Mirza Yawar Baig – Action points going forward
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning about Islam and making the right choices to achieve success is emphasized, along with the need for history and actions to be made wisely. The history of political science and global experiences is also discussed, including the importance of choosing wisely and being prepared for the long term. The speakers emphasize the need to be prepared for the long term and not just talk in terms of justice and human rights. Investing in research areas in political science is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah.
All praise is due to Allah.
We praise Him, we seek His help and
we seek His forgiveness.
We believe in Him and we put our
trust in Him.
We seek refuge in Allah from the evil
of our souls and from the evil of
our deeds.
Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and
whosoever He leads astray, none can guide him.
We bear witness that there is none worthy
of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is
His servant and Messenger.
We bear witness that there is none worthy
of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is
His servant and Messenger.
Allah has sent a bearer of good tidings
and a warner, a supplicant to Allah by
His permission, and a lamp of light.
Then Allah said, O you who have believed,
fear Allah as He should be feared, and
do not die except as Muslims.
And He said, O you who have believed,
fear Allah and speak the truth.
He will set right your deeds and forgive
you your sins.
And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has
certainly attained a great success.
Our Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon
him, and upon his family and companions, said,
The truest hadith is the Book of Allah,
and the best of hadiths is Muhammad, peace
and blessings be upon him, and the worst
of hadiths is their innovations, and every innovation
is an innovation, and every innovation is a
misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.
My dear brothers and sisters and elders, the
topic of my khutbah today is action points
going forward.
And this is building on the many khutbah
on this topic of current affairs that I
have been speaking on over the last couple
of months or few months.
A dear friend of mine told me, you
have given us an analysis of our situation
and I agree.
Now give us action points going forward.
What must we do?
So here is what I believe we must
do.
To take back the reins of our destiny
from the hands of those we gave them
to.
Believe me, we are all in the game.
In this game there are no spectators.
And the name of that game is life.
If you think that you can sit untouched
by what is happening in the game, in
some imaginary spectator stand, then good luck to
you.
Stop smoking whatever you are smoking.
If you are not playing in your own
game, you are a player in someone else's
game.
In the first case, if you are playing
in your own game, then you make the
rules, you call the shots and you win.
In the second case, you are a pawn
and will be sacrificed for the benefit of
the owner of the game.
You are dispensable to be used and discarded.
Looking at our Muslim situation today globally, tell
me which scenario looks familiar?
Where do you think we are?
Having said that, let me assure you that
things are far from hopeless.
There is great hope, even certainty of success.
But like everything in this world, which Allah
made, I didn't make it.
You don't like it, go talk to him.
The rule Allah made was that to get
something, you have to do something.
Wishing doesn't get you anything.
And so therefore, there is great hope, provided
we make the right choices.
Like any game, this needs preparation, understanding the
situation, a play strategy, flexibility to change, and
commitment to the goal at all cost.
With that, we can win.
Without it, get ready for slavery, not only
for yourselves, but for your children and their
children and their children until somebody wakes up.
If you read history, you will realize that
there are forks in the road of destiny
of nations.
What happens after the fork depends on which
branch you chose to walk on.
I can give you examples from the history
of different nations, but we don't have time
for that today.
And if anyone is interested, then they can
come and sit with me and I will
explain these things to you.
May Allah have mercy.
But let me point out to you that
I believe from my knowledge base of history
of political science and of global experience that
we are standing at a fork in our
destiny.
As the Ummah of Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
and our choice, whether we like it or
not, will affect our future generations, who will
bless us or not, depending on what we
did.
I remind myself and you that in the
life of every person, man or woman opens
a window when they have the opportunity to
make a difference.
Once the window shuts, our life is over,
even if we remain alive, because to live
is not merely to draw breath.
Our window is open now.
What we choose to do will be our
legacy.
Choose wisely, because we will be judged by
our choice, by history, and on the Day
of Judgment when we stand before Allah.
The best guidance is the life of Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, in which you can clearly
see the sense of destiny that he lived
with.
He took decisions that colored centuries and never
allowed exigencies to force him to take short
-term or short-sighted decisions.
He never sacrificed the principle for immediate gain
at the cost of long-term results.
For example, he did not accept the conversion
of the people of Taif when they put
the condition that they would pray but not
pay Zakat.
He ruled that the one who separates Salah
from Zakat is not Muslim.
This ruling guided Abu Bakr as-Siddiq r
.a years later when he faced the crisis
after Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam passed away and
he was the Khalifa, Khalifatul Rasulillah.
When Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam came to Medina,
there were three things he did first.
He started construction of his Masjid.
He formed the Ummah of Faith, the Ummah
Muslimah, and he formalized the covenant which laid
down the rules of interaction between the different
groups who lived in Yathrib.
Each of these was a generational project.
The Masjid was not simply a place to
pray but was the epicenter of the community,
a place where everything was a collective need
and it was addressed.
Starting with Salah, which is the most important
of all needs, our connection with Allah.
But all collective matters were addressed in the
Masjid.
Al-Masjid al-Nabawi al-Sharif was the
place for Salah.
It was the office of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
It was the court of law.
It was the madrasa, the communication center, the
command center in times of war, even on
occasion a temporary prison.
It was the nerve center of the community.
If anyone wanted to know what was happening
in Medina and with the Muslims, they would
know if they came to the Masjid.
The Masjid was alive, open, populated, buzzing with
activity all day long.
The Masjid was the place where the Ummah
collected as one Ummah and you could feel
the brotherhood of faith.
Today we build Masjids and give them sectarian
names.
The second
thing
that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam did was to
form the Muslim Ummah, the Ummah Muslimah, the
brotherhood of faith of Muslims where he paired
one Muhajir with one Ansari, creating bonds that
transcended all traditional boundaries of tribe and color
and race and family and ethnicity and social
status.
For example, he paired Salman al-Farsi who
was a Persian slave with Abu Darda al
-Ansari, one of the chieftains of the Khazraj.
And he paired Bilal bin Rabah, who was
also a freed slave, Abyssinian slave, with Amr
Waiha al-Khatami and others.
I want us to focus and look at
the situation as it was in Medina at
this time and see what Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam was focused on.
Medina was a habitation around an oasis where
people of different tribes and ethnicities and religions
lived in their enclaves and forts.
They had been hostile to one another for
decades and had lost almost all their leadership.
They were mainly farmers who grew dates and
grapes and had a thriving winemaking industry.
They also did some trade but were not
a major trade center like Mecca.
When they decided to invite Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, they became the focus of enmity for
the Quraysh and instigated new tensions within their
own people, which gave rise for the first
time to a group which we know as
the Munafiqeen, the hypocrites.
I'm giving you this quick thumbnail sketch so
that we can appreciate Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's
ability to focus on his global vision even
when there were many things locally clamoring for
his immediate attention.
And the way he did that, he took
care of the immediate issues also.
There are three reasons that enabled him, Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam, to do that.
One, recognizing the window of opportunity.
He realized his position in time and space,
which seems to be going way over our
heads.
Identifying himself as an owner, he said, this
is my business, I have to do it,
not somebody else.
And therefore, seeing that as a responsibility, as
his responsibility to do something to change things.
And the third one was remaining focused on
long-term results of his actions in the
context of his role and responsibility, in his
case, as the messenger of Allah.
Learning from this, there are five things that
we must do today.
Number one, bury our differences, no matter what
they are.
And focus on common goals and challenges.
For this, we must leave what belongs to
Allah to Allah.
What is that?
The faith between the person and Allah.
That is between the person and Allah.
You are not appointed a guardian over that
faith to say, this is Kafir, this is
Muslim, this is Shia, this is Sunni, he
will go to Jahannam, I will go to
Jannah.
Not your job.
Jannah does not belong to you, Jahannam does
not belong to you.
It's not your job to send anyone here
or there.
Leave what is Allah, what belongs to Allah,
leave it to him.
And collaborate with others to solve common problems.
The problem belongs to all of us.
Drug addiction belongs to all of you.
Children going all over the place in schools
and so on belongs to all of you.
Yes or no?
And you are not going to solve that
unless you come together.
This is the first and most critical lesson
of the Seerah.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned this.
And he mentioned this twice in the Quran.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, And in
another place, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
Focus on our Rab.
Focus on the ta'aluk with our Rab.
Second one, we must stop complaining about circumstances
and situations and this happened and that happened
and start asking, therefore, what can I do
about that?
It starts with thinking.
So ask, do we have a think tank?
How many think tanks do Muslims have?
Do American Muslims have?
Are there think tanks even in our four
-letter organizations that we belong to?
I gave you statistics in my khutbah a
couple of weeks ago about the think tanks
and the title of the khutbah is Chains
in the Mind.
What happened?
Anything?
Do we understand strategic thinking?
I hear this term bandied about like you're
talking about, you know, cabbages.
Do we even know how to evaluate knowledge
and scholarship?
Strategic thinking is based on a background in
history, the discipline of structured strategic thought, scenario
generation and planning, emotional discipline, the power of
concentration.
Success comes to those who have the ability
to concentrate on one thing over long periods
of time.
As I told you, you don't like it,
talk to Allah.
Success does not come to people with 30
-second attention spans.
People with 30-second attention spans, if they
are mammals, they are called monkeys.
If they are fish, they are called goldfish.
Find me a goldfish, we change the world.
We have to work together and create a
collective strategy.
Number three, become visible and influential through service
and communication.
And the two-letter word for that, phrase
for that is get involved.
Volunteer in schools and local government projects.
Raise money and donate to schools and town
development projects.
Then get elected to school boards and task
forces.
Contribute to common social welfare projects to provide
food, shelter, medical aid, education, fostering children and
emergency services.
Ask how many foster care organizations are there
in this community.
Ask how many organizations are here who take
care of refugees coming from different countries.
Ask what is the religion of the refugees
who are coming here.
Ask who those refugee care organizations belong to.
You know the answers to all of this,
right?
Then ask why.
We complain, Muslim children, Muslim orphans are being
sent off to foster parents who are not
Muslim.
You know why?
The $64,000 answer is because you don't
stand up and say, I want this child,
I will take care of it.
You want to be in denial, be in
denial.
You don't like me for that, go ahead,
don't like me.
That's why in Urdu there is a Mahabharata,
they say the reason why the rooster is
slaughtered and cooked is because he makes up
people.
So we need to fund, I'm not talking
about $10, please.
You have to write the letter one, the
number one and then keep adding zeros until
it makes a difference.
We have to endow chairs in universities to
support research areas that will benefit the neglected
and oppressed in society.
Guess who that is?
Create a fund to support students, researchers, researchers
specifically in political science, in law, in journalism
and media.
Focus on those who are already there.
It doesn't have to be your children, but
it has to be your money because nobody
else will do it.
And because frankly, if you don't like me,
don't like me, but you have no influence
over your children.
If you could make your son or daughter
go into journalism and political science, I said,
cheers, all power to you.
You know you can't do that.
So fund somebody who is in there already
because you need that.
We need people with specific knowledge, enthusiasm and
good nature and stuff is not a substitute
for competence.
Learning does not come by osmosis through the
air.
You have to slog, you have to work
very hard for it.
You can't say I have a short attention
span.
Go ahead, join the club of sheep.
They're necessary.
But if you want to lead, if you
want to solve the problems of your community
and the world and have generations take your
name in Dua with love and respect, you
have to work for it.
As I told you, I don't make the
laws.
Allah made the laws.
Number four, when representing our case, speak in
terms of justice and human rights and economy,
not Islam and Muslims.
Think about how to benefit all of society.
I'm saying don't think it, don't speak in
terms of Islam and Muslims for a very
simple reason, nobody cares.
Nobody gives a hoot.
Speak in terms of how whatever is happening
affects them.
And the two good reasons to benefit all
of society, because when the tide rises, all
boats rise.
Number one reason.
Number two reason, you cannot make your boat
rise without making the tide to rise.
When you are a miniscule minority, the only
way you will benefit is when the majority
sees a benefit for itself in benefiting you.
It's not about being selfless, it is pure
self-interest.
And number five, the last, be prepared for
the long term.
Be prepared for the long term, which means
that a lot of you, Hamdulillah, today this
masjid is full of a lot of youngsters.
So it doesn't apply to you.
But people of my generation, you're not going
to see the results of this.
But if you want a big, beautiful building
to stand and imagine all of us are
rocks, we are all granite or we are
all marble.
And every one of us says, I want
to be part of this project.
I want to be part of this building.
But I must be on the facing, on
the cladding, which the world sees.
Believe me, that building will never stand.
Because you need blocks of granite to say,
I am ready to go into the foundation,
to be buried and never to be seen.
Known only to the builder.
In this case, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Until there are blocks which are ready to
go into the foundation, never to be seen,
the building will never stand.
And if you think I'm exaggerating, ask yourself
where, what happened?
What did the sahabah, I mentioned this with
all the names in a previous khutbah, what
did the sahabah who died before Fatha Makkah?
They did not see the victory of Islam.
Not one of them.
But they did not stop working.
And the result is Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala in the Quran differentiated and said, those
who came to Islam after Fatha Makkah are
not like the ones who came to Islam
before Fatha Makkah.
Allah honored them.
That is where we are standing today.
We are standing today with a task which
is more difficult than the task of Rasulullah
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
You know why?
Because he was the Rasul, he had direct
access to Allah.
Neither I nor you are the Rasuls of
Allah.
We do not have direct access to Allah.
Number one.
Number two, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam worked
with ready-made experts.
He did not teach Khalid bin Walid how
to hold a sword.
He did not need to.
He did not teach Khalid bin Walid battle
strategy.
He did not need to.
He did not teach our Abu Bakr radiyallahu
anhuma how to make administrative and political decisions.
He did not need to.
He did not teach Uthman ibn Affan radiyallahu
anhu and Abdul Rahman ibn Auf radiyallahu anhu
and al-Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib radiyallahu anhu
how to take financial decisions.
They were experts.
All that he needed to do was change
their focus and he had a whole group
of experts at his call.
Today we have to first wake the people
up.
We are talking to people who don't know
the heads of their tails.
We have people if you talk to them
they don't like you talking to them.
But that's your task.
Don't complain.
That is your task.
If you don't like the task, go home.
That is a task.
It's a more difficult task than the task
the Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had.
So cry before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Make tahajjud.
Farad on yourself.
Fall in sujood and cry before Allah.
And say, Ya Rabb, you used to stand
here and ask you, and today it is
me.
Here I have mercy on me because nobody
else will.
Nobody else will have mercy on me, not
even my brothers.
So you have mercy on me.
Allahumma shatir shamalahum wa dammir diyarahum wa mazzir
jama'ahum.
Ya hayyu ya khayyum bi rahmatika nastawis.
Aslih lana ashanana kulla la ilaha illa ant.
Ameen, Ya Rabb al-alameen.
Ya Ibad Allah.
Rahimakum Allah.
Inna allaha ya'mur bil-adli wal-ihsan wa
itaizi al-qurba wa yanhani al-fahshi wal
-munkari wal-baqi ya'izukum la'allakum tazakkarun.
Udhkuru Allahi yadhkurkum.
Udhu yastajib lakum.
Waladh zikuru Allahi akbar.
Wallahu ya'alamu ma yatasna'un.
Aqibu salat.