Hamza Tzortzis – Beyond the Shahadah – How to empower new Muslims!
AI: Summary ©
The "we" in relation to the " Shahada," a culture that is the beginning and the end of Islam. The " Shahada is designed to achieve spiritual" and is the beginning, not the end. It is the beginning, not the end, and everyone has a duty to fulfill it. The " Shahada is the final messenger for Islam and is designed to build connections with others, especially brothers and sisters. It is important to affirm one's own connection with the Lord and find ways to establish the new spiritual culture.AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim in Al hamdu Lillah wa Salatu was salam, ala rasulillah. Brothers and sisters and friends. Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Today, I want to talk to you about something extremely important. And that is the topic of the new Muslims, brothers and sisters and friends. We get the Shahada.
We are so excited. Allahu Akbar, Allah is the Greatest, we're crying, we're very emotional. But then we neglect our brothers and sisters, I call this spiritual murder.
And don't take this lightly, because it is a type of murder. Because what we're doing is we're bringing someone to this amazing tradition, to save them from the Hellfire to save them in this life and in the Hereafter. So they have tranquility in this life, and eternal bliss and tranquility in the hereafter. So we're according to that message. And then we leave them alone. And then they eventually leave that message. Because we haven't facilitated their growth of emaan the growth of faith. And therefore, it's like we have murdered them spiritually, which I think can be also one of the West types of murder. Because think about your brothers and sisters, this life is only 70 years,
60 years, but the aka the Hereafter, is eternal.
So we get excited, but we neglect them.
And I want you to think about the following analogy. Imagine you're a farmer. And what we do to try and get the Shahada, we plant seeds, don't we, so we're planting seeds.
If we don't do anything to the seeds, are we going to have the fruits
is anything going to grow?
You could throw a million seeds, brothers and sisters, a seed over here, seed over there and wait for an eternity, nothing will happen unless you feed it, you give it water, you facilitate the land in order for it to grow into the fruits of eemaan, if you like. And what we've been doing thus far, unfortunately, is that we're just planting seeds. And we're thinking,
we're going to have the fruits of eemaan.
But we have to now focus, planting the seeds is easy. But we have to focus and really spend time in thinking about ensuring that our brothers and sisters, our brothers and sisters are on the path to gender are on the path to pleasing Allah subhanho wa Taala are on the path of self discovery on the path of self realization on the path of worshiping Allah subhanho wa Taala are on the path of Jannah of paradise.
And how do we do this brothers and sisters? How do we do this? Well, we're gonna be talking about this in the next few minutes. But I also want to give you another analogy.
If I were to say to you,
my uncle, he's come from
another country. And he's going to be arriving at the airport in the next hour or so. I need one of you guys to pick my uncle up. And maybe let him stay in your house and feed him take care of him and facilitate his stay for maybe a few nights. I guarantee you, I guarantee you many of you be like, Yes, of course. I'm difficult to do this. He's a good deed. He's like a brother in Islam, and we have to help him and we have to do all of these great things for him because it's part of what Sam tells us what to do. For sure. I agree. So you get the reward. You get the closest with a love because you're facilitating another fellow human being another brother in Islam.
But what about for the new Muslim?
It's the same for him, right? He takes the Shahada, he declares the reality. He appreciates reality of firms reality that there is no data where they worship but Allah and Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is his final messenger. And then you leave him alone. He's come to this new spiritual land if you like this new emotional and spiritual place, he's traveled to that place by giving the Shahada taking the Shahada, and then you've left him alone.
Do you see the contradiction here? We'll be so willing and so much energy and passion and use all our resources to help my uncle. But when it comes to your brother, who's entered the new land of Islam in his heart, you've left him alone. He's lost.
Think about it. I think it's time we took this very seriously brothers and sisters, and we realize that part of the DAO cycle is the Shahada. The Shahada is the beginning. It's not the end. Remember this, the Shahada is the beginning, not the end, when you talk to many reverts, converts to Islam, you realize this is the case as well. And don't forget brothers and sisters, the power of the prophet SAW the love for Allah who was sending them. Do you think that Islam would have been successful? If he just told the Sahaba the companions may Allah be pleased with them? Just accept Islam, and that's it. You think Islam would have been successful? You think after 80 years of the
death of the Prophet salallahu, alayhi wasallam, we would have been in moved on in Pakistan and in Spain,
establishing peace and justice and harmony around the world. You think that would be the case? If the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Just accept this, just affirm this, just say there is no data worthy of worship God, and Muhammad is His final messenger. And that's it and he just left them alone. You think that will be the case? You think that many of you be Muslim, if that was the case, of course not. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he realized that after planting the seed of affirming the oneness of Allah in their hearts and their soul, that he had to nurture it.
And you see, over years, his teaching style, his Rama, His mercy and love, His compassion, his tolerance, his health, is full forbearance, his humanity,
his patience, His love, His engagement, his connection, his leadership,
that was essential for those seeds to grow into the likes of Muslim, David Omar, or Roger Lohan.
Who, as we know, went to Medina.
And there was a Muslim in every house. You think that could have been the case? If the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Just accept God, and he's one, and then he ran away? You think that would be the case? You think you'd be Muslim today? You think that we would have the success of the Islamic history that we established peace and harmony around the world? Do you think that would have been the case? You think that we would have had
me speaking here today?
Maybe not.
So we should follow that right? So we should follow what the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam taught us, which essentially is not only planting the seed, but nurturing it. So it grows into the fruits of Iman. And not only the fruits of your mind, but the fruits of personalities, like the Sahaba.
Brothers and sisters and friends, now, you're ready to go to the global dour Day event.
You have your T shirt.
You have used our material. You've been allocated your location, you meet somebody, you speak to them. They they're convinced and they're just about to take the Shahada.
There is something that you have to keep in mind.
The Shahada is not
that you must believe in God.
And that Muhammad is His Prophet. That is not the Shahada. This is why I call the satanic Shahada because even shaked on Satan knows that there is no god but God and Muhammad is His Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. What you have to realize is the Shahada is La Ilaha Illa. Allah, there is no deity worthy of worship. But Allah and Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is his final messenger, which essentially means there must be no new realization that there is no God Lord, but Allah, but that that Lord must be worshipped deserves our worship, and must be singled out concerning acts of worship. So there is no deity worthy of worship, but Allah and Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam misses final messenger, that fool when you're giving the Shahada, there must be a realization within this person's heart, that he or she has a willingness to worship Allah, that she or he has a willingness to worship Allah. This is not just an intellectual exercise. Yes, God exists. Make sense this God is Allah makes sense. Mohammed was the last prophet. That doesn't necessarily make you a Muslim.
But rather the willingness to worship Allah as a result of understanding this makes you Muslim from this perspective. So there must be a willingness in this person's heart to worship Allah subhana wa Tada. That is
Extremely important, because in the past many brothers and sisters, they get what we would call confetti Shahada is, you know, you just blow in the wind and it just goes everywhere, right? We need stable Shahada ism, we have a duty a divine duty to ensure they understand what La ilaha illAllah actually really means because one of the conditions for La ilaha illAllah is sincerity in this and obviously understanding its implications, which is, at least having a willingness to worship Allah, so panel water Allah, this is very, very important that they have an understanding that not only is allowed the only data worthy of worship and Muhammad Sallallahu I live with someone whose final
messenger, but that entails that there is a willingness now to affirm that, which is that there is no data where they worship, but Allah had you affirm this, you have a willingness to worship Allah subhana wa, Tada.
Brothers and sisters, once they've taken the Shahada, your dow is over. What I mean by this is, the activities that you plan for the global dow a day are finished, complete, full stop, because all your energy, focus and resource should be with your new brother or sister in Islam. inshallah
brothers and sisters and friends in the past have had a problem, when we take the Shahada, the brother, or the sister may give us an email address or their number. And we will quickly write it down on our hands, or on a piece of paper or tissue, we may lose the tissue lose the piece of paper, and after doing Voodoo, we've lost the ink on our hands as well. So as you know, we have designed this Shahada app, and all of you have this on your phone. And if you don't, please download it on your phone. And at this stage, we want you to ask for the details of the new Muslim so we can record it permanently in sha Allah in this application, so you can be in touch with them, or your team
leader, or whoever is relevant to really facilitate the growth of our beloved brother and sister in Islam.
Now, after doing this, now is the time to build a very good relationship between yourself and our beloved brother or sister in Islam. Spend some time with them. Don't just take the details and ran out runaway, okay, I want you to sit down, and I'm going to spend some time with them. Take them to a coffee shop, or take them to a quiet place, engage with them, share some stories about your life, some of your insights, maybe you can answer further questions. The point is, now's the time to be yourself. Well, you should have been yourself before anyway. But be truly yourself. Now we really want to sincerely engage with our brother and sister in Assam to create that connection in sha
Allah.
After establishing a good connection with our brother or sister, what I advise you to do is to invite them to the mosque, if they have time.
Take them to the mosque. And when you take them to the mosque, now is the time for you to teach them how to pray. You remove we said in the beginning the Shahada, there must be a willingness to worship Allah. Now this is a manifestation of that you take them to the mosque, you teach them how to pray. So obviously you have to teach them how to do will do how to perform you do the the evolution and also you start to teach them the steps of the prayer. Keep it simple. But the number one important thing I want you to focus on is what the prayer means for you. I don't want you to make them think that the prayer is just some kind of gymnastics. But given the inner dimensions of the Salah, it's
about humility. It's about love. It's about a broken heart. It's about humbled heart. It's about heart that's yearning for the love of the Divine. It's about a heart that yearning for his mercy, for his forgiveness, for his guidance for his closeness because I want you to make them understand brothers and sisters, that every single human being from a metaphorical perspective has been created with a hole in the heart. And sometimes we fill that hole with a husband, a wife, and you job more money, success, career, materialism and new car. But every time we try and fill that hole, another hole comes up.
But I want you to make them realize when they establish the Salah, the prayer, the connection with Allah worshiping
like knowing him loving him obeying Him, that hole is filled.
And there are no other holes left. Because once you have a lot in your heart and the dunya in your hand,
then you need a successful life. But the minute you have dunya in your heart
and allies outside of your heart, then we won't lead a successful life. So I want you to make them realize that their hearts are like boats on the ocean. And the hearts are going to travel towards Allah subhanho wa Taala, as long as the ocean is not in the boat, because when the ocean is in the boat, it sinks and that's the dunya too much of the world is in our hearts, our hearts will sink and forth. But our hearts will float just like the boat. If we're on top of the world, the dunya. And we can achieve that. If we really focus in our Salah in a prayer and realize this is a divine discourse. When we're in such debt, when we're in frustration is the closest closest we are with our
rub with our Lord, as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told us so essentially what I'm trying to say here is brothers and sisters. Teach them the prayer. How the prayer is supposed to be taught, and how the prayer is supposed to be felt, and how the prayer is supposed to be established. And once that happens, then they will realize the sweetness of a man, the sweetness of faith, especially if you catch the time of the congregational prayer, when they see all the brothers and sisters praying together. And this is quite amazing. I want to share your story just to end this. A few weeks ago, I was in Vancouver. And we were doing street dow. And what happened was is this gentleman
was approached by one of our brothers and he was invited to the mosque. He came to the mosque and he said, I want to pray. So they asked me Can he pray with us. I said, of course, I gave him some advice on what it means to pray. It's not just gymnastics, it's not just mechanics. It's about your heart is about the connection with your Lord. And I even told him to make supplication when he's in such that he when he isn't prostration. And he did that. And then after the prayer, he looked very humbled it very enlightened, almost very connected. And after 10 minutes conversation, he became a Muslim.
And the same thing happened to me, before I converted to Islam 11 years ago, 12 years ago, I used to pray to Allah in such that in frustration, and I used to scream to Allah saying, guide me, show me the way. And then hamdulillah Allah showed me the way. So hopefully from these insights, you'll be able to understand that the most important part
of a new Muslims life is not the flip of this or the fact of that. But rather, it's the prayer. The Prayer is the affirmation of the new worldview of the new spiritual tradition is the affirmation of reality, La ilaha illAllah, that there is no deity worthy of worship, but Allah, and that would free them from the dunya freedom from the egos and they will be free slaves. Sounds like a paradox, but it's not. Because when you experience it, you understand the true freedom lies with Allah. Allah tells us this in chapter 39 of the Quran, he says whose condition is better, the one with many slave masters and the old quarreling, the disagreeing amongst each other, are the one who has one slave
master.
And the slave master we know is Allah, and he knows us better we know ourselves, and he loves us more than our mother loves us, as the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
some final things you have to do brothers and sisters and friends. Make sure you keep that connection between your brothers and your sisters. And the way to do that is by being in touch regularly. For example, once a week, maybe go for a coffee. But since it's the month of Ramadan, you can invite them to any staff, you can invite them to a talk, you can basically have phone conversations with them if they're very busy. The point is, make sure you find different means to use to establish or further establish that connection with your brother or sister. It's very important to not leave them alone, and also inquire about their life. Don't be trained truces, but
maybe they need help. Maybe they may be having problems with their family. Maybe they have financial problems or whatever the case may be, understand who they are and the context. So you understand on how you can engage with them and how you can help them in the general life. So it's very important brothers and sisters, to really keep that connection. Some people say keep in touch every week. My advice
Be, you can tell by the person some people are quite needy because they need help. Maybe they want to ask you questions every couple of days. So they may text you and say, Oh, are you free for a chat, of course you are, you know, just turn off the TV and just call them right. And really give time to your brother and sister is very important that you understand the sacrifice here, of sacrificing other things that are not that important in your life for your brother and sister is immense. Because you're facilitating someone's paradise. You're facilitating someone's tranquility in this life, and the hereafter, and it's very, very important, brothers and sisters, that you
actually realize this, also start to give gifts. Give them gifts, is such an amazing thing. As the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, it's something that facilitates love amongst the brothers and sisters, again, give them a gift, whether it's a quote, an, or whether it's some clothes, whether it's buying them a meal, or whether it's doing something that you made yourself, I personally feel if you make something with your own hands, it's far more amazing, it builds love more, because it means you spent time thinking about that person, you spent lots of effort in making something for that person. So these are the some ideas, but I just really want to point the idea in
your heart and mind that you really have to keep in touch with this new Muslim, as regular as possible, and introduce them to the community, to the mosque, to the wider Muslim communities, so they understand who this person is, and they feel part of the global family. Because Don't forget many of you may use this line to get the Shahada. When you enter into the loving family of Islam. Well, now is the time to show them that you are part of that loving family, that you're regularly in touch with them, you're helping them supporting them, giving them gifts, loving them, but also you introduce them to this loving family that these people they don't even know and they don't know him
or her that there is this automatic bonden love because the beauty of Islam The only Islam can do this, that could take two strangers and just because they worship Allah, they are in love, maybe better than any type of love that you can imagine. Because this is the strength of the loving relationship of a man because essentially, and we should make the offer this that Allah subhanho wa Taala brings us together in love via his glory and inshallah you should be a manifestation of that. That you are bringing the new brother and sister
into Islam via Allah. Because Allah is Allah Buddha, he is the excessively loving, so show them this love and inshallah that connection will be further strengthened by the will and power and mercy of Allah subhanho wa Taala
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