Note: The following transcript was generated using AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Bismillahi wassalatu wassalamu ala rasoolillahi salallahu alayhi wasallam amma ba'da salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Brothers and sisters, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you and to introduce you to a brand new show and a brand new podcast called The Hot Seat. To understand a little bit more about The Hot Seat, we first have to understand the context of the modern day world we find ourselves living in in the year 2019. It is a world in which perhaps, perhaps there are more doubts, misconceptions and misinterpretations that are thrown around about the religion of Islam than in any other period of time in the history of mankind.
The internet is the number one source used by people globally to acquire information on any topic and it is riddled and full of false notions and erroneous ideologies about the Deen of Allah. Our kids, ourselves are being exposed to this kind of information on a daily and if not daily then at the very least weekly basis and whether we know it or not, whether we choose to accept it or not, it is having an effect on ourselves, our hearts, our minds and ultimately our understanding of this beautiful religion. To further complicate the problem, many of us find ourselves living in western societies where the governments and the social norms and pressures are constantly trying to redefine what is good and what is bad, what is accepted and what is rejected, what Islam is and is allowed to be and what Islam is never allowed to be.
All of this, my brothers and sisters, ultimately leads to confusion, it leads to ignorance and if Allah permits, it can lead to misguidance. The Hot Seat has therefore been designed with the permission of Allah alone to counter these kind of modern day, contemporary issues head on by using the knowledge and the guidance of the Muslims of the past, the early generations of Muslims, the best of generations. There's not a single Muslim on the face of the planet today that would doubt the fact that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala completed our religion for us over 1400 years ago and that that completed, holistic, perfect religion is just as applicable now in the year 2019 as it was back then.
We truly do have classical solutions for contemporary problems. However, this isn't your normal, average Islamic lecture series. First of all, it's not a lecture.
It's a discussion between two parties, often opposing parties, in an attempt to reach the truth, bi'idhnillah. And secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it's a unique, one-of-its-kind, interactive podcast where you, from the comfort of your own home, have the opportunity to vote for and to choose the topic we'll be discussing on the show. You also have the chance to ask your own questions on these contemporary issues and to grill the speaker if you feel like he hasn't been grilled enough on the show itself.
I'll be releasing details of how you can do both of those things at the end of this episode. But for now, without any further ado, let's get into this episode of The Hot Seat. As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuhu wa-alaykum wa-salāmu wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuhu JazakAllahu khayran for joining me once again.
And we're here to discuss the second part of your journey to seeking Islamic knowledge. And I think where we left it before was when you were in Egypt. So after Egypt, where did you go next? Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, lahu alhamdul hasan wa thana'u aljameel, wa ashadu an la ilaha illa Allah, wahadahu la sharika lah, wa ashadu anna muhammadan abduhu wa rasuluhu amma ba'd.
After studying and learning in Egypt, I went to Saudi Arabia, and when I went to Saudi Arabia, my uncle lived there, Shaykh Musa Tahir Awais, who is the younger brother of Dr. Ahmad Tahir Awais. So I lived with him. And whilst I stayed with him, I studied with him the Kitab Nuhbatul Fikr Fi Mustalahi Ahlul Athar by Ibn Hajar.
And I really benefited a lot from him. He really understood the book very well. Okay.
Because that was his speciality. And he was in the same class as Dr. Abdullah Al-Bukhari. Oh, wow, okay.
So they were studying together in the Jamia. In Medina. In Medina, Jamia Islamia, Medina.
I also studied with him the Kitab on Ilmul Mawarith written by Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen in inheritance. Also, the Kitab Aqidatul Tahawiyah we studied. And we also did the Risalah Ibn Abi Zayd Al-Qayrawani as well.
I did a couple of Risalah for me. I benefited from him. And we also used to read in Ramadan together the Tafsir of Shaykh Abdur Rahman Nasir Al-Sa'di.
We used to read it together. We also used to go together, me and him, to the house of a Shaykh in Jeddah, who's one of the prominent Shaykh of our country. He lived in Jeddah at that time.
He recently died. Shaykh Abdur Rahman Nasir Al-Sa'di was considered to be one of the prominent Shaykhs, prominent scholars of our country, a master in Hadith, to be honest. I also used to go to the Durs of Shaykh Yahya Al-Mudarris.
Shaykh Yahya Al-Mudarris, as I mentioned, I took with him the Kitab Fathul Majeed, which was the Sharh of Kitab Al-Tawheed. And he used to read the Kitab Al-Minhaj, which is the Sharh of the Kitab Sahih Muslim Ibn Al-Hajjaj. Al-Imam Al-Nawi, he wrote a Kitab called Al-Minhaj, which he named it to explain Sahih Muslim.
There's a Kitab called Al-Minhaj in Fiqh Al-Shafi'i and there's a Kitab called Al-Minhaj, which is the Sharh of Sahih Muslims. So Shaykh Yahya Al-Mudarris used to teach. I used to sit in the Durs of Shaykh Abdul Rahman Al-Ajlan.
It was a Fiqh. He used to teach the Kitab Rawd Al-Murbi'ah. I came from the Kitab Zakat he was teaching to the end.
Okay. I benefited from him as well. And I came to know about him by going to one of the Durs of Shaykh Yahya Al-Mudarris.
And he said when he was asked a Fiqh question, he goes to the person, go to Shaykh Abdul Rahman Al-Ajlan. And I said, who's this Abdul Rahman Al-Ajlan? So then I went, I heard about him. And I was told that, you know, I overheard Shaykh say that.
So I went and SubhanAllah, I had the Durs, I listened. And SubhanAllah, his understanding of Fiqh was very powerful. After Taraweeh would finish, I would sit down and I'd listen to Shaykh Luhaydan.
Anyone who knows Shaykh Luhaydan would sit in the Haram after Taraweeh, after everything in Ramadan, he'd be given a seat right in front of the Ka'bah. Literally, on the white floor, he would sit there. And he would answer, he'd give a little 10, 15, 20 minutes lecture.
He'd choose a Mughdoor. And then he would answer people's questions. Sorry.
Also, the days that Shaykh Luhaydan wasn't doing the question and answers, Shaykh Sa'ad Nashidri had a Jalsa. So that's the first time I heard about Shaykh Sa'ad Nashidri. I overheard him on one of the radios, the speakers in the Haram, in Ramadan.
This man answering questions and his voice and the way he talks. So when I heard it, I listened. I sat down and I listened to him.
And I was amazed at the way he was answering it. And so then the second day when it came on again, I tried to look for him in the Haram. I don't know where he's located, but I can just hear his voice from the speaker.
So I saw him and my honor, my respect for him grew even more. Then I planned to meet the senior scholars. I thought, you know, it's time to meet Shaykh Fauzan.
Shaykh Fauzan came a couple of times to the Haram, so I saw him. But I wanted to benefit from him. So there was a Doura that was done in Ta'if.
They used to do a Doura in Ta'if. The Hayat-e Kibar-ul-Ridaman would come down and they would go through books. So I took with Shaykh Fauzan the Sharh-ul-Kitab-e-Adab-ul-Mashi by Shaykh Muhammad Abdul-Hab.
Kitab-ul-Tawheed he explained as well. The love I had for Shaykh Fauzan was the haybah and how honorable, the way he carried himself and the way he was. This is Shaykh Saleh al-Fauzan, right? Shaykh Saleh al-Fauzan, Kitab-ul-Tawheed he explained.
He explained a little Rasai-ul-Aqeedah. I also studied with him the Kitab-ul-Mumtah-ul-Adab by Abdul Ghawi al-Mardawi. But, you know, I came from Somalia where, you know, you explain the Hamish, the Hawashi, the footnotes, everything is explained.
Shaykh Fauzan just gives two or three pages is read on him and he just gives a little ta'alik. I see, okay, okay. So, I really missed those, you know, explanations, those detailed explanations that I was used to.
My teachers would, they would do i'rab of the Hamish and the footnotes. They would do i'rab of the chaptering and the name of the chaptering, you see. So, I was kind of used to that.
So, when I came to the Mamlukah and I saw scholars, you know, paragraphs are read, pages is read and then he just is quiet, he's listening and then he gives like, you know, two minutes he talks and then he carries on. It's a different style to what you're used to. But something else I benefited from that which was, subhanAllahi, that even though he wasn't saying much, he was saying much.
Oh, I see. The power in his words was very powerful. Yeah, it was small in words but it was a lot.
The fact that you could see in Fauzan's su'al and jawab and the questions and answers that he would give, but ma'adhalik he won't contradict himself because he doesn't speak too much. His kalam is mubabit, it's to the point. And he would answer the way he thought was necessary.
Like he wouldn't be controlled by the questioner. Sometimes you felt, you'd feel Shaykh Fauzan was not answering the question. But that's the wisdom you learn from the way he answers.
I remember one time the questioner asked him a question and then he answered it. Oh, he answered it. Yeah.
And the questioner felt that he didn't answer it so he asked again and he said, ajab to it. You know, I've answered it, just move on to the next question. Um, so I saw those shuyukhs and I benefited from them.
Even the mufti came down, he read some kutubs I listened to. And I always tried my best, you know, when I went to those durus, if they started to box out, finish with them. Until I came into contact with one Shaykh I truly love who helped me a lot, Shaykh Abdul Kareem Al-Khudair.
Okay. There's a story between me and Shaykh Abdul Kareem Al-Khudair. I had an issue in Saudi Arabia where I was in a particular city and I couldn't be relocated to another city.
I wanted my family to be taken with me. So I called Shaykh Abdul Kareem Al-Khudair and I told him, Shaykh, I'm having a slight issue and I want to leave this city and I want to go to this city. But I'm not able to go because they won't let my wife go.
So I'm having a slight issue. Can something be done, Shaykh? And I said to him, Shaykh, if I don't get what I need, it may cause me to go back to the UK. Right, okay.
So the Shaykh said to me, no, no, don't go to the Bilad Al-Kufra. Don't go to the land of the disbelievers. Let me see what I can do for you, Shaykh Abdul Kareem Al-Khudair.
Let me see what I can do for you. And he listened to my complaint for as long and I said, no problem, no problem, no problem. So Alhamdulillah, he gave my affairs to one of the people who work with him in his project right now.
It's called Ma'alim Al-Sunan that he has, Shaykh Abdul Kareem Al-Khudair. So he passed it over to that brother. His name's called Ibrahim Al-Fawzana, brother.
He was dealing with my situation, but it just amazed me the way he cared about me and he said to me, don't go back. Stay in the Malacca. This is your country.
I remember that. He said that to me. So this is your country.
He said to me, this is the country of every Muslim. It's the country of every Muslim. This is their country.
You stay here. Stay in Haramain. Stay, don't leave.
You can remember how many years roughly you were in Saudi Arabia? I can't remember exactly, but maybe three to four years if you add all of it together. And who from the Shuyukh had the biggest effect on you? Is it Shaykh Abdul Kareem Al-Khudair or is it someone else? Every Shaykh, I benefited something from him. Like every Shaykh, there was something I benefited from him.
Shaykh Fawzana, I benefited from his tabat, how firm he was. Like I saw his fatwas to be consistent, continuous. He was a man who didn't change over time.
And I realized why Allah honored him, subhanahu wa ta'ala, and gave him the station he gave him. Even though I personally saw people go into more explanations, more ta'liqat, more shuruh, more detailed things. And he wouldn't do that much.
But it was just the honor Allah gave him, subhanahu wa ta'ala. So it had to have been his tabat al-haq, how firm he was and how firm he is upon the truth. And it's true.
Anyone who listens to Shaykh Fawzana 10, 15, 20 years ago and listens to him today, time hasn't changed him. Situations haven't changed him. His fatwas are still the same.
He's a man of principles. Yeah. Hudaifah said, Don't change the colors and, you know, change from one situation to another situation.
And you keep changing all day. Every day your fatwas are just changing, changing, changing. And you call it, I'm experiencing.
No, you're not experiencing. It's not a sign of experience. It's actually, you're not grounded.
So you're jumping from one opinion to another opinion. The end of the athar is. He said, The religion of Allah is only one.
So every day you're upon a new religion. Either you're false before, you're false now, or you're going to be false in the future. We just keep changing.
Yeah. I mean, they use the argument that some people say that, you know, Imam al-Shafi'i changed his madhab. But he didn't change his masdar al-talaqi, for instance.
He only changed opinions here and there. You see, he changed opinions here and there. Some of the scholars actually said that when he changed from what he was upon, it was so little.
And it was fiqh issues that his observation changed. But we're finding people, subhanAllah, changing in their mu'taqad and in their manhaj. And aqeedah doesn't change.
You know, it doesn't change. So anyways, Sheikh Fauzan, what amazed me about him was how consistent and continuous he was in what he called to. He also amazed me with, you know, when you're seeking knowledge, you keep hearing the same evidence.
You think to yourself, I heard that one. I want to hear a new one. And it's a sad reality that happens to many students of knowledge.
May Allah protect us and give us sincerity. Ameen. So I found that Sheikh Fauzan would take those evidence and still use it.
Show you, subhanAllah, that it's not about new dalil or anything. He's been learning and teaching for decades. For decades.
Wow. So you'd sit in a lecture, and you'd be using all the evidences that you most likely could use yourself. You see, but in a way, sometimes it was very ajeeb, like amazing the way he'd use it.
Yeah, it was always amazing the way he'd put those orders in the order of the evidences, the way he would structure them out, the way he would use it for a particular issue that you'd think, hmm, I know that evidence, but I've never seen it in that light. So, yeah, the simplicity of his lectures. SubhanAllah.
I remember you said before as well, his Quran is very strong. Yeah, Sheikh Fauzan's Quran. Quran is one of the ulema who have the Quran.
It's strong. It's on his tongue. Whenever he needs it, he uses it.
So he amazed me when I saw him. Really, I was amazed by him. Another Sheikh I was amazed with that I saw was Abdul Kareem Sheikh Abdul Kareem al-Qudair, no doubt.
Sheikh Abdul Kareem al-Qudair, he does a dars, and in his dars, he's got volumes of books. And even one time I saw him teaching Kitab al-Muwafaqat by Imam al-Shati, and he had a manuscript. Original manuscript.
Wow. That was there on the table for him. And he's reading from it.
He's looking at that. He's looking at this. So I think it was 20 something years.
He was teaching Tafsir al-Qurtubi. Wow. And he said that three people were reading on him.
Two people died or something. In the third person. And he said, today, there's no one who never missed one class except the muezzin.
SubhanAllah. Yeah. So he says that he teaches a book, not for the purpose to finish it.
He just carries on whatever benefit you can get from it. And his lessons go on for long, long, long, long. So he amazed me in terms of his knowledge.
Amazed me. Wallahi haqiqatan, his ilm and his rusukh, and how grounded he is. He's a person you can listen to for hours, Sheikh Abdul Kareem al-Qudair.
And you will just get so much, so much khawa'it from him. The scholar that amazed me is Sheikh Abdul Razzaq al-Badr. Yeah.
Abdul Mohsen Abad's son, Sheikh Abdul Razzaq al-Badr amazed me. Truly amazed me. And what he amazed me with is the way he carries himself.
I've heard many people say this, actually. Sheikh Abdul Razzaq al-Badr has the samt al-alim. He has the samt.
The way he carries himself is the way an alim should carry himself. I was told by one brother, Sheikh Abdul Razzaq al-Badr, what made a change in his life and made him the way he is. And pushed him to become even, you know, he doesn't lose his composure.
Like, always consistent in the way he carries himself. I heard it was when he, because he did his majester, I think it was, I think it was majester. His master's.
Okay. He did it on the life of Abdul Rahman Nasir al-Sayyidi. So he has the biggest book on the life of Abdul Rahman Nasir al-Sayyidi.
And he mentions the life of this imam and then this impacted his life, I heard. Wow. And then when he wrote that book, it just made the Sheikh's life change.
That's what I heard. Some trustworthy brother told me that this changed his life. So whenever I saw Sheikh Abdul Razzaq al-Badr, it always amazed me the way he carried himself, the way he talked.
You know, recently he was meant to come to the UAE, remember? He was meant to come and visit us. And SubhanAllah, one brother contacted him and said to him, Sheikh, you know, why haven't you come to the UAE? Why have you missed the lecture that was organized for you? And he said, I couldn't come because of my mother. You see.
Allah says, And here it's just for the benefit? It's like Allah mentions his rights and then he mentions the rights of the parents. The man came to the Prophet and said, O Messenger of Allah, which actually is most beloved to Allah. And the Prophet said, And then the man said, Then the Prophet said, So Salah, again Allah's rights and then the obedience of the parents.
So it amazed me that at that age, you know, he's still obedient to his parents. And anyone who has a very close relationship with Sheikh Abdul Razzaq al-Badr knows, how obedient he is to his father. I saw one time with my eyes, I saw Sheikh Abdul Razzaq al-Badr, Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Abad, the grandfather of Sheikh Abdul Razzaq, I think it was, the grandson of Abdul Razzaq's grandson, four generations working together.
So Abdul Mohsen's father, Abdul Mohsen Abad himself, Sheikh Abdul Razzaq, Sheikh Abdul Razzaq's son and Abdul Razzaq's son's son. So five generations. Five generations, yeah.
Wow, subhanAllah. So five generations all together. And guess who was pushing the wheelchair of Sheikh Abdul Razzaq, Abdul Mohsen Abad? His son, Abdul Razzaq.
He's pushing it. So yeah, he amazed me, his composure, the way he was, the way he carried himself. It amazed me.
Another Sheikh that really amazed me about how he is, is Sheikh Muhammad Mukhtar al-Shanqirti as well. Sheikh Muhammad Mukhtar al-Shanqirti is an abid, waria, zahid, taqi, haqiqatan. Sheikh Muhammad Mukhtar al-Shanqirti, reliable brothers told me they saw him in hajj, helping the fuqra.
Wow. And he covered, you know. The poor people.
Yeah, yeah, hiding from the people. But you know, helping the poor people. And he's a member of the senior scholars.
He's a member of Sheikh Muhammad Mukhtar al-Shanqirti. Just the humility, subhanAllah. The humility of these people.
He has a kitab called Riyadh al-Saliheen, right? Yeah. So in the beginning, he mentions a couple of lines of poetry. He says, Allah has slaves, like unique slaves of his.
They're just not about the life that many people are about. They have private and hidden secrets in their lives, actions, righteous deeds. And every day they're working towards their personal perfection.
So these people amazed me, haqiqatan. All these ulama that I mentioned, each one affected my life in a way. Yeah.
Are you still in touch with any of them to this day? Yeah, I called him. I think this week I called him. So I ask him questions a lot.
I don't, I've never been close to him. But my personality was always, I just love to see the scholars and, you know, benefit from them in that way. Because I didn't want to take them away from what was beneficial for them and beneficial for the community.
So I never got in their way to, you know, some people, they try to get them Sheikh's number and they waste his time, to be honest, on unnecessary questions. Questions they can ask the students of their own city. It's okay.
What about Sheikh Fawzan? I've called Sheikh Fawzan a couple of times. But again, Sheikh Fawzan, he's a very strong, tough person. I remember one time.
Yeah, one time I went to his office in Riyadh and I came, I went to visit him. Sheikh Fawzan will discipline you. He will discipline you.
So during your studies in Saudi Arabia, it was really sitting at the feet of the scholars, as opposed to the kind of institutionalized studies you did in Egypt and Somalia, where you might have attended a madrasa. What kind of differences do you see between the two approaches? You see, when it comes to seeking knowledge, and I found this in the course of my studying, and I've spoken about this in more details in a lecture I did on practical steps of how to gain knowledge. If a student of knowledge comes with two things, he'll benefit.
And this is my own experience, what I learned, that, you know, came from me regretting it later, that I didn't do this. So it's things I benefited, maybe in my years of running around seeking knowledge. Alashaqa, I wasted some time.
There are people who come to you and they'll tell you, look, don't listen to this person, don't listen to this person, don't benefit from this sheikh. And so I missed out from benefiting from great scholars that could have benefited my life, could have taught me more. So anyways, what I learned is if a student of knowledge does two things, he'll benefit a lot.
Okay, the first thing I say is characteristics that a student of knowledge must and should adorn himself with. And these are like the following. Number one, he has to be sincere.
If you're embarking on this path of seeking knowledge, you have to be very sincere. You can't have, you know, another motive, another thought in your mind. It should be for the sake of Allah.
Number two, you have to be truthfully seeking knowledge. And the difference between sincerity and truthfulness is that sincerity, it means you're doing it for Allah alone. And truthfulness means that you're, whilst you're seeking knowledge, you're not associating knowledge with anything else.
You're focusing on it alone. Wholeheartedly. And I say you spend three things on knowledge.
You spend your money, you spend your nafs. You see, you know, you spend your time on it. If you give those three to it, all of it, it will give you something in return.
And those three things are your life, basically. Basically, yeah. The third thing is that the person has whatever it's been Allah gave you, the small knowledge that you've taken, implement it.
Make sure that you implement it. And I always give this example, which is if a mother's feeding a child and she puts food in the child's mouth, she won't put more food in his mouth unless he swallows what was already put in his mouth. So swallow it first.
And then, in other words, digest that, take that in. Same as with when it comes to knowledge. Allah will only give you what you've taken in.
What you've digested, what you've implemented in your life. The fourth one is the person has Himma Ali, high aspiration. Knowledge, you need to, you need to, you need to be a person who has high, high, high, high aspiration.
And you have to enjoy that pain that comes with it. Enjoy it. High aspiration.
Some people, they might say the sky is the limit. I say, no, the sky isn't even the limit. I've given this example quite a lot of times, and that is the reason why they call the lion the king of the jungle is because a lion doesn't eat dead corpse.
A lion loves to hunt. It's beneath him. Yeah, that's for hyenism, you know.
He's got a title called the king of the jungle. So he has to exert effort and hard work. That's what a lion is, right? So if you want to be high, you have to exert, you know, you have to believe that this is not something that you can just, high aspiration.
But the Prophet, peace be upon him, what did he tell us? He said, إذا سألتموا الله الجنة If you're going to ask Allah for Jannah, فسألوه الفردوس Ask Jannah for Firdous. Don't just say, Oh Allah, I want Jannah. Any part in Jannah is enough for me.
فَمَنْ زُحْزِحْ عَنِ النَّارِ وَأُدْخِلَ الْجَنَّةَ فَقَدْ فَأَزْ Anyone who's protected from the hellfire and he's been put in Jannah, then they found success. As long as I get my leg into Jannah, that's all I want. Don't say that.
You're a Muslim. You're a mu'min, Inshallah. Have high aspirations.
Say, Oh Allah, I want Jannah to Firdous. The Prophet is teaching his companions that. The next characteristics that a person should adorn himself with is, عَدَمُ الْاِسْتِعِجَالَ Don't be hasty.
See, knowledge doesn't come all at once. Don't be hasty. Take time.
This is like knowledge that was written for like 1000 something years. You can't take it all at once. وَلِذَلِكَ السَّلَفِ تَيْسَدُ مَنْ أَخَذَ الْعِلْمَ جُمْلًا Anyone who tries to take knowledge all at once.
فَأَتَتُوا جُمْلًا All of it will go at once. But the way you can attain knowledge is بِالْأَيَامِ وَالْلَّيَالِ Days and nights. So it's time it needs from you.
Don't try to do all at once. And last but not least مُلَازَمَةُ الْعُلَمَةِ To be with the people of knowledge. And even if you can't get the scholars, at least be with those who are higher than you.
Those who've preceded you in knowledge, preceded you in righteousness. Be in their company because they're going to put you up. They're going to encourage you.
They're going to advise you and they're going to push you forward. So you're going to scrape off. Their good habits are going to show on you and you're going to get from it.
You'll learn how to organize your time. You're going to learn how to carry yourself and etc. Those are the characteristics that I believe when you're seeking knowledge and you're embarking on this path, you need to have الإخلاص and the second one صدق في الطلب and the third one is and the fourth was and the fifth was and the sixth one was Those are the first thing I believe if you want to learn and you want to benefit from your time going to seek knowledge, to sit with the scholars, to go to another country.
Those are the six things that you need to adorn yourself with. That's what you need to come with from your country with a mindset that this is what you're going to you're going to do. Beautiful advice.
Now the second point is a methodology and this is where a lot of people struggle. I've come with all of these characters. I'm sincere.
I'm truthful. I'm with the scholars but I don't know what to study. What should I do? How should I do it? So the methodology is the second point and here the concept of what to study the methodology of how to be precise in knowledge how to really understand knowledge is five.
I'll break it into two. The first one is marahil stages that you need to go through. If you miss one stage or if you jump a stage or if you bring two stages into one it will show in your ability of comprehension and that is number one you have to go through the marahalat ta'asis you're grounding yourself first.
Learn the ground learn the foundations first. Don't talk about what's not your level. Stay in your lane as they say.
Cease. Ground yourself. Here at that level you're just going to learn everything from the foundation.
Give an example when you come to seek knowledge wallahi this is a statement my father said to me and I remember it. He said to me that when you're seeking knowledge you're like a house that has holes inside it. In order for the floor to be built first of all they have to what? They have to make sure that those holes are filled.
That's the foundation. So it won't show. Marahalat ta'asis won't show.
It won't come to the surface yet. So if you're expecting to be a scholar and teach at that moment or be a alim or people refer back to you then nothing's seen on you. There's nothing there.
You haven't got anything yet. It's just when you pass that level then things start emerging onto the surface. So marahalat ta'asis.
The second marahalat that the student goes through is called marahalat al-tadlil. Marahalat al-tadlil is where the person now asks for evidences looks for evidences tries to find out what the evidences are. You know he's got the foundations now it's more like what's the evidence because he can ask about evidence he can find out about evidence.
The third one is the stage where it's called ilm al-muqaran. Marahalat al-ilm al-muqaran. He compares ideas and views.
He's able to compare things. He can say look this view holds this. This is the evidence.
This group of scholars they say this and this is the evidence. Okay they can compare views. He's at that level now.
He's at that level but he still can't strengthen one opinion from them. He just he can compare opinions. Okay these are the differences between the opinions.
The fourth level is where it starts to become marahalat al-tahrir. He does tahrir of the mas'ana. He says this opinion is stronger than this opinion than this opinion.
Yeah he strengthens one opinion from the other. And the fifth and last stage is when the student actually he does marahalat al-takhassus. He specializes now.
This is my field of expertise. I'm good at this. But guess what? This is the problem I found.
Is that marahalat al-takhassus where you specialize is the stage where many people start to do that at an early stage. Yeah I see. At the beginning as in seeking knowledge you have to try to learn all the sciences.
And then after that when you've studied all of the sciences Allah is not going to make all the sciences the same. They don't all feel the same. There is going to be one science that sticks out for you.
A science that you appreciate. Science that you know a lot of the times the way to appreciate science is when it's more applicable in your life. That's how you feel that science is for you a lot of the times.
You take that science and you go forward in that science and you specialize in it. But that doesn't mean you're ignorant about all the other sciences. Those five levels are the tadaruj fil-talab the gradual stages of learning.
You see? Another point that I wanted to mention as a side point is that when it comes to these issues that are being looked at in issues of fiqh and stuff like that and ilm of the knowledge of the deen what I found when I went to my scholars and you know these halaqat that I went to the shuyukh that I saw I realized there are four levels that if a person has conversations between scholars private gatherings that you go to ulama in their lectures you can really enjoy it and it even opens the path of literally reading a book for hours on end and you literally enjoy it is when these four things are in place. Number one is if you have what is known as tasawwurul mas'alati tasawwuran sahihan you have a perception of this issue. I found over the years because we're students I remember sometimes a shaykh would go for a book with us and then when the teacher goes amongst ourselves the students will start having discussions over it and you know and then whatever we didn't understand would come to the shaykh and we ask him later but what I realized is and one of the things that my shaykh used to point out which is we're arguing but guess what we're not even talking about the same thing like if we sat down and said what do you mean by that? Okay, it's noted down and what do you mean by that? Okay, I'm talking about the same thing.
You know what I mean? A lot of khilafs will go out of the window. So the concept of perception of what you're talking about and what you're going to give a ruling to first of all is important. The scholars they say al-hukmu ala shay'i far'un an tasawwuri to place a ruling on something first of all perceive it correctly.
Then the second comes which is ma'arifatul hukmi just to know the ruling after I've perceived this issue what is the ruling for it? And of course the rulings are going to be one of five halal permissibility haram mubah makrooh masnoon you know those five levels. The third stage I say is ma'arifatul jami'i wal fawariq that you know the differences between like you can see the differences between different issues. For example if we're talking about a issue and you're talking about another issue we have to know that there are similarities in these issues and there are differences as well.
If there comes a difference it could change the whole ruling. Some people are like oh but it's similar but if it's similar it's a different discussion. Is it the same? No then of course we're going to have to put it aside for now.
And the fourth is ma'arifatul maratibi maratibi al-mas'i knowing the levels of all the issues which is the strongest which is the lowest which is then high I believed if when I got those four I benefited from reading benefiting from the ulema going to the halaqat reading books having discussions with people amazing advice barakallah fiqh I just think that last 10 to 15 minutes should be cut up and made in a separate video jazakallah khairan okay okay so going through all that how does that relate to the issue of sitting with the scholars versus institutionalized formal studying the pros and cons of each when you sit with the scholar it's not just the information he gives you it's how he gives you the information it's very important it's not just the information you get but it's how this information is given to you that is what you learn from the halaqat the shaykh knows when to use that dalil and when not when to use it you will learn that as well you will learn as I mentioned before shaykh Salah al-Fawzan how to answer a question how not to answer a question you see you learn that from the shaykh another thing that you learn from the ulema of course the concept of how they carry themselves the way they answer the question the way they look into the question the way they verify how the question was asked the way that they humble themselves even when the student corrects them in a masalah I remember one time when one halaqat the shaykh Fawzan he said something and one of the students you know just said a response to him and he looked at him and said Jazakallah Khairan and he took it on board I don't know you learn a lot from that yeah you're not however yeah however big you are and however alim you are you know I mean I wouldn't agree with that brother to correct a shaykh like that in public but the point is that on the side of the shaykh is humility the other thing that you learn from the shuyukhs is I remember one time I was with one of my mashayikh and I said to him Shaykh inshallah ta'ala I'm going to start teaching the books on aqeedah and I'm inshallah going to teach the kitab qawa'id al-arba' and then thalathat al-usul he said no thalathat al-usul qawa'id al-arba' and I said what's the difference qawa'id al-arba' is smaller he goes don't change the methodology that the scholars set and I was like ajeeb really? does it matter? he goes yes it does matter even the territory of the kutub and qawa'id al-arba' is smaller so he said no don't change it do this so you learn all of that from them you also learn a mas'ala the way you understood it is not always the way it really meant by the author that can be and I've seen at times when I understood a mas'ala wrong and I asked my shaykh and he said that's not what the shaykh means shaykh really? yeah he doesn't mean that and I said how does he not mean that? and he explains it to me and then I look at it and it's correct wow do you see my point? when it comes to academic knowledge today I'll tell you something these universities they select from books you see now this curriculum they wrote is not the curriculum tested by the senior scholars remember that the manhajiyeh shaykh Sam Tamir went through Ibn al-Qayyim went through all these great scholars went through is not these academic way like they didn't pick a hundred hadith from Bukhari do you see my point? they studied Bukhari in its totality they studied these books into it that's how it was done and the same way over time that the fitnah becomes more the knowledge also becomes diluted it gets weakened and weakened and weakened and weakened and so what's happening over time the people because the knowledge is being made weaker there's coming people who can't they can't speak about the dalil because they don't even know it anymore so much words have been put before them and etc so it's good in the sense where these jamaat to use it as to get your shahada definitely and also to benefit from the technology and what's being used it brings masaleh like in al-imad al-kulli fully depend on this and leave off the old way of studying with the ulama under their feet it shows a lot of deficiency on the student of knowledge and anyone who sticks to these jamaat who don't go through this way of studying you can always tell from them I remember I'll tell you something I saw a brother who graduated from the university of Medina PhD imagine this PhD and he's he's filled with expertise with uloom al-quran and he was and so I asked him one time did you how many times have you read tafsir al-mukathir and he said I've never read it in my life wow tafsir al-mukathir you've never read it in your life you're a PhD student and that's what your speciality is so that's the problem he read ibn al-kathir selection he read it as a yeah this is the point he read it as a reference I see do you see my point it's a reference for him like whenever he wants an eye he just goes and picks the eye out of it but he has he has he actually hasn't started tafsir al-mukathir I read it all through it do you see my point yeah 100% 100% another thing that destroyed the students in the jamaat is this program called shamila I've I hate that program sorry what is this this program is called shamila I despise it I hate it really hate it personally alhamdulillah I've never wasted my time on it I've never heard of it what is this it's a program where you you want to research a issue okay so you just type in the hadith or the ayah or the quote of the scholar and it will just bring you in every place he said in his majmura if it's about Ibn Taymiyyah the fatwa where he the way the way he used the statement where it's in his majmura it'll tell you the volume and everything and the problems I saw with this is number one the student gets it fast and so he loses it fast he doesn't remember it so his whole research is what I found subhanAllah that when I read a kitab like the fatwa or kitab like that and for example I'm looking for a masalah a particular issue yeah I stumble over another issue that I once upon a time wanted to know because I'm reading the hard copy and so sometimes what happens is I stop there and I write that point and then I go back to what I was trying to do so the fawa'i that you come across whilst you're looking for what you're looking for is you it's amazing do you see my point? yeah yeah also I can tell you where I read this from my fatwa what side it was on do you get the hard copy because I looked at it from the book so I'll say it's on the right side on the middle do you see my point? yeah so these things when it came you saw students who are really they have big books they've written but they don't they're not grounded as you would think they are in the actual knowledge of the deen sure okay I know we can talk about your travels to seeking knowledge for a very very long time and I know we've only just scratched the surface but something that is synonymous with traveling seeking knowledge is hardships that come with it have you experienced many hardships? can you talk a bit about that and what helped you get through them? one of the biggest things that you suffer from is finance no doubt if you don't have money as a student of knowledge it's a problem you know this thing is money if it's not there it's a problem you can't live with it and you can't live without it you try to live with money then it will eat you and it will take you on and you can't live without it and one of the biggest problems that a student has is finance okay so of course at a point in my life my father especially when I went to Saudi Arabia he can't now provide for me anymore so you're a big boy now and I'll tell you a story of how it went I called my father I said look dad I have to go I have to leave and I'm gonna definitely go Saudi Arabia and I'm gonna and my dad's one person when it comes to the dean no problem but at this point he wanted to train me he wanted to strengthen me he wanted me to do it for myself so he said work and make the money and get your flights but he employed me because my father had a shop at this time okay so he employed me I had a job I worked for him for a while and I got myself I made enough to get myself a flight and to get there so you have to imagine I'm in my teens so I landed and I came to the Haram I came to Jeddah I landed and when I landed you know these people because I came with a umrah and I'm planning to stay here for long until I get kicked out I'm planning to stay so my father he never called me he never contacted me nothing he said okay you want to go you want to do it you want to seek knowledge go go do it he said we we did it when we were because my dad graduated from the Jama'at Jama'at Riyadh right yeah so he studied in Saudi Arabia he knows how hard it is and the sun and the heat and you know so he goes go go do it so I went I landed I had one bag full of clothes and everything so I came to the Haram and the security guard goes no you're not you can't go in your lug your bag luggage into the Haram keep it outside I have no hotel I have no hotel nothing so I went for another door I tried the other door I tried I finally came into the Haram with my bag my luggage bag I don't know what to do I don't know like a suitcase basically yeah my suitcase yeah I don't know what to do I'm expecting to stay in the Haram no plan nothing I've got a little bit of money you know four or five hundred pounds I think I've got so anyways my father my dad never called me I've got a little mobile phone it's old phones 3310 Nokia so I came to the Haram I slept I was very tired I slept good sleep Allah after I drank my zamzam water yeah slept very well but I was scared somebody might take my bag or my clothing or my so I kept everything close to me so nobody steals my money my passport my anything I was keeping it close to me so I slept I slept I think like that for two to three days I stayed with zamzam water I was breaking my fast with dates and one day a guy bought yogurt I brought a yogurt bread cheese to the Haram that was like a three course meal for you that was a three course meal I ate it with him he called me I did not hesitate and I ate with him really filled me up and I saw a Somali man I said uncle As-salamu alaykum he said alaykum as-salam I said uncle do you know uncle Kurshid Mosul Tahir Awais he goes what do you yeah yeah I know him yeah so where he goes he comes to the Dars of Sheikh Yahya Al Mudarris the Asr time or Maghrib time I said okay no problem I'll go when he comes I'll see that time that waiting for him was the longest waiting in my life I was so hungry then when I saw the Sheikh I came he was in the Dars and I Sheikh Yahya Al Mudarris it's my first time I'm gonna see him yeah so I stood on the side of Sheikh Yahya Al Mudarris and I'm so hungry well I haven't eaten I'll do anything to have a a bath or a shower I'll do anything to sleep on a bed and I'll do anything I'll pay any money for somebody to feed me give me food so I stood behind Sheikh Yahya Al Mudarris and I waved to Sheikh Musa I know him so I waved he looked at me everyone's looking at me I just waved to the Sheikh so the Sheikh stood up in the Dars in the Dars Wallahi told me to come I went because I couldn't come in my bag so I went to come I'm tired you couldn't go between the students anyways I did I did I went to the Sheikh he said Assalamu Alaikum I told him Sheikh my story he goes okay we're going to go to the house later after Taraweeh Taraweeh I can't wait man I want to sleep I want to eat I'm hungry I want to shower I can't wait for Taraweeh I can't wait for any Salah so he goes to me I don't tell him it's all in my head he said okay no problem I pray Taraweeh the Sheikh is Khashir Wallahi I praise he's crying I'm not gonna lie I was not feeling the whole Salah nothing no Khushroor nothing I was hoping everything just goes by fast then I looked at the Sheikh's clothing it's all running in my head I said I don't think the Sheikh's got good food in his house because he's with very simple clothes his whole clothes cost like 10-15 pounds Wallahi I'm not exaggerating so I didn't think he had any money I don't think he's gonna and then when he took me from his house from the Haram to his house was a long long long route and then he took me on top of a mountain and we went down the mountain and then he's like don't worry it's around the corner and the corner turned out to be wild so for me it was like and he took me to a very broken down area I was like definitely there's no food here there's no shower here even if you think there's nothing here so I was like inshallah at least there's gonna be a because I know Saudi Arabia they all have air conditioners at least there's an air conditioner so Wallahi he gave me a nice food I ate that time was very hard for me particularly that moment and another time when I went when I was in Somalia illness happened to me where I lost my hair I was losing my hair so it was becoming patches my hair was becoming patches and other other stories these are natural hardships that people inevitably will go through experiences like this and what gets you through them really just remembering what your purpose is while you're doing this in the first place yeah the aspiration I had that time I wish I have it today I was so strong really yeah yeah Wallahi I was so strong yeah when I showered I remember the sheikh came and he said to me hey what did you come for? I said sheikh I'm ready you can teach me I'm your student Wallahi I said that to him I remember I came out the shower my hair was wet everything's just you know just wet and I was like sheikh I come I came to learn I want to learn and I said to him sheikh teach me anything I'm your student you train me so I was I lived with him I stayed with him I learned more than knowledge from him yeah simplicity humbleness righteous man very righteous man amazing so I know you're relatively well traveled then so let's give let's have some advice for someone who bought somebody who wants to travel abroad to seek knowledge which country would you recommend? like you know what are some of the good countries to travel to? it depends on the student right if you wanna if you want to I mean what I benefited from the scholars of Saudi Arabia is the way that they are respected I always saw them to be respected than any shuyukh I've ever met from my country the shuyukhs are like the rest of the people they walk out with the people they're in the bus with the people he might bump into a sheikh and he's just on a bus with the normal people he finishes the dars people ask him questions they just leave so you don't get that respect of the scholar concept from back home even Egypt they respect the sheikh but there's yeah they're better they're better like in what I saw in Saudi it was different utmost respect for the sheikh no one questions the sheikh like our shuyukh they get like after the dars the students argue with the sheikh our shuyukh been Somali Somali shuyukhs yeah they argue with him they argue with him they question his rulings there's a hardcore he goes through scrutiny really yeah Allah Allah Allah he goes on the hot seat yeah yeah he goes on the hot seat yeah so it's his personality we're used to like they and it's like they love it recently my sheikh came sheikh Ahmed Mahmood and he said something and I said okay and he said to me why do you want to discuss it with me and then I said sheikh I don't want to argue with you and then he said to me argues with me all the time he said to me he named one of the brothers who's a strong student of knowledge and I said well sheikh it's sheikh is like no how are you going to so they're used to that they're happy for that they want you to they want you to not just accept him because he said it they want to they like the word they use in Somali is that they want to they want to melt your brain right that's what they say you know to melt your brain to think I want to say the sheikh said you know anyone who says to you sheikh why he will never find success he said don't be like that they train you to question them which has a benefit to it but it's only good for the student who's mannered yeah for only wise student not everybody should be given that chance you know so if you open that door to everybody then disrespect and of course lack of appreciation to the sheikh comes so you benefit different things from different countries yeah I can't say this country is better than this country because each country gives you something that the other country doesn't give you okay okay I want to move to a few personal questions that will benefit the people inshallah which is the book that you've benefited most from in your studies and why one book if you I know that's a hard question but one book if you have to narrow it down I don't know if that's an easy question it's a hard one I know every book I read I benefited something from it every good book I benefited things from it you know you hear stories like Sheikh Ibn Baz used to go over Tafsir Ibn Kathir over and over again that was just his book any kind of book like that that you just really cling to what I've done is I've changed you know the method of how I deal with my books okay yeah I know I travel a lot I'm not always in one place I don't always have my library so one of the things I benefit from my shiur especially one of my shiur Sheikh Ahmed Sheikh Ahmed Mahmood one of the things he benefited me a lot with is he said every book you read write your own content page for it and summarize that book I really benefited from that yeah yeah so whenever I read a book whether it's volumes or whether it's just one I always try to make a content page for it and in other words the content page is a summary of the book it shows that you've understood the book because remember the author didn't write the content page generally speaking it's the muhaqqiq the editor that's done that so when you come and you write the content page it shows that you've got an understanding that these couple of pages is talking about this topic and also to summarize the book yeah and so the content page always allowed me to be able to go back to the book quickly another thing I did with my books is for example if I'm teaching aqeedah I've studied for example thalatat al-usul and then I studied qawa'id al-arba' then I studied kashf al-shubuhat and I studied kitab al-tawheed and of course before that al-naqa'id al-islam and then I came to wasitiyya and then hamawiyya and then tadmuri and then tahawiyya at this point aqeedat al-tahawiyya is the one that's going to have all of the explanation because it's the last one for me so I'll put all my footnotes all my commentary from the thalatat al-usul which was the beginning until the ending aqeedat al-tahawiyya the sharh of ibn abu al-izz al-hanafi has everything on there for me so it's got all of your things all your footnotes all your notes in one place let me divide the books into two so if I say thalatat al-usul kashf al-shubuhat and kitab al-tawheed that's tawheed books okay and there's the aqeedah books which is wasitiyya hamawiyya tadmuriya and then tahawiyya and that's aqeedah so what I do is the kutub al-tawheed that I have I take fatah al-majeed which is the explanation of kitab al-tawheed I put all of the tawheed I studied from every book I put on fatah al-majeed okay so my thalatat al-usul the sharh on there kashf al-shubuhat nawaqad al-islam qawaid al-arba you name it all of them is on the fatah al-majeed for me on the side on the hawamish in the notebooks everything so whenever I want to teach tawheed I just have to take fatah al-majeed so I don't need to take the rest aqeedah I do aqeedah tahawiyah I do that too so I studied wasitiyah hamawiyah tadmuriyah I put everything on the aqeedah tahawiyah now the sharh of ibn abu al-aziz al-hanafi on the side on the corner so now you ask me to teach for example usul al-sunnah by imam Ahmad or sarih al-sunnah by ibn al-jarir al-tabari or whichever aqeedah book you tell me to teach no problem I just have to get my sharh of aqeedah tahawiyah and I get all the explanation in there I put it on the sharh of the kitab usul al-sunnah by imam Ahmad sarih al-sunnah by ibn al-jarir al-tabari sharh al-sunnah by imam al-muzani wahakadah and that's how I do it beautiful so I end up the same with mustalah al-hadith I studied bayquniyah I studied nukhbat al-fiqar I studied ikhtisar al-ilm al-hadith and then I studied alfiyat al-iraqi then I place all of my sharh on the fatah al-majeed sorry sorry the the sharh of shams al-dina al-sakhawi which is called fatah al-mughith I place everything on the fatah al-mughith of sakhawi commentary, benefits, all of it on there everything's in one place so I don't have to carry bayquniyah nukhbat al-fiqar ikhtisar al-ilm al-hadith and all of that I just need to take my fatah al-mughith so I end up leaving from my library each science I'll do that to it and then I'll go with one bag with all of it so I can travel the world and teach all different sciences all from those books that I've did it with amazing one thing I know about you as well is that you're an avid reader you love reading it's a passion of yours you love reading 10 hours a day and if I know if it wasn't for your other responsibilities you'd love to read 16-18 hours a day talk to me about your kind of progression in reading have you always been reading this many hours per day? how does it work? no I wasn't a reader to be honest when I was young I wasn't even a reader like at all I never read anything it wasn't my hobby to read but you know when you ground yourself or when you learn the ground the basic knowledge and you learn it in a systematic way a systematic way then when you read a book you will be able to appreciate that book a lot of the times people you find that can't carry on reading are people who are lacking in understanding the book and if you do come across a couple of words that you don't understand you do close the book and you put it somewhere or if that book doesn't seem practical in your situation if you don't feel that this science is something you're going to apply now in your life is it like for example it's fun out when you're researching an issue that's outstanding you have an issue here you need to research it was going to be of course enough is going to be more inclined to it so what I did was I tried to make every single thing applicable in my life one way or another so when I read books this was the beginning of my reading so I'll always have you know discussions with brothers and then I'll go and read out this whole topic it started off like that and now I read random stuff after I read I break my reading into two a systematic reading and a haphazard reading so the one that's systematic that I'm reading I don't change that for anything but the ones that are haphazard is all based upon if anything pops up and in terms of the amount of time you dedicate per day to reading what did it start on? I think 45 minutes you said before? yeah so I'd read 45 one hour maximum minimum sorry maximum and it grew until it became hours now I think it's a beautiful example the reason why I want to talk about is a practical example of tataaruj how it slowly and I think you believe I believe you told me before that you almost hit a limit where you thought you're never going to pass this limit which was can you remember the amount? when I reached about two to three hours I always thought come on you can't do more than that because you get tired you get distracted but I've seen 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 hours and how long was that process? from 45 minutes to where you are now 10, 12, 14 hours a day yeah I think I would be lying if I gave you exact time I don't know really but we're not talking weeks or months right? we're talking years yeah yeah so definitely so slow progression is definitely the way instead of you know some people think that it's either all or nothing you jump in at the deep end instead of just progressing slowly and adding onto your schedule okay another personal question do you want all of your children to become students of knowledge? I plan for now and Allah is the best of planners for them to memorize the Quran all of them okay and for them to memorize the books that I I've written for them the program that I've put together for them my children all of them all the Qurans that I wrote for them the program I've put for them for them to memorize it and I really want them to do that before they've they've reached the age of 15, 16 okay once my children reach that age and they've memorized the Quran and they've memorized these books Umdatul Hikam, Bulughul Maram and these books Riyadul Saliheen and what not and these Aqeedah books then they have the choice once they've done that they have the choice to either pursue this path of being students of knowledge becoming Ulama, Duaatun ila Allah Azza wa Jalla or whether they want to go to academic sciences and in the academic science that they go for they could do their Dawah Sheikh Ahmed Tahir Awais he has a brother called Sheikh Ubaid I call him Sheikh Ubaid because he was my Quran teacher he taught me Quran as well he is a pediatric like he specializes in children and I remember SubhanAllah in the hospital when people come to him yeah Somalis back home they wear Ta'weez they call it right um what he would do is SubhanAllah in his own profession he would cut that off their hands so when they come to him and they say oh my child's sick they'll say the first sickness your child is going through is that he's wearing his Ta'weez take it off amazing and so we cut the Ta'weez off and he'll give Tawheed and Aqeedah lessons to them and then this is Sheikh Ahmed Tahir's youngest brother or one of the youngest brothers of his so he's a doctor he he he's he studied his profession is he's a 95 doctor like yeah 95 95 yeah so he studied in Italy so he's a professional doctor professional doctor PhD in doctor speaks MashaAllah he was my Quran teacher at one time SubhanAllah so the point I'm coming to is the point I'm coming to is how he benefits and calls to Tawheed from his field so if my children want to do that and they want to pursue it from that perspective I'm more than willing to help them and aid them and support them in it InshaAllah but the point you're making is that he couldn't have done that if he didn't have the foundational knowledge exactly so we have chances as parents when our children are young we can set the path for them we can set that road for them so before they reach 20 we can fill them with those information and that knowledge and the implementation and the importance of the Deen of Allah Azza wa Jalla and so when they reach the time where they think they have a choice then we say okay what's your choice now but guess what they're going to you've kind of be them to it so even you have still got a say in their future plans because SubhanAllah you've taught them you've educated them you've indirectly guided them towards something that is that's why I say to parents when they bring their children to me at the age of 20 and 18 or 17 and they say look advise my son I really turn to the parent and I say what were you doing before 18? the reason I say this to them is because I say Allah gave us a chance man Allah doesn't oppress his creation He gave us all a chance to benefit from our children when they're very young you know and to learn the Deen our children all of us our children at the age of to the age of 15 they're willing to listen to us everything we say they trust us they believe in us they actually see us as their superheroes you know they look up to us I remember when I used to go to school one of the things I would say to my friends is my dad's stronger than your dad because they believe in their parents but after 15 they see you for who you really are the reality becomes clear to them and they choose to drift away from you so what I'm trying to say is I'll take with Allah's aid and support I'll take benefit from my children whilst I have that chance that opportunity Allah has given me I won't wait for the time when they you know they could do what they want you mentioned earlier that when you're studying the different Islamic sciences Allah doesn't make them all equal for you sometimes you prefer one over another do you have a favorite science? yeah I'm inclined to hadith that's the science I love the most again love is different from knowing it but I love that science the most and I appreciate that science the most okay I want to end with a few final piece of advice so what do you think is the most beneficial thing for a student of knowledge starting on his journey to specialise in? to specialise? yeah for the current problems we're facing today is it ruqya? is it marriage services? is it just an all-rounder? is it just teaching books? this question reminds me of a question that many people ask you've probably heard people ask this question when did you make the decision to become a shaykh? we always wanted to some people look at the concept of becoming a shaykh it's like a career that you choose no I mean the beginning of dalabal ilm you don't choose to seek knowledge to specialise you learn for your own self the first reason why you seek knowledge your first intent for seeking knowledge is for yourself like you're learning this for yourself you want to get yourself out of the darkness and then after that you learn for the people you see the concept of specialising comes it comes naturally I wouldn't say seek knowledge so you can specialise in this science it just happens that you just tend to spend more time in a science and then you become basically they coin that term for it which is you specialise in it basically but this idea that you know I'm not going to study any other science I'm learning so I can specialise in this science I think it's a newly invented mindset but of course once you study all the Islamic sciences there's always going to be one that's going to stick out for you that you're going to appreciate and that one I can't speak for everybody everyone has a science that they might appreciate but if I look at the situation in the UK what science is very needed and that can help the Muslim community there I would say fiqh fiqh is greatly needed of course a person after they've grounded their aqeedah and their belief system fiqh is greatly needed a person who's grounded in fiqh because of the contemporary issues that keep coming up in the UK we need people who are grounded in fiqh and the second science I would truly say that I've seen over the years when it came to the students of knowledge who graduated from many different universities is the science that I felt they lack a lot in is the Arabic language the Arabic language is very weak amongst the students of knowledge those are the two sciences I feel like are very important in the UK excellent they're very pertinent what do you consider to be the biggest obstacle in today's world for someone who wants to seek knowledge? gadgets, telephones, social media very true internet they're from the biggest shawaril that can busy a student of knowledge it destroys a person it really does I've seen that it can kill you however much you try to avoid and stay away from it social media it can destroy well, one of the things I chose not to read books from the laptop or even my ipad or even my mobile phone is because of that yeah, that time that you're reading you get rid of all of your gadgets stop it just use a hard copy read from the book yeah, I think that's the if the ummah spent as much time they spend on the phone if they would spend on the Qur'an we would have had many Qur'an Hufadh very true very true okay, last couple of questions I have for you is if you were to give your former self when you first started on a journey to seek knowledge if you could give yourself one piece of advice what would it be? yeah, definitely listen to my parents' advice more yeah? yeah, definitely they advised me a lot on places I should have gone and places I shouldn't have gone things I did the way I should have done it if I did follow more of my dad's advice and not try it for myself because I wanted trial and testings I would have one example I give you I wanted to go to Damaj I planned to go to Damaj I raised, I saved money and when I saved money I got ready I told my dad I'm gonna go to Damaj I'm ready dad this is 10 years ago okay so I said dad I'm gonna go to Damaj this is it I've got ready I've got my money I saved money my plan was to go to Damaj buy a house there and to study so my father said don't go, don't go, don't go Damaj is not safe this was way before the issues of the Houthis and whatnot it was way before all of that none of that, none of that problem was happening my father said don't go Sheikh Ahmad Tahir always told my dad don't go he said don't go so I never listened I said dad I have to go this is deen of Allah you know I want to learn dad I'm hungry so I went to the airport so I had a brother with him may Allah bless him and grant him Jannah for those you know he had a history of some crimes and things that have happened before in his life so we went to the airport me never been ever stopped in the airport I've never been stopped Alhamdulillah wherever I traveled I've never been stopped I've never had a criminal record nothing I've just never never been stopped in the airport I don't even think police officers ever pulled me over or anything and so I got to the airport and somebody's waiting for me at the airport I'm like whoa and so I realized it was based on association because I was with the other brother and so what they did was the money that I had that I was planning to go to Damaj they seized the money from me Alhamdulillah they gave it back to me after that I got the money back but the point is just listen to your parents man okay it saves you saves you a lot of trouble yeah yeah I wouldn't have that my money would not have been taken from me and Alhamdulillah Sheikh Ahmad Tahir said to me don't worry I'll make dua for you I called him I said Sheikh I'm really sorry I should have listened to you I should have listened to you I shouldn't have gone his reason for me not going to Damaj his reason was that you're going to learn from their only insults oh really yeah there's slandering and name-calling that's what you're going to learn what else you're going to learn from them that's what his point was but my view was no Sheikh I'm going to learn the sunnah I'm going to learn but he was like no you're going to learn insults and name-calling so I didn't listen but Alhamdulillah I managed to meet Sheikh Al-Hujuri Hafidhullah and he touched me when I saw him I really was amazed with him he's a noble man may Allah honor him a great man great Sheikh a person I've truly respected I the time I sat with him until I left I was lost of words I was mesmerized by what I saw from him may Allah honor him Wallahi shower his mercy onto him and resurrect him with the prophets and the righteous people a man who really was very kind and generous when we went to him he gave us a juice I was sitting next to him he doesn't know me so the way he was pouring for us and was taking drink drink drink wow the kindness that he he took out time just to advise us he's an amazing person amazing man amazing Sheikh a noble man an honorable man may Allah shower his mercy onto him final question do you have any regrets and if so what are they? yeah that's I have so many regrets in my life really yeah a lot of regrets yeah definitely one of the great regrets I do have is coming forward in my life at a very early age in my life I was very young when I started to teach teaching yeah yeah so I lacked knowledge and experience both and there were big mistakes I made in my life over the course of my dawah things that I I ask Allah for forgiveness that Allah Ta'ala he forgives me for my shortcomings and my mistakes and my errors things I said that I shouldn't have said things that I did that I shouldn't have done the people I've spoken to in ways I shouldn't have spoken to them regrets don't finish if you live in this world you're always going to be regretful but one thing I did learn was if you've always got righteous people around you noble people inshallah you'll always be people will tell you the truth yeah don't be around people just say naam naam naam everything you do be around people who are going to tell you it as it is not sugarcoat it for you tell you as it is the way you need to hear it you know I benefited sometimes from my critiques more than I benefited from my closest friends powerful I definitely regret the fact I said that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam praised the Khawarij yeah I definitely regret saying that may Allah forgive me for that Nabila Muhammad did not praise the Khawarij so there's a lot of things in my life that I that I could say I benefited from many people around me opponents adversaries I'm always always always willing to you know hear my mistakes my shortcomings my faults so one of the things you still do to this day as soon as you finish your class you ask the students that you were teaching what did you think what can I do better yeah I've witnessed that with my own eyes yeah I've always wanted to know where I can and even this podcast I'm going to ask the brothers who watch it you know what do you think what should I have said what should I have not said because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that the brother to his brother is like a mirror yeah so the mirror doesn't lie to you it tells you exactly what he sees it doesn't sugarcoat it exactly shows what the faults on your face what you need to clean so that's how a Muslim should be to you tell you the truth inform you of your shortcomings and what happens a lot is this dawah scene what it does to you is you become circulated around the people who just like you and appreciate you and they praise you and the ones who are going to criticize you start pushing them further and one of the things I said to brothers is that and I always advise the brothers in dawah scene is that don't think that people are jealous of you because it means you believe there's something you have for people to be jealous of you there's nothing you have for people to be jealous of you don't think that way say that if you change that narrative and you think of it as what did I do wrong for people to think of me if you correct that you get better and you progress in a better way and I realize that I realize that everybody around me I think the reason why they don't like me or those who don't like me don't like me or those who don't appreciate me because my mistakes have probably been exposed to them a sin of mine a door of my sins has been opened to them they've seen it and that's why they feel the way that they feel and haqqan I believe that that's the case I truly believe that and every day then you just become conscious of yourself on your own actions you don't blame others for Ustadh Rahman Wallahi JazakAllah Khairan for doing this two-part series I really really appreciate it may Allah continue to aid you in your future studies and your future teaching I hope you enjoyed and benefited from that discussion please do share it with your friends and family members if you feel like they might benefit too and don't forget to hit that subscribe button below so you're notified of any new episodes check out www.thehotseatpodcast.com that's thehotseatpodcast.com on there you'll find a little bit more information about the podcast and you'll also have the chance to vote for which topic you'd like to see discussed on the show you can also ask questions on the website to the speaker himself about these contemporary modern day issues until next time Fee Amalillahi Wassalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
