 When you look between the lines of the Sharia discourse, what is the preference? What is the tendency of the teachings of this deen? To work in the direction of setting people free, giving people liberation. It's not interested in creating a situation where more people are available. Islam is actually fundamentally looking to move in a direction away from human trafficking. That's the essence of Islam, but we have to read between the lines. When we read between the lines, we find some really interesting information there. We find that, Our children of Adam make mistakes. Our children of Adam are going to sin. And the best of those who sin are the ones who make repentance. Turn back to Allah SWT. But there's just this problem in the footbooks. How many expiations for mistakes that Muslims made or tied to setting somebody free? If we're going into the business of buying and selling human beings, we're going into the slave business, Islam is not the right deen. Because it's set up to internally, just let people go and let people go and let people go. You do this wrong, well, you've got to let somebody go. You do this wrong, well, the only way out is to let somebody go. SubhanAllah. Islam prefers liberation. Moving on. He says to the Prophet SAW, what if I don't do that? Meaning what if I'm unable to do such things, right? He said, You help someone, you help a craftsman or you help someone or you engage in craftsmanship for someone who doesn't have skills. To help someone with their labor, to help someone with their business. Meaning the business that they're about during the day. So if someone's trying to get onto his horse, you help them up onto his horse. If someone's trying to load their groceries into their car, you help them get their groceries into their car. Imagine what would happen if you went out to the Safeway parking lot and some old lady's trying to get all their groceries in the car and you came and you started taking a load of her groceries out of the basket and trying to put them in her car for it, she would probably lose her mind. Especially if your beard is too long. Or you're wearing a hijab. SubhanAllah, that's what it is. You help someone who already has skills so you aid in advancing their cause. Or you bring your skills to bear for someone who doesn't have skills. That's the meaning of akhraq. So you have a man who's akhraq and you have a woman who's kharaqa meaning that they're unskilled. Qutu, he said, Messenger of Allah, What do you see if I'm not even able to do any of that? What can I do? What's left for me of goodness to do? And it's as if he's asking on the behalf of others. He said, Sharaqa aninnaasi fa innaha sadaqatun minka ala nafsik. Takufu sharaqa that you withhold or prevent your own evil from other people. Your own bad behavior you protect other people from it. Interesting. Clearly Abu Dhar is speaking on behalf of people. He's not necessarily speaking about his own particular situation and the Prophet, alaihi s-salatu was-salam, is using the word you, not particularly for Abu Dhar, but in general, your shah, in general. All of us probably have a bad side. All of us could probably be a little bit annoying. Or even harmful if we let our egos go. And if we're not paying attention, if we're not on our toes, subhanallah, we can unwittingly or because of our gist that we don't pay attention, we're doing harm to others. So to keep your harm from hurting another person. There's two types of sin in Islam. We talk about the major sins and we talk about the minor sins. But there's also sins in Islam, another way of categorizing sin, and that is a sin with two victims or more. And a sin that only has one victim. A sin with only one victim is the sins that we do ourselves. And we're the ones who get hurt by that. Or something that directly violates what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala expects of His slaves. We've talked before about how you can't hurt Allah. You only hurt yourself. But then there are this other category of sins with two or more victims. Meaning we hurt ourselves and we hurt other people too. This is the worst situation. And here's what Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is that if you're not able to do something or give something to others as your form of doing good and sadaqah, then keep others from being harmed by you. And that will be a sadaqah, the reward for which will come back to you. Subhanallah. Alayhi wa sallam. And in the second hadith also from Abidah that the Messenger alayhi wa sallam said يصبحوا على كل سلامة من أحدكم sadaqah every day every joint of each one of you owes a charity. Meaning every aspect of your being. Every movement. The joint of your body, your arms, your feet, your legs and so on is part and parcel of your ability to move your limbs. So each of your movements and actions that you do with your footsteps and your glances and your speech during the day a sadaqah is owed. Subhanallah. يصبحوا. When you wake up every morning خلاص. What type of good are you going to do this day because that's what you're, what's expected of them. That's what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala expects of the believer and really expects of the human being. Because the teachings of Asama for every human being not just those who have taken the first step which is to accept faith. So it also gives you an understanding of your purpose in the earth to either be doing good or making sure that we at least do no harm. So a sadaqah is owed but then he spells it out in a way that makes it easier for everyone. فكل تصفيحة صدقة every subhanallah that you say is a sadaqah and every alhamdulillah that you say is a sadaqah and every la ilaha illallah that you say is a sadaqah and every Allahu Akbar that you say is a sadaqah وأمر بالمعروف صدقة الامر بالمعروف commanding what's right. معروف comes from عرف عرف is what is recognized by people to be good. So it's goodness is what is owed it's goodness that is what is owed commanding, enjoining, encouraging Does that mean literally commanding what is right? Right is all of the obligation of sharia Allah so we're supposed to run around the streets wagging our finger at people and pointing at them forgetting the fact that every time I point a person I point my finger at someone else for more or pointing back at me or is it that we are encouraging making half incitement to what is good what is goodness, what is positive in the earth and in that is a sadaqah encouraging people to make right choices encouraging people to do things the right way if we witness a situation where someone's bad behavior is going to have negative repercussions on the lives of others maybe we can come up with clever ways to convince them in the way that convinces that particular person to maybe choose a different course of action even if they don't even realize what we're trying to convince them of and in this is an أمر بالمعروف right is an encouragement to do what is معروف what is good in the earth of the nas let's expand these understandings maybe to the way they were essentially understood by previous decades or previous centuries and generations of Muslims when they knew what Arabic language was and they would meet people who had understood the conduct and behavior of the Prophet in their daily lives in their landscape, in their environment they encounter these people is there anybody that could help sister Esra? so she's not the only one doing that right the chapter of so many ways to do good in Islam SubhanAllah I use nikum al khair sister Esra so commanding what is good Whennahi anil munkar, sadaqa what type of munkar is there out there? look how many people come to Juma on Friday compared to how many people come out to Fajr in the morning let's also look at the fact that we have public schools that are not as well supported as public schools in other areas of the country look at the fact that there are glass ceilings that prevent other people from achieving all that can be achieved in a country like America for no good reason that's also munkar there's a lot of munkar out there but we tend to be fixated on vice or just the routines of ibadat and comparing our ibadat to other people's ibadat well, we're going to come back to this whole idea as we proceed with these ahadith maybe we need to reassess what munkar is remind me, we'll come back to that and a person can achieve all of this if they just pray two raka'at of duha prayer subhanallah we could do six duha we could do eight duha or I could get two in subhanallah and two is better than none if I don't have time for six now, subhanallah the next hadith also from Awadah very interested in how to do good he said that the prophet aleyhi salatu wa salam said he said the actions of my ummah were shown to me the good actions as well as the bad actions and I found subhanallah and I found that from the good actions of my ummah was removing something harmful from the roadway removing something harmful from the pathway and here we come back to what's the worst munkar that we could speak up about make noise about say something about I would say that it's something harmful in people's path an obstacle in people's progress what's the most important progress that anyone will make in their lives the progress to their creator what are the types of things that prevent someone from getting to their creator or learning about their creator we'll not speak tonight about the misrepresentation of Islam in public media but what about the statement of the prophet aleyhi salatu wa salam in which he said that poverty is almost disbelief before we get excited and think that all of a sudden the prophet aleyhi salatu wa salam is preaching the American Protestant work ethic from the 1930s wealth is next to godliness and poverty is evil and poor people are evil no, there is a certain desperation that makes it very very difficult for people to focus on anything but how to make ends meet here is an obstacle that prevents people from having a moment of tranquility or serenity in their being subhanAllah what are other types if people in order to drive their cars through certain because there's dangerous neighborhoods in our society we all have to admit that and none of us like to drive through dangerous neighborhoods or maybe some of us are not really thinking about it or not really worried about it there are those among us who are very concerned about driving through dangerous neighborhoods and sometimes for some people who have achieved a certain degree of success in life the very nice and fine neighborhood where they own their homes and drive good cars is a dangerous neighborhood is their neighborhood they pay taxes in that area they may even be on the homeowners association for that neighborhood but if they get caught driving in certain circumstances through their very own neighborhood a university professor married to a surgeon from Newark, New Jersey and Asbury Park, New Jersey could be asked to exit her car for no good reason a Mercedes SUV at gunpoint and she's a university professor at one of the most prominent universities in the country for driving in her own neighborhood because there's dangerous neighborhoods in this country and it's not safe for some people to drive through some of these neighborhoods and they've done nothing wrong subhanAllah maybe we need to rethink what a dangerous neighborhood is and if we reach a position of influence in our society in our town, what have you and we're able to influence policy in that town and in these neighborhoods then maybe we need to use that influence to influence the police force to serve and protect everybody all citizens all guests and think first because there's some dangerous neighborhoods in this society and maybe you didn't realize that you live in a dangerous neighborhood just like other people who live in low income neighborhoods never occurred to them that their neighborhood is considered a dangerous neighborhood subhanAllah we need to be more alert and have more self-awareness and think three times and listen two times before we open our mouths and say things but we learn and life is all about learning because your soul craves completion so getting back to the removal of obstacles from the tariq we talk about activism or being an activist well tell me the philosophy of your activism tell me what drives you when we know that the ultimate aim and purpose of Islam the maqasid of the deen of Islam are two the maqasid of the sharia of Islam are five that's a different thing they're not theological objectives the theological objectives of Islam are two to know Allah and to adore Allah be devoted to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala those are the two so then where does our activism come in all of this we're working for example to help the rights of undocumented workers or whatever it might be that is motivating us or driving us is there no place for that in Islam or do we need to restructure Islam in order to make a place for these things that seem to be more important to people's practical lives and Islam is impractical if we say that the ultimate objectives of Islam is to honor Allah and worship Allah no, of course not we just need to listen to Islam more because all of these other things being an undocumented person here in the United States and the difficulties and worries and fears that go on with that when a person is just looking for a way to live and at the end of the day California was originally in Mexico anyway and we need to reassess who's an immigrant in this country or at least out here in the west in Texas what is it? Nevada, right? what's that? Arizona, right? I mean come on, that's like really Mexico but we're not even speak about First Nations but those items that we would engage in in order to help people's lives or bring an end to human trafficking or get extricate people from a human trafficking situation are they anything other than Imam al-Adha on a tariq than removing a harmful obstacle from a person's path in life and you don't guide who you wish to guide Allah guides who he will guide your job is to make good decisions and spread goodness in the world not to decide who's going to become a Muslim or not so your removal of obstacles in people's lives that may allow them to live a life where they can think about something beyond just how am I going to pay the rent this month how am I going to make sure I'm not put out on the street this month how I've seen situations where Muslims are jeopardizing the residency permits of other Muslims and if they get taken by authorities they will be deported to a war zone where they've already seen their own house targeted and destroyed on purpose on YouTube and people because it's inconvenient for them or they have other objectives don't want to know don't want to care SubhanAllah it all becomes a whole it's all an ecosystem Mashallah look at the emphasis in this chapter on the idea of goodness in Islam this is a very long chapter and in it are certain markers or clues or signifiers that indicate the purpose of life in the worldview of Islam to spread good in the earth that's why you're here that's what Rasulina Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is clearly looking for from you you are called upon to be a person who looks for the liberation of human souls you are called upon to be a person who's bringing more good than otherwise in the space that you occupy in your life and in your world that's one of the things it means to be a believer we can identify as ethnically Muslim find this greatness a wonderful thing Allah protects you and Allah supports you and we can also on top of all of that be believers be muhassini and have an even higher calling that differentiates you from others and let me tell you one thing that if this is where you're ready to be if you're ready to accept a calling and we call it a calling a mission and you've been commissioned with this mission but think of it as a calling when you hear the echo of the ahadith that are reported from Rasulillah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that depending on the strength of the chain we may very well be able to say we're certain that he called out one day and said my followers will be these types of people and these types of people this is what I want to see Muslims doing in the world here is the purpose of life it's as if Allah's messenger Alaih Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam calls to you through the senate and that game we used to play when we were kids when you or somebody made us play it we really didn't choose that game to play but someone had the idea that let's take two empty cans and tie a string between them and put it to your ear and someone talks and you know maybe you can hear it okay and clearly but it's as if the senate works like those two cans in that string here Rasulillah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam telling you who you are telling you who you're meant to be and you may have like a moment in your life or a period of time in your life or a phase that you go through in your life when you're really trying to figure out what is my calling or who am I or who am I meant to be or what is all this mean and just like the telephone line or the connection sometimes there's interference on the connection and you can't quite hear clearly or the message isn't getting through but if you keep or insist on staying connected keeping the line alive when it's your time in a law's design the message is going to come through from Rasulillah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam loud and clear from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we say that the Quran is Allah's communication with His creation okay let's stop saying it and let's be quiet and then let's listen to what He's saying to us and consider it in the terms of our life not a tilawa that we do or that we perform Masha'Allah not in principles of Tawhi Tajri that we make it kind of Masha'Allah not a book that we pull off the shelf and recite just because it makes my heart feel better or makes my parents happy when they see me do it and I'm about to ask them to do something for me right or a performance that we do mechanically or habitually but listen and that's the Tadabboi of the Quran the contemplation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaking to you the more we learn about this Deen the more that we learn about how it works the more principles of the disciplines of the sacred sciences that we actually make an effort at some period of our lives to imbibe the more we're going to get out of that recitation of Quran the more understanding we're going to get from the ahadith of the Prophet a.s. when we read them when we contemplate the meaning of Deen when we listen to a khutbah on Friday the more theqatha that we have of the Deen the more Islamic literacy the more depth we have in our Islamic literacy the more we get out of that and the fewer mistakes of interpretation we make the more expanded our horizon becomes of possibility in this Deen and there are people in your life right now who are already Muslim or could become Muslim in the design of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that needs you to expand your boundaries to expand your ability to hear through that chain of transmission and make sense of it in someone's life in your life, in your conduct we don't want to be like the Bedouin Arab who was so taken with Rasulina s.a.w that he said oh Allah have mercy on me and the Prophet only just us two he had a very narrow or limited he had a scarcity philosophy of the world some people have a scarcity philosophy they think that there's not enough to go around he said make dua to Allah that he have mercy on you and me only not anybody else the Prophet a.s.a.w said you've tried to constrict something that is so expensive this Deen can heal so much you want a healthcare plan this is a PPO it's not an HMO Islam is not an HMO there's a lot there there's a lot of treatment available for all different types of people in all different situations that they get in it's there it's just our abilities to think through and reason through and see and visualize and envision the possibilities of of resolutions and solutions to the constrictedness or the narrow moments in people's lives that could either make possible or prevent and that is Sunnah a public service announcement for why people should study more subhanallah the nice hadith so he continues and I saw that from the bad deeds of the Muslim was even mucus or phlegm that they may spit in the masjid and not make the effort to bury it literally what the hadith says why? because there were no carpets in the masjid of Rasulina it was very very fine gravel or sand, what have you or a mixture of both and it wasn't considered necessarily to be the worst thing if someone spit in a situation like that they didn't take their shoes off at the door that's something that we do for good reason we want to keep the carpet clean we can't just rake the sand like a nice Japanese garden and then mashallah it's all perfect again so we take care of it we like cleanliness and we don't want to track najasa or filth into our homes or into the houses of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala now so if a person spit phlegm he literally says and you would nukhara in Syrian dialect it's the same word they use for brain anybody ever eat brain? for those who are always like living in America I don't mean what you think I mean the Muslims out there they do eat brains but it doesn't mean that it's the zombie apocalypse where they came from so the Syrians use the word nukhara which really means mucus and phlegm the words that we use to describe that subhanallah from the bad deeds of his ummah is included for someone to blow their nose on the floor of the masjid and not make an effort to clean it up that's filthy, is it najasa? no it's not najasa it's just filthy from the bad deeds of this ummah is for people to bring their filth and spit it up in the masjid and where were we at the beginning of the chapter if you can't do this you can't do this then just takufu ansharaka takufu nasa ansharaka protect the people from your own filth from your own evil from your own badness don't spit it all up in the masjid because yes the masjid is a place for healing all of those things that al us but anyone who's ever been in the hospital for a long time or had a loved one in the hospital for a long time in shared rooms and so on people have to observe a little bit of neighborly etiquette with one another everyone's sick here and everyone's going through their own difficulties with their treatment but the best neighbors to have in your hospital room your loved one or the ones who are doing their best to kind of contain their situation so you can get through your situation they're not over there trying to vomit on the person next to them so let's see what we can do here in the masjid and try not to be the person who's over there blowing their nose all over the masjid blowing their junk and their filth and their shove all over the place have a little bit of control have a little bit of courtesy right be conscientious be conscientious then we can have beautiful houses of Allah where people can come and find Allah because when they get out of control they just come and they find everybody's filth and bad behavior it's an unclean we don't have any Syrians from Damascus here I talk about Meshfa Mawasat the children's hospital at Sakhat Mawasat so there were some nice hospitals in Damascus the best healthcare I've ever seen in my life was in Damascus but there are some hospitals that are not all that great that unless you know better you don't want to go to those masjids once the skin started to get real sick we took them to the children's hospital this is like before cell phones in Syria I wasn't able to contact any of our circle of physicians so I took him straight to Meshfa Mawasat the children's hospital there at the bridge subhanallah all you had were just group rooms with bear like tables with some ripped up Naga hide mat on the top and there were no bedsheets blankets or pillows and as you brought bedsheets blankets and pillows there were nurses but they're not going to lift a finger to help you the hallways were full of blood and bandages used bandages there were syringes on the floor and people are in that situation trying to get their kids treated hoping a doctor might come by hoping the doctor might come back but everyone's begging the nurses to do something to help them out with a little something if you bribe them well they'll do well but if you're young and you haven't figured out how the bribery situation works but that you're going to probably leave with more sickness and disease than you went in with subhanallah let's not let our masajid be such places inshaallah the purpose of the muslim in the earth is to be someone who brings about good who circulates good and provides spaces where people's hearts can find their way to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or a little bit of tuma'nina a little bit of sakina a little bit of tranquility this is our business this is our calling as believers subhanallah because people are going through nothing in their world and in nothing in their life you can be a sanctuary for other people just like sometimes you need a sanctuary because it all comes full circle the good you do for others will ultimately come back to you according to Allah's design for promises in the Quran that he will not allow the efforts of any male or female go to waste be left unnoticed because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sees it don't be swept away by the pettiness of people who are lost in life don't be swept away by that because there's nothing to it except for misfortune it's like the foam on the surface of the water it's like the flat some in the jetsam and the debris that floats on the surface of flood waters it can't help itself and it can't hurt itself it just goes with the flow but as for the foam on the flood waters it will dissipate and Allah says what will benefit the people will remain in the earth and that's you and what you're all about and the calling that's there for you to take up if you choose to be that person but it's not easy and that some days are hard you know you want to be the positive one and some days it's not that easy to be positive you've got to power through it inshallah you have a brother or a sister it helps you along the way but you've got to be the one to help them along the way when they're in need of someone there'll be times when you're all alone it's designed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah'll give you all support Allah'll give you all tawfiq Allah'll give us all enlightenment and understanding and a little bit of the bat and a firm foothold to see good decisions to see right conduct all praises due to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the lord of the worlds there have come to you insights from your lord qadijaaakum basa'ir rumirum rabbikum fa man'a basara fari nafsihi wa man'amiya tha'alayha so whoever gains insight it is to his benefit and whosoever is blind it is to his detriment Allahumma bestow your blessings upon our master Muhammad and upon his family and companions and give them peace overturner of hearts and eyes make our hearts firm on your deen director of hearts direct our hearts to your obedience Allahumma inspire in me my best direction and protect me from the bad within me Allahumma I seek refuge in you from a bad day from a bad night from a bad moment from a bad friend and from a bad neighbor in the eternal home Allahumma by your knowledge of the unseen and your power over creation enliven me so long as you know life is best for me and take my soul when you know death is better for me Allahumma imbue me with shyness before you in private and in public empower me within me a voice of truth in contentment and anger and I ask you for moderation in wealth and poverty I ask of you a blessed life without depletion a delight of heart that never ceases I ask you to give me contentment following your decree and I ask you for pleasant life after death and I ask of you the pleasure of looking upon your generous countenance and longing to meet you free of any harmful damage or confusing crisis Allahumma beautify us with the grace of faith and make us resourceful and well guided guides Allahumma I seek refuge in you from a heart without trepidation in your presence and from a prayer that is unheard from an ego never satisfied from knowledge without benefit and from a request left unanswered and Allah bless our master Muhammed and his family and companions in grand peace