Mirza Yawar Baig – Mercy is to forgive
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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.
Now, the thing about relationships that we learn
from the Seerah is, it's an amazing thing
because it teaches us to once again move
from what comes naturally to us.
And in some cases, if not everything, but
in some cases, it is also legal and
jaiz and permissible.
Which is to get evil.
Which is to punish somebody else.
You can't punish everyone for everything but where
it's in your purview of your authority.
Right?
To take revenge for example, in terms of
the Sharia, your action should not exceed what
the person did.
But to that extent, you can take it
back.
People can retaliate, right?
For example, the Prophet, peace be upon him,
the famous hadith of his, what was almost
his last khatira or his last interaction with
his people, he, after Salatul Maghrib, he, peace
be upon him, said to the people, he
said, I have given to everyone their due.
If there is anyone that I have harmed,
or anyone who has anything against me, if
there is anyone who needs to retaliate, let
him retaliate now.
Right?
So this shows us, among other things, it
shows us that to retaliate is not hard.
It is permissible because the Prophet, peace be
upon him, is saying to people, if you
need to retaliate, do it.
But let me complete this story also.
It's a very beautiful story.
So one Sahabi says, Ya Rasulullah, I have
to retaliate.
You caused me pain.
So imagine the whole masjid is full of
people and they are shocked.
He said, what kind of man is this?
He is saying this to the Nabi, peace
be upon him.
I have to retaliate to you?
So he came up and he said, Ya
Rasulullah, you poked me in my stomach with
an arrow and that hurt me.
Now what that refers to is, Rasulullah, peace
be upon him, the importance of straightening the
saf.
You know, today we stand all over the
place.
You should line up with your heel, not
with the toe.
Because people's, the length of the foot is
different.
But if everyone stands with the heel, then
everyone is in one row.
So Rasulullah, peace be upon him, used to
walk in the first saf and he would
push people back or bring them forward to
make sure they were in one line.
That is so important.
Before starting the salah, he would walk in
the saf, straighten the whole line, then he
would ask for the ikamah to be called.
So sometimes he used to take an arrow
and he would hold the arrow like this.
So between the people, so they were in
line.
And affectionately, if somebody was sticking out, he
would poke them like this with the arrow.
He was not stabbing them or something.
He just touched them.
So this sahab, he said, Rasulullah, you poked
me and it hurt me.
So I must retaliate.
So Rasulullah, peace be upon him, lifted up
his shirt.
He said, do it.
The man bent down and he kissed Rasulullah,
peace be upon him, on his stomach.
And he said, I wanted this to be
the last thing I do.
That's how they loved him.
So what I am saying to you here
is that to move from revenge to forgiveness,
Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam set an example which
is absolutely unprecedented.
I am not saying this only out of
my love for him and my respect for
him.
This is historically, logically, data-wise, there is
no second person who did that.
Which is that not only did he not
retaliate, he did not even seek compensation for
what they lost.
Now why is it important to do this?
Why is forgiveness important?
Because the root of all goodness is mercy.
Now mercy, think about this word mercy.
Rahma.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, his name, his
personal name, about which it is wajib and
fard to add abd before this name if
you give it to your child or if
you have this name.
Which is?
Rahman.
The two of the names of Allah.
Allah and Rahman.
You cannot use these as names without adding
abd before.
Abdullah.
You can't name your child Allah.
Abdullah.
Now we don't name Allah, we call him
Abdullah but we name him Rahman.
We don't name him Abdullah Rahman.
And especially in our neck of the woods.
Rahman bhai aaye the, tumhare bhai ho the.
Yeh bolta man la.
Translation.
Brother Rahman came.
Who is brother Rahman?
He is Abdul Rahman.
Ar Rahman is Allah.
Right?
There is a tailor in my city Hyderabad,
stitches beautiful sherwani's.
His name is Rahman and sons.
He said inna lillahi wa inna lillahi rajul.
That's like saying Allah and sons.
La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah.
Astaghfirullah al-lazeem.
Now seriously, this is all because of the
completely zero knowledge about Islam.
We need to learn.
We need to learn.
These things are not small things.
These are very very serious matters.
To do that, I mean, of course, these
people are doing it without knowledge.
May Allah forgive them.
But if you do it deliberately, it is
kufur, it is shirk, it is out of
Islam.
So, anyway, to come back to the topic.
So, Rahma is mercy.
Mercy presumes, and please understand this, mercy presumes
that something wrong happened.
Right?
Sometimes you tell somebody, forgive the man.
He says, no, but he did it.
That is why you need to forgive.
If he didn't do it, why do you
forgive him?
Of course, he did it.
That is why you forgive.
No?
You can't forgive in the absence of, he
didn't do anything.
So, forgiveness, mercy, means something has been, something
wrong has happened.
Mercy means that you have been wronged and
therefore automatically you have the right to retaliate,
but you choose not to retaliate.
This is mercy.
And that is why it has such a
high level.
So, that is why we forgive.
Remember the dua that Sayyida Aisha Siddiqa, she
asked him, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said,
Ya Rasulullah, if I find Laylatul Qadr, if
I find Laylatul Qadr, what dua should I
ask Allah?
What was the dua?
Allahumma innaka afuwwun, tuhibbul afu, fa'afu anni.
Wallahi, you are the forgiver.
And you love to forgive.
So, forgive me.
This is the dua that Nabi Sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam is teaching to our mother, Aisha
Siddiqa.
Allahumma innaka afuwwun, tuhibbul afu, fa'afu anni.
As I mentioned to you, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam set an example which is completely
unprecedented.
13 years in Mecca, see I will tell
you something.
For somebody who was never really respected, unknown,
some stranger and he finds that people are,
they don't really respect him and so on
and so forth, it doesn't hurt too much,
right?
I mean, nobody knows me, so what respect
am I expecting anyway?
And maybe I am, we should not have
all these levels in society, but we have
them, so we know this.
Somebody who is poor and from a lower
level of society, I remember on a side
note, in Hyderabad, there was a rickshaw guy
who came in front of a car.
No crash happened.
So, the guy in the car is obviously
a wealthy guy.
He pulled down his window and he started
cursing him.
You know, we are in Hyderabad this year,
so I won't actually.
So, he cursed him.
That rickshaw guy said, I said only one
thing.
The rickshaw guy said, sahib, meri galti hai,
maanta hoon.
Aap mereko galiya diye, kuch nahi mata hoon,
main toh aap garib aad nahi hoon.
Magar main aapko galiya tu kaisa hota tha?
He said, you know, I know it's my
fault.
I accept that.
But you are cursing me, it doesn't matter,
I am a poor man.
But if I curse you, what will happen?
Really you have to think about these things.
This man, like his face fell like this
and he apologized to me, maafi saath hoon.
I am very sorry.
So, the point I am saying is that
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, in Mecca, as
I said, if you begin from zero, it
doesn't matter, but if you were honored and
you were loved and beloved and you were
so popular and you were, you know, the
talk of the town, ya Muhammad, ya Muhammad,
sadhikul ameen, sadhikul ameen, and suddenly one day,
like you turn off a switch, you become
the object of all kinds of mental, emotional,
and in many cases even physical punishment and
torture.
How difficult it is!
And then everything you have is confiscated.
Your property is gone.
Your house is gone.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam had, he had
a house and so on, what happened to
it?
Gone.
Not only that is gone, but all of
those people who followed you, who came, who
migrated, the muhajirun, they lost everything.
Right?
They lost everything.
So, about Rumir Abdullah, each one is a
beautiful story.
Everything.
He gave up his whole wealth.
Everything he gave up just to go to
Madinah.
And Nabi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, you
made a good bargain.
Now, eight years later, they come back to
Makkah.
And they don't just come back to Makkah
going through immigration in JFK, they come back
to Makkah at the head of a conquering
force.
They are the rulers.
They are the rulers in the 7th century,
the custom of the time, what would the
Romans do?
The Romans when they conquered a city, three
parts.
One third they slaughtered, one third they enslaved,
and the one third were women and children.
That was standard Roman theory.
One third they killed to have some, put
their fear into people.
One third they enslaved, and one third were
left.
The Persians killed everybody.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is from that
time.
That is the norm.
That is the culture.
That is the usual way.
What does he do when he conquers the
city?
He says, idhabu, fa antumu tulaka.
He said, go, you are free.
Not only that, go you are free is
amazing, mind-blowing, but he doesn't stop with
that.
He does not even ask them to compensate
or return what they had taken.
He didn't say, okay, so now give back
my house.
His house was still there, no?
He didn't say, give my house back.
So, when Rumi Radella and others, none of
the Sahaba, the Muhajirun who had left Mecca
and gone to Madinah lost everything.
Not one of them came and said, ya
Rasulullah, you are the Rasul of Allah, you
have a big heart, you never ask for
anything because maybe you don't need anything, but
I am a poor man, I lost everything.
So, at least tell them to give back
what they took.
I am not asking for one cent more,
but you took a hundred dollars, give me
a hundred dollars.
Nobody came.
Not only did they forgive, not only did
he forgive, but they forgave.
Unprecedented, I mean, I am a student of
history, I love history, I do not know
of any other example in the world where
somebody forgave like this.
Complete forgiveness, no retaliation, not even compensation.
And the people, the affected people, they all
were of the same mindset.
That is the amazing thing.
But what was the result of that?
The result of that was in a culture
where taking revenge and vendettas and so on
was the norm to such an extent that
it extended from generation to generation.
They handed down these enmities like you hand
down some wealth.
So, I will go and kill you because
my great-grandfather was killed by your great
-grandfather.
Both the great-grandfathers are dead and gone.
Two more generations have gone.
But my generation, this guy did nothing to
me, but I have to kill him because
of this.
That was the kind of mentality those tribal
Arabs had.
Everything got wiped out clean, clean slate in
one stroke.
Because now after they were all forgiven and
given their freedom and say, go home, what
do you think would happen if somebody raised
a voice or somebody tried to hatch something
against Nabi Salaam?
He would be beaten down there.
People would say, what kind of man?
I mean, he just forgave you and now
you are plotting against him?
Sorry, I am not with you.
Go away.
So, no, all the potential opposition against Islam
got wiped out.
And therefore, they were then able to take
Islam to the whole world because they didn't
have to watch their back.
They didn't have to worry about anybody.
And that can only happen if you take
this first step and say, okay, we forgive.
I forgive.
That does not mean that you did not
do wrong.
It does not mean that we did not
suffer.
No, all of that is true.
You did wrong, we suffered and so on
and so on.
But therefore, we choose and we decide that
we are not going to retaliate.
We don't want compensation.
From tomorrow morning, from this morning, it's a
new life, new page like we were born
today.
Let us have good relationships and a good
life.
Right?
That is the power of forgiveness.
It rewrites history.
Which brings me to the operative question which
I will leave with each one of you.
Who am I willing to forgive now?
And I can bet you that I don't
think there is a single person in this
room who suffered at the hands of anybody
the way Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam suffered at
the hands of his people.
Because they killed his children, they hurt him
physically, emotionally, mentally.
They took away, he got looted because they
took away his possessions, his money, everything else.
Which one of us?
Allah has protected us.
Who has suffered?
At the most you might say, oh, somebody
disrespected me, somebody said something about me.
Beyond this what do we have?
But that one we bear this grudge, we
carry this in our heads and hearts.
So my submission to you is, think about
this now.
Think about this and talk about this and
say, who am I willing to forgive right
now?