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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the prophets and messengers.
Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and companions.
Peace be upon them all.
And after that, my dear brothers and sisters,
there is a question that I keep getting asked every once in a while
about whether I am willing to,
and if I am not willing to, then why I am not willing to,
present my lectures in shorter forms.
So people ask me,
can you,
you know,
whatever you have been, you are trying to teach,
can you do this in five minutes?
Or can you do it in, you know, something like this,
which is
a very short time.
And I have always
resisted that.
I’ve always said no.
Now,
I want to address that
and try and explain
mostly for
my
friends who ask me this question.
I know they’re very sincere people.
So it’s really
in honour of their sincerity that I want to
that I want to make this even
stronger.
So,
it’s not a disclaimer,
but it’s something that I want to
state.
And my
answer to them is as follows.
Which is,
take the,
as we always say,
you know,
the best example is the
example of
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And
the best example is the example of
the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And the example of
his,
those who followed him in Exodus.
So let me give you
a couple of examples.
Take for example,
Abu Hurairah Radiyallahu Anhu.
Abu Hurairah Radiyallahu Anhu used to,
he said,
somebody asked him,
they said,
how is it that you have,
you have quoted so many hadiths,
whereas Abu Hurairah Radiyallahu Anhu and others who have,
who were and who spent far longer with Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
have not quoted that many hadiths.
So Abu Hurairah Radiyallahu Anhu,
now he’s not criticizing Abu Hurairah Radiyallahu Anhu,
but generally speaking,
he said that while you people,
meaning he’s talking to whoever asked that question,
he said,
while you people were busy in the markets
and in earning livings and in doing business,
I used to spend that time with Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
He said,
I used to spend so much time with him Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
that I would not even have time to eat.
And there were times when I would fall down
and I would faint.
I would faint with exhaustion and with hunger.
And people thought that I was having an epileptic fit.
And they would,
those days the sort of cure or antidote to this epileptic fits
was that people used to,
you used to make them smell leather sandals.
So they would hold up,
you know,
their slippers under his nose.
And he said,
people didn’t realize that the reason I fell down
was not because of epilepsy,
but because of hunger.
And the reason I was so hungry,
to the point of starvation,
to the point of literally falling down,
was because I
spent all that time with Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Second example.
Imam Qi gur самой Larif
was sent by his mother
small little kid.
So he
came and Imam Malik
had a
system where he would
give dars of hadith
muwatta
between Asr
and Maghrib in the
courtyard of the masjid
and Nabi Muhammad Sharif
and then after the
Salat of
Maghrib Salat, he would give
the dars inside
the masjid between
Maghrib and Nisha. So two
sessions, not ten
minute beats, two sessions.
So the two
of them together were
a couple of hours.
Maybe more than that.
The time between Asr and Maghrib
in the
Hijaz is
a long time. And then between
Maghrib and Nisha. So these dars
he used to give. So now
he comes there, he starts
the dars and this little kid
less than ten years old is
sitting right in front
at his feet. And
as Imam Malik is speaking
he notices that this little
kid is doodling
in the sand with his index finger.
So because
there was no carpets and stuff. So he
would sit on the sand. And
this little kid is
with his finger, he seems to be
doodling, making little patterns.
So Imam Malik
got very irritated.
But he was a very
kind person. He never said anything.
He didn’t say anything. He didn’t stop the kid.
You know, he didn’t
want to embarrass this kid in front of
people by
criticizing him or something. So he
didn’t say anything. But obviously
he didn’t like what was happening.
And
this continued.
So
after
this,
then the Adhan for Daghrib was called.
And they went inside.
So in the second session,
this kid came
and he made salab and he said
I am so and so. I have come.
My mother has sent me.
I have come to
be your student and I request you to
accept me as your student.
Imam Malik said, sorry, go back.
I will not accept you as a student.
Now this little boy who was
who would later become the student of Imam Malik,
the great Imam Ash-Shafei,
he started crying.
And he said, what have I done?
He said, I came here to study from you.
And
what is my mistake?
What did I do wrong?
You know, you are rejecting me and
I’ve done nothing.
Imam Shafi said, no, you have
your mistake
is that I saw that you are not doing anything.
I saw that you are not doing anything.
I saw that you are not doing anything.
I saw that you have no seriousness
with regard to learning.
Because I saw that you were doodling
in the sand.
I am talking about the Hadith of Rasulullah
I am explaining things here
and you are doodling in the sand.
Right?
Now,
Imam Shafi says to him,
he says, yeah, Imam,
I was not doodling in the sand.
I was memorizing your dars.
Yes.
So now,
I imagine Imam Malik’s reaction.
Imam Malik says,
maybe he said to himself that this kid
is not only lazy and distracted,
but this kid is also cheeky and disrespectful
because he’s trying to tell me that he memorized the lesson.
Remember the time period is easily more than one hour,
probably two hours.
So Imam Malik said, okay, so you memorized the lesson?
He said, yes.
Okay.
So he said, recite to him.
He said, yes.
And this little boy started from
Bismillah,
walhamdulillah,
wasalatu wasalamu ala Rasulillah,
and so on.
And he completely recited the entire dars
from Asr to Maghrib
to Imam Shafi,
to Imam Malik,
and of course all the students and so on were there.
Everyone is absolutely astounded.
Imam Malik hugged him,
he kissed him,
and he sat him down,
and he said, I accept you as my student.
Now, think about this.
Imam Malik’s dars was not geared for 10 year old kids
or five year old kids.
His dars was his dars.
If you come to that dars and you don’t understand,
it’s your job to do whatever is required
to make sure you understand.
You don’t understand.
You don’t tell the Imam,
teach it like this,
teach it like that.
If you,
this dars is for a period that he decides
from Asr to Maghrib.
You don’t go there and say,
well, can you cut this down into,
you know,
30 second bits because my attention span is only
that of a goldfish or a monkey.
Can you turn it down to five minutes,
five minutes or 10 minutes?
Because this is how much the youth of today
are able to concentrate.
They don’t say any of that.
They go, they sit there,
they take notes,
they pay attention,
and they study.
Whether you’re five years old or 10 years old
or 500 years old makes no difference.
You go there because you are interested.
You go there because you want to learn.
You go there because you are a winner.
Third example.
Ibrahim Adhem Rahmato Laleh,
the king of Balkh,
which was a kingdom in
modern day Afghanistan.
He decided that he
needed
Tazkiyat-ul-Nafs
and
went in search of a
Sheikh.
He gave up his kingdom.
He abdicated.
He abdicated his throne.
His son was put on the throne.
He abdicated his throne.
And he left like a habit
without an entourage,
without, you know,
just with his personal belongings,
minimal personal belongings.
And went in search of a Sheikh.
He found a Sheikh
and said to him,
I’m Zonzo
and I have come to learn from you
and please teach me
and accept me as your student.
And the Sheikh says to him,
I accept you
on condition that you must do what I tell you.
He said, sure, I will do what I did,
what you tell me.
I came here for that.
So he points to a stable,
which was a distance from his residential dwelling.
And he says,
that is the stable of my horse.
Go there,
make a place for yourself
in one corner
and stay there
and food will be sent to you.
And your job is to stay there
in dhikr.
Pray and make dhikr of Allah .
The teacher does not tell him how long.
He doesn’t say,
this is the first stage in your journey.
Just go and stay there.
Ibn Ahmad Ibn Abdul Ali
could have asked him,
I will stay there for how long?
10 minutes, 15 minutes,
10 hours, 15 hours,
10 days, 15 days.
He didn’t ask him.
He said, go.
He went.
So now he goes into the stable
and those of you who have not seen
or felt or smelt
the inside of a stable,
go find a near place.
Go find the nearest
you know, stables near your house
and go and ask to be
let inside and go and smell
what a stable looks like.
See what a stable looks like
and smell what it smells like.
So,
he went there and he cleaned up
a small part of the stable
and he
put his
bedding there in a musalla
and he is praying.
That evening,
the
groom of the horse
brings the horse.
The Sheikh tells him,
there is a man there in the stable.
When you
go and
stable the horse,
when you go and park the horse
and you are grooming the horse,
he says, throw
some dirt,
throw some dust
onto that man.
Now the groom also knows,
you know, because this is a
spiritual hospital.
And
the groom knows
what is happening.
Here is a patient who needs
spiritual care,
who has come
and the teacher is the
spiritual doctor.
And they must have been people before.
So the groom knows what’s
what’s happening.
So the groom takes the horse.
He
ties the horse there,
secures the horse.
And as he is there,
the groom takes the horse
and he
ties the horse there,
secures the horse.
And as he is there,
he takes the horse
and he
ties the horse.
And as he is grooming the horse,
he throws some dirt on
Ibraheem
Rahmatullah Ali.
Now remember,
who is Ibraheem Rahmatullah Ali?
Ibraheem Rahmatullah Ali is the
king of Balkh.
Who is the groom?
The groom is something,
is somebody who
in the novel course of things,
somebody like Ibraheem Rahmatullah Ali,
the king of Balkh,
will not even see
who are
the grooms
in his
kingdom.
Because
as the king,
if he wanted to ride a horse
and he wanted to go somewhere,
his horse would be brought to him
by his military attache,
by his ADC,
not by the groom.
The emperor,
the king would never even go into the stables.
Here a groom is throwing dirt on him.
So Ibraheem Rahmatullah Ali
looked at him,
glared at him.
He didn’t say anything.
He didn’t beat him.
He didn’t curse him.
He just looked hard at him.
The groom went and reported.
He said,
what happened?
He says,
this is what you did.
He
glared at me.
The ustad,
the sheikh,
kept Ibraheem
Rahmatullah Ali
in that stable
for 12 years.
He was
in the stable
for 12 years.
He was
in the stable
for 12 years.
He was
in the stable
for 12 years.
He was
in the stable
for 12 years.
He was
in the stable
for 12 years.
For 12 years.
Now,
the point I always make
when I
mention this story.
I tell people that
remember one thing
that
Ibraheem Rahmatullah Ali
during that period
of
12 years
at any point
whatsoever
doesn’t
matter
what
random
event
it may be.
He was
in that stable
for 12 years.
His name
was
Anindrakul,
when he was
a boy
he could have decided enough is enough.
I refuse to subject myself to this needless,
you know,
this needless punishment
because what’s the need?
Why should I do that?
As far as I’m concerned,
I came here to learn
and this gentleman here is not teaching me anything.
He is just, you know, harassing me
by forcing me to sit in a stable of a horse.
In all of this period,
he has not given me any actual instruction or anything.
And so why must I stay here?
So I’m gone.
Remember,
he could have done that at any point
in that period of time.
But he didn’t.
He did not.
And that’s the point I always make.
I say that
Ibrahim Adhaim Rahatul Ali
did not stay in that stable for 12 years
for the love of the horse.
He stayed in that stable for 12 years
for the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
Because he knew
that
unless he stayed there,
his disease,
the ailment that he was suffering from,
the terminal illness that he was suffering from,
which is arrogance,
which is the terminal illness
of the ulama and the umara.
The scholars,
and the rulers.
Arrogance.
Feeling of superiority over others.
He knew that this
terminal illness
would not go away
unless
it was cured.
And the ustad,
the teacher knew how to cure it.
And that’s why he stayed there.
He didn’t leave.
He didn’t
make any efforts.
He didn’t make any efforts.
He didn’t make any noises.
He didn’t object.
Because he knew what was happening.
He didn’t object.
He didn’t say this, that,
you know, why not this,
why not that.
No.
He stayed there.
Final story
is
that
that is
the first thing
that we should do.
That is our only way of knowing
is that we should not stay in that stable.
is that of Sayyed Ahmed Shaheed .
Now Sayyed Ahmed was a great freedom fighter and he was the general commanding the force
that fought the British, the East India Company, the final battle in a place called Balakot
in the Punjab and there he was martyred, there he was Shaheed.
Now Sayyed Ahmed Rahim Tul Ali, he is also known for another work, you know, a phenomenal
feat, which was that during the time of the East India Company, things became so terrible
in India that especially for the Muslims, because they were systematically persecuted,
that the ulama of the time, they gave a fatwa to say that Hajj is not far on Indian Muslims
because they cannot actually physically go for Hajj.
It is too dangerous.
So, he was martyred.
So, Sayyed Ahmed Rahim Tul Ali said, this is not correct.
Who says that people cannot go for Hajj?
So, he took a Hajj group in a ship, sailed down the Jamuna and then down the Ganges,
Ganga to Calcutta.
And boarded a ship from there to the Hejaz and did Hajj and returned.
And so, it was, you know, he was a leader of that kind.
When he was as a young man, as a student, he was chosen.
But he was not a leader.
He was a leader.
He was a leader.
He was a leader.
He was a leader.
I have always
taken Hajj around.
But when I was a young boy, or the school years later, he went to that one, that one
a very fake school.
This one it was called bachelor high school.
He was going to bringということで people to the Hejaz siellä.
There were, of course, there were many books about Jorge Barreras.
Shah Waliullah Rahmatullah Ali, his son,
Shah Abdulaziz Rahmatullah Ali,
he was one day visiting his brother
who was the,
in whose care and whose mother,
Sayyid Ahmad Rahmatullah Ali used to study.
So he saw Sayyid Ahmad
climbing on top of a big tree
and the big mango tree or something
and he was tying up,
there was some function that was going to happen
and they were tying up a sort of tent
so he was helping with that.
So he saw the young man,
he was impressed by his energy and so on.
So when he came down, he told him,
he just gave him an instruction.
He said, he showed him a place
under the tree outside and he said,
stay here.
Until I come back.
And while you are here,
pray Nafil Sada.
Now, look at this.
I mean, here, obviously, he’s a scholar,
he’s a senior man.
But other than that,
I don’t know if
Sayyid Ahmad Rahmatullah Ali knew who he was,
he recognized him or what, but
he certainly wasn’t his teacher formally.
So he didn’t say, excuse me, hold on a second,
what do you mean, you are commanding me,
do this, do that.
You know, you can’t tell me what to do.
He didn’t say any of that.
He just put his wasala on the ground
and he started praying Nafil Sada.
Now, Shaykh Abdulaziz Rahmatullah Ali left
and he was gone for a few hours.
While he was gone, there was a massive thunderstorm.
And pelting down rain.
So he was wondering, you know, what happened to this boy.
Anyway, when he returned,
he finds this boy
still in the same place,
praying,
complete deep concentration.
Obviously, he’s soaked
from top to toe in rain.
But he did not break his concentration.
And he continues to pray.
He hugged him.
He took him as his student.
And as they say, the rest is history.
Sayyid Ahmad Rahmatullah Ali led
a battalion against the British East India Company,
the illegal occupants and colonizers of
India who,
I mean, that’s a long story.
I recommend you read William Dalrymple’s excellent book,
very well researched, called Anarchy.
Anarchy, which is a book about the colonial period,
especially that of East India Company.
And in 1857, the first war of independence,
India was in a state of crisis.
India was in a state of crisis.
You probably recall the era
in which around the time
of bridges,
much of which Fallon cars also used,
even though they didn’t have likelyiza.
So where about this theory,
A theosophist, Hindu philosopher, a man by the name of Jiddu Krishnamurti, who said,
it is not the sign of health to be profoundly adjusted to a Sikh society.
It is not the sign of health to be profoundly adjusted to a Sikh society.
Jiddu Krishnamurti.
I want to use these words because that is what seems to have happened today to us.
And this is the pressure that is being put by sometimes well-meaning people on teachers, on scholars.
I’m very sad to say,
there are people who are,
who are succumbing to this and giving into this.
And the pressure is, we are taking sickness to be the norm.
We are taking sickness to be the norm.
And we are saying to the normal people, and we are saying to the teachers,
modify your teaching to suit the Sikh people.
Instead of saying, cure the Sikh people.
Cure the Sikh people and bring them on par with healthy people so that they can benefit from knowledge,
which is taught and should be taught the way it is supposed to be taught.
Instead of saying that, we are saying, tone it down, dumb it down, shorten it.
Say the same thing in 10 words.
The sickness that afflicts our society today is lack of attention.
The attention span with regard to Islam, with regard to Allah.
Please listen carefully.
It’s not lack of attention span.
This is another big mistake and foolishness that we accept.
We say that, especially with the youth, we say that youth, young people, they do not have an attention span.
So tell me, youth who do not have an attention span, how do they watch?
A full soccer match without blinking an eyelid.
And that’s one and a half hours.
Have you ever heard anybody saying, why can’t you reduce this soccer match to 10 minutes because that is the attention span we have?
Have you ever heard anyone saying that?
No.
So who says there is no attention span?
Who says there is no attention span when the same youth are apparently spending,
six hours a day, four hours a day, five hours a day in social media?
Who says there is no attention span?
There is no attention span with regard to religion.
There is no attention span with regard to Islam.
That’s a sickness.
If the dunya, if all kinds of distraction, a lot of that haram distraction,
because if you look at what actually comes up in front of you on Facebook, on Instagram,
on all of the social media, what is the vast majority of stuff that comes up?
What are the lifestyles of the so-called influencers?
How do you get influenced by an influencer?
What is the lifestyle of this influencer that is influencing you?
Just excess?
Excess in consumption?
So if that is more attractive,
to somebody,
than the dhikr of Allah,
than the glory of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala,
than the dhikr of Muhammadu Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
then according to me,
and I don’t care if the entire world and every human being that exists disagrees with me,
I refuse to change my view.
That is a sickness.
If Allah is less attractive to a Muslim,
than the lifestyle of somebody who is disobeying Allah,
then that is a sign of sickness.
If you tell me that I must modify what I have to present
to cater to that sick individual,
then I say you are sick.
What you should say is how can we cure this sickness?
This is a fatal sickness.
This is worse than a fatal sickness because if I die in this state
where Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is less attractive to me,
Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is less beloved to me,
than,
in an excessive shaitani lifestyle,
then I am in serious trouble before Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
So I need to cure this.
Please understand my brothers and sisters,
there are winners and there are losers.
They have always been winners and they have always been losers.
They have specific characteristics.
The number one characteristic of a winner is,
winners are disciplined.
Winners have long attention spans because winners can concentrate
on one thing for a long period of time.
Winners are focused on investment.
Investment by definition means you are putting in
and you are not seeing the results and you are putting it in
with the expectation of getting a reward and a result in the future.
That’s the meaning of investment.
You put in the money, you put in the effort
with the expectation of reward.
These are the side, you read,
you invest,
you just serve,
not just in a wild hope but
with expectation of reward in the future.
You are able to concentrate
on something
for a
extended period of time.
You are able to actually read a book.
A book a month.
Maybe more than one book a month.
You don’t do that as a burden, you do that as something you enjoy, you love.
Now,
discipline.
You wake up, you make your bed.
You wake up early.
You pray the Hanjot.
You spend time memorizing the Hanjot.
You spend time memorizing the Hanjot.
You spend time memorizing the Hanjot.
You spend time memorizing the Koran.
You spend time learning how to read the Koran correctly.
You spend time learning how to read the Koran correctly.
Right?
You are investing in yourself.
You are disciplined.
You wake up every morning, you make your bed.
You wake up every morning, you make your bed.
I am focused on these making beds.
I am focused on these making beds.
Discipline,
the ability to concentrate,
which means a long attention span,
which means a long attention span,
and the willingness to concentrate.
And the willingness to concentrate.
And the willingness to concentrate.
And the willingness to concentrate.
Normally,
you spend 500, 300,
or 100 every morning on something.
However,
they challenge you with
things you can’t imagine.
You draw gardeners
about.
I’m sorry to sound cruel, but that is the reality.
They will never win.
If you want to win a race, a horse race, you pick the best horse.
The number one requirement of winning a race, winning the derby, winning any race, horse
race, is to pick the right horse.
That is the reason why people spend millions in breeding fast horses.
Because if the horse is not fast, if the horse is not bred for the race, if the horse is
not capable of running, it doesn’t matter what you feed the horse.
It doesn’t matter the skill of the jockey.
Nothing matters.
That horse cannot win the race.
The number one requirement is the quality of the horse.
And that’s exactly the situation with human beings.
It’s the quality of the person.
So my submission to you is, don’t insult the scholars by telling them to doctor their
teaching material to suit people who are sick, to suit people who are distracted,
to suit people who are disinterested.
The best scholars teach the best students.
They don’t take students who are distracted, who are disinterested, and convert them into
great students.
They don’t.
It’s not doable.
Just like it’s not possible to take a donkey.
And get the donkey to win the derby.
Right?
Not possible.
You need a horse.
And you need a very fast horse.
So anytime you feel that, and it may be true, you may not have the attention span, recognize
it for what it is.
It is a weakness.
It is an inability.
Treat it like a weakness.
Treat it like an inability.
And what do you do with weaknesses?
You overcome them.
You work to get rid of them.
Do that.
Do that.
And then when you are ready, when you have done that, when you have overcome the weakness,
then you go to whoever is teaching you and say, now I’m ready.
So please teach me.
Ask Allah to help us to understand that this Deen is what will make us winners in this world
and the next.
This Deen is not a pastime.
It’s not a hobby.
It’s not something you do when you have nothing else to do.
This is the purpose, the be all and end all of life.
This is why Allah created us.
So that we recognize Him.
So that we understand His power and glory and majesty.
This is why He created us.
And that’s what we need to understand.
And that’s what we need to convince ourselves.
And that’s what we need to work on.
Wa sallallahu ala nabeel kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi jmaim bi rahmatul kareem.
Wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
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