Adnan Rajeh – Outreach-The Way Of Our Prophets – Practicing & Sharing Enlightenment.
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AI: Transcript ©
The series that
I am
sharing with you over the course of this
month, the month of August, is to talk
about outreach
as the month of August is our outreach
month where we hope people take upon themselves
the responsibility
and the obligation
of performing dawah and outreach to Muslims
first and to non Muslims second and to
bring them into their to
the centers of their of their communities as
the should be and to learn the importance
of this function. Allah
made this the function of the prophets. Those
whom he loved the most were given the
function of performing dawah, and it lies upon
us as Muslims after he left us to
Islam with his body for us to continue
to carry this after he after he taught
us the legacy
But I have to I have to be
honest with you. I find it extremely difficult
to talk about this topic. In the midst
of what we continuously
or what we are what we continue to
watch and observe
happening in the holy land and other parts
of the Muslim world. And what we have
learned over these 10 months, there are some
lessons. When this ends, there will be lessons
that we have to share amongst each other.
And I feel I I I can't do
it in the midst of it all. I
I I just I I can't bring myself
to talk about what we've learned throughout these
10 months until it stops, until somehow there's
a ceasefire so that we can at least
talk about what we've learned. But we have
for sure learned that whatever international laws exist
in this world, they only exist for us.
They just exist to control the other that
doesn't exist for them. Whatever laws in court,
so whatever, Yeah. Any preventative measures that that
they have put in regulatory measures they put
in this world, they don't apply to them.
They apply to people like us only. Only
when someone like us crosses the line. The
do these measures become important? Does everyone actually
take interest and does the law does law
and order and and ethics and human rights
actually become important? But as long as it's
not us violating it, if they violate it,
then it's fine. And the world is not
a healthy place if this is how we
function in it.
The world is not a healthy place for
anyone, even for the oppressor, if that's how
people are going to function within it.
Changing this element, changing this fact is important
for everyone. It's important for the long term
existence and well-being
of all of humanity, even the oppressors,
even the oppressors. On the day of judgement,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will tell people,
I never oppressed you, you oppressed yourselves.
You you oppressed yourselves. That's what happened. You
you made the mistake yourself. You oppressed yourself,
and now I'm going to hold you accountable
for the mistakes that you made and for
the people that you hurt.
Amongst many other lessons that we have unfortunately
learned, things that we knew but we just
didn't want to believe
because as Muslims, there's an aspect of us
that's optimistic
and that is loving of to the point
where we would like to believe that the
world still has in it and that that
goodness is still there.
But it's hard to see that amongst,
yeah, honey, the,
tons and tons of rubble,
through all of the
torn pieces of of women and children, and
through all the blood that that that has
been spilled
unjustly in the holy land. Nonetheless
nonetheless,
outreach in Dawa is a part of Islam
that may seem as irrelevant, but it is
not.
To this cause, I mean.
To this cause, the concept of outreach is
relevant. It may not directly change the outcome,
but indirectly, it for sure will.
Indirectly, there is nothing that is more
effective, that is more impactful
than Dawah. There's never been anything more impactful
than Dawah, historically. This is why I stand
here, and I look at people from every
race and from every culture and from every
walk of life and every part of the
world. It's because our ancestors, our predecessors, those
who came before us
performed
and spread Islam all across the globe so
that we could enjoy
what it is. The verse that I shared
with you or the two verses I shared
with you at the beginning of this but
let's start there are 2 points I wanna
make from them. Let's start with the first
point. Allah
says, indeed I sent Musa
with my signs.
And I told him the following.
I I told him the following.
Remove your people.
From a state of darkness
to a state of enlightenment.
This is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala told
Musa to do.
Here are my signs. Here are my teachings.
Here is the Torah. Here's all that I
want humanity to do and not to do.
Go ahead. Remove your people from a state
of loss, of darkness,
of aimlessness
to a state where they can be enlightened,
where they can walk their path, and they
see where they're going, and they have enough
light in their hearts and through their eyes,
and that they know what is coming next
and what they are headed towards.
This is what Allah
gave us. He gave us.
He gave us in light light enlightenment. This
is what he gave us. You have to
see it as such. And if you don't
see it as such, there is something wrong
with the way you're looking at it. This
is a fundamental flaw that a lot of
us as Muslims will carry with us for
a long period of time, where we don't
see these rulings, these teachings, these the lists
of do's and the lists of don'ts as
a method to achieve enlightenment.
We don't see it that way. We see
it as just a rule, a bunch of
rules. Don't do this and do that. But
why do these rules exist? If Allah is
not harmed by our sin and does not
benefit from our good deeds, then why would
these rules exist to begin with?
If Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not harmed
by anything nor benefited by anything, then why
would these rules exist?
Does he have nothing else to do? Subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Why is he telling us to do this
subhanahu wa ta'ala?
Because who knows what is in our best
interest.
He knows what works for us as individuals.
He knows what behaviors will lead
inevitably
to harm and to loss.
Whether you end up harming yourself
or or you end up harming others, it
makes no difference.
He knows what steps you take that will
lead inevitably to and what steps you take
will lead inevitably to peace and to goodness
at the khair. So when he commands us,
subhanahu wa ta'ala, he's commanding us for us.
He's commanding us for us.
So that we can be enlightened. Because you
we can't go back to where we we
can't go and be with him, subhanahu wa
ta'ala, without enlightenment.
You want to be with Allah
in the second phase of your life or
existence
after you move out you move away from
this one. You want to be with Allah
You think that you think a a a
being of darkness is going to be there.
No. A being that was enlightened in this
world, a creature of enlightenment will make it
to to where Allah
shows his mercy and his love. That enlightenment
requires understand adhering to his teachings, learning the
legacy of Muhammad alayhis salatu wa salam and
and taking to heart what the Quran is
telling us.
This is the point of all of this.
In order for us to take dawah to
others that way, we have to see it
like that for ourselves first. Unfortunately,
we have to see it that way for
ourselves first.
If you don't see that, if you don't
see Islam to be the only way out
of a state of darkness to the state
of enlightenment, then there's something fundamentally
missing.
As Muslims, if we don't look around and
say this,
these are dark times, Yeshik. These are dark
times. These are dark some of the darkest
times that we have witnessed as an ummah
that's been living for the last maybe 5th
50, 60 years. We've seen worse historically if
you go back far enough in history, but
these are pretty dark times. How do we
get to a point? How do we get
to a state of enlightenment? Where is the
Noor?
Where is the Noor? Where where where am
I looking?
Show me the light at the end of
the tunnel. Show me the tunnel, and then
show me the light at the end of
it so that I have some motivation to
walk and to tell others to walk with
me, or else what are we doing?
There's no there's no benefit in walking in
darkness. It doesn't matter when you see nothing,
doesn't matter where you go, doesn't matter how
quickly you go there, it doesn't make a
difference. You have no idea where the destination
is. It's only when you see the light
that you can say, okay, now I know.
Only then you can you can start take
making steps
and taking those steps and making decisions that
will take you to the light.
That's what Allah told Musa. Musa, go remove
your people. Remove them from Bulumat to Noor.
May they see the light. May they enjoy
what I what I give them. May they
find the enlightenment in their hearts, in their
souls, in their in their in their bodies,
in their communities, in their societies. May they
see it short term. May they see a
long term. May they enjoy it. May they
embrace my light and bathe in it.
That is what we tell people when we
perform dawah. But then the question that yeah.
I need
the question that you have to answer is
why isn't it working for you then?
If it's if it's so filled with light,
why isn't
why aren't you enlightened?
Why isn't your community filled with with enlightenment?
Where you're gonna call people towards the best
of behaviors
and forget to call yourselves first as you
recite the book, as you're reading the book,
you're gonna start by telling others to do
this before you do it?
You have no no reasoning at all? Is
there no reasoning at all here? You're gonna
call others to follow this
before you do and you have access to
it, Allahu Akbar.
How is that how does that work?
As much as we must emphasize
dawah and outreach,
The first step of Dawah.
The first step is acknowledging that what you
carry in your hand everyday when you sit
and read, what you have on the shelf
over there,
the person whom you follow
is the embodiment of enlightenment.
That it is your path to enlightenment.
That without that, there is no light.
Without it, there is no light. And the
first person that should embrace it, fall in
love with it, take it to heart is
you,
and then you start performing dawah. The first
step is taking it for yourself. You don't
have to be perfect. Don't get me wrong.
I'm not standing here to say you need
to be no. No. I'm just saying that
you have to see it that way. Do
you see it that way? You see Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us what could have
been. He said,
and I talked about this last week. Another
another another another hypothetical from Allah. Another hypothetical.
He said if he wanted to if I
wanted to, he was saying, Subhan, I didn't.
He didn't. But if he wanted to, he
could have commanded you
to kill yourselves
or to remove yourselves from your countries at
all for no reason.
A human being wants to live and when
they want to live, where they want to
live. For you to tell them don't live
or go live somewhere you don't want to
live. This is taking away what the human
being is trying to do. What you're trying
to do is live as long as possible
and live in a place that you would
like to enjoy living in. If we told
them to not do these things, very few
of them would have done it because it's
not beneficial, but we didn't. He's saying, I
didn't tell you not to do something that
is not beneficial to you. I did not
command you to do something that is harmful
to you. And if I did, very few
of you would have listened.
Very few of you would have listened to
me.
And if you would just listen to what
I actually told you to do. If you
just followed what I actually told you to
do, that was helpful to that. The wow,
the actual encouragement of goodness that I gave
you, that would have been better for you.
That would have strengthened you.
And I would
Yeah. And I've guided you.
I would have granted you guidance.
The ultimate goal.
You'd have been granted guidance.
Subhanallah.
The first step that we need to take
in order for us to take what we
have
and spread it amongst others is that the
enlightenment within
it has to reach our own souls.
You have to see it as enlightenment. And
if you're not following it, you have to
feel that there's something missing, that you're in
a state of darkness. Let let may we
change that. May we remove ourselves from a
state of darkness
through the teachings of Allah to a state
of enlightenment
so that we may take that and offer
it to others who would love it, who
would love to be enlightened,
who would love to be enlightened.
In dunya, if you do that, you
it it it reflects your
It
reflects your
On the day of judgment, the hypocrites, male
and female will say to the believers, can
you can you slow down? You're on the
silat.
One of the moments where the prophet, alayhis
salatu wa sallam says, no one knows anyone.
You don't remember your your children, your father,
your mother, your spouse. You don't remember your
you barely know yourself the moment of the
because you're not sure. Are you gonna make
it to the other side or not?
So the hypocrites start calling upon the believers,
slow down.
You have late. You have somehow you have
late. We don't have late. Can you wait
so we can use your light because we
can't see in ahead in front of us.
Say, look behind you or go behind.
Go back to where? They look back literally.
Yeah. But that's not what they meant. They
meant go back to life. Go back to
dunya.
Your Nur, your Mirkiyama, is going to be
obtained here.
You can't buy a flashlight, your Mirkiyama, to
get you across the Surat. You have to
buy it here.
You have to take your Nur with you,
your Mirkiyama, so you can see, so you
can make it to where your to your
destination or else you don't see. May Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us.
Yeah.
The noor that you carry is the noor
that you built in duniya.
The noor in duniya comes from that book.
Comes from learning and understanding and then spreading
it and the more you spread it, the
more you embrace it, and the more you
embrace it, the more you spread it. And
this becomes the virtuous
the virtuous cycle.
The virtuous cycle of being a Muslim, a
performing
The second piece I want to share with
you today, and I'll end it with this
insha'Allah.
He said at the beginning of the verses
that I recited at the beginning of the
hopwa,
That whenever we sent I never said this
is what he's
saying.
I've never sent a prophet except
that they spoke
that the language or the tongue of the
people he was sent to.
So that he may clarify things for them.
Within this is an important teaching point.
And I'm not here to talk about the
the importance of the Arabic language. That's something
that we'll cover, you know, in a different,
series altogether.
Here, I'm talking about the importance of proper
communication.
For dawah to work, you have to have
proper communication.
You have to know how to speak to
the people you're speaking to. You have to
know your audience well. If you don't know
your audience, you don't know how to speak
with them, then you will not be able
to actually affect them or impact them positively.
The prophet alayhis salatu wassalam knew how to
speak to the people he was sent to
speak to alayhis salatu wassalam. And he taught
his Sahaba how to do that with them
as well. And today as Muslims, we have
to learn this piece again. We have to
relearn this piece. We have to relearn
how to perform this basic function of Islam,
which is speaking to people, which is performing
dawah to people, just spreading Islam to others,
knowing how to do it. The ayah tells
us, call to the way of your Lord
with wisdom
and with kind reminders
and then argue with them with the best
intention possible using the best arguments possible with
the best manners possible.
This is how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is
telling us to call to his way.
We don't do this by offending other people,
by by judging them, by pushing them, by
repelling them and pushing them farther away from
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. If and if you
don't believe that this is the right way
to do it, then you just haven't studied
his life, alayhis salatu wa ta'ala. Forgive me.
You just haven't read the you just haven't
read how he did it, alayhis salatu wa
ta'ala. If you read how he did it,
then this would not be something surprising to
you. No. Would you have to listen to
it and wonder if everything that's I'm saying
is correct or not.
Is
sitting in the masjid, he's talking to people.
And a man walks in
and he and he goes and he goes
to the end of the part of the
masjid and he and he pulls his trousers
down and he pees in the middle of
the masjid.
He urinates in the house of Allah.
Not any house of Allah. He urinates in
Masjid in Nabiweh.
The place that you go. Well, after your
ummah so you can go give him salaam
alayhi salaahu alayhi salaam. Where the 3 masjid
that have that have specific weight within our
deen. He would walk in and he would
urinate in the middle of the masjid.
So he'd go to
him.
This is this place is not for these
type of things. Pour water, you clean it
up.
The the person who did this.
After he had learned after he, you know,
was educated in Islam because he he looked
back and said, hi. I can't believe what
was I?
How did I do that? Like how years
later after he looked back like I don't
know how.
That
may may may Allah make me the ransom
for him, but with my with my myself
and my family for him alayhi salaam.
He came to me, he didn't chastise me,
he didn't yell at me, he didn't make
a fool of me.
He just taught me. Someone
urinated in the masjid.
Not some kid came in and made noise.
Now some guy walked in, wasn't dressed the
way he should be or the lady walked
in wasn't covered. No. A person walked in
and spilled Najasa from his body in the
middle of the Masjid. And the prophet
told everyone, sit down. Leave me alone. Sit
down. I'll take care of it. He goes,
he speaks to them, alayhi salatu wa sarah.
And that's how he does it. That's how
he does it.
Alayhi salatu wa sarah is trying to give
the ghanaim away to people. He get he's
giving wealth away and some man it's a
long story. He comes some man, he comes
in and he speaks to the prophet the
most
disrespectful
way possible to Sahaba lose their minds. They
want to they want off this hadith in
Muslim. They they want off with his head,
and the prophet
would take him and continue to give him
and offer him until the man is happy
and satisfied. And once he's happy and satisfied,
tells him, come with me. Say something nice
in front of the Sahaba because they they
they have carried in their hearts against you.
So he'd come out and he would say
something nice. And then the prophet, alayhis salazar,
would say the following. This is what I'm
telling you this story for. He would say
the following.
My example of me and this man over
here that you guys were ready to chop
his head off when he said what he
said and did what he did is the
example of a man who lost his camel
and then people wanted to get his camel
for him. Every time they went after the
camel, they only neglect, they only repelled the
camel more. The camel just went farther and
farther away.
Just leave leave my leave my camel for
me.
So the man picked up a little bit
of, of grass from the ground and he
moved his hand a bit and the Naqa
came running to him.
And if I let you do what you
wanted to do to him after he did
what he did, he would have went to
jahannam.
He would have went in the opposite direction.
Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
This is how he taught us to do
daww.
Know the people you're speaking to. Know what
they need, what they require, what they struggle
with, where they are in their lives. What
is it that they would benefit from? And
speak to them through with their use their
language not just the words of the language
but the attitude of the language and the
and the and the perspective of the language
and if you don't know how then find
another way to perform dawah, not everyone has
to do it verbally.
Not everyone has to do bawah verbally. There
are a million ways to do dawah. Not
all of them have to be verbally. If
you don't know how to do this piece,
Allah
emphasizes
We didn't send them they knew they had
to speak the language well. They had to
know how to speak their language. If they
don't speak their language, they're not gonna listen.
They're not gonna listen.
The biggest story of the
is that Have you not read Surat Noih?
Read Surat Noih. Listen to imagine yourself walking,
standing behind
as he make prepares his arguments.
As he prepares his arguments in front of
Allah, why he didn't come with all of
his people? Why only had 72
after years
years of
You'll see this man I you all these
were no. I was telling you, this is
what I did.
I spent all my time. I I spoke
to them openly. I spoke to them privately.
I spoke to them publicly. I spoke to
them in groups. I spoke to them individually.
I spoke to them at night and during
the day. I came to them in every
angle and I told them the good things.
So he had to give the he had
to tell Allah what their content was. What
do you tell them? I told them,
I told them, how am I should forgive?
I told them that you are the one
who forgives the most and that all they
have to do is ask you for for
your forgiveness, and you will open the doors
of the skies for them.
I reminded them of your glory, of your
grace.
He had to tell Allah what he said
because Allah said, well, okay. There I can
see that there's a quantity of of of
work. Show me the quality of your work.
Yes. You spoke to them day night. Great.
What did you say to them? Because if
the quality doesn't work, then if the quality
wasn't good, then we have a problem. So
then so they say, no no no has
to explain. If no has to do that,
then what what
what do we what are we gonna say?
Those are the two points I wanted to
share with you for this week.
Number 1, you have to acknowledge what you
have as light, as enlightenment.
You have to take it, embrace it for
yourself so that people can see it through
you.
So people can feel the love that you
have for it and the embracement that you
have shown towards and the adherence that you
have with it. And the second piece, you
must speak to people the way they understand
what is said to them. You have to
choose the moments and choose the time and
choose the way and choose
the person and and the attitude and the
perspective. All of that has to be something
you care for. Because what is the goal
here? The goal is to bring Allah granted
you this. He gifted you guidance.
Here, for free. Here's the most valuable thing
in the world. Here's guidance.
How are you going to show gratitude to
Allah
for that? Aside from taking it and trying
to get others to see it as well.
I hope that was a benefit to you.