Mirza Yawar Baig – Message of Muhammad
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Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim.
My dear respected brothers, sisters, elders.
When we study the Seerah, ask yourself, what
is the fundamental nature of the message of
Rasulullah, which resulted in two things.
Overwhelming opposition to begin with, and then total
transformation of society.
Now in my study of the Seerah, and
I have written two books on the Seerah,
the reason for the extent and severity of
opposition was that the Quraish realised what would
actually happen if people accepted his message.
I say to you that the Quraish who
opposed Rasulullah understood his message better than we
understand it today.
May Allah have mercy on us.
The opposition was not to the theological content
of the message.
It was not to worshipping of Allah, Jalla
Jalaluhu, but to the political change that this
message, acceptance of which, would create in society.
The message of Islam is and was a
call to total societal change.
Change within ourselves as individuals.
Change within our families.
Change within our communities.
Change within entire society.
Complete change.
A change of the very basis of social
and political action and norms.
Therefore a change of social and political hierarchies
and power structures.
Islam is about action.
It is not about talking.
I submit to you that power comes with
territory and contribution defines territory.
The world respects and listens to contributors and
uses consumers.
So let us ask ourselves, are we contributors
or are we consumers?
When Muslims slipped from being net contributors to
becoming consumers, they became a commodity to be
used.
Which brings us to our present state, where
despite being one in four, think about that,
if there are four people, one is a
Muslim, anywhere in the world.
We are one in four.
We are like the four on the flank,
as the hadith of Rasulallah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam said.
And what did he say was the reason?
Wahan.
The Sahaba, I ask them, what is wahan,
O Messenger of Allah?
He says, peace be upon him, love of
life and hatred of death.
Look into your heart.
What is in my heart?
What is in his heart?
Love of life and hatred of death?
Or, love of Allah, love of Rasulallah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam, and longing to meet Allah?
Death is not a sin.
Death is a door.
Death is not the end of life.
It is a door in our hearts.
Don't I say love of death?
But I say love of moving from this
world and the world of the Sahaba to
the hereafter and meeting Allah.
What is in our hearts?
This is very, very important.
لنا مهم لنا التسكية القلوب وتسكية النفس وتربية
الأقناع ونور قلوبنا بنور الله وبحب الله
وبحب رسول الله sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Look
at, I invite myself, let me look at
my own heart.
And I invite you to look at your
hearts.
What is there?
Is there حب الدنيا وقراءة الموت?
Is there love for the dunya and fear
and dislike for death?
Or is there love for Allah and love
for Rasulallah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and the
desire to meet Allah?
I don't say desire to die, no.
But desire to make the intiqal, to move
from this aalam to that aalam where we
meet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Is it that?
It is extremely essential, it is the number
one essential thing for all of us.
To do تسكية النفس وتربية الأقناع and to
illuminate our hearts with the noor of Allah
and the noor of the hubb of Allah
and the hubb of Rasulallah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam.
Absolutely critical, there is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing,
nothing more important than this.
Very sadly the Quraish understood this.
The people who tried to kill Rasulallah sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam understood the message of Islam
better than I understand it today and may
Allah protect me if I am wrong but
most of us understand today.
We think we are Muslims, but doesn't matter
what we think.
What matters is what Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala will know.
And that's why we have today, even though
we are 1.5 billion, we are without
weight and without value to be ignored, exploited
and discarded at will.
Just today I saw the headline of the
statement of a guy who was the former
head of UNWRA and he said that Israel
has converted Gaza into an industrial level slaughterhouse.
And we sit here happily, we sleep here
happily in our beds, we eat different kinds
of food, we waste it.
Just come here and see what happens when
we have any food, any feeding in this
Basjin, at the end of that see how
much food is wasted.
There is Salahuddin.
May Allah bless him.
Every time, this is not your mother's house.
Have you heard him now?
He says that people are starving, children are
starving, they are dying of starvation and we
throw food, we waste food, then we claim
to love the people of Palestine.
Where is this love?
There are protests organized by Jewish people to
which Muslims don't go.
You want to hear the truth, I'll tell
you the truth.
You want to live in your khumar and
live.
It's your life.
Brothers and sisters, Allah sent us with a
Deen which has the power to change society.
Remember that you can only change what you
own.
So ask yourself how you feel about your
life, about where you live.
If you feel that you own the place,
this is my place, I'm here by right,
which is true, legally.
But is that what you feel?
Or you feel that you are only in
transit, I'm here in transit waiting to go
back to Somalia.
I'm here in transit waiting to go back
to Afghanistan.
I'm here in transit waiting to go back
to Palestine or Lebanon or this or that
or India or Pakistan.
What do you feel?
Are you an owner of the house or
are you a tenant?
I'll tell you there's a world of difference.
Because if you are a tenant and you
talk from morning till night about all that
is wrong with the house, you will be
totally correct, but you will be totally helpless.
You cannot do anything.
You cannot put a knock and nail in
the wall without the permission of the owner.
But if you are the owner of the
house, you can knock down the house and
build a new house.
Nobody can question you.
So what are you?
So here is a self-test.
Do the test for yourself.
Ask how many people complain about the political
system in this country.
And then ask how many register and go
to vote.
Ask how many complain about the school system
in the country.
And then ask how many go and stand
for elections to school boards.
Ask how many complain about local administration.
Then ask how many volunteer for committees.
How many volunteer to work in the fire
service and the police.
How many go to town hall meetings.
Ask how many complain about Muslim refugee children
coming here through Jewish and Christian refugee assistance
programs, which are state funded, and then they
go into non-Muslim foster homes.
How many people complain about this?
And then ask why is there no Muslim
family service organization?
The state will fund that as well as
anything else.
As long as you have a proper organization
which is organized, which is constituted properly, the
state funding you will also get.
Why is there no Muslim family service organization
to bring refugees and to settle refugees?
Why is it that Muslims don't volunteer for
foster parenting?
Why?
Those who seriously want change, don't blame others.
They ask themselves, what can I do?
That is what Islam teaches us.
To do something, not simply to complain.
Because problems need solutions, they don't need complaints.
I ask Allah to open our eyes to
what needs to be done and give us
the courage and the power to do it.
Because a day will come when we will
stand before Allah and we will not be
able to say, I did not know.
Because Allah will say, there was that mad
old man who used to stand there in
the middle of your masjid and he told
you and Allah is witness.
You will not be able to say, I
didn't know.
Do something.
Every time I go to a protest, I
don't know where to look.
Because the number of Muslims there, I count.
Sometimes I can't even reach my ten fingers,
less than that.
And they say, no, no, but you know,
we'll lose our jobs.
What do you think is happening to those
people who are organising the protest?
They are getting doxxed.
They are getting fired.
They are going to jail.
For who?
For the people of Gaza.
For the people of Lebanon.
And we, I won't even say where are
the Lebanese and where are the Palestinians because
we are all one.
This is one umma.
This is our biggest curse that we have
tried to divide ourselves.
Or Iraqi problem.
Or Syrian problem.
There is no Iraqi and Syrian and Palestinian
and Lebanese and Indian and Pakistani.
We are one.
We are Muslims.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said And I
am your Lord, so worship Me.
And there is another verse.
And I am your Lord, so fear Me.
These are the words of Allah, not mine.
Sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa
sallam.
Tasliman kathiran kathiran.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said Allah and
His angels send blessings upon the Prophet.
O you who have believed, send blessings upon
him and give him peace.
Allahumma salli ala Sayyidina Muhammadin wa ala ali
Muhammad.
Kama sallita ala Ibrahim wa ala al Ibrahim
wa inna kamilul majid.
Allahumma sallita ala Muhammadin wa ala ali Muhammad.
Kama sallita ala Ibrahim wa ala al Ibrahim
wa inna kamilul majid.
Brothers and sisters, It is time to stop
playing games.
There are five things that we need to
do.
Four things.
Number one.
I am talking from my knowledge and understanding
of the seerah.
The first thing that Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam did was to create one ummah.
To join people.
And that is what we need to do.
Look at your brother as your brother.
Because Allah said he is your brother.
If somebody else comes and says no no
no he is not your brother because of
this and because of that.
Say excuse me.
Should I listen to you or should I
listen to Allah?
That is the question.
Do you want to listen to the person
who is talking divisive language?
Or do you want to listen to Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala who said you are
one.
So number one thing.
Unity.
In order to have unity please understand it
is not necessary for all of us to
be on the same aqeedah.
Not required.
We do interfaith work with the Jews and
the Christians and the Hindus and the Buddhists
and so on.
Are they on the aqeedah to have here?
Do they believe in one Allah?
No.
But do we work with them?
Of course.
You are working in organizations where your bosses
and subordinates are not Muslim.
Are you not working?
Are you not happy?
We have to learn to work together.
If somebody has a different belief.
Alhamdulillah you keep the belief.
I have my belief.
You can have your belief.
But we have to work together because we
have problems which are the same irrespective of
my belief.
Irrespective of where I come from we have
the same problems with our children, with ourselves,
with security, with economy, with jobs, with all
kinds of issues we have which are common
to all of us as Muslims.
Second one.
We need money.
Money makes the world go around.
Do you like it or not?
I am going to teach you a very
simple way of making money.
Five dollars per person per day.
That's the price of a cup of coffee.
Decent coffee, five dollars.
And don't tell me if I have the
app on Dunkin Donuts I'll get it for
three dollars.
Five dollars.
Can you donate five dollars per day for
the ummah?
All of us, right?
Five dollars per day.
Now, my estimate is that in this community,
meaning West Springfield, Westfield, this whole area, right?
Springfield, this whole area, we have, I don't
know, five, six, what is it?
Together we have, my guess is we have
10,000 Muslims.
So you can do the sums up and
down, no problem.
But we'll work with a figure of 10
,000 because I'm not good at maths.
Now look at this figure.
Five dollars per day per person for 10
,000 people amounts to 18,250,000 dollars
in one year.
18,250,000 per year.
Per year, end of the year you have
another 18 million.
Third year another 18 million.
Do you think that's useful to have?
18 million bucks.
Imagine what all goodness can come out of
that money.
And as far as you as a person
is concerned, it's only five dollars a day.
That's it.
Five dollars a day.
So think about how you can organize that.
I'm not going to stand here and talk
to you about logistics.
Think about how you can organize that.
That is the power you have in your
pocket.
You are spending that five dollars every day
on something or the other anyway.
I'm not asking you to give some five
dollars from some special place.
No, you are spending that five dollars on
whatever it is.
I'm saying that five dollars, only five.
Don't give six dollars.
Five dollars per day.
18,250,000.
Third one, education.
We need an education system that bridges the
gap between theology and science.
Between theological Islamic education and your regular education.
We need an education which bridges that gap.
Again, details we will talk about.
But that is what we need to focus
on.
Create world-class schools that teach both.
In the way that Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala told us to teach.
And number four is a collaborative leadership structure.
A leadership structure where leaders have expiry dates.
If you're not a leader of that organization
for the rest of your life.
And they develop successors.
Succession planning is a very, very, very big
problem with the Muslims.
Whether it is in business, whether it's in
voluntary organizations.
My specialty is family business consulting.
And this is one of the major jobs
that I do in family businesses.
Succession planning.
No one does it.
In the Seerah, you can find examples of
all of these things.
Our brothers and sisters, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam worked seamlessly.
Without stopping.
And so did his Sahaba.
And they succeeded.
And 1400 years later today, standing here in
this country, thousands and thousands of miles from
where he was born and where he lived,
we say, Ashadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah.
Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and the Sahaba
changed everything and they took every pain and
every punishment without looking for any worldly reward,
only to please Allah.
Think about this.
The Sahaba followed the Sunnah because it was
Sunnah.
Today we leave the Sunnah because it is
Sunnah.
I want to end with my dream for
when I meet Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
I want to say to him, Ya Rasulullah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, Jazakallahu khairan.
For the example that you set, to keep
going from disaster to disaster, from difficulty to
difficulty, from pain to pain, from test to
test, you kept going.
You did not despair.
You did not stop.
You did not see the outcomes, but those
outcomes happened only because of you.
You did not see the opening of Jerusalem,
but it happened because of you.
You did not see the opening of Constantinople,
but it happened because of you.
You did not see the outcome, but they
happened only because of you.
They happened because you refused to give up.
You refused to stop.
You refused to despair.
You refused to be intimidated.
You never lost your cool.
You did not respond in kind.
You did not go down to the level
of people who were abusing you, but you
maintained your high moral ground.
Jazakallahu khairan Ya Rasulullah.
And so I say to myself and I
say to you, never give up.
Never seek safety when injustice must be challenged.
Never fail to risk your today for others'
tomorrow, because you know that what we risk
from our today is really investment in our
own tomorrow.
Never fail to act.
Never fail to raise your voice against oppression,
because oppression anywhere is oppression everywhere.
Never fear.
Never despair.
Never give up, because Rasulullah never gave up.
Courage is not the inability, courage is not
the inability to fear, to feel fear or
pain, but to continue through fear and pain,
because we believe that the cause is worth
it.
I remind you and myself of the hadith,
when Anas bin Malik r.a reported that
Rasulullah s.a.w. said, I wish I
could meet my brothers.
May Allah make us among those brothers.
And the Sahaba said, Ya Rasulullah, are we
not your brothers?
And he said, Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, you
are my Sahaba, you are my companions, but
my brothers are those who have faith in
me, yet they never saw me.
He said, my brothers, and by reference it
means brothers and sisters, are those who will
have faith in me, who believe in me,
even though they never saw me.
We ask Allah to include us among them
inshallah.
May Allah make us among the brothers and
sisters of Rasulullah s.a.w. Finally, remember
brothers and sisters, remember that we never walk
alone.
Whether we like it or not, we walk
as representatives of Rasulullah s.a.w. When
people see you and me, they are not
saying, here is Mirza Yawar being, and here
is so and so, and here is Zaid
Abu Adi.
They are saying, there is a follower of
Muhammad s.a.w. Whatever you do, good
or bad, reflects back on Rasulullah s.a
.w. So remember that.
We walk secure in the knowledge that Allah
s.w.t is watching us and hearing
us and He is with us because He
said so.
Wahuwa ma'akum aynama kumtum.
And we walk knowing that one day we
will meet Allah and we will meet Rasulullah
s.a.w. I hope on that day,
Rasulullah s.a.w. will say, Ya Rabbi,
forgive them because they are mine.
Forgive them because they are mine.
Allahumma ja'ala ma'ahu inshallah.
My final advice to you.
You want to change the world?
Then complain to Allah alone.
Don't even complain to yourself.
Don't complain to anybody.
Complain to Allah alone in the night.
And in the morning, get up and act,
and invest, and sweat, and work yourself to
a standstill.
That is the law.
And success is Allah's promise.
Allahumma
inshallah.
Jazakumullahu khair.
Jazakumullahu khair.