Adnan Rajeh – Performing Dawah – Outreach #5
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
The hiddalay in collection of Imam Muslim in
its nature is 'amurablabsa.'
And the theme of,
of dawah, the art of dawah or the
significance of outreach and dawah, which is what
the theme of this month is for us
inshaAllah, this masjid. To encourage people to perform
dawah, inshaAllah, and the different forms of it.
And this is a really
beautiful I love this story. It's a hadith
but it's also it's mostly a story that
Amr ibn Abzah tells us. Amr ibn Abzah
is not a Sahabi that is really well
known. He's not someone who has a lot
of like he doesn't have a huge biography
in Islamic law. So if you were to
open up any of the books that talk
about the different Sahaba, he really only has
this story in any of the given books
that talk about his background.
And he basically summarizes his story for us
within this hadith. And the reason that I'm
narrating it within this theme, theme of dawah
is because we get a glimpse of how
the prophet alaihis salatu wa sallam worded things
and how he how he performed this this
art.
So,
Back in Jahiliyyah, I used to see people
to be misguided.
I used to see their The act of
them worshipping
idols of different Of some Of different sorts
to be something that is worthless, it's wrong.
This is in Jahiliya.
This is how I used to think. I
used to look at people and the way
they were living, and I don't like this.
I don't like this.
And I heard
in my life of a man in Mecca
who was telling different stories. Yukbiruqbavan.
That's how he words it. The man who's
telling something different saying something different. He's I
heard of a man who was saying something
very different to what the status quo is.
Not everyone has the courage to do that.
Like a lot of times you won't like
something, but it's too much of a headache
to talk about it, so you just kinda
let it go. The prophet alaihis salatu wasalam-
the abab was someone who had the courage
to say something about this stuff. So he
as a prophet he was saying it, he
heard about him, so he got on. He
said, I got on my
horse and I came to Mecca.
And he came in from the prophet
in a position of
where he's
he's keeping himself unseen. He wasn't hiding but
he was keeping it selectively. He was not
going public about it. He wasn't he was
making obvious. He was keeping a low profile
alaihi salatu wasallam. His people,
meaning they were very aggressive towards him, alayhi
salatu wa sallam.
So I had so I I was very,
quiet about things. I stayed, you know, and
so
is to be precise and accurate and don't
come and make a noise. Make a lot
of noise about something and make a just
be quiet. So as I stayed quite,
I inquired about it and I came to
him alaihis salaam in a position and time
where I could speak to him and no
one was seeing.
I said, what? Where are you?
Waqala sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Nabi
a Prophet I
say, what is Prophet? What is this word?
Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has sent me
What did he send you with?
Faqala Here's the point of the hadith. The
hadith is beautiful and for many reasons but
this is the point I'm narrating Faqala
The first thing he said, Bismayatul Arham
to strengthen kins of family.
I was sent
This is the first thing he said. This
is hadith in Muslim. This is the wording.
I'm not just just saying it because I
I have a point or agenda. This is
what exists in the in the collection of
a Muslim. The first thing he said
was sent to teach and remind people the
importance of the relationships of kin, of strengthening
your families, of keeping families alive, of keeping
the relationships you have with your parents and
your siblings and your cousins and your uncles
and your grandparents and your children and your
grandchildren and your to keep that alive not
to kill off family and not to do
and ruin
the relations of family.
They got rid of any form of idols.
You see Salam is the is the rock
or wooden idol that people worship.
Is anything that you revere more than God
or equal to God. Right? So it's different.
Sunam is something that you actually put in
worship. Right? Waf then is anything that you
revere equal to God or more than God.
Means anything that is
sacred to you equal to the sanctity of
the word of God Himself.
And that is something that we still have
today. We still have people who revere certain
people or certain leaders or maybe certain
As they do Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The
prophet alaihis salaam came to get rid of
that. None of that. No one is worthy
of that reverence for you. No one is
worthy of that degree of magnification and respect
aside from Allah and then to worship Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. The oneness, the monotheism.
For Allah to be worshipped and accepted
as one with no with no associate.
Who is with you regarding all this?
Waqala
He said, a free man and a slave
And he pointed
at
at that point were Muslim and they were
both standing and chatting
together. Nippon Talayahu alaihi salallam said, Hurunwabd meaning
it's equal to me. I don't doesn't matter.
There's no there's no there's no system of
nobility within this meaning. It's a free men
and slaves all the same within this.
Based on what you have told me, I
am going to follow you and he accepted
Islam, radiAllahu anhu.
Now, before I conclude the hadith, what I
find is that the prophet Alaihi Wasallam,
if you were to ask him what did
Allah send you with? He could have there's
all he had a variety of things to
choose from. He chose 3 specific topics.
Why did he choose these 3 out of
the maybe a 1000 choices he has? All
these things he could have chosen alayhi salatu
wa salam. What did Allah subhanahu wa sallam
send you to teach? Well, there's a lot
of things. He sent me with honesty. He
sent me with love. He sent me with
humility. He sent me with with, with striving,
with taqwa, with a lot of there's a
lot. He chose 3 things. Salat arham, kasr
al'uthan, tawhidullah
Because the Prophet alaihis salatu was salam was
reading the person in front of him. See
this is the art of dua. It's knowing
what it is that the person Everyone has
a key.
Everyone has something that they're looking for in
life. So they have a key. There's a
key that will open their hearts
and their ears to hear and see and
absorb what's being said to them. If you
don't know what it is, you can spend
the rest of your life talking to them,
but they're not listening because you haven't figured
out what the key is. The art of
daw is learning what is it that people
what is it that this person is looking
for. So not everyone has the same needs
in their life at different times. Not everyone
needs a theological,
philosophical breakdown of why God is God and
why you need to worship God. Sometimes they're
looking for something different.
Sometimes they are looking for reward or they're
or they're asking about punishment or they're wondering
about love or they're looking for some aspect
of spirituality that's missing in their lives or
they're looking for us changing the status quo
because they are oppressed. Everyone is looking for
something different. Islam has it all. You just
have to figure out what is that person
craving right now so they can hear about
it. Not because
we're not manipulating people. Islam is There's a
lot in Islam. We just present them with
what they want to listen to. Present them
the aspect of Islam that is meaningful to
them. This gentleman
always knew that he always he said after
being an aliyyah, I always knew this Islam
were wrong. He needed someone to tell him
that. So he used twice alaihis salam. I'm
here to kashril al Uthand, get rid of
all of those worshiped idols and to do
malafi and to give both of them to
him. And
And that's what he was looking for all
his life. So he had that. And then
he pointed out to him, Khurr al Wa'ab.
This was a person who cared about social
justice. So So when he saw that this
he saw that the prophet alaihis salam was
not being followed only by the nobles or
only by the poor but but both and
they are both
standing in a status, a posture of equality.
It meant something to him. So he immediately
accepted it and this is what dawah is.
It's having
that wisdom of knowing what is it. The
Prophet alaihis salam did not offer him if
you listen to the conversation a lot of
knowledge. He didn't sit there and explain for
hours. It was just a couple of words.
The Prophet alaihis salam was almost short with
him. Like when you read the hadith like,
was he being short? It's just Every
answer just a couple of words. No, he
knew alayhi salaw what he was doing and
the man accepted right then and there.
He told him, but you can't do this
publicly. You can't follow me publicly.
Do you not see the situation that I'm
in with people? If you do this publicly,
you're gonna get killed. So I need you
to go back to your family, go back
to your people, perform dawah there. When you
hear that I have achieved some degree of
strength come come to me. So I went
back to Mecca. The prophet alaihis salaam now
only is he performing dawah,
He
is keeping in his head, in his mind,
in his heart the best interest of this
person. What's the best interest of this new
person? He's not there. He's not gonna abuse
him immediately and use him. I need as
many people as possible. I need as many
people as possible to spread this even if
they die, fine. In
his mind, your best interest is my best
interest. I need just to protect you. Go
to your people. I can't protect you. You
need to go back. Alaihi Salaam.
He saw himself as the guardian of the
shepherd of all those who accepted Islam. And
when he felt he could not protect one
of his followers, he sent them to a
place where they could be safe which is
why he sent people to habasha because he
couldn't protect them anymore alayhis salaam.
You understand what this means? But when you
perform dawah you are there, you're their guardian.
You are there to protect them, not to
abuse them, not to put them in a
position where they're going to harm themselves, Force
them to do something that's gonna cause them
to lose their families, and lose their jobs,
and lose their livelihood, and lose their respect.
No. So, be careful when you do this.
This is his wisdom
kept on listening looking for news.
And so I knew that he entered in
Madina.
Some group of people came and visited my
area from yesterday from the Madina. What
did this the man who came to, what
did you do?
People are coming to him from everywhere to
accept Islam. And his people Quraysh tried to
kill him a couple of times and they
failed.
There's a piece of the story that I
have to tell you. It's not in the
collection about Muslim but forgive me and this
may take longer than But I have to
tell you this part of the story. You
see when he left the Prophet alaihis salatu
wa sallam,
this piece is in Nasraba'i al Azaylay. So
this is a little bit outside of the
In this piece of the When the Prophet
alaihis salam told him, Go back to your
family.
Amr ibn Abi Abi is in his mind
like, I don't know if I'll ever see
him again. Because they're both middle aged and
you're living in them. Them.
I was scared. It's not in collection of
a Muslim, it's in another collection. I was
scared I wouldn't see him again.
Alayhi Salaam. So I walked backwards.
So I could feel my eyes by looking
at his face Alayhi Salaam.
So they're smiling to me. He understood what
I wanted. So he stood there and just
smiled at me and so I couldn't see
him anymore
because he wanted to see him
He said, I came back, when I came
back years later, but the khaltou alayhi'ma and
I entered with my family.
It's the value of the person, knowing the
person, making sure the person feels seen, feels
heard, feels acknowledged.
Not that they're not just another part of
the of the flock, just another person who
entered and left. No people no one else
wants to feel that way. No one wants
to feel that there's just another part in
the clan, another person in the crowd. They
want to feel they're individuals that they matter.
The prophet alaihis salam would remember people, remember
their names, he would take time to talk
to them alaihis salam because he valued them
that way. Now, he was this was not
he wasn't putting on a show alaihis salaam.
This is how he was. This is how
he was as a person. He valued individuals.
He valued them as human beings and because
he did that, there was this nur in
his face
that people just couldn't get enough of. They
wanted to look at it. They wanted just
there was something about him
that they were attracted to and they couldn't.
And I love this hadith because it just
in my opinion it
encompasses all that he was.