More Muslims, Weaker Iman: What Happened?

I'm doing.

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Alhamdulillah.

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As per usual for our Saturday nights, inshallah we will begin immediately with the questions and answers. and save.

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Start.

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My question is how do you see the state of the Muslim world today? How do you see the state of the because from my perspective the way I see it that we have more Muslims than ever. We have more mosques than ever. we have more schools than ever. But also it feels it's kind of quantity quantity but but not quality because feels iman is weak in people. it feels a lot of people are chasing the world and you know for example you see a lot of people just in you see the you know for example in mosques and stuff you see them coming Friday Eid Ramadan you don't see Quran being recited that much you see it like you know recit Ramadan that kind of stuff. so just kind of interested in your kind of opinion on that matter. Alhamdulillah. Without a doubt, our modern time, we see a huge appearance of Islam. Probably more.

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The question I think it was pretty clear. The question is, you know, we see that there's a lot of Muslims today. However, how quality and qualitative is that Islam in a nutshell? And yes, without a doubt, Islam is probably more apparent in ways in ways than it has been in the past or few times in the past. However, the problem is that this appearance and this prevalence and the ubiquitous pres presence of Islam in today's world is a cheap very thin veneer. It's very akin to a facade. And this is not my words. This is not my assessment. This is an assessment that the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam made centuries ago. There's an narration in a sunnah in which the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam said.

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Forch.

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That is sick. This authentic nar narration here kind of brings into perspective a lot of what we see today. He said saiam a time will come when the nations of the world invite one another to partake in your pillaging. Just guests invite one another to eat at a dish. So imagine here the imagery that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is giving us here. He says, Foreimch.

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Wasam.

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Zed. He said that a time is near when the nations of the world will invite and beckon and urge one another to feast on you, on you all. on the Muslims to pillage you just as a group of eaters invite and beckon one another. You have a a big meal, right, on on a plate on a on a on a big you know, what do they call this? You know, a big platter, right? And it's got all this food on it. And you know, we're all eating from the same platter, the way that we would invite one another to eat, right? we see, you know, eat, take more, take, you know, you didn't take that much, you didn't eat that much. Come on. Right? This here is the imagery that the prophet sallall.aii wasallam gives us. He says that a time is coming when the Muslims in that scenario are going to be that dish and platter and the rest of the world's nations are going to be those feasters, those gluttonous beings beckoning and inviting one another to partake and pillaging the Muslims. So you notice that this imagery is incredibly haunting. Why is it so haunting? Because just as that platter is helpless to defend itself. Likewise, the ones who are eating it, inviting one another to it, they are the ones that control how much of is taken of it and how much of it is pillaged. Now, the companions heard this in a time when the messenger was amongst them. They heard this on the heels of the moon being split. They heard this on the heels of the battle of They heard this on the heels of the great victories of Islam. They heard this and the prophet sallall.aii wasallam had otherwise told them that the bracelets of the emperor of Persia is going to be had and worn by ib Malik in the streets of Medina. That's what he said. He said that Ibin Malik, who was not a Muslim at the time, was going to wear the bracelets of the emperor of Persia in the streets of Medina. And that happened in the time of Omar. It was unfathomable that the Muslims would go from that to a time is going to come when the nations are going to feast on your on on on the Muslim. And so the companions couldn't really understand why such a thing would happen. And so they said, "Is that because we will be few in numbers at that time? We're too few to defend ourselves. Is that because we will be so few in numbers?" He said he said no to the contrary on that day and in that era you all will be extremely numerous many Muslims all over. However, the Islam, the quality of that Islam and that practice will be the foam that is carried a top a river, right? When the waters gush, if we could have the children please quiet down a little bit, especially right under the dome, it echoes very distracting. So if we were to look at a river when the waters are crashing, right? What happens when those waters crash or even on a beach where the water comes up on shore? It produces a foam that's carried on top of this on top of this river, right? And that foam makes the river appear bigger than it actually is. Right? If we were to stop the water and let the water settle, right? We would lose many inches from the height of that river or that water. Are you all understanding the imagery here? So the point is is that foam because there's so much air in it, it expands and it strikes the onlooker as being you know a as as being part of the river but actually the water is much less dense than that. So the point that the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam is telling us here is that the quantity of the muslim during those days will be more than ever. However, the quality of that Islam that is practiced will be what? Far less than it appears. It's just an appearance of quantity. Now if we look at that and we were trying we were attempting to translate that into our current affair as Muslim is that narration speaking specifically about the state of the Muslim in 2025 I can't say that who knows Allah that is something that I have no way of knowing or any other human being has any way of knowing. knowing the exact year when that example and prophecy will be epitomized. Right? However, what we do know is that the more we go on into the future, the nearer we go to epitomizing and actualizing that state of affairs. If we were to look at the state of the affairs of the Muslim, we no longer fight for ourselves. We don't defend ourselves anymore. Our best defense is to beg our enemies or to beg onlookers to please intervene on our behalf. That's the most we can do now. We have nothing else. The most we can we we find ourselves doing is look at the atrocities that are happening in Gaza for instance. Why is it where's your humanity? Where's the humanity? Begging the world to relieve us of our burden. That's our burden. Why is it that we are expecting that the rest of the world should care? Right? And so this is as weak as a person can become when they are completely at the mercy of onlookers. We we we say to the other nations, "Look at the footage. Look at the the body parts in the streets. Look at the explosions in great detail, in graphic detail, showing the bodies of men and Muslim men and women and children all all scattered throughout the streets and begging the world because now we say we have to spread awareness." That is that is the height of our strength now is to spread awareness. I don't know how much weaker it could get. I honestly I cannot envision how much weaker our situation could get. How much more dire our situ situation could get. Now a person may say why is that? Why why is that happening? You know, we're not perfect, but the Muslim are you know, upon guidance. Correct. Why is it that the Muslim blood is the cheapest blood? And why is it that the Muslim woman is often the most abused in society? Why is it that we are such a soft target? The entire battle that took place with Benin Noah when they were completely removed from the entire Arab Peninsula is because a Jewish man from amongst them tied a Muslim woman's clothing in such a way that when she stood up. It showed her leg and she yelled out for the Muslims and they entire tribe was eradicated from the Arab Peninsula because of that one time. That's where we came from and here we are today. that we take highdefinition 8K cameras and point it at the blood and body parts of children and women and men. And we can't get any sympathy. We would ask cordially one more time if please the children could be quieted down. And so we see that that's where we came from and this is where we have arrived. Why is that? Why he have why have we arrived at that junction? This is what we have to ask ourselves and that is because of how the prophet sallall.aii wasallam described our situation. What did he describe it as? Numerous high in numbers but it is the foam a top a stream. Okay, those numbers yes are are very high numbers. The fastest growing religion in the west and the fastest growing religion in prisons and the fastest growing religion amongst women and the f you know all these statistics that we get right fantastic that is great. But the quality of that Islam when we look at the veneer the facade from the outside we say yeah mashallah you know look how many apps for the mus how many apps show us the mus how many apps on the recitation of the Quran are made and exist right now in the app stores a lot. How many of them focus on understanding the Quran? You can hardly find anything that. Recitation of the Quran, mashallah. Understanding the Quran, it's almost it's becoming a a a lost ancient art of sorts. Muslims that are 40, 50, 60 years old, they've been saying for 60 70 years and many of them don't know what the word means. It just never occurred to them to ask what does that mean? It never occurred to say this is our religion. We don't do that. There's not a new fad that is ever introduced into the world except that the Muslim will most often accept it with open arms even though it becomes incredibly destructive to us. The point here is that it is not an issue of quantity. Quantity has never been the cause for victory in Islamic history. Ever. Ever. Never one time. If you look at the Quran, Allah never mentions a large group without mentioning something disparaging about it. And he never mentions a minority without praising that minority. And all of the endeavors of the Muslim, they were never judged by quantity. It was always what? Quality. Right now, a person could hold up a a cell phone and have in it the entire library of the Muslim that has been printed today thousands upon th tens of thousands of books with every with with 1500 years worth of knowledge. However, ignorance has never been more prevalent. Right? And these are the things that the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam prophesized and it is a great gift and wisdom from Allah that if the Muslims are not quality and they are not authentic and genuine that they not be the ones who govern the world. Why? Because if we were given reward for our shortcomings in this life, it would only reinforce our shortcomings. It would not cause us to take a look at ourselves and try to change things. The issue is that we have certain certain things that we have adopted and we're not even sure where they came from. A lot of it has come from years and years of brainwashing, years and years of you know colonialism and we're speaking about mental, psychological and otherwise, right? And humanity at large is at a deficit in their existence at large. I'm not speaking about technology. I'm speaking about morality. Knowledge. Knowledge, not invention, not money. knowledge, right? Genuine genu general knowledge. We have human beings in droves that don't even know the difference between north and south and east and west. And if the electricity went out tomorrow, we wouldn't know how to tie our shoes cuz we didn't have an app to tell us how to do it. This is a deficit that all of humanity is in today. We don't know how to hunt. We don't know how to clean ourselves. We don't know how to do a lot of things as human beings. The Muslims alhamdulillah they are not ever as bad as the rest of humanity will get in the way of morality and the way but we will be affected by that because we all inhabit the earth together. Therefore, the state of the Muslim today is a lack of knowledge and a lack of concentration on the hereafter and a huge focus on the dunya. When we say a huge focus on the dunya, the dunya has become primary and the hereafter has become secondary. They can't both be the same. You cannot. It's impossible to hold the dunya and the hereafter in the same regard. You have to choose one. Which one is primary and which one is secondary? We have Muslim men and women marriages who when they have a dispute they are resorting to chat GPT to tell them they're res to to tell them which one of them is right and which one of them is wrong. We have products like GPT, right? We have people Muslim who take their religion from Facebook and WhatsApp. No one who takes something seriously takes from these places. This is not a place of education. This is entertainment, right? And so it doesn't occur to many Muslims to look to the Quran for judgment. It doesn't occur to many Muslims to understand what the Quran says, what the Sunnah says. And a lot of this comes from again the dunya is primary, the hereafter is secondary. And our dean has suffered because of it. When will that go back to the way it was? The prophet sallall.aii Wasam said.

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Listen to this narration and I want you to contemplate its true meanings with He saidam he mentioned three things three state of affairs. He said number one if you as the Muslims began to deal in which is a type of ribba but it's not a parentba I will explain it in detail in a moment inshallah. He said if if the Muslim start to deal in a he says and grab and hold on and follow the tales of cattle and leave off and abandon. Allah will concentrate a humiliation upon you all until you go back to your religion. Listen to the wording of the narration. The first thing he mentioned the first symptom. These are all symptoms. Those three traits they are symptoms. What are they symptoms of? Symptoms that the Muslims have abandoned epitomizing their religion. So what are the symptoms? Listen closely to the subtleties. He said what is but it's ribba that looks it's halal. Okay, I'll explain it to you now. Let's say I have a shop, a store, right? I sell rice and let's say that Fed wanted to come in and he he needs some money. He's strapped for cash, but he doesn't want to tell me I need $10 and I'll pay you back $11. Because that's ribba, correct? If we agree on that, I say I will I will lend you $10 if you pay me back is $11. This is what this is the clearest most clearcut ribba. Okay? So, we don't do that cuz we're Muslim and we don't deal with ribba. So, what do we do? Fed comes in and he says, "I would to purchase from you a bag of rice, but I want to purchase it on consignment. I'll pay you back for it next week." Okay, cool. So, I'm selling him a bag of rice and I'm writing it in my as a debt on the ledger, right? So, the bag of rice costs $10. So, now he buys that bag of rice from me. The rice hasn't moved and it will not move from its place this entire transaction. Now he owns this bag of rice. He says, "I will now sell you that bag of rice. I want to sell it back to you. How much do you want to sell it to me for?" I say, "I'll buy it from you for $11." Okay. So now he sells me back the bag of rice at a lower cost. I have written that he owes me $11 when I have actually given him 10 and the bag of rice sits in its same place. The transaction looks it was buying and selling but there was no buying and selling that took place. He left with $10. He came back with $11 and the bag of rice did not move from its place. This type of transaction is referred to as in in Islamic it is called and so what does this mean? This means that when the Muslim start to do what is haram but give it the appearance of being halal. That's what the narration is talking about. when they start to do what is haram but they do it in such a way that it appears to be halal from the outside. So they give it a Muslim name. They stamp it with okay now we have ribba but this is Islamic ribba. Now this is the point of the narration. He says, "And you follow the tales of cattle, cattle in the Arabic language at that time is viewed as being a very precious commodity." Meaning that your sole focus is money. And wherever that cow goes, you're following its tail wherever it goes. And you will follow it wherever it goes. That is what is leading your way, not the other way around. Your money is not following you. You are following your money now. And so here we have doing that which is haram but giving it a halal spin through a technicality. Number two, following the dunya and making it primary and the the hereafter secondary. Number three, leaving off and abandoning al Jihad. Jihad is not just an issue of preserving and protecting Islam. Every major empire, if it hopes to if it hopes to survive, must be in constant expansion. It has to be and it has to have military it has to have military endeavors throughout the world looking out for the welfare of its its its government or not its government but its state. Any state that is neutral and has no military, this state will never be a major player ever. And they will always be pawns to other major empires. So these three symptoms articulate what foam the foam of a river. Allah said, the prophet said, sallallah.aii wasallam, Allah will concentrate upon you all as a whole. A humiliation. The Muslim blood is the cheapest blood. We're begging our enemies to just have mercy on us, right? That's where we're at until you return to your religion. And the only way that the Muslim will return to our religion is when things become unavoidable. We will not be able to ignore it anymore. We won't be able to take it anymore. Then we will go back to our religion as a whole or as a majority. We are not Christians. We are not other religions. We don't wait for a savior to come and save us. Al Mahi is going to come and save us. If the MAI came out today, the Muslim out of ignorance would kill him themselves and think that they're doing a service to Islam. Al Mahi cannot come out amongst an ummah that is so deeply divided that a masid cannot even maintain order. one building to pray in cannot maintain order without deep politics the Cold War of a of of of the 60s and 70s. Espionage and spies and and and listening and right over what over a building and who's going to lead salah? This is where we're at. So, as long as this is the situation, the Mahi will not emerge to lead a people that are that. He will emerge a head ready to be fit on a good healthy body as the scholars of Islam have described him. we have completed our time for this evening. That wasn't really a question. That's not really what our our gathering is for. That's more of a topic, right? However, inshallah I hope that we will have benefited and no matter what no matter how bad things get for the of Islam, it is the greatest of nations to ever be on this earth. And it every great nation has depressions. Every great nation just every great man becomes ill and has times of weakness. This is a moment of weakness. How do we repair it? We repair it one person, one family at a time. Now I am not going to focus on how do I fix the whole ummah. No, I'm going to focus on how do I fix my kids and my family? How do I fix myself? She Ali is not going to focus on all of Instagram and how he's going to be a super sheh and take over the world on Instagram and fix all the Muslim by talking. That's that doesn't fix the world. We don't need superstars and super shik. What does she Ali need to do? Focus on MCCCT here right now. Right. Our recording is a service for our community members. That's all it is for. This is how we go back to our religion. One person at a time, one family at a time. We re-examine the bricks of our building. Every time we add a brick to our wall, we make sure that it is good through and through according to the book of Allah and the sunnah of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. We weed out the bad. We practice the good. We hold to that which we are certain of. We reject what we are uncertain of. And the days of glory are are ahead. But this is part of the process of this that our prophet sallallah.aii wasallam told us would occur. It's just that we are unfortunate enough to be part of that time. Now All subal and subhan.

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Islam. All subm.