Nadim Ali – Kushoo Humility
AI: Summary ©
The importance of following the fundamentals of Islam, including fasting, engaging in charity, and doing good to avoid evil behavior is emphasized. Development of humility, avoiding activities inconsistent with Islam, and developing personal political and cultural views are also emphasized. The importance of learning to be humble and self-growth is emphasized, as it is crucial for personal growth. Expansion of worship and being a holy person is also emphasized. The need to develop a sense of humility and self-growth is emphasized, and a community meeting and presentation is planned to deliver on this goal.
AI: Summary ©
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's no one who
can mislead him. And whoever Allah causes to
go astray,
then there's no one who can guide him.
And I bear witness, we bear witness that
there is no deity except Allah who is
unique and with our partners.
And we bear
witness that Muhammad is his worshipper and his
messenger. And may the peace and blessing of
Allah be upon him and his family and
his companions and those who follow them with
good intentions until the day of judgment.
And 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.
And all mankind, be careful of your duty
to your
to your who created you from a single
soul and from it created its mate. And
from the 2 of them, he spread forth
many men and many women. And 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 over you.
All 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 sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
And the most evil of all affairs are
newly invented matters which has no precedent in
Islam.
And indeed, all innovations are astray and each
astray is in the hellfire. And oh Allah,
save us from it. And oh Allah, accept
our doer.
Do not exalt.
Indeed,
Allah does not like the exalted,
but seek throughout that which Allah has given
you, the home of the hereafter.
And yet do not forget your share of
the world and do good as Allah has
done good to you. And desire not corruption
in the land. Indeed, Allah does not like
the corruptors.
And when we look at this particular ayat,
it talks about the importance of of doing
good in the land, doing good in the
land, being of those
who are of good character and and good
behaviors.
And so
that's one of the important things that we
have to recognize as the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam said that he only came to
change our character. So if we have good
character then what happens is then we are
engaging in good behaviors.
And a part
of having that good character, we have to,
again, elevate our worship, you know, and indeed
to,
develop levels of contentment in worship. You know,
we have to basically follow the fundamentals, the
5 prayers, you know, the fasting, not just
waiting for Ramadan to fast, but fasting throughout
the year. The prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam, he
would fast on Mondays Thursdays. So make that
a practice, not you don't have to do
all of the, the the week or this
every other Monday or Thursday, but do Monday
again. Pick 1 of them or pick 2
of them. And then as Allah says it,
fasting teaches us self restraint. And all of
this is an important part of helping us
to develop a level of of of of
humility, a level of humility.
You know, again,
a lot of people will engage in in
supererogatory
practices,
you know, but they minimize the importance of
the obligatory practices.
You know, they maximize, you know, minimal practices
and minimizing the maximum practices. So it's important
that we basically get back to the fundamentals.
You know, you hear people say, well, he's
a fundamentalist.
You know, is being a fundamentalist
something that's negative?
Fundamentalists saying you're just following the basics.
You're just following the the important parts of
the deen and and, you know, making the
prayer. First of all, understanding of tawheed, believing
in the oneness of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
making the prayers, engaging in fasting, engaging in
charity, and also, again, doing good, doing good
to not only the Muslims, but also the
not yet Muslims,
being kind to your neighbors. You know, the
prophet salam, he basically he elevated the status
of neighbors, you know, not breaking your family
ties, getting many of us, reverts to Islam.
You know, we came to Islam,
but, you know, again,
we have most of our family
who are not yet Muslim, you know, so
do we break the ties? You have people
who may not have had a a non
Muslim relative in a 1000 years tell you,
oh, you need you don't need to be
talking to your family. You know, but the
prophet, he dealt with his family who were
not yet Muslim and gave them Dawah. Some
of his worst enemies were some of his
family blood ties. You know, so so we
have to basically
contemporize
what we read in the Quran and the
hadith to what is our condition.
You know, again,
you know, we came to Islam. Allah gave
us an invitation to Islam.
And so just being Muslim
is one part, but how do we develop
the level of humility, the kushu? How do
we develop that? You know, and and then
there are many people who have levels of
kashoor, of humility
even without Islam. And then when they come
to Islam, they they get an even deeper
level. As the prophet
said that the best out of Islam are
the best in Islam, and the worst out
of Islam are the worst in Islam. So
if we come into Islam with a gangster
mentality
and and and try to
continue
to maintain those gangster practices,
then we become of the worst. You Muslim,
but, you know, you can be, you know,
a Muslim in the sub basement or Muslim,
you know, in in in the in the
penthouse agenda,
you know. Or you can have a you
can have a penthouse in the hellfire
because there will be Muslims in the hellfire.
There will be Muslims in the hellfire for
a time.
And so we have to understand that when
we come to Islam, we have to get
away from the negative things. We have to
get away from the behaviors that are inconsistent
with Islam.
You have Muslims trying to justify smoking weed.
You have Muslims trying to justify profanity.
You have Muslims trying to justify, you know,
basically drinking alcohol,
and they're trying to rationalize it. Oh, this
is, you know, 202022
now,
You know? But again, the prophet, peace be
upon him, they had intoxicants during their time.
And
for that generation, it took 13 years for
the the the revelation to come down to
stop the drinking. And then again,
during that time from that time, as Muslims,
we should not engage in intoxicants.
In the in Arabic word, it's comma, similar
to the kimar. The kimar is the woman's
veil. Karma is anything that veils the mind.
Anything that veils the mind. You know, so
we have to get away from those people.
As the prophet said, your deen is on
your friends. Your deen is on your friends.
What does that mean? What does that mean
to me? Is that who do you associate
with? Who you associate with
is basically
what what is the level of your deen?
If you're hanging around with people cussing, fussing,
drinking and and and engaging in all sorts
of Haram behaviors, all of course sorts of
behaviors that are inconsistent with Islam, that's who
you're deen. That's what your deen is.
But if you're hanging around with people who
are reminding you of Allah, reminding you of
the prayer, reminding you of fasting,
then that's the level of your deen. That's
just it's a quantum simple quantification.
Simple quantification.
So we have to be of those who
are consistent,
consistently remembering Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Not just remembering Allah on Friday or during
Ramadan.
We have to consistently remember.
You know, we'll walk to the masjid
making prayer, we'll see people standing
around talking
on their phones, and we come back and
they're still standing,
you know, on their phones or talking.
And so and I always say to myself
is who they're talking to more important to
a lost more important than a lost, upon
whom they're
talking to?
You know, and so they will say, oh,
all you gotta do is pray. All you
gotta do is pray, but we have all
of us have the same
168 hours in the week.
All of us. Every human being has that
same amount of time. We work. We sleep.
But how much
of humanity are engaged in prayer? How much
of humanity are engaging in worship? How much
of humanity are engaged in fasting? So, you
know, we have to recognize that Allah has
given us
a special treat in this deen
because we have a level of consciousness
that other people don't have. Allah consciousness is
something that we develop through the prayer.
We're recognizing,
you know, that Allah is in total control.
It took a pandemic for a lot of
people to recognize that. You know, they recognize
it's a worldwide pandemic,
And and and the law dropped it on
us so that again because again, he teaches
us humility through adversity.
You know, I was talking to some brothers
earlier this week, and they were talking about
people who are engaged Muslims who are engaging
in a lot of negativity.
And, you know, one of the points that
I made is that
they need to get consequences for their actions.
Because again, specifically, if you were raised in
this community,
you got lessons from Imam Jamil, Imam Ibrahim,
and myself and and the many guest katibs
that we we we have brought on. You
know, so people know, but and so you're
not ignorant,
you're arrogant.
And so
the the way that you dispel the arrogance
is you pour the water of humility
on the arrogance, and it puts out the
fire of the the arrogance. And so we
have to increase the worship, increase the prayer.
These are some of the things that we
have to engage in.
Again, the obligatory practices
like the foundation of a building. You know,
again, no matter how high the building, how
high the structure cannot stand if you have
an oatmeal foundation, if you have a weak
foundation.
You know, you no matter how big you
be you you you you you build that
building. You know? And so as human beings,
again, we have to recognize
that we have been given instructions from Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. And again, these instructions overly
emphasize
the importance of the basics of Islam. The
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, again, said he only
came to improve character.
And again, many of us missed that lesson.
And I know people again who pray consistently,
but continue to exhibit
unhealthy behaviors. And we have to, again, utilize
the practices,
you know, practices to engage,
in behaviors that are consistent in self improvement.
We have to basically
engage in self improvement. It's just like in
business, they talk about the whole concept of
that nothing is ever perfect. Nothing is ever
perfect, and we have to develop that concept.
Quality assurance.
Quality assurance. We have to what is we
have to ask what is the quality of
our deen? What is the quality of our
deen?
And we have to basically develop that level
of humility. The prophet
says, no one humbles himself before Allah, but
Allah will raise him in status.
In other words, if you show humility in
this plane of life, then you're gonna get
an an elevated plane in the next phase
of life. And again, what is the difference
between the person who has good character and
praise and the person who, you know, has
bad character and praise?
You know, again, you get what you strive
for.
And it's similar to when you when, people
are applying for colleges or jobs. It's, you
know, again, if you have 2 straight a
students and and they both can have it,
you know, and the college only has one
slot.
You have a student who has straight a's
and engaging in extracurricular activity, engaging in their
community,
just active.
And then you have another one who just
has straight a's and just go home and
study, and then go to school and go
home and study. The college is gonna pick
the one who has the straight a's and
is inactive in their community, and you know,
and and and and school.
Because
just like when when you look at the
the game, that was won the other day
when you when the people were in interviewing
the the football players or whenever you,
see athletes,
right now right in the bottom, they'll say
they'll tell you what school they came from.
Or if you have a bio of a
person if a speaker is, speaking somewhere,
it's usually the university
is in their bio. So the point is
is that they know that
the
the person who is active
and also excels in in school,
then they're gonna make a better member of
the society.
So if jobs and and universities and colleges
have standards,
why can't the law have standards?
And the law gave us the standards in
the Quran. He gave us the standards in
the Hadith.
And so we have to basically adhere to
those standards in order to be able to
get the best in the hereafter. We pray
for the best in this life and the
best in the hereafter. These are some of
the things that again, we have to look
at. We wanna be the straight a student
who is basically,
active in the community
and also,
you know, again active, you know, in in
the deen. If I've said anything that's inconsistent
with what Allah has given us and the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has taught us, I
take full responsibility for that. And if I've
said anything in which you have gained some
new insight, as always, all praise belongs to
Allah.
Verily, Allah will not change the good condition
of a people as long as they do
not change their state of goodness themselves by
committing sins and by being ungrateful and disobedient
to Allah. And that's from sword to rod.
It's, ayat 11 from Surah to Ra'ad.
And the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam also
said that there are people who recite the
Quran and it doesn't go past their throat.
And when I hear that all the time,
you know, to me it means that the
book should facilitate
in intrinsic change, inside change.
When you're reading the Quran, it's just medicine.
It's a form of medicine just like when
you have an infection,
whether it's a cold or any type of
wound.
What do the doctors prescribe?
They prescribe antibiotics
to get rid of the infection.
And so we have to look at our
Quran, the Quran that Allah has given us
as a means of
curing or healing the spiritual infections
that may reside in our hearts.
Because, again, we
basically
can send throughout the day no matter if
we're Muslim or not yet Muslim.
You know we can send through the eyes,
we can send, you know, through basically, you
know, what, you know, what we listen to.
We can send through so many different ways.
As the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam also
said that if you guard that which lies
between the jaws and that which lies between
the thighs, you will be guaranteed paradise. You
will be guaranteed paradise. And so again, what
you look at, what you listen to, and
what you do, you know, in an in
an unlawful fashion can impact
the way your soul what you what your
soul will be, the condition of your soul
in the hereafter. So these are some of
the things that we have to look at.
Being humble
doesn't mean that you are
passive or poor. You can be assertive and
be humble.
You know, being humble just recognizing the the
the exaltedness of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Being humble doesn't mean that you're cowardly or
weak. You know, we have to be recognized
that you have a different a paradigm shift
on what humility is.
You know? And also, it doesn't mean just
being poor. You know, we can be rich.
You have some of the richest people in
the world who are Muslim,
and you have some of the poorest people
in the world who are Muslim.
And as I'm often mentioning
that
in the in in the concept of zakat,
2 and a half percent that of the
wealth that we have over the course of
the Muslim Islamic year,
It said if the zakat were paid,
there will be no poverty amongst the Muslims.
And once the Muslims are fed, there will
be no poverty on the planet if the
zakat that was due was paid.
Because we have billionaires
in in the Muslim community just like we
have people who are homeless in the Muslim
community.
So we just need to follow the basics
brothers and sisters so that we can
develop the level of kashoor, the level of
of humility that it takes so that the
Muslim community is elevated.
You know, again, you know, that we
are created by and we're communicated, you know,
to by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala through the
Quran.
You know, developing,
you know,
superior,
level of worship.
It takes time, efforts,
and patience, and we have to, again, develop
the level of God consciousness or Allah consciousness
that diminishes
any sign of arrogance in our heart.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
said, pride is my cloak
and greatness is my garment. So whoever competes
with me
during,
regarding these 2 will be thrown in the
hellfire. And that's
Abu Dawood, a Hadith.
Again, pride is my cloak and greatness is
my garment. So whoever competes with me regarding
these 2 will be thrown in the hellfire.
And in closing, brothers and sisters, just wanted
to
make you aware that we want to have
a
meeting, a community meeting, next week, I believe.
We're trying to either do it after Jummah
or next Saturday. So we'll,
basically, put the word out on the social
media as well as on our website,
Inshallah. But we want to look at we've
only have 1 third of this community center,
of the Islamic Center developed. We want to
develop the other 2 thirds. And the young
brothers and sisters specifically
of the Barakah group, they, basically, they've been
they've been putting in work, and we want
to to do a presentation to the community.
So
inshallah, we'll,
get the correct date and time inshallah, we'll
put that out. And if somebody knows right
after we finish praying, brothers,
and sisters here, let us know as well.
And, you know, again, we wanna get commitments
from people so that we can, you know,
have this this community center, the Islamic center
shine and and be able to provide services
to to the people, not only in this
area, but for the Muslims, you know, around
the city.
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 upon
us.
You are our protector and grant us a
victory.