Nadim Ali – What Happened
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Indeed, our praise belongs to Allah, the most
high. We thank him, and we seek his
aid, and we seek his forgiveness.
We seek refuge with him from the evil
of ourselves and from all their actions. And
whoever Allah guides, there is no one who
can mislead him. And whoever Allah calls to
go astray,
there's no one to guide him.
I bear witness we bear witness that there
is no deity except Allah who is unique
and without partners. And I bear witness That
Mohammed is his worshipper and his messenger. May
the peace and blessings of Allah be upon
him and his family and his companion and
those who follow them with good intentions
until the day of judgement.
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
your rival who created you from a single
soul and from it created its maiden from
the 2 of them spread forth many men
and women.
Be careful of your duty to Allah when
we demand your mutual rights and be careful
of your duty to the wounds that own
you. Indeed,
Allah is Abu Rakid over you.
When you believe there, Allah will 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, it is truly achieved a tremendous accomplishment.
For indeed, the best speech is the book
of Allah, and the best guidance is the
guidance of Muhammad Sadawali, Muslim, and the most
evil of all affairs.
A newly invented matters which has no precedence
in Islam, and indeed all the divisions are
astray,
And each astray is in the hellfire.
I will not save us from it. I
will not accept our door.
I'll give them an update in the regime.
In one translation of this particular ayat
from from Shakir,
you are the best of the nations raised
up for the benefit of men. You enjoin
what is right, and you forget the wrong,
and you believe in the law. If the
followers of the book had believed, it would
have been better for them. Of them, some
are believers
and most of them are transgressors.
Can we look
at this particular idea from Quran,
Mal Ibrahim, it's,
it's a 3 on 110. It talks about
how the Muslim community is the best community
of mankind. Enjoying the Indian. The qualifier of
that is you're enjoying the right and you
did the wrong.
And that's our job description, that we have
to enjoy right and forget wrong. We can't
fall into other types of behaviors and and
think that, you know, we
are practicing Islam.
At one point, Muslims were some of the
most respected people on the planet.
Most respected people on the planet. They have
a vast count of thing. They have, like,
7,000,000,000 people on the planet right now.
About 7,000,000,000 people on the planet. And there
are many Muslims, probably a quarter of that
population, Muslims.
You know, we read about all of the
great dynasties. You know, it was the the
Abbasid caliphate,
the the Umayyad
caliphate, the the Mughal Empire, the the South
the South African Empire, the Songhai Empire, the
Ottoman Empire.
And they were great empires. They were respected
and feared all throughout the planet, the known
world.
Because Allah gave them the power.
Allah gave them the power. It's it's and
and he he understood that. The founders of
all of those empires understood
where their power came from.
It came from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And I always say, you know, you know,
we look at the point of, I remember,
seeing a video years ago about the Islamic
contributions to science.
At one point, most of the scientific discoveries
were coming from Muslim lands.
You know, for example,
in Muslim Spain,
there was a, a brother,
Abbas ibn Fema. He designed a flying machine
in the 9th century, way before da Vinci.
You know, you you you know, way before
the the wrong Wright brothers.
You know? So we have to understand
that Allah
through these people, they were worshiping Allah. And
so I was just giving them all sorts
of power, giving all sorts of ideas.
Just so many great things came to the
Islamic community.
Not just, again, just science, physical sciences, but
the social sciences as well. And her sisters
was involved as well. There's a sister named
Fatima Princess. Fatima al Afrani. She founded the
1st
degree
offering institution.
This is in 18/8/59
in Fez, Morocco.
Muslims were doing it.
At one point, again, we represented
the wealthiest people on the planet.
And, you know, to that point, there was
no poverty in the Muslim world.
We knew about Mansa Musa. We hear about
it. And then even people who
had had had subscribed to the whole Pan
Africanist
philosophy,
You know, they they brag on Mansa Musa.
And he talked about his pilgrimage.
He said that, his pilgrimage, his caravan in
13/24
comprised some 60,000
people
and an immeasurable amount of gold.
He stopped in Cairo along the way. And
his luxury of spending and kid giving, his
charity was so extensive that he delivered the
value of gold by 10 to 25%
and impacted Cairo's economy for at least 12
years afterwards.
He was paid.
And Muslims don't have to be broke, brothers
and sisters.
Muslims don't have to be broke.
There's a quote from Ali ibn al Qutada,
read about my book.
You know, so where this whole poor Muslim,
comes from. I don't know.
You know, that's that's that's really from Shaitan.
So we have to have a paradigm shift,
brothers and sisters, change our views of wealth
and the lawful attainment of wealth. I'm from
the Philadelphia area. And there were Muslims when
I was growing up and they were doing
things that were in the name of Islam
selling drugs and and, you know, killing
and and robbing in the name of Islam
trying to build a so called Muslim nation.
We can't be about that.
We can't be pranksters or gangsters.
Because Allah
gave these brothers and sisters
the keys to the kingdom because they practice
righteousness.
They practice righteousness,
not practicing Islam. You have to practice Islam.
It's important, brothers and sisters. And during this
Ramadan, we have to start to internalize,
have to get some intrinsic changes.
We have to change inside.
Get rid of all this gutter stuff,
calling it Islam.
Brothers and sisters, Allah has given us a
road map with the Quran.
It's a way that we can attain
great success, not only personally
with our families, but the community, the whole
world.
We have it right in the book,
and we'll take it down once a year.
If that,
we will memorize it like a parrot,
but we have to internalize.
And once we internalize, we're gonna externalize it.
We're gonna be bad.
But if we just walk around like parrots,
we just hide a nest somewhere.
But we have to be of those that
start to learn and understand
the the Quran.
You know, again, when I read about all
of these things,
you know, I think to myself,
what happened?
What happened? Because, again, much of the success
of the Muslims of the past, you know,
came about as a result of their commitment
to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
And the success just became known. They got
used to it. It was just they took
it for granted.
And this this led to infighting,
tribalism, worshiping tribalism. There's nothing wrong with being
a part of a tribe. But when you
place place your
your your tribe above the brotherhood, then there's
a problem.
Muslims to this day are killing each other.
You know, the people who were committed to
the deen were killed,
imprisoned, or exiled even to this day. Even
if this is happening in some Muslim countries
where, you know, people are killed and even
chopped up and placed in suitcases.
Muslim countries,
so called Muslim countries, or Muslim majority countries.
So we have to do better, brothers and
sisters, if we want better.
You know,
the general
lack of respect
for the book
and the sunnah of the prophet Muhammad, peace
be upon him, is very apparent.
And I say, what happened?
And we have to be of those who
continue to grow in our deen.
The Islam in this country probably has been
practiced,
you know, for less than 50 years. 50
years, you know, as from a community perspective,
as as as from a Du'mat perspective. There's
always been Muslims present. You know, the Muslim
slaves that came over, the camel herders. There's
always been some type of Muslims present in
this society.
But organized,
as a practice, it's probably less than, you
know, 75 100 years.
And so
we don't want our great grandchildren and great
great grandchildren saying what happened? What did y'all
do? Because
believe you me, as we get closer to
this selection or selection,
Muslims are gonna be on the menu. They'll
be using terms like critical race theory and
immigration
and all of this and that. You know,
we have to be involved
in this society if we will be about
things changing in this society.
Because you have a lot you know, when
I was coming up, Muslims came out of
jail.
They didn't go to jail.
And so nowadays, you get so many Muslims
going into the prisons
because, again, they're practicing this this this gutter
form of Islam. Islam.
You know, you just you you take Hadid
and and twist them in such a way
that you you engage in behaviors that are
unnecessary.
So we have to do better.
You know, if we're gonna be again, because
when we make the laws, like, 3 stretch
out, those are legislators that make those laws.
We lack life without parole like Imam Jamil
and the law of freedom
is in in in in.
Legislators make those types of laws. Life in
Georgia was what when I can move here,
it was, like, 7 years.
Legislators legislators
are elected.
And the most foolish legislator in this country
right now is from Georgia. Somebody
elected her.
And so as Muslims, we have to get
involved
in changing things on a political level,
a sociological level, an economic level, and also
an educational level. We have to be involved
in all spheres of the society all spheres
of the society
if we wanna make a a qualitative change.
We have to be involved in giving more
Dawah. And the Dawah is not just handing
out pamphlets. The Dawah is to showing a
different way of life, showing people that that
that that Islam is something that can basically
facilitate a necessary change in the individual.
In years past, people
used Islam to get off drugs, to to
get out of, prison.
We we really know what the story about
Hajj Malik al Shaba'an and Malcolm X and
the changes that he made. Even in the
the the hybrid form of Islam, he was
taught. It helped him to change. And when
he started to, you know, learn true Islam
in the last year of his life,
he was making noise all around the planet.
To this day, people still talk about him.
One man.
Imagine
many of you who have gone through similar
things in El Hadz, Malik El Shabazz,
and you start to you you you have
so much wealth of information, so much education,
so much knowledge at your fingertips just in
your smartphones. It's not just for playing games.
You can pull up hadith. You can pull
up Quran. During this time in Ramadan, you
use this time to learn some loyats,
learn some hadith,
read about all of the great teachers. You
have people putting work in,
putting information on on the on the online
that you can get if you can't get
to a teacher. If you can get to
a teacher, how many of you lie? That's
even better when you're face to face.
We have to, again, change ourselves if we
want to change in the society, brothers and
sisters.
We have to
practice the Islam in our household and not
just basically,
just be Muslims who are just practicing on
the outside. Imam Jamil usually after saying that,
you can put a keema or a kulfi
on a dummy. They're still a dummy.
They're still a dummy.
And so it's not just about the dress.
It's about, again,
images that change. If I've said anything that's
inconsistent with what Allah has given us and
the prophet
has taught us, I take full responsibility for
that. If I've said anything in which you
have gained some insight, as always, I'll praise
it to Allah.
The problem is we treat our duty like
a buffet.
If you don't agree with something, you don't
take it. You know, who am I supposed
to mess with that? But I'll take that.
You know, but if it's agreeable
to the nafs,
you take it. When people give you salat
hadith and Quran and you you don't wanna
take that, you you have to stop practicing
Islam like you had a birthday.
You know, the Quran
and the
the the hadith. Most of the scholarship
was codified the first 250 years
of of after the prophet peace be upon
him last. All the great scholars win that
period.
In the Quran, again, we have the road
map for success, not only for success in
this life, but in the hereafter.
My wife shared with me the other day,
and she don't like me quoting her own.
She
said that people believe in Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala,
but do they believe in it?
And that's why we hear the term,
you know, that's profound.
We believe
in the law, someone with Allah, but do
we believe him? And if we believe him,
why
are we not practicing
the words that he give us? Why are
we not following the Hadith from the prophet,
peace be upon him? Because he's our example.
He's our example. So we have to do
better again if we want better.
Because we read this specifically as after we've
been reading about the Battle of Israel this
week, if you're reading the news.
You know, we talk about all the the
vacillations that the Battle of Israel engaged in
during Musa's time. Allah gave them everything. Split
the sea and saved them for so many
trials and tribulations,
but yet they still fell into
self worship and all sorts of other worship.
They still didn't believe.
And so we have to be of those
that are not emulating
that group of people.
We have to recognize that
as a lot says about people who said
that these are tales of the ancient.
We have to recognize that
it's relevant.
What's in the Quran is as relevant today
just as it was
in 1400 years ago. Human nature is timeless.
So don't view the stories of the Quran
as ancient history. A thief today
has the same nature as a thief of
the past. Just like a drunk
today has the same nature as a drunk
of the past, a promiscuous person today has
the same nature as a promiscuous person of
the past. An oppressive system today
has the same nature as an oppressive system
of the past.
Just again, as those entities
have similar nature,
conversely, a committed Muslim today can have the
same nature
as a committed Muslim of the past.
The operative word
is commitment.
And, again, as I stated earlier, we don't
want future generations saying,
what happened?
You know? How
is your commitment
to salat?
Specifically for the men, how is your commitment
to salat in the masjid?
I know we've had the pandemic where a
lot of the mosques were closed,
but they're opening up now.
You know?
I always talk about Faju. You know, I
say Faju, you know, it's the AARP club
there.
Young brothers,
where you
at?
Where
you at when you have the when the
when the when the when the adonis call,
are you snoring and slobbery?
Are you making your way to the Masjid
Brothers? You you got you got to do
better.
There's a story,
you know, believers have come out of Morocco,
and it was about this,
and I've shared it before. It's about this,
this this Muslim work for a Jew, and
he would
go to a Jew. And he said, well,
you know,
and then he would talk about the he
was going to go through prayer. And and
he said the Jew Fajr rather. And he
said, well, how many people were there?
And he said, this man. He said, okay.
He said, then he asked me again. How
many people were there? He said, yeah. Yeah.
This minute. He said, okay.
And and he and and and and the
Muslim asked the Jewish employer, why do you
always ask me,
how many people
were were were were at at at Faja?
He said, well, you know,
my people have been around your people since
the beginning. Mhmm. And we were taught not
to worry about y'all until there are more
people at Faja than there are at Juma.
And then, you know, if they won once
there are more people at Fajah than there
are at Juma. See, they don't, you know,
they don't worry about y'all
until then. Because they know
if you're sleeping,
you're doing Fajah time, you're sleeping throughout the
day even though you may be walking around.
So it's important for us not to be
those who are not committed.
Again, what is your commitment
to charity and paying zakat?
How was your fasting? And then not just
in Ramadan.
What is your commitment to Hajj?
Have you made Hajj? Have you made Umer?
You know?
If we see ourselves lacking, we have to
tighten up. We have to tighten up. We
have to set goals specifically during this Ramadan
to allow us to attain the best in
this well and the best in the next.
Tighten up our recitation. Allah, again, has given
us so many opportunities and ways to do
that.
Make time to increase your commitment to Islam
and not your desires
or the dunya.
We're talking on Sheikh Aruni one morning and
each year this reminder with us a few
weeks ago about the 4 things that we
must fight on a daily basis.
The dunya, the world in this glitter.
Our desires, we must separate our needs from
our wants.
Shaitan,
who is our evolved enemy,
and our nafs,
things that bring bring us pleasure
but can lead to our destruction.
You know, the nafs, the great scholar, Ibn
al Qaidyan,
he said, the Nas is a mountain
in your way to Allah.
Imagine you are traveling to Allah if there's
only one way to Allah. In the way,
there's this huge mountain.
That mountain is your Naz.
If you want to continue traveling to Allah,
you must climb that mountain in order to
make it. If you don't, you will not
make it to Allah.
You will not make it to Allah.
So we have to climb that mountain daily.
Verily, Allah will not change the condition, the
good condition of a people as long as
they do not change their state of goodness
themselves
by committing sins and being ungrateful
and disobedient to Allah.
Allah.