Why We Follow the Wrong People

His heart To the Quran and the and the light of Allah and the light of Iman. This is a very important issue. The light of Iman, the light of faith. hope, reason These things to be brought out in us He seeds of hope and reason and faith and belief and reliance upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala This is the greatest gift that a person, a human being can have. A greater gift that a person can be given. There's no money they can buy it. There's no amount of wealth that can compensate it. There's no way that a person can ever be given a gift greater than that. After the gift of having a sound mind and being guided to the religion of Islam. We live in a time where our scales are skewed.

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As you know, Dunya, buenas in a Quran.

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The way that we see what is good and what is bad. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said the good and the evil Whether that be good deeds or evil deeds, or the people of those deeds. good and evil decent and indecent, right and wrong, just and unjust. They will never be the same. They are not equal with Allah. And his court and his judgement is the only relevant judgment. He said and that is even if you are astounded by the magnificence or the seeming magnificence of Of the the evil. It will never be the same. We've mentioned before the narration of Muslim. It's a well-known narration but it continues to go back to this concept and that is This religion began in the time of the prophet with him and then Khadijah and then who was the next person that believed in him? Prophet then he went back to Khadijah. She believed in him. And then who believed in him after that? huh. Yes, her uncle. Ma'am. And then after that, Abu Bakr and Ali bin Abhita Alib and there was a time when there was the whole Ummah was only six or seven people. people, even people who loved him. All everybody loved him. They loved him because he wasn't decisive at that point. But religion is decisive. That's its nature. That Allah tells us that all of the people were one nation. And then Allah sent down the prophets and the books and people were divided. That's the nature of of religion. we can all agree when it comes times to truth and falsehood and right and wrong, people disagree. and so sometimes we get caught up in this idea that we need to just gather everyone on one heart. It can't work that way. The prophets and messengers came to gather people on one on one religion. and let those who decide to follow by the wayside fall by the wayside We don't want them to. We don't push them away. We're not we're not bad to them. We don't try to push them away but people will eventually choose wrong. and there will be conflict. This is the nature of religion As religion comes and it's intrusive and it says, this is right and this is wrong. This is halal. This is haram. This is false and this is true. What will happen? People will become divided. right? That's the nature of of of religion. and so, point here is that Islam began as a strange thing. It was very strange. Is it four, five people, six people Yeah, they're good people. They're upstanding people but now all of a sudden, they're telling us you know, all of what your forefathers are doing are incorrect. The worship of idols is wrong. these idols hold no value with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Riba is haram. alcohol is haram. Yeah, but it makes us feel good. Yeah, but it makes us rich. Gambling is haram. Yes, but it makes us feel lucky and rich. And So, people were divided and this was something very strange. Why rock the boat? Leave it it is. We're all happy. We're living in Mecca. Everybody's fine. Why do you have to bring this up? right? This is the this was the the the beginnings of Islam And so at one point, Islam and the Muslims were the minority. and so, We live in a time where Islam is starting and is returning to being strange even amongst its own people. Even amongst amongst his own claimants. Those who claim those who claim dissension from Islam or those who claim that they are are part of Islam or refer to themselves as Muslims and we are the Muslims etcetera. Much of the prophet much of the Quran itself is very strange to them. Give us haven't read the Quran. If we have, we haven't understood it. We haven't taken it. We haven't understood it the way the prophet did. The sunnah itself is very strange. And when you implement these strange things, you become a stranger even amongst your own family. Even in your own household. even in your own, in your own society, of people who are Muslim. And fingers are pointed at you. Why rock the boat? We're all fine. Let everybody just, no, it can't be that. There has to be we were not created to all get along. We were created to worship Allah alone without any partners. And we love and hate we take allegiances and alliances based on our belief in Allah in the last day. That's where we draw our line in the sand. So this now in our times very strange. Why is it such a big deal? Right? So even issues that go to the heart of our religion. That will literally if they are allowed to be unfettered and unbridled will destroy our religion as we know it. A hacks on the Quran. By the by Muslims, people claim to be Muslim. Attacks on the of the prophet attacks on Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, attacks on the book of the the books of attacks on the beliefs of the Muslims. Right? Many things. Many things, even things with regards to belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala have actions or not? Does Allah love and can he be loved or not? These are things that people of innovation have brought up. And they've said no. Musa never was spoken to by Allah. And Ibrahim was never taken as a close friend and loved by Allah. And the human being cannot be loved by Allah and the human being cannot love Allah. Yes, these are things that are said. And the Quran is created and the Quran is not actually the words of Allah and so on and so forth. And then people come and they spew this this madness and this venom and then people put in their comments. Oh, why is it such a big deal? Why are people dividing each other? It's not a big deal. So, what? You believe Allah is this or like this? Who cares? We're all Muslim. No, it can't be like that. If we, if the scholars of Islam allow things to get out of control that, the Muslim was, the Muslim Ummah will self destruct which is what it's doing right now. and so, a stand has to be taken Why? For the preservation of our religion There has to be men and women who stand in spite of the fingers pointed at him. As Allah said, they are not hindered and they do not fear the blame and reproach of those who blame them because they know they're in the right. Allah said to the prophet rely on Allah, you are definitely upon the clear truth. Now, I'm not speaking about issues of minutia and filk. This is something that even the companions differed on and this is not an issue. Should I put my hands here or here or up here or this is this is not what we're speaking about. We're we're speaking about the core of our religion. Right? What does it represent? Not just that it is the pillar of of the prophet if you topple the temple of Al Bukhari, there is no because all of the relies on that book. That book is the basis. It's the strongest book that we have. Which most meticulously documents the words of the prophet in revelation. Every other book revolves around that book of of with regards to the sunnah. but if we open it up and we allow it to be debated, things that for 1, 300 1, 400 years, the Muslims have always, the, the mainstream Muslims have said, Al Bukhari is beyond reproach. And then now, we open the floodgates and people start to say, well, maybe it's not such a good book. Maybe we don't have to follow it. Maybe it's this, maybe it's that. What comes after Sahih Al Bukhari? The Quran That's how it will go. So, there has to be men and women that will take a stand on these issues. Things that go to the crux of our belief. Such as, does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala interact with his servant in real time? This is the belief of the Muslims. Right? Some of the Tabereen, they used to say, I can see the displeasure of Allah for an action that I have committed, that a sin that I have committed, and how my animal acts with me, and how my wife talks to me. They can see the, the, the, the way that their animal is being unru and maybe their family at home is being unruly and they can say, yes, this is because of a sin I've committed and and this is a stress that's being placed upon me. What does this mean? This means that Allah interacts with us directly. But if we open the floodgates to say, no, Allah doesn't interact with you directly. Which is what's been said and what's been pushed. It's been said that Allah does not become angry with a person and then be pleased with the person based on their actions in real time. It only matters at the end. What they end up to be. You know what that means? That means that when Omar Abdul Khattab was killing the Muslims when when Khaled Ibn Al Waleed was slaughtering the Muslims and attempting to kill the prophet Allah was always pleased with him. Cuz he was going to end up being Muslim. Does that make sense? and then people say, well, what does that have to do with my normal life? The anger of Allah has ramifications in this life and in the hereafter. If Allah is unpleased with you right now, you will feel it in your life now. It'll start in your heart and it will and it will fluster around and that which goes on around you. And the opposite is true. If Allah is pleased with you now, you will feel it in your heart and it will manifest itself around you. Allah's anger and Allah's pleasure have ramifications in real time now. But the point is, is that these things have been taken lightly because back to what we started with and that is we have different scales that we see the world with now. We've been inoculated. We've been we've been, reprogrammed to see the world in a different way. So now, if a person has a lot of money and is very wealthy, all of the sudden, whatever they say is gold. It should be written down in gold and followed. As if it's a religion. And if a person is poor, but they have knowledge, then knowledge is not considered to be of significance. And they're standing in society is considered to be marginal. right? And we see this all the time. Not just with the Muslims but non Muslims of course and we take this and we import it in from non Muslims. We see this successful celebrity. They have a net worth of whatever whatever and so when they speak 20 years old 30 years old, riff raft off of the street. Haven't seen a day of of of hardship in their life. They don't know anything about the world. They don't know anything about Allah and his messenger but because they have money, we listen to them. and we gather for them and we if we hear that they're coming to give a speech or a motivational speech, we clamor together and we go and we run and we want to hear what they have to say. However, it's my fear that if Imam were resurrected from his grave today and were placed in a stadium, maybe a few hundred people might show up, maybe and most of them will leave before he's finished. Because we have different scales. This is exactly what the prophet said will happen. He said, The.

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Treacherous and the treacherous will be deemed as trustworthy and the foolish will start to speak on behalf of the masses. These are the times. He said also in the narration of he said he said every nation will have something that will spearhead their fitna. And the fitna of my wealth, is money to a person who in Allah's scales is not worth a dime. It's not worth a pair of slippers amongst the amongst the masses. They will clamor around him. And a person whom if he was placed in the scales of Allah, the mountains of would not be able to outweigh him. Nobody has anything to listen to them for. They they're not giving it the time of day. And you can see it. You see it even on social media. What what is a better place to gauge this? Right? Because you can see likes and dislikes and views and you see major scholars of Islam who spent 60, 70 years studying Islam. Have more knowledge than than have forgotten more knowledge than we have ever we will ever hope to learn. They'll give a lecture or a speech or a statement. Maybe two hundred views. Maybe. Maybe hundred views but then you have a 17, eighteen-year-old girl. She'll put out some three-minute garble of nonsense with a beat right? A song and it'll get one point two, one point three, one point five billion views. A sixth of the Earth, listen to this. the time that we live in where our scales are are skewed. We don't see the world right anymore. We don't see people as believer and disbeliever or believer and you know, strong in faith and weak in faith. We see people in and their appearances. He has a nice car. He has money. He has this. He has that. We listen and we come around him and I said, I want to eat one dude. Etcetera, etcetera. And we see this as well in our own country our leaders that sold us, literally sold us as slaves to our enemies If they come, we all clamor around them and when they leave, we all speak bad about them. Isn't this true? We say, oh, these are terrible people. They sold us to the, they sold us to our enemies but if they come or if they show up, everybody wants to shake his hand and get close to him and I have his number and brag about it and it's the same people that sold us. and scholars of Islam, real scholars. I'm not talking about guys with big hats. I'm talking about real scholars. People whom the Quran and Sunnah flow through their blood. If you were to be able to test it, it would be in their bone marrow. These people they are being put in prison. They are being marginalized. They are being attacked. They're being defamed. They're being deported. They're being killed by the masses. Has anybody even heard about what's happening in in Bangladesh in the past few years? In the past four years, they've they've literally executed thousands of scholars of Islam, thousands. Because they are trying to secularize the state. Look at it was what's been going on in Egypt. Not just now. Not just in the time of Assisi or for years all the way since the 50s. This has been going on. To the point where a man, a a scholar could not even grow his beard. You see, many scholars during that era, they have no beard. Why? It's because if you grow a beard, you get put in prison. This is what was happening and it's still happening. And so the point is is that we're in a time of extreme fitna. And we're in a time where our scales are lopsided. They're not balanced. We can't see the world for what it is anymore. Now we're seeing the world as money, money, money, possessions, wealth, you get the 20 year old, 25 year old. He's a YouTuber and he's got 25 cars and a $3 million dollar mansion. And we listen to what he has to say because he obviously if he got this, he must have some kind of wisdom This is not what the Muslim was based on. If you would have seen the companions of the prophet in their prime, you would be astounded. They would walk to battles for months until their shoes would fall apart and they would walk barefoot through the desert to go to war. three and four people would ride on a camel, a single camel, three and four of them and they would take turns. If you would to walk into the prophet Masjid, you would see men there that were barely, barely had enough cloth to cover their own loins. and those are the men that built what we have today. Those are the men why we know about Allah and his messenger. Those are those men are the reason. They're the reason. Those men and women They gave their blood. They gave their wealth. They gave their status. they gave everything, their soul, their life in order for Islam to reach us today. And then we have people come. They go on some social media or whatever. Twenty year old, thirty-year-old kid, fifty, sixty, seventy, doesn't know the first thing about Alif Batel doesn't know the first thing about the Quran or how it is reached us or any discipline or any serious discipline of Islam and what happens? They abuse the work of these men and women. And they abuse the legacy of these men and women. Right? A very good example of that. Is we want to be Muslim and we want to be non Muslim at the same time. We want to have our cake and eat it at the same time. You can't. Religion, Islam is inherently divisive. You have to choose one path. You can't be both. Because if you try to be both, you're going to be neither. That's the problem. If you try to be both, you're going to end up being neither. and that is what the hypocrites were in the time of the prophet he said Allah said describing them they are constantly between the two groups they neither belong to the non Muslims nor do they belong to the Muslims So, we start to have Muslim rap groups So, they come in wrap but their wrap is about what? About the prophet and his companions. Please if you want to be a rapper, please leave the prophet out of it. Please. Please leave Allah and the Quran out of it. It has nothing to do with it. under the guise of well, we've got to gather the youth. That's not how the prophet gathered the youth. When he became a Muslim, he was 40 years old when he became a prophet. And his his Dawah became widespread in about seven or eight years after that. He was on the brink of 50 years old. And what were the majority of his followers? The youth. young people because the old people were set in their ways. So, what does a 50-year-old man have to do with a fourteen and 15-year-old young man? A lot because he brought them the truth and that's what they were looking for. He didn't start to dress them and sing songs with them and try, oh, just gather around me and you know, I'll put a, I'll put a drop of honey in this in this in in your pot of this is not the way. We have to be present. We have to have direction. The scho have to be different and separate. They have to be known and so, the greatest gift you can have in these times and I don't to say the word uncertain times they are uncertain times but the word has been really abused in the past two, three years because of the coronavirus. Every commercial, you know, in these uncertain times, you know, in these uncertain times, right? We've heard it, right? It's in every commercial but really, we are in times of darkness. The prophet said, Muslim He said, hasten to do good deeds.

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Cannot even see it and and and it will come out and and and swipe you off of the of the religion of Allah. Just pull you right off. He said during these times, a man may be a Muslim in the in the in the in the morning and by night time, not even eight hours later, he has renounced his faith. Doesn't mean that he renounced all his faith. It means that he renounced one little bit of his faith at a time. One sacrifice here, one here, one here, over 10 years. It's not, it's just a shell of a Muslim after that. What did the prophet say the reason for this would be? He will sell his religion for something measly of this world. Money or status or to be liked or to be. No, You find your identity in Allah. And you find your purpose and direction in the Quran and Sunnah. Even if everybody else is not doing that. Even if the whole tide is going downstream, you're going upstream because that's the way to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. and there was a time when Islam was easy. It was easy to be Muslim. Everybody was Muslim. And if you got out of line, everyone would put you back in line. There was a time when the Quran and the Sunnah, they were the crown of every Muslim who walked around. And his dignity was Islam and his identity as a Muslim. There was a time like that. When, in the time Omar and Ali and and the that came after them and the and the and so on and so forth. There were times even up to the Ottoman Empire when? Being a Muslim was a badge of honor. Even amongst all of humanity. but that slowly withered away. As the prophet said it would. Don't be surprised. Don't be shocked. Don't be scared. He already told us this was going to happen. It's just that we have to come to realize that it's happening. and what should I do when that happens And so the greatest gift that you can be given by Allah is that your heart be open to the Quran and Sunnah and that you see the world for what it really is. an illusion. Yes, it's real. This is real. I exist. I understand that. But it's an illusion of, it's an illusion of pleasure. It's a brief illusion. Don't sell your soul. Don't sell your identity for any part of that brief illusion. me hat. Allah said to the prophet don't be fooled by all of the travels and lavishness of those who are are disbelievers. Don't be fooled by that. All these caravans and money and going and come in and eating fruits in the winter and going to travel and having vacations whenever they want and don't be fooled by that. He said this to the prophet when he was in a state where they were going through famine in Medina and they're looking at the disbelievers and it seems they're flourishing and the believers because of their belief, they are being attacked, confederations are being formed against them. they're at constant war, they're in constant famine, they're in constant to the point where the prophet had to say to the companions, the meal of one person is enough for two and the meal of a of two is enough for three. He had to say that. This is how bad things were. And Allah told him, don't be fooled by what you see. That's just an exterior. These people are hell bound. You're on the right path even if it doesn't feel like it. Even if it doesn't look it. Don't be fooled by that. Get your, get your scales right. Money is not everything. It's important. We need it, right? We need money. We have to have money. The masjid that I'm speaking in. What was built by? It was built by people of faith with money. Hamdulillah. Right? That's not everything. It's not how we judge people. That's not how we judge success A person who is poor, we don't judge him by his poverty and a person who a person who is wealthy, we don't judge him by his, by his apparent prosperity. We judge people by the scales of the Quran and Sunnah. We let every person prove to us who they are. They are good, righteous people, and they remind us of Allah. I don't, it doesn't matter if they don't have, if they, if they don't even have a home to live in, if they're homeless. and if a person has all the wealth in the world but doesn't know how to clean himself after using the restroom properly, this person is. This person is obviously not a person that we should look up to. Right? People that make us feel good with their music and their and their fake smiles and fake hugs. It doesn't mean anything to us. People who tell us the truth even if it hurts, those are the people that we want to stick to because we want to become better. And so the last and final thing and and and all of this was said, we're not off topic here. We are on topic and why I say we're on topic is because we have to be able to see the world for what it really is and the greatest gift Allah can give you is light of faith in your heart. That's the greatest gift. You can't buy with all the money in the world what what amount of money can pay for a verse of the Quran? What amount of money? all the wealth in the earth Billions, billions, billions, all the money and all the all of the the the jets and the leers and the you know convertibles and all the limos and all the fancy money and all of the praise of everybody. And everybody looking up to you and gathering around you to fool you. What can any of that? If all of it were to be put together? Can it pay for one verse of the Quran? No. It can't pay one verse and that's why he was considered to be one of the and he was one of the greatest of the earth. He said, he said, whoever narrates to me a narration that I don't know, I will remain his servant for the rest of my life. I could never pay him back for that. How can you pay somebody for guidance? How can you pay someone? How can a scholar be repaid How can a person of knowledge be repaid? They taught you. They paved the, how could we repay the prophet.

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How can we repay a and an Imam Ahmed? How can we repay Sheikh Al Islam and who are reading his books now. When he teaches us the insights of the Quran and Sunnah. How could we ever repay him? How? What amount of money will pay for that? You can never pay for guidance. Guidance is something that Allah gives you and it's precious. In Muslim, the prophet said, in Allah. He said Allah gives wealth to those whom he loves and those whom he does not love. But he only gives faith to those whom he loves. That's all that matters. All the money you see, what are you going to do? Spend it all. You have, you have $200 billion dollars. You're going to spend it all. If you, if you lived for 25 generations, you with inflation, you could never spend all of that money and guess what? When that person dies and goes back into the earth, it goes to someone else free of charge. It doesn't make you. What you own does not define you. What defines you is your relationship with Allah. That's where you draw your value. If you not have that and you do not have in your heart and soul. If you don't have on your soul written the verses of the Quran and the narrations of the prophet and the beliefs, you, what do you own? You own nothing? You have nothing. and in a narration which has some weakness in it, what its meaning is correct, collected by that the prophet was narrated to have said, Al Quran he said as heart that has no Quran in it, is a broken down house. It's useless. right? So, the final thing that Ibn il Kayah mentions with regards to the things that open the heart He says, known. He says, the final thing that we can do to try to open our hearts to the faith, to the light, is leaving off that which is unnecessary of what we see, what we say, what we listen to, those whom we congregate with, that which we eat, and the amount of time we sleep. So, notice here his wording is to leave off that which is that which is above what is necessary of what you look at, what you say, what you listen to, whom you gather with and congregate with, what you eat, and the amount of time that you sleep. So anything more than what you need of these things, they are a hindrance. They become an illness, a disease. The more you sit with people that have nothing to say about Allah and his messenger, the more your heart will be filled with dust and smoke Ibn ul Kaim said in another book of his The more you eat, more than you need to, the more this becomes a disease. The more you lay around and sleep, more than you need to to have the energy to get up and face the day, the more this causes and becomes a disease in your heart. The more you look and pay attention to things that don't deserve your attention. Looking at things that are unnecessary. Whether that is reading things that are unnecessary. Let alone those things which are haram. He's not speaking about what is haram. He's speaking about what is extra, what is unnecessary. we have a hunger as human beings naturally for knowledge and information We have a natural hunger for knowledge and information and knowledge and information, if it is taken in too quickly, it's just like eating too much food. It will be turned into fat and it will eventually kill you. It has to be digested, taken in slowly, and you have to vet what it is you eat, what it is you learn. So, this is the final thing that Ibn il Kaim mentions I'll repeat it and then we'll listen to the Adan. He says, leaving off that which is unnecessary of what we look at, what we say, what we listen to, whom we congregate with, what we eat, and the amount of time that we sleep Next week inshallah, we will move on to the way the prophet used to exercise fasting. Muhammad thank you.