The Hardest Hour – P.1

Joining us, your brother, Mohammed waste, that considering the times that we in we are in a very challenging time, it's a scary time. Many people are panicking many people are asking, you know, he's just one of the signs of gamma, what's going to happen tomorrow and we'll glue and stuck to our phones,

waiting for the next update and because it's evolving so quickly, you know, we just caught up in the hysteria. Now one thing for us to remember is while we take the precautions, and we and we need to recognize the fact we also don't panic, and we don't also over exaggerate, remember that this month just Mohamed Salah Salem has stood for 1400 years plus and the oma you know, from the east to the west. It has been it is as experienced highs and lows and the lows that we are currently in we are in a bit of a low. I think that is something that we will agree on. It is far from the extreme lows that we've seen throughout this 1400 years. And they were times where this Omar was really at the

brink of collapse, and it bounced back. And this goes back to what that very famous Hadith of the Prophet Sonam made three special glasses, he made a deal he said Allah, let my mana be overpowered, completely exterminated by an external enemy. And I'll accept that. And the problem is that I'm also made to either leave his home or not be completely overrun by by completely destroyed by a plague or natural disaster or famine, an earthquake, and I'm not accepted that meaning this man will never be destroyed completely through natural disasters. And then the third is the process of made that this woman should not be divided and fight amongst itself, this was not accepted. And therefore, we see

these divisions and it will be till the end of time those divisions. So we of course, facing a natural calamity at the moment is the COVID-19 disease. And many of us feel the panic. And it's good for us to look back in time, history is a good learning experience for us. And for this series. We're calling it the hardest hour. And it looks at those very dark moments in our history of times when the oma was really in a crisis mode. And it's in those difficult times. You know, when calamity arises when great adverse adversity arises, great people rise up, and we're going to look at how great people stand up and they have saved the date. And this is really an opportunity for us to

analyze it is for some of us, we should look at it as this is an opportunity where we can rise up and you know, can can do something truly special. That's that he still may know our names and that people can praise us but it's worth the loss of 100 data or mentioned us by name when Allah loves a believer, we know the Hadith when he loves somebody, Allah mentions that person by name to the angels. And that should be our our objective that this could be that that moment for us. So in the series, the hottest hour, we will try and do a few of these once a week in sha Allah to give you some motivation to give you some positivity, something to look forward to. And today the first part,

the first part is going to be a calamity that was so bad. Till today. You know, in the history of Islam, many have many regarded as perhaps the darkest moment in the history of the oma, possibly, you know, following the definition of resourcefulness without a doubt the most difficult calamity for the oma experience was the discipline of resource alum. And that was the hardest moment for the for the Sahaba which we'll talk about as well in the series. But there was a moment in the 13th century, when many of the scholars looked at the look at the situation they looked at how bad things were and they said you know what? This is chiama The world has come to an end this is it's over.

Make is no tomorrow, we're going to talk about when the when we feared when the oma feared kiama had come. So, some backstory to this I take you back to the 13th century 13th century meaning 12 1200 41,250 I'm the story begins in Egypt in Egypt. Now this is about a 200 years after the Great Salahuddin and the great crusades that the Muslims had defeated the Crusaders and Salahuddin had set up a kingdom in in Egypt, in Palestine in Syria, and they were called the ayyubid dynasty. So the humans were the Muslim.

The Muslim armies that were the strongest in the world at the time, even though that Baghdad in Iraq was the capital of the Muslim Empire. The halifa was in Baghdad, but he had no power really, but it was the spiritual and the intellectual capital of the Muslim Ummah, the obey omega the ubit of one the ayyubid dynasty of Salahuddin Allah UB, this was really the strength of the oma and even those who have been in Shaolin open the cedars will get to talk about Salahuddin he defeated a number of Crusader armies the Crusaders continued to come after he had died. And it was in the 13th century, when the French king himself Louie the fourth, the king himself of France, and France was the most

powerful nation in Europe, possibly one of the strongest countries in the world. He launched the seventh crusade crusade

crusade number seven. And he had a very cunning strategy, he said, instead of going directly to Palestine and Syria as they had done in the past, let us invade Egypt first. And Egypt was considered to be weak. we conquered Egypt and from Egypt, we'll use that as a, as a as a base to invade the rest of, of the Middle East. And of course, the objective was conquered Jerusalem, conquer Syria, and Subhanallah, even to go as far as conquering the haramain. We know the Crusaders. Some of them even mentioned that the plan was to destroy the Kaaba to be left to dig up the grave of the prophets of Salaam. So the Crusaders always had this at this in mind. So King Louie, the fourth

of France, he arrives in Egypt, around 1249 seeeeee, on the sixth of June, and he finds very little resistance, there's no armies and he conquers easily he walks over the whole of Northern Egypt, you know, he conquers most of the Northern Egypt, and he's moving down towards the capital of Egypt called almanzora. The capital, basically, we kind of yesterday was called almanzora. And he was going to conquer this the city, now the man in charge, the Sultan of Egypt, he was gravely sick. So the king of Egypt, the Muslim, amin was extremely sick. And in fact, as the as the army of the king arrives, he receives the letter, he received a letter from the King of France and look at this

letter is two letters we're going to talk about today, inshallah. So this letter is from the King of France, to the south, the ayyubid Sultan, so that means descendant was the ruler of Egypt, and the King of France writes, he says, as you know, I am the ruler of the Christian nation, I am the I am the man in charge of all of Christendom, and the people of underoos. Now remember, there were Muslims living in Europe, next to France, in Spain, the people of Andalusia, they were still there. And he says, The people of underneath your fellow Muslim Brothers, they in Spain, they pay me and they give me gifts, while I beat them, like cattle, I treat them like animals, and I kill the women

and the men and the women and I take the children, and I do with them as they please, I make the houses empty, and there's nothing we can do about it. And he says, I've told you have warned you many times, that even if you come to me now swinging the strongest oats, and you bring me all the priests of Egypt, and you carry the candles, and you even come carrying the cross on your back, meaning you think I'm a Christian, have mercy on me, I will not accept that from you. And it will not save you from me killing you, I'm coming to so he's basically saying, I've come here to annihilate you, I'm not even here to fight you. I'm here to kill you, and destroy your people. And

I've told you and have warned you about my army and my soldiers, that they can full all the fields in the mountains. And they are they are as numerous as the peoples and they will be sent with the swords of destruction against you. So this is a very harshly when it comes to the ayyubid King, the Sultan of the U boats in one surah. He gets the letter, he's extremely sick. And he basically dies. The King of the Muslim ruler dies. And we have an army that has just invaded Egypt. it's on its way What do we do. And so in this crisis, you can imagine what adult crisis they are in. And the the the person who basically takes control the situation is the queen of the wife of the king. And her name

was shutter, a door shutter, meaning the three of poles, let's talk a little bit about this is amazing lady. So this lady shadow dude, which means the three of poles, and he was a smart, a smarter Dean, she was a slave girl, a Turkish slave girl. And that time, you know, the kings and the Sultan's they would have these slave girls. And you know, she was extremely beautiful. And the king saw her. And initially he purchased her as a slave, and he fell in love with them. And within a year or so they had their child together, and he set her free and he made her his queen. And so she was by his side. And then of course, he becomes very, very ill. And she was looking after him, no one

was allowed to see the king, the king was basically in isolation. And when lo and behold this army the Crusaders arrive in Egypt, they send this letter and the king dies. And she decides and she decides very wisely she and the the Chief of Staff of the of the king, the Yuba chief Chief of Staff, the Minister of the government, she says, You know what, let's not tell the people that the king has died, because we don't want to cause a panic. There's a lot of stigma in this. We're living in a time where perhaps the panic can be worse than the pandemic, that the panic that people are going through can be even worse than the disease. But if we are calm and we take the precautions,

then with time inshallah we will weather the storm. But as we become panicky and we, you know, we do this crazy buying, you know, I don't know what the what it is for toilet paper that's happening. And people are overwhelming every coffee and until the hospital, you overwhelm the system. And so very wisely, she says, Let's not tell the people because the last thing they need after that is an army that has arrived on doorstep is to say the king has died. Let's keep as if though, the administration is going we don't do his own janazah we keep it quiet, and I will continue I'm sending out orders. So then she gets together the Chief of Staff, the Chief of Staff

Officers, you know what, you know, Queen with all due respect, you said one side, I will go and I'll send an army and we will fight against the Crusaders, and we'll fight them and defeat them. And so the Chief of Staff goes out, he fights the Crusaders and he loses, and he dies. And with that is the end of the ayyubid dynasty. This Salahuddin ayyubid dynasty basically comes to an end. And so the entire ruling class is gone. But something you need to understand that a huberts had a very interesting system of how they ran the government. So the ubix were the guys in charge of that, um, he is the king of the Sultan's, and that means and they would purchase slaves and train the slaves

and basically adopt them. They didn't treat them so much as slaves, but they use them as as as advisors. And so you had under the you bits, you had a group called the Mamelukes. Mamelukes basically means slaves. So they were slaves, but they were educated. So the Mamelukes were in charge of the army. They were warriors. They were in charge of the administration. They were I mean, the Queen herself. She was basically you could say a man look. And so the rulers had all been defeated. And so now you have a palace that is completely empty of a Sultan, in theory of governance, and what's left of the Mamelukes. So she brings the Mamelukes together. Now, yesterday, they were

slaves, they were taking orders. And she basically gives a speech and tells them that guys, we are in charge, and they are Muslim, the Muslim and so this is for the sake of Islam, doesn't matter that we're slaves yesterday. Now it's upon us to make a decision, what are we going to do. And so the most brilliant general, the chief of the the most brilliant of the mameluke, generals, his name is baybars. It's a name that we should remember, is one of the great heroes of Islam. baybars, he is his nickname is his is the the alpha Panther. That was his nickname. And they used to call him the second celebrity. And we'll see why it's called that. So right now he's just beginning his military

career. He was one of the Special Forces of the Sultan, which has died. And he says he's got a plan. And so the army of the king is coming towards Mansehra, basically Cairo, and it's coming down the Nile river with the ships. And he says, Let's not fight them, let them come into the city, let them invade the city completely, we empty it. And once they inside, we lock them in, and we have them in a trap. It was a very risky move. I mean, you you are basically allowing the enemy into your house. And so they agree that this was perhaps the best strategy. And so the Crusaders come along very confident very arrogantly because they had just basically walked over the whole Egyptian army so

far. And now they're meeting the slave army that they didn't expect was going to do much. And the army gets into almanzora. They get out of the ships, and they invade. And the city basically, is completely empty. And once the army was inside as as planned, babies had a very smart idea. He brought his ships, they weren't in the harbor, they were on land, and he transported the ships on land using using like oil, sliding them on land, and landing them behind the ship. So the the Crusader ships are in the harbor, the city on the one side, and now the Muslim ships are in front of them. And he said the the ships are light. So now that we're completely stuck inside the city, once

they were in the city, all the people came out, and of course, the army, and they basically had them in a trap. And there was no way they could not be supplies or burned up. And this was a complete catastrophe for the for the Crusader army. And in fact, it was so bad that the king himself was captured the king the King Louie that same man wrote that letter, I've come to destroy you and your children everything. He was taken prisoner by the queen of Egypt. And during that time, he became very sick. And one of the physicians, Muslims actually killed him by the grace of Allah, and they had to ransom him back. Basically, they said, France said, No, we want our King back. What are you

going to pay that to pay 30% of the GDP for that year 30% of the entire company's country's revenue to be paid to Egypt, just to get the king back. You know, it's like taking, you know, this is the most powerful one of the most powerful men in the world is like, you know, you're taking them Donald Trump as an answer. Not saying that get in trouble anyway. Right. So the, the queen of Egypt and the Mamelukes were able to save the day, they rose up out of this difficult time, and they were able to save the day. This was not the event that I spoke about that the coming of kiama this was just the prelude to that. The real disaster is on its way. So the Mamelukes now, after defeating the seventh

Crusade, they establish control of Egypt for the first time now. We have a kingdom that is ruled by Mamelukes and they called the mamluk dynasty. Originally, they were slaves. I mentioned the Smith babies, for example, this guy, baby rahimullah, the second Salah Dean, he was kidnapped as a child, an orphan and your sold, got to the ayyubid. Sultan, they adopted him and they trained him as a soldier. So you can imagine his life and now he's in charge of a

Basically at the kingdom of Egypt, while they're in Egypt and trying to sort the phase out, a disaster to the east was on its way. This is the real disaster of the Mongolian invasion. The Mongolians. Mongolia is a country next to China.

Also Around this time, the turn of the 13th century 1200 or so, the very famous name that you should know gingy scan, kinky scan united the tribes of Mongolia. And these will be known nomadic hordes, you know, very tough, rugged people. He united them. Mongolia is a big country. He brought them all together. And he began a series of invasions. He was conquered China, and then he moved from China, westwards conquering Russia conquering most of the countries Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, moving into now the Middle East, and the the Mongolians who would find that they had a reputation for brutality. So on this on this march of expansion, for example, when they entered Iran, you either if you surrender

to them, and they took your slaves, and that was the merciful thing, they took your slaves and they sold you took your property that was merciful, if you resisted them, when they were unlike other conquering armies, other armies, they conquer city and they roll over, they could destroy the city and destroy everyone. So many of the cities in Iran, for example, they resisted. And as a response, they when they entered the city and they defeated the army, they killed every man, woman, child, every cat dog sheep, and they pile the skulls on top of each other. So this is like a really, really, these are I mean, this was like the Mongolians were undefeated, no army in the world could

stand against them. And they were seen as a scourge. They were like they would walk over everyone and every civilization Muslim Christian Jew, no one could stand against them. And when they came through a city, they basically lifted completely destroyed and moved on. I mean till today, you just can is credited for having the biggest empire in terms of size in terms of size. He had ruled the most land so today, so now the armies of the Mongolians have reached the Muslim lands from China. They have now reached the Muslim lands and they come with a huge the biggest army that they have ever assembled to invade the Muslim lands.

1258 This is a date that we should remember 1258 is perhaps one of the saddest days or years in the history of Islam. 1258 Baghdad is our capital. Baghdad is where the halifa is, but that is where all the books of Imam Shafi all the books of the great scholars are how is the biggest library in the world. All the scientists that you've heard about the great physicians, the gate, doctors, all of the knowledge was in ba da da da was the jewel of the world. It was the biggest city or one of the biggest cities in the world. Over a million people love V and the Mongolians arrived at Baghdad. And the halifa was so weak and his advisors were so divided. In fact, many of them were treacherous.

They allowed the Mongolians inside and the Mongolians invaded by the 1258. a sect it they conquered it and they killed everyone inside it. Over a million people they massacred in a few days not to kill a million people with a knife with a sword is you know it is brutality on a different level. For example, the scholars of the time wrote that we were so weak, the Muslims are those that survived and was so weak, a Mongolian lady would lie in like 100 you know, hundreds of men up in a queue. And she would chop their heads off one by one and they wouldn't even fight back or run away until her sword became a knife became blunt. And she would tell them wait here I'm gonna find

another knife to come back and they would wait. This is the capital of the Muslim world, the entire city was overthrown. And then they took the books. Now the knowledge that was lost till today, when you when we talk about scholars will say it the mom is credited for writing 50 books but we only have thin what happened to the other 40 this is what happened to it. They took the books of the library of Baghdad and they dumped it in the in the river. for four months the river was black with an ink. So when Baghdad was sacked, this was a shock wave in the whole Muslim Ummah we could we could not understand brutality on this level. Many scholars actually wrote that this is the

intrusion, huge, huge image which has come upon us and there's nothing we can do because remember, no army in the world has ever was ever able to stop them whether it was the Christians, the Russians, the the ubifs, the Abbas it's no one could stop the Mongolian army. Also just the interesting side note, the halifa at the time, when the Mongolians finally captured him is the halifa is ruling this massive Empire. They looked at the amount of treasure and wealth that he had and they said what I know so useless, we entered your country and you can even use your wealth for anything good. And they wrapped him up and his family in a big carpet and they trampled him with the

horses. They rolled over him with the horses so they killed the halifa the abovesaid halifa and so on.

They now have defeated Baghdad, they move on, they destroy Damascus. Moving further, what's left is Jerusalem, of the Jerusalem is Mecca, Medina. And so every Kingdom has fallen. The last kingdom that is alive, that is functioning is the Mamelukes in Egypt. This group of slaves that just started yesterday, like, as we said, not even 10 years ago, they were slaves. They defeated the Crusaders. And now they are the last line of defense. And they, they received a letter from the they received a letter from the, the ruler of the the head of the Mongolians, hulagu. Can he writes a letter to the mum looks, and he sees so as the second letter of the series. Remember many of the scholars even

said fighting the Mongolians is of no use because this is a module which there's no point in fighting, it's Kiana. You might as well just put your hands up and matoba. And that's it. And so the Mongolian writer later is the ruler, he says, from the King of kings of the east and the west. The great con, to you the Mamelukes, the slaves who who are fleeing away from our swords, you should be you should think deeply of what happened to all the other countries that submitted to us and those who are opposed to us. You have heard how we have conquered a vast empire and have purified the earth of the disorder and that thing that we have conquered vast areas, massacring all the people,

you cannot escape from our terror of our armies. We can you flee what road will you take to escape. our oceans are forced, our swords are sharp, our arrows are sharp. Our swords are like lightning, thunderbolts, our hearts are as hard as mountains, our soldiers are as numerous as the sand. Your fortresses will not predict, you know, your armies will stop us. You're pleased your God will not avail against us. You're not going to work. We are not moved by tears, or sadness or sorrow, nothing affixes we kill a mess, and it doesn't make us sad in the least, only those who big our prediction will be safe. So so the Mongolian sent for messengers with us letter to the Mamelukes. Right saying,

you saw what happened to the rest of the world. You're the last of the Muslim kingdoms sitting there and will be merciful to you or fight us and what happened to all those great empires. The Abbas's were the 500 years, the Yuba dynasty of Saddam Hussein, all these great empires were the for hundreds and hundreds of years. They couldn't match as you follow. You know, if you follow this, what's gonna happen to you, or if you surrender will be kind to you resist and you will suffer the most terrible catastrophe will make an example out of you. And look, look what they say, yeah, if you resist and this is the scary part, we will shatter your mosques, and we will reveal how weak

your God is. And we will kill all your children and all your old people. At present. You are the only enemy against us lift. We march. What are you going to do? So they receive this letter? What are they going to do? Do we sit in that we fight? That's why many scholars had said that if the Mamelukes last day, they would be no there would be no stopping the armies getting to Mecca and Medina. And so the rule of the Mamelukes they said to give so what are we gonna do? They said, We are going to fight and to make sure we have no second thoughts. They responded by basically cutting the messengers they killed the messengers that the Mongolian messengers the emissary are usually not

supposed to do this as you're not supposed to do it's not allowed to do that. But just to drive home the point they send back the bodies of the of the of the soldiers of the Mongolians as a as a as an answer. And of course it was clear a declaration of war. And the Mamelukes then got together once again, they turned to Papyrus, alpha Panther, the guy that defeated the Crusaders. Few years ago, he was again, they asked him to strategize. How are we going to defeat the Mongolians and they got whatever armies they could soldiers they could get together. They were a small number only to 3000 maybe at most against initially the Mongolians came with over 100,000 men. It's mentioned the army

got listed with time there to some of the men to go back to Mongolia. But still the Muslims the Mamelukes was severely outnumbered. And they had to rise to the occasion. They knew what was at stake here wasn't just a kingdom wasn't just the lives that between the legacy of Islam and the Mongolian destruction. They were the last line of defense and they have to make a stand here with this beautiful history is going to come to an end. And so they decide to fight it a place. It's called Angel loot the spring of Goliath, the well of Goliath the thing that I've it's mentioned this is the place that we now would kill Goliath. So that same spot a lot of movies, but that's the name

of the area. A lot of that's what had happened, but they chose this area. And they chose a very, very smart strategy. They said look, the one weakness the Mongolians have so they beat the numbers they strongly well trained

They're well equipped. The only thing that they have whether that is against them is they're overconfident. They believe they are invincible, and this was one of the weapons of the Mongolians. They believed that they were invincible and the world believed that as well. You couldn't defeat the Mongolian army up until this point. The Mongolians were never defeated, really on battle for like over 50 years, the Mongolians were not defeated. And so everyone said you can't beat this army. And so they were going to use this against them. They what they did was babers. He chose this area we behind him was a bit of a forest, any heat the bulk of his army in the forest, and then he went

forward himself with a small contingent, and he fought against a much bigger Mongolian army. And actually, as the fighting progresses, the Mongolians are overpowering them. And so as they're about to lose or or be overwhelmed, they retreat into the forest. The Mongolians think this is this is the end, and they chase after them into the forest. And once they enter this forest, that's when they enter a trap is sprung against them. And you see a Bible tactic as to the Crusaders, he likes to put people in ambushes and interrupts him. And so he trapped this Mongolian army and he crushed them completely by the grace of Allah. It mentioned during the battle, the general he he removed his

helmet. And he said why Yeah, Islam for the sake of Islam for the sake of Islam, but we're not fighting for any reason for money. This is for Islam, and they encourage the soldiers to continue to preach on in the in the you know, in the in the thick of battle that if we can defeat the Mongolians here, we can stop them here. And they're not going to come back. And that's exactly what happened after the Mongolians were defeated. They were then pushed out of Palestine. They were pushed out of Syria. They're pushed out of Iraq. And for the first time as we said the Mongolians got stopped. And they never want they never came again to invade the the Muslim lands. And this is this is at this

dock moment when everyone had given up when not when ama had given up when the kings and the Sultan's and given hope when all the academics had given up hope. It is the slaves of this mameluke slave group of Egypt that rose up and stopped the impending doom of the of the Mongolians. And they began what we call now what we know is called the mamluk dynasty, and they would survive from the 13th century. Up until the 19th century, the mamluks only are defeated when Napoleon Bonaparte comes from France to invade Egypt, Napoleon that that Napoleon we all know about. He comes in invades France. The Mamelukes are still the ruling, ruling Egypt.

As I say, This series is not just about history, it's about us learning about things today. So we are going through a dark moment in history at the moment and behind Allah we don't know we've as COVID-19 this pandemic wall will will will turn what will become of it, but what it what do we learn from you know, Islam, and what we learn from from the Quran. And the examples of history is that in times of great calamity, we need people to rise up and to set an example. And we basically we need heroes, so we need people to come up and to contribute, and to do something, it's easy for us to give up and to become hopeless and fatalistic that sort of almost Pongala once, as we said before,

this is a test and the measure of us as men, as women, the measure of our demand is going to be shown in these tests, the test will pass this test will come to an end, it just depends how we how we how we do during this test. So Allah Subhana, Allah says, In surah, Allah moron, let the always arise out of you a group of people if they always be at least a group, if not all of us in a group calling inviting to that which is good calling to Islam and the right way. And in joining establishing maruf you are working towards good and you are forbidding that which is evil. And it is they who are the successful, they should always be a group of people that arises up and brings

brings goodness into this world, no matter how bad things are. And there are specific people so we'll talk about the all of our mentioned in a moment, all of us have responsibility in the current crisis. It's all hands on deck, this kind of disease, we know it affects everyone, every young or old, rich or poor, whatever color, whatever religion, and it requires all of us to play our role. But there are of course, special people that need to play an extraordinary role. And the first of them because we don't have a honey from Stan, we don't have an Islamic authority. Usually the Islamic authority falls on the scholar. So yeah, in South Africa, for example, especially if you

live in a secular western country, if you live in Australia, or the UK or wherever it might be. We don't have a Muslim government, although we respect our our our governments and the leadership of our governments, but from an Islamic perspective, we usually look at our grandma or imaams. As, as our leadership we want leadership from them. In fact, the word Imam, where does it come from? It means the person that is in front, it comes from the oma the oma the word oma the Muslim Ummah comes from the derivative of Imam

The foundation, even mother is derived from this word Why? What is the link between oma Imam because the Imam of the room is the one that you turn to in times of need to the child when they want anything they turn to the mother. And similarly for us who in times of difficulty, the person who returned to an all our, our needs and for guidance and for for for, for for, for for leadership, we'll look at our Imams, and usually it's the Imams you know, the Imam of the masjid. You know, I'm part of a wonderful another organization called the Imam development project or the Al and when we looked at so these are imams throughout South Africa, Malawi, the SU two in very difficult areas.

The imams job is not really to give only fatawa and give how to you know fake Messiah in most of the time the Imams job is to solve human problems. Imam, you know, my my husband has died What do I do? I'm about to lose my job mouse Who am I gonna pay for it? My kids don't have a you know, school to go to imagine my mother you know we fighting What do I do? Do I marry this person I made a mistake the mom easy to solve problems. And for us. Therefore if you are in a position of leadership, as an Imam, or religious leadership, our job now is not just to dispense for towers, it is to provide comfort, it is to provide emotional and spiritual support the people our congregations are not in

the mosque. So they feeling disconnected from Allah, it is our job to show them that you don't have to be in the masjid to be connected to Allah, we need to show them that at this desperate time. Allah is close to Allah is near. Yes, whatever sins we've done, and we take heed that if it's a calamity, we take heed. But we should this is a time not to be fatalistic, and to lose hope and imams more than ever. Our job is to provide security and to alleviate panic, the law, the worst thing we can do is having debates amongst ourselves on Facebook or in social media. What does that do for for our community, I imagine, you know, if we as a family, if you're in a family, your family

has a bit of a crisis. And the kids see mom and dad fighting. Naturally This is adds to the anxiety of the kids, the kids are looking at you for for stability, even if we don't know what we're doing, at least amongst ourselves, we can debate it quietly. And then we'll come with a united front. Remember, we don't have to have the perfect answer. We just have to have an answer that is to the best of our ability, the best possible answer. These are unprecedented times our key tabs and our dark rooms and our Islamic University of Medina, they did not teach us about these things. And so we're all struggling and confused and looking for answers. But what we need to do is in positions of

leadership is to provide guidance and to provide direction for our community. We need to pick up the pieces and say Look, tomorrow The sun will come up. It might be a different world. But tomorrow we will move forward and priesthood. People need this from us more than as I said, a fourth hour and of course we will always do things according to Quran and Sunnah. And we will never in sha Allah you know will never teach our people incorrectly. But this is a time we show through leadership in these difficult times. When a special word to those who are in charge of massage it and usually the people in charge of images of the mom it's the mother while the to the trustees and it's amazing that in

the Quran. Allah subhanaw taala has an idea as to the job description of the masjid with all these now many masajid we know more than even in the history of Islam have been closed down in the last couple of weeks. And every congregation of every Masjid must have had an emergency meeting as I had as well at the mercy Burano Islam, even the salado in my camp my company handle Amala grant even the company goodness, they they have a salado and the you know the salado brothers like what are we going to do? And so we have these very difficult decisions to be made. What is the right thing to do? You don't want to displease Allah subhana wa Tada. But you need to do what is right. And so

Allah speaks to those of you in the positions of leadership at the masjid. Allah says, In the masjid Allah that really the mosques of Allah are only to be maintained the people that look after it, who are they, they are those who believe in Allah, and they believe in the last day and they establish Salah, meaning they are the first people in the masjid, that they establish salah and they give the Zakat then Allah added the very important point that you don't find very often analysis and they do not fear anyone except Allah. Why usually believe we find that Mohammed Ali had to do good establish Allah. Why did Allah add to this and they don't fear anyone besides Allah. For it is expected that

Allah says it is expected that those who are the people that have these qualities, they will be on quitting guidance. Why? Because it means you need to make tough decisions. You need to make decisions that are emotional, you might have people that are going to insult you. You're going to have people that are going to argue with you, you're gonna have people that are going to maybe even be unfair towards you

But your job in a position of leadership you took the Samana on you need to keep a level head you need to do what is best long term for the community. Even if you are unpopular, even if you are getting the flack take that flack for the sake of the deen for the sake of Allah subhanho wa Taala don't respond with harshness. This is emotionalism people are panicking, people are scared, you know, when people are defensive, that's when they lash out an animal that is cornered is the most dangerous kind of animal. So don't take this personally, you give strong leadership and guidance, even if it's unpopular, so long as it's the right thing to do in terms of the Quran and the Sunnah.

And it's the right thing to do in terms of what our medical advisors instruct, when you do it. Now, you're going to make as we say, tough calls. It also means now the mosques are closed doesn't mean that your responsibility is on the ministry Chairman, Majid is closed. So I'm no longer the chairman. No, now you need to be even more diligent, you need to look at the mosque is the symbol of the Muslim community, the Muslim community comes together at the masjid, we need to look at the problems in our community, there are people that are not going to be able to go or people won't be able to go to the shops, and for them to even leave the house is dangerous. The people that are, you

know, unsure time losing the money, they are people that are going to get sick or you have to be less severely sick, they might be the people that are going to die questions like janessa how sad it is now that a person has been in the machine his whole life. And he passes away in this and he doesn't even get a janazah in the ministry. And I have nothing against him almost panatela is rewarded.

But what can we do to minimize this situation. But the most difficult thing is when a family is going through calamity now is to feel you're on you're on your own, you're isolated, we all physically been isolated. But we need to go through that extra step to say we are not going to we are not spiritually or emotionally isolated. So Masjid committee members, trustees, go that extra mile, go and find out who is the congregation go and find out what are the needs of the congregation. If we apply our mind in sha Allah, you know, we can solve any problem. So the next very big group so we spoke about the old ama, you've got a role to play. The most interesting is you

got a role to play. Very importantly, the wealthy people, people with money, you're going to you have a big, big role to play and this is really a business opportunity you cannot miss out on if you look at the greatest of the great Sahaba the top 10 ashrama Bashara, the tin war promise Jenga, and this is the leadership of the Muslims, many of them what they had in common. They were wealthy business people, that bro and that they were the leadership of the Muslims, Abubakar de la se North man, Satan alma

palheiro de Alon, these will lead

away to language era, these were people that will lead us and they will business people and they they will people that that we looked up to before Islam, and they took on the positions of leadership. And it's through the wealth amongst the many good things they did. It was the wealth that they purchased the agenda. So when things were very difficult in the beginning of Islam, when the slaves were being tortured, how did they get out of that without For example, we know how the law was tortured. We didn't ask how it without stopping being tortured. What happened abubaker went to my abubaker went to the guy touching below, and he said, How much do you want for this man? Maybe

your price and omega mentioned a ridiculous price. You know, I will send him to you for a million a million dollars even though maybe I was worth only $1,000. And Abubakar says do so. I purchase it. No negotiations now Maria says you know you know but could you you know how things work? I say I price you say a low price we negotiate you just took the first offer. And plus, by the way, he says if you offered me a 10th of the price, I would have taken that price because he's worth that little to me. And I will see if you charge me 10 times the price or have taken out have purchased him from you because that's what he is worth to me. So boubakeur, both Bilal overlords good deeds, this great

bill is in the scale of abubaker, jalon. And many, many other slaves, Amar and these were the the wealthy people, alleviating the suffering of the poor. So in North man rhodiola, and it's mentioned three times, he purchased his place in Genoa three times, first time, that'll be so seldom said, who will buy this? Well, when the Muslims came to Medina, there was a shortage of of water, who will buy this well, and guarantee spacing gender with man voted well, then the most needed expanding mosquitoes to small province, who would buy a plot of land one plot double mini plots would buy one plot, and you will secure his place in Ghana with man or both, all the plots. He bought all of them.

And then of course, towards the end of the life of the beast asylum. The army of the book was being assembled. It was a massive army, but not very well funded. And so the problem was besieging wealthy people who would assist this army and a buck. I'm saying that was

Monrovia lion brought the biggest amount, he basically put like a, you know, a holy lap full of gold in the lap of an abyssal celeb along with camels and all these things. And then every so seldom looks at this goal that he sees nothing will harm with man in none of his sins of the past, or the future will harm him allies forgiving the past and the future. So in times of great difficulty, when those of you those of us who have money, remember, this money is going to be taken away from us. Whether tomorrow or the 20 years from now, you're gonna die, and your money will leave you not gonna go within the cupboard, but it's times like this almost pangolins giving you an opportunity to

really earn your agenda. It is the wealthy people that have always played a role when Islam was successful. A big part of that was when wealthy people, business people, they came on board they set together how can we solve this problem? How can we help our community?

Abu Qatada, he says, The Navy Salam says, if anyone would like a lot to save him from the hardships of the day of the AMA. Now if I was going to save you from the hardships of the archaea, what about the dunya? What must you do the prophecies, he should give more time to his DITA who is short of money or even lifted dico. So you've got people now that won't be able to pay you money, they might lose the job, they may be unsure time, whatever it is, and they owe you money. Now is the time not to enforce your power. Now is the time to enforce your taqwa the proficiencies if you want your hardship, yo yo, you want your your day of pm to be easy, make it easy for someone in the dunya in

the stress now, ideas for you some there are some I hope inshallah some some you know big businesses out there, there are some guys that are good or hamdulillah they share food and stuff I'm talking about the big manufacturers time for you to to maybe manufacture things that we need sanitizes clothing for the hospitals, ventilators Subhanallah, you will be saving lives on those what what profit, no is better is better than that. So use your companies use your facilities, use your your business acumen, if you've made a fortune in the dunya it means you've got something up there, what hamdulillah then if you put that to good use, you know, you can really help us out of this out of

this problem that your employees for example, if they can't work, because not supposed to congregate, perhaps if you can to the best of your ability, you know, support them continue to pay their wages so that they family doesn't go go hungry. This is the opportunity than obese animals. This is something for all of us. This is not just for the wealthy people, all of us even if you only have one and all of us should just give some kind of sadaqa because then Amazon says, verily charity extinguishes it appeases The Wrath and the anger of Allah, and it eases the suffering of you on your deathbed. So I don't know if this we prayed for the case. But if this calamity, this Mercy by this

disease is as a consequence of all of this satisfaction, what will make us happy again, is if we start giving charity, you know, this is a test of our humanity, we realize our strength of numbers, our governments, our armies, our money is not going to solve this. What we need to see is humanity. We need to look at the best versions of ourselves. When that comes out, then insha Allah this disease will disappear. And so what will appease the Wrath of Allah is charity and unless is also the prophecies It will also make easy for you on your deathbed. We don't know this disease is going to take us what is the point Swan Allah if my bank account is full and next week, I'm lying in

hospital dying. Now it's not too late Swami you can still give but better to give it now. We need to give it now as you planning for the future. It's easier Allah I'm going to I'm going to make it make it a help give you an example spinal. We're not going to have Jumana who knows how long the Imam is Saturday. As I said, I'm an IDP. I know the Imam. He doesn't have any provision besides the masjid. I mean, he's 24 hours in the masjid. There's no classes now there's no Juma and because of that people don't give the donations just human nature. We should still donate by the way even though we're not be and now how long before the magic committee is going to say you know Yeah, man, we

don't have any money for you. But when this thing is done, when will he employ you for now? You unemployed? Is that really we want what you want to do for the man that was the only car with the man that you know when we were born the first person we called was Shaq Can you give the the name giving you found that galenic admitted ma'am give me advice let's say man is not going to go on the road hungry Subhanallah Is that really what? What? Our gym memberships we're not dealing with our gym memberships are being paid Not to mention things like Netflix and those things. We're still paying those memberships you know Spanner, but now the machine is not there. Now is the time to show

Ya Allah even though I can't get to the masjid. I'm so connected to the masjid. I'm still going to support them as you continue giving that which were given and more inshallah for the rest of us. being selfless Mahanama being selfless will really really get us out of this evening now. One example so many examples of how being selfless a man comes to them as an

Sahih Muslim, a famous Hadith most of you might know, when a man comes to me Solomon says, Yes, I'm desperate. I am hungry. I am starving airflow helped me. And there'll be some some says, Go and ask Ayesha. What is the in the house? I she says nothing in our house, meaning the visa salam, he has got nothing, not even not even a date to eat. So if we go to this wife and that wife, different wives all have the same story here. So we have nothing we don't always have dates, we only have some water. So there'll be some nemesis, the Sahaba. Now obviously, this man is desperate. There's one there's one that's meant to go empty handed, who will take this man for the night and under him? And

so that,

that Allah subhana wa tada what may be pleased with him. And so and so the one of the unsavoury is one of the Sahaba wanted this to take this person and bring him home. So the answer is yes, well, I will take him and he takes the man brings him home. When he gets home, his wife says, Yeah, how can you bring this man to the house? We have nothing in the house. Also, we're going through just what he's going through. I only have a little bit of food, not for you, not for me, for the kids, nothing else but for the kids. So the man says, Look, I brought this brother home from the masjid. How can we turn him away, play with the kids until they fall asleep. And once they fall asleep, when when he

comes down to eat, we put the lamps of Why? Because if there's only enough food for one person, he's gonna feel awkward to eat well, we don't eat. So let's put the light off. And we make like we eating, we while he eats, and he doesn't even know. And so the man ate and talking and they are making they are acting like eating and the Sahaba would invite to the eating, and he is he ate to his full board. hamdulillah his hunger is seem to and he goes home. 100 The next morning, the prophets of Salaam says Allah was your agent, meaning the word in translation is pleased. But your job is actually amazed. Allah is amazed at what you did last night. Allah was so impressed with what

you did last night, not Panama, to impress Allah subhana wa Tada, what a great deal. What did they do, they went hungry for one night feed somebody put in place the Lord of the Universe ranawat. This is an opportunity now to really show Allah, the best of the east to us. So be selfless in this times. And I'm really amazed at for example, our, our health care workers, there are many people that they are saying that they wish they can be at home, they don't need to work, maybe, but they going to serve the community, their peoples quite a lot. And we know if you're in that older retirement age, you are at risk, they are coming out of retirement to serve in hospitals putting

themselves at risk, because they said we took an oath. And even though we are not doing this for money or for paycheck, we are trying to save lives. So people are coming out, and they are doing their part. So all of us, everyone, especially those in charge, and those in leadership, and those who have have the ability, they need to do their part. But as for the rest of the rest of us who maybe we say, Well, I'm not in leadership, you also have a role to play the proficiencies each and every one of you is a shepherd, all of you has a responsibility, and perhaps your responsibility, all you need to do is to stay indoors, and to avoid going out to practice good hygiene. And that's

your part you playing in the story. That is your contribution to the scenario. You know, one person put a post, it was funny, but it meant a lot. He said, You have the unique opportunity to save the world just by sitting on your couch. This never before happened. Use this opportunity to stay at home, stay at home, don't go outside. If you come you know if you can if you can, obviously some of us have to work and there's no other option. You know, hopefully companies would wise up. And so stay at home. That is your contribution analysis also tells a Buddha the indifference Hadith says what can I do to be the best and the reason is the best person is who believes it online. He goes

out fights Jad, he makes the change he he sees a problem and he fixes it. And then the next person is if you can't be that guy, you can't be the guy on the front line making the change. Then he says then support those who are on the front line, you do your part to assist. And he said what if I can't even do that. And then a piece of that says, then keep back your mischief or your wrongs. That meaning don't make the situation worse. If you can't do something good in a time of crisis, then don't make it worse. And the best you could do then is to isolate not to do something which is silly to spread good information. Don't spread panic to make this family you might be the thing that we

need. And it requires as we said, it's not one Imam or 1 million a billion in one government. It requires all of us to do our roles to play a little bit to come out of this dock situation so we can adopt one of these crises. And this crisis will take its toll smile but it'll also show who are the heroes of this. The the guys who are gonna stand up and make a change and I pray Allah subhanaw taala makes us of them. Allah subhanaw taala blesses us pleases you May Allah protect you protect

All of us that I'm very fortunate and I thank Jim algae foundation in Cape Town. They allowed us to use these studios. This is this recording is for the Wyman LGM studios because it's one of my quality code at home I have three very young kids they bouncing up and down over the walls this panel is stuck in so there's no way I can do any recordings

at home. So we do eta in LG studios. And this is of course for the author, brothers and sisters throughout the world Melis panatela make it easy for you, Mama bless all of us and help us and assistance sacrifice as salaam alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh