Nadim Ali – Diversity In Islam
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning to be of diverse and faithless Muslims is emphasized in Islam, as it is the culmination of all revealed events. The speaker emphasizes the need to educate oneself and be of the people who are not treated as private club or confidentiality groups. The importance of learning to establish a righteous community and individuality, rather than just learning about everything, is also emphasized. The speaker stresses the importance of learning to be a person of one's own choice and pray for Islam, while acknowledging the challenges faced by Muslims in bringing Islam to bear on racism and addiction.
AI: Summary ©
Indeed, all praise belongs to Allah, the most
high. We thank him, and
we seek his aid, and we seek his
forgiveness,
and we seek refuge with him from the
evil of ourselves and from our bad actions.
Whoever Allah guides, then there is no one
who can mislead him and whoever Allah causes
to go astray,
there's no one to guide him.
I bear witness we bear witness that there
is no deity except Allah who is unique
and without partners and I bear witness that
Muhammad is his worshipper and his messenger. May
the peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him and his family
and his companions and those who follow them
with good intentions
until the day of judgment.
O you who believe, fear Allah as he
should be feared and don't die except as
Muslims. Again, O you who believe,
fear Allah as he should be feared and
don't die except as Muslims.
Oh, mankind, be careful of your duty to
your Rabb who created you from a single
soul and from it created its mate and
from the 2 of them spread forth many
men and women.
Be careful of your duty to Allah whom
you demand your mutual rights
and be careful of your duty to the
wounds that bore you. Indeed, Allah is our
Raqib over you.
Oh, you who believe, fear Allah and always
speak the truth. He will cause your deeds
to be beneficial and he will forgive for
you your sins and whoever obeys Allah and
his messenger, then he has truly achieved a
tremendous accomplishment.
For indeed, the best speech is the book
of Allah and the best guidance is the
guidance of Muhammad
and the most evil of all affairs are
newly invented matters which has no precedence in
Islam and indeed all innovations are astray and
each astray is in the hellfire.
O Allah, save us from it. O Allah,
accept our dua.
In other signs is the creations of the
heavens and earth and the diversity of your
languages and colors.
Indeed, in that are signs for those of
knowledge.
And also, Allah says in the Koran,
But whoso
does good works, whether male or female, and
as a believer,
such shall enter heaven
and shall not be wronged,
even as much as
the little hollow
of the back of a datestone.
And when we look at these
two verses from the Koran,
you see from the beginning, Islam promoted a
sense of what's been called or labeled as
diversity,
as diversity.
And
as Muslims,
when we look at
what is our role in the overall society,
you know, we should not
be impacted
by the laws of this society.
You know, law has given us clear guidance
on who we are, and the message of
Islam
is clear.
And we have to be of those who
are promoting the message of Islam because what
happens is people will want to distort the
message of Islam.
And from the very beginning,
Islam was a multicultural
and multiracial
type of movement.
The first few wisdoms were were of you
know, when you look at the Persians,
the Africans, the Arabs,
and there were even Romans. There were Roman
slaves who have been captured as prisoners of
war who became Muslim.
So in the very beginning, Islam
was far more superior
than this country in its very beginning. The
country is only, what, a couple of 100
years old.
1400 years ago,
Allah promoted the concept
of that mankind is only superior by your
behaviors,
only superior by your your level of righteousness
and your piety. And that's what the message
that we have to bring forth to mankind,
to this country. That's the dower that we
need to be given.
That Islam promotes something that this country didn't
promote in its inception.
You know, we have to be of those
who are not treating
Islam like a private club or a fraternity
or some type of masonic type organization.
We have to be of those who recognize
that Islam is for every man.
If a person
is
alive, they have the potential
to be a Muslim. You know, we're all
familiar with the Hadith about, you know, a
person can do the work, you know, of
the hellfire, and they get a hand span
to the hellfire, and and and whatever was
written for them starts to take over, and
they get Jannah.
And another person who does the work of
Jannah and they get a hand span to
Jannah and what was written for them starts
to take over and they get the hellfire.
So it's not over till it's over.
It's not about, you know, in the old
days, we used to
when those of us who came out of
the church with such and such, he saved.
She saved.
We're not saved until the what's what's the
our account
is audited.
The deeds that we we we send forth.
And as, you know, as as I said
in Islam, it says the only thing we
take to the grave is what?
Our deeds and the prayers of those that
we leave behind, the prayers of our offsprings.
And so we have to continuously
do righteousness and, alhamdulillah, we just,
completed the Eid. We're in the days of
the Eid And
as I stated those first 10 days of
Dhul Hijjah,
we should do more, do as much good
as we possibly can. Even doing this much
do as much good as we possibly can.
Even outside of Dhul Hijjah, we should do
good.
Because what's the what's the goal of us
all? Is it to become multibillionaires?
Could you look at the billionaires in this
country? They're very real hemorrhoids. I'm not gonna
use the other word.
Many of them are hemorrhoids. Very few of
them are able to,
basically be charitable. And as I mentioned the
last time, that even amongst the Muslims who
have the billionaires and what are they doing?
They you look in in in in in
Arabia now.
You know, they're bringing in,
racing and and raves and and basically changing
the whole
culture of the society
just to try to emulate the West.
Whereas, the West should be emulating
what is supposed to be in Islamic culture.
This is the message that we have to
bring. This is the dawah that we have
to give. Even again, when before I became
a Muslim, you know, some of the things
I admired about the Muslims
is that the the the conflict resolution
that was was put in place. I saw
I saw a situation where there was a
a hostage situation. And when the brothers came
in and showed the people who were engaging
in the behavior that you were wrong and
by the book and by the actions of
the prophet, they gave up they they they
they surrendered.
And I said, that's powerful. That's a powerful
message.
We look at, you know, how
when you go to hide, you see all
of the people, all of mankind, all of
the races, the various races. The law says
he made us into nations and tribes. What?
To get to know one another. Among his
signs are what? The variations in our languages
and colors, the variations in our tongues.
We have to be of those who promote
that message
because we
have the real diversity,
not just on race or gender,
but on faith.
On faith.
Allah has given us many means of spreading
this message. You know, the world has become
so small, specifically with the Internet and in
in in in in in the different types
of, video portals and radio. We have so
many ways of spreading our message. And why
are we not motivated to do that?
Why are we not motivated to do that?
You know, this is the honorable message.
Why have we gotten lazy? We, you know,
we we we got that save mentality.
And even in the old days and a
few years ago, brothers were saying, were they
the saved *? Even amongst the Muslims,
we saved. You know, you got a guarantee.
Was your name among the people who the
prophet, peace be upon him, guaranteed Jannah?
Well, he he gave a message.
He said that Islam began as strange, and
it will end with as strange.
And so the strange are those who are
not going along with the overall society.
It's strange to not drink.
It's strange not to do drugs.
It's strange not to just eat anything that's
put in front of you.
We are of the strange. It's strange not
to worship multiple deities.
We worship 1 God.
And that's the message that that unity,
that unity,
even that basic unity helped to basically facilitate
scientific advances. When you when people who are
objective look at the science
that was put in place and that the
West benefited from, they see that the Muslims
were some of the major contributors
of of of science as we know it.
And they based their explorations
on what was in the Quran and what
was in the Hadid.
So this is the powerful message that we
have
that we just
that sit on the shelf,
that we don't study,
that we don't go to classes. You know,
we'll take Shahada, and that's it. Year or
2 later, you're still
struggling with the class or struggling with Fatiha.
So we have to be of those who
are gaining knowledge.
What did the prophet, peace be upon him,
say? He says that one
learned worshiper is harder on the devil than
a 1,000 ignorant worshipers.
So we don't wanna be of the ignorant
worshipers
because you have people speaking
through ignorance. They don't know.
Might just take Shahada and that's it.
So it's about
learning as much as you can.
What did he say? Knowledge is the lost
property of the Muslim.
So it doesn't mean that just,
Quran and Hadith, but any beneficial knowledge is
the lost property of the Muslim, brothers and
sisters.
And so it's not about just learning Quran
and Hadith, but we should learn as much
as we can about all of the sciences
so that we can basically prepare to establish
a righteous
community, a righteous city, a righteous nation. The
Muslims are the healers in this society,
and we have to be of those to
recognize that, but we have to become equipped.
It's just like a person who's trying to
save a person another person's life, a person
who's an EMT or does life saving work.
They get trained. So what is our training?
Our training is the prayer.
Our training is the fasting.
Our training is the fasting. Our training is
the fasting. Our training
is the prayer. Our training is the fasting.
Our training is basically coming together
and treating each other with respect and treating
each other with deference and worshiping
Allah These are some of the things that
we have to do.
Again,
Allah gave us this message over 1400 years
ago, and what did he say?
O mankind, indeed, we have created you from
male and female and made you
peoples into nations and tribes that you may
one in know one one know one another.
Indeed, the noblest of you in the sight
of Allah is the most righteous of you.
Indeed, Allah is is knowing and acquainted.
That's from the Quran 1400 years ago.
And over 200 and, what, 50 years ago,
what does the constitution say about
African Americans who were here present
during the founding of the country?
Article 1,
Section 2 of the Constitution of the United
States declared that any person
who was not free would not be counted
would be counted as 3 fifths of a
free individual for the purpose of determining congressional
representation.
Since the beginning of this country,
racism determined its political direction.
And so even to this day,
the vote is trying to be taken away
specifically from from people of color.
And so this is, again, the beginning of
the country. 3 5ths Amendment, they called it.
It, to say they've been abrogated.
But
the Koran was here during that time. You
know, you have it was at, you know,
one of the, the founders' fathers, so called,
when Barack Obama,
basically, took his oath of office. He took,
you know, he he he he basically he
wrecked not Barack Obama, but Steve, Ellison, Ellison,
who was the, congressman.
He basically took his oath of office on
that Quran of of one of the founders
of this country. So they knew the Quran.
They studied. They were well learned people.
But, again, they were ignorant on so many
different levels. So you can be
ignorant
and intelligent.
And so the intelligence is here. Enlightenment is
here in the heart.
And so we want to be of those
who are enlightened.
We want to be of those who recognize
that Allah is
most powerful.
Again, since the beginning of this country, racism.
As the poet said, racism and greed
keep the people in need from getting what's
rightfully theirs,
cheating, stealing, and double dealing as they exploit
the people's fears.
So we have to recognize
that we have a program
that's
that's superior to to all other programs.
And so when this the ruling that was
announced yesterday
about the,
the the abrogation of affirmative action, it wasn't
a surprise.
They've been trying to overturn it the past
60 years.
But we have to continue to struggle.
Allah says again, oh, mankind,
we have made you created you male and
female and appointed you
racists and tribes that you may get to
know one another, surely, again, the nobleness among
you in the sight of Allah is the
most fearing of you.
Now this is the message that we must
promote,
the importance of righteousness
and not divisionism.
And as Imam Tajideen stated
at the Eid, that Islam
is the culmination of all the revealed religions.
And he basically
read a portion of the the ayat.
This day, those who have
despaired of defeating, your religion,
so fear them and so so so fear
them not, but fear me. This day, I
have perfected for you your religion and completed
my favor upon you and have approved for
you Islam as religion.
But whoever is forced by a severe hunger
with no inclination to sin, then indeed Allah
is all Forgiving
and Most Merciful.
O Allah, send peace and blessings upon our
beloved prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, and
his family and his companions. And Allah, increase
his honor and elevate his station. Grant him
the highest place in paradise and bless him
with your divine mercy. And, oh, Allah, bless
us with his intercession
on the day of judgment and forgive our
sins.
We have to be of those
who
recognize,
even as Allah
is unified in 1, that the prophet's message,
all of the prophet's messages, was a unified
message. They all came with the message of
Tawhid.
They didn't
say worship me. They say,
you know, worship Allah
from Adam to the prophet Muhammad, peace be
upon him.
The same message, Tawhid, the message of the
oneness of of of of Allah.
What does Allah says?
We believe you say we believe in Allah
and the revelation given to us and to
Ibrahim, Ishmael, Isaac,
Ya'qub, and the tribes, and that given to
Musa and Esa, and that given to all
the prophets from their Lord. We make no
difference between 1 or another of them, and
we bow to Allah in Islam.
This is what Allah says.
Islam
promotes
a unity
that is defined
not by just words but by actions.
Allah says, and hold fast altogether by the
rope which Allah stretches out for you, and
be not divided amongst yourselves.
As for those who divide their religion and
break up into partisans, you have no part
in them in the least.
Again, let us not be of those who
break up our religion into partisan groups.
Let us not be of those who disrespect
our elders.
Let us not be of those who are
hypercritical
but under available for the needs of the
Muslims
because you have everybody's you got podcasters, you
got social media influencers. They everybody has a
voice now.
But again, most people are speaking from ignorance.
So many of these people are speaking from
ignorance
and not enlightenment.
And so you have to study
the Islam, study the Quran, study the Hadith,
study the seer of the prophet, peace be
upon him, and his companions, and and and
those who were around him, and the scholars
of who spend
years, decades studying,
and people dismiss them. Oh,
that's just a scholar for dollar.
They spend most of their life studying.
We have to listen to them.
We have to research them and they're available
to us. We have people who, again, who
have
sacrificed many years. One brother who comes here
once a month,
packed his whole family up and spent 10
years
studying
just to bring back the knowledge,
to get Islam in its pristine form. And
it's not about
becoming
acculturated.
It's about recognizing that Islam
transcends
the culture. And so if you go to
China, you see a, an interpretation of Islam.
If you go to parts of Africa, you
see an interpretation of it. It's all the
same message, and it's all adapted the same
way, but the culture may be different. So
just like over here,
we don't want to basically
take on anybody's culture. We have our own
culture,
but the message of Islam is consistent and
it's the same, and that's what we have
to recognize.
Brother packed up his whole family just to
to get the message so that he can
bring it back.
When I was living in the Middle East,
I saw brothers and sisters who
throwing in Arabic, and they're sitting there talking
Arabic to one another. And I'm saying, you
know, y'all need to come home.
Y'all need to come home. Y'all sitting there
talking Arabic to one another
and and learning and have been studying with
people, and you're not bringing it back.
All around the world, people will send their
young to study,
but they're supposed to bring it back.
They're supposed to bring in young people.
Would encourage you not to just get
knowledge to, where you can get a job,
but you wanna get knowledge that will help
you to teach people how to get gender.
We just wanna work for jobs. We wanna
work for gender.
That's the goal.
And I would encourage, especially the young,
you know, you can,
you know, you know, especially they say before
you're 18 is the best time to learn
a language. So study the Arabic.
Get fluent in it. And so that and
then you can go study, and then you
can spend the rest of your life with
whatever type of skill you want to get,
because, you know, you know English.
So these are some of the things that
we want to do.
Recognize
that
Allah has given us this diversity.
And what does he say?
To each among you, we have prescribed the
law in an open way. If Allah so
will,
he would have made you a single people,
But his plan is to test you
in what he has given you, so strive
as if in a race
to all that is good. The goal
of all of you all is to Allah.
And so the keyword of empty handed
is a test,
that our diversity, our differences is a test.
It's a test that Allah gives us and
and
it's interesting. This country has had major challenges
with the test. You can go from the
beginning, from its inception, from how they treated
the Native Americans, the indigenous people, and how
they treated the the the the imported Africans,
and how they treated the people who were
indentured servants, and how they treated the the
people who were Asian, and and who came
and worked on the railroads.
This country has had major challenges
in the in the in such a there's
in such a form of denial
of their racist past.
And so as Muslims, we have to not
just remind them, but say, you have been
infected with racism.
We have the solution. We have the antibiotic.
Islam is the antibiotic
to this racism.
I remember hearing,
one of the last speeches. In fact, it's
called the last message of Al Hajj Malik
al Shabaz Malcolm X.
And in that, he said that he believes
that
the only saving grace for this country is
Islam.
He says that
due to the fact
that
we only see
Allah as supreme
and not as any one race as supreme.
He says that he met especially on Hajj,
he met people.
They had pigmentation
that was white, but they didn't have an
attitude
of superiority.
And this is a week before he was
killed, and this was 60 something years ago.
That was his he was one of the
if you look at W. E. B. Du
Bois and El Hadjum Haig El Shabazz and
people like, you know, Martin Luther King, you
know, they analyzed the society,
and they were able to give an analysis.
James Baldwin, all of them,
they gave an analysis of the society that
we have to study. These are the books
that we have to read.
And then,
again, offer a solution that is consistent with
Islam.
Allah says we have created again
from you from you male and female and
made you again into nations and tribes that
you may get to know one another.
Verily, the most honorable
of you with the law
is that believer who has taqwa.
You want to be of the mutakun,
the pious. And again, piety is not weakness.
Humility is not weakness.
It's just recognizing
that Allah
has power over all things and has control
over all things.
Should Allah visit you with some distress,
there is no one to remove it except
Him.
And should He bring you some good, then
He has power over all things.
This is from the Quran.
If I've said anything that's inconsistent with what
Allah has given us and the prophet has
taught us, I take full responsibility for that.
If I've said anything in which you have
gained some new knowledge or insight, as always,
all praise belongs to Allah.
Our lord, take us not to task if
we forget or fall into error. Our lord,
lay not on us a burden such as
you did lay on those who have gone
before us. Our lord, lay not on us
a burden which we do not have the
power to bear and overlook our faults and
forgive us and have mercy on us. You
are our protector and grant us the victory
over the disbelieving people.
And, InshaAllah,
there will be, I believe, a sister who
wants to take shahada and if there's a
brother who hasn't,
come into the fold of Islam,
who wants to take shahada, then,
you know, we can accommodate them as well.
But I understand that there's a sister after,
we pray, we will give the shahada.
And she your sister can stay back there
if they can verify.
There's a little sober on the drug. A
brother? Okay. Well, come on.
Come on down.
Price is right. You're sold.
You have a seat, Michelle.
This morning.
Yeah.
Very quickly,
as we understand,
coming into Islam
means that you're opening your heart and you're
submitting yourself. We say
that,
when we talk about Islam, we we define.
We ask the question, what does Islam mean?
It means
the total
annihilation
of one's
self and relinquishing
the entire being of self
to Allah with absolute certainty
and conviction.
Which means that you are turning yourself to
Allah, to God,
the one God, the only God,
and complete surrendering of self to his laws.
To what trying to adhere to what or
turn your desires into what Allah has desired
for mankind for his creation.
So I'm gonna ask, are you ready for
this?
Are you ready for this, sister?
Yeah.
You also are saying
because in believing in Allah, it also means
in believing in all of his messengers.
It means believing in all the books that
have been revealed. It means believing in the
angels.
It means believing in the last day, meaning
there's gonna be a transcendence from this time
into the next life.
And it remain it also means that you
are accepting that all things come from Allah
whether we perceive them as being good or
being bad.
Do you accept this? Yes, sir.
Do you accept also that Muhammad
sallallahu
sallallahu alaihiwasallam,
the son of Abdullah,
is the last messenger of Allah.
And that he has brought us the Quran
and he has brought
us the way of life. We call Islam
that Allah has perfected.
Do you accept this?
Then I ask you, no, I ask you
this. You're not being coerced. No one's making
you do this, correct?
All right. You're coming freely. Does everybody bear
witness that they're coming freely
to accept this deen?
Then I ask you to repeat after me,
both of you.
I
need to hear the sister
Muhammad
is his messenger.
Well, alhamdulillah.
Welcome to the fold of Islam.
May Allah bless you all. As we always
like to say, when you come into Islam,
Allah has forgiven all of your past sins.
You are fresh.
Your book of life has been wiped clean,
and it is up to you and the
things that you do from this point forward
that will determine how clean it stays.
And we ask for both from both of
you that you make du'a for everyone in
this community
because at this particular point in time, any
du'a that you make any supplication you make
is going to be answered.
So we ask that Allah that you pray
for us, make du'a for us and ask
Allah to forgive us all for our sins.
Have mercy upon our souls and may Allah
make good your Islam.
May he make you both very righteous Muslims.
May he make you firm on this path,
the straight path, the path of righteousness,
and may he allow your children
to also be upon that path. May he
bless you with beautiful, wonderful spouses,
and that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will elevate
you in this life