Mirza Yawar Baig – Fidelity is the soul of Faith
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AI: Transcript ©
My brothers and sisters,
when truth,
gratitude,
and courage
are combined,
you get fidelity.
Fidelity
means faithfulness.
Fidelity,
faithfulness
is to be truthful to the only one
that matters. Allah
Fidelity is to be truthful to yourself because
in the end
it is not about them,
it is about you.
It is about me.
Let me give you an example of the
meaning of fidelity
as I have experienced it in my own
life.
In 1994,
I invested everything I had in in a
business.
Everything.
For various reasons, a year later, I urgently
needed more funds.
I had none.
I couldn't even borrow the money because I
had no collateral to offer.
I was very worried
because I would have lost everything if I
could not
raise those funds.
One day,
my friend, Bertie Swallows,
visited me
and took one look at my face and
asked, what's wrong?
I said nothing is wrong. He said like
*. I know you. Something is seriously wrong
or you won't look like this. Tell me
what is it.
So
I
didn't want to tell him but eventually
he forced me to tell him
what the situation was.
He listened in silence
and then
he left.
Next day
he came to our house. He picked me
up
and drove to his bank.
He pulled out a bunch of papers from
his briefcase
and put them on the manager's desk and
said, I need a loan for so much.
Here is the collateral.
The manager looked at the papers,
and he said, sir, the value of your
house is 3 times the amount you asked
me for. So I'm very happy to give
you the loan right away.
I immediately realized what was happening
and I grabbed the papers
and I demanded. I said, buddy, what are
you doing?
Do you realize that if my business sinks
and I cannot repay this loan, you will
lose your home?
He said to me something which
I will take to my grave.
He said to me,
what is the good of my owning a
house
if I can't help you when you need
help?
How many people will say that even to
their own
blood brothers?
And this was a man
who was
no relation of mine
but he saw us as a Christian man.
Just a friend
But he had fidelity.
He was faithful to his friendship.
I still didn't take the loan.
Bertie,
few years later passed away. He's no more.
But his memory lives with me
constantly.
There is a hole in my heart
which will never fill.
Bertie for me
is the symbol
of fidelity.
He
who put his life
on the line for a friend.
I tell I'm telling you this personal story
to show that fidelity is not about exhorting
others to it. It's not about lecturing people,
about being faithful
but about choosing to put our time and
money where our mouth is and to be
faithful
to our creator Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and
to our fellow preachers.
Fidelity is about choosing to act according to
our principles
and being willing to pay the price
because to do the opposite
is not free.
It is infinitely
more costly.
Fidelity
is constancy
and fidelity
defines
us. I remember the beautiful hadith of Rasulullah
where he said
that if there is a ship
with 2 decks
and the people
on the upper deck
have fresh water to drink.
The water
casts
water barrels on
the upper deck.
The people
on the lower deck have to go up
to get this water.
And if somebody in the lower deck says,
well, you know, why should we go up
all the time to
disturb these good people? Let us just make
a hole in the side of the ship
and we can get our own water.
Rasool Rasoolam said
that if somebody gives
this
suggestion
And if this suggestion is acted upon,
then
the whole ship will sink.
If these people are not prevented from making
a hole in the side of the ship,
the whole ship will sink.
I submit to you that today
we live in a world
which seems to be devoid of fidelity.
I am not saying nobody is faithful.
I am saying generally
the atmosphere
is an atmosphere
which lacks fidelity, lacks faithfulness.
And that is the reason why
it also lacks trust
because trust is another name for faith.
Where there is no faith,
there can be no trust. And that's what
we are seeing today in our world.
Nobody trusts anybody else. We don't trust the
institutions
that we have.
You don't trust
the church. You don't trust the mosque. You
don't trust your olema. You don't trust your
ebams.
You don't trust your political leaders. You don't
trust your religious leaders.
You don't trust your parents. You don't trust
your children, your employees, your employers,
your business partners.
The most
common emotion, the most common
trend in this society of ours today is
suspicion,
lack of trust.
And going forward,
take for example,
the combination of social media and AI
is only producing more and more
distrust
because AI has made it possible for us
to create for people to create
deep fake videos.
Where
there was a time when you said
pictures don't lie. Here is a picture.
Today pictures lie.
It is actually possible
to produce pictures and videos
which
are true and which are more real than
the real,
and they are completely false.
Some of us talk about this with great
delight.
Fantastic. What development? But think about that from
the angle of trust. What do you think
it will do to whatever trust still remains?
And that's why I make dua and I
say you Allah, you Allah, you Allah,
the most beneficent and most merciful love.
We praise you and thank you for all
you have given us in your greater than
unmerited generosity.
Please help us to remember who we are
and whose we are, who we belong to.
Grant us the grace to unite as one
people in turning back to you with all
of our hearts and all of our souls
and with all of our minds.
Cleanse us of all that separates us from
you and help us to cultivate the virtues
we need this day and always
so that we may grow in fidelity to
you who are always faithful
and to our spouses and families and to
our communities and countries thereby live in accordance
with your holy will.
In your boundless mercy
and loving kindness,
you Allah, please heal us
and restore us
and our land
because truly
we are sick.
We are a very sick society.
Our
creator and sustainer
to you is our return.
All praise and thanks
are for you in keeping with the glory
of your countenance and the magnificence of your
kingdom.
Forgive our sins and guide us to live
a life that is pleasing to you because
in the end that is the only thing
that matters.
Enable us, you Arab,
to be faithful to you
and through you to be faithful to all
those who touch us and who we touch
in any possible way.
Enable us to restore trust in a world
that is devoid of it.
Enable us to leave behind a legacy of
fidelity
that will benefit us when we are alone
under the earth in our graves.
Enable us to remember that this life is
transitory
and death is the reality
waiting for which is called living.
Enable us to remember that this will come
to pass
on every single one of us, no matter
how powerful
and immortal
we may imagine ourselves to be.
Enable us to remember
to factor you into our equations
because you are in them anyway.
To you we belong and to you is
our return.
Enable us to worship you and to speak
and act
as if we can see you and though
we can't see you,
know that you are with us,
seeing us, and hearing us every instant of
our lives.
Enable us to decide on the sole criterion
of whether our speech
or action pleases you
because you are only pleased with that which
is good, wholesome, and beneficial.
And so the one who tries to please
you alone
becomes popular and influential
while the one who tries to please people
at the expense of displeasing you pleases nobody.
We praise you and thank you and we
seek your forgiveness
and mercy.