No Impact Without Integrity – Friday Khutbah

Brothers and sisters, there's a question that I want to begin with, in our reminder today

to stare in sha Allah your thoughts in a beneficial way. And that is, how did Islam reach us?

How did Islam become a global religion and have a lasting impact on so many hearts?

Because, you know, every Muslim knows, obviously and every honest historian admits, obviously, Islam wasn't spread by the sword and hypothetically word spread by the sword it would disappear with the absence of the sword, like has occurred with other religions that were stuffed down people's throats by force. So what was it about Islam? Realizing that a major contributor to this global prominence of Islam

is the integrity of the Muslims themselves. And this is no surprise when their prophets Allah Allahu Allahu alayhi wa sallam was the ultimate embodiment of a man of integrity. On that famous day when he went public with his calls down thing on Mount Safa saying to the leaders of his tribe, if I were to tell you that there's an army of horses behind this mountain, and the cavalry was about to overrun you take you by storm and raid you massacre you all would you believe me? Here, they said my job now Rekha candybar. We've never experienced a single lie from you.

That's an excellent credit score. That's how much credit he had with them all. Nobody said otherwise. We've never experienced anything from you. But truth, then, you know, things progress, they realized that his call would actually spread and hurts their reputations, hurts their sense of status hurts their business. And so they opposed him to the point that he had to leave Mecca 13 years later from the persecution, but the day he left, he leaves behind his cousin I leave not be bothered, for what purpose to return to people, they're trusts that were with him.

And this doesn't just show how much integrity he had. It shows that they were so convinced that he could not be corrupted, like you're actively persecuting him, and you're still for safe gatekeeping.

stowing things away with him when you travel. Can you imagine what that means? And then he moves on to Medina, Sal, Allahu Allahu alayhi wa sallam, and there is a bit of a power struggle, the Muslim are now growing in number and in influence, but there are other tribes in Medina, Jewish tribes. And so there is a little bit of a power grab and they pull, push, pull over leverage, politically speaking, and yet in that atmosphere when one Muslim was being dishonest, and unjustly framed a Jewish man, the Quran came down and said, Well attack O'Neill, ha, Nina, Fatima, judge fairly old Mohammed and say to them, I am not allowed to advocate for a traitor who is the traitor here. No

prejudice, not even religious prejudice in the name of religion. He's a co Muslim doesn't matter in this scenario, he's betraying and I will defend the right of the unfairly treated Jewish man.

And then people start to rile up the armies against him from within the hypocrites begin to rise because Islam now is a nascent community developing strength and so naturally, there is a perk of social perk to being a front runner, so you're going to have a to face and so these hypocrites start doing that, but indirectly, and they say Yasuda Allah, they're insulting you, they tried to undermine you give us permission to execute this man. He said, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam

lie at the head that to nurse I cannot open the door for people to see that Mohammed kills his friends. Hello, you know, nowadays, you know, we say perception is reality. If you perceive a person to not have integrity, it's as good as them not having integrity. So you trying your level best to prevent that even from being a perception was something on his mind, Sal, Allahu alayhi wa sallam.

And then he returns to Mecca. And this is different. This is now a very different phase. He is on route to becoming not sort of the leader of Medina, the undisputed ruler of all of Arabia.

And on that day, one of his newest generals hotter than when he dropped the Allahu Anh.

He commits a blunder, a misunderstanding a very costly one. And he massacres a bunch of people that were not supposed to be killed. You could say, you know, let it slide sweep it under the rug. It's just like, you know, or finally we finally made it for the greater good. No consideration, holds water in the face of integrity. He stood up, he didn't say this in his sujood. He stood up in front of the people. And he said, Oh Allah, I declare to you in front of the people, I declare to you my innocence, meaning my objection, my disapproval of what Khalid has done, openly. I disapprove, this was not right. You know, even the Mexicans that had not yet accepted Islam for our issue, when one

woman from the elites from the high class

had stolen and they say, Listen, we get it, there's a new law and, you know, stealing a significant amount when confirmed, you know, there's an amputation of the limb and example is made so that society doesn't get overrun by sort of thieves and robbers and deceivers, but you know, like, she's like a high class woman. We can't just gotta like, can we just overlook this?

And they didn't work. So they went through one of the most beloved people to him, essentially his grandson, his adopted grandson, Osama, Radi Allahu Anh, Osama speaks to the Prophet SAW Selim about sort of letting this one go being lenient here. And he became so angry that Oh, Santa, how dare you? You You asked me to play favoritism, about one of the boundaries of God the prescribed punishments? How could you? And then the next day, he ascended the member, sallallahu alayhi, wasallam. And he said, oh, people, low NFL teammates, I've been to Mohamed Soraka, even if Ultima, the daughter of Muhammad were to steal, Mohammed would cut off her hand.

You notice he didn't say the Messenger of Allah, who would the prophet would, because in the scales of justice, I'm not the prophet of God. It makes no difference, meaning that I'm the prophet of Buck, Mohammad will cut her hand, the daughter of Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And you know, this is not just about PR, you know, PR firms, or, you know,

companies nowadays that make you look good on the big stage, to the outside world. He would even do this in private, right when no one would know. You know, the famous hadith of him, leaving his empty calf. He was in the masjid dedicated to worship, but his wife, Sophia had visited him. So he walked out to take her home because it was dark, and it could be dangerous. So as he's taking her home, he noticed his two men accelerate in their walking, they start picking up their pace. He has Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. I like to see cool, man, slow down. Take your time.

This is Sofia. Meaning there's nothing awkward here. This is just my wife, and he names her.

So this is jasola. Never, we would never think anything inappropriate of you. He said, Listen, I'm paraphrasing, of course shaitan is real. That's what he said to them. Shaitan is real. And I feared that he would cast into your heart something and then you would be destroyed. It's not about PR anymore. If they would have went out they would not have heard his image.

They would not be believed. If they were to say this. He did this for them. I don't want you in the hidden crevices of your heart to think I'm teaching the world a certain morality and I have a double standard, I'm doing something else. This is what made him the leader of humanity. This is what made him have the most lasting impact on the hearts of people. So Allah Allahu Allahu alayhi wa sallam and his religion.

You know, interestingly, the non Muslim leadership experts recognize his strength in this sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. There is a British writer. He is known as like the world's foremost authority in leadership training and expertise. He's written over 40 books on this all different kinds of leadership to military leadership and corporate leadership. His name is John Adair. One of his books is actually the leadership of Mohamed, he deserved the case study for him. And that was the idea. The idea is that he saw that it was very obvious due to the integrity he had, he understood what it's like to command attention to command leadership to imprint on people, his project his way to

persuade them.

And then of course, if you look at the lives of the Sahaba, very quickly about the Allahu Anhu they inherited this from him beautifully. You know what kind of impression you get about Abu Bakr Radi Allahu Allah. And when you're sitting there in the masjid, and he gets up on the mimbar the very first time he addresses people as the ruler, he says, oh, people only obey me so long as I'm obeying Allah. And if I disobey Allah,

you're you have no duty to obey me, oppose me.

He's telling them oppose me. And then Omar Radi Allahu, and becomes the Khalifa two years later. And he stands in front of the people. And some man says, Hey, you, why are you wearing two shirts? We're not listening to this, we're gonna we don't want to hear from you. You're wearing two shirts. He had two shirts sewn together, while you gave each of us one shirt is a guy who was distributed in the form of these clothing. And so he gave one to each of the people. Why, how come you got to and we got one. He didn't shut him down for asking for an explanation. He said, Oh, Abdullah, he called out his son explained to the man. And so his son got up and said, My father is a very big guy. One shirt

will not be enough for him. So I gifted him my shirt, and he sewed the two together. And so that he can actually cover his body and of the Allahu taala. And who are, you know, on another occasion, I'm gonna be cut up, but I'll be Allah Who and look at the integrity. He went to his son and said, Hey, where'd you get this new camera from? He said, I got it from my money, my own personal money. He said, well still sell it, you have this is why Hello, money is mine was the problem. He said, you're still gonna sell it. And he forced him to sell it. And then he explained to him why he said to him, because listen, you're gonna go to the public grazing grounds like a public park, basically, where

animals were grazing, it was good for that extra lush, and the people are gonna say, get out of the way for the camel of the Khalifa, son,

go, feed some food, give some extra food, give the best grazing section to the son of the Khalifa.

And so directly or not, you are being shown favoritism. You are not like everybody else. So you got to create that buffer of automatic favoritism, which is unfair. You know, this is how Islam came to us. This is why it's survived and reached. People are committed to it and its principles and that way, you know, even think of the great Imams of Islam. Remember what Hanifa Rahim Allah, they used to say about him

that, in his biography, he would refuse to sit under the shade of a tree that belonged to someone that owed him money.

He would teach people and he would lend to people he was very successful on many fronts.

But why wouldn't he sit under that tree? Because he knew that because this man owes me money. He may be too embarrassed. I feel like it's not his place to say, Hey, listen, stop loitering, stop hanging out under my tree.

And so since he owes me something, he's not going to have the ability to demand what's his elsewhere? And so I'm not going to put him in that situation. That was the integrity they had that was sensitivity they had, you know, I look at that. And then so what are the hola Juan was another Sahabi actually.

One time he was in a Muslim army, just a part of the army.

And a man was punished for an innocent mistake he committed. The generals had nobody move and he heard move. So he went off. And so he said, Why are you defying my orders and he punished him he was beaten.

And suddenly, there's so much going on. Explain them the stories that come with me. He grabs his sword takes this guy brings him to the general because Why did you punish him? Did you ask him if he heard the instructions or not? He said No, I didn't ask him. He said then let him beat you. Now the way you beat him Fair's fair.

And of course the soldier said no, no, no, it's fine. I don't mind I forgive and so Look dad walked out

happy proud that Islam was still alive. The teachings of Islam were not just hope but talk he walked out repeating chanting let me pretend no al Islam or disease let me pretend now Islam was is I'm gonna die. If I have anything to say about it. Anything to do with it? I'm gonna die the day I die and Islam is still number one.

The values the merit the integrity of Islam is above us all. We will never let it become tokenized Islam is not here

to serve us. We are here to serve it.

According to Holyhead, I'll start from La Familia welcome.

Alhamdulillah wa Salatu was Salam ala Levin Lana be about the Chateau La ilaha illallah wa doko lucha de cada who eyeshadow and Mohammed Abdullah who want to be you who are sort of

you know, even the Muslim generals that brought Islamic influence to places it was not forced onto people but repelling aggression required force which organically caused Islam to influence government

spreads in certain places, even the way they operated, brought people's hearts to Islam.

You know, the very famous historic city of South Africa and

a letter was sent to the Khalifa when they were still non Muslims of the time that said, your general they're at war with him. It was a war. It wasn't for Islam, meaning to spread Islam by force, but your general who's at war with us did not follow the protocol of waiting three days after giving us the terms before marching in.

So I'm gonna Abdullah Aziz Rahim, Allah sends a judge to investigate and said they are guilty. They did not wait two or three days before sunset, they all have to march out of the city. Can you imagine? Can you imagine watching this as the people of some of the people or some of the funder all Muslim Now,

or Indonesia, Indonesia is a prime example. Because no sword no army ever sets foot in Indonesia? And there are 200 million Muslims now in Indonesia. How did that happen? From the upright ethical dealings of the Muslim traders that went there? And let me close by saying,

forget bringing Islam to the world with your integrity for a second. How do you bring Islam to your family?

How do you command the influence because

power is influence power is not just politics, through your integrity in the eyes of your family.

The greatest tool you have in your arsenal to persuade people your way is your integrity, your consistency, your principled nature, your ability to walk the talk

that will benefit you so much. And I live by this. Whenever I find myself not as effective as I wish I could be in certain domains. I say a share of that must be due to the gap widening between my walk in my talk. Because Allah allowing you access to people's hearts, means your profile in front of Allah has to be good.

And even human beings have a heightened sensitivity to hypocrisy. Ask so many people you'll always find it top three answers of why they left their religions or religious institutions or the religion of their parents they'll say because I sense hypocrisy.

And so we are to take great pride in a prophet that was sent to us whose very title was Al Amin, the trustworthy

the man with the greatest integrity ever, and continue to be known for this and we are and hamdulillah and to improve and build on that and begin at home.

May Allah azza wa jal make us of those, that when the closest people are asked about us like Khadija was once asked, they say

they do it the same inside and outs their public in their private was was imperfect consistency. Allahu nephila. Now Hamner will evade Nicoletta kill now he now had he been our Jana several eliminator that will solve Allah who said Mr. Bata kind of Vienna Mohammed voila early he was so happy he.

Is