Muhammad West – Will Islam Survive in South Africa

			We live in a shed on the rajim Bismillah Amanda Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was
Salam ala should have been more serene Sadie. Now Muhammad Ali he also has married my beloved
brothers and sisters As Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.
		

			Al hamdu, Lillahi Rabbil Alameen. Always and forever will begin with the praise of Allah and the
shadow Allah Allah, Allah Allah will testify that he's not worthy of worship besides Allah subhana
wa Tada and we send our love and our greetings and salutations to beloved Nabi Muhammad sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam, to his pious and his poor family to his companions, and all those who follow his
sunnah until the end of time. May Allah subhanaw taala bless us to be amongst them, Amin
Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah, as we know, we are in Heritage Month and heritage day, I believe it's
tomorrow. And
		

			when we talk about culture and heritage, we've spoke about about this many, many times. And today,
I'm gonna change the discussion a little bit. We know we've been here for 400 years. We know we've
come through a lot as a community, we've survived when, in reality, we should not have survived.
It's really a miracle that this community is still here.
		

			Just something to think about 12 15 million Muslims were taken as slaves from Africa, to the
Americas, the slave slavery, whatever Islam is left, the Islam became extinct. Islam disappeared
12 15 million people, we haven't seen those numbers of Muslims in this land. And so if you look at
Muslim minorities throughout the world, under the kind of pressure that this community has suffered,
most of them if not all of them have disappeared, and Islam became extinct, yet, by the Grace of
Allah for a reason that Allah subhanho wa Taala willed, this community has survived. And the
question now is, will we continue to survive as a tiny, two 3% fraction of a population with all the
		

			pressures around us still the we should not take for granted that Islam will still be the days of
our grandchildren or great grandchildren. So let's quickly look and run through a reminder. As we
said, Islam in this land is one of the oldest, if not the oldest Muslim minority
		

			in the world. We went from being exiled slaves. We've experienced slavery, colonization, we fought
against the Dutch, the British against apartheid. And through all of that, they're gone. The Dutch
are gone, the Dutch Empire, the British Empire, part of that is gone. But this community is still
here. The misogyny that we're both still standing, and SubhanAllah. This community has maintained a
strong Muslim identity and stood the test of time. Not only that, not only did we survive as a
community, but we started to impact on this country and in particular, the city. The vibe, the
culture, the feeling, the mood of Cape Town, is really shaped by this tiny Muslim community. We've
		

			shaped the heritage of the city. And now Alhamdulillah we stand as a thriving Muslim minority when
you find guest speakers and when a man from other parts of the world and they come and visit. I
remember when a very famous scholarship, Yasir qadhi. He came in, he visited the Cape Town. And at a
lecture he gave the opening address was given by Nadine naledi pandal. That time she was the
Minister of Higher Education. And he was surprised he said this is a Minister
		

			of Higher Education, and it's a Muslim. I mean, from an American perspective, they can't imagine
that a minister in the cabinet will be a Muslim. And we said she's not just the only Muslim
minister. There are quite a few Muslims that are ministers, deputy ministers, and there is no issue.
They are not seen as anything less or different. They are part of this community. We have hundreds
and hundreds of massagin just in the city, and maybe more than 1000 across the country. How many
modalities have an institution some of the best profile in the world produce from this tiny little
Muslim minority, dark rooms, whether you like them or not, we produce Alhamdulillah greater Allama
		

			that keep on par with the world's leading scholars. We have established some of the best and most
the most well organized charity and Zakah collection Institute
		

			nations in the world.
		

			And we have
		

			contributed and built institutions that have stood for many, many decades. In other parts of the
world, you would find that mosques are 50 years old, 60 years old. We have mosques that are 250
years old in this country, the legacy the roots that we have, instead, our forefathers have
established is second to none, as far as a Muslim minority is concerned. And then, of course, beyond
the Islamic spheres, as we said, we have so many ministers in the most senior positions in the
government, judges, CEOs, CFOs, huge organizations, sporting icons, that come from this community,
again, a 2% of the population that has
		

			a flick such amount of clout in this country. It is something which we should really take that it's,
there's no other minority, look at the Muslims in England, look at the Muslims in Australia, in
America and Canada. They don't have what we have.
		

			And so we need to ask, How was this possible? How did they survive? And obviously after the the
Grace of Allah and the will of Allah, maybe some of the reasons could be that throughout our 400
year history, Islam remained a central theme amongst the Muslims. Yeah. We wanted to be identified
as Muslims. Yes, we will incorporate with work will be part of society. But everybody knew you were
a Muslim. Everybody knew I don't compromise on certain things. I don't eat what's not haram.
		

			I will come for Jumar you can from when I was in school, you can you can give me a hiding. That's
the case. If I'm in the in the work, you're going to fire me, you're going to dock my pay, that's
fine. But I'm a Muslim, and my identity and my principles of Islam come first. And this made sure
that no matter how much the pressure that was on us, that strong Islamic identity remained, and it
was transmitted on now I look at our look at our grandparents, my grandparents, I'm sure your
grandparents. Many of them didn't finish school. They didn't finish school, or high school, somebody
didn't finish primary school, but they knew the basics of the deme. Can you imagine how how little
		

			the parents knew from an educational background. But for 400 years, this Deen was transmitted from
parent to child. These are the basics. This is what you are going to do. And you're going to stick
to these principles Come What May the government will change, the political situation will change.
But your Islam stays the same. And that is something which was ingrained in us. We also Subhanallah
because we were a community constantly under threat. Every time there was a challenge. We forced
ourselves to say, Guys, we need to get together. And we need to work together. We need to establish
mosques and committees and organizations.
		

			You you realize when you go outside of this community, how how well coordinated our forefathers
were, with whatever means they had to come together and respond to problems. They didn't look at a
problem and say, You know what? We were kicked out of our homes from District Six, wherever were
dumped in the cape flats was the waste Alama. We are the they said well, okay, let's roll up our
sleeves. And we're going to start from the beginning again. We're going to start new committees, new
fundraising, we took it upon ourselves to solve problems, and it was strong leadership.
		

			And of course, one of the big things that we also did that many Muslim minorities are still learning
to do is we became part of this country in the sense of we don't only focus on Muslim issues, we
will focus on issues that afflict the entire community of non Muslims as well, we will stand against
apartheid, we will stand against poverty will stand against corruption, even though it doesn't
affect our community as much, we will, we will face them as well. So Allah says, Tinker overthinker,
the harlot that is an ummah that came in when to do so that was a generation that came and they went
Lucha Mikasa. But for them is the reward of what they did, and for you is going to be the reward was
		

			what you do. This is now our time. And so my question today is when we look to the future, and if we
compare, let's say the Eman and the Islam of our previous our grandparents, and we look at the way
the trajectory of our kids are going, Are we comfortable that Islam will survive? Not another 400
years, maybe another 50 years?
		

			Are we comfortable? If we look at how Islam is being practiced, and how important Islam is in our
lives, compared to how it was in the lives of our grandparents, and how quickly things are changing?
We ask, we've built so many messages in the last couple of, you know, 100 years, how many mosques
have we built in the last 2030 years?
		

			How many, how many new organizations? How many, how much change if we didn't have we built on this
foundation over the last 3040 years?
		

			And so for example, when when we talk about culture, it's all about preserving your culture and your
sisters and all of that. We are trying to preserve our Islam Islam in this land when we want to make
sure it's Islam survives and thrives. What good is it that if you have two sisters on a Sunday, but
you've got your L
		

			Call with it on the side. What good is it that you have beautiful Islamic architecture in a masjid,
but it's empty. That's not Islam. That's not what we're trying to preserve. We're trying to preserve
our deen. And so let's look at some of the threats that are very real. And that is facing our
community.
		

			One of the biggest threats that we have isn't, in fact, perhaps the ease that we have today, as I
said, in the past, every, what makes our generation a little different to the previous generations,
the previous generations were constantly under pressure, external pressure. And there is something
in you that when you are told, you will not you will not wear hijab, you will show that I'm going to
wear hijab, because you're you're trying to impose your law on me, I will show you and I'm going to
fight back, when they tell you, you're not gonna go for Joomla is I will go to Joomla. And I'll show
you. But now, when the door is open and says you go if you feel like going or you don't come, now
		

			you fighting against yourself today because of the ease, and the freedom and the opening of the
dunya. For us. That is where we fight an internal enemy. And then the psalm says this, he says, I'm
not worried that you will be poor, worried about that. But what I want rather what I worry about you
is when the world is given to you, when wealth is given to you, and your focus will only be the
dunya, and you will compete with one another. And your only focus would be on the next holiday on
the next career move on the next promotion. That is the thing that consumes your mind and your
thought you don't think about anything else than that. When you get to that you will be ruined and
		

			destroyed. As Allah destroyed you this destroyed nations without before we are being tested with
ease. We're being tested now with convenience. And then besides that, I'm also mentioned that the
time will come with the Muslims will have no power, no substance. And there'll be many they will
have so much resources and it's opposite. Why is that? Why will we be so weak? And he said he would
dunya because your only focus would be the dunya.
		

			So the greatest challenge that we're facing now, and this is for each and every one of us to audit,
how much of my time is spent truly on the deen on thinking about the welfare of Islam in Islam.
Firstly with myself, my family and the extended community. How much do I spend? If I look at my
budget, what I spend on my food, my clothing, my house, my DSTV? My Netflix, how much do I how many
rands a month go for purely Islamic reasons, Islamic causes of all the concerns and what is that
keep me up at night, all the hours I spent in the day. So I spend maybe half the day at work earning
money, half the other half of the day recovering from working, where does Islam fit in this picture?
		

			Our committees stand empty our mosques and empty our organizations that need help stand empty. Why
are we not that we don't have the people we have the people. We have the skills, we have the
expertise. But I'm so busy. I need to work hard because I need to get that bonus. I need to get that
next holiday I need to get that next career move. Well, if that's the priority, then we are the ones
that are walking away. We're not there's no enemy that we're fighting anymore. It's the internal
enemy. The second big problem that we have is a crisis of leadership.
		

			Then the responses when they Allah does not take away knowledge.
		

			Allah does not withhold knowledge by snatching it away. Yola doesn't like take knowledge away from
people's mind here, he deletes it from your mind, how does he do it, rather than knowledge of a
community drops, when it takes the souls of great scholars of two leaders and the generation that is
replaced? are either ignorant leaders don't have that same caliber. And they asked,
		

			they will be asked these leaders will be put in a position of power and they will be asked and
judged. And they will they themselves will must be mislead, and they will mislead the community. And
so Subhanallah
		

			as I said, this has been a difficult week if you following what's happening, it's a difficult time.
When our Alma our scholars are not fighting external enemies, when they're not spending time
researching new photographers and making the deen accessible to those who don't know, when they're
spending the time writing against other scholars, when they focus is on debating and arguing with
other scholars. When all our focus and our energy is on having court cases against this one and
challenging that one. If this is what our leadership is busy with, where is the way forward for our
community, and Leadership isn't only the alumni. Yes, first and foremost, the alumni are the first
		

			ones that have to take the take the brunt of this. But leadership is also the financial leadership.
We are all but businessmen, the wealthy in our community. We are those Vida the people that can make
change when they focus is also only on furthering the Empire the businesses and there's no focus on
I'm going to further this community at whose feet to these problems late There's a very famous
saying that when you stand before Allah and someone says when I said before Allah I'm gonna ask
Allah How could you allow corruption? How could you allow poverty and ignorance? Allah is going to
ask you How could you allow it to what do you do?
		

			If I gave you the means and the resources to fix your problems, yes, the problems are there. But
what did you do about it? Don't ask me ask yourselves, what did you do? So the leadership in this
community, the leadership of the past, it was about they are going to take the challenge on
themselves, even if they go it alone? Or am I that stood alone, business people that stood alone, we
will fix the problem, I'm not going to look and say, what is the this organization doing? What is
that person doing? What are the billionaires doing the business people, we are shifting the buck and
who as we do that, our community suffers.
		

			And then for our kids, subhanAllah we should remind ourselves the real challenge that our kids are
going to face and if you look at the magic, these are most of the people you know, maybe over 2030 I
know we the teenagers are the kids are.
		

			But Islam is becoming more and more irrelevant. In fact, religion is becoming irrelevant. If you
look at the trend across the world, practicing Christians, for example, in Europe doesn't exist
anymore. Even though Muslims make about 77% of the population of England is Muslim. There are more
people going to imagine on a Friday than all the Christian all 93% Christians, the churches are
empty. Do we think we are immune to this? Do we think that our community is going to survive this?
The onslaught of what benefit is religion in my life when our kids sit in front of and say, what
benefit is your deen? What good is it? I go I study I work I travel the world. That's it.
		

			The onslaught of the secular religion, the biggest and fastest growing religion is the religion of
nuns, nuns meaning no in IE, no religion, becoming irrelevant. Allah says, To monitor the ILAHA Have
you not seen the religion when people take the Hawa they desire as the god of Antetokounmpo? You
Akela will you then be a keeper over them? Um, tassa will occur on your smartphone or your pillow?
Do you think that most of them understand or listen? They live a life like an amp like cattle? They
just eat, drink, sleep, wake up, repeat. That's the life and that is what's going to happen. So how
do we change this? These are the problems we're facing. As we said, for those of us who are but
		

			older, mature, we know about our deen we love our deen. We want to see Islam thrive, but it's our
priority. Everything else is second, everything is more important than the sacrifice admins make for
the day no one is willing to make the sacrifice. The leadership is too busy with nonsense. Or there
is no leadership. And our youngsters, our youth, they don't see any meaning reason in religion
anymore. But yes, of course, this is our challenge. This is our our generational challenge. And what
are we going to do? Well, one of the things we need to do, and as I said, if you are Alhamdulillah,
you are able to provide for your family, you have a job, you have a life and you sorted out, you
		

			have to sacrifice something of yourself for the deen. And the number one thing that if you're not,
you can't be the Imam of the Masjid. You can't be the chairman of the committee. At the very least
you need to sacrifice some time to learn your deen you have to spend time learning and once you
start on that path of learning, signing up for a class, you will then inshallah find yourself
connected, being part of this community, that is the seed it always begins. That's what begins with
the crop. And so that's why the Prophet says learning seeking knowledge is obligatory it is followed
on every one of you, it is forbidden every Muslim to be part of this. And if you're not part of a
		

			structured piece of learning,
		

			then really that's a disservice to the ummah. That is how Islam dies.
		

			That's how Islam dies. When we stop learning, we stopped going to madressa we stop being part of a
class of learning. And also then Allah the Prophet, some tells you,
		

			whoever of you takes this path of learning, you will be on a guaranteed path to Jannah that is the
path that will bring you happiness. It sacrifice is difficult. But that is the path that will lead
you to Jannah. So for those of us who hamdulillah who are practicing Muslims, it's not enough. You
need to raise the bar. You need to go and learn. And as you learn as you develop, Islam will become
stronger. As for our kids, my kids, your kids, how do we teach them we can teach them the way you
were taught? You can hit to us and things into them. You can't tell them all of us haram stay away,
don't do it. They're not going to work anymore. There's a beautiful Hadith by Aisha Guardiola and
		

			the person comes from Iraq and says to her, why do people read the Quran? I want to read the Quran
the way it was revealed. So you know, and as we know, surah baqarah and the earliest to Ross was all
about the laws do this don't do that. And so I just don't know No. The Quran was revealed. The end
that we have at the end of the most haphazardly, the first is why she says the first thing that was
revealed of the Quran or the end of the what we find is the at the end surahs. And in those irons,
What did Allah talk about? He talked about himself. He spoke about Jana and Jana, he spoke about
things that softened the heart. Then, when those people
		

			embraced Islam when their hearts were connected to Allah. Then Allah revealed verses about haram
things and said you can't drink alcohol. You can't commit Zina. And so I shouldn't say this is the
words right? She says, if the first thing that Allah revealed was don't drink alcohol, the people
will say, we will never leave our alcohol will even if the first thing was you can't do this, this
I'm not gonna Why would I follow that? And if the first thing that Allah revealed was don't commit
Zina, the Bible says it's too difficult, I'm gonna continue to cover things up. And so Allah began
by establishing a relationship in the hearts of the sahaba. And then they transformed the world. And
		

			so we need to rethink how are we establishing the love of Islam, the religion, the deen the Quran,
in the hearts of our kids, it's not just about the list of don't do a list of doors and a list of
rituals, you must make Salah like this another SWANA, even if we do that, and how many of us really
are firm on that with our kids. But if we want to prioritize, remember, we are not competing? What
are we competing, you're competing with Netflix, YouTube, you're completely competing with the
things that the arts love. And you need to find a space where Islam becomes a priority. That's a
challenge for all of us for all of you. If we want to see Islam survive, and our kids bring the love
		

			of the deen into them. And if we don't have it in ourselves, well, then that's the problem.
		

			The last thing SubhanAllah.
		

			And of course, this is where the leadership
		

			again,
		

			I don't know if you know that there's been some real three been a bad week for the MJC. This last
couple of days, court cases and things like that.
		

			And when I was on the radio and had to comment on this, I was worried what's people going to say?
		

			Because you can say the wrong thing. I mean, you know, the radio wants to it's, you know,
sensationalism selves. So they want to put you in an awkward position, you say something silly, and
woof, you know, everyone's excited. But I was surprised after the interview, was a comment. No
feedback, positive or negative. And I asked myself, How relevant is the leadership, even people
don't even care anymore.
		

			That's the worst thing. If it was still disappointed, they were angry. Okay, there's something. But
if people like, I don't care if there's an election tomorrow as to who the leadership of the MDC is
going to be, people know, there's a rugby match tomorrow, but they don't really know that these a
change of potentially your Allama tomorrow, how relevant is the leadership? How important is it? And
if we've lost and this is the way the leadership was answered, the subtle fault of the people, but
if the people have lost confidence, or they don't care, well, they don't see you as someone that or
even need to listen to a follow. What does that say of us as a community?
		

			The leadership of this community look at this hadith.
		

			The Prophet says that there's some weakness in it, but the meaning is correct. The Prophet Sal says,
when Allah wants good for people, when Allah desires hate for community, he places over them now
this is political power.
		

			kings and governors and rulers who are sincere,
		

			genuine rulers. Now we don't have that in this country, because we are minority, and Allah places
learned or Allama over them to, to adjudicate to arbitrate the, the mistakes, Allah places in
knowledgeable people, to judge over them. And he gives a wealth to generous people, three types of
leaders, we have our political authority, we have our Alama. And we have our business people. If
Allah wants good for community, he gives you strong, sincere political rulers, and he gives you
knowledgeable wise, and he gives you generous business people. And if Allah was bad for you, as a
community, he places over you, foolish, you, Ill willing rulers, and he puts over you, England and
		

			people in the position of grandmas or whatever. And he gives wealth to greedy, Miserly people. And
we ask what batch of people will given to us? This is not for the community to answer. It's for
those of us who find ourselves Am I in a position of political authority? Am I in a position of
Alama knowledge, Islamic knowledge? Or am I a wealthy person, you are a leader, and you must decide
which of these 2am I because the community will be ruined or succeeded on the decisions you and I
make. And so we'll make dua for our leaders and our leadership will make the other we have people
that will confront the problems and challenges for the sake of the survival of Islam out in the next
		

			generation. But our grandchildren will still make Salah will still come to the masjid will still
uphold this Deen how sad would it be that if we fast forward a couple of years and Islam almost
became extinct in this land? Allah Quran never to happen. I mean, a few are quite a few
announcements. On Sunday, the 24th of September is the market day heritage day. Yeah, the bootcamp
cultural hub. And we also have the Amazing Race. That's through the bootcamp as well. If you want to
join, there's a number on there. And then there is the terbaru.
		

			The heritage day as well. I believe this is also on the 24th. So
		

			to visit the Taliban leaders the Heritage Day, and we'll also
		

			Have
		

			not this is gonna hit it each day inshallah in October meet and greet is back. The speed dating in
sha Allah for the Muslim brothers and sisters who would like to find a partner, more details will
will come up. So if you are, if you're not married in sha Allah, you need to sign up young or old if
you're not married, it's time for you to get married part of the deal and so inshallah we'll give
you more details for that. And then we also make the offer with a Kasim our Marina is always sitting
there he's not here with us is quite sick and on dialysis, Mala Spanner, Grantham Shiva for all
those who are sick and hamdulillah are also something positive brother Medina, and Rashida David's
		

			on the 26th of September they would like they are going they're going for Omaha scholar to grant him
and all those Omaha Maqbool a safe journey and safe return Amin or Salah Syedna. Mohammed will be
Saddam Hussein, we have never believed I mean Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh