 Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu. First of all, I'd like to say, happy new year to all of you, inshaAllah May Allah SWT make this year a year of light and blessings as well as a year of recovery and success. May Allah SWT give you patience and relief if you are afflicted, I mean. So I'd like to begin by quoting a hadith, this is in Kitab-ul-Siyam, in the Sunan of Ibn-u-Majah, Imam Ibn-u-Majah, which is one of the sound six books of hadith in Sunni tradition. The hadith says, an Ibn-e-Abbas in radiAllahu fil anhum qala qadima al-nabiyyu sallallahu alayhi wa sallam al-madinata quwajada al-yahuda suyaman wa qala ma hada. So the hadith begins by saying that on the authority of Ibn-e-Abbas, May Allah SWT be pleased with Ibn-e-Abbas and al-Abbas that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he entered Medina and he found the Jews were fasting. So he said, what is this? And this was on the tenth of Muharram, as other traditions indicate. Now the Arabs before Islam, including the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam probably, used to fast on this day as well. That was because this day was associated with the sacred history of the Ishmaelites, the Bani Ishmael, of the Arabs. But now in Medina, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he noticed that the Israelites were also fasting on the tenth of Muharram. So the hadith continues, Qalu hada yaumun anjallahu fihi mousa wa aqra aafihi fir'aun. So they said to him, meaning the Yahud said to him, this is the day upon which Allah SWT saved Musa alayhi sallam and drowned the Pharaoh, fa sallahu mousa shukran. So Musa alayhi sallam he fasted on this day out of gratitude, out of shukr. So in Judaism this day is called Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It's on the tenth of Tishray, in Hebrew it's called the Asarabi Tishray. In Hebrew it's called Asura, sorry in Aramaic it's called Asura, the language of Issa alayhi sallam. That's in Arabic it's called the Asura, okay. The hadith concludes, fa fadur Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, nahnu ahaqb bi mousam minkum fa sammahu wa amara bi suyamihi. And that's the end of the hadith that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam he said we have more right to Musa alayhi sallam than you do. And then he fasted on this day or continued to fast on this day and then ordered the Sahaba also to fast. So in Hanafi school it is an emphasize sunnah, sunnah muakkadah to fast on Yomi Asura as well as either a day before or after, okay the ninth or the eleventh and this is to distinguish ourselves from the Bani Israel. It's actually Makr-u-Tanzihan, it's like slightly disliked it just fast Yomi Asura. So I believe this coming Wednesday, is it Wednesday or Thursday it will be the 10th of Qoharra. I should have looked at the calendar, I think it's Wednesday inshaAllah. So this day of Asura carries tremendous sanctity, shurma for both Muslims and Ahlul Kitab. Now the statement of the Prophet ﷺ we have more right to Musa than you do, it's very interesting. So Musa alayhi sallam was an Israelite Prophet and what I mean by that is he was a descendant of Yaqub alayhi sallam, okay so Yaqub was a sir named Israel, okay and Yaqub alayhi sallam he had 12 sons who were the progenitors of 12 tribes of Israel, okay one of the sons of Yaqub was named Levi. Okay these are the priests, they're called the Qohaneem, okay so Musa alayhi sallam is from that line but he was Muslim in faith, Musa alayhi sallam submitted his entire being to Allah swt, aslama wa jahulillah, okay so he certainly was not a Jew, okay so the word Jew as a member of a religion called Judaism did not exist at that time, okay this is called an anachronism, that would be like saying George Washington was a Mormon, right you understand why that's a problem, George Washington was he lived in the 18th century but Joseph Smith the founder of Mormonism lived in the 19th century, okay so the word Jew at the time of Musa alayhi sallam, Yahuda meant a descendant of Judah one of the other sons of Yaqub, so it was a tribal distinction, it was not the name of a religion, so Musa alayhi sallam is not even a Jew according to this definition as a tribal distinction, okay so Bani Israel was a Muslim ummah at that time and of course according to our tradition Musa alayhi sallam spoke of the coming of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam in Suratul Ahqaf verse number 10 Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says don't you see that this is from Allah and he rejected while I witnessed from the children of Israel and Imam al-Qurtubi says Musa alayhi sallam more witnessed one like him and has believed while you are arrogant and Allah does not guide an unjust people, okay and of course the great law of God or spirit of God has come to you just as it came to Musa alayhi sallam okay so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam he fasted on the day of Ashura to commemorate the exodus this amazing event in which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala manifested his Jamal and Jala right in beauty and majesty by saving the Israelites and destroying the Pharaoh and his hosts this was one of the great days of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala right so in the Quran Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he orders Musa alayhi sallam and that kurehun bi aya'm illa remind them of the great days of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam in the Quran remind them for indeed reminders benefit believers reminders of ne'am reminders of blessings and gender theological virtues in the heart of the believers and gratitude and patience and love and hope etc now Ashura and really the month of muharram in general should be a time when all Muslims remember the virtues of the family of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam the ahli love of the family of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam is a great unifier of all Muslims okay it was on it was on yomi ashura 61 hijri when the beloved grandson of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi sallam imam husayd ibn al-wali alayhim as-salam he's also husayn ibn al-Fatima alayhim as-salam it was on that day that he was murdered in Karbala in Iraq okay it was said that imam al-Husayn just prior to the battle asked one of his companions what is the name of the of his desert and he was told Karbala and imam al-Husayn he said naam haza Karbala right indeed it is torment and trial very interesting Karbala Arabic means a torment a disaster bala means a trial and hadith in al-adab al-mufrad the book of hadith called al-adab al-mufrat this is imam al-khari's other book lesser notebook we're told that when imam al-Husayn was a small boy playing in the streets it says the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam saw him and extended his arms out raised him and husayn said something and they made the Prophet smile right and then the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam the famous hadith husaynun minni wa anam minhu or husaynun minni wa anam min husayn and he said ahab allahu man ahab al-hasan wal husayn al-kumaf alayhi sallallahu alayhi sallam so he said that oh Allah so he said husayn is for me and I am from him Allah loves Allah loves the one who loves hasan and husayn and parents for really understand this nothing makes a father happier than seeing the happiness enjoy his children so like husayn was like the they say the apple of the Prophet's eye right just looking at husayn put a smile on the Prophet's face and filled his heart with love and this is reason enough to say that all Muslims should love Imam al-Husayn alayhi sallam and we say alayhi sallam for Ahlul Bayt this is no problem this is this is something that's found in the books of Ahlul sallallahu alayhi sallam all of the great Sahaba loved Imam al-Husayn okay even those who disagreed with him okay when Imam al-Husayn was in Mecca right so he fled to Medina he made Hajj in Mecca and invitations were pouring in from Kufa in Iraq okay Abdullah ibn Abbas who was in Mecca with great concern and respect for his cousin Imam al-Husayn advised Imam al-Husayn not advance toward Kufa so ibn Abbas didn't think it was a good idea okay and he did that out of love for Imam al-Husayn because ibn Abbas knew it was very very dangerous he didn't want Imam al-Husayn to be killed it seems that Imam al-Husayn knew that he was going to be killed and his men were going to be massacred okay so so rather than having his blood shed in Mecca and the sacred sacred precincts in the Haram he willingly started out into the desert okay Imam al-Husayn did not want blood to spill in the Haram because that would have set a precedent for the future political authorities and eventually it did happen right when Yazid defeated ibn Zuber in Mecca and the Kaaba was actually damaged during that that battle that was in 683 of a common era about three years after Imam al-Husayn left Mecca now there's a difference a difference of opinion as to actually who actually delivered the death blow to Imam al-Husayn alayhi as-salam the earlier sources say it was a man named Sinan ibn Anas al-Nahayi okay and later sources say it was a man named Shimr ibn Diljoshan and nonetheless it's mentioned in Sunni sources that the severed head of Imam al-Husayn alayhi as-salam was brought to Eid al-Dhaib al-Rziyah who was the governor of Kufa some of the authorities say even to Damascus to Yazid ibn Muawiyah okay in Orbella ibn Ziyad he's the one who killed Muslim bin Aqeel in Kufa he intimidated the Kufans and he is the one who sent the army to Karbala and according to our sources ibn Ziyad he would he would had a stick or something and he would strike the lips of Imam al-Husayn taunting him right the severed head of Imam al-Husayn and Anas ibn Malik who was the who was a great sahabi who was the servant of the Prophet ﷺ for over 10 years he was present at one of these moments and he said to Orbeid al-Ali ibn Ziyad he said wa yi haqqa wa Allahi yu rayitu Rasulullah yu qabiru hadal fam he said woe unto you indeed I saw the messenger of Allah I swear to Allah I saw the messenger of Allah kissing that mouth that you're striking with this stick so you know this was a a massively tragic event in our history and so the Maqdal of Imam al-Husayn right is what's called the Maqdal you know though his martyrdom his passion his suffering had a deep redemptive purpose okay there was redemption in his suffering what did it do it shook these sort of global consciousness of the Muslim ummah from its sleep so it calls like this world this way I should say ummah wide sort of sense of ohasaba and tauba you know if this is happening to the grandson of the Prophet ﷺ to the family of the Prophet ﷺ if Muslim authorities are massacring people out of beloved to the messenger of Allah then we all need to check ourselves right and change our ways okay that's usually what happens when we see someone that we know is better than us struggling we should turn inwards and think you know what would happen to me and this should engender a sense of toba repentance and toad or humility so Muslim ummah was shaken we must protect and honor the family of the Prophet ﷺ so Imam al-Husayn's actions provoked an incredibly powerful revival across the Muslim world okay so all Muslims should love Imam al-Husayn so Muslim doesn't love Imam al-Husayn that that Muslim has serious issues in his aqida in his foundational beliefs because how can a Muslim not love someone who was so incredibly beloved to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ right there's numerous hadith there's a there's a hadith with other by Imam Ahmad where he says that the Prophet ﷺ he took the hands of Hasan al-Husayn and he said so he said whoever loves me and these two and Hasan al-Husayn and their father their mother Sayyid al-Faltima will be with me on the day of judgment okay and it's the same question when it comes to someone like Abu Bakr al-Sidiq or our mother Aisha how can a Muslim not love someone who is so incredibly beloved to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ right again numerous hadith Amr ibn al-A'asi came from the Prophet ﷺ Ya Rasulullah ayyu nasahabu ilayh who do you love the most Qala Rasulullah Aisha his wife and then he said Mina al-Rijal from the man Abuha her father Thumma man Arma al-Aziz Fahad al-Rijal then he named a few other right in other words I wasn't one of them right so Aisha and of course many like Shiite scholars will say that you know these hadith are fabricated and things like that but facts don't lie okay it is a fact that the Prophet is buried in the apartment of Aisha went to Abu Bakr al-Sidiq and Abu Bakr al-Sidiq and Omar ibn al-Khattab are buried next to him the Prophet ﷺ died while his head was resting on the chest of our mother Aisha according to the sound hadith and Sayyidina Ali prepared the body for burial okay Imam al-Hadad who was a great scholar of the 18th century iladi so he's considered the mujadid of his time he was in Karim Yaman he mentioned that Imam Ali ibn al-Hursayn so Zayn al-Abidi this is the son of Imam Imam al-Hursayn he said that Allah has concealed three things in three things he said the first thing is that Allah concealed his wrath like his anger and acts of disobedience to him okay so the point is the point that he was making Zayn al-Abidi and alayhi s-salam the point that he was making is don't downplay any act of disobedience to Allah because you don't know if the wrath of Allah is behind it right like somebody might say I'll just tell a little white lie but we don't know Allah knows that little white lie could spiral cause a lot of fitna but multiple people right and then he said Allah swt has concealed his his pleasure and acts of obedience to him his ridwan right so don't downplay any small act of goodness there's a true story of a man he he actually he took the bus to the golden gate bridge and jumped off the golden gate bridge it was a true story and he survived and you know he did an interview after and he said when I was sitting on the bus if just one person would have looked at me with like a good expression or said hey how are you doing I would not have jumped he said just a minimal act of kindness you know a smile is sadaqah the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam said a smile is charity again we don't know Allah knows a smile could save someone's life and then he said the third thing is that Allah swt he said that Allah swt sealed his willaya right his sainthood or his friendship his saints amongst the creation the creation didn't say to muslimi amongst the creation right so some of the greatest muslim scholars in the world were converts to islam they were atheists agnostic they were christians right said na'amar was resolved upon the most evil intention of the history of humanity right he wanted to kill the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam imam al furtibi said that say na'amar was beloved to Allah when he was prostrating to idols in Mecca the reason is because Allah swt knew the end of his life he knew the end whereas Omar now he is buried next to the messenger of Allah he's in a garden from the gardens of paradise so the point here is we should have good opinions of people in general right muslim and non-muslim now imagine when it comes to sahaba and Ahlul Bayt how much more careful should we be right as one of my teachers said giving people the benefit of the doubt is at the very heart of spirituality okay i mean we shouldn't be naive sometimes there's no doubt but specifically when we're dealing with people who are who are in the orbit of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam we must tread very very lightly okay also we should never question another muslim's love right so like a muslim does not want to attend a gathering where the molad of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam is being celebrated that's fine he doesn't have to that's not logic to attend a molad gathering is just jazz it's permissible right that does not mean that this muslim does not love the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam and to suggest that is to make takfir of that muslim right very dangerous because he's required to love the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam so that muslim might manifest his love for the Prophet in other ways ways that testify to his love perhaps he fasts every monday and thursday perhaps he's constantly memorizing hadith maybe he reads a page of seerah every night in the same way if sunnis are not gathering in the masajid on the eve of the ashura they commemorate the martyrdom the maqtah that imam al hussain that is not mean that sunnis do not love imam al hussain alayhi sallam with all their hearts they simply express their love in other ways so we have to be smart enough to reject a propaganda and divisive rhetoric when we hear it i'll give you an example i once heard a shiaid wa'id a wa'id is a preacher right and preachers have incredible influence upon the masses because they appear to be scholars right and they're very charismatic alayh people just assume that they're scholars because they look the part right uh he has a he has a beard he quoted the Quran in arabic he must be a scholar there's a big difference between a wa'id and an halim a proper scholar right first it's really like age right so it takes a really long time to become a scholar right so anyone under 40 you know just kind of take what they say with a with a grain of salt you know don't just accept things uncritically anyway he said that sunnis fast on yomi ashura because they want to forget about the death of imam al hussain right so this is totally ridiculous sasting on yomi ashura predates his martyrdom it is a sunnah of the grandfather of imam al hussain to sastre on yomi ashura muslims long before the martyrdom of imam al hussain were sasty on yomi ashura even as i said in the pre-islamic days even before the prophet sallallahu alayhi salam it was associated with events in the lives of ismail and ibraheem and nooh alayhi salam alayhi salam so all you might hear a preacher say the sunnis opposed hussain while the shia defended him at karbala right the sunnis opposed him the shia so this is historically inaccurate and again anachronistic again it's it's like saying something like the navy seals fought in the civil war it doesn't make any sense the word sunni and shiri did not have theological distinctiveness at that time and not only that such a statement is very effective right um it's uh it's in other words it's intended to antagonize and create hatred right it's a very irresponsible thing to say so the term sunni and sunni and shia or shiri as we know them developed much later okay or they'll claim that abu bakr and umar hated ali and vice versa right three of the sons of sayna ali alayhi salam that were killed at karbala fighting next to al hussain their brother were called abu bakr umar and ursna okay so if sayna had sayna ali hated abu bakr asadik and he hated umar ibn al khatab and he hated arthman ibn al a'fan if these were his you know mortal enemies why did he name three of his sons after his mortal enemies so this is much more nuanced than we think right but people who love conflict and and people who love fitna they hate nuance okay because they want the world to be black and white it makes things easier you don't have to think as much right now many sunni preachers wow they also implore equally divisive language sometimes i mean i heard a khatib one time he said yomi ashura is important to us because of its connection to the prophet sallallahu alaihi salam and it doesn't matter if some random historical events happen to occur later on the tent of muharran right so this is not how we speak about the ahl al-bayt this is bad adab right and and breaching adab with ahl al-bayt is a very dangerous thing my teachers in Yemen they said breaching adab with ahl al-bayt puts one in danger of su al-khatabah of a bad ending right nasallallahu alaihi wa sallam okay so there's a hadith in bukhari and ibn umar so this is from ibn umar the son of umar that abu bakr sadeek said be extremely vigilant be exceedingly attentive about the prophet with respect to his family so that is from abu bakr now remember once a Shiite gentleman asked me during a q and a session right because i i not only do inter what is it interfaith dialogue but intrafaith dialogue right also important so he asked me he said he said this is how exactly how he put it why do you go after the caliphs and not the 12 imams of akhribi this was his question to me why do you go after the caliphs and not the 12 imams of akhribi is a very interesting phrasing of the question right so i said what which caliphs are you talking about and he said caliphs who are they he said abu bakr they keep okay who else he said umar okay you're going it was umar keep it flowing ahali oh and imams sayuti he said there are five rightly guided caliphs by the way so you see how this the very question was faulty right the very question sets up this false dichotomy so this is a very nuanced issue right what if i said do you respect the ahl al-bayt or do you respect aisha the wife of the prophet what a strange question what a faulty question why is it faulty because in the quran the wives of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam are called ahl al-bayt in the quran okay Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala begins the section in surat al-ahzar they sing ya nisa al-nabi that means oh wives of the prophet less tunnaka ahadin min al-nisa you're not like other women and it continues and then in the next verse we get the famous phrase inna ma yuridullahu yudhi ba'ankum urrijza ahl al-bayt wo yutatheerukum tatheera wo yutahheerukum tatheera that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala only wants to remove from you every type of impurity or people of the house and mender you pure and spotless then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says after this word qurna ma yutla feebuyuti qurna in ayat illahi wal hikmah right and recite what has been uh or recite recite what has been um or remember what has been recited in your homes from the from the verses of Allah and wisdom what qurna this this verb right if you don't know arabic grammar then i can see how people can make mistakes this this verb is a fi al-amr its second person feminine plural this is only speaking to women okay so addressing only the wives again so the point is the phrase ahl al-bayt in the Quran occurs in the middle of a passage in which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is explicitly addressing the wives of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam but it's not limited to women because we go back what does it say that means that there are now men included women and men okay but that phrase is right in the middle of a passage it's at the focus of a passage that is addressing the women of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam the wives of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam okay all right and not only this the wives of the Prophet are called the mothers of the believers right and Nabi U'awla bin mu'minina min anfusiyum huh whereas wajr ummahatuhum the Prophet is closer to the believers than them than their own self and his wives are their mothers right and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam said la tu'zini la tu'zini fi a'isha don't hurt me regarding a'isha sound hadith okay there's also hadith at Thaqalain the famous hadith the two weighty things right the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam he said in itadikun fikum at Thaqalain i'm going to leave two weighty things kitabullah the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala hablun mandub min asimai ilal al-arth the book of God the extended rope coming from the heavens to the earth and my close family members now there's another hadith that says kitabullah was sunnah right so again a preacher or someone who doesn't know what they're talking about some amateur might say well who are you going to follow the ahlul bayt or the sunnis right there's no contradiction here why because the sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam is preserved by the ahlul bayt most of whom are sunni right so this is a fact the the vast is just a fact the vast majority of the descendants of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam are Ahlul sunnah wa jala'a they identify as sunni so i studied a little bit in yemen in hadr remote i wanted to study with ahlul bayt right so the ba'alawi saadat in yemen or sunni they're shafi'i ash-ari they adore imam al-ghazali they they trace their lineage back to iman named ali al-urradi who was one of the sons of imam ja'far al-sadaq right who was the great great great grandson of the Prophet sallallahu both imam abu hanifa and imam malik ibn anas two great imams ahlul sunnah wa jama'a they studied under ja'far al-sadaq now some of the shia might say that why don't malikis and and hanafis become ja'far i then in their fiqh right the reason is not because sunnis have something against imam ja'far al-sadaq that's ridiculous it's because the school of fiqh that would later be attributed to imam ja'far al-sadaq by the shia was not preserved correctly according to the sunni principles of preservation okay so it's a method a problem it's not a personal problem nothing personal right sunnis love all of the imams the family the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam so the sunni shiai and i'm running out of time i realize that i'm actually out of time but i'll just finish this point here inshallah the sunni shiai divide has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years right so the greatest scholars of islam in the classical period they couldn't figure it out modern scholars will probably not figure it out a preacher certainly will not figure it out the propagandists are not going to figure it out we simply have to accept that there was an insoluble difference of opinion and come together on broad universal principles so like polemical debate which is called jida right among the awam among laity is haram according to imam maddik it's haram for people that are not early amount of debate okay and there's a reason why that is there's an expression that says a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous right so what happens is lay people they learn a few things a few points right here and there are a few arguments maybe from watching some youtube videos or something they think that they can now substantively like academically argue for a certain theological position right but by doing so they actually cause more confusion more animosity and ultimately more division right so if they keep doing that we have to question why are you doing this is it for nus or is it for ha right one of my teachers said don't be a cause of fitna the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam he said man's summit and naja the one who is silent is safe right a man came to imam Ahmad Ahmad ibn muhammad radiallahu alayhi and the man said to him who was right aisha or ali pick a side right and this is what this was his response imam Ahmad he said Allah saved our swords from blood and picking sides why don't we now save our tongues from picking sides in other words i was not forced back then to pick a side thank god he wasn't even alive back then so why are you forcing me now to pick a side right there was also a conflict between ali and muawiyah right and you know Sunnis by consensus agree that Sayyidina Ali was one of the most virtuous and holiest and greatest of the sahaba he's also ahad al bayt ali and minni wa anam and ali same kind of hadith about imam al-farsayn man kuntu maulaf haada ali and maula if i am near and dear to you this ali is near and dear to you the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam he said about ali you love Allah wa Rasuluhu you love Allah wa Rasuluhu and you love Allah wa Rasuluhu that he loves Allah on his messenger and is beloved to Allah in his messenger right so the actions and decisions of Sayyidina Ali were better and wiser Sayyidina Ali wanted to end the cycle of violence right so by consensus muawiyah was wrong he's not from the rightly guided caliphs but that does not mean we should curse and insult muawiyah right if muawiyah was such a terrible man or a tyrant okay certainly his son was a tyrant but that's his son and in our religion the son doesn't inherit the sins of his father that's a christian belief we don't believe that at all right so if he was such a tyrant why did Sayyidina Hassan make peace with muawiyah he made a truce with a tyrant imam Hassan abdicated the khilafa over to a tyrant this doesn't make sense right the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam said inna ibn hadas Sayyidun about imam Hassan indeed this son of mine is a master رعل الله أن يُسلِحَ بِهِ بَيْنَ ثِي أَتَيْنِ مِنَ المُسْلِمِينَ عَظِيمَ اَتَيْنِ So Allah Allah this this son of mine is grandson imam Hassan he's talking about the hadith but he calls him my son the son of mine is a master perhaps Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will make peace through him will bring two groups together through him not just any groups meaning the muslimin are the two great groups of muslims muslim believers they'll give them peace you see so so jid al is with akhid kitab okay the ulama among each other engaged in something called munavara disputation this is when two sides already agree upon some sort of underlying premise or universal and then they try to mutually arrive at the truth about some particular issue for example they agree that the Prophet ﷺ was a true Prophet but what were the particular ways in which he received the wahd that have a dispute okay but jid al is when your goal is to convince your opponent that he is wrong and you are right about a fundamental issue like when we convince jews and christians that Muhammad ﷺ so jid al debate is with akhid kitab and there are certain etiquettes that are associated with right like call people to the way of your lord with academic sophistication with good good etiquette good adab right and we're not supposed to waste our time on mustahzeeun there are a lot of people on the internet right a lot of christian apologists a lot of muslim apostates you know that that want to debate like muslim ulama and they're saying i'm not going to give you a platform you are mustahzee these are people mocking insulted religion so we're not supposed to engage with them we don't give them a platform Allah ﷻ is saying to the Prophet ﷺ I am sufficient for the markers let me take care of the markers you don't have to deal with them okay so if Allah ﷻ commands us to speak to Ahnel kitab with such etiquette then how do you think we should speak to each other Muslim to muslim so there's an which is like a you know an ancient report it's not a hadith but it's from the salaf it's from the early muslims that says breaking the heart of a fellow muslim is worse than destroying the ka'bah brick by brick okay so this is meant to convey the gravity of such a thing right there's a hadith that the most beloved action to Allah after the farad is to put joy in the hearts of other muslims okay and of course we have this beautiful ayah in the Quran Surah Ali Imran verse 103 that's three one oh three of the Quran so hold tightly all of you to the rope of God and do not be divided what is the rope of God Habibullah Kitabullah the book of God the Quran okay well that's a follow-up who means do not join a firqah a firqah is an exclusivist sect there's a difference between a madhab and a firqah you're encouraged to join a madhab a madhab is just a school of thought right the difference is a madhab recognizes that there's truth and other madhab they're not exclusivists right whereas a firqah believes that they have the exclusive truth and everyone else is a ka'bah you can't join a firqah like the khawaraj was a firqah firqah we have the truth and if you don't believe exactly as I do you're a ka'fir we don't care who you are we don't care if your name is Ali Ibn Abi Talib he said you don't believe what we believe you're a ka'fir right so the rope of Allah is the Quran so the Sunnis and the Shiites they recite and memorize the same Quran it's the same Quran okay despite our long-standing differences we stand united behind a single text there's some erode Shiites who said that who say things like there's tahrif in the Quran and things like that that's very much a fringe element amongst the amongst the shia right that's this kufr even believe even entertain that contradicts the Quran clearly okay and you know the Christians can't say that they can't say that they're united on the book Roman Catholics and Protestants they have a different version of the Bible the Catholic version of the Bible is seven books longer than the Protestant version I remember that I used to do you know when I was an undergraduate we had this Dawa table and the Christians would come and debate you know I was younger back then so more energy the Christian guy came and he was and he was saying why there's so many versions of the Quran I said what version of the Quran I said there's translations of the Quran and then I figured out he's talking about the tera'at of the Quran so I said no these are not these are multiple readings of the same verses they're not readings of different verses it's the same verses so I don't understand I said you know the Prophet said you would recite these verses of different ways they convey different meanings that enrich the meanings of the Quran so I said to him I said because he was holding a Bible I usually bring all my Bibles and I said to him can you can you read first Maccabees for me in your Bible yeah and he's you know Chris you look he's a Protestant Christian so he pulled out this King James version of the Bible and he's flipping through it and he said what's the name of the book and I said first Maccabees and he's flipping through the Malachi you know first Maccabees okay he's looking through it I don't see it in here I said look on the table of contents he's looking at it it's not there it's all but I have it here in my Roman Catholic version a different version right completely different seven extra books okay so we have word Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala united us upon a single text our primary text and then Allah says so he says remember the blessing of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala upon you when you were enemies and Allah brought your hearts together and you became brethren by means of his blessing and you were on the brink of falling into a fire when he saved you from it like so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes clear for you his signs in order for you to be guided so according to the exegetes the ni'ma mentioned in this ayah that brought people together the first instance the house in the khazraj was the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam uh himself okay so we can come together on this principle of the love of ahlul bayt the Quran says this is chapter 42 verse 23 say no reward do I ask of you for this except the love of the kurba like family okay so imam kurtubi imam atabari ibn ajiba and many others they say they say that the kurba here is ahlul baytul rasulillah sallallahu alayhi sallam that we are commanded in the Quran by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to love the family of the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam that first imam ashafi he said ya ahlul baytul rasulillah shabdu min Allahi think to tell oh people of the house or the prophetic house your love is obligatory in the book of God man lam yusalli alaykum la salata da whoever does not send benedictions upon you and the prayer there's no prayer for him the the ahlul baytul rasulillah sallallahu alayhi is a rukun of the prayer in the shafa imata if you forget to do that your prayer is bottom if you do your prayer over again your prayer is not valid but here's the question how can you command someone to love someone else right so if I said to you I command you to love my cousin right how could you you couldn't you don't know my cousin so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this verse is essentially it's implicit he's essentially commanding us to know to learn about the family of the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam and by knowing his family his virtues and piety and struggle that we will naturally and genuinely come to love his family sallallahu alayhi sallam I'll stop at this point are there any questions or we can take maybe a couple there's time I was wrong online okay so this question is I'm a new Muslim my question is why don't we commemorate the martyrdom of Hussain alayhi sallam as Sunnis shouldn't we be concerned that within 50 years of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam's death his grandson was murdered it seems like we should commemorate his martyrdom too yes we should I agree we should commemorate his martyrdom we should remember him we should constantly be praising the Ahl al-Bait and of course the moment for saying is as the questioner said a grandson of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam not only that he's a companion of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam so a lot of the times I think people get caught up in emotion they get caught up in again this kind of device of rhetoric so there are people who I mean I've quoted I've quoted Hadith in our books during the khutbah praising Ahl al-Bait and people would come up to me and say are you are you a Shi'i and they don't know I'm from Iran because if they help me I mean if they knew I was an Iranian they would assume you're but they don't know anything about me right sorry I said why do you think I'm a Shi'i you said this about Imam Hussain I said this hadith is an tibmadi this hadith is a Bukhari this had what are you talking about oh I've never heard this hadith you know that's that's a shame you know so I think people for the sake of not being labeled a certain thing are not being true to their tradition you know and that's that's unfortunate you know but that we should we should definitely you know when you say commemorate his martyrdom you know there's certain practices that are Shi'a brethren do commemorate the the martyrdom that are not acceptable according to Lee Sunni or Le Ma okay so there's different ways as I said in my lecture there's different ways in which we commemorate Ahl al-Bait there's different ways in which different Sunnis commemorate the molad of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam everyone believes in the molad of the Prophet molad means he was born right everyone believed you have to believe that and everyone has to show joy they have to have joy in their hearts that the Prophet was born you have to but it doesn't mean you have to go to a gathering and listen to poetry about the Prophet you can if you want you don't have to right so we commemorate Imam Hussain in different ways this is the Dean is is asked so I can walk up so just a quick question about some of the associations with the the day of Ashura that preceded the Prophet I've heard stories about the arc of Sayyid al-Nu'ah finding its final resting place and other other sort of traditions just curious if there's validity to those and if you could share some of those if there are yeah I mean our Ulema they mentioned certain things it's kind of a mystery there isn't anything strong anything reliable anything really authentic in our in our tradition but some of the Ulema mentioned things there was definitely something there okay because there there are according to some of the Ulema the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was also fasting Yumi Ashura before he entered Medina so that means that there's there's definitely validity in his fast it was something that was connected to according to the tradition to Ismail alaihi sallam in some way and other prophets as well some of the Ulema sort of conjecture what that could have been whether the the arc of no docked at Jabal Judi on Yumi Ashura or that they mentioned things like the Torah descended upon Musa alaihi sallam or some of them say during Ramadan or the Jilk in their Issa alaihi sallam where he was ascended into heaven Allahu ala we don't know exactly what it was okay but there's some significance because it was a practice of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam everything he does is guided even before his Abuwa okay he's he has his whole life this is our Akhida and this is why there's Irhas there's pre-prophetic miracles attributed to him when he was a boy he went to Bostra and there was a cloud following him okay and there was trees that were shading him this means that he is the Prophet of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala even during then but he's not sent as a prophet yet so he has Isma and he has a clean reputation this is an argument for his Nabooa right no one could say anything to him when the when he became a prophet when he began to preach the Quran none of the mushrikin could say oh weren't you the guy who did x y and z when you were a teenager nobody could say anything like that right that's why in the Quran the Quran makes his argument it says you know it says a whole lifetime I have been among you right a whole lifetime I've lived among you in other words look at my reputation do I make things up am I do I lie do I want power you know am I a violent person in Anabla a sadiq al-ameen that's what they call that's their own title it's what the mushrikin gave the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam a sadiq al-ameen right so a lot of these hadiths a lot of these traditions are weak there's nothing really solid but there is something there we just don't know exactly what it is all right no questions from the ladies thank you for coming