Lessons for Humanity from the Last Sermon Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

welcome to our critical issues seminar from seekers guidance canada my name is omer and i'll be introducing the session for today so seekers guidance canada for those of you who are not familiar with our organization we are learning center located in mississauga ontario where we have classes on islam both at the advanced and general level we have classes throughout the week with the advanced classes in the afternoon there are more general level classes in the evenings and we also have complete schedule for the weekend where we have monthly events happening and also more classes that you might be interested in so please check out our website at seekersguidance.org forward slash canada and you can see our schedule and feel free to join any of the classes it's not too late to join because we have everything recorded so you can easily catch up with any of the classes that you're interested in and there's wide variety of selection where you can take classes in any of your areas of interest or you know to continue your islamic studies and as we all try to do we try to increase in knowledge and character and knowledge and guidance so that we better ourselves with all of our days so it's important to be in some kind of weekly class weekly so we really encourage you to check out our schedule inshallah so now that brings us to the monthly classes that we have we have seminars we have we have check out the schedule it's on seekersguidance.org forward slash canada where you can see our monthly schedule we have class for children at the first of the month then we also have workshops on mental health like wide variety of topics there we consider it our extracurricular series where we offer mental health workshop physical health and well-being and we also do an arts and creativity sort of craft workshop that is also monthly so check that out there on different days of course we also have community events that are still running despite coved we usually do them outside if possible usually their drive-throughs during the covet pandemic but once things clear up inshallah will be back at the center and finally are the critical issues seminars which is what we're doing today today's topic is on lessons for humanity from the last sermon and in today's seminar we will be covering the last sermon was the final public advice of the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam given on the 9th of dulhija in the 10th year after hijra during the hajj pilgrimage he began his sermon by saying people listen to my words do not know whether shall ever meet you again in this place after this year he reminded us that we will be eventually questioned about our deeds and then he began to remind muslims of their various obligations in today's seminar we're going to be learning about the context of the farewell sermon and its significance in islamic history we're going to learn about an elaboration on the various advices given and tips on how to best put them into practice we'll be learning about sayings of various scholars on the last sermon and we'll also learn lessons we can learn today from the advice given and for anyone who attends in person we also have free take-home lunch that will be distributed after the seminar that you can just take home to enjoy inshallah so our speaker for today is sheikh frazier beni he's no stranger amongst us sheikh faraz rabbani spent 10 years studying with some of the leading scholars of recent times first in damascus and then in amman jordan his teachers include the foremost theologian of recent times in damascus the late sheikh hadid as well as his student sheikh hasan al-hindi one of the leading hanafi fukaha of the present age he returned to canada in 2007 where he founded seeker's guidance in order to meet the urgent need to spread islamic knowledge both online and on the ground in relevant inspiring and accessible manner he's the author of absolute essentials of islam faith prayer and the path of salvation according to the hanafi school which is published by white thread press and since 2011 sheikh fraz has been named one of the most 500 most influential muslims by the royal islamic strategic center so with that present to you shake for us for benny welcome to today's seminar on the farewell pilgrimage of our beloved messenger sallallahu farewell sermon in the farewell pilgrimage and its explanation and key lessons in it so we saw in our study allah if you have looked at the life of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam which is something every believer should be intimately familiar with that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam only performed pilgrimage once in islam right the hajj itself the the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam performed it only once and that was also the farewell pilgrimage and there's wisdoms in that because much of the time during the message of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam he was opposed by the meccans the obligation of hajj came late even though it was from the established rights of the muslims the prophet sallallahu islam did tawaf around the kaaba and did umrah prior to this but after the opening of mecca in which aft at which time people started entering islam in droves due to the wisdom of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in his conveying the message and in his dealing with the meccans who previously had stopped him sallallahu alaihi wasallam from performing pilgrimage so what happened the prophet sallallahu islam agreed at hudaibiyah to treatise in which they were in peace with one another and but as part of that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and the believers were given permission to come the year after for umrah which they did perform and that itself had many wisdoms it gave the the prophet salallahu and the believers time of peace to continue to call the tribes to islam without the immediate threat of war but also that gave quraysh cause for great remorse that how could we prevent worshipers of allah and the meccans can call themselves the people of allah how could we be preventing them from pilgrimage and when the prophet salallahu performed that pilgrimage after debia the meccans left mecca the quraysh were as the disbelievers but they had been reflecting on the beauty and excellence and perfection of the prophetic call for so long and when they observed the believers performing umrah that year it further weakened their resolve to oppose the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and many hearts changed and then the events of the seerah happened and the fate of mecca the opening of mecca took place after which came the farewell pilgrimage before that allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala had revealed surat an nasr and in surat nasir allah says when the victory of allah comes and the great opening and you see people entering islam in droves so glorify the praises of your lord was and seek his forgiveness he is ever relenting when that was revealed number of companions amongst them ibn abbas amongst them and others realized that the fulfillment of the prophetic message is upon us the opening of allah being referred to is the opening of allah being referred to here is the treaty of when they signed that treatment of peace and the opening the first opening was that treatise itself and then the second opening was the victory of allah came first at hudaibiyah and the first fat was itself and then the fat manifest opening was the opening of mecca but then during this farewell pilgrimage the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam had revelation of the famous verses today have perfected for you your religion and completed for you my blessing completed my blessing upon you and i'm pleased with islam for you as your religion and the completion of religion is related to the purpose of the prophetic message because the messengers were sent with guidance for their people and that is the role of messenger messenger is an honored human being that allah sends with message of guidance which they embody exemplify and convey so the prophet salallahu has conveyed this message has conveyed this message right and the sahabah saw from the guidance of the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam and what he was telling them about what religion was and they saw all the building blocks of guidance in place but we see in the farewell pilgrimage in the in the hajj of the prophet sallam the prophet saws gave series of sermons the sermons which were several sermons some and they were delivered at various points during the rites at the various gathering places at arafah at minna by the kaaba at muzdalifa elsewhere the prophet saw islam gave series of sermons so multiple sermons were given by the beloved messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam and there are multiple wisdoms in this amongst them the reality that the numbers of the believers at the farewell pilgrimage by the standards of those times was great there were well over hundred thousand people at the pilgrimage and the numbers differ hundred thousand hundred and ten thousand hundred and twenty thousand and these are all estimates some say hundred and forty thousand were there with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam nobody was doing formal count these are estimates so this way people were given opportunity to hear the central parting messages of the prophet salallahu but another wisdom of the many wisdoms mentioned by the ulama is emphasis is emphasis we know from the teachings of the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam that he only spoke purposefully and if he spoke he would frequently repeat what he had to say he would frequently repeat what he said why because he said what mattered and it was worthy of repetition and this is your repetition reinforces and it reminds me so repetition but purposeful suitable repetition he was not repetitive this was with benefit just like in the quran has treatise the former grand mufti of damascus from the latter half of the 20th century the teacher of sheikh deep khalas and other noted scholars descendant from the great abedin family of ibn abdeen that though there are many themes many stories many teachings that are mentioned in multiple places in the quran in reality there is no repetition why because in every time the thing matter is mentioned another time there are distinct lessons of guidance in it either in the actual expression or in the context in which it is said so this is so there are multiple sermons so we're going to take one of the main narrations and this is mentioned by imam ahmed and others and we also chose this particular narration because it has an eloquent translation which you've just adapted slightly for by sheikh noor keller one of the foremost scholars of our age one of the foremost scholars of our age which is and this is clear and powerful just move itself forward which is clear and clear and powerful translation so what we're going to do is first go through the translation itself and then we're going to to go back and look at key lessons from 16 parts of the khutba right so the khutba has many key themes it can be broken down into 16 key areas so the prophet sallam began his farewell sermon with the praise of allah all praise is due to allah we praise him seek his help ask his forgiveness and we repent unto him we seek refuge in allah from the evil of ourselves and from our bad actions whomsoever allah guides none can lead astray and whomever he leads astray has none to guide them testify that there is no god but allah alone without partner and testify that our master muhammad is his servant and messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam so this is the the opening now sometimes you see some of our brethren they insist on beginning every khutbah and every speech with the exact same opening right and that's famous as the khutba tulhalja but when you see the sermons of the prophet salallahu they have shared elements but each one is distinct so beginning exactly the same way and thinking it is specific sunnah is actually not from the sunnah as sheikh al-fatiha mentions in treatise of his okay so then before beginning the khutba itself the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam began with an opening council he said enjoin you servants of allah to be god-fearing towards allah or to be mindful of allah use admonish you servants of allah with taqwa of allah it which can be translated as god-fearingness or mindfulness of allah urge you to obey him and begin with that which is best and this is the council of allah to the first people and the last people and to be mindful of allah and the basis of all guidance is the quran and every revelation before it is guidance for those god fearing those who've attained god fearing or those who are striving for it okay then the khutba begins to commence people hear me well explain to you for do not know may well not meet you again in this place where now stand after this year of mine and this confirmed for for those sahaba who were had sense that the prophet sallallahu alaihi were not just had sense they were sure ibn abbas and other companions were sure that the final days of the prophet saw some were impending even though physically he was in good health so far he did all the rights of hajj himself sallallahu alaihi wasallam and then the prophet sallam talked about the sanctity of rights lives property places times and responsibility people your lives and your property until the very day you meet your lord are inviolable to each other as the inviolability of this day you are now in and the month you are now in so here there's an emphasis on lives and rights and this we will look at the lessons in depth but one of the reasons behind this is that in much of the world the law of the jungle prevailed those who have power set the rules and they bent the rules even when people professed equality behind the law you know the the idea that all men are equal but some are more equal than others right prevailed so to speak so here right that people and this applies to all people right your lives and your property are invaluable for one another right so emphasizing that people have rights right and these are rights granted by allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala like the sanctity of this day there are days that are sacred because allah has made them sacred and this month you're in which is the month of which is one of the sacred months months that allah has granted special significance to have given the message allah be my witness right and this is mentioned for emphasis and out of sense of responsibility so let whoever has been given something for safe keeping give it back to him who gave it so it's not just some big theory at the societal level it has practical implications at the individual level and we look at those then the prophet saw islam continued the third of the teachings is on the prohibition of usury of ribba truly the usury of the age of ignorance of jahiliyyah has been laid aside forever said the beloved sallallahu alaihi sallam and the first usury begin with is is is that which is due to my father's brother al-abbas ibn abdul muttalib and this is very noteworthy it's very noteworthy that amongst the first things the prophet saws emphasized in this final khutba in his farewell is the prohibition of ribba and we'll look at the importance and lessons behind that and then the prophet saws emphasized the prohibition of blood and of taking vengeance for the spilling of blood and he said sallallahu and truly the blood vengeance of the age of ignorance has been laid aside forever why because part of this sense of the law of the jungle right that even though there are some laws and customs whatever ultimately you you follow your way and you do what you want so if someone wrongs you you wrong them back and the sense of tribalism that my who am belong to tribe you're wrong one of our people we're going to run some of your people right and this guy this kind of blood vengeance and the feuds individual and tribal that came as result of it that have plagued humanity throughout history families fighting each other for generations that's this has been laid aside forever and the first blood vengeance we will start with is that which is due for the blood of my of the prophet's kinsmen amir ibn then the fifth lesson has to do with hereditary distinctions the in most societies you would have some kind of societal distinctions and you find different manifestations of that in some societies you have formal caste system like you found in much of india right where they brought in hereditary distinctions at the level of society so you have people are different who have different ranks and roles and rights and discriminations against them depending on what their caste in society was and the wisdom there are wisdoms why people did this which are you know those some of which are recognized many of which are not which is to regulate society at some level but also those who had acquired some distinction would naturally want to preserve it within their family and quraish had this kind of sense too the meccan the arabs in general and the meccans in particular and most notably quraysh themselves the great meccan tribe they had sense of equality but it was confused sense it was confused sense why because they didn't have revelation they didn't have sacred law so they had sense that people are equal but quraish are more equal than others and everyone has sacred rights but then the strong would take the rights of the weak and there's all kinds of chaos and then people would hold on to different privileges the different privileges related to the different privileges related to the sacred pilgrimage for example privileges related to taxation and other matters so the prophet salallahu said that truly the hereditary distinction that was that were pretensions to respect in the age of ignorance in the time of jahiliyyah before islam have been laid aside forever all of these right so in the specific context of the meccans lot of these were related to pilgrimage who would have rights and some and some responsibilities related to where the pilgrims lived access to water who oversaw different elements of the rights of the pilgrimage some other hereditary distinctions had to do with the festival seasons related to the times when people would particularly come to the marketplace in madina there's other privileges related to and some of these were interrelated to the times when there were there would be the great poetry context like in the in the super and so on so different people would have these distinctions and they would be inherited even though the person who had responsibility for them did not care did not did not merit that distinction and could not fulfill its rights except for the custodianship of the kaaba by which was given to bani abdul dar and the giving of drinks to the pilgrimage to pilgrims which was in the hands of alabas and that could continue to be acknowledged the sixth of the lessons relates to murder and accountability through law right that and again there's theme that in order to function on earth in good humans need law human need humans need law and they need accountability before the law so the prophecies have mentioned deliberate murder is subject to retaliation in kind accidental deaths from deliberate injury you know which means death resulting from stick or rock for which there's indemnity is 100 camels whoever asks for more is person of the age of ignorance right so this has to do with the laws of of of of crime right and death can be deliberate right and that has its punishment you know killing an in taking an innocent life with the conditions and so on is is punishable by is punishable by death is punishable by death whereas and with with the conditions we ward off the death penalty insofar as possible and but if there is accidental death someone ran over somebody killed them etc there is indemnity for it indemnity and this set by the prophet sallallahu islam and even now accident the punishment for accidental death would be the material worth of hundred camels because because that was laid down by the prophet salallahu not just in the farewell sermon but so and of course 100 camels is considerable payment even now you can google how much to 100 camels cost and you can find it's in the tens of thousands of dollars of course this does not allow you to just to go say just killed somebody accidentally i'll just pay the this is just the material amount that is given to the family of the deceased right but whoever asked for more than that that's from jahiliyyah which is time of confusion and distance from divine guidance the seventh reminder in in the farewell sermon has to do with the devil and the motives of the devil our beloved messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam tells us that people the devil has despaired of ever being worshipped in this land of yours namely in arabia or in the lands of the believers in the lands of the believers where the faith has been established however he is content to be obeyed in other works of yours which you deem to be of little importance right so where because and we will look at the implications of this that how does the devil seek to trick us in the process of warning about that right that it is from the great blessing of and the clarity of faith that is preserved muhammadun rasulullah is preserved but the health of the heart and the conduct of the one of allah is susceptible to the whisperings of the devil as we will see the eighth and this is one of the key themes of the of this farewell sermon is justice and consistency in the application of law with the example of the sacred months so the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam explain this that people postponing the invaluability of sacred month claiming to postpone the prohibition of killing in it to subsequent month so as to continue warring despite the sacred months having arrived is surfeit of unbelief is from the remnants of unbelief by which those who disbelieve are led astray making loft making it lawful one year and unlawful another in order to match the number of months allah has made invaluable so the arabs were aware of the notion of sacred months because this is something laid down the abrahamic way of which to which they ascribe themselves because the kaaba around which the meccans coalesced and quraish settled its immediate founder was saying ibrahim right who settled his wife said in that land and together with his son they built the kaaba and then saydna ismail married some of the local act into some of the local arabs and they settled around there especially upon the you know once yeah you know in barren land zamzam had appeared and because of zem-zem and other water that had appeared in very barren land it became habitable place and and other people settled because of the magnificence of the kaaba and these righteous servants of god that were worshiping there so there's notion of the sacred months but because of distance from revelation they would sometimes if they wanted to fight some people or to suspend some of the sanctity of the month they say well this year there there is no month of dul any of the other sacred months but this is from the ways of jahiliyyah of where people are governed by their whim and not by rev by truth and revelation so the prophet saws said time has verily come full turn right this is returning things back to the truth that saying ibrahim came with that isma'il came with to how it was the day allah created the heavens and the earth and because allah has created everything with the with wisdom and with truth and the fitra that is islam the natural disposition that is islam restores that natural order so the prophet saw made clear there are four months which are invaluable three in row and fourth by itself and rajab which lies between jumada and shaban just to be very clear and he mentions them like this because you can't shift these around and then he asked have given the message allah be my witness then critical element of the khutva number nine and this is frequently misunderstood and misinterpreted element of the khutba which is the emphasis on the rights of women and this is something that was constant theme of the final days of the prophet saws not only during the pharaoh pilgrimage but also on his deathbed the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam said that people verily you owe your women their rights and they owe you yours they may not lay with another man in your bed nor let anyone into your house you do not want without your permission nor may they commit indecency that seems to us as believers kind of obvious but the arabs were in an age of confusion things would happen there would be at different phases before islam there were sometimes days when their their marital relations would be suspended certain festival seasons where anything would go right and but none of that would be you know would be would be allowed the prophet saw some continued if if they do allah has given you leave to debar them right send them from your beds are you to separate from them in your sleeping arrangements right right so to debar them right to keep away from them right to send them from your beds to sleep separately and then finally only strike them in way that does no harm and this is rule not of encouragement but of only then could it be possible to physically discipline them right and that too in way that does no harm right and this is and we will look at this extensively but just to mention here that that abuse domestic violence etc happens typically as result of anger and any such you know physical hitting is absolutely impermissible right it's absolutely impermissible right why because that arises not out of an interest to rectify the relationship it is done as an expression of anger and daddy and transgressing against the honor of the other person here there's context of how do you mend the relationship right so this would be done as matter of of right and isla of rectification of discipline and rectification and what happened in context where there is respect there's respect and that would have good likely result without there being harm right however the mention and the prophet sasam said however pr prescriptively let do not hit the female servants of allah that is the that is the prophetic encouragement this is this is descriptive thing that the only time you may do so is when the the other recourses have been taken care of and only within this limit which is that does no harm but if they did desist right from their transgression against you this is only also in the context of new shoes where they go out they commit zina they commit indecency they rebel against you wrongfully wronging you only then would this order be followed this is not that you didn't like the dinner you felt she wasn't respectful enough of you or whatever it is in very delineated right but if they desist and obey and obey you or defer to you then you must provide them and clothe them fittingly in good fitting manner and we'll look at what that means and then the prophet saws said the women who live with you are in your trust are in your trust and we'll explain the word here sometimes it's translated are your prisoners or are your captives right and the word right can refer to female prisoner or it can refer to someone who's under your trust but explain that this is tasbih balir that they're under your care under your trust like captive or prisoner would be so take good care of them and do not cause them to be as if you have imprisoned them or captured them right but that sense which is how the scholars have explained this right is lost by translating metaphor that people would not understand right into another language like if from english you translated basketball game to someone who's let's say desert dweller in mauritania you say in toronto that the people of toronto killed the bulls like right but you know they killed them it's metaphor but if someone doesn't understand the metaphor then you have to convey the meaning of the metaphor right and they're arabic is the language of many metaphors they're in your trust unable to manage for themselves right because the woman agreed to live with you she may have she may be foregoing working etc to provide to take care of your children etc so they've made themselves vulnera vulnerable in sense accepting your protection your your care your trust you took them as trust from allah so you didn't marry the person themselves just they agreed to marry you you took them as trust from allah and enjoyed relations with them as lawful through word from allah the word from allah meaning the contract of marriage which by which you entered into the sacred bond so be mindful of allah said the prophet saws with respect to women and concerns your concern yourself with their wealth with their welfare this is constant theme of the prophet that concern yourself pay attention to their welfare what is good for them what is in their worldly good and what is in their next worldly good and the prophet sam closed this part with emphasis again have conveyed the message allah be my witness for emphasis to them and expressing that am not telling you my mere opinion he does not speak allah tells us in the quran he does not speak of his mere whim it is but revelation revealed to him and then in the tenth part the prophet saws emphasized the fraternity of faith people the believers are but brethren no one may take their brother's property without his full consent have given the message allah be my witness and then the eleventh lesson is on holding fast to the book of allah on holding fast to the book of allah he said sallallahu alaihi wasallam verily have left among you that which if you take it which if you hold on to it which if you uphold you will never stray after me the book of allah and in other of the final sermons the book of allah and my sunnah and in other versions the book of allah and my household and we'll look at the explanation of that and all revolve around the same theme of holding fast to the guidance the prophet salallahu has came come with and the means of that guidance have given the message he said sallallahu alaihi wasallam allah be my witness the 12th element is on the fraternity of humanity people your lord is one and your father is one all of you are from adam and adam is from earth so this is wider the prophet saws talked about the fraternity of the believers here's sense of the fraternity of humanity and the key to that fraternity which is humility and leaving aside personal or collective pride the thirteenth lesson is on true rank which is allah and that there's no place for racism in our religion nor in one who is upholding the prophetic way the prophet saw islam said the noblest of you in allah's sight is the most god-fearing arab has no merit over non-arab other than through god-fearingness through mindfulness of allah have given the message he said sallallahu sallam allah be my witness at this they said yes they said indeed and then there's brief statement but it's lesson unto itself which is number 14 which is duty to convey religious guidance the prophet salallahu then said then let whoever is present tell whoever is absent this is the duty to convey guidance and we look at the lessons related to that the 15th is on inheritance and estates that people allah has apportioned to every deserving heir their share of the estate no deserving heir may accept special bequest and no special bequest may exceed third of the estate so before islam people would apportion their property in different ways so they liked particular child more than the other so they'd give one child all their property or more of their property some cultures had the notion that the oldest child would be the inheritor in fact there's secular turkish economist who blamed the islamic system of inheritance for limiting wealth accumulation in muslim societies in comparison to europe and that's what they said that's he argued it's weak argument that capitalism arose through people having sufficient wealth to build corporations to large scale why because you could accumulate wealth intergenerationally someone got rich all the wealth would go to the oldest son and that son would earn more on the wealth and hand it over to the next generation so the wealth would accumulate but islamically the wealth would be distributed amongst both male and female inheritors so that's more conducive to social equity but also by being pre-apportioned there are wisdoms in it of they're not this not leading to dispute within families of who god how much and why and we look at some of the guidance related to that when we look at the lessons and finally there's an emphasis on how lineage is established the harm of adultery and the sanctity of family the prophet saw islam said child's lineage is that of the marital bed and adult tours shall be stoned adultery in the context of marriage is devastating it ruins it breaks relationships marriages frequently commonly do not survive adultery right children born out of wedlock are disadvantaged generally the woman has to raise that raise that child and she is disadvantaged as result so there are rules related to this child's lineage is established through the marital bed through marriage child is ascribed if woman is married if she has child it's ascribed to the father an adulterer shall be stoned and of course had punishments are warded off they're meant to be deterrence and warnings that people not approach harm the prophet saws reported said ward off the prescribed punishments through any element of doubt right so if the rulings are firm their wisdom is deterrence and keeping way from harm but there's also in order to preserve the health of society and the health of families the prophet saw some explain whoever claims to be the son of someone besides his father or if slave claims to belong to another then his master shall bear the curse of allah and the angels and all people no deflecting of it or ransom for it shall be acceptable from them why because one of the key aims of the sacred law is the preservation of people's good name and the preservation of family and lineage because if family breaks apart society breaks apart that is what our lord subhanahu ta'ala allah tells us so these are this is narration of the farewell pilgrimage and here we see number of evident lessons and themes coming through right we see the wisdom of law the wisdom of law right the importance of justice the justice of law but also of acting justly we see the theme of the believer being person of trust of manna the believer being someone who is conscious of allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala the faith if it is true would make believer be worthy of trust right why because they hold themselves accountable before allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that is the basis of true accountability it's also logical thing that if you you know social norms keep people in check right one of the european authors said word not for society most people would behave like wild animals and in reality as allah tells us they're like cattle rather they are more astray because cattle wild animals are fulfilling their existential purpose but the human being who acts on mere whim is not fulfilling their existential purpose so the sense of accountability before allah is critical right concern for the other whether in individual relations like that between husband and wife or wife and husband and other personal relations or at societal level the fraternity of faith at the human level the fraternity of humanity right you see certain key themes of how the believer approaches life and from that before we look at the lessons is how do we understand who righteous believer is who is who is one of the salihin who is righteous believer the defined for us the righteous believer righteous servant is one who fulfills the rights of allah and who fulfills the rights of allah's servants that is righteous believer so these are some of the rulings we also see that certain that rulings are there in order to preserve human good ultimately some rulings are firm they limit what we can choose to do however we understand them by understanding their long-term consequences their long-term worldly consequences or their next worldly con consequences and in that sense the translator of this farewell sermon sheikh noor keller once described this that to understand the sacred law sometimes it's like one of the paintings of one of the european artists named matisse who wrote who did series of panel paintings called the water lilies and if you look at look up the water lilies there there's two ways to look at the water lilies if you because matisse drew them in very dramatic fashion if you stand very close to the water lilies they're blotches bold blotches of paint and it looks grotesque but if you step back and put them in perspective and you see the whole picture it is stunningly beautiful right and sometimes if you just see ruling on its own and you don't understand the context of it the consequence of it the wisdom of it the mercy of it the justice of it it seems troublesome which is why you need to be able to step back and see the perspective the context the consequence the wisdom the mercy and the justice in it or through it to appreciate the mercy wisdom and justice of the all merciful the all-wise all just so these are some reflections related to the the farewell sermon we'll give you an opportunity right now for if you have questions or thoughts or reflections here you can you can ask and then we'll look at part two which are the lessons from the farewell sermon so there's there's question that where can find out more about the farewell sermon that's good that's good question the the most obvious place to read about the farewell sermon is in the seerah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam the prophet you know now in english we have good body of literature on the prophetic biography so we can recommend i'll just make five recommendations on books that we can recommend on the seerah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam the first of these is the first of these is the the first of these is the biography of martin links right the biography of martin lings muhammad his life based on the earliest sources and this is good you know this is good and beneficial work on seerah there are few few things that we one may not necessarily agree with fully but overall no book besides the book of allah is free of error right and it's beautifully written and full of and full of benefit and wisdom and it's so that's one one work that we can recommend unhesitatingly second is work by one of the great scholars of the 20th century it's called the prophet of mercy and this is beautifully written book of seerah it has lot of wonderful insights and at the same time the translation is fluid clear translation this it's also reasonably detailed work third book that we can recommend on the seerah is work by sheikh al-buti one of the great damascus scholars which and it's called it's called fukushira but it's translated into english as jurisprudence in the life of the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam or something like that which is sadly poor title for good book because seerah refers to lessons from the life of the prophet there is deep understanding or you could just transl translate it as lessons right so the so that's another work another beautiful work is by turkish scholar and it's well translated into english it's large work it's called the sultan of hearts and some people and this is beautifully told seerah structured well and it's beneficial work there are of course there's great merit in listening to to lessons so would in that regard one of the best tellings of the seerah in the english language is by sheikhamsa yusuf rabbi esteemed sheikh hamza yusuf and this is beautiful passionate wise insightful telling of the life of the prophet salla salem by one of the preeminent scholars of our times may allah protect and preserve him the there's also beautiful set of lessons in two parts in two courses by abdullah misra at seeker's guidance the first one is called meccan dawn and the second is on the medinan phase these are two courses here at seeker's guidance and and those are you know you you can access them for free they're downloadable and they're full of benefit alhamdulillah so those are so all of these contain within them guidance on the on the farewell pilgrimage there's also another book that we could recommend it's translated into english which is by shech salabi s-a-l-l-a-b-i and it's quite large work of seerah but he is influenced by al-buti's approach of sharing the lessons from each aspect of the life of the prophet salallahu so we have now large body of literature on the on the life of the prophet salallahu and within that you can find lot that is related to the farewell pilgrimage and the technical aspects of it as well any other questions okay so the prophet saws did give khutba after this in in medina it's right and he also spoke to the sahaba right he spoke to the sahaba and we know you know his conversations would say when she took care of him and we know also about the discussions of the sahaba when they came to him and asked him for guidance and advice and so on right so there is much you know so yeah so this was not right at the end right this is not right right at the end right but but this is called the farewell sermon because it was before so many of the companions during the during the farewell pilgrimage right so it's in that context that it's referred to as the farewell for often explain it's called the farewell sermon that is to this is the sermon of the farewell meaning sermon of the farewell pilgrimage right right it's sermon off the farewell pilgrimage in that sense okay are there other questions inshallah alhamdulillah so we will continue from here this is can't will be looking at lessons from the farewell sermon right so we won't be rereading the khutbah but the prophet saws began with this beautiful opening right and in this opening there are number of lessons right there's number of lessons in this opening and for those of you who are looking to listen attentively and take notes we will in the this upcoming week be publishing this seminar as an on-demand course and sharing the the slides there as well so you can recap and take the lessons and so on from there so the opening has number of lessons right the the first of the lessons has to do with just one second so the the opening has number of lessons right one is that we start in the name of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala right this is and by praising allah mighty and majestic it's called the hamdallah right the prophet saws generally did not begin his khutbas by saying bismillahir rahmanir rahim out loud they say one of the wisdoms is he the best male like in prayer he said quietly but it's sunnah to begin things of significance with in the name of allah and with praise of allah and seek seeking protection from the shaitaan and this is also true in important worldly matters where it may not be appropriate to say this out loud like you're about to give an important presentation at work so you won't say go say all of this but you say it to yourself because you you do it allah you're seeking divine assistance you're seeking divine facilitation you're doing it reliant upon allah and setting your your moral compass straight that i'm doing this seeking the pleasure of allah in manner pleasing to allah and then the prophet saw islam sought allah's guidance right sought allah's guidance out of need and weakness and that's how we begin things and that's the merit of anything we begin in life we begin bismillah anything of significance we begin with praise of allah right because we're seeking guidance we're seeking to be guided in the moral choices we make and we see guidance the by having allah's assistance to pursue what is right and then the testification of faith we see that the prophet saws frequently gave the testification of faith as renewal of faith in the prophet saws i'm told the sahaba do you renew your faith right because you're already believer but you say the testification of faith as renewal of the covenant of faith and we see the opening council of taqwa right right right and this is the great council of the quran as imam al-hadad says in his poem that reminds the in in in that my counsel to you or you of virtue and good manners right if you seek to attain the highest of ranks is to uphold mindfulness of allah the lord whose mercy is ever sought right and this is they they call it was allah's counsel to the first and the last and right to be mindful of allah and what is mindfulness of allah mindfulness of allah is concern concern to keep away from anything displeasing to allah out of recognition of the preciousness of the gift of allah right so it's taqwa is to shield is to shield oneself from all that harms one in one's relationship to with allah why because one because one wants to protect the gift of allah what is the gift of allah the gift of faith the gift of guidance the gift of good right taqwa arises from gratitude because you recognize the preciousness of god's gift upon you so this is the opening council and then the prophet salallahu his opening to commence and this is sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi it is said although it's not decisively established that this mode of umabad which was habit of the arabs but not consistent habit the prophet saws embraced it so it's sunnah to begin speech by first having an opening in which one praises allah etc and then one switches to the opening and in the opening it's sunnah to make clear what you are talking about or why you are talking and that's from the prophet salla islam as an educator right and as builder in the sense that he came in right that he has come to illuminate intellects right imam hanifa told his student abu yusuf there used to be used to be foolish and made you intelligent right because people aren't born intelligent because true intelligence is the capacity to act with principle towards what is acceptable good or excellence or excellent instead of just beginning in any random way the prophet hasn't taught us we begin with the praise of allah and that may be within one and then to begin by making clear what you're talking about right so but the prophet saws here conveys urgency right people hear me well and they're standing listening to him right they're standing already people hear me well and especially when you're saying something important you want if if you speak you the believer speaks with purpose whoever believes in allah say let this let them say good yes or remain silent so the believer speaks when it's worth speaking and if what you're saying is worth speaking it is worth giving attention to it and that's why the believer should be troubled that if one is conveying guidance but people aren't listening it's not that the person wants for themselves to be raised and being paid attention to but this is the prophet salallahu even when the people are present he wants their attention not for himself but for allah this is this is from pointing to allah and that's from the prophetic concern like his concern is ummati ummati my community my community my people right so while the believer does not seek fame and attention but the believer anything worth conveying is conv worth conveying as as far and wide and as deeply and impactfully as possible once put the phone down on one of my teachers because only had corded phone at that time this was was in karachi received this call from one of my teachers and he's in them he's just checking up on me and he started explaining the hadith of the strong believer it says he asked me do you know who the strong believer is the strong believer which the prophet isab said is better and more beloved to allah than the weak believer though there's good in both so knew it was going to tell me something important try to reach with the phone towards where the paper was couldn't put the phone down on my teacher he speaks very slowly grab pen and paper came back it started taking notes and didn't catch anything except the strong believer is so between you saying do you know who the strong believer is and he said the strong believers there was something don't know what he said but said because the strong believer is the one who's avid for what benefits as the prophet said be avid for what benefits place your trust in allah and do not deem yourself incapable what does it mean to be avid for what benefits is that anything that you do any choice that you make you strive to choose that which will be of the greatest widest and most lasting benefit in dunya and in deen for yourself and for others directly and indirectly that is the prophetic way be be strong believer right be person who is avid for all that benefits in dunya and deen short term and long term directly and indirectly for yourself and for others right people hear me well said the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam right so there and this sense of urgency that don't know whether i'll be here next next year right and the sense of time the urgency that is that underlies the call of the prophets that the human being is an inherent loss unless you wake up have sense of urgency right and realize that the only way out of the morbidity of the human condition the depressing state of the human being the perishing-ness of our fleeting lives which made so many thinking person depressed is except those who truly believe and who consistently do righteous deeds and who counsel each other on truth whatever and who counsel one another to steadfastness and time in the context of the farewell pilgrimage because the prophet salallahu knew that his final time is coming it is during the farewell this farewell hajj that the verses were revealed on this day have completed for your religion and have completed for you my blessing and chosen for you islam as your religion but the urgency with the completion of religion that he is telling his ummah as we'll see from the towards the end of the that have conveyed this to you so hold fast to it yourselves but preserve this and convey this to others pay attention to it uphold it yourself understand it and then convey it to others right and we have you know we have developed lack of concern with conveying that guidance to others our communities are frequently turning away from religious guidance and we kid ourselves by saying well we're doing our best whereas and there's good things there are eid celebrations that are full but lessons where guidance is being conveyed are empty you say well we're doing our best we're not the way of la the poets would say that the one who claims love and they still have tear left in their eyes is not true in the path of love right why because what does love entail as some of the early muslims said love is that you give your entirety to the one you love until nothing of you and remains for you what is gratitude imam junaid al-baghdadi said gratitude is to give one's all that is what love entails what gratitude entails none of you believes until they wish for others of the good that they wish for themselves and they say this wish is until they love for others and love is when love is only true if manifest in your choices because love has two meanings love is is an inclination towards another and the choices you make for the other right so are we making the choices that are beloved to allah when it comes to the religion then the prophet saw some talked about the sanctity of lives and property right and in the context of the invaluability of the day of of hajj and the sacred months right and then he closed by saying so let whoever has been giving something for safekeeping give it back to the one who gave him it so there's few lessons here related to the rights of others first that islam is religion of rights islam is truth islam is truth from allah and its foundation is fulfilling rights there's the rights of allah and there's the rights of allah's servant and the righteous servant is the one who strives to fulfill the rights of allah to the utmost of their ability and the rights of allah's creation to the utmost of their opportu of their ability in manner pleasing to allah and this arises from recognizing that religion is trust it's an amen because as the prophet saws made clear we uphold these rights of the inviolability of others as lives their property their honor before allah why allah refers to religion and moral responsibility in the quran as being an manner and manner trust that we've been entrusted with and the basis of trusts is that and to abdullah that you discharge your trusts to those their own they're owed to fully so religion is the whole meaning of religion is amanda it's trust and that trust will be asked about on the day of resurrection the best way when it comes to the day of resurrection is that you discharge your trusts to allah so evidently and to his creation so evidently that you're not brought to account there'll be people who will be in the express lane these will be the sebi kun the foremost of the definitions of the the foremost the foremost of those whose good precedes them their good is so evident they're so clearly fulfilling the rights of allah so clearly fulfilling the rights of allah's creation that that good precedes them so that on the day of resurrection they're not held to account yet they'll enter paradise without reckoning or if that's some shortcut all they'll be bought to account but with an easy account they brought to account and it's an account of honoring because you did good but the best thing is you're just in the fast lane they're there to say welcome they just let you through may allah make us of those people but yes or they'll be taken out with an easy reckoning but the prophet salallahu was he warned his ummah that whoever is taken to task when they are reckoned will be tormented and they'll say they'll be tormented they'll feel tormented because we know the descriptions of how the reckoning takes place our own skins and limbs will bear witness against us the places that we visited the things we engaged in will take form and they'll bear witness the film of your life will take form and will speak either bearing witness for you or against you so the believer has deep sense of trusts and we should strive to keep our vessel of moral accountability clear and clean so if you owe debts clear them if you've wronged people redress the wrongs apologize rectify right and here the prophet saws conveys this with sense of deep responsibility and then he reminds us these are not just the big big things even little things right that if you took something you're entrusted with something from another give it back to them and explain how that if you borrow things for example always keep what you borrowed from others distinct from your own property lest it gets mixed give it back as soon as possible some of the indian recommended that for example you know because in amongst neighbors and amongst family people would frequently exchange food that the ideal case is that if people give you food empty it immediately wash it and give it back or fill it with food from yourself and give it back but don't delay but at the very least keep it separate if you borrow books keep them separate one of the american scholars who is living in jordan what he would do on his bookshelves he had separate section of the books borrowed and he'd keep an annotation of whom he'd borrowed what from and when it was due keep track of what you've borrowed from people keep track of money you've borrowed keep track of your trusts if someone gave you something to give to another keep track of these things write them down and review your trusts right so this issue of trusts in daily life is very important why because the prophet salallahu asked the sahaba in medina do you know who is the bankrupt person the sahaba realized that he was not talking sallallahu about material bankruptcy they said well according to us the banker person is one who has no dirhams nor dinars who doesn't have money says the bankrupt person is the one who comes on the day of judgment having done good but yet they had wronged this person and harmed this person and insulted this person and so on so they take from your good deeds until the wrong is redressed until no good deeds remain in which case one takes on the sins of those wronged until one scales predominate on the side of punishment and one bears its consequence which is why the prophet saws said wrongdoing becomes many full darknesses on the day of resurrection and very often it's these small things even things we deem small like salams or trust someone says please give my salams to so-and-so if you accept that's an amana you'll be asked about that right many of the righteous would say would encourage someone said please convey myself will if remember i'll try but why don't you contact them they'll be happy if it was someone who would be happy with them being contacted right why because it's safer and man is serious matter work of course is an amana if one takes on responsibility did you fulfill its due did you try to do it in good way did you try to do it with excellence these are three levels of fulfillment of trust did you give it it's do you do you try it do you try to do it in good way or do you try to do it with excellence be sen then the prohibition of usury right and the usury being one of the signs of the age of ignorance and this is one of the great prohibitions of the quran revealed the prohibition of usury in successive steps we have many resources related to this on seekers and also the course on money matters which is very important of neglected course highlights this the but the prohibition came unequivocally in the quran ultimately right that those who consume ribber stand only like one who stands who's been driven crazy by the touch of the devil and they say this is of the phenomena of decaying civilizations that civilizations as they decay people increasingly engage in predatory practices right it's almost like people become scavengers right and ribba is of these practices and it has spiritual consequences that people start behaving as though they're driven crazy by the touch of the devil just go on instagram even if you try to use you know and they make it difficult right was flipping out to like say how do you unlike this because i'm trying to get out of some actually try to click on reel of one of the scholars and next video shows up is some crazy thing or the other i'm trying to get out of it and don't know how to close it and by closing it so people behaving like they're gone mad and this is divine promise right it's consequence of the consumption of riba it has spiritual consequences but this prohibition of riba of usury right is something that lot of people are negligent about allah tells us that if once one knows about it if one does not desist then be aware of declaration of war from allah and his messenger right and if you're if allah is messenger at war with you you know who's the losing side right why because of the grave harm of ribba so lot of people try to give all kinds of interesting contorted explanations about riba well this and well that few things are important to clarify right and we have lot we have reader on ribba and it's implication cetera you can if you go to seeker's guidance you look for ribba interest usury we have many resources and complete reader that would answer lot of the questions that you may have related to this but firstly riba was known to the arabs the quraish were traders so the arabs lived in arid land right lot of the arabs engaged in trade particularly quresh and they lent and borrowed and they engaged in different types of usurious activities on debts whether by borrowing money or by owing money for something they acquired payable later for an extra amount the arabs sometimes they wouldn't have food and their harvest was coming later so they would borrow dates or borrow wheat and so on so and we'll give you dates or wheat in exchange for it later but in larger amount right so there's all kinds of usurious activity and also types of trade and financing that are interest-based because they would fund caravans because imagine that if you're going to go all the way from mecca to jerusalem or damascus or go from mecca to southern yemen on trade he was safe the journey of winter which was to yemen and the journey of summer just to the lands of the greater levant shem modern-day palestine lebanon syria jordan right to make such long journey worth it you'd have to take lot of things where are you going to get all those things people financed and lot of people who had money they don't want to like if have money like do you really want to to take risks with your money it's much more comfortable as being lender you go take the risk but i'm not going to share in the risk with you just want the return and so those who accumulate wealth just get wealthier and wealthier and this one of the with many wisdoms of the prohibition of riba so that wealth does not just circulate amongst the rich of you so quraysh knew about ribba because they traded and they lent and engaged in financing activities of their trade expeditions and so on on the basis of reba merchants would buy large amounts of produce on interest so that as they profited they would pay back the loans that they were owed and their people in society they didn't want if you have money why should you engage in business let others engage in business you just provide the money throughout human history this is natural tendency of societies in pretty much every human civilization the worst of society were considered the users the users if you see usury through human civilization there's many books about it the chinese deemed users despicable in hindu society they're deemed despicable in much of the history of of indian societies similar before successive capitulations usury engaging in riba was deemed immediate if you're established to be user user you'd be excommunicated from the church why because of people realize the grave not just individual and religious harm but the societal harm of riba right riba has been prohibited due to the grave social economic injustice that arises in lending money at interest right because the consequence of it is the rich get richer and the poor get poorer and poorer right but there and it's manifest at the level of societies and humanity sometimes they may be individual advantage for somebody in financing their home financing their car but allah has prohibited it unequivocally why because the things that harm others out of divine wisdom allah has clothed human actions in spiritual light and spiritual darkness things that benefit others that are of the good in their consequences come with light if you engage in them you will find light and good and serenity the things that are of harm to others even if you engage in it in manner that's not harmful immediately because you are partaking in harmful act will have spiritual harm and it'll be culpable in the hereafter so alcohol for example if somebody is disciplined and they only drink little bit at time will it cause them immediate harm will it make them drunk will it make them violent will it cause them to run over people when they're driving no but because this is matter which if actively engage in has grave societal harm then even the individual engaging in it that is below the threshold of harm of below the threshold of discernible palpable harm is also frequently prohibited like with alcohol and with many other things so similarly riba has been unequivocally prohibited so will you desist right the prophet saw islam described it it sound hadith to be worse than public zina with one's own mother not just in private but in public many times over why because here the harm is between two individuals the harm of riba is societal it destroys entire societies so there are numerous harms of riba right numerous harms of riba and this is something that the prophet saws emphasized in his final sermon it has spiritual harms it has societal harms it has civilizational harms and the believer is not party to harm it is far better to earn and save and invest to live within one's means to avoid debt and rather to save and grow one's wealth until one is ready to make those large acquisitions or to finance in ways that are compliant with the sharia but even sharia compliant ways of entering into debt are better to avoid rather the believer the strength of the believer in their financial activity is to live within their means and to save and to invest that and to grow their investment that's what the sahaba did when they came to medina they came to medina without wealth what did they do they earned and they saved and they invested so that said no uthman the sahaba who migrated from mecca migrated without any money they didn't carry their wealth with them but say north man within number of years when the prophet saws call them to go in haste or to gather that what's called jaishil usra right the the army that was gathered during distress and the time when normally the people would be busy harvesting their crops and and and so on they're told to assemble say the australian funded the whole army that's how much you'd accumulated so this is something that one needs to take very seriously lot of the early muslims used to write about zuhud about renouncing worldliness and the great imams of hadith wrote works in zuhud one of the two greatest of the students of hanifa he was known for his attention to the science of hadith he wrote multiple works and he's one of the great narrators of the mata of imam malik it's famous narration of it's often referred to as mata muhammad it's the narration of the motto malik but imam muhammad al-hasan also has about 20 25 of hadiths that he narrates with his own chains of transmission where he disagrees with him it's great work he has other books etc but he he never wrote book on zuhud which is unusual for his time because the righteous scholars of hadith frequently did so so he was asked about that then why didn't you write books why didn't you write about zahud he said wrote works on trade why because true taqwa is not just about talking about virtue is one of the great tests of taqwa is do you have the taqwa of allah when it comes to your earning and your spending that's test of taqwa this is something to pay attention to we have many resources on seekers both reader on the prohibition of riba and the course on money matters and the courses on living rights the essentials of halal and haram which is part of the level one of the islamic studies certificate and other courses that talk about this matter the fourth of the sections is on the prohibition of blood vengeance just as we mentioned from the pre-islamic practices you kill one of our people we'll kill few of your people and we are now at enmity with each other across generations sometimes it's not only amongst the arabs this was part of tribal society tribes would forget why they're fighting each other but they would know that we are at war with each other right and here wrongs you know we we learn from the from the teachings of the prophet saws that wrongs are redressed but wrongs are dis are redressed by law not by vengeance right because and there are beautiful principles that the ulama deduced from prophetic teachings with respect to harm harm of any kind they say the governing principle is harm is lifted but harm is not lifted by harm right right so if somebody wrongs you right you can't wrong them back by taking their life or their property or harming them verbally rather you take legal recourse right mean the first step of course is where it's not the question of murder and so on is that you settle by the standard of the sharia islam you can't if you can't settle then you reconcile if you can't reconcile then you arbitrate or you take it to the law you take it to the law within the limits of allah's law because even by law you cannot take beyond what is rightfully yours and this is why true servants of allah submit to his command even in testing times and they leave ugly tribalism they leave we do not believe in in the mob mentality that those people harmed us let's let the mob go loose and let's attack them and this has implications in our times as well that just because someone did wrong we don't go tear them down in public etc we are people of the law are people of the law and if we believe in allah as our lord and we believe that what the messenger has come with is the truth from the the just the wise the merciful then we find in that guidance that sacred guidance in the sharia that which is true just wise and merciful if we understand it soundly and implement it soundly right so this is an important principle right so if someone wrongs you and you want to respond find out what are the limits of of your right response and you have right to seek your right in right manner not by wronging and sometimes it is superior to forgive and overlook but not always sometimes you are not permitted to forgive another right because the harms others do have societal implications too and that's something you learn by by learning about islamic law so we can fulfill our life responsibilities soundly the fifth has to do with hereditary distinctions and we talked little about these right and these are things that you find in every every society to provide try to have some kind of social order but also people who have social advantages economic advantages political advantages want to preserve those right but what we see in prophetic teachings is that the basis of merit and social standing is firstly religious uprightness and mindfulness this is what we above all respect and admire and secondly when it comes to positions we choose on the basis of qualifications and ability to fulfill the trust the prophet salallahu when he was migrating from mecca to medina he chose non-muslim guide because that person was the most qualified and able to fulfill the responsibility at hand and you see this throughout islamic history right one of the early khalifas of islam and arabs of course had deep sense of aruba of arabness and they were tribal people every person would refer to my my tribe and my forefathers what can be my father was such and such so he asked his vizier that who is the leading scholar in this city and that's it and they named this top the largest seven eight cities of the lands of islam and each city the senior most scholar and this is within the first four generations of islam in every large city damascus and baghdad and medina the leading scholar that everyone went to was either freed slave or non-arab why because the basis of stand of honor in society which is on the basis of knowledge and righteousness was granted on the basis of who had the most knowledge who had the most righteousness likewise and this of course gave great strength to muslim societies because who would govern who would govern and this has religious implications because the the scholars taught those most deserving not the most prestigious and you see so many examples of that one of the great kyrene scholars imam in el cama libnil who was the head of the who was the arguably the foremost hanafi scholar in the last 600 years of of islamic scholarship he himself his roots were not from the heartland of islam he was from sea west which is in what's modern day eastern turkey but his family had moved to to cairo and that's where he grew up and he became the head scholar of the hanafis in in cairo and after him he appointed two successors and cairo in the 9th century was one of the was arguably the greatest city of islam when it came to scholarship he appointed two successors after him one ibn amir hajj al-halabi was originally from aleppo and for different historical and personal reasons he'd moved to his family had moved to cairo he wasn't from the famous kyrene families but he was appointed as one of the successors which is very prestigious position bringing social and eminence and and much material advantage and the second allema qasim even was from the sudan was from very limited means and similarly his family had migrated to cairo also didn't have any means that's how position was granted was not on the basis of what family you're from and what's your social standing but on both in religious positions but also in political positions you see this in the early centuries of islam many muslim armies even the early times their generals and governors were non-muslims and you see that in the armies of the ottomans the the the mughals of india and others it appointed appointed leaders in their armies governors who are non-muslim why because these were the people they deemed most fit to do the job right and this is source of both religious strength but also social strength in and of course civilizations are guided by values but built by humans right so the civilizations of islam are not sacred they're not revelation but the underlying values are frequently manifest throughout islamic history sixth of the lessons you know six of the sections on the issue of murder and accountability through law right right this reminds us of course that without law there's societal chaos and that murder destroys societies right but the but the redress for murder and the like has to be the law right the believer is one who holds themselves to the law and this is of the frequent of the frequent emphasis of our beloved messenger sallallahu alaihi right even if someone dislikeable to you is in power over you however the prophet saws there's no obedience to creation in disobedience to the creator but of course you can't just deem some law being disobedience to the creator you must find out from the scholars whether this is law that is wrong or not because you cannot take the law into your own hands in the seventh the prophet has been warned about the devil and his motives that the devil is despaired that you ever worship that he ever be worshipped in the lands of the believers but he is content to be obeyed in other works of yours which you deem to be of little consequence right you know c.s lewis comments that one of the greatest tricks of the devil in our times is that he has convinced people that he doesn't exist so he has more of free reign right and there's book by lewis called the screw tape letters and ton of actually recommend this book not as religious manual we learn about what we believe about the devil because c.s lewis imagines letters between the devil himself and nephew of his who was an apprentice devil and one of the scholars commented that he appears to know the devil very well but the the shaytan has one purpose right and some of the scholars commented that the shaitaan has such clear sense of purpose and and it's such vile purpose but he's been dedicated from time immemorial to that one purpose then how should believer be whose purpose is noble and meaningful and of great consequence right right the shaytan has one purpose allah he declares it in the quran will lead them all astray right his purpose is to misguide completely if he can immediately if he can or partially or gradually either by leaving the good completely or leaving it gradually or by excess by overdoing the good so you cannot maintain it and then you gradually leave it if he can't get you to leave the good or overdo it what will he do he will work on your motivations within the good by work by making you be insincere or proud or conceited or ascribe the good to yourself but he's always there he's always there which is why we always must return to allah and guard ourselves so the prophet sasam gave us great bashara that the believers will not leave the faith directly right nor directly worship other than allah because the truth is so clear that nobody who knows the truth could just on their own if they considered any other faith just intellectually they won't just say no this is wrong will follow that but that the shaitaan works on your on your heart and its state he works on your desires he works on your whims he works on your emotions to take you away from the sound judgment of the mind right and there are there are many resources on the workings of the devil and in one of the important courses that we cover here at seekers guidance canada which is the muhammadiyyah the path of muhammad sallallahu alaihi sallam in which we are looking at imam birgivi's one of the very important discussions in it on attaining taqwa is to understand the tricks of the devil if you go to the seekers guidance youtube channel you can see the he describes very systematically the various tricks of the devil and much of this is taken from beautiful work the imam birgivi's approach to this is taken from very beautiful work by imam al-ghazali or attributed to imam al-ghazali called minhajuw abedin because there's some academic discussion on whether it's an actual book by imam al-ghazali which lot of daruma have held and other ulima have held that well it is inspired by the teachings and approach of gazali but either way it is ghazalian work called minhajj the way of the worshipful servants of allah this is translated into english but how does the devil creep in and he creeps in through first he'll try to like if he can get you to leave guidance completely he'll do it or gradually or to overdo things so you cannot sustain it but then after just trying to get you to turn away or be excessive then the devil works on you subtly on things that you don't think much about typically one is insincerity right either through lack of sincerity he makes you heal you do things heedlessly so you don't do them with sincerity or by actually showing off because ria is either lack of sincerity the absence of sincerity where sincerity is required so you just pray without sincerity or you act you have active insincerity which is showing off or to work on your pride and arrogance that by doing the good you say am better than him you hold it to yourself or you act in that manner and that's destruction or you may be little more sophisticated you just become conceited and that conceit if intensified causes contempt of others but if you guard yourself from insincerity from pride and arrogance from conceit and contempt then you can fall into the shaitaan's trap of ascribing the good to yourself did this did that said muhammad the great sage of the hijaz who passed away just under two decades ago he said that his father said abbas al-maliki used to say that the that the destructive words are for ana ana and we and according to me and mine these are the four destructive statements that's when in the in damascus lot of even the common people you say seek refuge in allah from saying anna from saying and one of the poets said crooked in form barrier between me and my beloved because in arabic writing ana is difficult one grammatically why is it what is the derivation of ana what does it come from it's it's matter the grammarians differed upon but the hardest letter to write in arabic what's the hardest letter to write in arabic anyone online what's the hardest letter to write in arabic do you know jumana you know what what's the hardest letter to write what's the hardest letter to write in arabic sadie the alif right why because writing straight alif is very difficult right and if you want to see generally barring some very decorative styles very simple way of telling what if the calligrapher is trained or not is do they write straight consistent and equal alifs it's very difficult lot of people are you know they're trying to be artistic they write alifs that are going si in all kinds of directions and they're not level with each other the alif sometimes you know is and that's like uprightness seems like simple idea say believe in allah then be upright sounds easy doing it is very difficult and then if you manage not to ascribe the good to yourself the shaytan tries to get you to have ingratitude they have all these blessings but you're not grateful for them or he'll cultivate doubts or he'll cultivate ill opinion of allah why did allah do this to me or ill opinion of allah servants your spouse your children your parents your friends your teachers the people you work with etc and and that's why it's very important to know the science of the health of the heart and the the science of the health of the heart is the science of the soul of of true islamic spirituality and we have many such courses on on seekers in the islamic studies curriculum the beginning of guidance at level 1 the book of assistance at level 2 minha abidine of gaza at level 3 and other on-demand courses on the subject as well and our ongoing course on the path of muhammad sallallahu the eighth which is the idea of justice and consistency in the application of law and the sanctity of the sacred months and we'll look at this briefly right that the sacred months were were months these four months mentioned by the prophet salallahu 3 that are contiguous and rajab right these are sacred months in which killing had been initiating fighting was prohibited and one of the wisdoms behind this is that these are the months connected with the pilgrimage because pilgrimage would take time and there'd be pilgrims out people heading out or preparing for pilgrimage so you give sanctity to that month and rajab was was special month of devotion rajab is sacred month of allah and there are months that are connected to the pilgrimage three of the four or the times of greater devotion and reward as favor from allah right but allah has put his mercy in certain times certain acts and these are sacred months however people and we'd mention some of the context they would move things around etc one of the aspects of mercy of the law is its consistency it applies to all people to all times in just yet merciful manner right and it's not dependent on the whim and vagaries of people right the ninth has to do with the rights of women right and and this is one of the longest parts of the khutbah and here there's few important lessons the first that any the prophet samuel's right which you can translate as they're under your trust and this is beautiful expression and the commentators on hadith explain it that that it refers to one who is under your care or someone who is imprisoned by you or captured by you so the so this expression is used that as if to say they are under your care and trust they've willfully entered under your care and trust so take care of them and fulfill your trust and do not make them as if they're prisoners or captives right right and this is why you have to be careful as to whose translation you take because the act of translating is an act of interpretation because the nature of the arabic language is that's it's an eloquent language that there's no language that has more rhetorical power and rhetorical tools than the arabic language and the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam as they referred him of sahu him the most eloquent of those who pronounce the letter god which is you know the distinguishing letters of the arabic language the god so it is very easy to take something beautiful in prophetic teachings and to render it ugly through misinterpretation like in the hadith of you know the prophet saws urging to take good care of women because the woman woman was created from bent rib right the difference with bend rib if you try to straighten it you will snap it so take good care of women the process comes urging because that women have certain nature like you have certain nature if you try to straighten it out completely you will snap it and what is it snapping even abbas another said it is talaq you will divorce them or you will wrong them as others of the early muslims interpreted but there is very fundamental difference between translating this you know the mind as bent rib and translating as crooked rib because crooked has sense of evil of what are other notions of crookedness evil yeah evil having ill will abnormal like it's all these negative connotations well something's bent right and this is talking about everyone has their unique nature and also some of them say that this bent is that this is referring although there's difference of opinion on it and we have very good answer think by shahbdullah misra about the issue of the hadith of the bent rib that it's also referring to the fact that that although there is difference on the that that narration that that cedena that say that was created from one of the ribs of adam so you are incomplete without them that that rib is from you that you are only completed the man is only completed by the woman and the woman is only completed by the man so there's many beautiful aspects to the interpretation then of course the issue of discipline right that it mentions that the context of the discipline is when there's new shoes right when the woman is in state of actively wronging the husband through zinna for example through gross wrongdoing related to his rights right it's not that she just does something that he doesn't like and there there are these steps mentioned the purpose of which is to facilitate reconciliation through the woman taking heed and it's only upon these that the physical discipline was allowed within limits so that is con conditional allowance with limits if upheld with limits however as the great scholars throughout history have mentioned and amongst them explicitly and the great commentators on the hadith amongst them in his commentary on riyadh also quotes and the many of the great commentators on the hadith on the the verse in surat nisar the famous verse 434 and the great 20th century scholar imam tahir ibn ashur in his tafsir right that this is not this is only because the basis is that no one can can transgress against another so this could not be form of wronging another or hurting another or harming another this is in circumstance where if done in this manner it it does not have harm does not have hurt and will have positive consequence but any time where the prevalent is that it is not exercised in that manner it would be impermissible it would be impermissible ibn ashur and others also asked the reciprocal question that does the woman have the right to discipline her husband and he said yes how by taking him to court if he is wronging her and if he's not supporting her financially he's neglecting her et cetera she could seek redress as well either by seek by raising the issue between them within the marriage or seeking mediator either from their families or trusted third party or in the absence of lesser solutions she could take him to court right for the purpose of securing her rights and of him rectifying his conduct right but there is no permission for any aggression or wrong or harm and the context is take good care of them we also see the principle of how you provide for your family and provision is the responsibility of the man and the nafaka is supposed to be in fitting manner right in good dignified and appropriate manner given the financial ability and social standing of the man and the social background of the woman and within the framework of that and what is dignified and proper to provide in good manner there's many prophetic emphases related to that that any any morsel of food you put into your spouse's mouth is charity said the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam the prophet islam said ibd begin in your spending upon yourself and then those you are responsible for it it is sufficient sin for person for man to be neglectful of those he is responsible for providing for you also see of course an emphasis reiteration of key point which is that relations and marriage specifically are trust and manner and responsibility before allah and connecting it to some of the key themes of of the farewell pilgrimage that mindfulness of allah taqwa is not just some airy fairy value but it is manifest in relations right it is manifest in how you relate to allah and how you respond before the command of allah but it's tested in your human relations and how you respond when your emotions are stirred in manner that is contrary to the divine command that's test and then we see the tenth lesson which is on the fraternity of faith that all people the believers are but brothers are but brethren right and but that has consequence again it's not wishful thinking it has specific consequences with respect to fulfilling the material and non-material rights of others right so this you know this is key theme of islam that we are all servants of god right and that entails fraternity because who are you i'm servant of god who is this person they're servant of god who is that person they're servant of god that is the essential definition of the human being as if they're believer that they're servant of god that's called iman the fraternity of faith but that fraternity that uhuh has rights the prophet saws said none of you believes until they wish for others of the good that they wish for themselves that fraternity has rights and responsibilities the prophet saw some talked the rights of believer upon believer are five in other hadith are six right all of religion is defined as being nasiha sincere concern for allah in the book of allah and the messenger of allah and for both the leaders of the believers and the common believer it's that you care for for another that is faith say that the rights of fraternity can be defined can be summarized in in three the most fundamental right of another is don't harm them don't harm their life their life or limb don't harm their property don't take it don't cause damage to it and don't harm their honor don't speak ill of them don't backbite them don't slander them don't gossip about them don't mock them and so on so don't harm them they say assassin the foundation of adam of proper conduct is don't harm others can't do anything others don't harm right they say if you're going to harm people then just stay in bed of course no if you're going to harm people seek advice on how not to do it second the second level of fulfilling the rights of others is know their rights know their positive rights and fulfill them there are some rights that are obligatory that you assist them if they're in desperate need that you provide for those you're obligated to provide for if they are in financial difficulty like parents children etc or even relatives if they're otherwise in desperate need and don't and there's encourage rights that you visit them when they're sick that you attend their funeral that you help them in general need that you greet them that you stay in contact with them etc so that you fulfill their rights right there's obligatory rights and encourage rights and then you seek good for them above and beyond fulfilling what their obligatory and encourage rights are and the ideal is they prefer others to themselves which is the way of the ansar radhillata and the people of medina with respect to the meccans to prefer others to yourself lenten you will not attain virtue you will not attain righteousness until you spend on others of what you love for yourself and that's one of the ways you cultivate concern for others some you wanted to get something for yourself get it for another even if you didn't get one get the thing for yourself the 11th holding fast to the book of allah right this is very memorable statement the prophet sam repeated it in many different contexts right that have left be behind amongst you two things in many narrations which if you hold fast to you won't ever go astray after me the book of allah and my sunnah in this narration the book of allah other nations the book of allah and my household and the prophet saws emphasize have delivered the message or allah be my witness so holding fast right connecting what is holding fast is to connect to the book of allah right which is allah's guidance right right and this is because what is the book of allah right it's in the indefinite it is great guidance complete guidance it's not defined guidance it's not limited just to rules it is not limited to encouragement it is not just limited to virtue it is complete comprehensive guidance it's very hard to convey in english but the indefinite in arabic conveys the sense of the absolute even translated as absolute guidance for those seeking mindfulness so the other some narrations add my sunnah others my household and all of these are true because hold fast to to divine guidance which is hold fast to religion which is hold fast to the book of allah the sunnah to hold fast to the household of the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam who allah has chosen the upright god-fearing of the household of the prophet sasham to be likely exemplars of the prophet sallallahu islands throughout history as is related by imam al-bukhari in chapter heading in in his be mindful muhammad in his household why because these are all means of being connected to guidance how does one hold fast to the book of allah one duty is yet he recite it as it deserves to be recited in an un regularly in an unhurried manner with tajweed with proper restation because the proper recitation recite it in manner that you can hear yourself because that has deeper impact on the soul than just reciting it without hearing yourself clearly if you're in private raise your voice little bit by holding the copy of the quran when you recite because then your eyes and your hands are engaged in the act of worship as well reflect because allah asks do they not reflect on the quran that's from holding fast the book of allah learn the guidance the best of you who are those who learn the quran and that's learning both the recitation of the quran and learning the guidance of the quran and who teaches others the the text and it's under and the meanings of the text which is and learning its guidance that's the purpose of islamic studies all the islamic sciences are meant to be facilitators for you to cultivate living relationship with divine guidance in manner acceptable pleasing and beloved to allah and then of course acting upon it in accordance with the form and spirit of the prophetic way and when you don't know holding fast to the book of allies when you're not clear you return to guidance and to the inheritors of guidance the scholars when something is unclear the 12th lesson is that there's fraternity of humanity right that people your lord is one and your father is one all of you are from adam and adam was from dust from earth was from the soil right and here there's wider call there's call to recognize the fraternity of faith here there's wider call to the wider fraternity which is the fraternity of huma the human being because what is your identity as believer am servant of god how do you identify any other believer their fundamental identity is not that they're sufi or salafi that they're bravi or deobandi that they are ichwani or they're this or that but that they're servant of god how do you view the other human being you don't view them that they're arab they're not arab they're this they're that they're chinese they're indian they're palestinian they're fulan they are they're the creation of allah they're human we have honored the children of adam right so in that sense you are exactly the same as them you are you are from beni adam you're human being you're and they are human being of course the same applies at wider level as we know from prophetic teachings that's how you view anything in creation this is the creation of allah who are you you're the most the greatest honor is that you're human being you are believer then the broader honor is that you're human being but broader than that your creation and everything else is creation which is why we don't we don't harm even inanimate objects in every living and in in every living thing and in every inanimate object there is charity said the prophet salallahu what is charity that you don't harm it that you fulfill its rights and that you do good with respect to it if you're walking down the street you see you know bread lying around you pick it up you put it in high place and you intend that birds and others eat it there's all this legislation going around now to recognize the light the rights of in of land and water and all these things it's nothing new for us just learn your religion right learn your religion right and this care for the good of all this is religion dino nasiha religion is caring for good religion is sincere concern right but what requi how do you have this the prophet sam said all of you are from adam and adam was from dust will use from the earth and they say even the word adam is from adeemul is from the soil of the earth someone one of the indian model said that means that adam was brown that doesn't that's not necessarily what it means although some say that it's because living on earth you know he got suntan but that's not the point the point is adam being from dust is that the salvific adamic quality the distinguishing quality of saiyan adamus humility he was created in paradise right but to be on earth saying adam committed no sin right he acted in good faith he believed the person who came to him and the descent of adam was an assent towards the fulfillment of his purpose but while he when he felt that he did not quite do what was most pleasing to his lord he sought allah's forgiveness lord we have wronged ourselves if you do not forgive us and have mercy on upon us we shall surely be of those in utter loss but he did not wrong himself he had committed no sin he acted in good faith but this is his humility and that that is the distinction between adam and the shaitaan right because pride was the ultimate fall the fall of iblees am better than him what is it that brings people together whether in family in communities in society in humanity is to act with humility with that adamic virtue of acting with humility and not to think that is the basis of racism am better than him we are better than them that is that is satanic and we're not as sheikh hamza put it we're not part of beni islam we're not part of the tribe of islam and we have been honored with islam but don't make your islam tribal we're muslims we're better than no you only have virtue to the extent that you have faith and its virtues to the extent you have taqwa and act accordingly to the extent that you have humility and act accordingly anytime you make your inscription of faith to be source of pride and arrogance over others this is from the misguided ways of many of those before us right so this is and there are many many lessons in this to have humility with others yes we behold the gift and honor of faith that we have this gift of faith but we want the good for others but we don't approach the christian or the jewish person or the hindu or the atheist that am better than him how do you know you're better than him actions are by the endings you have no blessing except that it is from allah you don't deserve it nobody deserves it's pure gift how do you know you'll preserve it you're not better than dog and one of the righteous walked by dog and addressed the dog he said listen it's bit of spiritual state probably if uphold what my lord has gifted me with and die on that will prove to be better than you but if fail and fall short of what my faith entails then you are better than me and then he walked away the dog probably didn't understand word and then the prophet saws i'm reminded that the true rank is mindfulness of allah the noblest you of you in the in allah's sight is the most god-fearing and that there is no merit of arab over non-arab in other than god-fearingness in other than mindfulness of allah taqwa then he asked sallallahu alaihi sallam have given the message and they said indeed you have right and that the basis of rank and honor in religion and life the rank and honor that matters is the ultimate standard which is taqwa this is of course also mentioned in surat al-ghujarat which is very important surah that cap that overlaps many of the themes of the farewell pilgrimage it has great emphasis on the rights the rights of allah the rights of the messenger of allah public rights interpersonal rights and individual rights and responsibilities it's it's and it's surah that's only 18 verses but it is overflowing with meanings and we have an on-demand course explaining it based on the classical tafasir and what mentioned the basic of rank basis of rank and honor is taqwa this is one of the central themes we also see there's no place whatsoever for racism right they're saying that we are better than them is befits those who worship the shape on not those who worship al-rahman right there's no place for racism whatsoever rather uphold the adamic quality of humility but tell us very insightfully that there's two types of of identity there's negative identity whereas your sense of who you are is used to say we are better than them to look down on others well canadians we have this and we have this and as for you guys you're nothing right that is shaytaan that's from the wasfus of shaytan but there is good sense of identity and it has three key elements good sense of identity is when you recognize your background your family background your ethnic background your racial background your linguistic background as gift from allah it is allah out of his wisdom and mercy who has placed you in the family he's placed you in the community he's placed you in the society he's placed you in the ethnic background he's placed you in the linguistic background that he's faced you or if you have multiple backgrounds all of those are from allah's wisdom and his mercy so you deal with it you have gratitude for those things you appreciate the blessings and opportunities for good in it and you're thankful to allah one of the great maliki scholars of our time he said that it is an embarrassment for believer not to know about their background who's your father and who's your grandfather said we are believers every family of believers if you go back some generations you'll find in it righteous people learned people good people or even if your family converted at some time who made the act of conversion and if they don't have faith maybe they have virtue and you recognize those virtues the prophet saws and recognize the virtues of many of the people of the jahilia so you have gratitude for those and you try to uphold those good qualities so you have gratitude you see the opportunities of good in the background that you're in rather than saying we are canadian we have this and that see that we have been blessed in this land with wealth with natural resources with more water per capita than any other country in the world by far many of the large countries anyway and so many things rather say we are better than them our vaccine rollout has been better than so many countries okay how many per capita how many vaccines have we given to others relative to our financial ability right so and in recognizing your identity you see your self-identification as means of good relations with others we have made you into tribes into nations and tribes in order that you may come to know one another in good ways so you appreciate the good of others this is an important aspect of self-identification some of the early muslims said love of one's homeland is from faith of course some misdescribe it as hadith and that does not have basis it's not it's not from the words of the prophet sallallahu islam is the scholars of the modul some of the scholars who write about the hadith that are ascribed to the prophesy some soundly some unsounding this one is not from the hadith they say that this is referring to the ultimate homeland which is the hereafter because your homeland is paradise but the prophet saw some loved mecca he used to look back towards mecca when he reached madina he said allah place love in my heart for this land as you place love in my heart for mecca and he was realized even after the opening of mecca he returned back to medina sallah that's from the good description identity is recognized even in battle how the muslim armies arranged the army was divided into two halves the people the meccans and the medinans and furthermore they're broken down then into their clans because they knew each other and the meccans were broken down to their clans the on the medinans were broken down into the aus and the but they all fought together and they all supported one another that's how we're supposed to be with respect to our multiple identities then the duty to convey religious guidance let those present convey to those absent right and this is related to the central duty the central religious duty that we have as community which is the preservation of religion right the greatest duty of the prophetic community of the ummaf rasulullah sallam is rasulullah is to preserve what the messenger of allah is come with how at first we have to appreciate that preserving religion is collective duty and the greatest voluntary good an individual could be engaged in after fulfilling their own personal duty to god secondly that this is done through learning soundly and thirdly by conveying clearly and soundly right and this relates to the believer's sense of life and purpose why were you what were you created for were you created just for like just to play an idol the prophet saws commanded to tell them say prophet this is my way the way of the prophet say this is my way call to allah alabasta the greatest thing you could dedicate yourself to in life is to be of those who walk with the prophet saws in this life because if you walk with him in this life then you're with him in the hereafter and that's the highest possible rank you can have had he said this is my way the prophet saws what is his way call to allah of course you call yourself first then you call others with insight which is has four qualities basirah it's knowledge with understanding with wisdom with with mercy and with wisdom and much more has been said about basira but these are four qualities of with insight knowledge with understanding with mercy and with wisdom which is consideration of consequences to convey to others of course which doesn't mean just slop how is it the prophet said knowledge is only through study and study is what student does with teacher that's sense of that's why the prophet saws said in the mutawatir hadith that's similar to him allah illuminate the countenance of one who hears my words understands them completely it's beautiful expression why is understanding but comes from becoming container for it becoming for it but the only say that becoming container for the knowledge also entails paying attention to the state of the container because if you put clean water in dirty container the water may be clean but the container will lend it dirty this morning saw cup thought it was clean put water in it there was there was little bit of coffee or tea or something before the whole water became murky it didn't take much of whatever was there first to make it not something would want to drink so this has to be great concern whether directly if you can dedicate all or some of your life for the prophetic mission and so many of the scholar many most of the scholars dedicated their whole life to learning and the community supported them but so many scholars worked all their life and learnt and taught but there's others who did not learn lot themselves but they learned what they needed but they supported those who learned or they made their children into scholars one of the some of the syrian scholars were in turkey their father was traitor rahimahullah was righteous man loved but he became interested in religion too far into his life to be able to become scholar and he had too many worldly responsibilities but all his sons and all his daughters they all became distinguished and all became distinguished servants of the community and their father taught them that when you wake up in the morning for fajr make the intention that my time today i'm endowing my time today as walk for allah and then they treat their time as trust so from morning till night they try to only direct it in the ways that are pleasing to allah and that's how you find them one of these scholars was talking to to him he always sounds like he's half asleep because he is usually half asleep he is directly involved in overseeing eight major projects in istanbul he handles tens of thousands of dollars through his through the various charities while he himself lives in abject poverty last winter they didn't even turn on the electricity so they didn't even turn on the heating much in his house learned that from one of his sons guys kind of spy on this shake through his son trying to figure out what's going on why because they have sense of purpose which is the prophetic sense of perpetu which is my community my community that's what the prophet saw will be saying on the day of resurrection and that was the subject of much of his supplication at night so much so that saying that jibril came multiple times that muhammad allah has sent me to tell you we will not let you down with respect to your community revelation then came and indeed your lord will then give you so that you are content in the quran because that was the concern of the prophet salla islam finally the last points about inheritance and estates and the prophet laid out principles related to inheritance and estates and here firstly inheritance in the sharia has been pre-apportioned if somebody dies their wealth belongs to their pre-apportioned inheritors and there's wisdom in it this is more equitable it spreads wealth out within the family it prevents dispute within the family and there's wisdom in it because both male and female inheritors get money even though in traditional societies women were not responsible for providing for anybody but women get their apportions shared men get their apportion share and it takes care of all scenarios and in this in this this also prevents so there's the aspect of there's wisdom in it there's justice in it it avoids dispute avoids accumulation of wealth it avoids family breaking up as often happens upon death it also avoids favoritism right so the prophet saw islam said as he pointed to here in the farewell sermon they cannot be any bequest to an inheritor one can give up to one one third of one's wealth as bequest as will to someone else but there can be no bequest to an inheritor anybody who's getting one of the pre-apportioned shares of the inheritance you cannot give extra to them right and this and there's and it's very important to to know about and to study the laws of inheritance but also the wisdom underlying the laws of inheritance as well and the prophet saw referred to it as half of knowledge and one of the first knowledges that will go from the ummah and it's shocking reality few people ever ask about inheritance i've now all been answering questions online almost 20 years and it's rare that people ask inheritance questions that is deeply troubling and the last thing was warning about the harms of adultery and the sanctity of and reminding about the sanctity of family that marriage is is sacred right and it is key to the preservation of good society right because virtue is cultivated in and through family good relations in community and society are cultivated through family zina unlawful sexual intercourse which is any intercourse outside of marriage whether before marriage or during marriage is destructive of family and destructive of society that's why the punishments for it are very strong because meant to be very strong deterrent against zina and one of the very strong rulings related to to this is that the prophet saws said right in very famous hadith and which he mentioned here as well that lineage child's lineage is ascribed to the marital bed so child is ascribed to the father in the context of marriage why to serve as deterrent against zinna the the child born out of wedlock is not given the lineage of their of their father of course they must be taken care of provided for treated equitably they're not disgraced in society nor looked down upon but it's very strong deterrent that child though biologically the mothers and the fathers will not inherit from the father the father is highly encouraged to include them in their bequest it's meant to be it's very this is obviously disadvantageous to the child it's meant to be as social deterrent that see the grave implications of zinna you cannot refer to them as the son of so and so in traditional muslim societies person would be called faraz but the person could not be referred to if reign was born from rain out of wedlock he could not be referred to in society as reigning and of course it's disadvantageous to the individual but if you look at the context this is meant to serve as social deterrent that don't engage in things that are not just harmful to you as an individual but are destructive of society zina destroys societies right destroy societies just they outwardly begin to crumble but they also acquired the displeasure of allah when zinna we know from hadith of the prophet when zina and fawahish and open ludity becomes widespread the natural disasters become widespread we know that earthquakes will spread other other everything okay other things spread so and that's why it's important to understand the context of rulings right this goes back to that idea of context and perspective certain rulings may seem difficult we have to understand it's an important closing point that allah tells us about the beloved messenger we have not sent you except as mercy to all creation so everything the messenger salah has come with if soundly understood is mercy in its fullest possible expression if you don't see the mercy the wisdom the justice in any teaching of islam then you're either misunderstanding it or it's being conveyed to you in in an unsound manner so what do you do in that circumstance you you remind yourself that my lord is the all-merciful that particularly merciful he is the wise the just he is the generous he is and everything in his religion is likewise wise is merciful wise and just if understood in its purpose its wisdom its consequences both worldly and next worldly and the least of it is that if that ruling soundly understood soundly implemented is followed there is eternal reward for it in the hereafter but how do we cure confusion our beloved messenger sallallahu sallam said the only cure for confusion is to ask likewise if you hear something from the prophet sallallahu alaihi that troubles you say how could the prophesy say that know that the thing you find troubling relates either to what is conveyed to you or what you are understanding it is not what the prophet said said there is nothing the prophesism said that is anything but the utmost possibility of mercy wisdom and justice all things considered so you should know that he is rasulullah he is the messenger of mercy the messenger of good and then it's your duty so suspend your judgment if you're troubled about something don't let that trouble remain that is like if you have wooden frame and you see some worms some wood worms in it if you if you ignore them they'll spread and the frame will get eaten up and your wall could collapse likewise if you have confusions and doubts that is breeding ground for the west vasa of the shaitaan rather renew your commitment that accept what is true with allah remind yourself of allah's mercy wisdom and justice remind yourself that the messenger is nothing but merciful wise and just that's what this religion is religion is sincere concern for good all things considered so we ask allah to grant us that and grant us the courage to ask and to seek and to find guidance may allah grant us this and the prophet salallahu by saying and peace be be upon all of you and the mercy of allah so that's what we wanted to cover just in brief about the in brief mean we just hit the 16 points and key lessons within them there's lot here lot more could be said entire works have been written in commentary on this and the other the other sermons given during the farewell pilgrimage before we close we will give you some time for for questions insha'allah can you speak to mike is there maximum age in which person can be scholar no there are many people who started seeking knowledge late in their lives imam hanifa himself began his life as trader he was cloth merchant and he was interested in knowledge and he used to keep company of scholars and attend their gatherings he was very interested in in theology in the science of beliefs and he used to scare the wits out of the different innovators so in in the city at the time they were different sects within islam like the and others and they're also atheists and imam used to debate them and refute them and bring them back to guidance but he only dedicated himself to knowledge fully in his mid-twenties there are many of the ulema who began seeking knowledge in their late 30s or early 40s right and even in our times number of the great scholars of our age in the west for example started the formal path of seeking knowledge after graduate school right or during university or after university as you see the case of sheikh noor keller or imam zaid shakir who became muslim when he was in the us army or dr omar farooq abdullah or many others right who sought knowledge later in life even other noted scholars sheikh hamza yusuf though he was relatively young when he began pursuing the path of knowledge but but he wasn't he didn't start from childhood like many of the and you also find in the muslim world many people who was very common that people would become scholars later in life actually saw picture yesterday of an old old friend of mine right who right is one of the first people used to ask questions 20 years ago one 19 years ago when we started sunni path and he used at that time there was this thing called msn messenger and yahoo messenger he actually got me in trouble with one of the scholars because he taught me how to share kisses on yahoo messenger and they made this very loud sound and once was sitting working at in my friend sheikh yah del roja's office and sheikh noor keller walked you know not knocked on the door and came into the office and suddenly there's these kissing sounds coming out of the computer and it was actually yahoo messenger he was this friend recently saw pictures of him you know and he's he put whatever alhamdulillah he's wearing the the the jubba and imam of an azhadi scholar because while working et cetera for the last two decades he's been seeking knowledge and he's completed sort of his islam degree probably into his 40s now and it's not uncommon right but it's not only about becoming scholar right sometimes we just being scholar is not rank or station although it gives you rank and station if you are sincere and have the intent of to serve it is means of seeking the pleasure of allah and you can you can how by serving us the best of people are those of most benefit to people so there's many non-scholar who benefits people more through their teaching than scholars do why our age is an age where you don't have to become not not everybody has ever become imam ghazali but they say faki mental some issues and learns them properly and then can convey them soundly is personal knowledge in those issues most communities lack people who can teach the basics you don't have to learn the hidayah in hanafi first or minhajit talibin in chef or whatever else in in you know in the four methods whichever method you follow to be able to teach people taharah and salah to be able to teach people what they believe and why to be able to teach people the basics of see the basics of hadith you need to study properly learn it well strive to act upon it yourself for the sake of allah and be in touch with your teachers so that you you can convey it to others right and every person should have the hymn of tawa of calling others but if you learn little and you learn it well you can convey far better than learning lot in sloppy manner so that concern to to learn allah you seek knowledge for the sake of allah to learn yourself and to be able to teach others to benefit yourself and to be able to benefit others to call yourself to allah to call others to allah to acquire good character yourself to convey good character to call yourself to good to call others to good etc but seeking allah himself alone through it so the door of seeking knowledge it's very clear from the hadith of the prophet he said sallallahu alaihi hadith whom ever allah wishes well for and men is mean whomever allah wishes well for it doesn't matter your background your age your financial ability whomever allah wishes well for he grants understanding of religion whoever pursues path seeking knowledge therein allah will facilitate for them through it path to paradise any other questions how do we balance between not harming the child we don't harm the children at all the the child born in an you know in an in out of wedlock they have to be cared for they have to be provided for they need to be educated and there are great scholars who were born out of wedlock right and so there is an individual responsibility on those who can see the mother and the and the biological father to take care of them their societal responsibility for for them to be taken care of we do not discriminate between them society you cannot speak ill all the inviolability related to speech and conduct relates to them like it relates to anyone you can't refer to referring to them that this this is child of zinna that is that is riba that is backbiting and it is an insult and you're not publicly you know insulting someone is criminal offense right insulting someone is criminal offense so the rights you must be fulfilled in dignified manner but of course it's meant to create sense of awareness that there are limits of allah that are not to be transgressed but they're upheld with mercy and excellence not in ugly ways why do people still do haram when they know it's haram by the human self and how allah has fashioned it allah swears and the lord and creator of all things swear by the human self for it is great sign of mine and swear by how have fashioned it has created the self with both its capacity for corruption and its capacity for mindfulness of allah adaf successful is the one who purifies it and loser indeed is the one who allows it to be corrupted so that's the human condition and there's wisdom in weaknesses and the prophet sallallahu islam said were you never to sin allah would do away with you and he would bring forth people who and sin and repent and seek forgiveness and allah would forgive them and of the wisdoms of that the wisdom of failing is to learn humility and to leave pride and self-consequence that's why the brokenheartedness of the sinner may be more beloved to allah than the haughtiness of the obedient so of course you you you cannot justify your sin you repent from it you learn lessons from it you also reminded of the vastness of allah's mercy as result right the vastness of allah's mercy who have transgressed against their own selves never despair of the mercy of allah for verily allah forgives all sins it is he alone who is all-forgiving most merciful so our sins and our failings and our weakness when we repent they're an opportunity to renew our faith and to recognize allah through recognizing both his greatness so we're awed in our sense of responsibility before him we're also recognizing his mercy by having gratitude for our generous lord so when we repent there are at least three opportunities of knowing allah we repent and we commit to return to know allah through his greatness through his to know allah subhanahu wa through his mercy and to know allah through his generosity any other questions foreign yeah so the prophet saws i'm asking in have delivered the message right that so there are educational lessons in it and number of the people including sheikh salabi and others who talk about it is that one of the lessons in it is for the education of course you don't do that in formal like the friday this is not friday khutbah and the friday you don't get the audience to speak but that you one of the ways to keep the attention of your audience is to ask them questions and there's different types of questions the process i'm asked many questions and we'll see you know asking questions was is one of the methods of teaching of the prophet saws but one of the types of questions is confirmatory question you say is that clear is that is that not so you know so you seek that confirmation and that that confirmation is that way of them accepting agreeing and committing to what you said right but it's also set out of sense of responsibility out of sense of responsibility someone asked that why does sheikhamsa get so intense when he's speaking like he starts frowning and like says because he cares deeply he's sheikhamsa doesn't speak out of just sitting on his sofa and just recommended it last month but his sacred text messages for example his podcast is beautiful and full of benefit may allah preserve him but often here he and that because it's sunnah the prophet saws when he gave khudbah sometimes his face would go red and his vein would start pulsing and ken munzeeru jaish as if he's warning of an army that is coming forth right because this is from the depth of concern and out of the depth of concern so that's that's one could be following the sunnah by engaging the audience in this in in this and the other ways of the prophet saws which is interesting the the subject of next month's seminar in sha allah which is on the prophet salallahu as teacher so we ask allah to grant us insight on the life and example of the beloved messenger and make us of those who strive to approximate in our conduct in our character and in our life the beautiful way of his beloved sallallahu alaihi assalam stay tuned inshallah we'll be publishing this as an on-demand course in the upcoming week and also last thing we've began launch good campaign to renew and strengthen our answer service which we've been running for you know for the last 14 years here at seeker's guidance is running before under sunni path and by the grace of allah we've answered tens of thousands of questions we've we used to average over 100 questions day it's now grown to over 250 questions week coming in but that's resulted in us simply not having the capacity to answer questions on time we used to answer questions within day or two but now sometimes can take week or two or more to get through to all the questions we're trying to increase our the capacity of teachers and the support staff to edit and publish the and send the questions to the questioners but also to answer critical questions through video we're also intending to launch the answer service in the arabic language and also to translate some of the answers from leading arab scholars into english to connect our communities around the world with the leading scholars of our times so we have this launch good campaign if you go to launchgood.org seekersanswers you can find the campaign there do support it generously and do encourage those in your circles of friends and family to do so likewise so we can spread you know clarity and prophetic guidance to the questions that people have barakallahu ta'ala was