Khalid Latif – Islam, Nonviolence & Martin Luther King Jr
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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 the law,
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.
And I bear witness to the fact that
Muhammad is
his servant and final messenger.
May the peace and blessings of the law
be upon him and upon all those who
choose to tread in his path until the
last day.
It is said that in the early days
of Islam,
the situation
was very harsh for the Muslimi.
That on a regular basis, on a daily
basis, those early followers of the dean of
Allah in the city of Mecca, they were
forced to succumb to great persecution and hardship.
And so the situation comes about that many
of these men and women in hopes of
being able to find a place where they
could worship Allahu al Zawjal as freely as
they would want to, they leave behind all
of their possessions. They leave behind their families
and their homes. And they go from the
city of Mecca to the city of Medina
where they're able to practice freely.
There, they're able to establish their law. There,
they're able to establish their customs. There, they're
not fearful of worshiping
And now when the situation comes about and
they have opportunity
to return back to their home, when they
have opportunity to go to the place where
they were once born, where their family was
from, where the lineage is traced, they go
now in mass.
They go with the
They go with those early companions who had
faced that persecution,
who had been beaten and abused and boycotted.
Some would even lost loved ones because they
had espoused an understanding that there was nothing
worthy of worship except Allah. They go now
back to the city of Makkah al Muqormah
going to meet the mushrikeen,
the Meccans who had treated them in this
way.
And when the prophet alaihis salam goes back
to take the city, he does not do
so with vengeance or retribution
in his mind.
For when he goes back to this place
that was his home, where he goes back
to this place that has a special place
in his heart, when he goes back to
this place where most assuredly
everyone is expecting
that he would seek his retribution
in pursuit of what they would understand justice
to be, The beloved of Allah alaihis salam
demonstrated a justice that was not based off
of self interest but one that was based
off of the interest of all those who
he was going to engage.
Compassion and mercy was underlying the prophet alaihi
salam's taking back of the city of Mecca.
That each and every home that had sought
to long him, the beloved of Allah alaihis
salam
said, today they are forgiven.
And he was able to go back into
this place that had cast him out without
casting any drop of blood from anyone.
This was the man, Muhammad alayhis salaam, and
this was the way that he engaged people.
Those who had wronged him, those who had
abused him, those who had taken from him
that which was his. Still with them, he
engaged in such a manner that he honored
their rights and did not seek to demand
justice for himself while he sought to act
justly with them.
And we have to understand this component of
the characteristic
prophet alaihis salaam.
That more often than not, our natural instinct
is that when someone is wronged as we
seek to take by what ever means we
can, that which we think we are entitled
to.
Anger gets us to a point where when
the power dynamic is in our favor, we
no longer look at the rights that those
around us have over us, but we will
treat them in the most atrocious of ways
even at times going into acts of violence
thinking that this is justifiable
because the ends is something that we want
to have in our grasp.
But we are not a people who look
solely at the ends. We also look at
the means by which those ends are achieved.
We have to be able to understand that
the pathway by which we seek our objectives
are just as important as those objectives that
we seek to have.
And we cannot justify
saying that the outcome is one that we
are so in desire of, we are so
wanting to have. We need to have it
in our hand that we will do whatever
we can to get that which was given
to us.
The prophetess Lullam alayhi was telling him he
he lives 13 years in.
In these 13 years, the beloved of Allah
alaihis salam when he is speaking to his
companions,
old, male and female, those who are Arab
and those who are not. He is not
preaching a rhetoric that says go and take
that which is yours by any means necessary.
But the philosophy that the beloved of Allah
alayhi salaam is espousing is one that is
more nonviolent in nature.
He's saying to people to honor the rights
of those who are around you, have a
love for the people who are here in
your most immediate
alayhis salaam, they found a special place in
his prayer and his dua where it was
habitual of him to beseech Allah
for forgiveness upon these people who treated him
in the most atrocious of ways.
That oh Allah, put your,
your forgiveness
upon my upon my people because indeed they
don't understand.
This is a man who had no food
to eat for days in his home.
This is a man who saw his companions,
man
but also in this one.
This is a man who the people of
Mecca, they would ridicule and mock him in
front of his young daughter Fatima's eyes and
still he is making this dua for them.
Daughter Fatima's eyes and still he is making
this dua for them.
We get caught up much in the hadith
that tells us that when we see an
injustice, we should act against it. And if
we are not able to act against it,
then we should speak against it. And if
we cannot speak against it, then we should
make dua for that thing and that is
the weakest form of faith.
But our inability to contextualize this tradition puts
us in a place where we see Muslims
on a daily basis
engaging in
I
We pursue justice and the understanding that it
is and
is not just about let me go and
get mine, but it is derived from the
same word,
which means equilibrium.
We are seeking to bring people back to
where things are in the middle.
We are not people who are on one
extreme or who are on the other. We
are people who espouse
we espouse excellence.
We do what we can to the best
of our ability. And we understand this thing
of is something that denotes that we live
in such a way that although we cannot
see the divine, we understand that he can
see us. And if we have this frame
of mind that is so god centric, we
would not be able to ever justify the
violation of any rights that people have over
us.
We are people who respect and honor the
universality
that exist amongst us not because of any
specific ethnicity or culture that we adhere to
but we adhere to the fact that we
are part of a race that is the
human race. And that is something that allows
for us to look past any socially constructed
difference and just give a deep value to
that which is human life. The one the
prophet
tells us that you will not enter paradise
until you believe and you will not believe
until you love for your brother what you
love for yourself. The key word that we
have to understand here in this hadith that
is setting a condition for our entrance into
paradise
is brother.
Imam Nawawi
when he defines this word, that same Imam
who's alabarin,
we study day in and day
out and all of us despite our ideological
or theological
characteristics
still value and respect this man. He says
that word brother is in reference to the
son, the children of Adam.
It is not in reference only to Muslims.
It is not in reference only to those
who follow Islam. But when the prophet, alayhis
salam, is using this word, akh, he is
using it in reference to ibn al Adham.
And there is a certain value that is
there in appreciating the fact that we are
human.
The prophet, alayhis salam, demonstrates this to us
over and over
where he is not seeking to be made
restitute at the expense of somebody else's rights.
And we wanna think about this because in
the coming week, this country, our country, our
communities, we are going to be honoring the
legacy of a man whose notoriety is based
off of principles
of nonviolence
in pursuit of social justice.
A man by the name of Martin Luther
King Junior who has made a name for
himself that has transcended
most communities
and people commemorate that which he did because
he was not a person who sought physical
and aggressive means to get that which he
wanted for his people, but he sought to
do so through a philosophy
that was nonviolent
in nature.
He did not say to take up your
arms. He did not say to go and
cast any kind of atrocity upon innocents. He
did not say to go and harm any
individual
and we need to conceptualize
what this actually means for us today.
People in our community who are the children
of immigrants, South Asians and Arabs and Indonesians
and people from all over the world, people
who are indigenous to this land, caucasians and
latinos and hispanics and African Americans.
Each and every one of them on the
coming week will be going out and serving
the community in the legacy of this man.
Why is it that we remember him?
Why is it that so many people from
so many different backgrounds honor his memory?
He was a person that was able to
change society and he did so with the
benefit of society as being his primary objective.
He wasn't going out and encouraging young people
or old people that you have been violated
in this way and you need to go
and do whatever violated in this way and
you need to go and do whatever you
can by any means necessary. You still have
to understand the value of human life.
And this is bousing of this nonviolent tradition
is something that we find is elementary in
our own tradition.
It's something that we find is there and
the prophet displays
and demonstrates
it on a regular basis.
How is it that today people when they
understand our religion, they equate it to something
that is violent in nature.
You can go on any search engine on
the Internet and you type in the words
Islam and nonviolence and you will get nothing.
But if you type in the word Islam
and violence, you will get 1,000 and 1,000
and 1,000 of articles that aren't even degrees
removed in their relevancy.
These are things that say Islam and its
default
is something that is violent.
Where did we make this transition?
And how did we get to the place
that we are in today?
The prophet
he dealt with the community that looked towards
aggression as being the solution for its problems.
We all know the tradition when the prophet
in the days before he receives revelation
finds himself in a situation where the people
of Mecca, they are arguing amongst themselves
because the Kaaba is being reconstructed and the
chieftains of the tribe, they are arguing as
to who will put the black stone back
in its
place. Each and every chieftain wants to have
the honor of this. Each and every one
says that if it is not my tribe
that puts the stone back, we will have
bloodshed. We will have violence.
They bring forth pots of blood and they
dip their hands into it and they show
palms coated with blood to one another saying
that this is what will happen if we
are not the ones who will put the
stone back.
And so they say we need to come
to a solution.
And they say that the next person who
will come in, let them be the person
who will give us the advice.
And they say to themselves that if the
option that this individual presents us with is
not something that we agree with, we will
just take his wife too.
And the prophet, alayhis salaam, he is the
person who comes in,
And the people, they know him as being
the trustworthy one, the honest one, they rejoice
when he walks in.
When he comes in, he comes up with
a solution
and he says that let us place the
stone onto a sheet and we will have
each individual
tribe represented by a person. They will each
grab a hold of it and together we
will lift it into the air.
And once they had done this, the prophet
alaihis salam with his own blessed hands, he
puts the stone back in the place that
it needs to go.
But there is an inherent wisdom that we
see in his decision.
But we also see that the natural reaction
of the rest of the people of Mecca
when they are trying to get that which
they want is to go towards the most
aggressive and violent means necessary.
You give me what I want or I
will hurt you.
You give me what I want or I
will do whatever I can to take it
from you.
I will take your life. I will take
everything that is within your possession. This is
the natural
reaction of the people of Mecca.
The prophet
being sent is
not but a mercy for all of the
world, not just one single people or one
single set of individuals or a society.
He thinks before he acts.
He does not let his aggression, he does
not let his sense of retribution, he does
not let any kind of sense of self
interest dictate the way he will set precedent
for these people in terms of how they
should respond when emotions are high.
We have to begin to do the same
thing.
It means they justify the ends.
We can't just say that because we are
seeking to attain something that all bets are
off in the process of how we get
to it.
There has to be a consistent reminder of
that which is fundamental
within our tradition.
Mercy is there and we have left it
behind.
The first hadith that many of us are
taught in any Muslims is the hadith of
rahma, the tradition of mercy.
That the merciful one is merciful to those
who are merciful. Be merciful on the earth.
The one who is in the heavens will
be merciful to you.
But we don't think in this way.
And we do whatever we can, lashing out
in anger, lashing out in rage, doing whatever
we can saying that I need to get
mine.
And that's not the way it works.
Martin Luther King Junior, the man whose legacy
will be celebrated next week,
He says
that non violence demands
that the means is as pure
as the ends that we seek.
And the prophet
he
tells us,
that indeed actions, they're because of their intentions.
We can't say that just because we want
to do something, we will justify
it in any way possible.
There has to be a rhetoric that understands
that peace is fundamental
to this tradition of Islam,
and we as individuals
have to begin to espouse it.
Even in instances
where we go out on campaigns that are
military in nature, there are certain guidelines
that we have to follow.
Abu Bakr
when he is and
he is commissioning the people to go and
approach the borders of Syria. He says to
his army that there are 10 things that
you have to be conscious of as you
go and engage these people.
He says do not be treacherous
and do not deviate
from that path which is right.
He says do not mutilate
anybody
that you come upon.
He says then do not take the life
of a child.
Do not take the life of any women.
Do not take the life of any aged
men.
He says do not harm any trees or
burn burn them, especially those that are fruitful
in nature.
He says that do not slaughter or take
from the opposition's
flock except that which you need for your
own food.
And he says that along the way, you
will meet individuals
who they engage in monastic services and lifestyles.
Leave them alone.
But setting a precedent
for us in terms of what we can
do
and what we are not allowed to do.
What kind of lifestyle can we engage in
today that justifies the killing of any innocent
child or woman?
How have we transitioned to a place where
we don't honor the rights of every single
creation in Allah's own jail's kingdom here in
this world?
Where the likes of Abu Bakr Siddiq radiAllahu
ta'alaam is able to speak to his companions,
his followers and say, don't even hurt a
dream.
And today, we have people who are espousing
opinions that say that you and I, because
we live in this country, we are considered
collateral damage if there's any attacks on us.
And we sit back and let that be
the dominant understanding of our tradition.
The prophet
he was a man of mercy.
He was a man of compassion.
He was a man of understanding.
He was a man who knew how to
engage with people. He was a man who
understand the rights that people have over him.
And he was a person who did not
seek to say that you have dishonored my
rights, so I would justify dishonoring yours.
That's not the way that it would work.
And we have to be able to reflect
and understand upon it.
Many conflicts in the world today have been
resolved through nonviolent
means.
Many situations,
many societies,
many dynamics,
they have been caused to be moved in
so many different ways because the people who
are the pioneers of their efforts that sought
to change those society
did so not seeking things through physical violent
means, but they sought to utilize nonviolence
as their philosophy.
Even when they engaged it in a pragmatic
way, they did so with an understanding that
the tactics and the strategy
political change
by means of nonviolence.
Those of us who come from the Indian
subcontinent,
we find our tradition rooted in that area.
How do we get away from British rule?
Gandhi did not say that go and take
up your arms.
But just like Martin Luther King, he didn't
say that the means is something that is
separate from the ends.
But he says that the means that should
be likened to a seed
and the ends to a tree.
If we're not careful about what we're planting,
we're gonna yield what we yield.
And people, they will understand us to be
what they understand us to be.
You and I, we might not espouse
that rhetoric which is violent in nature,
but we also can't take a passive
approach to dealing with the situation that we're
in.
When you have the opportunity
to go out and be a means by
which someone's pain or someone's trial is alleviated,
don't hesitate in helping those individuals.
If you have access to wealth, if you
have access to resources,
if you have access to certain
skills, don't think of yourself in such an
individualized
way that you think about what I will
get from that which I have been given
before what everybody else could benefit from every
blessing that I have.
Prophet alaihis salam stood into the late hours
of the night praying to Allah Azul,
tears dropping from his blessed face as his
legs became swollen and swollen.
Why was he doing this?
What was the reason behind it?
This man who was forgiven, this man who
was Masoom, this man who arguably the entire
world and everything in it was created for
his coming.
Did he ever say to somebody that you
hurt me?
Did he ever say to somebody that you
owe me something?
But he just kept giving of himself
over and over and over.
We brought this little while while Ami was
a man of mercy.
We as individuals
who claim to follow his legacy,
we should be those individuals
who uphold that legacy as well.
Why is Muhammad Ali alaihi
salam's name not mentioned as much as a
Gandhi or a Martin Luther King Junior?
Why is it that we are able to
celebrate days weeks and legacies of these men
who most definitely need to be recognized but
our beloved alayhi salam was a person who
sought to teach people who had no understanding
of Rahmah, what it actually meant, and people
don't know him as this.
What are we doing?
How are we allowing for that narrative to
be taught?
And it's not just explicitly, but it's implicitly
in our decisions and in our actions.
No one will think you're merciful if you
put yourself before you them.
No one will think you're merciful if you
raise your hand against them, if you scream
against them, if you abuse them in a
verbal way, a physical way, in any of
these ways.
Mercy does not come in such a way
that it justifies that you slap your child
when he seems to have done something that
frustrates you.
Mercy is not that when my wife has
done something that I find to be irritating,
I will say to myself that I have
a right to raise my hand against her.
Mercy is not that I will say that
I will keep to myself any of my
provisions or any of my resources
when I know that my brother will benefit
from it if I would just share it
with him.
Let compassion be your motivation.
Let mercy be your catalyst.
Justice is not equated
to me saying
I need to get that which is owed
to me. That's not justice.
And if we think only about ourselves first
before we think about everyone else, we will
find ourselves to be in this place
more days than we should be if we
sought to do everything that we actually could
to remedy the situation.
Think about what you do for the sake
of Islam.
Think about what you do individually
to better the conceptions and the images that
people have
over us. And even if you don't do
anything that is wrong,
if you're not going out and doing things
that are right,
we're still not benefiting from you in the
ways that we can.
May Allah
guide us and protect us. May he bless
us with knowledge that benefits us. May he
bless us with the
to understand and implement that knowledge into our
daily lives, and may he guide and bless
us all.