Brother Ahmed Kathrada

shaytani r rajim Bismillah R Rahman Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil alameen wa Salatu was Salam O Allah shuffler mursaleen Sina Muhammad Ali he was

a beloved brother system Islam Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh

appraisement to Allah subhanho wa Taala La ilaha illallah wa nan has the right to be worshipped because Allah, the Most High, the most great, the Most Merciful, the most kind, we submit ourselves to Allah subhana wa tada to him, do we come unto Him He will we will return. We turned to him with his default and we ask Allah Subhana Allah to forgive us for our shortcomings and return to Allah subhanho wa Taala in the hope that Allah subhana wa tada assists us in our difficulties removed from us and all the people of this dunya any difficulty and tribulation, we send our love our greetings and salutations our beloved Nabi Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, to his family, his companions

and all those who follow his suit not until the end of time, yet a lot It has been from amongst them. Meanwhile, hamdulillah Al Hamdulillah. Last week, we discussed we began the book of purification, the book of bahara. And, of course, they've been a lot of events in this past week, and will inshallah continue with the book of Shahada next week. But as we know that our brother, our brother, Ahmed kathrada, Rahim Allah, Allah have mercy on him, he passed away, and events that have occurred today as well, that reminds us about the world that we live in. And it's a these these are incidences that cause us to take stock, and pause and look at our own lives, and look at our

society, and to realize that, you know, this, there are bigger things at stake than our personal, our personal issues, our personal, getting from day to day to be, you know, struggling just to pay the bills, they are greater aspirations that we should think about. So we begin by bidding farewell to a hero to someone that if we don't know him, and I've never met a brother, personally, we all owe him a debt. And the last episode says, Who ever does not thank someone, or thank people for the goodness that they do to us, then we have not thank Allah. And this is somebody that we all owe a debt to, because at a great personal sacrifice, you and I, our lives have been improved. Your

children, my children, have a better opportunity to have a better future, through a loss grace and through people like this Sabra

as we see one of the heroes, the father of one of our fathers of this nation, someone that you know, Subhanallah when he went to jail, I was reading he was about 3034 years old, basically close to my age. And when he came back out of jail, he was 16 years old. 16 years old, spent a lot so much of your life gone, wasn't married. Before that kids, all those things that are dearest to us, were sacrificed for a cause, not just for his own personal benefits, but for the benefit of all of us. And we live off that benefit. We are able to come to these massages, able to live freely because of the sacrifices and the costs paid by brother Ahmed, and many like him so we ask Allah subhanho wa

Taala to grant him a high place in gender to forgive him or whatever mistakes and shortcomings in Canada Marcin, if he was whatever goodness May Allah increase Him in His goodness, but Allah change and substitute the life that he lost in this dunya with one bitter in the era, and his position with Allah made behind whatever shortcomings from Allah subhanaw taala Have mercy on him. So we won't talk about his life. We know of there were many like him. But we talk about what we learn from people like

the number one, we understand that our Deen part of our Deen is to stand up against injustice. Part of this Deen is not just worshiping Allah. In fact, everything is worshiping Allah, but that worship isn't just making sujood it's about standing up for what is right. Look at all the stories of the Gambia, Nabi Moosa, nobody saw it, nobody who Nabina Muhammad SAW Salaam in every time and place there'll be a fear around.

And Islam is not just about making a bad ritualistically but it's standing up for what is right. That is what is a major part of our Deen. One of the fundamental aspects of our Deen is to stand up against oppression and against evil. And this man he found in his Deen from his Islam,

the hatred for oppression and he stood up against the oppressor and the tyrant, even if he wasn't the one receiving the most oppression. Just because you are not the oppressed. You should hate oppression just as much. Even though others we know our fellow brothers, our fellow community members that are black, received worse operation then the Indians in the West

Then those who are lighter skinned, it stood with him. And just reading in his biography, that being an Indian fellow amongst a bunch of black fellows, it was quite, he was seen as look, we can get this guy to turn, if we could apply pressure on him that give him some benefit, give him some privileges, he will turn on his friends and his colleagues. We don't, we don't maybe think about it like that. But you standing up, he's one of the few non blacks in the in the crowd. And therefore he was a target. And he was seen as if we can get him to turn it, he didn't bow under that pressure. And he didn't accept preferential treatment, being oppressed is one thing. But when you have the

opportunity to go forward at the expense of someone else, and you still turn it away, this is a bit of a different kind of challenge panel.

But if you're not going to treat us all equally, that I don't want that extra treatment, that is something that is a great attribute

that he believed and this is something when we look at the dark times that we live in,

and people that have spoken to him and people that relate stories that we need to claim on a toy. So he took a bunch of people from his foundation, many years later to Robben Island. And they said, How could you live 18 years in this place? This little tiny cell? How could you live 18 years like this? And he said that it was bad, it was tough, but they try to remain positive. Because the sacrifice and the hardship was for a reason for a goal or a dream, that we're working towards something for the future, that that's where we are, are we physically here, but our minds Our hearts are somewhere else. And as Muslims, we are taught by Allah subhanaw taala that we dream big. And we always have

hope, no matter how bad the situation is, we have that yaqeen in Allah, that tomorrow will be better than today. And that it is never hopeless. We never give up hope. We always strive for something better. Profits also lamp is described as always having a smile, no matter how bad the situation was, he was positive and content with Allah subhanho wa Taala. And to be determined in that dream. So when we look at our struggles today and the struggles in your personal life, there are struggles that we have as a community, as oma what we see in psidium, Allah subhanaw taala forgive us and in other countries around the world, how do we fix these things?

We begin with that Nia without hope and that desire. Yeah, Allah, I don't know how to begin. But I'm convinced that if we do the right thing, Allah subhanho wa Taala will change the situation we are in. So we never give up hope, and we never lose hope. And we never give up on that dream, even if it takes us 10 years, 20 years, 100 years, even if we don't live to see that result. We still work on it. Our heroes of the past. It's easy when we look back in time, and we say all the Sahaba knew that alone give the victory, the MBI knew Allah was going to help them. The Freedom Fighters knew that eventually, you know, the good times will come they never knew that many great people never got to

see the fruits of the sacrifices. I was reading something that the prophets of Salaam have the five years of giving Dawa. There were only 50 people who embraced Islam. You know, if we teach a class, and after five years, only 50 people come would be like a failure. But those 50 people, they actually went to go and change the world, that we don't count success in numbers. And in our sprint our successes with a lot what we are learned and totally liquid on the result is in a lot of hand, you do the effort and you do what you're supposed to do. Allah will give you the results. And he will make it such that you might struggle for many, many years. And it might seem impossible. I

mean, the right at the end Allah with just a change a quick command. Basically, everything changes overnight. And the same can be true in the opposite direction. So we don't give up our Deen we don't give up no matter how small we are and how big the enemy is, how bad the situation is, how bad how far behind we are in the race. We don't quit the race and give up. We are behind Azuma, we know that we are behind as a community, we know that we are living currently in a low point in our history. If we look at the exam, the greatness of the dean, the great times the strength, we are now at one of the low points, but we don't stay here. And we should be dreaming about bringing the Luma forward.

And that's what we should we should do. And we should make the most of a bad situation. So one thing from his life that I extract 26 years in prison, as I said 34 you into jail came out 60 years old spawnable prime of his life, taken 18 of them on Robben Island. What did he do in that time?

while in prison he obtained

a Bachelor's in arts in history and criminology be a bibliography a BA honors in history of Year honors in Africa politics. So we can spend this time studying, spend this time in prison to study and today we find people burning universities or law or people that have the opportunity to study they have all the the brains and all the smarts and all the financial means, but they go there and they waste their time on the law. People you know, are in jail trying to elevate themselves and even in the darkest of corners. This is something again, I said, Get some principles in this Deen that the one who aspires and wants to learn knowledge, wherever you are, whoever you are, alone will

elevate you. In that knowledge, Allah will raise you up through that knowledge. One of the things we find about the fathers of our nation, they were qualified people they studied, not because they went to university, they didn't have opportunity to go to university. But they made a point that we were going to read just an aside that Malcolm X our brother, Malcolm rahimullah, when he went to jail, he was illiterate, couldn't read or write. And he began reading books in jail, to the point where he said I was reading more books, then university professors were reading when he came out, he was without any degrees to his name, highly educated. And through that from being an angry person that

had no future prospects in revolutionize and change the society. knowledge will always bring about change, and we have an opportunity. Those are grandparents maybe they didn't have the opportunity to study and that's not the excuse, but that will be counted for them in their favor. But we have the opportunity. It is said that we lack the our D knowledge and secular knowledge when opportunities available to us. And change will only come through college, a lot change the world with a crop he began and said a crop first before you even worship me before though he'd before learning how to use the bathroom. Begin with the concept of learning is one of the basis fundamentals that we know that

change comes from. And once again we learn from the life of brother Ahmed and many people like him, this principle will argue but

in the end, the law says that those of taqwa will succeed. Don't worry about how the scorecard looks, it might be all in favor of the tyrants and oppressors Don't worry the in the final whistle is blown and occupied in that. Good, good and good people always triumph over evil. But no matter how strong Iran is, and found was the most powerful man on earth, that with a click of a finger he killed people as he chose it Allison Moosa, without an army without wealth, without even a family that supported him without even the ability to speak properly. Yet Allah toppled Pharaoh and Allah eased up the oppressed history of the city will show the tyrant will never succeed. And today's

Titans This is a listen to them. Allah Subhana says Adam Takeda, founder of buka Have you not seen what Allah did to the people of Iran modality Ahmed, the people of add, they had a city called Iran both It was the most significant