Cultural Islam or Islamic Culture - Dr. Bilal Philips

so I wanna come Moroccan to lawyer a cat or calm demeanor or salatu was-salam and our soul Allah all praise is due to Allah and may allows peace and blessings be on the last messenger of allah I'd like to read for you a couple of news clippings some years back a woman was burned to death in Dhaka the news clipping said a greedy husband burned to death his young wife at sick para following a feud over dowry according to the police report za here Mia poured kerosene over the body of his wife was twenty twenty years old Shanna's and set her on fire on Sunday she died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday in Pakistan over 300 brides are burnt annually another clipping son held for killing mother Tina Egypt a 22 year old son beheaded and dismembered his widowed mother when he found out that she had secretly remarried breaking with tradition in southern Egypt police here said yesterday salah ahmed hassan helped by one of his uncle's forced a pregnant samaria salam was 35 years old into the village cemetery in Nevada near Luxor were they strangled beheaded and dismembered the police said Hassan and Sam Ria's brother were detained for questioning and they admitted their crime these are Muslims Muslims killing Muslims over what why were these Brides burnt why was this woman killed if we look into it we'll see that it is a result of inherited pre-islamic practices or practices adopted from cultures which surrounded Muslim cultures and I'm sure you've heard of other cases of honor killings of female genital mutilation and a variety of other practices which really in fact have nothing to do with Islam at all it is Muslim culture in certain parts of the world but it's not Islamic culture that's for sure culture is defined by anthropologists as the way of life of a specific group that way of life may be in accordance with religious teachings or it may be in accordance with inherited tradition or it could be in accordance with new practices which people develop as a result of innovation and religion or fanaticism about various practices or teachings we find in Muslim culture today this challenge which faces the Muslim world as a whole the confusion from this legacy of inherited practices leaves Islam hidden for many Muslims today in fact if you go to the website apostates from Islam calm you will find there people who were formerly Muslims who are explaining why they left Islam because Islam said this the people in my city or town did that my parents did this to me my family did that to me they forced me to do this or force me to do that and when you read all of these stories what you read there is cultural practices which in fact have nothing to do with Islam at all so we have a great challenge before us because when we try to clarify this to people people caught up in the culture of Muslim people where it is clearly in conflict with the culture of Islam and for us to understand what is the culture of Islam obviously it is the culture which is produced by people who practice the Quran and the Sunnah as it was understood by the first generations of Islam this is Islamic culture essentially there is some room for individual cultural group practices where they don't conflict with Islamic teachings in terms of the colors people might want to dress the foods they might want to eat the way in which they build their houses a variety of different elements which are called according to the Sharia or the custom of the people that there is no problem about the problem comes where these cultural practices now come into conflict with Islamic teachings the various sources may be identified as 4/1 as I mentioned three Islamic practices - adopted practices by Muslim people three religious innovation and four religious fanaticism the common thread which holds all these groups together is that whenever a person tries to explain to them this is not from Islam this is your cultural legacy but it is not in accordance with Islamic teaching it's not in accordance with the Quran and the Sunnah or the Quran and the Sunnah as it was understood in the time of the Sahaba their response is what are you saying you know better than our parents our grandparents who have been doing this for generations and generations you think you know Islam better than they do what we found from them what we learned from them is sufficient for us this is Islam for us this is enough actually this is a repeat of the statements made by the pagans in the time of prophet muhammad sallallahu wasallam which Allah enshrined in the Quran in surah al-maida verse 104 and it was repeated a number of times elsewhere in the Quran different wording but basically the same Allah says there wide appeal allahu ta'ala wa ma and allah llahu and rasul allah hasbuna Mirage Edna la Habana our Ocana about whom liya ammunition well I had a duel if you tell them come to what Allah has revealed and to the messenger they reply what we found our parents doing is sufficient for us even though their parents knew nothing nor were they rightly guided Allah adds that even though their parents knew nothing nor were they rightly guided so this response of what we found our parents doing is sufficient for us this was the response of paganism when Islam came it's not to say that Muslims today who are caught up in cultural Islam are pagans but they are repeating the same pagan East our gameand an argument of ignorance which allah cursed in the quran when he put it in this context so when we go back and we look at the case of the woman who was burned to death 300 burnt to death every year in pakistan bride burning it's called over dowry how over dowry maybe here in Malaysia it's not an issue but there in the subcontinent in Pakistan India Bangladesh Sri Lanka people follow the Hindu custom of giving dowry to the husbands to the husband to be the groom Islam it is the husband the groom who gives the dowry to the bride dowry symbolic of his preparedness to look after her that is the Islamic way that is Islamic culture however in Hindu tradition and in old Christian tradition it was the practice that the family would give dowry to the groom because the woman in these cultures were worthless in Europe in the Dark Ages Christian scholars debated whether women had so or not in India they practiced Hindus practiced the custom called SETI if a woman husband dies and they burned his body because that's what they did that's how they got rid of the dead they burnt the bodies she was supposed to climb on top of the funeral pyre and be burnt up along with him because once her husband died she had no value she was nothing so in that culture when a man marries a woman he is taking a burden off the family so they pay that groom to take the bride so what happens inevitably is that payments oftentimes our result of promises the parents of the bride promised the groom we will get you a Mercedes we'll get you a big house we'll get you you know 50-inch television you know they promise everything and the groom takes the bride then after they get their married they're living some of the things that are promised are not fulfilled the groom's getting upset where is the stuff your parents promised she says well I don't know you know my dad said ask him so you know he's upset why not he's contact the dad says well you know I had this problem this I wasn't able to make the payments and that I can't get it now maybe later so the groom is upset and in so many cases he and his mother-in-law his mother he and his mother will catch that girl in the kitchen this is the common methodology and pour kerosene over her and then set her on fire it's called bride burning evil evil amongst the Hindus it's thousands but how long's the Muslims it maybe less but still 300 women in Pakistan every year I don't know how many in India and how many in Bangladesh in the other countries I found an article which said 300 in Pakistan still that is horrendous the idea that 300 women would be killed in this way as a result of cultural Islam in the case of Egypt where that son dismembered his mother after strangling her along with her brother helped him the mother's brother helped him she was only 35 years old tradition in southern Egypt is that if a woman is widowed her husband dies she does not remarry period that's their culture culture inherited from the firaon ik times in the firaon ik times they had a myth about a goddess by the name of Isis whose brother wanted her in marriage she refused so what did he do he killed her husband her husband's name was Osiris he killed him but she still refused and she hid her son Horus until he grew up to be a man and he then revenged his father's death by killing Seth but the fact that the mother Isis did not remarry that remain like a sin Baal and the worship of Isis in Egypt began as a cult from southern Egypt then spread over the rest of Egypt so those people from southern Egypt to accepted Islam most of them carried this tradition with them widows don't remarry so when this young woman 35 years old remarried she got pregnant so her son found out he and the woman's brother killed her strangled her to death in the cemetery cut off her head and chopped up her body this is cultural Islam at its worst at its worst its most evil now locally cultural Islam might not be or not might not seem as dangerous instead we have here for example the practice called Tamil right where three nights after somebody dies Yassine is read seven nights if you're from royalty it's a month of course it's based on an authentic hadees hadees and another authentic all the hadees about surya seen are false there's no authentic hadith about Surya C being the heart of the Quran it is well known fabricated in authentic hadees everything as a heart and the heart of the Quran is Yasiin nonsense read Eocene for your dead nonsense not authentic so it is a false practice though there are weak or fabricated Hadees behind it maybe not as dangerous as what happens in happening burn bright burning in there in Bangladesh or Pakistan but we do have other practices which have some elements of harm in them spiritual harm when people practice what is called BER sanding or bare sand dune is it ding or don't amateur ding okay and this a dot bearing juicer ranges this thing of getting married and spraying rose water and sprinkling flowers and pandan leaves you know this doing this practice here for Baraka for one it's from Hindu tradition it's Hindu it's not from Islam at all that's bad enough but the concept that it is for Baraka that you get Baraka from it now we enter into an realm which is much more dangerous because this is silk or borderline shirk depending on how serious people are about this Baraka because to believe that to do this practice is going to bring good remember these are physical things or whatever no Kitab when making toe-off and he stopped in the midst of the tawaaf and pointed to the black stone and said I know you can either bring any good for me nor harm me the only reason why I kiss you is because The Messenger of Allah kissed you so Allah is Allah he is affirming no barakah there's no barakah and kissing the black stone I know people spend all kinds of efforts to get to that black stone they will mow people down they will get in there and they want to rub everything on it right they have kids they'll rub the kid inside of the black stone even yeah feeling you do that you've got Baraka Baraka is coming off it's gonna you know do something for you this is it's only a stone similarly this rose water the flower petals and leaves this is only created things there are no there's no Baraka in it and we should give up this practice because it is not an Islamic practice this is from Hindu tradition we also have another practice called burqa tan or su not there's some other names for it right we're circumcision is done for kids reaching the boys reaching the age of puberty 11 and 12 year old this is torture this is torture the Sunnah is to do it on the seventh day that is the sunnah of rasulullah saliva Salim that's what he taught on the seventh day a baby who was born on the seventh day you clip off that bit of skin it's a minor situation for a boy who is reaching level in 12 this is now something serious you're harming people so it's not so not at all it is harm so really we need to deal with such practices here this harm coming from it now harm we talked about spiritually in the verse and in' and now harm in the berhan which is physical harm so the potential is then we have to relook at Islamic culture here and categorize it we also have among the adopted practices the Mawlid very popular people spend a lot of time preparing for it conducting it etc but we have to understand fundamentally that the Mawlid is not from Islamic culture it has become the culture of Muslim peace people in many places national holidays in many Muslim countries however did Prophet Muhammad SAW solemn celebrate his birthday no did he Sahaba celebrate his birthday no did the Tribune those who came after the Sahaba did they celebrate his birthday no did the tabut a being no four hundred years after the death of Rasul Allah Allah Allah this practice began in Shiite Egypt the Fatimids they began it and it spread but it is not from the sunnah of rasulallah solanum Salam actually the date of birth of Rasul Allah Salim is unknown yes there is a common day everybody fixes in the calendars but really when you get back to it you research it you find out that date has no authentic evidence to establish it as Christmas is not the birthday of Jesus Christ tomorrow 25th of December the date of the Mawlid the 12th Ruby Allah will is not the date of established birth of Prophet Muhammad sallallaahu Salah we also have another source of cultural Islam and this which this is based on religious innovation innovation which introduced into Islamic teachings concepts which were in fact foreign to Islam this general body of teachings may be called in English mysticism and in Muslim culture it is referred to as Sufism now some of what is called Sufism may be from Islam extra prayers avoiding too much of attachment to this world living a simple life remembering Allah often these are all part of Islam but where one has this belief that it is possible for the human being to become one with God known as it had or halal or fauna Fila a variety of names given to it we now have a dangerous concept a concept which leads now to heresy where we had individual standing up and saying I am Allah there is nothing inside of my garment except Allah famous statement of al-hallaj people claiming special status because they are higher up on the spiritual ladder special intercessors called out odd kotoba and a variety of other names people who are supposed to be closer to Allah who can take our prayers to Allah for us people who are given the ability to distribute a laws Baraka in the world we have clear statements of Sheikh Nazim alka brucy famous for following here some of the tattoos are among his followers the ruler of Brunei is also a follower of his he claims his followers believe that a true follower of his when the time for death comes the Angel of Death does not take his soul shake naathan will be there to take his soul and hand it over to the angels of the next world not only that but when munkar and nakir come sit you up in the grave in the state of the grave were set up and we are asked three questions man aura book Maddie Nook omen Dubuque who was your Lord what was your religion and who was the prophet sent to you share who know them will be there to whisper in your ear Allah Islam Muhammad SAW Allah Allah wasalam what is this this is like the Christian corruption known as papal indulgences back in the Middle Ages in order to enhance the financial status of the Catholic Church the Pope used to issue certificates with his seal signature on it which said the bearer of this certificate has a place in paradise they sold it people bought it papal indulgences guaranteed seats in paradise so we have today Czech Muslim and his group claiming the same thing because if he's given you the answers that are being asked in the grave then what else is there you're guaranteed paradise that is serious the people who believe this are in serious trouble spiritually people will believe that there are intercessors we can pray to besides the law between us and Allah are in Syria is trouble the last major group which produce what we could call again cultural Islam distortion is the religious fanatical groups the most popular ones are most well-known ones of the past were the mother hubs the math hubs I know here in Malaysia everybody is afraid generally I know when I went for Hajj and there were some people from South India South India Asha phase also and I saw this brother we're making wudu we're in the same area and when the time came for him to wipe his head he moved his cap back slightly and he took water and just patted it on his head three times I said to him brother that's not masa you know Prophet Muhammad SAW solemn when he did Meza he took his hands his recorded authentic hadith and he wiped from the front to the back back to the front this is complete head this is masa he said i'm Shafi I said no problem so you're afraid but this is not how it is done Imam Shafi didn't even do this he said your Wahhabi I know I heard about you guys what to do this is a problem this is a problem I mean he has no idea where this idea of patting peers on the front of his head comes from that it was from a you know Scholastic linguistic argument where some shafa'ah scholars were debating about what constitutes the minimum of Massa this is just a scholastic argument what is the minimum which would constitute massage I said okay Massa means wiping your hear the word for here is sharp so if you wipe one here one here is called Chara if you write to here's it's called charlatan if you wipe three years it's called sharp so they said okay so the minimum required for massa that would make massa acceptable is to wipe at least three years all right that's a wonderful debate and discussion and scholastic argument but that's not what your su la la Sol Sol indeed they didn't do that so what are we swore we supposed to be following reality is that Imam Shafi'i wasn't a chef a his name was Chaffee but he didn't follow the chef a math lab that we know today that Jeffrey math lab came about after his time Abu Hanifah wasn't Hanafy that's reality all of the Imams were not followers of the math hubs which are attributed to them so what is it they were following they were following the math hub of rasool allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that's why both imam shafi'i and imam abu hanifa said in a solid form at hobby if the hadith is authentic then that is my true mother so where we get into fanatic fanaticism about Mad hub and remember this fanaticism after the 13th century reached the point where it was ruled in the hanafi madhhab that it is not permissible for a Hanafy to marry a chef a not permissible over another scholastic argument whether it was acceptable to say if somebody asked you are you a Muslim Hal anti-muslim for you to answer nam insha'Allah Hanafy said that means you're not a Muslim you're supposed to say nam and a Muslim no inshallah here because insha'Allah indicates doubt and whoever is in doubt in their Iman has no Amman so therefore not allowed for Hanif is to marry suffice this what is this this is where Muslims reached later on couple of hundred years later three hundred years later or four hundred years later one of the Hanafy scholars said okay we will treat sapphires like a milky table we can marry them problem and you all know that they stopped praying behind each other so that up until 1925 there were four salons going on around the Kaaba when the time for Salah came like mother became here now yeah then for mother that was given then a comma would be given under macomb Shafi so all the people were making toe-off were sháá-faced they would come and line up behind it Shafi mom make father when he's finished and the hanafi imam would get up they make a comma all hanafis would pray then Maliki then humbly for SOLAS going on around the Kaaba until 1925 and this was one of the great evils according to people cultural Muslims that the Wahabis did they came into Mecca and they broke down these structures the mahkumat and they said only one Imam ha that's a good thing but in the eyes of those who saw only cultural Islam then they saw these structures which were built you see all the old pictures they have them listed macomb Shafi maqam hanafi mahom as you have maqam Ibrahim we know that one's real but this other ones mcoms Shah frame how humbly these were things people built when they split up and we're no longer praying behind each other so are they Islamic relics I mean of course to go break down more common Abraham this is Haram but to break down vikarma Shafi this is Rajab not just halal but watch him because it doesn't belong there it represents the splitting up of the OMA so I'm not calling to rejection of madhhabs in the sense that we should never follow a mother but don't follow mother no it's okay to follow mother follow the scullers whoever your follow is going to be following somebody else Kali you don't have the knowledge to go to the sources of Islam you have to follow somebody knowledge no harm to follow somebody Shafi or Hanafy whatever but to the degree that it is possible for you to know what is the correct rulings then you should try to find out if you can then you follow this color and it's pleasing to Allah subhana WA Ta'ala Allah because the scholar is part of a tradition trying to follow the math hub of rasul allah sallallahu wasallam so islamic culture is the culture produced by following the Islamic teachings as understood in the first generations that culture is the culture that we can come together on with the differences that we may have within ourselves different opinions different views etc that is the basis for the unity of the Ummah true Islam as for the cultural practices we have to weed them out systematically if we don't tackle them in this generation they will come back to us in the next so we have to oppose these it's just not enough to say okay I know this is wrong but you know everybody's doing it no that's not enough you will be asked about the knowledge you were given on the day of judgment if you know what is right you know what is wrong then it's our duty to stand up for it come to Muhammad in Okada Gelinas tomorrow Nabil Marouf we were the best of Nations why because we command the good what an how nine and Morcar we forbid the evil as Muslims we have to stand forth for what is correct what is true and what is true is a homage culture we have to bring that back to life again and we should walk away this evening knowing one last fact that last fact is that Islamic culture Islam cannot be inherited cultural Islam can be we can inherit names from our parents we have last names we can inherit nationalities we can inherit cultural traditions but Islam cannot be inherited because Islam means submission to the will of Allah submission of the heart of the soul to the will of Allah and you cannot inherit submission so each and every one of us has to leave here tonight deciding to submit if they haven't done so before spiritually deciding to submit themselves to Allah and to practicing Islam as it was revealed and taught by Rasul Allah revealed by Allah and taught by Rasul Allah salauddin salim and i closed asking Allah to accept our gathering here's why in which we have sought to remember him to remember the message which he conveyed through His Prophet Muhammad sallallahu wasallam and I ask Allah to forgive our ignorance in our cultural practices of the past and that he give us the courage to adopt a Lama culture in our lives and to teach that culture to those who were responsible for Baraka lafi combs alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

Channel: Digital Mimbar

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Keywords: Bilal Philips, Muhammad, Islam (Religion), Religion (journal), Quran, Koran, Ahmed, Prophet, makkah, Nasheed, Culture (Type Of Museum), Islamic Culture, Cultural Islam, Ramadan, History, Civil, Documentary, salafitalk, spubs, patcondell, pat condell, Imam, Sheikh, Honour killings, acid attacks, sufis, sufi, kufr, shirk, bidah, Sufism (Religion), shaihk nazam, Convert

Id: GDBkiV4wqRU

Length: 45min 9sec (2709 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 15 2013