 This particular presentation should endure several weeks, it's called the Ethical Foundations of Sharia. It's actually given at MCA, maybe someone was there. Nothing's ever the same, even if you do it twice. So what it's designed to show is that the Sharia, our Sharia, which we should all take great pride in, because it involves one of the greatest projects in human history and it also involves some total of the divine design for human life in this world. So we should take pride in it. So we'll explain what we mean by the ethical foundation by looking at the definition of the terms. So the ethical foundation of Sharia, ethics provides a standard for right and wrong. And as Muslims, our ethics begins with spirituality. If there's no spirituality, there's no ethics because without spirituality there's no God. There's no knowledge of self because knowledge of self isn't knowledge of this. That's part of it. And by knowing that, we can see the wisdom of Allah Ta'ala in creating this and giving us hands with the ability to grasp and the ability to manipulate fine instruments, unrival and all of creation and the eye, the eye itself and the miracle of the eye. So we can see within ourselves indications of Allah Ta'ala's purpose and Allah Ta'ala's wisdom and Allah Ta'ala's ability to create in the most perfect fashion. But knowing this, per se, will not in and of itself lead us to know Allah Ta'ala. So it can be a means, but ultimately knowing that inner aspects of our being, what some of our scholars call al-Jawahir al-Ruhaniya. So the spiritual jewels that we possess. And those spiritual jewels are sometimes referred to as the aqal, the qalb, the nafs, the ruh. Those are the things that allow us to really know our Creator because those are the things that transcend physicality and our Creator transcends physicality. So physical nature will only take us so far in terms of really knowing Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. So we can know Allah and then we can know Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. But we can't see Allah, so our physical eyesight will only take us so far. We can see the signs of Allah Ta'ala, of the power of Allah Ta'ala. Look at the effects of your Lord's mercy. So we can't see Allah Ta'ala, we can't see his mercy. We can see the effects of his mercy all around us. And that can lead us to belief, but in terms of really actualizing our belief. Taqeeq al-Iman wa Rububiyya wa Uluhiyya. Actualizing faith, actualizing our awareness of Allah Ta'ala's divinity. Actualizing our awareness of Allah Ta'ala's Lordship that moves into a realm beyond physicality. Because we can't see Allah, we can't touch Allah. This is our physical senses, right? We can't hear Allah per se. We're not Musa alaihi s-salam. And so our physical senses only take us so far. But through our Ruh, through our Nafs when it's refined. Through our Qalu, not this physical lump of flesh. But the subtle properties that are associated with it through that, we can actualize our knowledge of Allah Ta'ala. And by actualizing our knowledge of Allah Ta'ala, we can have an agreed upon standard of right and wrong. So metaphysics, moving beyond physicality in terms of our nature unlocks the access to the spiritual world. The world of the Ruh that came from Allah, not a part of Allah, but came from Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. And unlocking that allows us to know Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. And in knowing Allah Ta'ala, we can come up with an agreed upon standard of morality. And that's an aspect of Tauhi. And one of the aspects of Shirk is a plurality of ethics. So you believe some things right based on your intellect and your understanding. The next person, the next person, the Nazis believe it's right and proper to kill off. Not only the Jews, but the Jews and the Gypsies and the Poles and the Russians. Far more Russians died in the Second World War as a result of the Nazi atrocities than Jews. But all of these people, Hitler, they're right. I'm right to kill them. They're inferior people. They don't deserve to live if they can't survive on their own merits. So it's very important for us, and then the next person, oh, Hitler's wrong. And the next person, well, I don't know what's right or wrong. And so we began to a plurality of ethical standards. This is one of the byproducts of Shirk. Because people have a plurality of gods that they worship. So one person's morality is defined by money. I'll do anything to get a dollar. Whatever brings me a dollar is right. And whatever leads to my dollars being taken away is wrong. And nations structure foreign policies on that philosophy. Another person, it's sex. And I'll do anything to have a sexual thrill. Via pornography, bestiality, sodomy. And that defines right or wrong for that person. But metaphysics allows us to know a lot. So we have a universal access to a universal standard. We use the prosperous without the state. And we have many historical examples of that. So when we associate Sharia with the equivalent of constitutional law, then we distort what Sharia is by emphasizing legal rulings only. Now, let me be clear, legal rulings are part of Sharia. So we have to be clear about that. But Sharia is more than just legal rulings. So these anti-Sharia people, they try to present Sharia as this law that's going to replace the constitution which they don't believe in anyway. Especially when it comes to Muslims. And these people are a bunch of hypocrites. That's why Muslims should never back down or feel inferior, be put on the defense by these ruthless hypocrites. They believe in constitution. What happened to the Holy Land Foundation? Their lives were ruined. They're charitable for giving charity to the same organizations that the Red Cross and the USA gives charity to in Palestine. And then they're exonerated. So we'll try them again. And the second trial, we'll bring an anonymous Israeli who's not even a U.S. citizen. It could have been a robot. It could have been the male voice from your GPS. We don't know who testified against them in secret. So the Sixth Amendment rights were thrown out the window. Sixth Amendment, an accused has the right to confront and question their accuser. There are no right and the accuser wasn't even a U.S. citizen. That's the extent these hypocrites believe in the U.S. Constitution. They're hypocrites. Human rights, human rights, right? Human rights. Do Palestinians have human rights? What's happening this week in the Palestinian context? We should talk about it. We've been beat down so bad. First time to go. All the kids go. It's bedtime. The Palestinians are making an appeal to be recognized as a non-member state in the United Nations. They have the status of the Vatican. If they're a non-member state, they become a member of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. If they're a member of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, they can prosecute Israel for their brutal and humane genocidal treatment of their people. So what's the United States doing? They're blocking it. They're saying, we're going to veto it unless you drop membership in the International Criminal Court. That's what these hypocrites are doing. So these are the people. Oh, Sharia is bad. For a conflation of the Sharia with the state, how did this come about in the Muslim world? Like, if we have a Muslim state, we have to have Sharia. The two are conflated together. There was Ibn Taymiyyah, and through Ibn Taymiyyah, and this not being prejudiced, Ibn Taymiyyah was a great scholar. But it's just looking at a historical fact. Then from Ibn Taymiyyah, the Wahhabi movement, from the Wahhabi movement, 20th century reformers like Abu-A'ala al-Maududi. So Ibn Taymiyyah, he wrote a book called As-Siasat Al-Sharia. As-Siasat Al-Sharia. Or, let's say, Divinely Legislated Politics. And through that, prism began to conflict Sharia with the state. Where as writers before him, when Mawardi or Abu-Ya'ala al-Mauskami, wrote about the political structure of the Muslim state, what did they call their books? Before Ibn Taymiyyah. They called their books Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyah. Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyah. Rulings associated with power, with political power. Rulings associated with political power. There's no Sharia in there. As opposed to As-Siasat Al-Sharia. So this conflation wasn't always there. Now we mention this for the following reason. If Muslim cannot follow Sharia outside of an Islamic state, how did Muslims exist in China for 1400 years as a minority? Who never had political power, but they prospered generally, especially under Yuan and Ming dynasties. And in more recent years, as a community. They weren't Muslims, they weren't true to Islam. They weren't adhering to the best of their ability to the ideals of Sharia. They were building masjids, they were maintaining regular prayers. They were slaughtering their animals according to the rules put forth by Muslim law. They were reading Quran, they were going to Hajj, they were paying their zakat. But they never had a state for 1400 years. We don't have a state here, we're not living a Muslim life. There are things we're not doing, but as a minority community we're not enjoying to do them. Because those things are associated with al-Khamisul paniyya. They're associated with a Muslim ruler, and not with the laity. So another conflation, so Sharia is often times conflated with the state. Another conflation is conflating Sharia with the hudud, what are the hudud? Divinely legislated punishment, hudud. If you look at a book of thick, now the thick books are thick books, they're not called Sharia books. If you look at one of these compilations, let's say the Hashi of Ibn-e-Abedin, they're not called Sharia books, they're not called Sharia books, they're not called Sharia books. They're not called Sharia books, they're not called Sharia books. But if you look at one of these compilations, let's say the Hashi of Ibn-e-Abedin, which method is that? Hashi of Ibn-e-Abedin. No, I'm Shafi'i. No, Hanafi. Hanafi. These are numbers. How many volumes? How much of that deals with hudud? Ibn-e-Abedin. How much of that deals with hudud? Punishment for a daughter, punishment for the wine drinker, punishment for the thief, punishment for Hiraba, the highway robber. How much of that? Five pages. Five pages. Maybe, maybe not five, maybe more than that, maybe this much. So all of these Sharia, the ideal that this book represents, all of this becomes compilated. The problem should be obvious, I mean, all of the wisdom, all of the scholarship, all of the intellectual endeavor becomes compilated with a very small fraction and then interpret it based on what? Based on some fools in Pakistan or Nigeria or somewhere, halfway around the world. That's a problem. Because what gets lost, what gets lost is legal philosophy. What is the philosophy governing all of that? That gets lost. Legal scope. So the scope of legal thinking isn't just that, it's all of that. So that scope gets lost. Legal flexibility. Even in this regard, you never hear some anti Sharia person talking about how Omar suspended the punishment for theft during the time of Fem. Or if a person hasn't stolen a certain quota above a certain limit, there's no punishment. Or how the judge is encouraged to push away any punishment by any ambiguity at all that exists in the case. So all of the legal flexibility is lost. So the conflation of Sharia and the state, what gets lost? Reason. In other words, this is a rigid, mechanical relationship. And there's no role for reason or any intellectual input. Gradualism is lost. The fact that people have to learn. Students of FIP, there's some here, you read over and over that this ruling is applicable except for someone who's new in this lab. So they don't know this. This is inapplicable for them. So that gradualism is lost. Pragmatism is lost. So the practical nature of Sharia, which involves wisdom, that's lost. And the biggest thing is ethics. The understanding that this system is built on a foundation of principles whose ultimate objective is to guide our actions so that we do that which is right and avoid that which is wrong based on the standards of our Lord. Not based on our standards. This is something Muslims have always understood. So we're going to move now into some specifics related to our topic. The quality is the high-fives. We're going to continue, inshallah, with this presentation, the ethical foundation of Sharia. Now we reiterate and emphasize that the whole point we're making is that the Sharia system is wider than rulings. So it's part of a larger system. So this is the point we were trying to make last week in our introductory remarks. And so we're not denying that law and specifically legal rulings are an integral part of Sharia. So we're not dismissing that. But what we're saying is that these rulings they occur in a context. And unless we understand that context, then it's very difficult to understand the nature of the rulings. So what people here, critics of Islam and this society do, they take a ruling but they take it out of its context. And because it's taken out of its context, it's very difficult to understand. And it can even lead to confusion or it can lead in some instances to repulsion. So people are repulsed by a particular ruling that's taken out of its context. So the contextualizing of the rulings that are an integral part of Sharia are based on what we're referring to as the high-fives. High-five. All the little kids, they know the high-five. They don't want to talk to you, they say high-five and then they start smiling and they open up. So the first are the five pillars of Islam. So we're all familiar with these and we'll come back to those. Obviously the Shahada, the Salah, Zikr, Ramadan, the fast of Ramadan and the Hajj to the pilgrimage. So this is the first of the fives. So we have five pillars in the religion, we have five legal values. And again we'll come back to these. These were very quickly the five legal values being that something is either obligatory, it's highly encouraged, it's permissible, it's highly discouraged or it's forbidden. So we have five values and we'll talk about those in great detail. Then we have the five universals and again we'll come back to these. Harm is to be removed. Hardship, cause for facilitating ease. Al-Adam, Hakimah, custom and convention has legal weight. And Umur bima qasidi has affairs are judged based on their objectives, their ultimate objectives. And there's another one, but I might have said it. Anyway, but we're going to come back to this in detail. We have the five, actually the five universals are the preservation of life, preservation of deem, religion, life, intellect, family and private property. Some say honor, then the five legal maxims actually what I mentioned. Harm is to be removed. Hardship, cause for facilitating ease, etc. And then we have the five great prophets of the ulul azim. And we'll discuss their mission in the context of the greater system of law. So these are the high fives, five legal, five pillars. There's five, five values, ethical values specifically, five universals, five great legal maxims and the five great prophets. Those referred to as ulul azim. So we start with the five pillars. The five pillars are the foundation of our actions. So when the angel Gabriel, Gabriel alaihi salam, came to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. He asked him about four things. He asked him, if he asked about five we could include it in the high fives. But then there would be six fives. So he asked him about fakhbirni anil islam. Inform me about islam or in other words, what do I have to do to be a Muslim? So someone comes, I want to know about Islam. So you have to pray, Muslims we pray, we fast, Ramadan. We do certain things. We don't eat this, we don't eat that, we can eat this, we can eat that. So what can I do? Inform me about faith, what do I have to believe? So Islam, the actions. Iman, the beliefs. Fakhbirni anil ihsan, ihsan the state of being. In other words, when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said in response Fakhbirni anil ihsan, And ta'abudah allaha ka'andaka tarahufin lam ta'kuntarahufin huyaraq. That you worship Allah as if you see Him and if you fail to see Him, be mindful that He observes you. In other words, this is the description of a state. I'm in a state of awareness. So ihsan is about those states that a believer should be in. And then he said Fakhbirni anil sa'a. Inform me about the doomsday, the end. And again, this is so Islam what we have to do. Iman what we have to believe. Ihsan, what we have to embody in terms of our internal states. A sa'a, what do we have to prepare for? We have to prepare for the end. We have to prepare for our death. We have to prepare for the sa'a. So anyway, the five pillars, these are the foundation of our actions. So we all know the first of these is the shahada declaration of faith, which is the action of the tongue. This is why it's included. This is the action. We have to say it. If a person believes it but doesn't say it, they're deemed or judged to be a believer with Allah. But their ruling in this world is the ruling of a disbeliever because they didn't utter it. And tashhada. And la ilahim allah wa inna muhammad al-asrullah, salallahu alaihi wa sallam. So the salat, the formulaic prayer, as opposed to dua, where we pray or supplicate, the salat is a certain formula. What we say, movements that are done. In sequence, the zakat or the poor du'a, the psalm, the fast of Ramadan, and the hajj or the pilgrimage. Now these are the foundations. These are what are these called? Usually say these are the pillars or an Arabic, the arkana, arkana of the stunna. So the pillars are the foundation. We build on that foundation. So that foundation is not the house. We should always remember that. The foundation, if we're sincere and we do these things diligently, then our intention is pure. With Allah's mercy, insha'Allah, we'll enter paradise. But if we want to embody in our actions that which is built on these foundations, we have to do more. So for example, they're not foundational but are ethical practices. In terms of, not ethical, I should say our character traits, if you will. So ayyul islam of laud. So the practice of the salam is as, which manifestation of the salam is best? Wa qaala sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And toqiri as salam. And to ta'ima ta'am. And toqiri as salam. Aalaman arafta wa man lam ta'arif. Which manifestation of the salam is best? That you feed people and you greet people those you know and those you know not. So he says this is a manifestation of Islam, a manifestation of action. So all of the hadith of this type or verses in the Quran where it's describing something associated with Islam. So ayyul islami. So which manifestation of Islam? Afdal is best. So this is an aspect of Islam but it's not foundational but it builds the house on top of the foundation. So all of us should be about the work of building the house. The second are the five ethical values that we can mention here. And then faith we didn't mention because number one it's not an action per se. And so therefore it's outside of the purveillance of law. Whereas feeding people all of those actions. So those would be included and governed by sharia. Whereas faith we use sharia and aqida. And then haqiqa. So these two wings the bird needs to fly sharia. So the law but all of the things that contextualize and give meaning and purpose to the law. Aqida the beliefs and the system of beliefs and things of believer has to affirm. And then haqiqa. One cultivating their interstate to provide the balance. And the hadith of Jibreel mentions that. And he says, So this sharia is what governs our actions. This is belief. Aqida what governs our belief. This is our state of being. This is haqiqa. So those things related to those metaphysical aspects of our being. So when he says That you worship Allah is if you see him and if you fail to see him be mindful that he sees you. As we said this is a state. But that state of awareness. If it's focused on Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And ta'abuda Allah haqiqa anna ka tarahu. Ka anna ka taraa Allah. Fa annam taqun tarahu fa annahu yaraa. So it's focused on worship Allah and ta'abuda Allah haqiqa. As if you see him and if you fail to see him be mindful that he sees you. So it's Allah Allah Allah. All these pronouns refer back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So this is an indication that this aspect of being, if you will, takes us to a level within our hearts and within our souls that opens the door to the true experienced knowledge of the reality of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Because it takes us back to the spirit which Allah placed in us. And it's beyond this world. It's not a part of Allah's created. A Ruh, maqloog. There used to be hadith. There used to be a qadeem, I find. There used to be a qadeem. What? Hadith. Muhadith. Maqloog. But it's from Allah. Fa nafaqafihi marruhe. He breathed into him something of his spirit. The spirit that he created. That's beyond this world. That is the pathway for us to know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Who's beyond this world? So it's not a part of Allah but it's a key within us. And so that's another realm beyond this goal before discussing here. The five ethical values are the foundation of our religious consciousness. So when we talk about the things we'll mention, something being forbidden, highly encouraged, permissible, highly discouraged, our observing and living a life in the light of our awareness of these values cultivates a religious consciousness within us. To make that clear, the average person who's not a Muslim and is not a believer in God, or they might say they are, but their belief doesn't impact on their life from moment to moment. That person has no religious consciousness. So when they do something, they don't think about whether it's permissible with Allah ta'ala, with Almighty God, or if it's impromissible, if it's haram or it's halal. So their first thought, a true believer, their first thought is, is this permissible? Is this forbidden? Whereas someone who has no religious consciousness, they might say, is this going to hurt me? Or is it going to hurt someone else? Or am I going to get caught if I do it? Because it seems to be bad. But can I get away with it? So there's no consciousness of Allah. There's consciousness of self. Is this going to hurt me? There's consciousness of the police. Am I going to get caught? But it makes sense. And we're watching. We're in the cameras. There's consciousness of the camera. But there's no consciousness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So when the believer, so a person goes to the store, say, oh, for Simmons, are they ready to eat and squeeze on him a little? The believer goes to, or am I allergic to them? Will they give me a stomach ache? The believer goes to the store, picks it up and starts reading the label. Is it halal? That's consciousness. That's religious consciousness. That's religious consciousness. Is this pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Or not? So we mentioned these five values of the obligatory, the wajjah. And why is it ethical? Ethical are principles that establish right and wrong for us. Principles that govern right and wrong. So something's obligatory. We know it's fit and proper. But also it has a reward. And that reward indicates that it's something good to engage in. So the obligatory, if we do it, we're rewarded. And if we leave it, we're punished. So a lot of you have been through this before. That which is highly encouraged in Mustahab or Mandub or Sunnah. So if one does it, one is rewarded. But one leaves it, they're not punished. So, for example, the duha prayer is highly encouraged. But if you don't pray your duha prayer, you're not punished. You're not judged to be sinning. So it's definitely an important part of our religious regiment. But if we leave the duha prayer, no one says, oh, you're sinning. And you're liable to be punished. The permissible mubah, this has no reward or punishment associated with it in and of itself. But it can become something that's rewarded. If something permissible, so it's permissible to eat persimmons. Alhamdulillah. For this wonderful gift. I love persimmons. We all do. I've never found a person that doesn't like persimmons. Squirrels also like them. And birds. So if I just take one of these Bismillah and eat it, it's permissible. I'm not rewarded for that or I'm not punished for it. But if I take one of these and I say, ya Allah, I intend through eating this to strengthen myself so I can worship you more vigorously. Now it becomes rewarded. Because with my intention to use it as a means to worship Allah, it becomes an act of worship. So as scholars say, with good intentions, ordinary actions such as eating persimmons become acts of worship. And then they become something that's rewarded. And then something permissible if we overindulge it with it can lead us also to something highly disliked. So it's like people excessively watch television. Sooner or later you'll see something forbidden to look at. So based on the ruling of those who say it's permissible to watch television, some have more strict ruling, especially when it first came out. So it's move back. But one watches and they're watching fornication, they're watching people's aura, they're watching all of these things forbidden to look at. So that permissible thing leads them to that which is disliked or possibly forbidden. And so therefore it can become something discouraged. The makrooh or highly discouraged is something that if we do it, we're not punished but if we leave it we're rewarded. So it's the opposite of the mustahab. Mustahab if you do it, you reward it. If you leave it you're not punished. Here if you leave the discouraged, highly discouraged thing, one is punished or one is rewarded rather than if one engages in it, one is not punished. But we should be very, very careful with makroohat. Because if we know Allah Ta'ala, we say makrooh. Makrooh in the man, for example, with who? Say, Haidah makrooh. Who dislikes it? Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. So what are we doing to our hearts when we constantly engage in something we know Allah Ta'ala dislikes? We're hardening our hearts, we're hardening our hearts. That's why one reason is said, Alla sahirat al ma'al esra. There's no lesser sin if you persist in it. Because you persist, you persist and the heart becomes hard, then one falls right into the major sins. Because one's become immune to one's disobedience. One develops immunity. Like the drug addict, they keep using the drug, using the drug, and then it doesn't affect them anymore. And that's one of the tortures of addiction. The addict needs more and more and more just to get the same jolt. And then eventually there's nothing, there's no jolt. They just need the drug so they don't go through cold turkey, through the withdrawal, the pain. And so the same with sin. Sin, we sin, we sin. Even though it's a minor sin. But bigger and bigger sins start to work their way in just as the addict needs more and more of the drugs. More and more sins inundate our heart until our hearts die and the haram becomes easy to engage in. And this is how shaitan, shaitan, he doesn't try to get us. Mostly shaitan doesn't start here. Because he knows most Muslims aren't going to eat a pork sandwich smothered in bacon with bread made with large shortening. Like shaitan is not going to get you to eat that. Shaitan isn't going to get you to eat a pickle pig foot. He knows it. He's like, hey Muslim, here's a pickle pig foot. Yummy yummy. So he doesn't start here, he starts here. With the provisional things. Why? Because if he can get us to just spend our time watching television. No sin. He says, no sin. But we're not doing something that will earn us a reward. So Yomo Qiyamah, we come out a little bit short. I wish I was reading Quran while I was watching football all day on Saturday and Sunday. Some people watch the college games all day Saturday, the professional games all day Sunday. Shaitan is like, keep going, go 49ers. And then Monday night and now they have Thursday night, right? They have Thursday night. And they take the hours week after week for like what? 20 weeks? How many hours? So Shaitan is like, yeah, it's the haram. And then we come up with, so he tries the haram, but he said no. He tried to get us with the discourage, the heart in our hearts. So we'll fall into the haram. But he says, no, this is a tough one. Just get him with the mubak. So that the hours go by and we're not doing anything to earn edge or reward for our souls. And Yomo Qiyamah, we might come up three hours short. Five hours short. So we should be very aware. The bottom line though is that as we live our life and the awareness of the scheme, it cultivates a religious consciousness because we don't, I don't want to do haram. This is very important because our environment and our society pushes us to discard this sort of arrangement. So we don't think we just caught up in the spirit of the society, the spirit of consumerism, the spirit of possession, the spirit of selfishness and egoism. And so when they think about me, myself and I, what I can own, what I can buy, what I can possess, what I can affix to the labels on my clothing, and that comes to dominate our consciousness. And so we have materialistic consciousness. So this scheme also in creating religious consciousness, it connects us with that metaphysical world, that world behind this. So we're not reading the labels. Is this halal? Is this halal? Can I eat this? For any material outcome. We're reading the label because we're thinking of jannah. We're thinking one will stand before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. وَعَمَّا مَنْ خَافَذَ قَامَرَقْ بِهِ The one who fears the time, they will stand before their Lord. وَنَهَا الْلَفْ عَنِ الْهَوَاءَ فِنَّا الْجَنَّةِهِ الْمَأْوَاءَ So that living a life and this awareness of these things, it connects us to that realm beyond the physical. But when we discard this, then we become slaves to the material. And we forget the metaphysical because we're so chained to the physical. And it's significant. It's significant that when Allah ta'ala at the beginning of the Qur'an, describes the believers, اَلَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ وَيُؤْمِونَ الصَّلَةُ وَمِمَّا رَضَقْنَا فِنْ يُؤْفَقُونَ The first thing he says about those people, they believe in the unseen. اَلَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ And so this is one of the things that keeps our consciousness connected to the unseen. So this is why we say it's the foundation of religious consciousness. Then we have the five great universals. So these are. And so this is the foundation of our legal philosophy. In other words, the loss, the system of rulings. What is the philosophical underpinning of that system? So this is one of those philosophical underpinnings. These five things. Because they tell us what the logic of the law is and we'll illustrate that, insha'Allah. So the first and foremost is preserving religion. This is before every other consideration. Even before the preservation of our lives. Because if we're called on to die for the sake of our religion, then we readily make that sacrifice. A person like puts us in a situation. This is a situation where it's lawful to dissimulate. So kaqiyah becomes lawful. But there can be a situation where a person couldn't hide in anyone. So they say, you know, I'm ready to die. Fee sabilida. And no one's going to live forever. An example of being before life. So we put the second, preserving life. If someone puts a gun in our hand and they say, you shoot that person who's totally innocent or I'll shoot you. What do we give preference to? Preserving our life? That we shouldn't take a life unjustly. Even though they're interrelated. But we say, you have to kill me. And there will be a Shaheen. So not directly, the indirect consequence of our decision is the preservation of another's life. But the direct consequence is our observation of the commandment against killing innocent people. So my preserving the religious commandment is given a greater priority than my preserving my life. Even on this example, I've preserved a life. So it gets a little murky. But preserving religion is the number one. Because why would we give priority to religion over life? Why is Allah telling a given priority to religion over life? It's going to affect the community more directly. Because without religion, more people are affected. We don't have a life worth living. What will we put on this earth? We are put here, we live to worship Allah. And if we don't worship Allah SWT because we've been programmed to worship, we're going to worship something else. And the difference between the two when we worship Allah SWT properly on the basis of knowledge and on the basis of prophetic guidance, we're elevated. And this leads to our happiness. This is the Sa'ad. This is the Sa'adat al-Adadiya, eternal happiness. When we worship something other than Allah, we're debased. And it becomes harmful. If someone worships money, what's going to happen? They worship money. They'll do anything to get it. And doing anything to get it, they debase themselves. If someone worships money, the only way they can get it is to sell drugs to people and destroy people's lives and families. Sell alcohol to people, destroy people's lives and families. Or even sell their bodies to get money. What happens to that person? They're debasing themselves. They're debasing themselves. If a person worships clothing, they have to have the latest article, the latest fag. I saw on the Yahoo homepage, they had sneakers on the computer, the new Air Jordans. Do you want to see the new Air Jordans? You zip them up. And so it says it's an athletic footwear and a fashion statement. So someone who worships, and it's the Air Jordan number 28, I guess it's 28 years since Michael Jordan started, the Air Jordans. If someone worships that, what are they going to do? If they don't have any, they don't have money, they'll go steal something. They debase themselves. Then they get caught, they're thrown in jail, they're debased. Or they'll rob somebody. You know, give me your sneakers. It happens. Seriously. If we period the new paper, a person gets robbed for their sneakers. You know, you hear about it. Keep your ear to the ground. You hear people rob for their sneakers, their jackets, their throwback jersey. And it debases that person. When a person commits a crime, they're not just harming their victim, they themselves are victims. And they themselves are debased. And then it's debasing them because a human being is an intelligent, is distinguished by intellect. A person who is chasing a fad has no intellect. They only respond emotionally to things. And they debase themselves. They buy something, they throw it out, five years later it's back in style. If they had intellect, they would have kept the one they had. Just put it in the closet, wait for it to come around again. It's debasing. Alhamdulillah, preserving intellect. So, to demonstrate just how this works in terms of being a philosophy of religion, preserving life is the number one priority. So, shirk and kufr have been forbidden of preserving religion rather. So, kufr is a threat to religion. So it's forbidden. So there's a prohibition, there's a philosophy or logic to it. Shirk, polytheism is forbidden. So, why? Because it undermines religion. And it also undermines our ability to live a life of fulfilling life. Because if we have, when one of the consequences of shirk is divided loyalties and divided loyalties lead to internal conflicts. And so, by focusing one's devotion to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, one resolves the potential for internal tension and conflict. And we could examine that at different levels. Preserving life, therefore, murder is forbidden. Abortion is forbidden in Islam. So these things are forbidden to preserve life. Preserving the intellect, so to preserve the intellect, alcohol, drugs, all of those things that undermine the intellect are forbidden. You say, okay, then our educational system should be forbidden also. Because it's a threat to our intellect. You can make an argument. But it emphasizes how important it is for us as Muslims to actively be involved in cultivating our intellect and the intellect of our children and those under our responsibility. Because the religion has been instituted, amongst other things, to preserve intellect. And so, alcohol, drugs, all those things that erode and destroy the intellect, those things are forbidden. Acting in a state of anger, or working to remove anger, this is a function of the preservation of our intellect. Because if we perpetuate our anger, we perpetuate the loss of our intellect. So the Qadi can't rule in a state of anger. Why? Because in that state, he or she wouldn't be ruling on the basis of their intellect. So there's a principle that's translated into law. So that's the relationship between these universals and the system of Sharia. Preserving the family. So to preserve the family, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, all these things are forbidden because they're threats to the family as we know it. As we know it, someone might say, well, they really find the family to accommodate certain societal trends. But as Muslims, one of the things that we try to do is to get society to conform to a higher standard, as opposed to bringing religion down to our standard. Because religion is lofty, and we can be debased. Then we debase them to the lowest of the low. So if we bring the religion down to our standard, what's going to happen? In two generations, we're not going to have any religion. Because I'll do away with this ruling I don't like. You'll do away with that one you don't like and she'll do away with that one that she doesn't like. And then before you know it, the whole thing is gone. So what we're trying to do is elevate ourselves. That's the goal of real religion, is to elevate the human being. When we talk about the legal maxims, probably next week, those maxims aren't there to become the basis for or this system of doing away with fundamental rulings in the religion. There are basis for us to begin to understand the relationship between principles and rulings. But not the basis to avoid every hardship. Because dealing with hardship is an integral part of religion. When you say, You're saying, I'm prepared to deal with some hardship. And if one doesn't deal with hardship or one looks for every escape, a fatwa to justify getting away with this and a fatwa to justify with getting away with that, where is the struggle? Allah Ta'ala mentions in the Qur'an So struggle in the way of Allah as you'll rightfully be the case. In other words, give everything you have. Because we'll never fulfill the right. If Allah Ta'ala just meant then we could say it's subjective. In other words, we could define the struggle based on our circumstances. But Allah Ta'ala says Now it becomes objective. Like in other words, everybody give everything you have to your utmost. Why? Because Haqqa jihad as you should rightfully struggle based on the Haqq that Allah Ta'ala has over us. Who could ever fulfill that right? Allah has given us life, He's given us limb, He's given us health, He's given us wealth, He's given us shelter, He's given us well-being, He's given us clean water, He's given us eyesight, the miracle of the eye. You know, this camera, you have to change the memory chip. You don't have to like put something in your brain like twice a day. Chips full. Some people's chip is full. But we can take in, take in, take in, never need to change the memory chip. The film and the old cameras, right, you have to change the film. The digital camera, you have to change the chip. Your eye can film for 70 years and you never change the film. 80 years, 90 years, some people blessed, good eyesight, 100 years old, they can still see everything. They never change the film. How much we all love for that? It gives a smell. And the smell, most harmful things have bad odor, most. And we know it's not right. So if this were like rotten and spoiled like, oh man, I didn't need a nap, why'd they give me this? It's trying to kill me. But the smell tells us, and so we pull back, right? What if we didn't have the smell? Oh, looks nice. We have the smell, we have the taste. You taste a little taste, right? The milk went bad, you put it in your mouth, spit it out right away. Why? Because of the taste. How much do we all love for that? How much harm are we able to ward off from ourselves? And so it's a struggle. Then what does he say? Who etched a vacuum? He's chosen you. Because this is the process of what humanizes us. This one makes us human. And you see the humanity are in many of you from other countries. Periodically you go home, right? And you see that person who's had a hard life. But the hard life that they've been patient, they've never complained, they can still smile. And you see what? You see so much humanity in that person. You're awestruck, right? The little kid in the marketplace holding down the stall. It's like 10 years old. You know how much you need. Put the weight in, weight up for you, take the money, give you like Subhanallah. When I was 10, there were Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. This young man, this young lady is holding down a business. And so you see the humanity that came as a result of their struggle. So it's a struggle but it's an honor. So Allah says, Who etched a vacuum? He's chosen you. So we've been chosen for this. Why? Because we've been chosen for this great honor. We've been chosen. And when we accept that so I accept that I've been chosen. I accept that it's an honor to be able to engage in this struggle for a higher purpose. Then it becomes easy. And so what does Allah say? It's all in how we see it. If we say, Alhamdulillah it's a struggle but it's an honor. Then it's not a struggle anymore. But if we don't see it as an honor but as a burden I have to do this and why do I have to do that? This is a drag. I've got to get up in this struggle. I've got to get up in this struggle. And I've got to get up in the summertime four in the morning to pray. Why can't it just be winter all the time? Get up at seven, make Moodoo real fast and pray, go to work. I get up four in the morning and I can't go back to sleep. But the person, Alhamdulillah what an honor to be a believer. Mashallah you get up two in the morning to pray. Bismillah. He's made no difficulty for you and your religion and then preserving private property. So one of the foundations of the Sharia is the preservation of private property. So again, why is this part of the topic? Ethical foundation. So we mentioned so to preserve private property theft usury monopoly hoarding inside trading all these things are forbidden in Islam. They all existed in the time of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam he forbade them or they were forbidden by Allah Ta'ala directly in the Quran or through his prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So to preserve private property. But in Islam the preservation of private property is not an absolute value. It's not an absolute value. So and just as preserving the intellect isn't an absolute value. So in other words we'll never do anything that threaten our intellect. The only absolute value is the preservation of religion. So if I have to drink wine which is going to alter and affect my intellect to preserve my life then I can drink the wine. If I have to eat pork I'm starving. There's nothing even except pork. I can eat pork just enough to preserve my life. So the intellect is undermined by the wine but life is preserved. Then I can do that. So preserving the intellect is not an absolute value. Preserving the life is not an absolute value. Preserving the family in some instances is not an absolute value. Preserving private property is not an absolute value. Meaning that there are things that have a higher priority than the preservation of property. To preserve property doesn't come at the cost of stealing from others. Or rather at the cost of not sharing with others. And so Allah makes that clear. And their wealth is a well defined right for those who ask and those who are prevented by their shyness or other factors from asking. They have a right. They have a right. They have a right. And the Sadqa the Sadqa the Sadqa here means a cat is for the poor and the needy. So preserving my wealth is an absolute. Sometimes I have to give it away. So these are the five universes. And so they're the foundation of our legal philosophy. So the foundation of how we think about the principles and the wisdom that underlies the law. And all of these things are built on as we mentioned. In one way or another. So the religion there's a fundamental level and then there's preserving the religion from myself and then there's that's obligatory. Then there's the level of doubt. And in most circumstances that's something voluntary. But it could be obligatory in some situations. Preserving my life is obligatory but I also have to extend that to work to preserve the lives of others. And so Allah challenges us in the Qur'an that why don't you fight for those who are oppressed? Malakum la toqatiluna fi sabili la wal musta ba'afim min al-rijali when he said well we'll die. So why don't you fight for men, women and children who are oppressed and then possibly you lose your life in that path. But you've preserved someone else's life. So we build on that. So preserve my life first but willing to lose my life to preserve someone else's life. So these things they can all be built on in that sense. We'll stop here very quickly. Are there any questions or comments? Ditions, subtractions, deletions? Yes. In preserving life if you take the innocent man out of the picture would you still should be still? Give him a preference over life. Even if you are defending yourself? If you're defending yourself and you die in that path then you're a martyr. There's a hadith of Prophet Muhammad came to the Prophet he came to the Prophet he came to the Prophet and he said he came to the Prophet and he came to the Prophet and he came to the Prophet and he said if you see a person comes to me he wants to take my wealth my money. He said don't give him your wealth. What do you see if he fights me for then fight him back defend your wealth. What do you see if I kill him? What do you see if I kill him? In Qatalani what if he kills me and Tashahid your mother what if I kill him? He's in hell. He said defend your wealth. Why? Because there are nuances there are situations but in preserving religion and or principles again we preserve the basic framework that makes us human because once our principles go then we're just animals because principles as we mentioned earlier they emerge from our intellect or they emerge from our spiritual nature and so they emerge from those things that distinguish us from the brute animals once we let go of principles and we're no longer working on the basis of our intellect our spirit our soul then we're working on the basis of our flesh and we're just like the rest of the animals and so Allah Ta'ala says about people in that state they're like Qatalani they're even more straight so the principles that define our humanity those things are worth dying for because if we don't die as Martin Luther King Jr. famously said a person who has nothing worth dying for has nothing worth living for and so these are the things that humanize us and these are the things that we pass on to our progeny we pass on more than just physical existence to our children if we're if we're really concerned about their well-being we pass on principles and ideals and values and morals and that gives them a life-worth meaning but if we don't pass that on then their life isn't going to be worth living and their whole human civilization will collapse and this is the great Egyptian poet Ahmed Shauky Baqiat Zahabah and people are none other than the moral system that supports them when that goes they will soon fall and so when the crisis in this country people look at the principles that made America great they're being thrown out the window and as a result people say this country is going to fall in terms of being a leader in the true sense of the word now anything else? even though I didn't hear the other you made the other? you should have said something Philadelphia they turn on the tap and they can light what's coming out because all these chemicals are going into the groundwater and then the groundwater is becoming polluted and they can literally ignite it so we have to say no that there are things greater than profit greater than our ego greater than our carnal lust at the end of the day a lot of our non-traditional what they're called sexual mores are rooted in our carnal lust and we won't elaborate on that protecting wealth within an Islamic framework must be encouraged so here again as you mentioned in the case of the housing policies people's wealth being literally stolen from them in many instances the check cashing places and quick loan places 200 300% interest people going into debt for the rest of their life over $200 loan you have a $200 loan and it's 200% interest and then you miss two or three payments and the interest is compounded before you know it you're going to owe $2,000 and a person working at McDonald's whose car broke and unfortunately the baby got sick at the same time so and McDonald's doesn't give you any medical plan because you're working there 20 hours a week so the person has to choose between fixing the car or buying medicine that buy medicine they have to borrow $200 to fix the car to buy new tires and so they go to one of these places and now they're in debt for the rest of their life after they miss a few payments none yes just there the house is owned by a third party so they're buying the house from the third party as opposed to so interest is in kind so money for money wheat for wheat excuse me gold for gold silver for silver salt for salt so if you're paying money for house and not money for money per se even though the arrangements that pay that back are structured in a way that you're paying more than you actually took out well essentially what you're saying is you're buying a house for $200,000 but essentially you're saying you're paying more so you can get around paying the interest is it contract right in the no I think well you're trying to no no you're not fooling yourself no okay but at the end of the day right you're if you're saying I'm going to take my money enter into a transaction where I'm going to buy money for $100,000 and then I'm going to pay $200,000 then that's a user's transaction if you're saying at the at the end of the day though I'm paying $200,000 alright so I'm going to take my money and I'm going to buy this house for $200,000 even though it's market value right now is $100,000 so you're saying that at the end of the day no matter how you slice it I'm going to pay $200,000 so if I get paid $200,000 and avoid interest then I'll do it but what you're saying you're not fooling yourself you're saying that I will pay more than what I would than the market value to avoid falling into sin so that's not fooling yourself that's saying I'm willing to sacrifice to avoid something that's sinful well that's no no no that's totally different no if the car is 0% financed that's what you're talking about no actually the dealers makes all kinds of findings well no from $20,000 divided by 5 years no interest but the other guy can bargain this thing with $80,000 but he's already taking $20,000 what you're trying to do what you're trying to do is to bargain business transactions are based on the buyer being pleased if someone's pleased we're buying a car and they say this car that you're going to buy $96,000 get out and push so if they say this alright you don't want to pay interest Mr. Moslem so I'll tell you what the interest will make this car $30,000 I'll just let you make payments when you finish making those payments it's $30,000 and you say okay good I'll do it that's a lawful business transaction and you say why would you do it because I don't want to take a loan that I'm going to pay interest on so I'll just pay you straight up even though the payments will make it that's a business transaction based on pleasure because I'll willingly accept that hardship to avoid what I consider to be sinful that's the essence of religion why don't you report it might taste good but someone will say I'll bypass it to avoid sin why do you buy halal meat it costs more money than normal meat that's the excuse some people use not to eat it right they say why should I pay more money for halal meat because I don't want to eat carrion that's why so hardship is the essence is a part of what it means to be a religious person like sabr there's three types of sabr sabr, alata'a and dealing with the hardship that comes in and worshiping Allah so some people in the summertime they don't want to get out for fadr but they say no if that's what it takes to worship Allah just get out for in the morning to pray and next year to fast next Ramadan so some people just sleep they say no it's too much Allah understands seriously so they get up at their normal time 6 o'clock the sun came up at 5.30 and they say you know Allah understands so it's in this system that we're in it is a lot of manipulation that's going on or hiyat but this is trying to arrive at a solution that's acceptable and so that whatever accepts that hardship accepts getting ripped off so he or she can meet their lord and say you know I try to avoid the hara to the best of my ability yes right right and these guys are doing the same thing there's sinful activity it's sinful that they've entered and they gotta pay you back right they're profiting they're profiting right right it's forbidden they're both wrong it doesn't matter if it's 1% regardless it's bad that's what I'm saying so that's the second one we said there's patience and patience so you patiently endure the hardship of getting up 4 in the morning in the summertime and not eating until 9 o'clock at night so you endure that hardship because that's what it takes to obey Allah and patience and patience and patience dealing with the hardship that comes in avoiding forbidden things the guy says you know what I'm making money hand over fist but it's haram so I'm not gonna do it and so as a result I can't get the house I want I can't get the car I need but I'll just deal with it but he didn't finish okay and exactly you can't justify haram because you entered into a forbidden transaction to get the money in the first place you borrowed at 12% that's forbidden so everything after that collapses because it's built on a false foundation and then and then what he's doing if he's making 30-40% he's short changing someone somehow and they're both they're both in danger Allahu Akbar Allah knows best they're both in danger because they're both doing something forbidden I can't enter into a forbidden transaction then do something that's forbidden but because it's helping my family I can justify it or do something forbidden and then do something lawful because the foundation is forbidden so everything else collapses after that oh Allah yes right so then it's a different scenario then guys who are making a transaction so they right now he's lending money and he's asking for 12% interest so if he gives that and you said it's the same thing and just to show you a lot just manipulate it differently but I'm going to give you 100,000 but give it back in 5 months but that's totally different no because that's that's money for money this is money for house interest is only in like commodities there's no possibility for interest here if you're using that to pay off this house if you're using this to pay off this money even at 1% increase that's where the interest comes in because it's like commodities so this is what I'm saying to avoid this situation you're entering into this situation exactly yeah exactly so instead of the 12,000 my pocket gave it to me I don't know I don't know I just see that one I can see it what what you need to pay attention to get with when you have like for like you know what the so there is lots to extrapolate from there and they're not finding out numbers so if you start that with X start that with X and they're lending to you all right all right all right listen we have to no need to apologize no no it's a good issue we have a separate discussion on this but in the interest of time we have five great legal maxims and we have five minutes then we have three weeks of not being here so these legal maxims are the foundation of legal thinking so each set of fives was foundational for a particular area so these are the affairs are judged by the ultimate objectives which is similar to the Hadith in the Mal'Amalu binyat harm is to be removed so this is why we say after we know the harm detriment of cigarette smoking that is haram because we know it causes cancer which the first early scholars didn't know not early those who gave fatawa saying it's Makru they didn't know it causes lung cancer heart disease throat cancer et cetera hardship justifies these mashaqa tejlib at tesir so hardship and this goes back to the eating pork or drinking alcohol to ward off hunger or thirst so the hardship of starvation dying of thirst justifies easing rulings just to deal with the hardship not as an ongoing permanent principle which is very important certainty is not removed by doubt so so if you know you made wudu and you're not sure if you lost it you still have wudu why? because you're certain about making it and you don't know if you broke it so you still have it also at a higher level the principle that we know here a person is innocent until proven guilty we're sure that of their innocence we don't know if they did the crime or not so until we have certainty about their committing the crime doubt cannot remove certainty certainty is not removed by doubt and custom has legal consideration so custom and convention that doesn't violate any sharia conventions is legally considered so for example if someone says can I wear a coat like this which is a western coat because people here wear these coats so no one can say no that's a kaffir coat why? because it's customary dress it doesn't violate any sharia convention not so tight or it's not transparent it's not made out of pig leather so the custom is valid so muslim can follow that custom because it's not violating or contradicting with any principle of ruling in sharia and then there's more to say about that but just in the interest of finishing then we have the five great messengers and these are ibraheem musa eesa muhammad sallallahu alayhim so these five great messengers they're at the top the pinnacle of the messengers that Allah has sent to the world and we emphasize the messengers because they're the foundation of our guidance they're the ones who brought us this thinking about the rulings that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent to guide humanity and so their heritage is what we're trying to preserve the scholars are the heirs of the prophets you're the best of communities raised up for the service of humanity but raised up under who under muhammad sallallahu alayhim so that's the conclusion of that then we had the five great challenges to sharia but other than rushing through we just do it when we come back inshallah so those challenges being we just list them the secular discourse pluralism western ideas of gender equality the nation state and global finance then we can go into that subject inshallah so it's time for a chat so as opposed to rushing just to finish to say we finished inshallah we'll save this for that time in fact we'll go back to the messengers and even we'll go back to here because there's more to be said here but there's no more time to say it so as opposed to just rushing through we'll come back to here in three weeks inshallah yes so this is where we left off last week we discussed these five great universals and we mentioned that they're the foundation of our legal philosophy in other words how do we think or understand the wisdom that supports the system of rulings that the sharia evolves so those rulings don't exist in isolation so we mentioned before that some people try to extract the rulings look at them in isolation divorce them from a larger system and by so doing distort the very nature of the sharia so what we want to do is to provide the context that allows us to look at rulings in a philosophical a larger intellectual a larger ethical context and the ethical context being the primary focus of this presentation so last week we mentioned that these five great universals are the preservation of life the preservation of religion the preservation of life the preservation of intellect the preservation of private property and that these are arranged they're prioritized so religion is first then life then intellect then family and then private property or ideas and this system provides us with a foundation to begin to involve ourselves in a more sophisticated form of legal thinking so by way of example we mentioned if your life is in danger then you can drink alcohol if you're going to die of thirst and there's nothing else to drink there's no water, there's no juice there's nothing lawful to drink one can drink alcohol why because alcohol is a threat to the intellect and life has a higher priority so if alcohol is the only thing we have to preserve our life then we drink it to the extent necessary to preserve our life and until we find something lawful to drink so why because preserving life has a higher order than preserving intellect we mentioned preserving religion has a higher order than preserving life and that's why we have the concept of shahada of martyrdom which is another word that's been dirtied up by contemporary developments, you say martyrdom and people think of some guy going into a middle of a market and blowing himself up they say they say he's a martyr he's not a martyr he's a murderer he's also a person who committed suicide which is a major sin so true martyrdom is being killed for the defense of faith and so faith has a higher priority for life so if we have to give our life up for the faith we gladly do it because the faith has a higher priority and of course there are nuances in terms of as a person allowed to dissimulate to preserve their life that is a permissible thing but as a general rule as you mentioned in the example last week that we gave in terms of the person being robbed who gives up his or her life they're defending a higher principle that is demonstrating there are some things worth dying for and mentioned in that context the saying of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. person who has nothing worth dying for has nothing worth living for so these are things that humanize us to just give another example that will be slightly more controversial on the surface is I would argue that in light of the drug wars in Mexico most of which are focused around who controls the marijuana trade that it will be preferable to legalize marijuana here and some Muslims say what when you say legalize it doesn't make it allow it just means that people who are possessing marijuana or in the privacy of their homes using it or they can buy it in the store like alcohol so if we say oh you can't do that then why can people sell alcohol and we're not objecting the fact that you can in this non-Muslim country they sell alcohol doesn't make it halal and doesn't make it permissible for Muslims to use but even in a Muslim majority country that's governed by Sharia Christians who aren't who allows them to drink wine they can make wine in their homes they can drink it they can't sell it publicly they can't display it but in the privacy of their homes they can consume it there's no justification for someone kicking their door down and taking them all to jail and that's a well known fact they can raise pigs we can't eat pork Muslims they can eat pork they can raise pigs in their backyard and they can have their ham for turkey they can't associate it with Christmas you have to ask a Christian but in a Muslim country they can do that so the fact that it's lawful for them doesn't make it lawful for us but in the case of in the marijuana 60,000 people have been murdered in Mexico in the last 6 years behind these drug wars and the most brutal ways most of them are innocent people preserving life in this case which is threatened by these wars by making this legal when it's a threat to the intellect and would eliminate the foundation of that violence would be preferable to saying this is outlawed and then you have these thousands of people being murdered as a result and a lot of other illicit activities going on so this would provide a framework we could argue preserving the intellect and the marijuana is a threat to the intellect is a lesser priority than preserving life and the illegalization of marijuana is leading to massive loss of life now saying that that doesn't make it outlaw that just in the overall legal structure of the society would make it available for those people who feel they're allowed to consume it which aren't isn't Muslims and then there are other studies that argue that legalizing drugs such as heroin and Switzerland doesn't increase the consumption of it so someone might count argue you're going to make more drug addicts research hasn't shown that to be true but that's just an example of how this provides us a framework to begin thinking in ethical terms in ethics again what's right or wrong so is it right to have all these people dying because legally this particular product is rendered illegal so what's more right what's more wrong and so we began to get into an area of jurisprudence the folk are called the jurisprudence of weighing and measuring an example of that and then we'll come to your question is we mentioned this before Ibn Taymiyyah was walking with a group of his students in Damascus where he taught and died in his buries in fact and some of the Tartar soldiers who had invaded that region during the Mongol invasions they were drunk in the street and they were laughing and talking loud and behaving in a righteous fashion so the students with Ibn Taymiyyah said we should stop them from drinking and he'll come the alcohol is the mother of all of the major sins in other words the thing that gives birth to the major sins and they're defiling our sacred city and Ibn Taymiyyah said leave them let them get drunk when they're drunk they act like fools when they're sober they rape and pillage which is worse so is weighing out harms and benefits and the aspect of our divine law and this is one of the schemes that the Fouqaha use to make those assessments Yes, Fintan, what were you going to say? When you were talking before I was just going to say that obviously that would just normalize it and make the prices the price would theoretically go drop down so there wouldn't be so much to be fighting for those drugs that you don't have to go to the back alley and just go to the local drug store I should drop where there wouldn't be so much to fight for the market could be regulated well there wouldn't be money to fight for anyway unless you're the mafia running the government because the government would control and regulate the trade so you take, it's like prohibition you have prohibition you're using alcohol pong and you had all these gangs that were fighting to control the illegal trade once they legalized alcohol again, ended prohibition then the government became the regulatory agency and all those gangs were put out of business why would someone meet someone in the woods to get at a still that's being run by the mafia a jug of illegal alcohol when you can go to your local supermarket so that takes the criminal element out of it all together that's the point that's debatable yeah right, or some people say honor that was related how so, you explained that one we are trying to protect artificially you could argue that you could argue that in terms of those being they would be unlawful contracts because someone is lying either the buyer is lying about his or her income the bank is lying about the terms of the mortgage or disguising the real terms of engaging in fallacious advertisement to weasel homeowners such as elderly people out of their home by convincing them to refinance and then a variable rate mortgage that they looks handsome initially but then it goes up two thirds in 18 months and they can't pay it anymore so they have to close, they paid the house off they owned it outright they refinanced it to get money out of the bank they were sitting on and then in two years they don't have a house anymore so you could say to preserve their property definitely those sort of regulations would be called for in an order that's controlled by sharia which would be attractive to a lot of people as per vase usually it's a sixth or it's in the place of the mad the wealth so some scholars presented as a number six or some leave it at five and they substitute the honor for the wealth yes couldn't honor be coupled with religion Anya in what sense religion is honor is honor but maintaining religion is maintaining honor for you but does that prevent someone from saying you're such an idiot or spreading rumors about you slandering you on non-religious grounds so your religion is coupled with your honor in the sense that if you are adhering to the teachings of religion you will close the door for people to rightfully attack your honor and so and and and and and and so the law was clear the unlawful is clear and between them are doubtful matters most people don't know their rulings the doubtful matter escapes with their religion and their honor intact so we mentioned many times the example if we're not sure if this is alcohol or fruit juice so we smell it and oh it smells like fruit juice that gets a little old start in the ferment if we leave it no one can say violated religion by drinking alcohol no one can say what kind of person, Muslim are you you drink alcohol the average Muslim doesn't do that you're supposed to be some student of knowledge so now they can attack but if you drink it then someone says and you just drink Livermore's finest wine I thought it was fruit juice you thought didn't you smell it I saw you smelling it it smells like alcohol what kind of person are you now your honor and your religion are exposed to being lessened so in that sense they're linked but in the sense of preserving them there are bases and foundations for people assaulting, assailing people's honor for non-religious purposes so in that sense they're not linked so what this scheme allows us to do is to reassess certain issues that prevail here in the west so for example reassessing human rights so as a Muslim it's our religion that is at the core of our humanity so if we've been created to worship and preserving the religion is the number one priority in our lives then an aspect of human rights that should be protected are the rights to worship Allah SWT Allah SWT and this has to be the number one priority and there can be no meaningful human rights scheme without the preservation of religion and you see this playing out in a sense in Egypt right now where the secularists are saying the constitution can't be based on religion and the Muslims are saying it has to be based and but the Muslims have to have the wisdom to present to the people that because it's based on religion it doesn't violate fundamental rights for minorities especially so Sharia will protect the rights of Coptic Christians freely worship to worship in the way they choose as it has for 1400 years since Islam first went into Egypt that's why there's so many Christians left there in the first place the Muslims could have wiped out the Christians forcibly converted everyone generations ago and the people there now would never even realize that there was a Christian presence but that's not permitted in Sharia but worship is the number one priority therefore human rights have to be an integral part or rather the right to religion and acknowledging our creator has to be at the top of any human rights regime usually now it's at the bottom or not mentioned at all the second is environmental wholesomeness must be encouraged as a fundamental human right why is that sisters brothers are asking all the questions why should environmental wholesomeness be encouraged preserving the environment as a fundamental human right based on what we just said you're not a sister your beard's too big yes how so right if we can't breathe the air if we can't drink the water if all of our there's no more organic food left seeds left and we don't know the long-term health consequences of genetically modified seeds you're just a sore loser because Prop 37 went down after 47 million dollars pumped in by a Monsanto and Dow chemical we'll get them next time but there's no basis for life there's no way we can live and so if the sharia argues that one of its fundamental underlying principles is the preservation of life then we have to consciously work to preserve the environment which supports life whereas now capitalist system the bottom line is supported and so all of these companies who are spending the money to work against any meaningful environmental protection they're doing so because they see it as a threat to their profits which is very short-sighted so this if we have to put a filter on our smokestack is going to cost us X millions of dollars that's coming out of our profit so we'd rather spend a few million lobbying against such regulations and protections than many millions to put these filters on our smokestacks and so the environment doesn't figure into the calculation at all but as Muslims we have to say it has to figure into the calculation because if we destroy our natural home then our life is threatened and Sharia is established to preserve life so developing true intelligence must be encouraged so what are the implications of that developing true intelligence and protecting and preserving intelligence this comes from the third one preserving the intellect what are the implications of that so we have to encourage education education as a human right not as a privilege for the wealthy and not as as something that is geared towards feeding the proper skills into the industrial and corporate sector but as a fundamental human right available to all equally because everyone is equally human so our current policies moving towards privatized schools moving towards charter schools which is inherently unequal because wealthier neighborhoods will have more advanced charter schools because they have a higher income bracket they have a higher spending per capita on children some of the disparities if you look at the disparity between what's spent on the education of a child in Oakland and what's spent here in Pleasanton you see a huge discrepancy and you're talking about what 20 mile difference and many of the people in Pleasanton are making their money in Oakland if you follow the rush hour like I just did some of you I'm sure did so we have to say no this is a fundamental human right that every child has yes we're just generalizing here in terms of intelligence the akal is intelligence generally is associated with the reasoning process of faculty and a human being whereas akal is reason coupled with the ability to know one's creator and so it's associated more with the heart than with the brain or the mind per se but I'm generalizing and conflating the two of preserving marriage between a man and a woman as a fundamental human right so this world is saying human rights demands same sex marriage otherwise you're denying the homosexual the right that the heterosexual has whereas as people who believe in revelation and who believe in common sense we're saying no marriage is a union between a man and a woman consecrated by God and one of its purposes is physical procreation so if you encourage a system where marriage is divorced from procreation and it's also divorced from scripture and what has been given to us by the prophets then you're setting up a situation of zero population growth and it doesn't take a large percentage and so some parts now here in America if you take away the immigrant populations you have zero population growth in Europe even with you have negative population growth in Europe with the immigrants you have negative population growth and part of that is the erosion of traditional marriage we should be very very careful not to buy into this current scheme which is based on a concept of human rights that number one doesn't aim at preserving the family and number two eliminates God as a source of human rights so by preserving God we preserve scripture by preserving scripture we believe God given principles governing and one it's between a man and a woman call us and secondly that this is something that's been revealed to us and handed down to us by a series of prophets and so this is why we say reassessing human rights so looking at this scheme so preserving the family that has implications in terms of how we interpret something like human rights so these are fundamental foundational issues that as Muslims we should be very very cognizant of because we're trying to preserve something in the world and if we lose it we enter into the realm of social experimentation and we don't know where it's going to lead so they're doing all these things same sex marriage GMO food dump anything into the environment right now hydraulic fracking fracturing fracking so you pump all these chemicals into the aquifer into the ground to force out the natural gas some people there's a documentary Gasland which two years ago would have won best documentary the gas industry lobbied Hollywood and threatened them to cut off all funding if that documentary won the best documentary but it looked at hydraulic fracking people in some states in Wyoming and in the west but now they're doing this back east mh What are you doing? Take the car so she can't So we stop we started now let's go In the name of Allah In the name of Allah In the name of Allah In the name of Allah In the name of Allah This is where we left off. It actually had gone past this, but we rushed it. So we said we'll come back and do a proper consideration. So we're looking at those aspects of Sharia that provide depth, contextualization, and flexibility. And this is what has really, these features of Sharia has allowed Islam to be so attractive to so many people and so many times and places and circumstances. So if it weren't for a certain amount of legal flexibility, then that would not have happened. So we mentioned the high fives. We mentioned five pillars, five ethical valuations, the wajib, the ustahab, nubah, lakru, haram, we mentioned the five pillars, so the shahada, salat, zakah, the siyam, hajj, we mentioned the five maqasih, the overarching objectives of the divine law, specifically the preservation of life, of deen, if the deen and life are hayat, and intellect, aqal, family, nassal, and private property. Wealth, or some mention the fifth, is irm, or honor. And so now we reached a point of five great legal maxims as the foundation of our legal thinking. So we mentioned one was the foundation of legal philosophy, et cetera. So here is the foundation of legal thinking. In other words, how do the foqaha, what is the framework that they understand the rulings of the shiri'ah within the context of? So these are five major considerates, there are many, many others, but these are the major ones. So the first is very closely parallel to the hadith of the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, inna man a'laal bin niyaq, actions are based on the attentions behind them. And so this is, affairs are judged by the ultimate objectives, al-umur bima qasidihah. Umur affairs bima qasidihah are judged based on their ultimate objectives. So to give an example of that, if we just looked at the ruling from murder, al-qaqli, a child punches an adult, the child weighs 70 pounds, the adult weighs 250 pounds, but the child caught the adult just right, just at the right angles, bam, why are you laughing? If you're thinking of that, I know some adults, I wanna, so the child, just right and the adult died, or how should he die? We wouldn't say that this child is a murderer because the intention of the child was not to kill that person. And that sort of blow in normal circumstances wouldn't result in a fatality. So another example is a similar example, a person renounces Islam, but they were clearly threatened, their life was threatened. And so we knew they renounced Islam to preserve their life, which is a legal thing to do. Not saying everyone would, some people just say, you know, an odd-dial believer. So even if, in any case, that person, so their objective was not to leave the faith, the faith was always in their heart, their objective was to save their life. And so the affair would not, that person would not be judged as an apostate because why? Their ultimate objective was not to leave the faith. Their objective was to save their life. So those are just some examples of this particular principle. So Afaqih, who's adjudicating these cases, would not in the first case pronounce a ruling of murder. In the second case would not pronounce that person as having to restate their shahada, et cetera. So we affirm their Islam because that person would not be judged as having left Islam, even though it's best to reaffirm the shahada, but not a legal necessity. Why? Affairs are made just by their ultimate objectives. A person who, let's do the opposite of the case of murder, a person, so we said, a person killed someone, but their intention wasn't to kill them. The opposite case, a person was in a situation where they claimed they weren't trying to kill someone, but they used an instrument over and beyond what's necessary to ward off harm from themselves. So to go back to the first scenario, the little child who weighs 70 pounds goes up and clobbers if a 70-pound child can clobber anyone, like clobbering is. So, and the person didn't die, it was what usually happens when a 70-pound child strikes a 250-pound adult. Nothing happened. And so the adult turns around and grabs a baseball bat and knocks the kid over the head, and then the child passes away, and then they say to the judge, I was defending myself. That wouldn't be accepted as self-defense because, number one, the force necessary to ward off a 70-pound child by a 250-pound man doesn't require a baseball bat or any other weapon. The bare hands are sufficient. Now you brat, get over here, go home, get out of here, go home to your mother. You hit me again, I'm gonna spank you. That usually would do the trick. I'm sorry, sir, I don't know what happened. I didn't mean to hit you, please don't hit me back. I'm sorry, I won't do it again. So even though that person claims self-defense, their objective had to have been to afflict significant, if not fatal harm to that child. Why? Because normally it doesn't take a baseball bat in the hand of a 250-pound man to ward off a 70-pound child. So the judge in this case would look at the extenuating circumstances and then make a ruling based on those circumstances and not based on the superficial situation of this child was aggressing and therefore this person was defending themselves. No, the force has to be commensurate to the threat. This is the principle in our Sharia. The force has to be commensurate to the threat. Taira, harm is to be removed. Dara'u, yuzad. Dara'u, yuzad. And this is close to the hadith. La Dara'u wa la dirah. There's no harm, no reciprocating harm in the religion. And from that hadith, that's a dali'il for this principle. Dara'u, yuzad, harm, harm is to be removed. So on this basis, all of the fatawa that argued for the permissibility of smoking were nullified. Why? Because those fatawa, which were issued before the harm of cigarette smoking were known, become invalid once it's known that this is harmful. So originally they thought cigarette smoke offends your neighbors. So that's maku. It dirties your teeth. And that's maku. Oral hygiene was from the sunnah of the Prophet to use the siwak. So Allah said, arman man sunnah al-mursaleen. And a siwak, a ta'atur wa al-hayyat wa al-nikah. So in other words, good oral hygiene. So it dirties your mouth. So it's maku. It offends the angels who are recording so you're blowing smoke in the faces of the angels that accompany you. So looking at those sort of consequences of cigarette smoking, the early scholars, such as Sheikh Abdul Ghani and Ablusi, who wrote a fatawa, arguing that it's maku. But in the 20th century, once it became proven by medical, by science, cigarette smoking causes cancer, causes lung disease, emphysema, it causes cancer of the mouth, of the throat, of the lungs. Secondhand smoke is more deadly to those in your vicinity than the direct smoke you're inhaling. So on that basis, any scholar worth his turban said that cigarette smoking's haram. Based on this principle, daru yuzad. Harm is to be removed. So our religion cannot countenance, cannot facilitate a situation that results in harm to human beings. So this is a foundation of our legal thinking. So this is an example. Something that might, when the harm is not known, be declared to be lawful, even or disliked, but still permissible, can be declared forbidden. So harm is to be removed. And on this basis, we can argue for a series of things that Muslims should be advocating for the removal of harm, such as there has to be more research, while in the sense there has to be more research, I don't know what you're talking about. The next principle, hardship justifies easing rulings, al-mashakatu tajlib at-taisir. Difficulty, hardship justifies easing of rulings. Now, tajlib at-taisir wa-les-il-il-zaa. So it eases rulings, but it doesn't eliminate rulings. An example of that, a well-known example. If one is starving, one can eat pork to maintain one's life. So the hardship of starvation eases the ruling of eating pork, the hardship of dying of thirst eases the prohibition of drinking alcohol. So the only thing you have is a bottle of wine. If you don't drink it, you'll starve to death. Why do you come and sit in that door, Chancellor? But it eases, it doesn't make alcohol lawful, it doesn't make pork lawful. So one consumes just enough in that situation to preserve their life. One conserves just enough, consumes just enough to preserve their life. They don't, oh, yeah, we're starving, oh, oh. Oh, man, I'm starving today. And once the hardship is gone, then the ruling reverts back to its original strictness. So again, this is the hardship of taking a goosal, which is the original ruling for showering on its intensely cold. And so the famous incident where a group of the Sahaba, they were on a journey, what happened? And the man woke up in the morning in a state he need to take goosal. He asked for a dispensation, what happened? And they got back to Medina. And if they didn't know they should have asked, they've killed him, they've killed him. So Allah said them. So the faqi knows that yes, he's supposed to take goosal, but the extreme cold we're experiencing and the extreme, the inability to heat the water might result in harm to this person. So that person has a dispensation to make tariyamun. So the hardship justifies the easing of ruling. So it doesn't eliminate the ruling, but it justifies easing the ruling. The next one, certainty is not removed by doubt. So, al-yaqeen la yazoolu bish'at. So we talked about this on a personal level. This principle is the foundation of the idea. By way of example, if you're sure you made wudu and you're not sure you lost your wudu, so you still have wudu. Why are you sure you made it? I got up this morning, like I always do, I staggered to the washroom, almost tripped over something. I could barely open my eyes and I made wudu. Did I lose it? Then I ate breakfast and take the garbage out. Did I lose it? I would do it. You're not sure you still have it? Why are you sure you made it? You're not sure you lost it? Certainty al-yaqeen al-wudu la yazoolu is not eliminated, bish'at by doubt. Did I lose it? So you still have it. That's at a personal level, at a societal level, the principle well-known here in the West that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Because we know this person, as far as we know, that they didn't do anything. We're certain about that. Now there's suspicion that they may have committed crime ABCD, but we're not sure. So until we're sure, the doubt about their committing the crime doesn't remove the certainty about their state of innocence. So the principle here in the West is a person is innocent until proven guilty. And so this is a exact example of al-yaqeen la yazoolu bish'at. So we did the person steal the item. I don't know. We have to review the tape, the security tape from the store. We have to ask, question the witnesses. We have to see if there are any witnesses. We have to do fingerprints on the items we restore, we cover it from the person's house. So until we established with evidence that this person is guilty, that person is innocent. Why? We're certain about their innocence. We doubt as to whether they commit the crime al-yaqeen la yazoolu bish'at. And the next one, the fifth, custom has legal consideration. Al-adatu muhaqqama, al-adatu yurithu al-ahqam. Al-adatu muhaqqama. So custom has legal consideration. In other words, any custom that doesn't contradict the direct ruling of the Quran or the sunnah doesn't contradict something, the ijmaa of the ummaa, then that custom or any established principle of the religion, that custom is legally acceptable. So the earth or al-adatu muhaqqama. So just wearing Western clothes. If the clothes are not made from pork or pig skin or the clothing wasn't stolen, et cetera, then that clothing is lawful and it's loose. It conforms to the general guidelines of al-adatu muhaqqama. Getting started anyway. Some of you were here on time. So that custom is legally acceptable, al-adatu muhaqqama. And this is our food. The food doesn't have wine. It doesn't have alcohol, rather. It doesn't have large or pork derivatives directly entered into it, then that's lawful to eat. So spaghetti isn't a Muslim food. You have to eat biryani. You can eat spaghetti as long as the meatballs are halal. You can eat spaghetti and meatballs. It's just, it becomes Muslim food, Muslim Italian food. You can eat any roast beef, as long as the beef is halal. You can eat macaroni and cheese. You can eat cornbread, just don't cook it in long. So custom has legal consideration. This is one of the reasons that Islam has been so attractive to so many people. So if I ask my wife, for example, did this Sunday in San Francisco, but just to reiterate, if you look at Islam, consider the fact, are there any significant Christian populations in Asia? Is there a single Christian town in Asia? Anywhere in Asia? Anyone know of it? A town? Philippines? Any Philippines? That's the South Pacific, inshallah. There are none. Now, there's a lot of proselytizing and Indonesian, but generally there are no significant Christian populations in Asia. Are there any significant Christian populations in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh? No significant, maybe, what, 1%, 0.5% Christian? There are no significant Christian populations. Are there any significant Christian populations? In Africa, well, Africa is a little bit of Ethiopia, but let's do this one. Are there any significant Buddhist or Hindu populations in Africa? You have some imported by the British in the South Africa, Uganda, Idi Amin took care of Uganda, kicked everyone out, turns India, but there's no real significant Buddhist and Hindu populations in Africa. In Europe, are there any significant Hindu Buddhist population in Europe? Now, there might be a very small percentage of Hindu migrants from India, but it's very insignificant. The Americas, are there any significant Buddhist Hindu populations? Not really, recent immigration, but historic. But if you look at Islam, the significant Muslim populations in Europe, Albania, Bosnia, the Iberian Peninsula before the Inquisition, present day Spain and Portugal. Russia still has major Muslim populations, but at one time, Russia had probably a Muslim majority who were largely exterminated by Catherine the Great, Ivan the Terrible, et cetera. There's Africa is the first Muslim majority continent, over 50%. North Africa, almost all Muslim, Ligia, Bolivia, Jazair, Tunis, Maruib, Mauritania, Senegal, Bali, most of Chad, Sudan, particularly North Central Sudan, Darfur, Darfur is all Muslim, a lot of blessing, helping them and everyone else. There's significant Muslim populations in what is called the Indian subcontinent, as we all know. India has, even though it's not a Muslim majority, has one of the largest Muslim populations on Earth. Pakistan, Bangladesh, almost 100% Muslim. Malaysia, Patani area of Thailand, Southern Philippines, Mindanao, Indonesia, most populous Muslim country. So look at the wide variety of cultures. And now Islam is spreading here, if you consider. We have 10,000 people going from Hajj, to Hajj from North America every year now. It's a significant delegation. It's a growing population. Europe, you have, we say are there any Christian cities in India, Pakistan? No, there are no Christian cities. There's some Christian converts, some Christian adherents. You have Muslim cities in the United Kingdom. You have Muslim suburbs in Paris. Hundreds of thousands. Bradford is a Muslim city in the United Kingdom. Nelson is a Muslim city in the United Kingdom. Birmingham is almost a Muslim city. Half of Birmingham, right? And this just shows why even a lot of that's from immigration. But Bosnia is not immigration. Albania is not immigration. It is a Muslim country in Europe. European Muslim, blonde hair, blue eye. It shows the tremendous cultural, culturally assimilative nature of Islam. That custom is incorporated into the local manifestations of Islam. So most of the people here have Western dress. Sisters have various combination of influences. Unique influences. No one would say that anyone's any less Muslim because this unique kind of American flavored Muslim dress. So this is a reality and it's a reality that we should cherish. We shouldn't allow people to impose this sort of cookie cutter Islam on us. Oh brother, you're not dressed. You need to dress sunnah. What's sunnah, brother? Shahwan khallis. Oh, like the Hindus wear? They wear it also, right? Neh Shahwan. Neh Shahwan. Then Neh Ru, wear Shahwan. Muslim dress. You need a Jalla Biyah. Jalla Biyah is Persian. The Prophets of Islam wear the Izara and the redact. Like the people going to Hajj with it. But when they brought him trousers from Yemen, he wore them, they brought him this or that, article for clothing, he wore it. Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. So this is something we should be very cognizant of. Then finally, the five great messengers, Ulul Azam, Nuh, alaihi salam, Ibrahim, alaihi salam, Musa alaihi salam, Isa alaihi salam, Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. So these are the five great messengers they're referred to as Ulul Azam. And the reason we mention them, number one, first of all, to remind ourselves, and you all know this, to hence remind, that we are the heirs of their legacy. And so the sharia that we have is the heir of what they introduced into the world. In other words, even though the specifics of their sharia different, the underlying ethical foundation was the same. The underlying desired result is the same, namely submission to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And we are heirs to that tradition, that prophetic tradition, and we should never underestimate the significance of that. The prophetic heritage is being assaulted in the world. It's being ridiculed, it's being belittled, it's being scoffed at. And not just Muslims, Muslims are seen by many in the West as the latest and most committed heirs of the prophetic legacy in a certain sense. But even amongst Christianity, religious Jews, it's being undermined, it's being scoffed at, it's being dismissed. And so we have a responsibility to keep that heritage alive. And the key goes back to the methodology or one of the primary reasons these prophets succeeded. So in the Qur'an, Allah ta'ala reminds us, Allah ta'ala says that you're going to be tested in your wealth and your lives. And that you're going to hear from those given the scripture before you, from the idolaters, not all of them, some of them, who's the Christians, the Hindus, idolaters, the PJB, these other anti-Muslim forces, Evan, Kethira, much abuse. So what's happening should strengthen our faith. When people are bombarded with all this anti-Islam, they're ready to leave, run the faith. I can't take it, they're always talking about us. Their faith gets weakened. Our faith should get strengthened. We should say, this is what the Qur'an promised. It's true, Allahu Akbar. I'm living, I'm experiencing the fulfillment of prophecy. I'm living and experiencing the fulfillment of prophecy. What should that do to the Imam? And that he said to them, the people, the people, those whom the people say to them, the people are gathering against you, fear them. It only increased their faith. We say, Allah's sufficient for us, for an excellent, an excellent one to place our trust in. That is Allah. Another verse, Adama wa adana Allah wa adana Allah wa sadaqa al-mursaloon. This is what Allah promised us and the messengers have spoken truth. Every time I turn on the radio, here we go again. Mashallah. You're going to hear, whereas most of us are on the radio. You can dodge it on television. Now you can watch MSNBC instead of Fox. You don't have to listen to it. But when you turn on the radio, Allah said, you're going to hear it, driving into work. Can't get away from it. KPFA. And then Qatira. And then, so what is the methodology of these great prophets? What an impossible wound. If you patiently persevere, keep doing the good things you're doing and patiently deal with the difficulty that that might involve. Wa tattaqoor. And remain mindful of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and remain mindful of His commandments and prohibitions. But inna daalika min azimil umor. So these prophets are called ulul azim. And Allah ta'ala tells us, if you follow their way, this is azim. In your affair, you become ulul azim in a sense. Inna daalika min azimil umor. And the Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, to emphasize patience as one of the foundations of the way of their success. Fasbir. Ya Muhammad. Fasbiru kama sallam rabbulu al-azmimir alliqud. Wa la tista'a jillahum. Be patient in calling your people as those great messengers who preceded you, patiently endured, and don't hasten in writing off your people. Wa la tista'a jillahum. So there's many messages in it. Number one, to patiently persevere. Fasbiru. Number two, this is the way of these great messengers. kama sallam rabbulu al-azmimir alliqud. Min al-wusul, as those great messengers, patiently persevere. So this is their way. Thirdly, wa la tista'a jillahum. And don't be hasty in dismissing your people. Oh, these people, they'll never do this. Oh, this is a cap. They'll never have it. No, don't write them off because Allah's in charge, not us. A time will come when what happened? A person will go to bed at night, say, kaffir, wake up as a believer, wake up as a believer, go to bed as a kaffir, vice versa. So Allah chain, Allah, the affairs with Allah. Not with us. lay salak amin al-amrishay. So we have to call our people. This is the final point. We have to be actively involved and doubtful. And it might not be, oh, we have a doubtful group. We set a table up in the mall. It might be on your job. It might be through your example. But I'm going to be the best Muslim I can be because I know people are looking at me. And so I am, whether I want to or not, I'm either calling to Islam with the tongue of my state or I'm reposting people and pushing them away from them. Islam with my state. Our teacher, Sheikh Mustafa Turgmani, he used to say, I mean, Rajulun, Wahidun, Sahibul-Han, you athun halal al-alf. One person who has a strong spiritual state can affect a thousand people. Wahalfu Rajulun, Wahalfu Rajulun, Bilahaal lai athirun al-awahi. And a thousand people who have no real spiritual substance can affect a single individual. We want to be people of substance, people of significance, people of spiritual weight. And if we are, collectively we'll make a big difference in the world. So, what Allah, peace be upon him, is with us. So, oh yeah, five great challenges to show you, which is maybe a bit, I was pacing, I forgot about these. So, insha'Allah we meet next Monday. Monday. Is there a possible? Hope? No. So the five great challenges to show you. First is the secularist discourse. And the reason this is a challenge is obvious. This doesn't say that, in all affairs, Islam is at odds with secularism. But the fact of the matter is, secularism is at odds with Islam. And specifically meaning, that religious principles, religious rulings should have no place in organizing, defining and shaping society. So, politically, economically, culturally even, to a certain extent, there's no place for the principles or rulings of Sharia. So, this is problematic. Because what it ends up doing is stripping away the foundation for a universal set of ethical principles. In other words, if we take God out of the public order, our economic policies become, whoever controls the most wealth, controls the economy. Why? Because higher principles related to distributive justice have no role in our society. As Muslims were told, and Muslims respected these principles, that's why you saw the creation of charitable, al-Qaaf, charitable endowments, where people were served in various ways for free. That's why you saw free education, like students don't pay to go to al-Assad. And never did. These were endowed institutions. And so everything in the public realm devolves into might makes right. Economic might makes right. So how can we through NAFTA dump all this corn in Iowa on the Mexican economy and destroy the agrarian economy in Mexico and push all of those peasants north? But then we put the wall up. So going south, take the wall down so our corn can go to Mexico. When those displaced farmers want to come to the U.S. to try to eke out a living, we put a wall up. How can we do that? Might makes right. Today, what was in the news concerning Mexico and farming? So you listen to the radio while you're driving. Will you listen to the ESPN radio, Mike and the Mad Dog? Well, today they just said the United States is trying to introduce genetically modified corn into the Mexican market. Growing in the fields. And corn, you see, you know this stringy. The corn is the most easily cross-pollinated crop. One of the most easily cross-pollinated crop. In other words, all indigenous Mexican corn that's been cultivated and adapted from the time of the Aztecs, the Mixtecs, the Olmecs, will be wiped out within 10 years. How can that happen? Might makes right. There's no higher principles such as the type that are introduced by Sharia. So actually, let's pray and come back. But don't pray as soon as. You have all night to do as soon as. We can't have the Jama'at corn. And we can hear. If we didn't hear, it's one thing. So let's pray and come back. And peace be upon you, and peace be upon you. And peace be upon you, and peace be upon you. So quickly, so the secularist discourse is predicated on Sharia, on idolatry. And in other words, it sets up multiple sources of law. This nation, this nation, this nation, this nation. It sets up multiple sources of morality. It sets up multiple foundations for ethics. And it has no built-in safeguards. To prevent an ethic of might makes right. Economically, politically. And so every, and Muslims can fall into a lot of the traps that secularists fall into but by banding in Islam. Not by being true to its principles. And so there are many, many different examples of that. Where it's a might makes right, human rights. Who defines human rights? The powerful. Who arbitrarily discards human rights even though as they advocate for, the powerful. I mean, what happened yesterday in our country? With Guantanamo. You guys got it. You guys got it. Hey, crazy. The National Security Authorization Act that was signed contains a provision that makes it impossible for any of the, there are how many, there's still 166 prisoners at Guantanamo. Obama said he's going to close Guantanamo. There are 86 who have been cleared of all charges. CIA, FBI, everyone. No charge, they're innocent. Obama just signed an edict that gives them no legal recourse to leave. No makes it impossible for them to be transferred to this country, even though they're proven innocent. But where are the human rights in that? The National Security Authorization Act itself allows any one of us on suspicion of aiding a terrorist. So you could raise your teenager, loses his mind, he runs off and joins some Jihad group and then you aided a terrorist. You wrote him a letter, please come home, you've lost your mind. And so you're giving morale support to a terrorist. You're in jail for the rest of your life with no legal discord. Not the ability to deface your accuser, no procedure that will guarantee your trial, no chance for habeas corpus, where the court accuses you as to bring the evidence against you or let you go. Anyway, so this is a challenge because it threatens a source, a morality that's transcended and a source of morality that's rooted in a single focal point, which negates the plurality and that doesn't advance any particular human interest. So the interest of the wealthy, wealthy is in advance, by Sharia, to the exclusion of the poor. With soul is not our wealth, there's a cat. There's a Sadaqah, there are Alqaf, et cetera. So this is something we should be cognizant of. Pluralism is related to that. So the idea that there is no ultimate truth, this is what I mean by pluralism. Therefore there's a pluralism, plurality of truths. So the challenge to Islam is obvious because in this atmosphere where that philosophy of relative truth becomes increasingly entrenched, the idea of Tauheed is challenged. Our challenge is to show that Tauheed provides a stronger basis, foundation, for building a human personality and integrate a human personality. That's our challenge. And to show that Tauheed provides a basis for creating a more realistic outlook on life. And that Tauheed can accommodate the rights of minorities, women and others that the advocates of pluralism say, Islam can accommodate. So this is a challenge. And overcoming that, let's say, very long and deep study. So related to that, we mentioned pluralism, presenting itself as multiple truths. And therefore in those truths, there's a foundation for pure equality, which is a myth in human society. Even the advocates of pure equality, if they have power, their power becomes a force of inequality. So right now, all of this power that's being arraigned against Muslims, the advocates of it say, therefore pluralism, therefore multiple truths. But they say, your truth as a Muslim isn't covered, right? Your truth isn't covered, your truth doesn't count. So this is a big issue. Gender equality, most of the critiques of Islam are based on the idea that Islam oppresses women. Muslims don't even let girls go to school, they shoot schoolgirls in the head. And so again, this is a challenge because you have a lot of ignorant Muslims out there misrepresenting Islam. But how do you overcome these challenges? Number one, in terms of secularism, by showing how human life is transcends our physical reality, it transcends our immediate worldly reality. So secularism has nothing to say about the Akhirah. So to show that because we believe and understand that our destiny is not just tied to this world, that the Lord who created us before we came into this world and who will ultimately determine the fate of our souls after we leave this world, has certain rights over us while we're in this world. And those rights in some instances have political, economic, and social implications. The same thing with pluralism, to show how this multiplicity of truths becomes the foundation of creating a group interest that oppress, that immediately lead to the oppression of other groups. Gender equality, by showing them in every area that these attacks, number one, that our Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did not encourage those things of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's strove to empower women in the Western sense of the world. But within a context, a societal context that respects femininity. In other words, the whole idea of gender equality can only have any real credence. Number one, if we argue there's biological equality, these are things that people don't like to talk about, that there's biological equality. And so therefore, duties of parenting are totally equal. So we negate the fact that the mother has the milk. Only equality. So we eliminate the biological function. We eliminate the spiritual differences in the sense that there are spiritual qualities that women possess that men don't possess. And historically, one way we've understood that was by women's intuition. So this is a non-physical quality historically associated with women, but we eliminate that so that we can propose a scheme of everyone does the same thing. Everyone dresses the same. Men wear pants and sweatshirts. Women wear pants and sweatshirts. Men operate jackhammer, women operate jackhammer. Men drive trucks, women drive trucks. And we mentioned in the past how this whole idea has nothing to do with equality. And it comes back to Mike McSrack. Is men imposing their ideals on women? So things men have historically done, like driving trucks or operating jackhammers or playing baseball. Women do. And wearing pants and sweatshirts and sweatbands even on the head. Women do. Things women have historically done. Do men do? Do men wear dresses? You might have a few. As in, generally women wear pants, right? Here in the West, generally. Nowadays. Generally do men wear dresses? No. Women play basketball now and softball. Same uniform the men have. Do men generally play with baby dolls? Men might play with G.I. Joe. But do men, boys, do boys take the little baby? This is my baby. No. Do men stay home? You have an occasional house mouse. But out of choice, not necessity. Some men are unemployed and their wives have to work. But generally do men stay home? No, they don't. So the things even after great initiatives and equality, do men wash dishes? Sisters. On a regular basis. You have a good husband. Generally speaking, do men wash dishes? Generally. There are some exceptional brothers out there. I will bust a few shots myself. Occasionally. But on a regular basis. So where's the equality? So where's the equality in this arrangement? Where's the equality in this arrangement? Is men who have power imposing their ideals on women and women out of a sense of inferiority only feeling I can have real value if I do the things men do? There's no equality in that. And so the challenge for us lamb is to show the beauty in femininity and masculinity. Well they said that could get on that and to show the beauty in complementariness. You complement each other like a hand and a glove. So this is the challenge for Muslims. The nation state is a challenge because the nation state fragments the Muslim ummah. So the potential of the ummah as an alternative institution as the foundation for alternative ways of organizing people becomes negated. Potential of Muslims undermining. Also the nation state and its current formulation is idolatrous because the nation state allows no higher form of allegiance in theory. That's idolatry. So we're loyal citizens, we're faithful citizens but we're not idolaters, we're not idolaters. And so this presents a challenge because the influence of the nation state is pervasive even in the Muslim world. This is a challenge. And as the nation state becomes increasingly corrupt in other words it becomes as opposed to being a rallying point that provides benefit to all of its members as it becomes increasingly corrupt it becomes an institution that preserves entrenched privileges for small oligarchies. So in other words the army doesn't go to war to protect you or me, the army goes to war to protect big oil, the army goes to war to give contracts to Kellogg Brown and Rue and Halliburton, billion dollar contracts. It doesn't go to war to protect me or you. So the treasury doesn't use our tax dollars to advance our interest, it uses our tax dollars to advance the interest of Wall Street. When I get fought upon hard times I'm not bailed out. You're not bailed out. You lost your home, if you got foreclosed on no one bailed you out. But they bailed out Wall Street with not billions, trillions of dollars. Just the tarp money was the 700 billion but over and beyond tarp. So the nation state as it becomes increasingly corrupt serves the interests of the oligarchies that control it and not the interests of all of its citizens. So as Muslims, where is the challenge? We have to show that and the nation state also has become more corrupt, seeks to preserve those interests to the exclusion of others. And this is why we should critique the idea of the nation state. Because the fact that nations in Africa or Asian or parts of Latin America are so underdeveloped, there's a reason for it. And it's rooted in the fact that there are nations that are sucking that wealth out. So we have to say, no, we have to have a scheme that sees us all as citizens of a world where we all have equal right to those resources that we possess. And those resources first and foremost should be used for our benefit. And not for the benefit of some corporate or national interest that's divorced from where we are. But we have to critique this. Otherwise the same ol' garbage will keep repeating itself. Chad, now there's a Central African Republic, but Chad is a mineral-rich land. Most of that wealth is going to France, particularly. Why isn't that wealth staying in Chad? Because they're conflicting national interests and in this competition amongst nations, again, the powerful are the winners. We have to say, no, the powerless should have first priority. That's Abu Bakr, right? When Abu Bakr asked, I saw in the Khilafah, I'm weak in you, I'm strong in you, until I have the right to take it. The one weak with you is strong with me until I secure the right to him or her. And the one strong with you is weak with me until I take from him the right so to others, if Allah so wills. So we have to rethink and show through in small ways the virtue of our political morality as Muslims. And bring that to bear in addressing many of the issues that we see, come out of it. Confronting many of the issues that we see. Confronting our world. Otherwise, the powerful, Allah Ta'ala is real. Now who has the biggest carbon footprint on earth? Australia. What's happening in Australia right now? It's burning. It's burning 130 degree temperatures, fires everywhere. What else did they start doing? Killing the camels. It was a sign of Allah Ta'ala. Afalayaan buruna ila ila iba likay fa khuliqat. Do they not look at the camels, how it was created? So we will, we know, Allah is real. And sooner or later, Dr. Martin Luther King will frequently say the moral arc of the universe is Martin Luther King, weep. People, the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice. Sooner or later, it's going to come back. And then global finance. Globalized finance sets a structure in place that disavvantages the poor. So as Muslims, and this is something we could start and think Manchester leads in England, they started circulating their own local currency. So the multiplier effect of that money stays in their community. We have to begin to develop local economic schemes, currency, food co-ops. MCC, MCC, any fisiados? Start a food co-op, you have all this space. Let's start a food co-op. We can buy and bolt and then cut down drastically on our food costs. These are the kind of things we can do. Local economic initiatives as a way to begin challenging the power of globalized finance. So these are great challenges. And again, why a challenge for Sharia? Sharia, as we know, no interest. Globalized finance is based on predicated on, built on, and we have to begin to question it. We have to begin to slowly develop alternatives to the best of our ability. And that requires all of us. All of us, we can start our own bank. We can start schemes. There are enough Muslims. How many Muslims are in the bank? Yes, young man. How many? Why'd you raise your hand? Are you just exercising? One, two, three, and four. Give us a guess, you raise your hand, just make up a number. So you said 250,000? I've heard that number, mashallah. You're a smart young man. I've heard that number batted around the entire Bay Area. Let's say if they're warm. If half of those, the 100,000, less than half were contributing $100 to a housing fund every month, how much money would that be? We're the non-mathematically challenged. 200,000 people, $100 a month would be $10 million a month. How many houses in the current market could we buy with $10 million? Two. No. You could buy a far more than that. 10 houses. A million each. You could buy more than that. Let's say 20,000, 500,000, that's reasonable. 20 houses a month. How many houses a year? And in 10 years, how many houses? 2,400, 2,500, 400. How many? 2,400, 400. What if we were paying $200 a month? You double that. We could put a lot of Muslims in houses. And any one Muslim would only be paying $200 a month and we'd buy these houses cash. And then those who receive the houses, since they're spared any mortgage payment, any rent payment, they could pay maybe $500, which they gladly do and could easily do. And so think of the economic strength we could develop. And all of us, no interest, but it takes all of us. And that's the challenge. You know, the challenge is for us to bring our, and every one of these areas, to educate ourselves, how do we respond to these attacks on Islam, attacks on Sharia, Shiraz, this or that? You know, how do we equip our people with knowledge? How do you respond to these, when these miscarriages of justice? They say, oh, Sharia, they stoned this girl. She was raped and they punished her. And then the Muslims are, oh, it's like the majority of the Shafi, Hanbali, and Hanafi schools, pregnancy is not a proof for fornication. But the woman could have been raped, et cetera. It's not, it's not a hooch, at all. So to show this is a miscarriage of justice. This isn't Sharia. And then put it in a comparative context. We air, we just look at attack on Islam in isolation. So you say, wait a minute. This is a miscarriage of justice. The Sharia is implemented by human beings, they can air. But what about our system? How many of you have heard of the Innocence Project? It's when using DNA evidence, over 100 people who are convicted of capital murder and were on death row have been exonerated, over 100. To such an extent, several states have now eliminated the death penalty because there's so much doubt as to the actual guilt of people who have been accused of capital murder. What about those miscarriages of justice? Troy Davis, how many of you familiar with Troy Davis case? They say, well, that's a miscarriage of justice. That's not Sharia. Is it the Troy Davis case illustrative of the quality of our judicial system? Where a guy is framed by the police, seven of nine witnesses recant their testimony. There's no physical evidence whatsoever linking this individual to the crime. It's all circumstantial. And the people providing the circumstantial evidence, they said, no, the cops forced us to say that. They threatened us. And he gets executed anyway. How do you explain that? So we should always equip ourselves with knowledge to put these things in a comparative framework so that it can be some basis of coming to some sort of a value judgment as to what might be superior or not. A long time. You know, I know a person who was committed of capital murder in Connecticut, Muslim convert. On the basis of the testimony of a prostitute was a known police informant. Sharia, that person couldn't be a witness. Number one, she didn't witness the crime. She allegedly witnessed him throwing a jacket that allegedly had the DNA of the victim in a dumpster. The jacket didn't even fit the accused. But he was convicted anyway on that testimony. Prostitute, drug addict, known police informant. Whereas that would not be acceptable in a Sharia court. It's well known. But unless we began to bring our principles, our ideals to the fore, that'll be lost to people. And then this void where we're not presenting information, we're not presenting counter arguments, we're not presenting any meaningful context, everything is lost and distorted.