Muhammad West – From Heritage to Hamas
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of Islam in preserving one's identity and avoiding harm, as it is a culture of "the next generation" and is modeled by their ability to be a Muslim. They stress the need to be a Muslim to live and work as a Muslim, and the importance of protecting one's identity and creating a culture of "the next generation" to preserve their health and integrity. They also emphasize the importance of avoiding cultural and political threats and not being afraid of evil behavior. The speakers end by reminding people to practice non-imigrant values and not bring on their incorrectly represented culture.
AI: Summary ©
I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed
Satan, in the name of Allah, the Gracious,
the Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the most
honored of the messengers, our master Muhammad and
his family and companions.
My beloved brothers and sisters, peace and blessings
be upon you.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of
the worlds.
We begin by praising Allah.
We testify there is none worthy of worship
besides Allah.
And we send our loving greetings and salutations
to our beloved Nabi Muhammad.
To his pious and his pure family, to
his companions and all those who follow his
sunnah until the end of time.
May Allah bless us to be amongst them.
Ameen and Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah yesterday was a wonderful event at UCT.
And I'm sure many of those of you
in the corporate world, this is a cultural
day, heritage day.
And people are quite interested in understanding and
learning about this very unique culture that we
have here in Cape Town.
This Cape Muslim culture.
And as I said, perhaps one of the
oldest Muslim minorities in the world.
A community that really should not be here
statistically.
Survived through the ages.
Alhamdulillah, last week Awwal Masjid celebrated 230 years.
Perhaps the oldest masjid in the southern hemisphere.
Subhanallah.
And we remind ourselves about our heritage, our
culture, our place within this community.
Alhamdulillah, the freedom that we have, the ability
that we can practice our deen so easily.
And also the threats and the risks to
our culture and our heritage.
Islam, when we talk about culture and heritage,
one of the most beautiful things, the greatest
thing that has ever been said about diversity
is by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Himself.
When He says, of His signs, وَمِنْ آيَاتٍ,
and of the signs that there is an
Allah.
That He created the heavens and the earth.
And وَاخْتِلَافُ أَلْسِنَتِكُمْ That He made diverse your
languages وَأَلْوَانِكُمْ and your colors.
Allah celebrates that we are white and black
and colored and Indian, whatever it might be.
Allah says, this is a sign that there
is an Allah, that there is diversity.
And this is an ayah for those people
who have knowledge.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala also mentions
that He created you in tribes and in
nations.
He gave you different ethnicities, different ethnic groups.
He could have made us all one kind
of culture, but He deliberately chose for us
to be diverse.
Why?
لِتَعَارَفُوا So that we may get to know
one another.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wants us to
experience each other's cultures, customs.
To take the good of it, and to
refrain from what is unacceptable.
But when we talk about our identity, we've
said this many many times.
And this is for our youngsters and for
all of us.
We are many things.
You are South African, you might be Indian,
Malay, white, black, your race.
You are, I seek refuge with Allah, an
all black supporter.
Alhamdulillah, springbok supporter.
You live in the northern suburbs, southern suburbs,
whatever.
You're a plumber, you're an electrician.
There are many things that you identify with.
But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has not
given any of those titles in the Quran.
He has given us one primary label.
Allah says, سَمَّاكُمْ أَلْمُسْلِمِينَ Allah says, I have
named you Muslims.
I have given you an identity.
Your primary identity is that you are a
Muslim.
And Allah says, this is the same title
I gave the previous nations to Nabi Ibrahim
and those before.
And it is in this Quran that I
give you this title.
It is a demographic that we share with
the Malaika, with the sun, with the moon,
the stars, with the animals.
All of creation that obeys Allah are Muslimin.
And Allah says, this is what counts.
Your primary identity is to be a Muslim,
to live as a Muslim, to die, to
enter the Qabar as a Muslim.
This is why we are here.
Now what does it mean to be a
Muslim?
What does it mean to be a Muslim?
How do I know if I am practicing,
I identify as a Muslim?
What does it mean to be a Muslim?
And Islam of course is a very broad,
vast way of life.
It encompasses everything.
But the Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentions in
a very, very comprehensive way of explaining our
identity.
Explaining what it means to be a Muslim.
He says that a Muslim, when it was
asked, he said, O Messenger of Allah, what
is Islam?
When they asked him what is Islam, he
said that a Muslim is one that surrenders
his heart to Allah completely.
And the Muslim is the one whose tongue
and hand the people are safe.
And the believer is the one who is
trusted with the lives and the wealth of
people.
This comprehensive definition.
Islam and being a Muslim is number one,
you worship Allah alone.
You submit to Allah completely to the best
of your ability.
There are some rituals that we need to
do.
Salah is the primary ritual.
Cannot be a Muslim without Salah.
And number two, a Muslim is identified by
his kindness or her treatment of other people.
And in particular, not causing harm.
Not causing harm.
We don't cause harm.
That's what it means to be a Muslim.
The people, they are safe from your hand
and your tongue, as the Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam says.
People do not fear that you will harm
them in their body, physically harm them, on
their property, their integrity, their honor, their dignity.
A Muslim does not do this.
That is what our identity is about.
That is what Islam is.
Everything else builds onto that.
What we wear and what we eat, those
are secondary to these primary identifiers.
And, so how do we preserve this?
I mean these are things we spoke about
before, our identity, our culture.
The big question for all of us is,
will we still be practicing Islam in a
hundred years time?
How do we survive the threats to our
identity?
Our kids are part of a much bigger
world.
They are online with friends from all over
the world.
They are exposed to all kinds of ideologies.
So how do you preserve Islam?
Or how do you give an identity over
to the next generation?
We must remember that our culture, in Cape
Town in particular, is modeled primarily of Islam.
It's hard to talk about Cape Muslim culture,
or even Cape Malay if you want to
call it that, without an Islamic component.
Everything in the way we get married, the
way we dress, the way we eat, it
has an Islamic connotation to it.
It was modeled to preserve Islam.
That was really the reason we created this
culture here, to preserve Islam in a very
hostile environment.
And so, the real question is, we don't
mind, perhaps languages and words like Labarang and
those things might disappear over time.
Alhamdulillah, no problem with that.
But the essence of Islam should not disappear
from our children.
As time goes on, you must be a
Muslim South African in the 21st, 22nd century.
But Islam must maintain, must continue.
We must still have people coming to the
masjid for Jumu'ah.
We must still have fasting in Ramadan.
We must still be eating halal.
We must still be wearing clothing that is
appropriate for a Muslim, and engaging as a
Muslim.
How do you do that?
How do we give it over?
And Aisha radiallahu anhu gives us, number one,
very good advice.
She mentions to the new Muslims that embraced
Islam, the next generation, the generation after the
sahaba.
And she says that when the people embraced
Islam, the verses regarding halal and haram, the
do's and don'ts, eat this, don't eat that,
wear hijab, all of this.
Those verses were not revealed.
Allah did not start with, don't do this,
a list of do's and don'ts.
A list of duas, bacha this and bacha
that.
Allah didn't start with that.
Because if he did that, Aisha says if
Allah began with teaching the people, commanding the
people with those things, they would have said,
no, I'm not going to give up my
hamar.
The sahaba would have said, no, we're not
going to give up our alcohol and our
zina.
Rather, Allah began by teaching himself to the
people.
Creating a relationship between the community, between people
and Allah.
Speaking about Allah's rahma and jannah and jahannam,
the purpose of life.
When that was in the hearts of the
sahaba, it became easy for them to adopt
the lifestyle of Islam.
And so this is where we need to
begin.
And I look at how our kids learn
Islam today.
They learn a list of things which are
haram and a list of duas that they
need to do.
Do we talk about Allah, qiyama, life, death,
the purpose of everything.
The big things to our kids.
Do we explain who Allah is in a
very loving and gentle way.
That's where we should start.
The second thing, and this is really getting
into the crux of our lecture today.
A culture and identity is preserved through association.
If you are a Liverpool supporter or a
Manchester supporter, and you want your kids to
be, I don't support any soccer team, but
I'm a Springbok supporter, alhamdulillah.
If I want my kids to follow that
club, what do I do?
I bring them with, I teach them the
songs, I dress them up in the gear.
Them and their friends, they talk about it.
Eventually through association, you adopt and you become
a diehard supporter.
Think about, this is how we think about
many of you who support certain clubs or
certain teams.
You got that from your dad.
You never even went to Liverpool, but you
are so diehard in that.
How?
Through association.
The same with anything, when you surround yourself
with the guys who talk about cars, eventually
you are going to end up spending your
money on tires and exhausts.
It's just how life works.
And the same with religion.
You spend many of the cultural practices that
we talk about, and we leave the permissibility
from a Sharia perspective, by getting people together
on a Thursday night, getting people together for
a dhikr, for a recitation, talking about the
Quran, having people together for lunch after Jummah.
I remember going up after Jummah, the family
would come together, they would talk about the
imam, sometimes make fun of the imam's eccentricities,
you know, please tell me if I repeat
something, don't tell me 30 years afterwards.
Sheikh, you always said, um, um, okay, okay,
I never knew that.
We do this with the imam.
But I remember sitting under the table and
we talk about the khutbah.
And so as a young person, Islam was
part of your life.
So association is important.
And you have to make sure that the
values, the identity you want your kids to
impart with, when they, you know, become adults
or independent, they take those values through association.
And this is what the Nabeesm says, A
man is upon the religion of his best
friend, or on the religion of his friends.
You will follow the ways of the people
that you spend time with.
So let one look to whom his friend
is.
And the Nabeesm says, whoever imitates a person,
a group of people, then he's one of
them.
If you wear that all black jersey, then
you're one of them.
If you wear and you look a certain
way, act a certain way, then you are
of that group.
So our kids, who do they imitate?
Who do they identify with?
This is important.
Now when we try to talk about our
culture, our deen, our identity, about association, we
need to stick together, naturally the next question
is, so is this a them and a
us?
We want to keep our kids away from
those who are not Muslim.
And it's a very awkward thing sometimes to
talk about where we differ with those who
are not Muslim.
Where we differ with those outside of our
immediate sphere.
And these differences become enhanced, they become highlighted
in times of crisis.
We're going through a global, a war at
the moment.
And we find, we may find our co
-workers, which we get along very well with,
on the different side of what's happening in
Palestine.
What's happening between Israel and Palestine.
People identify with one group, for whatever reason.
We identify with one group, hopefully for the
right reasons.
And this becomes difficult, this becomes now awkward.
And we're beginning to see, we're beginning to
see divisions.
Differences become divisions, and divisions are dangerous.
And this is where I need to, I
want us to understand this deep, I introduce
this deep concept in Islam called, Walaa Wal
Baraa.
Walaa means, who is your Wali?
Allah is the Wali, is the ally, the
protector.
Who are the associates of Allah?
Walaa is who do we associate with.
Baraa is who we renounce, we disassociate.
We're not friends with you, we don't talk
to you, we cut ourselves off.
In Islam with some people you make associations,
and some people is out.
Does this mean all non-Muslims we disassociate,
we make Baraa of all non-Muslims?
Now this particularly became highlighted, and I don't
know if you're following the news, the president
of the MJC Sheikh Riyad Fatah, he made
a statement about two weeks ago, where he
was talking and he said, I am Hamas,
and we are Hamas.
We the South African Muslims are Hamas.
We support Hamas and we endorse what they're
doing.
And this resulted in a huge uproar in
certain areas.
Some political parties and groups supported him.
And of course there were certain groups with
the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, all
the way up to the Jerusalem Times in
Israel, wrote an article about this.
And some of the things that were said,
this is from the Jerusalem Times, they said,
South African citizens must make the choice as
to whether they support this statement, this outrageous
statement, or they stand with the Jewish community.
And in doing so, the Jewish community, which
is the only democracy in the Middle East,
which is fighting for survival, anything short of
basically supporting Israel, will mean that you shift
from being humane, to embracing depravity, and a
type of savagery that was witnessed during the
darkest ages of mankind.
And the Chief Rabbi of South Africa said
on this statement, the world is locked between
a battle of civilizations and values.
On the one side you have violence and
terrorism, and on the other side you have
enlightenment, European values.
And this is how we are portrayed.
We are barbaric, we are the bad guys,
we are evil, and we are savages.
Now, this dialogue is meant to create a
them versus us.
Because, we are the good guys and they
are the bad guys, whatever our guys do,
no matter how many babies they kill, we
are the good guys, it's okay.
And you find this many Christians, for example,
when I, you need to read the comments,
they will say that, look, the Jews are
God's children, we support them, and no religion
on earth will allow you to kill children.
No God on earth promotes genocide.
And we should not be a type of
people that only supports, no matter what the
Muslims do, they are good, they are right.
No, we don't look at color, race, even
religion.
We are on principles.
And every time people ask, so how do
I engage with non-Muslims?
How should we as a Muslim community?
We associate together, we work together, we live
together as a Muslim community, but now we
live part of a much bigger universe.
We are a tiny minority with an ocean
of non-Muslims.
How do we engage with a non-Muslim
community?
And what should they know about us?
When they see us, what should they see?
Every time you want to give an answer,
Allah SWT beautifully puts it simply in the
Quran.
Allah says, لَا يَنْهَاكُمُ اللَّهُ عَنِ الَّذِينَ لَمْ
يُقَاتِلُكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ وَلَمْ يُخْرِجُوكُم مِّن دِيَارِكُمْ أَنْ
تَبَرَّعُوهُمْ وَتُقْسِطُوا إِلَيْهِمْ Allah said, Allah never stops
you from being kind, from being friendly, from
being just, from being nice, to those who
are non-Muslims, so long as they don't
fight you on your religion, and they don't
push you out of your homes and your
land.
So long as they are not oppressing you,
you can be friends with them.
You can be best of friends with them.
You can be nice to them in a
very nice way.
And Allah says, إِنَّ اللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُقْسِطِينَ Allah
loves those who act in this manner.
However Allah says, فِي اللِّهِ اللَّهُ فُبَدْزُ يُوْمٍ
From being friendly, from being nice, from being
okay, from being associated with those who fight
you because of your deen, they hate your
religion.
فِي الدِّينِ وَأَخْرَجُوكُم مِّن دِيَارِكُمْ And they expel
you from your homes.
Like what's happening in Palestine.
وَظَاهَرُوا عَلَىٰ إِخْرَاجِكُمْ أَن تَوَلُّوهُمْ And all those
who support those that fight you, that you
have any kind of alliances, friendly nature with
them.
So our line, we don't have an issue
with non-Muslims, with Jews, with Christians.
We are proud that our religion allows us
to have deep bonds with our non-Muslim
friends and neighbors.
However, if you are an enemy against my
religion, and you harm my religion, and you
harm our ummah, then we cannot have a
cordial relationship.
And that is the red line within our
religion.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala condemns that
we should never side with an aggressor, even
if that aggressor is from our own.
If it was our Muslims that look like
us, they were bombing children, they were killing
civilians, they were * women.
If that was the case, then we were
the first to condemn them.
We are the first to condemn, for example,
Boko Haram.
We are the first ones to condemn ISIS.
We are the first ones to condemn the
Taliban when they prohibit our ladies from studying
in schools.
This is not Islam.
It's even worse when a Muslim does it,
because you tarnish Islam in doing that.
And Allah says in the Quran, يَا أَيُّهَا
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُونُوا قَوَّامِينَ بِالْقِسْطِ O you who
believe, you must be the people that stand
firmly for justice.
شُوَدَىٰ لِلَّهِ And you must be a witness
for Allah.
وَلَوْ عَلَىٰ أَنفُسِكُمْ Even if it's against yourself,
or against your relatives.
If you must stand up and say, this
is my father, but what he's doing is
wrong, then we do that.
Or against yourselves, or your parents, or your
relatives.
Whether one is rich or poor, Allah is
most worthy for both.
Allah is most worthy that you obey.
When it comes to justice, we are on
principle.
We don't support the Palestinians because they have
our color.
We don't support the Palestinians, because they follow
our religion.
We don't support the Palestinians only because of
the issue of land.
This is an issue of humanity.
That no people on earth, whether Arab, Muslim,
whatever you are, has the right to take
the land, and to oppress another people.
Nobody has the right.
Muslims have no right to oppress non-Muslims,
and non-Muslims have no right to oppress
Muslims.
It is on this basis, that we stand
principally with the people of Palestine, and all
those who are oppressed around the world.
And this is our line.
So as I mentioned, our topic is yes,
we need to maintain our Islam.
We need to associate.
We need to work together.
We need to think as ummah.
We need to think about how we protect
our own interests.
At the same time, our religion does not
prevent us from being good, righteous, helpful, kind
to those outside of our faith, and to
assist in any way we can.
We should be the model society, the model
community in this land.
However, there is a line.
And we disavow you.
We make baraa of you.
We disassociate from you.
We stand against you, when you are on
the side of injustice.
When you harm others.
When you fight our religion, and take our
land, well then we have a problem.
And therefore too, specifically to the Jewish community.
Specifically to the Jewish community.
Because what was interesting is, I read the
comments.
I read the comments, and you see, I
wanna know what the Jewish community is feeling.
I'd like to know that.
We sometimes don't talk these things openly.
And you find a lot of them saying,
we're afraid to be in South Africa.
South Africa has become a jihadi kind of
country.
Subhanallah.
That we feel we need to pack up.
The one guy said, I've moved to Israel.
I only come back to make sure my
property is sorted out and come.
So it's interesting you've got land there, that
is yours forever.
But this land here also belongs to you.
Well now you got that land.
So you don't say, look that's my land,
that's my homeland.
Whatever was taken here doesn't belong to me.
Goes back to the Khoisan.
Anyway, nonetheless, what we want this community to
know, is that they should not feel any
fear, from the Muslim community.
As I began, the Prophet said, a Muslim
is someone who the people, he didn't say
only the Muslims, humanity feels safe, that they
will not harm me.
A Muslim will never break into my house.
A Muslim will never swear at me.
A Muslim will never vandalize my property.
They should never fear.
This is what, they should feel safe.
He didn't even say, the hadith doesn't even
say, they are safe.
They feel safe.
They should feel completely safe, that the Muslim
community will never harm the rights of somebody
else.
And even if you harm us, we are
in a state of a conflict at the
moment.
Even if you are harmful to us, Allah
says, وَلَا تَسْتَوِي الْحَسَنَةَ وَلَا سَيِّعَ That good
and evil are not the same.
Good is not the same as evil.
اِدْفَعْ بِالَّتِيهِ أَحْسَنَ Whenever you respond to evil,
respond in a way that is better.
Respond in a way that is better.
If someone wrongs you, look for a way
to respond, in the best possible way.
And then you will find, this is in
the Quran, then you will find the one
who you have a feud with, might become
a close friend of yours.
His heart might change.
This is what the Quran, Allah SWT says.
But this cannot be attained, except for those
who are deeply patient.
Now, in the tafsir of this ayah, Ibn
Abbas, taken from the Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam,
he explains this, that when you are wronged,
when someone harms you, when someone has done
something against you, what the ayah is saying,
Allah commands the believers to be patient, when
they are angry.
Whenever you feel angry, we are patient.
We don't immediately respond or say something out
of anger.
We should not be the people that go
violent, in the road and swear and shout.
This is not part of our deen.
And we are forbearing, when confronted by ignorant
people.
These people are ignorant.
And we forgive when we are mistreated.
And if they do this, so he says,
we do this, why?
We do this so that Allah can protect
us from shaitan, and Allah can take away
our enemies, and turn them to be allies.
The way, subhanAllah, you can see what's happening
currently.
There is a deliberate provocation, bombing of another
Lebanon.
They want a certain response.
They want to see, as a response, a
hospital gets blown up.
We don't do this.
We don't succumb to that level.
Even if you harm our civilians, our children,
we don't harm your civilians and your children.
Because this is the law that we were
given by Allah.
And so we say to the non-Muslim
community, particularly the Jewish community here, while we
support wholeheartedly with the people of Palestine, on
principle, not on religion, on principle.
And we believe that they have been oppressed.
And we believe that Israel is the aggressor.
And we hope that Israel fails.
We at the same time do not bring
that here to South Africa.
We have no problem with the Jews in
particular, and the Jewish community.
We have the same Rabb, we have the
same Creator.
Your Creator is my Creator.
We do not have any hatred or agenda.
We don't sit in our mosques and talk
about how we're going to destroy our non
-Muslims.
No.
We look to promote and help.
When we feed, we feed everybody, whether you're
Muslim or not.
And we also want you to live in
peace and harmony.
We want that your kids can grow up
safely and securely.
We want that what's bad in our country
to disappear, what affects us affects you.
And we want, inshaAllah, that you should feel
free to practice your religion.
We want your kids to go to synagogue
on Saturdays.
And for you to be proud of your
religion.
Not to feel any, the same way I
don't want to feel worried if I wear
a top, someone's going to say something to
me, or harm me, or mistreat me.
You should feel the very, very same way
when you wear your yarmulke, or whatever religious
symbols, you should wear them proudly.
So even though we are at war, we
can also acknowledge your pain.
And the Qur'an mentions the Bani Israel,
that they are a people who have been
oppressed.
We know you've been oppressed.
I came from a visit where the biggest
concentration camp, or death camp in the world,
one and a half million Jews killed.
Have a room like this, full with shoes
of children that were just exterminated.
This is a reality, and we speak out
the first against it.
We should never find a Muslim that says,
I have no sympathy for them, they deserve
it, subhanAllah.
This is an evil statement to make.
We don't respond with one evil, with another
evil.
This is not how we work.
We stand for what is just.
And so we can recognize the pain, the
suffering of any group of people.
But at the same time, just because your
people are the aggressor, you should recognize the
pain that is being caused.
You should recognize and say, look 40,000
civilians killed, 2 million people displaced, 6 million
people living in refugee camps.
People who were there, their whole heritage, we
talk about heritage, they've been there for thousands
of years.
Your humanity should say that this is wrong.
And what is the final solution when it
comes to that?
And so Allah says to them and to
us, in times of conflict, in times of
disagreement, you see we're all good, nice, when
things are going well.
But the minute there's a fight, the minute
one person fights with another person, then we
jump to our cultural, sectarian, religious differences, and
then we cross the line.
Allah says to us, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
If you have iman, كُونُوا كَوَّامِينَ لِلَّهِ شُهَدَى
بِالْقِسْتِ That you should always stand firmly, this
word qist comes up so many times, be
fair and just in your treat, and how
you act.
وَلَا يَجْرِمَنَّكُمْ And never let your hatred for
a people, never give in to hatred.
Do not let your hatred for one group
of people, whether that is because they are
different to me, they look different, they're different
religion, they follow a different sports team, whatever
it is, let not your hatred of one
group of people lead you to commit an
injustice.
اِعْدِلُوا Always be just, and this is what
it means to be a muttaqeen, what it
means to be righteous.
And be mindful of Allah, because Allah is
a way of everything.
How you treat people, it's easy, it's easy.
So when we talk about us and them,
and there is a us and them sometimes,
when things are bad, and things are tough,
and things are hard, whether it's money, whether
it's land, whether we talk about jobs, the
boss and the employee, it's easy to become
a them and a us, and to take
your hatred out on a group of people
unjustly.
This is not the way of Islam.
And so we ask Allah to keep us
safe, to preserve our deen, to keep us
prosperous in this land, and to grant safety,
security, and goodness for all those who are
suffering throughout the land, whether Muslim or non
-Muslim.
We make dua for all of them.
May Allah make easy for those who are
going through hardship.
Ask Allah to grant shifa to those who
are sick, and may Allah grant janatal for
those of those who have passed away.
We end up with just a quick word
of thanks, as you can for those who
supported our cultural celebration on Heritage Day.
Alhamdulillah, it was fantastic.
We had lots of people, especially non-Muslims
who came to the hub, and they got
to see our Islamic heritage here.
Very fascinated.
Obviously the Qusista is always the highlight.
Alhamdulillah, the greatest da'wah thing that we've
done was to create a Qusista, and may
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala preserve us.
Ameen.
Wassalamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.