Khalid Latif – Contentment For Being Your Brother’s Keeper
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AI: Transcript ©
In the name of Allah, the gracious, the
merciful,
all praise is due to Allah, the lord
of the universe, the master of the day
of judgment.
I bear witness and testimony to the oneness
of Allah,
to his magnificence,
his omnipotence, his might, his glory,
to his being the creator and sustainer of
all things,
the giver of life, the guider of hearts,
the master of the day of judgment.
I bear witness to the fact that Muhammad
ibn Abdalla
sallallahu alaihi wasallam
is a servant and final messenger.
May the peace and blessings of Allah be
upon him and upon all those who choose
to tread in his path until the last
day.
It is said that the speech of the
prophet sallallahu ta'ala
was a most remarkable and magnificent thing.
That this man sallallahu alaihi wa sallam was
able to talk to any person from any
walk of life, young or old, male or
female,
Arab or someone from a different cultural background,
people who are Muslim and people who are
of other faiths.
And no one would come and talk to
Muhammad
and walk away saying that I didn't understand
what he was saying.
That his speech is qualified as being so
concise, so
remarkably
magnificent. It is called jawami in its nature.
That he used very little words,
but they carry deep meaning.
And it was so impactful and so unique
that 14 centuries ago, the prophet
shared pearls of wisdom that resonated with the
companions that were around him.
But you and I, 14 centuries removed, are
still able to derive benefit
and meaning from those words, and some of
us don't even access them in terms of
their original language. We utilize translations, and they
still move our hearts.
That's how beautiful his speech was.
So one day, he's sitting with his companions
and he says to them that, who will
take something from me?
Who will take something from me in Abu
Huraira
without knowing what the prophet
is about
to give to him, says,
give it to me. I will take it.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he says to
his beloved companion that
if you were to act upon 5 things
that I will give to you now
for yourself and you will teach them to
others
that you will have benefit not only in
this world, but in the world beyond this
one.
He takes his beloved companion's hand, and he
begins to give him these five advices.
The first that he says to
him is, refrain from that which is haram.
You will be the most virtuous of people.
It's an interesting frame for us to be
able to understand because much of the time
when we think of somebody as being good,
when we think of somebody as having piety,
somebody as being virtuous, we qualify them based
off of actions that they actually do.
Look at how much Quran they read.
Look at how much they fast. Look at
how generous they are with their wealth. Look
at how charitable they are. Look at how
much they pray.
But here the prophet is saying
that a good person, a virtuous person, a
person who is elevated in the eyes of
the divine is not somebody who is actively
going out and doing something, but somebody who
keeps themselves from doing somebody who does not
engage in the Haram.
And for us to understand and deepen
a recognition of what the word Haram means
is imperative.
That these are boundaries that are set for
us not so that we would be restricted,
but divinely guided measures for us to understand
and truly reflect upon that if we were
to adhere to them, the benefit would not
be for anyone other than ourselves.
And the haram is not just the consumption
of alcohol or the eating of pork.
The haram is not just committing zinaa, may
Allah protect us from these things.
But gossiping is haram.
Backbiting is haram.
Lying is haram.
Breaking promises and oaths are haram.
To engage in arrogant acts of racism is
haram.
To be in a place where we elevate
ourselves by denigrating somebody else, believing that we
are better than them by virtue of our
wealth, our class, our profession, the color of
our skin. This is haram.
And it's from nothing other than shaitan. May
Allah protect us from it.
That his action was one of arrogance.
His action is one of flawed logic.
His action is one of racism.
When he is told to prostrate along with
everyone else to Adam alaihis salam, And he
says that I am a fire and he
is of dirt.
Why should I prostrate to him?
He believes by virtue of what he is
made of. He is better than Adam alaihis
salam. You think and you reflect
at a time when many in this country
are talking about race and ethnicity and what
that means.
That we in the Muslim community are not
somehow
protected from this.
But if we don't deal with our own
microaggressions
and racisms,
some of us believe
that our Islam is better by virtue of
the country that we came from.
Some of us would never pray behind somebody
simply because their color of their skin is
black.
Some of us would never let our children
get married to those who come from a
different cultural background,
That we believe there's inadequacy and deficiency
simply based off of things that, not in
our wisdom, but by the wisdom of the
divine, he mandated who our parents would be
and what part of the world we would
be born into.
But the prophet
he is the one, a man of mercy,
not someone wretched like me,
who is telling his companion,
refrain from that which is haram. You will
be the most virtuous of people.
There are things beyond what we listen to,
what we watch, what we eat that fall
into the categories of halal and haram.
And a lot of it has to do
with the hearts that are in our chest.
And my love, remove from our hearts any
feelings of arrogance or racism.
As he continues, he moves forward with his
companion and he says,
That be content with that which you have
been given. You will be the most satisfied.
You will be the richest, the wealthiest of
people.
Rina in our tradition is not tied to
the acquisition of the material.
That you will never find anything of real
contentment if you put your trust only in
the houses that you live in, the clothes
that you wear, the cars that you drive.
Because the prophet he
tells us in another
adid, The true richness is not having an
abundance of things from the earth, but true
richness is having a richness of your soul.
Ali
he says that to be in a place
where you are without being possessed by to
to be in a place of true is
to not have no possessions of the world,
but it's not to let anything of the
world possess you.
And when the acquisition of the material comes
so much out of our hands into our
hearts,
as the poet says,
likening it to a boat that is traveling
upon the water.
Saying that as long as that boat is
upon the water, there is no problems.
But once the water starts to seep into
the boat, that's when it starts to sink.
So much of our drive is by the
dunya.
So much of our drive is to have
more of this world,
that the realities of the world beyond this
one are things that never bear presence in
our deeds and our decisions.
And to understand that truly Allah has given
to you and I so much,
do we not have eyes to see with?
Do we not have feet to walk with?
Do we not have the blessing of being
in a place like this?
That there are people on this day of
Jum'ah today,
some from the countries that you and I
bear our origin from, who are being prevented
from going to the Masjid simply by virtue
of the fact that the governments that are
in control do not want them to do
so.
There are mothers who learn this world right
now who are walking miles and miles and
miles to find some food or water for
their children to eat and drink. And they
will then have to make the decision which
of their children they will watch starve in
front of their eyes and which of their
children they will actually feed with the few
morsels that they have.
There are people who have very little, but
their contentment does not come from the world.
It comes from a recognition with gratitude and
appreciation
of what they have been given.
And the prophet he says,
That the best of remembrance is saying, La
ilaha illallah. And the best of dua is
saying, Alhamdulillah.
What our teachers tell us is that you
say this word, Alhamdulillah,
with such an intention, such a motivation that
you are praising god for everything that he
has given to you. You are saying, you
Rabbi, continue to give me more so so
I can continue to praise you more.
Be content with that which you have been
given. You will be the richest of people.
Take moments in your day to reflect and
understand.
And the tie between this advice and the
previous advice,
where he says, refrain from the haram.
If we knew what we actually had
and we truly valued it,
we'd never have to turn towards the impermissible
to gain more.
Because our desires are never quenched,
we have no qualms in mistreating others to
be able to get more from us.
We are unique in terms of creation.
We are not the fastest of creation. We
are not the strongest.
We are not the ones who can fly
or swim under the ocean without having to
come up for air.
But we are the
only elements of creation
that even when our stomachs are filled,
we still try to put more into them.
And we don't take
anything
other than what we can from anyone else.
Really think about the state of humanity right
now,
That we might be months removed from it,
but it took the washing up upon a
shore of a 3 year old boy
drowned in the sea for the people to
understand what is happening to our brothers and
sisters in Syria. May Allah make things easy
for them.
But how many of us remember that image?
Or how many of us have forgotten it
and went back to the police that we
were in?
It's not the hearts of the oppressors
that I'm worried about,
but those of us who are watching it
happen and doing nothing
in terms of what we can,
what does it say of our hearts?
The third advice that the prophet
gives to his beloved,
He says,
that give your neighbor their right, you will
be a believer.
The keyword in this part of the hadith
is the word, where
in a foundational hadith in our tradition, the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam is visited by the
angel Jibreel alaihi salam. He has asked multiple
questions and he has given his responses. What
is Islam? What is iman? And when he
is asked, what is Islam? He says, on
top of the Allah
that you worship Allah as if you can
see him. Because you understand, although you can
see him, he cannot see you.
The mindset that is exerted here is not
one that has to be utilizing a perception
of the divine, that he is an angry
old man in the sky looking for reasons
to punish us and send us to hellfire.
But our god, the one that we want
to have a consciousness of who is watching
us in comparison to watching over us is
a god of mercy, the most merciful of
those who show mercy.
The source of an unconditional love, he is.
The most gentle, he is Latif.
He is Rahman. He is Rahim,
compassionate beyond any understanding we can fathom.
Loving of us and more merciful
towards its child. And when you have that
understanding and recognition of the divine, there is
no way you will go and walk on
that earth in denial of the rights that
the rest of creation has over you.
Everything in our tradition has rights.
Everything in our tradition has some bearing upon
us to the extent that we have narrations
that tell us how we are meant to
treat animals that we are about to slaughter
to consume.
That the prophet,
he sees a companion who is about to
take the life of an animal in order
to eat it. And this man is sharpening
the blade by which he will take this
animal's life in front of the animal. And
the prophet reprimands him and says, why are
you torturing this beast?
Sees a man who is about to slaughter
an animal so that he can consume its
meat, and this man has his foot on
the face of the animal. Omar starts to
beat this man and says, why are you
not giving this animal its right? If this
is the right that animals that we are
about to eat have over us, can you
imagine the right that people have over us?
And do we give them their right?
Do we provide for them what it is
that we are meant to provide for them?
We are about a year removed where 3
beautiful souls were taken from us in North
Carolina.
A young man by the name of Diya,
his wife and sister-in-law,
Yosur and Razan. May Allah have mercy upon
them and give them nothing less than Jannah.
We're only about a week and a half
removed
where 3 young Sudanese
black men
were executed in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
2 of them were Muslim.
How many of us made dua for them?
How many of us took a moment
to hold vigil for them?
We put conditions and qualifications on the honoring
of rights.
We look to see if the hand that
is extending a hand to us matches us
in terms of the color of skin,
in terms of the culture
of heritage and country of origin.
Our brotherhood
and sisterhood should not be connected
simply by virtue of the fact that we
share some variables to our identity.
Especially as Muslims,
when we only connect by virtue of shared
color,
then we are not connecting based off of
Islam.
And then we are not the brothers and
sisters that the hadith over and over
mentions the benefit
that is derived if you truly love your
brother and sister for a certain sake.
And then beyond that,
you have an understanding of the society on
a whole.
And in the 4th advice, the prophet
he alludes to this to his companion Abu
Huraira radiallahu an.
Where he says,
love for the people what you love for
yourself, you will be a Muslim.
Our beloved
constantly thought of others before he thought of
himself.
When he had the opportunity to be a
means of benefit for anyone, he would not
see where there was detriment to him. If
there was something to give, he would give
it.
Imam Nawi Rahimullah, when he comments on a
hadith that many of us know where the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says, you will not
enter paradise until you believe, and you will
not believe until you love for your brother
what you love for yourself. In his commentary
on this hadith, the word brother is not
your brother in faith but it is your
brother in humanity.
Our understanding of our giving, our presence towards
others is so myopic and it is so
contained
by arrogance that exist in our heart.
When I look and I see faces across
the table in my home where I'm eating
a meal, is it only people who enter
into my home who look like me?
Who have as much money as I do?
Five times a day, we sit in gatherings
like this where we are meant to be
in the presence of the divine, and you
can have gatherings like this where the best
of creation and the worst of creation are
given entrance into it because nothing takes away
from the majesty of Allah.
His mercy, his love, his compassion is beyond
our ability to comprehend.
Anybody and everyone can come into Allah's house,
but they can't come into our houses.
They can only speak the language that we
speak,
Or dress the way we dress?
Or again,
have the same color of skin as we
do?
You gotta really love people.
That is the legacy of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam.
Without condition or qualification, he truly loved people.
If your hearts are not moved when you
see injustice and oppression taking place against people
who come from different backgrounds than your own,
then you do not love people the way
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam loves people.
If you only stand when it's people from
your community who are being held down, if
you only give if it's from people from
your country who are in need, if you
are only in a place where you open
your doors to people who come from similar
socioeconomic
and cultural backgrounds as your own,
then whose sun are you following?
Our beloved
thought of others always before he thought of
himself.
To the extent that when we go and
stand in front of Allah
on that day of reckoning, that day of
judgment, he will be thinking of others there
as well.
That he tells his beloved
that that day will be most severe, most
serious.
That the men and women, they will be
standing wearing no clothes. And she says,
how will this be? Won't the men and
women look at one another?
He says,
it'll be more severe than that. That they
will go to the likes of Adam alaihi
salaam seeking intercession.
And Adam alaihi salaam will say that Allah
is more angry today than he has ever
been, and he is more angry today than
he will ever be. They will go to
the likes of Musa Alaihi Salam, Ibrahim Alaihi
Salam, each and every one saying that they
have to think of themselves,
myself, myself.
Because there is only one owner of that
day. There is only one master of that
day. There is only one possessor of that
day. That is Allah Azogel himself. You and
I won't even have clothes to wear.
In the midst all of it,
where everyone is saying,
myself myself,
the prophet
will uniquely be saying,
my ummah my ummah.
Even to that place, thinking of others before
he thinks of himself.
You gotta think about
what drives you and motivates you,
what's really pushing you when you make your
decisions.
It's not okay
to be arrogant in our tradition.
And racism stems from arrogance.
It's not okay
to just
justify and validate
because that's how the people who came before
didn't.
Because the people who said that to the
prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam,
the people who said that to Ibrahim alaihi
wasalam,
they were not the ones who were thinking
about Allah.
They were thinking about the satisfaction of their
nafs. May Allah protect us from it.
And then the last advice, the 5th advice
that the prophet
gives to his companion, Abu Hurair
He says,
They do not laugh in excess because indeed
in excess of laughter, it weakens the heart.
To understand the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam here
is not saying that it is haram to
laugh.
Because the prophet, he played games with his
companions.
He ran races with his wife.
He stopped to joke and kid with children.
We have beautiful narrations that describe the smile,
the laughter of the prophet
may Allah make us his companions in the
world beyond this one.
But to understand
the recognition
and importance of the most critical part of
us that is not anything external, but internal,
the hearts that are within us.
Where he says,
Indeed in your being, there's a morsel of
flesh. If it is good, then the entire
being will be good. If it is not
good, the entire being will not be good.
Indeed, it is your heart.
In our hearts, they're likened
in our chest
to a piece of land that is seeking
to harvest some crop.
And if that land is not struck by
any rainfall,
it's not gonna grow anything.
But similarly,
if that piece of land is only struck
by rain upon rain upon rain,
It's not gonna yield you anything either.
There has to be a balance.
And sometimes,
you and I have to be willing to
raise our hands to the skies and let
some tears drop from our eyes and
uniquely
call upon Allah for those whose names we
only know that nobody else is praying for
them.
We have to take care of our hearts.
We can't be in denial of the importance
of them.
And if I was to ask you right
now,
what do you do for your heart?
How do you take care of it?
How do you nourish it? How do you
cultivate it?
What would you say?
The reality is such that we look to
satiate our stomachs at the expense of the
satisfaction
of our souls.
But real contentment does not come from having
full stomachs.
Real contentment comes from having full hearts.
And these 5 advices, if we were to
reflect upon them and think about them and
how we can implement them into our lives,
It always guarantees you that you would see
a categorical difference in the way you approach
your living in this dunya.
Five things the prophet
tells his companion Abu Hurayrah radiAllahu an,
ittakul maharam taqun abadhan Nas refrain from that
which is haram. You will be the most
virtuous of people.
Be content with that which you have been
given. You will be the richest of people.
Then give your neighbor their rights. You will
be a believer.
Love for the people which you love for
yourself, you will be a Muslim.
And lastly he says,
do not laugh in excess for indeed an
excess of laughter, it weakens the heart.
It's something that we should think about while
we have the time to do so.