Nadim Ali – Islamic Congruence
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1,000 Adeen.
In one translation, indeed,
all praise belongs to Allah, the most high.
We we we 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 again. And we
seek refuge
with him from the evil of ourselves and
from our bad actions.
Whoever Allah guides, then there's no one who
can mislead him. And whoever Allah causes to
go astray, then there's no one to guide
him.
I bare witness that there is no deity
except the Allah who is unique and without
partners.
And I bare witness that Mohammed is his
worshipper
and his messenger.
And 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.
All you who believe, fear Allah as he
should be feared and don't die except as
Muslims. Again, all 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
Yorab, who created you from a single soul,
and from it he created his mate. And
from the 2 of them, he spread forth
many men and many 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 over
you.
O 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.
Indeed, the best speech is the book of
Allah, and the best guidance is the guidance
of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, and the
most evil of all affairs
are newly invented batteries which has no precedence
in Islam.
And indeed, all innovations are astray, and each
astray is in the hellfire.
Oh, Allah, save us from it. Oh, Allah,
accept our dua.
Allah
says in the Quran.
The
Quran.
It is he who raised up among the
unleaded people
a messenger
for them to recite his verses
to them and purify them and teach them
the book and wisdom,
even though before
that, they were clearly misguided.
And also, he says, Every soul
will be held responsible
for what it has done.
And we have to look at
this particular ayat, how the prophet, peace be
upon him, how he came to the Quresh.
They were people who were steeped in ignorance,
steeped in ignorance.
Please tell the brothers to be quiet in
the back.
They were steeped in ignorance. And so it's
important that we recognize that any society
that the that Islam has come to,
Many of the people have different variations of
ignorance, whether they're worshiping,
you know, individuals, whether they're worshiping 3 gods,
whether they're worshiping multiple gods or multiple deities.
So we have to be of those to
recognize
that even though the prophet, peace be upon
him, came
4 1400
years ago, 1400 years ago,
ignorance is still ignorance today, just like truth
is still truth today.
And so,
even though we may not
worship a little idol, we may worship money.
We may worship
the opposite *.
We may worship drugs.
Anything that you put before Allah, we may
worship the work that we do. We may
worship our families.
So we have to basically be of those
to not practice the shirk.
We have to be of those who are
following,
again, not the ways of our fathers, but
we want to follow the ways of our
prophetic fathers,
the way of Ibrahim,
the way of Musa,
the way of Isa,
of all the prophets who have come before,
they bought the message of the one deity,
one God.
And so
we have to start to internalize that in
an effort to actualize that. And what I
mean by that, if we, again, believe
in this way of life, we have to
start practicing it as a way of life
and not practicing it as a religion.
Religion is just full of rituals.
But a way of life,
it's internal and external. I wanted to use
the term congruency.
Congruency is what's going on in the inside
is actualized
on the outside. It's a mathematic term, but
they also use it in psychology
that, basically, who you are inside
is being expressed on the outside. So so
we have to recognize that we have to
have a great level of congruency
in our in the way we're practicing our
deen.
One of the things that the prophet
said that there's nothing weightier
in the scales than good morals and character,
good morals
and manners. He also said he only came
to improve character. He only came to the
mankind to improve character. That's it.
Because, again, that's timeless
to have good character. It's timeless to be
able to be an honest person, just like
a thief,
1400 years ago is the same as a
thief today.
A murderer 1400 years ago is the same
as a murderer today. We're just wearing different
clothes. We're just driving
different modes of transportation.
But man's character,
it will
Basically, it's timeless.
And so we have to be of those
to use the Islam to improve our characters,
brothers and sisters. As Muslims,
you know, we have to
take heed of the role that we have
in the world.
And we can look
at all of the problems that's going on
in the world today,
all of the problems that's happening in the
world, whether it's politically, whether it's economically,
spiritually,
you know, as well as on the health
care front. We are still in the midst
of a pandemic.
And But even before this physical pandemic, there
was a spiritual pandemic.
And so we have to be of those
2 that we we that we want to
integrate
the
the Islam into the overall society. But if
we're able to do that, before we can
do that, we have to integrate it into
ourself, internalize this deen.
You know, when I was growing up in
in in the Philadelphia area, you know, again,
the the the many brothers and sisters have
heard me say this before. We used to
call people PTMs,
part time Muslims.
Part time Muslims because we were still steeped
in ignorance, and then they would just wanna
come and, you know, dip their toe in
ignorance every now and then. And then every
every so often, you'll see them, you know,
still trying to pretend to be Muslims.
And so today, we have
many part time Muslims.
And so we have to get away from
that. If you're gonna be Muslim, be Muslim.
If you're gonna be thugged out, be thugged
out. You know? Because the thugs don't respect
you,
you know, if you're coming in fake.
Because, again, I was there, and we didn't
respect the people who were pretending to be
Muslim.
If you're getting high,
need do what you need to do to
get away from the substances.
Don't just try to basically,
make it, compatible to this dean. Don't bring
your ignorance into the dean. The dean is
about enlightenment.
We have to be congruent.
We have to be of those who are
spreading this message
over and over and over and over again.
And all of us went through different levels
of ignorance, and and we are coming on
the other end. You know, again, we're closer
to the grave. Many of us, great beards
are closer to the grave than the cradle.
And so the young brothers and sisters who
are coming into the din, there's certain things
that you have to sacrifice. And if you
give up something for Allah, he'll give you
something better. If you give up an unhealthy
relationship for Allah, he'll give you something better.
If you give up drugs for Allah, he'll
give you something better.
If you give up stealing, and dealing, and
all sorts of
illegal activities for Allah, he will give you
something better. But you have to believe that.
You have to believe that.
These
are the this is the meaning of congruency,
brothers and sisters.
You know, we can't
act like those who are misguided. Again, when
when, again, a person comes
to a Muslim,
they need to have a positive experience.
You know, there needs to be a a
positive impression left.
Because you have to look at Islamic history,
you know, just like, you know, you hear
people talking about the death of the queen,
and as we say, for anybody who dies,
But the British Empire was the one of
the most is one of the most wretched
empires on the planet, and they went to
war with the Muslims.
And so we have to recognize that.
We have to recognize that. They Basically, they
saw themselves as the
the protectors of Christendom.
And part of that was the slave trade.
Part of that was the getting involved in
the different wars in Muslim lands, trying to
spread Christianity through Muslim lands.
And so so we have to, basically, as
they say, tell the whole story.
Tell the whole story.
You know, I used to call it the
holy, you know, empire. And so so we
have to say, if we are going to
establish Islam in the land, first, we have
to establish the Islam in our hearts.
And everybody has treated Islam like a buffet.
They treated Islam like a buffet. They take
this aspect of Islam, and they'll use it,
and they'll take this aspect of Islam, and
then they'll use it or abuse it. And
so so we have to be of those
to present the whole message to the people.
I was reflecting on a,
a story about, the Egyptian scholar, Mohammed Abduh.
He was traveling through Europe in the late
19th century, and he summed it up with
an adage. He said, I went to the
west,
and I saw
Islam, but no Muslims.
When I got back to the east,
I saw Muslims,
but no Islam.
Can we say that about
Muslims today
in different countries,
in different communities?
You know, we can basically, we can see
Muslims, but no Islam.
And, again, what he's saying,
you know, you know, with that different ad
that that particular
adage is that the all of the ethics
that were in place in in Europe at
that time, and which, again, a lot of
it came from Islam in its heyday,
in the height of the Islamic civilization.
It it civilized Europe.
They knew how to take baths.
During the inquisition, the way when they were
trying to persecute Muslims, the way they found
out who was a Muslim and who wasn't
a Muslim, they would tell you, take your
boots off. And if your feet were clean,
you were a Muslim because you had to
make voodoo.
To the point that Muslims had to start
praying, just blinking their eyes.
That's how bad it got.
And as I continue to mention,
as Elhad Malik El Shabaab said
in the on his last week before he
he died.
He said, this society has
just as much capability
as Hitler's society did to create gas ovens.
And so
if it gets to that point, how are
you gonna be? Are you gonna have enough
iman, as as Sheikh Khalifa
spoke of last week?
Will you have enough iman to be able
to deal with any of the adversities that
will come your way as a result of
people turning on the Muslims?
If you're not doing the dawah,
if the people are not spreading the word
of Islam,
then we can become,
you know, as as as the prophet, peace
be upon him, said, you know, we will
we will be,
like food, and people will just pick at
us like diners at a table.
And then the companions say, will will we
be less or you know? But he said,
no. There will be a lot of y'all.
But, you know, they will fear death, and
they'll love the world.
They'll love the world. And so we have
to be of those who are congruent in
our deen.
And again, what did
brother Muhammad Abdul
what did he see? You know, he saw
a lack of modesty, a lack of generosity,
a lack of courage,
a lack of forgiveness,
a lack of forbearance and a lack of
ethics
during that time in the Muslim world.
So we have to be of those to
look at the Quran and look at the
Hadith and say, Well, how can I,
basically
implement this in my daily life? I was
in, Savannah last week and doing a talk,
and my talk was basically,
an Islamic approach to recovery from addiction.
And, you presented information on a group called
Al Kaffar and,
the other group, Milati Islami.
But
during the talk, it was a 3 hour
talk.
People kept stopping me because I would mention
the Hadith or mention the Nayyid from the
Quran. And they would say, okay. Tell us
more about that. Tell us more about that.
They were hungry for just getting the the
knowledge of Islam.
And
a young lady came up to me after
the talk and said and she just came
up to me very sheepishly and said, I
didn't know
Islam was that close
to Christianity.
She didn't know. She was ignorant of
it. And so we're not doing our job,
brothers and sisters.
And at the end of the talk, I
didn't know it, but there was a board
member
in in in the audience came up to
me and said, you gave a 3 hour
talk this year. Next year, I want you
to put it in, and I want you
to do a 6 hour talk.
They didn't run away from it because they
were hungry for this knowledge. And so
that's just just this one experience, and I'm
sure many of you have had similar experiences,
but we have to give the dower. We
have to use the the modes of expression
and communication, whether it's, you know, through the
social media, you know, whether it's through, you
know, basically,
the the different,
forms of communication, the texting, and all of
that. We have so much technology that the
prophet, peace be upon him, didn't have in
his day,
that people 10, 15 years ago didn't have.
You know, when I came into Islam came
into Islam, all we had was the radio.
And we had several
radio programs
in Philadelphia.
And to wit you know, I believe that
the work that we did in the seventies
contributed to Philadelphia being, as they say, the
most Islamic city in this country.
More Muslims,
you know, per capita in in in in
Philadelphia than any other city for the most
part to practice.
And so we have to say that, you
know, we don't just want numbers, we want
quality.
We don't just want numbers, we want quality.
If I've said anything that's inconsistent with what
Allah has given us and the prophet
has taught us, I'll take full responsibility for
that. And if I've said anything in which
you have gained some new insight, as always,
all praise is due to Allah.
The prophet
said,
the most evil in my nation
are the garrulous braggarts and pompous.
The best of my nation are those with
the best character.
Verily, the believers with the most complete faith
are those with the most excellent character and
who are most kind to their families.
And, again, we look at the word,
and again, it's generally referred to as as
noble character, morality, or ethical
conduct. And we have to develop that.
What are we doing
to develop our characters?
Again, we can't
revert
to old ways. As the prophet
said that, you know, if you imitate a
people, you are of that people.
Abdullah ibn Amla reported,
reported that the messenger of Allah
says, whoever would love to be delivered from
the hellfire
and admit it to paradise,
let him meet his end with faith and
Allah in the last day, and let him
treat people as he would love to be
treated. And in this hadith, it doesn't distinguish
between the Muslims, and I use the term
not yet Muslims.
Not yet Muslims because everybody has the potential
to be a Muslim.
The merciful will show mercy.
Excuse me. The merciful will be shown mercy
by the merciful. Be merciful to those on
the Earth, and the one in heavens will
have mercy upon you. This is what the
prophet
says, that we have to show mercy
to those and expose them to this deen.
And we can do it verbally and we
can do it through our actions. We have
to give people a positive experience and it
will resonate. It will resonate with them.
Give them a positive experience. You know, even
in the work that I do in in
the counseling,
you know, I tell people that,
you know, they'll talk, well, it's too late
for this and too late for that, too
late for this relationship and too late for
that relationship.
And I tell them that, you know, the
scholars of family therapy and couples therapy say
that
it takes
5 positive experiences to erase every one negative
experience.
Five positive experiences to erase every one negative
experience. And so if you had 20 negative
experience, you need to give a person 100
positive experiences. And so what we have to
look at is what kind of experiences are
we giving the people
in the area.
We've been in this area since 76, 1976,
for the most part.
And for the most part, I'm
convinced that we've given people a fairly positive
experience.
But it has to be consistent
because just like faith,
faith is a dynamic force,
dynamism.
You ride a bicycle, you're gonna pedal, you're
gonna move. You stop pedaling, you're gonna coast.
If you don't start backpedaling, you're gonna tip
over.
So it's not about how much Dean you
did in the past. Oh, man. When I
was in the joint, I was down.
Had a non Muslim
coworker, he said, his brother is the best
Muslim
in jail.
He gets out of jail, and he goes
right back to what he this was a
non Muslim, not yet Muslim.
That was the experience that he had with
his blood brother. He said, he's the best
Muslim in jail.
You know, you don't have Although you're locked
down, you don't have the the
the the the the the the desires,
you know, in the jail that you may
have on the outside. Because you Allah says,
you know, don't think don't say that you
believe and that you won't be tested.
And so we have to we're getting tested
every day. That's why we stretch out
the the prayers, 5 prayers, the Jummah, the
Ramadan, it's all designed to basically allow us
it creates a spiritual antibiotic to to the
infections in the society.
So we have to be of those who
are, again, who are congruent
in practicing
in practice and in word.
This is what we have to do.
It is said that, again, that the best
experiences,
the best teachers
is the experience. And so if people wanna
learn about Islam, how are they experiencing the
Muslims around them?
Ibn Masood
reported that the messenger of Allah said that
the believer does not insult others nor curse
others
nor is vulgar and is not shameless.
And he A man asked the prophet,
which Islam is the best?
The Messenger of Allah
said,
to feed the hungry
and to greet with peace those
you know and those who you don't know.
Those you know and those who you don't
know. So there's a lot of work to
be done, brothers and sisters, again, and congruency,
again, the quality of state of agreeing
in words.
In other words, you know,
what's on the inside needs to be reflected
on the outside.
It also said that whoever has three qualities
who have completed faith, fairness from yourselves to
others, offering peace to the world,
and spending
in charity,
even if you're poor, even if you're broke.
Give something.
And and and you hear the remember the
Hadid, even a smile is charity. A poor
person can smile.
Again, like the Sheikh said last week, we
need iman
because that's gonna be our fuel for any
adversity
that we face, whether it's in this society
or in whatever society
Allah puts us in.
You know, again, we need iman,
you know, to move throughout the society in
a congruent fashion. He's Muslim all the time,
247.
Our deen will be tested
on many levels, and we have to have
clear focus.
You know, we have to say what is
Islam and what is ignorance. And, again, go
to people who know. Go to people who
know.
The prophet
said, lurking towards you are the diseases of
the nations before you.
Envy and hatred
are the razor.
I do not say that they shave hair,
but rather they shave religion.
By the one in whose hand is my
soul, you will not enter paradise until you
have faith, and you will not have faith
until you love each other. So I tell
you what what you can affirm
that for you. Spread the peace
between yourselves.
Again, let us be of those who show
the love to one another, and let us
be of those who spread the peace and
not fit now. And let us, though, be
of those who strive for paradise,
paradise on a daily basis.
You know, we we have to there's a
concept in psychology about mindfulness.
And
the concept basically says, just stay in the
moment.
Stay in the moment. And then what will
happen is you don't basically
go too far out into the future or
venture too far in the past. You wanna
stay in the moment. And, again,
how we experience each other, that's all we
have right now.
And so we have to start giving positive
experiences to one another
and to anybody that we run into.
Because they will say, oh, this person helped
me with my car. That that was a
Muslim. This person did that. That was a
Muslim. Not, oh, he was a Muslim. They
did this or they did that or they
engaging in all sorts of haram, and they're
calling themselves Muslims. But you see,
people who don't know anything about the Quran
and Hadith, they'll tell you, you know, what
a what a Muslim is and what a
Muslim isn't.
Because they know we you know, the bottom
line, they know we're supposed to be about
righteousness
and not righteousness.
Our lord, take us not to task if
we forget or fall into error.
Our lord, lay down on us a burden
such as you did lay on those who
have gone before us. Our lord laid 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.