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Talk · al-Sirat al-Mustaqeem | 2024 Ramadan Series, part 28 of 32

Your Global Family | Al-Sirat Al-Mustaqeem EP.26 | A Journey With Shaykh Alauddin ElBakri

Shaykh Alauddin ElBakri

Transcript

No lines contain “patience”.

  1. Dear believers, Assalaamu 'Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah
  2. Welcome back to our As-Sirat al-Mustaqim Ramadan series
  3. In the last station, we talked about the curriculum,
  4. if we may borrow that, and think of our journey as a school.
  5. So a school needs a curriculum.
  6. What you will teach in the school
  7. But it also needs a system.
  8. The next station on The Straight Path
  9. is to understand how does our religion work on a systematic level,
  10. Allah SWT revealed a Surah that Imam Shafi may Allah rest his soul
  11. said if Allah revealed from the Quran
  12. this Surah only it would have been enough.
  13. And it is Surah Al-'Asr
  14. Allah the Mighty and Majestic tells us after, I seek refuge from the accursed devil,
  15. Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim:
  16. (By the ˹passage of˺ time!
  17. Surely humanity is in ˹grave˺ loss,
  18. except those who have faith, do good,
  19. and urge each other to the truth, and urge each other to perseverance)
  20. This Surah
  21. is one of the Surahs that are dedicated to The Straight Path
  22. Because Allah the Mighty and Majestic shows us, how do you do this?
  23. If what you learn is the Quran and Sunnah
  24. that Allah called the wisdom, and the Fiqh and you study your religion
  25. and you do that Tazkiyah and the Tarbiyah
  26. The question is, how do you do it?
  27. What's the system?
  28. And this Surah answers that, and the first item on the Surah
  29. that invites us to have Iman "faith"
  30. But I want you to notice how this Surah
  31. just like Surah Al-Fatiha, spoke about everything in the plural format.
  32. (Except those who have faith)
  33. Not (Except he who has faith) one person
  34. (Those who have faith) plural, except those who together they believe.
  35. This gives us an understanding
  36. that when you want to take a journey of faith
  37. and a journey of Iman, especially in these recent times,
  38. don't be sitting at home watching YouTube videos
  39. thinking you are learning Islam
  40. because these YouTube videos,
  41. I tell people that they are reminders.
  42. In order to learn your religion, you need a physical teacher
  43. and inheritor of knowledge that took it from his teacher.
  44. Who took it from his teacher, who took it from his teacher,
  45. all the way to the Companions and the Prophet PBUH
  46. that's called learning knowledge.
  47. You sit down with them, you take the topic
  48. with other students because it's saying (Except those who have faith)
  49. with other students, you sit down and you learn from the teacher. Why?
  50. Because if the teacher says something and you don't understand it,
  51. you can ask them.
  52. Can you ask someone on YouTube when you're watching them?
  53. Not really.
  54. The interaction between the teacher
  55. and the seeker is very, very important in Islam.
  56. Now, I want to stop here for a little bit and focus on this issue of Al-Jama'a "plural form"
  57. Look, in
  58. this system, when Allah the Mighty and Majestic sent Prophet PBUH
  59. What did the Prophet call the people around him?
  60. Did he call them my students? No.
  61. If you ask an 80-year old Muslim,
  62. and I usually do that when I go to events, on the spot in front of people,
  63. I pull an eighty-year old and I say,
  64. Who was the greatest teacher that ever lived on planet Earth?
  65. And the answer is usually Prophet PBUH
  66. true, for every Muslim,
  67. That's an easy answer.
  68. You ask who were the best students that lived on planet Earth ever?
  69. And the answer is the companions, the men and women companions
  70. but yet, why do we refer to them as the great teacher and the great student?
  71. Isn't that interesting?
  72. Because in the name lies the method and the system
  73. the Messenger of Allah PBUH
  74. did not call them my students,
  75. he called them my companions.
  76. We want to bring that back to the Muslim
  77. Ummah, in which the teacher teaches
  78. through interacting, through companionship with his companions.
  79. Subhanallah, when you say: I am the teacher
  80. and these are my students, it does something to the heart.
  81. It makes you feel like being, Shaytan can find the window to enter and get you
  82. boost your ego and get you arrogant and, you know, boastful.
  83. How about we bring this terminology back?
  84. and we say we are companions with our teacher
  85. and the teacher is always naturally respected.
  86. This is part of our faith.
  87. And through the companionship
  88. you're not going to only learn knowledge, but you will learn the ethics.
  89. You will learn how to be the state of being.
  90. You will learn from his character as all the scholars did
  91. Imam Malik with this teacher, he said: I've learned
  92. more from his character than I learned from the Hadiths that I narrated from him.
  93. We need to bring that back because that is very beautiful and very essential.
  94. So when Allah tells us: (By the ˹passage of˺ time! Surely humanity is in ˹grave˺ loss)
  95. Time is ticking, every minute that passes by, you're losing time.
  96. Are you doing what is in the Surah?
  97. That's my question to you.
  98. Do you have a Halaqa? (place to learn religion and Quran)
  99. Do you have a teacher?
  100. And the teacher does not have to be the most knowledgeable person, as long as
  101. you together are struggling together and studying the topic and the subject.
  102. Subhanallah (By the ˹passage of˺ time! Surely humanity is in ˹grave˺ loss)
  103. Time is ticking, you're in a state of loss with time.
  104. When we were kids, we used to celebrate birthdays
  105. n some cultures, most of the Muslim cultures we don't celebrate birthdays.
  106. But when people get older and they celebrate their birthday,
  107. I ask them: Are you celebrating that you gained one year or did you lose one year?
  108. Because that's not a cause to celebrate.
  109. That's a cause that maybe you'll fast that day like.
  110. Prophet PBUH used to fast on Mondays, and to reflect and ask Allah for forgiveness
  111. for all the years that passed and inshallah the next year will be better.
  112. (Except those who have faith)
  113. Learning Iman together.
  114. I want to say something here that through my travels I have tried myself.
  115. (Except those who have faith)
  116. Do you know when you talk
  117. in the language of the Quran, the Muslim Ummah becomes united?
  118. Go to anywhere around in the Muslim world, meet any Muslim from anywhere
  119. and ask them: What is your Iman?
  120. What do you believe in?
  121. The natural answer is: Allah!
  122. Very simple.
  123. If you go around the Muslim Ummah, whatever,
  124. our number right now is, 1.5 or 1.8 or 2 billion.
  125. And you ask everyone, what do you believe in? I believe in Allah.
  126. What else? They will list for you
  127. The six articles of Iman, in Allah, His angels
  128. His books, His Prophets, the Day of Judgment, and the divine decree
  129. I believe in, Allah, I believe is in His angels.
  130. I believe in the Prophets, I believe in the Books.
  131. I believe in the Day of Judgment,
  132. and I live my life based on believing on the Day of Judgment.
  133. And I believe in divine destiny, which means whether
  134. what happens to me, I perceive it good or bad.
  135. If it's coming from Allah to a believer, it is good.
  136. It's always good.
  137. When you ask the Muslim Ummah, what's your belief?
  138. The Muslim Ummah in front of your eyes unites.
  139. But now try to ask the same question in a different way.
  140. Ask a muslim, What is your Aqeedah?
  141. And if he's not a student of knowledge, he would be bewildered.
  142. I don't know. Like, what is my Aqeedah?
  143. And then you asked him, Is your Aqeedah Tahawiyya? Ash'ariyyah?
  144. Maturidism? Athariyah? Wasatiyyah?
  145. Tadmuriyyah? And people get lost.
  146. They've never heard of this.
  147. And then we are ready to slice this Ummah into 50 pieces
  148. when actually Allah the Mighty and Majestic never asked us to ask each other that question
  149. (By the ˹passage of˺ time! Surely humanity is in ˹grave˺ loss, except those who have faith)
  150. One question unites the Ummah, and one question divides the Ummah.
  151. Which one do you want? Before the events in Gaza
  152. The Muslim world, we were quarreling about things
  153. that happened 1000 years ago, a discussion that was finished a thousand years ago.
  154. We were reviving it as if we have nothing else to do.
  155. But Gaza taught us that we shall never divide ourselves.
  156. Because when people want to come and kill you as a Muslim,
  157. they will not ask you, What is your Aqeedah?
  158. It's enough for them to know that you are a Muslim.
  159. So when we come to (Except those who have faith), what is Iman?
  160. Iman as our scholars said it in a very beautiful way that rhymes
  161. (It is speech by the tongue, belief within the heart, and actions by the body parts)
  162. It is what you say with your tongue,
  163. what you believe in your heart and what you do in your actions.
  164. Fulfilling the tenants of your faith.
  165. So when a Muslim says:
  166. I bear witness that there is no deity but God, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God
  167. This is the Shahada the testimony of faith.
  168. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah.
  169. I want you to notice with me, my dear brothers and sisters, we don't say
  170. I blindly believe, I am testifying,
  171. I just confirm, I
  172. just affirm that there is no God. I bear witness.
  173. That's what makes Islam different and unique.
  174. It invites you to ask questions,
  175. to go through this journey of search and from doubt to certainty.
  176. And after you see the point, you say,
  177. I saw the point, I bear witness that there is no God.
  178. But one God, Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is this prophet and messenger.
  179. Do you know for you to say that it means it assumes
  180. that there is a knowledge that happened before that.
  181. Do you know that there is a minimum knowledge?
  182. I mean, what did you witness that made you say, there is no God but Allah?
  183. I go around the Muslim world asking people, what did you witness?
  184. And they say: Huh? I never thought about that.
  185. They already know the answer, but they never thought about
  186. how to articulate it.
  187. What did you witness that made you say there is no God but one God?
  188. And what did you witness that made you say:
  189. truly, indeed, with no doubt, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah SWT?
  190. And that means you studied his life story Al-Sirah
  191. That means you learned about him.
  192. That means you saw his practice, his words, actions and reactions.
  193. That means you've learned about his state of being.
  194. And this is when we say Iman.
  195. Iman is a state of being, the origin of Iman.
  196. The foundation, I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and Prophet Muhammad is His prophet
  197. This is the foundation.
  198. If you have it, you have it.
  199. If you don't have it, you don't have it.
  200. But then there is another type of Iman, which is the Iman that increases with good deeds
  201. and obedience and decreases with sinning
  202. and forgetting and walking away from faith
  203. that Iman goes up and down.
  204. But the foundation of Iman, I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and Prophet Muhammad is His prophet
  205. if it enters the heart of a person and takes a grip,
  206. that will always be there so when Allah the Mighty and Majestic says:
  207. (Except those who believe together) they learned their Iman with a teacher.
  208. They stick together.
  209. They encourage one another, right?
  210. And they learn that are articles of Iman.
  211. Obviously, every article from the articles of faith
  212. needs an episode by itself.
  213. But Insha'Allah, we are here to focus on the big picture.
  214. God willing
  215. My dear brothers and sisters, do you have Iman?
  216. And where have your Iman taken you?
  217. This is the time in the month of Ramadan,
  218. Allah SWT boosts your Iman
  219. between read in Quran, making Dua'a, fasting,
  220. giving charity, praying Taraweeh, meeting the believers,
  221. helping the believers, all the gates of heaven are open
  222. because all the good deeds that lead to heaven are active in Ramadan.
  223. My dear brothers, sisters, is your Iman
  224. the most valuable thing to you?
  225. If someone says: I'm going to take all of your money,
  226. Id someone says: I'm going to take all of your health.
  227. Someone says: I'm going to take all of your children.
  228. What did the people of Gaza taught us?
  229. They've, in front of their eyes, lost everything they own,
  230. lost their families, their children, anything to be lost.
  231. They've lost it.
  232. And yet you hear from: Allah is my suffice, and the best deputy
  233. There is no power and no strength except with Allah
  234. Verily we belong to Allah, and verily to Him do we return
  235. That means they did not lose their Iman
  236. because it is the most valuable thing to them.
  237. Is it the most valuable thing to you?
  238. Do you feel that your Iman, you cannot lose it?
  239. And Allah the Mighty and Majestic has taught us
  240. through the story of Jacob PBUH,
  241. that if you could possibly lose
  242. your health, wealth,
  243. children and finally honor.
  244. But what are you Ayoub PBUH did not lose, is his Iman
  245. And when Allah has answered his prayers, Prophet Jacob PBUH
  246. Allah give him back his health, his wealth,
  247. his children, all doubled
  248. and his honor was restored in the eyes of the people.
  249. Subhanallah, so no matter what you have been tested with,
  250. let's build our Iman to be strong
  251. Iman based The Noble Quran and the Sunnah of the Prophet PBUH
  252. May Allah the Mighty and Majestic make us the believers
  253. because in The Noble Quran, in 89 times
  254. Allah called you and I
  255. Oh, those who have faith
  256. Oh, ye who believe are you listening?
  257. Because after that as Abdullah Ibn Abbas said, it's either Allah will tell you
  258. to do something, so go ahead and do it, or no until you don't do something,
  259. so don't do it.
  260. But what a beautiful way that Allah calls us
  261. by "the believers" Oh those who have faith
  262. May Allah strengthen our Iman and make us strong
  263. in every facet of our faith.
  264. May God’s blessings be upon our master Muhammad
  265. and all his family and companions

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Your Global Family | Al-Sirat Al-Mustaqeem EP.26 | A Journey With Shaykh Alauddin ElBakri · Tawasaw Institute