 My brothers and sisters, you and I know that what is of utmost importance is knowledge and When we say knowledge it is divided into several categories We have knowledge that some would consider Solely and only religious knowledge when we use the term we actually refer to More to religious knowledge when we say Ilm however We should not become oblivious of the fact that secular knowledge is also considered as part of knowledge the study of biology and history and geography and Physics chemistry mathematics language all that is also a part of knowledge That which conforms to what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has revealed will be considered that which there is an Encouragement for every single one of us to understand to pursue to respect and to make sure that we take a portion of That which is necessary and sometimes over and above that which might be extremely necessary In order to convey it to others you have a mathematics teacher for example He or she may know so many concepts that they don't really need in their lives for themselves But they need it to teach others because it might apply in someone else's life The same applies wallahi my brothers and sisters when it comes to the knowledge of Islam When it comes to the knowledge of the sharia when it comes to the knowledge of the Quran and the Sunnah We need to understand that we might not need certain Aspects of that particular knowledge for our own lives But we will need it in order for us to convey it to others. I give you an example A poor person or someone who doesn't have wealth and they know about all the rules of Hajj and the Regulations of Hajj and the nitty gritties and the small basics and every fine detail But you might ask them my brother. Why are you learning this when you can't even afford it? And you know Allah says Walillahi ala nasi hijjul bayti man ista ta'a'a ilaihi sabi'ila Indeed Allah has made Hajj incumbent upon those who can afford it those who can manage you can't afford it You can't even manage you can't even cope. Why are you learning all the rules and regulations? You and I will say we will respond that it is an act of worship to know those rules and Regulations even if you cannot afford the trip because Minimum is you will know it. You will make dua for others. You will be able to guide those who are going Subhanallah, you become a knowledgeable person how many of the sheikhs and the scholars Are not wealthy enough to afford the journey, but they are the ones who hold the classes for the rest of the Hujjaj to say come let me teach you what's going to happen. What's right? What's wrong from Makkah and Arafah and so on we will call we will phone some of the scholars We know who are back at home. Hey, this is a problem. I faced how should I do how should I resolve this matter, etc It is absolutely important for us to understand the value of this knowledge So where is this dean from and where is this knowledge from what is the source of it? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He has his own names and qualities from amongst his names The one who has complete knowledge of all aspects of the unseen in absolute totality The one who is The knower of that which is seen and that which is unseen Completely the knower of everything Al-alim al-alim is the one who has the most intricate and detailed of knowledge of Every single aspect of existence that is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala None can compete with the knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala However, he gives whosoever he wishes from his favor He gives whosoever he wishes from that knowledge of his so we take a look at revelation Revelation Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He speaks about his word his kalam We all know the Quran is the word of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We all know the value of the Quran We all understand and we realize what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has kept as a favor for those who have Taken his word Learned it put it into practice and tried to convey it to others You know the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He says The best from amongst you are those Who have learned the Quran and taught it to others You learn it and some people think well what aspect of the learning of the Quran is being referred to the reality is all Aspects and angles starting with the recitation and then the meaning and then the rules and regulations and then the putting into practice and Then the conveying of all of that to others the perfecting of it the ability to apply the verses in our lives We read the stories of so many of the messengers. They are not mere tales. No, they are not but they are stories in which Lots of lessons have been placed for all of us in our own lives when you read the story for example of Nooh or the Prophet Noah may peace be upon him the lessons are for all of us We have so many lessons one of the lessons I can quickly draw is you may have a pious person whose children may not be As pious as the father or the mother And vice versa Nooh alaihi salatu was-salam with his son you and I may have read that may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us an understanding So Allah speaks subhanahu wa ta'ala about this Quran. Do you know what he says? In Surah Al-Shu'araa Allah says Our Ruh al-Aminu has come down with the Quran. Allah revealed the Quran Allah sent jibreel alaihi salam the archangel Gabriel may peace be upon him the trust worthy the one who was Trust worthy Allah sent him down with a revelation to the heart of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam to the heart of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Engraved enshrined Subhan Allah it was revelation from Allah to Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. What a gift My brothers and sisters value that Value the fact that you are the ummah of the Quran not only by reading it many of us are guilty of not reading the Quran Let's be honest how many of us pick up the Quran regularly and read a portion of it Wallahi we don't and yet we are the ummah of the Quran the most powerful word in existence is the word of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. What's your relationship with that particular word? I'm sure we can improve it my brothers and sisters Let's undertake here and now Beautiful day Friday the blessed day of the week the Eid of the Muslim in Undertake that you will do more regarding your relationship with the Quran. However, let's continue further Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala says he revealed it to Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam at that particular time How did people used to record? The Quran how did they used to record matters of importance? Did you know that even the year that people were born was remembered through some incident that occurred? So for example the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, they'll tell you he was born in the year of the elephant The year of the elephant. What is the year of the elephant? They will tell you oh, that was the year when Abraha from Yemen Tried to attack the the Kaaba in Makkah because he wanted people to go to Yemen rather than come to Makkah Oh, so what was that year called the year of the elephant? Subhanallah People used to say this man was born two years after the year of elephant Abu Bakr al-Siddique That's how they used to keep the records and Because the bulk of them were unlettered unlettered does not mean uneducated It only means the inability to read or write for a reason So they were highly educated, but they were unlettered remember this that was there You might not understand it today, but if you sit and ponder and pause and go back It is something chosen by Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala They were highly educated people, but they were unlettered how many of us are lettered which means we can read and write But we are not educated. We really don't have much We don't have this common sense and logic. We create problems more than solutions May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala guide us So it's it shows you that being able to read and write is not everything However at that particular time they used to record things They had a memory whereby they knew the lineages of their camels going back seven generations We don't even know our own lineage going back four generations reality Tell me who who was more educated Allah Akbar may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us understanding Sahabatur Rasulillah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam the companions you would ask them about the camel sitting there They would tell you the lineage of the camel they would give you the whole rundown breakdown They knew their own lineages going back 15 generations You could take back the lineage of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam all the way back to Adam alaihi sallam possible At least to Ibrahim alaihi sallam that could be rattled straight and The same would happen to the Arabs themselves. They would know you and I we are cousins Our 15th or our 12th grandfather was the same person How many of us wallahi we are related close range I'm talking of five or six grandfathers up and we don't have a clue We don't even have an idea Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that we need to fulfill the rights of kinship The family ties how will we be able to fulfill family ties when we don't even know who our family is? May Allah forgive us This is why to study your lineage and to be able to go back and look at who you were to be Involved in these family trees. It is an act of worship. It is an Ibadah I encourage you to do that for the sake of Allah and for your own sake to be able to go back To fulfill the acts of worship that Allah has ordained upon you So now let's go back to where I'm heading one might ask where you heading where is all this going? Subhan Allah the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam began reciting the verses of the Quran The verses of the Quran were so powerful that even the little children memorized them You know when Abu Lahab insulted Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam when he had got up Mount Safa and Abu Lahab said his Words infamous words tabballaka. Yeah Muhammad destruction be upon you or Muhammad Is this is why is this why you gathered us and verses were revealed Destruction be upon both hands of Abu Lahab his wealth and whatever he has earned will not help him or has not helped him at all The children began to say these verses in the gullies and alleys of Makkah to the mukarrama Did they write them down? No, they couldn't read or write, but they knew the verses powerful memory That was the in thing that was the technology so to speak of the time people had memories They knew this man has a better memory than this one But their memories all of them were more powerful than the most powerful from amongst us today Today we've become so lazy that you and I cannot memorize phone numbers of our own family members Because the phone does it but I recall 15 years back. I could rattle out 100 phone numbers minimum and I'm sure a lot of us could What happened technology has made us lazy But at that time they knew everything so the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam used to read the verses the people used to memorize them later on There came a time when a few of them used to write down for purposes of reference to make sure it goes down the generations The few who could write it. They were known as scribes of revelation Kutab al-wahi they started writing at the time Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam himself prohibited the recording of His own words so that they don't get confused with the words of Allah not for any other reason It was the writing of the words of the Quran because Allah's calam needed to be preserved more Desperately than anything else So nobody should say that Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Denied that his own words should be written because he didn't want them to be written No, because there was a priority and that priority needed to be addressed immediately So they started writing things and they had parchment this one wrote some that one wrote some They came a time after Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam when they gathered this in a specific way That's not my topic, but they came a time thereafter once the Quran was gathered Years later more than a hundred years later the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam started Becoming of importance in terms of being gathered It was always there the memory was there the people knew who said what and when they said and how they said it and so on It was passed on but it was passed on by word of mouth now Let's record it like when you sit with an old man sometimes in your own family He'll tell you you know that man in Cape Town is related to you because his uncle's auntie's mother's nephew is actually your Fourth-order cousin you got to say dad. Let me write it down Because if you if I don't write it down, it's lost. Do you agree with what I'm saying? But dad knew it didn't he the new generation won't know it because nobody wrote it down Well, what happened at the time? They knew that Abu Huraira The Allah who said this to this man and this man said it to another man two or three people in the In the line of narratives the chain of narratives. They knew it and what happened is They started writing it when they started writing it obviously now you have some charmers who come up They want their names in the books so they say hey the Prophet peace be upon him said this and that well Where did you hear it from? My father where did he hear it from my grandfather? Where else did he hear it from my great-grandfather and so on? Are you sure? So what happened is the scholars of hadith came about and These scholars had strict rules that they followed If these two people did not live at the same time same place, we won't accept their hadith If anyone in society and community has had one person who's upright say that he's dishonest We won't accept what he says imagine how many of us would actually be acceptable. I Want to ask you the question for our own benefit How many of us would be able to say not a single person? Who is upright has actually said we are dishonest Allahu Akbar or we are crooks or crooked or whatever else you want My Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala say if God us not only from bad words, but from actually being that bad Two things one is when people say you're bad and you know you're not bad But two is when you really are bad and you're trying to defend yourself to say no way I'm not bad a man can lie and then he gets up and defends his reputation and my brother your face Is already telling us that you're telling a lie may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala never do that to us So at that particular time one might ask why was the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam recorded a hundred years later 150 years later why simple because that wasn't the end thing It's like asking them why wasn't the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam on the internet There was no internet at the time Are you following? There were no chips at the time. I'm talking of these little computer chips memory cards memory sticks Today it's there because technology as it came so The recording of that item has now Changed in terms of where it is recorded. Are you following what I'm saying be careful because there are people who don't believe in The Sunnah at all. They say this is the Quran and that's it We don't take anything else. We want to tell them the same happened to the Quran and The one who brought you the Quran the same one whose Sunnah we are talking about Subhanallah. Yes when it comes to the Quran no dispute whatsoever when it comes to the Sunnah You need a little bit of education regarding the Sunnah I'm talking of the hadith the statements of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam his Confirmations and a lot of other aspects of his living was gathered and when it was gathered You need to know if it was authentic or not You cannot just accept anything anyone coming and saying the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said you've got to stand on one Foot when you're starting sallah if that sallah is at the time of the zenith come on. That's foolish You will just nod your head and say this man needs a bit of a visit to the psychiatrist or the psychologist or whoever else Okay, but at the same time my beloved brothers and sisters what you do need to know is as a Muslim You need to make an effort to authenticate things You need to make an effort to learn things people have already done a lot before you make use of it I give you an example imam Bukhari rahmatullahi alaih. His name was Muhammad Ibn Ismaeel You know when you say man Bukhari Bukhari Bukhari a lot of people say that's not a common name Well, he was from a place called Bukhara So it's got to do more with where he came from his name was Muhammad and his father's name was Ismaeel At least something I have in common, alhamdulillah Muhammad Ibn Ismaeel that was his name al-Bukhari. What did he do? He was one of them But he compiled many books not just the sahih al-Bukhari that we know it was called al-Jami al-Sahih That's not the only book he compiled many books But that particular book he compiled it in a specific way the most strict ever He says if I had the slightest doubt that this was not authentic. I dropped it out of the book. I recorded it elsewhere He has other books. For example al-Adab al-Mufrad is a book of al-Bukhari. It's not sahih al-Bukhari It's another book. It's like an author who's written 200 books and one of them is very famous You know, they'll tell you ayat al-Qarni. He's written a book don't be sad That's not his only book. There are so many other books, but that's the famous book. The same applies when it comes to al-Bukhari people say this is Bukhari and they bring you one book They don't know this is al-Jami al-Sahih of al-Bukhari, but Bukhari has written so many other books So in that particular book it is reported and inshallah we probably will see this in weeks to come It is reported that he took great care regarding these ahadith. It was an amana Any doubt even if a person cheated an animal in his life, he wouldn't take the hadith from them He wouldn't take the hadith it is reported in one narration that once he went to go and get a hadith from a certain man And he traveled a long distance days to go there He waited at night and the following morning he saw that this person who he came to get the hadith from had actually lifted His thawb, you know his clothing And he came out pretending like there was something to eat in the clothing in order to let the donkey come near So that he could ride the donkey and as the donkey came near he released his clothing and jumped on the donkey Imam Bukhari began to leave. He said well, what are you here for? He says I came for a hadith, but I cannot take hadith from a man who deceives the donkeys So this is something we will learn they have done a great job subhanallah and as time passed Many others muhadithin have come and they have told you look I heard from this man. He heard from that man He heard from that man and he heard from the other man who heard from Ali ibn Abi Talib or Uthman ibn Affan Or any one of the companions of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam who heard from him and so on And if they haven't clearly said we heard it from him a different word was used So one is Sameeh too which means I heard And one is an an means it is reported that you see the difference There are different grades of hadith if the entire hadith has an an an It has a different terminology that it's you that that is used to refer to it It's level of authenticity difference But when a man tells you I heard umar ibn khattab Say on the member in front of everyone in the Jumu'ah Inna mal'a'malu bin niyyat, you know that that is true It's come to us from so many sources and they've all said the same thing. It is called mutawatir Mutawatir means la yumkin tawatu'ahum alal kathib. They cannot lie. That's how many people they are And they they're not claiming to have heard from a third party. They all have heard it from the source From the source today you heard it from cnn. So I say hey, this is the news. That's the news Why because you heard it from cnn. Let me tell you in hadith CNN is not the end of the chain. No You got to go further who put it on there Who were the people who actually narrated the the tale and where did it come from and what is the source of it? And how many people witnessed that from the source? Then we will talk. That's where hadith goes Subhanallah people have done us a favor islam is the only religion which has something known as ilmur rijal the knowledge of men Women are also included in it. But the knowledge of men means Anyone who claims to have heard any hadith of the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam Even generations down until the compilers of hadith their names have been written dates of birth dates of death Places they visited where they were what reputation they had in their societies what people had to say about them And so on so that when one like yourself and myself at the moment what happens is you have Applications and you have computer programs that make it easy for us You have a chain of narrators you punch it in And you say this man says he heard from this man who says he heard from that man who says he heard from that man That computer will tell you these two didn't meet because they lived in different areas This one died before that one was even born. You know this hadith. There's something wrong with it The words at the end might not be a lie because you might find them from a different angle being true But this particular chain is false. I hope you understand May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us understanding. This is knowledge. So this is why appreciate that in islam There is something called the knowledge of men reputation of a man is vital Your reputation male or female is absolutely vital. Make it your business to make sure Allahu Akbar something's come to my mind I'll share it with you. Make it your business to make sure that your honesty Is never ever doubted imam bukhari rahmatullahi aleyh. I want to give you one example from his life He was on a ship and he was talking to one of his friends there You know someone he had met on there not knowing exactly who he was this man had carried the hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam by the age of 1920 he was already done with the bulk of his work That's how powerful he was with us 1920. We don't even know Whether we're coming or going at that age yet may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us So as he was on the ship, do you know what happened? amazingly He told his friend, you know what I have a certain number of gold coins. I think it was 20 or 40 gold coins I forget the exact figure and these gold coins are with me and I've kept them in this red bag here You know just to make sure that no one steals them and so on so this man Decided to make an announcement to the captain to say, you know what I've lost a bag It's a red bag with x amount of gold coins. That was a large number of gold coins Imagine the Krugerans of today have got 20 of them in a bag And someone says I've lost it and this is what it looks like. This is the bag the captain started searching And the people started searching and when they started searching, guess what they searched Bukhari Guess what happened? Can someone guess? No, they didn't find it. I was waiting for someone say they found it. They didn't find it They searched high and low, but they didn't find it and the man looked like a fool later on Imam Bukhari was asked by this man. Hey, I'm so sorry for having done what I did You know, it was shaitan like I told you we are muslims We are fortunate we can blame the devil for our mistakes, isn't it? Hey, that was shaitan. My brother forgive me. Nah, too late. Had you got it? You'd have nailed me. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us. So what happened is he says Imam Bukhari says, yeah, no, I saw what happened and as soon as I heard it, I dropped the whole bag into the ocean What did you do? You mean those gold coins? He says, well, yes, I dropped the whole bag into the ocean You dropped all the gold. Are you crazy? He says no I have carried the hadith of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam I thought in a split second that if this is found by me Everything goes down the drain that I've done in my life. I'd rather throw this bag. It's over Take a look at this With us in our lives We are not prepared to give someone their right This man has thrown away. What was his in order to protect? What was there in terms of hadith? This is why it is known as It is known as the most correct and authentic book after the book of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala the man he went to great lengths in order to bring to you what you have today And then you have imam muslim muslim ibn al-hajjaj al-qushairi rahmatullahi alayh abu dawood al-tirmidhi al-nasai and ibn maja al-qazwini. These are powerful imams of hadith. What did they do? They recorded this at a time when the recording became the in thing So don't ask why did they delay so much or if you want to ask out of curiosity You need to know that the answer is because it was not the in thing to write prior to that the minute it became the in thing They started writing and later on They they transformed it into perhaps typing and after that it became into a computer today. It's on my phone I have a little app whereby I can search any hadith. How did it get to that? Nobody can tell me why wasn't that app there 1500 years back? That's because the phones didn't even exist That was not the in thing So the people who recorded the hadith they made sure that they did it thoroughly and they made sure that When they were not certain they gave you the whole chain Why it was up to you to go back to search the chain of narrators each man find out Was he honest? Was he trustworthy? Sometimes he's honest and trustworthy, but his memory fails him For example, a person tells you a story the next time they tell you the story There are two three changes in it. If that is the case you cannot accept revelation from that man You and I know that hadith is a different type of revelation He does not utter from his own whims and fancies Rather it is revelation inspired and revealed by Allah So the recording of the hadith was done in a sophisticated manner Some of it you can close your eyes and say this is correct And some of it you have to go back and you have to search imam Ahmad bin Hanbal He has written al-musnad, which has a large number of a hadith arguably one of the biggest books of hadith But he didn't say that every hadith in there is correct. He says I've I've recorded these a hadith and I've recorded the chain of narrators It's up to you to go and check the chain of narrators So other scholars came later on who were checking chains of narration And it's up to us also to check chains of narration what I do normally is when you hear a hadith And within you it feels there's something wrong here Or maybe I need to know a little bit more go back and check go and study go and pick up the books Who was this man you will see where he was born who his teachers were whom he's met in his life And if the name of the other person is not there in that list, you know, there's something wrong here There is a whole study called the study of the chains of narrations the study of hadith You got to look at the words like I say sometimes there's a man who's honest, but his memory fails him Sometimes some of the narrators they say up to the age of 75. You take what he said after that He was a person who couldn't really remember. So what it's not an insult This is a matter of hadith. You cannot say they insulted me. They didn't insult you They just wanted to make sure 100% that what you've said is the reality and it is the truth May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala guide us and grant us ease I've only started what I wanted to say and the time is up But may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala open our doors I think I've introduced to you The crux of hadith and why it was recorded or how it was recorded Why the delay in the recording and some of the intricacies and the importance of this beautiful vast topic May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make us from those who are grateful and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless us all And may we be able to study the quran and the sunnah in a beautiful way And may we be able to put it into practice and may we be able to distinguish between that which is authentic and that which is not And may we be from among those whom when we are resurrected on the day of judgment We are from among those really who have succeeded because on that day if you're given your book on your right hand You have indeed succeeded may Allah bless us all with jinn and to feel those May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive our shortcomings and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us the goodness in this world and the next