Nadim Ali – One Body
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AI: Transcript ©
You are the best nation produced as an
example for mankind.
You're enjoying what is right and forbid what
is wrong and believe in the law. If
only the people of the scripture had believed,
it would have been better for them. Among
them are believers, but most of them are
defiantly
disobedient.
And the prophet
said that the believers in their mutual kindness
and compassion and sympathy
are just like one body. When one of
the limb makes the whole body reacts with
sleeplessness
and fever.
A Sahih Muslim hadith. When we look at,
again, this particular hadith, it's a powerful reminder
of the importance
of having unity
and brotherhood amongst the Muslims.
Specifically, during these times, we are in trying
times, brothers and sisters,
and we have to basically
not just be sympathetic towards the Muslims who
are suffering throughout the planet, but we have
to be empathetic.
Because
just as people are going through changes
in other parts of the world,
it could you know, as the old saying,
but by the grace of god, there goes
I. You know, it could be us next
year. It could be us the year after.
It was us a few years ago. You
know, so we have to really look at,
you know, basically recognizing
that we have to be consistent
in
helping people who are struggling and striving throughout
the planet. Also, the Hadith teaches this us
the importance of unity
and brotherhood among Muslims. And as the prophet
said, we are like a single body. When
one part of the body is in pain,
the whole body feels it. The whole body
feels it. And we're not just Muslim, but
we're human beings.
And we're human beings, and we see human
beings who are suffering throughout the planet, we
have to be empathetic towards that, we have
to basically be involved, we have to feel
the pain
of the people of Gaza, the pain of
the people of Mali, the pain of the
people who are struggling in Sudan. We have
to feel the pain of the Uighur brothers
and sisters in China. We have to feel
the pain of the homeless and incarcerated Muslims
here. You know, we have to be involved
brothers and sisters.
You know, we're 1 body, one body.
When one Muslim is suffering, we should do
what we can to ease the pain and
and do what we can to help them
out.
You know, again,
unity and brotherhood are essential
in Islam, it's essential in Islam. And so
that we should internalize these concepts, you know,
so that it can be like breathing to
us. When we see something that we find
in disarray that we, you know, we wanna
make a change.
Who's that Said,
Abu Said al Qudri reported that the messenger
of Allah
said,
whoever amongst you sees an evil, let him
change it with his hands. If you cannot
do so, then with his tongue. If you
cannot do so, then with his heart, and
which is the weakest level of faith. And
so again, another strong hadith of saying of
the prophet peace be upon him.
We can't just passively walk around
and just allow wrong
to take place. Even just before coming here,
you will see people shooting crap
on the basketball court.
And,
you know, again,
you know, I could have just walked by
and say, okay, let's go into my religious
services and just be passive. But I had
to step to the people, and then it
just became belligerent became belligerent.
And and I basically said, well, do I
need to call a white man before you
can can act, right? You know, and and
basically,
you know, we live in this area. We
have geographical
presence in this area. We cannot allow
wrong to basically,
you know, just basically seep in. You know,
we've been that's been our reputation,
you know, since we've been here. And so,
you know, you know, basically,
we have to stand for wrong even if
we have to basically
change it with our hands as the Hadid
said. Speak out against it or just walk
passively by
and let it be, you know, something weak.
Just like we see all the wrong going
on in the world and all the wrong
going on in the overall society.
And we just, you know, okay. Well, folks
gonna be folks. You know, we see the
students standing up and protesting right now for
the people of Gaza.
But what do we feel when we when
we do that? You know, we have a,
you know, campuses all over the city. I'm
the the Emery is is involved in other
campuses throughout the country, but it's reminded me
of the sixties,
where the students made a significant change to
the point that they made a president not
run for office. And that may happen again,
y'all.
They made a they forced the president into
okay. I give
up. Because
of the position that this country, this administration
takes with the administration
over in Israel.
They get engaging in genocidal
behaviors
and what they say, oh, don't believe what
you see. Don't believe what you hear.
You know, that that that we're just responding
to our attack, but they've been occupying that
land for years. And so,
you know, Allah has awakened people,
awaken a sleeping giant
of of students who now are going to
basically, you know, help to facilitate a change
in the policy. And I'm sure it's gonna
happen.
Insha Allah. You know, so these are some
of the things as Muslims we have to
do. And one of the when I go
to the marches and go to the protest,
you know, one of the things that is
missing specifically is African American Muslims. You know,
we have to be involved and not just
be so concerned in our little silos. We
have to be involved
in these things because again, just like
they're being under attack, when,
we are under attack, we want that same
type of response. We want some people to
help us. You know, what can we do?
There's so much to be done, you know,
to help assist Muslims all over the planet.
We have to be of those who are
active
and not passive.
You can when we see something wrong, when
you see a wrong, change it with your
hands, speak out against it, hate it in
your heart. And again, there are times when
you can't basically do the first two and
sometimes you can't be,
be, active. You know, somebody's got a gun
in your face, you can't, you know, basically
challenge them for the most part. You know,
you live to fight another day, do a
tactical retreat.
You know, our faith teaches us again to
love for our fellow Muslims, what we love
for ourselves.
And again, this means that, again, we should
want the best for them, help them, you
know, when they're in need, help them when
they're in need. Because again, you have people
who,
again, in this country, mostly incarcerated,
housing insecure,
hungry. So we have to say, okay. What
are the programs that we are gonna put
together to help people in need? And again,
the Masjid cannot do everything.
You know, we get calls from all over
the country, you know, helping needing help. You
know, we've created a few programs,
but we are not in a position to
help. But we are it is our hope
to inspire people here to say, okay. Well,
I'm gonna start a housing program. I'm gonna
start a feeding program. I'm going to work
with the youth. I'm going to do this.
You know, again, the Masjid should not be
the the be the facilitator of all of
this. We give you the inspiration and then
you make the move. You know, that's the
the, you know, the Masjid is like going
to the gas station.
We fill you up and then you basically
expend that energy outside of this room.
The prophet sallallahu alaihi was salam said, again,
none of you truly believe until you love
for your brother what you love for yourself,
until you love for your brother what you
love for yourself. And, again, that's a strong
idea from both Bukhary and Muslim.
Again, it emphasizes the importance
of having empathy, not necessarily sympathy, but empathy
for fellow Muslims.
You know, and empathy is again, it's just,
you know,
acknowledging that you understand how that person feels
where sympathy is that you you feeling sorry
for that person,
you know, and we have to have that
compassion.
You know, we have to again truly love
for our brother or sister, which we love
for ourselves, and then we can naturally feel
their pain. And again, and try to do
whatever we can do to help facilitate a
change, to help change the whole society. What
is Allah says, he does not change the
condition of people until they change what is
in their hearts. And so what Islam does,
it helps to change the hearts of people.
When, you know, as as the prophet sallallahu
alaihi wasallam said that everything rusts, everything rusts,
know that even the heart will rust. And
he said that which removes the rust from
the heart is the remembrance of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And so when we're remembering Allah and all
the things that we do, then it it
it cleans the rust off the heart. And
that rust becomes like a receive of the
light from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. If I've
said anything that's inconsistent with what Allah has
given 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 us.
Oh, Allah, we send we send
the peace and blessings upon our beloved prophet
Muhammad and his family and his companions, and
the law increases honor and elevate his station
and 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.
You know, we follow
a prophet that is the last prophet. He's
the seal of the prophets. There'll be no
other prophets that will come after him. And
that's the the power that the prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him, has.
You know, again
and once we understand that, once we overstand
that, then we know that we have a
a a big job to do because he's
gonna have as many the most followers on
the day of judgement.
And so
once we pass the barrier of life and
death, what is gonna be written in your
book?
And we have to
recognize that each day, each breath,
each
each second, we have an opportunity
to basically
write something down or erase something, you know.
And so so doing good, it helps to
in that book, all the things that we
do because, you know, you you read the
Koran how the people say, is there nothing
left out of this book when that book
is handed to you? So what are you
what is gonna be written in your book?
Is your book gonna be placed in your
right hand or is it gonna be placed
in your left hand?
And so
as I always tell brothers and sisters here
that
this is just the middle womb.
This is just the middle womb. We did
not have an understanding
of what was going on out here when
we were in our mother's womb.
And so our soul is being housed by
this middle womb,
and then true life begins
once we pass the barrier of life and
death, and there's no more time.
And so
if there's no more time, how do you
want to spend that?
And just like if
your mother smoked crack and
drank alcohol and smoked cigarettes and ate bad
food while she was carrying you,
then that's gonna impact how you come out
as a baby. So basically, what you're doing
in this phase of life impacts the soul,
impacts the soul. What will your soul's condition
be when the soul is is is released?
What will be the condition?
It's based on what you do here.
It's based on what you do here. How
are you nurturing your soul?
How much prayer are you putting forth?
How much fasting are you doing? How much
charity are you giving? How much good are
you doing on the planet so that you
can make a difference? What will be your
legacy?
Will you just basically
just just just fade away?
Or will your grandchildren, your great grandchildren be
talking about you? And I remember I lived
in Saudi Arabia. I would we'll meet people
and say, well, my my grandfather
started this Masjid.
And and then and then they would use
the term grandfather in English, but they might
have been talking about their great great grandfather.
And so they're still talking about them. What
will your great great grandchildren be saying?
Or will they remember you at all?
And so that's about creating the legacy brothers
and sisters. You know, we have to be
of those who are
facilitating
a change in the world.
You know? You know, where do we see
ourselves? Must are we Muslims,
supportive of one another? As the prophet, peace
be upon him, said that the believers are
like a solid structure,
each supporting one another, each supporting one another.
We have to be, again, supportive of one
another and we have to get to the
point where we believe Allah, believe enough Allah.
You know, like like, what Zohdi was saying,
my wife was saying, how well, Muslims,
you know, they say they believe in Allah,
but do they really believe Allah?
Do they really believe Allah? And then the
Quran is the, again, the last testament. And
that's the that's the communication, the last communication
mankind. And so unfortunately, you know, we see
Muslims who say they believe in Allah, but
they act like they they don't believe Allah.
You know, we see among Muslims today, you
know, a lot of division, conflict, and a
lot of Muslims, again, who don't believe Allah.
It's the last testament brothers and sisters and
we have to even just if we just
took that line,
strive as if in a race to all
that is good. Strive as if in a
race to all that is good. And this
is what our faith teaches us. We should
always strive to promote unity and brotherhood, even
if it means putting aside our differences. You
know, we have to get out of our
cultural comfort zones. Again, if you look at
the Sahaba, many of them, most of them
died away from the the Arabian Peninsula. They,
you know, you have Sahaba's graves in China,
you have Sahaba's graves in Turkey, all throughout
the the planet because they were out struggling
and striving and spreading this this message of
there's not, but one God. There's only one
God, one deity. And that Muhammad, peace be
upon him, is the last messenger. It doesn't
negate the previous messengers,
but his book abrogates the previous scriptures.
His his presence abrogates
the presence of the the previous prophets because
once he came, then
that that that that we have to follow
him.
And even when when you look at this,
said that even,
if if when when when Umar read the
Levu Anhu was reading, you know, from the
Torah in the story, he talked about how,
well, this is a marvelous book. And he
stopped him. He said, hey, Umar, if Musa
alayhis salam, Moses were alive today, he would
have follow me. He would have to follow
me. And that's the strength of his message,
and that's the strength of his mission.
Many of the Sahaba again died away from
Mecca and Medina because they were they were
basically on the path of Dawah, on the
path of Jihad, on the path of struggling
and striving,
propagating this deen. They believed
in Allah and they believed Allah, and they
acted like it. If we wanna demonstrate that
again, we have to basically
role or real model them. Colleges and the
schools and the hospitals. You know, we have
to be able to take care of ourselves
from the cradle to
the grave,
from hospitals for birth and from graveyards for
burial. We have to establish institutions. We have
so many massages, so many Masjids.
But where are the institutions that that we
need to be established?
You know, we have to get out of
the cultural silos
and and and get being able to communicate
and interact with people who don't look like
us and maybe people who don't speak our
lady language.
These are some of the things that we
have to do, brothers and sisters. The Hadith
teaches us that we're interconnected. We're interconnected just
like the the bricks in this building. You
know, we need each other to support each
other to build a strong and united owner.
The law says that he made us into
nations and tribes to get to know one
another and not despise each other. We have
to we can't see ourselves as individuals, but
as a part of a larger community that's
striving to please Allah
and striving to follow his guidance. Again, you
know, again, let us take this Hadith to
heart
and be like a single body, supporting each
other and showing each other kindness and compassion.
Let us, again, put aside the differences and
come together as a ummah, united in love
for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And the messenger
of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Who did he say,
you know, that,
you know, he he he he bought us
this message and
he gave it to us so that we
can be of those who are or who
are striving to to please Allah.
You know, may Allah bless us and guide
us to to follow the the path, the
straight path. And that because that's the only
path that needs to be followed. May Allah
give us the necessary hikmah, wisdom
to be able to
the bad habits
that we had outside of Islam
into Islam. Let us get rid of let
us use the Islam as a cleansing feature
to be able to cleanse our our soul
and cleanse our actions and purify our actions
so that we don't basically bring actions that
are inconsistent with Islam,
you know, into Islam.
Allah says, do you think you were entered
paradise
without Allah proving which of you truly struggled
for his cause and patiently
endured?
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 have laid 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. Have mercy on us. You are
our protector and give us a victory over
the disbelieving people.