Be careful who you take your Deen from

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the honour of the prophets and messengers. Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and upon his family and his family, are many a Muslim and many a Muslim. My brothers and sisters, many times people come to me and say, I want to be a speaker. I want to be a speaker. Teach me how to speak. I remind myself and you, and I warn myself and you, not to do what the best of us, the most critical people, the most amazing people, who lived before us, don't do what they were afraid to do. So think about it. There is probably not even one from the Sahaba or the Tabataween, who are the best of the best. There is probably not even one of them who is mentioned as a great speaker. Who attracted huge crowds and who had XYZ followers. Right? Not even one. Whereas unfortunately we live in a time when that seems to be the way in which scholars are judged and assessed and valued. This is not a sign of anything, except the ignorant times that we live in. So those people who are very keen to learn how to be great speakers and so on, and may Allah have mercy, they have those who they see as their role models, who are known to be so-called great speakers. They charge big fees and so on. So there is that desire and greed for money as well, which comes into it. So be aware of that. Because see what, how careful people were. And these are the true scholars, the real scholars of this Deen. See how true, how careful they were with this Deen and with what Allah gave them. They treated that, what Allah gave them, which is knowledge of Islam, they treated that as a big responsibility and burden. Burden not in the sense of, they were not complaining about it, but burden as in the sense of great responsibility. Not something that they were keen to get or keen to have, not something that they ran behind, not something that they used to make posters and to, you know, attract followers. They were not they saw this as a huge responsibility and they were extremely, extremely careful about what they said or did. There is a famous story of Gambali Krahuntullari where a man came from Kufa and said to him that I have come from Kufa and we have heard about you and you are a famous man. Because people used to say in the time of Imam Malik, the scholars of Islam in the world used to say, how can I give a fatwa when Malik is in Madina? So the man said, I have come with 40 questions. So I want to ask you. Imam Malik said, okay ask. He asked his 40 questions and Imam Malik answered 8 and for the 32 he said, Allah O Allah. He said, Allah knows best. So the man said, this is very disappointing because now what will I go and tell the people in Kufa? Malik said, that is very simple. Tell them that you are mistaken. Malik is not a great scholar. Because, how can I tell you something about Allah about which I am not sure? So you are asking me a question. I am not sure of the answer just now. If anything you have to wait and then I will have to check and I will have to find out and then I will tell you. But right now, Allah knows best. This was the way of our Salaf. This was the way of the people of true people of knowledge. Ibn Abbas said, Ibn Abbas used to he never said that so and so you know he he never sort of said about anybody that this one will go to Jannah and this one will go to Jannah. He would say, I don't know whether he will find he is talking about somebody's you know action. He would say, I don't know whether he will find this among his good deeds or his bad deeds. Now that does not mean that, he was not sure of what the man is doing. He was sure but he didn't want to take the risk of saying something with certainty when it might be something which may have some kind of you know some kind of other possibility. So this is something that we should really you know we should really take very very seriously. So when people come to me and say I want to be a speaker, I tell them look don't run, don't rush in as they are saying in English. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. So don't be a fool. Because the moment you start speaking you take the position of the teacher then you are in the position of the Prophet . You are in the position of Rasul Allah . You have become a Mufti, you have started legislating and may Allah have mercy on us. There are people today who legislate and say all kinds of things. What Allah made haram they make halal. What Allah made halal they make haram. And their excuse is the worst excuse of the whole world which is to say that times have changed or the country is different. So we are in America. We are special. We are not like others. This is such a completely idiotic thing that people say that you are not like others. You may not be like others because this country and this culture seems to be characterized by arrogance. But that's about the only difference. Remember the first one who said I am not like others was Shaitan. Right? He was Shaitan. He was the one who said he was the one who stood out. The angel made salud. He said no I am not like them. I will not make saluda. Why will you not make saluda? Because this instruction doesn't make sense to me. This instruction is wrong. I am not wrong. Instruction is wrong. So the blame is on the one who gave the instruction. In this case Allah is the most powerful. So anytime you want to stand out and say well I am different. Ask yourself. Who are you emulating? Who are you imitating? When you make any legislate on behalf of Allah and His Rasool for which you have no permission. Nobody has any permission. The only one who could legislate was Rasool Allah . That was the age of legislation. And he was the legislator. He was the one who said, He was the one who Allah had given blanket permission. And Allah told us Arabic Whatever, whatever, whatever My Rasool gives you, take it. Whatever instruction he gives you, follow it. Obey it. And whatever he stops you from, stop. He tells you don't eat something, don't eat that thing. He says don't do something, don't do that thing. Don't ask why, how, all this. Just don't do it. He tells you don't do it, don't do it. Right? Nobody has that permission. The only one who had the permission, Rasool Allah . No one has it. Whatever came, Allah said, Arabic Allah said today, this day, I have completed my religion. I have completed your religion for you and I have completed my blessing on you, my ni'mah on you. And I have chosen for you Islam and Jodh. This Deen has been completed. This Deen is unchangeable. Whatever Allah decreed is decreed. Whatever Rasool legislated and permitted or prohibited is permitted or prohibited. And nobody, but nobody on the face of the earth, individually or collectively with anybody, has the authority to change anything in any way. And if somebody is doing that, they are fooling you. And if you are doing that, you are fooling people. And for that, see what Allah said. In Surah Al Anqabut, Allah said, Arabic Arabic Arabic Yet they will certainly be made to carry their own burdens as well as other burdens along with their own. And they will surely be questioned on judgment day about what they used to fabricate. Rasool famous Hadith, he said, If a person starts something good, then he will get the full reward of that. And he will get the reward of all those who follow him in that good without decreasing their rewards in the slightest. And if somebody starts something evil, he will get the evil of that. He will get the punishment for that. And he will get the punishment of all those who follow him in that evil without reducing their punishment in the least. So be careful that you are not one. And you are not one of the latter. Somebody who starts something evil and then on the day of judgment, you stand before Allah and your book is opened and you find millions and millions and millions of evil deeds and you say, Well, I did not do all these. And it will be said, No, you did not do them yourself. But these deeds were done by those who followed your advice. So therefore, my advice to myself and you is, be very careful who you are. Be very careful who you take your deen from. Be very careful who you take your deen from. First thing to see is, is the person who is talking about Islam, does he look like Rasulullah ? Does he have the shabahat of Rasulullah ? His face, his body, his clothes, his demeanor, his manners, do they resemble Rasulullah ? If that person is going against the law, against the sunnah of Rasulullah , in his appearance, in his behavior, in his dealings, then this person is not somebody that you want to listen to. Because if the person cannot even follow the sunnah of Rasulullah in his own life, what is he going to teach you? And when such people do these things, Allah is saying, not only will they carry their own burden, but they will also carry the burden of others. And they will be questioned on the day of judgment about what they used to fabricate. In Surah An-Nahl, Allah said, لِيَحْمِلُوا أَوْزَارَهُمْ كَامِلَةً يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَمِنْ أَوْزَارِ الَّذِينَ يُضِلُّونَهُمْ بِغَيْرِ عِلْمٍ أَلَا سَاءَ مَا يَذِرُونَ Let them bear their burdens in full on the day of judgment as well as the burdens of those they mislead without knowledge. Evil indeed is what they will be. May Allah have mercy. We have enough on our plates without taking on the problems of others. But if we are the reason for those problems, then they will be put into our accounts. And those same people who today, remember those same people who today were sitting there and saying, Oh, MashaAllah, MashaAllah, MashaAllah, Shaykh, Shaykh, Shaykh. Those same people will curse you and those same people will tell Allah, will ask Allah to increase your punishment. Allah said