Ali Hammuda – Stop belittling yourself

AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the loss of Islam in the Middle East and the history of Islam, including the rise of Islam and the loss of men to Muslims. They also discuss the use of swords and blood to kill Muslims, the story of At-Tufayl's desire to see and hear the Q Quraysh Qover, and the importance of finding one's own path and not being a scholar to become an effective theist. They stress the need for reflection and continuous improvement to achieve success in life, and encourage pursuing a project to achieve success.
AI: Summary ©
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
Mashallah.
الحمد لله وحده والصلاة والسلام على من لا
نبي بعده وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين الحمد لله,
it's an immense pleasure and opportunity to stand
here before you this evening in this remarkable
venue.
Those within it are even more remarkable, in
sha Allah wa ta'ala.
It's been a year since we last interacted
in this way and I'm hoping that from
then until now, you have all grown in
many respects and most importantly with respect to
your connection with Allah Jalla Jalaluhu and you
are hurrying towards His pleasure.
Who here hasn't been affected and moved and
inspired by Khalid al-Nabhan, Abu Diya, Ruh
al-Ruh, the soul of my soul, that
hero we saw in Gaza whom we hope
Allah has accepted as a martyr.
Whom here hasn't been inspired by the almost
daily images and videos of patience, resilience.
There are from the Gazan men and women,
from your journalists, your pediatricians, surgeons and doctors
and all others who are pushing back against
the occupier.
Who here hasn't been inspired by their stubbornness,
by their iman, by their determination to live
a life of honor, a life of Islam.
Who here hasn't been heartbroken by the neglected
travesty there in Sudan that no one really
is talking about.
Who here hasn't been shocked to see how
the brutal ex-Syrian regime collapsed in under
two weeks by the permission of Allah Almighty
at the hands of the average Syrian man
and woman, the population who rose and they
sought their own liberation.
For many of us who are witnessing these
ever-evolving events, we feel that we want
to make peace with Allah Almighty once and
for all.
To turn a new leaf with our Lord,
to live a new life of intentionality, of
akhirah, building projects.
To put aside our childish ways and to
live an Islamic life worth living.
There's simply too much happening around us for
now to sit as spectators and not to
go down in the trenches and get involved
in the khair.
For many of us, however, there is a
few questions that linger.
I want to now change myself.
I want to be part of this momentum.
I no longer want to be an average
Abdullah, Khalid, Fulan and Ilan.
How do I do it?
Where do I start?
And there are some obstacles.
This is what I want to address this
evening with you.
In the way of three case studies, then
three obstacles that may be hovering in your
mind that is preventing you from being that
man and woman, and then three solutions, and
I will leave it at that.
Three case studies from the lives of the
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, three men who surrounded him.
And you will notice in these three stories
that I have picked for you this afternoon,
there is a thread that connects them all.
And that thread is that all three of
them, the moment they left their ignorant ways
of the past and they found Islam, they
wasted no time in leaving an impression and
becoming an effective Muslim.
Wasting no time whatsoever.
Superimpose what I share with you upon your
good selves.
The first of these names I want you
to memorize is a man by the name
of Umair ibn Wahba, who was nicknamed Shaytan
Quraish, the Shaytan of Quraish, because of his
hatred of Islam and Muslims.
And he was a man who lost his
son to the Muslims in the battle of
Badr.
He was taken as a prisoner of war.
And once he was sat next to the
Kaaba, when it was still under the pagan
control, with his cousin named Safwan ibn Umayyah.
Now Safwan had also lost his father to
the Muslims in the battle of Badr.
So two men who hated Islam.
Safwan ibn Umayyah, he said to Umair, قَبَّحَ
اللَّهُ الْعِيشُ بَعْدَ قَتْلَ بَدْرٍ He said, Life
is terrible after we have lost our men
and chiefs in the battle of Badr to
the Muslims.
Then Umair ibn Wahba, he said to him,
Let me tell you this, If it wasn't
for a debt that I still have, and
my kids who I fear I may lose
after me, I would have gone to Medina
myself, and I would have killed Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wasallam with my own hands.
Safwan ibn Umayyah, he seized the opportunity, and
he said to him, I will take care
of your debts, and your kids will be
like my kids, don't you worry about them.
Go and do what you need to do.
Umair, he said to him, You keep this
a secret between us.
Safwan, he said, No one will know about
this plot.
Umair ibn Wahba, he retreated to his home,
he sharpened his sword, he dipped it in
poison, he slung it around his neck, made
his way to Medina.
He arrived in Medina and was now tying
his horse.
Who was the first to see him?
Amir al-Mu'minin Umar.
Umar, he sees Umair ibn Wahba with a
sword slung around his neck, and he said,
هذا الكلب والله, Umair ibn Wahba, ما جاء
إلا للشر.
He said, this is the dog, Umair ibn
Wahba.
He's only here to cause problems.
Umar made his way to Umair, and he
wrapped him up in his own clothes, and
he dragged him to the door of the
masjid.
Oh messenger of Allah, this is the dog,
Umair ibn Wahba.
He's come here to cause problems, and he's
come with his sword.
The Prophet ﷺ said to Umar, leave him,
let him come in.
Umar drags him into the masjid, says to
the companions, keep an eye on this man,
I do not trust him.
Then the Prophet said to Umar, let go
of him.
Umar lets go of him.
The Prophet ﷺ said to Umair, come close
to me.
Umair draws near.
He said to him, Umair, what brings you
here?
Umair, he said, my son, he is your
prisoner.
I want him back.
The Prophet ﷺ said to him, فَمَا بَالُ
السَّيْفِ الَّذِي فِي عُنُقِكِ فَمَا بَالُ السَّيْفِ الَّذِي
فِي عُنُقِكِ So why is there a sword
slung around your neck?
He said, قَبَّحَا اللَّهُ مِن سُيُوفٍ هَلْ أَغْنَتْ
عَنَّا يَوْمَ بَدْرٍ He said, may Allah curse
and damn these swords.
They didn't help us in any way against
you in the battle of Badr.
Don't worry about it.
Prophet looked him squarely in the eyes and
he said to him, what brings you here,
Umair?
Tell me the truth.
He said to him, this is why I
am here.
It's a blatant lie.
Then the Prophet ﷺ said to him, No,
what happened is that you and your cousin
Safwan ibn Umair were sat next to the
Ka'bah and then you began to speak.
Safwan, he said, life is horrible after we
lost our men at Badr.
And then you said to him, I worry
about my debts and my kids, otherwise I
would have killed Muhammad ﷺ.
And then you both agreed that this would
be a secret.
And this is what brings you here to
Medina.
والله حائل بيني وبينك Allah will never allow
you to achieve your intention.
Umair, he said, أشهد أن لا إله إلا
الله وأنك رسول الله Instantly he becomes a
Muslim and submits.
He said, nobody on earth had this conversation
but me and Safwan.
It must be the heavens that are speaking
to you.
Alhamdulillah that Allah has guided me to Islam.
The Prophet ﷺ, he said to the companions,
علموا أخاكم القرآن وفقهوه في الدين Teach your
brother the Qur'an.
علموا أخاكم القرآن وأطلقوا له أسيره And free
his son for him as well.
Then Umair ibn Wahab, he said, and this
is why I narrated this story to get
to this part.
Umair, he said, messenger of Allah, I used
to launch a war against the Muslims.
I used to harm everyone who was a
Muslim.
So give me permission.
Send me back to Mecca.
I will invite them to Islam.
And anybody who stands in my way, I
will show them the same wrath that I
used to show your companions.
And he allowed him.
He made his way to Mecca.
He began to invite to Islam.
And he stayed there until Mecca was conquered.
Safwan ibn Umair was saying to the people,
you wait until my friend Umair comes back
from Medina.
We're gonna give you some good news that's
gonna make you forget the trauma we suffered
at Badr.
Umair comes back, says, I've become a Muslim.
He says to him, by Allah, I will
never speak with you again.
He boycotted him.
Many of the Meccans embraced Islam through Umair.
And eventually his cousin Safwan would embrace Islam
as well.
Notice how Umair got to work instantly the
moment he became a Muslim.
There was no delay.
I need to learn, I need to study.
Yes, some fields require deep Islamic knowledge.
But who said you need to be a
scholar to become an effective Muslim woman or
a Muslim man?
Umair was about a minute old.
And he asked to become a caller to
the religion of Allah Almighty.
I can work, I can be effective.
That's story number one.
Story number two.
Pertains to a man by the name of
Thumamah ibn Uthal.
Thumamah was a one-man warrior against Islam
and the Muslims.
He hated the religion.
He had blood on his hands.
The Prophet ﷺ once sent out a detachment,
and they caught Thumamah.
They were shocked, they found him.
They ambushed him, brought him to the masjid,
and they tied him around one of the
pillars of the masjid.
The Prophet ﷺ enters the mosque.
He sees this enemy tied to the pillar.
This is the opportunity to kill him, to
execute him.
The Prophet chose not to do that.
And he said to Thumamah, ما عندك يا
ثمامه؟
Any news for me, Thumamah?
What's going on?
He said to him, عندي خير يا محمد.
ان تقتلني تقتل ذا دم.
He said, I've got good news for you.
If you kill me, you've killed a precious
man.
وَإِن تُنْعِمْتُنْ عَلَى شَاكِرٍ If you let me
go, I will be grateful.
وَإِن كُنتَ تُرِيدُ مَالًا فَسَلْ مِنْهُ مَا شِئْتَ
And if it's money that you want, ask
whatever money you need, we will give it
to you.
And he left him, because he doesn't want
his money.
He comes back the next day.
Any news for me, Thumamah?
And Thumamah is banded to the wall.
He said to him the same three things.
The third day he comes, any news for
me, Thumamah?
He gives him the same response.
Then the Prophet ﷺ said, اطلقوا ثمامه Let
him go, let him go.
So Thumamah, he was released.
He went out of the masjid.
He went to a nearby pond.
He did a full Islamic bathing, came back
into the masjid, and he announced that he
has become a Muslim.
That's what the Prophet ﷺ wanted all along.
For him to see and to hear the
Qur'an, and how the Muslims operate in
the masjid.
And then Thumamah, he said, there wasn't a
religion that I hated more than yours, and
a face that I hated more than yours,
and a city that I hated more than
yours.
And now all three of these things have
become the dearest in my life.
Then Thumamah goes to Mecca to do Umrah.
And the pagans, they said to him, صَبَوْتَ
You've apostatized?
He said, no, I haven't apostatized.
I have chosen the religion of Prophet Muhammad
ﷺ.
And then Thumamah, he said, and this is
why I have brought you the story.
He said, Wallahi, I will not allow a
single grain of wheat to arrive at your
door, O people of Quraysh, until the Prophet
Muhammad ﷺ gives permission.
And he started a crippling economic blockade on
the people of Quraysh.
They starved.
And so they wrote a letter to the
Prophet ﷺ saying, We remind you of our
family connections.
These are his enemies.
We remind you of our family connections.
Have mercy on us.
We're from the same tribe.
Ask Thumamah to feed us again.
So he said to Thumamah, Send them wheat.
Send them wheat.
Though they are his archenemies.
Why do I bring this story to you?
For the same reason I shared the first.
Thumamah becomes a Muslim.
And his first thought is, How do I
leave a mark?
How do I live a life worth living?
How do I leave a legacy behind me?
How do I build my hereafter?
He was only a few minutes old.
How long have you and I been Muslims?
This is not a conversation we need to
start having.
As for the third story, it belongs to
a man by the name of At-Tufayl,
son of Amr al-Dawsi.
At-Tufayl, he enters Mecca at a time
when the Muslims were being persecuted by the
pagans.
The pagans, they surround At-Tufayl.
And they're eager to control the narrative.
Does that sound familiar?
And they say to At-Tufayl, Don't listen
to this man.
He's a soothsayer.
He separates between husband and wife, and parents
and children.
Don't listen to him.
It's bewitching words.
At-Tufayl was so scared of the Qur
'an, he said that, When I got to
the Kaaba, I filled my ears with cotton
to not hear any of it, even accidentally.
And I was circumambulating around the Kaaba as
the pagans, they did.
He said, فَأَبَى اللَّهُ إِلَّا أَن يُسْمِعَ لِبَعْضَ
كَلَامِهِ Allah Almighty insisted that I would hear
something of the Qur'an.
Prophet ﷺ was in Salah praying, reciting Qur
'an.
At-Tufayl, he heard it.
He was impressed.
He waited until the Prophet finished.
He followed him into his house.
The Prophet ﷺ said to him, What are
you doing here?
At-Tufayl, he said, Present your case to
me please.
And the Prophet ﷺ presented a case for
Islam.
He recited Qur'an.
At-Tufayl said, I have never heard anything
more wise and more just than this.
Extend your hand.
Allow me to pledge allegiance to you.
At-Tufayl becomes a Muslim.
What is the first thing he says to
the Prophet ﷺ?
Take a guess.
It's the same theme.
He says, Messenger of Allah, I am the
leader of Daws.
I am a man who is obeying.
Send me back to my people.
I will bring them to Islam inshallah.
So he sent him.
And then At-Tufayl comes back after a
few months.
And he said, Messenger of Allah, they are
a promiscuous people.
They're all bunch of fornicators.
Make dua that Allah Almighty destroys them.
So the Prophet ﷺ raises his hands.
And he says, O Allah, guide the people
of Daws and bring them to me as
Muslims.
O Tufayl, go back to your community and
be gentle with them.
At-Tufayl, he goes back to his people.
And alhamdulillah, they all embraced the religion of
Islam.
And you will be surprised to know that
one of the men who came at the
hands of At-Tufayl to embrace Islam from
the tribe of Daws was none other than
Abu Hurairah, رضي الله تعالى عنه, who would
become the most prolific narrator of hadith.
Again, how old was Tufayl when he became
a Muslim?
First question was, how do I build my
hereafter?
How do I leave a legacy?
How do I use my skills in order
to build my akhirah and to glorify my
Lord and to be happy in my grave?
This is why I shared with you these
three stories because now is the time for
action.
We've cried over Gaza.
We've done the sharing.
We've wept.
We've cried.
We've implored Allah Almighty.
We will continue doing these things.
Now is the time for action.
But there will be obstacles that will stand
in your way.
Shaytan will say to you, number one, how
can you be that person?
How?
What talents do you have?
He will say.
You can't speak.
You're not a scholar.
You don't have millions.
What skills, talents, do you have that allow
you to stand out and to leave a
mark as a Muslim man or woman?
How do you respond to this?
We respond with the words of our scholar,
Abu Mu'adh al-Razi, who said, listen,
وَيْنٌ لِمَنْ كَانَ الْهُدْهُ خَيْرًا مِنْهُ Woe to
he who allows a bird to be better
than him.
Woe.
That's a threat.
Woe to he who allows a bird to
be better than him.
What is he referring to?
Which bird?
The bird from the story of Prophet Sulayman
a.s. Who could speak with the jinn,
speak with the animal world.
And one day with his assembly, he noticed
that there was a hoopoe bird, a hoodhood,
that was missing.
He said, where is the bird?
I will slaughter it if it's not here.
The bird comes very late, and it said,
I have come to you from Yemen with
big news.
And then the bird would complain to Prophet
Sulayman and say that I saw people prostrating
to other than Allah Almighty.
إِنِّي وَجَدْتُمْ رَأَةً تَمْلِكُهُمْ I found a community
that was governed by a woman.
وَأُوتِيَتْ مِنْ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ And she had something
from everything.
وَلَهَا عَرُشٌ عَظِيمٌ And she had a huge
throne.
وَجَدْتُهَا وَقَوْمَهَا يَسْجُدُونَ لِلشَّمْسِ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ I
found that she and her community were prostrating
to other than Allah.
The bird was so upset.
Have you felt that ghayrah, that jealousy, that
concern for the religion of Islam as the
bird did?
They were prostrating to other than Allah.
زَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَعْمَالَهُمْ Shaytan was decorating their
sins for them.
صَدَّهُمْ فَصَدَّهُمْ عَنِ السَّبِيلِ He's turned them away
from the path.
فَهُمْ لَا يَهْتَدُونَ They will not be guided.
And then the bird said, أَلَّا يَسْجُدُونَ لِلَّهِ
Will they not prostrate to Allah?
Imagine, Sulayman sat on his throne with the
animals and the jinn and the human beings
there before him.
And the bird is speaking in the royal
presence of Prophet Sulayman.
And Sulayman is listening and he appreciates the
passion and the concern of this bird.
So Ar-Razi, he said, beware of allowing
a bird to be better than you.
Look at the skills and the power, the
strength, the upright stature Allah Almighty has given
you as a man and woman.
The money, the rhetoric, the language, the resources,
the connections.
It's nothing.
That's everything compared to what a bird has.
Beware of allowing a bird to be better
than you.
So don't say, I don't have the talents.
He who says, I don't have the talents,
is accusing Allah Almighty of not giving him
or her the resources needed to attain the
highest place in Jannah.
And this is bad manners towards Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
So that is the answer to the question
that says, I have no talents.
Obstacle number two, someone will say, Okay, I
have talents, but I'm not a scholar.
I barely know how to recite the Qur
'an.
How can I leave a mark after me?
And I say, who in the history of
Islam ever said that in order for you
to be an effective woman or man, that
you needed to be a scholar of the
religion?
Who said this?
Was At-Tufail a scholar?
Was Thumama a scholar?
Was Umair a scholar?
Those three stories I just shared with you.
Were they scholars when they did what they
did?
No, they were not.
Abu Bakr radiallahu anhu, was he a scholar
on day number two when he became a
Muslim?
Yet what did Abu Bakr do on day
number two?
He comes back the second day after discovering
Islam with five men at the door of
the Prophet ﷺ, ready to become Muslims.
Who does he come with?
Names that you will recognize.
Uthman ibn Affan, Zubair ibn Awwam, Sa'ad
ibn Abi Waqas, the Prophet's uncle.
Abdul Rahman ibn Auf, Talhah ibn Ubaidillah.
Five men, ready to take their shahada after
day two of becoming a Muslim.
Don't say, I'm not a scholar.
No one said that it is a condition
to be a scholar, to leave a mark.
You just need to know what you need
to know about your respective field and how
that's gonna be working towards the religion.
As for being a scholar of Islam, that's
for a minority of people.
That's not for every one of us.
But every one of us is expected and
can and will leave a mark after they
die and before they die.
So don't say that this is an obstacle.
We have addressed it.
I am not a scholar.
You do not need to be a scholar
to become an effective Muslim.
Obstacle number three and I will conclude with
this.
A brother or sister may say, fine, I
do have talents.
I just need to discover them, my interests.
And fine, I'm not a scholar.
And I acknowledge I don't need to be
a scholar.
But my issue is that I am a
sinner.
I have skeletons in my closet.
I have certain addictions, yearnings, cravings, sins, relationships
that I'm still struggling to let go of.
Would that not be hypocritical of me to
think that I could change the world or
leave a mark on my family or my
community when I'm still battling with these basics?
I say to you, no, it is not
hypocritical.
It is part of the process of leaving
them.
Don't get me wrong.
The mindset of I'm a sinner and I
feel bad is a valuable one.
And that's why the Prophet ﷺ said, إِذَا
سَرَّتْكَ حَسَنَتُكَ وَسَاءَتْكَ سَيِّئَتُكَ فَأَنْتَ مُؤْمِنُ If you're
happy when you do a good deed and
you're sad when you commit a sin, then
you are a believer.
But when do you know that you've gone
too far with this?
When this mentality of I'm a sinner stops
you from now taking initiative, from becoming a
mover and shaker, from being proactive, from creating
a 20 or a 30 year project for
your akhira to present Allah as a gift
on the day of judgment.
That's when you know you've gone too far.
When you say, I can't do any of
that because I'm a sinner.
That's when you know you've fallen into the
traps of shaitan.
So there you have it my brother and
my sister.
What excuse do we have?
How old are you as a Muslim?
And I'm looking at the faces in front
of me and it seems that the average
lifespan of us as Muslims here are 20
or 30 or 40 or 50 years worth
of Islam and ni'mah from Allah Almighty.
Where is the mark of At-Tufayl?
Where is the mark of Umair ibn Wahab?
Where is the mark of Thumamah ibn Uthal?
Where is the mark?
We are able to do this and don't
allow any obstacle to stand in your way.
Brothers and sisters, in conclusion and time is
up.
We as Muslims subscribe to a certain set
of beliefs that make us different to every
other human being on the world.
We're not the same and let's be honest.
We believe in the grave, life in the
grave.
We believe in the resurrection and the gathering.
We believe in the bridge.
We believe in the books.
We believe in paradise and *.
Our beliefs are different.
Therefore what follows from this is that our
lives should be just as different.
We cannot be the same as those who
don't have these beliefs.
We wake up in the morning, we have
breakfast, nine till five work.
We come home, we browse through Netflix, we
chill out for a few moments and then
the next day it's repeat.
Lo and behold is the angel of death.
Yes, we're productive, we make money, we have
our livelihoods, don't get me wrong.
But there has to be some effect of
these beliefs on our day to day life
and our ambitions.
We must be defined by something bigger than
what defines others.
What is your project and your legacy that
you're going to leave behind?
Don't be that person whom when he or
she passes away, you wish that somebody who's
still alive would build a well in your
name or would build an orphanage in your
name to help you out in the grave
or a school in your name or a
da'wah exhibition center in your name or
become an activist in your name or recite
Qur'an in your name.
Don't be that man or woman who waits
for other people to build his hereafter.
Take control of your future because you have
agency and build it yourself.
And then when Allah Almighty sees you and
I doing this, He will inspire your children
and your friends to support you after you
have passed away with these good deeds.
Don't be the one who wishes that others
could do it for them when it's too
late.
Now is the time.
If you can hear me, if you can
see me, if you can feel the warmth
of this room, it means you're still alive,
which means that the door of opportunity to
enter the highest place in Jannah is right
here before you.
What are we going to do with it?
114,000 were the number of the companions
of the Prophet ﷺ who attended with him
the farewell pilgrimage.
Mashallah, a huge number.
Yet we only know the names of less
than 10,000 of them.
Less than 10%.
In all of the authentic, the weak, fabricated
narrations, we only know the name of around
9,000 or so thousand.
Why?
Because they came forward.
They were legacy builders.
They asked the question, what am I going
to do for my religion?
And from those 10,000, only 2,000
narrated hadith.
Why?
Because they were the ones who came forward.
They were the legacy builders.
Your future now requires sacrifice.
It requires some tough conversations that you have
between you and your spouse, you and your
siblings, you and your friends who are living
together as students, your people who you communicate
with online.
Some tough conversations are needed.
This evening, what is going to define us?
Something that is bigger than the 50 or
60 years worth of eating and drinking that
we do like everybody else in the life
of this world.
You're a doctor.
You're an engineer.
You're a housewife.
You're a taxi driver.
You're rich.
You're on the benefits.
You're a scholar.
You're a student.
You're able-bodied.
You're handicapped.
Doesn't matter.
What matters is you sit with yourself and
you ask, who am I and who am
I not?
What do I enjoy doing?
What do I hate?
What can I be?
And realistically, what will I never be?
Then find a way to channel the answer
to that question to an Islamic project that
you can work towards systematically for the next
20 years of your life.
I trust that this time next year, inshaAllah
ta'ala, when we meet again, we're going
to remember these words and we will be
speaking on an individual basis with many of
you and you will say, since then, I
have achieved this.
Since then, I have established that.
Since then, we have planned to do this.
And I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to support you, to aid you, and to
inspire you with a project such that when
you meet Allah on the day of judgment,
Allah will say, the servant of mine has
no home that befits him or her except
Jannah.
Ya Rabb, say, Ameen.
Say, Ameen.
May Allah make this our home.
walhamdulillahi rabbil alameen