 Assalamu alaikum. Wa-alaikum assalam wa-alaikum warahmatullah wa-alaikum wa-alaikum wa-alaikum wa-alaikum Wa-alaikum wa-alaikum wa-alaikum wa-alaikum Two Sakaqana Khir, Sheikh Osama. The beautiful talk. I was hoping that Imam Zayi would be here so we can just cut out the middle man but as Sheikh Osama said, Sidi Asif is very persistent so I couldn't weasel my way out of tonight. There's a few reflections regarding laidat al-Qadr. There's so many of my teachers here as well, Ustadh Abdullah Ali is here. He should really be speaking as well. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, inna anzalnahu fi laidat al-Qadr. Verily we have sent it down on the night of power. Now the Ulema, and this comes really from Ibn Abbas, radiullah ta'ala anhu, Mufassir al-Quran. He says there's three levels of meaning of Qadr. When we say laidat al-Qadr, the night of power, this is the construct phrase. It says one of the meanings is that this is the night of power, the night of majesty, a night of honor. And interestingly, this is the night when the Ruh, Jibril alayhi salam, descended and came to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and Jabal al-Nur in ghare hira. And interestingly the name Jibril obviously is not an Arabic name in its origin. It's a Hebrew name, Gavriel, which literally means the power of God or the majesty of God or the honor of God. And of course the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, although he is a student of Jibril alayhi salam, is better than Jibril alayhi salam because the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is khayr al-khalkillah that when he went beyond Siddharatul-Muntaha in Jibril alayhi salam could not pass because he said, I will combust in the flames. But the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he did pass. And the Ulama say that he kept his sandals on. Why didn't his sandals combust in the flames? The Ulama say it's because they were attached to the foot, the blessed foot of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Anything attached to the Prophet does not touch fire, it has to have strong attachment, it's strong attisal to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He said in a hadith, Fatima is a piece of my flesh, whoever makes her angry has angered me, whoever angers me, angers Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in another Rewaya. And on that day, the day of judgment, all relations are cut off except for my progeny and those who are joined to me, those who are connected have a strong attisal, have a strong connection with me sallallahu alaihi wa la alaihi wasallam. So this is one of the meanings, the night of power. Ibn Abbas, he also mentions that one of the meanings is the night of the decree, the night of qadr meaning decree, that all of the affairs of the year are decreed on although we know that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decreed everything before he created the universe, pre-eternally. Irada is a pre-eternal attribute or that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had decreed this night in previous dispensations and revelations and indeed reread in the previous revelations, for example in the Old Testament that the book is given to one who is an ummi. One of the meanings of Nabi al ummi in addition to being unlettered is a Gentile prophet, the Yahud bani Israel in Medina, they would refer to the Arabs as ummiyun, lesa alayna fi al ummiyun. Nabi al ummi could mean Gentile prophet. The book is given to a Gentile prophet and it shall be said to him in the Hebrew it says qura which is the exact same cognate word as the Arabic iqra. This is in the Bible, Old Testament Isaiah chapter 29 verse 12 and he shall answer lo yadaati seyfar in Hebrew which literally means I don't know letters. This is his response. So this night was decreed in the previous dispensations and they know him like they know one of their own sons. We read in serial literature Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Hisham, they say that the bani Israel in Medina they used to give good news Bushra to the Arabs of Yathrib, the Al-Sunnah khazraj that a prophet is coming here is going to punish you for your idolatry, right? And this is the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam. One of the other meanings is the night of constriction, constriction or restriction. So the ulamas explain the meaning here and they say that as Abu Huraira said there's so many angels on the earth on lady tul qadr that the earth seems to be constricted. The earth is literally constricted with melaika. In the hadith of the prophet he said adadul melaikati fil ard ka adadi nujumasamaa that the number of angels on the earth is like the number of stars in the heavens. It's a night of constriction. That's why the ulamas say based on hadith literature that you know you've witnessed lady tul qadr if at fudger time the sun rays are faded because of the residual light of the angels the melaika that were on the earth faded out the sun rays right the night of constriction. It's also a night in which he was constricted sallallahu alayhi walayhi sallam that jibril alayhi sallam according to the sound hadith embraced the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam and he felt the constriction and according to catholic doctrine this is a sign that this is true prophecy this is called the law of discernment of spirits that when a true prophet receives true revelation from an angel from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala ultimately from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala immediately he feels a constriction because it's a weighty issue it's taqil like musa alayhi sallam according to the taura and other prophets in the taura they try to get out of the mission pick someone else i'm not eloquent i can't do this they feel a constriction this is a sign that it's from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this is according to catholic doctrine law of discernment of spirits where do you see false prophets when shayateen come to them or awliya sheikh abdul qadr jinali jilani rahimahu allah ta'ala it's related that he was walking down the roadway a great wali of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and suddenly he saw this vision and this this light and he felt this warmth and this voice came to him ya sheikh al-islam you've transcended the prayer you don't have to pray anymore you're above the prayer you've transcended the prayer and he said the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam he had to pray six times a day his wajib sallat wa tahajjud and you're telling me i've transcended the prayer and you are rejected you're a person this shaytan trying to play with him but he felt this expansion immediately all this great fuzzy feeling right but that's not how it comes to the prophets the true prophets of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so these are the meanings of of laylat al qadr according to the hadith according to uh the ulama now we're coming to the end as ustad sama had said sheikh usama may law preserve him we're coming to the end of the month and we have a lot of intentions to make during this time obviously this is a time of character reformation but it's really important that we get into a mode of studying sacred sciences study sacred sciences i mean just the other day a brother from another community said you know alhamdulillah i fasted most of the days of ramadan so why were you traveling he said no i had to study for a test one day so i decided not to fast and so you have to do kafara what's that well you have to expiate what does that mean isn't it optional i mean this is very basic people don't know basic fith may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us to fix the study very basic fith even the foqaha very very high levels the greatest of foqaha they go back six months every six months every year and they begin reading from the very beginning aqsamun miyah the types of water how to make istinja how to make musul they review these things so may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us to fix to get in some sort of study circle and learn these things and not just depend on our uncles right there's a method of the uncle my uncle says this therefore it's the gospel truth so to speak this is sahi kaka john or sahi how do you say uncle and or do i forget cha cha right or amu john something like that everyone has a weird uncle they say right and if you don't have one that you're the weird uncle right but we need to actually sit with ulama it's very important this is how we transform the internal this is how we achieve korb with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala nearness to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala abu hamal al ghazali mentioned sit with the ulama and take from their prescriptions and this will bring you near to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and this will endear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to your heart just watching ulama not necessarily even understanding them i i attended a dars one time when i first went overseas in arabic dars i didn't understand any arabic during that time and i sat and the teacher was expounding on a sacred text and i didn't understand i got up and left and one of the other students said no just sit down and watch him just watch what he does watch how he speaks watch how he sits watch how he points watch how he smiles and wallahi i learned more from that not understanding anything i didn't understand anything as to what he said but i learned more from that dars than many many other dudus that i have taken just by watching the ulama the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is related the hadith of abdullah ibn amr that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam marrabi majlisaini fi majlis masjidihi that he walked by two uh gatherings in his masjid faqala killahuma alel khayr both of them are good one of them is better than the other as for one of them they're making dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and if Allah wills he'll grant them what they're asking for if not he won't give them what they're asking for as for the other one as for the other group they're learning fiqh and in this context fiqh doesn't mean jurisprudential things although that's part of it we've mentioned this many times fiqh here means the essence of the religion the essence of the religion they say the ulama say like the essence what is the essence of a rose is the smell can you imagine a rose without a smell you're missing the essence of the rose the essence they're learning religion at a deep level the hadith says when Allah wishes good for someone you faqihu fideen he gives him fiqh in the deen in this sense you can be a faqih not necessarily in the jurisprudential aspect right but in the sense that you have a deep understanding of the religion there's no order in the quran to memorize the quran but there is a command to have tadafura of the quran afalaya tadafurun al quran and this isn't it there's taqseez there's no specification here yayu al ladina amr this is for everyone to have a deep tadafura of the quran obviously we have to memorize the quran and there's great in that don't get me wrong obviously but we should understand what we're reciting have tadafura tadafura means to penetrate something and to find the end of it penetrate the meanings of the quran so he said one group is learning fiqh or ilma and they're teaching the ignorant for them they are better they are the better group that doesn't mean that okay i'm not going to do any du'a ad du'amukh al ibadah is another hadith that supplication is the essence of worship we talked about essence supplication is the essence of worship we need to be supplicating to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala some people go weeks and weeks without raising their hands they just do their prayer like a robot they're thinking about other things may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala save us from that and they don't even remember the last time they actually spoke with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala from the heart they just recite the quran like a parrot it doesn't go past the throat they don't understand what they're saying either they do understand what they're saying it's just motion it's just adat it's just habitual custom raise your hands to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and make du'a to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this will bring you closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves when his servants call upon him in no anthropomorphic way so then he said but he said fuhum afdal they're better the ones who are learning sacred knowledge the essence of religion and teaching the ignorant fuhum afdal wa innama burithum wa'alima i was only sent as a teacher and then he sat amongst them sallallahu alaihi wa ala ali wa sallam so when we gain sacred knowledge we should also gain adab right the word adeeb in arabic means an erudite person an intelligent person because intelligence goes hand in hand with adab with comportment having good character right that's why someone who has a lot of knowledge and is not someone who has good character we have to question who are his teachers or what kind of attitude that this person have that's an that's a sign that this person has an ego an ego of course is a greek word that means i right i like Imam Jaffa had a saw that he said the only one who has the right to the haqq to truly say i is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because he's non-contingent being he's the only real he's the only one that can say in nani anallah the only one who could say that and it's interesting that it's there's a duplication in this verse when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks to musa alayhi asalam ana ana he says it twice and this is found in the Torah also i am who i am ana in nani anallah in me anallahu rabu lalameen right like shaytan was asked shaytan was commanded mix sajja to Adam ana khayrum minhu me ananiya egoism right this type of thing so we need to work on our adab our adab with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that when something goes wrong on our life we don't breach adab we don't have su al adab with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala there's going to be tribulations Allah promises us in the Quran with with toki in the grammar that truly we're going you're going to have tribulation in your life loss of wealth and loss of lives and and the the toil of your struggles and these types of things are going to happen we need to increase an adab an adab with the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi asalam have adab with the messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi asalam there's a story of imam malik ibn anas we told the story last night in a different masjid where he was in the masjid and of course imam malik is a mustahid mutlaka the school of jurisprudence is based on his codification or students codification of sacred law one of the greatest scholars of islamic history he was in the masjid and the abasit caliph was there abu ja'far al mansoor also known as al mansoor and some of these caliphs after obviously after the caliphate rashideen sometimes there's an ego issue may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala save us from our egos we all have this problem they have the problem as well al mansoor was the man who imprisoned abu hanifa he came to abu hanifa and he said i want you to be the qadi al quda the chief justice abu hanifa said no i'm not the right man for this and he said qadib ta you've lied then abu hanifa was very clever very high acumen he said if i'm a liar then why do you want me to be the judge anyway so al mansoor didn't like this comment so he imprisoned him and some say he died in prison he's an old man 68 69 70 years old at the time radi allah ta'ala anhu anyway so al mansoor is in the masjid and he's having a discussion with imam malik and imam malik did not like to argue his students said that jid al bayna al awam is haram for muslim laity to sit around and argue about ashari maturidi and salafi and and shia and sunni this time he said this is haram this is his the opinion of his students jid al bayna al awam and then he said jid al bayna ulama because they have adab and sometimes it's necessary even that's makru if you're an right so al mansoor begins raising his voice right it's probably losing the discussion or something he's becoming impatient he raises his voice and imam malik was very radi allah ta'ala anhu he's very soft spoken he said that i'd never slept one night without seeing the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in my dream every night he saw the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and according to the mutawater hadith man rani fil manami fa qad rani whoever has seen me in a dream has truly seen me al haqq in another hadith has seen the truth has seen reality he saw the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in every night of sleep he used to when he taught the muwata in the masjid he used to say qala sahibu had al qabar and he used to point to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam the occupant of this grave said this is his proximity to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam as far as spatially and physicality but also a relational nearness to him sallallahu alaihi wa sallam so alman surah is raising his voice and as salli iman malik says lower your voice he's very stern with him right oh this is the kailah lower your voice how dare you right so then he explains it to him he said haven't you heard allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say inna ladina yehud duna aswatakum nda rasulillahi ulayka ladina imtahanallahu qalubahum littaqwa lahum magfirutun wa ajrun azeem haven't you heard allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said those who lower their voice in the presence of the messenger of allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam for those are the ones whom allah has tested their hearts with taqwa they have they have forgiveness with their lord and a great reward all right we're in the presence of the messenger of allah this was his point alman surah we have to have adab with the messenger of allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam who's hayyum tariyun fi qabrihi who's alive in his grave this is our aqidah of ahlul sunnah wal jama'a so then alman surah said when we make dua should we face the kaaba or the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam you can read this in the asshifa kitabu asshifa qadi iyyad radi allatah anhu which who should we face and he said radi allatah anhu why would you turn your face away from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam he is your shafir in other words do you think allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is in the kaaba astaghfirullah there's nowhere with allah children ask the question all the time this is a this is a question of a child where is god there's no answer to the question because the question is faulty in and of itself aina darfu makan a a interrogative particle that denotes space or place or location allah subhanahu wa ta'ala transcends space and place and location and time and direction he transcends all of these things it's like asking where does the one who resides not reside does it make any sense or to give another example wa lillahi al-mathal al-a'la this is just an example and with allah is a high similitude it's like asking where do the fish fly can you answer this question where do the fish fly say no i can't answer it oh you can't answer you don't know there's no answer the very question is faulty right allah subhanahu wa ta'ala transcends these things like it's nothing like allah subhanahu wa ta'ala whatever you could possibly think of allah is not like that al-ajjadu an-nidraqi idraku wa al-baasu and that he kufr wa l-ishraku whatever you can uh your inability to conceive of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is your conception of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and whoever has baas whoever talks about the that of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the essence of god is committed kufr and shirk and this shirk this is as i saying of abu bakr al-siddik radi allah ta'ala anhu so the ka'aba is a created entity it's not literally the house of god not in the literal sense but idhaafa meaning allah subhanahu wa ta'ala owns everything and this is a house dedicated to the worship of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but children ask this i asked this question i remember when i was seven or eight years old i asked my mother she said i said what is this she said this is the house of god and i literally thought that god is inside the ka'aba this is a question for children this is what children ask right so he said this is created the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is created but which one is better who's better the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is better he is your shafir so face him and supplicate to allah subhanahu wa ta'ala out of respect for the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam this was his answer the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is sayidu walidi adam some people say don't call him sayid some of the khutabah they get on the minbar and they don't even send blessings a piece upon the prophet they say muhammad muhammad muhammad astaghfirullah it's called like he's like he's their cousin or something who who's muhammad your cousin who works over here at the at the gas station who are you talking about muhammad said this muhammad ibn abdulla said who are you talking about you're talking about rasool Allah saydeh muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he speaks to the prophet he doesn't use his first name never said ya muhammad in the Quran never said ya ahmad ya ayyuha nabiyu ya ayyuha rasool ya ayyuha al muddafir this is how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala addresses the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in the first person with a title but you're on the minbar saying this and that and they say don't call him sayyid some of the khutaba i've heard he said this is bid'ah you call him sayyid right imam jaafar sadaq who's imam of ahlul sunnah wal jama'a he's a teacher of malik ibn anas and nu'a man ibn thabit jaafar sadaq great great great grandson of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said yasin could mean ya sayyid wa allahu alam this is his opinion wa allahu alam huroof al muqaata a'ad no one knows the meaning but this was his opinion possibly maybe allahu alam ya is a vacated protocol sayyid yasin oh master innaka lamil al mursi wa al quran al hakeen innaka right kafa al khitaab second person masking and singular Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is speaking directly to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam this is part of his evidence anas sayyidu wa alayhi a'ad this is hadim i am the master the sayyid of the children of adam we should use a title we don't want to breach adab with the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam if we breach adab with the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam then we breach adab with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this is how it is this is how it is there are people who mock sunnah they mock Muslims who mock sunnah Muslims who mock the turban i've heard these things coming from people standing on minbars people making fun of turbans and beards and things like that these are these are sunnah these are these are transmorphic trans temporal sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam it's very dangerous to do that so i'm just trying to kill some time here i don't see him coming believe me if i saw him coming i would sit down so Allahumma salli wa sallam alayhi wa sallam so we need to increase our knowledge in our love of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and defend him sallallahu alayhi wa sallam defend him you know there's i mentioned this also somewhere last night i don't remember where it was there's 13 european nations in the western world that have laws that are anti holocaust laws that if you question the holocaust they will put you in prison right free countries freedom of speech right but if you question the holocaust they'll put you in prison you'll go to prison which is very interesting right there was a man named david erving from oxford who was is an academic he showed up in austria to give a speech on the holocaust and we don't deny the holocaust it's established through to water this is an issue that is is just pure idiocy for muslims to get into it's established through to water and if we question that then our our way of looking at history is compromised that's the bottom line and this whole thing about this kind of anti jewish sentiment i don't get down with that at all unfortunately some of this is permeated into muslim cultures around the world this is completely haram to have this opinion about human beings okay so i don't i don't agree with david erving whatsoever it's just an example and i'll show you the point of this in a minute inshallah to adam so he stands up at the podium gets an academic speech about the holocaust and immediately he's taking to prison immediately for one year he's taken to prison right yet if you go to a bookstore here barns and noble or i guess there's no more uh borders but you'll find two or three books there's a whole genre now anti muhammad in literature sallallahu alaihi wasallam just books dedicated to denigrating and insulting him and as soon as a muslim raises his voice they say oh we have freedom of speech this is freedom of speech not one person that i know of and i researched the issue not one human being on earth came to the defense of david erving and said freedom of speech what he wants everyone to uptight jail that's his opinion right not one person when it comes to us when people slander the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam oh wow you guys are angry freedom of speech we're not looking for laws to be passed right we're looking for cultural sensitivity there are certain things in certain cultures that are just taboo to talk about it's taboo you go to 1950s and you listen to politicians they're dropping the n word left and right dropping it left and right and it's all good back then nobody cares that's how it was but try to do that now that person's ostracized completely fired from his job disgraced right it's a cultural taboo you can't do that anymore there's a cultural sensitivity so that's what all we're asking we're not trying to get you know you read some of these profligates these muslims want to change the constitution and they want to change freedom of speech and they're trying to get these anti blasphemy laws passed not on my watch don't tread on me right no we're not we're asking for cultural sensitivity that's all we're saying the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is more beloved to us than anything in creation anything in creation sallallahu alaihi wa la ali wasallam so we defend him not because he needs a defense he doesn't need anything from us but because people are being indoctrinated people that can potentially be guided i have these false notions of who he was sallallahu alaihi wasallam and in turn there's a backlash against muslims and our children and this is very very dangerous am i supposed to talk now so no i'm saying it's false so i've spoken too much already that's not what he said but but that's my opinion that's my assessment um so forgive me for speaking out of turn i know feridun is here and abdulla ali is here so we want to make some thicker inshallah ta'ala i've uh i've requested that another speaker come and speak but i guess we're going to make some thicker with qari amr inshallah ta'ala so sallallahu alaihi wa sallam sallam