MCC Tucson Lectures
Muslim Community Center of Tucson
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January 16, 2026·Rajab 27, 1447 AH·12:44 PM·56m·January 2026

How Prophet Muhammad Freed Us From Ignorance

Prophet Muhammad's Message of Liberation and the Balance Between Divine Decree and Human Free Will

prophet muhammadjahiliyyahsuperstitionsdivine decreefree willhuman accountabilityislamic liberationhadith
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Summary

This Islamic lecture from the Muslim Community Center of Tucson discusses the role of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in liberating humanity from the chains and yolks of pre-Islamic ignorance (Jahiliyyah). The speaker explains how the Prophet freed people from superstitions, oppressive laws, and fear-based beliefs while establishing submission only to Allah. The lecture then transitions to discussing the Islamic concept of divine decree (Qadr) and free will, explaining how Allah predetermined all things while humans possess genuine free will and accountability for their choices.

Transcript

Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.

Alhamdulillah.

[Silence]

Continuing where we left off last week with respect to the chains, the yolks, the imprisonment that our prophet sallall.aii Wasam was sent by Allah to us in order to release us from.

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Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala describes the prophet sallall.aii wasallam to us. He says the messenger of Allah, the prophet, the unlettered prophet whom they find his description drawn out at great length in detail in the previous books in the Torah that was given to MS in the inj that was given to Isa. What are his most prominent traits? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says he commands them with good and prohibits them from evil and makes lawful for them that which is good and makes unlawful for them that which is bad and lowly and filthy and that which is undignified. And then he says, "And he relieves them from the yolks and chains that they were in prior to his coming saiam. Humanity was in yolks and chains. Humanity was in utter chaos and utter darkness before our prophet sallall.aii wasallam. The prophet Muhammad sallall.aii wasallam said.

[Silence]

He said, "Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala looked upon the people of the earth in the time of Jahia just prior to our prophet being sent and he positively disdained all of them except for a few pockets of the people of the look here and there. And so he sent to us this messenger in that darkness. The light that he was sent with, the light of the Quran and Revelation and the Sunnah, it pierced that darkness and it relieved us of the chains and yolks that we were in prior. The chains and yolks that we were in prior. Humanity was in bondage to a shanim. What were the chains and yolks? The chains and yolks. The chaos of Jahya. The chaos of the laws of Jahya which were incredibly oppressive. The superstitions that humanity was adhering to. These superstitions are part of the bondage, the slavery that aanime had placed humanity in. People were afraid. They were afraid of certain movements. They were afraid of certain days. They were afraid of certain hours. They were afraid of certain animals. Not a natural fear, but a s but a superstitious unnatural fear. A fear of jin and they were in fear of witches. They were in fear of their idols. They were in fear of the servants of their idols. It was chaos. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then sent our prophet sallall.aii wasallam and he sent him to humanity to release them from their bondage. And this is a point that a shaitan always tries to manipulate people with and try to convince people and hinder them and deter them from adhering to the prophets and messengers throughout time with the notion that if you believe if you become Muslim if you accept this prophet or messenger you're not going to be able to do what you want to do. It's going to make your life worse. It's going to make your life uncomfortable. You're not going to be free. You're going to be a slave to this messenger to the rules and regulations of that religion. This is the ideal. However, in reality, people were in chains and yolks before the messenger, not after. The messenger came to release us from those chains and yolks to truly free humanity. No matter what, we were created as slaves. slaves to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We were not created into paradise. Eat from whatever you want to eat, drink from whatever you want to drink, do whatever whim whatever whim flashes through your mind or heart. That is not the nature of our existence here on this earth. Here there are things which are detrimental to us and there are things which are beneficial. The prophet sallallah.aii wasallam all prophets and messengers they did not come in with that which would inhibit humanity. They came with that which would free and emancipate humanity. free us and emancipate us from anything other than Allah and from anyone other than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as it is said.

[Silence]

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has sent us in order to emancipate the servants of Allah from the slaves of Allah. Emancipate them from the slavery to other slaves of Allah and make them true slaves only to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala. This is what the prophets and messengers were sent with. There is no chains and yolks that come with following the Quran and Sunnah. The only thing that a person is prohibited from doing is that which is detrimental to him. That which will enslave him, that which will ensnare him. However, anything that is healthy, that is good, that is righteous, that is clean, none of that is prohibited, especially in the legislation of Muhammad sallall.aii wasallam. And so one of those things is the superstitions that they dealt with in Jahyah. Our prophet sallall.aii wasallam says in the narration of collected by both bkari and Muslim. He said here he is negating many of the beliefs that were common place in Jah. So he says subhanahu wa'ta'ala he says saiam he tells us there is no superstitions there are no bad omens that a person can receive. If a bird flies off and it goes to the right then you're going to have a good day. If it goes to the left you're going to have a bad day. If a black cat crosses your path, wow, you you're just you're done. You're doomed, right? If you get onto the plane and they sit you in row number 13, it's terrible. What what are you going to do? How can you escape such a devastating fate, right? The prophet sallall.aii wasallam says this is a figment of people's imagination. just doesn't exist. This does not exist. There are no superstitious numbers. There are no superstitious days. There are no superstitious dates. There are no superstitious places. There is good and bad. There is rational and irrational. He then says, "Alham is a belief that they had in Jahya and it still managed to stick around to this day. And that is the superstitions attached to the owl. The owl, the animal, the bird, right? What is the superstitions of the owl? that if a super that if an owl comes and lands on top of your house and makes a noise at night, someone in that house is going to die, right? And they also believed that if someone were to be murdered, they would say murdered before his time. This actually I am young enough or old enough you could say to remember this. I'm sure all of us have some some version of these. But we were told that if a person dies young, if a person is killed as a young man, let's say, then he actually had another few decades to live. But he was murdered early. So what happens now is his soul will go into an owl or it will take the the form of an owl and it will circle and it will continue to roam about until vengeance is taken on his behalf in order to release his soul. And we still have that belief here even in America. You look at any story of haunting. Haunting. Someone goes actually you know someone buys a house then they start saying well we're having trouble. We believe the house is haunted. What's the first thing that will happen? that will go and look at the history of the house and say, "Wow, this man was here and he actually was killed in this house." And I believe that's his soul roaming around in the house, still unable to transition to the afterlife. As if Allah created the soul to just roam around in a house all day and give new homeowners the willies. He doesn't have anything new to do. He doesn't have to go to the grave. He doesn't have to go to paradise or hell. No, he was created to take the form of an old man and scare little girls in their bed. This is exactly the superstitions that that the prophet sallall.aii wasallam negated. There are there are jin they do play games. But when a person dies, his soul is detached from his body in a permanent way and he is placed into a reality that is known as alzak, the grave, whether his body is in a grave or not. and therein he will endure either punishment or pleasure based on what kind of person he was until the day of judgment when Allah will resurrect the souls and reattach them to their rightful bodies. We will continue this inshall next week and subhanahuaala and.

[Silence]

You And Allah will act. I shall be in.

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I shall All.

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I saw. Oh,.

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Hallelujah. Hello. Allah Love.

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Alhamdulillah.

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Muslim. Simon.

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Foram.

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Them.

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Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that everything every creation Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has created it with a destiny with a carved out. It has its limitations. It has its purpose. It has its destiny and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has told us of this book of destiny. He says subhanahua that all of the creation's destiny and and decree is found in the preserved tablets of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala subala. for.

[Silence]

He says subhanahua that he has created the heavens and the earth and all that is in between. Number one, for a reason, for a purpose, and number two, with a named and determined time of expiration. This is so important for us to not just believe on a surface level. We have to take this belief in the decree of Allah to the deepest parts of our conviction and believe truly with every fiber of our being that everything on this earth has been created for a purpose and everything has a determined determined time to fulfill that purpose that when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala creates something the time for that being that thing its existence its expiry has been named and documented by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala at the moment of creation it has already been written our Prophet sallall.aii wasallam tells us in the narration of Abdullahb. He says, "Sallam.

[Silence]

He says sai wasallam There is not one of you, no human being, none of us outside of Adam and these are the two only exceptions. Every human being will remain in his mother's womb for 40 days as a drop. And that drop then grows into a small clinging clot for 40 more days. And then after 40 more days, 120 days, it will grow and develop into a small lump of flesh. And at the 120day mark, the angel is then sent to this fetus and commanded by Allah to put the soul into this new creation of Allah. And four things are documented at that moment. The first is this individual's time on this earth. Exactly when his expiry will be, the exact time, the exact date. The second is this person's deeds. Will they be good? Will they be bad? The third to write whether this creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala what sustenance and risk this person will have of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's risk and the fourth whether this person ultimately is is a person of damnation a a person of eternal bliss. Will he be amongst the miserable or the blissful? Will he be of the people of paradise or the hellfire? Ultimately, every one of us has had these four things written at the moment that his soul was married to his body. Every one of us, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has created everything with a decree. Now, this doesn't mean that we do not have free will. We do. We have free will which makes us incredibly unique as far as creatures are concerned. There are only three creatures of this creation that have this free will. The human being, the jin and the angels. Aside from that, free will has been reserved. But this free will is all part of the knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not learning new things from his creation. He did not create us and then learn from us. He subhanahu wa ta'ala knows knew all that was, all that is, all that is to be, all that would have been, had things been. And he subhanahu wa ta'ala wrote what is to be in the preserved tablet. The prophet sallall.aii wasallam tells us that a group of the companions asked they came to ask him we came to ask you oh messenger of Allah about the first thing that Allah created in this world. The prophet sallall.aii Wasam said.

[Silence]

That the first thing Allah created of this creation is the pen. And he said to it, "Write." It responded, "What shall I write?" He said, "Write all that is to be until the day of judgment." And so all of this was written. Every word I will ever utter, every beat of your heart, every breath you have ever been allotted by Allah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knew and knows all of that and wrote it in the preserved tablet. And he subhanahu wa ta'ala willed for that to be. Allah tells us you all do not will for something to be except that Allah has willed and allowed that thing to be. And then he subhanahu wa ta'ala created all that is created. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has no other creators with him. This is the breakdown that our prophet sallall.aii wasallam gives us of the decree and destiny of Allah. See, two different groups of people have emerged throughout history with respect to the topic of destiny and free will. You've got a group that are so extreme in their belief in destiny that they do not believe in the free will that the human being has. That essentially we are being forced by way of decree and destiny to make the decisions and choices that we have. And this as well is the viewpoint of many in the world of modern science. The idea is that we are nothing but biology. We are nothing but chemicals and reactions. We are nothing but neurons firing in your brain. And we make decisions based on that. There is no free will beyond that just animals. Then there is another group that is so extreme in the opposite that they do not believe in destiny at all. That they believe that the human being has so much free will that there is no such thing as destiny and nothing has been written by Allah. Then there are the followers of the prophets and messengers. Those who believe in free will and believe in destiny. Does that mean that every Muslim will understand every intricate detail of free will and destiny? Absolutely not. However, we know of these two topics enough to worship Allah adequately. We know of these two things enough through the Quran and the Sunnah that we are able to move on from the past and we as well are expected to take responsibility for the choices that we make. The prophet sallall.aii am. He tells us that anything that afflicts you was written. It was never meant to miss you. And anything that misses you was never meant to afflict you. He taught this to even the children in Medina. He tells us that our prophet Sam told him once.

[Silence]

He said I am going to teach you some truisms, some proverbs, some sentences of wisdom to live your life by preserve Allah's laws. Preserve and mind Allah's boundaries and he will preserve you. Build a relationship with Allah and get to know Allah in your times of ease and he will recognize you and he will be there for you in your times of difficulty. He says sam.

[Silence]

He says, Wasam know that if all of humanity were to collaborate to attempt to benefit you with something, they would only be able to benefit you with that which Allah has already written for you. And if all of humanity were to collaborate, to attempt to harm you with something, they will only be able to harm you with that which Allah has already written upon you. The pens of decree have already been lifted off of the pages and those pages have already dried. He says saiam that know that that which misses you was never meant to be for you and that which is for you was never meant to miss you. This is the precision of the decree of Allah. And so the question then comes we have largely heard this before. Many of us have already heard these narrations. We've heard this in the Quran. But how do we apply this to our lives? How can we strike that balance between taking accountability but not fretting over that which is out of our control? How do we walk that middle path between free will and destiny? Our prophet sallall.aii wasallam teaches us a way a method of life that if you follow this formula you will never take on grief. you will never take on guilt that does not belong to you. And if you follow this formula, you will never chalk something up to being of the decree of Allah when there is a level of accountability to be had on your behalf. The prophet sallall.aii Wasam said as Abu narrates to us in Muslim. He says he said a strong believer in his belief is better is superior and more beloved to Allah than a weak believer in his belief. But in both there is good. He says he says seek out anything that will benefit you that will benefit you. Seek out ANYTHING THAT WILL BENEFIT you and seek aid in Allah and do not give up.

[Silence]

He says, "Seek constantly that which is good for you either in this life or the hereafter. Seek aid in Allah in your journey and do not give up. And do not look at something that has already happened that's already dead and gone and say if only I have done had done such and such the result would have been different. Rather say that is the decree of Allah and what he has willed he has done. Because if only in this context will only work to open upon the human being the actions of a shaitan. Now what does this mean? this this narration he tells us with respect to the future constantly seek out the best result in anything you want something to be in your future in your present work hard for it and seek aid in Allah and make dua and struggle and strive to obtain it. However, when you are afflicted with something, when something happens to you, when the decree of Allah presents you with something that you were not expecting, something that is less than favorable. Do not look to the past and say, "If only I had done such and such, the result would have been different." rather say that is the decree of Allah and what he has decided and decreed and destined that is what happened. Notice the wording here that a person looks back at the past and doesn't say if I had done things would have been different. Who are you? Who am I? Who is any human being to make the bold claim that he with his little hands and his little mind and his little choices can reach up into the heavens and change what Allah has written in the his preserved tablet. If only I had done such and such, the past would have been different. No, there is no one here that can lay claim to being able to alter what Allah has penned in that preserved tablet. We have a destiny and we know that something is in the preserved tablet once it happens. And so we don't look back at spilled milk and say, "Well, if only I had done." All that does is cause you to carry grief in your heart that doesn't belong to you. That will at least weaken you in your future resolve.

[Arabic recitation]

Allahight Lord. I shall.

[Silence]

Allahbar Stand shouldertosh shoulder. Close all of the gaps. Straightening of the rows and standing as coherently and straight as possible. Each person aligning his shoulders and feet with the shoulders and feet of his two neighbors. This is of paramount importance and it is one of the things that our prayer will be judged and rewarded based on.

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Alhamdulillah.

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For.

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Amen. Fore!

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Foreign! Foreign! for.

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Allah. Allahbel.

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Allah. Alhamdulillah.

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For Holy. Amen.

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Fore! Foreign! Foreign!

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Allah Allahbel.

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All long.

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All the.

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My dear brothers and sisters, assalamu alaykum. Just have a couple of reminders. First is today after Murab there will be a gathering at U I imabuhanifa mosque and there are a couple of things on the agenda there. First is a commemoration of the Isra and then also there is a farewell to brother Hassan from the community perspective and there will be there is a dinner that's going to be served there inshallah. So if you are able to make it that will be great opportunity. the second is Muslim Youth of America is holding a fundraising dinner tomorrow inshallah after MGH and that is being chaired by Dr. Naser Maha and also Imam Imam Hassan is also part of that. So that's going to be tomorrow after mab inshallah. And the purpose of that is to raise some funds for the Muslim youth of America for their activities. Inshallah. There's a $20 fee to get in, but inshallah you'll enjoy that. also the last thing I want to mention is now it's the new year. Alhamdulillah. We have to work hard to redirect our state tax liability to the benefit of Rahma Academy. So I want to make sure you understand my words properly. It's not going to cost you anything. You're going to simply redirect the liability.