Hamzah Wald Maqbul – Khutbah Stewardship and Mischief ICC 11132020
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All praise be to Allah
and may His peace and blessings be upon
His servant and messenger.
Our master Sayyidina Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
May the peace and blessings of Allah to
Allah be upon him and upon his
noble companions and upon his
pure wives and upon his Mubarak and blessed
family and progeny
and upon all of those who follow all
of their way until the day of judgment.
Very near to the
opening verses of the Quran.
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala describes
the creation of our father, Sidna Adam alaihis
salam.
And he introduces him to
the angels
and all of those creatures
in order of rank descending thereafter
by saying
that
I am placing
in the land
a Khalifa.
What does
the word Khalifa mean?
Because of the overwhelming
dominance of materialism
in the age that we live in. Oftentimes,
the first
place our minds go when thinking about khalifa
is a particular and specific meaning,
technical meaning of this word,
which describes
the
sovereign leader
of the Muslim polity.
That is definitely
a meaning in which
this word has
value in the deen.
However, it's not the only one and it's
not the primary one either.
The primary meaning
goes back all the way to the beginning
when Allah
says that I'm putting a khalifa in the
Earth.
Who is that khalifa? It's our father Sayedna
Adam
and the mantle of that Khalifa
then falls upon all of his
progeny.
What does the word Khalifa mean? It means
somebody somebody that you leave behind
in order to take care of your affairs.
It means a deputy. It means somebody who
is mandated to
prosecute your affair on your behalf.
So if you are the Khalifa of Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
in the earth,
That means those things that a person would
pray to Allah for.
For help when a person is weak, for
something to eat when a person is starving,
for something to drink when a person is
dying of thirst,
for solace when the heart is broken,
for justice
when a person is
when a person is oppressed,
and so many other things.
That as a khalifa of Allah ta'ala, you
are mandated
to help in the
acquisition of those things.
You don't provide them, Allah provides them, but
Allah uses you as a means for the
providing of those things.
And if he does so, it's a sign
that he loves you and if he does
so, it's a sign of your honor.
How much honor?
The introduction of Sayna Adam our father
to the angels
was in the context of their superiority
or of his superiority.
It was in the context of his superiority
over them.
The angels are beings made out of light.
They are sentient and they're intelligent.
Their hearts are pure. They receive the knowledge
of wahi, of revelation from the Lord without
any impedance.
They receive the knowledge directly
and they naturally
and without defect and without hesitation follow it.
It's
understood why they are noble and lofty amongst
the creation of the Lord.
However, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala gave Sayna Adam
something.
That he taught the names to Sayyidna Adam
Alaihi Salam.
All of them.
And this may be somewhat of an esoteric
discussion for the purposes of the Jumah Khutbah.
What does it mean for Sayidna Adam to
have been taught the names?
And how and why is this mechanism
of the superiority of Adam over the angels
obtained?
However, without going into too much detail with
regards to that discussion,
it's a discussion that's very interesting and someone
should seek that knowledge Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
facilitate it for us.
The fact of the matter is is that
it happened
and whatever that thing is, whatever that means
to be taught the names of all things.
It was taught to Sayna Adam
And then Sayna Adam was brought in front
of all of the angels,
And his superiority was demonstrated
in front of all of them.
To the point where all of them except
for Iblis accepted his superiority, and all of
them were commanded including Iblis
to prostrate themselves in front of him.
And all of them complied except for Iblis.
The point is is what?
Allah
mandated you and me.
You and me
Through the right the birth right of our
father, Sayna Adam alaihis salaam, in whatever capacity
we're able to to be his khalifa in
this earth.
Don't talk about something that happened to the
Ottoman Empire a century ago. As tragic as
it may be, and it is tragic, and
it's something we should talk about and think
about and remember.
And it is a responsibility, a collective and
communal responsibility of the Ummah
to establish justice in the world according to
the teachings of revelation.
But it's not all or none.
And there is still a great portion of
responsibility
of the Khalafah, of the vicegerency,
of the stewardship of this earth through divine
mandate that human beings carry.
And instead of talking about those things that
you and I cannot
affect, if you're able to re establish the
political caliphate, what are you waiting for? Go
ahead and do it. I'll give you a
fatwa at its fart. Go ahead and do
it.
If you cannot and I cannot,
then let's talk about the thing that we
can do.
Which is what?
Which is that we should be
stewards of the creation of Allah
with some sort of responsibility, with some modicum
of responsibility.
And we fall short in this matter, we
have to remind one another.
Some of us will take the reminder, some
of us won't.
And in fact, the angels already because of
their intelligence, they did the calculus and they
understood that there were a great number of
human beings that are not going to take
this reminder are not going take this responsibility.
When Allah ta'ala
introduced our father Adam Alaihi Salam as his
Khalifa,
Their first response was what?
He said they said to the Lord the
angel said to the Lord, will you place
in this earth
that creation,
that will cause mischief,
that will spoil things, that will cause mischief
and will spill blood?
What need do you have for this creation?
While we are the ones
who
exalt
the transcendence
of your holy essence above blemish and treat
it as sacred.
Allah ta'ala said to them, I know something
you don't know.
Meaning there's a secret in this. I know
something that you don't know. What was their
objection?
That they're going to cause mischief and spill
blood.
The objection is not
baseless. The objection is not baseless.
And Allah ta'ala actually validates the objection in
a number of places
in his book.
Allah Ta'ala says in Surat
Mischief.
The destruction of those things that were
proper before
and laying them to waste.
This facade
has
become apparent
in the land and in the sea.
Because of those things that the hands of
men earn. Because of what? Bad deeds.
And Allah ta'ala, it's from His mercy that
He makes the evil of those bad deeds
come back and hurt us just a little
bit.
In the hope that when we taste the
result of those bad deeds, of that fasad
and of that mischief,
We might come back to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
What is this fasad? What is being a
mussid, of being a mischief maker? It is
the opposite.
It is the diametrical
opposite of
the khilafa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You and me, we were supposed to be
those people
that the other humans when they see us,
they see this is a man of the
Lord.
These are these are the sisters of the
people of Allah. They cover themselves, they act
with
they act with dignity. These men, they are
strong.
We can turn to them for help,
if we ever need it.
This beard, this hijab, this niqab,
these modest clothing,
these modest clothes, we should be able to
turn to these people for help. Those things
that we return to the Lord for help
from, we should be able to turn to
these people for help from it.
What's the opposite of it? That they're here
to eat and drink and be merry? They're
here to spend money? They're here to destroy?
They're here to consume?
Consumption, my brothers and sisters, is from the
sifaat of Jahannam.
Consumption is from the attributes of the hellfire.
Allah himself in the Quran says that on
the day of judgment, he'll ask the hellfire,
Are you full yet?
Or can you take more? Do you have
more capacity?
Says give me more.
Give me more. Is there any more?
And that's exactly the attitude that we have.
More money is not going to solve your
problems. I promise you.
Better, nicer clothes, they're not gonna solve your
problems.
A better, nicer car, more cars, not gonna
solve your problems.
A bigger house, not gonna solve your problems.
If they would, tell me something tell me
something in all earnest
and all and all all sincerity.
How much is enough?
Is there ever a line that you'll get
to and you'll say it's enough?
And the fact of the matter is there
is an answer to that question.
If you're starving to death, enough for you
to, stave off your hunger is enough.
If you're dying of cold, enough for you
to live in, it's enough.
But brothers and sisters, oftentimes
more often than we wish to admit, we
cross those lines a long time ago. And
we still have iman, we still have faith.
That faith that was supposed to be in
the Lord,
we have faith in material things that somehow
they're going to make us happy or sometimes
somehow they're going to be enough. And the
fact of the matter is you will keep
eating and drinking,
you will keep consuming,
you'll keep earning and spending until you enter
your grave, and it's not going to do
anything for you whatsoever.
And Allah
himself, in the context look in the surahul
room, the context in which this ayah comes.
It has to do with description of the
earth and its creation.
When Allah
says, That this facade and this mischief has
become apparent
in the land and in this in in
in the ocean.
We literally see species are going extinct in
front of our eyes
because of our greed and our over consumption.
We literally see the carbon dioxide in the
air
has become so high in its concentration, it's
acidifying the ocean.
You're talking about a species going extinct. What
does that mean? Can you when a species
goes extinct, can you bring it back? The
answer is not only no but Allah even
gives a parable in the Quran.
That forget about bringing a species that was
extinct back to life again.
If a fly dies, you couldn't bring the
fly back to life again.
Human beings are not creative. Human beings are
not creative.
This is flies in the face of a
lot of like tech jargon,
and a lot of, you know, like innovating,
and we're making new this and that, and
there's endless possibility. Human beings are not creative.
Khalk is an attribute of Allah
In the Arabic language, you don't even say,
I created this, I created that. It sounds
dumb.
Human beings are not creative. Someone said, Well,
we invented the airplane.
Or tell me something, where did you get
the idea of the wing from?
Human beings saw the way that birds fly
and they see that, Okay, we should have
a wing. Where did you get the idea
of of,
of, you know, propulsion in the water? Where
did you get ideas for propulsion in the
air? Where did you get the ideas for
medicines? Where, you know, like antibiotics, people used
to have small infections and they used to
die from them. Where'd you get the antibiotic
from? Is it someone sat at sat at
home and thought like this chemical will function
well with that chemical? No.
Antibiotics were already being produced by mold.
Someone took it out and used it in
a human being.
Even the the the the vaccine
that is being worked on
by Pfizer, I believe.
And muslims are touting, oh look, it's a
Muslim couple that like invented vaccine and they're
turks and wonderful whatever whatever.
Which is great. It's something really you should
be proud of, inshallah.
Why why make such a big deal about
it? You don't know the vaccines are actually
invented by Muslims in the first place. And
interestingly enough, they're actually invented by Turks. The
Shifa Khana which is part of a masjid
complex in Edirne.
That was the first place where Muslim scientist,
they took weakened, forms of, of
virus,
and injected healthy people with them, and saw
that it confers immunity on them.
Human beings are not created.
Do you think we could've made a vaccine
like that from scratch? Absolutely not.
We needed something that was already there, already
existed, we tweak it just a little bit
and that's the extent of our creativity.
So what does it mean for an entire
species to go extinct?
What does it mean for a coral reef
to die off? That's not just a species,
it's an entire ecosystem for it to bleach
and die out.
What does it mean for places to flood?
And the fun part is what? And I
say fun very sarcastically.
Those places that are first going to be
affected by global warming.
Our Iraq,
our Jordan,
Palestine,
the Arabian Peninsula,
Indian subcontinent,
all of those places where the major population
centers of Muslims live. Not that it should
matter.
If it affects an animal, it's still our
responsibility in front of the Lord.
If it affects
anybody,
whatever their religion is, it's still our responsibility
in front of the Lord.
But in order to make it even more
clear,
so that we can make them taste a
little bit of their mischief,
the evil effects of it, so that they
can return back to us, come back to
us.
It's going to affect the Muslims first.
And while
materialists are arguing, well, is it man made
or is it natural? Is it real or
is it not?
What if it's natural? What if it's not
man made? Still, if you're the khalifa of
Allah Ta'ala in the earth, you have a
duty
to protect yourself and to protect others as
well from that harm.
But what are we doing?
We're eating things and throwing the wrappers away.
We're buying more and more. We think that
new clothes are going to make us something
that we're not. Brothers and sisters, if you're
ugly,
you could wear the most designer set of
new clothes every day of the week, it's
not gonna make you beautiful.
And if you're a beautiful person, you can
wear the same clothes every day of the
week, and it's not going to make you
ugly.
And what makes you beautiful and what makes
you ugly has nothing to do with the
outside shell.
That is there for a small amount of
time, and was made to die.
And literally, this over consumption,
this keeping the the the lights on, burning
gas, burning fuel,
burning through money, It is causing some of
us to die of obesity while the rest
of us are dying from,
from starvation.
This is patently ridiculous. And don't say, Look,
the shaykh is giving a khutba about environmentalism.
I'm not telling you. Did I talk about
saving the earth? How are you gonna save
the earth? We didn't create it in the
1st place.
What I'm talking about is what? You and
me have a responsibility in front of the
Lord on the day of judgment.
This feeling
soft feeling that we have inside that somehow
consuming more or buying more
is going to make us happy.
This is what This is literally killing everything
around us. It's destroying those things. If Allah
were to ask you
to take responsibility
of 1 species that went extinct, how are
you going to render judgment for that?
But it's happening. It's happening literally right in
front of our eyes.
How are you going to render judgment for
that? And on top of that, how are
you going to give the judgment for give
the fulfill the judgment for having harmed another
human being because of your over consumption.
And who's the beneficiary of this over consumption?
Malevolent and have the most
mischief inside of their hearts and have the
least compunction about harming the creation of Allah
ta'ala.
We literally handed them the throne and handed
them the crown. Not because you know, they,
you know, they don't chop people's hands off
if they steal.
We haven't gotten anywhere close to them. We
don't even need to open that discussion right
now.
We put them on the throne, we put
them in the seats of power. Why? Because
of our dream that somehow they're going to
help us to over consume
and help us indulge our desire for overconsumption.
And that's going to somehow,
make us happy. It's going to be successful
for us and you've seen at the polling
stations, what it caused people to do, what
shameful things it caused people to do. You
see the small choices in life that we
make,
what it causes people to do. So the
hassle, the summary
of this khutba is what? For the one
who doesn't wish to pray all night or
half of the night or a third of
the night. For the one who doesn't wish
to fast every other day or Mondays Thursdays
or 3 days a month.
For the one who doesn't wish to make
khatam of the Quran every 3rd day or
every week or every month.
For the one who cannot make it to
the halakat of ilmuladhulama.
For the one who
doesn't wish to sit for an hour in
dhikr and muraqabah
and meditation
every day
by the hours of the day and night.
This is also an act of purbah. It's
also an act of proximity to the Lord.
It's also an act of honor.
It's also the act of somebody who takes
the filafa of Allah Ta'ala seriously.
That next time you look at something, you
think, If I buy this, it's gonna make
me happy. Tell yourself it's not.
Unless not buying it or not consuming it
is gonna kill you, go ahead and do
without. Go ahead and say, You know what?
This food would taste better in my brother's
mouth.
This food would taste better in my cousin's
mouth or in my
relative's mouth or in my neighbor's mouth.
These clothing, these clothes, they would look more
fashionable
on the back of my brother, on the
back of my sister.
We can share things.
We can reuse things. We can buy something
used instead of buying it from China in
order to fund
a concentration camp in which millions of Muslims
are being tortured to death for, not wanting
to eat pork or not wanting to drink
alcohol.
Be done with it brothers and sisters. Not
because I want you to save the environment.
The environment belongs to Allah. He'll do with
it what he he pleases. One day when
he destroys it, all the recycling in the
world is not gonna help.
But so that that day that we come
back to him, we can at least show
face and say, You Allah, we knew we
had Yaqeen inside of our hearts that our
happiness and success will only come from you.
It's not gonna come from all of the
stuff. And that if we couldn't completely rectify
the system, we also didn't want to completely
participate in it either. And we boycotted it
to the degree that we're able to.
If you think that there is a cabal
of 15 Illuminati that controls the world, the
fact of the matter is there's a lot
of us. There's a lot of us. There's
way more of us than there are of
them.
We give them the power in order to
cause this mischief. If we were to make
small choices that were more responsible,
the world would change. May Allah Subhanahu wa
Ta'ala put barakah. Sometimes we do small things
and we think it's not a big deal.
I reckon with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, it
is a big deal. May Allah to put
barakah in the choices that we make, and
give us the Hidayah to choose correctly.