Ahmad Arshad – Hazrat Bayan # 9
AI: Summary ©
The segment discusses the complex human creation process of removing a body from its body, the deen, and the importance of organizing oneself in a beneficial way. The deen is a complete adoption and the way in which individuals act is the way in which they act. The deen is a complete adoption and the way in which individuals act is the way in which they act. The deen is a complete adoption and the way in which individuals act is the way in which they act. The deen is a complete adoption and the way in which individuals act is the way in which they act. The deen is a complete adoption and the way in which individuals act is the way in which they act. The deen is a complete adoption and the way in which individuals act is the way in which they act. The deen is a complete adoption and the way in which individuals act is the way in which they act. The deen is a complete adoption and the way in which individuals act is
AI: Summary ©
My dear brothers, if we look at the
human creation, we find that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala has created this insan as a
very complex organism.
I always tell my students who are doctors
that just studying medicine should open up doors
of ma'arifa to you because every day
you come across so many findings that you
are left with nothing but saying subhanallah over
them.
So if you look at our body, Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala has made us as
a combination of seemingly very opposite and different
systems.
For example, I am able to see you
with my eyes because Allah ta'ala has
put those properties in it but I cannot
listen with my eyes, I cannot taste with
my eyes because that is something else.
I can taste with my tongue but I
cannot taste with my ears.
I can hear people with my ears but
I cannot use it for some other function.
So every function or every organ that Allah
ta'ala has given us, outside or inside,
they are very different.
My heart will pump, my lungs, it is
going to be used for breathing purposes.
I have a blood system, a vascular system
that is being used as a transportation system
inside.
All of these things with all of the
organs and tissues and cells and within the
cells as well, this is a kainat, this
is a universe that exists.
But sometimes you wonder how is it that
all of these different things and organs are
able to come together and act as one.
Because when we look at each other, we
identify each other as a person.
Abdullah, Muhammad, I don't say eyes of Abdullah
and now I am going to be talking
to ears of Abdullah and now I am
going to be talking to the heart of
Abdullah.
No, we recognize a person.
And the reason for that is that Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala has put something immaterial
in this body, in this jisam and jasad,
which the Quran calls the ruh, which is
an amri rabbi.
And once this ruh enters the body, now
sort of harmony comes within it.
Now it acts as one.
Despite the differences, now it is acting as
one so much so that that is how
we recognize the person as well.
Because of the presence of the ruh.
And as long as the ruh exists, the
body is going to act like that.
And it is so harmonious, this existence, and
there is so much working together between these
organs that if one part stops to work
the way it is supposed to, the whole
body is affected by it.
So for example, if you are walking and
you stub your toe, it is your toe
that got hurt, but you find your hand
rubbing it.
You find tears flowing from the eyes.
You find that your tongue is moaning because
of the hurt that you are feeling.
It could very well be like the eyes
could be rebellious.
They can say, well, nothing happened to me.
Why should I care about what has happened
to the toe?
But we understand this.
This is how our understanding of our own
existence is.
That yes, it is the toe that is
getting hurt, but it is affecting my whole
body.
And so the whole body has to react
to it, respond to it.
Now, once this ruh is taken out, which
is what happens when we taste death, once
the ruh is taken out, it is chemically
the same person.
The same organs still exist.
The same tissues and cells are still there.
But Allah Ta'ala has taken away the
ruh, the soul, the asal from the body,
which makes it act as one.
Now, all of these organs and tissues, now
they become strangers to each other.
You can take a knife, you can cut
off the arm.
This time around, the eyes are not going
to cry, the tongue is not going to
moan.
Your hand is not going to come to
the rescue.
Why is that?
It is the same person, it is the
same body.
People will say, well, now this person is
dead.
Before, that person was alive.
When the ruh is taken out, we call
such a person a mayyat, a dead body.
And a dead body is exactly that.
It is extremely, extremely dead and static.
And so, this is something that we need
to understand on an individual level.
There is something that brings things together.
And when we talk about our collective existence,
because we are, you know, human beings are
social animals as they say.
We live in a collection.
There has to be something that is able
to bring the hearts of human beings together.
Just like they are glue.
I was looking at this very wonderful structure
and honestly I was thinking, how did they
do it?
What is this made of?
Is it bricks coming together?
Because if you have bricks, you need cement.
Is this made from some kind of wood?
If it is wood, you need some special
kind of nailing.
If it is made from some other material,
to be able to connect it, because this
is not just one thing, there are a
bunch of materials coming together, you need a
third thing to bring it together.
And so the question becomes, when we are
talking about people who may have coming from
different backgrounds, different ethnicities, different colors, different
races, different languages, different cultures, well there has
to be something that acts as a rooh,
there has to be something that acts as
glue.
Because people need to be connected.
Something has to be there to connect us.
And this, we can argue, is the Deen
of Allah SWT.
This Deen acts as a glue that connects
the hearts of people, people who come from
extremely different backgrounds.
It just connects the hearts.
It is the rooh that allows everybody to
work as one, act as a body.
And just like a dead body, when the
rooh is taken out, now you can take
and try to pump artificial air into it
through a ventilator, you will see the air
clinging, but the doctors will tell you this
person is physically dead.
You can try to replace that rooh, that
iman, that Allah SWT has given, and try
to replace it with other ideologies and philosophies
and isms, it may seem like that person
is alive, but that body will be dead.
And so it is important that we recognize
this iman, this islam, as not something that
is required just for our individual existence.
This iman, this islam, is the glue that
Allah SWT has sent down to connect mankind,
to connect humanity.
And if you take that out, then there
is utter anarchy, and we can see that.
If you take the rooh out, there is
utter death, and we can see that as
well.
We can see that as well.
This really is how the Divine Creator wants
us to organize our societies, having an Allah
-centric life, in which our hearts are open
up to Divine existence, and because of that,
Allah SWT blesses us with such a connection,
that there is so much muhabbat and muaddat
that we act like one body.
And this is what the Quran tells us,
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ Verily, those people
whose hearts are open to iman, وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ
and they actualize their iman into actions in
their life, سَيَجْعَلُ لَهُمُ الرَّحْمَنُ وُدًّا Allah SWT
will bless, and this is a Divine gift
that comes as a result of إِنَّ الَّذِينَ
آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ that Allah SWT will bless
such hearts with what?
وُدًّا وُدًّا is very focused muhabbat, very devoted
love.
We know that wudud is the name of
Allah SWT as well.
And wudud is somebody who is very loyal
and devoted, and loves you entirely.
And so Allah SWT says, different people from
different backgrounds, all you need to do is
open up your heart to iman, and actualize
the deen in your lives, and then you
will find that connection, and it is a
gift.
It's not because of our own doing.
Because Allah SWT says to Rasulullah ﷺ as
well, that O' Nabi ﷺ, if you wanted,
if you spent all the wealth, and if
you tried to put ulfat, that muhabbat, that
love in the hearts of the believers, that
love would not come, it is Allah SWT
who puts that love.
It's Allah SWT who puts it.
So this is like a divine plan, that
we individually organize ourselves in a specific way,
and our communal organization will automatically fix ourselves.
Now that communal organization could be family, right?
Once you start a family, what do you
need?
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ You have that,
and you are committed to it, Allah SWT
will put that muhabbat.
Because some people do complain, that I do
not have لِتَسْكُنُوا إِلَيْهَا I do not have
the sukoon, I do not have the peace
that I am looking for.
What is missing?
That is what is missing.
But the adoption of the deen, it really
has to be a complete adoption.
You know that hadith mubarakah, الدين النصيحة It
really talks about deen, a way of life,
and this is معارفة معارفة that this deen
is nothing but providing benefit to others.
It is nothing but being a source of
khair for others.
And the way this conjugation has been done,
it tells you that these two things cannot
exist without each other.
So wherever deen is going to be, there
is going to be overflowing khair there.
And wherever you find khair, there is going
to be deen there as well.
However, if sometimes you find so-called deen
somewhere, but you do not find khair there,
there is some nuqs, not in the deen
but the implementation of it.
Because these two things, according to the most
truthful tongue, that of Rasulullah ﷺ, these two
things will always go together.
So we need to become those people who
are serious about our deen and making it
our collective identity because this is what Allah
SWT wants us to live.
Because of this beautiful deen, Allah SWT has
made us part of the Ummah of Rasulullah
ﷺ.
And this is something so amazing.
This transnational, this supranational entity, where it does
not matter what the background is, as soon
as that iman enters, we feel this manusiyat,
this familiarity that we feel.
It does not matter where you go.
You come across a mu'min and a Muslim,
you always find that connection.
You may not even understand their language.
You may not even eat the same cuisine,
but there is a connection there.
And that is miraculous in nature.
Because from a secular perspective, it is very
difficult to understand that.
That this faith community has such a connection
across political boundaries, across language barriers, and across
different cultures.
That connection is amazing.
And this is why Allah SWT mentions إِنَّمَا
الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ This brotherhood or this sisterhood that
Allah SWT is talking about because when you
are brothers, you are sharing the same blood.
But here we are sharing the same spirit,
which is more stronger.
Sometimes it is stronger than blood relationship.
That it connects us, that it makes us
one.
So the reason that I wanted to sort
of bring our attention to this is because
obviously what is happening around the world, you
know, we find yet again that the Ummah
of Rasulullah ﷺ is facing again a trial
and tribulation.
Well, in this time specifically there is extermination
going on.
You have children, you have babies who are
being blown to bits.
You have mothers and daughters whose Izzah, whose
honor is not safe anymore.
So it is their bodily existence, it is
the existence of their Iman, it is the
places of their worship, it is the places
of their residence.
All of those things are getting utterly destroyed.
And yet, are we acting as a single
body?
Just like if I stub my toe, the
whole body will react to it.
Do we find that the reaction to these,
you know, basically this holocaust, this genocide that
is ongoing, is it the way that it
should be that we are acting like as
one body?
Do we have the fikr?
Do we have the gham?
Do we have that grief in our heart
that keeps us up at night because we
cannot eat knowing that our brothers and sisters
are starving.
That we cannot drink knowing that they do
not have clean water to drink.
That we are unable to sleep in our
beds.
We wake up at night because they are
out there in wet, cold tents.
Because this is how one body would have
reacted.
And so it seems that there has something
that has penetrated deep within the Ummah and
caused a rot.
Now we don't see ourselves as one group.
We don't.
And so things happen.
I mean just look at every single country
around the world.
Not only Palestine, whether it's Gaza, whether it's
Lebanon, whether it's Syria, hundreds of thousands of
people killed, whether it's Yemen, whether it's Sudan,
even Muslims killing Muslims, Nigeria, Somalia, you know,
there are so many different places that the
Ummah is in dire, dire trouble.
But the problem becomes that we become those
people, not only do we not do anything
about it, sometimes we are so paralyzed that
we feel this fear even to say anything
about it.
This lack of being able to say Kalima
-e-Haq, the righteous Kalima, that shows even
a deeper rot, this level of weakness, this
level of cowardice, that has penetrated within us
that we are saying that as long as
I am okay in the little bubble that
I have created for myself, nothing, you know,
it doesn't matter what happens around the world.
As long as I am safe, my family
is safe, my business is safe, my job
is safe, my career is safe, that is
all that matters.
And anything else that happens to the Ummah
of Rasulullah ﷺ, something that was really part
and parcel of who we are, it doesn't
matter anymore.
And which is really just taking this Deen
and flipping it upside down.
Because that is not the sort of collective
identity and collective life that Rasulullah ﷺ wanted
us to live.
And it is very sad, I mean if
you go down the history, especially the last,
I would say the 150 years, you know,
Muslims themselves have caused this.
That they have let go of their primary
identity of Qur'an and Sunnah and coming
under it together.
And inspired by, again, isms and ideologies outside.
Those who have studied history, we know that
when nationalist movements started, at the end of
the 19th century, you find that the Muslims
actually followed suit as well.
And rather than looking at ourselves as a
collective, as an Ummah, looking at pan-Islamism,
you know, it doesn't matter who we are,
we are connected.
Whether it is politics, whether it is economy,
whether it is sociology, anthropology, it doesn't matter
what area of humanities we are talking about,
we are connected together.
People separated it out and then you had
all sorts of others, you know, you had
pan-Arabism that came up and it started
to fracture the Ummah.
Pan-Turkism came up, started fracturing Ummah because
they started to look at themselves not solely
as the Ummah of Rasulullah ﷺ, now they
are taking their language, their ethnicities, and it
actually spread like fire.
They tried to bring in, you know, ideologies
like socialism and what not and tried to
implement that within our societies as well.
And seriously, we need to become better students
of history.
And you will see the decline of the
Ummah and anarchy and fasad and fitna that
has followed us for the last 150 years.
Because we are replacing something that Allah ﷻ
has given us as a gift with something
else that will not act as the glue
at all.
And, you know, I'm reminded of that story,
you know, when we were young there was
something called Aesop's Fables.
You know, Aesop's Fables, you know, these are
stories with some kind of a lesson to
be learned.
There are a couple of them, you know,
one of them was that one time a
father was passing away and so he brought
together all of his sons and he says,
you know, sons, I want you to stay
together, stick together no matter what.
And the way that he explained it because
he said that each of you bring me
bring me some sticks.
So they brought some sticks and he said,
now individually try to break them.
And each and every one of them they
were able to break the individual sticks.
And then he says, now bring the sticks
together and now try to break them.
And they all tried, they all tried and
they were unable to do.
I mean, it's a simple baby story.
But the lesson there is that our connectedness
was our strength.
We were able to do for each other
as a collective that we have not been
able to do for each other now that
we are completely fragmented.
I mean, look at this.
Two billion Muslims.
You start counting, it will take you years
to end the count.
But two billion Muslims, they are so fractured
and fragmented that it doesn't even feel like
something is happening because all of these separate
nation states have been created.
And now, Allahu Akbar Kabira, it doesn't matter
what is happening to Al-Quds, it doesn't
matter what is happening to some other places,
as long as my little nation state is
OK and there's nothing happening there.
There's nothing happening there.
Another fable, there was once a lion, he
came across a herd of bulls that used
to live together.
And so he wanted to eat them, but
every time he would attack, they would come
together and defend each other.
And so you know what he did?
He went and one time he found one
of them alone.
So he said that rather than just eating
the bull, here, let me play a trick.
And so he went up to him and
he said, you know what, you're the best
bull and I'm your friend, you're just wasting
your time with the others, so why don't
you just, you know, you don't need to
be with them, you're so much better.
And they're not your friends, they're your enemies.
So individually, he went to each of the
bulls and he was able to sow the
seeds of discontent in their hearts.
And so what happened was they started to
absorb and they started to think like that
as well.
And before you know it, that whole herd
was broken up.
And you know, it was Eid for the
lion.
He went to one of them and he
ate that ox.
He went to the second and ate that
bull.
And he went to the third one and
he ate the bull as well.
Exactly like that.
The Ummah is getting consumed.
One nation state, one country at a time,
and everybody else is just hoping that something
like that will not happen.
You know, recently, I think in Jummah, we
mentioned that hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ in which
Nabi ﷺ spoke about this state.
The state where the nations of the Ummah
will invite each other to come and attack
the Ummah of Rasulullah ﷺ just like people
invite each other over Sufra.
You know, you first, you eat this dish,
you eat this dish.
You know, just like that lion.
Let's eat this, let's finish up with this
dish.
Let's go to the second, let's go to
the third.
And the Sahaba Kiram Rizwanullah Hajmeen, they were
shocked by this.
They asked Rasulullah ﷺ, will we be less
in numbers?
And Nabi ﷺ said no.
You will be numerous in numbers but you
will be like garbage, like trash, like scum,
like foam and froth on the waves.
You will be nothing.
No existence of your own.
And Allah ﷻ will take away your ru
'b, your haybah, your fear from the hearts
of your enemies.
And your hearts will be filled with enervation,
with fatigue, exhaustion, unable to think for themselves,
unable to act, no direction, waiting for other
people to claim your narrative and impose their
narratives on you.
And you will just be like a nobody,
like garbage.
Other people will decide for you.
And so the word that Nabi ﷺ used,
this fatigue, it's called wahan.
This is present in Qur'an and Sunnah.
Wahan is, you know, the literal translation is
exhaustion and fatigue.
But Nabi ﷺ explained this, Nabi ﷺ, what
is this wahan?
He said, حُبَّ الدُّنْيَا love and attachment to
this little wretched world وَكَرَاهِيَةُ الْمَوْتِ that you
don't want to think about your death, you
don't want to think about your akhirah.
And it's not just our thinking, our mindset,
it is our تعليم and تربية as well.
We put into the minds of our children,
بيتا, do well in your دنيا, that dunya
matters, you have to become somebody.
And when it comes to mawt, how many
of us are actually teaching our children that
one day you have to leave this dunya,
you have to prepare for it.
Even when somebody comes and talks about this,
you know, sheikh, you're talking about depressing topics.
Literally somebody said, you know, you really shouldn't
be talking about jannat and jahannam, and you
really shouldn't be talking about this, you know,
the child is too young, he might become
too afraid.
It's like, isn't that what we're trying to
do, to put khawf of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ
تَعَالَى in the hearts of the children.
So they can become cautious and careful people
with taqwa.
But we don't want to do this.
And because of that lack of تعليم and
تربية, now that wahan has captured us, has
captured us.
And every single person, every single community you
find, that they have become so materialistic in
their existence, that we just don't have the
time to talk about that connection that Allah
سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى has given us.
And on top of that, this asabiyyah, that
Nabi ﷺ said, anybody who lives on asabiyyah
and dies on asabiyyah, he has died in
a death of ignorance.
Asabiyyah, you know, this nationalism, tribalism, you know,
based on anything.
You know, I'm from Pakistan, and even in
a country that was built in the name
of Islam, you find this.
It's so ajeeb that it is happening.
It is so ajeeb that it's happening.
This is the lack of adoption of true
faith, a faith that transforms and changes the
heart.
You have Punjabis who are saying things about
the Pakhtuns, and Pakhtuns saying things about the
Punjabis, and the Sindhis, and the people, the
muhajireen, and this and that.
It's so ajeeb that we are otherizing our
Muslim brothers and sisters.
We are otherizing it.
We are excluding them.
We are not even looking at them as
part of us.
Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى وَاعْتَسِمُوا بِحَبْلِ اللَّهِ جَمِيَّا
وَلَا تَفَرُقُوا Do not fall into this into
the differentiation.
Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى has created this differentiation
so we can recognize each other.
And there's beauty in it.
You go to a garden and you find
different flowers of different colors and fragrances.
Isn't that beautiful?
This is why Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَى created
us in qabail and tribes and different languages
and cultures.
Only for that.
Not so we take it as a source
of animosity and hatred.
On top of this asabiyyah, that is so
prevalent today.
That is so prevalent today.
Every country you will go, you will hear
it.
We have to become keen listeners.
You go and you find this.
Nabi ﷺ is negating this.
He is negating it completely towards the end
of his life in this dunya.
He is saying this, know that any Arab
has no precedence over any ajab.
And any ajami does not have any sort
of superiority of any Arab.
A black is not better than a white.
A white is not better than a black.
These are just telling us different ways that
people like to differentiate.
It happens.
There's a lot of racism within our communities
as well.
A lot of racism based on color.
We will say things na'udhu billah min
zalik that are extremely ignorant.
Extremely ignorant based on language and race and
culture and what not.
It's extremely ignorant.
And so Nabi ﷺ negated all of that.
The person that has any value in the
eyes of Allah ﷻ is a person that
has God consciousness in their hearts.
Taqwa in their hearts.
That is all Allah ﷻ cares about.
This physical form, Allah ﷻ does not care.
Because we have no control over it.
Where I was born, I had no control
over that.
What color I am, what language I speak,
what I eat, what I don't eat, my
culture and what not.
That's not my decision.
Allah ﷻ created this my qadr.
And so hating each other and despising each
other based on things that are not in
our control is mind-boggling.
And if you go back my dear brothers
and if you look at every single time,
every single time where we left this principle,
there was more division and more division.
You know, going back to Pakistan, 1971, our
own brothers and sisters, we stopped looking at
them as Muslim brothers and sisters in other
division.
In other division.
And it just keeps on going.
This is like heart-breaking.
Why is it that we are not waking
up to this tragedy that is happening to
the ummah?
Why is it that, you know, you have
Europe who for thousands of years they have
been mortal enemies.
They have different religions, different ways of life,
different language, nothing connected them.
They have been able to come together after
the utter destruction of World War II.
Still they have been able to connect each
other at least on a political, economical level
with this European Union.
We have not been able to do that.
While our hearts are supposed to be connected.
It is the same Qur'an everywhere.
It is the same sunnah everywhere.
Yet we are unable to do that.
I mean, it warrants some thinking.
Why aren't we thinking about that?
Isn't deen more than just our aqaid and
ibadat?
Isn't this...
There is a whole part of the deen
that talks about how do we organize our
mu'ashirat?
How do we do our mu'amalat?
How do these things need to take place?
Why is it that we have to look
at the West for answers to every problem
that 2 billion people face?
We are waiting for answers from them.
This is how paralyzed we have become.
This is not the state that Rasulullah ﷺ
left the ummah.
They were leaders.
They led.
They led humanity.
Only 124,000 people.
And a part of them, they went in
the expeditions.
They changed the face of the world.
They changed the cultures of the world.
They changed everything.
Because they were so grounded in their deen.
They took it seriously.
To them, it was more than just something
that is a part of their life.
It was their life.
And so you had sahaba karam from all
different backgrounds.
You have rumis.
You have Persians.
You have ta'bain and ta'ba ta
'bain from many different backgrounds.
Yet, they were acting as one, alhamdulillah.
And as long as they acted as one,
Allah ﷻ put barakah.
And they cared for each other.
They cared immensely for each other.
I mean, you know, the examples of sahaba
karam, how they exercised self-sacrifice when any
person was in need.
The sacrifice of the ansar for the muhajireen.
You know, they were different people.
But they were doing it because the iman
was forcing them to do it.
Their iman was making them act in a
different way.
Same thing with ta'bain and ta'ba
ta'bain.
There are many stories like that.
You know, there was a sheikh.
His name was Abu Hassan Nuri.
It is said about him that in his
time, some people, they murdered somebody close to
the governor of the time.
So the governor was extremely angry and he
wanted to take revenge.
So he gathered some people and he says
that we are going to make these people
as an example.
And so Abu Hassan Nuri was amongst them.
So somebody told the governor, you know, there
is a big sheikh here.
Please don't, you know, don't murder him because
it is going to cause a lot of
riots.
So he says basically, he collects everybody.
He is like, okay, now the execution is
going to take place.
And what does he see?
He sees that all the people who were
gathered who would have been executed, Abu Hassan
Nuri, he stands up front as the first
person.
Now he obviously does not want to hurt
him.
So he says, okay, you know, we will
postpone.
Let's do it tomorrow.
So tomorrow in a different place, he calls
them again.
This time again, Abu Hassan Nuri, he comes
up front as the first person to present
himself for execution.
This happens two or three times.
Now the governor himself becomes frustrated.
And he calls him.
He says, take a hint.
I am trying to save your life.
What are you doing?
Why are you the first one always when
the execution is about to happen?
And he says that I know that you
want to execute these people and I present
myself as the first one.
So when you execute me, this will give
that much more time for my brothers to
live.
They will have that many more minutes or
hours or whatever to live and I'd rather
you kill me than you hurt my brothers.
So it's very ajeeb.
This was the level of self-sacrifice.
This was the level of concern that the
Muslims had for each other.
You know, we have always been told when
we were growing up that in the states,
in South Asia, when the King Dahir from
Sindh, when he took some Muslims as hostages,
there were some women who were present there.
And they called out that why is it
that the Khalif, the Umayyad Khalif, why is
it that the Khalif does not care about
us?
Why doesn't he help us?
And Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, who himself was a
tyrant, when he heard this, he sent his
own nephew who was 17-18 years old,
very young person, to go and rescue these
Muslim hostages.
This is at least the level that, yes,
the zulm he did on the Ummah, that's
a separate thing.
But they actually cared about what is happening
and how others are treating the mu'mineen.
And now Muslims, they're screaming, they're yelling with
dead bodies in their hands.
There's nothing.
I mean, how many of us actually make
dua for them?
That's the least we should be doing, right?
How many of us wake up at night,
go into sajdah, and cry in front of
Allah Ta'ala, that, O Allah, these are
our brothers and sisters.
They are in this trial and tribulation.
They are not worse than us.
We are not better than them.
That we are saved and preserved from this.
O Allah, please send down your nusrah.
Help us help them.
Use us to help them.
Do we even make that dua?
Or is it that for us it's just
like, OK, something is happening across Atlantic, and
it doesn't really affect me because I am
sort of living in my own life.
So we need to become a little more
conscious of what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
has given us.
And this really hit me.
I want to share a personal anecdote.
This really hit me 23 years ago.
Or less than 23 years ago.
Allah Ta'ala gave me the opportunity to
travel for Hajj.
And this was right after 9-11.
It was a few months after 9-11.
And as you can imagine, there was a
lot of uncertainty.
It was chaotic.
And while I was in Hajj, it just
so happened that I lost my travel documents.
You know, my passport and everything in it.
I lost it.
And it became very difficult for me to
get a new passport or travel document to
come back.
So I am extremely worried because it's in
the middle of the Hajj.
Hajj was not as organized as it is
now.
So I am standing there, I'm thinking what
do I do?
Who do I go to?
You know, the groups were not arranged like
they are arranged now.
Every person was sort of on their own.
And at that moment, somebody who was not
even a part of the few people who
were traveling together, he was probably part of
the same tent.
He heard that this was happening, so he
came up to me.
He's like, okay, what happened?
I was like, this is what happened.
He said, okay, I live in Jeddah and
there are other I know some people and
inshallah, you can be our guest.
And I was like, okay, well, inshallah, jazakallah
for offering this.
And he said, you know, the apartment is
close by to the U.S. consulate, so
it will be easy for you to talk
to them and get your paperwork.
So I come to Jeddah.
Again, I had never really lived in Jeddah.
You only just land on Jeddah airport and
go to the haram.
So first time really that I am exploring
Jeddah and they take me to an apartment
complex.
There were two rooms there and there were
Muslims from sort of different backgrounds but they
were laborers.
And these laborers, who were immigrants, they were
living in two bedrooms and I remember when
they heard what had happened to me, they
actually emptied out a room completely.
They chose to sleep on the couch, some
on the floor outside.
A whole room was emptied out.
And they're like, you stay here and you
stay as long as you want.
Because I had no idea.
I could have stayed there for months because
it was just so unclear.
I ended up staying there for 40 days.
For 40 days they just opened up their
homes, gave up the room, everything, shelter, food,
etc.
Why?
I didn't know any single one of them.
And so I was just like, you know,
we have to become students, we have to
try to understand human psychology and what motivates
people.
So I was trying to understand.
And even my time there, it was so
amazing.
I'll share a couple of stories with you.
I remember that when, you know, obviously people,
you know, with a small community, so the
word spreads.
Very soon, you know, people started coming to
the apartment.
And they were like, okay brother, you're a
Musafir, you're in trouble, do you need something?
Okay.
The director of Saudi Airlines, a Saudi, he
came and he knocks on the door and
he says, is there something I can do?
He thought that maybe I needed a flight.
He said, can I get a flight for
you so you can come back, go back
to your home?
I said, no, no, this is something to
do with travel documents, etc.
And he was willing to do whatever it
took to help me.
Then another person came, he was from Egypt,
so this was a Saudi.
Another person came from Egypt, an elderly person,
and he was like Ahle Zikr, you know,
he's doing his Zikr.
And this person takes me, he takes me
to one of these local restaurants and he's
like, you know, I have to give you
Ziyafat.
I have to give you some food.
Alhamdulillah, you know, this is something that Nabi
ﷺ has told that if somebody invites you,
you should accept it.
And so I go there and he's asking,
he's like, okay brother, you know, do you
need something?
And I'm trying, I'm speaking in my broken
Arabic.
And when I am about to leave, he
tries to force some Faloos, some money in
my hand.
I mean, he was not that rich himself.
I was like, no, no, no, you know,
because, you know, coming from America, you know,
you're very, sort of like try to be
independent, I don't need anybody.
He's like, no, I don't need anything, Jazakallah,
I have the money, which I did.
And so, but he was so, you know,
he's like, no, no, if you need anything,
tell me, eat this, that and the other.
And I was like, you know, just your
Duas are enough.
So this was like the second person.
Now the third person, he was a Muhandis.
A Muhandis is an engineer.
He used to work somewhere and so he
said, he comes up to me and he
says, you know, I want to take you
to different Masajid in Jeddah.
He was very much attached to the Qur
'an.
So he just drove me around, went to
different Masajid, listening to the Qur'an and
listening to different, you know, Masha'ikh there.
And when we come back, we're sitting in
the car, you know, I look at him
and he's in deep thought.
And before I could say something, he started
crying.
This elderly person, he's crying and he's weeping.
And I'm thinking, how did I offend this
guy?
What did I do?
Did I say something?
Did I do something?
So I'm, you know, I'm sorry if I
had offended you in any way.
Please forgive me.
He says, no, no, no.
The reason I'm crying is because I want
to ask you a favor.
And I'm just afraid that, you know, you're
going to say no.
Now my, again, the American brain, I wonder
what he's going to ask.
Does he want a visa to America?
Does he want something, you know?
You know, it's you know, I mean, this
is how cynical we are.
And I was like, you know, brother, if
there's anything I can do, it's in my
control inshallah, I will try to do it.
And Allah Ta'ala is my witness.
This guy, he takes out three thousand riyals,
Saudi riyals, from his pocket.
And he gives it to me and he
says, you know, I want you to take
it because you are in so much need.
Because you are in trouble, you know, I
know that you're just, you know, this is,
you're a musafir, you are a stranger in
this land.
You know, so please take this.
And I was like, again, no, no, no,
brother, I don't need this, I don't need
this.
And he said, you know, he was still
crying.
And he's like, you know, you said that
you will do me this favor.
And now I gave in because you know,
Nabi Salaam said, give each other hadiyah, Allah
will increase you in your love.
But I was amazed at that gesture.
Imagine three thousand riyals, that's, you know, close
to a thousand dollars, US dollar.
This person just gives it to me.
And I'm, again, like I'm thinking the psychology
behind this.
What is going on here?
Why are people acting this way?
There were two people, mashallah, nice Saudis, and
you know, again, belonging to very different, you
know, as we would call like, sects.
So they were people, you know, who understood
deen from a very specific angle.
Obviously, you know, I came from a very
traditional background.
But when it came to something like that,
you know, they were like, okay, you don't
have a travel document, don't worry, we are
Saudis, inshallah, we are going over Umrah, and
you are more than welcome to go.
So they actually took me, and when we
were stopped, they spoke to the army people,
whoever, they're like, no, no, no, he's our
guest, don't worry about him.
They actually took me to Umrah as well,
and I was able to perform.
They didn't need to.
These people, you know, because somebody was telling
them, oh, you know, it's a traditional person
from very different kind of understanding about the
deen, you know, to cause some strife.
But they were like, no, it doesn't matter.
You come, you want to do Umrah, inshallah,
come with us.
And last, what I, you know, was, I
guess, that really touched my heart, and again,
this is happening over the course of 40
days.
I remember that there was a Jamia Masjid
in front of the apartment building, and close
by, there was a smaller Musalla.
This is back when they had not Arabized
all the imams.
You know, you had imams from different backgrounds
as well.
So the small Musalla, there was an imam
from Sudan.
An imam from Sudan.
Mashallah, such a beautiful person.
Obviously, extremely dark skinned, but he had so
much nur on his face, your eyes could
not settle on his face.
He had such nur, such light on him.
And, you know, it was ajeeb.
He stuttered.
He stuttered, you know, because there were some
looks, so he stuttered when he recited.
But Allah Ta'ala had given him such
love of the Quran, that when he would
start reciting, very plain, but it was such
an involved recitation, that you would just start
saying, Ya Allah kareem, just please put it
in his heart so he keeps on reciting.
Something would happen to your heart.
It would touch your heart.
Such an amazing person.
Very beautiful smile on his face.
And he was extremely poor because in that
small Musalla, there was a curtain and he
used to live behind that.
He did not have a separate home that
he lived in.
And so, Alhamdulillah, I got my travel documents
and I was going to be traveling after
a couple of days.
So I went to the Imam and said,
Alhamdulillah, my mushkil, my musibah is over now.
I can go back to my family.
So he says, Inshallah, I want to do
ziyafat for you.
I want to invite you for dinner.
And, you know, I knew his halat.
So I was like, no, no, Sheikh, there's
no need.
Just sitting in your company is enough.
MashaAllah, you know, listening to your recitation is
enough food for me.
I said, no, no, no, tomorrow, Inshallah, whatever
we can.
He's like, okay.
So next day, I go to him and,
you know, mashaAllah, he presents daal roti in
front of me.
And I look at it and I'm amazed.
Because he, his own food was, right, a
different cuisine, Mediterranean cuisine.
So I was like, Sheikh, where did you
get this daal roti from?
Daal roti, right?
And the Sheikh said, you know, subhanAllah, he
said that, I knew that I had invited
you, but I didn't want to give you
food that we ate because I didn't know
if you would like it or not.
Like, Allahu Akbar, this is what he's thinking.
So he takes that trip all the way
to Shahr-e-Sittin, a place where Indian
and Pakistani restaurants were.
He didn't know what they ate.
So he just says, just give me that
food that everybody can eat and enjoy.
And so the people, you know, the shopkeeper,
they're like, okay, here's daal roti.
And so, alhamdulillah, you know, I ate that
daal roti, Allah knows, I mean, that was
one of the best daal rotis I had
eaten in my life.
You know, because it was not just the
daal roti, it was the khulus, it was
the muhabbat, you know, that came from the
heart of the Sheikh.
I still remember his beautiful face, I don't
know whatever happened to him.
But after all of this, on my way
back, I'm thinking, you know, this is what
Islam is.
This is what Islam is.
I came across Egyptians and Saudis and people
from other lands and Sudanese and this is
what Islam is.
That unfiltered muhabbat and ishq, connection, love for
each other, care for each other, that you
don't care you know, that that person belongs
to your tribe or not.
All there is, is that la ilaha illallah
Muhammadur Rasulullah and that is enough.
That is enough of the connection.
These are our values.
This is what gives us meaning and this
is what makes us an ummah.
So there is a need inshallah, and inshallah
we're going to end this talk now.
You know, this was just sort of, you
know, basically what's going on around the world.
It's, you know, that the ummah is in
such slumber, it's like, what will wake us
up?
What will wake us up?
Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants us
to wake up.
Fix yourselves.
Become one again.
Let go of all the differences.
You know, I have a specific fiqh that
I follow.
That fiqh has been there for 1400 years.
I have a naqeedah that I follow.
That has been there for hundreds of years.
You may follow a different fiqh.
That's okay.
You know, I don't say ameen out loud.
You might say ameen out loud.
Alhamdulillah.
You do rafayah then, I don't do rafayah
then.
We all have our proofs.
That's okay.
It is okay.
We're not going to resolve these sectarian differences
if they have not been able to be
resolved for hundreds of years.
So stop dividing and stop hating and stop
having animosity for each other over little things.
All we need to, you know, when I
am standing for prayer, you know, sometimes people
will try to force their feet, that they
want to touch their feet.
You know what I do when somebody tries
to do that?
I don't resist it.
I don't resist it.
The poor guy, he's making effort to touch
the feet.
Okay, if you want to touch my feet,
here, touch my feet.
That's okay.
Because you are my brother in Islam.
You are doing sazda in front of the
same rab that I am doing sazda in
front of.
I am not going to try to make
a point here, and you know, because of
my own nafs.
If this helps your salah, go ahead, do
it.
Let's have huzooriya qalb.
Let's make sure that our heart is connected.
And we have to approach that this deen
is there to connect us, not divide us.
It is here to connect us.
And so whoever tries to divide the ummah,
reject that person.
Reject that person.
Nabi ﷺ made us one body.
He said in there couple of ahadith like
that.
Nabi ﷺ made us one body, let's act
like one body.
Body is supposed to be different.
They are not eyes all over the body.
They are different.
Alhamdulillah, the difference is okay.
As long as we have ikhlas, as long
as we have ishq of Allah ﷻ, as
long as we have ishq of Rasul ﷺ,
ishq of the Qur'an, this deen is
this maqsad, and we try our level best
to follow the Qur'an and sunnah.
You know, inshallah if you ask me a
question, I will answer you in the way
that I have learned it.
You can choose to accept it, you can
choose not to accept it.
Same thing, if you tell me, jazakallah khair,
jazakallah for letting me know it has increased
in my knowledge, but give me, you know,
give me the benefit of the doubt that
I am also trying to follow sunnah as
well.
Maybe, perhaps we have a different understanding of
sunnah.
That's okay.
And that's okay.
Alright, so let's not divide, you know, Deobandi,
Burelwi, Ahl-e-Hadith, this, falah, tamkant, you
know, this needs to be rejected now.
Okay?
Because there are enemies out there who are
trying to destroy the Ummah of Rasulullah ﷺ,
and if we keep on hanging on to
those petty differences, they will be successful at
what they are trying to do.
Alright?
So my dear brothers, inshallah, we make dua
to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that Allah
ta'ala blesses us with that muhabbat and
muaddat, blesses us with that care and love
for each other that will help us to
sacrifice our own needs for the sake of
falah.
That I'm going to, you know, there's a
hadith that Nabi ﷺ mentioned that you cannot
be a mu'min until you want for your
brother what you want for yourself.
So take this hadith, just take this.
I am going to want for all of
the Ummah what I want for myself.
Whatever goodness I want for myself, I'm going
to want for you.
Whatever sharr I want to protect myself from,
first and foremost, my own sharr, I'm going
to protect you from that and I want
you to be protected from it.
So inshallah, just little ahadith like that, they
are so profound that if only we adopted
this, only adopted those ahadith, they would be
enough to unite the Ummah.
They would be enough to unite the Ummah.
So inshallah, today, let's just make this intention
today, inshallah.
Let's just make this intention that from now
on, inshallah we are going to take a
proactive, proactive step in making sure we are
taking care of each other, no matter what
background they might be coming from, as long
as we are muslimeen and mu'mineen, inshallah, we
are going to be there for each other.
We are going to be ansar to the
muhajireen, inshallah.
May Allah ﷻ unite us, may Allah ﷻ
bring us together.
Ameen, Ya Rabbul Alameen.
Wa khudawwana alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen.