Full Lecture Transcript (Cleaned)
Interview session (Part 2) — 0:01
your initiative your questions and i'm more than and by the way anybody wallahi anybody who wants to talk with me about any issue my masjid is here come anytime i have no problem speaking with any person of anymore even anybody just a muslim wants to come i have no problem not ready by the way we collected more than 100 criticism then uh we uh samurai all of them uh it became like you say we you mean you and you're you're right okay because i i i don't really follow my i don't really follow my critics and i i think to be honest again for the record some of the people i think it's almost useless to even defend they are already made up their minds but there are many who are open-minded and again wallahi it's not for my shasia but sometimes the criticism is slanderous and an outright lie and i cannot and i cannot be it hurts well it hurts to say that i allow shirk to say that i am pro-lgbt and again anybody who sincerely believes that i have uh you know he sincerely believes as a shaykh or scholar or whatever may allah forgive but anybody who propagates these bhutan and anybody who is slanderous intentionally i have said on the day of judgement we have a hisab between this person okay uh just all of them in in 18 one we talk about ten now we have eight in this part insha allah okay criticism number eleven is uh that uh sheikh you said that you can pick any madhab which seems best for you uh no this is simply untrue i challenge anybody to find any clip like this i have always said you have two options in front of you either you follow your medhab and stick to it or you're talking about the sunni yes or you follow an alim that you think is qualified and your intuition and your conscience tells you this is a person who fears allah and is sincere and has and you ask the sheikh whatever question and you follow you don't have to ask the method of as long as he's a mainstream mufti and adam you are not allowed to pick and choose your father based upon the criticizer tries to let people know the sheikh says okay anyone you love just go this is what he doesn't know anybody good for you anybody anybody whom you feel fears allah and has you have to make a judgment in the end of the day yeshua what do you expect the ammi to do yani what do you expect the average muslim in america who is he going to follow he has to make a small ichthy had about who's going to make the biggest they had for him right he has to make a smallish tihad about which much tahed i will choose and i have been very clear i am never calling to myself brothers and sisters find the people of knowledge whom your heart finds comfort in and while i say to as allah is my witness if you find a group of who say to you ya we don't know what he is and it's best to avoid him avoid me and follow those as long as your heart is content i'm not calling to myself but if you find what i'm saying helpful and beneficial have them and father and if you find it mistaken when it comes to me come to me and let's have a polite dialogue but whatever what one thing you don't need to do is to get involved in scholarly debates when you're not a scholar one thing you don't need to do is to get involved in internet drama when you don't understand the back and forth it's not it is enough of a muslim that it it is enough to be considered a liar that he considers that he sorry it is enough to be considered a liar our prophet said that he keeps on regurgitating what he hears from other people don't talk about other people concentrate on yourself perfect criticism number 12 that they said that you are denying the existence of nowadays but you said they are there you said that they will come at the day of uh as a sign from the signs of the day of judgment you believe that became uh in the beginning in the early time but you do not believe the existence of nowadays and there is harit says that the art exists and they are digging from the jed so as i have explained this is not again a unique position to me actually who is the teacher of immunothey mean held the exact same view and also one of my teachers in madison i actually have the same view as well and also uh as well and there's multiple multiple but once again the problem comes again i have said this respectfully the majority of those who are involved in prioritizing criticism of other people they are not qualified to criticize in the first place this is really i think one of our fundamental problems is that we've created a mass industry of entertainment via the drama of criticism and so when people aren't qualified to discover faults the position i hold is a minority view by the way with utmost respect again i am not aware of any book of al-qaeda putting in their mataneva that a part of the akhida of the muslim is that they must believe that are trapped behind the wall there is no book of akita that i am aware of of the early times of islam and i have read many many of them that has this as a part of its akrita we believe in yahuwah jews they existed in the past the quran says so we believe they will come in the future the hadith says as for the issue of them being trapped behind the wall right now there is only one explicit hadith in this regard and it is in the java of a tidmity and al-hafiz ibn kathy himself says that this hadith is and it seems to be from the israelite if you remove this hadith from the picture there is no explicit evidence that the judah are currently alive trapped behind the wall so i don't have so again one needs to understand sunni methodology is what is that if the prophet said it we accept it but what if he didn't say it how do we know he said it when the hadith is life and some person says the hadith is life and i believe that is life also one of my teachers and mentors has an entire uh chapter and article online you will find it uh about why this hadith and you will find this um uh also one of the students have been artheim and wrote three articles about this hadith explaining why it is weak the the hadith is weak from an island standpoint so my opinion uh when i first the first lecture i gave about assad i was followed shaykh who said so i said hadith hasan we must accept it that is what i say if the hadith hasn't we accept it but later on i discovered actually no shaykh almani could be mistaken and it been kathie and fulan and fulan they all say this hadith is weak and so when the hadith is weak there is no evidence to suggest that they are currently you know trapped behind the wall so my position is therefore this is what i i consider to be the more appropriate one but at the same time to make this issue an issue of akhida is itself a problem because it is not an issue of akhida no scholar of akhida said or no mainstream scholar and no authoritative book said that of the beliefs of sunnah is that there are billions of people currently trapped behind the wall somewhere on earth and perhaps one day i'll give a library chat where i explain this in more detail but again what i am saying uh anwar shah kashmiri the famous alimo of india uh all of them they held this village has a similar view as well plenty of urdama said this as well it's nothing new but unfortunately any the the people by the way he has three opinions the first opinion that they are exists but he does not like this opinion the second opinion he said they won't come they won't come at the as a science yeah because there is a well-known opinion and again people don't know this that there is a mainstream opinion that the verses about uh yeah that are coming right uh actually many uh said this was the tatar invasion the mongol invasion and they said it is not from the ashat towards the end of times it is from the shot that is happening right now this is a mainstream sunni opinion but once again unfortunately annie our uh you know and that's why it's difficult to say this because it really comes off as harsh but i advise the brothers that look at who's doing the criticism look at their track record and look at their gaining of knowledge generally speaking senior unama are not involved in these types of things and to make it a problem and to make it an issue of akhida is itself a problem the position i hold is very mainstream it might be a minority i agree but it is mainstream it is well known it is well documented and it is something that usually affirms criticism number 13 that you give fatwa that there is allowance to shaking hands the opposite gender there are many opinions that i'm sure people will find problematic no problem this is what everybody knows this is one of the aqua of the shaffer is not the standard the position but it's there that if there's no shahu then it is allowed everybody knows that this is the position of many councils including european uh and there's also the president of others if somebody disagrees then don't do it but what i said actually is that it's makuru to be technical i said it is makru when there is no shah and it is haram if there is desire and lust it is should be avoided don't make it the norm uh so if somebody doesn't like the no problem but i i don't see but they will they will say that there is hadith says that you said literally that we have to make changes compromises reforms in in our religion no i never said this once again look at the videos and listen to my context we don't make reform in the deen is the dean of allah azzawajal but in the ideas of men in positions that were held 500 years ago no problem yes is done in the episode what exactly is every generation doing except rethinking through and representing what every generation is doing so the notion of applying to our times in the context that we live in this is what is this is the essence of meant to be applied in wakka it's not meant to be only studied theoretically so when i talk about reform it is not of the religion islam it is not of the religion it is of the understanding the understanding of a previous generation and this is well known again in fact and again the irony is that even those that wish to be dogmatic in what they believe their movements themselves were movements of reform so the nezhdi movement was itself an islam movement of its day that the ubandi movement was an islamic movement of its day right every movement it began as an islam for the time now later scholars wanted to stick with the earlier version of the movement but the initial movement was an islamic movement they had to be or else how would they benefit the ummah so again to be clear what i'm saying and and anybody who does not understand this all you need to do is to listen to my q and a's that i've given i have i think over almost 300 detailed q a sessions i have online on this youtube channel go look them up anybody who says that i'm trying to reform islam this is khadib and bhutan go listen to those fatawa what do you think is reforming i am faithful to the text of the quran and to the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi even to traditional islam the irony of ironies that i find is that the actual progressives uh who consider uh you know many things like lewalt to be halal and you know what not to be the actual progressives they will be a fundamentalist and those that are on the more you know ultra fundamentalist side they're able to be liberal and whatnot these are labels in the end of the day methodology and real example speaks louder so anybody who doesn't understand what i'm trying to say listen to my actual talks about my actual fatawa that i've given and how i make istidlal of those fatah this is you you see it in front of you subhanallah i mean there are so many opinions i can literally a simple example nikah have a muslim are saying it is allowed i have put my foot down no it is not allowed by ijma it is not allowed okay and many other things in this regard so what are you talking about reform what what issue quote me an evidence or an opinion quote me a position that i've held that has contradicted uh the ijma of the ummah or explicit every position i hold you will find mainstream ulama advocating it so when i talk about reform it's not in the deen it is in a previous generation's understanding and there are many many examples i've actually given these examples for example the books of the books of not the quran that the prisoner should not pray salat al-junwa the muslim prisoners of america they have the constitutional right to pray jummah should we tell them the books of don't congregate for jumaa or should we understand that given the current time and place we live in we should fight for the right to have jumaa in prison you know the books of jumaa is not obligatory upon the prisoner they should not you should not pray what you another example i given on my facebook the book all the madahim say that when the wife falls sick the husband is not obliged to pay before this is all for my hips even if is for her this is all four men have these types of views and i say this is not the quran you're talking about this is the type of it mentioned hadith allah the dean of allah nobody has this right to change the dean of allah but the opinions that i have just said are not the deen of allah they are opinions of a previous generation we respect them allah we respect them but we are not obliged to follow them okay the after that right away number 15 or criticism number 15 is that you try to say that the same topic they have there is and also recent scholars they have hacked either to criticize the the the the old scholars or to uh have another uh head like it's different than the rishti had that just let us follow them and that's it why you have to have right firstly i'm not i'm not saying this is my right i have a toilet secondly i'm following far senior ulama venmi as i have said i i don't have a single position that is unprecedented now as for those who say that we should not uh you know break away from the form of we have to stick with what they have said in the past i respect that opinion good for them i just think it's not the healthiest for the situation we find ourselves in i don't criticize them but i think if you want islam to flourish in the western world we have to understand that were codified in a different time and place and the madahib is not what allah revealed allah revealed the quran and he sent us a prophet salallahu this is our sources we respect the middle east we would not be here without the media but i don't think we are obliged i mean how can we say we're obliged to follow a method you're saying allah made it wajib to follow and it is healthy i say the default is a person follows either yeshe or madhav no problem as i said this right but to say that it is wajib this is saying allah so this is what we call an emotional argument an emotional argument it's not obligation it's not this is what you say it's not updated criticism number six i think we talked about it before but let us just what is your opinion about what is your opinion about jizya about jesus that it is a part of our sharia that allah azzawajal has mandated it as a default but that given the current time and places and given the fact there is no given the fact we live in nation states not me our ulama have understood that it doesn't make sense to apply the jizya for a nation state again this is a very deep issue a nation state and akhilafa are two different systems of government in a nation state the jinsiya everybody has to be the same the and the messiah and the muslim if he's muslim he's going to be muslim you can't have a gradation in the jinsya in the nation state well it's not a jin syria right every american has to have the same or not american right every you know uh uh mauritanian every yemeni has to have the same or else they're not they're not yemeni you cannot have a gradation within the jinsiya system so the concept of the nation-state of the daila is radically different than the concept of has a totally different so now we have a problem the problem is in the modern world there is no we have nation states so what do we do with the books of that have issues that would make sense in but don't make sense in the modern nation state all i'm saying go astra of the other countries why are they asking me about jizya i'm living in america go astra of the uh muslim lands why aren't they calling for jizya because they understand as we said in the previous yes yes different than modern so we never i have never and this is right to uh they try to let you get uh seems to your followers that you are rejecting the rejecting something from the this is what uh not at all my context is very clear and again anybody who listens to my prepared lectures maybe sometimes in an unprepared response i might have an incorrect slip of the phrase but anybody who listens to a prepared lecture i would like to say that it is impossible for a sincere person to misunderstand what i'm saying criticism number 17 that you have conversations with those who are enemies to islam and you have an agenda i do have conversations with those uh who uh i disagree with um maybe some of them i disagree with very strongly uh the point of those conversations is not just to explain to them but more importantly to those followers with their followers who look up to them um i i remember almost 17 to 15 years ago tony blair offered a class in at yellow university and uh it was a an issue for me should i take that class or not and i eventually took it and i felt that overall the benefit was more because i was able to speak to him directly and i explained to him the anger that the muslim world feels and i told him point blank to his face in front of the class that you know he will have to answer to his lord on the day of judgment for what he has done in iraq now again some people can say this is not you are even sit with them that's their opinion i i don't what do you want i mean again what is the alternative i don't know what to say to this it's to me this is they're living in a world different than mine what else can we do except deal with our enemies deal with people we don't like explain to them our views and even if we don't affect them there are people like again in my own case my entire class was behind me against him at yale everyone is a non-muslim everyone is a very powerful whatnot and throughout the course of the semester alhamdulillah as they say i managed to get my side to the to my audience right so even if even if let's say tony blair his heart is kasia he's not listening anything how about the people in the audience and also i felt that nobody is telling him point blank what he needs to hear he's surrounded by his own entourage of yes men we call that in english and yes men you know like everybody is praising him whatnot in any case i don't know i don't view this as a criticism they're right i speak with everybody and i speak my mouth to everybody and i think this is what my religion calls me to do i don't see this as a as a criticism is that from our deen to have conversation with our enemy how can it not be what is the entire seerah you be harsh when you need to be harsh you'll be strict when you be gentle you need to do the example that rasulullah was sitting with someone doesn't believe in him what do you mean the whole seerah is what other than giving dawah to the quran and actually doing their rituals no it's literally any of the process in them they didn't accept islam they did not accept islam but for a week maybe even more than this for a week and they were worshiping they were worshipping the messenger this is what the hadith said that my point being that again i i don't understand this criticism what do you expect to do except you're going to sit with the one who disagrees you're going to convey the message and you're going to make sure of the people and the people the audience understand now in order to do that yani with tony blair for example right yeah you have to sit as a student in class you have to dress you have to interact and smile if somebody says okay you have i don't know what to say you have a different way of going about you have to have a type of a type of gentleness when you speak and talk and get your point in a way that you're still in the audience yeah if i throw an egg at him or more than this what am i going to accomplish what what so i don't understand what tani they expect of this type of thing and i don't see this as a criticism i don't understand the criticism to be honest i have to say this and you know that anyone says that the non-muslim people haven't tried to come in the masjid and to have something from their worshipping in the masjid if anyone says that which is all those who are criticizing you in this point we have this belief ibn claims it literally you are following someone it's not rasulullah i mean the seerah shows that he allowed this says something well-known jesus what can you do like i said a lot of the people who are criticizing what that they haven't studied to a level that gives them the right to be critical of certain opinions okay criticism number 18 that what is your view about those who are mocking the prophet muhammad clearly he said that you are not clear and you are not like walder with these guys i have said very clearly by ejima of the ummah the muslim who does this has become murut and in an islamic land the penalty of riddha will be implemented against them as for the me even in an islamic land the ahnaf have a position uh is the one who is a non-muslim living in a muslim land and okay right uh yeah yehudi living in me who uh mock saban is messenger the hanafi's have a different position the other three methods so if anybody again i find this interesting like how is this problematic to mention the hanafi position as for us living in non-muslim lands what do they expect and again i have been very clear we do not have the right to enforce any version of the sharia upon the people living around us not at all we are citizens of a land that has a different law just like the sahaba in ethiopia and habasha they did not implement the sharia a person became murdered in habasha the cousin of the father and well known became murdered in destiny they what did they do nothing they didn't touch a hair on his head what are you going to do it's habasha you cannot implement you are not judged you're an executioner to do this so again i don't understand the problem in this regard the sharia is very clear the hukum is very clear that samia has an entire book on it the muslim who does so there is so there's two opinions a majority in minority but the one in non-darul islam what are you going to do we oppose we speak out against we correct the misunderstandings we're very angry at this but what are you going to do we cannot be violent and physical this is not our deed to be violent and physical and even in islam you don't be violent and physical you take it to the court of law you go can you imagine if every muslim was told judge you're an executioner you decide what is uh blasphemy you dislike what is sukhriya no even in they're following the majority opinion not hanafi position in the majority opinion you will go to the quality you will go to the sultan you'll go to the mahakam and you'll go to the judge and they will then decide so then what do you think as a minority in america in england in belgium i don't understand what they expect and what do more do they want so my position is crystal clear the sharia is very clear the hukum is very clear but we are living in a land where the sharia is not being applied and we have to correct in a way that uh ability here inshallah criticism that you took your phd from western university from yale university why you did this actually this was the advice of uh some of my primary teachers uh from medina actually uh including sheikh alvar i had an interview with me by the way pastoral he was one of the people who also told me that you should get your phd from abroad and also uh uh safari as well um i i knew him very well i visited him multiple times he knew me he actually i i went to him and i said i'm concerned i'm going to do a phd you know in a non-muslim university and whatnot and he's literally he said to me i said yes he's like you have to go and and do it you know and he shajani he encouraged me to do so what people don't understand is that i'm not studying uh quran and sunnah and tafsir at these institutions no these institutions they teach you what is called maybe history or how to process how to analyze it's a different thing and and again this is a whole different topic i've given longer lectures about the differences in eastern versus western education so a person who wants to study the deen for the sake of becoming religious must go to a muslim institution to al-azhar islamiyah malaysia what not and and i would not advise such a person to go to any western institution because they're not teaching the deen for the sake of deen but if a person wants to think differently and that has pros and cons and wants to understand history because a lot of emphasis on history and wants to understand evolution of ideas and wants to understand from a different world view they teach you a paradigm which is not relevant to any one religion it is a paradigm of knowledge how do you process history how do you look at the world this what is called or paradigm it is independent of a deen or religion it is simply a philosophy of science and of of looking at history there's a lot to benefit and there's also potential problems so uh to to respond to this i say i mean i thank allah for for who i am and i don't uh i understand that some people find uh this notion problematic and it's not meant for uh you know studying the quran in seerah and tafsir but listen to my lectures and see what i'm quoting and you can judge for yourself in any case i said very clearly i don't advise a muslim to study for the sake of islam at any such institution you want you want the deen for the sake of the deen go to but these institutions have a different uh purpose and if you go with that purpose there is much to benefit and there's also potential negatives that have spoken about in other interviews it doesn't take you to a liberalism like what they are accusing you it doesn't take you to liberalism yani it's up to you if you want to go that way or not how can any institute drag you to something you have to decide to do that there are very orthodox very practicing people in these institutes and there are those that are liberal it's up to you what you want to do so you you are you are your own boss in this regard and if you want to become on that paradigm it's up to you to do so finally just before i end check there is data you have to know it i i think that you don't know it that about your videos shakhira sarkardi made 1800 videos on his social media now we have youtube we have facebook we have twitter we have also instagram and mashaallah youtube uh almost half a million followers or subscribers and on facebook one million uh subscribers and followers and instagram half million also and twitter half million so these are your platforms number one you did sheikh hassan made 1800 videos and subhanallah you will be surprised because we collected all views on all his social media for one week our brothers in riyadh they did this for tv oh much tv i've been on much tv back in the day we collected all your i did not do this okay okay it's quarter billion views all your social media or your platforms from that since you made your youtube like and this is i ask allah for isla ask allah to protect my false sentences ask allah to guide me and to guide others through me i ask allah that the benefit that i bring about is much much much more than any mistakes and harm that's all we can do we have to be proud of you our sheikh has quarter billion views in all his social media and platforms and also there is like 50 million people that they liked the video of the sheikh and there is one million people they didn't like or one million disliked to the videos of the sheikh which the percentage is one or two to 100 every 100 people there is 98 people liked and there is two people disliked so we have alhamdulillah quarter billion views this is how like benefits for everyone who is watching i have three messages before i end this inshallah interview one message for those who are watching shikhya sir and they are liking his videos please be like supporting to shaykh support also the subhanallah the reputation of i don't want people to get involved in in social media debates well my advice to people is to benefit but only without causing more fitness no no no more fitness just i'm talking about the support regular support of our sheikh now he declared and he clarified every single criticism as an audience for shaykh i said we should he has haqq on us to defend his reputation and to support him also this is the first message the second message for everyone who is criticizing shaykh without bad intention like with good intention brother and sister please put this ayah in your mind before you criticize please make sure that shaykh said this this is exactly what i did i didn't like what i i watched it from all these criticism but i came to shikhasan right away i called him right away and i started calling him in the last ramadan even in the time of the hadjudge did you say this he said yeah how you said it what's your explanation of this then i collected all these things and i came to him to clarify these things for those who are criticizing with good intention please before you criticize and accuse anything make sure about what you are saying allah will make hassab with you the third message or the fourth one for those who are criticizing accusing something with bad intentions when you are criticizing our ulama do you think that the new generations will let you be free they will criticize you and we will accuse you a lot of issues in the future you just have 20 years or 25 years old how much knowledge that you have how many books that you read before you make this remember your followers now they will come in one day and criticize you and accuse you with bad intentions too this is my last message here also i want to thank uh my team those who collected all these letters my brother yusuf baker uh knows the reality i am very appreciative i'm very appreciative i would never have asked anybody to do this because i don't think it's worthy of me i would never have wanted you know somebody to spend so much time but you did it on your own and i am appreciative because sheikh i am human being in the end of the day and most of these now some of these quote unquote criticisms are somewhat valid i have left one interpretation to another that's valid but some of these wallahi slander about some of the things that you know i love the quran to be accused of i love the to be accused of saying something you know so it hurts it really does i'm a human being so it is painful and therefore i appreciate the fact that you took the time to compile this list and allow me the opportunity to uh to defend and whatnot and in the end of the day we ask allah subhanahu wa with allah i ask allah azzawajal for islam for sincerity ask allah for hidayah to make the quran the guiding light for us and to allow the seerah and the sunni of the prophet to be our illuminating path i ask allah for the shafa of the prophet saw the day of judgment i am not i'm not infallible i make mistakes i will make mistakes i'm also at a time in a place where islam is being attacked from so many different ways i'm trying my best to preserve the deen of the next generation of this of this land and to defend the attacks but because there's so many and so unique there's no doubt there's going to be some mistakes so my humble advice to those that are listening when you find such a mistake and you feel that the good is more allow the good to overlook that mistake and if you want to i would love that you correct the mistake with me directly come to me directly and wallahi inshaallah every single critic ever in my life that has come to me has either left the criticism or at least toned it down so much that has become inconsequential never has a person sat with me one on one and discussed a difficult issue except that by the end of that discussion things have changed either they didn't have the issue anymore or at least they understood that i have an opinion that they can respectfully disagree with unfortunately sometimes people don't come directly and they find the mistake and they make it bigger or it's not even a mistake or they spread it and i think it's detrimental to the um well i think it's detrimental we don't need more internal drama we have enough external drama to actually worry about as we're speaking what's happening in philistine what's happening to our uighur brothers this is what's happening in kashmir what's happening in india as we're speaking muslims are leaving the faith how many of our young shabbab are leaving the faith as we're speaking the shahawat and you want to do something to my critics i say go find these battles and wage the masha'allah so much to do and if you think somebody is wrong then present something better rather than simply finding the faults of the first person if you think a methodology is wrong defend the truth in a better way and may allah bless you when you do so this is my sincere nasiha we want baraka in all dawah to allah is allah we're making to allah not to our personalities so anybody who disagrees go ahead and disagree with adam go ahead and correct where possible and ask allah for hidayah before i end this i have a small story in one minute and i will end in sha allah with you one from sahaba rasulullah he came to rasulullah multiple times drinking alcohol then one from the sahabi rasulullah told him may allah curse you you are coming a lot and drinking alcohol you don't have tawba in rasulallah told him and taught us actually with this unique statement he said let's do not be with the shaytan against your brother if you have nasiha come to him for the one who was drinking alcohol multiple times before i end i know now why these millions are loving you i discovered five things of inshallah my interview five things make this guy all these people love him alhamdulillah i mean five things knowledge as a first thing and the second thing subhan allah smartness then the third thing subhanallah kindness then the fourth thing subhan allah humbleness in the fifth thing and the lasting communication skills because of that alhamdulillah we are loving our sheikh victory in me