Why We Can't Dismiss What We Don't Understand

Ald.

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Continuing in our journey through authored by the light and esteemed scholar of Islam sham and we had completed last week discussing what the prophet sallam would do after he was done with prayer whether leading Salah or what he advised others do ofar we mentioned that the general premise is that in prayer we are in fervent Dua and after prayer we are in fervent remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa taala based on the statement of Allah subhanahu waala in if you all complete your prayers then remember Allah and now we are discussing and we are going into the issue of the Prophet s. wasam praying praying towards a sura what we mentioned a barrier and we discussed this with u with quite a bit of detail in our last in our previous session and so there is no need to review what we mentioned last week however we will now basically basically the way that we structure these lectures or sessions if you will is that speaks about certain issues certain topics when we reach each topic I begin with giving an introduction to that topic so that the person The Listener has some kind of Foundation as to what is talking about a general framework of that particular topic whether it's forgetfulness in prayer or whether it is wo or whether is whatever it is and then we discuss verbatim What It Is has to say on that issue with regards to details and then if there's any additional things that need to be said or need to be mentioned or brought to the table then we try to fill those gaps in as well before we move on and this has been pretty much the way that we have gone through the book thus far so last week our last session we did that introduction to the issue of a the issue of praying towards a barrier and now we will discuss what says with regards to the prophet s. wasam and how he would pray towards a barrier he says he said and when the prophet sallallah alai wasallam would pray towards something such as a u such as a wall he would be pretty close to the wall that he's praying towards and he would only be far away enough that a sheep could pass between himself and the barrier and the wall that he is praying towards this is of course referring to how far he would be from the wall if he were in sujud so if he were in sujud excuse me if he were in suud there would be about a cubit a cubit in the Arabic language is from here to the tip of the finger right about a cubit between his head his place of suud and the wall if he is standing obviously it would be more three cubits and so some narration in and elsewhere in the Sunnah you'll find that some companions narrate that he was just one cubit from the wall others will narrate that he was three cubits from the wall others will narrate that he was just a sheep's you know enough to where a sheep could pass between himself and the barrier right and all of these companions are narrating the same thing they're just narrating in a different light in a different from a different angle some are narrating when he was standing others are narrating when he is in suud ETC he says well and he would not be far away from the barrier he would actually command and advise the companions that they come near to the sura that they that when a person prays he should be close to his barrier that he is praying to now again extremism in the Sunnah right which is referred to as is that some people will read these kinds of narrations and then be very very close to their Su so close that when they wish to make or they have to take a step or two back and this is as mentions in something that is prohibited and there is no basis for it in the sun of the prophet sallam he said and when the prophet sallallah alai wasam would pray towards his barrier if that barrier was anything other than a wall such as a stick and in the ground or a pole or a tree he would slightly stand to the right or left of it so he would not stand with this thing directly in front of him he would take a step to the right or a step to the left and this is referring to a narration which has been collected by IM Ahmed and it is a narration that is not very strong and sometimes he would take a spear and he would stick it into the ground if he is traveling if he s. wasam is in the desert in the wild he s. wasam would not have a tree or any kind of natural thing to pray towards so he would stick this in the ground and pray towards it and this this spear right or Lance would act as his Sutra and sometimes he would turn his riding animal usually his camel he would turn it and set it in front of him and then he would pray and use the camel as his sura and sometimes he would take the saddle off of his camel and turn it and pray towards its end its end meaning it's a back rest on the back of the saddle that they would usually put on camels this is called and he would pray towards that and he commanded that a person in in prayer that he or she pray towards a barrier even if that barrier is only a lone Arrow which is stuck into the ground or a stick and if he cannot find anything to pray towards then he is to draw a line in the sand and if there is no place for a person to have a then it has been authentically reported that he said now the narration regarding drawing a line in the sand as a this has also been collected by iMed and it's a narration that when truly researched we find that it is an irration that has weakness in it and the idea that a person would be in a situation where there's absolutely nothing to pray towards not even rocks that they could pile or sand that they could pile or a garment that they could stand up or a stick or anything it is very very unlikely it's a very highly unlikely situation and in that situation drawing a line is is not necessarily it's not necessary but it does Mark where a person would be praying and so because of this the scholars have used this narration even though it is a narration that has weakness in it they use it to mention that this is the if a person is in such a situation where there is absolutely nothing to there is absolutely nothing to pray towards then they can draw a line in the sand however this narration is not very very it's not very strong to be ascribed to the prophet sallallahu alaih was as his words he says he says and if a person happens to pray and there is no sura between himself and his place of prayer then nothing will completely invalidate his prayer except for a woman of puberty pubescent age or a donkey or a black dog if these things walk across a person's path it will invalidate his or her prayer now some people again this is an authentic narration it's found in sah Muslim and some people argue with this narration and say you know why is a woman mentioned there next to a donkey or a black dog these are issues which are yet right and it doesn't mean that a woman is demeaned by this narration or narrations it however it does mean that if we don't understand something and this is this is an issue that I really wish my brothers and especially my sisters would understand and practice and have conviction of and I really wish as well that especially those of us who have grown up in a culture if you want to call it a culture or say a time and place that is so absolutely abolutely Stark contrast to the days and life of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam and his companions and more and more becoming in stark contrast to any decent human life that we not that we not exerc ize a kind of hermeneutics of Suspicion with regards to the prophet Sall alai wasallam Allah subhah wa taala mentions that he has sent down a book to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam of it is explicit and completely clear and other aspects of it are fake are ambiguous and he says subhanahu waala and this is the in the beginning of he mentioned subhanahu waala that the people of true knowledge their motto or their Anthem is or their Mantra is we have believed in it all of it has come come to us from Allah what do we understand from this we understand that we don't have to understand everything of the Quran and Sunnah and that is not a prerequisite for us to adhere and respect and follow and submit likewise it is beyond our grasp that every single one of us every one of us will understand every aspect of the divine revelation of Allah subhanahu waala yes the entirety of the revelation of Allah to the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaih wasallam is clear in its entirety to the entirety of the at any given time as a whole yes that's correct but individuals not every individual knows everything about the Quran and Sunnah as a matter of fact the only one human being who knows everything about the Quran and Sunnah in the sense of what is intended and what is to be derived from it what would have bearing on our worship of Allah is the prophet Muhammad sallallah alaihi wasam as for everyone else we may know a lot and we are ignorant of more and so when we hear something we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that I need an answer to this right now I need to understand what this means this second and if I can't understand it in the way that I am right now with the amount of information that I have then it can't be true and I will dismiss it this is very dangerous okay there are things that a person will learn and not understand until way later in life and there are things that a person may understand and learn and be able to put into words way later in life just because a piece of information has come to you doesn't mean that you are ready to understand it yet and this is what comes from the human being the Muslim the believer understanding his or her limitations and understanding that this book is very complicated book Muslim is a very complicated book the Quran is unimaginably complex book right and and people will spend their lifetime and still not have scratched the surface with regards to some of its secrets and some of its and so for a person to have this idea that this doesn't sound right therefore I'm going to dismiss it this is very dangerous imagine with me for a sec for a moment that a person did this with a car with a vehicle you have that that same attitude with a vehicle what do I mean well the average person who is not a mechanic do we understand everything about the vehicle no when we open the hood and we see this engine there do we understand everything about it no we probably don't know most of what goes on in there that doesn't stop us from reaping the benefits of this vehicle now now imagine if a person got into a car they don't know anything about the car however they start to dismiss parts of that car simply because they don't understand it or it doesn't fit into what they thought reality was so they open the hood and they see all these wires say I don't know what that is that that looks ridiculous I'm going to remove that that I don't think and I think this and I think that well they're going to very quickly destroy the car and the person who's going to suffer for that is themselves and so we have to understand that if you read a verse of the Quran and do not understand it if you read a Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alaih wasallam if and do not understand it if you read a an opinion of a scholar or a ruling or a feta that you do not understand and it comes from a respectable scholarly Source in Islam in the Islamic World whether of past ancient or contemporary times just because you don't understand it just because it sounds outlandish doesn't mean that you have the right to dismiss it because the Hallmark of the believer is you they believe in the Unseen they believe in that which they have no means of truly perceiving with their with anything but their minds this is what is meant by excuse me and so sometimes we'll see this a scholar from the east or west will give an answer to a question or pass a feta and this scholar is qualified to do so and maybe a newscast or a news source will pick it up and kind of make a mockery of it and say this scholar says this 1 two 3 4 five and look at this ridiculous thing and how could they say this and so on and so forth and it's very easy to jump on this bandwagon and to tweet this and resend it right and this is very very incorrect you do not want to get into that murky water right if you do not understand something say if you wish to research it research it but recognize that unless you are a scholar unless you are absolutely proficient in most of the Sciences of the Arabic language unless you are proficient and can call to and can call to mind the majority of of the Quran the majority of the Sunnah of the Prophet Sall alai wasam at any given moment if you are not well acquainted with how the scholars of Islam have understood the Quran and Sunnah and passed it down generation upon after generation if you do not meet these qualifications which few people do then it's better for you to remain silent and you'll learn a lot more if you are silent but this idea that we need to have an answer for everything and if I can't understand it it can't be understood this is definitely derived from arrogance and it is exactly what has destroyed previous Nations Allah subhanahu wa taala says about the Nations who disbelieved in their prophets and Messengers he said they have belied and rejected that which they have not completely understood and its explanation has not come to them he says likewise have the previous Nations dis believed and look at how the outcome of the oppressive are because that's that's that's transgression that is oppressive for a person to dismiss something before completely understanding it and when you are dealing with the Quran and Sunnah that is a red line when you are dealing with the scholars of Islam we do not holif Scholars we do not put them Beyond fallibility yes they can make mistakes yes they but they but the nature of a scholar is that he is right more than he is wrong that he remembers more than he forgets that he is in accordance with the Quran and Sunnah more than he is not Etc and so being that that is the case you must deal with them ACC accordingly when you make a mockery of something or deny something or reject something or bely something that has come to you from the scholars of Islam you very well could be rejecting something that has come from Allah subhah waala and it's very likely actually the prophet sallallah alai wasam warned us of this of this danger and he said sallallah alai wasallam as is in he says do not he said if the people of the book the Christians the Jews if they tell you of something that is in their books then do not reject it and do not accept it right do not reject it and do not accept it now he's speaking about that which is unclear for example the Divinity of Christ that is clear that is that is something that Allah has clarified and so we reject that out the gates right or for example the prophethood of Moses for instance this is something that Allah has has affirmed in the Quran but what he is speaking speaking about our details things that we are not sure of they could be correct and they could be incorrect and so we do not accept them and we do not reject them because they could be of the truth that has come to us from Allah has come to them from Allah and if we reject it we will be rejecting a portion of our own message for that in for that matter and if it is not from Allah we may be accepting something that and ascribing something to the truth that is not of it this is with the people of the book whom Allah subhah waala told us in the Quran have altered their books and have changed their books and have twisted their tongues while they speak in a way that would cause people to be confused with regards to what has come to them and what they know and the the deviance of The Scholar of the previous Nations so how much more so the scholarship of the Muslim world and there is a kind of wave or a kind of fad going around now on social media that a scholar should look a certain way in our new age you shouldn't be able to distinguish a scholar from a non-muslim for that matter right they don't have long beards if they're a Woman They don't wear n they look your average guy your average college student right and Scholars from East that have full beard or that dress a particular way that this has kind of been given to us as this is an image of of primitiveness and these people are unsophisticated and they are living in two 300 years ago and all this stuff this is very dangerous and this all comes from the infiltration and the the the the intellectual colonization that has come to the Muslim world after it was left in tatters right so it's important that you are aware that you think for yourself question these authorities you cannot allow yourself to Simply jump on a bandwagon or ride a wave because that wave may be or that bandwagon may be on its way to hell and you don't want to be on that one and so it's important that back to the original part when you read the Quran and Sunnah there's going to be a lot of stuff that you don't understand a lot of things that sound very outlandish a lot of things that sound but you are not going to moralize or judge these things based on who you are what you think things should be rather you open your heart you open your mind and you say it is something that we believe in all of it it has some it is something that has come to us from our Lord and if it is a command then your Mantra is we have heard and we obey that is it and if I understand that is great and that is lovely and that is wonderful and we should seek out understanding however if I fail to understand perhaps I never will but I will not deprive myself of that of that guidance that has come to me and just imagine if you did this in the real world right you go to the doctor you don't understand the diagnosis so you refuse to accept it and you dismiss it you go to the pharmacist and you refuse the medication because you don't understand how it works or you've never heard of that before right imagine what your life would be like this is something that you have to get under control we understand as human beings that Allah has divided us into two categories leaders and those who are LED not everybody can be a leader and not everybody can be a follower you are either a follower or a leader you choose based on your best judgment and utmost of sincerity who to follow and and Allah subhanahu waala has placed those leaders for us in order that we can be led correctly right he says he says and any narrations that nullify this ruling meaning that person's prayer will be nullified by these three things that may cross in front of him and when we say cross in front of him we don't mean from here to the wall we're talking about if you have no barrier then three cubits ahead is the most that any of the four imams have mentioned others mention you and your place of suud so if something passes beyond that it will not affect your prayer what will fect your prayer is within those three cubits or from where you are standing to your place of suud if one of those three things passes in front of you there then it will nullify your prayer when we say the black dog we are speaking about a dog that has no white in it anywhere no other color at all it has to be completely 100% black he says and any narration that seems to contradict this that these three things will nullify a person's prayer they are either that narration is either authentic but inexplicit not clear or it is explicit but not authentic he says and this is only for one who passes passes passes in front of you not for someone who is sitting in front of you the prophet sallallah alai wasam was narrated and this narration is collected by IM Muslim was narrated to have prayed Anda is would be sleeping in front of him and when he would go for sujud he would touch her foot and she would move her feet and he would make suud Etc because of the tightness of the place he says and a person being in front of you sitting in front of you laying in front of you is not the same as somebody passing what invalidates a person's prayer is someone passing not a person sitting and it is not impermissible for a person to be sitting in front of someone who is praying this is something that IB Abbas would do as well if he is in the Masjid and he is not anywhere near a pillar or wall where he could use as a Sutra he would have one of his students or one of his companions one of his friends turn around and he would pray towards his back so if I come into the Masid and I stand there and there's someone sitting in front of me with their back towards me I can pray and use them as my Sutra this is what the companions were narrated to have done as well he says now we are going to move on to what the prophet Sall wasam would pray what the prophet s. wasallam would pray outside of the five prayers so now we're going to get into the what he would pray after the five prayers then we will get into inshallah his traditions in making the night prayer or then we will get into these will be next week inshallah and then we'll get into issues of the day of and how he would observe J he and his companions he says.

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He says and the prophet sallallah alai wasam would consistently pray 10 prayers along with his five daily prayers all of the time when he was a resident meaning as long as he was not traveling and these 10 prayers are as ibar narrates I have learned from the messenger of Allah s. wasam 10 units of prayer to be prayed along with the five daily prayers he said two units two ra before and two after and two two units after and two after and usually he would do this in his house in his home he would not do it in the Masjid sallallahu alaih wasallam and two as well before the two of fud so we have 10 in all so we have two before two before two after two after two after and once it had occurred that the prophet s. wasam was tending to to some matter and was unable to pray the two before and so he prayed them those two ra he made them up after and this in this is an evidence that a person can make up those lost things that he would do that are not obligations so let's say a person usually fasts Mondays and Thursdays they miss one day they can make it up any other day of the week to make up something that is a something that is must something that is not binding is not obligatory this is part of the Sunnah of the Prophet Sall alai wasam and the companions were narrated to have done so as well what he says he said and sometimes he would pray before four as opposed to two this is sometimes but the bare minimum was two and sometimes four he says and as for two before it has been authentically collected and reported that he said to the companions advising them pray before pray before pray before he said three times and then he said whoever wishes to so it is something that is advisable but it is not binding and he said for whoever desires to out of fear that people would turn it into something that would be constantly done all the time never never left off and this is something that he himself did not do and this is the correct opinion says that two before is something that is advisable encouraged yet it is not something that was a consistent Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alaih wasallam that he would do without fail he says and he would pray most of the most of the optional prayers and additional prayers and prayers that have no particular cause for example making W that is a cause a cause for that two that you made W or for example a cause like entering the Masid you make two ra before you sit down he says most of these sun he would pray them as long as they are not a Sunnah that has a cause to it we've just mentioned he would usually pray them in his home except for he would usually make in the Masjid sallallah alaihi wasallam except for he would make most of these in his home except especially he would most always make in his home it has never been narrated that the prophet Sall made in in the Masid ever that it was always something that he did in his homeid he says and it is permissible for a person to make it in the Masjid if he chooses but this is how it was narrated from the prophet sallam and the most practiced Sunnah that the prophet Sall would make would be the two before more than all of the other that he would make and so he would never fail to make two before and as well never fail to make the one bare minimum one of this is something that we will speak about later inshallah but he would never fail to make these whether he was resident at the time or he was traveling even in travel he would always make these two he says he says and it has never been narrated that the prophet s. wasam prayed the you know two before two after two after two after that he would ever have made these while traveling either them or anything else only these two that he would always practice which is and these are the only two the others he would never make while traveling and as a matter of fact many of the companions of them abdah as is in Muslim would actually tell people that he would see in travel praying in addition to their obligatory Salah not to do that and he was say and he would say if I am if I was going to pray the I would have just prayed the full prayer because when a person is traveling he's no longer making four for he's now making two he's making two for he's making excuse me and he's making two for so what is the point of shortening that prayer only to pray the as you normally would this defeats the purpose of so would say if I was going to pray the then I would have started by making the full Salah or the full excuse me the full obligatory Salah first right so you're kind of defeating the purpose you're you're making you're you're shortening something that is obligatory and then you are maintaining something that is a Sunnah and it should be the opposite right he says.

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Says the jurists of Islam have differed with regards to what is more what is more important and what is more should be more strongly and stringently practiced which is more virtuous the two of before F that Sunnah or the one of after he says this is a difference of opinion amongst the scholars of Islam he says and the two before Sunnah these two ra kind of represent the beginning of a person's actions meaning for that day and the wi the last last of the night after is this is symbolic of the end of his deeds at the end of his day at the end of his life.

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He says and because of this symbolism found in these two in these two Sun so the two before they are symbolic of the beginning of a person's actions and deeds of that day of his life and the last and final Witter one of wi this is symbolic of a person's the the the end of his deeds right and what he what he ends his deeds with right because of this symbolism found in these two the prophet Sall alai wasam would end begin and end his day in these Sun by reciting the two Surah the two chapters of the two chapters of what are he said they are the two chapters of the Quran that contain in them the monotheism of both knowledge and action the monotheism of knowledge and Direction and The monotheism of belief the monotheism of intent and he is referring to and these are the two chapters he's actually referring to.

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Here he says the chapter of this chapter contains and entails what is obligatory with regards to affirming and belief with regards to Allah with regards to his Oneness which in itself negates any Partners in any way that would be ascribed unto he subh likewise this chapter it also entails and contains in it a declaration of negating any child or offspring be ascribed to Allah or that he is The Offspring or result or the effect of some other cause subhanahu wa taala with which would by which would in turn affirm Allah subh total and meaning Allah subhana says Allah what is meant by a has seven main meanings amongst the companions one of which is the one whom all the creation intend and turn to and he subhah waala turns to none the one whom everything is is in need of and must turn to for their existence yet he subhah waala is independent and needs not turn to anyone or anything for his own existence likewise this chapter Allah subhana says in the final verse of it he says in the final verse and there is nothing unto he nothing similar nothing equal to him subhanahu waala and so this chapter concludes by negating any existence of a similar or an equal to himself subhanahu wa taala and this all entails that there is nothing him there is nothing similar to him there is nothing equal to him subhah waa so this chapter it articulates and affirms for Allah either directly or entails affirming every Perfection to Allah negating any imperfection from Allah subh.

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With.

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Quran.

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For e.

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So this chapter here essentially is discussing the two types ofed and really we don't want to just translate it right through because it is owed a lot more attention than we can give it in the final few minutes here and so we will keep this for next week inshallah suffice to us to understand that throughout the Quran and Sunnah monotheism of Allah is two main parts two main types there is there is monotheism of of knowledge which means some Scholars refer to it as different names that are given to these two types of yet when we look into the Quran andah we see the types of monotheism in the Quran that are mentioned can see that they are mainly they are mainly split into two types you have toed monotheism which is essentially knowledge about Allah his names his attributes his actions Etc and the second type ofed which is which is that a person be pure and monotheist in his intention that he worship Allah alone without any Partners these are the two types of toed the two main types of and so we find that is symbolic and contains all of the fundamentals and principles of and contains all of the pr fundamentals of and so because of this he would start his day and he would end his day with these two right and we will get into that more deeply next week inshallah we will now hear the and make.