 Sanskrit, which he did really well in his real life, and then he's able to figure out what old Persian men, by looking at Pashtun, looking at Persian, modern Persian, and other like in Sanskrit, that's really amazing science. And then Max Möder reigned the Katas for the first time, and we find out that this is not a dualistic religion. That Ahura Mazda, Lord Wisdom, is one God, creator of the heavens and the earth, and creator of Ahriba, you know the evil spirit, Satan. And that there are now, there's no, that dualistic view of the legions is not there at all. And you have heaven, you have hell, you have the sira that goes from the earth to the gardens. It's amazing, really. And we don't have a big picture because there are only 14 points, but it's really clear that Zoroastro had a teaching that is very close to the Abrahamic teaching. And then the Magians, they develop a different approach to that which is very dualistic. And the Zoroastro religion is very much based in the Persian people, whereas Magianism grows mostly out of the Medes. The Medes are a different people, they're very close to the Persians, you know, but they're very different people, and they're people who are very influenced by Babylon, but they look close to Babylon. And a lot of the stuff that they bring into Zoroastro religion is all Babylonian teaching. And they're very different. And a lot of the things that we associate with Zoroastroism are actually from the Magians. But there are a lot of Magians that are there in Central Asia too. And these are people who believe that evil and good are two distinctly different principles in existence. And we would interpret that to say they are necessary, they are uncreated. Because that's what you're saying. See, so, and Matturini then, relating to his environment in Samar Kham, who's been to Samar Kham? Who's been to Bukhara? Many of you have been there. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, you know, but, you know, he then is responding to questions about good and evil that are extremely relevant to the Magians. But they were not so relevant to the Muslims of Mesopotamia, of Iraq. So you have the Matturini school, the Matturini school is a brilliant school, a brilliant school. And then you also have the Ash-Ali school, the Ash-Ali school is also a brilliant school. And we talk about these beliefs. We have the belief of the Salaf, we have the belief of the Salaf, and this is represented by Imam Ahmad at the time of the Tahawee also, Ibn Ali Zayl al-Kairawani, Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, that's his Aqida, Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani is an Atheri. And the difference is that the Atheris, they don't interpret the mutashabiha. So the verses like Ar-Rahman, Ar-Ali Al-Aash is Stawa, the most merciful to the throne. References to the hand of God, or the foot of the propeller, references to the hearts being between the two fingers of the most merciful. The Atheris won't interpret that. They will lead it like it is. They won't say that this is literal. They won't say that God has a hand like you and me. And God sits on a throne and the throne is bigger than him. They won't say that, but they will not interpret. They do what we call Tahawee. They turn this over to God and they turn it over also to illumination. Because all of these mutashabi verses, why are they there in the Qur'an? Why are they there in the hadith? Why are they there in earlier prophetic revelation? Because they tell us things about reality that are very profound. That's why they're mutashabiha. They have many meanings, not like they are just figures of speech. These are realities that have deep and profound meanings. So people that take it from the Prophet, they get that meaning from him by seeing him, by living with him. Because the great spiritual realities, they come from being in the company of great people. A single look from them, the people of Allah, the people of God, the knowers of God. It's all you need. They teach by that, they teach by their presence. They give you something that can't be put in words. And this is what the Prophet did with his companions. That's why also, we love the companions. If you don't love the companions, all the doors are closed. All the doors are closed. You must love the companions. But the companions never think that the companions, that these were simple people. They were desert arrows. They knew about camels and they knew about fire and how to make fire from sticks. And they knew how to cultivate dates and things like that. But these were very simple people. You know, not at all. Not at all. First of all, these are the most sophisticated and perfect human beings that ever were. And that's because they dipped the Dean from the Prophet himself. From seeing him. From hearing him. From touching him. From shaking his hand. So they are profound. And this is why Imam Malik who represents the Etherary position also. When they asked him in Medina, they said, a man from Iraq, from Mesopotamia came and he said, Har Rahman Har Aalil Al-Abshastawa. That the most merciful of heads taken, the throne. That's what was happening. Is God a human being? Is he a body? Is he smaller than the throne? And what does that mean? And what did Imam Malik say? The different transmissions, the ones that I like very much. As he said, Al-Qalb-i-sti wa'aun, Reh-u-ma-tuhu. The i-sti wa'aun, which is taken drunk, is not unknown. Wa'il kaif, Reh-u-ma-tuhu. But the how of it. Is not to be perceived by intellect. The how is Reh-u-ma-tuhu. That is the position of the sahabah. And that's the position of Imam Ahmad and Al-Qalb and all the others. And all the scholars. Wa'il kaifu, Reh-u-ma-tuhu. The how of this. All of these question words. How, why, what, where, when. These are words that are very meaningful for you and me. We live in a world of likenesses. We live in a world of analogies and anomalies. Things that are similar, things that are different. So let me say, how is it? Why is it that they are essentially irrelevant when we talk about God? The necessary. Because he's not like anything in the nation. He's unbelievably similar. Is he in us? No. Is he outside of us? No. Is he touching us? No. Is he not touching us? No. Is he connected to us or anything else, but not connected? No. We don't speak of him in those ways. Those are the characteristics of temporal being that live in time and space that change and are created. These are really profound realities. God's not like that. And you can know him, but you have to know the doors and the access. And it's not by anthropomorphic views of God. Okay, so the Atariz, they don't interpret. And don't think they're not profound. Shehab al-Fadim jidani. He is profound to the ultimate love. And then we have people like al-As'adi who interpret. They do ta'vi. So they will say that the hearts between the two fingers are the most merciful. The two fingers here are will and power. Or you can understand that it's will and power. And, you know, they have other interpretations like that which are very safe and very acceptable. And they did that because of their time. Because they lived in a time when literalism and anthropomorphism had appeared among themselves. There were people who took this literally as if God had sideburns. You know, there were many of them. But there were some. And there were also people who said that now and now all of this is just figures of speech and nothing more. And the hadith that pertains, these are not the hadith of the Prophet. These are false. And so therefore al-As'adi defends that. And he said, I will explain to you these things. And he does it in an extremely intelligent and sophisticated way. And his school is a great school. So these are the imams of it. So then imam, which is true faith, based on certainty and understanding. And you have to have this. You know, you can't just believe on the basis of emotion. You can't just believe on the basis of blindly following others. That's not safe. It's not safe for you. You need to work with your mind to understand how do we believe that creation is a sign of God. How do we believe that creation should be one as a God? How do we understand multiplicity? And from multiplicity get unicity. And based on imam, true faith, based on certainty and understanding. It has a science. And the science that studies it, studies this dimension, and clarifies it, and defends it, and elaborates on it, is the knowledge of the cream. And we call it also al-Muqtari. The knowledge of God's wonders. We call it also al-Muqsoon and deen, the knowledge of the fundamentals of the religion. That's because the religion begins with this. And we call it also al-Kalam. Okay, and this is the cream that is taken from the companions. They'll all be pleased with them all. And it is the cream of the pinkle of the Sunnah and the prophetic community. And it is the first obligation of Islam. It is the first and foremost. As we said yesterday, we should teach our children to pray when they're seven years old. Okay, so that may be a long time before we teach them al-Qaeda. But in terms of priority, in terms of status, the highest obligation, the first and foremost, is cream. But that comes when we're able to understand that the intellect disappears. The second element, Islam, through submission, is represented in the Hadith of Gabriel by Islam's father Pilers. That God's messenger, may Allah stole him and grant him perfect peace, clarifies in other authentic Hadith, Buni al-Islamu ala khams. Islam is built on five. What is the image here? Islam is built on five. Pilers says Islam is built on five. What is the image of speech that is in this Hadith? Buni al-Islamu ala khams. What is the images that is here? Sorry? Who said it? Hajj, did you say it? What did you say, though? Okay, I heard something over there. A building. That's what we're going to think of because we come from the West where we build big buildings and we have pilers. They didn't do that in the Arab world. They didn't do that in Arabia. They built sometimes from clay and sometimes from stone. But their building was very simple. But the image, Buni al-Islamu ala khams, is the image of a tent. And we use the expression Bana bihim. He built for them. To me, he put up a tent. And the tent is a binah. We use the word binah also for building. But the tent is also a binah. So the image here is the tent. And it has five poles. Not really pilers, it's tent poles. Five tent poles. You've got one in the middle to hold up the roof. Then you've got one on this side, the front, another one there, another one in the back, another one there. You have basically five. Then you can have bigger tents than that. It's okay. But the standard tent is going to be five poles. So the image is that of a tent. And this is not absolutely necessary to know, because you get the meaning anyway. But it's really beneficial to do that. This is why when we study our team, it's very important to be able to take it back to the original understanding. The original understanding. And to understand what did that word, and a lot of times you'll find that words, they have different meanings for the early Muslims. We think of it like minaya, which we talked about yesterday. Minaya is a big word. Remember what the basic meaning of minaya is? Ownership and taking care of something. You're the wuni of something. If you own it, and if you take care of it, that's why we call it guardian, the wuni, because the guardian that takes the child that's under his or her custody. And they don't own the child, the child is on the slave, they have the rights of a parent, you know, and then they have to take care of the child. They have to see that the child is educated, have healthy clothes and so forth. And then out of this comes amazingly the concept of muscle, of coming to the aid of other people physically and also figuratively or metaphorically. And then you get from this also closeness, which is the proximity of the saint to God and a thought to the saint. It's amazing. But, you know, the basic meaning of minaya in the Quran and hadith as understood by the Sahaba is really the one of muscle. And it's like, you know, if, you know, Allah has made, you know, the believing men and believing women are awliya, some of them, of others, right? They're awliya of each other, as the Quran said, which means that they support each other, they protect each other, they defend each other, they look out for each other, it has all sorts of implications. So we know from other hadith that the whole structure of the prophetic law, which is like the tent, the beautiful tent, if you shelter from the rain and the sun and the wind is built on these five pillars. And so therefore, you know, the Islam that is spoken about here, it also has a science that studies it and clarifies it and elaborates on it. And that dimension of our deem, you know, it is the science of the sharia, of the sharia. What does the word sharia mean? It's all right? Who said that? You said it right. So the sharia is a path and you said a roadway and the sharia is a big path. Like the sister said, it's a roadway because a path can be a little path and the sharia also is very clear and the sharia also goes somewhere. Where does the sharia go? The water. The sharia is a path that needs to water. It's a path that you need to know so you don't dive in the verse. It will take you to life. The sharia is beautiful. The sharia is beautiful. And we call it also Edmund Pfipp. We call it the science of Pfipp. What does Pfipp mean? What does Pfipp mean? You moved your lips. I understand. Yeah. So Pfipp is wisdom and understanding because to apply the prophetic law you have to understand. And in Islamic history we had certain sciences that you could be a master of if you could just memorize. And we had others that you could never get by with memorization. What was one of the sciences that you could do well with if you just memorized the recitations? And hadith also. Because in hadith the key thing you've got to be able to memorize. And Allah gives us that ability. Memorization is really important. And the greatest of memorization is internalized memorization which is when you memorize something and you know what it means. So when you recite it you're reflecting on the beauty of the words. The depth of the words. But in hadith the main thing is your memorization and your power of retrieval. You're that killer. But in fifth note in the traditional Islamic school which are the madrasas and in the west what comes out of the madrasa system? And the west is deeply influenced by Islam. What is the tell me something in the west that comes out of the madrasa system? The madrasa system is a university system. But they are fifth universities first and foremost. They are universities. Don't think that not those schools where the kids are bombing their heads. That's not the madrasa. That's today's madrasa. The madrasa had a big library. It had professors that were amazing who have endowments in a gift with something else. And what in the west comes out of the madrasa system? Sorry? Research work? Colleges. And what else in colleges? The PhD degree. The PhD degree. And also the university chair. And also the thesis, the dissertation and the defense of the dissertation. And academic freedom. Those were all fundamental parts of the Islamic madrasa. And there's a great book that's written on that. What is the name of that book? A great study by a man that he was a Christian Arab. He was a very, very good scholar and a very ugly truthful scholar. Who is that man? George Muftisi. George Muftisi. And there are a lot of people like that. Edward Said and others. They do a good job. They do a good job. But George Muftisi, masha'Allah, he has the rise of colleges. And that book is 100%. A careful study of the Muslim world and of the medieval Christian world. And how colleges develop. That is academia. 100%. And he shows that there's a profound influence of the Islamic madrasa system on the PhD degree. Before the PhD degree, what does Europe have? Do you remember Sibi Ahmed? What was the degree that is the church degree? The master's degree. The master's degree was essentially that you master the dogma of the church and you can communicate. And in the master's degree you don't critique anything. But to be a taqee, you see the madrasa, what does the madrasa produce? It produces a taqee. There's also called mujtahid and also called Mufti. And you cannot be a taqee or a mujtahid or a mufti if you don't have a dissertation. You have to take a matter of Islamic law that was disputed. And you have to study it and you have to take an original position on it and you have to defend it before other scholars. And for this reason in the Islamic madrasa you have to be able to debate. You know when Arshay comes to Chaudhury who was here with us yesterday and I think he will come back today he's a Maliki, masha'Allah and you don't find many Punjabi Malikis. And when he studied in India and in Pakistan the scholars say it's okay if you be a Maliki. They say when we discuss Awohanifah we will ask you to prove to us why Manmali didn't have that opinion and then we will give a judgment about it. And in two cases they said that he Manmali's position was better. Which is two. But he had to be able to defend it. But that's the way the schools work. You had to know why we say this and you had to be able to defend it. You had to be able to debate. And you had to write a thesis. So Al-Mulfiq comes out of that. And Al-Mulfiq is a great science. And then also we get out of that Al-Qusun al-Fatiha. We get out of that also the science of the foundations of the law. Which is brilliant. Islamic legal theory. How does the law work? What is the law designed to do? To bring benefit. To protect the harm. Where did you read that? Legal theory. The law is supposed to protect Dean, the religion as a whole. Supposed to protect your nurse. Your intellect. Supposed to protect your family. Supposed to protect your property. Halal property. Lawful property. Pure, clean property. And it's supposed to protect your honor. Honor is very important. It's very important. In this country, honor used to be very important today. It's like you can tell anybody anything. Say in the past, no, you could not do that. You cannot touch my honor. You know, I knew a person I grew up in Georgia. You know, I knew a person from Georgia who lived in a military academy. And West Point. He was a football player. He was a good friend of mine, very strong. He played right guard. He was a physician in those days. He used different words in those days. And he went to West Point and he fell into his rank. His file, whatever they say. And one of the cocky cadets came up to him and started talking about his mother. He said, sir, he said, you don't know my mother. And he said, sir, you don't talk about my mother to me. And the next day the cadet came back and he did the same thing. And this person, his name was Jim Smith. He wore the armor skills with a single punch. And he said like, you know, if I have to put up with this I'll go to school somewhere else. If coming to West Point means that I have to stand here and hear my mother insulted me. I was really proud of them. You know, that's honor. That's honor. Honor is very important. It's very, very important. So we have also the science of the precepts of the law. The principles of the law. Precepts of the law. For example, in Maliki school Maliki school is a school of precepts. Precepts are very important. Every living feature is clean. That's Maliki stuff. Nobody else agrees on that. But the animal is alive, it's clean. When it's dead, that's another thing. And also the milk and urine and precepts of the animal that's a different thing. And the Malikis have their proofs about it. So they love kawai. That's called fai. And then you have fai. Principles of the law. Such as what? Certainty is not removed by kawai. And umundima kvasiliha things are to be done by their purposes. Their ends. They're like, are we we don't do things just to do them. It's like we do them for some purposeful reason. Are we attaining them? Are we getting that purpose? And if we follow the yuzal harm will be removed. Harm will be removed. We don't tolerate harm. Harm is not to be removed and so forth. This is brilliant, really. This is the prophetic way. And then the third element which is the element of yihsan spiritual and moral perfection that comes as the fruit of worshiping God and obeying God and that decree that you understand and holding firmly to the prophetic law living a good life. This is where yihsan is. And the science of that which is the fruit of yihsan this also has a science in Islam that clarifies the way clarifies the secrets sets down the laws says what is acceptable and what is not spiritual perfection which is the most difficult path of all the most dangerous path of all and what is that science called? That's called Tassawab. That's called Sufism. And Tassawab is a fundamental part of this deal just as the science of the creed is a fundamental part and the sciences of law are a fundamental part. The science and it has much to it. In fact all of the great sheikhs of Islamic history like Shekhar al-Khabar Jidani Imam al-Bazali a lot less than and we're going to name ourselves later on because their names are beautiful when you mention their names you get great blessing but they're all much to it. And to name a salik they're all much to it and the people who exert themselves to believe they're giving great success but we believe that about Imam Ali we believe that about Imam Abu Hanifa we believe that about Imam Shafi'i we believe that about Imam Ahmad Al-Hambad many people say if you want the Sunnah of the Messenger of God you will find it in the four schools and this is one of the things we want to do at Dar al-Pasim is to study the four schools in the deepest possible way so we have the Hanadi school 1000% the Shafi'i school 1000% the Hanadi school 1000% and we live together we love each other we work together and we're friends with each other and then also we can talk about questions together and maybe he will come up with opinions and of course we can have dissenting opinions that's also part of Islamic law we always have dissent but we believe these Imam's have to feel and really they're great, they're masters and we believe that about the great Imams of Al-Aqita as well and we believe that about the great Imams of Tassawub but Tassawub has one Imam who is that? Sumeram Al-Junaid al-Saleh Al-Junaid al-Saleh Imam Al-Junaid the beautiful Imam Al-Junaid this is the Imam of all just like he is the Imam who sets down the law of the path that what is the valid path and what is not valid what can you do, what can you not do what is authentic, what is not authentic these are not words that meaning we have an authentic creed which is verifiable transmitted, it's a tradition handed down from great men and women to great men and women and one of my sheikhs said that if the tradition does not lead you in the present moment it's not a tradition he used to say he used to say he used to say he used to say he used to say he used to say he used to say I said what, so you get to the point where you know that then you move ahead then you proceed then you proceed because you know we have to deal with the time we live in the tradition doesn't take you back a thousand years it brings you up to date as sheikh Abdel Haq Hearmeur Abdel Haq Hearmeunter he said the tradition is not to go back to the way of the ancients. It is to seek what the ancients saw. It is to seek what the ancients saw. You know, we want to know God. We want to know the prophets. We want to live the life of the prophets. We want salvation. And you know, human beings are really important. Human beings are really important. When the human being is right, all creation is positively affected. Adam, alayhi salam, our father, Adam, he is the spirit of the animals. He is the caliph. He is the steward of God on the earth. He is the one who brings the world to life. It was already living. It was already there. You know, that he brings it to life. And this is the reality of all true believers in all times. They bring the world to life. We see how the environment is being destroyed today. The water is being destroyed. The environment is being destroyed. The permafrost is melting. That's a really big thing because the permafrost, when it melts in the north, then it lets up methane and all sorts of gases that have been stored up for thousands of years. And that radically changes the situation. What's happening? Animal species right now, the fish of the sea, many fishes in the sea, are on the brink of extinction from overfishing. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. And of course, we have to do things to change that. But the biggest change is where is the believer? You know, where are the saints? Where are the people who believe in God and live by the law of God and, you know, who can receive this truth and follow it? So, inshallah, you know, we will end here. It is as essential a part of our religion, in the soul, as the sciences of the creed and the prophetic law. This is as true today as it was in the beginning, and it will remain an essential part of the prophetic dean that gains God's pleasure and opens the doors of salvation until the last day. So, let's take a break here. So, we pick up where we left off after the Hadith of Jibreel. Sheikh Abu Nasr al-Sarraad, a great scholar from Islam and one of the early imams of the Sobo. He says in speaking of the Hadith of Jibreel, thus Islam pertains to the outward. Islam, which is the five pillars and the outward law. It pertains to the outward. Eman through faith pertains to the outward and the inward. What does he mean by that? How does Eman pertain to the outward and the inward? Can you just raise your voice? Because in our belief, Eman also requires that you announce what is in your heart. You know, what is in your heart is knowledge. You believe in God. You believe in His wonders. You believe in the prophecy of the chosen one. But you also have to demonstrate that by words. You have to speak it. So, that's what he means. That Eman is outward and inward. And perhaps he may also mean other things as well. Such is the fact that Eman requires you to be discursive. It requires you to have the ability to defend what you believe. To prove what you believe. And then he says that an Ihsan, moral perfection, spiritual perfection, is the Haqifa. It is the ultimate reality of the outward and the inward together. Some of the upright imams of the early generations of Islam said, and this is also transmitted from Imam Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, who ever lives by the sharia, the outward law, but does not embody the Haqifa, the ultimate reality of the Ihsan, will become corrupt, will become a fasik. The people who just have the law and nothing else, they're in a dangerous position, is attached to the Haqifa. To the ultimate reality of Ihsan, but does not live by the sharia, will become a heritage as ziddiq. But whoever lives by the sharia and the Haqifa together, will embody the true meaning of Islam. So this is really to say what? It's really to say that Islam has to have all of its dimensions. Scott, it cannot be complete. If you were the speaker that has a tripod, because it has three legs, and the tripod can't stand on two, and it doesn't stand on one either. It's not going to be strong. You have to have all three. It is also said that the sharia without the Haqifa, the prophetic law without the Haqifa is riyat. It is shown. Sometimes we refer to that as the hypocrisy of show. But the law without the Haqifa is riyat. It's shown. The Haqifa without the sharia is hypocrisy. The Haqifa without the sharia is hypocrisy. It's nifah. They go together like the body and the soul. The body cannot live without a soul. And the soul cannot live in this world without a body. It is also said in our tradition that the ultimate reality, the Haqifa of Yahsan, is like the sharia is in the sharia. The Haqifa is in the sharia, like butter is in the milk. Without milk, there can be no butter. And milk must be turned for the butter to appear. You all understand that, right? Because I know that I grew up at a time when we used to make butter. We used to melt the cows, and we would get full milk, raw milk, which is the best milk there is, not pasteurized, not ruined, but from good cows, clean cows, and then you turn it and you get butter. We used to do that. I don't know if you all know that, because a lot of people today, they just know about the grocery store, right? You've got butter there, and a lot of us drink 2% milk or 2.5% which is not milk we're talking about. And you can't get butter out of 2.5% milk. So I don't know if you understand that. I'm sure you do understand that. But especially for people in traditional societies who have sheeps and goats and cattle, then this is very meaningful, because butter is really important for them. And they get it by turning the milk as we used to do as well. Because if you have camels, you can't get butter out of the camel. Because camels have very little fat in their milk. They don't have butter. Camel milk is very good, but camel meat is also very good. You can't get butter out of their milk. Thus, the luminous way of our Prophet and God extoll him and grant him perfect peace must always be based on these three dimensions of the prophetic legacy. Authentic Aqidah, Fikr, and Tasawuf. The name Tasawuf is very, very interesting. This might be something we could talk about in the questions, because it's such an unusual name. We don't even really know what it means. And to me, it's like the perfect name for the unspeakable. And it's a name that is removed from any claim. This is a very important thing for the Sufis. Can they say they're bohsinu? Can they say they're people of spiritual and moral perfection? What a claim would that be? I mean, you don't have it at all. See, so they say, well, we're this. We're Sufis. And it's like, what does that word mean? Well, we don't even really know. But if it has a lot of meanings, and we could talk about that later. What is required of us is to give the correct creed, to set right our understanding of the sound practice and the rulings of Islamic law, and to ensure that we follow authentic Tasawuf. It is our obligation to remove harmful innovations and reprehensible practices and beliefs from each of these three dimensions of our deen, from fiqh, from akhida, and also from tasawuf. And this is the vigilance of the scholar, but also the community. But the scholar, this is the fundamental role of the scholar. The scholar, man or woman, has to be vigilant in seeing that the creed is kept sound, that the fifth is kept sound, and that the tasawuf is also kept sound. None of these things can be taken for granted. In some countries, for example, where you have the maqams of the awliya, like, for example, in Uzbekistan, in Bukhara and Samatan, and Tashkent, in these different places, you never go to a maqam, but there is a scholar there. There is a scholar there who makes sure that people are taught, who recites for them Qur'an, does du'aq, and makes sure that nothing goes on at the maqam that would offend the saints who are represented there. These were people of sharia. These were people of serious practice of law. And so therefore, and this is our tradition also, that these maqams are not just left open for the people. If you go to countries like Jordan, they do the same thing. Jordanian maqams are beautiful. And there are other countries in the world too, as well. But then you have some countries where these places are just, what goes on there is sometimes okay, and sometimes unspeakable. This is not right. This is all neglect of the religion. We have to preserve the religion in all of its three dimensions. And it is not permissible to attack any of these dimensions in particular. To attack any of these elements that make up the faith is to attack the dean itself. In every case, we must insist on what is right, what is correct, but to attack the law or to attack the creed, or to attack the soul. The path of Ihsan, that is to attack the prophetic legacy, that is to deny the hadith of Jibril, alaihi salam, and everything that comes with that. Thus, there is a truth and a false truth. There is sound good, and there is unsound good. There is truth to some of it, and there is false to some of it. In the history of Sufism, the Sufis say that the most dangerous person who will harm you more than anybody else is who. The false Sufi, the charlatan, the quack. You know, the one who maybe knows a lot who studies books and so forth, but he or she is not authorized in the pattern. They don't know the pattern. They will hurt you, and they will hurt you more than anybody else. And then they say the second person is the arrogant scholar of outward knowledge. Because why is he arrogant? He shouldn't be that way. He should be the humblest of people. Why doesn't he embody the way of the prophet? When he studied all these hadiths, he studied the Qur'an. And then they say the third most dangerous is the hypocritical reciter of the Qur'an. The Qur'an is the greatest treasure on earth. But when we take it into our hearts and memorize it and recite it, we have to live by it. If it becomes a proof against us that we can't live by it, then this is very helpful. And then they say the fourth most dangerous person who will harm you is the tyrant, the political tyrant. Like some of these that unfortunately have no mercy whatsoever. Beasts. Beasts. And they're not human beings. Don't think they're human beings for a moment. They are people who have been transformed inwardly because of gross oppression and disobedience. And therefore they don't have human qualities like mercy. And look at what's happening in Syria right now. What do you call that? Beast. I don't have a word for him. And the Libyan beast. I didn't have a word for him either. What these people did. You know, this is a test of the end of time. We ask Allah to deliver the Muslim people everywhere and give us rulers who are rulers. And then give us people who demand to have the rulers also. As the Prophet said, You will have leaders put over you who are like you. So if we have tyrants it means that actually we're not living the way we're supposed to live. And I think this is one of the reasons why what is happening in the Muslim world today in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, the Yemen and elsewhere is the reflection of the fact that there's a new generation of people. There is a new generation of people. And these are people who want things to be better. And who want things to be right. And that's what overthrows the rulers in terms of haqqita. Because it's like you deserve better now than this beast. And insha'Allah may Allah give us better than that. That's really difficult. So complex. It's so painful. And the suffering is beyond imagination. So there is sound creed and false creed. There is sound fit. And there is false fit. Unsound fit. There is true to some of them. There is false to some of them. Beware of the maker of claims. Who told you that? The Sufis. Because they will say that, you know, if you look for, if you need a physician, beware of the quack. You know, the one who says he's a doctor and he's not. The one who claims to be able to cure any can. And if you're looking for gold, beware of fools gold. Beware of counting for gold. Gold is very valuable. You know, so therefore I can also give you something that looks like gold and it's not pure. You've got to be able to tell. We have, and this is the itch that you had that is required of every Muslim. That we've got to be able to make sound judgments about the people who represent our religion. Who speak about the law. Who speak about the creed. And who speak about the civil as well. And we are not partisans. That oh, so you follow my path. You know, therefore I don't. I close my eyes. No, I would be polite. But, you know, the fact is that there are many people out there of every Tarifa I come across. You know, who are charlatans and who harm people. I've been to villages, you know, that are virtually enslaved by people who call themselves shavings. And they give the people a lot that make them insane. Whether you believe that or not. In fact, some of them, if they come to a sounder path, it's very hard to get them to be sane again. If they have their minds have been hurt, fundamentally hurt by the kind of thicker they were given that had no authorization whatsoever. That's true. I've seen it. I've been to villages that actually it pained me to go to these villages. To see people reduced to slavery basically. The shave comes in his big car, you know, and you have to get it money. And he wants to have, you know, only male sheep sacrificed within those female sheep. I don't know the difference in taste. And he won't even let them cook it. He asks his uncle, what is this? What are you, the king of Persia? You know, this is not the soul. And the people are enslaved by these people. They use sorcery also. They, you know, you have to, you have to have your arm around when you go on their territory. I know situations like that. You know, it confronted people like that. It was a matter of that. And we have to do that. But in a wise way, in a nice way. This is the dean. You know, and it is the duty of the truth, their mind, the Muslim of sound intellect, to learn how to distinguish between what is sound and acceptable of the three elements of our dean. And what is unsound and unacceptable. We're not lying followers. Imam Abu Nasir says of the true people of the sound, the true people of the sound. And now we want to begin to talk about that important topic. He says the authentic Sufis are a group of believers who are always small in number in every age. And because they, they are a special group of believers, they may have many followers. And often they do it because people like them. People love them. But those people who follow them, they're not necessarily like them. They just like them. They like to serve them and so forth. But the people who represent the way of the sound, they're always very few. They're never a big number. And Allah does whatever he wants. But in the eyes of God, exalted be he, these are the words of Abu Nasir, they're standing and in portals is immense. Immense. Someone like Sheikh Abu Taqib Jilani, I want to be pleased with him, one person. Yet, what is he standing before God? What is he standing before the angels? I know of a case in and where talking about one of these villages that I was mentioning, where we went in to talk about Sheikh Abu Taqib Jilani. And one of these shapes, I actually liked him. Not my enemy. And he comes in real late, real pompous. And he was a young man and he sits down. He came in right when we were talking about arrogance. And then he sits down and he's saying in one of the native languages, he's saying, what are we hearing? What are we hearing? What are we hearing? Sheikh Abu Taqib Jilani. And nobody said anything. Nobody did anything. We just gave the speech and then we invited him. I went to visit him. But nobody said anything against him. But Allah struck him down immediately. He developed a sickness that made it impossible for him. He was a young man to go to the mosque. And then he died this last march. So you have to be careful. People like Sheikh Abu Taqib love for Texas Odeo. This is something we know. My servant does not approach me by anything more dear to me than what I have made obligatory upon him. And my servant does not continue to draw near by voluntary acts of worship and good until I love him or her. And when I love him, I become the eyes of what he sees, the ears of what he sees, the hand with which he rests, the foot with which he walks. He doesn't become just totally in harmony with God's will. He becomes free. That's what we call freedom. And he does not ask me but that I give him. And whoever offends one of my Oliya, I have to say Oliya. It's like, be respectful. Be respectful of them because Allah defends them. That's what we saw in this space. Allah, all the people that were there, I know them. And none of them said anything against that shade. And we even went to visit him. I even went to give him salam. It was a funny story. I won't tell it to you because he passed away. But I went to see him. I went to his school. I liked him. He was a young man. And, you know, Allah took him to task. But he came in and he said, what are we hearing? What are we hearing? People should talk about being here, you know? And they should talk about so and so and so and so. And so Allah struck him down. So, Shaykh Abdul-Fadar Jilani may Allah enable us to interrupt all of the Oliya. But in the eyes of God, their standing and their importance is immense. Thus, the Muslim of sound mind. Again, this is Al-Wa-Nasr al-Sarraj. He's before Imam Al-Masjad. He's one of the early Imams. Beautiful. Thus, the Muslim of sound mind must know something about, this is you. You're the Muslim of sound mind. Must know something about the fundamental principles of this excellent group of people and their purposes so that he can distinguish between them and those who try to appear like them, who dress like them, and who use their name falsely. The Muslim must be able to make this distinction so that he or she not be mistaken or admit a grave sin. That's very important because, again, what does your HD have? Your HD has is to look for the best teachers you can find and to follow them. And the ones you don't follow, people like to them have a nice opinion of them. But to follow someone that you often know that he is not right, this is a grave sin. And you will be asked about that. As you're supposed to use your mind, and we have measurable, quantifiable qualities that we look for in order to be able to make sound decisions. Yes. So the sister's question is about taking Bay'a, oaths of allegiance, and obeying the sheikh. The relation between the sheikh and the Mureed is a very special relationship. And it is fundamental to the Catholic Sunnah. Shekh Abul Tadr Jidani writes about that. Jibril is the sheikh of Adam. Adam is the sheikh, he's the father, and he's also the sheikh of his children. How many children did Adam have? And Eve, a blessed mother, who were created in paradise. Eve, Adam, and Eve are none of this earth. They come down to this earth together. They are aliens here. And you, who are their children, you're an alien here. You don't belong to this world. You belong to the garden. That's where we wanted to go back. We were created in the garden, we're for the garden. But how many children did Adam have? It's over 20, 22. These are differences of opinion about that. They're all twins. Every single time that Eve gave birth, she gave birth to a male and a female twin. And then the twins can marry of another birth. The twins of the same womb are not allowed to marry. This is actually why Cain and Abel, what why Cain kills Abel because of the fact that Cain wanted his own twin. And he did not want the twin of Abel. Again, these are stories about their far different narrations and differences of opinion. But there were many children and they also had many children. And they lived for a long time. But let's get back to where we were. Okay, so it's a grave sin to follow blindly. You have to be polite. Politeness is the essence of this religion. And having a good opinion is the essence of this religion. But in your own life, the ones you follow, the ones you follow, you've got to be careful. You pick the best you can. And human beings have handles. You can't see them, but they do. And just like in the Qur'an, we speak about God having people by the forelaw. What is that image about having people by the forelaw? Where does that image come from? That God has them by the nausea. God has them by the forelaw. Where does that come from? The horse. Sorry, hitting the horse? Yeah, the horse. The forelaw here is the forelaw of the horse. The horse has a forelaw that comes down. And if you know horses, then you know that if you grab the forelaw, you have complete control over that horse. That's if you're a horseman or a horsewoman. You know that if you take the horse by the forelaw, then you can actually even throw the horse to the ground. There are all kinds of things you can do. Once you have a horse by the forelaw, you control it. It's said that the first human being to ride a horse was the prophet Ishmael, Ishmael. And that beautiful horses, the Arabian horse, is the best horse on the face of the world. It is a sign of God. It is an amazing animal. But they say that the Arabians came up to Ishmael and they put their heads down and gave him their forelaws. They say that was an ajya, which is a part of Mecca as a callotan you would know. Ajya means excellent horses, beautiful horses. And they say that's where Ishmael was given the horses. The sons of Ishmael are horsemen and horsewomen. Before that, and even after that, other people, they used chariots. And you see that in history, chariots, but the ability to ride the horse. You know, this is one of the gifts of Ishmael. Okay, so anyway, he states that when Nasser would get back to this, I don't know why he even said that. What was I talking about? Forelocks, yeah. So, okay, so that's good that we come back to that. So we don't have forelocks, especially people like me. I don't even have any hair on my head. You know, but we have handles. And a person gets you by the handle, they've got control over you. And people have different handles. Some people have one, some people have several. But you have to be really careful, because there are people who, if they get a hold of your handle, they won't let go. And they will manipulate you, and they will harm you. There are people that are masters of that. Great manipulators of human beings. They're masters of it. A lot of politicians are good at that too. They know where is your handle. And that's why you have to be really careful who to turn that handle over to. Have to be very careful. And one of the most painful things in life is to put that handle in the wrong hand. And then when you have to break it, the handle breaks too. That's painful. It takes a long time to recover from that. But the Mureed-Shaykh relationship, this goes back to Adam. The prophet Gabriel is his Shaykh. And he is the Shaykh of the Sahaba. And the Sahaba are the Shaykhs of the Tabi'een. And the Tabi'een, the successors are the Shaykhs of the Atba'at Tabi'een. And this is a fundamental way that God's religion was transmitted and is always transmitted. That's why our religion is a religion of transmission. That you have Shaykhs that you sit with. We're Shaykhs, women as well. And they give you not just the knowledge, they give you something else. They give you the reality of this religion as taken from the prophet himself. When that line is cut, the religion dies. Religion is not taken from books. And today we see what's up to horrible things. Things that like no intelligent person would do. No sane person would do. And you know, we don't want to get off onto that. But like some of the things that are done, it's like this is not believable. And a lot of people find that because these are people who took the religion from themselves. From their own study of the Qur'an and the Hadith with no authorization and therefore no depth and no precision. And then also deprived of the very worst thing that is at the heart of this deen. All religions can become merciless. It's bound to be merciless. As you've seen, unfortunately. And so is this. All religions can do that. But that's not the prophetic way. And the prophetic legacy always is the one that keeps that humanity there. Keeps that mercy there. So to go back, so in any case, the Mureed, this is a really critical thing. And as a rule, the shade is not a Michael man. And the prophet wasn't that great either. We have a famous Hadith, for example, of Hamd al-Rahman bin Awf, the great companion, one of the ten who has promised paradox. And he comes to the prophet, the prophet sees that he has a sort of yellow stain on his garment, his white garment. And then the prophet knows that this is sent. And he said, maybe you got married. And he says, yes, I got married yesterday. And he said, well, don't be shy. So have a feast, even if it's just one sheet. This is a very beautiful Hadith. But this Hadith also shows you that Hamd al-Rahman bin Awf didn't go ask his permission. As the prophet is not meant to be a micromanager, a sheikh could help you with that. No problem. Especially today, when marriage is such a difficult thing. But with the Sahaba, it's like, you know, he wanted to get married. You pick for yourself. And he didn't even tell the prophet. So the prophet is the guide in all of this. But in the spiritual path, especially as the pure spiritual path goes higher and higher, then you've got to come and be a good Muslim to live a good life. That's another thing. The past majority of Muslims, what beautiful people they are. But on the spiritual path, as it goes higher, you've got to have someone on the path who knows the path and who knows you. Because you don't know you. And you can't know you. Not possible. Even though you know yourself, if you don't know yourself, you cannot know God. You know, the path of knowing God is the path of self-knowledge. But still, your self-knowledge is always going to be tardy. It's always going to linger behind. And whereas the sheikh, it's like he knows where the good fall is, that you are actually on the verge of falling into. And that he takes you away from you. And often he, they do it in different ways. Some do it very subtly. Some do it not so subtly. Depends on how dangerous the situation is. And these are things that you experience. So when you get to that stage, you do need to have someone that you can trust and that you can depend on. And how do you know that? Because you've lived with them. You've kept their company. You have tested them in a polite way. And you know that this person is worthy of my confidence. Okay, so that's actually a very good thing, but it's not to be abused. And you have to be very, very careful because of the fact that, again, you can get yourself into situations where it's very harmful. There are a lot of people who claim to be sheikhs who are really like kings. They are just people who want money on women and cars and fame. That's not what it's about. That's not what it's about at all. So we get back to Imam al-Nasr al-Sarraj. He states that the truthful representatives of Tasawba are God's trustees exalted be he on the face of the earth. You know, they are the pomenam. Pomenam, they are trustworthy people. This is one of the ways you know them. They're not frauds. They're not charlatans. They're not chiefs. They are the trustees. They're courageous people. They are the guardians and keepers of God's citizens and knowledge. And they are the purest element in all creation, after the prophets and after the messengers and after the companions and the successors. As Siraj warns that laying false claim to Tasawba goes back to the earliest time. So from the very beginning, there have always been people who lay claim to this. And it's not a valid claim. So he says that false claims about Tasawba, they go back to the earliest time of Islam. It is one of the greatest of all sins. It is one of the greatest of all betrayals. So beware, these are his words. Then beware. Then beware again of every counter to the clown who falsely lays claim to Tasawba. These are the words of Hamal Masar of Siraj over a thousand years ago. He'll all be pleased with him. Authentic Tasawba is not beating drums. It is not playing instruments. It is not dancing. It is not clapping hands. It is not improper mixing of men and women or the flourishing of banners or spreading superstitions in false tales. Those are my words. Those are the words of a great scholar, Abdul-Halim. And that's what he says in his commentary on As-Saraj. As-Saraj states, whoever lays false claim to Tasawba, seeking prestige among people or so that they look up to him and enable him to meet worldly needs in his mind or to sheep or whatever. I've seen a lot of that again. Like, you don't give us fish. And the gap you'll eat mostly fish. They say like, somebody says, we don't eat fish, we eat sheep. Nail sheep. What's the difference? So he states that whoever lays false claim to Tasawba, seeking prestige among people or so that they look up to him and enable him to meet worldly needs and more off-worldly hardships like poverty, God himself will take them to Tasawba on the Day of Resurrection because the false sufi, and this is the reason why it's one of the greatest sufis of all, because the false sufi, the pseudo sufi, has broken the trust with God by gross deception and betrayal. And his is the greatest betrayal of all because it pertains to the hereafter and not just to this world. You know, a person who sells you, you know, the defective used car or who sells you a house in which the foundation is no good or who gives you a bad deal and anything. You know, what harm have they done? They've done a lot of harm. That's very serious. But that's not like something that destroys you, Dean. That is the greatest betrayal of all. Okay? What then is authentic to someone? So a lot of this has been indicated when we've said they're humble people, they are trustworthy people and so forth. But what is authentic to someone? Imam Ibn Payim and Josiah. What was the tariqah of Ibn Payim and Josiah and Ibn Taymiyyah? What was the tariqah of Ibn Payim and Josiah and Ibn Taymiyyah? Qadiris. Sheikh Abul Ibn Taymiyyah. Ibn Taymiyyah is a very special person. Don't think that he wasn't. You have to understand him correctly, have to understand his time. Ibn Taymiyyah says, Abdul Qadir Shaitan. He says, Abdul Qadir Jilani is my Shaitan. And he says, if it were not for Abdul Qadir Jilani and for the tariqah that I have for him, I wouldn't be able to write my books. And Ibn Payim and Josiahs, he for four specific of that. These were great people. They were people that have to be understood properly. And a lot of the people who claim to follow him don't read them. They don't read all of them. The ones who do read all of them, they don't have any choice. Because these were great scholars. These were great scholars and they were scholars who sincerely wanted to bring this ummah where it ought to be. What then is authentic to Saudi? Imam Ibn Payim and Josiah? My personal love. And my personal love Ibn Taymiyyah. And my sheikhs taught me that. He said that this is something we will teach you. You have to know who these people were. You have to understand the role they played. But he defined authentic Sufism by saying, this is what Shaitan Qadir Jilani said. Ibn Payim says that Shaitan Qadir Jilani defined authentic Sufism by saying, it is absolute truthfulness toward God. It is absolute truthfulness towards God the real. And Arabic is beautiful. Absolute truthfulness towards God the real, God the truth. And good character toward all people. What a beautiful definition. It is absolute truthfulness towards God the real. And good character toward all people. Or you could say alteration. Although in Arabic when we say creation, the first thing we mean is people. But it also means animals and other things as well. I was in Dakar with the Great Shaitan. And one of the things they do in Senegal, and they probably do this in lots of places, probably Pakistan, India, is that they bring these little birds. They catch lots of these little birds, pinches. And then you pay them some money, they let the pinch go. Have you ever seen that? In Dakar they do that. And the pinch, by the way, in Mandinka, Mandinka is a great language in West Africa. They call it Qunuf. They call it Moro-Qundingu. Moro-Qundingu, which means a little scholar bird. Because they believe that the pinch is a scholar. Where they get that? I don't know. There's no hadith about that. But they never touch a pinch. They will never touch a pinch. And so this person brought maybe 40 pinchers. They were in a little cave. And if you pay him so many, he'd pay him a certain sum of money, and then he lets one go. So I was with this Great Shaitan, and he said, How much would you take to let them all go? And because he's a Moro-Qundingu, he's a little scholar bird, they shouldn't be in cages. And so they made a deal. Back and forth, back and forth. And so he paid that money. And then the man let all the birds go. And that was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. But these little birds, they were so happy. Really. And we were, they were crossed from some palm trees in the garden, and they all flew up in the palm trees, and they sat there, and they were chirping. Some of them could be flying very well, because they've been in the cage for so long. And they all got up in the trees. So it's also being good to animals, and being good to creations. Being truthful for thought, and how to reveal, may he be adopted, stands for sound people who leave it, and following the Sharia in the best way. Having good character with people means to be humble towards them, and to refer them over ourselves, to exert ourselves in serving them, and to see, to bring to their hearts together on the path of true guidance. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. On the path of true guidance, it is to see ourselves as servants, it is to see ourselves as servants, and not as people that are to be served. That's very important. You must see yourself as a chadim, it's a chadim, a servant, not as a mech-dum, what's a mech-dum, a person who's supposed to be served. And take care of me, give me food, do this, do that. On the double, there are people like that. There are scholars like that, there are sheikhs like that. That's not what it's all about. That's not the way of the great sheikhs. It's not the way of the prophets in Jerusalem. The prophet is the servant of the people. To me, one of the greatest demonstrations of how great the chosen one was, is that whenever the prophet would read Medina and come back to Medina, who were the people that greeted them first? Who? Do you know? You're smiling. I love the servants. The children, the children, and this really is amazing, it shows you the children love the prophets. The children love prophets. They love saints. And the children are also watching. They know the prophet's gone. And when the prophet would appear, then the children would run out to meet him. Always when he comes back to Medina, he's flocked with children. Isn't that amazing? In a long time, the prophet would have little gifts for children. And he would say, for example, the first one to run to me gets it. And the children would run to him and they would jump on top of him. And then he has to give the gift to the one that got them. These are beautiful human beings. These are real human beings. It is the sunnah of the prophet to smile. Right? I remember I was in Haldun Ha'ut and I was in a difficult situation. And some of them, Habab, who were taking me to a special place, and we had to travel a long time. And they said, smile. I said, I can't do that. Because it's like, to me, it's like to smile when I'm not happy. I can't do that. Most of my life, I couldn't do that. I would look at politicians, like Hillary Clinton, and say, how can she smile when she hates that guy? Politicians are masters of that, right? Oh, oh, how are you? And it's a deep inside, they're not saying that. And I said, I can't do that. I can smile when I'm happy. I can't smile when I'm not happy. He said, it's the sunnah of the prophet to smile. I said, oh, I'm very stupid about certain things. I should have known that. He said, smile. And so I, you know, showed my team, you know. And then he said, you have to do that. He said, you have to make it easy to do that. Because he said, this is the sunnah. And he said, one of the secrets of that sunnah, all of the sunnahs of the prophet, the secrets is that it brings good fortune. Because he said, if good fortune may come your way, but if you're sitting there impressed or you're frowning, he said, it may stay away from you. When you smile, it comes. That's what it's So the true Sufi is the one who is there to defend him with everyone. This was the lektopic of the title of our lecture. We are here for everyone. That's a very important thing. That also takes spiritual time. That's not easy to do, to be for everyone, to be even for their enemies, to be even for the people who won't talk to you. But we have to do that. That's the way of the great ones. It's the way of the prophets. One of the secrets of the prophets also is that he can bring together everything. His Sahaba of arms starts, as he said, but they belong to different constellations. And he is the one who can bring them all together. That's why when we talk about the Sahaba, we talk about the passing of the prophet, we talk about the differences among the Sahaba. The position of after the sunnah is watch your tongue and say nothing wrong about any of them. And in fact, this is not just good adab. This shows that we understand the status of the prophet and the relation of comparison to the prophet. And you can know this. If you're around in great shapes, great shapes can bring everybody together. It's amazing how they do that. They can bring together people or believers that they would have never been together. What happens when that shape passes away? And what happens also in your family when your father dies or your mother dies or your grandfather dies? Because you never knew how important your father was or your grandfather until he passed, right? We see that all the time. The shock that comes to a family, you know, when the father dies or the mother dies or the grandfather dies or the grandmother dies is immense. And all of a sudden, there can be problems in the family between brother and sister and brother and brother and sister and sister that were never there before. And this is because the crop has been removed and you fall it down. And if God blesses you, you get it back together again. And you forgive each other and love each other. But these are realities that happen around people who unify us, like our mothers and fathers and grandfathers and grandmothers and grandmothers and in places, unlike the great shapes and the prophets. As the prophets are able to bring people together, you are very different. Very different. You never own love. You know, a lot of people are pleased with him. One of the greatest human beings who's ever walked to the face of the earth. But he's not like us, no? And he is not like Abu Bakr. They are very different people. And in Jaliniya, they were also different people. But the prophet brings them all together. So the true Sufi is the one who is there to benefit everyone and not just one group as opposed to another. Not one sect as opposed to another. And not one tariqa as opposed to another. Not one path. All of the authentic paths go to the same destination. So we respect them all. We honor them all. Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani always stressed this basic truthfulness and sincerity. This basic truthfulness of benefiting the people. And he firmly and unequivocally rejected lying and hypocrisy. Sheikh Abdul Qadir, they asked him, when is your path? He said, a Sidhu. Because they say many things, right? He said, a Sidhu ma an haqq. But they say, when did you build your path on? He said, Sidhu, truthfulness. And his mother Fatima, may Allah be pleased with her, she told him when she sent him to Baghdad, she said, I do not permit you to ever lie. Ever lie. Because at certain times, we can lie. Now that she said, you know, so you could never lie. And then she gave him so many, a few coins of gold and silver, and she put them in a purse under his arm. That's what they would do. She sewed it. And she sent him off in the caravan. And that time, the age of Sheikh Abdul Qadir, the age of him, that was a hard time. Law and order was broken down. There were civil war, people robbers everywhere. And he is an armed caravan. But the caravan is attacked by an army of thieves. And the thieves, they get the people together, and they say, where is the money? Turn it over. And a man comes to Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jidani, he says, boy, he says, where is your money? He says, under my arm. He says, don't make fun of me. Believe me. And then another one comes and he says, boy, where is your money? He says, I've got it under my arm. He says, don't make fun of me. And then the head of the thieves, you know, he's got all the money together. They're going to make lots of money. And then he's looking at this boy, Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jidani was beautiful. He is a pure descendant of the House of the Prophet. The line of Hassan on this father's side, you know, 13 grandfathers between going back to Abdullah in the night, Abdullah the pure. And on his mother's side, he goes back to the great Persania, you know, his mother's side. And, you know, so it's like he was this boy because he's very great. He stands out. And he said, come here boy. So Sheikh Abdul Qadir goes to him. And he's only 18 years old. And he says, where's your money? They said, he said, where's the boy's money? He said, why he says it under his arm, but not under his body, but what he believes in. He says, he said, come here. And he says, where's your money? He said, under my arm. He said, let me see it. So he takes it down. And he says, why did he tell us this? He said, like, I would have never known you had that money there. So why did you tell me? And he said, because my mother told me that that's what I must do. And I would not break my word to my mother. And then the Sheikh, it's like he's already effective. Sheikh Abdul Qadir, he had a powerful presence. And so that he says, like, you are he finds out. And then he says, he says, he says, Masha'Allah. He says, so your mother made a covenant with you, and you didn't break it. And he said, I made a covenant with my Lord. And I broke it. So he said, I want to do Toa. I want to do Toa at your hands. He's a Sheikh. And so Sheikh Abdul Qadir, he gave him Toa. And all the robbers, they say that wait. And it's like, we can't do this business without you. You're the brains of the outfield, right? So they said, like, if we're going to Toa, what's going to happen to us? We don't get hanged. Let's all do Toa together. So they all took Toa. This is a true story. It's not a fairy tale. It's a true historical story. The whole city of Baghdad would take Toa from Sheikh Abdul Qadir. You know, Jews and Christians came into Islam by the thousands of Jews in Yemen would hear voices saying, go to Baghdad and take the shahada from Sheikh Abdul Qadir. You don't think Christians would do the same thing? He's an amazing man. He's an amazing man. And so he said, all right. And he praised with them and so forth. And then he says, because you've done this, he said, now, give all the money back. All the money back. Give all the money back. And then he says, we will not employ you because he said the robbers all the way to Baghdad. You won't be the first. You won't be the last. So he said, why don't you take this to Baghdad and we will pay you well. You took all the money. Now you gave it back. We will pay you well. And so they did. And they took him all the way to the city of Baghdad. That's his path. That's always the way he was. You know, Sheikh Abdul Qadir would be done. He didn't mince words. He didn't mince words. But the basic reality of that truthfulness is I am a servant and you are a servant. We're not people to be served. That's such a simple thing. That's the sooner the prophets and the Son of Jesus. If we do that, there's no problem. You know, this is a beautiful mosque. We all love this mosque. It does mean the board of directors and all the people here. But if we see ourselves as servants, there will never be a problem we can't solve. There's always going to be differences in the opinion. There's always going to be problems. But if we are servants, servants can work it out. But when we are people to be served, no. It's like, you have your right. I have my right. You didn't speak to me right. You know, I remember a lot of stories about things like that, but we've only got a few minutes, so we won't get off into other stories. So the true Sufi is more generous than the ocean, serving all people and all creation. The ocean serves all, and also the word ocean, having to be in the big river or the lake. It's a big one. But the Sufi, they say, you've got to be more generous than the ocean. That serves all creation. All creation can drink from the river, right? They can all drink from the lake and all creation. He or she is milder and more beneficial than the sun in helping them. He is more humble in the servant and his service to the public than the earth that lies beneath our feet. It is said, how can you aspire to be worthy of being God's servant if you cannot serve His creation? You want to be the servant of God? I want to be the servant of God. We ask Allah to make us the servants, real servitude. If I can't serve people, how can I serve God? You can't serve the people that God created. And then you think you could serve God, then we're not thinking things out for you. Sheikh Hamd al-Khalil Jilani would say, I examined all good deeds and found none of them to be more excellent than feeding people food. It's really a wonderful thing to do. He says, if I possessed all the world in my hands, I would choose to do nothing else but get food to the hungry. That's what he did. Sheikh Hamd al-Khalil Jilani, he says, he says my hand has a big hole in it. So he can't hold on to money. And that's the way he was and that's the way his successors offered on to. They will give you money. I know a great poverty sheikh. He doesn't have a penny, but people give him money. He always gives it away. He always gives it away. One time, people sometimes come to him and he says between you and me, he said they just came to him. They didn't come for anything else. He said, I know. They said, Yashaykh and Yashaykh and they go up. Actually, they just want some money. And so he gives it to them because like the money has no value to him. It's not so bad. The money has no value. And also it's like, you know, these people, it's like, he says sometimes they're sick people. The world is all that's in their hearts. That's sickness. So he said, what? Did I chase them away? Sheikh Hamd al-Khalil Jilani would say, As-Salli-Hunadi-La. He said, the upright people, they belong to God. But Tali-Hunadi. No, but the people that are not upright, people that are not good, they belong to me. He gives them to me. Give me the people that don't pray. Give me the people that don't pray. Give me the people that don't pray. And inshallah, we'll make them right. This is the way we're supposed to be, right? He says, Tali-Hunadi-La. He says the people were not upright. He said, I swallowed them all. And what he means by that, I swallow their actions. Like, I don't look at them. I know they do this. He doesn't pray. He says he does. I know that he's doing other things, he's not telling people. But it's as if I swallowed them. Like, I'm not going to deal with him as God's creation for her and try to bring them to the path. That's beautiful. That's the way of our Blessed Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Sheykh Abdul Qadir al-Jirani held the true shapes of Tassawud, are the authentic successors, the khulakah, the khalifahs, the stewards of God's messengers, messengers of Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And why? Because they take the wealth of their wealthy followers and distribute it to the poor. And this is what the khalifahs are supposed to do. Take the wealth of the wealthy and you give it to the poor. You help the poor. And the needy, without being moved by personal vanity or seeking praise. Because if you're getting money away from people, then you get something out of that, right? People will praise you. People will say, oh, look how great he is. So they're not moved by that even. Sheykh Muammar, who was one of the great disciples of Sheykh Abdul Qadir al-Jirani, the great scholars of his age, he said, these two eyes of mine have never seen a person of greater moral character.