Friday Sermon - Sheikh Abdulrahman Cherri

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[0:05][Laughter] allahar allahar [Music] [Music] [Laughter] asuh [Music] [Music] Salah [Music] [Music]

[1:57]Allah allar ill ill for ald muham there is a Hadith that

[4:17]is narrated by imak peace be upon him in which he says

[4:22]indeed the believer is one who when he is happy or she

[4:31]is happy is not led by his or her happiness to commit

[4:34]any wrong or indecent act and if he or she is angered

[4:41]is not diverted from telling the truth by his or her anger

[4:47]and when he or she is empowered is not led by his

[4:54]or her power to transgress against that which does not rightfully belong

[4:58]to him or her this is one of those Hadith that we

[5:05]can use to determine our status before God to see whether our

[5:09]status as Believers is true or we're living a false imagination that

[5:17]we are good individuals or Believers just because we belong to a

[5:20]certain faith and we adhere to a certain system of belief there

[5:28]are certain checkpoints that we have to have marked in order for

[5:32]us to be considered to be true believers of course in Islam

[5:35]we believe that there are different levels of Faith the lowest level

[5:41]that is the level of just the acceptance of Islam as a

[5:44]religion you testify that there is no God and that Muhammad sallallahu

[5:50]alai wasallam is his messenger and that makes you a Muslim you

[5:54]enter the fold of Islam but that is just a beginning that

[5:57]is just like subscribing to the club or to the gym or

[6:03]something it's a subscription you say that I'm a member of this

[6:06]religion and you testify to the belief system of this religion but

[6:13]it doesn't necessarily make you a good member of the religion this

[6:17]is just entering that place so this is one level which is

[6:23]the lowest level or the minimal level now within the fold of

[6:25]Islam you explore many different things so it's like you're entering a

[6:34]certain world there's a door and you go into it and then

[6:40]you have a whole world that you can explore if you go

[6:42]to the zoo or you go to the mall or some other

[6:47]place entering that place just takes you in there and then what

[6:51]you do inside there depends on your behavior and your actions so

[6:58]entering Islam requires making the testimony or saying testimony on top of

[7:02]that when you enter Islam you have to start behaving in a

[7:06]certain way in order for you to reach the higher levels of

[7:09]Islam so treating people in a good way performing your obligations and

[7:16]duties before God these are things that you have to do and

[7:19]depending on how much you do them and how good you do

[7:23]them it determines your level of faith and your level of sincerity

[7:27]towards Allah subhana wa ta'ala so in this Hadith IM is talking

[7:32]about the m and of course IM is a higher level than

[7:37]Islam where you elevate and Iman has different degrees he says that

[7:41]the believer is a person who when he or she is happy

[7:44]you're in a good mood your life is going well you're succeeding

[7:49]you have a good job you have a good pay you're able

[7:55]to live the life when you're in that state if you are

[7:58]a believer that state will will not lead you to commit any

[8:03]wrong or indecency if you find yourself that your life is getting

[8:06]better now you have more money you have more success in life

[8:11]you start moving towards things that are wrong things that are indecent

[8:17]you commit forbidden things then you understand that you are not a

[8:22]True Believer because this external reality when it changed you changed so

[8:27]you never had Iman inside of you maybe you were a m

[8:30]or you thought you're a m because you're weren't doing so well

[8:34]in life you thought I should talk to Allah subhah wa tala

[8:36]I should pray I should fast but in reality what you were

[8:41]praying for and moving towards was you wanted that success in life

[8:45]you w you weren't doing it for God you weren't doing it

[8:47]sincerely and as soon as you get that success you immediately change

[8:54]so that shows that there's not sincerity in the heart and there's

[8:58]not true Faith because what the change of the out outside influenced

[9:01]you and affected you from the inside a person who is a

[9:05]True Believer does not change based on things that happen outside of

[9:09]him or her inside they're constant even though on the outside there's

[9:14]changes in the factors so that's one thing to keep in mind

[9:18]another state to test our faith if a person is angered and

[9:24]they are a believer that anger does not divert them from telling

[9:27]the truth by because of their anger so if you're hurt by

[9:33]someone your neighbor causes you some issues someone in your family causes

[9:37]you problems you're in a fight at work or with your friends

[9:39]and you go you sit down with your other friends to talk

[9:42]to them about what happened and you blame the other person completely

[9:46]and you make up stuff to make them look bad and you're

[9:50]not just in your way of speaking this shows that you're not

[9:53]a True Believer a person who is a Believer even when they're

[9:59]angry the anger doesn't stop them from saying the truth and speaking

[10:03]what is just if you did something wrong then you have to

[10:06]say that even if you're angry but anger should not also influence

[10:11]how you are if you're an honest individual whether you're happy or

[10:15]you're angry you're going to speak with honesty it's not the emotions

[10:18]that control you you're in control of these emotions the third sign

[10:24]that we can use to determine our level of faith is that

[10:27]when this person is empowered they are not led by their power

[10:34]to transgress transgress against that which does not rightfully belong to them

[10:41]you gain a position of authority you become a boss of a

[10:44]job or an manager of a company or someone who's elect an

[10:47]elected official that position that power that's given to you it should

[10:53]not be something that allows you to start oppressing other individuals or

[10:57]transgressing against them you start using that Authority that influence that power

[11:02]that you have and nowadays a lot of you know people can

[11:04]become influencers or people in in uh positions of power on social

[11:10]media let's say and you don't have to be elected in in

[11:12]the government to become someone of influence anymore or even in small

[11:15]situations if you feel that you have an advantage over somebody that

[11:21]should not allow you to transgress and harm other people you have

[11:25]to remain just and you have to remain rightful towards others in

[11:30]a similar Hadith the prophet sallallah alai wasallam says there are three

[11:35]characteristics that complete the faith of whoever possesses them so here it's

[11:40]a bit clear that this level of faith is a complete level

[11:44]of Faith so someone might have faith but it might be a

[11:46]lower level of faith and we have to work towards attaining this

[11:50]higher level of Faith the prophet says the three characteristics that complete

[11:57]the faith of whoever possesses them are when a person is Happy

[12:02]his happiness does not lead him to commit any wrong the samei

[12:05]As and when he is angered his anger does not take him

[12:10]away from what is right and true and if he is empowered

[12:14]in any way he does not take hold of that which does

[12:16]not belong to him the same truism but with an addition here

[12:22]where the Prophet indicates in this Hadith that is this the level

[12:24]of complete faith so if you want to determine whether your faith

[12:29]is of a high level or something that you want to aim

[12:31]for then you have to make sure that there's a constant state

[12:36]that you are experiencing inside of you if you're honest honesty should

[12:39]be a part of your characteristic it shouldn't be something that you

[12:43]practice when it's in your benefit and you don't practice when it's

[12:47]not in your benefit an individual who is a m who is

[12:50]a person of Faith does not allow those external factors to influence

[12:56]how they behave rather they influence the external factors we ask Allah

[13:02]subhana tala to grant us this ability to reach the complete level

[13:06]of faith and discern rightfulness from food [Music] in the name of

[13:48]God the merciful the compassionate praise belongs to God the first without

[13:53]a first before him and the last without without a last behind

[13:59]him behold holders his eyes fall short of seeing him describers his

[14:06]imaginations are not able to depict him he originated the creatures through

[14:09]his power with an origination he devised them in accordance with his

[14:14]will with a devising then he made them walk on the path

[14:17]of his desire he sent them out on the way of his

[14:22]love they cannot keep back from that to which he has sent

[14:27]them forward nor can they go forward to that from which he

[14:30]has kept them back I bear witness that there is no God

[14:32]but Allah alone with no partner and I bear witness that Muhammad

[14:38]is his messenger and servant oh Allah send your peace and blessings

[14:42]upon Muhammad the Seal of prophets and the master of The Messengers

[14:47]and send your blessings oh God upon Ali the commander of the

[14:51]faithful and upon faim zah the lady of the woman of the

[14:56]world and upon alassan and Al Hussein the masters of the youth

[14:59]of paradise oh God send your blessings upon the IMs of the

[15:06]Muslims Ali Hussein Muhammed aliam muhami muhami and the awaited AL may

[15:19]Allah hasten his reappearance ease his emergence and make us among his

[15:22]supporters and helpers one of the issues that our communities face nowadays

[15:36]and not only our communities but rather the whole world all of

[15:42]humanity are experiencing the same problem and that is the challenge of

[15:46]postmodernism and I've spoken about this in multiple occasions but because the

[15:50]topic is so vast and there are so many things to talk

[15:54]about I wanted to select one aspect of this issue to discuss

[15:57]today very briefly with you so postmodernism for those who know or

[16:01]might have heard before it's the movement the philosophical movement that happened

[16:05]after modernism so post means after which means that there was a

[16:10]period that we lived which was called the period of modernism and

[16:15]what we're living now is that period of postmodernism or what they

[16:19]term in Arabic as so modernism began very briefly a short history

[16:26]lesson began during the Renaissance period around the 1500 in Europe during

[16:31]the Enlightenment period when the church was struggling to keep people's Faith

[16:36]alive there was a lot of illnesses and diseases and problems in

[16:39]Europe at that time what they term as the Dark Ages right

[16:44]people were living in a terrible time uh the average lifespan at

[16:47]that time was around 37 to 40 people used to die very

[16:53]young diseases were spread and there was a lot of problems in

[16:55]that region of the world then came this Scientific Revolution and people

[17:01]started you know inventing medicines and doing things which were healing people

[17:05]and helping people which led to people's loss of faith and the

[17:09]transition from believing in God and the church to moving towards belief

[17:16]in science and uh humanism so this is a very short and

[17:18]brief history of this period of time of course if you want

[17:22]to read more you can always go and look up this uh

[17:23]issue but this is when all these philosophers came up you know

[17:27]all these European philosophers that you read about French German English and

[17:32]whatnot it happened around that period and people began seeing that science

[17:37]is giving them more uh results than religion is you go to

[17:41]the church when you're sick you pray you don't seem to get

[17:43]cured but you go to the physician the doctor and they have

[17:47]medicine and they're able to cure you which caused some confusion in

[17:50]people's minds at that time of course this is a wrong understanding

[17:54]of religion and a wrong understanding of God there's no uh conflict

[17:58]between a doctor being able to cure you through medication and that

[18:02]happening through the will of God as Muslims we don't see this

[18:06]as two separate things we are ordered and commanded by the prophet

[18:10]and the imams to visit Physicians and doctors when we are sick

[18:13]because we believe that God cures through cause and effect the cause

[18:17]of your cure is that medication which the doctor is able to

[18:22]give you so even God's healing has to happen through the correct

[18:24]means we don't see a conflict in this but we also understand

[18:29]that this could have been created uh caused or could have caused

[18:33]a great challenge for the Believers at that time especially with how

[18:37]the church was behaving during that period in in Europe where uh

[18:41]a lot of scandals were happening in some Churches and you know

[18:44]religion was becoming something that's not very after worldly it became something

[18:50]that was immersed in worldly matters so this lasted for a very

[18:57]long time until the early 19 SE 30s 40s 50s 60s around

[18:59]that period of time a new movement emerged which is called postmodernism

[19:03]and in this movement they are rejecting that scientific absolutism meaning that

[19:13]they saw that science cannot give us all the answers in the

[19:16]world it cannot tell us everything about the world there's a lot

[19:19]of things that humans are doing and a lot of realities that

[19:24]science is unable to answer for us and therefore we have to

[19:27]have a revolution against these ideas ideas so what we're living nowadays

[19:34]is this period of time where we live in a time where

[19:36]relative truth is what is being pushed upon us there's nothing called

[19:40]an absolute truth everything is relative there's nothing called um let's say

[19:48]they're against structures so family structures gender structures things like that everything

[19:52]is beli to be a construct and so on and so forth

[19:55]so today what I want to speak about is the idea of

[20:00]knowled and data one of the things about postmodernism is that there

[20:03]has to be so much data that is collected and this data

[20:08]that is collected shows us that there is no one truth so

[20:11]with the emergence of the internet any question you have you can

[20:15]go online and look it up right you can read about anything

[20:18]you want you don't even have to look for anything you can

[20:20]just open your Instagram or your Tik Tok and you scroll through

[20:24]the reels and you're bombarded with all different kinds of information and

[20:29]data any you can imagine every thought that any person has in

[20:32]this world can come right to your screen someone who's living in

[20:35]the jungle digging swimming pools and making houses in the forest can

[20:42]talk about their ideas and someone who's in a company is inventing

[20:45]something in China or someone in Russia or someone in Africa all

[20:48]these different thoughts and ideas from many different cultures and mentalities are

[20:52]coming to you onto your phone right so you're faced with a

[20:56]problem here now what do I believe what do I think is

[21:02]true and what do I think is false I'm a Muslim I

[21:06]have my belief system and in the past when you weren't these

[21:08]things were accessible you thought that you know I'm living in a

[21:12]community and that's all you see you see the Islamic faith Islamic

[21:16]idea and you don't mix up too much with the other right

[21:18]so you feel comfortable with your faith and you're quite confident that

[21:21]what you believe in is right but now when you're exposed to

[21:26]all these different ideas and thoughts and all these different uh mentalities

[21:30]you see that there are other people that have also a system

[21:35]of belief they also have similar communities to I they also have

[21:41]similar ways of life so why am I the Right individual why

[21:44]am I not wrong and they are right So eventually what happens

[21:49]and this is a postmodern idea is what develops is the idea

[21:54]of perspective this idea where everything you believe in is your perspective

[21:59]Ive and could be true according to your own self why because

[22:03]there's no absolute truth outside so there's nothing called an objective truth

[22:09]there's no let's say house outside there's an object and if if

[22:13]you look at postmodern art if anybody's been to the art museum

[22:16]we have one in Detroit um and you go to the postmodern

[22:19]art section you you all see the like the scribble art and

[22:23]you know all the stuff that you think is crazy and nonsensical

[22:26]right but it really represents the state of thought of postmodernism even

[22:33]the artist cannot understand what they drew if you can call it

[22:39]a drawing right they'll make an object they'll slap some paint on

[22:41]the wall and then people will just stand with the artist the

[22:46]artist will stand back and will look at it and start analyzing

[22:48]it hm what could that mean right and anything you come up

[22:53]with is true because it's your own perspective this is as opposed

[22:58]to art that was had was drawn on before artists in the

[23:01]past believed that art had to represent some form of um truth

[23:08]or something that represented a reality that came from the above world

[23:13]that's why if you go to the uh medieval sections in the

[23:16]in the art museum you find that it's a very different concept

[23:18]of art over there there were ideas that represented the Divine people

[23:24]did not believe that they should draw things that represented the human

[23:27]being we should always talk about God and the most Supreme Beings

[23:33]the the spiritual world right because we want to elevate ourselves we

[23:36]have a goal we have an objective that we want to reach

[23:41]we want to connect with those spiritual realities and if you go

[23:45]through the art museum to the later years you start seeing that

[23:48]the art becomes more and more human centered you move away from

[23:51]the Divine you take the Angels out the Devils out and all

[23:57]this stuff out and suddenly there's is more focused on the human

[24:00]being this is the modern era where humanism was invented that the

[24:05]human was the center of the world so we moved from God

[24:07]being the center to the human being the center to postmodernism where

[24:12]nothing is the center it's just a matter of feelings and perspectives

[24:17]now of course this causes a lot of psychological problems for human

[24:22]beings if you feel that you cannot believe in something and there's

[24:25]nothing that's true then you're going to remain confused all the time

[24:30]human beings need to attach themselves to an objective reality we cannot

[24:35]completely deny everything and say that everything is a matter of perspective

[24:39]this cannot be true because when I say that there is no

[24:45]absolute truth and everything is a matter of perspective those statements themselves

[24:51]falsify my claim how is that when I say that there is

[24:54]no absolute truth what is that statement is an absolute truth right

[24:59]there is no absolute truth so there's no way to escape this

[25:05]there has to be a belief in an absolute reality we cannot

[25:08]escape this we cannot say that everything is a matter of perspective

[25:13]otherwise the world becomes very chaotic there is no value system how

[25:20]do I know if kindness is a good thing or not if

[25:22]it's a matter of perspective right to you kindness is differing from

[25:29]what kindness is is to another person you might think that generosity

[25:32]means that you don't give anything to your neighbors and you keep

[25:36]everything to yourself and your family let's say another person says no

[25:41]that's selfishness that's not generosity another person says comes and says who

[25:44]said that generosity is a good thing anyways right you come and

[25:48]say well this person is selfish that person will say yeah who

[25:51]told you selfishness is bad in my perspective selfishness is a very

[25:54]good thing I have to really take care of myself and only

[25:57]myself right so you can imagine living in a world where perspectives

[26:02]dominate all of our thought it's a world of chaos we have

[26:07]no value systems that's why if you think about this 10 years

[26:10]ago or 15 years ago you know growing up you used to

[26:14]hear something you know called respect your elders right you don't hear

[26:19]this anymore that used to be an ethical virtue a value it

[26:22]was part of the American value system where you know the postmodernist

[26:26]claim that this all came from Christian it and we have to

[26:30]get rid of this right we don't want to adopt a Christian

[26:33]value system or religious value system you don't hear this anymore you

[26:36]know you go online and you watch videos where children are yelling

[26:39]at older people and a lot of people start justifying this type

[26:42]of behavior especially if they're yelling at the parents or someone else

[26:45]and people say yeah the child is expressing their emotion and you

[26:51]know the the the older person has to listen to them and

[26:53]they're at fault they're at wrong why because they've removed this value

[26:57]the idea of perspective your parents this is something that you don't

[27:00]hear of anymore we used to be taught this in schools but

[27:05]schools don't teach these things anymore why because there's no more value

[27:09]system everything is a matter of perspective and everybody has the right

[27:13]to behave in any way they want now if you think about

[27:19]this the consequences of such a belief system is very very negative

[27:23]and bad on the human society and this is why in Islam

[27:27]the emphasis on there being an absolute truth is very very focused

[27:35]upon now of course Islam had to deal with a similar problem

[27:37]when it was first coming into being when it came into the

[27:42]Arabian society there were many different gods many different belief systems many

[27:45]different value systems and Islam came and said that this is not

[27:51]the way that humanity is able to succeed and flourish they have

[27:53]to have one system and that system has to have a truth

[27:59]which it belongs to to not an imaginary world it has to

[28:01]belong to a certain truth if I do goodness there's a real

[28:06]effect on my spirit on my soul it actually does move me

[28:09]forward if you go to the gym and you exercise and you

[28:13]take this one system you believe in that system that's been tried

[28:16]and tested you actually see the result on your body you cannot

[28:21]say that no working out is a matter of perspective right if

[28:24]I you know uh want to do uh uh bench presses with

[28:29]no weights I can be as big as the person who's using

[28:34]weights because that's my perspective right nobody would believe that the same

[28:38]thing is true when it comes to spirituality in Islam or religions

[28:42]in general they believe that there is a truth towards where we

[28:49]can move we can become spiritually progressing we can progress spiritually we

[28:52]can grow spiritually this needs your belief in an objective truth If

[28:58]you deny it you'll never be able to improve spiritually as an

[29:01]individual because you don't believe that the goal exists just like you

[29:03]don't believe that if you work out with with larger weights you

[29:07]you build yourself up more if you don't believe that then you're

[29:10]never going to increase your weights right you're going to continue using

[29:13]no weights you have to believe in it in order for you

[29:17]to do that thing because belief is what makes you move towards

[29:19]that thing so if you remove this belief in God and believe

[29:22]you remove the belief in Hereafter and you say that this is

[29:26]just a matter of perspective then what in reality you're doing is

[29:29]you're not going to move towards anything you're going to be jumping

[29:32]from one place to another so it's very important for you to

[29:37]have a belief system and a correct belief system believing in the

[29:42]absolute God allows you to move towards the absolute goodness and absolute

[29:46]Beauty if you believe that God is a tyrant then that belief

[29:49]is going to reflect your behavior as well if you're God is

[29:54]someone who punishes people who don't deserve to be punished then you're

[29:57]going to reflect that behavior on Earth too so your belief system

[30:01]directly influences the way you behave as an individual and Islam came

[30:06]to purify our belief systems first by making us understand the correct

[30:11]thought of God that he is the almighty the all powerful the

[30:17]merciful the just and all the other names that he has that

[30:20]there are no Gods but him we are moving towards one goal

[30:25]towards one reality towards one Perfection and this is what we are

[30:28]focused on and that when we act upon our beliefs we are

[30:33]actually moving and progressing it's not just an idea or thought in

[30:36]our minds There's an actual reality to our spiritual movement so this

[30:39]is very important for us to keep in mind as religious communi

[30:43]so that we don't get dragged into these discussions where we also

[30:46]start saying that everything is a matter of perspective yet we believe

[30:49]in God because in postmodernism they don't have problem with religion like

[30:53]modernists did they say that everybody has the right to believe in

[30:55]anything they want but it's a matter of perspective you can believe

[30:59]in God as a Muslim we have no problem with you but

[31:01]your Islam is a perspective right this is very dangerous now we

[31:05]believe that it's not just a perspective it's a truth so we

[31:10]don't want to be dragged into this discussion where we also partake

[31:13]as Muslims in the perspective discussions now of course there are things

[31:19]that are perspectives there are things that are perspectives we don't want

[31:22]to deny that completely right so there's not enough time to discuss

[31:25]all the details but let's say interpreting certain historical facts you know

[31:31]if we don't have access to the absolute truth it does become

[31:34]a matter of perspective interpreting certain events that happened the prophet is

[31:38]not amongst us the Imam is not amongst us they cannot tell

[31:41]us the exact truth to believe in so here there's a matter

[31:47]of perspective yes so we have to find that balance we don't

[31:49]want to completely say that everything is a matter of perspective that's

[31:54]wrong and we don't want to say that we know everything as

[31:56]absolute truth there are things that we say are absolute like the

[32:00]Oneness of God the finality of the messenger Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam

[32:05]the articles of Faith basically that the soul exists and it's not

[32:10]just the body that we're living in this is something that we

[32:12]absolutely live in because without believing in that you will never increase

[32:16]in spirituality because you deny the existence of the Soul right historical

[32:20]matters other things in our opinion small things here and there yes

[32:24]perspective plays a role over here some things change over history certain

[32:28]fam values change according to family structures and how they change so

[32:32]it's not a I can't discuss all the details here but I

[32:36]want you to keep in mind that there are certain areas where

[32:40]perspectives are accepted we don't completely deny that but we also have

[32:44]to make sure we maintain ourselves uh connected to the absolute truth

[32:47]as well and not let go of those we ask Allah subhana

[32:50]T to grant us the guidance and discernment in order for us

[32:54]to be able to know the right from falsehood muhamad m

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