Seerah is the Answer #1

Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.

the smallness of means the greatness of the aim and stupendous results if these three things are the marks of greatness, then who can compare anyone with Muhammad

to long mankind he was a hero to everyone

directions from the way you believe you're when you put others first, you create an environment which is beautiful for everyone including

you spoke with wisdom to everyone you show

I have to stop rushing to offer opinions and advice and continue unearthing what our own inner conflicts. That's where we are. Now let make it easy.

This is

man calm angry

dream to the

salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato Bismillah al Rahman al Rahim, Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Shafi Lumbee Eva mursaleen Mohammadu rasool Allah is Allah Allah Allah you Ali he was happy he was alarmed asleep and Kaziranga sera farmajo My brothers and sisters Alhamdulillah Allah, we are today at the second and final day of the sera solution workshop we ask Allah subhanaw taala to reward you for coming here to attend the workshop and we ask Allah subhanaw taala to give us all the benefit of studying the Syrah of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and fill our lives with the baraka of his Syrah. Insha Allah

as I mentioned before, two things firstly,

the Sira of Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam Allah subhanaw taala sent his messenger Allah His salam for a purpose. And that purpose was to teach the world how to live, and how to live in a way which is beneficial for the whole world. Not not beneficial for one part or one section at the expense of the other. So this is the whole purpose and the differentiator of Islam as compared to any other way of being, which is that Islam seeks the benefit of everyone, not the benefit of one at the expense of the other.

The second thing is that, how do we know that the Syrah How do we know that the

way of Rasul Allah is Allah salah, which he lived in, in the seventh century, can be beneficial to us today in the 21st century. We know that by studying history, and when we study history, the thing that we see, which is very clear, which is that

the conditions in the seventh century in Makkah,

were almost exactly similar to the conditions in the 21st century, as we see it here today.

So, when we compare these two conditions, we are seeing that they are the same. And then when we look at these, we see that in the seventh century,

before

or the or at the beginning, when the Muslims when they when they first became Muslim, they immediately attracted the hostility of everyone concerned of all society, and therefore, they suddenly became the least influential, the most oppressed people of all, but by applying this method, which we know today as the Syrah of Rasulullah, Selim, in one generation alone,

they became the leaders of their community, they became role models for everybody.

Now, why is that important? Because it is like seeing a

like seeing a pilot project is like seeing a small experiment which proves the rule and the rule is

Islam works. So if Islam worked if this method worked under a set of circumstances in the seventh century, and if the same set of circumstances define the 21st century, then it's a safe assumption to make that the same method will inshallah work today as well. Now, when that method works, what is the result? The result is a society that is equitable, a society that is based on justice and compassion, a society that is not based on the exploitation of one by by the other. It's a society that is based with dignity, with human dignity for everybody, a society that is based on non discrimination, a society that is based on charity, where the giver of charity considers that

considers his ability to give not as a favor to somebody, but as a favor on himself or herself, bestowed by Allah subhanaw taala that they are in a position to give. So all of these are what I call switches in the mind that we need to make if we want to live our lives according to the Syrah of Rasul Allah Azza Rasul Allah subhanaw taala said la gana lagoon V Rasulillah. He was what on hashanah lemon gana EULA while your Mala Hera was going to LA cathedra Allah subhanaw taala said Truly, verily for you the best example to follow is the example of mine Abby Mohamed Salah Ali he values Abu Salam. And Allah says that this example is the best example for anybody who looks forward

to the meeting with Allah subhanho wa Taala on the day of judgment and who remembers Allah subhanaw taala a great deal.

So therefore, inshallah we ask Allah subhanaw taala to make us among those who will look forward to the meeting with him a meeting which is inevitable for anyone, whether they look forward to it or not, but those who look forward to it. They give evidence and this is evidence of their connection with Allah subhanaw taala where they look forward to the meeting with him geladeira

we have dealt with four of the elements of the Syrah the four things that we need to change in our lives, the four switches, quick recap. What are the four switches? What is the first one identity and what is the switch to move from? I am the king, to I am the Vice Chair. I'm the representative number one just like Allah, what is the second one? Dealings dealings with people who Oh ALLAH Oliva dealing with people? And how much those dealings be based on what on justice, no dealings, no partiality, no giving more to one at the expense of the other, what is the third one?

Culture and what is the shift in the culture, non discrimination, a culture which is based on human dignity on equal rights are non discrimination, no racism, no economic and social barriers and boundaries, no arrogance, no putting one before the other All human beings are equal in the sight of Allah subhanaw taala and they are entitled to equal respect and dignity culture number four

worldview and what is their worldview

charity as an investment in the era instead of as a sacrifice or a favor to those that you are doing charity for. So four things four switches that we make in our lives Inshallah, Allah subhanaw taala will change our future. We go to the fifth one, which is the issue of money. Now money is

a very important, very

critical part of our society.

And therefore, I believe that money is something that we should understand. From the earliest time this is a big

deficiency in our education system. And sadly, it's a deficiency in all education systems is the same thing applies whether it's a mother, or whether it's a so called secular school, where we do not teach children about money.

Children are using money, you're giving them pocket money and so on. They're using money, but we do not teach them about money. We don't we don't teach them what the meaning of money is. What does money mean? What does it represent? What kind

no responsibility does it bestow on me if I have money in my pocket? What am I supposed to do with that money? What is right? What is wrong, we don't teach any of this to our children, we just give them money. And the result is that we have developed a very irresponsible attitude towards money for most people. Money means the ability to spend, what they spend on is whatever strikes their fancy, as they say, the difference between men and boys is the price of their toys. So when he was a boy used to buy dinky cars, and now when he is a man is buying Ferraris, I mean, what difference does it make the mental the mental development is the same, from age four to age 40, there is no change in

the metal in mental development. And so also the it's not only the boys, it's also the girls. So the issue is money when we use it, with complete lack of responsibility. And that is something which is bad now looking at money, and the similarity

between the seventh century time of Rasulullah Salam, and our times, now what was happening at that time, there were three.

There are three big similarities. Number one was a banking system, a banking system, which was based on interest based lending. It was a banking system. Again, please understand, this is not something that the Arabs invented, the Arabs got this, from what the Romans and the Jews had been doing for centuries before that, there's nothing new. It was it was just something that they are also and when I say Arabs, I'm not saying everybody but the basically the business when America and others have the Jazeera talara. This is what they inherited, this is what they learned. And this is what they used, including, for example, at the terminal,

they will not even until the the first of the helluva pneumonia, there was actually no Arab or Muslim coins.

There is no the first coin was struck

from in a Muslim Kingdom long after we passed away.

So at the time, they were using basically Roman currency, they were using Roman and Persian coins. Now the way that the reason so therefore, they had an interest based banking system, you would go get a loan and you paid an interest on that loan.

Or you will or people who had money, they lend out money on interest. They had

financial instruments today, which we understand as financial instruments. For example, they had the equal amount of checks, they had the equal amounts of letters of credit, they did forward buying of goods. Now you might say, Well, how do you know it was a check? Well, what do you call it? I give you a note to somebody, right? For example, I give you a note in Ghana to engineer Bashir to say pay him 100,000 dinar.

So this person who i Who i Who takes by paper goes to him and he gets 100,000 dinar, that's a check.

Right? Somebody gives you a check, go to the bank and cash the check, you take the money and go home. Now that is that is a system they use. Now you might say, Well, why did they use all these systems very simple. The Arabs, America were placed in what I call the sweet spot. And I say sweet spot because it was the same spot, for example, that Switzerland was in this in the two World Wars. Switzerland is a European country. The two world wars were fought in Europe. Main battles were also fought in the European colonies in Africa and Asia.

But the main Battlefront was in Europe. It was a war between European countries. I mean, they were all except for Turkey, all of the European countries that Turkey also is almost a European country with half of it is in Europe anyway. So the however in that battle, Switzerland remain neutral. Now, how did that benefit Switzerland, it benefited Switzerland because no matter who you are fighting at the end of the day, you need to park your car somewhere, you need to be able to draw money, you need to be able to pay money. And how do you do that? You do that by means of putting all of that into a

neutral country.

Now again, think about this. You had Swiss banks, Swiss Swiss Swiss had the money. It is possible that Switzerland could have been invaded and occupied by either of the parties, either by the allies or by Germany in the earlier in the First World War, the axis, the Axis powers, but that didn't happen. It didn't happen because both the warring parties understood the value of a neutral place place in which they could interact with each other

And they could do their financial transactions.

So Switzerland benefited at the expense of both parties. If you put your money into a Swiss bank, they don't they don't pay you interest you pay them to keep your money. That's how Switzerland makes money is that so Swiss banks are so enormously profitable. And that's the basis of the Swiss economy. And that is also the reason why the Swiss banks are so closed mouths about who has money back then.

There are many countries who try their best to force the Swiss to divulge details about whose money is in their accounts, the Swiss do not give those details for a simple reason, because that is the basis of their economy. If they give those details, it means that confidentiality is no longer the case. That confidentiality with the money is no longer the case. And then people will not keep their money in Sweden. So this the Swiss version of that is I don't care how you got it. That's your problem that's between you and your country, whether you stole it or you took it earned it or whatever you did. As far as we are concerned, once your money is with us, we keep it safe, and we

keep your identity safe.

And for that you pay us we don't pay you to keep the money you pay us. So you we have access to your money plus, you also pay us

now that the the Arabs do not have Swiss banks, but the Arabs were in this kind of a

soft, sweet spot. So what happened was in the seventh century, the two main warring powers were the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire. So basically the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and the Persian Empire. These were the two major

powers which were fighting each other. Eventually Allah subhanaw taala gave the Romans victory over the portions. The Romans were at the

Romans, earlier the victory was with the Persians, the Persians even carried away what is called the True Cross

to Persia. And then Heraclius, the by the time, Roman emperor, he took a vow to bring back the true grace and Allah subhanaw taala gave them victory and he conquered Persia and he brought back

what they call the true class. And he put out the fire in the,

in the temple of the Rasta in Persia was called the eternal fire. Of course, it didn't end the Persian Empire, it was that there was just one defeat, Persian Empire continue. So these were the two battling powers. Now in the middle of these two battling powers, were the Arabs of just 02, Arab of which the Kurdish were one of the premier tribes. So the father coloration, the North was what today we know as Syria, which is known as a sham,

which consisted actually of today in today's terms, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Israel, all of these together was one country. And it was, it was it was called a sham. And remember, when we say country in the seventh century, you didn't have borders, you didn't have lines on maps to say, This is my land, that is your land. These were large land masses, which you understood to be one or the other. So that is, on the, in the north, in the south, you had Yemen. And Yemen was

a was a was under the Persian influence. And the North was, of course, Syria. Damascus was where Heraclius himself had his palace, that's where he's at.

Now, in the middle of these two were the Arabs. The Arabs came from a land which was very unproductive, there was no there were no crops there, there was no industry. Basically, they were people who by themselves produce very little because they didn't have the resources. And so they were really not worth ruling.

For either of these empires. It was not worth their while to go in there and fight battles, and then set up our administration to rule a piece of land which in the end, was incapable of paying taxes. So they were simply an unsupportable, useless piece of land and pretty worthless bunch of people. So they bought them neither of the empires were interested in doing dealing with them. However, this gave them a big advantage. First of all, they were not anybody's target. And second thing was that this gave them the opportunity to be the bridge between these two empires. Now, why did they need a bridge because at the end of the day, goods have to be sold. Money has to be made, and you can't if

I'm a Roman, I can't go to the port.

cinephile, they will kill me if I have a question. I can't come to the Roman Empire because they'll kill me. So what happens? I have an intermediary guy who's either Persian or Roman, who comes and buys from me and sells to them. And he buys from them and sells to sells to me. So we get what we want. And in the process, this guy also makes some money.

That's basically the role they played. So they would go to the north and buy in Syria and buy in Damascus, and they would bring that stuff down and sell it in Yemen, and they would buy in Yemen and they would sell it north in Damascus. In between these two journeys they arrested in Makkah, which was a geographically nicely located in the center. It was also their place, so they used to rest there but basically the goods which they bought in Damascus, Assyria were not sold in Makkah because nobody had the money to buy them.

But they were there. However, what started happening was that over the centuries

the mark Dhamaka, had the Kaaba,

the house of Allah subhanaw taala the masjid built by Ibrahim alayhi salam and it's finally salah. Thanks to the Kaaba. People used to come for pilgrimage, people would come would make the offer of the Kaaba and to pray.

Now these people came from all over Arabia, basically. Now when they came from all over Arabia, they came to Makkah they finished their tawaf and they finished their their worship. Now what do you do? They read what you do, when you now go to the Kaaba for Amara or for Hajj. What do you do? You go to the malls, you go for shopping, right? That's what they did, they also went for shopping. So now the goods that these guys these are all brought these guys brought was useful because you also had created a market there. Now also this was the reason why the cover went and collected so many idols I come from a country which is the which is

primarily Hindu, it's

the Constitution is secular, but primarily Hindu. So my country has more temples and all the world put together. But one of the things that you can you know is that in a temple there is only one God

what is called the presiding deity so in that temple if it's if it's a temple to Shiva, then this is called Sivan coil or it's called Shiva temple and Shiva is the deity in that and there is nobody else. And if another temple is a Ganesh temples and Ganesh is the deity, there's nobody else and so on and so forth. The kava collected 350 of them or 360 of them why? Because the kava was not a temple. The GABA was something else which had been user which had been taken over and converted into a place of idols. It was never billed for an idle

recap I had no idea because it was a masjid. What does the cover the cover was the masjid body debridement I believe into Masjid.

Now, how did the gods get there? Because now these people come from various places they are shopping and so on their worship, they said, You know what, we worship this particular God in our land. Here we find the God is not there the horizon no problem, bring the god and put him here. So they brought the god and put him there and somebody else said no here, but what about this other one, we come from another place, we have our God, no problem, bring the all Gods welcome. So bring the other God also. So they ended up with all of these idols. Again, please understand, it was not a theological issue. It was simply an issue of good economics. How do you attract the people by giving the people

what they want?

So we can say in our modern terminology, a kurage were very customer oriented. They were very interested in pleasing their customers, whatever the customer wanted to do. No problem. As long as you're buying stuff from me. You want to worship this particular God go and do your stuff. I don't care.

It was not an issue of religious tolerance. It was not an issue of Theology at all. They didn't care one way or the other day just said you do what you want. As long as you are buying my stuff. That is what I'm interested in. I'm interested in your money. I'm not interested in your religion.

Does all this sound familiar to you today? Does anyone ask you Who are you worshiping when you go to Disney? No.

You go to the Mall of America you go to you know this bar or that mall? Does anybody get you going to do it without Dubai?

You know, most people go do it on Dubai small handbags Nigeria's go to buy suitcases. Does anybody ask you?

Well, I bless you well bless your wealth and Shala

I'm not making fun of you hamdulillah but use that well fill that well. Buy a nice big suitcase, fill it with dollars and go and distribute the knowledge to the poor people keep the suitcase no problem.