Alhamdulillah. Assalamu alaykum. Peace
be unto you. Today we're going to be
talking with our teacher, our sheh,
who's here to help us understand Islam,
the way of all the prophets, that way of
submission and surrender. Not to your
desires, not to a man, not to a woman,
but the one who created man and woman,
the creator of the heavens and the
earth. We're going to be trying to
distinguish Islam
from back home cultures.
It's kind of got intertwined. You got
some things, some confusion. So, we want
to make sure that we have the blueprint
because we want to do things right. We
want to do things according to how the
creator wants us to do things. We don't
want to follow our desires and get even
more confused. to help unravel the
confusion. When we come back, Shake Topi
Chri here on the Dean Show. Be right
back.
Allah,
there's only one word and Muhammad is
his messenger. Allah
Allah
Allah.
There's only one God and Jesus was his
messenger Allah.
I don't know why I did that. Maybe maybe
it's just to break the iceum.
How are you?
Very good. Thank you.
Thank you very much for being with us.
That's great. No problem.
How have you been?
Very good. Thank you.
I'm very excited that you're back with
us here on the Dean Show.
I know you're very busy traveling,
educating the people.
I proud to be. Thank you.
Dedicated your life to this beautiful
way of life Islam.
Wall you know uh I'm actually
indebted indebted to Allahh to my
families to my parents for actually
being able to do it you know
and you were last time as we spoke you
were also pursuing your doctorate degree
is that correct?
Yeah
in medicine. Yes.
So I can call you Dr. Chry now. Huh?
Uh I prefer you not to just call me
brother. That's right. Okay. So my my uh
sheh our teacher tell us now
we need to understand a little better
because people
know that Islam is that way of life the
way of life of all the messengers that
way of submitting yourself entirely to
the creator of the heavens and earth.
Yes.
But now we have some things that are
cultural practices. So there might be
some confusion to some of the lay people
because now there's some things that
might have developed over the years and
have gotten mixed up with Islam. So we
want to talk about a basic blueprint so
we don't get to mixing things up like a
buffet. So what is culture and what is
accepted with the normal cultures of
society and what is clear Islam and what
can mix and what can't mix. Let's talk
about this for a second.
Right.
It's I think a really really good
question because unfortunately what's
happened these days is that uh people
have obviously been born into Muslim
families and because of the the ultimate
the total lack of of Islamic education
uh and the fact that people don't even
know the basics of their religion
sometimes yes
people have forgotten the the difference
between what is culture and what is
Islam. So we find for example um in
Muslim countries these days uh people
pray not because they really want to
pray or because it's in their heart to
pray uh but really it's because it's
culture you know it's time to pray the
adan's coming
you know what do people generally do
they just go to the mosque and pray so
we might as well do that yes
or people for example wear the hijab not
because it's uh it's they're actually
doing it because to really want to
protect themselves from others
or to or to really be covered for the
sake of Allah subhana wa ta'ala but
they're doing it simply because it's
part of the culture and hijab uh has
just become a convenient way of dressing
to to cover up your uh you know yourself
and so in reality we need to break that
barrier and to break that barrier uh a
lot of education needs to happen uh a
lot of uh u dawa needs to happen the
people who do know the truth need to go
out and actually say that to people uh
and a lot of uh clarity needs to come
into the whole picture of exactly what
basic come out of knowledge needs to be
there in the minds of people so that you
can break the difference. So that really
depends upon the society that we're
talking about. Uh we know that in Islam
a certain amount of basic knowledge is
obligatory upon every single person. So
what is that basic amount of knowledge
that is obligatory on every person?
Well, we know that we need to know the
basics of our belief. We need to know
the basics of our actions. The things
that we need to do, we need to know the
basics of any action that the community
or the people do. uh that that they're
involved in. Like for example, before
they do business, they need to know
about the rulings of business. Before
they deal in marriage and divorce, they
need to know the rulings of marriage and
divorce.
Yes.
So ultimately, every believer is
required to know a certain set basic
amount of belief uh knowledge in in
a certain basic amount of knowledge in
belief and a certain basic amount of
knowledge in action. And when this is
clear in people's minds, then the
delineation between what is religion and
what is culture will become far more
clearer because the problem is happening
in in that the most basic things people
are mixing up with their culture.
So we know for example these days uh you
know female circumcision as let me give
you that example female circumcision
which is practiced in the African
countries in a way in which the whole
clitoris and the whole female genital
external genitals are actually removed.
This is something which is totally
against the principles of Islam.
Uh because the goal they say is to not
let women
have excessive desire. Right. That's the
understanding that is usually given.
Yeah.
Uh although in Islam there is no basis
for total removal of the of the
genitalia at all
because it's something cultural.
That is cultural. That is a practice an
African practice that has come into
Islam.
Yeah.
Uh not come into Muslims and their
practice. Right. In the same way like
for example you might say in India
uh the example is that in India we know
the Hindus uh when they used to marry
their daughters off they had to give
money to the husbands.
Mhm.
Whereas in Islam it's other way around.
In in Islam the the men have to give a
dowy or a marriage gift to the to the
women.
It's not the opposite way.
Not the opposite. Not the opposite. I
know for example even my own parents
they're Muslims right? Yes. And when
they got married, it was almost like my
parents, my mom had to give a gift to my
dad. Although my dad didn't accept it,
but the point was it was almost
expected.
Mhm.
As a cultural practice and we have many,
many similar cultural practices in many
things, whether it be times of death,
times of marriage, times of divorce,
times of, you know, prayer and worship,
you know, whether it be in our in our
Hajj and Omrah. We have so many things
which actually cultural practices that
really need to be rooted out and the
best way to do that is through
education.