Ibrahim Negm – Friday Speech AlAzhari Mufti of Egypt 24032017
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AI: Transcript ©
My dear beloved brothers and sisters in Islam,
it is indeed
an honor and privilege
to be
among the believers
in this great
city
and in this
beautiful
community,
Bringing to you, my dear beloved brothers and
sisters,
warm greetings
and love
from Egypt,
the land of Al Azar I Sharif.
Bringing to you also best wishes
for this beautiful community
to flourish and prosper
under the wise leadership
of all the brothers and sisters
led by our beloved
teacher
and leader, Doctor Musharraf Hussein al Assai.
May Allah
make this community
prosper and flourish to spread
the beautiful message of Islam.
Ameen.
My dear beloved brothers and sisters,
as you all know
that we are living
amidst
serious challenges,
serious
difficult times
at all levels.
On one hand,
Islam,
our faith
that has
brought
peace and the stability
to human civilization
is now is being accused
of
terrorism,
is being associated
with violence.
Because of the act
or acts rather,
of idiotic
people
who have nothing to do with our faith
except by names.
On the other hand,
we are seeing that Muslim communities all over
the world
are facing
also crises and challenges.
We are seeing also
a steady
rise in Islamophobic
rhetoric,
Something
we have been listening to and viewing
days in and days out.
All of these difficulties,
my dear brothers and sisters,
can drive some of us into the state
of despair
and helplessness,
can drive some of our young people even
to
leave the faith altogether.
But
as Muslims,
as practicing Muslims,
as followers of our beloved Prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam,
we should always
identify
the silver lining in the dark cloud.
This is the attitude of a Muslim.
He never loses hope.
But the hope I'm talking about, my dear
beloved brothers and sisters,
is a positive,
proactive,
active hope, not a wishful thinking
hope. And there is a big difference
between
a positive hope and a wishful thinking.
And in this hope,
we are talking about
sort of a road map
of what a positive hope is all about.
Learning from the sunnah of our beloved Prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, our great teacher,
who was sent as Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
reminds us
in the Quran,
We sent you, O Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, as a gift of mercy
for the entire
world.
And when he defined himself, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, he said,
I
am a gift of mercy.
And each student of knowledge,
for those of you
who know of seminaries and the schools and
addresses
from all over the Muslim world, a typical
student of knowledge,
when he goes to pursue his Islamic studies,
the first hadith
that
this student of knowledge learns,
This is the first
piece of information
on the ladder of Islamic knowledge
that he or she learns is
the
caring
people
are the ones
who will receive the compassion of Allah Subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
Be merciful and compassionate for the people
on earth, so the one so that the
one in heaven
will show compassion to you. This is our
faith that is being discredited
and that is being
misperceived
lately. It is the religion of mercy.
So I'm sharing with you my dear brothers
and sisters,
5 symbols.
Five symbols
our beloved Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam taught
us,
and these 5 symbols
if comprehended
and applied
in the prophetic model,
it can help us
deal with the so many challenges
we are facing nowadays.
Very quickly, I'm going to mention
each
aspect
and what is the moral behind it.
With the hope that insha'Allah
after this hubba,
it will
trigger further thought and we can talk more
about
this prophetic action plan
to deal with the challenges and crises
we are going through.
The first is a famous hadith that the
prophet
talked about in Sahih Bukhari. It was a
very strong hadith.
And it is known
as the hadith of the ship.
Hadith is Safina in Arabic.
In which the Prophet
give us
some sort of
a parable or a story
in which
believers
go to the ship. Some of them go
to the upper deck and some of them
go to the lower deck.
And when whenever the people in the lower
deck need water,
they have they have to go
to the people
in the upper deck to take water from
there.
So the prophet continue
to teach us
that
some
idiotic person
from the
lower deck
had an idea
of digging a hole in the ship
so that he could access water directly.
So the prophet
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, and this is the
moral now,
if we leave
this person
to make
or to dig a hole in the ship,
what is going to happen?
Is he going is he going to drown
by himself?
What is going to happen? Everybody
will drown.
If we cannot stop him
and prevent him from creating havoc
in the ship,
everybody will drown.
This is the example of believers.
All of us, my dear brothers and sisters,
are
practically in one ship,
a ship of this being.
We have to look after each other.
We have to
bring in some unity and collectivity
to our affairs.
But at the same time, we have to
prevent.
Some of us, unfortunately,
who would like to create havoc
in this ship.
If we
are going to sail
safely
to the shore, we are going to do
it all together.
If we start bickering and fighting,
if we start getting divided,
and we
say we will care only about ourselves,
we will all drown.
So the message I'm bringing to you, my
dear brothers and sisters,
we cannot afford to be divided
at these times of intense challenges.
We cannot afford, we do not have the
luxury
of
being divided.
We have to look after each other,
and we have to prevent
some of us
who
would like to create havoc
to this ship.
The second
is the famous
Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
which
a person came to him
with his sheikham,
And told the enemy,
You Rasulullah,
should I
tie
my she camel or set it loose?
And then
the prophet
told the enemy
and corrected this understanding.
He said, tie your camel and trust in
Allah
In other words, if you just keep it,
keep the shi camel loose,
thinking that Allah will take care of everything
without doing your effort, without without doing your
share,
chances are you are not
properly
putting your trust in Allah
Putting your trust in Allah
is one of the most important
actions of the heart.
But you have to take the necessary means
to do so.
In other words,
just sitting on your jama mas and wishing
that everything will work out
will not do it my brothers and sisters.
We have to ask ourselves,
what is it that we are asked and
commanded to do to bring about
the trust of Allah
in a complete form?
The third,
my brothers and sisters,
is the famous hadith of the Prophet
in which he said,
Guard yourself
from the torment of hellfire,
even if you have to spend
half a date in charity.
Half a date
in charity. What is the moral of this
important hadith?
Do not belittle
any good that you do.
You never know.
The little good that you do
might be your ticket to paradise.
Just keep doing
putting your trust in Allah
and
you should be sincere.
Because the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
informed us, even the morsel,
the little bite of food
that one puts in his spouse's
mouth,
Allah
will bring it up.
On the day of judgment it will be
like the mountain of Uhr, so huge.
Just keep doing good, my dear brothers and
sisters.
Do not worry
about seeing the fruit of your action.
Allah has taken care of it. Allah has
promised us.
Allah will never put to waste the good
deeds of the righteous people. That's a divine
promise.
That's a divine promise. Don't question about it.
Just our homework
is keep doing good and do not belittle
any good that you do.
Don't worry about the fruits of the actions
because Allah has already taken care of it.
The 4th
symbol
is the symbol of the ax.
A man came to the Prophet
and told him, You Rasulullah,
I'm in need of money.
The Prophet did not give him money, but
he gave him an ax.
He told him, here is the ax,
go
to the desert
and earn your livelihood.
Because he saw that he was a strong
man.
He told him to earn his livelihood.
Muslims, my dear brothers and sisters,
are not parasites on societies.
Muslims
throughout
the
shining Islamic history were pioneers of civilization.
Muslims throughout the shining history of Islamic history
were the people who contributed
positively
to the well-being
and and the welfare of societies.
A good Muslim is the one who contributes,
who always have something
to share,
who always have some skill
to benefit
not only the Muslims, but humanity.
I'll look into the example of Sayyidina Yusuf
salam
to tell you this story. The last
the last
point,
it's a beautiful point.
The example of the seed seed
in which the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
told us. If any one of us is
going to live live
around the time in which the day of
qiyama
is going to take place,
if he has a seed
or if she has a seed in his
hand,
if he can plant the seed,
he should do.
This is a powerful lesson, and this is
what
what we mean by hope, is that we
keep doing good deeds
until our last breath.
These are the 5 points I wanted to
share with you, my dear brothers and sisters,
so that
we
are encouraged
to follow the example
of our beloved prophet