RIGHTS AND LIMIT IN ISLAM – Some aspect of Islam that a lot of people

forget about.

ISLAM – means peace and submission to Allah. But it carries important

connotations for us, concepts and overall understanding. That is the
understanding of Islam. When Islam comes, it brings two important
ingredients. What are the ingredients?

1. HAQ: What is Haq? In Arabic it means right. Everybody gets rights

from Islam. The first one means Allah Right – which mean you cannot
worship anybody or anything beside Allah. This is the first Haq in Islam.
The second Haq or right in Islam is Muhammadar Rosulullah. It means
when Rasul s.a.w tells you something has a meaning in Quran you accept
it, when he shows you the way then you accept the way, so he has the
right. What’s the next right? The next right is the right of your Ummi –
your mother, because the Rasul s.a.w was asked a question – Who after
Allah and the Messenger has the most Haq on me? Who after Almighty
God and you has the most right on me? You know what he said! Your
mother and then who, your mother and then who, your mother and then
who, only then he say your father. So we see this is how the order of the
Haq comes. We learn from this Hadith – No.1 is ALLAH, No. 2 is Rasul
s.a.w and then your parents. Very important is the right of the parents.
And this is important for us to know in the Quran when Allah s.w.t tells us
the order of rights and He mention it more than one time by the way. He
talks about it in the Quran. First is the verse to worship Allah without any
partner and to obey the Rasul ( Ati Allah Wa Ati Ul Rasul). But then He
mentions about your family – the rights to your parents and don’t kill your
children, because of life necessities. And then He orders you not to take
the life of an innocent person – that’s the order that He comes in. It means
everybody has rights, you can’t simply kill people in Islam, you can’t do
that, no innocent people can be killed. Allah says that in the Quran. But
that’s what – I also study the Bible as a Christians for 27 years. And I know
it’s the same exact order in the Bible. It is, if you look in the Bible (they
don’t really have the Bible anymore they have translation only) But if you
look at chapter 20 Book of Exodus or the Book of Deuteronomy Chapter 5
you go and look and this, what it says. First you cannot have any partner
with Almighty God. Second no statues, no idols. Third – Allah names you
can’t used Allah names in a bad way. Fourth – you have to remember the
Sabbath, Saturday you can’t work you have to keep it like holy day – like
Jumaat for Muslim. Then obey your parents. The same as Islam. Now I
have only been talking about one. I said there are two things. I have only
been talking about Haq. What’s the other one? It’s call the BALANCE – Al-
Mizan.
Al-Mizan means a balance between two things – Haq on one side but a lot
of time we don’t hear about the other side. What the other side? LIMITS.
There are limits – everything that has rights has limits. The only thing that
has no limit to it is “La Illa Ha IL Lallah”. This one there is no limit.
Everything outside it has limit because your parents have rights (read
through surah Luqman chapter 31 and see what Luqman tell his son).
What he tell his son – only worship Allah, don’t make any partner with
Allah, then it says about obeying your parents in everything except if they
tell you to worship other than Allah. Right! So that’s a limit – Right! You
see it. And so after Allah and His Messenger that’s when the limit comes.
Everything has limits after that. You have rights but you have limits. Your
wife has right but she has limits. If you read in Surah An-Nisaa (the
chapter about women) and in verse 34 it starts out – Rojulun - which
means men or male have the responsibility to provide for the women (An
–Nisaa). All of the men has the responsibility to take care of all the
women. We have to care for our daughters, our sisters, our wives and our
mothers. We have to, its not optional. So at the same time though, she
also has limits. Look what the rest of the surah says. That the men are
responsible to provide for them and give security for them and because
they do these the women have to be obedient – that’s what Allah said.
And the meaning from the tafsir that I read, it says they have to be
obedient to Allah, and then to their husband. Why? Because how could
they obey their husband if he tell them to do something not in accordance
to Islam. Right! So it could also answer to some questions that people
always asked. For example. How come a Muslim women cannot marry a
Christian man or a Jewish man? Well, because she has to obey her
husband. Right! What’s going to happen? He is gonna say don’t pray,
don’t fast, don’t pay zakat, don’t do Hajj and don’t raise the children as
Muslim. She would have a horrible life and the children would go out of
Islam and it will be a big problem. Right! So we understand and Allah said:
Beleivers married Beleivers. Even when Allah give permission for the men
to marry women from the Ahlul Kitab – He has limits. Limits – He didn’t
say Oh! anybody who wears the cross you can get marry to them – He
didn’t say that. He didn’t say anybody who say I am a Christian, you can
marry them. He didn’t say that. He said from the Ahlul kitab they have to
be BELEIVERS – it has conditions and number two they have to be a
virgin. So Beleivers married Beleivers. And if a women said I am a
Christian, and I want to get married to these guy, a Muslim. The Muslim
should asked her what do you believe? Can you say a person who say I
believe there is a God and that God (Jesus) died for my sin. Is that really a
believer? Is that really somebody you – you want to say is a Beleiver. So
there has to be limits otherwise you are gonna get into trouble. Right!!
That’s why we a lot of time have trouble explaining our religion to non-
Muslim because we didn’t tell them about rights and limits. We only want
to talk about rights, women rights – women got to have rights, of course
they do. Do you think Allah didn’t know that? Who created women? Did
you? No! Did Adam? No! Allah created women. Right! Allah says in the
Quran: “O! Mankind – these mean who? Everybody. Yes everybody not
just Muslim, fear your Lord, who created you all – all of us were
created from who? From Adam a.s. And from Adam, Hawa and from these
two everybody came from them. So Allah know what He created. So it’s
not for you or me to say what women rights are. It’s not even you to say
what’s your rights are, Allah tells you what your rights are and what’s your
limits are. Right! As a Muslim - I have to take it from Allah. So the same is
true for the women. They cannot make up their rights. And I can’t make
up mine otherwise you are making up your ‘deen’ and if you are making
up your deen, Allah said in the Quran: “Innad Diina Indallah Hil
Islam”. So if we understood that, Allah is not going to accept anything as
a deen – way of life – except what He told you to do. Right! So women
cannot tell anybody what their rights are unless they based it on what
Allah says. And I can’t either. And when they say equal rights – there is no
such thing! I know when I say this people will say Oh! What a chauvinist! I
love women – I do. They are pretty, they are soft, they are lots of fun and
by the way I know the different between a boy and a girl. I do! I have five
children – Alhamdulillah – I know the difference. And guess what – boys
are not girls and girls are not boys – meaning they are not equal. And if
you didn’t know that – you can sign up for a course in Biology and they
will teach you. And you will find out they are not equal. So stop saying
women and men are equal.

But Islam give you something better than equal rights. Women
everywhere like to talk crazy – you know they start saying this and this
They want equal rights?

They want to change what Allah ordered. Let’s look at ‘Solat”. The
Muslims have to pray –five times a day. Men have to pray five times a day
– every day for the rest of their life, Right! How about women? Do you
pray the same many times as men, every day of every month. No! – so do
you want to change that, you want to start praying every single day. No
we can’t, because –you don’t have to explain it. Allah already took care of
that. I am just asking you, you wanna change what Allah gave you. Allah
gave what they called ‘Rukhsah’. What is Rukhsah? Concession,
permissiom, licence – all of these means it is something nice for you. Asa
traveler (Musafir). As Musafir do you have to pray as usual? No. As Musafir
you can shorten the prayer and you can group them. Why? Allah makes it
easy. For the women they have rukhsah for their solat. What about during
Ramadhan? What about Ramadhan, does she has to fast everyday? Whole
month! No! because she has some day where she is not allowed to fast.
Who set that up? Not me , not Muhammad s.a.w . Who made it up? Allah!!
This is his will, this is what he has ordered. This is his preordination. You
want to change it! So women don’t have equal rights. And men don’t have
equal rights either. But what we have is better. What’s better? It’s called
equity. Equity means – giving you the same amount you are supposed to
get. Eg. If we are a partner in a business but each one of us put in a
different amount, then we should only get the percentage that we put in
from the profit, that’s our equity. If everybody get the same that wouldn’t
be fair. Say I put 10 dollar, you put 10,000 dollar than the profit we shall
equally, forget about it that’s not going to happen. So there is no equal
right but there is equity. So I want to stress this over and over about
equity. Equity because Islam gives us rights. Rights with equity is the
limitations. Does that makes sense. So this makes everything easy.

Now I pick on the women to make it equity. Is that fair. I didn’t talk about
hijab for the ladies because they all know about that it’s in the qur’an but
what about us? What about clothes? Do men have to wear the surban,
jubah, kopiah and so on? No! Because you don’t need those to be a
Muslim. But I need to be covered up - properly! And what is the minimum
cover for men? And Islam tells you there is a minimum by the way, you
mustn’t go beyond this. So I have to keep covered up from my knee, to
my belly button and all has to be aurat and aurat has to be covered –
Right! Now in the books of Fikh explaining the understanding of the salah
– when you make salah you must also cover the top too. That is you need
to wear a shirt when you make salah. So now we have an understanding
about men but what about women?

The women has exactly the same rule as men – the women in the privacy
of her own home without anyone else she can feed her baby and that’s no
problem. There is no problem to feed her baby infront of her husband, or
her sister, her children there is no problem. She can do that – thus at
home a women doesn’t have to wear the hijjab. But if there is an outsider
coming then she has to wear the hijab. And its mention in the Quran in
surah An-Nur and in surah Al-Azhab and it tell them how to cover. But if a
women say to me do I have to wear a Hijab? I say –No!, you don’t as long
as you stay home. No Problem. So if you want to play the game of equity
and equality then start learning in Islam how it works. Everything has a
reason though but we don’t know all the reasons. Why can’t we eat pork?
Why not! Some people like to eat it – why not! Allah said don’t eat it. Ya,
but why? When people say ya but why, it indicates two things. One – they
like to play around and the second one is they are weak in their iman.
Because when iman is really-really strong, nobody says why. And let me
explain a word in Arabic, it’s called ‘YAKIIN’. Anybody know what is
Yakiin? Yakiin – I want to explain an example though. Somebody tells you
don’t touch this, it’s hot and you go ok. You believe him don’t you. But
Yakiin is when you say is it really hot and you put your hand on it – oh my
God, Yes it’s hot, Oh! – now you have Yakiin. That means there is no doubt
in your mind anymore – Right! So as you go through your life sometimes
things happen to you and you have no doubt anymore about it. It’s real
clear to you. And if you know if I do so and so, I am going to lose my job,
and you don’t want to lose your job, so when your boss says you must be
here tomorrow at 10 minutes earlier, you don’t go – Why? You go yes sir.
And whenever he comes you are half hour earlier – Why? Because you
have Yakiin in that fact that if you are not on time, you are going to lose
your job. Right! Thus if you give this much credit, this much Haq, rights to
your job, why wouldn’t we give that to the deen? It makes sense.

Now let me ask you a question. I want the person to tell who doesn’t not
want 10,000 dollars but you can have the 10,000 dollars only tomorrow
morning and all you have to do is just walk in that door and stand right
there at fajar time and pray fajar and you get 10,000 dollars. Who would
say no I don’t need it. Anybody! No – everybody here would take the ten
thousand. Amazing! Now will you give the deen the Haq that you just gave
the dollar! Rasulullaah s.a.w said: “The two rakaat of fajar is better
for you than this entire universe and everything in it. “ And the
scholar said that could mean double, and that’s a whole lot more than
10,000 dollars. Now, question is – Would you give the Haq to the deen as
you just gave to the dollar? So ask yourself and you will find out about
Yakiin. This is going to show you about Yakinn because you have Yakiin in
the dollar thus do you Yakiin in the deen? And that explain why we say –
WHY!!, WHY!, WHY! A little boy goes to his mom, and she says go wash
your hand. Why! Because it’s time to eat. Why! And Why and Why. And
we do that, we do that. Allah give you a clear order in the Quran, the meat
of the pork, the swine, the pig is forbidden to you, Why? Cos it’s in the
Quran, Why? Well it could have a disease in it. Why? Or there are others
ways to argue. Why? You follow that. That is NO YAKIIN. And also this is
showing that the iman is weak – very weak. How can we correct the
problem? How can we overcome this problem? Now lets go back to the
original subject – when I say Islam having Haq – Rights and Limits!!!
Because Haq really has a balance. To give rights but to make limits with it.
In Islam you are allowed to play and have fun – TRUE! Yes, in Islam you
are allowed to work and make money. In Islam you are allowed to get
married and have a family, but not in the catholic church, NO! The real
religious men are the priest, then the Bishop, then the Arch-Bishop, and
the cardinal and the Pope. And these people cannot get married. They
cannot have a wife. That means they cannot have any children. That
means they are not going to have any father. What are they going to do?
Some non-Muslims came to me one time and asked me. You Muslim had
a partition – a wall between the men and the women. So I asked them
back – really you don’t have any other problem beside that wall. They say
Yes. So I said if I take down that wall you want to be a Muslim. No answer.
Why do you add the wall. I said we will come to that But before I want to
ask you. What religion are you? They say a Catholic. So I say good. I say I
want to ask you now about the nuns. The Nuns wear the Hijab – Right!
Don’t they have a covering over their head. They say we are not talking
about the women cloth – they say we are talking about! I say I know what
you are talking about. And I am asking you about Nuns – Do they wear a
covering? Yes! I said ok, because you know about Nuns, does it mean you
know about Muslim! Who are the best of the best among you women in
the Catholic church? They said the Nuns. I said right and they wear head
covering called the ‘HABIT’ – Right! They said right. I said where did they
wear it? Don’t know. I said when did they wear it? Don’t know. Why did
they wear it? Don’t know. When did they take it off? Don’t know. I said I
know. Those Nuns start wearing it at the time they wake up in the
morning till the time they go to bed again, even when they live in the
convent. Convent means a place where no men can go – ever! And those
Nuns never see any men, men never see them but they still have to wear
the covering of the head – that ‘HABIT’ except when they took a bath or
go to sleep that’s it! Then I say and the best of the best of our women –
the Muslimah is also the one who wear Hijab. Not all Catholic wear that
‘HABIT’ – Right They said; Ya. And I said not all Muslim women wear the
Hijab! But the good one do. The best one do – ok! I ask them, can the Nun
get married? They say No! I say can they have a baby? They say Oh, my
God, No way. How come they can have a baby when they can get
married. I said why can’t they get married? She said because they are
married to God. You look at their fingers. The Catholic women called
‘Nuns’ when they go into the church they take the ring and say – In the
Name of the Father, and The son and the Holy Spirit and they put the ring
in the finger right there (index finger) and that’s a Christian practice to
put that ring there. And by the way if you have the ring there, that’s not
the way Muslims wear it. The Sunnah is to wear it on the last finger. But if
you like to follow the Christian – that’s where it is, that’s the Holy Ghost
finger. Anyway we come back to the story and the they were asking me
about that wall in the mosque. Where else they just tell me that all of
these Nuns are married to God – they are God wives. And got a problem
with us of having four.
I brought it up to a reason because you see our women the one who wear
the Hijab, they can still get married. In fact we want them to get married
because they are the best women to raised our children. Isn’t that good.
We love the ladies with the Hijab. Who wants your wife to go naked down
the street – I don’t. That cheap stuff man – right! Make sense. I like
expensive stuff. And expensive stuff comes in a nice clean wrapper. Ya!
It’s not thrown out on the street, is it – that’s called garbage. I never used
to talk like this – really – until my wife insisted you have to tell women
about Hijab. I also explain to them that our best women do get married
and they do have children. And they have to nurse their children. You
know what nursing children is – they go Yes! I said our Quran tells us you
nurse your children for two years. Two years the baby is sucking the milk
from the mother. Yet the mother is free to go out and do things, including
coming to the mosque to pray and to listen to lectures and so on. Won’t it
be hard if she having all these Hijab on and sitting there with a baby. And
the baby wants to eat, what she gonna do? So we built this partition as a
courtesy who would like to have the privacy of doing such thing. But with
the present of men they wrap up the precious thing which Allah gave
them which is their beauty. So the purpose of putting up that wall is a
courtesy for the ladies. And the ladies who have the shyness and respect
for themselves they go behind it but if any lady want to come up front let
them come. If that make them happy. I got no problem with them. I don’t,
Rasulullah s.a.w also didn’t have a problem with it. If you don’t fear Allah
then do whatever you want to do. Its as easy as that. Allah will deal with
you. But remember we have rights and limits. You can look at a women –
once, right! But then Allah said tell the believing men to look down. So
they are asking me about this partition, this wall in the mosque and I am
explaining to them how this is a courtesy. And they said now we
understand, thank you very much. And I said now its my turn, can I ask
you a question. They said ok. I said; you tell me that the best of the of
your women (Nuns) have this covering, they can’t get married, then who
is the best to the best of your men. They said well you know, they are the
priest, cardinal, bishop, pope. I said that’s right. Can they get married –
No! Why? Are they married to God to. I said if they are married to God to,
this is weird. That’s a real weird thing you got. I ask them another
question, If you can’t get married that means you don’t have anybody to
hold you and make you feel good – you know when you are depress or
sad. Or somebody to hold you when you are excited, you want to share
some good news, you just want to be closed, really close to somebody,
that’s what Allah tells us to like wrap in each other. Wrap in each other,
you can just wrap up in your wife. You can’t do that with a guy – we hug
each other but not like that. But you can do that with your wife, you can
just hold her all night long, just hold her and be close and she can hold
you and be close. It nice, its something beautiful. Somebody you care
about and they care about you. And they are always there for you, even
when you have bad breath – Right!! Even when you make a stupid
mistake. They are still there for you. In fact that’s really what it’s all about
– didn’t it? Having somebody to care for you no matter what happens.
That’s your wife or your husband. If you have an accident and you lost
your arm, she won’t say – Oh! Since you lost your arm I am leave you. No!
She still care about you. He is your wife the mother of your children or he
is your husband, somebody you grow old with – that’s your mate and Allah
said that in the Quran – He created mates for you – Yes!! And you guys
are telling me that the best of the best of you people- don’t have that.
They don’t have mates. They don’t have anybody to be closed to. They
are alone and when they get old who is going to take care of them. And
they have no children to look out for them. Who cares what those people
like because they don’t have any family. So well think about it. Because
here is another point, if the best of the best of your people, of your
women, of your men can’t never get married and never have any children,
that means that for 2,000 years the worst of the worst of you are the one
who are going and having babies and populating until there is nothing left
except the lowest humanity there is. You put a petition in your religion
between human being and common sense. A petition you put between a
man and a woman, between life and death, and you asked me about a
petition that we put as a courtesy for the believing women. May Allah
guide you. After I did that I realized that that’s a very important part of
rights and limits in Islam.

Most non believer knows about ‘Laillaha Illallah’ but what they don’t
know is about that partition, the hijab , and many other prohibitions in
Islam. Rights and we don’t say equality but we say equity. Don’t you want
what’s belong to you? The Quran tells us, that at the time of death, the
man get a larger share of the inheritance than the women. Is that fare? Is
that equality? No! But it is equity. It’s not equality, the women gets a
much smaller share than the men. If they are brothers and sisters, the girl
don’t get the same amount. Why? Because if you want to change it ladies,
tell us that you want to change and I tell you what will happen. The reason
you get less is cos you get to keep all of it. A man doesn’t get to keep any
of it. Refer in surah An-Nisaa chapter 4 verse 34 – what did Allah say.
Allah says man are responsible for the woman. It means all the money
that I make I have to take care of my mother, my sister, my wife, my
daughter, my aunt’s, my cousin or any women that need help, as a
Muslim I have the responsibility, I have to – it’s wajib on me to take care of
the women I can let them stay in the street, Muslim countries don’t let
women wander the street. Even the poorest Muslim countries don’t let
that happen. But Islam don’t permit that why? Rights and Limits. I have
the right to make money but I have a limit I have to spent it. I have the
right to inherit more than my sister thus at time of death but I have to
take care of her if she needs anything cos she got to keep her money. You
want to change that. And I know they don’t because when people
understand the real Islam they love it and the more you know about Islam
the more your iman increases. And the more you know about Allah the
more the Yakiin increases until you want the Haq and all the rights and
limits together. So lets make doa that Allah will put the real Islam in our
lives. Amiin, He will give us the firm iman , yakiin. Ask Allah to give us
janatul firdaus. This is the best you wanna be close to Allah and close to
Rasul s.a.w – that’s the best. ‘rabbana atiina fiddunya hassanah, wa fil
akhirati hasanah, wa kina azabannar.’ Amiin.