The True Meaning of Freedom
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Channel: Ali Hammuda
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AI Generated Summary ©
The speakers discuss the concept of freedom, which is the ability to achieve a living status without limitations. They explore the importance of Islam's understanding of freedom and its supposed negative impact on human behavior. The concept of freedom is linked to past experiences and past generations, and is seen as a war of desire. The importance of freedom is emphasized, and individuals and groups can be controlled and medicated through actions. The importance of showing one's values and beliefs to support activism is emphasized, as it can lead to the realization of one's values and beliefs.AI Generated Transcript ©
Alhamdulillah,
the modern man today
has an obsession
in his pursuit
for this ideal that people call hariyah
or freedom,
liberty.
In every aspect of society,
in recent times at least,
there has been revolutions,
upheavals,
uprisals
that have affected every aspect of society,
starting with governments
and civic life,
permeating to arts,
culture,
literature.
You've heard of the enlightenment
movement. You've heard of rationalist ideas. You've studied
it in school.
You've heard of modern philosophical
thought. All of this is in pursuit of
what?
Is
in pursuit of this ideal that people call
freedom,
to be at liberty,
to not be constrained or limited by any
aspect of life, to be free.
But we find ourselves asking the questions, particularly
as Muslims, to what extent has the modern
man achieved this goal, this ideal
of of being horror, of being free?
Is he truly a free man today in
the 21st century?
When you hand when you had Jean Jacques
Rousseau, the Geneva philosopher whose ideas and political
science and philosophy
affected the west a lot in their ideas.
When he was lighting the torches of freedom,
His ideas and his theorizing was affecting every
aspect of western society.
During the same time,
the same societies
were ravaging other communities across the globe in
the name of freedom.
At a time when here in the West,
we were talking about freedom, other societies
were being turned upside down.
Africans were being hunted in certain parts of
the world
by the very same communities who were talking
at home about freedom and equality.
During that time, they were being hunted.
Colonies built in their ruins.
And those who remained alive amongst them were
brought back in cages to serve the colonizer
in North America and other parts of the
west.
And amazingly,
all of this was happening in the name
of what?
It was happening in the name of freedom.
With this backdrop and this short introduction, I
shift your attention to a story that I
think most of you have come across at
one point or another.
When Amr ibn al Aas, the companion of
the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam, was governor
of Egypt,
His son, the son of the authority,
took part in a horse race
against another,
meaning a Coptic boy of Egypt.
The son of the governor won the race.
So he was upset, so he picked up
a whip, and he hit the boy.
Relying on his father's authority knowing that the
kid would not be able to hit back.
So the young Coptic boy complained to his
dad, and his dad was aggrieved and he
traveled where? To the city of Medina in
search of who? Amirul Mumineena, Umar
the caliph of the Muslims
in search for justice.
Umar was devastated when he heard this news
that a Muslim had assaulted a Coptic because
he was relying on his dad's power.
So
Umar Abu Khattab wrote a letter to
Amr ibn Al Aas saying to him as
per what follows the moment you read this
letter, you come to me, you and your
son to the city of Madinah.
Amr ibn Aas packs his bag, he arrives
in Madinah.
And when all of them were now in
front of Amir ul Momineen Umar,
his son, the Coptic boy, and his father,
Umar hands over a whip
to the Coptic boy,
and he says to him, if you wish,
you can hit
the child or the kid that hit you.
And so he,
he cashed that check
and he took the whip and he began
to hit the boy, hit the boy until
he felt as if retribution had been delivered.
He felt good.
Then Umar al Khabab said
to the boy,
Omar said to him, young man, if you
wanted to hit his father,
if you wanted to hit to whip his
dad, Amr ibn Allahas, the companion of the
prophet
I wouldn't have stopped you
because his son only hit you relying on
his authority.
And then Umar, he turns to the governor
of Egypt, Amritullah, and he said to him
those phenomenal words that you have come across.
He said to him,
Since
when have you taken people as slaves when
their mothers bore them as free?
The famous statement that we've all come across.
When have you taken people? Since when have
you decided to take people as slaves?
When their mothers bore them free.
The events in Palestine
and specifically in Gaza
since 2023,
late 2023 till this day have sharpened the
distinctions between
things that were already separate.
The events in Philistines
have drawn clear lines between the worlds of
dunya and the akhira,
those who pursue this material world and those
who are pursuing the hereafter. It's made it
clearer than ever before.
They've drawn clear lines between the realms of
injustice
and adil justice.
They have drawn clear lines between the worlds
of cowardice
and courage
and truth and hypocrisy.
And they've also drawn very clear lines between
the worlds of focus on this one,
the worlds of enslavement
and what it means to truly be free.
Do you agree?
When the Arabs speak of the word,
freedom, which is used a lot especially today,
And they describe someone as being,
meaning free. What do they mean?
There are 2 usages.
The first usage, memorize it,
is the idea of being free from physical
bondage.
When they say that such and such person
is holy, this person is free, it means
that they are not in physical captivity.
Their status is that of a free person,
his status is not a slave, he is
hhur, they say.
And this is a goal, of course, that
Islam
aspires towards.
The jurors, the fuqaha, they say,
Islam
inclines
towards freedom.
It aspires towards freedom. It incentivizes
freedom.
In fact, Islam considers slavery
as tantamount to death
and it considers
freedom as tantamount to life.
And that is why the atonement, the kafara,
the expiation of accidental killing is what?
The freeing of a slave.
Allah, he
said,
Whoever kills a believing soul accidentally,
the nikafara,
the atonement is to free a believing slave.
What's the relationship? You will say.
And nesafi, the Quran interpreter
said, the relationship is clear
Because the killer had accidentally
transferred somebody from the realms of the living
to the realms of the dead,
the kafarah, the expiation is to reintegrate
into life someone who is dead, to bring
someone from the dead back into the life.
How do you do that?
By taking someone who doesn't have his freedom
or her freedom and bring them back into
the living, I e give them freedom. So
this is how Islam sees what?
The idea
of freedom. And which meaning are we referring
to here?
The freedom from
physical bondage,
captivity, your status as a slave or as
a free person. Islam aspires to create freedom.
That is meaning number 1. Usage number 2.
When the Arabs, they say so and so
is hor or free,
they mean
that this is a person who is honored
with lofty characteristics
and high and noble values.
When they see a person who has elevated
himself or herself from the base traits,
the lowly characteristics,
and they become men or women of bravery,
courage,
generosity,
feeding of the guest, honoring of the family,
people of virtue who stay away from what
is prohibited
and despicable.
They look at that person, and they say
that person is free.
That's a new concept. That's a new understanding.
So do you see how the Islamic or
the Arabic understanding of freedom is quite different
to how we understand it here in the
west? Do whatever you want.
Our understanding
of freedom is very much connected with the
idea of duty,
connected with the idea of responsibility,
connected with the idea of morality, adab akhlaq,
generosity.
They say that is a person who is
free, and that is why the Arabic linguist,
ibn Nafoor al Afriqi, he said, Alhurruh
who al fayalul Hasan.
Alhurr meaning something that is free, it refers
to doing what is fine.
Doing what is fine, they say that is
free.
And in the feminine form,
with a in
the feminine form, they say it means
the honorable woman.
So when the Arab looks at a woman
who is honorable, they say she is hurrah.
She is truly free.
It's a paradigm shift.
Which type of freedom does Islam aspire to
achieve? This one or this one that I
have defined? Both. Islam aspires to achieve them
both.
I want to take you now on a
very quick tour of the book of Allah,
and I would like to show you how
the Quran
endeavors to
free humanity
from the constraints of life,
and to make them only accountable ultimately to
Allah,
To understand
freedom through the light
of
To understand freedom, liberty
through the light of being a had, a
worshipper of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
How does the Quran seek to remove the
shackles from our wrists and our necks and
the yokes from our body? Number 1, the
Quran
seeks to liberate man. This is an example.
From untamed desires.
Desires that have no
limitations. The Quran wants to free you from
that.
The Quran acknowledges
that the constant
tug of war between you and desire, myself
and desire, this is endless till the day
we die. That doesn't leave us.
We're constantly being pulled left, right, and center
by our urges and our quirks and our
yearnings.
The Quran acknowledges this.
But what the Quran will not tolerate is
that for man to be enslaved to these
things, forever craving, forever yearning,
forever wanting more, always wanting to see what's
on the other side of the fence, wanting
to explore, never satisfied,
never content. The Quran does not want to
see a person enslaved in this way, so
it liberates him. How does the Quran liberate
man from untamed desires?
The Quran will say,
anything that you've been given,
today,
it's just the temporary enjoyment of this world.
But what is with Allah is better and
far more enduring.
Will you not reason?
The Quran will say,
the enjoyment of life
is little.
And the hereafter is better for those who
have piety.
So the Quran does not want you to
be conquered by your desires. It wants you
to conquer them. It doesn't want you to
be controlled by your desires. It wants you
to be free, so that you are the
one who controls them. The Quran seeks to
liberate you and I from untamed desires. Number
2. The Quran seeks to liberate man
from being
a blind follower.
The Quran does not accept to see man
behaving like a sheep, a mu'min behaving like
sheep,
following the latest trend,
following the latest dictates of society,
handing over your mind and your personality to
a friend
or a lobby or even a government or
a family member,
a blind follower. The Quran does not accept
that you are enslaved
to blind conformity. It wants you to have
a mind of your own,
to have some autonomy,
to be an independent believer who was steered
by way of revelation,
not controlled by the revelations of men.
And you see it today,
especially perhaps some of the teenagers
who have an absolute obsession with being liked.
A constant desire to be
in the good books of everyone, to please
everyone, to make everyone happy, the fear of
falling out of grace with anyone.
And And what you end up seeing with
a lot of our young ones particularly is
that with the passage of time, because of
their obsession of being liked, they end up
developing multiple personalities.
Personality for mom and dad, a personality for
Allah,
a a personality for the boyfriend or the
girlfriend, a personality for the street, personality for
the business,
personality for the Internet.
And then with the passage of time, because
you're you're now lost in all of these
personalities, you end up forgetting who you are.
You lose your own personality.
So the Quran wants man to be liberated
from being a blind follower
and to stand his or her ground.
The Quran said, liberating you and I from
this,
On the day when their faces will be
turned
upside down, left and right in the hellfire,
as they roast, and they will say, oh,
we wish that we had followed Allah, his
messenger.
And then they will say,
Oh, our Lord. They will cry in the
fire. Oh, our lord. We followed our masters
and we followed our dignitaries, but they misled
us.
So, oh Allah, give them double the punishment
and curse them a great cursing.
Allahu Akbar.
There they are roasting in the fire complaining,
oh Allah, we had followed them. We were
blind followers. We wish we didn't do that.
So beware my brother, my sister, of being
a person who today is so obsessed
in the approval of others,
even though it may come at the expense
of your deen, then the same people who
you had sold your hereafter for, you end
up cursing them in Jahannam and asking Allah
to multiply the punishment upon them.
So what have we said so far? The
Quran seeks to liberate man from being controlled
and enslaved
by haram desire.
The Quran seeks to liberate man from what?
Being a
blind follower.
Number 3, the Quran seeks to liberate man
from poverty anxiety.
There are very few things out there that
cause a person to stay up at night
more than the fear of job insecurity,
and how you're going to provide for your
family or for yourself tomorrow.
And perhaps one of the quickest ways of
being able to subjugate a community and control
them is by threatening them. By way of
what?
By way of their provisions, their risk.
So poverty, anxiety is real,
and the Quran
does not tolerate man to be a slave
to money
and reminds him
that your rizq, your provisions is not controlled
by any mortal on the face of the
earth.
How does the Quran liberate you from this
fear?
Read with me. Allah
said,
Say to them, who is the one who
provides you from the heavens and the earth?
Who is the one who controls your hearing
and your singing?
And who is the one who brings that
living from the dead and brings the dead
from the living?
Who is the one who controls the entire
affair?
Fasayakurun
Allah. They will say, it is Allah.
So reply to them, will you therefore not
fear Him?
So the Quran demolishes this idea that any
man or any government or any employer or
any supplier
is the one who controls your provisions.
The Quran liberates you from the fear of
poverty and reminds you,
never has bravery
shortened the life of a person
and never has cowardice
extended his life.
That's number 3. The Quran seeks to liberate
you from poverty and anxiety.
And number 4, the Quran seeks to liberate
you and I from the fear of death.
What is there a greater pressure? What more
of a pressure is there in life than
the dread of dying
or the dread of being killed and the
cling to life.
One of the easiest ways of manipulating a
person, or a family, or a society is
by threatening them. We will drop bombs on
you. You will die, either through the air,
or through hunger or by the closing of
the borders or whatever it may be.
The quickest and easiest ways
usually to extract the concession from a people
and to cause them to just toe the
line,
just to threaten them with what?
With death.
And the Quran does not accept that man
should be enslaved by the fear of death.
And how does the Quran liberate you from
this fear?
By saying,
It is not for any soul to die
except by the permission of Allah.
At a time
decreed by Him,
no man could bring that forward or push
it back.
So do you see through this very quick
tour how the Quran there are many examples
we could have given.
It makes
with the understanding that we defined earlier
through your worship to Allah
how the Quran seeks to make the objective
of freedom
central in its ayaat.
And this is why with this understanding of
freedom,
our prophet Muhammad sallallahu
alaihi wasallam
was the freest of all of Allah's creation
on earth.
A man who would carry himself with immense
self respect
and dignity
even before he became a prophet.
A man
who was who had a mind of his
own,
who never allowed a lobby or a government
or a tribe or a society or a
friend or a family member to dictate his
mind, to govern his personality,
to control
him. He was a man who was independent
in his thought, independent in his personality and
character. It wasn't an open check for people
to write in whatever they want. He was
not a man who would take the color
of whatever friend he would walk with. He
was a man who was truly free,
and that is why he wasn't afraid to
draw a line between himself and the prevalent
practices in Mecca. He wasn't afraid to say,
no. I don't do this. Though all of
society were against him at one point.
Bowing to idols was commonplace. Drinking alcohol was
commonplace. Using interest, riba was commonplace.
Female infanticide,
burying your daughter alive was to some extent
commonplace.
He wasn't afraid to say, I don't do
any of this stuff, though it is the
status quo of my community. Why? Because he
was free.
Then when Allah
who gave him prophethood
and he became a true Abd of Allah,
a true worshipper of Allah
through his
through his worship of Allah, his freedom reached
a whole new level.
And he wanted to impart these meanings of
freedom
through Islam
onto the hearts of the men and women
who were around him.
Why? So that they could never be conquered.
So that they were immovable in their faith.
So that they could never be bought with
money. They couldn't be purchased with assets. They
couldn't be tempted with the opposite gender.
Men and women who are free, what steered
them, what controlled them, what guided them was
revelation
and revelation alone. That is the true meaning
of freedom.
And I'm gonna share with you 3 or
4 very quick stories that beautifully demonstrate
the signs of a person
who is truly free
through their behavior.
Example number 1
belongs to a young boy called Abdullah ibn
Zubayr ibn Awam. Abdullah, son of Zubayr. Zubayr,
of course, his father, who was one of
the 10 promised Jannah, and his mother Asma,
daughter of Abu Bakr. So no it's no
surprise that Abdullah would be the the fruit
of this beautiful marriage.
Abdullah ibn Zubair as a child was playing
with a group of his friends in street
when Amir ul Momineen Umar
walks past.
And you know Umar
and his haybah, his awe, even before he
became a caliph, Khalifa. So imagine what happened
when he became Khalifa.
Umrah, he passes by and the kids just
rush. They scurry. They go into hiding.
With the exception to this one kid, Abdullahi
ibn Zubair,
he stands his ground.
So Umar is fascinated by this. So he
goes to the young boy and he says
to him,
how come you didn't run away with the
rest of your friends?
Abdullah ibn Zubair, he said to him the
following words. He said,
meaning, oh, leader of the believers.
He said, leader of the believers,
I haven't done anything wrong such that I
should fear you,
And the path is quite wide. I don't
think I need to make space for you.
Umar
was amazed when he saw this
because in front of him in front of
him was a young man who was not
afraid of authority,
particularly when his conscience
was clear.
In other words, you had a child who
was not enslaved by fear. Omar was impressed.
That's example number 1. Story number 2,
Hakim
ibn Khizam is the name of the nephew
of our mother Khadija
And once when he was walking through the
marketplaces, he stumbled across
the robe of the king of Yemen that
was being
sold.
The king of Yemen who was known as
Zuoyazin.
And so he offered a few dinars of
gold. He purchased the royal robe. He came
to the city of Medina, and he gifted
it to
the prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam. So he
wore it and he delivered a sermon like
this wearing the robe of the king Dhruyaazim,
and then he came down from the pulpit,
and he took it off because this not
really the dress of the prophet alayhis salatu
wa sallam. And he clothed it to a
young man called Usama Tabluzayd.
Usama, son of Zayd. Who was he? The
ex adopted son of the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam who unfortunately occupied quite a low
position in the social hierarchy. He gave him
the robe of Dhuyazin.
And so Hakim ibn Hazam, who bought the
robe originally,
he saw this young boy wearing the robe
of the king of Yemen, and he said
to him, Usama Tugnuzayd
wearing the robe of the king of Yemen?
And Usama took Nuzayd, he said,
He said, yeah. I am wearing the robe
of the king of Yemen because I am
better than the king of Yemen.
He said, and my dad is better than
the dad of the king of Yemen.
Allahu Akbar.
Hakim ibn Hazam was amazed when he had
this.
Why was he amazed?
Because in front of him was a young
man who was free.
Free from all of the metrics that you
and I use to measure people. Clothes and
cars and homes and money and women and
the rest of it. A boy who didn't
believe in any of that stuff, that my
value comes through my piety,
my taqwa, my worship to Allah, and it
doesn't matter what society thinks. I am better
than the king of the way as in,
and my dad is better than his dad.
Example number 3,
and I think you've also come across this
example at least,
an event
that took place just before the Persian Empire
collapsed at the hands of the Muslims.
The battle of al Qadisiyah was about to
take place,
led, of course, by Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas
during the time of Amiral Mu'minin Umar.
And the general of the Persian armies by
the name of Rustum wanted to speak to
a delegate of the Muslims to understand
what are they doing?
What are they trying to achieve?
These are the people who we used to
give them peas and pennies.
Right? And they would go away as Arabs
before Islam. And now they're coming to take
my throne.
So he says, send me a delegate to
speak to.
So who did they nominate?
They nominated
what's his name?
What's his name?
Rebayi?
Rebayi ibn Uaamer. A man who was described
in the books of history as being quite
short.
There was nothing grand about him.
He wore the simplest of clothes,
and he had no very impressive he didn't
have an impressive physique either. He was quite
thin.
But guess what?
He was a mumin who was free,
that's why they nominated him.
So Ibrahim ibn Aamer, he comes on his
mule, his donkey, and the guards of Rustam,
they say you can't speak to the, leader
in on the mule. Get off. He said,
I'm not gonna get off my mule because
you asked to speak to us. We didn't
ask to speak to you.
So Rustam said, let him in.
So he's coming in now to the into
the royal court of Rustem,
and he has with him his spear, and
he's he's stabbing at the expensive Persian carpets
in front of Rustom as if to say
none of this means anything to us. Trying
to impress us?
He's ripping it apart.
And Rostom looks at and he says to
him,
Who are you?
Who are the Muslims? What brings you here
to our land?
What does Rebbe say?
And link it to the topic of
our talk this afternoon.
He said to him, nahnu qaumun, we are
a people.
Yeah. What is your bio? This is your
bio.
He said,
we are a people.
Sent
by
Islam, and to remove people from the injustices
of religions to the justice of Islam.
And to remove people from the limitations
of life
to the expanse of the hereafter.
By the end of the conversation, and it
was a long dialogue,
Rostom was amazed
and he said to Rebbe,
Are you the leader of the Muslims? Like
are you their prophet and messenger?
Are you their master?
And he said to him essentially, no. I'm
not their master, but as Muslims,
we can speak for one another at any
level of the society.
So Rustum was amazed at the sight of
a man who was free.
And the last story I share with
you pertains to a judge
by the name of Abu Bakr al Baqilani.
He is a Ash'ari scholar scholar who lived
around 950 years after the hijra of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam to Medina.
And he was summoned to engage in
emperors of Rome
who was a Christian.
The emperor of Rome is thinking to himself,
how am I gonna get this man to
bow to me? Because it was the custom
of the emperors of Rome that when you
come into their royal space, you prostrate, you
kiss the floor, and then you speak to
the emperor. He knows that he's not gonna
get this from judge Abu Bakr.
So what is he to do?
He said to his men,
bring down the height of the door.
So instead of it being 7 foot high,
bring it down to say, 4 foot high,
which means that when he comes into my
space, he has to bow down, and so
we get it out of him that way.
So judge Abu Bakr albaqilani
arrives
at the palace of the emperor.
The emperor is told the judge has arrived,
and so he establishes his throne in front
of this shortened door. Judge Abu Bakr arrives,
and he sees that the door has been
shortened,
and he understands the ploy.
So what does he do?
Well, he only turns 180
degrees, and I'm not going to demonstrate out
of respect to you.
He turns
180 degrees and gives the door his back,
and then he bows down,
and then he comes in in reverse
giving the king his backside,
and then he stands back up facing the
wall, adjust his headgear
and his clothes, and then he turns and
he speaks to the king. And the king
was amazed when he saw this, And he
realized
that these Muslims
can never be enslaved.
These three stories are images and narrations. I
want you to remember the next time a
friend
or a trend
or society
ex expectation
suggests that you should be lesser of a
practicing Muslim. Be a slave of us rather
being a.
Remember these stories. Load them up in your
mind.
So this image of Abu Bakr al Baqilani
giving the emperor essentially his backside
because he was a man who wanted to
detract from his freedom as a mukmin, as
a believer in Allah. That's the image I
want you to load up in your mind
every time you come across a situation in
your life when someone wants to take you
down their path and detract from your freedom,
I. E. Your to Allah Almighty and make
them a slave to them and their way.
That's the image you should think about.
At the family level or the social level,
the financial level, any pressure that comes your
way to detract from who you are as
a Mu'min,
load up this image of Abu Bakr al
Baghdillani
because they don't deserve anything
more than this.
So with that said, I come to the
latter parts of this,
talk, and we ask the question, what are
the signs of the people who are free?
We've defined freedom according to our understanding
and how it is linked to duty and
and worship to Allah.
I've given you examples from the people of
the past who behaved
in a way of true freedom.
And now we come to the theory, and
we ask the question, what are the marks
of the people of Horeya? What are their
signs? So that when you see them, you
recognize them,
and so that you can act upon these
principles as well.
And so that when somebody says, I'm free
to do what I want, you understand whether
they are truly a free person or just
another slave to yet another idol.
What are the signs? What are the hallmarks?
What are the defining features of people, individuals
or communities who are truly free?
Number 1,
a free person is an individual or a
people who never hand over their minds or
their personalities
to be governed and dictated to by others.
They have a mind of an own of
their own,
There is some autonomy in their behavior
and they know how to say no,
though everyone around them may be saying yes.
They know how to say no. These are
my limits.
Not as an act of defiance
or stubbornness,
but to declare their autonomy that as a
Mu'min, as a believer in Allah, I have
my independence to worship Him. He's freed me
from all of these dictates.
You know how to say no. You know
how to draw the line, though the pressures
may be phenomenal.
And when you stay away as a free
person, when you stay away from what is
prohibited, haram,
it's not just because it is haram that
you stay away from it. It's not just
because it's going to bring you sin.
It's because you as a free person fundamentally
feel that the sin is beneath you.
You are above it.
This sin that you're asking me to do,
this dress that you're requiring of me,
this product you want me to sell, this
financial entanglement that I don't agree with, this
thing doesn't suit me.
May suit you or may suit them. It
doesn't fit who I am as a believer
who has been liberated through Islam.
It it doesn't work for me.
That's sign number 1. They don't hand over
their minds and their personalities to be governed
and dictated to by others.
Take note of sign number 2 of a
people
who are truly
ahar,
truly free.
They don't allow
fallout between them and another Muslim to extend
unnecessarily
long.
Whether it's between you and a cousin, you
and an ex spouse, or you and an
ex business partner, you or a relative, you
don't allow a fallout to prolong a period
of silence that drags. You don't allow our
relationship to be strained for so long because
you're free from all of these impulses.
You don't arrogantly say, he must apologize to
me before I give them the apology. They
must extend
the olive branch before I do. You don't
do that.
My sister, my brother, you don't deprive an
ex spouse from access to their children
and custody to their children.
Why?
Because you are free.
You are above these impulses.
You are above egoism
and impatience
and recklessness.
You're not steered and governed by recklessness and
anger and rage and pettiness and bitterness.
You're free from all of that. That is
a sign of a person who is free.
Sign number 2.
Sign number 3,
a person who is
truly free will never
opt to make an income from that which
is haram.
They are not enslaved to the lobby, whatever
it may be, or the supplier,
or the employer.
I will never make an income as a
free believer
through that which is prohibited,
because you know through your,
your belief,
that what is meant for you will come
your way. No one can stop it. And
what is not meant to be on your
plate can never come to you, though the
world may try to bring it to you.
So you're at rest, you're at peace.
Never will you add to your capital through
that which is prohibited or doubtful.
That is another sign of those
who are free.
And though they may see people driving high
end cars and living in luxurious homes,
if that money was sourced from haram,
you see it for what it is. That's
a slave in that car. That's a slave
in that apartment or house.
And though you may be living in a
very small property
and driving a very basic car, if that
money has come from the halal, that is
the image of a man who is free,
who is truly at liberty.
Sign number 3 of those who are truly
free
is that they
inspire
an immense
level of all.
Their character,
their personalities,
their behavior,
their decisions,
their talk,
their silence
is magnetic.
There is an enchanting
charm to their behavior.
Because Allah Almighty created you and I as
free and honorable people, we recognize honor when
we see it. That is sign number
3. When you see those who are truly
free,
you are amazed.
There is an irresistible
pull towards them, and you can't explain it,
but I explain it to you my brother,
my sister. You are witnessing a man or
a woman or a community
who are truly free. Though it may cost
them their lives, they stand by their principles,
and that is a spectacle that we admire.
Perhaps this explains why the events in Philistine
and Gaza specifically have captured the attention of
the world.
Maybe it was their patience. I don't think
it's their patience. We've seen patience before.
Maybe it's their resilience, their stubbornness, their optimism.
We've seen optimism elsewhere.
Maybe it's their bravery and their courage. We've
seen courage elsewhere.
I argue, and Allah knows best,
that the secret
behind
how the world
has been enchanted by the behavior of those
patient Muslims. They are in Philistine,
goes back to this element that we're speaking
of this evening.
We admire freedom when we see it,
and we recognize
freedom when we see it, and we are
drawn and pulled towards freedom when we see
it, And that is what we have seen
there, and that is what the world has
seen.
And perhaps you have come across the article
in The Guardian newspaper that was titled, and
I quote word for word,
young
Americans
picking up copies of the Quran to understand
Muslim Palestinian resilience.
Try to understand
how is it that they behave in this
way.
It's costing them everything that you and I
consider dear,
yet it's nothing is too much to sacrifice
for Allah almighty. In short,
sign number 3, you will recognize a person
or a community who are truly free because
you are innately
drawn to their behavior. Why?
Because their freedom is anchored upon something very
high.
Their freedom is not anchored upon desire,
fetishes,
urges,
impulses.
Their freedom is anchored upon the most high
Allah,
and for them nothing is too much to
sacrifice for him.
Sean King,
American journalist,
another man who recognized the freedom of the
people of Palestine, and he decided
he decided to become like them and to
embrace their religion.
He
credited on the 1st day of the month
of Ramadan when he took his shahada there
in America.
He categorically
credited his reversion to Islam to the last
6 months of scenes that he has seen
unfolding in Gaza and the resilience of the
Muslims there. He said if it wasn't for
those last 6 months, I don't think I
would be here today. He said not only
have they opened my eyes and the eyes
of my wife who are here to become
Muslims, but they have opened the eyes of
1,000,000 across the world as well.
That is sign number 3 when you see
a person who is free. They garner an
immense sense of awe in your heart and
respect. You want to be like them. All
of the dawah that we've been giving and
all of the information we've been showing about
Islam, Alhamdulillah, I mean, this is great. It
it mustn't stop. Don't get me wrong. This
is part of our religion.
But the paradigm shift happened where?
When did the trajectory do this?
When freedom was displayed, when the Quran was
put on show, though it may cost me
my life, I have principles that I live
and die upon.
You can achieve the same results in the
people you work with, your family, your children,
community who rub shoulders with you. You're gonna
have the exact same effect on them.
Though you may not memorize a lot of
Quran and Hadith and maybe you're not very
clear in your talk, maybe you don't have
a vast vocab.
But just you demonstrating Islam,
just you showing how your values,
you believe them to reign supreme whenever there
is a conflict,
standing to your principles when there is a
attention,
that in of itself is to draw is
enough to draw the awe of the people
who you mix with towards the religion that
you profess.
Brothers and sisters, I want to also say
to you something very important as we come
to the end now of the lecture and
that is
Alhamdulillah, all of us are going around saying
free Palestine.
Free Palestine.
The the word free Palestine has now reverberated
across the entire globe.
Great.
Noble statement. I'm not there to bash it.
We all want to free Palestine.
But it's key for us to realize
that in order for our activism
to free Palestine
to flourish,
we need to be people who are free
ourselves.
Fakhidu Shay'ilayu'otrihi,
the Arabs say,
one who doesn't possess something
can't offer it to others.
I can't go to a people and remove
the shackles from their wrists
if there are shackles restraining me.
I cannot take the straight jacket off the
body of a person if there is a
straight jacket on me.
If I am enslaved
by something,
then I cannot deliver freedom to others though
I may chant free free Palestine all day
and all night.
And that is why we have the story
of Antarab Nusaddad, the famous Arab African
pre Islamic poet and knight who we have
immortalized in our books of literature in the
Arab world. Aantar Abnusaddad
was born a child
who had a color that his father didn't
appreciate, unfortunately.
So his father decided to not give him
his surname and to deprive him from paternity.
And this broke the heart of heart of
young Antara.
Until
a
tribe came and invaded
the tribe of Antara on one evening, the
tribe of Abs,
and they stole all of the camels. So
the father of Antara Abu Shaddad, he said
to his son, Yeah,
Antar.
Go and proceed. Charge at them. Charge. Go
and fight Antar.
Antar said to his dad,
He said, dad, slaves like us don't know
how to charge and fight.
We only know how to milk animals and
herd
sheep.
So his father realized,
I was the one who made him into
a coward. I have deprived him from his
right of paternity.
I have not given him my surname, so
his father knew what he needed to do.
He said,
charge Antara, and I will give you your
freedom.
So Antara charged, and he fought them single
handedly in a ferocious battle. And he retrieved
the camels, and he became Antara al Lusaddad,
whom we celebrate till this day.
What is the point of mentioning this story?
Antara was only able to do what he
did. When what? He was free himself.
So you look into the mirror of your
life, my brother, my sister, very carefully and
be honest with yourself.
I know you want to free Palestine, jazakallahu
khairan. I don't doubt that, alhamdulillah.
And I know that you want to give
everything that you possess
for the cause,
and you feel that you wish you could
do a lot more than you're doing today.
But before your efforts can be truly effective,
let's not deceive ourselves. Let's not kid ourselves.
Let's be real.
I have to be free before I can
free anyone else.
Look into the mirror of your life. What
are the shackles that exist on your limbs?
Is it, for example,
an enslavement to prohibited types of browsing on
the Internet that you're still struggling with till
this day in the month of Ramadan?
Those shackles need to come off before you
can help others shake off theirs.
Is it my sister, A hijab,
that you have been embattled with for so
many years?
This is the time now to
don the perfect hijab as described by the
legislator
to shake off those shackles
before you can help others do the same?
Is it perhaps an obsession with what people
think of you?
An obsession with being liked by others regardless
of what it cost you? Friends, family, nieces,
nephews,
parents, and above all Allah Almighty and your
religion.
Shake off those shackles, my brother, my sister,
before you can help others do the same.
What are your shackles? You think about it.
You think about your life, and I do
the same. Is it a financial dealing that
you know is shady, to say the least?
Though my brother
and my sister,
I know that perhaps this is a bit
of a daunting way to end the talk.
This is the way to support our brothers
and sisters in Palestine.
Let me say, this is a way of
supporting our brothers and sisters in Palestine
by engaging in introspection
and beginning with yourself
before your activism can become effective.
And a lot of us will ask the
question, what is what is Ramadan? What was
Ramadan with the backdrop of Gaza?
It was so difficult
seeing all that brutality and cruelty every day
coming through our feet.
What was Ramadan? And what is Ramadan with
all of this happening in the background? I
say to you,
this is the best Ramadan of your life.
It must be the best Ramadan of your
life.
When your process to individual freedom started with
Gaza,
6 months ago,
and Insha'Allah will be completed by the end
of the month of Ramadan. Say Insha'Allah.
Inshallah.
It started, then it will end
in 2, 3 days. On the day of
Eid, we declare to Allah
that we have been freed.
We have been freed from every pressure,
every constraint,
every limitation,
and we are only accountable
and governed
by wahi,
our worship to Allah
our worship to Allah