Don’t try to find loopholes

Auto-generated transcript:Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen. Wa Salatu Wa Salamu Ala Ashrafil Anbiya wal Mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wa Alaihi Wasallam. Tasliman kathiran kathira. Fahamabadu. My brothers and sisters, I said there are two problems with this whole issue of acquiring knowledge and the desire to acquire knowledge. May Allah protect us from shaitan. Shaitan does not leave any stone unturned and he uses everything that we do and turns it into, turns something which is potentially beneficial into something which is potentially harmful. And he does it in two ways. One of course is to prevent you from doing something which is beneficial, but the other way he does which is very effective is to take that beneficial thing and make you do it in a way which makes it harmful. Right? It takes the beneficial thing and makes you do it in a way which either it becomes harmful, but harmful in the sense that either it becomes completely haram or it reduces the reward of the thing. So, instead of getting, you know, full reward, you get partial reward. It corrupts the reward of the thing. For example, you might be, you know, inclined towards doing charity and alhamdulillah you say, no, I have to do charity. I will do charity. But, you know, you have to do charity. But, shaitan will put it into your mind and your heart to say, well, you're doing this charity, encourage other people by putting it all, putting all this stuff on Facebook and Instagram and so on. So now you are hiring Instagram photographers to take pictures of your charity work and then you're putting it on Instagram and whatnot. And with the idea that you are somehow encouraging people to do it, but also what is hidden in that and which is probably even more true, which is that now your own ego comes into play. You are fantastic. What a great guy I am. I'm a philanthropist. I'm doing this and that. And shaitan will get people to come and praise you and so on. And you know, your articles will be written about you in the newspapers and stuff. So all of this now completely corrupts your niyyah and the ikhlas of your niyyah, the sincerity of your intention. And from being, starting point of where you are doing it to please Allah , now it becomes a self-propagation method where you are propagating your own virtue. And you are not just a person who is doing it for the benefit of people and so that you can get a good name. Now this is something to really, really guard against. Now one of the ways in which shaitan plays games with religious people is by tempting them to use their religious knowledge to find loopholes in the laws of Allah . So what is shaitan doing? Shaitan is trying to make people believe that they are not the only ones who are the only ones doing it. No one else is doing it. Right? So now there is, you are tempted to do something which is wrong. You know it is wrong. You should not be doing it. But because you have religious knowledge, shaitan will put thoughts into your mind of trying to find a way of doing something which you know to be wrong. But because you have religious knowledge, you find a way now around it. Right? Now there is no way around it. This is something which shaitan has put in your mind. This is what I mean. Yeah. So, I mean, it's, I mean, it's a very difficult thing. So, I have to say, I don't know if I can do it in a very perfect way. heart and your mind and you're now finding these so-called arguments in favor of doing something which is actually prohibited. One of the most common ones is this prohibition on interest-based dealings, which is a very clear prohibition. It is something on which Allah declared war in His own name, glorious name, and in the blessed name of Rasulullah . And Allah said, if you will not leave this, if you will not leave this interest-based dealings, borrowing or lending money on interest, then take a declaration of war from Allah and His Prophet . The ayat of Surah Al-Baqarah are very clear, absolutely clear ayat. Now, Shaytan puts, he finds his agents who, in the garb of being religious leaders, they now take this and they twist it and they say, oh, but you see, we live in America, the whole society is full of interest, so you cannot possibly escape it, so it doesn't matter. I need to own a house, and therefore first house is permitted. I need to invest my money, therefore, as long as 20 percent of your total portfolio, as long as the haram does not exceed 20 percent or 30 percent or whatever percent, right, they have different people of different percentages, may Allah have mercy on us, as long as the haram element does not exceed that percentage, it is okay. You ask this question and say, where did you get this percentage from, right? If you're saying 15 percent, if I have 16 percent, then it makes a difference. If I have 14, it makes a difference. Well, what are you talking, what are you trying to say? Percentage, where did we get it from? Because Rasulullah said very clearly that if there is one dirham of haram in 99 dirhams of halal, that one dirham will make the other 99 haram, right? But with the example I give, which is not a nice example, but I give it so that it's graphic enough to be in your mind. Suppose I give you a glass of water, you ask me for a glass of water, I give you the glass of water. I have actually not done anything, but I tell you, just for the heck of it, I have one drop of urine in this, right? In this one drop of urine in this glass of water. Now, obviously, that one drop of urine, you can't see it, you can't smell it, it hasn't changed the color of the water, and so on. All the Shari'ah, the Dalail with regard to the purity of water, all of those Dalail are fulfilled. So, technically speaking, this water is pure. Will you still drink it? That's my question. Will you still drink it? Will you say, it's okay, you know, the Shari'ah have a problem with this thing, one drop of urine. Will you still drink it? Then how on earth will you take and use interest-based dealings, interest-based money, and then talk about percentages? Twenty percent? You take a glass of water and put twenty percent urine in it, it'll become yellow. But you're okay with that with regard to your earnings. Similarly, somebody came to me and said, what about a mixed gathering, men and women together, for a wedding reception? So, I said, what is the need for that? This is a Muslim family, they're getting married, and they want to know if they can have a mixed gathering. I said, why did this question even arise? You're a Muslim family, we know the laws of hijab, the laws of hijab in Surah An-Nur, in Surah Al-Ahzab, in Surah Al-Hujurat, and so forth. No, this isn't about that..la Allah, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, is putting conditions and saying that the women must cover themselves completely, they must not mix and meet with nonmehram men. If there is a need to speak to a non-mehram men then that speech must be in a tone which is not enticing, which is not too friendly, which is not flirtatious. And the men are equally admonished, just before some man or woman is going to meet. Just before somebody jumps down my throat saying that I am anti-women, men are equally admonished to say that keep your gaze lowered, don't look at a non-mehram, don't even look at a non-mehram woman. How is it possible to have a mixed gathering where the men are not looking at the women and the women are not speaking to the men? Why do you have a gathering? Why would you have such a gathering where the men are not even looking at the women and the women are not speaking to the men because there is no need to speak? And the women are completely in hijab and covered. Why would you even have such a gathering? For what reason? So the only way you will have such a mixed gathering is when these rules are going to be thrown aside. And the... And the... And the... And the dalil that is given is, oh, but this is urf. Now, urf is a... Is a... Is an usur in fiqh where the basic fundamental principle is that as long as everything is halal, there is no particular, within quotes, Islamic way of doing something which is particular to a particular culture or a country. For example, Islamic clothing is not only a taub or a jalabiya or something like that, right? Or Islamic hijab and jalabiya or the burqa for the women is not only the way it is worn in Afghanistan or the way it is worn in some other country. As long as the libas, as long as the clothing covers the person fully, in the case of the woman, from... Head to foot, except her face and her hands, the niqab which women wear, this is ikhtiyari, this is something which is... They have the freedom to wear it or not wear it, but the face is permitted to be uncovered and the feet and the hands. The rest of the body is to be covered in something which is loose, where the shape of the body is not visible because of tightness and the material is not... It's not so thin that the body itself is visible. As long as this happens, whether that libas, whether that clothing is black or white or green or blue or whatnot, it doesn't matter as long as it's not something which attracts more attention. So obviously, you don't want something with sequins on it and scintillating in the light. You want something which is dignified and which does not attract attention. This is fine. So this is what is called... And similarly for the men. I mean, it's not necessary for that you must wear only a top. You can wear a suit. You can wear trousers and shirts. You can wear a kurta paizama. You can wear... As long as the aura of the man is covered, as long as the body of the man is covered, again, the same rule applies. Shape as well as the body itself must not be visible. So therefore, if I'm now in Britain, I'm in America or wherever, and I... Is it possible? Can I wear a suit? Of course you can wear a suit. There's nothing to stop you because this is, alhamdulillah,