Ibrahim Negm – ILF Inauguration
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AI: Transcript ©
Inshallah. Next we'll be hearing from our director
of the Islamic Learning Foundation,
Sheikh Ibrahim Najam.
Assalamu alaikum.
Forgive me and my brothers.
I took very strong painkillers
that's making me drowsy.
It's the fault of brother Yusuf.
And, anyway, I want to speak from my
heart.
Insha'allah.
I would
I would like to emphasize
what,
doctor Ashwin
said in the beginning. That the first
ayah in the Quran
that was revealed to Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
is Ekra. We know all of this.
But
the implication of this
powerful
word,
has to be understood.
Before This is my understanding.
Before Allah
aided
the prophets, He helped them out with miracles.
But with the coming of the club,
it made a new epoch
that the
success and progress and development
of communities
should be based on
the basis of knowledge, not the basis of
miracles.
We know that the ultimate miracle of Rasulullah
was the Quran.
And the Quran essentially is a book of
knowledge.
That's the tremendous,
implication
of
having the first word as iqra.
It is a message for us that if
we want to develop ourselves,
if we want to succeed,
if we want
to bring some,
qualitative
changes to life,
the principle should be
aqa.
That's one thought that I want to start
with.
The other thing is,
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
said in the Quran,
it is a direct address to Rasulullah
Rasulullah and to all of us.
Know that there is no deity except Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And mind me, my brothers, Allah did not
say,
say that there is no deity except Allah.
He said,
know
that there is no deity except Allah.
And that's why Imam al Bukhari, alayrihammatullah,
in his collection of authentic hadith,
he
made a chapter called,
A chapter entitled
knowledge
precedes
saying or action.
That's why Allah
emphasized the fact,
Know
that there is no deity except Allah
So everything for us Muslims,
everything has to start with the correct perspective.
And the correct perspective, we get it from
authentic knowledge.
Now let me share with you one hadith
of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam that all of
us,
alhamdulillah,
know.
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. He said, an
the scholar or the person
with
knowledge
is tougher on the shaitan
than 1,000 worshipers.
1 island
is tougher on the shaitan than
1,000
worshipers.
That's the
implication of seeking knowledge in Islam.
Now, let me share with you. As I
said, I did not plan anything. I just
want to speak from my heart. But there
is one shining example from our tradition
that we need to reflect upon.
You know, after,
especially the later days of the Abbasi Khalifa,
There
were small states that came up in the
different parts of the Muslim world.
1 of the these states
were called the
the.
There was a king and a wazir.
We don't know much about the king, but
we know a lot about the wazir.
The wazir, his name was Nivamul Mulk.
Nivamul Mulk.
And
the important thing that we have to,
think when
we recall this name, Nivamul Mulk, he was
a visionary thinker.
He's a strategic planner.
One time, he was invited,
to the court of the king, and the
king told him that I have approved some
budget,
and I want you to build me a
castle
that nobody is going to build.
Okay?
So the word castle
has so many meanings.
Okay?
So Nizam al Mulk being a visionary thinker,
what did he do? He took the money
and what did he build? He built a
university.
Al Jaimal Nazamiyyah,
the Nazami University that still exists in Baghdad.
Okay?
And a lot of people
complained he he abused the money. He did
not do anything. You wanted him to build
a fortified
castle
that will stand against the onslaughts
of the enemies, and he's just wasted the
money and built a
university.
And when he was questioned by the king,
he said, you said,
you want to build a fortified castle. This
is the fortified castle that's going to stand
the onslaughts of the enemies
till the end of time.
So that's that's what we need. We, in
this part of the world,
rest assured you that Allah,
when he sent us to this part of
the world,
he had,
purpose in life.
We are facing a lot of challenges,
But as Imam Ibn Taymiyyah
He said,
That
amidst
the
trials,
comes opportunities,
comes blessings.
So we have to be hopeful.
We are facing a lot of challenges,
but amidst the trials,
there are tremendous blessings.
We have to remember this.
And we have to when we are facing
challenges,
we have to have 2 methodologies of responding
to the challenges.
Immediate
response
or corrective response
and preventive response.
And as we are trying
to do the immediate response or the corrective
response
of the moment,
we have to also, likewise, think about
long term responses.
And this humble effort
is a long term
response
to the challenge
to the challenges that we are facing. The
long
term. Sometimes,
you know, we
as human beings, we want to
sow the seed and then reap it right
away.
That's how we work.
But
I'm with the example of Sameer Ibrahim Alaihi
Salam with his son Ishmael, when they raised
the foundations of Kaaba,
they made a series of dua, some dua.
And one dua
was
for
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to raise in this
desert bearing land a prophet.
Who would recite the book, teach them the
book and the wisdom, and purify them.
And Rasulullah
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was the fulfillment of this
dua.
After how many years?
Millennium
or more than millennium.
And when they made the dua, how many
people were living there?
Practically, nobody.
And when Allah
instructed Said Ibrahim alaihis salam to raise
the adhan of Hajj, every infinitive Hajj. It
was in the desert.
But he did his job. Right? He made
the adhan of Hajj. And it is up
to Allah
to make this adhan heard by the
people. It's up to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So we have to do our job.
But the results the harvest,
if we are alive to see the harvest
or not, it doesn't matter
what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is going to
ask us. Not about the result,
but about
our homework. Did we do our homework or
not?
We we you know, it's a humble start.
What we need is, I said, not an
emotional response or immediate response. We have to
think
long term. We have to think long term.
So with this week,
I I in this forum, I really deeply,
thank all the brothers
who were committed to this project.
Because since I came to this part of
the world, I've been interested in some venture
like this. Because
the when I I I recall when I
second day,
when I went to
to Harvard, the second day I went to
the library.
I remember this day very well. And then
I pulled out a book,
from the bookshelf, from the library,
and it's called A Probe Into the History
of Hadith. I remember the title of the
book.
And then, you know, I said, let me
read something. It was like
heinous
and serious attacks on Rasulullah
alaihi wasallam,
on the history of hadith, on the history
of sunnah, on the history of Quran.
I felt very bad. Since that day,
you know, I I always felt that we
do not have
literature
that match
the the scholarly approach of these orientalist
books.
Okay. And for us to
produce literature like this, first, we have to
be brought into a classroom setting
where we investigate the issues. It's not a
lecture type for Matt. Everybody will nod his
head, and we have some food and then
go home. No.
The the there is a difference between a
lecture or a bayan in the ministry and
in class session
where we cook the ideas,
where we present
the ideas and then the arguments and the
counter arguments.
And hopefully, inshallah, by the grace of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala,
this humble
venture will develop into a small
think tank of young
Muslims who are capable
of producing
scholarly
academic type of literature
and who can
instead of, you know,
Stephen Emerson or Daniel Pipes,
who can be interviewed in CNN or CBS
about issues relating to Islam and Muslim, and
who can represent
the Muslim community.
But their
lingo
has, again, has to be
good.
That's that's
the whole idea about the institute.
And we just
we are facing a lot of challenges as
I mentioned.
But we have to be patient.
And once we give a push to this,
insha Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
Allah is going to,
I I know Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is
going to uplift our spirits and He will
never let us down.