I have been invited to Oslo, Norway along with Sh. Hussain Yee, ‘Abdur Raheem Green and Yusuf Chambers for a major Isalmic conference from 27th March until the 31th. My topics are: “In Search of Inner Peace,” “Da’wah in Desert Storm”, “Dajjal – Sign of the Last Hour”. And I’ll also be doing an intensive “Da’wah training course” for those eager to spread Islam in Norway. Hope to see some of the UK crew there – its only an 80 GBP plane ride from London, Heathrow.
Tags: Da'wah, Dajjal, Desert Storm, Oslo
Mash’Allah brother, may Allah bless you for the work you are doing, I have learnt a lot from your lectures. Please I ask you to understand that I am not computer savvy still trying to learn, once again may Allah reward you for all the good work you are doing for the sake of Allah, Ameen. Salaams sister Rehana.
Assalaamualaikum brother,
It would wonderful if the lectures in the coference telecast live from Peace TV, and some other internation channels as well so that both muslims and non muslims can watch and listens. This may change our lives and help us to understand islamic monotheism better than what we know now.
Jazaakallah Khairan.
Assalamu alaikum. It would be good to get those audio’s. May be you have a personal recorder?
Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips on Suicide
http://www.salafitalk.net/st/viewmessages.cfm?forum=31&topic=10828
A classic case of “statements out of context”, choosing the “worst possible meaning” and “putting words in people’s mouths” which the Western media is famous for. But when I see it coming from within our own ranks, it is very saddening.
So, you wanna make a name for yourself, take a “pot shot” at the “big guy”. It’s a lot quicker than producing quality work for which you will eventually be known. The Islamic Studies Series of 4 books to date (originally produced 30 years ago), have a total of around 1,000 pages. Let’s sift through them to see what we can find to turn people away from bilal philips. There’s sure to be some mistakes, as no one is above mistakes… And if we can’t really find them or enough of them, we can always manufacture some.
Wa alaykum salaam,
Many of the channels have internet channels where the lectures can be watched continually.
Dear Sheikh,
Salam alaikum. Did u get my emails? I sent them to your two email addresses mentioned in your facebook account. And may Allah bless you all for the good works you are doing for Islaam.
A classical case of using “words out of context”, taking the “worst possible meaning” and “putting words in people’s mouths” which they didn’t say. This is to be expected from the Western Media with their agenda of maligning Islam, but it is particularly sad when it comes from within our own Muslim ranks, especially from those who claim to follow the same manhaj. If anyone reads the text in the context of the brief Tafseer of Soorah al-Inshiraah, verse 5 “For verily with every difficulty comes ease” (vol. 3, pages 84-85) in which it came, it will be obvious what brother Moosaa Richardson has done.
As for Mr. Richardson’s statement: “In this passage, Dr. Philips contradicts the belief of Ahlus-Sunnah and supports the belief of the Khawaarij and the Mu’tazilah: that the one who commmits suicide is a kaafir who will remain in the Hellfire forever.”
Is this really the position of the Khawaarij and Mu’tazilah? Or is their position that anyone who enters Hell never leaves which automatically includes a believer who commits suicide and enters Hell? Do I support the position of the Khawaarij and Mu’tazilah? Of course not. I have written against their position in most of my books on ‘aqeedah and tafseer. Furthermore, did I say that one who commits suicide is a kaafir? No i didn’t. What i said is that the “concept that Allah has burdened him beyond his God-given abilities” is in reality equivalent to kufr, which is true without a shadow of a doubt. Did I say that one who has a concept of kufr is a kaafir? No I didn’t. As it is well known that I hold that doing an act of kufr, or saying or thinking a word or thought of kufr, does not make a person a kaafir!!!
Brother Moosaa’s footnote: “Please note that anyone who might claim that I am hunting for mistakes or “out to get” Dr. Philips should simply fear Allaah and realize that I have nowhere near the time, resources, nor motive to hunt for his mistakes.” is questionable. If it were simply a matter of corrections, he could easily send them to me and discuss them academically, and if I refused to correct what was in fact serious mistakes, then informing readers publically would be necessary. However, my brother, Ibn John, has never contacted me or discussed these issues with me. Why? What are his motives?
Anyway, according to the link, many people responded and challenged our brother Moosaa seeking to defend my honor in my absense, and I thank them. However, Mr. Richardson then came back with:
Dr. Philips said, “In fact, the Prophet (sallallaahu ‘alayhe wa sallam) himself informed us that one who kills himself will find himself in the Hell-fire forever…”
This along with his statement:
This misunderstanding is based on a false interpretation of a hadeeth in al-Bukhaaree (5778) and Muslim (109), that the one who kills himself either by stabbing himself, poisoning himself, or throwing himself from a mountain, will be made to repeat that action in the Hellfire repeatedly, “khaalidan mukhalladan feehaa abadan”, meaning: for an extremely long period of time, but not forever, as understood by the scholars of Ahlus-Sunnah, as will be explained further in this article. ”
Ask any scholar of Arabic and Deen what the words “khaalidan mukhalladan feehaa abadan” mean. How it should be translated, with 3 words of emphasis “khaalidan” (everlastingly), “mukhalladan feehaa” (forever in it) and “abadan” (eternally). Those were the words of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). The fact that there are exceptions don’t change his words. It was a general statement which can be repeated. And in the context where clarification is needed, it should be given. My words were in the context of Allah’s promise of ease with every difficulty, not as brother Moosaa entitled his article “Dr. Bilal Philips on Suicide”. If you want to know my position on suicide, then ask me and it will be clear that you have erred in this matter.
There are other issues in the brother’s statements, but I don’t want to turn this into a book, so I will stop here. As for those who don’t have my book “Islamic Studies” and would like to see the statement in context I will gladly email the whole tafseer of the verse from the book for you.
Furthermore, the scholars who brother Moosaa quoted on this issue of Aqeedah to clarify the positon of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaa’ah are Ash’aris (or at least 2 out of the 3 if we exclude Imaam an-Nawawi)!!!
Actually Mr Richardson should be hauled over the coals for his tricky sticky statement when people objected to his claim that I made takfeer of the one who committed suicide, he said:
“No one who claims Islaam as their religion believes that there are some Muslims who have to go to the Hellfire forever. Thus, to say that someone shall be in the Hellfire forever is a statement of takfeer. The words that follow in the passage are an attempt to justify why he should be in the Hellfire forever.”
This implies that the Khawaarij and Mu’tazilites aren’t Muslims since that’s exactly what they say, Muslims who go to hell will stay there forever!!! Sounds like Takfeer here to me!!! Mr Richardson is doing exactly what he accused me of doing!!!
As to the arguments concerning why people commit suicide, most people who commit suicide do in fact believe that they are overburdened, overwhelmed by stress and depression. Please note also that my discussion was about people in general and not specifically Muslims. Non-Muslims are three quarters of the world, and this is the most common reason for them even if it may not be so for Muslims (which remains to be proven). I only mentioned Muslims in the last sentence of the tafseer saying, “Muslims are not permitted to give up hope in Allah at any time and they are expected to look at difficulties as merely temporary tests from Allah, soon to followed by a period of ease.”
Dr. Bilal, you’re probably wasting your time responding to Moosaa’s accusations, although, it’s good that you’re clarifying things for others; for that, may Allah reward and bless you.
You are probably right. I did it mainly for others, as it was others who conveyed Moosaa’s criticism to me.
I was doing a bit of research into this issue last night as I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit since seeing Moosaa’s article (which was sent to me via TROID’s mailing list) … mainly because I’ve translated the particular hadith Moosaa’s focusing on in the same manner you did, i.e., that the one who commits suicide will be in the Fire forever.
In my research, I found a lot of evidence to support this position. For example, in his al-Kaba’ir, Imam adh-Dhahabi mentions three or four authentic (agreed upon) hadiths that indicate such, one of which where Prophet Muhammad (saws) mentions that an unnamed man from those who came before us sustained an injury and grew anxious, killing himself by taking a knife and cutting his hand and bleeding to death as a result. He (saws) then mentions that Allah says, “My slave accosted Me with his soul, so I’ve forbidden Paradise for him.”
I also checked out Ibn Hajar’s Fat·h al-Bari and skimmed through a couple of these hadiths’ explanations, particularly the hadith I just mentioned and the hadith you mentioned in your Islamic studies book. Ibn Hajar mentions that there are several different explanations that the scholars have given to these hadiths … roughly seven or eight if I remember correctly. I found it interesting to note (unless I misread what Ibn Hajar was saying as I was only skimming through) is that the particular explanation Moosaa forwards (i.e., that khalidan mukhallidan abadan means only for a very long period of time, but not forever) is “the furthest” of the different explanations … I’m assuming here that Ibn Hajar means the furthest from what is correct, and Allah is more knowledgeable.
Thanks for the reference, however, the text below to which you were referring actually said:
” حَرَّمْت عَلَيْهِ الْجَنَّة ” وَالثَّانِي يَقْتَضِي تَخْلِيد الْمُوَحِّد فِي النَّار
وَالْجَوَاب عَنْ الثَّانِي مِنْ أَوْجُه :
أَحَدهَا : أَنَّهُ كَانَ اِسْتَحَلَّ ذَلِكَ الْفِعْل فَصَارَ كَافِرًا .
ثَانِيهَا : كَانَ كَافِرًا فِي الْأَصْل وَعُوقِبَ بِهَذِهِ الْمَعْصِيَة زِيَادَة عَلَى كُفْره .
ثَالِثهَا : أَنَّ الْمُرَادَ أَنَّ الْجَنَّة حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْهِ فِي وَقْت مَا كَالْوَقْتِ الَّذِي يَدْخُل فِيهِ السَّابِقُونَ أَوْ الْوَقْت الَّذِي يُعَذَّب فِيهِ الْمُوَحِّدُونَ فِي النَّار ثُمَّ يَخْرُجُونَ .
رَابِعهَا : أَنَّ الْمُرَاد جَنَّة مُعَيَّنَة كَالْفِرْدَوْسِ مَثَلًا .
خَامِسهَا : أَنَّ ذَلِكَ وَرَدَ عَلَى سَبِيل التَّغْلِيظ وَالتَّخْوِيف وَظَاهِره غَيْر مُرَاد .
سَادِسهَا : أَنَّ التَّقْدِير حُرِّمَتْ عَلَيْهِ الْجَنَّة إِنْ شِئْت اِسْتِمْرَار ذَلِكَ .
سَابِعهَا : قَالَ النَّوَوِيّ يَحْتَمِل أَنْ يَكُون ذَلِكَ شَرْع مَنْ مَضَى أَنَّ أَصْحَاب الْكَبَائِر يَكْفُرُونَ بِفِعْلِهَا .
فتح الباري 6/500
Which actually said [Ibn Hajar stated said the following]: “Paradise would be forbidden for him,” and the second (narration) implies that the Islamic monotheist would be in the Hellfire forever.
The answer to the second narration is from a number of perspectives:
1. That he (who committed suicide) considered the act halaal (permissible) and therefore became a disbeliever.
2. He was basically a disbeliever and was punished with this sin in addition to his disbelief.
3. That the intended meaning is that Paradise was forbidden to him for a period of time like the time in which the Early Ones (Saabiqoon) will enter Paradise, or the time in which the Islamic monotheists will be punished in Hell, then they will leave.
4. That the intended meaning was a particular Paradise, like Firdous.
5. That this was used to stress the gravity (of the sin) and scare (people away from it) and the obvious meaning was not intended.
6. The understood completion is “Paradise is forbidden to him, if I wish that state to continue.”
7. An-Nawawi said that it was possible that that was according to the previous Sharee’ah and that those who committed major sins became disbelievers for doing them.
Ibn Hajar mentioned these explanations to negate the obvious literal textual meaning of these hadeeths, it is well known among Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaa’ah that the sinfull believers will not be in Hell forever. There are many other highly authentic hadeeths which explain that all the believers in Hell will be removed by Allah after all the intercessions of His creatures have ended.
Actually, I was referring to another place in <i>Fath al-Bari</i> … I can’t remember the exact reference right now, but I also recall reading what you posted.
I mentioned what I did to show that there’s more to the issue than Moosaa’s showing his readers; Ibn Hajar mentions that these various opinions (wrong or right) are those forwarded by scholars from Ahl as-Sunnah to reply to the Mu’tazilah who used these hadiths as proof that those who commit disobedient acts will reside in the Fire.
Off topic, I heard that you’re in town (T.O.). Will you be here for long and will you be speaking anywhere? (I haven’t really been in the loop regarding local events as of late).
Nevermind, I just saw your latest blog post, hah.
Yes. I’m in Toronto for 2 weeks, in shaa Allaah. Gave the khutbah of Jumu’ah at Salaahuddin Mosque on Friday, and a lecture on Preparing for the Hereafter last night. Tonight I have another lecture on “The Way to Happiness” at Salaahuddin. If you want to give me a call, you can get me at my son’s place 4164930011 or my local mobile 4166255084.
It seems that either Moosaa’s read some of your replies to his criticism or someone’s informed him of some of the points you’ve made as he’s edited his original posts, heh.
I’m not sure if you’ve seen it, or if you even care about their continual criticisms of you on this issue, but I’ve written a papper on Moosaa’s skewed presentation of this issue for my blog. There’s also some additional discussion in the comments section of the post.
I was intending to send it to your first to get your thoughts on it before publishing it, but due to Moosaa’s continual editions and additions, I decided to publish it anyway. Here’s the link if you or any of your visitors are interested:
http://rasheedgonzales.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/moosaas-mountain-out-of-bilals-molehill/
Your response was quite comprehensive. Maa shaa Allaah. Someone else added Sh AlAlbaanee’s similar statements on the subject. I really should put a warning up on my websites and the IOU for people to beware of SP misinformation and extremism as well as on Youtube. Since there is no opportunity to respond on SP sites at least some examples like this need to be circulated for people to be aware of their twisted unislamic methodology.
As-Salamu ‘alaykum Dr Bilal.
I personally would appreciate if you can produce a warning (written or speech) with regards to SP misinformation. It’s getting more and more intolerable, especially when it is done in the name of “Salafi”.
Akh Rasheed, hope you’ve read my recent comment on your blog. I’m still quite confused about the issue of suicide, especially with Moosaa’s quoting from Shaykh Bin Baz, Shaykh Uthaymeen and Shaykh al-Fawzan.
Suicide is a very serious sin, counted among the greater sins (al-kaba’ir). Severe threats of eternity in the Fire are mentioned in several texts both from the Qur’an and in several hadiths. There is also a lot of discussion about these threats and their true implications within the ranks of the People of the Sunnah, contrary to the portrait Moosaa wishes to paint for his audience.
There are so many different aspects to this discussion that to paint it as if it were black and white, as Moosaa’s trying to do here, is unjust and in my opinion amounts to academic dishonesty, especially from someone in Moosaa’s position, being a gratuate from Umm al-Qura Uni. He says that someone like me whose Arabic isn’t too great and whose level of knowledge is miniscule should be honest with himself, but someone in his position should be honest enough to give his blind followers readers a fuller picture of the issue and mention the other opinions that scholars from the People of Sunnah have used to explain these texts. Like seriously, how much understanding of Arabic and how high a level of knowledge do you need to see that both Imams an-Nawawi and Ibn Hajar mention several opinions regarding what “khalidan mukhalladan fiha abadan” means??? Does he think we’re retarded or something?
Oops, I had intended to strike out “blind followers” in my previous post and replace it with “readers”. Sorry about that.
Mr Bilal Philips
You are one of the most knowledgeable Personality which has an indept knowledge of Islam, I request you to start your Islamic University in Mumbai India which will help us a lot to face real life Problems
السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
يا فضيلة الشيخ بلال إسمي عبد الودود ماريغا جنسية السنغال
يا شيخ بلال والله أنا أحبك فالله أنا مأذن كبير في سينغال أقلّد
شيخ عبد الباسط في الآذان شكرا لك جزاك الله خير الجزاء
wa alaykum salaam,
May Allah love you for loving me for His sake.
salaam alaykum brother Intakhab,
The brothers in Chennai accepted the idea and came together to help me establish it. http://www.prestonchennai.ac.in
I had tried earlier with Dr Zakir Naik, but he was not interested in such a project at that time.
If you have people in Mumbai who want to establish the university. I would be only to glad to help you. It can be a branch of what I have already set up in chennai, as it is accredited.
was salaam
assalamu alaikum! brother,here a man name: P. Zainul Abidheen Ulavi (PJ), President, Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamaath (TNTJ),chennai. is telling that zakah is only once in a life time and regarding this matter he is ready to debate with you…he also tells in his website(http://onlinepj.com/vimarsanangal/ithara_vimarasanagal/) that you are not intersested in debate and bla bla bla things about you…kindly,i want your words regarding the zakah issue
wa alaykum salaam. When I first heard about his claims in Chennai, I publically refuted them in a lecture. His claims are incorrect, based on his own innovated interpretation with no solid evidence to support them. Zakaat is required every year on the money you have above the nisaab (minimum exemption limit). PJ requested back in 2002 to debate with me when I was there in Chennai, but he didn’t know how to speak Arabic (which is clear evidence of his ignorance), so I asked him to write down his response to my refutation. Normally, he didn’t write down anything of his claims, so he couldn’t be caught and so he could change his statements as he wished. Anyway, he was forced to write, so when he did, I wrote a clear refutation of his written argument which I included in my book called: “The Chennai Treatise on Zakaat”. It was published in English and translated into Tamil and distributed in Tamil Nadu. All the evidence is there with all the references. In the end, the proof was so clear that he was forced to make another claim of deviation which was that we are not obliged to follow the understanding of the Sahaabah, in order for him to justify his claim which goes against 1,400 years of scholarship. And from there, he has made many other deviant claims, which is to be expected. You may get a copy of my refutation from Preston International College in Chennai.
assalamu alaikum! brother,is there any age limit in islamic university, Madeenah. to pur.sue a degree in islamic studies
wa alaykum salaam. The maximum acceptance age is 25.
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You obviously know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your weblog when you could be giving us something informative to read?
Damian,
salaam alaykum. What do you think my 56 book series called the Eemaan Reading series was? It was the practical islamization of the curriculum for English from pre-kindergarten to grade three!!! That was done 10 years ago, and no one that I know of has followed my lead. Back in the 70s and early 80s, volumes were written on the subject of Islamization of knowledge, so the one video you saw is only a reminder and not, as you put it “throwing away my intelligence”. It was addressing Muslim educators in London, and al hamdu lillaah, the response was very good. I woke up a number of people, which was what it was intended to do. So if you want informative reading on the theory of Islamization, buy and read the 100s of books written on the topic, and if you want to read and use something practical, buy and let you children read my Eemaan Reading Series.