Nadim Ali – The Remembered
AI: Summary ©
The importance of learning from Allah's examples and following in footsteps is emphasized, along with the need to be figures who have created the foundation for future generations to benefit from it. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of promoting Islam as a way of life and increasing the knowledge of the language, while also educating oneself on their deeds to avoid mistakes and striving for being among the best people. The importance of learning from past experiences and educating others on their deeds is also emphasized.
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, then there is no one
to guide him.
And I 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.
And, O 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 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 Arud Akib 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.
For indeed the best speech is the book
of Allah, and the best guidance is the
guidance of Muhammad sallallahuallahuallahuallahuallam
in the most evil of all affairs, a
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.
So remember me, and I will remember you.
And thank me, and do not be ungrateful
to me. And this
is from Surah Tabakara, Ayat 152. So remember
me, and I will remember you. And thank
me, and do not be ungrateful
to me.
In the Allah,
he talks about
the benefits that, again, that we should be
of those who remember him and receive the
benefits of this remembrance.
And
this topic is, again, of great importance because
it reminds
us why we're here. What does the law
say that he only created men and gin
to just worship?
All the things that's happening in between, all
of the work that we
engage in, all of the the the businesses
that we invested,
that's just
extra.
The bottom line is we have to
continuously
worship Allah.
We have to remember Allah. We talked last
week about
the those who are forgotten.
You know, we don't wanna be in that
camp. We wanna be of those who remember
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Because those are consequences. There are consequences
for forgetting Allah because that's what Shaitan wants
you to do. Wants you to forget Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
But Allah is telling us to remember him,
to remember him. That's that's that's the goal.
Allah tells us, and also in Baqarah,
and call to mind that those who were
before you,
who were more righteous than you
and more prolific in wealth and children,
they left behind them a goodly heritage. Surely
Allah is ever a protector
for those who are rightful and dutiful.
And, alhamdulillah, I was able to, go to
a conference last week in Baltimore ran by
ICNA, the,
Islamic Circle of North America, and, MASS,
the Muslim
Association,
the Muslim,
American Society. And there were 30,000 Muslims there,
and so they asked us to do some
talks. And one of the talks we gave
is Islam,
from slavery
to Al Hajimek Shabaaz, Malcolm X. And the
other talk was the legacy of Islam in
America.
And,
one of the points I made is that
there was
a Mansa. His name Mansa Musa.
He sent people to the Americas,
you know, about a 100 years or more
before
Columbus.
And
when they they said that, there was a
manza before him, and he was telling the
story while he was on Hajj in Egypt.
He was telling the story. He said that,
you know, he he said 200 ships, and
he said, don't give out unless until you
reach land or you run out of resources.
And, you know, so when we look at
just this one individual, when he made Hajj,
he gave away so much gold that the
economy
shifted.
That's how much gold he gave out on
the way. This is just one one king,
one African king, West Africa.
And look him up, he's Mansa Musa.
You know, and so
that's just one of the examples, as the
law says. They were more,
again, more prolific in wealth and children, and
they left behind a goodly heritage.
And at one point,
parts of West Africa was the place where
people came to gather knowledge, to learn. They
came from all around the Muslim world just
to benefit from the scholarship there.
And so that's
those are the shoulders that we stand on
brothers and sisters. They left again, Allah says
they left behind a goodly heritage. Surely Allah
is ever protected
for those who are righteous and dutiful.
And again,
that's the importance of remembering Allah, remembering those
who came before us,
who are more righteous than us and more
pious than us. And so, again, we're standing
on the shoulders, and we have to ask
ourselves,
what are we leaving behind?
Are we just going to the mosque, coming
home, going to the mosque, coming home, going
to work, coming home? But what are we
doing to be able to establish
the institutions that we need? We have to
learn from their examples, and we have to
follow in their footsteps.
You know, we have to look at the
institutions that they had built.
They built look at Al Azhar
in Egypt.
You know,
it's still there is one of the oldest
universe I believe it is the oldest continuous
university in the world.
Muslims put that together.
And we look at all of the advances
in science
that were going on while Europe was in
the dark ages,
while Europe was in the dark ages.
As the poet said, you know, we taught
you how to clean while you dyed yourself
blue. You know, and so we have to
be of those who will remember
where we came from.
Even though many of us are descendants of
enslaved people, and I don't like using the
word slaves, because the people weren't slave, they
were prisoners. They were enslaved people.
But
we have the potential to establish
something greater than Al Andalus.
This whole country may not ever become Muslim,
but if you look at Al Andalus, that
was the one of the greatest cooperations
of the Muslims, Christians, and Jews in history.
It's Muslim Spain.
I believe the Muslims, they control that area
for probably about 4 or 500 years.
And then till the inquisition, and then you
look at the year 1492,
and what happened in 1492.
A part of the establishment of this country
was a part of trying to,
get rid of Islam in the world.
And so part of slavery
was to get rid of Islam
that was basically being,
being,
propagated
in in in West Africa.
And so we have to recognize that the
battle between
the the righteous and the unrighteous has been
going on since time began. And so we
have to be of those to be in
the righteous camp.
And again, not just use
this deen as a religion,
you know, not just do a check off
of, oh, I got the salat in,
but recognize that the salat is the fuel.
The salat gives you the energy.
The salat allows us to basically
have this connection
that others don't have.
We have to do this. We have to
do this so that we because we got
a lot of work to do. We have
to build institutions.
And
if we're gone,
the people who stand on our shoulders,
we at least planted that
seed to to establish the necessary institutions. The
future generations, we have to be able to
leave something for the future generations
to benefit from.
Masjids,
institutions of learning, health care facilities,
interest free banking. I was just doing some
math earlier,
about if you bought a
$300,000 house, if you paid some people paying
2,000 a month for just an apartment, 2
bedroom apartment.
And they say if you pay $300,000
house,
you could get that paid off in less
than 10 years or less than 15 years
if you had an interest free banking system
established.
So those who are economically inclined, we need
to do this. One of the points one
of the speakers gave
to the young people who were in attendance
last week at their conference,
he said, y'all go out and establish
businesses,
because he gave the example of how,
when, the protests were going on for in
support of Gaza, may Allah free the people
of Gaza.
The
the the billionaires
came got together and and pulled the mayor
up of New York and said, you need
to clamp down on them because they're changing
the narrative.
They're basically making Israel look bad, the Zionists
look bad. These are billionaires and they had
the power to pull this political the head
of the city, pull them out pull them
on the carpet. Hey, man. What you doing,
man?
And so I'm not saying we need to
get power hungry, but if you have economic
clout, then people will listen to you.
And so to get economic clout, you're not
gonna get that working a job 10, 20
years, 30 years.
The song say, you know, you know, I
don't wanna go watch for working 50 years
from 9 to 5. I wanna be happy
if you're like a natural man.
You know, don't be
a
a wage slave. Establish
the businesses as well, and then that way
we can get the institutions.
Because even when I when I was reading
about how
Islam even came into Africa, it said that
most of the the Dawah efforts, it wasn't
there was no armies going into Africa. The
Dawah efforts the the more merchants spread the
deen in Africa than the soldiers. Because you
have these,
so called orientalists
who say, you know, where Islam was spread
by the sword. It was spread. You take
that s off. It was spread by the
word.
And so we have to spread it by
the word, and Allah has given us all
of this technology to use it.
All this digital stuff,
AI, everything.
And AI is just a tool. Don't be
afraid of it.
You know, we have to use
all of the methods.
If you get engaging in conversations and people,
give us, you know, look for that downward
moment, brothers and sisters.
We have to spread it by the word.
Again,
it's we don't have to spread it by
the sword. All you have to do I
remember reading about a man who came to
Islam, he just read the first verse of
Bakker where it said that, you know, this
is the book that makes things clear. Boom.
Another person read, this day I have perfected
your religion, and bestowed upon you Islam as
your way of life. They became Muslim just
and you never know
how a person is tuned for them to
come to this deen. We want to be
of the remembered and not of the forgotten.
Again, it's important for us to implement Islam
as a way of life in this society
if we're going to be living in this
society. Because if we're going to be living
here, the scholars say, you know, if you're
in a majority non Muslim or not yet
Muslim society,
you need to be there for business, education,
or Dawah.
Business, education, or Dawah. And that's for people
who come
from a majority Muslim,
country. But if we use that as the
rubric,
if we're here, what are we doing?
Are we in business and then when you're
in business, you're interacting with people.
And,
again,
the merchants did a lot to spread this
Dean.
If you're getting education,
use the make sure that the education is
something that can be used
feasibly
for lost pleasure.
You know, whether you're in science, whether you're
getting involved with medicine, or if you wanna
learn business techniques so that you can be
righteous in business, and and learn the correct
way of doing business. If you're gonna get
into politics,
you know, to study the science of politics,
because again, it's a science, as they say.
Politics
is, again, we're gonna say war is is
is politics without guns.
And, you know,
I mean, excuse me, politics is war with,
without guns. And so we have to be
of those who learn the science of politics,
of political science.
And so
these are some of the things that we
can do to to be remembered,
specifically during these times, because, again, the political
winds
may move against us.
And, you know, Allah knows best, you know,
what's gonna happen.
You know, and so we have to be
of those to increase our, ibadah, you know,
increase the knowledge of Quran as I mentioned
before.
Increase your knowledge of the Deen, increase your
knowledge of the prophet, peace be upon him.
You know, we have to increase our ibadah
as the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam. He said that,
you know, I mean, specifically with prayer, there
was, one poet, Sheikh Salomani, Rahim Allah, he's
it's how he said that the stream in
which I bathed my face helps me soar
above this place. And he was talking about,
he was basing on the salah, on the
the hadith,
the stream in which I bathed my face
helps me soar above this place. Lead me
not to wander in disgrace.
And the Messenger of Allah
said, if there was a river at your
door
and he took a bath
in it 5 times a day, would you
notice any dirt in him?
And he was talking to his companions, they
said, not a trace of dirt will be
left.
The prophet
said, that is the parable of 5 prayers
by which Allaah removes sins.
Stream in which we bathe our faints, helps
us soar above this place.
Lead us not to wander in disgrace.
Because again, if we forget Allah,
then he don't forget you.
If he remembers Allah, if we remember Allah,
he gonna remember you.
And so, be prayed up,
or we gonna get prayed on.
Again, even if our souls are taken in
the process of working to establish this deen,
as the law says,
and never think of those who have been
killed in the cause of Allah as dead,
nay, they live with their Lord receiving provision.
Again,
this reminds us
that those who are martyred in the cause
of Allah are not dead, but alive with
our Lord.
And again, the sheikh al Islam ibn Tamir
Rahimullah
said
on this interpretation,
then they will be in the company
of those on whom Allah has bestowed his
grace
of the prophets,
the siddiqun,
again, those are the followers of the prophets
who were the first and foremost
to believe in them like Abu Barka Siddiq,
the martyrs and the righteous.
That's what happens with the martyrs.
And again, when we look at the 4
degrees of the lost slaves,
The best of them are the prophets, the
siddiqs,
and then the martyrs, then the righteous.
We
have
to
look at what camp will we be in.
Are we gonna be in the remote camp
that we spend all day
playing that remote, or just on the computer
all the time? Are we gonna be actively
involved in
giving people the knowledge of this deen? Because,
again, this society, this world needs Islam.
It is this is in such condition.
It's infected
with with with this belief.
And so we have to be the medicine
for this society.
Again,
those people are remembered by Allah,
and he provides for them, and we should
strive again to follow in their footsteps, and
make sacrifices, you know, for Allah footsteps,
and make sacrifices,
you know, for Allah knowing again that we
will be remembered by Him.
You know, and again, we don't, I don't
like using the word work, but we have
to invest in our akura, we have to
invest in the hereafter,
And what we do in this phase of
life, just like
how our mothers nurtured us during our 9
months in in in the stomach.
We have to nurture our soul because again,
this is just a middle womb. This is
just a womb for the soul.
Because true life begins when we leave this
plane, after we pass the barrier of life
and death, the barzakh.
So, again, what are we doing to to
be remembered?
You know, what are we doing
to be of those who are of the
righteous and try to be in the company
of the righteous? And if I've said anything
which is inconsistent with what Allah has given
us and the prophet, peace be upon him,
has left for us, I'll take responsibility for
that. And if I've said anything in which
you have gained some new insight, as always,
all praise belongs to Allah.
For Allah send
peace and blessings upon our beloved prophet Muhammad
and his family and his companions. And Allah
increase his honor and elevate his station
and grant him a highest place in paradise
and bless him with your divine mercy. And
O Allah bless us with his intercession on
the day of judgement and forgive our sins.
The prophet
said that the best people
are those who are remembered by Allah. The
best people
are those who are remembered by Allah.
And again,
this hadith reminds us
that we want to be among the best
people, and there's so many opportunities.
You know, we give charity,
you know, we
teach, you know, we do things around the
masjid.
We basically treat each other right,
but the whole thing is to recognize that
the prophet, sallallahu alaihi wasallam, said his mission
is
to improve character,
to improve character. And so the Islam
should be something that washes away the filth
in the heart, washes away the filth that's
in the soul.
And then
what happens is that we we make the
prayer and as the prophet
says, like a river at your door.
And so are we just walking across the
bridge? Are we
dipping in to get that bath, that spiritual
bath?
We should strive also to do as many
good deeds again and avoid the sins.
Avoid the sins and be obedient to Allah
in all the things that we do. And
what we want to strive to be among
those who are remembered by Allah, and
we wanna make sacrifices
for his sake.
And we must have to we must learn
from the examples of those who came before
us and left behind the heritage.
You know, because again,
I remember reading about how there was a
scholar who was taken into slavery
in on the in the islands, and and
one of his doors was that
the people that come after him would be
Muslim. And we have to recognize for those
of us who are the descendants of enslaved
people,
we are the answers to their prayers.
What are we gonna do with it?
And we need to pray for our children
and our grandchildren so that they can continue
this this march, this journey
to establish Islam.
That's our role in here. And again, may
Allah have mercy on us and again, remember
us in his presence. And and I want
to again remind ourselves that those who are
remembered by Allah
are the the ones who are the pious,
the righteous, and make sacrifices for the sake
of Allah. You know, again, these are the
ones who are remembered in the remembered in
their graves and leave behind a goodly heritage
for future generations.
Because even, as I mentioned, even about El
Hajj Malik al Shabaz last week, he's
given Dawah from the grave through his his
writings. And so if we're writing, whether it's
poetry or writing books, we're leaving, you know,
something behind so that people can benefit from,
so that people can know that the Muslims
were here.
You know, again, may Allah guide us to
inspire
others and and and and and guide us
to to continue to do good deeds and
avoid the sins.
You know, we have to do the work,
brothers and sisters. We have to invest.
And if you've taken a break, it's time
to come off the break.
It's time to basically,
you know, educate the people about this way
of life.
Because
the the people who are antithetical to Islam,
they they busy. They putting the work in.
And so we have to be 10 times
more superior in how we put the work
in.
In the old days, you know, people were
given dawah. The people there's so many Muslims
now. They said, oh, we're gonna rest.
And then
on the day of judgement,
when when when the Lord tells you about
all these ignorance that were around you and
you didn't do anything about it, what was
going on? Oh, I had to do this
and I had to do you have a
million excuses. And so we want to be
of the remembered.
And for those brothers and sisters who are
new to Islam,
again,
learn your deen. Get with a good teacher.
You know, we have an Arabic class that's
been established.
And so it's it's basic beginning Arabic. Learn
the alphabet so that you can start reciting
the
Quran in the original language.
And then take your time, it's not a
rush. Take your time
in increasing the knowledge.
So that you can be a tool, a
useful tool and not a useful fool.
You know, because you have a lot of
useful fools in this society.
And so we want to be a tool
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
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. Us. You
are our protector and grant us a victory
over the disbelieving people. He commanded me finally.