This lecture was delivered by Dr Jamal Badawi at the 2015 ICNA-MAS Convention in Baltimore, MD.
May 23, 2015
Jamal Badawi – Heavy Responsibility Of Being A Witness
AI: Summary ©
The importance of context in understanding Islam is highlighted, including the use of "naual" meaning of the internet and "has" in writing to avoid misunderstandings. The use of "arithmetics of grace" in English and the humility and "has been seen" in the context of Islam is also discussed. The importance of finding out if there is any sound or authentic information is emphasized, as well as the use of "arithmetics of grace" in the context of the Prophet sallua's parable and the need to study and find out how the Prophet sallua was used in relation to men and women.
AI: Transcript ©
hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Chateau
la hora de Sala hain flesh headedness Ada now whenever we have even Muhammad Rasulullah klaten MBA run mursaleen
My dear brothers and sister Islam as salaam aleikum, wa rahmatullah my village brothers and sisters in Islam and brothers and sisters in humanity from all other faith communities. I greet you with the greeting of Islam as salaam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. Which means, made the peace blessings and mercy of Allah, the One True God of all be with you.
The course the topic description has been one of the most liberal and if you look in your,
your program, the only thing it says is quoting one particular area from the Quran, namely the to the 41st in saltiness and the fourth surah in the Quran, there is no other directives given. I like some of those topics because it leaves you free to interact with it and approach it in any way that you feel comfortable with.
But then one important aspect of understanding the Quran
is to keep in mind what we call the textual context, not only historic, historical context, but the textual context. What does that mean? Well, it means that there are some areas that might be like might say, stand alone, you can understand it, without necessarily looking into the verses before and after there are some instances of that fact lm anahola Allah, Allah, Allah know you that there is no God. But Allah, it's useful, of course, to see the context textually but you can really very much grasp the meaning of the area alone.
But there are many, many other areas in the Quran, where it is very helpful not only to look at the broader context, textual context like that is the whole Quran in a given topic,
could appear in so many sources in the Quran, but you have to cut it together in order to have better understanding.
In this particular area, it may be understood reasonably well.
By looking into a network context, they are yet that I have seen before and the one after that. So you might notice that I'm starting even long before that, the last part of verse 36 of sorts in this app,
for each of those quotations inshallah,
I will be reading it in the original Arabic
I be using basically very heavily actually, the translation by Mohammed acid, with very, very minor modification, such as changing the term God to Allah, I happen to believe in that and for decades, I say that, or I believe that
the term God theoretically, in English, theoretically, you can add s to it, and it becomes gods in plural.
You can add ss, then you're talking a female God, Goddess, or goddess, linguistically, at least.
But amazingly, in the Arabic language, there are no such forms of laughter Jelena or the term Allah, and other word linguistic It is impossible. There is nothing like Allah, Allah, or Allah as it is a term that is unique without any other formats. And that is more appropriate in referring to Allah subhanaw taala as neither male nor female, and the fact that sometimes in scripts that you need like he is simply because you don't have an it's a short shortcoming of language itself. You have either he or she or it, it, it's not appropriate, if you say he, somebody might try, why not see, if you say she was not see, this is a conveyance of meaning because of the short shortage of language. So
this is one reason there might have been a few occasions
Also that I tried to change 6pm English to common days English I think I might have missed one instead of using thou just you so this are of minor nature but in essence the credit goes to Muhammad Asad. Mahalo, I began again for the shortness of time with the last part of an area because that's what is connected directly to our topic. In Allah Allah your hibou man kana motel and for hora.
Verily, Allah does not love any of those who full of self conceit act in a boastful manner. We stay away from 41 that's 36 parts of statistics.
Just think about the context
37
Allah vena cava Haruna maroon and NASA will work to Muna at home in fadli. Well, artisanally Cafe de nada mahina
nor
those who are niggardly and bid others to be negatively and conceal whatever Allah has bestowed upon them out of his bounty, and so we have violated shame from suffering for all who thus deny the truth.
Okay, let's move to 38
and 38.
We read
well, Latina kupuna Amma hombre unece whether you know Nabila, while abilio may
or may jaquan, shaytaan, raho, Corinne and fussa. Kareena
and Allah does not love those who spend their possessions on others only to be seen and praised by others.
The Hawaiian, they believe neither in Allah, nor in the last day. And he of course, and or she and he, who has Satan for a soul mate. How even a soul mate he is
39
we're getting close to the area that is the topic
woman or the man will be law he will Yomi Takumi Morocco Hola. What can allow him Halima?
And what would they have to fish? If they would but believe in Allah and the Last Day and spend in his way out of what Allah has granted them as sustenance, since Allah has indeed full knowledge of them.
And now the immediate area before the area that is represented sofic of today
14
in Allah Allah Allah, Allah Allah Allah wa Integra has anything new that if we mila agilon Javi man
Verily, Allah does not wrong, anyone by as much as an atom sweet and if there be a good deed, if that deed is good, meaning he will multiply it and will bestow out of His grace a mighty reward.
Now we come to the central idea for this topic.
I hope you formulate an idea now about how people behave the things that should be avoided. What are missing of multiplication of the good deeds
then we did this
okay thank you The gentleman quickly met him be shahidi Medina Vika Allahu la shahida.
How then
will the centers that we talked about before profile was presented?
Will the sinners fears on the Day of Judgment, when we shall bring forward witnesses from within every community
and bring you or Mohammed or Prophet sallallahu Sallam as witness against them? Of course, witnesses here, According to Professor in the commentators in the Koran refer actually to prophets, every prophet will come to give witness
against his people who rejected the truth, testifying before Allah that He has conveyed the message, but they didn't listen.
Okay, and just to give one more after that and come back to this again, to look at the occasion, or something and hobbies that relate to this area,
it could include that session or section might say,
yo man, the word to Latina cafaro was our rasulillah to be human or whatever extra mana la Hardison
those were bent on denying the truth, and paid no heed to the apostle or messenger will on that day wish that the Earth would swallow them, but they shall not be able to conceal from Allah, anything that has happened.
Now, is there anything that has this and this is also useful methodology? We've seen the reference in the Quran and because of time just even the immediate textual context after that, we find a different topic in the following verses.
But it is also essential maybe in that order to find out if there is any sound or authentic heavies that relate to this a and Hadith Yes,
we find narrated in Buhari
the most important authority on Salman Hadith
that the Prophet sallallahu Sallam told Abdullah ignoramus
he said to him, recite the Quran to me.
Abdullah of Nazareth was really, you know, puzzled.
I read the Quran to the Prophet, the prophet was the teacher of all in the Quran. He said, should I recite it to you, and it was revealed to you it was sent down to you.
Look at the humility of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam in your head boy and asthma who made it.
But I'd love also to hear it from other than me from others.
So I've noticed, start reading from Surah Nisa.
When he reads that particular verse,
that when we get witnesses, ie profits, and growth you or Mohammed as witness to your people, to your contemporaries,
he said, Hasbrook, stop, stop.
Unnecessarily take a look at the face of the prophets on the low end he was.
And he found that his eyes were shedding tears.
Were shedding tears.
Why
can argue
that perhaps he feel sad for them, that they brought this destiny, bleak destiny upon themselves?
Maybe they missed all the reward that Allah gives multiple. I call it the arithmetics of grace. You do one wrong, it's written one wrong. You do one Hashanah. It could be minimum 10 times 700 times and yet I was okay. It says Well, your body fully managed a lot even multiply not only seven and a lot multiply even for whoever he wished, depending of course, on the extent of sacrifice and the sincerity of that.
But then we can look again to the foreign to see what does it say about the Prophet sallallahu wasallam.
Now, moving to the second page, there are only two pages.
And I hope this makes it easier to follow.
One important reason we can derive and we find lots of evidence for that in the Quran.
Is that the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had really, really genuine love of people,
including his opponents. Yes, including his opponents.
He was very earnest to guide his people, or people in general because it was central admin for all human beings, Muslims and otherwise.
That love for guidance is about one aspect of a centered quality of Prophet Muhammad
Mutt sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that is summed up so beautifully in the 100 and seventh area and so that's an MBs Sora 21 Omar of Seneca in La mathan. Delilah amin, Muslim Muslim in Iran, Delilah me.
And thus,
or profit we have sent you as an evidence of our grace or mercy towards all the worlds
allow me to stop for a minute on the use of the term, I mean, in plural.
We often talk about an item everything. Yes, I mean, Lola,
for he was Rama for human beings, whether Muslims or others, and he was keen to help all.
Secondly, he is Rama and mercy from Allah to Jin
Jin.
Those who
NASA Nana, Nana, Java de la rusty furama NaVi you know, Jin is a is a generic term referring to this special kind of creatures who shares something with engines, something with humans, freedom of choice.
And according to the Quran, one minute Muslim mono amine nonclassical and some of us are believers submit to Allah. Others are wrongdoers. So here's the Quran tell us about number of minutes in a group of jinn
who listened to the Prophet sallallahu Sallam recited the Quran at night. And they say we heard a wondrous Koran guiding to rushed to reason.
So we have believed in it. That's why they have this believing Gen. So he was rahama, for Gen. He was Rama for the world of animals. And we'll find numerous hobbyists echoing the Quran, and its
approach of kindness toward animals that could be a whole presentation by itself, nothing new, just right there. In the Quran, as well as that Hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he was Rama to the world of vegetation.
As we find in his instructions, to abstain from destruction, unnecessary destruction, the prohibition of cutting trees, fruitful trees
in the warfare, if there is no pressing, strategic reason to do so. He is rahama to other creation of Allah subhanho wa Taala bring to our attention to appreciate all the creation not only the living creation, when he passes by the mountain of code, and he says this is a mountain that loves us, and we love it. What does it mean to love the mountain to go up the mountain and embrace and smoosh on all sides? Obviously here we're talking about, we love it because it's a creation from Allah to remind us of what the Quran say also about the aesthetic part, not functional part, not only in animals and vegetation, but also mountains wamena Geobella, Judah doumbia, domo Hamartoma, telefoon.
And when warabi busua in mountains, which has different colors and use, he teach us that he is rahima also to the resources like water, passing by one companion making a volution for salah and splashing water carelessly. He says, What is this? The man said, Is there any excess in using water? A messenger of Allah? He said yes, even if you're making Moodle from a running river, you can give evidence of that evidence that this Rama in fact, is all embracive to all the creation of Allah, not one word. But I mean words in Florida
and when it comes to humans, the most important creation of Allah we find there is evidence from the Quran that he was so grieved that people would reject Him not personally for them he cared for them for the comfort who rejected even the truth look at this
in so little
fella unlockable
him in let me know we haven't had easy access.
But would you perhaps the address here is from Allah to the Prophet sallallahu Sallam?
Would you perhaps torment yourself to death with grief over them, if they are not willing to believe in this message that may continue, but don't kill yourself of grief that means he was in bad shape. There is a similar idea in the Quran for lack of better knapsack la okonomi, in a very similar meaning to emphasize. But then there is something that is very interesting, related Hadith about the kindness of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, even towards the objectives of faith, and still hoping to guide them.
That was narrated by Abu hurayrah, Allah Juan.
He said, I heard the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saying, My parable and the parable of the people
is that of a man
who can build a fire.
And when it's eliminated, what was around it, math, and other insects began to fall in the fire. The man tried, meaning his best to prevent them,
meaning from falling in the fire.
But they overpowered him and rushed into the fire.
The Prophet sallallahu wasallam added. Now, similarly, I take hold of the nuts of your waist,
hold you from your waist from your belt, keep
to prevent you from falling into the fire. But you insist in falling into it. Obviously, address is not necessarily to the Sahaba already accepted the mission of the prophet SAW Selim. But it is actually a description of those who insist on rejection of truth. Many of you might, perhaps can find a parallel of this very, very
artistic description of who they are.
Have you ever done some barbecue? Right? You get the barbecue, and then you have the fire there or whatever.
And then you find the animals, the insects, and most rushing, you don't have to have barbecue. By the way, if you have a lamp at home, don't you notice that also, they rush into the shape of the lamp. If it's, you know, in that shape, they rush into it and get burnt, and they keep coming.
So it's just the same like the butterflies. The math, humanity is, is continuing to rush itself into fire to get burned. And the President is trying to save as many people as possible, not like the motto of those who claim to belong to Islam, and they simply want to see as many heads are cut to save as many souls as possible is the readmission of the prophets of Allah He listened
and concludes What is it all about, then?
What is the essence of this efforts and grief of the Prophet sallallahu Sallam
is to be shahidan before Allah subhanaw taala to witness on his own.
What does it mean to be witnesses of Allah? There are many areas but I chose one and then very finishing very soon inshallah. The air 133 in the circle Baccarat the second syrup.
waka Delica Anakin Mata Masada SATA, Lita kuno, Shahada, Arlen ness coonara sudwala shahida, Allah Subhana, Allah addresses, as he says, and thus we have will, you will do but whether we achieve that, through our behavior and abiding by his guidance, it's left to us. But Allah will did. We will do to be a community or an omen, which is a better word than nation, or even community. It's a matter of community of believer, regardless of time and space
of the middle way, I'm not too particular happy with the 10 midway middle between which points, but I'm just conveying the translation but adding my preferred translation, just a balance, some translated moderate, but a better translation in my humble view, giving the political reality of what the word moderates mean to some people, just a balanced Omen, so that with your lives, you might bear witness to that
Truth before all human being, and that the apostle or the Messenger of Allah meaning Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam, bear witness to it before you so he's a witness on us. And after supposed to be witnesses for Allah, also to the rest of humanity,
to conclude them, how to bear witness to the truth, the truth of
the pure monotheistic faith, of all of the prophets, and its implication in our lives. Yes, we can do it by word, spoken, written, recorded, you name it.
We can do it by service to humanity.
And I felt as much sympathy with those who are suffering suffering in Nepal,
even though Muslims are a small, persecuted minority, as much as I feel for other people who are suffering all over the world, in a more tragic way, even
service to humanity is not election.
service to humanity is not a politically correct statement, or action. service to humanity is something that is founded, co founded in the Quran and Sunnah. In fact, some topics that I have been invited to speak about frequently here and elsewhere, I give the title to it actually, serving Allah through serving humanity, or serving humanity is serving Allah subhanho wa Taala. So that's a topic by itself, it's not election.
But most importantly, we can be witnesses to Allah subhanaw taala. Through our good example, when people look at Muslims, and find that there is a big gap between the ideas that they confess to believe in and their actions, it is not very helpful in Dawa, historically, people who came to Islam, in droves all over the world. It was not as much as listening to lectures, that was part of it, reading this reading that it was, as reported, because of the good examples of some Muslims that they saw. That began to ask them, what makes you at peace? What makes you honest in your dealings, and the opposite is true. Some people do that. And some people do the
opposite. drive people away from interest in Islam. The final words that we need, indeed, to study because 20 minutes doesn't give us much more time to go in detail. Study, the example of the Prophet sallallahu sallam, not only in his ethics, in his character, that the Quran describes what in Allah, Allah, Allah can have him so that you are indeed on a high pedestal of moral behavior, and the showerhead is not coming from the human, this is the witness and testimony of Allah Subhana. himself about him.
We have to find out also, aside from this, his wisdom, whether
innate wisdom, or wisdom through inspiration from Allah subhanaw taala, or a combination that how he dealt with people, especially people who differ with him. Just one example, grit entering into Makkah, victoriously everybody submitted, nobody can resist.
And people gather around the Kaaba, say, what do you think you guys I'm going to do to you? And many might have been thinking, this is the time of bloodshed. This is the time of settling accounts about all those who have been harassed and humiliated because of their faith. And then the general amnesty practic gender endless, very, very rare exception of people to what, dozen or so less than a dozen, who might be called war criminals, actually. It have antimo tilaka. You go, you're all free. There is a reference also sometimes quoted that he quoted from Sudan use. You know, when prophet Yusuf Ali salon went back to Egypt, and then his brothers began to apologize to him for all the wrong they did
to him. That profits are seldom quoted letter three valet camaleon. I tell you what, Joseph said, use said to his brothers, there is no blame on you this day. May Allah forgive you all. We have to study that and find how he won the hearts of even non believers, the case of a man who came to him and
admitted later, I came and there is no one that I hated more than the Prophet sallallahu. And the Prophet does him a favor. And he goes to his people. And he says, to come in and the hyenas, I came to you from the best of human beings show the most at one. So the most beloved one, and examples on that are too many. After all, as the Quran directors, naka de Cana leconfield rasulillah he was watching Hashanah, the man can i or de la jolla woman al Qaeda was a Corolla kathira Verily, in the Messenger of Allah meaning Mohammed Salah Selim in this context, you have a good example for everyone who looks forward with hope and all to Allah. And the last day and remember, Allah on Cz
May Allah subhanaw taala make us among those me salamati