Abdullah Oduro – Islam is meant to Unify Us
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Alhamdulillah, we praise Allah, we seek his aid,
and we seek his forgiveness.
We seek refuge in Allah from the evil
of ourselves and the evil of our bad
deeds.
Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide.
And whomsoever Allah allows to be led astray,
none can guide aright.
And I bear witness that there is no
one worthy of worship except Allah
There's no one worthy of worship except Allah
and that Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon
him, is his last messenger and servant.
As to what follows, indeed, the best speech
is the book of Allah, and the best
guidance is that of Mohammed, peace and blessings
be upon him. And of the worst affairs
in our doctrinal system of Islam are the
newly invented ones. For every newly invented affair
in this situation is an innovation, and for
every innovation is a form of going astray,
and for every form of going astray is
in the fire of *.
Sheikh, I have a question,
and I'm very hesitant to ask this question,
but I wanna ask this question in front
of everyone.
I'm from Egypt.
My Palestinian friends won't talk to me anymore.
I'm from Egypt,
and my friends from Palestine,
they're not talking to me anymore. They've cut
communication with me.
I think me mentioning this quote, many of
you know
why this took place.
This question was asked to me roughly about
a month and a half, 2 months ago
by a sister that was distraught
that her close friends, I guess, whom she
thought were her close friends,
don't wanna talk to her anymore.
I mentioned 2 countries, and we know why.
I'll repeat.
I'm Egyptian.
My friends from Palestine,
they don't want to talk to me anymore.
They've cut communications with me.
Another brother comes before and he says, you
know what? There's a there's an individual that
wants to become Muslim,
but I just have a question.
They were Jewish. Are they allowed to become
Muslim? Can they become Muslim?
Can they become Muslim?
This was a real sincere question.
A sincere
question.
I know people and maybe you know people
that met their cousins at an old age,
never knew that they were cousins.
Why?
Because one parent
was able to come to the
land of opportunity where the grass is green
and the the fence is white. White picket
fence.
The West.
You know,
the places that throughout history, if we look
through the past,
we speak their language, Ichbaran.
We speak the English language, the French language,
But when you see why and how we
speak those languages,
there's a horror story behind it.
They were colonialized.
They were taken as captives,
indentured servants.
They were brought over to their native lands
being the oppressors native land
to fight for them.
And we see throughout the years, particularly the
years 1947,
1948
throughout the globe.
We have different nationalities
that have been given to us.
Been given to us.
Given to us not meaning that we asked
for it,
but it was placed upon us. Borders that
were made, we didn't ask for it. It
was placed upon us. A culture that was
put upon us,
and I say us
because I sit here with dark skin,
some of you sit here with light skin,
and we all understand
that this oppression
has a story behind it.
What I just mentioned to you were some
things that we as Muslims have heard.
We as Muslims have heard it.
A friend of mine's family members passed
away in a car accident,
and his son
was burned in the car.
Burned.
The doctor came to us and we know,
you know, I'm gonna give you some time
because I don't know if you'll be able
to handle this.
If you will be able to shuf, if
you'll be able to distinguish
your son.
You know what some people asked him?
Well, Lai, we don't know if he was
burned by the fire in this life.
What do you think the next question was?
If he was burned by They asked him,
the father.
If he was burned by the fire in
this life,
is that a sign
that he may be
burned in the next life? What?
Jahlmurakkab.
Jahlmurakkab.
Means compound ignorance.
You don't know that you don't know but
you speak as though you know and everyone
that is deaf
and blind
knows that you don't know, but you speak
as though you know.
This is what we see with racism in
America.
What we're seeing with racism in the UK
as well,
as though they were the ones that founded
those colonies, that country,
knowing that there were indentured servants that came
from India that helped establish it through the
Commonwealth World War 2, etcetera.
It was a conglomeration of people, some that
were forced to be there
to establish a land where they're asking for
privileges.
How many times is I as an African
African,
1st generation African, my parents came
not for free labor as slaves,
They came from Ghana, West Africa.
I'm the 1st American in my lineage. How
many times was I made fun of because
I'm too black By African Americans, not by
white people,
by African Americans.
Until today, you see people like this ignorant
Gilbert Arenas
basketball player making fun of South Sudan that
almost beat America in the basketball,
playing against USA. Making fun of his own
people.
Ignorance.
You see that when people are African American
making fun of Africans, how do you say
your last name making fun of it? Do
you know that your colonizers making you have
a false sense of isa?
A false sense of isa. We see in
some countries, if they speak French, they're holier
than thou and more royal and better than
the people their great grandfathers.
We all know this takes place brothers and
sisters because the dunya has come to those
that speak the language of the oppressor.
That is the reality,
and that is from
jal,
jal,
jal. Ignorance,
ignorance,
ignorance.
Islam
came to free us from the shackles of
ignorance.
Starting with our belief in the creator of
the minds, and the hearts,
and the emotions,
and the feelings.
How many times and I do not blame
the brothers that come up to me and
come up to my fellow brothers that are
imams, and they say, brother, you mentioned these
countries, but you didn't mention this country when
you made dua.
I'm sympathetic to that brother,
that sister,
but at the same time,
we have to recognize
just as,
semi colon, just as
when there was a post that was put
up about what's going on in Africa,
somebody in the comments says, Palestine only. Forget
everyone else.
Unacceptable.
Unacceptable.
Unacceptable.
Xin Yang, how many people have you heard
you heard of this country or this region?
Northeastern
China.
Since 2017,
there have been concentration camps of our brothers
and sisters in Northeastern China, never even heard
of.
You haven't even heard of it.
You haven't even heard of these regions where
this has been going on.
And if anyone is feeling in their heart
right now, why are you mentioning this and
you're not mentioning Gaza and Palestine?
Fear Allah
Just as our brothers and sisters in Xinjiang,
and our brothers and sisters in Sudan,
and our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan,
all around the world, places that I may
not even know because it's not getting media
coverage, which by the way is the way
that we really find out, and who are
these individuals that control the media.
They decide to show us what they want
to show us. That's what we're being exposed
to unless
the beautiful Ummah of Islam,
which is a conglomeration
of many beautiful colors and nationalities,
we hear it firsthand.
Islam has given us the formula. Islam is
there to liberate you firstly by your connection
with the law, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
So we are sympathetic and empathetic, and we
are a body
of Muslims
all around the world because Allah created the
world. Don't mean to sound basic, but many
times, we have to take it back to
the basics.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he said
in a beautiful hadith, and it's a foundational
hadith. He
said,
He said there are 4 things.
Listen closely to this hadith. He said there
are 4 things that my ummah,
the ummah of Islam, the nation of Islam,
all of us,
they are from the affairs of the days
of ignorance.
Let's stop here for a minute. The days
of ignorance was called
because it was actions
that were detrimental
to a society.
It was very preservationalist.
It was my people and everyone else are
the enemy,
or they are potential enemy because they are
not from our culture, our people, our last
name,
our tribe, our our kabila,
our nation.
And also this
springs from
shirk,
polytheistic
practices.
Yes. We have our culture, but combined with
the polytheistic practice,
that is our means of guidance.
That is the yardstick to determine what is
right and wrong. That is the yardstick in
which we determine morals and ethics and values.
Islam came to transcend.
It came to transcend
any type of racism, and from that racism
springs forward
stereotype, which causes discrimination
and can lead to death, which we are
seeing around the nation now.
And it also came to transcend
the polytheistic practices. Islam says, we worship Allah
by himself. He is not like any of
his creation and because of that, we abide
by the system he has given us.
We abide by the Sharia,
the deen of Islam to the best of
our ability. We are going to make mistakes.
We're going to make mistakes, but that is
our anchor. That is who we resort to.
So when the prophet
said there are 4 things that my ummah,
my nation will not leave.
He said
The prophet salawasalam, he said the first two
things.
He says, it is al fakhru.
It is bragging
bragging
on your lofty
place in society,
whether it's your family, etcetera.
Al Fakhbu, you're bragging about where you're from
or who you're from.
I'm from Kabir, it's Fulan, Fulan. I'm from
this. And because of that, you use that
as bragging rights
to have a right over another
people,
group of people, or one person because he
is from a lesser people. Each and every
single one of us in our native lands,
we know the tribe of people that we
say, oh, yes. They're from the well-to-do tribe.
Their father and mother was educated in Britain
in 19 so and so. When they came
back, they bought their house, they bought their
castle. Now they are looked at as the
people that are are are are had to
set the standard. We look at them as
the standard.
They are the people that are civilized.
Well, why brothers and sisters, when you ask
that question, they are civilized, who civilized them?
Who?
Who is setting the standard of civilized?
Not saying in every case, but when we
go back to our country and say, these
are the people that are who civilized them?
Who?
So when we look at them and we
say, okay. Those are the ones for that,
but these tribes are people,
they were the slaves back then and they
were the indentured servants, and we see them
today, and we look down upon them.
We look down upon them.
I'll never forget one brother from a country.
He said, yes. These types of people, they
are the they are the darker color, but,
they're, you know, we take care of them.
What? What is your problem?
Where do you find Izzah?
Where do you find might?
Where do you find honor?
Where do you find honor?
Unacceptable
in Islam.
So, the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he
said, bragging
about
your status.
And then the second thing he said,
and it is reviling
one's genealogy,
their nature, where they're from.
Oh, they're from this people.
They look down upon them because of where
they're from.
Whether it's their tribe,
whether it's their nation,
we always have to and and Islam gives
you the opportunity to do this revisionist history,
Wallahi.
I've learned so much from standing after after
the saw and standing with my brothers
and asking about where they're from, and then
they give me a history. I've learned so
much walai, and I've seen so many universal
characteristics
of these two things,
people that brag about their status
and and in result or as a result,
they speak down upon another people in their
nationality.
And being in America is a huge opportunity.
We can use the word challenge, but we
look at that challenge as an opportunity
to live Islam.
So where when we see or hear any
of these things, we say, brother, it's important
for us to do revisionist history. Yes. Many
people that have scammed you, that have done
this, or that have treated you a certain
way with you, sir.
Majority of them have been from that nationality.
Fine. But to make a general statement, we
don't have that right.
We don't have that right. Because I'm gonna
be totally honest, being in America, especially dealing
with collegiate students,
that nationality that you despise, your daughter is
interested in that boy.
That boy wants to become Muslim.
That girl wants to become Muslim. It's Tisawi.
What are you gonna do now?
And this person that wants to become Muslim
is trying to be the best he or
she can be, but because of their nationality,
Islam came to transcend that.
Islam came to transcend
and demolish that
to where when someone walks in the Masjid,
they say, man, I never thought I would
see so many people come together and stand
next to each other. One brother told me,
I never thought I would like a white
person.
I thought the white man was the devil.
I come into Islam, I see white people,
and they're Muslim.
And little does he realize that this white
person,
even the word white black came from a
Western phenomenon. Where do we get this? This
white was Syrian.
How does his wife What's that language? I
thought he was white. Ignorance.
But we learn about each other.
When we are racist and have discriminatory
practices, we are putting up boundaries to get
to know one another and I'm not using
this term lightly, to change the world. And
that is what Islam came, to liberate your
heart and to liberate the world will lie.
We have to remember that even though this
is basic, when we see what is going
on in the UK, when we see what's
going on in Gaza, when we see what's
going on in in with the Rohingya Muslims
in Burma, when we see what is going
on all around the world,
we see that Islam is the answer, and
it's important for us to cling to that
and understand
its opposite to know how to stay away
from it and to call people to that
which is good
with ease, with patience, with love, and with
mercy.
So the prophet
mentioned these four things. He mentions that there
are 4 things from my ummah, my nation
that they they're from the affairs of Jahiliyyah,
pre Islamic ignorance, and they will never leave
them. He said,
They will not leave it.
So it's important for us to be a
tentative and to be mindful of that and
know that we do not want to be
of those people
because it is not a praiseworthy characteristic that
he is he is contextualizing.
So the first thing he says is the
one that brags on his or her status.
The second of those are the ones that
chastise or revile someone, someone's genealogy, whether from
their grandmother, their grandfather, etcetera, etcetera. And then
the third thing, he said,
It is seeking rain from the stars.
What's the connection with that?
When we look at this the stars as
the source of provision,
this can be borderline polytheistic
because it is giving a creation the characteristics
of the creator that is only confined
to the creator, the aspect of ability, qudra,
power,
rahma,
mercy,
knowledge,
al-'alim.
That is only for Allah. Now Allah may
use that as a means, and it's important
to make this distinction.
The stars may be a means for which
this comes about, but it is not the
source to what we call on them or
to what we think when the stars form
this type of shape or color
that we are destined
to take. This is destined to happen. That
can be borderline polytheistic.
The 4th thing he said,
and wailing
over the dead.
Wailing
over the dead.
I, as many of you, have had the
opportunity, and I use this word opportunity,
to be at a funeral of some that
may be Muslim
and some that was non Muslim.
There are people,
bear with me, there are people that will
come to funerals
to take money to wail. Wail is screaming
over the dead.
Screaming over the dead. As Apostle Solomon said,
breaking, tearing their pockets, hitting themselves
will lie the first time I saw that
at my grandmother's funeral. I'm sitting there, people
come in shaking our hands, and this man
comes, he comes to take money, and then
after that, Walais, like he's an actor. I
laughed.
I asked my mother, I said, Isha, what
is this? He takes the money. Oh, he
starts wailing and crying.
Fake
tears, crying. Who is he? I don't know
who he my mom I don't know who
he is.
His job come to find his job was
to go to places
and to wail over the dead for the
means for people to embrace
the moment,
to embrace the moment, but how is this
incongruence with what we're talking about? Because all
of this goes back to the pleasure of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, being pleased with what
Allah has given
you, being pleased with what he has given
you,
and not
getting angry with the predestination
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That's why this hadith is so alim. It
is such a great hadith,
But I want to end with, as I
mentioned earlier,
brothers and sisters, it's very important whether we're
electing a president
of a masjid board members,
or whether we're electing the president of the
United States,
we cannot
allow that to the best of our ability,
and I wanna say to the best of
our ability. Because if we have a political,
you know, idea and we choose this candidate
because of that, and we're very passionate of
it, we have to recognize and just to
be totally real, that presidential candidate may be
assisting your country,
but at the sacrifice of an of your
brother's country.
Did y'all hear what I just said?
He may be assisting your country at the
sacrifice of your brother's country.
What is your position now in regards to
your brother?
This is very important for the unity and
community of Islam.
Because what we see sometimes as was mentioned
when the young girl came and asked the
question,
she said, I'm Egyptian and my Palestinian friends
won't talk to me anymore.
This comparison
of atrocities,
we should stay away from this culture.
Comparing
atrocities
is something that can only cause tafaruk,
separation
of the bodies, of the minds, and of
the hearts.
We do not compare atrocities. Well, lie in
my country you never face this brother.
I saw 1 brother, African American brother, arguing
with an Indian brother. Indian brother said, y'all
are the only ones that had slavery, we
had slavery too. And the African American says,
okay, whatever. We are slavery doesn't amount to
say, you're in the country that we built.
Both Muslim. What is this going to result
to brothers?
I hope each and every single one of
us are looking deeply inside of ourselves
and looking at those stereotypes that we have
of one another,
those discriminatory
practices that we may do in our places
of employment or our businesses towards another type
of people.
And to know that when you practice that
discriminatory practice, and some people feel it,
some people feel it. I'm one of them.
I can I grew up under feeling racism?
I know when I walk in a store,
people are looking at me in the mirror
think I don't see the mirror. I know
you're watching me.
I know you're watching me.
I know it.
When we have that attitude in Islam, we'll
lie brothers and sisters.
Sisters, brothers, feel it. And I don't I'm
not only talking about those that convert to
Islam. I'm talking about those to the ones
that converted to Islam as well, when we
you may we may see it from people,
it's a part that convert to Islam when
you're being discriminatory stereotypical
of a people.
We are human
beings,
and Allah has called us
because we are forgetful. We're neglectful.
We're around our relatives a lot. Our country,
we come back. We see that one nationality,
a group of people are predominant in doing
this, and we generalize sometimes.
But it's important that Islam is your anchor,
and that's what you result to.
And you say,
I don't know. Alhamdulillah.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive that person,
or may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala deal with
that person, etcetera.
We don't allow that to dictate our actions
because when that happens, you will see what
is happening in the UK. People have had
it, and it's based off of racial pretenses.
Yes.
But in Islam,
we don't let that trample inside of our
unit as Muslims, at least.
At least, at the most, for those that
are that are outside of our faith as
well.
Because we are here to help in changing
the world by embodying
unity,
embodying
love,
embodying
honor in who we are because
because of Islam.
Islam is not supplemental
to me being African
or you being Indonesian
or Pakistani
or Afghani.
It is not sub It is not extra.
I'm a Muslim and I'm this. This sounds
very basic, I know,
but we need it.
Because as I mentioned, when the person comes
up to me and says, can this Jew
become a Muslim?
When someone doesn't speak to when a when
a when a when a Palestinian doesn't speak
to an Egyptian,
and they were friends,
we have to review
our
ourselves
and see what is the bigger picture. Because
if we are here for Allah, we will
try our best to transcend
those things that keep us
apart.
Help and assist the Muslims in the far
east and far western parts of the world.
And be thankful to him. He will increase
you and the remembrance of Allah is the
greatest thing. Allah is well aware of what
you do. Establish the prayer.
So straighten the lines from close one another,
please.
Sonic.
That's Zach Lesh here for the