Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Glad Tidings to the Strangers MSA West Conference 01112019
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AI: Transcript ©
It's a great honor and privilege to be
able to address
the MSA West.
I, myself, as was mentioned in the,
lovely bio,
a student at the University of Washington at
one time, and believe it or not, those
were very different times.
Those were times where, believe it or not,
even though you think this guy,
he looks weird, he dresses differently, he talks
differently,
that's the way things used to be at
that time.
The culture in America,
of Muslims was a little bit different at
that time.
Being in MSA at the time of 9:11
was very
jarring.
Why? Because it seemed like the Muslim community
in America, like, retreated all of a sudden.
I don't know if you guys remember that
time, or how well you remember that time,
but when 911 happened, there were literally people
in in
in in this country stopped going to the
masjid for a year. Stop going to the
masjid for 2 years. There are women who
took off their hijabs. There are men who
shave their beards. There are people who there
are actually massages that were closed for several
weeks, and they didn't open up again.
And, it was a time where
people were
kind of waking up from a type of
slumber that they were in,
both in terms of
the general population of this country
with their feeling of isolation from the world,
and also the Muslim community in this country
where they had to
try to find out what their place was,
as Muslims and as Americans.
What I can tell you is this, people
took divergent paths. There are many people who
are in MSA West at that time.
Now this is what? Number 8 or number
9, the conference?
21.
So I remember, like, 1 and 2.
I I remember 1 and 2. And one
of the hallmarks of the, one of the
hallmarks of MSA in general and MSA West
in specific was what?
Was that there is a spirit amongst the
students
that we are going to do what's right.
We are going to do what we think
is best. We are going to express ourselves
not as an expression of what we think
other people think we should be or how
they think we should be. Rather, it's going
to come organically from inside and it's gonna
project outside. You understand what I'm saying? There's
a, a a a concern with
style and there's a concern with substance, and
I'm not going to tell you that the
concern with style is not important. It's important.
It's a sunnah in fact. That whatever you
do and whoever you go to, when you
want to bring the word of truth to
them and when you want to suggest something
that's better, there's a way of doing so.
And that way is embodied by the idea
of Hikma, by the idea of wisdom, that
you should not become a people repellent. You
should not go and present
what is true and what is pure in
a way that alienates people, in a way
that turns people off, in a way that
is obnoxious, in a way that that's condescending,
in a way that that that, you know,
makes you look down on them.
However,
the the the issue that I've seen in
the community in general and in in in
the NSA as well as being a subset
of that community, the issue that that we're
still trying to negotiate
is finding what does it mean for us
to be a Muslim, especially with regards to
where we're gonna fit on this, style versus
substance scale.
Because the issue is this is that you
can become so focused on your style that
you neglect your substance.
You neglect who you are, what you are,
what the point of any of this is.
You become
so preoccupied with what are people going to
think about me and what are people even
going to think about Islam that that you
know, we forget ourselves sometimes to let that
Islam inside of us. And those identity politics
are very powerful. There are a lot of
people,
especially with the idea of being a minority,
especially with the idea of being a minority,
there are a lot of people who define
themselves through a siege mentality,
and at some point, they become so empty
inside because they never bothered working on themselves,
that when they get to that very scary
realization that I don't even know what it
means to be a Muslim.
I don't even know what it means to
pray. Right? The salah to our first faces
of Pibla and says Allahu Akbar. We have
to be honest with ourselves.
How many of us are getting
madad from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? How many
of us are getting help and our lights,
our hearts are being enlightened in that prayer?
And how many of us are wiping our
face on the floor 2, 3, 4 times
and then running?
As if the salam is like a commuting
of some sort of sentence that you want
to get out of it, and you're tortured
inside.
This is one example of the many things
we have to ask ourselves
in order
to, you know, just keep it real with
regards to the question of, have we been
spending too much time with substance, and have
we not been, with with style and not
been spending enough time with substance?
And I'll tell you this, that my study
of
the sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, the lives of the companions
and the
lives of any every generation that
upheld what that upheld the standard of deen
and the standard of spirituality, the standard of
justice, the standard of ihsan, which is a
a a a level higher than justice. The
standard of Ihsan that a person should do
things in a beautiful way, that a person
should strive toward
beauty, strive toward perfection, strive toward being better
than they were yesterday.
Those people were strange and weird people, and
they didn't care.
Do you understand what I mean? There's a
difference between trying to be weird.
There's a difference between not caring what other
people feel in a in in a in
a way of callousness.
That's one thing. And there's a difference between
that and there's a difference between something else
on the other side, which is I'm gonna
try my best in order to speak in
the most beautiful way. In order to give
from whatever I have to those around me.
In order to accommodate and show,
concern, and show
an appropriate amount of softness for another person's
humanity.
But once that's done,
once
that accommodation has been made to every reasonable
degree,
at that time, I'm not going to I'm
not gonna give up my Islam just to
make another person happy.
This is a very it's a very important
nuance that I think is missing with a
lot of people in terms of how they
view what their Islam is with with with
regards to other people, Whether they be people
of other faiths
or other Muslims as well.
Because oftentimes we get the most opposition with
regards to our Islam from other Muslims. Why?
This is a very simple precept in the
Quran. Allah mentions with regards to the mushrikeen
of Quraysh, how they dealt with the Rasul
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. He says,
They feel bad. They wish that you were
a time waster, so it wouldn't make them
feel bad about being a time waster.
They wish that you were you were, flaky,
and you were you were superficial,
and you were materialistic.
So would it make them feel bad about
being all of those things at the same
time?
This is a real powerful motivator. We see
it in our I mean,
some of you are very saintly individuals. I
see it in my own life. Sometimes I
resent a person for being better than me,
and then I think and reflect why why
does this person annoy me? And the reason
is what? Is because because
when I see it when I see that
person, when I look into the the the
the person. Right?
Hadith of the prophet
that believer is a mirror of a believer.
So when you look at your brother, when
you look at your sister and you see
something you like or you see something that
you don't like, oftentimes,
what is it? You're seeing that same thing
that's in yourself.
That oftentimes when you look at your, brother,
you look at your sister, and you see
that there's some deficiency,
in your you see some annoyance. What is
it? It's because that deficiency is your own
that's being
reflected back at you. And again, we should
give riyaa for that. We should give some
sort of,
adjustment knowing that other people are human beings
and they're going to go through this phase
and be soft with them in order to
allow them to,
in order to allow them to get over
that and reflect and understand where that's coming
from. But the fact of the matter is
no matter how much,
compromise you make with people, no matter how
good your aflaaf are, no matter how, soft
you are with other people, in certain situations,
you can you can bend over backwards, people
are not going to accept it. And at
that point, what can you do?
This is the point where we have to
part ways. This happens.
Is there anybody who had better aflak than
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam?
No. Is there anyone who had better who's
kinder, softer, more patient, more indulgent than the
messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam? No.
No.
This is the the the the benchmark against
whom all other all other
people, all of the rest of creation is
going to be judged.
So if there are people
who didn't
accept the deen or didn't accept what was
what was right,
from him, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, that means
you and me, we're not going to be
able to stand for something better. We're not
going to be able to stand for the
except for Allah Ta'ala. It is a system
that he has placed in his creation with
which there is no negotiation,
in which it is a choice that he
has made that is immutable, it cannot be
changed, that you will find some opposition, you
will find some resistance.
This is what the messenger of Allah salallahu
alaihi wa sallam meant in the hadith which
was referenced in the introduction to this section.
Islam started as something strange, and it will
become something strange again.
Right? The the the the
is done. It's finished.
Right? The the the the caliphates of of
Baghdad and of Damascus,
and of they're they're done. They're finished. The
Ottoman Empire is gone. The Mughal Empire is
gone. The the the the the caliphate of
Sheikh Usman Danfodio, it's gone. They're done.
Where are we at right now? We're at
the point that the only place where you
get treated worse for being an observant Muslim,
than the, countries in which the Muslims are
minorities, oftentimes, sadly enough, is the countries in
which Muslims are majority. This is a star
track.
And it's easy for a person to get
bitter about it.
All these people are horrible. All these people
don't care. They're all bunch of hypocrites. They're
this, they're that, they're the other thing. It's
easy to get upset about it. It's easy
to get upset and it's easy to curse
other people out. Think about the one
to whose tears those people entered into the
deen, and it will temper your,
inside internal anger and your internal angst and
your internal
rage in order in order to kick those
people out, in order to write them off.
Do you understand what I'm saying? It's easy
to see people and write them off. Said
the who was literally on his way to
assassinate the prophet
when he became Muslim.
Used to make du'a to Allah ta'ala. O
Allah, one of the 2, make them give
them give them hidayah, at least one of
the 2 of them. Who was the other
one? Amr bin Hisham,
Al Muqanna
b Abi Jahal, The one who is known
as, Abu Jahl. The 2 of them were
the 2 of them were tight. That was
Abu Jahl's, like, favorite nephew.
He was his protege.
He was I mean, the 2 of them
the 2 of them were were were on
the same page. They literally were on the
same page to the very hour that he,
took Shahada and became Islam and became a
Muslim. And the messenger of Allah still, he
despite despite what? Accepting his difference, accepting his
strangeness, accepting that he was different from other
people,
he counterbalanced
that with what? With not giving up hope
in people. These are very different these are
very difficult things to do. Each of them
is a burden that could break a person's
back, and Allah
wishes for us, and is pleased for us
to carry both of them. And
Allah doesn't burden us, soul more than it
can bear. He wouldn't want us to bear
this burden if it wasn't possible that we
were able to bear it.
And so this has to do with what,
glad tidings to the stranger, the person who
carries his gum with them, the person who
carries his heart brokenness with them inside of
their heart. While other people are worrying about
cars, while other people are worrying about money,
while other people are worrying about what clothes
they're going to wear, and what food they're
going to eat, and how they're going to
post it on their Instagram account and on
their Twitter and on their Facebook and Snapchat.
All the other stuff that's happening. I've become
a dinosaur now, man. Old guy now. No
longer cool. MFA guy. In fact, you know,
any of you who knew me from back
then knew that I wasn't even cool back
then. Really, I wasn't I wasn't I remember,
like, the
we have our Zetuna guys here.
I wasn't I wasn't cool. All the kids
who went to who could afford to go
to the, like, they wouldn't talk to me.
You know? And then
somehow, like, through my poverty and through
my, strangeness,
I kept going to all of these different
places. We studied we didn't study, like, you
know, we did when we studied, we studied
on, like, woven straw masks and, like, in
the desert and weird insects are getting up
on you and weird, like, animals, no electricity,
none of that stuff. I just kept going
down this path until one day instead of
going to the rifla as a student, I
was invited as a teacher. This is the
father of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Glad tidings to the strangers. If you want
to know, then how are you going to
be able to maintain that? Because this is
one of those things nobody's gonna wanna do.
Nobody in their right mind. There's some for
the sake of Allah. There's some crazy people
for the sake of Allah. Yeah. They're already,
you know, said I'm gonna do it, and
it's done. The deal has been sealed. The
rest of the talk is a waste of
your time. But a majority of people, you
know, the the the the
the the the the intellect has a place
as well. Person's like, I don't know if
I wanna do this. It sounds like, okay.
You know, there's some benefit in it at
And I don't know if I wanna go
through all of that. That sounds really difficult.
That sounds really harrowing.
If you if you have this thought in
your mind, it's because Allah gave you some
hikma, some wisdom. You know, there's a Surah,
Surah
Al Luqman in the Quran. Who is Luqman?
Luqman was a Abyssinian slave.
He was he was a African slave that
was owned by one of the one of
the rich and wealthy people of Banu Israel.
And so they found he was a very
pious man, and so he used to like
to pray and make vicker and things like
that. So they'd give him some time off.
He'd go study and read the Torah and,
you know, study and whatever. And he became
the most learned man of Banafisla'il.
Allah loved him so much that he sent
the angel Jibril to him one day. You
can look in the books of Tafsir. He
sent the angel Jibril to him one day
and said, Allah, Baha'u'll love you so much
that he offers you if you wish to,
he'll give you nabua. He'll make you a
prophet.
He'll what? He'll give you nabua and he'll
make you a prophet.
So Sayedid Al Uthman,
alayhis salam, he asked the angel Jibril. He
says, is this a command or is this
a choice? He said, it's a choice. Allah
offered it to you. He said that I've
seen that the burden of this
this this responsibility
is so much, I don't know if I
can bear it. So if Allah Ta'ala is
not displeased with me the night, then I'll
pass. Then I'll what?
Pass. Then I'll pass.
This is a type of this is a
type of wisdom I think a lot of
people lack nowadays because the the you know,
we live in we live in the the
the society which is like a successor of
Rome. So, like, anyone here read Julius Caesar
when you're in high school or otherwise?
Right. What was what was what was it?
Anyone, no sisters read Julius Caesar?
No?
Brutus, Casca. Remember all those guys? Okay. What
was what was the thing that killed Caesar?
It was his ambition.
His ambition was completely unchecked.
We consider that a value. We celebrate people
with unchecked and unbridled ambition.
So since Said Al Uthman Alaihi Wasallam, he's
like no, no thank you.
And so, Said Al Jibril Alaihi Wasallam came
back to him. He says that Allah
saw the decision that you made, and it's
He didn't chastise him. He said, Allah saw
the decision you make, and he's pleased with
you. He's pleased with the wisdom with which
you made this decision.
And he has gifted you out of happiness
and increase in wisdom, that's why he's known
as Luqman Al Hakim.
And then he took the same nabua, the
same prophet who to Dawud alayhis salam. Dawud
Alaihi Salam accepted
it. Later on he found out what happened.
He said, Allah forgive this Luqman. He knew
something I didn't know. If I'd known then
what I know now, I also would have
declined it as well. So if this is
your mindset, you're like, you know what? This
whole stranger, business sounds wonderful for, like,
more pious people, more, you know, people who
have chronic cases of pietitis. I'm not I'm
not trying to do that right now.
Cause how am I gonna be able to
do it? How am I gonna be able
to do it?
The way you're going to be able to
do it is through what? Through the dhikr
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Rasulullah
said it's a hadith narrated by the mustadrak,
by Hakim and his mustadrak, and by imam,
Ahmed Bin Hambal in his,
in his musnad,
by Behati.
And it's a Sahih Hadith
narrated
by
that
the messenger of Allah said
Make so much remembrance of Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala. Make so much remembrance of Allah ta'ala
and tell the people say what?
He's crazy. He's crazy.
And who's the first person who did that?
Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
They what did they say?
They said this person, he must be a
poet. He's just like speaking fancy words. Or
he must be completely out of his mind.
He must be completely out of his mind.
But what's the secret in there? The secret
in there is what? It's not
that wanting people to think that you're crazy
in and of itself is an objective of
the deen. Far from it.
In fact, try not to try to conceal
this kefir, the state of yours, if you
ever should reach it.
Try to conceal the state of yours
That one grief wouldn't leave him except for
another one came to him.
Some relative would die. 1 of his companions
would die. He would be injured somehow. Some
injustice would injustice would happen. They would lose
something. They would lose a battle. Something would
happen.
He wouldn't one grief wouldn't let go of
him except for another grief would come over
him. But at the same time, he's the
one who's it's his do what?
When that that even a smile is carried.
That when you meet your brother, when you
meet your sister, you should meet them smiling.
What does it mean to do both of
those at the same time?
So what does this this hadith mean? That
make the of Allah so much until what?
Until the people think that you are your
and you're out of your mind.
The secret in it is what? The secret
in it has to do with the with
the the the power that's there in the
mention of the name of Allah
The power that's there in the taking of
the name of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Allah
Ta'ala says what? Allah Ta'ala says in his
book he says,
I'm not a Hafiz
so I just know short Surah, so I
quote the, like, Ayas from the short Surah
So over
here.
In Arabic, it can mean to remember something
or it can mean to mention something.
Here, it doesn't mean remember. Have you ever
come across a person
who said, what's the name of the god
we worship again?
I forgot his name.
Maybe, okay, one of the asmal khasnahs, somebody
forget. Nobody forgets the name Allah.
Muslim, nobody forgets the name of Allah. Nobody.
Allah commands, take the name of your lord.
Here, means what to say it to say
it.
Take the name of your Lord
and cut off from everything else completely.
Right?
That
cut off from everything. Shut the lights off,
turn make everything quiet,
shut your phone off, stop talking to people,
stop looking at people, stop thinking about people.
That zikr of Allah that a person does.
Allah says in his book, he says,
Right?
That that that
that mention take the mention and take the
remembrance of your lord inside us. I told
you I was in a Hafiz. Right? Take
the mention of of your lord inside of
your
your inside of your very being.
In in complete humility
and in fear.
Is it fear? Is it god fearing people?
Like, they're god's conscious. Right? Because people people,
like we have, like, a cult of positivity
we live in. Right? People are like, don't
be negative. Wait. Don't be negative all the
time.
That's bad.
Some negativity is actually positive.
Even the jahannam jahannam itself is the mercy
of
Allah If it wasn't there, who would wake
up for fajr?
I mean, you laugh about it, but it's
true. If jahannam wasn't there, who would know
Allah Ta'ala? We would live and die like
animals. It would be a complete waste.
Fear itself is a great motivator for pay.
Fey. But at any rate, in humility and
in fear of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. In
a way that is so subtle,
in a way that is so subtle that
it is even more subtle than
saying something. Because what's more subtle than doing
something is saying something.
What's more subtle than even saying the word?
Right? If your tongue says Allah, Allah, that's
one thing.
That's also there's a great there's a great
virtue in it as well.
That Allah
says that I am the companion of the
one who remembers me.
I'm the companion of the one who's who
remembers me. It's also narrated
by Kaab al Abbar. Let's say the Musa
alayhi wasalam also asked Allah to Allah.
You Allah, are you far away that I
should call out to you in the mountainside,
or are you close that I should whisper
to whisper to you?
And Allah said to say to Musa Alaihi
Salam,
what?
I'm the I'm the companion of the one
who remembers me. I'm the companion of the
one who remembers me. And Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam narrates his hadith ultsi because he's
from the teachings of Nabuwa. Don't be afraid,
if there's some teaching from the previous that
is repeated in in in the hadith of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam or in
the Quran. They all come from the same
source. He said, I am the companion of
the one who remembers me, and I am
with my slave as long as his two
lips move with my remembrance.
But this is the moving of the lips
and the tongue.
Why don't we say even something more subtle
than that? How do you get to the
more subtle level?
The person who says Allah Allah
again and again in their day, the person
who says
again in the day, the person who's walking
from class to class reciting Quran.
That person,
the remembrance of Allah ta'ala is there on
their tongue, if they focus on it with
their heart, they'll get it.
A person will focus so much a person
will focus so much on the divine name
in every single breath to the point where
even when the when the when the tongue
stops, the dhikr keeps going. This is a
very powerful this is a very powerful, lesson
for the person who wants to take
heed, which is we live in a very
materialistic society.
So in a materialistic society, what will the
hierarchy be?
What's an action of the hand is more
more important than the the speech on the
tongue.
And what is the speech on the tongue
is more important than the than the, the
the state that's inside of the heart. But
the logic of imam and the logic of
faith teaches a person that the person who
carries the state around in their heart with
them wherever they go,
that person has a superior
a superior station with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
than the person who the zikr is merely
on their tongue.
You understand what I'm saying? So what's the
munasaba? What's the connection between these 2?
That a person should make the dhikr of
Allah so much,
that the people say that that person is
majnoon, is you will not be able to
carry this burden. You will not be able
to carry this burden
until what? Until you have the power that
comes with the remembrance of Allah ta'ala.
And the person who says, okay. This guy
is gonna, what, tell me some stories about
the sahaba now some stories about whatever. Sahadina,
you'll be vanquishing the Crusaders from the, Mas'il
Asa or something like no.
We're
we're not there yet.
We're not there yet. So I'll give you
a story that all of us can relate
to in terms of lack of piety.
Right? What's the least lowest common denominator?
Who's a person that every one of us
could say, at least I'm more pious than
than that person? Who?
Donald
Trump.
Donald
Trump.
Keep
keep
going.
Keep
going.
Right?
Turn off the lights.
Which of you
is feels sometimes as evil or more evil
than you please?
Anyone?
There I see one light in the back.
I see one light. We have a remedial
class for you. I give you glad tidings.
You're not as evil as as it is
most of the time. The The average is
out. The average is not as evil as
it is.
Right?
There's literally there's a hadith of in which
say where it's a hadith that narrated by,
Imam
in which say the Jibreel came to the
prophet
and addressed him by name.
Muhammad. If you're
able to if you're able to see me,
on the day that Bhanu Israel crossed into
the Red Sea.
If you're able to see me on the
day Bhanu Israel crossed into the Red Sea.
He said that once once the,
Bang al Islam went into the ocean, Faram
is not an idiot. He sees the sea
parting in front of him. Right? That that
the,
that there's a a a dry path in
the middle of the sea, and there's two
sides of the the the the sea that
are being supernaturally
held back. And so, Jibril Alaihisam came to
Firaun in the form of his general, and
he says to him he says to him,
aren't aren't we gonna go in, aren't we
gonna go in after them? Said, you crazy
out of your mind. Do you see what's
happening right now? You think they're stupid I'm
gonna go in after them?
And he's arguing with him back forth. No.
You can't let them get away with this.
We gotta get them right now. This, that,
and the other thing. He's he's trying to
convince him, and he's just not buying any
of it. So Saidiya Jibril, alayhis salam, told
the prophet, he said, at that time, I
took my stick out and I hit his
horse
so hard that it it took off galloping
into the into the sea,
and then his armies followed in after him.
And once the last of the was out
on the other side,
and the last of the army of was
into the sea, then the Khukm of Allah
came down and the two sides of the
sea crashed down on there. Even then, I
was filling my filling the the mouth of
Fir'awn
filling the mouth of Fir'awn with water again
and again and again. Every time he would
gasp and try to take a breath, I
was filling his mouth with water out of
fear that he would take the name of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this punishment, which
I knew in my heart was already a
fixed commandment, destiny that was fated to him
by Allah ta'ala, that he would take the
name of Allah and because of it, it
would protect him from his fate and his
destiny in the hellfire.
Now tell me something.
Now that at least most of us have
accepted that we're not as evil as as
Fir'aun and not as evil as Sha'aban and
not as evil as these kind of, like,
all time,
villain characters of
of the of, like, of the Quran.
That what's the impediment of you taking that
divine name?
That if it would have Jibril alayhi salam
know less to say the the
the the the paragon of the angels. If
Jibril alayhi salam feared that Firawn in the
middle of his adab is going to be
protected by the the
the the other,
the the fixed and imputable faith Allah had
written for him in the hellfire
because of taking the name of Allah
What what impediment do you have and do
I have? Is saying that Jibril filling our
mouths with water right now that we're not
able to say it?
Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wa sallam himself said, jadidu
iman
Renew in every moment your iman, your faith
with your saying, your utterance of
It's okay. You can say it. If you
think it's, you don't have to say it
out loud. Right? You say it to yourself,
whatever you're whatever you're you're feeling with regards
to it, there's nobody who's in their right
mind who's gonna say that this is not
something of benefit, but it's something we don't
practice. In fact, one of the things I'll
say that I remember from MSA back when
I was in MSA and working with MSAs
from that time until this time is that
there's oftentimes a rift between 2 groups of
people in the MSA, those who wanna be
really activist y and those who wanna be
real spiritual.
It's true.
And I don't remember that rift from my
MSA.
And I don't remember that rift from the
sunnah of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And I don't remember that rift from any
of the that I I sat with.
Our
let me tell you something. The I read
from you can go on to the SoundCloud
if you want to. I have a SoundCloud
account. Right? You go on and listen to
the the Bayanat about Yusuf ibn Tashekin. Okay?
If that's too far away from you, I
have masha'iqa. I I I studied in the,
in the Jamia Madaniya. It It was named
after Hussein Ahmed Madani. He taught the the
the the the hadith of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam for 16 years indeed. Masjid of the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in Madina Munawara
during Ottoman times.
And he actually participated
in a rebellion and
Ottoman army attack the British and unseat them
from from the the the Indian subcontinent.
And he was actually
sold out and turned over by Muslims, him
and his Sheikh, because of their participation in
this conspiracy,
ended up spending 4 years in solitary confinement
on the Crusader prison island of Malta.
Malta is where they used to send prisoners
because it's in the middle of nowhere. To
this day, like, all of these, what you
call, the refugee boats that leave from, like,
Libya and things like that, they try to
stop at Malta because it's in the middle
of it's in the middle of the the
Mediterranean. It's very hard to access, and it's
hard to access anything else from there. So
if you're in the middle of the Mediterranean,
you're gonna sink. It's like the closest thing
to you.
They were not soft people. They were not
sellouts. But at the same time, what did
he used to write? He said, I
shared this
cell with my Sheikh, he was an aged
man at the time,
and we were now the the elite prisoners
of the British empire during its height. So
what did he used to say? He said
that the water that that we have, the
ration of water that we have, because my
sheikh used to wake up and pray to
every day. He used to wake up and
pray to every day. He said that he
was an old man and he was weak.
He literally went after the British let him
out of jail. He died a couple of
months after that. So old man who was
very weak. And the cold water I freed,
it would it would it would make him
sick. It would harm him. So I would
take the the the the container of water
and hold it,
while I slept so that my body heat
would heat it up so that it would
be warm for him when he had to
make wudu.
Now tell me something, are these people who
are, like, well, are you, like, part of
the spiritual part of MSA, or are you
part of the the the activist part?
They were not soft people. They were not
salas.
They were people who are of honor and
dignity. They kept it real.
But there are people who have connection with
Allah
Those people still exist today.
You may not find them on Facebook and
on Twitter.
You may not find them at the mall,
you may not find them at places where
dunya comes together.
Why? Because the dunya is not what attracts
because they're crazy.
Right? Said Abu, Sheikh Abu Bakr Shibili, he's
one of the disciples of Imam Junaid,
Baghdadi
Once a man he saw him because these
are people that are otherworldly people. They're not
people of the dunya.
He saw him walking in the in the
in the in the marketplace,
and he says to him he says to
him, look at you. You're crazy. Look at
look at you. You people, are crazy. You,
you know, make liquor all the time, and
you're not, you know, concerned with how fancy
you look and how fancy you dress and
keeping up with the Joneses and with all
of these things. You're not concerned with these
things.
And so the sheikh says to him, he
says to him, he says what? He says,
may Allah increase you in your sanity and
me may he increase me in my craziness.
Meaning what? It's a very subtle thing people
will not understand. He's annoyed with this guy
and so he's saying whatever you have, Allah
give you more of it as a curse
and whatever I have. May Allah give me
more of it as what? As a dua
for himself.
What do you want?
What do you want? There
are people in this country that many of
them are Muslims and many of their forefathers
were Muslims as well. I remember this. When
I was in MSA, it was different. When
I was, like, in college, it was different.
Somehow this has changed.
I remember there are people who their forefathers
were Muslims
and there are people who,
were brought to this country
in in in chains, in bondage.
With no whatsoever.
And they were put generations
and through this bondage, and everything was taken
away from them to the point where they
don't even know the names of their forefathers.
Why is why is why is right people
everybody is oh, Malcolm X and Malcolm X.
This is our, like, you know, our claimed
American heritage. So like, you know, Malcolm X,
right? You know why his name was X?
Was that was that his father's name? No.
Was that the name his father and mother
gave him? No.
Why is it that that that even his
gravestone says Al Hajj,
Malik Shabaab. Are those the names his father
and mother gave him?
No.
Why? Because he didn't wanna be called by
his slave name. Do you understand what I'm
saying? He didn't wanna be I don't hear
people say this anymore.
Maybe I'm like backwards mentality and not like,
you know, like super down at the times
and contextually relevant, all that stuff. But this
is a logic that appeals to me.
People didn't want to be called by their
slave names. What's the problem of the sons
and daughters of Muslims
that want to give up the names that
they have in order to take the same
name out of their own if they are.
Those people, they don't know what their forefathers
names were. It was stolen from them. It
is a crime amongst a great number of
other crimes for which people will have to
pay on the the day the day of
judgment.
But what do you say about the person
who knows what their name is? They gave
it up on their own.
Brothers and sisters, this is not something unprecedented.
This is something it's also mentioned in the
Quran as well.
When Banu Israeel,
Allah
gave them a rare satisfaction. It's a satisfaction
probably none of us will see. Allah
gave Banu Isaiil in the time of Musa
alayhi salam, a rare satisfaction for which the
the Bangla Isaihi and the yahood to this
very day, they give sugar to Allah Ta'ala
for it. Which is what? Allah Ta'ala took
their enemies.
Took the enemies of Allah
and took the enemies of the people that
perpetrated so much on them. And most people,
in order to see God's vengeance, one of
the names of Allah is Dayan.
What does Dayan mean?
Dayan is the one that takes vengeance for
every
means what? Is not the day of religion.
Is the day of justice. That's one of
the meanings of din.
Dane. Right? You borrow a $100, you pay
back a $100.
Means
what? The master of the day of justice.
The owner the owner on the day of
justice. The the master on the day of
judgment. The king on the day of judge
of justice. Allah ta'ala, that day, he will
take vengeance for every wrong. Most people will
have to wait.
They'll have to wait until the
until they see that. That the people who
are being idolized, you know, they die and
their casket is being shown so much honor
even though we ourselves saw with our own
eyes that these people were baby killers. That
these people were the ones who dropped depleted
uranium shells
on on on civilians. That these people are
the ones that starved and deprive medicine from,
children and old people when they needed it
even though they had nothing to do with
any of these wars and conflagrations
that that that others participated on with regardless
of which side they're on.
We saw those things. We have to wait
until
for those people to
justice right before their eyes.
Every one of them, they're old, they're young,
they're women, they're men, they're children, they're pious
and pious, all of them stood on the
shore of the sea and they saw the
army of on its head being drowned in
front of their eyes. This is a satisfaction
for which they give to Allah to this
day and even we give to Allah to
this day. Right?
The the 10th of which
was the day that they the Arabs used
to fast in as well.
When found the,
also
fasted on that day, he asked them why
do you fast on this day? So this
is the day Allah
gives salvation to
from their enemies and in Shukr we fast
on this day,
because it's reira. Right? Reira is a word
that doesn't translate into English properly. It takes
another 15 minutes to translate it. It. That
may be why very few people,
in the civilization have any.
But the idea is what? Because of his
reira for saying the Musa alayhis salam.
What did he say? He said we have
more Haqq to say than Musa Alayhi Salm,
and then after that year, what did they
do? They fasted 2 days instead.
They what? It's not Sunnah to fast on
2 days instead of just 1.
Tell me my brothers and sisters that that
satisfaction was
was given,
to those people. You're not gonna get a
You're not gonna get that that that satisfaction,
until you get to the
You're not gonna get that that thing in
this world, that,
that that satisfaction in this world. So why
do you look for it? Why do you
look for it in this world?
It's like the person if you lost your
wallet in, you know, if you lost your
wallet in engineering, why would you look for
it in the student center? So So, well,
because there's more light around here. You're not
gonna find it here. At any rate,
I'm going to,
take the the the heat of the sign
that was given to me and make a
long
story short
that this,
strangeness that you have, there is a precedence
for it in the nations that came before
us.
That had the satisfaction of seeing their
enemies drowned in front of their eyes. They
had the satisfaction of what? When they wandered
in the desert, there was no Taco Bell
to stop for a bean burrito.
Right? There's no Ralphs to stop at and
go grocery shopping. Literally fed them from the
sky.
Fed them manna and quail and they're still
asking afterward for dawl. Right?
Right? And Allahata gave everything to them. And
then afterward, what did they ask for?
They said to say to Musa alayhis salam,
give us a god like they have gods.
What did he say? Give a they saw
a people,
praying to idols.
And he said what? Give us a god
like they have God.
Now tell me something, who's the majoon? Who's
the real majoon?
The person who the person who makes the
zikr of Allah
from whom we came and to whom we
will return forever.
The one who gave us,
Who gave us everything that we had and
everything that we'll ever have. The one who
every good deed we we do, Allah will
give us 10 times a reward until
and tell
such a limit that there that that it
never ends.
And the one who from Tawba through the
barakah of just feeling bad about your sins
forgives our sins.
Is the real crazy person the one who
remembers that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Is the
real weirdo, the real stranger, the one who
remembers that Allah? No. If you have half
a brain if I have half a brain,
we'll see this is a very logical and
reasonable thing to do.
Who's the who's the who's the weirdo? Who's
the strange person? The one despite all of
those things is going to ask, give us
a god like they have gods. The one
who's gonna say I wanna live in a
house like other people live in. The one
who's gonna say I wanna have money like
those people had money. The one who's gonna
say, I wanna have a car like those
people had a car. What's the what's the
strange and what's the sad irony? Is it
the people who run after these things, they
don't get them?
The
Sahaba
right? The of 1 of his 4 wives
is something like 200,000 gold dirhams. These were
people who died on an extraordinary amount of
wealth.
Despite what? Despite
not eating but once a day,
Despite being people that they couldn't tell who's
the and
who's the average one amongst them.
Gave them open up the the the
storehouses, the treasure houses of this world for
them. And they spent every single cent of
it in the service of deen so that
you and me and our forefathers and your
forefathers can be
people of Now we've chased after, why can't
we have a god like they have?
And we cry and we worry about, like,
oh, it's so difficult. I have to, you
know, if I, you know, if I have
a Muslim name and if I did this
and that, they're not gonna give me this
job, they're not gonna give me that house,
I'm not gonna get this, I'm not gonna
get that. I know it hurts. It hurts.
As a child, you know, you see a
kid, like, being excluded. Other kids don't wanna
don't wanna play with it. It hurts. Now
it's time to grow up.
Now it's time to stop feeling sorry for
yourself. It's time to decide that you have
your only you have your one life. It's
time to decide which thing do you want,
which thing you do not want.
And which type of strangeness is is more
appealing to you and which type of strangeness
is more distressing to you? It's the strangeness
of not fitting in
with a bunch of people who themselves are
petty and a bunch of people who themselves
have no aim in this life and a
bunch of people who believe that they came
for nothing and that they're going to go
go to nothing. Is fitting in with them
or not fitting in with them, the strangeness
of not fitting in with them more distressing?
Or is the strangeness of not having a
point in your life and not having the
divine name on your tongue and not having
the nur of of of of Allah Ta'a's
guidance inside of your heart, not knowing that
when you breathe your last breath, which everyone
is going to breathe, rich or poor, black
or white, it doesn't matter who who you
are, what you are. That when you leave
your breath last breath, that you have you
have some sort of in your in your
heart, some sort of peace in your heart
that I'm returning to the Allah that I
spent my life in his love. And the
only thing that's greater than my love for
him is the love with which he's going
to receive
me with. That that is that is is
the strangeness of not having that even more
distressing to a person's heart.
Allah give all of us. Allah give all
of us his remembrance on our tongue and
inside of our hearts. If I said anything
that, upset or disturb or offend somebody, I
apologize.
You know, oftentimes, I don't I'm not attuned
to people's sensitivities. I didn't leave my home
and and my family and travel all this
way in order to upset you. So inshallah,
you can catch me and, just tell me
whatever it is so that I can say
sorry to you afterward. And if there's any
pain in it, please ask Allah that he
accept and that he, write for us a
good destiny and a good faith. And and
MSA, keep it real. Don't don't do the
weak sauce, Keep it real.