you're listening toam institute's podcast visit us on the web atum institute.org and join us on Facebook at facebook.com [Music] Institute from today we'll be starting a series on the the life of the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam get started today inshallah what I wanted to talk about is as this is the tradition of Scholars throughout the centuries from the past that whenever they begin a topic they begin a subject any type of a study or any area of study they always begin by providing somewhat of an introduction what is this science what is this study and what are some of the basic things or basic principles that need to be kept in mind When approaching this area of study so we're approaching the study of the S the life of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and the very first thing that we have to understand is what is s what does s even mean what does it even referred to because a lot of times we can become so used to we can become so comfortable with certain terminologies that we don't realize actually what it means or what it refers to so s itself the word s in the Arabic language linguistically it literally means a path it means a path where somebody walks a direction which somebody takes so to walk in a particular particular direction is s that's why m is walking all right or a path on which people walk like a sidewalk a pathway and so that's literally what s means now it's used more figuratively in the meaning of referring to a person's life a s refers to a person's life the path somebody has walked the path that someone has traversed so a path that somebody has gone lived life in a direction of and and it's used often times has a description as well like they would say in Arabic that such and such person he has a very beautiful life he has a very excellent way of living life and it's used in its linguistic meaning in the Quran as well in Surah tah Allah subhana wa tala in Ayah number 21 from Surah number 20 Surah Allah subhana wa tala says when talking to remember when Allah subh as M what's in your hand in your right hand oh mus and he said it's my staff it's my stick my walking stick and then he went on to describe it Allah subhana T commanded him he said throw it down Let It Go he dropped it and it become it became a rapidly moving snake or serpent then Allah subhana T commanded him take it grab it and don't be afraid we very soon will re return it to the word Allah uses is we will return it back to its first s its first form the first way the shape that it was so literally your condition the way you are the way you live life even your physical form is a part of your s is a part of a person's s so that's the linguistic meaning of the word s so s doesn't just mean a way a person lives or a way a person talks or walks it includes those things but even the way a person looks the way a person acts in all facets and aspects of that person's life that is all inclusive of that person's s all right so that's the literal the linguistic meaning of the word s now in terms of more technical terminology what does the word s refer to what does it what what does it mean so again the word s very interestingly is a literary term it's a literary term it's an it's a it's a literary term so like what we call biography literally translates to the word means biography and there is that's a biography of someone the biography of a person is called but there are also like in English we know we have autobiographies that in Arabic is called is an autobiography so it's a literary term the word s now you bring it down more and so there's literally you know there you there's every type of s that you can imagine all right as many types of biographies there are there are similarly that many types of s as well so but specifically what we're here to talk about is a the prophetic biography and so what we're talking about is a the prophetic biography now when talking about the prophetic biography what does that refer to what does that allude to what does that include what does that Encompass so the as described by the pro by by the scholars as defined by them is that it is that the is everything all of that which has come to us which has been related to us from all of the occurrences of the life of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam anything and everything that occurred related to in regards to or directly in connection to The Life and Times of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam some of the previous Scholars would refer to would Define the S by saying from his Sun from his practice and from his days meaning every single day of his life is a part of his s so all of that would be included within the S of the prophet sallallahu alaih wasallam and all of his attributes all of his characteristics whether they be or meaning his physical descriptions are a part of his his physical descriptions are a part of his s but his mannerisms are also a part of his all of his campaigns his Expeditions his military Endeavors his family life his home life everything is included within the S of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and sometimes when you look back at very early compilations or references of the they would often times be referred to as Ali or Al like thei ofari so Imam bukari talks about the life of the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam by referencing it asazi the book of the different military campaigns or Expeditions of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and a lot of the S would be included therein or you would have um books like the AL of a very very early scholar by the name of Al he had a book or he had a collection of the references of the life of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasall under the title of alazay which is a plural of gazwa which are the military Expeditions why that is I'll explain a little bit later on inshallah when talking a little bit about the early books of sir and the focus of s that has existed within the um muslima throughout the generations now the next thing that I wanted to talk about which is very I I think it's of the utmost importance is why study s that's very very important so after Scholars would talk about the definition of s then what is the what is the technical understanding of what is s then they would talk about what is the of the meaning what is the subject matter of the and that is self-explanatory it's the study of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam but now we reach the reach the crucial critical question question of why study s why study s and I present this question with a few basic um if you will preconceived notions in mind all right s is something that has been the subject of study since the very first day the study of s goes hand inand with the study of the book of Allah the study of the Quran so it's been around from day one and most of everybody here listening watching or listening to this later has probably come across s in some capacity or another throughout their life but I'm going to go ahead and present some of the preconceived notions we might have of s or some of the history that you might have of studying s in your own past it has been presented to you in the form of various books textbooks even from early as Sunday school or what our children go through in terms of Sunday school coming up through maybe some of the stuff that was instituted as part of the islamyat as uh at some level of school education um or maybe you come came across it later on as an adult stud studying some type of a text or some type of a manual that was written on the life of the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam and that usually has unfortunately manifested itself in a couple of different unfortunate ways either number one it's been a very dry study of just names places dates basically a collection of facts is what it's been year number this place number this person number so and person such and such and this incident happened and then move on so it's a very dry steady of facts names and places all right almost like a timeline or it's been presented in a way in a fashion where maybe it's been told in a story format which is one thing that's very important very necessary classical Scholars and I'll be elaborating on this a little bit later but classical Scholars traditional study of the S was done in a way in a fashion that was a very flowing narrative just like Quran from for us unfortunately for a lot of us was the only way we knew Quran was either pure recitation on its own or pure wrote memorization on its own or at the most those of us who are fortunate enough we know Quran as a translation which again left you wanting more left you Desiring something more but similarly s for a lot of people who were fortunate enough to have some interaction with the S again it was it had some form of narrative to it which was a blessing but then it doesn't change the fact that that narrative was all that it was it was a narrative so it almost became relegated to being a uh almost like a telling of a story like a fairy tale a long long time ago in a far away place a person named such and such did this or that happened with them it was no different than a fairy tale a fairy tale is exactly that what it is and this is what I always tell people whenever I lecture on the S in any way shape or form I always almost Begin by saying there's two unfortunate trends of s or understandings of s within our community today one is that name Place date that just it's like a Wikipedia page it's just factual information or the second thing is it's a it's a nice story it's a narrative that at least grips your attention for the time being but it ends up being like I said something that happened with somebody that I have no connection to a long time ago in a far away Place meaning what am I supposed to do with that I was captivated for 30 minutes I was captivated for 45 minutes what do I do after that it's entertainment basically so we either have facts or we have entertainment but the the purpose of the like anything else was that what is the benefit that I can take home from this so it's the facts are very important without the facts we just have a story we just have a fairy tale the facts are very important but then the narrative the flowing narrative is important because not all of us are scientists not all of us are Advanced students of knowledge or Scholars that we're going to be invigorated and we will be refreshed and will be rejuvenated and energized by simply knowing the facts and the the this the pure data we're not all of us can read code basically so when I pull up code of uh of some type of coding in terms of a website or something all I see is mumbo jumbo it doesn't make any sense to me a programmer is wow that's amazing right a programmer looks at that and it's it's one man's trash is another man's treasure right so he looks at it and he goes oh my God that's the most amazing thing I've ever seen I say I don't know what you're talking about right so so for some people the facts might work but that typically involves being a very Advanced student of knowledge some a scholar right that they get blown away when they read like oh wow that really happened in this year Subhan Allah right that that works for them or somebody or if we remove the narrative it's just a dry information we remove the dry information it's just a narrative it's just a fairy tale we need those two things but we need the third critical component and that is the practicality and the relevance how can I apply this to my life what lessons can I learn from this what can I take home from this and that combined together is how we will try to approach the so I was saying that we need to now talk about the critical issue of why study the S so that gets out of the way how s might have been presented to you in the past and what I'm going to be asking you to do is put aside those the any type of preconceived notions you have any baggage you might have any reservation you might have about like I've been there done that brother you know I've been there done that like when you hear a the lecture the one of the first things you have to do is yes you read the translation of the Surah but don't let that hold you back from benefiting from what you're about to get right now because this is at a whole another level and that's what we're basically going to make an attempt what we're going to try to do with the life of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi was the so now going to why study the S I have a few basic points number one when we look in the Quran as well all right and I'm going to make the connection with the with the Quran but let's go ahead and start right at the top when we look at the book of Allah the Quran the instruction from Allah very beginning the the beginning of guidance the book of Allah the Quran when you look there and when you when you observe the ayat where Allah subhana wa tala turns our attention towards the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam where Allah subhana wa TAA go tells us to go and study the life of the Prophet s alhi wasallam and at the center of that the epitome of that is of course inah number 3 3 Ayah number 21 Allah subhana wa T tells us or rather excuse me Surah number 33 Ayah 21 Allah tells us that the Ayah begins with two levels of two levels of emphasis the lamb is for emphasis the is for emphasis all right so most definitely there is no doubt about the fact this G could grammatically you could grammatically make the argument that g is necessary you could you could deliver the same basic meaning without without this extra verb of Kan but the KA has a purpose and the purpose of the can is that there are two things one is emphasis but it's not just that simple or that easy number two is it gives the meaning of which means that it persist it it creates the meaning of this whatever this lesson is being given whatever message is being conveyed this message is eternal is universal is continuous is consistent so Allah subhana T is saying that most definitely there is no doubt about the fact that consistently without any exception for all times that there is exclusively for you in the messenger of Allah the mo the ultimate example the ultimate example the perfect role model the most excellent role model so when you look at the construction of the Ayah there is emphasis and exclusivity built into this Ayah the way the grammar is laid out that Allah subhana tal is saying there's no doubt make no mistake no doubt about the fact that within the the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam there is for all of you for all times the ultimate the most excellent role model and that is the only excellent role model that you will find there is no role model better than the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam now what's interesting what I want to focus on within the this Ayah and the language of this Ayah is the word Fe Allah says in the messenger of Allah in the messenger of Allah and that word fee has certain implications there are certain rhetorical implications benefits of the word fee inside of in the messenger of Allah that basically what Allah subhana wa T is telling us is that you will only the prophet sallallahu alhi wasall will only be the ultimate role model for you he will only be an amazing in role model and an Exemplar for you when and only when you completely immerse yourself into the study of the life of the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam in the messenger of Allah meaning you have to immerse yourself into the life of the messenger sallallahu alhi wasallam you have to put yourselves in the shoes of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam you have to try to live the life of the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam as he lived it day by day event by event occurrence by occurrence you have to live that life you have to walk through the that life you have to try to walk in those shoes at least conceptually at least try to imagine what that was like and take a journey through his life then only then would will you realize how much of an amazing example the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam can be for you and so that's why when we and this is something I'm going to get to later but when we kind of do a synopsis of the life of the Prophet sallallahu Ali we take a lesson here we take a lesson there or we take a look at a few Hadith or we take a look at a few different collections of the life of the prophet Sall alaihi wasallam that's one thing but to to truly understand the experience of alhi wasallam and then to be able to realize how I can benefit from that and what I can learn from that the first thing is you have to have an immersing experience you have to live that life you have to experience that you have to have a full understanding and appreciation for what that life was like that's the first thing so that's why a study of the s in depth you know stage by stage day by day Blow by blow that's why it's so important is that it will give you that full impact that full experience and that full understanding at least at some level so that's the first thing that's why we study s and how we're going to approach the S the second thing is studying the when you just know certain facts about the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam again like I said it becomes something that is just factual information when you have a narrative it's that fairy tale when you even have a Hadith it again becomes something very technical very technical this is how you know he prayed this is how what the Sunnah of doing this is this is what the sun of doing that is that's beneficial but it is technical what we're in need of more than ever before is to humanize the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam you know the common average Muslim and this is true this is something I haven't done like a formal survey I don't have statistics for you but something that I've been doing for years people from all walks of life men and women old and young especially Youth and children it's a bigger problem with youth than it is any other demographic and even converts and reverts especially with converts and reverts and especially Youth and that means that those are many times the demographics within our community who are still new they're still young meaning they're fresh they're being molded they're still learning they're still absorbing and a lot of times they they end up absorbing a lot about the religion about Dean about Islam and in Quran and about the messenger sallallah alaihi wasallam what we already have existent within our community you find this within the demographics when you ask him about alhi wasallam they they don't feel like they have a lot in common they don't feel that even sometimes their impression of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasall is not even that of being a human being and and with the with the proliferation of comic books superheroes and you know uh all this type of like you know um uh this type of Mythology and lore that we have in our communities like Superman and Batman and Spider-Man and all these you know this is something that's very prevalent in our communities so it's become very common for somebody to just go ahead and reconcile or understand that somebody is superior to them they can't ever be like Superman was from outer space he was from Krypton no human being could ever be like Superman it was just understood Spider-Man got bit by a radio act spider that's it nobody else is going to be Spider-Man Spider-man is Spider-man that's it all right it's something that our youth are very comfortable with I know it sounds silly to adults but understand when when you're when you're four years old and you start watching Superman and Spider-Man it it it becomes ingrained within your mind within your psyche and it's it becomes very easy to reconcile so when we present in a very nonhuman fashion in a very non-human fashion under understand that a lot of times our youth end up walking away with the same image of was as they have of Superman he was a man from another planet all like he had nothing to do with us we have nothing in common with him well yeah he was that awesome and yeah he would talk to people like this and he was just charitable and he was that amazing because of course he wasu alaihi wasallam he was Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam of course he was that awesome like I know Superman flies of course he does because he's Superman man but you can't expect me to fly cuz I'm an Earthling I can't fly same way they feel like they have nothing in common with Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam at all and while and see we confuse two issues should there be respect for Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam of course should there be reverence for the messenger of Allah Sall alaihi wasallam obviously but he should not become so distant to us where now we feel no connection we feel no relationship at all I don't see him as a role model for me I just see him as somebody that I should read about that I should go ooh and ah when I hear about him or I read about him and that's it that's the problem and that's a problem that exist but when you study the the life of the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam that's the number one thing that it humanizes him when you study his life how he lived and day by day everything that was going on with him how he was emotionally how this day was difficult for him and how emotionally this day he experienced joy and happiness how he had a wife and a family how he suffered injury how he suffered loss when you study the S it humanizes the prophet sahi wasam and that's very very important and that's one of the key differences and I'll just drop it in here almost as a tangent but there are a few terminologies that we again uh that we confuse and they have a certain amount of over lap but nevertheless they refer to different things one terminology within Islam is Hadith Hadith is a terminology Hadith refers to actual narrations and traditions of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam his life it includes what he said what he did what he approved of those are narrations about him Hadith are primarily something very technical it's something very technical it's it's quotations from his life excerpts from his life and a lot of times a Hadith will be presented to you without the context of that Hadith and there's that's not a bad thing it's meant to be done because it's a technical tool it's a resource is something that the they they qualify they verify all right and then the fukah the jurists the Islamic legal experts they take and then they extrapolate rulings from there they derive and extract rulings from there now based on this Hadith what can we eat and what can we not eat what can we wear what can we not wear how should we pray and how should we not pray what break show we do and what does not break your woodoo they bring those legalities those technicalities from there so Hadith has a role what we've done though is a lot of times and this goes for majority of our communities our only interaction with the life of the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasall are those technical some of theith Will relate to do refer to some of his mannerisms and the way he spoke spoke and talk but again it's an excerpt it's just taken from there but it's not a part of that overall narrative which again can sometimes dehumanize all right so Hadith has its role it's very important but it should never exclusively be studied absent of the of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and I would even go as far as saying and this might sound controversial to someone everybody needs to be aware be familiar with the Hadith of the prophet sallallah alaihi but if you were I don't think that we should ever make exclusive we should never make exclusions oh only study the Quran don't say no I I don't think we should ever make exclusions the healthy Muslim is the one who has an element of every study of Dean within his life he has a basic understanding and a basic learning of from a scholar otherwise you wouldn't even know how to make woo properly if you never studied at any level I know we get emotional sometimes and we say things like oh you don't even know Quran why should you even study F don't study study Quran like no no no you need to re-evaluate yourself that if all you do is obsess over and you don't even know basics of the Quran then you have a problem you have an imbalance you need to correct but if you all you did was study Quran and you never even took basic level from a scholar from a proper Source you would even know how to make woo properly you would even know what broke your woodoo you wouldn't know so a healthy Muslim is the one who has a healthy dose of every field of study he has basic basic basic basic Quran and he's taking all of this and he continues to grow and graduate to different levels within these areas of study but if for the purposes of practicality if a Muslim had to make a preference of whether I should indulge within studying Hadith or when we look throughout the tradition of Education uh uh throughout the generations of our umah and how scholarship has handled that issue you will see that preference was always given to S because within the within the study of Hadith it wasn't studied traditionally the way we approach it a lot of times today again the Quran wasn't studied the way we approach it today Quran translation boom that's how we move on right that's not how Quran was studied they would study it they would understand it they would go into the depth of it similarly when they would study Hadith they would it was in depth they would study it very very much in depth I mean Imam bukari pretty much the the the epitome of his life's work is sahkari which is I believe 6,000 some odd narration I mean I want you to think about a man's and not just some ordinary IM bukari life's work is 6,000 a Hadith that's very little but that's how in-depth they would approach the study of Hadith but in reality the study of s was something that is is was universally studied it was something that was meant for all demographics of the Muslim Community regardless of what your access to scholarship was s was something that was studied so that's the one the difference between Hadith and S and then secondly there's thirdly there's a terminology by the name of Sunnah now Sunnah is a very subjective word Sunnah is a very flexible word it's a word that has almost a different meaning based on the context in which you use it the word Sunnah varies Sunnah overall includes everything the of the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasall is a part of his Sunnah all right everything that is related to the life the personality the existence of the Prophet is a part of his Sunnah so the S is included the Hadith is also included but also the word Sunnah and this is a whole another maybe lecture for another day because this create this creates a lot of problems within our communities but the word Sunnah almost depends on the context in which you use it if you use it technically almost in the in the field in the area in the arena of theology if you use the word Sunnah then it's the opposite the antonym of the word b in Innovation the opposite is the word Sunnah a tradition that's in theological terms but if you take it over to the area of if you use it in the area of then it's another category from and is something something you're obligated to do and then you have Sunnah something that's recommended but not obligated so you see how it took on a completely different meaning but then if you brought it into a completely different realm if you talked about it in terms of sources pure Islamic definitions then it is what the counterpart or the the the companion of the Quran you have Quran and Sunnah right as the prophet said book of what do I leave with you the book of Allah and the sunah of his Prophet so you see three different definitions or three different applications that should rather say for the word Sunnah based on the context and how you use it and that's a reality of the word Sunnah and how to use that word Sunnah so having said all of that the point of it was is that Sunnah has a place and it's more more overall Sunnah is a terminology and depends on how you use it but then Hadith has a place has a context and has a place where it applies and then you have S and the primary role the primary function of the again like I said before is to humanize the prophet sallallahu alaihi was to make the common average person feel a sense of connection to the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam the third reason or the third benefit these are more than anything the benefit of studying the why should you study the what is in it what what's in it for me if I study the S the third of it is to extract lessons like I said this previously studying the s the life of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and it's more I guess this goes more back to how you approach how you study the it allows you to extract lessons extract lessons make it relevant practical lessons on what how it applies to your life to extract practical relevant lessons for every demographic of our community and more importantly our dilemma our condition what we are going through as individuals as families and as communities what can I learn from this what guidance is provided to me in terms of this and now this leads me into another side little issue that I wanted to approach here and that is that this not only relates to how we study the s that we have to study in a way but also what we take from it and the lessons that we extract from it that are relevant and that are practical because again going back to the original topic and going back to where we started from that when we study the life of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam it's it's it's a practical guide It's a practical guide on how to live your life and and when we look at our per our exact predicament in our situation and this what I'm going to give you is a little bit of a brief Insight onto how s has been studied throughout the centries for the majority of Islam of Muslim history Islamic history when you look within book of s you'll find that the makan era is often times is presented in a lot is presented a lot more briefly than the medinan period the medinan period has been the fascination of Muslim civilization for the last 14400 years when in reality let's take it into consideration generally speaking it's rounded off and we're going to get to that when we get to that probably much later on inshallah Allah allow us to get there but when we get there we'll get there but round it off how long was the McAn period of prophethood I should clarify how long was a mean period of prophethood 13 years how long was a med period of prophethood 10 years obviously you don't need to be a mathematician a child could tell you the mean period was longer than the med period but it doesn't change the fact that when you look at books of s the mukan period will be presented in 50 60 100 pages and the Medan period will be presented in 2 to 300 pages in a sample s book if a s book is about 400 Pages 100 Pages a fourth of it will be the mean period 34s of it 300 pages will be the Medan period all right that's very interesting how did that happen when one is obviously longer than the other so there's a couple of things to take into consideration and even though maybe this is better tackled as we go through it but I think almost as an introduction this needs to be presented number one is that and I'll be to be fair to the discussion to the conversation I'll put this as Point number one the the first explanation for this is there there is a lot more narrated about the Medan period than there is about the McAn period that's just the cold hard facts all right why well there were more Muslims there were more sahabah so obviously plus the life and the practice and the the message of the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasall was a lot more open in the Medan period than it was in the mckin period mckin period remember first three years were super covert very private there was no public daa there was no public message there was a private da that was going on with between personal networks all right just like anything begins you start on a very very close with the people that are closest to you all right even after that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam would practice and would preach and would teach privately within the house of AR all right it was still something that was very closed very private very quiet there was a lot of Oppression during that time all right the medinan period versus that was wide open I mean the entire life of the Prophet was now on full display all right that's why you had the mus of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam where all of the activities took place and then even the residence of the Prophet was right next door so it was like you had full access to him now not only that but from a certain from a very surface level perspective the medinan period seemed to be a lot more eventful than the makan period even though the McAn period had some major major events there was a lot going on but the Medan period from a very surface look seems to be very eventful Battle of bad Battle of Battle of the trench all right you have traveling out to and and all of these different areas and regions as far as and then you have you have you have I mean it's very very eventful all of this is going on plus so so you have just a lot more narrated about the life of the prophet sallallah alhi in Madina versus the life of the prophet in mecah plus the other thing and this goes back to that distinction between Hadith and S Hadith has a very different criteria than S does the level of which critique theith because they know that later on after the put theith through their filters it's got to be handed over to the legal experts the fuk and then the fukah will make decisions based on what we hand to them important decisions like and so Hadith has a very different criteria by which it is judged than S does s is overall the life the life events which do not always have legal implications which are morals and objectives and lessons and sometimes not even that sometimes it's simply emotional consolation when you know when you can simply know the fact that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam son died and he cried and he was sad and he got choked up and he had trouble talking to people on the day that his son died you don't even make any type of a Halal Haram distinction from that do you no that just provides emotional consolation that the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam lost a family member the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam felt pain the and when somebody's child dies they're able to find comfort and solace in the fact that my messenger Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam felt my pain and he was able to wake up the next day and continue living and I will be able to wake up tomorrow and keep on going this will not destroy my life this will not end my life I can continue I can wake up tomorrow I can move on from this I can recover from this it's emotional so that's why the same filters that are in place to critique Hadith don't necessarily need to be applied to and this is the other thing so number one you just have a lot more abundance of narrations for Med period versus mecan period so that's it that's the fair observation so obviously brother Medan period is going to be a lot more elaborative than makan period is but number two we do have a lot about the mckin period but the problem occurred when we started Crossing these lines together when we then started judging everything by the criteria of Hadith that even The Life and Times of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam just his human experiences we started critiquing them that oh we're not getting this through the same type of chain of narrators that we expect the Hadith to come through now all of a sudden it became a problem not understanding that everything has a place everything has a role to play that these are very distinct features of the life of the prophet and they needed to be treated as such so what we ended up doing was we ended up filtering out a lot of the S which ended up being the makan period and what did we do we deprived ourselves we deprived ourselves of an entire era of the life of the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam which is very very relevant to us and this is where this conversation is coming from we as Muslims and and I know that maybe other people might listen or might benefit from these uh recordings but I'm stating this within the context that I am and the only context that I know being born and raised here here exactly here in the Dallas area live having lived my entire life in this area this is the social context that I know this is life as I know it so we as a minority living amongst a Muslim majority often times being understood and more recently being very very misunderstood that the muckin period holds a lot of gems holds a lot of insight for us it holds huge insight for us on how to conduct ourselves on how to thrive on how to continue on how to spread on how to flourish and how to Blossom as a community the Medan period was very different than our circumstances and our situations we're not completely in the makan period I agree all right we're not having to hide if you if the people that are just listening if they could see the Masid that I'm sitting in we obviously do not have to hide all right you can see this mid from miles away I actually have seen it from the plane all right I was told you could and I've actually seen it all right so we're not hiding so it's not completely the mean experience but it's not completely the Medina experience either it's almost like we have to have a full rounded a full well-rounded appreciation of the life of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam to be able to benefit from it truly and be able to make sense of where we're at and what we're going through so that's the other thing that the Medina period is very very important and that's the mukan period is very important that's where we're going to extract a lot of lessons from the life of the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam but then we go to a completely different thing and that is that there's even benefit and this is something classical scholarship was very attuned to this is something classical Scholars addressed that we're arguing makan versus Medina or we're discussing makan versus Medina but that's 23 years of how long of a life 63 years so we still have a 40 we have a 40e period that we're not even talking about there's even certain things that we can take from there certain things we can observe from there certain lessons we can learn from there and if you want to be very very strict about it if you'd rather be very strict about it at the least what you can take from that first 40 years is it can give you a very good understanding of what were the circumstances and the situations at that time in which the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam was sent and he was sent to be who he was and live the type of life that he was living so if nothing else then that's what we can take from that so the point of it is is that when we extract practical lessons and relevant Insight from the life of the Prophet Al into the life of the messenger peace and blessings be upon him then what we need to take into consideration is the makan period And even the life before prophethood will provide us certain lessons so the fourth benefit of studying the and the fourth reason of why it's important for us to study the is authenticity of the Sunnah now I'm going on a on a completely different tangent but these almost are addressing different issues we have in our community you know the dehumanization of the life of the messenger of Allah sallu alaihi was where I feel no human connection to him that's one issue in our community and that is addressed the solution is within setting the all right when people feel the life of the Prophet is very irrelevant to them like how am I supposed to live my life based on guidance taken from the life of a man 1,400 years ago in the middle of Arabia like how does that apply to me at all well when you study the S properly that answers that question that solution the solutions provided well there's a fourth problem in our communities and that is and this is a growing problem this is a very rampant problem this is also a very contemporary problem it's a very modern problem this has been a fringe discussion for for the VA for the majority of 1400 years I would say safely for about 12200 years the first 12200 years of our history this was something that was talked about by some people what was a fringe issue mainstream Muslims were never affected by it and we're never concerned by it but over the last 150 to 200 years this has become front and center in our communities and this becomes such a problem that even the common average Muslim is talking about this and is concerned about this and the most dangerous thing is confused about this and that is the authenticity of the Sunnah of Hadith what is the role of the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam within the religion is his life are his words is his Hadith is his Sunnah authoritative or not is it true or not even people have reached that level that can I believe in it is it made up or not can I trust it and then if I can trust it at some level that hold any Authority or not and this is a very common issue today in the Muslim Community I'm pretty sure everybody listening or everybody sitting here even if they haven't had some of those questions alhamdulillah or those concerns or confusions they know somebody who has brought up a confusion or an issue or a question like that just today I got an email about this I literally probably receive emails saying every day might be a stretch but more than an average of every other day I get an email about this in a week I probably get about four to five email emails about this and that's not including the people who just approach me directly anonymously just from somewhere I get emails I get questions online I've I've been tweeted questions about this that's how common of an issue is and that's how prevalent it is well where's the solution what's the answer since this issue has come up Muslim scholarship has decided has taken the approach of trying to solve this problem tackle this issue academically intellectually we will intellectually prove academically substantiate the Sunnah the Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam while that approach is completely valid and honestly intellectually and academically there are no responses there are no answers to it because the system that's been put in place to preserve the life and the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi the Hadith of the Prophet s is one of the most elaborative is one of the most elaborate intellectual systems that academically rigorous systems that's been put in place throughout the history of mankind throughout the history of humanity it is unbelievable the entire system the science of that is in place is unbelievable so that's number one number two what people in their simplemindedness what they fail to understand and appreciate is that the Quran yes it is the book of Allah the cam of Allah and we believe it to be as such and Allah has guaranteed the protection of the kamam of Allah yes but when preserved the protection of the of Allah part of theam of Allah is Allah is telling us Allah in the Quran is telling us to follow the prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam then that means that would be protected as well Allah would not have told us to do something that we would be incapable of doing when Allah said follow the messenger then Allah put a system into place Allah guaranteed that the practice of the messenger would be preserved all right that put aside the real point I wanted to make was this the Quran an has been promised yes but the Quran has also come to us through a system the Quran has come to us through a system there are rat of the Quran there's a chain of transmission even for the Quran how did I know is to be pronounced and read There is a system that it's been passed down recited from teacher to student teacher to student teacher to student that system that is in place to preserve the Quran is the same system in place to preserve the Hadith the narrators of Hadith are the same narrators of the Quran so that's that's the intellectual academic issue and like I said that's a valid answer but here's the issue and the problem when you take a look at the issue itself it's not an purely intellectual or academic issue or problem to begin with it's primarily a spiritual issue it's a spiritual problem what is the spiritual issue and dilemma that's in place very easy to understand all right we are told to love the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam what makes you want to obey the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasall what makes you want to accept him what makes you want to study his life and follow him is your love for him that's what it boils down to well you can't love the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam if you don't even know who he is who he was how he lived his life what he did for us familiarity learning about someone leads to familiarity familiarizing with some familiarizing yourself with someone becoming familiar with someone then loves to leads to developing love for that person all right it's it's a natural process of how you how you fall in love with anyone you kind of get to start to know them then you become familiar with them and you fall before you know it you're in love with that person that's that's how the human heart works that's the Human Condition we became we as an umah two 300 years ago started becoming so unfamiliar the prophet sallallah Al became so unfamiliar to us and then eventually got to a point where we even stopped learning about him altogether all of a sudden one day as an um we sat there we stood there and we said do we really have to listen to this guy do we have to do exactly what he says but wasn't he a human being and how do we know everything that we know about him is true and how do we know that that question arise and it's a very what it's almost a natural progression or a regression that that occurred it's not some mystery of course that's going to happen so what's the solution the solution is learn about him become familiar with who he is who he was how he lived his life and see if that doesn't lead you to developing love for him because and I'm not going to preempt the entire series by starting to give you quotations from the life that's part of the objective that's what we're going to tackle starting next week but when you start to learn about him and you start becoming familiar with him you naturally will start to develop a sense of love for him you won't be able to help but love this man because of who he was and how he lived his life and once you begin to love him you will not have any questions or objections or confusions about it I actually had a personal interaction with someone when I say this I don't just say this like this is some you know concoction this is some Theory some formula came up in my with within my head this is an observation of Muslim history and how Muslim Scholars have conducted the study of the life of the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam but I even had a personal interaction with with someone this was almost like my case study when I was still a student studying overseas someone that I knew personally a Community member very intelligent very very intelligent came from a very you know traditional home grew up knowing about the Quran to some extent in the life of the prophet sallallah alaihi wasall at some level later on in his life though because he was a very intelligent person very highly educated person he developed the fondness and wanted had developed the Zeal to learn the Quran to study the book of Allah started studying the Quran and T of the Quran and translation of the Quran really started studying the Quran along the way he came across some individual some resources that instilled within his mind skepticism in regards to Hadith and it continued to grow within him to the point where it reached fullblown full-blown confusion and he had had a few discussions with me that were you know almost like debates what about this but what about that but what about this but what about that one day I was visiting for the month of Ramadan cuz that's when we used to be off from our studies overseas so I was visiting for the month of Ramadan I went to go visit him cuz I was going to be leaving in a couple of days and it's somebody I was very close with he would attend all my lectures that I would give during the month of Ramadan and things like that so I went to go visit him and say Salam to him so I sat down with him in his office and he said forget about everything just give it to me bottom line is Hadith something we're supposed to believe in or not do I have to believe in this or not because again it was more confusion that it was like you know hatred towards Hadith he just confused he didn't know what to believe so I told him I I said I don't even want you to cons I I don't want to talk to you about that anymore just forget about that question I asked him Subhan Allah it just occurred to me at that moment I asked him I said when was the last time you read a book on when was the last time you read s of the Prophet his life and he's like gosh I can't even remember I don't know so at least it's been a few years so I said okay I said said I'm going to come see you tomorrow I'll drop by tomorrow I went to the bookstores found whatever one two books of s that I could find you know this is before the interwebs so I found whatever books of C I could find a couple of them and I came by his office the next day I dropped them off and I says this is a gift from me to you I just want you to make me one promise you're going to start reading this I knew he was a very studious person he was very you know when he would start studying he would study he would read he would read a lot so I told him just read this and then I gave him a few more recommendations I said you know if you got some friends in a bigger city or overseas or something like that if you can get your hands on these couple of more text books of s I'd recommend it I came back about 10 months later for the next Ramadan 10 11 months later I came back when I got back a few days later I went to go visit him again when I went to his office I saw those couple of books that I had given to him as a gift plus another three four books of s that he had gotten from somewhere and when he would study he would read he would like you know he was one of those real like intense studiers where you could tell from the shape of his book that he'd been reading he tear it up and put notes in it and stick papers in it and all types of things so I could tell that these books had gone through a bit of a rough patch there so I asked him I said How's this man going and he's like problem solved I was like what do you mean problem I'm asking how were the books he goes problem solved I say you don't have no more questions about Hadith are they authentic or not do you have to follow them or not do you believe in it he's like no no questions he said I read those two books you gave me three times at least each then I ordered three more books of s and I read those three times each this entire year all I've done is read s like 15 times over and at the end of it I reached a conclusion I I have so much love for this man I can't even say it I don't even know how to put into words how much I love and respect this man and how much he did for me and how much his life means to me and how much I can benefit from his life this the same individual after that moment on you know typically within the local Masid within my local Masid you know like it happens over here you know after is the IM opens or a book ofi and reads aith and translates and briefly explains it I would do that in my Masid on the days that I would be traveling or I was sick or I couldn't make it he was the same guy that would read the Hadith on that day the same guy who a few years ago said I don't believe in this stuff this is all phony baloney I can't believe in it it's a big lie I can't trust it couple of years later just by reading the S of the Prophet s his life he was completely turned around to the point where he was the one who would read the Hadith to the rest of the congregation and that's a huge huge benefit of studying the studying the life of the Prophet sallallah alaihi wasallam that it it it develops that love for the Prophet this whole plague that we have in the um right now about skepticism about his life and Hadith and its authenticity the solution to it is the the life of the Prophet because you build that connection with the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam what time is 9:15 9:15 okay I'll just be making a couple of more points and then we'll go ahead and wrap up in just two more minutes inshallah to needs to be called now inah we'll ahead and stop here for today inshallah um we've covered about four points four reasons for benefits of studying the S of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam next week we'll pick up and we'll continue on from here inshallah and uh we'll complete the intro to studying the S and then we'll actually probably next week actually start at the very beginning uh by and the way we'll be doing this is we'll first take a real brief uh account of what were the times like when the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was born what was the condition of the world at that time part particularly his society and then we'll progress on from there forward may Allah subhana wa give us a reality of everything we've said and heard and may Allah give us true love of the Prophet Sall alhi wasallam subh