Mirza Yawar Baig – Lessons from the Seerah
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AI: Transcript ©
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful, all praise is due to
Allah, Lord of the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the honourable
Prophets and Messengers, Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah,
peace and blessings be upon him, and upon
his family and companions, and many, many greetings
to all of them.
And then, our other sisters, we talk about
leadership and we talk about Rasulullah S.A
.W. as our leader.
I remind myself and you to remember that
Rasulullah S.A.W. is always our leader.
Sometimes people feel and think that in those
days Rasulullah S.A.W. was the leader,
today I am the leader.
No.
Rasulullah S.A.W. is always our leader.
We don't supplant him.
We are never in his place.
The problem happens when we imagine that we
are in the place of Rasulullah S.A
.W. We are never in his place.
We only follow his leadership.
The wisdom referred to in the Quran means
leadership.
So, when Rasulullah S.A.W. said, وَالْحِكْوَةِ
In the ayah where he said, لَقَدْ مَنَّ
اللَّهُ عَلَى الْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعْسَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِّنْ
أَنفُسِهِمْ يَطْلُوَ عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِهِ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ وَيُعَلِّمُهُمْ
وَالْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْوَةِ وَإِنْ كَانُوا مِنْ قَبْلُهُ وَلَّا فِيهِ
ظَلَالٍ مُّبِينَ Allah said, He gave these four
things, تِلَوَةِ الْقُرْآنِ تَسْكِيَتُ نَفْسُهُ وَتَرْبِذُ الْأَخْلَاخِ
تَعْلِمُ الْقُرْآنِ وَالْحِكْمَةِ This Hikmah is the leadership.
It is the wisdom of doing something.
So, we only follow his leadership.
The wisdom referred to in the Quran means
leadership.
So, you don't say that was him, then
it was him, and today it's me.
Also, don't say that he had divine guidance
and I do not have divine guidance, so
I can never lead the way he used
to lead.
That is true in terms of content.
But in terms of the leadership itself, we
also have divine guidance, which is the divine
guidance that he had, which he taught us.
That is the importance of the Sunnah.
So, when we say the Sunnah, we are
talking about divine guidance.
And this divine guidance is not coming to
us as Wahi.
This divine guidance comes to us as the
Sunnah of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
And so, we need to appreciate it for
what it is.
The truth is that it was him then
and it is him today.
We only follow.
So, that is why Sunnah is so important.
It's not only about following it out of
love for Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, but because
that is the only way.
So, this is something that we need to
keep in mind.
That we follow the Sunnah not only because
of our devotion to him and so on,
all of which is true and it should
be there.
But we follow the Sunnah because that is
not only the best way, that is the
only way.
If you really want to succeed, then there
is no other way of success other than
the Sunnah of Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Now, if you see when Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam, if you see his life, take the
Meccan period and the Madinan period, you will
see that the opposition to Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam was different in Mecca and it was
different in Madinah.
The opposition of the Quraish was theological, was
in the context of saying, we worship so
many gods, how can we worship only one
god and so on.
The opposition of the Munafiqun in Madinah, on
the other hand, was political.
They accepted Islam publicly and they prayed behind
Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam in the Masjid, but
in secret they opposed him and they plotted
and planned against him.
They didn't plot and plan to deny Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and worship idols.
They plotted and planned against his leadership.
If he had declared himself to be a
priest without any temporal goals or interest, without
any worldly goals or interest, they would have
supported him wholeheartedly.
They opposed him because he said that in
Islam, he said that Islam is not only
for the Masjid, but also in every space.
In the public space, in private space, in
commerce, in business, in military, in government, in
family, in education, in leisure, in everywhere and
everything else, there is Islam.
Islam has something to say about that.
Islam has certain rules and boundaries about that.
There is no space or activity or state
of being or life that Islam has nothing
to say about.
That is what they opposed.
Now take a breath here and see what
our own problems today are in this respect.
Why do people have a problem with the
Sunnah?
Muslims don't have a problem with Salah or
fasting or Umrah or Hajj.
We have Ramadan Muslims and we have Eid
Salah Muslims and we have Jummah Muslims and
Umrah is a nice holiday to take every
year and the ideal honeymoon.
The problem is with backbiting and slander, with
dealing unjustly with inheritance and sharing it with
our sisters, with being truthful in transactions, with
dealing in interest-based transactions, with eating Zabiha,
with smoking and drugs and gambling, both doing
these things and facilitating them for others by
selling them and making money from that.
Now this is where the problems are.
I can add to this list, but I
will leave you to do that.
This is our problem and this is what
we must change.
If we want to succeed in this life
and the next, it is not only about
praying, it's about what the prayer is supposed
to achieve, which is Tanha, Anil, Fasha and
Munkar.
If we are praying and our lives are
still full of Fahushaad and Munkarat, then we
have to ask what is my Salah doing?
Is my Salah worth what it's supposed to
be doing?
Now it's interesting to note that Rasulullah Sallallahu
Alaihi Wasallam had these two different kinds of
challenges and the challenge therefore in Makkah was
to get the disbeliever to believe, while the
challenge in Madinah was to get the believer
to believe completely and practice that belief in
all aspects of his life.
And that's why Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
revealed, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا آمِنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ
يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أُدْخُرُوا فِي السِّيَلْمِ كَافَّةً
Allah said, O you who believe, enter into
Islam completely.
All of these are ayaat which came for
the Muslims.
Interestingly, the punishment therefore of the Munafiqeen is
far more severe than that on the Mushrikeen
of Makkah.
The punishment for the hypocrites is far more
severe.
And Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala revealed this
famous ayah where Allah said, I will not
forgive even if you seek forgiveness for them
70 times.
And the Prophet ﷺ was given this thing
to say, Allah is saying, I will not
forgive these people even if you ask me
to forgive them 70 times.
Now think about that, this is the Prophet
ﷺ who is being told that Allah is
so upset with these people that Allah will
not even accept the dua of the Rasul
ﷺ.
Not just not accept the dua, but even
if the dua is made 70 times, Allah
says, I will still not forgive them.
So the punishment is far more severe than
the punishment on the Mushrikeen of Makkah.
Now it shows us the importance of following
Islam totally and not selectively.
I think this is where we have to
keep on asking ourselves and reminding ourselves that
Islam is a complete way of life, right?
It's a deen, it's not just a madhab,
it's not just something which came for us
to do something which, you know, most of
the time we like to do them anyway.
So we say, okay, fine, let me do
this in the name of Islam.
It is not for that, it came as
a matter of such great sincerity and such
great importance that we have been told this
is the deen, this is the only way.
We were told that this is something which
on the day of judgment, nothing other than
this would be accepted by Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
And therefore, it is something which we must
treat with that kind of respect and that
kind of devotion and ensure that we follow
it completely and totally.
That is the whole, you know, idea and
purpose of the coming of Islam.
So I remember, I remind myself and you,
let us really ask ourselves what it is
that we are doing and what it is
that we need to do more so that
we can bring about these changes in our
lives.
The whole idea of this is that I
need to change my life, right?
If I cannot change my life, then the
purpose of Islam, the purpose of the coming
of Islam is not so.
I remind myself and you, let us look
at our lives, let us check what we
are doing, see the action and see what
consequences this action is likely to have for
me in this dunya and the akhirah.
Every action has two kinds of consequences.
There is a consequence of the action in
the dunya and there is a consequence of
the action in the akhirah.
If I smile at you, at somebody, then
the consequence in this dunya is that I
appear friendly, I make friends, it is good
for my relationships.
And the consequence of the action of smiling
in the akhirah is that it is written
down for me as an action of sadaqah.
So everything has two consequences.
There is a good consequence in the dunya
and there is a consequence in the akhirah.
If I do ghibah, then I am degrading
myself in this dunya.
I am also showing to people that I
am untrustworthy because I am carrying these tales
and backbiting people and bad talking people.
And in the akhirah, my good deeds get
transferred to the account of the person whose
ghibah I made, right?
So there is a consequence in the dunya
and there is a consequence in the akhirah.
So let us look at our lives, examine
them and see what is it that I
am doing and what are the consequences of
those actions in the dunya and the akhirah
and make sure that we do not do
anything which can cause trouble for us in
the dunya or the akhirah.