 I just had a first somebody asked me a question text and I know people who are teachers in the community who answer questions by text a lot. So I tried to send my first Fetwa by Emoji. Somebody asked about psilocybin and psychedelic so I was going to put no and then a mushroom but I couldn't find a mushroom. So we were asked to speak about love and that's the topic tonight about love and the ayah that came to me and the reason why it came to me because it had a profound effect on me and really reorganizing the way I think about certain things. And it's the ayah where Allah SWT says, actually before I get into the talk, I really have to thank Mifta. Isn't everybody happy for what they've done? Masha'Allah. When's the last time we had something like this in the bay area and it's packed, right? So two years of COVID and then honestly, Masha'Allah, you have breathed a fresh scent of ikhia of the ulum abdin to me. That's what I consider. Like you came all the way from Michigan, Michigan Sharif Masha'Allah and I visited the school that he spoke about a wonderful and amazing program. I've met many of the students who were there at the conference and this type of learning initiative is really needed all over the US, but especially in the bay area. We have so many people, so many initiatives, but we need this return to educational based initiatives that are open for the public. Alhamdulillah, over the last 10, 15, 20 years, there's been a lot of institutional institution building in the bay area, but in terms of programs open for the public, am I correct in that and saying that? Have we missed a lot of this in the last 10 years or so? So I know the Massajid have done that and some organizations and institutions have done it on a smaller level, but this opening up, we really thank you from the bay area to Meftah from Michigan and please support them. You don't have to give up the coffee. I just told them, I said, I'm not going to give up the coffee, but I will support you. I might give up Starbucks. It's becoming more expensive and it's not that good anyway. So if you're in the bay area, I guess, Pete's Coffee, right? How many Pete's? Pete's better than Starbucks? Yeah. Okay. So next time you're in the bay, if you want to like hit it home, say Pete's Coffee. Okay. So the ayah that I wanted to speak about is an ayah where Allah SWT says, Say, and Allah is speaking to the Prophet Muhammad SAW, say to these people that if you truly love Allah, if you love Allah, then follow Muhammad, then follow me, follow him. That's the sign of your love for Allah SWT. And there's a difference of opinion on why this ayah was revealed. Some say it's in response to a group of the Sahaba who came to the Prophet SAW and they said, We love Allah. We love Allah. And so Allah revealed to them, say if you love Allah, then follow Muhammad SAW and follow me. That's the sign of your love. That's the proof of your love. Another possible reason, another one of the possible asbab and nuzul is that there was a group of Najran from Najran, the Christian Arabs who came to the Prophet SAW in an entourage and Allah is speaking to them through the Prophet Muhammad SAW because they're saying, Look, we believe in God. We love God and we love Isa AS, we love Jesus. And so Allah is telling them through his Prophet, if you love God, then follow me, follow the Prophet Muhammad SAW. So think about this, Allah didn't tell them, both groups, whatever was in reality the asbab of nuzul and sometimes it's multiple reasons. He didn't say you don't love Allah. He didn't negate their love. He said, this is how you're going to show your love. And when I was studying in West Africa and Mauritania, one of the lines of poetry that really impacted me were lines of poetry from Imam Shafi'i where he says, رضي الله عنه, he says, تَعْصِلْ إِلَهَ وَأَنْتَتُظْهِرُوا حُبَّهُهُهَا دَمُحَانٌ فِي الْقِيَاسِ بَدِيعُوا لو كان حُبَّكَ صَادِقَ اللَّأَطَا'تَهُ إِنَّ المُحِبَّ لِمَنْ مُحِبٌ مُطِيعُوا that you show your love for Allah but you disobey Him. And he said, this is impossible in terms of being something of making, it doesn't make sense. He said, if your love was true, if you had true love, you would have obeyed Him. You would have obeyed Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because the one who has love is in obedience to the one he loves or the one she loves. Now, when I was thinking about that, I started developing in myself the idea that the sign or the measure of my love is based on my obedience. And then I read a number of stories. It was actually a story that I had read even before going to Mauritania. I read it online. I can still remember exactly where I was sitting. It was still the dial-up internet. And I read this story. It was one of the Sahaba whose name is Nu'ayman. And for those of you who know his story, you know where I might be going with this story. And Nu'ayman ibn U'amara radiallahu anhum. And Nu'ayman was a prankster. Like now we have in social media people who play pranks. Well, he was a prankster. One of his pranks that he played, he went out with Abu Bakr sadaq radiallahu anhum and a group of other people in an expedition of trade. They went to Sham area, the Levant. And at one point, Abu Bakr had stepped away from the group and Nu'ayman asked one of the other people. He said, give me some of that food. I'm hungry. He said, no, we have to wait until Abu Bakr returns. And so then Nu'ayman said, I'm going to get you. So he went to a group of people who had camels and he said, look, I'm going to sell you a slave, but watch out. He's really sharp tongue. And when you buy him, he's going to tell you that he's actually free. And so he sold that person to the camel traders for 10 camels. Then they came to collect him and he was yelling and shouting at them. He said, what are you doing? What are you doing? They said, we just bought you. He said, no, no, I'm free. He said, yep, that's what your owner told us he would say. And then Abu Bakr came back and he, he, he solved the issue. And they said from that joke, because it got back to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and his companions laughed for a whole year about that prank. Now that's not where he stopped. One time a Bedouin man came to the Masjid and he tied his camel and he went inside the Masjid. And there was a group of Sahaba that had not had meat for a long time. And they knew Noaiman. They knew all you have to do is, you know, it's gentle pushing and he's going to do something. So they said, Noaiman, why don't you go slaughter that camel? We'll all eat meat. And then the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam will pay for it. He'll, he'll bail us out literally. He'll bail, he'll bail us out. So Noaiman goes over there, he slaughters the camel and they start, you know, the butchering process or however. And then imagine that the Bedouin comes out of the Masjid and he sees his camel, the animal that he's riding on, his livelihood is slaughtered. And so he got very mad and then Noaiman takes off running. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam comes out, he sees all of this going on. And then he asks what happened. They said it's Noaiman. He goes to try to find him. They find Noaiman, radiallahu anhu, hiding in a garden and they said in a khanda, like in a trench, covered up with leaves and stuff he's trying to hide. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam says, why did you do that? And then he said, well, the ones who guided you to me, the ones who told you where I was hiding, they're the ones who put me up to that. So ask them. And so as the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is wiping the dust from his face, he's laughing as he's doing it. Like it made him laugh. Another time, Noaiman wanted to give gifts to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam so much that one time when a person came into the city of Medina, he told him, he said, go give this to the Prophet. I'm, you know, or he took it from him. And then he took it to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and he said, this is a gift for you. Then when the man came to collect the price, he said, go to the Prophet because he's the one who has the food. So he went there and he said, are you going to pay me for the food? He said, this was a gift from Noaiman. He was gonna, and so he asked him, he says, awalam tahdihi li, didn't you give it to me as a gift? And Noaiman said, he said, I didn't have its price. I couldn't afford it. But I wanted, I loved for you to eat that. So the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam laughed and he paid for that. So this was Noaiman, Noaiman, sorry, Noaiman. He loved the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He made him laugh, but he did have an issue. He drank alcohol. And so one time he was caught and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had the punishment for drinking alcohol done to him. And then after him, some of the people used to, were saying things about him, like one person and in one narration it says, Allahumma Al-Anhu, somebody actually cursed him, did Al-Anhu, damned him. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, and listen to this, La-Tal-Anhu, don't curse him. Fa-Wallahi ma'alimtu illa annahu yuhibbu Allaha wa Rasulah. I swear by Allah. I know that he loves Allah and his messenger. He loves Allah and his messenger. And I know the food's going to start coming up, so I'm going to wrap it up. But this is what a few things that I want us to think about. Then when somebody loves somebody else, one of the forms of love is giving gifts. This is what Nuhayman did. In addition to his service to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he was at one of the bay'as, one of the allegiance, the second bay'a. That's his connection to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He gave him gifts. And gift giving is one of the signs of showing love. And for those of you who are familiar with the five love languages, one of them is giving gifts. I reviewed it just to say, well, we know from this ayah that one of the love languages with Allah should be obedience. So we know that part of our showing love to him, to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, to the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, is to obey him. But at the same time, if disobedience creeps up into our lives in whatever form, we should remember the story of Nuhayman and know that actions of disobedience do not negate the fact that we have love for Allah and his messenger. And we should remember that people are not just one thing. So when we look at Nuhayman's story, we don't look at him as an alcoholic or as an addict or as a person who got a punishment for drinking alcohol. We remember him as somebody who made the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam laugh. And for somebody who loved him and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam affirmed that he loves him. And so when we look at people around us, when we look at ourselves, if disobedience creeps up into our lives or if we see somebody not doing what they should, we shouldn't make it a black and white issue that, oh, you don't love Allah or I don't love Allah or I don't really love the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam because I'm doing this type of disobedience and this type of concrete thinking like this black and white thinking something that we have to develop in ourselves and even in our children. For those of you who have parents, who are parents and who have kids, you know, sometimes you might correct your child and say something to them and they say, oh, you don't love me, right? You don't love me. No, I just don't love that act. I still love you. But you see in a child, you have to develop that. You have to develop their ability to realize there's two separate things. Unfortunately, some people even in adulthood are have this concrete, they have this concrete thinking it's all or nothing thinking. And it's a illogical thinking pattern. And we have to develop beyond that for ourselves and for other people. We have to be able to forgive ourselves and also forgive others and give people room to grow. Give people room to grow. To realize that somebody may have deep, deep love for Allah and for His Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam but they have a problem. In the case of An-Nu'ayman, it was the problem of drinking and it happened a couple of times until he stopped. Now, this doesn't mean that we remove the responsibility from ourselves and from others around us. We still hold people responsible. This story is mentioned in Sahih Al-Bukhari in the Kitab of Hudud, the chapter of punishments. And so the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam didn't say, well, he loves me so I'm not going to hold him responsible. He still held him responsible for his action but he was able to separate between those two things. And this is a part of the developed thinking that the Muslim should have. And I want to share a story and I know the food's coming out. Feel free to start. It doesn't bother me, Bismillah. As long as you don't do too much clanking on the plates and stuff, but the food is there. I learned that in Mauritania. There's a, if, once the food is there, they say, out of edab for the food, once the food arrives, close the books, the dars should be over. So you're not having bad edab by eating. I'm the one having bad edab by continuing the dars. But I know we're limited in time. So I just wanted to finish this up. So the story that I wanted to share was something that happened to me in West Africa with one of my shuyuh. And one of the ways to show respect to your teachers to the shuyuh is not only service, it's not al-Hidmah, but also giving them gifts. And there was one student who used to love giving gifts to our sheikh, Murabat al-Hajj. But he didn't have much money. So he would go to one of the foreign desert, foreign trees and pick some of the berries. It's called the Tuga, the Tuga berries, and he would give that berry as a gift to Murabat al-Hajj. Now this berry is very bitter. I've tried it because being, yeah. Sure, go ahead. It looks like I'm the one showing the worst of the, forgive me, sheikh. Just wanted to make an announcement before the food starts for the children, 15 and under, we're requesting them to go to the babysitting room. There's pizza being served over there for the children, especially for those that are taking seats. We are humbly requesting all the children, 15 and under, to go to the side room, the babysitting room, pizzas being served there for children and for all the adults, in shahla, to take the seats while the food is being served. Please forgive me, sheikh. So the Tuga berry, it's very bitter. And when I was in West Africa and up in the mountains, there was very little, there was little in the way of snacks or there was no snacks. And so I tried one of the Tuga berries, they're very bitter. And yet even this little small token of love, when the student would do it for our teacher, for Mourab al-Hajj, he would love, he would show that he really appreciates the gift. So we give these gifts. So on my second trip to Mauritania, my sister, Emily, may Allah bless her. And if she ever watches this, I love you, Emily. She was eight or nine at the time and she had all these little figurines, like little figures, toy figures. And she said she wanted to send those to the children of the village where I was studying. So I packed them all up, put them in my carry-on bag and didn't allow me to carry anything else in the carry-on bag, but I really, I got excited. I was like, yeah, the children of the village are gonna love this. I get it over there to West Africa, up to the village. I go to one of the children of the shu, the young kids, and I give them the box, I say, distribute this to the kids. I thought it was, everything was fine. And then my friend, Nabil, because Nabil is not here tonight, is he? We stayed in the same tent, Nabil Hafifi. And he said, you know, Rami, I was sitting with our sheikh, Morabat Haddamin, and one of the kids brought one of these figurines. And for those of you who are familiar with the Rugrats cartoon, remember the Rugrats, remember the one with the big head? So he brings this up and now the sheikh, now imagine this is in the bad, yeah, so this is far out in the outback. And he's never seen things, they don't have dolls or figurines, even dolls for the girls, they don't have them, it's completely foreign. And so he's looking at it as like being from a strict angle, like that's a figurine, that's a three-dimensional figure, I don't want it in my village. So he told his son to collect them all and to throw it in one of the ravines in the mountain overlooking the village. So when I heard that story, I thought to myself, oh man, I have really, really disrespected my sheikh, I have disrespected the Mahbara of the school. So the next day after I took my lesson with Murabat Haddamin, Hafirullah, may Allah preserve him, after my lesson, and I was really embarrassed, I leaned down and I said, you know, sheikh, I gave those toys to be distributed and I disrespected you and you didn't like it. And he said to me with a very loving smile, he said, Rami, you did it out of love. You did it out of love. And according to us, Ahlus Sunnah and Jama'ah, a person can do one action and in that action is two things. Like you could have done something wrong, but at the same time, you did something right as well. And so it made me feel so good and I learned that lesson. Later on, when I learned it in the books, when they taught it as one of the principles of our Aqidah, of our faith, that a person can do one action but we can see multiple actions in that action. And so this is something that we should think about and remind ourselves, especially when we start feeling like we're falling into despair. And so this is why one of the scholar, Muhammad Molloud, who put in his book, he said, Wa fadaloo dan banli dullin jarra ala ibadatin kinsatka kibrat. Some of the scholars have considered that an action of disobedience that leads you to humility in the long run is better than an action of obedience that leads you to arrogance. I'll say that again. An action of disobedience, even though we're not going to change it, we're not going to say that a person should do that. But if in the long run, that action leads a person to a state of inqisar, brokenheartedness and humility and another person takes an action of obedience which in and of itself is good and should be done, but it leads a person to arrogance in the long run, that act of disobedience was more beneficial for the person. Now I want to say that with, of course we take it with, we have to be careful with that, but that's something that we should think about. And then as we prepare for Ramadan, I want us to remember that in the hikmah of Ibn Atah, he says, that one of the proofs that you depend on your actions is that when you fall or trip or make a mistake, you really get into the state of despair. And so he's asking us, Ibn Atah is asking us to think about it. Was I depending on Allah and then doing that action? Or was I depending on the action? And so when I was done with the action, I forgot the mercy because if we're depending on Allah, then the loss of actions is not going to affect us in the same way. And so I want us to give ourselves room and give other people room as they grow in their faith and their application of the faith and realize that there can be multiple aspects to a person. It doesn't remove the responsibility, but we can still love Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and love his messenger and have that love. It's not the full love, but it's deep love. Even if we make a mistake. And I'll end with this when a few years ago, Ma'sha'Allah Shef, Obey the law, Evans is here. I'm so blessed to see you brother. It's been about two years since before COVID, BC. The last time we saw each other was BC before COVID. At the MENA, sorry, the MSA West Conference in Sacramento. And we had a very, very somber moment at the end of that panel discussion where somebody really opened up in a group of like 200 young men. And this person had a lot of courage to open up and share something very deep with us. And it had to do with a person who was struggling with practicing this faith. And then Sheikh Obey the law shared about a book that impacted him, which is, and then I bought it right there in the session, which is called blessed are the addicts, the spiritual side of alcoholism and addiction. And I want to mention that because it goes in line with the new Aiman. He was addicted to alcohol, but they didn't look at him as just an addict. The Prophet showed, even though the people wanted to look at him for just his action, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam wanted us to remember him for his love of the Prophet, not for his action. And that's one of the things that I found with through my work at Flava Foundation, working with many people, the majority of people incarcerated are for nonviolent drug offenses. And you find some deeply, deeply, deeply, spiritual people, profound people, and sometimes they have an addiction. But if we just completely wipe people off, wipe people off, just because of that action, we forget that they might in fact be spiritual giants. And so two of our students at Flava wrote a book called Overcoming Addiction. It's available online. I wish I could share more, but I want to respect the time. I've already gone over time. But it's really working with those men and women really has shown me this story, shown me that people can have deep love for the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, and yet they still commit crimes. And even if we're not in prison, we could still be committing crimes. So let's not allow ourselves to fall into a state of despair just because of our actions. Let's be able to look at ourselves in multiple angles and look at our actions in multiple angles. Jazakum Allah Khair Wa Sallamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi