Ali Ataie – The Qualities of a Quintessential Believer
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
In light of an extremely
eventful year,
many challenges that has presented to our community,
I thought it would be useful to spend,
today's Eid Khutba,
looking at the qualities
of the quintessential
believer's
character,
As defined by our Lord, Allah Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala,
and our master Muhammad
In order for us to respond appropriately
in certain
to certain things,
crises,
or events,
to respond in a way
that inshallah will secure us the tawfee of
providence
of Allah
First of all, Allah
says, speaking directly to our master,
Then as the particle
is prior to an abstract noun,
this denotes
or mastery.
Verily, verily, you have mastered
magnificent
character.
In the Hadith that Imam Ahmed released
our master, Mohammed
Muhammad he said, I was only sent to
perfect noble ethics
and character.
He says,
righteousness is good character.
He
said
He said, indeed,
the most beloved of you to me and
the closest of you to me on the
day of judgment is the one who has
the best character.
He said,
He said peace and blessings of God, your
hand. There is nothing
waylier on the scale of a believer
on the day of judgment
than good character.
However, when we talk about good character,
we're not talking about good character in lieu
of the performance of righteous action.
We do not imagine an absolute
bifurcation
between personal huluq and a'amal.
These two things are not mutually exclusive.
In other words, someone who might say, I
don't pray, I don't fast, I don't do
the saka,
but I have good character. Such a person
person is in a state of or
delusion.
Righteous action is a function of good character.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam to be Baghdad
was a byproduct of this good character. Just
one
And Noah said to him, do you do
this? And it has been revealed to you
that your few future and past transgressions
have been,
forgiven in a transgression. A dumb of a
prophet is very different than
arson. The dumb of a prophet is leaving
an act act of great virtue
for an act of lesser virtue. There is
no question of deliberate disobedience
with the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam. This is
in his response
Shall I not be a grateful servant?
So this prolonged prayer was a reflection
of his character virtue
of shukr.
In other words, righteous action is a natural
byproduct of personal food.
If you love someone, you will demonstrate your
love to them.
Imam Hassan asked his brother, Muhammad Hussain. He's
is he the grandchildren of the prophet, sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam?
He asked his father, Sayid Naidi, karomulahu wa
chah, about the character of the prophet, sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. It's a long hadith. I'll
give you some highlights. We're short on time.
You'll find the,
narration in the Shamai of Imam al Tiberi
and his chapter
What exactly is this
The prophet
was always cheerful,
jovial,
affable,
easygoing,
imperturbable.
Mild manner,
gentle, gentle.
Lazily fumbled.
He was not harsh or hard hearted. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the
It is part of the incredible mercy. So
much emphasis
in the Arabic. It is part of the
incredible mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala that
you have leaned.
You have gentleness.
If you were harsh or hard hearted, people
would have fled from you.
Sayyidina Ali continues.
He was not loud. He was not vulgar
or obscene.
He did not point out the faults of
people.
Right?
We talked about this a few Germans
ago, a term that doctor Jackson uses. Islam.
You're walking down the street, you see a
Muslim smoking a cigarette. Hey, brother. Gotcha.
There's something pathological in some people. They need
to expose others. It makes them feel big
or something.
Says, the prophet left 3 things.
That he would leave argumentation.
He would lead excessive
talking.
He said. Whoever is silent saves himself.
There's a hadith,
attributed to Said Nabis alaihis salam, our master
Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, who said
9 tenths of iyada is silence.
90%
of worship is silence.
And that's how why you asked him what's
the other 10%. The other 10th. He said
fleeing from shohra.
Fleeing from fame.
Fleeing from reputation.
Fleeing from finding a place in the hearts
of the human beings.
But finding a place of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. So he left three things, argumentation,
excessive talking,
and and what was not his business.
From the beauty of a person's Islam is
that he needs that which is not concerning.
He continues,
That the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, he
did not insult or disgrace
And he did not speak unless
there was hope and some reward in what
he was saying.
Our mother
Aisha, she said about her husband, salallahu alayhi
alayhi wasalam. And I always say this almost
every footman. No one knows the man better
than
the wife.
Lan yadun Rasooloodani sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Faqishan.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was never
vulgar or crude or obscene. He never dropped
what we would call a 4 letter word,
an f bomb.
Right?
وَالحِ.
He wouldn't even raise his voice
in the marketplace.
He would not return an evil for an
evil.
But he, salallahu alayhi,
was forgiven and overlooked.
His
is described in the books of Adeb Kitah,
in the Hebrew bible,
in the Tanakh.
This was a janeel, this nabooma, when Abdullah
ibn Salam, a rabbi in Madin al Manawwara,
when he saw the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam coming, he said,
means he recognized, recognition
that the Khaled the Khaled, the physical attributes
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam are
mentioned in the books of Adhikijal. We don't
have enough time to go into that. But
he says he recognized the prophet's face. And
what's the face of Allah?
But also his kuruq.
Ildi Tanaz,
Isaiah
42. In the Hebrew, behold my Abidin,
my servant. This is the word in Hebrew.
This is the primary title of the prophet
salam alaihi wa sallam.
I will put my rule upon you, it
says. My spirit upon him. Mishpat ligo yay
yotsi. He will bring mishpat. Mishpat in Hebrew
means divine law, means religion,
means, judgment. Deen, they go in to the
Gentiles.
Right? To the Gentiles.
To the only yin. He is nadir only.
And then it says,
This
is exactly how our mother Aisha described
There are people in Medina who read these
descriptions in the Hebrew bible and the Mishahada
based on his quote. They didn't see a
miracle just on his character.
So
what are some of the virtuous character traits
we mentioned? Cheerfulness,
easy knowingness,
gentleness,
taciturnity,
meaning generally untalkative,
Inoffensiveness,
decency,
agreeability,
unintrusiveness,
quietude,
forgiveness.
How is the believer described in the Quran?
Look at Surah Al Khujarah.
The entire Surah is about social etiquette.
And I truly believe that if people who
applied this Ayah
are conditioned with vastly improved. Just this one
ayah. Literally, it says,
Do not advance yourselves
before Allah and his messenger.
Do not step in front of Allah and
his messenger.
What does that mean? Do not step in
front of Allah and his messenger? You're gonna
say that the believer is not prioritized
his own ideas, his own principles, his own
opinions,
over that of Allah and his Messenger.
We live in an age where many Muslims,
unfortunately,
under the guise of
social justice or activism
are embracing certain values and movements
that are at the very least
very difficult to justify
theologically and morally.
Rather than interrogating their own positions
in light of what Allah and his messenger
has said,
They interrogate Allah and his messenger
in light of their own positions. Instead of
instead of clutch onto the habawullah.
The Quran according to the tasir. Like you're
drowning.
Means to clutch onto a rope as if
you're drowning in the ocean. They have
of their Adua.
And they religiously sanctioned their desires.
This is fair.
This is an imperative.
Who
is
If you want mass at civil and domestic
authorities,
People say, oh, we don't have the clergy
in Islam. It's not exactly true. I have
3 words to come out to hit the
whole model of that whole idea.
The
These scholarly communities, the scholastic community are heirs
of the prophets according to the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam.
So civil and scholastic authorities.
Not celebrity speakers.
Not stand up comics.
Not rhetoricians.
Not participators.
Not popular activists,
not sophistry.
And if you differ
disagree about anything for
the
then refer to Allah and his messenger. Referring
to Allah means
to the Quran.
To the messenger means the agreed upon prophetic
egos, the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
He said
I exhort you to follow my sunnah. I'm
more into practice.
Hari alaikum. He cares about us more than
any human being. This is why he's telling
us this. I exhort you to follow my
sunnah and the sunnah sunnah, the right and
guided payless.
Hold on tight and bite into it with
your bowlers.
This is the analogy he's using.
When the Sahaba used to hear something like
from
the prophet
Our beloved teacher Sheikh Hamzah who's here is
absolutely correct.
This is a time of qayran,
widespread
bewilderment,
mass confusion.
There are some who call themselves progressive,
who say the ulama are obsolete.
They're antiquated.
They're out of touch.
Right?
No. The ulama are could not be more
relevant
now than ever.
But we need to know the times that
we're living in. There's a hadith in Saudi
Muslim where the prophet
He says there come a time, towards the
end of time, where there's going to be
flagrant habitual liars,
imposters,
who make statements that neither you nor your
ancestors have ever heard. In other words, you
want to say things
that are absolutely irreconcilable
with our faith tradition. That no Muslim has
ever heard. Yet they'll justify themselves religiously.
Beware of them.
Beware of them.
And this is happening now
with this postmodern
neo Marxist social constructionism
social constructionism
that has invaded college campuses around the country,
which espouses that every traditional system
is inherently oppressive,
tyrannical, and a function of some evil
patriarchy.
And that these evil Ulema,
these people wanna maintain this oppressive system. In
fact, the entire Abrahamic tradition needs to go.
And that there's no real truth,
no normative tradition, no orthodoxy.
All narrations all narratives are valid.
Our tradition is under attack. This is an
assault on the Midna of Ibrahim,
alaybissalam.
But our battle isn't physical.
It's intellectual.
It's ideological.
It's spiritual. So from a man who lived
about 2000 years ago, our battle is not
with flesh and blood, but with principalities
and darkness.
The foundation of the Abrahamic tradition
is Mahabda of Allah and Mahabda of human
beings.
And you'll not truly believe until you love
one another.
Getting rid of God, getting rid of that
revelation,
the human life loses its sacredness.
We become soulless animals. Morality becomes compromised. It
becomes relative.
The prophet Dawood, alayhis salam,
he wrote in the zahood,
Psalm 1 11 verse 10.
He said,
We'll
translate that into Arabic.
The beginning of wisdom
is the fear of the Lord.
The beginning of wisdom
is the fear of the Lord.
What is the world that he read about
during this troublesome time? I've mentioned this briefly
almost at a time. It was amazing how
this is made happy. The prophet said,
This sacred knowledge will be borne by reliable
authorities of each successive generation.
They will remove from it alterations
of those guilty of exaggeration,
the plagiarism of the corrupt,
and the interpretations of
the ignorant.
The prophet
will always be present to preserve the religious.
However, the decentralization
of the Irhama
in the eyes of the masses is being
to a spiritual,
moral,
and intellectual
background.
Back to Suraj Khurjat.
Almost done.
All you who believe and when given after
the that when you as a believer hear,
listen very, very closely.
Do not raise your voice. Open the voice
of the prophet to the law of Allah.
Literally and figuratively.
Literally when you hear a Hakim, think by
it. Don't speak.
Don't speak figuratively.
Prioritize
his voice over your voice. Voice as it
were.
Or what? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says,
Or else your deeds
will be spoiled and lost and you won't
even know. You think about your salawat, your
siyam, your zikr, your zakat.
All of these things will be lost, spoiled,
flaunted
if we don't give priority to the voice
of the prophet
over our own voice. When this ayah was
revealed, Abu Ghra'as as he only whispered to
the prophet
There's another companion,
that he had a loud voice. He stopped
coming to the masjid.
He said my voice is so loud I
can't go to the mosque anymore. This is
how serious they took
breaching adam with the messenger of the prophet.
And when the sallallahu alaihi wasallam would just
hear his name, they would start weeping uncontrollably.
Ayurve
Asaftayani,
he,
tested Malekim Du Anas.
He wanted to see if he could take
him as a student. So he mentioned the
name of the prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam, the
Malik in Du Anas. He saw Malik's face,
Imam Malik in Du Anas. His face turned
pale. He started trembling. He said, this isn't
good school.
And then, Imam Malik, he said, you know,
I knew it was my teacher.
It was only after I saw signs of
love of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
in his face that I actually started writing
down some of the things that he said.
Those who no other voice in the presence
of the messenger of Allah,
those who prioritize
his voice,
Allah
has tested their hearts for Taqwa.
For them, his forgiveness
meant great reward.
The more virtuous character traits that we gather
from this
reference towards Allah and his Messenger
and Ikram towards the Irlamam,
reference towards the prophetic tradition
and discernment in times of deception
and confusion.
The prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam, he said, Laysan
Mu'min,
the quintessential
believer,
is not. Laysan
The quintessential
believer
is not abusive,
is not curse people, is not vulgar,
and is not obscene.
So my sincere advice to you, and this
is in light of recent events, not any
one event in particular.
When someone tries to think in argument or
fight with you,
just don't engage with them.
Right? Someone has a, you know,
a earnest question, use your wisdom.
When someone's clearly trying to argue with you
to fight,
Turn away from them, say, or just leave.
The servants of the in infinitely compassionate, they
walk, they turn lightly upon the earth. And
when the ignorant speak to them,
they say peace. People are unstable.
People are easily triggered. The people have p
PTSD,
whatever it's called. People have been in war.
Right? There was a sister who and a
hijad driving her car, and she had kids
in the car, and somebody cut her off
and she flipped them to bird.
If you get what that means. You can
ask people later.
And this guy started following her for miles.
Scared her half to death. She's calling the
police. Who's got a car accident? Don't antagonize
people. Hudil Afra.
The Quran says,
seize pardon.
Seize it.
What more bitter oath? Well, our analogy.
Seize pardon.
Order towards the good and turn away from
the ignorant. It's not worth it. We have
to train ourselves to have,
self restraint and resignation,
in the face of pains
and
weakness,
pains and injuries.
This is not a weakness.
The prophet
said, the shadid is not the man who
could throw the other man down.
The shadid is the one who controls his
anger,
controls himself when he's angry.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he listen to
a faith and he will let
what was