Muhammad West – The Best Chance to Reboot
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AI: Transcript ©
My beloved brothers and sisters
And we send our love and our greetings,
our salutations to beloved Nabi Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam to his pious and his pure
family, to his companions, and all those who
follow his sunnah until the end of time.
Allah bless us to be amongst them. Ameen.
We ask Allah
to bless us as a country,
as a community, as an ummah. May
Allah help us in our times of difficulty.
Our brothers and sisters in Gaza,
may Allah grant that these days of Hajj,
which is upon us, the days of Dhul
Hijjah, may we make the most of it.
These are the most blessed times of the
year. May Allah grant us to change and
to be better. May Allah grant Shifa'a for
all those who are sick. Last week, we
ended Jumuah on a very scary note. Put
a talip, our chairman,
he had a heart attack, subhanallah, in Jumuah,
and he is Alhamdulillah, he's well. We make
dua'afu bota tariq. His absence is noted, but
we hope it's short, short lived and he'll
be he will return the Masjid, InshaAllah, very
very soon. Ameen. Ameen. Alhamdulillah.
Was a busy,
week or 2. Oh, we last week, of
course, we, went and we had the elections.
And now that the,
you know, the complexion of what's happening or
the outcome has may been made clear,
we realize that we are at a crossroads.
And I try to reflect it because
I have to talk about Hajj. It's the
most important time of the year. Arafa is
on our doorstep. We need to talk about
Hajj, but we also need to talk about
the elections and, you know, how do I
link the 2? And really, it's an opportunity
that not only is our country at a
cross road, but every single one of
us you must have had those conversations around
the table about the big picture of the
country, where are we going, what's happening with
the Muslims, the Muslim vote and all that.
It's a time for introspection
and a chance to reboot, to restart, to
build a new, not just a new country,
a new community, a new person.
Allah has given us these days,
perhaps,
this is the right time
to think about
the future now at the best time of
the year. So let's talk a little bit
about the elections and try to link it
to,
us as a community.
So the future of South Africa
is very much in the balance currently.
This is the most,
you know, critical
moment in our young democracy
since the end of apartheid. So 1994 was
very, very important. There were question marks, will
we survive as a country? Alhamdulillah Allah Subhanahu
Wa'anahu granted us that we came through
that. And now a new age has dawned
on us. The age of the ANC
dominating is over.
And just some just to put us into
the framework of what this means for you,
these are important conversations to have. You must
be informed
that from a numbers perspective,
you know, we are over 65,000,000
people as a population.
About 43,000,000 is eligible to vote. 43,000,000
of the, of the population is over 18.
Of that 43,000,000,
only 16,000,000 came to vote.
So the vast majority
did not vote. The vast majority of countries
said, I'm not interested.
None of you guys inspire me. None of
you guys is worth my time in the
queue.
And that is perhaps the biggest
the biggest challenge
that if our electorate,
60% of those who can vote, are not
interested, it shows that none of these
parties inspire any confidence in the majority of
our country.
And when we as a these are problems,
these are issues that we as Omani to
think about. We as a community, these are
our problems. As a Muslim community, this is
our land, our problem. So that's the one
point I'd like to take out. Only 40
less than 40%, around 39, 38% of the
entire electorate actually went out to vote.
And even though there was a massive
shift, the ANC has lost its majority and
there's coalitions and we'll talk about that in
a minute, in reality nothing has changed.
In reality nothing has changed 30 years
on. 30 years ago
Alhamdulillah
we had freedom, we were given economic freedom,
we were given legal rights,
But the one sticky point which could not
be resolved was the economic
inequality of this country. We know that the
economy, the money of the country still reflects
apartheid.
How do we distribute that?
And really We'll figure that one out as
we go along. We know it's a problem.
We know it's We'll figure that one out
as we go along. We know it's a
problem. We know it's impossible
that 10% of the country can own, like,
70, 80% of the economy. We can't it
is a problem that 80% of this country
is impoverished.
We know it's a problem, but we'll fix
it later down the line. 30 year 30
years on, we have not fixed it, and
that is the single most biggest
threat to this
to this country.
And so
the ANC
took a broad coalition. It says, look, we
bring everybody. We're Briyani.
The Communist Party, we said, we will nationalize
everything.
The radicals, we said, we just take what
we want.
The moderates, he says, look. We'll work within
the Western structure and try to slowly build
and upscale
the masses, give them education, and then slowly,
you know, the step by step approach. So
this was the idea.
And as things went along
and this broad coalition couldn't solve the this
this economic problem, that ANC basically began to
split to more radical factions. So if you
look at maybe 20 years ago, ANC had
65% of the
vote. You had 20, 25 percent of those
who still maintained it's really a question between
Western liberalism, the the the the economy of
the DA, where we have an elite and
we work according to that system.
Like the the way the world works now,
the Western world raped, pillaged, stole from the
entire world for 300 years, and then they
said, now we are equal. Now we play
monopoly.
We first put all our hotels up. Now
everyone will play equal. Now we put the
dice. Now we're equal. It's impossible to win
in a structure like that.
So that's
the western liberal I ideals and wants to
keep the status quo going.
20 20% of this country voted that way
twenty years ago. Still, that same 20% is
there.
The majority of the country said we don't
subscribe to that economic view, but we will
go with the ANC's trajectory.
The slow and steady change, that didn't work.
And so that's why that's why that's 60
plus 5 that's 65% of the ANC, if
you split it out, the EFF and the
MK is basically
divisions of the ANC that are more radical.
That said, we can't anymore work
this slow process. We want to tee up
the constitution.
We wanna nationalize
the minds. We wanna take the wealth from
the wealthy and distribute it because you have
not come up with a policy to solve
the economic inequality.
And this is what happens when in injustices
perpetuate.
For long, people become angry, they become frustrated,
and they listen to more radical answers. If
you can't fix this wall, let's just break
the wall down and start
from new. And that's what's happening.
And the risk, therefore, to this country
is we are becoming more radical
because the situation is becoming more desperate.
And the DA, the Western liberalism, is not
the answer. Clearly, that's not gonna be the
answer.
Everywhere in the world where that philosophy perpetuates,
it creates
a elitist class
and a subservient class,
and that is what it's advocating for. At
the same time, wherever there is
populism,
that is also proven to fail,
and we need to find a solution between
these two extremes. And that is really the
problem that our country is facing with,
which we need to understand.
And so
the ANC has and I'm giving you all
this. What is this got to do with
Jumu Khutba. InshaAllah, we'll we'll get to the
Islamic side of it. Very interesting, when we
look at, just add this tangent Internet, we
can maybe talk about it in another jumwa.
When the Nabi sun came to Madinah
he came to Madinah, he was confronted with
an economic catastrophe.
Why? He had
a tiny isolated city and a massive refugee
influx from Makkah or the Muhajirin.
How do I distribute the wealth in this
country? And he set up very strategic steps,
sharing of wealth,
working collectively as a community,
and he actually forbid
the share however, he forbid the sharing of
the farms to the Muwajirin. Why?
If you give
land that is producing,
food and you give it to in your
you give it as sadaqah to the man,
look. I wanna share my wealth with this
poor uncle here. This uncle doesn't know how
to farm.
Half that farm is going to go to
waste. Then we became we our economy shrinks
even further. Then Abi Salam allowed them to
share their houses, to to share their bank
accounts but he said not the farms, oh
Ansar. You keep working the farms. You know
how to run the mines. You keep running
the mines but the profit must be distributed.
Something perhaps in the Sira, and obviously everything
in the Sira, the answer lies there. So
now the the ruling party has to make
a tough decision. It no it's no longer
in
the driving seat. It can't just elect
a government on its own.
So what does it do?
So interestingly, if we don't have a government
form within, like, 2 weeks, I think then
we have to have a rerun of the
elections. Well, if we know that in the
constitution, we have a very short period to
form a government or we need to rerun
of elections. I don't know how you feel
about the rerun of elections, but that's gonna
cause
tension.
So what the ANC was supposed to do
was they need to find a partner
and get married to that partner and then
say, look, we'll get over 50%, and we
as a coalition will form a government. And
so the partners are really either the DAMK
or EFF. And this is a wonderful slide,
and I and I need to give credit
to the Daily Maverick. And they basically said,
well, what is the akida? What is the
beliefs of the EFF and the MK? What
do they share?
So they are more radical in terms
of land redistribution,
about the constitution not being they actually want
to go against the constitution,
very socialist in their views. The ANC doesn't
subscribe to that. So the EFF and the
MK have similar kind of views.
But there are also views that the EFF,
the MK, and the ANC also agree in
terms of foreign policy. Palestine, Israel, they're all
on the same page. We are pro Palestine.
They're on the same page about we need
to
we need to redistribute the land. We don't
know how. The one view is what outcome.
We just take it and we give it.
ANC is not doesn't agree to that, but
it does agree we need to redistribute the
wealth. The ANC and the DA have a
lot in common as well in terms of
they believe in the constitution.
They believe the judiciary must be safe. There
must be freedom of speech. We need to
take some of the Western I ideals, which
is good, and we run it here. Maybe
we have differences from an economic perspective, but
we agree in terms of governance.
And then, of course, the
DA on its own is very pro Western
capital capitalistic
view to keep the status quo economically the
same. None of these partners
are ideal for the ANC. None none none
of the 3. They're not nice people that
they want to get married to. And so
what the ANC has decided, that's what I
did yesterday, they've decided we're not gonna go
into a coalition with any one of them
specifically exclusive.
We're going to have a
a multi marriage.
We're gonna have multiple lives here. We're going
to open a government of national unity, and
this is the government that we had after
apartheid.
After apartheid, there were so many different extreme
views.
And what the government at the time said
or the the leadership at the time said,
we need everybody to be sitting around the
table. No one must be left out. We
need to hear all the views no matter
how radical, how extreme,
within certain parameters, but we're all gonna sit
together and we'll try, and in theory, choose
the best people in every party to form
the government. Sounds.
Very seldomly does it work in the world,
a government of national unity. But in principle,
this is what they've decided. Which means we
could have a minister from
the minister of defense from 1 party and
the minister of the, you know, finances from
another party,
and the government will vote. It's no longer
1 person in the driving seat. All the
voices are in the room, and we'll decide
what is best for the country, and that's
the way forward. And what we must say,
alhamdulillah, with all our resentment and all anger
perhaps that you might have to the ANC,
I'm not punting them, but how many countries
in Africa were able to get power and
transition power over without bloodshed? In Africa,
all across the world,
this can this
party has done that.
We have not seen the civil war that
people have been saying for the last 30
years.
We have not seen blood in the streets.
We've seen a a transition of power that
is,
safe, secure, and we make du'a now that
whatever comes out is for the better.
So that's where we are. The details are
still quite sketchy, but that's
what it appears, so we're not gonna have
a rerun of the elections. Doesn't look like
we'll have a ANCDA or ANCEFF
coalition, but we're going to have a multiparty
government,
and they will we all hope the politicians
choose the best amongst them. Even if it's
not them, they will make put the right
people in the right places.
There was also another big question. What happened
to the Muslim vote in the Western Cape?
And you find
different views. And
we'll be trade
or others, oh, we're irrelevant.
We'll unpack that inshallah. There's a lot of
data that sees different things.
There's a lot of unpacking to do. I've
looked at some of the data, but I
haven't come to a conclusive
answer. But it's something that we'll talk about.
What is important for us to con to
remember as a Muslim community, whatever the answer
is, whether
en masse we voted for the DA, which
I don't think is the answer. I don't
think that's the data doesn't support that. Or
en masse, the majority of the Muslims said,
guys, I don't know who to vote for.
I'm not gonna vote. Or we all voted
in different ways, and our power got diluted.
The reality is we as a community need
to ask ourselves,
as South Africa is moving forward, what does
this mean for us as a community here
in Cape Town? How do we survive
as a tiny, tiny minority?
I said this last week, we are an
endangered species. When you are 5% or less,
any animal out there that's only 5% of
the population, it's an endangered species. It can
disappear overnight.
We need to be strategic.
We need to ensure we make the right
decisions so that Islam survives in this country
for tol kiyama, Amin.
And we spoke about that last week.
The same way these politicians are now sitting,
what do we what can we agree
on the core values? We as Muslims should
do this. We don't have time now to
be divided by our tiny Madhavs,
our sectarian views, our Malay Indian views. We
must unite on core values. I wanna make
sure my children are Muslim and they are
making salah and my grandchildren are still making
salah.
But we die as Muslims. That's our core
values.
And we need leadership and unity and a
long term strategy. We have some
amazing minds in our community,
but they are not being applied within our
for the betterment of our ummah. So that
must happen. And as I said, it starts
with
maybe this is where the Nabi's son started.
He didn't he didn't have a grand plan.
Yes. To change the world was his plan,
but he started
with Abu Bakr,
with Ali radhiyallan, with Khadija.
At the grassroots level,
we change things and the big things take
care of itself. And that's why,
as I said, as the country goes into
a mode of introspection, the ulama need to
inter need to think about the future of
the ummah. Each and every one of us
need to be reflective.
And now is the time. These are the
holiest days of the year. And this is
the time when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala highlights
the strength of this ummah.
When we are feeling low and down,
what's happening in Palestine, what's happening here in
in South Africa, Allah gives us Hajj.
Look at that.
From every country in the world, people have
come to that to this sanctuary. When Nabi
Ibrahim built the Kaaba, he said to Allah,
how who's going to come here? Allah said,
you give them for.
You call them and I will show you
they will come.
We don't have to make Islam great. Islam
is always going to be great. And the
Ummah will always be powerful and the ummah
will always succeed.
It's only if we are part of that
journey.
And so Allah reminds us in the days
of Hajj, why these are the holiest days
of Hajj, Allah said in the Quran
that this ummah, Allah has given the most
blessing to this ummah. This ummah has all
it needs to succeed
if you return back to the principles and
the fundamentals of Islam. And so now
the message insha'Allah for us is to capitalize
on these 10 days of Dhul Hijjah.
We'll go and view the moon, sight the
moon this evening, I believe. And tomorrow might
be the first of Dhul Hijjah. And then
Al Mas'ul says there are no days in
which deeds that are righteous deeds are done
where Allah rewards you more. Now the bonus
for any sadaqa, for any Quran, for any,
raka of salah, any dhikr you make, Allah
multiplies it so much that it is better
than building a Masjid outside of so you
give 1 rand. That 1 rand is multiplied
more than if you gave a 1,000,000 rand
last week.
One dhikr now is more is greater than
if you gave a 1,000,000 dhikrs outside. The
multiplication Allah gives in these days are greater
than any other deed. You can't compare.
If you fasted
every single day of the year,
it is not equal to fasting one day
in these 10 days of Dhul Hijjah. The
Sahaba said, really?
Even if a man goes what
even he goes jihad. That means even jihad.
Even if you fought jihad, subhanahu, think about
this. You fought jihad last month. You went
to Gaza and you fought you came back.
If you sat down and you recited a
half a page of Quran, the reward you
get that half a page is greater than
jihad. I'm not saying it. Rasool Allah is
saying that. It's greater. More reward except the
man who dies, the shayid. Okay. His reward
is better. So that the the the bonus
that is given in this time is unparalleled.
And therefore, the Nabi says, so so what
should you do? What should we do, You
Rasoolah? He said make as much tasbih, subhanAllah,
as much
as much Allahu Akbar as you can. Every
second,
you're gonna get a bonus by just so
sitting in the traffic. Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
Every moment, every second, use it to make
dhikr.
The
there are, of course, special deeds that we
can do on these days.
For example, the fasting on the day Arafah.
If you cannot fast all 9 days of
Dhir Hijjah,
try to fast maybe the Monday and the
Thursday. If you can't do that, at least
try to fast. You have to fast. We
have to fast almost the day of Arafah.
I'm not gonna get into which Arafah is
9th. When ajis are there or just fast
the day of Arafah. You fast the day
of Arafah, and you're near whatever it is
Allah is going to reward, insha Allah, you
will get 2 years of sin removed.
What a beautiful way of starting the new
year. Allah forgave last year's sin and the
sins to come. No other day has this
power. So fast the day of Arafah. And
the Nabi says there is no,
day in which Allah frees more souls than
the day of from Jahannam, the day of
Arafah. Not only the
Hajis, it is on this day, on the
day of Arafah, where Allah will free more
people from jahannam than any other day. Now,
Again, think about it. All of us have
court cases against us.
Whether we know it or not, every one
of us have a warrant with arrest from
Allah
for the sins that we have done. Allah
says there's a day
where if you submit an email
or you just raise your hands, that fine,
that warrant is squashed.
No day
more people are freed from Jahannam than the
day of Arafa. And so you so that
the Hajjis will be intensely busy with dua.
We should be intensely busy in fasting and
dua, and there's a special dhikr that the
Hajjis will make. We should all memorize this.
We all know this dhikr. The the the
the say, Naija asked the Nabi Salam, what
is the best dhikr I can make on
the day of Arafah? He said, You
You Allah, there is none worthy of worship
but you, the one and the only you
have no partner. To you belongs the universe
and everything belongs to you. And
all the praise is for you.
And you have power over everything.
Doesn't matter who won the elections. It doesn't
matter who owns the economy. You have power
over everything. Everything is in your hands. You
can change anything that you want. This is
what we should do.
So fast on the Day of Arafa. Make
this dikr on the Day of Arafa, recite
as much la ila, takbirs as you can,
give charity, then of course, Qurban.
The greatest deed to be done in this
time of the year, this time is to
Quran.
And we all know the sunnah of Nabi
Ibrahim to sec to give and Allah
wants to ask, am I really Akbar? We
say on it Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar. Akbar.
Am I really Akbar? Give up what you
love the most. Nabi Ibrahim was tested with
his son, his only son,
and he answered these tests. Allah subhanahu doesn't
ask us to give up what we love
the most.
Maybe give up our Netflix,
give up our social media,
give up what do we love the most,
give up of our money,
Share with the poor. Feed someone hungry. That's
what Allah's asking us.
If I'm really Akbar, you really want in
your life, you want in your community, you
want the government to work, you want your
country to work, you want your economy to
be fixed, you want all those things from
me? Are you willing to slaughter sheep and
give some sadaqa to a hungry person? Are
you willing to make that sacrifice? And that's
what Allah subhanahu wa'ala that's what Quran we
say in our when, you know, when we
make that tahih to before you sought, our
salah, when we sought our salah, we say,
Oh, Allah, for you is my salah.
And my kurban.
My life and my death is for you,
you Allah. So Allah is asking, now where
is the Quran? Where is the nusuk? Where
is that,
sacrifice that you're going to make? That's why
in the Hanafi madhhab, they say that the
Quran is almost it's compulsory. The Hanafi madhhab.
That is so great and so important to
bring barakah in your life that every single
person who can afford, not everyone can afford
it, if you can't, you know, Allah make
it easy for you. For those who can
afford, you should kurban. You should kurban. And
the Nabeel says, there is no there is
nothing which Allah loves more
on the days of these holy days, the
days of Hajj, then the Qurban, the sacrificing
of an animal. The sacrificed animal will come
on the day of
Qiyamah with its horns and its hair and
its hooves in witness for you. It will
be an it will be a means by
which you enter Jannah.
And before any drop of blood reaches the
floor, all your sins are forgiven. This is
not just for the Hajjis. This is for
us.
Every hair is an expiation of sin. Every,
act I mean, every part of that animal
will be a means where your sins are
forgiven, and then you share it with the
poor and your neighbors and a portion for
yourself. And so, whoever can afford it,
if you can afford at least per house,
maybe you can't afford per person, but every
household
or every extended family,
if you cannot let us kurban and make
that niyyah that we'll kurban together Insha'Allah,
there is, of course, and I'm not punting
Burhanu, but we are obviously
offering kurban services for those who would like
to sup would like to go through Burhanu.
If not, one thing I like about the
Qurbanals,
Qur'*'s
Qurban, you can get cheaper in Malawi, and
alhamdulillah, whatever is is all good. We still
do the garlanding. One of the things in
the sunnah is where you put a a
marker over the animal,
and this was meant to show that this
animal is for Qurban purposes. You don't touch
that animal. You don't harm that animal. And
we still do that Alhamdulillah. So this is
and something you find in the Quran, which
is mentioned. And so Alhamdulillah, there's a lot
of, of frills and fancies we do, but
it's part of the tradition of Quran. We
can assist inshallah if you if you, want
to assist. And then, of course, we we
make dua for the hujaj.
And we ask that Allah subhan makes the
Hajj easy. It's in the middle of of
summer. It's very hot. And Allah subhanahu wa'ala
to make it a Hajj without any incident,
that the duas are accepted. And especially those
Hajjis that are from our part of the
world, Allah selected them. He looked at all
of us and he chose them. And so
we make dua that while they are in
the presence of Allah, they make dua for
us and our community and for the well-being
of the