alhamdulillah all praise is due to Allah
and may Allah's 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 burnt to
death in
Daka the news clipping
said a greedy husband burned to death
his young wife at sikara following a
feud over dowy
according to the police
report Zahir
Mia poured kerosene over the body of his
wife who was 20 20 years old shahnaz and
set her on fire on Sunday she died at
daaka Medical College Hospital
yesterday in
Pakistan over
300
Brides are burnt
annually another
clipping son held for killing
mother Kina
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 uncles forced a pregnant
samria Salam who was 35 years old into
the village Cemetery in nak near luxer
where they strangled beheaded and
dismembered the woman the police said
Hassan and samri'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 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 practice which people develop
as a result of innovation in
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.com
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 forced 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 uh 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 Shar
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 the various sources may be
identified as
four one as I mentioned pre-islamic
practices two 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
sahabah 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
statement made by the pagans in the time
of prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam which Allah enshrined in the
Quran in Surah ma verse 104 and it was
repeated a number of times elsewhere in
the Quran different wording but
basically the same Allah says
there our
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
paganist argument an argument of
ignorance which Allah cursed first 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
dowy how over Dary 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 dowy to the
husbands to the husband to be the groom
Islam it is the husband the groom who
gives the DIY
to the
bride Dar 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 diary to the
groom because the women in these
cultures were
worthless in Europe in the Dark
Ages Christian Scholars debated whether
women had souls or
not in
India they practiced Hindus practiced
the custom called
seti if a woman's husband
dies and they burnt 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 p 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 often times are a result
of
promises the parents of the Bride
promise the groom we will get you a
Mercedes we'll get you a big house we'll
get you you know 50-in television you
know they promise
everything
and the groom takes the bride then after
they get they're married they're
living some of the things that are
promised are not
fulfilled the groom's getting upset
where's the stuff your parents
promised she says 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 amongst the Muslims it may
be less but still 300 women in Pakistan
every year I don't know how many in
India and how many in Bangladesh and 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 cultur natur
Al
Islam in the case of
Egypt where that son dismembered his
mother after strangling her along with
her 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 the
culture culture inherited from the fonic
times in The fonic 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 remained like a
symbol 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 who 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
might not seem as d
dangerous instead we have here for
example the practice called
tah right where three nights after
somebody dies Yasin is
red seven nights if you're from royalty
it's a
month of course it's based
on unauthentic Hadith Hadith not as
authentic all the the hadiths about
Surah Yin are false there's no authentic
Hadith about Surah Yas being the heart
of the Quran it is well-known fabricated
inauthentic Hadith everything has a
heart and the Heart of the Quran is
Yassin nonsense read Yin for your dead
nonsense not
authentic
so it is a false
practice though there are weak or
fabricated Hadith behind
it maybe not as
dangerous as what happens in happen in
uh bird uh bride burning 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
bersanding or bandong is it ding or dong
I'm not
sure
ding okay and this uh Adat binges
binges 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 sh
or borderline
shik 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 Omar
when making ta and he stopped in the
midst of the TA and pointed to the black
stone and said I know you can neither
bring any good for me nor harm me the
only reason why I kiss you is because
the messenger of Allah kissed you
sallallahu alaihi wasallam he is
affirming no
Baraka there's no Baraka in kissing the
Blackstone 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 going
to you know do something for you but
this is
sh 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 PR practice because
it is not an Islamic practice this is
from Hindu tradition we also have
another practice called
bhatan or
sunat there's some other names for it
right where
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 sunah of wasallam that's
what he taught on the seventh day a baby
who is born on the seventh day you clip
off that bit of skin it's a minor
situation for a boy who was reach 11 and
12 this is now something
serious you're harming
people you know so it's not sunnat at
all it is
harm okay so really we need to deal with
such practices there's harm coming from
it now harm we talked about spiritually
in the
banding and now harm in the bhatan which
is physical harm so the potential is
there we have to relook at Islamic
culture
here and categorize
it we also
have among the adopted
practices the
maid very
popular people spend a lot of
time preparing for it conducting it Etc
but we have to understand fundamentally
that the
maid is not from Islamic culture it has
become the culture of Muslim PE people
in many places national holidays in many
Muslim countries however did Prophet
Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam
celebrate his
birthday no did his sahaba celebrate his
birthday no
did
the those who came after the sahabah did
they celebrate his birthday no did the
T
no 400 years after the death ofo
wasallam this practice began in Shiite
Egypt the
fatimids they began
it
and it
spread but it is not from the Sunnah
ofo wasallam actually the date of birth
of wasallam 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 birth
day of Jesus Christ tomorrow 25th of
December
the date of the
maid the 12th of R is
not the date of established birth of
prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam we also have another source of
cultural
Islam and this 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 maybe 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
or
or 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 people
claiming special status because they are
higher up on this spiritual
ladder
special
intercessors
called
aad 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 Allah's Baraka in
the
world we have clear
statements
of she
Naim
alusi famous for following here some of
the datus are among his
followers the ruler of brunai 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 she Naim will be there to take his
soul and hand it over to the angels of
the next
world not only that but when M and come
sit you up in the grave in the state of
the Grave we're sat up and we're asked
three
questions who was your lord what was
your religion and who was the prophet
sent to
you she Nim will be there to whisper in
your ear
Allah
Islam Muhammad s alai wasallam 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
people
indulgences guaranteed seats in
Paradise so we have today Sheikh Naim
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 but people who believe this are
in serious trouble spiritually people
who believe that there are intercessors
who we can pray to besides Allah
law between us and Allah are in serious
trouble
the last major
group which
produced what we could call again
cultural Islam
Distortion is the religious
fanatical
groups the most popular ones or most
well-known ones of the
past were the
mhbs
the
mabs I know here
in
Malaysia everybody is
shaffi
generally I know when I went for Hajj
and um there were some people from uh
South India South India are shaf
also and I saw this brother we're making
woodoo 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
massah you know Prophet Muhammad sallai
wasallam when he did Mah he took his
hands this is recorded authentic Hadith
and he wiped from the front to the back
back to the front this his complete head
this is
M he said I'm
sha I said no problem you know sha but
uh this is not how it is done Imam Shafi
didn't even do
this
he said you're 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 hairs on the front of his head
comes from that it was from a you know
Scholastic linguistic
argument where some Shafi Scholars were
debating about what constitutes the
minimum of
mass this is just a Scholastic argument
what is the minimum which would
constitute Mas they said okay Mas means
wiping your hair the word for hair
is so if you wipe one hair one hair is
called
sh
if you rpe two haars it's
called if you wipe three hears it's
called sh so they said okay so the
minimum required for
Mah that would make Mah acceptable is to
wipe at least three
hairs okay all right that's a wonderful
debate and discussion and Scholastic
argument but that's not whato wasallam
did he didn't do that so what are we who
are we supposed to be
following reality is that Imam
Shafi wasn't a
shaf yeah his name was
Shafi but he didn't follow the Shafi
maab that we know
today that shaf maab came about after
his
time Abu hanifah wasn't a
hanafi that's
reality all of the imams were not
followers of the mabs which are
attributed to them so what is it they
were following they were following the
mhab ofo S alaihi
wasallam that's why both
IM and imif
said if the Hadith is authentic then
that is my true
maab that's the
principle so where we get into fanatic
fanaticism about
maab and remember this
fanaticism after the 13th century
reached the point where it was ruled in
the hanafi maab that it is not
permissible for a hanafi to marry a
Shafi
not
permissible over another Scholastic
argument whether it was acceptable to
say if somebody asked you are you a
Muslim
Muslim for you to
answer
inshallah hanafi said that means you're
not a
Muslim you're supposed to to say n and a
Muslim no inshallah here because
inshallah indicates
doubt and whoever is in doubt in their
Iman has no
Iman so therefore not allowed for
hanafis to marry
shaf this what is
this this is where Muslims
reached later on couple hundred years
later 300 years years later or 400 years
later one of the uh hanfy Scholars said
okay we will treat sha
like we can marry
them
problem and you all
know that they stopped praying behind
each other so that up until
1925
there were four Salas going on around
the
Caba when the time for Salah came like M
came here
now the for was
given
then would be given under
M A
Shafi so all the people who were making
taah were sha they would come and line
up behind a sha IM make
when he's finished then the Hani IM
would get up they make aama all hanafis
would pray then Maliki then h four Salah
going on around the
Caba until
1925 and this was one of the great evils
according to people cultural Muslims
that the wahhabis did they came into
Mecca and they broke down these
structures the makat and they said only
one
Imam alhamdulillah that was 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
mam sha makam Hani M as you have mam
ibraim we know that one's real but this
other ones mam sha m
h 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 Mak ibraim this
Isam but to break down Mak sha this is
waj not just Halal but
waj because it doesn't belong there it
represents the splitting up of the
umah so I'm not calling to rejection of
madhabs in the sense that we should
never follow a maab or don't follow maab
no it's okay to follow maab follow the
scholars whoever you follow is going to
be following some maab a scholar you
don't have the knowledge to go to the
sources of Islam you have to follow
somebody knowledge no harm to follow
somebody in Shafi or hanafi or 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't then you follow the
scholar
and it's pleasing to Allah subhana wa
tala inshallah because the scholar is
part of a tradition trying to follow the
maab of sallallahu alaihi wasallam
so Islamic
culture is the culture produced by
following the Islamic
teachings has
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
umah true
Islam as for the cultural practices we
have to we 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 that 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 we were the best of Nations why
because we command the good what we
forbid the evil as Muslims we have to
stand forth for what is correct what is
true and what is true is Islamic 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 rasool Allah
revealed by Allah and taught BYO s alh
wasallam and I close asking Allah to
accept our gathering here as one in
which we have sought to remember him to
remember the message which he conveyed
through his Prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi 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 Islamic culture
in our lives and to teach that culture
to those who are responsible
for