 Bismillah it's a pleasure to be here this is although I have moved away I still consider this my yeah one of my home massages so I have to say one of because this is live so they'll hear me over there too so one of my life Bismillah so InshaAllah this was intended to be its own introduction to maybe the weekend but also kind of to stand alone for those so if you're not gonna attend this weekend it won't take away InshaAllah but hopefully just lay some of the foreground for this so Bismillah so actually taking a step back I think it's important to think about what is the role of knowledge in Islam why why study what's the point of the message and everything that it puts on in terms of the various programs right I was looking at the MCC email yesterday I kept scrolling and scrolling MashaAllah right why is knowledge so central and pivotal there's many reasons for this but if you look at Imam al-Ghazali he and his Ahia al-Ulum ad-Din which he used as the great summary of the religion and reviving the sciences of the religion the first book in the ahia and the revivification of the Islamic disciplines is Kitabu-l-Ain right that knowledge is central to preserving and understanding the religion properly right that's what the prophets come and they bring is knowledge of revelation and now revelation is by definition something beyond the ceiling of reasons something we can't figure out on our own but that's knowledge knowledge about what happens when we die knowledge of what happens after we're resurrected of the afterlife what does God want from us right that's all knowledge and knowledge is how that is preserved so you know it's it's interesting because in the Quran there's only according to the one time there's only one time the prophet said him is commanded to ask for something and he's commanded to ask for knowledge and say oh my Lord increase me in knowledge right so this prayer that the prophet said him was instructed to do is not for Iman which is obviously beautiful right faith or taqwa piety or prayer or anything he was commanded to ask for an increase in knowledge because knowledge is the means to all of those other Goods out there and if you look you know what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he created the angels and he created the jinn and then he created mankind what distinguished mankind if you look at that passage in surat al-baqarah in the second chapter of the Quran Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he tells the angels right that that I'm going to establish a Khalifa a deputy on earth right and they say why will you do that while the you know you're gonna place someone in it who will shed blood and so corruption in the earth while we glorify your praise right and what does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say I know that which you don't know so already it's about knowledge Allah saying I know what you don't know and then as the story continues we're told that Allah brings Adam forth and he teaches him the name of all the names of all things and the scholars differ in what that necessarily means but he's given knowledge of something and then he brings the angels forth right and he tells that the angels name these things what do they say subhanahu wa ta'ala we don't have any knowledge unless you've taught us right and then he says oh Adam tell him the name tell them the names of these things knowledge is what distinguishes Adam over the angels it's knowledge right this is what the human being is is unique in is the ability to acquire knowledge to preserve it and to transmit it that's what makes us unique amongst Allah's creation right and so knowledge is central to our tradition there's many hadiths statements of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in which he tells us about the centrality of knowledge right many many famous hadiths but we'll just say a few just to remind us of why learning is so pivotal in the religion no matter where you are in the path of knowledge right the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he's encouraging us to continue this path right the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that seeking knowledge is an obligation for every single Muslim you can't say okay we have scholars and teachers and they learn so I don't have to learn that's not true they learned some things alhamdulillah that we have them right because we can't learn everything we're glad that we have doctors and engineers and lawyers we can't all know everything about everything but on some level we should all seek to attain more knowledge of our own faith of what God has revealed to us about what the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has taught us right and then the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam tells us that that when somebody goes out to study to seek knowledge there's many different hadiths the fish in the ocean pray for him right the the angels lower their wings praying for that that person right why do the angels why do the angels pray for the person who's studying it's a question to consider by the way one of the things that I will say it's really important for us to think deeply about these things to not just memorize them but to ponder them why they know that the purpose of creation right the purpose of creation that we were only created mankind and jinn to worship Allah that needs knowledge to know Allah right we have to know God but the only way we can do that is through knowledge right so it is fulfilling the purpose of the creation of the world and the angels want us to succeed in that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said in a different hadith right that you should seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave and another hadith it's a bit weaker in its authenticity but it's meaning a sound to seek knowledge even if you go on to china right so seeking knowledge is central it's central now what does knowledge do for us does knowledge necessarily transform us learning something it doesn't if we're honest it doesn't it should but it doesn't right now if you think about a thief let's say a muslim thief they exist right believe it or not they shouldn't but they do right now doesn't even if you ask a muslim child has a law person you know is your provision written for you even a younger child might already know that i'll say no your provision is written for you the stealing increase your risk it doesn't so why does that if a muslim knows that how can he go and steal it's because that theoretical knowledge hasn't penetrated his heart he knows that knowledge theoretically but the truth of that is not has not penetrated his heart he doesn't have certainty of that knowledge right and so we're introduced to this concept that's central in our tradition of the varying levels of certainty right there are different levels of certainty that one can have and the u'nama talk about these three levels there's u'nma liaqeen there's aina liaqeen and there's haqa liaqeen right there's having certain knowledge of something so for example if we're sitting here and people were to run in and say there's a there's a fire outside would you have knowledge of the fire that's outside so it's not a it's not a trick question would you have knowledge that there's a fire outside yes you would know they all came and they told you there's a fire outside oh my god there's all these fire trucks and you see this commotion okay is that the same kind of knowledge as if you run out you look and you can see the flames it's a deeper level of knowledge right you you and from u'nma liaqeen right ta'ina liaqeen is it the same as somebody who got burned by the fire they have a deeper knowledge of the flame that yes that was a real fire there i felt the heat of it or i got burned by it right so there's levels of knowledge based on the level of certainty in the heart so you can know something and it remains theoretical but there's a depth to it that's missing and that's why the study of knowledge has to be uh coupled with pondering reflection worship devotion ibadah prayer they get all of these things so that it's not just all in the head it's just theoretical there's people there's non-muslims they don't believe anything but they have wonderful knowledge of tafsir and the Quran and things the prophet said and did they have all but it does them nothing right they're like yes like the internet like this thing knows has a lot of information that's not knowledge and so what is true knowledge is when that knowledge the information becomes integrated and it becomes holistic and you start to develop an understanding based on that knowledge right you have an understanding based on that knowledge i give an example there's people who can be told and i'm one of them such and such a food is unhealthy for you you should eat less of it you still kind of struggle with that right you know that but then then the brownies in front of you and you kind of you tend to forget that knowledge right then there's people who they spend time and they've had enough experience where they've eaten something and then they felt sick from it so they stay away from it where somebody who studied what happens when you eat these things so their knowledge increases right and you can see a correlation between their understanding of that and how it impacts their behavior right like generally speaking if somebody's a nutritionist right it's more likely by studying and really having a deep understanding of how harmful this is the degree of harm the love the multiple layers of harm it's easier for them to abstain from it right and so that correlation between having some knowledge that's theoretical and a depth that actually informs how we behave you know one of the sayings of the philosophers of the past is there's a difference between information and knowledge and then wisdom right and so we have to understand the difference the internet can sometimes give you information very important understand it's not knowledge and most definitely it's not wisdom right if you've had the blessing of sitting with a person of wisdom you'll you also know the difference between that and knowledge right but there are you know Allah SWT says in the Quran and whoever has been given wisdom has been given much good that wisdom is a gift from Allah SWT right and so when we study our deen it has to be this integrated holistic thing it can't just be this like you're learning bits and pieces i had a teacher who used a great metaphor in college talking about the holistic picture and he said it's you know there's people they're putting together a couple small puzzle pieces but they don't know what the box top of the puzzle looks like you know that that's the thing that has the whole picture there for you you know what it is you're trying to put together right many of us we don't always know what a mu'min or a mu'mina really looks like what what does that mean right and so we're trying to put in these little things we we learned something about a sunnah of how to do this or sunnah of how to do that but it's really hard to put it all together so it's important that's what studying does it helps us to see the bigger picture it helps us to integrate these things so for me one of the exercises that i think is is very useful is before we embark on any study of Islam is to put the entire religion in the context of the human story right so what's the earliest chronological event recorded in the Quran as far as we know what's that okay that's fair the creation of the universe okay but i'm talking about for the human story for our story what's the earliest thing uh right so before the creation of Adam most people think that our story starts with with who with Adam and Eve alaihi salam right but there's another event in the Quran very important where Allah tells us that he gathered the souls of the children of Adam from the loins of Adam and he gathered them all before him and he made them testify against themselves and Allah asked this question so all of our souls not our bodies mind you the souls were gathered in front of Allah and he asked one question am i not your lord right so it's very important to understand you can't understand all of the prophets that come after without understanding this moment right am i not your lord and we said what and then what does the rest of the verse say Allah says lest you say on the day of judgment we weren't aware this removes the excuse that we have on a spiritual level our souls are imprinted with this knowledge that we have a lord even the atheist deep down has this knowledge there's a knowledge it's in the heart it's in the soul it's a fitrah right and so that's why the word kathir it's the word for disbeliever in the Quran it's one of its meanings literally in Arabic is the farmer that covers a seed he's covering something up because there is this innate knowledge right that we know that we are created by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so that a yawm alas the day of what's called the grand covenant is one way of phrasing it in English is when we made a covenant with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in which we acknowledge that he's our lord right do any of us remember this on a conscious level right so then we're born in the world and what happens we have to now make good on that covenant that's what this whole life is about right now our souls know something we made a promise so Allah is now putting that soul into a body and living a life in the dunya and we have to go and live this life now and we have to affirm that that's why what was every prophet sent with there's only one god that's the am i not your lord that's confirming that that confirms that covenant right in fact there's a couple of there's two hadiths that when you combine them i think there's a beautiful meaning that comes out the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is reported to have said in in a hadith that every king this is a metaphor by the way a lot of language about god has to be metaphorical because he's beyond comprehension the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said every king has a right hand on earth right do you know what the right hand of the king means no typically the the king huh no it's the ring the yamin the king used to wear a ring and what did you have to do in order to pay your respect to the king you kiss the ring what does that mean when you kiss the ring you're acknowledging that king's authority over you right so the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said every king has a right hand to be right and the yamin of Allah on earth is the black stone right that's why why do we go to kiss the black stone it's a symbolic thing what does it mean when we kiss see that's the thing we we're doing these things right people are lining up to kiss the black stone knowing that it's a sunnah and that's beautiful but there's a depth to it there what do you say when you're going to hajj or umrah what's what's the bake me you're answering the call you're going back saying in the dunya i'm going that covenant i made before my soul was infused right i'm going coming to declare that again right and there's another hadith it's a bit weaker but its meaning is sound where our mother ishah said she said the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is reported to have said that the covenant was poured into the black stone the covenant that covenant we made was poured into the black stone and so then we come and we come we we come to the house of Allah and we declare we're at your service my lord at your seven you have no partner i'm coming to answer your call right praise and all good bounty and goodness is from you and you have dominion over us right that's the mulq you're declaring that Allah is the king and you we are his servants right so when you understand that now you can understand then we're created prophets are sent there's guidance la ilaha illallah why is everybody called to tohi because that's imprinted in our dna that's printed on our souls right la ilaha illallah so that is the background for the human story and then Allah says he sent a prophet to every people to warn them and to tell them to worship Allah now they all varied in the sharia in the excuse me in the legal code that they were sent with that varied between prophets right we know that but what was the same the belief in la ilaha illallah the belief of prophets risala and the day of judgment you're going to be resurrected and you're going to be held accountable there's an afterlife right and if you look many of the world religions all have this these are universal because Allah sent prophets to all people so we believe that there were there are remnants of nubuwa of prophethood in many places right we can't confirm which aspects are and aren't but we know that there was guidance sent to all people right so the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam he comes with the final message the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said in a very beautiful hadith where he said that the similitude of me to the other prophets the parable of me and the other prophets is like a man who builds a beautiful home right and people are going around in all of the beauty of the structure right and they say wow what a beautiful structure except it's missing a brick and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said i am that brick okay you guys understand the metaphor that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through the succession of prophets is sending the a message to humanity i sometimes i think as muslims it's hard to understand how profound that hadith is because we don't know how other religions view the rest of the world for some religions the whole world is in darkness and only that only one religion had any light in it all religions are false and our religion is the only truth right for muslims it's a very different thing it's that all of this history contributes to this building of the house of islam and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam he doesn't demolish it he doesn't he could have said the prophets came but they built a corrupt thing and i demolished it and i'm building a new and better house right but that's not what the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam said that's not how he viewed his message he came to confirm and clarify and rectify and preserve the previous messages the Quran is replete with stories of previous prophets right so they are all necessary precursors to the muhammadin legacy sallallahu alayhi wasallam but he completes and perfects that home okay and so this final version of the religion this most complete version supersedes and come and includes the previous religions what do i mean by supersedes Allah swt tells us that the Quran right was sent as a muhammin over the previous messages that it is the arbiter between the different religions because we're told previous messages were altered how do you know what's altered and what's authentic the Quran comes to clarify that right and so we have the most perfect and complete and preserved version of Allah's message to all of humanity now that's one thing that distinguishes the message of islam what's another thing every prophet was sent to his to his people but the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam was sent to all mankind right this is this is the uh very important aspect because now when you understand it the need for all of humanity to have islam and to be rescued by islam and saved and enriched by islam becomes clear right now at the same time this is where it gets interesting Allah swt tells us that the whole world will never become one umma not everybody will believe people will have other beliefs that's part of his wisdom there's a variety in the world not everybody will see the truth as clearly as others right and so it's part of a divine wisdom and then he says so why race against one another to do good deeds just out do each other in good and in virtue right so other religions are always going to exist we should compete with one another towards goodness rather than make it a point of contention human beings are just like that so this most perfect and complete religion just to really bring it home is brought with the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and then his framing and explanation of the religion is most perfectly summed up in one hadith according to the ulama the very well-known hadith but it's important to review it as as it provides a nice conceptual framework and this is the hadith that's called the hadith of jibreel alayhi as-salam okay so the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam the hadith is is narrated by sayna umar radiallahu anhu and it's rigorously authenticated he said we were sitting with the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam one day just by show of hands how many of you are familiar with hadith jibreel right okay hadith jibreel narrates it's called hadith jibreel because a man comes to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam i'm going to give some spoilers and he asks him a series of questions right and this man was mysterious and he's not from madina and at the end of it this questioner leaves and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam turns to his companions and he says do you know who this questioner was and they said no allah and his messenger know best and he said that was jibreel this is the operative phrase of the whole hadith he came to teach you your religion so that's how we know that the contents of that conversation are the perfect summation of the religion he came to teach you your religion so now that we know that right let's go back to the beginning and look at this hadith in order again to know the big picture of islam as we learn bits and pieces we know how to fit them in inshallah right so the first question is that say that jibreel asks the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam again he's a mysterious figure nobody knows he's jibreel at this point he tells him tell me about islam and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam answers with what the five pillars right so what we all know is the five pillars here's what's interesting if you ask muslims to give a summary of islam what do they do typically we give the five pillars and we stop there right there's truth to that but it's not perhaps the whole picture so he gives the five pillars to testify the testimony the shahada to testify that there's nothing worthy of worship except Allah and that the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam is his last and final messenger to establish the prayer to fast Ramadan to pay the zakat the purifying alms to the poor and to make pilgrimage to Mecca right Alhamdulillah most even most Muslims are familiar with these right and then he says right you have spoken rightly and then the sahaba say we were surprised that he asks him a question and then says you have spoken rightly i'm going to ask you guys who asks a question and then says you have spoken rightly a teacher perfect right think about it they ask a question they know the answer and then when you answer correctly they tell you yeah you answered right right so you can tell say Najib Ali is coming as a teacher right now and then he asks a second question he says o Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam tell me about iman and here the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam he lists the six objects of faith right these are the six and we'll talk about this inshallah though this weekend we're going to go into each of these things in depth inshallah he tells me i have to believe in Allah you have to believe in God his angels the scriptures the prophets i know it's easier in Arabic right the day of judgment and divine decree both the good and the evil these are the 16th every muslim must believe right and then he says you've spoken rightly then he says tell me about ihsan so this is the thing you don't really hear muslims they say give me a summary of religion they don't say oh there's islam iman and ihsan they say oh there's the five pillars right then we have the six objects of faith and he says tell me about ihsan the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam very interestingly he doesn't tell us what ihsan is he tells us the results of ihsan he says it's to worship Allah as if you see him and if you cannot see him you know that he sees you right doesn't tell you how to attain that he tells you that's what it is when you have it okay and then he asks him a fourth question he said tell me when is the hour he asks and tell me when is the hour and the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam says the one being asked doesn't know more than the one asking all right and the alama have an interesting thing where they he doesn't say he doesn't know he just says that they have equal knowledge about it whenever that means allahu alam so then jabil asks tell me about its signs what are the signs of the day of judgment right so this is an important thing that we know not only that the day of judgment is coming but that there are signs of the day of judgment why is this important so we learned about islam and we learned about iman and we learned about ihsan and now sainah jibreed is pointing out there's this other aspect that isn't of our religion that we study but it says our religious life as it will be lived the way that we experience it as a community right and so the prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam tells of some of the signs that you will see the naked and barefoot destitute herdsmen competing in building lofty buildings and you will see right which i think we can all we've seen with that that one you we can all check it off mashaAllah right and then you will see the mistress giving birth to her to her master right and that's a very there's a lot that can be said about that right but there's a we'll get into that and that's when that's the last question these four questions who was that that was jibreed he came to teach you a religion okay so now if you examine each of these right these are ways of assessing whether or not your islam is balanced jibreed the hadith of jibreed helps you to understand whether or not you are balanced in your dean the first three are taklifi they have a duty incumbent upon us the last one the signs of the end of time they we don't there's no responsibility upon us and i'm going to get to why that is so essential that jibreed asked about it right but the first three islam right what was islam again the five pillars if you look at the five pillars what are the five pillars their actions beautiful right and so with actions these are things that we do with our body that we worship Allah through the medium of the body and then iman what is iman these are beliefs where do beliefs reside right in the mind in the heart both right there's a connection between them right but let's just say the mind for for simplicity right and so there's a way in which we get our minds in conformity with reality right to have our mind that's truth when you know the truth your belief is in conformity with reality if somebody doesn't believe in the judgment day right that doesn't change the reality of the judgment day it just means that they have a misconception about the reality of the world right and then the last is ihsan that you worship Allah as if you see him and if you cannot you know that he sees you where what what is that that's a state of the heart of the soul right so you can see you have mind you have body and you have soul right if our dean is excluding any one of these three components these three dimensions of the religion right then it's lacking or it's imbalanced if you are devout in your outward conformity to the rules and and the moral code of the religion and you believe the tenets of Islam but you're lacking that spiritual component it's a dry empty shell right it's a dry empty shell you're not worshiping Allah with the sincerity the sincerity that opens your heart to being aware of his watching you or worshiping him as if you see him right so you're not getting there's something else you're worshiping sometimes it's your your own ego that you you feel good that you're devout right but if Allah is not at the center of your worship then you're missing something right let's this is the exercise that i want to do the Venn diagram right so that's if you're neglecting ihsan let's say you neglect Islam for a moment what does that look like so you have iman and you have ihsan but you don't have islam what does that look like you believe right you're attempting to be spiritually purified and attuned with Allah but you're not conforming outward that's the i'm spiritual not religious crowd right oh i believe and i have this relationship with Allah okay do you try to obey him no that's i'm not into that right that's not the dean that's imbalanced there is no nearness to Allah by disobeying it right so the sharia the outward rules are the road to that inward purification right you cannot get to the point that you worship Allah as if you see him and if not then you're where he sees you without conformity to the to the outward right now the last if you don't have iman and you have the rituals and you have the spirituality but you don't have the faith then it's like it's these people who becomes a cultural tradition that you've just inherited but you don't really believe that this is all real there's people that like it they're cultural Muslims right they like to do certain things and they partake in these things but is it real right now one of the things about the Sahaba Sayyidi said if the veils were lifted and I could see the unseen it wouldn't increase my faith at all now that's a special state to be in right but the point is that's that's a goal that's a place to be there are people they reach that right now if we want to be balanced believers we have to work on all three of these simultaneously now the even iman by the way it's not something that you say okay I believe in these six things there's a depth to iman remember we talked about the fire out there right there's people that they know there's a lot like somebody saying there's a fire out there and then there's people they know that Allah is there the way seeing the fire and then there's people it's like they're burned in the fire they're extinguished in love of Allah that's real right there's depths of you know some of the Sahaba and these aren't stories right this this this is historical fact some of them they one of them had an arrow in his leg that was stuck from a battle and he said just wait until I'm in the prayer and when I'm in the prayer you can pull it out they're in such a state of presence with their Lord they don't feel it when when it's pulled out you know you see these people go into meditative states where they can walk on coals and they all of these things right you're supposed to be like that with Allah and you can be that there is that connectedness so when we study our Islam and when we learn our Islam it has to be the this prophetic model right of the inward the outward and then the depth of of faith right there's there's all three dimensions now that fourth dimension I said I was going to come back to it tells you just like human life has right you're young you've got energy right you reach a peak and then you start to right that's the same of the human story and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is telling us that at the end of the human story things will become different and we have to be able to recognize these signs and there are pages and pages of hadiths with signs of the end of time that if you read them not only will you I mean you will be shocked at the accuracy I mean I'll share one because these things to me they increase your iman they help you prepare for the latter days but they increase your iman the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said a man will leave what there will come a time a man will leave his house and his thigh will tell him what his family is doing at home what does that I mean like for us now you're like yeah the early generations they believed it they just knew it they didn't know what it meant but they knew it right there's so many things now you read it like subhanallah that's happened we're here now why did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam what's one of the reasons why he told us about these signs and he warned us about these things because at the time when they're all coming is a time of great confusion it's great confusion and it's darkness and people will start to lose their faith from the tribulations that are coming right and so the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is telling us when you see these things you'll recognize them it will make you firm right it will remind you that you're on the right path at a time when everybody's getting confused and distracted right so we work on balancing these three dimensions while knowing that we're going forward in time and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam warned us that be patient because there's no time that comes except that it's worse than the time before it so things are have this downward decline and we have to work this is our charge as Muslims we have to work to make them better to increase the light but we also know at the same time that overall with exceptions here and there it's going downhill right and so this is the prophetic legacy that we learn and we study our dean in order to understand how these three dimensions interplay and they're balanced right so for example when we get up to pray we believe that Allah is going to resurrect us on the day of judgment and hold the first thing we're accountable for is the prayer right so we stand and we have faith we know that Allah is our creator and he commanded us to do these things and he will resurrect us and hold us accountable right and then we say did i make proper will do am i facing the qiblah am i covered appropriately that's the islam right and then what's the state of my heart when i'm in the prayer what's the state of my heart do i say allahu akbar and then i'm thinking about oh man i didn't pick up the dry cleaning again uh right it happens to me i don't know if it happens to you guys right but your mind starts pulling on things things you forgot all day mashaAllah they all come to your to your mind and once you enter the prayer where's your heart where's your heart and here's the greatest test for for us that we should work on what do you feel in the sujood where's your heart in sujood because when you're prostrating that's a special moment with you and your lord where are you if it feels the same to you as when you're standing or when you're in line at the grocery store something's wrong you're just you're just a robot right we can get ai to get a robot to do all of those outward actions but the human soul has to connect with allah and i'll tell you something if you're present with your lord for a moment in the prayer actually i'll say it differently you can never be present with your lord for only a moment in the prayer the moment you're present with allah in the prayer you'll you'll feel that pull you'll feel that pull it's there for you to take it if you're present and it's not to say that shaitan doesn't continue to pull at you there's a specific demon that's assigned to distract people in the prayer and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam told us that a person will start the prayer and shaitan will steal a little bit from it and it'll be nine tenths of a prayer and someone else he'll steal more and he'll have eight tenths of a prayer seven to all the way down to one tenth of the prayer because somebody's distracted right the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam told us that a man he was in the prayer and he was fidgeting a lot whatever he was doing right and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said if his heart was still his limbs would be still so we see this relationship of the outward and the inward right so if you're struggling with presence in the prayer you have to know that that is part of the prayer that is the point of the prayer you do all of the other aspects to enter to prepare for entering into the divine presence you know previous ummas they couldn't worship Allah outside of a sacred temple space that was designated they had to enter into the divine presence literally they couldn't worship Allah that's why the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said the whole earth has been made a masjid we take that for granted as Muslims we know we can pray anywhere right that's clean I mean there there are exceptions but the earth is our temple by their language they used to have to know you have to go to the imagine wanting to worship Allah and having to get on a horse or donkey or something go out to the temple and right go through all these rites and rites just to enter to talk to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala right and we are given one of the blessings of being the ummah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam we have that here and now everywhere you mean the grocery store you can be in the mall you can be at schools right but you're entering into that space and so you have to be present in the heart so again these aspects are three dimensions of the same object you can't separate because we're 3d you can't separate us in that way the dean also cannot be separated in that way each there's interplay between all of them so as we study in the religion and we want to grow in the religion we have to keep that in mind now because we're going to spend this weekend inshallah learning some other aspects of knowledge it's important to understand how do we come to the conclusion that islam says x right what does islam say about you get that question what does islam say about this how do we know that and how do we arrive at that there's different types of knowledge the highest is wahi revelation and the highest wahi is the Qur'an right so the Qur'an is our primary way of knowing and understanding the universe as it is right sometimes you think of the Qur'an is oh that tells us how to do sada or fasting or we get ahkam from it we get rulings no no no the Qur'an is first and foremost right Allah the creator of the universe telling us about reality itself so we have to develop a way of seeing the world inshallah we get that with repetitive recitation of the Qur'an that matches the Qur'an's worldview the Qur'anic worldview how does the Qur'an frame this and that's something and it comes from there's a great Malaysian philosopher who i think just celebrated his 95th birthday uh or 90th one of them an incredible philosopher he wrote a book on this and one of the things he said that was a great paradigm shift he said any concept that you want to weigh you have to take it back to the Qur'an and you have to find the Qur'anic term and framework to understand anything because that is the book revealed by the creator of the human of humankind of the world there's nothing new that isn't going to be in there you know say naamur said if i lost my camel i could find it in the Qur'an right think about that for a moment what did he mean by that meaning you there's nothing you can't find in the Qur'an right it was a way of saying because in the Qur'an will be knowledge of asking the people of knowledge is in the Qur'an right seeking help with patience in prayer right all of these things so you think we're going to run into any challenges as humankind and there's not going to be an answer in the Qur'an right any any question we have about humanity and i'll be direct whether it's politics or whether it's race whether it's economics whether whatever ism of the world we have to find Qur'anic language how does the Qur'an frame this right and when you do that that exercise puts wahi at the top and everything underneath the second is the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam which is also a type of wahi because wama yantikua an al-hawa in huwa illa wahi an yuha the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he doesn't speak from his own desires or whims it's wahi everything he says was wahi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam a different level of wahi so then we have the sunnah the teachings of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam his statements his behavior his acts all of these things that's how we know then we know that there are people who inherited and studied this religion and when they all agree on something right then we're told by the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that my community will never be an unanimous agreement on a misguidance so then we have when we hear all of the companions of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam agreed to x or they did x that has its weight and then we have aqal we have reason right the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in another hadith right el-hikmatu baalatu al-mu'min that wisdom is the lost property of the believer wherever he finds it he has the most right to it right so we can take wisdom from other faith traditions excuse me right so these are and there are many levels to this kind of knowledge right even in the Quran there are outward meanings there are inward meanings there's indications there's right a verse doesn't just mean what the translation says there's much more to it so it's very important when we look at the tradition that our teachers have given us that the scholars of Islam have handed down that we appreciate it for its complexity so one of the things that we say sometimes if we're very honest is we tend to say Islam is simple let me ask that as a question is Islam simple nobody has an answer tongue tied what would you say is Islam simple somebody asks you yes yes okay that's a fair answer right anybody say no yeah okay the answer is yes and no because it's different on one level on one level the truths of Islam are simple and clear such that such a such that the most simple person can understand it right there's a simplicity and a purity that every person can understand right but there's a depth and complexity that can engage the greatest minds of human history for their entire lives and they still haven't plumbed its depths so it's both you have to there's this is the thing sometimes we you know we have to have bifocals when you're looking at this stuff sometimes we tend to see things all in in in one way so this is important for us to understand right and then even when we look at knowledge right we have to understand that things that reach us the scholars are the ones that put it all together they process the bigger picture so for example sometimes someone reads a hadith and they think it means one thing but they don't know when was that said what was the context what other things were said about the same subject right so again the scholars put it all together to give us this integrated whole of the religion all right and so one of the things about the study of Islam is that we have to understand people have different capacities right it sounds like a great ocean some people they like to dip their toes in some people go up to their ankles some people are pearl divers they go all the way down right it's there there's something about the ocean that is simple its beauty is simple right it's a great poem is that by Robert Frost I think about how people look out at the ocean and what's behind them is far more interesting and complex and there's just it's just a line with like what people love to stare out at the odor they can stare out all day because of its simplicity but there's a great secret in looking out at the ocean and seeing the horizon and the beauty there right so that simplicity also has depth now going back to the study of Islam right I think it's important that we understand that we have a prioritization of knowledge not all knowledge is equally important to us or equally our responsibility so the scholars have divided Islam the study of Islam into what's called faradayin the individual obligations that every single one of us has to learn it's our responsibility you have to know how to perform the duties that Allah has made a duty on every muslim and then there are things that not everybody has to know but at least some of us have to know right and those are communal obligations right so this is an important aspect for us to understand is that not all knowledge is necessarily for us we may not be specialists right but we should concern ourselves with those things that are our duties right and here's the other beautiful aspect actually the basics of Islam what we call the basics have such an incredible depth that you find the greatest scholars of Islam always going the because of that simplicity still has a depth to it they can spend their entire lives on that right sometimes we we ask you know we get into this thing where we ask somebody to tell us something we haven't heard before they say oh you know I was at a talk yeah you know the speaker said you know my kids will sometimes say that okay I already knew that I've already heard that before right there's a depth sometimes that we're missing you should be moved there's there's a person that I know who every time he says a dua right if you see him make the dua he says that every time like it's his first and last time saying it the presence right the emphasis somebody will cut like I've seen people get in a line to make dua for me right I'm thinking about the 10th time he's gonna be like may Allah bless you increase you know who's next right he's present as if that's it why because he's present with his Lord you're not present with the people he doesn't care about the people right he's present with his Lord and so every moment he's present you know one of the scholars said this is this is gonna be a little hard to wrap your head around but this is a very important point one of the scholars said that hell is a higher place than the dunya it's a better place to be than the dunya everyone's like what because in hell you can never be and in heedlessness of Allah the people in hell are completely present with their Lord so it has a higher station than the dunya because that's what we were created for at least there they're present with their Lord right now what do we take from that I can understand that that's oh my goodness that's hell right the purpose of our life here is that presence with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so we should get it in the dunya before it comes in the Akhira in a way that we can't handle right and the worst of all punishments of hell fire is distance from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the greatest of all bounties of paradise is nearness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala right so it's all in the heart it's all in presence with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala right but you can't get there without this balance nobody can get there without the outward without the faith and without the inward dimension right and so inshallah i'm going to open it up to questions here shortly that's what we're we're going to try to study and cover is taking these basics that I would encourage you right even if you know to review them and to try to look at them in a way that's deeper than the time that you the last time you might have reviewed it it's like that thief we talked about right he knows his risk is written but he still steals because he only knows it here and it hasn't penetrated here right but the beauty of this knowledge you know like the recitation of the Quran I was once with one of my teachers and he was seeing you know like there was a rain spout that was dripping water like over and over and the there was a stone slab underneath that you could see the hole from the from the water drops on there daily any time it's a daily recitation the Quran is like that to the heart you just have to keep at it and the depth it will have its impact initially the recitation is on the tongue but if you're consistent with the practice and your present it will begin to penetrate the heart right so this is the beauty of our deen you know it's it's amazing the the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that the the the apple of his eye of all of the dunya was what the prayer right he said of all the dunya the thing that that is is is brought you know the the light of my eye is in the prayer right so the most beginner muslim still has to pray and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says it's the greatest joy of the dunya and some of the scholars they used to say that if uh if the kings knew what we experienced in the prayer they would raise armies to try to take it from us it's the greatest joy of the dunya presence with your lord in the prayer but it takes work to get there you know some of the right i might even talk about you know they get into if somebody prays extra prayers because it's the the the the sweetness of conversing with their lord do they get reward for it or are they doing it for the sweetness i call that a good problem to have right if your prayer is so sweet that right but that's the point is that it should become at that point but we don't do the prayer for that that's that's the thing Allah gives spiritual states but our duty is is to show up and do what is our duty and put our effort and then the gifts come from Allah he gives them or he withholds them right so uh subhanahu akbar we can open up for some questions now um inshallah and then i think we'll round yeah please go ahead oh there's a mic to pass around sorry thank you very much for the beautiful talk and thank you for writing the book and and coming in speaking with us tonight so in it when you talk about the purpose of why Allah created us and just to do in this world numerous things like pillars um worshiping Allah being pre being president getting near knowledge even the prophets in the day of the judgment you mentioned um what you're doing here tonight which is very commendable which is the propagation of the religion promotion of the religion graduation expansion and participation within the societies that we live in was that because it's not commanded by Allah to do those things or by doing the other things or more for yourself that if you do those things it'll automatically result in perpetuation and promotion and propagation of the religion that's a good question um again the hadith of jibreel lays out the foundational framework of how we view the religion right so uh the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam laid out those three dimensions that doesn't mean that anything not listed there is not an obligation or not a duty or not important in the religion this is the framework in which we understand everything else now you bring up a great point a different way to look at it is one you need knowledge before you can do what you are saying is important to do right so before you can call others or invite others or propagate you have to have your own study first so that's why we begin with the book of knowledge right we begin with the study you cannot give something that you don't have yourself but to support your point those who call and teach and share the message of the prophets they're doing the work of the prophets that is their legacy so the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam when he passed away some of the companions were still in the marketplace afterwards and say no abu ghureira alayhi wa sallam I know he comes to the marketplace and he says the inheritance of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is being divided in the message now they're dividing out his inheritance so some people went to go look and they saw that they were gatherings of knowledge people studying and he said this is his inheritance right the prophets don't leave gold and silver to be inherited they leave knowledge so no you're absolutely right that is an important duty and we do have a duty the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam commanded us to convey this message on his behalf even if it's just one verse but before we can share we have to have a proper understanding ourselves because then we know what to share we know how to prioritize it we know how to put it in so it's it's it's interesting a lot of people misunderstand that commandment to share the convey it on my behalf even if an aya and they think i only have to know an aya to share it you should have a a whole a good understanding of the religion as well wallahu adam yeah so this is i'm i'm gonna confess here i'm gonna get in trouble for this but one of my teachers and mentors is here and it's making it challenging for me and he's he's a local gem so you guys know him but for me i i'm i'm it's it's a challenge see if you're doing what did you do do you have anything to add to that in terms of that huh but yeah so it's it's making me if i've started sweating in the last 30 minutes you guys know why any other questions yeah we can probably yeah let's let's take a question from the sisters if you guys don't mind salam alaikum wa aleykum wa salam wa rahmatullah where we're humans created to worship Allah it like we were created i've been told any times that we were created to worship Allah yes so there's a verse in the Quran in which Allah says that i only created mankind and the jinn's in order to worship me one of the meanings of that worship me is to come to know me through worship right the worship is there but it's also a means to know Allah right to to have this intimate relationship with Allah and so he created us for our own sakes right Allah is not increased we could all worship Allah day and night and it would increase him nothing it's for our own sakes so Allah created us you know one of the statements of the Ardhamat is he created us for us to profit from him he profits nothing from us right so it's amazing that Allah gives us life he enables us he guides us to obey him and then rewards us for that obedience it's just his generosity right but the opportunities are there and the best thing we can do is to make our efforts match the opportunity right and so we have these opportunities to worship Allah to grow closer to grow near so much so that in the afterlife the only the regret people will have is that they didn't do more right that everything in the dunya everything in this world is cursed and in vain except the remembrance of Allah and there's actually one other regret that's that's important to point out which is the reward for those who endured hardships right we all have hardships in life I can I know without without a doubt there are people here with immense hardships that nobody knows about maybe in this room right the people who have hardships and their patience Allah gives them a great reward on the day of judgment believers when they see the reward that they got they say oh Allah send us back to the dunya send us back to life so that we can shear our skin off of our flesh with scissors right and then be rewarded for being patient with that take us back give us a chance to go through torture so that we can get what they got so these the only thing we regret are these missed opportunities of growing near to Allah getting to know him and attaining more light one of the things on the day of judgment each of us will be given a light based on what we've done and we will look and say oh man look at his light look wow look at the light he had I wish I had a light like that right so this is the light that we we compete for in the dunya this is the opportunity that we have so yeah but that that is why we were created one of the reasons that we were created in the primary city fairy dune do you have anything so thank you very much for helping us to like connect the dots I mean between between these things so besides so what what can we do in order for this reality for this to become more real to us so so you mentioned seeking for knowledge is part of it worshiping Allah more is part of it yes but are there other things that to be able to have that reality to be able to worship Allah as if you see him yes what are the things to get that reality to really drum it into your into your head the simplest answer that I can give to that is to follow the footsteps of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam human perfection right all of the path of ihsan and we're going to talk about the path of ihsan inshallah over the weekend the path of ihsan is all the attempt to resemble becoming muhammadin that's what it is he sallallahu alayhi wasallam is the map he is the guidebook he's the answer he's the template that we're all trying to match so any question that you have any guidance right you have to go back to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and and to emulate him not just outwardly but inwardly right I find you know I don't find you know the splitting of the moon as amazing as the character of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam I mean there are stories that you read and you just it's subhanallah they will they will shake you they will shake you and say what kind of a heart was this what did Allah put into this because because you know you know that that's just beyond human capacity that's not normal you know there's a beautiful uh video if you haven't seen it there's a man uh his name was Yoram I forget his last name okay I'll remember it shortly somebody can google it for me he was what we now call an islamic fold in Denmark and he's started to write a book attacking the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and islam he tells this story himself and he started to read and his intention setting out was to show that islam is a false religion etc that was his intention and he said as he read and he started to see what the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam was he said in a beautiful phrase Allah gifted him with this inspired him he said I was struck by the superhuman mercy and forgiveness of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam and it's true he identified that it wasn't you know the splitting of the moon or the stones talking to him or the tree stomp or the all of these things are amazing right but what made the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam the beloved of Allah right was who he was sallallahu alayhi wasallam that's why the sahaba fell in love with him the companions couldn't get enough of him right they were in awe of him that's why I mean it's amazing and we'll talk about this inshallah over the weekend but I love the story of there was a woman who there was a battle in the early days of islam after the migration and she lost her husband she lost her son and she lost her brother in this battle now I want you guys to imagine this for a moment anybody here lost a loved one can only have some semblance of what that is to lose all three of them in one day they come to her and she's standing at the edge of the battlefield and they say you lost your husband has been slain she says I don't care how is the messenger of Allah they say your son was killed I don't tell me how is the messenger of Allah they say your brother was also okay is the messenger of God okay they said yeah no yes he's okay and once she said I want to see him I want to lay eyes on him I just want to see that he's okay and she said after seeing you okay every calamity in the world is nothing what is that what is that show me a king or a president or a leader anybody whose followers love like that sallallahu alayhi wasallam who inspires love like that right I mean honestly I think most Muslims and this is why it's important to be connected to the Prophet ﷺ most Muslims I think have a beating heart right if I want you guys to think about this if I told you this is a weird thought experiment I would you you could have a dream of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam tonight for half of your wealth would I don't care how rich you are how poor you are half of it or if I told you I would amputate a finger but you could see the Prophet ﷺ and a dream tonight how many of you would take that off I know people they give an arm right I know what is that what is that that's love and that is only inspired by knowing the Prophet ﷺ you can't love him if you don't know him if you think he is somebody who came to give us a few rules and that's all you know about him and we're allowed to do this I'm not that's fine you're missing out you're really missing out right and so learn about the Prophet ﷺ learn to love him learn the beauty and the joy of sending sallahu alayhi wasallam upon him right but you have to do that through knowledge you have to know who the Prophet ﷺ was this is a long roundabout but that is how you get to these places you know the the greatest secrets are unveiled through love love of Allah and love of his messenger right that those are the greatest spiritual openings are through love and this is that he's going to get upset with me he's the resident expert in this honestly I have benefited immensely from him you know when someone's local right so he's come to my town he's come to my town and the crowds and the line for him it right and is that right but when somebody's locally can tend to sort of take people for granted but if you want to learn about divine love and love of the Prophet ﷺ something that ignites fire force him up here I'm telling you guys you're it's it's just my take right it's that that's what I try to do right but that is the greatest way to become present and have this because that's what the sahaba had they were ready to give up everything they're ready to give up their lives their wealth they're ready to leave their families they're ready to migrate what is that right that's not just oh I'll show up to the message what can I do what can't I do it was real to them and that's how it becomes even more real but so may Allah ﷻ ignite our hearts with love and fill our hearts with love and knowledge that brings love and love that brings knowledge right because that's what love should do if love is just something that we is on the tongue that's not love right love is something that makes the difficult become easy it makes hard work light work right so that's that's the that's the reality I think we have time for another question why didn't sit down so you actually gave the analogy of you know someone seeking knowledge and of course going out and experiencing it it's very different and as opposed to you know someone who's been told I'm kind of wondering if this same can be said about patients are there levels of patience and how can one attain the highest level are there levels to it just like you said you know learning would probably increase you I'm kind of curious if there's yeah that's a great question there are levels I would say to all spiritual stations and all spiritual states there are levels and that's why for example you have said that you joke is sort of the epitome of patience and so you have obviously there's levels to that patience but I'll share a hadith that I think is very interesting and again sets this are there levels to patience so a couple of things before I say the prophecy I said I'm also helped us again this is why knowledge is empowering and transformative he told us that those with the greatest tribulation in the in in this world is is whom I'm sorry the prophets and then who the people closest to them and then who the people most like them so this is the inverse of what's called now the prosperity gospel the more pious you are the easier your life becomes no the prophet is giving us a different mind frame right the closer you are to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala right the more tribulation will be sent to you to elevate you right the more you will have to endure so set that up there's a there's a hadith of a woman who was standing over the grave of her son that she had buried in Medina and she was kind of wailing very and she was in the states and the prophet sallallahu harayhi was passing by and he told her be patient and she turned and she said a phrase to him something like what do you know about the pain that I'm feeling what do you know of this claim and so the prophet said and left later someone came to him came to her and said do you know who that was that said that to you she said no I was in a state I wasn't paying this is that was the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam she came to him to apologize he said yeah I didn't know that was you I'm sorry I you know she she she was explaining the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said and this is the hadith isn't the phrase a sabruh and a sadmada that true patience is when the calamity first strikes right it's easier to collect yourself later so there are levels the where you want to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is telling us about true patience is to be able to be with to withstand the calamity when it first strikes right and that even if it's bitter you accept it because it's from Allah and you take that pain gracefully that's sabr so there are levels to it of course there are people who the tribulations increase and no you can't tell because their sabr is also increasing right okay I think we'll end here just I'd like to try to be on time and wrapping up are there any final questions that I don't want to cut anybody off if they feel you have some I can linger around for a few minutes if there are questions so sallallahu alaihi wa sallam