Adnan Rajeh – Activism – Our Path Forward #3 Our Compassion and Clarity
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
In this series that I began a number
of weeks ago,
activism activism
our path forward and I've covered 2 or
3 topics so far
And I'm going and I'm using the story
of the people of the cave of Ahlul
Kahf
as the anchor
to understanding
this concept of being an activist.
This word has a lot of taboo. It
is associated and affiliated with something that is
quite negative,
whether it is the concept itself or the
people who practice it.
And due to the lack of any other
word in the English language
that can
explain clearly what the prophet alaihis salatu wasalam
was about in his life and what the
concept of qiyam is in the Quran, I
have to use the word. And I have
to redefine it and we have to talk
about maybe the negative aspects of it to
make sure that the next generation
is willing to embrace this concept of qiyam
or activism in English and do it appropriately
in a way that does not give it
this negative affiliation that it has today.
And the reason that we have to do
this and the reason we have to talk
about this is because after October 7th, we
cannot afford not to anymore.
We couldn't afford before October 7th. We couldn't
afford before October 7th, but no 1 was
listening. Today people are listening again.
After what occurred in Gaza and has been
occurring for the last 9 months straight,
we are now seeing we are at the
full 9 months. A full 9 months. Wallahi,
it is beyond my ability to describe how
ridiculous that is.
I can't even begin to talk about how
this is so frustrating
and so unacceptable.
And I think
everyone feels that way. Because everyone feels that
way, the ears of the Muslim Ummah now
are open a little bit more than they
were before. And I know that because I've
I've been in Masjid all my life, and
I know that people today are listening much
more closely.
People are looking for answers, and they hope
to find a solutions
and to find a way out. And I'm
telling you the only way out is for
us to embody, to personify
what the prophet
taught us, what the Quran is talking about.
The story of
has to be revived again. And it's not
something far away from us because it's something
we recite. It's a story we recite every
single week.
And today, I I talked about youth and
I talked about belonging last week, and I
wanna talk about 2 or 3 other points
today.
If you read their story, you find right
at the beginning of it. Allah tells
us
when the youngsters,
they retreated back to the cave. And the
symbolism in the cave is something I'll talk
about in another Khukbah. But what I wanna
focus on is what they said.
And then they said 2 things. They
made dua. Oh, our Lord.
They asked for 2 different things.
And then the Surah a little bit later
confirms those 2 things.
Right?
So what they asked for, they were granted.
The 2 things that they asked for, they
were granted. To confirm that they asked for
the right things and that Allah granted it
to them. So what are the 2 things
that we have to focus on here?
Number 1,
grant us from within you, from yourself
a
degree or an amount of compassion or mercy.
What is the biggest pitfall of someone who
acquires in their life moral clarity.
The biggest pitfall is that they start holding
everyone around them who did not acquire that
same
thing accountable.
They start seeing them in a negative way.
Right now many people around the globe especially
Muslims have come to conclusions,
have come to realizations that they cannot afford
to live the way they were living prior
to October 7th. That Islam is much more
than just a number of do's and don'ts
and a few rituals and a few cultural
days that we observe. That Islam is much
more profound than that. The prophet alayhis salatu
wasalam lived for the sake of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and died for the sake of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala as well. And there's
no other process of living that's acceptable aside
from that. And when you come to that
realization and you remove all the clutter surrounding
it because as Shaytan will it just adds
all this clutter, all these distractions. When you
get rid of it all and you take
off the lens that the world around you
has put on your eyes to make you
biased and you start seeing reality for what
it is, you see the clarity of simplicity
of it, The simplicity of what we are
asked to do, why we are here as
human beings. Once you see that it becomes
difficult for you to understand why the people
around you don't see it as well.
It becomes hard for you to understand why
is it that Quran who's similar to me
is also a Muslim. Why don't they see
what we've seen? You start judging them and
you start becoming very harsh with them. And
that is the big number 1 pitfall of
all those who take on themselves a concept
of activism for the sake of Allah
or for any cause or for any cause
for that matter.
Because you we lack the rahma, and that's
what the that's the first thing they ask
for.
Give us give us that compassion that we
require.
Because once you have clarity
once you have that clarity of why you're
here
for this period of time that you're alive,
why you're here, and what it is you're
supposed to be doing, you start wondering what
is everyone else doing? Why is everyone else
not doing exactly the same? Funny enough, a
year before you were not like that. A
year before you were just as lost as
the rest of them, or 2 years, or
10 years, or 15 years.
And when you were lost you did not
want people to judge you. You did not
want people to put you under that microscope
and to speak to you as if you
were you didn't want that. So now that
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has opened your eyes
and granted you that guidance, don't do that
to others. Make sure that you continue to
have the compassion required to give people the
time that they need to figure things out
for themselves while they are on their journeys.
It's not my job to judge you if
you are not at the same spot, at
the same point, in the same place that
I am and understanding things. InshaAllah, you're in
a better place than I'll ever be, but
I should not hold you account. I can't
judge you if you haven't arrived at that
yet. And this is the number 1 pitfall
of all activists is that they become hateful
towards those who don't agree with them, who
don't dedicate the same amount of time and
energy and effort and wealth towards the cause
that they should be devoting and dedicating their
time towards.
And they were mature enough
to ask
Allah for that rahma, and they were granted
it by Allah
It's a big problem. I see it all
the time,
especially someone who
recently turns back to Allah performs Tawbah, comes
back, they become harsh
with their parents and with their siblings and
with their spouses and with their children. They
start holding people to the standard that they
have now
recently figured out is the correct 1. You
need to hold yourself to that standard, but
you have to be merciful towards those who
have not yet arrived at that same spot.
They're not at that point yet. They need
their time. Everyone's on a journey in life.
It's like we're all on a train. The
train is very noisy,
and the train stops at different times for
all of us. It's at those times when
it stops that you're able to rev to
revamp, to take a step back and revise
yourself and figure things out. Maybe the person
that you're looking at and wondering why they're
not living life appropriately, maybe their stop has
not come yet. Maybe they're still in the
midst of a very noisy ride and they
haven't given given the chance to take a
moment.
Make sure this is clear to you as
I talk about,
activism,
that your understanding of activism made to be
different than someone else's understanding of activism,
That your comprehension of it, your moral your
standard of it, where you think people should
be investing and dedicating their time and wealth
and energy may be different than someone else.
You and I are not in a position
to judge people for where they are and
what they think is appropriate. If you learn
this from me today, you will be you'll
live much better. You will live healthier. I
I promise you. Because activists who don't understand
that carry with them a lot of disgruntlement
and a lot
of of of hate sometimes even hatred.
They're upset because people aren't doing what they're
doing and that upset and that hate will
hold them down. It will make it difficult
for them to reach out to people, to
be kind to people, to actually help people
along their way to realize what they have
not realized yet. And it makes their activism
negative, and it makes it harsh, and it
makes it very and it's much less productive.
The prophet alayhi salatu wa sallam is the
number 1 activist of all time. No 1
worked harder than him. No 1 dedicated more
time. No 1 devoted more of his life
to what he believed to be the right
thing. He didn't judge people for where they
were
He didn't. He saw the good in them
and then he what what good he saw
he amplified.
He allowed them to amplify, he focused on
it for them.
And this is an important piece when we
talk about this concept and I hope it's
clear to you. The second
thing they asked
for,
This
is the $1, 000, 000, 000 question. It's
the everlasting problem.
What's next? What do we do next?
How do we move forward with with the
cause that we now live for? If you
are if you accept Islam as a cause
and you see your job as a as
qiyam and you're going to do that for
the nation of the prophet
for the sake of Allah, you're going to
live that way. Well, what's the next step?
What do we do next?
What are the what's the sequence of the
steps that need that we need to take
in order for us to fill to to
fulfill
the destiny, to fulfill the fate, to fill
the gap, to fix the problem, to find
solutions.
No 1 knows. I'm telling you right now,
nobody knows. There is not 1 person sitting
here who knows exactly what we should do
next.
There are opinions as as there are as
many opinions as there are Muslims on the
planet on this issue specifically. What should we
invest in? What should we be focusing on?
Everyone has an opinion. Everyone thinks their opinion
is correct.
A part of activism
is accepting the fact that we don't know
for sure, that we have to perform as
jihad as a group, that we have to
discuss and try our best, and accept the
fact that we will make mistakes and fail.
And you have to be okay with that.
You have to be okay with the fact
that you're gonna move with the group and
the group sometimes won't move in the direction
that you believe to be correct. And you
may be the 1 person amongst us who's
correct. God knows. Maybe you're the 1 person
who
Allah gave the epiphany to and you know
what you're doing. You still have to be
willing to work move with your group forward
even if they don't make it right. Even
if they make mistakes
and support them and then come back to
the table and discuss again with them. Activists
who don't have that flexibility,
who don't have that open mindedness, they fail
and they actually make everyone around them fail
too.
Because we don't know exact that's why.
We need
We need clarity.
We need clarity on what the next step
is going to look like. What should we
be focusing on?
People who walk around acting like they know
exactly what it is.
People who who claim that they know what's
going to fix the problem.
That's a level, in my opinion, a level
of arrogance that I don't I don't think
is healthy.
We don't we think we know. We would
like to assume, guys. It seems to me
that this is the right next step. It
seems to me that this is what we
should be doing now. But to act like
you know for sure
is impossible because the only way you could
know for sure is if you are receiving
wahi. If you are receiving revelation from the
almighty. Aside from that, it's impossible. The prophet,
alayhis salatu wa sallam, would make choices and
they wouldn't always work out. Read his read
his seer, alayhis salatu wa sallam.
Time and time again, he would make choices.
He would make he would make a decision,
go in a direction, it wouldn't always work.
He didn't turn around and and point fingers
of blame.
On the day of Elohar, he didn't want
to leave. He didn't want to leave. He
went by the majority opinion of leaving Medina
to fight Quresh outside of Medina. He wanted
to stay in. They go out, they lose.
He doesn't come back and point fingers at
the people that consulted with him to leave.
He doesn't come back and say no more
opinions and iqalas. I say it and we
do what I say. No.
Was the command that he received
right after. And this is a part of
the process. A part of the process is
that we discuss and we go in a
direction and sometimes it's wrong.
The maturity required for these 2 requests from
these younger people is is quite impressive.
We need clarity. Where do we go next?
We don't know. Which is why they're called
alone. No. They're called
or Raqim. Raqim was the name of the
city, but Raqim means
a piece of of documentation
where they sat down and they wrote their
vision and their mission and their principles and
their values.
And that became the guiding document of the
people who later on continued their revolution once
they disappeared.
And they sat down there, but what is
it that we want to achieve? Where are
we going? As a community, this is where
we're this was that's what's missing. That document,
that
is what's missing for us. We don't know
what we want.
Forget about what next steps are. That's a
whole I can't even talk about that unless
we have defined as a community. What is
it that we want? What are we trying
to achieve? What are the goals here? Do
we have goals? Do we know what the
next steps do we know what what we're
trying to what we in 10 years can
say we achieved our objectives? What are their
objectives? What are they? We don't even know
what they are. We haven't talked about it
yet. So it's impossible to define a next
step if you don't know where you're going.
How do you say that you're driving in
the right direction if you don't have a
goal, if there's no objective, if there's no
if there's no destination?
You can't
ask your maps on on your phone to
take it somewhere to tell you to take
right or left if there's no destination. You
have to give it a destination then it
tells you take right here, take left there.
And you'll disagree sometimes with the maps, regret
it later. But you'll disagree and do whatever
you want, but at least there's a destination.
What is the destination for us here? As
Muslims, what are we trying to do?
What can we call a win?
At what point can I say Alhamdulillah we
achieved this? What is it?
Just more spaces?
Is that the goal? Is the goal more
Masajid? Is that the goal? That is not
a good goal if that's the goal. More
spaces, more facilities, not a good goal.
Pass. Give us another 1. We have to
figure out what our goals are. An activist
has to have these 2 things.
Understands Islam the way the prophet alaihis salatu
waslam understood it, and the way the Quran
explains it in Surat Al Kahf has to
have 2 things. You have to have the
compassion in your heart to accept that people
may not be where you are yet,
that they're still on a journey. If Allah
has granted you the clarity to be in
a place where you know why you're here
and what you're doing and you know exactly
you know, that clutter and that the the
lens you have is very it's it's crystal
clear. Then don't judge others who have not
arrived at that yet because they need time.
If anything, help them along or or be
patient with them.
The second 1 is you have to know
where you're going. What are the goals? What
are the objectives? And then you have to
sit there and try to figure out what
the right next step is going to be.
And that requires collaboration and it requires people
working together.
Brothers and sisters,
I want to share with you a story
or maybe 2 stories of the prophet
so you understand so you understand that the
examples I gave you, the 2 things we
need in order for activism. I am I
am maybe ahead of you. You may be
saying, well, I'm not I haven't really agreed
to be an activist yet. Well, that's your
problem. I'm already on the ship and I'm
moving forward. I've been talking to you need
to be an activist whether you whether you
understand you you have
to be it. And if you don't like
the word, well, tough luck. We're gonna change
the definition, make sure it's clear to you,
and then we're all gonna be that. Because
there is no other way for this reality
to change. There's no other way for reality
to change unless a population of people take
upon themselves the responsibility of making that change.
And that is what activism is, is prioritizing
a certain degree of change, of reform. All
the prophets did it. All the Sahaba did
it. And all the people of worth in
history have done it as well. And you
can do it too. And it's not very
hard. You just have to learn a few
points. You have to understand that youth is
a part of it. Start young. You have
to belong to your group. You have to
feel like you're a part of it. We
talked about it last week. And then you
have to have the right amount of compassion
towards those who have not agreed with you
yet. The prophet
the story that is narrated by Bukhari and
Muslim on his way back from the treacherous
and horrible visit to Ata if that Ihad
alayhis salaam. On his way back after being
absolutely humiliated by these people, after being denied
access into Makkah by Quraysh, we had nowhere
to go. He had teenage daughters at home.
He couldn't enter his house. He couldn't but
thought it kicked him out. He was left
in a in a valley called
where he had nowhere to go. And he
was asked by by Aisha, what was the
worst day of your life? After Uhad, he
said, oh, it wasn't the worst day of
my life. It was this day here. And
the story moves forward where Jibril, alayhis salam,
comes to the prophet alayhis salatu wasalam. He
says, You Rasulullah
Because your Lord has heard what you have
been saying to your people and how your
people have been responding to you.
Allah He said no maybe the day will
come where from their descendants
someone will come and say La Illaha Illallah
even if they are not going to do
it. And I always answer and continue the
story and say and here we are. And
as he predicted alayhi salatu wasalam, here we
are. He refused to punish those people at
that moment because he knew that someday maybe
they're still lost. They haven't figured it out
yet. But someday maybe from their descendants people
will see the clarity and they will say
La Illaha Illallah and it happened and here
we are saying La Illaha Illallah. So we
have to carry in our hearts what he
carried in his heart alayhis salatu wa salam
and then the malak of you the angel
of the mountian would turn to him and
say,
Indeed,
honest and truthful is the 1, Allah, who
called you the most kind and the most
merciful amongst people.
The prophet alayhis salatu wa sallam in the
hadith narrated by Abu Dawood in his Muslim
in his, Sunan with a reasonable change of
generation. He would call upon the Sahaba to
form sadaqa. This story is told to us
by Amrul and with InshaAllah ta'ala.
Abu al Khattab tells us that the prophet
called upon people for sadaqa.
So he he
the day he asked for,
I had I had a good amount of
money. So I was happy because now I
can, you know, push this is activism, by
the way. This story is not a story
of people hear this story and said, this
is a story of zuhud. This is a
story of generosity. No. No. No. This is
a story of activism, of believing in something
to the point where you're willing to put
everything you got for it. That is different.
Generosity
is
is different. Is when you someone visits you
and you make sure that you take care
of them, you're hospitable, you give them for
your wealth. Activism is when there's a cause
that is so meaningful to you that you're
willing to give up all that you own.
So Arun al Khattab, he brought 50% of
all his assets,
50% of his wealth. He brought it to
the prophet alaihis salatu and the prophet alaihis
salatu would ask people.
He had to ask people why are you
leaving to your family because the percentage of
people that would bring everything they had was
high or that or that brought too much
because he didn't want half of your assets.
He just wanted maybe 10%, something that will
help. He didn't want that much, but he
had built a popular a community of activists
alayhis salatu wa sallam. He had inspired in
them, which is where we fail obviously, which
is where people like me fail. He inspired
in them to live and to devote themselves
and dedicate themselves for the sake of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala. So he had to push
people back. Don't bring everything. No. No. So
what did
where you leave to your family, Amr.
I left the same amount that I brought
you.
I told to myself today, today, I I
got 1 on Abu Bakr.
Because Abu Bakr came with less money.
Like, he's looking at the amount, and the
amount that Abu Bakr is carrying is less.
So it's mine, I did it. He just
wants to get 1 on him because he
can never seem to get 1 on him.
And I knew in my heart at that
moment, I will never I will never beat
him. I can never get ahead of this
man because that's activism.
I'm not asking for you to do that.
Honestly, I have no interest of you going
and pulling you won't, but you won't, you
know, pull out your
your checking account or saving. And no, I'm
just asking for time. I'm asking for energy.
I'm asking for care. I'm asking for worry.
I'm asking for
the devotion and dedication of your of your
skill set and of your expertise.
That's what we're asking for. Wealth will be
needed at certain points throughout the story, and
only if you've dedicated your life will you
be willing to put your welfare.
And that's what that's what this means.
That is what this story of activism means.
And that's how the prophet
lived, and that's how the people who believed
in him lived. We can't act like we
follow them if we don't live like that.
We can't act like we are atiba'a Muhammad
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. We can't act like
we're followers of Muhammad and we don't live
that way. We are not dedicating our lives
and devoting our lives towards a cause that
is better. Well, life if you do you'll
be happier. Here's the beauty of it. Doing
that you'll live better. You'll live healthier. You're
you're much more happy in your life. You're
much more productive. It doesn't take away your
ability to have fun and to be happy
and to have relationships and to know you
live better when you do it that way.
This is the only way you can live
which is why the Quran talks about it
so much which is why the prophet alaihis
salatuam lived that way which is why he
preached that that as well
which is why the sahaba did the same.
Imagine if the sahaba stopped doing that after
he passed away
imagine if the if the Islamic the Islamic
empire was or stayed as big as it
was once he passed away alaihis salatu wa
sallam.
You know that almost 95%
of the people in this room would just
disappear.
This place would disappear.
The number of Muslims in the in in
the world would have been would have been
less than than 10% of the number it
is today. It's because when he passed away
he left an army of devoted and dedicated
people who understood what they were there for
there for and they continue to push Islam
and spread it and teach it until the
world accepted it.
So that you and I from every background
that we come from, every country, and every
racial background, and cultural background release, we're able
to accept Islam and be Muslims
or else it wouldn't have existed. So you
can't think that the next generation of Muslims
is going to be able to sit back
and just no. You have to be as
they were. What saved them
is what will save us.
What saved them is what will save us.
Hope that was a benefit to you.
Shoulder to shoulder, ankle to ankle to your
toes on the front part of the dark
gray line on the green line up front.
Closing the gap to straighten your lines and
songs or phones. Take a moment to make
sure your lines are straight
and that there are no gaps. Fill in
the line ahead of you before you fill
the 1 behind.
A
long
A
long
like that.
So tonight, Inshallah, we're having the sira 1
hour before, Maghrib prayer. So that's gonna be
at 8, 8 PM. That's, open to families.
Inshallah, bring your families. Enjoy the sira with
Sheikh Adnan.
Following the sira, there will be the
Arabi Tafsir,
that's been happening,
between Maghrib and Ashat. There's no halakas happening
this weekend.
We're going to push the