Adnan Rajeh – Towards a Modern Awakening #07 – Service Mindset
AI: Summary ©
The importance of serving people in leadership with the goal of serving their spirituality is emphasized in Islam. The speaker emphasizes the need for an ego and being honest with oneself, as it is difficult to do so. The speaker also discusses the importance of serving others and finding ways to serve them. The conversation also touches on the difficulty of society and the negative impact it has on people's minds and society. Viewers are encouraged to collect questions and ask questions.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu, bismillahirrahmanirrahim,
walhamdulillahi rabbil alameen.
Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barik ala nabiyyina
wa habibina muhammadin wa ala alihi wa sahbihi
ajma'een.
Allahumma a'allimna ma yanfa'una wa infa
'na bima a'allamtana wa zidna Allahumma ilmah.
Ameen.
Welcome to the seventh and final episode of
Towards a Modern Awakening.
Today is the end of our seven-episode
series, and I will talk about service mindset,
or abudiyat al-khidmah.
And I left the best for last, and
to be honest, everything I talked about in
the previous six episodes have been nothing but
a build-up to be able to talk
about this final concept today.
Service mindset is that thread that pulls all
the topics I talked about before together.
And really, the purpose of me talking about
them was to be able to arrive at
this last concept, to discuss it and shed
light on it.
You see, leadership is only valuable if the
person who is in leadership, whether they took
leadership or were granted leadership, are in it
for service.
If they're not in it for service, then
nothing will work.
If they're in it for any other reason,
then there will be no khair that will
come from it.
Those who are in leadership have to be
in leadership with the goal, with the orientation
of serving people.
And those who are a part of followership,
those who are a part of this leadership
complex and they're in the state of being
leaders on a smaller scale, following others, they
have to be doing it for the benefit
of serving the public as well, knowing that
when we work together under leadership, more service
is offered to people.
When it comes to our understanding of Islam,
the way that we, the Islamic narratives that
we put forward, our intellect, our thought, our
collective thought product has to be focused on
serving people, meaning when we're trying to come
up with, when we're trying to think about
Islam, understand Islam, offer Islamic education, offer Islamic
knowledge, we're doing it with the service of
people in our minds.
We're trying to offer people something that can
benefit them, that will help them, making complex
ideas simple so that people can understand it.
The goal has to be to serve people.
When we talk about issues like networking and
mentorship, mentorship really all it is is the
most delicate and intimate form of service because
people are giving their time and giving their
knowledge and giving their experience in networking.
What it does, as Allah says, you get
to know each other so that you can
benefit from one another and you can use
the experiences and skills of others for this
service.
We talk about our values and our behaviors,
really the value that I left out when
I talked about values and behaviors, it was
the value of service, I just left it
until the end because it's the most important
value and it's the value that unfortunately is
missing and that we need to definitely regain
again and reclaim that value back into our
value system.
When it comes to our intentions and our
spirituality, understanding that the key to nafs and
purifying your heart and purifying our souls, we're
purifying it from the nafs that doesn't, we're
purifying all the negative aspects of our being,
of our souls that don't want to serve
because our nafs doesn't want to serve, it
wants to be served and we have to
teach our nafs that no, no, you're here
to serve and that takes a lot of
work, a lot of effort has to be
put into that.
Efficiency and effectiveness, all they really mean is
just figuring out what to do, the right
thing and doing that thing right.
The right thing is to serve and figuring
that out is the part of the process,
figuring out that the right thing that we
need to do is to find services.
I mean, if us as Muslims in our
communities don't know what to do then we're
not offering the right services and once we
find out what services need to be offered,
we have to offer them right.
All the topics I talked about are really
just to serve this last one.
Why is it that I want to talk
about it?
Well, the reason that Allah created us, as
He worded Himself in the Quran, He said,
وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونَ I only
created the jinn and the human being for
لِيَعْبُدُونَ and He used the word عبودية and
usually the way we translate it is we
say to worship and that's fine, it's not
necessarily wrong but let's take the actual word
of عبودية and try to understand linguistically what
it means.
From the word عبودية is the word عبد.
عبد in Arabic means one of two things,
either a servant or a slave in a
specific context.
So let's leave the concept of slavery because
we don't have that anymore.
Let's talk about the concept of a servant.
العبد, the only purpose of عبد existing inside
a household, for example, is for خدمة.
العبد هو المملوك للخدمة.
It's a person who is there to serve.
The concept of عبودية comes from طريق معبد,
a road that is paved, meaning there are
no ups and downs, it's leveled, people walk
back and forth on it, it's humble, there's
a lot of humility in it.
That's what عبودية means, it's being humble for
the sake of Allah.
And the word عبد means servant, which is
what a service is.
If we're servants, that means we're here to
serve.
Isn't that the idea?
Isn't that literally the definition of what عبد
means?
And that's why Allah gave us our job
description.
He said خليفة.
خليفة means responsible, responsible for this service, responsible
for taking care of things.
خليفة of the stewardship of the earth, meaning
we're responsible to serve the earth and those
who live on it.
This concept, unfortunately, is missing in the way
we look at Islam.
Well, it's no big deal, it's just the
basis and foundation of all of Islam, so
no big deal if we don't even know
what the basis and foundation of Islam is.
But this is something that is so important
and critical and crucial within our religion, and
somehow it's been pulled out of our day
-to-day conversation and from our understanding of
why we're here.
And if I say, okay, if you're like,
all right, I agree with you, we're here
to serve, who are we here to serve?
We're here to serve Allah.
Well, you're like, well, we can't physically actually
serve Him.
He says, subhanAllah, you can't serve me.
You can't do anything to benefit me.
Allah subhanAllah is beyond, whatever we do doesn't
really benefit Him, doesn't reach Him physically.
Then how do we serve Him, subhanAllah, if
He's not here physically to be served?
Do we just say, okay, then forget about
that?
No, we serve His creation, which is what
He's trying to explain.
Service of Allah subhanAllah equals service of His
creation, service of those whom He created, subhanAllah.
This is why we were created.
This is the basis, the foundation of Islam
and of religion itself, the concept of abudiyyah,
which means, وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجَنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُونَ
to serve me.
That's the more accurate translation if you understand
what the word actually means.
He says, subhanAllah, right at the beginning of
the Qur'an, وَإِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ It's
you and only you whom we serve.
There's a beautiful, the Qur'an is filled
with this concept.
There's a beautiful ayah in Surah Ar-Ra'd
that I like a lot, where he talks,
subhanAllah, about righteousness and falsehood.
وَكَذَٰلِكَ يَضْضُرِبُ اللَّهُ الْحَقَّ وَالْبَاطِلِ And he gives
the example of a river of water, or
a sail.
And he says, and he gives us the
example of how on top of the water,
there's always just whatever dead leaves or whatever
on top.
That's what you can see, that's the apparent
part.
So he says, فَأَمَّا الزَبَدُ فَيَذْهَبُوا جُفَاءَ What's
on top, the dead leaves and all the
filth that is picked up on the way,
it just goes, it goes uselessly.
It's purposeless, it doesn't do anything.
يَذْهَبُوا جُفَاءَ No one cares.
وَأَمَّا مَا يَنْفَعُ النَّاسَ فَيَمْكُثُ فِي الْأَرْضِ And
as far as what actually benefits people, it
goes deep into the soil, into the ground,
where it will brew and grow one day
into something that is filled with khayr.
If you go through, رَأَيْتَ الَّذِي يُكَذِّبُ بِالدِّينِ
فَذَلِكَ الَّذِي يَدْعُ الْيَتِيمِ وَلَا يَحُضُّ عَلَىٰ طَعَامِ
الْمِسْكِينِ The person who disbelieves in religion is
a person who will harm an orphan and
won't encourage others to feed the needy.
The people who go to Jahannam will call
out from Jahannam after being asked by others,
why are you in Jahannam?
وَمَا سَلَكَكُمْ فِي سَقَرَ قَالُوا لَمْ نَكُوا مِنَ
الْمُصَلِّينَ وَلَمْ نَكُوا نَطْعِمُ الْمُسْكِينَ We didn't feed
the needy.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala talks about the
Ansar, وَيُؤْثِرُونَ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَلَوْ كَانَ بِهِمْ خَصَاصَةً
And they will always put selflessly others ahead
of them even if they are also in
need.
He says subhanahu wa ta'ala, فَلَقْتَحَ مَا
الْعَقَبَةَ وَمَا أَدْرَاكَ مَا الْعَقَبَةَ فَكُوا رَقَبَةً أَوْ
إِطْعَامٌ فِي يَوْمٍ ذِي مَسْغَبَةٍ The true obstacle
that we need to overcome is the ability
to free others from slavery or from debt
when we have the ability to do so.
وإطعام or for us to feed someone who
is hungry on a day that we are
hungry as well.
The Prophet ﷺ, 50% of what he
talks about ﷺ is nothing but this concept.
And I'll just give you a few examples
of it.
مَنْ نَفَّسَ عَنْ مُؤْمِنٍ كُرْبَةً نَفَّسَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ
كُرْبَةً مِنْ كُرَبِ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ He who eases
a difficulty for a mu'min, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala will ease his difficulty on the
day of judgment.
وَمَنْ يَسَّرَ عَلَى مُعْسِرٍ يَسَّرَ اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ فِي
الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةِ And he who eases a situation
that is a misfortune for someone else, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala will ease his path
in dunya and akhira.
وَكَانَ اللَّهُ فِي عَوْنِ الْعَبْدِ مَا كَانَ الْعَبْدُ
فِي عَوْنِ أَخِيهِ And as long as a
servant is taking care of his brother or
his sister, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will
continue to take care of that servant.
He was asked alayhi salatu wassalam once, مَنْ
أَحَبُّ الْعِبَادِ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَمَا أَحَبُّ الْأَعْمَالِ إِلَى
اللَّهِ Who are the most beloved servants to
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and what are
the most beloved actions to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala?
So he says alayhi salatu wassalam, أَحَبُّ الْعِبَادِ
إِلَى اللَّهِ أَنْفَعُهُمْ لِلنَّاسِ The servants that are
most beloved to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
are the most beneficial amongst them to others,
to people.
وَأَحَبُّ الْأَعْمَالِ إِلَى اللَّهِ And the most beloved
actions to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala سُرُورٌ
تُدْخِلُهُ عَلَى مُسْلِمٍ سُرُور, happiness, joy that you
will cause its entry into the heart of
a Muslim.
أو كُربةٌ تُفَرِّجُهَا عَنْهُ Or a difficulty that
you will remove from them.
أو تَطْرُدُ عَنْهُ جُوعًا أو تَطْرُدُ عَنْهُ جُوعًا
You take away his hunger by feeding them.
أو تَخْضِي عَنْهُ دَيْنًا Or you take away
debts by paying the debt off.
وَلَأَنْ أَمْشِي فِي حَاجَةِ أَخِي أَحَبُّ إِلَيَّ مِنْ
أَعْتَكِفَ فِي مَسْجِدِ هَذَا شَهْرًا And for me
to go out with a brother of mine
who's in need of service, in need of
help, is better than doing I'tikaf in the
Masjid of the Prophet ﷺ for a month.
وَمَنْ مَشَى فِي حَاجَةِ أَخِيهِ حَتَّى يُثْبِتَهَا لَهُ
وَأَثْبَتَ اللَّهُ قَدَمَهُ يَوْمَ تَزُولُ الْأَقْدَامِ And those
who walk by their brothers or sisters to
help them, they have a haja, they have
a need, a certain need, and they go
with them and they stay with them until
they fulfill that need and help them with
what they want or what they're requiring help.
Allah ﷻ will have their feet steady on
the Day of Judgment when others will be
running around in fear.
He says ﷺ, أَنَا وَكَافِلُ الْيَتِيمِ كَهَاتَيْنِ فِي
الْجَنَّةِ Myself and those who take care of
orphans are like this in Jannah.
He says, أَلْسَاعِي عَلَى الْأَرْمَلَةِ وَالْمِسْكِينَ كَالْمُجَاهِدِ فِي
سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَالْقَائِمِ اللَّيْلِ الصَّائِمِ النَّهَارِ Someone who
goes to take care of a widow or
of a needy person, it's like someone who's
performing jihad in battle, or someone who is
fasting all day and praying all night.
Khadijah r.a when the Prophet ﷺ came
running down the mountain in fear after meeting
Jibreel ﷺ for the first time, he said,
إِنِّي خِفْتُ عَلَى نَفْسِي خَدِيجَةً I'm fearing for
myself that this may be some form of
punishment from Allah ﷻ.
فَقَالَتْ كَلَّا وَاللَّهِ لَا يُخْزِيكَ اللَّهُ أَبَدًا He
said, No, no.
Allah ﷻ would never punish you.
He would never mistreat you.
إِنَّكَ لَتَصَلُ الرَّحْمِ You strengthen the relations of
kinship.
وَتُكْسِبُ الْمَعْدُومِ And someone who cannot make money,
you help them make a living.
وَتَحْمِلُ الْكَلِّ And you figuratively carry someone who
can't seem to carry themselves.
وَتُعِينُ عَلَى نَوَائِبِ الْحَقِّ And you help someone,
you help people who are going through the
calamities of life.
وَتُغِيثُ الْمَلْهُوفِ And someone who is in desperate
need of help, you're always there to help
them.
These were his ethics ﷺ.
This is what he did.
This was his mindset ﷺ prior to becoming
a prophet ﷺ.
The point of our existence is to serve.
Now listen carefully.
A servant doesn't have an agenda.
Servants, they don't have agendas.
They're not trying to get people to do
certain things.
Servants don't have agendas.
Servants, all they care about is the satisfaction
of the one that they are serving.
Allah ﷻ is the one who we serve.
And that's really all that matters to us.
His satisfaction with us, his happiness with us,
سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى جَلَّى جَلَالُ اللَّهِ is all that
we look at as servants.
The servants, خَادِمْ لَيْسَ لَهُ حَوْظُ نَفْسٍ The
servant doesn't have an ego.
If you're here to serve, if our pure
and only and exclusive goal is to serve,
if that's why Allah ﷻ literally put us
on earth, servants don't have egos.
Servants aren't the first to eat.
Servants are the last.
Servants don't even care if they actually get
a chance or not because their goal is
to serve others.
That's why they're here.
So there's no place for them to have
an ego in the first place.
They can't have egos.
They can't care about anything but the satisfaction
of the ones they are serving, who is
Allah ﷻ.
Really, we're serving people but we're actually serving
Allah.
Remember that, خِذْمَةُ اللَّهِ It's the service of
Allah ﷻ that we're talking about through serving
His creation.
Servants don't have agendas.
They're just here to serve.
Those who don't serve do one of two
things.
They either are trying to control or they're
complaining.
If we're not serving, that means we're trying
to control.
We are not here to control people.
We're not here to control their thoughts.
We're not here to control their opinions.
We're not here to control their behaviors.
We're not here to control anybody because the
one who controls المُهَيْمِنَ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَيْهِ is Allah.
He controls everything.
And if He wants to control people, then
He can go ahead and do that.
That's totally His choice and His decision, جَلَّ
جَلَىٰ اللَّهِ But He chose not to.
And He did not put me here or
you to do that for Him.
We're not here to control people on His
behalf.
That's not why He put us here.
He put us here to serve people on
His behalf.
We're here to serve.
And this is a paradigm shift of our
mentality that has to happen.
And it has to happen now.
You have to go from wanting to control
or wanting to get ahead or being selfish,
wanting to take care of ourselves to wanting
to serve because that's why Allah سُبْحَانَهُ put
us on earth.
And if you're not doing that, then it's
one of three things.
Either we're serving, we're controlling, or we're complaining.
We have a lot of complainers.
Those who don't like this and don't like
that.
That's not working, and you're not doing this
well, and this could be done better.
Of course, the ones who have the million
ideas but aren't willing to put any effort
towards actually achieving any of them.
But if you understand the concept of service,
that changes the way we're supposed to look
at the world altogether.
I put together six components of service.
The first one is ikhlas.
In order for us to be able to
serve, we need to be sincere.
There has to be a high level of
sincerity in our minds and our hearts.
And that's why the importance of talking about
intention and spirituality.
The second one is tawadu.
Having humility, humbleness, which is a value.
For us to be humble, for us not
to be arrogant, not to be looking down
on people, to feel that humility is a
part of who we are.
We're servants.
We are humble by definition, by creation.
Allah سُبْحَانَهُ by definition is المتكبر.
He is the supreme.
He is the كبير سبحانه وتعالى.
By definition, that is who He is.
However, for us to be متكبرين, for us
to be supreme, doesn't make sense because we
were created as servants and our goal is
to serve.
Now, I hope when you're listening to this,
it's not bothering you because if it is,
then you have to go and revise the
set of values that you have and the
level of spirituality that you obtain, that you
possess because this is what Allah سُبْحَانَهُ created
us to do.
I'm not making this up.
This is what the Qur'an teaches.
This is what the Sunnah teaches.
This is what Allah سُبْحَانَهُ very clearly made
very clear in His book.
Sincerity, humbleness.
Number two, trust in Allah.
Trust in Allah سُبْحَانَهُ You have to trust
Allah سُبْحَانَهُ that we serve Him and He
will deliver for us يوم القيامة that we
serve Him and then He will be satisfied
with us and He will protect us and
take care of us سُبْحَانَهُ You have to
trust Allah.
Number four, you have to trust people.
I think that's missing.
You have to trust people.
Those who can try to control others can
try to control people because they don't trust
them.
You don't trust that the general public will
make the right decision if they are properly
served.
Serve people and they will make the right
decisions and they will do the right thing.
Just you have to trust people.
It's beyond me how Muslims could go through
lives not trusting Muslims or not trusting people.
It's a part of our the concept of
our Jama'at that we trust one another.
Trusting our brethren that they will do that
if we perform service properly then they will
make the right decision.
Number five, المجاهدة or Jihad in its essence
means to strive.
It's not going to be easy.
We're going to strive against a lot of
difficulties as we serve.
Service is something that is not easy.
It's difficult.
No one wants to serve because it's not
easy because it's difficult.
You don't want to be the servant because
it requires so much work and so much
effort and you're always on your feet and
you're always doing more because there's always more
people to serve and more service to perform.
But that's what مجاهدة and Jihad means that
you strive.
It's a concept in Islam that you continue
to do to the end of your life.
And number six, تضحية to sacrifice.
Service requires us to sacrifice our egos, to
sacrifice our wealth, to sacrifice our time, to
sacrifice our lives by dedicating our lives to
service of other people.
It's so important that we think about these
concepts and spend time reflecting upon them now
that we do have some time to do
so.
As individuals and as institutions, we have to
become service-oriented.
As individuals and as institutions, we need to
become service-oriented.
We have to start focusing on service as
being the goal of our existence and what
we are here to do.
And that's going to take a bit of
time, obviously.
As individuals, if our goal in life was
to serve, you wouldn't find people fighting over
parking spaces.
You wouldn't find people pushing and shoving.
Because the concept is, well, I'm here to
serve others.
And if right now, I can serve this
person by offering, then فضل, go ahead.
I will take care of myself there.
No worries.
The servant always drinks last, always eats last,
always takes care of themselves last.
If actually we were all serving one another,
these problems wouldn't even come up.
We'd be spending more time offering each other
something that we both want because we understand
that I'm here to serve.
Right now, I'm at a position where someone
wants something that I want.
If I'm service-oriented, فضل, of course, you
can take it.
And if everyone's not like that, it's okay.
You'll be like that because you understand why
Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى created.
You understand what you're here to do.
You are perfecting the maqam of عبودية in
your life.
You're taking care of the concept of worship
and service in your life for Allah سُبْحَانَهُ
وَ تَعَالَى.
Let people do what they want to do.
They'll be held accountable for it.
Don't worry.
You just do what you know is the
right thing to do, which is service.
Our institutions have to be service-oriented.
Our institutions have to see people as opportunities
to serve, not as potential donators, not as
evidence of popularity.
When people come into our institutions, we have
to look at them as people who are
in need of different services that some we
are offering right now and some we may
not be offering and need to start offering
very soon so that we can meet their
needs and serve them.
When we see people, that's how we're supposed
to be rigged and programmed.
That is our orientation.
We see the public, we see our population,
our communities as people who are in need
of our service and we are going to
provide services for them.
These are the houses of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ
تَعَالَى.
They are not personal belongings to anybody, not
to boards, not to anyone.
These are owned by Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى
and the only purpose they serve is to
serve.
That's the only purpose they serve.
It's to serve Allah through serving people in
the community and that's something that when I
look around, I feel that we are lacking.
We're not thinking like that.
We're continuously trying to benefit from people who
come to the masjid.
We're trying to benefit from them.
It's not what we're supposed to be doing.
We're supposed to be trying to serve them.
If everyone did that, by the way, all
the problems would just instantaneously disappear because if
when I see you, I try to serve
you and when you see me, you do
the same, then we're both going to walk
away happy because we're trying to serve one
another because we're following the orders of Allah
سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى not because we think little
of ourselves or less of ourselves.
No, no, no.
We're doing this because that's what Allah سُبْحَانَهُ
وَ تَعَالَى commanded us to do and because
that is the only reason that He granted
us breaths to live سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى so
that we could serve.
And it's beyond me sometimes how these critical,
foundational concepts of Islam have been removed from
our mindset and unless we reclaim them again,
there's not much that's going to change in
our lives as Muslims.
It's not easy.
It's not problem-free.
Serving people is a headache.
It is difficult.
It takes so much effort and time but
that's what all the prophets did before us.
That's what the Prophet ﷺ lived his life
doing.
Ali ﷺ served day and night.
That's all he did.
People would stop him in the middle of
the road.
Al-'ajooz, an old lady, would stop him in
the middle of the day and talk to
him for an hour about her problems and
the problems of her children and her daughter
and her husband.
And the Prophet ﷺ would sit there and
listen because sometimes the best all you can
do is give an ear.
وَمِنْهُمُ الَّذِينَ يُؤْذُونَ النَّبِيِّ وَيَقُولُونَهُ وَأُذُنَ Some of
them harmed the Prophet ﷺ by saying things
that are difficult and rude and disrespectful.
When you ask them, why are you doing
that?
They say, well, he listens to us.
قُلْ هُوَ أُذُنُ خَيْرٍ لَكُمْ Yes, he listens.
He's someone who listens and he does that
out of khayr for others to help people.
Sometimes you just need someone to appreciate and
listen.
He served so much and it was so
difficult for him that the Qur'an had
to come and tell the Sahaba directly through
verses that were going to be recited till
the Day of Judgment to give him some
space.
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا لَا تَدْخُلُوا بُيُوتَ النَّبِيِّ
إِلَّا أَن يُؤْذَنَ لَكُمْ إِلَى طَعَامٍ غَيْرَ نَاظِرِينَ
إِنَاهُ In the verses in Surah Al-Ahzab
where Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala tells the
believers, don't enter his houses unless he asks
you over for food.
And when you do enter and the food
is over, leave, don't sit around waiting for
a dars or waiting for something or enjoying
his company.
إِنَّ ذَلِكُمْ كَانَ يُؤْذِ النَّبِيِّ فَيَسْتَحْيِي مِنْكُمْ What
you are doing, it harms the Prophet ﷺ.
But he's too embarrassed to tell you because
that's how he's oriented.
He's here to serve no matter what people
do to him.
The man who on the day he was
giving the bounties after a battle to the
Sahaba and a man came behind him and
took him by the collar and twisted the
collar and almost choking him telling him, عَعْطُنِي
مِنْ مَالِ اللَّهِ لَا مِنْ مَالِكَ وَلَا مِنْ
مَالِ أَبِي Give me from the bounty from
the wealth of Allah I don't want your
wealth or the wealth of your father.
I want it from Allah ﷺ.
The Sahaba lost their minds they're going to
kill the guy.
He's choking the Prophet ﷺ.
He takes him ﷺ enters into the house
and keeps on telling him I'll give you
this much.
Is this enough?
No, it's not enough.
Okay, how about this much?
No, it's not enough.
Until the guy was happy he kept on
offering him more and more wealth and then
he told him and the man was very
happy and he made du'a for the
Prophet ﷺ.
So the Prophet ﷺ told him, well, you
need to walk outside and say that to
them because the Sahaba are very upset with
the way you behave.
Can you go and say the nice thing
you just said in here outside?
So he said, yes.
So he walked out and he made du
'a for the Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba
calmed down.
And he left and the Prophet ﷺ turned
to the Sahaba and he told them, مَثَلِي
وَمَثَلُكُمْ كَمَثَلِي رَجُلٍ عَضَى عَنَاقَةً The example of
you and I in this situation was like
a man who had a camel and his
camel ran away and people are telling him,
we'll bring you the camel and they run
after the camel and the camel gets scared
and runs farther away.
And he's telling them, leave me, I'll take
care of my camel.
Then he picks up some grass and he
shakes it in his hand and the camel
comes back.
So he tells them, وَلَوْ تَرَكْتُكُمْ وَمَا أَرَدْتُمْ
لَكَانَ مِنْ أَهْلِ النَّارِ If I allowed you
to punish him for the fact that he
was choking your Prophet then he would have
been from أَهْلِ النَّارِ If I allow you
to do that.
وَلَكَنِّي حُلْتُ بَيْنِكُمْ وَبَيْنَهُ فَهُوَ مِنْ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ
And now, but I didn't let you, it
was a barrier between allowing you to do
what you want and now he's going to
go to Jannah.
Why?
Because the Prophet ﷺ sees people as opportunities
to take them to Jannah.
Because he's here to serve ﷺ, that's all.
His ego can take it.
If he has to pay for the service
of others with his ego, no problem.
We're servants, we shouldn't even have egos to
begin with, so no big deal.
If I'm gonna pay for it with my
ego, that's a very cheap price to save
someone, to serve someone.
A man once walked into a masjid, a
'rabi, when the Prophet ﷺ was giving a
dars and he peed in the masjid.
He peed and he urinated inside the masjid.
The sahaba were gonna get up and the
Prophet ﷺ ordered them, stay seated.
لَا تَزْرِمُوا عَلَيْهِ بَوْلًا Let him finish, of
course, it's impossible to stop once the flow
begins.
So he left him to do it.
The one who's telling us the story is
the a'rabi.
قَالْ فَلَمَّا فَقُهَا الْأَعْرَابِ When the a'rabi
learned Islam and realized the mistake he had
made, قَالَ بِأَبِي هُوَ بَأُمِّي I would sacrifice
my family and my life for him ﷺ.
أَتَانِي فَلَمْ يُؤَنِّبِ He came to me and
he didn't yell at me.
وَلَمْ يَضْرِبِ He didn't hit me.
وَلَمْ يَشْتُمِ He didn't say a bad word.
وَإِنَّمَا قَالَ لِيَّ هَذَا لَمْ تُجْعَلِ الْمَسَاجِدُ لِيَّ
هَذَا أَرِقْ عَلَيْهِ دَلْوًا مِّنَ الْمَاءِ The masajid
weren't made for something like this.
Masajid are made for something different.
Pour some water on it and don't do
it again.
Because his goal ﷺ is to serve this
man, not to teach them.
And unfortunately, we come back from countries that
are filled with dictatorships and oppression and persecution.
And what that does to people's minds and
collectively even.
What that does to society is it makes
society extremely rough and difficult and selfish.
And a lot of that is rubbed off
on us as Muslims.
And we're dealing with people in that manner.
Shaykh, you walk into a business somewhere.
I work in public service.
You walk into public service places and the
employee sits there and they smile to you
immediately.
And they offer you a seat and get
you something to drink and they treat you.
Why?
Because they're in public service.
Because they're paid for it.
Is it possible that someone will serve others
kindly for money better than someone who's going
to serve them for the sake of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala?
Is it possible that money is more valuable
to us than Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's
reward and Allah's command and the reason He
created us to begin with?
It's very...
I find that difficult to understand, difficult to
accept.
Your action plan here is simple.
You can probably figure it out yourself.
We have to have a shift of a
paradigm mentally from a mindset perspective from the
essence of who we are and we have
to gear ourselves towards service, towards serving others,
serving Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through serving
His creation.
If we can do that then the problems
in our society will just evaporate, will just
disappear because we're all doing the same thing.
We're all looking for a way to serve,
figuring out how can I serve Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala?
How can I serve my community?
How can I serve people?
You find a way, something you're good at,
something that you enjoy doing and you serve
people through it and you look forward to
serving people and it's the magic trick, it's
the solution for all the problems that we
have on an individual level, on an institutional
level.
We have to get inside our institutions people
who are service-oriented who all they want
to do is serve and find ways to
serve.
This series is something I put together a
number of years ago and I've been waiting
for the right time to kind of present
it and it's very dear to me.
The concepts in it are very important and
if you haven't heard the whole thing I
would ask you to or request that you
listen to it again and give me feedback
on it.
The references I used are many.
You'll find them in the comments on the
page if you're interested.
Everything that Sheikh Mohammed al-Ghazali wrote, everything
Sheikh Khalid Tantawi wrote, everything Dr. Ahmed Khair
al-Omri writes.
The book of Sahwa al-Islamiyya for Ibn
Uthaymeen, for example, Shurut al-Naghda for Malik
ibn Nabi, for example, Fi Afaq al-Ta
'aleen by Saeed Hawa, for example, Haya al
-Ulum al-Din for Imam al-Ghazali, the
books of Dr. Mohammed Ammarah.
I put a list of references of books
that I throughout the years I've read and
I put together these ideas from and I
don't know if they're all translated or not
into English, but you can look at them
and you can Google them and read and
try and think about, you know, we are
in need of a modern awakening.
It doesn't have to be exactly the way
the Muslims rose back in the day, back
when the Prophet Ali was around.
We're going to need an awakening that suits
the parameters of our reality.
We're going to need, it's going to look
different.
The modern awakening of Muslims is not going
to be identical to how the Khilafah was,
for example, it's not going to be like
that.
It's going to be something that has the
same values, same concepts, the same ideas.
It's going to contain with it the spirit
and the essence of what Islam is, but
it'll look a bit different.
It's a modern awakening.
It's something that's going to suit us, our
time, our reality in the era that we
live in.
And I believe that the concepts that I
shared with you in these seven episodes are
critical and crucial for a modern awakening, regardless
of where people are living, listening to this,
whether you're living in North America or you're
living in Europe or you're living in Islamic
countries.
If these concepts and these topics that I
talked about can be revisited, revised, and tweaked
and fixed in a way that allows them
to actually serve their purpose, then inshallah, you
will see a lot of khair in a
short period of time.
And I hope really that my younger brothers
and sisters take time to listen to this
and actually consider applying these ideas to their
lives.
The goal is, inshallah, tomorrow at the same
time at 5.30, we will have a
Q&A session.
It'll be live, inshallah.
There'll be a Facebook page and you'll be
able to put your questions there.
You can even put questions on the Facebook
page right now and I can collect them
and answer them tomorrow.
And you can ask questions live as well,
inshallah.
And I can address any concerns or if
there's any feedback regarding this series or any
plans of what we can do moving forward,
inshallah, collectively as a Muslim community.
Suggestions or ideas of what we can start
doing and how we can apply some of
these concepts and what we need and what
is missing within our societies.
So please, inshallah, I'll run it tomorrow.
If there are no questions, I'll probably cut
it short because I don't want to sit
and play on my phone the whole time.
If there is interest and there are questions,
then inshallah, we'll run it for around an
hour if that's something people are interested in
participating in.
I hope this series was beneficial.
Whatever good you found in this series was
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala alone and
whatever mistakes you heard was mine and I
seek Allah's forgiveness for them and I seek
yours as well.
And may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala accept
our deeds and grant us qabool yawm al
qiyamah and allow us to enjoy the rest
of Ramadan and open our masajid as soon
as possible and alleviate this difficulty that we
are going through as a human race.
Allahumma ameen.