Factors of Cultural Islam - Part 1

[Applause] [Music] Brothers & Sisters continuing from last week's haba where we began to look at the causes for change in the Ummah how can we change the current situation which Muslims are faced with and we said that after understanding the principles behind the pillars of Islam and Iman which address individual change change of personality to create the Quranic personality one who would then have the correct moral foundation with which to change his own life or her life the lives of their family members the communities their societies and ultimately the world as took place in the past we said that on one hand after looking at the positive principles which formed the moral foundation of Islamic civilization we had to look at the issues which opposed them oppose the establishment of a true Islamic society what we would call Islamic culture the Islamic civilization as opposed to Muslim culture Muslims could have a culture which is Islamic or not so in many cases we said in the Muslim world today what we have instead of Islamic culture we have cultural Islam the culture of Muslim peoples which oftentimes contradicts Islamic culture and we began to look at the first of the four major elements or factors which form the foundation or cause the development of cultural Islam which we said was referred to as folk Islam especially by the missionaries when they come to do their missionary work amongst Muslims they focus on what they see as folk Islam the Muslim culture which oftentimes is far away from Islamic culture so if they want to introduce ideas which have this foreign origin it is difficult to do it through Islamic culture because Islamic cultures principals are clear it stops it right from the beginning whereas cultural Islam is so fluid and so open that it allows doors open for these kinds of missionary activities and so we find in different parts of the Muslim world missionaries have been very successful places like Indonesia where the World Council of Churches holds their annual meetings this has been a fertile ground for missionary activity because of the dominance of cultural Islam there due to a variety of different factors but anyway we began to look at in the last whata the first of the big issues which lead to the development of cultural Islam and we said that those were inherited customs things which existed in Muslim lands before and when Islam came to these lands people accepted Islam but carried some of these practices into Islam along with them and we talked about a variety of them some of them were minor something we could say it's not really a big deal what's really the harm but then some of them were big and major which costs Muslims lives you see how serious it can become so really the principle is one that has to be tackled wherever there are customs and traditions inherited from our four parents unless these are sanctioned by Islam and they don't go against Islamic teachings we have to purify our community or communities from these inherited customs and traditions it is a must otherwise we cannot go forward and much of the attack on Muslims today focuses on these customs whether it is honor killing we didn't talk about that one last week but that's another big area honor killing something which Sharia has no place for there's no such thing in the Sharia called honor killing but among Muslims in the Middle East in Jordan Iraq in Turkey in Pakistan we find Muslim family members killing other family members to protect the honor of the family usually it's the male's killing the females a female from the family develops a relationship with a male which the family feels has offended its honor and maybe rightly so it has offended the honor of the family so the father the brothers the uncle they gather together and they murder this young lady now to say she was right in what she was doing sometimes it's suspicion which turns out to be wrong but just enough that the honor of the family is threatened and people set into motion actions which lead to the loss of human life something which Islam is completely opposed to it is not honor killing it is murder it is murder and the consequence for it is execution is death that is the Sharia but in countries like Jordan etc if somebody kills for honor the country recognizes the custom and so the penalty is light four years in jail they say it's wrong shouldn't do it but the full force of the law is not applied so you will always find a family member who's ready he will jump up and say I'm ready to do those four years for the sake of the honor of the family so it is not stopping it in any way it only promotes it if the law was applied it's not to say it would stop it because people will commit crimes will break the law even if the full force of the law is there in the time of Prophet Muhammad SAW some people were stoned to death their hands were cut off you know all the laws were and this was to sahaba some of the followers of the Prophet so it says you know people are people guidance reduces the amount of criminality but it doesn't eradicate because people are people so if the full force of the law death for honor killing was applied it would reduce you would still find family members ready to say I'm ready to die for the sake of the family but less not as many four years is one thing your life with another thing so when the West focuses on Muslims honor killing look at them this is a an evil custom handed down so you find not only Muslims doing it even Christians who live in these lands it's their custom from pre-islamic times so they will do it in England in the US and Canada you hear of cases in Europe all the time because these issues have increased there especially because of the freedom in the society when families move their kids are going to high school going to regular schools they have contacts easy contacts male/female boyfriend/girlfriend relationships develop and these consequences come and so you find time and time again cases a wine or killing taking place and it's always front-page news splashed across the country so Islam Muslims take a battering because of this evil practice and we talked about the others today we're going to look at some other sources among them the adopted practices practices which weren't among Muslims were not really inherited but which they later adopted from other societies sometimes to something there's overlapping between this and inherited customs but for example the celebration of the prophets birthday sallallahu wasallam this is the classical example the Mawlid this practice which is widespread amongst Muslims all across the Muslim world we see it celebrated so much so that one might conclude that it really is a part of Islam since it seems to be everywhere but the fact of the matter is that there is no foundation in Islamic teachings for celebrating the prophet's birthday so long what it was under no foundation for it this was adopted by Muslims some four hundred years after the time of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu taala in Egypt it began to be celebrated in the 40-mile Shiite dynasty of Egypt it began there and it was a replication of what happened in Christianity because after Prophet ISA alaihi Salam was lifted up by Allah and Christianity spread out of Jerusalem into the neighboring countries Egypt Greece and Rome Turkey the issue of birthday celebrations are always there - it was not known amongst the early followers of Jesus in fact if you look at the corrupted Bible as it exists today there is no mention of birthday celebrations among any of the stories about the prophets etc the only birthday celebrations mentioned are those of Pharaoh the pagan ruler of Egypt Herod the pagan Roman ruler of Jerusalem etc it's only amongst the pagans it was known celebration of the birthday was a pagan Rite and ritual that's why you did not find it amongst the early followers so it took time it took virtually three hundred three hundred and fifty years until it became acceptable in Christianity as it developed in Greece and Rome and the celebration of Jesus's birthday began it began in Rome where they invented a day the 25th of December a day which coincided with what was called in Italy the Saturnalia this was a pagan celebration at the end of the harvest Saturn we know the planet Saturn that's named after the Roman god of Agriculture so celebrating the harvest which involved rites of worship of Saturn the god of the harvest that was called the Saturnalia and that was done around the 25th of December it was a popular celebration they used to give gifts and much of the practices of Christmas today you see it its origins there of course there are other editions as the celebration spread into different parts of Europe editions were made when it spread into Scandinavia where in Scandinavia people used to worship tree gods and they used to pick out in particular the what we now know as the Christmas tree this is a particular fern which is evergreen it remains green throughout the year summer fall winter spring it never changed the leaves never changed their color they remain green and friendly v so this to them was a symbol of eternal life something divine so the FIR became the symbol a God symbol for them and they took them into the house small ferns because they could get very big small ones they brought them into the house and the celebration because it's cold there in Italy it's fairly warm so you can do your celebrations outside so the celebrations were inside the house and the same things they would do giving the gifts putting it under the tree decorating the tree this was the tree guard and you should know for those of you that don't know that the practice which is now common amongst Muslims of knocking on wood you know when you say I'm gonna do so-and-so knock on wood this common Western practice and a lot of Muslims have adopted it where did it come from it comes from that same belief the god of the tree for the Scandinavians believing in the tree God when you went to make your prayers to the tree guard you had to knock on the tree first wake him up then you ask him for what you needed so that practice crept into doing things and then knocking on wood and we have many Muslims I've run into Muslims from all over the Muslim world saying things that are knocking on wood afterwards it's unfortunate it's ignorance anyway so the practice of celebrating Christmas with all of its rights we see evolving amongst Christians something which had no promise of Christianity definitely not from the teachings of Jesus or their religion raishin similarly we find Muslims doing the same and for the common Muslims of course the rationale was Muhammad sallallaahu assalam he was the greatest of the prophets he was greater than prophet ISA so if prophet ISA is birthday can be celebrated surely we should make a even a better celebration for Prophet Muhammad SAW so not to be outdone Muslims embraced ignorant Muslims embrace this practice so it spread around the Muslim world and so we are living the legacy of that today some people might say what's the harm what's the big deal well there is no obvious harm in the sense that nobody is losing their life over it unless maybe you try to stop it in one of the places that people are very adamant about it maybe they might kill you over it but as unknown nobody is killing anybody over the Molen however the harm is a spiritual harm it is spiritual hijacking of Islamic teachings the spiritual harm is there because once you make that innovation because that's what it is in the process our Selim said Khun lo de la la la' every innovation is the source of misguidance people said but we know we are we doing his remembering prophet muhammad sallallahu wasallam remembering his life and praising him and asking Allah to bless him and so on this what is the harm in that we have to ask if that were a good thing to do wouldn't the prophets our solemn not have been the first to tell us to do it as he said matter rock to shake a new car a new Kamil Allah allow a more to come B I have not left anything which will bring you closer to a law without instructing you to do it that was his job to show us the way and that wasn't a part of the way so we say whatever was the way when the verse was revealed we're in a last month Alice ed a glioma Akmal to Clapham Dinoco today I have completed for you your religion whatever was not a part of the religion then can never be a part of the religion because to claim something else to be a part of the religion which was not a part then it means what we know better than rasool allah so allah wa sallam well Yahya Sevilla we cannot know better than the prophets or his companions they were not involved in this celebration and what happens because it is an innovation then it has a life of its own it became not only a general recognition of the problems birth and his life and so on so but people in order to outdo each other each one was trying to praise the Prophet SAW solemn more than the other doing a better version and the others etc till people started to write for it poems like Al see the tool buddha the order of the cloak in which the attributes of allah are given to prophet muhammad sallallahu wasallam and that is Sheikh that is shirk so among Muslims involved in this celebration which you might say is Vida it is an innovation it is misguidance it has reached the level of shirk among many some of them are doing it in ignorance reciting these forms they don't even know what it says but others recite it and know what it says and defend it so this is the harm it is a spiritual harm because every innovation every innovation as the companion said whenever an innovation arises a Sunnah dies whenever an innovation arises a Sunnah dies so what is the Sunnah which died when they celebrated the birthday of the prophets Allah is enough the Sunnah which died was Prophet Muhammad SAW Selim used to fast on mondays and when the Companions asked him why do you fast on Mondays Oh Messenger of Allah on one occasion he said I did so because that was the day on which I was born the prophets are solemn commemorated his birthday by fasting that is the Sunnah which has died Muslims all across the Muslim world today nobody knows it if instead of that big celebration where people are you know dancing and singing and eating and join festival you tell them fast no no no this is the time of enjoyment etc but that wasn't the way of the Prophet so I said so his Sunnah died except among few this is what we have to do we have to revive that Sunnah the Sunnah fasting on mondays and thursdays of every week you want to commemorate the Prophet SAW Salah do it as he did it Monday's we are certain he was born on Monday as for the day which comes in the usual calendar Muslim calendars you know the 12th of Rabi al-awwal which has been specified as the day of the Prophet SAW Selim's birth actually there is no authentic evidence to establish that day it was the day on which he died yes but the day on which he was born no evidence for that so really just as Allah hid the day on which prophet ASA was born he hid from us the day on which prophet muhammad sallallahu sallam was born to prevent people from doing exactly what we are doing so we have to bring Islam back into our culture we have to return to the true Islamic culture which is based on quran and sunnah the quran and the sunnah as it was understood in the time of prophet muhammad salallahu alaihe salam and his companions as they understood it important because everybody says yes Quran and Sunnah but according to whose understanding people told me it's in the Quran to celebrate the Prophet SAW slaloms birthday I said yes where what is the verse they said don't you know the verse in the lahore melaka to who you saloon Allen abhi yeah you alladhina amanu sallu alayhi wa salamu Taslima I said yes but I didn't hear any birthday in there that suggests it means it celebrates his birthday no if it's left up to us then we can find excuses from anywhere the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad SAW Salaam they memorize that verse and passed it on to us and they didn't understand celebrate the birthday from it so whose understanding should we follow yours today or should we follow their understanding they lived the revelation they best understood what we are to do with that revelation how to apply it in our lives so we have the issue of celebrating the Prophet SAW Salam's birthday something now whose roots are so deeply entrenched in our society to try to uproot it is a major effort some people say it's not even worth it better just forget it leave it and go on and do something else don't keep talking about it it's not going to change it well reality is that if we don't change that then the bigger things which we need to change I'm going to be able to change it is a small thing if we can't change and correct the small things can we expect to correct and change the big things because we have some big things out there there's some big big things which affect the Muslim world today what you need to be changed people say forget the Mawlid let's deal with the big things what we say no if we can't deal with the small things will not be able to deal with the big things that's the bottom line the Prophet SAW Selim began the change in the society with Ikeda began with the belief in Allah purifying that belief cleaning it up and then building adding the superstructure on top of it celebration of the Molen is an attack on the Ikeda is an attack on the basic Islamic belief the concept of Allah and his creation if it is common in these celebrations to praise Prophet Muhammad SAW solemn beyond his status as he said do not be excessive in your praise of me as the followers of Jesus did to Jesus indeed I have only up the law for a salut I am only the slave of Allah and his messenger don't do as they did but that's what we're doing this is an issue of faith that's what we have done we have turned him into an intermediary one with the attributes of Allah as Christians did with prophet ISA and I ask Allah to help us to get back to the Quran and the Sunnah and to purify our community of the Mawlid and the false beliefs connected to it who look only how that was done for Lonnie when Akuma or sirens the minimun could be done for stuff through in Naju will go for Rahim ask allah's forgiveness for miss guidance in this regard and call on you to turn to him for his forgiveness for only he can forgive our sins hamdulillah was salatu wassalam Rasul Allah another example of adopted practices I'm only gonna give three examples and there are many more but just to bring these points home key critical examples if somebody were to ask you today what is the symbol of Islam besides the star in Crescent which has no basis in Islamic teachings right star and crescent though we use it as our standard symbol today we know it has no basis in Islamic teachings in fact it even supports the argument of some of the missionaries etc that our God Allah is the wrong God see they have a moon symbol over all of their mosques they have moons on their you know the ha crescent moon on their flags and so on so so their God is actually the ancient moon god of Arabia this is the claim individual dr. Paul Maury wrote a booklet on this of course it was based on all kinds of false information and it has been thoroughly refuted if you want to if you've come across this and you want to respond to it you look up Shabbir Ali he has written a response where he exposes dr. Morris false find information his lies that such he's brought it systematically not just emotionally but shown point by point how it is man distorted the truth but most people heard about the moon-god and we have the moon to support it right put that one aside the architectural symbol if we think of veronik society who this main symbol is what the pyramids if we think of French society the main symbol is what the Eiffel Tower if we think of Roman Italian society the main symbol is what the Leaning Tower of Pisa if we think of Muslim society the main symbol is what the Taj Mahal the Taj Mahal one of the seven wonders of the world Clinton and his family made pilgrimage there to go and see it motion is family with all the presidents to see the Taj Mahal wama adraka ma touch Mahal and what do we what is really the Taj Mahal the Taj Mahal is a mausoleum built by one of the Mogul rulers of India Shah Jahan for his wife what's her name again Mumtaz with Motels Mahal and he built this when she died he built this mausoleum this structure of love that's what it's called this is a expression of his love we brought architects from all over the world and the best marble and the distance spent how much money and time and effort built this structure which has remained till today Prophet Muhammad sallallaahu ascend them when Mecca was taken reconquered came back under the rule of tawheed he instructed aliamanu batalov to set out and every grave that he found more than a proms with above the ground to level it with the ground to level it with the ground so the idea of building structures over graves is haram/forbidden and the farmer Selim forbade it in straight terms also do not build structures over graves do not whitewash graves you know so many instructions forbidding the building of structures over graves in the non-muslim Society it is normal you go into the graveyard you see all kinds of structures over the graves but eventually it crept in amongst Muslims also so that the Muslim graveyards look like cities with structures buildings over the grave so many in fact when King Abdulaziz have been sawed and those who are with him took Mecca and this in the eyes of the mass of Muslims was a great evil and he and his followers they went into the graveyards of Mecca and Medina and if you see pictures of the graveyards from that time they look like cities huge dome and structures built over the graves and he and his followers broke them all down leveled them with the ground the Muslim world cried out the wahhabis are destroying Islam they become so ignorant of the actual Sunnah of the Prophet SAS Allah that when it was applied people thought these people were changing the religion until this day many parts of the Muslim world they hold this against the Saudis destroying the Islamic you know artifacts but in fact what they did was the right thing they did what the Prophet SAW Solomon commanded but today in the rest of the Muslim world we have cities so much so that in Egypt there is a city there called the city of the Dead when you're driving from Cairo Airport to drive by it actually it's a graveyard huge wave yard with all these structures over the graves what happened in Cairo is that the population people poured in from the countryside to find work in the city of Cairo they had a housing crisis no place to live so what did people start to do they started to set up home in the graveyards these big structures they moved in with their families you go there now inside there you will see they're hanging the clothes dry cooking everything even so much so that the government because they couldn't provide alternatives they piped in water for them and electricity people are building second stories on top of the graves that is the legacy so one may say well again this is you know quaint Muslim history but it does have evil implications for the average person's grave no big deal but what happens now is that there are some people's graves where it becomes a big deal where the structure over the grave now is a symbol for worship at that grave so you find for example in India in a Jameer rajasthan state in northern or northwestern india the shrine of chair moreno dynasty where millions make pilgrimage every year millions of muslims go there every year and they perform rites of worship they make Tawaf around the grave and they pray to the person who's supposed to be buried there and even the Hindus join in they believe he's a holy man joining in the Muslims rights in some Baraka some blessing should come for them also so they join in Muslims and Hindus making pilgrimage to this place so what is that doing to the Islamic faith which is far away from this which has nothing to do with it this is part of the subjugation or the destruction of the foundation of Islamic faith as a result of building structures over graves something which we might think is simple in part some parts of the world has become something major in other parts and it's not just in India although in India they have specialized in it it is there in Egypt there are all over the Muslim world we have graves that people make pilgrimage to you know do all kinds of rites around etc destruction of the doctrinal foundation of Islam the last example that I'd like to give is a smaller one but one not nonetheless that we should be aware of it's a small one that we can deal with this is wearing wedding rings on this finger wearing wedding rings on this finger of our left hand it is not from Islam it is from Christian tradition if any of you saw the The Marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles when the bishop took the ring from Prince Charles he put it by the thumb of Princess diam Diana and said in the name of the father in the name of the son in the name of the holy ghost amen this wearing of the ring on this third finger is an affirmation of belief in the Trinity that God is three in one has no place in this it should be removed it's not a big one like the graves etc because people say well we're wearing it to let people know we're married how do we let them know we're married this is not from our tradition we don't have rings to indicate you're married you know for the Hindus they have red dots that they put on their head right bindi and it's called red to indicate that they're married but we don't have that it's not from our tradition to indicate that you're married so it is enough for us to remove that from us so what you find as we said when a sudden when a bid arises a suna dies the sooner the promise our solemn was to wear a ring on the little finger of his right hand so you'll find Muslims wearing on the third finger of their left hand and nothing on the right hand of course once it's okay big deal wearing a ring what does it have to do with the faith etc it just has to do with a consciousness it deals or it addresses a consciousness and awareness of what is Islam who was Muhammad sallallahu said them what was his way the way of life which he brought for us to follow what was it it is not the customs and the traditions that we are commonly doing in our various countries and societies etc it was a way of life which he received through revelation from allah subhana wa ta'ala a way of life which was divinely revealed and we need to follow that way if we are to find our way back to the straight path the one that we call on ask Allah for a dinner sirat al-mustaqim the only way is to go back to the way of the Prophet SAW and that is why Allah Samanta Allah reminded us saying in the law of Malaika to who you so Luna and nabila D na mono sallou alayh wa salamu test Nima he called on us to asked for lost peace and blessings on Prophet Muhammad SAW Salim because he was the guide he was the leader he was our light in the darkness and he should remain that in our lives I ask Allah to help us to reacquaint ourselves with his Sunnah to bring the Sunnah back into our lives to make it a living Sunnah that we practice every day and to help us to gain and increase our knowledge of the religion to purify it of all that has come into it from foreign sources we ask Allah to purify our faith and our practice and to keep us on the straight path and to forgive what has gone before to forgive us as he only can forgive us and we ask Allah to give us the last breath la la la la before we leave this world I mean alchemist Allah [Music]

Channel: Bilal Philips

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Keywords: Factors of Cultural Islam Part 1, bilal philips, abu ameenah bilal philips, bilal philips khutbah, bilal philips sermon, digital minbar, islamiconline university, iou, islam way of life, bilal philips islam lecture, Foundation of Islamic Culture Dr. Bilal Philips

Id: IJt6NswKa9Y

Length: 46min 33sec (2793 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 15 2018