We're honored to have Sheikh Abdullah. He came an incredible distance at his age. It's obviously more difficult.
It's difficult enough for a young person. So Alhamdulillah, we thank Allah. Sheikh Abdullah has really spent the last several years in an attempt to renew usul al-fiqh. and the centrality and importance of usur.
Imam al-Qushayri mentions that every aspect of the scholars has a function in Islam. And he said the function of the usuryun is the quwwat, that they're the generals. The usuryun are the people that have a strategic vision that often people of lesser understanding cannot see because they they look at what's called the ma'alat, nadhar lil ma'alat.
They look at what will come from actions. We know in the Native American tradition, the Iroquois, they used to look at seven generations. When they would do something, they would see how it would affect seven generations. And this is traditionally the role of the mushtahidoon, is to think about what are the consequences of the actions. and so this this is this is really his role but he's also because of a lot of the wars that have arisen recently in the muslim world the collapse of some states and the conflicts he has focused almost entirely on promoting peace in the muslim lands and globally and and this led to the creation of a forum, the Forum for Peace, that he started this initiative.
and had a conference in Abu Dhabi where he brought some of the top scholars from all over the world to really say in solidarity that we need to work for peace in our community. His argument is that peace, people say no peace without justice. He thinks that that statement is a very dangerous statement because there's never full justice in this world.
There will always be injustice. It's the nature of the abode. And therefore, we need to work for justice within peace.
And that this is extremely important for us because he feels that in peace, wrongs can be redressed in ways that they cannot be redressed in war because war engenders more wrongs very often. So the topic about this tonight is fiqh al-waqa. and the sheikh has written written on this subject and the importance of scholars recognizing the conditions and so uh inshallah we're going to look at this there's there's technical aspects to this talk because it's it's really more of a an academic subject but because of a lot of the confusion the widespread confusion the Muslim umma we thought that it was important that this topic be addressed in terms of we look at these things.
Uh, First of all, you finally wrote the book, Al-Marajah, and this is about the reality of the reality. So, can you tell us about the meaning of this thing and its meaning? Alhamdulillah Ya Rabbi Al-Alamin Allahumma salli wa barika ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim taslima La ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam La ilaha illallah Muhammadun Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam Alhamdulillah wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh Fiqh al-waqi Jawaabun ala man yutabiqu fiqhan fi waqin maadin ala zamani al-hadir As-su'al wa'am shakhir waqin huwa su'al yastabtino aw yushiru to my problem this problem is this reality that we live in and these incitement sometimes and these horrible scenes and these terrible deeds هل تعتمد على فقه أو أنها تعتمد على نصوص مجتزأة وفروع بلا قواعد وجزئيات بلا مقاصد؟ So the question is about the concept of fiqh al-waqa, which would be really about the jurisprudence of reality, of how we're looking at... reality and how we understand reality in order to arrive at At judgments and and what the fukha are doing and he said that really the fiqh al-waqa this fiqh of reality is about the looking at the the the tradition of the past but also looking at the circumstances of the present and it it looks it's really indicative of the problems that we witness in the current reality because very often we have for instance legal opinions the response of the jurists which are called fatwa, the fatwas, that very often these are fatwas that engender, they become sources of agitation in a society.
And sometimes they lead to things that we witness in the world, very disturbing scenarios arise out of these. And we see also actions that are completely, really deeply troubling and disturbing. the question is, is there a basis for these things?
What are they relying on? Are they relying on a legal tradition? Or are they really an example of looking at the branches without roots, without understanding the roots? Are they an example really of a type of legalism that ignores the spirit of the law.
So it becomes the letter of the law without any sense. of what the spirit of the law is. Are they looking at particulars without understanding the universals?
People may benefit from it, but the manufacturer who makes this industry cannot speak except in the language of the industry. And for this I apologize to the public if I used a sentence or used words that they do not understand and do not know what they are doing. So first of all, I want to really apologize to this large group that's here because I'm going to have to speak in a language because these issues deal really with a craft. This is a... An really an intellectual industry that is has very specific Technical vocabulary that means very specific things within that craft and like any craft if you take a craftsman The craftsman knows his craft.
We might benefit from the craft, but we don't understand how he actually did that. And so when we look at these things, we have to understand that this is also a craft. craft. The faqih has a craft and he's a skilled intellectual craftsman that is producing something and the technical terminology and training necessary to produce that thing is understood within the artisans, the intellectual artisans of that craft.
So I'm going to try to really to abridge or really to lessen the distance here by being very abridged in my remarks. But the first is how do we understand the waqa, which is the realities. that we find ourselves in? And then the second question is, what is the effect of these circumstances that we find ourselves in on legal categories and legal rulings that would concern those realities?
And then the third question is, what are those problematics? What are those, the sources that are problematic that arise out of an ignorance of those realities? So some philosophers have argued that it doesn't really exist.
So there are philosophers that are called skeptics that say that reality really can't be known. them that say that there is a reality, but we can't really be certain about it, or we can't understand it with any true clarity. There is a presence in the ears, there is a presence in the tongue, there is a presence in the pen, there is a presence in the pen, and there is a presence outside, which is the real presence, which is called the presence of the eyes.
So he talks about the reality through the presences. Arabic So Imam al-Ghazali identified four types of, four degrees of existence. There's an existence which is a mental existence. That what exists in our mind, how we conceptualize things.
And then there's also what we articulate. And then also what we write. So discursive writing and where the oral becomes the written.
and that can be transmitted and go beyond. beyond generations. And then the fourth one is wujud al-khariji, which is the existential existence that each one of us experiences that has a real existence outside of us.
This is the external existence is what we call real existence. So humans can imagine things that have no existence. Surah Al-Fatih But if we act according to what we imagine, then very often our actions are misguided.
This is This is one of the major problems that we're living today. We have a conceptualization of the world that might be a historical conceptualization. that no longer exists, but it exists in our mind. And so we act in the world as if that historical conceptualization is still present, but it's not.
وَاقِعُ الْعَالَمِ الْحَاضِرِ مَا هُوَ وَبَاقِعُ السَّفِينَةِ كُلُّ النَّاسِ فِي سَفِينَةٍ وَاحِدًا So what is our reality? Our reality is like the hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ likened it to a ship in which all of humanity is on. So the one that doesn't understand that reality he's going to make mistakes.
So he's going from his mistaken understanding, he's going to build ivory towers or castles. out of sand and he's completely misguided. He said the reality of the world is the reality of one body. If you have barrels of oil that disappear in one part of the world, it affects people in other parts of the world. So this reality has an impact on Islamic categorizations and legal rulings.
and it also has an impact on the human responsibilities that we have from God. And so it was told to me by Nuhaym ibn Hammad, by Abu al-Zinadi, by Al-A'raj, by Abu Huraira, that the Prophet ﷺ said, Indeed, you are in my time, time is the reality, Indeed, you are in my time, whoever leaves you a quarter, a dozen, what he was commanded to destroy, then comes time. There's a hadith that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is reported to have said that's related by Imam Al-Tirmidhi and Tabarani and others from Nu'aym Ibn Hamad that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, whoever leaves one-tenth of what you have been given from this teaching in this time, they will perish.
but whoever leads later there's coming a time when whoever fulfills only one tenth of what's being given to them he or she will have success they'll have salvation so that hadith is a clear indication of the effect that a time that you live in actually impacts the responsibilities and the expectations that God has obvious So I want to say if there's any people from the people of Hadith in the audience, this Hadith, as far as I'm concerned, it's a good Hadith, it's Hassan. And it has other testimonies from other Hadith that indicate that it has a good sound, good Hassan. Imam Ahmad followed it in his Musnad. From Muammar. Muammar.
Muammar. So he related from another source and followed it from that. It is as if the text has been taken away from us that how can a person work only for ten months and yet he still gets married?
So, denying the Nasa'i contradicts the rules of the Nasa'i because the Nasa'i takes away from those who are in love with him like the Nuhaym ibn al-Hammat and the Nasa'i takes out what is not agreed upon in his plan so we take it as a Jassalam because he accepted Nu'aym as a source. So he said he was disagreeing more with the Metan and what it said than actually with the Senate because he couldn't understand how somebody could only do one-tenth of the religion and still have salvation. So this Rewire that comes from that if you look at the Rijal in it, they're all, they're sound.
Sufyan. I'm from the Arabs. I'm from the Arabs. He said, I went out a little bit, but one of the things that I think is useful.
Yeah, so he just wants to let you know that, because there's some critics sometimes that might know a little bit about Hadith. Or have studied some things. And then they want to criticize. He's just letting them know. I know these problems.
And I know the men in these things. And I know what the ulama have said about them. And this is my conclusion. And he said I could go on with other proofs.
To show you this. But suffice. The point of all of this is that with the changes of times, the changes of rulings also occur. Even the understanding or the interpretation could change the concept. So the concept could actually change with the changing of the time.
And it is the question of what, what, why, how, when, where. What, why, what, what, what. What, why, what, what, why.
So there are certain questions Obviously are necessary in understanding So the first one is to understand what is it What's the essence of the thing And then you have to know why Why is the thing What's the reason behind it And then also how Like what's the application For example, until I was... تجريدياً abstract فلا تكلم عن الواقع So I don't want to be abstractive here and so I'm going to speak now because these are abstract concepts I'm going to take them down to the actual practical إذا طبقنا قاعدة الأسئلة على الواقع So we're going to take these questions and we're going to apply them to real situations وعلى مفهوم الجهادي For instance the concept of jihad فنقول ما هو الجهاد What is jihad? Why jihad? How is jihad?
And then how? What is the applicability? How is it implemented? The first thing in the concept of jihad is that the meaning of jihad is not limited to fighting.
That's not the limitation of the word. That's based on what the Quran, what Allah said in the Quran, and also what His Prophet said. So, Allah says in the Quran to do jihad with them, a big jihad. And this verse is understood by...
the commentaries to mean to speak to them about the Quran And the Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith, the mujahid, the one performing jihad, is the one who struggles against himself for the sake of God. So jihad can be used for fighting, for defending the self. Nations have a right to defend themselves. Individuals have a right to defend themselves.
This is one concept of jihad. But it also is understood to be any good action that one does. The good deeds that one does.
Struggling against the self. The Prophet ﷺ teaches us to change the concepts. So he said, So the Prophet himself showed us that concepts actually change. So for instance, the concept of Hijrah, which is the migration that the people made from Mecca to Medina.
Once the Mecca was opened for the... Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam became part of Darul Islam, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, there's no hijrah after this, but he talked about the muhajir, the one who migrates, is the one who migrates from his bad actions. So he actually took a concept that had a physical meaning for the Sahaba, and he gave it a conceptualization now that had a spiritual meaning. So the Muslim, which meant, initially it meant to enter into Islam. But then the Prophet ﷺ said, a Muslim or the true Muslim is the one who people are safe from his hand and his tongue.
So he took a concept that had one meaning and then he gave it a new meaning once they understood the first meaning. And then mu'min, which means to believe in God, the believer in God. The Prophet said, the mu'min is the one who people are safe from his harm. So he took a cup.
concept, once they understood it, he gave it another conceptualization. A young man came to the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and asked him give me permission to fight. I want to go fight. And he said, are your parents alive?
And he said, yes. He said, go and do jihad by serving your parents. وَمُجْمَعَ عَلَيْهِ وَهُوَ كُلُّ الْقُرُبَاتِ كَبَا يَقُلُّ لِلْتَيْمِيَةِ الجهاد هو كل القربات بما فيها التشارة والصناعة والكلام لبني تيمية في اختياراته التي ذكرها البعض أو نذهب إلى جهاد لا أعماء Allah doesn't aim to... He doesn't have an end to a benefit considered as a sharia As for the good jihad by the remembrance of Allah SWT and by the good of the parents So the question then is, do we understand jihad, this understanding of jihad in this restricted meaning of fighting?
Or do we understand what our scholars have agreed upon, that it has all these different dimensions? And then, like Ibn Tamir said, that it was any of good deeds, like Al-Ba'li relates on him, that it was any good deeds that Muslims did. And it included commerce, if your intention was to help and benefit the society. and industry. All of those aspects were considered under the concept of jihad.
Or do we go to this blind fighting that has become the call of so many people that we don't know where it's going. It looks like it's just perpetual war that we continue to fight. Do we take this understanding of it and abandon these other understandings of service, dhikr Allah, recitation of Quran, doing good deeds, all of these things. So it becomes only understanding.
in this blind concept that has no... apparent objectives in sight. The souls are annihilated without any benefit. I'll say what Imam Ahmad said. Don't shed your blood and don't shed the blood of Muslims.
And look at the consequences of these actions. Rather be patient. Why Jihad? So now we ask why Jihad? Why Jihad?
What's the understanding? We did the what is Jihad, what is what now? Why Jihad?
So why fighting? He was called to those who fight because they are wronged. And indeed, Allah has many to help them. Call.
Call the Prophet to the Prophet. Because they are wronged. What is this wrong?
Those who are left behind from their homes without a right except to say, Our Lord is Allah. It is a ban on religious freedom. And this testimony is only for the state. The speech is for the state of Madinah.
So just looking at this, going to why, why jihad, why fighting, it's clear in the 22nd surah of the Quran. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that permission was granted. Uthina, permission. So it's idhn, it's a permission.
Why? Because they are being fought themselves and oppressed. And they're being driven out of their homes. Why?
Only because they say, our Lord is God. And so he said that this is the beginning of the permission was to protect religious freedom. But and then sorry, and then that only but this khitab and this is in other words the actual who is being spoken to because in the Quran there are different khitab. There's different audiences of the verses. The audience of this verse is the government.
It's not individuals. It's actually the government. In other words, it's the polity that defends the people.
people because this is the role governments have been instituted among people to defend security. That's one of the primary purposes of government. And so the verse is being directed to the people, to the people in charge, not just to not to individuals.
It's to prevent aggression against people. And then it's in a world where there's no covenants. There's no tree. it was also given in a time when there were not nuclear weapons that could annihilate humanity so those who claim jihad So those who claim what's called jihad talabi, which is when you're called to defend or fight, those people that are claiming this in these circumstances, he's wrong. He's mistaken.
Allah says, those who you have covenants with from among the polytheists, and I say And then it says in the Quran that if you're called to help people, from your own religion, but it's against people that you have a covenant with that you should do it unless you have a covenant with the people. You can't be treacherous with that covenant. So this covenant of citizenship is extremely important to understand what it is. So these verses in the Quran, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that if they incline towards peace, incline towards peace also. These are important.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, He does not prohibit you from having relations with people that don't persecute you. That you show them care and concern and share your wealth with them. and these are verses that are still considered they're not abrogated This call to going to war, this warmongering that exists today, is really an invitation to the annihilation of humanity. And Islam is not a religion of nihilism. It's not meaninglessness.
There's purpose in our religion. The current circumstances that we find ourselves in are completely different from the circumstances of the pre-modern world. The reality of today is that people are annihilated because of wars. we also have a We have an international system of treaties that Islam has always recognized. This international set of treaties did not exist in the pre-modern world.
There are many countries that now are very small countries, but they're protected by these international treaties, or else they would be eaten up by stronger countries in this law of the jungle of might makes right. And that did not exist in the past. People could invade small countries and take them over. So in the past, the demarcations of societies, the actual...
borders and boundaries of societies were determined by war. They weren't determined by treaties. So this is how we should understand the past, the historical past, and the reality that we're living in today.
It's a different world. So in saying this, I am in no way biased or taking sides in this situation. I'm simply making a statement of reality. And I'm not saying it out of cajoling anyone or flattering anyone. I'm saying this because I want to see.
our young people thriving and doing things of benefit and they should be on a path of production and a path of benefit and flourishing instead of a path of destruction and despair The concept of shahad is not a concept of fighting, but rather a concept of interest and wisdom. Islam is based on wisdom, interest, mercy, and justice. This, may Allah bless you, reminded me of four supplications.
is the interest, wisdom, mercy, and justice. Islam is based on this. To say that I want to establish justice through war, I think that this justice will not be done. We must make a strong comparison, a strong understanding, that we are looking for a new way that can provide life first, then it can provide justice. So it's It's important that we remember, now we understand, hopefully, the concept of jihad, what it is, and then why jihad exists, and then how jihad is supposed to be applied.
We should understand that in its essence, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya said that every aspect of Islam involves four. These are the four foundational pillars of the religion. He said it's it's Maslaha, it's benefit.
It's it's Hikmah, it's wisdom. It's wisdom. wise and prudent in its application.
And then it's rahmah, it's mercy in the very center of the heart of Islam, it's mercy. And then it's also just, it's adalah. And he said, but those today who say that we need to use war to establish justice, his argument is that this is not, in the conditions that we're in today, this is not the way that we're going to establish justice. that it's better to... create a space of peace, an ironic situation that Muslims can then work towards that justice.
And he said that we need new approaches to the past approaches. We don't want to be the biggest injustice in the world. So I'm in no way denying that the world doesn't have many places where there's injustice. I'm not denying that.
There is injustice in the world and we should be working to remove those injustices. So I'm not in any way saying that. But what I'm saying is, is that in our approaches to remove. removing these injustices, we should not create greater injustices.
We should not create situations that engender more pain and suffering than has already arisen out of the injustices, that we have to actually work towards removing these things in ways that mitigate those injustices, not ways that accentuate those injustices with intelligence and with a type of approach that is balanced and reasonable. So this is an example, an interpretation of the reality based on these legal categories and judgments that our religion gives us. So I'm not going to enter into the three. three, that you have the actual reality, and then you have a hypothetical reality, which we would call scenarios, and then also what's expected in the future. He said that's a more academic approach that we would have to go.
But I just want to warn you that the imagined reality cannot be found in a global environment that you will not accept. So my point is... is that this imaginary reality in the mind, I mean, it's paradoxical, but this reality that the individual is perceiving in his mind, which doesn't correspond to reality in the world, he said that it's unacceptable as an approach to try to apply an imaginary reality to another reality. Al-jihadu kalimatun jameela.
Thank you. But we must not use this word in other matters so that we are not like those who say, and among people, who like you, his saying in the life of this world. And Allah witnesses what is in his heart, and he is the one who is the one who is the one who is the one. And if he takes a step on the earth to destroy it and destroy the harvest and the crop, Allah does not like corruption.
Allah does not like corruption and killing people. So we don't want to be amongst those that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said that that when they speak, they impress you with their words. Their words are impressive.
And they swear that they're sincere in what they're saying. But when you see them take authority in the land, they begin to kill and destroy the benefits of the agriculture and other things. And they swear that they're sincere in what they're saying.
corruption in the land. So they're the opposite of what they're saying. So if you want to practice jihad here, then you should have the jihad of taking care.
of your parents, the jihad of being a good citizen, people that are in this country of Canada, you should be doing things that are beneficial to your society, service and being productive. These are the jihads. So it's deeply distressing when you see the Muslim is a sufferer.
and is suspected of doing all of these mad acts that we see around us. They don't distinguish between innocent people, between people... He said this is totally unsound and it's certainly not something that is... Something that God is pleased with.
So we have to know the reality in order for us to act in accordance with our Sharia based on the reality. He said that we should have an open-ended invitation to our religion, but in a noble way that is in noble competition with other religious claims, that this is the right of people to spread their beliefs, but this should be done in a noble way. So there are many types but there are two specific types in which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is speaking to us.
He speaks to us in responsibility. Sometimes it's a collective responsibility, sometimes an individual responsibility. Sometimes it's specific to rulers and sometimes it's specific to the people of the population.
But then there's also, and this is open. The way it's left in the Sharia, Allah says establish prayer. But that doesn't include children.
So they don't have to do it. So there's another khitab, which is the khitab al-wada. which is that khitab that limits. and specifies.
So you don't have to pray all the time. You pray when dhuhr comes in. Yeah, the circumstances.
So it's the actual discourse of circumstance. It's the circumstances that make the taklif binding on the individual or collective. So all of those things that Allah has told us to do, they have conditions that they're contingent upon.
And then they also have causes that impact them. And then they also have things that actually constrain them, prevent them. So just a quick example. If you have prayer, you have to have the condition of wudu. And then the subab of the obligation is like when the sun moves onto the thing.
and then the man What would prevent it would be, for instance, a woman who has menstruation. That's a man'a, so she can't. So this is how our sharia looks at things.
So the khitaab al-wada' is what addresses the circumstances of the obligations. So the Sharia It can be divided into these two. These two discourses from God, the discourse of obligation, taklif, and that has five types, the obligation.
Five to seven. Seven. Fasad and salah.
Seven to the right. So. five or seven depending on because contracts and things like that can be either be sound or unsound but you have the five which are the obligation that what's recommended what's what's permitted what's makruh and what's haram those are the five but then and then seven if it's sound or unsound Abu Hamid adds those. And then you go to also the wada, which are three. And then you can add with the majority, which are the conditions, the rationales, the causes that come in.
And then the constraints of it. And then Imam Al-Qarafi. Al-Amedi added the cheap azayim. And Imam Al-Qarafi added the takdirat and hijaj.
So Al-Ahmadi, he included Azai. which are yeah that when when when when you have permission to there's licenses to suspend things because of hardship and then also there's so there's different types of for instance things like that where there's difficulties he said let's not drown in the ocean we'll just stay on the shore That's why I say to our children, learn the Sharia. Learn the conditions of the commands and the rules.
Learn everything that surrounds the enforcement of the laws. Without this learning, you will be lost. So what I'm saying to our youth and the children of this, Abnat, the children, the sons of this religion. and daughters of this religion.
Learn your religion. Understand it. It needs education.
It can't be implemented without education, rightly guided education. Because if you don't learn these things, then whatever you do, you might be thinking you're acting in a goodly way. But the reality of it is, you're mistaken, and you'll end up causing harm.
The reality that we live in requires a new fiqh, a renewed fiqh. address the issues of our time. Just as the Fuqaha in the past addressed the issues of their time, we also have conditions, circumstances that demand that we address them.
And it also needs the skill that goes in giving legal responses. So this is the reason why we began with an initiative of a group of scholars to begin to train them in the ability to make these fatwas based on sound understanding. Because the scholars can understand, it's possible for them obviously to understand the mechanisms that will enable them to give the proper responses to the circumstances they find themselves in. So when we were at the forum for promoting peace, some of the youth said, what?
So we don't fight against oppressors. And he said, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is don't kill yourselves because Allah was merciful with you.
You have to look at the cost benefit. This is the analysis that the Sharia does. What's what?
What's the wheel, the common wheel? And what is the harm that is derived from a situation? And then you weigh those.
When the harm is greater, it's something you don't do. When the benefit is greater, it's something you do. He said all of our religions and our Sharia is no exception.
All of our religions have prohibited oppression. And our Lord said in a Hadith Qudsi, I have prohibited oppression on myself. I made it haram on myself.
Myself, God says this, and so I have made it also haram for my servants, so don't oppress one another. But let's look and examine what is the best approach to removing the oppression in our world. What is the most ideal approach in the conditions that we find ourselves to remove the oppression? this oppression. Let's look at and examine this.
لَيْشَ خِطَابُنَا تَضَامُنَا مِعَ الظَّالِمِ وَلَكِنَّهُ تَضَامُنَا مِعَ الضَّحَايَةِ What we're saying right now is in no way in solidarity with oppressors. We're in solidarity with the victims of all of this conflict between oppressors and people trying to remove the oppression. There is another group or category of concepts that determine also how we engage the reality.
Dar al-Islam Dar al-Kufr Dar al-Harb So we had technical terms amongst the jurists in the past there were parts of the world called Dar al-Islam which is the abode of Islam, Islamdom. And then you had the abode of disbelief and the abode of war. ما هي الدار الآن؟ What is the abode?
How do we describe the dar today? هي لم تعد تخضع لذلك التقفيم It doesn't... That pre-modern categorization no longer fits in the taxonomy of the present.
لأنه كان تصنيفا وليس توقيفا Because this was a descriptive understanding of the Fuqaha and it wasn't descriptive. And it wasn't in any way something that was written in stone by God. we're living in a world in most parts It's possible. They're all multicultural.
You're in a multicultural society here. It's possible to practice your religion in ways that people couldn't do before. So we're living in a very different world now. The abode has shifted.
It's a new abode and therefore it necessitates new categories and new legal rulings. and strong communications and political and global mechanisms have become one. So now with all of this mass communication that we have, the wonders of communication, things have changed.
We have now political entities and mechanisms that didn't exist in the past. for our intelligence and positivity, we can... to the degree with which we have intelligence and capacity that we can change our situation.
Efficacity. Efficacity. Efficacity. Effectiveness.
Efficacity. Yeah. yeah Capacity, yeah.
Yeah, effectiveness, that's what I thought. It's effectiveness, yeah. So this is well known amongst the fuqaha that rulings will change based on the changing of the circumstances.
In that first period of Islam, within the first 10 years, there was already a change and then the rulings changed. And also, for instance, the kharaj, which is a type of tribute on the land. Which is something that the government will impose on people when new lands come into the Muslims. Or for instance, zakat on horses.
Omar did that. Because the situation changed. There wasn't zakat.
But in the hadith there's no zakat in that. But people were buying and selling horses. They didn't do that in the earlier period. So he saw that it changed. Also, the suspension of the traditional penal code, the suspension of the penal code for theft during the famine.
Sayyidina Omar suspended his ruling was that it's no longer applicable because of the circumstances in Ramada. Many things changed because of the change in the times that occurred. So the situation changes based on the category.
So he wrote a book on this subject and gave many, many examples in the book to prove these points. He said it came out a year ago and none of the ulama have been able to refute it up till now. And he said everything I put out is open.
If you want to refute it, let me see your refutations. I mentioned the reality in our economic conditions that have changed. He wrote an entire book dealing with derivatives and all of that.
the new commercial problems that are in, and he put this out because he said you can have piety in the sky, the economics, but if you're dealing with the real world, the Muslims have to deal with it. And also, I looked at the political, the realities of the political situation, how they impact. It is what is called the rights of man. The importance of individualism.
And also the importance of what now is today called individualism. That the whole concept of the individual has shifted greatly in the modern world. People were much more social people. What was important was the social group. Now the individual, his importance has overridden the importance of the social group.
And then also the whole social mentality has shifted between what was traditionally called the rulers and their subjects. So now you have the concept of citizenship, which is different from the pre-modern world. And also all this new technology that has had an impact on legal rulings.
We've got now, for instance, fingerprints, DNA testing, all of these new criminal determinations that didn't exist in the past. So reality is an extremely important matter. Sometimes it's right in front of us and we're unaware of it. So we have to study the situation we find ourselves in to understand it, understand its sociology. And then in order to engender peace and conviviality, these are what we have to do.
حتى يوجد انسجام بين ضميرنا الدين وبين الحياة التي نعيش And so we arrive at a type of harmony between our moral conscience, our religious conscience, and the societies we find ourselves in. So there's not a contradiction between the two. So our religion calls to universal love. It does in that Famous hadith, none of you truly believe till he loves for his, it says brother but it means fellow man, what he loves for himself and this was the understanding of Imam Nowi, Imam Ahmed, Imam Shabrachiti, all of them said this included your human brother.
So it's the fraternity of humanity. I say to our youth, if you want to speak with your desires and desires, go out against people with your ways, kill them and you will be killed for no good. Or if you want to be right and you want to be honest, we ask you to judge minds, to judge interests, to judge wisdom, to judge Sharia. follow your own whims and desires and go out and kill others and kill yourself. This is one way.
He said, but that's not our way. Our way is the way of intelligence. I'm challenging you to use your reason, use your intellect to think about the benefits and harms and go out.
This is the right way, not the other way. This is the reality that we should deal with. Do I exceed the reality to ask another question?
There is a question. People see differences between the sciences. Because now you have channels, and you have a world in one channel that says something, and a world in another channel that says something completely opposite. So the general... They get confused.
A mufti might claim that he has a disease, a disorder in his mind, so he gets confused. For example, in Iran, we have a reference. How do Muslims understand what our reference is in our religion? To, watch a fatwa on one channel, they turn it down the road and they get a complete opposite fatwa on another channel.
They hear an opinion. One sheikh says, oh, that sheikh, he's got sickness in his mind. It creates confusion in average.
Muslims. And for instance, in Iran, the people tend to have a reference point amongst their scholars. So they have a kind of control over their religious discourse.
In our Sunni tradition, for those of us that are Sunni, what is the reference point for and how can common people be removed from this type of confusion? The answer, first of all, is as Ali ibn Abi Talib said, may Allah be pleased with him, Know the men by the truth, and do not know the truth by the men. Know the truth, and know who comes.
the answers comes from Sayyidina Ali who said, know men by the truth and don't know the truth by men, through men. So know the truth and you'll know the truth when you see it. It has conditions in the validity of the fatwa and it has conditions in its relation to the mufti. So the fatwa, it has three aspects.
It has the nusus themselves, which are where the fatwas are derived from. So the Quran, the sunnah, the ijma'at, the khiyas, those. But then it also, it has the maqasid. In other words, what is the spirit of the law? So it's letter of the law, spirit of the law.
Looking from both those vantage points and then looking at the reality and how we apply the letter and the spirit onto the reality. Ihmad al-Nusus or Ihmad al-Waqa So to neglect any one of these three elements, the nusus, which are the actual text, the Quran and the Sunnah, and what's understood from that. And then what is the maqasid?
What are the ends? The ends and the meanings and the spirit of those texts. So that's the why.
So you have the what and the why. But then you have the how. So those are the three. It goes back to those three. And then how do you apply it to the...
If you neglect any one of those three, then you will have a mistake in the fatwa, invariably. فإذا أخذت بالنصوص فقط وكنت حرفياً If I take the the text itself and I apply it literally I will fall into error. The Khawarij those rebels that rebelled against during Sayyidina Ali's Khilafah they used a verse in the Quran to prove their position which is there's no ruling except the ruling of God.
Because Imam Ali took a judge, an arbiter between him and between Sayyidina Muawiyah. And that affected, in order to arrive at a resolution, the Khawarij said, no, there's only God's judgment. judgment. You can't bring another arbiter. So they used an ayah and applied it literally to the ishtihad of Imam Ali.
Imam Ali said the famous statement, this is the use of a true statement, but it's being used for an untrue purpose. And the reason, because they were de-textualize. the ayah and didn't see the holistic nature of the religion.
In another verse Allah says when there's marital discord it says bring an arbiter from the woman's family and bring an arbiter from the man's family. But the khawarij were taking one verse and not seeing that another verse gives you another meaning of it. preventing Preventing bloodshed is more important than preventing divorce. So taking these nusus out of context and particularizing them, this always will result in error. So those Nusul's Those That are applied On Circumstances Without taking the circumstances Into consideration This also leads to error So the caliph said that those things that are needed, the new positions that are needed, are based on what people do from...
their own sinfulness. So as sinfulness increases the necessity for new opinions increases. So he took that understanding from this idea of a general common wheel. الذين لا يرعون المقاصد والخطأ ينشأ أيضا من عدم الاهتمام بالواقع So that's another aspect of a mistake which is the mistake of literalism and many errors will come out of that those people that are literalists and don't understand the nuances of language ambiguities and different applications and interpretations that can come out of language but then also The third problem is not looking at the circumstances that people find themselves in. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, do not kill yourselves because Allah is merciful to you.
فإذا قلت لشخص خروج عن هذا النص فأنت حينئذ مخطئ لأنك تركت مقصيدا عاما ونصا عاما لقضايا غير محققة So if somebody says to you, no, no, no, don't apply that text, go to another text, he's taking something that is a general, and then he's leaving that general for a specific situation or circumstance that is ambiguous or unknown. You don't know what the end result of that will be. So those who take particulars without taking into consideration the universals that override those particulars in many instances, then they'll end up making mistakes as well.
So, The problem is not with fatwa, but the problem is with the levels of education in those giving fatwa. They have to be trained to understand these dimensions, these three dimensions, and take them always into consideration in issuing fatwas. And that's why we need to teach a group of young people and a group of women so that they have the ability to make fatwas.
the men and the women, and train them properly so that they can help people and guide people in these important issues. So we have to be very careful in this age where you have all this telecommunications and people watch things and listen to things and then they take their own opinions about it and then they go. They go off thinking they're on the path of paradise, and they're actually not on the path of paradise.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for well-being about these things. So the defects that occur in these fatwas are from those three. And then another aspect is looking at the consequences down the road. Because that's another dimension. That's a fourth dimension.
The dimension of time. So you have to look down the road at what is going to happen. It is possible to prohibit the fatwa. He previously put a standard, this standard is in Alif Ba Ji. Alif is a great thing that does not go without the religious gatherings.
It is the issues of war, peace, and everything that kills people, everything that hurts the soul. And it is other issues, like the new issues, companies and the crossing. Al-Qarraat Al-Shariqat Al-Kubra Al-Qadaya Al-Iqtisadi Al-Jadeed Al-Fatwa Jeeb Al-Fatwa Al-Umri Al-Aadiya Al-Salati Al-Siyami Al-Wasab Al-Jan And their fatwas, each of them, every faqih, means that he knows the religion, and he knows that he knows a religion from the religious schools, he can be guided by their religion.
So, these are the fatwas. This was a standard that we set up so that we can tell people, look, there are issues in which not everyone can be involved. His voice can be loud, he can write on the internet, he can be a journalist. But this is not enough to save you from the punishment of Allah, the Exalted. The major issues that include blood, money, disbelief, and faith, these issues cannot be covered by individuals, but they must be covered by religious assemblies, and there should be a sense of consensus among the nation.
As for the new, intense issues, and as issues of participation in companies and banks and inflation and other new issues that the jurists know, which the legislatures also deal with. As for the normal issues that have not changed or changed, such as the laws of prayer, the laws of fasting and Hajj, and in that regard, the jurist who is known by his religion and also known as the knowledge of Fiqh. So one of the things that Sheikh Abdullah laid out was a pyramid of fatwas.
So fatwa A are the fatwas, the legal determinations that affect nations, affect bloodshed, affect, for instance, apostasy, all those type of... Kufr and Iman. Kufr and Iman, yeah.
The belief and disbelief that those... are those are not for individuals those are actually done it because it affects states and it affects things that that's not for individual muftis to do and it takes collective fatwas under the guidance of of state leadership and he said the the the the the the the b fatwa would be fatwas that involve the complexities of modern life that are new commercial laws that didn't exist before. for the type of banking institutions, fractional reserve banking, the problem of inflation when you owe debt and you have a currency collapse.
Do you pay the money back? That also takes a higher level of faqih. So those are people that have to be at a high level of fiqh and understanding and preferably working collectively to achieve these with experts also from those fields because you need economists to explain things.
the jury. doctors to explain things, organ transplant, things like that. The third type, Si Fatwa, is a fatwa that involves just everyday things that people have that come up.
And that is, if somebody has studied a valid medhab and knows the rules of that medhab, they can answer their questions about children, in terms of divorce, where the child goes to, or praying on an airplane, doing voodoo over your socks, things like that. that all those things can be done by people who have studied the madhhab. So, we have the Salat al-Asr and the Maghrib after 30 minutes.
Some people are going out to pray. Inshallah, we will finish. The field of fatwa is the field of effort, and there are three types of effort, as Al-Shatibi says, effort in the texts, in the words of the texts, which is the answer to what your Lord said.
And an effort in the purposes, and it is an answer to why your Lord said, because the law is reasonable, what is the benefit that this judgment has? This is a struggle in the ways and application of the laws and reality, which is called achieving the goals. These are the three types of struggle that we must achieve. And at the end of this word, we ask Allah, Exalted and Exalted, to help us all to good, and to guide us, and to inspire us, and to help us to say the truth, and to help us with the truth. In the interest of humanity and the interest of our brothers, of the Muslims here and the interest of these neighborhoods and the neighborhoods of the world, and that God may send His mercy on the people of the earth, and that the blood be soaked and the rights be returned.
And the balance of justice is in the world. This is our prayer. And we ask Allah, Exalted and Exalted, for all of you to be successful.
And I say to my children, especially young people, we say to them, you must learn knowledge, and do good deeds, and strengthen life. Let your nation be a great nation, a leading nation, and that this is your nation, a united nation, and I am your Lord, so worship and I am your Lord, so fear. We have served ourselves and mankind. And this is only from the reality of the intercession against you. And it is not a comparison to anyone.
The Shaykh said that about fatwa, there's three types of fatwa according to Imam al-Qarafi, the great Maliki scholar from Egypt. The first one is the Ishtiaq. Imam al-Shatibi.
Mishatabi, great Andrusian scholar, Maliki scholar from Andrusia, he said there was ishtihad in the nusus, which is understanding and deriving meaning from the actual text. And this is the fatwa of Mada, of what God says. But then he said the Ijtihad in the Maqasid, which is the Ijtihad in the actual spirit and meaning of those texts. And that's a fatwa on why, Limada. And then finally, how you implement the Nas and the spirit in the reality.
And that's Kaif, that's the how, the last component. And that is based on what's called Tahaqiq al-Mana. which is understanding the applicability of a text and the spirit of that text in an actual given situation and so this is what the the the mushtaq needs to know and be able to do in order to arrive at sound judgments and so he concludes he's just saying that really um he's encouraging you to learn your religion especially the youth to understand the the depth of this religion, the importance to go out and do positive things.
and really restore the glory of this community because it's a glorious community in what God has given it to do, to be witnesses of truth and virtue and uprightness. So he's saying that this is what we should do. We should really be fulfilling our omatic responsibility as a community.
And he's saying, I'm saying this out of really care and concern for all of you. So this is... is why I'm saying it and then he made dua inshallah for that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept this