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Saad Yacoob

@SaadYacoob

Jun 18

In many ways, to be human is to be in a state of perpetual incompleteness.

If the only perfect human is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, all of us are in constant aspiration for completeness through his emulation. We are like candles to the light of the full moon.

We are rays of a lantern held against the illumination of the midday sun. The candle casts its brightness into the darkness around it, but it has no hope of matching the illumination of the moon above.

So, too, are we in our incompleteness compared to the perfection of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Where he is achievement, we are all in a state of wanting. He has achieved mercy as an attribute; we seek to be merciful. He is generosity incarnate. We aspire to be generous.

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Saad Yacoob

@SaadYacoob

Jun 10

Going to add another level of nuance re: halal meat

If anyone has done work in poverty, you know 3 things:

1. The only access to groceries for a lot of impoverished communities is a local stop n shop (very limited options)

2. Food stamps rarely meet the needs of a full family

3. The time to cook is a luxury in a lot of under privileged households

Should a single mother of three working three jobs whose only reliable lunch comes from canned meat, does she get the same fatwa as a middle income family who wants to eat the chicken at Olive Garden?

One-size-fits-all discussions on Twitter are not helpful. If you're middle income, have a car, and live near bigger cities, should you try to eat halal only? For sure

But be careful of giving advice to those who don't match that description. You don't know what you're implying

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Saad Yacoob

@SaadYacoob

Jun 9

Gonna jump into the halal meat controversy for a sec to share a story

Hazrat Mufti Taqi Usmani (ha) relayed a story of his father, Hazrat Mufti Shafi Sahib (ra). He visited the UK when there were basically no halal meat options, and people asked him for a fatwa to eat UK meat

He said to them that he could give them a fatwa, but if he did that, they would become lazy and not create their own halal meat options

The first generation of Muslim immigrants to America did the same. There were families for whom the only halal meat available was fish

My sister still drives 1 hour + to the nearest city to fill a cooler with halal meat to bring back to her middle-of-nowhere town

This is also why I don't support taking Hanafi allowances on riba in the West. If we settle for the ambiguous, we'll never aspire to the clearly halal

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Saad Yacoob

@SaadYacoob

Jun 9

I was talking to a few young people about their anxiety in relationships last night. A lot of us, me included, experience serious anxiety when talking to someone for marriage. This usually manifests in two ways: avoidance or clinging. Both are mechanisms of managing anxiety

Avoidance is keeping yourself from engaging with an open heart, avoiding communication, etc. Clinginess is the opposite: constant, 24/7 communication about anything and everything - and getting anxious if that communication is not reciprocated. Both are self-fulfilling prophecies

Avoidance is preparation for rejection - but it also causes it because the other person feels like you're entirely uninvested. Clinginess is trying to prevent rejection through affirmation of investment, but it can end up causing rejection because it becomes overwhelming

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Saad Yacoob

@SaadYacoob

May 6

We have to move past a simplistic discourse on tawakkul

We were covering the story of Musa (as) at Sinai yesterday, and I traced the events that led to that moment

For Musa (as) to be at Sinai, he had to leave Madyan with his family. For that, he had to meet Shuaib (as)

For him to meet Shuaib (as), he had to water the flock. For him to water the flock, he had to arrive at Madyan. For him to arrive at Madyan, he had to flee Egypt. For him to flee Egypt, he had to strike the man. For him to strike the man, he had to grow up in Fir'own's house

For him to grow up in Fir'own's house, his mother had to throw him into the river. The tawakkul of his mother begins a sequence of events that ends at Sinai. And if either Musa (as) or his mother act in ways that 1) are not always looking to do good and 2) don't trust in Allah

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Saad Yacoob

@SaadYacoob

Feb 26

We had a meeting of khateebs on Saturday in which we were discussing how to handle a khutbah on Hasad (envy). The discussion quickly focused on the effect of social media (and instagram in particular) in exasperating the dual problems of self-esteem issues and hasad

Khateebs shared stories of people in their families, friends, and communities who were deeply impacted by the curated nature of the insta image. People comparing the realities of their life to the imagined happiness in others; people developing body-image issues;

One person shared the experience of a guy who was talking to a girl for marriage. She sent her insta page, and when he saw her in person, she looked like a completely different person. He was shocked at what felt like deception; but think also about the sister's insecurity

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