Adnan Rajeh – Outreach- The Way Of Our Prophets- Verbal and Practical.
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AI: Transcript ©
These last 10 months have been by far
the most difficult 10 months for us as
Muslims probably
since 9/11
in the west and probably elsewhere as well.
And for Al Khateeb, I can tell you
that these last 10 months have been a
a real
challenge
to get on the minbar and talk about
anything
that you convince I can convince myself
that is beneficial to you as we watch
this ongoing
this ongoing
river of blood
spilling within the holy land as the world
holds its tongue and keeps it silence.
And I've tried my best to to come
up with series and to talk about topics
that will help us
deal with what we are observing and seeing
and hopefully come up with plans internal and
external that will allow us to be better
Muslims and allow us to utilize what it
is that we are witnessing in a way
that is productive for us as Muslims and
as human beings. And I don't know if
we for us as Muslims and as human
beings. And I don't know if we've been
if we have been successful or not, but
I do know that on an on a
personal level, it's been very difficult to come
up with anything to talk about. And the
moment I talk about something that is not
directly
attached or affiliated with what we are observing.
I I find it hard to justify inside
my heart that to do that. But at
the same time life goes on and people
are living we are living in a place
where we observe what is occurring but we
don't feel the heat of it. It's not
something that is affecting us outside of it
affecting us emotionally.
And seeing people suffering is something that you
can only deal with
silently for so long before it it causes
real trauma inside your heart, inside your mind.
And
I want it to be clear, and I
want this to be something that everyone understands
that whatever it is that we talk about
on these men'aba, whatever it is that we
push people towards doing in this life is
at the end trying to pour in the
same big pot. The pot of this
that is weakened by its lack of unity,
its lack of commitment to the word of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and the lack of
dedication and devotion and activism, but we are
trying to fill it up. We're trying to
get more people involved and more people to
care so that we have something to show
for at the end of all of this.
Unfortunately, it's not over yet.
And it's important also to point out that
whether you agree with everything that
different Islamic
sects and parties do or not
doesn't really matter that much in the big
scheme of things. As Muslims we have been
divided into different sects for a very long
time. There have been Islamic sects for at
least 1200
years from our 1400
year history. It's always been a part of
our history. It's been a part of our
legacy that we have not all seen eye
to eye on everything. And you don't need
to see eye to eye on everything with
everyone around you in order for you to
collaborate and work with them. You do this
on a daily basis at your job. You
live in a country where you're a citizen
in a country where most people around you
don't agree with you on almost anything at
all. So as Muslims we have to identify
what it is that we disagree upon and
what it is that we don't disagree upon.
And what we don't disagree upon is the
importance of the sent of centralizing
the Palestinian cause for us as Muslims. Not
because the Palestinian blood is more important than
that of the Sudanese
or that of the Bangladesh or that of
those from Iraq or Syria or any other
part of the Muslim world or world in
general. Its centrality
for us as Muslims comes from the fact
that it's the holy land and Masjid Al
Aqsa is there. And it is something that
unites us whether we like it or not.
We all have our personal
cultural, racial and national struggles. Every person sitting
here comes from a country that has its
struggles. The struggles that are just that are,
that are correct, that require
people to stand by them, but it doesn't
unite them. I come from Syria. My country
was ripped to shreds. It was completely
destroyed. 500,000
people were murdered brutally in,
in ways that I if I began to
explain to you what it looked like, you
wouldn't be able to sleep at night. 7,000,000
people were displaced internally and externally.
I don't require the whole world to cry
for me or for my country because I
understand that every country has its own has
its own problems and own struggles but the
Qariyah of Palestine
is central for us as Muslims.
And we are lucky in my opinion that
we have such a cause as Muslims today
to unite us. It's not something that always
happened historically.
Historically Muslims did not always have a cause
that they could use to to bring themselves
closer to Allah through and to unite around,
but we do have that today.
And because of that, we have to remind
ourselves of the importance of overlooking
the differences
and working with one another, towards
towards elevating and relieving the pain of this
cause and and moving it forward and advocating
for it appropriately.
And anyone who dedicates their lives for that,
any person, any Muslim,
who dedicates their time and their wealth and
their life for this cause is someone who
we hold in high regards whether we agree
with them ideologically
or we don't. And this is important for
us as Muslims to understand.
Be very careful about this. You be very
careful
to to point fingers and and to and
to use terminology that is disrespectful towards Muslim
human to your Muslim brothers and sisters whom
you don't agree with upon certain aspects of
their of their ideology or the way that
they carry themselves Islamically or their opinions politically
their opinion political opinions or
or or otherwise,
they still are Ahlul Qibla. And if they
are standing for the cause, which unfortunately today
see, I didn't grow up in a world
where the cause of the Palestinian cause was
something that you could have you could have
a different opinion on. I didn't grow up
in that world. I grew up where and
regardless of how much of a trader you
were, no matter how much of a sellout
you were, you still agreed that this has
to be fixed.
What happened in the last 20 years, I
don't really know. I think I was out
of it for a while, but I wake
up to find that this is something that
we can afford to actually argue against. People
can actually get on a minbar and not
see this as a central cause for the
Muslim Ummah. It is it is afforded by
leaders, political leaders around the world, Muslim political
leaders not to see the Palestinian cause as
a
Umma. And I find that to be nauseating
and I find it to be ex extreme
it's disgusting. It's completely unacceptable.
And if you find someone and if you're
able to see to see any form of
leadership whether it's religious or otherwise that continue
to carry this cause as a central cause
for the Ummah, then that is something that
you should acknowledge and you should hold in
high regards because it's a big deal. Because
for some reason, we started to lose it.
I didn't think I would live long enough
to see a time where that would happen.
I understand. I understand that there's a difference,
by the way, between someone
behind doors not supporting a cause but being
forced to publicly support it versus publicly not
supporting it. You could argue with me and
say, oh, the political leaders for the last
100 years have never supported this cause. I
mean, really. I know. But they didn't dare
say it.
They didn't dare say it. Now they're saying
it. Now it's become a part of, political,
jargon. People use it all the time.
I I I I I don't think I
I can't accept that. I don't accept that.
I don't.
I don't accept that. As Muslims, we have
we have causes in our lives that we
understand to be sacred,
and the cause of the Holy Land is
a sacred one. So it always has been.
And those who came before him who raised
him who built the generation that that brought
it back that's all they focused on for
a 150 years.
And today, we are back in the same
position. It's been 75 years. Hasn't been as
long as it was the first time around
or second time around. But it has to
continuously be a central cause for us, not
because the other causes don't matter, not because
the blood someone of another Muslim somewhere else
is not as valuable. No. They're all equally
valuable. And all of these causes, they require
our our support and our advocacy,
but this cause is different.
It's different.
This is a cause that unites Muslims always
has. It has always united Muslims
and we must stay united on this cause.
And those who stand for it are those
whom we stand by. And those who continue
to resist, we continue to stand by them,
whether we agree with everything they do or
we don't.
And I really don't understand the world through
any other lens. And I've listened to every
argument under the sun, and I've spent time
with people who believe the opposite argument. And
I've and I've listened to them, really listened
to them with my ears and my heart
to try to understand where they're coming from
so I can actually stand up and give
a better argument. And no matter how long
I listen, it just does not make sense
to me. It doesn't make sense to me
that at any point in your life, you
will stand against the oppressed.
There is no scenario that I can put
in my mind where I will stand against
the oppressed. I will always stand by the
oppressed, against the oppressor regardless of the circumstances
and the details that that exist within this.
And that is what Islam tells us to
do. This is what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
commands us to do. You stand by the
mavluum always,
always and when the Mavluum is not just
people but it's also land that is holy
it is also a sacred masjid
When that is the mavlum, it's not just
people, but it's also a space.
The sanctity becomes much higher, and it becomes
a central cause for us as Muslims as
it is and it should be. So anything
I get up here and I talk about
that doesn't seem to you connected to that,
it is.
It is connected. Everything we do was connected
towards achieving justice and achieving unity and achieving
strength as an ummah. Whether I stand here
and I teach you Arqan Al Wudu or
I get up here and I talk about
the importance of sleeping of good sleeping habits
and praying sunnah or I get here and
I talk about activism or I talk about
outreach. All of it in my opinion is
directed towards the same goal.
This Muslim Ummah
having its awakening.
Having its modern awakening.
This happened throughout history. There's a cycle to
history that if you look at, you can't
miss.
The Muslim history is not different than human
history. It's always been cyclical.
There have been times where people fell asleep
and then they had an awakening and they
woke up again and they took back what
was theirs and they're rightfully theirs. And then
they established something that had justice in it
for a certain period of time. And then
they got too distracted by wealth and by
and then they forgot again. And then the
cycle happened again. This is this is not
the first time.
This is not the first cycle that we've
been through as Muslims 4th or 5th maybe.
Maybe even more.
But just like awakenings happened before, they will
happen again, But they require a specific generation
of people. They require a certain mindset of
human beings. They require those who understand the
importance
of where they lie historically.
It I know that we all want to
be a part of the history where
the graph is peaking.
We want to be a part of the
Muslim Ummah when the graph is on top
that we want to be. We all want
to be a part of that. To witness
the celebrations,
to witness the victory, to witness the success
and the unity and the strength.
That's not what he was a part of
alayhis salatu wa salam. If you want to
be like him alayhis salatu wa salam, he
didn't get that. He didn't live long enough
to see that, to be a part of
victory, of success, of unity, of spreading of
this dawah. He didn't. He passed away before
that happened. It happened 15 years later during
the time of
and Earthman. That's when this, that's when it
actually occurred. That's when the establishment of the
Khilafa actually became something that the whole world
had to acknowledge and revere. It didn't happen
during his time alayhis salatu wa sama. He
lived during a during a part of history
that is darker than the one we're living
in right now.
So if you think this is a dark
time and you don't like it because you
didn't wanna grow up in a time like
this where Islam was not prevalent, where it
wasn't cool to be Muslim, where you didn't
have support walking around looking Muslim with your
hijab on. It didn't That's okay. That's where
he That's how he was That was his
time alayhis salatu wa sallam. You're more similar
to him in that way than the Muslims
on the top of the world were.
Because when they were when when Muslims actually
had strength, that wasn't like how he it
was for him, alayhis salatu wa sallam. So
to follow him was more difficult. For us
to follow him is easier because
this is where the the graph dips.
This is where it's dipping to the lowest
point that will have. From this point, from
this moment forward, it's always going up. But
it's low. Rasulullah.
He
was
at
a
Muhammad.
He was at a time where he was
the only person saying it and he had
to build it brick by brick.
1 person by 1 person by a second
person, Khadija, by Abu Bakr and Ali and
Zayd, 1 by 1. You have to sit
down and talk to them 1 by 1
and build this ummah, 1 brick at a
time. Alayhi Salatu Wa Salam. You think that's
easy? You think that there's more hope then
than there is now with the 2,000,000,000 Muslims?
Yes. We are ruled by dictators. Yes. We
have no political unity. Yes. We don't have
proper representation.
Yes. There's a lot of distraction and fa
But we are still Muslim.
And we still say La Illaha illallah and
the majority of us still believe in the
centrality of the causes that are just like
the cause of Palestine and others.
That's a big deal. It's a big deal.
He didn't have that,
He didn't have the luxury of knowing that.
He had 60 people at tops for the
first 4 or 5 years. It was 60,
70 people.
He lived during a dark time, and he
he rose
as those with him rose
to the occasion and to and and and
to glory
through their dedication and their devotion
and their lack of being distracted by anything
aside from the causes that they lived for.
And I feel it's not that hard for
us to do the same. I really don't.
And I don't think there's a secret ingredient
that's missing.
I think it's just something that exists inside
the hearts and the souls of the people
of this Ummah.
Something has to click on the inside.
We wait. We wait.
With patience and perseverance, we wait for that
to click. If it doesn't click for this
generation then we turn to the next one
and we try to make it click there.
And we keep on trying until we meet
Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala trying our best to
get it to click, where people are going
to live their lives in a way where
everything they're doing is focused, is directed towards
La ilaha illallah and what that entails
and what it entails in your life.
And when that happens, when enough Muslims do
that, when enough Muslims do, when the percentage
is high enough, you'll see change.
It took him 23 years alayhi salatu wasalam
to do that. And he is Rasulullah alayhi
salatu wasalam. It took if it took us
50, it's no big deal. If it takes
us a 100 or a 150, it's not
a problem.
We don't have the tools that he had
alaihis salaam because our hearts are not like
his heart alaihis salaam.
But the concept is still the same. Which
is why I wanna talk about the concept
of outreach
for this throughout this month.
August is the month that I've dedicated in
this our center as the month of outreach,
the month of dawah, where we call
people back to Allah Subhanahu. They should do
it you should be doing it all the
time. Right? This is not
we're not dedicating 1 month so the rest
of the year we can go ahead and
ignore it. No. I just want to make
this month centralized there so that we can
actually focus on it. So we have some
tools. So that we continue doing it later
on. You are required as a Muslim is
what I'm requiring you to do. So Allah
commands you, you listen, I command you. You
can listen or you don't listen, doesn't make
a difference. I am not worth anything to
you. But this is what I am requiring
you and commanding you to do. That throughout
this month, you are bring at least one
person to a masjid, people who don't usually
go there.
Outreach before we do it to those who
don't know Allah. We should start with those
who do.
Before you go, to those who don't know
who Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is at all.
You start with those who are at arms
length of you who do. Just don't come
to Masajid. Never were comfortable. Didn't grow up
that way. Don't feel like this is a
place that means anything to them. You take
time. You figure out a way, and you
get them into a masjid. And you make
them comfortable. And you make sure that they
attend something that they feel is meaningful to
them so they can continue be a part
of their central community.
Whether this masjid or another one, you're required
to bring at least one person from the
those who you know. So you don't have
to look very far because every person sitting
in this room has friends who don't come
to Masajid, have family members who don't come
to Masajid.
Find a way. Find a way and call
people back to Allah
Focus throughout the whole month. Try to get
one person. Sometimes you'll take a full month
and you still won't do it. And sometimes
you'll start with 1 person, it won't work
out. You can't guide those whom you love.
Maybe Allah does not want want does not
want to offer them guidance at this moment
so you move on to someone else. But
this is to remind you and me that
this is our obligation as Muslims.
If Allah
has guided you, if Allah
has offered you this this
gem, this gift of guidance,
this absolute
golden piece
which is guidance. If Allah gave this to
you, if Allah was so generous that he
put in your heart his love some way
or one way or the other. That somehow
you understand
the importance of being close to a lie.
If you have that realization in your life,
may I tell you that many people in
this world, if not the majority of them
don't.
They don't know that. They don't understand the
beauty of knowing Allah
reading his book of knowing his beloved Muhammad
alaihis salatu wasalam or practicing
this beautiful law that we have.
It is our obligation
to bring this as close as possible to
everyone around us. And I'm asking you to
start with the easier task.
Start with those who already have that inside
them. They're just a little bit lost,
a little bit distracted, a little bit taken
away. I haven't really found
their footing.
And then bring them back.
And if you don't feel that's your obligation,
then I don't think you understand what this
story is about. If you're telling if you're
saying to yourself, no. No. I can barely
take care of myself. True.
I feel the same way and barely take
care of ourselves. The way you take care
of yourself is by taking care of others.
The way you take care of yourself Islamically,
the way that you take care of yourself
spiritually, the way you stay committed to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is by helping others, is
by going out and trying to offer this
guidance to someone else. Take the barakah that
Allah gave you, give it to others, the
barakah goes up.
It's the opposite of wealth. The more wealth
you give, the less wealth you have. This,
the more you give of it, the more
it grows. The more you have of it.
The more guidance you have, the more you
give.
This is our obligation. We are obligated by
Allah to do this. And if we don't,
then we have not fulfilled
the legacy of Muhammad Alaihi Wasallam. What is
the job of the prophets?
What did the prophets do? Who are they?
Who are the Ambiya? Who is why? Adam
and Idris and Nuh alayhi
Who are these people? They are the people
who Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala dedicated
to this one task of spreading this guidance
and this message. He passed away alaihis salatu
wa sallam. Who is dedicated in his place?
Tell me.
Every time a prophet passed away Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala will send another one. Sometimes 2
at the same time. Sometimes 3 at the
same time.
After he passed away
who's supposed to do this?
On whose responsibility
is this?
Me?
I didn't receive a memo.
I didn't receive a memo.
If it was me, I I missed the
email. No one told me that I I
it was me. I asked the other shook
if they received something, they didn't receive anything
either. Who's responsible for this?
Each and every one of you is responsible
for it as much as I am in
different ways. My job is to keep it
running inside. Your job is to bring them
from the outside.
And then that's how we grow our ummah
back again. And that's how we bring back
people to Allah. And we make sure they
understand their causes, understand their ethics, understand the
way of life and the legacy he left
alayhis salatu wa salam. So this ummah can
continue to survive. So that 75 years from
now we don't have to have an imam
stand up here and say the same stuff
and talk about the same causes that have
been failing. We don't we won't need it
because we've done our job.
He says,
Who is better spoken
than the person?
Those who call to Allah
And they and they and they behave appropriately.
Why are you saying and
then
Why why are you he's saying the who's
better spoken than someone who calls to Allah
and then
It doesn't seem to fit. It fits because
the best form of dawah
is the which is practical.
There are different types of dawah. There is
the verbal and then there is the practical.
What you see right now is the verbal.
It's maybe 2% of dawah. It's not that
impactful by the way. It's not that impactful.
It's not that impressive. It doesn't take that
much and it's not that helpful. It's the
practical that does more. It's the practical when
you perform dawah to Allah
through your ethics, through the way that you
live your life, through the choices that you
make, through the minimalistic
lifestyle that you carry, to the dedication, devotion
that you show those around you, that is
how you get people back to Allah including
the verbal. Of course, you're going to speak.
Of course, someone's going to ask or you're
going to see something or say something, but
it's the verb that the practical that does
way more. At least it did more for
him
Brothers and sisters,
I end this hutba
with this simple point for you to contemplate.
This Ummah will not find its salvation. I
guarantee it to you. It will not find
its salvation or its success or its prosperity.
If the people within it
don't feel the importance of saving
their brothers and sisters within it.
If I, as a Muslim today, don't feel
the need
to reach out to my Muslim brothers and
sisters who are a little bit lost, who
don't know exactly where they're going in life
or a little bit
distracted. I don't feel inside my heart that
saving them is a part of saving this
that we're not walking the proper path. It's
not clear to me. If I am if
I can afford to see this umma as
only those who are committed and the rest
of them are
who I don't care about And I'm going
to go ahead and move forward with that
then I have not learned what this Umma
is about.
Not only do I need to have in
my heart the will and the need
and the desire to help Muslims who are
distracted I have to have in my heart
the desire to help those who don't know
Allah altogether.
All of them are his The
of a prophet are the people the prophet
was sent to teach.
A nation of a prophet.
What's the definition? The nation of a prophet
are the people the prophet was sent to
teach.
So Baru Israel are the nation of Musa
and the nation of Isa and Yahya and
Zakaria and Madyan was the nation of Shoaib
and and Ad was the nation of Hud
and Thamud was the nation of Salih. Who
is the nation of Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa
sallam Who is the nation of Rasulullah?
Al-'Alameen.
It's all of humanity. That's his umal al
his salazar. Amongst them, those who responded and
amongst them those who didn't.
If you are lucky enough,
if you are fortunate enough to be amongst
those who Allah granted the gift of response,
he gave you the here, here's guidance to
you. Then you have to dedicate whatever is
left of your life to make sure that
you spread this gift to everyone you possibly
can in your life. Whether it's whether they
are related to you or they are not.
Whether they are Muslim or they are not.
Start with those who are at arm length.
Start with those who are at arms length
of you. The ones that you know. That
if a little bit of, putting yourself out
there a little bit, maybe being a bit
vulnerable, maybe just taking a stand that you
don't necessarily want to take because you don't
wanna come off as someone who's now, yeah,
any fanatic or religious and suddenly you're a
better person. You have to you have to
be willing to go through that. You have
to be willing to sit there and say,
yeah. I I I sucked before. I wasn't
a good guy before. I found a lot.
I would love you to come and join
me. And put up with the mockery and
put up with the laughs and put up
you have to. Let me tell you this
is a I I I went through this
a bit younger in my life when I
decided that I was going to be a
little bit different. I remember walking towards the
Masjid wearing wearing something. And a and a
guy on a on a tractor would come
by and he would mock me every time
on on the way there, on the way
back. A bunch of shabab,
a bunch of guys who had no nothing
I had better to do. So what they
they would they would drive by me on
their tractor when I was going to the
masjid and call out a few a few
fun names. And then on the way back
do the same thing.
Every single day, this went on for months
upon months because I wasn't I wasn't like
that before. Because I in my early teens,
I I wasn't focused. And when I focused,
I got this from all my friends. It
was only I didn't say a word. I
told my shit, this is happening. What do
I do? Do I do I call somebody
back? I said, no. Don't call me. Don't
say a word. Act like it's not there.
Focus on what you're doing. So I did.
5 years later, these same guys came to
the Masjid and started learning.
And one of them who was on the
tractor, the guy who was driving the tractor,
he came and said, you know what? Sheikh,
I wanna say something.
There was a time where I used to
kinda say things to you. I used to
drive by you and say stuff. And I
said, yeah. I remember. You used to be
it's So you remember? It was you. You
used to sit on the and I I
described for him that what it looked like.
And he got very embarrassed. I
thought that you didn't notice so you didn't
recognize. No. I remembered. I know exactly what
you used to do. Well, how did you
keep a serum? That's what the Sheikh told
me. He told me that's how you do
it. He told me that it's not your
job to judge people. You don't have to
defend anything. It's okay if people mock you
for turning back to Allah That is just
the way it's just Allah's way to see
if you're if you're serious about it. He
say, do you really love this? Alright. I'm
gonna send a few people to make fun
of you and see if you if you
have a thick skin and if you care
enough to stay with this even though people
are gonna call you names. And if you
stick to it long enough then Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala will grant you the ability to
help other people. But you have to be
willing to go out on a limb and
say something. You can't just You can't afford
to say I'm a Muslim, good Muslim, I'm
quiet. No. A good Muslim is not quiet.
A good Muslim is always nudging people along.
He's always making things available. Always trying to
pull someone from their hand to
Let's pray. Let's do something.
Maybe maybe offering some advice, being there at
their service, trying to offer something even if
people start making fun of them. Even if
they become the laughing stock of some of
their friends because they only a year ago
were in a completely different way. That's alright.
That's alright. How do you think Tova happens?
What is Tawba aside from being on the
wrong path and then finding the right one?
If every time someone was on the wrong
path, found the right one, we mock them,
then no one would perform Tawba, and there'll
be no hope for anybody.
And that's what I want you to take
for the for the remainder of this month.
Focus on that. Try to work on that.
May Allah grant us guidance because this is
for us. By the way, you do this,
you help people find guidance, you do this
for you. You do this for you. Don't
don't quit yourself. You do this for you.
You do this so that your guidance stays
strong, so so that your guidance increases. You
call people to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to
tell, You Rabbi, I'm calling them to you.
Don't send me astray, You Rabbi,
I'm calling them to you. Don't let me
be sent astray at the end of my
life. Don't let my nafs beat me. Don't
let my desires take control of me You
Rabbi. I'm gonna call people to you even
though I know I am not worthy. Even
though I know I am not practicing appropriately.
Even though I know that I am at
fault. But I'm doing it because I love
you. Even though I don't show it well,
I'm doing it because I know your love
is the truth. So I want them to
to
to experience it and even I'm at fault
You Rab. You'll forgive me inshallah and you'll
keep me guided and that's the only way
to do this. And if you think anyone
is doing it any other way then you're
fooled.
If you think anyone is doing it any
other way you're fooled. We're all doing it
that way. We're all just as lost as
the other person. We all are trying to
figure it out. The best way to stay
committed to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is to
be surround yourself by people who are and
call to Allah
and he'll keep you he'll keep you amongst
his group.
And that's the, the way the focus of
the khutbas for the next,
for the next month or so. May Allah
grant us the benefit
of being guided and grant us the ability
to offer guidance to others.