Halal TubeSuhaib Webb – Voice of an American Muslim
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AL-HAMDUDILAH!
MashaAllah, great lecture as usual.
A highly suggest every American Muslim to listen to!
[…] For some further thoughts on urf in the American context listen to Imam Suhaib Webb’s lecture “Voice of an American Muslim.” […]
lol at the girl near the end “That sound so cool, where can I sign up?”
As-Salamu Alaikum,
With all due respect “Imam”, I just want to say that listening to your speech “Voice of an American Muslim” made me sick to my stomach. You made a few good points like saying we have to study our Din and that we must not let culture affect our Din. But most of it I did not agree with it at all.
Your speech reminds me of the hadith where the Prophet (saw) said that knowledge would be lifted by the death of the scholars and then igonrant people would come and give fatwa based on their desires and thereby they would misguide the people. I think you are one of those ignorant people who migusides.
Here are few points I took away from your speech…
“Muslims (especially Immigant Muslims) are stupid and Kufar are smart”. Do you know that Allah (swt) says in the Quran that one of the signs of a hypocrite is that they are harsh to the believers and humble before the disbelievers.
“We should only worry about what is going on in American and forget about our Muslim brothers suffering in other parts of the world”. Do you know the hadith where the Prophet (saw) said that this Ummah is like one body. If one part is suffering then the other feels the pain. Since you do not feel the pain I guess you are not one of us.
“We do not need to protect our kids from this Western culture”. Do you know how much shamelessness is there this culture? Do you know the sick things kids in America talk about even in first grade, and do you know how many kids lose their Iman and become atheist in this society? How then can you say that we do not need to protect our kids?
“Only 5 % of Islam comes from Allah (swt), the rest is from human beings”. Do you know that a principle of fiqh is that the opinion of the mujathid is Hukum Sharia as long as it based on a valid ijtihad.
“It is okay for a Muslim man to miss Salah Jummah because of work”. How can you say that when Allah (swt) says”O you who believe when the call for prayer is sounded, come to the Remembreance of Allah and leave businsss”.
“It is okay for a Muslim woman to allow a stranger in her hourse and chit chat with him when her husband is not at home”. Is this not the first step to Zina? I guess that is ok as well in your mathab. I know your goal is to make Islam “easy”.
“It is okay for a Muslim sister not to cover herself”. Once again clearly in the Quran Allah (swt) says that Muslims sisters should cover.
You are trying to make Islam easy for the people. But did it ever occur to you that Islam was not meant to be easy? Was not easy very difficult for the Sahahbah? Do you know the hadith where the Prophet (saw) said that Paradise was surronded by the hardships? Do you know the hadith where the Prophet (saw) said that in later time holding on to your Din would be like holding on to fire?
So yes it is hard to be a Muslim today but Jannah is not cheap my brother. Instead of telling the people that it is ok to sin we should be motivating them to be better. We should remind them of Paradise and Hell. We should remind them of the Glory and Majesty of Allah (swt) and how hard we have to strive to please Him (swt). So yes we all do sin, but sin is not accetpable and we should alwats try and fix oursleves and make ourselves better. This I did not get from your speech.
I think instead of brining the people closer to Allah (swt) you made them more distant. Please think deeply about what you are preaching my brother. You will be questioned about your words to the people.
How can you say that there is no clash of civlizations when what we believe and what they believe is so different. We believe that life is about being a slave for Allah (swt) and they believe life is about being a slave for themselves and their desires. We should guide them. We should show them the way. But we should them how we are different. How we are guided and they are not.
It is clear that you do not get this point. That is why you are only worried about making a good life for your family here and not establishing Allah (swt) law i the land. Which of these was the concern of the Prophet (saw) and the Sahabah? They sacrificed the good life so that the Divine Kingdom can be established on the earth.
Salam.
Mashallah this is a great lecture.
Those who mean to misunderstand what the Imam says, should graduate from AL-AZHAR and then talk. And I also assume you are not from the US because what he says is quite accurate of the situation here and he knows his audience well. Take your arrogance elsewhere thanks.
salam brother abd rahman,
let me clear the air for you point by point. you accused that brother suhaib said:
1. “Muslims (especially Immigant Muslims) are stupid and Kufar are smart.” He said that the dominant discourse of islam in america is immigrant in nature, both preserved and imposed, which marginalizes for better or worse a much relevant yet salient demographic landscape of those that are native to it, including those first generation children of immigrants.
2. “We should only worry about what is going on in American and forget about our Muslim brothers suffering in other parts of the world.” He said that inasmuch he feels for brothers who landed in america from dar-al-islam, his own reality is tied down to the existential harms and benefits which he can control for all good reasons or bad, within the cultural and political borders that is his intellectual and physical home.
3. “We do not need to protect our kids from this Western culture.” I don’t know what culture you feel you belong to but he undeniably is part of the pluri-culture that involves the western cultural tradition and more. I don’t think he is any worried than you would be to save himself from the culture that nurtured him.
4. “Only 5 % of Islam comes from Allah (swt), the rest is from human beings.” This is a good example of how one can be hitting a wide-ball and blowing the context by a misquote. imam suhaib was talking about a body of law derived from the legislated processes of interpreting the Quran and hadith with a wide array of instruments left by a legacy of fuqaha which you summerized as man-made.
6. “It is okay for a Muslim man to miss Salah Jummah because of work.” Let me ask you a question, what would you have done if you couldn’t quit your job as a dump truck worker without risking prolonged unemployment if you wanted to pray jummah. what would you have done if you had young mouths of feed and no immediate replacement skills? just a thought.
7. “It is okay for a Muslim woman to allow a stranger in her hourse and chit chat with him when her husband is not at home.” Weren’t the wives of our prophet (the mothers of the ummah) our first teachers after he passed away? With your sense of protectionist policies how else would we have known about the shariah that only the prophet’s wives could have relayed to us through his homies?
8. “It is okay for a Muslim sister not to cover herself.” Purdah/Hijab as a covering has a general understanding that applies to both men and women but the scholars do have disagreements over a fixed dress code, enabling muslim men and women the freedom to negotiate the paradigms that form their private and public spaces.
Now lets turn the table on what you have stated:
1. “You are trying to make Islam easy for the people. But did it ever occur to you that Islam was not meant to be easy?” Are you saying that islam is supposed to be hard boiled egg and not one sunny-side-up over easy? My understanding as well as most muslims is that the prophet Muhammad’s (saw) mission in life was to make Islam super easy for his ummah.
2. “Instead of telling the people that it is ok to sin we should be motivating them to be better.” Did imam Suhaib said anywhere that it is ok to sin? I doubt. Rather the purpose of his lecture was to contextualize the importance of identity construction through one’s own cultural artefacts in which one is socialized to relate oneself ontologically with “others”.
3.”I think instead of brining the people closer to Allah (swt) you made them more distant.” Brother Suhaib has brought more people closer across the globe than you and I have done personally so lets give him the credit that is due to him.
5. “How can you say that there is no clash of civlizations when what we believe and what they believe is so different. We believe that life is about being a slave for Allah (swt) and they believe life is about being a slave for themselves and their desires.” The clash of civilization is a dead theory my brother, look at egypt, tunisia, libya, palestine and half a dozen countries in the middle east, do you see a clash of interest between the classes of muslims there and the middle class living in the west? aren’t people everywhere interested in good governance, safety, education and social welfare?
6. “That is why you are only worried about making a good life for your family here and not establishing Allah (swt) law i the land.” You couldn’t be more wrong, if you had known him the way we who had been his homies, know him, irrespective of our origin and language, culture and belief systems, you would have understood that his purpose is none other than to build bridges between communities.
peace
Shakib
Abd Rahman,
I feel that you have grossly misunderstood this lecture. You were unnecessarily rude in your post, which makes me think that you should probably re-read the hadith you quoted about hypocrites being hard on the believers.
Brother Webb is not saying to make Islam easy or to compromise on the essential and foundational aspects of what we believe. He’s saying that the things you may be uncomfortable with, due to your cultural background and parameters, are not necessarily sinful things or things that should be feared. And it is ridiculous to expect American muslims to start acting Arab, or Indian, or Indonesian, when we come from a culture that, despite what you obviously believe, is NOT all bad, and IS our own.
And please, brother, be careful in whom you generalize to be “kufr.” If in your mind kufr = American, then you are missing another very important point made in this lecture: 50% or more of AMERICAN muslims, are AMERICAN. We are millions in numbers. Muslims come from all parts of the world, speak many different languages, wear different kinds of clothing, eat different kinds of food, and that is OK. We don’t all have to be one giant group of robot people who do everything exactly the same. There are bad people and influences in EVERY culture, so it is ridiculous to think that the only children who need protecting from potentially dangerous influences are the ones living in America. Please be reasonable.
I pray Allah changes your heart.
Salamo Alaikum
Sister Hannah,
Bismillah. Alhamdulilah. Wa Salam ala Rassulullah.
I feel you have grossly misunderstood my post.I responded to all of the contentions brohter Webb made with evidences from the Quran and Sunnah. You have responded to my contentions with your own opinions. You have not produced any evidence from the text to support any of your positions.
In fact it is clear that you are very ignorant of the Quran and Sunnah. You say that it is ok to be “American” and that we “don’t all have to be one giant group of robot people who do everything exactly the same”. Do you know all the ayahs and the hadith where we are commanded to be united? Do you know the hadith where the Prophet (saw) said we are like one body? For you to say that we can break off from the rest of the Muslim Ummah and form our own identity based upon a political affiliation to a kufr country, what is your evidence for that? Evidence from the text and not from your mind my sister.
I asked Brother Webb this same question over email 2 weeks ago and he still has not gotten back to me.
As Salaamu alaikum,
@ Abd Rahman. In regard to your first post, you misquote him extensively. It is a convention in any form of writing that the use of ” ” signifies that what is quoted is letter for letter the same as what was said.
Not only did he did not say what you said he said, but what was attributed to him in your post cannot even justifiably be called a paraphrase of Brother Suhaib’s statements.
Disagree, but be honest and academic in disagreement. Never be wrongful.
Wa salam.
As Salamo Alaikum again, Abd Rahman,
The intention of my response to your post was merely to state that you had inaccurately and unfairly “quoted” brother Webb. I do not need to draw from Hadith or Quran to demonstrate this point. My mind is certainly sufficient. And also, what position did I state that you find to be so disagreeable? I am Muslim, and American. There’s really not very much in that FACTUAL statement to raise theological debate.
You may find this verse helpful:
“O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).”
We’re different because Allah swt has made made us that way.
Peace
Hannah
I have a friend who’s Muslim and Chinese. He eats halal rice noodles.
Wa alaikum salam sister Hannah,
In regards to the verse you are quoting, please read the tafsir of that verse before you draw conclusions about it. The website below has a good tafsir of Surah Ahzab where that verse is from…
quran-tafsir.org
I am sorry but I mistook that ayah for a different one. But that tafsir is still good to read.
Salam Walaykum
I am not on any ones side here but please do not comment on the shaykh or for him. If he finds the need to respond he would respond insh’Allah and clear his own stance. And please brother do not label someone kufr without them clearly saying he does not testify of Allahs oneness and his Rasool s.a.w. Man is open to error its part of being in this gene pool so do not judge the shaykh or label him as such. He is still an ummati. So wait till the shaykh answers of why he said what he said.
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very knowledgeable. bad language.
wow, you’re an idiot. i wonder if what you’ve done for this deen is even 1/100th of what imam suhaib webb has done for it; i highly doubt it. i’ve come across a lot of internet warriors, ‘da’ees’ and ‘sheikhs’ like yourself, who’ve read a few articles and books about islam and listened to a few lectures and they suddenly feel that they’re qualified to ‘correct’ respected and knowledgeable imams. alhamdulillah for that, because every time i across you people, i have to exercise patience, thereby increasing it. a final point, having known and been around imam suhaib and seen him work and toil tirelessly for this deen, i have a special appreciation for people like him. May Allah (SWT) bless them, increase them in all that is good and give them the best of both worlds.
[…] For some further thoughts on urf in the American context listen to Imam Suhaib Webb’s lecture “Voice of an American Muslim.” […]
i listed to the 43 minutes……. cary on CUZ you aiet. fiamaan illa…….To the Brother and Muslims Calm man Calm if you worried about Sohiab spoilin it dont worry too much if you dont like em keep the distacne. Allah says in Quran they make a Plan and i make a Plan as well. So ask yourself who plan is ultimatly going to be effective. Later Guys. AOA