Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – The Inherent Racism Virus
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hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen
wa salatu salam ala Sayidina more serene. What are the early he was
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called Allahu Tabata Cava Tara for the Quran in Mudgee they will for
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komyo de la he come in Allah it Harley mon hobby.
My dear brothers and sisters, our dear friends,
we've been watching the last few days the last few the last week or
two.
With horror, America, American city is going up in flames and
looting, rioting, anger against the police. Some of the video
footage we found, it seems like it's a country that's been
devastated by war, where you've got rows and rows of shops that
have been broken into graffiti,
fires being extinguished in different places you think it's
been a warzone. And all of this is because, you know, with some
legitimacy, the Black Lives Matter, that whole movement,
providing a response to the problems of the racism, the
inherent racism rather, in the communities there, especially in
the various different police forces, and so on. Now, for us as
Muslims, it's a time of huge reflection. And while Muslims
actually suffering this kind of racism in different places, for
example, in Myanmar, in the Indian subcontinent, in Palestine,
numerous other places, this doesn't mean that we would that we
may not also be racist at some level.
I think that's what's important to understand, just because some of
our fellows, and our compatriots, our partners, our people of faith,
may or may be suffering racism in some form or the other. It doesn't
mean that we ourselves cannot be racist, that we're free of this.
And that's what I want to discuss. It's, that's why it's a time of
huge reflection for us. Because overtly many people will say, I'm
not racist, there are some people who are overtly racist, they know
that and they think they're superior. And they put other
people down actively, and they don't mind being racist, because
they feel they're justified in being racist. That's probably a
minority of extremists in different cases, the majority of
people would be more or less dealing with implicit racism, deep
rooted racism,
inherent racism, where it's actually an ideology, not an idea
in your mind. I mean, do you dismiss it as an idea, right? You
say no, I know to racism, but it's actually so inbuilt. Right? To
give you an example, it's like if somebody's I just spoke to a
person interested in Islam yesterday, she had several
questions about the faith. And the questions were all about women's
position in the faith and husband and wife relationships in terms of
the women and so on and so forth. And this question of equality, and
I'm trying to answer the question, but it's very difficult to try to
answer a question when you can't make them see it from the way
Islam wants people to say, which means from a different paradigm.
From a there was a reporter that came to our Masjid once in America
while I was there, and he wanted to do a series of interviews and a
report on the masjid, you know, for the readers, because we were
the only Masjid in town. So he came for about three weeks. And in
his report, he right here, he wrote that when I went for the
Juma prayer, we went for the Juma prayer. And this was the first
time in I don't know how many years he mentioned that I was
sitting in an all male gathering with the women in a different
section. And he said, that sounded that felt really strange to me.
Right, it felt very, very strange. But eventually as I sat there and
I thought about it, I started seeing it from a different
perspective that why should our basically his idea was that I can
now see why they do it because the system that we have many he's
talking about himself,
you know that that provides for
Things like teenage pregnancies and all that because of the loose
system, the liberal system. So if he wasn't able to see it from our
perspective, he just thinks that this is complete discrimination,
it is subjugation, and so on and so forth. That's why
ideologies are very dangerous because they are something which
you hold inside without even realizing that you hold it that
way. It colors, your perspective of the way you see others the way
you interpret things. And you may say, No, I don't do that I'm not
racist, but the racists is in is inherent. I'll give you the
example of
a person from a country he, he was an he became an imam in a
different country, right, where they were both white and black
people. He became an imam there. And
some of the local indigenous people who are dark skinned, very
dark skinned, in fact, they became very close to him. And they
actually learned his language as well, because he used to use one
of the Indian languages and essentially, they learnt the
Indian language. If you go to India, there are dark skinned
people. But there's very few African looking people because
that's very different. There are dark skinned people in India, you
go south India, there are dark skinned people like Sri Lanka, the
Tamils, Tamil Nadu and other areas, but they look very
different. There's a different darkness, right? Not all white
people are the same, not all dark people are the same.
So his, he was actually with the sheikh, who came back to visit his
hometown, his home village.
He
accompanied him, he he basically brought along this indigenous
brother from the country he was in. And they, they were picked up
by at the airport by some of the villages, who would come to pick
them up from Bombay. And as they're on their way home,
they just looking at this, and because they've never seen a dark
person like this before, right now, there's a surprise.
So one of them remarked in the indigenous language, how you know,
he's so black. Now, I don't know how he said it, whether it was out
of surprise that we've never seen somebody like that before, or he
said it in a derogatory way or whatever. That person could
understand the whole conversation. He said something like, I may be
black outside, but in the indigenous language, he said,
I'm very white inside. And they were totally shocked. Because a
lot of the time they think the person isn't listening, or he
can't understand.
So they took them by complete surprise. Now, they may never have
felt it because racism was probably not even something on
their radar. Right? Because everybody is the same in that
area. So they probably don't even understand racism, right? Maybe
religious racism. But in terms of colorism, they probably don't
understand much of it. But they probably do. To be honest, they
probably say they're not. But when they said this, it came out.
So that's the more difficult aspect to understand that we do
have these stereotypes. Now stereotypes are built up by maybe
a few people from like, for example, one of the stereotypes
right now is Muslims are terrorists. Now we know as Muslims
that.
I mean, how many times do you have to say this, the overwhelming
majority of Muslims are not terrorists? A few are. But because
of that, because they're so loud, and so boisterous and so bold, and
they're so aggressive. Everybody gets a bad name. Just from that
example, we know that stereotypes are not absolute like that. But so
many of us, they go on stereotypes. I'll give you another
example. How many men have these women jokes that are passed around
through WhatsApp and so on, about how women are? Some women may be
like that, but not necessarily the majority, but they have a laugh
about it.
Right? Personally, I try to avoid this. I'm not trying to make
myself out to be better than anybody else. But I just find it.
I just find that it's unjust. I just find it that it's not
balanced. It's not right. It's not correct. Because when I see that
woman joke, I don't find that to be in my house. I don't find that
to be the case with the women. I know. Though, I can understand
that. Some women may be like that, right? So you have to remember
stereotypes.
Some may be harmless, maybe, but others are very, very dangerous.
Right? Especially if you use them aggressively, especially if that
creates hatred in your heart, especially if that leads to
acrimony to enmity to jealousy to arrogance, and that's exactly
where all of this starts from. That's where racism starts from.
It
especially when it becomes institutionalized. Look, if
there's one racist person in a community who's acting racist,
everybody's going to
everybody's going to call him out, or call her out, because it's
obvious, right? But when it becomes institutionalized, where
even your police force your politicians, right, they, this has
been fed to them. Like, for example, I was speaking to a
doctor in the UK, who is originally from Assam in India. He
said until seven years ago, and because he, he was a doctor, now
he's moved here. But he said until seven years ago, the cultural
harmony between Muslims and Hindus was amazing. Prior to seven years
in Assam, there was no problems. But since this new, the this new
political party has come in, they've sowed this seed of
discord. And now you're getting
even the so called institutions that are supposed to protect from
such problems like the police force, even they have the same
thing. Even they've been fed with this same acrimony. So you can see
how it starts off small, but then if it's fed people pick up on it,
when you repeat something often enough. And when you're told that
you're from a very bad family, and then people give a few examples of
some bad apples, you'll actually maybe even start thinking, yeah,
maybe you know, my family is bad.
That's how they do it with. When the Son in law, when the parents
sometimes feed them things about his wife, she's fine with him, no
problems, but they don't like her. So they start feeding the son in
law, problems about the wife that he is never been thinking about.
It was never on the radar, it was not even bothering him. But now
they'll bother him because somebody's pointed it out, they
will magnify it. Likewise, if the daughter in law does the same
thing about his parents who he's never had a problem with, he knows
they've got few issues, but then she may magnify it. These are just
examples. These are just examples. People do this for colleagues
sometimes to create problems with them, politicians do it all the
time against their foes. But when it's done against a minority, or a
majority, for that matter, I mean, in South Africa is actually done
against the majority. And then look what it came up to the
apartheid. Everybody recognizes today that it was bad.
Right, everybody recognizes today looking back at it, that it was
bad, even some of the people that were involved in it in the first
place.
You know, they might think that okay, there was some aspects of
it, which is good. But what's the point of the small benefit due to
the, you know, compared to the major harm that's taking place in
terms of the enslavement sectioning people off, depriving
them can't sit on the same table?
And so on and so forth. You have to remember, racism in particular,
is a form of a discouragement that is a scourge that
comes because where does it come from? If you look psychologically,
spiritually, why would somebody be racist? Right? Even if everybody
around them are racist? Why would you be racist? Is because number
one, you haven't concentrated? You haven't focused? Right? You lack
certain modes. So you like kindness? You like empathy? You
like love? You like patience, openness.
If people had these things, and even if everybody around them was
racist, they would know that it's wrong, because this is going
against the love I'm supposed to have.
That person I'm being racist against hasn't done anything wrong
to me. That's a whole different scene, somebody does something
wrong to use a different scene, somebody aggresses against you
actually have a right to respond to a certain degree. But this is
where they've not done anything. You just hate them for no reason.
I mean, I've been struggling with this idea of how to deal with this
issue. And I remember, one read one solution, I found is in a
different case scenario where one of the great spiritual scholars of
Egypt of the last few 100 years his name was Imam Shalini. And
he's got a wonderful book called a double Sapa. Right? the etiquette
of companionship with people like what kind of rights should we feel
fulfilled for people that we meet and interact with? Or we befriend,
or we just see, you know, what's our responsibility towards them?
And he said something very interesting.
He said that sometimes you may feel in your heart that you just
don't like someone.
Right? And I'm sure everybody can relate to this, that sometimes
there's somebody and for no reason for no reason. You can't think you
just don't like the guy.
Sometimes it's because maybe they speak too loudly or maybe it's the
color choice of their clothing. Maybe it's because they've not
aggressed against you. They're harmless in that sense.
but you just don't like them. Now, nobody's telling you that you must
be friend them, and you must go out with them and you must visit
their house, nobody's telling you to do that. That I mean, if
there's no relationship is no kinship between you, there's no
obligation. But how do you remove the sometimes shaytaan can
magnify this in your heart, you actually hate the person. Like
they start irritating you so much, even though they don't mean to
irritate you.
Now, I know some people can be very irritating because of some
really weird stuff that they do,
basically said that the solution to something like this is because
at the end of the day, you can't stop the person is an independent
person who's not really aggressing against you, they just irritating
you in some way, without meaning to irritate you, or you're just
being irritated, you don't understand why. Then what you do
is you pray for them. You ask Allah subhanaw taala to resolve
the matter, you give them a gift, if you can, that should remove
some of the acrimony. And you know, when you try that sometimes
Subhanallah there's, you overcome that bias you overcome that
hinderance you overcome that tension, because there was no
reason for the tension. That's why
people need to spiritually awaken themselves, which will help
against racism. And number two, if you don't know you're being
racist, then you cannot remedy it. That's why it's really one of the
most important things is to understand the different forms of
racism. Now, I'm not going to use my time here, because we've got a
short time only on this Friday to discuss that. Because right now,
with everything that's going on in the United States, there's
numerous editorials, comments,
articles, speaking about various forms of racism, and you can
benefit from them in terms of understanding how racism comes
about. Right? There's some beautiful assessments of how
racism is still so rampant, even though slavery was abolished, you
know, maybe nearly 100 years ago, or so. But still, it's there.
Still, black people are subjugated. Now, most of the time,
if you take an assessment around the world, it's white people who
are racist against black people not saying all white people are
like that, but it tends to be white against black. Even in cases
where Subhanallah you know how bad it is, you know how bad it is,
even in places where you've got more black people. It's a majority
black country, if you want to call it that, of colored people. But
blackness is seen as a problem, even though the majority of people
are dark skinned.
And they spend huge amounts of money trying to lighten their
skin. And these, these companies make huge amounts of money for
that from that. So I'll just mention I was in Sri Lanka, about
I think this was two years ago, or maybe two, two and a half years
ago. And on the billboards, I'm seeing
these, you know, the advertisements they all have,
some of you are Srilankan, you will know that they have light,
fair skinned advertising, people with fair skins, like the woman on
the advertisement, the man is all fair skinned. But when you look
around, most people are darker skinned, you know, their beauty is
in the darker skin.
You know, beauty is beyond black and white. It just depends on what
you're programmed to think sometimes. So here, it's so I
asked the question, I said, Why is why are the advertisements all in
lighter skinned people? Were it's only a minority that I liked,
like, Why is it only those people who are models, right, being
featured? So
I guess they, I mean, the answer was obvious. I just had asked the
rhetorical like, you know, a question. And then I then I went
to India, and I see the same problem there. Right. And it's
fair and lovely. Right, which is for the women. But then I went
into the bathroom of the person whose house I was staying at the
male bathroom. Right? Because that's where I was staying. And he
had all of these products. They're the children, the young adults,
that fair and handsome. Like what is this? Apparently this is the
directed at the males now, because they know it's a big industry.
What they've done is they've made darkness seem so inferior, so
lowly, bad, such a bad thing to have, that they've, they're
basically spending huge amounts of money and putting all of these
chemicals on their face to try to change themselves.
That's how bad it gets even in the countries which are majority
black. Now, there was a teacher who did a study in America and in
one of the mid states, right.
She had a class of black and white students.
I mean, I find it even difficult to say black and
White because it's not really white, and it's not really black.
Right there really shades. White people are not completely white
and black people not completely black. Right. But I mean, I guess
these are accepted terms. So we're going to use them but I find that
very difficult to use.
What she did for a week is that she spoke about the, the virtues
of white, the color white being white, and what white people have
done,
what the and then she got, she gone and gauged the reactions of
the students. The black people felt very small, right? They pick
they felt oppressed, subjugated that everybody's watching them,
they felt inferior, and so on. That's very psychological.
Then after that, I can't remember if it was for one week or two
weeks or whatever that time period, then what she turned it
around, she started mentioning the virtues of being duck.
Right? Some of you are thinking like, we've never had these
virtues. I know because we live in a very one sided world right now.
So she started mentioning all the virtues of being duck, there are
many virtues being protected, but there's so many virtues, and what
black people in history have done, right, one of the richest men to
ever have lived. I mean, this is just my example. I don't know if
she provides an example, one of the richest men with the and one
of the generous was Mansa Musa from Timbuktu, Timbuktu it sounds
like some kind of backward place that you just mentioned as a, as a
figure of speech or something, right. But when he went for hajj,
he was literally showering gold upon people. That's how much
wealthier, right.
And subhanAllah the gauge reaction was that the white people started
in the students started feeling inferior, and the black people
started feeling superior.
So a lot of this is actually conditioned, right? Inherently to
say white people are superior to black people is not right.
Because when you look at the, when you look at the back, you've seen
times when others ruled, and
certain communities of white people were seen as barbarians,
like, you know, like, many in Europe. So it's that that's where
whoever ascends, they need to be very careful about how they
portray the others. So what is racism? I mean, maybe they should
be healthy. This is kind of like a definition of racism. So
hopefully, we can benefit from this. Racism covers individual and
group credit prejudices, and acts of discrimination that results in
material and cultural cultural advantages for the dominant social
group or the majority group. So it's something which ends up with
the dominant group, or when I say dominant is that even black
countries, they see white as something great. So when I say the
dominant group, what do you mean by dominant? You know, with the
aggressing group, they they receive material and cultural
advantages by doing that, because obviously, you do it for a reason.
A most common people maybe just doing it harm, they think
harmlessly, but they're just helping the major institutions and
the major perpetrators.
It's the belief that some human groups because of their physical
appearance, or color, possess different behavioral traits,
because they're black, or because they're Asian, or because they're
Muslim, right? That they're just going to be inferior in some way.
Therefore, we can be called superior over the other. The
danger of this and why it's so evil, right? If you haven't
understood that already, is that
you know, it's just like, you know, jealousy is a human
condition. Arrogance is a human condition.
But whether arrogance,
or jealousy, or whatever it is, becomes widespread among everybody
inherent as the deep seated rooted ideology, then it becomes
institutionalized, because then the politicians, the police force,
the hospitals, the doctors, and so on so forth, everybody's going to
do it. That's why people of color in many countries find it very
difficult to ascend the economic ladder. They there's somebody who
did a survey He sent His is a Muslim guy of Pakistani origin
with a Muslim name, sent his CV to, I don't know, 4050 different
organized schools, I think, or what I think it was schools
because he's a teacher. And he hardly got maybe a few responses.
He sent the same CV but he changed the name to a English sounding
name, whatever that was Paul Smith, or whatever it was, right.
Same CV, same accomplishments, everything the same, just name is
different. And he started getting responses. So you can tell that
the only reason they're doing this is because
As of the name, because they feel that a person of this name comes
with baggage. What is that? If that's not racism? So now you can
see how those people will be kept low always.
That's why, although it's a spiritual problem, it's a very
devastating, very dangerous, very harmful one. And then it comes out
that it's going to cause these problems, it's going to cause
these reactions. I mean, you see the same thing. I mean, if you
look in the history, it's been worse. The Holocaust was something
like that, right? That was an outcome of racism.
The Aryan race, the superiority of the master race, according to
Hitler, and so on, I mean, we don't have to go into that the
Rwandan massacre, right, the massacre of the Bosnian Muslims,
right, even though they look exactly the same Bosnians,
Bosniaks,
right, as the Serbs, but they're slightly different. And they're
Muslim.
The colonial European projects when they occupied Africa, Asia,
Americas Soviet deportations of its indigenous minorities to
Crimea and other places, then you having the re the religiously
motivated hatred, right, that leads to violence, for example,
against the Rohingya system, it's leading to that in the Indian
subcontinent against Muslims.
So that's why
all of this feeds into the corporations, the governments,
educational institutions, and so on, so forth.
And that gets really, really bad.
So be careful the next time you make a joke, I'll give you the
example of somebody I know, when he was much younger, this was I
think this must have taken place about 25 years ago, just still
very fresh in my mind. We're sitting down and he, and there's
actually, they're all everybody's Muslim, but most of the people are
Indian. One of the brothers, there is a recent African, British
African convert is born here. Born is black, British individual. This
guy makes a black joke.
Thinking is harmless. They were just making jokes. They were all
doing jokes, he made a joke. And it was a black joke.
And he must have thought it's harmless, because there's a black
guy sitting there.
And immediately, the black guy said very nicely that he said, You
should stop doing those jokes, because it just creates it
supports the whole idea that black people are inferior. Or they're
wild, because it was really I mean, it was a it was a weird
joke. Right. But he thought it was harmless. He says that from that
day on. I don't think he's ever made a joke like that. Again. He's
always thought twice before making a joke. Because he was called out
for inherent racism, that why did he think that was funny?
Why did he think he could do that innocent in front of others.
That's why most of us won't recognize this, even if we've got
it unless somebody points it out. But how many people are going to
point out something like that to us. And if we don't correct
ourselves, we'll be abusing others without realizing as much prayer
as we do. We're going to be sinful, and is bad for our heart.
That person that we've aggressed against, without even realizing
will have a case against us on the Day of Judgment.
Let us just quickly look at a few things before we end. Allah
subhanaw taala says and you know, I believe everybody should recite
this surah the translation at least of the surah when you finish
this, this will be really helping us because I think there are some
very pertinent verses with regards to racism in the Quran. First one,
I mean, I'm starting with the Quran going through the prophet
Sallallahu Sallam next Allah says woollacott Khurana Benny Adam, we
have honored all the children of Adam is a black person not the
children of Adam.
It's actually says that other Melissa was created from mentor
Rob, right. Mean Sol Sol in girl for her
as Allah mentions in the Quran,
the Tafseer is the explain that Allah had an angel go and pick up
the soil, portions of soil from all over the world.
Right all over the world. And that was brought together to make
either Melissa long. That's why then from Adam Ali Salam comes new
holiday salaam from new Harrison comes his three sons and from his
three sons. You've got the Sudan, the suit, you've got the Habash,
you've got the Aryans. You've got you know the Caucasians you've got
the Asians, and they come from the three sons.
We all from the same or from the earth at the end of the day. Allah
said we've ennoble all human race, as compared to all other forms of
creation of Allah.
Thereafter, Allah Subhan you should recite as I said, the
Tafseer of sorbitol who gerat Soto who gerat is
On the 26th Jews, it's also called sortal Hola que el ad. It's also
about etiquette. And after the first section which is more about
etiquette towards the prophets of Allah Islam, it then starts off
with harmony between brothers in the MENA eco, right? Believers are
all brothers, right? Humanities or brothers at the end of the day
thereafter that in order to explain where brotherhood could be
shattered, where people could conflict with one another, Allah
subhanho wa Taala mentions, I don't know, several rules, several
etiquette, several points. He starts off with saying, Yeah,
you're Latina Amanullah Yes, Coleman Coleman, I saw your cool
new hire a minimum
a group of you should not mock belittle
another group, maybe the other group is actually superior to you,
in some sort, whatever sense that is. So no men should do this to
others and no women should do this to others. Thereafter, Allah
subhanaw taala mentioned other ways where disharmony is created.
Allah says
extendible cathedra Amina ven avoid huge amounts of speculation,
jumping to conclusions, false accusations, just opinions without
any reality. But then Allah also says that while to justice, we
don't go and spy, don't try to inquire about the reality things
of things if it doesn't affect you or harm you.
And then Allah says do not backbite then for backbiting,
Allah mentions several reasons why Backbiting is so bad, he says that
it's like, it's like you are eating your brother's flesh who is
dead?
Right? And, and so on. It's well worth reading. Then finally, all
of those rules end with saying, the other verse that I recited the
beginning you had nurse who are people who believe we created you
from a male and a female, all of your Creator except II, Sally's
Salaam and other Muslim
but which are unwelcome? Cherubim Wakaba if we made you into tribes,
and clans, so yes, we've made you different. You'd have different
languages, different ethnicities, different backgrounds, different
food traits, maybe even different behavioral strains.
And so on. Why though, why did we make you like the Why didn't we
just make you all the same coming off a Mercedes E Class plan your
all E Class?
Right? Well, even in the E class, you have, you know, different
amount, you know, you have, you have differences in the you know,
with the leather seats, and so on. Everything is different, Allah
created everybody individually, including the fingerprint, you are
different down to your fingerprint. But that should not
be then Allah clarifies that Lita, our office so that you can gain a
recognition with one another, when I know that the brother that I'm
dealing with is from a country, right, an Arab country that do not
eat hot food, and I've invited him to my house, if I know what it is,
and he's told me who he is, I can maybe make my food conducive to
that
I can maybe welcome him in a way that suitable for him. Because,
you know, if I, if I go somewhere, and they welcome me, right in a
way that I can see they've tried to understand who I am, I'm going
to feel much better.
Right? Because imagine you're trying to feed somebody who can't
eat hot food and you've created cooked all of this beautiful food
and they can't eat it. You can imagine what that's going to be
right.
So there's always a reason.
I remember once I was in Madina, Munawwara and there was a grocery
store shopkeeper there, and
I was just wondering where he's from. So I asked him, Where are
you from? He said, I'm a Muslim. You know, these general answers
where people try to avoid because I don't know maybe everybody asks
him the questions. He's just so I said, Okay. Are you from this
country, that country? No, and, and then finally, he said
Mauritania. Now, I've been to Mauritania and they've got a
certain way they greet people. So I started saying all of these
things, the way martinis greet one another, right.
You know, your, your camera will lean Yakubu and all of that, and
suddenly his face just, you know, a smile broke out. And he told me
you know, what I was what I was trying to buy his ticket for free.
Because you connect with people that way. Differences are so you
can learn from one another traits of one another. And you can
connect with them. You can
to accommodate them, and so on and so forth, right? I mean, we have a
very short amount of time. So just the last thing I want to mention
to you is the story of Bilal Radi Allahu Allah. Now what's amazing
about Malala the Allahu Anhu story is that you know, the suffering
that he went through, he suffered hugely, but mashallah his Iman the
amount of suffering I don't know if there's any, you know, hubub
Rhodiola and others Soumya or the Allahu Allah they were they all
suffered but the suffering of beloved of the Allah was just
different. Right? It's, it's marked as different. And him still
I had had had because his master who owned him as a slave, and what
rewardable Bacardi is going to get for freeing him, right used to put
him on those hot sands and stones until I don't know what flesh was
left on his back after that. And he will he is freed he becomes a
Muslim, right? He will he becomes a Muslim, and eventually his his
freedom is bought. He's in Makkah, masha Allah. Can you imagine the
two Muslims the two famous Muslims of MK of Madina, Munawwara of the
prophetic city of the prophets, Masjid, one was blind, Abdullah
bin Macoun was blind, and the other one is below or the Alon
who's black, and they were not many black people, just a few
washi and a few other people, very few on your hands, you can count
them and people used to look down upon them. Right? So belong to the
alone is in charge of the hedge around like an hour or so before
Fajr and then Abdullah Al Maktoum whose blind Sahabi is disabled, he
is in charge of the Fajr Athan because he couldn't make a
mistake. There's people saying, Look, hurry, I'll give the other
and it's already done. Right. Those were the two more events.
Now. It's the it's the the final, you know, it's getting towards the
final years of the promised blossoms life. Right. Obviously,
they don't know that yet. But they enter into Makkah, the place where
beloved was aggressed and where they still inherit racism against
black people and prior slaves, right still look on them as
slaves. I think one of the reasons why why she actually became a
Muslim after belonging to become a Muslim. He tried to tell washy to
become Muslim, but he refused. Then he said when I'm when I
become a free person, so he became free because he killed the uncle
of the Prophet salallahu Alaihe Salam with a spear Hamza, the
Allahu Allah,
and who, for the sake for him, and then he was given his freedom. And
then he felt he could actually join with them, you know, with the
free people of Koresh and he still felt a discrimination. That's when
he realized that he was wrong. It's only Islam that would give it
to you. So he became Muslim. Right long story. But below the Allahu
Anhu comes into a story the promises are summarized into mocha
mocha Rama, he enters in from a particular way, goes up to the
Kaaba, and you know who's with him?
With him is below the Allah Juan. And with him is I think Earthman
the blue Tala who's the key. He's the one with the keys. He's the
blue shaver now they called right in those days they were closer
they they were disbelievers, his family were disbelievers. His mom
refused to give the key when the province of Assam asked him to
bring it. I think he was a Muslim. Right but his his mother refused
to give it a no we're not gonna give it to them. She's still a non
Muslim. But then he insisted should give it to him. And then
they went into now they thought that he's going to take the keys
away. But after they came out, the only people that went in, as far
as I remember was the Prophet sallallahu Sallam below the Allahu
Anhu and Earthman northmen our Osman IGNOU not the third Khalif
if not a fun this is a monumental because with the keys and they
shut the door.
Can you believe it? Can you believe it?
This was the first time they were entering into kava
you know that the entering the Masjid Al haram then enter into
kava What an honor. Who gets it below the Allaha?
Why does he get it?
Well Allah Who item maybe the province had the lowest Miss
paying him back for
in the same place being persecuted.
You see for all the others they had families in Makkah Makara Rama
or Madina, Munawwara.
The unsalted was safe in Madina Munawwara but the Metcons, the
margerine. They were from the tribes. They had some connection
to the other billon within was a foreigner, he was a slave on top
of that.
So he's chosen as a modern day in Madina Munawwara for all those
years. Here he is allowed to go into the Kaaba. Thereafter it
became Salah time so when he comes out people started asking did the
prophets Allah and pray How did he pray? Where did he stand? Because
below it says that are below the Allah who stood behind him when
they prayed inside the Kaaba, and that's when they discovered all
of the idols that were still in the Kaaba inside and they were
going to get rid of them. Then after that,
Allah Allahu Akbar, Salah time for Helen at the solid,
solid time comes and you know what the prophets of the Lord is Salam
instructs Billa Bilal, to climb on top of the Kaaba.
Remember they would not climb on top of the Kaaba, this was not a
thing they would do. But they needed an elevated place and
remember, there's no Masjid in that day around, there's no
building around it was just houses. And this was a clearing in
the middle. And the Kaaba was in the middle. That was the only
building there. The Mata was around and then people's houses
began, there was no Masjid like the way we had to have it today.
So he told Bill algorithm to climb up.
He climbed up and started giving a done now you have to remember
this. abou Soufiane, Chief of maca, master of slaves and so on.
At Darby blue seed heritage new Hisham,
the daughter of Abuja Hill. They're all sitting there.
You know, they've been given safety if you remember, they've
been given safety, right? The rocks are awesome, I said unto
Metallica, and so on. And all of that is done. Now it's time for
solid is clearing out and the solid time happens, he starts
giving the exam biller or the Allahu Anhu
these people who are not Muslim yet, right at dub says look at a
Quran Allah who received an ally Hakuna semi Shahada. Allah has
honored my father that he didn't have to witness this day.
He's a non Muslim. He's saying Allah has
honored my father that he's allowed him to die before he sees
the slave, a black slave climbing up on the Kaaba and giving the
exam what is happening to the world, you can see that in
inherent deep rooted racism,
they would have been probably fine if you know if one of the other
Muslims had given in that wouldn't have been so bad. It's not about
that the Muslims are doing this. It's about the fact that Bilal or
the Alana is doing this. And the province callosum did exactly
that. Right puts belong to the other one up there.
So he's saying that honored my father so that he didn't have to
listen to how this is.
You know, if I thought this was the truth, and I would have
followed it. So he he doesn't say something, you know, he doesn't
want to make a bad judgment. Now, Abu Sufian he's always been, he
was an enemy, but he's always been careful. I think that's why he got
Islam afterwards, is Amma wala he la Akula. And he says, I'm not
going to say anything.
Because load the load the column to La
Bharat and Neha the hill husba. This is some, you know, I would
love to look at the mind of abuse of Yan to be honest, because he's
got like this inherent belief, but he's not learning it. He did let
it come out afterwards. And there's other instances from early
on, which we don't have to. He says that I'm not going to say
anything. I'm not going to make any comment. Because he says, If I
do make a comment, even the stones, these pebbles will inform
against me. He knew miracles happened with the Prophet
sallallahu sallam.
Then finally the Prophet sallallahu Sallam came out.
And he said to them, I know exactly what you guys said.
And then he mentioned to them what they had said,
and Hadith and
they said, they ended up saying, Nisha, do Anika rasool Allah, we
bet bear witness that you must be the Messenger of Allah, there is
no way that you could have known what we said. Because remember,
there were no eavesdropping devices in those days. That Okay,
you've tapped us, you know, somehow, somewhere, we've got to
tap on us. No, there's no way you can know now had you figured that
out? That's it. This is how the prophets Allah, some dealt with
it.
Right. He gave these people special positions to show that we
are equal.
And there are numerous stories about this. There's another
occasion where Abu Sufyan and a bursary and they become Muslim
now, and they're waiting to see the Prophet salallahu Salam and
there's others who are considered inferior to them from early days
like beloved and others who get to see the progress awesome first,
and he says one of them remarks to the other Have you seen what Islam
as they're still I mean, a booster Viana still learning says, seeing
what Islam has done to you know, for us that these people are ahead
of us and our button instead well, they deserve it because they will
they became Muslim first.
This is what Islam is supposed to do for us. And I said, let me let
me end this discussion. Simple point. Simple point, is that
majority of us listening to this are going to think we're not
racist. But think to yourself, have you made a joke before a
racist joke before thinking it's innocent?
Do you actually feel you stereotype other people?
Even if you believe it's correct, according to some Jews stereotype
bother them
Think about that.
And let us purify ourselves because we will be healthier in
the sight of Allah, healthy and in the Hereafter. And we will not
assist in the perpetration of what will become eventually
institutional racism. That will help. That's how we're doing our
little part. We can't change the police force. We can do a bit of
protest. We can write letters, but we need to change ourselves.
First, we ask Allah subhanaw taala to change us really focus on surah
Taha gerat in 26 years, and ponder over the fact that Allah subhanho
wa taala, then said
in Allah subhanaw taala, then says at the end of it, after he said
Lita Otto in a Croma command Allah here at Polycom that the most
noble among you in the sight of Allah is the One who is going to
have the greatest level of God fearing pneus of Taqwa. So may
Allah subhanaw taala allow us to attain true God fearing Enos to
respect people. And for that, the one thing I've noticed, especially
with converts black converts, white converts converts from other
places is when they come into our messages, they feel they're not
welcome. There's a Hadith of the Prophet Larsson, which says that
if there are two people three, if there are three people, two of
them should not whisper to one another. Because aggravate the
third person who thinks that they're talking about him. Now,
while we may not whisper me and somebody might speak in Urdu, or
Arabic, and a person can understand that would be the same
thing. We may slip in speaking Tamil, we may speak in, you know,
whatever I mean, whatever it is. So likewise, you have groups of
people in an Arab Masjid speaking in Arabic, and they don't like
even acknowledge the newcomer. This happens, especially in big
city masters, because we get so many people coming in, we just
lose sight of them. Whereas in smaller places where we get
inquisitive sometimes, right? Likewise, people are just speaking
Urdu and the other person, it doesn't mean that you must hold a
conversation with them, but at least acknowledge them, make them
feel comfortable. That's always saying, and if you think that the
way you do, you should think that the way I'm doing it isn't going
to feel, you know, are they going to be impacted by that in a
negative way? So we ask Allah subhanaw taala for assistance, we
ask Allah for help. We ask Allah that people. People get to
understand this in places like America, and Myanmar, and all the
other places in the world and they do not do this form of racism. But
we have to start at home working with that one and Al hamdu Lillahi
Rabbil Alameen