Where Do We Draw the Line on Bidah

0:00This audio is brought to you by Muslim Central. And so the mohlet is being debated and celebrated and hashed out online to celebrate or not celebrate. That is the question. Both groups want to make sure that an evil innovation does not take place. Much of the evidences that both sides are using are exactly the same. Roma radiallahu anzad, what a good bidah this is. Those that say the mohlet is a bidah, the same group constantly does zero conferences on the same day. They man with the haram gave the Khudba moly this a bidah. That same Imam himself does two things regularly. The people think it is a part of Islam and they don't call that a bidah. What are those two things? Bismillahi min Allah l-hamdulillah. Wa s-salatu wa s-salamu ala s-seidna Muhammad wa ala'alihi wa s-sahbi a-jma'in. Amma bada'a, wa m-hamdulillah, welcome back to our new semester of Lighthouse after a hiatus for the summer. And it just so happens that today is the day of the 12th of the year. And so the mohlet is being debated and celebrated and hashed out online on the internet.

1:04And so we were already talking about sectarianism right before the break. Therefore it's the perfect topic to continue academically with the spiritual side as well because that is really the goal of our class. Now as usual, I will have to bore you with some academic philosophical tangents that are necessary for us to understand. Let us begin with the concept of motivated reasoning. How boring, but understand it. Most people assume that they discover truths after going through arguments and reasoning, after studying evidence. You think that and most of us think it as well. I'm a neutral person and I will assess both sides of an argument and then I will decide based upon which argument is more academically sound, more intellectually rigorous.

2:05Psychiatrists, psychologists and anthropologists have debunked this myth for many, many, many decades. That's not the case at all. And as I've explained to you multiple times, we're all human, we're all biased. The least biased is the one who knows their biases. So then how do you form your conclusions? Motivated reasoning, that is the key idea today. And we will get to them, hold it, believe it or not. What is motivated reasoning? Motivated reasoning was first proposed by a psychologist by the name of Ziva Kunda, KUNDA, almost 40 years ago, 50 years ago. And he reasoned that or he discovered with his experiments and whatnot that people actually already have preconceived notions. And deep down inside, they intuitively or emotionally already lean towards one argument over the other.

3:05And then when they are presented the actual evidence, the arguments, the emotional reasoning actually plays a bigger role in figuring out right from wrong than the actual academic argument. And this notion has been proven time and time again and it is something that is well documented to the point of it being a fact now. This is a undisputed fact when it comes to psychology. And one of the modern big names in psychology and psychiatry, one of the big intellectual giants, I've already quoted him two or three lectures ago when we're talking about biases, is somebody by the name of Jonathan Height, H-I-D-T, H-A-I-D-T. And he's written a number of books on this, including his book called The Righteous Mind, The Righteous Mind. And in that book he describes the notion of reasoning, he says, a writer put on an elephant. The elephant is going to go wherever the elephant wants and eventually the writer is going to justify, I was the one that pushed the elephant this way.

4:11Elephant is emotion, elephant is a preconceived notion. You think you're in charge sitting on the elephant, you think you are, but the reality is there are forces beyond your actual control. And he also has an academic journal which he first proposed this 30 years ago, 25 years ago, and the title of the journal is, the title of the article is, the emotional dog and its rational tale, the emotional dog and its rational tale. The dog is going around thinking that the tale is rational in reality, it is emotional. Now what is the whole point over here? Listen to me carefully. Today and for the last week, great people around the world have been arguing two contradictory positions, and the people that are listening to those arguments are in awe of those arguments. They're clapping metaphorically, they're agreeing and acquiescing, and these clips are going viral on X on Facebook, on Instagram.

5:13The shiuch of both sides are making their arguments, and every time the group hears their shikh in their minds, this is a done deal. Why can't the other side see this? It's so obvious. And on the other side, you have just as sincere, and here's the point, just as intelligent. Not as if one side is foolish, the other side has, no, actually there's a particular psychiatrist. He actually did IQ tests before he did the psychiatry test, and he discovered ironically the smarter you are, the more assertive you are that your opinion is right, that you've already knew was right. I.e. the smarter you are, doesn't mean your opinion is more correct. The smarter you are, the more arguments you can extrapolate for the opinion you've already held. That's the only thing that intelligence does by and large, right? That's a bit dismal. That doesn't mean it's beyond hope. It simply means that people, and this is the default for all of us, we form most of our opinions, not everyone, that's the whole point here.

6:14Most of our opinions from factors beyond the weight of the arguments that are presented. What are those factors? Well, upbringing is one of the biggest factors. What your parents teach you, your family, your culture, your religion, your group, your identity, your personal inclinations, your personal experiences. If you had an experience that shapes your idea about something, then everything you read after that will automatically support your own personal experience by and large, unless you will fully break away from it. And of course, one of the most problematic of all is group think and appeal to authority. Which share do you trust? And which group do you identify with? So if you identify with one group, you're emotionally connected to one group, everything that comes from the mouth of those whom you look up to, it's like God-given gospel. It's like there's no way this can possibly be wrong. The arguments are crystal clear because you have an emotional attachment with your preacher, with your teacher, with the share, with the group you're with.

7:20Because you've experienced, listen to me carefully, spiritual ecstasy in the presence of that group. You've experienced genuine iman being with that group of people. And so when you experience that, your personal experiences will automatically shape everything that comes from that group to be, oh, that must be correct. Because your intuition is telling you this group is right. So it's not really about the arguments anymore. Why do I say this? Because I am being very clear from the beginning of this class. Those who are either attending from the beginning, I have never shied away from being blatant about my agenda. What is my agenda? My agenda is that you don't be a card carrying member of a small slither of the Ummah. That you don't be somebody who is dogmatic, that is narrow-minded. My agenda, because here's the point, in all likelihood, some of what I've said also applies to us right now. In all likelihood, some of you are already convinced by what I am saying because of the emotional attachment.

8:26And that is a reality that we, it's a circularity that you can't get away from. Just because you can't get away from it doesn't mean you're doomed. I'm telling you to try your best to minimize the bias, that's it. So what is my goal? My goal explicitly is to broaden the umbrella of acceptance, to widen the scope of tolerance as much as possible. That is my goal. I've been very clear about this from the beginning. I do not subscribe to a narrow interpretation. And today's class will therefore be a manifestation of the very biases I'm telling you, which is I'm not going to take sides today and I don't want you to take sides and I want you to respect main stream scholarship on both sides. In order to do that, what I will teach you today is going to be coming from my paradigm because that's who I am. Right? All across the world, this paradigm is not that common because it's either this or that.

9:28And that's not me and that's not what I want my students to be. I want you to rise above petty narrow mightedness above bigoted intolerance. And even if you take one group as the one you're more attached to, do not look down at the other group. Do not feel yourself superior to the other group. That is my philosophy. And that's what I've been teaching you from the very beginning. And I've said this bluntly, if you don't like that philosophy, well, lie, no problem. You're not going to find any of which back from me because that would go against my own preaching of tolerance, wouldn't it? Right? I have no problems with you saying, you know what? Disguise, whatever you want to use adjectives that the critics use, liberal, celau, whatever, Allah has no problem. Go find your group and be happy with them. Allah bless you. Because I don't want to preach hatred of other people that are lowering the heads to Allah, that are demonstrating love of the messenger of Allah. Uhudu Billah, that's not me. So if others have their views, good for them, if you agree with overall dissentiment, or if you think that, and again, this is the circularity because how certain can you be that you're logic,

10:28your rationality, your reasoning is what is leading you in the end of the day? You can try, but in the end, there's always going to be a combination of your emotions, your upbringing, your culture, your personal biases. And yes, a little bit of argumentation and logic and reasoning as well. And then the most important, which I always tell you, make dua to Allah. The most important, raise your hands to Allah, ihi din al-Saraat al-Mustakhim. So I say this because to celebrate or not celebrate, that is the question, right? Actually, no, it's not. It's not the question. And the whole mushrooming of this controversy to the level that has become is itself something we should question. Why the big deal? Why the animosity? Why the hatred on both sides? And it goes back to our previous lecture, of course, we're taking a break here, but for those of you that attended, remember, I went over the narcissism of small differences, right? Remember, I went over group think, identity, politics, remember, right?

11:30And these two groups are so, so, so close to one another, that the biggest threat comes from that proximity. These two groups look up to the same giants in Hadith, in Tafsir, in Firk, in Luhah, the languages that they study, the, sorry, the books that they study. If you go to the library of one of their shaykhs versus the other shaykh, 90% of the books will be the same. 90% if not more. Only in some aspects of theology, one group will have more Ibn Taymiyah, one group will have more Ghazali, that's about it. Otherwise, the books of Hadith are the same, the books of Luhah are the same, the books of Tafsir are the same, the books of everything are the same. So because these groups are too so close, so then inverse proportionality in terms of negation, in terms of exacerbating the differences, right? Because they're intermixed with us, they pray with us, right? So the problem then comes, we need to keep into account all of our biases, and here's the irony of ironies.

12:32If you were to withdraw yourself from both of these camps and try to be neutral, you could only try in the end of the day, you would actually be shocked to find that much of the evidences that both sides are using are exactly the same, the same incidents from the Sahaba, the same Athar, each one of them is using it, and in their perspective, clear-cut, open-shot QED, and the other side is like, what are you talking about? Clear-cut, open-shot QD, it's like, you know, the famous cartoon of the number six, one person is looking at it from one perspective, it's clearly a six, but when you go to the other side, that six becomes a nine, and the other guy is saying, no, it's a nine, and they're looking at the same thing, right? This is exactly how so many Muslims divide over the most petty of things. They're looking at the same evidence, and they cannot see that another person can take the exact same evidence and extrapolate different understandings from it, and my goal is to teach you

13:39to look at it as both perspectives, that's my goal. My goal is so that you literally become 3D, I call it, right? The 3D model, you break away from that never-minded one dimension, and you start thinking, why do you think this way? That's what I want you to think, why am I thinking this way? Why does the other person think differently? And in that, the goal then is humility and empathy for the other, that is the ultimate goal. Humility, that, hey, listen, I'm not the, I'm not the one who owns the truth, so handily, single handedly, I'm not the only controller of the truth. Humility, you have a version of what you think is the truth, and then empathy, the other guy thinks he is also upon the truth, I don't need to hate him for that, right? And again, obviously, there are clearly red lines, if you reject Allah, reject the messenger, we're not talking about that. We're not about mainstream Muslims, you guys, again, the critics automatically take everything I say and flood, floodgate argument, take it to the most extreme. No, as much as you can, that's my goal, as much as you can, expand the brotherhood and sister of the

14:42Ummah, as much as you can find excuse for people on all sides, as much as you can. Yes, there are red lines, those red lines we'll talk about as well in this series of classes. So, let us then begin with the commonalities. One of the things that you do, when you find differences amongst the Ummah, those differences are like branches, go back to the branch and find the root or the trunk that is combining the both of them. Every single difference of opinion, you will find a commonality. Let's begin with the commonality, okay? What is the commonality? Ironically, the commonality is crazily just, you know, eerily, you know, obvious, both groups want to preserve the purity of Islam and want to make sure that an evil innovation does not take place. Neither group says we want to practice Bidah. Neither group says this. Both groups say we want to preserve the purity of Islam and we want to make sure that what the Prophet ﷺ said in the famous Hadith,

15:44Kullu Bidah atin dalala, every Bidah is a misguidance, we want to make sure we don't do a Bidah that is misguidance. Believe it or not, both groups say this. That's the basic premise. No group is saying we want a reprehensible Bidah. No, they agree the religion of Islam should be protected in its pristine original form and we do not want to innovate into the reality of this religion. Both groups agree, okay? Then where does this disagreement occur? The disagreement occurs over the technical definition of the Bidah that is reprehensible. What defines a Bidah that is reprehensible. Everybody agrees a Bidah that is to the foundations of the Dine for example, to invent another prayer, for example to pray in the salah with musical instruments. For example, I mean any of these things, everybody would agree. This is a Bidah, the technical term. I don't want to get too technical today but just here and there, the technical term is Bidah haqqiyya.

16:47It is a through and through innovation into the foundations of the religion. No group of mainstream Islam allows Bidah haqqiyya. No group. No mainstream. Yes, you have groups that are French. We're not worried about them. Mainstream, the ones we're familiar with. No group is saying we want Bidah haqqiyya. We want to change the foundations with the religion. That's not what mainstream orthodoxy says. No group says this. So then where does the difference occur? The difference occurs. The technical term is Bidah haqqiyya. The technical term Bidah haqqiyya. What does Bidah haqqiyya mean? I'm going to translate it, not technically, just to get the gist across. And that is fine tuning a generically permissible basis and making it codified or regular or ritualistic. The basis is there, but you extrapolate from the basis and you add something that's fine tuning of it.

17:51That's not Bidah haqqiyya. You're not changing the foundation. The foundation here is loving the Prophet's son. Nobody's changing that. The foundation to love the Prophet's son. Everybody agrees, right? How do we love? What is the finer details of loving? So one group of scholars, one group of scholars says that as long as the goals of the Shariah are met, it is okay to fine tune. It is okay to bring about a little bit of a specific date, specific time, specific mechanism. As long as we acknowledge this is what we're doing to get to the end. Allah didn't tell us to do it, but it's okay to do that. The end goal we agree is permissible. Everybody agrees is permissible. And the other group says no, even in methodologies we should restrict ourselves to what is happening in the past. So the first group is people like Imam Ash-Sha'fari is very explicit in his Qatabur Risala, which is one of the first books ever written in Islam. Imam Ash-Sha'fari dies 204 Hijdi. That's really early. That's before Bukhadi by two generations. Imam Ash-Sha'fari is super

18:56early, right? 204 Hijdi. And Imam Ash-Sha'fari writes in his Qatabur Risala that there are two types of bidah. A bidah that is reprehensible and that is into the religion. And then a bidah that basically affirms the goals of the sharia and that bidah he says we don't call it a religious bidah. That bidah we call it a linguistic bidah because the word bidah in Arabic means something new. It's a neutral term. And Allah says in the Quran, Arabic I am not bringing something new from the prophets. Allah is telling the prophets as I'm going to say, tell the people, Arabic I'm not bidah from the prophets meaning I'm not bringing something new from the prophets. So the term bidah linguistically is neutral and it simply means innovative, the English term innovative and in fact modern Arabs in the technical field they use the term and mubda and bidah for innovative. So innovative technology the root bidah is used in

19:58Arabic believe it or not because it's positive you can use it positive. The sharia term bidah when it is done to the basis of the religion becomes negative. Now what is the examples that both sides use and by going over these examples hopefully you will understand that this is a legitimate difference of opinion and it really is both sides have elements of truth to them and when they do then calm down. Don't be angry at the other side. Don't demonize the other side even if you choose one side just live and let live just because your shiaq gets angry at the other side does mean you need to get angry at the other side just because one person a thousand years ago raised his fists and shouted at the other group doesn't mean you here in Dallas have to raise your fists and shouted at the other group you don't have to inherit the baggage of your forefathers you don't you don't have to inherit the anger and the problems of those that came a thousand years before times have changed and even if somebody got angry a hundred years ago or in you know colonial India two major groups

21:01fighting one another why should those two groups and their biological intellectual descendants fight it out in Dallas Texas it makes no sense to do so. So what are some of the main instances? Well let's begin from the very beginning let us begin from the very beginning literally a few months after the death of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in a certain battle many of the Koran of the heo faal died and as you're all aware the Koran had not been compiled in one particular musaf the Prophet sallam wrote the Koran when it came down he dictated the Koran every time it came down the Koran had not been written in one book Fatiha tenas it wasn't there so as you're all aware famous story Adith is in Bahadiyan Muslim every single book of Hadith has this one of the most iconic incidents in early Islam. Umar ab-nul khattab goes to Abu Bakr al-Salliq and says Ya Amir al-Mutminin or Khariq al-Sallallahu alayhi wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam you know that so many of the heo faal have died and I'm worried if more die we won't have the full Koran let's

22:07issue a Khmeri to compile the whole Koran beginning to end what did Abu Bakr say you should all know what he said how can I do something the Prophet sallam did not do and Umar said no wa l-lahi it is good to do it guys this tension is the same tension we're talking about today this tension between Abu Bakr and Umar al-Dillahu al-Humam is the same philosophy the same concept literally the same emotions it's not the same issue the same emotions both sides how can I do in the process and do it no no it is better to do we need to do this for the Ummah that difference of opinion has manifested itself in the last 1445 years over a myriad of issues including Mojda the nibi the emotions are exactly the same how can I do it when they didn't do it before me

23:10no no but this is better for the Ummah to do right and in this particular case we thank Allah Abu Bakr as-sa-dhiq realized we need to do this because if he hadn't done it what would be the situation then we thank Allah because the Quran was compiled for the first time now here's the point each side uses the same argument each side here's the it's the irony right again you have to be three you have to break away from each paradigm and put yourself in the shoes of the other the six and the nine put yourself in both shoes right each one is using the same thing but in the end of the day something was done that the processam did not do and the goal was the protection of the Quran how it was done changed and even that I was like I don't want to do it no I'm not kept on convincing him multiple things from the earliest of times we have a myriad of issues that the sahaba disagreed about in so many of these minutia in this regard and of them for example in by the way even

24:12at the time of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam we can find a bit of a a a a kernel of people doing things because the generic foundation is correct and how they do it is something they do I so the famous Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam when he said this now when he's alive now in his lifetime when he said I heard the footsteps of Bilal in jannah you all know the famous in isra al-Miraj I was in jannah and I heard his he had a unique footsteps I heard his footsteps so he called Bilal he said oh Bilal tell me there must be a reason why I haven't heard your foot I didn't hear anybody else's why did I hear your footsteps in jannah and what did Bilal say radya Allahu an Bilal said the only thing I can think of yara sullah every time I do will do what is he do what does he do guys praise to raka question who taught him how to do that did somebody tell him but is it wrong to pray to raka after every will do that's the whole point here right he's

25:19he did it and the processum like said that's why that's the that explains it so the goal of praying now he's connecting it to wudu the processum did not teach the sahaba every time you do wudu pray to raka that's not an established sonna from his mouth but because of this hadid it becomes an established sonna but who did it Bilal but the Allahu ta'ala anhu we also have the action of khobab ibn al-Arat and then action has now become the norm in Islamic cultures around the world khobab was captured by the khoraish in a in a evil trick that they did they lured out some of the sahaba and then they captured and then they executed all of them and executed them on the way and khobab was the only they took a prisoner and then they tortured and then they executed him outside of makkah and before they executed him they asked him do you have any last requests it was standard in the culture of all times you do this right in our culture the last request is a fancy meal whatever

26:23right khobab said yes i wish to pray to rakaat the narrator says that became the norm for everybody that knows he is about to be executed may Allah protect us from ever having to do that but that is the norm across the Muslim world if an Islamic government you know executes you legitimately for a crime you are literally offered the prayer you can pray to rakaat or across the world of uman it is well known when the scholars before they were executed across all of Islamic history if they knew there were two executed they would stand and they pray to rakaat as their last action before execution now this is an example of what we would technically later on call a bit ayat-bafiha why are you linking to rakaat to before you go where are you getting it from well the question the flip the flip end of the other side says what's wrong with it the goal is to come closer to Allah it's not me now it

27:24would be a bidah if somebody started doing some weird dances thinking Allah is going to reward him for that that would be bidah haqqiyya but the asal of praying that's foundational coming close to Allah that's foundational so to link it to something your imminent execution this is where the bidah ibn and we find it in the sahabah some of them did that here we also have so many other instances here for example ibn al-Radi allahu wa'an one of the most obvious ones the two juma'as that we give for for the two advance we give for juma'a the two advance we give for juma'a where did it come from the two advance that around the world is given ibn al-Radi allahu wa'an one day he was giving the Khudba so this is a story this interesting that sorry so in the in the Khilaf of Umar al-Radi allahu wa'an al-Radi was buying and selling in the market place and it was a good deal happening so he was buying and selling and so by the time the trade was finished he walked into the Khudba

28:25Umar al-Radi allahu wa'an Umar was so irritated al-Radi allahu wa'an you are supposed to be a role model you're coming late to the he interrupt to the Khudba he chastised him in front of everybody right how can you come late yeah ambir al-Mutminin i was busy with buying and selling what because of money even war like it's trying to make an excuse even worse you're not excused so as soon as earthman became khanefa what did he do he instituted a second adan adan can you get more ritualistic it's a ritual it's an adan and he instituted a second adan to be said so that the merchants can hear so that they can pack their stuff close shop do all the fit it and then come and do all do and come and pray okay that second adan were we getting it from the process never did it oh what can everybody oh what never did it earthman al-Radi allahu wa'anah saw a need the need people need to come for jama'a everybody agrees to that need so there's a mechanism to get to that that mechanism

29:25earthman al-Radi allah didn't find that problematic i need the people to come on time i can add a second adan right now but the point is if we were to open the door completely then you're going to have an entire so that's why i'm giving you examples that are relatively innocent in this regard and obviously perhaps one of the most iconic incidents that both sides use over and over and over again is the incident of umir al-Khatab al-Radi allahu wa'an when he began salat al-Tarawiyah salat al-Tarawiyah and why this is interesting is he used the word bidah this hadith is in bakhari it's bakhari muslim he used the word bidah and he said what a good bidah this is so this incident is used by both camps to prove their points how is that even possible again six and nine right those that say that there's something called good bidah for them the hadith is literally qed crystal clear how can

30:25you possibly misinterpret it so so if you don't know the incident so in the time of al-Bakar al-Sadi if there was no salat al-Tarawiyah in the first few months and years of the Khilaf al-Ahmad al-Alam there's no salat al-Tarawiyah first year or two and one day he came to the masjid and ram al-Bahan and he found everybody praying helter skelter one person here one person there somebody with two jama'a there and he's like why why's everybody praying helter skelter let us appoint an Imam and have a unified congregation and so he appointed obaiy bin qab to lead the salat that we now call tarawiyah and the next day he came and everybody was lined up in rows and obaiyah is reciting in his beautiful melodious voice and he became so happy he said near matil bidah tohadi he what a beautiful innovation this is technical sorry linguistic what a beautiful innovation this is now the group that says that you can fine tune they're like this is so obvious you just invented a new ritual sorry not

31:34a ritual but a fine tuning of the ritual not so the salat is the salat you're not inventing right but you are fine tuning it you're announcing people are gonna come you're appointing an Imam you're having tertib you're doing this and that and so everybody is coming and they would say this is exactly the mohlet because the goal is love of the Rasulullah s-a-Salam and how we get there let us come and sing some praises and remind ourselves of his sacrifices and his life and times what's wrong with that so the same instance they use for Omar and they say near matil bidah is the mohlet the same thing and the other camp they say you're missing the context from their perspective and that is it is narrated that the Prophet s-a-Llahu alayhi wa s-a-Lam in his lifetime the last year that he was alive that he was he would recite his tohajud in the masjid and in Ramadan because it's Ramadan a lot of people were prayed tohajud in the masjid so one day organically when he was reciting people began to just line behind him and they prayed samrakat behind him new spread that that's what happened

32:37they talked about it so the next day the masjid was almost packed and the processum allowed them then the third day the masjid was packed to maximum capacity and he did not come outside and he prayed at home then before Fajjid he went outside and he said I was worried that if I came you might think this is farad the pan you I just want to make sure you realize this is not farad the pan you so the other group says umar radi allahu'an did not institute a new ritual because the Prophet s-a-Lllahu did the kernel of it and the other response is that actually no he didn't because he didn't announce and he didn't organize and it was just his tohajud whereas umar of the allahu'an officially made it something that is done in the umar now I'm going to add here something that most people do not say I'm sympathetic to both paradigm simultaneously because they both have elements of truth because if you were to open the door of constantly changing and adding in what not then obviously over a few generations the base product will become unrecognizable the floodgate argument

33:38really does apply at some level even though I'm not a fan of the floodgate argument but sometimes you have to point out there's an element of truth with the floodgate argument if you keep on changing changing changing changing then within five ten twenty within fifty generations you would have completely forgotten the base which is why some tension is healthy we need it we need a bit of tension because the umar actually will benefit from both sides keeping the other in check that's why I'm sympathetic to both sides simultaneously right but I'm also going to say here that without a doubt you find extremists on both sides dogmatic fanatics on both sides and we need to avoid that so for example those that say the mohlet is a bidah and they make it a very very big deal even if you want to call it a bidah not every bidah is of the same levels and without a doubt celebrating the mohlet by reciting poems by mentioning the blessings of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam by sending salat and salam upon him even if you wanted to be the most technical of all

34:42technicals of the other school it would not constitute anything other than a very very very small and minor infraction because the same group constantly does sera conferences on the same day with the excuse we want people to go away from that mohlet and come to the sera conference okay what happens at the sera conference they mention the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam his sera this and that it's a bit more academic okay but in the end of the day you are doing something on that day the same group that says everything out like this is bidah before Ramadan aren't they going to give khudbas about Ramadan the processim didn't give khudbas about Ramadan before Ramadan but they're going to prep you up before Hajj aren't they going to give khudbas before the first of moharam across the world people say the lessons of the hijra i do that all the time too the same group does lessons of the hijra there was no there was no calendar at the time of the process i mean came at the time where i'm at a khutaf is that a bidah that you're going to remind people of the lessons of the hijra on the first of moharam so you see if you open this door too much you really do become pedantic to the point of dogmatism right and the same group that does say this is a major sip bidah or what not

35:48they themselves fall into it on multiple instances the most obvious one is the mechanism and the formality of salat atarawih as it is currently practiced because as it is currently practiced is multiple developments from abudu mukhatabr alaahuan i'll give you two examples or more never and everybody including haram aint do them the imams of the haram do it and they follow the same they mam of the haram last week gave the khudba mohli the zibidah the whole makkah mohli the zibidah that same imam himself does two things regularly ritualistically the people think it is a part of Islam the people want to be rewarded on that day and they don't call that a bidah what are those two things number one khatmeq oran interawih and number two dua interawih and especially dua khatmeq oran two separate things choosing one third of the Quran every single day orman never did that alaahuan to choose one third of you this is something later on developed now the whole world does khatmeq oran the process of never did it orman never did it on top of that the routine of having wittir and outlaw

36:52dua and then especially the khatam Quran which actually masajid you know they coordinate with one another here in Dallas our masajid we have an internal whatsapp group right so we say guys we're doing it this day what are you doing it what they we negotiate because we want people to come to different masajid as much as they can they want them to go and do khatmeq oran question the people that do khatmeq oran do they think they're getting rewarded yes or no that's why they're coming that's why the masajid our maximum capacity more than iid is khatmeq oran question why is that not a bidah because they're coming for reward they're coming as a ritual they're coming as an accepted norm and the process we never did it and that will book or never did it and on one never did it and sahaba never did it but the same group that makes a very big deal about the motor they're doing it as well i'm just showing inconsistency things do get fine tuned along the way if you want it to you can it be a little more more even even the study of islam formal training of scholars isn't this a bidah as well because training to be a scholar studying islam is an active worship okay if you want

37:55it to study islam how would you do that you would go to a seminary did the sahaba of seminaries you would take a class on hadith and then a class on tafsiq then a class on osul then a class then a class hold on what the heck is this where do you where you're dividing the and you're doing this thinking a love of words you for all of these classes now again the other group has its ways of defending and whatnot but you know you get it here it's obvious that you cannot maintain the level of purity that the first group thinks it is trying to maintain that's the point i'm trying to say you cannot maintain that idealistic level of purity because the world doesn't work that way so if you are already compromising on abcde then understand the other group says okay let's go for efgh as well right that's all i'm saying here and i get it there's going to be a attention back and forth in this regard but in the end of the day each group what unites them is much more than what separates them what unites them they want to love the messenger of Allah we can all agree

38:56that is a part of iman they want to demonstrate that love and how do they demonstrate it on the one gruhand by restricting themselves to what the process of them did that is their manifestation of love and on the other hand by showing an outburst of emotion by giving nashids and praising the process of the way that we're supposed to praise him obviously pause your footnote without a doubt there are festivals that all scholars would agree or how wrong there are manifestations of popular folk religion across the muslim world there will be the equivalent of like music festivals and it's under the guise of religious music like you know how the churches have their gospel music and they're all standing and dancing and whatnot i mean there are muslim equivalents around the world in all major countries from Tunisia all the way to Egypt and Pakistan and Baghdad and Bangladesh and India across the muslim world you have the popular folk culture not the clergy class not the reputable ulama you have the folk culture doing that and in that there are actual dances

40:02taking place men and women are dancing together ecstasy so without a doubt that's we're not talking about that right we're talking about the mainstream sober manifestations of the love of the prophet salallahu alayhi wa salam and let's conclude with the one verse this ayah will solve the problem for you because it is exactly what i'm teaching you the middle ground what is the ayah surat al-Hadid that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions and we put in the hearts of his followers compassion and by the way to this day genuine bona fide people who love Jesus christ a lot of them they demonstrate that compassion their kindness right that's Allah saying in the Quran then what i need you all to pay attention this is a key phrase here and this is the only time in the

41:04Quran that the word bidat is used the way that we're talking about wahbani yatin nibe tada'uhha the monasticism that they invented bidat monasticism to go live in a cave to not marry the monasticism that they invented ibn tada'uhha they did a bidat makatabna'ah alayhi we didn't tell them to do that this is a bidat wahbani yatin nibe tada'uhha makatabna'ah alayhi we did not tell them to live like a hermit to cut yourself off from society to not get married to not have kids to just worship constantly without having a trade in profession that's not the religion of jesus the religion of mosa the religion of the process of them then Allah says illa ptira'a lihuwan illa they did it with the right intention so the verse is saying they did something we didn't tell them to do it it's not a part of what i commanded them then Allah praises you know the real monastics can you imagine people spent 50 60 70

42:07years constantly in the worship of their lord cutting off from society living the life of a hermit and to this day there are people that they dedicate themselves to worship and church and they become priests and nuns and whatnot but then what does Allah say famar ahuhha hak karayatihha they weren't able to live up to it the way that they should have lived up to it Allah is saying this monasticism i didn't tell them to do it they invented it but they did it for the sake of Allah but they couldn't live up to what they wanted to do then Allah says faate na lidina amun minhum ajrahum we shall give the people who truly had iman the reward they deserve what qathir um minhum faasihun but many of them were faasihks the hermit's the monastics so then when you turn away from true religion it is correct to say possibly hypocrisy might increase but what does Allah say those that were good amongst them we shall give them their reward right after saying we didn't tell them to do that this is a very

43:13profound verse they were mistaken but they were good intentioned and Allah is saying if they did what they thought they were doing properly i will give them their reward in namal amalu bin niyat ibn ta'miya was one of the first to criticize the modid but he criticized it in very polite language unlike his followers today and then he empathized with those that were practicing it go read what he wrote in iql al-Aswad mus-dakim in following the path of the righteous he has a two volume book famous book go read what he wrote he says most of those celebrating the modid are sincere people who want to show love to the messenger of Allah and they don't know any better that's not their academic understanding of islam and Allah will reward them based upon their niyat this is ibn ta'miya speaking that is exactly my opinion i can't help my upbringing my training my path that Allah chose for me i cannot help but be more interested in the academic side of islam in the more

44:15you know i'm not i wasn't raised in the tradition of mysticism so i don't have that experiences so for me personally much of what that strand does doesn't resonate with me as a human being because i didn't have an upbringing that way but i can fully understand and acknowledge those that did these types of experiences will bring from them a level of iman a level of religious joy that will make them better muslims i personally don't need that it's not my upbringing it's not who i am in this regard so from my perspective i don't have any desire or need but at the same time for those that find comfort and they attend such gatherings and they leave with their iman super high and they go out with gushing emotions of Allah and his messenger what's wrong with that why would that be bad why would that be evil let them find comfort in these manifestations of love and for those that don't need it let them also then find comfort what they're doing no need to hate upon or find you know a animosity between these two strands we could linn

45:16that is the reality of our faith tradition