Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Short Discussion on Unity
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Smilla Raheem hamdulillah Robben Island Amin Salatu was Salam, ala
Maga, Ruth Yarmouth and Lunarlon Amin while he was Safi of our
coastal limiter Sleeman Kathira on Isla Yomi been another caught
along with the baraka with Quran in Nigeria well for carnal Hamid
were tossing will be heavily luggage me for Rocco. So the
colloquial name,
my dear respected friends,
I was told unity, now the element of charity comes into it, I,
unfortunately, I've been very busy. So I didn't get to speak to
the organizers to what you mean by a unity because every time that
I've dealt with a unity talk or heard a unity talk, it's always
been a reaction to something. Because unity, it kind of
subsumes. And maybe that's a negative way of looking at this,
but it kind of subsumes that. There's some underlying issues and
hence, we need to talk about unity otherwise, very good. He was
unified. Why should you talk about unity? I went to a attended a
hotwire in Florida and this was in Tampa, Florida. And I remember the
Hatim he was giving a talk and he said, it doesn't matter if you're
Indian, it doesn't matter if you're Pakistani if you're
Egyptian, you're distant that, like he repeated that at least
five times or something during his talk. And I'm thinking you're
causing a problem. Because when you highlight these things, they
cause a problem. Because you're essentially telling people, these
are the lines that are drawn in our community. So those people who
don't have these issues or don't have these barriers in their mind,
they start thinking that these are the barriers and we're trying to
lie and it's like the Kinsey report effect.
You don't get it doesn't matter. It's a bad one.
Essentially, the Kinsey report and I'm going off on a tangent now,
that's fine. In the 70s, or 60s in Indiana, there was a there's a
Kinsey Institute now. And as a doctor called Dr. Kinsey, who came
up with this really weird idea of people's sexual deviant, says that
this is how many people in society are into or fantasize about this
type of whatever, and this type, and there's this many people and
this many people. So then when that report came out, people
started thinking they became a bit more bold, though I have those
ideas as well. So they started thinking that they're not alone in
the world. And then the sexual revolution did follow very soon
afterwards. I don't know if we can blame it entirely on that. But
that was definitely one of the factors.
So
it's sometimes highlighting the issues that actually cause a
problem. I remember once, in our masjid, there was this young
kadhi, who just come back from studying, and it studied the seven
karats, the seven modes of reading the Quran. And that's an
interesting thing, and people should know about it, because
every one of the seven modes of recitation is a valid mode of
reading, just as each one is as valid as the next. And I think
people, Muslims need to be broad minded about this and need to
understand this. I said, Read and we already made an announcement to
the people that this will be the recitation will be in a different
era, in a different mode of reading. So it was all preempted.
You know, the worst thing is that after salaat, the person to get up
and make a fuss in make a fuss with an excuse.
He said he got up and he said he was really angry. It came up to me
says that this shouldn't be done. Because this causes fitna
who's causing the fitna here, nobody was causing fitna nobody
said anything. I was the Imam at the time in the masjid. And this
particular learner person who had studied, he comes up an older man
and he said, this session, let this happen. It's okay if it
happens in conferences, but it cannot happen. You know, for a
normal prayer, you know, and so on, because it causes fitna, but
the only person that caused the fitna, or any kind of mischief or
ruckus or problem was him. So sometimes it's the one that's
crying wolf. They are the ones who are causing the problem in the
first place. I'm not trying to say that we need to bury everything.
But at the same time, we need to be very wise about we do it the
way we do things. Because a lot of the time, we are sometimes looking
for conformity. We're looking for physical conformity that everybody
kind of looks happy and everybody's together, but hearts
are broken. And that's not the way to do things all the time. Give
you an example.
I had a friend who's an imam in Saudi was an imam in South Africa.
Now in South Africa, you got a lot of 100 Thieves and you got a lot
of sharpies
Those are kind of two dominant mothers that
that play or play the big roles there. So he was an imam in a
mosque in which you had both Shafi ease and Hanafis. And
when it came to Ramadan and winter, that's the kind of hot,
contentious issue. They had solved it for many, many, many, many
years, that after a tarawih was done together, everybody joined in
together under one Imam, the waiter, they would just go and do
separately, the hand refused to do this. And the chef used to do
this, and they were happy about it. Suddenly, you get this new
imam who reckons that this is disunity.
This is wrong. And they will everybody's happy about it. But he
reckoned that this was wrong, we should gather everybody together.
Now, the meta issues of why there are differences in that let's just
ignore those for a while because that will, if you go into that you
won't be able to understand the point I'm trying to make right. So
let's just keep it at that.
So the next Ramadan, he had everybody pray together, and
obviously you can't pray a
Hanafi slash Shafi hybrid prayer, it has to be either Hanafi or
Shafi because there is such a massive difference in that issue,
whether it should be two and one separately, or three together, you
just can't do both together, right.
And subhanAllah, whether you do the Hanafi style, the chef is
upset if you do the Shafi style, the Hanafi is upset. So he
disunited the community. So although in terms of form and
outer facade, everybody seemed to be different before but their
hearts were united. And now that you brought everybody physically
together, suddenly their hearts are disunited.
So a lot of the time, we need to really think beyond have a lot of
clemency. So I thought hard about how do you give a message to
somebody in general, about unity? And I think you see, when you talk
about unity, like I said, right in the beginning, it still It seems
to be the contrapositive of that.
Differences of disunity.
Now, it's minimizing differences. How does a person minimize
differences? Because clearly, everything in the world is
different. That's the nature of the world. That is the perfection
of the world in its diversity.
Allah for Lady one Maha Allah subhanho wa Taala speaks about in
the Quran, the days and nights, if the love for Al Cinetic will one
income, Allah subhanho wa Taala speaks about the differences in
your colors. The difference in your languages. I was in had
recently. And there was a grocery store shop near our hotel, and I
went there once or twice. And then after that, I went to ask the
owner who was taken, you know who's serving? I said, Where are
you from? Brother? Tell me when and he said on a Muslim? Yeah.
I said, I know you're a Muslim. Right. That's why you're in
Makkah. Medina, you know, they're Muslim. So I said, but where are
you from? This isn't a Muslim. Yeah. People think that to break
down these kinds of ethnic
affiliations means unity. So then, I said to him, I said, But Allah
says in the Quran, was your inner culture, Reuben Wakaba, Isla Lita,
out of whom we have created created you in different tribes.
So that you may recognize each other, you may recognize each
other's backgrounds, traits, characteristics, idiosyncrasies,
and thus cater accordingly, because people are different. You
can't have even in this time of globalization, we are very
diverse. And Muslims, as you know, we're feeling the brunt of this in
this country, because this is the whole challenge, isn't it? People
are threatened by the Muslims doing what they want to do
according to their faith, even though it's harmless to others in
terms of the way people may want to dress or teach their children
and so on. But because the dominant view holders cannot
accept that cannot find,
cannot find within themselves to open up, they feel threatened, and
that's why they are responding aggressively, whereas an open
minded person would not do that. So now this person, the good thing
was that this particular individual was a learned
personally. I tell you why I find out he's a learned person. As soon
as I mentioned that verse, He broke down in a smile.
And he softened out and he says Mauritania. Right? He says moody
tiny. I said give her a shopaholic. Yeah, Columbus yaka
yaka bus. Yeah, come on. Well, Dean Yakama tonight. I mean, you
know, this is I don't know if you guys ever dealt with a Mauritanian
but when they start speaking to you, they literally fire
Greetings at each other for about five minutes.
Literally literally, No, we just say guest by ticket of hamdulillah
butcher chair, you know, and that's it done. Right? Like how's
everybody you know how's your kids and you're done dusted. Now these
guys like, are you okay? Yes, I'm okay. Are you okay? Are you fine?
No problems. Are you guys enjoying it? Are you guys okay? And then
like, you know, give her the again and then yeah cannabis or cannabis
or cannabis. Okay, you know this is so I can I wrote them down by
memorize them and as soon as he heard that he recognized that,
okay this guy knows about Mauritania said I've been to
Mauritania and he got so excited afterwards, he goes take anything
from the store you want.
Right? So
to try to break down certain barriers and say it doesn't apply
to me because there was another individual once when I spoke to us
where you're from, he goes on from the earth.
It's, no there's nothing wrong with saying your affiliation. What
is wrong, is as the Prophet sallallahu sallam said very
clearly, that Kibera arrogance is that you look down upon somebody
else, you degrade them, and you reject the truth. That's the
problem. The problem is not who you are, and where you are,
celebrate that. What is the problem is when you make that a
point of superiority, only points of superiority or taqwa in the
sight of Allah, that's a point of superiority. And if there's any
other point of superiority after that, it's your character. So
we've got two lines, you see, all of us * from somewhere or the
other. Right? Hopefully, you know, whether that be India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, would you call it Iraq, Eritrea, Somalia, you know,
wherever it may be in the world. Now, those places in this country
with everybody growing up, eating pizza, and pasture don't really
matter. Right doesn't really matter where you're from, because
we all need the same kind of food generally.
So what kind of points of difference or separation or some
kind of identity that matters for us, so as Muslims, what matters is
Islam. But then we're not only dealing with Muslims, we're also
dealing with this huge community of human beings outside of that.
So then our second point is of humanity in general, those are the
two big features. Those are the two big points that should be in
our mind. One is somebody is a Muslim, then we need to react
accordingly. Somebody is not a Muslim, then we need to react as a
human being, at least. And the only two points in that is taqwa
and good character. There are two things that help in this case.
Because if you have taqwa and you have good character, then you are
less likely to ever have problems in your life, you are less likely
to have problems that you can't surmount and overcome, you will
have issues you will have challenges. That's the nature of
this world, there is no life without challenges in this world.
Really, if you think that there should be no challenges, and
there's perfection in this world, you're in a pipe dream. And life
will teach you that if you haven't had problems until now, you may
have problems data, it's all about how to deal with that problem. The
people of Taqwa the pinnacle of humanity and good character, they
just know how to deal with the issues. That's why their hearts
remained safe, because they just don't internalize these problems,
they're able to deal with them. That's the most important aspect,
most important message about this. That is what Unity is all about.
Because differences are there, differences are there within
husband and wife. Differences are there within husband and wife.
differences are there between brothers and sisters, differences
are there between friends. And we have to understand there will be
differences. I just need to know how am I going to deal with this
difference when it happens. So a number of things are probably
similar. Some guided us, for example.
This generally is a bigger problem, we have to sift out a bit
further to those of us who have an aggressive
attitude. Some people are just naturally more aggressive than
others. Some people are just naturally more arrogant than
others competitive, let's call it competitive. Some people are just
naturally more competitive than others. They just like to always
be the best in something and that's completely fine. The
Prophet sallallahu sallam was approached by an individual a very
handsome man.
He was approached by him too, because he had heard different
things coming from Sula, some about arrogance and ostentation,
showing off and he was a bit worried because he's keen to
rasool Allah Salas and he says, you can see the handsomeness that
Allah has given me and I like everything on me to be the best
meaning up to even the straps of my sandals. I like them to be the
best, most refined
sort of Allah and he says is that kibra? Is that arrogance or sort
of ourselves and that's not arrogance. What is arrogance is
that you reject the truth and you humiliate the person in front of
you. You degrade them well
So your whatever you have whatever Allah has given you, causes you to
look down upon others. And a lot of the times differences can be
differences can be dealt with, if the competitiveness within you is
regulated, moderated and has some level of prophetic equilibrium,
the secret word, his prophetic equilibrium, the balance, you have
to have some level of competitive to get somewhere in this world. So
we're not saying don't be competitive and be a coward, be
listless fool, who just sits back and does nothing, and lets people
walk over them, his Dean, his parents and people around him and
abused and he just sits back and laughs and drinks. You know,
that's not the kind of person we're talking about. You need some
level of competitiveness, you need some level of bravery. But then it
should not lead to arrogance where you cannot take losing weight.
It's only a game brother. It's only a handbag,
Sonia dress. I mean, you can fill in the gaps. Right? So what I'm
trying to say it's
being forbearing it's being forbearing. That's why the Prophet
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that anybody who is confronted by
a difference of opinion by by a difference by quarrel, by an
argument, and he drops that argument, even though he is on the
right, he's on the he's on that he has the correct position. He is
right in the reality of matters. Because when you have an argument,
generally everybody thinks the reality is with me, right? But in
reality, like real reality, the reality is when Person A, and he
decides, forget this argument, there's no benefit in it, he walks
away, he diffuses it.
Right, he gets, he gets a place in the highest levels of Jannah.
Because he did that, because Allah does not like differences in this
world. And you know, the best thing is that's understood that he
should be rewarded such he was right anyway. And he decided to
move. So that's a very brave thing for him to do. He really swallowed
his ego. And he said, Look, there's no point arguing this,
because he's gonna get to nothing. The other person is wrong.
The other person was wrong to start with. He may even know it.
But he can't help arguing. A lot of people argue despite the fact
they know it's wrong, just because they're too arrogant to admit
failure to admit losing that one time. And sometimes it will be
something as simple as if you're in one of these tight streets of
London and the cars coming from in front, and you're in front of
which who's going to move back?
Who's going to move back?
Now, the only reason you don't want to move back?
Who is writing those cases anyway? Do you understand? The only reason
you don't want to move back is he should move back? Why am I forced
to move back?
Even though you're totally wrong, because you've got the space, it's
easier for you to move back. But no, you want him to move right to
the end of the street? Because you're bigger than him for some
reason. And you know, what, if you move back, and he went, he hasn't
even seen you. And he probably never see you again. So it's not
like there's some kind of real competition there. Anyway, it's a
personal problem. These are the roots of these are the roots of
disunity. They start with these kinds of problems. They it's a
it's a problem of the heart. That's what it is. Some people
just are fit Natick. They just find these things wherever they
go. Right? I don't think that words in the dictionary yet.
It is.
No, hopefully not.
Anyway, they just have a tendency to be like that. They want to make
a big deal out of everything. They just don't want to come down from
the hype this too. So the prophets of Allah ism said about the second
person who is wrong.
If he steps away, and he's still wrong, and he steps in, he should
be stepping away anyway. But just to give him an incentive, the
professor Lawson said he still gets a place on the outskirts of
Jana.
Because differences are really, really, really, really dangerous.
Differences are really, really dangerous. And subhanAllah, where
I learned to deal with people is as an Imam, because as an imam of
the masjid, you're going to be dealing with many, many different
people more than you would deal normally because you're dealing
very closely with lots of different people. And you cannot
hold grudges. Because if you start holding a grudge and you start
getting competitive us you're in trouble because you won't be able
to survive. You will not be able to survive. You will I've heard of
people who will be spoken about me I know they speak in America,
somebody else has come and told me now I don't know why the other
person has come and told me maybe because he's got a problem with
that person. So even though somebody comes and tells you that
so and so is speaking about you, you have to wonder why he's
telling you that is he really telling you because He loves you
You or is it because he doesn't like the other guy?
This is human beings, right? And once we understand I was with a
taxi with a chauffeur once going to Heathrow, he was about 75 years
old. So I felt this was a wonderful time for me to ask him
to learn something from an elder. Right. He was a non Muslim old
man, 75 years old driving for Etihad. So I said, Tell me how you
drive. You know, what's your principle? What's your philosophy?
He says, to be honest people. I just consider the old drivers are
a bit silly and foolish. So I just make sure that I preempt that
idea. So I'm careful.
I'm careful, because I know they may do something strange. So I
have to just be careful. So I drive carefully. That's what life
is all about. People are going to do things. Let's not provoke
anybody. And if something does happen, let's try to defuse it.
Allah subhanho wa Taala says in the Quran, were either hot tub a
hula, he Luna cardhu, Salama, when people, when the ignorant confront
them, they say salam, they say they say salam, meaning they move
by with peace, they defuse the situation. So I had a situation
once where the prophets of Allah some also said that that was in
the Quran what I mentioned what the Rasulullah sallallahu sallam
said that in fasting in Ramadan, if somebody comes to, to argue
with you say, say I'm fasting, that should be enough to defuse
the situation and turn locally, it's not the right time to argue.
So I remember there was a brother who had a problem with somebody
else comes out of the masjid on Jumeirah, and that person went to
try to speak to him his brother, I'm fasting.
Now, it's not. It's not like brother, I'm fasting to try to get
one over him. Do you understand as salaam alaikum brother, that's
what the Quran tells me to say that to you. It's about trying to
defuse the situation. Just mitigate. There's no point, just
mitigate and people will love you. And my final point, final point is
that the Prophet sallallahu sallam said, the best of iman, is that
you love for Allah, and you hate for Allah. That should be your
criteria for loving something, or someone and for hating something
or someone. So if your self tells you to hate somebody, it's our
responsibility. And we don't understand why you just don't like
the way they dress. You just don't like the way they noses. You just
don't like they keep twitching.
Or whatever the case is something crazy. And you're very sensitive
candidates, you don't like them. Right?
It's as Imam Sharon, you mentioned, it's a responsibility.
It's a hack of one person over another, that you should try to
overcome those issues. One is that the person is evil,
understandable, then you want to abstain. You don't want to be with
evil people, unless you can try to help correct them. But here it's
talking about for no reason. It's just something weird, some kind of
weird attitude that they have no, try to work it out. At least give
them the benefit of the doubt. Don't write them off for that
reason. And when I say I mean, many of you will be thinking, Oh,
I've got a massive problem with such a brother such as sister
whatever it is, we don't speak, you know, how do I reconcile this
reconciling doesn't mean you have to become Buddy Buddy. Again, if
you know there's a person that is always going to aggravate you and
you're never going to see eye to eye, you don't have to be cool
friends with them. You don't have to be always hanging out with
them. It's not necessary. All it's required of you is be decent
decorum, which is just a salon where they come and maybe tell
them a good thing. If they have something good. And if something
bad happens then just give them a dua that's it. Whether that be
your relatives or whatever it is. That's what's important. Not that
you have to be buddy buddies with everybody. This is another
mistaken identity an idea. So may Allah subhanaw taala bring our
hearts together for the sake of the vulnerable peoples of the
world. Because that is definitely something that we need to agree
on. Whether we like it or not. We can agree on it. Because it's a
selfless act. It's an altruistic act for the sake of Allah subhanaw
taala May Allah help us all to open up our hearts to make this a
successful, successful? Gathering for that reason in sha Allah
working with marijuana and Al hamdu lillahi rabbil aalameen