Nadim Ali – Politics & Muslims
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AI: Transcript ©
And in one translation, 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's no one who
can mislead him, and whoever Allah causes to
go astray, then there's no one to guide
him.
I bear witness that there is no deity
except Allah who is unique and without partners,
and I bear witness that Muhammad is his
worshiper 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 his Muslims. Again, all you who believe,
fear Allah as he should be feared and
don't die
except his Muslims.
And, oh, mankind, be careful of your duty
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 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 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.
Indeed, the best speech is the book of
Allah and the best guidance is the guidance
of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam in the
most evil of all affairs,
a newly invented matters which has no precedent
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.
And alhamdulillah, as Muslims,
we should always be the ones
who are working
to enjoying what is good and forbidding what
is wrong,
and
we are
a numerical minority
in this society,
but on the planet,
alhamdulillah,
one fifth of humanity
is a Muslim.
We have over a 1000000000 and a half
Muslims on the planet,
but we're just a numerical minority here,
and so what is our role in this
society?
Because again, at one time,
on the Arabian
Peninsula,
the Muslims were a minority,
and what did the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
do?
What did he do? He called the people,
the leaders of that day, to this deen.
He faced death threats,
assassination
attempts,
boycotting,
starvation,
but yet we say we follow
the prophet's example. We follow Hisunah.
We follow Hisunah when it's convenient for us,
when we dress the part or
we're doing things, we're getting the celebratory things
in place, but you have to remember that
he faced a lot
of opposition
during his time,
just like all the other prophets,
and that's when
Khadijah's
relative said to him,
I hope that I live the day when
your
people turn you out or
turn against you for the most part, because
he knew,
he saw the signs of the prophecy in
the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. He
knew that
the people would turn against him because people
are so comfortable
in their ignorance.
They're comfortable in
their level of ignorance in that day, just
like people are comfortable in their level of
ignorance in this day.
I remember when I first started reading about
the Dajjal,
the great liar,
that is gonna be one of the signs
of the last day,
and
I used to say to myself,
how could people
believe this person?
How could people
basically
just see that this person is a fraud
or this entity is a fraud?
And some scholars say that the Dajjal is
a system, it's a system.
But when we look at all of the
machinations
that the political leaders of this day have
been engaging in,
it's clear now.
People believe what they wanna believe.
So we have to be the ones
to
take
the bell
off the ignorance of the people. As Muslims,
we have to be of those who are
calling people to this way.
Why are we here?
They say you can be in the land
of the non Muslims for certain things, for
economics, or you can be here for education,
and you can also be here for dawah.
And so are we just getting paid?
Are we just learning, you know, perpetual students,
and are we given the dawah?
And we have so many means of of
of promoting this way now. You know, Allah
has made
the world just at our fingertips
through the so called smartphones
and the computer, the web.
We can utilize that, but also
person to person,
encouraging people to come to this way.
You know, we can't just allow
this system just to be
a godlike entity, and that's what it is
for a lot of people. We have to
let people know that there is something on
the other side of the barrier between life
and death, the bar sock. There's something
on the other side,
and so, but what we do on this
side
determines what's gonna happen on the other side.
Just like in
our mother's womb, if our mothers smoke crack
and drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes,
then there's gonna be
a level
of sickness in the baby when the baby
is born.
Just like if you look at the recent
murderer who's on trial,
one of the defenses so that they wouldn't
give him the death penalty is that his
mother drank alcohol on him. He had fetal
alcohol syndrome, so that saved him from getting
the death penalty when he killed several
people. That saved him,
and so how we nurture our souls in
this life will determine
what kind of existence we will have in
the hereafter. These are some of the things
that we have to look at. Again, we
are surrounded by so many evils,
but are we working
to change the society?
But we have to protect ourselves from the
evils.
We can't just co opt the evil.
You know, you got Muslims saying, oh, it's
okay to smoke weed.
Okay, that's hypocrisy.
They had weed during the prophet's time. They
had hashish, they had your drink, all of
that.
If anything intoxicates,
it is forbidden.
If you have a problem with it, get
some help for it.
Get some help for it.
There's no shame in that. That's the work
that I do. I
went over to Saudi Arabia. There were Muslims
who memorized the whole Quran
but couldn't stop shooting dope,
Couldn't stop shooting dope.
It's an evil in the society that the
shaitan has put here, and so when Muslims
bring that to you, you got to check
them.
So if we wanna check the overall society
and not check the Muslims, then what does
that make us?
What does that make us?
So we have to be of those who
are trying to
establish righteousness
in this overall society.
Allah says, and for the believing men and
believing women, they are guardians
of each other. They enjoin the good
and forbid evil and keep up prayer and
pay the poor rate and obey Allah and
his messenger.
As for these, Allah will show mercy to
them. Surely Allah is mighty and wise. That's
a promise from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
That's a promise.
You know, so we can't be so
concerned about how people will respond to us
if we're calling them to the right. We
have to be of those who are calling
the people to the right.
The sheikh reminded us
last time, Sheikh Khalifa, he talked about we
have to avoid hypocrisy in all forms. We
have to avoid this nifaq. We have to
avoid this hypocrisy, and I remember learning about
how,
the hypocrisy was named after this lizard, and
they call it the nifaq, and they say
the lizard,
it was one that if you trapped, they
they they they would
dig 2 holes,
and so if you trapped it on one
side, it can come pop out the other
side, and so that's one of the,
the origins of the the the root of
the the, you know, because you get them
on one side, they will try to pop
something else. They will try to rationalize
their behaviors,
and so as Muslims, we have to avoid
the hypocrisy.
Avoid the hypocrisy, and
gave us a good talk on avoiding and
the signs of hypocrisy and also he reminded
us
of the hadith. He said that the three
signs of the hypocrite,
when he speaks, he lies or when they
speak, they lie.
When he promises, he breaks the promise, and
when he has entrusted
it, he betrays the trust, and this is
a strong Muslim hadith,
and we have to look at the fact
that the shahada is an oath. It is
a commitment,
and so we step away from that commitment.
It's breaking a commitment,
and so
we have to, again, being a hypocrite doesn't
necessarily take you out of Islam.
The prophet, peace be upon him, he had
hypocrites all around him,
all around him, and he gave him salaams.
He's,
okay, I see you, and he would tell
some of the companions who the hypocrites were,
but they would smile on his face,
and so we have to basically
avoid those
three
concepts
so that we don't fall into hypocrisy.
And so these are some of the things
that we have to look at in trying
to change the society. We have to first
of all change ourselves, check ourselves.
Check that person in the mirror so that
we can basically
be in a position to change the overall
society,
because this society
is basically,
it's going through
a change
that you'd have to look at the fact
that you have people actually talking about a
civil war in this country.
We thought we were past that.
We had a civil war in the 1800s,
divided the country, but they have never dealt
with the issue
of racial reconciliation and equity. It's never been
dealt with.
It's never been dealt with. They've tried it
during reconstruction right after the civil war, and
then, you know, the white supremacists could not,
accept giving equity to the former slaves,
and so you went through a period all
the way up until the 1950s,
and then the people went to work in
the 1950s,
you know, up until the 1960s
70s,
and so now the work has to still
continue. We have to do the work. We
have to do the work. Allah has given
us Islam, we who are descendants
of the slaves, the captives,
the enslaved people.
He's given us Islam, and he's given us
a way to really
reconcile
not only this country but the earth.
And we have to recognize, and specifically our
younger brothers and sisters, it's not just about,
you know, being a fashionable Muslim, learning the
Arabic words. It's about instituting a change. Please
turn off your phones, oh, brothers and sisters.
It's about instituting a change in the overall
society.
Allah says he does not change the condition
of a people until they change what is
in their hearts,
and so when we come to Islam,
we have to change our hearts.
We have to get rid of the ignorance.
We have to get rid of all of
the darkness and
allow the enlightenment of Islam to flow through
us
because as the prophet sali wa sallam said
that
the shaytan
goes through your system like blood,
and so
you don't feel your blood circulating through your
body. That's how smooth shaitan is, but we
wanna get to the point that our iman
will flow through our system like blood,
and that's how we reduce
the impact of the hypocrisy. These are some
of the things that we have to look
at, brothers and sisters. We have to recognize
all we have is ourselves,
and again, this society is going through
many changes, and when the bullets start flying,
it's not gonna, you know, they say, oh,
he's a Muslim. She's a Muslim. And bullet
will just go around you.
So we have to basically
try to avoid
this society
going into
a disarray
worse than it's already in disarray,
and how do we do that? Spreading the
deen,
spreading the Islam,
giving the people this message of Islam,
but we tend to hide. His brother was
telling me this morning about how he would
go to his doctor's office,
and the doctor had a beautiful name. You
give him salaam.
You
know that you've seen that. You go into
different stores
or facilities and people hiding their deen.
We put work into this society so that
Muslims can be assertive
with their deen. We put the work in
for many years,
and so we should not be hiding. We
should basically be promoting the deen, not only
in word but in deed. These are some
of the things that we have to look
at because these people are talking about
basically fighting each other, you know, based on
political
beliefs.
And so we have to
always say if we're gonna be here, we're
gonna be here, and that means, you know,
getting involved in the political activity
in that which is consistent with the sharia.
You know, we can't be voting on legalizing
weed. We can't be voting on serving alcohol
on certain days. We can't be voting on
interest rates and all of that, but there
are certain things. I talked with the lady
who's running for governor, and my question to
her was about Medicaid
and homelessness,
and basically she said
that's gonna be her first bill
that's gonna get Medicaid expansion. That's healthcare for
everybody.
Homelessness, you know, we don't have affordable housing
in this society.
So as Muslims, we have to basically
support
those people who are promoting
basically issues that we can stand behind.
The other issues, you know, we leave that.
We leave that. These are some of the
things that we have to work on, brothers
and sisters.
You know, I always reflect on the work
of Ibn Khaldun.
You know, he talked about,
assiase,
which he says is basically
politics or political thought. It means to lead
people in accordance with guidelines
in a manner that serves the interests in
the hereafter as well as in this world,
for their interests in this world are connected
to and may serve their interests in the
hereafter because the Islamic guidelines concerning the life
of this world are connected to what serves
people's interests in the hereafter.
Thus,
in reality, means acting in the stead
of the messenger in guarding religious affairs and
taking care of worldly affairs, and that's the
end of the quote. So again, we have
to understand that the prophets, all of the
prophets,
dealt with the political authorities of their day,
Musa alayhis salam, Dawud alayhis salam, Isa alayhis
salam, as well as Rasulullah salalahu alayhi salam.
They've dealt with the rulers of their day.
Even when you look at the fact
that Youssef alayhi salam, he served
in the cabinet so that he can do
righteousness.
So we have to contemporize
our deen so that we can change the
society in a contemporary way. If I've said
anything that's inconsistent with what Allah has given
us and the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam
teaches 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.
Many of us are familiar with the letter
that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam sent to the
rulers of the known world, the rulers of
the known world. This man is sitting in
the desert in a tent,
and he's sending basically selling tickets
throughout the earth
in a letter
from Mohammed,
servant of Allah and his apostle,
and he would name the leader.
Peace be upon
whoever follows the guided path.
Thereafter, verily, I call you to the call
of peace.
Establish peace,
and you shall have peace.
Allah shall compensate your reward twofold, but if
you turn away,
then upon you will the sins will be
the sins of the peasants.
Then, oh, people of the scripture, come to
a term equitable between us and you that
we worship none but Allah and associate with
him nothing,
and he and we take not one another
as lords apart from Allah.
But if they turn away,
then they bear witness that we are
the peacemakers,
and he would put his seal
on there. So imagine,
because again, the political leaders are not necessarily
the leaders of the planet.
They say 8 people,
8 people,
8 individuals, 8 human beings
control
half the world's wealth.
8 people. So those are the real leaders.
Imagine
even sending that letter,
contemporizing it, and sending that letter to Bill
Gates or Warren Buffet or Jeff Bezos or
one of them.
Sending that letter to them,
calling them to the deen because even with
the Muslims, the Muslims control a lot of
wealth, and they're not paying the zakat.
He said if again just the Muslims paid
the zakat, there would be no poverty on
the planet. Not just amongst the Muslims, no
poverty on the planet. So that's how much
Islam is not being practiced
even by the Muslims.
So we have to do the work, brothers
and sisters.
We have to basically
recognize that
we can participate
in politics in that which is consistent with
this deen and not inconsistent with the sharia.
We have to call the people to righteousness
and not fear the consequences.
Brother was telling me about, well,
they
supporting this and supporting that, and I said,
well, these people, you know, because who what's
the rapper? Kanye, he talked all about black
folk.
Nothing happened.
But when he talked about the Yahoo,
because they don't necessarily like the the the
Jewish people, but they respect them. They fear
them
because they did the work. If you if
you get that label of anti Semitic on
you, you threw.
You threw.
But this man,
he consistently,
basically,
continued to just do things that are inconsistent
with one who is a descendant of a
slave, and his mother was a panther.
You know, so I don't know what Kool
Aid he'd been drinking.
So
we
have to have our voice and be able
to promote this deen.
We have to find our voice,
and I'm not saying we have to go
out, tear things up,
but we have to turn things up.
We have to turn things up.
And again, they don't have to like us,
but they need to learn to respect
Oh, you who believe,
take not for protectors those who take your
religion as a mockery and fun and from
those among who those who receive the scriptures
before you
nor from
amongst the disbelievers and fear Allah
if indeed you are true believers.
And again, if you
as the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says that
if someone amongst you sees a wrong, you
must
again
speak out against it.
If you cannot do that, you could change
it with your hands.
If you cannot do that, hate it in
your heart and then passivity is the weakest
form of
faith.
And whoever is an ally of Allah
and his messenger and those who have believed
indeed,
they are the party of Allah, and they
will be the predominant.
So,
do we want to be in the party
of Allah,
or do we want to be in the
party of the hypocrites or the party of
shaitan?
And so it's not about just
basically
being
a Muslim who's just active once a week
for Jummah
or doing Ramadan or just making prayer and
going out. Your prayer is your fuel so
that you can make the necessary changes because,
again, until we die,
we have to do the work. There's no
retirement from being a Muslim.
There's no retirement. You see scholars who,
nearly a 100, they're still doing work. They're
writing. They're issuing fatuars.
They don't retire,
and so
as the prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said that
one learned
as hard on the shaitan and a 1,000
ignorant worshipers,
and so he recognized there will be ignorant
worshipers too.
So we wanna
learn as much as we can, get as
much of the language as we can, especially
young people. You know, you can absorb
this language quickly
and come lead us and
take over here, because I tell y'all all
the time, I'm not gonna be doing cook
bars and it depends.
You know that. You
know, so it's important for the young folks
to start stepping up.
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 protected and
grant us the victory over the disbelieving people.
You come in, father.