Abdullah Hakim Quick – The Leadership Of Umar Minarets And Thrones #04
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
It's open.
Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen,
wa-salli wa-sallam ala sayyidil awwaleen wal
aakhireen, nabiyyina muhammadan wa ala alihi wa sahbihi
ajma'een, wa baad.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds, and peace and blessings be constantly
showered upon our beloved Prophet Muhammad, the Master
of the first and the last, his family,
his companions, and all those who call to
his way, and establish his sunnah to the
Day of Judgment.
As to what follows, assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi
wa barakatuh.
Alhamdulillah, we are continuing on in our study
of minarets and thrones.
And this topic, the topic of leadership in
Islam, is, I believe, one of the most
significant topics that Muslims should be seriously looking
at, especially people who are thinking about the
day after.
When we look at the crisis going on
now in the Middle East, and many parts
of the world, people naturally are caught up
with the events of today.
But what is frightening for a lot of
people is that there's no plan for the
day after.
What happens after the great battles?
What happens after the great destruction?
And this is where Allah Azawajal has given
us the ability to reflect, and also given
us a long history that has gone through
cycles.
There are cycles when the Muslims are in
a strong position, and this is what Ibn
Khaldun, the great historian, looked at as the
cycle of leadership in Islam and society.
And that is when Muslims live up to
our morals and our way of life.
Then we are on the top of the
circle.
But as we get weak and move away
from our principles, then we start to go
down.
And this cycle has gone on over and
over again in the history of Islam in
different parts of the world.
And so what kept the Muslims going is
the fact that we are blessed with an
eternal scripture.
We are blessed with a living Qur'an
that was not destroyed.
We are also blessed with a preserved sunnah
of our messenger, which was not destroyed.
So that even though it appeared the societies
were falling apart, they were able to return
to the strength that they had in previous
generations.
And which direction are we going in?
Now, there are different dynamics between leaders and
rulers.
Sometimes the rulers and leaders can work together.
Sometimes they're enemies.
And in some rare cases, and this is
how it was in the beginning of the
Islamic period, there's a fusion.
So there's a fusion amongst the leaders where
you get a person who is designated as
the ruler or the leader of the Muslim
world.
And at the same time, he's a scholar.
So you got both.
And that is ideal, because that is the
prophetic leadership.
That's the one that we want.
It isn't always the case.
It's rare.
But it's something that we should push towards.
It's like a holistic, well-rounded kind of
leader.
And so this leader, then, has got profound
understanding of Islamic knowledge, is a moral person,
and at the same time, they understand Islamic
governance.
They know how to rule according to the
Islamic way of life.
Okay, so this is the fusion.
And we want to look at a few
examples of this fusion given to us by
Allah as a blessing in the period of
the Khulafa Rashidin that was designated by the
Prophet ﷺ as being 30 years.
So within this 30-year period, you will
see the ideal type of leaders that we
hope for and pray for in the Muslim
world.
The second of the two, the first was
Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, and the second was
Umar ibn Khattab.
And I would say that Umar really represents
the pinnacle.
He is probably the best example, in my
opinion, and Allah knows best, but he is
the best example of this fusion.
What he was able to accomplish is an
example for leaders throughout time.
And Umar, radiallahu anhu, he was born in
584 AD, or CE in Mecca, and he
was part of Quraysh.
So he wasn't Hashim, the Hashimites, like the
Prophet ﷺ.
He was not Umayyad, from the Banu Umayya
side, but he was from the Banu Adi.
So this is another clan within the Quraysh.
And from the early part of his life,
he was known to be a person who
was very strong physically.
So he was a person who was, it
appears somewhere around six feet tall, maybe a
little less.
And that amongst the Arab populations is very
tall, because people do not tend to be
six feet and above.
But he was very strong, and he was
described as being amphidextrous, which means he is
equally strong with his right hand and his
left hand.
Most of us are what we call righties,
we do things on the right or we
sort of left.
But there are some people who are equal
both ways.
That means that he has an advantage, especially
in physical fighting, also in thinking, because left
-handed people, right-handed people even have sort
of a way of approaching things.
So he's both, he's flexible.
And he also had this ability, strong ability
in Arabic language, very eloquent.
He was a natural leader.
So even before the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ,
he was known in Quraysh as one of
the upcoming leaders.
So he had this maqam or this position
in Mecca itself.
And some of his other good qualities is
that he was highly disciplined, highly organized and
highly disciplined.
And he had a sense of justice.
So even though it's times of ignorance, he
believed in justice.
And when he saw things going wrong, things
that were not just, then he naturally moved
against that.
So he had this nature about him.
And as we learn from our traditions that
the best of you in Jahiliyyah, the best
of you in ignorance, or before you practice
Islam, they can be the best in Islam.
Because when you become Muslim, you carry qualities
with you.
So whatever were your qualities before, you're going
to carry them into your Islam.
And so, before Islam, again, very strong personality.
So therefore, when there was opposition to his
society, he stood against this because he thought
that this opposition was wrong.
And anytime he sensed injustice, he would oppose
it.
And he was not one who was necessarily
afraid to face strong forces that were against
him.
And the way the society was set up,
they did not have any restrictions in terms
of alcoholism, in terms of their basic social
life.
And on one occasion, it is reported that
he actually went down to the Kaaba area.
The nadi was there, the men's club.
And they used to drink alcohol there and
gamble and go to the idols.
They used to do many different things.
And so on one occasion, he was there
and this mention of this man teaching the
belief in one God came.
The Shaytan came to Umar.
And he felt that he needed to kill
this man.
So this burning, raging flame came up inside
of him and he headed towards what he
thought would be the area where Umar was
living.
But while he was in the area, somebody
told him that if you're looking for the
Prophet, you better go to your own family.
Because your sister, Fatima, bint al-Khattab, she's
Muslim.
And so he went to her home and
found her and her husband there.
And they were reading something from the Quran.
And Umar, in his rage, grabbed his sister
and hit her in the face and blood
started coming down.
He had some shame.
And so he stopped.
And he asked, what is this thing that
you're reading?
And she said, if you want to know,
you better clean yourself first.
So he went and he washed up, came
out of his rage, and he listened.
And it is reported that they read from
Surah Taha.
This is the 20th chapter, verses 1 to
8.
And this immediately had an impact on Umar.
It's a spiritual thing because Allah guides whom
He pleases.
But you can see it with Umar because
he was Fasiha.
He was strong Arabic speaker.
And the Quran had the ability, has the
ability, especially for somebody who can speak Arabic.
And this is something special for those who
can speak Arabic.
It's got abilities for everybody.
But it's something special in that language because
the Quran has i'jaz.
It is miraculous because how the sentences go
cannot be produced.
It cannot be produced because in Arabic you
have poetry which has certain rhythm to it.
And you also have prose.
We are telling a story.
But the Quran is rhymed prose.
So it's like telling a story in complete
rhythm.
And people cannot tell stories with rhythm.
So everything is actually equal.
That's impossible.
You would sound like a mad person.
Like today amongst the youth, this hip-hop,
the rappers, in all language, they're rapping and
they're trying to do things equally.
But when you listen to what they're saying,
most of it is foolishness.
Because you can't continue to rhyme things for
the Muslims.
And immediately Omar transformed.
Because this is the kind of person that
he is.
He's an action-oriented person.
So he immediately transformed.
And he became one of the trusted companions.
One of the close companions.
Because he would assume immediately a security position.
Once they were sure that he was practicing
his Islam.
And he's not trying to play a trick.
He was put into a security position.
So right away, they were able to start
coming out a little bit.
And shortly after when Hamza Abdul-Muttalib accepted
Islam, then Omar and Hamza would move together
in front and the Muslims would go to
the Kaaba itself.
And they could pray and return.
Because those two people in security would intimidate
most of the opposition.
So Omar then, he was in a key
role.
And you see his position right from there
in the Meccan period, in the migration.
And when Omar was ready to migrate from
Mecca to Medina, he didn't go underground like
most of the people were forced to go.
He went to the Quraish and he said,
I'm migrating tomorrow morning.
Anybody who doesn't want me to, meet me
there.
He challenged them.
Of course, nobody came to deal with him.
That's the kind of personality that this individual
had.
And it is said, the Prophet ﷺ said
that everybody has a Qarin.
All of us have a type of Jinni
that is around us.
And it's whispering at us.
Also there are Jinn, evil demons, who will
be in certain deserted areas and certain places.
And the Prophet ﷺ said when people would
go down certain alleys, the Shaytan would be
there.
There would be an evil force there.
But when Omar went down the alley, the
Shaytan would run, would not stand, not be
in that alley, even though the Jinni is
not visible.
But Omar is so powerful on a physical
level and a spiritual level that the Jinni
was afraid to be in the same alley
as Omar.
And so he continued in this strong position.
He was the right hand man of Abu
Bakr.
Remember Abu Bakr was faced with the Ridda,
with apostates, people breaking away and not paying
Zakat.
Omar was even a little bit reluctant to
go against those tribes, but Abu Bakr was
strong.
And when Abu Bakr was finally, after those
two years plus in his leadership, was on
his deathbed, he chose Omar to be his
successor.
So this is one of the ways that
Muslims choose their leadership.
So he chose Omar to be his successor,
and he had to be ratified by the
Muslims.
So it's not a dictatorship, it's a selection.
So you either have the leader himself, or
you have a selection committee, and they field
names and what not of the most suitable
person for leadership, and then they choose, and
they take it to the people.
And if the people ratify this, then that
person becomes the leader of the Muslims.
And Omar, his leadership lasted for 10 years.
And this is a powerful leadership.
And during his time, some major things happened.
Muslims were attacked by the Romans from the
north.
And Omar in leadership responded to them.
The Persians attacked from the east.
Omar in leadership responded to them.
This is no small thing.
This is major.
Like you see what's happening today.
Major powers attacking the Muslims.
And these powers would come into battle with
100,000 men, fully armed, which seems to
be irresistible force.
But the Muslims, the level that they were
practicing their Islam, and the will of Allah
Azawajal meant that even this small group, that
this group could defeat a larger group, with
the permission of Allah.
So Omar did a lot of things.
Cities like Jerusalem, Damascus, Al-Fustat, which later
became Al-Qahira, Egypt, they came into Islam,
some of them with war, some of them
with peace.
They came into Islam.
And Omar, as we will see, he developed
a state.
So he now developed foundations.
Right?
Judiciary.
So many things, as we will see, are
what it is.
So now, again, looking at this leader, this
is like an ideal person to take over.
And if we see young people like this,
then we need to have leadership training.
So there needs to be leadership academies that
are set up, where male and female are
in these academies, and they are being trained
to take over the leadership.
This is crucial.
This will help us for the future.
What are some of the qualities?
He was known for austerity.
He did not spend a lot of wealth
on himself.
He lived a simple life.
And he was extremely empathetic for the poor.
So it's not just you feel sympathy, but
you relate to them.
So he cared for the welfare of the
Muslim community.
Okay, and he himself, although he's got such
strength, he's got qualities, he's Quraysh, he's taller
than just about everybody, but he's a humble
person.
Like he'll listen to other people, even those
who are smaller than him.
And he had this concern to the point
where it is reported during his leadership, on
many occasions when people were sleeping, Umar would
walk the streets and he would literally listen
and see if there were people who were
in need.
That's the leader.
Not our leaders today who are stuck in
bunkers or in a royal palace.
I lived in one country, I won't say
which one it is, when the leader was
going to go from his palace to his
office, two hours before the police are lining
the streets.
So we're moving through, just going to school.
Why are the police all along the street?
And then suddenly, this car flies through because
he's going from his palace to his office.
What are you afraid of?
And in those days there were no drones.
So it's not like you had a drone
above you that might shoot you down, like
today, right?
Today I can understand.
There's no drones, man.
In those days.
What are you afraid of?
They're afraid of their own people.
Umar was not like that.
And it is said that when the leader
of the Christians in Jerusalem wanted Umar to
come to accept the key to the city
and they came to Medina and they said,
where's Umar?
And they said, look over there in the
palm tree, the date palm tree.
He was under there, he had his turban
on a rock and he was sleeping.
Okay, he said, that's the Khalifa.
And he said, that's the Khalifa.
He rests because he's not afraid of the
people.
You see, he's an average, he's a regular
person.
This is very important qualities for the leadership
that we need.
So, along with these personal qualities, and this
again, we're talking about leadership, part of leadership
is innate, it's in you.
Some people are leaders, some people are just
not leaders.
They can hardly even tell their brother and
they can hardly tell a baby what to
do.
But other people are natural leaders.
And that is important.
But also, what we're talking about is not
just natural leader, we're talking about scholarship.
We're talking about ilm.
And so, Umar was actually a great scholar
of Islam.
Especially in what is now known as al
-fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence.
So if you would try to categorize people,
today they say he's good in hadith, he's
good in tafsir, he's good in Arabic, he
was good in fiqh.
That is jurisprudence.
And then also, practically applying the laws of
Islam to society.
Putting it into practice.
Relevant, alive fiqh.
So this is where he was as a
great leader.
So therefore, he was there from the beginning.
And he's really good in Arabic, and he's
listening to the revelation.
So all of those subjects, when we talked
about scholarship in the beginning, that you need
to know Arabic language, you need to be
good in literature, you need to know hadith,
you need to know tafsir, all these subjects
that you need to study to be a
scholar.
In those days, it was a natural thing.
For those who were close to the Prophet,
they were like taking in everything.
And Umar was one of those people who
was taking in knowledge rapidly.
And so along with this, he's got piety,
he's implementing his Islam.
And he has this type of like wisdom.
He's got wisdom.
And so because of this, he's able to
now confront issues.
And this is one of the things we're
talking about now in governance.
Because you have to confront real, live issues.
So, in looking at this, his ability to
apply the law, to understand issues, he would
be what we call today mujtahid.
Okay, so these are all qualities.
You'll see people who will go to Islamic
universities and this person becomes a sheikh or
he becomes maulana in some schools they call
them.
And then the person becomes like a mufti.
And then they say this is allama, different
levels.
But one of the highest levels in terms
of Islamic knowledge is what is called a
mujtahid.
And a mujtahid then is a person in
fiqh, juristic fiqh, who is capable of independent
legal reasoning.
Independent.
So he understands the rulings so much so.
And he understands the society so much that
he can actually make decisions about issues that
were not known before.
So some new issue comes now.
What are we supposed to do with this?
And this is hitting Muslims up until today
because artificial insemination.
What if there's a husband and a wife
and they cannot have a normal relationship?
And there is artificial insemination.
Right, where sperm is placed into the egg
artificially.
Okay, what's the decision?
Think about this.
And this was not known by scholars before
because we did not have science to do
this.
And so big fiqh committees, just to give
you an idea, came together that had these
type of people, and so they allowed it
in the case that husband and wife, that
the sperm that comes together with the egg
has to be his and has to be
hers.
Because that's husband and wife.
So this surrogate, having another person who does
it, another person's egg or the woman, that
would not be acceptable.
You see, so that's ijtihad.
So they allow it to happen because they
have the ability to do this.
That's how Umar was.
So he was able to deal with the
issues in the evolution of the Muslim society,
dealing with the welfare of the people.
And one of the strong points, sometimes the
one that they even give him this title
for, is justice.
It is justice.
And this, I believe, is, you know, along
with your piety and your belief in one
God, you know, justice is one of the
most important qualities of a Muslim, dear.
And really, if you go to the Muslim
world, and I had the opportunity to travel
in many Muslim countries, okay, and actually be
there and meet the people from there.
What I noticed in many of the so
-called Muslim countries that were ruled by these
people trained in the West, or these tyrants
and dictators, there's no justice.
If you're not in the ruling tribe, there's
no justice for you.
You have a child that's born in the
country and they say, you can't get citizenship.
Where did you get this from?
Like there's no justice in the society.
The people who are in the leading tribes
get justice and other people don't.
That's tribalism.
So therefore, if there's no justice in the
Muslim world, we cannot expect to have victory.
And that is the reason why many Muslims
actually went to some of the Western countries.
Because in some of the Western countries, on
a lower level, I'm talking about personal law,
you could at least have a semblance of
justice.
Where you would go to a court, you
have a case and you get a lawyer
and you go to a court and you
can actually battle for your case and in
some cases you would win.
Even though you're not from the ruling family
or the ruling tribe or race.
And because of this, and Allah knows best,
these countries stay in power.
They stay in power.
When the justice breaks down in these countries,
the power goes.
And that's what we're witnessing now that has
been so clear over the past year.
It's already been there, but now things have,
the injustice is so bold faced.
It is so clear what is going on
that this is really, historically, it is the
end of the society.
And if you look at the Romans, they're
probably the closest example.
And the power, the irresistible power that the
Roman Empire had.
Nobody had a military like them.
Nobody had economic power like the Romans.
And you're going to defeat the Romans?
You're not going to be able to defeat
the Romans.
That's what everybody thought.
But then, injustice coming.
And then you see slavery and coliseums and
people being fed to the lions and all
types of things going on.
And then, the economy falls apart.
The people turn against each other.
And even the great Roman armies start fighting
amongst themselves.
And then, the people who they oppressed start
attacking them.
And they fall apart.
This is probably the best example as to
what we're witnessing happening right in front of
us.
Umar was so relentless in his pursuit for
justice.
He wanted to separate al-haqq min al
-batil, truth from falsehood.
He wanted to separate to the point where
they gave him the name al-Faruq.
That he was the one who could separate.
He separated truth from falsehood.
He distinguished right from wrong.
So, everybody's got this laqab name that they
have in Umar al-Faruq.
This is what he is known as.
He separates right from wrong.
And this may be one of the strongest
qualities that he had in terms of governance.
How he actually governed the society.
And so, Umar had this strong ability.
And he took it to another stage.
Because when he ruled, he didn't just rule
surface-wise.
He would actually believe, he would actually rule
based on not just the letter of the
law, but the spirit of the law.
And that's missing many times in some so
-called Muslim societies when Muslims practice partial Islam.
And we see it even in some of
our own communities here.
Where people read the hadith book and whatever,
and they want to practice it in the
masjid.
But they don't have an Islamic society.
They're not practicing.
They don't know the spirit of the law.
Because behind the laws themselves, there's actually a
spirit that is there.
Okay, so this is how Umar would rule.
And he believed that it was given to
him as a trust.
A manna.
So it's a trust that he must implement
what he thinks and what he believes and
what he understands.
Especially for the poor people.
And he was harsh on himself.
Right?
And he cared.
And one of his famous statements that he
made showing his policy, because Islam is spreading
now, right?
And he said, if a dog were to
die of hunger by the banks of the
Euphrates, that's Iraq, I would feel myself responsible
for it in front of Allah.
A dog in Iraq, Umar's in Medina, right?
Is suffering.
Umar said, I'm responsible.
Look at that leadership.
Okay, that's another level.
And that's an ideal that we are shooting
for in our type of leadership.
And again, this is your power and your
strength, which is integrated with scholarship.
And it takes the form of Islamic governance.
Governance.
And you know, the question comes up, and
this question even in one of our classes
has come up again, that there are some
scholars that say Islam is not politics.
It's not politics.
So how can you, you know, the real
Muslims, they don't enter politics.
Okay, so how do you get this?
These are the best people.
This is the best generation.
So Islam enters all aspects of life.
Now, if you talk about politics the way
we use the term today, that's not, it's
like polytrix.
Right, and if somebody said to you, your
friend said, I am going to become a
politician.
You probably look at your friend strange.
Politician, that means you're going to lie.
A politician tells you one thing before the
elections, and after the election he does something
else.
Okay, so politician is a dirty word.
So we don't mean it like that.
We're talking about governance.
The rules that govern our society.
And the ability to put this into practice
in the way that it should be put
in.
And in this, you can see the spirit
of the law, and you know there is
one case that comes out, and that is
that it's a simple case, but it shows
Umar's level, that this wealthy person came and
said, there's different reports about this, but when
he comes with a servant and this poor
person and said, this person stole.
He stole from me.
Somebody puts a camel, he stole the camel,
chop his hand off.
Chop his hand off.
Umar, you practice in Islam?
Chop the man's hand off.
Umar then investigated this servant and why did
you steal?
And the man said, I stole because this
man would not pay me properly.
See the injustice?
So if you go by the letter of
the law, he stole.
Okay?
But the man said, I stole because he
wouldn't pay me.
Umar then turned to the master, or the
wealthy person, and he said, if he steals
again, I'll chop your hand off.
You see what Umar said?
I'm going to chop your hand off if
he steals again.
Because the reason why he was stealing is
not because the lust of some evil thing.
It's necessity.
It's injustice.
You see?
That's the spirit of the law.
And there are some people, and you even
find this in Islamic movement, they quickly learn
fiqh, they quickly learn things, but they don't
have the spirit of Islam.
And so they come off too harsh.
They don't have the love inside of them
when they are teaching some of the fiqh
principles.
Although if you put them on paper, they
may say, well, I am following, you know,
the way of the true Islam.
But when you see their practice, no love,
there's no balance, the spirit is not there.
Umar had the spirit.
And so with this ability, Umar then established
a judicial system.
So he's taken this to another level now.
So it's not only just law being applied,
he actually established courts, and he trained people
to be qadi.
So the qadi is the judge.
So there were certain people who had qualities,
judging abilities.
Umar put them into position as the qadis.
He sent people to Damascus, Sahabas to Basra
and Kufa, to Cairo, to different areas, then
to Yemen, to different places.
He sent the people who were the highest
trained to the different centers of Islam to
actually implement this.
So these qadis, you know, were on the
level now, they're like mujtahids.
Because the qadi can now make rulings independent
of the capital city.
So that qadi now understands fiqh, understands the
society, and can make judgment.
And so as a society, what Umar did
was instead of taking the wealth and just
building things and having nice clothes, he organized
the administration, so he paid the qadis.
He established a system of payments.
And he monitored them.
He monitored them to see what they were
actually doing.
So this is something different here now.
Totally different.
Okay?
And so this brings the spirit of Islam
on that level.
Another important aspect of his rule was a
type of public welfare system.
The word welfare sometimes gives you the wrong
understanding.
It's like food stamps, or you're going to
get something free for nothing.
No.
What it means is Islam is not capitalism,
which is just individual property, private ownership, and
it's not communism.
So communism or socialism is everybody owns the
wealth together.
No private property.
Okay?
No.
Islam allows private property, but it will not
allow anybody to monopolize.
You see?
So we're a system not capitalism and not
socialism.
This is an important point for those of
you who are studying high-level Islamic, or
high-level politics, or political thought.
Okay?
We're on a different level.
And one of the five pillars of Islam
is zakat.
So a certain amount of the wealth of
every Muslim who has a certain amount will
be taken, given to the poor, and if
he can't find somebody, it goes to the
bayt al maal.
That is the treasury house.
So we would have a treasury house.
In some countries, it is called oqaf.
The oqaf.
And that is waqf.
So your trusts are put there.
And from the oqaf, people now can apply
to that.
The society is understood.
The poor, the orphans, the widows, the travelers.
You know, the oqaf is many different things,
whether it's your roads, your bridges.
The oqaf would even train people to be
calling the adhan.
The oqaf would also train ulama.
You see, our leadership.
It would have leadership schools.
This is a key point, because economy is
the basis of a society.
It's like your life blood, right?
And we have a natural life blood.
If all the zakat, if Muslims paid zakat,
and put it in a treasury house, we
would be one of the most powerful societies
in the world.
And you don't have to force people to
give, like the socialists do.
You don't have greedy people who control most
of the wealth and brag and everything like
that.
And the other people are poor living below
them.
No.
So this system he set up in a
practical sense.
So he set the pace for Islamic governments
in the future.
This is what Omar was doing.
So this is why he is one of
the chief examples of this system.
And Omar was a broad thinker.
He was a wide thinker.
He even thought about the mentality of Muslims.
Do we follow the solar calendar, the Persian
calendar?
Because these calendars are based on fire worshippers,
sun worshippers.
He said we need to establish our own
calendar.
So he sat together with the leading scholars
one year after the Hijra.
That's when our society really came together and
started.
So that's our Hijri calendar which is a
very important thing.
Because if you think in terms of the
Hijri calendar, your mind is not controlled by
the other calendar.
Many of us, we got one foot on
both sides.
We're living here.
So you have thanksgivings coming.
Okay?
And there's no problem.
You get a halal turkey, right?
It's okay.
Get a halal turkey.
Put some curry in it too.
Whatever you want.
But reality is we're not governed by thanksgiving,
right?
Because for the native people here in this
part of the world, especially in the United
States, thanksgiving and Columbus Day and all of
these are actually days of sorrow.
Sadness.
Okay?
Christmas is actually a time of solar winter
solstice.
Right?
Pagan worshippers.
Easter in the spring.
Pagan worshippers.
June is the time of immorality.
The summer solstice.
And now you see what June is now
here, right?
That's historically what it was.
Aphrodite.
Venus.
Uncontrolled immorality.
June.
Fall that we're going into now becomes not
only thanksgiving but also Halloween where the shaitan
comes up.
So if we're controlled, if our year is
based on these things, your mind is colonized.
You get it?
So when Umar was doing this, he's freeing
the minds of the Muslims.
He's literally freeing our minds.
This is a broad thinking person and that
is the type of leadership that we want.
And so he set up a government.
He set up a military.
He even had jails, taxation, regions ruling, whatever.
This was a society he set.
Okay?
And this is an important base that actually
we're still benefiting from up until today.
So by enforcing this and Islam spreading now
and you know what Umar also did?
Very interesting.
He developed what the Americans called in the
West, Pony Express.
The Pony Express is when you want to
send a letter and then you have a
rider who rides.
This is before mass communication.
So the rider takes your mail and then
takes it to an outpost, gives it to
the next rider, he takes it to the
next one, to the next one, to the
next one.
Umar set that up before the American cowboys.
Okay?
And they were able to revolutionize communications.
So horses, riders are moving constantly around the
Muslim world.
Information is moving constantly around the Muslim world.
That's what happens when you have a leader
who's a scholar too.
And because of this, it is estimated that
the empire under him was actually the second
largest empire on Earth at the time.
Romans had fallen for the most part.
Persians had fallen for the most part.
Ethiopians were strong but they were within their
lands.
Chinese was the only other major one.
So Muslims then became the second largest empire
in the world.
And one of the beauties about Umar is
that he loved education.
And he was really into scholarship and so
education became widespread, especially the Quran itself.
The teachings became widespread.
And he took a position not to force
people to accept Islam.
That non-Muslims could live within an Islamic
society.
Now this is contrary to what people will
say, you Islamists.
Okay?
Contrary.
Non-Muslims could live within an Islamic society.
And when they see Muslims rising, they see
the belief in God, they see morality, then
they'll accept Islam.
That's what happened.
That's why millions of people embraced Islam.
Okay?
So some of the key lessons in conclusion
is that his justice had mercy in it.
He didn't just rule by the letter of
the law, but he ruled with the spirit
of the law, which is compassion.
It is not to harm people and hurt
people, but it's to establish justice.
Also that he was dealing with social issues.
Social needs of people.
It's a holistic rule of government, not just
political.
But it's dealing with social life, it's dealing
with the root causes of problems within Islamic
society.
Next is that Omar himself, he was personally
accountable.
He was accountable himself.
And he was harsh on himself as a
leader.
And that's the ideal position to be in.
And that's a reminder for the leaders in
the so-called Muslim today.
So this is Omar bin Khattab, one of
the key points of the fusion of scholarship
and leader.
A great example of this fairness, justice and
strength.
This is what we pray for.
It doesn't come overnight.
We have to train our youth, our families,
our future toward this type of fusion scholarship.
We will continue on, but before we come
to a conclusion, I want to open up
the floor for any questions that anybody may
have concerning Omar bin Khattab.
So this is your fusion now, right?
Fusion leadership between the leader and the scholar.
Floor is open.
First question, honorable, which
one is close to Islam?
So the leadership of, I didn't hear the
beginning of what you said.
The leadership in Islamic Sharia, so is it
voting of leadership or leadership succession by royal
family?
Voting?
So is it voting or is it royal
family?
Okay.
Number one, these are not the only two
ways of choosing your leader.
So ours is different.
You know, ours is a meritocracy.
It is the person who is deserving of
the leadership.
You know, and we would have a selection
committee.
These are the people who literally tie knots
and open knots.
That means they solve problems.
So that's your leadership council taken from different
levels in society.
And then it's like a selection committee.
People put forward names and then you would
have people who would it's ratifying it.
So the masses of the people would ratify
a choice that is made.
And so that would be closer to voting,
but I don't want to get it mixed
up with this so-called democracy of today.
Because if you look at places like America,
which is the harshest example, it's not really
democracy because you can't run for president unless
you have millions of dollars.
It's only the rich and the famous who
can even be strong enough.
So it's not based on your merit.
It's based upon wealth and based upon power.
So that's not really a democracy.
So the closest would be a type of
voting, but it's not really voting in a
so-called democracy like you see today.
It is a selection of the person who
is the most suitable, a meritocracy.
That is the one who would be the
leader in Islam.
So the people do have a say.
If the people rise up and say, we
don't want this person as the leader, then
the selection committee has to listen to the
people.
So it's not a tyranny.
To build on that question, there's this debate
that I've seen a lot about people asking
whether Muslims should vote or should not vote
in the democracy that we live in.
And some people have even said that it's
haram.
But I just want to tie my thinking
and you let me know, I'm off base
here, but I'm thinking that as a Muslim,
our priority is that when we live in
a society, even if it's not our society,
and we want to achieve leadership, we have
to participate in society.
And when we see right is going right,
we support it.
If something is going wrong, we do our
best within our power to stop it.
So even though the democracy that we live
in is so rigged and that there's truly
so few differences between politicians that are in
power, isn't it still our responsibility?
The way I see it is that it's
still a responsibility as Muslims to participate in
voting.
But what do you think about that?
And then the other question I have is
what if all of the politicians are horrible
choices?
Okay, so this is a good question and
that's concerning voting.
Is it permissible to vote or not?
Especially when your leaders are horrible choices.
What's the responsibility of Muslims in this case?
This is a complex issue and it's based
upon where you are.
However, we do have a responsibility to get
involved in our society.
We're not supposed to be cut off from
society.
Because whether you like it or not, you
are part of the society.
And I remember there was a case in
Chicago of this masjid and the brothers are
sitting around saying Haram to vote!
The mayor, we're not going to vote for
these kuffar.
And it was said that they were in
council at that point trying to decide whether
to shut down the masjid or not.
That's what they were discussing.
And the brothers are saying it's haram to
be involved in that.
And they're about to shut you down.
So the best thing would be is to
get somebody on a local level who can
represent you and support that person and then
they will go to that meeting and they
will stand for your case.
This is calling to the good and forbidding
evil.
So on a lower level you can say
we should be involved in our areas we
should have our representatives we should be involved
in whatever level that we possibly can to
govern as much as we possibly can.
There's even a city in Michigan Hamtrak city
which is like majority Muslim.
The mayor is a Muslim.
The majority Muslim is in the city of
Michigan.
So we should on that level.
When you go to the higher level now
where you have huge political parties both of
them are killing our people then really this
is a very difficult situation especially you could
say what's happening in the United States now.
Where both sides are supporting the genocide of
Muslims.
What do you actually do?
The position that many scholars are taking now
is the best thing to do is to
vote for a third party.
Find a third party and in America you
have third party groups.
There's a number of them.
So at least you can if this third
party can get strong enough it can be
an alternative.
So I'm saying here is a little bit
more cloudy.
But somehow we have to those people who
are hurting us we have to punish them
with our votes.
That's the clearest thing.
This is why in each place you have
to have your leaders to be able to
discuss this to see what is the best
way to go.
By his side.
He didn't support his policy.
He just came to get your votes.
There are others as you said.
What do you do in that situation?
You don't have to vote.
Technically speaking you don't have to vote.
If your conscience is telling you don't vote.
Some people say oh no because this is
before in America they used to say Hillary
Clinton or Donald Trump whatever they say like
hold your nose and vote for Hillary.
Because she smells.
Right?
But not as smell as bad as Trump.
So are you voting for Lucifer or Satan?
Like they're both devils, right?
When you go to vote there's an option
where you go in to say I'm coming
in and I'm choosing to say that I
choose not to vote which shows that your
ballot and your voice is still being accounted
for but it's showing that there's a certain
amount of people within your own region that
is so upset with the selection that they
came just to say that I choose not
to vote because I'm unhappy with all of
the selection.
That's right.
There is in America I don't know whether
we have that here there is uncommitted.
There is an uncommitted thing you can sign
we have uncommitted too.
I don't vote at all.
I don't even go near the place.
But I'm saying for those who do there
is an uncommitted.
So if you've got to vote for the
uncommitted go by your conscience go for that.
None of the scholars I know they're trying
to say that the scholars in America are
saying vote for the Green Party because there
is a Muslim who is there Cornel West
also has a Muslim under him as well
but none of the scholars are telling you
who exactly to vote for.
But they're saying do something make ourselves to
be known.
Otherwise we become like sheep.
We're like sheep.
We can be herded anyway.
We have no strength.
We have nothing.
And you know what's common within the American
Muslims and the Canadian Muslims within the American
politics right now is that there is you
know because they're going from state to state
right now trying to get the Muslim population
to vote for the different parties.
So different Muslim associations have started to show
that they are endorsing certain parties and that's
what the politicians want.
So there are different Muslim parties in America
that have endorsed the Green Party.
So that's like you can count on at
least like you know if IIT for example
were to say we support XY politician you
can guarantee that a good amount of the
people that are associated with IIT are going
to endorse that population and in Canada we're
going to see at the next election as
well is that they do the politicians really
do heavily rely on the Muslim vote to
be counted as like the swing vote.
So like it's been a part of their
system especially when it comes to the liberal
party is that their goal is to convince
everybody not to waste your vote and I
say waste in quotations not to waste your
vote essentially on a third or uncommitted vote
because they try to scare us by saying
well if you don't vote for us it's
kind of like the Hillary and Trump versus
election.
Well you know Pierre Poligare is going to
win and you guys want a conservative party
to be in power over a liberal party
even though you're not happy with us you're
going to be even more unhappy with the
other party.
Essentially trying to scare everybody to vote for
them when if we were to stand united
as Muslims and to show that irregardless we're
going to we're so unhappy with your policies
that we're going to vote for a third
party regardless knowing that we may be hurt
for the next four years or that we're
uncommitted for the next four years and just
depend on our communities as Muslims to take
care of one another then they would be
forced to change their policies.
Liberals wouldn't be supporting the businesses that still
send warfare to Israel to kill Palestinians.
Yeah so I mean this is a good
comment you know in that you know here
in Canada some years ago idealists
we have to have the way forward you
have to have the solutions in order to
deal with the problems of today.
Okay so we're going to close the class
there okay another question Yes
so Inshallah you know in one of the
upcoming sessions we will be dealing with the
Khalifa Omar Ibn Abdulaziz because he is considered
to be you know one of the great
Khalifas.
He will be one that we will take.
It's coming.
So you know that's another fusion one that
came later on after this school of Rashidin
but in between him you're going to see
some other things that happened.
So he is another good example of a
leader who combined both Omar Ibn Abdulaziz Okay
and we'll bring you some sources and things
when we come there.
Any other questions anybody has?
Yeah you know is the Islamic way you
know we have to treat people with respect
and with dignity that is the Islamic way
and to keep calling to the truth because
many times the problem with the masses is
ignorance.
They don't know.
So if they don't have the right information
somebody's got to get the right information to
them and we have to continue you know
until consciousness you know rises you know amongst
the masses of the Muslims Allah is the
best to guide.
One good thing about Muslims is we do
things as a group.
Ramadan is a good example.
So if the right trend is going then
you'll see Muslims fast get on that's our
nature you're going to see Muslims all over
the world it's just a matter of having
that trend to be set you know and
a good direction to go in and then
inshallah with the help of Allah we will
see great change.
So inshallah we will continue on next week
showing these examples and praying that Allah would
rise up leadership amongst the Muslim world especially
at this very critical point in our history