Mirza Yawar Baig – Culture of Islam
AI: Summary ©
The transformation of Islam is seen as a way to achieve equality and make one sad, while also empowering individuals to greet others with their names. The history of the law is discussed, including the preached law, which benefits people who live by the law, and the importance of bearing fruit in the fruit tree. A man named bossen al-Farsi prays all night and fasts all day, and his brother, Probably Probably Probably, is not interested in praying. Bilal bin R reminded himself of negative emotions and negative behavior, and emphasizes the need for everyone to behave normally in a way that is not negative and is not related to culture.
AI: Summary ©
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the most
honoured of Prophets and Messengers, Muhammad, the Messenger
of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him,
and upon his family and companions, peace and
blessings be upon them all.
We looked at the first of the elements
of change that Rasulullah, peace be upon him,
implemented in order to transform his community from
being the most oppressed, the weakest, to becoming
the strongest and the rulers of their world
of the time.
And that first element was to change how
we view ourselves.
The reason for that, obviously, is that everything
comes from the individual.
All change has to begin with me.
Anyone who thinks that the way to change
the world is to change somebody else and
I remain the same way?
No, it doesn't work.
It doesn't work in any field.
If I want change to happen in my
environment, that change has to begin from me.
And therefore, my identity, do I see myself
as, within quotes, a ruler or a king?
And I don't mean that literally, I mean
in the terms of an attitude of like
a king, meaning that I don't obey anyone,
but everyone else must obey me.
Now, this doesn't work.
Because this is not who we are.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent us as
His Ibad, as His slaves.
We are here in this world to obey
Allah, in the way of the Rasulullah, peace
be upon him, who showed us how to
obey Allah.
Just think about this.
We just prayed Salatul Maghrib, we prayed three
rakat.
If I ask you, why did you pray
three rakat?
Why not four?
Why not two?
Why not one?
What is the answer?
If I ask you, why did you pray
in this way?
Why do you start the Salat with Taghbeer
Tahareema?
Why do you recite Suratul Fatiha first?
Why do you recite Suratul Fatiha in every
rakat?
Isn't it enough to say it once?
The answer to all of these questions is
only one.
Because this is the way Rasulullah, peace be
upon him, prayed.
Period.
Why, why, why, why, why?
Because this is how Rasulullah, peace be upon
him, did that action.
I remind myself, the same principle applies for
everything in life.
It is not restricted to Salah.
Salah is the example which shows me how
I should do business.
Salah shows me how I must handle my
family.
Salah shows me if I'm a ruler of
a country, how I must rule my country.
If I'm a judge in a court, Salah
shows me how I must give my rulings
and my judgements in the court, and so
on and so on.
If I'm a business person, business man or
woman, Salah shows me how to do business.
And that's the reason for studying the Seerah.
The Salah is the example.
We do it the way of Muhammad, peace
be upon him, then it becomes accepted by
Allah, peace be upon him, then it becomes
full of khair and barakah for all concerned,
including myself.
We go to the second part of the
transformation that Rasulullah, peace be upon him, brought
about, and that is a transformation in culture.
We start with the individual, then we go
into the surroundings in which the individual lives
and works and functions, and that surrounding is
called the culture.
The culture was to go from discrimination from
high and low to equality, genuine equality, everyone
equal before Allah.
This is what Islam brought.
In Islam, there is no superior or inferior.
To the extent the Sahaba came to the
Prophet, some of them were people in their
travels, they had gone to the courts of
different kings and so on, and they said,
Ya Rasulullah, if you permit us, we would
like to make Sajdah to you as the
way of greeting you, because this is how
the kings of Rome and Persia and other
places, this is their way, that when people
come into the court, there is a demand,
they are commanded to make Sajdah, to put
their head on the ground in front of
the king.
Some of them just lie down flat on
their face, and you deserve it more than
any of them, because you are not only
our ruler, but you are the Rasul of
Allah.
So therefore, we, if you permit us, this
is how we would like to greet you,
by making Sujood to you.
Rasulullah said, no, Sajdah is only to Allah,
and we are all equal before Allah, and
I am his Abda and his Rasul.
Right?
In Islam, there is complete equality between all
people in the sight of Allah.
Allah mentioned in this beautiful Ayatul Karima of
Surah Al-Hujurat, Allah said, Arabic
Allah said, O mankind, O human beings, we
have created you from a male and a
female, and made you into nations and tribes,
so that you may know, you may recognise,
you may honour one another, not for you
to discriminate, and say the black man is
inferior to the white man, and vice versa,
and so on, and the Arab and the
Adam, no.
And Allah said, Verily, the most honourable of
you is the one who has the most
Taqwa.
And Allah is All-Knowing and All-Aware.
So, Islam changed the criterion of superiority from
wealth and power and authority and skin colour
or concepts of beauty or whatever, or lineage,
to Taqwa.
This is the sense of equality that Islam
brought, which did not exist before Islam, and
may Allah have mercy on us, it does
not exist today.
We have gone back full circle.
Now, one way to look at that is
to feel sad about it, but the other
way to look at it is that if
we have gone back full circle, then we
can go back full circle.
We can go back to the stage where
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had brought this law
and people lived by that law and therefore
they benefited.
Now, like everything else, Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam
demonstrated in his own life the things that
he preached.
Right?
He demonstrated them in his own life.
So, when he preached equality, he treated everyone
as equal.
He had a slave, Zaid bin Haritha, and
he freed him, and in that case, it's
a beautiful, long story, I won't go into
that here because we are short of time,
but he gave him the name Zaid bin
Muhammad, and the name went back to Zaid
bin Haritha only after Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala revealed the ayat in Surah Al-Ahzab,
where Allah prohibited the adoption of a child,
man or woman, and adoption meaning giving that
child your own name.
There is no prohibition to look after children.
There is no prohibition to look after orphans.
You can look after them, you can keep
them in your home, that is the preferred
way, not put them into an orphanage.
The preferred way is to take them into
your family, so then they have a sense
of family with them, but you cannot give
them your name.
The lineage comes from the father, and biologically,
that father remains the father.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam also, when he
formed the ummah in Madinah, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam made a pair, one Muhajir Sahabi
with one Ansari Sahabi, and if you look
at the pair that he made, there are
some of them which were very, very dissimilar,
very different.
For example, he paired Salman al-Farsi, who
was a Persian slave, with Abu Darda al
-Ansari, who was among the leaders of the
Khazraj.
He was a chieftain in Madinah.
So here was an Arab, a noble Arab,
he is being paired with a man who
came from Persia, and he was a slave.
Now, see how the Sahaba did this.
Now, Salman al-Farsi al-Adilano was, he
was a slave later on, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam helped him to buy his freedom.
He used to work for this man, and
he asked him, set a price, what do
I need to pay you to become free?
The man said, your price is 300 fully
mature bearing date palm trees.
So how is he going to find that?
First of all, it's an enormous fortune, and
secondly, bearing, growing date palm means what?
Means he has to, I mean, you can't
just pick it up from somewhere, so he
has to grow it.
So he came to Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam and he said, this is what he
is saying.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said to him,
first of all, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
announced to the people, he said, who is
willing to help Salman al-Farsi al-Adilano
to become free?
Donate a date palm sapling, a small tree.
So the Sahaba, they brought the trees.
So they had these 300 trees, they were
stacked in one place, like a nursery.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said to Salman
al-Farsi, go and dig the holes, dig
the pits, and don't plant anything, complete all
the pits, do whatever you need to do,
and then come and tell me.
Salman al-Farsi al-Adilano, he went and
he dug all the pits, 300 pits.
You have to dig a big pit, 3
feet by 3 feet by 3 feet, big
pits.
You know, planters, we know this stuff.
It's not easy, very difficult.
And then you put manure and organic matter
and God knows what in the thing, get
it ready.
And then he came and said to Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, the pits are ready.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam went and he
planted those trees with his own hand, all
300 of them.
By himself.
And what an amazing lesson in leadership.
That's the meaning of leadership.
Leadership is not to simply sit around and
move this, move that.
No, no, no, no, no.
He takes an interest in this man who
is a stranger from nowhere, he comes from
Persia, he's a slave.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam takes interest in
him to the extent that he plants those
trees himself.
With his own blessed hands.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the trees
and the nabi plants.
Allah caused them to grow, Allah caused them
to become bearing trees and then the Salman
al-Farsi Radallah who was freed.
So when he becomes the brother of Abu
Darda al-Ansari, Abu Darda al-Ansari was
a beautiful sahabi, he was, apart from being
a chieftain of the Khazraj, he was a
very pious man, he was known for his
zohd.
He was known for the amount of salah
and zikr and his fasting and so on.
He was a very pious man, he was
very, very strict with himself.
So Salman al-Farsi Radallah one day, he's
staying with him in his house.
In everything.
So he comes home one day, Abu Darda
is not there, Umma Darda is there, Radallah.
Later on she became a great muhaddithat and
she used to give dars of hadith in
Masjid Nawiyah Sharif.
She's one of the first classical muhaddithat, classical
woman scholars of hadith.
So she was in the house and her
appearance was disheveled and looked like she wasn't
taking care of herself.
So Salman al-Farsi said to her, my
sister why are you like this, what happened
to you?
You're not well or something?
She said, no I'm well.
But what is the point in me adorning
myself, what is the point in me doing
anything because my husband is not interested in
me?
So Salman al-Farsi said, why do you
say that?
He said, because he prays all night and
he fasts all day and he has no
time for me.
So Salman al-Farsi said, okay I will
take care of this.
That day when in the afternoon Abu Darda
came home and he brought food for Salman
al-Farsi, he put it down, he said,
my brother please sit and eat.
He said, no you have to sit and
eat with me.
He said, no I'm fasting.
He said, break your fast.
He said, I will fast, it's not Ramadan
or something, break your fast.
He said, I'm fasting.
He said, no break your fast otherwise I
won't eat.
So Abu Darda said, okay.
So he broke his fast, he sat with
him, he ate food.
Then in the night they lay down to
sleep and Abu Darda made sure Salman al
-Farsi is comfortable and so on and then
he said, where are you going?
He said, I'm going to pray.
He said, no, which prayer?
We finished Isha Salah.
Now is the time to sleep.
So sleep.
He said, I want to stand in Qiyam.
He said, no, no Qiyam, you stay and
sleep.
So Abu Darda laid down.
After a little while Abu Darda tried to
get up Salman al-Farsi and said, where
are you going?
He said, Wallahi, you don't even sleep.
He said, I'm going for Tahajjud.
He said, no Tahajjud, you sleep.
And this happened two or three times.
By now Abu Darda, you can imagine, he's
so irritated.
This man, he is my brother, Wallahi, but
I mean this is like oppression.
This is wrong on me.
I want to pray, the man is stopping
me from praying.
I was fasting, he made me break my
fast.
What is this?
Finally, last third of the night, Salman al
-Farsi also woke up.
He also made wudu.
Abu Darda also made wudu.
And they both prayed Tahajjud and then they
went to the Masjid for Salatul Fajr.
After Salatul Fajr, Rasulullah used to turn around
and sit down and he would say, has
anyone seen any dream?
If they had a dream, he would interpret,
he would say, does anyone have a question?
He would answer a question, he would do
a khatira.
So he turned around and Abu Darda said,
Ya Rasulullah, I have a complaint against my
brother.
Tabi Salam said, what is the complaint?
He said, my brother is oppressing me, I
want to fast, he does not let me
fast, he forces me to break my fast,
I want to pray Tahajjud, he stops me.
So now see the hikmah of Rasulullah Sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
Rasulullah Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam says, Salman al
-Farsi is sitting there, you need to ask
him directly.
He says, so what did your brother tell
you?
Why did he do this?
He said, my brother tells me that Allah
has a right on you, your body has
a right on you and your family, your
wife has a right on you, give to
each one their right.
Rasulullah Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, your brother
has spoken the truth.
Give to each one their right.
Now think about this, what level of brotherhood
is it that you can force your brother
to do these things?
Can we do that to our own blood
brothers today?
That was the level of love and affection.
Bilal bin Rabah, he was made the brother
of Amr Wain Al Khatami, again one of
the big shots in Madinah.
Who is his brother?
He is an African Abyssinian slave.
So now, Amr Wain Al Khatami wants to
get married.
Bilal bin Rabah is an ex-slave, but
in the Muslim community he was a big
man.
He was the confidant of Rasulullah Sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, he used to keep his finances
and so on, so he had a big
aiza, alhamdulillah.
So Amr Wain says to him, I want
to marry this woman in Madinah, and I
request you, can you come with me and
recommend to her father?
I want to give a proposal, so can
you recommend me to her father, so maybe
he will accept.
So Rasulullah says, yes, I'll come with you.
So Bilal bin Rabah says, this is my
brother Amr Wain, and he is a very
good man, and mashaAllah he is good in
his deen, he is practicing and everything else,
but he has a short temper, so he
gets angry very fast.
So Amr Wain says, you are supposed to
recommend me one kind of recommendation, you are
telling the father I have a short temper,
he won't give it.
He says, no, I have to speak the
truth, you have a short temper, you get
angry very fast.
Imagine the kind of brotherhood there was, they
loved each other more than, may Allah forgive
us, we love our own brothers, our blood
brothers and sisters.
This is what Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
created, to establish one of the reasons, Allah
knows the reason, one of the reasons or
the ways of establishing the principle of equality,
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam chooses Bilal bin
Rabah to call the Adhan after Fatawakkar.
Every one of the Sahaba there, they would
have given ten years of their lives to
do that.
Right?
First time Adhan is being called, imagine the
history, first time Adhan is being called in
the Kaaba after cleaning the Kaaba of all
the idols, Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, who
was the most, truly if you look at
it, who was the most suitable person to
do that?
Was the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam himself?
He is the Nabi, it is his job
to call the people to Allah, he should
have called the Adhan himself, he didn't do
that.
He gives that job to Bilal bin Rabah.
People, some of the Quraysh youth, they laughed,
who is this black man one man said,
I am happy my father died, otherwise he
would have seen this black man calling the
Adhan.
That black man, the Kaaba was under his
feet, he was standing on top of the
Kaaba.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam wanted to establish
no black, no white, no nothing, no Arab,
no Ajam, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, here
is a man, Bilal bin Rabah, in whose
heart Allah's love for Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala permeates his heart.
This is the man of Taqwa, with Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala, the position of Bilal
is such, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said,
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when I went
in Miraj and Isra and Miraj, and they
showed me Jannah, and I heard your footsteps,
ya Bilal, in Jannah.
He recognised the footsteps of Bilal, he said
this is Bilal walking in Jannah.
In which Jannah?
Jannatul Firdaus of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
That is Bilal.
One day Abu Dharr al-Ghifari radhiyallahu anhu,
again he was very short tempered, his temper
was such that Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
he asked him, Ya Rasulullah give me advice,
he said do not accept authority even over
one man.
That's why I advised you, he said don't.
Because he had a short temper, if you
have authority over somebody, maybe you will beat
him or something and Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala will punish you.
No, don't accept authority.
He told him if you get angry, if
you are standing, sit down.
If you are sitting down, lie down, physically.
These are all anger management techniques that Nabi
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is teaching him.
He said if you get angry, if somebody,
if there is a fight happening, people are
cursing, he said call the Adhan.
Call the Adhan, because Shaitan runs away.
He said if you get angry, if you
are feeling angry, go back to your room.
The final point of culture is responsibility for
the entire community.
Starting in concentric circles, starting with myself and
my immediate family, then going to my neighbourhood,
then meeting Muslims, and then going further, meeting
non-Muslims, country, world.
An individual Muslim is responsible for everyone who
comes into contact with him in one way
or the other.
And we know the many hadiths concerning the
rights of the neighbours and so on and
so on, so I won't take your time
here to narrate them, but do study them.
It was to the point where Rasulullah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam said that Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala emphasised the rights of the neighbours
to such an extent that I thought Jibreel
a.s. is going to come with the
hukam to say the neighbour is your inheritor,
part of your tarka, part of your inheritance
has to go to the neighbour.
So my question to myself and you is,
how do we behave?
And that's where we come here now, is
do we discriminate against people?
Do we have, do we feel within ourselves
this superiority-inferiority thing?
It's right, I am Hyderabadi, nobody can make
biryani like me, therefore I am the most
superior person in the whole world.
You agree or you don't agree?
Really, I mean jokes apart, seriously, do we
have this kind of superiority-inferiority stuff or
not?
Is it happening in our communities?
If it is happening, it must be stopped.
This is not from Islam.
This is not from Islam.
Right?
Allah s.w.t. has sent us as
a blessing for the whole world.
And that's why the matrix of this again,
what will we, like the one we did
with the first one, which is what will
we start doing, what will we stop doing,
what will we continue to do?
So two things we have done, one in
terms of my identity, what is it that
I will start doing, I will start obeying
Allah.
What will I stop doing, I will stop
disobeying Allah.
What will I continue to do?
I will continue to obey Allah s.w
.t. wherever and whichever way I was doing
it, alhamdulillah.
As far as the culture is concerned, culture
of Islam, what will I start doing?
I will start treating everyone as equal.
The Prophet s.a.w. said the one
who does not respect our elders and who
does not have shafqat and tenderness and gentleness
with the youngsters is not from us.
So rights of people, rights of parents, rights
of children, rights of brothers, sisters, rights of
co-workers and so on, all of this
must be done, so if I'm not doing
it, I must start doing it.
If I'm guilty of any of the infractions
of these rights, if I've done anything wrong
to somebody, immediately go, apologise to them, make
amends with them.
Believe me, we don't want to carry this
with us when we meet Allah.
And continuing, alhamdulillah, whatever you're doing which is
good, please continue.
Do it inshallah.
Jazakumullahu khairan wa salamu alaikum.