Mirza Yawar Baig – Why Seerah
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AI: Transcript ©
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious,
the Most Merciful.
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, peace and blessings be
upon him, many, many times.
Then, my brothers and sisters, all praise is
due to Allah, we are here for this
blessed gathering to learn about the Seerah of
Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him.
I want to give you a quick brief
on the answer to this question, which is
that the Seerah, the life of Prophet Muhammad,
peace and blessings be upon him, is something
that took place in the 7th century, right?
7th century.
7th century in Mecca and some part of
it in Medina, the major part in Mecca,
small part, shorter part in Medina.
And therefore, what is the connection of that
to us today?
We are in America or we are in
some other place.
This is 2024.
This is the 21st century.
That was 7th century.
15 centuries have passed or 14 centuries have
passed.
How does this connect with us?
So, you might say, you know, it's a
nice thing.
We are not denying that we should study
the Seerah.
We should study the Seerah.
It's good to do.
But how is it relevant?
Why is it relevant?
How can I take it and practice it
in my life today?
How does it mesh?
Right?
Think about this.
That's what I want to explain to you.
How the Seerah meshes with our life today
in such a fantastic way that everything in
the Seerah is applicable today in our lives.
And I will show you how that is
possible.
So, a quick brief about what Mecca was.
Mecca was in what you would call nomad's
land, not worth conquering.
It was desert, produced nothing.
It was between the two big empires of
the time, the Byzantine or the Roman Empire
in the north and the Persian Empire in
the south.
So, Persian Empire came all the way up
to Yemen.
Roman Empire came all the way up to
what today we know as Syria, which is
Sham and down to Iraq.
And in between was this piece of land,
which was mostly desert.
It had some oasis like Madinah Yathrib was
an oasis.
So, they had some cultivation of grapes and
dates and so on.
But basically, it was not any land which
anyone bothered to conquer and rule because they
could get nothing out of it.
But that's what made those people, that was
their USP.
That is what gave them leverage.
And what gave them leverage was, you had
these two big empires.
They had enormous wealth.
They used to produce goods and services of
all kinds, all kinds of wonderful things they
made, like Persian carpets and so on, and
the Romans made beautiful statuary and whatnot and
many other things.
So, obviously, if you are producing something, you
need a market, someone to buy it.
So, if I'm a Roman and I'm a
Roman producer of whatever it is, some goods,
I need someone to sell it to.
And which is the best market to sell
it to?
The Persians because they have money.
If I'm a Persian and I'm making these
fantastic carpets and shawls and whatever else, right,
I need to sell them.
Who else do I sell them to?
I need to sell them to the Romans
who are building these massive palaces and they
need carpets.
So, where do you get the carpets?
From Persia.
But we have a problem and the problem
is, we are at war with the Persians.
So, if as a Roman, if I go
into Persia, I die.
If as a Persian, I come into Rome,
I die.
So, now I'm stuck.
That is where the Arabs came in.
The Arabs unstuck them.
What the Arabs did was, they said, you
stay with your war, but we are people
who are not at war with anybody.
So, we will come to you in Rome,
meaning Byzantine in Syria, take your goods, we
transport them to Persia, we sell them there,
we take that stuff, bring it here and
sell you.
So, you got, both of you get whatever
you want and we make money in the
process.
This is like what Switzerland did and does
to this day, for example, right?
Switzerland deals with money like this.
In the two world wars, Switzerland was neutral
and nobody invaded Switzerland.
Nobody went in because they needed Switzerland.
They said, we need somewhere to park our
money.
So, here's Switzerland, you stay out of the
war, we will fight, but we need to
park the money somewhere.
We need to still have transactions.
That happens to Switzerland and the Swiss bankers
get a cut of the deal.
That is exactly what they did, the Arabs
did.
They got a cut of the deal when
they, that was a sweet spot.
Now, Mecca became the sweet spot in this
long journey and Allah SWT mentioned this.
The ilah of the Quraysh, ilah fi rahlata
shita, it was safe.
They used to make this rahla, they make
these caravans in the winter and the summer.
So, Mecca was a sweet spot because in
this long journey from Yemen all the way
north, Mecca was in the middle, so that
was a place where they stopped, they rested,
also happens to be my hometown, so I
also see my family and so on.
I get some time to take a break
and then I continue my journey.
Meanwhile, while I'm taking a break here, I
create a local market for the people of
the Arabian Peninsula to say, if I want
to buy the Persian stuff, I don't have
to go to Yemen, I can buy it
in Mecca.
If I want to buy the Roman stuff,
I don't need to go to Sham, I
can buy it in Mecca.
So, shorter journey for me, I get what
I want.
So, there's a lucrative market for local tribes.
Also, what they did was, it so happened
the Kaaba was there, so they leveraged that.
Say, why don't you come, do your pilgrimage,
also do some shopping and go home.
Sounds familiar, right?
Our Umrah holidays, every year we go for
Umrah, may Allah protect our Niyah.
Are you going for the Umrah or are
you going for the shopping?
May Allah have mercy on us.
Allah did not prohibit shopping, so it's okay,
we can do the shopping, but at least
keep the Niyah for the Umrah, don't go
for shopping.
So, this is what they did, this is
exactly what they did.
They went there for Umrah and they also
did some shopping and they went on.
The fringe benefit, the icing on the cake
was that the Quraysh, who were like temple
priests, because they were the caretakers of the
Kaaba, the Quraysh got a benefit in this,
which was that their caravans, this was a
time when banditry was an honorable thing.
You could raid caravans, you could take things,
it was not considered highway robbery or banditry.
Right?
But they did not do that with the
Quraysh, because they said, no, these are holy
people, this is the Sheikh, right?
We don't want to, yeah, we'll steal from
your house, but we don't take the Sheikh's
car.
The Sheikh doesn't have to lock his car
because we don't steal the Sheikh's car.
I don't think that works in this country,
but anyway.
So, they got this thing.
So, they created, it was a very nice
system for the Quraysh, where they had religion
in it, and they leveraged the religion to
grow their business.
Now, comparison of Meccan society with ours.
Politically, the Meccans were ruled by a group
of elite businessmen, wealthy billionaires, right?
Billionaires, oligarchs.
If they are Russian, you call them oligarchs.
If they are American, they are billionaires, all
right?
So, what is the difference?
So, you had a society which was ruled
by the oligarchs and the billionaires.
Very interesting, for those of you who don't
know, none of those tribes, they never had
a king.
There was never one ruler.
Each tribe obeyed its own tribal leader, right?
There was no state.
There was no state of Arabia.
There was no king of Arabia.
There was no ruler of Arabia.
In Mecca, they had something called a nadwa,
which was a building, a place where these
billionaire businessmen used to…
and they were billionaires in today's term.
Believe me, they were not small people.
They had a lot of money, even in
today's terms, thanks to their trades.
So, they would gather.
There was no written law.
There was no legal, civil code and criminal
code, nothing.
But when there was a decision to be
taken, what shall we do for this, they
would get together, they would take a decision,
that would be implemented.
That's it.
So, there was no formal legal system.
There was no civil service.
There was no congress.
There was no parliament.
There was no voting system, right?
As far as you, Mr. or Mrs. or
Miss Citizen were concerned, your job was just
do what you are told to do, if
you know what's good for you.
Otherwise, you know, nasty things will happen to
you.
That was simple as that.
Second one, the economic situation.
It was a capitalist economy.
It was as close to a free market
economy as you can think.
And profit was the motive.
Everything was allowed as long as it made
money.
So, they had widespread prostitution.
They had widespread liquor.
They had widespread everything.
Because it made money.
So, signal, point, profit motive, that's how it
was.
The norms, the behaviors and so on were
racist.
The lowest of the low in society were
the African people.
Black people, slaves, these were the lowest of
the low.
The highest in society were the Arabs, from
the Arabs, certain tribes.
So, Banu Saqib, for example, in Taif, Quraish
in Mecca, and so on.
The others, the Hawazim and so on, so
forth, they were also Arabs and so on,
but lower status, not the same as the
elite tribal society.
Society was very promiscuous, as I told you,
when you know, literally free for all, anyone
do anything.
Women were considered property.
They had no, they were not even considered
human.
There was not a, no question of status.
They were considered property to the extent that
sons would inherit their father's wives.
They would inherit their mothers.
People had multiple wives.
So, the father had, you know, he had
God knows, maybe seven, eight, 10, 15, God
knows whatever number of wives.
And plus, he had concubines.
And then he drops dead.
And he had three sons.
And the sons would divide up these women
among themselves.
So, now this woman who was your mother,
call it stepmother, call you what you want,
but she's your father's wife, now was in
your bed.
That is how bad it was.
They used to use women as goods.
I mean, I like you here.
Take this woman.
They used to gift.
So, women were property to be bought and
sold.
To be killed, you don't like the woman,
kill her.
No problem.
They used to marry their daughters anyway.
So, women had nothing.
They had zero standards.
The woman was at the same level, actually
at a lower level than their animals.
They loved their horses far more than they
loved their women.
And the proof of that is that in
the Arabic language, there are more words to
describe horse than to describe woman.
Right?
The Arabs had this way of inventing words
to describe things they loved the most.
So, go look up how many words they
have for horse and how many they have
for woman.
Now, social, as I mentioned to you, patriarchy,
so it was a male-dominated society.
Religion for the elite was a political tool.
They were not there.
Religion was only a name.
I mean, it was, you know, but the
real purpose of religion was to manipulate.
And finally, money was God.
Literally, they worshipped money.
Money was everything.
No accountability because there was no concept of
Akhira.
There was no concept of answering to Allah
or anybody.
You did what you want and you lived.
This was Meccan society.
Now, think about all that stuff I told
you and tell me, does it match with
the society, global society that we see today?
Exactly.
Society, which is politically ruled by elite businessmen,
globally.
Politicians don't rule, believe me.
I mean, anybody who believes that politicians rule,
that the President of America has anything, it's
nothing.
People say, who should we vote for?
As far as I'm concerned, vote for whoever
you want.
Makes no difference.
Economic, by and large, capitalist society, even countries
like Russia and China who are supposedly communist
are even more capitalistic than America is.
Norms, same thing.
Racism, tribalism, right?
Promiscuity.
I mean, I think today we are actually
even more promiscuous than the Meccans were because
we've invented stuff which they didn't even think
of, poor guys.
Social, patriarchy, including even though a lot of
these countries, so-called Western countries, they claim
women's rights, they claim women's equality.
Look at just one parameter.
What is the pay of a woman and
a man for the same job?
Go look it up.
There's an organization called We Are Not Worth
Less.
The word worthless is used as a pun.
We are not worthless.
Go look it up.
Google it.
On an average, in Western countries, women get
paid 20% less for the same job,
including in places like Sweden, including in professions
like teaching.
I'm saying Sweden specifically because the Swedes, they
pride themselves on their fantastic equality and the
Swedish Prime Minister cycles to the parliament and
whatnot.
All nice, but how come you don't pay
women the same money for the same job?
In Islam, it is haram.
In Islam, it is haram to pay two
people differential wages for the same work.
There has to be a reason you are
not paying her the moment.
Maybe she's not doing it, but same work,
same job, you cannot pay them less.
So all this stuff about, oh, you know,
she can wear whatever she wants.
Forget the wear, pay her what she's supposed
to get.
The rest of it is garbage.
We need to, we must do some research
and talk to people directly and tell them
this, right?
Religion, political tool, without a doubt in today's
world.
And money, very simple.
Ask anyone.
Write down three top goals.
See what they write.
See what they write.
Do this as an exercise.
Don't tell anybody as a secret.
Do it as an exercise in your masjid.
Tell people, write your three goals.
See if anybody writes Jannah.
I will guarantee you not one person will
write Jannah, except you guys, because you know
now, right?
So I just think about that.
Jannah is not even a goal.
How are you going to reach it?
Ajit, do this as an exercise.
Try it and see.
Tell people three goals.
Ask people, who are your three role models?
I did this.
In a masjid.
So obviously, everybody there.
All the men have beards.
All the women have hijab.
I said, who are, name three role models.
Guess who they named?
In a masjid, I'm saying this because we're
talking about people in a masjid, practicing Muslims,
conference happening in the masjid.
Guess who they named?
Three people.
Three role models.
Jeff Bezos.
Elon Musk.
Bill Gates.
So, Abu Bakr, and Omar, and Uthman, and
Ali, and Sadatullah, and Zubair, and Fatima, and
Aisha, not even Rasulullah, in a masjid, Muslims.
Three role models.
Jeff Bezos.
Elon Musk.
Bill Gates.
And somebody said, Warren Buffett.
Warren Buffett.
So really, I mean, I'm just saying, this
is, I mean, alhamdulillah, I praise them.
You are honest.
This much I can tell you.
So alhamdulillah.
But ask yourself this thing.
I mean, when the Rasulullah is not even
one of your role models, when Jannah is
not even one of your goals, where do
you think we are headed?
May Allah have mercy on us.
I mean, this is what has to change.
The inside has to change.
Inside has to change.
We build beautiful masjids.
We will have great khutbahs.
You get this shaykh, that shaykh.
Inside has to change.
Now, I am saying to you, the reason
why the scene of Rasulullah is such a
beautiful example is because that society was exactly
like this society.
Yet, in one generation, Rasulullah completely changed that
society.
Their ethics changed, their models changed, their values
changed, their ways and behavior, everything changed.
And the result of that was that they
became the role models for the rest of
the world.
So Allah gave them wealth.
Allah gave them power.
Allah gave them authority.
Allah gave them land.
And Allah made them role models.
So obviously, my contention is that when you
have two situations, both are the same, and
you have a way which worked in one
situation, then logically the same way will work
in the other situation.
And that's the reason why the seerah is
so topical, so modern, so applicable, right?
Now, compare the same six parameters with what
Allah wants.
So you have political ruled by elite businessmen,
here you have political according to the will
of Allah.
Politics has to be according to the will
of Allah.
Economic, not running behind money.
Economic, responsible and compassionate, right?
Not only profit motive, responsible and compassionate.
Norms, racist, tribalist, no, no, no.
Norms is equality, respect and a clean life.
Social, women are chattels, women are property, male
dominated, no.
In Islam, equal rights for women.
Difference of roles, difference of roles, this is
a confusion that many times people have between
the difference between equality and equity.
To give you an example, supposing I tell
you all mammals are equal, that means the
elephant is equal to a mouse, because both
are mammals.
Does it make sense?
Is that justice?
Supposing you say, all right, since all mammals
are equal, here you are, Mr. Elephant, here
you are, Mr. Mouse, come here, we have
a fighting match, we have a fight.
In that fight, the elephant will always win.
There is no way the mouse is going
to win over the elephant.
Equity, different roles.
Here's the elephant, here's the mouse, or here's
the elephant, here's the squirrel, to give you
another example.
You want to push down the tree, you
tell the squirrel, squirrel can't do that.
But you want to climb the tree, tell
the elephant, elephant can't do that.
Different roles, different skills.
Religion in the old world context is something
to manipulate people.
In Islam, religion is the real driving force.
Religion is the basis on which we mold
our lives.
And in that system, money, anything goes.
Everything is jives.
Buy, sell, whatever you want.
In Islam, no.
Right means and right ends.
You can't say I am, my earning is
haram, right?
I'm selling lottery and, uh, yeah?
Cigarettes.
Cigarettes, exactly.
Lotteries and cigarettes and all that stuff, right?
But I'm giving a donation to the, he's
one of our biggest donors.
Brother, don't say anything to him.
Wallah, Bazi will shut down.
Because he, inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi.
The house of Allah depends on haram income
for living.
Shut it down.
It is better to shut it down.
The fatwa about whether to take the donation
is haram or halal is a different issue.
I'm not saying, if somebody's giving you a
gift, you can take the gift, no problem.
But it is your job to tell him
that your earning is haram and you are
giving the gift to the masjid does not
make it halal.
Please understand that.
I'm telling you, even I'm taking it because
for me to take it is jives.
But I will not leave you there for
you to catch my neck on the day
of judgment and say to Allah, ya Allah,
before you throw me into jahannum, take this
sheikh first.
Because he never warned me.
He was taking my donation, but he never
told me your income is haram.
Fear Allah.
Fear Allah.
So what did this change mean?
From unbridled freedom to responsible freedom.
Islam does not enslave you.
Islam does not take away our freedoms, no.
It puts them into a channel.
Water without boundaries is a flood.
Water within boundaries is irrigation.
It is generating hydroelectricity.
Same water.
But without boundaries, only destruction.
But in boundaries, everything good.
My body, I can do what I want.
I have it, I flaunt it.
I have wealth, I will show off.
No.
In Islam, you have it, you share it.
You treat it with dignity.
Dog-eat-dog capitalism versus compassion and responsibility.
If I have money, my money is a
trust that Allah has given me to help
others.
I have a right to live well, no
problem.
But there is a difference between living well
and ostentation and showing off.
That in Islam is not permitted.
Might is right too.
The law is right.
Rasulullah says, even if my daughter stole, I
would implement the had that Allah has ordered.
No exceptions.
The only place where the law giver is
subject to the law is Islam.
In England, for example, to this day, the
monarch, the king of England, cannot be tried
in a British court.
The judge has no authority to try the
king of England.
The king is above the law.
To this day, that is the law of
the land.
Not in Islam.
We have several cases where people brought, filed
suits against the Khalifa and the Qadhi ruled
against the Khalifa.
One of the famous of those was Qadhi
Ayyad with Sayyidina Ali bin Abi Talib.
A man brought, a man had a shield.
And Sayyidina Ali saw the shield, the Jewish
guy.
He had a shield in his pawn shop
and Sayyidina Ali said, this is my shield.
He said, no, you want a shield, buy
it.
But it's not your shield.
Sayyidina Ali said, no, it's my shield.
Because these were warriors, they knew their weapons,
right?
They recognized them.
It was not just a piece of iron.
He knew the thing.
He said, this is my shield.
He said, no, it's not your shield.
So he went to court.
So now they go into the court.
The Jewish guy who is the defender, Sayyidina
Ali is the plaintiff, he's the complainant.
So when he comes in, and he's the
Khalifa, this is in his Khilafah.
He is also the ruler.
When he comes in, the judge says to
him, Fathul ya Abu Hassan.
He said, please come, ya Abu Hassan.
That is the kuniya of Sayyidina Ali, as
a mark of respect.
And he called the Jew, he says, come
by whatever his name is.
Sayyidina Ali objects.
He said, no, you call me Ali bin
Abi Talib, not Abu Hassan, not Abu Hassan.
Because you call the man by his name,
you call me by my name.
You cannot give me more respect than you
give to the...
This is the ruler.
He is the Muslim, he is the Khalifa.
And the judge is giving you respect.
He is correcting the judge.
And he's saying, you don't give more respect
to that man, to be over that man.
In this court, we are equal.
It's okay.
So what is the situation?
Situation is this.
That man has my shield.
So judge says, okay, what's the evidence?
What is the proof that that shield is
yours?
Sayyidina Ali says, I can bring my son,
Hassan, he knows the shield.
Judge says, no, can't accept it.
We cannot accept the witness of your son
in your favor.
We can accept the witness of your son
against you, but not in your favor.
So, okay.
So who's the other person?
He said, I have my slave.
He said, no, not accepted.
The witness of...
He said, I freed the slave.
He said, even then, it's not accepted because
he was your slave.
You freed him.
He owes that Hassan on you.
Find an independent witness.
Sayyidina Ali said, I have no independent witness.
These are the people who know the shield.
Others, we don't know.
There's no independent witness.
Then the judge rules against him.
They're sorry, then the shield is the man's.
Case dismissed.
Can you imagine this happening today?
They go out.
They go out to the court.
The Jewish guy, he says to Sayyidina Ali,
this is your religion?
Sayyidina Ali said, yes, this is our religion.
He said, your judge, he works for you,
meaning he works for the government.
So your judge rules against you?
He said, yes.
And he says, he rules in my favor.
He said, I am a Jew.
I'm not even a Muslim.
Sayyidina Ali said, it makes no difference.
The Haqq is the Haqq.
Law is the law.
Truth is truth.
Justice is justice.
In Islam, we do not discriminate against Jews
and Hindus and Christians and this one.
The law is the law.
The man says, then in that case.
He said, if this is your religion, I
am from your religion.
I can enter your religion.
And then he said to Sayyidina Ali, this
shield is yours.
He said, I didn't steal it.
Somebody else brought it and gave it to
me.
But I recognize the shield.
So it is yours.
So Sayyidina Ali said, why didn't you?
He said, no, because the way you asked
me, I didn't like it.
So I went to the court.
So Sayyidina Ali said, now take the shield
as my gift.
Because you entered Islam, this is my gift.
That Jew became such a close, the ex
-Jew, he became such a close companion of
Sayyidina Ali bin Hamidah Radhanano that they said
he used to stick to him like, he
literally used to be with him the whole
time.
And he was shaheed in one of the
ghazwat when Sayyidina Ali was present there.
This is the power of Islam when Islam
is practiced.
Our problem today is we are good at
talking about Islam.
Which is good.
I'm the one who should talk.
I'm not saying don't talk.
But with the talk has to be the
walk.
When there is a gap between the talk
and the walk, credibility falls through the gap.
Because people don't care what you say until
they see what you do.
That's why I always say children and also
anybody else, people listen with their eyes, not
their ears.
They listen with their eyes.
They don't care what you say until they
see what you do.
That is critical.
So we ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala
for the wisdom and the hikmah to learn
and to benefit from that inshallah.
Ameen.