From 'We Hear and Obey' to Modern Doubt

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Authored by the fifth chapter, the chapter of vigilance of Allah's observation.

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Authority of the other on the authority of says to the students or the people of his time. So this is very contextual and that is that as we've heard many times he's one of the last companions of all to pass away and the reason for that is that when the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam came to Medina he was how old? 10 years old. He was just a little boy. But the prophet sallallah.aii wasallam made dua for anis and he made dua that Allah give him a long life. And so lived very very very long. Some estimate his lifespan to be over 120 years old. And so was one of the last of the companions to pass away. So first of all he was young. Second of all, he lived a very very long time and would later prove to be one of the most critical companions in the time of the why because many of the older companions passed away and it fell on his shoulders to narrate and to transmit the sunnah of the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam in their place. And who said in this quote obviously he's speaking to the people at the very end of the time of the and the beginning of the time of and during that time around the year 60 after Hijra That's when all of the turmoil and political problems started to crop up and this is when there was a lot of chaos etc. And this is when innovation started to become you know more prevalent and introduced to the masses. And so in this context said to the people around him during those days, he said, He says, "You all are doing things today that are more insignificant than a strain a strand of hair. things that are so negligible, things that you're taking for granted, things that you look at them as being no big deal at all. Right? He says, "Yet these things you all are doing that you're overlooking, no big deal." In the time of the messenger of Allah, we used to consider these things to be deadly sins to be sins that were absolutely grave that would mark the end of a person and would somewhat permanently damage a person's relationship and a person's journey to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And this shows you how not only the standards changed but that's not really what NS is focused on. It's not just the standards right it is the attitude of the followers. So when we look at the prophet sallall.aii wasallam and he has his companions with him in 23 years they go from total unknowns to the fastest expanding empire in the known world. And within 30 years they have completely dismantled every other empire. The Roman Empire which had the Roman Empire had hundreds of years of experience over them and the Persian Empire which had hundreds of years over the Roman Empire. Right? Yet they all bent the knee to the Muslim. Why is that? Was it just Was it just luck? Was it just a series of events that just worked out? Was it the right place at the right time? Is that what it was? Was it just a series of events that just kind of fell into place? Right. Right place at the right time. Is that what it was? No, that's not what it was. What it was is this attitude right here. This attitude right here. if we were to capture the essence of the era of the companions and put it into words and say, give me a sentence that captures that era. That sentence would be that would be their sentence. We hear and we obey everything. If we were to capture our era and say capture that era in a sentence, I would I would say the sentence would be do I have to, right? Or maybe the sentence would be, "Yeah, but I read on Google it was a difference of opinion." Maybe that would be the sentence that would capture our time. Or maybe the sentence that would capture our time would be would be is it wi we re we receive a command of Allah his messenger. We say, "Is it waj? Is Allah going to literally burn me in the flames of hell if I don't do it? Because if not, I'm not really interested." This is the key difference. The companions when they received a command, they looked at it as an opportunity. See, they want to worship Allah more. They want more. And so every time a command came that was another it was almost they were be being given more and more space to express their enthusiasm and this marks a key difference in our view of what the messenger came to do. So the prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam was described in the Quran as coming to humanity to keep them away from evil, command them with good and it was described his most prominent description is that he comes to release humanity from their bondage from the yolks and chains that enslave them. This is the one of the most prominent of his descriptions. Look at that description. He comes to humanity. Humanity is not practicing a religion. Humanity is doing whatever they want, right? Free reign to their free will. And so as a result, it's it's it's like living in the wild amongst wild animals. If you're strong, you might get ahead a little bit. If you are weak or meek, you will get eaten alive. And so the prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam comes to humanity and Allah refers to that quote unquote freedom that they were experiencing as chains and bondage and slavery, right? And the Quran and the Sunnah and the light of revelation is releasing them. Releasing them from the chains that they are in. The companions saw the Quran and Sunnah to mean that that the Quran and Sunnah came to release me from slavery to anyone or anything other than Allah to emancipate me, to free me. And that is why they took up every single drop of it. And the most precious thing in the world to them was their relationship with Allah and their journey to Allah. And anything that would threaten that relationship or threaten to damage it or impede it, they would steer very clear from it. But what we have been able what what the people of our time have or the not just the disbelievers but even amongst the Muslim what they have been able to convince many of the Muslim of is that it is exactly the opposite right Islam doesn't come and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam doesn't represent freedom. He represents slavery, bondage, putting a damper on things. I can't do this. I can't do that. Right? It's you know, I can't do what I want to do, when I want to do it, and how I want to do it. I'm not allowed to do this. Everything is haram. The haram bug, the haram police, right? All these buzzwords people use to make fun of the people that command the good and forbid the evil. The people that don't take a step forward without verifying with Allah and his messenger and the scholars of Islam, the representatives of Allah and his messenger. And so the I the stigma is that no if if you you know if you the stigma to a woman is if I marry a man that is religious not religious if I marry a man that is on the sunnah the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he's going to be a terrorist he's going to be extreme and he's going to be a caveman and I'm not going to be allowed to do anything and I'm not going to be allowed to go anywhere and I'm going to be a slave. save and I just have to cook all day. I have to just clean all day and I have to be his little pet and blah blah blah. You know what people, you know where we got this from? From the enemies that exactly stepped on our necks that exactly exploited our women. Why did they come up with that? In order to get our women out of their houses so that they could have atom. That's exactly what happened. That's how it happened. Do you think our women would have been exploited if our men didn't allow that to happen? That's what happened. How did that happen? Because we allowed them to exploit them. Said, "No people are really, no Muslim, no believers are ever dominated by their enemies. Never. It is only the believers that allow their enemies to dominate them when they disobey Allah and his messenger. That's how we lose a battle. That's how we lose a fight. That's the only way.

[Silence]

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