Imam Mahdi's Facebook Profile | Sayyid Sulayman Hasan

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Lecture by Respected Sayyid Sulayman Hasan on Imam Mahdi's Facebook Profile on 12/29/2012 during the 29th Annual Conference in Chicago, IL, USA hosted by the Muslim Group of USA and Canada.

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Transcript

[0:28]aldam inshallah today in this Workshop we will be discussing uh the

[0:54]Facebook profile of the IM of our time and those of you

[0:58]who know me know that I know nothing about Facebook and I

[1:00]can add to that that I also cannot claim to have any

[1:05]insight about the IM of our time beyond that which I have

[1:07]learned and I have studied but the con the conversation is something

[1:11]that can still be productive and meaningful for us it will require

[1:16]though that you attend not with the intention of listening to a

[1:22]lecture and then having a question and answer session I'm going to

[1:27]request and the success of this Workshop is going to depend on

[1:34]your active participation so I want to begin with a question and

[1:40]don't worry about preparing your answer or or thinking whether the answer

[1:44]is going to be uh it's going to seem well thought out

[1:49]is going to seem uh provisionary or whatever the first thing that

[1:54]I would like us to look at already got our first note

[2:01]uh can everybody hear me all right so the first question that

[2:05]I would like to begin is if the IM of the time

[2:12]were to be present either in public or if he were to

[2:18]say that I am scheduling special appointments and I'm going to give

[2:23]you say an appointment or whatever opportunity could exist to meet the

[2:31]what would you make on you know your list of priorities the

[2:37]top thing that you would like to address with the IM or

[2:44]what do you think a a follower of or a Muslim should

[2:50]put at the top of their list how would that meeting be

[2:58]arranged right for many of us really we might actually come back

[3:04]and say you know what I don't really know I don't know

[3:06]if there's anything that I have actually a need to talk about

[3:13]with the IM and that tells us something about the reality of

[3:17]our relationship with the IM of our time and with and our

[3:24]connection to Islam if we have kind of fulfilled and filled all

[3:27]of the spaces that could exist Within Our Lives within our decision

[3:32]making there isn't really any emotional any intellectual any spiritual any material

[3:39]need of in any of the different dimensions of our life so

[3:43]if the answer is I haven't thought about it and I don't

[3:46]know and there really isn't anything then that is something that gives

[3:49]us a bit of insight about what we need to change about

[3:53]our lives so what would you think would be something that you

[3:56]could uh I would ask okay so you would ask the IM

[4:14]can you clarify certain issues and I like that you answer you

[4:17]asked you would want to clarify what is h and what is

[4:20]some of us we might come and we say all right I

[4:22]have five different FAS that I need to know now when I

[4:25]pray and I do s exactly how does my knee have to

[4:29]lay on the ground and how much pressure do I need to

[4:30]apply and if I am doing W for example can I wash

[4:34]my arm backwards or not and those are legitimate questions as well

[4:38]but when we want to clarify things or we want to get

[4:42]things clarified the most important thing and what is missing when we

[4:46]don't have ready access to the IM of course is what defines

[4:50]what is right and what defines what is wrong and how can

[4:53]we gain insight into that so that's a very important thing that

[4:58]we would want to ask the Imam and ideally we should have

[5:02]certain questions within our mind the problem that many Muslims have is

[5:08]that in our mind we already think that we know all we

[5:13]need to know about H and everything about certain cultures or certain

[5:18]communities or certain groups is evil everything about a person or an

[5:23]institution that I am uh on good terms with is good and

[5:29]so neither NE in terms of what I consider H nor in

[5:34]terms of what I consider do I have any uncertainty do I

[5:39]have any unanswered questions and so if the IM comes I don't

[5:42]really have a question I might have a statement but I don't

[5:50]have an uncertainty that needs to be clarified in some cases we

[5:55]may even have demands we may even have expectations and if the

[5:59]IM for example were to come and say that no what you

[6:02]think is H is not actually accurate it needs to be modified

[6:07]in a certain direction or in a different direction then we might

[6:11]actually not just have a prior impression that is unjustified we may

[6:15]actually have push back and say that well no I'm not willing

[6:20]to uh shake the foundations of what I have believed unto now

[6:23]in any way and derive guidance or inspiration from the Im so

[6:28]in many different ways what you mentioned is very important that we

[6:32]need to make sure that we don't develop a false sense of

[6:35]security and certainty that I know all the answers I know what

[6:40]is right and I know what is wrong because then we don't

[6:42]really have any guidance that we are seeking from the Imam and

[6:46]we'll talk about that and explore some of the meanings of that

[6:49]inshallah in the future but I do want to add to that

[6:53]that doesn't mean that nothing is clear the proof that Allah sends

[6:59]to the world its completion the completion of that proof depends on

[7:04]the existence and the presence and access to the prophet or the

[7:11]IM but at different levels the of Allah is always present amongst

[7:15]us the proof of the truth is always accessible to us and

[7:21]so it's not to say that we can't achieve any kind of

[7:24]certainty but within the certainty that we do have the knowledge that

[7:28]we have that Islam is correct the knowledge that we have that

[7:33]the path of is correct additional questions should always be present and

[7:37]we should be seeking the guidance and answers to those questions what

[7:42]else would some of us be thinking of asking the IM addressing

[7:47]the IM ask how can we put into practice the principles of

[8:09]Islam and actually help Shia Community or Islam uh where there is

[8:14]suffering that is taking place persecution so to get guidance like that

[8:18]from the IM okay thank you sure what can you do to

[8:35]help to help his cause these are important uh points because these

[8:41]questions they remind us that we don't always have easy or clear

[8:50]answers to certain questions now it's very easy for a person to

[8:53]say well how can I help the uh the persecution help alleviate

[8:57]the persecution and the suffering of Muslims or of Shia throughout the

[9:01]world how can I help the cause of the IM uh it's

[9:04]very easy to say that well you can do this you can

[9:05]recite this Dua you can uh take these steps you can um

[9:12]contribute financially you can contribute uh by your own time but all

[9:18]of those are superficial steps and to gain greater insight to gain

[9:23]a greater depth we need to have a more informed a deeper

[9:27]connection to the IM so we will be talking a little bit

[9:34]about the uh the uh the repercussions of our relationship with the

[9:39]IM the effects of that relationship and our knowledge of the IM

[9:42]on issues of social media but before we get to that I

[9:46]want to spend a little bit of time perhaps a little bit

[9:48]less than half the workshop rethinking our relationship with the im as

[9:55]a whole because if that relationship is not correct or is not

[10:00]uh as meaningful as it needs to be we may not actually

[10:02]be able to derive the Insight that we need all of you

[10:06]are familiar with the question that Evangelical Christians often asked what would

[10:09]Jesus do right generally that question is asked when the answer is

[10:18]meant to be obvious it might actually be obvious like would Jesus

[10:23]join the Republican party sorry to any Republicans in the audience but

[10:26]I don't think the modern Republican party would be very welcoming to

[10:29]Prophet is as he is known by Muslims or as he is

[10:34]known by Christians or any other group so sometimes the answer really

[10:37]is uh perhaps obvious in other cases the answer might not be

[10:41]obvious but the person asking that question what would Jesus do they

[10:45]mean it to be obvious right and in those kinds of places

[10:48]you don't actually need to ask what would Jesus do because your

[10:55]own conscience or your own understanding of the general teachings of religion

[11:00]that is sufficient to get you to the answer the question though

[11:03]is needed and there is really no difference between asking what would

[11:07]Isam do what would the prophet of Islam do what would any

[11:11]one of the IMs do what would the IM of our time

[11:12]do because according to our Islamic belief they would all do what

[11:18]is their obligation and they would follow the same path and the

[11:23]same principles in their lives asking that question is Meaningful when the

[11:29]answer is not obvious and it is not meant to be obvious

[11:35]and so we have two different things that are good two different

[11:41]values that we are obligated to apply and we don't know how

[11:49]to combine those two different Islamic principles those two different needed principles

[11:53]in a way that best does honor to our obligation so so

[11:59]then we need to turn to the prophet or we need to

[12:03]turn to the IM and we need to say well how would

[12:04]they do it and so in general the answer should not be

[12:10]one that is absolutely clear to us there should always be an

[12:15]element of ambiguity or an element of uncertainty in the answer that

[12:20]we get because that is what is going to try to impel

[12:28]us to further connect with the teachings of to help you understand

[12:34]the point that I'm trying to make I want to ask another

[12:36]question all of you I'm sure have heard in speeches read in

[12:41]your own studies the different stages that the Islamic movement and especially

[12:46]the the path of the followers of has gone through right Islam

[12:50]was vulnerable and weak when it began it was persecuted and then

[12:55]Islam triumphed in Medina and it became a religion that many people

[13:00]were entering into into as the Quran says a in large groups

[13:03]and they entered into the religion and then Islam went through different

[13:07]ups and downs the followers of that sometimes they were able to

[13:14]teach and to practice publicly at other times they were cornered they

[13:20]were persecuted IM husse was marted IM was made the air apparent

[13:23]so all of us are familiar with that history if you were

[13:29]to compare to any of those historical times in the lifetime of

[13:33]the Prophet or the lifetime of our IMS which of those phases

[13:41]would you say our time is most similar to would you say

[13:43]it's most similar to for example when Islam started in the time

[13:45]of the Prophet just after the period of Jah would you say

[13:51]it's like the period when im Ali was uh marginalized from government

[13:55]is it like the time when im Ali was in government is

[14:00]it like the time of IM Hassan when he made peace and

[14:03]hid some of his rights is it like the time of IM

[14:06]Hussein when he stood up and said that no we're going to

[14:08]fight IM IM Muhammad so these different stages the ones that you

[14:16]have studied the ones that you are familiar with on what level

[14:20]would you say that our time is like those times you don't

[14:23]have to have a comprehensive answer you can say that in this

[14:28]respect I think that the lifetime of of this IM or this

[14:30]stage of Islam gives us the greatest insight into how we can

[14:37]move forward as a Muslim Community every single one of ours did

[14:49]not have overwheling support by the people and IM is going to

[14:53]come when he has this overwhelming support by the people that's why

[14:57]every single IM except for a period of time they none of

[15:03]them were the had actual leadership they were they had leadership from

[15:06]Allah but the people did not accept the leadership and even IM

[15:09]Ali while he was Theif he he was Theif but he had

[15:14]to fight War because people were not obeying so during the time

[15:19]when he comes he's going to have the over support that's going

[15:22]allow him to the re so the you're right that the the

[15:30]the to will come at a time when he has the overwhelming

[15:32]support of people of conscience throughout the world and that is what

[15:37]is going to be the key to the Fulfillment of his mission

[15:41]and the mission of Islam and I want you to hold that

[15:44]thought because inshallah that is going to be relevant to um to

[15:50]our conversation but what about right now before the IM comes so

[15:52]it's still in his time but before the IM comes and he

[15:58]uh completes the proof of Islam and acquires that Universal support from

[16:03]the oppressed people and separates the true from the false but at

[16:08]this point before the IM has actually done that which times from

[16:13]the times of the previous IMS do you find especially um meaningful

[16:18]and please do hold that thought because that is relevant but it's

[16:23]the next stage of our conversation so sorry I'm question before comes

[16:31]actually simar to many of the I would say the time imass

[16:38]mu was basically killing the sh he was undermining the sh he

[16:43]was spreading propaganda against the sh spre propaganda the lead of so

[16:50]I think this is what happen today we have a lot of

[16:54]propag against Islam we have people who are Muslim being oppressed Muslim

[17:00]they're try to all right so one answer is that on some

[17:04]level this is like the time of IM Hassan when she has

[17:07]are being oppressed in different ways and you mentioned some examples of

[17:11]that okay thank you any other thoughts yeah I think that mostely

[17:15]like IMI himself he was at home people didn't recognize that he

[17:22]exist all people did not go after him and then finally they

[17:25]went after him they would not ready themselves he said find somebody

[17:29]else because you are not ready for my leadership right now the

[17:35]same thing we are not ready for the IM leadership if we

[17:38]are ready he will be here with us those are two that's

[17:42]that's an important point and what you mentioned that that uh somewhat

[17:46]similar to the time of IM Ali when people did not recognize

[17:48]that the IM was the IM and the point that you were

[17:53]making about the Imam appearing when he will have the support of

[17:57]humanity uh they are related the major element in the phase that

[18:07]Islam is in right now is that the H of Allah the

[18:13]proof of Allah that authoritative proof of Allah is personified in the

[18:21]IM of every time who completes that proof that proof is absent

[18:27]absent in the sense that it is present the person of the

[18:34]IM is the proof of Allah is the of Allah and that

[18:36]proof is present but we don't have ready access to it in

[18:42]the time of the IM people people did have access but they

[18:45]did not have sufficient knowledge of the IM what that means is

[18:52]that we need to have that intellectual level of humility in understanding

[19:00]what are our obligations we need to have a recognition as a

[19:06]society and as a community that there are certain things that are

[19:11]the basis of our relationships there are certain clear teachings of Islam

[19:18]clear practices of Islam there are certain means of answering questions that

[19:24]we might have given the fact that the actual answer is not

[19:28]accessible to us we have to take those steps we have to

[19:35]cling even more firmly towards those things that are certain because when

[19:44]uncertainty comes we don't always have the answers that we would need

[19:48]to have some of you may have read histories of Islam that

[19:56]have been written by non-muslim and by Western uh Scholars and sometimes

[20:00]there is a jolt that comes in the mind of many Muslims

[20:03]when they read those sources but that jolt comes because we have

[20:09]a misunderstanding of our own history so for those of you who

[20:11]may have read some of those works I have a question where

[20:15]did the traditions and the details about the number of imams about

[20:22]the identity of the IM and some of those Hadith begin to

[20:28]uh crystallize sooner within the Sunni tradition or within the shii tradition

[20:39]and it's sometimes counterintuitive for people to find that according to the

[20:47]historical record for example the emphasis on there being 12 imams or

[20:52]12 am or 12 successors of the Prophet is found earlier in

[20:58]Sunni sources than it is found in sh sources and similarly when

[21:04]it comes to several other formative parts of Islamic belief it's not

[21:09]because it didn't exist within the sh tradition those 12 imams you

[21:13]will not find any accurate list of them with any group but

[21:20]those who follow the line of the 12 IMS from but that

[21:25]number 12 was something that was focused on outside of this imami

[21:29]line first why because they had lost their access to the prophet

[21:36]and to the H of Allah and so they began to cling

[21:39]to a Hadith sooner within the sh tradition they knew who their

[21:47]IM was they knew who they would go to ask questions so

[21:50]it wasn't as important to them to know how many imams there

[21:56]are going to be it wasn't it was an important question but

[21:59]it wasn't the most important question it wasn't front and center in

[22:04]their minds because they knew that IM ja sad was their IM

[22:08]and that after him he would make the arrangements for the IM

[22:11]the source of guidance who was to succeed him and every Imam

[22:15]would fulfill that obligation by Allah the IM will tell us which

[22:21]of them is going to lead the uprising against the oppressive governments

[22:24]and how that Uprising is going to take place and every IM

[22:26]will tell us who the next is and they will tell us

[22:31]when the line of Imam is going to come to an end

[22:34]so the importance of that question it didn't become as clear to

[22:39]the Shi Community as early as it did in the non-sh community

[22:42]that didn't have that direct connection so they began to wonder well

[22:46]how many uh imams are there going to be and so they

[22:50]started to look at those Hadith of the prophet and give them

[22:52]a greater degree of prominence some people misunderstand that and they think

[22:56]that the sh borrowed the concept OFA or they borrowed the concept

[23:02]of 12 imams or they borrowed the concept of the Mahi from

[23:06]a non origin and the reason I mention it is because it's

[23:11]not that it was borrowed it is the case that it was

[23:15]given a certain prominence outside of sh circles because people had a

[23:22]need for it at an earlier time the shis had ready access

[23:24]to the imams and so those questions were there but they were

[23:28]answered on an ongoing basis with the imams as long as I

[23:33]know that my IM is present and I have ready access to

[23:36]him I don't have that motivation to write down and Preserve theith

[23:39]in the same way as I have that motivation when I know

[23:44]that I will not have ready access to the IM because I

[23:46]live in a different city and the IM lives in a different

[23:49]city if I forget the wording I can't just go down the

[23:50]street and ask I'm going to have to rely on my memory

[23:54]or I'm going to have to make sure that I have it

[23:57]written down somewhere so the Shi Community was raised by the Imam

[24:06]by the by the succession of the imams to have certain red

[24:12]lines certain priorities and then certain things that are not a first

[24:18]order of priority and that is where the question what would the

[24:22]IM do how would the IM interact with social media how would

[24:28]the IM interact with political institutions that we have in our time

[24:33]they become important there are certain red lines that Muslims will never

[24:38]cross the ends do not justify the means in Islam we do

[24:40]not want to model our Behavior we do not want to model

[24:46]our public presence we do not want to model our usage of

[24:53]social media on something that is in contravention and not in accordance

[24:57]with the red lines of Islam but within those red lines there

[25:00]is going to be a great deal of diversity of perspective and

[25:05]opinion and change that will come in different Generations in different economic

[25:11]groups in different class class uh groups within the Muslim Community we

[25:16]have to know those red lines of Islam in order to make

[25:21]sure that we don't deviate from the right path we also equally

[25:27]have to know what type of diversity we need to have and

[25:33]we need to develop in order to make sure that we don't

[25:36]close that importance of having questions that we will take to the

[25:43]IM let me repeat that with different words because it's a very

[25:49]important point if we don't understand the clear guidance and the red

[25:53]lines of Islam then we might deviate from the path of we

[25:57]might lose sense of the importance of honoring carala for example we

[26:04]might lose sense of the importance of worship and the specific types

[26:08]of worship that have become an obligation for the Muslim Community in

[26:10]the way that they were taught by the prophet and taught by

[26:15]the imams so if we don't have access to those clear guidance

[26:18]then we might lose sight of that and then that will be

[26:20]deviation but if we consider all questions to be resolved and we

[26:30]don't keep open that space for difference of opinion and diversity then

[26:35]we might still be Muslims in name and in identity but we

[26:40]will have no room through which we are going to try to

[26:45]ask for guidance from the IM because we have simplified all of

[26:50]those difficult questions we will not grow as a community and we

[26:56]will not truly be able to say that we are waiting for

[26:58]the IM now there are three topics with regard to social media

[27:03]that I wanted to look at but before I do that a

[27:04]couple questions with regard to uh some of those aspects of uncertainty

[27:13]that we should maintain how many of you have heard the story

[27:18]of anybody remember that name you've heard the story all right let

[27:25]me see how many other hands there are so one person two

[27:34]two people three all right so we have about five people for

[27:37]example under five now the reason I say that is because I'm

[27:39]going to ask one of you to tell me the story and

[27:41]if it's the same story when you hear the story a whole

[27:46]bunch of other hands are going to go up so uh would

[27:48]you like to tell me what you remember I think I think

[27:52]it's a story of the person who goes to uh the imom

[27:57]and asks him to then the tells him to go into this

[28:03]oven yeah so you're referring to the right story is that what

[28:06]you had in mind as well one of the sisters all right

[28:09]so how many of you have heard this story now a person

[28:11]comes to IM ja Froman and says that why will you not

[28:20]rise up you have 100,000 Shia inasan and the Imam says well

[28:23]may Allah preserve your right uh why don't you step into this

[28:28]uh this oven he first told his servant to to warm up

[28:31]an oven and the thinks the IM has been offended and he

[28:37]says that uh please forgive me my mistake and says that uh

[28:41]no problem and he continued to talk and then somebody came in

[28:46]har Ali and the Imam says uh why don't you put down

[28:48]your shoes and walk into the oven and so as he walked

[28:51]in he had his shoes in his hand he put down his

[28:54]shoes without saying another word he walked into the oven and the

[28:58]IM continued to talk to the fun and after a while the

[29:01]IM said that how many Shia do we have like this out

[29:05]of those 100,000 and Sass said none and the IM said if

[29:09]I had five then I would have risen up now how many

[29:14]of you heard that story all right and in it's a majority

[29:16]of the audience and most of us have probably heard that story

[29:21]in the sense of this being something that defines our relationship with

[29:25]an IM or with the IM of our time correct now what

[29:31]if I told you that that story is not found in any

[29:35]of our primary sources of literature or Hadith and we don't really

[29:44]know who har Ali is who was supposed to be uh the

[29:51]one in a million companion of IM ja sad and is also

[29:53]well maybe we have certain suspicions that it could be one person

[29:55]or another but not uh not very clear now out of those

[30:01]of you who have heard the story how many of you have

[30:05]heard that all right one person right so we have stories that

[30:12]are told that are meaningful and I don't want to say that

[30:15]the story is false that's not my point there are many aspects

[30:19]of the teachings and the lives of the imams that we can't

[30:26]always document fully we take the totality of those teachings we take

[30:32]the totality of those and we are able to document them more

[30:35]completely just as an example an individual part of The Bravery or

[30:41]the generosity of IM Ali might not be documented very strongly in

[30:45]history but it is clear that if you take the life of

[30:46]IM Ali even if I can't prove to you a specific Act

[30:50]of Bravery in the Battle of it's clear that IM Ali was

[30:56]known for his bravery the even if some of the are weak

[30:58]The Poetry of that time even if not all of that poetry

[31:02]is fully documented the history and many other evidence can aspects of

[31:07]evidence can be Marshall to prove that IM Ali was very brave

[31:11]to prove the generosity of the Im so similarly when it comes

[31:13]to the teachings of the imams my point is not to say

[31:17]that the story is fake that's not my point my point is

[31:19]to say that in some cases the basis of our relationship or

[31:27]our thinking about the IM is some which is not actually meant

[31:33]to be the basis of our relationship with the IM the very

[31:37]fact that we don't know who har Al Maki was the very

[31:43]fact that the IM had many companions but this story is not

[31:46]found in those primary sources it doesn't tell us that the story

[31:51]is fake or that it is made up but it does tell

[31:52]us that the primary expectation that the IM had of his followers

[32:01]was not this the primary way the Imam taught and trained his

[32:05]followers was something else and so that is something that we should

[32:09]try to spend more time on every time there is a talk

[32:13]on the 12th Imam people will remember this story and we will

[32:18]say that well we are not among those people who will wander

[32:21]into that oven without any questions but maybe the IM does not

[32:24]want everybody to develop those attributes right now IM ja and our

[32:34]other imams did not make that expectation of their followers at that

[32:38]time let me give you another example all of us have heard

[32:41]of the number 33 right that there is going to be 313

[32:47]followers of the 12th IM when he arises in mecah and he's

[32:53]going to uh they're going to be the closest of his followers

[32:55]to him right the majority of a Hadith that we have about

[33:01]the 313 and yes uh sisters I think some of you may

[33:02]have heard that a few of them are or several of them

[33:06]are going to be women as well uh the majority of theith

[33:11]about the 313 do not mention any women but they also do

[33:17]not mention that those 313 are necessarily the best of the community

[33:21]or the closest of the people to the Imam they are going

[33:26]to be uh in the words of oneith and the rulers the

[33:33]governors the commanders of the im's army and so if it ends

[33:35]up being the case that none of them are women it doesn't

[33:40]mean that out of the 313 closest people to the IM none

[33:44]of them are women it just means that out of the military

[33:47]commanders or the generals uh that the IM is going to appoint

[33:51]none of them are going to be women there are other Hadith

[33:53]as well my point is not to say whether the 50 odd

[33:56]that are meant that are said in some narrations to be women

[33:58]is accurate or not my point though is that the way that

[34:01]many sh think of that 313 is completely contrary to the actual

[34:08]Heritage of the teachings of we think that if the IM had

[34:13]313 then he would have appeared and the reason why the Imam

[34:16]is still in occultation is because he does not have 313 followers

[34:19]and he never had 33 followers in history the IM might have

[34:24]had 5,000 followers at one point in history but circumstances were not

[34:26]right for the IM to rise and so Allah did not give

[34:30]him the command to rise it's not that he was always waiting

[34:32]for just 313 it very well might be the case that he

[34:36]had 5,000 women who were ready to serve him let alone however

[34:39]many or however few men there might have been but the IM

[34:42]was not given the command because circumstances were not ready as the

[34:45]brother also indicated there are other circumstances that are important so 313

[34:48]is mentioned in a Hadith it is an important number in oneith

[34:53]of he says that that those who are going to leave their

[35:02]beds in the dead of night and who are going to join

[35:06]the IM in Mecca they are going to be 313 but there

[35:10]very well might be people who are told to stay in their

[35:14]beds and wake up the next morning and be representatives of the

[35:17]Imam in their own cities in their own towns they may have

[35:19]a higher rank or a higher position now why am I emphasizing

[35:25]these stories and these the the proper understand of these numbers just

[35:28]to give us an indication that when we want to think about

[35:36]what the IM wants of us when we want to understand what

[35:39]our relationship to the IM is to be like we shouldn't simply

[35:42]romanticize the picture and think that it's about blind following blind obedience

[35:51]that it is about being one of those 313 who are going

[35:55]to go to bed and then uh their families will come into

[35:59]their bedroom the next morning and they'll find that they're not there

[36:02]and by Miracle they will have reached mecah that is a great

[36:06]honor the basis of our foundation of the foundation the basis of

[36:09]our relationship with the IM is going to be our submission to

[36:15]the IM exactly as the sister said on the beginning that we

[36:17]have a list of questions a list of things that are unclear

[36:23]to us that we need guidance on that we study that we

[36:28]make Dua that we pray for Allah to guide us so that

[36:33]and this is also another point that I want to make that

[36:36]is very important when Allah shows us that guidance we will be

[36:41]able to appreciate it because Allah does not guide people by sending

[36:45]the 12th IM to them in a vision or in a dream

[36:48]in a vast majority of circumstances for many many reasons the guidance

[36:53]that Allah gives is that a person a fellow believer a scholar

[36:57]might come and might say something that is the answer to our

[36:59]question we might open the Quran and a verse will be there

[37:03]that is the answer to our question Allah might put a book

[37:06]or uh some other resource at our disposal not through our own

[37:10]planning that has the solution to our problems there might be a

[37:16]circumstance in our life that will be the solution to our problems

[37:17]that is the way that the IM operates and provides guidance to

[37:23]people in the words of a Hadith like the sun behind clouds

[37:24]invisible but still there still guiding still providing that benefit but the

[37:30]thing is that if we don't have that question mark If we

[37:35]don't have that sense of Dua that sense of Need for guidance

[37:39]even if it is there we will not know it we will

[37:43]not appreciate it we will not recognize it so when it comes

[37:46]to the 12th IM when it comes to what would the IM

[37:49]do or what would the IM say or what would the Imam

[37:51]want we have to begin by removing and peeling away many of

[37:57]the assumptions that we have even some of the things that we

[37:58]have read even some of the things that we have heard in

[38:04]lectures and speeches and return to that sense of humility return to

[38:08]that sense that we need to constantly be trying to approach the

[38:12]Quran approach the lives of the teachings of to gain greater knowledge

[38:17]and greater Insight now having had that long introduction not just to

[38:24]the im's approach to social media but any other type of question

[38:27]that we might have about the IM what are some more specific

[38:29]things that come to to the issue of social media the first

[38:35]thing that I want to mention and this is something which is

[38:40]somewhat difficult for uh us to really fully appreciate within Western society

[38:48]which is based on individualism which is based on the idea that

[38:54]life liberty and the pursuit of happiness is Noble goal is that

[39:03]we want to remove the narcissism and the the centrality of the

[39:10]ego from our lives that is difficult to do when we have

[39:15]a very active presence on social media because to a large extent

[39:22]that is about creating a presence for us and it can often

[39:29]blind us to the fact that we are not that important in

[39:34]Islam we have never been taught that you should pursue happiness in

[39:40]fact happiness is not one of those Concepts that is mentioned as

[39:44]a benefit of Im so we have that when you mention God

[39:53]when you remember God your heart will achieve Tranquility but we don't

[39:57]have we have is something that is mentioned is something that you

[40:01]should try to give other people I should try to make you

[40:03]happy but it's not a goal that I should pursue for myself

[40:08]the importance of serving the self of getting my name out there

[40:15]of being recognized of making a statement of having an opinion of

[40:20]having my opinion count or having my name be known is something

[40:27]that can be encouraged by our public presence including our presence on

[40:33]social media and it can blind us to the fact that in

[40:35]Islam our primary and our operative PRI goal is to fulfill Our

[40:44]obligation and that is why throughout Islamic history young people of course

[40:50]is one of the most beautiful examples of this but not the

[40:53]only example within Islamic history young people would very willingly go forth

[41:00]to martyrdom because they knew that they don't have to have accomplished

[41:04]something in life they don't need to have a hospital to their

[41:08]name or a wing of a university some major Act of philanthropy

[41:11]some major Discovery published articles or anything like that to their name

[41:17]in order to have affected the spiritual progression of humanity and even

[41:22]their martyrdom doesn't need to be a martyrdom that comes with a

[41:26]great Act of heroism you know when we have uh soldiers who

[41:28]die in most countries including in this country then there is an

[41:32]immediate uh desire to create a narrative of heroism that it was

[41:39]always trying to save somebody else it was always trying to uh

[41:42]to do something that was going to change the course of a

[41:47]of a battle and that person died but for a Muslim Soldier

[41:49]if they achieve martyrdom cuz a bomb hit them when they were

[41:54]in the the Army kitchen peeling potatoes that is as great an

[41:57]AC of heroism as they need and there will be no regret

[41:59]for it because the perspective is different what defines heroism and what

[42:02]defines what a person is about so we have to be very

[42:07]careful when we have a public presence and this applies to social

[42:10]media but it applies more broadly to our life in America as

[42:15]Muslims uh in general we have to make sure that we don't

[42:18]fall into the self-centeredness and the narcissism that naturally comes from always

[42:25]having uh our name out there what that does is it makes

[42:32]us more reluctant to sacrifice our reputation our name and uh some

[42:37]things that are dear to us that are dear to people in

[42:38]this culture for the sake of truly affecting or connecting with the

[42:45]spiritual River of guidance that is the path of so one issue

[42:52]that we have to be aware of is that issue of the

[42:57]importance of one's name one's recognition within Islamic tradition people who had

[43:04]wealth would consider it an honor to go and give that wealth

[43:07]to somebody who had Insight or who had knowledge and tell them

[43:11]you spend it and they would consider it an honor that that

[43:17]scholar or that person of insight would spend the money under their

[43:23]own name because they are the ones who have a greater claim

[43:26]to the heritage of the Prophet that was the culture of philanthropy

[43:29]within the Islamic world it's very different from the culture of philanthropy

[43:33]that we find uh in the west and sometimes unfortunately even in

[43:37]Muslim communities in the west the other aspect that I wanted to

[43:43]mention is the issue of putting everything out there it might seem

[43:53]like it is an act of sincerity and uh a lack of

[44:00]hypocrisy for me to only have one face but as Muslims there

[44:03]is a very great importance on us having a level of privacy

[44:12]not because that privacy is a different life from our public face

[44:19]that we don't have a private life and a public life in

[44:24]Islam but because we want to mold our life in terms of

[44:31]our aspirations what is most important about me and what should be

[44:36]most important to each and every one of us as Muslims is

[44:38]not where I am right now for me to express myself in

[44:43]poetry and art and the way I dress and the way I

[44:46]talk and all of those things what is most important about me

[44:51]is not where I am right now but it is the path

[44:54]that I'm trying to Traverse and where I want want to go

[44:58]and sometimes expressing certain things in a certain way about where I

[45:01]am right now will make it more difficult for me or will

[45:05]make it impossible for me to continue on a particular path so

[45:09]in deciding what to expose or what to express and what not

[45:12]to it is not to be hypocritical for me to say that

[45:17]no I'm not going to uh Express all of my thoughts or

[45:21]all of my opinions or all of the things that I may

[45:22]have done good or bad in the past but it is an

[45:26]Act of Greater sincerity and greater Devotion to a particular path many

[45:32]people do not understand the concept of many people do not understand

[45:36]why in Islam parents will tell you or we are told that

[45:40]you cannot just uh mention events that may have happened in your

[45:43]life if they don't fit in with the Islamic ideals many people

[45:48]say that well are you telling me to be tw- faced if

[45:52]a sister for example did not used to do hijab and now

[45:54]begins to do hijab is it something uh wrong to say that

[46:00]she should try to remove any presence that she has uh or

[46:02]any pictures that people might have of her without hijab to the

[46:08]extent possible similarly if many of us have turned a new Leaf

[46:10]in our lives we have stop doing certain things that we used

[46:16]to do that might seem to be hypocritical or it may seem

[46:20]to be artificial but it is artificial only if we are prioritizing

[46:25]the now and not prioritizing a path or a Direction so one

[46:30]thing that is important is uh so first we started with the

[46:37]ego and that should not be Central number two within our lives

[46:41]the path that we are trying to follow should be our first

[46:46]concern there are certain Islamic laws that tie into this number one

[46:54]there are secrets that we are to keep and not to uh

[46:58]spread to everybody that we meet the Quran says that whatever you

[47:04]might think of the false gods and the idols that people worship

[47:09]and in Islam we have no respect for those false gods and

[47:12]for those Idols the Quran itself says that they don't benefit you

[47:16]or harm you but if they were to do anything it's more

[47:17]likely that they're going to harm you they're going to benefit you

[47:21]because they can fall on your foot and cause you injury but

[47:23]they can't provide any benefit to you that's not the only reason

[47:25]but their harm is more likely to come to you than their

[47:30]benefit yet the Quran itself says that don't insult those same false

[47:34]meaningless gods in front of people who might then insult Believers or

[47:39]insult god without knowledge or out of ignorance so there is a

[47:45]level of uh concealment that is good people don't understand people don't

[47:53]understand or concealment when when they don't understand living a life with

[48:02]a purpose but if I have a friend and I value that

[48:05]friend then I implicitly also understand that there are certain things that

[48:10]I am not going to express right if some personal tragedy takes

[48:15]place in my life when my friend may have just gotten a

[48:19]new job or a new promotion I might not immediately express it

[48:23]to that person because I want them to be able to enjoy

[48:24]their moment right we implicitly understand it when we have a certain

[48:28]goal or a certain purpose in mind the goal and the purpose

[48:33]of Islam the goal and the purpose of our life within Islam

[48:36]is to be able to serve the cause of Truth and Justice

[48:42]by our practice and even if our practice is sometimes lacking or

[48:49]is uh deficient than by the ideals that we represent we want

[48:54]to create a society where I might not not wear perfect hijab

[48:57]but I encourage other people to consider hijab to be important I

[49:02]might not always pray on time but I'm not making it easier

[49:05]for other people to delay their prayers I'm helping other people pray

[49:11]on time I might not always have the greatest level of practice

[49:15]but that is the direction that I am moving in within my

[49:17]life and that is the direction that I am moving in within

[49:21]my family and my circle of influence that requires a certain amount

[49:27]of concealment of certain things and that is not hypocrisy third point

[49:32]that I want to make is that in Islam our reputation does

[49:36]not belong to us it is a Divine trust we cannot do

[49:41]to our bodies what we may wish because our bodies do not

[49:44]belong to us if we have children we cannot do to our

[49:48]children what we may wish we cannot raise them however we want

[49:50]because they do not belong to us they have been entrusted to

[49:55]us the same thing applies to our wealth the same thing applies

[49:59]to our reputation because it is a trust there may be certain

[50:04]times where we have an obligation to make sure that our reputation

[50:09]is honored or is respected even if we have no personal benefit

[50:15]or Reason to do so and this is an incident that I

[50:19]mentioned yesterday in my and I want to mention it here because

[50:23]it's relevant also to how we Preserve our reputation in social media

[50:29]it gives us many lessons the incident is from the lifetime of

[50:37]IM Ali IM Ali was known for being very generous with his

[50:42]wealth because of his generosity and the Simplicity of his own life

[50:46]he was also sometimes thought to be poor when people thought IM

[50:54]Ali was poor what they were also saying is he to use

[50:57]modern language he doesn't know what it's like to be the CEO

[51:01]of a company so if you can see parallels perhaps with say

[51:04]Mitt Romney versus Obama that I've run the Olympics I've run large

[51:08]corporations and what would he have known uh that exists in politics

[51:14]at all times it existed in the time of IM Ali himself

[51:15]he's a poor person he doesn't know how to run the Islamic

[51:18]empire he doesn't know how to command the Muslim armies if he

[51:25]saw 10,000 dirhams at once he might not really know how to

[51:32]invest it wisely and two of the uh prominent Companions of the

[51:38]Prophet they were especially involved in saying about IMI that he doesn't

[51:43]really know he doesn't have a lot of wealth and so what

[51:46]im Ali did in response to that is very interesting it's counterintuitive

[51:50]we would think that IM would say well if you don't think

[51:52]that I have wealth then to hell with you what does it

[51:56]matter to me but but IM Ali did not respond to in

[51:57]that way because he recognized that it's not just a matter of

[52:02]them thinking something about him as an individual but it also means

[52:07]that they can use that as propaganda in order to turn people

[52:10]away from following Imam Ali they'll say that what has he ever

[52:13]managed what has he ever governed the IM also knew that it

[52:19]would take away certain opportunities for service of Allah that it is

[52:24]an obligation for him to be able to form for the Muslim

[52:27]Community when the time arises what im did is he told his

[52:31]agents and he had property in different parts of hij and in

[52:35]different parts of the Islamic world that don't uh don't give the

[52:38]the same charity that I had commanded you to give until now

[52:44]gather together the produce that comes from my agricultural lands and other

[52:48]lands sell the produce and bring the cash to me in Medina

[52:50]and then the IM had that cash that those coins stored in

[52:56]the same Storehouse that he used for his household uh food where

[53:00]he would keep his dates it said that by the end of

[53:05]the year by harvest season 100,000 Dirhams had been gathered in the

[53:09]im's presence and then he invited some of the the senior and

[53:12]including and Zu to his house and he told his servant that

[53:17]when they come I'll ask you to bring some dates so go

[53:19]to that Storehouse and uh act as if you've uh you there's

[53:26]so many coins there that it's botheration to you kick them around

[53:29]and say that you know I can't really find any dates there's

[53:34]so much money and so the servant of the IM did that

[53:36]and and Zu heard that and heard his expressions and then they

[53:43]said to the IM what's going on and the replied this is

[53:46]the wealth of a person whom you said he doesn't have any

[53:50]wealth now when they left the IM immediately said to his servant

[53:53]that now go and give the the the charity to those people

[53:58]that I had been asking you to give it to until today

[54:00]this was simply something that was to fulfill a particular purpose to

[54:05]regain the reputation that unjustly and falsely people wanted to take away

[54:14]from the IM IM Hassan was once accused of being poor and

[54:16]the Hadith of our sixth IM says that IM Hassan borrowed a

[54:19]thousand Dirhams borrowed a th Dirhams and sent it to the person

[54:24]who used to collect zakat and and said I'm giving this as

[54:26]zakat of my wealth and then that person spread it out to

[54:31]his family it spread along the gra Vine in Medina that if

[54:33]the Imam is giving a thousand Dirhams in Sak that he must

[54:37]have tens of thousands of Durham of wealth but the IM had

[54:39]borrowed it to give the Sak in order to make sure that

[54:44]his reputation was preserved so the reason why the imams did these

[54:47]types of things is because they knew that their reputation is not

[54:50]about I don't want people to think that I can't afford to

[54:53]drive a nice car I don't want people to think that can't

[54:55]afford a nice house but their reputation their good name the recognition

[55:01]of their competence the recognition of their knowledge is something which is

[55:06]going to allow them to fulfill the role that Allah subhanahu wa

[55:10]taala wanted them to fulfill if they didn't preserve their reputation even

[55:14]sometimes through Extreme Measures like this they would not be able to

[55:18]fulfill that role so I've gone a little bit beyond my aot

[55:24]of time but these issues will all ow us to be able

[55:27]to have a more constructive presence on social media we have a

[55:32]goal in our life we're not just expressing who we are and

[55:35]where we stand right now there are certain things that we should

[55:37]conceal we have an honor to preserve our reputation and we have

[55:44]to make sure that we don't think of our our reputation as

[55:51]something that is up to us or that is not our concern

[55:55]it's not a matter that of being up to us and it's

[55:56]not something that we can say is not our concern it is

[56:00]our concern and it is an obligation that we have to make

[56:03]sure that we are fulfilling before Allah subhanahu wa tala with that

[56:07]we can uh use the remaining time for any observations or any

[56:11]questions that you may have

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