Mirza Yawar Baig – Elements from the seerah
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AI: Transcript ©
Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen wa salatu wa salamu ala
sharafi l-anbiyai wal mursaleen Muhammadun Rasulullahi sallallahu
alaihi wa ala alihi wa sallam tasliman kathiran
kathira.
Fama ba'du, we were talking about the elements
from the seerah of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam which we need to work on to
bring into our lives.
The first of those is the element of
identity itself.
How do I see myself?
Who am I?
My submission to you is that this is
the fundamental problem today with everybody in the
world, especially the Muslims.
And it's a fundamental problem which especially in
this culture is exacerbated and it is emphasized
because this whole culture is a culture of
individualism.
Where the individualistic desires and individualistic ways of
behavior are not only accepted and acceptable but
they are raised almost to the level of
a theology.
They believe in individualism like you believe in
religion.
And this is a fundamental flaw, this is
a fundamental problem.
It is because of this that we have
raised subjective feelings, a person's feelings to a
completely unrealistic level where in the words of
the philosopher Ed Burke, I don't remember the
exact words but he says that the mindset
is that my feelings have supremacy because they
are my feelings.
I need no other legitimacy to say that
my feeling this way needs any external affirmation.
So if I choose to feel one way
and if I am not feeling, say for
example I am not feeling good about something
then the responsibility is on you, the person
who is causing that negative feeling within me
to change yourself so that I feel good.
So for example, one way to illustrate this
is that if you find me sitting in
the masjid with my back to the wall
and my legs stretched in front facing my
feet facing the face of the Imam and
facing the Qibla, this is fine.
Because this is how I choose to behave.
And now if you come and tell me
that this is lack of adab, this is
lack of respect, that is the direction of
the Qibla, then the immediate response is, where
is it written in the Quran that I
should not point my feet to the Qibla?
Find me the sahih hadith, mutawatir, that I
should not point my feet towards the Imam.
Now this is the problem.
The problem with individualism, the way I say
it here is that my image and my
imagination that I am the king.
The problem with that is that individualism is
based on the lowest self.
The lowest form of the nafs, absolute animal
emotions and feelings and desires.
And it's based on a very false principle
that I am free to do whatever I
want because I feel like it.
The reason it's wrong is because all society,
any society, not only Muslim society, any society
is based on a fundamental principle which is
the opposite.
And that principle is that I am free
to express myself and express my feelings but
I must ensure that by my expression of
my feelings I am not causing problems or
hurting or insulting or being disrespectful to somebody
else.
So my feelings need to be controlled.
All society, all civilized society is based on
this.
The control of feelings.
The collective control of people in order that
everyone is safe and well.
Individualism is no control.
Individualism is I will do whatever I want
to do because I like to do it.
So this is a mindset change that we
need to make in our heads.
As I mentioned, Allah swt when he mentioned
in Surah Al-Baqarah the ayat concerning sending
Adam as, Allah swt said, inni ja'ilun
fil ardi khalifa or balik?
Khalifa.
Allah did not say inni ja'ilun fil
ardi balik.
Al malikul haqq, huwa Allahu ahad.
Rabbul Arshil kareem.
Inni ja'ilun fil ardi khalifa.
Allah said I am sending on the world,
I have decided to send on the world,
a khalifa, a vicegerent, somebody to do and
run things in my name.
According to how I wish.
Now if you think about this, who is
a king?
A king is a lawmaker and as I
mentioned to you in the worldly sense, the
king is above the law.
The king makes the law.
Right?
Louis XIV said, my word is law.
He said, I am France.
He said, I am France.
He said, my word is law.
What is the law?
Law is my word.
Whatever I say is law.
I am above the law.
As I mentioned in the last session, to
this day, the king of England cannot be
tried in a British court.
He is above the law.
The king can do no wrong.
This is the norm of a king.
Whereas a trustee or a vicegerent or a
khalifa is only the implementer of the law.
That is why Rasulullah said, the famous case
where this highborn lady was brought to him,
who had committed theft and after due process,
she was brought to him to sentence.
And he sentenced her with the hajj that
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has set, which
is the amputation of the hair.
So they went to him and they said,
let us try to intercede and say that
can you change this and convert it to
a fine or something else because this woman
is from a powerful clan, big tribe, whatnot.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, even if
my daughter Fatima had done this, I would
have prescribed the same punishment because this is
from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Nobody is above the law.
Islam is the only religion and only system
where even Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam himself
who is like a law giver, because Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala said, wa ma ataakumu
ar-rasulu fa khuduhu wa ma nahaakumu anhu
fantahu wa taqullah inna Allaha shadidu liqaab.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, whatever my
Nabi gives you, take it.
And whatever my Nabi stops you from, stop.
And fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is severe in
punishment in Surah Al-Hashr.
Wa ma ataakumu, whatever He gives you, wa
ma nahaakumu, whatever He stops you from.
Allah did not specify and say in this
area that, no, anything.
So Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is, Allah
is the law giver, Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam is the law giver in the name
of Allah in the world.
Despite that, he is not above the law
in Islam.
He never held himself above the law.
So the king is the law maker, the
king is the law giver, king is above
the law, and the king calls others to
account.
Whereas the khalifa, he is the implementer of
the law, he is not above the law,
the law applies to him, and he must
answer the king.
So therefore the question for ourselves is, we
have made our ego supreme.
That is what must be challenged.
In Islam the ego is not supreme.
And therefore the mindset change that we need
to make, and this is the format we
follow in this, what is the principle, what
is the mindset change, and then I am
going to ask you to discuss among yourselves
and say what is it that you will
do.
The mindset change must go from does it
please me, to does it please Allah.
Does it please me, to does it please
Allah.
Do I like it, to does Allah like
it?
Right?
If whatever pleases me also pleases Allah, alhamdulillah.
But if there is something that I want
to do or I like to do, but
Allah does not like that, then I must
change myself.
Because Islam means to submit our will to
the will of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Submitting without question, not because we believe blindly,
but because we believe with knowledge.
We believe, we know who is giving the
hukum.
So we follow.
Not blindly.
This concept, that's why Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala said, waj kaala lahu rabbuhu aslim, kaala
aslamatul rabbil alameen.
About Ibrahim alaihi salam, Allah said to him,
submit.
He said I have submitted.
No argument, no discussion, no debate.
Ibrahim alaihi salam didn't say well, let me
think about it.
I'll tell you tomorrow.
I want to sleep over it.
No.
Aslim, aslamatul rabbil alameen.
And that is what we have to train
ourselves.
How can I make myself submissive to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala?
Because He is Allah.
Now this message of submission to Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, we get at least five
times a day.
At least five.
The five salawats.
The salah is submission to Allah.
Why do you pray at this time?
Because Allah said so.
Kaanat alal mu'mineena kitaabam wauquta, has been prescribed
by Allah.
Why should you pray dhuhr at this time,
asr at this time?
Why can't we combine the two and pray
at one time in the middle?
No.
Why do you do that?
Because Allah said so.
The format of it, why is it done
in this way?
Because Allah said so.
The content of it, what is recited?
Because Allah said so.
The way it is recited, bil jahir, obisir,
because Allah said so.
We stand, we bow, we prostrate, we make
sujood.
Why?
Because Allah said so.
Why do you fast in Ramadan, not in
Shawwal, not in Shaban, nice time of the
year, short days?
No.
Why do we have the congregational prayer on
Friday, why not Sunday is more convenient?
No.
Because Allah said so.
We are reminded of this all the time
as Muslims.
The thing is that we have learnt this
very toxic and this very evil way of
living in compartments in our minds.
So in the salah we submit to Allah,
outside the salah we submit to our nafs.
We pray the salah in the masjid, then
we go out to a business in which
we are selling lottery, and we are selling
cigarettes and we are selling all kinds of
haram.
We don't ask ourselves how is it possible?
I just prayed here, I made submission to
Allah swt and I made sujood to Allah
swt.
Allah made lottery haram.
How am I selling, how is it I
am selling lotteries?
Somebody has to ask this question, no?
You have to ask.
How is it that I just prayed, and
I am lying, and I am cheating, and
I am doing ghibah, and I am talking
about Nameem, and you know, my whole social
life is like one of my nieces, I
was talking about it, I was in the
house, her mother said, please give some nasihah,
I talked about the issue of ghibah.
So she said, oh boy, there goes my
social life.
Which is true for a lot of people.
We only talk about others.
Think about this, if you take for example,
there is a management concept, I keep doing
this all the time because my day job
is as a leadership consultant.
If you take yourself and draw three circles,
in the center is your circle of control,
right?
Sphere of control, circle of control.
These are things that are directly in your
control.
You can stand up, you can sit down,
you can go get a cup of tea,
whatever, right?
You can decide to keep silent, you can
decide to ask question, you can decide to
do negative things or positive things, in your
control.
And then you have a bigger circle, which
we call circle of influence.
So circle of influence is something I cannot
control directly, but something over which I have
some extra influence.
For example, when I first came into this
country, I started working in 1994, I said,
well, nobody knows me here, how do I
advertise my work as a leadership development consultant
and so on?
So what I did was, I would do
breakfast meetings for Toastmasters Club, for different professional
clubs.
So they are always looking, they have these
monthly breakfast meetings and they are always looking
for keynote speakers.
So I said, I will come and do
a keynote speech for you, don't pay me
anything.
That's the easiest way to get invited.
Tell people you won't charge any money, they
will invite you.
Shows how much value they have for what
you have to bring, right?
So in their mind, what you have to
bring is less than the couple of hundred
dollars I am going to pay you.
So you delete that, then you are welcome.
So my point is, if what I have
to bring to you is worth only that
much, why am I coming to you anyway?
So anyway, that's a different issue.
So I said, okay, you just pay me
nothing.
So I went and did that.
Some people asked me, I said, why do
you do it for free?
People are charging money for this.
I said, because every single person sitting there
is a potential client for me.
Because they are all business people.
They are all executives from companies.
Every one of them is a potential client
for me and I am getting exposure to
them for free.
So I am giving this to you for
free.
You are too dumb.
If you ask me to pay, I would
pay.
So it's very important.
Circle of influence.
So now, in this case, I can't go
and say, give me the job, but I
can come and show you.
It's like giving somebody a sample, right?
What is the best way to sell a
perfume?
Make a PowerPoint presentation?
Or make a video on the perfume?
What's the best way?
Open the sample.
Simple as that.
Open the sample.
Actually in Dubai airport, if you walk through
the perfume shop, there are guys standing there
with a spray bottle, you know, many of
them, please, please, please, please spray.
Open the bottle.
Let them see.
Circle of influence.
Beyond the circle of influence is the circle
where you have no influence.
What is in that?
In that is whatever is happening, global wars.
In that, the whole lot, right?
I mean, I can make a long list.
I don't think I need to make it.
You guys know it.
And this one and that one, all in
the outside world, over which we have zero
control.
Absolutely no control whatsoever.
Now, you are talking about the issue of
river, right?
And wasting of time.
Tell me, most of our conversations, in these
three circles, where are they?
Most conversations?
In that outside circle, right?
Where you have no control.
You have no control, you have no influence,
but that is what we talk about.
We talk about politics, we talk about sports,
for example, this team, that team, a huge
amount of emotion behind worthless things.
Where we actually have control.
How can I get up one hour before
salatul fajr and pray tahajjud and read one
juz of Quran before I go to the
masjid for salatul fajr?
How can I make this into my daily
routine?
Completely, 100% in your control and in
your control only.
Do we talk about that?
Imagine your day starts, every day starts like
that.
What a beautiful day!
What a beautiful way to start the day
it is.
We don't talk about that.
How can we raise our children?
How can we create environments for our children
which are positive environments where they will get
some knowledge, some role models of behavior and
so on and so forth which can help
them.
How can we do that?
Do we talk about that?
Completely in our control.
So we have to understand this.
Submit our ego to the will of Allah.
Don't waste your time and energy and acquire
a lot of needless evil by talking about
other people, by talking about events and stuff.
I am not saying it's not important.
Absolutely.
If you are really interested in establishing justice
on the earth, you know what is in
our control about that?
It's to pray to Hajj-ud-Din, to
cry before Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That is in your control.
Beyond that, any charity you can give, any
social work you can do, please, most welcome,
in your control.
But simply sitting and talking about it, the
most useless thing and not just plain useless,
it's also negative.
So what did this Habba do?
Think about that.
Here is in Mecca, these people accepted Islam.
Rasulullah s.a.w. did not bring a
new business model.
He didn't bring a new method of agriculture.
He didn't bring some new technology.
He brought a new way of thinking.
The switch is here.
From being accountable or not being accountable to
being accountable to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
From thinking that life is what is in
this world, once my eyes shut, it's over,
to understanding that life actually begins when eyes
are shut.
And that which begins when eyes are shut,
does not end.
Change in the mindset.
So when they did change the mindset, when
that happened, the Sahaba changed three things.
First of all, they changed their lifestyle from
the past.
Think about this.
Every single thing which I am telling you,
believe me, nothing is new.
If something was new, you should be worried.
Because where is he getting Wahi from?
When the ayat of the hurmat, the prohibition
of alcohol and gambling and so on was
revealed, when Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala said,
Ya ayyuha alladhina amanu al-khamru wal-maysiru
wal-ansabu wal-azlamu, riju summi al-amanu
al-shaytani fashtanibu, la'alla fuktufyu.
When this ayat was revealed, think about this.
When this ayat was revealed, we know the
ahadith and the people who narrated that, and
that includes Sayyidina Abu Huraira r.a. and
others.
They said that people were, somebody had a
glass of alcohol, a wine in their hand
and they emptied it.
They threw it on the ground.
This ayat was revealed in Madinah and Madinah
was an oasis and their big crops were
grapes and dates.
The world over, when people grow crops which
are high in sugar, they make wine.
Everywhere.
Same thing in France, same thing in South
Africa.
So Madinah had winemaking as an industry.
It was not just people making a couple
of bottles of wine to have a drink.
No.
This was an industry.
This is what they did.
They manufactured wine and they sold wine.
And that is the reason why the historians
have said that when this ayat was revealed,
the sahaba emptied the containers into the drains
and wine flowed like a river.
How did it flow like a river?
Because there was that much of wine.
Otherwise how would it have flowed like a
river?
Because there was so much wine.
And then what they did was they smashed
the containers.
Somebody went and reported to Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, this is Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, they
are breaking up the containers.
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam called them.
He said, why are you breaking the containers?
This is Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
He said, you can use them.
There is no problem.
Fiqh matter.
You can clean it and wash it and
use it for something else.
They said, Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, we don't
even want to be reminded of a time
when we used to disobey Allah.
Now think about this.
Before the hurmat came, they were not disobeying,
no?
That wine was permitted.
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, the two ayats
which came before that, Allah Subhanahu wa ta
'ala only.
He said, first of all, he said, la
takramu salatamantum sukhara.
He said, don't come to the prayer when
you are intoxicated and so on.
So, it was not only for prayer.
Afterwards, Allah is not saying drink afterwards.
He is saying in that state don't pray.
But this ayat was khatai.
This is finished.
Khalas.
First of all, stay away.
Think about this.
Did they say, Ya Rasulullah, we accept.
We accept the ayat.
We accept the hurmat also.
But, please think about this.
This is our livelihood.
This is our industry.
If we leave this, how will we feed
our children?
If we leave this, what about the family?
So, why don't you tell us and show
us an alternate way?
Then I will leave this business.
Did they say this?
What do we do today?
You have a gas station in which you
are selling alcohol, in which you are selling
lottery, in which you are selling cigarettes, in
which you are selling God knows what.
And somebody says, please don't do this.
This is haram.
Why are you feeding your children haram?
Why are you eating haram?
No, I agree with you brother.
100% I totally agree with you.
Show me some other business, I will leave
this.
This is our problem.
This is our problem.
Show you another business.
Until I show you something else, you won't
leave this.
Allah has prohibited, that's not good enough.
I have to show you something else.
The sahaba did not do this.
When Allah said, don't do it, khalas.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, no interest
based dealings, no riba, no problem, khalas, finished.
You know, just think about the, what do
you think was the market cap that got
wiped out with this one ayah?
Those lending companies, and remember, as I keep
mentioning, don't think that the sahaba at that
time, they were talking about poor people.
They were not talking about poor people.
People like Abbas bin Abdul Muttalib were major
bankers.
Billions and billions worth of dollars, worth of
currency and gold and silver and stock and
so on, they had.
And this is not new.
I mean, they didn't invent it.
The Romans had it a thousand years before
them.
The Persians had it a thousand years before
them.
They only continued that financial system which was
there.
But when the ayat came, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala said, this is haram.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, if
you don't leave it for illam ta'fal,
Allah said, Allah is declaring war.
Accept harb min Allahi wa rasooli.
So, what did they say?
They didn't say, ya Rasool Allah, it's okay,
we won't lend in future, but at least
what is there, let us get it.
We can't just wipe out this entire, you
know, imagine what will happen to my books.
All net receivable gone.
Put a line through it, zero.
But they did that.
And when they did that, Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala opened for them the doors of
real wealth.
You don't have to do sums in your
head.
Real wealth.
Allah gave them real power.
Allah gave them real authority.
Allah gave them real land and empire and
everything else.
When they decided to obey Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
So, they changed their entire lifestyles.
Second thing they changed was, they changed their
circle of friends.
They changed their circle of friends.
Sayyidina Rawad ibn al-Khattab r.a had
this group of his buddies and they used
to drink every night together.
Sayyidina Rawad said once, he said, if I
had not come to Islam, I would have
died either of too much of alcohol or
I would have died in a drunken fight.
In a drunken brawl, somebody would have killed
me.
Because he used to fight.
He would get drunk, he used to fight.
He was a wrestler, he was a big
man, he was very powerful.
So, he used to fight.
He said, this is what I would have
done.
I would have died either just with too
much of alcohol, cirrhosis of the liver or
something, or somebody would have killed me.
But the same Umar ibn al-Khattab r
.a, after Islam, his friends are who?
Abu Bakr, Anas Rahman, Ali, Zubair, Sa'd ibn
Mu'adh, Sa'd ibn Jawal, Mu'adh ibn
Jawal, and so on and so on and
so on r.a. These are it.
That's the group.
Friends are so important.
So, so, so important.
If you are with the right friends, then
certain behaviours become easy because this is the
accepted norm in that company.
Time for salah, everybody is starting to pray.
If you don't pray, then you feel very
odd.
What?
Everyone is praying, I am sitting here.
But if you are in the wrong group
of friends, then sin becomes easy, disobedience becomes
easy, obedience becomes more difficult.
I am not saying you can't do it,
you can still do it, but it takes
more time and more energy and more courage
and more effort.
And sometimes people don't do it because it's
just too much.
They can't manage it.
So they leave it.
Now I will go home and pray.
I don't want to show before these people.
Shaitan comes and says, you want to show
off?
You want to show you are such a
good Muslim?
Go home and pray.
Pray khada.
No problem, there is khada.
Where is the khada for deliberately leaving a
salah?
Is there a khada?
For deliberately leaving a salah?
There is no khada.
But shaitan tells you, hey maafi bhoota, don't
worry, it's okay.
Allah will forgive you once.
Change the circle of friends.
And they change their leisure time activities.
One good thing about living in America is
nobody has leisure time, right?
One job, two jobs, three jobs, and the
rest of the time driving between jobs.
May Allah have mercy, we call this the
American dream.
It's an American nightmare.
By the time you think you have enough
money, you are ready for the hospital.
And of course, by then you are in
Medicaid, so you don't pay the bills, and
you satisfy, oh at least I am not
paying the bills.
Yeah, but that's a nice way of ending
your life, you know.
Stuck to some machine.
Innalillah, innalillah.
Please, don't do this to yourself.
Spare yourself.
What Allah has written for you will come
to you.
Do a reasonable amount of work.
There is no, I am not against working,
you have to work.
But there is no need to kill yourself.
Allah will give you.
Get some free time, spend that time with
good people, good company for yourself, for your
children, for your family.
Spend time in the zikr of Allah.
Spend time in looking around, seeing this beauty
of this, this is such a beautiful piece
of earth.
So much beauty in this country.
How many people here have visited any national
park?
One person, two, three people.
Thank God.
Most places, nobody.
Too busy.
Too busy doing what?
Please, worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in
different ways.
One of the ways of worshipping Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is to see His creation,
and say Alhamdulillah, subhanAllah.
We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for
the wisdom and the hikmah to learn and
to benefit from that inshallah.
Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem wa ala alihi
wa sahbihil bayan bi rahmatillahi wa barakatuhu.