My Maxims #01
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Channel: Adnan Rajeh
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AI Generated Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of sharing principles and values to achieve clarity for oneself and achieve what one wants for oneself. They stress the need for individuals to fulfill personal obligations and avoid corrupt politicians affecting their success. The importance of protecting and preserving um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the um Supporting the umAI Generated Transcript ©
He says,
in which he explains to us
our maxims, the things that we believe in,
the pieces of information that we have to
worship him through, subhanahu wa ta'ala. At the
beginning of it, he says, oh, people indeed,
the promise of your lord of your lord
is truthful.
So do not be fooled by this white
life that you are living. Do not be
fooled by the one who is out to
fool you. Indeed, the shaitan
is your enemy. So see him as such
because he calls those who listen to him
towards the path of jahannam.
Those who disbelieve in
Allah will find a painful punishment and those
who believe in him and follow his teachings
will find forgiveness and will find a great
reward.
Post Ramadan, what I want to do over
the next, maybe, number of weeks
as a post Ramadan series, I wanna share
with you some of my maxims.
A maxim is a is a self evident
rule. It's a principle that you live by.
It's something that you have concluded
throughout your life and that directs your behavior
and kinda
helps you make your decisions.
And in
in pursuit of clarity for yourself and for
my own, I think it's worth everyone's time
for me at least explain what it is
that we are
where we're coming from.
When we're doing things, when we're talk when
I'm talking about topics or issues, I'm pushing
in a certain direction. I think it's worthwhile
if you understand where I'm coming from. What
exactly is is fueling all of this? And
what act do I actually believe or accept
as self evident on its own in its
own merit? And what is it that maybe
you need to do as well? Now you
may not you you can feel free to
disagree with some of these maxim, but this
is what I believe and this is what
I live by. And then you can look
at them and decide whether some of these
things you should believe and or live by
or or maybe you shouldn't.
But if there's no point of con continuing
to work together if we don't at least
have a number
of points in common that we share. We
have to share a number of of of
principles and rules and values that we use
as a launching pad to move forward with.
I think that makes a lot of sense.
I'm not sure that this actually occurs a
lot. Like when I think about it and
I did a lot of Yeah. On your
reflection over the last week or so at
the end of Ramadan,
trying to figure out why is it that
we don't get things done in our ummah.
I I can't I I I continue to
struggle
with with the lack of of productivity and
the lack of of unity and the lack
of of the and our lack of ability
to actually make sure our voices are heard
and that we are capable of achieving what
we want for ourselves and for our nation.
And I can never figure out exactly what
the the reason is. I'm not a big
conspiracy theorist. I know that there's all there's
always someone conspiring against you somewhere. That that's
always gonna be there. Life doesn't work any
other way, but for that, I don't think
that's the real real the the the actual
reason. I don't think it's just corrupt politicians.
There are corrupt politicians everywhere. I don't think
there is a politician that isn't corrupt. No
offense to politicians or actually intended offense to
politicians. I don't think any of them are.
I don't think that we see that anywhere
differently in the world. So why is it
that corrupt politicians only affect us as Muslims?
Why isn't it affecting, yeah, any people who
aren't Muslim? Why do they still get things
done? Why why are they able to just
rescue themselves and to remove themselves from where
they are? And I don't know exactly why.
So what came to mind is that maybe,
just maybe, maybe we don't fully agree on
stuff as Muslim. Maybe we don't actually know
what we're talking about. Maybe I'm talking about
things and you're not necessarily hearing what it
is I'm saying. And maybe you're telling me
stuff, and I'm hearing what I wanna hear,
I'm not hearing what what you're actually saying
and there's some degree of disconnection and we're
all on different wavelengths. In order for this
to work, we have to be relatively speaking,
on maybe not the exact same wavelength but
close enough so I can hear you through
the static.
Like close enough so I can hear what
it is that you're saying and you can
hear me or else it's it's a waste
of everyone's time.
The prophet tells
us,
the
The one who does not want to live
my lifestyle, the the one who refuses my
legacy is not amongst me. He's not he's
not a part of my group. Listen, Bukhari
and Muslim and the hadith, you find it
in different narrations.
What was his way? Do we know what
his way is? Is his way just this
and this and this being a bit longer?
Is that his way? Is that I understand
his way? Well, I'm very different wavelengths if
that's how you understand it. If that's how
simplest if that's if that's how simplest,
simple you see it, then we're on very
different wavelengths. We're not we're not understanding one
another. We have to we have to sit
down and talk what is what is his
sunnah
because yes, we want to live exactly how
he did out of his salat. We would
like to emulate him within the context of
the time and place that we're living. How
would have he how would he have dealt
with things alayhis salatu washam that he was
around? What would he have said? How would
he have lived? What would he have dedicated
himself?
What would he have told us to dedicate
ourselves to? That's the question I ask myself
everyday. If if I was able to speak
to him and tell him, what do I
do You Rasoolallah? What would he have told
me?
I don't need to because we have his
lifestyle, we have his his legacy alaihis salatu.
So, we have the book and we have
the actions and we can study it and
figure it out. But that's what we have
to come to agreement on.
So I'm gonna share with you a number
of maxims, every Khutba, might be 1 or
2 or 3 depending on how much time
we have.
You can think about it, you can agree
or you can disagree, but this is what
I believe, and this is what I live
by.
And and I'll try to explain to you
where it comes from. So maximum number
1.
We all have personal obligations
as Muslims. They're called furudul a'in or wajibil
a'ini, if you study a little bit of
the Sursukh, you know this term. There are
personal obligations, you have to do them
yourself. No one can do them for you,
like salah, and suya, and zakah, and haj.
These are things you have to do.
My understanding of these
The pharaoh there, they are designed to help
you fulfill your
your communal obligation.
The fair existence,
their existence is to allow you to fulfill
your communal obligation.
Meaning there in their on their own sense,
they are not the goal. They are means
to a goal. You have to do them
because they are full bayin. You have to
perform. If you don't, then there's no relationship
between you and Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. There's
no there's no basis for a relationship with
the almighty Subhanahu wa ta'ala himself if you
don't do them. But they're not designed as
an end goal. They are there to fuel
your ability to fulfill your communal obligations. Why
do I say that? Because Allah subhanahu wa'ala
doesn't need anything from you. He doesn't rec
he doesn't benefit from you doing them. So
why would he ask you to do these
things unless they were going to fulfill a
larger purpose for yourself which is why they're
there.
A Muslim can't afford to live life focused
only on these things. A Muslim has to
understand that we we are all communally obligated
to carry the burden of this Ummah on
our shoulders. We are obligated to do that,
to figure out exactly how we're going to
do it, in which field, in which
how we're going to actually do the job.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told the prophet
pray.
Why? Because
you're gonna carry a heavy burden. You're going
to fast. You're gonna fast so that you
can learn to be stronger. So you can
learn your potential. So they can learn empathy.
So so so you can understand what it
means to be hungry. So you work towards
helping those who are. That's the point of
us fasting. So it reminds us of
You do Hajj to the it's a pilgrimage
that returns you back to the origins. So
you understand why you're doing what you're doing.
You take it so that you purify their
wealth. So that wealth is halal, it can
be used for something that's beneficial. That's the
point of all of these acts of worship,
is that you can carry your communal obligation.
But you have to understand that you This
is how I live, this is how I
understand things.
I perform my personal obligations.
So that allows me to carry my communal
obligation appropriately. I figure out what I know
how to do and then I do it,
and I keep on doing it till the
day I meet god, till the day I
die for better or for worse. Easy, difficult,
it makes no difference.
Makes no difference at all.
Just do it because this is where your
this is your
This is the door you're standing in front
of. This is the piece that the Ummah
needs. This is the piece of, of obligation
that you use in your life to continue
to carry this Ummah. Keep it moving forward.
That's what a communal obligation is. And that's
what you have to understand is a part
of your deen.
We have to we have to fulfill.
All these things you have to fulfill. No
no question. No question about it. No question.
There's no way for you not to. But
they're designed to allow you to to carry
and fulfill your communal one.
What are you doing for this?
How how are you how are you standing
by?
How are you serving your what your community?
What are you doing? Explain. Explain. Where is
it? What is your field? What's what's p
what piece of the puzzle, do are you
in? It's a huge huge it's a mosaic
of a puzzle. There's a lot of pieces.
Mine can't even be seen, and so far,
it's it's so many of them as it
can't be seen, but it's there. And if
I add mine and you add yours and
you add yours and you add yours, then
we feel fill a little a little bit
of that gap. But what is it? If
you don't know what that is, then we're
in deep trouble.
We're in fair we're in we're in very
deep trouble. If you don't know what it
is that you're doing,
how you're supporting, and what what communal obligation
is on your shoulder. It makes no sense
for you not to have that.
Makes no sense, that's what that's what the
prophet alaihi sallam explains to us.
People get on the boat. Our ummah's like,
you're gonna book on a boat, some on
top, some on the on the bottom. The
people on the bottom decided to drill a
hole to get water, and and the people
on top left leave them because not their
problem. Everyone sinks.
Everyone drowns. If they stop them, they sail
together. There's no way out. Your communal obligation
is why you do all of these
personal ones. It's why you have a relationship
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It's so that
you can fulfill that peace.
And you have to continue to do it
until the day you meet Allah
until your death. There's no retirement plan for
this one.
There's no retirement plan for this communal obligation
that you choose to carry. Whatever it may
be. Whatever the field or discipline
is. You know yourself. What are you good
at? What are you capable of offering? What
does the Ummah need that you can take
time and champion for them? And you just
do that.
Carrying your personal obligations, focusing on that, you
meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with that one
thing.
You do you may achieve something great, you
may not achieve something great. It doesn't make
a difference. We just meet Allah subhanahu wa'ala
trying to enhance it. Trying to move it
forward. I try I stood I saw a
needy out of I stood there and I
tried to and I served. I did my
best.
My best wasn't great but that that's what
I had and I did it. And I
called people to help.
And whether you achieve the goal and that
makes no difference, you just do that. And
without that figure, without this understanding, without this
maxim, there is no way. There is no
hope for this omen to go anywhere
at all, ever.
This has to be brought as a central
piece of our deen.
That all of that teaching all the teaching
the Quran has is allow you to do
your job better.
So pray and fast and eat Quran and
do the qudhikr. Why? Because it will strengthen
you
when you stand on that thawr. When you
stand in the in the and you do
and you carry that communal obligation of yours.
Or else what what what is their end
game? What's the point of them?
Yeah. So we came in Ramadan, and we
filled the masajid and we stood and the
imam made a dua and everyone said, I
mean, everyone was in tears. Then what?
Then what?
What did you think was going to happen?
A lightning bolt was going to come from
the sky and hit the people you don't
like.
That's what you think was going to happen.
And the earth was going to reproduce green
and for you just that by by that.
No. That's not how this works. That's that's
never been how that. That's what the mushrikeen
asked the prophet
Give me something. Make dua say something, change
something.
Dua is some is much is much greater
than that. Dua is the beginning of you
living a different lifestyle.
So we filled up and then what? You
fill the Masajid and you don't use that
time where you were standing in the hands
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala while he was
opening your heart and putting in it his
love and his compassion. You were feeling it.
If you didn't use that moment to say,
you're up from now on, I am at
your service to the day I die. To
the day I I'm at your service to
the day I die. I will never stop.
No one can stop me. There's no force
on this planet that will ever make me
not serve you and not do what is
in best interest of the people around me.
I will always serve. I will find a
way and I'll do it. If that's not
what we where you end up benefiting, then
what did you benefit?
You have to explain what is it that
you got out of all this.
The second max that I wanna share with
you today.
The goal
is the Ummah.
The prophet
nation is humanity.
His nation is humanity.
A nation of a Prophet are the people
whom the Prophet was sent to.
The people of Musa alaihis salam are not
the people who believed in him. No. The
people of Musa are the people he was
sent to. Some of them believed in him,
some of them didn't, some of them followed
him, many of them didn't. Isa Alaihi Wasallam,
same thing. Shoaib Alaihi Wasallam, same thing.
Are the people he was sent to?
The people who believed are the ones who
responded. But he was sent to them. Who
is the prophet
sent to?
The Arab? No. The Quran does not
does not say that. The Quran says that
he was sent to humanity. Every living person
is his own
The Muslims are the one who responded,
and they carry in their hearts the burden
of carrying this to everyone else.
This message is to help everyone live a
better life, is to fix everyone's life. It's
to allow everyone to live well now and
live well,
And we carry the message, so we have
to protect it, we have to preserve it,
and then we have to make sure that
we deliver it appropriately to those who deserve
to have it delivered to them.
The goal of everything we do has to
be the
has to be the nation.
The only value I carry is the value
of what I'm doing for the Anything I
do that's not for the bigger picture of
this nation is completely a waste of everyone's
time.
Individuals have no value.
Institutions
have no value. Projects and organizations
have no value if their end game is
not the Ummah. If they're not serving the
nation,
which is humanity at large and the Muslim
ummah as a beginning point, as a starting
point. There is no room in our ummah
for agendas. There is no room for self
serving plans. There's no room for it. And
the moment
where the moment the the institution,
the preservation
of the institution
becomes more valuable than serving the community,
that's corruption.
The moment I stand here and I tell
you something, that is not in the best
interest of this but rather in the best
interest of myself as corruption. You know that
immediately.
Yep. That's corruption. It's no difference.
That's an individual
saying something self serving for themselves. The moment
an institution
does that, it's also corruption.
The only value of individuals and institutions are
the value that they have in terms of
their sincere service to the ummah that they're
a part of. You start with the community
you're living in. You can't serve the whole
ummah if you can't serve the people who
are at your doorstep.
You can't serve the whole ummah if you're
not serving the people who will live right
beside you.
That there's no ban there's no value for
me to serve people living 1,000 of kilometers
away if I don't serve the people who
right beside me and help them serve the
others.
There's no value to it. This has to
be clear.
That the goal, the bigger picture is this
Umma. We're a part of this big Umma.
It's it is a tired Umma. It is
broken. It is somewhat
defeated.
It's been like that for a while now.
It's divided amongst itself,
But it's an ummah, and we're a part
of it.
And the only way value that we have
is whatever it is that we do to
serve that, to serve that bigger picture. Teach
this to your children, make sure you understand
it yourself. That you live Yes, we're serving
Why are we doing all this? Because of
Ummatullah Because of Ummat Muhammad
Because you and I carry responsibility.
We are blessed by knowing this book and
knowing the one who brought this book, alayhis
salaat wa salaam.
And being taught about who Allah the Almighty
is. There are so many people in this
on this earth who don't know that, who
was not delivered to them appropriately. They don't
understand it. It was my job and yours
to make sure it got there. It can't
get there if we're not a strong nation
ourselves. We can't be a strong nation if
our communities aren't strong.
Understand the continuum here.
So remind yourself of this all the time.
You without sincere the moment what you say
or what institution you're a part of is
no longer serving
the Umma. The moment the focus is on
self preservation,
or self growth, that should immediately be removed.
This place,
this place doesn't is just a vehicle that
allows us to serve our community. The moment
it stops being that, we rip it down.
We get rid of it immediately. There's no
value to it. There's no value to any
institution because the institution that we're a part
of is called Islam. We don't need other
ones.
We any any institution we have within the
Umma of Islam has to be the goal
of it is to serve the bigger picture.
That's the goal. It is to serve the
bigger picture and there's no other point of
its existence aside from that.
And that starts with the individual by never
ever standing and saying something that's self serving.
Saying something that's going to come back and
benefit me at some point, it has to
be the benefit of the of the larger
group of the community.
And it has to also be reflected within
the behaviors of organizations, institutions as well.
And the reason I'm saying this is because
imagine you opened a school,
you have a school,
and in that school you have 3 or
4 teachers who come together and say,
we want to open within this school
another school.
And they start rallying other teachers to open
another school. They're gonna run it at different
hours. It's a full school.
And that makes no sense to you listening
to it because there's already a school. Now
if those teachers said, no. We're gonna run
some after hours program to help in math,
to help, students who are,
held back, students who don't have who need
tutoring. See if there's a specific goal,
it makes sense. But for there to be
a school and teachers to say, we wanna
open within this school another school', what they're
saying is that, see, we have the right
school, you guys are wrong, and we're gonna
try to overthrow you at some point. That's
what's being said. Islam is the group. The
Ummah, this is it. Any group inside of
it has to have a goal. This place
has to have a goal. What's the goal?
Education mentorship. That's what we're doing. That's what
we're doing. We're helping younger people figure out
where they're gonna go, educate them Islamically.
The moment I start doing everything,
the moment this place starts to do everything,
then we're trying to substitute Islam. Trying to
act as if Yeah. You don't. You're not
really a Muslim until you come here, that's
not how these places work. No institution should
act that way.
No issue Because that means that you are
trying to substitute the actual group. It's called
the group within group phenomenon, you can look
it up.
It's a well known established thing that happens
in large groups. And as Muslims we can't
no,
we we we should be aware of that,
and we should be taking care of it,
and be careful.
We need small groups that focus on advocacy,
on on on wealth, on, on mentorship mental
health. People just focus on focus on something
to carry that for the for the sake
of this ummah.
You can't have someone doing everything.
Actually doing that is claiming
that everyone else is wrong and this is
the right way to go.
And that is a that that that's elitism
and that
that that removes people.
That that removes that that removes the rest
of the group, and it causes and it
causes wraps between people.
My third maxim that I wanna end the
hookah with and I'll share with you.
And this is an important one. This is
how I grew up. This is what you
should listen to very carefully.
Try and word this in a proper proper
manner for you.
Or as a common Muslim,
your job is not to fix all of
the problems around you. No. Your job is
to follow along with
your imam or whoever it is that is
moving forward with Islamic work, that's your job.
Your job is to follow along.
If you don't agree with any of the
scholars that live beside you, you know what
you should do?
You should move and go to a place
where there's a scholar that you do agree
with. This is established in Islamic literature. It
has been there for over 3 a 3
1300 years.
That the the per you are more obligated
to live to go after someone who can
teach you your dean appropriately and help you
do things that you believe are well are
beneficial,
then you are going after your risk, going
after your wealth.
This is what they used to do. You
would find someone so for someone living for
example in this city, you know, and they
follow an imam who lives maybe for 15,000
kilometers away. Yeah.
That doesn't it's not gonna work. You're not
gonna be able to be a part of
this community. You're not gonna be able to
actually further the work because you're following someone.
If you follow this person, this is the
person they're gonna listen to, then you're gonna
live with them because they're talking with from
the context that they're living in. They're talking,
they're living in a place and a time
and they're speaking from that context and you
have to be in that context for the
what they're saying to make sense to you.
You can't do it. You can't have it
both ways. You can't live one place and
follow someone somewhere else and everyone else living
around you are not worthy of listening to.
It doesn't mean that the scholars in some
place are not gonna have problems. Everyone has
issues that have to be dealt with with
but we can't you cannot get you can't
move forward if you're not willing to work
with those who are around you.
I worked
with all throughout my life. I can tell
you very clearly that I never agreed a
100% with everything they said, everything they did.
Never. There's not one scholar, one teacher of
mine that I agree with everything they did,
not one of them.
But that's not how you you I can't
I I can't decide that I'm gonna break
off and No. I have to work with
them. They're the ones who are there.
You accept that you you agree with them
on enough fundamental things that you stick with
them and the stuff that you don't, that's
fine.
But Azatulibilim,
who someone who's not a scholar, who's not
gonna open their own Masih and do their
own thing, you follow those who are local.
And if you're saying, well everyone who is
local is wrong, and I completely refuse them,
then where is the person that you do
accept? Go live with
them. Go go This is this is important.
I'm not telling people to leave. I'm telling
people that this is very important part of
your deen. This is where your your your
Islamic well-being. For your Islamic well-being, you have
to live in a place where you're willing
to move along, move forward with the person
that is actually saying trying to move the
Islamic needle forward. You have to. The Islamic
quote has to happen that way.
We we can't have it any other way.
I'm seeing this in all the masajid where
there's an imam who has a vision, the
people beside him don't like his vision.
They get listening to some shaykh on YouTube
like I want you to have this guy's
vision. But I'm not that guy. The imam
is like, I don't know who this guy
is, I don't need their vision because I
was educated appropriately. And this poor imam has
to spend his life trying to explain to
these people, look just either work with me
or go work with someone else.
We all will meet
if the intentions are good.
Islam is wide enough for us to work
in different ways,
for us to function in slightly different very
with slightly different variables and still make it
to the finish line together. And for our
energy to to come together as one, to
be channeled in the same direction, we can
afford for that. But you can't have people
living in the same area and everyone wants
to be their own
it doesn't work that way.
For leadership to work, you need people who
are willing to be led.
If everyone's an imam on their own because
they have a pocket shift, the guy who's
sitting here on the phone, I can just
ask him the question and that's the answer.
The answer, that's the answer. And no matter
what any other shaykh who is local says
doesn't make a difference, that doesn't work. You
cannot move forward that way. The community will
will be held will be it's a hindrance.
It's a horrible hindrance.
It is worth changing your place of residence
to be in presence of someone who you
can learn from.
This has been the way Muslims have lived
all their lives. Abu Hanifa, go go study
his life story.
Yeah. It took him years before he decided
that he was going to spend his life
with Hammad ibn Abi Surayman.
Imam Al Abiim.
He listened to all these imams and then
he decided, they went, he lived beside him.
Imam Shafi left Mecca and went to Musa.
All of his students left with him
because this this is the understanding of it.
That this is the most valuable thing you
will have to be a part of a
community where you can work with the people
there and feel that you're a part of
it. If you don't, and that's fine, not
everyone will agree with all the imams that
are that exist locally. It is worth your
time to find someone who you do agree
with, so you can go and you can
learn from them, you can live with them,
you can work with them.
This is not
I'm not saying this so that people feel
excluded. This is not an exclusionary idea, it's
the opposite. It's to give you you deserve
to work in an environment where you feel
that the person who is speaking, what's happening,
is something that you agree with. That that
makes sense to you. Same wavelength. You you
deserve that.
A lot of people think that they're entitled
for that to exist where they are. No.
You are obligated to go after it.
You're obligated to something to change where you're
living, to go after
this. To seek it out. And when you
find it, you never leave it because it
You have no idea how valuable it is.
You have no idea. I didn't leave Syria
for a reason.
You think it was better? Yeah. Before the
war.
Think people were rich before the war.
No.
It's a poor country.
As a resident, I made, the equivalent of
a $150 a month.
It was very
but I stayed because why how could I
leave? No. Sheikh Bassam is there. Sheikh Shukri
is there. Sheikh how would I leave? I'm
insane?
Unless they're gonna leave with me, I I
well, these are the people I'm gonna stay
with.
It if you understand how Islam works, you
un you know. No. You stay around those
who you can who will help you grow,
bring you closer to Allah Subhana. Allow you
to do the work that you want to
do for for in the service of the
Ummah that you're a part of. This has
to be a priority for us as Muslims.
So, yes, it's worse actually
going that far.
But you can't be a part of a
community
and be against everyone who's working in it.
And say they're all corrupt, and they're all
this, and they're all that. That that's not
healthy. It's not correct.
It's not Islamic.
And it holds back societies from moving forward
because it puts so many obstacles and it
just it just puts the rods in the
wheels and people can't move forward.
Those are the 3 maxims I wanted to
share with you today. I hope you found
benefit within them.
And before you go, inshallah, today, make sure
that you,
scan this code. If you have not if
you have not already participated in this, communal,
work survey, please do it today so that
group.
group.