Adnan Rajeh – Towards a Modern Awakening #01 – Leadership and Fellowship
AI: Summary ©
The segment discusses issues related to Islam, including the loss of transportation and the need for leaders to identify their position. The importance of leadership and followership is emphasized, along with the need for leaders to provide support and acknowledgement of their role. The importance of having a clear vision and being an example in leadership is emphasized, as well as the need for effective leadership and following a strong culture. The speakers stress the importance of following the Prophet's teachings and following the leader's vision to achieve success in leadership. The need for effective leadership, leadership, and followership is emphasized, along with the importance of identifying leaders and holding accountable. The speakers also emphasize the importance of having a clear vision and being an example in leadership, as well as the need for individuals who are willing to hold accountable and have a strong vision to achieve success in leadership.
AI: Summary ©
As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh, Bismillāhir
-Rahmānir-Rahīm, wal-ḥamdu liLlāhi rabbil-ʿālamīn, Allāhumma
ṣalli wa-sallim wa-barik ʿalá nabiyyinā Muḥammadin
wa-ʿalá ālihi wa-ṣaḥbihi ajmaʿīn, Allāhumma ʿallimnā
ma yanfaʿunā wa-anfaʿnā bimā ʿallamtana wa-zidnā
ilmā, wa baʿad.
This series that I'm going to start today,
and insha'Allah continue for the next 7
days throughout Ramadan, every day at 5.30
insha'Allah, towards a modern awakening.
And what I'm going to do is I'm
going to take topics and issues that I
think, if we were to revisit them and
rethink them again and change the way we
behave towards them, that insha'Allah we're able
as a Muslim community, as an ummah insha
'Allah, to have a modern awakening.
And the reason that I'm choosing this time
to talk about these issues is because we're
in such a difficult situation, all of us,
with COVID-19 and the fact that we
can't come to masajid.
We are forced to stay at home, we're
forced to maybe rethink a lot of issues
in our lives and reflect upon the way
we were behaving prior to this.
So hopefully after this ends, we're capable to
going back to something a bit more beneficial
bi-idhnillāh ta'ala.
Because Islam is rooted in islah, in reform,
in bringing forward reform and refusing staying in
a stagnant situation or circumstance where we are
not achieving our goals and we're not moving
in the direction that we want to move
in.
Ibn Khaldun, in his muqaddim, in his known
introduction, he says, وَعْلَمْ أَنَّ الدُّنْيَا بِكُلِّ أَحْوَالِهَا
عِندَ الشَّارِعِ مَطِيَّةٌ لِلْآخِرَةِ And know that all
dunya is, in the eyes of the shari
'ah, in the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala and the deen, all its circumstances
and all its situations, it's just a form
of transportation to akhira.
It's just taking you towards akhira.
وَمَنْ فَقَدَ الْمَطِيَّةَ فَقَدَ الْوَصُولِ And if you
lose your transportation, you're not going to make
it to your destination.
If we don't gain control of dunya, if
we don't live dunya the way we're supposed
to live it, then we're not going to
make it to akhira, literally and figuratively speaking.
Today, the topic that I'm going to talk
about is leadership and followership.
To many people, these two words are exclusive.
Islamically, they are not.
Leadership and followership are almost synonymous from an
Islamic perspective.
And I want to talk about that a
little bit, and the importance of understanding leadership
and actually regaining leadership back in our communities
again.
The way I see leadership, now there are
many definitions for this word, but the best
definition I think there is, is the fact
that you acknowledge this position that you have
within your community, and you do your role
within that position to the best of your
ability, leading whoever is behind you, and helping
those around you to fulfill their roles as
well.
So it's acknowledging where you stand.
Not all of us are on the front
lines.
Not everybody is at the podium.
Not everyone is going to be the number
one person within a community.
That doesn't mean that that person cannot be
a leader.
Being a leader just means you identify where
you stand, where you exist within this group.
You identify your role, you do your role
to the best of your ability, and you
help those around you to fulfill their roles
as well.
And if you look at the Qur'an,
you'll find the Qur'an brings this narrative
forward very clearly.
Right at the beginning of the Qur'an,
وَإِذْ قَالَ رَبُّكَ لِلْمَلَائِكَةِ إِنِّي جَاعِلٌ فِي الْأَرْضِ
خَلِيفَةٌ Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la,
right at the beginning of the Qur'an,
when you're reading Ayah number 30 in Surah
Al-Baqarah, tells us right away our role
as human beings.
Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la explains
to us.
He tells the Malayika that I'm going to
put on earth a steward, a Khalifa.
Khalifa, what it means in Arabic, if you
translate it or explain the word, it means
someone who is responsible for something on behalf
of someone else.
It's someone who's responsible for something on behalf
of someone else.
We are responsible for the well-being of
this earth on behalf of Allah Almighty Subh
'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
And he says, فِي الْأَرْضِ خَلِيفَةٌ And this
is something for all the human race.
Every human being is included with this description
and with this role.
If you move forward in Surah Al-Baqarah,
you find Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A
'la talking to Ibrahim Alayhi As-Salam.
Ibrahim is an important individual in our faith.
إِنِّي جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًا I'm going to make
you an imam for people.
Imam means leader.
There's really no other meaning for it.
أَمَّ النَّاسَ فِي الصَّلَاةِ Someone leads people in
prayer.
أَمَّهُم It means he's going to lead them.
So Ibrahim answered, قَالَ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِي I also
want my children to be leaders.
قَالَ لَا يَنَالُ عَهْدِي الظَّالِمِينَ He said, not
all of them.
The oppressors, those who don't follow the word
of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la,
will not be leaders.
Teaching right off the bat, the Qur'an,
teaching almost immediately that leadership is not going
to be based on bloodline.
It's going to be based on merit.
In Surah Al-Furqan, when Allah Subh'anaHu
Wa Ta-A'la tells us about the
attributes of the believers, the dua' that these
believers make, وَجَعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا And make us
an imam for the muttaqeen, for the believers,
for the pious.
Make us a leader for the pious.
We're supposed to be looking forward to that.
If you look at the Qur'an in
terms of a sequence of revelation, you'll find
that the first time the word Khalifa, the
concept of leadership that exists within it, and
the concept of followership that exists within it
as well, as I'll explain very shortly.
You'll find that the first time it was
ever used, was used in Surah Al-Sa'd.
When it was describing Dawud Alayhi Salaam.
And Dawud is a very important figure in
Islam.
Because Dawud Alayhi Salaam, not only was he
a prophet, he was also a king, he
was also a military leader, he was also
a judge.
Dawud Alayhi Salaam fulfilled many many roles.
And he led his community on every level.
He wasn't just a religious leader Alayhi Salaam.
He was a military leader, he was a
political leader, he was a social leader, he
was an artist Alayhi Salaam.
And because of that Dawud Alayhi Salaam is
described, يَا دَاوُودُ إِنَّا جَعَلْنَاكَ خَلِيفَةً فِي الْأَرْضِ
فَحْكُمْ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ بِالْحَقِّ وَلَا تَتَّبِعِ الْهَوَى فَيُضِلَّكَ
عَن سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa
Ta-A'la calls upon Dawud in Surah
Al-Sa'd, and he says, O Dawud we
have made you indeed a Khalifa, a steward
here on earth.
فَحْكُمْ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ بِالْحَقِّ So when you judge
amongst people, do it with justice and fairness.
That was the first time the Sahaba heard
the word Khalifa, and it was referring to
Dawud Alayhi Salaam, and then it followed later
on in the examples that I shared with
you.
If you look at the Prophet ﷺ, you
find the Prophet Alayhi Salaam is obviously the
leader of the Muslims during every period of
time.
But the Prophet Alayhi Salaam not only was
he a leader, but he was also a
follower.
ثُمَّ أَوْحِيْنَ إِلَيْكَ أَنِ اتَّبِع مِلَّةَ إِبْرَاهِيمَ حَنِيفًا
The Prophet Alayhi Salaam was ordered to follow
Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam.
So the Prophet Alayhi Salaam was a leader
of the Muslims, but he also had someone
whom he was following, and he was following
Ibrahim Alayhi Salaam.
And it goes to show that the Prophet
Alayhi Salaam followed a leader, was a leader,
and then he surpassed the leader that he
was following.
The Prophet Alayhi Salaam will be the leader
of all of the human race.
Alayhi Salaam, during his life, not only did
he lead people, but he also created leaders
amongst his followers.
And that's the point that we have to
learn from our Islamic heritage.
The Prophet Alayhi Salaam, he led the Sahaba.
Were the Sahaba just followers?
Because the word follower, unfortunately, we always use
it in such a negative way, but it's
not a negative thing.
The Prophet Alayhi Salaam, he encouraged leadership.
The moment Amr ibn al-'As became Muslim, the
moment Khalid ibn al-Walid became Muslim, he
immediately gave them leadership positions, even though they
hadn't been Muslim for more than a couple
of days or a couple of hours even.
On the other hand, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari,
the Prophet Alayhi Salaam told, لَا تَوَلَّيَنَّ عَلَىٰ
اثْنَيْنِ يَا أَبَادَرِ You should never lead.
If there's only you and one person, you
shouldn't be the leader of that other person.
You just don't have the qualities, Ya Abu
Dharr.
Abu Dharr, رضي الله عنه, is more pious,
is closer to Allah SWT, is higher ranked
than both Amr and Khalid.
But that doesn't mean leadership comes with piety.
It doesn't come with knowledge alone.
These things are helpful, but they're not the
actual reason.
They're not the actual necessities of proper leadership.
That being said, Allah SWT installed for us
within Islam, a system for leadership.
We have it installed into Islam, Jumu'ah.
The concept of the Friday prayer, Jumu'ah.
Wherever you go on earth, if there are
Muslims there, if there are two or three
Muslims, then there's going to be a Friday
prayer.
You know that for sure.
This is how we identify ourselves as communities.
Jumu'ah is not...
The moment we sucked leadership out of Jumu
'ah, it lost its importance, it lost its
significance.
And people stopped revering it as much.
Yes, we come to the message, we hear
the remembrance of Allah SWT.
But the way Jumu'ah was set up,
is that people, Muslims in any community come
together, they choose a leader, and that leader
every single week addresses the congregation, gives them
an idea of what direction they are going
in, and reminds them of Allah SWT.
Of course, that is an essential part of
being an Islamic leader, is you continue to
remind people of Allah SWT, and the purpose
of them being here on earth.
But you provide leadership.
That's why Jumu'ah, the person who gives
Jumu'ah Islamically, if you go and you
study the books of Fiqh, you'll find that
they call it Sultaniyah.
Sultaniyah means that it's based on Sultan, which
is leadership, which is authority.
It's not the most knowledgeable person in the
society who is going to give Jumu'ah.
No.
It's the leader of the society and the
community who is going to give Jumu'ah.
We have to get our Jumu'ahs back
again.
We have to revive Jumu'ah by inserting
leadership back into it once again.
This is so important.
What are the attributes of good leadership?
Number one, and this is the most important
attribute that we need to pay attention to,
vision.
Leadership must have vision.
Leadership without vision is like driving a car
blindfolded.
There has to be vision.
What you're supposed to be looking for when
you're searching for a leader, or you're deciding
to follow a leader, what vision does this
person have?
He or she, what vision do they have?
Do they have a vision that is practical,
that is pragmatic, that serves the public, that
actually understands people's difficulties and has practical steps
towards achieving these goals?
We lack vision today.
One of the reasons there's a disconnection between
the general public and leadership, political leadership around
the world, is because there's no vision.
The visions either are never fulfilled, or they're
just not practical, or they're not something that
people look forward and want to be a
part of.
The first attribute of proper leadership is having
good vision.
The second one is being an example.
You have to be an example.
As a leader, you must be an example.
You must lead by example, as he did,
salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
The reason people trusted him, the reason people
followed him, alayhi salatu wa salam, is because
he led by example.
Another reason why general public don't trust leadership,
you have to see in front of us
this person working harder than we are, in
a situation more difficult than we are in,
in order for us to put our trust
in them, leading by example.
Leadership must have a high level of social
intelligence.
Their social IQ must be very high.
To be able to speak to people, to
be able to understand people, to be able
to communicate with people.
Leadership that lacks that, that lacks the ability
to communicate and to understand what people are
going through, is a leadership that cannot be
effective.
We have leaderships in the world.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm not saying that we don't have leadership.
I'm saying we don't have effective leadership.
The final attribute that I believe is important
is control.
Not of the public though.
Not controlling people.
Not controlling the way people think or the
way people behave or controlling their opinions.
It's self-control.
Leadership is to have self-control so they
react, so that leadership reacts to problems and
difficulties and calamities in a way that shows
steadiness and shows calmness and shows knowledge and
shows confidence.
Control is important.
You can't have leadership that reacts in an
emotional manner towards problems that come their way.
They can't be reacting to things.
Leadership must be in control of the way
they're going to deal with everything that comes
their way.
The concept of atta'ah, ittiba'ah, followership,
unfortunately is looked down on.
Unfortunately it's a negative word.
Are you a follower or are you a
leader?
Well, they're not that different.
They're almost the same thing if you understand
what they mean.
At least from an Islamic perspective that is.
Atta'ah and followership is only negative if
we take the example of the people of
Egypt when they followed Firaun.
That's the bad example I can give you.
When Firaun, he was a great leader, however
he had horrible vision and his direction was
fully evil, but he was a strong leader.
People listened to him.
فَاسْتَخَفَّ قَوْمَهُ فَأَطَاعُوهُ إِنَّهُمْ كَانُوا قَوْمًا فَاسِقِينَ He
fooled his people and his people who didn't
care, they followed him anyway.
He led them in dunya to their doom
and then he'll continue to lead them يَقْدُمُ
قَوْمَهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ فَأَوْرَدَهُمُ الْنَّارُ and he'll lead
them into jahannam.
وَالْعِيَادُ بِاللَّهِ This is negative followership.
This is not what we're talking about.
The followership that we're looking for is the
followership of the sahabah, the Prophet ﷺ.
If you take a look at بُنود العقبة
the articles of the treaty of al-'Aqaba where
the Prophet ﷺ or the agreement of al-'Aqaba
where the Prophet ﷺ he gathered the people
of Yathrib and he talked to them about
what the agreement was going to be if
he were to come to Medina.
I'm going to come to Medina.
I'm going to come to Yathrib.
Well, we have to agree on how this
is going to work, the dynamic here.
So one of the articles that is important
for leadership is السَّمْعُ وَالطَّاعَةُ فِي الْمَنْشَطِ وَالْمَكْرَةِ
For the people of Yathrib to listen and
obey the Prophet ﷺ whether they fully agree
or they don't agree.
Does that mean that in Islam followership requires
you to follow blindly?
No.
You do not follow anybody blindly.
No one.
Not even the Prophet ﷺ.
Not even him.
He did not ask for that.
He did not ask them to follow him
blindly.
How do we know that?
Just go through his seerah.
Every time there was a decision that was
political he would stand up and he would
say Tell me what we should do.
And then he would go by the majority.
And if he gave a command the sahabah
would come back and they would question him
ﷺ.
And they would ask.
And they would wonder is this the right
command?
Who told you this?
Did this come from Allah ﷻ?
You know before Badr?
When he stopped the army in a certain
place?
And Al-Hubab ibn al-Mundhir comes to
him and asks him is this where Allah
ﷻ told you to put the army on
Rasulullah?
He said no.
He said this is just an issue of
my decision.
This is my understanding of it.
So Al-Hubab told him this is not
a good place Ya Rasulullah.
We need to be ahead of the wells.
We need to cover them all up and
just keep one for ourselves in order for
us to win the battle.
So the Prophet ﷺ listened.
The Prophet ﷺ left Medina for the battle
of Uhud even though he didn't want to.
Even though his opinion was to stay inside
but the majority said no so he left
with them ﷺ.
This is the type of leadership he offered
and this is the type of followship he
required from the Sahaba.
لَا طَاعَتَ لِمَخْلُوقٍ فِي مَعْصِيَةِ الْخَالِقِ You never
obey someone who is telling you to go
against something Allah ﷻ taught.
That is an Islamic fundamental concept.
Then what does followship actually mean?
Followship means the definition that I gave at
the beginning.
To identify where you stand within the group.
If you're not the supreme leader of this
group and you're a bit behind.
Identify where you are.
Figure out what your role is.
Lead those who are behind you and follow
those who are ahead of you.
Following them by questioning them and holding them
accountable for the vision that they're offering and
asking for the evidence behind their decisions.
And if they're making sense, even if you
don't fully agree, you still follow.
That is what leadership...
See, it's a two-way road.
You can't have leadership if there's no followship.
Who is the leader going to lead if
no one is willing to be led?
If no one is willing to actually follow,
then who is the leader going to lead?
If we're all leaders, who are we going
to lead?
It doesn't work like that.
Even though the Prophet ﷺ, he raised a
hundred thousand leaders.
All of them led after him ﷺ.
But they identified during his life where they
stood, what position they were in.
Abu Bakr later on became the leader.
Umar al-Khattab followed Abu Bakr.
And when Abu Bakr passed away, Umar became
the leader.
They didn't have a problem with that.
They understood that leadership and followership are equal.
It's the same thing.
It's just figuring out where you stand and
doing your job, fulfilling your role, helping others
to do the same.
Caring about the jama'ah.
See, there are three things followership needs in
order for it to work properly.
If you want to be a follower, if
you want to participate in ta'a, in
followership properly, and be a leader at the
same time, you need three things.
Number one, you need to care about the
congregation, about the ummah, about the jama'ah.
You have to care.
If you don't care about the jama'ah,
followership doesn't exist.
We have to actually start caring again about
our ummah.
The disconnection that we have been living for
a long time, where we just pray jama
'ah and leave.
We don't care what's happening on the inside.
We're not interested in the activities.
We're not interested in the status of our
ummah or our communities within the cities that
we live in.
We have to change that.
That has to change now.
Especially after we come out of this pandemic.
We have to start caring again.
Number two, you have to trust your leadership.
If you don't trust your leadership, then you
need to change it.
You need to change leadership if you don't
trust it.
But if you think the leadership that you
have is leadership that is well-qualified, well
-informed, service-oriented, with clear vision, then you
need to put your trust in leadership.
You have to listen and you have to
follow.
Even if you don't fully agree, that's okay.
It's not a problem for us to do
that.
And you need to hold leadership accountable.
If they offer visions, if they offer a
direction, you have to hold them accountable.
Are we fulfilling this vision?
Do we have, are we achieving the milestones
on our way to our ultimate goal?
You see, that's how you keep leadership in
check.
That's how you keep leadership focused.
A leader that no one questions will get
lazy.
No matter how good the leader is, no
matter how good a leader is, if a
leader goes unquestioned, unchallenged, they will become lazy.
It will turn to a dictatorship at some
point and the goal will never be achieved,
will never be fulfilled.
Proper fellowship is extremely important to achieve proper
leadership.
It's a two-way road and we all
have to participate in this properly in order
for it to work, in order for it
to work.
Any population in the world can only be
called a community if it achieves a certain
number of, if it achieves centralization of one
of four domains.
I'm going to talk about this for a
moment because as Muslims living in the West,
this is very important for us.
This makes a difference for us in terms
of how we actually function and how we're
going to move forward in the future.
For example, here in London, whether there's 30
,000 or 35,000 Muslims, I don't know.
Allah knows, maybe even more.
We're only a population, I believe.
Right now, we're only a population.
And we will become a community or a
community or a congregation if we can centralize
one of four things.
When I say centralize, what I mean by
centralization, what I mean is providing leadership in
one of four areas.
Leadership has to be provided either from a
social perspective to centralize our population socially.
So we have social leadership.
Usually what that's going to look like is
that we all live in a similar place,
similar area.
And this area is called, whatever it's called.
Little Italy and Chinatown, they exist all around
the world.
People come and live in similar areas where
all of our social activities happen in the
same places.
And whoever runs those social activities and whoever
has ownership of them is usually who is
going to end up being the leader.
And that's where leadership exists.
Now for us, I think that's a bit
more difficult here.
We're probably not going to be able to
do that.
The second domain is financial leadership where the
wealth is centralized in one place.
Where all the wealth finds its way into
one fund.
And from that fund we distribute to help
fulfill the needs of our community and our
population in a proper manner.
And then that's financial leadership.
I think that's also maybe a bit difficult
but it is achievable.
The third domain is political leadership.
Political leadership for us here in the country
that we live in is very hard.
It is also achievable but I think it's
probably the most difficult of all four to
actually achieve.
To have a political leader within the cities
and within the country that we live in.
Political leadership exists in Canada in the form
of the government.
And the fourth domain is religious leadership.
Is to have religious leadership.
Religious leadership may to some people seem the
most difficult of all but I think it's
the most sustainable of all.
And I think it's the most obtainable of
all as well.
Why?
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala already installed
Jumu'ah for us.
And He already gave us a way of
how to go by dealing with leadership.
What leadership means from an Islamic perspective.
What followership means in an Islamic perspective.
The dynamic between leaders and followers and what
that looks like.
We already have it explained for us.
We just have to start trusting one another.
We just have to start trusting our leadership.
We just have to start asking them for
vision.
And if that's not going to be provided
for us then we need to get different
leadership.
And we all have to be okay that
not all of us are going to be
right up front as the supreme leader of
the group.
We have to be okay in a position
where we are following.
That's fine.
The best of us, the best leader amongst
us is the best follower of the Prophet
salallahu alayhi wa sallam.
The best leader amongst us is the best
follower of the Prophet alayhi salatu wa salam.
So if we can do that, if we
can start understanding that we have specific places
that we exist in during our lives identifying
where that is and then leading within the
capacity that we have and contributing to the
larger group by following its leadership then we
can start moving forward.
The problem that we have today is that
due to the lack of effective leadership and
effective followership and the proper Islamic understanding of
what those two terms actually mean we are
spinning around in circles in our societies.
Every single year we have the same problems
same issues, same quarrels same disagreements.
You can take the example of how we
function in London and go and look at
other cities around the world and you'll find
it's the same thing.
The same type of problems exist all the
time.
And they keep on repeating themselves and you
wonder to yourself when will this end?
When will we actually be able to fix
this problem or that problem?
These problems seem to have existed since the
day I was born.
You hear the same things being repeated.
How can we get rid of all that?
How can we actually move forward from these
issues and start tackling topics that are much
more important?
You see, that's what leadership is supposed to
do.
But it's a two-way road.
Just like we need effective leadership with vision,
that lead by example that have high social
IQs that are capable of staying in control
of themselves we need followership.
We need Muslims who are willing to be
led.
Muslims who understand what السمع والطاعة means.
Muslims who understand what it means لا طاعة
لمخلوق في معصية الخالق You never obey someone
who's telling you to disobey Allah سبحانه وتعالى.
To understand what it means to put trust
in leadership and hold leadership accountable.
At the end of each of these حلقات
I'm going to ask for an action plan.
Meaning, I don't want these حلقات to be
for me just running my mouth talking about
issues and ranting about topics that bother me.
Which, that may end up what it is.
But what I want to have at the
end is an action plan.
So that after this is over, Inshallah and
we can leave our homes again and go
back to our daily lives we have something
that we're going to change.
Regarding leadership and followership what I need you
to do and I'm going to do the
same but we're all going to do is
identify your coordinates within your society.
Where exactly do you stand?
Where exactly do you fall?
Are you way up front?
Are you somewhere in the middle?
Are you a little bit...
But it's okay.
كلكم راعٍ وكلكم مسؤول عن رعيتي You are
all shepherds meaning you're all in positions of
leadership.
That's what راعي means.
You're taking care of something.
A shepherd is a literal translation.
You're taking care of someone or something.
وكلكم مسؤول And you're all going to be
held accountable responsible for those that you are
going to lead.
And that's why the Prophet ﷺ explains to
us a man will lead his family and
a wife is leading within her house and
everyone's going to lead regarding where they are.
So you need to figure out where you
stand.
And then figure out how you are going
to do your role to the best of
your ability.
What is your role?
Within the place that you are in what
is your role?
And figure out how you're going to fulfill
that role to the best of your ability
and help others around you within your vicinity
to fulfill their roles as well.
If you're not a leader in a specific
field then you need to find a leader.
And you need to require from that leader
to provide a vision.
To provide direction.
And then you need to hold them accountable
for that vision and for that direction.
And that is how societies are going to
move forward and that's what we need to
change.
We have to care again.
We have to lead those who are behind
us and we have to be led by
those who are ahead of us.
We have to contribute.
We have to care again.
We have to obey and we have to
hold accountable.
After this is all over or during Ramadan
when we have time to reflect reflect upon
that.
Figure out where you stand.
Figure out what your role is.
And then care about the Muslim society once
again.
Lead.
Demand proper leadership.
Demand vision from that leadership.
Demand direction from that leadership.
Demand Juma'ah to be revived again in
that sense so that we can move forward.
It'll be tribulant.
It'll be difficult.
I'm not saying this is going to be
some easy fix.
But unless we engage again unless we start
caring again and doing that nothing will change.
I hope at least we can identify that
the status that the Ummah is in today
is not a status that we want to
leave for our children.
Now if you disagree with me on that
then there's not much else I can say.
If you think everything is going well then
I don't know what else to tell you.
But in order for us to change the
status of our Ummah we start with ourselves.
We start with our populations and communities within
the cities that we live in.
We figure out where we stand.
We lead those whom we can lead.
We follow leadership.
We put our trust.
We obey.
We follow.
We hold accountable and we demand vision and
direction.
And we care about the well-being of
our communities and societies.
Because when we don't do that a lot
of people are left behind.
Today as Muslims we leave a lot of
demographics a lot of people are left behind.
People with mental health issues and people with
disabilities and elderly and immigrants and people with
low socioeconomic statuses.
These people are being left behind.
Those who need spiritual support and we're not
serving them properly.
And to me I chose for the first
episode to be leadership and followership because I
think this is probably one of the most
important contributors to that problem.
I hope the lecture today was helpful.
Jazakum Allah khair.
Mubarak Allah feekum.
Inshallah we will see you tomorrow at 5
.30. Until then stay home and stay safe
and make dua that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala gathers us all together in Masajid very
soon.
Subhanakallah wa bihamdik.
I bear witness that there is no god
but Allah.
I seek forgiveness from Allah and I repent
to Him.
And peace and blessings of Allah be upon
our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and
companions.
Peace be upon you.