Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala ashrafi al anbiya wal mursaleen, nabiyyina muhammadin wa ala alihi wa ashabihi ajma'een, assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. To all the brothers and sisters tuning in at home to another episode of Abdullah Sabir, where today I am joined by Ustad Abdul Ahad.
Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. How are you Ustad, are you okay? Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, I couldn't complain myself. Alhamdulillah, very good, mashaAllah.
JazakAllah khair for joining me on this episode. So today what I wanted to talk about was actually a mix of different things. A bit about time management.
I know a lot of brothers and sisters struggle with the concept of worshipping Allah and seeking knowledge but also maintaining their affairs in the dunya. Like for example running a family or household or holding a 9 to 5 job. And at the same time some younger students might also be in university and they need to balance between secular knowledge and seeking Islamic knowledge.
And at the same time I'm also interested in hearing a bit more about your recent experience. You've been in Somalia over the last year. And I'd really like to know a bit more about that as well inshaAllah.
So I normally just let my guest just start wherever he wants inshaAllah. So, fadhal inshaAllah. Before, I'll just give you two snickers.
Is it Sunday yet? You're driving, so don't worry. First of all, it's nice to meet you. It's been very anticipated.
Secondly, I ask Allah SWT to accept all the work that you guys are doing. All of the programs and the projects you're doing inshaAllah. And Allah put on your scale of good deeds.
So pertaining to seeking knowledge first inshaAllah. And then maybe we can move on to the matter pertaining to balancing it with secular studies and just generally life as it is. I wanted to touch upon first seeking knowledge.
Not just the virtue because we hear the virtues of it a lot. We hear the virtues that Allah raises the people in ranks. And those who have knowledge, He raises them in special ranks.
We hear that Allah SWT, And we know, a lot of people shall I say, know of the virtues of seeking knowledge. But what I want to touch upon is many people assume that seeking knowledge is exclusive to students of knowledge. So a lot of people think that someone who goes abroad, Egypt, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, wherever it is.
And he treads on a path of seeking knowledge. They see it as, okay, he's a student of knowledge and I'm just a Muslim. I wanted to break that barrier of it's not just for students of knowledge but rather it's for all of us.
It's for every single Muslim. The doctor, the engineer, the physician, you name it, physiotherapist, the accountant, etc. And I want to touch upon the matter pertaining to sinning and the matter pertaining to or the link between sinning and seeking knowledge or not seeking knowledge.
But before that, Allah SWT said in the Qur'an, اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَ سَبَعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ وَمِنَ الْأَرْضِ مِثْلَهُنَّ يَتَنَزَّلُ الْأَمْرُ بَيْنَهُنَّ لِتَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ أَحَطَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عِلْمًا Allah created the seven heavens and likewise of it the earth. And the matter goes between the heavens and the earth. So, what's the reason? So that you may know.
لِتَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدْ أَحْطَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عِلْمًا That you may know Allah is powerful and He is capable. المهم, we're here to know. لِتَعْلَمُوا أَنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ أَحْطَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عِلْمًا We're here to know Allah.
We're here to learn about Allah, His names and attributes and the religion. And then of course worship Him by implementing that knowledge. وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَاءِ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُهُمْ So my first point is that the person, for him to think that seeking knowledge is exclusive to only those who are students of knowledge, لا, that is فَهْمٌ خَاطِئٌ It's a wrong understanding, it's for all human beings, all Muslims, every single person that treads on this earth, he needs to know who Allah is and he is compelled, it's incumbent upon him to do so, he doesn't have a choice about it.
Now, the next point I would quickly want to touch upon is, which kind of relates to it, the one who doesn't know Allah, the one who doesn't learn his religion, the one who doesn't study, it's highly likely that this person is going to end up in doldrums of sins, highly likely. Abdullah ibn Abbas, he says that Allah is not disobeyed except through ignorance and it's profound because he extrapolates this from the Qur'an, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said in various places, he linked a lack of knowledge, ignorance, not knowing about Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and a deficiency in that to sinning, what did Allah say, إِنَّمَا التَّوَبَةُ عَلَى اللَّهِ لِلَّذِينَ يَعْمَلُونَ السُّوءَ بِجَهَالَةٍ ثُمَّ يَتُوبُونَ مِن قَرِيبٍ فَأُولَٰئِكَ يَتُوبُوا اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا it is upon Allah that he accepts the repentance of he who sins بِجَهَالَةٍ بِسَبَبِ جَهَالَةٍ due to his ignorance he sinned ثُمَّ يَتُوبُونَ مِن قَرِيبٍ and then they seek repentance, Allah will forgive these people another place Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said كَتَبَ رَبُّكُمْ عَلَى نَفْسِهِ الرَّحْمَةِ your lord has made it upon himself that he's merciful أَنَّهُ مَنْ عَمِلَ مِنْكُمْ سُوءًا بِجَهَالَةٍ ثُمَّ مَنْ تَابَ مِنْ بَعْدِهِ وَأَصْلَحْ فَأَنَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَحِيمٌ again بِجَهَالَةٍ بِسَبَبِ جَهَالَةٍ someone done a sin due to his ignorance of not knowing Allah Allah will forgive this person if we look at some of the prophets as well if you look at the story of Yusuf as an example when the wife of the minister came to seduce him and she locked him in the room etc and she chased him and she was trying to seduce him for him to commit sin Yusuf عليه السلام made a profound dua he said رَبِّ السِّجْلِ because afterwards they said to him the wife of the minister said if he does not obey what I say وَلَإِلَّمْ يَفْعَلْ مَا أَمُرُهُ لَيُسْجَنَنَّ وَلَيَكُونَ مِّنَ الصَّاغِرِينَ if he doesn't obey me and what I'm telling him to do in terms of inclining to my seduction then he's going to end up in prison now Yusuf's reply is amazing very profound because he also links to knowledge he said رَبِّ السِّجْلِ وَأَحَبُّ إِلَيَّ مِمَّا يَدْعُونَنِي إِلَيْهِ O Allah, O my Lord prison is more beloved to me than that which they're calling me to but the ending is profound رَبِّ السِّجْلِ وَأَحَبُّ إِلَيَّ مِمَّا يَدْعُونَنِي إِلَيْهِ وَإِلَّا تَصْرِفْ عَنِّي كَيْدَهُنَّ أَصْبُ إِلَيْهِنَّ وَأَكُنْ مِّنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ O Allah, if you however don't divert away from me and aid me in not inclining towards this female and the plot of this female then I'm going to become from مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ and he's linking what? the ignorance he never said I'll become from the sinners I'll become from those who commit zina لا, I'm going to become from the جاهلين and he's linking not knowing of Allah and being ignorant to him falling into zina Nuh عليه السلام, same thing you know the story where Nuh عليه السلام, he tells his son قَالَ الْكَبُّ فِيهَا بِسْمِ اللَّهِ مَجَرِيَهَا وَمُرْسَهَا come on the ship you know, if you want to be saved his son didn't go on the ship he said سَأَوِي إِلَى جَبْلٍ يَعْصِمُنِي مِنَ الْمَاءِ I'm going to go and seek refuge in a mountain and then his father said to him لا عَصِمُ الْيَوَى مِنْ أَمْرِ اللَّهِ there's no refuge except with Allah nothing is going to save you please oh my son come on the ship المهم he was drowned but what's amazing is Nuh عليه السلام makes a dua and he says Oh my lord إِنَّ بَنِي مِنْ أَهْلِي وَإِنَّ وَعْدَكَ الْحَقِّ وَأَنتَ أَحْكُمُ الْحَاكِمِينَ Oh Allah save my son as well because he's from my family and Allah promised that he will save his family along with the believers what was Allah's reply يَا نُوحى إِنَّهُ لَيْسَ مِنْ أَهْلِكِ he's not from your family إِنَّهُ عَمَلٌ غَيْرُ صَالِحٍ he's done an act which is not righteous by not coming on the ship another explanation of the tafsir is إِنَّهُ he himself is عَمَلٌ غَيْرُ صَالِحٍ فَلَا تَسْأَلْ لِمَا لَيْسَ لَكَ بِهِ عِلْمٌ don't ask me about that which you don't have knowledge of don't ask me about your son you don't know his situation he's not amongst you he's not from your family إِنِّي أَعِظُكَ I advise you O Noah إِنِّي أَعِظُكَ أَنْ تَكُونَ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ if you don't stop this you're going to be from the ignorant there's many other verses even Musa a.s. when he told his people أنْ تَذْبَحُوا بَقَرًا they said قَالُوا أَتَتَّخِذُنَا هُزُوًا are you taking us as a joke? you're telling us to really slaughter a cow what was his reply? أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ أَنْ أَكُونَ مِنَ الْجَاهِلِينَ the point I'm trying to get to is there's loads more other verses but this whole theme of a lack of knowledge leading to sinning is a theme in the Quran which is repetitive and just as a disclaimer جَهَلَ of course has a few different meanings in the Quran like of course going against the commands of Allah العلماء they say even صبر as well being from those that don't have patience is another meaning but the point I'm getting to is all of these meanings someone who doesn't have patience is due to his lack of knowledge someone who goes against the commands of Allah which is another meaning in the Quran is due to lack of knowledge المهم the point I want to start off with is number one it's incumbent upon every single Muslim that he treads on the path of seeking knowledge we all need to learn about Allah we were created for that we're here on this earth we breathe and we take this oxygen in and respire release this carbon dioxide and the sky exists and the earth everything here is so we worship Allah so you need to learn we're here to know Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and secondly not learning is going to lead to sin and of course we know what sinning is going to do as well pertaining to Allah's punishment coming and us being destroyed and etc etc so inshallah I want to start off with those two points we really need to understand what we're speaking about it's not for students of knowledge only it's not for you know your sheikh or your scholar or the one who's got a pen in his top pocket or anything it's for all of us to understand that inshallah ta'ala yeah and I think just to add on what you mentioned so far it's the concept of sinning coming from ignorance it really has two different aspects to that so first of all one aspect is that you might not know that this is a sin because you don't have the knowledge but the second thing is particularly in the day and age we live in today and it's where I want to link it to the fact that this is not just for students of knowledge this is for everybody I feel like society most of society anyway depending on where you live is putting so much pressure on you and so much deviation on people to turn away from Islam to turn away from religion to be liberal and free and to live life the way they quote unquote want to that if you're not seeking knowledge then what's going to save you? and it's more about the seeking knowledge here that I'm talking about is the impact that it has on your heart it's not necessarily the impact that okay I know this is halal, this is halal but it's when you're seeking knowledge you're engaged in the words of Allah you're engaged in the words of the Prophet ﷺ when you're reading these hadith this is what's needed for the heart to stay alive in a society that is constantly trying to kill the heart you know it reminds me of the lines of poetry Abu Ishaq al-Biri he mentioned فَقُوتُ الرُّوحِ أَرْوَاهُ الْمَعَانِ وَلَيْسَ بِأَن تَعِمْتَ وَلَا شَرِبْتَ he said the reviving of the heart and it's what keeps the heart alive these letters you're learning of the religion they're not letters like maths and science and English they are قوت الرّوحِ أَرْوَاهُ الْمَعَانِ and these letters, these books the words of the Messenger ﷺ the Qur'an etc it's what keeps the heart alive just like food and drink it keeps our limbs alive and likewise subhanAllah again in the same lines of poetry he mentions when he's speaking about knowledge and the virtue of it and speaking to his son I believe أَبَا بَكْرِ إِن دَعَوْتُكَ لَوْ أَجَبْتَهِ إِلَى مَا فِيهِ حَضْدُكَ لَوْ عَقَلْتَهِ إِلَى عِلْمٍ تَكُونُ بِهِ إِمَامًا مُطَاعًا إِنَّ هِتَ وَإِنْ أَمَرْتَهُ وَيَجْلُ مَا بِعَيْنِكَ مِنْ غِشَاهَا وَيَهْدِيكَ السَّبِيلَ إِذَا ضَلَلْتَا وَتَحْمِلُ مِنْهُ فِيهِ نَدِيكَ تَاجًا وَيَكْسُوكَ الْجَمَالَ إِذَا عَرِيتَا it's very profound he says when you become misguided the knowledge is what brings you back misguidance meaning if it means an aqeedah or someone tries to throw some sort of doubts in you likewise if you fall over in terms of sins it's that knowledge you have I remember I was speaking to her brother and you know someone who memorizes the Quran at a young age or learns the deen at a young age a lot of people say why are you making them memorize the Quran why are you just teaching them deen let them enjoy themselves a bit etc you know it's profound because that person who's learned the deen even though he was very young when he grows up if he ever slips up he's always going to have the Quran in the back of his mind he's always going to have the deen that he learned that lesson he was inside and he heard that hadith it's what brings him back وَيَجْلُ مَا بِعَيْنِكَ مِنْ غِشَاهَا not having knowledge you're having a veil on your face and this knowledge uplifts it and when you become naked it covers you meaning when you slip up هو العَضْبُ المُهَنَّدُ لَيْسَ يَنْبُعُ تُصِيبُ بِهِ مَقَاتِلَ مَنْ أَرَدْتَ it's like the عَضْبُ المُهَنَّدُ the sword and anyone that tries to give you doubts and shubahat and sins you've got it ready so المُهَن it's profound that you said that and sometimes some of the people who are seeking knowledge who have tried to tread on that path not as students as much but just Ahmad and Nas who are trying to seek a little bit of knowledge on the side they might not realize that the impact that it's actually had on them they might actually look back and say I've been learning for so long I've barely memorized and I haven't learned much Arabic I don't know my deen very well but the impact that it's had on their heart and what it's actually protected them from and they don't realize because if they didn't tread that path how different their life would have been and this is something that, this whole aspect this is something that is very personal to myself this aspect of really trying to encourage and understand that seeking knowledge is something that impacts the heart it's not just an information thing, it's a spiritual activity it's something that should be impacting the heart because I can't, in these qarjanis I don't add from the Quran or the sunnah that's what you're here for I don't have that kind of knowledge but my personal experience recently, even in the last two years, running AMAU and this is something personal a lot of people might have seen me in AMAU and actually thought, ok mashallah his iman must be so high there's been times where in AMAU my iman has been lower than mine in my corporate job and that's me being completely honest in my corporate job when I was working as a finance analyst 9-5 I was going in my iman was higher sometimes there than it was here and I had to look at my situation this is a realisation I came to in the last 3 months I looked at my situation and thought, why is that the case? I'm around Islam, I'm working in da'wah what's the issue here? and I realised that because when I was in my corporate job I was seeking knowledge not all the time, it doesn't have to be a full time thing but I'm going to work half an hour a day an hour a day, and that's what kept my iman alive whereas with AMAU it was all about marketing and finances and this and that, and I was just getting busy even though I'm busy in the da'wah I didn't give myself the time it was all for others, it was all for the da'wah it was all for AMAU and slowly I had to come to the realisation that if I'm not seeking knowledge regularly and consistently my iman is going to die no matter where I'm working definitely, 100% personally myself to be honest Allah knows the knowledge of the unseen but whenever I'm in circles of knowledge it's completely different likewise, what's important as well as you said something about how you don't know when it's really going to benefit you or when it does benefit you, etc you might feel like, oh, I'm not really benefiting that much you never know when a verse, a hadith, a athar or something along those lines that you learn will just click if we look at Fudayl ibn Ayyad for example and other pious predecessors it would be a verse that they heard that's it, just one verse change the course of their entire life their whole entire life you have to wait Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and likewise another benefit is that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam you need to give it time the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was getting wahi sent down upon him over 23 years so some of the scholars they say that little bit every now and then was given him, not that he necessarily needed it or not that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala could not have done it in any other way, he could have you know, but one of the wisdoms in sending this Qur'an bit by bit after of course making it to make it firm upon his heart but it's also to accompany him it's also to give him this this uplifting moment, you know times that he would get sad, not depressed as some people say, times that he would get a bit sad and he would be starting over thinking etc Qur'an would be sent down and then a bit more time a little another bite and then a bit more time a little bit more so you need to you need to take it inshallah bit by bit and ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for aid this is something huge, huge, huge the other day again I was speaking to someone in Somalia and we were speaking about the matter pertaining to students mainly putting their effort in themselves mainly putting their effort and relying upon the mere words the tangible words to be that which gives them effect what they don't understand is that it's the spiritual nature, the sacred nature of the words via Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who gives this uplifting of iman and benefit etc so we need to make dua to Allah and I don't just say make dua but you actually need to make Allah part of your journey in seeking knowledge how many of us actually go to a dars before the dars? this is where the difference is between seeking Islamic knowledge and seeking secular knowledge because we've come from an education system in the west particularly which is built around the concept of just memorizing understanding, memorizing, regurgitating memorizing, regurgitating, it's not meant to and of course like business, studies and psychology and finance, it's not going to change your heart but seeking Islamic knowledge is not, it's about what does Allah want from me in every single situation, that's what I'm trying to learn it's not just about gathering information and just having that knowledge it's about implementing the knowledge that you learn so that you can come closer to Allah you know one of my mashayikh, may Allah bless him he mentioned he's mashaAllah when it comes to raka'at and the situation of the heart and the spiritual journey, he's very mashaAllah well-guarded in that science but al-muhim, he mentioned something and said, someone who has less knowledge than you can be, if Allah gives them the tawfiq, be more spiritually intact than someone who's not, and the reason for that is, that person who's just learning, learning, memorizing, memorizing memorizing, hasn't understood that the knowledge part is just a means to a goal the end goal is not to become hafidh, it's not wallahi, the end goal is not to memorize Sahih Bukhari, the end goal is not that, they're all just wasa'il rather the end goal means the end goal is taqwa Allah فرأس العلم تقوى الله حقا وليس بأن يقال لقد رأست and a true knowledge is taqwa Allah and to have this fear of Allah, God consciousness to be constantly thinking about Allah to be secluded with Allah yearning for the hereafter, that's what the knowledge is about, it's not about the number of letters you learn, someone could be two or three juz of the Quran it was enough for him, Allah gave him aid in it, he was practicing and then he passed away it's possible, and he was more spiritually intact so honestly it's a big topic, benefiting from knowledge and really implementing it but also being spiritually intact and allowing us to not just make it a means of regurgitating content, regurgitating words and letters etc, may Allah make us and give us tawfiq, it's honestly a hard situation, it's a life long journey. So what are some practical steps then for people who are well first of all in the education system they've got GCSEs, A levels, university, and now they're hearing this information about seeking knowledge, and then a bit further down we can talk about people who have a family who have a 9-5 job, how do they balance between the two? So there's gonna be a verse of the Quran which we're gonna make the and we're gonna make it a title, the base the foundation in which all of these points of balancing between secular studies, work and deen is gonna be.
That verse inshallah is gonna be and I wanna really, and I wanna shoot this message home you need to write this on your wall, on your fridge, wherever it is, just keep it in your head because that's what all of it is gonna be revolving around the second thing what does that mean by the way? sorry I thought I translated it, sorry is gonna be our slogan which is fear Allah as much as you are able to do so however much you can fear Allah, however much you can do, whatever is in your capability do so the second thing which is the base foundation which I really also wanna make as a second pillar of all of these inshallah points that I'm gonna mention is quantity does not equate for quality that's very important as well because I just mentioned moments ago you don't have to have X amount of knowledge for you to reach the goal which is fearing Allah and being conscious of Him, you don't need to do that so with those two pillars inshallah, now we can look at students first of all who are in academic studies, studying university etc and then we move on to people who are working 9-5 so someone who is in university slash college I believe would be doing maybe 3-4 days a week 3-4 days a week at max I'd say 4 days, I mean I went through the process as well, so at max I'd say 4 days a week that person would be going to university or college, those 4 days normally they end around 4pm 3pm, 5pm at max max once again with breaks in between when I say breaks, there's free lessons, you don't have classes so you might start for example at 9am and then you have a class until 10.30 but then you're off from 10.30 to 12 and you have another class etc sometimes you might start late, so you might start at 11am so what that kind of person would do is first of all, in his times where he's actually in class he should focus in class, he should do his studies, whatever he's studying, don't miss classes, the time that you're in classes are booked out, you can't do anything else the days that you have a late start and this is everyday the days you have a late start they're the days that you're going to use as memorizing, whatever you need to memorize memorize, if it means Quran, you find a teacher, if it means you've done the Quran and you're doing other poems and other texts etc fit in the days the days that you're off in the mornings number 2 is on the weekends so memorization in the mornings during the weekdays, the days that you're off the days that you go and eat yes, correct the days that are the weekends they're the days that I believe every single Muslim who's a student can give 2-3 hours to physically sit with the teacher don't even see your teacher the other 4 days 5 days in fact of the week spend it with family your studies and the memorization you do however, 2 days of the week you need to physically sit down with the teacher where he teaches you what is he going to teach you now? as Muslims, we know of course the Shahada La ilaha illallah Muhammadur Rasulullah, the Shahada then we have the 4 pillars that remain which are the Salah, Zakah Sawm and Ramadan I believe... Sawm and Hajj I'm sorry, now I'm saying Sawm and Hajj, so fasting in the month of Ramadan and doing the pilgrimage once in your life what I believe every Muslim should be learning with his teacher for those 2 days until he finishes this is what I would say is the foundation of every single Muslim what he needs to know it's the foundation of Islam which is the Shahada is in 2 parts La ilaha illallah, one, Muhammadur Rasulullah so La ilaha illallah is Aqeedah knowing who Allah is it's knowing about Allah and his names and attributes likewise, the other pillars of Iman the messengers and the books the life of the hereafter, what do we believe in what do we believe of it as Muslims according to the understanding of course of our highest predecessors so, point number 1 La ilaha illallah, Aqeedah that's your first science Muhammadur Rasulullah is Seerah as a Muslim and this is a 95 normal working Muslim this is a student a Muslim, 21, 22 21 years, 20 years of age 19, 18, etc he needs to know Muhammadur Rasulullah's name when he was born and you're testifying that he is a messenger you need to show how you've come to that conclusion you can't say it with your tongue alone so you need to prove why you genuinely believe he was a messenger of Allah, you learn that in Seerah then what remains is the third science is the other pillars of Islam which is incumbent once again upon every single Muslim that is of course, fasting in the month of Ramadan what are the rulings pertaining to it, likewise the prayer how does one pray, what are the prerequisites of praying, the wudu, etc what breaks your Salah etc, what Salahs are compulsory what are not and the third one, Zakah which Zakah do I need to pay is compulsory which is not are there ones that are compulsory or not, how much do I need to pay when do I need to pay it, what are the conditions of paying it etc, etc and last but not least was the third one the Ramadan Hajj when do I need to do Hajj when is it compulsory for me to do it how do I do it, what are the pillars of Hajj etc, etc these other four that I just said taken out La Ilaha Illa Allah Muhammad Rasool Allah the remaining pillars of Islam is Fiqh so how jurisprudence, how do I do what I was created to do so Al-Muhim, these two days that he has remained and he has sitting under the feet of his Shaykh, he needs to do these three sciences number one, Aqeedah, Tawheed number two, Seerah number three, and those two things are going to confirm and make true, if you want to call it your Shahada and then number three, Fiqh Inshallah whilst he is doing that of course, the days that he is not with his Shaykh, what is he going to do, memorise in the mornings, there are some things he might say go and memorise, there might be certain portions of the Qur'an he says memorise etc that is stage number one stage number two, now that he has got a foundation where he has done these three things and memorised the little things that his teacher has told him to memorise that is going to aid him in these three things alone, he is not memorising the Qur'an yet he is just memorising those things I believe that might take him six to eight months after that, what he is now going to do is he is going to, if he is of course in university he is going to do the same thing but now he is going to make more advanced studies where he will increase whatever he is studying in these sciences so he is no longer just a foundation, he can add a few more books, a little more complicated the seerah books a little more complicated etc but now he is going to also embark on the journey of memorising the Qur'an what was he memorising before in those mornings just things that his teacher tells him to memorise, memorise this hadith because it is the evidence for Hajj, memorise this hadith it is the evidence for Zakat etc but now he is going to memorise the Qur'an he is going to embark on that journey, memorising the Qur'an it might take him two or so years three years even say, we are on around three and a half years so far it is all part time within three and a half years that is normally a three year degree add six months to it basically within that person's degree I genuinely believe that person could memorise the Qur'an also be very well grounded in his religion generally and also there is another thing which I would like to mention which is anyone who memorises the Qur'an is most likely to know Arabic because there is so much obviously in the Qur'an he can look at the translations I'll be honest myself in the beginning when I learnt Arabic I didn't go to an institute I didn't go to Egypt or anything like that I learnt Arabic via the Qur'an and it was purely and mainly via the translation and then I would just try to speak with people etc etc within the journey that I was memorising the Qur'an Al-muhim that's part one then inshallah if the person wants to if it's enough then he can continue learning Arabic after he's graduated that might take him a year and a half possibly etc but within four years all part time he learnt Arabic memorised the Qur'an and he's very well grounded in Islamic sciences and the impact that again going back to the first point the impact that would have on his heart it's now shaped as a young adult it's now shaping him the way he sees the dunya the way he sees the akhira because he's been around the speech of Allah the speech of the Messenger of Allah and some people might look at that and they think to be honest with you that's not me, I can't memorise the Qur'an in two years or three years one answer is just like you just whispered now you can, you just need to be consistent and you need to ask Allah for his aid but another aspect is let's just say you don't how far would you have got how much impact, the goal like you said is not to memorise the Qur'an in two years or three years just stay at the path, just keep at it Allah opened the doors of Iman for as we just mentioned some companions via one of us your aim is for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to do that, your aim is not necessarily to get to the end goal in Shaykh al-Bani one of my favourite quotes which I've mentioned at least three or four times in other lectures is that he said the path to Allah is long it's not easy, it's not short it's not one day, one year etc the end goal, the objective is not to get to the end because you can't do every act anyway you can't pray every single day you can't read finish the Qur'an once a day I mean you can but when you add every single act of worship that exists in the Sharia you can't do every single one of them you physically can't so he says that's not the end goal the end goal is to work as hard as you can fear Allah as much as you can work hard and just get to death whilst you're doing it that's it that's all we need to do no one made it compulsory upon you to finish the Qur'an if you don't inshallah you'll be even rewarded for it this is the beautiful thing about our religion that someone who is on a path let's say you get sick or something like that you're being rewarded for the same days that you were going to wake up in the morning anyway let's say you were someone who reads Qur'an memorizes your Qur'an three days a week every single morning you're sick for two or three months you're getting rewarded for it تجارة لن تبور كذلك if you die likewise and you had this intention that you were on that path inshallah you'll be rewarded for your intention of course not the same as you physically doing it but that reward is still there unlike the person who thinks of doing a sin as the Messenger of Allah said it's not written for him until he actually does it so it's not made compulsory upon you and something very profound also I wanted to touch upon because you mentioned it was someone says I can't do it he's memorizing the Qur'an it's too hard, I'm old maybe come on I'm 21 years of age in university I can't do it if we look at some of the scholars of the past if we just one or two that come to mind now Ibn Hazm Al-Andalusi who died in the year 1064 the famous historian the big scholar Ibn Hazm he started seeking knowledge and his story is amazing they mentioned that he started seeking knowledge towards late 30s some say 45, 43s etc this is Ibn Hazm Ali Ibn Ahmad Ibn Sa'id Ibn Hazm so he started seeking knowledge how? he rahimahallahu ta'ala they say they say he started seeking knowledge because he went to a janazah one day and the janazah was between dhuhr and asr when he came to the masjid he forgot to pray tahiyyatul masjid so they said to him you need to pray I think it was the imam of the masjid they said to him you need to pray the prophet said that none of you should sit down in the masjid until he prays to rakah so then he got up and prayed but he never knew that it was compulsory for him to do so I'm not going to go into the foot ruling if it is actually compulsory if it's not etc then what happened was the janazah finished then they went back home they got back etc and then it was asr time he went inside the masjid he missed the jama'ah but he said I learnt today that I had to pray tahiyyatul masjid he said allahu akbar then a man came to him at the end he said look it's wakhtun nahi you shouldn't be praying at this time wakhtun nahi meaning there is a certain time which is prohibited to pray from those times is between asr and maghrib you are not allowed to pray salah it's prohibited of course there is again a difference of opinion the best opinion is that it is allowed because it's salah which is dhatus sabab it has a reason to pray but al muhim what happened then was he got confused he said what's going on one time you guys are telling me tahiyyatul masjid one time you are telling me tahiyyatul masjid then he said al muhim he started to seek knowledge he sought knowledge if you look at another example al izz ibn abdul salam he was known as the way he started to seek knowledge is amazing as well it was it's mentioned by that he was very poor so he used to sleep in the masjid he had a little corner near a wall a shelter he used to sleep there he didn't have a house etc so one day he was really sick he had a flu he had a cold he was sick he slept and he was freezing outside it was very very cold he got up for salah he woke up but then he had hadath and he had major impurity so he needed to do ghusl not ablution sorry he had to have a wash so he went it's freezing no place to heat his water up he done ghusl what did i say before though he was sick he was sick he was not feeling well what he could have done is what tayammum he has two reasons of course he doesn't have sorry one reason that there's no water of course for him that he can warm up but he's sick that's the main reason because he's sick and it's going to cause him harm the next day he done the same thing to the extent he says that he fainted someone who's sick he's not feeling well and he's using this cold water for a second day he fainted then he got up and people said to him what happened what did you do there's a man who came to him and said do you want to worship Allah upon this ignorance for the rest of your life then he began to seek knowledge he said take me to the faqih of this place it was him of course at that time they took him there he studied with him he learnt the deen etc and he's called he's Abdus Salam Sultanul Ulama when you look at it it's amazing he also started seeking knowledge in the age of 40, 43, 45 the point I'm trying to get to is there's loads and loads of other examples but these people they started their journey late the companions exactly they accepted Islam and became the father, learnt the deen etc so it's not about that it's Tawfiq as Shuaib a.s said it's not my effort it's not my power, it's not my ability Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give you aid Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will help you in it, it's not about your effort or getting up or anything like that this is a push from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so don't think like that don't don't despair from being able to learn if you're busy or old, especially old man it's such a bad excuse, I think people use that as a scapegoat it's just I don't want to put the effort you really think Shahid that there's a young boy 22, 23, 24 years of age who's in the west Shubuhat and Shahwat, the two diseases everywhere around him and he puts an effort and asks Allah teach me the Quran and then he wakes up every morning putting loads of effort do you think Allah will not allow him to do so of course he will there's that striving we're going to show them the path it's just just to re-emphasize because I know some people myself included many months ago I would have been watching this kind of video and thought it's just hard it's just not me, I'd like to say that it comes from, inherently it comes from excuses but the reward associated with just trying this path, not even finishing it, every time you sit down to seek knowledge, you're getting rewarded every time you implement that knowledge that you've learned, you're getting rewarded every time you tell someone about the knowledge you've learned you get rewarded, every time that person does an action based on what you've told them, you get rewarded every time they tell someone else it's just constant rewards I think it's this western ideology of knowledge which has been infiltrated into our deen, it's not about content, it's not about going through as much as you can, it's a spiritual journey, it's a worship it's an act of worship, just like Salah and Zakah they're of course compulsory, but just like any other act of worship it's an act of worship, if you were praying Salah, SubhanAllah, you know if you were praying Salah and you said to yourself, you know what this Salah is too long for me us treading on the path of Qiyamul Layl for example giving Zakah we wouldn't say, oh giving Zakah is too hard for me I'm not going to do it man, he's just saying there's virtue in it, except no, give the Zakah Salah, oh I need to get up for Salah, it's too long for me, and it's just the same thing it's the same thing they're all acts of worship seeking knowledge, it's an act of worship so even though it needs slightly more effort we shouldn't confine it to giving up or anything like that, especially when you compare it and again it goes back to the West but to be honest it's all over as well, especially when you compare it to the way we do live our lives the way we do invest our time in, we have 24 hours in a day, I have 24 hours, you have 24 hours when the schedule you laid out and you said this student has you know, university lectures 3 to 4 hours a day and starts at this time and finishes at 4 and you said just, what was it, 2 hours on the weekends sitting with the teacher? look at the amount of time that we're spending learning the knowledge of the dunya with the university lectures or a person working 9 to 5 and again, even if you're working 9 to 5 for example to earn a living, to provide for your family which is an act of worship, but if someone said that I'm going to increase your salary, I'm going to give you constantly money coming into your bank account, you just have to sit here for 4 hours and just do some work, just constantly money, money, money coming into your bank account that's not even anywhere near what we get in rewards, because that money's going to come to an end, but the reward in the akhirah is never going to end just saying subhanAllah just once is greater than the world and everything in it because it's going to last forever that one statement, the reward that's going to last forever whereas this world and everything that's in it it's going to come to an end of course one other thing I actually mentioned was because I just remembered now students have holidays at university I remember 4 months, unless you're like a medicine student or something like that medical students don't get medical students don't get 3-4 months they get like a month at the end of the year, that's it but as a normal university student in the west I mean the UK's more specifically you have 3 and a half months of literally no classes whatsoever and please, please, please I don't want to expose brothers and sisters but no one is sitting at home in the summer revising their content for university I know exactly what we do literally you memorise everything just before exams so let's not act like we're there working hard, studies, etc a lot of people might say about work a lot of us might not even work I know brothers, even myself, I didn't work and a lot of other brothers and sisters, they don't work in the summer to pay for their university brothers that do, that's a separate case I know some brothers, they work the whole summer just so they can pay for their university and we're going to speak about those people who are 95 so they'll come into that equation as well but in the summer now it's time to make it full time I remember with our sheikh sheikh Abdus Salam we had 6 weeks i'tikaf in the masjid during my A-Levels the year of my A-Levels in the summer we were doing this basically in the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, we'd come 5-8am we'd leave like 10am for example 10am? so during the A-Levels, weekends we'd learn Mutoon, memorise Quran, etc that's throughout the whole year what days were they? Saturday, Sunday, we're off 3-4 hours in the mornings and in the week, revise those, you just need to do a bit, etc summer time because we only have 6 weeks, what would we do? we're going to do i'tikaf in the masjid for 6 weeks our parents would bring us food and we wouldn't leave the masjid, we'd sleep there we'd do Qiyam, learn, etc I'm not telling everyone to do that but it proves if you really are serious why do you spend those 3.5 months doing 6-7 hours a day of studying and let me ask you now, do you ever regret that time and think, I wish I was out there playing sports or I wish I was out there socialising honestly not at all Allah is my witness, it was the best time of my life you know when you're older and you're more busy and you have more responsibilities Allah is the best time of my life and if I could do that every year, it would be amazing that's one thing we haven't touched on this whole concept of seeking knowledge it's actually enjoyable there's an enjoyment that comes with it you get rewarded for something that you enjoy as well, but it only comes after you put in the initial struggle it's amazing you say that because right now I just came from Hargeisa when I came here I said to my, because I came here of course our schedule normally, fajr is like 5 o'clock, so we're up around 4.30am we're in the masjid the halaqat start around 7 o'clock when I came to the UAE and I woke up I was ready to go to class and I missed it, I said to myself I really missed it a lot and it's just been a few days and I'm going to miss it even more when I finish but it's very enjoyable, it's not like it's a punishment like some people might think it is etc it's enjoyable, your iman, you feel this spiritual attachment as well you meet loads of brothers, you don't think that the brother that you learnt the quran with you'll never forget, the brother who was in your class when you memorised quran together, you'll never forget you know you make a lot of friends etc so it's a journey as well definitely without a doubt you want to talk a little bit about people who have a 9-5 maybe family and have to raise children this is where it gets a little bit harder you want to talk a little bit about that? yeah definitely so as a family man who's working and of course it's compulsory for them to provide for their family etc, so the sisters by the way have no excuse, I'm only kidding the sisters look after the kids they probably have more work to do but for both of them both the brothers and sisters inshallah, the husbands and the wives that are working full time I want to kind of, how can I say it I want to say it in the most realistic way but they have to have a time each where they do not see each other whatsoever you're talking about the husband and the wife? they don't have any interaction with each other and any interaction with the children either, if they have children they decide that timing it could be as an example you for example might say, you know what give me like let me rewind inshallah just like I made a principle that we're going to follow for the other group the principle we're going to follow for this group because it's a bit harder for them is sacrifice if you want to do this you have to, have to, have to sacrifice, if you're learning the religion by the time you're like married or you're completely starting from fresh and you want to learn and seek knowledge etc and you're a full time full time working family man, 2-3 kids, wife etc your slogan is sacrifice, if you don't you wouldn't be able to do so that sacrifice is you would need to do for example like 5am 6am your memorization when I say memorization, so it would be the same thing 2 days of the week you go to a teacher for 2 days that's the time where you wouldn't see your family don't call me, don't message me unless it's like an emergency or anything like that but you need to give time where you're completely disconnected from family, children friends etc. so during that time the husband's at the lesson, wife's looking after the kids when the wife is at her lesson husband's looking after the kids if they want to go to the lesson together and it's a public lesson in a masjid for example and she's in the sister section they both are having that time at the same time where they are not anywhere near the children take the children to mum, dad, whoever you could possibly do so, if that's not possible then of course only one of them can go and the other can't go, but my point is anyway as the first point is there has to be times where you're physically not near each other there has to be times where you're not speaking to each other, you're not busy with each other because of course married couples would know there's commitment with your wife your husband, you need to give them time you need to speak to them, there's emotional attachment etc, etc, you need to completely cut that off for a portion of the day, every single day every single day, when I say every day because they're going to follow the same thing that the other group followed but instead of them doing 2-3 hours every morning before school, because the school guys have started at 11am for example, they don't have that, they start at 9am every single day, instead of them doing 2-3 hours, they can do like an hour or maybe even 45 minutes, their process might be a bit slower, but again فَتَّقُوا اللَّهَ مِنْ صِفَاتِهُمْ so first point is, you need to disconnect from each other for certain hours of the day, and give it to Allah number 2 you need to sacrifice things that unfortunately, because it has come to a time now that you're married and you have other responsibilities and you didn't do it earlier, you need to sacrifice a bit more, so slightly less sleep maybe, not ridiculously, I'm not saying sleep 3-4 hours a day, but you need to cut out a bit, instead of waking up at 6am, wake up at 5.30am wake up at 5.15am that's a sacrifice you need to make now, simply because you didn't do it when you were younger take advantage if that's difficult for some people, not early birds, take advantage of the time of the night when the kids are asleep, you've got a couple of hours in the evening to yourself, just spend half an hour 45 minutes with Allah, correct, exactly that, either way is fine but there just needs to be a time of the day where you sacrifice to do your memorization that's the days you're going to work the days insha'Allah Allah of course that you're off, we said you're going to go to the class just like they done now that is part 1, part 2 of a couple or a family man or etc is, or how another way someone can do it, do that over a few years insha'Allah, 2-3 years what we just said, within that time, have a budget where you put to a side every single month 2-3-4 years you've been doing that part time insha'Allah you might have saved the x amount of money spend one year where you go to a country with your family and now you can be a full time student because you've got saved money that's another part there's levels, obviously it depends how deep you want to go, there's options there, yeah yeah yeah sure sure sure definitely, but I honestly think that everyone should at least try to get a taste of seeking knowledge etc you don't have to, you're not sinning if you don't and I want to shoot that message home, but that person is going to be following the same stuff before, he's going to be following the la ilaha illallah muhammad rasulallah aqidah and seerah and then he's going to be learning fiqh be grounded in that the days that you're working you're going to be away from your wife, your husband for certain hours, you're going to be memorising little things that you need to memorise, that your teacher gives you, little things, not the Quran yet once you've done that, it might take you again we said 6-8 months for the student, might be slightly longer say a year maybe for that person to be well grounded in his religion then he can embark on memorising the Quran again he could do it, it would take maybe a bit longer, maybe 4-5 years for all of his life but again, it's small, small amounts and then inshallah if he wants to go abroad for a year, but save up you need to save up a bit, have a little budget where you can go abroad inshallah, it's all fattaqullaha mistaqatun fear Allah as much as you can, but if the person does want to go to a higher level he needs to go, he needs to leave inshallah and he needs to give it a year, 2 years 3 years and places like Egypt I've heard is very cheap Somalia is incredibly cheap it's not a lot for you to go abroad with your family where you wouldn't need to work and you have the whole day to yourself and it comes back to the concept which is spoken about a lot, which is the concept of time management and so I for example would fall into this group with family I've got a daughter, 9-5 difficult to manage the time one thing that I did recently and it's really really helpful, at least it helped me a lot is organise my on an excel spreadsheet have my week planned out, my days at the top Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, so Sundays when the working week starts here, so Sunday, Monday, Tuesday Wednesday, all the way up to Saturday and then every half an hour has been mapped out so I know exactly at this time every half an hour what I'm doing and what that allows you to do is actually build something that is not too burdensome, something sustainable and it gives everyone their rights in that I've got time for my family I've got time for work I've got time for seeking knowledge I've got time for exercise I've got time for socialising if you actually do that you realise you've actually wasted a lot of time you've actually got a lot of time on your hands you just need to organise it properly so that schedule for me personally was something that I found really really beneficial and now I'm struggling with just executing it, like I've got it and it makes sense theoretically and now I just need to be strict yeah that's the thing, that's the problem but you just have to be strict and stick to the schedule as much as you can but that's something that I would recommend a lot of people are struggling with time and if they do that they'll probably realise like I realised actually I've got enough time here to do everything that I want and seek knowledge is it not amazing, look you just said you've got this schedule, this timetable let's say you had at 3pm to read x amount of Quran or memorise a certain portion of a hadith something along those lines and you couldn't do it because something came up look how amazing our religion is, you're rewarded for it yeah I never thought that what is the big deal, you're rewarded for it is that not what you wanted at the end of the day? you just want the pleasure of Allah that's it, that's the end goal why is it that you have to necessarily of course if you'd done it it would be an extra amount alhamdulillah and it's tawfiq min Allah but you've reached there with no effort you know so I think it's the concept let's take the concept of learning the religion and studying and all this other stuff let's take it away from content regurgitation and physical action necessarily rather a spiritual journey of getting closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then I think it's going to be a transaction with Allah which will never have any loss whatsoever and that's where I know a lot of personally I know a lot of practicing Muslims themselves who they might not prioritize the concept of seeking knowledge, they want to do good deeds they do a lot of good deeds, charity work aid missions, everything but this concept of seeking knowledge is not there because they feel like why do I need to learn about the religion when if I have a question I just google it I've got Islam QA, I can just go to a sheikh but that's where they've stripped out the spirituality aspect they're just looking at the theoretical side they just want to know the right answer you've stripped out the whole spiritual journey of getting to know Allah you've heard that right? yes, sheikh did take it over sheikh did take it over so we have probably half an hour left to Salatul Dhuhr what has your experience been like in Somalia tell us a little bit about that if you don't mind Somalia man, if I speak too much about it I'm going to get emotional and I honestly mean that it's the best thing ever that's ever happened to me in my life and I really really really whenever I think of it I get emotional pertaining to my teachers and my sheikh just being there seeing things that I've never thought I would see etc. Somalia honestly I wouldn't be able to say everything of course inshallah I am writing a book as I said already before about my experience studying there and some of the things that I've come across the great great great incidents with the sheikh etc.
inshallah that's a separate topic but overall you know when you study in, I don't want to say poverty because Alhamdulillah Somalia is not poverty even though it might look like it I'm in Hargeisa of course, Alhamdulillah it's an upcoming country but it's not like where we are in the UAE, the UK etc. and it really really really reminds you of patience struggle in seeking knowledge and all of these other things that's point number one there's times that I would of course the last time I had a warm shower taken out when I came to the UAE was when I was in the UK all cold water I mean you have to wait for so basically you have to wait so the water is in like a little tank and they place it in line with the sun so when the sun comes out the times normally, the hottest times between like 11am to around 2pm the water is warm Alhamdulillah so that's the best time to have a shower but if you miss it, most of the time I'm in class the mornings and the afternoons slash evenings it's cold showers so it really teaches you patience and you always remember I'm not here for luxury I'm here for a spiritual journey so it makes it a lot easier of course but then I said to myself, what did the companions go through you know what did the Prophet go through just to bring the religion to us etc, not just even that but the people of the four you know there's this amazing story of what's his name when I remember inshallah I'll mention it the name was literally in my head, beautiful story when I remember inshallah I'll mention it, but that's the first point the first point was the matter pertaining to patience sabr and difficulty struggle, you need to really, it teaches you the second point is the mashayikh whatever I say is not going to be enough I'm going to make a disclaimer anything I write won't be enough either you have to see it with your own eyes some of the incidents that I come across was for example one of our sheikhs may Allah bless him he was given a lecture in the masjid and everyone was there waiting etc it was after salatul asr so in salatul asr someone fainted in the salat became unconscious ambulance had to come everyone was helping him etc and this man was sick before as well alhamdulillah afterwards he was fine but he fainted, he collapsed for how long? during the salat people came to him but there were some people I don't want to say they were laughing but some of them got their phones out and then the sheikh, he went to the corner he doesn't want me to mention of course his name because I mentioned it before mention my name etc he went to the corner of the masjid and he sat down and he started crying on his own in the corner 5 minutes went by, 10 minutes went by 15, 20 minutes people said what's going on? the salat is done, the lecture should be started now and he's there, everybody could hear him he was crying loud khafidahullah wa ta'ala and then the lecture time they went and said look sheikh the lecture is on now, he went to the minbar and then he started he said bismillah alhamdulillah he's crying, he can't speak and he started to ask questions he said how many of you listening to me now came to the masjid with your two feet, put your hands up how many of you can hear me easily and perfectly fine right now, put your hands up how many of you have no breathing problems, how many of you don't need a machine for you to eat, how many of you went to the toilet with perfect ease and released your stool and urine and he mentioned blessings he started crying, everybody was crying after that, then he said la tus'alunna yawma idhina anin na'im you will be asked and questioned about this and then he said the lecture, we can't do the lecture today inshallah, we'll make it next week and I said to myself am I really going to see that in the UK I mean it's possible allahu alam, but it's different I think the scholars and the mashayikh, especially in these countries Pakistan as well, likewise, and India and Somalia, it's slightly different because there's this element of zuhd, there's this element of but also when you meet scholars and mashayikh they're very practical very practicalisation of what you read another beautiful story was these people, I don't want to say they're awliya Allah, because awliya Allah is min jama'a bayna l-taqwa bayna l-imani wa l-taqwa bayna l-imani wa l-amla as-salih anyone who does righteous actions and has iman, of course is a wali of Allah, as we believe unlike others who say the wali of Allah is someone who eats his shoe or something like this, and he has barakat al muhim, they are true true true friends of Allah friends of course not the friends we know but they're people who are, Allah has really chosen, and you can just see it a beautiful story was one of my sheikhs sheikhs, was sick he was in critical condition he had a disease I don't know exactly what it was, but he couldn't eat properly, and he was throwing up blood he couldn't sleep at night and he was very bad he was very old in age as well, like in his 70s 80s or something like that so my sheikh is narrating this to me, he says my uncle, he says he went to visit him, so the sheikh went to visit his sheikh who's sick, in a different city he's actually a different country, he was in Somalia, instead of Somaliland he went to visit him he's there, everybody's with him and the sheikh is there, he's peaceful he says how can I you know, how can I despair in Allah, his mercy if I pass away I'm going to meet Allah SWT and I can be in a new life of bliss I'm yearning to meet the sahaba and this is not just mere words he's there crying and it's a practical manifestation of the religion and then what happened was everyone thought he was going to die the medics, they said he doesn't have long to live and all this other stuff and then he said something along the lines of how can I confirm my death when I have Allah who's all merciful and then he went to sleep that night, which is very rare, he normally doesn't sleep he normally doesn't sleep because he finds it hard to sleep, he's got insomnia and sleeping problems, etc this is my sheikh narrated this is a true story, right now it happened a few months ago and then he woke up the next day and he says I saw the messenger s.a.w. in my dream and he came to me he said don't worry, you're going to be fine and you're going to be better very soon and you are not going to pass away anytime soon and then the next day he woke up, he stopped vomiting no more vomiting, no more vomiting blood his adhkar he reads 10 juz per day of the Quran it's a very simple life and when I heard this I said where are these people in the world when you come across these things you just say to yourself wow wow wow there are people who have genuinely soaked up the religion and made it into a living format there's loads of stories honestly there's a lot, the program itself is amazing the scholars, the way they teach, because it's in a masjid another benefit is it's different to the universities universities have amazing benefit, they're good anyone that does get accepted into universities, go it's a very good opportunity but the studies here is very different, it's the more classical way it's not in a classroom, it's the classical way you come in the morning after fajr students walk to the masjid some students walk for an hour, hour and 30 minutes etc, it's nice exercise though or you jump on your little bus some people in fact they go on a donkey and inshallah I've actually done it a few times myself I want to make a documentary as well not just as a, like I want to show the way of the past you know we hear loads of companions how they're riding beasts and some of them used to ride the donkeys etc and they would just pass away and they don't have anything to travel anymore, they would start walking and I've seen it with my eyes do we even see donkeys in the UK? probably not so we come to the masjid and about 300-400 students in the program all sit on the floor you just feel this tranquility descending, you sit on the floor one sheikh comes in he does his book then he, question and answer session anyone have any questions? the next sheikh comes before the lesson actually starts he asks you questions of lessons of before so he would say, Abdullah stand up in front of everyone the matter pertaining to this, this, this tell me about it, what's your opinion and it's a discussion and then he'll say any student disagree, I disagree with him I want to add this to it, that's like the first 15-20 minutes then the students can also ask questions about the last lesson they didn't understand, then the lesson starts the sheikh will give his sharah in the lesson of course it will be he'll ask some questions as well etc question and answer at the end, the next sheikh comes in the next sheikh comes in and then when the lesson finishes we have around 4-5 lessons a day from 7am to dhuhr, around 12 as soon as the sheikh finishes, the last sheikh everyone has to wait for him to leave you can't just get up and go, even if you're in a rush adab al muhim it's in the masjid when your legs hurt, it's nice as well your back starts to hurt I really like it and I think it's an opportunity of course it's in the Somali language anyone that does have the chance, they should go another thing is there's of course prerequisites which also made it more organised it's not every Tom, Dick and Harry can just go if you want to go study with them, you have to go with something you have to learn the Quran memorise the Quran first Arabic and other stuff etc may Allah make us from them but it's a completely different experience honestly it's amazing it brings you back down to earth likewise you see loads of poor people opportunities to give zakah, sadaqah every single day I gave more sadaqah of course it's not boasting or anything but it's just to give you the image also it's not a lot if you give someone 8000 shillings in Somalia, which is what I would sometimes give a lot of the time to be honest that is literally one dollar subhanAllah they're so happy it goes so far for them if you give them 20 dollars, that's their rent done for the day for the month and you've facilitated that for them and they're literally on the floor, on the streets everywhere, your neighbour in the UK it's hard to really find that it's not really I mean there is of course poverty I'm not going to get into that of course the politics side of it etc but it's hard, it's not as easy of course so this is really where something beautiful that came to my mind when you were talking about the shuyukh and your mashayikh this is really just a manifestation a practical manifestation of everything we've spoken about so far when we're talking about the impact of seeking knowledge being a spiritual thing and it changing you people will be listening to those stories and think I want to be like that I want to be able to cry I want a heart that's so soft that it cries at things like that I want to see the Prophet ﷺ in my dream this comes from what we've been speaking about for the last hour slowly seeking knowledge and that's why the shuyukh, they have this soft heart because they've been around it's so true, it's so true you know Sheikh Ahmed Eid, he mentioned another thing to us in the lesson once he always gives little heart softens at the end etc and he mentioned about how you guys won't you might but you won't see the fruits of your knowledge right now now is the hard part now it's the part where you need to literally smash into the rock until you get to the bottom it's not going to happen now give it some time, you'll have bits here and there etc but maybe after 6 months possibly maybe after a year might even come after 5 years might even come after 4 years and you always have these little and it boosts every time where you're in Tarawih and you know Arabic because you've studied it for 2 years you understand the Qur'an and there will be a ayah that just hits you that will come it will come regularly but this level of that is time my mashayikh they studied for 23 years, 24 years Ahmed Eid in Yemen Sheikh Abdullah Barberawi likewise in Yemen for such a long time and before that they were already well grounded when they were young in Somalia anyway Sheikh Dr Hussain Al-Faraid his name is Hussain Al-Faraidi because he was a specialist in Faraid before he went to Medina University at the age of what? 16, 17, 18 and then he went there for about 14, 16 years with the scholars over there and the point I'm trying to get to is it takes time and patience and the second thing you really benefit from is the environment and you know this is another thing as well I feel like we're talking about in the UK it's difficult to seek knowledge because of this commitment and this commitment sometimes we pack our lives with commitments that are not necessary and as a result of that we don't have time to do the things that are necessary so when you go to Somalia for example and you see the way they're living so basic many people in the UK will look down upon them and actually think I feel sorry for these guys, these guys don't even have hot water but the reality is he should be looking down on you I was telling you before I went to Gambia maybe a couple of months ago and I met a brother there that is living so basic he says my entire living expenses for the whole year is 4000 pounds that's rent, that's bills that's food, that's spending money that's transport, that's everything he goes I come here with 4000 pounds I live for the entire year I'm living like a king his words were I'm living like a king he is because he has time to do whatever he wants he wants to get up, he wants to memorize Quran he wants to read a book, he wants to socialize he's got 24 hours a day where he doesn't have to worry about putting food on the table and paying this bill and paying this electric bill and gas bill etc etc we've chosen to live our life like this it's a choice we've made my brother for example, my blood brother he lives a very simple life, he's very very strong in his concepts, he lives a very very simple life we've chosen, recently I was moving house just this week, I was telling you before I'm moving house I'm stressing about getting this unpacked and this, this and this and sorting out the bill this is a choice I've made and if I'm saying that I can't seek knowledge because of this, then I've chosen not to seek knowledge, it's not that you don't have time you have 24 hours a day, just like someone else seeking knowledge has 24 hours a day they've chosen to spend their time here and you've chosen to spend your time there, that's reality sahib, yeah right 100%, 100% May Allah give us Tawfiq, honestly I thank Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala every single day for allowing me to go to Somalia when it happened as well, I don't know if you know the actual way it came about I was suggested the program and then I called them up and I said look is there a possibility I can come and they said yes, you can come inshallah, of course there's some conditions etc we closed registration as well, but look you're coming from the UK, so if you come we'll inshallah do a lot of exceptions for you etc, because you're travelling there's no one else who's from the west on the program, I'm the only person who came from the west and they said come inshallah literally within 48 hours I went packed my bags didn't even do much shopping to be honest because there wasn't much time, and I left, I went I've never been to Africa in my life I've never seen African lands, I've never when I was on the plane I looked down and I'm thinking damn, I see a desert and I see dust and just nothing else and I got a bit scared and I got a bit frightened I wouldn't say frightened, but I got a bit I said to myself, did I make the right decision, I got a bit you know you hear a lot about Africa you hear so many negative commentations, all negatives and I said to myself, what's going to happen you know, but I thank Allah I don't know what I've done I don't know what I've done to deserve it, and it's a test upon you as well, it's not just a blessing, but it's a test from Allah upon you are you going to make the most of it, are you going to take advantage of the opportunity that many people haven't been given 100%, what I would say to everybody on a serious note is wherever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has planned for your life you don't know, a lot of the times, you might make a spontaneous decision to do an act of worship which might have some difficulty in it an example is Hijrah as an example, for someone to migrate from one country to another, a country that he loves which is beloved to him, the reason it's beloved to him is because he lived there he grew up there, he was born there, it's deep rooted in your heart, whatever you do for you to make that decision to just go to a country and migrate completely is not easy that's why it's such a big decision, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made that act of worship so great in reward because of its spontaneousness, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told the companions to make Hijrah from Mecca to Medina because they weren't allowed to worship Allah as they wanted to do so companions packed their bags and went they never thought of you know, they didn't think of anything, they never thought of their wealth, their land and their houses etc, they went but then look at where Islam came now, after that decision, so you know whatever Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has written for you, you don't know and don't think too much about spontaneous decisions and inshallah I mean, Allah won't let you down, just like He never let me down personally and I honestly don't regret going at all, it's the best decision, best year of my life in fact to be honest, where I could have been making money, I could have been working and doing other stuff, but alhamdulillah alhamdulillah, and definitely I would advise others to experience it, other places Egypt, mashallah, other places Saudi Arabia, go, that journey of seeking knowledge is never going to be regretted inshallah wa ta'ala. I just feel like just to close what I said, I feel like luxury has destroyed us sometimes, I honestly really feel like luxury has destroyed us because now we want to maintain a certain lifestyle and that requires time and effort to be put into certain things like earning money for example and it's this concept of yeah, I don't know I'm reflecting really upon my own life really like you just sometimes it's better just to be in a desert somewhere live like a veteran and if you're not going to do that, and like everyone can't do that, and they've got families, they've got commitments if you're not going to do that, the least you need to be doing, you have to be seeking knowledge you have to be giving a portion every single day, if you're not going to make that big commitment which we all should be able to make because we know the dunya is limited and we could die before the end of this qarjan, that's the reality I don't know if I'm going to get to the end of this sentence and the akhirah is for eternal, it's for everlasting it's forever, how can we not make that big jump to just leave the dunya and just go and seek knowledge but if you're not going to do that, and understandably it's not for everyone, then at the very least you have to, have to, have to be seeking knowledge a little bit in your own comfort, every single day you have to give that time 100% you know one thing, something came to mind we keep saying brothers and sisters to do part time studying and combine it or balance it with seeking other secular knowledge so far the discussion has been about the minimum slash your normal general mass Muslim, right I want to shoot a message which is, we need people as well to go overboard with the religion what I mean by overboard, overboard meaning let me re-read that actually we need some Muslims in fact a lot more Muslims that already exist, to tread on this path and go one step ahead and become scholars just like we have Muslims that are embarking on the journey of becoming a doctor becoming an engineer, becoming this and all of these other fields we need Muslims who know the religion the way Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent it down and the way he meant it upon the time of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam with fiqh and proper understanding there's not a time which there's a bigger need for this, there's not a time with all of these ... people have become heedless and it's so scary we need brothers and sisters as well, sisters yes, I'll say again, sisters as well, that inshallah tread on the path where they can be examples for others and likewise take that position of the messenger because who is going to do it if there's no more messengers, there's no other messenger coming, there's no other prophet that's going to come, Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is khatam al-nabiyyin, the seal of prophets, so we need that as well let's not just keep revolving around the Muslims should just learn average you 5%, 3% go and do it full time and don't necessarily, and sacrifice, don't work maybe for 4 or 5 years of your life, live a simple life go a few days without eating any food go a few weeks without speaking to family, go a month without hearing about anything and you need to go through this as well inshallah may Allah give us tawfiq and accept it from us bi hurmati Muhammad al-Mustafa wa bi siri Surat al-Fatiha
