Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
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We begin by praising Allah ʿAzza wa Jall. We praise Him, we seek His help, and we ask His forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides, there is no one that can misguide him. And whoever Allah misguides, there is no one that can guide him. And I bear witness that there is no god that deserves to be worshipped except Allah alone and with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is the slave of Allah and His Messenger. We ask Allah to exalt his mention and grant him peace, to his family and his companions, and all those who follow them until the last day.
My dear brothers and sisters, it is from the grace of Allah ʿAzza wa Jall and His blessings that Allah Subḥānahu wa Taʿālā gave me this wonderful opportunity to be able to sit in front of you this evening, to be able to visit you in your masjid, to be able to meet your teachers and the mashāyikh who are involved here and some of the volunteers. And we ask Allah Subḥānahu wa Taʿālā to make it heavy on the scale of their good deeds and your good deeds Yawm al-Qiyāmah.
This topic that we have tonight is a topic that is—it's very, very important. And it's a topic that is often misunderstood. And I think whenever you have a topic which is important and also which is liable to be misunderstood or is possible to be misunderstood, then this is from the things that is really deserving for us to speak about—to clarify, to explain. And In shāʾ Allāh Taʿālā, we will ask Allah Subḥānahu wa Taʿālā for His help and His aid in order to give this topic what it deserves.
We ask Allah Subḥānahu wa Taʿālā an yuʿallimanā mā yanfaʿunā, wa an yanfaʿanā bimā ʿallamanā, wa an yazīdanā ʿilman, wa an yuwafiqanā lil-ʿamali bih. We ask Allah Subḥānahu wa Taʿālā to teach us all what will benefit us, to benefit us all with what He teaches us. We ask Allah to increase us all in knowledge. We ask Allah to give us the ability and the success to put it into practice.
We're also joined with the live streams. I think I've never seen so many live streams in a single sitting. I can count four in front of me, and maybe that's only the ones that I can see. And In shāʾ Allāh Taʿālā, we would like to welcome all the brothers and sisters who are watching from that as well, In shāʾ Allāh.
The topic that we have for tonight, I'm expecting it to take around about between one hour or a little bit more than that. So I know sometimes that Shaykh Musa was telling me that his lectures and classes are sometimes nice and short for you guys—you know, half an hour, 45 minutes. This is going to be a little bit longer, so be prepared for that In shāʾ Allāh Taʿālā. But In shāʾ Allāh Taʿālā, it's going to be interactive. It's not going to be you guys sitting on the floor and just, you know, making your legs sore. We're going to go back and forth and we're going to discuss things In shāʾ Allāh Taʿālā.
The topic that we have is the topic of unity and disunity—the causes, the solutions, the Islamic perspective, the importance of us coming together as Muslims, and what does that really mean and what doesn't it mean. The first thing that I want to present to you this evening is that differences between us are something which Allah ʿAzza wa Jall decreed to happen. That doesn't mean that Allah ʿAzza wa Jall loves it. So I want you to separate between what Allah ʿAzza wa Jall decrees to happen in this world from His Qadar, and that which Allah ʿAzza wa Jall loves and decrees for us.
Allah Subḥānahu wa Taʿālā did not legislate for us to differ. He didn't say that He loves us to differ. But He told us that this is something that is bound to happen. Allah Subḥānahu wa Taʿālā said in Surah Hūd, in ayah number 118–119:
"If your Lord had wanted, He would have made all of the people into a single nation, but they do not cease to differ."
Until now, and until Allah takes the earth and whatever is on it, people are going to be differing with each other, different from each other, except those that Allah put His mercy upon. And that tells us that we're not aiming for ikhtilāf. Because this āyah here tells us—if we were aiming for ikhtilāf, Allah would not have associated the opposite with raḥmah: "They continue to differ with each other and be disunited with each other, except those that Allah had mercy upon. And for this reason Allah created them.
Yesterday, for those of you who might have been in the class or following the class, we spoke about the reason for our creation. We spoke about the ayah in Surah Adh-Dhariyat: “We did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me,” meaning to worship Allah alone.
And we spoke about the last ayah in Surah At-Talaq, and we said this comes together in the concept of the Tawheed of knowledge and the Tawheed of action — the Tawheed of affirming who Allah is, and the Tawheed of worshipping Allah alone and with no partner.
But this is then a strange and unusual kind of thing. It makes you think — for this they were created — and even more so when you go into the books of Tafsir. And this is my advice: when you come across something that makes you pause — many times the Qur'an doesn't, and Alhamdulillah you read and you're comfortable and you're understanding — but every now and again, you come across something that just makes you completely pause and say, “Did I understand that right? Did Allah create us in order for us to be different from each other? Did Allah create us for the purpose of ikhtilaf?”
It’s even stranger now that we have the Tafsir of an Imam from the Imams of the Tabi'een, who says that we were created in order for us to differ. There is a riwayah, a narration from Al-Hasan Al-Basri, that explains the meaning of this beautifully. He said: They are differing because they have different religions. The one who your Lord has mercy on — that one is not differing.
He said: These people — He created them for Jannah. And these people — He created them for the Fire. And these people — He created them to have mercy upon them. And these people — He created so that He could punish them.
And so, we understood that this is not talking about any kind of ikhtilaf, but difference in religion, and difference in what you worship, and difference in what you believe.
And therefore, what did we understand? As Muslims who have the same religion, who are upon the religion of Ibrahim — if we aspire to that — then our situation should be that we don’t differ with each other. And the less that we differ with each other, and the less that we have disunity with each other, this is from the rahmah of Allah azza wa jall.
And this ayah is a dalil against the person who says… because whoever says that, has gone against the word of the ayah. The one who Allah had mercy on is the one who didn’t have ikhtilaf.
Except that we might make a wedge for them to say it, and say: “If they mean [something else], then we say we agree with you — no problem.”
What does it mean? There are two types of tafsir. What does it mean? The same idea is being presented to you in different ways. We’re going to come to the ayah about ḥablullah — is it ‘ahdullah, is ḥablullah the Qur’an, is ḥablullah the Sunnah, is ḥablullah Islam, is ḥablullah following the Prophet ﷺ and his companions? All of it is the same concept, just being expressed to you in different ways.
And I’ll give you a benefit: the majority of the Tafsir of the Qur’an, the majority of the ikhtilaf in the Tafsir of the Qur’an, is from this side. It’s not actually contradictory opinions. It’s not different like “one scholar says it means this” and “one says it means that.” Most of it is actually just a different way of expressing the same thing.
This ikhtilaf can be a rahmah when you say it’s this, and I say it’s that, and we fight each other over it — the ones that Allah had mercy upon, they don’t have that.
Anas and Ibn Jarir — this is what you get from the Imam of the scholars of Tafsir. The most deserving opinion to be taken in the Tafsir of the ayah is to say that it means:
People will not cease to be different in their religion and their desires. They will have different religions, different ways, different desires, and go astray in different ways — except the one that your Lord had mercy upon. That one believes in Allah and believes in the truth of the Messengers. They do not differ about the Tawheed of Allah and accepting the Messengers and what the Messengers brought from Allah.
It’s very precise what he said. He didn’t say they don’t differ about anything. He said:
- They don’t differ about the Tawheed of Allah.
- They don’t differ about believing in the Messengers.
- And they don’t differ about what came down in the revelation from Allah, through the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
They don’t differ.
As for the other people — what makes them differ? Their different religions, their different groups, and their different sets of desires. That is what’s causing those people to be disunited.
And this is a theme we’re going to talk about tonight: what brings us together, what makes us unified, and what makes us go apart.
And here is the answer: when people have a different set of beliefs, when people are following their desires instead of following what came down in the Qur’an and the Sunnah — this is what is going to make us go apart.
And that is why — and I’m jumping ahead of myself here, but I’ll mention it while it’s in my mind — Ahlus-Sunnah, we call them Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah.
Ahlus-Sunnah never, ever, ever separated the Ummah. I want you to remember that.
Don’t let anyone ever tell you that Ahlus-Sunnah farraqu al-Ummah — they separated the Ummah and broke them into groups. Laa wallahi, they never separated anybody. They are the people of the Jama'ah. The other people are the ones who separated.
This group went here — kullu hizbin bima ladayhim farihoon — every group was happy with what they had. He went off with his belief. He went off with his belief. He ran off with that belief. He left the Jama'ah like this. He went against them with khurooj. He did that.
Ahlus-Sunnah never, ever, ever separated the Ummah.
And this is important because people will say that to you: “See, you people are here talking about belief, and talking about the Sunnah — you are separating the Ummah at a time of need.” That’s what they’ll tell you — shubhah.
They say: “You people are breaking the Ummah up when we need to be all together.” Laa wallahi — Ahlus-Sunnah never, ever, ever will they break up the Ummah. They are Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah. They’re the people who stay together.
But if someone takes a different religion, or a different sect, or a different way, or follows their desires instead of Allah and His Messenger ﷺ — that is the person who separated and broke the Muslims up.
And that is why Ahlus-Sunnah are called Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah, and Ahlul-Bid’ah are called Ahlul-Bid’ah wal-Furqah — the people of innovation and splitting — because that’s what they did. They brought new things which didn’t come from the Qur’an, didn’t come from the Sunnah, and they broke the people up because of those things.
bn Jareer, he also said rahimahullah ta'ala, he said:
We have two views in the ayah. And the one that is the best view in the ayah is that Allah created people to be different — one of them to be wretched (from the people of Jahannam), and one of them to be happy (people of Jannah). Because Allah mentioned two groups: one are a people of differing and falsehood.
Look at what Ibn Jareer said — differing and falsehood. He put ikhtilaf and he put batil in the same one. And the other are the people of the truth. Then Allah said:
Wa li-dhalika khalaqahum
Meaning: that He created two groups — a people in Jannah and a people in the Fire. And each group will be made easy what they were created for.
So we understood, my dear brothers and sisters, that the nature of this world is that we’re going to differ with each other. And there are going to be times where these differences are huge, and times where these differences are small. And times where these differences matter, and times where they don’t.
And the Prophet ﷺ told us how to behave in times of differing, and how to be together in a beautiful hadith. You’ve all heard it before — the hadith of Ahmad and Abu Dawood, and the wording is that of Abu Dawood — that a group came to…
In the ayah in Surah At-Tawbah came down about Al-Irbad ibn Sariyah. He said: We give salam to Al-Irbad ibn Sariyah. They said:
"O Al-Irbad ibn Sariyah, we came to visit you and to visit a sick person."
As though he was not well, and maybe he was sick. They came to visit him.
"And we came to learn knowledge from you."
So Al-Irbad ibn Sariyah, he said:
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ prayed with us one day, then he turned to us. He gave us a powerful admonition and he touched our hearts. The eyes shed tears, and the hearts shook.
A person said:
"It feels like this is the speech of a person who’s saying goodbye. It feels like you’re saying goodbye to us."
And the speech he gave was so powerful, and the people were crying. And they said:
"It feels like you’re saying this, that you’re gonna say goodbye to us and leave us."
What did the Sahaba think? Did they say, “Don’t go”? They didn’t. They said:
"What do you command us to do? What do you command us to have? What promise do you want from us, if you leave us today, O Messenger of Allah — what do you want?"
He said:
"I command you to have taqwa of Allah." And I command you to hear and obey the ruler, even if he is an Abyssinian slave. Whoever of you lives a long time after me is gonna see a lot of differences."
And is that not true?
This hadith has a special place in my heart, to be honest with you. And I’ll tell you why.
When I first became Muslim — and it’s more than 25, 26 years ago — I entered into Islam, and I was so excited to be a Muslim. And I looked around, and I saw so many different groups, and people, and sects, and beliefs, and everyone was happy with what they had. And they want to bring the new Muslim — they think it looks good for them — so come this way, come this way. And you felt just lost. So lost.
And I’m not gonna lie to you and say… some new Muslims even feel like leaving Islam when they see the state of the disunity among the Muslims. And that’s not the first time I’ve seen it — I saw it with myself.
Alhamdulillah, I didn’t feel like leaving Islam. But I felt very, very lost. And I saw many new Muslims after that who thought about leaving Islam because of what they saw in the disunity among the Muslims.
And I just felt like — I don’t know what to do. There’s so many opinions, and even in everything: in fiqh, and what madhhab, and aqeedah, and what do you believe, and sects, and groups, and jama‘aat, and this masjid, and that one — and I was just lost.
Until I read this hadith. And I felt like this hadith — it just gave everything you need.
First of all, the thing that settled my heart is just those words. Why did it settle my heart? Because honestly, when I heard that the Prophet ﷺ told us that there’s gonna be difference — lots of differences — I felt like: okay, so that’s fine. We see a lot of differences. It’s expected.
It’s like when someone manages your expectations — does that make sense?
When they manage your expectations… In the beginning, you had the expectation: Muslims perfectly united, never gonna have one single difference between them. And then you see the opposite.
But you know that the Prophet ﷺ told us this is gonna happen.
Then he gave you the solution.
He said: Stick to my Sunnah. Point number one: Stick to my Sunnah.
Number two: Stick to the Sunnah of the rightly guided who will come after me. And this is to stick to the Sahaba, especially the Khulafa’ ar-Rashideen. Hold on tight to it — even when people are pulling you this way and that way — hold really tight. Don’t let go of the Sunnah. Don’t let go of what the Sahaba were upon.
And take the teeth at the back of your mouth and bite onto it and don’t let go.
Can you imagine someone who has in their hands a rope — and they have it in their teeth — and their two hands are grabbing onto it — and they’re holding onto it for their life?
And: Keep away from and beware of newly invented things.
Which things? Mobile phones and internet? None of those things — in the religion.
Newly invented beliefs, newly invented ways of doing things in the religion. Because every newly invented matter in this religion is an innovation, and every innovation is misguidance.
Notice the Prophet ﷺ didn’t say… he didn’t make any exception to it.
He didn’t say: there’s some good things and some bad. Kullu — every single one of them is wrong.
Why? Because Allah said: Your religion is complete. You don’t need any extras. You don’t need any add-ons. Your religion is perfect.
So this tells us that we are going to come across times when lots and lots of people are going to be differing with each other. But our solution is to go back to the Sunnah of the Messenger ﷺ and what the Sahaba were upon.
And that if we hold onto it, it’s going to get us through these differences that we see among us.
In the hadith of Abu Idris, he narrates that he heard Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman… Can anyone tell me? I’m gonna get used to you guys to speak for a while. What is Hudhayfah known for?
Asking about the evils.
Very good.
So one thing he’s known for is asking about the evil things that are going to come.
What did he say?
People used to ask the Messenger about good, and I used to ask him about bad, because I was scared that it would happen to me.
What else is he known for?
He saw the secrets of the Prophet ﷺ. Keeping the secrets of the Prophet ﷺ.
Hudhayfah had the names of the munafiqeen. Out of interest — you know the only person he ever told who was on the list — was not on the list?
The only one.
Everyone — “He wouldn't tell… is my name on the list?” No. Only Umar.
He said to him: I’ll tell you and no one else that your name is not on the list. Because Umar thought that his name would be on the list of the munafiqeen.
But that shows you: if Umar thought his name would be on the list — don’t think that you’re a person of so much taqwa.
And Umar said to Hudhayfah: “Would you tell me? Is my name on the list of the munafiqeen?” He said: I’ll tell you that your name is not there. But I’m not going to tell anybody else — only because of the fact that Umar is not betraying the secret.
Because Umar was well known — that the Prophet ﷺ said: Umar is in Jannah. So there was no concern about that.
This hadith begins with what we said — the people used to ask the Messenger about good things. “How do we go to Jannah? How do we get close to Allah?” and so on. “How do we be with you in Jannah?” and all the beautiful questions.
He said: I used to ask about evil. I was scared that it would happen to me.
He said: I said, “O Messenger of Allah, we were in Jahiliyyah and evil — that’s how we were before you came to us. And Allah brought us all of this good. So after this good, is there going to be some evil?”
He said: Yes, there will be. Evil is going to come.
He said: I said, “If after that bad, is good going to come again?”
He said: Yes — but there is dakhan. And dakhan is the same meaning of the word as dukhan — but here Wallahu a‘lam means fasad. Like there’s gonna be something — yes, good will come again — but there will be some things wrong.
I said: “What is this dakhan that’s gonna be there?”
Yahduna bighayri hadyyi. A people who take other than my guidance as their guidance.
They… and you will accept some of the things, and you’ll reject other things.
He said: “After that good, is there going to be evil again?”
There’s gonna be callers who call the people to the doors of Jahannam. Whoever answers them — they’re gonna throw them in Jahannam.
He said: “O Messenger of Allah, describe these people to us.”
They’re from our people. They speak our language.
Only Hudhayfah would ask this question.
He said: “So if I meet those people — what should I do?”
Stick to the jama‘ah of the Muslims and their imam.
He said: “If I don’t find a jama‘ah for the Muslims, and I don’t find an imam?”
Keep away from all these different groups — even if you have to bite onto the root of the tree — and you die like that.
So the Prophet ﷺ told… what did he say to Hudhayfah?
Go to the main body of the Muslims — the people upon the truth — the people upon the Sunnah — the way of the companions — the people who are upon me — what me and my companions are on today.
He said: “What if I don’t find any leader to lead them? What if everyone is by themselves?”
Keep away from all the deviant groups — even if you have to die biting onto the root of the tree.
And the third point we're now going to make, as we get into just the introduction—because we're going to get into the core topic, which is the reasons and the causes and how we bring this about—we need to understand that differing is part of the nature of a person. It's part of the jibillah, the default way you’ve been created.
Abu Huraira narrated—and the hadith is reported by Imam Muslim—(this is hard so you're going to explain it to me, inshaAllah):
"People have different origins, different sources, just like gold and silver are of different origins and different qualities. The best of you in Jahiliyya are the best of you in Islam—if you learn your religion properly."
Reflection So, if you make the effort to learn your religion in detail, then your excellence carries over. Then he said:
"The souls are conscripted armies—like two opposing armies. When a soul recognizes another that is from its side, it feels close to it. And if it recognizes another from the opposing side, it feels distant."
Student Discussion Who's going to give me an explanation of that last part?
"The souls are like a conscripted army." An army that you're brought into—you didn’t choose to join—and you find yourself on one side or the other. When you meet someone whose soul is like yours, you feel closeness. When you meet someone whose soul is not like yours, you feel distant from them.
One student says:
"This could be explaining the other hadith—that the souls met before they were created. And those who liked each other mingled before."
Yes, this is one point—that this refers to before Allah ﷻ created the creation. When they were brought out from Adam (عليه السلام), this interaction happened in Jannah. That can be the reason.
Another student says:
"Could it be the hadith about the angels blowing the soul into the fetus?"
Very good. So that’s another point—the people from the people of Jannah will naturally have a closeness to each other. And the people from the people of Jahannam—they’ll be together as well, naturally. When you meet someone who is not on the same religion or path as you, you'll feel that distance from them.
Explanation from Al-Khattabi رحمه الله
Let’s take a look at what Al-Khattabi said regarding this hadith. He said:
"It may be that this refers to the different ways that people incline towards goodness and evil, righteousness and corruption. A good person will naturally feel close to other righteous people. And a corrupt, wicked person doing haram will naturally gravitate to those like them."
So whether you like someone or not—on a soul level—it depends on your nature: whether it’s good or evil.
Practical Reflection He said an amazing point:
"If a person finds themselves gravitating towards bad people and disliking righteous people, they need to ask themselves—what is inside me that causes me to dislike that person?"
For example, may Allah protect us, someone sees a brother with a short thawb and a big beard and says:
"I don’t like those people. I don’t like religious people."
Then ask yourself: What is in me that causes this feeling?
So you can fix that blameworthy quality in yourself.
And the opposite is also true. A person might not be practicing properly but finds themselves loving the righteous and being drawn to them. We say:
"Quickly leave behind the wrong you're doing and join those people you love. Don’t keep yourself distant."
Key Insight
According to Al-Khattabi, these are all souls. But each soul contains different qualities, which is why we feel close to some and distant from others—not just in religion, but in everything. Your soul naturally gravitates towards those who share qualities with you.
"This depends on the matters that unite you or separate you."
Conclusion of the Section All of this was just to understand one key point:
We are going to see disunity. Even on a natural level, there will be people you get along with and people you don’t. We’ll see differing opinions and issues—that’s expected.
But—our religion and our connection to the Qur’an and Sunnah should be bringing us together.
So now, let us begin...
Let us take the causes that bring people together—or separate them.
Number One: Sticking to the Qur’an and the Sunnah
This is the greatest cause of unity, love, brotherhood, and togetherness. And if you think about it, there really isn’t anything else that brings those things.
"If you spent everything in the world, you wouldn’t have been able to bring their hearts together."
And the third point we're now going to make as we get into just the introduction—because we're going to get into the core topic, which is the reasons and the causes and how we bring this about—is we need to understand that differing is part of the nature of a person. It's part of the jibillah, the way that you've been... your kind of default behavior, if you like.
Abu Huraira narrated—and the hadith is reported by Imam Muslim—this is hard, so you're going to explain it to me insha’Allah:
“People have different origins, different sources, just like gold and silver are of different origins and different qualities. The best of you in Jahiliyya are the best of you in Islam if you learn your religion properly.”
The best of you in Jahiliyya are the best of you in Islam—if you learn your religion and if you make the effort to learn your religion in detail.
“The souls are like conscripted armies; those that recognize each other get along, and those that don't, differ.”
Who's going to give me an explanation of that last part—the souls are like a conscripted army?
An army that you're forced—you’re brought into it—and you're made into the army. You're on that side, and you're on that side. So the ones whom you recognize—the soul recognizes that this person is on your side—you feel close to them. And if you recognize he's on the other side of the army, you feel distant from him.
I don't want the full explanation, just give me something that you took from it.
Now is an explanation of the other hadith, that the souls met before they were created, and those that liked each other mingled before—“الأرواح جنود مجندة”—very good. So this is one point, okay, which is that this is speaking about before Allah ﷻ created the creation, when they were brought out from Adam, and what happened before in Jannah. And that can be the reason.
Can it be the hadith of Arba'een? And now we were... the angels blow into the person in the womb?
Very good. So that's another point. The people who are from the people of Jannah are going to get that sort of closeness to each other. And the people who are from the people of Jahannam, they will go together and be close to each other.
But when you meet with someone who is not on the same religion as you and path as you, then you're going to be distant from them.
Jameel. Let's take a look at what Al-Khattabi رحمه الله تعالى said regarding this hadith.
He said it may be that this refers to the different ways that people have goodness and evil, righteousness and corruption. That the good person gravitates towards the people who are like him. If you're a good, righteous person, you feel a closeness to righteous people. And the evil person is like that. If you're a wicked, corrupt person doing haram, you're going to find yourself naturally going with the people who are like you.
So whether you like someone or you don’t—on the level of your soul—it depends on the nature of whether you have a good nature or an evil nature.
He said about this hadith—this is an amazing point he brought—he said: If you find yourself gravitating towards bad people, and you don't like good people—for example, let's just say, may Allah protect us, everyone is different—you see a brother come in, he’s got a short thawb, and a big beard, and you’re like, “I don’t like those people. Those people... look at this...” That's how they say, right? “You religious... you religious guys... I don’t really like religion. I don’t like religious people.”
Then you have to look at what is in yourself that makes you not like that person. Why do you feel distant from that person?
So you can get rid of what’s inside of yourself. He said: So you can get rid of that blameworthy situation in you.
And likewise, the opposite—because it could be the opposite—someone is not doing great, not practicing, struggling a little bit, but they really love people who are practicing the religion. And you see that person gravitating towards them.
We say: Quickly get rid of what you're doing. Get rid of this not practicing properly, and quickly come join those people—because you already have a love for them. Don’t let that go to waste.
According to me, he said: These souls—even though they’re all souls, right?—but there are different things in your soul that make you different from the other person. So what happens is that you have certain qualities, and your soul goes towards people with those qualities—even if it's not just in deen, in everything. Your soul gravitates towards people that have similar qualities to you and keeps away from people that have very different qualities.
Then he said—this is according to the matters and the things that bring you together and the things that separate you.
All of this is to understand one thing—we want to understand that we are going to see disunity, and even on a natural level there’ll be people you get on with and people you don’t. We’re going to see so many differences of opinions, so many problems. All of this is expected. But it's also expected—from what we’ve learned—that our religion and our connection to the Qur’an and the Sunnah should be bringing us together.
It should be bringing us together.
So now, let us go and take these causes that make people come together or go apart.
The first one is sticking to the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
This is the greatest thing that builds unity, love, brotherhood, and togetherness. And if you think about it, there really isn’t anything else that brings those things. If you spent everything in the world, you wouldn’t be able to have brought these people’s hearts together.
The Sahaba—all the money in the world—you would never have been able to make these people [unite]. But Allah brought their hearts together.
What brings us together and makes us united is the extent to which we hold on to the Qur’an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. That’s what makes us come together and have that brotherhood.
That’s why Allah said:
إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ “Indeed, the believers are but brothers.” (Al-Hujurat: 10)
This innama—this is ’adātu al-ḥaṣr. It’s a limiter. It limits one thing. But here, both. It limits brotherhood to īmān, and it limits īmān to brotherhood.
Who's going to explain that to me? It limits brotherhood to īmān and īmān to brotherhood.
I threw that one at you, and you weren’t expecting that. Oh, it’s not that difficult.
Limits, right? It says only, nothing else. So it limits īmān to brotherhood and brotherhood to īmān. In what way?
Okay, maybe I said it in a complicated way.
So in order to be a believer, you have to have the brotherhood.
Okay, start with that one—brilliant. First one—to be a proper believer. We don’t say voluntary īmān—we say: To be a proper believer, you have to love for your brother what you love for yourself.
"None of you believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself."
What about the opposite—the other way? Limiting brotherhood to īmān?
You can only be brothers with people who share the same īmān—the same concept, the same belief, the same religion, the same faith—as you. Not to say that we’re all the same in īmān—because īmān, everyone’s different—but you share the concept with each other. Only then can you have brotherhood.
My dear brothers and sisters, think about us in this masjid. Me personally, I’m from a completely different country. So many people here—different countries, different origins, different colors, different languages, all different people. What brought us together? People came from far away, different cities.
What brought you here? The brotherhood of īmān.
That’s why, even when you talk about how much you love someone—you love someone according to how much they practice this religion. And you hate someone according to how far they are away.
And that’s why you see someone not practicing the dīn, misbehaving—you have a distance from them for sure. But it’s not the same distance I have with, say, for example, someone who’s not Muslim at all. Right?
Does that make sense?
Because someone who's not Muslim at all—I have complete distance with them. And even maybe Ahl al-Kitāb, and so on—each one is in levels. So there’s a distance.
And even among the believers, the one who is the closest to practicing the right belief, the right actions—as much as we can see—I’m going to have more love for that person and more closeness and more unity. And the more a person is going away from that, there’s going to start to be gaps between us.
The evidence for this—the statement:
"Hold on to the rope of Allah, all of you together, and do not be divided." (Āli ‘Imrān: 103)
My brothers and sisters, I’m going to give you a rule here. The rule says: There is no āyah in the Qur’an that talks about unity except that it talks about unity in the context of religion, īmān, Qur’an, and Sunnah.
Every āyah. Find me an āyah that talks about unity that doesn’t talk about unity for the sake of religion.
When we say “for the sake of unity,” like: “Look, we should all come together—it doesn’t matter whether you curse the Sahabah and you love the Sahabah, and you don’t do this, and you are like that—we should all just come together and be friends.” Right?
That’s not what the Qur’an says.
You're holding the Qur’an, you're holding to—and now the other person who’s also holding to the Qur’an and the Sunnah—you’re going to get unity with that person.
But if someone is rejecting the Qur’an and disbelieving in the Qur’an and turning away from the Qur’an, and going away from the Sunnah and rejecting the Sunnah—so how can I... he’s not holding the same rope?
I’m holding a rope, and he’s holding a different rope. So how can we have unity together?
Ḥablullāh—there are many views about it. Second from them is that it is the religion—that it is the Qur’an.
Ibn al-Qayyim has a really beautiful statement about it. He said—about holding on to the Qur’an, the revelation, the Qur’an and Sunnah—he said:
You rule by it, and you don’t look at people’s opinions and analogies and people’s logic and what feels good to people or what people get inspired by or feel inside themselves.
He said: Anyone who doesn’t hold on to this—they are going to be taken out of that unity. They’re going to be disunited.
This whole religion is about holding fast to Allah and His rope—in knowledge, in action, in ikhlāṣ, in seeking Allah’s help, in following the Sunnah, and in staying upon that until Yawm al-Qiyāmah.
That’s what brings unity.
And Allah said:
"Do not be like those who split up from each other and formed different groups after knowledge came to them. They will have a severe punishment." (Āli ‘Imrān: 105)
There are so many things, but we have to stick to our timings and move forward a little.
The statement of Allah:
"Indeed, those who divide their religion and become sects, you (O Muhammad) have nothing to do with them. Their affair is with Allah, and He will inform them about what they used to do." (Al-An‘ām: 159)
And this tells us that unity comes in—as we said—the Qur’an, the Sunnah, the Sahabah. That’s how we bring ourselves together to be united.
And so, if we want to unite the Muslims—because no doubt we need to unite the Muslims—there’s no doubt about that. There’s no doubt that we have a need for us to be together, and for us not to lose our strength as a body of Muslims.
The statement of Allah ﷻ in Surah al-Anfāl, ayah number 46:
"Obey Allah and His Messenger, and do not differ with each other, because when you are disunited, you will fail, and your strength will be broken. And be patient. Allah is with the patient."
My brothers, I want you to think about this really carefully—because someone could bring this āyah and say:
“This is why we’re failing today. This is why the Ummah of Islam is failing—because we are disunited. We’re failing because we are disunited. Everyone is interested in themselves.”
We say to them: Read the beginning of the āyah again. Don’t start from the middle.
The reason we are not united is because we are not obeying Allah, and we’re not obeying the Messenger.
That’s the reason why we’re not united.
And the only solution to it is to call people back to obeying Allah and obeying the Messenger.
That’s why even if you look at history—people who tried to bring the Muslims together in some other kind of way—and they said: “Politics” or “ethnic background” or “Pan-Arabism” and then there’s like—what do they call it—political Islamism and all of these names that other people in here and just you and your fathers made them up. But the point is that these people try to do what? They try to bring people together on something other than... they tried money, ethnicity, race, culture, whatever it is. It’s not going to work. The only thing that is going to bring us together is what brought the Sahabah together, and that is the Kitab and the Sunnah.
We’re going to come to now another reason for being together and being apart, and that is having good knowledge of the religion. What’s the daleel? The statement of Allah:
"Those people who separated in their religion and they formed sects and groups, each group was happy and proud of what they had."
You see that angle here? Each group believes, “I’ve got proper good knowledge, you know. I know what’s right.” So what is really killing them here is they don’t know their religion properly. And that’s why they are happy with what they have.
And every time we have more knowledge in the religion, it’s going to bring us closer together. And every time we have less knowledge in the religion, it’s going to push us apart.
And here I’ll give you an evidence which is like the sun in the middle of the sky: how many issues did the Sahabah differ on? Even if they are, or even if they are, or whatever it is... very few, right? Compared to the people who came later on. I’m not saying never, but they were very few. Why do you think that was? Because their teacher was the Prophet ﷺ. And whenever they differed about something, they brought it back to the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
But generally, they had knowledge of the religion. And that knowledge and closeness to the Prophet ﷺ meant that they very rarely disagreed with each other in only very small things. And often this was from the point of the same issue from different angles, or from the point of pure ijtihad where there’s no evidence on one side or the other, or maybe differences in language and things like that.
But they were not like us. They did not have all these differences that we have today.
And from the most important things that you must do is to learn the etiquette of differing with each other. And I’m going to spend about 10 minutes to tell you about the etiquettes of differing—very simple. The statement of Allah:
"Whatever you differ in, the ruling goes back to Allah. This is Allah, my Lord. I put my trust in Him, and I turn back to Him."
So let’s talk about, first of all, the types of differing. Let’s start by drawing two lines. We got the word “differences”—let’s draw two lines off of it.
The first we’re going to say is one example is where it’s not really a difference at all. Actually, everyone is speaking about the same thing in a different way. And it’s a mistake to put everything in that box, which is what some people do.
So for example, they come to an issue of fiqh and they say, “See, you know, it’s just, you know, Malik, so it’s like, it’s the same,” and Shafi’i... No, it’s not the same. They had a different opinion about something. So don’t put everything in that box.
But tafsir is often like that—not always, but many, many things in tafsir. Whenever you read tafsir and you read 10 different opinions, ask yourself: are they actually different, or are they just talking about different ways of the same thing?
Taqwa is praying. Taqwa is fear of Allah. Taqwa is sticking to the rules. Taqwa... it’s all the same idea, but it’s just looking at it from a different angle. This is not really differing at all. It’s not even—so we can take it out from the discussion.
What we’re concerned with is khilāf al-taḍādd or ikhtilāf al-taḍādd—the ikhtilāf where the two views are contradictory. I say it’s hot, you say it’s cold. I say black, you say white. I say day, you say night. And there is no way to reconcile these two together. You can’t bring them together—they are contradictory with each other.
In this situation, we’re going to divide it into two. We’re going to speak about khilāf sā’igh and khilāf ghayr sā’igh—khilāf which is reasonable. It’s not praiseworthy, but it is reasonable to expect, okay?
So it’s not praiseworthy—we’re not talking about being amazing or so good that we don’t have the same opinion. We’re not talking about that. We’re talking about the fact that it comes from a reasonable basis. There is a reasonable and fair reason for it to exist.
So if someone debated with you about whether there is one God or two gods, would you say that’s reasonable? No, it’s not, right? It’s not reasonable. Of course not. When I say there’s not even a discussion—no. You can’t have this discussion.
If someone debates with you about the hijab—is there a hijab in Islam or not—you’re gonna say, “I’m not gonna even discuss it with you,” because you’re talking to me about something... you don’t have a leg to stand on. There’s no basis at all.
If someone says, “Do we pray five times a day? Because my shaykh said we don’t have to, and your shaykh said we do,” we say, “You and your shaykh and whatever you want, but I’m me.” There’s no discussion on it.
So we’re also going to take that out of the picture—because it’s ridiculous, it’s foolish, it’s not a sensible knowledge-based discussion.
So we’re not interested in khilāf which is really not khilāf, where everyone is talking about the same thing. And we’re not interested in crazy opinions that have got no basis.
We’re interested in differences where there's a reasonable ground for that difference. In this, we're not—what we are not saying (please write this down, underline it)—we are not saying that both are correct. We're just saying that there's a reasonable reason for it to happen.
So one person says, for example, you don't have to read Surah Al-Fatiha behind the imam when he reads out loud. And the other one says you do. But how can they both be correct? One of them said your salah is invalid, and one of them said it isn't—day and night. They can't both be correct. But what we are saying is: there is a reasonable ground.
We're not saying we can take either. We're not saying you can choose—fatwa shopping, like, you know, you can just go and shop which one you like. But we're saying that there are reasonable grounds for that difference of opinion.
How do we know there are reasonable grounds for this?
Now we have to know: what is the real reason why these two people are differing? Is it the authenticity of a hadith? Is it the meaning of a word in the language? Is it because, for example, the hadith didn't reach this person and it reached that person? Is it because, for example, the person has certain principles which they have formulated, and it doesn’t match the principles?
What is the reason why?
And until you know the reason why, you can't decide whether it's justified or not. Does that make sense? How can you decide if it's justified or if it's reasonable if you don't know the reason why they're differing?
Go a level above. Know what's on your side and what's on their side. Like, okay, what evidences do you have?
How many times I meet brothers who talk about issues—it shocks me. They talk about, for example, the niqab: "I don't believe the niqab is fard." Okay, that's reasonable. I understand that. Okay, tell me—what's your evidence?
It’s like… blank look. Doesn’t know anything. Doesn’t know the ayah. Doesn’t know the hadith. Doesn’t know anything. Doesn’t have any concept of what the scholars said about it or the discussion between them. All that happened is he heard someone say it, and it suited his nafs, so he went with it.
“Have you seen the one who took his desires as his god?”
And you don’t know anything about it. You don’t know the reason for it. You don’t know the ayat. You don’t know the hadith. You don’t know what the scholars said. You just heard it and thought, “It sounds good to me.”
But this is not acceptable.
If you're gonna say, say: "My shaykh told me, and I follow my shaykh." Alhamdulillah, no problem. I'm happy with that.
Say: "My shaykh told me, and I just do what my shaykh said." I will say, “I agree with you completely.”
But you say to me, "I hold this position"... I'm gonna say, “Malik, what do you have? What's your dalil?” You're gonna say to me, “What did they see? The camels?” Because that's all you have.
And you don't have any real dalil, except you just heard someone say it.
So don't, ikhwani, please—don't say 'this is my position'. Say: “My shaykh told me, and whatever my shaykh told me, it’s okay.” Alhamdulillah, no problem.
If you want to say you have a position on something, know what's on your side, and know what the other person has on their side.
Someone says: “I don’t believe the prayer times are correct.” Okay, what do you have? What’s against you? What’s your evidence, and what is the other person’s evidence?
Otherwise, just say, “My shaykh told me,” or “I feel…” But don’t have a position in this issue unless you understand what is on your side and what is against you.
Then you have the right to say, “This is my view,” or “This is what I believe to be the stronger point.”
But if the khilāf is said to be based on reasonable grounds, what must you have? A degree of respect in the way you speak to the person.
“I don’t believe you’re right, but I do believe that you are worthy of respect and keeping the brotherhood, because I understand you have an evidence. You didn’t pick it from the air. You didn’t follow your desires. You didn’t just—you know—fatwa shopping. You had a real reason for believing this. And so I’m gonna respect that reason while believing you’re wrong.”
It’s important. Very important. While I still believe you're wrong, or you believe I'm wrong—that’s fine.
But we’re still going to have that kind of good treatment of each other, because I recognize: You’ve got something there. It’s not made up. You’ve got a basis for what you're saying.
The stronger that basis is—because it’s not an on-off switch, right? It’s going to be shades of grey— the stronger your basis is, the more respect even there’s going to be.
To the point where I might even say: “I actually don’t know what the correct view is.” “You might be right, and I might be right.”
The closer, the stronger the evidences come on both sides—like the finger in the tashahhud. It’s very hard, wallahi. Do you point it? Move it? It’s so hard, that it might get to the point where we just say, “You know what, it is… I mean, I don’t have a view on it. I just do what my teacher told me. And you do—and we love each other. I’m not gonna pull you upon it.”
But if I believe you're wrong, I have a right to discuss it with you, right?
If I believe you're wrong in something, or you believe I'm wrong, we have a right to discuss. But we have to maintain a degree of respect with each other if both of us have a good grounding for what we're saying.
And the less we have, the more likely there's going to be something…
Like, the more shaky—and you’re based on a fabricated hadith, so I’m now going to be a bit—I’m going to start saying, “This is... fear Allah. Fear Allah. What you’re doing is…” I’m going to start to be a bit harsh with you, because the hadith is fabricated.
But you guys—I’ve got one, there’s a difference of opinion about which one came first— I’m going to be much, much, much more understanding.
Okay, inshaAllah, that has given us a bit of an idea about how we deal with different types of differences. And what’s really important is: we don’t put the wrong difference in the wrong type.
And I’ll give you a simple example of that.
Let’s just say there’s a difference about Allah’s Names and Attributes—are they real or are they metaphorical?
It’s not right for me to treat that as a valid difference.
It’s not right for me to say, “MashaAllah, you have your view and I have my view.”
No, I don’t. Because this goes against the consensus of Ahlus-Sunnah and the text of the Qur’an, the statements of the Prophet ﷺ.
So I’m going to be harsh with that. I’m going to say: “I’m sorry, you’re wrong. Fear Allah. This view is not acceptable.”
So be careful here—that you don’t put the wrong thing in the wrong place, where you’re taking a view that isn’t acceptable and saying, “Well, you know, we’re all… at the end of the day we’re all called Muhammad.”
So it doesn't matter like we're not going to go down that route if it's not an acceptable basis we're not going to treat it like that and that doesn't mean I'm going to throw Islam away from you because at the end of the day I'm still going to have a certain amount of affinity with you as a Muslim right because you're still a Muslim. I'm going to have a certain amount of affinity with you as a Muslim but I'm not going to treat that as the finger in the—for example, is it right for me to say this issue of metaphorical names of Allah is the same as the finger in the one of them is the Ahlus Sunnah that Allah is described with what He described Himself with and what the messengers described Him with in a way that's befitting to His Majesty and the other one, if you speak the tension from Ahlus Sunnah, you get four different opinions.
So for sure, I'm not going to treat those two the same. Don't put the wrong one in the wrong category and also don't fight over or what they might call differences, which are just actually they're not actually real and then you start fighting and you're fighting.
And so I give an example of that what happened with the Sahaba regarding the Quran. Umar, for example, with Surat al-Maliki Yawm ad-Deen and Maliki Yawm ad-Deen. And when Umar heard a different in Surat al-Furqan—when I think it was Surat al-Furqan, if I'm not mistaken—he heard it recited differently. So Umar, he took hold of him, dragged him to the Prophet, and he said, "This man doesn't recite the Quran properly."
The Prophet said, "Read." So he read it, and he said, "That's how it was." He said, "I'm going to read." He read it, and he said, "That's how it is." But they're both different. So this is—anyway, both of them are valid. But now you can't fight someone over that. Does that make sense? Because both of them are correct—Maliki Yawm ad-Deen and Maliki Yawm ad-Deen. One with rules and regulations—you can't just pick and choose—but with the rules of the Qiraat, both of them have a wedge in the Qiraat and both of them, the Prophet says, "I've read," so I can't now fight someone over those issues.
Jameel, so now we understood a little bit of the adab of khilaf.
Other reasons briefly because I said to you between an hour to an hour and a half, and we took an hour and about 10 minutes, so I'm just going to give five minutes to 10, and that's it.
On other reasons why we're not together: one is jealousy and bad feeling among each other. What did Allah say about the people of Jannah? We took out their enmity, their hatred, the bad feelings that were in their hearts towards each other. So whenever you have bad feelings towards your brothers, that is going to be a cause for people to lose the brotherhood, to lose unity, and to be disunited. And that could be hasad—it could be violent thinking, evil of people—it could be holding grudges.
Forgive and overlook. Don’t you want Allah to forgive you? How many times we hold things? Remember the hadith of the man from the people of Jannah. The Prophet mentioned that from this place will come a man from the people of Jannah. The man came out and the Sahaba didn’t see anything unusual about him, so one of them accompanied him for three days to watch what made him from the people of Jannah.
And they didn’t find anything unusual. Then he seemed to do the same as everybody else: pray the same prayer, fast the same fast, and do the same dhikr and read the same Quran. So he asked him, he said, "I don't know of anything except that when I go to sleep, I don’t keep in my heart anything against another Muslim."
Having an open chest and you know, having someone who doesn’t hold grudges and ill feelings and bad feelings toward each other and so on. And in fact, to be honest, in terms of the rights of your brothers, everything is there: Surah al-Adab, right? They call it Surah al-Adab—the Surah of manners and etiquette with Allah, with the Messenger ﷺ, with any of your brothers in Islam. But one of the things we learn is keep away from guessing and thinking bad of someone. Make excuses for your brother.
It's not a hadith like... and it’s a well-known thing—it’s a valid statement of the people of Islam and people of knowledge that make excuses for your brother.
And if someone maybe didn't answer the phone, didn't give you salam, walked past you—maybe he didn't see you, maybe he was busy, maybe he was mahmūm, he was sad, he was depressed, maybe anything—and don't hold it against people. And then it becomes something big.
One of the things I really love about being here in Sweden, from what I've seen from the limited what I've seen, wallahi, is I really love the feeling in the masjid of togetherness that I've been seeing in the masājid. People feel very together in the masājid.
Whereas in the UK, we are known for what? We are known for—huh—we are known... I remember I once went to one of the mashāyikh, from the major mashāyikh of our time, the big scholars of our time. I said, "Salāmu ʿalaykum, a student who's come from England." He said, "England?" And he just switched off. "You people are people of fitnah and all that, and you people bring maṣāʾib to everyone."
And it's not... if it were for Allah and in accordance with the Sunnah, it wouldn't be blameworthy like it's blameworthy when it's because of issues between people—what they call, right? Criticism of people who are the same as you, and you study together, you sat together, but you've got a personal problem with them, and you have a go at them because of something personal.
And from this, I strongly advise—and we don't have time for it but I keep advising, I must advise it all the time—is the advice of ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād al-Khawāṣ to the Ummah, in Sunan al-Dārimī. Very, very beautiful. It's translated in English as well—you can find it by typing The Advice of ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbād al-Khawāṣ to the Ummah. He talks about: don’t refute people to make yourself look good.
And he wrote that in the time of who? Sufyān al-Thawrī. In the time of Sufyān al-Thawrī—not in today's time. Don’t refute people of innovation to make yourself look good—this is your own corruption, and it's not part of what is pleasing to Allah. So people just have bad things in their hearts, and brothers got issues with each other, and then they start fighting with each other for no reason.
And it's not because of Sunnah and bidʿah, it's not because of Islam, it's not because of something coming close to Allah—it's usually because of some personal issues that this person has.
There's another type of—ʿafwān—khilāf, I forgot to mention it, and it's important. There's a final ṣūra—I meant to mention it, and it just came to my mind now—which is pure ijtihād.
What's the difference in masāʾil of pure ijtihād? There is no naṣṣ on either side. Okay? So you've got a masʾalah which there is no text on either side. This is where you can say that you can be the most relaxed in terms of who’s right and wrong.
Like for example, when the Prophet said: "Don't pray until you reach..." and the people set off and ʿAṣr time came. Some of them said, "Look, he meant for us to hurry up." And the other ones said, "No, he meant for us to pray in Banī Qurayẓah." So some of them prayed and some of them prayed over there.
Quick question: did the Prophet mean for them both to do what they did? No, clearly he didn’t. He had in his mind one thing he meant. But did any of them have an evidence over the other? They didn’t. They had the same text. It’s pure ijtihād. There’s no way to prefer one over the other. There’s no way to know which one should be preferred, except by just reasoning and thinking it through, and there’s nothing to help you on either side.
Therefore, this is the one where he didn’t blame the two for doing what they’re doing. This is when you don’t blame. It’s not the case that you don’t blame for every ikhtilāf—but when there’s nothing on either side, then you can say, “I don’t blame you and I don’t blame you.” Does that make sense?
So now there are masāʾil also—and this is why I came to this topic of brothers fighting with each other and thinking bad of each other—all the issues that are masāʾil ijtihādiyya maḥḍah—there is nothing on either side.
For example, do you go to this masjid and give a talk, for example. This is masāʾil ijtihādiyya maḥḍah—there is nothing to help you for or against. It’s taḥqīq al-manāṭ. It’s just about how do I judge it, how do you judge it, how do I see it, how do you see it?
I can be wrong. Because someone—we said the Prophet ﷺ only wanted one thing, right? So you can be wrong, right? You can be wrong—ṣaḥīḥ—you can be wrong. But you can’t blame the other person for it.
I could go to this place and they said, "Well, Muḥammad, you were wrong, wallāhi, you shouldn’t have gone." I can say, "No, I think I was right." "Do you have any text? Any ḥadīth? Āyāt?" Says, "No, but I don’t think you were right." "No, no, I think I was right." You can’t blame those two now for that. But one of them is right, one of them is wrong. But you can’t now cut off from your brother because of something that had no evidence on either side.
Does that help you make sense?
Bad thoughts, rumours, ghībah—we spoke about the etiquettes in Sūrat al-Ḥujurāt. I want to speak about a particular sin which is very, very destructive to people’s unity and togetherness, and that is the one that is mentioned in the statement of Allah ʿazza wa jall
Don't obey every ḥalaf. The one who's making a ḥalaf, swearing by this and that, and he’s lowly—he's the one who backbites and spreads rumors. Spreading rumors and gossip is one of the greatest ways, and in the major ways, why people fall into horrible disagreements with each other.
The Prophet ﷺ said that the person who spreads rumors and gossip is not going to enter Jannah. What does it mean, "not going to enter Jannah"? Who can explain that to me? Does it mean never? Let’s see, it's very important, don't make a mistake. So, I said, "Take you out of Ahlus-Sunnah," I’m going to ask you a second question.
The Prophet ﷺ said—and there are many evidences—that the person who has even an atom’s weight of iman in their heart will eventually go to Jannah. So, this person will not be... if he's a Muslim, okay, but the person said, "How do we explain?"
You're right—how do we explain and direct that statement he made? I'm going to give you an example. If he does, does it fall into a major sin? And therefore, if he constantly commits that and does not repent from it, then he will enter Jannah? So, how do we... the Prophet ﷺ is telling the truth, and what does it mean?
I think it brings it to the worst part until it is removed from him, until it’s removed from him. So, what will remove it from him? He’s died like that. It’s difficult.
There are several different ways that Ahlus-Sunnah dealt with this issue, but all of them agree that he’s not going to be... and that’s by consensus. There’s no khilāf on that. The khilāf in that is with the... and all of that, but be careful you don’t go into the view of the Murji’ah who now say, "Doesn't matter."
So, first of all, all the people who do the major sins, if Allah wills, He will forgive them, and if Allah wills, He will punish them. But the meaning of this is, he will not enter Jannah without being taken to account for this sin. He will not enter Jannah in the first group, and he was the people who enter Jannah directly. He will not enter Jannah like that.
Rather, he has to be taken to account for that sin. And if Allah wills, He will punish him, and if Allah wills, He will forgive him. There are some different variations of that, but they all came to the same idea that he’s not going to be in the fire forever.
This is a dangerous thing. Going between brothers... and the thing that scares me is some people do it by accident—not by accident, but without really knowing what they’re doing. Some people have just got a loose tongue. You know, "Oh, you know that brother, when I was with you, yeah, he said something bad about you, and I don’t think he likes you very much."
He’s just talking. His tongue is just going like full speed, but his brain is not engaged in what he’s doing. So, he’s not even trying to create hatred between them, but actually, when you see, he leaves like a tornado in his wake—broken relationships. Every time this brother is with someone, he breaks that relationship with that person. And sometimes, he doesn’t even mean it, but it just happens.
Every time you see, he spends time with him, "Oh, he’s not talking to him, he’s not talking to him..." You need to do the opposite of that. The opposite is to make islāḥ, to make peace between people.
To help—if you see brothers not together, bring them together. If you see brothers differing with each other, get hold of them. Even if you have to use tawriyah... and the scholars differed about whether you can outright lie in this, and some of them said the lying in the ḥadīth is tawriyah and you can give a false impression, and that’s better than lying. Because outright lying... even if you allow it in the ḥadīth, to outright lie to make islāḥ.
The problem is that it doesn’t really work, right? Like it makes people—one of the people gets upset. But what you need to do is use kind of an imprint, give them an impression. "Oh, I’m sure he’s not actually upset with you." You know, like, he won’t... and you keep in your mind like another situation. "Oh, he wanted to meet you three years ago," but without saying "three years ago." "He wanted to meet you. He mentioned you with good when he first met you," but without saying "when he first met you."
And you’re not lying. He mentioned, "Wallahi, he mentioned you with good," just not recently. Yeah?
And you make islāḥ like that between them until they come together and start talking to each other. And you make peace between them. And this is better than voluntary prayers, and voluntary fasting, and voluntary charity.
My brothers, I didn’t even get a quarter or a third of the way through the topic that we had, but I think we got a good start. And what I want you to take from this above everything else is that the thing that will bring us together is the Qur’an and the Sunnah and what the Sahabah were upon. And the thing that will drive us apart is anything that goes against the Qur’an and the Sunnah and what the Sahabah were upon.
All of us agree—we don’t disagree—that the Muslims need to be united, but the question is: united upon what? United for the sake of it doesn’t work, and it’s not allowed. Not only is it not allowed, but it also doesn’t work. But united upon the Qur’an, upon the Sunnah, upon what the Sahabah were upon, that is what will bring true unity.
And I want you to take the etiquettes of differing and understand the different types of differences we have between us so we don’t end up making something small into something big or something big into something small. And bear in mind the good etiquettes that you have with each other and how important they are in bringing unity between each other.
If our call is a call to the Qur’an and the Sunnah and what the Sahabah were upon, we do that with good manners, with good etiquettes and behavior. Then this is going to bring unity among the people. It’s going to bring all the people together because Allah will bring their hearts together. But however much we try to bring them together in some other way, it’s destined for failure—failure in this dunya and the akhirah. In this dunya because it doesn’t work, and in the akhirah because Allah doesn’t reward you for it.
So I hope that has made some sense, the importance of us coming together, being united, understanding why we differ with each other. If you're interested in differences in fiqh, there’s a really beautiful book, really, really helpful. If you take the book, it’s been translated into English as well: Removing the Blame from the Imams of Islam.
Basically, the book deals with the fact that the great imams of Islam who differed with each other on issues of fiqh were not blameworthy for that difference. There were reasonable grounds for them to differ, and the book explains what those reasonable grounds were. When you read that, it will increase you in love for the great imams of Islam, and it will increase your understanding of why people differ with each other and what the reasons for that are.
The Removal of Blame from the Great Imams is what it’s called in English. Sheikh Abdurrahman did a sharih (explanation) of it, so that’s even easier for you, insha’Allah.
I think that’s a nice place for us to stop, because I’ve reached my own personal time that I gave you, insha’Allah. I hope it wasn’t too long for you, insha’Allah. What I will say now is that we will open the option for Q&A. But I don’t mind if people have to go, because the Q&A sometimes, you know, not everyone is expecting to stay all night. So if people want to go, if they have some things to do, they’re busy, no problem. Just my only condition is don’t disturb the other brothers and sisters when you go, insha’Allah.
So, if you do have to head out, those who have questions, the sisters have already been given a link for YouTube. I’m going to say, I’m going to apologize, but I won’t be able to take questions from YouTube. And the reason is because we’ve got too many questions here in the masjid, and it’s not fair for us to then give preference to the questions that are going to come from YouTube.
If you want to put questions in the comments, you’re welcome, and we’ll consider them and ask the AMAU team to gather them together and maybe answer them in a video later on. But we won’t be answering questions from YouTube now. Instead, we’re going to answer the questions from here.
I need to find out... one second. I need to put the sisters' questions on, and I’m going to take one from the brothers, one from the sisters—just like that. Not like I did yesterday, when I didn’t do a good job, just put the questions in front of me... one second.
That’s the same one as yesterday. Mine took me to the same one as yesterday. It’s because this one has 13 questions.
My brothers, if you are going to go, remember my condition, huh? You have to go quietly, huh? So we get a chance to answer the questions for the people, insha’Allah.
I’ll take a question from the sisters first. I’m going to take the most relevant questions. Okay, here’s a question: How do we help guide people who we see gravitate to evil people and have an aversion to Ahlus-Sunnah and the advice of the people of knowledge, besides du‘a? It’s a very beautiful question.
So you see someone’s going towards evil people and maybe they have a bit of an aversion towards Ahlus-Sunnah, we need to understand the statement of Allah: “Good deeds and bad deeds are not equal. Respond in the way that is better...” (41:34).
What we want to do is to have great manners with them, to really explain to them with hikmah and to show them the beauty of the Sunnah and the Qur’an, the beauty of practicing Islam properly. If we are going to challenge them, which is fine, we can challenge them, but always in the best possible way. So, we leave them in a position where even if they don’t like what we say, they like the way we said it. Does that make sense? They might not like what we say, but they respect the way we said it. They feel that, “Okay, you said that in a nice way, and I at least respect you for that.”
Always approach them with softness and kindness, because you didn’t call someone an evil person who’s calling to evil. This person is gravitating towards something bad, so they need softness and kindness. That softness, kindness, and gentleness will eventually wear them down, and they’ll become like your closest friend. And then, as Allah said, “The only people who are going to get it are the people who are patient” because it’s very hard to do. When someone has been difficult with you and has been a pain with you, it’s hard to be patient with them. But the person who has a huge portion of good from Allah, that’s a fortunate person.
And if the shaytaan makes you slip, sometimes it happens, right? Sometimes you aim to be really good, and you know what’s right, but you just lose your temper. First, what you need to do is know your own religion well. You need to know the views of Ahlus-Sunnah well, so you can present them in a beautiful way. Because if you don’t know them well, you might not present them correctly, and the worst thing is when you try and present them and don’t know how, which gives a wrong impression of Islam to someone.
That’s something to bear in mind, insha’Allah.
Now, from the brothers, I’ll push the questions that are relevant. I love all the questions, but I just want to start with the ones that are directly applicable. Here’s one question: What can you do to avoid idealizing someone, be it someone who has a lot of knowledge, maybe a celebrity, or an athlete, or someone else?
That’s a beautiful question. I really like that question. What can you do to stop, for want of a better word, idolizing people—whether it’s a person of knowledge, a celebrity, an athlete, or anyone else? The first thing you need to understand is that all of this comes back to the hadith of Aisha: “We were commanded to put everyone in their proper place.”
Now, let’s just think for a second about what that proper place is. If we’re talking about a non-Muslim, like a celebrity, a sports person, or whatever, then what is the place of a non-Muslim in regard to a Muslim? If we’re talking about someone who’s openly committing haram and doing evil, what place does that person have in terms of Islam and iman—love and hate? If that person is ignorant (jahil) and doesn’t have good knowledge of Islam, and they’re making mistakes left and right, each one of them has a place on the scale.
But the most difficult one is when your love for them and admiration for them is actually because of their practicing of Islam. That’s the hard one because there, you’re supposed to love them, but also recognize their proper place. So, let’s talk about knowledge. In knowledge, we have many differences: we have very senior scholars, junior scholars, students of knowledge who are more senior, and others who are more junior.
The hadith of Aisha tells us that each one of them has to go in their proper place. So, if I take a junior student of knowledge and make them into the big scholar of the Ummah, this is dhulm—I’ve put something in the wrong place. So, even if I love that person for their knowledge, I need to recognize where they fit in the scale of righteousness or knowledge.
Even if we see them as one of the most knowledgeable people of their time, we should compare that to the people of the past. One of the great ways you can actually put people on the scale is to read the biographies of the people of the past, the righteous ones. You’ll see that no one in our time even comes close to those people—not even the Prophet ﷺ.
You’ll really feel that you’re putting people in their proper place, according to the Qur’an and the Sunnah. And when it comes to love for someone, bear in mind their commitment to the religion, but also keep in mind the knowledge of the past. We can see that the knowledge we have today is very limited.
A good book on this subject is The Virtue of the Knowledge of the Older People Over the People Who Came Afterwards
You see that the people today, our knowledge is very small compared to the knowledge of the people who came before, and Allah is the best. Okay, if I feel distant from people who are religious, how do I figure out what in me is causing this? That’s a very, very profound question. How do I get rid of it?
I think this has to come with something that we call muraqabah. The evidence for it is the statement of Allah, “You have to really look at your soul and yourself.” And ask yourself, is it because some good people treat you badly? Maybe that can happen, but that doesn’t mean all people. Right? Like, if some— it’s true that some people might, but is it because maybe you were doing some things wrong and when you met those good people, they had a distance from you because they saw you doing some things wrong, and you felt offended by that? You have to look deep into your soul and ask yourself, “What is the reason why I feel like that?” Be honest. And in it, you have to blame yourself. You have to say, “You can’t blame them.” It doesn’t mean they’re not blameworthy; they might be blameworthy as well. But you have to blame yourself because it doesn’t work unless you blame yourself. You have to say, “Okay, if I was wrong, why?”
Let’s presume I’m wrong in why I don’t like these people. Why is it? Is it because I feel like they’re looking down on me? Is it because I feel like—what’s the word?—I feel inferior? I don’t feel good enough to be with them? Is it because I feel jealousy? Is it because they treated me badly or didn’t explain things to me? Then realize that there’s no solution except to be with righteous people.
It could be that the people you were thinking are righteous might not have been. And what I mean by that is their manners might have been bad, or something like that. In which case, the more you learn about Islam, you actually learn what’s good and what isn’t. You study and realize that actually, to be honest, the way they dealt with me wasn’t necessarily good. For example, it could be that someone came in as a new Muslim, wasn’t necessarily dressed properly, and maybe the people were harsh with them, but they didn’t explain to them properly. They didn’t understand. So, that could be the fault of the religious people. But you have to be honest and look at yourself, and then you have to see, “What can I do to change it?”
First of all, to change it, remember that your love for these people is from the love of Allah. So don’t think about it as, “I have to love Abdullah and Zaid because it’s Abdullah and Zaid.” But actually, look at it and say, “I have to love that person because I love Allah, and I hope that Allah loves that Abdullah and Zaid. And if Allah loves them, that’s enough for me.” It’s like, you know, when human beings, someone gets married and they start changing all of their opinions. Right? They start saying, “Oh, well, you know, my wife likes it, or my wife tells me to do it.” He’s literally saying, like, out of a love for her, even things he doesn’t like doing, he’ll do them. And that’s a human being. I mean, you love someone to the extent that you’re willing to do things that you wouldn’t otherwise do. You eat things you don’t really like eating, you wear things you don’t really like wearing, you go and do stuff, and you say, “Oh, she likes it.”
The reason I’m saying that is for you to understand: if that is human love, what do you think about the love of Allah (Subhanahu wa Ta’ala)? If you really love Allah, that means you have to love the things that Allah loves. The strongest handhold of iman is loving what Allah loves and hating what Allah hates. So, you have to say, “If I really love Allah, I’m going to love those people, even if my soul doesn’t really incline towards them, but I’m still going to sit with them and be with them because I love Allah.” And Allah knows best.
I’m not missing out the brothers, but you know what it is, you guys can ask questions as well at other times. I want to see some of the brothers here. It’s a beautiful number of questions, and I get—I’ll have to give some context in that.
Yeah, so alhamdulillah, you know, in my school, and we’ve had the opportunity to have Juma and so on, and alhamdulillah, I am the one who is leading the Juma and all that. Amazing! And therefore, I meet people all the time in the school, and they ask me questions and stuff like that.
So, in my school, we have people who have gone away from the people by making takfir of rulers, okay? And even the biggest imams of our generation. So, I just want to ask, how do we speak to them in a way that doesn’t make them act defensively, but also, like, to say to them that if they keep up with this kind of behavior, they will bring their own destruction upon themselves by making takfir?
So, the first thing is that these beliefs came from the beliefs of the Khawarij. There’s a beautiful example in the discussion that Abdullah ibn Abbas had with the Khawarij, which brought many of them back. So, look at it. Read the discussion that happened between Abdullah ibn Abbas and the Khawarij when many of them returned back to the Sunnah. Look at not necessarily the argument used, because there could be a different situation today, but the way he discusses with them.
The first thing I would say is that you want to try to start from a common base, which is hard, but you want to start with, “Okay, like Allah Azza wa Jal said: [Say, 'O People of the Scripture, come to a word that is equitable between us and you, that we will worship none but Allah...']” (3:64). So you say, “Look, you and me don’t we both agree that the Qur’an is the speech of Allah, that it was sent down, that it’s not created, and that it is guidance for mankind? We believe it, right? You with me on that?”
Okay, at least we have something together. Now, you believe in the Sunnah of the Messenger (Sallallahu Alayhi wa Sallam), and that’s interesting about the Khawarij of today: they do believe, generally, in the Sunnah. They’re not like the Khawarij of the past, who would say, “We don’t believe in the Sunnah.” They believe in the Sunnah, most of them.
Okay, see, now, I’m not going to tell you about my scholars; there’s no point in me telling you that Shaykh Salih al-Fawzan said this is misguidance, or Shaykh Ibn Baaz said it’s wrong. The point is, because the person’s going to say, “I believe they’re kafir,” okay? So, we don’t have any way to talk about scholars. We’re going to say, “We agree on the Qur’an. We agree on the Sunnah. Could you give me an example of scholars of Islam from the past that you and me both agree?”
So, if you give me some takfiri scholar of today, I’m sorry, I’m going to say the same thing you say to me: Not quite because we don’t make takfir of them like they make takfir of us.
But I'm going to say I'm not going to take, like you're not going to take from Shaykh Bin Baaz, I'm not going to take from your takfiri Shaykh either. Who can we agree upon? What do you think about Shaykh al-Islam? They might say yes. What do you think about the imams of Islam?
Okay, so if I can come to you with Qur'an and Sunnah and the tafsir of the early generation, I'm not going to bring you any modern tafsir. I'm not going to bring you tafsir al-Sa'di or tafsir al-Shaykh. I'm going to bring you tafsir, and I'm going to bring you tafsir al-Baghawi and al-Qurtubi and Ibn Kathir, and I'm going to bring you tafsir Ibn al-Qayyim.
Would you accept that those people were not sellouts, they were not scholars for dollars, they were genuine? Would you accept it if I bring you a hadith and the sharh of these great scholars like Ibn Rajab and these great scholars of Islam?
Would you accept it? So, the person has to say yes. If they say no, we believe they were kafir, is going to say that, okay, you just don't want to tell me who wasn't kafir. Now, can we go backwards? Find me someone who wasn't kafir, but honestly, usually they'll say yes.
So, I say, okay, when our discussion is not going to go out of that, I'm not going to mention to you a single thing from anyone, I'm not going to mention to you from modern times and you're not going to mention to me from yours either. We're going to go back on the ones we agree upon and we're going to look at these issues with an open heart.
But just tell me one thing, my brother, say to him, please one thing, just promise me that you really do want the truth. If you just want to make takfir of everyone, actually these people sometimes you put two of them in a room they make takfir of each other. If you put one in a room, if there's a mirror, he'll make takfir of himself. Okay, this day of destructive people, very, very.
So, you say to me, look, if you're not, if you don't want the truth, there's nothing I can do for you. I can't talk to you, I can just say salam to you. I'm gonna ask Allah to forgive you because I can't do anything for you if you are not, if you don't want the truth. I'm not saying you want my view, but if you say to me, if you bring me the truth, I will accept it, then I will say I'm ready to engage with you, discuss with you on that basis.
If you say to me that I'll never take the truth from you, I'm gonna say, so what can I say? It's not going to do anything for me. But he says, yeah, I'll take the truth even from me, even from you, even if it comes from my mouth, you'll take it. I'll take it, ayat, ahadith, tafsir from the earliest scholars and bring it nicely, easily present it and don't feel it's not, don't feel you have to go back and forward quickly.
I don't like that with anyone. I mean me personally, if you've got a lot of knowledge maybe it's true, like I don't feel I have enough knowledge like that, you know, it's just like instant like back and forward like that. Like I personally say I'll write for you maybe, like I'll write down some things, you take a look, give it some consideration, think about it, consider it, you write to me some things, I'll consider it, I'll think about it, and then write to me.
What you're going to find is they get a lot hooked up on emotional arguments and modern day things. They're imprisoning the ulema. Sometimes you need to step back and say, first of all, when we're not, the discussion is not about imprisoning the ulema today, the discussion is about the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. We're not, we haven't got to the issue of imprisoning the ulema yet.
But okay, imprisoning the ulema, I want you to tell me, my dear brother, let's just say it's true all the ulema in prison, right? There's not one alim out of prison, they're all in prison. Is this kufr? He's gone from the religion of Islam. He has to say no, it's not kufr. Because on what basis is it kufr? I don't even accept the idea that the scholars are being thrown in jail everywhere around the world, but like if they are, like look at the example, take it back to Ibn Taymiyyah.
The people who imprisoned Ibn Taymiyyah, he spent all his, so much of his life in prison, did he consider them to be kafir because they put him in prison? So, you take these issues one by one, and there's a very beautiful principle I'll finish on this that I deal with takfir in, I think it's four stages. The first thing I say is four questions you have to ask on every masalah of takfir.
Question number one is: is it true? Okay, you have to write these questions, important, huh? Find any space, just write it small, this small, this small, no problem, anywhere, anywhere in the margin. Question number one: is it true? This question, the purpose is to ask, you know, I want to question the incident you're bringing to me, is it true? Your leader prostrated to an idol. My first question is: is it true? And if you're going to bring me the news of some CNN, I'm sorry, CNN is not, doesn't match the ayah. Is it true?
Number two is: is it kufr? Because a lot of times it might be true, but it's not actually kufr. Your ruler buys things from the yahood, okay, but is buying things from the yahood by itself kufr? Is that an act in any madhab, from the madhab, in any call from the fuqaha? Is it kufr?
Next question: Sometimes, not even – is it kufr? Sometimes, it's not even sinful. Some certain things they may do, like diplomatic relations between countries. They say, "See, they've got diplomatic relations with America," but that in itself is not even haram, let alone kufr. You know, according to the madhab, I mean, it's allowed for the ruler, right, to make relations with whoever he wants, and to have contracts, allegiances, and get support from one, and not from another. Anyway, that's another issue.
The third question we ask, so we presume it's true and it's kufr: Is that how I can word it easily in a short way? We'd say, "Is he kafir?" But it might not work like that with them. But basically, we're saying that not every action of kufr makes someone kafir. Rather, there are rules again in the madhab. The madhab will have it right – bab al-ridda, the chapter of apostasy. There are rules that you take from kufr to kafir, and there are examples from the hadith and many things.
By the way, in the second point, you can bring the hadith of, for example, Hatib when he betrayed the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet ﷺ said, "I forgave you because you participated in Badr." That can't be kufr, right? You can't forgive kufr because you took part in Badr. Does that make sense? You can't forgive kufr because you took part in the Battle of Badr. So, what would it be? It's the hadith of Hatib, just write "Hatib," easy, it's famous.
The third part was: Is there a proof that that kufr took the person to the level of kafir? And for that, there are conditions like knowledge, free will, free choice, and a lack of confusion. Because confusion, the principle is al-hudud. So if there's confusion in something, like if someone is confused about something or mixed up, we're not going to apply the rule of kafir to them. We can say you fell into kufr, but we're not going to say kafir if you were confused about it or had a doubt about it.
So, those kinds of points, and there are some other ones to add, it's a very nice way of dealing with it bit by bit. But all you can do is go back to the early scholars. Don't go into any discussion about rulers of today or scholars of today. Because the more you do it, you're just going to get caught up in emotional arguments. Talk about a thousand years ago, you know, 800 years ago, and you'll be on much more solid footing, inshallah.
Okay, what I'm going to do is, because I know we only have a few minutes and I know we have to finish, inshallah, so what I'm going to do is, again, I'm terrible with questions because I always take far too long. I'm going to zoom through two or three from the sisters that I thought were important. Why? I'll give precedence to the sisters, as the brothers can ask us as we're packing up and going out, inshallah.
So, how do you bring your family closer to Islam? The first thing is make them love Allah. Make them love Allah. Make them love Islam. Show them the beauty of Islam. Make dua for them. Encourage them gently. Give them priorities, the most important thing first, and always show them the best side of Islam, even if they don't show you the best side, and Allah knows best.
How can you go about and seek more knowledge as a woman? Wallahi, I think, as I said in one of my lectures, three ways I'll summarize because it's in another lecture. The first one is you can study in the local masajid, in the provision that is there for women today. Number two is you can study online. Number three is that your mahram facilitates for you to study. So that is either taking you, or you marry a brother who wants to study, or you have your father as a person of knowledge, or, you know, your father takes you to a person of knowledge. Does that make sense? Those are the three that I think are the most important.
I just reverted. What are the best tips you can give us reverts? Really simple. I'm going to give you just a few really basic tips. Number one: Learn something new every day about Islam. Don't ever stop learning. If you stop learning, you're only going to slip backwards and go in the wrong direction. Number two: Every time you learn something, try to put it into practice. Just try, even if you struggle, even if it's hard. But you learn something, just try to put it into practice. Number three: Surround yourself with good people because people are like flocks of birds, like Shaykh al-Islam said, and they copy each other, right? So if you're around good people, inshallah, you're going to be a good person, and you're going to be someone who's bringing good. And if you're someone who's around, you know, maybe non-Muslims or non-practicing Muslims, it's really hard. It's possible, but it's really, really hard.
And then I would say, the first thing that you should learn in this religion after learning the basics of what Islam is, is to learn how to pray. And I think if I give you that advice, I have a full new Muslim course. I'm sure locally you guys have it, but in case it's of benefit, you can go to academy.islamicic.com – academy.islamicic, as in Islamic Information Center, shortened, academy.islamicic.com – and it's free courses for new Muslims like "First Day in Islam," and, you know, marriage and fasting, and then more advanced topics, inshallah.
And AMAU, inshallah, is going to be making some content like that, but for now, that's where you can find it, inshallah.
One question left. I really, really want to address this because I think it's very relevant to the topic: If I meet a new person and immediately I don't like them, am I a bad person for not liking them? We're going to finish with this one, inshallah.
So, the first thing is that you're not blameworthy for what you can't control. You're not blameworthy for a natural feeling, but you are blameworthy for what you do about it. So, if I meet a lovely brother, a practicing brother, and my first reaction is, "I don't really like him," I'm not blameworthy for that, inshallah. But if I feel that way, the first thing I'm going to say is: whether I like him or not, he's my brother. I'm going to give him his rights. I'm going to love him for Allah. I'm going to recognize his commitment to the religion, and I will love him for that, even if on a personal level maybe he's not my favorite person. But maybe he feels the same way about me, and that's fine.
So, you're blameworthy for what you do after that, but you're not blameworthy for your natural inclinations. And that's like the ayahs regarding justice between wives and things like that when it comes to people, relationships, and matters of the heart. Even if you try your very best, you would not be able to be completely just with people. But how you act on it is what matters, and Allah knows best.
Okay, I've got a suggestion. Now I've got two days' worth of questions on two separate things, and I wonder if maybe later on I might be able to get hold of maybe Sheikh Mosa or one of the other brothers, and maybe we could try to go through these questions in a video, inshallah, and upload it. Because I really, really value the questions you asked us. They're so good, and if I skipped your questions, sisters, I didn't do it for any other reason than just trying to give everyone a fair share and prioritize the things that most relate to the lectures. That is what Allah azawajal made easy for me to mention, and Allah azawajal knows best.
That's the end of the sitting for us.
