Mohammad Elshinawy – Social Justice A Sacred Duty
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the impact of Islam on their lives and the importance of faith and compassion in achieving justice. They also touch on the history and importance of the message of Islam, including its impact on the global climate crisis and the importance of community involvement in politics. The speakers emphasize the need for compassion and love for parents and children and for individuals to set themselves on the right track in life. They also mention the history and importance of the act of mercy and the need for compassion and love for one's parents.
AI: Summary ©
Brothers and sisters, we often hear as Ibn
Abbas radiAllahu anhu narrates it that the messenger
of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasalam was the most
generous of all people.
And the most generous he ever was was
in the month of Ramadan.
I wish to spend a moment on the
second half of this narration that isn't visited
at as often.
He says, was the most generous of all
people. No one ever outdid him in generosity,
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. And the most generous
he ever was, he would only outdo himself.
No one would outdo him. In Ramadan, he
would even outdo himself, sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
When Jibreel would come to him and review
with him, rehearse with him the Quran.
And at that time,
so that because of that, because of the
review of the Quran,
he was more
generous with every act of good than the
fast wind.
You know, wind
covers
great distances in short spans of time. So
what he means is, his reaction
unparalleled throughout the year in his generosity sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam.
But the idea is it's because he was
spending more time with Jibril and the Quran
in Ramadan
than ever.
And this is why ibn Taymiyyah
he suggest that
this is supposed to remind us that the
closer you get to the Quran, and the
more you internalize of the Quran, the more
you realize that you were intended by Allah
as an agent of Allah on this earth.
As a khalifa. Right? As a representative
of the good Allah wants to see unfolded
in this world.
When Jibreel reviews with him the Quran Quran,
and so he becomes more generous than ever.
Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And similar to that, ibn Abbas himself
as al Bukhari narrate in Adbul Mufrad
was performing atikaf one time dedicated for private
worship as we associate this with Ramadan usually.
Right? So atikaf
in the prophet's masjid salallahu alaihi wa sallam
which is the masjid wherein the salah is
worth a 1,000 times
more than any other masjid which means 27,000
times more than a prayer you'd make at
home. He was performing that prayer,
secluding himself for worship
in
in this masjid and a man comes to
him clearly bothered. And so he says to
him,
what is the matter? You look horrible. Like
you look so sad. What He said, my
debts have broken me or buried me.
So he said to him, Would you like
for me to speak to him for you?
Your creditor, your lender. Can I speak to
him for you? Notice, it's because he didn't
have money that he pivoted over to can
I at least talk to him for you?
He didn't say, Oh, it's too bad. I
don't have any money to help you. May
Allah make it easy brother and you keep
it moving. He was bent on finding some
way to help. If not with money, then
but with vouching.
And so the man said to Ibn Abbas,
if you want to speak to him, I
I don't wanna pressure you. It's up to
you.
Immediately he leaps up
and he begins to put on his sandals
and he's walking off the masjid.
So the man stops, he says, Woah. Woah.
Woah. You're in Atikaf like did you forget?
I meant like whenever is good for you.
Not right now. You're in Atikaf
and so he said to him like I
I haven't forgotten. He explained to him that
I'm very aware of what I'm doing.
He said the resident of this grave, sallallahu
alaihi
wa
sallam, said to us,
and it was not that long ago that
he said this to us.
The narrator says, and then he stopped and
his eyes welled with tears, then he continued
to say the hadith,
For one of you to walk in the
need of your brother
until you fulfill their need for them is
better, meaning more rewardable
than you to perform ihtikaf in this of
all masjids, in this masjid of mine for
a month or for longer than that.
So he understood
that it is inseparable
our relationship with Allah and our positive impact
in serving His creation subhanahu wa ta'ala.
You know, and look at the flip side.
When did this umma
become
no longer contributing to the welfare of humanity
Empire was called the old man of Europe
for about 300 years until it ultimately collapsed.
The Turkish Ottoman Empire collapsed in the early
19 100. That was like the toppling over
the tip of the iceberg but it was
happening for 100 of years.
In the late 1800,
there is the famous Just to give you
a feel of the atmosphere, the religious understanding.
There was the famous philosopher Nietzsche
who had a crisis of faith, he lost
faith with Christianity and he famously said, God
is dead. Whatever he meant by that, Allah
knows.
But he he was gone from there. It's
not like he didn't know Islam,
but unfortunately
he misunderstood
Islam because he saw the Muslims.
He actually had a term for the Muslims.
He used to call them the Turkish fatalists.
Do you know what fatalists mean? These are
people that believe they have no impact on
the world. They're just indifferent
sense of powerlessness,
defeatist,
feather in the wind. Wherever the wind goes,
I can't resist.
Because that was a dominant sentiment in the
late Ottoman Empire.
In the early 1900, to show you this
is no coincidence,
Muhammad Iqbal
the famous,
Islamic reformer from
then India,
he
comments very interestingly
on one of the extreme mystics of his
time.
Extreme sort of practitioners of, you know, incorrect,
imbalanced spirituality.
Right?
This mystic was speaking about the Mi'raj,
the ascent of the prophet salallahu alayhi wa
sallam through the heavens. And he said, man,
if I
would have gone through the heavens to meet
Allah the way Muhammad did, sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam, I would never have wanted to come
back.
So Muhammad Iqbal rahimahullah criticized this man and
he says, I cannot think of a better
summary
of what went wrong in the ummah than
this man's statement.
He said this is the perfect difference
perfect picture of the difference between the prophetic
mindset, the way of the prophet shalallahu alaihi
wa sallam and the early muslims, and between
the mystic mindset.
You see, when when the ummah sort of
half of it started obsessing over material
riches and prosperity,
The other half let go of the material
world altogether.
He said the mystic
went to an opposite extreme.
For him religion,
for him spirituality
is a feeling. That's all it is. It's
this feeling of togetherness with Allah. You go,
I don't wanna come back.
He said, but the prophetic mentality, not the
mystic mentality,
is that his rise to Allah
was an awakening for him to come back
as he puts it with world shaking
transformative
forces for planet earth. He he His togetherness
with Allah
became a huge source of energy and positivity
and transformation for planet earth. He's saying we
lost sight of that. We separated between sort
of being religious
and being impactful, being agents of positive change,
being ambassadors of justice in the world that
Allah loves to see
You know, think also about the hadith Abu
Thar in Sahih Muslim.
This hadith, Al Imam Ahmed Raheemaulah calls it
the noblest hadith that ever came out of
the region of Asham.
That whole part of the world spans about
4 countries today, Asham, Greater Syria.
No hadith was ever spread throughout the world
from there that was noblier than this one
hadith.
This hadith is so powerful that Abu Idris
al Khawalani, one of the early narrators, Rahimahullah
would refuse to share this hadith with people
except from on his knees.
Because of the weight of the justice of
Allah that he has committed his servants to,
and because of the brokenness in front of
Allah that it evokes.
In this hadith, Abu Thar radiAllahu an narrates
that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said that
Allah azzawajal
said,
Oh my servants. You're you serve me?
Know that I have forbidden injustice even on
myself.
And I have deemed it prohibited you with
each other
Do not wrong each other.
And I will keep it in English for
brevity.
And then it continues to say, O my
servants,
all of you are lost except those whom
I have guided, so seek guidance from me
and I will guide you. Oh my servants,
all of you are hungry except those whom
I feed, feed. So seek food from me
and I will feed you. May Allah feed
all of the hungry all over the world.
Be with the people starving everywhere.
Oh my servants, you are all naked
except those whom I choose to clothe. So
seek clothing from me, I will clothe you.
Oh my servants, you are all sinful by
night and by day.
And I forgive all sins. So seek my
forgiveness, I will forgive you. Oh my servants,
know that you will never reach a point
where you will be able to benefit me
nor ever reach a point where you will
be able to harm me. Oh my servants,
if the first of you and the last
of you and the human of you and
the jinn of you were all to be
upon the most pious heart among you. If
we were all Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam,
the most pious heart amongst you that would
not increase my kingdom in any way. Oh
my servants, if the first of you and
the last of you and the human of
you and the jinn of you had the
most wicked heart of you all. If we
were all shaitaan, The
most wicked heart of you all that would
not take anything away from me.
Oh my servants, if the first of you
and the last of you and the human
of you and the jinn of you all
got together in a single field, and every
single one of you you asked me, And
I gave you all exactly what you asked
for. That would decrease me in nothing except
the way that a needle decreases from the
ocean after it's dipped and pulled from it.
Oh my servants, they're your deeds. You see
agency. It's all up to you. I've been
so good to you. Now you be a
person of goodness for yourself and others. The
hadith continues, Oh my servants, they are your
deeds.
I just collect them for you and then
deliver them back to you. So whomever finds
goodness on the last day, whoever finds goodness,
let them praise Allah for the opportunity,
for the agency.
Whomever finds anything else
Let them only blame themselves. I didn't just
give you the chance. I stack the odds
in your favor.
The terms are clear. The opportunity is grand.
The agency is real and it begins with
the agency to effect justice and uphold it.
Also there is the hadith of Jabir brothers
and sisters. Radiallahu
an, when When they mentioned in front of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that one
of the craziest things we saw in the
Christian kingdom of Al Habasha is an elderly
woman carrying a clay pot on her head,
water or something, a big jug. And a
young man
shoves her from behind, she falls to her
knees and the clay pot cracks.
So she slowly gets up and when she
turns around she says, You traitor, a hudar.
You will find out on the day that
Allah sets his kursi,
sets his footstool for judgment.
And he gathers the very first all the
way to the last of humanity.
And people's hands and their feet, our instruments
of agency. Right?
Their hands and their feet speak up about
what they used to do with them. You
will find out on the day, she said
to the young man, where you stand and
where I stand. And he said sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam concurring with her, sadaqa. She has
said the truth,
How can Allah ever bless a people?
That do not retrieve the rights of the
weak
from the strong. Meaning the strong who are
being unfair, the strong that are being oppressive.
And this is why ibn Taymih rahimallahi said
about this, to such an extent this is
important to Allah that you will find that
Allah will support a disbelieving nation that is
just, meaning socially just,
against a believing nation, a Muslim majority nation
that is socially oppressive.
And you know there's even a principle, a
rule in Islamic law that reminds us of
why.
That when it comes to the rights of
Allah
and the rights of creation,
Allah prioritizes
in this world the rights of the creation.
From his mercy,
he'll defer much of his rights till the
day of judgement.
Also from his mercy is that he knows
we need our rights. He doesn't need his
rights.
And so he even set a rule in
Islam that like it's his right that we
fast Ramadan
but our right to not torture ourselves if
we're sick. So you don't have to fast,
fast later.
It's his right that we be openly Muslim,
proudly Muslim. But if someone has a gun
to your head, you don't have to take
that bullet. It's okay. Pretend like you're not
Muslim.
That is from his great mercy and it
shows you the importance of what? Justice with
people among people.
Brothers and sisters, before I sit down, the
last thing I want to say is that
in the Islamic framework,
this justice that is driven by our
spiritual health, our correct understanding of religion
is a framework that begins at home.
You know we always speak about social justice
and activism and quickly our head jumps to
like pushing back against the world powers,
being anti establishment. No. It begins at home.
Honoring your parents is part of justice.
When
Allah says,
Lower for your parents the wings of humility.
Humble yourself in front of your parents
out of mercy. Why mercy? You see because
justice is everywhere. So you gotta be able
to read through these things or read exactly
what is between these things.
Out of mercy because mercy with your parents
is justice
or an attempt at justice.
How can you not show mercy
when you have this assumption or in reality
you have the luxury of ignoring them, of
neglecting them, of being cruel with them? They
were merciful with you. You have a smile
for everyone. You don't have a smile for
your parents.
That lack of mercy is unjust. It is
unfair.
Even mercy with our children, compassion with our
children. He said, salallahu alaihi wa sallam, they
are not of us, those who don't revere
our elders,
not just the parents by the way. And
have compassion towards our youngsters,
affection towards our youngsters.
And by the way, part of that affection
is for you to set them on the
right track.
You have mercy on them by not stacking
the odds against them that makes their religious
commitment too difficult.
Expecting them at 13 or 15 to flip
the switch
or to give them a bad model for
Islam. I'll never forget the girl at a
high school I volunteered at and visited once
that said, how come in Islam, Sheikh,
a boy is allowed to have a girlfriend
and a girl is not allowed to have
a boyfriend.
Of course you all know that a b
c's Islam, dating is haram across the board.
Where did she get that double standard from?
I can guarantee you she got it from
multiple
iterations that corroborated it, from the behavior of
many people and the speech of many people.
She got that. Does that not set her
up for doubting Islam
far faster than others when she hears Islam
supposedly oppresses women?
Does that not make it more difficult on
her to be Muslim later on in life?
Even our neighbors and I've said this before,
part of justice
to your neighbor that is required is that
you mow your lawn if you own a
house. Because unless you're keeping your property tidy,
his property loses value because next door is
a rut of a shack.
That is part of justice. It is everywhere.
It begins at home and next door to
our homes. May Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala make
us of the people of justice.
To bring this full circle brothers and sisters,
social justice from the Islamic lens
doesn't just begin at home
but it begins, does not end but begins
with purifying
yourself within,
purifying your own soul so that you are
consistent
in your drive to be equitable, to be
just, to be fair, to be a force
for the good and the justice that others
will enjoy. It must be an internal
force.
And I left one final example deliberately to
the end
which is to be involved in local politics,
brothers and sisters. Alright? We've been hearing the
past few nights that it just doesn't work
and we have to snap out of this
idea that
we're gonna wake up every 4 years and
whoever promises at least to treat us a
little less cruel than the next guy at
least here locally, they have our vote. This
is not going to work, Right? And many
of you should know that being involved at
the local level, we've been begging at the
doors of local politicians
since October
for them to have a heart, to have
a shred of humanity left in them,
to call or echo the call for a
ceasefire.
Brothers and sisters,
there are more Muslims
in the Lehigh Valley
than there is
votes that made the difference in the last
elections.
Meaning there might be politicians
that completely
completely
dismissed the lives of our brothers and sisters
in Gaza and elsewhere in the last 6
months that won and got that seat by
a margin that is much smaller
than the Muslim population in Lehigh Valley, so
we do make a difference.
We do have agency if we each own
that.
This is the first thing. The local
elections, the primaries are on 28th April. You
must be
registered by the 8th. If you're not, the
tables are there. It is very practical and
very easy to do, but also not just
that. One last thing I will say, just
in the last 24 hours, you know we
have a Muslim councilman here in the valley.
This Muslim councilman became the councilman how?
Because the previous councilman was being removed. So
he filled out an application.
No one else filled out an application. So
he got accepted.
And then the elections came, no one else
was there so he became elected.
Last night, he's sitting in the meetings. He
said to me, I was telling the people,
forgive me guys. Don't mean to be disrespectful.
It's because I'm Muslim that I'm breaking my
fast. I have to eat right now. And
if he gets talks about Islam,
he has their ear now. Think about the
other councilman
and what they did to us. Right?
And he Then he also said to me,
there were 2 or 3 positions
for the zoning commissions,
zoning officers. It would take them 2 hours
a month maybe of conversations because there's not
much work there in that office. And I've
been begging the Muslim community to get involved.
The board of ed, begging the Muslim community
to get involved, nobody got involved.
It could not just mainstream Islam. Even if
they don't accept the our
our we can still be a part of
change for the better
even without them accepting our This is our
chance.
Let us see our chance as a chance.
See our agency as agency. See the opportunity.
Allah gave us the opportunity.