Ramadan 2016 – Heroes Of Islam 9

shaytani r rajim Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala Sayidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi Germain, my beloved brothers and sisters in Islam a cinema alikum warahmatu Allahi wa barakato

are y'all doing?

look very tired.

long week, it was a short week actually wasn't a long weekend. Well, hamdulillah. And finally, how quickly is the force going? Before we look at it? It's again, as they say, we'll be better off with a last minute Allah grant the next half to be better. And this first half. I mean, we continue with our discussion on the heroes of Islam and tonight's hero, tonight's panel, ah, what can we say and we'll never do justice to this great Imam. In the few minutes that we have. Just to give you a prelude to this Imam.

You know, when young men, boys and I think still men, young men still do this, they have this game that they play, who is the strongest superhero? Who would win if Superman and the Hulk had armwrestling match? Who would win? Right? And you have your two camps and this one will say this one, and then that one would say that one would win. And the students of knowledge have a similar game? They would say, if we could bring a scholar back from the past, to fix our problems today, who would we bring? And usually in this game, and the times I've had this discussion, it comes down to two personalities, the one being among Buhari, and the second being the personality we're going to

speak about tonight. And if you had to push me, I would say the personality that we speak about tonight, he would be the most important scholar I would personally bring back to our day and age. He is an Imam, that if we had to write the best scholars of all time, he would be one of the frontrunners to take number one spot. Imam Shafi says about him that in terms of everyone else compared to him, I like small children, we take from him, and he's the mom. In fact, when you picture this, Mr. I want you to picture this smiling, white haired grandfather, who's brilliant if you had to describe him in one word genius is the only way to describe him who saw things that no

one else saw who revolutionized an entire science, some people into this knowledge and they contribute to it. But some people are so great that they change the course of history. They change the course of knowledge that after them, knowledge was never the same. And you all know this, this man, Norma and even terbit. Right, you all know him, or better known as Abu hanifa. Right, Abu hanifa. He didn't have a daughter called hanifa. This is a cornea. But his real name is not a man, even if they have it. And what can we say more about him. As the scholars have mentioned, even Mubarak, who was one of our heroes before, in the last week, we spoke about him. They say that he is

the most knowledgeable person in terms of fiction, we have never seen a man like Abu hanifa. This, his peers would say there was no person more knowledgeable and more brilliant than this man, that he saw things that none of us saw. And he opened our eyes and guided the way I've done live and that would a great scholar. He says it is compulsory on every single Muslim in the Sala to thank Allah for Abu hanifa because he has benefited every single Muslim after him. It's upon Allah, whether you are a Hanafi or not, or the other, either him or both and follow his methodology. And we would not be the Muslims as we are today if Allah had not given us this man. So let us talk a little bit about

his backstory and what I love about Abu hanifa you'd find that the scholars of the of the past, they had a mold of how they became great scholars. They were taught and they memorized a lot of stuff as young kids, and they sat under the feet of great scholars for 2030 years, and they traveled the world. And then they learned a lot of things. And then when they were 50 or so they started giving fatawa and wrote books on hamdulillah. Rama Abu hanifa doesn't follow this thing. He's got a story on his own. What do we know about him number one, he was a Persian wasn't an Arab was not an Arab. His grandfather was a revert to Islam, meaning the basics he didn't even know not Abu hanifa but his

grandfather and his parents were basically first generation Muslims learning from scratch. They were a wealthy family, a family of textile merchants, silk traders, they used to sell socks. So you know the Persians and the carpets and the fabrics. And when Persia into the Muslim domain, his family embraced Islam, and they continued the family business and they were well to do family and they lived in Iraq. They lived in Iraq in Kufa, and he lived in a time when Islam was going through a bit of confusion, both politically the Romanians had turned the caliphate into a dynasty and there was a lot of friction. We saw for the first time the emergence of six to highridge Martin Zilla we found

the new six forming we found fabricated Heidi flying around we found new people into the into the into the into the Muslim oma not as Muslims from different parts.

To the world, the Hindus and the Jews and the Christians. And with that came new ideologies and philosophies that challenged Islam, the good old days were gone. Basically, the good old days of the Sahaba was finished, and a new age was beginning to dawn. And he wasn't sure which way this oma was going to go. He was born and he lived in such a time of confusion, a time of uncertainty. And he didn't grow up spending his youth in the massage it learning to be a scholar. He was a merchant, and he bought and sold silk. And he was a very honest, very, very honest merchant. He had principles and he had adapted and he was a layman basic Muslim. He didn't know much more than the basic Muslim of

the time. And then he had a chance encounter when he was about 20 years old. He bumped into one of the great scholars of the time. He mama shabby, and I must tell you about my shabby shabby was of the Tabby a meaning a student of the Sahaba. And he studied under 500 companions. So he went all around the oma trying to find Sahaba to learn from them. Abdullah, even Omer to Sahabi, the son of Satan, Omar said, I would hear, shall I be speaking about a battle that I was in and I would learn something new from him, because he spoke to other companions, and few details of the Lebanon War didn't know about a shabby mentioned it. This man was a great scholar in his time. In fact, the

halifa was so impressed with him, Abdullah Abdullah bin Abdul Malik even Marwan we remember him we spoke about him of the molecule Marwan does a great Caliph. He sent shabby as his ambassador to the Roman Emperor. And the Roman emperor was so impressed so shabby. He could try to convince him stay in Rome, I'll give you a good salary be my advisor, shall be said no. And eventually he went back to the halifa. But he told me, he told me I want you to give a later person to the halifa and Shabbat gives the letters of the Holy Family for each, and it tells the Holy Father Malik, and we said, the overheads, they were very quick to, to remove your head, right? They found your head as a as

something which was easily to be removed. All right. So the halifa tell shabby. Do you know what this letter is saying? This letter is saying that the Roman Emperor is telling me, I surprised that the Arabs have chosen me as the halifa when they have a man like you in the midst.

You should you are better than me. So the Imam he says, look, yeah, I mean, he only says that because he never ever met you. But that's why he says that he never made you. So that your mom says no, he really what he really wants to do. He's He's envious that I have an asset like you. So he would rather me kill you than him not have you. But I won't do that. So this is him. I'm shabby.

Abu hanifa bumps into him. I'm shabby one day, he's on the way to the market. And even shabby, says, young boy, look at the time you should be in class. You shouldn't have knowledge, authority, blood, you shouldn't be walking around this time of day. And Abu hanifa says, you know, I'm not a student of knowledge. I'm just a merchant.

So human shabby, says, I see intelligence in you. And if you were to study, Dean, I'm sure there'll be good news from you. He just said those words. And it piqued the interest of Abu hanifa. So he thought, Okay, let me give it a try. And this is a lesson for us that we encourage people with good words, one good word can change somebody's life. Like food alias today, one good word can change somebody's life. But Abu hanifa still and we can identify with us how many of us in our teenage years or in our 20s even older than that? We don't we're not sure we we really fit in? You know, where do I fit in any wind from different circles of learning from different massage different

scholars, learning from this one. And from that one, seeing what suits me we this witness my tenants fit in? He began sitting with those of philosophy and discussing theology about ways Allah and how does Allah look and what was before Allah and debated with the atheists. And he said that this is back and forth debates, all mental gymnastics, he doesn't find it bringing him closer to Allah. He doesn't find any taqwa in this even though he was proficient at that. He realized that when it comes to logic, when he's able to do something in his brain, no one could defeat him that he challenged atheists and he could prove them wrong. The base of the base when it came to logic, he was number

one. But he felt I don't find any taqwa in this. I'm not getting closer to Allah. The more I speak about Allah and debate about Allah, it seems as if though, that old man who has the Athenian Allah who never discussed Allah, he's closer to Allah than me. So he lived this discussion. For example, He said, that when it comes to the understanding of Kabbalah and other free will and destiny, that this is like a lock, and the key is lost. Our minds will never comprehend that and all we do is speculation. It could be this it could be that without any firm answers, so he wasn't pleased with this line of discussion, when he said, Well, the scholars of language and poetry and grammar, and he

found some good in it, but this didn't suit him when he went to sit with the scholars of Hadith. And you know, Subhana Allah Hadith requires a special kind of temperament to memorize copious amounts of information. There's no shortcuts, you can be the smart

This man in the world, but you still gonna have to sit there for hours and hours to memorize it. There is no shortcut in memorization. And this didn't suit his temperament. And it's no shame in saying that memorizing Hadith is not for me. Abu hanifa was not shy to say this is not for me. This doesn't suit my ability. And each of us have different gifts and ability. He didn't suit him. And then he passed by

the jelsa, the the claws of a great scholar, Hamad bin Sulaiman, and a lady came to Abu hanifa and said, and she asked him a question about Pollock, simple question. And he said, I don't know the answer. I'm not a scholar. And then she went to hammered. So he said, I want to hear the answer for myself. And he took his shoes off. And he sat on that mat, and he listened to hammer the scholar giving an answer. And in Abu hanifa, would sit on that mat for 18 years, he would sit in the gels of hammered for the next 18 years. And he said, you know, at first I was in the back row, because I was new. Maybe they were school boys where they first, but later on as the doors have opened up to him,

and his mind started to explode. And he found that this is where he's meant to be that finding reason and logic and reading a hadith and looking at the inner meanings. This appealed to him. Hammad also noticed that and he began to sit right next to on the right hand side of the screen, Imam

Abu hanifa says and he tells us from his own account, something which is a bit embarrassed about, he says that after about 10 years of sitting with Hammad, I felt Okay, I'm now in the mood to have my own clause, I would like to sit somewhere else and start my own class and teach as well. And he said at the same time, wasn't long after that hammered said I have to go to for two months on a journey relative of mine, he passed away, and I want you to run my class. So it's a good opportunity I was looking for. And he said they and for two months, he got questions, and he gave answers. And Matt came back. And he said, Yeah, sure. I wrote down all the questions I got I had 60 questions. I

wasn't sure about look at the answers. And Hammad looked at them and said, 40 of them, I agree, and 20 of them, I don't agree. And then Abu hanifa said, I realized I still have a lot to learn. And he said another 10 years with hammer was hammered. hammered is the student of Ibrahim na, who was the student of alicona. So hamata teacher, Ibrahim Ibrahim was a student of a man called al Kama, who was the slave of Abdullah and Sahabi had a slave and taught him the slave was outcome. Those are hobbies that I buy you just so I can teach you everything I know, you like my hard drive, I'm gonna fill you up with knowledge and you go teach somebody else. So between Abu hanifa and the Sahabi was

just three, three scholars and Abu hanifa made a few companions in his lifetime. And he standard studied under other great scholars amongst them Jaffa sodic amongst them at all, even Abby raba, another great scholar, we don't have time to go into him, but he was the Mufti of Makkah. He was the Imam of the Haram. And Abu hanifa studied under him for a few years as well.

So I went hunting for him Allah now he's learned a lot. And he finds himself in the middle of a huge debate between the scholars. And this goes back to the time Sahaba they were two camps. They were no mother. And the mother, he really if you want to know, why do we have format tabs? Where does this come from?

They were two strands of thinking amongst the Sahaba. Amongst the companions, they were those were called the Hades or the traditionalists, or the literary lists on the one hand, and you had those who Allah Rai those have logic and opinion that Hadees basically they said, We shouldn't think deep too much about things we follow the book and the Quran and the sooner to the tea. Rasulullah Sultan said gold and silk is haram for the man. And it's haram for a man and that's it. There's no other meaning behind that. Everything else is halal except these two, black and white finished. We don't ask what if and how. And we and when we submit to the text, literally, the lie? They said no, they

should be greater meaning behind the Hadith. Why? Why is it a haram for a man to whistle? Why is it haram for him to a gold? Can we not extract rules and apply this to other things? So which camp Do you think Abu hanifa fell into the lie those of logic, those who try to understand the meaning behind things and apply principles. And also this was also a case of geography, the Hadith when Medina with a hadith was common, we know new ideas were coming in way they were dealing with people that was sticked on the sooner whereas he was living in Kufa. It was like, like the Las Vegas of that time. It was the high below the ideas and it was a melting pot of ideas and new questions came

up that the that the scholars could no longer keep up with people are strange and funny questions. The scholars never heard of these things before they go through the code and they can't find an answer. And they will have these they didn't know what the how to test it. So Abu hanifa found there must be a way for us to fix this problem. There must be a way for us to draw up a system of

Solving problems and dealing with big data in, and this is what he gave to the world. This is how a meth lab started. So after Hammad passed away, he became the principal of that class. And not long after that, because of his skill in teaching, and his ability to think. And he's a way of empowering the students. The other classes around Kufa became less and his class became the biggest. And he had a way, instead of teaching, he would say, my students raise this question. You guys all know the Hadith, you're all happy the Quran? What do you think? And they would together unanimously come have an opinion.

And if him and his students agreed on an answer, they would say, let's write this down. And he would encourage them, what if this would happen? Or what if that would happen? Why do you think this is how long we had he didn't speak like this, that he knew right? He was encouraging him to think about new ways of understanding the deen and he came up with a brilliant idea called chaos. analogy, analogy. What do we mean and I give you that example again.

The Hadith that says the Bible says two things haram for our males meaning gold and silk and is halal for our women and a businesswoman gives us a Heidi from this Heidi's we can know that it's haram for women, a woman to we have is how do you come up with an answer like that from the Saudis? Where did you pull that information from? Who can explain why

why is golden silk haram for for us? Why Why do we think what about it makes it hard on it? It will say we don't care that the solution is haram. haram finished? Don't ask why. Just don't have a golden silk. Right? That's the answer for them. Why is it No, there must be a reason behind this. Why do you think the reason is, is because expensive. extravagance it was extravagance, haram for the ladies as well. Is it the color? If it's color than anything that looks like gold is haram? If it's extravagance, then Platinum is even more harm? No, it's because gold and silver is something specific to women. Therefore, something specific to a man is haram for a woman as well. You

understand this is called chaos. This is caused using analogy, finding the reason behind it and applying now you have a principle and a framework. And you can work from this and solve not one question, but you can solve countless questions. Abu hanifa came up with this idea. And he scholars and his students together, they started speculating about questions and asking questions before people came to ask them. And they wrote it down. And this is the beginning of a method. And I said between him and his students, between him and his students. They answered hundreds of 1000s of questions. At the same time, well, hanifa he was always a wealthy man. He sticks how business

continued and managers running his business. And he would use his money to finance his students and his madrasa. So students that we can't sit your whole day learning massage, he said, Don't worry, I will pay for you to stay here.

He loved the students so much. And they mentioned about his piety and generosity and his taqwa. Whenever he started a class, he comes into his class, he looks at his students, he smiles at them, sometimes with a tear in his eye. And he says you guys are the joy of my heart and the relief of my sorrow. This is a way I'm the happiest for 40 years. He's teaching his students and this is how he begins his class.

That's why students love being in his in his company.

But the real brilliance about this Imam isn't just that he was smart. They were many smart allameh and they they contributed to the deen and it stopped the but there was a level of tabula from Allah subhanho wa Taala. His knowledge grew and he Stockwell grew accordingly. He became a wily, when he wasn't teaching, he was busy with a biter and sincerity. And, and his students would say, we never met a man of greater piety and taqwa when he couldn't answer a question, he felt so behind Allah, Allah is forbidding me from understanding this question because of a sin I have done, and he would make it up, makes Allah making ecfr because he felt this was a sin that I have done. Allah subhanho

wa Taala is not giving me the answer. He was so stick about money being halaal. So he's managing sold, sold, sold his clothes on his behalf. And he told his manager one day that the shipment of silk is a defect, please inform my customers that there is a defect, and the manager sold the silk and he forgot to tell the customers that there was a defect. So he insisted all the money. You made all the sales for the day, give it in charity, we can't take a cent of it. He made sure everything to earn was holiday was holiday. And he didn't want to be near. He didn't want to be near positions of power and the government because he felt this corrupted you that he and many of the governors

wanted him to be appointed as a judge or as a minister in the in the in the Treasury and he refused and sometimes he got in trouble with this. He was also criticized by the other scholars

Traditional scholars right because he's coming with something new. What macdaddy Dotty deviant? Is this coming up with new ideas? And speaking of strange things that we never heard about speaking about how do you make solar when you're flying? When will this ever happen now? He spoke about that in his time. post a photo if you flying this is how you should make Sala and they would say that he doesn't take Hadeeth. Now we must understand. After him the hygiene sciences became more precise, and it proved after he had passed away some of these rulings went against Heidi. So Luke's barnala this Imam puts his logic ahead of Hadeeth. No, in his time, the heady sciences, there was no Bahati

it, there was no Hamlet, there were no books of Hadith, the Hadith was spread out and jumbled up and they were full of false narrations. He didn't know what he could select as being correct or false. Therefore, he said, his principle was we focus on the Quran first, when we need a question, we look at the Quran for an answer, then we only use Hadith which we are sure are correct. And we apply principles based on what we know to be true. It is hardy that sounds a bit odd. Let's leave that and focus on what our our knowledge seems to be through and apply the Quran and the Sunnah to that. And he said, if you find out later that this hadith which I rejected is correct, when through my opinion

away, and that Hadith is my method. She says to the students, I don't know this hadith is correct or not. So I'm putting it aside. But if you find out this hadith is correct, then that is my mother. So he for us today It might sound simple, but it wasn't that known that he put down the framework. We begin with the Quran, when the authentic hadith, when Hadith which we are not so sure, but does not conflict with the Quran, then the word so he's putting in Priority what comes first, then the email the factors of the Sahaba we take them before our own fatawa after that, we use logic and reasoning as Allah. It makes sense. The laws in the Quran and the Sunnah are the because of reason and logic.

Allah did not just legislate for fun. There's a reason behind it for your own benefit. And that's what he tried to understand and capture. Someone tells us today I only want to accept what makes sense to me Alhamdulillah if you're Abu hanifa then yes, but if your mind is not sound, and a test of if your mind is sound or not you in a in a shop and the sister oxen free hijab and another lady walks in the half year she leaves nothing to the imagination, and which of the two would stand out more for you? If the one head to toe hijab is more odd for you, they know your mind is not sound and our minds have been corrupted. So we don't need so we don't base our our acceptance of Islam on

whether it makes sense to us or not. Maybe when you get to the level of image to hit the level of a Mufti and you've understood the deen of Allah has opened this up for you then okay, but like Abu hanifa he submitted to the Quran and the Sunnah. And when there was a gap. This is we applied his reasoning and his logic and how much of his evidences were proven to be true when the Hadith became solid and confirmed. Amongst the other principles he laid down so chaos was his great, one of the great gifts he gave to the oma all the other muda he will now use class. All of them will say this makes sense for this Imam said he would also have examples he would have something called al. We

should try our best to make it easy for the oma find the rulings find a legal loophole, not a haram loophole, a legal loophole to make things easy because this Deen is to make things easy. For example, a man comes and says, Yeah, I said, well, law here, I'm going to have intercourse with my wife in the day in Ramadan, what should I do? Break my vow and have intercourse with her in Ramadan? What do you do? The mouse is no problem. You and your wife go on a holiday travel somewhere you are travelers, you don't have to fast and do what you need to do. Have you found a legal loophole to a problem? This is how he would solve and answer these questions. This is how he would look to make

things easy. And he understood things better than anybody else in his time. And his students learned from him. And they benefited from him. And they wrote down his rulings and this is how I madhab started and he encouraged his students. If later on you find I was wrong thing change it Don't follow me. He asked him he didn't see students as kids. He looked at them as peers as colleagues. Your opinion is just as great as mine. Even though he's the genius until today, probably the smartest man in Abu hanifa Rahim Allah, later on his motherhood spread. And today, nearly half of the Muslims on this earth ascribed to the Hanafi madhhab. It's the biggest matter It has always been

the biggest method. It is the main hub of the was the main hub of the Ottoman Empire. It was the official hub of many, many systems. And on his personal life, the personal front of the Imam. He was he had one son, how he would spend his day is he would wake up with that you'd make that you then come to the masjid

fudger stay in emergencies basically until I start teaching class after class, answering questions, issuing fatawa then off the asset he would spend time with his family look to his business and his revenues not for himself, but for for his school. And then he would be in the masjid and then in the evenings off to Asia was his time either a bother and thinking also for the sisters, he only had one wife and encourage the halifa you can't do justice only take one wife, or the sisters and ohana fee now after this, right? Well, hamdulillah

so this Imam This is how he spent his life. And, and, and his students would say they never met a man of greater taqwa. And as I said, scholars great scholars came in brilliant men came, but they didn't achieve that level of greatness, like Abu hanifa. Why? Because it's not just knowledge. It's acceptance from Allah, it's sincerity. That's why it's called Abu hanifa. He didn't have a daughter called hanifa. hanifa means the one who is sincere and upright and direct. He got that cornea for his purity, and he's any sincerity and his love for the deen when people insulted him and he got a lot of insults and criticism. He never responded in an ugly way. He said, I'm just a man. And Allah

has this is what makes sense to me. And this is my evidence if I'm wrong, they make do out for me, and you come with something better. This is how he lived his life. How did he pass away as we said, he was always on the wrong side of the low split variable. He didn't speak out against the government, but he disliked the government tremendously. The government was not just in his time, he lived through the good days of Omar Abdulaziz. But besides for him, the governance of his time will corrupt and they tried to corrupt him as well, because he had some some mature following. They gave him gifts and he refused to accept any gift from any leader. He was imprisoned and lashed for 30

days every day, so much so that he had to leave Iraq and spend a number of years in Makkah, when the Omega dynasty was overthrown because of the corruption and he returned to Iraq, only to find the new regime as bad as the old one. And Abu Jafar almanzora halifa. Who was the halifa before Haruna. Rashid, who would be a much better halifa insisted Abu hanifa becomes his chief justice. He said you are the smartest man in the kingdom. I want you to be the Supreme Court Judge, the overall legal thinker of the oma an empire from Spain to China, you should be its chief legislator. I won't even say Nikon be that I am not fit for the job. shabu Jaffa said You're a liar. So is it exactly. I

mean, Elia can never be the supreme judge.

So, this he was a bit too smart for the hollyford liking. So he imprisoned him and the great Imam at the age of 70, died in prison. He felt that he was poisoned. And he performed Salah those first few days while he felt he was dying consistently in salah and I accepted him and he passed away in sada and this is how, what Abu hanifa gave to the oma, as I see that great quote from a young chef a after him, the other modality would come and they would say, we are just children, compared to Abu hanifa was like the grandfather of the great Imam. As I said, I'm not happy, but it's my personal choice of all these heroes. If I could bring one of them back as a scholar. I'll bring Abu hanifa

back tomorrow inshallah we speak about the man who's the opposite. If he had the heroes, Abu hanifa, they would have the Hadith would have this man as the heart as the hero

that he would bring the Hadith sciences correct. And his book in its time. The scholars like him, Shafi said there is nothing more accurate and correct than the book of this man, other than the Quran, when Haruna Rashid read his book, The halifa said, give me permission to hang your pages of the book on the Kaaba, and I'll force everyone to follow your method. When we're talking about the Imam of Medina, Mr. Maliki bananas. So we'll talk about the mathematic tomorrow shall the great teacher of even Sheffield Pamela, as well quiz

answers to last night's questions. The angel who will blow the horn for piano is sort of feel and as Heidi says the trumpet is already on his lips, and he's looking at a law waiting for the command looking at the rush and he does not blink out of fear that he would miss the command and his eyes have become glaze like gloss because he does not blink waiting for that command. He doesn't know when to blow but he's waiting. Now the Moosa was the brother of now we have to solve the people of madeon were destroyed in the same way as the people off the mood with a great sound. As for tonight's questions, you have the cards with you please fill out the answer. Now v Brahim came from

the city of

Mecca Medina oma dm, choose the answer really starts from the angel. How many wings does he have 40 wings 60 wings 6000 wings 600 wings or 1000 wings profit The idea here

Was Who was he was he was prophet Uriah, the son of Nabil Yusuf was prophet Yeah, the cousin of Nebuchadnezzar or was he nebby heroines nephew, or was he in Ibiza Korea's father?

Think about it. He lived in the city for a bit

nebbia was in abusive son. Maybe he says cousin maybe heroines nephew when Ibiza Korea's father.

Also the question inshallah put your quiz your cards in the box, and inshallah you'll get supplies next week Sokoloff aid or Salalah sanem hamadryad. He was talking to slim serene

Salaam Alaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh