Living Islam #72

Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala MV mursaleen Muhammad Rasul Allah is Allah Haile he? Well, he was, he was seldom at the Sleeman, kathira and kathira. For mavado, my dear brothers and sisters

100 Allah, as I keep saying, over and over again,

thou to Islam is about living Islam.

Although thou Islam can be done in many ways, by speaking by publishing books and literature by, you know, all kinds of means.

But the most powerful way of

presenting Islam to the world of propagating Islam

is by living Islam.

And this was the way of the Amelie mussalam of the prophets of Allah subhanaw taala geladeira Lu, and the way of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam,

the Gambia did not publish books, the Gambia did not give long lectures,

the Gambia live,

Islam, all of it,

including us online.

So as I said, Nothing wrong with doing these things. When I say the MBA, I did not publish books, I'm not suggesting that publishing a book is a crime No, of course it is not. There is also a way of presenting Islam hamdulillah.

But the most powerful way, the purest form, the most blessed form

is to live Islam.

Obviously, this is it's a no brainer to understand that.

The reason for that is that Islam is the name of a practice. Islam is not the name of a theory or a theology or something like that. It is a name of a practice. And the best way of learning a practice is by practice. So if somebody wants to learn about Islam, the best way that they have, is to be in touch with the Muslim is to meet a Muslim talk to a Muslim, visit a Muslim home deal with a Muslim in business.

Right, spent time with a Muslim travel with a Muslim, have some dealings with a Muslim. All of these are extremely powerful ways of opening the heart of that other individual to Islam and to the goodness of Islam

provided

and that is the catch provided, provided all of these experiences are positive experiences

where a person goes into a Muslim home and is impressed by the cleanliness by the by the by the hospitality, right. I'm not talking about wealth and opulence.

There's this beautiful, true story of recent times of this Danish couple

Danish or Dutch I can't can't recall exactly what it was Danish, who were in Turkey on a holiday and they were driving it up.

So they were in this I think it was in Anatolia, that part of Turkey very, very beautiful. The way the whole area of the whole country itself is very beautiful, but some parts of it are even more beautiful than others. So these people who are there in this place and they were driving around in this and

it started getting dark then eventually they ended up in a very small

sort of village and they were trying to not find it was it was cold

it was winter it was not no ice and snow but it was very cold. So they were they wanted to find some shelters and food but they weren't away they couldn't find a restaurant they couldn't find a hotel or or or any any place to stay. And so they were parked in the in this in this town square. They met somebody and they asked this person and you know between Turkish and English and you guys are Danish anyway. So eventually they got through the message that they were looking for sheltering for the food. So this person this Turkish Turkish man, he said please come home I come and come and stay with us because there is no hotel here. They don't tell you the no restaurant here. Please come. So

they went to their house and this Danish

guy couple this ad was a very small house it was literally like you know, one room or something very small house and you know we they took us into this into this man

The living room. And he said, We sat on the floor because that's how this is set on both with bolsters. So we sat on the floor, then this, this man, he introduced his wife she gave and they had

two or three children. So they all came. And then they brought the food. So we had this meal with them. It was a very beautiful meal, and thoroughly enjoyed the meal, so to our, to our field. And

then this, these people, they said, Really, no, we don't have a separate bedroom. But make yourself comfortable here. They brought blankets for us, they brought pillows for us. And they said you can sleep in this room, no problem. And they opened the another door and they left. So this man said, Well, you know, this is very good. I mean, they have gone to sleep in their in their bedroom, and I am sleeping here and my wife and I are sleeping

very comfortably, very peacefully. And then he said early in the morning,

he said, I got up, and

I wanted to go out. I wanted to see if there was a toilet or something.

So he was opening the door. So he obviously knew the front door he came through. So he knew that was not the way to the toilet. So he said he opened the other door through which this family had left the previous night. And he says, to his amazement, absolute amazement, that turned out to be the back door of the house. So that door is not leading into another room, that door was leading again out of the house, this house was just this one room.

And he says to my absolute astonishment,

when I opened that door, and I looked out what do I see? He said, I see this family

under a tree

all covered up with blankets and so on sleeping under a tree.

The man said I completely blew my mind.

He said I started weeping. And I said what kind of people are these?

What kind of people are these? I we are strangers we are we are European we are strangers. We are not from their religion. We are Christian, these are Muslims.

They owe us nothing. Absolutely. They bring us home, they feed us. They give us their sleeping space to sleep and they go and sleep outside under a tree in this court.

He said I came back and say I told my wife the story.

And as soon as we saw those people, which was you know, maybe a few minutes later or whatever, a little bit later.

These two they became Muslim. They accepted Islam. They said we want this religion of yours. What made you do this?

What made you do this?

Not one word of preaching. Not one pamphlet, not one book. Not Not one lecture, no YouTube, nothing. Just plain living Islam.

This is how powerful

living Islam is.

And I can tell you story after story after story.

There was a wonderful story, which was doing the rounds after 911 there was this Pakistani taxi driver who picked up this young lady and drove her God knows to another state

and dropped her safely home and came back.

Same story.

Why did he do that? Because he's Muslim. He didn't even take money from her because when she offered it she said no, this is a time of distress. We are all extremely upset with this terrible thing has happened. We want to we need to help one another. So I'm helping you I just want to make sure that you get home safely to your family because your family is obviously very worried about what happened to you. I want to make sure that your family you get home safely to your family that you are that you don't come to any harm. That is you know, that's payment for me that this has been that I've been able to do that.

Another great story

where this

Yeah, this lady, single mother with her children. They had to move from one state to another.

So they got a

u haul. But she needed somebody to drive you on. So she had this your driver was a Muslim, the bearded guy.

So she says that as we were driving down the highway, it was the most

sun was setting. And I noticed that this driver kept on looking in the rearview mirror and use that I was driving behind him. And after a while I got a bit worried as to why is he continuously looking in the rearview mirror? He's obviously looking at, at me and my car. Why is he doing that?

And she said, eventually, where there was where he could legally do that. He pulled over. And he stopped.

Now, she said, Well, I have to stop because this is my URL. It's all my worldly possessions in this in this truck. And she was really worried now. She was worried she was wondering whether she should call the you know, the the highway police or something. When he got out of the U haul. He came up to our car. And he said, Ma'am, please, I need five minutes. It is now time for my prayer evening prayer. And

I was looking in the rearview mirror because that's where the sun is. And I it's not time for me to pray. So please give me five minutes. And I will finish my prayer and then we'll be on our way.

bones that I was absolutely shocked. This man is driving this truck on the highway. And time for break comes.

He stops.

So she said he went back to his truck. He pulled out his permit from his from his cabin. And then on the grass verge, she prayed. And she said I just saw in prayer. She said this was so beautiful. To see a man

in connection

with God.

To see a man or a woman connected to the Creator.

What am I very dear friends

who recently retired.

She was she's a she's a senior senior

consular officer in the US Embassy in India

is African American lady

who is Muslim. But she told me she told she told me many, many years ago, she told me her story of how she came to Islam. And she came to Islam because she was studying the university that she was studying in there was a Malaysian girl who was a roommate.

That Malaysian girl did not tell her one word about Islam. In the entire period that they were together. She did not preach Islam at all. She didn't say one single word.

But what she did was she said this girl never missed a single prayer. never missed a single breath.

So diverse Allah, this girl would pray.

And this, at that time Christian, African American

roommate of hers would watch her pray

a woman in connection with her children.

And she said that this was so powerful for me

that

before we parted company, I told her please explain this thing to me, what what are you doing? And that resulted in her accepting Islam? There are any number of such stories?

The question is,

are we going to be readers of such stories? Or are we going to become those stories?

That's the question.

Because if we simply are readers of such stories, it's worthless.

What is worthwhile, what must happen

is for us to become the stuff of the stories.

It is the practice of Islam, which is the most powerful form of the

and that's why my advice to myself and you is let us look at our lives. Let us look at every aspect of our lives.

How do I behave at home? How do I behave in my workplace? How do I behave? When I go shopping? How do I behave when I'm driving on the road? How do I behave? When I'm in public transport?

How do I behave? When I'm with my elders? How do I behave when I'm with children?

and so on and so on.

How do I behave? When I'm happy? How do I behave when I'm

sad when I'm heartbroken, how do I behave when I'm angry?

When I'm furious,

all of these

are messages to the world.

Obviously, these are a reflection of who I am.

And these are messages to the world. And whether we like it or not, the world interprets them as this is a Muslim.

This is a Muslim.

So it's no use moaning and groaning and complaining and saying, Why must people always look at me as a Muslim? Why don't they look at me as your big, I don't say that I'm very happy when people look at me as a Muslim, I'm a Muslim Alhamdulillah, I'm very happy about that. I'm perfectly confident about that. And I ask Allah subhanaw taala, to protect me and to protect my tongue and to protect my ways that I am never a disgrace to my religion.

And if I ever make a mistake, then I'm. And as soon as that mistake is pointed out to me, then I try to make sure that I'm the first person to apologize, the first person to

to try to make amends for that mistake.

And that's the, that's the reality for all of us, we all make mistakes.

But the door of forgiveness, with Allah subhanaw taala. And the door of seeking forgiveness from people is always open until we die.

So people will always see you as a Muslim, as a matter of woman,

and they will take your behavior and interpret it as their experience of Islam.

We have no choice over that. People will do that. Believe it or not people used to do that from day one.

People have always done that from the time of Rosado, Salah The difference is that the Sahaba didn't complain about that. The sob actually invited people to do that. They said you want to know what is Islam? Look at us. kolomela become like us.

You want to know what is Islam? Look at us.

Now, even if you don't do that, because at least I don't feel confident enough to tell somebody you want to know. You want to know about Islam, look at me.

I'm content to try to do my best and leave it at that.

But definitely we can say that to ourselves and say people are looking at me and seeing me as a representative of Islam as a representative of Saison our Maulana Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa aalihi wa sahbihi wa sallam

our beloved Rasulullah sallallahu Listen,

whether we like it or not, people are going to see us other people do see us.

So the choice we have

is, how do I want that picture to be?

People are going to experience me my speech by behavior, my treatment, my dealings,

and they're going to interpret that interpret those as a reflection of his lab,

not as a reflection of me as an individual diverse from my religion, because I'm not diverse religion.

They weren't to interpret my behavior and all of that as a reflection of Islam. So what choice do I have? I do not have a choice, as I mentioned earlier,

to stop them from making that interpretation. The choice I have is, what impression do I want to create?

What do I want them to take away from that interaction with me

that Islam is worth looking at,

to become positively interested in Islam, or

to see Islam as a net negative thing. Which, even if they can't get rid off, at least they wish that it didn't exist.

You know, I've said this in many places, but I think it's an important thing to say.

Think about this.

If mobile technology or mobile phones

disappeared from the face of the earth, suddenly one morning you wake up and you find that your phone is dead. It's a piece of metal

and it was a lot of people I had a phone which turned into a piece

Am

I freaked out?

And indeed not that may not happen how many of us have not had this had this experience that we go to someplace and suddenly we find there is no signal

and you might be looking oh my god is no signal oh my god is no signal I can't breathe I got

no signal big deal so on.

But so what is not the case we get panicky, no signal

who's dumped the guy right there and say who right now Who do you want to talk to?

Nobody

I expected an urgent message a phone call from somebody No.

So what does it matter to you if there is no signal?

Shut the phone. No, my phone must be with me. It must ring even if it's in the masjid

as soon as Salah finishes I mean sometimes I die I try to jokingly make this point with my with my friends. As soon as LFSR

instantly phone comes out of the pocket do sometimes ask people is there an app here to say Salah accept or not accepted? Is that what you're checking? Just finished praying I pull out your phones I looking at your cell acceptance act app to show you where Allah is rental accepted your Salah or not what is this not even time to just stop for a lot

not even time to send salatu salam Salam not even not even time to make the Muslim Lashkar after for Salah instantly phone comes out to look at what are you looking at

Juma is going on it is against the other of Juma

for us to be doing anything other than listening to the Habib

and Imam

and then bring behind him nothing else, including if somebody says, We are not even supposed to say wailuku masala if you are in Cuba.

But despite that in the Juma It was a foreigner.

So

supposing one day you wake up, and you find that no phones,

as I told you, I just give examples of what happens even if we lose signal for a few minutes. There is the sense of loss, there is a sense of panic, made varying degrees. I'm not saying everybody is equally panicked. Most people do some people will have some sense. But the point is even the ones with the greatest of sense will have some twinge, they will have some prick

to say oh, I don't have signal.

Oh, my phone's not working.

As I told you even though

they don't need the phone right then for anything, despite that.

Why is that? Because we see this technology as beneficial for us. Then of course technology is technology is value neutral. If you use it or use if you use it for good things it is beneficial. If not it's not but the point is that that technology is definitely potentially useful.

So because it is potentially useful, we treat it with respect.

And if it disappears if it goes away,

we feel very

we feel odd we feel bad. We feel Oh my god, what happened? I wish it was back. Now think about this.

If the world wakes up tomorrow morning,

and there are no Muslims.

No Muslims, no masajid no, there is no signs of Islam.

No other

no man with topis and beards no women with hijab knows I know a jasm Islam never existed. Supposing they wake up in the morning and they find that everything is gone.

What will they say?

What will they feel? Will they say or feel the same thing like you arise that I like the example I just gave you which is that the mobile technology disappears for the disappear.

There will be panic, people will see it as a net loss. People will moan and groan and they will grieve and they will say oh my god, what happened? Bring it back right now we wanted

this was so good for us.

Why did it go? Where did it go? Do you think the same thing will happen? The non Muslims

with Muslims have disappeared, who's left non Muslims?

Will the non Muslims come out in the streets and say Where are the Muslims? Bring them back. These are beautiful people. These are great people. We love them. These are our friends. These people help us. These people are always there standing up to fight

For our causes, these people are always there to back us. These people are the people we go to, and they stand up for us.

We respect these people, we love these people bring them back.

Where did they go? Why did they go? Is this going to happen?

Is this going to happen?

I won't act out the opposite inciting is more than obvious.

Or maybe

people will not dance with join the streets to say, finally we got rid of them. We do seem different.

Like sparrows disappeared from from our from our homes and garden.

How many of you believe are noticed?

We don't have any sparrows. We don't have any hobos.

We don't even have miners.

All we have is pigeons.

How many people notice?

Is it going to is that what do you think is gonna happen? One of which of which of these? And what does that tell you?

What does that tell you?

About how we are viewed by our constituents? Why do I say constituents because Allah subhanaw taala told us that Allah Subhana Allah said cuando Hydra oma tiene okra yet linas Allah said, You are the best of people and you have been extracted, you have been taken out and selected for the benefit of mankind

or collegiate leanness.

What do you do that moment I bill Murphy what and how nadelman very well to me and I will let you enjoy and you promote, we invite towards you facilitate

you help

in everything which is good

amount of well known good.

What and how and I will Monica and you stop and you discourage and you prevent

and you guard

and you guide away from

everything which is harmful, everything which is evil.

Right.

And you have faith in Allah Subhana Allah.

So our constituents are the rest of the world.

And what's our job to benefit them in every possible way.

every possible way.

One of the most important is to present Islam to them.

But the door to Islam. The route to presenting Islam

comes through problem solving for them, standing up for them, helping them when they have difficulties.

Taking away alleviating their pain.

feeding them when they are hungry.

Clothing them when they need clothing, giving them shelter when they don't have shelter.

Standing up for their rights, even at our own expense.

only and only to be honest.

That is the route to presenting Islam.

A hungry belly

makes deaf ears.

People don't want to listen to lectures on theology when the belly is empty. First, beat first cloth, first shelter.

First help, first give medicine.

Then talk about Islam. And for the most part you do not need to talk about Islam because they are seeing you.

They're seeing where it's coming from.

One of the finest examples of this as we speak is what is happening in South Africa. May Allah Subhana Allah bless and make a lot of dua for South Africa. beautiful country. Muslim population is 1%

one and a half percent perhaps not more than that.

Make a lot of love for them. Right now is going through enormous turmoil. There is practically the equivalent of a civil war happening in South Africa

is loading widespread looting and arson and all kinds of stuff.

In the middle of all that, what are the Muslims doing?

They're distributing food. They're distributing bread, they're distributing milk massages have been opened and they have become shelters for people who need shelter.

massages are open and they have they are sheltering people. They're giving them medicines.

They're giving them food they're giving them clothing.

Muslims have stood up

in in in non Muslim areas which were likely to be attacked.

Mostly Muslims have provided security they have gone them has gone there surrounded the place and stood there.

And hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah hamdulillah me all power to South African Muslim brothers and sisters and to their Allah and to the leaders.

This is right now as I speak, this is what is happening in South Africa I keep getting because I love Africa is like a like a second home to me. And I bought so many very, very dear friends of mine there that I'm very concerned about them, I am extremely concerned about their safety. So I'm in regular touch with them.

And they say sending me these in this information. And it's not. It's not them telling me they are sending me for example screenshots of of from Twitter, screenshots from Facebook, I'm not available, but they're sending me a screenshot from Facebook and Twitter of non Muslims commenting about the behavior of Muslims in South Africa at this time. Now, you know, and I know that that if the behavior had been negative, that would have been the you know, it would have hit the fan that's goes without saying

but all power to people who are fair

that they don't hide the good

that when it is good, they also publicize.

And hamdulillah

people are going there. And these are people who can't even afford to pay they're going they're there because the shops are all shocked. I mean, food, food supplies are cut. They're going there they're taking bread and milk

and other food supplies for their families and the zinc and I pay for it they said oh this is free Please take it

they're grown men and women standing there with the bread and the food and the milk in their hands weeping tears

and saying what kind of people are these you are also affected by this is not only the Muslims are protected? No. That's what they said that these are the people whose shops have been burnt.

These are the people who lost all their all their possessions. Their shops were burned and looted.

And what are they doing? They're standing there distributing food to others.

Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah

South African, by your ban on a Saudi Aramco Mazel muraki logically

Alhamdulillah

Allah, Allah, Allah subhanho

wa Taala

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Allah subhanho wa Taala della Jana Who is your witness,

and I make dua that Allah subhanho wa Taala should protect you, and your families and your wealth and your a and your possessions and your property.

And above all, you are a man

with his power and with his majesty and with his glory insha Allah.

This is the this is the image the picture of Islam that you want to see my brothers and sisters.

These Muslims in South Africa, they're not standing there making beds, they're helping people.

hamdulillah we have a lot of examples.

In many parts of the world,

right here in America we had right through the COVID period from 2019 onwards. Majid after mass distributing food in our budget also it is wl hamdulillah. We are like almost like a light like like Costco in the inside. The big hall was full of food,

full of food supplies and people who are free they will get coming. The only rule will wear a mask but come in and you know take what you need.

All free donated by our mu

them brothers and sisters in West Springfield.

And this is not unique. There were this this happened this story was repeated all over America hamdulillah

Muslims coming to the aid and help of others

Muslim restaurant owners

inviting homeless people just come eat your field and go, no problem.

No charge.

We need good stories.

We need good news.

Now hamdulillah

and I'm very delighted and very happy that when I when I say we need good news, I don't have to go and you know, do one sort of great hunt for it and search for it in nooks and crannies

is right here and we'll open before our eyes. May Allah bless our brothers just as we need to multiply this.

Living Islam is about multiplying this every Masjid must become a center of goodness. And like a candle which right radiates its light and takes away the darkness from a room every budget must become that

every Muslim home must become that every Muslim business was become that

Angela via one of our brothers here in West Springfield, who feeds homeless people every week, after Friday. After do masala his wife cooks the food and he feeds them outside his shop in downtown West Springfield. I mean, I would have mentioned his name, but I know he would not want me to do that.

And hamdulillah

we need to multiply this

focus on being beneficial.

Focus on being increasingly beneficial

in your own way.

Whatever is your way.

teach people for example, reading and writing.

help children with their homework.

Go clean up somebody's yard.

Some elderly people, they need help

to buy things from the grocery store, go buy it for them.

Go to hospitals

hamdulillah you have money.

How many people in India is suffering because they don't have money to pay hospital bills, go to hospitals and settle their bills for them.

How many people are are languishing in prison because they don't have money to pay bills.

They can get out and go home.

But they need to pay the bill. And they have no money they have no one to help them go there. And say I'm here to pay bail money for whoever is eligible to go home on bed

pay their bill money let them let them go out

if you don't want to go physically and do it set up organizations in your towns in your cities, donate to those organizations. And then somebody will do people in the organization will go and do that for you. But set up focus on being beneficial to everybody

every project down cleanup project must have Muslims in it.

water projects must have Muslims in garbage collection project must have Muslims in it for distribution project Muslim Muslim schools Muslims in every beneficial thing must have a Muslim face and many Muslim faces in it. This is our goal in life take take it like to say that this is my my goal in life is to be beneficial to people whatever the nature of that benefit, as long as I'm not being asked to do something which is private it is love and you won't be asked. Nobody will ask you to distribute alcohol or or distribute marijuana

doesn't matter whether it's legal or not legal in Islam to

stick to the

book of Allah and the Sunnah of Rasulullah is a lesson

and focus our attention on becoming progressively more and more beneficial to everyone spread this word in your families, to the youngest of your children. Make sure your children do the activity with enjoyed they love it. Little children like nothing better than to be doing things for other people

ingrain it in in themselves as a habit which they will carry with them as they grow the habit grows with them. The memory of being beneficial will be with them as their biggest strength throughout their

lives.

ask Allah Subhana Allah to enable us to be beneficial as he intended us to benefit. And we ask Allah to help us in that and to protect us while we do that, and to accept it from us, and to reward us in keeping with his majesty and grace was gonna be very valuable he was I remember.

Well hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.