 All right, Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim, Alhamdulillah wa-salatu wa-salam wa-ala-ashif al-anbiya'i wa-al-mursalin Sayyidina wa-mawlana wa-habibra Muhammad, Salallahu alayhi wa-salam, wa-ala-liwa sahbihi wa-salam tasliman katira As-salamu alaikum wa-rahmatullahi wa-barakatuh Again, welcome everyone for being here. Thank you so much. We are covering a text that was written by Shef Hamza Yusuf and Imam Zaid Shakir. It's called Agenda to Change Our Condition. I have the book here in front of me for those who are first-time viewers. I like to just preview it right in the beginning so that you can bring you up to speed about what we're doing here. I do have a presentation that I've also prepared to go over the chapter that we're going to talk about today. So again, if you don't have the text, you can follow along with the slides. I do highly encourage you to get the text just because there's so much great content. It's really a wonderful resource to have for just reference and to look it over and we should review this text. You know, maybe once a year or more often than that, whatever we need. So, Insha'Allah, let me go ahead and screen share. But just to, while I do that, last week, we come, sorry, one second. Okay. I apologize. I need to quickly message to get my screen share going. So just give me a second. So last week, what we did was we talked about the chapter on Taqwa, how to attain Taqwa, the benefits of Taqwa. So you can, and all of the recordings, by the way, are available. So if you go to the previous, if you go to the YouTube page, the MCC YouTube page, you will find all of our previous recordings. And so, again, just to kind of give those of you who may be tuning in for the first time, a quick summary. The text is quite, I mean, it's not very lengthy, but there's several different sections. But what I did is I started at the back of the text. So we covered the appendices and then we did the introduction in chapter one. So today we're doing chapter two. And today's chapter is on the heart and it's treatment. So I'm really excited to get into that discussion with you today. So let me go ahead and screen share. And inshallah, I will bring this up in just a moment. One second, please. All these technical things we have to do, inshallah, it'll be worth it. Okay. So, Bismillah, we're going to present here and hopefully you guys can see everything. Yes, today we're going to talk about the heart and its treatment. So if you're following with the text, you want to go to page 18, inshallah, and you'll be able to read along. So let's go ahead and jump into the discussion. It starts off and tells us that facilitating action is based upon true knowledge and action has two modes. So the first motive is the action of the heart. And then the second is the action of the limbs. As for the heart, there are two concerns. So what are the concerns of the heart? First and foremost, belief, Aqidah. We have to have a strong Aqidah, the creed, the belief. What do you believe in as a Muslim? What are the points about Aqidah that we should all know about Allah, about the universe, about our place in the universe? So that is all taught to us by our Aqidah. And then the second concern of the heart is sincerity of faith because people can claim to have faith. But only those who are sincere will have Tawfiq with Allah, right? Because there are many people who are Munafiqin and they're the worst of people, the hypocrites, those who claim to be believers, but then their actions say otherwise. So the sincerity of faith is also a very serious concern and a primary concern of the heart. So let's talk about belief and sincerity a little bit more. In the text, they write here that sound belief is accomplished by removing any doubtful matters from the heart. Alhamdulillah, this is, you know, facilitated for us. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, by His grace, He makes it easy for us to remove doubtful matters. Alhamdulillah, this is why it's so important for us to be reflective, to think, to try to look at the universe and just the awe that we should feel when we contemplate everything in creation, again, from the cellular level, you know, atomic level, just small particle level to the astronomical level. When you look out into the universe and you see things that are beyond our imagination, very difficult for the human mind to conceive, all of these things, our signs, our ayat that Allah has put for us to really remember or to reflect on the fact that this is not by chance. This didn't just happen, you know, stuff like that. There are people who, again, with no basis, that's what they claim that this all just was some big, large accident. But of course, that couldn't be further from the truth. This is not an accident. This is all intentional. This is design. And that's why you see design in everything, you know, Subhanallah. So we have to look out into the world and really think about this. And when you think about these things deeply, and you, of course, you seek answers from proper sources, right, from knowledgeable people, from people who know, they will be able to help you to, you know, go, whatever doubts you have or issues that you have to just work through those things. The answers are there. We don't shy away from asking, but we also accept that we can't answer everything, right? There's many things that we will just simply not know in this lifetime. But inshallah we have high hopes that inshallah in the next world, we will have answers to those things. So, but inshallah that's been facilitated, right? But sincerity, however, we, as they written in the text here, it's more difficult to achieve sincerity of the heart through the actions of the lens. And this is really, you know, a lifelong process when we talk about Mujahid enough, so we talk about the struggle of the human being to just fulfill all of their obligations. A large part of it does have to do with actually perfecting our deeds and making sure that we have the right intentions and that we do them with sincerity. Because many people accumulate deeds, you know, you could do a lot of good deeds in your life, but we don't know and we likely won't know in this life whether or not those deeds are accepted, right? We don't know. And that's the challenge is that throughout our lives, we're always doing that internal check to make sure that we are sincere when we do things, when we give sadaqah, when we pray, when we recite Quran, or when we give nasiha, or when we do any good act that our intentions are always in the right place. And that is why it's not, that's not very easy to do. And that's something that is going to be, for most of us, a very, you know, part of our struggle, part of the lifelong struggle that we all have. And so even in the Quran, right, here they say that the entire creation was at a standstill when it heard the words of the Creator. And Allah SWT revealed these verses. Everything in creation was just, you know, it's an amana. It's a huge trust, right? They were only commanded to worship Allah sincerely, with the religion solely for him, right? And then Allah SWT also challenges us here with this question, is not the sincere religion, a dina khada solely for Allah SWT? So we have to think about, you know, this is part of our mind, or our, you know, every day, we have to have this presence of mind to know that it's not enough that I'm doing, I have to be doing them sincerely. Because if you just look at it quantitatively, then, you know, a lot of times Shaitan can delude you to think, oh, I, you know, and this is where self-righteousness is a disease of the heart. Many people who are practicing, you know, their faith, ritualistically they're doing everything, you know, they do their prayers, they do all of the obligatory acts. They may, you know, fall into self-righteousness because they think that it's enough that they do them, not realizing, well, it's from Allah SWT that you're doing them. But the sincerity with which you do them, that's where you make your mark, whether or not you're truly sincere or not. So that's the part that you have to focus on more because the fact that we get up to pray is from Allah SWT. We don't attribute that to ourselves. Guidance is from Him, right? Guidance is, you know, when you have faith, you know that that's from Allah. He's inspired you. But how well you show your faith, right? How well you, the ihsan that you put into your actions, that's on us. So this is where sincerity becomes more of a challenge. Now on page 19, they go into a longer explanation of this word, purity, and really trying to understand why this is such an essential part of our struggle. And so I'm going to read a little bit here, and there's just an accompanying slide to give you a little bit of context. But here they say that the Arabic word holus means purity. And the term levan khales means milk that is free of impurities. This is the milk taken from the animal before it is contaminated with anything else. So just giving you a visual of something that's pure, free of contaminants, right? In that state that's preserved, right? That's pure. And then immediately they go into the heart. The heart's purity is contaminated by what? By wrong actions and can only be purified by repentance and remorse. Okay, so purity. Now another analogy here comprises a great station. So someone who's reached this station of, you know, being a person of a class, right? Of sincerity in the religion. It's a high station to achieve. And they've given you sort of like the, you know, the contrast to say that just as fornication, for example, is a precipitous fall into wrong action, right? Someone who engages in that act of, you know, something clearly haram. It's like a decline. So in the same way, a person who's achieving or who's achieved a class, it's gradual. It's something that's, it's elevating them, right? So it's kind of the contrast between the elevation of the mohles and the downfall of the one who engages in a sin like fornication. So just to show you, this is a really heavy thing, a very important thing. Then they go on to say that scholars of the heart have identified both corrupting and purifying actions that affect the heart state. So this text, now the remainder of this text, in particular this chapter, this text focuses on what facilitates the path to purity and how to draw near the way of struggle with the commanding soul, right? Moreover, it clarifies matters that edify the way to free one's intention from any contingencies that cause one to act for the sake of anyone other, for anyone or anything other than Allah. So, inshallah, this is what we hope to achieve going through this text, right? That we are able to facilitate the path to purity and to free the intention to make sure that our intention is not contaminated, that we're not in any way doing things for other than the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And they go on and say that the likeness of the one who acts for the sake of anyone or anything other than Allah is described in the following example. A shop owner hires a laborer and then says to him, this is my shop and this is my work. Therefore, do all your work in my best interests. Despite this decree, the laborer performs his work in the best interests of someone else or himself rather than those of the owner. As Muslims, we cannot do Allah's work and bidding when we have only our own worldly interests at the forefront, right? This is where, again, purity of intention is so important because there are in many cases where people may be outwardly presenting themselves as doing things for the sake of Allah, but their intentions, they have ulterior motives and they have, you know, it's not for Allah, it's for something else. It's for status, it's for maybe to gain some worldly benefit here, reputation. There's many benefits to in certain cultures, certainly in certain, you know, positions of in society. There's many benefits of presenting oneself as a religiously committed serious person, right? So there's could be someone could have many agendas, right? But this is why it's so important to have purity of intention. So then the question becomes, well, how can we remove worldly motivations from our actions? How can we make sure that our actions are truly for the sake of Allah and it's not that we want attention? And this is a very relevant question, more so maybe now than any time in human history. When you think about how, you know, the world has turned into a giant fishbowl in many ways. Everybody's lives are, I mean, there's obviously people who are not participating, but there is a great number of people, billions of people who are in fact participating in this experiment of social media, where every, you know, part of their life is documented. And throughout the day, you get updates about everything that someone's doing, what they eat, where they're going, who they're with, what, you know, where they work. So this idea of getting attention constantly and seeking attention is certainly one of the ways that one's intention can be compromised, because it's very alluring to have people watching you fame and all of that that comes with it. Or just even, you know, notoriety or people knowing that you're doing something, that reputation that you get from that, even if you're not necessarily of a celebrity status, you could be within your own small community or social circle or family, even. There might be something that you gain from sharing your life with everyone else. But if this becomes part of the way that you are and you live, then you can imagine how potentially every deed that you do that you're saying is for the sake of Allah, could be compromised, because is it really if you needed to show everybody, you know, when you went to volunteer at the soup kitchen and you're taking a selfie, and you know, showing everybody what you're doing, can you make that claim that was truly for the sake of Allah? Or was it what they call, you know, virtue signaling where people do things of virtue, and they just like to get that attention for it. So this is a very deep issue that I think a lot of us have to really think about. But this question is, you know, is something that the text is going to help us understand. And it says right away answering that question, how can we remove worldly motivations from our actions? The answer lies in the rectification of our intentions. Actions are only in accordance with intentions, right? And thus starting with the intention behind an act is the beginning of achieving a state of living for the sake of Allah. So the process of actually asking yourself and knowing within your heart of hearts, you cannot, we cannot deceive Allah. You know, we cannot, you know, try to hide what's really in our hearts. So you don't have to necessarily verbalize or articulate these things to anyone else. But certainly to yourself, you should be at that level that where you can honestly say why you did something. Was it so that someone could hear that you did it? You could get status, you get praise, you get likes, follows, like again, bringing you back to social media. But that process of questioning all of your actions, especially those actions that are you claim or you are trying to pass off as for the sake of Allah. Go back and do that inner work of really questioning. But they go on to say that if one applies perfume, it can be done in order to follow the sunnah of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and also as an act of charity for others. When it is intended to be for the angels of my Lord and in adherence to the tradition of my Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, we take a permitted act and elevate it to a recommended or obligatory one. Likewise, food should not be eaten merely for pleasure. We should intend the energy derived from the food to be used for the strengthening of our bodies to better serve Allah. So in this case, you can go and as we said, question what you've done to ask yourself, is it really for the sake of Allah? But the flip side of it is actually acting with intentionality on this deep level. Where every single thing that you are doing, even just regular everyday acts like eating or putting on perfume, that you are trying to find the way for it to become an act of where you're seeking the pleasure of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So aligning yourself with the sunnah, for example, as was mentioned with the perfume, right? Or looking back at something like the blessing of food as not being just this automatic process that we have to do because we have to survive. But rather elevating the intention to say, inshallah, I'm eating this food because it nourishes my body and from that nourishment, my body can be strengthened so that I can pray more. I can go and help people more. You see, it's like you're elevating the Nia with which you're doing actions by instead of just like robotically, you know, automatic processes that we've all sort of developed where we just wake up and just, you know, this is our routine, right? And we're not really thinking about, how can I gain more reward for even those things that aren't necessarily worship, you know, we don't equate basic things, meeting our basic needs, for example, as being worship. But it could be in fact a form of worship when you take the time to apply this beautiful intention to it, right? And they go on, again, we're still on page 19, and they say here that the following hadith emphasizes the importance of intending our actions for the sake of Allah. So this is the hadith. The first people to be judged on the day of resurrection are the following. A man who was martyred, who was brought into the divine presence and shown his blessings, who admits to them and who has asked, What did you do with all of these blessings? He will reply, I fought for your sake and was martyred. Now look at Allah's response. Allah says, the exalted will say, you lie. You fought to be called a courageous man, and it was said about you, and thus you have been recompensed, right? It is then ordered that he be taken to the fire. So this man is claiming that he died for the sake of Allah, of course, knows better, and he's telling him, No, you wanted that notoriety. You wanted the fame. You wanted all of those things to be said about you, the praise. You got it. Therefore, you were rewarded for what you did. You see, the reward was given to you already. And then Allah sent into the fire. Then someone who studied the Quran and taught it is brought into the divine presence and shown his blessings. And he again acknowledges them and is asked why he did them. And he responds, I studied knowledge and transmitted it, and I recited the Quran for your sake. And it is said to him, you lie rather you desired to be called learned and it was said about you. It is in order that he is taken and he's dragged along the face and thrust into it. It continues. And there's another narration about a generous man who also did the same. And he said that his generosity was for the sake of Allah, but it was for people to praise him for being generous and the same. He had the same fate. So this hadith is such an important hadith to reflect on because this is clearly telling us, as I said in the beginning, that we may never know if our intentions are sincere in this life. And we will know in the next life. But revisiting the Niyah and constantly questioning and really being real with the fact that you cannot in any way trick Audubillah or lie or deceive to Allah, we should know that. This is basic common sense that he knows what's in our hearts and there's no way that we can, you know, try to defend any other position than the truth when when we're being asked about it. So we should do that internal process in this life instead of God forbid facing a similar fate where we end up on the day of judgment being called into question may Allah protect us from that. But the point is, if we do that in this world, right, we are really clear about our Niyah inshallah, we will make sure that our intentions are actually aligned with the pleasure of Allah's prophet and not for anything else. So, let's go ahead and go to the next slide. So the next section now we're on page 20 the next after they related this hadith now we're talking about achieving sincerity. Okay, so, as we said, belief, inshallah, and getting rid of the doubtful matters. Allah that facilitates that for us, inshallah, and many people have been able to overcome those whisperings and those doubts, but achieving sincerity is a different thing and this is where the struggle begins. So some of the ways effective ways to achieve sincerity are here we have guarding the tongue right so very important that we focus on the things that you know can potentially harm. Or as an in road to the heart right in the tongue certainly and the limbs can can cause spiritual ruin. So we guard our tongue right we speak truthfully and we maintain discourse in private and public gatherings. So this is one of the first, you know, advice that they give is very important to do these three things. Watch how you speak what you say make sure you're a truthful person, and also make sure you're consistent that your public and private person that it's not that you're wearing, you know, masks or you behave one way in your home and then in public you're a total different person, or vice versa, but did you have consistency and of course you know there's certainly just to you know make that clarification, everybody has a certain degree of, you know, of private behavior that would not be something they share publicly we're not talking about that. We're talking about just your character, you know, you are praying, and you're, you know, you don't do foul things and you don't speak of foul things that should be consistent those types of things should not change, based on whether or not your home around public right. So think about that like are you the same person, you know, or would people not recognize you may God protect us from that right. And so the first step towards sincerity of the heart is to protect our tongues from these things and then to specifically protect it from falsehood, dissembling which is to conceal our true motives feelings or beliefs and implications which is to deviate from the truth. So this is what we're seeking to protect our tongue from these three things. And this is the first step to achieving sincerity. So then they go on. And they describe for us the four sources of the destructive qualities of the tongue. Okay, very important. There's four specific destructive actions or qualities that the tongue may do and we should know what they are and really how to avoid them. So the first of course is lying. And so right away we're on page 20 still moving into 21. The first just help us to understand that we all know lying is forbidden in Islam, without valid reason, but what are the valid reasons so across the board line is impermissible it's Haram right we're not deceptive we don't lie. However, in certain situations, it may be acceptable. And so let's look at what those three situations are first as a means to rectify between people. And so, as we know, you know, human beings, we don't. Some of us struggle with our temperaments with our anger with our, you know, moods and so sometimes disputes happen, you know, things within families within marriages, there's something that can really be very disruptive that happened and so we can avoid sometimes things from escalating just by maybe, you know, slightly changing some, you know, saying some half troops for example like let's say between a husband and a wife if you are a family member, who is involved in, you know, someone maybe your sibling maybe someone else in the family, whose marriage is on the rocks and they're really having a hard time, and you are trying to soften the hearts towards one another. And, you know, just really help them to appreciate each other more or to turn their negative feelings into positive feelings. If the Nia, that's your Nia and you go to the wife or the husband and you say oh, you know, they were saying, you know, all of these wonderful things about you and they always compliment you and maybe that's not true, you know, maybe they don't do things like that but you're just trying to soften the heart right between the hearts between these two people these two the spouse, this couple. Isha, that's a benefit, I mean that's a praiseworthy thing to do because sometimes the ego gets to, you know, the egos prevent them from seeing the truth about one another and all they see is their own anger and resentment and, you know, shape out of course there. So for you to be able to give them a different lens with which to look at their spouse with just through a few soft, you know, a kind words about one another or just slight, as I said, half truths or, you know, white truths, white lies excuse inshallah that's okay. I'm sorry. And the next is, of course, you know, in war we know all this fair and love and war right and as an effective military tactic sometimes you may need to deceive, you know, and that's to save lives, thousands, hundreds of lives you got to do what you got to do. So there's certain rules of engagement that would apply here when we're talking about military tactical situations. And then when an individual plays with his young children again sometimes, you know, we may tell tall tales or kind of, you know, just in a playful way engage our children and so if you're a Nia is to to do those types of things just to, you know, expand their creative creative mind imagination or be in a playful state. This would not be considered deception you're right, which is a total different thing. And there, there may be other nuanced situations too but we get the idea right the Nia is good, you just start doing it for certain reasons but there they do also make the distinction here that the permissibility in the first two cases right to rectify between people is through subterfuge and pervercation it should never be through manifest lies, except in a case where the other party party will clearly see through the stratagem. So you're trying you're subtly saying things you're not completely being blatant with your lies right because, again, it would defeat the purpose so in such circumstances one may lie with the tongue, but must reject it within the heart. Again, this is only applicable in a scenario where one's well being or provisions of those of others is endangered, nevertheless be cautious with words because a lie might in some instances result in a binding obligation. So this is more just like, you know, FYI be careful that you don't be, you know, go too far with this, you know, try to be very subtle, because you could entangle yourself into a much worse situation so just FYI extra cautionary advice there. And then they give an example. An example of a case where lying is permitted is that of an oppressor pursuing a just man. In that case, one should deceive the oppressor openly and lead him astray in this search in his search. This is permissible because a lie is not prohibited prohibited for its own sake, but rather for the harm that is implicit in lying. In such cases when truthfulness causes greater harm, lying in its stead is preferred. So yeah, if there's someone who's after a totally innocent person and you know that person's innocent and you're trying to basically throw them off, you know, the hunt or the search and you lead them down a different path. Your intention is to protect someone who's innocent from further harm. And it's not about the lie that you're telling right. So that's why it's permissible. And then they go on to say for this reason the notion that good is good for its own sake and evil is evil for its own sake is considered false. For example, a murderer committed by an aggressor may appear identical to an execution that occurred in compliance with sacred law in both its outward form and its characteristics. Someone who is unaware of what actually transpired might confuse one for the other. Therefore killing may be just or unjust. It is neither good nor evil per se. So that's a just again another clarification. So that's the first thing that's mentioned as a destructive quality of the tongue. The second is backbiting and this is again something we all need to be very clear about because it's not always understood to mean what it is. Sometimes we, you know, people find these loopholes or they just don't have the correct definition of what is backbiting and they may think that it is when it isn't backbiting or it isn't backbiting when it is. So let's clarify what it is. So backbiting or Ziba is again haram, you know, across the board in the Quran the sunnah scholarly consensus there's really no dispute about that. And it's defined as mentioning someone in a manner that would upset that person should they hear it. So if you think about this could go in so many different directions right. So a person's person, for example, their appearance, you know, things that they can't control. We know for the most part that, you know, whether or not a person may smile and kind of go along with the joke. If you, you know, most people don't like to be. I mean it's offensive most people will take offense to comments made about their appearance and again things that are just very very personal deeply personal. So you'll find a lot of people passing these things off like it's no big deal like for example coming up with a nickname, you know, about someone who maybe is their stature is, you know, shorter than than others or maybe than the average right height. People pass that off like it's not a big deal thinking oh well they don't seem to mind, but just if you really think about it what person, what person, whether they again their reaction is irrelevant because it's really about just common human decency to attack someone for something that nothing to do with and they had no control over like their physical parents, you know, is never acceptable and so if you think oh it's not a big deal if I make a comment about someone just because they are that way or it's the truth. I'm speaking about, I'm describing someone let's say you're trying to describe someone who is, you know, heavy set. And instead of trying to be careful with your words you just kind of that's the first word you use you know that fat woman or that fat man or that you know people can sometimes be so like careless with the words that come out of their mouth thinking that well I'm just speaking the truth it's not a big deal. But here right here the definition is clear, mentioning someone in a manner that would upset that person if they heard it, would you say the same words if the person was sitting there. If someone asked you to describe the same person while they were in front of you, would you use a different set of words if so then you know that that form of, you know, describing or the words that used to describe that person would fall under this category of Leba it's just not, it's not acceptable and so you have to be more careful to know that just speaking matter of factly or stating truths even if yes someone may be a certain size it doesn't make a difference. The bottom line is how would they feel if they heard it. If they heard it it would upset them it's very simple. Then it goes on to say that even if so sorry would be upset that person should hear it, even if it is a true statement so that's what we just said even if it's true doesn't matter they're upset. Now if the statement is untrue. So let's say now you are exaggerating something or literally lying about something just because you don't like them right. And the act is known as Calumni or Calumni I think that's how you pronounce it Calumni. And that would be Namima right in Arabic. So this is where you're now lying and backbiting at the same time and this is much worse. Some people who just out of their annoyance with a person a hatred for a person, they may embellish things or just literally distort truth I mean just lie about them. When speaking about them or if their name is mentioned. And you know that's completely haram like you there's just no way to justify that at all you that's just a rotten thing to do. Because it's this is how rumors get spread and lives can be destroyed based on a single, you know, rumor that you created just out of feeling, you know, like you feel anger towards someone you think that's okay. Be very, very careful and of course we know in Surah al-Hajjadah chapter 49 verse 12. This is the whole concept of backbiting is described very clearly. Allah says neither allow yourselves to speak ill of one another behind your backs. And would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother, you would hate it. So be conscious of Allah for Allah is most relenting most merciful. I really love this for so many reasons. First of all, because of course it's the Quran and it's Allah's word. But also because he is reminding us to not have you know, don't be hypocritical. Don't be don't have double standards. Don't make okay something that you know for yourself if someone did it to you, you would hate it. So don't in because I know what I've in the past. Sometimes when we talk about these topics, people who engage in this, they, you know, they, they may find or try to find ways to work around what they, you know, done in the past, just a guilty conscience, right. And because some people just don't really think it's that bad or if they're speaking about someone who's wrong to them, they feel so justified that they don't really want to hear you. You know, correct them or reprimand them for speaking about people behind their back. They just don't like it. And you know, I'm sure all of us have found ourselves in those awkward situations where we've had to shut down conversations, and you get some attitude from people right. But this is again, calling us out on our double standards because if you're going to justify it. You doing it for on whatever, you know, basis you think is more in stat, then you cannot just be real with yourself. How would you feel if it was done to you right if you had a taste of your own medicine as they say, how would you feel you would likely hate it and it would bother you and you would never accept anybody's excuses if you your best friend or your sister or someone you heard was speaking ill about you or mentioning even a slight, small, maybe blemish or problem or flaw that you have or bad habit. You know, people sometimes spouses do this right I've certainly been in awkward situations where my spouse may unveil their their partner in front of a group setting and you can see that it's so uncomfortable for the whole group. And you know there's going to be a huge you know fallout once they get in the car. But it's like those little tiny words that are said when you're not, you know, ready for it or it's just not comfortable to have people know your business can set off such a strong reaction right so we all have that every person would feel hurt to know someone speaking about the behind So if you know that it's true for yourself then don't justify doing it for someone else you know may Allah forgive us because sometimes again we were careless. And so here on the bottom of page 21 another reminder about this idea all the way you're eating the dead flesh you know that analogy is just so hard to stomach literally all the way right. Likewise, you should detest backbiting because it tears into a person's good name and honor, and this can be much worse than actually tearing off a piece of that person's physical flesh out of that. And we, you know, see that now in our world of cancel culture how you know devastating it is when people's entire lives are completely turned upside down based on sometimes a rumor and we don't know. It's very difficult to verify certain things we see it on, you know, I'm talking about like high profile cases but it's like really tragic if you think about how sometimes people's lives have been completely destroyed because of this you know just creating false stories or you know gossiping backbiting whatever and then it just it's like a fire that just gets a claim that it goes out of control. And at the end of the day that person's reputation is smeared it's completely right drag through the mud it's very hard for people to recover right. So we have to ask the last problem for protection from that. And then on page 22 But in the above verse Allah likens the absent one to a dead person. The dead person is gone and thus unable to defend himself. Just as the absent one being talked about is unable to defend himself or herself. Or biting off part of something causes harm to it, just as speaking ill of people causes harm to them, a poet said a cut inflicted by the tongue is not unlike the cut inflicted by the hand. So again just really important reminders for all of us to reflect on and inshallah to to take ourselves into account for. So now we go into well are there circumstances where backbiting is permitted. And believe it or not yes there are specific circumstances where the act of speaking about someone's potential flaws or you know just things that they've done the time for wouldn't fall under the same category as what we just talked about. Because again it's about the harm that not speaking up about or or you know disclosing some knowledge that you have about a person may cause further harm than the actual harm of disclosing that knowledge and so let's look at those situations. So here we have backbiting is permitted only in the following circumstances one when appealing to an authority to remove an injustice. And maybe sometimes you have to unveil speak about something or someone in a situation like this, where you're again speaking to an authority figure, and it could apply to many different circumstances but you are trying to prevent further harm to remove an injustice so you might have to disclose certain information right. When seeking help from others to change a wrong, or to stop an oppressor from his wrongs. So again, there's sometimes context is needed, you need to give context for something that context may involve speaking about someone when they're not present and so in those cases again, if the intention is to prevent further harm, it would be permissible when seeking a legal opinion. There are people who may be going through you know some business issue with a ex partner, you know business partner and they need to get consultation and in that consultation they may have to unveil an ethical business practices or other things that are private knowledge but you need to know what your rights are you have to protect your interests right or some, there may be again another issue that you're trying to avoid. And so you seek legal counsel or you know this would likely also apply to seeking a council from for other situations as well you know maybe you need to speak to a therapist or a counselor about certain things in a relationship for example right. When warning others concerning commerce marriage neighbors and companionship. Okay, for example it's acceptable to mention the violent temperament of a man to his perspective wife. So if you have knowledge about someone and then you find out that they are, you know, being asked about for the purpose of marriage you know maybe someone asks you directly hey, I'm thinking of so and so for my daughter what do you think of him or so and so for my son, what do you think of her, and you have knowledge that you are convinced or that you have evidence of your proof of and you really do think it would potentially cause damage to this person, you know. I mean there's a lot of people out of the below who are they, you know, they, they, they do this they trick people there's a lot of fraud that happens in our community. Unfortunately around marriage, you know where people present themselves as being a certain way but then you find out later that they have a whole family or you know I have children that they never spoke about or health conditions or debt. Or all these other problems because they concealed those things and they were not upfront and honest and truthful. So if you have knowledge that you think is actually could potentially help you, you know, people avoid being hurt or being scammed or being, you know, and somehow abused it's your, it's important to to warn those people right. So that those are situations where it'd be principle. When one mentions a man by nickname he's known by such as the lamented one. So this is, you know, again if you're going to, if you know of someone who has a nickname that might not necessarily sound like really nice. That person is not being mocked or teased or you it's not a nickname that's necessarily used to disparage the person, but you know it kind of doesn't have the most nice connotation or meeting to it. If you're using it. In that case it would not be considered a right, because it's sometimes nicknamed stick you know people in childhood. They'll get a name that you know grandparents or a parent gave them and their whole life they're known by that name and if they don't have a problem with it because hey it's not a big deal. You know, it's kind of what I've always known, and you've just, you know, gotten to the habit of referring to that person by that name. That's not, that's not an issue but if you specifically create nicknames or use nicknames that you know for a fact are actually to mock that belittle that person it could be anything a totally original nickname that someone came up it could be a play on words maybe that has to do with their name I mean sometimes people get really they can get very crude when when speaking about other people that they will speak in code you know it's like I'm in order to justify or not even justify but to not reveal who I'm speaking about I'll use this code name this is the person's name so every time I say this you know who I'm talking about and that nickname you know is to totally belittle that person to disparage them this would not be permissible this would be prohibited so the distinction is very important to understand nicknames that are the person themselves has no problem with and it's kind of you know just everybody calls them that it's okay but anything done to mock them would be impermissible. The next one would be mentioning innovation. Someone's innovations in terms of their religious practice right so if you know that someone is doing something with their or they have a you know practice or a belief that is considered, you know, again outside of what are the acceptable differences of opinions right there's valid difference of opinion on certain things those things are not what we're talking about right we you don't you don't mention that but if you know for a fact they have an idea about let's say and there are people in our community who have their own ideas about a lot of things you you know you don't need to do this you don't have to always do this and I'll give people their own like fatala you know like oh you don't have to make will do for every prayer or you can you know combine this prayer and that prayer and they just kind of speak from their own ideas and you know that that's that's that's not consistent there's no room for that in our tradition it's just their own you know innovations, you can certainly mention that in a context that it would apply because it's important for people to know, you know who people truly are and especially for example in the case of marriage you know it's really important also when mentioning the wrongs of someone who openly commits those enormities right so if someone is openly committing sins but that person's name is mentioned in some context and everybody kind of knows that they do that if they drink alcohol for example or they gamble or they you know have relations outside of marriage and it's kind of something that everybody is known knows about and for some reason maybe you're discussing that person for some context maybe they are in the community and they you know someone needs their services for something and so mentioning someone who their public their sins are public and you're just kind of warning maybe someone or mentioning those things is is is okay again with the right intention but speaking about their sins and unveiling people about what they do what others don't know is completely forbidden you can't we're not allowed to unveil people just because you know and so if you are even in the context of marriage for example if there is a specific issue or business like if you're you know know that someone's about to go into business someone with someone and you want to warn them that oh did you know they went into business two years ago with so and so and it didn't go very well and you can have you have details maybe very private knowledge that you know about that is fine because your intentions clear but if you're going to add on and say oh yeah by the way he cheated on his wife and then I found out that he gambled or he fornicated or he you know or he I'm sorry I mean he he drinks alcohol and he does drugs and you're just kind of piling on a list all the bullet of all the sins this is now it's like a you know you just have verbal diarrhea you can't stop yourself and you're just you know unveiling someone and you need to stop because that is not the that's not in the context of why you're telling talking about the person to you know the one you're speaking about the context was I'm warning you because of the business fallouts that they've had in the past for example and so the extra information you can't share okay so that's really important to remember and so let me check time oh wow wow that hour went fast I still have a couple more let's see if I can do these oh no I don't think I can do these there's a lot more context okay content I mean so let me I'm going to stop here at point number two which was backbiting and I'm going to get to the question and answers because the rest of the sections they need more time and I'll just cut them off so we'll have to continue with chapter two for in two weeks inshallah and yeah I think it'll be a good discussion inshallah because there's a lot more commentary again if you don't have the book I highly recommend because I love like to just peruse this book I'll just go over sections I've read before because it's they're just really good reminders you know for all of us and we all have this is RG had mail give us sincere intention you know and of course may Allah give us make our actions in line with our intentions but give us sincere intentions we want to have the Nia but we also want to follow up the Nia with actions inshallah so alhamdulillah let me go ahead and stop the screen share right now and then I will inshallah come and check the discussion or the comments see alhamdulillah just give me one moment I'll check Facebook as well as the MCC page just to see if there's anything going on okay so if you have any questions again please feel free I just see some nice comments just some salams and mashallah which are always lovely to hear but if you have specific questions let me go on to the YouTube page let me know okay I'm logging on oh sorry okay the best of you someone who feeds others mashallah yes some nice comments here what about oils sister I'm not sure if that question was for me or someone else because we did not discuss anything like that so I don't see any questions pertinent to our discussion here but we still have a couple minutes like two minutes so if you want to ask please feel free but other than that inshallah I hope you guys are benefiting from this class because I really do enjoy putting together the slides and having this discussion I wish it was more interactive I wish we were doing this in real time in person instead of the virtual alhamdulillah we have to be grateful to Allah for the opportunities he gives us and we all remember what happened when the quarantine started and it was Ramadan very shortly after and I think a lot of us were really worried for good reason too because it was our first Ramadan like this but then subhanallah how many of us had probably the most exceptional experiences I know many people did I had a really amazing Ramadan this past year so sometimes we we think things are a lot worse than Allah shows us the opposite so always have a good opinion of Allah yes it's a difficult time for most people and it has been for a while but Allah's promise is true and we have to hold on to that always no matter how intense things get never forget because that is what gives our heart life like we believe in the promise of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala if he says after every difficulty there's ease we believe in that and inshallah this too shall pass so may Allah keep all of you safe your family safe inshallah and may what's to come in the next few months again may Allah give us strength and hold us together and protect us inshallah from the fitna and just yeah make it all of this I mean help us to come out of this with a renewed inshallah understanding of our of our place and our purpose and to really just see the world with a different lens because I think if we were being honest with ourselves likely why we're in the situation is because we we fell into heedlessness we became forgetful we lost our way and so sometimes we have to you know learn the hard way to come back and to remember who we are so inshallah we ask Allah for continued guidance and patience and and may Allah bless all of you thank you for spending your Sunday evening with MCC East Bay inshallah please make go out for the organizers all of the volunteers and the staff inshallah and support MCC they didn't ask me to say that but it is an organization if you are in the Bay Area they absolutely deserve our support maybe more so now than before because it is tough times even for organizations to just make their overhead costs they're still things still are happening you know even though we're doing a lot of things virtually so anyhow that's just my little short spiel for MCC but do keep all of them in your doors and thank you thank you again for being here we will go ahead and end and I'll see you in inshallah in two weeks so have a wonderful evening you guys inshallah take care Assalamu Alaikum