Adnan Rajeh – Activism Our Path Forward – Companionship and Masajid
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Hello?
I've
This is the final khutba within the series
of activism, our path forward. I really don't
see any other option for us as Muslims
in the world anymore aside from understanding what
this word means in English appropriately and understanding
what it means in Arabic and within Islamic
law appropriately the concept of qiyam. Is how
the prophet alaihis salatu wasalam lived his life.
He was not someone who just respected those
around him. He was not someone that made
it difficult for those who are living with
him to live with him alaihis salatu
quite the contrary. He was extremely compassionate. He
understood that not everyone agreed or saw the
way he things the way he saw them
alayhis salaam. Yet he lived in a way
that is for us to learn from. And
I cannot define it or think of a
word that represents his lifestyle alayhis salaam
more than this. And I chose to talk
about it through the story of the people
of the cave of Ahlul Kahf since it
is a surah that we recite on the
day of Friday anyways. It is the surah
of the day of Jumuah. He recites Surah
Al Kahf and it's named after this one
story even though the surah has 3 other
stories, 4 stories in total. But this is
the one that the Surah is named after,
because of what they did, because of these
young people who decided to take upon themselves
a responsibility
of Dawah and of reform within
their society.
Even though they lacked resources, they lacked numbers,
and they lacked experience, and they lacked almost
every tool required to achieve anything. However, they
took upon themselves a responsibility
anyways. And because they did that, the story
lives on in the Quran forever.
This store story is is going to be
a Hajj. It's going to be a piece
of evidence used against me and you on
the day of judgment. I hope you understand
that piece. Yom El Qiyam is going to
tell you why didn't you work harder? Why
did you not dedicate and devote yourself towards
the cause or for the cause that I
sent you? And if you say, well, I
was too weak or I didn't have enough
people or I was too young or I
was too poor, I was too this or
that, you will say, what about Ahir Gav?
There were 3 of them, maybe 5, maybe
7 tops. There was no they had nothing,
and yet they took a stand for a
very short period of time. They took a
stand for a very short period of time,
and yet
Allah changed the reality of their kingdom through
them. It didn't happen overnight. No. It took
300 years. And the whole point of the
story was that they went to sleep for
that period of time and they were only
awake. They were waking up by Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala for maybe half a day, maybe
12 hours in total.
The reason that they woke up is for
them to see the impact that they had
left is for us to read that piece
of the story. Allah
changed some laws of physics for them. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala kept them.
It's not it's not possible for someone to
sleep for 300 years unless the hand of
God himself is going to intervene on this,
which is what the story is about. Allah
intervened just to wake them up
just for a little bit so they would
go and buy food
and we would use their coins, their silver
coins, only to find that they're silver coins.
People are looking at, where did you get
this from?
We haven't seen this coin in 300 years.
Where did you get one of these coins?
The coins that we use has faces of
the young people of the cave. They woke
up to see that their faces were on
the the currency of the country that they
were living in.
That's why Allah woke them up. You don't
think you'll make an avid impact? You don't
think your activism matters? Here, wake up. Go
see go look at their currency.
Look at look at the face on the
coin. And they look and he sees it's
his face. They turn around it's the Raqeen
that they wrote down their principles on.
They changed the reality of their kingdom. It
didn't happen throughout their lifetime. It took 300
years but it happened all the same. And
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, time has never
been an issue. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created
time. Time is just a fraction of his
creation.
You and I are not responsible for that
peace. We're responsible for what we're responsible for,
which is the activism, which is the effort.
They didn't think they could do much with
they were doing. They did it anyways, but
they didn't think they could do much, so
Allah wanted to prove them wrong. Here. Go
to sleep.
Wake up.
Go take a look.
That was that's that's the story. Read the
story and remember that that's the story. That's
it.
Because they didn't live afterwards. They just died.
You almost wonder why they just die. What
was the point of the 300 year slumber?
I mean, why did they need to wake
up? They didn't. What they did made the
difference, kas. No. It was for them. Here,
wake up and see. See what you did.
See the impact you had. You saw it?
The promise of Allah is the truth. Here,
take a look. He'll
take you back to us. But I want
he wanted to show them
and for the story to be for us
to tell.
I have few more points within I'm gonna
finish this series today. I have 3 more
points within the story of the people of
the cave that I wanna share with you.
In total, I I I picked, 10 points
in activism that I think is worthy of
contemplation for everyone in this room.
The theory that I wanna share with you
today is it's not by coincidence that within
the story of
Ahlkahf, is there. The word masjid is not
repeated a lot in the Quran. Like, it's
not talked about a lot. There's a there
are places obviously, but it's not all over
the place. And for it to be in
Surat Al Kahf, a Surah that is Meki.
It's a Meki Surah. You understand what that
means? There was no Masjid built yet.
No masjid had been built yet aside from
Masjid Haram and Masjid Al Aqsa and those
were they had significance that went beyond the
faith of the prophet alaihis salatu wasalam. But
him alaihis salatu wasalam himself build a masjid
not yet. It wouldn't be for another 7
to 8 years that a masjid would be
built and yet the word is insur al
kaf
because the significance of the Masjid is there.
That's what they did. The
people who had the ability to make decisions
amongst them once they went to the cave
and found that they were all dead. They
saw them. They saw the people in the
cave all 3 or 5 or 7 of
them or how many of them there were.
They went in the cave. They saw them.
They saw their dog. They knew that this
was actually them. These were actually them. SubhanAllah.
So they took the Ibra for themselves. The
people at that time they took the lesson
for themselves. So what do we do? We
bury them and then what?
We all make a masjid here. This is
not to talk about whether a grave should
be in a masjid or not and this
is not the point that I'm trying to
make here. The concept is that you need
a masjid so that people can remember, so
people can learn, so that there is a
center of a community.
Every community requires a center, a place where
people check-in, where people go to, where you
when you we don't have anything else to
do, you go there. Or when you have
something to do, you go there. Or when
you're traveling, you come back, you come there.
That has to exist for where is that
for you? For most of us, it's just
our home. Wherever is is our house, Some
people have small gatherings and they go there
first, but for the Muslims, it was the
Masjid.
The first thing he would do, he would
come to the Masjid. He would he would
tie his his horse. He would he would
praise Urraka and then he would go home.
He go to the Masjid first. And
this is what Abdullah
ibn Umar ibn Umar did.
Because to them, the Masjid was the center
of the city. That's where they learned. That's
where they that's where they were educated. That's
where they were mentored. That's where they knew
what was going to happen next. That's where
their friends were. That's where where they would
they would go and figure out what the
community has been up to over the last
bits. Where are we now? What's missing? What's
the problem? What's the challenge? What's the next
steps? That's where they're gonna find out. Where
else are they gonna find out these things?
Where else are they going to go? To
home. Turn on the TV and watch CNN.
That's where you're gonna find out what's happening
for the Ummah or some other media outlet
that's, paid for by by the Zionist who
continue to kill our brothers and sisters. Or
maybe some other media outlet that has some
agenda that doesn't necessarily even agree with what
you believe in as a Muslim or do
you come to the Masjid
or you come to the house of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala at the center of your
community. We
decentralized masajid from our communities. We did that.
We have to carry that yo Milkyama.
We have to explain how we decentralized masajid,
how we made them a peripheral thought, a
secondary thing. You just bring your kid in
for a Quran program and you stay outside
in your car. You don't come inside because
God forbid you walk into the masjid and
actually see what's happening. God forbid you actually
get to know the teacher of your student
of your of your son or daughter.
You actually come in and see the masjid
needs something from you or maybe you need
something from it.
We decentralize these places. They are the center
of our communities. They always have been. They
always have been.
What is the first thing he did? Do
you understand the story? The prophet, alayhis salam,
is going to Medina. I don't think we
we appreciate this story. He's going to Medina.
The moment they told him that this now
was Yefrib,
like the moment they told him this land
you're standing on is now the first land
of Yefrib, he built a masjid. That's why
the first masjid built is not his masjid
alayhis salaam. What's the first masjid that he
built?
You know, keba. Why did he melt keba?
Because that was the first piece of land
his foot stepped on when he entered Madinah.
It's like the moment he was in the
country that he could make a decision, the
first thing he did, he built a masjid.
Like, wait, Yarasulullah, just make it inside so
you can build the masjid. No. No. We
do one here right now.
Now immediately and he built it himself, alayhis
salatu wa salam. Immediately. And they will build
build another one, but now right away, the
first thing
so so it makes sense.
So it makes sense to us. Yeah. Yeah.
You that's what we need. You can't we
can't survive without these places.
We don't need them to be huge. We
don't need them to be, you know, sparkly
and fancy and 5 stars. We just need
them to be filled with Muslims.
We need Muslims to fill them. We need
them to be service oriented. We need them
to be welcoming. We need them to be
places where people come to when they are
in need of any form of support, where
people come to when they have any form
of support to offer. That's where they come
because this is where it is. It's the
center.
Every masjid should be treated like that for
the people who are living within his vicinity.
And once we took that away from ourselves,
we became headless chickens. We don't our communities
became completely lost. We don't know what we're
doing anymore. We have no idea in which
direction we're going because we there's no center
anymore because we don't have it anymore. That's
what the Masjid was. Alaihi Salatu was saying
he took pride in building the Masjid Like,
he he did it himself. You understand with
the fact that he did it himself? He
didn't send people to do it. He had
other work to do, but he he did
it himself.
He he actually went and he picked up
he would carry the, the the stones and
and dig the the land, and they would
come
to give me I'll carry
but carry with me.
And they would they would sing.
He did this on purpose so that they
in the Sahaba, they would they would say
If
the way poetry works is that, you always
say the last word or the or the
last syllable of the poetry that you're listening
to. So the prophet alaihi salatu wasalam would
would yell out the last piece of poetry
he would be listening to. And then he
would try himself.
He couldn't carry the tune alaihis salatu wasalam.
So the sahaba would say he didn't giggle
because it's not it's so broken. It's not
even it's not it's not an actual piece
of poetry because it's all over the place.
There's no rhythm to it. So the sahaba
would say it and they would giggle.
Ali would be working and he would see
Uthman ibn Maghron. Uthman ibn Maghron, a great
Sahabi, someone who chose someone who's very very
rich and left his his wealth to be
with the Muslims. But he was not someone
who was used to labor. He was not
someone who did labor. He saw the prophet
doing it so he did it as well.
So he's trying to pick up a rock
and it's getting on his
his his his stove and he's like, this
is this is he's he's not he's not
enjoying what he's doing at all. So Ali
Abi Abi Talib was scared. He's watching. He's
watching and he's laughing. So he said
It's not the same someone who's working hard.
He's he's he's roasting his friend Uthman. So
the Sahaba start laughing.
They're yeah. They're they're joking amongst themselves. But
then Ammar bin Yasser, he says it too.
He doesn't know who's being roasted. He doesn't
know. Ammar ibn Yasir, he's a previous slave.
He said it. He said the same thing.
He laughed out loud and he started repeating
what Sayidna Ali said. Uthman didn't know. Yeah.
He was was bothered by it. So
he
said
If you don't shut up I'm gonna hit
you on the piece of
of of skin between your eye and your
nose.
And everyone quieted down because it got it
got it got, serious really quickly. No one
was laughing anymore. Everyone quieted down a bit
because it was awkward. So the prophet alayhi
was
and he and he apologized. And they
the Masjid was where was where the brotherhood
began. The brotherhood has problems at the beginning.
People have problems. People will rub each other
the wrong way. They will say something to
each other that they don't they don't they
shouldn't have. And someone will feel brokenhearted or
someone will feel offended. But that's the norm.
If you have human beings coming together, what
do you think was going to happen?
It's all going to be harmony and some,
no. It's gonna it's gonna sync immediately. It's
not gonna synchronize off the bat. It's human
beings. People are going to run into each
other and they're not gonna get along. But
this is the center. There's nowhere else to
go. So you come back again and you
figure it out and you work it out
because this is your center. Yeah. Where where
else are you going to go? You don't
have the luxury to say, oh, I'm out.
I don't wanna work in this messian. Wallah,
you're out. Where are you going to go?
What? You're gonna go to the church? What
are you gonna do? You're a Muslim. Where
are you going to go? You don't get
to opt out and say, I I don't
want. I'm out. This Masjid and this, people
in it. This is it this is who
you have this is your umma these are
the people around you for better or for
worse this is your family
figure it out Find a way to make
it work because this is who you have.
You don't get to choose. You don't get
to say I don't like these people. I'm
not gonna come in. We're not gonna come
there anymore. Tell me what the alternative is.
Gonna stay at home? Let's see how that's
going to work. Go ahead. We've already tried
that. They tried that. This is what what
happens when you try that. Right now the
way we're living as Muslims across the world,
this is the outcome of not of doing
that. Because the generation before us decided that
they weren't gonna be involved anymore.
And even if the generation before me gets
offended, that's fine. Fine. They stopped going to
Masajid.
They stopped. The Masajid were empty for a
certain period of time.
They were for a certain period of time
across the Muslim world, they got empty for
a while. People stopped going. So this is
what we have right now. We have we
have 40,000 people
dead in the Holy Land, killed,
brutally murdered children and women, the majority of
them. Why? Because we chose at an Ummah
to decentralize these places,
to remove them from the importance and significance
that they had. So we paid the price.
So we paid the prices at Umma. Bring
them back again. Let them let this place
serve its true function. It's not just a
place for people to pray Maghrib B'nai'esh. No.
Of course. That's of course it is. But
it's not just that. It's much more than
that.
Always has been and always will be.
The second piece I wanted to talk to
you about today
is the importance of companionship
in this story. In In order for you
to ded dedicate and devote yourself for the
sake for the cause of Islam and for
the sake of Allah
as required and as appropriate,
you need companionship. He says
in the Surah in the Surah of
Alka.
This is the aya that is used to
comment on the story of
meaning be perseverant
and stand your ground in the companionship
of those who call upon their lord
in the morning and the night. I mean,
those who are who are practicing
good people.
Be patient with them. Why?
Why not hang out with them? No. Because
they you may not even necessarily enjoy their
company.
You may not enjoy their company. They may
not be the coolest
Force yourself to be in their
in their presence, in their companionship because they're
the ones you need, and the eye goes
beyond that.
Don't let your eyes
wander looking somewhere else. Don't
look for those who are if you are
lucky enough, if you are for if Allah
has blessed you to the point where you
have companions who are like minded, meaning people
who who appreciate
the
way you appreciate it. Those who are willing
to walk this path with you. If you
are if you are so lucky and so
fortunate and so blessed to have that and
you don't hold on to that with every
aspect of your might, then you have not
understood the story of life itself. You understand
how rare it is to run into someone
who who you see eye to eye with
on the big picture?
Those who can actually walk this path with
you. Those who will strengthen you when you're
weak, who remember you when you're not there.
Those who will take you for push you
forward when you
fall short.
Stand stand your ground with them.
May your eyes never wonder looking somewhere else.
There's nothing to look for. That's it. You
found it. You found someone
You found someone who calls upon Allah in
the morning and the evening. They want his
faith. They want his riddle. They want him.
Now you stick with them.
Don't don't go follow those who we have
distracted their hearts from our remembrance, and they're
following their
wins, their whims.
And their whole matter is nothing.
It's just nothing. It may be cool. They
may have more fun. It may seem to
you then that they that that they are,
but they're not. They're not.
You stick with good companionship. It's so rare.
Why did he call what did he call
the peep they're his followers, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. We're all his followers.
He didn't call them my followers.
Ever think about that? He didn't call them
atsabaah,
which made sense. I always thought that
no. He called them ashab, my friends.
We say companions, but the word in Arabic
as Sahib is a friend. He called them
ashabi and ashabi. We call them sahab, but
they're companions, they're friends. Are they companions, really?
Think about it. Are they really his companions?
No. They are his followers, alayhis salatu wa
sallam. They walked behind him. They learned from
him. He was their messenger, but he chose
that word.
He said, you're gonna be called my companions
and my friends. And we use the word.
Don't think about it, though. The concept of
I'll end this this series
with the ayah that you all know in
Surat Al Taf where he says,
say,
You know why that aya is there?
That aya is to remind us of of
the concept of of distraction.
Don't be distracted by the pieces that don't
matter.
A big
downfall of an activist or someone who understands
is when they get distracted by little pieces
that don't matter,
by details that that don't mean anything.
So for people who will hear the story
of Al Alqav,
you you see the beauty of it, Over
the last couple of weeks, the depth of
it, the profoundness of what they did.
How many of them were there? 3, 4,
5. What type of dog did they have?
Was that a Labrador or was maybe was
it a husky? I don't know what the
doesn't matter. Who who cares?
How does this how does this affect the
story in any way? What difference does it
make? It doesn't, but that's how human life
is. That's how the human mind works. When
the human being does not want to focus
on the goal, on the objective, on the
mission,
we look for distraction.
So say, Say, your my lord knows their
number.
Only a few people know. The people were
back.
They don't waste your time arguing these things.
They don't matter.
Don't get distracted.
Don't get as a Muslim, don't get distracted
by details that don't matter.
By maybe differences you have with Fulan and
Elan. You don't like the the way this
imam says this or this imam. Don't don't
waste time.
We have 1 kibla. And all the we
all say
we stand, we face Mecca. That is enough.
Right now, we don't need to know more
than that. We work together to achieve
aspects of justice,
aspects of peace, aspects of guidance for ourselves
and others. We work on that and we
don't waste time getting distracted by the small
pieces.
The month of August
has been the month of outreach for us
here at Wellness,
and we should be performing outreach at all
times. Right? But I thought there would be
some value in making sure every year there's
a month where we just focus on that
piece. We focus on dawah.
Your obligation,
your over the next month is to at
least bring one person to a masjid, a
person who never goes to a masjid.
It doesn't have to be a non Muslim
who converts. No. No. Actually, I wanted we're
gonna we'll talk about that at a different
time. What I want for look for your
brother Muslim brothers and sisters who don't come
to Masajid and bring them to Masajid.
Bring them back to the house of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Take this upon yourself as
an obligation. It doesn't have to be to
this masjid. Wherever you where do you live?
What's the closest house of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala to you? And try to bring someone
to a masjid who doesn't usually come and
perform that and allow them to attend something
and learn something and get connected to the
house of Allah
This is the outreach that we should all
be doing on an on an ongoing basis.
Allah
He gave you the blessing of being comfortable
in a masjid. You come to Masjid, you
have no problem, then make sure you spread
that gift to others.
We are going to be running throughout August
different activities and
events that are focused on performing outreach.
And we want you to be
to participate with us on the different in
the different activities on different levels. But the
simplest of them all, the most simple of
all these levels is just reach out to
someone, a friend of yours that doesn't come
to the house of Allah, just never got
into it, wasn't raised that way, doesn't feel
bring them in.
Bring them in. May they come and they
find. And hopefully they'll find in the Masjid
something that you found and hopefully that will
be that will be meaningful to them because
this is our goal our goal at the
end. That's what Al Kahf did.
They took a stand and they were bringing
people back to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. They
were bringing people back to Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. They had a cause that they were
working for and you have that cause as
well. And we wanna make this month, Yani,
a month where, Yani, we, we perform that
outreach and that Dawah in an appropriate way.
I hope that was of of benefit to
you. Inshallah, on on Sunday, there's going to
be a large barbecue for for this community.
It starts out from 12 to 6. You
are welcome to to come and attend.
Apparently, they're gonna dunk me in water again,
so you're welcome to come and watch me
and laugh. Otherwise,
it's
it's an event for families and children and
everyone to come out and rejoice and for
the community to get to know each other
a bit and for us
to to work with with one another
towards
benefiting ourselves and benefiting our own community and
and standing by our brothers and sisters
overseas. They are only as strong as, as
as strong as we can be.
The strength of of the of our of
the people of Palestine and the people of
Sudan and of Bangladesh and parts of the
world where people are being, yeah, mistreated or
they're or living through war. They're the only
strength that they're they can draw strength from
from Muslims who live abroad, who have a
who have privileges that they don't have. So
we have to be strong as a community,
as as as as the collective and as
the individual, we have to be strong and
that strength will help them. That's they will
draw from that strength and we will draw
from their strength. And that requires us to
start seeing each other as a family that
functions together that functions as one we have
to do that that our diversity is is
the strongest piece that we have the fact
that the prophet alayhis salatu wasalam was for
everyone. The fact that in this room right
now is 25 to 26 different nationalities and
races and cultures and and backgrounds. There's beauty
in that. We have to celebrate that by
strengthening our unity and coming together and making
sure that we we have each other's back.
That is
that is what we have to work on.
We haven't done a very good job at
it, but in the future, hopefully, with the
concept of activism, hopefully, with our youth understanding
that this is what they're required to do.
This is what I expect from them. This
is what their ummah is hoping for. If
we don't want to waste another generation hoping
for this is it. We start now. It
starts today. And the change
will come. And even if it comes like
it came for Al Kahf,
years after they were under the ground,
years after they had passed away generations later.
It's all good.
You get the azure for being the spark
that started all of it.