Building Your Knowledge Like a Muscle

Assalamu alaikum thank you for joining us on our latest installment of zadil authored by the late an esteemed scholar of islam we were we had reached a point where we were discussing the way that the prophet.

[Arabic recitation]

Alaihi wasallam would recite the quran and as a prelude to this i'd to mention something that is very important it's a statement of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam it's collected by both bukhari and muslim that he said mayuri whomever allah desires good for whoever is essentially destined for good and ultimately destined for paradise allah will grant him understanding of the religion now what does that mean does that mean that only scholars are people whom allah has desired good for no that's not what is intended what is intended is that a person not become acquainted with every aspect of the religion of islam though that is the ultimate of blessing from allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala rather what's intended by this narration as the scholars of islam have mentioned is that if allah desires good for a person they will become acquainted with all aspects that concern them all aspects of his or her religion of his or her worship of allah which is particular to their set of circumstances right so if a person is a merchant somebody who buys and sells then if allah desires good for this individual he will open the gates of knowledge upon this person to become acquainted with the do's and don'ts as regards to the religion of allah in that particular field and so the reason for this is that the worship of allah subhanahu.

[Arabic recitation]

Is something that allah has given permission i know that that's kind of an interesting concept it is the responsibility of everyone to worship allah yes but we have to understand that one of the great honors that allah has given the human being is permission to worship him subhanahu.

[Arabic recitation]

That he has been permitted to consciously exercise his or her free will to worship the the lord of the heavens and the earth allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has said about the masajid about the mosques he says oh he describes the masjid as houses which allah has granted permission that they be erected and that his name be mentioned therein and so the scholars of islam mention that when we worship allah when we worship allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala we have actually been given permission to do so now what are the implications of that the implications of that are that an individual may not worship allah without having permission without having guidance on every single thing that you do this is more commonly known as worship and customs.

[Silence]

They say the nature of worship is that it is impermissible unless otherwise stated now with regards to our customs it is exactly the opposite what do i mean by customs what we eat what we drink how we sit how we sleep when we sleep what we do these things that are customary across all lines muslim and non-muslim alike right this is our customs as a human being this is how you are the natural state of our customs is that everything is permissible except what allah has prohibited it's the opposite of worship so anytime a person worships we say wait stop right there do you have explicit evidence for this warship if the answer is yes then that is what allah has given you permission if the answer is no then a person may not do it until he or she is positive that this is something that allah has allowed this is where the concept of innovation comes from that if a person worships allah in a way that allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has not granted permission this is what innovation is and as the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam informed us all innovation is rejected right out the gates now that is contrary to our customs with the customs it's exactly the opposite allah doesn't tell us what to do right he doesn't tell us what to eat he doesn't tell us what to wear he doesn't tell us what to drink rather he tells us what not to drink he tells us what not to wear he tells us what not to eat right and so this is taken from the story of adam alaihissalam the first story in the quran allah tells adam with regards to customs with regards to our nature with regards to our customs he says subhanahu to adam live you and your spouse herein in this paradise and eat from anywhere you choose but do not approach or come near this one tree right it could be one particular tree or a type of tree so allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't tell him what to eat he tells him what not to eat now let's look at worship when adam alaihissalam did what was prohibited he disobeyed and he wished to seek forgiveness he wished to repent well repentance is a major worship of allah and so adam alaihissalam was instructed what to do in that case and so allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala says with regards to adam's repentance that adam received words and instruction from his lord and meaning he said those words as he was instructed and allah accepted his repentance so we see now a contrast with regards to what to eat what to wear our customs do whatever you like except for these things which are prohibited yet when it comes to the worship of allah you may not do anything without explicit instruction and permission from allah and so often times people don't know how to learn if we understand that learning how to worship allah is so crucial how do i go about acquiring knowledge well this is an a topic which actually many books from times of ancient from as far back as the second century after hijola the scholars of islam have written books on the methodology and the etiquettes of seeking knowledge and one of the questions that i get a lot all of the time a common theme and that is the question goes something this or let me say let me give you a scenario and tell me if this sounds familiar you get this sudden urge to learn you become absolutely enthralled with islamic knowledge whether it be the quran the sunnah reading narrations whatever it is you become almost obsessed with it and you read everything you can get your hands on and this goes on for about one or two or three days or maybe one or two or three weeks and then all of the sudden just as quickly as it came you feel if you read another thing you're going to you you just have no capacity for reading anything else you're just done and then we have this process continue you either are sprinting or you're standing still there's nothing in between why does that happen well there's a number of reasons but one of the main reasons is that you are trying to do too much all at once you are trying to do too much all at once you have to remember that your threshold for knowledge and reading and research and it's it's a meditation it's something that is a muscle it has to be built and you cannot go to the gym and pick up power you know all the weights in the world at once and think that that's the shortcut there are no shortcuts in knowledge the prophet salallahu only comes by seeking knowledge there's only one path to it there's no way to short circuit that path or to take a shortcut or cut corners that is not how knowledge is sought it is something that is a process if you try to deviate from that process you do so at your own peril and so the process is if you want this knowledge then you have to seek it and seeking knowledge is something which a person develops over a period of time it's a muscle it's your memory actually which is also very similar to a muscle and what's interesting about it is once you develop that threshold of sitting and studying and learning if you can sit for one hour and then two hours and then three and then you know all the way up to however many hours you practice this is something that you have trained yourself to do and if you stop doing it you don't magically have it forever no if you stop doing it your muscle your threshold for study for learning starts to regress that's how it works same thing with your memory if you train your memory constantly you will become very very good at memorizing things quickly and if you stop practicing you lose your sharpness and so if let's say if your threshold for studying or reading something is a half an hour right then i would say always stop while you are still interested never stop once you've reached your full threshold so if your threshold is 30 minutes after 30 minutes you just can't look at a book anymore then read for 20 minutes always keep that flame don't ever exhaust it always keep it there so that you can continue to return and so knowledge is sought by number one consistency this is always important 10 minutes a day is better than one hour a week 10 minutes a day is better than three hours a month this is not how we learn we do not learn by studying all at once and then leaving everything all at once we learn by being consistent second of all intensity is what we are looking for not extensity we don't really care how long you study what we care is how intense that study is how collected your mind is when you read when you are learning third of all you need to focus your energy on one thing you can't just have 20 different books and read a little bit from every single book and become a mile wide and an inch deep this is not going to be of consequence to anyone knowledge that will fortify you in these times of uncertainty and these times of fitnah and these times of misguidance where the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said hastened to do good deeds before trials and tribulations will come that are like parts of a black and dark night a person would be a believer in the morning and become a disbeliever by night that quickly the reason for this is that we are not focusing and having any depth to our knowledge unshaken faith comes with unshaken understanding this is why allah explains to us the deeper your knowledge goes the deeper you are planting that seed in your heart and so what is very important is that a person always go for depth don't move on to something else until you've learned that don't turn the page until you've understood that page completely if you read one page every day great as long as it is an intense understanding the scholars of islam have told us they give an example of seeking knowledge an individual who is hunting a hunter if you could imagine with me a hunter goes into a forest and sees a sees a squirrel so he levels his rifle at the squirrel and then just as he's going to he has made his decision that he's going to have squirrel for dinner and then he sees a turkey so then he thinks oh actually that's better so he then takes aim at the turkey and then he sees a small deer so then he thinks no that's even better and just as he's going to the small deer he sees a buck and just as he's go that hunter if he continues on he is going to go home hungry he will not have gone home with the buck nor will he have gone home with the squirrel why because one of the worst things that the human being can have in his path to knowledge that will impede his progress is options too many options and right now we live in a time where information is coming at us with such speed you can go to a libra you can go to a bookstore and walk out with thousands of volumes all at once this is not good for anyone because what ends up happening is you have too many options you end up never committing to any one of those options and so this is how knowledge is sought this is knowledge people may you know people may read this and say oh it's so so dry or it's so unengaging no it's very engaging it's just that this is what knowledge is there is a place and there is a time for motivational speeches there's a time for inspirational quotes and inspirational stories and there's also a time for actually having clear instruction and this is what these classes are designed for and so it's something that takes patience something that takes determination person must always remind himself why it is he is doing this now continuing on with the recitation of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam how did he used to recite the quran he says that the prophet muhammad sallallahu recitation of the quran was an elongated recitation at each area he would stop and elongate those final those final vowels of the final words of that verse and so he would recite bismillah this is how his recitation would be he says.

[Silence]

Meaning in prayer would complete the recitation of al-fatiha he will say and if he was reciting surat al-fatiha right he would raise his voice to say amin and those behind him those praying with him would as well say amen with him in a unified voice so let's take a stop here there's a great reward for saying amen the prophet salallahu.

[Silence]

He said the imam has been set and appointed as the imam in order that he would be followed in prayer the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam says to the companions hence.

[Arabic recitation]

Initiate his prayer.

[Arabic recitation]

And if he recites the quran then be silent and if he says i mean if he reaches the last verse of surat al-fatiha then you all say amin what does mean amin directly translates to oh allah accept this supplication allah and so when a person says if it's a supplication it's something that we're asking from allah and so when the imam recites it we finish that dua by saying meaning allah is please answer this dua please grant us what we have asked for and it's interesting because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said he says whoever says amin and his amine coincides with that of the angels saying amin then he will be forgiven of his sin what does that mean well there's a great reward in saying amin and so a person is to say amin just begin once the imam begins saying amen and to end with the imam this is the proper time to say amin it's been collected in who was a child in the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he was the first born in medina in the time of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam after hijab and so he did not directly hear much if anything from the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam but we consider his narrations the narrations of companions because nothing that he heard is from anyone except for the companions meaning all of his teachers are the companions of the prophet sallallahu alaihi it's mentioned that when he would recite in the masjid and lead people in prayer when he would say everyone would say amin along with him in unisent and the masjid would almost shudder with the strength and the power of that unified unified voice of amin now who is this who's saying i mean with him well the scholars from amongst the companions abdullah ibn abbas and right and so this is how the companions would say amen along with the prophet and unfortunately is one of those things that everybody seems to know we should say but again half knowledge we know we should say it but we have no idea how we're supposed to say it and that is the most dangerous type of knowledge right half knowledge is when you when you neither understand something nor do you know nor are you totally ignorant of it you you think you know you know just enough to think you know right this is what is referred to as compounded ignorance amongst the scholars of islam compounded ignorance what is compounded ignorance you're ignorant of something and ignorance of the fact that you are ignorant of it and so if you go to in congregation you'll hear all kinds of things right it'll almost sound a choir with everybody saying amin this one says it after by himself this one says it to himself this one says it alone in an extremely high voice out of unison from anyone else and this one cuts it short and says amin right and then others say i mean right and they get very creative all of this is incorrect the proper way to say amen with the imam is that when the imam begins to say amen then you start with him you never go before the imam sometimes you hear people in salah the imam hasn't even finished the final syllables of surat al-fatiha and they're already saying amin so the imam is and then people as if you know hurry up come on we have to say i mean this is not correct nor should a person begin amen before the imam you say it with the imam and imagine and so when the imam says amin that is when the angels say amen and that is when the followers of the imam should say amin and whoever's mean unifies and comes in unison with that of the angels will be forgiven by allah as the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has said another important thing is that when we say we say it with elongating the first two alif not amin amin means someone who is trustworthy someone's name well we don't know who is amin amin is not what is meant what is to be said is right another thing is people who go out of their way to make their voice unique from amongst the people saying i mean so you'll have people say amin and then this guy over here is by himself screaming in this pitch or this tone that is totally off from the rest of everyone else this is something which is very very despised by allah that an individual stick out from the crowd that's not something that allah subhanahu ta'ala loves or desires of his servant that in his worship he tried to make himself unique in sahih muslim the messenger muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam was narrated by saddam nebuchas to have said in allah he says that indeed allah does love the servant who is contented who is righteous and who is unnoticed someone who doesn't try to distinguish himself from the crowd and stick out rather a person is just one of the muslims he is not looking for attention.

[Silence]

And who is a better speech in action than the one who calls and invites to allah does righteous deeds and says i am one of the believers i am one of the muslims so a person is trying to be one of them he's not trying to be the one he's trying to be one of them i am part of the body of muslims that worship allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala indistinguishable to the naked eye only allah my lord knows my distinction from those around me right he says what can allah.

[Silence]

Rebecca he would be silent for at two points okay the first point of silence would be between the initiating techbeef.

[Arabic recitation]

And the recitation of the quran in which he would usually start with alhamdulillah rarely with bismillah and so that's the first time why is that because that's when he is doing right we mentioned this we mentioned the narration of in which he said to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam i've noticed that once you initiate.

[Arabic recitation]

Between that initiation of tekbir and the recitation i've noticed that you test meaning that you are silent for a brief moment before you start your recitation so abu hurairah says what is it you are saying during that time and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam informed him that that is the time when he is making dua and we mentioned many of the different variants of the opening dua that the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam would make in initiating his prayer and so the first moment of silence in his recitation would be between the first tech beer and the beginning of the recitation of surat al-fatiha this is in the first req.

[Arabic recitation]

Is then he would begin to recite right the second time he would make this silence there is a second silence it's said that this second silence is between surat al-fatiha and the following chapter or verses that he is going to read others of scholars say actually it is between the end of his recitation.

[Arabic recitation]

And some scholars said no it's actually three moments of pause he would have that brief silence between the initiating takbir and surat al-fatiha then he would have a brief silence between surat al-fatiha and the following chapter or verses and then he would have a third brief silence between the end of his recitation before he says.

[Arabic recitation]

He says and the correct opinion the correct angle to look at this is that it's actually only twice the third one which is between his.

[Arabic recitation]

Is very very brief it's just brief enough for the imam to be able to catch his breath right and those of the companions which didn't mention this final silence it's because it is so brief it's not really considered to be a moment of silence between recitation so what does ibn al-qayya mean here let's unpack that he means that you begin the way that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would begin his prayer.

[Arabic recitation]

There would be a brief silence and then alhamdulillah that's the first brief silence and that's only in the first record then he would finish the recitation of surat and then he would say in unison with his companions mean and then there would be another brief silence that brief silence is to differentiate between the the surat and the following chapter or verses that are going to be recited then when he would finish his recitation for that entire so let's say he's reciting.

[Silence]

This is how he would recite that final silence between the end of the recitation of the quran.

[Arabic recitation]

Would be very brief how brief just brief enough to catch your breath right and again back to that issue of half knowledge people learn this but they don't learn how to do it right so what happens you think the person will be silent so long that you think that they forgot the verse or that they're not done reciting or that they forgot they're in prayer you don't know what's going on that's incorrect it should be very brief because you don't want it to be lemiele dwelling that's not correct you want there to be a moment of pause so we would say just that no more than that any more than that is not what the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam would do as if allah mentions here now with regards to surutil fatiha which is between that surat al-fatiha between amin and the beginning of the next surah or verses that the imam is going to recite how long is that brief pause well it's very brief it's not long enough for the person to read surat al-fatiha this is an opinion that is considered to be kaulun the scholars of filk view this largely to be a very weak and undesired opinion an opinion that has kind of been abandoned right and that is that the imam should recite surat al-fatiha and then he should wait in silence long enough for the people behind him to read surat al-fatiha to themselves this is the weakest of opinions because we have no evidence that this is something that the companions already allowed would do in this way or that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would do that moment of silence should be just brief enough for the imam to decide what he's going to recite and for him to differentiate between the words of the people which is amin and the words of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala which are to follow now what about the person being led in prayer does he have to recite surat al-fatiha does she have to recite surat al-fatiha if the imam has recited aloud that is a very important topic an issue that we will discuss in our following in our following installments of this great series we will discuss it with a level of depth inshallah that hopefully people can understand this issue it is an issue that many people are very unclear about and we hope to clear up any of those misconceptions in our following lecture and allah knows best allah foreign.