and we’re like and this is exactly it yeah you know and all of these instrumental sciences and how to correctly analogize and what are the categories of like uh class and which one of them do you accept and don’t you accept as a matter of
Principle before you even get to the evidences right and then you look at everyone else and it’s just like it’s pure taste yeah all right guys it’s taste you know I taught I was learning this first or I’m reacting to something I really hate in society of deviation and so Islam must
Be the opposite of this and pure taste subjectivity at its finest when we say independent researcher we’re using the word yeah we are it comes from the word Jihad Jihad like exerting an effort you know putting putting in the nitty-gritty and so those who can exhaust themselves weeding through the evidences
That is a qualification like the problem nowadays is premature HD head everything in Arabic evidences in Arabic right yeah yeah before and so you know like some people say oh I’ve discovered the Hadith alone he has his famous book removing blame from the great Scholars of Islam
He says that there’s 10 reasons why Scholars disagree and he says the least common reason is that the Hadith never reached them that’s one of the most impactful sort of Revelations I had when I was studying in the Jamia because you know in the Sharia we we studied that mustache right by
Rushed and so I just coming in I I heard this line right it’s like maybe maybe the Hadith didn’t reach him maybe he didn’t hear the Hadith you know this is why Scholars disagreed so I said okay let’s count right and and in every semester in the faculty of sharia you
Have 125 masad right that you have to to know for the for the exam out of 125 for semester one even Roost mentions one single masala where he says perhaps so and so didn’t didn’t hear the Hadith almost every single issue the difference was about they’re all using the same evidence
They’re all using this the Quran right it’s just about how to interpret and so after that I stopped counting it was like this is ridiculous you can’t possibly anybody who studied even an Iota and you and I you know we know our level you know like we’re very very much
Nothing but studied like a shred of study right knows that that is not why so yeah let’s explain to people what exactly happens right yeah like if you talk about Imam Muhammad someone did tell me maybe I didn’t know that that Hadith is like one of 200 a Hadith that are the cream
Of the crop of the summary of his mother yeah right and so that can’t be it and so what happens is that they have a Hadith for example right and then you get to stage two of what does it actually mean right that’s if it’s authentic right and so you have different
Methodologies on how to confirm whether it’s authentic or not okay so Hadith does it mean anything no it’s not even authentic okay it’s authentic but it was abrogated oh it’s authentic but it was specific or qualified or unqualified or absolutely but how do you reconcile it
With this one and I mean if we had time we’d give actually like demonstrations but there’s a Hadith okay it’s authentic okay what does it mean okay that’s another station of sort of splitting the hair then wait you have other Hadith that seem to say the opposite or
Something related and so how do we reconcile those that’s how it all happens what is it saying uh doesn’t it also say this how do we put all that together okay so we’ve talked we’ve stopped extensively and I’m sure you and I can go on all day talking about the
Different uh acceptable differences uh between them that I have Etc between the scholars and why we have a passion for that is because sometimes people are um overly strict right or they have an overly narrow conception of of what is uh of what is acceptable and so they’re
Trying to actually cut out part of legitimate Islam they’re trying to sideline or marginalize legitimate interpretations of Islam classical interpretations of Islam and that actually reduces the Islam that we have that’s available to us the legitimate stuff which is why it’s a problem but let’s now get into the inexcusable
Differences where do we draw that red line okay Bismillah uh I I would like maybe at the end of the program to give like a road map for the average person on what to do in navigating all these differences let’s do that but we do want to speak from a high level about
The the free-for-all anything goes approach as well right the opposite of uh being stringent which is being two Lacks uh because at the end of the day Islam does meet submission right submitting to the will of Allah and if there can’t be certain non-negotiables about what we’re submitting to if we’re just submitting
Any of us or submitting to whatever we may so desire then we actually have not submitted our desire for the desire of the Divine or actually just pandering uh we’re not even thinking we’re just rearranging uh our thoughts to defend our biases our whims our desires our
Vanities and then in that sense also our God is not God our God is our mind our sensibility our egos our our fancies and so if the scholars have not uh understood the text to mean as such uh and this is not like a plea to Authority this is a plea for humility
Like if all of the scholars of Islam and if you were to familiarize yourself with the scholarly Scholastic tradition it is amazing how uh how impartial how how neutral how fair principled sincere they were you know across you know time and space for sure they’re human uh but it
Did Islam produce or not right produce amazing human beings that were uh sincerely devout to God and not uh tokenizing the sacred Revelation it did it did I mean even some of the things that we disagree with Scholars having said in the past it was their uh non-negotiable objectivity that caused
Them to say what they said you know for instance I’ll give you one example it’s just very profound that the form of ahib in pre-modern times the four schools of Islamic law they believed that a woman could be pregnant for two years yes for three years or four years
And you may think oh my God this is sort of like so archaic and who this is It’s a shame to even mention these things no it’s something we take great pride in do you know why they said this they said this because they had to be data driven
And islamically speaking if a person is an upright witness we have to accept their testimony and they had birthing assistance you know uh tell them this woman has not had her menstrual cycle in two years and I just delivered her baby so again this is like female testimony
Number one number two they made it admissible and made a law about it because they’re trying to figure out like how long after divorce can we still attribute the baby to the dead that’s why they’re sort of doing this it’s not just you know fun facts uh and so it was
Amazing the Scarlet tradition and continues to be the Safeguard the inheritors who inherited the Baton from the prophet the Safeguard The Deen if we downplay that mechanism then the dean is lost it’s totally gone it’s left to everyone’s desires and you know to be honest
Uh it is not just yes a part of it is the stringent you know approach of people that are you know causing unnecessary Conflict by being so too close-minded about other views that we just spoke about that causes the equal and opposite reaction the pendulum the
Swing so you know what man you know it’s Islam is wider than that Islam is more merciful than that Islam is more open than that but more often than not the biggest factor in everyone’s life is society it is social engineering it is conditioning and so in the age of uh
You know liberality or you know the liberal healer world view means that I own my freedom which is of course counter fundamentally counter to Allah owns my life and I am indebted to him and so I’m going to say no there could be anything more yes I was just going to say there
Couldn’t be literally anything more opposite of Islam than autonomy autonomy is literally the opposite of submission right and Islam values freedom and we value freedom very much but he gets to determine how much Freedom he gave us subhanahu right it is not that sort of for anti-freedom is that you know my
Freedom is a gift given to me by Allah Within These bounds for my own good I need those guardrails and so those legitimate views can be seen as one of those guardrails like if a person were to say uh you don’t know what you’re doing to me by telling me that hijab has
To fall into one of these two views right uh okay that may seem like at face value for a moment an encroachment upon your freedom but you may also have no idea what happens to Generations later when sort of immodesty bleeds yes right yeah and so and also if we’re gonna say
It could mean anything to anyone if hijab could just mean you know like uh in the heart this Behavior or a longer skirt or whatever it’s going to be right let me I got to pick a real example quickly you’re gonna have to help me remember Tom save my neck but if you
Open the door to this as a matter of principle then you also forego the right to say that the people who claim Islam equals terrorism are categorically wrong right we got to be fair now yeah and it can mean anything to anyone yeah no that’s that’s a good point and
That’s that’s why it has to mean something right it has to be distinguishable from that which it isn’t right well so and that’s just any single concept and so you know these things are unfortunately platitudes today where you say well this is what this means to me
Or this is what this is my truth that’s right okay well this is about something that’s outside of you like it it it’s a fundamentally I think the two different sort of orientations towards life like you said are we assuming that the self is always right and then everything else we’re
Manipulating and we’re bending it to the will of the self and the tastes of the self or are we engaging in a pro a practice where we’re trying to comport and shape ourselves right to a higher standard right to an aspiration um and that might be like a literal definition of versus Iman
Um and so yeah this is extremely important right so um so it also balances those two things like everybody needs affirmation but everyone also needs to be challenged and I give the example to youth all the time you know imagine you had a personal trainer right you went to the gym
And they told you you know everything you do everything you do is fine you can do one push-up that’s great you know you can’t do a job all right you’re good you know you’re good just the way you are okay that would be humorous but it would
Be a waste of money a waste of time and uh no one would accept that but somehow we’re willing to accept that when it comes to spiritual matters when it comes to our afterlife when it comes to Dean it really shows how poorly we value these things that’s what it is yeah
Subhanallah Imam zaycheck it has a beautiful line I’m not sure if it’s his or he read it somewhere uh come to Islam uh come to Islam as it is come as you are to Islam as it is yeah very well put now that’s extremely everyone’s got their Journey everyone’s
Got their sort of pace yeah and we pray for ourselves and everyone else to accelerate in time yes uh but at the end of the day we have to set the ideal we gotta let people know where the top of the mountain is and so those fundamental
Matters at least like Muhammad the final Prophet or not right it’s Salah mandatory or not yes uh the way he talked Ali said and these sorts of things and that’s also a very important distinction between what Islam is versus what you’re doing about it right I think
That’s such a key distinction it’s like if you’re not wearing hijab okay again they go back to the female example we still need to struggle to find a male if you’re not praying right okay if you’re not taking care of your family like nothing right if you’re not if you’re not
Um you know being financially responsible for your family you’re sinful okay full stop okay however it’s another level to say I don’t have to do that in the first place that’s not what Allah said that’s not what Allah wants for me that’s not what he meant right that is a level of
Arrogance that is a very very scary level of arrogance you can be um you know a person who is ah see every single person sins every single person has things if you go across all the doors of silk from the beginning to the end there’s things where it’s like oh I
Do this and I don’t do that and I do this and I don’t do that I need to get better at this I’m really kind of falling off with that that’s fine that’s life but to say that I’m going to do this and I reject that that is something that is
The quintessential difference between Adam and shaytlan and we can never forget that Adam Ali said I’m messed up and said yeah Allah I messed up I had no right to do that that’s it he became better than he was before by virtue of that repentance he got to
Know new names of Allah like the forgiving the merciful had he not needed forgiveness he would never have learned it so it is you know frequent intense in learning as they call it right the fail is the frequent attempts in learning said I don’t have to listen that’s
Actually not a very smart rule that doesn’t even make sense because I’m superior for in the substance from which I was created so why did shaytan leave Islam and why did Adam not leave Islam grow in Islam actually it was because this was weakness and recognized it admitted and this was Rebellion yeah
There’s a very important difference yeah so if you’re somebody who you know let’s say you’re you’re a guy and you don’t pray okay it’s like yeah okay own it you don’t pray but ask Allah to give you the success that one day that you’re going
To pray you know if you’re a woman you don’t wear hijab okay that you’re you are where you are okay no problem but ask Allah to give you the success that one day wants to you know uh to do that thing I think that’s kind of the difference that we’re talking about here
So okay we have about we have you know Yani uh 10 minutes there’s two things that we need what you already mentioned you said about um a strategy for people going forward but also I think we need to run down what to what degree can we work together
With people who okay we’re not even talking about excusable differences we’re talking about inexcusable differences somebody who thinks that uh the Quran was not complete or somebody who thinks that there’s a prophet after the prophet Muhammad or somebody who thinks that hijab is not an obligation
Or thinks that the prayer is not an obligation or whatever what degree of collaboration can we have with people who openly contradict our Dean like that so collaboration comes in many forms let me share with you one principle that uh that the Assembly of Muslim jurists of America crafted when they were presented
With a lot of these questions in the activism from the activism circles they said you are not responsible in principle of course application is where sort of things could uh vary in perspective in analyzes but you are not responsible for who endorses you or who supports you you are responsible for who
You support who you endorse that’s one sort of side of collaboration uh but and even earlier point is where does this come from like who said I can you know let bygones be bygones and still work with people outside of this notion is this just sort of like a
Political maneuvering or is this fundamentally Islamic no it’s fundamentally Islamic the Quran says and Aid one another in righteousness and in piety so you can work sort of in principle shoulder to shoulder with someone so long as what we’re working on the banner under which
We are sort of advocating if you will uh is a mutually shared Banner you know it is the common good it is the collective good so if someone believes that you know Jesus Christ peace be upon Him is God incarnate and I categorically consider that an inexcusable difference
That doesn’t mean I can’t you know give out uh food to those with food insecurity in my local community with them absolutely not so what about people within the fold as well be pleased with him uh they used to protest in his Masjid against him I mean after every Salah and say
Basically is you know you sold out you sold out uh you know governance is only for God and he said to them listen I will promise you that three things I will promise you number one I will not stop you from praying with us in the Masjid because
Salah is a great thing right and number two I will not stop you from joining the battle campaigns with us against sort of the oppressive regimes we’re fighting outside side shoulder shoulder we’re brothers fighting for the same cause they’re calling him a disbeliever and he’s saying this and number three
We will never initiate fighting with you okay uh uh that was sort of his approach application is another issue but the idea that he felt that he had enough room from the Quran and Sunnah from the revealed text to actually offer that Olive Branch uh was absolutely correct
There’s no there should be no difference there and even before him you know it’s crazy to think that Ali may Allah be pleased with and did that crazy in a beautiful way not crazy that the Khalifa just before him was called Cafe as well and assassinated
By these guys right that’s why I said I will not initiate so long as you guys don’t take forms and you do that blunder again so people are saying like he’s dishonest and he’s materialistic and the ills of prosperity and sort of his favoritism and nepotism and the accusing him of all
This so they surrounded his house lazy Show’s house as their language house giving him a final chance to give up uh the Reigns of the ummah uh one of the local uh Muslims walks past the siege enters his house and says to him oh Imam you’re the big Imam
You’re the mirror Mr President and I pray behind an Imam of itna one of the guy who leads my Salah in the local Masjid by neighborhood Masjid is one of the people who considers you a disbelieveraj and we’re hesitating we don’t know what to do like should we
Just like should we throw him out the window should we go open our own mosque like what do we do he said to them foreign if if uh uh people are doing good do good with them and if they’re doing evil then prepare yourself to perform conscientious abstention no I’m not
Going to Vietnam right like we are part of this country we’re not sort of here as just like you know playing it we’re not a trojan horse in the United States of America there’s so much that we want to offer and that we do benefit from
From being here and there’s so much that we will collaborate on but if someone asks me to do something that’s unethical for me then hopefully I can pull a Muhammad Ali and say I’m not down I’m not going to do that yeah that’s the idea yeah so it’s not even about
Excusable and excusable it’s about pros and cons yes yeah that’s really what it’s about yes and and weighing that and having you know and it’s another discussion oh you know it’s gonna take I think um a separate discussion to talk about that calculus of pros and cons because it
Occurs to me that the the only thing that would need to be sort of added to to temper that calculus is also how sometimes Muslims are are conscripted right in these collaborative efforts in a way that tokenizes us or tries to use us for certain causes and we’re not even
Aware of it happening right so you know that’s happened a couple times you know uh in in recent memory um but that’s a separate issue I think we should have an independent video on on sort of the complexity of today’s world is the very reason why the scholars of Islam understood the need
For what they call Collective yeah which they had is when you bring sort of the experts on context yeah and the experts on reveal text right the text and the context and they interface yes and then they are actually able to have the best shot at identifying what’s really
Happening here and what’s most likely going to come out of this yes because there’s a lot of of bleed bleed over that goes on now and and this has been observed by a lot of people involved in activism across the past 10 15 years you know you used to get together for a
Particular maybe you show up to um you know a rally or something and it’s for environmental justice and now you’ve got people flying rainbow flags and and trying to make the Gathering about that right so now there’s a lot of um sort of new things that are
Introduced in there and so you know the the general principle that we were saying is that yes okay there’s the basic sort of thing what’s our objective what are we trying to accomplish here um if it’s good then yeah it doesn’t matter necessarily who we collaborate
With like it’s about the issue but then there’s this added layer which needs to be unpacked at a future date which is how are now even our presence and participation being um rerouted or taken advantage of in some sort of bad faith ways um it’s it’s sticky it’s not a it’s not
A straightforward uh straightforward thing but it’s um it it I think it just the complexities of it demonstrate the need for some sober and some sober consideration from a lot of different people yeah yeah what and when and who all of those have to sort of interplay I
Mean even the prophet saws another discussion but I think of it may Allah be pleased with him uh was was deeply moved by the cause of the people and human suffering and you know that’s why that’s why the Socialists actually when they tried to like to revision the Socialists they would invoke
Because he would be telling the Hadith about these issues more than anyone so it became iconic that these are the Hadith of course he didn’t make them up it says these are the ones he was speaking about most and so they sort of traced back to him more than anybody
Else but the point is the prophet saws I love you uh and I see that you have a weakness and so do not except to be a leader over any two people and don’t accept to assume the responsibility over the wealth of any orphan some Scholars that have been said what
That was referring to was that he was so emotionally invested that it would sometimes compromise his his discretion long-term planning and so on and so forth like he believes for instance that uh saving money was not allowed don’t think of savings yeah whatever’s extra each
Day you gotta let go of it type thing so these sorts of things were seen beforehand by the prophet saws and so we too have to see things beforehand try our best of course to say what could this lead to Fantastic um okay that brings us I think to some
Some parting advice I know we wanted to talk about sort of the strategy for the average Muslim how do they navigate these things uh when they come across difference what should their attitude be so super brief the prophet Allah said Allah will never burden you Beyond Your
Capacity and so everyone has a different capacity there’s like the novice scholar and there’s the you know tier one caliber scholar there is the the Layman that has no access to anything right even if they were to you know reach the evidences they mean nothing to them in
In sort of derived rulings perspective so everyone’s in exertory capacity to find the strongest opinion when there’s a difference that strongest opinion for the Layman means the strongest scholar because your evidence is the scholar not the text right that’s why the majority is the ability to evaluate the text and
That has to be stressed and there’s a little bit of a circular sort of debate here on like if I don’t know the text and how do I referee between the scholars and that’s a fair point and that’s why the majority according to mcclayum said that even if your capacity
Was Fame your and Allah knows that from your heart your excuse in front of Allah that I accepted because this guy had the biggest notoriety believe it or not because that’s Allah’s fairness it makes sense what else could they judge what else do they have to go off of like most
People many of us have more by the way you can sort of ask the email of the Masjid who specialized in Islamic Finance or you can sort of network your way into a better hunch but that’s it it’s all HD head your HD head is to exert your your effort to find the
Strongest opinion and once you’re there you got to commit yourself to it and not not impose it on anybody you don’t have an opinion you’re a follower of someone else’s opinion because they’re less likely to be wrong so you don’t take you don’t take somebody else’s opinion then
Go and force it on other people yeah and turn it into an axle over people’s heads yeah it happens a lot and then now we go to the people that are learning that are in training and then these people that are able to access the evidences and you know
There’s an overplay in Sneed I was discussing this yesterday with someone that like authorization yes there’s a little bit of like because of groupism also there’s a little bit of gatekeep that happens with like hey who authorized you yeah but someone’s got to authorize you at the very least like
Someone’s got to authorize you when we Sayed all of these Scholars we hear about in the past the greatest of our Scholars said I was running from giving rulings and opinions until 70 of my teachers forced me to as human Malik said or someone else uh would say
Something similar so when you are recognized like peer recognition in medicine or anywhere else right when you’re recognized by your peers as having undergone sufficient training and you don’t have the conflict of interest of like certifying yourself as an independent researcher somewhere then in that case you’re going to follow the
Evidence and you’re obligated to commit yourself commit yourself to wherever the evidence makes you even if it uh departs or diverges from the greatest uh Scholars so long as it doesn’t divert from all of them because then that would be inexcusable but within the excusable realm that’s what you want to do yeah
That’s that’s a great little point you slipped in there too about the like most things there’s two extremes right with with gatekeeping so you have some people that unreasonable expectations okay but then you have other people who take license where they they shouldn’t really have license you know they each
As that are just pieces of paper that you know or each as they they were in the room right on their phones during the whole stories I have a lot of flooding me right now I’m sure you do or or you know showed up at a mosque in
Istanbul and now you know considers that uh some sort of ijaza to do something yeah no exactly so so there’s a there’s a fine line between those and everyone has to be very sober as to their their level of knowledge and not overstate one’s credentials but I think probably
The the maybe the biggest take-home point is too um that this is for your personal worship and that’s not necessarily for you to weaponize right against somebody else and then to go and say well you’re doing it all wrong um so-and-so said this or this one Hadith that I memorized say that right
As Sheikh Abdullah used to say either right is that if you’ve memorized something then or that yet right and then there’s there’s multiple things that you haven’t memorized them that have escaped you um Savannah a fantastic discussion do you have any final thoughts to to on unity and diversity you’d like to leave
The listeners with today I really missed out on I sat through like very few Gatherings of his and I really missed out I wasn’t in Medina for long but you’re truly blessed and privileged and may Allah Grant you do gratitude for that experience I mean I mean not on well thank you this
Is a wonderful discussion obviously there’s a lot more to talk about we hope to have you back again soon uh and may Allah restore your house and thank Allah uh
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