Mirza Yawar Baig – Chains In The Mind
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AI: Transcript ©
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem, alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, wa salatu
wa salamu ala ashraf al anbiya wal mursaleen,
Muhammadur Rasulullahi sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa
sahbihi wa sallam, tasliman kathiran kathiran.
Homma ba'aduk.
My brothers and sisters, the topic of my
khutbah this week is the chains in the
mind, the chains in the mind.
These are the chains which are the essential
chains of slavery, it's not the shackles on
the wrists or the ankles, it's not the
chain around the neck, it is the chains
in the mind that truly enslave people.
Living is about making choices, the choice to
be a victim of circumstances or to do
something about circumstances and be their master.
We are free to choose to be victims
or masters, but the choices have different payoffs.
Both stances, victim and masters, are subject to
the same givens of society, environment, organization and
so on, but have very different implications in
terms of our own development and happiness.
Victims complain about adversity, they think of excuses,
blame others, lose hope and perish.
This is a checklist, how to decide whether
you are a victim or a master.
Victims complain about adversity and difficulties and trials
and tribulations, they think of excuses, they blame
others and they lose hope and perish.
Victims can be individuals or groups or communities
or societies or nations.
The victim's stance is the same, complain and
blame others.
Victims search for scapegoats, for someone to blame,
they invent conspiracy theories, they have a siege
mentality, complaining that the only reason they are
in a mess is because everyone in the
world is out to get them.
They don't stop to think that no matter
who they blame, their problems still exist and
that it is they and not whoever they
blame that is suffering.
Problems need solutions, not scapegoats.
These are the chains in the mind which
must be broken if we want to progress.
Masters on the other hand are people who
when faced with difficulty and adversity, first look
at themselves to see how and why they
came to be in that situation, their own
responsibility and then look for solutions to resolve
that situation.
They have the courage to try new ways
and so they win even if they fail.
Masters recognize that whatever happens to them is
at least, in part if not wholly, a
result of the choices that they made, consciously
or unconsciously, the result of what they chose
to do or chose not to do.
Consequently, if we recognize that we created the
problem, then it follows logically that we can
also create its solution.
A master never says, I can't.
He or she says, I haven't found a
solution yet.
And in that is a world of difference.
The key question to ask therefore is, what
do I need to do to become a
master?
What is the investment that I need to
succeed?
Free fall and flight feel the same in
the beginning, but it is the end which
spells the difference between life and death.
One lands safely, the other one crashes and
burns.
Ignoring the laws of gravity and aerodynamics does
not change the law or its result.
Now take that story of Yusuf A.S.
for example, which has a political angle to
it, which is almost never mentioned.
Let me delve into that for a bit.
His story is about how to live in
a society with norms and values totally foreign
and even antagonistic to our own, but to
become hugely influential without changing your own ethics
and values in any way.
Yusuf A.S. went from being a slave
and a prisoner to becoming the Prime Minister,
the Wazir, in the government of the Pharaoh
Sesostris I of Egypt.
Sesostris I was the ruler of Egypt when
Yusuf A.S. was sold as a slave
in about 1681 B.C. That's about 15
centuries before Julius Caesar came to power.
Just to give you a perspective of time.
The Pharaoh decided to appoint Yusuf A.S.
as the Wazir to superintend the gathering of
the grain during the seven years of plenty
and gave him extraordinary powers to do it.
In the Bible, the statement is recorded of
his Ferman.
He said you shall be over my house
and all people shall be ruled according to
your word.
Only in regard to the throne will I
be greater than you.
The point that I want to make is
that when Yusuf A.S. gained his freedom
and his name was cleared of the slander
that had been made against him, he didn't
leave Egypt and return to Sham where he
had come from.
But instead he offered his services to the
King of Egypt, despite the differences in their
beliefs.
As a result, he was able to change
the lives of his family and his people
who came to live in Egypt once he
was in power.
Now he could do that for one reason
alone, contribution.
He showed the Pharaoh how he could be
critically useful to Egypt.
The result was massive power.
Power comes with territory, contribution defines territory.
You want power?
Contribute.
As much as you contribute, will you become
powerful?
As of the last data available, Muslim representation
in the United States is less than 2%.
This small percentage means that currently and in
the foreseeable future, the Muslim voting bloc is
likely to have minimal influence on policy matters.
Despite this, the fairness of the system ensures
that Muslims, like any other community, can become
part of the governing structure, from schools and
towns to state and federal levels.
The most effective way to amplify the Muslim
voice and opinion and viewpoint in the broader
public space is to serve in public offices.
If the goal of the Muslim community is
to make its perspective heard, then the primary
aim should be to elect more Muslims at
all levels of governance.
Given that it's not common for us to
take this route, and it must become common,
that's the first thing to do.
But the second thing to do is that
we must therefore encourage those who do and
go out of our way to support them
both morally and more importantly materially.
In one word, participate.
Let me ask you a question.
Do you want to be winners or losers?
I mean, a dumb question, but you know.
Do you want to be winners or losers?
Now, winning and losing is about making choices.
All choices have consequences.
Not acting is also a choice and has
its own consequences.
It is not only about doing something, it's
about doing the right thing at the right
time.
For that, we need to anticipate and plan
and prepare and act.
We must deal with uncertainty and be prepared
for multiple likely scenarios.
We must not only know how to win,
but what to do after we win.
Our history, the history of the Muslims, is
littered with corpses of winners who didn't know
what to do on the morning after.
So, their gains went to those who had
a plan and simply came in and took
over the gains.
To illustrate, I was in Kruger Park in
South Africa once, where I saw a hyena
on an impala kill.
I told my friends in the land cruiser
we were travelling in to look for the
leopard.
Now, they didn't understand.
They said, leopard?
I mean, this is a hyena.
They looked at me puzzled.
I told them, the hyena can't catch an
impala, but a leopard can.
So, the hyena follows a hunting leopard and
then rushes in to take the kill once
the kill has been made.
Now, sure enough, we found a female leopard
on a nearby branch, hopefully learning one of
the most valuable lessons of life, what to
do with your wins.
You can't learn it after winning.
You must learn it before the challenge and
have a plan ready.
I love statistics.
Now, here are some statistics about think tanks
or global policy institutes as they are called.
I quote from the article which I have
referred to in the text of the khutba.
Every year, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania
conduct an extensive analysis of think tanks around
the world, publishing a report listing and ranking
nearly 6,500 of them.
On a country by country basis, the US
has by far the most with 1,872
think tanks, followed by 512 in China and
444 in the UK.
Other countries listed in the chart are India,
Germany, France, Argentina, Japan, Russia and Canada.
The research also ranked global think tanks by
influence.
In addition to having the most in any
country, the United States is also home to
some of the most influential think tanks.
Out of the top 10, 5 are in
the US.
First place goes to the Brookings Institute followed
by the French Institute of International Relations.
Now, ask how many think tanks or scenario
planning think tanks are in the Muslim world?
Ask how many are among American Muslims?
Ask if IKNA, ISNA, AMJA or any other
such organizations have think tanks?
And ask why not?
Remember, the one who gets the kill is
the one who plans, not the one who
took the risk and made the kill.
Without your own plan, you are working for
someone else, though you may not know it.
Experience doesn't come with the passing of time.
It comes with what you do, with what
happened to you.
It's not about simply getting old.
It's about learning, conceptualizing life lessons and then
leveraging them to get value added results.
Allah subhana wa ta'ala made the world.
He made the rules.
He sent a teacher.
It is for us to learn and follow
him.
Which brings me to the question, are you
a free person or are there chains in
your mind?
Now, check.
Here is the checklist for that to see
if we have chains in our mind.
Let me ask you, do you mow your
lawn regularly to ensure that it always looks
neat?
Do you have a good relationship with your
neighbors?
Do you attend town hall meetings?
Do you know the names of public officials
in your town?
Do you happily pay for public facilities, donate
to public spaces like parks, volunteer for neighborhood
watch or first aid, first responders for the
fire service and the police?
Do you volunteer to coach sports teams
at schools or for any other service, especially
if your children are not studying in that
school?
Do you volunteer as a foster parent?
What is your reaction to jury duty?
Do you like it or do you try
to get out of it?
Do you register and vote?
Do you donate to soup kitchens and homeless
shelters?
Do you drive and park your car responsibly?
I know that hurts but that's a very
important indicator of whether you are a free
person or a slave in your mind.
Now, let me leave you to add to
this list.
I believe you get the drift.
I believe that you understand what I am
trying to get at.
And I hope you understand why I call
this my checklist of freedom.
In one line, free people do all of
these things willingly and proudly with a sense
of duty.
People with enslaved minds try to avoid them
until they are forced and then they do
them moaning, groaning and complaining.
Most of us ordinary Muslims come from a
history of empire or colonialism.
In both, we were slaves who had no
say in decisions that affected us.
We received government largesse or suffered oppression.
But we had no way of influencing except
rebellion.
That came at a heavy cost.
So, we learned to keep our heads down
and bear the difficulties and believe in a
distorted version of sabr, of patience, which has
nothing to do with the Islamic reality.
We were taught that to have sabr is
to suffer in silence and beg Allah to
change our world.
The Quran tells us to make the maximum
effort and then to make dua and rely
on Allah.
Rasool Allah exemplified this.
Until we learn to follow the complete method,
we cannot expect success.
Let me share with you three secrets of
success.
One, our mind is like a fertile field.
It doesn't care what you plant in it,
but it will return to you whatever you
plant.
That is why what you read and watch
and who you listen to are so important.
They are the signposts of the direction your
life is taking you.
If you are going in the right direction,
continue.
If not, you must change direction.
To go in the direction of a particular
destination but to expect to reach a destination
on the opposite side is a sign of
insanity.
Number two.
Attitude comes before success in the dictionary and
in life.
Therefore, remind yourself that present circumstances do not
decide if you will succeed or fail.
They only decide where you need to start.
The race doesn't end when you fall.
It ends when you fail to rise.
Check why you fell and don't fall again
for the same reason.
We are talking about resilience, not stubbornness.
Not stubbornness.
Resilient people succeed.
Stubborn people perish.
And sometimes, even though sometimes, gloriously.
Number three.
Faith.
To use my favorite quote by Barbara Winters.
She said, when you come to the end
of the light of all that you know
and are about to step off into the
darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that
one of two things will happen.
There will be something firm to stand on
or you will be taught how to fly.
So let us choose our goals wisely.
Make the maximum effort intelligently.
And when all work is done, stand in
the night and beg Allah for success.
Remember, it doesn't matter whether you lose or
win.
What matters is what you stand for.
Remember that in a world and life where
you can be anything, be kind first.
Then be anything else you like.
Because kindness adds value to everything we do.
As Imam Bukhari reminded us, the Hadith of
Rasulullah s.a.w. Rasulullah s.a.w.
said, be kind.
For whatever kindness becomes a part of, it
beautifies it.
Whenever it is taken away from something, it
leaves it tarnished.
You want to change the world?
Then be kind.
Be honorable.
Work for the pleasure of Allah alone.
And remember that one day, we will all
be called to account.
Remember that we are never alone.
And Allah s.w.t. is always with
us.
So take courage from that to face whatever
hardship we face.
Because we know that it comes only by
Allah's permission.
And the one who permitted it is Ar
-Rahman Ar-Rahim.
The most beneficent, the most merciful.
Face the world as Ibrahim s.a.w.
did.
Sitting trussed up in the cup of the
trebuchet.
As Musa s.a.w. did with the
sea in front of him and the army
of the Pharaoh behind him.
And as Rasulullah s.a.w. did in
the cave with tranquility in the heart and
a smile on the lips knowing that they
were not alone and that Allah s.w
.t. was with them.
That is how our Prophets were and that
is how we should be.
Have courage and faith.
Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem wa ala alihi
wa sahbihi l-ma'in bi rahmati l
-Qiyamah wa l-Rahim.