Haitham al-Haddad – How Can Muslims Make the Most of the South African Dream

My conclusion about South Africa after this visit and meeting so

many people from different countries, Alhamdulillah, first of

all, Alhamdulillah, you have a very beautiful country. Even the

non Muslim society is welcoming, and the Muslim society is thriving

and used to be a role model for other societies, for other Muslims

in non Muslim countries, is something that needs to be

emphasized and mentioned also the globally and internationally, the

position South Africa has taken, yeah, in supporting the just cause

of the Palestinians is outstanding, and many countries,

Muslims all over the world, are so happy, so overwhelmed, so proud of

South Africa.

And we ask Allah that the new government to remain on this path

as the previous government, we heard that the ANC, they made it

clear that they will not change their position regarding

Palestine. So this is something to be, you know, mentioned and

confirmed regarding my views or my advice, if I may give you an

advice or number of things. First of all, we need to put more

attention to dawah. I learned that the existence of Islam and Muslims

in South Africa, yeah, we started maybe 300 years ago. Yeah, and

you've been in this country for around 300 years ago. Now, 300

years ago, if you just calculate just a few, number of people

accepting Islam every year. And those a few number, these 10

people, everyone 10 people accept Islam, and then everyone 10 people

accept Islam. I think by now we will see half of South Africa are

Muslims. But this is not the case. Yeah, the percentage of Muslims in

South Africa, as I understood, 1.8

which means that you have just 1.5

million Muslims, or something like this, though. So this is

something, yeah, that needs to be taken seriously. And we all know

that Adela Allah. Allah says, well, Takumin Kumar to

headwauling, well, Takumin kumma yani. This is a matter of who do.

Is not a matter of sunnah or mustaha. So this is one thing, the

and the second point is, we should be careful. You should be careful

not to be complacent with your situation. How you are doing well.

Muslims in South Africa are doing well in terms of business. They

have money. They have big houses. They have, yeah, they have their

madrasas. Masajid, big masajid. We went to amazing masajid, really. I

was so shocked to see this. Masajid, some schools, Muslim

schools, they have 700 they have big facilities. Now this might

lead us to complacency and this life, nothing remains as it is.

There is no stagnancy in this life, either you progress or you

regress. If you become if you remain stagnant, it means that you

are losing. If you become complacent, then you are losing

without, yeah, without, no. This is number two. Number three. We

spoke about so called secular education. I don't like to call it

secular education. How on earth maths is considered to be secular

education to learn JAMA, apparatus, multiplying, etc. It's

not secular education. It is education that we need it for our

deen. We need it to run ourselves, to to run our country. We needed

to, you know, manage ourselves. So that's why I really want you to

pay attention to this kind of education that some people call

secular education. And you need, we need, in South Africa to have

certificates degrees, because at one point they might be looking

for a qualified people to run the country. If you don't have

degrees, they will not come to Muslims. And in one of the non one

of the African countries, Muslims, despite the fact that they are

majority, they are the least developed that they are

disadvantaged. They are the least influential. They don't have

positions in the government. Why? Because they their scholars in the

past. Yeah, they called the secular education haram education.

So people start.

Not to send their children into what to so called secular

education, to normal schools and universities so they don't have

degrees, and when they they have the independent they want people

to run their country. They did not find Muslims ready to do that, so

they gave it to non Muslims, Christians, etc, etc, they will

not give Muslims their due rights. Okay? So this is another important

point education. I would like to see more services provided by

Muslims to the wider society. Muslims, Alhamdulillah, they have

money, they have facilities. They are working together. They should

do give more services. In fact, you know, they should do it in a

way. As we always say, instead of giving people fish to eat, teach

them how to fish. This is real empowerment, and not to give them

in a way that they feel that we are higher than them and they are

lower than us. So they will continue, because this one time

will explode, one time will be disturbed. And because some young

people with this, you know, globalization of information, they

would say, why are we treated like this? Why those people are

driving, you know, Mercedes and these luxury cars, and we are in

this devastated I want, don't want them to just give me, like, you

know, an animal, to give me some food to eat. Why? So this is

really important. Okay, then, you know this parliament now the new

government, Muslims, yeah, don't have that presence in this new

parliament, a new government, as they had before. And I was talking

to some brothers, they said, now we are not that involved in

department government tells departments, I think you need to

give more attention to this, that Muslims do exist in all especially

main departments of the government. This is crucial,

especially in five areas, political, politics, or

departments that run the political life, departments that are related

to judiciary, departments that are educational departments. Education

in general, Muslims have to be influential. Yeah, in education

and the other departments, yeah and media, and then finally,

economy. These are the five influential areas in each quote,

unquote, democratic country, apart from the military and and so I

hope that you hear the democratic not to become, you know, what is

it? Autocratic or Yeah? Dictatorship, yeah. Okay, so you

need to be influential in those departments, military. It is up to

you. I don't know about that. Okay, you need to be influential

in those areas. And in order to be influential, you need some people

who have many people have PhDs in education, PhDs in law, PhDs in

politics, and people worked in that field and this field. Allah,

Jalla. Allah called us the best of nations because of our influence.

Kun tumhai, Ram matinos, Moran Abu what does this mean to be

influential, to be effective. So this is crucial, the last to

final.

If we as Muslims are not united, we will lose

well, at a tough Unity has to be among the different madhhabs.

Unity has to be across the sect. Unity has to be across what the

racial background the Prophet Sallam says Islam is the dean of

unity. We, unfortunately, some people, they look for reasons to

differ, not for reasons to do unite of a local. Okay, at least

we should coordinate. We should coordinate in these areas. We

should coordinate in politics. We should coordinate in media. We

should coordinate in education. We should coordinate in judiciary. We

should coordinate in economy. Yes, in economy, finally, yeah, be

optimistic and work hard. Don't be complacent. Either we progress or

we regress.

InshaAllah, you will continue to progress. May Allah protect you in

your country. May Allah, Allah, empower you, and you need to

empower yourself to share the beauty of Islam with everyone.

Yeah, so they they see the light of Allah. They enjoy the light of

Allah, Amin ya Rameen, and the country will be a better country

if Islam is flourishing, definitely. Yeah, I forgot one

thing, yes, regarding social interaction. And you know, you

need to find ways to make this country safer. Because everyone I

spoke to, yeah, they were complaining about what security so

you need. Don't just say my security is that I have a big

house. I have guards. I have this company, okay, security company,

etc, your or I carry guns or no. This is selfishness, okay? So you

need to account because you we don't want to have these classes,

these that are the elite. They have security. They eat the best

food, and they we have the devastated people, no security,

even finance, no food. So maybe come together, and I strongly

advise to have like a think tank, Muslim Think Tank, yes,

South African Muslim Think Tank, to deal with these challenges,

may Allah, Jalo Allah, protect you. Just.