 Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Welcome my beloved brothers and sisters, respected viewers, you are watching another show on Imam Hussein TV. Teach, talk, and thrive. Insha'Allah I'll be your host for this evening, Ali Burji. And with us tonight, we have a quite familiar face in Imam Hussein TV, Sayyid Mohsin Shah. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Nice to see you. It's been a long time. It has been, Alhamdulillah, it's good to reunite on Imam Hussein TV. And insha'Allah, today we have a quite exciting topic to discuss, which is the Islamic Seminary, otherwise known as the Hausa. And insha'Allah, since you yourself are a Talib al-Hausa student. I believe you are as well, Mr. Burji. Let's look. I've experienced it. I wouldn't consider myself a Talib. I've been to Hausa, Alhamdulillah, in the blessed land of Najaf. The biggest blessing in my life, the best ten and a half years I've ever had, and probably will ever have in Dunya. Insha'Allah, you have many more years to come in Najaf, insha'Allah. Now, obviously, this is a very important topic. A lot of people may not be aware of what exactly is the Hausa or how it's built, what it consists of, who goes there, who attends, what's the aim and purpose of it. So, insha'Allah, I would like to shed some light through your experience and obviously through mine as well. Insha'Allah, we would like to begin with the most common question, which, what is Hausa, exactly? Also, blessings be shared upon the Rasulullah and blessings be shared upon the Ahlul Bayt, the Holy Household, which brought us the true knowledge of Islam. The Hausa is known as the Islamic Seminary. It is a university or a college where people are invited to come join and they are invited to gain, what we can say, our scholarships to study Islamic texts as well as Islamic sciences. These seminaries are mainly headed by Mujtahideen and Maraja. Just for the sake of clarifying what's a Mujtahideen, what's a Maraja for any of our viewers who may not know. A Mujtahideen is one who has studied to a level of Ijtihad in fiqh. In this context, we say fiqh. Meaning fiqh, Jewish students. In the Jewish students. So someone who has studied Jewish students as well as principles of Jewish students, how to derive law. Someone who studied law and how to derive law at a level which is arguably equivalent to a phd, maybe higher. You can be a Mujtahideen in other subjects as well. So it's like you're an expert. But when we, the common, the default position and what we say is like, you know, the is with the to those who don't assume a fiqh and fiqh, the Jewish potential law and also principles of Jewish students, they have the abilities and the skills to derive law for themselves. That's a Mujtahideen. A Maraja is one who is a higher position for, he is followed by others. He is a source of elevation as source of copying his professional Islamic Jewish potential opinion on on on a hadith or he is on a subject matter in in referring to in reference to what Allah SWT wants you to do. That is a Marja. Okay. So Marjas, the Maraja and Mujtahideen are normally the heads of the Hausa and they discuss with other organizations sometimes on the syllabus. I want to teach you and inshallah if you join, you know, you will get to study many, many topics and subjects in the Hausa. Speaking of studying many topics and subjects, could you name some of them? Definitely. I mean, so when you join Hausa in your first year, depending where you go, you may have a language course. So they will update, they will try and teach you the language, the local language, or the language of what the Hausa teaches in. For some it's Fusha, for some it's Farsi, for others it's English. It just depends which Hausa you go to. Not all Hausers offer a language course. So you do a language course first. Why don't you do a language course when you've done your language course and probably some preliminary subjects such as theology, maybe Fiqh as well of a Marja. So the Rasala Amalia, you know, the jurisprudential law book of a Marja, of a Grand Ayatollah, you go through that. So you get understanding of what Islamic law is. You get understanding of theological discussions and debates on the existence of God, the existence of prophets, Imamah, Qiyamah. Also you probably study a little bit of Quran to Juit, how to recite Quran to make sure your Arabic and your recitation is proper. And then after you've done that, you go into your first, like what we call Muqad-e-Mati or your first couple of years, your first year, so a couple of subjects. So you study Fiqh, you'll study what we all love as a Housa student, Salf and Naho. Oh, Salf and Naho. Which is... Which we're going to say logic. Mantik, you also study, I study Mantik as well. So Salf and Naho, you study, so in English we call that syntax and morphology. So you understand how Arabic sentences are formed and what role each word plays in a sentence. You study Mantik, logic. So you, they will teach you logic, which is how to understand the sentence, how to determine something from a sentence and how to actually create definitions is what they'll teach you in Mantik. And also something I'd like to add is that, subhanAllah, by studying Salf and Naho, you truly recognize the blessing of Arabic. Indeed. But do I mean by that it's why Allah chose this language to be... I'll tell you something really quickly. How many words are they in the Chinese language? Roughly about 60,000. How many words are they in the English language? About 600,000. How many words are they in the Arabic language? 12 million. And that is thanks to the conjugation, that is thanks to Salf and Naho. And this is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala probably chose Arabic as a language that he wanted to portray his message in simply because of the beautiful mathematical sciences behind the Arabic language, as well as the diverse vocabulary that is available. That you take, you and I know this, but to the viewers, you take a word and it's like you just put it through a machine. And you know, when you conjugate the word, you know, it'll mean this, it'll mean that, okay, for example, let's take, we'll, our teachers used to say, you always use the violent words like, you know, but let's say Sajjadah, he did Sajjadah, then you have the word Sajjad, someone who does Sajjad, Masjid, a place of Sajjad. And then you can do, like when you conjugate it even further to the past tense, the present tense, the future tense, and you conjugate it to a male, a female, two males, two females, a group of males, a group of females, a group of females with one male in it. You know, I think you're smiling because you know exactly what I'm talking about. Subhanallah, it's so deep. And that is the beauty of the Arabic language. So yeah, Sarf and Nahouf, Mantik, Aqa'id, very English. So what do you believe? Aqa'id in English, what would be the... I think the best way to translate it is theology. Theology. So what do you believe and why do you believe in it? You believe in God, why do you believe in God? You know, how do you challenge God's existence and how do you, you know, come up with the arguments that God does exist? How do you refute these arguments? And how do you come to yakeen in the conclusion that there is a God? And then that God is one or two, multiple or singular. Dawhid, is that God just or not just? Adil, in the other. And then you go on to prophethood, that this God has He brought prophets. Why has He brought prophets? And also we go on to Imamah and also the resurrection after that, the end. So that is an aqa'id in theology. You'd also, you know, study maybe a bit of Tafsir of the Quran. You study Quranic sciences. Now what's the difference between Tafsir and Quranic sciences? Tafsir is what we call the... Explanation. Explanation, I think I'm trying to remember the proper word. I believe it's exegesis. The exegesis of the Quran is the translation of Tafsir. It's derived from the Greek word exegesis. Yes, which means what? Explanation. Mashallah. So you had the exegesis and then you have Quranic sciences. What is Quranic sciences? Quranic sciences is the study of what the Quran actually is. What is the Quran in its original form? Because it has, in a way, the Quran has been deconfragmented and diluted and simplified and simplified and simplified to bring down to earth. And what we have is a book with writing on it. But that is the most simplified version of what it's originally what it is. So what is it originally? You know, and inshallah, when you go study Quranic sciences, you know what it is originally, using proof from the Quran to tell us what the Quran is in the heavens. Never mind what we have, this material Quran that we have today. So, you know, that's a really interesting subject and you will learn that. Adin Shah, you go further into other topics such as Hadith studies. You will go into Rijal studies further on, inshallah. And many more topics which you can choose history. You can choose social sciences. That's the beauty of Hausa, that there isn't a fixed curriculum, that if you obviously that you've got the basics, the foundation. But once you've passed the point of foundation, then you can choose what you'd like to master, your skills. I think at the beginning, you have what you have to do. You have to do them. Well, you need them, they're essential. Yeah, those are the skills you need to actually really, really excel. And actually not just excel, but enjoy. Now, you know, it increases the depth of your understanding of the creation of Allah, and it's beautiful. Also, it helps you explain things to people, whether they're Muslim or from other faiths or other sects. And it's beautiful as well, especially when you combine that, the understanding of the creation and how Allah put things in place and the rulings and regulations, it makes much more sense with regards to why things are the way they are, for example. And these are important questions that everyone has. And they have to be explained to them. Now, with that being said, another important question that people should really understand is, why should anyone attend the Islamic seminaries or the Hausa? Why should we attend the Hausa? So if you allow me, I'll just recite a hadith or two in regards to gaining knowledge and what the Ahlul Bayt have said. Of course, we love it. Thank you. So from Imam Sadiq, alaihi salam. So Imam Bakr, alaihi salam, he says, try to learn knowledge because learning it is a good action and study is itself a worship. This is from Bukhar Anwar, volume 78, page 189. This is what Imam Bakr, alaihi salam, has said. Furthermore, we have Imam Ali. The door to the city of knowledge. What does he say? The one who seeks for knowledge is like a warrior in the cause of religion for the way of Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's Bukhar Anwar, volume one, page 179. And just one more. Imam Sadiq, alaihi salam, he says, try to obtain knowledge and ornament it with patience and dignity and be humble for the one who learns knowledge from you. And that is Al-Qafi, volume one, page 36. So we see there's a great importance in learning knowledge. Al-A'imah have focused and told us so much to focus on knowledge. In fact, if you look at Al-A'imah, what did they do for most of their lives? Was teach? We are known as the Jafri school of thought. Why? Imam Jafri, alaihi salam, excelled at what was known as the University of Medina, which was established by, it started off with Imam Sajad, established by Imam Ahmad Bakr, alaihi salam. And then finally, Imam Sadiq excelled in it and thousands of students were enrolling and graduating from that university. Unfortunately, today we have just ruins of it. But this is what Al-A'imah used to do. They used to teach and teach us to become experts in different fields of Islamic sciences, whether it be reciting Quran, whether it be giving fatawa, whether it be improving your morality and your ethics. This is what Al-A'imah taught us. And this is why it's so important for our community to invest time and to invest money in the Hausa because right now there is a big, big shortage of scholars for the West. Masha'Allah, we have many scholars for Iraq. We have many scholars, Masha'Allah, for Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan. All major languages that Muslims speak. Alhamdulillah, we have scholars for them. Apart from English, in the last 50 years, Muslims have migrated. For whatever reasons, political or non-political, Muslims have migrated to the West, Europe, the Americas, the Australasia, Africa. So we have to now provide these people with a means of understanding and gaining the religion of Islam. And I asked you this, Mr. Burji. The Ahlul Bayt, are they restricted to the Shia? No. The knowledge of the Ahlul Bayt, is that just for us? Obviously not, for the entire humanity. So we have to give it to them. That's true. Now Masha'Allah, we have the Arabs doing their bit. We have the Iranians doing their bit. Pakistanis and everyone's doing their bit. Apart from the English, because they don't have any heritage or roots within this religion. So now we have to invest time, as Westerners and English speakers, we have to go to the Hauses to learn. And insha'Allah, we'll come back to, not just improve our community, but improve those who've never heard of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Those who've never heard of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi. We have to do it. It's a duty upon us. Now with regards to a Westerner wishing to enroll, what do you think, according to your experience, would be the best way to introduce a Westerner into the lifestyle of Hausa? Because as you know yourself, Hausa is not like a university. It's not like a college. It is a school. It is a center of knowledge. But there is a certain lifestyle and expectations from it. It's very demanding, very mentally draining at times. We have to be frank about this. Yes, it is. Of course you always pray and ask Allah to ease and things for you in life in general. But how do you think would be the best way to prepare a Westerner to enter into the lifestyle of Hausa? I think the best way for a Westerner, let's say someone who's not Muslim. So the person who hasn't got any links towards an undeveloped country. So let's say an Englishman that wants to go to the Hausa to learn. There are going to be many challenges. Number one is language. Number two is culture. Number three is lifestyle. As in electricity cuts, heat. Maybe he'll be subjected to cultural which is called traditions that he's never known before. For example, you're not allowed to shake ladies' hands, not really allowed to speak to women. Eating with your right hand, not with your left. Other traditions and cultural, what do you call them? Cultural. Different. You could say different. Cultural. Varieties. This is called a moral ethical codes that they have. For example, you know, here you might get away with a vest and shorts but in Anarki you're not getting away with wearing one of those. Especially in the Hausa. It's regarded as unmodest. It wouldn't be appropriate for you to walk in the streets. Exactly. Exactly. So a Westerner has to learn these moral traits and learn these cultural differences. So wouldn't it be, sort of to interrupt you, so wouldn't it be best to establish a system in the West to prepare students to go to the Middle East? We do have some establishments here in the UK, also in the Americas and maybe there's some in Europe. I know there's some in Denmark, in Germany. We have seminaries already set up. So you can begin your introductory and your preliminary education there and then go to the more advanced in the traditional Hauses which you have in Iran and in Anarki. That is a great way to introduce yourself to Hausa and they will teach you in the language which is most common to the land. So it will be in the native tongue of the country. But those are, I think, those are limited. You can only do your muqaddamaat and your sotukh. You won't be able to go further in to do the really really, let's say the juicy bits, you know, those you'd have to go to the traditional Hauses and study there. So that I think is the only challenge with staying back and not going to somewhere like Iran or Iraq to study Hausa. But it is a great way and probably is the best way for a Westerner to be introduced to the Hausa lifestyle and to the Hausa syllabus. Don't you think that it would be good as well and easier and faster for someone to understand a culture, a way of life by mixing with, for example, Arabs from Iraq? Definitely 100%. We're not trying to discourage people. I'm not going to Iraq or Iran if they haven't got any affiliation or any, you know, familiarities or anything in common with these people. We definitely encourage people to go and engage with the people and engage with the culture. Just know that there are some traditional practices that you may not be familiar with. And, you know, like, for example, we all know the thumbs up here in the UK is fine. You do that in Iran, you're in trouble. Oh, I didn't know that really. Yes, yes, yes, you're in trouble in Iran if you do that. It's very rude. So to get accustomed to these, you know, cultural practices and these cultural traditions, we'll take a bit of time. You need a bit of patience. But alhamdulillah, the reward is very, very good, you know, very great, not just the thawab you're getting, not just the sins that you're eradicating, but the knowledge that you're gaining. And I think that's the key thing, that a person should have that thirst for the knowledge. Definitely, because if you don't, if you have just a thirst for an adventure, that's going to dry out. But if you have a thirst for knowledge, then subhanallah, how's that every day? Yeah, definitely. I think Imam Ali, he says it the best, Imam Ali, alaihi salam, he says there are two types of thirst that I never quenched. One is the, you know, for dunya and for like, you know, money and for materialism. And the other is for knowledge. That the more you learn it, and me and you both know this, because we've been to the houses and we've studied it, the more you learn, the more you want to learn. You know, it's like, it's really weird. It's like the more you put in, the more space it creates for more knowledge to come. It doesn't, it's not like, oh, this is my memory bank and it's full now, I can't put any more in. No, you know, the more you learn, the more you want to learn. And the skills you acquire to learn more, to read longer, to study for longer, to remember more. Alhamdulillah, it's a miracle in itself. Subhanallah. Other thing I would like to discuss with you is about certain misconceptions about Hausa, that it's a boys-only play area, let me see. It's exclusive to males. Yeah. And no, that's not true. Exactly. Now, what do we have in place in the West that is available for sisters, ladies to attend? For sisters doing choir with your local Hausa, if you come with your Hausa, if there is, if it's a mixed Hausa or if there are any female only Hauses available in the local area. In London, I think there are a couple, definitely in Iraq and in Iran, there are definitely ladies-only Hauses where they can go and study there and they don't have to worry about, you know, the facilities that are there are not present. They have everything to cater for ladies to go and study there. We don't want to even discourage our sisters from going to the Hausa. We are in desperate need of female leaders in our community and female scholars in our community to educate the ladies because let's be honest, there are some topics. Ladies are not comfortable with discussing with their local male scholar and requires a female and you can say a feminine touch and that's why it's very important that we have females who are active in the community, who are lecturing in the community, holding classes in the community. This can only be done by ladies going to Hausa. In the West, I do believe we do have some, do get in contact with your local mosque and your local Hausa to find out if there are some, if you want to study. If not, definitely Iraq and Iran, definitely they have female Hauses. Now with regards to Hausa, I just wanted to just discuss a bit of maybe some controversial issues. If I could put it plainly, do you think that there are bad people in Hausa? But 100%, 100%. Don't think that everyone you meet in Hausa is this pious and God-faring individual. Everyone in Hausa are human beings and are subjected to diseases such as jealousy, such as greed, such as hate and envy, such as, you know, this pleasure, some even mischief. And let's not forget, unfortunately in some Hauses, politics is very, very dominant. Now this politics, maybe politics of the government, not just the government, but the politics of the Hausa as well. We have our own politics that we have amongst our own communities within the community, politics within the Hausa itself. Maybe certain teachers were trying to get ahead of other teachers to higher positions. You will be subjected to this. You will be subjected to people who may tell you one thing, mean another. Me personally, I have gone to one of my teachers who gave me one answer to a query and I went to another teacher in the same Hausa who gave me the total opposite answer. And there was a clash, there was a clash of ideas, there was a clash of opinion, not a clash as in that, then the two teachers started to fight, but I'm just saying that I had in my brain this teacher has said this, the other teacher has said this, and there's been a clash, a total opposite. That would happen. So there is a difference of opinion. Sometimes that can even lead to issues in Hausa. And when you have teachers trying to force the opinion on you, that is wrong. You can't have that in the Hausa. A Hausa is an environment of academia and critical discussion where you can criticise and critically analyse any issue, any topic, any theory within the Islamic boundaries, with respect academically, and absolutely annihilating slaughter. But the thing is, you want to come to your kin, you actually want to give everything you got against this theory to prove that this theory is correct or to prove that it is incorrect. And yes, we do have some people who are trying to push an agenda in the Hausa. Maybe they want to support a certain theory and discourage another theory, which is wrong. You have to have a very, very open mind and you have to stay awake in Hausa just to keep yourself away from that. You're there to learn and you're there to accept what you deem to have concluded using logic and using research and speaking to many, many people to come to your own, to derive your own conclusion to any theory that is actually presented to you in Hausa. And at the end of the day, Shaitan, Satan infiltrates every establishment. Yes. He wouldn't obviously let anyone freely to guide others or to guide it himself. So people should expect that things occur even in the purest of places like whole cities, for example. And by saying that, I remember when I went for the first time ever back in 2014, literally I thought I was double entering the city of angels. If only I knew better. But you learned through that. Yes, you did. You learned. But my personal advice to any Westerner who would like to indulge in Hausa studies is if you are going to go to the West, sorry, apologies, if you are going to go to Middle East, for example, traditional locations, Najaf, Karbala, Qom. Mashhad. Mashhad, Shiraz, any other place, wherever there's Hauses, you must go with zero expectations especially the way you've been accustomed to living. Just forget about that and just embrace the change, embrace the different. Something different. It is very challenging. I mean, you're going to get you're going to get a smaller room. Maybe there's cracks. The hygiene is not the same as you have here in the West. It's the way you know it's the weather. Don't eat food from streets unless you know who it is. Yes, yes. And also, I had a shower with the snake once. Mashhad Allah. Mashhad Allah. Did you sleep with the spiders? The spider scorpions. Mashhad Allah. Mosquitoes as big as the ones in Jurassic Park. That's Najaf Hausa for you. That's a blessing because the struggle, the struggle, there's a reward behind it. Definitely, definitely. It toughens you up as a person because without a joke, I've noticed that we who grow in the West can be a bit softer if I can use that terminology. Soft though, the description, which it is true. We see how people in terrible countries and we can go into deeper discussion why they're named terrible countries in the first place. But they are tougher because life is tougher in general. And we take so many things for granted. We do spoil ourselves whether through society, through parents, through the luxury. Because a lot of things we have and take for granted in the West is considered luxury in terrible countries. Obviously, I don't feel maybe it's not best to call Iraq a terrible country. Maybe some people tried very hard to make it one but Insha'Allah it's going to bloom. Definitely Insha'Allah. In the future it will bloom. Now insha'Allah, unfortunately, as usual, we're running out of time. Time is nothing but an enemy. It can be both sometimes. Double eye sword, it can be an enemy or a blessing sometimes. I just wanted to extract from you with regards to Hausa. What do you love about it? Well, what's the more? What could you pick out from Hausa that you love the most? What I love the most about Hausa is the learning, the deep mysteries and secrets of Allah SWT and the deep mysteries and secrets of the Ahlul Bayt. This knowledge is... You can't put a name to this knowledge because we are discovering things which the Ahemma have discussed 1400 years ago and we're finding out now. And it's just to think, how much more did they actually know? We can technically get a head start on the West, on so many different avenues of sciences simply because we have the Ahemma. We need to do our best to translate so much of their work. Yeah, that's true. And this is what I love the most about the Hausa. The second thing I love about the Hausa and it's the most important thing this is a piece of advice to all the viewers as well is that the Hausa isn't just a building and you put an admission form in and you attend classes. The Hausa is you gaining knowledge that may be at home in front of a computer through some website. It could be through these YouTube videos, programs on CDs, like software, or even if it's knocking on the door of your local sheikh and saying, look, can you teach me a book? And you sit with him one hour, two hours a week and go through a book on Aqa'id or on Akhlaq or on history. This is the beauty about Hausa. That's what it is. It's the learning process for you to develop. So you finish one book and I go to level two of that book, level three, level four and go all the way up and improve and improve and then, you know, deepen your understanding and your knowledge of that subject. That's what I love about the Hausa. I said to my group with you that was the same for me as well. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. It was unbearable. Like the knowledge you acquire just broadens your understanding, just throws you to a deep hole where you start to see life from a different angle and understand the existence of reality. It's unbearable. Indeed. It's unbearable. Alhamdulillah, Rab al-Alamin. Inshallah, you go back. You go back. Muhammad al-Wali, Al-Tunyi bin al-Tahireen. Madia viewers, respect the brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, once again, we've run out of time. I would like to thank you, Seidna, for being with us and obviously sharing your knowledge and experience. Thank you very much for having me. And Habib, Seidna. And inshallah, hopefully we'll be back again soon and discuss another topic. Until then, remember us all in your du'as and do not forget to always pray for the hasting of the reappearance of the Momin, Al-Hujjaj, Allah Ta'ala, Fawjil Sharif. From me and everyone else from the Mahusin team would like to wish you all a lovely evening and would like to end with a loud salawat. Allahumma, Salih Alam, Muhammad, Walaym Muhammad.