Mirza Yawar Baig – The Message Of Muhammad
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Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen
Wa Salatu wa Salamu ala Sharafi al-Anbiya
wal-Mursaleen Muhammadur Rasulullah Sallallahu alaihi wa ala
alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam tasliman katheeran katheera,
khawma ba'du.
My brothers and sisters, when you study the
seerah, ask yourself what the fundamental nature of
the message of Rasulullah Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
was, which resulted in such overwhelming opposition to
begin with and then total transformation of society.
What was the fundamental nature of the message
which managed to achieve this?
In my study of the seerah, and I
have written two books on this, I am
writing a third one, the reason for the
extent and severity of opposition was that the
Quraysh realized what would happen if people accepted
his message.
The opposition was not to the theological content
of the message, but to the political change
that it would create.
For polytheistic people to have an additional god
is never a problem.
And in any case, the Quraysh worshipped Allah
as their head god.
So even the word Allah, the name Allah
was not strange to them.
The issue was the political change that they
anticipated if people accepted the call to Islam.
Because Islam, the call to Islam was a
call to total societal change.
A change of the basis of social and
political action and norms.
Therefore, a change of social and political hierarchies
and power structures.
That is what they opposed.
Islam is about action, not about talking.
Now, power comes with territory.
Everybody wants power.
Understand this.
Power comes with territory.
A father has power within the four walls
of his house.
Or at least he thinks he has power.
The governor of a province has power in
the province, which is more than the power
of the individual father.
The president or the king of the country
has power in the whole country, which is
more than the power of the governor.
Power comes with territory.
Contribution defines territory.
The world respects and listens to contributors and
uses consumers.
When Muslims slipped from being contributors to consumers,
they became a commodity to be used.
Which brings us to our present state, where
despite being one in four, just get your
mind around this, if there are five people,
one of them is a Muslim.
If there are four people, one of them
is a Muslim.
Despite that, being one in four, we are
like foam on the front, without weight or
value, to be ignored, exploited and discarded at
will.
Ask yourself, when was the last time you
heard that in any major global matter, which
tends to affect the whole world, that anybody
from anywhere came to Muslim scholars to ask
for their opinion.
Finally, one incident.
When did this last happen?
In the last hundred years, in the last
thousand years, when did this happen?
And then ask yourself, why not?
1.5 billion people, one in four, and
nobody cares a hoot about what you think,
about your opinion, about what you approve of
and disapprove of.
Ask why?
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said that He
sent us for the benefit of people, to
teach them how to live a life of
virtue and goodness and compassion and justice.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's book is witness,
whether for or against us, is for us
to decide and work for.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said in the
famous ayat of Surah Al-Imran, which we
all know, Allah did not say, Allah
said it means, which means you are the
best community ever raised for the benefit of
humanity.
Allah did not say from humanity, for the
benefit of humanity.
There is a purpose to our existence.
And that purpose is to cause benefit to
everyone around us.
And then Allah said, what kind of benefit?
You encourage good.
You enjoy good.
You promote good.
All kinds of good.
And you forbid and you prevent and you
fight against all kinds of evil.
And you believe in Allah.
I submit to you that you can only
change what you own.
You can live in a rented house and
complain until you die about all that is
wrong with that house and what needs to
be done.
You would be totally right, but totally helpless
because you don't own the house.
Same thing with society that you live in.
Until you start thinking of it as your
society, you cannot change anything.
Ask how many people complain about the political
system in this country.
Then ask how many of them register and
go to vote.
Ask how many complain about schools.
This is being taught, that is being taught.
There is bullying, there is this, there is
that.
And then ask how many stand for elections
to school boards.
Ask how many complain about local administration.
And then ask how many volunteer on committees.
How many volunteer to work in the fire
service and the police?
As first responders.
Ask how many complain about Muslim refugee children
coming to this country through Christian and Jewish
refugee assistance programs which are state-funded and
then go into non-Muslim foster homes.
We hear a lot of complaints about this.
But then ask why there is no Muslim
family services organization.
Why not?
The state will fund that as it funds
anything else.
But you need an organization.
You need to have a body which can
ask for the funding.
We have no body.
Ask why not?
Ask why Muslims don't volunteer as foster parents
for Muslim children and other children.
Why not?
I submit to you that those who seriously
want change, they don't blame others.
But they ask themselves, what can I do?
That is what Islam teaches us.
To do something.
Not to simply complain.
Problems need solutions.
Not complaints.
In the life of every man and woman
comes a time when a window opens and
they have a unique opportunity to make a
contribution, to make an impact.
To succeed, we need to anticipate and prepare
and act with courage.
Our window is open now.
Once the window is shut, then our life
is over even if we remain alive.
Because to live is not merely to draw
breath, but to create a legacy of honor.
Muslim society, to use a TA term, transaction
analysis terminology, is in the parent-ego-child
state.
The parent-ego-child state is a state
where a person feels that whatever happens to
them, they feel sad, glad, bad, mad because
of something external.
They ascribe everything that happens to them, good
or bad, to an external power source.
Now obviously as you are growing up as
an infant, that is true.
It's your parents taking care of you and
so on and so forth.
But once you grow up, very soon you
are in a position to take decisions.
You are in a position to affect your
own destiny and so on.
But people choose not to do that.
They choose this, I call it slavery, where
they continue to dump everything on an external
agent.
And this seems to have been, it was
and is, the preferred norm and the preferred
state of Muslim society.
And all attempts to develop the adult ego
state, where a person takes ownership and responsibility
for himself or herself, are repressed.
It creates in us a tendency to blame
others for our situation, be it local or
global.
Listen to our conversation, just do that.
Next time you are sitting with your friends
and so on, just carefully listen to our
conversation and you will almost never hear statements
owning responsibility for our problems.
The problem is always because of somebody else.
And you can't find anyone to blame, then
they blame God, they blame Allah.
What can I do, this is my khisma,
this is my destiny.
The rule of life, as I mentioned to
you, is that only owners can change what
they own.
If you don't own it, you can't change
it.
So if we don't take ownership of our
problems, we condemn ourselves to live with them
in perpetuity until we decide to accept responsibility.
The moment you accept responsibility, the power to
change the situation is given into your hands.
This is our single biggest problem and the
biggest cause of our dismal and very painful
state as a ummah, as a nation.
You must not allow what is not in
our control to prevent us from doing what
is in my control.
So what are the solutions?
There are four things that we need to
do.
And I take this from the seerah of
Rasool Allah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam.
Number one is unity.
Now it's time, it's high time to stop
paying lip service to unity and actively work
to promote it.
So stop preaching division and stop supporting those
who preach divisions and sectarian policies.
Reject anyone who tells you to hate anyone,
especially another Muslim.
History is history.
Don't let it color your presence.
Learn the lesson, but remember that it happened
in a different time and place and with
different people.
Not the one that you must work with
today to solve the problem that affects all
of us.
Remember that whatever be our aqidah, we have
critical, even existential problems that are common to
all Muslims.
So therefore when I say unity, I'm not
talking about reconciling different ideologies or converting anyone.
That is impossible and unnecessary.
I'm talking about working with people with a
different ideology.
That is possible and is critical.
Leave the aqidah to Allah.
That is between them and Allah, not between
you and them.
We must work with others here or we
will perish.
It is as simple as that.
Number two, a central fund.
The reality is that no long-term strategic
planning can be done without an assured source
of funding.
Sporadic charity is not sufficient.
In Islam we have zakat, but the use
of zakat fund is strictly governed by the
Quran.
Therefore I suggest that a separate fund be
created to which every Muslim man, woman and
child must contribute a small amount every day.
That's the key.
Small amount every day.
This is where we can leverage our numbers,
where the compounded result will be very significant.
Think about it.
Just the price of a cup of coffee
per day, which is $5, cumulative for 10
,000 people, amounts to 18,250,000 people
in one year.
$5 per day for 10,000 people amounts
to 18,250,000 per year.
Do the sums.
More or less, depending on your community.
Even if it is one million a year,
it's more than what you are getting now.
So think about that.
The question is, I've done the sums, I've
showed you the numbers.
Are you willing to do it?
It won't happen by doing mental calculations.
It will happen by putting your hand into
your pocket, pulling out a $5 note and
putting it into a central box and encouraging
everyone else, your family, your friends, to do
the same.
Number three, education.
As I mentioned many times before, we need
an education system that bridges the gap between
technology, science and theology.
We need something that bridges the gap between
technology and science and theology.
Add to this education in manners, ethics, values,
morals, leadership, communication, conflict resolution and the whole
host of critical life skills that do not
form part of our school curricula.
It is out of the scope of this
lecture to go into the details, but I
will suffice to say that it is all
doable, enjoyable and eminently possible if we have
the will.
You must feel the urgency of the situation
and pull together as one if we are
to succeed.
Number four is collaborative leadership structure.
This consists of two major things.
One is the structure itself where leaders must
have fixed terms of leadership and a CTS
assignment, critical to success assignment, to develop successors.
Remember, success depends on developing successors better than
we are.
More competent, more competent, wiser.
The big challenge will be to break out
of our feudal mindset and embrace collaborative leadership.
You and I know that today's format in
Muslim organization is until death does us part.
Like the Catholic marriage vows.
As soon as you become a leader you
stay there until you drop dead.
It's highly undesirable.
And that's why we have a huge problem
creating successors.
There's almost nobody.
And any time the leader dies there is
a big vacuum that is left.
This is a sign of the worst kind
of leadership.
Rasulullah S.A.W. was a Nabi.
He was the last and final messenger after
whom.
There is no messenger.
He knew this.
He said this.
Yet he still developed successors including somebody like
Sayyidina Umar Ibn Khattab.
I don't know about whom.
Rasulullah S.A.W. himself said that if
Allah had kept Nabuwat alive then Umar would
have been the Nabi after me.
So he even had somebody who was capable
of being a Nabi although there was no
Nabuwat and therefore he is not a Nabi.
What do we do?
Ask ourselves what do we do in our
Muslim organizations.
We ensure that anyone with any talent to
succeed is nipped in the bud, is killed
and smashed and removed before they can raise
their head.
This is what we do.
So break out of this feudal mindset and
embrace collaborative leadership.
That's the first one.
The second one is the process of decision
making itself.
We must practice the Shura method which Allah
S.W.T. commanded and which Rasulullah S
.A.W. practiced and taught us.
This automatically supports successor development and builds good
interpersonal relationships.
I must sound a warning in advance.
We are talking about rewriting the destiny of
the Ummah.
It will take time and tears before Allah
S.W.T. It will take a lot
of patience and a lot of investment.
So be prepared for pushback from current leadership
but they and we must fear the day
of no return when we will meet Allah
S.W.T. and we will be asked
what did you do.
We will not be asked what did you
know or what did you have.
We will be asked what did you do.
Rasulullah S.A.W. worked ceaselessly and so
did his Sahaba.
His mission succeeded and we are sitting here
1400 years later and saying Ashadu anna Muhammadan
Rasulullah because of only one thing.
They gave everything and they changed everything and
they took every pain and punishment without looking
for worldly rewards only to please Allah.
They followed the Sunnah because it was Sunnah.
Today we leave the Sunnah because it is
Sunnah.
How evil is that?
They demonstrated their love for Allah S.W
.T. and his Rasul S.A.W. through
their actions.
We instead sing Nasheed and celebrate Mawlid instead
of following the Sunnah of Rasul S.A
.W. Allah S.W.T. demanded action as
evidence of love which is a condition of
Iman.
and struggling in his path then wait until
Allah S.W.T. brings about his will
meaning Allah will punish you and Allah does
not stand or does not guide a rebellious
people.
The Sahaba R.A. understood this and so
they acted.
They left the company of Rasul S.A
.W. and took his message to the ends
of the world.
I want to end with my dream for
when I meet Rasul S.A.W. I
want to say to him Ya Rasulullah S
.A.W. Jazakumullahu Khairan for the example that
you set for us to keep going from
disaster to disaster from difficulty to difficulty from
pain to pain you kept going you didn't
despair you didn't stop you didn't see the
outcome you didn't look for outcomes but they
happened only because of you.
Now Rasulullah S.A.W. wasn't looking for
the outcomes but the outcomes happened because he
was steadfast.
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 control you didn't respond in kind but
you managed your high moral ground you maintained
your high moral ground.
The message therefore to us my brothers and
sisters is to follow Rasulullah S.A.W.
and to emulate him.
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 for today is really investment
in our own tomorrow.
Never fail to act and raise your voice
against oppression because oppression anywhere is oppression everywhere.
In Islam there is no differential justice.
Injustice to one is injustice to the whole
system and therefore whether that person to whom
injustice is being done is a Muslim or
not is not an operative question.
Islam prevents and stops all injustice.
Never fail to act and raise your voice
against oppression because oppression anywhere is oppression everywhere.
Never fear, never despair, never give up because
Rasulullah S.A.W. never gave up.
I remember courage is not the inability to
feel pain or fear but to continue through
both of them because we believe that the
cause is worth it.
Let me repeat.
Courage is not the absence of fear but
the willingness to go through that fear.
Never to despair, never to give up and
you do that because you believe that the
ending is worth it.
I remember the beautiful Hadith of Rasulullah S
.A.W. where Anas bin Malik R.A.
reported that Rasulullah S.A.W. said I
wish I could meet my brothers.
He said I wish I could meet my
brothers.
The Sahaba asked him, he said Ya Rasulullah,
are we not your brothers?
Rasulullah S.A.W. said you are my
companions, you are my Sahaba but my brothers,
Ikhwani, are those who have faith in me
yet they never saw me.
I submit to you that Inshallah this applies
to us.
We believe in him, we believe him, we
have faith in him and we have never
seen him.
Let's make it firm.
Finally, remember that we never walk alone.
If we walk as representatives of Rasulullah S
.A.W. we walk secure in the knowledge
that Allah SWT is watching us, hearing us
and is with us and that one day
we will meet Allah and meet Rasulullah S
.A.W. I hope that on that day
Allah SWT will say Ya Rabbi, forgive them,
on that day I hope that Rasulullah S
.A.W. will say Ya Rabbi, O my
Rabb, forgive them because they are mine.
I ask Allah to include all of you
and me in that.
In conclusion, you want to change the world?
Then complain to Allah alone in the night,
not to the whole world.
Don't even complain to yourself.
Complain to Allah SWT alone in the night.
And in the morning, act and invest and
work yourself to a standstill.
And you will succeed.
That is the law.