Mirza Yawar Baig – Akhlaaq of the Ummati #47
AI: Summary ©
The first speaker, Jesus, is the first person to stand out in Jannah's language and is recognized for his clear appearance and faith in oneself. He emphasizes the importance of having faith in oneself and one's vision and strategy, as it is crucial for success in Islam. The speaker also discusses the challenges of leadership, including personal credibility, struggles with leaders in their job, and the importance of avoiding false assumptions and not going to a place without a history of issues. The segment also touches on hedges and forgiveness.
AI: Summary ©
smilla Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salatu salam ala shadowfell Amoeba mousseline Muhammad Rasul, Allah is Allah Almighty He when he was Silla doesn't even consider and kathira mavado, my brothers and sisters, in our session on UCLA from the Amati of rasa salam, we are looking at the qualities of people of Jannah. And in that context, the qualities of the first of them, which is Rasul Allah is Allah, Allah Himself, to see what were the things that distinguished him
and set him apart as an example, for all of humankind until the end of time.
We're looking at this quality of complete certainty in his message.
As I mentioned in the last class, what stands out though, the first thing that stands out about the Messenger of Allah sallallahu Sallam is the total certainty that he had in the truth of his message, and that he was the Messenger of Allah subhanaw taala.
And therefore, the first lesson that we will learn from this is the importance of having complete and total faith in yourself before we can or the leader can have, or claim to have faith in anyone or anything else.
It goes without saying that if you do not even have faith in yourself, then how can you possibly have faith? How can anyone else have faith in you?
It is the
complete faith that a leader has in his own vision, his own strategy, his method, and in the belief that anyone following him would certainly benefit from doing so this is what actually sells.
Now.
And it doesn't matter what that message is, even leaders who are highly successful, and then later on,
history showed that they were wrong. They were actually their faith was baseless. their confidence was, and people who followed them did not benefit. I'm talking about even negative. But you might say that, despite the fact that they were negative. How were they so successful? And that the so called?
The answer to that is that they were successful because of the confidence they had, in their own belief that they were right. Or it so happened that they were not right. And this is this true for all human beings, that they can make mistakes.
Illa also relies a lot except the Prophet of Allah sallallahu sallam, because in his case, his decisions, his positions, his stances, were guided by a loss of data. He's not
he's not
you know, he was on his own that he was that he said anything. A lot of our dealer bore bore witness to this on my end as well. My young Diego anila Hava in Hua Illa.
Allah said that we he does not speak of his own volition, he does not say whatever he likes to say, he says, what he has been ordained and he has been guided. So whatever he says, Is ye from Allah subhanaw taala.
I remember in the,
in the late 90s, when I was living here in the United States,
I remember meeting some VCs, some venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. And I asked them, I said, What is your what do you look for when you are assessing the pitch of a entrepreneur who comes to you to ask you for to invest in his project?
What do you look for? And
to my surprise,
without an exception, they said that we do not look at the financials of the project or the projected the projected return on investment and all of that. They said, We look at the individual, we look at the person
and if it if the person strikes us as somebody who's totally and completely committed to his or her project, and completely confident of success, then we move from there and we look at what is the project, what is the strategy and so on.
But the first thing which has to impress us before, we are even willing to turn the page, to look at anything to do with a project is who is the person in charge of this project.
And this is true of venture capitals, and capitalists anywhere, people who are putting their money into projects,
they said that we are the best guarantee for our investment is the individual to whom we are giving that money. It's not the, it's not the project itself, and so on. So what the best guarantee is the individual
if the individual is somebody who's, who seems doubtful, and who is wishy washy, and who's, you know, not confident about themselves and about their success, then he said, it doesn't matter what the project looks like, because the reality is that a lot of the financial data, a lot of the big chunk of the project report is really prepared by by some professional or the other, who this person would have hired for, or they're doing it for the love of the guy or whatever. But the point is that it's not, it's not the individual who is who is reflected in that. But when he is presenting it, then they said, we look at the individual, and this is true for anything. And it's even more true
for Tao. That when we speak about Islam, then we need to be able to speak about Islam with confidence, not with
not without not being wishy washy about it. We need to speak with confidence we need to speak
the need to speak the speech of,
of somebody who himself herself believes in it and lives by this is what sells This is what is most impressive.
If the leader demonstrates the slightest doubt,
in his or her message, the power of their leadership is lost. And it says he gets CSD compromised
and, and people don't believe them. Now, people follow leaders for many reasons, some because they believe in the message others because the leader is powerful. Still others because of various affiliations with the leader. If the leader remains firm on his path, then gradually the followership increases, and the trickle becomes a flood. Remaining firm and unwavering is the single most important condition for this to happen.
The importance of certainty, in your message is true for all leaders, because small,
no matter what their message, you can see this even in the lives of highly successful leaders, whose messages were really very negative, and even positively harmful, as I mentioned earlier, but because they were totally certain that they were on the right thing, and the right path, and they communicated that with complete confidence they carried the day, even if to the detriment of themselves and their followers, and in many cases to the detriment of innocent bystanders. Complete certainty is the only thing that can give you complete confidence. You can't obviously be confident about things that you're not certain about.
Any internal doubt shakes and even destroys confidence. This is true even more about selling any product or service.
And it is equally true about selling an idea maybe even more true about selling an idea, because the product or service can be seen and tested and sampled. But the idea cannot be seen and tested in sample
is the confidence of confidence of the seller, which sells not the product or service, which is for the most part and try even more so again about an idea which can't be sampled or tested and has to be taken on faith. Imagine the confidence of Russell as a seller, that he will not only sell that idea of Lyda Hill Allahu wa hamedan Allah.
But he did it so well that it stands to this day.
And there are close to 1.6 billion people worldwide. Not one of them ever saw him or heard him because he died 1400 years ago, yet these 1.6 billion following.
It's very important therefore for the leader to ensure that he or she is sure of this message so that they can communicate it confidently. In one of the things I teach is public speaking, and I say to people never pitch somebody else's pitch.
Even if you have to do it. You
If you have to make a presentation or business presentation, which was prepared by somebody else, maybe you know how professional your ad agency or whoever, even if you need to do that, make sure that you sit with them. And you become completely confident in what you're going to say, before you go out there and you say, because if you are not confident about that, if you sound doubtful if you
if you seem to be on shaky ground, then believe me that will completely undercut anything that you have to say and will discount all your words and you will, we will not be able to convince anybody because you yourself are not convinced.
Today, more damage is done to the image of Islam by apologetic Muslims who are shaky internally about their faith
than is done by open enemies of Islam. People see apologetic Muslims is one of them, but
by their speech and actions, they apologize for Islamic values and indeed for even being Muslim. Naturally, the message that is received by others is that this person who claims to be Muslim, his himself was so shaky about their faith, then why should I even bother
about it myself? Why should I try to learn the cure for being apologetic?
Is to seek knowledge is to ask questions, and clarify doubts and once again once and for all decide who you are,
in his entire life of profit or 23 years, there is not a single instance, even in the worst of hardship, that it could be said that the faith and certainty of Bahamas Allah solemn in his message, and his responsibility wherever in the slightest, this itself is a is a miracle, and a proof of the divine mission that he had been entrusted with.
This faith combined with the fact that Mohammed Salah Salem was a man with noble qualities, widely known to be completely truthful and trustworthy, having beautiful manners of flawless character, great wisdom, excellent judgment, and great kindness made him highly, highly credible. Many believe to begin with, because the belief mamasan seldom and believed that he had said it, then it must be the truth.
He was known as a surgical amin The interesting thing about this is that
even his worst enemies, people like a * lab
accused him of many things. They called him a magician. They called him a soothsayer. You know, they said he is they call him mage, no, they said he is mentally affected his, you know, his gone mad and so on. But nobody said is a liar. Nobody said he's lying because
they are assumed they knew they knew him, as well as the new themselves. He was he was from them. He was born in their in their tribe, people like I will I have uses his own nephew. And I will I wonder when Ravi Mendoza salam, and Muhammad wa sallam was born and I was so happy that his brother had a son, that he really he manumitted and freed the slaves who brought him that message. And he gave two gold bangles to
this was a female slave slave girl who brought a message he benefited freed her and he gave her two gold bangles because he was so happy. Later on he became when this was
presented Islam I will have became his worst enemy. And
he would go around telling people not to listen to him not listen masala and he brought it and plan to try to kill him and so on. But despite all of that, he never once said that Mohammed Salah Salaam is a liar. Right? This shows the enormous credibility of the messenger. The importance of the personal character of the messenger is clear from this and cannot be Oh cannot be overemphasized and can seriously support or compromise the message of the messenger. There is no such thing as a credible message from a discredited messenger. If the messenger is discredited, the message automatically gets discredited. There's no such thing as a real leader who is not respected.
They go hand in hand it's come to the territory. If you are a leader then you must be able to command respect. If you cannot command respect you cannot be a leader. Even if you are designated as such in our corporate organizations word will see this all the time. All the time. People are
appointed as as as leaders as managers, and they fail miserably, they are unable to inspire anybody. People will not obey them people will not listen to them, they are not able to achieve the results because they are unable to
reach the hearts of people and evil are no respect for them. And their credibility is shot through Allah.
himself said about the character also Salaam or inner gala Allah Hello clay Nazim And verily you are Muhammad wa sallam, on an exalted standard of character. Personal credibility is the foundation of leadership. People don't care what you say until they see what you do, you are your message, you are what people see first, then and only then
do they even
listen to what you what you have to say, or you will listen to this or he will listen to your message. We as Muslims, therefore must put our house in order. We must clean up our act. I can't possibly overemphasize this a great nation is never defeated from the outside as they say, it is defeated when it destroys itself internally, like a huge wooden structure.
The great fortress, made of wood, for example, if it is infested with termites, it looks perfectly sound outwardly. While it's being eaten up internally, until one day it collapses in a gust of wind because only the shell remain and the shell couldn't stand anymore. People look to see what they received from the leader prior to listening
to his message to to judge whether the message should be believed or not.
Leadership cannot be faked. Neither is it based on what you do in a particular situation or place. It is the effect of your whole life and all that you say and do and all that you stand for. Rasul Allah says Allah, as I mentioned, had been given the title or surgical amin, the truthful and the trustworthy by the people of Makkah long before he declared Prophethood.
That was based on his everyday behavior and dealings and didn't come from a theological base. As soon as I saw him said, Can I believe he was asked?
Can I believe will be a coward? He said, Yes, he can be account. Then it was asked if a believer can be advisor and he said yes, a believer can be a miser. And then it was asked whether a believer can be a liar. And he replied, No believer cannot be a liar.
And this is in,
in Muslim by Muhammad, as well as in Michigan wasabi.
Sisters.
When I first read this or this, I wondered why as soon as SLM gave so much importance to being truthful, even over other, more serious faults in character, until I remembered two things. Number one, that lying is the root of all evil, take any evil action, and it is a result of lying to oneself and lying in the in the sight of Allah subhanaw taala. The second was that when does Allah says Allah said a Muslim cannot lie. He was saying in effect, that every Muslim is Assad equal. I mean, every Muslim is or should be Assad, the color mean, the most truthful and the most trustworthy. So also As salam was in effect, giving his own blessed and honored title to those in
his oma, who try to live by his standard, what can be a bigger honor than this, which comes with the honor of being called aside of what I mean by the Malaga the importance of character
cannot be overemphasized.
On neither can its impact.
Listen to this story, from the Syrah Al Hussein bin Salam. He was a Jewish rabbi in yathrib. In
now
in Medina, and we know the story, he was given the name of Abdullah bin Salah,
and he was one of the
one of the great scholars of the Jews, and he became Muslim and hamdulillah.
And he was they asked him why, how did you know that masala Sallam was was truthful. And he said, he said a wonderful thing. And he said that when I saw him, I knew that this is not the face of a liar.
This
This
art or science, if you want to call it that Allah Allah, of judging the character of a person by looking at his face seems to be lost to us.
But people like said an hour.
And now Shabbat Antonelli. They were trained in this and they knew this. And so was Abdullah bin salam, or
whatever the landowner, it's beautiful are these from Moses salam, where he said the signs of a hypocrite are three. Whenever he speaks, he tells a lie. Whenever he promised, he promises, he breaks his promise. If you have to trust him, he proves to be dishonest. So three things is not a solid is not a lie. I mean, and he's a breaker of promises, which is a combination of both of these things. So who is someone who is a hypocrite is somebody who
when he speaks he lies. When he promises he breaks his promise. And if you trust in him, he proves to be dishonest.
In another is that narrated by
Russell as SLM said, Whoever does not give up telling lies and evil deeds and cursing.
Allah is not in need of is fasting.
We are on the threshold of Ramadan.
And it's a good thing to remind ourselves of the importance of good character. Ramadan, and fasting is not just about remaining hungry or thirsty. So
whoever does not give up telling lies our reported for gnosis Allah, Who said that whoever does not give up telling lies, and doesn't give up evil deeds, and doesn't give up cursing, Allah is not in need, a lot of our data is not in need of his fasting of his leaving his food and drink.
Today, our biggest problem is our character generally speaking, it's not to say that there are no good Muslims, of course, there are plenty. But the decisions of Allah Spano, tala, come down on the basis of the behavior of the majority, the reputation that we seem to have acquired for ourselves in the world is, is that of being unreliable of people who cannot be trusted. And that is a very, very bad rap to have, especially in our dealings, we've come to be associated with every kind of low quality work, be it coming late or short delivery or deception or shoddy work, you want to see something ruin give it to a Muslim, this is the general principle that we seem to project for
ourselves. Every Muslim function, for example, begins late. We like we laugh about this, and we call it Arab time, or Muslim time or whatever. But it stinks. That is not okay. System don't work, even if there are any systems to begin with. And the only thing you get is excuses. They must have tried it, for example, stinkiest in the world, take our mothers, we say Oh, it's because of lack of money. But that's not true. That is not to go to other institutions of other religious institutions. Go to part shala, for example, and you will find the place is very clean.
It has been drugged, clean, and so on and so forth. Cleanliness has nothing to do with money. It's a matter of, of you know, I remember once I was invited to see the computer lab in a very, very big mother's in India, I won't name the mothers, but very big one, one of the one of the top mothers of India, may they had somebody donate money to them. So there was this computer lab. So they took me to this room, which was locked, and they open the door and there was this line of computers
on tables. So the moderator the the person who took me there, he said to me
is a guess just is a router. But I guess my guess is what is necessary. What What more is needed here, though, Monica gazzard. His main job is to actually this place needs a broom. It's it's got he's got it all the computers and everything else was you know, they had a eight inch thick layer of dust. It was so dirty, the whole place was so filthy. So my point i'm saying is that, that does take money that takes effort that takes conscious
To keep it clean but we don't seem to we don't seem to get the
get the idea about that
all Muslim writing is characterized by bad grammar or spelling mistakes, not because the authors don't know the language but because it's just too lazy to check almost by definition, right they you read books, you see translations of books, especially in English, the absolutely horrible
You see, including posters and so on. So, if it is done if it for a Muslim program was done by a Muslim it will have mistakes and completely an
unnecessary mistakes. All that is needed to run a spell check is to is to read a grammar, grammar check. Read it a second time, just don't do that.
The word of a Muslim today is not what the hot air and represents. Take any area of expertise whether it's science or technology, literature, art, statesmanship, engineering, adventure, law, architecture, trade business, you will be hard put to find a Muslim name among those whose contribution stands up.
Right. So how can you expect people to look up to such people or to follow them?
Ask how many universe Muslim universities are publishing
books and papers? Most new universities from Muslim countries ask how many are doing that?
I was reading some statistics. Spain alone and Spain is not some great central intellectual, intellectual endeavor. But Spain alone translates more books
in one year,
than the entire Arab world has done in the last one century.
In the last 100 years, every other Spain does that much of translation, just question of translate. I'm not talking about any original contribution. I'm talking about translation, even that is not happening.
It also doesn't live in Makkah, with a series of increasing difficulties, and escalating opposition. But resistance builds strength as long as you don't succumb to it. The greater the resistance, the more it will build your strength as long as you stand firm against it. As in bodybuilding, it's the lifting of weights that builds strength in your muscles. So also in our calling people to the truth and being firm and patient against opposition builds EMA. This was a practice that the Muslims were getting in Makkah. There are many stories of all kinds of persecution, that Mohammed Salah was a victim of those who dare to follow Him, were also subjected to cruel persecution, even torture, and
some of them were murdered. All of this was done with complete impurity by the rich and powerful chiefs of koresh. However, all that this serves to do was to make the survivors even more firm in their belief in Allah subhanho wa
Taala. Now they land on aerated, they had the courage complaint to Abu Talib, that our sorceress alum was disrupting their meetings, I will tell him gently requested, as soon as I sell them to stop making that as soon as and as an observed, my uncle do see the sun, I am no more capable of stopping the sun.
And you are no more capable of getting a flame from the sun than I am of stopping this message out. I said, Go ahead. I believe you can do what you must do this,
this level of certainty. He said you want me to stop preaching my message. He said I I am not capable of that.
I am not not it's not a matter of saying I will not do it is I will not do it. But it's something that I cannot do. It's something that's beyond my capacity. I can't I'm not capable of stopping this message. And to give you an illustration, he said, I'm as capable of that as I am of stopping the sun which means that I'm not giving away. Now this was a
this is a seal that demonstrate Best's his complete certainty.
In his belief in the message that he had been charged with and his commitment to his responsibility. Nothing could deter him or slow him down or persuade him to dilute his message. Nothing could make him be politically correct. Or to frighten him or force him to give up preaching or compromise the message in any way to please anyone. He was only concerned with the public
of his creator jello, jello, and he worked only to achieve that, whatever be the cost that he had to pay. So, the lesson now is for any leader
to be successful, that complete certainty is the single most critical requirement on which hinges is very credibility as a leader, one can only give what one has. So if the leader wishes to transfer his own passion into the hearts of his followers, his own belief cannot be shaky, you can only transfer what you have. If you have no passion, you cannot transfer it. The leader will be tested in his face, and must stand firm and demonstrate his total commitment until it becomes clear to all concerned then he will see the tide turn and people will be won over to his side. As it happened. In the case of Muhammad, Salah people listen with their eyes, they don't care what you say, until they
see what you do. When they see the leader or leader walking his own talk, then they realize that he means business and will start to consider his message seriously. Then as they see the benefits that accrue more and more start to follow him. My brothers just
I remind myself I knew that just to see this in the life or seldom. Take for example, if you say
here was the prophets of Salaam,
he, for example, first thing he
his message consists of the first of those things is the importance of toffee, the importance of not joining partners with Allah subhanho wa Taala
so I'm saying here, here is the messenger sallallahu Sallam preaching Davi ask yourself I know I know it's a oxymoron. It's a dumb question to ask, but ask yourself
Did he ever bow to anyone other than Allah?
Did he ever worship a grave or a mountain or a river? Or did he ever worship an idol now the villa.
So the man who was preaching though he is on the
receiving end of the next one is Salah,
the manifestation of Laila Haile Allah Muhammad Rasul Allah in action is Salah.
Five times Allah has been prescribed on the Muslims
and also receive a solemn, preached this message. Now ask yourself, how many times a day data sources and pray did he pray five times four times three times two twice once?
Did he ever leave a Salah?
What is the answer? We all know the answer's no. So I'm prayed five times a day and he never left his Salah until his last moment, even where he was so weak, and he could not get up in his last two or three days of his life. When he could not get up from bed he would make although and then he would get two people to carry him into the masjid. And they said that his feet would be dragging on the ground while he was being taken to the masjid because he couldn't stand.
That was his commitment to Salah.
Who's going one of the messengers also himself, he would he had a number of issues, including legitimate excuses. Because illness is a legitimate excuse. You don't have to go to the budget to pray. You're not ill, if you are ill. And if you cannot even stand you are permitted to pray, sitting or lying down. But he chose to be taken to the masjid. And in the marches, of course, you have to sit and pray because he just couldn't stand but I'm saying that that was his choice very, very made this choice for himself.
Fasting
in Nevada, did he ever leave that mean not only did he never leave it, but of course, you know, was much more throughout the year.
But in Nevada, I'm talking about the Pillars of Islam. I'm talking about what's fun.
Right? What about Zakat?
hedges first, once, of course,
did anything any aspect of Islam that he preached and look for it in his own life, and you will find that prominently displayed in his actions.
He didn't just talk for the sake of talking.
He believed in what he was what
He said, and he practiced that belief, to the best of his ability.
And that is the reason why he was so tremendously successful.
People who believed him, they believed in him.
And they followed him to the ends of the world.
As soon as I saw him said,
be kind and good to your wives,
I am the best to my wives,
and his wives, and all those who knew them and knew him. They are witness for this.
He was guiding he preached kindness to people who, who are less fortunate.
kindness to the youth, to the shift to children, and he was the kindest of all of them to these people.
He preached courage.
And there's not a single battle, which he fought, where he was not right in the front.
He led from the front
is an interesting thing to remember that even though he led every single battle that he was participated in, he led from the front. He never turned and ran from from battle, but he also never killed anybody, even in battle. There's not a single person who died at the hands of mamas Rosella, even in battle.
They interesting, you know, on a side note that I mentioned this to you, I think about that.
And they asked him, somebody asked him, Why didn't do it, there was a particular incident in Ohio.
And he still did not kill the person. So they asked him as a gorilla, why didn't you not kill
that enemy who was attacking you? He said, because somebody who dies at the hands of an AVI, Allah subhanaw, taala gives them extreme, extremely severe punishment. And he said, I did not even want my enemy to have that.
I did not even want my enemy to be especially severely punished.
Because he got killed
by my head.
As soon as I was
preached generosity,
and they used to say about him that he was generous, like the rain bearing wind.
You know, when rain falls and falls and everything.
When the wind comes, it affects everything.
The cool breeze is present for everyone.
So his generosity, they said he was like, is like the breeze, like the wind is like the, like the rain.
He was generous to the point where he would borrow money in order to give it to charity.
When he had not none of his own, he will borrow money to give to help somebody.
This is where the credibility of the message comes from, from practicing it, not from talking about it.
That's the that's the point I want to to speak and make for you.
Today, for example, we say Islam promotes scientific knowledge and education and so on. So what
are we ourselves? We don't do that. We say Islam stand for justice.
The fundamental message of Islam is a message of justice. But are we just in our to our own dealings?
How many times have you heard this complaint that Muslims do not give inheritance to their own sisters?
Muslims? Again, there are exceptions. I'm saying by and large, Muslims treatment of women
is so poor, so bad that Islam gets the rap for it. Although it's nothing to Islam.
Out of those sisters, I don't want to make a long list of our our problems. But I request you and I remind myself when you that
let us look at our own lives and see asked this question and say what in my life needs to be changed, and then go and change it.
But we do not want to be in a position of Allah subhanaw taala says
we want to be in a position where hamdulillah what needs to change, I changed.
And we ask Allah to accept that and we ask Allah to forgive us to cover our faults and to
never
Not be displeased with us. Was Elena victory while it was me Dan Brown