Munir Ahmed – Reforming character or else
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss issues with pride, behavior, and the holy Bible in Islam. They also touch on personal and professional topics, including personal and professional topics such as personality, mental health, and actions. They emphasize the importance of effort and change in achieving good character, avoiding chopping trees, and not simplifying deeds. They also mention personal and professional topics such as the holy Bible and the importance of justice.
AI: Summary ©
Allah
Indeed, all praise and gratitude is to Allah.
Glory be to him, we praise him, we
seek his forgiveness, guidance and his mercy.
We seek refuge in Allah from our bad
deeds as we seek refuge and protection from
the bad insiders.
Know that one who is guided by Allah,
they are truly guided. 1 who is left
to go astray will not find a guide
or a protector
or a helper. After that, I bear witness
that there is no God but Allah, the
one and only glory be to him, the
creator of the heavens and the earth and
all that is between them. He has no
partners.
And I bear witness that Muhammad,
peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
is his slave and messenger.
So you got a double whammy or did
I get double whammy?
2 weeks on the trot, I think it's
double punishment, actually.
I assure you it's
I don't look forward to standing here giving
Khutwas. It's so heavy and burdensome.
May Allah Subhanahu forgive me for all my
mistakes.
So, there's a couple of issues I have
been wanting to mention for some time,
and today, if I have time and the
opportunity to do so. Firstly,
the Ayah,
and I'm gonna take a part of it.
Allah
here is
saying, for each,
there are angels
on rotation.
In front and behind. I said that last
time, meaning all around each person, angels.
They are protecting by the command of Allah,
each one of us. We don't even
we are we are so ungrateful, we don't
realize how much we are protected from
by Allah
until he will something to happen.
And, yeah, and that is dunya.
But gratitude is therefore necessary from us all
the time.
Then Allah
says,
surely Allah doesn't change the condition of our
people until they change what is with themselves.
And that is the key for us today.
On this particular part of the, I gave
a few years ago 30.
30
on this.
They're still available.
And
I pray to Allah. He accepts them and
they had an impact.
But I have to mention it again today
because there are issues that we need to
look at.
You see,
as we know, brothers and sisters, the essence
of Islam
is beyond iman and Ibadah.
Ibadah and Ibadah are the very foundation.
It's
is to reform,
to change.
That's why Allah surely will not change the
condition of our people until they change what
is with themselves. And if change wasn't possible,
there's no need for Allah to send sharia
down to us. Somebody says,
well,
he's an angry person or she's always an
angry person.
Well,
on the day of judgment, you're not going
to say, yeah, Allah, you made me an
angry person.
Anger can be controlled and changed, and therefore
he has a habit of lying.
She has a habit and he of swearing.
So if I'm not going to make any
effort to change it, you can't get away
with comments like that. I hear them all
the time.
I hear them all the time. These are
excuses
from Shaitan that we make for ourselves because
actually we are happy with the status quo
because change requires effort. Does it not, brothers
and sisters?
And we cannot be bothered making the effort.
As an, we can't. That's why we're in
the state we're in. I tell you for
sure, before you point the finger at others,
remember how many are pointing back at us.
That is the law of Allah.
So we need to change and change. And
the character was the very foundation of this
deen.
Character means how we behave with
others,
the environment actually, and the animals actually.
And look how far we are away from
that. And when
Allah so many times in the Quran
Those who believe, who have faith. And
unless the is mentioned in the same ayah
separately,
includes
includes our faith and
is how we behave.
It is for those who believe and behave
and are of good character that the paradise
is being promised to.
They are the exception because of the behaviour.
The Quran is replete with ayaats that mention
both brothers and sisters, do they not?
That is the maximum. That is the purpose.
Surely I have only been sent for this
purpose which is to perfect,
the noble character,
the good character,
and
which is reported in Ahmed
to perfect
the righteous, the good character.
That's what I've been sent for,
the prophet
saying.
The most the Mu'min, the believers who have
completed the Iman, who have complete Iman
are those who are best in their character
and behavior.
That's what Iman's about, in other words.
And the best of you are those who
are best to their women,
about character
to the extent
Iman has more than 60, 70 branches, the
highest of which is saying,
There is no God but Allah with meaning.
And the least of it,
part of iman is to remove something harmful
from the road,
Harmful,
harmful, rubbish, all kinds of things. The rubbish
that we in our Muslim lands throw all
over the place,
isn't it?
The rubbish that we in our Muslim countries
throw all over the place. What happened to
the hadith? What happened to the teachings?
So,
about chopping trees, about looking after the environment,
so much stress in Islam
and we have
in hadith in Muslim. Prophet
says,
The prophetess Islam said,
he said,
a prostitute
woman
saw a dog.
That the Hanafiah and the Shafi'i we normally
kick away. We don't wanna go near.
Saw a dog
on a hot day panting with his tongue
hanging out out of
thirst.
So
she lowered her shoe
into the well to draw water for it
and gave it water to drink and Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for she was forgiven by
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala because of a dog.
Here we go. One of the topics for
today is already here.
2 of them blocking dragon. Just announced it
on there. I haven't got the energy to
announce it.
S a one one e u d black
EQC 400 Mercedes blocking a driveway,
and o e 71cwd,
a white EQC
400,
you're blocking your driveway.
Can you please move him? Thank you.
And that's a dog.
For a dog being given water, Jannah.
Muslim in Buhari Muslim hadith, Allah Sallallahu Alaihi
Salam.
Because
of
a
cat.
Yeah.
She kept it captive until it died.
She kept a cat.
And because of the cat, she is put
in she enters the fire, this person, this
woman.
When she kept it captive, she never gave
it food to eat and never gave it
water to drink.
Neither did she let it release the cat
so it can
get food for itself from the vermin of
the earth.
So
hellfire
over a cat.
So what do you think it's going to
be like for human beings
and how we are with human beings, brothers
and sisters, and their rights?
What do you think?
So and so, this woman is well known
for lots of salas and lots of fasting
and lots of giving in charity. However,
she's also known as being nasty and harmful
and causing any kind of harm to the
neighbor.
She will be in the hellfire.
Yeah.
This one
is well known. Another woman is mentioned who's
known for little of salah. This means extra
salah, Nuwafal and sunnah.
Yeah. And known for little of extra fasting
from on Mondays and she's known for little
of doing that. A little of giving sadaqa
except
except She did not
she didn't cause any harm to the neighbor.
She'll be in the paradise.
She'll be in the paradise.
Neighbour,
a scholar said 600 plus years ago, they
said it in that time. Imagine the means
of transport then.
Imam No, we famously said, Sheikh Hassan mentioned
it some time ago as well, 40 houses
in every direction is your neighbor. In other
words, your neighborhood.
Yeah? And now it would means a transport.
This is our neighborhood, the whole of it.
So
not caring about the rights of the neighborhood.
Yeah. Not caring.
Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said,
3 times. By Allah,
he or she is not a believer. He
or she is not a believer. He
or she is not a believer.
Who is that person?
They thought he's going to come with some
major sins. He said
the
one whose neighbor is not safe from their
harm.
He uses this so strong.
That person will not enter paradise whose neighbor
is in any way harmed by them.
Harmed by them. Harm doesn't mean go and
kill them, by the way.
Any kind of distress or harm
caused to the neighbor,
trouble close to the neighbor
is under this category.
And we all know the famous hadith. We
know these hadith.
Hadith Buhari Muslim.
And.
Gabriel Gabriel kept on giving me advice about
the neighbor until I thought that he's going
to give the neighbor inheritance.
The neighbor is so important,
so important
and look what we're doing.
Last week, there were 6 cars blocking the
drives.
Yeah. This week, start again. And the announcements
about, I know brothers and sisters, it is
not the 95%,
and it is the 5%.
Yeah. And I say to the 5% with
love,
do not build sin upon
sin thinking
my salah is more important than the Kufar
neighbor.
This is something wrong with your mentality and
understanding of your deen. I I guarantee you
there's something wrong with your understanding.
Don't think, oh, what does that imam know?
His beard is not even long enough, and
he hasn't got a big turban on his
head. He doesn't look like an imam. So
why am I gonna listen to him?
Leave that between me and my creator.
But I tell you that kind of mentality
is incorrect, totally incorrect.
And we have,
SubhanAllah,
say, oh, I'll only be going to be
10 minutes and it's my salah. Just I'm
going to be 10 minutes. So I give
myself the excuse to do what I do,
which is to park and block somebody's drive.
Or when some of the mosque volunteers who
are trying to help
to prevent you from committing sin,
the kind of abuse they've had of swearing
as you're walking into Jummah.
Right?
Where do you get this from?
It's not from Islam.
I have no words.
I'm flabbergasted what to say to such a
person.
Let's put the shoe on the other foot.
If that was your mother living in one
of those residents who needed an ambulance
and the Hindus in their mandar were around
here and parked their cars outside your
house and blocked your drive so the ambulance
couldn't get in.
Or the Jews or the Christians had done
it. Oh, no. No. Forget that.
If the Muslims from the mosque had blocked
your drive and it was your mother who
needed the ambulance, I don't
then see how you would feel.
How you would feel.
Just think.
It's about empathy and care of the other
rather than me, me, me.
Oh, I'm running late so I've got to
get my salah. Well, I'll tell you something,
for running late the Prophet
gave an advice
which was to do with myself, the most
selling themselves, not about others. For others, it
is.
By Allah, that person is not a believer.
That's how strong he was. For the one
running leg, prophet
said,
in Hadith
Muslim
He said
when you hear the Ikama, that's
how late you are.
In fact, it's talking especially people who can
hear the Ikama and they're nearby.
Then
then walk to
the salah, meaning to the masjid,
and go with calmness
and dignity
and do not run.
Do not run.
Whatever
you've managed to catch of your salah,
pray it.
Whatever you miss of it, make it up
or complete it. This is the dignity
and character of a believer
themselves. And here notice
then came with the idea it's haram to
run or some majority said it's, at least
this lie. Notice here, he didn't say.
By Allah, that person is not a believer
who rushes for their salah
because it's not affecting the rights of others.
Here, it is about Yahushu, that prophet, sallam,
but when it comes to harming others, by
Allah, you do not believe.
I don't know what else I can say
about the issue of parking and blocking people's
drive, brother and sisters.
You know? There there should be no announcement.
Are we willing to change?
That's the question that we have to ask
ourselves
because we're not.
Surely, Allah has ordered,
commanded,
Adil, justice.
Justice.
And I've talked about justice many times before.
Well, Ihsan.
Ihsan
is not just doing good. Ehsan Ehsan is
to do good beyond what is expected from
Justice.
Ehsan
is to go out of your way to
prefer the other over yourself. And it covers
your neighbors as well, by the way.
That is Ehsan.
Yeah. Ehsan is somebody bad to you. You're
good to them.
Ehsan is somebody good to you. You're doubly
good to them. Ten times more good to
them.
That's Ehsan.
Allah loves the,
and that is Hassan, brothers and sisters.
But Adil first,
we don't even have Adil. Never mind Hassan.
We think justice is just in the courts.
And even then we bend the rules for
ourselves when we go to court to give
false witness and all sorts.
Allah says,
Indeed,
we have sent down messengers
with clear signs,
and we sent down with them the book,
the scripture, the Sharia, the guidance
and the balance,
meaning for justice,
so that human beings could stand for equity
and justice.
Part of the equity and justice that we
think and we trivialize
is
the famous English phrase which says first come,
first served.
What's that about? It's about justice.
It means when you turn up to be
served in any kind of place, a shop
or a store
or an office to be served.
1st come, 1st serve means make a just
queue. Is that right?
And you and I all know the concept
of queue in Muslim world.
I don't have to spell it out.
Where do we get that from?
Islam?
Where did they get it from?
No wonder it reminds me of the famous
statement they say made by Muhammad Abduh,
the famous Egyptian scholar who traveled to France
and then went back to Egypt after and
he said, I traveled to a land
and I saw no Muslims, but I saw
Islam everywhere.
Now, I come back home to a land
where there's Muslims everywhere and I can't see
any Islam.
That was in 18/80.
Have we changed since then, improved?
And when we go to our Muslim countries
and we object about the kind of queue
that we see,
you know what they say, don't you?
He's from England.
And that's not as a positive, it's a
negative.
Okay?
Really? Some of the other way around.
Before we go far, and I've seen it
for some time now, and I wanted to
mention it. What about the queue outside for
the food after Jummah here?
It reminds me of the same situation as
I've seen in Muslim countries. It's us again,
isn't it?
It's us again.
There isn't a single queue there ever.
It's one scrambling over the other, pushing and
shoving into each other.
In Muslim countries,
there's ulama talking about and women with hijab
or no, don't come near them, don't look
at them, don't even say Islam to them.
We have that kind of attitude. And when
they come to the queue, they're pushing and
shoving into each other. Men and women, I've
seen it with my own eyes
multitude of times.
Yeah? Where where does that where does the
idea of coming so close to the men
and women go then?
Shoving and pushing into them. Rubbing into them,
actually.
Because we can't understand this idea of
of justice of first come. This is just
Listen,
you may think these things are trivial, brothers
and sisters.
If we can't sort out our toilets,
if we can't sort our neighborly behavior
and our cues,
you think we have a chance in ruling
the world
within this state?
Because
we don't care.
We don't want to change.
And proof of that, I wanna see in
a few weeks see if that well, I'll
see today if that cue changes today out
there
because it's not
somebody coming from outside.
It's not the Hindus worshiping thousands of idols
who are coming and making that queue. Yeah.
Or the atheists are coming and making that
queue. It's you here from here.
Here's advice. And you know what? I've seen
young children coming and being shoved and pushed
in that queue.
What do you think they're thinking?
Now school holidays are coming, and they're gonna
be watching.
Right? Is that the example you want to
give them to behave like, do they do
that at school dinners in the queue, by
the way?
Right.
But it's only in the mosque. It's all
right.
In the mosque, it's all right. We're all
brothers, aren't we? And we get away with
Masha'allah and Insha'allah.
Here we go again.
Everything's and actually, we don't even say Mashallah.
We say Mashallah.
I think the meaning we apply to it
might as well stick to Mashallah.
There's
no R. There's no Marsha'allah.
It's Marsha'allah.
I have so many
people from the subcontinent
say Mashaa Allah. I thought, where is he
talking? What is he talking about? Does he
want marshmallows?
It's Masha'allah,
not Masha'allah,
brothers and sisters.
And, also, it's not Alhumdulillah.
It's. That's a side note.
But Masha'allah's,
and Insha'allah's
don't work.
Yeah. Because we use Insha'Allah to mean I'm
not going to do it, but I'll just
say Insha'Allah to make the person feel happy.
That's what I'm our meaning. Isn't it brothers
and sisters? Yeah. I'll see you then. Yeah.
Are we are you coming? Inshallah.
It means, she means, no, I'm not coming,
but Inshallah sounds good.
Total inappropriate use of Inshallah.
Put that right first.
Alright. So Insha'Allah
with the real Insha'Allah, meaning we're going to
have one queue there. Okay. I would say
to you, brothers and sisters,
if you can't
wait, don't buy the food.
Miss your lunch, go to another shop or
the supermarket
and see if you can make that kind
of queue there and get served.
Just go down the road to Greg's and
see if you can make that queue there.
See if they'll serve you there.
Go hungry
if you can't and say to brother Amjad,
either move it from there,
get more to serve volunteers,
and don't serve
anybody until there is one single queue. Unless
you do that, I guarantee you nothing's gonna
change.
And I am not the secret and private
police.
Neither do I intend to be.
Yeah, it is between you and Allah,
I'm teaching you what the principles of this
deen are, I teach and remind myself,
Yeah.
Don't trivialize them. This is all part and
parcel of our character.
If we're not willing to change,
nothing will change.